yea our God is mercifull 6 The Lord preserveth the simple I was brought low and he helped me 7 Returne unto thy rest O my soule for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee 8 For thou hast delivered my soule from death mine eyes from teares and my feet from falling 9 I will walke before the Lord in the land of the living 10 I beleeved therefore have I spoken I was greatly afflicted 11 I said in my hast All men are lyars 12 What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits towards me 13 I will take the cup of salvation and call upon the Name of the Lord. 14 I will pay my vowes unto the Lord in the presence of all his people 15 Pretious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints 16 O Lord truly I am thy servant I am thy servant and the sonne of thy hand-maid thou hast loosed my bonds 17 I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanks-giving and will call upon the Name of the Lord. 18 I will pay my vowes unto the Lord in the presence of all his people 19 In the Courts of the Lords House in the midst of thee O Hierusalem prayse yee the Lord. MEDITATIONS VPON THE CXVI PSALME OF DAVID BUt how can David say Verse 1 so peremptorily I will love the Lord as though it were in his owne power to love whom he list Indeed nothing is so voluntary as love that it seemes to be the extremitie of the will for then wee are said to love a thing when the will is inclined and violently bent upon it and yet I know not how there seemes nothing more constrained then love for we often-times love a thing which we would faine wee could forbeare to love but that we are drawne to love it by a kind of violence in the object and therefore David may well say I will love the Lord seeing both the causes of love are here met a propension in the Will and an excellencie in the Object Man indeed is naturally a loving Creature but doth not alwayes place his love aright his love is then best placed when it is placed upon the best Object and what is that best Object but God If he place it upon Beauty that fadeth If upon Riches they perish If upon Honour that vanisheth If upon life that wasteth but all these are in God not onely in Eminencie but in Continuance In him is Beautie that never fadeth in him Riches that never perish in him Honour that never vanisheth in him life that never wasteth and therfore as the truest object of love as the dearest object of my love I will love the Lord. But though all these Eminencies be in God yet they would bee no cause for man to love him if they had not a relation to man for what cause of love where there can be expected no effects of love but seeing there is in them not onely a Relation but a Propension not onely they are ready to bee imparted but are imparted with readinesse what man is hee that will forbeare to say that can forbeare to say I love the Lord And if all men will forbeare to say it yet I will say it For hee hath heard my voyce and my supplication No doubt a just cause or rather indeed to a naturall man the onely cause for loving of God For of fearing him of praising him of worshipping him of magnifying him there are other causes but of loving him no cause so proper as his loving of us and the Benefits which he bestowes upon us For love is so reciprocall a thing that we should hardly love God himselfe but for his Love to us at least for our opinion of his love to us and wee should hardly have an opinion of his love if we had not a feeling of his Benefits For what love can wee thinke is borne us by them that are able to doe us good and doe it not but when we have a feeling of their benefits and find they doe us good then wee are easily perswaded of their love and being so perswaded who can choose but say as David doth here I love the Lord for he hath heard my voyce and my supplication But doe we love God but for his Benefits onely and if it were not for his Benefits should we not love him Indeed to love God as we ought is not to love him for ought but for himselfe onely without any consideration had at all of his Benefits but such lovers wee are of our owne good that wee should scarce love our selves but for the good we are ready to doe our selves and if we love God in the like degree we thinke it perhaps to be love enough for him But O my soule this is just the Divells love I meane such love as the Divell thought to be in Job Doth Job love God for nought He hoped he did not though hee knew he should and therefore was never in quiet till it might bee tryed and if hee had found it so he would quickly have made Job leave loving of God and fall to loving of him But the hedge which God had set about Job was not a hedge of prosperitie as Sathan supposed but a hedge of Grace and therefore with all his fierie tryalls hee could never get other words from Job but such as these Shall we receive good at Gods hands and shall we not receive evill Yes O Lord though thou kill mee yet will I love thee Thus Job did and thus should we doe but God knowes there is not such a man againe as Job was upon the face of the earth For alas wee are commonly but of the Classis or forme of which Saint John speakes Wee love God because God loved us first and it were well if we would doe but so how much soever Sathan slights it and seekes to disgrace it Or is it perhaps that David speakes in the curiositie of this distinction that we doe not Amare Deum but for his Benefits but wee may Diligere