it was conveyed thence to Ierusalem whither he excites all Israel to come and duely frequent iâ— and promises himself as much of them both one and other assuring thâ—m that as its God that hath put them into this good condition so must be preserve them in it and therefore must be sought to for it and then shall the Church flourish from a tabernacle to a temple even like unto Gospel-times when Gentils as well as Iews shall make up the Church whereof he would have the world take notice and be 〈◊〉 to God for it when it is who now onely is made manifest to them by works of creation by which they are to know him and for which they are to praise him even him who is at present the God which they the Israelites worship and who from heaven and his sanctuarie hath so blessed them and overthrown their enemies as he hath done To the President of the Quire is this Psalm committed by David that made it for his ordering it to be sung and plaid by voices and instruments 1 THine Ark O Lord the token of thy presence hath hitherto been in obscuritie in comparison of what it shall be upon this remove of it to Jerusalem there to be placed upon thy holy hill where it shall be in far more eminencie than formerly and thy worship and service better acted and frequented And as hath been thine Ark so hath been thy self under a cloud towards thy people till now that I doubt not will be far otherwayes for time to come and wilt let the World see that as thy glorie and worship is promoted and thy people awakened as it were out of their supine neglect of thee to honour and serve thee so wilt thou arise for them to do them good and make them a flourishing nation under me the type of Christ and his Government so that their enemies which hereafter shall be thine because theirs shall by thy power and in thy wrath be discomfited and confounded in all their attempts against them and they shall destroy and be victorious over all that have formerly triumphed over them and though still they hate them yet shall they not now in the flourishing estate of thy Church be able any more to hurt them Lord let all these things be so 2 Let thine and thy Churches enemies come to nought scatter their forces and vacate their counsels and let it appear by the nature and manner of thy destructive judgements upon such wicked wretches that it was thee that didst it in the behalf of thy people and for their sakes with whom and for whom thou art as really present as thine Ark is present in Jerusalem 3 Let it be now the portion of thy faithful ones thy poor afflicted people to joy their while in thy presence as they have been sadned a long time at thine absence let them so clearly see thee for them and with them as may even ravish their hearts and raise up their spirits exceedingly 4 In confidence of this that he will now be with and do after this sort for us his Church and people in the faith of it I say for ye need not doubt it sing praises to him for it even for his grace and faithfulness to us and the just remuneration of our enemies which he counts his let your thoughts be of him and praises to him answerable to his greatness let your faith pierce the Heavens to behold him there in his glorie and majestie over-looking the World from thence and ruling and ordering all things here by his mightie power who onely hath his being of himself and gives being to every thing else which can be said of no God or Gods besides him as such be sure to magnifie and praise him and in the faith hereof that this his infinit power absolute regiment and glorious independant Being shall be improved and imployed for you do you rejoyce in him 5 God is both gracious to help those that are in need and just to relieve those that are oppressed have they never so few friends or many enemies this though all the World be against us we shall even therefore be sure of him on our side he will from heaven hear our prayers put up to him in his tabernacle take our parts and judge our cause against them that are against us 6 Those that are comfortless exiles solitarily wasting their dayes far from home in penurie and pressures incident to banishment amongst strangers God hath his eye on such to pitie them and to give them a settled habitation in a comfortable enjoyment of their possessions and relations at home he hath compassion on those that suffer for his sake which they shall not do alwayes but shall have deliverance from under their yoaks and bonds and be preferred to a free and happie condition when as those that are wicked and oppress them shall be transplanted from that their prosperous estate and made miserable 7 We have cause to say so that have had so great experience of his power and goodness towards us in that wonderful enfranchising of us out of our Aegyptian thraldom and destroying the Aegyptians before our faces what wonders did he work to bring it to pass which we have cause to record in all the circumstances of it as a certain pledge to his Church for ever of his care over her How then when the Lord by evident tokens of his presence in a pillar of fire and cloud conducted and protected his people our fore-fathers out of Aegypt through the red-sea and along throughout the desert wilderness Let it never be forgotten 8 How then I say