Ver. 10. And in the waste howling wilderness.] A figure of the cries of a thirsty and troubled conscience, and of infernal horrors. See Ezekiel 16:4, &c. He instructed him.] Both by his word and works, both of mercy and justice; for God’s rods also are vocal. (Micah 6:9) His house of correction is his school of instruction. He kept him as the apple of his eye.] The tenderest piece of the tenderest part. The crystal humour, as the philosophers call it. Heb., Ishon, of Ish, as Pupilla of Pupa, because therein appears the likeness of a little man; or because a man is to be prized above all other creatures: so God esteemeth his people above all the world.

Ver. 11. As an eagle stirreth up her nest.] So doth God stir up his people by his word of promise. Fluttereth over them.] By the motions of his Spirit, as Genesis 1:2. Spreadeth abroad her wings.] Hovereth and covereth them with his protection. (Matthew 23:37) Taketh them.] With much tenderness, but nothing comparable to that of God. Beareth them on her wings.] Aquilae pullos suos in alis portant, alites reliqui inter pedes, saith Munster here, out of Rabbi Solomon. [See Trapp on “Ex 19:4”]

Ver. 12. And there was no strange god with him.] Why, then, should any share with him in his service? Be the gods of the heathen good fellows? saith one. The true God will endure no co-rival.

Ver. 13. To suck honey out of the rock.] Water as sweet as honey in that necessity; so doth every worthy receiver by faith at the sacrament; whereas whoso comes thereunto without faith, is like a man, saith Mr Tindal, that thinks to quench his thirst by sucking the ale bowl.

Ver. 14. With the fat of kidneys of wheat.] With the very best of the best; figuring heavenly dainties, that full feast. (Isaiah 25:6) Judea, for its admirable fertility, is called, Sumen totius orbis: how basely soever Strabo speaks of it, as of a dry barren country, wherein he shows less ingenuity than railing Rabshakeh did.

Ver. 15. But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked.] Jeshurun, hoc est Integellus, saith one, as Shimshon, or Samson, Solilus, a little sun, but a type of the Sun of Righteousness that hath health in his wings—that is, in his beams. Israel should have been Jeshurun—that is, righteous, or upright before the Lord, Israelites indeed; but were nothing less. If ever they had been better in the time of “their espousals, when they went after God in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown,” (Jeremiah 2:2) yet now that they were full fed, they kicked as young mules when they have sucked, matrem calcibus petunt, kick the dams’ dugs. Fulness breeds forgetfulness, and the best are but too prone to surfeit of things of this life, which by our corruption ofttimes prove a snare to our souls. “I will lay a stumbling block.” (Ezekiel 3:20) Vatablus’s note there is, Faciam, ut omnia habeant prospera; calamitatibus eum a peccato non revocabo; I will prosper him in all things, and not by affliction restrain him from sin. The most poisonous flies are bred in the sweetest fruit trees. How apt are the holiest to be proud and secure! even as worms and wasps eat the sweetest apples and fruits, Repugnante contra temet ipsam tua faelicitate, saith Salvian: to the Church in his time; thy prosperity is thy bane. And Cum ipsis opibus lascivere coepit ecclesia, saith Platina; The Church began to be rich and wanton at once. Religio peperit divitias, et filia devoravit matrem: Religion brought forth riches, and the daughter soon devoured the mother, saith Augustine. The much wool on the sheep’s back is ofttimes his ruin, he is caught in the thorns and famished. The fatter the ox, the sooner to the slaughter. When the Protestants of France began to grow wanton of their prosperity, and to affect a vain frothy way of preaching, then came the cruel massacre upon them. Should we with the fed hawk forget our master? Or being full with God’s benefits, like the full moon, then get farthest off from the sun, and by an interposition of earthly desires become dark? The cords of love are called “the cords of a man.” (Hosea 11:4) To sin against mercy is to sin against humanity; it is bestial, nay, it is worse. To render good for evil is divine; to render good for good is humane; to render evil for evil is brutish; but to render evil for good is devilish; as a reverend man hath well observed. Then he forsook God.] Here Moses, weary of speaking any longer to a gainsaying and disobedient people, turneth his speech to the heaven and earth, whom he had called in to bear witness. (Deuteronomy 32:1) So, when a certain people of Italy had commanded the Roman ambassador, Ad quercum dicere, se interim alia acturos, to deliver his embassy to the great oak, for they had somewhat else to do than to give him audience: he answered, Et haec sacrata quercus audiat faedus esse a vobis violatum, I will indeed direct my speech to the oak, and tell it in your hearing, that you have basely broken covenant, and shall dearly answer it. Salvian, lib. i, /@ad Eccles. Catholic./@ In Benedict. 4. Livy

Ver. 16. They provoked him to jealousy.] [See Trapp on “De 31:29”]

Ver. 17. They sacrificed unto devils.] [See Trapp on “Le 17:7”] To new gods that came newly up.] Such as are all Popish he-saints and she-saints; concerning whom Bellarmine himself cannot but yield, that Cum scriberentur Scripturae, nondum coeperat usus vovendi Sanctis. There was no vowing, or bowing either, to saints departed, when the Scriptures were written. And a loaf of the like leaven are those new lights, and all subtleties, whereby our sectaries would distinguish themselves from Brownists. Are they not all, or most of them, borrowed out of Mr H. Jacob’s books, who was but of yesterday? The Antinomians usually call upon their hearers to mark; it may be they shall hear some new truth that they never heard before; when the thing is either false, or, if true, no more than ordinarily is taught by others. Bellarm. de cultu sanct., cap. 5.

