which as thou hast commanded me so also hast thou effectually over-powered enabled me by thy spirit to rest in assured hope of thy faithfulness and my happiness thereby 50 Throughout all my long and tedious triall where with thou afflictedst me I have nothing to bear up upon but this and I bless thee for it this serves the turn to do it thy promise through faith doth comfort and cordialize my heart and hath done many a time when to sence and reason I have been a dead man 51 My faith and I for my faiths sake have been exceedingly slighted and scorned by mine enemies men of proud and carnall minds yet have I neither been afraid nor ashamed of my cause or confidence but haue stuck to thy promises in faith and obedience waiting the fulfilling of them 52 I was ever confident that as mine enemies had their time so thou wouldest have thine and that I should see thee as just in reward and punishment as heretofore when by miracle thou savedst thy people and destroyedst thine and their adversaries the consideration hereof knowing thee to be the same unchangeable God in omnipotency and faithfulness hath alwayes born up my heart comfortably in hope of no worse success 53 And were it not for thy word of promise and works of power and providence that the faith of these are a stay to me I were of all men most miserable for the horrid insolencies unjust violences of my wicked and graceless enemies that have no fear of God before their eyes but reject both thee and thy precepts it makes me tremble to think of it and the heavy judgements that will befall them for it so at present I feel the evil effects thereof being driven to extream straits and perplexities both of body and mind by these impious lawless wretches 54 For my life is no better to me by their persecution and prosecution of me from place to place than a perpetuall pilgrimage so that my dwelling is no dwelling for I am in a continuall peregrination restlesly changing my station sometimes in caves sometimes in desarts and sometimes in exile and banishment yet every where and at all times the memory and meditation of thine engagements and promises concerning me which bind thee by grace as laws do us by duty and are thy statutes as well as are thy commandments have cheared up my heart and were as my songs and instruments of musick heretofore were wont to be unto me at leasurable times in mine own house 55 I have made it my imployment and set my seriousest thoughts on work upon the minding and meditating thy faithfulness power and justice when others have been refreshing their bodies with rest in the night season then have I been refreshing my weary and carefull mind with pondering thee in thine excellencies O Lord and have been so setled in mind thereby as I have taken up a resolution by carnall and sinfull shifts never to prevaricate what ever come of me but to persist in faith and holiness to the end 56 These soul supportations renewed graces and heart comfortings the Lord vouchsafed me in the meditations of him his promises and properties because I was conscionable and carefull to walk alwayes in all things to his well-pleasing therefore did he reward and sustain me with these divine cordialls and comforts in the time of my comfortless peregrination Cheth The eighth letter of the Hebrew Alphabet signifying the eighth part 57 The comforts and confidences of worldly men are in worldly things there portion is here below in things I bless my God too low for me who have no happiness contentment or confidence short of God who is all in all to me and as Lord thou art mine so I have fully purposed to be thine and to yield thee faithful and fruitful obedience in dependencie on thy promises and conformitie to thy precepts 58 Lord thou knowest what value I have alwayes set on thy favour how above all blessings I have lain at thee for that as more to me than all besides so that before and above all have I preferred and sought it as my choicest and chiefest happiness and therefore beg of thee that I may ever be blessed with thy grace mercie and truth vouchsafed and fulfilled according to promise 59 Fearful was I to offend and forfeit that thy favour I set so much by and therefore was alwayes solicitous and thought-ful of the steps I took whether they tended to thy pleasing or displeasing and if at any time by temptation or frailty I began to be misbiassed or that actually I deviated before I was awar I quickly through thy grace recollected my self and faced about 60 When I found mine errour I soon quit it no reasonings of flesh and bloud prevailed to make me persist but by the power of thy grace I broke through all impediments to serve and please thee 61 Wicked men by wicked wayes have prospered and thriven and by combination have turned me out of all and enriched themselves with my spoils but for all that I have stuck to my tackling held close to faith and a good conscience in believing and doing as I was appointed and left their punishment and my vindication unto thee 62 And it no whit repents me but exceedingly rejoyceth me of that thy gracious supportation of my faith yea such peace of conscience it brings with it and such a seal of special favour it is unto me according to thy righteous ingagements to be thus inabled to walk holily as that the thoughts thereof are more sweet and refreshing to my mind than sleep to my nature and make me suspend the one even in the season thereof to feed upon the other and make thankful repayment of my debts and endearments contracted thereby 63 Thy wayes and they that walk in them are my delight I fear thee my self so I love all those that do so I have no pleasure as not in wickedness so nor in wicked men but the out-casts of the world such as I my self am that fear to offend thee and desire to please and serve thee these have my heart and with such will I stand and fall live and die 64 As a faithful Creator thou hast plentifully provided for man and beast nature is well stored with varieties of created conveniencies for all kinds of Beings upon earth which also are mercifully continued though long since forfeited by the fall But O Lord there is one thing necessarie and a mercie more worth than all these and that is to be able to see and seek a happiness that is above nature and that grows in no earthly soil to have a frameable and teachable heart Lord grant me that write thy Law in it and let both thy precepts and promises be believed and obeyed by me That is my desire Teth. The ninth letter of the Hebrew Alphabet signifying the ninth part 65 I have
