shall not reign over them 3. And the reason is Because he shall receive me with favour adopt me and make me capable of all the promises made over to me by Covenant 3. The third part The advice to good men Upon these considerations viz. The different conditions of good and bad men he gives forth his prohibition and admonisheth the good that they be not troubled at the prosperity of the wicked Ne trineas Be not afraid Let not your heart betroubled 1. That they be not troubled at the prosperity of the wicked Not at the great wealth of the rich Be not thou afraid when one is made rich 2. Not at the glory and honour of the mighty Nor when the glory of his house is increased And he repeats the former reason For when he dyeth he shall carry nothing away His glory shall not descend after him Their happiness was then but Momentary This he amplifies by a bitter Epitrope Esto Be it they flatter themselves and are flatter'd by others 1. Though while he liv'd he blessed his soul Soul thou hast many goods for many years 2. Though men will praise thee and sound in thy ears Euge bene Vers. 18 rectè so long as thou doest well to thy self i. e. providest for me heapest up Riches and gapest after Honour Think to be Semi-deum 1. A mortal thou art short-liv'd as all that went before thee were Vers. 19 Thy life no longer dated than theirs He shall go to the generation of his fathers And 2. If wicked be cast into utter darkness They shall never see light 3. Surely any man how rich soever how great soever who understands not thus much beasts himself Vers. 20 For with this Epiphonema he concludes the Psalm which is doubled that it may be remembred Man being in honour and understands not is like the beasts that perish Even while he lives he is but like a beast The Prayer collected out of the forty ninth Psalm O God of my fathers and Lord of mercy who hast created man through wisdom according to thy likeness giving him a capacity to know and a will to chuse the true way to Happiness Give me Wisdom that sits by thy Throne and reject me not from among thy children Vers. 20 never let me so farre forfeit my understanding being depressed by want or enticed by abundance or affected with the glory of the world that I become like a beast that perisheth But grant that in what condition soever I am whether high or low rich or poor I may give ear and hearken to the instruction of thy Holy Spirit O let my mouth alwayes speak of wisdom and let the meditation of my heart be of such things which may make me judge prudently and govern my self wisely in this present life Bore my ear and make it incline to what thou shalt teach and teach me with an eloquent tongue to declare to others the Mysteries the Parables the dark and abstruse Mysteries of thy Law Then Lord lo I will not refrain my lips and that thou knowest Taught us thou hast in thy Divine Oracles that we should not place our confidence in the vain and fading things of this life But with shame and confusion of face confess we must that we have made the World our God and the wedge of gold our stay that we are in the number of those who have trusted in their wealth and boasted in the multitude of their riches Our inward thought hath been to add house to house and land to land perswading our selves that our houses shall continue for ever and our dwelling places to all generations We labour to be immortal here on earth and to that purpose we call the land after our own names We bless our selves in our abundance and say to our souls Eat drink and be merry Soul thou hast goods laid up for many years This is our vanity this is our way our folly and yet our posterity approve and applaud these our sayings and doings for when we do thus well unto our selves they stand by flatter and praise us O good God keep under and subdue these immoderate affections and teach us to number our dayes that we may apply our hearts to wisdom let it never slip out of our memories that we are mortal and all the things of the world momentary vain fading Dayly experience we have before our eyes that wise men dye and the fool and bruitish person perish Every man is but short-lived and must follow the generation of his fathers and when he dyeth he shall carry nothing away with him and his glory shall not continue and descend after him All like sheep fatted for the slaughter are laid in the grave Our wealth in that evil day will not profit us our glory will no way avail us What wealth what strength what splendour what dignity soever any man may have will not ransome or redeem any mans life nor at a mans own hand nor at a mans brothers will God receive a recompence that he should still live for ever and not see corruption Make us wise O Lord to consider these things and alwayes to remember our latter end To the house of death we must be brought but that is not our latter end Of an immortal soul we do consist as well as of a mortal body And will wealth or power be able to deliver that either from the wrath of God or the torments of hell Vers. 8 O no! It cost more to redeem a soul so that he must that alone for ever The redemption was a precious price bought we were not with gold or silver but with the precious blood of the Son or God While worldlings are bussed then in increasing of riches and thirsting after honours let us be studious to save this so that that precious blood be not spilt nor that ransome paid in vain The wicked shall be turn'd into Hell and all the people that forget God but thou O Lord wilt redeem my soul from the power of the grave for I verily believe to set God in the land of the living Why then should I fear in the dayes of evil why when the wickedness of my heels compasseth round about Surely there is a reward for the righteous doubtless there is a God that judgeth the earth Men that are in honour and understand not are like the beasts that perish Vers. 20 but the souls of the righteous are in the hands of God he shall receive them and no torment shall touch them They the wicked shall never see light whereas the righteous shall shine like the Sun Death eternal death and the fire that never shall be quench'd shall feed on them whereas the righteous shall enjoy everlasting life At the general resurrection those goats shall be set on the left-hand and the other sheep honoured with the right While they liv'd they trampled upon and oppressed the righteous but in that morning the upright shall have dominion over them They and their beauty shall consume together in the grave when the Lord shall
both great and small whether thou hast raised them to a high degrée of honour or made them vessels of dishonour Thou Lord art that great Lord that hath made both heaven and earth she power in heaven Thou hast reserved to thy self the earth Thou hast given to the children or men that they may inhabit it and be sustained by it By thine own mouth all those who serve thée in fear and reverence are pronounced to be the Blessed of the Lord give then good God to these the dew of heaven and the famess of the earth multiply and increase them more and more both the fathers and their children Of this nothing can deprive us but our abuse and unthankfulness that may make heaven brass and the earth iron under us So touch our hearts then with thy grace that we never receive a blessing but we be as ready to return a blessing that we use not the gift without blessing thée the Doner t is the end we live 't is the end we breath The dead praise thee not for the gifts of the earth because they have no use of them they that go down into the stlent places of the grave are altogether silent for thy swéet dewes and showres wherewith the earth is impregned and fatned because they stand not in néed of any of her supplies We are the men who yet live and draw our breath which must be nourished and sustained by the dugs of this good mother which we will never praw without thankfulness We will bless the Lord while we live upon the earth even from this time to the end of our life and if we could live for ever for evermore Since therefore O merciful Lord Thou hast given the earth for a possession to the sons of men and to that end that there may be upon the earth some to celebrate thy Name we beséech thée to defend thy little flock from the hands of violent men and suffer them not by their rage and fury to be taken from their possessions by a violent and immature death But much more O Lord preserve them from eternal death and damnation in which no man can praise thée and grant unto them that while they live on earth they may live by the life of thy Spirit that both now and for ever as it is their bounden duty they may praise and magnisle thy Name and set forth thy mercies in Iesus Christ our only Lord and Saviour Amen PSAL. CXVI Didascalicus THIS Psalm is gratulatory for it shewes some great straits to which David was brought from which God delivering him he vowes to be thankful The points of this Psalm are three 1. David makes profession of his love and shews the Reasons of it viz. Gods goodness to him in hearing him when he was in a sad condition and helping him from ver 1. to 9. 2. He professeth his duty and faith ver 9 10 11. 3. He vowes to be thankful and in what manner from ver 12. to 19. 1. Deum David diligit He begins with the expression of his content and love I have enough I love the Lord The first part and presently sets down his Reasons 1. Ver. 1 Because he hath heard my voyce and my supplications good reason then to love him Ratio prima That God heard him 2. Because he hath inclined his ear to me a certain evidence that he was heard Upon which certainty and experience of Audience Ver. 2 he infers this protestation Therefore will I call upon him as long as I live Secunda Ratio Amoris auditum in suâ angustiâ 2. Another Reason that moved him to love God and acquiesce in him was That he heard him in his greatest need and extremities which he describes in the next verse Neither can there be any greater for he suffered in body and soul by the sense of Gods wrath which how great they are those only can tell you that have had experience of them 1. The sorrowes of death compassed me even death it self is the King of fear Describet angustias 2. The pains of Hell gat hold upon me He feared the anger of God for his sin and the consequent of that anger 3. Both these brought him into a heavy case many compass'd about with the sorrowes of death living in prosperity they observe it not they consider it not and therefore they nor fear nor grieve But David was sensible of his condition he found where he was and therefore in grief and fear he-professeth I found trouble and sorrow but at last faith seems to conquer them he despairs not For he betakes himself to his old and safe remedy a remedy that never had failed him 1. Then in these sorrowes these pangs these troubles 2. Invocatio refugium I called upon the Name of the Lord Invocation was his sole Refuge 3. And he sets down the very words of his prayer for our use in the like case O Lord I beseech thee deliver my soul i.e. from the sorrowes of death and dangers of hell And then Ostendit quibus fundament is nixus ad Deum fugit oravit viz. that he might shew that he prayed to God in faith and hope he acquaints us upon what ground he did it viz. those Attributes of God of which every one that happens to be in his case hath especial use or else he is not like to find comfort for then no talking of merits of predestination of Enthusiasms in such a case these are no Cordials to a soul under the sense of Gods wrath That which will then comfort any man is to remember and believe what David doth here 1. That God is gracious he inspires prayer and repentance into a man and freely remits sin Dei Attribut is and receives to favour all such as by a lively faith flie to him 2. And righteous and just that will perform what he hath promised and grant an induigence upon those terms that he hath promised 3. Yea our God is merciful he mingles mercy with his justice and though he scourgeth every son that he receives yet 't is with a fathers hand which is more prone to forgive than to punish 4. The Lord preserves the simple i. e. Men sine plicis such simple men as Job was these being without counsel or help he keeps he saves Of which David gives an instance in himself I was brought low and he helped me And the like favour others may find that call upon him on those grounds that I did relying on him because he is gracious righteous and merciful and preserves the simple 3. Another Reason he had to love God was the great rest quiet Tertia Ratio Amoris acquiescentia animi orta ex reconciliatione peace and tranquility he found in his soul after this storm was over and therefore after he had described the Tempest and the means he used for his deliverance out of it viz. Faith and Invocation and found them effectual
He judgeth rightly of his afflictions 1. Before I was afflicted I went wrong Prosperity is the mother of Errour 2. But now I have kept thy Word Schola Crucis Schola Lucis The Rod on his back made him wiser God then had graciously dealt with him to afflict him bad men are the worse for afflictions the good better and this sanctifies afflictions to them 3. Upon which he acknowledgeth again what he said in the first verse Thou hast dealt graciously in this thou art good and gracious Ver. 4 and repeats in effect his Petition Teach me thy statutes which is all one Which proceeded from wicked men These with teach me knowledge 4. Now a great part of his affliction proceeded from wicked men that were his enemies and oppugned him in his wayes and service of God in which yet he was constant these he describes in the two next verses 1. That they were proud men the proud It is not without cause Ver. 5 that they are called proud 1 Proud for pride is the mother of all Rebellion against God and man Grace ever works Humility Pride Contempt Treason c. 2. How they warr'd against David it was with a lye 2 Lyars Satans two Arms by which he wrestles against the godly are violence and lies where he cannot or dare not use violence there he will be sure not to fail to fight with lyes 3. How they trimmed up their lyes Concinnarunt mendacia Tremell 3 Hypocrites Their lyes were trimmed up with the coverings of Truth to make them more plausible their unrighteous dealings were covered over with appearances of righteousness 4. But I will keep thy precepts with my whole heart Davids armour against them He would not fight against the wicked with their own Weapon rendring a lye for a lye or rebuke for rebuke but he takes himself to the Truth of Gods Word and obedience to him Ver. 6 5. Their he art is as fat as grease Either 1. Because they abounded in worldly wealth 4 Obdurate in prosperity which is well signified by grease 2. Because they were sensless of their condition For the fat of all Creatures is the least sensitive Needles thrust into it will not be felt 3. But I delight in thy Law 5. But the condition of godly men is other the godly are not proud Good men are tender-hearted they are humble afflictions make the ungodly rage storm and blaspheme good men kiss the Rod and are ready to say with David for their heart is not sensless as fat as grease but they are tender-hearted they melt at every blow God gives them and say 1. It is good for me that I have been afflicted Before I was proud Make a right use of afflictions now humble before stubborn and disobedient but now soft-hearted and obedient 2. That I might learn thy statutes Learn them not by Rote but by experience learn to keep them better lest I be whip'd again learn to be more wise godly religious when the trouble is gone and this is a sanctified Cross 3. And by this also I might learn to put an higher price and value upon Gods Commands than hitherto I have done to which no earthly treasure is comparable The Law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver For by keeping of thy Law I shall obtain eternal life His estimate of Gods Law which gold and silver cannot purchase The Prayer O Most gracious God though thou hast brought upon us many troubles and afflicted us with heavy judgments Ver. 1 yet in this thou hast dealt graciously with thy servants and even according to thy Word that we have béen better'd by thy judgments and found comfort in the midst of our sorrowes O Lord Thou art good in thy self and dost good to thy servants in all that thou bringest upon them and we must néeds confess that even those things we suffer have béen good unto us by thy mercy for before we were afflicted we went astray But now being put in mind of our sins the causes of our afflictions we have béen more attent and diligent to kéep thy Law It is good for us then that we have been afflicted that we might learn thy statutes Go on then gracious God not to afflict but still to teach us and by thy chastisèments to make us wiser teach us good judgment and knowledge let us judge aright of thy judgments and our own deserts and let this thy Discipline make us know our duty and perform our duty better ever hereafter both to thée and our Neighbour make us by these to love thée to fear thée and to believe thy Word That thou art a jealous God that will visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth Generation of them that hate thee and shew mercy unto thousands in them that love thee and keep thy Commandments And yet in these we cannot but complain unto thée of those injuries we suffer from the hands of proud and rebellious men Ver. 5 Thou Lord art just in letting them in upon us but they most unjust and malicious in the execution of thy wrath Pride hath béen the cause of their rebellion and a continued pack of lies the means they have used to bring their Treason to pass these they forged against us and spun with so fine a thread and dressed up in so handsom a way that they have béen taken for Truth and by that colour deceived the simple to our ruine under a pretence of Piety Iustice Liberty and Reformation they have brought upon us this horrid confusion And in this they still go on in this they procéed for their heart is swollen with pride and fatned with success and riches they are not sensible of thy judgments nor fear thy wrath Their heart is as fat as grease and there is nothing but some heavy judgment from thy hand that can melt it O Lord abate their pride asswage their malice and confound them in their lies And confirm thy people in the Truth that being no way withdrawn by their delusions nor affrighted with their malice they may be constant and live in thy fear Ver. 8 and delight in thy Law and keep thy Commandments with their whole heart O let the Law of thy mouth be more dear and better unto them than thousands of gold and silver These cannot redéem a soul from hell or from the grave but the observation of thy Law will deliver from eternal death and bring a man to that life which is everlasting through the merits of Iesus Christ our Lord. 10. JOD IN this Section The Contents 1. He prayes for understanding And perswades it because his creature David prayes for understanding comfort mercy 2. And useth many Arguments to perswade God unto it 1. In the first verse he petitions for understanding and labours to perswade God unto it because he was his Creature made and fashioned by him 1.
I have sought thy precepts I am thine because I sought nothing but that which is thine and how I might please thee O how few can say this and upon this account cry to God O save me 4. Which to do David had very great reason at this time This he had reason to do having many enemies and those for he had bitter enemies from whom he could not be safe except God saved him two things he notes in them 1. Diligence Te wicked have waited for me waited for an opportunity 2. Cruelty Waited to destroy me Their malice was so great Ver. 7 that no less would satisfie them 1 Diligent in mischief 3. And here now in such an extremity 2 Cruel Amidst which Gods promise sustained him the comfort of Gods Word is very seasonable the consideration of that is able to stay a fainting soul Psal 124. with which David comforts himself here But I will consider thy Testimonies that thou hast testified that thou art able and wilt deliver those that trust to thy Word Dan. 6.16 22. 5. He hath shewed the perfection of Gods Word in establishing and upholding the frame of the World 2. And then the excellency thereof in bringing joy comfort help to an afflicted soul but in the close of this Section he compares it with all other things which we esteem as excellent and perfect be they Riches Honours Scepters Crowns Kingdoms c. among which the Word of God hath still the preheminence they fail but Gods Word endures 1. I have seen an end of all perfection Ver. 8 Jonah 's Gourd is smitten with a worm the golden head had feet of clay c. 3 The preheminence of Gods Word the fairest day is enter'd at night 2. But thy Commandment is exceeding broad Exceeding broad indeed for in it are contain'd all other National and Municipal Lawes they being nothing else if just but extracts of it or exceeding broad because all Lawes of a good life and the rewards of those that keep the Law and on the contrary the prohibitions of all vices and the punishments of Transgressors are contained in it Or exceeding broad because it is the Commandment of love which extends to God Angels men enemies Or exceeding broad which is nearer Davids purpose because it extends to and refresheth all that are in distress and affliction it abides by them in tentations while they live and forsakes them not in their death but conveyes them into their grave in peace and the comfort of it abides with them for ever when they are dissolved The Prayer O Omnipotent God Thou hast given us assurance of thy Faithfulness and Truth in the performance of thy Word and Promise made unto thy servants even by that constant order and continuance which we behold in thy creatures For why is it that those orbs above have béen so long-liv'd why are they not corrupted why do they continue in that excellent beauty Ver. 1 and perpetual motion but that thy Word is setled in Heaven Why is it that the foundations of earth do not decay and shake Ver. 2 but that thy faithfulness is to all generations they continue this day according to thy Ordinance for they are thy creatures Thou their Lord Ver. 3 and they must serve and do their homage to thée We alone are thy disobedient creatures and for this thou bringest us justly into trouble and under these we should have fainted and utterly perished had it not béen from the comforts that we receive from thy Word Ver. 4 it delights our souls and confirms our hearts even in the extremities of our sorrowes when we find in it thy Word many gracious promises made unto thy servants I will never therefore forget thy precepts for with them thou hast quickned me Ver. 5 I was ready even to expire and dye till I meditated on and called to mind thy Law which by the power of thy Spirit hath encreased grace in me and by the promise of glory brought me again to life Ver. 6 For which promise I am thine and I vow my self to be thine I will no more be a servant to the Devil the World and the flesh I renounce them all I forsake them and betake my self wholly to thy service And since I have given my self wholly unto thée let me be thy care Ver. 7 O save me save me O my God for I am invironed with malicious and cruel enemies whom nothing can satisfie but my blood they are diligent and wait for an opportunity to destroy me and take away my life but thou O Lord hast testified that thou wilt deliver those that trust in thée and therefore I will consider in my troubles these thy testimonies I sée an end of all perfection Riches Honours Crowns Kings Friends fade and fail Ver. 8 and are but miserable comforters but thy Commandment is exceeding broad it extends to and refresheth all that are in affliction it abides by them in tentations while they live and forsakes them not in their death in life and death therefore I will adhere to this Take not then the comfort of thy Word out of my mouth while I live and never let it leave me till it hath brought me to eternal happiness through Iesus Christ my Lord and Saviour Amen 13. MEM. DAVID in this Section shewes his great affection to the Law of God The Contents Davids affection to Gods Word 2. And the many benefits and fruits he reaped from it 1. His affection is declared in the first verse which he pathetically expresseth 1. Ver. 1 O how I love thy Law wherein he calls God himself to be Judge of his love witnessing thereby that it was no counterfeit love but compleat and sincere 2. And he proves that which he sayes The nature of true love is to converse with and think on the thing beloved and it useth all means to obtain it So David here proves his love to God by the love he bears to his Law and his love to his Word by the thoughts he had on it All the day long is my meditation in it I think speak or do little else all the day 2. 2 The Encomium of it first And now he enters upon his Encomium or praise of Gods Word from the admirable effects that it might have in them who will meditate in it of which he makes himself the instance This he amplifies by comparing himself with three kinds of men his Enemies his Teachers the Ancients than all which he grew wiser by this meditation 1. Ver. 2 Thou through thy Commandments hast made me wiser than mine enemies The Law of God being well thought on 1 It made him wiser than his enemies teacheth a man what how where and when to speak or to be silent to act or desist which wisdom Davids enemies wanted he was then wiser than they A great controversie there is who is the wise man the godly man or the Machivilian Gods Word will easily
the quantity and degrees of his calamity which he shews to be very great from the effects 1. In general he was in a languishing disease I am weak 2. In particular a sharp pain in his bones My bones are vexed 3. Vers. 2 Trouble in his soul My soul also is sore troubled 2. Vers. 3 From the continuance of it It was a long disease a lingring fickness and no ease he found Vers. 4 no not from his God The pain though great I could the better bear 2 From the continuance of it if I had any comfort from heaven But thou O Lord how long This makes me a man of sorrows that thou my Lord seems to have withdrawn thy countenance long long from thy servant Vers. 3 Lord how long 3. Vers. 3 3 From the consequence viz. Death From the consequence that was like to follow death and the event upon it 'T is my intention to celebrate thee and praise thy name This the living only can do therefore let me live For in death no man remembers thee and who will give thee thanks in the pit Vers. 5 4. And that to Deaths-door he was now brought he shews by three apparent symptomes 1. Sighs and groans which had almost broke his heart The symptoms of it being the companions of a perpetual grief with these he was oppressed even to weariness I am weary of my groaning Ver. 6 2. The abundance of tears which fell from him had even dried and washed his body these fell in such showres and so continual Ver. 6 That he made his bed to â—wim and watered his couch with his tears 3. His eyes also melted away and grew dim so that he seemed old before his time for grief preys upon the vital spirits and dries up the bones Ver. 7 Thus he complains My eye is consumed because of grief it waxeth old 5. And that which increased his grief and added to his sorrow was 4 From the joy his enemies took at it that he had many ill-willers who did laugh and boast and insult over him in this his extremity My eye is waxen old because of mine enemies Ver. 7 Secondly But at last receiving comfort and joy from his penitential tears The second part His insultation over his enemies These he rejects with scorns he begins to look up and from his complaint he turns upon his enemies who gaped after his death and over them he insults in the three last verses 1. He rejects these Reprobates from him with scorn and indignation you looked for my end and expected my ruine but all in vain and therefore now deluded of your hopes Depart from me all ye workers of iniquity 2. He assings the cause in effect Ver. 8 because God hath been moved by his prayer to reject them upon which ground he was so confirmed and pleased Because God had heard his prayer that he comes over it again and again thrice for failing 1. For the Lord hath heard the voyce of my weeping Ver. 8 2. The Lord hath heard my supplication Ver. 8 3. The Lord will receive my prayer Ver. 9 3. Then in the close there follows his imprecation His imprecation that which is made up of these three ingredients which he prayes may light upon them 1. Shame and confusion Let them be confounded to see their hope frustrate 1 Shame 2. Vexation Let them be vexed that they suffer by the hand of justice Ver. 10 3. Eversion Let them return with shame enough 2 Vexation that their plots come to nothing 3 Eversion may befall them And these two last he aggravates by the weight and speed for he desires that their punishment might begreat and speedy 1 Grievously 1. That their vexation should be nor easie nor mild but very sore Ver. 10 let them be sorely vexed 2. That their shame and overthrow linger not but be present hasty 2 Suddenly and sudden Let them be turned back and put to shame in a moment or suddenly The Prayer collected out of the sixth Psalm O Omnipotent holy and just Lord to whose commands we owe obedience and whose will ought to be our Law I wretched sinner and disobedient Caitiff do confess that for my disobedience I have deserved thy just displeasure I have provoked thy wrath and done evil before thée O Lord I have sinned and multiplied my iniquities Now therefore I vow the knées of my heart and humbly beléech thée to forgive and not to destroy me with my iniquities O Lord rebuke me not in thine anger Ver. 1 neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure I tremble O dear Father and am even out of heart when I remember my great offences and féel thy severe justice My soul is sore vexed and the pains of Hell have overtaken me But thou Ver. 3 O Lord how long how long wilt thou turn away thy face from me and set me up as a mark to shoot at how long Lord wilt thou be absent for ever and shall thy jealousie burn like fire how long shall I take counsel in my soul and be thus vexed in my heart wherefore hidest thou thy face and holdest me for thy enemy wilt thou break a leaf driven too and fro with the wind and wilt thou pursue the dry stubble For thou writest bitter things against me and makest me possess the sins of my youth Ver. 6 I am weary and worn out with sighs and groans and every night when solitude and darkness brings to me the memory of my sins Ver. 7 I make my Bed to swim and water my Couch with my tears The eye of my mind is darkned at the sense of thy revenge and the eye of my body grown dim and consumed with grief Have mercy upon me Ver. 2 have mercy upon me O my God and for thine own sake remit my sin and heal the running ulcers of my soul with thy grace for I am weak and unable to any good heal me from this my infirmity and the wounds of my transgressions Ver. 4 for which my bones are now justly vered Return O Lord who art now justly turned away from me for my sin and be propitious to me deliver my soul from the fear of thy judgment and eternal death and save him who hath deserved to be cast away for thy mercy sake I said in the cutting off my dayes Ver. 5 I shall go to the gates of the grave I am deprived of the residue of my years I said I shall not sée the Lord even the Lord in the land of the living I shall behold man no more with the Inhabitants of the world For in death no man remembreth thee and in the grave who shall give thee thanks Wilt thou shew wonders among the dead or shall the dead arise and praise thée shall thy wonders be known in the dark or thy righteousness in the land where all things are forgotten But unto thée have I cryed O Lord and in the morning
as some great King in his Throne providing for all the parts of his Empire examining all Causes and doing justice to every one 1. Vers. 13 The Lord looks from heaven and beholds all the sons of men 2. That he sees all From the place of his habitation he looks upon all the inhabitants of the earth Vers. 14 3. And he is not â—â—iosus spectator neither Vers. 15 He sees and considers their hearts their works Considers in what men put their trust And he sees in what they put their confidence in their Armies in theiâ— strength in their Horse not in him But all in vain Vers. 16 For there is no King that can be saved by the multitude of an Hoast Evacuates their designs A mighty man is not delivered by much strength An horse is a vain thing for safety neither shall he deliver any man by his great strength Multitude strength c. without God are useless 2. Hitherto he hath given a proof of Gods providence toward all men 2 But defends his Church but now he descends to a particular proof of it by his care over his Church which he wonderfully guides defends protects in all dangers and assaults And that notice be taken of it he begins with an Ecce Behold the eye of the Lord his tender'st care is over them that fear him Vers. 18 upon them that hope in his mercy To deliver their soul from death and to keep them alive in famine Upon this Gods people The third part The three last verses contain the Acclamation of Gods people who believe and place all their hope and trust in God For being excited as it were by the former Arguments They do three things Vers. 20 1. They express and profess their faith and dependance on God 1 Wait on him Our soul waiteth on God he is our help and our shield Vers. 21 2. They publish upon what hope they are held up and how comforted 2 Publish his name and rejoice in it For our heart shall rejoice in him because we have trusted in his Holy Name Vers. 22 3. Upon this hope they commend themselves by prayer to God 3 Commend themselves to Gods mercy Let thy mercy O Lord be upon us according as we hope in thee The Prayer collected out of the thirty third Psalm O God thy goodness is so great thy faithfulness so constant thy power so wonderful thy providence so universal but thy care so Fatherly toward thy people that we were unworthy of the least of thy mercies should we not acknowledge them and return thee due honour and thanks For there is nothing in the whole world which doth not witness thée to be a bountiful God Vers. 4 and a most Merciful Father Thy Word O Lord thy Decrée for the Creation and Government of the World is right and equal and all thy works are done in true wisdom righteousness and judgement Vers. 5 For there is nothing that thou hast commanded which is not just Nothing that thou hast promised which thou wilt not make good and bring to pass Out of that love thou bearest to righteousness and judgement the earth is full of thy goodness there being in it nothing so minute and vile which one way or other doth not partake of thy bounty Vers. 6 and commend thy goodness and mercy to us By thy Word alone and sole Command were those incorruptible Orbs of the Heavens made and confirm'd and all the hoast of them that multitude of starres so orderly and beautifully disposed by the breath the word the Fiat of thy mouth Thou hast gather'd together those unruly waters of the Sea into one place and shut them up with bounds and limits that they return not again to cover the earth And thou hast hidden and laid up great streams of waters in the bowels of the earth as in a Treasure-house which at thy pleasure thou bring'st forth to water a thirsty Land He spake and all this was done he commanded and it stood fast For so great is thy power that without any labour without any delay without any help all this was done and that by thy Will and Word only and by thy Word and Will it is that it doth so now continue and remain without dissolution Therefore O ye righteous rejoice in the Lord Praise is not comely in the mouth of a sinner Vers. 2 praise therefore a righteous God with an upright heart Neither with your mouth only express his praise but set it forth with musical instruments Praise the Lord with the Harp sing unto him with the Psaltery and an instrument of ten strings And you who have so often sung of his honour now since he hath renew'd his mercies set forth your joy with a New Song play skilfully with a loud voice So set forth his praise his power his wisdom his mercy that all the earth may fear the Lord and the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him For what he hath ordained by his eternal counsel shall be fulfill'd and stand fast for ever and the thoughts of his heart to all generations Since then thou O Jehovah art most just most merciful most Mighty blessed is that Nation who have chosen and worshipped thee O Lord for their God and happy is the people whom thou hast chosen for thine inheritance O make us Lord alwayes of this people that we may be happy under thy protection Dwell in the midst of us and bless us But O Lord bring the counsels of wicked men against this thy people to nought and make the devices of the people of none effect Look down from heaven and behold all the sons of men from the place of thy habitation look upon the inhabitants of the earth Thou searchest the very hearts and reins and knowest all their plots and secret counsels they take against thy people thou séest their preparations and provisions O Lord make them know and so fashion their hearts that they may perceive that all hope and confidence is in vain which is not in thée Because there is no other can save besides thy self For there is no King that can be saved by the multitude of an hoast neither is a mighty man deliver'd by much strength An Horse whether in battle or flight is a vain-deceitful thing to save a man neither shall he deliver his rider by his great strength It is not in these vain helps we put our considence our hope is in thée alone on thée we relie to thée we trust from thée we look for help Let thy eye therefore O Lord be upon us that fear thee who relie not upon any merits and creatures but on thy méer mercy let thy everlasting mercy then follow us and deliver our souls from temporal and eternal death and suffain us with a sufficient livelihood in the time of famine Upon thee O Lord our soul doth wait be our shield to protect us our help to deliver us So shall our heart
