things for the best to his people although in the midst of calamities and troubles he seems to desert them 2. And that we may know that he did this from his heart he seals it with a double Amen Amen Amen So I wish so be it The Prayer collected out of the eighty ninth Psalm O God the Habitation of whose Throne is justice and equity and before whose face Mercy and Truth are perpetual attendants we unworthy wretches yet thy Servants do beseech thee that the effects of these thy attributes may be evidently séen in the gathering féeding amplifying protecting Vers. 1 and preserving thy Catholique Church So shall we sing of thy mercies for ever and with our mouths will we make known thy faithfulness to all generations Out of mercy thou hast béen moved to make a Covenant with thy elect that thou set thy Son upon the Throne of his father David and thou hast established with an Oath his seed and built up his Kingdom to all generations He is that mighty one on whom thou hast laid help He is that thy chosen whom thou hast exalted Thou art his Father and he is thy first-born Let then thy hand establish him with thy arm strengthen him Exalt the Throne of him whom thou hast anointed with thy Holy Oyle and make him higher than the Kings of the earth Make his seed to endure for ever and his Throne as the dayes of Heaven Suffer not the enemy to exact upon him not the son of wickedness to afflict him Of this his séed this Kingdom in which we live is a principal part and our King a principal member Vers. 38 But now thou hast cast off and abhorred thou hast been wroth with thine Anointed Thou hast seemed to make void the Covenant which thou hast made with thy Servant Thou hast prostituted his Diadem as if it were a profane thing and cast his Crown and Royal dignity to the ground and suffered it to be trampled upon by the feet of scorners Thou hast broken down his Forts and brought to ruine his strong holds Those fortifications which under thy protection were wont to be a safe-guard from the enemy are surprized demolished and razed So that every one that passeth by hath an opportunity to break into thy Vineyard and riot among the Vines every one liberty to fill his hand with spoile and rapine His adversaries are many and thou hast set up the power of their right-hand against him His enemies are mighty and thou hast given them occasion from their victories over him to rejoice Rejoice and triumph they do that thou hast blunted the edge of his sword and hast not given him victory in the battail It is their glory that thou-hast made his glory to cease and cast his Throne down to the ground These Tyrants boast these sons of Belial exult that thou hast shortned the dayes of his youth and covered him with dishonour How long Lord wilt thou hide thy self shall thy wrath burn like fire for ever We doubt not of thy power in thy mercy we hope Merciful God then raise up thy power and come amongst us O Lord God of hosts who is a strong Lord like unto thee or who among the sons of the mighty can be compared with thee Thou stillest the raging of the Sea when the waves thereof arise Thou hast overthrown that proud King of Egypt Pharaoh and destroyed many other thine enemies with a strong arm Strong is thy hand and high is thy right-hand Shew then thy strength in our weakness arise like a gyant refreshed with Wine and smite thine enemies in the hinder parts that their violence prevail no longer against us that they execute not their whole fury and hatred upon us To thée we who are men but of a short time call to for life To thée Vers. 47 we who now live but must shortly sée death earnestly cry to deliver our souls from the grave Hast thou made us for naught hast thou made all men in vain shall we draw out our short dayes in perpetual miseries Thou art our Father we are elected to be thy Sons let then thy faithfulness and thy mercy be with us Remember Lord the reproach of thy servants and how we do bear in our bosomes the rebukes of a profane people Remember that this reproach is cast upon thy name and the footsteps and long-suffering of thine Anointed is thereby slandered Remember Lord thy former loving-kindness which thou swarest to the seed of David in thy Truth Confess we do to our own shame that we have forsaken thy Law and have not walkt in thy Iudgements that we have broken thy Statutes and not kept thy Commandments and therefore we are content murmur not that thou visit our transgressions with the Rod and our iniquities with stripes but this is it we beg of thée that thou wouldst not utterly take from us thy loving-kindness nor suffer thy Truth to fail Break not thy Covenant nor alter the thing that is gone out of thy lips If the irreversible decrée be not past which we hope is not against this our Church yet let it stand for ever as the Sun and Moon those faithful Witnesses in heaven with the Catholique and never let the gates of hell prevail against it We know and believe that thou art a merciful God long-suffering and of great goodness and therefore in all things we suffer ready we are to say with thy servant Job The Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken Blessed be Jehovah Amen Amen The end of the third book of the Psalms according to the Hebrews The fourth book of the Psalms follow PSAL. XC 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 THE inscription makes Moses to be the Author of this Psalm and because here is mention made in it of the Mortality of man the fragility of his nature and the brevity and misery of his life which proceeded from the wrath of God moved to cut off his life and punish him while he lives for his iniquity conceiv'd it is that Moses composed it upon some notable disobedience and rebellion of Israel while they were in the Wilderness for which God brought upon them an exemplary vengeance whether that of Corah Dathan or Abiram or the plague that consumed them for making the golden Calf or as the common opinion is for their murmuring upon the return and report of the Spies Numb 14. For which God sent a plague among them or else when God smote the people with a very great plague at Kibroth Hattaavah Numb 11. Which of these it was is uncertain One of these is supposed to be the occasion of the composition and that which moved God to indignation which Moses deprecates in the end and prayes to God to return and shew favour to his people There be four parts of this Psalm 1. An ingenious acknowledgment of Gods protection of them ver 1 2. 2. A lively Narration of the mortality of man his fragility and brevity of his life together with
receive Petitions of those that call on him in Truth 6. This is the sixth quality of a good King to shew himself easie to receive Petitions and to them that implore his aid which God doth Deâ—â—r 4.7.2 But the Prophet corrects his works and limits them 'T is to all that call upon him in Truth which word includes all the conditions of a good prayer 1. Faith For he that prayes without faith prayes to an Idol of his own brain 2. Hope and confidence He prayes not seriously that hopes not to be heard 3. Love For no man can call on him seriously whom he hates or to whom hateful 4. Desire For no man prayes heartily that desires not to obtain 5. Attention and intention without which the prayer is babling no true prayer Ver. 19 The Lord will fulfil the desire of them that fear him he also will hear their cry and save them 7. 7 To grant Petitions This is the seventh quality of a good King to grant Petitions so that they ask such Petitions as is fit for the King to grant this will Christ do 1. He will fulfil the desires But with this limitation So they fear him 2. He will hear their cry So it must be a cry vehement earnest 3. And will save them Hear he will ad salutem semper licet non ad voluntatem Ver. 20 The Lord preserves all them that love him but all the wicked will he destroy 8 Clemency 8. This is the last quality of a good King Parcere Subjectis debellare Superbos Which Christ will do The Conclusion a Doxology he preserves his Martyrs in patience constancy faith Ver. 21 receives them to glory and takes revenge on their enemies Martyres non eripuit sed nec deseruit 4. The Conclusion is an Epiphonema and answers to the beginning of the Psalm 1. For all these things which I have said My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord This shall be my work while I live 2. And I wish it may be done by all others also And let all flesh blest his holy Name for ever and ever A Hymn collected out of the One hundred and forty fifth Psalm I will ertol thée O my God and King and Governour of the whole World not that my words can make thée Higher who art the most Highest nor my praises make thée more Excellent Ver. 1 who art of all Excellencies the most Excellent but that I may insinuate and commend thy greatness to those that either know thée not or do not honour thée for this end I will bless thy Name through my whole life every day will I praise thée and leave upon Record a Hymn that the people that are yet unborn may magnifie thée it is my desire That thy Name may be praised for ever and ever Ver. 2 For thou Lord art truly great great in Heaven great on Earth there is no end of thy greatness it is unsearchable it is incomprehensible and therefore my desire is That there may be no end of thy praise Ver. 3 but that one Generation report it to another that the father record it to the son and the son deliver over to his séed thy works and thy mighty acts Ver. 4 for which thou art worthy to be praised Glorious O Lord are thy works terrible and yet full of mercy not any of them but beget wonder in me The Heavens above the Sun Moon and Stars speak of the glorious honour of thy Majesty Thy creation of them Ver. 5 declares thy power thy providence for their constant course thy wisdom their light motion influence and their effects in and upon these inferiour bodies thy goodness I never consider those strokes of divine vengeance which thou hast inflicted upon disobedient rebellions and incorrigible sinners Ver. 6 but they declare thée to be a terrible and a jealous God Thy hand was terrible upon the old World mighty upon Pharaoh with his Aegyptians just but full of indignation against that gain-saying Rabble that rose against the King and the Priest At the consideration of these terrible acts I tremble upon the meditation of these works of power I am horribly afraid That only which revives my heart is thy mercy and goodness for I know Thou art a gracious God and full of compassion slow to anger Ver. 8 and of great mercy That thou art good to all and thy mercy is above all thy works which Ver. 9 when I recount in my memory I can no less than abundantly utter thy great goodness Ver. 7 and sing of thy righteousness that gives thy Word and kéeps it that in justice dost administer all things inflicting severe judgments upon the rebellious and sparing thy servants dost reward their weak endeavours with thy choicest blessings Ver. 10 For which thy Saints shall bless thee they shall speak of the glory of thy Kingdom and talk of thy power They shall make known to the sons of men thy glorious Acts and commend to the ignorant the excellency of thy power that it is far beyond any Monarchy on earth in extent of place wealth time For whereas there 's is limited thine is universal there 's encumbred with troubles and wants thine is quiet peaceable and rich whereas there 's have had and shall have their periods thine shall be continual in duration Thy Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom and thy Dominion endureth throughout all Generations And since we are assured That thy Church in which thou reignest shall continue for ever O Lord stir up thy strength and come amongst us O let thy Kingdom come O Lord uphold those who are ready to fall and raise up those who are bowed down Our eyes wait upon thee O Lord feed all thy faithful people with thy Word and Sacraments in due season open thine hand and satisfie with thy grace every hungry and thirsty soul Thou Lord art righteous in all thy wayes and holy in all thy works be nigh therefore to all that call upon thee with a pure true and honest heart fulfil the desires of them that fear thee and hear their cry and save them Preserve gracious God with a singular care all them that love thée from all evil but for the wicked which oppress them and séek to trample them under their féet bring them to a spéedy destruction So shall my mouth speak forth the praise of the Lord and I hope also That all flesh shall have just occasion to bless thy holy Name for ever and ever Amen Ver. 21 PSAL. CXLVI A Hymn Hallelujah THE Subject of this Hymn is the same with the former and it hath These four parts 1. An Exhortation to praise God ver 1. which David is resolved to do ver 2. 2. A Dehortation from confidence in man how great soever ver 3 4. 3. On the contrary he pronounceth them happy that trust in God ver 5. 4. And to this confidence in God he perswades for many Reasons from ver 6. to the last 1.
in heaven nor Monarch in earth his Peere For who in the heaven can be compared to thee O Lord Vers. 6 who among the sons of the Mighty i.e. Celestial Spirits can be likened to the Lord Which is so true that the very Angels fear and reverence his Majesty and ought to do it Vers. 7 God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of his Saints and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him And because this should be alwayes fix'd in our memory he comes over it again Vers. 8 vers 8. O Lord God of hosts who is strong like unto thee or to thy faithfulness round about thee 2. 2 No such Agent or Governor By his Agency in governing the world as for example First The Sea 1. Thou rulest the raging of the Sea when the waves thereof arise thou stillest them Thou brokest Rahab i. e. the Egyptian Pharaoh in pieces as one that is slain Thou hast scatter'd thine enemies with a strong arm viz. in the Red Sea 2. Heaven and earth The heavens are thine the earth also is thine 3. 3 No Creator but he alone By his Creation of all things As for the world and fulness thereof thou hast founded it The North and South thou hast created them Tabor and Hermon i. e. East and West shall rejoice in thy name And then he concludes this part of the Majesty and Power of God with this Epiphonema Thou hast a mighty arm strong is thy hand and high is thy right-hand 2. 2 The Subject of their praise is also his Attributes The other part of the praise which both the Prophet and the Angels sing to Gods honour is taken from his Attributes summ'd up in the 14. verse Justice and judgement are the habitation of his throne mercy and truth shall go before his face He presents God as a great King sitting in his Throne 1. The Basis of which is Justice and Judgement 2. The Attendants Mercy and Truth 1. Justice which defends his Subjects and does every one right 2. Judgement which restrains Rebels and keeps off injuries 3. Mercy which shews compassion pardons supports the weak 4. Truth that performs whatsoever he promiseth 4. The fourth part And in regard that God is powerful just merciful faithful he takes an occasion to set out the happy condition of Gods people that live under this King Blessed are the people In which rejoicing his people are happy divers wayes that know the joyful Sound do know that God is present with them and his Kingly Majesty is at hand to protect them The phrase is taken from Moses For the Law was given by sound of Trumpet The calling of the Feasts by sound of Trumpet At that sound they removed At that sound they assembled Balaam said Clangor Regis The sound of a King is among them Happy then are the people that know the joyful sound God present their King speaking ruling defending pardoning them That they are Happy the effects do evince which are 1. They shall walk in the light of thy countenance i. e. Though beset with troubles yet they shall walk confidently being assured of Gods favour 2. In thy name shall they rejoice all the day long Their joy is firm 3. In thy righteousness shall they be exalted They shall get a name strength In their Union and Communion with God they shall be happy Confident then joyful and strong they are in all temptations which yet they have not from themselves All is from God For Thou art the glory of their strength and in thy favour our horn shall be exalted Vers. 17 For the Lord is our defence the Holy One of Israel is our King 5. The Doxology being now ended The fifth part The Prophet enlarges himself on the Covenant made with David and the happiness of Gods people expressed and proved the Prophet now enlarges himself upon the Covenant formerly mentioned vers 4 5. exemplified in David but truly verified in Christ Which he continues to the 30 vers 1. Then i. e. when David was chosen to be King and invested with the Regal Robe Vers. 19 2. Thou spakest in Vision to thy Holy One. To Samuel for his anointing And saidst 3. I have laid help upon one that is mighty I have exalted one chosen out of the people That is David in Type but Christ in the Antitype So explain'd I have found David my servant with my holy Oyle have I anointed him To which there follows the promises made to him The particulars of it 1. For his establishment and confirmation in the Throne With whom my hand shall be established mine arm also shall strengthen him 2. For protection against his enemies The enemy shall not exact upon him nor the son of wickedness afflict him 3. A Conquest over his enemies And will beat down his foes before his face and plague them that hate him 4. And that there be no doubt of the performance of these ample promises nor yet those that follow the Prophet interserts the cause viz. The Faithfulness and Mercy of God In Mercy he said it and it should so come to pass But my Faithfulness and Mercy shall be with him And now he goes on 5. His Horn shall be exalted He shall have as it were the strength of an Unicorn And this his exaltation appears 1. In the dilatation of his Empire I will set his hand also in the Sea and his right hand in the rivers i. e. From the Sea to Euphrates 2 Sam. 8. 2. In the Honour done him to call God Father his God his Rock He shall call me Thou art my Father my God and the Rock of my salvation 3. Then that God asserts and fixes this Prerogative upon him acknowledging him to be his Son his first-born Son Also I will make him my first-born higher than the Kings of the earth 4. In the perpetuity of his Kingdom which is rightly attributed to Gods mercy as vers 25. My mercy will I keep for him for evermore and my Covenant shall stand fast with him 5. In the promise made to his seed His seed also will I make to endure for ev er and his Throne as the dayes of heaven 6. And next the Prophet puts a Case and answers it The sixth part Object But what if Davids seed prove rebellious But what if Davids seed transgress Gods Covenant break his Laws violate his Statutes become rebels and disobedient will God then keep Covenant with them shall his seed endure for ever and his Throne as the dayes of heaven To this doubt God answers from vers 30. to 38. shewing us how Davids seed if they transgress shall be dealt with 1. If his children forsake my Law That is my whole doctrine of Worship Religion Faith c. 2. And walk not in my judgements i. e. in those Laws which set out rewards and punishments 3. If they break my Statutes Those Statutes I have set down for my service
