perspective and resolves that all the provocations and sacriledges and rebellions against Heaven shall never be able to resist his Nativity to disturb his horoscope to reverse his fatal destin'd bliss may well be excused if he be not over-hasty to cleanse or purifie 'T is an act of the most admirable power of the divine restraining or preventing grace that some men that do thus believe this doctrine of unconditional Promises are yet restrain'd from making this so natural use of it from running into all the riots in the world And certainly 't is as irrefragable a convincing testimony of man's free will to evil even after his Reason and the Spirit of God have offer'd him never so many arguments to the contrary that many men which believe the conditionate Promises do not yet set resolutely a cleansing the obligation hereto from Reason being so direct and conclusive that all the Devils in Hell cannot answer the force of it Only our stupid undisciplin'd absurd illogical hearts have the skill to avoid it running headlong and wilfully after the old impurities even then when they are most fully without all dubibitancy resolv'd that all the joys of Heaven are forfeited by this choice I have done with the second step in my gradation the special convincing energy of the conditional promises to enforce cleansing Come we now to the third and last step in the gradation the particularity of the these conditional promises in this Text Promises of God's receiving us upon our separating his being our Father and we His Sons and Daughters upon our coming out c. in the end of the former chapter God will not receive any uncleansed polluted sinner will not be a Father to any be he never so importunate or confident in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will not own him to any degree of Sonship that doth not bodily set a purifying 'T was a virulent objection and accusation of the Heathen Celsus against Christ that he called all Sinners to come unto him Publicans Harlots all and had an hospitable reception for such from whence his ignorance and malice was willing to conclude Christ's Church to be a Sanctuary for such uncleannesses a kind of Romulus's Asylum to be filled only with those Inhabitants which all other Religions had loath'd and vomited out And 't was Zosimus's descant upon Constantine that he turn'd Christian because he had committed those crimes for which no other Religlon would admit expiation But Origen in his admirable Writings against that Heathen's objections makes a distinction of Invitations There is saith he the invitation of the Thief and the invitation of the Physician of the Thief to get as many Companions of the Physician as many Patients as he can the first to debauch the innocent the second to recall the laps'd to cure the diseased the former to continue and confirm them in their former impure courses the latter to purge out and to reform all their impurities And the latter only was the interpretation and design of Christ's call that of sinners to repentance the very language in this Text the Come out and be ye separate and touch not the unclean thing And so Christianity in Zosimus's style but another sense than what he design'd it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the strongest purgative in the world the Angel a hastening and leading out of Sodom with an escape fly for thy life neither stay thou in all the plains and then and not till then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and I will receive you And so still the peculiarity of these promises these of our being sons or our being received hath a most perswasive quickening force toward the duty of purifying Will any man be content to be that abject from God that loathed refuse reprobated creature such an one that all the prayers of all the Saints on earth intercessions and suffrages of Martyrs and Angels in heaven yea the very gaping wounds and vocal bloud of Christ upon the Cross I shall add the minutely advocation and intercession of that glorified Saviour at the right hand of his Father cannot help to any tolerable reception at God's hands Can you have fortifi'd your self sufficiently against that direful voice of the Go ye Cursed into everlasting fire and not only not God but not the so-much-as mountains or hills willing or able to receive you into any tolerable degree of mercy not one Lazarus with one drop to cool the tip of a flaming tongue but only the gaping insatiable pit that irreversible abyss of pollutions and of horror that region of cursings and torments of sin and flames the only hospital to receive thee If thou canst think comfortably of this condition be well pleased to venture all this for the inlarging of thy carnal fruitions one minute longer and withall disclaim the whole birthright of thy Christendom the dignity and inheritance of sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty if thou dost not repent of thy long tedious prodigal march into the Aegyptian far Country only to accompany with Swine and be fed with their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to which the advantages of sin are compared that wooden unhealthy fruit of the Carobe or arbor Ceratonia as Dioscordies and Pliny describe that which we render husks in the Gospel if I say we can upon deliberation prefer this starving and pining in the Herd before feasting and being embraced in the Father's house this portion of Swine before that of Sons we have then a sufficient fortification against this argument in this Text a serious supersedeas for purifying but upon no cheaper condition than this can it be sued out you must give your selves up to the certain fire and brimstone of Sodom if you will still continue in the impurities and burnings of Sodom not the least gleam of hopes upon any terms but those of purifying Whosoever hath this hope on him the this that is the conditional hope of seeing there or here of being received by God if it be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hope on God he purifies himself saith St. John If he do not purifie 't is either 1. Not so much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 absolute throwing off disclaiming all hope perfect fury and despair or if he have any hopeful thought about him 't is 2. None of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 none of the rationable grounded conditional but a flattering fallacious foundationless because unconditionate hope which the bigger it swells the more dangerous it proves an Aposteme or Tympany of hope made up either of air or putrid humor and then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like the consumptive Patient the more he hopes the farther he is gone the more deeply desperate is his condition Or 3. no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hope on him on God 'T is a dependance on some fatal chain some Necromantick trick of believing thou shalt be saved and thou shalt be saved nay on Satan himself some response from his Oracle that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that
any reason to make the former word to be in the genitive case nor is there any ו conjunction between them and the Chaldee that alone differs from the LXXII yet read it in this other form from whom is the joy of or God my exceeding joy If this notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be not accepted it may then be as our English margine hath it God the gladness of my joy i. e. he that is the great author of all the joy I have But if it may here be taken in the notion of the other contrary passion or commotion that of sorrow then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will be he that maketh glad my sorrow or turneth my commotions into joy V. 4. The harps Of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it may here be observed that being among the Graecians used in sadness only and so defined by Hesychius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a musical instrument a mournful harp and from thence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to mourn and wail and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wailing and mournful 't is yet among the Hebrews generally a cheerful joyful musick so Gen. 31.17 and 2 Chron. 10.28 Job 21.12 and 30.13 and frequently in these Psalms see Psal 33.2.71.22.81.3.92.4.137.2.149.3 Isai 5.12.24.8 Ezek. 26.13 and 1 Mac. 3.5 The Forty Fourth PSALM TO the chief Musitian for the sons of Corah Maschil Paraphrase The forty fourth Psalm is a description of the several conditions and states of the Jewish Church and therein a commemoration of Gods former mercies as a ground of confidence in and prayer to him for deliverance out of present dangers and was composed in some time of general oppression by foreign enemies v. 11 12. and committed to the Prefect of the Musick to be sung by the posterity of Corah see Psal 42.1 to the tune called Maschil see note on Psal 32. a. 1. We have heard with our ears O Lord our fathers have told us what work thou didst in their days in the times of old 2. How thou didst drive out the heathen with thy hand and plantedst them how thou didst afflict the people and cast them out Paraphrase 1 2. Thy doings in former ages O Lord are famously spoken of and delivered down to us from father to son How thou by thy power didst eject the Canaanites c. and in their stead didst place thine own people of Israel having first brought them out of Egypt rescued them from the hands of those heathen tyrants smiting with ten several plagues the Egyptians that kept them in bondage 3. For they gat not their land in possession by their own sword neither did their own arm save them but thy right hand and thine arm and the light of thy countenance because thou hadst a favour unto them Paraphrase 3. A special work of thine this for 't was not any prowess of arms or opposition of greater strength that got the children of Israel the victories which they obtained over these nations or possest them of their land but the signal interposition of thy power shining and shewing forth it self visibly in that whole action an effect and a testimony of thy special favour to them which thus performed what thou hadst promised of giving them this fruitful land to be injoyed by them 4. Thou art my King O God command deliverance for Jacob. Paraphrase 4. Thou therefore that hast thus magnified thy power and mercy in delivering this people of thine art in all reason to be adored by us as our God and supreme Conducter to whom alone I am to make my address at this time for the deliverances which thou hast promised to give and hast constantly afforded to thy people 5. Through thee will we push down our enemies through thy name will we tread them under that rise up against us Paraphrase 5. From thee must all our victories come thou must furnish us with our offensive arms such thou hast given to the beasts of the field horns to the bull c. And thy presence and conduct must supply to us our natural want of these And if thou be thus present with us we shall certainly be as succesful as the most mighty of those creatures over the weakest assailant As they first gore and wound them with their horns and then trample them under their feet so shall we deal with our stoutest enemies 6. For I will not trust my in bow neither shall my sword save me Paraphrase 6. As for artillery and provisions of war we use them without any trust or relyance on them either to secure our selves or hurt others 7. But thou hast saved us from our enemies and hast put them to shame that hated us Paraphrase 7. 'T is thy strength only and mercy to us that hath wrought all our good successes delivered us and discomfited our enemies and accordingly in that alone all our confidence is reposed 8. In God we boast all the day long and praise thy name for ever Selah Paraphrase 8. All our victories have been hitherto due to thee from thee we have received them and to thee we have given all the praise of them and consequently for the future we have none else to rely on none to acknowledge for our defender and reliever but thee 9. But thou hast cast us off and put us to shame and goest not forth with our armies Paraphrase 9. But alas our sins have provoked and removed thee from us thou hast suffered us to be worsted by our enemies and hast not of late shewn forth thy majesty for our aid and succour 10. Thou makest us to turn back from our enemies and they which hate us spoil for themselves Paraphrase 10. Thou sufferest us to be put to flight and chased by our enemies and consequently to be despoiled and pillaged by them 11. Thou hast given us like sheep appointed for meat and hast scattered us among the heathen Paraphrase 11. Thou hast permitted many of us to be slaughtered like sheep see v. 22. such as are killed by the butcher not the priest for the shambles to be freely used as men please not for the altar to which those that are set apart cannot be rudely handled without violation of religion And as sheep again being worried by the Wolf are driven from the flock and scattered upon the mountains so are our armies destroyed and routed 12. Thou sellest thy people for nought and doest not increase thy wealth by their price Paraphrase 12. We are alas cast away by God as the worst kind of slaves which are not thought worthy to have any price demanded for them by their masters sadly handled without the comfort of bringing in any honour to God by our calamities Thy Church among us is defaced and no other people taken in in stead of us by whom thy Name may be glorified 13. Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbours a scorn and a derision to them that are round about us 14. Thou makest us a
whole earth so shall thy children be so numerous the multitudes of â—hose that receive the faith of Christ this dew on the face of the earth being like the sand of the sea and stars of heaven by which two expressions is set out elsewhere the spiritual seed of Abraham the multitude of believers i. e. Over all the face of the earth through all nations shall the Christian faith be propagated by this the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 expedition or warfare their preaching and promulgating of the Gospel Another possible rendring the words are capable of thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used ten times in scripture in all the other places expresses an immediately preceding birth and is equivalent to as soon as born So Ps 58.3 the wicked are estranged 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the womb or birth Ps 22.10 I have been cast on thee from the womb i. e. ever since my birth Then though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be by many construed from the morning as if מ were a Praefix yet seeing the ש hath no dagesch others conceive it a Noun though not elsewhere found yet guidable by the signification of its neighbouring words and then it will note either morning or youth Next 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is twice used beside this place and signifies not children but childhood or the first age of youth So Eccl. 11.9 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 childhood and youth are vanity Where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being joyned with it 't is made more probable that here where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is joyned with it they should both be taken in this sense wherein there confestly they are If this be accepted then the Hebrew will be thus literally rendred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 From the womb youth is to thee i. e. as soon as thou art born thou enjoyest a firm and vigorous youth increasing suddenly in wisedom and stature and favour with God and man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thy infancy the dew i. e. is as the dew upon the face of the earth in a moment spreads it self over all is seen fall'n rather than falling is sprightly and aerial and makes all things else so too And then in accordance with it will be rendred what follows Thou art a Priest for ever art never superannuated for the service of the tabernacle like the Levitical Priests nor ever removed from it by death In the following words the ×— in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is by the Jewish writers Kimchi and Aben Ezra allowed to be paragogical and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to signifie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the manner or order which is exactly the LXXII their rendring 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is insisted on by the Apostle in the New Testament to which also the Syriack accords 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the likeness And then it is strange the Interlinear should make it a suffix and render it secundum verbum meum according to my word and yet herein some other learned men have imitated them The Jewish Arab interpreting this whole Psalm of Abraham as a relation of his victory over the Kings and telling us that he was made a Priest in the place of Melchizedek for his miscarriage in his blessing because in it he made mention of Abraham's name before God's renders the latter part of this third verse thus and from the deep of the black sea that thou mayest cast for thee the portions of thy children explaining it by a Note to this purpose he teacheth him that they viz. his children or posterity shall divide the countreys from the black sea to the utmost of regions saying that he takes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prov. 16.33 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to cast Abu Walid expounds those words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by from the belly or womb of the darkness i. e. saith he from the time that thou wert in the dark of the womb that the meaning might be Prosperity hath accompanied thee from the time that thou wert in the dark of the womb i. e. from thy first forming or creation that is it that he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from thy first ortus or original And so he would have both those passages joyned in their signification In this verse the LXXII have made many changes First for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thy people they appear to have read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with thee and so render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 voluntary oblations they reade 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 government not as the Latin renders them prinâ—â—â—um beginning as from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Prince Psal 113.8 Then for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the morning they reade 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before the morning-star omitting the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dew and for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thy progeny they reade 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I begat thee and so the Syriack 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from ancient time I begat thee my son And to this as the Latin exactly accords ex utero ante Luciferum genui te and the Arabick in like manner so doth the Syriack also save that for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before the morning-star they reade 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from of old and many of the ancient Fathers have followed them especially Tertullian l. v. contra Marcion c. ix who applies it to the nativity of Christ in the night and that of a Virgin without the knowledge of any man and refutes the Jews who applied the Psalm to Hezekiah That the Jews after Christ's time did thus apply it to Hezekiah as the Chaldee Paraphrases understand it of David appears evident from that Father But before their hatred of Christ did thus ingage them some of the ancient Jews see note a. applied it to the Messias and they are followed by Isaac Benarama on Gen. 47. and the passage next following of this King being a Priest makes it impossible according to their own principles to be applied to any King of the Jews the Priesthood among them being peculiar to the Aaronical tribe And therefore the Chaldee which applies it to David interprets this of his exaltation to greatness in the world to come by way of reward to his having been an immaculate King here V. 5. The Lord at thy right hand In this Psalm it is evident v. 1. that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the title of God the Father and so again v. 4. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Messias God the Son in respect of that dignity and dominion and regal power to which he was to be exalted at his ascension that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow This is expressed v. 1. by his sitting at God's right hand for which the Apostle 1 Cor. 15.25 reads 〈◊〉