Deum without any consideration of his Benefits had at all and in this sense a naturall man may Amare Deum but none but the spirituall man Diligere Deum But O my soule doe thou endevour to be of Jobs forme to love God without distinction and whether he heare thy voyce or heare it not whether he grant thy supplication or grant it not yet to love him and to love with Amando and with Diligendo and with any another Devotion of love that can be expressed or conceived For it is indeed no true love of God if wee love him for any thing but for himselfe if we love our selves but onely for him as it seemes both Moses and Saint Paul did who for the love of God left all care of themselves and were contented to have beene if they might have beene even Anathema's But is this such a Benefit to us that GOD heares us Is his hearing our voyce such an argument of his
the gates of Hell can never prevaile against us What preserved Jonas in the Whales belly What Daniel in the Lyons denne but only their trust in God O then my soule doe thou also trust in God and hee will be the same God to thee the same safegard in thy dangers as he was to Jonas and to Daniel But yet let thy trusting in him be such as that thou presume not for there are certaine bounds that must not be passed It is as dangerous to goe too farre in trusting in him as to be too short and as it is Faith that puts us on for comming too short so it is Feare that keepes us off from going too farre O therefore Feare the Verse 10 Lord yee his saints for there is no want to them that feare him Verely a strong Motive to make us feare God seeing hee that feares him shall want nothing And yet the Motive not so strong but the reason as apparant for the Feare of the Lord is the beginning of wisedome and Wisedome I may say is the godly mans Purviour and what marvell then if hee want nothing that hath so cunning a Purveiour as Wisedome to keepe him from want but then it must be from want of things that are good for to want other things is no disparagement to Wisedomes pourveyance O that men would understand how to distinguish betweene things that are truly good indeed and things that but onely seeme good we should then have a better world then wee have and men would never complaine of want when they have but too much never bee so earnest for supply of things that truly considered are but meerely superfluous If therefore one that feares God be in any want we may know that the thing he wants is not good for if it were good he should not want it it may perhaps be good in it selfe but not good for him and if not good for him hee cannot be truly said to want it because indeed he were better be without it But is Feare a thing of such force to supply our wants One would rather thinke that boldnesse and courage should supply them No my soule for what creature so couragious Verse 11 as the Lyon Yet the young lyons doe lacke and suffer hunger whether they be young Lyons as depending upon the provision of their Parents or young in the strength of their youth that can provide for themselves yet they sometimes lacke and suffer hunger for indeed strength of body is not the best Purveiour No my soule nothing but wisedome makes the true purveyance and no wisedome without the feare of the Lord and therefore none but they that feare the Lord can bee free from want But is not this a fearefull doctrine that either wee must feare or else wee must want were it not as good to want as to have our wants supplyed by feare Is not the Remedie worse then the Disease Alas this is but the objection of Children either Children in yeares or Children in understanding who know not what Feare it is I meane and therefore Come yee children and hearken to mee I will Verse 11 teach you the feare of the Lord It is not a Feare that you need be afraid of it is a feare that will free you from all other feares it is a feare that is Active where all other feares are Passive It is a Feare that workes in love and who would not love such a Feare It is a Feare that is joyned with Joy a Feare not to offend but a Joy for not offending It is a Feare not so much of Gods justice as of his Mercy for there is mercy with him that hee may bee feared It is not a Feare that will shorten your life but be a meanes to prolong it but then it must not be a bare speculative feare but you must put it in practise and these may bee the rules Keepe thy tongue from evill and thy lippes Verse 12 from speaking guile Depart from evill and do good seeke peace and pursue it Long life was once promised before to them that honour their Parents and here it is promised againe to them that love their Neighbours for these Rules are as the whole body of morall Philosophie and are therefore delivered in sixe parts like the six Commandements of the second Table which onely concerne our dutie to Neighbours and in all of them the qualitie of chiefe Predominance and which keepes then all in tune is Feare Keepe thy tongue from evill for feare of the evill that may ensue and thy lips from speaking guile for feare lest thy guile bee discovered to thy shame Depart from evill for feare of infecting and doe good for feare of repenting Seeke peace for feare of wanting it and pursue it for feare of losing it The two first Precepts are the dutie of words for words must first be regulated before workes can bee actuated and they are both Negative Keepe thy tongue from evill and thy