By the first the Metaphor is more hard by the second the more easie and sweet but the sence will be the same 1. By light then here is understood Gods favour the light of understanding truth goodness with the effect of it or that which ariseth from it comfort content of soul tranquility peace of conscience 2. Now this is sown as seed it often times lies hid under the clods but at last it shews it self 2. Or as light is obscured by some cloud which at length breaks forth or riseth to some height as the Sun in the morning The sence then is this Such a time there is when the just man may say Wisd 5. 6. The light of righteousness hath not shined unto us and the Sun of righteousness rose not upon us The favour of God hath seemed to us to be hid and buried as it were in disfavour But this saith our Prophet shall not be alwayes the favour of God is sow'd and it will spring up again The light of comfort of peace of conscience though it be clouded and darkned yet it will break forth and rise again 2. Again There shall be gladness for the upright in heart 2 Gladness of heart For uprightness doth direct and establish the heart whence there ariseth an ineffable joy in the conscience when a man is a Witness to himself that his will is conformable to Gods Will and all those things and only those things please him which please his God Which is the second reward or fruit that he reaps who loves God and hates evil 3. He concludes Therefore And out of these premises the Prophet draws his inference and conclusion which he forms into an advice Vers. 12 Since light and joy doth arise to those who are upright in heart and that joy is from God Then 1. You that are just rejoice not in the vanities of this world 1 Rejoice in the Lord. as do the unjust but rejoice in the Lord who gives you this justice 2 Be thankful and rewards it with this joy 2. Then again be thankful for it Give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness It is his holiness his righteousness not your own that you carry in your hearts and so often as this comes to your remembrance bless and thank him for it The Prayer collected out of the ninty seventh Psalm O Omnipotent Lord I never think of that great day when I must stand before thy Tribunal and render an account of my words thoughts and actions but my heart trembles for fear and my knees are ready to smite one against another Terrible thou wert upon Mount Sinai when thou gavest and terrible thou wilt be when thou wilt exact an answer for the breach of thy Law The clouds and thick darkness then round about thee amaze my sinful soul the fire that shall go before thee Vers. 2 and burn up thine enemies round about thee flasheth in my eyes the lightning darting out of the clouds Vers. 3 and the earth trembling under me makes me tremble Methinks I hear men call to the Mountains to cover them and the Hills to hide them from the severity of thy wrath but these Rocks of Stone dissolve and melt as Wax at thy presence at thy presence O Lord at the presence of thee who art the Lord of the whole earth My heart O Lord is hard like one of those Rocks hardned it is by the deceitfulness of sin send down into it the fire of thy holy Spirit that may dissolve and melt it as war and make it apt to receive thy impressions of grace of a hard heart make it soft and tender of a heart of stone make it a heart of flesh that I may hear thy Law and obey it that I may repent for the breaches of it and every day judge my self that I may not be judged of the Lord. Never let that day flip out of my memory when the heavens shall declare thy righteousness Vers. 6 and all the people see thy glory for then the whole world shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds when the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout with all the Angels about him with the voice of the Arch-angel and the Trump of God when that general Summons shall be blown abroad Arise ye dead and come to judgement A day indéed this will be of darkness and gloominess a day of sorrow Vers. 7 and such as never was from the beginning of the world So in it self so to thy enemies so to Idolators These would not that thou shouldst reign over them Confounded therefore on that day be all they that serve graven Images and that boast themselves of Idols Thou art our King O God send help unto Jacob and we are sur◠thou wilt send help Vers. 2 because thou hast set up thy Kingdom for that end and reignest that thou mightest do good to those that are upright in heart Righteousness and judgement are the habitation of thy Throne Vers. 8 as in judgement thou wilt procéed against the workers of iniquity so wilt thou also in justice deal with all those that love the Lord and hate iniquity At the hearing of this it is that Zion rejoiced and the daughters of Judah were glad O make me one of the inhabitants of this Zion that I may lift up my head and not be amazed at the remembrance of that fearful day being fully assured that it shall be the day of my Redemption not my destruction O thou who shalt be my Iudge be my Saviour also preserve my soul and the souls of all thy Saints and deliver us out of the hand of the wicked Able thou art to do it for thou Lord art far above all the earth thou art exalted far above all gods If thou wilt thou canst save us and we believe thou wilt because it was the end thou camest into the world the end why thou sufferest that painful and shameful death of the Cross to save sinners Sinners O dear Saviour we are we desire in uprightness of heart to serve thée though we cannot shake off the sin that hangs so fast on yet we detest and hate it The consciousness of our guilt too often over clouds ou◠joy O let it break forth again and shew us the light of thy countenance the comforts of our souls are buryed under the thoughts of thy displeasure oh that the day were come that they might shoot again and spring up then would we hope though we sowed in tears yet we should reap in joy This if thou wilt grant us Then will we rejoice in thee our Lord and King and give thanks at the remembrance of thy righteousness thy holiness thy merits thy innocent life and undeserved death which alone we can trust to at that day PSAL. XCVIII Propheticus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 THIS Psalm is an evident Prophecy of Christ's coming to save to judge the world and therefore the Church hath well subjoined
are the dayes of thy servant How long shall this affliction endure when shall the dayes of this tentation and misery be at an end this persecution be over 2. When wilt thou execute judgement he means temporal punishments on them that persecute me O let me not dye comfortless but let me see that thou art a God of judgement and men behold that there is a reward for the righteous 3. And in the next verse he describes them from their qualities Vers. 5 1. They were proud Men that would endure no yoke of God Who are 1. Proud of man 2. Subtile They digg'd pits For their advantage 2 Subtile submit to any base office crouch and bow Psa 104.10 Absolon abased himself 3. Impious men for the courses they took against him 3 Impious were not according to Gods Word They digg'd pits for me which were not after thy Law 'T is some comfort yet that we have those men our enemies that are enemies to God and whose actions are displeasing to him 4. For they are contrary to thy Law For all thy Commandments are true nay truth it self and they a false generation 5. And yet these are the men that persecute me He prayes for seasonable help but they do it wrongfully 6. Therefore O Lord help me Help me against their treachery 7. And it is but time For their malicious cruelty is unsatiable they have not only troubled me but had almost consumed me upon earth 8. The comfort yet is that it is not done because I forsook not thy precepts 3. He shuts up all with a Petition that he makes often in this Psalm 3 He petitions for strength 1. Quicken me And it may seem strange that so often he should acknowledge himself as it were a dead man and desire God to put life into him But to a child of God every desertion and decay of strength seems a death so desirous they are to live to God that when they fail in it and are dismabled they account themselves as it were dead and pray the Lord for life Quicken me And promiseth obedience 2. Quicken me after thy loving-kindness he opposeth Gods kindness to his enemies malice and it is comfortable I am troubled with their malice for thy sake and therefore I crave to be refreshed by thy kindness In that there is comfort enough Psa 52.1 3. So shall I keep the Testimonies of thy mouth So that is quickned by thee for otherwise there was in him no strength to obey no more than a dead man doth the actions of a natural life The Prayer O Merciful God while that help and salvation Vers. 1 which we alone expect from thée is delayed and with-held from us our very souls have fainted within us To thée we look day and night and our eyes are bent toward heaven in expectation of thy promises O Lord when wilt thou comfort us Our body languisheth our skin is furrowed into wrinkles no bottle in the smoke is more dryed up than is our flesh while we look and long for help from thy hand Proud men the sons of Belial that have shaked off the yoke have digg'd pits for our life They wrongfully persecute us They have almost consumed us upon the earth O Lord how many are the dayes of thy servants How long shall this affliction endure when shall the dayes of this tentation and misery be at an end when wilt thou execute jugement on them that persecute us Help us O Lord for we hope in thy Word arise and deliver us for we have not forgotten nor yet will forsake thy Statutes This we have resolved on Vers. 3.7 this we have decréed but to perform this resolution of our selves we are not able no more than a dead man is to execute the actions of the living Quicken us then with thy Grace according to thy loving-kindness and infiniteness of thy mercy and so will we kéep thy Testimonies which thou hast made known unto us by thine own finger and left unto us by the mouth of thy own Son Iesus Christ our Lord. 12. LAMECH THIS Octonary is an Encomium of the Word of God The Contents and of the perfection thereof which he commends from the immutability and constancy thereof 2. Then from the comfort he received from it in his trouble 1. Gods Word immutable both In the three first verses the Prophet shewes That Gods Word is immutable by an instance in the creatures 1. Ver. 1 In the Heavens For ever O Lord thy Word is setled in Heaven For the Heavens were made by his Word In heaven and earth and continue in the same frame they were made by his Word to this day 2. In the Earth Whose foundations are yet immoveable Thy faithfulness is unto all Generations Ver. 2 Thou hast established the earth and it abideth 3. Ver. 3 They Heaven and Earth both continue this day according to thy Ordinance 4. The Reason is For all things serve thee Thy creatures they are and thou their Lord Creator they then must be at thy Beck and Command 2. 2 It brought him comfort in his trouble Next he shewes the excellent perfection of Gods Word by a rare effect it had upon himself it gave him comfort and kept him from despair in his trouble he collected it from the former instances thus if the Word of God sustained the Heaven and the Earth he saw no reason but it might also sustain him and so leaning upon it he was delighted in it and that delight held him up he knew it would be an Anchor of hope that would not fail him Vnless thy Law had been my delight Ver. 4 I should have perished in my trouble This he knew he could not do because God had promised him the contrary no such comfort in trouble as Gods Word and Promise this will abide when other fails 3. Upon this comfort he vowes Upon which joy and comfort first he makes a promise of thankfulness he had found life in Gods Word and he resolves never to forget it 1. Ver. 5 I will never forget thy precepts that men forget them is because they find no heart in them 2. 1 Never to let it slip out of his memory His Reason is For with them thou hast quickned me He saith not the Word quickned him but God by his Word For the Word quickens not till Gods Spirit come to it Vitam gratiae augendo vitam gloria promittendo 2. 2 To be Gods servant Then next he devotes himself to be Gods servant for the present and for ever 1. Ver. 6 I am thine And I do and will serve no other Lord no base pleasure no profit nor the World nor the flesh nor the Devil and therefore I can with a good conscience ask 2. O save me It is for a Lord to protect and save his servant 3. And that I am thine is evident in this that I am ready to do thy Will For
love that he hath saved them from the Jaw of the Lyon and the Paw of the Bear or else in the midst of their afflictions an inward sense and perswasion of Gods good will and love to them with which being content they can sing even in the Prison and rejoyce under the Whip No man is able to express but he that feels it the joy and content of that soul which is fully perswaded that he hath peace with God load such a man with chains tear his flesh with Whips threaten Fire Swords Rackâ— Halters present him with the grim face of Death he smiles and laughs and rejoyceth That he may be accounted worthy to suffer for Chrisâ—s sake And hath not such a soul reason to sing in misery David had experience of both No man in greater troubles no man more strangely delivered he might well then sing Psalms for that in the greatest of his dangers he had a full assurance of Gods love and good will to him and this enlarged his heart to sing Thy Statutes have been my Songs in the house of my Pilgrimage This difference then the Book of Psalms hath from other parts of Scripture That whereas they may be read and repeated even by carnal minds these can never be heartily sung except by spiritual men and such who have had experience of Gods good will either in their deliverance or else the sense of comforts in their greatest extremities They then are unapt to sing these spiritual Songs who are no more affected with what David sings than as if Gods Providence Protection Love and Goodness did no way concern them Sect. Enough I hope I have said to make you in love with this Book for if either the utility or profit of it can move you or the sweetness of the harmony in it work upon you then you cannot choose but prize it as a Celler full of precious Oyle whereby all your necessities may be provided for or a Tree or rather a whole Paradise of Trees of life which bring forth fruits every Month nay every day and houre whose fruit is fit for meat and leaves for medicine And what marvel the Original thereof being from Heaven not Earth the Author God not man the Indicter the Holy Spirit not the wit of David the Matter verity piety purity uprightness the Form Gods Word the Word of Truth the Word of Salvation the Effects light of understanding stableness of perswasion repentance from dead works newness of life holiness joy peace in the Holy Ghost Lastly the end and reward and study thereof fellowship with the Saints participation of the heavenly Nature fruition of an immortal Inheritance that never shall fade away Happy is that man that delights in the Scriptures in this Scripture and thrice happy is that man who meditates in it day and night Now that your Meditations may be more fruitful it will not be amiss that you know before hand that these things about this holy Book The Authority the Author the Sense the Division or Order of this Book DE AUTHORITATE 1. Sect. Of the Authority I shall need say but very little since our Saviour himself hath given it an ample Testimony Luke 24.44 These were the words that I spake unto you while I was with you That all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and in the Prophets and in the Psalms concerning me Where you see that the old Testament is integrale totum it admits of three limbs The Pentateuch writ by Moses the greater part writ by the Prophets and the Psalms writ by David and all these testifie of Christ and the Psalms especially there being not any one Book out of which more Testimonies are produced and therefore was alwayes and must be continued in the Canon DE AUTHORE And you may remember that I but now said David was the Author of them which may not yet be so understood as if he penn'd them all for some of them were penn'd in and after the Captivity but his they are said to be à parte praestantiori as denominations use to run because he composed the greatest part of them and was so excellent in expressing himself this way that he alone was called the Psalmist DE DIVISIONE ORDINE These as it is conceived Esdras after the Captivity collected and cast them into that Order they now stand One Book he composed of them which by the Jewes was for what reason I know not subdivided into five Tracts The first from Psal 1. to 42. The second from 42. to 73. The third from 73. to 90. The fourth from 90. to 107. The fifth to the end At the end of each there is an Hallelujah Amen hoc primum medium ultimum The whole contains One hundred and fifty Psalms so say Herom Remigins August the Master of the Sentences for some mystery in the Number but as Chrysostom thought in the Honour of the Trinity but Rupert for the Trinity of the three Theological Virtues Faith Hope and Charity to which three Graces he reduceth all the Psalms But Thomas hath another conceit This was done saith he to shew the threefold state of Gods faithful people they are in a state of Repentance Righteousness Glory Penitents they are and that state enas in Psal 50. Miserere mei Deus Psal 51. Justified persons they are and that hath the limit at the 100. Misericordiam Judicium and in their Glory they are and then they sing to the end Omnis Spiritus laudet Dominum But the best Division of these is that of Villa Vincentius who for use reduceth them to these six Classes or Heads 1. Sect. Some of them are simply Didactici or Paranaetici which teach what we are to follow what to avoid According to the letter of Moses Law Vice they condemn and de finibus bonorum disserunt as the 1 11 14 15 32 36 49 50 51 62 73 77 78 84 90 99 101 119 127 130 131 133 134. 2. Sect. Some of them are Prophetical and contain Predictions of Christ of the different state of the Church and Saints of their Persecutions and their liberty and deliverance and the utter destruction of their Enemies as Psal 2 5 8 9 16 19 21 22 24 29 40 41 45 47 53 59 67 68 72 87 89 93 95 96 97 98 100 113 117 145. 3. Sect. Some are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 precatorii in which the Prophet and all depressed souls do implore the mercy of God seek remission of sins and deliverance from danger and preservation of the Church 3 8 6 7 10 12 13 17 20 25 26 28 31 35 38 39 42 43 44 51 54 55 56 57 61 63 64 69 70 71 74 79 80 81 83 85 86 88 94 102 119 120 123 132 133 140 141 142 143. 4. Sect. Others are Consolatory speaking of Repentance of the expectation of deliverance of good men of the Promises Goodness Justice Judgments of God and of that ruine that will fall upon
discipline and science strength defence that he had from god 4. from the safe custody that in the battle he receiv'd no wound Vers. 36 5. From the success of the battle He had his enemies in chase Vers. 37 and follow'd them in pursuit 6. From the greatness of his Victory Vers. 38 it was a compleat and full Conquest For by it his enemies were taken consumed wounded not able to rise they fell under his feet subdues their necks brought down c. 7. From the cause in which he takes nothing â—o himself but attributes the whole to God Thou hast girded me c. Thou hast subdued Thou hast given me the necks of my enemies Which is indeed acknowledged through the whole Psalm 2. The Consequent upon this Victory The consequent of the Victory viz. The enlargement of his Kingdom was the propagation and enlargement of Davids Kingdom 1. That before these Victories there was murmuring at him by the people but now being a Conquerour they were all quiet Thou hast deliver'd me from the strivings of the people His Crown was quiet Vers. 43 2. He was exalted to be the head of heathen Moabites Ammonites c. serv'd him Vers. 44 3. Nay a people whom I have not known Aliens shall serve me nay assoon as they hear of me they shall obey me c. Vers. 45 4. 'T is true indeed they shall dissemble in it and do it for fear more than love and take every occasion to fall off and fade away But yet however they shall do it submit and be content to serve me The fourth part Davids Doxology for his Victories The last part contains the main Scope and intent of David in this Psalm which is to celebrate and extoll the Name and Mercy of God for his Victories And it hath two parts 1. His present thanksgiving 2. And his profession for the future 1. The Lord liveth and blessed be my Rock Vers. 46 and let the God of my salvation be exalted And to that end in the two next verses he maketh mention again of his Victories and attributes the whole success to God 2. And he professeth that he will never cease to do it no not among the heathen Therefore I will give thanks to thee among the heathen and sing praises c. 3. And he professeth that he had great reason to do it Great deliverance giveth he to his King His one of his own chaise And sheweth mercy to his Anointed Uncto suo to David And not to David a lone but to his seed for evermore An 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Thanksgiving for some great Victory collected out of Psalm 18. O Lord whose eyes are brighter ten thousand times than the Sun thou who beholdest all the wayes of the children of men and wilt reward every man according to his doings Vers. 25 who to the good and innocent wilt shew thy self good and merciful and to the perverse and froward wilt shew thy self averse and severe We thy afflicted people have in the depth of our sorrows cryed unto thée and thou hast out of thy goodness saved us and hast brought down the high looks of the proud The sorrows of imminent death and the incursions of furious men like torrents of water encompassed us the snares they laid for us made us afraid the grave was open and ready to swallow us But in these our distresses we call'd upon the Lord and cryed unto our God and he heard us out of his holy dwelling in Heaven and the cry of our ardent and instant supplication was heard by him accepted and granted Lord when thou wentest out against our enemies when thou marchedst out into the field against Edom Vers. 13 the earth trembled and the heavens dropt the Lord also thunder'd from heaven and the highest gave his thunder hail-stones and coals of fire From Vers 7. to 15. He fought from Heaven the Starres in their courses fought against Sisera O my soul thou hast troden down strength For O Lord the Earth the Heavens the Mountains the lightning the thunder the dark and thick clouds the wind and rain the bail-stones and tempests all have obey'd thy voice and conspired at thy command to the destruction of our enemies to tear them to scatter them to discomfit them They were too strong for us Vers. 16 they took all advantages against us in the day of our trouble and weakness but then thou Lord wert our Protector and Defender even then he reached us his hand and help from Heaven he sent his Angels from above he took us he drew us he deliver'd he fréed us from our strongest Enemies from those who hated us from those bitter calamities which like many waters did environ our souls And he brought us out of these straits into a large and safe place he deliver'd us even because he had a favour unto us Thou Lord out of thy frée love and mercy hast done it So it was because so Lord it pleased thée What shall we give unto the Lord for all the benefits he hath done unto us Assist us with thy Grace and we will from henceforth keep thy wayes and not depart from our God as the wicked do His judgements shall alway be before us and we will not put away his Statutes from us We will walk more closely and uprightly with our God and keep ourselves from our own iniquity even from the temptation of that bosome-sin with which we have been hitherto defiled For then we know that the Lord will reward us after our righteous dealing and integrity according to the cleanness of our hearts and hands in his eye-sight We will therefore love thee Vers. 1 O Lord our strength for thou art our Rock and our Fortress and our Deliverer thou art our God our strong hold in thee will we trust our Buckler and the horn of our Salvation and our high Tower For who is God save the Lord Vers. 31 or who is the Rock save our God It is God that hath girded and arm'd us with strength and blessed us to make his work perfect He hath given us expedition in our actions and power to possess the strongest Fortresses He hath taught and instructed us in the art of Warre and fitted our arms making them in strength like a bow of steel nimble to shoot dextrous to hit and kill the enemy And in the very mouth of danger thou hast given us thy salvation for a shield and the power of thy right hand hath upholden and sustained us Vers. 36 that we fell not and thy favour hath made us great increased us in power and dignity We séemed to be inclosed and shut up in inexecrable difficulties but thou hast enlarg'd our steps and in these slippry places not suffered our féet to flide In thy name and power it is that we have pursued our enemies Vers. 37 that our féet being not wearied in the pursuit we have overtaken them that we have not turn'd again till we have
