Joseph and Benjamin to bless the people on the one and Reuben Gad Dan Asher Zabulon and Napthali on the other to curse six on one side and six on to'ther And being thus found so long before and so long after this time 't is the less to be doubted but it was practised now at the bringing of the Ark to Sion To which purpose 't is farther to be observed from Psal 48. written for the removal of the Arke and beginning with the solemn form Let God arise c. prescribed in the law for that occasion Num. 10.36 that the manner of this Procession is thus described v. 24. They see thy goings O God the goings of my God and King in the Sanctuary The singers went before the players on Instruments followed after amongst them were the Damsels playing upon the timbrels One 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 company or chorus of vocall Musick went before the Ark the other of Instrumental of all kinds followed it Whereon it follows Bless ye the Lord in the Congregations in the plural these two companies And then it cannot be improbable that as Neh. 12.40 So stood the two companies in the house of the Lord so here at the entry of the Ark into Sion these two chori should be drawn up at the gates on each side of it and so stand and the first be supposed to begin with the three first verses of this Psalm The earth is the Lords c. Who shall ascend c. to which the other answered in the three following He that hath clean hands c. Then the first resuming their turn in the seventh verse Lift up your heads c. the other answered in part of the eighth Who is the King of glory then the former answering The Lord strong and mighty the Lord mighty in battel The other resumes again Lift up your heads c. And then the first asking the question Who is c. the second concludes The Lord of hosts he is the King of Glory The Twenty Fifth PSALM A Psalm of David Paraphrase The Twenty Fifth Psalm composed by David in some time of distress is a divine mixture of Prayer for pardon of sin and deliverance from evil and also of meditation of Gods gracious dealings with his servants 1. Unto thee O Lord do I lift up my soul Paraphrase 1. O Lord I have none but thee to whom to address my prayers in times of distress to thee therefore I come with the tribute of an humble heart the offering of a devout soul be thou pleased to accept it from me 2. O my God I trust in thee let me not be ashamed let not mine enemies triumph over me Paraphrase 2. In thee O my gracious God do I repose all my confidence O let me not be left destitute or forsaken by thee let not my adversaries have occasion to rejoyce and deride me as one that have been disappointed or frustrated in my dependences on thee 3. Yea let none that wait on thee be ashamed let them be ashamed that transgress without cause Paraphrase 3. Yea let all those that rely and depend on thee be constantly owned by thee let not any man that hath reposed his whole trust in thee find himself disappointed Let that be the fate of treacherous perfidious persons those that rely on their own ungodly policies let them miscarry and be disappointed of their hopes and so appear ridiculous among men The only way that may most probably work reformation in them Psal 83.16 4. Shew me thy wayes O Lord teach me thy paths Paraphrase 4. O Lord be thou pleased by thy special grace to direct me in the performance of all that may be acceptable in thy sight 5. Lead me in thy truth and teach me for thou art the God of my salvation on thee do I wait all the day Paraphrase 5. Preserve me from all straying and wandring out of the right way On thee I depend for this and every minute look up to thee for the directions and support of thy good spirit 6. Remember O Lord thy tender mercies and thy loving kindness for they have been ever of old Paraphrase 6. Lord thou hast allwayes abounded to thy servants in compassion and bounty relieved the distrest and plentifully supplyed all wants to those that have addrest their prayers to thee Be thou pleased at this time thus in mercy to deal with me 7. Remember not the sins of my youth nor my transgressions According to thy mercy remember me for thy goodness sake O Lord. Paraphrase 7. Lord the sins of my younger dayes are many the breaches innumerable wherewith I have ignorantly or foolishly for want of knowledge or consideration offended against thee Lay them not I beseech thee to my charge but of thine own free mercy and compassion to a wretched sinner be thou pleased to be reconciled to me O Lord. 8. Good and upright is the Lord therefore will he teach sinners in the way Paraphrase 8. It is an act of the great purity and justice and rectitude of God to direct and assist toward the wayes of virtue all those that are by error and weakness fallen away and departed from it and timely to reduce them to good life 9. The meek will he guide in judgment and the meek will he teach his way Paraphrase 9. Those that are truly humbled before him for their sins and failings and de voutly address to him for pardon and grace he will never fall to allow them his assistance and direction in the wayes of virtue 10. All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep his Covenant and his testimonies Paraphrase 10. God will never fail either in mercy or fidelity any man that walks diligently and industriously in obedience to him The pardon and the grace that he hath promised to such the pardon of all their frailties and the donation of sufficient strength to support their weakness shall never fall to be performed to them that remain thus faithful to him 11. For thy names sake O Lord pardon my iniquity for it is great Paraphrase 11. I have many wayes greatly sinned against thee and have no ground of hope for mercy but only from thy free abundant pardon which I know exceedeth my sins and for which I am the more abundantly qualified by how much my state is more sadly miserable without the interposition of this mercy On that only account therefore of thy free pardon to the greatest so they be truly penitent sinners I beseech thee to be reconciled unto me who unfeignedly repent and return to thee 12. What man is he that feareth the Lord Him shall he teach in the way that he shall chuse Paraphrase 12. Where the fear of God is planted truly in the heart there God will not fall of his directions and illuminations but will certainly afford him knowledge what will be acceptable in his fight 13. His soul shall dwell at ease and his seed shall inherit
this it remains that we return to that which was first said that the difficulties of this kind are inexplicable And this may stop though not satisfie our curiosities V. 3. When I consider 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this place is by the Chaldee rendred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because or for and by the LXXII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because and so in the rest of the Antient Interpreters this being the most frequent use of it Yet 't is certain the Hebrew particle hath four significations and in one of them denotes a condition and is best rendred If and also time and is fully rendred when So Gen. iv 12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Chaldee read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if or when thou tillest the ground and so 2 Sam. 7.1 It came to pass 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when the King sat in his house for which 1 Chron. 17.1 they read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and we render as i. e. when he sate And thus the context inclines it here When I consider What is Man i. e. I have then by that consideration all reason to cry out by way of admiration What is man And thus the Jewish Arabick Translation renders it When I see the heavens c. I say What is Man The Ninth PSALM TO the chief Musitian upon Muth-Labben A Psalm of David Paraphrase The ninth Psalm is a solemn thanksgiving for Gods deliverances and by the Title may be thought to reflect on the death of Goliah of Gath the great Champion of the Philistims vanquisht and killed by David but the Psalm made some space afterwards when the Ark was placed in Sion and the Philistims were utterly destroyed v. 6. and yet in some other time of distress v. 13. and of absence from Sion v. 14. and committed to the prefect of his Musick 1. I will praise thee O Lord with my whole heart I will shew forth all thy marvellous works Paraphrase 1. O Lord of all power and mercy which art pleased to interpose thy omnipotence for me and thereby to inable thy feeble servant to pass through many great difficulties I do with all the devotion of my soul acknowledge and proclaim this and all other thy great mercies 2. I will be glad and rejoyce in thee I will sing praises to thy name O thou most Highest Paraphrase 2. This is matter of infinite joy and transporting delight unto me without the least reflection on my self who am meer nothing to magnifie thy sublime and most powerful Majesty and attribute all my successes unto thee 3. When mine enemies are turned back they shall fall and perish at thy presence Paraphrase 3. By thee are our enemies put to flight and flying they meet with gall-traps in their way and so are lamed overtaken and killed in the pursuit This befell the Philistims on the discomfiture of their proud Champion 1 Sam. xvii 51 52. And to thee only is it to be ascrib'd 't is thy Majesty that hath done the whole work intirely for us thou foughtest against them and thereby they were thus worsted and put to flight and destroyed 4. For thou hast maintained my right and my cause thou sattest in the Throne judging right Paraphrase 4. When in the duel between that Champion and me and so in many other battels with my Enemies the cause was committed to thy sacred judgment thou wert pleased to take my part to defend me and to judge on my side and with perfect justice to plead and decide the controversie betwixt us give the victory to thy servant 5. Thou hast rebuked the heathen thou hast destroyed the wicked thou hast put out their name for ever and ever Paraphrase 5. By the death of the impious profane Goliah the Philistims Champion thou hast put their whole host to flight and made this victory a foundation of utter extirpation to that Nation of the Philistims 6. O thou enemy destructions are come to a perpetual end and thou hast destroyed Cities the memorial is perished with them Paraphrase 6. They are now finally destroyed their Cities rased to the ground and unless it be in the stories of their ruine no remainders of them discernable and all this must be attributed to thee O Lord. 7. But the Lord shall indure for ever he hath prepared his throne for judgment Paraphrase 7. A signal evidence of thy power and immutability of thy sitting in heaven as on a Throne or Tribunal of judicature 8. And he shall judge the world in righteousness he shall minister judgment to the people in uprightness Paraphrase 8. From whence thou shalt from time to time dispense and administer and dispose of all things here below with all exact justice and uprightness 9. The Lord also will be a sure refuge for the oppressed in times of trouble Paraphrase 9. And this as to the punishing of the proud obdurate oppressor so to the seasonable support of all that are not able to relieve themselves when their tribulations and so their exigences are greatest then have they in thee a sure sanctuary to which they may opportunely resort and be confident to receive relief from thee 10. And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee for thou Lord hast not forsaken them that seek thee Paraphrase 10. And accordingly all that know any thing of Religion that have either learnt from others or experimented in themselves these thy faithful all-righteous dispensations in the oeconomy of the World those glories of thine resulting from the conjuncture of all thy attributes of power and justice and wisdom and mercy c. will thereby be firmly grounded in their trusts and reliances on thee without applying themselves to any of the sinful aids and policies of the World for succour laying this up for an anchor of hope that God never forsook or failed any pious man in his distress that by prayer and faith made his humble and constant applications to him 11. Sing praises to the Lord which dwelleth in Sion declare among the people his doings Paraphrase 11. Let us therefore all joyn in magnifying the power and mercy of God and to that end assemble to the Sanctuary where he is pleased to presentiate himself giving all men knowledge of the wonderful acts he hath wrought for us 12. When he maketh inquisition for blood he remembreth them he forgetteth not the cry of the humble Paraphrase 12. The Blood of humble pious helpless men that is shed by oppressors hath a cry that goes up to heaven Gen. 4.19 and is most pretious with God he will never suffer it to go unpunisht but will act severe revenges for it pursue and find out the guilty persons and pour his plagues upon them 13. Have mercy upon me O Lord consider my trouble which I suffer of them that hate me thou that liftest me up from the gates of death Paraphrase 13. On these grounds I continue to
Let not them that are mine enemies wrongfully rejoyce over me neither let them wink with the eye that hate me without a cause Paraphrase 19. O let not mine unjust causeless enemies have matter of rejoycing and scoffing at me as they will if thou leavest me in my distress 20. For they speak not peace but they devise deceitful matters against them that are quiet in the land Paraphrase 2◠For instead of kindness and friendly usage which is due from them they design nothing but fraud and treachery against me who heartily desire to live most peaceably and quietly under Sauls Government 21. Yea they opened their mouth wide against me and said Aha Aha our eye hath seen it Paraphrase 21. And not only so but they have openly railed upon me as one that seeks his life and pretend to speak from their own fight and certain knowledge when they deliver that which is most far from truth 22. This thou hast seen O Lord keep not silence O Lord be not far from me Paraphrase 22. 'T is certain they have seen no such thing as they falsely pretend On the contrary thou O God who seest all things seest and knowest my innocency and the integrity of my heart Be thou pleased to testifie for me by delivering me from the evil which they designed against me 23. Stir up thy self and awake to my judgment even unto my cause my God and my Lord. 24. Judge me O Lord my God according to thy righteousness and let them not rejoyce over me Paraphrase 23 24. O thou that art my gracious God and powerful Lord be thou pleased at length to take part to defend and to vindicate my innocence to testifie thy approbation of my doings and seasonably to interpose thy hand for the relieving me and disappointing my enemies 25. Let them not say in their hearts Ah so would we have it let them not say We have swallowed him up Paraphrase 25. Preserve me out of their hands lest they applaud themselves in their actions their most wicked and bloody enterprises if they prove successful to them 26. Let them be ashamed and brought to confusion together that rejoyce at my hurt let them be cloathed with shame and dishonour that magnifie themselves against me Paraphrase 26. And thus I am confident thou wilt in thy due season disappoint and discomfit those that are most malitiously bent against me and most proudly triumph over me at this time 27. Let them shout for joy and be glad that favour my righteous cause Yea let them say continually Let the Lord be magnified which hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant Paraphrase 27. And by so doing thou shalt give matter of joy and gladness to all that wish me well cause them to bless and magnifie thy goodness and fidelity of thy promises when they see me signally favoured by thee of whose sincerity and uprightness they have such assurance 28. My tongue shall speak of thy righteousness and of thy praise all the day long Paraphrase 28. As for me I shall by this thy mercy be obliged to promulgate and proclaim thy fidelity and the care thou hast of those that adhere to thee and for this to laud and bless thy name continually Annotations on Psalm XXXV V. 3. Stop It is uncertain what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here signifies The Chaldee reads 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shut in the Imperative mood and the LXXII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shut up But if this be the right rendring and it be applyed to that which went before draw forth i. e. unsheath so the Chaldee read the lance or spear it must then be the direct contrary viz. shut it up again and to apply it to any thing else as our English applies it to the way and so supposes an ellipsis and then supplies it thus stop the way c. the context gives us no reason The Syriack reading for the lance the sword render unsheath and make it shine and that agrees well to it when it is drawn but hath no affinity to the notion of the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 occlusit coercuit The Arabick therefore reads repel them as from the notion of coercere to repress or repel But then they take no notice of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in occursum which follows and will not be reconciled with this rendring but without it read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 repel them that persecute me In this uncertainty the learned Schindlers observation deserves to be heeded that the accent Tiphcha joyns 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lance praecedent in the construction and then being a substantive it must be taken for a sort of weapons and so it appears to signifie a sort of sword called from hence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and ordinarily spoken of by Herodotus and other Historians among the Persians of which saith Hesychius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 't is a little axe with one edge and Suidas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an axe used saith he without s. in Xenophon joyning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Persian bow and quiver and sagari 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as the Amazons have adding that it signifies an instrument to open a vein 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hand-weapons To these acceptions of the word Hesychius and Phavorinus add 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a plough that part which cuts the earth and is like to the Persian acinaces or short swords scimitars And so this is by much the most probable meaning of the word and rendring of the place draw forth the lance and short sword 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in occursum to meet my persecuters To this agrees Kimchi both in his Comment and in his Dictionary making it a sort of weapon and so Abu Walid before him V. 4. Let them That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 erubuit is in the future tense there can be no doubt and then the most regular rendring will be not let them but they shall blush and so in the rest that follow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they shall be put to shame from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pudore affecit And so the whole Psalm instead of so many forms of execration or imprecation against enemies shall be really no more than so many testimonies of his assured confidence that God that hath made him such sure promises will make them good to him in his preservation and that disappointment and discomfiture of his enemies And according to this measure all the other Psalms which seem to be filled with curses against his and Gods enemies ought to be understood and accordingly are explicated in the Paraphrase V. 7. Net in a pit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is literally the pit of their snare 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inclinavit signifying a pit very frequently though the LXXII here render