he did appear with them and for them altering the very course of nature many times for their supply and benefit both the heaven and the earth the one and the other though sensless of all other things yet seemed sensible of the presence of the Lord with his people The earth quaking with awful reverence the clouds doing fealtie and paying their tribute in emptying themselves of their exhalations Sinai also that mightie mountain when in that dreadful manner God gave the Law and manifested his presence upon it was affected at it with signs of terrour and amazement and all this was when he undertook the protection and conduct of his people Israel the emblem of his Gospel-Church and her travel through this world her wilderness to Canaan which is above 9 And though we left behind us the fruitful plains of Aegypt over-flowed with Nilus yet hast thou brought us into a good land of hils and valleys blessed by thee from heaven with seasonable and fructifying showres whereby thou didst approve it to be a land of promise and thy gift having made good it to thy people and thy blessings unto it as it stood need 10 Thy Church and people Israel chosen to be so from out the whole earth as thou hast placed them so thou hast preserved them
1 BE not thou that belongest to God angrie or agrieved to see wicked men to prosper and to go unpunished in the world neither envie thou the happiness of sinners in their affluence of worldly felicitie nor be moved by it to step out of thy way into theirs 2 For it is but for a very little while that they do so their happines is short-lived commonly God by some unexpected judgement and untimely end snatches them from it or if not yet at best its mortal like themselves and dieth with them 3 But whilest they trust in their strength or store do thou trust in God and whilest they go on in sinning do thou go on in serving the Lord so shalt thou and thy posteritie inherit the promise of life and blessing to survive the wicked maugre their power and malice that at present Lord it as if life and inheritances were not the gifts of God but theirs by an indeleble proprietie whom yet God will extirpate and doubt not but trusting in him and being careful to do thy dutie to him he will provide what is needful for thee and will bless thee with convenient food and raiment as much as a gracious heart and contented mind desires for Godliness hath the promise of this life and that which is to come they shall not hinder it 4 Also the whilest they make riches and pleasures their God and greatest good do thou make God and his good grace thy riches and chief delight and so God will give thee what shall be for thy good and withhold from thee what may do thee hurt which is the desire of every gracious heart 5 Be not over solicitous and careful in and about thine affairs but ease thy mind on God when thou art engaged in his cause or by his providence pass them over to him to manage for thee trusting withall that according to his goodness and faithfulness he will order and dispose them and thou shalt find every thing to prosper better in his hands than in thine and a good success to follow upon it 6 And though thy pietie and innocencie may be rewarded with obloquy and oppression yet be sure the time will come and be comforted in it when God shall right all thy wrongs and vindicate thine uprightness if thou trust in him to do it to thy full satisfaction and the worlds conviction as certainly as light springs out of darkness and day out of night and as clearly as the sun shines in his greatest brightness for all eyes to see it 7 How ever things frame relie thou upon God with a stedfast unwavering faith and a quiet contented mind be not hastie nor impatient of the end but stay Gods leasure submissively to his will and believingly in his promise to the very uttermost period of his pleasure And though thou in a good cause go by the worse and others in a bad one succeed and prosper yet let it not unsettle thy faith or distemper thy spirit to see wicked men fortunate in wicked ways and evil designs 8 At any rate suppress passionate misprisions of God his truth or righteousness and beware of casting off a meek spirit and entertaining a wrathful envious disposition incident in such temptations let not distemper seize upon thee however matters go but specially not so far as to move thee to forgo thy faith and and obedience and to fall to sinful shifts and practises 9 For so thou and they shall fare alike even both be cut off in Gods displeasure whereas if thou hold on in patient and faithful waiting on the Lord thou shalt at last find it to be the most successeful and prosperous course and that in so doing God will bless and provide for thee when as they and their hopes shall perish 10 For if thou wilt but have a little patience and stay Gods leasure it shall not be long before the wicked have their reward though God may let them prosper for a while yet the time will come when either their happiness shall be taken from them or they from it yea thou or thine shall see an end of him and his to your admiration and God his exaltation 11 But on the contrarie they that wait patiently and bear meekly they shall find it the best and happiest way for that God will preserve them and