men are mortal and it is not the wealth of the one can make them happy nor the mean estate of the other can make them unhappy there being another life by which the condition of both is to be judg'd Three parts of the Psalm 1. An Exordium or Preface from vers 1. to 5. 2. The matter proposed debated and argued from vers 5. to 16. 3. An Advice or Admonition given from vers 16 to 20. 1. The Exordium artificial In the Exordium he 1. Calls together his Auditory viz. All people All Nations of the world men of all conditions high low rich poor The first part because what he is to speak of concerns All. Vers. 1 2. Then he calls to them to be Attentive Hear give ear 3. He labours to make them docile and Benevolous by commendation of the matter of which he is to treat Speak he would not of light or vain things but of a weighty wise matter of that which he had seriously thought 1. My mouth shall speak of wisdom and the meditation of my heart shall be of understanding that which I understand and is fit for others to understand 2. Then that to which I will be obedient I shall teach you no lesson but that I teach my self I will encline my ear 3. 'T is a Parable 't is a dark speech I am to deliver and such wise men are delighted to hear 4. Lastly That it may be brought to your ear with more delight I have set it to the Harp I will open my dark saying upon the Hart. 2. And thus having assembled his Auditory and made them Attentive The second part A debate who is the happy man Fig. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Docile and Benevolous he propounds his Parable and dark saying and it is done with much Art and Rhetorique For he first seems to prevent an Objection which might be thus read David we see you are troubled much at the prosperity of the wicked To which he returns his answer by a quick Eâ—otesis Wherefore should I fear in the dayes of evil when the wicked prosper and I am under the cross and when the wickedness of my heels shall compass me about when they who insidiantur calcaneo compass me about to destroy me Or else Why should I unjustly seek after wealth honour c. which would make me fear in the day of vengeance and when the wickedness that is the punishment which follows all iniquity at the heels would overtake me There is no reason of this fear to me to the wealthy ambitious there is They that trust in riches not happy And this he demonstrates two wayes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for he takes away Happiness from the one from vers 6. to 15. and places Happiness in the other vers 15. 1. They that trust in their wealth Vers. 6 and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches are not happy vers 6. For wealth will not deliver in the evil day 1. 'T will save no mans life None of them these rich men The reasons can redeem his brother nor give to God a ransome for him God will not be brib'd to save any mans life 2. 'T will save no mans soul For it cost more to redeem asoul 't is a precious thing money is no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for it ' sis a work he must let alone 3. Yea be it that he be wise and a long-lived man Though he live long and see not the grave yet dye he must For he seeth that wise men dye likewise the fool and the bruitish person perish 4. And which sufficiently shews the vanity of their riches 1. They leave them 2. They leave these great riches 3. They leave them to others they suppose to their heirs children but it often falls out that strangers others they thought not of enter into their labours They leave their riches aliis alienis such as they thought should never enter upon their labours 5. Farther yet Their thoughts are vain The vain thoughts of rich men For 1. Their inward thoughts are that their houses shall continue for ever and their dwelling-places to all generations 2. To this end they call heir lands after their own names They study not only to be rich but are vainglorious also But this their study is Vers. 12 First Vanity Secondly Folly 1. Vanity it is Nevertheless man being in honour abideth not for Summis stare din parcarum lege negatur A change there will be and the most glorious man will be like the beasts that perish an eternal Oblivion will be brought upon his name The man no more remembred than a beast 2. This is Folly This their way is but foolishness a great foolery to place their chief good in riches and honours and yet Their posterity are guilty of it as great fools as their fore-fathers For their posterity praise approve and applaud their sayings follow their way magnifie their thoughts tread in their steps and gape after Riches and Honour That then Considerations fit for rich men if it be possible I may take down these high vain and ambitious thoughts and remove them from those inordinate studies and immoderate desires of Wealth and Honour I shall propose unto them these considerations touching their future condition 1. Like sheep they are laid in the grave That 's their common condition for as sheep they are but fatted for the slaughter 2. Death shall feed on them The second death for with Dives they shall be buried in Hell and the fire that cannot be extinguished shall feed upon their soul and body 3. In the morning of the Resurrection the upright shall have dominion over them The righteous shall shine like the Sun when it ariseth in the morning when they shall be made Christs foot-stool They shall see the godly placed on the right-hand and seated on Thrones to judge them when they shall be set on the left to be judg'd and condemn'd And this to their great grief read the fifth Chapter of Wisdome 4. And their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling their riches their power their glory which accrued from these veterascet shall waste wax old as doth a garment For the figure of this world passeth away Happy then the Rich of this world 2 Who the happy man and the possessors of great Glory and Honour are not But now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or rather 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He set down the Happy man 'T is true that he walking in his integrity is subject to many crosses and oppressed with many miseries but look upon his end and you must needs judge him happy For whereas the wicked shall live in torment he shall be freed from eternal death and gifted with eternal life But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave for he will receive me 1. He shall redeem my and all good mens souls 2. Not from the grave for dye we must but from the hand the power the dominion of death Death
is among the rest whose unkindness breaks my heart Had it been a professed enemy that had spoke evil of me and reproached me I could more patiently have borne it or had it béen one that openly hated me or proudly threatned my ruine that had done me this harm I would have withdrawn my self declined his company and avoided his attempts But that which makes the mischief unsufferable and my danger inevitable It is thou that hast spoken ill of me Thou that hast betray'd me who wast my intimate and bosome friend Thou who wast my familiar Thou to whom I intrusted my secrets Thou who wentest with me to the House of God one who séem'd to be of the same mind with me in all prophans and divine things His words were smoother than butter and softer than oyle when Vers. 21 as it appears since he had war in his heart and a sword to be drawn to destroy me For this is the man that hath now put forth his hand against me and not me alone but all such with whom he had made peace nor Oaths nor Covenant nor Articles of agréement can hold him he hath broken them all And his followers and favourites are no better than himself bloody and deceitful men they are They have seen no changes therefore they fear not God O Lord hear my prayer and afflict them Bring them down to the pit of destruction let them perish by some violent and immature death and never live out half their dayes But as for me I will in the midst of these troubles call upon my God I will hope and trust in thee and the Lord shall save my life Earnestly will I cry uncessantly at morning evening and at noon-day will I pray and cry aloud and he shall hear my voice Experience I have of his merciful hand he hath redeem'd my life miraculously in the battail that was set against me even then he hath secured me as in a time of peace Then he hath sent and set an Army of Angels for my guard so that there were many with me O Lord thou art immutable thou abidest of old thou art the same and changest not I will therefore cast my burden of cares and sorrows upon thee so for I am assured that thou wilt sustain me that I shall not sink under it Thou wilt not suffer thy righteous servant to be tost and tumbled by the persecution of wicked men for ever Amen PSAL. LVI 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 DAVID in banishment among the Philistines and being there in great danger of his life prayes complains of his professeth his confidence in God The Contents of it are 1. Davids Prayer vers 1 7 8. 2. The cause the fear of his enemies whom he describes vers 1 2 5 6. 3. His Confidence in Gods Word vers 3 4 9 10 11. 4. His Thankfulness vers 4 10 12 13. 1. He begins with a prayer for mercy little he was like to find from man The first part His prayer The second part from his God he expected it and therefore he prayes Be merciful to me O God 2. And then presently be subjoins the cause The cause his danger from his enemies the danger he was in by his bloody and cruel enemies whom he begins to describe 1. From their unsatiable raven like a gulf they would swallow me up Vers. 1 which he repeats in the next verse Man would swallow me my enemies at home and abroad would swallow me up Whom he describes 2. From the time Dayly they would do it without intermission 3. From their number Many there be that fight against me Of these he gives us a farther Description at the fifth and sixth verses 1. From their uncessantmalice Every day they wrest my words Vers. 5 All their thoughts are against me for evil 2. From their secret treachery craft vigilance Vers. 6 They gather themselves together they hide themselves their counsels lying as it were in ambush for me They mark my steps Go whither I will they are at my heels 3. From their implacable hatred nothing could satisfie them but his blood They lay wait for my soul In the very midst of this Complaint he inserts his courage and confidence The third part His courage 1. In Gods promise 1. What time I am afraid I will trust in thee 2. I will not fear He ariseth higher Even when he fears he will not fear His word his promise is pass'd to me for protection and I will trust to it In God I will praise his Word In God have I put my trust I will not fear what flesh for the proudest the mightiest enemy I have is but flesh and all flesh is grass I will not then fear what flesh can do unto me 3. Vers. 10 This reason he repeats again vers 10 11. 1. In God I will praise his Word In the Lord I will praise his Word 2. In God have I put my trust I will not fear what man can do to me And this his Confidence he quickens and animates 2 In Gods justice 1. First from his assurance that God would punish and bring down his enemies Vers. 7 Shall they escape for their iniquity No no. In thine anger thou wilt cast them down 2. 2 In Gods mercy in protecting him From his assurance of Gods Tutelage and paternal eye over him in all his dangers griefs complaints petitions banishment Men think Vers. 8 Non vacat exiguis rebus adesse Jovi he knew otherwise 1. Thou tellest and hast upon accompt my wanderings My flights Vers. 9 exile 2. Thou putt'st my tears into thy bottle Preserv'st them as rich Wine 3. Thou keep'st a Record of them Are they not in thy book 4. Thou putt'st my enemies to flight When I cry unto thee then I know my enemies shall be turned back for God is with me 4. The fourth part And therefore at last he concludes with thanks to which he holds himself bound by Vow 1. His thankfulness for his deliverance Thy vows are upon me Damnatus sum voti I owe thee thanks by vow and I will pay it I will render praises unto thee 2. Vers. 12 The reason is For thou hast delivered my soul from death 2. Vers. 13 Thou wilt deliver me Wilt not thou deliver my feet from falling 3. And the end is That I may walk before God in the light of the living That I may live awhile and walk as before thy eye as in thy sight uprightly sincerely The Prayer collected out of the fifty sixth Psalm O Lord Vers. 1 to whom all hearts are open no secrets are hid thou knowest and seest the secret counsels and open attempts of wicked men against thy people Their endeavours are to swallow us up day by day they fight to oppress us Many they are for number and mighty they are for power that fight against us O thou most High And their malice is no less than their might nor their watchfulness inferiour to
they had béen strucken with fear by thy hand they fled and the depths of the Ocean being troubled forgetting to flow on the right and left hand stood up in heaps as if they had béen congealed to Mountains of ice but after thy people were passed through at thy command they relented and with an hasty and hideons reflux overwhelmed Pharoah and his Chariots by their violence Then the clouds poured out water from above there came a fearful noise which astonished his warlike Horses thy hail in manner of arrows were shot from Heaven Thou roaredst from the sky in the voyce of Thunder and thy lightning flashed in their faces from which their fear was so great that they thought the immovable Orb of the earth did shake and tremble under their féet Thy way was then in the Sea and thy path in the waters and after the parted streams came together again thy footsteps are not known no evidence there was thou hadst béen there Moses thy Prince and Aaron thy Priest were then thy Ministers who led thy people as a Shepherd his flock through the depths of the red Sea This thy miraculous redemption is written for our instruction I do remember O Lord what thou hast done fréed a distressed people delivered a broken hearted Nation saved from death those who did despair of life Lord I am distressed send from Heaven and relieve me I am broken-hearted O Lord come and heal me I am even at the point to dye save and quicken me As thou hast set me up for a mark of thy justice so make me also a monument of thy compassion let me obtain mercy that in me first Christ Iesus might shew forth all long-suffering for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to everlasting life Despair I will not for I serve a good Lord hope for pardon I will for I trust in a merciful God This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation That Jesus Christ came into the World to save sinners of these I am the chief the chiefest object then O Lord for thy mercy thy goodness can be no where so conspicuous as in saving me Lord then have mercy upon me Christ have mercy upon me Lord have mercy upon me hear my voyce give ear to my cry in the day of my trouble I have sought to thee let me find thée so shall my heart rejoyce my flesh rest in hope and my tongue be encouraged to sing Now unto the King Eternal Immortal Invisible the only wise God be Honour and Glory for ever and ever Amen PSAL. LXXVIII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 THE Prophet considering that it is Gods Command that his works be not forgotten but that the Fathers deliver his former doings to posterity that they might be to them for comfort and instruction deter them from obstinacy in sin and perswade them to the fear of God he doth in this Psalm give in a prolix Catalogue of Gods dealing with his people even from their coming out of Aegypt to the dayes of David The parts of the Psalm are these 1. A Preface in which he exhorts to learn and declare the way of God from ver 1. to 9. 2. A continued Narrative of Gods administration among his people and their stubbornness disobedience and contumacy together with the revenge that God took upon them from ver 9. to 67. 3. His mercy yet that he did not wholly cast them off but after the rejection of Ephraim made choice of Judah Zion David from ver 67. to 72. 1. In the Exordium he labours to gain attention Give ear O my people The Exordium in which he labours for attention to my Law encline your ears to the words of my mouth and in this and the following verses useth many arguments to gain attention as 1. It is Gods Law which he is to deliver his Doctrine The first part the words of his mouth taught delivered from Heaven Ver. 1 and deposited only with the Prophet To Gods Law from the 1. Excellency of it 2. It is worth hearing for it is a Parable a dark but wise saying and it of old I will open my mouth in a Parable I will utter dark sayings of old it hath dignity wisdom antiquity to commend it Ver. 2 3. Yea and certainty of Tradition also Which we have heard and known and such as our Fathers have told us And now he acquaints them with the end 2 The end to be shewn not hid which is another Argument for attention 1. It was not to hide them or conceal them from their children Ver. 4 2. But to shew them to the Generations to come of vvhich That God might be 1. Praised and the ultimatus finis vvas 1. That God be praised for his benefits 1 Praised and shewing the praises of the Lord. 2. That his povver be celebrated in his miracles And his strength 2 His power magnified and wonderful works that he hath done But the intermedius finis was the good of his people for it was 3 His people edified that they might 1. Know God 2. Hope in God 3. And obey God not being rebellious For he that is God established a Testimony in Jacob and appointed a Law in Israel It was not a Law which our Fathers invented but taught from above Now the Duty of the Fathers was to communicate this Law to their posterity Which he commanded our Fathers that they should make known to their children And the Duties of the children follow which are the three ends before 1. That they know God and his Law and Works 1 In knowledge That the Generation to come might know them and the children that were yet unborn and their Duty is again To declare them to their children 2 Faith 2. That they might trust and set their hope in God and not forget the works of God 3. 3 Obedience and That they might be an obedient people and keep his Commandments which they could not be if they were like their fore-fathers for they were a stubborn and rebellious Generation a Generation that set not their heart aright Not rebellious as their fathers of which he gives divers instances The second part and whose spirit cleaved not stedfastly to God 2. And now the Prophet begins his Narration and proves by examples that they were a stubborn and rebellious Generation of which his 1. First example is of the Tribe of Ephraim who being armed and carrying Bowes turned back in the day of Battel which Moller refers to the children of Ephraim invading the land of Canaan before Moses time 1 In Ephraim and were overthrown 1 Chron. 17.21 and were slain because they did it without command Ephraim by a Synecdoche is put for all Israel who were disobedient and cowardly as Souldiers in War that turn their back on the enemy Bellarmine 2. These Ephraimites kept not the Covenant of God and refused to walk in his Law Jeroboam being
feet to dance at it he calls to them to join with him in the mirth Let the Sea roar Vers. 7 and the fulness thereof the world and they that dwell therein Let the floods clap their hands Vers. 8 let the hills rejoice together It is a Prosopopeia frequently used in Scripture as afore Psal 96.11 12. 5. And let it be heartily and sincerely done For it is before the Lord in his eye For he cometh to judge in his sight in his presence who can judge with what affection any thing is done And for this he gives a reason Vers. 9 with which he concludes For he cometh to judge the earth which may be referred to his first or second coming 1. 1 Either in humility as at his first If to the first then the sense is Let all creatures rejoice because he comes to judge that is to govern and order with just and excellent Laws the whole Orb of the world not only by the invisible Majesty of his Divinity but being made into the similitude of man and in form now found a true man 2. If to the last his second coming then let all creatures rejoice 2 Or in Glory as at his second coming because he shall root out sinners from the earth and make new heavens and a new earth The whole creature shall be delivered from corruption under which it greans and travails in pain together until now and shall be restored into the glorious liberty of the children of God Rom. 8.21 22. 3. Now both these shall be done with that rectitude of judgement that there be nothing crooked nothing oblique nothing savouring of iniquity in it With righteousness shall he judge the world and the people with his Truth A Thanksgiving and Meditation upon the Redemption of Man-kind taken out of the ninty eighth Psalm I Will sing unto thee O gracious God and merciful Lord a new Song Vers. 1 as it becomes me for a new savour an ordinary hymn might be in my mouth for ordinary blessings but this was extraordinary and therefore requires thanks more than ordinary That thou didst create me after thy image was a great mercy that thou hast governed me by thy Word preserved me by thy Power provided for me by thy Fatherly goodness ever since I was born are all acts of mercy but that thou hast set thy love upon me from all eternity and in the fulness of time didst send thy beloved Son to be born to live to dye for me and redéem my poor soul from thy just wrath and the consequents of it is a favour more than I could expect more than I could deserve and therefore I sing with the blessed Virgin My soul doth magnifie the Lord and my spirit rejoiceth in God my Saviour Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for he hath visited and redeemed his people This is a favour so beyond all favours and so neerly concerns all the world that I wish all men had hearts and all creatures tongues to sound it forth O come and make a joyful noyse unto the Lord all the earth make a loud noyse and rejoice and sing praise Your voices are not swéet enough take then the Harp and join to the Harp the voice of a Psalm Your voices are not loud enough call then for Trumpets to sound it out and blow it abroad with the wind of a Cornet Let the praise vs illustrious and the noyse joyful for it is before the Lord the King And O that the inanimate creatures who shall be by this one day freed from the bondage of corruption had tongues also to join with you However in their kind let them do what they can let the Sea roare forth the praises of God and the fulness thereof resound the fulness of his mercy and let the world and they that dwell therein as in a clap of thunder say Amen Amen to it Let the floods join with the Sea and clap their hands let the hills be joyful together and eccho forth the praise of the Lord our Redeemer For he hath done marvellous things Things which we may admire Vers. 1 but shall never be able to comprehend shall and must search into but shall never fully fathom For without controversie great is the Mystery of Godliness God was manifested in the flesh justified in the Spirit séen of Angels preach'd unto the Gentiles believ'd on in the world receiv'd up into glory Marvellous O swéet Saviour was thy conception marvellous thy incarnation marvellous thy life marvellous thy death We cannot choose but wonder that the Lord of life should dye that the Lord of heaven and earth should be buried in the earth And that which increaseth the wonder is that he should rise from thence to justifie us that he should ascend in our nature to heaven to prepare a place for us that he should sit on the right-hand of God to be our Advocate to plead for us to be our Intercessor to step between and make our peace when our God is offended with us And that we yet marvel the more all this was done for us when we were without strength and could not help our selves without grace and could not deserve his when we were ungodly and thought not of him sinners that did provoke him enemies that did cebell against him In this then God commended his love that while we were yet sinners Christ dyed for us O sweet Jesus thy love to us was wonderful passing the love of women This was a work that passed the power of men and Angels Angels were too weak and man too sinful to undertake in it Yet so great was thy love to lost man that rather than he should perish for ever thou who wert without sin Vers. 1 wouldst be made sin for him thou who wert the arm and power of God wouldst appear clothed with our infirmities Yet so powerful thou wert in this weakness so mighty in our infirm flesh that by thy right-hand and thy holy arm thou hast gotten to thy self the victory conquer and triumph thou didst over Sin Death and Hell and over all the power of the Prince of darkness It was thine own right-hand without any other power that did it thine own arm without any assistant that led Captivity Captive and received gifts for men yea even for thine enemies that the Lord God might dwell among them We the heathens Vers. 2 were the greatest part of these enemies yet to us thou sentest thy Apostles to preach these glad-tidings and ever since by thy Ministers hast made known thy salvation Thy righteousness which is now our righteousness blessed be thy name for it by which our pardon is sealed and we are justified is not as a Candle hid under a bushel but is openly shew'd in the sight of the heathen It is not in Judaea only that God is known but all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God all Nations now sée and know that thou wert a merciful
second part And first I will begin with the reformation of my self and my own house that I may be an example to my whole Kingdom 1. 1 In himself for he would walk wisely in his house I will behave my self wisely in a perfect way 1. Via is Vita and my life shall be perfect pro statu viatoris The way I shall choose shall be the way of perfection 2. And then I will walk wisely in it I will be wise as a Serpent and as innocent as a Dove for for want of wisdom even in a perfect way a man may be mistaken It is good to be zealous in a good matter and in a good manner We see in a good matter zeal where there wants prudence commits foul errors 2. God assisting him with his grace When wilt thou come unto me Which some read with an interrogative point and then it is an Ejaculation When O Lord wilt thou perform thy promise to me for as yet it is supposed by some that he was not King Or else When wilt thou come unto me with thy assistance of grace Others tead it without the interrogative and couple this clause to the former words thus I will behave my self wisely when thou comest unto me intimating that he was not able to do what he professed without the aid and help of Gods grace But yet signifying thus much that if God would come unto him to illuminate him to teach him to inflame him to move and inable him he then would behave himself wisely in a perfect way 3. I will walk within my house with a perfect heart 1. I will walk it should be his delight his constant course 2 And with a perfect heart as men take in their Garden-walks 2. I will walk in my house Not abroad only carrying himself modestly but within doors in his private Closet Or else he would have a care of his Family 3. I will walk in my house with a perfect heart My heart which is the fountain of life and death I will keep with all diligence That shall be sincere upright innocent though I may slip in my walk yet it shall be far against my will I will alwayes walk with a perfect heart Affirmatively he hath shewed what he would do and in the next verses Negatively Negatively he declares what he would not do he had manifested the innocency of his heart and now he shews what should be the innocency of his eyes and hands 1. I will set no wicked thing before my eyes Ver. 3 Death climbs up the windows saith Jeremy No wicked thing should be esteemed by him Eve saw the forbidden fruit pleasant to the eye A chan saw the Wedge of Gold and goodly Babylonish garment Ut vidi ut perii So innocent he would be in judging his Subjects and distributing honours that nothing of Belial 1 His eye not love it as the Hebrew hath it should come in his sight that might pervert his judgement Oportet judicem non solum manus sed oculos habere continentes 2. I hate the work of them that turn aside I hate it for so he must 2 His heart hate it that means to leave it for when there is not a hatred of evil the temptation will work too strongly 3. It shall not cleave to me No part of it God willing 3 His hands not touch it shall cleave to his fingers 2. Declared he hath what he would be in himself 2 To others if wicked he would be severe and now he sets forth what he would be toward others both bad and good And first as touching naught and evil men 1. A froward heart that is a man of a perverse froward and crooked heart shall depart from me Ver. 4 2. I will not know that is approve uphold countenance For instance such he would be love a wicked person Of which froward malicious and wicked people he gives three instances in the following verses Detractors proud and fraudulent men Such he would not endure Ver. 5 1. Whoso privily slandereth his neighbour him will I cut off 1 To slanderers from the Court from my friendship from his government from life it self if the flender deserves it 2. Him that hath a high look is proud 2 To proud men For pride is shew'd in the look and eye 3. And a proud heart Heb. Latus corde 3 To the ambitious and coveâ—ous a heart so extended with ambition and coverousness that it cannot be satisfied with riches and honours Him I will not suffer He shall not eat with me These shall not be about me nor find any countenance from me 3 But to good men a kind Prince such I will punish and not favour Others there are whom I will prefer and honour faithful and honest men For he shews now how he would carry himself to honest men 1. My eye shall be upon the faithful in the Land Ver. 6 that they may dwell with me be my Servants sit at my Table and be my Counsellors These should be his servants 2. He that walks in a perfect way that serves God shall serve me For certainly he that will not ferve God sincerely will never faithfully serve man And so having opposed by way of Antithesis to the fifth verse But he would give no countenance what kind of men should be of his Court and Counsel He proceeds in his Negative and adds whom he would not entertain before not slanderers no proud men not ambitious Ver. 7 nor covetous But now 1. 1 To dissemblers No fraudulent persons He that works deceit shall not dwell in my house Enter they might but upon discovery stay they should not dwell they should not there 2. 2 To Lyars Nor Lyars He that telleth lyes shall not tarry in my sight He shall not find grace in my eyes And in Conclusion 3 To no evil Doers that he need not instance in more he shews his dislike to all evil doers and his zeal to purge the City of God from scandalous persons 1. With such he would make quick work I will early that is speedily and maturely do it before the evil be too fast rooted 2. Ver. 8 I will destroy all the wicked of the Land All of them shall go one and the same way These he would destroy who are worthy of death and whose life may endanger innocent persons 3. His end in this severity was That I may cut off all wicked doers from the City of the Lord i. e. That to the Church which is a holy and a peaceable City I may restore Holiness Piety and Peace and to the society of men that live within it tranquillity and administration of justice all disturbers of Peace and Piety being utterly unrooted which under Sauls government bore too great a sway A Prayer for a King or Chief Magistrate collected out of the one hundred and first Psalm O Thou