your thirst at the spring it self whose waters are purest and which never shall be dry A lesson which you shall be often taught by the holy Psalmist and the godly Paraphrast in this Book whereof I need not say a word being therein prevented by the Authour himself in his Epistle to the Reader who shall here find the sweet spices punned into a greater fragrancy by the Authours accommodating his stile to the most vulgar capacity for it was his aime to elevate affections which in Psalms and spirituall songs are the predominant part and therefore he wrote not so much to the eye as to the tast which pardon the solecisme is the best sence to read him with so carrying on the work in this Paraphrase as also in that of Iob as one that had not a mere notionall or carnall knowledge of spirituall things but that peculiar light which they have which are taught of God Without which even Schollars themselves do see the beauty of them but by candle-light and which that it may increase in you as the light of the Sun unto the perfect day shall be the Prayer of LONDON Iune 17. 1650. Your ever obliged Servant In the work of the Lord Iesus RICHARD VINES TO THE READER In way of ARGUMENT and APPLICATION ALL Scripture was written by the holy men of God as they were moved or inspired by the holy Ghost but this of the Psalms was not onely written by a holy man but by a holy man in holy frames who was not onely moved by the spirit to write them but was in the spirit when he penned them not so much acted by externall impulsion as inward affection warmth of zeal and sensible experience For the Psalms being to be a speciall part of the worship of God in all ages of the Church whereby God not onely speaks to us as in other Scripture but we to him in Prayer and praise the Arguments of almost all of them were therefore dictated by another spirit than other Scripture by the spirit of grace and operation not onely of illumination prophesie or inspiration to shew us how God is to be worshipped not onely by holy regenerate men such as were all the sacred pen-men but by the regenerate part of a regenerate man else Prayers nor praises neither come down from heaven nor go up to heaven It was not enough to be a Priest to offer Sacrifice but it must be done by a holy man with holy fire And therefore should we sing the Psalms of David in the spirit of David and read them as he writ them with frameable tempers to the matter treated Of all Scripture our meditation in the perusall of this Book of the Psalmes so full of practicall Gospel ought to be sweet and spirituall of which one rightly affirms Let all the rest of the Scripture be the body and this is the heart so full of heavenly affections Every Psalm whereof is a spirituall pang or fresh gail breathed by the holy Ghost on Davids heart and penned by him and the rest in instanti in heat of affection His writing is his feeling and so should be thy reading the musick of the Temple should make musick in the living Temples of the holy Ghost the sons of Sion therefore have I laboured not onely to render the proper but also the full extensive meanings of the Psalmists by congruous enlargements to move the affections as well as to inform the judgement That so Davids spirit in these Psalms may be transmigrated into the experienced Reader in proportionable power energie wherewith they were conceived digestedly put over by him to the Church whereof as of Christ he was a most lively type wading through so many dangers temptations ebbings flowings yea and sins too to create him to be a Looking-glass for the Church and Spouse of Christ who may be black yet comly and can never pass through any condition of sin or suffering where first he hath not led the way and shewen the issue whose varieties of providences states and tempers made him of such an evangelicall spirit in the time of the Law as that God stiles him a man after his own heart so that in him we see that neither great sins nor great afflictions can seperate us from the love and approbation of God though the one may cost us dear and the other may lay us low yet neither the one nor the other can build up such a partition wall but that the grapling irons of Faith Prayer and Repentance are able to demolish it and make way for us to the throne of grace whither if we can but come we shall be sure to speed for grace can deny grace to none that graciously ask it And therefore if ever we will gain that Encomium of being as he was after Gods own heart who ever loves a zealous penitent better than a luke-warm innocent it must be by improving all advantages to the encrease of Gospel-growth thus If at any time God in his wisdom let us fall or Satan by his subtility and strength give us a fall or we by our weakness catch a fall all which may be in one and the same sin then know that that sin is thine advantage or opportunity which thou art to improve to mount thee to a higher rise of Gospel-ground and step forward towards more grace by the fresh exercise or exercise of fresh faith and humiliation God being more pleased with us when we penitently and faithfully confess our sin wherein David was very ingenuous than displeased when we commit it For though we are not to sin that grace may abound yet when we have sinned it s both our wisdom and duty too to look that grace do abound and that we make a sanctified sin of it Acts of sinning in the regenerate contrary to Philosophy lessening the habits of sin And so if we fall into afflictions there is another opportunity for the promise is that all shall work for good and that going in and out we shall find pasture yea even a price in our hands which if improved by the exercise of seasonable and suitable graces will ready us in our Gospel-way better than any trade-wind or constant gail of providence can ever do Severall conditions make exceedingly for setting forth the Art of God in the second Creation as severall creatures do his skill in the first which variety in both makes us to abound not onely with necessaries but delights which Scripture calls things both new and old which no one condition unvaried can possibly render us capable of for it is said all things work together for good c. Alluding to the Art of the Apothecary in the mixing of various and diverse Simples no one whereof alone is able to work that effect that many joyntly can And when I speak of change of states I mean inward as well as outward for the soul would be as a cake unturned excellent in something and stark naught in othersome or