at last bless them with rest and safetie when the wicked shall perish 12 The malice of the wicked indeed is every way very provoking both in real wrongs causelesly working against the righteous in irritating deportments manifesting his inward rancor and imbittered mind against him when he cannot prevail 13 But there 's no danger for God laughs to see his folly so to fret himself and labour in vain to root out the faithful and Godly man when as all that while he is but digging his own grave and hastening his own destruction for the more he endangers him and hath him at a lift the speedier shall be his own ruin to make way for his preservation 14 The wicked do all they can by wit or power to overthrow the poor opressed innocent man and set themselves with all their might to slay without cause the good even because they are good 15 But God shall make use of their power and violence against themselves for they shall work their own destruction and the aim they have at the Godly shall be defeated and they preserved spite of all their power and malice 16 The righteous man that trusts in God and serves him is happier and richer in a little that God gives him than the wicked are with much ill gotten goods wherein they put great confidence 17 For the carnal confidences and strength of the wicked wherein they trust shall be weakened made ineffectual against the Godly and their faith but them will God sustain be they never so despicable and void of secundarie helps spite of all adverse power 18 The Lord hath decreed to a minute how long the righteous shall suffer and remembers his promise touching their surviving happiness after their miseries and their enemies oppressions to keep it which he will certainly do to their well-being here or if not for ever hereafter in heaven 19 Which confidence of theirs shall make them hold up their heads when others droop in times of distress Yea their hope and trust in God shall yield them their bellies full of content even in death 20 When as the wicked for want of it shall comfortlesly pine away and the ungodly ones for whose sake those judgements are sent together with all their substance shall in the Lords anger be consumed by them as the fire melts lambs grease yea they shall be quite consumed 21 The wicked for all his abundance and abundant confidence therein by Gods just judgements are oft times impoverished and put to borrow and disabled to pay again whereas
and their often performances thou wilt confidingly importune me and obedientially walk with me so doing and so praying I will deny thee nothing but supply all thy wants satisfie all thy desires and give thee abundant cause of praise 11 But for all that I could do or say these people that I had done so much for and said much to to perswade and draw them to me though I had engaged and obliged them all the ways in the world by covenanting with them working miracles for them making choice of them giving laws to them yet they would not be prevaild withall to obey my commands nor believe in my promises but ungratefully and rebelliously rejected me and my service and distrusted my faithfulness 12 Insomuch as I was quite tired out with them when I saw all my labour lost my goodness abused and mine advice slighted so that at last I even suspended my dispensations left them to do as they list what their own wicked hearts prompted to to follow the dictates of their corrupt and carnall judgements and I never so much as said why do you so But it was little for their profit 13 O that this ungratefull back-sliding people of mine whom I have loved so well for their fathers sakes had but obeyed my voice believed in the promises kept the commandments which I gave them 14 It should not have been with them as it was by their own folly and stubbornness the enemy should never have so often got the better of them but according to my promise and former providences I would have been sure to deliver them and have made quick dispatch of their adversaries as they may remember I did by the Egyptians and made them as much in bondage to my people as they were to them if their sins had not stood in my way they had been happy and flourishing for I would have turned the scales and made them as much over-weight to their enemies as they were to them for it was from me that they prevailed which they should never have done but perpetually have gone by the worse if my people had not failed of their duty I would not have failed of my mercy to them and judgements upon their foes 15 Those wicked heathenish nations that so oft oppressed them and warred upon them out of a hatred to them I know as being my people I would have made them stoop to their yoak been bond-men and tributaries to them who should never have known what infelicity had meant but have been ever prosperous and fruitfull 16 And whereas their land the land of promise which God undertook should be so fruitfull and plentifull for them was instead thereof fruitless and barren many times and they hunger-bit and starved they may thank themselves their sins kept off his blessings else they should neither have wanted things necessary nor convenient for profit or pleasure to sustain nature or to delight it for God would have made the land exceeding fruitfull