Psalm with an Epiphonema in which he perswades all good men to consider the former Premises and lay it to heart To observe the whole course of Gods Providence that they impute not the Changes of the World to Chance and Fortune nor be overmuch dejected at them but rather bless God for all as Job did 1. The righteous shall see it Consider and seriously meditate upon it 2. And rejoyce when they are assured that God is their Guardian and that therefore the Crosses which he layes upon them are trials for their good not for their ruine 3. And all iniquity shall stop her mouth By observation of the event at last evil doers shall not have occasion to laugh and blaspheme and find fault with Gods wayes but confess That all was by God justly done and wisely disposed But this is a Consideration not for every brain 't is for wise men that look afar off and think on it 1. Who is so wise will observe these things That is vicissitudes and changes of this World 2. And they shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord It shall appear unto them at last how ineffable his mercy is toward them which truly fear him and call upon his Name but our life is hid with Christ in God The Prayer collected out of the One hundred and seventh Psalm O Omnipotent God when we look upon the strange vicissitudes and alterations of the things of this World our faith would waver and our hearts would faint were we not assured that all things are guided by thy hand and over-ruled by thy Providence and secret Will and Counsel Ver. 1 Who art good and whose mercy endures for ever Be it then that we are brought to wander in the Wilderness in a solitary way that we be pilgrims and strangers and have no City to dwell in that we are oppress'd with hunger and dryed up with thirst so that our soul is ready to faint within us yet will we not despair In our trouble to thée will we cry to thée will we make our moan nothing doubting but that if it shall be for thy glory and our good Thou wilt deal by us as thou hast done formerly with thy servants them thou hast deliver'd from their distresses those thou hast led forth by the right way and brought to dwell in their own Cities and Habitations Thou hast satisfied their longing souls and filled their hungry souls with good things which since thou art good and thy mercy endureth for ever we are in good hope Thou wilt do for us Redéem O Lord thy banished and bring them home So shall we praise thee for thy goodness and declare thy wonderful works which thou dost for the Children of men Long it is O merciful God That we have sate in darkness Ver. 10 and in the shadow of death our back is bowed down with many iron hands that we cannot lift up our head our heart is brought low through affliction and we find none to help and all this is justly come upon us because we have rebelled against the words of our God and contemned the Counsel of the most High We have not done thy Will nor kept thy Commandments but have set up abominations and have multiplied offences But now O Lord in our trouble we cry unto thée we how the knées of our hearts beséeching thée of grace forgive forgive O Lord and destroy us not with our iniquities Save us Lord from our distresses bring us out of this darkness and shadow of death and break our Bands asunder break these gates of Brass and cut asunder these Bands of Iron so shall we thy redeemed praise thee O Lord for thy goodness all the dayes of our lives and declare the wonderful works which thou dost for the children of men O Lord I confess against mine own soul that I have béen seduced and pielded to many foolish lusts of the flesh Ver. 17 and because of this my iniquity and transgression I am justly afflicted and séel no whole part in my body that thou shouldst lengthen out my dayes any farther I sée no hope my disease is so grievous That my soul abhorreth all manner of meat and my vital spirits so far spent That I am drawing to the gates of death To whom O Lord should I flie but to thée To whom should I cry in this my trouble but to thée O God be merciful to thy servant and press me not beyond my strength save me out of my distress send out thy Word and heal me and deliver me from destructions O let not thy fierce anger go beyond a fatherly correction and in judgment remember thy mercy that endures for ever So shall I whom Thou hast redeemed from the jawes of death praise thee my God for thy goodness and for thy wonderful works to the children of men I will sacrifice the Sacrifices of Thanksgiving and declare thy works with rejoycing O Lord our Vocation calls upon us to go down to the Sea in Ships and to negotiate Ver. 23 and do our business in great waters where we see the works of the Lord and his wonders in the deep At thy Command the stormy wind ariseth and the waves of the Sea are lifted up Tossed we are and mount up to Heaven and by and by we go down to the bottom of the Sea so that there we dwell in the shadow of death and our soul is melted and faints because of the present trouble we reel too and fro and stagger like a drunken man and are at our wits end for our wisdom and our skill then fails us our sole refuge is in our prayers In this instant of our trouble as thou hast commanded We cry unto thee look down upon thy servants who in the abyss of the Seas and the abyss of our trouble invocate the abyss of thy mercies bring us out of these distresses Thou which didst command the winds and rebuke the Seas and they obeyed thée Make the storm a calm Rebuke the furious winds and waves and still them by thy power make us glad by rescuing us from the present danger and quietly bring us to the desired Haven So will we praise thee O Lord for thy goodness and for thy wonderful works to the children of men And when we come to land We will exalt thy Name in the Congregation of thy people and praise thee in the Assembly of the Elders O Lord we set our minds too much upon earthly things and attribute too much to Nature and second Causes whereas all the power that is in the Creature is from thée and that restraint that is upon the Creature procéeds from thée Remove from our hearts this heavy and gross ignorance and impiety and make us know and acknowledge that it is thy hand That turns Rivers into a Wilderness and a land water'd with pleasant Springs into a dry ground by which a fruitful land becomes barren But in this change thy Iustice O Lord is exalted by this thou shewest
is The Lord is on my side therefore I will not fear what man can do unto me He saith God is for me therefore I shall not suffer for he knew that he was to suffer many things But God is my helper therefore I will not fear for the evils that man can bring upon me because I know That all things shall work together for good to those that fear God Matth. 10.28 2 Cor. 4.17 2. The Lord takes my part with them that help me And his second Inference is Therefore I shall see my desire upon them that hate me I shall see my self in safety my enemies cast down and peace restored to the Church which last is my chief desire Out of which he deduceth yet a third Inference viz. that men trust in God for 1. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put any confidence in man Ver. 8 for be it he be willing to help yet oftentimes man is not able 2. And again It is better to trust in the Lord than to put any confidence in Princes for say they be able to help yet they are false politick and will not David found it true in Achish King of Gath But the Lord both can and will and therefore it is far better to trust in him 3. Of which being confident he sings an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Davids Triumph for his assured victories acquaints us in what dangers he was and yet how God ever deliver'd him and therefore proposeth himself for an example how good it is to trust in God 1. All Nations Moabites Ammonites Edomites Philistines Syrians compassed me about But to no purpose for in the Name of the Lord will I destroy them 2. They compassed me about yea they compassed me about but in the Name of the Lord I will destroy them 3. They compassed me about like Bees swarms there were of them and they were angry creatures arm'd with stings but they were quench'd as fire of thorns that makes a great blaze and a great noise but suddenly goes out for in the Name of the Lord will I destroy them A multitude of enemies here were angry and stinging enemies and all compassing and about him David a King for Kings are most opposed and subject to be stung but in the Name of the Lord I will destroy them The arms that I confide in and especially prepare against them is Nomen Domini I fight indeed and war against them but my special weapons in all my War in which I trust is the Name the Protection the Tutelage of the Lord setting upon them in his power with his help I will destroy them Now he that fights in the Name of the Lord must be sure to have 1. A Vocation to fight 2. A good Cause And 3dly He must manage the War with affections conformable to piety he must not seek himself nor his own ends but Gods glory execution of justice c. 4. He told us of a multitude of enemies and for the overthrow of these he sang his Triumph now he singles out some one in particular whether Saul Ishbosheth or his son Absolon it is uncertain But to such a one by an Apostrophe he turns his speech 1. Thou hast thrust sore at me that I might fall Ver. 13 I came into some great danger there was little hope of life or of escape 2. But the Lord helped me I impute it not to my own indeavour wit good fortune that I escaped nor yet to any second causes it was the Lord that did it for me Which in the next verse he more fully acknowledgeth The Lord is my strength and song and is become my salvation 1. My strength that I am able to resist my enemies 2. My salvation that I be delivered from my enemies 3. My song The third part The Triumph sung by the Church him whom I joyfully praise and sing of after I am delivered 3. And that this his song might be the fuller here David calls for the whole Quire to sing with him His delivery concern'd the whole Church and therefore he desires the praise be sung in full voyce by the whole Church and so it fell out for they kept a Jubilee a day of Thanksgiving for it 1. Ver. 15 The voyce of rejoycing and salvation is in the Tabernacles of the righteous They congratulate their own safety in my delivery and sing thus to God 2. Ver. 16 The right hand of the Lord doth valiantly The right hand of the Lord is exalted The right hand of the Lord doth valiantly This was the Anthem that the whole Quire of Saints and Believers sang and they repeat it and come over it again and again to express their joy Now this Anthem sung by the Church By David again was no sooner ended but David takes his Harp again and sings this Versicle by himself and insulting over his enemies he chants 1. I will not dye as they desired and indeavoured by a violent death I will not be broken-hearted by these griefs and pressures but I will take heart and rise as it were out of the Grave not to live an idle life and spend my dayes in pleasure but to declare the works of the Lord. 2. And among his works this is one upon which I will especially insist that 1. The Lord hath chastned me sore Within I have strugled with sin with the Devil with the sorrowes of death without I have been assaulted by bitter enemies 2. But in both these I must acknowledge his fatherly affection for these stroaks were not deadly he hath not given me over unto death 4. The fourth part It is conceived that this Psalm was composed by David that it might be sung The Anthymn sung betwixt David and the Priests when Priests and people were assembled together to give thanks to the Lord for that their good King was now fully delivered from his enemies and quietly setled in his Throne that then which followes may be best understood if with Junius we form it into a Dialogue 1. Ver. 19 David in these words speaks to the Priests and Levites who had the care of the Tabernacle Open to me the gates of righteousness that is the gates of Gods house in which righteousness ought to dwell For I will go in to them and I will there publickly and in the whole Assembly of good men praise the Lord and give him thanks for his mercy to me 2. Ver. 20 To this the Priests return answer This is the gate of the Lord the sole gate of justice that leads to him and the just only shall enter into it procul este profani 3. David replies shewing his Reason in brief why he entred into Gods house Ver. 21 his end was to praise God which he doth in few words for God loveth not long prayers I will praise thee for thou hast heard me and art become my salvation And to the 28th verse how God had setled him in his Kingdom made him
are the dayes of thy servant How long shall this affliction endure when shall the dayes of this tentation and misery be at an end this persecution be over 2. When wilt thou execute judgement he means temporal punishments on them that persecute me O let me not dye comfortless but let me see that thou art a God of judgement and men behold that there is a reward for the righteous 3. And in the next verse he describes them from their qualities Vers. 5 1. They were proud Men that would endure no yoke of God Who are 1. Proud of man 2. Subtile They digg'd pits For their advantage 2 Subtile submit to any base office crouch and bow Psa 104.10 Absolon abased himself 3. Impious men for the courses they took against him 3 Impious were not according to Gods Word They digg'd pits for me which were not after thy Law 'T is some comfort yet that we have those men our enemies that are enemies to God and whose actions are displeasing to him 4. For they are contrary to thy Law For all thy Commandments are true nay truth it self and they a false generation 5. And yet these are the men that persecute me He prayes for seasonable help but they do it wrongfully 6. Therefore O Lord help me Help me against their treachery 7. And it is but time For their malicious cruelty is unsatiable they have not only troubled me but had almost consumed me upon earth 8. The comfort yet is that it is not done because I forsook not thy precepts 3. He shuts up all with a Petition that he makes often in this Psalm 3 He petitions for strength 1. Quicken me And it may seem strange that so often he should acknowledge himself as it were a dead man and desire God to put life into him But to a child of God every desertion and decay of strength seems a death so desirous they are to live to God that when they fail in it and are dismabled they account themselves as it were dead and pray the Lord for life Quicken me And promiseth obedience 2. Quicken me after thy loving-kindness he opposeth Gods kindness to his enemies malice and it is comfortable I am troubled with their malice for thy sake and therefore I crave to be refreshed by thy kindness In that there is comfort enough Psa 52.1 3. So shall I keep the Testimonies of thy mouth So that is quickned by thee for otherwise there was in him no strength to obey no more than a dead man doth the actions of a natural life The Prayer O Merciful God while that help and salvation Vers. 1 which we alone expect from thée is delayed and with-held from us our very souls have fainted within us To thée we look day and night and our eyes are bent toward heaven in expectation of thy promises O Lord when wilt thou comfort us Our body languisheth our skin is furrowed into wrinkles no bottle in the smoke is more dryed up than is our flesh while we look and long for help from thy hand Proud men the sons of Belial that have shaked off the yoke have digg'd pits for our life They wrongfully persecute us They have almost consumed us upon the earth O Lord how many are the dayes of thy servants How long shall this affliction endure when shall the dayes of this tentation and misery be at an end when wilt thou execute jugement on them that persecute us Help us O Lord for we hope in thy Word arise and deliver us for we have not forgotten nor yet will forsake thy Statutes This we have resolved on Vers. 3.7 this we have decréed but to perform this resolution of our selves we are not able no more than a dead man is to execute the actions of the living Quicken us then with thy Grace according to thy loving-kindness and infiniteness of thy mercy and so will we kéep thy Testimonies which thou hast made known unto us by thine own finger and left unto us by the mouth of thy own Son Iesus Christ our Lord. 12. LAMECH THIS Octonary is an Encomium of the Word of God The Contents and of the perfection thereof which he commends from the immutability and constancy thereof 2. Then from the comfort he received from it in his trouble 1. Gods Word immutable both In the three first verses the Prophet shewes That Gods Word is immutable by an instance in the creatures 1. Ver. 1 In the Heavens For ever O Lord thy Word is setled in Heaven For the Heavens were made by his Word In heaven and earth and continue in the same frame they were made by his Word to this day 2. In the Earth Whose foundations are yet immoveable Thy faithfulness is unto all Generations Ver. 2 Thou hast established the earth and it abideth 3. Ver. 3 They Heaven and Earth both continue this day according to thy Ordinance 4. The Reason is For all things serve thee Thy creatures they are and thou their Lord Creator they then must be at thy Beck and Command 2. 2 It brought him comfort in his trouble Next he shewes the excellent perfection of Gods Word by a rare effect it had upon himself it gave him comfort and kept him from despair in his trouble he collected it from the former instances thus if the Word of God sustained the Heaven and the Earth he saw no reason but it might also sustain him and so leaning upon it he was delighted in it and that delight held him up he knew it would be an Anchor of hope that would not fail him Vnless thy Law had been my delight Ver. 4 I should have perished in my trouble This he knew he could not do because God had promised him the contrary no such comfort in trouble as Gods Word and Promise this will abide when other fails 3. Upon this comfort he vowes Upon which joy and comfort first he makes a promise of thankfulness he had found life in Gods Word and he resolves never to forget it 1. Ver. 5 I will never forget thy precepts that men forget them is because they find no heart in them 2. 1 Never to let it slip out of his memory His Reason is For with them thou hast quickned me He saith not the Word quickned him but God by his Word For the Word quickens not till Gods Spirit come to it Vitam gratiae augendo vitam gloria promittendo 2. 2 To be Gods servant Then next he devotes himself to be Gods servant for the present and for ever 1. Ver. 6 I am thine And I do and will serve no other Lord no base pleasure no profit nor the World nor the flesh nor the Devil and therefore I can with a good conscience ask 2. O save me It is for a Lord to protect and save his servant 3. And that I am thine is evident in this that I am ready to do thy Will For
Son of God Be wise therefore O ye Kings in which Ver. 11 1. The persons to whom this fair Caveat is given Kings and Judges 1 Know their Duty 2. What they are here taught 2 To do their Duty First To know their Duty Be wise be learned Secondly To do their Duty Serve the Lord in fear rejoyce with trembling Ver. 12 kiss the Son 3 Without delay and that 3. The time when this is to be done even Now the Reason double 1. Drawn from his wrath and the consequent punishment 1 Lest he be angry and destroy them Lest he be angry and ye perish from the right way 2. From the happy condition of those who learn to know him and fear 2 Because they are happy that trust in him and serve and adore him For if his wrath be kindled yea but a little blessed are all they that put their trust in him The Prayer collected out of the second Psalm O Blessed God unto whom all hearts are open and from whom no secrets are hid whose eyes are ten thousand times brighter than the Sun and pass through the World and behold all the thoughts and conspiracies and actions of men Encline thine ear and hear open thine eyes and sée the attempts of Satan and wicked men The Heathen have raged furiously and the people have tumultuously assembled Ver. 1 and imagine vain things yea the Kings of the Earth have risen together they have taken counsel and joyn'd their power against God Ver. 2 and against him who is thy Anointed These many in number Ver. 3 strong in power encourage themselves in mischief saying Come let us break off these Bonds of Laws and Religion from off our necks by which they would yoke us and cast away their cords in which they would bind us for we will not that he or his Anointed reign over us For of a truth Lord against thée and thy holy child Iesus whom thou hast anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the Nation of the Jewes have gathered themselves together and do whatsoever thy hand and thy Counsel determined before to be done And now O Lord behold their threatnings for thy Names sake for thy Sons sake for thy Promise sake let not the gates of Hell prevail against thy Church Ver. 4 Thou that sits in Heaven laugh them to scorn Ver. 5 Thou which art the most High have them in derision speak unto them in thy wrath and vex them in thy sore displeasure Raise up thy power Ver. 6 O Lord and come amongst us Set thy King upon thy holy Hill of Zion Ver. 7 He is thy only begotten Son from everlasting and yet was content for our Redemption to humble himself to the womb and be born and made of a woman that he might preach thy Law and make known the glad tidings of salvation to all people Ver. 8 Give him therefore the Heathen for his inheritance and the utmost parts of the Earth for his possession Merciful God who hast made all men and hatest nothing that thou hast made nor wouldest the death of a sinner but rather that he should be converted and live have mercy upon all Iewes Turks Infidels and Heretiques and take from them all ignorance hardness of heart and contempt of thy Word and fetch them home blessed Lord to thy stock that they may be saved among the remnant of thy true Israelites that there may be but one Fold and one Shepheard As for such who obstinately and wilfully and maliciously stop their ears that they may not hear and shut their eyes that they may not sée lest they should hear with their ears and sée with their eyes and thou shouldst heal them These are the men O Lord who will not have thée reign over them poure therefore thy indignation upon them and bring them down in their pride and obstinacy Ver. 9 break them in pieces with a rod of iron and dash them into shivers like a Potters vessel of which being broken into smaller parcels there is no use nor hope or possibility of reparation Gracious God Ver. 10 poure down the graces of thy holy Spirit upon all thy people especially upon the Kings and Rulers of the Earth give them those gifts that may make them wise and those graces that may make them good let them learn their Duties Ver. 11 and do their Duties to thée O so encline all our hearts that we may serve thee in fear rejoyce before thee with reverence that we kiss bow down and adore thy Son submit and be obedient to him receive his Doctrine and acquiesce in his Laws and never be at rest till our heart assure us that thou art reconciled unto us through him O who may stand in thy sight when thou art angry we tremble therefore to féel at this time the effect of thy hot wrath upon us Ver. 12 for thou hast suffered us to perish from the right way for truth to embrace lying vanities and for thy Gospel to worship our own imaginations This is the just reward of our disobedience this is the just revenge and punishment of our sin in that we have not served thée in fear nor come into thy Courts and rejoyced before thée with reverence nor bow'd our knées and béen obedient to thy Son Vers 12 For this thy wrath is kindled and it burns not a little against us O Lord grant that this thy severity may have a true impression upon our hearts let us be true penitents and by our sighs and groans give thée no rest in heaven till thou return and have mercy upon us Recall us again to the right way Vers. 12 and never let us more erre and wander from it Confirm our hope it rengthen our faith alwayes let us put our confidence in thy mercy knowing that they alone who put their trust in thée are blessed for when thy wrath is kinded they shall be gather'd under thy wings and shall be safe under thy feathers Call us O Lord to thy truth justifie us by thy Sons blood sanctifie us by his Spirit and make us of that number to whom thou wilt say at the last day Come ye Blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world Amen Amen PSAL. III. The occasion of this Psalm was Absalons rebellion DAVID being deserted by his subjects rail'd upon by Shimei pursued for his Crown and life by his ungracious son and not finding to whom to make his moan betakes himself to his God and before him he expostulates his wrong confesseth his faith and makes his prayer There be then three strains of this accurate Psalm 1. His complaint 2. The confession of his confidence 3. His Petition The first part Davids complaint of his enemies 1. He begins with a sad and bitter complaint amplified 1. By the Number and Multitude of his enemies That they were Multi Many Multi valde very many that they were multiplicati
discipline and science strength defence that he had from god 4. from the safe custody that in the battle he receiv'd no wound Vers. 36 5. From the success of the battle He had his enemies in chase Vers. 37 and follow'd them in pursuit 6. From the greatness of his Victory Vers. 38 it was a compleat and full Conquest For by it his enemies were taken consumed wounded not able to rise they fell under his feet subdues their necks brought down c. 7. From the cause in which he takes nothing â—o himself but attributes the whole to God Thou hast girded me c. Thou hast subdued Thou hast given me the necks of my enemies Which is indeed acknowledged through the whole Psalm 2. The Consequent upon this Victory The consequent of the Victory viz. The enlargement of his Kingdom was the propagation and enlargement of Davids Kingdom 1. That before these Victories there was murmuring at him by the people but now being a Conquerour they were all quiet Thou hast deliver'd me from the strivings of the people His Crown was quiet Vers. 43 2. He was exalted to be the head of heathen Moabites Ammonites c. serv'd him Vers. 44 3. Nay a people whom I have not known Aliens shall serve me nay assoon as they hear of me they shall obey me c. Vers. 45 4. 'T is true indeed they shall dissemble in it and do it for fear more than love and take every occasion to fall off and fade away But yet however they shall do it submit and be content to serve me The fourth part Davids Doxology for his Victories The last part contains the main Scope and intent of David in this Psalm which is to celebrate and extoll the Name and Mercy of God for his Victories And it hath two parts 1. His present thanksgiving 2. And his profession for the future 1. The Lord liveth and blessed be my Rock Vers. 46 and let the God of my salvation be exalted And to that end in the two next verses he maketh mention again of his Victories and attributes the whole success to God 2. And he professeth that he will never cease to do it no not among the heathen Therefore I will give thanks to thee among the heathen and sing praises c. 3. And he professeth that he had great reason to do it Great deliverance giveth he to his King His one of his own chaise And sheweth mercy to his Anointed Uncto suo to David And not to David a lone but to his seed for evermore An 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Thanksgiving for some great Victory collected out of Psalm 18. O Lord whose eyes are brighter ten thousand times than the Sun thou who beholdest all the wayes of the children of men and wilt reward every man according to his doings Vers. 25 who to the good and innocent wilt shew thy self good and merciful and to the perverse and froward wilt shew thy self averse and severe We thy afflicted people have in the depth of our sorrows cryed unto thée and thou hast out of thy goodness saved us and hast brought down the high looks of the proud The sorrows of imminent death and the incursions of furious men like torrents of water encompassed us the snares they laid for us made us afraid the grave was open and ready to swallow us But in these our distresses we call'd upon the Lord and cryed unto our God and he heard us out of his holy dwelling in Heaven and the cry of our ardent and instant supplication was heard by him accepted and granted Lord when thou wentest out against our enemies when thou marchedst out into the field against Edom Vers. 13 the earth trembled and the heavens dropt the Lord also thunder'd from heaven and the highest gave his thunder hail-stones and coals of fire From Vers 7. to 15. He fought from Heaven the Starres in their courses fought against Sisera O my soul thou hast troden down strength For O Lord the Earth the Heavens the Mountains the lightning the thunder the dark and thick clouds the wind and rain the bail-stones and tempests all have obey'd thy voice and conspired at thy command to the destruction of our enemies to tear them to scatter them to discomfit them They were too strong for us Vers. 16 they took all advantages against us in the day of our trouble and weakness but then thou Lord wert our Protector and Defender even then he reached us his hand and help from Heaven he sent his Angels from above he took us he drew us he deliver'd he fréed us from our strongest Enemies from those who hated us from those bitter calamities which like many waters did environ our souls And he brought us out of these straits into a large and safe place he deliver'd us even because he had a favour unto us Thou Lord out of thy frée love and mercy hast done it So it was because so Lord it pleased thée What shall we give unto the Lord for all the benefits he hath done unto us Assist us with thy Grace and we will from henceforth keep thy wayes and not depart from our God as the wicked do His judgements shall alway be before us and we will not put away his Statutes from us We will walk more closely and uprightly with our God and keep ourselves from our own iniquity even from the temptation of that bosome-sin with which we have been hitherto defiled For then we know that the Lord will reward us after our righteous dealing and integrity according to the cleanness of our hearts and hands in his eye-sight We will therefore love thee Vers. 1 O Lord our strength for thou art our Rock and our Fortress and our Deliverer thou art our God our strong hold in thee will we trust our Buckler and the horn of our Salvation and our high Tower For who is God save the Lord Vers. 31 or who is the Rock save our God It is God that hath girded and arm'd us with strength and blessed us to make his work perfect He hath given us expedition in our actions and power to possess the strongest Fortresses He hath taught and instructed us in the art of Warre and fitted our arms making them in strength like a bow of steel nimble to shoot dextrous to hit and kill the enemy And in the very mouth of danger thou hast given us thy salvation for a shield and the power of thy right hand hath upholden and sustained us Vers. 36 that we fell not and thy favour hath made us great increased us in power and dignity We séemed to be inclosed and shut up in inexecrable difficulties but thou hast enlarg'd our steps and in these slippry places not suffered our féet to flide In thy name and power it is that we have pursued our enemies Vers. 37 that our féet being not wearied in the pursuit we have overtaken them that we have not turn'd again till we have
They part my goods among them and cast lots upon mine inheritance But O thou God of Israel thou continuest propitious and benevolous Vers. 3 why then doest thou stop thine ears at my prayers Thou hast perform'd thine Oath to out fore-fathers they trusted in thée in the depth of their calamities and thou didst comfort or deliver them They cryed in their afflictions and thou sentest them help they hoped in thée and were not ashamed or frustrated of their hope But me who have alwayes call'd upon thée who have alwayes hoped in thée thou hast deserted and forsaken exposed as the vilest and most contemptible worm to be trampled upon by every foot and insulted over by my cruel enemy Yet O Lord I am thy creature and thy hands have fashioned me in my mothers womb and being fashioned thou art he that brought'st me into this light upon thée have I fastned all my hope even from my infancy even from that time to this very hour thou hast shew'd thy self a merciful God in nourishing governing and preserving me from all evil Do not thou therefore who hitherto hast béen present with me whom I have acknowledged whom I have honour'd in whom I have hoped Do not O do not thou depart be not farre from me for most grievous trouble is near and there is none besides to help me none to mitigate the pressnre of my calamities with any comfort But O thou Father of Mercies deferre no longer but haste thee to help me O Lord my strength deliver my soul from the Sword my soul I say which is only dear to me from the power of the Dogg Save me from the Lyons mouth from my Adversary the Devil that goes about like a roaring Lyon seeking whom he may devour and hear me and frée me from the hands of Tyrants This if thou shalt do for me Vers. 22 as I certainly believe thou wilt then I will appear before thee in the great Congregation then I will declare thy Name thy Power thy Goodness to all my brethren to those who are bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh to all those who are partakers of the same Covenant and of the same spirit with me I will fréely and openly profess and praise thée Before thée and of thée shall I make my boast in the most frequent Assemblies of thy Servants Thy praise shall ever be in my mouth and those sacrifices of thanksgiving which I have vowed these I will pay in the presence of all thy people And I will call to my brethren to ioyn with me saying O ye of the seed of Jacob that fear the Lord and O all ye of the seed of Israel that imitate his faith and piety praise the Lord glorifie my and your God fall low before him adore and worship him for he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of me a poor afflicted despised wretch neither hath he hid his face from me but when I cryed unto him he heard me O Lord thou heardst thy Son when he pray'd for himself hear him we beséech thée Vers. 16 when he prayes for us And look nor upon us as we are in our selves wretched polluted creatures but look upon the face of thine anointed behold his hands and his féet digg'd through with nayls for our sake behold his blood poured out like water and all his sinews stretched upon the Cross and his bones put out of joint consider his bitter Agony in which as if he had béen near some furnace he fell into a sweat and melted into drops of blood when thou hidd'st thy face affordest him no comfort when in bitterness of soul being forsaken by thee he complain'd and cryed My God my God Remember how for us he became the reproach of men Vers. 1 and the out-cast of the people Vers. 7 how they laugh'd him to scorn and shak'd their heads at him forget not those Bulls those Lyons those Doggs that came about him to devour him and when they had brought him to the dust of death they parted his garments among them and cast lots upon his vesture O let not this blood be spilt in vain but for these sufferings unknown to us but felt by him have pity upon us and save us Since he hath given his soul a Sacrifice for sin Isa 53. divide him a portion with the great and let him divide the spoil with the strong because he hath poured out his soul to death and was numbred with the transgressours and bare the sins of many let him see his seed let him prolong his dayes and let the pleasure of the Lord prosper in his hand Since he hath borne our iniquities and made intercession for the transgressours let him see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied and let this thy righteous Servant justifie many Let all the ends of the world remember themselves Vers. 27 mourn and deplore their former estate lament for their impiety and forsaking their lewd conversation be turned unto the Lord and let all the kindreds of the Nations instead of the creature worship the Creatour For thine O Christ is the Kingdom and Power and Glory and thou by the meritorious Death and Passion Vers. 28 hast merited to be the governour among the Nations A seed even of the Gentiles shall serve thee they shall be counted to the Lord for a generation Vers. 26 These are the méek upon earth these are the poor in spirit these are the contrite and broken-hearted To these thou hast sent the glad tidings of the Gospel for these thou hast prepared a banquet of thine own flesh and blood Oh give us grace so to eat thy flesh and drink thy blood that we may eat and be satisfied and being fill'd with joy of heart we may praise thée that we séek to thée and please thée and our consciences being quieted and secured by this repast we may acquiesce and live in the perswasion of thy peace and reconciliation for ever O let the fat on earth the greatest the richest the mightyest Princes and Potentates on earth long after this food and in testimony of their faith and Religion eat adore and worship These even these must go down to the dust for no man can keep alive his own soul Let these then together with all other Mortals bow their knées at the Name of Iesus and come and eat this spiritual meat that they may live for ever Thou O Iehovah art our righteousness this will we declare to a people that shall be born our childrens children shall know that thou alone hast done this for us that thou hast redéemed us that thou alone art the Authour and Finisher of our justice and salvation that thou doest justifie thou doest sanctifie thy people and wilt save them by the meritorious Death and Passion of our Lord Iesus Christ And therefore for this we will declare thy Name unto our brethren we will praise thee we will glorifie thee we will fear adore and worship thee Our
