This we understand is now the study and care of the religious Patriots in the honourable and high Court of Parliament; let us joyn with them in our Prayers to God for the rooting out of the RomifhReligion;let us give God our hearty thanks,that he worketh by his fpirit fuch zeal of the glory of his truth in the godly faithful hearts of the Commons of this land to stirre and rowze up themselves in a matter fo much concerning the honour of our God as this doth. For who delivered us from the Spanish violence in 88? And who delivered us from the bloody powder treafon in An. 1605? If the gods that our enemies ferve, could have prevailed against our God,had we not been as Sodom and as Gomorrah?.... Therefore let us pray God to preserve us from idols, and from them that love and ferve them, of whom I may fay truly with David, the The words of their mouths are smoother then butter, but warre is in their heart: Their words are (ofter then oyle, yet are they drawn fwords. There can be no hope that those men which will rob God of his glory and give it away to creatures, will ever be true to us. Let every one in the zeal of Gods glory fhew and professe his hatred to idolatry, and his love of the true Worfhip of God, and as they need the word of the Lord, and of Gideon, fo let us cry, The (word of the Lord, his word in the mouths of his faithful Minifters, and the word of Gideoni - the fword of the religious Court of Parliament against them. A Verf. 12. Art thou not from everlasting, O Lord, my God,my holy 13. Thou artof purer eyes then to behold evill, and can not look 15. They 1.5. They take up all of them with the angle, they catch them in their net, and gather them in their dragge, therefore they rejoyce and are glad. 16. Therefore they facrifice unto their net, and burn incense unto their dragge, because by them their portion is fat, and their meat plenteous. 1. Shall they therefore empty their net, and not fpare continually to flay the nations? Fcer God hath denounced his judgment upon the Jews, A contained in the former Section, now the Prophet begin neth a new wraftling with God, in the behalf of the afflicted members of his Church. The Prophets fpeech is addreffed to God himself, wherein he first afcribeth to God Eternity, Art not thou from everlasting • Lord my God? He afcribeth to him Holineffe, My holy One. And this Pronoune poffeffive My, doth lay hold upon a special intereft that Habakkuk by faith claimeth in God. From which confideration he draweth this cheerful Conclufion: We shall not die O Lord, speaking of himfelfe and of the afflicted in the Church of the Jews, that though God had threatned fnch an invafion by the hand and power of the Chaldeans, yet fhall it not proceed to their ruine. God will keep his Church; there is a remnant that God will fave from the ftormy winde, and the tempeft, as David faith, the flood of many waters shall not come neare them. This faith he builds upon a good foundation; For 1. From the eternity of God, he may conclude, that the love wherewith he loveth his Church is an eternal love, and therfore not to be subject to the power of time. 2. From the holineffe of God, he may conclude that all the faithful Jews being an holy feed fhall have his favour. Against this it may be objected that God hath revealed him felf to the contrary, for he hath before threatned to raise up the Chaldæans, a fierce. and terrible nation, that fhall go through the bredth of the land, and fhall run like an Eagle and an evening wolfe only for prey. What hope then can there be against these? The Verf.13. The Prophet anfwereth that objection. Thou hast ordained them for judgement; and mighty God, thou hast eftablished them for correction. That is, God by his might hath armed them against the Jews to execute his judgement on them, and for caftigation and correction of them, not for eradication. He proceedeth then to expostulate and dispute with God concerning this judgement to be executed upon the Jews by the Chaldæans; Thou art of purer eyes then to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity] This is a further Confeffion of the holineffe of God,to whom he attributeth pure eyes, fuch as cannot beholdevil, and look upon iniquity, because that holineffe cannot approve ill, and that juftice cannot wink at it and leave it unpunished. Otherwife,videre malum non eft malum,to fee evil is not evil; Gods general view of all things, doth fet his eye upon the good and evil. So the Sun fhineth upon the just and the unjust, but God is a God that loveth not iniquity, neither shall evil drel with him: he abhorreth all them that work wickedneffe; David laith, His foule abhorreth them. So that the Prophet here acquitteth God from any hand in the evil of these Chaldeans, although he stirreth them up against the Jews; he is wife to use them as inftruments of correction: but he is too pure and holy to be Partaker in their fins. From hence groweth the Expoftulation following, Seeing thou art fo pure and holy that thou abborreft evil, and batest all the workers of iniquity; Why dost thou look upon them that deale treacherously? why dost thou a holy and just God, look on, whilst the Chade an betrayeth thy People? Mr. Calvin reads Tranfgreffores. Montanus Prevaricatores. Jun. Perfidos, whom the Kings Bible foldoweth. This the Prophet Isaiah calleth a grievous vifion. The treaIfa. 