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It must be that he reign By this 't is evident that in this verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lord at thy right hand must be understood of the Messias instated in his regal power at the right hand of his Father and not of the Father as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to back and help him as Psal 16.8 and elsewhere the phrase is used For of the Son thus exalted we know it is that we reade Joh. 5.22 that the Father hath committed all judgment to the Son Agreeable to which it is that this Adonai or Lord at Jehovah's right hand here shall strike through Kings in the day of his wrath i. e. shall act revenges most severely on the opposers of his Kingdom which revenges in the New Testament are peculiarly attributed to Christ and called the coming of the Son of man coming in the clouds coming with his Angels and the approaching or coming of his Kingdom V. 7. Brook of the way 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies any hollow place or vale a receptacle of waters and from thence a small river or brook which hath not its original from any spring but is filled with rain-waters and so is full in the winter but in the summer dried up So Gen. 26.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the valley of Gâ—rar Joel 3.18 a fountain shall come forth and water 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the valley of Shittim and 2 King 3.16 make this valley full of ditches and v. 17. ye shall not see rain yet that valley shall be filled with water And being here joyned with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the way it seems to signifie no more than those plashes of water which in the winter are frequent in highways from the fall of much rain These first from the places where they are collected no pools on purpose provided for the receit of waters but every little cavity in the way which is thus filled by rain and secondly by the stagnancy or standing still of these waters and thirdly by the frequency of passengers fouling them are to be concluded very unfit for the use of men very inconvenient for drinking and would never be used for that purpose were it â—ot by him that hath no other or that so far intends the haste of his way and so far despises or neglects himself as to content himself with the worst and meanest sort of accommodation that which will just satisfie the necessities of nature This is most observable of souldiers in an hasty march that are thirsty but will not make stay at an Inn to refresh themselves with wine or so much as go out of their way to make choice of or seek out for wholsome water but insist on their pursuit and satisfie their thirst at the next receptacle of waters the next puddle or trench or ditch or brook they meet with This is a sign of great alacrity in a souldier and withall of great humility and contempt of hardship and difficulties of submitting to any the meanest and most servile condition and may well here be used poetically to express the great humiliation and exinanition of the Messias assuming the real form and all the mean offices of a servant pursuing the work to which he was sent with all alacrity counting it his meat and drink to doe the will of him that sent him and finish his work Joh. 4.34 and in fine laying down his life suffering as willingly a most bitter contumelious death which being by him exprest by drinking of a cup and that a special sort of cup such as others would not probably be content with Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of Matt. 20.22 and that an insupportable bitter cup Matt. 26.39 42. Father if it be possible let this cup pass from me it may very fitly be extended to his death as well as to all that was preparative and in the way to it And to this the lifting up his head reigning victoriously over all his enemies being constituted Judge of quick and dead is here justly apportioned according to that of Phil. 2.8 9. He made himself of no reputation but humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the cross Wherefore God hath highly exalted him Another notion there is of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for a torrent or river Prov. 18.4 a flowing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 torrent or river and so Am. 6.14 unto the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we render it river of the wilderness If it be here taken in that notion then drinking of it may be a proverbial speech to express victory as Isa 37.25 when Sennacherib is boasting of his conquests he thus speaks I will enter into the height of his border and the forrest of his Carmel I have digged and drunk water and with the sole of my feet I have dried up all the rivers of the besieged places Where the former part being an expression of victory and forcible seisure and so the latter also of blocking up and close siege the middlemost may probably be to the same sense and the rather because of the custom of Eastern Princes who in token of dedition exacted from subjugated Provinces Earth and Water Judith 2.7 In reference to which the digging up Earth and drinking Water will signifie a forcible entry a method of battery where the milder summons have not prevailed thereby to take livery and seism of an hostile Countrey And if that be the notion here then the phrase signifies Christ's victory atchieved by his death over Satan Sin and Hell Which being wrought upon the Cross is fitly precedaneous and preparative to the lifting up of his head The Hundred and Eleventh PSALM Praise ye the Lord. The Hundred and eleventh Psalm is one of those whose Title see Note a. on Psal 106. is Hallelujah and is accordingly spent in praising and magnifying the name of God for all his works of power and mercy It is composed in twenty two short Metres each beginning with the several Letters of the Hebrew Alphabet 1. I Will praise the Lord with my whole heart in the assembly of the upright and in the congregation Paraphrase 1. From the bottom of my soul and with the full quire of all the faculties thereof I will acknowledge and bless the name of God This I will doe more privately in counsel of all pious men the true Israelites when ever any transaction of concernment is to be advised on by those that make strict conscience of their duty and this will I doe in the most publick and solemn assembly No juncto is too close no congregation too wide for such a most due performance 2. The works of the Lord are great sought out of all them that have pleasure therein Paraphrase 2. Marvellous are the works of God and of all other sorts of study most worthy to be the exercise and imployment of all pious men who can entertain themselves with more
felicity of this life consists they shall also be means of accumulating all other prosperities upon us They whom all men love and revere will be in least danger of being hurt by them but on the contrary shall receive all aids and assistance from them and they that have the favour of God have therein a title to all auspicious influences of his providence which are the onely sure way to prosperity here and to all eternity 5. Trust in the Lord with all thy heart and lean not to thine own understanding 6. In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths Paraphrase 5 6. A second duty that I shall recommend to thee on the same account as a special ingredient in thy prosperities is the reposing thy trust entirely and cordially on God so as not to rely on thine own wisedom contrivances or artifices to compass thy designs in this world but to keep thy self to the ways and means which God affords thee and approves of and this beyond all worldly policies will secure thee of a most happy and easie and expedite passage through all the dangers of this life 7. Be not wise in thine own eyes fear the Lord and depart from evil 8. It shall be health to thy navel and marrow to thy bones Paraphrase 7 8. A third quality of the same form is humility as that contains a very lowly opinion and conceit of ones self Rom. 12.16 and withall a tender awe and reverence to God and fear of displeasing him a readiness to obey him in all he shall require of us a conscientious abstaining from all sin a conquest over the temptations of the world or flesh an uniform obedience in opposition to that pride and contumacy and despising of God which the Psalmist notes in the wicked Psal 10.4 And nothing can more contribute to thy prosperity bodily and ghostly than this Confident overweening persons run themselves into strange inconveniencies but humility keeps men safe makes them seek aid and help from others and call constantly to God for that direction and assistance they stand in need of and the rejecting and averting of all wicked proposals secures us from them and neither the most sovereign medicines nor the most plentifull provisions of all things conducible to the body tending and cherishing it as the Gardner doth his ground with continual watering can contribute more to the acquiring of health and strength and agility and an athletick habit of body than this one advantage of humility and conscientious exact walking contributes to all worldly good successes As for ghostly health and strength which come wholly from the grace and spirit of God that is in especial manner promised to the humble and obedient and withdrawn from the proud or else repell'd by them 9. Honour the Lord with thy substance and with the first-fruits of all thine encrease 10. So shall thy barns be filled with plenty and thy presses shall burst out with new wine Paraphrase 9 10. A fourth duty that will tend extremely to the same end of advancing not onely thy eternal but even thy secular interests is a carefull constant paying to God all that he hath by any law required of thee and even by voluntary oblations exceeding that proportion which is strictly required hereby acknowledging that all thou hast cometh to thee merely from his bounty and is no way owing to thine own labour or subtlety but merely to his blessing Of this sort are the tithes and first-fruits and all other payments among the Jews due to the Temple and the Priests and other Officers of the Temple and in proportion all that hath ever been consecrated to God or his service in the Christian Church And of this sort also is the second tithing part whereof was spent at the feasts part assigned to the refreshing of the poor fatherless c. so was the second tithing every third year and so the gleanings of their harvest c. and being given to them is acceptable as given to God and so is much to the honour of God and an act of acknowledgment and thanksgiving to him answerable to which is setting apart some constant considerable proportion out of our revenues or gains for a stock of charity to our poor Christian brethren And if this duty be carefully and liberally and chearfully performed merely on design to bless and praise God and to provide for those whom he hath appointed his proxies upon earth to receive our works of piety and mercy it shall be so far from lessening thy store that it shall generally be a means of encreasing it exceedingly Nothing shall more tend to the bringing down a blessing upon all thy undertakings and so to the enriching thee than this see Mal. 3.10 Whereas they that withhold what is thus due much more they that sacrilegiously invade what is by others consecrated unto God or that oppress the poor are to expect nothing but blasts and improsperities and beggery It being ordinary for great estates and whole families to be utterly wasted by these means which yet according to wordly measures might expect to be most enriched and raised thereby 11. My Son despise not the chastening of the Lord neither be weary of his correction 12. For whom the Lord loveth he correcteth even as a father the son in whom he delighteth Paraphrase 11 12. It is true that every of these Aphorisms premised must be understood with a limitation or condition leaving place for some mixtures of the cross which all men in this valley of tears as the punishment of sin must sometimes expect and pious men have no exemption from them their greatest temporal felicities come with some allay or dash of afflictions and persecutions Mar. 10.40 When these come then is the season of another sort of Christian vertues patience meekness submission not onely to God's will which may not be resisted but also to his wisedom who can and doth choose for us that which is absolutely best and most wholesome though at the present dolorous and unwelcome and from that consideration ariseth also matter of refreshment and chearfulness so far at least as that we be not discouraged in our course of piety or any way tempted to slacken our zeal or to discover the least weariness or despondency of mind on this occasion but rather to rejoyce and be exceeding glad Matth. 5.12 And this thou wilt find no difficulty to doe if thou but consider that as all afflictions come from God so they are not acts of hatred in him but preparatives to his favour and reconciliation punishments indeed for sin but such as God in mercy inflicts here that he may not condemn with the world the very same that the corrections of a Father to a Son designed onely to his good and are therefore generally most frequent to those Children when they offend whom the Parents love most tenderly In them whatsoever is amiss or any way improveable the Parents excessive love makes
Heaven of Divinity it self But among all the Epitome's of this Bethel the domicilia little tents rather than houses of God which we are thus to consecrate and vow unto him here was one at Bethel that would never be wanting never left out in our thriving'st sparing'st vows I mean that pure crystal breast of Jacob's that God so delighted to dwell in as he was by the Poet supposed to do in poor Pyramus's cottage that plain honest well-natur'd undisguised heart both toward men and God emblematically express'd by those smooth hands of Jacob the fair open Campania of even clear unintricated designs far from the Groves and Maeanders the dark depths the intrigues the dexterities and subtilties and falsenesses of the Merchant-worldling Might but this Judgment that hath prey'd and gnaw'd so long upon the bowels of the Kingdom but pare the heart of the Englishman into such a plain equable figure leave never an angle or involution in it make us but those direct-dealing honest fools that we are reproach'd to be but God knows are not guilty of that gracious Jacob-like quality might it but have that benign influence upon us here present might it return us home with this one vow in every of our mouths and hearts to be for the rest of our lives the English Nathanaels the true Israelites in whom there is no guile might but this last minute of my hour make this one impression I shall not hope on a rude multitude but I say on my present Auditory to be content to live and die with down-right honest Jacob thrive or perish on clear direct Israelitish principles which will I doubt not one day have the turn of thriving in this world when every thing else hath the reproach of imprudent and improsperous as well as unchristian the Dove advanced when the Serpent is a licking the dust and with Drusus in Paterculus in stead of the Artificer that would provide for the deep privacy that saevi animi indicium in the Orator send for him that could design the diaphanous house wherein there might be all evidence every man thought fit to behold that without an optick or perspective which will never be disguised or concealed from the eye of Heaven might we by the help of a fast Vow now stricken and with the blessing of God practised every hour of our lives after come home to our Father's house old honest Jacob's plain Tent with peace and simplicity cleanness uncompoundedness of spirit a quality that would be able to commend and improve Christianize and bless that peace to us and make it like that of God a true and durable one I should then with all chearfulness dismiss you with old Jacob into the hands of this God of Bethel the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob that own'd and blessed the simplicity and fidelity the plainness and the trustiness of those three Patriarchs before all the glorious wisdom and politicks of the world Whose sincerity and whose reward whose uprightness and acceptation integrity and crown God of his infinite mercy grant us all To whom with the Son c. THE Necessity of the CHRISTIAN's Cleansing The VI. SERMON 2 COR. VII 1 Having therefore these promises dearly Beloved let us cleanse our selves THERE is not I conceive any piece of Divinity more unluckily mistaken more inconveniently corrupted and debauch'd by the passions and lusts of men made more instrumental to their foulest purposes than that of the Promises of Christ whether by giving them the inclosure and monopoly of our Faith the Commands of Christ and the threats of Christ which have as much right to be believed as they his Kingly and Prophetick Office to which he was as particularly anointed as to that of our Priest being for the most part set aside as unnecessary and by many steps and degrees at last not only left quite out of our Faith but withal fall'n under our envy become matter of quarrel against any that shall endeavour to obtrude them not only so impertinently but so dangerously either on our Gospel or on our Practice or whether again by perswading our selves and others that the Promises of Christ are particular and absolute confined to some few and to those howsoever they be qualified when the whole harmony and contexture of Christian doctrine proclaims directly the contrary that they are general and conditional a Picture that looks every man in the face that comes into the room but cannot be imagined to eye any man else unrestrained to all so they shall perform the condition and an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those diffusive store-houses seal'd up against all who do not perform it Shall we therefore have the patience and the justice and the piety a while to resist these strong prejudices to rescue this sacred Theme from such misprisions to set up the Promises of Christ in such a posture as may have the safest and kindest influence the benignest and most auspicious aspect upon our lives not to swell and puff up our fancies any longer with an opinion that we are the special Favorites to whom those Promises are unconditionally consign'd but to engage and oblige our souls to that universal cleansing that may really instate us in those Promises either of deliverance here or salvation eternally that may like the Angel to St. Peter in Prison even to God himself shake off those gyves and manacles which have even incumbred his Omnipotence made it impossible for him to make good his Promises temporal or spiritual to such unclean uncapables as we To this purpose there is one short word in the Text which hath a mighty importance in it the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the these anext to the Promises What 's the interpretation of that you must enquire of the close of the former chapter and that will tell you that upon coming out from the pollutions and villanies of an impure profane Heathen world and such is our unregenerate estate I would I could not say such is the condition of many of us that most depend on God's promises on our going out of this tainted Region our strict separation from all the provoking sins of it all the mercies of Heaven and which some have a greater gust and appetite to of earth also are become our portion a most liberal hospitable reception I will receive you and I will be a Father to all such Proselyte guests and you shall be my sons and daughters saith the Lord Almighty as if his Almightiness which is here pawn'd for the discharge of these promises could not bring them down upon us unless by this coming out of Sodom to which this Angelical exhortation was sent to rouze us we should render our selves capable of them In a word the Promises here as all other in the Gospel are not absolute but conditional Promises on condition of cleansing from all impurity and not otherwise and if there be in the whole world an engagement to cleansing an obligation to the practice
A PARAPHRASE AND ANNOTATIONS UPON THE BOOKS OF THE PSALMS A PARAPHRASE AND ANNOTATIONS Upon the BOOKS of the PSALMS Briefly Explaining the Difficulties thereof ALSO A Paraphrase Annotations On the Ten First Chapters of the PROVERBS The Second Edition Corrected and Amended By H. HAMMOND D. D. LONDON Printed by T. Newcomb and M. Flesher for Richard Royston Bookseller to the Kings most Sacred Majesty at the Angel in Amen-Corner and Richard Davis Bookseller in Oxford Anno Dom. MDCLXXXIII A PREFACE Concerning the Duty Practice and constant Vsage of Psalmody in the Church The Benefits thereof The Design of this Work The Literal and Prophetical Senses The Helps toward the Indagation of each The Interpreters especially the Greek The Spirit and Affections of Psalmodists 1. THE Duty and Benefits of Psalmody and the many Excellencies of these Divine inspired Books cannot fitly be set out by any lower Hand than that which first wrote them 2. For the former of these we are sufficiently provided from this Treasury Psal 33.1 Praise this of Psalmody vers 2. is comely for the upright Psal 92.1 2 3. It is a good thing to give thanks to sing praises to shew forth thy loving kindness and thy faithfulness upon the Psaltery with a solemn sound 135.3 Praise the Lord for the Lord is good sing praises to his Name for it is pleasant 81.1 2 3 4 5. Sing aloud Take a Psalm Blow up the Trumpet For this was a Statute for Israel and a Law of the God of Jacob. This he ordeined in Joseph for a Testimony when he went out through the Land of Egypt and very frequently elsewhere And the sum of the Testimonies is that as it is the principal thing we know of the Joys of Heaven that we shall most ardently love and praise God there and devoutly contend with the holy Angels his supreme Ministers in sounding forth the adorable Excellencies of our Creator Redeemer and Sanctifier so we are obliged by our holy calling and our own many great Interests to take some Antepast of those Coelestial Joys in this lower Kingdom of Heaven and to spend no unconsiderable part of our present Lives in this most blessed and holy Imployment wherein also those Angels which shall then be our Praecentors are here pleased to follow and attend our Motions and invisibly to assist in those Quires where they can find meet Company the Hearts pure and whole Hearts the Spirits and inflamed Affections and Voices of Psalmodists 3. As for the latter it is no otherwise to be fetcht from hence than as the Light commends Beauty to every Eye and as the Matter it self speaketh this Type of Christ the Psalmist having transcrib'd this part of his Character that he hath not thought fit to testifie of himself any otherwise than the works which he did bare witness of him For this therefore we must appeal to Foreign Testimonies and therein not so much to the diffused Panegyricks which have been largely bestowed on this holy Book by many of the Antient Fathers of the Church as to the Offices of all Churches Jewish nay Mahometane as well as Christian and the more private practices of Holy Men in all Ages 4. For the practice of the Jewish Church we have 1 Chron. 15.16 where the Levites are appointed to be Singers with Instruments of Musick Psalteries and Harps and Cymbals sounding by lifting up the voice with joy and to record and to thank and to praise the Lord God of Israel chap. 16.4 And being thus prepared for the office David delivered this Psalm to thank the Lord into the hand of Asaph and his Brethren vers 7. Give thanks unto the Lord in the words of Psal 105.1 And this not only upon an extraordinary occasion to solemnize the carrying up of the Ark but to stand every morning to thank and praise the Lord and also every evening chap. 23.30 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. and to or at every offering up so the LXXII rightly render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at all that is offered of burnt-sacrifices to the Lord in the Sabbaths in the New-moons and on the feast days vers 31. And thereto the recital of their practice accords Ecclus. 50.15 16 18. He poured out the sweet-smelling savour Then shouted the Sons of Aaron and sounded the Silver Trumpets and made a great noise to be heard for a remembrance The Singers also sang praises with their voices with great variety of sounds was there made sweet Melody So again 2 Chron. 5.12 the Levites arrayed in white Linen having Cymbals and Psalteries and Harps stood at the East end of the Altar and with them an hundred and twenty Priests sounding with Trumpets And as the Trumpeters and Singers were as one to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord and when they lift up their voice with the Trumpets and Cymbals and Instruments of Musick saying For he is good for his mercy endureth for ever in the words of this Psalmist so often repeated then in token of God's acceptation and approbation the House was filled with a Cloud vers 13. the Glory of the Lord had filled the House of God vers 14. 5. This old Copy of the Jews is at once transcribed and confirmed and recommended to all the World by the signal practice of Christ himself in his great Reformation 6. Beside his many incidental Reflections on this Book of Psalms to prove his Doctrine and give account of himself Luk. 20.42 and 24.44 Matth. 16.27.21.16.25.41 and 26.23 Joh. 10 34.15.25 and 17.12 two signal instances are recorded for us the one at the Institution of the Eucharist Matth. 26.30 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they sung a Psalm closed the whole action with a Hymn and so went out 7. That this their singing was the recitation of the Paschal Hymn or great Hallelujah Psal 114. and the four subsequent is not exprest by the Evangelist yet is much more probable than the contrary opinion of those that conceive it was a new Hymn of Christ's effusion possibly the same which is recorded Joh. 17. wherein it cannot be believed that the Disciples had their parts as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must conclude they had in the singing this Hymn or Hymns 'T is evident our Saviour chose to retein much more of the Jewish Customs than that of the Paschal Psalm amounts to 8. The other instance was that upon the Cross being now at the pouring out of his Peace-offering Matth. 27.46 About the ninth hour the hour of Prayer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he lift up his voice like a Levites Trumpet resounded with a loud voice Eli Eli Lamma Sabachthani the express words in the Syriack reading of the beginning of the 22 Psal How much more of that or of the insuing Psalms he recited the Text advertiseth us no farther than that he concluded with the words of the 31. v 5. So St. Luke tells us Chap. 23.46 And