Ver. 18. And hast forgotten God that formed thee.] Or, That brought thee forth. Here God is compared to a mother, as in the former clause to a father. So James 1:18, “Of his own will begat he us,“—απεκυησε, He brought us forth, and did the office of a mother to us; which doth notably set forth his love and the work of his grace.

Ver. 19. Of his sons and of his daughters.] Titular at least; wherefore their sin was the greater. “What? Thou, my son Brutus?” This cut Caesar to the heart. Και συ τεκνον Βρουτε.

Ver. 20. I will see what their end shall be.] This is spoken after the manner of men; as likewise that in Deuteronomy 32:27. In whom is no faith,] i.e., Fidelity; as Matthew 23:23; there is no trusting them, or taking their words.

Ver. 21. And I will move them to jealousy.] Thus God delights to retaliate and proportion jealousy to jealousy, provocation to provocation; so frowardness to frowardness, (Psalms 18:26) contrariety to contrariety. (Deuteronomy 28:18,21, &c.) With a foolish nation.] With the conversion of the Gentiles, (Romans 10:19) which the good Jews could not easily yield to at first. (Acts 11:2,3) And the rest could never endure to hear of it. See 1 Thessalonians 2:15,16. At this day they solemnly curse the Christians thrice a day in their synagogues, with a Maledic, Domine, Nazarais. They have a saying in their Talmud, Optimus qui inter gentes est, dignus cui caput conteratur tanquam serpenti; The best among the Gentiles is worthy to have his head broke as the serpent had. Yea, they think they may kill any idolater. Therefore Tacitus saith of them, There was Misericordia in promptu apud suos, sed contra omnes alios hostile odium, mercy enough toward their own, but against all others they bare a deadly hatred.

Ver. 22. For a fire.] [See Trapp on “De 10:4”]

Ver. 23. I will spend mine arrows.] Which yet cannot be all spent up, as he feared of his Jupiter, Si quoties peccent heroines, &c.

Ver. 24. Burnt with hunger.] Which makes men’s visages blacker than a coal. (Lamentations 4:8) With burning heat,] i.e., With the burning carbuncle, or plague sore. See Habakkuk 3:5.

Ver. 25. And terror within.] Warring times are terrible times. By the civil dissensions here in King John’s time, all the kingdom became like a general shambles, or place of infernal terrors and tortures. War, saith one, is a misery which all words, how wide soever, want compass to express. It is, saith another, the slaughter house of mankind, and the hell of this present world. [See Trapp on “Ge 14:2”]

Ver. 26. I said I will scatter them.] See a like text, Ezekiel 20:8,9. We are sometimes safe by our enemies’ insolences, and as much beholden to their blasphemies as to our own prayers.

Ver. 27. Were it not that I feared.] See Deuteronomy 32:20. Lest their adversaries.] This is that, likely, that moves the Lord hitherto to spare England. God hath dealt with us, not according to his ordinary rule, but according to his prerogative. England, if it may be so spoke with reverence, is a paradox to the Bible. Pererius, the Jesuit, commenting upon Genesis 15:16, If any marvel, saith he, why England continueth to flourish, notwithstanding the cruel persecution—just execution, he should have said—of Catholics there; I answer, Because their sin is not yet full: Sed veniet tandem iniquitatiscom plementum, &c. We hope better, though we deserve the worst that can be. But somewhat God will do for his own great name; and lest the enemy exalt himself, (Psalms 140:8) and say, “Our hand is high, the Lord hath not done this.”

Ver. 28. For they are a nation.] [See Trapp on “De 4:6”] was Chrysippus that offered that strict and tetrical division to the world, Aut mentem aut restim comparandum.

Ver. 29. Oh that this people were wise.] Sapiens est, cui res sapiunt prout sunt, saith Bernard. That they would consider their latter end.] This is a high point of heavenly wisdom. Moses himserf desires to learn it. (Psalms 90:12) David also would fain be taught it. (Psalms 39:4) Solomon sets a “better” upon it. (Ecclesiastes 7:2) “Jerusalem’s filthiness was in her skirts, because she remembered not her latter end; therefore also she came down wonderfully.” (Lamentations 1:9) The kite by the turning of his tail directs and winds about all his body. Consideratio finis tanquam caudae, ad vitam optime regendam confert, saith Berchorins. I meet with a story of one that gave a prodigal a ring with a death’s head, with this condition, that he should one hour daily, for seven days together, look and think upon it, which bred a strange alteration in his life; like that of Thesposius in Plutarch; or that more remarkable of Waldus the rich merchant of Lyons, &c. Mr Ward’s Sermons

Ver. 30. How should one chase a thousand?] i.e., How should one of the enemies chase a thousand Israelites, who had a promise of better things, (Leviticus 26:8) but that having first sold themselves for nought, (Isaiah 52:3) they were now sold by God, who would own them no longer? (Psalms 31:7,8)

Ver. 31. For their rock is not as our rock.] We may well say, Who is a God like unto thee? (Micah 7:18) Contemno minutulos istos deos, mode Iovem (Iehovam) mihi propitium habeam; I care not for those dunghill deities, so I may have the true God to favour me. Even our enemies.] Exodus 14:25 Nu 23:8,12 1Sa 4:8.

