Bible Commentaries

Isaiah 11:7 — to age; not revolting any more to barbarism. And the lion shall eat straw. — Not men and other sensitive creatures, as now. Conversi non vivent ex rapto: sed legitime partis reculis contenti erunt. Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History l. 3. c. 39. 1:295,297. This, say the Chiliasts after some Rabbis, shall be literally fulfilled in that golden age of Christ’s personal reign upon earth; a mere fancy, first vented by Papias, a man of some holiness, but ingenii pertenuis, of very little judgment,

Isaiah 25:8 — of Jesus Christ, who is life essential, it is destroyed or swallowed up; like as the bee dieth when she hath left her sting in the wound. Animasque in valnere ponunt. - Virg. Hence St Paul doth so crow over death, and, as it were, called it craven. 1 Corinthians 15:55-57 And the Lord God will wipe away. — A metaphor from a mother. And the rebuke of his people. — Or, The reproach, their afflictions and persecutions, for which the world reproacheth them.

Isaiah 29:15 — cunning contrivances, ut ita libere in omnes veneres et scelera ruant. From the Lord. — Which cannot be, because he is all eye, and the searcher of hearts; he is intimo nostro intimior nobis, and will bring to light the hidden things of darkness. 1 Corinthians 4:5 Their works are in the dark. — Out of sight, but not out of the light of his countenance. Psalms 90:8 Deo obscura liquent, muta respondent, silentium confitetur. "All things are naked and open before the eyes of him with whom

Isaiah 50:1 — rejected them though innocent, (as some husbands did their wives out of a peevish and selfish humour), nor sold them though obedient, as some fathers did their children, for payment of their debts; for he is neither debtor to any nor non-solvent. Romans 11:35-36 Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves. — O duram servitutem! O miseram necessitatem! "You have sold yourselves," as Ahab did, to work wickedness, 1 Kings 21:20 and therefore I have justly sold and abandoned you into

Isaiah 50:6 — I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting. I gave my back to the smiters. — Ecce pro impio pietas flagellatur, …, saith Ambrose. De Temp. Ser., 114. "Behold the man" (as Pilate once said), "the just" man scourged "for the unjust," 1 Peter 3:18 wisdom derided for the fool’s sake, truth denied for the liar’s sake, mercy afflicted for the cruel man’s

Isaiah 59:12 — unpardoned. And as for our iniquities, we know them. — Our consciences are burdened with them, and we feel the terrors of God in our souls. Conscientia nihil aliud est quam cordis scientia; Conscience is the reflection of the soul upon itself. See 1 Corinthians 4:4 . So here, "As for our iniquities, we know them" - namely, by a second act of the understanding, whereby, after we think or know a thing, we think what we think, and know what we know, and this is properly the action of conscience.

Jeremiah 14:21 — Do not abhor [us], for thy name’s sake, do not disgrace the throne of thy glory: remember, break not thy covenant with us. Do not abhor us, for thy name’s sake. — This was to "continue instant in prayer." Romans 12:12 This was to pray on, and not to faint. Luke 18:1 If thy suit be not honest, never begin it; and if it be, never leave it. Do not disgrace the throne of thy glory. — The temple, and the ark in it. The Romans held the extinction of the Vestal

Jeremiah 23:22 — stood in my counsel, and had caused my people to hear my words, then they should have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings. But if they had stood in my counsel, … — As they vainly vaunt they do, Jeremiah 23:18 and that they know more of my mind than any others. And had caused my people to hear my words. — And not their own fancies or cunningly devised fables. 2 Peter 1:16 Then they should have turned them from the evil of their way. — Not but

Jeremiah 41:5 — much as by the least word offended this brutish, butcherly man; but came in the simplicity of their hearts to worship God, and to wait upon Gedaliah by the way, which last seemeth to be Ishmael’s main quarrel against them. See here Ecclesiastes 9:12 . See Trapp on " Ecclesiastes 9:12 " Having their beards shaven, and their clothes rent, and having cut themselves. — These might be well minded men, though partly through ignorance of the law in those blind times, and partly through

Ezekiel 6:9 — heart - so Polanus rendereth it; that is, saith he, I leave them, though loath to do it: the breach is merely on their part; for they have an impetus, a spirit of whoredoms in them, that causeth them to err, and go whoring from under their God. Hosea 4:12 ; Hosea 9:1 And with their eyes. — Those windows of wickedness through which the devil (who is ειδωλοχαρης , as saith Synesius) doth oft wind himself into the soul. And they shall