seated in his throne by God all their designs and enterprises against him are blasted by the Almighty and prove successless and ruinous to them And so in like manner all the opposition that Satan and his Instruments Jews and Romans Act. iv 25 make against Christ the Son of David anointed by his Father to a spiritual Kingdom a Melchizedekâ—an Royal Priesthood shall never prevail to hinder that great purpose of God of bringing by this means all penitent believers to salvation 2. The Kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed saying Paraphrase 2. The Princes and Governours of the Nations round about Judea the Kings of the Philistims and Moabites and Damascenes and many more rose up against David the Syrians joyned with Hadadezer King of Zobah 2 Sam. viii 5. and in so doing opposed the Lords anointed one set up and supported by God in a special manner and so in effect rebelled against God himself In like manner did Herod and Pilate and the Jewish Sanhedrim make a solemn opposition and conspiracy against the Messias Gods holy child Jesus by him anointed Act. lv 27. and therein were fighters against God Act. v. 39. 3. Let us break their bonds asunder and cast away their cords from us Paraphrase 3. Both of these alike resolving that they would not by any means be subject the Philistims c. to David the Jews c. to Christ and the divine laws and rites of Religion by which either of their Kingdoms were to be governed 4. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh the Lord shall have them in derision Paraphrase 4. But God that ruleth all things and is much more powerful than they will defeat all their enterprises and magnifie his divine providence as in the securing of David and giving him Victories over them all so in erecting and inlarging of Christs Kingdom and making the utmost of the malice of men and devils as means of consecrating him to that office of Royal Priesthood to which God had designed him 5. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath and vex them in his sore displeasure Paraphrase 5. All their enterprises against this Government of Gods erecting shall not atattain any part of their desire but only provoke God to great severities and terrible vengeances against them remarkable slaughters in Davids time upon his enemies and under Christs Kingdom the state of Christianity upon the Jews and Romans 6. Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Sion Paraphrase 6. Mean while 't is an eminent act of Gods power and mercy to David that soon after his anointing in Hebron 2 Sam. v. 3. he overcame the Idolatrous Jebusites v. 6. and took the strong hold of Zion and made it the seat of his Kingdom and placed the Ark of the Covenant there and thereupon called it the Mountain of the Lord the hill of holiness and there setled the Kingdom long since fore-promised by Jacob to the Tribe of Judah but never fixed in that Tribe till now And the like but exceedingly more eminent act of power and mercy it was in him to seat Christ in his spiritual throne in the hearts of all faithfull Christians possest before his coming by heathen sins and trusting to false Idol Gods parallel to the lame and the blind 2 Sam. v. 16. i. e. not improbably the Jebusuites images Teraphims or the like which could neither go nor ste and yet were confided in by them that they would defend their city 7. I will declare the decree The Lord hath said unto me Thou art my son this day have I begotten thee Paraphrase 7. Now was that Covenant solemnly sealed and ratified to David which he is therefore to publish unto all so as it shall be in force against all persons that shall transgress it that at this time God hath taken the kingdom from the house of Saul Ishbosheth being now slain 2 Sam. iv 6. and setled it upon David who was anointed over Israel also 2 Sam. v. 3. given him the Rule over his own people set him up as his own son an image of his supremacy having at length delivered him from the power of all his enemies and set him victoriously on his throne in Sion which is a kind of birth-day to him the day of his inauguration the birth-day of his power though not his person of his kingdom though not of the King and this much more considerable than the other And in the parallel the Evangelical Covenant is now sealed to Christ and in him to all faithful Christians a Covenant to be publisht to all the world and the foundation of it laid in the death or rather the resurrection of Christ the eternal Son of God who having taken our mortal flesh and therein offered up a full sacrifice and satisfaction for the sins of the world the third day after was brought forth as by a new birth out of the womb of the grave see Act. xiii 33. now never to die again and thereby hath ascertain'd unto us as many as spiritually partake of these that die unto sin and live again to righteousness a blessed immortal life 8. Ask of me and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance and the outmost parts of the earth for thy possession Paraphrase 8. To this is consequent as a free and special mercy of Gods the inlarging of this his Kingdom not only to the Inhabitants of Judea but to many other heathen nations the Philistims Moabites Ammonites Idumeans and Syrians c. who were all subdued by David through the power of God 2 Sam. v. and viii and x. and subjected to him And so upon the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ by the wonderful blessing of God upon the preaching of the Apostles not only the Jews many thousands of them Rev. vii but the heathens over all the world were brought in to the faith of Christ 9. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron thou shalt dash them in pieces like a Potters vessel Paraphrase 9. All these neighbouring enemies that rise up against him shall he subdue and slay great multitudes of them And so shall Christ deal with his enemies Jews and Heathens subdue some and destroy the impregnable and obdurate 10. Be wise now therefore O ye Kings be instructed ye Judges of the Earth Paraphrase 10. This therefore may be fit matter of admonition to all neighbour Princes as they tender their own welfare that they endeavour to profit by others sufferings and not fall foolishly into the same danger that timely they make their peace and enter into League with David and undertake the Service of the true God which he professes And in like manner when Christ is raised from the dead by his divine power and so instated in his Office of Royal Priesthood it will neerly concern all those that have hitherto stood out
Lord But if it were thus in the Hebrew the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must have been put after 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereas here it is before it Others seem to take 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for a particle aequivalent with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so the interlinear ipsum Decretum but it is more reasonable to take it as vulgarly it is for a preposition signifying de and then it will be best rendred I will tell of a decree or covenant V. 8. Son That David as a King exalted by Gods peculiar command should be stiled Gods Son or that the time of his inauguration or instating in that power taking possession of his throne and subduing his enemies on every side should be exprest by the day of Gods begetting hath nothing strange in it It is affirmed in the name of God Psal lxxxix 26 He shall cry unto me Thou art my Father and v. 27. Also I will make him my first-born higher then the Kings of the earth where each King of the earth is lookt on as a Son of God but he as being higher then they his first-born We know an adopted Son is stiled a Son and Salathiel Mat. i. 12 is said to be begotten by Jechoniah because he succeeded him in the Kingdom though he were not indeed his Son And so may David be Gods Son being immediately exalted by him and indeed all other Kings who are said to reign by him And that the time of his Coronation should be lookt on as his birth-day and accordingly kept festival as the birth-day was that is familiar in all Countreys The Feast of commemorating the building of Rome we know was called Palilia and this title was by decree given to the day of Caius the Emperour his advancement to the Empire Decretum ut dies quo cepisset imperium Palilia vocaretur 'T was decreed that the day on which he began his Reign should be so called and accordingly celebrated And the Emperour generally had two natales or birth-days kept Natalis Imperatoris and Imperii the birth-day of the Emperour and of the Empire the first to commemorate his coming into the World the second his advancement to the Imperial Dignity So Spartianus in Adriano tells us of the Natalis adoptionis the day of his adoption i. e. his civil birth on V. Ides of August and then Natalem Imperii the birth-day of his Empire on the III. And Tacitus of Vespasian Hist l. ii Primus Principatus dies in posterum celebratus the first day of his Empire was celebrated afterwards But then in the mystical sense some difficulty there is what Sonship or begetting of Christ is here meant The Schoolmen from some of the Ancients understand it of the eternal Generation of the Son of God and interpret the hodiè to day of an hodiè aeternitatis a day of eternity But the Apostle S. Paul Act. xiii 33 applies it distinctly to his resurrection He hath raised up Jesus again as it is also written in the second Psalm Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee and so Heb. v. 5. it is brought as an evidence of Christ's being consecrated by his Father to his Melchizedekian High-Priesthood which we know was at his Resurrection Christ glorified not himself to be made an high-Priest but he that said unto him Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee who in the dayes of his flesh v. 7. being made perfect became the Author of eternal salvation called of God an high-Priest v. 9 10. So Heb. 1.5 where this Text is again recited the Context refers it to the exaltation of him in his humane nature when having purged our sins he sate down on the right hand of the Majesty on high being made so much better than the Angels v. 3.4 And to this belongs that of St. Hierom ad Paulin. David Simonides noster Pindarus Alcaeus Christum lyrâ personat decachordo Psalterio ab inferis suscitat resurgentem David our Divine Poet sounds out Christ upon his Harp and with his Psaltery of ten strings awakes him rising from the dead Only it must be remembred that as it was an act of his divine power by which he was raised and so his resurrection was an evidence demonstrative that he was the promised Messias of whom the Learned Jews themselves resolved that he was to be the Son of God and that in an eminent manner so the High-Priest Mat. xxvi 63 Tell us whether thou art the Christ the Son of God and Joh. i. 20 Rabbi thou art the Son of God the King of Israel so this begetting him from the grave to a life immortal did comprehend and presuppose the truth of that other fundamental Article of our Creed that he was that eternal word or Son of God which thus rose Thus the Apostle sets it Rom. i. 4 speaking of Jesus Christ our Lord made of the seed of David according to the flesh and adding that he was declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness by the Resurrection from the Dead Now that this his resurrection and exaltation consequent to it is here fitly exprest by Gods begetting him will easily be believed upon these two accounts 1. That in respect of his humane nature it was a second as that from the Mothers Womb a first entrance on humane life the grave was but a second womb from which now he came forth and it is not unusual to call the resurrection of one of us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a new or second birth 2. That Princes or Rulers are in Scripture style called Gods and children or sons of God I said you are Gods and you are all children of the most high and then instating Christ in his Regal Office is the begetting him and so the saying Thou art my son i. e. by saying constituting him so the second sort of Natalis or birth-day the birth-day of his Kingdom yea and Melchizedekian Priesthood too to that the Apostle applies it Heb. v. 4.5 for to both these he was solemnly installed at his Resurrection The Chaldee of all the Interpreters seem alone not to have understood this mysterie who render it Thou art beloved by me as a Son by a Father thou art pure to me as if this day I had created thee V. 8. Vtmost parts That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 finitus terminatus consumptus est signifies the utmost skirts the extreme parts of that which is spoken of there can be no question All that is here to be noted is the dubious notation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 earth that is joyned with it For if that be interpreted of the Vniverse or whole World then there can here be no place for the historical sense respecting David for it is certain he was never constituted by God the Vniversal Monarch of the whole World Yet on the other side if it be not taken in this latitude it will
took 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Chaldee and Syriack for son for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 purity or pure doctrine But this I confess seems not to me so probable viz. that they should thus mis-read the one and mis-render the other especially when the Chaldee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is elsewhere so evidently and confestly used for son Ezr. 5.1 and again 5.2 and Prov. 31.2 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 purity is somewhat remote from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 discipline when a far more obvious reason may be rendred of it viz. that they did not so much render as paraphrase the Hebrew and so set receiving instruction or discipline as that comprehends both Obedience and Faith the first of the neighbouring Princes to David and both of all sincere Christians to Christ as the most intelligible way of circumlocution to interpret kissing the son V. 12. Perish from the way The phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may here deserve to be considered The affinity with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the way of the wicked shall perish Psal 1.6 may suggest this figurative but literal rendring of it Ye shall perish the way i. e. your way shall perish all you have shall be utterly destroyed Such a kind of construction we have Isai 1.30 Ye shall be as an oak 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 falling the leaf i. e. whose leaf falleth The Chaldee exactly follow the Hebrew and read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Latine renders amittatis viam and ye lose the way so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is primarily used of losing any thing and so saith Castellio perdatis res vestras and ye lose all you have And thus being spoken of enemies assaulting David the phrase may be used for being routed dissipated scattered which is the destruction and bringing to nought of an Army as Act. 5 36. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being dissolved and brought to nothing are put together and 5.37 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Generals being destroyed and his Army being scattered But the Syriack interpose the preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from and so read it as we do perish from the way herein according with the LXXII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be destroyed from or out of the way or as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies tolli being taken out of the way i. e. perishing and sure 't is nothing extraordinary for the preposition in Hebrew Poesie to be understood when 't is omitted and therefore this our vulgar rendering may be adhered to and preferred before the former though the sense be the same in all the ways of rendering Of this phrase Abu Walid in his Dictionary and R. Tanchum on Josh 1. take up an interpretation different from others by rendering 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the notion of the Chaldee verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 calcavit calcatio conculcatio treading on or treading under feet to this sense lest you perish by treading on or being trodden under his feet The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that follows is by the LXXII rendred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quickly suddenly and so is used in other places particularly Psal 81.14 I should 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 soon have destroyed their enemies V. 12. Put their trust 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 literally signifies betaking applying ones self to any as to a refuge or place of strength and safety seeking protection from any and accordingly trusting confiding or hoping in any The former doth here most fitly agree to the Historical sense as it respects David the son which is to be kissed in the beginning of the verse for that is it to which the neighbouring Princes are advised viz. to apply themselves to him by presents to desire protection from him and enter league with him And so also it belongs commodiously to Christ to whom they must betake themselves as to a refuge when the desolation breaks in upon the Jews The Christians that do so are the only persons that escape by flying out of Jerusalem to the Mountains as Christ forewarned them and so in the sacking and taking of Heathen Rome by Alaricus and his Gothish Army they only escaped which fled to the Basilicae i. e. to Christ that was worshipt there Yet may it in this mystical sense be taken in the greatest latitude Christ being the only fit and proper object of our trust and hope though David was not One thing more deserves here to be taken notice of the style or manner of expression If his wrath be kindled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 suddenly Blessed are all they i. e. in prophetick dialect ye shall certainly be destroyed So Rev. 14.13 Blessed are the dead for they rest from their labours is but a way to express the dismal Judgments that were then falling upon the earth as it follows verse 14 15. So Matth. 23.39 Ye shall not see me henceforth till ye shall say Blessed is he that cometh in the Name of the Lord i. e. till I come in a direful manner to take vengeance of you And many other passages of Prophetick Scripture there are in the like or the same dialect The Third PSALM A Psalm of David when he fled from Absalom his Son Paraphrase This third Psalm was composed by David in remembrance of that sad time wherein his own Son having by subtilty withdrawn the hearts of Israel from him 2 Sam. 15.6 and broken out into open rebellion v. 12. he was fain to fly from Jerusalem v. 14. toward the wilderness v. 23. and went up by the ascent of Mount Olivet weeping and his head covered a sign of mourning and barefoot v. 30. then probably pouring out his soul to God in such a manner of sadness and yet trust and dependence on him as was afterwards metrically decyphered in this Psalm and appointed to be sung solemnly to perpetuate the memory of this his forlorn condition not to set out his wars or victories as other Kings are wont to have their triumphs described and songs of victory composed but his fears and flight only And this is also in some degree typical of our Saviours sadness and agony and prayer in the garden Joh. 18.1 which is all one with Gethsemane Matth. 26.36 Mar. 14.32 and that on Mount Oliver Luk. 22.39 41. the very same mount to which David went up when he poured out the substance of this prayer 1. Lord how are they encreased that trouble me many are they that rise up against me Paraphrase 1. O Lord that hast placed me quietly in the throne and subdued all my foreign assailants Psal 2.8 now my perfidious Son hath stolen away the peoples hearts from me and being up in arms 2 Sam. 15. his forces daily encrease and grow very numerous 2. Many there be that say of my Soul There is no help for him in God Selah Paraphrase 2. His numbers are so great and mine so small that they that