destroy'd them and consum'd them that we have wounded them Vers. 38 till they were not able to rise that they are fallen under our feet And that we should do thus valiantly it is not our strength and skill in Warre but thy goodness For it is thou Lord only that hath girded us to battle thou hast subdued under us those that rose up against us Thou hast given us the necks of our enemies that we might destroy them that hate us In their trouble and distress they cryed to the Lord who is wont to hear those that cry and call to him but wretches they were and unworthy and therefore there was none to hear to the Lord whom they before derided and contemn'd did they cry but he would not hear them Then being destitute of thy help and forsaken by thée we beat them as small as the dust which the wind whiffles away from the face of the earth we cast them out as dirt of the streets which is troden to nothing by the féet of every passenger O Lord deliver our King from the strivings and tumults Vers. 43 and contradictions of the people restore Him to His Crown and rights and make Him the Head to this people who for their perfidiousness and perjury deserve it not bring down this rebellious Nation this heathenish people and let them fall down and submit to Him and those who out of malice and self-ends would not acknowledge Him serve Him Assoon as they hear of His name let them obey Him and not as if they were méer strangers and aliens to Him reject Him any longer and laying aside all dissimulation willingly and readily yield homage to Him The Lord who liveth be His Rock and blessed be His name and let the God of His Salvation be exalted Avenge Him and subdue the people under Him deliver Him from His enemies kéep Him as the apple of thine eye lift Him up above those who have risen up against Him and preserve Him from the tyranny and treachery of the violent man So shall all honest Subjects and true-hearted Israelites that bear any good-will to Zion celebrate thée O Lord who art foorthy to be praised and give thanks unto thee among the people and sing praises to thy name O Lord send deliverance to the King shew mercy to thy Andinted to restore Him to His Throne and people bless Him in His person and bless Him in His posterity for evermore Amen PSAL. XIX This Psalm is Doctrinal and teacheth us the way to know God His Glory is the Subject THERE be two parts of it The first is Doctrinal 2. Penitential The Doctrinal parts â—ath two Members 1. The first member teacheth us to know God by natural reason even from the book of the Creatures from vers 1. to vers 7. 2. But because this way is unsufficient to save a soul therefore in the second part we have a better way prescribed which is The Book of the Scriptures whose excellencies are described from vers 7. to vers 11. The Penitential part begins at the twelfth verse For since the reward to be expected proceeds from the keeping of Gods Law and Davids heart told him he had not kept it therefore he beggs pardon and grace from vers 12. to 14. By the Glory of God understand his Goodness The first part The Declaration of God from the creatures especially the heavens his Wisdom his Power in a word all his Attributes of which we have a double Declaration 1. A testimony from the Creatures but especially the Heavens whose Magnitude Beauty Order variety perpetual motion light influences c. declare that there is an Omnipotent wise good God and Creatour of them Vers. 1 With this David begins The Heavens declare the Glory of God and the Firmament sheweth his handy work 2. Vers. 2 The vicissitude of Day and Night proceeding from their motions declare this also Day unto day uttereth speech and night unto night sheweth knowledge c. 1. The Heavens then are diligent Preachers for they preach all day and all night without intermission One day telleth another and one night certifies another 2. Vers. 3 They are leraned Preachers for they preach in all Tongues For there is nor speech nor language but their voices are heard among them 3. Vers. 4 They are Universal and Catholique Preachers for they preach to the whole world Their sound is gone through all the earth and their words to the end of the world 3. Vers. 4 But among all these Creatures the Sun for which God in heaven hath set a Throne 2 The Sun or Tabernacle makes the fairest and clearest evidence or declaration and that three wayes especially 1. Vers. 5 By his splendour light beauty He riseth as gloriously as a Bridegroom coming out of his Chamber 1 By his splendour 2. Vers. 6 By his wonderful celerity and quickness of his motion running every several hour 225. 2 By his motion Germain Miles as Math maticians teach He rejoiceth as a strong man to run his race His going forth is from the end of the heaven and his circuit is to the end of it and yet is not tired nor weary 3. 3 By his heat The second part By his strange and miraculous heat that pierceth even to the Minerals concocts matures enlives all things Sol homo generant hominem Nothing is hid from the heat thereof 2. 2 The Declaration by his Word Which is commended But because this Declaration is not sufficient to make man happy therefore hath God made a farther Declaration and revealed himself in his Word the Scripture call'd here The Law which is here commended 1. Vers. 7 From the Authour It is the Law of the Lord. 2. In many respects From the Sufficiency thereof It is perfect 3. From the Utility It converts the soul gives wisdom to the simple 4. From the Infallibility The Testimony of the Lord is sure 5. Vers. 8 From the perspicuity and plainness of it The Statutes of the Lord are right Without perplexities ambiguities sophisms windings turnings 6. From the effect it breeds in the Soul it quiets the troubled conscience They rejoice the heart Justificati pacem habemus 7. From the purity of it The Commandments of the Lord are pure they admit no feces of foul Opinions nor give countenance to any sin 8. Vers. 8 From the effect it hath upon the soul It enlighteneth the eyes for it dispells all ignorance doubting of God carnal security diffidence false worship And makes us understand our own deformities defects c. 9. Vers. 9 From the Sincerity of it The fear of the Lord is clean Other Religions are polluted with humane inventions strange Ceremonies Sacrifices Worships Lusts Wickedness gods This not so but the contrary 10. From the continuance of it It is to be a perpetual standing Law It endureth for ever Aeternum Evangelium 11. And therefore both From the truth and equity contain'd in it True and righteous
to make intercession for Kings and all that are in Authority that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty Hear the prayers of thy Church which we send up unto thée for our King now in the day of his trouble Ver. 2 let the power of that God who defended Jacob from the fury of his brother Esau protect him and set him on high in a safe place Send him help from thy Sanctuary thy Throne in Heaven strengthen and support him by those prayers that are offered out of Zion for him Remember O Lord those fervent supplications and intercessions that are daily offered at thy Throne of grace in his behalf and accept the vowes and sighs and groans sent up unto thée by thy afflicted people for his restitution Grant unto him according to his own hearts desire and fulfil and give good success to all his counsel and whatsoever he for the advance of thy glory piety justice and the good of his people shall request that be pleased to hear and deny him not the request of his lips Our enemies put their trust in their Arms and Ammunition and suppose that their strength of Horse and arm of flesh shall hold them up and kéep them safe in that power which they have got by violence blood perjury and hypocrisie But we will remember the Name of the Lord our God being assured that a Horse is but a vain thing to save a man neither shall he deliver any man by his great strength it is not these humane helps we put our trust in but in thy Name alone Truly when thou shalt perform this for us as we trust thou wilt then will we rejoyce in thy salvation and in the Name of our God will we set up our Trophies of victory O let his enemies be brought down Ver. 8 and fall flat before him and let all those who with a sincere heart séek to advance his cause and right thy Church and thy sincere worship Ver. 6 rise and stand upright Make it known That the Lord will save his Anointed that he hath heard him and the prayers that have béen offered for him from his holy heaven and that he hath restored him by the saving strength of his right hand Save Lord save the King the Church and thy People Let the King of Heaven thy Christ our Iesus whom thou hast exalted to be Lord and King hear us when we call Amen PSAL. XXI The Peoples 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Carmen Triumphale THIS Psalm is the Peoples Thanksgiving after the Victory In the former Psalm they pray'd for David when he went out to War in this they praise God for the Conquest God gave him over his enemies and the singular mercies God bestowed on him Three parts there are of it 1. A general Proposition in ver 1. 2. A Narration which is twofold from ver 1. to 4. 1. An enumeration of the particular blessings bestowed on David from ver 1. to 6. 2. An account how God would deal with his enemies from ver 6. to 13. 3. A Vow or Acclamation ver 14. The Sum of the Psalm is contained in the first verse The King shall joy The first part the King shall be exceeding glad Ver. 1 Joy then is the affection that King and People were transported with for all that follows shew but the rise and causes of it The joy of the King in Gods salvation 1. The rise or object of it The strength of God the salvation of God 1. His strength by which he did subdue his enemies contemn dangers 2. His salvation by which he escaped dangers fell not in battle 2. The second part Then they make a large Narration of the goodness of God to Davids person in particular of which the severals are these following 1. God granted to the King what he ask'd with his heart and mouth Gods goodness to David Thou hast given his hearts desire and hast not witholden the requests of his lips 2. He granted unto him more than he asked was more ready to give Ver. 2 than David to pray Thou preventedst him with the blessings of goodness Ver. 3 3. He chose him to be King Thou hast set a Crown of pure gold upon his head in which God prevented him chosen him when he thought not of it 4. When he went to War He asked his life Ver. 4 and thou gavest him even length of dayes for ever and ever which is most true in Christ who was the Son of David in him his life and Kingdom is immortal 5. A great accession of Glory Honour Majesty he was no poor obscure King now as at first nor contemptible in the eyes of the people Ver. 5 but greater than Saul or any King of Israel that followed of which yet he was not to boast not in his power not in his riches wisdom but in Gods goodness His glory is great but in thy salvation Honour and Majesty hast thou laid upon him All which are sum'd up under the word Blessing in the next verse Ver. 6 For thou hast made him most blessed for ever And added this to the blessing that thou hast given him a heart to rejoyce in it Thou hast made him exceeding glad with thy countenance 6. The continuance of these blessings which is another favour Ver. 7 with the cause of it Davids confidence in God The cause his trust in God For the King trusteth in the Lord and through the mercy of the most High he shall not be moved 2. Hitherto is the first part of the Narrative that concerned Davids person in particular now follows the effects of Gods goodness to him ab extra and the whole Kingdom in the overthrow of his enemies The overthrow of his enemies by God and necessary it was to add this since no Kingdom though abounding with good Laws Wealth Subjects prudently governed can be happy except it be defended and safe from enemies abroad Now here their ruine and destruction is described and the cause 1. God by Davids hand would do it Thine hand the Sword of God and Gideon 2. He would certainly do it Ver. 8 for he should find them out wherever they were Thy hand shall find out all thy enemies and thy right hand shall find out all that hate thee 3. Ver. 9 This was easie to do as easie as for fire to consume the stubble Thou shalt make them as a fiery Oven in the time of thy wrath the Lord shall swallow them c. 4. Ver. 10 This destruction should be universal it should reach to them and their posterity Their fruit shalt thou destroy from the Earth and their seed from among the children of men 5. Ver. 12 Their judgment fearful and unavoidable God would set them up as a Mark to shoot at that should turn their back and yet they should not so escape because when they fled God would overtake them with a bended Bow and shoot his Arrows upon them
so be you as ready to observe it 2. Ne sitis Be not like beasts like horse and mule Vers. 9 which have no understanding whose mouths must be held in by force with bit and bridle To obey freely lest they come near unto thee â—ing thee hurt thee kick thee kill thee Constrain'd obedience is for a beast free and voluntary for a man 3. Besides to quicken your obedience I will teach you two reasons Which he perswades by two reasons 1. Ab incommodo Many sorrows shall be to the wicked their griefs their troubles their punishments many and grievous Vers. 10 Be not then disobedient like the wicked Rebellious as they are 1 That the troubles of the rebellious are grievous 2. A commodo Your obedience shall be rewarded and that amply But he that trusteth in the Lord mercy shall compass him about It shall be like the girdle that he is girded withal 2 The willing obedience of the good rewarded God will be present with him in his troubles he shall perceive he is in favour with God that his sins are covered and that he is an beir of eternal life Upon which he concludes with this Exhortation Be glad in the Lord Vers. 11 and rejoice ye Righteous and shout for joy all ye that are upright in heart These he exhorts to rejoice in God As there is great reason for this Doctrine of the Free Remission of sin can alone quiet the Conscience The Prayer collected out of the 32. Psalm O Merciful Father Lord of Men and Angels to whose Will and Command all Creatures ought to be obedient I have béen through my whole life a rebellious wretch and with a high hand sinn'd against Heaven and against thée neither am I worthy to be call'd thy Son I have serv'd thée with a double heart and after the commission of many a grievous sin I have sought for fig-leaves to cover my nakedness either extenuated and sought to conceal it from thy eyes I have done wickedly Vers. 3 and have not open'd my mouth in confessien and therefore now that my sins present themselves to my conscience out of the sense of thy wrath I roar all the day long my bones are dryed Night and day thy hand is so heavy upon me that my moysture is become like the drought in Summer But O my God I humbly acknowledge that the state of my soul is sad and deplorable and by my own fault I am in an ill condition and how to recover I know no other way but to fall at thy féet and confess my errour I do therefore now acknowledge my sin unto thee and my iniquity do I not hide A time there is when thou may'st be found and in this time I do confess my transgressions unto thee forgive O Lord the iniquity of my sin O let not the sloods of great waters come so near my soul that they drown me in despair Be thou to me a hiding place till thy anger is overpast deliver me and let me rejoice in thy salvation Cover my sins forgive my transgressions impute not unto me mine iniquities but impute unto me thy Sons righteousuess for my justification when I shall appear before thy great Tribunal For this alone can make me Blessed and Happy And for the future Instruct me and teach me in the way that I am to go Vers. 8 guide me with thy eye let the least intimation of thy Will be a powerful motive to my soul and win it to obedience Suffer me not to be like a bruit beast like the head-strong horse or the sottish mule whose mouths must be held in with bit and bridle kept in their way by force and violence rather out of love give me Grace to do my duty than out of fear and compulsion If O Lord thou wilt procéed in wrath and anger let it be against the rebellious stiffmecked sinners let the sorrows of the wicked stubborn and perverse men be many But let all those that trust in thée be compassed and defended by thy mercy And let all those who labour to serve thée with an upright and in an honest heart though in great imperfection and weakness rejoice in thée and shout for joy knowing that they serve a good Lord who will remit their sin hide their transgressions and not impute their iniquiies Amen PSAL. XXXIII Is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Contents are 1. AN Exhortation to the just to praise God vers 1 2 3. 2. The Arguments he useth to perswade to it from vers 3. to 20. 3. The Confidence of Gods people in his Name Their joy in him and petition to him vers 20 21 22. 1. David exhorts the righteous to praise God The first part In the three first verses he exhorts to praise God But whom 1. The righteous not all For praise is comely for the upright 2. That it be given with all zeal and affection with exultation with singing Vers. 1 with voice with instruments Some new Song composed for some new mercy Vers. 2 and that it be skilfully expressed 2. His reasons The second part To this he perswades upon divers good grounds 1. The first in general fetcht from the truth the faithfulness the justice the goodness of God 1. For the Word of the Lord is right 2. Vers. 4 And all his works are done in Truth 3. He loveth righteousness and judgement 1 From Gods goodness c. 4. The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. Vers. 5 2. 2 From his power His second Argument is fetcht from Gods power in the Creation of all things and that by his Word alone vers 6 7 9. and upon it interserts Let all the earth fear the Lord let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him 3. Vers. 8 3 His providence His third Argument is fetcht from Gods providence in governing the world which may easily be discerned by those who will diligently consider his wayes and proceedings both to other people and to his Church 1. 1 In defeating his enemies He makes void all stratagems undertaken against his Will not of single men but whole Nations The Lord bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought Vers. 10 He maketh the devices of the people to be of none effect 2. Vers. 11 Whereas on the contrary what he hath decreed shall be done 't is not possible to infringe it 2 In bringing to pass his counsels The counsel of the Lord stands for ever the thoughts of his heart to all generations Upon the consideration of which he breaks out into this Epiphonema Vers. 12 Blessed is the Nation whose God is the Lord and the people For which he accompts his people blessed He amplifies Gods providence and illustrates it whom he hath chosen for his inheritance After which he returns to his discourse of Gods providence and by an elegant hypotyposis amplifies his former Argument For he sets God before us
