A fruitfull commentarie vpon the twelue small prophets briefe, plaine, and easie, going ouer the same verse by verse, and shewing every where the method, points of doctrine, and figures of rhetoricke, to the no small profit of all godly and well disposed readers, with very necessarie fore-notes for the vnderstanding of both of these, and also all other the prophets. The text of these prophets together with that of the quotations omitted by the author, faithfully supplied by the translatour, and purged of faults in the Latine coppie almost innumerable, with a table of all the chiefe matters herein handled, and marginall notes very plentifull and profitable; so that it may in manner be counted a new booke in regard of these additions. VVritten in Latin by Lambertus Danæus, and newly turned into English by Iohn Stockwood minister and preacher at Tunbridge.

Vers. 12.

The iniquitie of Ephraim is bound vp: his sinne is hid.

* 1.1ANother confirmation of that which God said, that it should come to passe that the Israelites should finde no helpe in these Kings, but that these Kings should perish in the furie and iust anger of God. And it is taken from the Antecedent, or that which goeth before, to wit, for that God keepeth the sinnes of the Israelites, and hath them laide vp with himselfe, and not pardoned or done away. And looke whose sinnes God marketh and reteineth or keepeth, with those questionles he remaineth offended and angrie, & there∣fore they are to be punished, and cannot abide in saftie: for in the Psal. 130. ver. 3.4. it is said: If thou, O Lord straitely markest iniqui∣ties, O Lord, who shall stand? But mercie is with thee, that thou maist be feared. For our sinnes must first bee blotted out and buried with

God, and vtterly be forgotten, before we can be saued, or be in saf∣tie, and finally before we can feele any healthsome ayde, either from God himselfe, or from any other creature whatsoeuer.* 1.2 But if our sinnes be once pardoned, and the remembrance of them done away, then as the Prophet Isay saith cap. 1. ver. 18. Though they were before as crimsin, they shall bee made white as snowe: though they were red like scarlet, they shall be as wool. So long therefore as the cause of our miseries remaineth, that is our sinnes, the effect also re∣maineth, to wit, the anger of God toward vs, and consequently the punishment must by and by follow. Further, the Prophet vseth a double similitude to shew that the sinnes of idolators are most di∣ligently marked and kept by God, the which hee will remember in his time. The which thing Iob complaineth to haue been done con∣cerning himselfe and his sinnes cap. 7 ver. 21. saying vnto God: Why doest thou not pardon my trespas, and take away mine iniquitie? And againe cap. 10. ver. 5.6. Are thy dayes as a mans dayes? Or thy yeares as the time of a man, that thou inquirest of mine iniquitie, and searchest out my sinne? For the sinnes of the faithfull are not sealed vp with God to bee kept, but are all blotted out by the bloud of Christ 1. Iohn. 1. ver. 9. If wee acknowledge our sinnes, hee is faithfull and iust, to forgiue vs our sinnes, and to clense vs from all vnrighteous∣nes. Againe cap. 2. ver. 1.2. If any man sinne, wee haue an aduocate with the father, Iesus Christ the iust. And hee is the reconciliation for our sinnes: and not for ours onely, but also for the sinnes of the whole world. Onely the sinnes of the vnfaithfull are in such sort bound vp in a fardle or bundle in their time to be punished, because they are not clensed by the bloud of Christ, because of their owne infideli∣tie or vnfaithfulnes, and therefore the Lord hath alwaies his hand lifted vp, and stretched out to strike them for euer, as he had against the Amalekites, of whom, as it is in Exod. cap. 17. ver. 16. He swore, that hee would haue warre with Amalek from generation to ge∣neration.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Another con∣firmation of the former sentence.
• * 1.2

  No helpe from God, nor com∣fort from any other creature, vntil our sinnes be pardoned & done away.