or requirest of me The truth is my sins are of such a sort as for which the Mosaical law allows no reconciliation no sacrifice for such wilful sins Heb. 10.26 17. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit a broken and contrite heart O Lord shalt thou not despise Paraphrase 17. 'T is my sincere humiliation confession and renovation which alone thou admittest and even in this foulest condition thou art mercifully pleased to have respect to them and look on them as the most acceptable oblation And whensoever that is presented to thee from an honest heart it is sure to find a welcome and hospitable reception 18. Do good in thy good pleasure to Sion build thou the walls of Jerusalem Paraphrase 18. O be thou thus merciful to me and to all that love and fear thy name and meet in the place by thee appointed for thy service defend and succour all and preserve them from falling into such wilful presumptuous sins 19. Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness with burnt-offering and whole burnt-offering then shall they offer bullocks upon thy altar Paraphrase 19. And then our sacrifices of all sorts and all that is typified by these shadows and what is much more valuable then any of these Mar. 12.33 our prayers and our praises our solemnest acts of the most ardent love and devotion and the diffusion of that in acts of charity and mercy to our brethren shall upon the altars of our very hearts be presented to thee in an humble but cheerful confidence to be accepted by thee Annotations on Psalm LI. V. 4. Clear The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is ordinarily rendred mundus fuit clean or clear or pure and so the Chaldee takes it here and renders it by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 purgavit But this as the context evinces must be understood in a forensick sense as pure is all one with free from guilt and so there is a second notion of the word for overcoming meaning that sort of victory which belongs to him that carries the cause in judicature Thus the LXXII render it here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and overcome and thus the Apostle takes it from them Rom. 3.4 and the Syriack there renders that of the Apostle by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same word which both the Hebrew and Syriack have here in this Psalm which is a sure evidence that the word here used doth certainly signifie as the LXXII rendred it and was no way mistaken by them and that very reconcileable with the notion of mundus fuit for he that doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 overcome in the suite or contention so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies to be a party in a suite is fitly said to be cleared or quitted by the Law and that is also the importance of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 justified in the forensick sense also as that is opposed to cast or condemned The only remaining difficulty is to what part of the antecedent speech this is to be connected 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that thou mightest be justified This say the Jews is not to be joyned to the words immediately precedent in the former part of this verse but either to the prayer Have mercy upon me v. 1. or I acknowledge my transgressions v. 3. putting the beginning of this verse Against thee in a parenthesis But the former of these hath little of probability in it and the latter which is more tolerable may very reasonably be rejected also the immediate antecedents being very fit to bear this consequence and indeed much fitter than either of those which are more remote For if in the beginning of the verse the emphasis be laid as the thrice repeating shews it ought on the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to thee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to thee only and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in thy sight the importance of it will certainly be what S. Ambrose and S. Chrysostome and others have observed that David being a King was not liable to punishment from any but God and though he had in this business highly offended against others against Bathsheba and especially against Vriah whom he had caused to be made drunk and afterward slain and in the next verse confesseth the guilt of his blood and therefore must not be understood saith Chrysostome as if he said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he had not wronged Vriah yet could not he be impleaded or judged by man for this but only by God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Chrysostome Being a King I feared not him whom I wronged he being my subject could not punish me all my fear was for thee lest thou shouldest call me to account And then this most regularly introduceth this consequence for so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a note of consequence only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that thou mightest be justified in thy sayings or doings so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ordinarily signifies a deed and not only a word or saying and overcome when thou contendest Thus if any other but God should implead or judge or punish me for this I should have just reason to complain God having placed me in a condition of judging and punishing others without being my self subjected to any other humane tribunal But for all this I stand most justly chargeable and punishable by God To thee I have sinned from thee I deserve and may most reasonably expect punishment In thy sight I have done this evil i. e. so as to be most justly liable to thy vengeance though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am thus liable to thee only to none else but thee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that noting this to be the natural consequence thou mightest be justified in thy doings and overcome when thou contendest or impleadest me i. e. whatsoever bill of indictment thou puttest in against me though to charge upon me the highest rebellions against thee and bring upon me the severest sentence of eternal rejection out of thy favour and presence and infliction of the direfullest torments thou art sure to overcome and cast me in the suite I have nothing in the least to pretend or plead against it The only seeming objection to this rendring is fetcht from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 judicavit is thought to signifie in thy judging But there is another acknowledged notion of the word in Niphal for litigare contendere causam agere to contend or plead or go to law with another and though in Kal it ordinarily signifie to judge yet 't is evident the LXXII and the Syriack took it here in the other sense and so the former renders it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. in pleading or contending so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies in the Hellenists dialect see note on Rom. 3. b. and not as
that they fall not irreversibly under his vengeance 8. O bless our God ye people and make the voice of his praise to be heard 9. Which holdeth our soul in life and suffereth not our feet to slip Paraphrase 8 9. 'T is he that surrounds our lives in time of danger and preserves them from all miscarriage and accordingly is to be blest and magnified by all that have received this mercy from him to be preserved so long when if he had not supported they had each minute been cast down 10. For thou O God hast proved us thou hast tried us as silver is tried Paraphrase 10. He hath sometimes brought trouble and affliction upon us upon the same designs that metallists are wont to throw gold or silver into the fire to distern whether it be pure or no and if it be not to melt and separate all the dross and false metal from it Thus he dealt with the Israelites of old in the iron furnace of Egypt and proportionably thus he hath now dealt with us And this hath been his one gratious purpose in all his inflictions to approve our sincerity of adherence to him and to reform and purge out all that is vitious in us 11. Thou broughtest us into the net thou laidst affliction upon our loyns Paraphrase 11. One while he hath permitted us to be insnared and subdued by our enemies as in Egypt our Fathers were 12. Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads we went through fire and through water but thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place Paraphrase 12. Another while he hath permitted them to oppress and tyrannize over us But then as after the example of those he hath by his providence chosen to permit very sharp afflictions to befal us so hath he gratiously brought us through and out of them again As he brought our fathers to Canaan a land flowing with milk and honey after the fire of the brick-kilns and the water of the sea and the floods of the River Jordan so hath he oft delivered us out of the most pressing distresses brought us out of drowing to blessing waters to a well-watered irrigated Country and returned us to all kind of prosperity 13. I will go into thy house with burnt-offerings I will pay thee my vows 14. Which my lips have uttered and my mouth hath spoken when I was in trouble Paraphrase 13 14. When we were in any distress we made our addresses to thee besought thee to avert them and upon thy hearing our prayers promised reformation of life and voluntary oblations for the acknowledgment of that deity from whence we expected and begged our relief And now being heard and answered by thee we are under the strictest obligation of justice and gratitude and performance of promise to return our most chearful acknowledgments to thee 15. I will offer unto thee burnt-sacrifices of fatlings with the incense of â—ams I will offer bullocks with goats Selah Paraphrase 15. And this I will now do in the liberallest and most magnificent manner that can be 16. Come and hear all ye that fear God and I will declare what he hath done for my soul Paraphrase 16. And proclaim to all pious men for their incouragement â—ow gratiously God hath dealt with me all my life long 17. I cryed unto him with my mouth and he was extolled with my tongue Paraphrase 17. How as soon as I made my prayers unto him he granted them presently and gave me cause to convert them into praises 18. If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me 19. But verily God hath heard me he hath attended to the voice of my prayer Paraphrase 18 19. Which is beside the blessing granted a farther matter of joy and comfort to me that that God which cannot patronize any sin hath been pleased to hearken to my request and so to sign unto me his approbation of my sincerity 20. Blessed be God which hath not turned away my prayer nor his mercy from me Paraphrase 20. His Name be for ever magnifies for this honour of hearing my prayers and the deliverance consequent thereto Annotations on Psal LXVI V. 2. Make his praise glorious 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here the Jewish Arab renders in the notion of giving give him glory and so regularly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 posuit put is used for dedit gave and is here v. 9. joyned with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to give as a synonymâ—n and so to put to him honour is to give it him but he as well as others avoids making 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be in regimine so as to govern the noun that follows the glory of his praise for then as in the beginning of this verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the honour of his Name the vowel should be changed from to It is then possible that the nouns should be put by apposition and then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be in the ordinary notion of put or make make glory his praise i. e. either your glory as Aben Ezra would have it make your glory his praise let it be your glory to praise him or his glory make his glory his praise But 't is yet more probable that the difficulty may be best removed by understanding a preposition in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Jewish Arab supplies it by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from or of his praise it may be as fitly by his praise i. e. by your praising of him To this sense the Chaldee may be interpreted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 give him glory by his praise and the LXXII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 give glory by his praise or by praising him and that seems to be the most ready rendring of it There are several ways of giving glory to God one by confessing of sins Josh 7.19 my Son give glory to God and make confession to him and tell me what thou hast done and so 1 Sam. 6.5 ye shall give glory to God peradventure he will lighten his hand and Jer. 13.16 and elsewhere And another by praising him Isa 42.12 Let them give glory to the Lord and declare his praise so Rev. 2.9 when those beasts give glory and honour and thanks And so here give him glory by what means 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by his praise or by praising him V. 7. Power for ever That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the English age signifies not only time and duration but also the men that live in any time there is no question And then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must here most properly be rendred ruling the world or over the world and so the Chaldee certainly understood who read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which exerciseth dominion over the world and so I suppose the LXXII their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 having dominion over the world doth import though the Latine hath rendred it amiss and against their meaning in aeternum The Syriack by following the Hebrew and rendring it 〈◊〉
and attend the voice of my supplications Paraphrase 6. And hereon I found my trust and importunity that thou wilt now grant this my petition 7. In the day of my trouble I will call upon thee for thou wilt answer me Paraphrase 7. When I am in the greatest streights then aâ— in thy special opportunity I address my prayers unto thee being then most confident that thou wilt give me an answer of mercy 8. Among the gods there is none like unto thee O Lord neither are there any works like unto thy works Paraphrase 8. Of all the Angels in heaven much more of the false heathen Idol gods there is none fit to be compared with thee their power to relieve is not comparable to thine nor proportionably their readiness for such a work of mercy 9. All nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee O Lord and shall glorify thy name Paraphrase 9. And this is so evident in thy works of creation but especially in thy works of redemption and thy strange providential dispensations and interpositions of thy hand in behalf of thy servants that all the blindest Idolatrous Gentiles may therein discern reasons abundantly sufficient to convince them of thy power and to bring them as proselytes to thy worship to acknowledge and magnifie thy divine Majesty and so at length they shall do in the days of the Messias 10. For thou art great and dost wondrous things thou art God alone Paraphrase 10. For to thee only belongs the soveraign commanding controlling power to which all creatures yield their obedience as being the one only God over all the world None but thou only hast the priviledge of working true miracles of resisting the most puissant power of men and so of rescuing the most disconsolate sufferers out of the utmost distresses 11. Teach me thy way O Lord I will walk in thy truth unite my heart to fear thy name Paraphrase 11. O Lord let thy spirit direct and guide all the actions of my life that they may be acceptable to thee that I may uniformely practice what thou requirest O be thou pleased to purge all hypocrisy out of my soul that I may perform a sincere universal obedience to thy commands not taking any interest of the world or flesh into competition with thee 12. I will praise thee O Lord my God with all mine heart and I will glorifie thy name for evermore 13. For great is thy mercy toward me and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell Paraphrase 12 13. This I am sure is most perfectly due to thee and with it all the praises and acknowledgments of my whole soul and that for ever It being a work of thy superabundant mercy toward me thy poor indigent helpless and withall most unworthy servant that thou hast not permitted me to be swallowed up with that abyss of dangers that have incompast me but as yet preserved and so in some degree delivered me out of them 14. O God the proud are risen against me and the Assemblies of violent men have sought after my soul and have not set thee before them Paraphrase 14. For they are a sort of obstinate and withall very numerous powerful and formidable enemies that have set themselves purposely to destroy me without any fear of thee or imagination that thou wilt interpose any hinderance to the prosperous success of their designs 15. But thou O Lord art a God full of compassion and gratious long-suffering and plenteous in mercy and truth Paraphrase 15. But thou O Lord wilt undoubtedly relieve me and discomfit them Of this thy divine attributes assure me who art so wholly made up of mercy and pity to them that are in distress and cry to thee for help that I cannot doubt of thy hearing and rescuing me at this time and though thou deferâ—est the execution of thy wrath upon wicked doers on purpose to reduce them by thy patience to repentance yet when this work of thy long-sufferance and mercy proves in effectual when men go on impenitently and obstinately in their course thy fidelity and performance to thy servants that are opprest by such as well as that soveraign property thy mercy oblige thee to discomfit and exemplarily to punish them and relieve and deliver those that are oppressed by them 16. O turn unto me and have mercy upon me give thy strength unto thy servant and save the son of thy handmaid Paraphrase 16. Lord if it be thy will may this now be thy opportunity to restore thy wonted mercies to me to interpose thy power for my rescue and deliver me thy most lowly servant out of these present dangers 17. Shew me a token for good that they which hate me may see it and be ashamed because thou Lord hast holpen me and comforted me Paraphrase 17. Let thy favour and kindness toward me be now by some means as thou shalt think good signally and illustriously exprest that it may be effectual to work a shame and reformation in mine enemies so far at least as to give over their malitious design when they discern thee to espouse my cause to take my part to assist and support me against all their machinations Annotations on Psalm LXXXVI V. 2. For I am holy The meaning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we render for I am holy may deserve to be examined The Chaldee directly follow the Hebrew words and are to be interpreted by them and give no help toward the understanding them The LXXII read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is as literal the very word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with an aspirate for ×— as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with γ for ×— being most probably formed by an easie change from the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This signifying originally 1. piety to God 2. probity 3. mercy or benignity the Syriack it seems thought it so unreasonable for the Psalmist to affirm any of these of himself that taking it in the third notion that of goodnese as that is all one with mercy they apply it not to the Psalmist but to God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thou art good and so the Arabick also That this was by them done either through change or misunderstanding the Hebrew is not probable when there is another notion of the word which as it will best accord with this place so it will perfectly justify this their rendring that of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 see note on Ps 4. d. one that hath found favour with God This best accords with the rest of the titles here given to himself poor and needy v. 1. thy servant that trusteth in thee v. 2. one that cries daily to thee v. 3. that lifts up his soul to thee v. 4. Which what are they but the description of Gods Eleemosynary the notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 elsewhere Another possible notion of the word and which recedes very little from this such as may be owned of the