troubles from which thou hast delivered thy servant therefore I will praise thy name at all times and thy honour shall be continually in my mouth It shall be the boast of my soul and the joy of my heart that when I sought thée thou hast heard me and deliver'd me from those fears with which I was surprised For behold I a poor afflicted wretch forsaken by all contemn'd by all in the midst of my miseries have implored thy help and thou didst hear me out of thy Holy Heaven and camest down and savedst me from my troubles O let this thy mercy shew'd to me raise the hearts of thy afflicted people let all those who are of a méek and patient spirit under the cross heat thereof and be glad Let them magnifie the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together being fully perswaded that that God who sent his Angel and deliver'd me will also send his Angel to encamp round about them and will deliver them When their eyes are dejected even then let them look up to thée when their faces are clouded with sorrow then enlighten them with thy favourable countenance Refresh them with thy aspect as with a pleasing light and never suffer them to be ashamed that they have relied and put their trust in thée Though those bruitish men who prey and tear like Lions may want and suffer hunger yet let not those who séek thy name want any manner of thing that is good supply them with necessaries for this life and in their penury teach them to be content because thou hast made them to abound with the spiritual and true riches O teach them to taste and confess that the Lord is good and that the man is blessed that trusts in him O Lord let thy eyes be upon the righteous and thy ears open to their cry They are of broken hearts be nigh unto them they are of contrite spirits O save them they in their afflictions cry to thee O hear them and deliver them out of all their troubles Thou hast said it O make thy word good That many are the troubles of the righteous but do thou deliver him out of all And that we may be alwayes in thy favour and under thy care good God instruct-us ever in thy fear Keep O Lord our tongue from evil and our lips from speaking guile Teach us to depart from evil and to do good And because it is a hard matter to have peace with all men make us to live without offence and to seek peace so much as in us lies and to pursue it So shall we have our desires and obtain what we love long life sée many dayes and much good O Lord let thy face be against those that do evil and cut off the remembrance of them from off the earth Let their own malice if they persist in it slay the wicked and their death be miserable And let them which hate the righteous because his life is not like theirs but of another fashion be desolate adding sin unto sin to their destruction being destitute of thy grace destitute of thy favour for which they are subject to thy anger in this world and obnorious to eternal punishment But as for those who serve thée with a single heart though they are exposed to many troubles and over-weakly yield to many temptations yet O Lord redéem their souls from death deliver them from the craft and violence of Satan frée them from the dominion of sin and suffer them not to commit that great offence for which thou in thy just displeasure shouldst cast them off Pass by their weaknesses pardon their infirmities and negligences renew them daily by the power of thy Spirit increase their hope confirm their saith and because they put their trust only in thy mercy forsake them not leave them not but let the riches of thy mercy guide and conduct them through the many afflictions and troubles of this sinful world to that place of everlasting habitations that they may live with thée and rest with thée in glory and perpetual felicity for ever and ever And O Lord grant that I with thy Saints may have this for my portion through the merits of my only Redéemer Iesus Christ my Lord. Amen PSAL. XXXV Is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 THE parts of it are 1. A prayer for defence against his enemies In which he prayes first for protection vers 1 2 3 17 19 22 23 24 25. Then imprecates evil to fall on them vers 4 5 6 8 26. 2. A bitter complaint against the malice of his enemies which he pours out into the ears of God as motives to plead his cause vers 7 11 12 13 14 15 16 19 20 21. 3. A proposal of his trust and confidence in God for help and deliverance his joy in it vers 9 10. His thanks for it vers 18 28. and a motive to others to do the like vers 27. 1. The first part He prayes God to be his Advocate In the Courts of men and Princes innocents are often oppressed by false accusations and calumnies persecuted and over-borne by power He then First Prayes to God to be his Advocate his Patron and Protector 1. Litiga Plead my cause O Lord with them that serive with me Vers. 1 2. Fight against them that fight against me Take hold of the shield and buckler and stand up for my help Dram out also the spear and stop the way against them that persecute me 3. Say unto my soul Assure me I am thy salvation 2 He imprecates against his enemies Secondly He falls to an Imprecation against his enemies 1. Let them be confounded and put to shame c. vers 4. 2. Let them be as chaff before the wind c. vers 5. Vers. 4 3. Let their way be dark and slippery c. vers 6. 4. Let destruction come upon him at unawares vers 8. And here he interserts some reasons of his Petition and Imprecation 1. From the justice of his cause and their unjustice 3 The reasons of both Without cause they have hid a net c. vers 7. Vers. 7 2. Vers. 9 From his gratitude that being deliver'd he would be thankful And my soul shall be joyful in the Lord c. vers 9 10. 3. From his enemies dealing with him from vers 11. to 17. And so enters upon his Complaint The second part His complaint of his enemies which is the second part of the Psalm and upon this he stayes long And he layes to their charge 1. Perfidiousness and extream malice and perjury False witnesses did rise up Vers. 11 they laid to my charge things that I know not 2. Vers. 12 Ingratitude They rewarded me evil for good Good he did to them he when they were fasted and pray'd for them But they were cruel to him 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In my adversity they rejoiced c. 4. Mocking jesting jeering The abjects gather'd themselves against me they
workers of iniquity are in great power riches and honour they are exalted like a Cedar of Lebanon and spread and flourish like a green bay Tree Expect they do all men should come and put their trust under their shadow which if any just man refuse they observe his way and mark his steps séeking an occasion and opportunity to destroy him for they are ready with a drawn Sword in their hand and a bended Bowe in their fist that they first cast down the poor and needy and then slay him that is innocent and of an upright Conversation Good God never suffer our faith and confidence to be shaken at these procéedings of thy Providence but with an equal and patient mind let us resign our selves to thy will and be content thou do what séems good in thy eyes being fully assured that all things shall work together for the best to those that love God O Lord let us rest in thee and wait patiently for thee for thou hast said it and thy Word is true That wicked doers shall be cut off and yet a little while and his person shall descend into the grave his pomp shall vanish his power come to naught his riches take the wing and flie away yea his very place shall not be and that there shall be no remainder of him in thy good time O Lord make good this thy promise and let him be cut down as the grass and wither as the gréen herb let his Sword that he hath drawn against the innocent enter into his own heart let the Bowe which he hath bent to wound the guiltless break in his hand and wound himself because he is the enemy of thy people he is an enemy to thée and therefore let him suddenly and wholly vanish away as smoke leaving no sign at all behind of his ill-purchased glory But as for the meek who with a patient soul delight in thée and chearfully undergo those affronts and injuries which the prosperity of the wicked shall lay upon them well knowing that all is done by thy wisdom and permission Give them and their posterity a sure possession in the earth and let them be delighted with abundance of peace and tranquility of conscience uphold Lord the righteous and let their inheritance be for ever Let the little they have be unto them better than the great riches of the ungodly which they have heaped together by unjust wayes make them content with it enjoy it swéetly and securely and let it alwayes be sufficient to supply their necessities and so bless Lord their substance that in the dayes of want and famine they may have enough forsake them not O Lord and suffer not their seed to beg their bread when by some misfortune they shall fall from a high estate and have experience of adversity or else if through infirmity they fall into sin yet Lord let them not be utterly cast down but even then put to thy helping hand and lift them up restore them to their former state and to thy favour This that they may the sooner recover recall them when they go astray and ever after order their steps in thy Word and delight in their way teach them to eschew evil and to do good so shall they dwell for evermore let them shew mercy and give and lend that their seed may be blessed Teach their mouth to speak wisdom and their tongue to talk of judgment let the Law of thee their God be in their heart that their steps and goings may not slide forsake not O Lord thy Saints love judgment and preserve them for ever leave them not good Lord in the hand of the wicked nor condemn them when they are judged approve not thou that unjust sentence which wicked men pass upon them O ye righteous then wait on the Lord and keep his way good God give us all grace to delight in thée and to commit our wayes unto thée well-knowing that thy servants shall be exalted when the wicked shall be cut off Mark the perfect man and behold the upright for the end of that man is peace O Lord let me dye the death of the righteous and let my latter end be like his when the Transgressours shall be destroyed and cut off together then Lord be thou a salvation to the righteous and their strength in time of trouble O Lord arise help us and deliver us deliver us from the wicked and save us because we put our trust only in thee Amen PSAL. XXXVIII VVhich is the third of the Penitentials in which he doth implore Gods mercy being grievously afflicted THE parts of it are two in general 1. A Deprecation begun in the first verse and continued in the two last 2. A grievous complaint of his sin disease misery Gods anger his friends and his enemies through the whole Psalm all which he useth as Arguments to move God to pity him and shew him mercy In the first verse The first part He deprecates Gods anger that the fears of his heart proceeding from the sense of Gods anger against his sin might be mitigated at least though rebuked yet not in wrath though corrected Ver. 1 yet not in rigour O Lord rebuke me not in thy wrath nor chasten me in thy hot displeasure And so he falls instantly upon his complaint The second part His complaint amplified which he amplifieth divers wayes 1. From the prime cause God For thine arrows stick fast in me thy hand presseth me sore Ver. 2 because of thy anger 2. Ver. 3 From the impulsive cause his sin his iniquities ver 4. his foolishness ver 1 From within 5. 3. From the weight and gravity of his afflictions which in general were The arrows of God that stuck in his flesh the hand of God with which he was pressed which was so grievous That there was no soundness in his flesh no rest in his bones 4. By an induction of particulars where he declares many effects of his disease 1. Putrefaction and stink My wounds stink and are corrupt 2. A sad posture of body I am troubled I am bowed down greatly I go mourning all the day long 3. A torment of his bowels My loins are filled with a sore disease 4. A general disaffection of parts There is no soundness in my flesh 5. A debility and grievous plague I am feeble and sore smitten 6. A pain that forced from him an out-cry I have roared 7. The disquietness of his heart I have roared for the disquietness of my heart In the midst of which that he might not be thought to have let go his hold his hope his confidence in his God he turns his speech to him Lord all my desire is before thee and my groaning is not hid from thee he hopes he prayes still 8. The palpitation and trembling of the heart My heart pants 9. The decay of his strength My strength fails 10. The defect of his sight As for the light of my eyes it is gone
life I am a stranger with thee and a sojourner as all my fathers were therefore parce Faith is alwayes strugling with tentations before ver 7. he is confident God is his hope but yet his calamities his sickness his enemies the brevity fugacity troubles of his life ever and anon come into his memory and therefore he prayes again for mitigation of these and his prayer ariseth by a gradation 1. He prayes for Audience Hear my prayer O Lord. 2. He inforceth his prayer Then that his cry for such it was be heard Give ear unto my cry 3. For admission of his tears Hold not thy peace at my tears the Reason is a stranger thy grace thy favour 4. For some relaxation and ease O spare me that I may recover my strength which he quickens with this motive before I go hence and be no more seen Restore me to thy favour in this life hereafter it will be too late to expect it Ne moriar desperans The Prayer collected out of the thirty ninth Psalm O Lord when I beheld the flourishing estate and successes of the wicked and the life of the godly worn out with sorrow and afflictions I being not able to comprehend the secret wayes of thy Providence was resolved to lay my hand upon my mouth and acquiesce in thy will and wisdom Even so Lord it pleased thée so thou wisely disposest and brings to pass all things and though I were able to put in a just Apology for this thy doing yet I said weithin my self Ver. 1 I will take heed to my wayes that I sin not with my tongue I will keep my mouth with a bridle especially while the wicked is before me that I say nothing against thée my God nothing unworthy my self But while I was dumb with silence while I held my peace and refrained even from good words Ver. 2 that which my heart gave me I must justly speak the grief within me was so vehement and my sorrow was so stirred Lord I confess my own weakness and infirmity that my heart was like fire within me and in that intemperate heat zeal and indignation at the wickeds prosperity I spake thus unadvisedly and immodestly with my tongue being tyred and wearied out of my life I desired to dye O Lord make me know when this my miserable and calamitous life shall end in which I suffer such heavy things and of which I am over-weary make me know the period and measure of my dayes that I may be certain what and how long I am to suffer and what the delay is that I must be under this Cross Short I know my time is and easily measured as easie as a hand-breadth 't is a moment 't is as nothing in comparison of thée and eternity and wilt thou not then suffer me to swallow my spettle Behold all things that are in the World are vanity of vanities and man among the rest his labour his power his strength his favour promise much and little satisfie and wilt thou then contend with such an one and persecute him as the dry stubble O Lord man is but the shadow of a shadow which is the image of a thing and yet is truly nothing so he passeth away being onward his journey toward death never continuing his condition in one and the same state and wilt thou then add so his affliction This O Lord néeds not for he is apt to afflict himself that little time which thou hast given him which he ought to endeavour that he might enjoy in a quiet and peaceable manner is disquieted with the perturbations of the mind for he disquiets himself in vain with fear and joy and hope and a covetous desire especially he heapeth up riches and cannot tell who shall gather them The Prodigal and unthrifty here dissipates what he had with so much care and perhaps sin heaped together or else Thieves or enemies violently plunder and carry them away These considerations O Lord I must confess pierced my soul and these thoughts wounded my heart and made me a little impatient till by thy mercy I recollected my self and retired my heart from all things below and fixed upon thée For now Lord what wait I for what is my erpectation what my confidence what my wealth my power my command my strength my life No no Lord I renounce my trust in all or any of these Thou Lord only art my hope my rock my strong Castle my defence my help my subsistence Thou O Lord which savest all those who hope in thy mercy deliver me from all my transgressions and make me not a reproach to foolish men to whose hands thou hast now justly delivered me for my iniquities against this thy just procéeding I will not open my mouth because I know that thou who wilt and dost all things uprightly hast caused me thus to be troubled to correct my enormities and exercise my patience But yet O Lord I beséech thée make an end of beating me and remove thy stroak that sense of thy wrath those terrours of conscience and pains of body under which I groan for I am even consumed and am ready to faint by the blow of thy heavy hand Thou hast made me an example that when thou correctest and rebukest man for his iniquity Thou makest his beauty to consume away insensibly as the fair gloss doth from the garment that the Moth frets so vain a thing is man As therefore thou hast made me an example of thy justice so set me forth as a Monument of thy mercy in hearing my prayers and cries and considering my tears which I poure out before thée Lord hear my prayer and give ear to my cry and hold not thy peace at my tears for I am as all my fathers were a man in this World of a short continuance the City I séek is above my way thither through this vally of tears in which for a time I must sojourn a Citizen I am of that City a pilgrim and a stranger here and the time I am to abide in it is but a little while O spare me then and deal more remissly and kindly with me forbear these severe stroaks that I may a little recover my strength by an assurance of thy grace and favour unto me before I go hence and be no more séen among men Cease good Lord to smite and afflict me in this grievous manner give me some ease and relaxation of my pain lay no more upon me than thou wilt make me able to bear O let me recover my strength of faith and hope in thée in this my pilgrimage it is not long but I must depart from hence and not be séen any more in this land of the living Grant therefore good Lord that I leave not this World with a conscience oppressed and affrighted with the grief and burden of my sin but that being discharged of that guilt I may quietly and peaceably resign my soul into thy hands being cloathed and beautified by
the right and strait way we have not forgotten our God nor holden up our hands to any strange god No not when thou hast smitten us in a land of captivity where we converse with Dragons in the shape of men and every hour presents us with the face of death Should any such wickedness be in our hands it could not be hid from thée Thou Lord wouldst search it out for thou knowest the secret of the heart And now Lord what is our hope truly our hope is then in thée Thou art our King O God command deliverance for Jacob Give us power by thée to push down our enemies and through thy Name to tread them down that rise up against us We will not trust in our Bowe neither shall our Sword save us it is thou alone thou alone O Lord who must save us from our enemies who must put them to shame and confusion that hate us At this time we are in great distress Ver. 25 our soul is bowed down to the dust our belly cleaveth to the ground Awake therefore O Lord why sleepest thou arise and cast us not off for ever Wherefore hidest thou thy face and forgettest our affliction and oppression Arise for us and help us and redeem us for thy mercy sake then in God will we boast all the day long and praise thy Name for ever Ver. 8 Thy mercy will appear to be so wonderful and signal in our delivery that we will give thée perpetual and eternal thanks celebrate and extoll thy loving kindness from Generation to Generation PSAL. XLV An Epithalamium or spiritual Marriage-Song composed for the solemn espousal of Christ and his Church THE Type of the Messiah is Solomon of the Church especially of the Gentiles to be espoused Pharaoh's daughter Three parts there are of the Psalm 1. A Preface v. 1 2. 2. The body of the Psalm containing two commendations 1. Of the Bridegroom from ver 3. to 10. 2. Of the Bride from ver 10. to 18. 3. The Conclusion promissory and laudatory ver ult 1. In the Preface the Prophet commends the Subject he is to treat of The first part The Preface signifying 1. That is a good thing good as speaking of the Son of God Ver. 1 who is the chief good 2. And good for us for upon the Marriage of Christ to his Church depends our good 2. That the Authour of this Psalm and the Subject of it is God He was but the pen the instrument to write it full he was of the Holy Ghost therefore his heart was enditing and his tongue followed the dictate of his heart and presently became the instrument of the ready Writer viz. of the Holy Spirit My tongue is the pen of a ready Writer And so having insinuated into his Auditory 1. The second part By the commendation of the matter of which he is to treat viz. that it is good 2. That it tends to a good end viz. to the honour of the King i. e. Christ the King of his Church He falls upon the main business which hath two particulars 1. He turns his speech to Christ the King The excellency of Christ and commends him for many eminent and excellent endowments never was there such a Spouse 1. For his beauty Thou art fairer than the children of men 2. For his elocution and speech Full of grace are thy lips Ver. 2 3. For his valour and fortitude Gird thee with thy Sword upon thy thigh O most Mighty Ver. 3 4. For his happy success and prosperity in his Kingdom Ver. 4 And in thy Majesty ride on prosperously 5. For his equal administration of his Kingdom in Truth Meekness Righteousness Ride on because of Truth Meekness and Righteousness Ver. 5 6. For his Battels and Conquests Thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the Kings enemies Ver. 6 whereby the people shall fall under thee 7. For the stability and eternity of his power Thy Throne O God Ver. 7 is for ever and ever 8. For his justice and equity The Scepter of thy Kingdom is a right Scepter Thou lovest righteousness and hatest iniquity 9. For the fulness of his gifts and graces superlatively beyond all others Therefore God thy God hath anointed thee with the oyle of gladness above thy Fellows 10. For his splendour both in his garments and buildings All thy garments smell of Myrrhe Ver. 8 Cinnamon and Cassia out of the ivory Palaces whereby they have made the glad There is nothing we can call good The commendation of the Church either internally or externally nothing praise-worthy in any Prince that may not be found in this King 2. From the Bridegroom he descends to commend the Bride which is the Catholick Church whom he sets forth 1. By her Attendance 1. No mean persons but Kings daughters and honourable women Ver. 9 2. By her Name Title and Dignity A Queen 3. By her Place On the right hand did stand the Queen 4. By her Attire and Vesture She stood in a vesture of gold of Ophir And in the very midst of this great Encomium His counsel to the Church he breaks off and by an Apostrophe turns his speech to the Church lest she forget her self in the height of her honour giving her this good counsel 1. Ver. 10 O daughter of the most High audi hearken mark what Christ saith 2. Vide look about and consider what is done for thee 3. Incline thine ear and be obedient 4. Forget thine own people and thy fathers house leave all for Christ thy old wayes Ver. 11 thy old opinions deny thy self 5. The consequence Gods favour and good will Reasons to perswade to obedience The consequence of which will be this So shall the King have pleasure in thy beauty ver 11. 6. And there is all the reason in the World that thou hear that thou be obedient and conformable to his Will 1. For first He is the Lord thy God and thou shalt worship him 2. Then again it will redound to thy benefit for thence will accrue unto thee great wealth Ver. 12 Tyre shall bring the purple and rich gifts The daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift and the rich among the people shall intreat thy favour ver 12. The counsel and admonition being ended The second Encomium of the Church he returns again to the Encomium of the Spouse and commends her 1. For her inward vertues and endowments The Kings daughter i. e. the Church Ver. 13 is all glorious within 2. For her externals whether doctrine manners offices which are as it were her cloathing 't is of wrought gold 3. For her Rites and Ceremonies They are as Needle-work of divers colours Ver. 14 in divers Churches 4. Her Maids of Honour Virgins holy and sincere souls men pure in heart in life and doctrine living in every particular Church these her companions shall follow her 1. These from all Nations shall
places but especially The excellencies of the Church In the City of our God in the Mountain of Holiness Then he descends to set forth the Excellencies and Ornaments of the Church 1. It is the City of God Built govern'd by him He resides there 2. It is a Holy Mountain The Religion in it Holy The people a Holy people 3. Vers. 2 It is Beautiful for Situation God had put his beauty upon it 4. The joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion The joy of all the Land of Juda then and after of the whole earth Because the Law was to come out of Zion 5. The City of the great King that is God He founded it and rules in it Vers. 3 6. God is known in her Palaces In her is the knowledge of God yea and by an experimental knowledge to be an Asylum a sure refuge 2. And well it is that it is so for Jerusalem i.e. The Church hath many The second part The enemies of the Church and great enemies which vers 5. the Prophet begins to describe and desires that notice be taken of them for he points them out with an Ecce Fâ—r Lo. 1. They are many and powerful They were Kings a plurality of them Vers. 4 2. Confederate Kings The Kings were assembled Many and Mighty But prevail nor Vis unita fortior But all the endeavours of these Kings of these Confederate Kings came to nothing 1. They passed by together Together they came and together they vanished Vers. 5 2. They saw they wondered They saw the strength of this City and wondered how it should be so strangely delivered out of their hands And troubled at it 3. And upon it they were troubled they trembled and hasted away Fear took hold upon them Which the Prophet illustrates by a double Similitude 1. By a travailing woman Fear and trembling took hold upon them Vers. 6 as upon a woman in travail 2. By the fear of Mariners at Sea Vers. 7 when an Euroclydon threatens to tear their shâ—p Their amazement was such Gods protection of her as when Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish with an East-wind 3. Now follows the third part of the Psalm The third part in which are two especial points 1. A grateful acknowledgement of Gods protection of his Church 1 Gratitude Vers. 8 as he promised As we have heard so have we seen in the City of our God Heard we have that he will protect this City and we see that he hath done it and perswaded we are that he will alwayes do it God upholds the same for ever 2. And this shall never be forgotten by us Vers. 9 We have thought upon thy Name O Lord and loving-kindness in the midst of thy Temple 3. And so thought of it as to praise thee for it According to thy Name so is thy praise O God to the ends of the earth Vers. 10 All the earth shall know that thy righ-hand is full of righteousness That thou with a powerful hand dost help thy people oppressed with injuries and dost punish their enemies by which thou dost give a manifest evidence of thy righteousness and justice The other point of the third part is an Exhortation to Gods people 1. That they exult and rejoice for that which God does for them 2 To which the Church is incited Let Mount Zion rejoice let the daughters of Judah be glad because of thy judgements in defending thy Church Vers. 11 in punishing their enemies 2. That they take especial notice of his miraculous deliverance of Jerusalem with all the particulars of it that notwithstanding the Army was great that lay against it yet no harm was done to any part of it Walk about Zion and go round about her and tell the Towers thereof Vers. 12 Mark ye well her bulwarks and consider her palaces See mark consider whether they are not all yet standing entire 3. And do it for this That you may tell it to the generation following Vers. 13 Leave it upon Record how miraculously God hath delivered you 4. Now for this there is good reason For this God Vers. 14 This God that so protects and defends his Church and takes revenge for us is our God by Covenant and promise for ever and ever and he will for ever keep this Covenant with us He will be our guide even unto death and in death Leave us he will not when all the world leaves us Therefore exult rejoice mark it and make it known to the generation to come The Prayer collected out of the forty eighth Psalm O Lord God of Israel Vers. 1 thou which dwellest betwixt the Cherubints thou art the God even thou alone of all the Kingdoms of the earth and yet amongst these thou hast erected to thy self an everlasting Kingdom and set thy King upon thy Holy Hill of Zion this thou hast chosen to be the City of our God the Mountain of Holiness This thou hast seated on a fruitful Hill ordained to be the joy of the whole earth In this City of the great king and in her Palaces thou hast hitherto made thy self known for a sure refuge Lord bow down thine ears and hear Lord now open thine eyes and see for lo the Kings of Nations are assembled they passed by together and are confederate against thee they lay their heads together with one consent and take counsel how they may lay Jerusalem in the dust O Lord let not our sins be of more power to destroy than thy mercy to save this thy City shew thy strength and come and help us let all our enemies be troubled let them hast away let fear take hold suddenly upon them as the pangs upon a woman in travail Break their power and dissipate their Armies as ships at Sea are broken to pieces by some violent and unexpected wind O Lord we have heard with our ears and our fathers have declared unto us what thou hast done in the dayes of old As we have heard so let it be seen in the City of our God make us experimentally to know that thou wilt establish this thy City thy Church for ever So shall we have just reason to think of thy loving-kindness and to magnifie thy mercy in the midst of thy Temple Vers. 13 to praise thy name to the ends of the Earth to exalt thy right-hand so full of righteousness to speak of thy judgements and to tell of all thy wonderous works to all generations to come O let Mount Zion rejoice and the daughters of Judah be glad for the bulwarks that yet stand fast and the palaces that flourish proclaim that this God is our God for ever and ever that he is a great Lord and greatly to be praised and that he will be our guide unto death Amen PSAL. XLIX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 AND the Doctrine it teacheth is That rich men be not proud of their wealth nor poor men dejected and troubled at their mean estate since all
