word is their warrant his truth their assurance When we behold the same power of God in the change of Ministers of his will Vse vve learn to know vvhatsoever alteration the vicissitude of time maketh on earth yet thou Lord art the same and thy years do not fail Therefore as David saith Put not your trust in Princes nor in any son of man for there is no help in them there is help by them but it is not in them our help is in the name of the Lord who hath made heaven and earth 2 This shevveth the perpetual course of Gods favour to his Church the faithfull servant of God Moses dieth but the spirit that God put upon Moses survived him Eliah Elisha Num. 27.18 and rested upon Joshua he was consecrated to that imployment 1 By Gods own election and designation 2 By the imposition of Moses hands and the devolution of some of his honour upon him 3 By Gods own gift of the same spirit that vvas upon Moses Thus vvhere God loveth a poople the favour of God runeth in a full stream in the Chanel of his Church 3 Seeing this constant truth of God in his gratious promises to to his Church hath reference to our obedience this much teach us to obey and serve our God in all things that his sun may shine upon our Tabernacles and that vve may anoint our paths with butter for as David saith No good thing will he with-hold from them that serve the Lord. Dâ—uâ— 28. He hath shevved his people vvhat they shall trust too blessings and cursings life and death 3 Doctrine This also teacheth us as the Apostle doth The effectuall fervent prayer of a righteous man prevaileth much James 5.16 He proveth it by the example of Eliah who though he were a man subject to the like passions as we are he prayed earnestly that it might not rain and it rained not on the earth in three years and six moneths And he prayed again and the heaven gave rain So this example of Joshua praying is a full example of the effectuall power of prayer these examples as that also of Moses praying upon the Mount when Joshuah fought with Amalek do all seeme to prove the force of prayer Exod 17. And great reason there is that this should be effectuall with God 1 Because there is no service that man can perform to God wherein he doth so much part with himself and even lay himself down in prayer for therein he openeth his heart to God and poureth forth his spirit to him and his faith doth bring God to him face to face When men pray as they ought they know God and themselves they know and confesse him the faithfull Creatour the mercifull redeemer the gracious preserver the bounteous rewarder of men And they know themselves to be but men that is indigent and needy having nothing but what they receive from his hand and of his free gift immerent deserving none not the least of his favours Which two considerations do serve to humble us and to honour him We finde in Scripture watching and fasting often joyned with prayer as outward means to tame and subdue the flesh that it may be the lesser able to resist the power of the spirit for the spirit is willing in the servant of God but the flesh is weak 2 There is no part of Gods worship that hath so many precepts to impose it on us as prayer hath in both the Testaments none that we have so many examples of great successe and prevayling with God none that we have so good means to perform as prayer none that hath so many promises made to it in holy Scripture 1 For precepts 1 Precept so soon as God had established him an house for his publique worship he commanded it to be called an house of prayer to all nations Solomon dedicated that house to God by prayer it is Gods own Word seek ye my face it is the Churches answer Thy face O Lord will I seek And Christ our Saviour often in the gospel the Apostles after him enjoyns it 2 For example we have Abraham 2 Example Isaac and Jacob Moses David Solomon Hezekiah Eliah Manasseh Nehemiah Job Samuel Daniel all the Prophets all the holy men Christ his Apostles all with admirable successe 3 For means 3 Means Christ taught us to pray shewed us the way to the Father in his mediation and by his name And the spirit which Christ left in his Church helpeth our infirmities Christ hath comprehended all in a few words 4 Promise Whatsover you shall ask the Father in my name it shall be given you Ask and receive that your joy may be full petite quaerite pulsate These great examples of successe do all seem to stirre us up Vse to the performance of this part of Gods worship both 1 In obedience to the Commandement of God who hath imposed this duty on us whose Commandements are mighty and ought not to be light layed 2 In an holy ambition of the best graces of God vvhich are this way obteined of him 3 In an humble love to our God to whose presence and conference we come by prayer 4 In an holy imitation of those great examples vvhich are so frequent in Gods faithfull ones in the double Testament of God 5 In a thankfull use of the means by God ordeined to facilitate this service that we receive not the grace of God in vain 6 In a confident faith in Gods gratious and free promises vvhich are yea and Amen 7 In an humble sense and feeling of our ovvn vvants and the necessities of our brethren for so vve do exercise both our piety to God and our charity to our