and abundantly productive of all requisite provision so that they should have eaten the fat and drunk the sweet yea the most craggy and barren places he would have caused extraordinarily to have yielded them much pleasure and store of deliverances The earth should have been like store-houses and the rocks like hives The lxxxii PSALM The Psalmist shews Princes and Magistrats what an eye God hath over them perswades them therefore to do justice justly and impartially and imploy their power for the defence and supportation of the helplest But perceives men of that ranck so obduraâ—ed in their corrupt courses for that because they are above men they scarce think they are under God as that though he honours them for their places yet he acquaints them with their natures And prayes if nothing will make them just and coâ—scionable that God would punish their pride and injustice and free the oppressed A Psalm made by Asaph 1 THe Kings and rulers of the earth how great and absolute soever they conceive themselves to be Lording it over their subjects and inferiours without consideration of the conscience and duty of their places and offices and of the account they owe and must pay to God thereof yet for all that God heeds them though they heed not him he is amongst their counsels and judicatories an eye and ear witness of their doings and certainly though invisibly overlook their proceedings and passeth his judgement upon them and they shall one day find him as much over them in Sovereigntie and Power as they are over others to judge and condemn them for their irregularities 2 How long will ye dare to persist in provoking the most high that sees you by executing unjust judgement and falsifying your trust by partiall and personall respects acquitting the guilty and condemning the innocent casting the scales of justice by the over-weight of private ends and by-respects favouring the oppressour in his wrong-doing How long I say will you do so 3 Be warned consider better of the matter who it is that hath preferred you above your brethren and why God looks to find other fruit on such trees As he hath given you Power and Authority so he expects you should imploy it for the ends he gave it and not contrary that they that are wronged and either for want of means or friends cannot defend themselves but are like to suffer unjustly should be supplied and supported by you fail not therefore to do so and to administer justice in the behalf of the poor afflicted that are overpowered by men of might or violence 4 Save the poor that are oppressed and that need your help to relieve them set such free and deliver them out of the power and malice of unconscionable wicked worldlings that seek to undo them 5 But a man yea a Prophet from God may tell them over the over again of their fault and danger and yet they apprehend neither of both nor indeed have they any mind at all to understand right instruction but put away the light from them chusing rather to walk in darkness and to be unjust and wicked still Is it not every where thus are not of all men Magistrates most to blame those that should yield the greatest support and settlement to Kingdoms and Republicks and be a blessing to the people under them do they not sad the the hearts of the innocent countenance the nocent cause mighty distractions and draw down heavy judgements 6 I know you think highly enough of your selves and for my part I desire not to detract from Majestracy nor Magistrates the one is Gods ordinance and the other I have already acknowledged to be Gods and so do still affirm you to be his Deputies and Vicegerents here on earth to whom he hath communicated Places and Offices of Honour and Authority as earthly Princes are wont to do to their children 7 And as I have told you what are
the vile from the precious which here are undistinguished into the place of execution torment together But blessed are they that are Israelites indeed that worship God in spirit and in truth who onely are the Israel and Church of God grace and peace from God their Father through Christ their Saviour shall be their portion interessed in their consciences to their unspeakable consolation here with assurance of glory hereafter The cxxvi PSALM This Psalm shews the excess of joy the Iews specially the Godly had at Gods wonderfull infranchising them after their long captivitie in Babylon which the heathen themselves admired God for but much more his people who pray for accomplishment of those happy beginnings and promise out of their own experience and â—aith that all Gods people that undergo afflictions patiently shall have them end happily See the title of the cxx Psalm 1 AFter we had endured a long and grievous captivitie in Babylon the figure of Satan and Antichrist exiled out of our own countrey and from the priviledges we there enjoyed of worshiping God in Jerusalem at last when the set time was come prefixed long before by Jeremiah's prophesie and that according thereunto the Lord so miraculously moved the heart of Cyrus a heathen Potentate to proclaim our libertie with so much unexpected favour and accommodation for our journey and entertainment at our journeys end when we came into Canaan with leave there to dwell and to rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple and there to worship God as formerly It was so great a mercy after so long a miserie so unexpected and improbable considering the disproportion of our abject condition and Cyrus his greatness not worth his taking notice of and so strange to come of himself an Infidel and Pagan together with the suddenness of it and the over-joy we conceived at it that we know not whether we apprehended it sleeping or waking we could scarce believe our own ears what we heard of it or our own hearts what we thought of it to be real fearing the certainty and yet hoping the truth 2 But when we had over-come our amazement and were come to our selves and had digested the certainty and wonderfulness of the thing O the unexpressable joy that we were in like men besides our selves not knowing how to vent our passions sometimes congratulating it amongst our selves with inarticulate laughter and hands lifted up to heaven in stupified admiration other-sometimes more soberly resolving our joy into articulate expressions of thanks and praises expressed in Psalms and Hymns And as God over-powered the King to grant it so he convinced the very heathens in their kind to magnifie him for it those with whom we were captive could not but see and admire the finger of God in this their own very act of our deliverance so much against their nature and interest and to acknowledge both the transcendencie of the King and of the power that wrought it to the glory of our God whom they were forced to magnifie in our behalfs that formerly had contemned both him and us 3 Surely we can say no less of it than they that the Lord hath wrought wonders for us yea let us at least go one step beyond them as we have cause If they that are blind Idolaters and bare spectatours are yet so far enlightened by it as to have the sight of God in it and to magnifie though not gratifie him for it let us do more every way indear it that are the immediate subjects of so rich mercie not onely see his power and greatness as they do but admire his love and goodness thank him for it as a benefit inestimable as well as praise him for it as a miracle and with a holy avarice take the praises out of their mouthes that are no sharers in it and appropriate both him and it wholly to our selves by a joyfull welcom of God again amongst us in his declarative goodness and thankfull acknowledgement of his favour 4 O Lord go on to shew thine omnipotencie as in begetting and beginning so in the progression and perfecting this great work of our return from captivitie and re-establishment in Canaan that as the sun in its season makes streams like rivers to run in the droughtie desarts of southern countries where naturally there are none to the refreshing of the thirstie traveller by dissolving snow and ice from high hils and remote parts so O Lord let thy favour now it is returned upon us go on to move and melt the heathenish hearts of Cyrus his Princes and people on our behalfs to our infinite rejoycing to forward us homeward to Judah out of this our Babylonish captivity under them which with so much hardship we have long endured as also the frozen and carnal hearts of thine own very Israel to accept this opportunity and offer themselves willingly as thy people shall do in the day of thy power and Gospel-jubilee in one joynt compleat bodie universally and unanimously to return as rivers by instinct run towards the sea from whence they came to repossess and replenish our desolate countrey that as a wilderness is uninhabited except by barbarous and savage people without form or beautie of Church or Common-wealth and neither for fear or sloth in respect of difficulties or dangers in the journey or at the journeys end faithlesly draw back chuse to stay and refuse to go as carnal Christians will the tender of grace imbracing rather this present world 5 The Lord will never quite forsake his people we are a perfect emblem of his faithfulness to the faithful that submit to him and wait upon him O the sad hearts that we left our countrey withall at the command of God by his prophet Jeremiah to put our necks into this long Babylonish yoak but our sins and Gods decree had so destined it either so or worse therefore though with great renitencie as the needie husbandman in time of dearth casts his corn which should stustain him for seed into the ground in hope of future gain by present loss so we with a willing willingness for obedience sake put our selves into thraldom loth to displease and as loth to leave our libertie and countrey in hope and expectation of a joyfull return and deliverance as the Church and people of God shall ever have out of their sufferings from out this bondage as now it is made good unto us our joy surpassing our sorrow a hundred fold 6 We are set for the incouragement of the Church in whole and in every part for what is true in the general is applicable to each particular the members singly sharing the promise among them that is made to the bodie joyntly therefore may all and every one that is godly be confident that what precious faith and patience in obedience to God they sow in affliction they shall at last reap it again in reward and consolation God will wipe all tears from their