provoked his spirit so that he spake unadvisedly with his lips Paraphrase 32 33. Before this is set down Num. 20. another murmuring of our Fathers against God occasioned by some want of water at Meribah a place so called from their chiding and contending with Moses where in their rage they wished they had died in that former plague Numb 11.13 And this their peevishness was a provocation to Moses who though he were a meek man brake out into a passionate speech v. 10. Hear ye now ye rebels shall we fetch you water out of this rock Wherein as he spake with some diffidence as if it were impossible to fetch water out of the rock when God had assured him v. 8. that at his speaking to the rock it should bring forth water sufficient for them all and is accordingly challenged of unbelief v. 12. so he seems to have assumed somewhat to themselves shall we and so did not sanctifie God in the eyes of the people of Israel v. 12. did not endeavour as he ought to set forth God's power and glory and attribute all to him And this passionate speech cost Moses very dear and was punished with his exclusion out of Canaan v. 12. Deut. 1.35 and 3.26 and 4.21 and 34.4 34. They did not destroy the nations concerning whom the Lord commanded them 35. But were mingled among the heathen and learned their works 36. And they served their idols which were a snare to them 37. Yea they sacrificed their sons and daughters unto devils 38. And shed innocent blood even the blood of their sons and of their daughters whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan and the land was polluted with blood 39. Thus were they defiled with their own works and went a whoring with their own inventions Paraphrase 34 35 36 37 38 39. After all this when at length they were come into the promised land and had received particular command Deut. 7.2 that they should utterly destroy all the idolatrous inhabitants thereof for fear they should be inveigled by them and drawn away to their idol-worship and those abominable pollutions they were infamously guilty of yet contrary to this express command of God's they did not execute this severity they spared them and drave them not out but permitted them to live amongst them Jud. 1.21 and so 't is oft mentioned through that book and by this means they were corrupted and brought into their heathen sins see Jud. 3.6.7 worshipt their Idols and false Gods and observed those abominable rites which infernal spirits had exacted of their worshippers the slaying and sacrificing of men innocent persons yea their own dearest children and so to idolatry and worship of the Devil they added blood-guiltiness of the highest degree the deepest dye even the most barbarous and unnatural and to all these yet farther adding fornication and those abominable sins that those nations were guilty of and for which the land spued them out Lev. 18.28 40. Therefore was the wrath of God kindled against his people in so much that he abhorred his own inheritance Paraphrase 40. This great sin adding to all the former provocations most justly inflamed the vehement anger and displeasure of God against this people of which he had before resolved and promised Abraham that he would own them for ever as his peculiar and so a long while he did and bare with them very indulgently but they growing still worse and worse 't was but reasonable and according to the contents of his not absolute but conditionate covenant at length to reject and cast them off or withdraw his protection from them 41. And he gave them into the hands of the heathen and they that hated them ruled over them 42. Their enemies also oppressed them and they were brought in subjection under their hand Paraphrase 41 42. And accordingly so he did he suffered the heathen nations about them to invade and overcome them the King of Mesopotamia Jud. 3.8 who had dominion over them eight years the Midianites and Amalekites Jud. 6.3 the Philistims and Amorites Jud. 10.6 the Philistims Jud. 13.1 43. Many times did he deliver them but they provoked him with their counsel and were brought low for their iniquity Paraphrase 43. In each of these destitutions and oppressions God still reteined his wonted respect to them so far as from time to time to raise them up Captains to undertake their battels and to rescue them out of their oppressors hands but then still again they fell to their sinfull idolatrous courses and again forfeited and devested themselves of God's protection and were again subdued by the same or some other of their heathen neighbours 44. Nevertheless he regarded their affliction when he heard their cry 45. And he remembred for them his Covenant and repented according to the multitude of his mercies 46. He made them also to be pitied of all those that carried them captives Paraphrase 44 45 46. And yet then also he did not utterly destitute them but in their times of distress and flying to him for succour he looked upon them with pity again remembred the covenant made with their Fathers and in infinite mercy returned from his fierce wrath and so inclined the hearts of those that had conquered them that instead of increasing they compassionated their miseries 47. Save us O Lord our God and gather us from among the heathen to give thanks to thy holy name and to triumph in thy praise Paraphrase 47. O blessed Lord be thou now pleased to return our captivity to reduce us from the hands of our heathen enemies that we may live to enjoy those blessed opportunities of making our most solemn acknowledgments to thee and blessing and magnifying thy holy name in this or the like form 48. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting and let all the people say Amen Praise ye the Lord. Paraphrase 48. To the almighty Lord of heaven and earth that hath made good his covenant of mercy to all his faithfull servants be all honour and glory from all and to all eternity And let all the world join in this joyfull acclamation adding every one his most affectionate Amen and Hallelujah Annotations on Psal CVI. Tit. Praise the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is here no part but onely the title of this Psalm This appears by two competent evidences 1. By the joint suffrage of all the ancient Translators of which the Syriack renders it not at all but in stead of it gives as their use is a large syllabus or contents of the Psalm but the Chaldee retein it as a title and the LXXII and Latin retein the Hebrew words putting them into one in the direct form of a title 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Alleluja and the Arabick more expresly such a Psalm noted with the title of Alleluja 2. By express testimony of Scripture 1 Chron. 16. There we reade v. 7. On that day David delivered first not this Psalm as we
coals fall upon them let them be cast into the fire into deep pits that they rise not up again Paraphrase 10. Thy severest judgements from heaven such as fell on Sodom shall undoubtedly be their portion perdition and irreversible destruction 11. Let not an evil-speaker be established on the earth evil shall hunt the violent man to overthrow him Paraphrase 11. Such accursed arts as those of detraction and rapine falseness and oppression shall never have a durable prosperity but continually pursue the author as the hound a prey and at length bring certain destruction on him 12. I know that the Lord will maintain the cause of the afflicted and the right of the poor 13. Surely the righteous shall give thanks unto thy name the upright shall dwell in thy presence Paraphrase 12 13. For unquestionably God will undertake the patronage of innocent injured persons vindicate them from their oppressors defend them so signally that they shall be able to discern 't is his work and so give him the honour and glory of it support and sustain such when their oppressors are brought to nothing Annotations on Psal CXL V. 2. Are they gathered together for war The Hebrew reads 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to collect or draw together or congregate so Hab. 1.15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he gathers them into his net and being here in the active sense and joyned with wars it must be to prepare put in order instruere praelia muster and set their affairs in order for battel The LXXII duly render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they set their battels in order the Chaldee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they excite or instigate and so the Syriack also V. 8. Further not What was formerly noted of the conjugation Hiphil that it sometimes imports not causing but any degree of occasioning or but permitting is here observable of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exivit to goe forth From whence in Hiphil as it signifies to bring forth to advance so also to permit to go forth or advance and so the prayer here is not so much that God will not give them a good success as that he will interpose to their hinderance blast and frustrate their designs in stead of permitting them to prosper To that the Chaldee applies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that follows not in the notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for atâ—olli exalting but for tolli being taken away or destroyed for so they reade 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they shall be taken away or destroyed for ever rendring Selah as they constantly doe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for ever or perhaps in the notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to corrupt or putrifie so as to breed worms Exod. 16.20 they will be corrupted for ever The LXXII have somewhat deformed this verse for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 desires they reade as with other points 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from my desire for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his wicked thought or device 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so rendring it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they thought or reasoned against me then for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 suffer them not to advance or prosper 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 forsake me not from some other supposed notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Yet they seem best to have rendred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they will be exalted by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lest they be exalted So v. 9. for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the head of those that incompass me they reade as if it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the head of their circuit V. 11. Evil-speaker 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man of a tongue is proverbially a detractor or Sycophant So Eccl. 10.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man of a tongue is by the Chaldee rendred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one that eats accusations the phrase by which they express a sycophant and so the similitude of the serpent biting doth inforce there In this place they express it by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a delator with â—hree-fold or three forked tongue which is another style of theirs for a sycophant because such a man wounds three at once the receiver the sufferer and himself Of him it is here said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he shall not be established in the future as all the former verbs v. 9 and 10. may be read and not in the imperative and so by way of pronouncing or prediction onely and not by way of wish The Hundred and Forty First PSALM A Psalm of David The hundred and forty first is an ardent prayer of David's for deliverance from his enemies but first and especially for patience under them that he be not by their oppositions or the incitements of others moved out of his course of meekness of piety and the other parts of duty incumbent on him It seems to have been composed as the next is by the title affirmed to be on occasion of Saul's persecuting him to the cave of Engedi 1 Sam. 24. 1. LORD I cry unto thee make haste unto me give ear unto my voice when I cry unto thee 2. Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense and the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice Paraphrase 1 2. O Lord I am in distress and have no other refuge but thee to whom I may resort To thee therefore I most humbly and ardently address my prayers in the same manner as thy priests are by thee appointed to address their daily oblations to attone thee beseeching thee graciously to accept and answer them and in thy time to rescue me out of mine enemies hands 3. Set a watch O Lord before my mouth and keep the door of my lips 4. Incline not my heart to any evil thing to practise wicked works with men that work iniquity and let me not eat of their dainties Paraphrase 3 4. Meanwhile O Lord grant me thy guidance both for my words and actions for my words that whatever their dealings toward me are I may not be provoked to any speech of rashness or impatience or disloyalty toward Saul and for my actions that I may not be tempted to any unlawfull practice that I may not for any appearance of advantage to my self thereby give ear to any evil counsel My resolutions are firm to the contrary and how inviting soever the temptations are I hope I shall never taste of the sweets of them 5. Let the righteous smite me it shall be a kindness and let him reprove me it shall be an excellent oile which shall not break my head for yet my prayer also shall be in their calamities 6. When their judges are overthrown in stony places they shall hear my words for they are sweet Paraphrase 5 6. I have been most carefull to preserve my loyalty to Saul and am not guilty of the least disloyal
the mode of an earnest petitioner that waits and never means to move till his requests are granted And thou O Lord answerably wilt be pleased I doubt not to make the same speed to receive that address of mine to hearken to and grant my prayer 4. For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness neither shall evil dwell with thee Paraphrase 4. Of this I have full confidence when I consider how impossible 't is for thee to favour Rebellion or any sort of wickedness such as mine enemies now practice against me that is the part of false and Idol Gods i. e. of Devils or to abett or indeed endure or not oppose them that design so great a wickedness A stranger if he undertake not some degree of Proselytisme if he renounce not his Idolatry is not permitted to abide or sojourn or even to be a slave among thy people How much less then shall any wicked man be endured in thy presence 5. The foolish shall not stand in thy sight thou hatest all workers of iniquity Paraphrase 5. The mad folly and presumption of these vainglorious vaunters of their own worth and excellencies thou dost abhor even to behold art so far from allowing or favouring the boasts or enterprises of such that thou dost hate them perfectly and so dost thou all others whatsoever their language is whose actions of uniforme obedience do not approve them to thee 6. Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing the Lord shall abhor the bloody and deceitful man Paraphrase 6. Thy Justice and patronage of the innocent ingage thee to destroy the false and treacherous which under fair pretenses maketh the foulest evils He whole double property it is to be made up of mercy and fidelity utterly detests that falseness and treachery which is designed to the oppressing and shedding the blood of the guiltless 7. But as for me I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercy in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy Temple Paraphrase 7. This therefore must ingage me by way of just return to thy free and undeserved mercies and the great and continual succession of them in all my times of need to make my frequent visits to that place where thou art pleased to praesent into thy self I mean the Tabernacle with the Ark of the Testimony in it And therein as in the Court and Palace of thy Sacred Majesty to prostrate my soul before thee with all possible humility care and reverence 8. Lead me O Lord in thy righteousness because of my enemies make thy way strait before my face Paraphrase 8. And it shall be a special part of my request unto thee O Lord that by the conduct of thy grace I may be directed and assisted in keeping strictly and close to all thy commands that those that hate me most and observe me most diligently on purpose to get some advantage against me may find nothing to quarrel or accuse in me To which end Lord do thou give me a clear sight of my duty and incline my heart to walk exactly and so acceptably before thee 9. For there is no faithfulness in their mouth their inward part is very wickedness their throat is an open sepulchre they flatter with their tongue Paraphrase 9. This I am most neerly concerned in having so malitious treacherous eyes upon me enemies that will not spare to forge falsities against me that in their hearts meditate nothing but mischief and when they open their mouths 't is as when a Grave is digged or a pit laid open or as when the state of the dead is said to gape only to swallow up and devour the most innocent their tongues when they are softest and most flattering are full of all kind of deceit 10. Destroy thou them O God let them fall by their own counsels cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions for they have rebelled against thee Paraphrase 10. This I am confident thou wilt not suffer to go unpunished even in this life Their own malitious projects shall betray and ruine themselves instead of prospering against me the more their designs of mischief are the more multiplyed are their rebellions against God and thereby will he be certainly provoked to eject and cradicate them 11. But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoyce let them ever shout for joy because thou defendest them let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee Paraphrase 11. On the other side all such as rely on God that do their duty with faithfulness and resort to his safeguard for their protection shall never want cause of joy and exultation his providence shall signally watch over them and his presence secure them And as love is a delightful affection and never suffers them that are possest with it to be sad in the presence and mutual Returns of the beloved so in a most eminent manner the lovers of God whose hearts are fixt on him and their greatest pleasures placed in injoying the constant pledges of his love shall never want matter of the most exuberant joy so good a God will never fail to give them whatsoever they desire 12. For thou Lord wilt bless the righteous with favour wilt thou compass him as with a shield Paraphrase 12. For thy promises O God have obliged thee to prosper the righteous to reward and crown his fidelity to thee with thy special kindness toward him and then how can he want any other shield or protection that hath the guard of thy favour under which to secure himself Annotations on Psal V. Tit. Nehiloth The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but this one time found in the whole Bible we can but divine at the signification of it having no certain guide to rely on for it Lexicographers say 't is an eminent Musical Instrument and the word being of affinity both with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a torrent or running river and with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a bee it is by some deemed to have the name from the one or the other as imitating the murmurs of either of them Some have derived it from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 perforavit and then it must signifie a hollow wind-instrument Thus indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies a pipe or flute or timbrel and the verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to play on a pipe c. but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is no where used in this sense The regular way of deriving it and that which is allowed by Lexicographers is from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 haeres fuit baereditate aut successione accepit and is oft rendered by the LXXII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dividing or distributing into parts but most frequently 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 succeeding to by inheritance And in this notion it may possibly signifie a song or hymn divided to be sung in parts as in Quires