lips from speaking guile for it is not required of the tongue to be Eloquent or of the lips to deliver Oracles It is enough in the tongue if it be not irreverent to superiours nor detracting from equalls It is enough in the lips if they be not charmes to deceive nor Equivocations to delude The other Precepts are the dutie of workes and they are foure where the Precepts of words were but two because we must be more in workes then in words and they are all Affirmative for it is against the nature of a worke to be in the Negative for so working should be no better then idlenesse the two former are generall as generall as Good and Evill that if we meet with any thing that is Evill our part is to Depart for there is no demurring upon Evill No dallying with baytes lest staying we be stayed as Eve was Therefore depart from evill If we meet with any thing that is good our worke is to fall a working for vertue consists in action and is not so proper to bee talked of as to be done we never reade of any reward for good words onely but all reward is onely for good workes Because thou hast done this saith God to Abraham Therefore doe good The two last Precepts are speciall whither we call them speciall as being particular or as being excellent for so is Peace It is the legacie that was left us by Christ and who would lose Christs Legacie for want of seeking it Therefore seeke Peace and pursue it but not pursue Peace for this were to make warre upon peace but pursue the seeking of Peace for though it be said seeke and yee shall find yet it is not said how long we must seeke before wee shall find if therefore seeking Peace you find it not at first pursue the seeking it and you shall find it at last Agree with thine Adversarie while thou art in the way This is to seeke peace Leave thine offering at the Altar and goe first and be
his sight that was none of his workes but is a destroyer of his workes Is it possible that a thing which destroyes his creatures should have a Title of more value in his sight then his creatures themselves O my soule this is one of the Myracles of his Saints and perhaps one of those which Christ meant when he said to his Apostles that greater Myracles then he did they should doe themselves for what greater Myracle than this that Death which of it selfe is a thing most vile in the sight of God yet once embraced by his Saints as it were by their touch onely becomes pretious in his sight and to alter a thing from being vile to be precious is it not a greater Myracle then to turne Water into Wine Indeed so it is Death doth not damnifie his Saints but his Saints doe dignifie Death Death takes nothing away from his Saints happinesse but his Saints adde lustre to Deaths vilenesse and it is happy for Death that ever it met with any of Gods Saints for there was no way for it else in the world to be ever had in any account But why say I in the world for it is of no account in the world for all this It is but onely in the sight of God but indeed this onely is All in All for to be pretious in Gods sight is more to be prized then the world it selfe For when the World shall passe away and all the glory of it be laid in the dust then shall Trophyes be erected for the death of his Saints and when all Monuments of the world shall bee utterly defaced and all Records quite rased out yet the death of his Saints shall stand Registred still in faire Red letters in the Kalendar of Heaven for if there be glory laid up for them that dye in the Lord much more shall they bee glorified that dye for the Lord. I have wondered often-times why God will suffer his Saints to dye I meane not the death naturall for I know Statutum est omnibus semel mori but the Death that is by violence and with torture for who could endure to see them he loves so cruelly handled but now I see the reason of it For Pretious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints and what marvell then if he suffer his Saints to dye when by dying they are wrought and made fit Jewels to be set in his Cavinet for as God hath a Bottle which he fills up with the teares of his Saints so I may say he hath a Cabinet which he decks up with the deaths of his Saints and O my soule if thou couldst but comprehend what a glory it is to serve for a Jewell in the decking up of Gods Cabinet thou wouldst never wonder why he suffers his Saints to bee put to death though with never so great torments for it is but the same which Saint Paul saith The afflictions of this life are not worthy of the glory that shall bee revealed But if you will have a Glasse to view the Extent of this pretiousnesse and plainly to see how pretious in the sight of God the death of his Saints is then look upon the revenge that is taken for it for there is nothing that God takes so much to heart and of which hee takes so sharpe revenge as the death of his Saints to touch them is to touch the Apple of his eye and if the punishment of Cain bee not thought sufficient to make it appeare at least the complaint of Christ against Hierusalem will be sufficient O Hierusalem Hierusalem Thou that killest the Prophets and it is thought by some that the destruction of Hierusalem was the rather hastened to revenge the death of James who was called the Just but how soever this wee know it was therefore executed to revenge the death of Jesus who was truly the Just and may we not well take notice that the death was exceeding