as some great King in his Throne providing for all the parts of his Empire examining all Causes and doing justice to every one 1. Vers. 13 The Lord looks from heaven and beholds all the sons of men 2. That he sees all From the place of his habitation he looks upon all the inhabitants of the earth Vers. 14 3. And he is not â—â—iosus spectator neither Vers. 15 He sees and considers their hearts their works Considers in what men put their trust And he sees in what they put their confidence in their Armies in theiâ— strength in their Horse not in him But all in vain Vers. 16 For there is no King that can be saved by the multitude of an Hoast Evacuates their designs A mighty man is not delivered by much strength An horse is a vain thing for safety neither shall he deliver any man by his great strength Multitude strength c. without God are useless 2. Hitherto he hath given a proof of Gods providence toward all men 2 But defends his Church but now he descends to a particular proof of it by his care over his Church which he wonderfully guides defends protects in all dangers and assaults And that notice be taken of it he begins with an Ecce Behold the eye of the Lord his tender'st care is over them that fear him Vers. 18 upon them that hope in his mercy To deliver their soul from death and to keep them alive in famine Upon this Gods people The third part The three last verses contain the Acclamation of Gods people who believe and place all their hope and trust in God For being excited as it were by the former Arguments They do three things Vers. 20 1. They express and profess their faith and dependance on God 1 Wait on him Our soul waiteth on God he is our help and our shield Vers. 21 2. They publish upon what hope they are held up and how comforted 2 Publish his name and rejoice in it For our heart shall rejoice in him because we have trusted in his Holy Name Vers. 22 3. Upon this hope they commend themselves by prayer to God 3 Commend themselves to Gods mercy Let thy mercy O Lord be upon us according as we hope in thee The Prayer collected out of the thirty third Psalm O God thy goodness is so great thy faithfulness so constant thy power so wonderful thy providence so universal but thy care so Fatherly toward thy people that we were unworthy of the least of thy mercies should we not acknowledge them and return thee due honour and thanks For there is nothing in the whole world which doth not witness thée to be a bountiful God Vers. 4 and a most Merciful Father Thy Word O Lord thy Decrée for the Creation and Government of the World is right and equal and all thy works are done in true wisdom righteousness and judgement Vers. 5 For there is nothing that thou hast commanded which is not just Nothing that thou hast promised which thou wilt not make good and bring to pass Out of that love thou bearest to righteousness and judgement the earth is full of thy goodness there being in it nothing so minute and vile which one way or other doth not partake of thy bounty Vers. 6 and commend thy goodness and mercy to us By thy Word alone and sole Command were those incorruptible Orbs of the Heavens made and confirm'd and all the hoast of them that multitude of starres so orderly and beautifully disposed by the breath the word the Fiat of thy mouth Thou hast gather'd together those unruly waters of the Sea into one place and shut them up with bounds and limits that they return not again to cover the earth And thou hast hidden and laid up great streams of waters in the bowels of the earth as in a Treasure-house which at thy pleasure thou bring'st forth to water a thirsty Land He spake and all this was done he commanded and it stood fast For so great is thy power that without any labour without any delay without any help all this was done and that by thy Will and Word only and by thy Word and Will it is that it doth so now continue and remain without dissolution Therefore O ye righteous rejoice in the Lord Praise is not comely in the mouth of a sinner Vers. 2 praise therefore a righteous God with an upright heart Neither with your mouth only express his praise but set it forth with musical instruments Praise the Lord with the Harp sing unto him with the Psaltery and an instrument of ten strings And you who have so often sung of his honour now since he hath renew'd his mercies set forth your joy with a New Song play skilfully with a loud voice So set forth his praise his power his wisdom his mercy that all the earth may fear the Lord and the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him For what he hath ordained by his eternal counsel shall be fulfill'd and stand fast for ever and the thoughts of his heart to all generations Since then thou O Jehovah art most just most merciful most Mighty blessed is that Nation who have chosen and worshipped thee O Lord for their God and happy is the people whom thou hast chosen for thine inheritance O make us Lord alwayes of this people that we may be happy under thy protection Dwell in the midst of us and bless us But O Lord bring the counsels of wicked men against this thy people to nought and make the devices of the people of none effect Look down from heaven and behold all the sons of men from the place of thy habitation look upon the inhabitants of the earth Thou searchest the very hearts and reins and knowest all their plots and secret counsels they take against thy people thou séest their preparations and provisions O Lord make them know and so fashion their hearts that they may perceive that all hope and confidence is in vain which is not in thée Because there is no other can save besides thy self For there is no King that can be saved by the multitude of an hoast neither is a mighty man deliver'd by much strength An Horse whether in battle or flight is a vain-deceitful thing to save a man neither shall he deliver his rider by his great strength It is not in these vain helps we put our considence our hope is in thée alone on thée we relie to thée we trust from thée we look for help Let thy eye therefore O Lord be upon us that fear thee who relie not upon any merits and creatures but on thy méer mercy let thy everlasting mercy then follow us and deliver our souls from temporal and eternal death and suffain us with a sufficient livelihood in the time of famine Upon thee O Lord our soul doth wait be our shield to protect us our help to deliver us So shall our heart
is a happy man Now whether he speaks of That is of compassionate bowels and applies the following particulars to the poor and needy or to the man that considers him Interpreters are doubtful the particular comforts are six 1. The Lord will deliver him in time â—f trouble Ver. 2 2. The Lord will preserve him that he faint not in his great troubles The particulars of his blessing 3. The Lord will keep him alive prolong his life and dayes 4. He shall be blessed upon earth God shall enrich him and bless his substance 5. Thou wilt not deliver him to the will of his enemies never to their will to their full desire though sometimes into their hands 6. The Lord will strengthen him upon the Bed of languishing Ver. 3 Thou wilt make his Bed in his sickness He shall have comfort in his grief and assurance of Gods favour in his sick Bed Now before he enters upon the second part The second part He petitions for mercy the complaint of the unkindness of men to him he offers a short ejaculation to God begging mercy health and pardon which he asks upon confession of his sins health he asks first for his soul that being healed from sin he doubts not it would go well with his body 1. Ver. 4 I said the Lord be merciful to me merciful to my sin 2. Heal my soul in which there is yet the sense of thy wrath 3. He complains of others malice And the Reason is because I have sinned against thee And the complaint of himself being ended he complains of others 1. Of their hatred and malice My enemies speak evil of me 2. Ver. 5 Of their cruelty they long for my death they say When shall he dye and his name perish 2 Cruelty They would have no memory left behind of me 3. 3 Perfidiousness Their perfidious dealing and dissimulation They come indeed to visit me but it is to fish what they can from me Ver. 6 to make their advantage of it If he comes to see me he speaks vanity all vain and feigned words for his heart gathereth iniquity to it self fraudulently searcheth my counsels for presently being gone abroad he openeth and tells all to my hurt 4. 4 Conspiracies Of their plots and conspiracies All that hate me whisper together against me Ver. 7 against me do they devise my hurt 5. 5 Joy at his miseries Their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or exultation at his misery An evil disease say they cleaveth unto him and now that he lieth he shall rise up no more 6. 6 Of a perfidious friend Of the perfidiousness of some particular friend perhaps Achitophel Yea mine own familiar friend in whom I trusted which did eat of my bread hath lift up his heel against me I fed and fatted the Beast and he kicked at me And then he prayes The third part He prayes to God to raise him But thou O Lord be merciful unto me and raise me up which prayer he enforceth by these Reasons 1. That thereby as a King he should have power to do justice on Traytors That I may requite them 2. Ver. 10 By this he should have experience of Gods favour By this I know thou favourest me c. 3. Ver. 11 This will be a testimony unto me that thou favourest not only my person but my cause Ver. 12 As for me thou upholdest me in my integrity and seâ—tâ—st me before thy face for ever Then he closeth the Psalm with a Benedictus And concludes with a Benedictus Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting Ver. 13 Amen Amen The Prayer collected out of the forty first Psalm O Merciful God Ver. 1 who shewedst compassion toward the compassionate and hast promised mercy to those who are merciful so stir my bowels within me that I may rejoyce with thy servants that rejoyce and mourn with those that mourn never let me behold any of thy servants in want distress misery and affliction but let me consider it seriously and wisely lay it to heart make his my own case and chearfully afford him that help and comfort which I would expect and desire my self if it should please thée to visit me with the same or the like affliction This very day is a day of blackness and heaviness of gloominess and sad affliction unto thy servants and Lord out of a fellow-feeling I lay it to heart I pray not for my self alone but for them also O Lord deliver them in this time of trouble preserve them and kéep them that they fall not into evil nor faint not under their pressures Ver. 2 Prolong their dayes that they may sée thy revenge upon their enemies and bless to them good God that little substance which the spoiler and destroyer hath yet left to them The malice of their enmies is unsatiable their desire is to root them out that they may be no more a people O never deliver them to their will nor leave them in their hands into which thou hast now brought them for some reasons best known to thée When thou shalt cast any of these upon his sick bed then stand by him and strengthen him and comfort him though his body languish yet let thy consolations refresh his soul if it so séems good to thée make him whole again however soften under him his Bed ease his pain and let him rest swéetly and quietly in thy arms Make thou for him his Bed in all his sickness Lord be merciful unto him heal his soul and let it not be wounded with a desperate sense of thy hot displeasure As thou hast made him an object of pity to us so make him an object of mercy to thée and in confessing his sin let him find ease and assurance of pardon Thou Lord knowest our enemies how many they are and how they bear a tyrannous hate against us they speak evil of us they imprecate evil against us The prolongation of our life is an eye-fore to them and the lengthning of our dayes a corrosive to their hearts They long for our death and wish the abolition of our names and memory from under Heaven They may come indéed sometimes to visit us and insinuate themselves into our company but it is not out of any good will for even then they lay snares for us The kind words they use are full of falshood and dissimulation their intent is thereby to dive into the counsels of our hearts that they make some narrative to our destruction They whisper and lay their heads together with one consent all that they devise is to do us mischief under their power and command they have brought us and now that we are down their plot is that we never rise again Yea and how many of us may justly say which is a great corrosive to our souls My own familiar friends whom I trusted which did eat of my bread whom I have fed at my Table
speaks in these following words To the wicked God saith 1. Vers. 16 What hast thou to do to declare my statutes or that thou shouldst take my Covenant in thy mouth 2. They contemners of Gods Law The reason is because in words thou professest thou lovest me but in deeds thou denyest him Thou hatest instruction in thy heart hatest that Law Vers. 17 that with thy mouth thou commendest and hast cast my words behind thee Written I have to thee the wonderful things of my Law and thou hast counted them a strange thing This I shall now prove and illustrate by a distribution This proved 1. Vers. 18 Thou hast no regard of the eighth Commandment When thou sawest a thief then thou consentest with him In the consent is the more malice it shews that it was not rashly done but on purpose deliberation counsel 2. Vers. 19 Nor of the seventh Thou hast been partaker with the Adulterers 3. Vers. 20 Nor of the ninth Thou givest thy mouth to evil and thy tongue frameth deceit Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother thou slanderest thine own mothers son Against thy brother not a stranger and that not casually neither or in anger but studiously thou satest and speakest 4. No nor of the first For thou hast had a profane thought even of me Vers. 21 and of my mercy forbearance and long-suffering These things hast thou done and I kept silence arose not presently to take vengeance on thee And thou thought'st that I was altogether such a one as thy self A Patron an approver of wickedness as thou thy self art But from any such imputation God no Abetter of wickedness here I purge my self before the Heaven and Earth and the whole World For I will not suffer this thy wickedness to go unreveng'd The day shall come when I will reprove thee Vers. 21 and punish this thy wickedness with severe punishments and set in order before thine eyes the villany that thou hast committed and labour'd to hide Confess at that day thou shalt that the sentence pronounc'd against thee is most just Yet He gives warning to the wicked threatens that he may spare And yet in judgement God remembers mercy It becomes a Judge even when he is pronouncing sentence to take unto him the bowels of compassion And these God who is to be our Judge here puts on 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For he gives a fair warning to the wicked that they repent and perish not 1. Now while you have time consider this Vers. 22 that God is not pleased with outward Rites Formalities and Ceremonies only that he is not to be pacified with long prayers and preaching of his Law if the life be wicked For this is upon the point to forget that he is a God of pur eyes and cannot behold iniquity Consider this then I say lest like as an angry lyon Promiseth help to the sincere he break out upon you on a sudden and there be none to deliver This is a fair warning to the wicked Vers. 23 2. Now to those who worship God in sincerity he makes a quite contrary promise of defence help salvation Who offereth with an honest heart praise glorifieth me and to him that ordereth his conversation aright goes the right way that Gods Word directs I will shew the salvation of God He shall be saved and know that he worships not God in vain The Prayer out of the fiftieth Psalm O Most Mighty and just God who hast appointed a day in which thou wilt judge the world when all flesh shall appear before thee to render an accompt of their wayes whether good or evil never let that strict accompt that we must make slip out of our memory but let the sound of that Arch-angels Trumpet sound in our eares Arise ye dead and come to judgement God to whom the secrets of all hearts are open is then to be the Iudge Vers. 6 the Mighty God even the Lord is to sit upon the Tribunal himself Vers. 1 Our God that hath been patient and long-suffering shall then manifest himself Vers. 3 Silence he will not keep but by his judiciary power he will vindicate and revenge all the deeds and sayings of perverse sinners And he will come in a terrible manner for before him shall go a fire that shall consume and purge the whole world A day it will be of darkness and gloominess a mighty tempest will go before him and the whole frame of the universe will be in a Commotion How shall then our hearts fail us for fear Vers. 1 when the heaven and earth shall be call'd to as Witnesses against us the heaven whose light and influences we have enjoyed but been unthankful the earth whose various fruits and beneficence we might have used but have abused All his creatures at that day will declare his righteousness and proclaim that we are a rebellious people Out of that celestial habitation and that Zion which is above Vers. 2 shall our God appear in perfect beauty His Saints Vers. 2 and those who have made a Covenant with him shall be gather'd round about him When all the workers of iniquity shall call to the Hills to cover them and the Mountains to hide them from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his Majesty O most Merciful and Gracious God Vers. 22 give us an understanding heart to consider this Never suffer us to forget thee that that day-come not upon us unawares snatch us not away to condemnation from which if we dye in our sins no man is able to deliver us Keep us O Lord with thy mighty hand that when in words we profess to know thée in déeds we deny not let us never consent to the Thief nor partake with the Adulterer far be it from us to give our mouths to evil and our tongues to frame deceit let us not join with the malicious and factious and sit and speak against our brother or detract and slander our mothers son never let such obdurate obstinacy seize upon our hearts that we hate instruction or cast thy words behind us These are sins inconsistent with grace and evident Arguments of a reprobate soul those that abuse thy patience and long-suffering commit them and that have profane thoughts of the Divine Majesty defile themselves with them Against all sinners but these especially thou hast testified these thou hast reproved keep me therefore O Lord from these presumptuous sins Thou art God even my God when thou speakest give me an ear to hear and what thou commandest give me a will to do O let me glorifie thee and order my Conversation aright that I may obtain salvation I have grievously sinned and wherewith shall I come before the Lord and bow my self before my God Shall I come before him with burnt-offerings with calves of a year old will the Lord be pleased with thousands of Rams or ten thousand Rivers of oyle All the Beasts of the Forrest are
indulgence to this sin In giving him 1. A right spirit there was a crooked and perverse spirit that had prevailed over him he judged not as he did before of Gods Law but perversly opposed it he desires that God would give him a spirit to judge rightly as he did before and firmly to resolve to keep to that was the right and strait way to happiness Renew O Lord in me a right Spirit 2. A holy Spirit The profane carnal spirit is opposed to this 2 A boly spirit and to that he hearkned by this holy Spirit he was wont to be carried which opposed all carnality but such good and sweet motions he perceived to be departed and therefore he desires of God a restitution of this holy Spirit this sanctifying and renewing Spirit that might again kindle in him the love of God holy motions agreeable to Gods Law and an obedience to the same Take not thy holy Spirit from me 3. A free Spirit He found that ever since he fell into his sin he did his duty 3 A free spirit and served his God with an ill will with much reluctancy he took no delight in the doing of it as he did before this therefore he begs that God would again give and restore to him a free Spirit that freely chearfully willingly he might run the way of Gods Commandments and that he would so uphold him with his Spirit that he might constantly continue in the same to his lives end Uphold me O Lord with thy free Spirit 2. Hitherto the Prophet hath presented his three Petitions The second part of the Psalm in which he vows three things and upon the confidence of these he makes his vows first to teach others secondly to praise God thirdly to offer him the best sacrifice a sacrifice which should be instead of all sacrifices which he knew would accept a contrite heart 1. Then that is after my pardon obtained and my reconciliation unto thee I shall teach Ver. 13 for a man under guiltiness himself is not meet to speak and declare a pardon to others His first vow to teach others 2. I will teach thy wayes to sinners not my wayes of sinning but thy methods of pardoning viz. That to the stubborn thou wilt shew thy self froward and stubborn but to the penitent such as I am thou wilt shew mercy 3. And the effect will be That sinners shall be converted unto thee They who were perverted before and averted from thee being encouraged by the mercy I have found shall be converted 2. His second vow to praise God His second vow and promise is to praise God My tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness Ver. 14 my mouth shall shew forth thy praise But to this he was unapt so long as he remained in his sin Ver. 15 for praise is not comely in the mouth of a sinner And also unable to do without Gods special assistance But because not fit to do this he prayes and therefore he prayes for a capacity to do both 1. 1 For remission Deliver me from blood-guiltiness O God and then my tongue shall sing 2. 2 For assistance O Lord open my lips and then my mouth shall shew forth thy praise 3. His third vow is about a sacrifice which should be better than any then in use not the sacrifice of a beast but the sacrifice of a heart a heart well-conditioned His Preface to his third vow Negatively That God delights not in sacrifices seasoned with contrition and sorrow such he knew God would accept and such he should have 1. Thou desirest no sacrifice That is the outward in comparison of the inward would the outward please I would not be behind for that also I would give it thee but I know Thou delightest not in burnt-offerings without the heart 2. Nor in the heart till contrite No nor with the heart neither till it be broken and contrite broken for sin and contrite for meer love that it hath offended so good a Father I vowe therefore to bring thee this sacrifice this is instead of all other instead of many sacrifices this thou wilt not despise and this I will tender The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit His third vow a contrite heart The third part in which he prayes for the Church a broken and a contrite heart Thou O God wilt not despise 3. David having finished his prayers and vows for himself forgets not to petition for Jerusalem for Gods Church and the reason might be a religious fear in him lest for his sin Jerusalem might suffer such a thing might happen for so it did when he numbred the people Peccant Reges plectuntur Achivi His method was to be commended and his charity 1. His method first to be reconciled to God himself before he prayes for others for the prayers of a righteous man prevails much and the Apostle speaks of intercession 2. His charity for we are alwayes bound to remember the afflictions of Joseph and to pray for the peace of Jerusalem He prayes then for her 1. Ver. 18 That God who out of his good pleasure did choose a Church would out of his meer good will and love preserve it 1 That God protect his Church Do good in thy good pleasure to Zion 2. That he would have a special favour even to the material buildings Build thou the walls of Jerusalem 2 Even the walls for these fall not alone Religion and the Service of God fall when the Temple and Houses of God fall to ruine Probatum est 3. Then Religion would flourish For the consequence of Jerusalems prosperity would be this That Religion would flourish with it Then there would be sacrifices burnt-offerings and Holocausts Ver. 19 then they shall offer Bullocks upon thine Altar And which is yet more we shall offer And God pleased with it and thou shalt accept Then thou shalt be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness We being reconciled unto thee justified sanctified righteous upon thy account and in favour all our sacrifices shall find a gracious acceptance The Prayer collected out of the fifty first Psalm O Almighty Lord and most merciful God thou hast shewed compassion to many penitent sinners since the very beginning of the World thou never rejectedst any that sought to thée with a penstent soul and therefore Lord since thou art the same and no shadow of change in thée I beféech thée cloze not that door of mercy on me that hath béen opened to receive so many before me and let not those Rivers of compassion be dried up to me that have flowed so plentifully to others Have mercy on me O Lord on me Ver. 1 that have sinned against Heaven and against thee and am not worthy to be called thy son but according to thy goodness and multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my iniquities I know Lord thou hast thy debt-book wherein thou writest the
