Page images
PDF
EPUB

by a wilful siege or opposition, but they shall be either giddy or

senseless.

XII. 3 And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.

And in that day will I make my Church as some weighty and unwieldy stone; which when the enemies thereof shall lift at and strive to raise it up, it shall fall upon them, and crush them in pieces: yea, though all the people of the earth should join their forces together to remove it, yet they should miscarry under the burden.

XII. 4 In that day, saith the LORD, I will smite every horse with astonishment, and his rider with madness: and I will open mine eyes upon the house of Judah, &c.

The malicious world may combine together against my Church, but it shall not prevail: I will defeat all their hostile attempts: their horses of war will I smite with astonishment, and their riders with stupidity and senselessness; and I will look down graciously upon my Church, for their deliverance and preservation.

XII. 5 And the governors of Judah shall say in their heart, The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength in the LORD of hosts their God.

And the governors of my people shall say, in their heart, There is allsufficient strength and safeguard to me, and to all the true members of the Church of Christ, in the Lord of Hosts, our God; so as we need not fear what man can do unto us.

XII. 6 In that day will I make the governors of Judah like a hearth of fire among the wood, and like a torch of fire in a sheaf; and they shall devour all the people round about, on the right hand and on the left: and Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place, even in Jerusalem.

Yea, I will not only give a defensive power to my people, but will make them prevalent and victorious over their enemies; so as I will cause the governors of my Church to be as coals on the hearth, while their enemies are as a faggot laid thereupon; or, to be as a torch of fire in their enemies' sheaf, which shall soon consume them to ashes; and my Church shall continue itself in despite of all opposition, and the gates of hell shall never be able to prevail against it.

XII. 7 The LORD also shall save the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem do not magnify themselves against Judah.

The Lord shall save first those that are of the villages of Judah; that is, the weakest of his people, and those of the outskirts of his Church; that the glory of the more noble and couragious champions of Christ may not magnify itself, over the feeble and obscure, but that all may ascribe their salvation to the Lord.

XII. 8 And he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as

David; and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the LORD before them.

He, that is weak in himself, shall be as strong as David, who overcame the bear and the lion and the Philistine, in the power of his God; and those, that are eminent in this holy profession of Christianity, shall be as the angels of God, invincible, and able to do all things, through him that strengthens them.

XII. 10 And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications : and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one that mourneth for his only son, &c. And I will pour out upon my Church, beginning at Jerusalem and Zion, a great and apparent measure of my Spirit; and, besides those common gifts, I will endue them with the sanctifying graces of my Spirit, and with the spirit of prayer and supplication: and they shall, by a lively faith, look up to me their Saviour and Redeemer, whom they have pierced upon the Cross; and they shall mourn for that violence which was offered to the Lord of Life, dying for them, even as one mourneth for his only son, &c.

XII. 11 In that day shall there be great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon. In that day, wherein the Messiah shall suffer, there shall be great mourning, both in Jerusalem and in all the tribes of Israel: all those many disciples of Christ, whom he shall have won by his wonderful miracles and heavenly doctrine, shall mourn and lament, even like as the Jews mourned for the death of Josiah, in the valley of Megiddon.

XII. 12 And the land shall mourn, every family apart; the family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart; &c. And all that believed in him, throughout all Judea and Samaria and Galilee, shall take up a solemn mourning for the death of him, from whom they expected the redemption of Israel; the fa mily of the house of David apart, as that which shall be more alearly interested in him, by consanguinity and kindred, &c.

XIII. 1 In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness.

In that day of the passion of the Son of God, there shall be a Fountain opened, even in the side of that Blessed Redeemer; which shall flow forth, for the cleansing of all penitent and true believers, from all their sins and all their spiritual uncleannesses: that precious blood, which shall issue thence, shall be an allsufficient laver for all repentant and faithful souls.

XIII. 2 And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD of hosts, that I will cut off the names of the idols out of the land, and they shall no more be remembered: and also I will cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to pass out of the land.

That gross idolatry, wherewith the world was infected, shall now

cease; and the very names and mention of those Pagan idols shall be forgotten: and the oracles, whereto they resorted in all their doubts, shall cease; and those prophets and priests, which attended upon the unclean spirits who were agents in these wicked delusions, shall be cut off.

XIII. 3 And it shall come to pass, that when any shall yet prophesy, then his father and his mother that begat him shall say unto him, Thou shalt not live; for thou speakest lies in the name of the LORD and his father and his mother that begat him shall thrust him through when he prophesieth.

And if any false prophet shall yet take upon him to use these wicked divinations, his very parents, that begat and bore him, shall rise up against him; and, out of their detestation of his sin, shall be both his accusers and his executioners: so shall the zeal of God's glory prevail with them, above all natural respects.