instruments that are in use among men in Festivities the Harp and Viol c. will be most fitly used in the singing of Psalms and Hymns unto God 3. Sing unto the Lord a new song play skilfully with a loud noise Paraphrase 3. And the choisest and rarest ditties and the best composed Musick and the most excellent melodious voices are all to be called in to perform this great duty of thanksgiving unto God 4. For the word of the Lord is right and all his works are done in truth Paraphrase 4. For all that God saith or doth is excellently good his commands are of those things which are infinitely best for us his promises abundantly gracious and certain to be performed and his very threats and prohibitions acts of special mercy to keep us from those things which are most pernicious to us As for all his works of providence they are most just and merciful 5. He loveth righteousness and judgment the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. Paraphrase 5. Mercifulness and justice are of all things in the world most approved and valued by him and are by him exemplified to us in all the daily acts of his providence among us 6. By the word of the Lord were the heavens made and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth Paraphrase 6. The whole body of the heavens and all that is in them the Sun Moon and all the Planets and lesser Stars were created by his bare speaking the word commanding that they should have a being Which as it is a most illustrious evidence of his absolute omnipotence so is it of his great goodness also to us for whose benefit they were all created 7. He gathereth the waters of the Sea together as an heap he layeth up the deep in store-houses Paraphrase 7. So in like manner did he sever the waters which covered the face of the earth and confined them to hollow places where though they swell much higher then the shore yet they do not overrun it but are gathered into a round gibbous form and so remain constant within their channel And in those vast cavities of an unfathomable depth he hath laid up the whole Ocean as safe and as far from hurting or drowning or overrunning the earth as corn laid up in a granary as money in a treasury is safe from running out of it A joynt evidence again of his infinite power and goodness 8. Let all the earth fear the Lord let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him Paraphrase 8. As therefore he is thus able to set bounds to that vast element so can he and doth he to the most enormous power of men which may therefore be a just cause of awe and dread to all the men in the world 9. For he spake and it was done he commanded and it stood fast Paraphrase 9. For as a bare word of his immediately created all the world so is every command of his now most certainly obeyed as he pleaseth to dispose so shall it infallibly be 10. The Lord bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought he maketh the devices of the people of none effect Paraphrase 10. Whatsoever godless men see note on Psal 10. m. design or propose to themselves contrary to his will he blastes and frustrates it dissipates all their contrivances be they never so prudently managed by whole multitudes and assemblies of them 11. The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever the thoughts of his heart to all generations Paraphrase 11. Onely that which he hath decreed and purposed shall immutably come to pass 12. Blessed is the man whose God is the Lord and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance Paraphrase 12. O then thrice happy is that Nation and people which have betaken themselves to the sincere service of so great and powerful and gracious a God and whom he hath in so special a sort made choice of to be peculiarly his among them to reveal himself in so eminent a manner 13. The Lord looketh from heaven he beholdeth all the sons of men 14. From the place of his habitation he looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth Paraphrase 13 14. All the men that are in the earth the inhabitants of the whole world are within the compass of his most particular providence though he reside in heaven in a peculiar manner yet from thence he exactly surveighs and beholds all and every their actions and even most secret thoughts 15. He fashioneth their hearts alike he considereth all their thoughts Paraphrase 15. As he is severally and equally the creator of them all and former of their souls as well as bodies so he is certainly able to discern particularly all the operations of their very hearts and is no idle spectator but weigheth and and judgeth all and accordingly rewards every man 16. There is no King saved by the multitude of an host a mighty man is not delivered by much strength Paraphrase 16. 'T is not the multitude or strength of an Army that hath power to secure any Potentate not the valour or puissance of the most glantly person to preserve himself 17. An horse is a vain thing for safety neither shall he deliver any by his great strength Paraphrase 17. An horse is the most valiant and docile beast and generally the most used in Military affairs in respect both of his courage and swiftness vigour and activity yet he that depends thereon for his safety or good success in a battel oft finds him a very deceitful false aid is pitifully disappointed by him 18. Behold the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him upon them that hope in his mercy Paraphrase 18. The only security is to be sought from the favour and protection of God and the way to qualifie our selves for that is by conjoyning our uniform sincere obedience to him and our unshaken constant relyance on his mercy 19. To deliver their soul from death and to keep them alive in famine Paraphrase 19. To such as are thus qualified his protection will not fail whatsoever the danger be how great soever the seeming destitution 20. Our soul waiteth for the Lord he is our help and our shield Paraphrase 20. The Lord is our only aid and protector to him therefore is all the desire of our souls 21. For our heart shall rejoyce in him because we have trusted in his holy name Paraphrase 21. And whatsoever befalls us we shall most cheerfully and not only patiently support it as having full assurance and confidence in him that he will either rescue us out of it or else convert it to our greatest advantage 22. Let thy mercy O Lord be upon us according as we hope in thee Paraphrase 22. O Lord our full trust is in thee let thy mercy come down upon us we beseech thee Annotations on Psal XXXIII V. 2. Instrument of ten strings From 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
of a contrite spirit Paraphrase 18. All humble-minded men sincerely changed from all their former sins have assurance of Gods special favour to them and of the effects thereof his merciful deliverances whensoever they stand in need of them 19. Many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivereth them out of them all Paraphrase 19. Though pious and good men fall into many afflictions Gods providence for their exercise and other wise ends so disposing or permitting it yet he in his chosen season rescueth them out of all 20. He keepeth all his bones not one of them is broken Paraphrase 20. The providence of God pertaineth to every the least part of the body of every servant of his and evidenceth it self in a signal preservation of such from all dangers This had a more eminent and literal completion in our blessed Saviour whose legs were not broken when they were of both the Theeves that were crucified with him Joh. 19.36 21. Evil shall slay the wicked and they that hate the righteous shall be desolate Paraphrase 21. On the other side the perhaps fewer afflictions that befall wicked men shall be the utter destroying of them and generally the aphorism will be found to hold That they that design mischief to good men shall be remarkably punisht in this world 22. The Lord redeemeth the soul of his servants and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate Paraphrase 22. Whilst the obedient servants of God that rely and depend on him have assurance of being delivered and never forsaken by him Annotations on Psal XXXIV V. 5. They looked the LXXII render the verse in the Imperative which the Hebrew as now we have it doth not bear This makes some think that they read otherwise than now we do not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they lookt but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 look or come or address and so render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Latine accedite come ye and then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being taken as it may in the imperative and so rendred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be ye inlightned the change will be easie from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their faces to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 your faces But it is more likely that the LXXII chose to render the sense not the words and so put it into the Imperative mood thereby most perspicuously to express it and herein the Syriack as well as the Latine and Arabick and Aethiopick follow them to which they might be inclined by seeing that there was no antecedent immediately foregoing to which the relative they should be thought to refer Only the Chaldee adheres literally to the Hebrew and will both of them be best interpreted by referring to the humble v. 2. and by making David himself to be the him to whom the humble looking and seeing how God had dealt with him were inlightned revived and encouraged by that means and so to them also may be fitly applyed the sixth verse as the speech of these humble The poor man cryed i. e. David in his distress and the Lord heard him c. V. 10. Young Lions Where the Hebrew reads 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 young lions and so the Chaldee from them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sons of lions the LXXII render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the rich and herein the Latine and Syriack and Arabick and Aethiopick follow them not that they can be thought to have read the original any otherwise than now we do but after their wont rendring the sense rather than words and so as in prophetick writings Ezek. 38.13 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his young lions is by the Chaldee paraphrased 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Kings so here cruel and rapacious men being compared to lions they have chosen for lions whelps to set rich men viz. such whose wealth is gathered by the rapine of their parents V. 16. The face What 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 faces here signifies will be best learnt from Maimonides More Nevoch par 1. c. 37. It is used saith he for anger and indignation to which purpose he cites 1 Sam. 1.18 where saith he the phrases 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 her faces were no more to her signifies her anger continued to her no longer and to this sense the Arabick renders it her countenance was no more changed for the exprobration of her rival expressing it to be the passion of jealousie and that is anger which is there spoken of So Lam. 4.16 we read the anger it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 faces of the Lord divided them So Lev. 20.5 I will set my face i. e. my anger against that man and so frequently elsewhere and so saith he it is in this verse Accordingly the Chaldee read but the countenance of the Lord is angry against them and so the consequents inforce to cut off Upon the same grounds it is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 parts of the face signifie anger because passion immediately discovers it self there So Dan. 3.18 the forme of Nebuchadnezzars visage was changed and Gen. 2.5 Cain was very wroth and his Countenance fell V. 17. The righteous cry The placing of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they cryed in the beginning of this v. 17. may be worthy to be taken notice of That it belongs to righteous or pious men there can be no doubt and accordingly all the Interpreters thus supply it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the righteous cryed say the LXXII and so all the rest But how it comes to be so when the verse immediately precedent belongs to them that do evill is the only matter of difficulty And the answer is obvious that the sixteenth verse is to be read as in a parenthesis and the word righteous v. 15. who are there said to cry will be the immediate antecedent to which they cryed must necessarily refer And therefore it will be best so to include v. 16. and in token thereof to affix the most literal rendring to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They cryed and not The righteous cryed V. 21. Evil shall slay For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall slay which we read from the Hebrew the LXXII seem to have read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 occision for so they render it in conjunction with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the death of sinners is evil But the Syriack adhere to our vulgar reading 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Evil shall slay the wicked by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 understanding the same that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. 19. had signified i. e. afflictions or evil of punishment which being applyed to the righteous though in the plural prove not ruinous or hurtful to him the Lord delivers him out of them whereas here evil in the singular slayes the wicked to signifie the difference of Gods oeconomy toward righteous and wicked men The former is permitted to fall into many pressures the latter is not so
shall be sufficient to bring down thy greatest enemies and many shall feel the effects of it being conquered by thee In the mystery the grace of Christ shall come with great efficacy to the converting of Idolatrous heathens and shall be mightily successful in bringing the Gentile world to subjection to his kingdom 6. Thy throne O God is for ever and ever the scepter of thy kingdom is a right scepter Paraphrase 6. The kingdom of the Messias is never to have an end the Laws by which 't is administred are admirably good and just most agreeable to the dictates of true reason and the nature of man not seduced or corrupted with passion And herein is Solomon a type of him the kingdom of Judah now setled on him shall indure till the time of the Messiah's coming and entring on his immutable kingdom And they are divine laws of Gods own prescribing by which he shall administer his government 7. Thou lovest righteousness and hatest wickedness therefore God thy God hath anointed thee with the oyl of gladness above thy fellows Paraphrase 7. He hath earnestly espoused the cause of all goodness justice hath wrought by his precepts and promises and grace effectually to bring the practice of all virtue into the world and beareth a perfect hatred against vice and by strict prohibitions and threats of eternal hell and by suffering himself upon the cross for our sins an example of Gods great wrath against sin chusing rather to punish it on his own Son than to suffer it to go unpunisht hath laboured to cast that out of mens hearts And therefore God the Father hath advanced and dignified him above all Angels and men see note on Matth. 26. c. and Act. 10.10 exalted him to his own right hand there to reign for ever and to dispence his graces abundantly and freely into all mens hearts Herein also was Solomon a type of the Messias whose choise of wisdom rather then of all secular wealth was highly rewarded by God beyond all other men 8. All thy garments smell of Myrrhe Aloes and Cassia out of the Ivory palaces whereby they have made thee glad Paraphrase 8. This Bridegrooms garments are very richly perfumed the odour of them comes out from the magnificent rooms wherein he takes pleasure and so commonly resides in them And so the mystical Bridegroom Christ his graces send forth a most fragant perfume most grateful and pleasant to all to whom they come 9. Kings daughters were among thy honourable women upon thy right hand did stand the Queen in gold of Ophir Paraphrase 9. He is very magnificently attended many royal beauties are in his train and his Bride the Queen is placed at his right hand in the most glorious nuptial array Proportionably the faith of the Messias shall be received by many persons of great rank in the world and the Church his spouse shall be advanced by him to a most flourishing condition 10. Hearken O daughter and consider and incline thine ear forget also thine own people and thy fathers house Paraphrase 10. It will now be happy for the Bride if she will consider the true dignity she is advanced to and the advantages she may reap by it if she will utterly forsake the Idolatries wherein she hath been brought up in Aegypt as the new-married spouse entring into a new family must relinquish all her old relations and not preserve so much as her former name and give up her faith and obedience uniformly to the law of the true God which here is worshipt And so in the mystical sense the Jews being assumed after their many adulteries and divorces unto that better wedlock celebrated in the Gospel must think themselves obliged to forget their old relations all the rites of their law nay the distinctive marks of their extraction from the loins of Abraham circumcision c. and so recommend themselves to their Lord and Bridegroom And so generally they that will come to be members of the Christian Church must forsake all their old wicked courses and perform all diligent faithful chearful obedience to the commands of Christ or else they will be little the better for being Christians 11. So shall the King greatly desire thy beauty for he is thy Lord God and worship thou him Paraphrase 11. So shall she become truly amiable to her husband Solomon the King the type of the Messias that eternal son of God who when he comes into the world shall be the very God of heaven in our humane nature and is therefore he and none but he to be adored by all men in the world and so shall be acknowledged and worshipt by the Christian-Church see Justin Martyr Dial. cum Tryph. p. 287. B. 12. And the daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift even the rich among the people shall intreat thy favour Paraphrase 12. The Tyrians shall bring him presents see 1 King 5. and so the greatest and most potent of his Neighbours shall court him and be ambitious of his friendship And so shall the heathen people come in to the faith of Christ and in process of time the Emperors and greatest Princes 13. The Kings daughter is all glorious within her cloathing is of wrought gold Paraphrase 13. The spouse being of a regal extraction is a very accomplisht person both in respect of inward virtues and outward splendor and magnificence And such shall be the Christian Church gathered first and made up of the pious faithful remnant of the Jews 14. She shall be brought unto the King in raiment of needle-work The virgins her companions that follow her shall be brought unto thee Paraphrase 14. She shall be conducted to the Bridegroom in a very sumptuous and glorious guise and attended with her Bride-maids after the nuptial manner And this signifies the Churches glory inward from the graces of God humility charity c. with which it is content without any others and yet hath also the accession of outward from the good Providence of God waiting over it and advancing it to a very flourishing condition Nor shall this Elder sister the daughter of Sion the Jewish believers come single to these nuptials But the Gentile Churches aâ— virgins to accompany the Spouse shall likewise come in to the faith be presented to him a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but holy and without blemish Ephes 5.17 15. With gladness and rejoycing shall they be brought and shall enter into the Kings palace Paraphrase 15. And this shall be a very joyful and festival meeting And so shall the reception of the Christian faith in the heathen world their entring into the Church the palace and house of God and their giving themselves faederally to the obedience of Christ there being no state of life in this world so blessed and matter of so much inward real satisfaction and joy as the life of a sincerely humble and charitable Christian 16. In stead
of promise to me and all thy rich mercies I will in the solemnest manner exalt and praise thy Name O thou great and only God of heaven who hast revealed thy self to thy people 23. My lips shall greatly rejoyce when I sing unto thee and my soul which thou hast redeemed Paraphrase 23. And this shall be to me the joyfullest imployment in the world joy to my tongue that is above measure honoured by being the instrument of thy praises and joy to my very life which hath been rescued by thee from such present dangers 24. My tongue also shall talk of thy righteousness all the day long for they are confounded for they are brought unto shame that seek my hurt Paraphrase 24. And therefore being the pleasantest it shall also be the most constant imployment of my life to depraedicate thy mercy and performance of all thy gratious promises who hast secured me and disappointed and frustrated all mine enemies Annotations on Psalm LXXI V. 15. The numbers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 numeravit regularly signifies numbers and so the Chaldee renders it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the numbers of them and Symmachus accordingly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I know not how to number The LXXII now read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I know not tradings negotiationes saith the Roman Psaltery But the Latine reading literaturam makes it more probable that the more antient reading of the LXXII was not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Syriack retein the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the numbers thereof and is not so well rendred by the Latine Scripturam The elegancy is here observable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my mouth shall number or recount thy righteousness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though I know not the number of them they being so numerous that 't is not possible to count them V. 16. I will go 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to go or go in signifies among many other things the administration of any publick office See Numb 27.16 17. where to go out and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to go in before them is to govern the people and so oft elsewhere and so also of more private actions Deut. 28.6 Thou shalt be blest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in thy going out i. e. in all thy undertakings And thus without the addition of going out it is here used for any action of his life V. 21. Comfort 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 conversus fuit doth regularly signifie shalt return so all the antient Interpreters seem to understand it and not in the notion of circuivit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thou hast returned and comforted say the LXXII and so the Latine reversus the Chaldee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to return The Seventy Second PSALM A Psalm for Solomon Paraphrase The seventy second Psalm was composed in contemplation of Solomons succeeding David in the throne and the happy days of his reign and under that type looks forward to the days of the Messias as the Jews themselves apply it see note c. 1. Give the King thy judgments O God and thy righteousness unto the Kings son Paraphrase 1. O Lord I beseech thee to pour out upon Solomon my son who is to succeed me in the throne all the royal virtues and skill in government according to the rule which thou hast prescribed to Kings and all manner of justice and goodness in the admiration of so sublime an office 2. He shall judge thy people with righteousness and thy poor with judgment Paraphrase 2. That so he may manage this power with all indifferency and impartially relieve all that make their appeals to his tribunal 3. The mountains shall bring peace unto the people and the little hills by righteousness Paraphrase 3. And both the higher and lower Judicatures move so regularly that the whole Kingdom may be governed peaceably and justly 4. He shall judge the poor of the people he shall save the children of the needy and break in pieces the oppressor Paraphrase 4. And all innocent persons receive the benefit of his patronage and protection and all injurious invaders of others rights be severely punished by him 5. They shall fear thee as long as the Sun and Moon indure throughout all generations Paraphrase 5. Then shall his government be famed and his wisdom and happy administration be lookt on with continual reverence by all posterities and therein be a type of the Kingdom of the Messias who shall descend from him and set up his throne in mens hearts when the Jewish Kingdom shall determine and be adored and worshipped at set hours constantly every day throughout all ages 6. He shall come down like rain upon the mowed grass as showers that water the earth Paraphrase 6. Then shall he be an instrument under God of refreshment and incouragement and growth to all virtue and so shall the Messias in a most eminent manner 7. In his days shall the righteous flourish and abundance of peace so long as the Moon endureth Paraphrase 7. And as long as he reigns the nation shall be managed with all justice and peaceableness and prosperity and from him shall the Messiah arise in the time appointed by God and settle and establish a Church which shall never utterly perish till the end of the world 8. He shall have dominion also from sea to sea and from the river unto the ends of the earth Paraphrase 8. The whole Jewish nation the Kingdom of Israel and Judah both shall remain under his subjection as long as he lives see note on Psal 11. f. and so shall the bordering nations also the Philistims and Moab 〈◊〉 and Idumâ—ans and Syrians c. As for the Messias of whom he is the most eminent type he shall begin his spiritual Kingdom in Judaea and propagate it over all the world 9. They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him and his enemies shall lick the dust Paraphrase 9. And others more remote shall do him homage and those that oppose and make war against him shall be subdued and destroyed And so in the days of the Messias the heathen nations shall submit to the faith of Christ and they that obstinately oppose it shall be destroyed 10. The Kings of Tarshish and of the Isles shall bring presents the Kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts Paraphrase 10. And many Princes from the remotest parts of the world see note on Psal 48.6 shall send tokens of their respect and reverence to him see note c. and 1 King 10.1 Matth. 12.42 And so in like manner the Gentile nations shall receive the faith of Christ and as a praesignification thereof the Magi Mat. 2. shall bring him presents as soon as he is born 11. Yea all Kings shall fall down before him all nations shall serve him Paraphrase 11. And in suâ— the generality of the