by way of Ellipsis to be supplied by addition of some verbe is or abideth for ever 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he shall sit which they paraphrase his habitation in the highest heavens 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he hath prepared his throne or tribunal for justice The two former of these the LXXII confound and put into one and so the Syriack and Latine and Arabick and Aethiopick after them but the more distinct reading which the Chaldee follows is most literal and full and with reason to be preferred V. 14. Daughter of Sion The word daughter applyed to a city or nation signifies the people or inhabitants of it the city being as it were the parent from whence they spring and accordingly the Chaldee here expresses it by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the assembly of Sion from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 congregavit V. 20. In fear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here is by the LXXII rendred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Law-giver and so the Syriack and vulgar and Aethiopick follow them and the Arabick with a little change a doctor or teacher of the Law probably referring to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a doctor or teacher coming regularly from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 docuit The Chaldee render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fear as if it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 timuit And so between these the generality of interpreters is divided If the former be accepted the sence will well bear it thus Set them a teacher an instructer that as it follows they may know themselves to be but men learn humility and piety by this means and Gods judgments or punishments may be this teacher as 1 Tim. 1.20 delivering to Satan to be buffeted and afflicted by him is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they may be taught not to blaspheme If it be the second then 't is Put them in fear i. e. bring them to the acknowledgment and fear of thee and that by thy punishments also But 't is sure the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to its punctation here signifies a Razor so Judg. 13.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and a razor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 say the Chaldee shall not come upon his head and 1 Sam. 1.11 in like manner Now this in the Prophetick style is frequently used for the execution of Gods vengeance See Is 7.20 The Lord shall shave with a razor that is hired even the King of Assyria and Ezek. 5.1 take thee a barbers razor thereby to signifie Gods judgments upon Jerusalem And this and nothing but this is the importance of the word thus pointed and then it will fitly be rendred in prophetick dialect set them or thou wilt set them a razor bring some sharp punishment upon them that so they may know themselves to be but men The Tenth PSALM The Tenth is a Psalm of Davids joyned by the LXXII to Psalm ix but in the Hebrew divided from it and it is a complaint made to God of the riotous oppressions of wicked men and an humble relyance on him for his repressing them 1. WHy standest thou afar off O Lord why hidest thou thy self in times of trouble Paraphrase 1. O thou all-seeing Lord thou art sometimes pleased to withdraw thy self a while from the aid of suppliants and in times of the greatest streights which are the fittest opportunities to suspend thy interpositions and permit oppressors to prosper and we silly creatures are often posed thereby discern not the causes which move thy wisdom to it 2. The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor Let them be taken in the devices which they have imagined Paraphrase 2. That wicked men should make use of their worldly power to injure and beat down those that are not able to resist is nothing strange their pride incites them to it But it is thy property to resist the proud and defend the needy and to bring ruine on godless men by the same means by which they designed it to others Be thou now pleased thus to reveal thy self 3. For the wicked boasteth of his hearts desire and blesseth the covetous whom God abhorreth Paraphrase 3. For 't is to the great dishonour of thy Name that the wicked is thus permitted to prosper in his designs he boasteth and placeth a pride in it that without any check he can do what he please And so the covetous designer that for the inriching himself oppresses and injures others either perswades himself that God sees not at all or that he meddles not with the Government of the World or else makes God an accessary and favourable to it every of which is indeed an horrible blasphemy and must needs provoke him exceedingly 4. The wicked through the pride of his countenance will not seek after God God is not in all his thoughts Paraphrase 4. For thus the impious atheistical worlding resolves within himself that all his designs are so subtilly and closely managed so politickly laid and secretly wrought that no God in heaven shall ever be able to discover them much less to frustrate or punish them 5. His ways are always grievous thy judgments are far above out of his sight as for all his enemies he puffeth at them Paraphrase 5. He pursues his own wicked courses very constantly and industriously As for Gods laws or the judgments due from him to sinners he never considers or lays them to heart and so being confident of his own wit and strength and setting all his thoughts on the mischieving his opposers and never dreaming of any check from any he despiseth and contemns them all 6. He hath said in his heart I shall not be moved for I shall never be in adversity Paraphrase 6. And resolves in his own thoughts that he will never give over his oppressive and wicked ways upon any apprehension or fear whether of God or man 7. His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and frauds under his tongue is mischief and vanity Paraphrase 7. On this account he makes no scruple to take and break oaths to imprecate all curses on himself for the confirming of that which is most false and so he may cheat and injure others cares not what maledictions he calls down upon himself and thus is he always employed His tongue serves him for no other use but to oppress and defraud others 8. He sitteth in the lurking places of the villages in the secret places doth he murther the innocent his eyes are privily set against the poor Paraphrase 8. And all advantages he makes use of to catch and kill he is always upon some secret design of rapine and blood and innocent poor men that never provoked him or were his enemies are the special persons at whom his treachery is directed 9. He lieth in wait secretly as a Lion in his den he lieth in wait to catch the poor he doth catch
they will soon scatter and dissipate all thy preparations and when they have done so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what hath the righteous done i. e. what can or will he do His righteousness will stand him in little stead And thus it is fitly a part of the speech of the distrustful friends of David that discouraged him and bid him flie to the hills places of strength or safety v. 1. and it may be farther observed that in Scripture stile we frequently read of the foundations of the mountains or hills Deut. 32.22 Psal 18.7 and so still insist here telling him that the enemy will destroy all his forces and then a righteous man or cause without any other defence will soon be taken and ruined And therefore this is most probably the meaning of it V. 5. Soul hateth The different significations of the particle ו have made this verse capable of several interpretations For if as a Copulative it be rendred And then the first part of the verse runs thus The Lord trieth the righteous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the wicked i. e. examines the actions and thoughts of both and this seems most probable as best connecting with V. 4. his eye-lids try the children of men i. e. all men in the latitude righteous and wicked good and bad And then as a consequent of that it fitly follows And he that loveth violence hateth his own soul i. e. doth instead of oppressing others mischief himself he is sure to have the worst of it when God comes to examine it his unjust dealing will be the greatest cruelty to his own soul and for this the ו before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he that loveth violence may be indifferently rendred and or but but most fitly and. This sense the LXXII have imbraced 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but he that loveth iniquity hateth his own soul and from them the Latine qui autem diligit iniquitatem odit animam suam and so the Arabick and Aethiopick and there is only this prejudice against it that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is in the feminine and so more fitly agrees with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his soul in the nominative case On the other side then if ו in the first place signifie but then it will disjoyn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the wicked from the former part of the verse and make it begin the latter part and then our ordinary rendring of it which is favoured by the Chaldee will be most commodious so as to make an opposition betwixt the fate of the righteous on one side and the wicked and violent on the other that God trieth the one and then trying must signifie either permitting to be tempted and afflicted for a while or else as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to trie sometimes signifies approving the former and abhorreth and detesteth and so will severely punish the latter And the only exception against this understanding of it is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 trieth is in the 4 th verse used in another sense for a judicial examination of mens actions such as is common to the sons of men indefinitely i. e. to all sorts of them good and bad and not peculiar to the righteous as in the notion either of tempting for a while or of approving it must be In this uncertainty I thought it best that the Paraphrase should not be confined to one but inlarged so as to take in both of them V. 6. Fire brimstone This verse is best divided by making the pause after 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 snares thus Vpon the wicked he shall rain snares putting all that follows fire and brimstone and wind of tempests or tempestuous winds into one also of all which together it is affirmed that they are the portion of his Cup. And thus the LXXII read it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so the Syriack and Latine and thus there is no ellipsis to be supplied but only of the verb are or shall be thus Fire and brimstone and a tempestuous wind shall be the portion of their Cup which last phrase portion of Cup is proverbial in Scripture Gods gifts and dispensations good and bad are ordinarily exprest by a Cup poured out and given men to drink thus 't is very frequently in Scripture And even the Heathen had the same expression of their Gods 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Homer there be two Cups of the Gods one of good things another of bad And then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 portion from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 numeravit to tell out signifies either a payment or that which is destin'd to any as his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or portion in a division The Twelfth PSALM TO the chief Musitian upon Sheminith a Psalm of David Paraphrase The Twelfth Psalm is spent in meditation of the malice and wickedness of men and the relief which is to be expected from none but God It was composed by David and committed to the Master of his Musick to be sung or played on the harp of eight strings 1. Help Lord for the Godly man ceaseth for the faithful sail from among the children of men Paraphrase 1. It is a sad sight or meditation to consider how wicked the World grows very few pious men to be met with any where so few that one may rely on or trust that I have reason to complain that even truth or fidelity it self is departed out of this earth of ours And this may well drive one to his one sure hold the help and assistance of God on which alone I rely and in that I rest and beseech him in his good time to afford it me 2. They seek vanity every one with his neighbour with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak Paraphrase 2. Among men there is nothing but falseness and dissimulation fair words perhaps but no reality in them 3. The Lord shall cut off all flattering lips and the tongue that speaketh proud things Paraphrase 3. But God shall destroy these false deceitful persons and all such Atheistical designers which if they can by any policy attain their ends never apprehend or fear any revenge from God and make no scruple to profess so 4. Who have said with our tongues will we prevail our lips are our own who is Lord over us Paraphrase 4. Saying our tongues shall gain us whatsoever we want supply all other defects of right c. who can hinder us from making our utmost advantage of these to acquire whatsoever we can by the use of them why should we stand so strictly to consider whether what we say be true or no So we may advantage our selves by it to whom should we be accountable for that 5. For the oppression of the poor for the sighing of the needy now will I arise saith the Lord I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him Paraphrase 5. To such Atheistical oppressors and despisers as these God will
of Christ and sometimes coming in clouds see Mat. 24. note b. and 2 Thess 2. note b. and 2 Pet. i. e. and as Psal 96.13 Gods judgments are exprest by he cometh he cometh and Psal 97.5 by the presence of the Lord and many the like so here we have the representation of a gloâ—iouâ— and â—errible coming of God bowing the heavens and coming inclosed with a dark cloud v. 11. as being invisible riding on a cherub or Angel v. 10. all Gods apâ—s being by Angels and this in a tempestuouâ— manner haile thunder and lightning v. 12 13 14. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thrice repeated coals of fire thereby representing the bolt or thunder-shaft which is with great fitness thus exprest poetically as the lightning by brightness the congealed moisture of the cloud by haile which in those countries accompanied thunder as rain does with us Exod. 9.23 so that missile shot out of the cloud with so much terror both of noise and splendor what is it but the earthy sâ—lphâ—reous part made up of the same ingredients as a fiery cinder among us and all this to denote the terribleness of it and lastâ— after the manner of his destroying of the Aegyptians by drying up the channels of the Sea that deep whereon the earth is oft said to be founded and so ingaging them in it and then bringing the waters upon them to the overwhelming them all and all this but preparatory to Davids deliverance which follows v. 17. V. 14. Shott out The Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies to multiply and to shoot oâ— daâ—â— In the latter sense 't is Gen. 49.23 the archâ—s grieved him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and shot at him And thus by the comparison here made between arrows and lightning we may conclude it to signifie Yet the antient â—nterpreters generally render it in the former notion The Chaldee read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and many lightnings the LXXII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and he multiplyed lightnings and so the Syriack and Vulgar Latine and Arabick and Aethiopick from them and so also the Interlinear multiplicavit and Castellio crâ—bris fulgoribus with frequent lightnings and onely our English seems to have pitched on the right rendring it cast forth in the old and shot forth in the new translation V. 20. Cleanness What is here meant by the cleanness of Davids hands to which he here pretends may to some seem difficult especially when so many other expressions are added to it keeping Gods ways indefinitely not wickedly departing from him v. 21. having all Gods judgments before him and not putting away his statutes v. 22. being upright before him and keeping himself from his iniquity v. 23. and again righteousness and cleanness of hands in his eye-sight v. 24. when yet if we consider the series of the history this Psalm 2 Sam. 22. was indited after the commission of those great sins of Adultery with Vriahs Wife making him drunk contriving his death and these lived in a long space at least a twelve moneth before Nathan came to him from God and brought him to repentance which as it was a conjunction of many known deliberate wilful sins and a long course and stay in them so no doubt it could not be reconcileable with Gods favour whilst unrepented of nor consequently with that uprightness in Gods sight which here is spoken of With that indeed many sins of weakness or suddain surreption for which his heart presently smites him such as that of numbring the people might be competible as being but the spots of sons such as God is favourably pleased to pardon in his sons and sincere servants but for these wasting wilful sins which have none of that excuse of weakness at the time of Commission nor that instant smiting of the heart humiliation and confession and change and sacrifice to allay the poyson of them but accumulation of more one on the back of the other and a long continuance in them these are not of that sort they exclude from the favour of God as long as they remain unreformed For the answering of this therefore it must be remembred 1. That Repentance when sincere restores to the favour of God and David was now in that state at and long before the time of inditing that Psalm supposing it to be composed by him after the quieting of Absaloms rebellion as the series of the story sets it 2 Sam. 22. and then be his sins as red as scarlet God hath made them as white as snow Gods pardon and acceptance sets him right again and that may be his ground of confidence in thus mentioning the cleanness of his hands viz. such as now was restored to him by repentance 2. As general affirmations have frequently some one or perhaps more exceptions which yet comparatively and in balance with the contrary are not considered so his profession of Vniversal uprightness here is to be interpreted with this exception of that matter of Vriah according to that style of Scripture which saith of him that he did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord and turned not aside from any thing that he commanded him all the dayes of his life save onely in the matter of Uriah the Hittite which though it were very foule yet was not fit to prejudice the universal uprightness of all the rest of his life and so is not named here in the Psalm but must as an implicite exception be from that passage in the Kings fetcht to give the true importance of these phrases which in sound pretend to Vniversal Vprighâ—ness and sincerity but must be taken with this allowance except or save only in that one matter V. 23. Iniquity For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from mine iniquity Which the LXXII and Latine and Arabick and Aethiopick follow the Chaldee seems to have read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from iniquities in the plural for so they read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from debts or faults and so the Syriack also But the Vulgar reading need not be parted with being in sense the same I kept my self from mine iniquity i. e. from my falling into any such V. 29. Leaped In this 29. v. where the Hebrew read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will run through a troop the Chaldee have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will multiply armies but the LXXII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I shall be delivered from temptation both no doubt by way of Paraphrase not literal rendring In the end of the verse the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to look signifies both a wall from whence to look and observe the approach of enemies and also a watch-tower or fort from the same ground Thus wall among us being lightly deduced from vallum signifies also a fort Colwal the fort on the hill because generally when walls are thus built in war there are some such forts erected on them To this is joyned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from