selves and our brethren But this discourageth many Ob. we read of great power of prayer of old as that Moses prayer gave Joshua victory Joshuahs prayer made the Sun stand still Eliah by prayer shut up heaven by prayer he opened it Daniel by prayer shut up the mouths of the lions in their den We see no such effects of prayer now and therefore we think prayer is not of such effect now as heretofore To this our answer is Sol. that great and extraordinary examples of the successe of prayer are but thinly scattered in the Book of God to shew the power of Gods Ordinance Neither may that be a rule to us that prayer is not of force as it hath been because we do not see such great effects thereof as have appeared in former times For in the time of the shadow when Christ was seen in type and under a veil there was need of extraordinary examples to confirm faith but to us that live in the cleer light of the gospel to whom Christ is made manifest to be our intercessor this may seem to strengthen faith If God did hear the prayers of his faithful owns and answered them by miracles they had speciall warrant to demand those things at the hands of
his bosome He guideth the hearts of all men like rivers of waters which way he pleaseth It is a doctrine which I lately taught out of Obadiah Though the Church of God do live under the Crosse for a time it shall not be always so for as here it is declared Their mind shall change that afflict her 1. Because Gods quarrel is not against the Persons of men but against their sins therefore he punisheth non ad vindictam but ad emendationem vitae and it is no pleasure to God to punish his children therefore he will not always punish because afflictions are of excellent force to bring forth in his children 1. Contrition 2. Supplication 2. He will not always punish least the extream passions of his servants should breed in them a doubt of his love and so weaken their faith 3 Least the righteous should put forth his hand unto sinne 4. Least the enemies of his Church should grow too insolent Further we are taught 2 Doct. that those whom God useth as his rods are limited when they have executed his will they shall then change their minds the mind of the Chaldaean was cruelty and oppression and covetousnesse and ambition this victory shall change their mind into pride and insolencie so that as the wise man saith The prosperity of fools shall destroy them It is a true laying for the most part that as the good so the blood riseth men of low degree when they rise to high places men of poor estate when they grow to plenty even nations when they overflow their own banks and over-run others do change their minds they have not the same hearts and affections that they had It is a singular wisedome to use the fulnesse of prosperity well The Paradise of God did not content our first Parents the forbidden fruit seemed to Evah the fairest fruit of the garden that changed her mind from the obedience of the law of God to be both a Praevaricatour and a tempter The sonnes of God living in prosperity in the favour of God set their eyes on the daughters of men and because they looked fair like Eves apple they changed their mind from living under the religious awe of God to take them wives by whom the service of God was corrupted for they that marry with tempters and take them into their bosomes either presume too much on their own strength and they tempt God therein or else they change their minds and religions with them Can a man carry fire in his bosome and not be burnt or walke upon burning coals and not be scorched The Author of the book of Wisedome saith well of the righteous That he is speedily taken away least wickednesse should alter his understanding Wisd 4.11 or deceit beguile his soule There is a great measure of grace needful to him that would use prosperity well he must not be wicked for where the good spirit of God is wanting there is nothing but unstayednesse and inconstancy but David prayeth Establish thou me with thy free spirit Davids victories and peace and prosperity did change his mind he grew wanton and to hide that cruel and to live in that sinne of uncleannesse irreligious till God sent Nathan to him Ezekiah having rest changed his mind and proud of his treasures shewed them to his own disadvantage and provoked Gods anger against him Experience shows us how the world and the wealth and honours thereof do corrupt men of good minds before and changeth their understandings that Demas will forsake Paul whom he hath long served and some disciples will no longer walk with Christ The cause hereof is because outward things unsanctified to the owner and user thereof Reason 1 have no power to establish the heart for the heart is established by grace and not with meats nor with any outward things Because there is no peace with the wicked man Reason 2 he must be as violent and as unconstant as the sea casting up also foame and filth Because iniquity knoweth no measure Reason 3 but runneth into all extremes Virtutisque viam deserit arduae Their mirth is madnesse their musick vanity so their sorrow is sullennesse and discontent Conquered they are base and lick the dust from the enemies foot Conquering they are proud and tyrannize over them whom