earth are out of course Paraphrase 5. But impious obstinate men pervert justice and proceed without all remorse in their corrupt courses a gift blindeth the eyes of the Wise or Seer Exod. 23.8 and so those that should rule and administer the several Nations of the earth uprightly and preserve Justice among all men are themselves the most unjust and thereby the Authors of all mischiefs to the world 6. I have said you are gods and all of you are children of the most High 7. But ye shall dye like men and fall like one of the Princes Paraphrase 6 7. By their commissions and power derived to them from the God of heaven they are a sort of terrestrial Angels imployed and innobled by God and as children are of parents his copies and images upon earth But this doth not so priviledge them as to give them immunity from the common fate of all men whether people or Prince that of mortality nor consequently from that severe account and reward of their actions which after death expects all such 8. Arise O God judge the earth for thou shalt inherit all nations Paraphrase 8. It being most certain that such a judgment of God shall one day come wherein the whole world shall be concerned all the men on earth being the subjects of the supreme Deity and so accountable and sadly punishable for all they have ever offended Annotations on Psalm LXXXII V. 1. The mighty That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the title of God is sufficiently known taken from his supreme power which he hath over all the world And then Gods standing i. e. presiding so 1 Sam. 19.20 Samuel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stood presiding over them in the congregation of God i. e. in his own judicature so the Jewish Arab saith that it is the repetition of the name again instead of the affix or that which is erected and authorized by him is the same which we read 2 Chr. 19.6 He said unto the Judges Take heed what you do for ye judge not for men but for the Lord who is with you in the judgment R. Obad. Gaon glosseth it that God is an assistant and defender when they judge righteously but a revenger when they pervert judgment The Jewish Arab reads Gods command standeth is placed in the conventions among the judges when they judge i. e. by his commission it is that they do act Ibid. Gods What 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here signifies may be examined by the use of the word in other places As Ps 86.8 There is none like unto thee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 among these Elohim where the Chaldee expresly renders it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 among the high angels So 1 Sam. 28.13 I saw 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Elohim ascending out of the Earth the Targum reads again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an angel of the Lord. So here v. 6. I said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ye are Elohim the Chaldee read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Angels And when it there follows 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and children or sons of the most High they render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and as the high angels in the notion of sons of God Job 1.6 and 2.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sons of God came i. e. saith the Chaldee in consent with all interpreters in that place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the assemblies of angels This therefore being the frequent known use or the word and that taken from the office of angels to be the ministers and legates and officers sent from whence is their title both in Hebrew and Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and commissionated by God whose name therefore they bear it is by the same reason of analogy applyed to all Judges and Magistrates and accordingly Psal 138.1 this same word is by the Chaldee rendred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Judges and by the Syriack 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Kings administring justice to the people in the name and by commission from God whose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ministers they are Rom. 13.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 appointed by God v. 1. and their assembly the judicature of God in the beginning of this verse Among these God is here said to be the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Punick notion of Suffes for a Dictator or Supreme judge V. 3. Do justice From 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 justus fuit is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Hiphil to justifie in the notion of acquitting or absolving and is set opposite to condemning Deut. 25.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and they shall justifie or acquit the just and condemn the wicked So Prov. 17.15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he that acquits the impious and condemns the just And so here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being spoken of a Judge whose office it is to acquit or condemn must in all reason be rendred in that notion of acquitting from the charge that injurious men lay against him V. 6. I said ye are gods These words being cited by Christ Jo. 10.34 are introduced in this stile Is it not written in your Law From hence the conclusion is necessary that this Book of Psalms was among the Jews lookt on as a part of the Divine Law in a more wide and loose notion of law as the writings of the Prophets and all that were inspired by God and bring divine authority along with them are styled Law To this purpose the words of Midras Tehillim are observable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Psalms are thora i. e. the Law And to that perhaps may be referred what we find Psal 78.1 Hear my Law O my people by law meaning the same thing which in the end of the verse is called the words of my mouth i. e. the Psalm which he is there inditing as it follows I will open my mouth into a parable c. The Eighty Third PSALM A Song or Psalm of Asaph Paraphrase The Eighty third Psalm the last of the number of those that were composed by Asaph is a complaint addrest to God against the oppressors and adversaries of his people the Jews and under that type of the opposers of the Church of Christ and a prediction of Gods severe punishments that should fall upon them It seems most probably to have been composed in Jehosaphats time yet may not unfitly be referred to all the oppositions against the Jews to the time of the captivity under the Assyrians see note c. 1. Keep not thou silence O God hold not thy peace and be not still O God 2. For loe thine enemies make a tumult and they that hate thee have lift up their head Paraphrase 1 2. O blessed Lord be thou at length pleased to shew forth thy self to interpose and vindicate thine own honour in repressing the proud tumultuous importunate adversaries of thee and of thy people 3. They have taken crafty counsel against thy people and consulted against thy hidden ones
glorifying thee 6. For who in the heaven can be compared unto the Lord who among the sons of the mighty can be likened unto the Lord Paraphrase 6. For though they be glorious creatures and instruments and ministers of God yet there is no least comparison between all the power and operations of all those and that which is performed by God in these his admirable dispensations toward his people which therefore are to be lookt on with amazement and highest degree of reverence and adoration by all those glorious creatures which attend him 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 8. O Lord God of hosts who is a strong Lord like unto thee or to thy faithfulness round about thee Paraphrase 8. Thou art the Lord and only supreme commander of all those Armies of Angels and as thou art armed with power above all those so art thou guarded with fidelity by the former thou canst and by the latter thou wilt certainly perform all that thou hast covenanted with us 9. Thou rulest the raging of the Sea when the waves thereof arise thou stillest them Paraphrase 9. Thy power is sufficient to bring down and tame the proudest and most tumultuous element the very Ocean it self when it is most boysterous is immediately quiet at thy command 10. Thou hast broken Rahab in pieces as one that is slain thou hast scattered thine enemies with thy strong arme Paraphrase 10. By this means as once thou gavest thy people the children of Israel a passage out of Aegypt through the channel of the Red Sea so didst thou return the Sea upon Pharaoh and the Aegyptians the tyrannizing enemies of thy people destroyedst him there as discernibly and illustriously as if thou hadst slain him with a Sword and together with him by thine own immediate interposition didst then overwhelme and drown the Aegyptians 11. The heavens are thine the earth also is thine as for the world and the fulness thereof thou hast founded them Paraphrase 11. Thou art the only creator of the whole world and all that therein is thou gavest it that stable firm being that it hath so that the sea though much higher than the rest of the Globe doth not yet drown the earth And as in the Creation all was ordered by thy command so hast thou still the only right of power and dominion over all in the administration of things 12. The North and the South thou hast created them Tabor and Hermon shall rejoyce in thy name Paraphrase 12. All the regions of all the quarters of the earth as the Northern and Southern so the Western and Eastern coasts are created by thy power and protected and supported by it and accordingly are obliged to bless thy providence for all the least good that they enjoy 13. Thou hast a mighty arme strong is thy hand and high is thy right hand Paraphrase 13. Thy power is far removed above all the oppositions and resistances in nature whatsoever thou wilt thou art perfectly able to do and thy providential power of mercy of delivering and obliging is above all the other works of it eminently observable 14. Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne mercy and truth shall go before thy face Paraphrase 14. Whatsoever thou doest thy mercy and pity is discernible in it and so is thy justice and fidelity also Thou makest promises of abundant mercy to thy servants and never fallest to perform them 15. Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound they shall walk O Lord in the light of thy countenance Paraphrase 15. And 't is no small degree of bliss to be thus honoured by God as the people of Israel is to receive such stupendious mercies from him and to be taught the way of praising and acknowledging his mercies so as will be acceptable to him such as they are secured of Gods continual favour if they be not stupidly wanting to themselves there being no more required of them than humbly to beg and qualifie themselves to receive his mercies and then thankfully to acknowledge and being secured of this they can want nothing to live most comfortably and pleasurably Psal 135.3 16. In thy name shall they rejoyce all the day and in thy righteousness shall they be exalted Paraphrase 16. Two soveraign benefits shall they enjoy hereby 1. a continual delight and joy that they are favoured by thee which they shall as delightfully express in singing continual praises to thee and this very communion with God a confidence of Gods kindness and a perpetual blessing him for it is of all others the most pleasurable way of living a paradise or antepast of heaven here 2. the natural consequent of Gods favour and mercy his raising them up out of the most low and dejected state see v. 17. to the greatest height of dignity 17. For thou art the glory of their strength and in thy favour shall our horn be exalted Paraphrase 17. For though such men have no solid strength of their own yet by additions they receive from thee they may confidently attempt any thing and depend on thee for the performance And that gives us thy servants by thy continued favour and kindness to us an humble assurance that thou wilt raise us out of our present dejection v. 38. c. to an high degree of power and dignity see Luk. 1. note n. 18. For the Lord is our defence and the holy one of Israel is our King Paraphrase 18 The ground of our assurance being only this that the supreme God of heaven and earth he that hath made and performed such wonderful promises to this people of Israel and by his own special providence appointed David to be King over us by this owning us peculiarly as his own Kingdom is he that undertakes to shield and secure us from all dangers 19. Then thou spakest in vision to thy holy one and saidst I have laid help upon one that is mighty I have exalted one chosen out of the people 20. I have found David my servant with my holy oyle have I anointed him Paraphrase 19 20. One special act of his goodness to us it was that appearing in vision to Samuel the good Prophet he told him who it was that he had chosen to be King in Saul's stead to rule and defend his people a person of eminent vertues and though mean in the eyes of men an approved faithful servant of his herein an eminent type of Christ the fountain of all good to mankind 21. With whom mine hand shall be established mine arme also shall strengthen him Paraphrase 21. To him God promised to be always present and ready at hand to assist and preserve and secure him in all his undertakings 22. The enemy shall not exact upon him nor the son of wickedness afflict him Paraphrase 22. To protect him from the stratagems
Christ discernible in this prophecy which after by some unskilfull Scribe was inserted in the Text and so perhaps in more than one found by Justin and by his writings communicated to others who examin'd not the truth by the Hebrew Text or more ancient Copies of the LXXII Meanwhile by this gloss and the reception of it with Justin and Tertullian and Augustin c. it competently appears to have been the opinion of the first Christians those before as well as after Justin that these words the Lord reigneth and so this Psalm belonged to the resurrection of Christ and the regal power wherein that installed him and accordingly it was used in the Eastern service and this Kingdom of his set up here in this world in converting both Jews and heathens and bringing them into the Church This is the ground of the style wherein the verse begins and this his Kingdom is mentioned Say among the heathen that the Lord reigneth as before v. 6. that all the Gods of the heathens are Idols or no Gods but 't is God that made the heavens i. e. that this God that made the heavens should cast out all the heathen Gods out of their Temples and set up his spiritual Kingdom in its stead throughout the heathen world which is the interpretation of his coming to judge the earth v. 12. thus exercising his regal power to which he was inaugurated in destroying idolatry through the world From this and the like predictions it was that as Tacitus Hist l. 5. c. 13. Sueton. in Vespas c. 4. and Josephus de Bell. Judaic l. 5. c. 12. tell us there was an universal belief and rumour scattered through the East before the reign of Vespasian soon after the resurrection of Christ that a King should come thence and reign over the whole world which the heathen ignorantly applied to Vespasian but was thus verified in Christ not in his birth but in this spiritual exercise of his regality partly in converting Jews and Gentiles to the Faith and partly in destroying their worship the Mosaical Rites together with the Temple on one side and the heathen Temples and Oracles on the other side V. 11. The heavens The heavens and earth and sea and fields and trees are here put together after the Scripture-style which useth by the enumeration of parts to signifie the whole to denote the whole inferiour world which interpreting the heavens of the aiery regions is made up of these see note on 2 Pet. 3. e. Then for that phrase the whole world that in the sacred dialect also as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every creature signifies the whole heathen world see note on Mar. 16. b. and Rom. 8. d. and so these two v. 11. and 12 13. are but a poetical expression of the great causes of joy that this Kingdom of Christ exprest by the Lord 's reigning v. 10. and coming to judge the world v. 13. which should be spiritually erected among them should bring to the heathen world The Ninety Seventh PSALM The ninety seventh Psalm agreeable to the ninety sixth is the praising the God of heaven for his works of justice and mercy 'T is thought to be composed by David on occasion of his peaceable re-establishment in his kingdom after the rebellion and destruction of Absalom but it as literally contains a prediction of the Messias his inauguration to his regal Office and the signal exercise thereof in the destruction of his crucifiers and all other enemies of his kingdom See note a. 1. THE Lord reigneth let the earth rejoyce let the multitude of the Isles be glad thereof Paraphrase 1. God hath subdued all the enemies and opposers of that kingdom which he hath been pleased to erect to seat his anointed quietly in his throne an eminent type of the kingdom of the Messias which is to commence at his resurrection and to be set up in the hearts of believers and shall prove matter of all true joy to all the heathen world and the several nations thereof as well as to the Jews 2. Clouds and darkness are round about him righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne Paraphrase 2. His judgments are secret and unsearchable and so the infinitely wise ways and depths of his providence but all founded in and managed with most perfect justice and rectitude 3. A fire goeth before him and burneth up his enemies round about 4. His lightning inlightned the world the earth saw and trembled 5. The hills melted like wax at the presence of the Lord at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth Paraphrase 3 4 5. Those that will not receive him when after his miraculous resurrection and ascension the Gospel is preached to them shall be soon overwhelmed with signal judgments from heaven as remarkable and formidable and as fully evidenced to be the effects of God's wrath as if fire from heaven or flames of lightnings or Angels the witnesses of God's presence should visibly appear in their destruction And this first and in the most illustrious manner to be executed on the nation of the Jews the crucifiers the City and Temple of Jerusalem and after upon heathen Rome c. 6. The heavens declare his righteousness and all the people see his glory Paraphrase 6. And all Angels and men shall discern and acknowledge and proclaim the great justice of it and the glorious manifestation of the divine power of Christ in the ruine of his malicious opposets 7. Confounded be all they that serve graven images that boast themselves of idols worship him all ye Gods Paraphrase 7. This vengeance all are to expect among the nations who do not presently forsake the worship of their false Gods see Psal 96. note a. that still adhere to idols when the faith of Christ the eternal God Creatour of the world whom the very Angels adore and obey Heb. 1.6 is preached among them There being no way to rescue Idolaters from this ruine but an hearty speedy acceptation of the Christian faith as appeared in the Roman Empire 8. Sion heard and was glad and the daughters of Judah rejoyced because of thy judgments O Lord. Paraphrase 8. This was good news both to Jerusalem and the villages and towns about the daughters of that mother city And all the true children of Abraham all the believing Jews and Gentiles also shall by this means be delivered from their persecutions and so obliged to glorifie the justice and mercy of God in it 9. For thou Lord art high above all the earth thou art exalted far above all Gods Paraphrase 9. For this Messias whom we have hoped for so long is the supreme God of heaven and earth whose creatures they are which all the idolatrous people of the world have worshipt for Gods and accordingly at the preaching of the Gospel all their oracles and worships shall vanish 10. Ye that love the Lord hate evil he preserveth the soul of his saints he delivereth them