the earth Paraphrase 13. And beside this all the comforts of this life are his portion here and his posterity have a greater assurance of prosperity intailed on them than any other 14. The secret of the Lord is among them that fear him and he will shew them his Covenant Paraphrase 14. It is part of the gracious decree and Covenant of God stricken in Christ with all those that truly fear and serve him and endeavour sincerely to do what he commands never to conceal from them the knowledge of his will so far as their practice is concerned in it 15. Mine eyes are ever toward the Lord for he shall pluck my feet out of the net Paraphrase 15. Whatever my streits are I shall not fail to wait and attend on thee confidently assuring my self that thou in thy good time wilt deliver me out of them 16. Turn thee unto me and have mercy upon me for I am desolate and afflicted Paraphrase 16. And now that I am in such a condition I have no other motive to invite thy mercy but my shewing thee that I have need of it All humane aids failing me 't is now thy season to interpose for me 17. The Troubles of my heart are inlarged O bring thou me out of my distresses Paraphrase 17. My anxieties and destitutions daily increase O be thou pleased to deliver me out of them 18. Look upon mine affliction and my pain and forgive all my sins Paraphrase 18. My sins I know they 〈◊〉 that have brought these punishments on me be thou of thine own goodness pleased to pardon the one and remove the other 19. Consider my enemies for they are many and they hate me with cruel hatred Paraphrase 19. My adversaries daily increase and their hatred to me is perfectly causeless let their power and my innocence move thee at length to chastize the one and vindicate the other 20. O keep my soul and deliver me let me not be ashamed for I put my trust in thee Paraphrase 20. Preserve and deliver me out of their hands my confidence is wholly in thee O let me not be disappointed in that hope 21. Let integrity and uprightness preserve me for I waite on thee Paraphrase 21. Let my innocence be supported and defended by thee for I have none else to depend upon Or thy mercy and thy fidelity shall secure me as one that have no other hold and therefore wholly depend and rely on thee that as thou hast promised thou wilt perform for me 22. Redeem Israel O God out of all his troubles Paraphrase 22. And in thy good time deliver all those that rely on thee from all the difficulties that encumber them Annotations on Psal XXV V. 3. Without a cause 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies any falseness perfidiousness violation of oath or league and not simply any kind of transgression but those of lying or falseness The only difficulty is what is meant by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is joyned with it an adverbe from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inanis or vacuus vain empty or void It is by the LXXII rendred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Latine supervacuè in vain or to no purpose and it ordinarily belongs to those that do any thing and receive no reward or advantage by it So Gen. 31.42 Surely thou hadst sent me away 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we render it empty the LXXII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is without any reward for all my labour So Exod. 23.15 thou shalt not appear before me i. e. before God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 empty without some present to offer him So 1 Sam. 5.3 if ye send the Ark send it not empty i. e. without some presents to accompany it And thus it seems to signifie here being applyed to the false perfidious persons that had violated their faith to David Those if they were frustrated in their mischievous designs if they prospered not should be perfidious without any reward and so be put to shame rendred ridiculous thereby as those that are disappointed of their expectations and so that is the meaning of the phrase V. 14. The secret The Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the secret is by the LXXII rendred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Latine firmamentum the firmament or foundation by the Arabick the strength all either reading 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a foundation or else supposing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is a primitive to be derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fundavit But the Chaldee reads it in the notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the secret which signifying a thought also or counsel or consultation the Syriack read it to no ill sense The thought of the Lord is of them that fear him as thought signifies care or consultation and sollicitude for or about any thing and so the thought of God his careful providing all that is wanting for them In the notion of a counsel or consultation we have it Gen. 49.6 My soul come not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into their secret i. e. into the consultations of those brethren in iniquity And either this notion or that for a secret may most fitly be retein'd in this place If it be the secret then 't will be answerable to the shewing or revealing that follows in the end of the verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is thus literally to be rendred and his Covenant is to declare viz. his secrets to them So the LXXII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and his Covenant of declaring or to declare to them and the Latine Testamentum ejus ut manifestetur iis and his Testament or Covenant is that it i. e. the secret preceding be revealed to them i. e. it is part of Gods Covenant with his faithful to reveal his will to them and not to keep it secret so that they may know it and practice it which without knowing they cannot do See Deut. 30.11 And to this sense the Aethiopick paraphrase it his law shall teach them And this is no incommodious sense of these words But then considering that this of the Psalms is a Poetical writing in which trajections are not unusual or strange it may I suppose yet be more probable that there should be place here for such an easie trajection as we observed Psal 2.11 and so the whole verse lie in construction thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 'T is the counsel or secret of the Lord and his Covenant to them that fear him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad notificandum iis to declare to them or reveal or let them know i. e. to reveal his will unto them viz. that part of his will which is so oft mentioned in this Psalm v. 4 5.8 9 10 12. and that which alone is useful for us to know his will or Commandments wherein we are to walk if ever we hope to be accepted by him And this I suppose to be the fullest and clearest rendering of these words which
those that are in the greatest distresses be thou gratiously pleased to look upon me to be atoned and reconciled toward me 2. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin Paraphrase 2. O let not any the least of these crimes that I have been guilty of in this matter be permitted to appear in thy sight or rise up in judgment against me but seal me thy perfect pardon for every one of them 3. For I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is ever before me Paraphrase 3. For I do most willingly confess that I have committed in the compassing of one carnal pleasure many horrid and odious sins These are a perpetual terror to my conscience an amazing prospect continually outfacing and tormenting me 4. Against thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest and be clear when thou judgest Paraphrase 4. And though the dignity and office wherein thou hast placed me over thy people leave me not liable to any humane process or judicature among men yet am I most sadly culpable and liable to vengeance from thee the pure God of heaven the transcendent Ruler over all the Kings of the earth Thou mayest most justly proceed against me as against the most criminous rebel indite me and arraign me of adultery drunkenness and murther also and whatever suit thou wagest against me thou art sure to cast me whatsoever vengeance thou exactest to be inflicted on me I must most deservedly and inevitably fall under it 5. Behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me 6. Behold thou desirest truth in the inward parts and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom Paraphrase 5 6. Lord I am a most polluted creature the corruption of my nature the bare inclinations of my will to any unlawful object ought in any reason to be strictly watched and industriously rejected by me and thy grace continually sollicited to inable me to overcome them and not in the least degree favoured or indulged or yielded to when I so well know that thou requirest purity of the heart and affections and forbiddest the very first thoughts of any unlawful injoyment and beside this revelation of thy will that I should thus keep my self pure art pleased to grant me thy grace to make me inwardly sensible of this part of my duty and this is a great inhauncing of my sin committed against all these obligations 7. Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean wash me and I shall be whiter than snow Paraphrase 7. Lord be thou pleased to absolve me and solemnly to declare and seal to me thy reconciliation after the same manner as the priest is wont to do when upon the unclean thing he sprinkles water mixed with the ashes of an heifer and of cedar wood and of hyssop and of scarlet Lev. 14.6 7. Num. 19.6 the solemn ceremony for the purification of sin v. 9. and whereby the blood of the lamb of God the death of the Messias was praefigured and then I shall again be restored to that blessed state from which I have so sadly fallen by my outragious miscarriages 8. Make me to hear joy and gladness that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoyce Paraphrase 8. I am in a most sad and wretched condition thy just displeasure and wrath for my sins as long as it continues over me is the setting my soul upon the torture my own conscience being the executioner under thee O be thou pacified and reconciled toward me and it shall be the joyfullest news that ever came to any poor tortured suppliants ears when he is taken off from the rack and all his bones set and restored to ease again 9. Hide thy face from my sins and blot out all mine iniquities Paraphrase 9. Lord pardon my sins and return to thy wonted favour toward me 10. Create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right spirit within me Paraphrase 10. I have sadly fallen from my wonted purity and sincerity Lord by the good work of thy grace upon my heart restore me to it again and renew me inwardly and throughly my very thoughts as well as my actions that I never fall into the least beginning of any such pollution again 11. Cast me not away from thy presence and take not thy holy spirit from me Paraphrase 11. Lord it is just with thee to reject me from all spiritual commerce and communication with thee who have resisted thy spirit and wasted my soul by so many wilful commissions against thee just that thou shouldest withdraw thy grace to which I have done such despite O do not thou thus severely punish me by withdrawing that which now more than ever I stand in need of 12. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation and uphold me with thy free spirit Paraphrase 12. Without thy help and aids I am utterly unable to get out of this broken condition the free and voluntary assistances of thy spirit are so perfectly necessary to me that I can never think a good thought make the least attempt toward recovering the purity from whence I am fallen without them O be thou pleased to restore them to me and thereby to support and establish me 13. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways and sinners shall be converted unto thee Paraphrase 13. And this thy exceeding mercy to a sinner so sadly laps'd may be a means to bring wicked livers home to repentance I shall be able to incourage them to return by proclaiming mine own success who have fallen as sadly as any of them can have done And being thus incouraged by my example and experience many I doubt not by the assistance of thy grace shall be brought home to thy service and the practice of the duties of new life 14. Deliver me from blood-guiltiness O God thou God of my salvation and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness Paraphrase 14. Oh that sin of murther is an horrid and crying sin of a black and deep dy and though mine own hands have not been polluted with it yet my conscience assures me the guilt of the murther of Uriah lies on me who projected and contrived it by others O thou blessed Lord from whom all my deliverance must come be thou pleased to deliver me from this one as from those other foul Commissions and it will be most joyful news to me and with the greatest exultation of heart shall I proclaim thy abundant mercies to me 15. O Lord open thou my lips and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise Paraphrase 15. This work of grace from thee shall set my lips wide open in praising and magnifying thee 16. For thou desirest not sacrifice else would I give it thou delightest not in burnt-offerings Paraphrase 16. 'T is not any the richest hecatombe or most chargable oblation for my sin that thou expectest
to be cast on God being the burthen of the mind only that is most fitly rendred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 care or sollicitude But some of the Jews incline to take 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here for a verb and then it must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cast or commit thy self or thy affairs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who hath given to thee and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Jewish Arab Interpreter is capable of this sense being the same with the Hebrew only changed ×™ into ו V. 23. Half their days In the Jewish account threescore years was the age of a man and death at any time before that was lookt upon as untimely and deemed and styled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 excision of which they made 36 degrees So that not to live out half ones days 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is in their style to die before thirty years old The Fifty Sixth PSALM TO the chief Musitian upon Joâ—ath Elem Rechokim Michtam of David when the Philistims took him in Gath. Paraphrase The fifty sixth Psalm was composed by David as Psalm 34. was at Adullam or some place of his flights in remembrance of his great deliverances out of the hands of Saul and in reflexion on the time when he was with the Philistims 1 Sam. 21. in which he resembleth himself to a Dove a great way from home sitting sadly and solitaâ—ily by it self It is called his jewel see note on Psal 16. a. in respect of the memorableness of the escapes which were the matter of it and he committed it to the Praefect of his Musick to be solemnly and publickly sung 1. Be mercifull unto me O God for man would swallow me up he fighting daily oppresseth me Paraphrase 1. Blessed Lord my enemy Saul is very earnest and diligent to devour me he is continually designing some mischief against me O be thou gratiously pleased to interpose thy hand of deliverance for me 2. Mine enemies would daily swallow me up for they be many that fight against me O thou most high Paraphrase 2. I am watched on every side by a multitude of envious persons who fain would get me into their snares but thou O Lord art able to disappoint them all 3. What time I am afraid I will trust in thee Paraphrase 3. When any the greatest cause of fear approacheth me I have my sure refuge on which I may repose my self thy over-ruling Providence O Lord. 4. In God I will praise his word in God I have put my trust I will not fear what man can do unto me Paraphrase 4. Thou hast promised me thy constant aid and the fidelity of that and all other thy promises is matter of glorifying and firm confidence to me and I cannot be brought to apprehend any danger from the malice of men be it never so great as long as I have this so impregnable a bulwark to secure me 5. Every day they wrest my words all their thoughts are against me for evil Paraphrase 5. My enemies I know are very diligent and industrious they do their utmost to deprave my words and actions to put the most odious interpretations upon them their plots and consultations are wholly spent to work me some mischief 6. They gather themselves together they hide themselves they mark my steps when they wait for my soul Paraphrase 6. Very busie they are in meeting and laying their heads together they manage it with all secresie as so many treacherous spies they have an evil eye upon every thing I do and fain would find occasion to insnare and ruine me 7. Shall they escape by their iniquity In thine anger cast down the people O God Paraphrase 7. Their whole confidence is in their falseness and wickedness certainly thou wilt not permit such acts to prosper finally thy patience will at length be provoked and then thou wilt suddenly subdue them and destroy them 8. Thou tellest my wandrings put my tears into thy bottle are they not in thy book Paraphrase 8. I have been long banished from my home wandring up and down in great distress my condition hath been very sad and lamentable And all this I am sure is particularly considered by thee thou knowest the days of my exile and vagrant condition thou reckonest and layest up all the tears that drop from me for thou hast a sure record a book of remembrance for all that befals me and wilt I doubt not in thy good time vindicate my cause and deliver me 9. When I cry unto thee then shall mine enemies turn back this I know for God is for me Paraphrase 9. I need no other weapons to discomfit my enemies but my prayers for of this I have all assurance that God doth espouse my cause and in his good time upon my humble and constant addresses to him he will certainly take my part and come in seasonably to my rescue 10. In God will I praise his word in the Lord will I praise his word 11. In God have I put my trust I will not be afraid what man can do unto me Paraphrase 10 11. He is my God and my Lord a God of all mercy and goodness and a Lord of all power and might The former of these hath inclined him to espouse my cause to make me most gracious promises of preservation and deliverance and the latter secures me of his strength and fidelity his ability and readiness to perform them And this is matter of all joy and comfort to me in my distress of confidence that having relied on him I shall not be forsaken by him nor fall under the malice and power of any of mine enemies 12. Thy vows are upon me O God I will render praises unto thee Paraphrase 12. I am under the greatest obligation to return my thanksgiving to thee and all the oblations of a grateful heart In this I shall be careful not to fail but sing praises to thee for ever who art thus graciously pleased to own and vindicate thy unworthy servant 13. For thou hast delivered my soul from death wilt not thou recover my feet from falling that I may walk before God in the light of the living Paraphrase 13. Thy preservations I have signally experimented several times when my very life hath eminently been in danger And these pledges of thy mercy give me assurance that thou wilt now rescue me from all my dangers and give me space and opportunities to live and serve thee and walk acceptably before thee Annotations on Psalm LVI Tit. Took him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies in a latitude not only to apprehend or take or hold as a prisoner but simply to have to possess to contain to have in ones power Accordingly as it is here rendred by the LXXII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they had him in their power so if we consider the story to which it refers 1 Sam. 21. we shall find
profits c. thy promises made to obedience infinitely above the proportion of those advantages and to the additions of threats thy terrors and denunciations against sin as much above the sise of all those dangers that the devil or world or mine own flesh or phansie can suggest unto me 12. Blessed art thou O Lord teach me thy statutes Paraphrase 12. O Lord I praise and glorifie thy name for all thy mercies and that I may do it so as may be accepted by thee Lord give me thy grace both to know and obey thy commandments which is the most noble way of glorifying thee living worthy of so divine a master 13. With my lips have I declared all the judgments of thy mouth Paraphrase 13. I have made it one of my special exercises to express to others the venerable opinion I have of thy laws and that of all and every of them 14. I have rejoyced in the way of thy testimonies as much as in all riches Paraphrase 14. The joy that I have in performing obedience to them is so great so much exceeding the delight that any worldly man takes in the greatest plenty that I cannot but express the transportation 15. I will meditate in thy precepts and have respect unto thy ways 16. I will delight my self in thy statutes I will not forget thy word Paraphrase 15 16. And therefore if I had nothing to consider but these present joys which result from the service of God I were most unwise if I should change this study this exercise this felicity for any other if I should ever forget or forsake the comforts of a pious life GIMEL 17. Deal bountifully with thy servant that I may live and keep thy word Paraphrase 17. O Lord I am constantly resolved to obey and adhere to thy known will all the days of my life O make me those gracious returns which thou hast promised to all such 18. Open thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law Paraphrase 18. And what are those The inlightening and removing all degrees of darkness remaining on my heart quickening and enlivening my faculties giving me a vital taste and relish of the delights of that obedience which is performed to thy precepts which when I have I shall then truly discern those admirable Divine excellencies of thy Law those pleasures resulting from the practice of it which are not to be found any where else and consequently learn to love and adore the Author of it be ravish't and transported with the thought of thee that hast dealt thus wonderfully with thy servants given them a rule of life and promised them eternal felicities as their reward for their being content to be â—uled by it when if we might have been our own choosers we could not have pitcht on any thing so advantageous and pleasurable to our selves at the present as this obedience to thy laws will be certainly found to be by any that will experiment it 19. I am a stranger in the earth hide not thy commandments from me Paraphrase 19. For mine own part I may truly say though I am possest of a great sovereignty am by thy providence placed in a most prosperous condition upon earth yet in all this secular greatness and plenty I enjoy no more than a meer stranger or lodger that hath supply for his present necessities but nothing more The one true comfort of which I am capable is that of obedience to thy precepts O let me never be deprived of this advantage and comfort without which a Kingdom is not able to make me tolerably happy 