Ezekiel 9:9 — writer. ŒD that is, judgment turned from the bias, as it were: when the balance of justice is tilted on to one side, as Paul’s word, κατα προσκλισιν , importeth. 1 Timothy 5:21 For they say, The Lord hath forsaken the earth. — See on Ezekiel 8:12 . Hic est fons omnium scelerum, saith A Lapide: hinc ruunt homines in celerum abyssam, saith Theodoret. When men are once turned atheists, what will they not dare

Amos 1:13 — ripped up the women with child of Gilead, that they might enlarge their border: I will not turn away the punishment thereof — Or I will not turn and reduce him to myself by repentance, that I may show him mercy, as Lamentations 5:22 Jeremiah 31:18 , but harden his heart, and hasten his destruction. Because they have ripped up the women with child — Immane facinus, et vicinis indignum, saith Mercer, a cruel fact, and the worse because done by so near neighbours and allies; thus to kill

Obadiah 1:2 — Behold, I have made thee small among the heathen: thou art greatly despised. Behold, I have made thee small among the heathen — That is, vile, despicable, and abject, as Psalms 119:141 , "I am small and despised." Nothing is more ordinary than to "despise the day of small things," Zechariah 4:10 . And whereas God is said to be magnus in magnis, nec parvus in minimis, much in the greater neither little in

Zechariah 7:6 — sought, served, and set up me, you should have done all to the glory of God, as saith the apostle; you should have eaten, drank, and slept eternal life, as it was said of a certain Scotch divine. "The way of life is above to the wise," Proverbs 15:24 , he goes a higher way than his neighbour, who contents himself with a natural use of the creature, but he can extract a spiritual. Grace is called the divine nature, as that which, elixir-like, by contraction turns all into the same property with

Matthew 15:18 — Jeremiah 6:7 ; and if the tongue be "a world of wickedness," James 3:6 , what is the heart, that seminary of sin, wherein is a πανσπερμια , as Empedocles saith in Aristotle. As in that chaos, Genesis 1:2 , were the seeds of all creatures; so in the heart, of all sins. In this sea are not only that leviathan the devil (who there sets up his forts and strongholds,2 Corinthians 10:4; 2 Corinthians 10:4 , and doth intrench and incage himself), but creeping

Matthew 17:24 — came to Peter, and said, Doth not your master pay tribute? Ver. 24:. They that received tribute money — This didrachmum or half-shekel was formerly paid by the Israelites every year, after they were twenty years old, toward the temple, Exodus 30:13 . Caesar, by taking it from the temple and turning it to a tribute, did indeed take away from God that which was God’s. This very tribute was paid afterwards by the Jews toward the Roman capitol, by virtue of a decree made by Vespasian. How just

Matthew 17:9 — Isaiah hath it; to set a word upon its wheels, as Solomon; to circumstantiate it so as the people can hear, can bear, as our Saviour did. This is surely a high point of heavenly husbandry. As it is also in all sorts of Christians to be sober in prayer, 1 Peter 4:7 , that is, as Bifield saith, to keep God’s counsel, not to be proud, or boast of success, or speak of the secret sweetness of God’s love, without calling; it is to conceal the familiarity of God in secret.

Matthew 24:26 — the common people. The rebels of Norfolk in Edward VI’s time, brought with them into the battle the pyx The vessel in which the host or consecrated bread of the sacrament is reserved. ŒD under his canopy, as the Israelites brought the ark, 1 Samuel 4:3 , and said it should save them. But as then the ark, so now the consecrated god, with all the trumpery about him, was taken in a cart, which was then instead of an altar, and there lay all in the dust. Believe them not therefore in any of

John 10:22 — Antiochus, that little antichrist. Εγκαινια , initialia, sive renovalia. So when the Christian temple, the Church, was purged from the Popish abominations (called the tramplings of the Gentiles, Revelation 11:2 ), by those two witnesses, that is, by Luther and other heroical reformers, there was great joy among God’s people. And in the year 1617, as the pope proclaimed a jubilee for the peace of Italy and Austria, …, so the reformed Churches

John 6:44 — quod bene sancteque vivimus, nostrum. Lazy work is with the help of God; we live because the service is of the gods; we live because it is well consecrated of us. (Sen.) A wiser than the wisest of them tells us here another tale; and elsewhere, John 15:5 ; "Without me ye can do nothing." Where Austin observes that our Saviour saith not perficere, to finish, but facere; to do; nor doth he say, Without me ye can do no hard thing, but nothing. And the same church father notes that sub laudibus