before the Jewes but now all universally Sing unto God ye Kingdoms of the Earth O sing praises to the Lord. Selah And that all Nations do it His Reasons 2. His Reasons to perswade it 1. The Majesty of God testified 1. 1 The Majesty of God By his works To him that rides upon the Heaven of Heavens which were of old 2. 2 His protection His power in his Thunder in his Word He doth send forth his voyce and that a mighty voyce 2. His wise protection and providence to his people Ascribe ye the power to God his excellency is over Israel and his strength is in the Cloud 3. 3 His goodness to his Church His communication of himself to his Church in particular 1. O Lord thou art terrible out of thy holy places 2. The God of Israel is he that gives strength and power to his people 3. Blessed be God with that Epiphonema he concludes The Prayer collected out of the sixty eight Psalm O God in Majesty terrible in thy protection of thy people most merciful since thy power is so great thy presence so powerful that at the blasting of the breath of thy Nostrils thy enemies vanish as a vapour when it is raised to the highest and those that hate thée haste from thy presence Why art thou absent from us why sléepest thou in this néedful time of trouble O Lord awake and arise for us and scatter our nay thy enemies they hate not us Ver. 1 but thée and thy Law and Ordinances make them to flie from thy face drive them away as smoke as wax consumes and melts before the fire Ver. 2 so let the wicked perish at thy presence O God so shall the righteous have just occasion to rejoyce Ver. 3 they shall rejoyce before thee their God they shall be exceedingly joyful O God Thou art infinite in thy Essence wonderful in thy works most merciful in thy wayes to the sons of men Thou ridest above upon the Heavens when we crawle upon this Dunghill of Earth Thou art Jehovah and hast a being in thy self a time there was when we were not and the time will come when we shall not be and what we are at present we have from thée O let us live then and we will praise thée Turn away thy wrath from us and we will rejoyce before thee and sing praises to thy Name As Orphans we are in this World be thou our Father as Widows be thou our Husband Ver. 5 destitute we are without any humane help left alone and solitary O gather us into Families and Societies for our rebellions against thée bound we are with Chains and brought into a dry Land hear the groans and sighs we send up unto thée and out of thy holy habitation make it appear that thou art present with us look upon the humble consider thy dispersed and distracted people have pity on the Widows and Orphans and let us dwell once more together in peace unity and plenty O God Ver. 7 when thou wentest before thy people Israel when thou didst lead them through the Wilderness then thou didst march before them in a cool Cloud by day and in a Pillar of fire by night the dull and heavy earth was moved at thy presence the Heavens drop't Manna the Clouds shot forth lightnings even Sinai it self trembled when thou gavest thy Law unto thy people and after thou brought'st them into a wealthy Land O Lord thy power is yet the same and thy goodness immutable go out before us a sinful Nation and yet thy people as thou didst rain down Manna for them so also we beg of thée to send us necessaries from above and let this our Land that hath béen long afflicted with many evils enjoy a quiet peace and her inhabitants the fruits of peace confirm us Lord in that inheritance which thou hast given us let thy Congregation dwell therein and of thy goodness not for our merits prepare and provide meat and rayment for thy people that hath béen long oppressed by Tyrants We have heard with our ears O God and our Fathers have told us what thou hast done in their time of old great is the company that have published in our hearing that by thy mighty power Kings with their Armies did flie and haste away and that thou hast given the spoil to be divided among thy Houshold-servants This puts us in hope that we even we that have béen for a long time cast aside as the off-scouring of all things and black and inglorious by many pressures shall yet be called for again and set in our inheritances our Dove-like and innocent faces shine as silver and glister as gold the Snow upon the top of Salmon shall not be so white as shall our innocence when thou by these afflictions hast purged away out dross and melted away our tin Such a mercy we cannot expect for our own sakes for we are a sinful people but Lord remember Zion and be gracious to Jerusalem This is the Hill of God in this thou desirest to dwell this thou hast chosen to dwell in for ever Shall then the other Hills insult over it shall the Kings of the Nations and pride of Tyrants trample it to the dust Thy Chariots O God are twenty thousands even thousands of Angels and thou Lord art among them as in Sinai Now Lord shew thy self in glory ascend on High get the victory and triumph over the enemies of thy-Church lead them Captives that have captiv'd us and make them bring and offer thee gifts that have robbed thy Temples and so change the hearts of the rebellious That thou Lord may'st dwell among them and be acknowledged and worshipped by them Bring thy people O Lord out of their troubles as thou of old didst deliver thy chosen from the fury of Og the King of Bashan or thy people Israel from the hands of Pharoah that pursued them to the depths of the red Sea Wound the head of thy enemies and the hairy scalp of such a one as goeth on still in his wickedness let thy Beloved wash their feet in the blood of their enemies and let the very Dogs lick their blood wisely they wrought against us conceiving they had inclosed us but thou art our God the God of our Salvation to thée belongs and thou hast shewed that there be in thy power many issues from death for where the help of man hath failed Thou hast reached forth thy hand and delivered us from the jaw of the Lyon and the paw of the Boar Blessed then be the Lord which daily loads us with benefits even the God of our salvation Make thy Word perfect O our God rebuke the multitude of the Spear-men restrain the fury of those whose rage and anger against us is no less than that of enraged Bulls still the tumults of the people scatter all those that delight in War for thy Temples sake at Jerusalem be propitious unto us and strengthen that O God which
hypocritically and falsly as all flatterers do But to that pass they should have been brought that they should be glad to dissemble with and flatter Gods people 2. 2 Their peace long and lasting The second benefit is That their time should have continued for ever i.e. Their peace their tranquility their health their quiet habitation should have been very long and not interrupted with War Sedition Tumults 3. The third benefit is The abundance of all things Expressed by wheat 3 Abundance of all things to satisfaction and honey 1. I should have fed them also not with bran mixt with flowre as poor folks use and is usual in time of famine with the finest of the wheat 2. And with honey out of the Rock in which in Judaea Bees commonly liv'd would I have satisfied thee 'T is a blessing to say I have enough The Prayer collected out of the eighty first Psalm INsinite Vers. 1 O Lord are the causes that we have with the greatest alacrity to praise thée Thou art our strength thou art the God of Jacob we will therefore sing aloud and make a joyful noyse unto thee and because our breath is too short and low to resound thy praises we will call in the assistance of musical instruments the Nary the Lute and Psaltery and when those Feasts and Solemn Festivals shall come which are set forth for to celebrate thy mercies to man-kind we will blow abroad thy honour with shrill sounding Trumpets In which we yet shall but do our duty for this was made a Statute for Israel and a Law of the God of Jacob. Thou wert merciful to thy people Israel when in trouble they called upon thee thou deliveredst them thou broughtst them to Mount Sinai and proclaimed thy Law in their eares with the sound of a Trumpet when they heard a voice never heard before Thou easest his shoulder from the burden of carrying earth tiles bricks and straw and his hands were delivered from making the pots Thou hast been to us no less merciful than to them when in our afflictions and troubles we have called upon thee thou hast come down and delivered us thou hast freed us from our Aegyptian darkness of ignorance thou hast loused us from the slavery of the devil and from the drudgery and service of sin which laid a heavy burden upon our consciences and instead of thy Law proclaimed with so much terrour in Mount Sinai thou hast spoken to us from heaven by thy only begotten Son and sounded in our ears the glad-tidings of the Gospel And now Lord what doest thou require at our hands for all these favours even the self-same that thou requiredst of Israel For thus thou then spakest to them and thus thou speakest to us Hear O my people Vers. 8 and I will testifie unto thee O Israel if thou wilt hearken unto me there shall be no strange god in thee neither shalt thou worship any other god I am the Lord thy God that brought thee out of the Land of Aegypt But my people would not hearken to my voice and Israel would none of me And wo be so us miserable wretches our ears have béen dull of hearing and we have not hearkned to thy command though we have not set up strange gods yet we have worshipped our own imaginations and adored our own inventions We have forgotten that thou brought'st us out of our more than Aegyptian darkness of ignorance and sin and fill'd our mouths with all good things In a word we have not hearkned to thy voice we have set thée by for the vanities of our own hearts and would none of thée In justice therefore thou hast given us up to our hearts lusts and we have walked in our own counsels and because we would not receive the love of the truth that we might be saved for this cause hath God sent us a strong delusion that we should be lieve a lye and take pleasure in unrighteousness But O Lord though Israel hath transgressed yet let not Judah sin in Sodom thou hadst a Lot in Ur of the Chaldees an Abraham in the Land of Uz a Job though the four hundred Prophets have followed Baal yet there is one Micajah left nay seven thousand vnées that have not vowed to the Idol these will hearken unto thee these will walk in thy wayes Lord here their prayers hearken unto their groans for the remnant that are left And thou who wouldst have spared that sinful City at the request of Abraham could ten righteous men have been found in it return in mercy to the thousands of Israel which day and night cry unto thee to spare thy people O Lord for their fakes rather for thine own sake spéedily subdue and bring under our enemies and turn thy hand against our adversaries let all those who by their works and practical Atheism séem to hate thee bow like lerbants before thy people and at least shew and sein a voluntary subjection not daring to carry themselves proudly and stubbornly before thy servants nor to manifest their secret rancour But let the time of those who in sincerity of heart in truth and in spirit worship thée endure for ever let their peace be secure their tranquility long their prosperity perpetual their habitation quiet and their health confirm'd When they shall open their mouths wide in prayer fulfil their requests whatsoever they shall ask in thy name according to thy promise give it Because they first seek the glory and prosperity of thy Kingdom and the righteousness thereof let all other things be added unto them Supply them with the dew of heaven and the fatness of the earth when other Prodigals féed upon husks then feed them with the finest of the wheat Let the Rocks yield them honey the Mountains Brass and Iron let their pastures de clothed with flocks Vers. 1 and their valleys to codered over with corn that they shout for ioy and sing that they take a Psalm and bring forth the Tabret the merry Harp with the Lute and on thy great and appointed Solemnities sing aloud to the God of their strength and make a cheerful noyse to the God of Jacob. Grant this O Lord for Jesus Christs sake our only Lord and Saviour Amen PSAL. LXXXII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 THAT the Prophet might admonish and check the Judges of the earth about their duty he sets God in the midst of them commanding that they do justice and â—hreatning revenge for their injustice assuring them that he will rise one day and judge them Three parts of the Psalm 1. The Prophets Proclamation vers 1 2. Gods contestation with the Judges of the earth from vers 2. to 8. 3. The Prophets prayer that God would rise to judge v. 8. 1. The first part Gods preâ—ence proclaimed in the Court. The Prophet as a Cryer in a Court proclaims first a very profitable Doctrine and layes a solid foundation for all justice viz. That all Judges remember that as at
now and at the day of judgement Jehovah is become the Supreme King and all other Kings and Powers become his Vassals and Servants A benefit so great that he moves the world to be glad of it Let the earth rejoice let the multitude of the Isles that is the inhabitants of both be glad thereof All men wheresoever and whatsoever for if they be oppressed by Tyrants yet the Lord they serve is Mightier the Kingdom is his all Power in heaven and earth given into his hands and he can repress and bring into order the proudest Tyrants He hath this name written on his thigh King of Kings and Lord of Lords Rev. 19.16 For the good 2. And 't is most certain that he will make use of his Scepter for the good of his Subjects and for the confusion and ruine of their and his enemies which is often done in this life but if deferr'd for some reasons best known unto him yet it shall be certainly done at the last day when his appearance will be very terrible yet comfortable to His. For 1. Clouds and darkness shall be round about him Vers. 2 as it was when he gave the Law in Sinai Of his Subjects 2. Righteousness and Judgement the habitation the Basis of his Throne 1. Righteousness justly to pass sentence in the defence of his people And so comfortable to them 2. Judgement to be poured out upon his enemies And so a terrible day to them 3. A fire goeth before him and burns up his enemies round about Vers. 3 His lightnings enlightned the world the earth saw it and trembled The hills melted like wax at the presence of the Lord at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth For the confusion of his enemies In which three verses are set down the terror of that day as it is described Mat. 24 29 c. 2 Pet. 2.10 c. Psal 18.7 c. Which fire yet shall not hurt the godly it shall burn up only his enemies as is here said 4. And at this day the heavens declare his righteousness When his appearing shall be glorious when the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of the Arch-angel and the Trump of God 1 Thess 4. 2. And all people his glory appearing in the clouds of heaven with all the Angels about him when every knee of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth shall bow unto him Phil. 2. 2. Upon the consideration of Christs Soveraignty The second part Upon which the Prophet and his glorious appearance at the last day our Prophet imprecates and exhorts 1. He imprecates that confusion and a curse may fall upon all Idolators Confounded be all they that serve carved Images Vers. 7 and boast themselves of Idols Which is indeed their shame 1 Imprecates 2. 2 Exhorts He exhorts Adore him all ye gods ye that excell in power on earth ye Angels that excell in power in heaven adore worship invocate submit to this King For this was and ought to be the practice of Gods people 1. Vers. 8 Sion heard of it heard that the Lord reigned that he would come to judge the quick and dead 3 And the people of God exult that Idolators should be confounded that Christ only was to be adored and rejoiced at it and was very well pleased with the News and desired it should be so 2. Vers. 9 The daughters of Judah that is the people of God rejoiced because of thy judgements O Lord did exult because thou O Lord do'st judge all men with a just judgement 3. But that which did most of all excite and heighten their joy was the exaltation of Christ to the Throne that the Lord of Gods people was now to be the Supreme Lord. Glad they were because Thou O Lord art high above all the earth high above all Kings and earthly Monarchs that thou art exalted far above all gods i. e. far above all Angels who are called gods by participation and far above all Devils who are worshipped as gods by an error of judgement 3. The third part The Character by which Gods people may be known At the eighth verse he made mention of the Church and call'd them Zion he spoke of the people of God under the name of the daughters of Judah and he saith they did exult and rejoice at it But that no man footh up himself with this Title for there be many who lay claim to Zion that belongs not to Zion and seem to rejoice that Christ is King who wish in their hearts it were otherwise Vers. 10 The Prophet sets down an infallible Character by which the Elect may be known viz. The Love of God and the infallible consequent of it The Hatred of evil to which he exhorts Ye that love the Lord hate evil 1. 1 They love God O you that make God your choice and Christ your King not feinedly but truly not with the lips alone but with the heart that fear and worship God not according to the external work but according to the Spirit of the Law 2. 2 They hate evil See that ye hate evil 't is not sufficient to fly it to decline from it but you must detest and hate it which without the work of the heart will never be done For the heart is the fountain of all actions good or bad from it before God they have their denomination and acceptance As out of the heart proceeds the love of the chief good so out of the heart again proceed evil thoughts murders adulteries c. Mat. 15. And that we lend the easier ear to this counsel The reward for this work the Prophet proposeth two great rewards to those that love the Lord and hate evil 1. Enemies they have in this life that hate them that seek to oppress thâ—m against these God promiseth protection from these deliverance 1. Vers. 10 He preserveth the souls of his Saints often their lives but alwayes their souls 1 Preservation which is a benefit beyond the other The Accuser of the brethren shall not hurt them 2. He delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked sometime out of their hand that they fall not into it and sometime out of their hand when they are in it Ovis erepta lupo Now this is their first reward 2. Vers. 11 A second reward there is in the next verse That in their miseries they shall be fill'd with content 2 In miseries they shall find comfort and find comfort when they little expected it but then they must be righteous and upright in heart 1. 1 Light content Light is sown for the righteous or as the old Translator reads out of the Septuagint Light is risen up to the righteous The diversity as Moller and Bellarminâ— arose out of the nearness of the two Hebrew words Zarahh and Zarach Zarahh signifying Seminare and Zarach oriri