20. My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto thy judgments at all times Paraphrase 20. My desires are vehement languishing and continual toward thee and thy judgments I desire to be always imployed and exercised in them and when I am not my soul is wholly taken up with a love and desire of them 21. Thou hast rebuked the proud that are cursed which do err from thy commandments Paraphrase 21. All disobedient obstinate persons which stand out against these laws of thine are sure to be punisht by thee and eternally accursed and rejected from thee And indeed their very present course of irrational sottish pride and obstinacy is a very competent curse unto it self robs them of all the comforts of a pious life and ingulphs them in many sad miseries in this life sufficient to denominate them accursed if there were no arrear of torments and woes in another life 22. Remove from me reproach and contempt for I have kept thy testimonies Paraphrase 22. But I have carefully observed and practised thy precepts Lord do thou preserve me from all the rebukes or punishments that the malice of men can design against me 23. Princes also did sit and speak against me but thy servant did meditate in thy statutes 24. Thy testimonies also are my delight and my counsellers Paraphrase 23 24. And this I am confident thou wilt do and in that confidence I shall not seek out for any other security Whatsoever conspiracies are laid against me by the greatest Potentates whatsoever reproaches from my heathen neighbours depending on their own strength and deriding my trust in God they shall not take me off from this one constant exercise the study and practice of thy law to these shall I resort as for all the comforts of my life the joy and delight of my soul so for advise and counsel also in time of difficulty and danger and from thence take my directions how to prevent or avert them DALETH 25. My soul cleaveth unto the dust quicken thou me according to thy word Paraphrase 25. Whensoever I am cast down in a sight either of my unworthiness or my sins 't is then a season for God to interpose his hand for my comfort and relief This he hath promised to doe for all that are truly humbled and I doubt not he will in his good time perform it for me 26. I have declared my ways and thou heardest me teach me thy statutes Paraphrase 26. As soon as I make my confession to him and with a sincerely contrite heart petition his pardon he is graciously pleased to hear my prayer and to be reconciled with me and then I may seasonably beg and hope for his grace to support me for my future life that I may no more fall off and provoke him 27. Make me to understand the way of thy precepts so shall I talk of thy wondrous works Paraphrase 27. Then I may pray for an understanding heart an experimental knowledge of his easie and gracious yoke which when I have obtained I shall be for ever most delightfully exercised in the meditation and discovery of thy most admirable dispensations towards us especially of that transcendent goodness of thine in pardoning of sins giving us such admirable precepts assisting us to the performance of them accepting our imperfect obedience and then crowning
us for ever for it 28. My soul melteth away for heaviness strengthen thou me according to thy word Paraphrase 28. My sorrow and vehement contrition exprest by the tears of my very soul qualifies me for that comfort and raising up which thou hast promised to all truly humbled sinners 29. Remove from me the way of lying and grant me thy law graciously Paraphrase 29. And then I may be a meet suiter for thy grace to mortifie every wicked desire in me every false apostatizing or hypocritical affection and to inliven me to a pious vertuous life exactly regulated by thy will and word the richest donative that can be bestowed upon me 30. I have chosen the way of truth thy judgments have I laid before me Paraphrase 30. This of obedience and fidelity and sincere adherence to thee is to me far more eligible and desirable than the contrary v. 29. I have therefore proposed to my self thy Law as the rule of my life and stedfastly resolved to direct all my actions by it 31. I have stuck unto thy testimonies O Lord put me not to shame Paraphrase 31. And having done so if I adhere and constantly cleave unto them persevere as I have resolved I am sure I shall never be disappointed of my expectations I shall never miss of the comforts of this life or the joys of a better 32. I will run the way of thy commandments when thou shalt inlarge my heart Paraphrase 32. This is matter of infinite delight and pleasure to me and a special act of thy gracious dealing with us men to bind up our present joys in our practice of vertue to make us at once pious and happy This shall certainly ingage me to all the speed and diligence of a most alacrious obedience HE. 33. Teach me O Lord the way of thy statutes and I shall keep it unto the end Paraphrase 33. O blessed Lord God let thy holy spirit direct and guide me in performing an acceptable obedience to thee and I shall by all laws of justice and gratitude be ingaged to continue the course with all possible care and diligence 34. Give me understanding and I shall keep thy Law yea I shall observe it with my whole heart Paraphrase 34. Be thou pleased to illuminate my mind to remove from me that darkness of spirit that my corruptions and sins have brought upon me and give me that practical pliableness and docileness and humility that may be assistant to the work by the continuance of thy grace to work in me to doe as well as to will to perform a most carefull watchfull diligent and withall a most impartial uniform obedience to thee 35. Make me to go in the path of thy commandments for therein is my delight Paraphrase 35. Lord let me never fail of thy direction and guidance in all the obedience which by thy grace I shall indeavour to perform to thee There is nothing so pleasurable to me as to be thus exercised and imployed O do thou conduct and assist and direct me in it 36. Incline mine heart unto thy testimonies and not to covetousness Paraphrase 36. It is much more desirable to me to be imployed in thy laws than in any matter of the greatest secular advantage O let thy grace so prevent and bend my heart that this pleasure may still possess me and never give place to any secular pursuance or carnality 37. Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity and quicken thou me in thy way Paraphrase 37. Lord grant me a strict guard over mine eyes those inlets of many sins withdraw me from all delight or complacency in wealth or worldly grandeur on which the lust of the eye is wont to be placed in frail false deceitfull beauty which is apt to accend foul flames within the breast in any other vain transporting object and on the contrary inliven and inflame in me all pious and vertuous designs and pursuits 38. Stablish thy word unto thy servant who is devoted to thy fear Paraphrase 38. There are in thy word the revelation of thy will to us the greatest arguments imaginable to ingage us to fear and reverence of and uniform obedience to thee promises of the divinest and terrors of the most formidable sort To this are the oracles of God all designed to bring us to the practice of true piety O grant me that grace that I may never permit these to depart out of my mind but make use of them constantly to this end to which thou hast designed them persevere firmly in thy obedience 39. Turn away my reproach which I fear for thy judgments are good Paraphrase 39. O what a shame and reproach would it be to me who acknowledge thy yoke to be so easie and pleasurable the obedience to thy commands so sweet and desirable ever to fall off from it into any unprofitable work of darkness This the sight of my own frailty bids me to fear beyond all things and to be for ever jealous of my self in this behalf O let thy word and thy grace give me that stability v. 38. and constancy that I never thus shamefully miscarry 40. Behold I have longed after thy precepts quicken me in thy righteousness Paraphrase 40. All that I can say of my self is that I have an ardent desire to obey thee O let thy grace which in mercy thou wilt not fail to give to all such that in humility address to thee excite and inliven me from time to time in all works of obedience to thee that so I may daily improve in all righteousness VAV. 41. Let thy mercies come unto me O Lord even thy salvation according to thy word Paraphrase 41. Lord be thou graciously pleased to compassionate me to espouse my cause to rescue me out of mine enemies hands according to the promise thou hast made unto me 42. So shall I have wherewith to answer him that reproacheth me for I trust in thy word Paraphrase 42. And then I shall be able to make a solid reply to all my despitefull enemies which are ready to insult over me in any distress and upbraid my trust and reliance on thee 43. And take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth for I have hoped in thy judgments Paraphrase 43. It is thy promise of eternal immutable truth that thou wilt never forsake them that trust in thee and adhere to thee O let me never be forsaken by thee in any such eminent degree that I may doubt of applying this promise to my self and assuming on the strength thereof this assurance that thou wilt infallibly rescue me 44. So shall I keep thy Law continually for ever and ever Paraphrase 44. This shall ingage and oblige the constancy of my obedience to thee from this time to the end of my life 45. And I will walk at liberty for I seek thy precepts Paraphrase 45. And being delivered by thee I will most chearfully and alacriously set to the ways
of all piety there being no course wherein I shall more delightfully exercise my self 46. I will speak of thy testimonies also before Kings and will not be ashamed Paraphrase 46. Yea I will proclaim and boast of the excellency of thy Law and the advantages of ordering our lives by it and recommend it with confidence to the greatest Princes in the world as that which will inhaunse their crowns and make them much more glorious and comfortable to them if they will resolve to guide their lives after this model 47. And I will delight my self in thy commandments which I have loved Paraphrase 47. And for my self as in my love and value of thy precepts I prefer them before all other jewels in the world so will I entertain and recreate and gratifie my self by this exercise the meditation and practice of these rather than by any other way of divertisement which the world doth most esteem of 48. My hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments which I have loved and I will meditate in thy statutes Paraphrase 48. And this pleasure shall not be an aerial idle speculative pleasure but such as shall set me vigorously about the practice of all holy obedience to thee and therein will I constantly and diligently exercise my self and thereby express the reality of my love to them ZAIN 49. Remember the word unto thy servant on which thou hast caused me to hope 50. This is my comfort in my affliction for thy word hath quickned me Paraphrase 49 50. O Lord thou hast made me many most gracious promises and thereby given me grounds of the most unmoved hope and comfort And these are able to support and inliven me in the midst of the greatest pressures 51. The proud have had me greatly in derision yet have I not declined from thy law 52. I remembred thy judgments of old O Lord and have comforted my self Paraphrase 51 52. Atheistical wicked men when they see me in distress make a mock at my relyance and trust in God and think it ridiculous to talk of relief from heaven when earthly strength faileth But all their scoffs and bitterest sarcasms shall not discourage me or tempt me to forsake my hold I have many notable illustrious examples of thy power and goodness of the seasonable interpositions of thy reliefs to thy servants in their greatest distresses and these being laid to heart have infinitely more force to confirm my faith than all their Atheistical scoffs to shake it 53. Horror hath taken hold on me because of the wicked that forsake thy law Paraphrase 53. Nay these their heathenish discourses have been so far from working thus on me that they are matter of great disquiet and commotion and trembling to me to think of the direfull condition which they are in that have utterly forsaken God and all thought of obedience that have quite devested themselves as of all hope so of all dread of him 54. Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage Paraphrase 54. For my part what ever can befall me in this frail transitory life I can take joy in the commands and promises of God and make them true real solaces to me in whatsoever distress as knowing that I suffer nothing but what God sees to be best for me and that if I faithfully wait on him he will in his time give me a seasonable deliverance 55. I have remembred thy name O Lord in the night and have kept thy law 56. This I had because I kept thy precepts Paraphrase 55 56. With these thoughts of God I have in the solitude and darkness of the night intertained and supported my self and thereby taken up a courage and constancy of resolution never to relinquish this hold for any other Thus hath God abundantly rewarded my diligence in his service by a pleasure resulting from it v. 54. by a stedfast unmovable hope and comfort in him v. 50. and by a durable constant resolution of a persevering obedience never to depart from him CHETH 57. Thou art my portion O Lord I have said that I would keep thy word Paraphrase 57. Blessed Lord of all the possessions and comforts of the world thou onely art worth the having thy promises are precious promises thy commands most excellent divine commands I have by thy grace deliberately made my choice preferred these before all the glories of this world and resolved that thy word shall be my treasure which I will most diligently preserve 58. I intreated thy favour with my whole heart be mercifull to me according to thy word Paraphrase 58. To this thy grace is most necessary for without it I can do nothing for this therefore I make my most humble sincere passionate address to thee O be thou graciously pleased to grant my request to vouchsafe me this mercy which thou hast promised never to deny to those that ask and importunately seek and beg it of thee 59. I thought on my ways and turned my feet unto thy testimonies Paraphrase 59. But neither have I contented my self with my bare prayers for strength and grace I have set to my part in a diligent examination of my past sins and a carefull watch over my future actions and so have forsaken my old ways and diligently pursued that course which thou hast prescribed me 60. I made haste and delayed not to keep thy commandments Paraphrase 60. And to this end I did immediately set out I made no one minutes stay in so necessary a pursuit as knowing that the longer I should dally the more unlikely I should be ever to perform so great a journey 61. The bands of the wicked have robbed me but I have not forgotten thy law Paraphrase 61. In my course I have oft met with disturbances the assaults and injuries of wicked men but these how sharp soever they were have been but exercises of my patience have not provoked me to doe any thing but what best becometh thy servant 62. At midnight I will rise to give thanks unto thee because of thy righteous judgments Paraphrase 62. This and the many other benefits and advantages of thy Law and my obedience to it are such as I am bound to acknowledge all the days of my life and even to interrupt my lawfull sleep and repose to find frequent vacancies for so necessary a duty of lauding and magnifying thy mercy 63. I am a companion of all them that fear thee and of them that keep thy precepts Paraphrase 63. And for my days exercise I endeavour to associate my self with all those that serve and obey thee conscientiously by that society to excite one another and to attain to some proficiency in so good a work 64. The earth O Lord is full of thy mercy teach me thy statutes Paraphrase 64. O Lord thy goodness and mercy and grace is abundantly poured out upon the men in the world O let me enjoy a special degree of it for the sanctifying my soul
and planting an uniform obedience to thy commandments in the depth thereof TETH 65. Thou hast dealt well with thy servant O Lord according to thy word Paraphrase 65. O Lord I cannot but acknowledge thy great bounty toward me to the utmost that any promise of thine gave me confidence to hope 66. Teach me good judgment and knowledge for I have believed thy commandments Paraphrase 66. I am fully resolved to adhere to and obey thy precepts O be thou pleased by thy grace to rectifie my inclinations and natural bent of mind to work all corruption perverseness or contumacy out of it and then to illuminate my understanding to give me that knowledge of my duty and that resolvedness of mind that I may never swerve from it 67. Before I was afflicted I went astray but now have I kept thy word Paraphrase 67. To this end I must acknowledge the chastisements and afflictions which thou hast sent me to have been very advantageous and instrumental to me I was out of the way but thy rod hath reduced and brought me into it again 68. Thou art good and dost good teach me thy statutes Paraphrase 68. Thou art a gracious father and all that thou dost is acts of grace and goodness even the sharpest of thy administrations v. 67. see Rom. 8.28 are sent by thee as that which is absolutely best for us O lead and direct and assist me in thy obedience and then I have no farther care to exercise me 69. The proud have forged a lye against me but I will keep thy precepts with my whole heart Paraphrase 69. My malicious adversaries have contrived slanders against me But I shall not be much concerned in their practices I shall indeavour carefully to preserve my conscience upright to God and then not fear their suggestions or machinations 70. Their heart is as fat as grease but I delight in thy law Paraphrase 70. They are obstinately and imperswasibly bent upon their course and please themselves very much in it But I shall not envy their felicities but take infinitely more pleasure in a strict adherence to thy law than they in all their impieties 71. It was good for me that I have been afflicted that I might learn thy statutes Paraphrase 71. Nay the afflictions and chastisements thou hast sent me are to me much more beneficial and valuable than all their prosperity can be to them being very contributive to the reforming what was amiss and so most wholsome profitable discipline to me V. 67. 72. The law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver Paraphrase 72. And all the wealth in the world is not near so considerable to me as this JOD 73. Thy hands have made me and fashioned me give me understanding that I may know thy commandments Paraphrase 73. Lord thou art the author of my life and being I am a meer creature of thy forming and therefore obliged by that title to pay thee all the obedience of my life Lord be thou pleased by thy grace to instruct and assist me to it 74. They that fear thee will be glad when they see me because I have hoped in thy word Paraphrase 74. By this means shall I be cause of joy to all pious men who know that I have depended on thy promised assistances when they see me thus answered and supported by thee 75. I know O Lord that thy judgments are right and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me Paraphrase 75. All the dispensations of thy providence O Lord be they never so sharp are I am confident made up of a perfect justice and not onely so but it is an act of thy sovereign mercy which thou hadst promis'd to make good to me to send me such afflictions as these These are but a necessary discipline and so a mercy to me and having promised not to deny me real and principal mercies thou wert obliged in fidelity thus to send them 76. Let I pray thee thy mercifull kindness be my comfort according to thy word unto thy servant Paraphrase 76. But there is one mercy more of which I am capable thy favour and loving-kindness thy sealing pardon and peace unto my soul and that thou hast promised me also and if thou affordest me this it will be an allay abundantly sufficient to all my afflictions 77. Let thy tender mercies come unto me that I may live for in thy Law is my delight Paraphrase 77. Without this favourable aspect of thine I am even a dead man thy restoring it to me will raise me as it were from death to life there being now no joy that I take in the world but in thy favour and my obedience And this I hope may render me capable of this mercy from thee 78. Let the proud be ashamed for they dealt perversely with me without a cause but I will meditate in thy precepts Paraphrase 78. My malicious enemies have without all guilt of mine accused defamed and depraved my actions this shall bring shame and mischief as well as disappointment to them but shall never disturb me in my course of obedience by that I hope I shall refute all their calumnies 79. Let those that fear thee turn unto me and those that have known thy testimonies Paraphrase 79. And as long as all that truly fear thee and have lived conscientiously in thy service continue faithfull to me I have no reason to wonder at the defection of others But if any man that is truly pious be seduced by their slanders and ingaged against me Lord in mercy to them be thou pleased to disabuse and reduce them 80. Let my heart be sound in thy statutes that I be not ashamed Paraphrase 80. As for me I desire and beg of thee that if there be any degree of unsincerity in me any spared sin still remaining it may be effectually wrought out of my heart that I may approach thee with confidence and never be in danger of being rejected by thee CAPH 81. My soul fainteth for thy salvation but I hope in thy word 82. Mine eyes fail for thy word saying When wilt thou comfort me 83. For I am become like a bottle in the smoak yet do I not forget thy statutes Paraphrase 81 82 83. It is long O Lord that I have waited and attended with great desire for deliverance from thee the expectation hath even worn me out yet have I not forsaken my hope or permitted my self to be tempted to any sin whether of impatience or applying my self to any indirect means for my relief but remain still confident that thou wilt in thy good time still send me release 84. How many are the days of thy servant When wilt thou execute judgment on them that persecute me Paraphrase 84. How long Lord wilt thou permit this weight to continue upon me and not take my part against my enemies punishing or restraining them and delivering me out of their hands