their malice For every day they wrest and put what sense they please upon our words all their thoughts are against us for evil They conspire assemble lie in wait for us Every word we speak every action we do they observe and mark that they may take away our lives In these extremities we have no security Vers. 1 but in thy mercy arise O Lord and maintain thine own cause be merciful unto us defend thy Truth and thy people that suffer for thy Truth Thou hast made to us many precious promises upon which give us grace so to rely that whatsoever sadness hardship calamity fall upon us that we may trust in thy Word and praise our God for that gracious Word of protection that hath procéeded out of thy mouth Why should we be afraid what man can do unto us when thou hast past thy word to be our Guardian It is not as the profane of the World imagine That thou hidest away thy face and wilt not see For if we are in banishment and pursued Thou tellest every step we take if our eyes drop down tears they are not lost for thou puttest them into thy bottle our sighs and groans are noted in thy Book When therefore now we are Exiles for thy sake and wander among a strange people Bottle up our tears hear our groans register our sighs before us and turn back our enemies Shall they escape by their iniquity in thine anger cast down the people O Lord. So shall we have just reason to praise our God for his Word bound we are by duty bound we have our selves by vow to do it For thy vows are upon us and therefore we will render praises unto thee O Lord deliver our souls from death and keep our feet from falling and we will walk in sincerity of heart before our God in the light of the living in this light the light of thy countenance give us grace to walk that we may live with thée for evermore through Iesus Christ our Lord. PSAL. LVII Ne Perdas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aut Deprecatoriùs THIS Psalm was composed by David when he hid himself from Saul in the Cave 1 Sam. 24. The contents of it are His Petition ver 1. The Reasons that perswaded him to it from v. 1. to 6. His profession of thanks ver 5 7 8 c. 1. His Petition is ardent the Epizeuxis shews it The first part His Petition for mercy and it is for grace and protection Be merciful unto me O God be merciful unto me 2. And he presently subjoins his Reasons to perswade God to be merciful 1. From his faith and confidence he had in God alone The Reasons The second part 1. His affiance in God For my soul trusteth in thee and under the shadow of thy wings as the Chicken doth under the wing of the Hen shall be my refuge untill this Tyranny be over-past 2. From the sufficiency and efficiency of God I will call upon God 1. The most High sufficient then he is and able to deliver me 2. That performeth all things for me and will therefore effect it 2 Gods sufficiency and efficiency And upon this Argument he insists in the following verse He shall send from Heaven some miraculous way he shall do it send from Heaven and save me from the reproach of him that would swallow me up Selah God shall send forth his Mercy and Truth perform his word and mercifully save me 3. The third Reason of his Petition was 3 His great danger the extream danger he was then in by a cruel and merciless enemy 1. My soul is among Lyons a ravenous bloody creature Ver. 4 2. I lie even among those that are set on fire their anger and hatred to me is implacable 3. Even among the sons of men whose teeth are spears and arrows and their tongue a sharp Sword They calumniate me and wound deeper than these weapons A Spear wounds near an Arrow afar off a Sword at hand near or far off they spare not to disgrace me fortiter accusant 4. And now he draws an Argument more strong than all the rest for he puts God in mind of that which he will not part with 4 Gods honour his Glory A glory it would be to him to be merciful to save and deliver and therefore he prayes Be thou exalted O God above the Heavens and let thy Glory be above all the earth that is shew thy Power and assert thy Glory let not the wicked thus exult which if thou shalt do thy Glory will be conspicuous above in Heaven and below over all the earth And then he falls again upon his complaint describing the practises of his enemies 1. He reiterates his danger But foretels the event They have prepared a Net for my steps insidiantur as Fowlers 2. So that my soul is bowed down my life is in great danger 3. They have digged a Pit before me intending to take me as some wild Beast but praised be God I foresee the event They are fallen into the Pit themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Neque enim lex justior ulla est quam necis artificem arte perire suâ Upon the confidence of which David gives thanks The third part For it gives thanks which consists of which also may be a fourth Argument for no such way to procure a new favour as to be thankful and by his example we may learn how to give thanks two especial points our thanksgiving must consist of and we meet with both of them here the first is Commemoration the second Annunciation 1. He that will be thankful must treasure up in his heart and memory the courtesie that is done him 1 A Commemoration so had David done and therefore he mentions his heart and to make it more emphatical he names it again My heart 2. 2 An Affection After he remembers it he must be affected with it and resolve upon it so doth David My heart is ready or else My heart is fixed confirmed I am in it to be thankful and I cannot be altered 3. 3 An Annunciation 'T is not enough that a man carry about with him a thankful heart he must anunciare tell it abroad and make it known publickly what God hath done for him 1 With joy yea and do it joyfully too I will saith David sing and give praise 4. He must use all means he can to make it known Tongue Psaltery and Harp 2 By all means possible are all little enough whence by an Apostrophe David turns to these Awake my Glory i.e. Tongue awake Lute and Harp I my self will awake 5. 3 With fervency He must not do it in a sleepy manner but with contention and earnestness of spirit Awake awake I will awake 6. 4 Opportunely He must take the first opportunity to do it and not hang off and delay it I will awake early 7. 5 Publickly He must
Wicked men these are corrupters of all Truth and Religion Blood-thirsty men these are that thirst after the blood of thy Saints and use all their force power and conspiracies to root them out of the Earth they lie in wait for our souls they are gathered together for our ruine O send us help from thy holy Heaven and save us from the rage of them who would eat us up Many many grievous offences we have committed against thée our God but it is not for these crimes they at this time invade us but they are haters of true Religion and implacable enemies to true Piety which because we maintain therefore they craftily take counsel and wisely they work to our destruction O Lord Thou knowest that without any fault or offence of ours they run and prepare themselves to Battel Therefore O just God who art a witness of our innocency and their cruelty be not like one that sléeps arise to help us that séek thée behold our miseries and stand up for us that stand for thée and since thou art the Lord of Hosts who hast all Armies at thy Command and the God of Israel whom thy people serve suffer not thy chosen to be thus oppressed by wicked men whose pride excéeds that of the Heathen Visit them in anger O Lord and be not merciful to them that offend of malicious wickedness they are an object of vengeance not of mercy execute then thy severe wrath upon them Are not their works altogether the symptoms of an obstinate and hard heart Earnest they are to execute their plots they run too and fro In the Evening when good men are at rest then they arise for mischief mad as Dogs to bring their purposes to pass They grinne they threaten they walk round the City observing where they may take their Prey Boldly they speak with their mouth what their heart intends and the words that procéed from thence are very Swords breathing to us nothing but death and utter extirpation Thy Majesty they regard not and as for man their pride and power is so great they care not who hears them for they know that few are able and fewer willing to help us But thou O Lord sittest in Heaven upon thy Throne and hearest and séest all things both our oppressions and their insultations frustrate their attempts evacuate their endeavours have their persons in derision and laugh all their projects to scorn Let them not be visited with the visitation of all men Slay them not lest the people forget it but scatter them among the people make them for their flagitious lyes and perjuries become Wanderers and Beggars Let them run here and there for meat and grudge if they be not satisfied Consume them O Lord consume in thy wrath bring them down from their Throne out them from their power and dignity let their unjust gotten goods perish and their great wealth come to nought that they may know that it is God that rules in Jacob and unto the end of the World The sin of their mouth is impudent the words of their lips blasphemy Ver. 12 their very preaching is cursing and lyes therefore spare them not but let them be taken by the pride of their words and fall into that snare of destruction in which they were wont to boast that they would catch other innocent men Make us so happy O our Eod that we may sée our desires upon thy enemies so shall we sing of thy power and praise thy mercy aloud in the Morning and all shall know that thou art a strong Tower of defence and a sure refuge to all that in sincerity of heart in the day of trouble call upon thée Unto thee O Lord will I sing for thou O God art my Refuge and the God of my Mercy Thou alone hast mercy on me and to thée alone will I call for mercy through Iesus Christ my Lord. Amen PSAL. LX. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vel Triumphale BEfore Davids time 1 Chron. 18. and in the beginning of his reign Israel was in a distressed condition He composed and quieted all And made War and conquered the Moabites c. Edom only was not vanquished In this Psalm then he gives thanks for his victories And prayes for assistance for the conquest of Edom. The parts of it in general are 1. A commemoration of the former lamentable distracted condition of the Israelites vers 1 2 3. 2. The condition of it under his reign much better from vers 4. to 9. 3. His thankfulness in ascribing all his victories to God from vers 9. to 12. 1. The first part The former condition of Israel which he laments In the first he shews that God was angry with Israel 1. Of which he laments the effects of his anger 2. And then prayes for the aversion 1. O Lord thou hast or hadst cast us off 2. Thou hast scattered us abroad thou hast been displeased 3. Vers. 1 Thou hast made the earth to tremble 4. Thou hast broken it 5. Thou hast shew'd thy people heavy things 6. Thou hast given us a drink the wine of astonishment Every syllable of which Congeries will appear to be most true to him that shall examine the story of the Israelites before Sauls reign under his government upon his death and the first entrance of David to the Kingdom The stirs he had and wars with the house of Saul until Ishbosheth was taken out of the way 2. Imputes to Gods anger All which wars civil and external with the calamities that flowed from them Vers. 1 he imputes to Gods anger vers 1. Thou hast been displeased 3. And prayes to God to turn to them And upon it prayes 1. O turn thee to us again Let us enjoy thy countenance which was averted Vers. 1 2. Vers. 2 Heal the breaches of the Land Close the wounds made by these contentions and it seems they were not yet all perfectly closed For he adds It shaketh 2. The second part But now the condition of it was much better All being brought under one King The present condition of Israel 2. And he victorious over his forreign enemies 1. Thou now hast given a Banner to them that fear thee All Israel all those that are thy servants are brought to acknowledge and fight under one standard Vers. 4 in effect have receiv'd me for their sole King the factions and parties being quieted David being King 2. That it may be display'd Set up that Israel may know under whom to fight and whose part to take 3. According to Gods promise Because of thy Truth Who by this hast made it appear that it was no fiction nor no ambition of mine to set up this standard But a Truth that I was by Samuel by thy special appointment Anointed to be King And I am now invested with the Crown for the performance of thy Truth and Promise 4. Vers. 5 And the end is especially that I should bring deliverance to thy
curses perjuries shall be stopped shamed he shall be and confounded The Prayer collected out of the sixty third Psalm O God Ver. 1 thou art my God the God whom I only serve that God whom I have alwayes found propitious unto me therefore even before the morning light I will awake and séek thée I am at this time banished and forced to dwell in a dry and thirsty land where no water is yet the want of necessary relief doth not so much afflict me as the want of thy presence after thée therefore I thirst to thée I sigh of thée I more attentively meditate than of any bodily sustenance It is the grief of my heart that I cannot be present to hear thy holy Word to offer up my supplications before thée Ver. 2 to receive the Seals of thy love and my salvation in the Assemblies of thy Saints there I was wont to behold thy power in thy Sanctuary Ver. 5 I did contemplate thy glory and my mouth shall be satisfied as it were with marrow and fatness even with the chiefest delights might I be again restored to those spiritual comforts in thy house My life is not so dear unto me as is thy loving-kindness that kindness which I was wont to enjoy in thy presence Ver. 3 bring me then back again to thy Sanctuary Ver. 5 and my lips shall praise thee Thus will I bless thée whil'st I live and with the invocation of thy Name in prayer I will lift up my hands unto thée begging help and grace of none but thée who art my Gracious Merciful and Almighty God This I account the joy of my heart and for this my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips And yet being where I am in a desolate Wilderness in a thirsty and dry land I will remember thee in my Bed Morning and in the Night-season I will meditate upon thee and not without great reason for thou alwayes hast béen my help Thou hast protected me as the Hen doth her Chickens under her feathers and therefore under the shadow of thy wings will I rejoyce My soul out of the consideration of thy power and goodness shall cleave unto thée and follow hard after thee and I am perswaded that I shall not be frustrate of my hope for in all my dangers hitherto thy right hand hath upholden me This is my hope this is my confidence I doubt not therefore but that all those that seek after my life to destroy it shall quickly perish and be brought to the power of death or to the lower parts of the earth And many of them as they have sought to shed my blood have their own blood let out by the edge of the Sword and their bodies being unburied torn and devoured by Birds of prey and Beasts of rapine and cruelty O Lord let the King séeing the vengeance which thou wilt take of his enemies rejoyce in thee in thy help in thy salvation And let all those who religiously serve thée and truly fear an Oath glory in thee and make their boast of thée especially when they shall sée That the mouth of all those that have spoken lyes against thy people and by perjury oppressed and undone them shall be stopped by an immature death and made an example to others that they do no more so wickedly nor any more calumniate thy people that serve thée with an honest and sincere heart Amen PSAL. LXIV 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 THE Subject of this Psalm is the same with many that went before for in this Psalm 1. David being in danger by Saul and his Courtiers commends his cause to God ver 1 2. 2. Complains of his enemies of whose qualities he gives a a very lively description from ver 3. to 7. 3. He foretels their ruine from ver 7. and the event to 10. 1. He prayes in general Hear my voyce O God in my prayer The first part He prayes 2. Then in special That his life may be safe Preserve my life from fear of the enemy Ver. 1 3. As also to be hid from their counsels and practises Hide me from the secret counsel of the wicked and from the insurrection of the workers of iniquity Thus in general he speaks of them 1. That they were a sort of wicked men 2. That they were workers of iniquity 3. That they took secret counsel against him 4. That their counsels broke out into act and therefore he desires to be hid as it were in some secret place where he might decline the danger and their attempts 2. And so having set a general character of iniquity upon them The second part The qualities of his enemies as a Reason to perswade God to hear him he descends in particular to describe their villany 1. They were great Calumniators and false Accusers of him Ver. 3 no Sword sharper than their tongue no Arrow swifter than their false aspersions 1 Calumniators with this they were nimble to wound his credit and reputation which he aggravates by two circumstances 1. That it was in secret 2. That it was against him who was innocent and upright They whet their tongue like a Sword and bend their Bowes to shoot their arrows bitter words That they may shoot in the secret at the perfect 2 Obstinate suddenly do they shoot at him and fear not 2. They were obstinate and confirmed in mischief no counsel no perswasion could call them from it so obdurate and hardned in it That they incourage themselves in an evil matter 2. They commune and lay their heads together of laying of snares privily where the Lyons Paw will not reach they take the Foxes Tail 3. Atheistical and impudent they are secure and proud contemners of divine justice 3 Atheistical They say Who shall see them 4. Indefatigable they were and carried on with an earnest desire to do mischief 4 Crafty and indefatigable They search out iniquities they accomplish a diligent search They invent all crafty wayes to circumvent me 5. And all this is done subtilly craftily heartily both the inward thought and the heart of every one of them is deep 't is no easie thing to find their intent 3. The third part Their punishment And now he foretels their punishment 2. And the event 1. Their punishment was like to be hasty sharp deadly and very just 1. 1 Speedy God shall shoot at them with an arrow suddenly they shall be wounded 2. Most just For they shall make their own tongue to fall upon themselves verifying our Saviours words 2 Just With what measure you mete with the same it shall be measured By their tongues they did the mischief by their tongues they should fall The consequence 2. 1 On them desertion The event should be double 1. In general to all 2. In particular to the righteous 1. Universally All that see them should flee away fear desert forsake them 2. 2 On all fear And all men
before the Jewes but now all universally Sing unto God ye Kingdoms of the Earth O sing praises to the Lord. Selah And that all Nations do it His Reasons 2. His Reasons to perswade it 1. The Majesty of God testified 1. 1 The Majesty of God By his works To him that rides upon the Heaven of Heavens which were of old 2. 2 His protection His power in his Thunder in his Word He doth send forth his voyce and that a mighty voyce 2. His wise protection and providence to his people Ascribe ye the power to God his excellency is over Israel and his strength is in the Cloud 3. 3 His goodness to his Church His communication of himself to his Church in particular 1. O Lord thou art terrible out of thy holy places 2. The God of Israel is he that gives strength and power to his people 3. Blessed be God with that Epiphonema he concludes The Prayer collected out of the sixty eight Psalm O God in Majesty terrible in thy protection of thy people most merciful since thy power is so great thy presence so powerful that at the blasting of the breath of thy Nostrils thy enemies vanish as a vapour when it is raised to the highest and those that hate thée haste from thy presence Why art thou absent from us why sléepest thou in this néedful time of trouble O Lord awake and arise for us and scatter our nay thy enemies they hate not us Ver. 1 but thée and thy Law and Ordinances make them to flie from thy face drive them away as smoke as wax consumes and melts before the fire Ver. 2 so let the wicked perish at thy presence O God so shall the righteous have just occasion to rejoyce Ver. 3 they shall rejoyce before thee their God they shall be exceedingly joyful O God Thou art infinite in thy Essence wonderful in thy works most merciful in thy wayes to the sons of men Thou ridest above upon the Heavens when we crawle upon this Dunghill of Earth Thou art Jehovah and hast a being in thy self a time there was when we were not and the time will come when we shall not be and what we are at present we have from thée O let us live then and we will praise thée Turn away thy wrath from us and we will rejoyce before thee and sing praises to thy Name As Orphans we are in this World be thou our Father as Widows be thou our Husband Ver. 5 destitute we are without any humane help left alone and solitary O gather us into Families and Societies for our rebellions against thée bound we are with Chains and brought into a dry Land hear the groans and sighs we send up unto thée and out of thy holy habitation make it appear that thou art present with us look upon the humble consider thy dispersed and distracted people have pity on the Widows and Orphans and let us dwell once more together in peace unity and plenty O God Ver. 7 when thou wentest before thy people Israel when thou didst lead them through the Wilderness then thou didst march before them in a cool Cloud by day and in a Pillar of fire by night the dull and heavy earth was moved at thy presence the Heavens drop't Manna the Clouds shot forth lightnings even Sinai it self trembled when thou gavest thy Law unto thy people and after thou brought'st them into a wealthy Land O Lord thy power is yet the same and thy goodness immutable go out before us a sinful Nation and yet thy people as thou didst rain down Manna for them so also we beg of thée to send us necessaries from above and let this our Land that hath béen long afflicted with many evils enjoy a quiet peace and her inhabitants the fruits of peace confirm us Lord in that inheritance which thou hast given us let thy Congregation dwell therein and of thy goodness not for our merits prepare and provide meat and rayment for thy people that hath béen long oppressed by Tyrants We have heard with our ears O God and our Fathers have told us what thou hast done in their time of old great is the company that have published in our hearing that by thy mighty power Kings with their Armies did flie and haste away and that thou hast given the spoil to be divided among thy Houshold-servants This puts us in hope that we even we that have béen for a long time cast aside as the off-scouring of all things and black and inglorious by many pressures shall yet be called for again and set in our inheritances our Dove-like and innocent faces shine as silver and glister as gold the Snow upon the top of Salmon shall not be so white as shall our innocence when thou by these afflictions hast purged away out dross and melted away our tin Such a mercy we cannot expect for our own sakes for we are a sinful people but Lord remember Zion and be gracious to Jerusalem This is the Hill of God in this thou desirest to dwell this thou hast chosen to dwell in for ever Shall then the other Hills insult over it shall the Kings of the Nations and pride of Tyrants trample it to the dust Thy Chariots O God are twenty thousands even thousands of Angels and thou Lord art among them as in Sinai Now Lord shew thy self in glory ascend on High get the victory and triumph over the enemies of thy-Church lead them Captives that have captiv'd us and make them bring and offer thee gifts that have robbed thy Temples and so change the hearts of the rebellious That thou Lord may'st dwell among them and be acknowledged and worshipped by them Bring thy people O Lord out of their troubles as thou of old didst deliver thy chosen from the fury of Og the King of Bashan or thy people Israel from the hands of Pharoah that pursued them to the depths of the red Sea Wound the head of thy enemies and the hairy scalp of such a one as goeth on still in his wickedness let thy Beloved wash their feet in the blood of their enemies and let the very Dogs lick their blood wisely they wrought against us conceiving they had inclosed us but thou art our God the God of our Salvation to thée belongs and thou hast shewed that there be in thy power many issues from death for where the help of man hath failed Thou hast reached forth thy hand and delivered us from the jaw of the Lyon and the paw of the Boar Blessed then be the Lord which daily loads us with benefits even the God of our salvation Make thy Word perfect O our God rebuke the multitude of the Spear-men restrain the fury of those whose rage and anger against us is no less than that of enraged Bulls still the tumults of the people scatter all those that delight in War for thy Temples sake at Jerusalem be propitious unto us and strengthen that O God which
and hews it and cuts it down with the sword all which is befallen to it at the rebuke of thy countenance which angry look if it please thée to turn upon our enemies they also shall easily perish One angry and frowning look of thy face will do it O let them féel this rebuke and perish Shew thy power and might and suffer not thy people whom thou hast adopted and joyned to thy self and strengthned by thy promise and Covenant to the ignominy of thy name to perish by the pride of a cruel enemy Vpon which favour and help O Lord we will constantly adhere unto thee and never more depart from thee When thou shalt quicken us from this death and free us from these evils renouncing all other false and strange gods with all humane imaginations we will worship thee alone and call upon thy name for ever Turn us then again O Lord God of hoasts cause thy face to shine upon us and we shall be saved Grant us this mercy good Lord for Iesus Christs sake thy only Son our Saviour Amen PSAL. LXXXI 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 IN this Psalm the Prophet exhorts the people to praise God in his Festivals for the benefits he conferr'd on them and exprobates their disobedience and shews the events that fell upon it The parts are 1. An exhortation to celebrate in their Festivals Gods name from vers 1. to 4. 2. The reasons he useth to perswade unto it viz. the benefits of God conferr'd upon Israel from vers 4. to vers 12. 3. An exprobation of Israels ingratitude and the consequent vers 12 13. 4. The expression of Gods love and call to amendment which if they hearken to he tells them what will follow from vers 14. to the end 1. The first part He exhorts to rejoice He first exhorts to rejoice and exult But not in any worldly manner as may easily be collected out of the circumstances 1. The Object God To God our strength to the God of Jacob. Vers. 1 2. That this joy be expressed by voice and instruments of Musick In God Sing aloud make a joyful noise take a Psalm bring hither the Timbrel the pleasant Harp with the Psaltery Blow up the Trumpet At his Festivals Signifie your joy alwayes 3. Especially that it be in a fit season In the New Moon in the time appointed on our Solemn Feast-day For then they were to rejoice before the Lord. 2. And now he expresseth the reasons why this was to be done 1. Gods command For this was a Statute for Israel The second part and a Law of the God of Jacob this he ordained in Joseph for a testimony The reason 1. Gods command 2. The antiquity of it Ordained presently upon the time when he that is God went out through the Land of Egypt In remembrance of their deliverance they were to rejoice 2 An old Ordinance Which benefit he amplifies by this circumstance that they were delivered from people of a strange language which is no small benefit the intelligence of any tongue being the bond of all society And now more particularly he recounts Gods favours to them For which they had reason to rejoice 1. That he deliver'd them from a base servitude 3 Their deliverance from a base servitude I removed his shoulders from the burden and his hands that is the Israelites were delivered from the pots 2. And he did this for them when they were in affliction 4 Done upon their cry and cryed to him Thou calledst in trouble and I delivered thee The courtesie was seasonable 3. He did by signs and wonders in Egypt 5 In a miraculous manner shew that he had a care of them Thou calledst upon me in trouble secretly and I answered in the secret of thunder by an open sign I shew'd my presence with thee and my care in secret for thee And here he interserts one particular of Israels ingratitude 6 Though God foresaw their disobedience when they tempted God and murmured for want of water which God let them want for a trial of their obedience I proved thee also at the waters of Meribah Selah Numb 20. And after he proceeds and reckons up a new and the greatest benefit viz. The giving of the Law To which he useth in effect 7 That he gave them the Law the same Preface which is extant Deut. 5.1 before Moses gave the Law Hear O my people and I will testifie unto thee O Israel if thou wilt hearken to me If there were that piety in thee or that love to me as I expect Then there shall no strange god be in thee Neither shalt thou worship any other gods Which is the second Commandment To which he perswades obedience for three reasons To perswade to which he adds three reasons The two first in the front of the Decalogue 1. I am the Lord thy God A God thy God whom else shouldst thou worship 2. Which brought thee out of the Land of Egypt Redeem'd deliver'd thee from bondage 3. Open thy mouth wide and I shall fill it Have no other gods but me and I will largely and abundantly supply thy wants This is his promise Ask and have seek and find but seek first the Kingdom of God and its righteousness The third part He complaâ—ns of Israels disobedience 3. To this he adds the just complaint of God for Israels disobedience But notwithstanding all the evidences of my might and Arguments of my love they were a rebellious and stubborn people which God layes to their charge vers 11. But my people would not hearken to my voice and Israel would none of me They broke my Covenant and wilfully set me aside for strange gods And this their Rebellion drew on them a heavy Therefore punished grievously for God left them to themselves the severest punishment 1. So I gave them up unto their own hearts lust I let them alone in their obstinacy 2. And they walked in their own counsels They might do what they would I regarded it not A heavy judgement for a man to be left to himself Compare with this verse 2 Thes 2.12 which expounds it 4. The fourth part And yet behold the love of God to a wilful rebellious and obstinate people he wishes that it had been otherwise and by his wish affectionately moves them to repentance Gods love yer in calling them to repentance O that my people had hearkned to me and Israel had walked in my wayes Consider how ardently God desires the good of man and not his ruine The reward of which would be And tells them what should ensue upon it Three very great benefits and most desired 1. 1 A depression of their enemies A depression of their enemies I should soon have subdued their enemies and turn'd my hand against their adversaries The haters of the Lord should have been found lyars i. e. submitted and humbled themselves though
the place of thy service where I may publickly acknowledge thee to be all these O happy men that may dwell in thy house for there as a good Master of the Family thou dispensest to them the bread of eternal life Thou suppliest unto them matter of praise and they again are as ready to praise thee in which constists the chief pleasure and selicity of man So often as they meet there they will invocate thy name offer thanksgiving confess their sins and give glory to God vow they will to propagate thy Truth and in reverence and fear do all acts of piety and devotion These are happiest but those are also happy that have a destre and a liberty to ascend thither O Lord increase in us these destres and give us again this freedom our strength is in thee and our hearts are in thy wayes and though we must pass through the Valley of tears yet we desire to ascend to that place which thou Lord hast appointed to thy self for an habitation In the strength of the Lord God we will procéed till we appear before God in Zion and find that Majesty and mercy which we so earnestly long for and séek For whatsoever happiness we are capable of in this life we know it is to be obtained in the pious Assemblies of thy Saints O Lord God of hosts hear my prayer give ear O God of Jacob. Thou who art our Shield and Protector behold me with a serene countenance and when I shall lift up my eyes unto thee O turn thy face toward thy Anointed and for his sake look upon me and thy people with mercy and bring us back again to thy house Grant that the love of thy house may be to us that which thou desirest that we may think the time of one day spent in it better than thousands in doing our own pleasure yea and that it is better to be the meanest servant a door-kéeper in the house of God than to dwell with honour in the Tents and Palaces of ungodly men The pleasures and delights which we may hope for in those Tents are nothing to the contents we may enjoy in thy house for there we shall enjoy thée who art our Sun our Shield the Father of all good gifts and wilt deny no good thing to those who sincerely serve thée O Lord be unto me a Shield and a Sun A Sun to illuminate us A Shield to protect us Dispell our darkness comfort and warm our hearts with thy light increase us with thy swéetest influence and defend us by thy power Give us grace and adopt us for thy Sons and at last bestow upon us eternal glory Thou hast promised to deny no good thing to those who walk before thée in simplicity and integrity Inable us then O God to walk in thy wayes with a pure and an honest heart For then we may be comforted with this hope and assurance that we shall be blessed and that we shall come at last to those eternal Mansions in heaven by the merits of Iesus Christ our Lord. PSAL. LXXXV 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 MYstically this whole Psalm is a Prophesie concerning the redemption of Mankind from the Tyranny of sin and Satan by the coming of Christ prefigured by the deliverance of the Jewes either from Egypt or rather from Babylon after which they fell again into grievous troubles under Antiochus Three parts of the Psalm 1. An Acknowledgment of Gods formet mercies ver 1 2 3. 2. A Petition upon that ground that he would still do the like 4 5 6 7. 3. A profession of obedience and an advice to continue in it ver 8. that men may be partakers of the promises both spiritual 9 10 11. and temporal ver 12. which shall be performed to those who keep in the wayes of God ver 13. 1. In the three first verses A Commemoration of Gods mercies the Prophet makes a Commemoration of Gods mercies to his people of which the Fountain is his good will and favour Lord Thou bast been favourable of which the effects were temporal and spiritual The first part 1. Temporal Thou hast been favourable to thy Land Ver. 1 Thou hast turned away or brought back the captivity of Jacob 1 Temporal freed them from the Babylonian yoke 2. Spiritual which consisted in two things Ver. 2 1. Justification Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people 2 Spiritual and covered all their sins Ver. 3 2. Reconciliation Thou hast taken away all thy wrath and hast turned thy self from the fierconess of thy anger 2. And now upon the experience of these former mercies The second part Upon this favour he prayes the Prophet commends a new Petition the sum whereof is briefly this Thou hast been favourable to us before and therefore we hope that thou wilt be so now this is the consequent of the former antecedent and upon it in confidence he prayes Turn us then O God our Saviour c. to the 8th verse Ver. 4 in which Petition is said over again That God would assure those mercies what was acknowledged before in the Commemoration of the benefits 1. Thou hast turned away the captivity Restore us then turn us then or return to us O God our Saviour 2. Thou hast been reconciled be again reconciled to us Thou hast taken away all thy wrath c. ver 3. Ver. 5 Now cause thine anger towards us to cease Wilt thou be displeased at us for ever Wilt thou draw out thine anger to all Generations This is contrary to thy nature who art slow to anger 3. Thou hast brought us back and so revived our hearts ver 1. And wilt thou not revive us again by delivering us from our present calamities and this death that thy people may rejoyce in thee 4. Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people c. ver 2. Shew us then thy mercy O Lord and grant us thy salvation Save us in mercy first from sins the cause of our sufferings and then from the punishment our present miseries 3. And that the Church might prevail in her Petition she now promiseth obedience and to wait upon God I will hear what the Lord God will speak The third part As if she had said For which he waits why do I expostulate thus with my God why do I thus complain I will attend to his Word and hear what he will say for he is a trusty Counsellor in all our afflictions Ver. 8 and this it is that he will say I wound and I make whole I kill and I give life Being assured that God will turn all to the best 1. For he will speak peace unto his people and to his Saints Though he begins to his people in the cup of his Cross yet he keeps the best wine till the last and turns his Cross into a Crown if they hear what he saith he will speak peace to them And speak peace to his people 2. If they