21. 3. cherous dealer dealeth treacheron fly, and the spoiler spoileth. For the Chaldæan did invade the Jew,both cunningly by treafon, and violently by force. He He urgeth God further, Why boldeft thou thy tongue when the wicked man, that is, the Chaldæan,an idolater and a bloody man, devoureth the man that is more righteous then he: that is, devoureth the Jew, who as bad as he is, is a better man and more righteous then the Chaldæan. He wondreth at the foftneffe and forbearance of God, that can fee and be filent to behold fo much iniquity. He proceedeth in his complaint: Thou makest man as the Verf. 14. fishes in the fea, where the great ones do prey upon the small ones, and as the creeping things that have no ruler over them, and there fore feed upon one another, who have no law to awe them, but quo quis eft valentior,eo violentior,fo the Jews are to the Chaldæ ans a prey. But the words following do fhew another thing intended, not a reference of these creatures one to another, but all of them to the fisherman; fo the fenfe is,thou feemeft to esteem the Jew no more then thou doft the fishes on the fea, or the creeping things on the earth. For it followeth, They take up all of them with the angle, they catch them in their Verf.15. net,and gather them in their dragge. The Chaldeans are the Fishermen,the Jews the fifhes; and for these they have,\ 1, The Angle, whereby is meant their fishing for a fingle Perfon. 2. Their net, let fall to catch more. 3.Their dragge for whole fholes of fifh; fo that here is no evalion; he that escapeth the angle fhall fall into the net; or if he elcape the net, the drag fhall fweep him away and bring him to the shore. So that he reby all way of evafion feemeth ftopped against the Jew, he is put into the hand and power of the Chaldæan, as a draught of fish into the hand of the Fisherman. And all this while the Fisherman thinketh he doth no man wrong, as the Poet faith, Nee patitur Tyrrhenum crefcere piscem 3 For the fifh of the fea is esteemed his that can catch him: fo shall the Chaldæan fish Judea, as if the Jews were filhes, not men, and as if there were no Providence to take care of them, no owner to call them his, There Therefore they rejoyce and are glad. There is no compaffion in them of Chaldea toward the Jew, but as the Fisherman rejoyceth in his draught of fishes, and never looketh upon them with any pity of their lives, but is glad that he hath gotten them. So fhall the Chaldæan be glad when the Jews are in his net, that he may carry them into captivity, This victory doth not only make the Chaldæan glad, but he is proud too, and boafteth in his own ftrength, and attribu tech his prevailings to his own power, as it followeth, Verf. 16. Therefore they facrifice unto their net,and burn incenfe unto their dragge: that is, they do thank their own arme, and armies for their victories, and as Iob faith, They kiffe their own hands, be cause thereby they come to have a fat portion and plenty of meat, lo that they give no glory to God; yea, before the Prophet faith from the mouth of God, that they would afcribe the profperity of their warres to their god, i.e.to their idol, now they will grow fo proud, that they will thank their own wit and power V for all. The Prophet concludeth with a paffionate expoftulation: Verf.17. Shall they therefore empty their net and not fpare continually to flay the Nations? Seeing they are a People fo lawleffe, fo mercileffe, fo proud, O Lord wilt thou give way to them ftill, and fhall they poffeffe all that they catch, which he calleth, emptying of their net, and Seall they not pare continually to flay the nations? Shall they paffe thus from nation to nation, and fhall they ftill conquer? is all fifh that comes into their net? De verborum interpretatione hactenus. In the further handling of this fection, I obferve as in the for mer, two things. Si. The fumme and contents of the whole section. 22. The parts thereof. 1. The fumme hereof is this: whereas the Prophet at first be holding the fins of the Jews, was moved with an holy indignation against them, and with zeal of Gods glory which turned him into a chiding expoftulation with God, for bearing fo much with them, and therefore did stirre up God to judgement to chalica |