but two parcels of Christ's words behind To the poor the Gospel is preached and Blessed is he that is not offended in or because of me To the former of these are answerable here these so many severals to the same purpose Which executeth judgment or pleadeth the cause of the oppressed Giveth food to the hungry Raiseth them that are bowed down unless that literally belong to Christ's corporal cures Loveth the righteous Preserveth the strangers Relieveth the fatherless and widow All which are but so many prophetical expressions to be understood in a spiritual sense of his exceeding mercies under the Gospel to the poor in spirit the humble and lowly in heart the prime peculiar objects of Evangelical mercy and those which are effectually wrought on by his grace and so Evangelized by him in that sense which belongs to that phrase in that place see note on Matth. 11. b. To the latter the words of this v. 5. are parallel Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help whose hope is in the Lord his God for so to hope and adhere and place his full trust in the one true God is all one with not being scandalized or falling off from Christ whatsoever befalls And as that there is inferr'd from the other parts of the character of the Messias as a Conclusion from Premisses and so is set down in the close of all so here 't is set down as a principle in the front and which is all one proved by what follows in the insuing verses By all which it is father evident that the Messias whose character it is is no less than the Creatour of heaven and earth v. 6. and consequently the Lord that shall reign for ever and ever v. 10. the God of Zion or his Church unto all generations The latter of which is but proportionable to Christ's words to the Apostles Lo I am with you to the end of the world And the former the very style wherein Christ's Kingdom is exprest both in the Psalms see Ps 93.1 and in the New Testament 1 Cor. 15.25 and oft in other phrases amounting to the same sense as sitting at God 's right hand till he make his enemies his footstool Ps 110.1 Mat. 22.44 and Act. 2.34 The Hundred and Forty Seventh Psalm Praise ye the Lord. The hundred forty seventh Psalm which is divided into two by the Greek and Latin c. is a solemn form of magnifying God in his works of power and mercy and seems to have had for its title the close of the former Psalm Hallelujah and to have been composed after the return from the Captivity v. 2. 1. PRaise ye the Lord for it is good to sing praises unto our God for it is pleasant and praise is comely Paraphrase 1. Many motives there are to excite and stir up all to the magnifying the name of God 'T is a piece of service most acceptable in his sight 't is to them that perform it most pleasant and delightfull and that which best becomes us to pay to him and him to receive and expect from us who have our whole being from him 2. The Lord doth build up Jerusalem he gathereth together the out-casts of Israel 3. He healeth the broken in heart and bindeth up their wounds Paraphrase 2 3. To this we are farther ingaged by his present deliverances for though Jerusalem and the Temple of God there the state and Church have been sadly wasted yet hath God been pleased to return our captivity to recollect our dispersions and restore us to our homes and his Temple the chearfull performance of his divine service and so to refresh and revive us to cure the diseases and wounds to remove the sorrows of our souls 4. He telleth the number of the stars and calleth them all by their names Paraphrase 4. So likewise his omniscience and omnipotence exact our acknowledgments and adorations The stars of heaven which are so impossible to be numbred by us Gen. 15.5 that they are compared and joyned with the sand which is upon the sea shore for multitude Gen. 22.17 are not onely numbred but particularly known by God what powers qualities influences there are in every one of them and as they were all by a word or expression of his will first created so are they perfectly at his command and at the least bâ—ck or call of his as souldiers at the directions of their General the whole host of them immediately obeys and doth whatsoever he pleases 5. Great is our Lord and of great power his understanding is infinite Paraphrase 5. Thus infinite and boundless is the power the knowledge and the providence of God which is to us absolutely incomputable 6. The Lord lifteth up the meek he casteth the wicked down to the ground Paraphrase 6. And these doth he exercise constantly for the support and relief of all humble-minded men for their spiritual advancement in strength and grace which to them peculiarly he affords in greatest abundance but for all proud obdurate sinners which perversely resist him he is resolved to resist them and subdue them and magnifie his power in their destruction 7. Sing unto the Lord with thanksgiving sing praises upon the harp unto our God 8. Who covereth the heaven with clouds who prepareth rain for the earth who maketh grass to grow upon the mountains 9. He giveth to the beast his food and to the young ravens that cry Paraphrase 7 8 9. O then let us all with tongues and instruments of musick with all the solemnest expressions of our hearts celebrate those divine excellencies of his his power his wisedom his goodness and his providence And here it will be very considerable how in a series and succession of wise and gracious disposals he provides for the wants of all creatures here below especially of those that are otherwise most helpless he gathereth a multitude of watery clouds into regions of the air that those may distill and drop down moderate showers upon the higher and drier parts of the earth which have no other supply but that of rain and by so doing he provides grass for those wilder beasts that feed on those mountainous parts and are not beholden to the care of man as other beasts of the field sheep and oxen c. are and consequently would without this special provision of his be utterly destitute And by the â—ike way of providence it is that the young broods of Ravens which as soon as they are hatcht are forsaken and left destitute by the old ones yet by some secret undiscernible contrivance of God's whether by dew falling into their mouths when they gape or by flies in the air or worms bred in their nests or by some other constant though secret course of divine providence are sufficiently furnished with necessaries of life by God out of his unexhaustible treasury their wants are considered by him and certainly supplied see Job 38.41 and are emblems of his special protection and
on the N. T. published 1657. with this Advertisement TO THE READER MY fear that these Additional Notes may fall into some hands which for want of sufficient acquaintance with the larger Volume may miss receiving the desired fruit from them hath suggested the affixing this Auctarium of two plain intelligible discourses the one prepared for an Auditory of the Clergy the other of Citizens or Laity and so containing somewhat of useful advice for either sort of Readers to whose hands this Volum shall come That it may be to both proportionably profitable shall be the prayer of Your Servant in the Lord H. HAMMOND THE PASTORS MOTTO The XI SERMON Preach'd to the Clergy of the Deanery of Shorham in Kent at the Visitation between Easter and Whitsuntide A.D. 1639. held at S. Mary-Cray 2 COR. 12.14 For I seek not yours but you THis Text hath somewhat in it seasonable both for the assembly and the times I speak in For the first It is the word or Motto of an Apostle Non vestra sed vos not yours but you transmitted to us with his Apostleship to be transcribed not into our rings or seals of Orders but our hearts there if you please to be ingraven with a diamond set as the stones in our Ephod the jewels in our breast-plate gloriously legible to all that behold us And for the second consider but the occasion that extorted from our humble Saint this so magnificent elogie of himself you shall find it that which is no small part of the infelicity of his successors at this time the contempt and vileness of his ministery a sad joyless subject of an Epistle which would have been all spent in superstruction of heavenly doctrine upon that pretious foundation formerly laid in dressing of those noble plants that generous vine Isa 5. that had cost him so much care to plant but is fain to divert from that to a comfortless 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a parenthesis of two or three chapters long to vindicate himself from present danger of being despised and that even by his own children whom he had begotten in the Gospel but other pseudo's made up all of lying and depraving had debauch'd out of all respect to his doctrine or estimation to his person I should have given a S. Paul leave to have hoped for better returns from his Corinthians and now he finds it otherwise to have express'd that sense in a sharper strain of passion and indignation than Tullie could do against Antonie when on the same exacerbation he brake out into that stout piece of eloquence quid putem contemptumne me non video quid sit in moribus aut vitâ meâ quod despicere possit Antonius But there was another consideration which as it composes our Apostles style so it inlarges it with arguments all that he can invent to ingratiate himself unto them because this contempt of their Apostle was a most heinous provoking sin and withal that which was sure to make his Apostleship succesless among them And then though he can contemn reputation respect any thing that is his own yet he cannot the quaero vos seeking of them that office that is intrusted him by Christ of bringing Corinthians to heaven Though he can absolutely expose his credit to all the Eagles and Vultures on the mountains yet can he not so harden his bowels against his converts their pining gasping souls as to see them with patience posting down this precipice by despising of him prostituting their own salvation And therefore in this ecstatick fit of love and jealousie in the beginning of chap. 11. you may see him resolve to do that that was most contrary to his disposition boast and vaunt and play the fool give them the whole tragedy of his love what he had done and suffered for them by this means to raise them out of that pit force them out of that hell that the contempt of his ministery had almost ingulph'd them in And among the many topicks that he had provided to this purpose this is one he thought most fit to insist on his no design on any thing of theirs but only their souls Their wealth was petty inconsiderable pillages and spoil for an Apostle in his war-fare too poor inferior gain for him to stoop to A flock an army a whole Church full of ransomed souls fetched out of the Jaws of the Lion and Bear was the only honourable reward for him to pitch design on Non quaero vestra sed vos I seek not yours but you In handling which words should I allow my self licence to observe and mention to you the many changes that are rung upon them in the world my Sermon would turn all into Satyre my discourse divide it self not into so many parts but into so many declamations 1. Against them that are neither for the vos nor vestra the you nor yours 2. Those that are for the vestra but not vos the yours but not you 3 Those that are for the vos you but in subordination to the vestra yours and at last perhaps meet with an handful of gleanings of pastors that are either for the vestra yours in subordination to the vos you or the vos you but not vestra yours Instead of this looser variety I shall set my discourse these strict limits which will be just the doctrine and use of this text 1. Consider the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the truth of the words in S. Pauls practice 2. The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the end for which they are here mentioned by him 3. The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how far that practice and that end will be imitable to us that here are now assembled and then I shall have no more to tempt or importune your patience First of the first S. Pauls practice in seeking of the vos you that his earnest pursâ—it of the good of his auditors souls though it have one very conpetent testimony from this place v. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 most willingly will I spend and be spent for your souls even sacrifice my soul for the saving of yours yet many other places there are which are as punctual and exact for that as this in this text nay 't is but a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seek here but you shall find it an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 contend in many other places all the agonistical phrases in use among the antient Grecians cull'd out and scattered among his Epistles fetch'd from Olympus to Sion from Athens to Jerusalem and all little enough to express the earnest holy violence of his soul in this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 good fight as he calls his ministery running and wrestling with all the difficulties in the world and no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 price or reward of all that industry and that patience but only the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you gaining so many colonies to heaven But then for the non vestra not yours his absolute
wishes of execration shews his good will toward it is quite contrary to the Gospel-spirit and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he knows not c. Lastly Elias was not only rapt to Heaven but moved on Earth in a Fiery Chariot 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Author of the Book of Maccabees his zeal had fire and fire again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comes from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an excessive fervency and agreeable to his temper is his appetite he desires nothing but fire upon his adversaries calls for fire and fire and fire as you may see it in the story And the Gospel-Spirit is directly contrary to this an allaying quenching spirit a gentle lambent flame that sits on the Apostles heads to enlighten and adorn by its vital warmth expelling partial hectick heats and burning Feverish distempers that spiritual 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mentioned in the Gospel and putting in the place a cool sedute and equable temper to have peace with all men and chiefly with our selves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an admirable phrase in St. Paul to use as much diligence to restore the Earth to peace again as all the wind or air or perhaps fire in its bowels I mean ambitious contentious men do to set it a shaking and he that will not contribute his utmost to quench those flames that will not joyfully do any thing that may not directly or by consequence include sin toward the extinguishing a fire thus miserably gotten into the veins and bowels of a calamitous Kingdom is far enough from the Gospel-Spirit and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he knows not c. I shall not clearly give you the Gospel-Spirit unless I proceed from its opposition to Elias his act to that other the opposition to the motion of those Disciples considered in the particular circumstances The case stood thus Christ was going up to Jerusalem thereupon the Samaritans receive him not the Disciples will have fire from Heaven upon those Samaritans Jerusalem was at that time the only proper place of God's worship and may note to us as an embleme the true established Protestant Religion of this Kingdom The Samaritans were great enemies to this enemies to Jerusalem being first Hereticks in Religion took in the Assyrian Idols into the worship of the true God they feared the Lord and served their own gods as it is in the story and continued their wont when they turned Christians make up the first sort of Hereticks in Epiphanius his Catalogue Secondly They were Schismaticks in an eminent manner set up a new separation by themselves on Mount Gerizim And farther yet in the third place pretended to the only purity and antiquity they lived where Jacob once lived and therefore though Assyrians by extraction they boast they are Jacob's seed and pretend more antiquity for that Schism of theirs because Jacob once worshipped in that Mountain than they think can be shewed for the Temple at Jerusalem which was but in Solomon's time of a later structure Just as they which pretended though never so falsly that they were of Christ have still despised and separated from all others as Novellists which walked in the Apostles steps and practices and so Samaritans under guilts enough First Haters of Jerusalem Secondly Hereticks Thirdly Sepaâ—atists Fourthly Pretenders though without all reason to the first antiquity and so arrogant Hypocrites too And fifthly beyond all prodigious but still confident Disputers and yet sixthly one higher step than all these Contemners and haters of all even of Christ himself on this only quarrel because he was a friend to Jerusalem and looked as if he were a going thither as if he had some favor to the established Religion of the Land I wish this passage did not hitherto parallel it self but seeing it doth too illustriously to be denied or disguised I shall imagine that that which follows may do so too All this together was temptation to two honest Disciples to think fire from Heaven a but reasonable reward for such Samaritans and having flesh and bloud about them compounded with Piety You will not much wonder at them that they were wrought on by the temptation and yet this very thought of theirs the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is presently checked by Christ as being against the Gospel-spirit you know not what spirit you are of Haters of the Church Hereticks Schismaticks Hypocrites Irrational Pretenders Enemies Contumelious even to Christ himself must not presently be assigned the Devils portion the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be yet capable of some mercy some humanity not instantly devoted to be sacrifices to our fury The Gospel-spirit will have thoughts of peace of reconciliableness toward them And let me beseech God first and then you Right Honorable God that he indue and inspire your hearts with this piece of the Gospel-spirit so seasonable to your present consultations And you that you would not reject my Prayers to God but open your hearts to receive the return of them and not imitate even the Disciples of Christ in that they are Boanerges but stay till the cool of the day till you have them in a calmer temper when Christ's Word and Doctrine hath stilled those billows as once he did the other tempestuous Element It was Antonius his way to be revenged on his enemies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not to imitate them whatever he did And this was but an Essay or obscure shadow of the Christian Magnanimity that goes for poverty of spirit in the World but proceeding from the right principle of unshaken patience of constant unmovable meekness of design to be like our Royal Master-sufferer Father forgive them that crucifie me and go and preach the doctrine of the Kingdom to them after they have crucified me And you know all we Ministers ever since are but Ambassadors of Christ to ingrate crucifying enemies Praying them in Christs name and stead that they would be reconciled that they that have done the wrong will vouchsafe to be friends What is it but that eminent piece of Gospel-spirit which they that can be perswaded to part with for all the sweetness that thirst of Revenge can promise or pretend to bring in unto them are unhappily ignorant of the richest Jewel that ever came within their reach They know not c. I have as yet given you the Gospel-spirit in one colour or notion that of its opposition to Elias first and then to the Boanerges It will be necessary to add somewhat of the Positive consideration of it though that must be fetched from other Scriptures And this will be but necessary to this Text because that which is here mentioned is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spirit in the extent not only that one part of it that respected the present action where though any one eminent defect that particularly wherein those Disciples offended were destructive to the Gospel-spirit Malum ex quolibet defectu yet all the several branches of it are required to integrate or