help when they look to receive whence we usually say Lend me thy hand 3. 3 His expostulation with God The third effect was an expostulation with his God in which he presseth God to spare his life from the inconvenience that might thereby happen viz. that thereby he should be disenabled to praise God and celebrate his name as he was bound and did desire to do among the living An Argument used before Psal 6. 30. This Argument though it savours too much of humane frailty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet he thought thereby to move God who above all things is jealous of his own glory which he conceiv'd in his death would suffer loss and therefore he asks 1. Wilt thou shew wonders among the dead That is My desire is that which ought to be of every pious man to set forth thy honour which cannot be done if I now go to the grave except by some miracle I should be raised from thence 2. For Shall the dead arise again and praise thee 'T is the living the living that shall set forth thy power thy goodness thy fidelity in keeping thy promises to the sons of men The dead as dead cannot do this and the dead return not from the grave to do it except by miracle 3. For farther yet Shall thy loving-kindness be declared in the grave or thy faithfulness in destruction Shall thy wonders be known in the dark and thy righteousness in the Land of forgetfulness Such is the grave a place of Oblivion for Abraham is ignorant of us The goodness and faithfulness of God which he makes known to his Church in this life are not known nor can be declared by the dead the living see them the living have experience of them and therefore he desires his life may be spared for that end lest if he dye now that faculty ability should be taken from him He should be able no longer to resound the praise of God which is the true end that any man ought to desire life 4. The fourth part And so he returns to his Complaint and repeats again what he had said before and almost in the same words And gives three instances 1. He repeats his complaint He gives an instance in his prayer But unto thee have I cryed O Lord and in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee He prayed he cryed 1 That God seemed not to hear him earnestly early not drowsily not sleepily for he did prevent God He prayed and would continue in prayer and yet all was in vain 2. For God seems to be inexorable which he complains of next and asks why it should be so 2 He asks why it should be so Lord why castest thou off my soul why hidest thou thy face from me Even the best of Gods Servants have been brought to that strait that they have not had a sense of Gods favour But conceiv'd themselves neglected deserted by him and discountenanc'd 3. His second instance is his present affliction mention'd before vers 4 3 That he is afflicted which he aggravates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 5 6 7. I am afflicted and ready to dye Which he doth here exaggerate 1. From the time and continuance of it It was a very long grief for he had borne it even from his youth up 2. From the cause It proceeded not from some outward and humane cause that might have been borne and helped But it was an affliction sent by God Thy terrors have I suffered It came from a sense of Gods wrath 3. From an uncomfortable effect It wrought in his soul amazement unrest a perpetual trouble astonishment Thy terrors have I suffered with a troubled mind I am distracted with them And he amplifies this wrath by the former Similees 2 And amplifies by the former Simile of Waves vers 7. Of Waves and water 1. Thy fierce wrath goes over me as waves over a mans head at Sea Thy terrors have cut me off cut off my life as a Weavers Thrum 2. They came round about me like water 2. Dayly like water 3. They compassed me about Simul together as if they conspired my ruine there were many of them All thy waves vers 7. 4. His third instance which is the same vers 8. 3 And by the perfidiousness of his friends The perfidiousness and desertion of his friends 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A loving friend is some comfort in distress but this he found not Lover and friend hast thou put far from me And mine acquaintance into darkness They appear no more to me to give me any counsel help or comfort than if they were hid in perpetual darkness Tempora cum fiunt nubila solus ero◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Prayer collected out of the eighty eighth Psalm O Merciful God the sole Author of my salvation Vers. 1 for thou alone canst save me day and night have I cryed before thee Vers. 9 without any intermission I have stretch'd out my hands unto thee Vers. 13 and in the morning my prayer shall prevent thee O let then my humble supplication come before thee and encline thine ear unto my cry For my soul is so filled and overwhelmed with troubles that I am weary of them and my life draweth nigh to the grave I am accounted in all mens judgement for a dead man my strength is so little or none at all that I am like those that descend into the pit where taking up my rest among the dead I shall be fréed from those cares and necessary dutyes of this life I am become like those who have received the wound of death whom thou hast cut off by thy hand and laid in the Land where all things are forgotten O Lord let it be thy pleasure to deliver me make haste to help me O Lord O spare me a little that I may recover my strength before I go hence and be no more séen For wilt thou shew wonders to the dead and shall any raise the dead that they should sound forth thy praises among the living shall any dead man declare thy power and loving-kindness to the living and thy faithfulness in performance of thy promises when he is destroyed shall thy wonderous works be made known in the Cells of darkness and thy righteousness published by them who have utterly forgotten and are totally ignorant of those things that are done in the earth Preserve me therefore O thou that breathedst into my nostrils the breath of life and continue me longer in thy Church that I may there declare thy goodness thy truth and thy wonders to the sons of men Experience I have that all my acquaintance are but miserable comforters nor lover nor friend doth come to pity me to them I am become an abomination they stand all afar off and their faces are as it were wrapt up in darkness and wilt thou also O my God hide thy face from me wilt thou also cast off my soul I am afflicted and ready
to dye even from my youth up thy terrors I have suffered with a troubled soul yea I have been so amazed and astonished with them that I have been even distracted and ready to dispair In me there hath appeared manifest signs of thy displeasure for thou hast laid me in the lowest pit and imprison'd me in darkness and in the depth of calamities As wave sacreeds wave so thy fierce wrath goeth over me it lies hard upon me and I am afflicted with all thy storms these billows came round about me dayly like water and not one after another set upon me but they engirt me all together My eye mourns Vers. 8 and grows dim by reason of affliction Lord then hear my err that I dayly present unto thee Turn from thy fierce anger and shew me again the light of thy countenance Deliver me from these thy terrors from the grave from this death and I will magnifie thy name and mercy among the living O Lord give a gracious answer to these my sighs and prayers stand not far off for ever Forsake me not in my distress but make haste to help For thou alone art the God of my salvation if thou leave me I must perish Wherefore good Father succour me and pardon my sin which hath brought this thy just indignation upon me for the merits of thy dearly beloved Son Iesus Christ my Lord. And thou O sweet Saviour which thy self hast suffered and wast for my sake tempted be a merciful and faithful High Priest to me in things pertaining to God make reconciliation for my sins and succour me that am tempted Amen PSAL. LXXXIX IN this Psalm the Prophet praiseth God and sets forth his goodness and faithfulness particularly that he made an everlasting Covenant with David and his seed In which the stability and perpetuity of Christs Kingdom of which the Kingdom of David was but a Type is excellently described and foretold The parts of this Psalm are these 1. The Sum Pith and Argument of the whole Psalm viz. the Loving-kindness and truth of God vers 1 2. 2. The particular instance of Gods goodness and truth in making a Covenant with David vers 3 4. 3. A Doxology containing the praise of God for his wonders faithfulness power providence justice judgement mercy truth from vers 5. to 15. 4. The Happy estate of Gods people from vers 15. to 19. 5. A special example of Gods goodness toward his Church exemplified in David but truly verified in Christ from vers 19. to 28. 6. How Davids posterity should be dealt with upon their disobedience from vers 28. to 38. 7. A Complaint or Expostulation upon the contrary events where he doth deplore the torne estate of the Judaical Kingdom from vers 38. to 47. 8. A Petition for mercy and restauration from vers 47. to 51. 9. An Epiphonematical conclusion vers 52. blessing God for the hope he hath in his favour and help in all estates 1. The Breviary of the Psalm is set down in the first verse and amplified by the reason in the second The first part The Sum of the Psalm Gods Mercies Thus he begins 1. I will sing Chant set forth in a Song The fittest way to express our joy for any thing so best inculcated so best remembred so best deliver'd to others to remember Vers. 1 2. Of which David will sing Of the mercies plurally for they are many And his Song should be of all 3. For ever Intentionally though not actually for as a wicked man could he live alwayes would alwayes sin so a good man could he live alwayes would alwayes sing the mercies of the Lord. 2. Or if ever be join'd to Mercies it is his everlasting Mercies 4. With my mouth I will make known thy faithfulness from generation to generation With my mouth while I have a being I will make known and when I have no being I will commit them to writing Ut sciat haec aetas posteritasque legat His reason for it is because Gods mercy is everlasting Because his mercy is everlasting and therefore fit to be the subject of an everlasting Song 1. For I have said Set down this for a certain position Vers. 2 an undoubted truth 2. Mercy shall be built up for ever 'T is not exhausted in one age but as a house built on a strong foundation it shall stand firm and be perceiv'd age after age 3. Thy faithfulness shalt thou establish in the very heavens As is thy mercy so is thy faithfulness perpetual as the heavens in which is found no change 2. And for the proof of Gods goodness and truth The second part The instance the Covenant he produceth an instance in his Covenant made with David Where by a Prosopopeia he brings in God speaking 1. I have made a Covenant with my chosen It was not Merit then Vers. 3 it was free Election 2. I have sworne Faelices nos quorum causâ Deus jurat To David my servant And the Covenant and Oath is extant 2 Sam. 7.11 3. And the tenour of the Covenant is Thy seed will I establish for ever and build up thy Throne to all generations Thy seed signally which is true of Christ only who was of the seed of David to whom the Lord gave the Throne of his father David Luke 1.32 33. who was to reign over the house of Jacob for ever and of his Kingdom there shall be no end The words then are not to be understood of Davids temporal Kingdom but of the seed of David that is Christs spiritual Kingdom for that was to be established for ever 3. And now what the Prophet undertook in the first verse he performs The third part Of this all good men will sing for at the fifth verse his Doxology begins The person is only chang'd and that to advantage For there he spoke of himself I will sing Here he saith it shall be done by others The heavens shall praise Vers. 5 1. Some by the heavens understand the Church and the Preachers in the Church Heavens Angels 2. Others the Angels and blessed spirits in heaven Both are true and of both it may be well affirm'd O Lord the heavens shall praise thy wondrous works Thy faithfulness also in the Congregation of Saints 2. The Subject of the Heavens and the Angels and Saints praise are The Subject of their Song 1. Gods wondrous works and his Truth In general Vers. 5 all his miracles but in particular this wondrous work viz. his making a Covenant with David in taking an Oath to perform it 1 His Works his Truth and his faithfulness in keeping it For it is a wonder that so great a Majesty should so far condescend And now he sings praise to this Majesty setting forth the power of it 2 His Majesty to whom none to be compared and that in three respects 1. By way of comparison in the 6 7 8 verses viz. That there is nor Angel
the Rites Ceremonies New Moons Sabbaths Sacrifice Circumcision Pasch c. 4. Vers. 31 And keep not my Commandments i. e. The Decalogue and Moral Law In a word if they become vitious in their Morals and profane and Rebels in my Worship and Religion This then shall happen unto them Resp They shall smart for it escape they shall not but shall soundly smart for it they shall feel 1. Virgam 2. And Verbera The Rod the Whip Then 1. I will visit i. e. punish their transgression with the Rod. 2. And their iniquity with stripes Which was often done By the Babylon Antiochus c. And yet in judgement I will remember mercy But in judgement God will remember mercy I will remember my Covenant my Promise my Word my Oath and will make that good totally I will not cast off Davids seed which I mean not after the flesh for that is long since cast off but after the Spirit Christ which was of the seed of David and those which are his seed viz. the Church shall enjoy the benefit of my Covenant and Oath for ever Nevertheless my loving-kindness will I not utterly take from him nor suffer my faithfulness to fail My Covenant will I not break nor alter the thing gone out of my lips And that there be no doubt of this For the Covenant is immutable he brings in God repeating his Oath and Covenant 1. His Oath Once have I sworn by my holiness that is by my self who am Holy 2. His Covenant That I will not lye unto David For His seed shall endure for ever and his Throne as the Sun before me It shall be established for ever as the Moon and as a faithful witness in heaven As the Sun and Moon are not obnoxious to mutations no more is this Covenant they must endure to the end of the world and so must this Covenant They are faithful Witnesses in heaven and so we are to seek for the performance of this Covenant in heaven not in earth the Covenant being about a heavenly Kingdom not an earthly It being evident that the Kingdom of David on earth hath failed many ages since But that of Christ shall never fail 7. The seventh part And that God did punish Davids seed for their rebellion is evident So that he was tempted to charge God for breach of promise Now that Davids Kingdom did fail or at least was brought to a low ebb is the complaint in the following words which flesh and blood considering gave a wrong judgement upon it as if God did nothing less than perform his Oath and Covenant This is it which the Prophet layes to Gods charge But thou hast cast off and abhorred thou hast been wroth with thy anointed Both King and people are cast aside Than which nothing seems more contrary to thy Covenant Thou hast made void the Covenant of thy servant thou hast profaned his Crown Of which there be many lamentable consequences 1. His Crown is cast to the ground The glory of his Kingdom trampled upon 2. The instances in which they suffered His hedges broken down his strong holds brought to ruine 3. All that pass by the way spoile him Exposed he is to all Rapine and Plunder 4. He is a reproach to his neighbours Exposed to all contumely and disgrace 5. Thou hast set up the right-hand of his enemies and made all his adversaries to rejoice Thou seemest to take part with the enemy against him and makest him exult and rejoice in oppressing him 6. Thou hast also turn'd the edge of his sword blunted his sword that was wont to slay and hast not made him to stand in the battle but to fly and turn his back Vers. 44 7. Thou hast made his glory The glory dignity authority of his Kingdom to cease and cast his Crown to the ground 8. The dayes of his youth thou hast shortned cut him off in the prime and strength of his years Thou hast covered him with shame made his opulent glorious Kingdom ignominious which was true in divers of Davids posterity especially Jehoiakim These were the sad complaints which the Prophet poures out as despairing so far as sense and reason could direct him of the performance of what God had promised But he recovers and prayes The eighth part But he quickly recovers and recalls his thoughts and that he may move God to help he falls to prayer which is very pathetical 8. He considers the nature of God as kind loving merciful slow to anger and asks 1. Usque quo How long Lord wilt thou hide thy self for ever Hide thy favour 2. Shall thy wrath burn like fire An element that hath no mercy Pathetically moves God to pity Then he useth other Arguments pathetically expressed to move God to pity 1. Drawn from the brevity of mans life Remember how short my time is Upon divers Arguments 2. From the end that man was created not in vain but to be an object of Gods goodness and favour which if he enjoins not he shall seem to be born to no purpose therefore he asks Wherefore hast thou made all men in vain 3. From the weakness and disability of man His life is short and can he lengthen it What man is he that liveth and shall not see death Yea though he live long yet he is a mortal creature Shall he deliver his soul from the grave 4. From the Covenant of which he puts God in mind Lord where are thy former loving-kindnesses which thou swarest to David in thy Truth 5. From the ignominy scorns sarcasms by enemies cast upon them which he desires God to look upon 1. Remember Lord the reproach of thy servant 2. And how I do bear in my bosome not spoken afar off but in my hearing and to my face as if poured and emptyed into my bosome the rebukes not of this or that man but many people 6. And lastly That these reproaches in effect fall upon God For they who reproach Gods Servants are his enemies Remember the reproaches 1. Wherewith thine enemies have reproached O Lord. 2. Wherewith they have reproached the footsteps of thine anointed i. e. Either whatsoever he sayes or does Quocunque se vertat 2. Or else by footsteps is to be understood the latter end of Davids Kingdom which was indeed subject to reproach 3. But the Chaldee Paraphrast by footsteps understands the coming of the Messiah in the flesh which because it was long promised and men saw not performed they derided mocked at and reproached as vain 9. The close of this long Psalm is a Benedictus by which the Prophet The last part The Doxology after his Combate with Flesh and Blood about the performance of the Covenant doth compose his troubled soul and acquiesce in God blessing him for whatsoever falls out no otherwise than Job did breaking forth into this Epiphonema 1. Vers. 52 Blessed be the Lord for evermore Blessed be his Name who doth and orders all
it to the Magnificat for what is here foretold by David is there chanted forth plainly suppose then David to be the voice and Mary the eccho and thus you may easily see the return 1. O sing unto the Lord a new Song saith David My soul doth magnifie the Lord saith Mary 2. David the voice saith He hath done marvellous things He hath magnified saith the eccho 3. With his own right-hand and with his holy arm hath he gotten himself the victory saith David He hath shewed strength with his arm and scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts saith Mary 4. The Lord hath made known his salvation his righteousness hath he openly shewed c. saith David His mercy is on them that fear him throughout all generations c. saith Mary 5. He hath remembred his Mercy and Truth toward the house of Israel saith David the voice He remembring his Mercy hath holpen his Servant Israel saith Mary the eccho An Egg then cannot be more like an Egg than this Hymn is like the Magnificat and both sung for the same end viz. To praise God for the Salvation of the world by Christ Two parts of the Psalm 1. An exhortation to sing to the Lord and the reasons of it vers 1 2 3. 2. A new invitation to praise him and that it be universal from vers 4. to 9. 1. He begins with a very fervent and earnest exhortation it hath an O. The first part He incites to praise God before it 1. O sing Cantate not canite 2. A Song a Hymn it would be 3. To the Lord not men Vers. 1 2. A new Song because a new occasion is given for a Song it is not for your Creation or Preservation you are now to sing but for your Redemption Nova res novum Canticum No common no ordinary Song will now serve turn but as Gods Mercy in this Work was extraordinary so our thanks ought to be more than ordinary And that men may yield to this motion and put it in practice the more readily and cheerfully the Prophet subjoins his reasons The reasons to perswade it 1. His Miraculous work of Redemption 1. For he hath done marvellous things he hath opened his greatness and goodness in this great work of Redemption especially In this work there be marvellous things indeed He was conceived by the Holy Ghost he was born of the Virgin Mary he cured the blind healed the lame raised the dead c. And which is yet more marvellous though he were the Lord of life yet dyed raised himself ascended into heaven sent down the Holy Ghost and by unlearned men converted the world Domuit orbem non ferro sed ligno A marvellous thing that men should believe in a Crucified God 2. His right-hand and his holy arm hath gotten him the victory 2 A work of power and holiness It was his own work he had no Coadjutors in it And it was a work of his right-hand and of his arm that is of his Son who in Scripture is called the arm of God 2. Of his holy arm for the work was not done by Swords and Warlike Weapons but by his Holiness manifested by his Humility Patience Obedience Submission to the Will of God and a Holy life and an undeserved death 3. He hath gotten himself the victory to himself first then to all his over Sin Death Hell 3. The Lord hath made known his Salvation First 3 This work made known by himself to the Jews after by his Apostles to all Nations His Salvation that is Vers. 2 A Salvation of his people from their sins which had been of no use had he not in mercy made it known 4. His righteousness hath he openly shewed in the sight of the heathen 4 And applyed to us 1. His righteousness by which he makes us just by remission of sin and imputation of his justice by which we are alone justified at the Bar of God 2. 5 That which moved him to it Mercy and Truth This he hath openly shewed plainly revealed in his Gospel 3. In the sight of the heathen for it is now made known to them as well as the Jews 5. Vers. 3 He hath remembred his Mercy and Truth toward the House of Israel 1. To the House of Israel for to them were the Prophecyes given and with them the promise made which yet concerned us Gentiles 2. His Mercy in promising For it was out of meer mercy and grace and not any merit of mans that he should promise That the seed of the woman should break the Serpents head 3. And he remembred it when he performed it by sending Salvation by his Son Then he remembred his Truth and performed the Oath which he sware to our fore-fathers by visiting and Redeeming his people 4. Which now all Nations have seen For all the ends of the earth have seen the Salvation of our God The Nations have heard the Apostles and their Successors they have believ'd the Gospel and so by a heart purified by Faith and experiment of Grace they have actually seen the Salvation of our God By the eye of faith they embrace it love it and labour by a holy life to be partakers of it 2. The second part Upon these reasons he perswades us to sing unto the Lord a new Song that Salvation was by him alone wrought for us 2. Proclaimed and made known to us For this again he perswades 3. That he had performed his Covenant and applyed it making all the ends of the earth partakers of it And now he returns to exhort us to do that with which he began and as if he could never sufficiently express his desires he runs descant upon it Praise him with a loud voice sing with your tonges exult with your hearts take in the help of all Instruments and call to all creatures to accompany you and complete your mirth This is the Summe of the following verses 1. Vers. 4 Make a joyful noyse unto the Lord all the whole earth Jubilate keep a Jubilce for it To praise him all wayes we can Cantate Chant it out aloud Exultate Fetch as it were a leap for it And Psallite Sing praise all the wayes you can 2. And let all the earth do it because all the earth is partaker of the Saviour and Salvation 2. Vers. 5 Sing unto the Lord with a harp with the harp and the voice of a Psalm Vers. 6 with Trumpets and sound of a Cornet With Vocal with Cordal with Pneumatical Musick All wayes we can are too little to express our joy 3. Make a joyful noyse before the Lord our King You are in conspectu ejus his eyes sees and his ear hears what you do let it be done heartily 4. Vers. 7 And to make the Musick the fuller as if the senseless creatures had ears and hands to give an applause at the relation And call all creatures to join with us and
thou break a leaf driven too and fro Ver. 11 How long wilt thou pursue the dry stubble While thou Writest these bitter things against us our dayes are like a shadow and decliues and we are withered as grass whose beauty and glory fades in a moment But why art thou thus vexed O my soul Ver. 12 and why art thus disquieted within me O put thy trust in God Call to mind that he endures for ever and the remembrance of his Covenant to all generations 'T is thy promise O Lord we look to 't is thy Covenant only we hope in according to thy word arise and have mercy upon Zion pity thy poor afflicted people for the time to favour her is now very seasonable Ver. 13 yea the time is come For thy servants think upon and take pleasure in her stones not so much those stones with which those goodly structures Ver. 14 in which we were wont to meet and praise thee were built and beautified as those living stones built upon the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles Ver. 17 Jesus Christ himself being the chief Corner-stone and it pitieth them to see her in the dust In the dust Lord we favour them and for these we pray that they may be restored to their places in thy Sacred Temple Ver. 16 O regard the prayer of the poor destitute and despise not our desire for this will tend to thy honour and enlargement of thy Kingdom being alsured Ver. 15 that when the Lord shall build up Zion and when he shall appear in glory that the heathen shall fear the Name of the Lord and all the Kings of the earth thy glory Look down then O Lord from the height of thy Sanctuary and from heaven behold the earth Ver. 19 Hear the groaning of the Prisoners and loose those that are appointed to death Ver. 20 that they may declare the name of the Lord in Zion and his praise at Jerusalem Ver. 21 May we but obtain so great a mercy it shall be written for the generations to come and the people our children that shall be born Ver. 18 shall praise the Lord They shall praise thee and sing of thy mercy in the great Congregation even when the people are gathered together and the Kingdoms to serve the Lord. That thou wilt make an Inquisition for innocent blood I am assured that those who have profaned thy dwelling place shall be as a rolling thing before the wind Ver. 23 I do believe that they who have swallowed down riches shall vomit them up again I know for God shall cast them out of their belly But thou hast so weakned my strength in the way and so shortned my dayes that it is not likely I shall lide to sée it Lord might my eyes sée thy salvation I would willingly sing with old Simeon Ver. 24 Now let thy servant depart in peace Yet will I pray O my God take me not away in the midst of my age I am thy Creature O Lord created after thy own image yet not to live for ever on earth as thou shalt live in heaven for thy years are throughout all generations Even the earth whose foundation thou hast laid and the heavens which are the work of thy Power and Wisdom wax old as a garment and as a vesture shall be wrapt up they shall perish and be annihilated spare me a little then because I am a creature of a short continuance and can bear no proportion to thy esernity for thou art the same and thy years have no end But I yield my self to thy Will I submit my self to thy dispose if I cannot arrive to what I desire to sée Jerusalem in prosperity yet grant that I may see my Lord in the Land of the living for I am assured that the children of thy servants shall continue and their seed shall be established before thee and live in thy presence for evermore Amen PSAL. CIII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Psalm to David THE Title shews the Psalm to be inspired into David by the Holy Ghost and the end is to comfort a soul heavy and laden but especially with the burden of sin To him every word in it drops like an Honey-comb so that had not the comfort been revealed and sent from heaven it could never have been believed that Almighty God should be so merciful to sinful man Three parts there are of this Psalm 1. The Exordium in which David by an Apostrophe turns to his own soul and stirs it up to bless God ver 1 2. 2. The Narration or an ample Declaration of the Benefits from the first to the last conferred by God upon him and others and the causes of them from ver 3. to 20. 3. A Conclusion in which he makes a motion to Angels and all other Creatures to joyn with him in the praise of God from ver 20. David stirs up his soul to praise God The first part to the last 1. David being fully perswaded that he was one of the number of the Elect stirs up himself in the person of the Elect to praise and speak well of God in the two first verses 1. Bless God think on the Benefit and bless the Benefactor Ver. 1 Extoll him with praises 2. O my Soul bless him because the Soul alone can know and inform the whole man what God deserves for his blessings 2. Again he would not have it a lip-labour but come from a heart affected with it Heartily done for quod cor non facit non fit 3. Not the Soul alone but that all that is within him Totum hominis And the whole man whatsoever is within his skin every part every faculty about him Will Understanding Memory Affections Heart Tongue Hand Eyes c. All joyn 4. And bless Jehovah for he gave them their Being and their Properties and Operations 2. Praise his holy Name his Essential Properties his Wisdom Power Goodness Justice for to oclebrate God in all these is To praise his holy Name 5. Bless the Lord O my Soul for he comes over it again Ver. 2 that he might press the Duty more emphatically and shew his vehement desire to have it done it shewes we freeze and are cold in the Duty and need a Goad to quicken us 6. And forget not all his benefits He repeats it and adds That we forget not His Benefits 1. Forget not He would not be guilty of the common Errour forgetfulness of a good turn for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which if it happen 't is impossible to be thankful and therefore Omnium ingratissimus qui beneficii accepti non reminiscitur Forget not then 2. All his benefits Not all no nor indeed any of them for not one but deserves a blessing 3. His benefits Some read Munera the Vulgar Retributiones If Munera they are freely given if Retributiones they are more than we can deserve yet it pleases him to accompt them so Let but a man well consider how many evils we
not the interposition of our sin so it be repented and left that can hinder his Grace to shine upon us and remove it 3. He is slow to anger and he hath this of a Father also 3 Slow to anger For no men more patient than Fathers in tolerating the infirmities and childishness of their Children this in him also For like as a Father pieth his Children Ver. 13 so the Lord pitieth them that fear him 4. Plenteous in mercy 4 Plenteous in mercy He takes into his consideration what frail Creatures we are and fading For he knoweth our frame he remembreth we are dust Ver. 14 As for man his dayes are as grass as a flower of the Field so he flourisheth for the wind passeth over it and it is gone and the place thereof shall know it no more And this fragility and instability of our's causeth him to be exceeding merciful to us which David expresseth in the next verse by way of Antithesis But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting ab aeterno in aeternum from the Eternity of our Predestination to the Eternity of our Glorification yet not bestowed hand over head it is with thy Restriction and Limitation But to those that fear him and keep his Covenant 1. Upon them that fear him 2. And his righteousness that is veracity and faithfulness in performing his Covenant not to the Fathers alone but to Childrens children 3. To such as keep his Covenant Yea and are obedient observe the conditions of Faith and Repentance 4. Yea and of obedience also That remember his Commandments to do them These Benefits are many and wonderful and the mercy from which they proceed infinite but that no man doubt of the performance of it Ver. 19 that God will do for those That fear him and keep his Commandments This mercy God is able to make good what he hath promised and in the Close of this Part the Prophet puts us in mind of his Power 1. He is Dominus in Coelo not like our Lords on Earth his power is no where circumscribed 2. He hath prepared his Throne in the Heavens there he fits pro Tribunali can see and judge the World 3. And that we suspect him not to be some under-Judge set over us and appointed by another David tells us His Kingdom ruleth over all The Supremacy is his he is the Supreme Monarch 3. The third part For these Benefits he invites all Creatures to praise God And thus the Prophet having particularly remembred Gods Goodness and Benefits to his People as being not able to return sufficient thanks alone he invites all the Creatures to joyn with him in his praise and first the Angels Bless the Lord ye his Angels whom he describes 1. 1 Angels From their excellency Ye that excel in strength 2. From their obedience And do his Commandments 3. From their celerity readiness and chearfulness in it That hearken to the voyce of his words that you may shew you selves faithful Ministers and Servants 2. 2 Armies of God He invites all the Armies of God to joyn with him by which Bellarmine understands all the Superiour Order Archangels Principalities Dominations and Powers which is the Militia of Heaven Luke 2. together with the Angels before-named Bless the Lord all his Hosts ye who how glorious soever yet are but Ministers of his that do his pleasure faithfully receive your charge and do it diligently and daily execute it 3. 3 All his works He invites all the Creatures of God to joyn with him also as if they had sense 3 All his works and understood him Bless the Lord all his works All for that no man should think that he meant only rational Creatures in Heaven and Earth 2. He adds in all places of his Dominion which extends over the whole world All Creatures then without exception and all in all places he desires would do it and good Reason for he made all and rules over all and is in all places with all and fills all and preserves all and moves all and in their kinds they have done it the Water at the Flood the Fire at Babylon the Crowes in feeding Eliah the Lyons in sparing Daniel c. And they do it when all keep their own stations and work according to that Law of Nature which God hath put upon them 4. 4 Himself Lastly That no man should imagine that he that called on others would be backward in performing the Duty himself as he began so he concludes this excellent Psalm Bless the Lord O my Soul At all times let his praise be in thy mouth The Prayer collected out of the one hundred and third Psalm BOund I am Ver. 1 O Omnipotent God and most merciful Father for thy great favours unto me with heart with soul with all powers of my mind and all strength of my body perpetually to acknowledge thee to praise thee and laud thy holy Name Wherefore O my Soul Bless thou the Lord and all faculties within me and parts about me bless his holy Name Bless the Lord O my Soul Bless the Lord O my Soul and forget not all or any one of his Benefits My actual sins are many and grievous but thou O Lord in mercy hast forgiven my iniquities Thou hast justified me by the death of thy Son cleansed me by his blood of an unjust person made me just of an enemy a friend of a slave a san I consess O Lord that the bitter root of sin is so graffed in my nature that I carry it about me in my mortal body and I lament yet I give thanks to thy grace which hath so healed my infirmities and so subdued them by the power of thy Spirit that I féel it daily dying and the strength thereof so decayed that it cannot reign rule and command within me And this gives me assurance Ver. 4 That thou hast redeemed my life from death hell and destruction and that at last out of thy loving-kindness and tender mercies I shall be Crowned with a Crown of Glory Lord what was I or what could I deserve that thou shouldst bestow these wonderful Benefits upon me when I think upon them I am not able to comprehend them and when I comprehend them I should be never able to believe them had'st thou not revealed them and assured them to my foul by thy boly Spirit O my Soul then bless the Lord bless his holy Name and forget not all his Benefits But as if all these high favours had been too little Thou hast over and above added many temporal blessings I enjoy by thy bounty food and rayment Ver. 5 which are good things so long as well used with these thou hast satisfied my mouth and given me health and strength to make use of them So that my youth is renewed as the Eagles in this my old age I find my body healthful my senses not altogether impaired my