they have subdued Thus the mind of the wicked changeth in them The profit that we may make of this point is great Vse 1. It discourageth us from greedy seeking of temporal prosperity because it hath this danger in it to change our minds and to shift us from vice to vice wherefore it is a good petition in our holy Letany Prov. 30.9 In all time of our wealth good Lord deliver us and that of Agur Give me not riches least I be full and deny thee and say who is the Lord 2. It comforteth the oppressed that their oppressors are not always of the same mind but they may have hope of fairer weather in the greatest stormes that do arise because the minds of their enemies shall change as David saith He made them that led them away captive to pity them for God hath a power in this change which is mutatio dextrae excelsi 2. They shall passe over them Either to some further quest of glory or they shall exceed their Commission and go beyond the bounds appointed them either in punishing whom God would have to be spared or in time continuing the punishment beyond the time designed God only knoweth how far he would have his judgment to passe the Chaldaeans do transgresse and passe over this measure whereby they grow intolerable and their malice punishable Or pertransibunt may be referred to their own short domination for the Chaldaeans were a few years after conquered by the Medes and Persians as the learned Jesuite Ribera observeth And we find that Nebuchadnezzar the King of the Chaldaeans felt the smart of this prophecie in his own Person For he changed his mind and passed over when he became as a brute beast and was driven from men Dan. 4.33 and did eat grasse as oxen and his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hairs were grown like Eagles feathers and his nails like birds claws Thus he that passed the bounds of Justice in the oppression of the Jews and the bounds of modesty in the pride of his victories is changed in his understanding and passeth the bounds of common humanity All this proves that Gods employing the wicked to punish others doth not move them nor derive the favours of God upon them they cannot keep within any compasse 1. If pertransibit passe over do signifie a further quest of glory we are taught hence that the ungodly are insatiable in their desires nothing will content them every victory encourageth to a new warre as we find in all examples of the greatest monarchies of the world till their own weight ruine them 2. As this passing over doth signifie their going beyond their
sunder the Nations God is all eye and beholdeth all things all ear and heareth all things all hand and maketh all things and doth whatsoever he wil all foot and standeth in all places he is here said to behold which denoteth his provident care of his work and he is said to drive in sunder the Nations because he ordeined their expulsion and he gave commission for the destruction of them that he might give their land according to his promise to his own people 4 Where he cals the mountains everlasting and the hils perpetuall this is also a figure For these be attributes onely belonging to God to be everlasting and perpetuall and it sheweth the stability and setlednesse thereof 5 There is also another figure in the very name of mountains for we must not literally understand that there was any violence offered to the mountains and hils but thereby the strength and processe and setled estate of those nations that dwelt in the land of Canaan is signified and so the scattering and bowing of these moutains doth expresse the dispersion of those nations or the bringing of them under the yoake of subjection to the people of Israel 6 His wayes are everlasting this is also figurative for by the ways of God are understood here the counsels and decrees of God and his executions of his will which are no sudden operations but proceed from everlasting wisedome And this is the wisedome of the Reader of holy Scripture to observe what is spoken literally and what figuratively else many errours and heresies may arise As even in this attribution of the parts and motions and actions of the body of man to God the Anthropomorphites not understanding the figure did conceive God in body like to man The heresie of transubstantiation grew out of the mistake of those words hoc est corpus meum this is my body wherein the figure not observed the Romanists do believe a reall transmutation of the bread into the body of Christ whereas that is to be understood only by sacramentall representation as as the sacrament of Circumcision is called the covenant of God in the flesh and the water of Baptisme is called the laver of regeneration being the sign and seal thereof You know that when Christ said to his Disciples Beware of the leaven of the Pharises Mat. 16.16 they understood him not to speak figuratively and said It is because we have taken no bread So when he said Destroy this Temple the Jews understood him of the temple at Jerusalem The Scriptures of both Testaments are full of examples of figurative speaking The whole book of the song of Solomon is a continued figure and all the poeticall part of holy Scripture abound therewith The reasons why the wisedome of God hath thus exprest it self