provoked his spirit so that he spake unadvisedly with his lips Paraphrase 32 33. Before this is set down Num. 20. another murmuring of our Fathers against God occasioned by some want of water at Meribah a place so called from their chiding and contending with Moses where in their rage they wished they had died in that former plague Numb 11.13 And this their peevishness was a provocation to Moses who though he were a meek man brake out into a passionate speech v. 10. Hear ye now ye rebels shall we fetch you water out of this rock Wherein as he spake with some diffidence as if it were impossible to fetch water out of the rock when God had assured him v. 8. that at his speaking to the rock it should bring forth water sufficient for them all and is accordingly challenged of unbelief v. 12. so he seems to have assumed somewhat to themselves shall we and so did not sanctifie God in the eyes of the people of Israel v. 12. did not endeavour as he ought to set forth God's power and glory and attribute all to him And this passionate speech cost Moses very dear and was punished with his exclusion out of Canaan v. 12. Deut. 1.35 and 3.26 and 4.21 and 34.4 34. They did not destroy the nations concerning whom the Lord commanded them 35. But were mingled among the heathen and learned their works 36. And they served their idols which were a snare to them 37. Yea they sacrificed their sons and daughters unto devils 38. And shed innocent blood even the blood of their sons and of their daughters whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan and the land was polluted with blood 39. Thus were they defiled with their own works and went a whoring with their own inventions Paraphrase 34 35 36 37 38 39. After all this when at length they were come into the promised land and had received particular command Deut. 7.2 that they should utterly destroy all the idolatrous inhabitants thereof for fear they should be inveigled by them and drawn away to their idol-worship and those abominable pollutions they were infamously guilty of yet contrary to this express command of God's they did not execute this severity they spared them and drave them not out but permitted them to live amongst them Jud. 1.21 and so 't is oft mentioned through that book and by this means they were corrupted and brought into their heathen sins see Jud. 3.6.7 worshipt their Idols and false Gods and observed those abominable rites which infernal spirits had exacted of their worshippers the slaying and sacrificing of men innocent persons yea their own dearest children and so to idolatry and worship of the Devil they added blood-guiltiness of the highest degree the deepest dye even the most barbarous and unnatural and to all these yet farther adding fornication and those abominable sins that those nations were guilty of and for which the land spued them out Lev. 18.28 40. Therefore was the wrath of God kindled against his people in so much that he abhorred his own inheritance Paraphrase 40. This great sin adding to all the former provocations most justly inflamed the vehement anger and displeasure of God against this people of which he had before resolved and promised Abraham that he would own them for ever as his peculiar and so a long while he did and bare with them very indulgently but they growing still worse and worse 't was but reasonable and according to the contents of his not absolute but conditionate covenant at length to reject and cast them off or withdraw his protection from them 41. And he gave them into the hands of the heathen and they that hated them ruled over them 42. Their enemies also oppressed them and they were brought in subjection under their hand Paraphrase 41 42. And accordingly so he did he suffered the heathen nations about them to invade and overcome them the King of Mesopotamia Jud. 3.8 who had dominion over them eight years the Midianites and Amalekites Jud. 6.3 the Philistims and Amorites Jud. 10.6 the Philistims Jud. 13.1 43. Many times did he deliver them but they provoked him with their counsel and were brought low for their iniquity Paraphrase 43. In each of these destitutions and oppressions God still reteined his wonted respect to them so far as from time to time to raise them up Captains to undertake their battels and to rescue them out of their oppressors hands but then still again they fell to their sinfull idolatrous courses and again forfeited and devested themselves of God's protection and were again subdued by the same or some other of their heathen neighbours 44. Nevertheless he regarded their affliction when he heard their cry 45. And he remembred for them his Covenant and repented according to the multitude of his mercies 46. He made them also to be pitied of all those that carried them captives Paraphrase 44 45 46. And yet then also he did not utterly destitute them but in their times of distress and flying to him for succour he looked upon them with pity again remembred the covenant made with their Fathers and in infinite mercy returned from his fierce wrath and so inclined the hearts of those that had conquered them that instead of increasing they compassionated their miseries 47. Save us O Lord our God and gather us from among the heathen to give thanks to thy holy name and to triumph in thy praise Paraphrase 47. O blessed Lord be thou now pleased to return our captivity to reduce us from the hands of our heathen enemies that we may live to enjoy those blessed opportunities of making our most solemn acknowledgments to thee and blessing and magnifying thy holy name in this or the like form 48. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting and let all the people say Amen Praise ye the Lord. Paraphrase 48. To the almighty Lord of heaven and earth that hath made good his covenant of mercy to all his faithfull servants be all honour and glory from all and to all eternity And let all the world join in this joyfull acclamation adding every one his most affectionate Amen and Hallelujah Annotations on Psal CVI. Tit. Praise the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is here no part but onely the title of this Psalm This appears by two competent evidences 1. By the joint suffrage of all the ancient Translators of which the Syriack renders it not at all but in stead of it gives as their use is a large syllabus or contents of the Psalm but the Chaldee retein it as a title and the LXXII and Latin retein the Hebrew words putting them into one in the direct form of a title 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Alleluja and the Arabick more expresly such a Psalm noted with the title of Alleluja 2. By express testimony of Scripture 1 Chron. 16. There we reade v. 7. On that day David delivered first not this Psalm as we
vengeances as on so many accursed Malefactors whose lives and estates being forfeited to the law their widow'd wives and orphan children shall become vagabonds over the face of the earth covetous and griping and beggerly for ever 11. Let the extortioner catch all that he hath and let the stranger spoil his labour 12. Let there be none to extend mercy to him neither let there be any to favour his fatherless children Paraphrase 11 12. And as they corrade and indeavour to get together the wealth of others so shall others when they have any thing to be seis'd on plunder and rifle and pillage them rob them of all these gainings and no man take any compassion on them or their posterity in their sufferings be they never so cruel 13. Let his posterity be cut off and in the generation following let their name be blotted out 14. Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembred with the Lord and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out 15. Let them be before the Lord continually that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth Paraphrase 13 14 15. As for the principal instruments in these wicked rebellions and treasons against David and the son of David they shall certainly come to untimely deaths so did Achitophel 2 Sam. 17.23 and Absalom c. 18.14 and Saul 1 Sam. 31.5 and Doeg Psal 52.5 and so Judas Matth. 27. and their posterity shall not last beyond the next age They shall be cursed by God and all the punishments due to their fathers sins shall be so visited on this their wicked progeny that they shall soon come to utter eradication and extirpation 16. Because that he remembred not to shew mercy but persecuted the poor and needy man that he might even slay the broken in heart Paraphrase 16. And this a most just reward for their uncharitable and cruel dealing with him whose distresses might justly have extorted their greatest kindness and assistance but found nothing but bloody pursuits from them This seems especially to refer to David at Nob and Ahimelech and the priests slain by Doeg 17. As he loved cursing so let it come unto him as he delighted not in blessing so let it be far from him 18. As he clothed himself with cursing like as with his garment so let it come into his bowels like water and like oile into his bones 19. Let it be unto him as the garment which covereth him and for a girdle wherewith he is girded continually Paraphrase 17 18 19. 'T is to be expected from the all-just retributions of heaven that as they were willing to mete to others it should be meted back to them They were for nothing but mischief and cruelty and they are to expect no least mixture of compassion or mercy They delighted in slandering and cursing wishing and speaking ill of them that least deserved it and the bitter water that causeth the curse Numb 5.21 that maketh the thigh to rot and the belly to swell shall enter as water is wont into one that is overwhelmed with it into his stomach belly bowels and make them as the bitter water did to swell and burst so it happened literally to Judas Act. 1.28 and probably to Achitophel see note on Matt. 27. a. and in effect to the others also in their untimely excision And as oile which is more piercing than water penetrates the very flesh veins nerves and bones so shall this the most inward parts of them seise upon their very spirits and souls so it did remarkably on those two Achitophel and Judas and the same every such wicked man is to expect and never be gotten out again but within afflict and without incompass them and cleave to them for ever 20. Let this be the reward of mine adversaries from the Lord and of them that speak evil against my soul Paraphrase 20. Thus will God certainly punish them that either so rebelliously or so bloodily and cruelly set themselves against me and so those hereafter that oppose and crucifie the Messias 21. But doe thou for me O God the Lord for thy names sake because thy mercy is good deliver thou me Paraphrase 21. As for me I have no other solicitude than to repose my self in God's hands he is a God of most abundant goodness and mercy and his honour is ingaged in vindicating my cause in maintaining me whom he hath set on the throne against all opposers He is also an omnipotent Lord whose power can soon overrule and calme all these tempests To him therefore I humbly address my self for his seasonable interposition and relief referring the way and means to his all-wise disposal 22. For I am poor and needy and my heart is wounded within me 23. I am gone like the shadow when it declineth I am tossed up and down as the locust Paraphrase 22 23. And of this his mercy I am very confident being a most seasonable object of it at this time brought to great want to a sorrowfull deplorable condition every day growing lower and lower like the shadow about sun-set driven from my home and by the same danger that drove me thence removed from place to place like the silly impotent locusts that are carried without any aim design or conduct whithersoever the tempest drives them 24. My knees are weak through fasting and my flesh faileth of fatness 25. I am become also a reproach unto them when they looked upon me they shaked their heads Paraphrase 24 25. We are now quite wearied out ready to faint and fail and accordingly are lookt on by our enemies with scorn and derision making no question but we shall soon fall into their hands to be destroyed and devoured by them 26. Help me O Lord my God O save me according to thy mercy 27. That they may know that it is thy hand and that thou Lord hast done it Paraphrase 26 27. To thee therefore O God of all power which hast obliged and insured thy particular mercy to me I humbly address my self be thou pleased seasonably to relieve and rescue me that it may be visible to all that this so opportune interposition of thine hath wrought the deliverance for us 28. Let them curse but bless thou when they arise let them be ashamed but let thy servant rejoyce Paraphrase 28. Though they rail and defame and rise up against me yet I shall be secure of thy benediction and this shall be sure to give me the victory when they are put to flight and dissipated 29. Let my adversaries be cloathed with shame and let them cover themselves with their own confusion as with a mantle Paraphrase 29. And this shall certainly be their portion and consequently nothing but shame and confusion of face for all their malicious successless enterprises 30. I will greatly praise the Lord with my mouth yea I will praise him among the multitude 31. For he shall stand at the right hand of
prudent to resort the never-failing omnipotent hand of God and to that I betook my self intirely and from that I received my deliverance 12. What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits toward me 13. I will take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. 14. I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people 15. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints Paraphrase 12 13 14 15. For this and all other the abundant mercies which I have received from God I am now by all obligations concerned to make my most thankfull acknowledgments and to doe it in the solemnest manner in the presence of the whole assembly by way of publick festival blessing and magnifying his holy name that he hath not permitted my enemies to have their will of me that he hath preserved my life and not delivered it up into their hands that he hath kept it as a jewel of his own cabinet as being by me humbly deposited with and intrusted to him And thus he always deals with those that rely and depend on him see note b. on Psal 86. 16. O Lord truly I am thy servant I am thy servant and the son of thy handmaid thou hast loosed my bands 17. I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving and will call upon the name of the Lord. 18. I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people 19. In the courts of the Lord's house in the mids of thee O Jerusalem Praise ye the Lord. Paraphrase 16 17 18 19. O blessed Lord how am I obliged to thee by all the bonds that any ingagement can lay upon me No servant bought with a price or born in a man's house can be more closely bound to him than I who have been rescued from the utmost danger by thee What remains but that I should return to thee the humblest offerings of praise and prayer spend my whole life as a vow'd oblation to thy service render thee all possible praise in the publick assembly in thy sanctuary in the solemnest manner that is possible Blessed be the name of the Lord. Annotations on Psal CXVI V. 1. I love the Lord For the right understanding of the two first verses we must observe one special use of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when it stands by it self absolutely without any noun after it as here it doth for wishing or desiring So Amos 4.5 for so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ye have desired So Jer. 5.31 my people 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wished desired it so Thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by which the LXXII render it in all these places signifies in Greek to desire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Phavorinus Hence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 't is a verb of wishing And then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will be best rendred I wisht that the Lord would hear and so I suppose the LXXII meant by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I desired that not because he will or would hear Accordingly the Syriack renders it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Chaldee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is of the same importance with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I wisht that the Lord would hear So the Jewish Arab I desire not but that the Lord would hear my voice and my supplication and that he would hearken unto me when I call in or by reason of what I find or meet with in my days And then v. 2. follows currently 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he would incline his ear to me the Syriack reads 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that he would incline his ear to me in conjunction with the former verse Then follows 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in my days will I call by days I suppose signifying calamities as Psal 31.12 his day is coming i. e. his distress 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the day of his calamity saith the Targum So Obad. 12. the day of thy brother is the time of their being carried captive v. 11. So the day of Jerusalem Psal 137.7 So Isa 13.22 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his days shall not be removed far his time is come is the time of his contrition saith the Targum The Syriack indeed leave out the ד there as redundant and reade 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the not my day wherein I call him In which also they depart from the Hebrew punctation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Without either of those changes the rendring will be most facile I wished or desired that the Lord would hear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my voice or perhaps the voice so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be rendred the ד being oft redundant and so both the Syriack and the LXXII understands it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the voice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of my supplications in the genitive case or by apposition my voice my supplications that he would incline his ear unto me In my days will I invoke or call upon him The rendring these verses in the praeter sense he hath heard he hath inclined is quite contrary to the following verses which mention the distresses as approaching and growing still more and more upon him v. 3 4. To what times this refers and what were those his days must be uncertain and onely matter of conjecture 'T is ordinarily thought to be a Psalm of David and then it most probably belongs to the time of his flight from Absalom to which his haste or speed or flight ver 11. probably determins it and then ver 14 18 19. must refer to his return to the sanctuary at Jerusalem after the quelling of that rebellion and to this as being the most received sense I have set the paraphrase Yet some indications there are which make it probable to have been written after the Captivity and then the days here must be like the day of thy brother and of Jerusalem forementioned denoting the Captivity and so their flight also v. 9. their being carried captive and v. 14 18 19. the celebrating of their return to the service of God in the Temple viz. the Chaldee idiome observable v. 7. in the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and v. 12. in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where the Chaldee or Syriack suffix 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is visible V. 13. Cup of salvation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the cup of deliverances for which the Chaldee reade 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the cup of redemptions This was either more solemn in the Temple by the Priest or more private in the family The former the drink-offering or strong wine poured out in the holy place Numb 28.7 Of this R. Sol. Jarchi interprets it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. I will bring the drink-offering of praise which I vowed And to this of the Temple the Praise may most reasonably be
The author of Historia Scholastica mentions it as a Tradition that at the building of the second Temple there was a particular stone of which that was literally true which is here parabolically rehearsed viz. that it had the hap to be often taken up by the builders and as oft rejected and at last was found to be perfectly fit for the most honourable place that of the chief corner-stone which coupled the sides of the walls together the extraordinariness whereof occasioned the speech here following This is of the Lord and it is marvellous in our eyes If there were indeed any such tradition of the Jews as he reporteth and truth in the tradition it were necessary to resolve that this Psalm was made at the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or dedication and consecration of the second Temple or on some like occasion after that But although these two verses thus historically interpreted might incline to that date of it and then the gates of righteousness v. 19. would well refer to the gate of the second Atrium the publick solemn way into the Temple by which the Jews and Proselytes of righteousness entred the Proselytes of the gates entring onely the first court yet the rest of the Psalm is not so agreeable thereto being much more applicable to David in respect of the difficulties which he had overcome in his way to the Kingdom And accordingly the Chaldee interpret all the verses to the end expresly of him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The builders despised the youth which was among the sons of Jessai and he deserved to be constituted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the King and Ruler This hath been from the Lord said the builders this is wonderfull in our eyes said the sons of Jessai The Lord made this day said the builders let us rejoyce and be glad in it said the sons of Jessai We pray thee O Lord bestow salvation now said the builders we pray thee O Lord prosper us now said the sons of Jessai Blessed is he which cometh in the name of the word of the Lord said the builders let them bless you from the house of the sanctuary of the Lord said David The Lord our God hath shined on us said the tribes of the house of Judah Bind the young lamb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Latin absurdly renders it puerum for a sacrifice of solemnity with chains till you have sacrificed him and poured out his blood upon the horns of the altar said Samuel the Prophet Thou art my God I will confess before thee thou art my God I will praise thee said David Samuel answered and said Praise ye all ye congregation of Israel confess before the Lord that he his good that his mercy endureth for ever This makes it not unreasonable to resolve that the whole Psalm belongs to David and that it was composed either by him or by some other in commemoration of his exaltation to and full possession of the Kingdom which being from a very low condition and other the like circumstances of improbability it was very fitly resembled by this of the stone which the builders refused c. whether that were a story of any real passage or whether onely an emblem and parabolical expression of what was here done and both that emblem and this real exaltation of David a most lively type of the humiliation and exaltation of the Messiah and his ascension and taking possession of heaven and so is made use of Matt. 21.42 Mar. 12.10 Luk. 21.17 Act. 4.11 Eph. 2.20 1 Pet. 2.4 and by way of Prophecy Isa 28.16 And to him it belongs more eminently and more compleatly than to David's person it could the tribes of Israel and Judah being not divided before and so not united by David whereas Christ of Jew and Gentile made one Church and so was most literally the chief corner-stone that coupled the walls and knit the building together which cannot so literally be affirmed of David Of this we have the confession of the Jews themselves Sol. Jarchi on Mich. v. 2. saith Out of Bethlehem shall come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Messiah the son of David 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so be the Psalmist saith the stone which the builders refused c. And so v. 15. the voice of joy c. Kimchi and Jarchi refer to the days of the Messiah as from the stones of Israel Gen. 29.24 they fetch their dream of their suffering Messias Ben Joseph or Ben Ephraim V. 27. Sacrifice The Hebrew word here is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is ordinarily used for a festival but sometimes by metonymie signifies the sacrifice used at such times So Exod. 23.18 the fat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not of my feast but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of my festival sacrifice saith the Chaldee So Isa 29.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 behead or kill the sacrifices So Amos v. 21. where we reade I hate I despise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is most probably to be rendred your sacrifices for as what follows I will not smell in your solemn assemblies must be understood of the smoak of their sacrifice or their incense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 oblation saith the Chaldee and the LXXII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sacrifices and not of the days or assemblies themselves so the insuing verse is express Though you offer me burnt-offerings and meat-offerings I will not accept them So Mal. 2.3 the dung 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in all probability of their sacrifices And thus have the Chaldee rendred it in this place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the young lamb for a festival sacrifice Of this 't is here said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bind it with cords as the sacrifice is wont to be when 't is killed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even to the horns of the altar i. e. after 't is bound kill it and doe all other things preparatory to the offering it up till at last you lay it upon the altar and sprinkle the blood on the horns of it So Kimchi and Jarchi literally expound this of bringing the sacrifice bound till he came to the altar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But the Jewish Arab will have it signifie the continuance or being instant in sacrificing or bringing sacrifices The horns of the altar were on every corner of it Exod. 27.1 and so by sprinkling the blood on the horns of the altar was perhaps meant the sprinkling it round about so we know the appointment was Exod. 29.15 16. Thou shalt take the ram and thou shalt take his blood and sprinkle it round about upon the altar so Lev. 1.5 they shall sprinkle the blood round about upon the altar Or else sprinkling it on the horns was the shorter way see Lev. 4.7 18. and c. 8.15 and c. 9.9 and 16.18 and was by interpretation the sprinkling it round about every horn representing the side next that corner But for binding the sacrifice to the horns of the altar whilst it was killed we