That when all humane helps failed they implored the aid and help of God Almighty 1. Then in their trouble When no other Course will work this will do it Ve. 6 and therefore God lets his be brought into trouble In prosperity They cryed to God the heart of the best man is often too secure and thinks not on God but let such a one be brought into some extremity and streight and he will cry They did so here 2. They cryed In their Petition they were very earnest 't was not a cold prayer that might freeze in the way before it came to Heaven but it was fervent a Cry 3. And they cryed Not to any false god as did Baals Priests nor relied wholly on any humane help But they cryed unto the Lord their cry was rightly directed Now the success was answerable to their desire 1. In general He delivered them out of their distresses He delivered them 2. But in particular the deliverance was every way fit and accommodated to the exigence they were in the manner being this 1. They wandered in the Wilderness in a solitary way they found no City to dwell in ver 4. But he led them forth by the right way Ver. 7 that they might go to a City of habitation 2. They were hungry and thirsty and their soul fainted in them ver 5. But he satisfieth the longing soul and filleth the hungry soul with goodness Which mercies are every way correspondent to them express'd in ver 4 5. And upon this he inculcates his Exhortation to praise God For which he exhorts them to praise God with which he began ver 1. But is so earnest to have it done that he interserts between the mercies as if he were loth to have it deferr'd which Course he also perpetually takes as may be seen after in the Psalm Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men 1. The Lord deliver'd the Lord led them forth let him then have the praise 't is his due 2. It was out of meer goodness he did it not out of desert For he is good ver 1. 3. And the effect of his goodness was seen in his works his wonderful works He would then have his praise be as publick as were his works open manifest And it was his hearts desire it should be so Oh that men would praise 2. The second Corporal Misery to which men are subject is Captivity and Imprisonment which as before he first describes The second misery captivity then shewes the Course the Captives and Prisoners took and the consequent of it viz. Gods mercy in their deliverance upon which he exhorts them as he did the banish'd and hunger-starv'd to be thankful 1. He describes their misery 1. Captives they were taken by the enemy put into Dungeons and Prisons Ver. 10 where they were debarred of the comfort of the Sun In which they suffer often very sorely For they sate in darkness and shadow of death for such is a Dungeon and they in it are in daily expectation of death 2. Besides in this place They were fast bound with affliction and iron the iron enters into their souls For disobedience against God 3. And the farther it will enter if the cause be as it is of the most their rebellion against God when they are conscious of this their irons will be far the more afflictive To others as Joseph the Apostles Jeremy the Dungeon will be the less troublesom But as I said this is the cause of few the most come thither Because they rebelled against the words of the Lord Ver. 11 and contemn'd the counsel of the most High as did the Israelites in the time of the Judges and after And therefore he brought down their heart took down their pride with labour they fell down and there was none to help 2. But then they took the same course that the banished did 1. The remedy as before They cryed unto the Lord in their trouble 2. And found the same favour And he saved them out of their distresses 3. The manner being very sutable to their distress 1. For they sate in darkness and shadow of death ver 10. But he brought them out of darkness When the same course is taken and shadow of death 2. They were bound in affliction and iron he brake their Bands asunder yea and set open the Prison-doors For he hath broken the gates of Brass and cut the bars of iron in sunder The Prison was not so strong but he was stronger and in mercy did deliver his from the severest and sharpest Captivity Now he interposeth as before his Exhortation to be thankful Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men 3. The third misery some great sickness The third Misery in which the Prophet instanceth is some great sickness or pining away of the Body under some grievous disease incurable by man such as was that of the Israelites when stung by fiery Serpents or after of Hezekiah And about this he useth his former method 1. Describes the danger and dolour under which the sick parties languish 2. Shewes the Course they took for recovery which was the very same with the Exiles and Captives 3. And the Consequent upon it their recovery upon which he the third time calls upon the delivered to be thankful 1. Which God sends on foolish sinners The appellation he fastens upon these diseased persons is Fools Not but that they may be wise enough in other things but in that they sin with a high hand against God for which they draw some plague upon them they are Fools 2. For some grievous sin Now such Fools God often smites with an incurable disease Fools because of their transgression and because of their iniquity are afflicted Not but all sickness is from sin but this that the Prophet here speaks of being extraordinary was for some general Apostacy Rebellion Contempt of God and his Word some more than ordinary sin You have the first description of their sickness from the Cause 3. For which the sickness sharp The next is from the Effect which was lamentable and double 1. Their soul abhorred all manner of meat Meat with which the life of man is sustained all manner of meat becomes loathsom to them the disease was grievous 2. And deadly to the eye of man Yea and deadly too no Art of Physitians able to cure them For they draw near to the gates of death i. e. the Grave where death exerciseth his power as the Judges of Israel did in the gates 2. This causeth them to cry to God But these being but dead men in the eye of man took the same Course as they before 1. Then they cryed unto the Lord in their trouble 2. Ver. 19 And by Gods blessing they recovered beyond all hope and expectation God
above and alone was their Physitian 3. This was the manner of their Cure He saveth them out of their distresses 1. And he restores them to life and health He sent his Word and healed them He said the word only and they were made whole or if any Dos were applied as put case a Brazen Serpent Ver. 20 or a Bunch of Figs yet it was his Word his Will his Command that made them Medicinal Wisd 16.12 13. And therefore the Prophet useth an apt word to put us in mind of this He sent his Word no otherwise than some great Prince sends forth his Embassadour to do his Command and I little doubt but the Centurion had this in his mind when he said to our Saviour Say the word only and my servant shall be whole Mat. 8. 2. And he delivered them from their destructions which is opposed to the danger they were in ver 18. They draw nigh to the gates of death For which he calls on them to be thankful 3. But again he remembers the delivered to acknowledge the Cure with a grateful heart Ver. 21 Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men And he adds 1. And let them sacrifice their Sacrifices their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. But yet with these conditions and limitations Ver. 22 1. That it be with a thankful heart they must be Sacrifices of Thanksgiving an outward Sacrifice was nothing worth without it 2. That with the Sacrifice there go an Annunciation that men declare his works publish what great things God had done for them that the Cure was his 3. That it be done with rejoycing that we have an experience of Gods presence his mercy and favour in which the heart ought more to rejoyce than for the Cure done upon the Body 4. The fourth Misery ariseth from the danger at Sea of which all Travellers The fourth misery Shipwrack Merchants Mariners have experience which 1. He describes 2. Shewes the course they take in a storm 3. And the event following upon their prayers 4. Upon which he calls upon as upon the three before to praise God 1. They that go down to the Sea in ships Go down Ver. 23 for now the Sea is lower than the Earth The storm described to which he prefaceth 2. That do business in great waters Have a Calling and Vocation to go down as Merchants Mariners for as for Pyrates they have no Vocation they may perish they have no promise of Protection nor Audience 3. These men see the works of the Lord and his wonders in the deep Ver. 24 Others hear of them by Relation but these see them They see the great Whales innumerable kinds of strange Fishes and Monsters they see what the vastness and depth of the Sea is they see Islands innumerable dispersed and safe in the Waves they find in it many Whirle-pools Quick-sands Rocks they have experience of the virtue of the Load-stone they discover many Stars that we know not they behold the working of the Sea the raging of it through which fear and horrour of death invades the hearts even of the most valiant men 4. For he commandeth Now he begins to describe the Tempest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. From the cause God it is that sayes the word and his word is a Command 2. And with his word He raiseth the stormy wind Incutit vim ventis 3. Which inspired with his word lifts up the waves thereof that is the Sea Fluctus ad sidera tolli Virgil. Aenead 1. 4. They that is the passengers mount up to heaven they go down to the depth Hi summo in fluctu pendent his unda dehiscens Terram inter fluctus aperit 5. Their soul is melted because of trouble Their strength fails and their spirit for fear and horrour faints Extemplo Aeneae solvuntur frigore membra 6. They reel too and fro they are tossed this way and that way Tres curus ab alto in Brevia Syrtes urget 7. They stagger and totter as a drunken man an apt similitude Cui dubii stantque labantque pedes 8. And are at their wits end Or Omnis sapientia corum absorbetur Their Judgment roves their Art fails their Skill is at end Et meminisse viae media Palinuras in unda Denegat Acts 27.14 Hitherto the Prophet hath Poetically described the Tempest and Storm Then they cry to God and now he comes to acquaint us with the Course they in this danger took for to save their lives They all flie to the common Remedy this they thought was safest and might do it when all failed Then they cryed unto the Lord in their trouble The Course that the Mariners in Jonah took Jonah 1. I see the old Proverb will be true Qui nescit orare discat navigare And the Consequent was as before And he quiets the Tempest And he brings them out of their distresses The manner this 1. He makes the storm a calm Dicto cirius tumida aequora placat 2. So that the waves thereof are still Et cunctus pelagi cecidit fragor 3. Then are they glad because they be quiet which is the first Effect No more reeling too and fro no more at their wits end but taken out of the jawes of death by a sudden calm whence ariseth much joy Laeto testantur gaudia plausu 4. And sets them safe on shore And to increase it at last he sets them safe on shore So he brings them to their desired Haven Magno telluris amore Egressi optata nautae potiuntur arenâ Et sale tabentes artus in littore ponunt 3. For which he calls on them to praise God And now in the last place he puts them in mind of their Duty and wishes that they would pay their Tribute for the miracle done upon them in saving of their lives out of so great danger Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men And it might be that in their danger they had made some Vow as was usual for men in a great danger at Sea to do Read the life of Nazianzen who in such a case vowed himself to God This the Prophet would have paid and yet openly 1. Let them exalt him also in the Congregation of the people In a Congregation where all the people are assembled to praise God 2. And that not only before the promiscuous Multitude but in the presence of those who excel in Authority Wisdom and Power even the Princes Let them praise him in the Assembly of the Elders Me tabula sacer votiva paries indicat vida suspendisse potenti vestimento Maris Deo 3. The third part Gods Providence in the alterations of Kingdoms After the Prophet had exalted Gods mercies in freeing men from these four former Miseries and Calamities Banishment Captivity Sickness and Shipwrack now he manifests
expect none but muddy troubled water that then the Prophet saith He shall drink of the Torrent intimates That the drink offer'd him should be much and troubled And at his Passion he descended into the very depth of the Torrent and drank very deep of it 3. In the way That was while he was Viator in his Journey all the time of his life that preceded his Resurrection and Ascension 2. His Ascension and Honour But Claritas Humilitatis praemium because he thus humbled himself and willingly underwent his Death and Passion for the Glory of his Father and the Salvation of Mankind therefore shall God lift up his Head he shall ascend into Heaven sit at his right hand and be constituted the Judge of quick and dead he shall rise from the dead and have all power committed to him in Heaven and Earth The Prayer out of the One hundred and tenth Psalm O Almighty God most gracious and merciful Lord sinned all Mankind hath and by it incurr'd thy displeasure and by the disobedience of our first Parents had we not since added to that disobedience béen utterly lost it was not in the power of any creature to save us it was not within the compass of any humane or angelical ability to make our peace to get our pardon and to reconcile us again unto thée The sentence of death was passed upon us and nothing could respite the execution but thy own Ordinance A Mediator was wanting to interpose and hear all differences a Priest to step in and make an Atonement an Advocate to plead for thy people and allay the anger that was gone forth And such an one O merciful Lord Thou out of thy méer love hast in mercy provided for us Thou saidst to thy own Son Thou art a Priest for ever and thy own Son said Lo I come to do thy Will Ver. 4 and so by thy wonderful Decrée and his willing Obedience we are redéemed Who ever heard so strange a thing who could or would ever believe this report hadst not thou O God revealed it The zeal of the Lord hath done this for us the zeal of the Son of God hath done this brought to pass that which flesh and blood would never believe were it not That thou hast commanded it to be believed O mystery beyond comprehension which when we séem to comprehend yet we understand not the secret so far passeth what our weak capacity can reach unto And in this thou O merciful Father hast condescended to our infirmity for that thy Decrée and thy Sons love be never more doubted Thou hast secured us by an Oath an Oath of which thou wilt never repent That he is a Priest for ever A Priest must have something to offer and he offer'd himself a Priest must offer blood and he offer'd his own a Priest must step in and appease thy anger when it was at the highest a Priest must reconcile when the terms of difference were the greatest And such an High Priest thou hast sworn thy Son shall be given him for us and to us not only to them that lived then and before but to all thine that are now and shall be hereafter for thou hast ordained to be a Priest for ever O holy and good Father how much hast thou loved us who hast not spared thine one only Son but hast deliver'd him to be our Priest and our Sacrifice and therefore our Priest because our Sacrifice to Sacrifice himself upon the Altar of the Cross that he might cancel and nail there the Hand-writing that was against us and by death destroy him that had the power of death the Devil This could not be done till he had drank of the Brook in the way till all thy storms and waves had gone over him for so it behoved Christ to suffer Ver. 7 and to enter into his Glory But now all those indignities that agony those unknown sufferings are at an end and thou hast lifted up his head He that sacrificed himself on Earth is an High Priest an Advocate a Mediator an Intercessor for his Body in Heaven and there applies his purchase and continues this his Office for his Servants and Saints O Lord I am the meanest the most sinful of this Society so often as I provoke thée to anger by infirmity or surreptitious by enormous or presumptuous iniquities turn thy face from me a wretched Caitiff and behold those wounds in his hands féet and side and accept of that precious Sacrifice which he made upon the Cross for me hear the cry of those wounds that intercede for me at thy Throne of Grace I rely upon no other Advocate I will sue to no other Mediator if he be not able to save me then let me perish for ever speak peace to my soul in his Name be reconciled unto me in his blood and make his intercession so powerful unto me That I may be purged from my sins and turned from mine iniquities And this Supplication I do not only offer unto thée for my self but for all thy people Ver. 1 for whose sakes thou hast lift up his head and said unto my Lord Sir thou at my right hand All power is now given unto him both in Heaven and in Earth for he is not only a Priest but a King also a Scepter he hath and a Rod in his right hand this is the Rod of his strength and it came first out of Zion Ver. 2 I mean his Gospel that Law which came first out of Zion and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem O set thy King upon thy holy hill of Zion give him the Heathen for his inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession break them with a Rod of Iron and dash them in pieces like a Potters Vessel Oppose all those that oppose the growth and enlargement of his Kingdom Let him rule in the midst of thine enemies and sit at thy right hand until thou hast made all his enemies his Foot-stool O Lord let him preside and have the Dominion over all till there be no Adversary left that shall dare to oppose him in his Offices Behold we humbly beséech thée how in these our dayes there are risen up blasphemous and wicked men cruel and bloody Antichrists who go about to break his Bands asunder and dare boldly and impudently say of him We will not have this man to reign over us Be present then O Lord our Saviour at the right hand of thy people and strike through Kings Princes and Potentates in the day of thy wrath Exercise judgment against these blasphemous and heathenish Rebels let not thy Eye pity them nor thy Sword spare them but fill the places with their dead bodies and in what Countrey soever they remain what Aire soever they breath let their factious bodies and their Machivillian and Tyrannical heads and leaders receive their deaths wound from thy hand and fury O Lord pronounce a favourable sentence for thy Church and let
Eucharistical Sacrifices of the old Law in which when any man offe'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is a Sacrifice to God out of thankfulness for soâ—e deliverance he made a Feast to the people 1 Oblatâ—um 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as did David 1 Chron. 16.1 2 3. where he dealt to every one of the people a loaf of bread a good piece of flesh and a flagon of wine in the receiving of which with a joyful voyce they sang praise to God for his benefits This then they say David here promised and he calls it the Cup of salvation because it was to be offer'd in thankfulness of the salvation obtain'd 2. But Bollarmine casts this off as too light and with the Fathers 2 Pati Crucem ferre understands it of the Cup of patience and affliction and tribulation which is often in Scriptures call'd a Cup Matth. 20.22 Psal 75.8 c. and may well be call'd the â—up â—f tribulation because through many tribulations we must enter into the Kingdom of God This then is it that David saith When I have nothing more excellent to offer to God for his many benefits I will drink with a willing mind the Cup of the Lord though it be a bitter Cup full of tribulations and afflictions for I am assured that it will be a Cup of salvation unto me and therefore 2. I will call upon the Name of the Lord 3 Invocare that he would strengthen me to drink of it whensoever it pleaseth him to administer it to me Or if we follow the first Interpretation I will call on the Name of the Lord offer unto him an Eucharistical Sacrifice for my deliverance 3. I will pay my vowes unto the Lord in the presence of all his people It was usual for Gods servants in their extremities to make vowes it is likely David did so 4 Selvere votâ— ea ratione quia morâ— sanctorum preciosae and here he promiseth to pay them and that not privately but publickly in the presence of all the people Bellarmine refers the words to his open confession of his God and his readiness to drink the Cup although it were to Martyrdom And in the next words he renders a reason why he was so ready to pay his vowes or to confess his Name in the open Assembly because he had learned that pious men are under Gods protection that even in death it self they are his care Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of all his Saints An excellent Epiphonema The lervants of God do trouble themselves in vain and doubt to no purpose whether they be a care to him or no while they live for even their very death is precious unto him or they are precious to him in their death then he takes care of them as a man would do of the most precious Diamonds 4. David yet waxeth not proud upon this nor upon any of Gods favours Non superbie David sed profiretur se servum but in all humility though he were a King yet he was not too great to be a servant to his God a son of his Handmaid the Church which passionately he expresses 1. Oh Lord truly I am thy servant I am thy servant and the son of thy handmaid 2. And yet no slave but a voluntary servant Thou hast loofed my bonds taken from my neck the bonds of fear and fallen upon me with the yoke of love Mat. 11.30 Thou hast freed me from the slavery of the Law Eumque honestum and wouldst have me to be thy servant out of love Cur servire reguare est 3. And therefore I will do what thy servants ought and so he takes an occasion to say over again what he said before I will offer unto thee the Sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the Name of the Lord. I will pay my vowes unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people In the Courts of Gods house in the midst of thee O Jerusalem praise the Lord. Within the Church he would do his service what is without is nothing worth The Prayer collected out of the One hundred and sixteenth Psalm O God most merciful most gracious in making and most righteous in performing thy promises Ver. 5 who forgivest iniquity and sins and Ver. 6 preservest the souls of them that walk with a simple and sincere heart before thée Ver. 1 because thou hast heard my voyce and my supplications because thou hast inclined thine ear unto me The sorrowes of death compassed me and the pains of hell gat hold upon me I tound trouv'e and sorrow I was brought very low then I call'd upon the Name of the Lord then I cryed O Lord I beseech thee deliver my soul Ver. 8 and thou wast ready at hand to help me Thou hast deliver'd my soul from ceath Ver. 2 mine eyes from tears and my feet from falling Thou hast dealt very bountifully with me in pardoning my sin hearing my petitions and restoring me to the comforts of thy Spirit therefore I will call upon thee as long as I live therefore I will walk before thee in righteousness and holiness as long as I have a Being I was greatly afflicted Ver. 10 and all the comforts that I could receive from the lips of man were but vain they all proved miserable miserable comforters unto me In my baste I said they were all lyars till thou by thy holy Spirit didst secure me that thou wert and wouldst be unto me a merciful Father and sealest unto me an unexpected pardon This by the power of thy Spirit I have and do believe Ver. 10 and in it I acquiesce I expect no more I have enough Return then unto thy rest Ver. 7 O my troubled soul for the Lord hath dealt very bountifully with thee And now Ver. 12 What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me I find by experience that the death and afflictions of his Saints are as precious Iewels in his fight these for his sake I am content if it be his Will to undergo of this Cup if it séem good to him I am content to drink Oh Lord I am thy servant truly I am thy servant and the son of thy Hand-maid A patient son of my mother the Church and if it please thée to poure out to me a full draught of this red wine Thy Will not mine be done But if thou shalt take away the Cup from me or else proportion it according to my strength I will take the Cup of salvation with a contented mind and I will offer the Sacrifice of thanksgiving and will call upon the Name of the Lord. I have vowed my self to be thy servant though I can be but an unproficable servant yet I will pay my vowes unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people Now even now while I remain in the land of the living I will endeavour That my light may so shine before men
the head of the corner that was rejected that it was Gods doing alone and a marvellous work that the day in which this was done was a Festival and the people to rejoyce in it that then they pray'd to God to save them by his hand and blessed their King adorned their Temple and offer'd Sacrifices with many thanks to God for his mercies Thus no question these verses may literally be understood of David But it must be confessed that in all this David was but a Type of Christ and that these words properly belong unto him we have a clear testimony first from his own mouth attested by three Evangelists Matth. 21.42 Mark 12.10 Luke 20.17 and by his Apostles St. Peter Acts 4.11 and St. Paul Rom. 9.33 These words to be applied to Christ out of Isa 28.16 Of Christ then I shall rather interpret them than of David without doubt the Prophet being wonderfully illuminated by the Holy Ghost wrote concerning Christ as followeth 1. The stone which the builders refused is become the head-stone of the corner Ver. 22 1. The Church is oftentimes in Scripture likened to a building of which the Saints are living stones of which Christ is the chief stone the head and corner stone 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that joins and keeps together the two walls Jewes and Gentiles 2. But the Jewes the Priests especially to whom did pertain the office of building the Church refused this stone and cast him aside We will not have this man to reign over us we have no King but Caesar They crucified him and in his Grave call'd him a Deceiver St. Peter layes it to their charge Acts 4.11 3. But God call'd for him again and he is become the head of the corner Ephes 2.20 That is he is made head of the whole Church and such a head that whosoever is not built upon him cannot be saved 2. This saith the Prophet was the Lords doing both his rejection and raising again was from him it was done by his Election and Divine Power not from any counsel or hand of man Acts 2.23 24. 3. And it is marvellous in our eyes For who can do less than wonder that a crucified man dead and butied should by his own power rise again after three dayes be immortal and have all power given to him and be made Head and Prince of all men and Angels For this mercy a day set apart and that by him there should be a way made to mortal men to the Kingdom of Heaven to the society of Angels and an immortal life For so great a work fit it is that a day be set apart and such there is saith David 1. This is the day that the Lord hath made which questionless was the day of his Resurrection and God is said to have made this day more than other as honouring it above other making it memorable to posterity in which the Son of righteousness arose from the Grave and making it an high and holy day from which every other Sunday had his Original This is the Lords day 2. And the end why this day was made for joy and gladness The duty of the day The day wherein Adam fell was a doleful day but this day wherein Christ rose from the dead is a joyful day The Redemption by Christ is a year of Jubilee the Resurrection of Christ is the chief day in the year We will therefore rejoyce for it and be glad in it 3. Yea and in the midst of our rejoycing we will pray and sound forth Osanuah to the son of David which is being interpreted Save now we beseech thee O Lord O Lord we beseech thee send now prosperity Blessed be he that comes in the Name of the Lord Which was the gratulatoâ—â— and precatory words that the people used to our Saviour when he rode in Triumph into Jerusalem Mat. 21. That we may be assured that the Form of Acclamation belongs nor so much to David as to Christ and it was the opinion of the Jewes That when their Messiah came these words should be sung before him that being the cause that the people used them then The whole Prophesie of Christs coming riding into Jerusalem in Triumph The Priests duty then to bless Rejection Passion Resurrection Benediction being thus explained the Prophet turns his speech to the people putting into the mouth of the Priests these words in which they were to do their Duty Numb 6. and to bless 1. We have blessed you as we ought to do all happiness be to you under this King 2. And all happiness be to you out of the house of the Lord from the Church and to the Church alone the blessing belongs Ye are the blessed of the Lord. 3. God is the Lord which hath shewed us light Revealed unto his Son the light of the World and removed from us the darkness of errour sin hell c. 4. Therefore be thankful unto him bind the Sacrifice with cords even to the horns of the Altar make a solemn day for it and meet in the Church to praise him 5. The fifth part Being a Doxology The Prophet concludes with a Doxology fit to be used by the people met and assembled in which he sets forth his faith and gratitude 1. Thou art my God 2. And I will praise thee which he ingeminates Thou art my God and I will exalt thee which ingemination shewes his ardent desire to be thankful 3. And so concludes with the same Exhortation that he began the Psalm and in the same words O give thanks unto the Lord for he is good for his mercy endureth for ever The Prayer collected out of the One hundred and eighteenth Psalm O Blessed and Holy Iesus King of the World and Head of the Church who hast bought us by thy blood and espoused us in mercy and loving-kindness Ver. 13 it is not unknown unto thée how the enemies of thy Truth dally oppose us and with what storms and tempests of persecutions we are daily assaulted The Devil daily thrusts sore at us that we might fall and Antichrist with his complices compass us about they compass us about they compass us about in anger and rage they swarm about us as thick as Bées to sting us even to death might they have their will upon us In these our dangers we have none to fly to but thée we have none to call upon in our distress but on thée Who art the Lord our God answer us O Lord and set our feet in a large place Be on our side and then we will not fear what man can do unto us take our part with them that help us and so shall we see our desire upon them that hate us We confess O Lord we confess before men and Angels that our sins with which we have provoked thy justice Ver. 18 have deserved far greater punishments and that for these Thou hast sorely chastned and corrected us yet in mercy Thou hast not
