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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A61574 Occasional sermons preached by the Most Reverend Father in God, William Sancroft ... ; with some remarks of his life and conversation, in a letter to a friend. Sancroft, William, 1617-1693. 1694 (1694) Wing S561; ESTC R35157 79,808 212

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thy Wings will I make my Refuge until these Calamities be over-past WHat St. Hierom observ'd long since concerning this Book of Psalms Titulos esse Claves that the Title is usually the true Key of David to set open the Psalm to us and to let us into the true Understanding of it he learn'd probably from a former Author with whose Writings he was in his younger years much delighted Origen I mean Who in his Tomes upon the Psalms discoursing of some Obscurities in Holy Scripture and the proper Remedies thereof gives us yet a more ancient Tradition which he receiv'd as he saith from a learned Jew That the whole Body of Scripture is like a great House in which are several Appartments and therein many Rooms shut up and in them again many Cabinets and Boxes lockt down Nor hangs the proper Key at every Door but they lie scatter'd here and there and counter-chang'd so that it requires some pains and skill to find them out and apply them aright Thus the Key of the Prophetic Scripture lies in the Historical where we often find both the Occasion of the Prophesie and the Event too and that proves usually the best Interpreter Thus the Acts of the Apostles which contain the Peregrinations and Gests of St. Paul are a great Master-Key to open his Epistles and to unlock to us many things hard otherwise to be understood in them And thus in the present Instance David's History is the proper Key to David's Psalter and so the Books of Samuel the Kings and Chronicles the best and most authentic Commentary upon the Psalms For this now before us lest we should mistake the Spirit of God hath hung the Key at the Door or at least pointed us whence to fetch it And while the Title dates it from the Cave we are plainly directed to 1 Sam. xxiv There we find the holy Man in a great streit of Affliction wandring like an Exile or Bandito in the Wilderness of Engedi the few Men he had straggling and shifting for themselves upon the Rocks of the wild Goats implacable Saul in the mean time with five times his Number so closely pursuing him that he is forc'd to take shelter in the Cave And there being shut up from the Sight of Heaven and Light of the Sun and as it were buried alive in that obscure Dungeon surrounded with Danger on every side and little Hope left him of escaping with his Life 't is then that he sighs out his Al-taschith as this and the two following Psalms are entitled Oh destroy me not utterly so the Word signifies but let me live to praise thy Name 't is then that by a vigorous Faith he flies to the tender Mercies of God as to his only City of Refuge And reposing himself in the Bosom of the Divine Goodness by Acts of Faith and Devotion and of Perseverance in both he doth exactly and precisely that which We all are enjoyn'd to do this Day He implores the Mercies of God in the Protection of himself and in him of those that belong to him Be merciful unto me O God saith he be merciful unto me for my Soul trusteth in thee yea in the shadow of thy Wings will I make my Refuge until these Calamities be overpast So that the proper business of this Day being visibly stampt in great Letters upon the Fore-head of the Day and that by the Hand of Sacred Authority it self and the Lines of the Text too running so parallel all along and so commensurate to those of the Day upon which Ground the whole Psalm was very pertinently selected as one of the proper Psalms for the Office of the Day I may hope in some Degree to discharge my Duty to both of them by treating of those two things What God's Protection is and What we are to do that we may be qualifi'd and prepar'd aright successfully to implore the Mercy of that Protection In Order whereunto I will consider the Text in a twofold Reference I. As it looks down from God to us-ward in gracious and powerful Protections And so it speaks our great Honour and Happiness the high and glorious Privilege of pious Kings and their Kingdoms that they are under the Shadow of God's Wings II. As it looks up in another Aspect from Us to God again and so it contains our necessary and indispensable Duty and calls aloud for our suitable Deportment which is resolvedly to put our selves under the Divine Protection or to seek and make our Refuge under the Shadow of his Wings I. I begin with the high and glorious Privilege of all holy Souls but especially of pious Kings and their Kingdoms They are under the shadow of God's Wings The expression frequently occurs in Scripture and may seem to speak these three things or some of them which together will give you I think the full extent of the shadow of God's Wings the adequate Importance of this illustrious Metaphor 1. Safeguard and Defence from Calamities that they come not Or 2. Speedy Help and Deliverance out of Calamities when they are come Or however 3. Comfort in the mean time and Refreshment in Calamities while they are upon us 1. The Privilege of Safety and Protection from Calamities stand first in our Method intimated here in a threefold Expression A Refuge a Shadow and the Shadow of Wings 1. And what is a Refuge which is the first but a place of Security either in regard of its Secrecy to hide us or its strength to defend us to which we flie when Calamity threatens us And such is God to his People a City of Refuge an inviolable Sanctuary an Altar of Mercy to which we may flie and be safe and from the Horns whereof no bold Calamity shall dare to pluck us without his special Commission Or in another Reference a place of Refuge is a Covert from Storm and Rain Es. IV. 6. and as it follows there in the same Verse 2. A Tabernacle for a Shadow too in the Day-time from the Heat which is the second Expression The Emphasis whereof is far better understood in those intemperate Climats where the Sun-Beams are scorching and the Heats insufferable Nothing there more desirable than a shady Grove or a deep Grot the Sun never looks into or the Shadow of a great Rock in a weary Land Which Protections because the Pilgrim Israelites wanted in the Wilderness God supplyed it to them by spreading a Cloud over them for a Covering in the Day-time as the Psalmist speaks and God was in that Cloud so that for forty years together they marcht and encampt under his shady Wings I had almost said without a Metaphor And still whenever the Son of Persecution or other Calamity ariseth upon us with burning Heat God can exempt whom he thinks good and send them times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord so that while the World is all on fire about them they journey through that torrid Zone with their mighty Parasol