Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/4_200.lzh/4_273.TXT

Text File | 1994-09-08 | 7KB | 129 lines

Ver. 6. Whatsoever the Lord pleased, lhat did he,
&c.] In creation, producing into being what crea-
tures he thought fit; in pro,fidence, doing according to
his will in heaven and in earth; in grace, predesti-
hating men to grace and glory, according to the good
pleasure of his will, and calling by his grace whom he
pleased: so Christ quickens whom he will; and the
Spirit dispenses his gifts and grace severally to men
as he pleases. Sovereignty, or acting according to will
and pleasure, is peculiar to the Lord; the heavens, the
sun, moon, and stars, are at his direction, and act by the
laws of creation, which are at his control; angels do
his will, and not their own: the most arbitrary and
despotic princes cannot do every thing they please;
but the Lord can and does, even every thing. In hea-
ven and in earth, in the seas and all deep places; in the
formation of them, and filling them with inhabitants,
and fitting them to perform the several ends and uses
for which they were designed; as well as performing
many wonderful things in them out of the ordinary
course of nature, as did our Lord, or as were done
when he was here on earth: a wonderful star appeared
in the heavens, which guided the wise men to the place
of his birth; unusual voices were heard from heaven
at his baptism, transfiguration, and other times; the
Spirit, with his extraordinary gifts, descended from
hence after his ascension thither: surprising miracles
were done by him on earth; the great work of re-
demption was finished here, where he glorified his
divine Father; and throughout it he sent his apostles
to publish his everlasting Gospel. He did wonders in
the mighty waters; more than once he made the
boisterous sea a calm, and walked upon the surface
of' it: and as of old he broke up the fountains of
the great deep, and drowned the world; and at
another time dried up the sea, and led his people
through the depths, as through a wilderness; so he
will hereafter bind the old serpent the devil, and
east him into the abyss, into the great deep, into
the bottomless pit; where he will continue during
the thousand-years' reign of Christ with his saints.
Vet. 7. He canseth the yapours to ascend from the
ends of the earth, &c.] Up to the heavens. Aben
Ezra interprets'this of the mist w.hich went up out of
the earth, and watered it, Gen. ii. 6. and still yapours
are exhaled out of the earth by the force of the sun,
and carried up into the air, and form various things,
as wind, rain, 4'c- The Targum, Kimchi, and others,
explain it of the clouds, so called from their elevation
on high: these rise up out of the sea, the borders, and
boundaries, and uttermost parts of the earth; see
1 Kings xviii. 44. Amos v. 8. Jerom interprets these
clouds, spiritually and mystically, of the apostles and
prophets, raised from a low and mean estate; and so
may be applied to the ministers of the word, who are
clouds full of water; of good doctrine, which they are
sent to carry about the world, and publish in it; see
Isa. v. 6. He maketh lightnings .for the rain: for the
Targum
descent of the rain, as the  by lightning
oftentimes the clouds are broke, and so pour down
rain; see Job xxviii. 26. or, lightnings with the rain {g};
as Kimc.hi: these frequently come together, which is
very surprising, that two such different elements
should meet together as fire and water; and yet the
fire not quenched by the water, nor the water heated
by the fire: these the. above ancient Christian writer
interprets of the light of knowledge, and the rain of
doctrine; see Zech. ix. 14. Deut. xxxii. 3. Isa. hr.
10, 11. He bringeth the wind out of his treasuries; as
he has his treasuries for the snow and hail, Job xxxviii.
22. so for the winds: not the caverns of the earth,
thought to be the repositories of the wind {h}; nor are
there proper repositories of it: but the air, as Suidas{i};
which, when without wind, is easily moved by the
wise hand of God; so Theodoret, from whom he
seems to have taken th4s hint. In Scripture only men-
tion is made of four winds, Ezek. xxxvii. 9. Matt.
xxiv. 31. Rev. vii. 1. and so the ancient Greeks only
reckoned four cardinal winds, but at length they added
four more; and at Athens was a marble temple, built
by Andronicus Cyrrhestes, called the temple of the
eight winds: this was an octagon, and on each side
were engraven the images of every wind; and on the
top of it was a Triton of brass, with a rod in his right
hand, which being moved about by the wind, pointed
to that which then blew {k}: but now, through the great
improvement of navigation, the winds are divided and
subdivided in the points of the compass; and, besides
the four cardinal ones, there are twenty-eight collateral
ones, in all thirty-two; but be they reckoned as many
as they may, they are all in the hands of God, and
disposed of at his pleasure. Jerom here interprets
them of the angels; perhaps it might be better to
apply them to the gifts and graces of the Spirit, some-
times compared to wind, which are treasured up in
Christ; see John iii. 8. Acts iS. 1--4.
Vet. 8. Who smote the first-born of Egypt, both of
man and beast.] Which was the last of the plagues in-
flicted on the Egyptians; and is particularly men-
tioned, because, by means of it, they were made
willing to let the children of Israel go out of their
!and: and so this includes the deliverance of the
Israelites, God's first-born, when he slew the first-
born of Egypt; and who were typical of the first-
born, whose names are written in heaven; and
the deliverance of them, through the blood of the
passover, was an emblem of the deliverance of those
by the blood of Christ; see Exod. xii. 22, 23, 27,
c2.9, 30.
Ver. 9. Who sent tokens and wonders into the midst
of thee, 0 Egypt, &c.] Or, signs and wonders. Mean-
ing the other extraordinary plagues sent among the
Egyptians, before that of slaying their first-born; and
which have some likeness to the vials of God's wrath,
which will be poured out on the city called spiritually
Sodam and Egypt, Rev. xi. 8. and xvi. 1. Upon Pha-
raoh, and upon all his servants: his courtiers: some of
them are particularly observed to affect him and his
court; as the plagues of the frogs, and slaying the
first-born: and he and his princes must be more

{g} \^rjml Myqrb\^ fulgura cum pluvia, Vatablus, Junius  Tremel-
lius, Piscator, Gejerus; so Ainsworth.
{h} Vasto rex AEolus antro --- luctanteis ventos fraenat. Virgil. AEneid.
l. 1.
{i} In voce \~yhsauroi\~.
{k} Vid. Vitruvium de Architect. l. 1. c. 6.