Canopy extended over his Throne sometimes in his Chariot drawn by the swiftest Horses with all his Nobles Ministers and Servants about him and attending his pleasure And in this manner he presents the Majesty of God which were the work of the first and second day for by that order he proceeds in setting forth Gods works viz. by the order of the dayes they are made 1. His Robe is the light the work of the first day which is the purest The second part the most beautiful the most glorious illustrious vivifical Ver. 2 chearful of all Gods Creatures with this he is cloathed as with a garment 1 Of the first day for he is light John 1.1 and be dwells in that inaccessible light that no man hath seen nor can see 1 Tim. 6. 2. His Pavision stretched round about him is the Heavens 2 Of the second day the work of the second day these as it were the Hangings the Curtains of his Chamber of Presence by his fiat and power stretched out Ver. 3 as we now see them He stretched out the Heavens as a Curtain 3. His Palace built in a most miraculous manner the beams thereof laid not as is usual upon some firm and solid body but upon that which is most fluent He layes the beams of his Chambers in the waters In Gen. 1.7 we read of waters above the Firmament which were a part of the second dayes work and of these surely the Prophet speaks What is to be understood by waters above the Firmament is no dispute for this place Vide Zanch. de op Dei lib. 2. c. 1. 4. His Chariot the Clouds Who makes the Clouds his Chariot upon these he as it were rides and in a wonderful nimble manner is in all places he pleaseth no otherwise than the Clouds who are now in this place and instantly removed to another 5. The Horses that draw it the Winds Alipedes as the Poets feigned the Horses that drew the Chariot of the Sun by it his intent is to shew That by the power of God are brought upon the face of Heaven and remov'd at his pleasure Ver. 4 6. His Attendants Angels He maketh his Angels Spirits In which his Majesty appears his Ministers a flaming fire No Creature of greater quickness and agility than a Spirit no Element more active than fire These blessed Spirits he sends forth as he pleaseth to defend his Servants and as a flame of fire to consume and burn up his enemies in which appears his Might and Majesty 2. Next the Prophet descends from the Heaven and out of the Aire 2 Of the third day in which his Power and Wisdom The Earth created and comes to speak of the work of the third day and he begins with the Earth that Element which is best known to us in which he shewes the power and wisdom of God many wayes 1. In the foundation of it upon its center that whether it have the motion of Verticity as some do teach or else is fix'd and moves not at all Ver. 5 strange it is that so great and heavy a body should remain in the midst of the World and not sink ponderibia librata suis 1 In foundation This the Prophet attributes only to the Power and Providence of God Who laid the foundations of the Earth that it should not be removed for ever 2. Another part of his Providence about the Earth was that whereas the water being the lighter Element did at first cover the Earth 2 The raising it above the waters by his Fiat and made it useless God either by taking of some parts out of the upper superficies of the Earth in sundry places and made it more hollow and laying them in other places made it more convex or to speak more plainly by raising some and depressing others made room for the Sea This was a work of Gods Word and the Prophet speaks of this in the three following verses 1. First He shewes in what condition the Earth was in the first Creation it was covered and under water Thou cover'dst it with the deep Ver. 6 as with a Garment the waters stood above the Mountains 2. He shewes how the Earth became uncovered it was by the voyce power and fiat of God Let the waters be gathered together into one place and let the dry land appear Gen. 1. This the Psalmist here calls the rebuke of God the voyce of Thunder for God had no sooner spake the word Ver. 7 But it was so At thy rebuke they fled at thy voyce of Thunder they were afraid whether they were such waters as are now or thick mists and vapours after to be condensed into vapours afraid they were to stay any longer and to cover the Earth when God rebuked them spoken as it were in Thunder and bid them remove 3. Ver. 8 And so there became a new World as it were Jussit extendi campos subsidere Valles 3 Confining the Sea The Mountains and the Vallies take the lower place Or else as we read They the mists and vapours go up by the Mountains for quanti montes volvuntur aquarum but they stayed not then nor yet do stay upon the Mountains But they go down by the Vallies unto the place which thou hast appointed for them still failing along to Sea 4. Ver. 9 4 His Providence about the Rivers There thou inclosest them as with doors and bars Job 18. Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over that they turn not again to cover the Earth yet not violently kept there as some suppose but restrain'd by an ordinary way of Nature it being natural for water to descend to the lower places which by Gods power was not hollowed for them to remain in that they once did return and cover the Earth was by Gods extraordinary Command 3. And next he comes to speak of the Rivers and Springs and shewes Gods wonderful Providence about them 1. Ver. 10 He sendeth the Springs that is the streams of water from the Hills into the Vallies 1 Their Springs which yet at first run among the Hills for who knowes not that the domus fluvii the Spring and Well whence the greatest Rivers stream is seated commonly in the foot of some Mountain 2. 2 Their Use And the end of this infinitely declares Gods Providence it is for the sustenance of Beasts and Fowles perish they must for thirst were it otherwise and therefore he adds 1. They i. e. the Springs and Rivers give drink to every Beast of the Field the wild Asses quench their thirst 2. By them shall the Fowles of the Heaven have their habitation which sing among the Branches 4. But the Springs and Rivers cannot water all parts of the Earth were it not then for another part of his Care and Providence 3 The Rain and Dewes the Hills and higher places would be altogether barren and unfruitful his Wisdom therefore
vigour thy growth And because the Prophet in the beginning of the verse spoke of Gods people of their holiness their willingness methinks it is most consonant to the drist of the Text to expound these words of their Regeneration also of their increase of their growth in grace and the causes of it the Word of God and the operation of his Spirit which as I said is the dew But I leave to every man to take for his guide in this case either the Ancient or Modern Divines Now I go on with the Psalmist 2. The Prophet having foretold Christs Kingdom The second part Christ a Priest now descends to predict his Priesthood under which his Prophetical Office may well be implied for the Priests lips were to preserve knowledge Ver. 4 and the people were to require the Law at their mouth Now that no man ever doubt that the Messiah was to be a Priest at his coming God hath confirmed with an Oath with an irreversible Oath 1. The Lord sware His Word had been enough but for Assurance 1 Confirmed by an Oath he hath given his Oath Beatos nos quorum causa jurat Deus sed miseros nos sine juranti quidem credimus It seems that in the Priesthood of Christ lies the main weight of our Redemption that God takes an Oath to assure us he should be a Priest that he should be a King that he should be a Prophet he swears not though he was to be both but he secures to us this Office because nor his being a King nor Prophet could have redeemed us had he not been a Priest to offer himself to dye to intercede to satisfie Gods wrath for us 2. Sworn he hath and he will not repent This is also added for our greater assurance Sometimes we shall read in Scripture of Gods Repentance 2 Of which God repents not as in the case of the old World in the case of Nineveh then he was to do justice and to destroy which Isaiah calls opus alianum But now he was to save the World by this Priest his Son and he takes an Oath to do in and he repents not nor ever will repent of it His sentence for judgment is ever conditional and then he is said to repent when he executes it not his words have not the effect Non affectu vertitur sed avertitur nostra penitentia orationibus But his Decree for mercy is absolute as it was here he will not repent nor alter the thing gone out of his lips 3. The matter of the Oath followes 3 The matter of the Oath Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedech Not a word here that ought to pass without a Note 1. Thou is emphatical Thou Davids Lord art a Priest and none such a Priest but Thou 1 Thou art a Priest 2. Art For this Priest was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am and then it might rightly be said of him Thou art 3. A Priest whose Office thus the Apostle describes Hebr. 5.1 To be a person taken from among men yet ordained for men in things pertaining to God that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins who can have compassion on the ignorant and on them that are out of the way for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity 4. 2 For ever For ever They truly viz. Aaron and his Successors were many Priests because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death but this man because he continueth for ever hath an unchangeable Priesthood Hebr. 7.23 3 After the order of Melchizedech 24. 5. After the Order that is the Right the Law the Custom the Tradition or Rites 6. Of Melchizedech which is opposed to the Order of Aaron he was not then to be a Priest after the Order of Aaron but by a former and higher Order The difference betwixt the Aaronical Priesthood and Christs the difference lies in this 1. In the Constitution of him to the Priesthood He was made with an Oath and so were not any of Aarons Order This Saint Paul observes Hebr. 7.20 21. 2. In the Succession In Aarons Priesthood the High Priest being mortal as he began so also he ended he dyed and another succeeded But this Priest after Melchizedech had no Successor as Melchizedech he was without father on earth without mother in heaven he had neither beginning of dayes nor end of life Hebr. 7. 3. Melchizedech was King and Priest and so was Christ Aaron a Priest only 4. Aaron and his sons offered up Oxen Sheep first for their own sins then for the people Levit. 16.6 But Christ being holy blameless undefiled Hebr. 7.26 offered not any Sacrifice for himself but for our sins Isa 53.9 5. Aaron was a local Priest tyed to the Temple at Jerusalem a Priest of one people but Christ an universal Catholick Priest a Priest for all persons all places John 4.21 6. Aaron anointed with material Oyle Christ with the Holy Ghost Luke 4.18 21. 7. Aarons Priesthood temporary Christs for ever The difference betwixt his Priesthood Christ a Priest having the characters required by St. Paul and that of Aaron is evident though then no such Priest yet a Priest and according to Saint Pauls definition Hebr. 5.1 2. 1. A Priest is to be a person taken from among men a man then he must be though a select a choice man every man not fit for the Office and so was Christ a perfect man 1 A man 2. Ordained yet a choice man one of a thousand Cant. 1. 2. A Priest must be ordained by God For no man takes upon him that honour who is not called by God as was Aaron so Christ glorified not himself to be made an High Priest but he that said unto him Thou art my Son 3 For men this day have I begotten thee Hebr. 5. 3. The High Priest was ordained for men in things pertaining to God for men he is ordained that he may plead their cause to God to be their Advocate Mediator Interpreter and Reconciler in all those things in which men make their Addresses to God or God is to signifie his Will to them And so was Christ for he is the Advocate the Mediator for his people he reconciles man to God he interprets his Will to us by preaching the Gospel to the poor 4. 4 To offer sacrifice The High Priest was ordained that he might offer Gifts and Sacrifices for sins Their Sacrifices were the blood of Bulls and Goats which could not take away sins But as a Priest Christ offer'd also a Sacrifice a Sacrifice of blood but far more precious than that of Beasts being himself and his own blood Ephes 5.2 Hebr. 9.26 Hebr. 10.10 11 12. 5. 5 Compassionate The High Priest must have compassion on the ignorant and on those that are out of the way And such a Priest was Christ For we have not an High Priest which
the head of the corner that was rejected that it was Gods doing alone and a marvellous work that the day in which this was done was a Festival and the people to rejoyce in it that then they pray'd to God to save them by his hand and blessed their King adorned their Temple and offer'd Sacrifices with many thanks to God for his mercies Thus no question these verses may literally be understood of David But it must be confessed that in all this David was but a Type of Christ and that these words properly belong unto him we have a clear testimony first from his own mouth attested by three Evangelists Matth. 21.42 Mark 12.10 Luke 20.17 and by his Apostles St. Peter Acts 4.11 and St. Paul Rom. 9.33 These words to be applied to Christ out of Isa 28.16 Of Christ then I shall rather interpret them than of David without doubt the Prophet being wonderfully illuminated by the Holy Ghost wrote concerning Christ as followeth 1. The stone which the builders refused is become the head-stone of the corner Ver. 22 1. The Church is oftentimes in Scripture likened to a building of which the Saints are living stones of which Christ is the chief stone the head and corner stone 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that joins and keeps together the two walls Jewes and Gentiles 2. But the Jewes the Priests especially to whom did pertain the office of building the Church refused this stone and cast him aside We will not have this man to reign over us we have no King but Caesar They crucified him and in his Grave call'd him a Deceiver St. Peter layes it to their charge Acts 4.11 3. But God call'd for him again and he is become the head of the corner Ephes 2.20 That is he is made head of the whole Church and such a head that whosoever is not built upon him cannot be saved 2. This saith the Prophet was the Lords doing both his rejection and raising again was from him it was done by his Election and Divine Power not from any counsel or hand of man Acts 2.23 24. 3. And it is marvellous in our eyes For who can do less than wonder that a crucified man dead and butied should by his own power rise again after three dayes be immortal and have all power given to him and be made Head and Prince of all men and Angels For this mercy a day set apart and that by him there should be a way made to mortal men to the Kingdom of Heaven to the society of Angels and an immortal life For so great a work fit it is that a day be set apart and such there is saith David 1. This is the day that the Lord hath made which questionless was the day of his Resurrection and God is said to have made this day more than other as honouring it above other making it memorable to posterity in which the Son of righteousness arose from the Grave and making it an high and holy day from which every other Sunday had his Original This is the Lords day 2. And the end why this day was made for joy and gladness The duty of the day The day wherein Adam fell was a doleful day but this day wherein Christ rose from the dead is a joyful day The Redemption by Christ is a year of Jubilee the Resurrection of Christ is the chief day in the year We will therefore rejoyce for it and be glad in it 3. Yea and in the midst of our rejoycing we will pray and sound forth Osanuah to the son of David which is being interpreted Save now we beseech thee O Lord O Lord we beseech thee send now prosperity Blessed be he that comes in the Name of the Lord Which was the gratulatoâ—â— and precatory words that the people used to our Saviour when he rode in Triumph into Jerusalem Mat. 21. That we may be assured that the Form of Acclamation belongs nor so much to David as to Christ and it was the opinion of the Jewes That when their Messiah came these words should be sung before him that being the cause that the people used them then The whole Prophesie of Christs coming riding into Jerusalem in Triumph The Priests duty then to bless Rejection Passion Resurrection Benediction being thus explained the Prophet turns his speech to the people putting into the mouth of the Priests these words in which they were to do their Duty Numb 6. and to bless 1. We have blessed you as we ought to do all happiness be to you under this King 2. And all happiness be to you out of the house of the Lord from the Church and to the Church alone the blessing belongs Ye are the blessed of the Lord. 3. God is the Lord which hath shewed us light Revealed unto his Son the light of the World and removed from us the darkness of errour sin hell c. 4. Therefore be thankful unto him bind the Sacrifice with cords even to the horns of the Altar make a solemn day for it and meet in the Church to praise him 5. The fifth part Being a Doxology The Prophet concludes with a Doxology fit to be used by the people met and assembled in which he sets forth his faith and gratitude 1. Thou art my God 2. And I will praise thee which he ingeminates Thou art my God and I will exalt thee which ingemination shewes his ardent desire to be thankful 3. And so concludes with the same Exhortation that he began the Psalm and in the same words O give thanks unto the Lord for he is good for his mercy endureth for ever The Prayer collected out of the One hundred and eighteenth Psalm O Blessed and Holy Iesus King of the World and Head of the Church who hast bought us by thy blood and espoused us in mercy and loving-kindness Ver. 13 it is not unknown unto thée how the enemies of thy Truth dally oppose us and with what storms and tempests of persecutions we are daily assaulted The Devil daily thrusts sore at us that we might fall and Antichrist with his complices compass us about they compass us about they compass us about in anger and rage they swarm about us as thick as Bées to sting us even to death might they have their will upon us In these our dangers we have none to fly to but thée we have none to call upon in our distress but on thée Who art the Lord our God answer us O Lord and set our feet in a large place Be on our side and then we will not fear what man can do unto us take our part with them that help us and so shall we see our desire upon them that hate us We confess O Lord we confess before men and Angels that our sins with which we have provoked thy justice Ver. 18 have deserved far greater punishments and that for these Thou hast sorely chastned and corrected us yet in mercy Thou hast not
with a profession of his Integrity where we may not think that he is justifying himself before God but only declaring how unjustly he was oppressed by men Defensio est non arrogantia 1. Ver. 1 I have done judgment and justice Judgment is the effect of justice and by the exact Rule of Justice And prayes that God leave him not to his enemies David had so proceeded in judging the people that he had given to every one his own and yet he could not live free from the calumnies and slanders of wicked men and therefore he prayes 2. Ver. 2 Leave me not to my Oppressours And his Petition hath equity in it for 't is but equal that he who had been so just to others should have justice done him And by it we may learn to commend a just cause to God if we look for his assistance Now in this Petition David proceeds and useth many other Arguments to perswade it 1. Be surety or undertake for thy servant for good My enemies suspect me of injustice and violence but do thou interpose and be surety for me that it is not true neither that ever they shall find any such dealing at my hand or answer for me when I am not by for what they lay to my charge 2. Let not the proud oppress me His condition is miserable Ver. 3 that falls into the hands of proud men for their insultations are unsufferable and they merciless such he fears and prayes against them 3. And this he doth in an ardent manner and the reason is because he saw he was destitute of all humane help it was Gods help that only could secure him which he expected and almost fainted in the expectation of it 1. My eyes fail The eyes of faith and whole intention of my soul are fixed on thee and they are ready to fail while thy help comes not 2. My eyes fail for thy salvation Not only that which is temporal in the deliverance from mine enemies though I vehemently desire that too but for that salvation of Gods people mentioned Psal 106.4 4.6 3. For the Word of thy righteousness The ground that I wait for thy salvation is thy Promise thy righteous Word passed to me 4. And he proceeds in this prayer and desires God to deal with him But deal with him as an honest servant as with an honest servant not which did his Will but yet desired to do it and was displeased with himself and sorrowful when he did it not he pleads not meâ—â— but mercy 1. O deal with thy servant according to thy mercy Ver. 4 2. And teach me thy statutes which he often asks and is then obtained when God infuseth so much love into our hearts that we know and do his Will for knowledge without charity puffs up but edifies not 5. He asks the same again renewes his Petition with a Reason and this frequent Petition of the same thing shewes his ardent desire to obtain it I am no stranger unto thee but a domestick servant and therefore bound to obey thy Commands let me want no grace that may enable me to serve thee Ver. 5 I am thy servant give me understanding that I may know thy Testimonies It is a gift of thy donation only 6. And now he enters his complaint and useth that as a new Argument He complains of the ungodly that destroyed Gods Law that God hear him 1. It is time for thee Lord to work to do judgment against the wicked To us there is a time when God seems not to work in that he executes not his wrath against the wicked Ver. 6 in such a time it is no sin to pray with David That God would arise and work for a time it is when his Church is in a publick trouble the sins of the Amorites full and his people brought low 2. For they have destroyed thy Law Not only broken it disgraced but cast it aside and destroyed it A time then it is to work and execute now made it void 7. Which David was zealous to preserve But their malice and endeavours were not so great to evacuate and destroy Gods Law as Davids zeal and affection was bent and inflamed for the preservation of it which he useth as another Argument that God would not leave him in the hand of his Oppressours ver 1. Therefore I love 1. Therefore David was no Temporizer in Religion Ver. 7 whose affections toward Gods Word depended upon times and persons but his love appears in this That when his enemies fought to destroy it then he loves it They endeavour to make void therefore I love thy Law 2. I love thy Law He saith not he fulfilled it but only he loved it it is a good progress in godliness when we come thus far that we can say with David I love thy Law 3. And shews his love to it And that he might shew the greatness of his affection he mentions those things which are most loved gold fine gold or jewels to which his love was not so great as to Gods Commandments I love thy Commandments above gold yea above fine gold And he insists upon this point his love to Gods Law What would they make it void and cast it aside This makes me the more esteem it and judge that there is the more excellency in it Ver. 8 It must needs be good which wicked men set lite by Two things I find in me arising from hence which are quite contrary an esteem and hatred but yet of contrary objects 1. And his estimate of it Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right He had an high estimate of Gods precepts he thought them just in all things just because they prescribe nothing but that which is exactly just and just because they bring a just punishment on the Transgressors and a reward to the righteous 2. Therefore I hate every false way Nor one way but every way of sin and the flesh many they are but he hates them all and his hatred arose out of the justice and equity he perceived to be in Gods Law therefore I hate The Prayer O Most Omnipotent God I can no way excuse my self before thy Tribunal for my manifold breaches of thy Law For I have sin'd against Heaven and against thee and am not worthy to be call'd thy son but to man I have done no harm Ver. 1 I have alwayes born such a love to justice that I have done that which is just and equal Thus with a good conscience I can profess before thée and therefore I beséech thée leave me not in the hands of those who continually calumniate me and séek to oppress me Thou knowest O Lord Ver. 2 how they detract from me and invent lies against me when I am no by do thou then interpose in my behalf undertake to answer for me and suffer not the proud Transgressors of thy Law to bring upon me that force and injury