pretious when the revenge that was taken was so exceeding furious But why speake I of Death when I may yet doe God good service in life and if the death of his Saints be pretious in his sight certainly the life of his servants is not unregarded For whether we dye wee dye to the Lord or whether wee live wee live to the Lord and though in this life we cannot expect the reward of Saints yet in this life wee may claime the respect of servants and in this I claime an interest my selfe Verse 16 for truly O Lord I am thy servant and oh that I could serve thee so truly that I might heare thee say Euge bone serve For we are all very ready to professe our selves thy servants but very unready to doe the service of our profession and specially in these times when Servant is growne to be a word of complyment rather than of truth that to say I am thy servant is all one as to say I am an Hypocrite But O Lord let it not be found so in me not be thought so of me for I am thy servant by a double right and oh that I could doe thee double service as thou art the Lord of life and as I am the sonne of thy Handmaid Not of Hagar but of Sarah not of the Bond-woman but of the Free and therefore I serve thee not in Feare but in Love or therefore in feare because in love and then is service best done when it is done in love and in love indeed I am bound to serve thee For thou hast loosed my bonds the Bonds of death which compassed me about by delivering me from a dangerous sicknesse and restoring me to health or in a higher kind Thou hast loosed my Bonds by freeing me from being a Captive to bee a Servant and which is more from being a servant to be a sonne and more then this yet from being a sonne of thy Hand-maid to be a sonne of thy selfe and therefore indeed a sonne of thy selfe because a sonne of thy Handmaid for what is thy Handmaid but thy Church and he that is not borne of this Handmaid though he may have the generall benefit of a servant sustenance and protection yet hee can never have the speciall benefits of a sonne freedome and inheritance Or thou hast loosed my bonds Thou hast freed me from the heavy yoak of the Ceremonies of the Law and hast Enfranchised mee with the glorious liberty of the Gospell that where before thou didst require the sacrifice of Servants which was the bloud of Beasts now thou acceptest the sacrifice of sonnes which is Verse 17 Prayer and Thanks-giving I will therefore offer to thee the sacrifice of thanks-giving and call upon thy Name For Prayer and Thanks-giving make both but one Sacrifice and seeing all sacrifice is due onely to thee therefore to thee onely I will offer both my Thanks-giving and my Prayer I could not make Thankes-giving a Sacrifice if Prayer did not begin it I could not make Prayer a Sacrifice if Thanks-giving did not finish it If there should bee Thankes-giving and no Prayer the Sacrifice would want a foot if Prayer and no Thanks-giving it would want a Head for as the Basis is Prayer so the Coronis is thanks-giving Although perhaps Thanks-giving bee but the Act and Thankfulnesse the Habit and it is the Habit that makes the Sacrifice because it must bee Juge sacrificium A continuall Sacrifice which the Act cannot be And if there had beene a word to expresse the Habit of praying as Thankfulnesse doth of Thanks-giving perhaps Saint Paul would have used it where he saith Pray continually for who can doubt but hee meanes the Habit of praying and not the Act and where he saith In all things give thankes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It intends perhaps but this In all things be thankfull And what then shall the Thankfulnesse or the Thanks-giving be that I will offer to God for a sacrifice O my soule it shall bee an acknowledging of his benefits and of his onely benefits it shall be a proclaiming him to bee my Patron and my onely Patron It shall bee an extolling him for his Mercy in forgiving my sinnes for his graciousnesse in healing all my infirmities for his compassion in Redeeming my soule from destruction and for his bountie in crowning me with loving kindnesse and tender mercies it shall bee indeed a Vowing to him the whole service of all the faculties of my soule and body And not to be done in a corner as though I were not willing it should be knowne nor before some few people onely as though I were loath too many should see it but I will pay my vowes to him in Verse 18 the presence of all his people that young and old rich and poore high and low may all bee witnesses of my thankfulnesse This for the persons before whom it shall be done and then for the place in which it shall be done it shall be done in the courts of the Lords house if any Verse 19 place be more conspicuous more publick then other it shall be done there it shall be done in the midst of thee O Hierusalem that the Fame of it may be spread that the sound of it may equally goe forth into all parts of the world that as all thy people shall be beholders of my thankfulnesse so all the world shall bee admirers of thy goodnesse and as there is in Heaven an Allelujah of thy Saints so there shall be in Earth an Allelujah of thy Servants of which Number of both which numbers my hope is to be one and that I may be sure to be one O my soule praise thou the Lord and because my owne praising will be but a very small service therefore mend it my soule by calling upon others and saying Praise yee the Lord. FINIS