to offer them to me upon such humane and grosse principles as if the killing of cattell and shedding their bloud never discerning the Lords body were the thing I coveted were served by and took pleasure in no I hate such services and have no pleasure in such sacrifices it is not for want of such that I reprove thee I have had enow and too many of them 14 If you will serve me aright and sacrifice to give me content then offer other manner of sacrifices than these or these sacrifices after another manner I that am a spirit look for the service of your faith and affections let the ceremonies and sacrifices you perform be significant not shells without kernels when you pretend to thank me in peace-offerings c. Bring your hearts with you let your faith and affections be offered up unto me through the propitiatory mediatour in whom onely they are accepted in an humble gratulatory way for the good you acknowledge Remember its God you have to do with who looks for the service of the inward as well as the outward man have thy mind on high in the heavens where I am when thou worships me here below and therefore be sure with the spirit thou pour forth praise and thanks unto me for the goodness and benefits thou acknowledgest to have received from me when as thou offerest sacrifice 15 Its prayer and praise offered up in faith to me because of my grace and faithfulness to you that I set by it s that shall prevail with me not your empty ceremonies and sapless sacrifices If you be in trouble at any time let me then hear from you in that way and you shall be sure of a gracious answer from me because then and never till then I know I shall be sure to have a faithfull return made me of praise glory and thanks for the goodness I shew unto you 16 These are the men and this is that manner of service that God accepts of but to the carnall hypocrit or meer formall professor that is so busie in externall performances of legall rites commanded by God he would have such an one know that he had rather have his room than his company for all he does is but in abuse of God and his worship making shew of serving him and keeping covenant with him but without any truth or sincerity of heart whereby he adulterates Gods own ordinances and makes them utterly unpleasing to him though appointed by him but never intended they should be practised or preached by such men in such a manner 17 To bolster them up in their impieties taking liberty to sin because they conform to outward ceremoniall ordinances God would have such know that they neither glorifie him nor profit themselves that are carefull in outward duties and acts of Religion and careless of holiness in heart and conversation 18 Thou that art so full of seeming sanctity thinkest thou that God regards thy services if withall thy heart be full of hypocrisie and thy ways of unrighteousness breaking the morall law whilst thou makest conscience of the ceremoniall giving the reins to thy corrupt heart and hands to contrive and act all manner of impieties as theft adultery and joyning thy self with such companions 19 Taking liberty to lie and deceive and makest even a trade and common practise of it 20 Studiously back-biting and traducing others that mean thee no hurt nor never did thee any but ought to be loved of thee as brethren and of envy or emulation slandering those that are near and should be dear unto thee thine own very kindred and allies labouring their disparagement and disgrace 21 These things you know have been acted amongst you even by and amongst you that yet pretend to be a people in covenant with me and come and worship before me and sacrifice unto me and because I bear with you in these hypocriticall evil ways of yours and suffered my self to be thus mocked and abused by you you thought that I approved of you and your doings but you shall find that I set not so light by mine honour as you think for nor will not so easily put up with such abuses as you imagine there will come a time that I will make you smart for your base abuse of me and mine holy ordinances and you shall know that I am sensible of your ingratitude and so shall you be of my just indignation for these your sins which I have marked all along you shall find so much how that I le remember when you have forgotten them and mind you of them to your cost 22 For think you that I will be so severe against the sins of the rest of the world that in comparison of you have no knowledge of me nor have received no favours from me and that I will not be much more so towards you That I cannot pretend ignorance but sin against me either out of a stupid supine negligence and disrespect of me or out of a spirit of rebellion But consider it you had best how my name hath been prophaned amongst you and persist not to despise me in this sort and forget the duty and gratitude that you owe me who deserve better from you least that of all the world you smart most for it for as your sins are the greatest being against light and loving-kindness so without repentance shall your plagues be the sorest for as you are without excuse so shall you be without mercy no one not Moses nor any your forefathers upon whom you bear your selves no nor the Messiah himself shall open his mouth for you to save or deliver such an hypocriticall ill-deserving people 23 This is generally a nationall fault amongst you and will at last bring forth nationall judgements and common destruction upon you but yet as I have known and chosen you though ill deserving it to be my people of all the world so do I know and have chosen some from among you that bear me better respect than the rest And such an one who ever he be let not him fear to perish with the rest but be confident who ever he is that makes conscience to worship me in spirit as well as in form and when he sacrifices to me then with an humble faithfull and affectionate heart praiseth me for my benefits and favours vouchsafed that 's the man that mine eye is upon and upon the worship and service he performs to accept it for he alone worships me aright all else is lost labour and meer mockery The spirituall minded man and the reall sincere hearted Israelite who is as well conscionable and carefull of his life and conversation to walk uprightly with God and honestly with men as of the rites and formalities of the ceremoniall law and mine externall worship to do them this is the man that as he serves me acceptably so will I reward him bountifully he shall see with the eye of