and he expresses the cause 2. Because mine enemies have forgotten thy words I did even pine away for grief and anger that men should be so prophane to forget so just and useful Laws 4. 3 Commends it as pure like tryed gold And now he returns to a nother commendation of Gods Law and shewes another affection that from thence arose in him to wit love 1. Ver. 4 Thy Word is very pure or proved most pure 'T is like gold that is tried in the fire from which all drosse is by melting purged Psal 12.6 Upon trial Gods law will be found to be far from all injustice Unjust he is not when he chastiseth his children for there is sin in them nor unjust he is not when he suffers the wicked to flourish for it is their portion Luke 16.25 Righteous are thy judgments 2. And shews his love to it And this raised in David another affection viz. Love Therefore thy servant loveth it Love in God is the fountain of all his benefits bestowed on us and love in man is the fountain of all our service and obedience to our God Love is such a duty that it cannot be excused in any without which all that we can do in his service is nothing He must love Gods Law because it is his Law and a just Law that means to keep it for Love is the fulfilling of the Law 3. A third effect that this wrought in David was a careful remembrance of it yea albeit he was in a mean estate and for it despised by his enemies 1. Ver. 5 I am small the youngest and least among my brethren 2. And his care not to forget it no not in sad times And despised and little set by by my brethren Saul c. 3. Yet do not I forget thy precepts nor my poverty nor contempt can bring me to that passe that I forget my duty to thee Many there are who will professe Religion as long as they see peace and honour followit but rather than they will endure trouble and contempt will utterly forsake it Thus did not David he kept in memory Gods Law And indeed the first step of defection is to forget what God hath commanded for upon this the transgression easily follows 5. 3 He commends it from the perpetuity of it And here he interserts a fourth commendation of Gods Law viz. The immutability perpetulty and eternity of it It is immutable and may never be dispensed with it is a righteousnesse and it is everlasting 1. Ver. 6 Thy righteousnesse is an everlasting righteousnesse No man may change it no man may dispense with it so long as the world stands so long it must be rul'd by it 2. Thy Law is the Truth The Truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it hath the priority of all Lawes in this it contains no falshood the promises and threats in it shall certainly be fulfilled 6. Upon which he makes mention of a fourth effect that it produced in him Therefore he joyes and delights in it in his tribulation viz. joy and delight yea non obstante all his troubles and sorrows 1. Trouble and anguish hath taken hold upon me The righteous are often under the crosse that sin may be subdued Ver. 7 patience and the graces of the Spirit increased the pleasures of the world contemned and the joyes of heaven desired 2. Yet thy Commandments are my delights Yet even in this great tribulation the meditation of thy truth contained in thy Law doth delight me it is the remedy against all my afflictions to call to mind what thou hast promised This is it that sanctifies all afflictions to me and makes me rejoyce in them 7. Ver. 8 That Gods Word and Truth was everlasting that gave him so much comfort and joy that he repeats it again 1. He repeats both And desires understanding in it The righteousnesse of thy testimonies is everlasting and adds only his accustomed Petition unto it 2. Give me understanding and I shall live Live and revive in all my troubles It is no life that men have who are destitute of this knowledge they live uncomfortably and therefore the Word of God is contemned by none but such as know not the excellency thereof and the comfort it brings The Prayer O Lord thou art a righteous Iudge and thy justice is so essential to thée Ver. 1 that thou canst no more defrand thy servants of thy promised comforts nor let the wicked escape unpunished in their sins than deny thy self to be God Thou art upright in thy judgments even in those stripes thy children receive and in all those plagues the wicked receive at thy hands O Lord we confesse that for our sins we justly have deserved to receive those blowes and yet we comfort our selves in this that these chastisements are to be but temporal whereas the stripes of the wicked are like to be eternal They may escape thy anger and flourish here but they shall never flye from the wrath to come Now from this eternal justice which is in thée hath procéeded thy Law which is a Law of equity for the testimonies which thou hast commanded Ver. 2 are exceeding righteous a Law of truth having no admiâ—tion of vanity or falshood a law of purity the finest gold purged from the drosse is not purer a perpetual and eternal law that to all men and at all times prescribes their duty Put then O Lord into my heart a zeal a love to this Law let me never forget it but take my delight in it even then when trouble and heavinesse have taken hold on me It is not unknown unto thée how I have béen consumed with grief and inflamed with anger because ungodly men have forgotten thy words Ver. 3 this they laugh at for this they despise me but their milice doth but increase my love to thy Law and their contempt quicken me in the memory of thy promises O give me an understanding heart and an inflamed soul to thy truth and so I shall live quietly in the midst of my calamities and chearfully end my dayes in thy sear and by thy favour be brought at last to a safe harbour in heaven by Iesus Christ my only Lord and Saviour Amen 19. KOPH DAVID in this Octonary fervently petitions for Audience The Contents Davids prayer Deliverance increase of grace 2. The end he desires it is to keep to observe and meditate on Gods Word 3. His main reason to perswade it is Gods mercy and the danger he was in by mischievous enemies from whom nothing could deliver him but Gods goodness of which he had had former experience 1. For his prayer it was very well conditioned 1. Ver. 1 It was earnest a Cry rather than a Petition I cried and again ver 2. I cried 2. Ver. 3 It was sincere I cried with my whole heart Toto affectu totis viribus 3. Seasonable and continual he did persevere in prayer 1. I prevented the dawning of the
that Attribute is made the burden of the Psalm and the close in every verse And this was a Solemn form in use in the Jewish Church as is apparent 2 Chron. 7.3 6. 20 21. The parts of this Psalm are 1. A general exhortation to praise God for his goodness Majesty vers 1 2 3. 2. A declaration of his goodness and Majesty by the effects 1. Of his Creation from vers 4. to 10. 2. Of his Providence especially in conserving his Church and exercising his judging toward her enemies from vers 10. to 25. 3. That his Providence extends to all creatures vers 25. 3. A conclusion fit for the exordium for it calls us up to praise God vers 26. 1. The first part An invitation to praise God In the three first verses the Prophet invites to praise God for his goodness and mercy 1. O give thanks unto the Lord for he is good For his Mercy endureth for ever 2. O give thanks to the God of Gods For his Mercy endureth for ever 3. O give thanks to the Lord of Lords For his Mercy endureth for ever In these verses Expositors find the Trinity 1. In the first Jehovah God the Father who is the fountain of Being 2. In the second God the Son who is the God of Gods whether Angels or Princes who are called Gods but he is over them 3. In the third the Holy Ghost who is Lord of Lords who as the wind blows where when and on whom he will Other Lords have not Free-will but as Servants must do his pleasure Bellarmine His reasons are The chief reason because good merciful for ever that we give thanks to him because he is good because merciful and his mercy endures for ever For 't is his mercy that we shall live for ever so that his mercy is extended to us both while we live on earth and when we live with him in heaven It is no improbable conjecture of Musculus that this Psalm was sung by the Quire and that the people at the end of every Versicle sung this Responsory For his Mercy endureth for ever Which was no Battology neither saith Moller for it follows and applyes every particular benefit 2. The second part The Prophet now begins to praise God for his great and wonderful works which he alone was able to do such as was the work of Creation in which he used not the power of Angels And farther for his works but his own only Give thanks to the Lord 1. Who hath done wonderful things His instance is presently in the Creation 1 Of Creation in all which he shews his mercy 2. For his Mercy endureth for ever His Mercy was conspicuous in this work for he made not any thing of necessity as if he needed the creature Ver. 4 but meerly out of his ineffable good-will and Mercy Of these wonderful things Instance first the Prophet his 1. 1 The heaven First instance in the heavens To him give thanks that by wisdom made the heavens It was his first work Gen. 1. For whether we look upon the magnitude the figure the beauty the motion the order of the Orbs the splendor the influence the effects of the celestial bodies there is a strange and wonderful evidence of wisdom and power in them not unitable by any creature 2. For his mercy endures for ever because it pleased him to create these heavens out of nothing to be an eternal habitation for Men and Angels 2. Ver. 5 His second instance is in the earth In the beginning God made heaven and earth 2 The earth Heaven to be the Palace of immortal Citizens The Earth to be the Mansion of Mortals 1. Give thanks to him that stretch'd out the earth above the waters So naturally it could not be because it is the heavier element but he furrowed the earth and let into the concavities thereof the water that men and beasts might live upon it 2. For his mercy endureth for ever In this there was a threefold mercy 1. In respect of the earth to make it something of nothing 2. In respect of the water to which he prepared a setled place 3. In respect of man to whom he gave the earth uncovered and safe from the waters yet watered with rivers that he might live in it till it and reap the fruit of it 3. Ver. 6 The third instance is the two great Luminaries and the Stars in the three following verses 3 The Sun and Moon 1. Ver. 7 Given thanks to him who made great lihts For his Mercy endureth for ever The Sun to rule by day For his Mercy endureth for ever The Moon and the Stars to rule the night For his Mercy endures for ever These do wonderfully adorn the heaven and profit the earth For these lights especially by illuminating the earth do comfort us and are over our works by night and day And he instanceth in these rather than in other works of God because these shine to all the world and therefore every man is unexcusable if by them they acknowledge not Gods wisdom 3. From the wonderful works of Gods Creation The third part 2. Of providence to Israel before he descends to speak of the works of his Providence in preservation of his Church and instanceth in his people Israel whom he delivered from Aegypt with a mighty hand as if he had been a man of War and this in respect of Israel was an act of mercy though on the Aegyptians an act of justice Ver. 10 Give thanks to him that smote Aegypt in their first-born for his mercy endureth for ever And brought out Israel from among them for his mercy endureth for ever With a strong hand and stretched-out arm for his mercy endureth for ever To him which divided the red Sea for his mercy c. And made Israel to pass through the midst of it for his mercy c. But overthrew Pharaoh and his Host in the red Sea for his mercy c. Give thanks to him which led his people through the Wilderness for his mercy c. To him which smote great Kings for his mercy c. And slew famous Kings for his mercy c. Sihon King of the Amorites for his mercy c. Ver. 20 And Og the King of Bashan for his mercy endureth for ever And gave their land for an heritage for his mercy c. Even an heritage to Israel his servant for his mercy c. He performed unto them all the Offices of a good Captain Guide Leader nay Father for he took care for food for them fed them with bread from Heaven brought for them waters out of the Rock cured their sick defended them and avenged them on their enemies c. But the whole History is so plain in Moses that it needs no explanation 4. All this was done for them before they entred the land of Canaan 2 After they entred Canaan the Prophet goes on to
remember what was done for them after They proved a rebellious people for which God humbled them and brought the Philistins and the Babylonian Kings against them who conquered them and kept them under and in subjection But God in this their oppression when they cryed and turned to him forsook them not but raised up some Judge King or other to deliver them as Gideon Sampson David Cyrus c. which the Prophet mentioneth in the next verses Ver. 23 Who remembred us when we were in our low estate for his mercy c. And hath redeemed us from our enemies for his mercy Psal 135.14 5. Lastly That this goodness is not extended only to his people 3 And his providence to all creatures but even to all Creatures is manifest in that he provides for nourishes and conserves every living creature for Caro here signifies every thing that hath life and bread all kind of nourishment by which the life is sustained Ver. 25 Who gives food to all flesh for his mercy endures for ever 6. He concludes as he begun O give thanks unto the God of Heaven The conclusion that we praise him for his mercy endureth for ever And he calls him the God of Heaven because he only made the Heaven and hath his Throne in Heaven Ver. 26 having the whole World under him and in his power that preserves moderates governs all things by his wisdom power mercy The Hymn collected out of the One hundred and thirty sixth Psalm O Omnipotent God so great is thy goodness so infinite is thy mercy to the sons of men that we are not able to express it because we cannot comprehend it Whatever we enjoy is from thy mercy whatever we hope to enjoy is thy mercy Thy mercy endures for ever and therefore we will sing of thy mercies from everlasting to everlasting Ver. 5 Whethersoever we cast our eyes we find objects of thy mercy whether we behold the Heavens framed by thy wisdom and adorned with great lights the Sun to rule the day or the Moon and Stars to govern the night or whether we look down upon the earth stretched out above the waters that it might be the habitation and yield food for all creatures in both these nay in all places they occur unto us ample Testimonies of thy bounty and mercy all which should we consider with a pious and serious mind we must néeds with an inflamed heart and free tongue never cease to sing with the Prophet Ver. 25 Thy mercy endureth for ever In the Creation of all things From Ver. 10. To Ver. 22. in giving food to all flesh thy mercy hath been wonderful But in the choosing gathering conserving revenging the wrongs and pardoning the sins of thy people more wonderful our hearts were as hard and as cold as a stone should we not consider what thou didst for thy people Israel which is an engagement to us what thou wilt do for thy Church For thy mercy endures for ever Thou smotest Aegypt and slew mighty Kings for their sakes Thou didst lead them as a Captain and provide Manna and Quails and waier for them as a father defend them from their enemies and never cease to prosecute them with mercy till thou givest them the heritage of the Heathen yea when they were brought to any low estate Thou redeemest them from their enemies for thy mercy endures for ever Thou therefore who art rich in bounty clemency and mercy that never can have an end behold we beséech thée thy Church and remember it now in a low estate remit our sins pardon our transgressions repent concerning thy servants and redeem us from our enemies for thy mercy endures for ever Thou which givest food to all flesh Ver. 25 féed our souls with the celestial Manna thy Word and thy Sacraments for thy mercy endures for ever So shall we give thanks to thee O Lord because thou art good and thy mercy endureth for ever Ver. 1 So shall we give thanks to the God of gods for his mercy endureth for ever So shall we give thanks to the Lord of lords for his mercy endureth for ever We will give thanks to the God of Heaven for his mercy endureth for ever Ver. 26 PSAL. CXXXVII AT the composure of this Psalm the Jewes were in captivity at Babylon under the heavy yoke of the Assyrian Tyrant far from their own Countrey banished from the Temple of God deprived of all publick Exercises of Religion scoffed and scorned by the pride and insultation of an enemy and now they begin to complain and pray remember what they were and what they are what they enjoyed and what they want that at Jerusalem they could sing songs of Zion but now at the Rivers of Babylon they must sit down and hang up their Harps The Psalm hath two parts 1. A complaint of Israel because of the insultation of the Babylonians in which they deplore their sad condition remember the pleasures of Jerusalem and the Religion of the Temple and long to be there from ver 1. to 7. 2. An imprecation for they pray for Divine vengeance to descend upon their Persecutors ver 7.8 9. Israels complaint in their captivity 1. Their complaint ariseth from the sense of their captivity which is aggravated The first part 1. From the place Babylon By the waters of Babylon 1 From the place a place far from their own Countrey where they served a cruel and barbarous people a people that were Aliens from the Covenant God made with Abraham Ver. 1 and scorners of their Religion that had wasted their City consumed with fire defiled robbed their Temple by them they were disposed to the Banks of the Rivers where in their fields they were forced to base and servile works 2. From the continuance of their captivity and misery There we sate down 2 From the continuance and misery took up the seats they alotted us and durst not remove for seventy years exposed to wind and weather and injuries of wild Beasts 3. From the effect it produced in them tears mourning yea 3 The effect tears we wept so we spent our time but our enemies cruelty was such that our tears wrought not any compassion on their hard hearts 4. From the cause that drew these tears from them 4 The cause the remembrance of Zion not so much their present calamities as the remembrance of what they enjoyed before but now were deprived of the Religion and Service of their God We wept when we remembred thee O Zion Toties quoties so often as they remembred the Temple the Feasts the Sacrifices the Songs the Hymns they sung to God in Zion so often they sate and wept 5. From the intensiveness of their grief so great it was 5 Their grief intensive that they laid aside whatever should provoke mirth they had more mind to weep than sing their Harps were unstrung Ver. 2 and their Instruments of Musick laid aside As for