XIII. 4 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the prophets shall be ashamed every one of his vision, when he hath prophesied ; neither shall they wear a rough garment to deceive.

And the false teachers, which shall arise in the Church, shall be convinced of their errors; and so laid open by the light of the Gospel, that they shall not any more, under colourable pretences, deceive God's people.

XIII. 5 But he shall say, I am no prophet, I am an husbandman ; for man taught me to keep cattle from my youth.

But, contrarily, the false teacher shall be confounded in himself; and be forced to confess, that he hath erred, and that God hath not given him any warrant for the broaching of his erroneous doctrines, or any lawful calling in his Church; but that his education and breeding hath been in another way, even in secular employments from his youth.

XIII. 6 And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.

And when one shall say unto him, What are these grievous censures that are inflicted upon thee? Then he shall answer, These are just censures, wherewith I was branded in the holy Church of God, by them which did seriously and lovingly seek my conver

sion.

XIII. 7 Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the LORD of hosts: smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered: and I will turn mine hand upon the little ones.

O thou, my sword of affliction, awake, arise, and lay about thee: smite him, that is nearest and dearest unto me; even him, that is my Coequal and Coeternal Son, the image of me the Invisible God, saith the Lord of Hosts: smite thou this Great Shepherd of my Church, and his sheep, his disciples and followers, shall be scattered, and shall both forsake him and be severed from each. other; for, even against those disciples also, as well as against

their Master, will I stir up enmity and opposition in the world.

XIII. 8 And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the LORD, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein.

And it shall come to pass, that if Judea be divided into three parts, equally; two of those three shall die, and miscarry under the great judgments which I will bring upon the land, for this murder of the Lord of Life; and only the third part shall be left alive.

XIII. 9 And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined.

And that third part, which shall be left alive, shall pass under many fiery trials of grievous afflictions, wherewith they shall be refined, as silver is refined.

XIV. 1 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee.

Behold then, O Judea and Jerusalem, the day of the Lord's vengeance cometh: the Romans shall divide thy spoils in the midst of thee.

XIV. 2 For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken.

For I will gather an army of all nations, brought together against thee, by the Romans; and Jerusalem shall be taken.

XIV. 3 Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.

Only, a remnant, viz. the third part, of the people, have I reserved, which shall not be cut off with the rest, but shall still continue the name of my Church and people.

XIV. 4 And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.

After this, the Lord Christ shall, in a terrible manner, come to judgment: when he shall descend down to the earth, the mountains shall be cloven in sunder before him, in a fearful motion at his appearance; even the Mount of Olives, where he set his last footstep upon earth, shall be divided in the midst, to the east and to the west; and there shall be a great valley betwixt these two halves, thus dissevered, whereof one half shall be fallen to the northward and the other half to the South.

XIV. 5 And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.

And ye shall flee through this new valley, which is made by this

division of the mountain; for it shall be very large, and reacheth far: ye shall flee away in great fear and astonishment, like as ye fled from before that terrible earthquake, which was in the days of Uzziah: and the Lord my God shall then come in glory, together with all his saints and angels.

XIV. 6, 7 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark: But it shall be one day which shall be known unto the LORD, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light.

And it shall come to pass in that day, that there shall not be a vi cissitude or interchange of light and darkness: But it shall be perpetually lightsome, as one continued day, which the Lord shall make to hold for ever; without this variety of sunshine, and darkness so as, when, by the wonted natural course of time, it should be evening, it shall then be as bright as at the high noon.

XIV. 8 And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be. And in that day, the waters of life and everlasting refreshing shall flow forth from the midst of the heavenly Jerusalem to all the saints of God, every where, without all stop and intermission.

XIV. 9 And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one. And the Lord shall be King over all the Earth; having subdued all his enemies: there shall then be none, that shall make head against him; but all shall adore him, as their only Lord and God.

XIV. 10 All the land shall be turned as a plain from Geba to Rimmon, south of Jerusalem: and it shall be lifted up, and inhabited in her place, from Benjamin's gate unto the place of the first gate, unto the corner-gate, and from the tower of Hananeel unto the king's winepresses.

All things shall be then made even and smooth in the whole Church of God; and there shall be infinite store of eternal mansions, prepared for all the elect of God; even as if, in type thereof, the whole coast about the material Jerusalem should be levelled, and stately built, and populously inhabited. So also verse 11.

XIV. 12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; &c. Such shall be the day, and the issue of the Last Judgment: but, in the mean time also, God will punish the enemies of his chosen ; even all those, that fight against his Church, shall have visible judgments inflicted upon them; &c.

XIV. 13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour.

Neither shall God only punish them with his own immediate hand, but he shall cause them to be the executioners of each other, in those civil tumults, which they shall raise up amongst themselves. XIV. 14 And Judah also shall fight at Jerusalem; and the

« PreviousContinue »