delivered over our souls to death this encourageth us yet to rely upon thée Ver. 8 and to trust to thée and we know It is better to trust in the Lord than to put any confidence in man It is better to trust in the Lord than to put any confidence in Princes Ver. 14 For some would but cannot some can but will not help but thou art a God of power and if thou wilt Thou canst become our salvation and we believe thou wilt because thou hast spared us hitherto and hast not given us over to death Save now we beseech thee O Lord O Lord we beseech thee send us now prosperity Be our strength that we may resist and be our salvation that in thy Name we may destroy them that compass us about Let the voyce of rejoycing and salvation be once more in the Tabernacles of the righteous and let this be their song The right hand of the Lord doth valiantly The right hand of the Lord is exalted The right hand of the Lord doth valiantly We have béen froward and stubborn children and for this the doors of thy house have béen shut against us in mercy O Lord open unto us once more the gates of righteousness Ver. 19 that we may go into them and praise the Lord That hath befallen to us Ver. 22 which befel our Head thy dear Son our Lord and Saviour He was the Head-stone of the corner and yet the chief builders refused him and cast him aside but thou didst not forsake him in this contempt and low condition Thou call'ost for him again and gavest him a Name above every name This was the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes Look down now O Lord from thy Mercy-seat behold how the living stones in thy building are refused and cast aside call for them again and set them in their places and do it in such a way that the whole World may say This is the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes Not unto us O Lord not unto us but unto thy Name give the praise In the day of thy power thy people shall offer thée free-will offerings they shall appear in the beauty of holiness and sing This is the day that the Lord hath made we will rejoyce and be glad in it God is the Lord that hath shewed us light The Priests then shall bless thy people as they ought out of thy house Ver. 1 and every one of thy people shall sing with a loud voyce and with his whole â—eart Thou art my God and I will praise thee Thou art my God and I will exalt thee How joyful will be the melody of the whole Assembly as the Seraphims crying one to another O give thanks unto the Lord for he is good because his mercy endureth for ever Let Israel now say that his mercy endureth for ever Let the house of Aaron now say that his mercy endureth for ever Let them all now that fear the Lord say that his mercy endureth for ever It is his mercy that we were not consumed and his méer mercy that hath brought us together again into his house to offer unto him this Sacrifice of Thanksgiving in the Name of Iesus Christ our Lord Amen PSAL. CXIX Est mixti generis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 AS this Psalm is the longest of all the rest so it is of most use because it teacheth us in what true happiness doth consist and by what means it may be obtained to wit in the keeping of Gods Commandments 1. To these David shewes a singular affection because there is not any one verse except the 122. in which he makes not mention of Gods Word under some of these names Law Statutes Precepts Testimonies Commandments Promises Wayes Word Judgments Name Righteousness Trâ—th 2. What he writes of them he desires no doubt to be committed to memory and to help us in that he hath divided the whole into twenty two Sections and comprized every Section in eight verses and every verse in the Hebrew of each Section begins with that letter with whith the Section is intituled as if it begins with Aleph then Aleph begins every verse if with Beth with Beth and so in all the rest for which this Psalm may be called the A. B. C. of godliness 3. Any other method of this Psalm cannot well be laid only we may say that every verse in it either contains 1. A Commendation of Gods Word from some excellent quality in it 2. Promises to those that keep it 3. Threatnings against them that keep it not 4. A prayer of David for grace to confirm him in the observation of it 5. Protestations of his unfeigned affection toward it The meaning of those Synonyma'es used in this Psalm under which the Commandments of God are signified which are ten 1. The Law because it is the Rule of our actions Torah Gods Doctrine 2. Statutes because in them is set down what God would have us do 3. Precepts because God as the great Law-giver prescribes the Rule for us 4. Commandments because God layes his Commands upon us for their observation 5. Testimonies because they witness his Will to us and his Good-will if observed by us 6. Judgments because they pronounce Gods judgment of our words works thoughts 7. His Word because they proceeded from his mouth 8. The wayes of God because they shew the way that God would have us walk 9. His Righteousness because they contain an exact righteousness and justice in them 10. Promises because they have the promises of life if kept PSAL. CXIX ALEPH. IN this first Octonary The Contents the Prophet commends to us the Law of God and perswades to the practice of it by two Arguments The first is happiness ver 1 2. The second is the excellency of the Law-giver ver 4. 2. He shewes his affection to this Law desiring grace to keep it ver 5. upon which he knew there would follow a double effect 1. Peace in Conscience He should not be ashamed and confounded ver 6. David perswades to obedience 2. Thankfulness to God for his teaching ver 7. 3. He acquaints us with his Resolution if God should assist him ver 8. Blessed are they who are undefiled in the way Ver. 1 who walk in the Law of the Lord. Blessed are they that keep his Testimonies Ver. 2 and seek him with their whole heart They also do no iniquity they walk in his wayes 1. The first argument Blessedness The first Argument the Prophet useth to perswade men to obedience is Blessedness which is so true that godliness hath the promise of this life and that which is to come eternal and temporal felicity depend upon it He then that would be happy must be obedient and his obedience if true may be thus discerned 1. Ver. 1 He must be undefiled in the way Via is vita and he must keep himself as much as may be from the dirt and filth of sin To
both may very well stand together 1. Ver. 7 Let my soul live not only a natural but a spiritual life which is properly the life of the soul and the way to that life which is eternal 2. And it shall praise thee which should be the especial work of the soul here and shall be the great employment in Heaven 3. And let thy judgments help me Let thy judgments which I have kept be a comfort unto me and help me when I appear before thy Tribunal For I know thou wilt judge every man according to his works 4. He relies not on his obedience And yet David relies not on these he knew his works were not perfect and therefore in the last verse 1. He confesseth his Errours 2. Desires mercy 3. And protests his obedience 1. 1 For he confesseth his errours I have gone astray like a sheep that is lost Erravi I learned it from Adam his corrupt nature adheres to me hath and doth seduce me and I yet to my grief follow it so much I confess against my self notwithstanding all my sincerity all my diligence my seeking purpose resolution to keep thy Law Erroris medicina est confessio 1. But yet my errour hath been out of infirmity and simplicity I have erred as a sheep not as the Devil maliciously nor as a roaring Lyon malapertly and presumptuously proudly 2. But yet my errours have carried far from the Fold I am that lost sheep Luke 15. 2. 2 Asks mercy And upon it I petition for mercy O seek thy servant Thou which art the great Pastour that leftest the ninty nine feeding in the Wilderness to seek that sheep that wander'd from thee come thou Lord and by thy grace bring me home again seek me for by thy grace I seek thee 3. 3 Yet protests his service I seek thee where by thy grace I hope to find thee in a sincere obedidience to thy Will Seek me who am thy servant for I forget not thy Commandments Though I have fallen yet there remains some grace in me transgressed I confess I have yet I have not fallen into a full oblivion of thy Will as David was quickned by the Word so by it he is conserved when he fell the Word wakened him when wounded the Word cured him if at any time he resisted the Word armed him it went then well with him so long as he did not forget the Word The Prayer IT is thy Command O Lord that we ask séek and knock and thy promise is to give and open to such Ver. 1 in obedience to which thy Command I have so often sollicited thée and with servour of spirit and importunity of soul approached unto thy Throne of grace Let my cry O Lord come near before thee and my supplication be admitted in thy sight Ver. 2 and as I often have importuned thée make me wise not according to the methods of worldly wisdom but according to the rule of thy Word deliver me from the power of sin and malice of Satan I have chosen thy precepts and made thy Law my delight as well knowing that without the observation thereof I cannot hope for salvation This Lord I long for let thine hand then help me that I may fulfil thy Commandments and by my obedience come to everlasting life O spare me a little before I go hence and be no more seen but throughout that little remainder of my life let my soul live the life of grace then I shall praise thée then shall my lips utter and proclaim the equity of thy commands then shall my tongue intreat of thy Word even to the edification of others and make it known That thy Commandments are righteousness and of force to those who will take héed to them to reform all iniquity When I shall appear before thy Tribunal let thy judgments help me and when every man shall be judged according to his works let it be a comfort unto me that I have had a regard to thy Word in all my wayes This Lord I plead but not for my justification for many are my aberrations from thy Law I have gone astray like a lost sheep my corrupt nature hath seduced me and I have followed it O miserable man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death Thou which art the great Shepherd that leftest the ninty nine in the Wilderness to séek that shéep which wander'd from thy Fold come Lord and by thy grace bring me home again séek me for by thy Spirit I séek unto thée and however in simplicity and 〈◊〉 I shall still erre yet by thy assistance maliciously and presumptiously I will no◠offend O Lord kéep me in the right way and write thy Law so 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 memory and heart that I may bear a great affection to and 〈…〉 Commandments Reclaim me from sin and make me obedient to thy Word for thy mercy-sake which thou hast fréely made known and fréely given to the World in thy Son Iesus Christ our Lord. Amen Of the fifteen following Psalmes called Hammahaloth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Psalmes of Ascension or Degrees WHY the fifteen Psalmes following bear this Title it is not certainly known many conjectures there are of which the most likely are these 1. The first is of Rabbi David Kimchi and it is most generally received that there were fifteen steps by which the Priests ascended into the Temple upon every one of which the Priests standing sung one of these Psalms ascending by degrees from the lowest step to the highest and for this Reason these were called Psalms of Ascension or Degrees 2. A second opinion is that of Lyranus which is near to the former for he speaks not of the steps of the Temple but of a higher and more eminent place of the Temple where the Levites were wont to sing these fifteen Psalms daily and for this he conceives they were called Ascensions or Psalms of Degrees because they ascended unto that place to sing them 3. Rabbi Saadias conceives That Mahuloth had reference to a kind of Musick or Melody and when the word signifies an Ascent he supposeth that the Levites were thereby admonished that when they sang these Psalms they should sing with a full high voyce a degree higher than usual 4. Abenezra refers not these to the intention of the voyce in singing but to some Tune then commonly known to which these Psalmes were set 5. Some say they were set to be sung by the Jews when they came out of Captivity from Babylon and ascended to Jerusalem But this is not likely if David was the Author of them as is generally received More likely it is that they were composed to be sung by the way when they went up to the Temple yearly For they ascended with a Pipe Bellarmine hath this Moral of it that we ought still to ascend and be mounting upward from vertue to vertue or from one degree of vertue to another till we come to
wound my good name both déeply and at unawares as fire they consume my good name as coals of Iuniper hoily invade waste my reputation and being set on fire by hell they will not easily be quench'd deliver then O Lord my soul from lying lips and from a deceitful tongue Let the power of thy Word and those sharp arrows by which all the craft and subtility of Satan is wounded and pierced through be sent forth against their impiety and the hot coals of thy anger burn up their malicious snares that they may sée that no profit shall redound to them from a false tongue It is a grief and corrasive to my soul that I am forced to sojourn among these cruel barbarous impious and inhumane creatures in the shape of men it is as if I sojourned in Mesech and dwelt in the Tents of Kedar even the Scythians would be more mild to me the Sarracens more merciful Help me therefore with thy powerful hand or else my pilgrimage upon earth without end will be protracted and sadned by these evils and miseries For they are enemies to peace and my soul hath too long dwelt among them Thou knowest O Lord that I am a man of peace nay peace it self I seek peace and ensue it but when I speak for peace they reject all treaties thereof and make them ready for battel Since then they are for War and I and the rest of thy Servants must hold a continual War against spiritual wickedness in high places do not deny O good Father to those who call upon thée thy aid and assistance and with patience let us fight a good fight being assured that from henceforth is laid up for us an immortal Crown of glory which thou wilt give unto all those that resist till death for the merits of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ Amen PSAL. CXXI THE Scope of this Psalm is The Sum of the Psalme The Prophet in trouble flyes for help that other helps being overweak we put our trust in God and in his providence and gives divers reasons for it 1. In the first verse as most Interpreters conceive we hear Vocem hominis the voice of a man in danger that as a watchman gets him to some high Mountain in time of War and looks about to see who comes to aid him 1 Not to man or to a Mountain to hide himself or to a man that being out of his way gets him up to some Mountain and views what place is near where he may repose It shews that when we are in distress we too often fly to such things that cannot help I will lift up mine eyes to the hills Ver. 1 from whence comes my help 2. 2 But God But in the next verse the Prophet checks this vain confidence for in it we find vocem fidei The voice of a faithful soul that rejecting all confidence in auxiliary and secondary means reposeth his trust in God alone My help comes from the Lord. Ver. 2 Nor from other means nor false gods 3. The reasons of his confidence 1. Gods power And next he sets forth the reasons why he would trust in him 1. The first is his Omnipotency declared in his work of Creation He is the Lord that made heaven and earth Able then he is to help his creature 2. The second from his grace and goodness Ver. 3 He will not suffer thy foot to be moved i. e. he will not suffer thee to fall and slide in the way 2 Goodness but strengthen thy feet and make them stable Thou shalt persevere in thy course Willing to help 3. From his vigilancy over thee He that keepeth thee will not slumber 3 Care so vigilant he is that he will give his eyes no rest Ver. 4 Which the Prophet yet insists on in the next verse Behold he that keeps Israel To protect his Church shall neither slumber nor sleep never omit his care over thee over Israel his people He is asleep saith Elijah of Baal and must be awaked God sleeps not Excubias agit 4. From the end of this his care and vigilancy it is to keep to protect Ver. 5 to keep off all dangers and bad influences from Israel 1. The Lord is thy Keeper Israel in general 1 To it a keeper and thy Keeper in particular A fiery Wall about his Church and it needs because his Church is continually exposed to dangers 2. The Lord is thy shade umbraculum 2 A shadow a quitoso upon thy right-hand He may allude to the custom used in hot Countries in which men use to carry or have carried Quittasols above their heads to keep off the heat of the Sun Or else to the Israelites when travelling in the Wilderness they had a cloud by day to cover them Paris in Homer fighting with Menelaus was by Venus covered with a cloud 3. So that the Sun shall not burn thee by day as it did Ver. 6 when it fell upon Jonas head nor the Moon by night To preserve from all evill no noxious influence from the Stars The sense of these Metaphors is nor the day of prosperity nor night of adversity shall hurt thee nor the heat of persecution nor the coldness of indevotion do thee wrong 5. In a word he shall keep thee not from this or that but the Lord shall preserve thee from all evil From all but not from all that which may light upon the body but from that which may destroy the soul He shall preserve thy soul that shall not perish 6. The Prophet concludes adding this sweet consolation 1. The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in He is with his in the entrance progress end of their actions Via est vita and we are going out in it or coming in in it perpetually beginning or ending some action going abroad or returning and resting at home either we enter upon or perfect our work to begin it is to go in to do it to perfect it is to go out of it but the Lord promiseth to preserve us in both Or else David speaks as a souldier who goes out to battle when he is to fight and goes in when he returns home in this God promised to preserve him or else as a Magistrate who goes in and out before the people In all which God promiseth to be his Conducter and safe-guard 2. From this time forth for evermore And ever with them And this defence of God is here promised to be perpetual In all places in all times in all actions His help is present and efficacious verse 4 5. and constant verse 6 7 8. The Prayer O Almighty God because while we live in this valley of tears Ver. 1 we are within and without assaulted by enemies and every day in trouble we fly to the mountains and cast our eyes round to sée who comes to our aide and what and whom to trust to But all in vain for vain
they may lie in Ambush for me and that not only the Vulgar the Ziphits Mahanites with others but also the chiefest of Sauls Followers and Captains yea although they know that my words have been mild to them Which the words following justifie and I have not offended them in the least matter And this sense the verse following will justifie Our bones are scattered at the Graves mouth as when one cuts and cleaves wood upon the earth That is Ver. 7 They beset me and my company with such violence that we despair of life and must lay our bones unburied in the Wilderness to be scattered here and there The last part as Chips except thou O Lord shalt succour us and send us present help and therefore he goes on and presents Ver. 8 6. A sixth Petition which hath two parts 6 The last petition for his own safety 1. But my eyes are unto thee O God the Lord in thee is my trust 2. Leave not my soul destitute 1. For his own safety and deliverance Leave not my soul destitute suffer me not to fall into then hands to the loss of my life 2. Which is grounded upon his hope and confidence in God My eyes are unto thee I depend on thee I look for help from thee O God the Lord in thee is my trust The other part of his Petition is 3. Keep me from the snare which they have laid for me Ver. 9 and the gins of the workers of iniquity Keep me from their Frauds Deceits Ambushes which as Fowlers and Hunters they set for me 4. And lastly He imprecates confusion to fall upon his enemies heads and reiterates his Petition for his own safety 1. Let the wicked fall into their own Nets Neque n. Ver. 10 lex justior ulla And imprecates vengeance on the wicked 2. But let me ever escape them pass by or through them unhurt A Prayer collected out of the One hundred and forty one Psalm O LORD Ver. 1 being beset with many sorrows and dangers I cry unto thée make haste to help me O my God and send me some speedy deliverance lest if thou make as if thou hearest not I become like them that go down into the pit Give eare therefore now unto my voice when my soul being heavie unto the death with fervor and affectionate sighs I cry unto thée O let my prayer which I present to thée on the Altar of a sincere heart by the intercession of Iesus Christ my Lord Ver. 2 he a swéet perfume in thy nostrils accepted and set before thée as was that Incense which as offered unto thée upon the golden Altar by the High Priest in the Holy of Holiests and let this lifting up my hands be as grateful and pleasing to thée as was the evening sacrifice And first of all Ver. 3 O Lord because I am prone to offend in my tongue I beséech thée set a watch before my mouth that I may observe what words are fit to go forth and what fit to be kept in and keep the door of my lips that it may not open or shut but by prudence and charity Suffer me not to speak but what I ought and as I ought and when I ought and where I ought Let my words be ever gracious Ver. 4 and seasoned with salt And because the errors of the tongue procéeds from the vanity and corruption of the heart suffer not my heart to be enclined to any malicious wickednesse or if such a conception be formed within let it never come into act and practise O let me never be so destitute of thy grace to practise wicked works with men that work iniquity and so far be seduced by their example familiarity and society as to eate of their dainties and communicate with them in their hypocrisie their fained sanctity their specious doctrines their ill acquired riches and power or with them seek for excuses to defend what to satisfie andplease their own lusts they have gréedily made choice of If at any time being overcome by the weaknesse and frailty of my flesh Ver. 5 I shall indulge overmuch to my desires and be overtaken in an offence send some spiritual guide who may smite me friendly and restore me in the spirit of méeknesse This I shall reckon as a mercy to my soul Let such a man reprove me and it shall be as an excellent oyl to cure my ulcerous soul But never permit the smooth balm and oyly words of the wicked to fall on my head nor their flatteries and sothing applauses so please my heart that thereby I be cherished and nuzzled up in my grossest sins For so far I am from séeking the favor of the wicked that I shall alway pray against their malice and wickednesse At this time they set and besiege the rocky hills Ver. 6 and stoy the passages to take away my life They hunt for my soul as a Partridge upon the mountains O Lord let their chief conductors and leaders be overthrown and dashed to pieces as a ship against the rocks So shall it come to passe that the people who have followed them in simplicity of heart and whom these Princes have seduced shall hereafter give better héed to my words which I sounded in their eares of piety and iustice and mine own innocence For these were and are in themselves able to work in them a penitent and obedient heart and to the penitent and obedient they will be very â—â—éet and delightful Ver. 7 For till this be effected and their conversion wrought I and all my followers and adherents are in very great danger that our lives shall be taken away in these mountanous places and our dead bodies ly unburied in this wildernesse and consequently our bones scattered at the graves mouth as when one cuts and cleaves wood upon the earth But O thou my Lord God because my eyes are alway intent on thée and all my hope and trust is placed in thée Ver. 8 leave not my soul destitute suffer me not to fall into their hands who séek to take away my life Ver. 9 Kéep me that I be not taken in their snares which they have laid for me and those gins which these workers of iniquity have twisted and cunningly disposed for my ruine But let the wicked fall into their nets Ver. 10 and be taken in the crafty wilinesse which they have imagined but let me and the people which serve thée in sincerity and truth for ever escape them by the merits of Iesus Christ our Lord. Amen PSAL. CXLII The Title a Maschil of David A Prayer when he was in the Cave THE Cave was that of Engaddi or more probably that of Odullam when he was more destitute The occasion the persecution of Saul and his danger by Achish king of Gath. The matter of it an earnest Prayer to God in which he begs deliverance from danger The parts are 1. An Exordium in which he 1. First shews what he did in his trouble
as is the water he drinks and pierce his marrow and bones as the oyle with which he anoints him let him carry it perpetually along with him as he doth his garment and his girdle For this is it which the Prophet intends by the following similitudes who would have the curse be not only piercing and efficacious but lasting and perpetual 1. Ver. 18 As he cloathed himself with cursing like as with a garment lov'd to have it alwayes about him 1 Efficaciously as a man doth the cloaths he most delights in 2. 2 Perpetually So let it come as waters into his bowels that the stomack concocts and turns into the very flesh of the Animal so let this curse be converted into his nature and manners 3. But water pierceth not the bones oyle will do that and therefore let it come as oyle into his bones The intent of the Prophet is That it be wholly outwardly and inwardly accursed deprived of all good and fill'd with mischief and all evil And as he would have the curse to be of great efficacy so he would have him carry it alwayes about him 1. Let it be unto him as the garment that alwayes covers him That is let it alwayes stick close to him as his garment which he puts not off least his nakedness appear 2. And for a girdle with which he is girded continually i. e. compass him and go round about him being fastned either with buckles or knots 1. Moller for a garment reads Pallium which is a Cloak that a man puts off at home and calls for when he goes abroad By which he conceives the Prophet desires that God would set some external mark upon him as a note upon him that he may be known to be a Cast-away 'T is noted of the Jewes that they carry an illsent about them and their ears are grown into a Proverb some say their Visage betrayes them 2. If Doeg were the Type of Judas as most agree in this Psalm then by the girdle also might be understood Cingulum militare which they cast not off while they were of that profession And he Doeg being a misitary man he would have the curse cleave as long to him and encompass him as did his girdle And now the Prophet concludes this part of the Psalm with an Exclamation and Vote He concludes the Imprecation with a vote by which he shewes that he was perswaded that his execrations were not in vain Let this be the reward of my Adversaries from the Lord and of them that speak evil against my soul The third part He prayes for protection For himself and his Church that say I am a Deceiver a Seducer and deny me to be the Son of God 3. The Prophet now turns from cursing into prayer and in the person of Christ directs his prayer to God for protection and deliverance both of himself and for the whole Church and as before he pray'd against Judas and the Synagogue and indeed foresaw the evils that were to fall upon them so doth in this pray for himself and in that for the Church foreseeing the many good things that should be conferred on that Body of which the Messiah was to be the Head 1. He begins his prayer in this Form But do thou to me O God the Lord Ver. 21 for thy Names sake because thy mercy is good Help he asks against his Persecutors on three grounds 1. Because his Lord was Jehovah the Fountain of all Being of all Power and therefore could if he would Upon Gods mercy repress his Persecutors 2. Because it would be for his honour Do it for thy Names sake thy Name i. e. thy Clemency thy Goodness thy Faithfulness in defence of thy Church and Justice in executing Vengeance on her enemies will be thereby celebrated and declared for the Name of God imports all this 3. Do it because thy mercy is good Deliverance is easily inclined to succour such as are in misery which animates me also to ask being assured that out of mercy thou wilt do it 2. Deliver thou me methinks this part of the Petition seems to have an eye to that houre in which Christ prayed Father save me from this houre John 12.27 O my Father if it be possible let this cup pass from me Mat. 26.39 For the reasons to perswade it are the same 1. Deliver me for I am poor and needy destitute of humane help And that because the Disciples slept fled 2. Deliver me for my heart is wounded within me my soul it exceeding sorrowful even unto death Mat. 26.38 And to these he adds many other Reasons the first of which illustrated by the two similitudes of the Evening shadow and the Locust Bellarmine very acutely refers to his apprehension in the Garden 1 His life short and he patient and silent and his being posted off from the High Priests to Pilate from Pilate to Herod and so back again 1. I am gone like the shadow when it declines which passeth away in a moment silently without the least noise So was Christ pull'd from his Disciples and led away as a Prisoner without any murmur 2 Unworthily used without any resistance without any defence He was led as a Lamb to the Slaughter Isa 53. 2. I am tossed up and down as the Locust Tossed from one Tribunal to another as the Locusts base Creatures that the wind carries from place to place Exod. 10.12 19. 3 Pains with trouble And so also it fell out to the Apostles and Martyrs who dyed patiently and were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tossed up and down the World 2. A second Reason from his debility or weak condition his body was now in 1. My knees are weak through fasting The little sustenance Christ took in the night before the Passion his watching in prayer that night makes this good 2. And my flesh faileth of fatness through the loss of much blood 4 Opprobriously used so faint he was that they compelled Simon of Cyrene to carry his Cross 3. A third Reason yet to move God to pity and deliver is taken from his opprobrious usage the Sarcasms and Scorns and Jeers they put upon him than which there is no injury more grievous to a Noble and ingenious spirit I am become also a reproach unto them when they looked upon me they shaked their head He prayes for the Resurrection which needs no illustration the four Gospels being an ample Comment upon this verse and so he concludes the Passion This is the first part of his prayer A second part there is of it which follows for a speedy Resurrection as he prayed before in the 22. Psalm which was also a Psalm of the Passion which is there set out to ver 18. And then he prayes as here that he might not lie long in the Grave ver 19.20 21. Help me O Lord my God save me from the pains of death Acts 2.24 according to thy mercy
And he backs his Petition with a strong Reason drawn from the final cause Help me save me that they may know that this is thy hand that thou Lord hast done it That all men especially the Jewes may know by my rising again in despite of their watch and seal that it was not their malice nor power that brought me to this ignominious death but the whole matter my Passion suffering and death proceeded from thy hand Acts 2.23 cap. 3.18 And by his Resurrection he was declared to be the Son of God Rom. 1.4 And in the close of his prayer His vote he sings as it were a Triumph over all his enemies the Devil Judas the Jewes those great enemies to him and his Church over them he insults in a bitter Epitrope 1. Let them curse speak evil of me call me a deceiver blaspheme me as the Jewes do in a solemn manner to this day 1 That God bless him let them esteem my followers as the off-scouring and out-casts of the World 2. 2 That the Jewes be confounded But bless thou So thou return me good for their cursing 2 Sam. 16.12 And not only to me in glorifying me and setting me on his right hand but for my sake bless all Nations that by faith in Baptism shall give up their names to me 3. When they arise For 1. Arise they will plot endeavour and oppose all they can both by force and fraud the establishment of my Kingdom 2. But let them be ashamed confounded and astonished that all their attempts are frustrate 4. 3 That he rejoyce But let thy servant for Christ took upon him the name and condition of a servant rejoyce not only that they are saved and their enemies confounded but because thy Name is thereby glorified And he continues his Imprecation But his adversaries cloathed with shame and comes over it again by way of Expolition Let my Adversaries be cloathed with shame and let them cover themselves with their own confusion as with a Mantle Confounded at the last day for their ingratitude foolishness and malice before men and Angels and wrapp'd about with it as veste talari as with a Robe or a lined Mantle that comes about and covers every part of the body 4. And at last he closeth all with thanks which he opposeth to the confusion of the wicked The fourth part For which he would praise God publickly they for amazement and astonishment of heart shall be struck dumb as the man without the wedding garment but 1. I will greatly praise the Lord with my mouth with great affection with a â—great Jubilee 2. Ver. 30 And that not closely among private Walls but in open Theater of the whole World yea I will praise him among the multitude Of which praise he renders this reason 1. He shall stand at the right hand of the poor i. e. such poor who are poor in spirit God will defend and save his people meek and humble and being conscious of their own wants and lack of strength are alwayes begging and beating at the door of God who is rich in mercy at the right hand of such a poor man he will stand as a Sword and Buckler to keep off every blow aimed at him for so it followes 2. I will stand at the right hand of the poor to save him from those that condemn his soul from the Devil and all his instruments Christ is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to his Church and he hath blotted out the hand-writing of Ordinances that was against us and nail'd it to the Cross Col. 2.14 So that cùm à mundo damnamur à Christo absolvimur Tertull. The Prayer collected out of the One hundred and ninth Psalm O Almighty Merciful and Gracious Father Ver. 1 Thou art the God of whom we make our boast all the day long and desire to magnifie and praise all our life long who art alone the Witness of the honesty and integrity of our hearts hold not thy peace in this néedful time of trouble but be our Advocate and plead our cause against the wicked and deceitful men the enemies of thy Church and Oppressors of thy Truth and people It is not Lord Ver. 2 unknown to thée That the mouths of these wicked and false-hearted hypocrites are opened against thée our Religion and Profession It is not unknown unto thée That they not only load us with lies and blasphemies but that forgetful of all humanity and piety They have compassed us about with words of hatred Ver. 3 They hate and malice us and what foul aspersions their malice could invent those they have cast upon us But with this their malice was not satisfied for from words they came to blowes our blood have they shed like water by the fury of War and defiled their hands with the slaughter of innocents our Mothers Children have risen and sought against us without a cause For what cause have we given them except it were that in charity we would have taught and informed them in the Truth and continued them in the bosom of thy Church What cause except it were that we prayed for them Father forgive them for they know not what they do Ver. 4 but such is their ingratitude That for our love they are become our Adversaries they have rewarded us evil for good and hatred for our love And for our good-will Ver. 5 repay us with oppression and make use of their power and lay hold of the time put into their hands to destroy waste and root out thy inheritance As for us we have no means to resist their fury no power to oppose against their rage but our prayers and tears and therefore we will give our selves to prayer and first pray for them Lord lay not this sin to their charge Or if they shall persist and go on in their wickedness against them as thou hast taught us in this Psalm O Lord the Curses are bitter the Execrations are fearful and we know of what spirit we are we shall then leave it to thy Iustice to execute them as on whom and when thou shalt think fit not looking so much what these men of a reprobate mind have deserved as what is our Duty taught and enjoyned by thée To love our enemies to bless them that curse us to do good to them that hate us to pray for them that despitefully use us and persecute us Afraid we are lest we indulge too much to our humane affections of self-love anger hatred and impatience even in using this Form that thou hast taught and therefore we will forbear to curse them and sollicite for our selves Conscious we are to our selves that we have not lived a life worthy of thy Truth and Gospel revealed unto us which is the just cause that at this time Ver. 21 in thy worship there remains almost nothing which is not corrupted with Novelty and polluted with falshood But O merciful God give us true contrition