dispenser of all good things Without his special protection 't is not all the guards of men which can secure or preserve a city And as little is it in the power of humane solicitude or of a multitude of wives and concubines such as Solomon had in greatest abundance to have children to inherit it when 't is gathered For as to the former of these wicked men that incessantly moil and cark and drudge for the acquiring it and never injoy any part of the comforts of this life through the vehement pursuit of riches are generally frustrated and disappointed in their aims whereas on the contrary those that have God's blessing thrive insensibly become very prosperous and yet never loose any sleep in the pursuit of it And for the latter that of children it is a particular blessing of God's from whom all increase comes and he dispenseth it as he sees good as a present reward to the piety and other vertues of men 4. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man so are children of the youth 5. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them they shall not be ashamed but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate Paraphrase 4 5. And indeed of all blessings this of a numerous progeny is the greatest every child is an addition of strength and safety to the father As the military man guards himself with weapons arrows and darts c. so the master of a family is fortified both from hostile invasions and all other insolencies and molestations by the multitude and strength of his children who are ready still to back him and defend him at all turns from the injuries of any kind which the open violence or more secret fraud of men can design against him in the field or in any court of judicature Annotations on Psal CXXVII V. 1. Build The right understanding of this Psalm the connexion specially of the three first verses of it depends on observing the notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 building an house as that is the work not of the Architect but the Father For so to build from whence is the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a son is to procreate and bring up children by which houses i. e. families are built up begun supported and continued So Gen. 16.2 't is Sarah's saying to Abraham Go in unto my maid it may be that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I shall be built by her i. e. I shall have children to build up a solitary childless family To this appertains that of the midwives Exod. 1.21 that because they feared God he built them houses gave them children to support their families So Ruth 4.11 of Rachel and Leah 't is said that they two 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 built the house of Israel i. e. brought all that number of children to Jacob by which that nation more than family was replenished So Deut. 25.9 of him that would not take his brother's wife and raise up seed to him the phrase is he would not build up the house 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of his brother So 1 Chron. 17.10 when Nathan tells David that the Lord will build him an house it is explained v. 11. I will raise up thy seed after thee which shall be of thy sons and I will establish his kingdom So again v. 23 and 24 and 25. And thus I suppose it is to be taken in this place building an house for raising a family begetting children and providing riches inheritance for them For of these two things the erecting a family consists 1. gathering of wealth and riches then 2. begetting some body to inherit it and of both these the Psalmist here speaks distinctly in the two following verses first of gathering the wealth v. 2. rising early sitting up late eating the bread of sorrows all which is certainly designed to that end then of children that they are an heritage and reward of the Lord v. 3. and so cannot be acquired by man's solicitude but are wholly imputable to God's blessing As for the other branch of the first verse that of guarding the city it seems to be inserted as an instance to the same purpose vulgarly understood among men 'T is God must guard or else watchmen will do little good and so unless God build all the industry of men will not be successfull to it The LXXII in the copies we now have for rising early and sitting up late reade 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but this probably in the former part is a corruption of the copy to be mended thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hastening in the morning to rise will be exactly rendred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in sense we duly render sitting up late or literally being late to rest foreslowing of going to bed they reade 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the adverb with an affix In both these mistakes the Latin follow the Greek copies and reade vanum est vobis ante lucem surgere surgite postquam sederitis It is vain for you to rise before light rise after you have sate But the Syriack leave them and reade most clearly vain are they 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that are early to rise and late to sit down or rest eating bread with sorrows which is the fittest rendring of the participles in regimine It follows 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we render so he gives his beloved sleep but the LXXII more significantly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when or whereas or since he i. e. God gives his beloved sleep freely bestows and affords them rest and comfort of life and withall provides as much wealth for them and their families and indeed much more than they that moil incessantly and deny themselves the enjoyment of all worldly comforts most by so doing to inrich their posterity And that thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies not onely so as the Jewish Arab reads 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so but when may appear by the frequent use of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for hucusque or hactenus for in that phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must needs have the notation of time V. 4. Youth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are questionless children of the youth as those are opposed to children of the old age Gen. 37.3 Of these it is frequently observed that they are the strongest being as Jacob saith of Reuben his might the beginning of his strength And of such it is here said that they are like arrows in the hand of a mighty man defend him from hostile invasions as well as weapons can The Chaldee reads 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the young man Symmachus with the Syriack 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the youth the Jewish Arab either children of youth or children of young men the word both signifying youth and being likewise the plural of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a young man
as a child doth on his mother and his repeating it my soul is with me as a weaned child is as much as to say I have weaned it from transgressions The Hundred and Thirty Second Psalm A Song of Degrees The hundred thirty second seems to have been at first a composure of Solomon's upon the building the Temple part of it v. 8 9 10. inserted in Solomon's prayer at the dedication of the Temple 2 Chron. 6.41 42. It is the recounting of David's care of the Ark and of God's promises made to him and his posterity as also of the setting apart of Sion to be the place of the Temple and it was after used upon the rebuilding the walls after the return from the captivity 1. LOrd remember David and all his afflictions 2. How he sware unto the Lord and vowed unto the mighty God of Jacob. 3. Surely I will not come into the tabernacle of my house nor go up into my bed 4. I will not give sleep to mine eyes nor slumber to mine eye-lids 5. Untill I find out a place for the Lord an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob. Paraphrase 1 2 3 4 5. Blessed Lord remember I beseech thee and reward upon his family the great piety and humility of David my father the eminent expressions of his zeal toward thee He was so highly concerned for the service of God that having built himself houses 1 Chr. 15. he immediately prepared a place for the Ark of God v. 1. and brought it up thither in pomp ch 15. and 16. having it seems solemnly vow'd to doe so before ever he would dedicate and bless or dwell in his own house chap. 16.43 and not content with that his zeal farther brake out to Nathan the Prophet chap. 17.1 being troubled to think of the magnificence of his own house whilst the Ark was but in a tent and resolved if God would have permitted him to have erected a magnificent structure wherein the Ark of God should be placed and God's solemn worship performed 6. Lo we heard of it at Ephrata we found it in the fields of the wood 7. We will go into his tabernacles we will worship at his footstool 8. Arise O Lord into thy rest thou and the Ark of thy strength Paraphrase 6 7 8. At the bringing it up to Jerusalem there were great solemnities a sacred devout procession and all the parts there about resounded with joy and acclamations upon the bringing it to and seating it in Zion every one with great alacrity resolving to go up and pay their devotions there as in the place of God's special residence where his Law is laid up and from whence he is graciously pleased to answer the prayers and to reveal himself to his servants This therefore David was resolved to bring to a place where it might remain that so God might in a manner inhabit among us and direct us and assist in all our undertakings 9. Let thy Priests be cloathed with righteousness and let thy Saints shout for joy Paraphrase 9. The Priests in their sacerdotal garments the emblems of the sanctity of their office and persons being by him appointed 1 Chron. 15.11 to attend on it and the Levites carrying it on their shoulders v. 15. and the singers celebrating it with great rejoycing v. 19 20 c. 10. For thy servant David's sake turn not away the face of thine anointed Paraphrase 10. Now therefore O Lord I beseech thee remember the piety and humility and all the acceptable graces of this thy faithfull beloved zealous servant and for his sake reject not me his son whom thou hast establisht in his kingdom but continue with me and accept of me whilst I actually perform what he had designed whilst I build a temple for thy presence and service 11. The Lord hath sworn in truth unto David he will not turn from it Of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne Paraphrase 11. To him thou hast made thy most faithfull promise that the kingdom which was not establisht in Saul's family should be confirmed on his posterity 12. If thy children shall keep my covenant and my testimony that I shall teach them their children also shall sit upon thy throne for evermore Paraphrase 12. And not so onely but that to all ages it should continue in the same line if they shall but be carefull to perform constant and uniform obedience to all the commands of God 13. For the Lord hath chosen Zion he hath desired it for his habitation 14. This shall be my rest for ever here will I dwell for I have desired it Paraphrase 13 14. The place which I design for this structure is that of Zion a place with which God is so well pleased that he never intends to remove thence nor consequently to transplant the royal throne from that family which placed it there if they will but be carefull to qualifie themselves for the continuance of so great a mercy 15. I will abundantly bless her provisions I will satisfie her poor with bread 16. I will also cloath her Priests with salvation and her Saints shall shout aloud for joy Paraphrase 15 16. Shall they but doe so he will also add all other sorts of blessings a great plenty and prosperity to the whole nation and a succession of mercies which shall require the thanksgivings and solemn acknowledgments of the Priests and Levites and singers whose daily office it is by God himself appointed them thus constantly to celebrate his mercies to offer up prayers and praises to him continually 17. There will I make the horn of David to bud I have ordained a lamp for mine anointed Paraphrase 17. And by this means shall God be ingaged to continue his favour to the posterity of David to make it a most flourishing royal family and continue it shining and burning in a continual succession till the coming of the Messiah who is promised of the seed of David 18. His enemies will I cloath with shame but upon himself shall his crown flourish Paraphrase 18. And all that oppose and invade them shall certainly be disappointed and put to flight God's special protection continuing to the posterity of so good a King to perpetuate the Kingdom to them Annotations on Psal CXXXII V. 1. Afflictions The signification of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this place is worth the considering The LXXII render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 meekness the Syriack 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 humility meekness lenity but the Chaldee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 affliction The original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies especially two things to speak or answer and to be afflicted humbled or deprest The context referring to David's oath or vow to God of preparing a place for the Ark which it seems was under vow though it be not mentioned in the story may seem to incline it to the former signification of speaking or making promise to God Remember David and all his speeches
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is literally to be rendred to or in a straight ground so the Chaldee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into a straight ground and the Jewish Arab in a right or straight region and so the Latin in terram rectam by which we are to judge of the reading of the LXXII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the right that it should be undoubtedly as Asulanus's copy hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a straight ground By this style is metaphorically signified a regular course of life in obedience to all the commands of God the onely rule of the good man's walking The Syriack have duly explain'd it by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into thy way of life that course of living which thou requirest or which may be acceptable to thee The Hundred and Forty Fourth PSALM A Psalm of David The hundred forty fourth is a fiducial and humble prayer to God for deliverance from his heathen enemies and prosperity upon his people and this founded in his former experiences of God's interposition for him for which he humbly praiseth and blesseth his holy name It was composed by David in reflexion as 't is thought by some on Goliah and the Philistims but most certainly of a latter date when he was settled in the Kingdom see v. 2 and 10. By the Jews Kimchi and Saadiah Gaon it is referred to the Messias 1. BLessed be the Lord my strength which teacheth my hands to war and my fingers to fight 2. My goodness and my fortress my high tower and my deliverer my shield and he in whom I trust who subdueth my people under me Paraphrase 1 2. For all the preservations and victories which have been injoyed by me I am infinitely obliged to bless and praise and magnifie the one supreme God of heaven and earth from whom it is that I have received all the strength and skill in military affairs which I have ever shewed an act of whose special mercy and favour preservation and protection I must acknowledge it that I have ever been successfull or safe in any enterprise In him therefore with all reason I wholly repose my full trust and confidence 3. Lord what is man that thou takest knowledge of him or the son of man that thou makest account of him 4. Man is like to vanity his days are as a shadow that passeth away Paraphrase 3 4. For my self I am but a mean infirm frail mortal man subject to all the misadventures which are consequent to the feeble inconstant transitory condition of men and it is an infinite mercy of dignation in God to take so much consideration of me as to make use of me as his instrument in subduing the enemies of his people And herein was David a type of Christ who having humbled himself to assume our humane mortal flesh became by his divine power in that flesh victorious over the powers of hell Heb. 2. b. 5. Bow thy heavens O Lord and come down touch the mountains and they shall smoak 6. Cast forth lightning and scatter them shoot out thine arrows and destroy them 7. Send thine hand from above rid me and deliver me out of great waters from the hand of strange children 8. Whose mouth speaketh vanity and their right hand is a right hand of falshood Paraphrase 5 6 7 8. It must therefore be thine own work O Lord the interposition of thine own almighty hand to which we must owe all our deliverances and preservations If thus thou wilt vouchsafe to own thy servants and by thy messengers and ministers the Angels of thy presence exhibit and presentiate thy self among us then shall all our enemies be disperst and destroyed not by the strength or dint of our weapons but as by thy thunderbolts and darts of lightning by the artillery of heaven by thy divine assistance and protection over us see note on Psal 18. d. And thus be thou graciously pleased to magnifie thy power and mercy to us at this time to deliver us from these puissant heathen armies which have nothing but their own strength and number to depend on or boast of which worship and rely on false idol gods which are not able to help and so are sure to disappoint them and so their hands fail no less in their undertaking than their mouths do when thou the onely Lord of heaven and earth of those angelical hosts comest out and appearest against them 9. I will sing a new song unto thee O God upon a Psaltery and an instrument of ten strings will I sing praises unto thee Paraphrase 9. All the returns that I can make for this mercy is my praising and magnifying thy name for it And that I shall be carefull to perform with the choicest ditties and sweetest instruments and all little enough to resound thy praises who hast wrought so wonderfully for us saying 10. It is he that giveth salvation unto Kings who delivereth David his servant from the hurtfull sword Paraphrase 10. All honour and praise be ascribed to the supreme God of heaven from whom it is that the greatest Kings of the earth receive their strength and authority and to whom they owe all their deliverances and preservations And the same strength and power of his hath he graciously pleased to afford me at this time that have no other title to it but that I am his servant and of my self so much weaker than my adversaries that I am sure to be destroyed by them if God do not defend and preserve me 11. Rid me and deliver me from the hand of strange children whose mouth speaketh vanity and their right hand is a right hand of falshood Paraphrase 11. O be thou now pleased to continue this thy mercy to me the enemies being still the same idolatrous heathen wicked men that do not acknowledge or confess the true but profess and depend on false Idol gods and seasonably at this time to rescue and preserve me out of their hands 12. That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth that our daughters may be as corner-stones polished after the similitude of a palace 13. That our garners may be full affording all manner of store that our sheep may bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our streets 14. That our oxen may be strong to labour that there be no breaking in nor going out that there be no complaining in our streets Paraphrase 12 13 14. Be thou pleased at length to restore peace and prosperity to the land that our families may flourish in goodly and beautifull children that our provisions at home and our flocks and herds abroad may be very thriving and prosperous and that those goods which thy blessing bestows upon us may not be in danger of hostile invasions that we may possess and injoy our selves in a chearfull continued peace without any disturbances or disquiets 15. Happy is the people that is in such a case yea happy is the