are 1 Because herein he would commend to us the use of that excellent science of the Rhetorick which teacheth the use of figures for there is no eloquence or oratory in all the wisedome of the world comparable to the holy elocution of Scripture the majesty whereof is such that it convinceth the judgment of man and maketh it to yield it to the breath of God 2 Because this cripticall manner of speaking doth involve the secrets of Gos wisedome in some obscurity to stirre up and awake our diligence in the search that we may be put to it to study holy Scriptures as Christ saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 search for easie things do soon cloy us and make us idle 3 Because this difficulty doth put us to our prayers to be seech God to open to us the secrets of his wisdome 4 This makes us fear God because the secrets of the Lord are onely revealed to them that fear God 5 This difficulty is so sweetned with the pleasant mixture of art as it hath omne punctum in it for it mingleth utile dulci. 6 It doth teach us to be spirituall for the carnall man cannot perceive the things of God because they are spiritually discerned and the letter killeth but the Spirit giveth life this Spirit he hath left to teach his Church and to bring all things to our remembrance 7 This obscurity doth call upon us to set apart some time for the study and search of Scriptures and we cannot employ our spare hours of leasure better then in this search for here are the treasures of wisedome and knowledge and these are able to make the man of God wise to salvation perfect then to throughly perfect to all good works 8 He hath distributed his graces in his Church accordingly and hath ordained some to be teachers of others whose whole time is consecrated to the study of this book of Scripture that they may be able to understand this word aright divide it aright to their hearers Herein you have a great advantage if you consider the goodnesse of God to you for in one hour you reap the harvest of our labours in many hours of our readings of our inventions judgments search These reasons I gather from Clemens Alexandrinus St. Augustine and St. Gregory and some others Vse 1 This teacheth us that the worthie Minister of the Word must be no smatterer in those necessary arts and learning which is helpfull to the study of Divinity for want whereof many bunglers handle the Word of God too homelily and instead of giving a constant light do only make a blaze which yet like one of our night-walking fires devours more admiration that the full Moon that shines all night long Logick and Rhethorick are two such necessary and requisite parts in a Minister as without which neither can the method of Scripture nor the power of the arguments therein used nor the clear interpretation of the words be given Vse 2 This teacheth the hearer and reader of the World to put his strength to it not to parrat the words of Scripture but to study the sense thereof St. Origen saith that as man so the whole Bible doth consist of a body and a soul the body is the better the sense is the soul of Scripture That is the spirituall Manna that giveth strength to the weak that is the true Light that giveth understanding to the simple Vse 3 Let not this discourage any zealous Christian from exercising himself in the reading and study of holy Scripture because we do confesse that the figurative forms used therein do often make the Scripture obscure For we do also affirme that figures do sometimes give light to our apprehension and make the mind of God better known to us as when Christ saith I am the good Shepheard as David said The Lord is my Shepheard this doth make Christ better known to us in his carefull protection of us and his watchfull keeping and his plentifull feeding and safe foulding of us and in such like Now because the Church of Rome hath taken advantage of the obscurity of the Scripture to forbid the translation thereof into the vernacle tongues of nations and to prohibit
my salvation 19. The Lord God is my strength and he will make my feet like Hinds feet and he will make me to walk upon my high places To the chief singer upon my stringed Instruments THis is the last part of this Psalme it endeth in consolation notwithstanding all these afflictions of the Church threatned though they shall fall upon it and it must needs suffer this sharp Visitation Yet will I rejoyce in the Lord. It is the Apostles counsell Phil. 4.4 Rejoyce in the Lord alwayes and here the Church doth so the Apostle resumeth it again I say rejoyce and the Church here resumeth it I will joy in the God of my salvation shewing the reason and ground of her joy Psal 13.5 which is Gods salvation My heart shall rejoyce in thy salvation The Lord God is my strength they are the words of David and he is more full and Rhetoricall in the expressure thereof I will love thee Psal 18.1 2. O Lord my strength The Lord is my rock and my fortresse my deliverer my God my strength in whom I will trust my buckler and the horn of my salvation my high tower David speaks like one in love with God for he doth adorn him with confession of praise and his mouth is filled with the praise of the Lord which he expresseth in this exuberancy and redundance of holy