thy self to God might recover you to Heaven O then what power and energy what force and strong efficacy would there be in this voice from God Why will you die I am resolved that heart that were truly sensible of it that were prepared seasonably by all these circumstances to receive it would find such inward vigor and spirit from it that it would strike death dead in that one minute this ultimus conatus this last spring and plunge would do more than a thousand heartless heaves in a lingring sickness and perhaps overcome and quit the danger And therefore let me beseech you to represent this condition to your selves and not any longer be flattered or couzened in a slow security To day if you will hear his voice harden not your hearts If you let it alone till this day come in earnest you may then perhaps heave in vain labour and struggle and not have breath enough to send up one sigh toward Heaven The hour of our death we are wont to call Tempus improbabilitatis a very improbable inch of time to build our Heaven in as after death is impossibilitatis a time wherein it is impossible to recover us from Hell If nothing were required to make us Saints but outward performances if true repentance were but to groan and Faith but to cry Lord Lord we could not promise our selves that at our last hour we should be sufficient for that perhaps a Lethargy may be our fate and then what life or spirits even for that perhaps a Fever may send us away raving in no case to name God but only in oaths and curses and then it were hideous to tell you what a Bethlehem we should be carried to But when that which must save us must be a work of the Soul and a gift of God how can we promise our selves that God will be so merciful whom we have till then contemned or our souls then capable of any holy impression having been so long frozen in sin and petrified even into Adamant Beloved as a man may come to such an estate of grace here that he may be most sure he shall not fall as St. Paul in likelihood was when he resolved that nothing could separate him So may a man be engaged so far in sin that there is no rescuing from the Devil There is an irreversible estate in evil as well as good and perhaps I may have arrived to that before my hour of death for I believe Pharaoh was come to it Exod. ix 34 after the seventh Plague hardning his heart and then I say it is possible that thou that hitherto hast gone on in habituate stupid customary rebellions mayst be now at this minute arrived to this pitch That if thou run on one pace farther thou art engaged for ever past recovery And therefore at this minute in the strength of your age and lusts this speech may be as seasonable as if death were seizing on you Why will you die At what time soever thou repentest God will have mercy but this may be the last instant wherein thou canst repent the next sin may benumb or fear thy heart that even the pangs of death shall come on thee insensibly that the rest of thy life shall be a sleep or lethargy and thou lie stupid in it till thou findest thy self awake in flames Oh if thou shouldst pass away in such a sleep Again I cannot tell you whether a death-bed repentance shall save you or no. The Spouse sought Christ on her bed but found him not Cant. iii. 1 The last of Ecclesiastes would make a man suspect that remembring God when our feeble impotent age comes on us would stand us in little stead Read it for it is a most learned powerful Chapter This I am sure of God hath chosen to himself a people zealous of good works Tit. ii 14 And they that find not some of this holy fire alive within them till their Souls are going out have little cause to think themselves of God's election So that perhaps there is something in it that Matth. iii. 8 the Exhortation Bring forth fruits worthy of repentance is exprest by a sense that ordinarily signifies time past 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 have brought forth fruits It will not be enough upon an exigence when there is no way but one with me to be inclinable to any good works to resolve to live well when I expect to die I must have done this and more too in my life if I expect any true comfort at my death There is not any point we err more familiarly in and easily than our spiritual condition what is likely to become of us after death Any slight phansie that Christ died for us in particular we take for a Faith that will be sure to save us Now there is no way to preserve our selves from this Error but to measure our Faith and Hopes by our Obedience that if we sincerely obey God then are we true believers And this cannot well be done by any that begins not till he is on his Death-bed be his inclinations to good then never so strong his faith in Christ never so lusty yet how knows he whether it is only fear of death and a conviction that in spight of his teeth he must now sin no longer that hath wrought these inclinations produced this faith in him Many a sick man resolves strongly to take the Physicians dose in hope that it will cure him yet when he comes to taste its bitterness will rather die than take it If he that on his Death-bed hath made his solemnest severest Vows should but recover to a possibility of enjoying those delights which now have given him over I much fear his fiercest resolutions would be soon out-dated Such inclinations that either hover in the Brain only or float on the Surface of the Heart are but like those wavering temporary thoughts Jam. i. 6 Like a wave of the Sea driven by the wind and tost they have no firmness or stable consistence in the Soul it will be hard to build Heaven on so slight a foundation All this I have said not to discourage any tender languishing Soul but by representing the horrors of death to you now in health to instruct you in the doctrine of Mortality betimes so to speed and hasten your Repentance Now as if to morrow would be too late as if there were but a small Isthmus or inch of ground between your present mirth and jollity and your everlasting earnest To gather up all on the Clue Christ is now offered to you as a Jesus The times and sins of your Heathenism and unbelief God winked at Acts xvii 30 The Spirit proclaims all this by the Word to your hearts and now God knows if ever again commands all men every where to repent Oh that there were such a Spirit in our hearts such a zeal to our eternal bliss and indignation at Hell that we would give one heave and
us and conceive Christ and bring forth true and saying Fâ—ith in us let all the rest of our studies be ordered in a new course let us change both our method and our Tutor and having hitherto learnt God from our selves let us be better advised and learn our selves from God Let us all study all learning from the Spring or Fountain and make him our instructer who is the only Author worth our understanding and admit of no Interpreter on him but himself The knowledge of God shall be our Vision in Heaven O let it be our speculation on Earth Let it fill every conceit or phansie that we at any time adventure on It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the last work in which all the promises all our possible designs are accomplished O let us in part anticipate that final revelation of him lest so sudden and so full a brightness of glory be too excellent for the Eyes of a Saint and labour to comprehend here where the whole comfort of our life is what we shall then possess And if all the stretches and cracking and torturing of our Souls will prevail the dissolving of all our spirits nay the sighing out of our last breath will do any thing let us join all this even that God hath given us in this real service to our selves and expire whilst we are about it in praying and beseeching and importuning and offering violence to that blessed spirit that he will fully enlighten and enflame us here with zeal as well as knowledge that he will fill us with his grace here and accomplish us with his glory hereafter Now to him that hath elected us hath created us and redeemed us c. SERMON XI MATTH X. 15 It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment than for that City THE whole new Covenant consists of these two words Christ and Faith Christ bestowed on Gods part Faith required on ours Christ the matter Faith the condition of the Covenant Now to bring or present this Faith before you as an object for your understandings to gaze at or to go farther to dissect and with the diligence of Anatomy instruct in every limb or joynt or excellency of it were but to recal you to your Catechism and to take pains to inform you in that which you are presum'd to know The greater danger of us is that we are behind in our practice that we know what Faith is but do not labour for it and therefore the seasonablest work will be on our affections to produce if it were possible this pretious vertue in our souls and to sink and press down that floating knowledge which is in most of our brains into a solid weighty effectual Faith that it may begin to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a work of faith which was formerly but a phansie dream and apparition To this purpose to work on your wills no Rhetorick so likely as that which is most sharp and terrible no such Physick for dead affections as Corrosives the consideration of the dismal hideous desperate estate of infidels here in my Text and that both in respect of the guilt of the sin and degree of the punishment proportioned to it and that above all other sinners in the World It shall be more c. Where you may briefly observe 1. the sin of infidelity set down by its subject that City which would not receive Christ being preach't unto it v. 14. 2. the greatness of this sin exprest by the punishment attending it and that either positively it shall go very sore with it and therefore it is to be esteemed a very great sin implyed in the whole Text or else comparatively being weighed with Sodom and Gomorrha in judgment it shall be more tolerable for them than it and therefore 't is not only a great sin but the greatest the most damning sin in the world And of these in order plainly and to your hearts rather than your brains presuming that you are now come with solemn serious thoughts to be edified not instructed much less pleased or humor'd And first of the first The sin of infidelity noted in the last words that City To pass by those which we cannot choose but meet with 1. a multitude of ignorant Infidels Pagans and Heathens 2. of knowing but not acknowledging Infidels as Turks and Jews We shall meet with another order of as great a latitude which will more nearly concern us a world of believing Infidels which know and acknowledge Christ the Gospel and the promises are as fairly mounted in the understanding part as you would wish but yet refuse and deny him in their hearts apply not a Command to themselves submit not to him nor desire to make themselves capable of those mercies which they see offered by Christ in the World and these are distinctly set down in the verse next before my Text Whosoever shall not receive you i. e. entertain the acceptable truth of Christ and the Gospel preached by you as 't is interpreted by the 40. verse He that receiveth you receiveth me i. e. believes on me as the word is most plainly used Mat. xi 14 If you will receive it i. e. if you will believe it this is Elias which was for to come And John i. 12 To as many as received him even to them that believe in his name For you are to know that Faith truly justifying is nothing in the World but the receiving of Christ Christ and his sufferings and full satisfaction was once on the Cross tender'd and is ever since by the Gospel and its Ministers offered to the world and nothing required of us but an hand and an heart to apprehend and receive and to as many as received him he gives power to become the sons of God John i. 12 So that Faith and Infidelity are not acts properly determined to the understanding but indeed to the whole Soul and most distinctly to the Will whole part it is to receive or repel to entertain or resist Christ and his promises the Author and Finisher of our salvation Now this receiving of Christ is the taking or accepting of the righteousness of Christ and so making it our own as Rom. i. 17 being rightly weighed will enforce Read and mark 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in it or by it the Gospel mentioned in the former verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the righteousness of God by Faith as Rom. iii. 22 i. e. the not legal but Evangelical righteousness which only God accepts directly set down Phil. iii. 9 That righteousness which is through Faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by Faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is revealed to Faith is declared that we might believe that finding no life or righteousness in our selves we may go out of our selves and lay hold on that which is offered us by Christ and this you will find to be the clearest meaning
use that more modest form of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Eleemosynary or beadsman that God hath advanced and chosen to this great dignity This is in a like style set down Psal 78.70 He chose David also his servant and took him from the sheep-fold From following the Ewes great with young he took him that he might feed Jacob his people c. and Psalm 89.20 I have found David my servant with my holy oyl have I anointed him Of this see more Psal 86. note a. V. 4. Stand in awe What 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies here might be somewhat uncertain had not the Apostle Eph. 4. given us the meaning of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 denoting commotion either of the body or mind doth in the latter acception import two things especially fear and anger those two principal commotions of the mind In that of anger we have it Gen. 45.24 where we render it falling out or quarrelling and 2 Kin. 19.27 28. in both which we render it rage So Prov. 29.9 And so Gen. 41.10 the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 affirmed of Pharaoh viz. that he was wrath is by the Chaldee rendered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And this is much the more frequent acception of it in the Old Testament And thus the Septuagint understood it here and with them the vulgar Latine Syriack Arabick and Aethiopick rendering it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and from thence in the same words the Apostle makes use of the place Eph. 4.26 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Be angry and sin not i. e. when ye are angry take care that ye do not sin which that it is no allowance of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 anger there but only a supposing it present and a forewarning of the dangerous effects of it See note on Eph. 4.9 and that is more evident by comparing it with this Text where their displeasure against Gods Anointed David the first rise of their Rebellion was certainly a great sin in them V. 5. Be still The Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 siluit conquievit cessavit signifies in relation to actions as well as words and so denotes a cessation from what they were before doing which to those that were before about any ill is repentance to those which were up in arms submission or quiet subjection And thus 't is rendered here by the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to that the vulgar agree compunction or contrition as that is taken for amendment the effect of godly sorrow and so the Arabick more explicitly Let it repent you and the Chaldee that paraphrases that part of the verse at large Say your prayer with your mouth and your petition with your heart and pray upon your bed and remember the day of death instead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reads 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 subdue quiet tame your desires or concupiscences and then connects with that the substance of all the following verse thus Subdue your concupiscences and then it shall be reputed to you for a sacrifice of righteousness Agreeably whereto St. Chrysostome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Offer righteousness this is the greatest gift this is the acceptable sacrifice to God not to slay sheep but to do what is just Wheresoever thou art thou mayest offer this thy self being the Priest the Altar the Knife and the Sacrifice V. 5. Sacrifices of righteousness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sacrifices of righteousness here do most probably signifie the peace offering or oblation of thanksgiving for deliverance We have the phrase again Psal li. 19. where it is contradistinguisht to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the holocaust And there is reason for this appellation because the sin was first to be atoned by the sin-offering and thereby the person restored to some state of righteousness ere he attempted the other And withall it was lawful for a Gentile worshipper a proselyte of the gates to present a sin-offering but the peace-offering 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sacrifice of praise none but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 proselyte of righteousness might be allowed to bring And so it is fitly recommended here as a consequent of reformation V. 6. Lift up The Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lift up is here rendred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Septuagint and so by the Latine signatum est referring to a banner or standard or insigne in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is wont to be exalted or lifted up from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 evexit exaltavit Indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word here used is not so usual in the Hebrew tongue but instead of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with ש and Πand so the Chaldee here hath it And therefore the LXXII had some ground for their change and no doubt meant to signifie by it the great security which is enjoyed by Gods favour meant by the light i. e. chearfulness pleasantness of his countenance towards us as they that favour others look pleasantly on them viz. the same that from an insigne or banner the strongest military preparations and thus it lies very consonant to what went before Davids visible strength and military preparations were so small comparatively with those of his enemies that they that look't on were ready to despair of victory But as Elisha in the Mount to his unbelieving intimidated servant shewed him a vision of Horses and Chariots round about them and so more on their than on the enemies side so David here to those fearful objectors opposes the favour of God as a banner or insign that hath a whole Army belonging to it i. e. all security attending it The Fifth PSALM TO the chief Musitian upon Nehiloth a Psalm of David Paraphrase This Fifth Psalm was indited by David on consideration of his many enemies especially his undermining Son Absalom who by flattering the people and slandering him sought to get the Crown from him And by him it was committed to the Master of his Musick to be sung by the whole Quire in parts one voice following another 1. Give eare to my words O Lord consider my meditation Paraphrase 1. O merciful Lord vouchsafe to hearken to my prayer to weigh the groanings of my soul and relieve my wants 2. Hearken to the voice of my cry my King and my God for unto thee will I pray Paraphrase 2. Thou art my King to defend my God to vindicate the power which thou hast communicated to me To thee therefore it belongs to grant my requests and all that remains for me is to address them constantly and importunately to thee 3. My voice shalt thou hear in the morning O Lord in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee and will look up Paraphrase 3. The First-fruits and prime care of the day shall be to address and present my heart and prayer before thee with my eyes fixt on heaven after