Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/5_100_p.lzh/5_173.TXT

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be done in this way: repentance may be meant by
returning, and faith by rest; or by returning and rest
may be designed returning to rest, that is, to Christ,
who is the only rest to weary soulS: quietness may
intend peace of conscience, arising from the blood and
righteousness of Christ; and confidence faith, and an
assurance of it, which make men strong Christians;
though their strength does not barely lie in these
graces, but in the object of-them: now faith and re-
pentance are blessings of the covenant of grace, gifts of
God, and graces of the spirit, which go together in the
doctrine of salvation, and have a concern in it; though
they are not meritorious procuring causes, nor condi-
tions of it; yet in this way God brings his people to
salvation, and they enter into, and are descriptive of,
the character of such that are saved; there is so close
a connexion between these and salvation, that none are
saved without them; and it may be Observed, that this
way of saying men through faith and repentance, and
by going to 'Christ alone for rest, and by placing confi-
dence in, and deriving all peace and comfort from him,
is disagreeable to unregenerate men; which is a proof
of the wretched depravity, and corruption, and per-
verseness of the will of man.
Ver. 16. But ye said, no, but we will.flee upon horses,
&c.] Hither and thither to get help and assistance;
go down to Egypt for it on them, or thither for them,
as some render it; and then face the enemy, and, if we
can't conquer him, will flee from him, and so provide
for our safety; this is man's way of salvation, as op-
posed to God's way; see Hos. i. 7. and xiv. 3. or this
may design-their fleeing on horses and camels with
their riches into Egypt, both for the security of them
and their persons, yet. 6: therefore shall yefiee; on
horses from the enemy, and be pursued and taken by
him; this was fulfilled long after, when the city was
taken by the Chaldeans; see 2 Kings xxv. 4: and we
will ride upon the swift; horses or camels, to the swift-.
hess of which they trusted, and doubted not to get off
safe, but would lind themselves mistaken: therefore
shall they that pursue you be swift; yea, swifter than
the horses and camels they rode on, 'and overtake
them, anti either put them to death, or carry them
captive. The Chaldeans are represented as very swift,
Jet. iv. 13. Hab. i. 8.
Vet. 17. One thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one,
&c.] A troop of horse, consisting of a thousand men,
shall flee upon the attack and onset of a single person,
so dispirited should they be, and so possessed of the
fear of the enemy; what was promised to them with
respect to their enemies is here turned against them,
Lev. xxvi. 7, 8. Deut. xxxii. 30: at the rebuke offive
shall yeflee; being attacked by a very small number,
the whole army should run away: this denotes with
what ease they should be routed, and put to flight;
and is to be understood, not of what wouldbe at the
present time, but of what should come to pass here-
after, when the Chaldean army should come against
them; till ye be left as a beacon upon the top of a moun-
tain; or, as the mast of a ship, so the Septuagint and
other versions. Jarchi savs it signifies a high tree, or
tall piece of wood fixed in the earth, like a ship's
mast {p}, set up to give warning of an enemy's approach,
and when, and where, sometimes fires used to be
kindled; hence the Targum is, "till ye are left as a
"burning torch_ on the top of a mountain." The
Syriac version renders it, as a wild ass, solitary and
alone: and as an ensign on a hill; erected as a trophy
of victory. The design of the metaphors is to shew
that there should be few that should escape falling into
the enemy's hand, here and there one, that should he
scattered about, and be very thin, as beacons and
signs are, and should be warnings to others of pursuing
the same foolish and sinful methods and practices.
Ver. 18. And therefore will the Lord wait, that he may
be gracious unto you, &c.'] Or yet {q}, cr.neverthele. ss
though such an utter destruction shall be made, there
are a few that the Lord has a good will unto, and
therefore waits till the set time comes to arise and have
mercy on them; he has taken up thoughts and resolu-
tions of grace and favour concerning them, and has
fixed the time when he will shew it; and he is, as it
were, panting and longing after it, as the word {r} used
signifies, as some have observed, until it is up; he
waits for the fittest and most proper time to shew
mercy; when things are brought to the worst, to the
greatest extremity, and when his people are brought to
a sense of their danger, and of their sins, and to re-
pentance for them, and to see their need of his help and
salvation, and to implore it, and to depend upon him
for it;. then, in the mount of difficulty, and in the most
seasonable time, does the Lord appear; and hereby
the mercy is the sweeter to them, and his grace is the
more magnified towards them: so he waits to be gra-
cio.us to his people in conversion; he is gracious be-
fore; be is of a gracious disposition; he is inclined,
nay, resolved, to shew favour to them;yea, he has
done various acts of grace before, such as their election
in Christ, the provision of a Saviour for them in the
covenant, putting all grace into his hands for them, the
redemption of them by him, and the adoption of them
into his family; but in conversion there is an open ex-
hibition and display of the grace of God; much grace
is then shewn in applying pardoning grace, a justify-
ing righteousness, and salvation by Christ unto them;
by many love-visits, and by opening the treasures of
his grace .unto them, as well as by implanting much
grace in them, as faith, hope, love, and every other:
now there is a fixed time for all this; and, until that
time comes, the Lord waits to be gracious; this is his
long-suffering towards his elect, which issues in their
salvation; he don't Ctlt them off in their sins; he
bears much and long with them, and, as it were, longs
till the time comes to unbosom himself to them, and
bestow his fayours on them; and so, after conversion,
he waits and observes the fittest time to deliver them
out of afflictions, temptations, &c. and therefore will he
be exalted, that he may have mercy on you; or, will
exalt himself{s}; raise up himself, wh5 seemed to be
asleep, and careless of his people, and rise up against


{p} So Ben Melech says, it is a high piece of wood in a ship, on which
they hang an ensign or flag; and so he interprets the ensign in the
next clause of a veil, so called, because they lift it up upon the mast.
{q} \^Nkl\^ nihilominus, tamen; so Noldius, Ebr. Concord. Part. p. 507.
in the same way Gataker.
{r} \^hkx\^ significat anhelat, vel inhiat, Forerius.
{s} \^Myry Nklw\^ & propterea exaltabit se, Pagninus, Montanus,
Vatablus; elaturus est se, Janius & Tremellius.