Ver. 32. For their vine is of the vine.] Vitis non vinifera, sed venenifera. The vine is the wicked nature, the grapes are the evil works. So Isaiah 59:5; -“They hatch cockatrice’ eggs, and weave the spider’s web”; vanity or villainy is their whole trade; “he that eateth of their eggs dieth,” &c. Look how the bird that sitteth on the serpent’s eggs, by breaking and hatching them, brings forth a perilous brood to her own destruction: so do those that are yet in the state of nature, being the heirs of original and the fathers of actual sins, which “when they are finished bring forth death.” (James 1:15)

Ver. 33. Their wine,] i.e., Their works, yea, their best works, prove pernicious to them; not their own table only, but God’s table becomes a snare to the unprepared communicant; he sucks there the poison of asps, &c., (Job 20:16) he eats his bane and drinks his poison: as Henry VII, Emperor, was poisoned in the sacramental bread by a monk; Pope Victor II, by his sub-deacon in his chalice; and one of our Bishops of York, by poison put into the wine at the eucharist.

Ver. 34. Is not this laid up in store?] To wit, for just punishment, though for a while I forbear them. The wicked man is like a thief, which having stolen a horse, rides away well mounted, till, overtaken by hue and cry, he is apprehended, sentenced, and executed. “Your sin will find you out” as a bloodhound; Et patientia Dei erga impios quo diuturnior, eo minacior. Morae dispendium faenoris duplo pensatur; the longer God forbears, the heavier he punishes. Jerome, in Jerem,

Ver. 35. To me belongeth vengeance and recompense.] The Hebrew word for vengeance, םהז, signifies comfort also; for God will be comforted in the execution of his wrath. (Ezekiel 5:13) [See Trapp on “De 28:63”] He shows such severity sometimes as if he had blotted that out of his title, (Exodus 34:6) and now took up that Emperor’s motto, Fiat iustitia, pereat mundus. Their foot shall slide in due time.] “They are set in slippery places”; (Psalms 73:18) they ever walk as upon a mine of gunpowder ready to be blown up: Nemo crimen gerit in pectore, qui non idem Nemesin in tergo. Nemesis dicitur Αδραστεια, quod ουκ αν τις αυτην αποδρασαιτο. God’s wrath is such, as none can avert or avoid.

Ver. 36. And repent himself for his servants.] Thus God mingleth and allayeth the rigour of his justice with the vigour of his mercy.

Ver. 37. And he shall say,] i.e., He shall upbraid them with the inability of their idols to do for them.

Ver. 38. Which did eat.] Put them to a great deal of charge, but for no profit.

Ver. 39. I, even I am he.] I is emphatical and exclusive.

Ver. 40. And say, I live forever.] God can swear by no greater than himself. (Hebrews 6:13)

Ver. 41. If I whet my glittering sword.] God first whets, before he smites; and first takes hold on judgment, before his judgments take hold on men. Est piger ad poenas, ad praemia velox. See the like, Psalms 7:12. God was but six days in making the whole world, yet was he seven days in destroying that one city of Jericho, as Chrysostom observeth. “Fury is not in me.” (Isaiah 27:4) As a bee stings not till provoked, so God punisheth not “till there be no other remedy.” (2 Chronicles 36:16)

Ver. 42. From the beginning of revenges.] I will begin my revenges at the beginning of theirs. Esau began early with his brother Jacob, even in the very womb, and so held on; but God was even with him.

Ver. 43. Rejoice, O ye nations.] Give God the glory of his just severity, which is no less commendable in a judge than seasonable clemency.

Ver. 44. Of this song.] The Seventy render it, Of this law, as in Deuteronomy 32:46. So Asaph called his song “a law.” (Psalms 78:1)

Ver. 45. And Moses made an end.] He did, and yet he did not, for he had yet still something more to say to them out of his great desire to speak home to their hearts. So the apostle, in 2 Corinthians 13:11, and elsewhere, comes in with his το λοιπον, Finally, or, Yet one word more ere we part.

Ver. 46. Set your hearts.] And pray God to fix your quicksilver, to put his holy finger upon the hole that is in the bottom of your memories.

Ver. 47. For it is not a vain thing.] God’s favour is no empty favour, it is not like the winter sun, that casts a goodly countenance when it shines, but gives little comfort and heat. For it is not a vain thing for you.] You shall not lose your labour; it is sure you have lost many a worse in pursuing after lying vanities, toilsome toys.

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