Oratory the Church addeth He will make my feet like hinds feet this also is borrowed of David in the same Psalme He maketh my feet like hinds feet and setteth me upon my high places Psal 18.33 that is he doth give swiftnesse and speed to his Church as St. Augustine interpreteth it transcendendo spinosa ambrosa implicamenta hujus saeculi passing lightly through the thornie and shadie incumberances of this world He will make me walk upon my high places David saith he setteth me upon my high places For consider David as he then was when he composed this Psalm it was at the time when God had delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul For then God set his feet on high places setting his Kingdome and establishing him in the place of Saul The Church here hoping to obtein of God the like deliverance by faith apprehendeth the same mercy and favour of God that God will again restore them to their high places and establish them in the same that is in the free and undisturbed possession of their own land and the liberties thereof Isaiah 58.14 Those are called high places Deut. 32.13 because God was exalted in them in the profession of Religion and God exalted them above all other places of the world by his speciall favour as it is said Non fecit taliter St. Augustine goeth higher in the mysticall surveigh of these words and looketh up to the future glory of the Church saying Super Coelestem habitationem figet intentionem meam ut impleat in omnem plenitudinem Dei The last words of the Psalm are a dedication thereof to the use of the Church dedicating it to the chief singer to be fitted to the Church musique that it may be sung in the congregation The words are taken from Davids Psalmes Doct. 1 and applyed to this perticular occasion of the Church From whence we are taught what use we may make of Davids Psalms in our frequent reading and meditation of them Our Church hath divided the Psalms into so many equall portions for our reading that in every thirty days such as can read may read over the whole book of Davids Psalmes and it is no great task for every one of us so to read them over privately in our houses the benefit is great that will redound to them that shall do this for this will our experience finde that St. Augustine long ago hath testified of the book of Psalms that it is Communis quidam bonae doctrinae thesaurus a common store-house of good learning it will instruct the ignorant it will draw on forward those that are incipients it will perfect those that are proficients it will comfort all sorts of afflictions veteribus animarum vulneribus novit mederi recentibus remedium applicare it knows how c. He that would pray to God may make choice here of fit forms dictated by the Spirit of God to petition God upon all occasions whatsoever he would desire of God either to give him or to forgive him He that would make confession of his sins to God is here furnished accommodated with the manner of searching and ripping up of the conscience and laying the hid man of the heart open before God He that would make confession of praise hath his mouth filled with forms of praise to set forth the goodness of God either in perticular to himself or in general to the whole Church He that is merry and rejoyceth in the Lord may finde here the musique of true joy and may from hence gather both matter and manner of Jubilation you see that the Church in my text resorteth to this store house of comfort He that findeth himself dul and heavy in the duties of Gods service may here finde cheerfull strains of musique to quicken his dead affections and to put life into them Many are too well conceited of their own sufficiency for those holy services of God so that in confession of sins in prayer or in praysing God they over-ween their own measure of the spirit of God and are too much wedded to their own forms of addresse to God But let no man despise these helps the best of us all need them the most able amongst us shal abate nothing from his own sufficiency to borrow of them we are sure that the Holy Ghost hath indited them and if a wise judgment do make choice and fit application of them to our severall purposes and occasions we cannot more holily or more effectually expresse our selves then in them the sweet singer of Israel hath furnished us plentifully by them 2 Before I come to handle the text in the parts thereof let me return your thoughts to the former verse where the Church putteth her own case in great affliction supposing the good land flowing with milk and hony touched and accursed for their sakes so that neither their best fruit trees nor their common fields nor their fruits nor their flocks and herds shal yield encrease yet saith she Yet will I rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my salvation Teaching us that where there is the true joy of the Holy Ghost no temporall affliction whatsoever Doct. 2 though it extend even to deprivation of the necessaries of life can either extinguish or so much as eclipse that joy but that as a light it will shine in darknesse The Book of God is thick sown with examples and promises with doctrine and use with assertions and experience of this truth and it is so sealed to the perpetuall consolation of the