of the One hundred forty and seventh Psalm O Thou great Lord of heaven and earth Ver. 5 thy power is great and thy understanding infinite thy goodnesse is incomprehensible and thy mercy above all thy works when I consider thy greatnesse I tremble when I look upon thy wisdom I admire but as often as I look back upon thy goodnesse and mercy I am animated to approach thy throne and to pay that debt of thankfulnesse unto thee for thy providence over the whole world and peculiarly thy care and love extended to thy poor Church When the thirsty earth gasps for rain thou coverest the heaven with clouds Ver. 8 and preparest to moisten it thou clothest the mountains with grass and blessest the valleys with plenty There 's not a beast to which thou givest not food Ver. 9 nor a bird of the aire nor a fowle of heaven no nor a young Raven that thou hearest not when they cry for want Ver. 15 Thy command is a Law and thy word runs very swiftly When thou sayest the word in winter the Snow descends like Wooll and the hoar-frost covers the earth like ashes the waters cake into ice and the rivers become stiff and run not But thou again no sooner sends forth thy word in the Spring but their hardnesse is dissolved thou causest thy wind to blow and the waters flow Who Ver. 1 Lord can consider these thy wayes without admiration and admiring Ver. 7 praise and in praising sing unto thée with thanksgiving O Lord make it our work for it is good make it our delight for it is pleasant make it our labour for it is comely that must néeds become us which becomes thy Angels and Saints in heaven whose joy it is day and night to sing prayses to thy holy name for thy wondrous works of providence wisdome goodnesse Ver. 11 and mercy toward the sons of men but especially for thy love and protection over that people that fear thée and hope in thy mercy Gracious God consider their afflictions and how that at this time a principal member groans under the Crosse thy Temples are cast down thy houses of prayer destroyed thy people scattered on the mountains as shéep that have no shepherd Ver. 2 O then build restore and confirme once more Jerusalem Ver. 3 and gather together unto her the outcasts of Israel Heal those that are broken in heart and binde up as a good Physitian the merciless wounds they have received Ver. 4 these are stars in the firmament of thy Church let them not wander up and down in shéeps skins and goats skins being destitute afflicted and tormented for ever their number thou knowest call them all then by their names and though now obscured yet let them shine again in thy Church Ver. 6 These are méek in heart and poor in spirit look to them O Lord and lift them up and execute thy just wrath against their oppressors and cast the wicked who with a proud hand insult over them down even to the ground Take pleasure Ver. 11 O Lord in them that fear thee and tremble at thy word bring back thy banished and build them a sure house provide for them a City to dwell in and strengthen the bars of the gates thereof Ver. 13 blesse her children within her Make peace in her borders and fill her with the finest of the wheat But above all shew thy word unto Jacob Ver. 19 and thy statutes and judgments unto Israel And where thou hast not dealt so with other Nations Ver. 20 to reveal unto them the secret Mysteries of thy Gospel open to us these glad-tydings and inflame our hearts with the love of them and give us grace to conform our lives unto them For so shall Jerusalem praise thee Ver. 12 and Zion magnifie thy Name for ever and ever Hallelujah Hallelujah Praise the Lord. PSAL. CXLVIII A Hymn Or Hallelujah THE Prophet in this Psalm calls upon the whole Creation to be instrumental in the praises of God By which he shews David calls upon all creatures to praise God 1. His ardent desire that God be praised in that as if Creatures endued with reason were too few to praise God he calls even to inanimate things that they would join with him and be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. 2. His intention what he would have done then what could be done 3. That what could be should be done that they by our mouths praise God That is we seeing in them God power wisdom goodness be ready to praise 4. That in their kinds they really do praise him because being made in a wonderful beauty and order which they transgress proclaim to the world and testifie of God even without a voice that he must needs be a wise intelligent understanding that so made them The Psalm is disposed by an excellent Distribution 1. He calls to the celestial creatures in General 2. In special 1. The Angels Praise ye the Lord. 1. 1 The Angels Praise ye the Lord from the heavens Ye Of the celestial Order Or ut caeles i. e. Ver. 1 de habitaculo vestro and this is no command 〈◊〉 exhortation as if the Angels were negligent in their duty but an invitation to continue in doing what they do already 2. Praise him in the heights i. e. the heavens above 3. And yet more plainly For the second verse is but an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or declaration of the first 1. Praise him all his Angels 2. Praise him all his hosts Which in St. Luke are Militia caeli Ver. 2 2. The Sun and Moon Stars Praise ye him Sun and Moon 2 Sun Moon stars Praise him all ye Stars of light Though not with voice which ye want yet praise him by your greatness motion beauty light efficacy Ver. 3 3. He comes to the body of the heaven the Orbs. 3 The Orbs. 1. Praise him ye heaven of heavens that is the Coelum Empyraum Ver. 4 2. And ye waters that be above the heavens that is all the Orbs above the aire which in the Scripture is called heaven as volucres coeli nubes coeli c. For he established them And in the two next verses he gives the reason why the heavens praise God 1. He commanded and they were created They are his creatures Ver. 5 therefore 2. He hath established them for ever Ver. 6 he hath made a decree which shall not pass They are incorruptible they must keep the Order he made 2. From heaven he descends to the earth and all sublunary bodies as the earth 4 All sublunary Bodies Air water and creatures that live in these or are in these Praise the Lord from the earth All that are from the earth Ver. 7 all made of an elementary substance As 1. Ye Dragons Ye Whales Muse Greater fishes Bellar. 2. All Deeps All kind of waters Lakes Ponds Rivers Seas 3. Fire and hail snow and vapours stormy wind fulfilling his word Meteors 4. Mountains and all hills
the sword then Judiciary power may well be understood Deut. 32.41 Rom. 13.4 And the Saints at the last day are to be Judges 1 Cor. 6.2 Mat. 19.28 Then the exercise of this judiciary power shall be The end of that power 1. Vers. 7 To execute vengeance upon the heathen to reprove them and to pronounce a condemnatory sentence against them to exprobate to them their former life Wisd 5.1 c. and to pronounce punishment on the people To judge them to punishment 2. Vers. 8 To bind even the greatest their Kings in chains and their Nobles with fetters of iron The phrase is Metaphorical as is that of the Gospel Mat. 22. Bind him hand and foot and cast him into utter darkness The meaning of it is that at the day of Judgement the Saints shall approve the sentence passed by Christ against all Nero's Diocletians Herods Julians when they shall be bound in chains of darkness and crushed by Christs iron Scepter 3. Vers. 9 To execute upon them the judgement written The judgement against wicked doers and persecutors of Gods Church written in Gods Book and as certain as if engraven in a pillar His immutable judgement 3. This is the glory of all his Saints He concludes with an Epiphonema This glory of sitting with Christ in the clouds and judging the world is the Glory of all his Saints Allelujah An Appendix to the four last Verses in this Psalm BEcause these last verses have according to mens fancies been applyed to several purposes as they might suit best with their interests therefore I thought good to say a little more of them 1. The Jews first applyed them to the time succeeding their Captivity and fancied to themselves that the promise was made to them that they should have a two-edged sword in their hand that is power to execute vengeance on the heathen c. But he that shall read the story of the Maccabees and Josephus shall find that such a time never came that so far they were from binding Kings in chains that Kings held them in bondage as Antiochus Seleucus Tryphon Pompey c. This sence then can have no foundation in these words 2. Which the Jews that now live perceiving tell us that these words shall have the accomplishment at the coming of their yet expected Messias for then they shall be Lords of the world and bind all Kings they please in chains and Nobles with fâ—tters of Iron c. But never any such temporal Messiah shall come and therefore this is but a fiction of their own brain 3. The Anabaptists Millenaries Fifth-Monarchy-Men dream also of such a golden age they tell us of a thousand years that Christ shall come and with his Apostles reign upon the earth in which time his Laws only must take place and that his Saints shall have a two-edged sword in their hands execute vengeance and punish who they please binds Kings and Nobles in chains punish who they please and execute the judgement written And the consequent of this Doctrine is destructive and dangerous as experience hath taught us in Muncer John of Lâ—yden our new Sectaries who upon it labour to unroot all Monarchies and destroy all that wear a Crown But this is but an illusion for of Christ it is said That him the Heavens must contain till the consummation of all things when Christ will come and take his Elect to him that where he is they may be also and that is into Heaven not on Earth Here then we may not expect to reign with him 4. A fourth opinion there is which is the most received and by very judicious Divines that these words are to be taken in a spiritual sense That by the Saints are to be understood Christ his Apostles and Successors that by the two edged Sword is to be understood the Word of God by Chains and Fetters the Lawes and Precepts of the Gospel by punishments the sharp rebukes used by the Ministers of the Word to stubborn sinners by the revenge taken on them Repentance which is a revenge taken for a former sin 2 Cor. 7.11 which being admitted the sense will run thus Let the hiâ—gh praises of God be in the mouth of his Ministers and the two-edged Sword of the Gospel Hebr. 4.12 in their hand to execute vengeance upon the Heathen to bring them to repentance and make them take revenge upon themselâ—es for their former wayes and punishments to utter sharp rebukes upon the people to bind not the people only and Plebians but even the most mighty Kings and Princes Nobles and great men with the Lawes of Christ and Precepts of the Gospel as fast as if they were bound with Chains of Brass and Fetters of Iron And 't is known how the greatest Princes have submitted their necks to the yoke and Doctrine of Christ To execute upon them the judgment written Not that any of Christs Ministers usurp Authority over Kings and Princes in temporal matters for they are only to proceed according to the letter of their Commission Go and teach all Nations and acquaint the greatest Princes That if they obey and believe the Gospel they shall be saved but if they believe not they shall be damned This is the judgment written and it is executed when proclaimed and preached to them which if it take no place it is beyond their Commission to raise Arms against them This is no where written Now this is the honour of all his Saints of all those whom he hath entrusted with his Commission And indeed an honour it is unto them to be his Embassadors and Heraulds 5. The fifth interpretation is that which I mentioned before in the Analysis who apply the Text to the Judiciary power that the Saints receive at the last day and I rather embrace it than the former But I leave every one to his choice The Prayer collected out of the One hundred and forty ninth Psalm THOV art worthy O Lord God of Heaven and Earth Ver. 1 to whom a new Song should be sung in the Congregation of thy Saints and indéed how can it he otherwise that that people Ver. 2 who acknowledge thée the God that made them and the King who rules and governs them should do less than rejoyce in thée their Creator and be joyful in their Soveraign Ver. 3 To this end we tune our hearts and conform our voyces and because they are too little call for the assistance we do of all Musical Instruments Praise thee we will with Timbrel and Harp There is no merit at all in us why thou shouldst look upon us a mass of corruption and sin we find in our selves but nothing to deserve thy love Ver. 4 and yet thou in mercy hast béen pleased to take pleasure in us to redéem to justifie to sanctifie us and to beautifie all such as are méek in heart with salvation In thy good time O Lord bring us to glory Ver. 5 where we may be joyful with thy Saints
have made the Land to tremble and the foundations thereof to shake Hear the prayers of those that fear thée for thy Truths sake make good thy Word to thy Beloved let the Fugitives return under the Banner of thine Andinted and make up the breaches of this Kingdom and thy Church Thou hast spoken in thy holiness that thou wilt be a God to the righteous and to his seed O perform this promise and let the séed of thy righteous servant inherit his Crown and Dignity Rejoyce I shall and with me all that fear thée when we shall sée him divide Sichem and measure out the Vally of Succoth let Gilead be his and Manasseh his bring Ephraim under his subjection and be the strength of his Crown and Judah his Law-giver Subdue Moab and Edom unto him make Moab his Slave and Vassel and let him trample upon the neck of Edom that Edom which in the day of Jerusalem cried Down with it down with it to the ground and thou O Philistia which hast brought forth Sampson to make thée sport and insulted over the captivity of Israel the Lord reward thée as thou hast dealt with us and lead thée in Triumph as thou hast triumphed over Gods people 'T is true O Lord that thou hadst cast us off and didst not go forth with our Armies but we trust in thy Promises and rely upon thy Word we do not doubt but in thy appointed time Thou wilt bring us into the strong City and lead us into Edom Thou alone Thou alone art able Thou must do it for us for vain is the help of man All our strength is but as Tow and all our ammunition and endeavours is but to sit still without thée Help us then in this our trouble so we that are infirm shall be strong we that are of a weak heart shall grow couragious and do valiantly and with the assistance and power of thée our God we shall tread down our enemies In thée is our hope in thy right hand our help give us power to do great things to the honour of thy Name and to addance the Gospel of our Lord Iesus Christ Amen PSAL. LXI 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 IT is probable that this Psalm was composed by David when he was forced from Jerusalem by Absolon As therefore in other calamities so now he prayes and vowes perpetual service Two parts 1. His prayer ver 1 2 3. 2. His vow from ver 3. to 8. 1. He begins with a prayer in which he begs The first part His prayer for 1. Audience 1. Audience Hear my cry O Lord attend my prayer ver 1. 2. The Reason to enforce it Ver. 1 1. He was in banishment in the farther part of the Land of Judah The Reason From the farther part of the earth will I cry to thee Ver. 2 2. He was in great extremity when my heart is over whelmed 3. For defence Lead me to the Rock that is higher than I That is 2 For defence and protection to some safe and defensed place to which my enemies may have no access whither without thy help I cannot ascend And he adds a Reason also of this part of his prayer Ver. 3 drawn from his own experience For thou hast been a shelter for me The Reason a strong Tower from the enemy 2. His faith now presents him as delivered and therefore he vows The second part He vows 1. I will abide in thy Tabernacle for ever I will return and adore thee in thy Temple Ver. 4 2. I will trust under the Covert of thy wings He alludes to the Cherubims whose wings covered the Ark. And of this he assigns divers Reasons also 1. For thou O God hast heard my vows i. e. my prayers His Reasons 2. Thou hast given me the heritage of those that fear thy Name made me King over thy people and more fully performed to me the promise made to Abraham of the Land of Canaan 3. Thou wilt prolong the Kings life make me longaevus 4. And his years viz. in his posterity as many Generations of which the beginning of the next verse is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He shall abide before God for ever His Vote for establishing his Throne And now David assuring himself of his Crown and that his posterity should inherit it puts forth an earnest Vote for that which should establish it O prepare thy Mercy and Truth which may preserve him i. e. Me thy King for these two vertues Mercy i. e. Clemency and Truth do commend a King and make him dear to his Subjects for in the practice of these 't is not possible that his Government should be harsh unjust or tyrannical Which if it please God to bestow on him then he makes a new vow So will I sing praise unto thy Name for ever Which Upon which he renews his vow however it seems to be a new vow here yet it was that he had vowed before and ingaged to discharge for in singing praise to Gods Name he should but pay what by vow he had often undertook I will sing praise to thy Name for ever that I may daily perform my vowes The Prayer collected out of the sixty first Psalm O Blessed Lord God when now I am oppressed with bitterness of soul for the grievous tentations that lie upon me to thée I flie upon thée I call and as thou art a merciful Father Ver. 1 and a gracious God I beséech thée hear my cry and attend unto my prayer At this time I live in a strange land Ver. 2 banished from my friends an exile from thy house and yet even there with an ardent affection and a loud voyce I invoke thy mercy Ver. 3 even here my heart is overwhelmed with sorrow lead me then to some Rock to which my enemies may have no access and whither without thy help I shall never be able to ascend Thou hast been heretofore and I beg of thée to be so still a shelter for me and a strong Tower against the enemy I have indéed broken thy Law and polluted the holy society of thy Saints and deserved to féel what I now suffer viz. to be driven from that holy fellowship but restore me once more O Lord to that society and then I will abide in thy Tabernacle for ever and prize abode all other things that protection which I shall find under the shadow of thy wings Safer I am assured to be under thy feathers from the improbity of wicked men than the poor Chicken can be under the wings of the tender Hen from the beak and talent of the Vultur Lord bow down thine ear and hear the vows of thy Servant and restore Him to His inheritance suffer Him not for ever to live in a strange Land but as he was born to be so constitute Him to be Supreme over those that fear thy Name Prolong the Kings life and to His dayes and lengthen His years from Generation to
Generation let Him sée His séed and let His séed sit upon His Throne till the Heavens pass away with a noise the Elements melt with fervent heat and this Earth with the works that are therein be burnt up O let Him abide before thee His God for ever never let Him in His own person fall out of thy favour nor his Posterity from the light of thy countenance establish His Throne in mercy and truth and let thy loding-kindness alwayes preserve Him His heart is in thy hand melt it into clemency affect it with mercy that He may be a Father unto thy people and mourn with those that mourn and lament with those that lament yet affect Him sofar with the love of Truth that he be zealous for the Truth of Religion earnest to promote thy worship in sincerity and resolute to administer true judgment unto thy people let him bring the whéel upon the wicked and extend the bowels of compassion to the innocent and oppressed A mercy this is when we cast our eye upon the present calamities and state of things even beyond hope beyond expectation but thou our God art Almighty and All-sufficient stir up thy strength then and come and help us where the help of man is in vain then let thy power be manifest which thing if thou wilt grant us Then will I sing praise unto thy Name for ever I will return unto thée every day that Thanksgiving which I have vowed which is due and which I doubt not thou wilt accept through the Name of Iesus Christ my Lord and only Saviour Amen PSAL. LXII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 THE intent of this Psalm is to teach men to trust in God and not to trust in wealth strength or in the power or promises of man The Contents of the Psalm 1. Davids confidence in God ver 1 2. 2. The mischievous but vain attempts of his enemies ver 3 4. 3. He encourageth himself and others to the same confidence from ver 5. to 9. 4. That no trust is to be put in men or riches ver 9 10. 5. The grounds of our confidence in God ver 11 12. 1. In the two first verses David expresseth The first part His affiance in God or rather labours to express as appears by his often repetition of the same thing in divers words his hope trust and confidence in God Ver. 1 1. Truly my soul waiteth upon God or is silent i.e. I do acquiesce in him 2. From him comes my salvation If I be safe in my greatest troubles Ver. 2 't is from him 3. He only is my Rock and my Salvation he is my Defence so that I shall not greatly be moved He is to me what a Rock or Tower of defence is to such as flie to them 2. And upon it he infers The second part He upon it insults over his enemies that the mischievous attempts of his bitterest adversaries are but vain with them he expostulates them he checks and over them he insults 1. How long will ye imagine mischief against a man i. e. me he chides their obstinacy Ver. 3 2. Ye shall be slain all of you And shewes their mischievous attempts and their ruine he declares by a double similitude Ye shall be as a bowing wall whence when some stones begin to shut out or fall the rest follow or as a tottering fence that is easily thrown down Next by the description of their manners he intimates the cause of their ruine Ver. 4 1. They only consult to cast him down from his excellency Their counsels to destroy David 2. They delight in lyes invent tales and lies to destroy me 3. Flatterers and Dissemblers they are They bless with their mouth but curse inwardly no marvail then if destined to the slaughter if they be as a broken wall c. 3. And lest his heart faint and fail through the multitude of tentations The third part He encourages 1. Himself he first encourageth himself to be confident still secondly then perswades others to it 1. He encourageth himself Ver. 5 making use of the words of the first and second verses for Reasons My soul wait thou only upon God for my expectation is from him he only is my Rock and my Salvation he is my Defence I shall not be moved In God is my Salvation and my Glory the Rock of my strength and refuge is in God 2 Others to trust in God 2. He exhorts others to do the like Trustin him ye people which he amplifies 1. By assignation of the time Trust in him at all times in prosperity that he be not secure in adversity that ye be not heartless 2. And in our saddest occasions he shews and exhorts what is to be done that we bring our grievances and complaints to God and with an honest heart open them Poure out your heart that is the griefs of your heart before him 3. The reason he our refuge Adding this Reason God is our Refuge for us 4. The fourth part So are not other things whether men secondly wealth especially unjustly gotten 1. So not other things Not men there is no credit or trust to be put in them of what degree soever 1. 1 Not men Surely men of low degree are vanity 2. And men of high degree are a lye The low are notable the high deceive and frustrate our hopes 2. Put them into the balance they are altogether lighter than vanity make trial of them as you would of things in a Scale and you shall find them so vain and light 2 Not riches But God is to be trusted for his power and mercy that they carry no proportion to what is weighty they ascend and flurt up and away as an empty Scale 2. Nor riches and wealth especially if unjustly heaped together and therefore rely not on them Trust not in oppression and become not vain in robbery if riches increase set not your heart upon them 5. The fifth paâ—t In the Close he sets down the grounds of his confidence taken upon Gods Word God hath spoken ' twice have I heard the same i. e. He hath often spoken it 1. That power belongs to God and therefore he is to be trusted 2. That mercy belongs to God and therefore also he is to be trusted The consequent of both is Thou renderest to every one according to his works bonis vera malis malè rely upon him The Prayer collected out of the sixty second Psalm O God infinite in essence terrible in judgments though thou hast commanded us in our trouble to call upon thee and to trust unto thee yet such is the infirmity of flesh and blood that we find in our distresses too many discouragements tempted we are to doubt whether thou canst but more often sollicited to doubt whether thou wilt come down and deliver us But such is thy condescension to the weakness of man Ver. 11 That thou hast spoken once Ver. 12 nay twice