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are deemed to come from that original in this place and many others it is surely taken in the Hebrew notion of it i. e. for mercifull and pitifull and so should better be rendred in Latin pius than sanctus as in Salvian and other good Authours pietas piety in God ordinarily signifies mercy However this equivocalness of that word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taken by readers for holy when it signifies mercifull and the misinterpreting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for just when it imports mercifull may well be deemed to have contributed occasionally to the leaving v. 14. out of our Bibles Of which the learned H. Grotius asks a question Quomodo ad hoc respondebunt What answer will be given to this by those men which require us in all things to stand to the decrees of the Masorites which by their fence have hedged this verse out of the scripture The onely answer to the question which I shall offer is this 1. That it is no news that one letter or more should be left out and missing in an Alphabetical Psalm especially Psal 25. where ר being twice repeated ק is certainly omitted 2. That the LXXII and the translations that depend on them have admitted several verses and larger additions which are not in the Hebrew text But then 3. since 't is certain the Psalms received divers alterations and both copies were transmitted to the use of the Temple the answer will be satisfactory that so it was here And that will both justifie the Jews from negligence in loosing part of the scripture and the other translatours from presumption in adding to it V. 18. In truth The notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in truth in this place being the qualification required in prayer to make it effectual is fit to be observed The word signifies truth firmness fidelity constancy stability so Jer. 14.19 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the peace of truth is a stable firm constant durable peace And then that truth or constancy may be applied either to the person praying or to the prayer it self First if to the person then it signifies his firmness of adherence to God styled fearing him v. 19. constancy in his service keeping close to God and making good his dependence on him and not applying himself to any indirect means to obtain what he prays for but waiting onely on God from him in his good time to receive it Secondly in respect of the prayer it self it signifies the continued constancy of address not giving over the petition when it is not immediately granted but inforcing it with importunity And the union of these two is that to which the promise is here made that the prayers so qualified shall certainly in God's due time be answered by him And this specially the former part Saint James styles asking in faith the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying both faith and truth See note on Jam. 1. a. The Chaldee here reads 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word signifies truth rectitude integrity and so the Syriack also The LXXII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in truth but that capable of this same notion as when 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 true is opposed to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unrighteous See note on Luke 16. a. The Hundred and Forty Sixth PSALM Praise ye the Lord. The hundred forty sixth is another form of solemn praising of God his sole and supereminent power and mercy his patronage to all that are in distress his judgments and the eternity of his kingdom The title of it is Hallelujah and it is anciently thought to have been composed at the return from the captivity 1. PRaise the Lord O my soul 2. While I live will I praise the Lord I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being 3. Put not your trust in Princes nor in the son of man in whom there is no help Paraphrase 1 2. I will excite and rouse up all the faculties of my soul to the solemn performance of that great and necessary duty of praising and magnifying the God of heaven This is an office never to be intermitted by me as long as I have a tongue or breath to proclaim the excellencies and glories of so great and gracious a Majesty 4. His breath goeth forth he returneth to his earth in that very day his thoughts perish Paraphrase 3 4. As for any other be it the greatest and most powerfull Princes in the world none born of woman excepted save onely the Messias the Son of God as well as man they being but mortal men have no power to relieve any and consequently will deceive and disappoint all those that rely on them For how able or willing soever they may be in the eyes of men or in their own resolutions forward to perform any office of charity to any yet 't is certain their whole being depends every minute upon the will of God whensoever he pleaseth they die their soul is separated from the body the one is gathered to the earth from whence it hath its first beginning see Psal 90. note c. the other to the hands of God that gave it Eccl. 12.7 and when this hour comes 't is then too late for them to help themselves whatsoever they designed for the relief of others together with all their other worldly contrivances are evacuated and frustrated 5. Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help whose hope is in the Lord his God 6. Which made heaven and earth the sea and all that therein is which keepeth truth for ever Paraphrase 5 6. The onely sure hold and never failing foundation of confidence is the special mercy and protection of the one omnipotent Creatour of heaven and earth the Lord of Israel who as he is able to overrule all his creatures and doe whatsoever he pleases so he hath promised to protect those that depend on him and will certainly make good this promise to all that are carefull to make good their fidelity to him 7. Which executeth judgment for the oppressed which giveth food to the hungry the Lord looseth the prisoners 8. The Lord openeth the eyes of the blind the Lord raiseth them that are bowed down the Lord loveth the righteous Paraphrase 7 8. One peculiar property of his it is to interpose his aid most seasonably when our distresses are the greatest to undertake the defence and patronage of those which are most unjustly opprest to work even miracles of mercy for them that stand in most need of them signally to express his favour to pious and charitable minded men to provide food for some as he did for Elias to send others liberty from their restraints as he did to Daniel to restore sight to the blind to revive and comfort those that are in the greatest distress either of body or soul And this in a far more eminent completion by the incarnation of his Son the Messias of the
to me the Arabick whatsoever I had need of As in the looking to a garden the care of constant watering it supplies it with all necessaries and advantages for fruitfulness This word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the LXXII elsewhere use for fattening rendring 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by it so chap. 13.4 the soul of the diligent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall be made fat they reade 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 richly provided for and chap. 28.25 he that putteth his trust in the Lord shall be made fat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by way of periphrasis because they that are thus carefully looked to and furnished with all they can need will thrive and grow fat by that means This provision therefore of all that any man wants proportionable to the diligent watering of a garden is that which is here meant by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 V. 12. Delighteth The Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies to delight or be pleased and to be reconciled or accept or approve That here it is to be taken in the latter sense of accepting approving being reconciled may appear 1. by the matter in hand a Father's correcting his Son which is not simply an effect of his being pleased with or delighting in him but is occasioned by some fault which provokes his displeasure That which is observable of the Father's correction is that it precedes the receiving him into his favour again after the commission of any fault and then thus the sense here is that he chastens every son whom he receiveth to favour reconciliation 2. This appears by the LXXII their interpretation of the word which is from hence taken and used by the Apostle Heb. 12.6 and so their interpretation authorized which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whom he receiveth thereby meaning not receiving him to be a Son for he speaks not of the Father's act of adopting Children but of such as are born in the family natural Sons but receiving him to reconciliation after any offence and that is accepting him V. 19. Established 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies both to prepare and to establish may here best be rendred in the former notion not to import any difference between the heaven and earth in point of stability whatsoever that may be thought to signifie but onely to refer to the first creation of them both in the very same sense as when the Psalmist saith by the word of the Lord were the heavens made his word there and his wisedom here being all one his uncreated word and wisedom both being the known title of Christ by whom St. John tells us Jo. 1.3 all things were made and St. Paul Col. 1.16 that by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth by heaven and earth there signifying the whole world as they must here also be understood though they be severed according to the manner of Scripture style in enumerating the parts when the whole is meant and Heb. 1.2 by whom also he made the worlds And thus all the ancient Interpreters render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Chaldee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to prepare or frame and so the Syriack and the LXXII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prepared onely the Latin have stabilivit from whence it seems we took it V. 24. Lyest down The Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies to lye but that in a double sense first for resting or dwelling 2. for lying down to sleep In the latter notion 't is certainly taken in the latter part of the verse which makes it more probable that here it should be taken in the former else it will be tautological Thus Lev. 26.6 in the same circumstances as here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and you shall lye and none shall terrifie you the Chaldee reade 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and ye shall dwell and 1 Sam. 26. the people 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lay round about the Chaldee hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dwelt so Hos 2.18 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Hiphil I will make them lye the Chaldee hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will make them dwell securely and so the LXXII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will make them dwell in hope and accordingly here they reade 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if thou sit down By this rendring it will be fitly opposed to walking in the way v. 23. as dwelling at home to travelling abroad and differenced from lying down to sleep in the end of this verse and so more fully express the different states of men abroad at horne asleep and security in all these V. 26. Thy confidence The Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 light foolish inconstant is thought by antiphrasis to signifie constancy hope confidence Job 8.14 where 't is joyned with hope and so we render it trust so Psal 78.7 they set God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Targum reade 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their hope or confidence taking the preposition as it is ordinary for redundant But there is another notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for I le a part of the body the place where the kidneys lye Thus 't is frequently used in Leviticus and rendred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the LXXII and so Psal 38. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my loins And thus it may very fitly be rendred here at thy side as that notes proverbially thy helper and so the Targum renders it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for thy help and the LXXII paraphrastically 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 over all thy ways but the Syriack 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with thee and the Latin literally in latere tuo at or on thy side and with that best agrees that which followeth the keeping the feet from being ensnared or taken for which the LXXII again in their paraphrastical manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he shall support thy feet that they be not shaken V. 27. Them to whom it is due The Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies an husband lord master possessour or owner and so ch 1.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 owner or master of a wing denotes a bird In this sense it is here used on purpose to shew the obligation that lyes on the rich to relieve the poor the rich man's barn being as the son of Syrach saith the poor man's storehouse and so by equitable estimation founded in the command of God that of thy wealth which he wants he is the owner of and thou wrongest and robbest him if thou withholdest it from him So Deut. 24.13 speaking of the pledge of a poor man and commanding to restore it before the sun goes down it is added and this shall be thy righteousness this kind of mercy to the poor being a part of justice and righteousness in the rich and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 oft signifies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mercy The Latin here for want of considering this have very much transformed
reign respecting at least not excluding Christ as God whose Ordinance it is by which they reign Accordingly Eusebius Eccl. Hist l. i. c. 2. designing to shew that Christ was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a being before the world living and subsisting with the Father and God of all ministring unto him for the framing and building of all things that are made called the Word and Wisedom of God brings together these passages by me Kings reign c. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. the Lord hath created or begotten me in the beginning of his ways c. as the LXXII now hath it In the same sense we must understand v. 23. where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I was anointed ordeined constituted or as the Interlinear principatum habui I had the principality because princes used to be anointed is by the LXXII rendred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he hath founded me before the Age i. e. from all eternity constituted me as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the future Creation V. 26. The fields What 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here signifies is matter of some doubt The Chaldee and Syriack render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Translatour of the one interprets flumina rivers of the other torrentes torrents and so the vulgar Latin reade flumina rivers but the LXXII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 uninhabited places The Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies abroad or without doors and so the plural 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the fields or desarts all that is without doors in opposition to Towns and Cities the places where men dwell This is wont to be called ager the field or countrey and so may well be meant by the LXXII their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which are not inhabited and so I suppose both the Chaldee and Syriack must be understood also the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying valleys as well those without as with water and indeed from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 haereditavit possedit inheriting possessing any possession or inheritance so Gen. 26.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the valley of Gerar Numb 13.24 the valley of Eshcol or Cluster 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 say the LXXII and so very frequently and sometimes when 't is rendred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 torrent it signifies valley as Joel 3.18 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we reade the valley of Shittim and in agreement with this it is best to render it here plains or valleys as those are opposed to the hills described by the highest part of the dust of the world in the end of the verse for which the LXXII reade 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the highest places that are inhabited of the Universe thus making the opposition betwixt the valleys and these that these are inhabited the former not V. 27. Depths What 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 depth signifies in this place must be judged by the former part of the verse preparing or making the heavens which being the circle or circumference which encompasseth the regions of the air it cannot be reasonable to understand the Sea which is part of the Terrestrial Globe by the depth here The word abyss or depth as hath been shewed Note on Psal 42. d signifies the whole body of waters here below some of which are above as others beneath the Expansum some treasured up in the clouds or air others in the ocean and other rivers thus we have them in that Psal 42. where one deep calls to and answers and meets the other and thus here v. 28. the clouds above and the fountains of the deep and in this place the former of these is meant upon which the Globe or compass of the heavens is set which is here called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at his describing a circle upon the face of the depth the Chaldee reade 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when he circled a circle drew a circumference the LXXII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when he constituted his own Throne by that paraphrastically expressing the celestial Globe upon the winds by the winds I suppose meaning the regions of the air where this superiour abyss was So that this whole verse is the description of the creation of the heaven V. 30. As one brought up with him From 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 verax or fidus fuit is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nutritius a tutor or one that takes care of a Client Numb 11.12 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nutritus one so nourished or brought up Lam. 4.5 But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 also signifies a Workman or Artificer and so is by learned men most reasonably rendred Jer. 46.25 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the artificer of No. To the same sense Jer. 52.15 Nah. 3.8 are applied by Crinitius Exercit. Heb. p. 3. so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cant. 7.1 the work of the hands of the Artificer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 say the LXXII and so Exod. 28.6 where the Hebrew reads 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Chaldee reads 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 artificer and so v. 12. And thus most probably it signifies here in the notion wherein Lactantius from Trismegistus applies to Wisedom here the Title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God's Artificer in which the Psalmist saith of the word of the Lord the title of the Son of God by the word of the Lord were the heavens made and S. John ch 1. that all things were made by him To which signification of the word doubtless the LXXII referr'd reading 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I was by him framing or composing or putting in order V. 1. For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not wisedom cry the LXXII reade 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou shalt proclaim wisedom reading 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the second person and having done so they make the latter part of the verse the answer or return of wisedom to that call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that prudence may answer thee so rendring 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall give forth the voice by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the notion of answering to this the Syriack agree but the Chaldee and Theodotion and the vulgar Latin accord with our rendring save that the Chaldee and Theodotion turn the interrogatory into an affirmation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. therefore and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 behold wisedom cries c. V. 2. They omit to render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on or by the way as thinking it sufficiently exprest by that which immediately follows 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the midst of the paths rendring 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 adverbially as the Chaldee also doth by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the midst the Syriack 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the hand or side of the paths not as we in the places as from the notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for an house V. 3. For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at the mouth of the City parallel to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at the hand of the gates precedent they reade 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
of the Gentiles give our selves up an early and voluntary sacrifice to Christ first to be slain before him then brought forth like Antinous in Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there lies the sin laid out a spotted Corps that hath brought all the misery upon us and then offered up upon his Altars so many devoted mortified new creatures that have the addition of Fire to that of Air and Water in the mixture the active vital as well as the sighing weeping penitentiaries the imitation of the Sacrifices of old 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gold pour'd about the horns of the Sacrifice not only the Ox or bestial part slain but righteousness and mercy to the poor used as the Ceremonies of breaking off our sins of slaying that sacrifice as in the Primitive times no Penitent was re-admitted to the Church without 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or alms-deeds and for him that was in the Church there was yet no coming to the Sacrament without an Offertory then still after all this passionate variety hath God's message not yet had audience from us and till God may be heard by us there is small hope that we shall ever be heard by God for Repentance is not only the only Use of the denunciation but withal the only preservative or phylactery the only way of averting the Judgment which is now at hand my last particular Repent for it is at hand And here I shall be able but only to draw you a Scheme of what I had design'd you a rude draught of dead lines and not venture to importune your patience with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but only tell you that I had purposed 1. To explain to you that mystery of Scripture The distribution of God's Judgments into reversible and irreversible And 2. to give you the mark or character in Scripture discriminating the one from the other the reversible under God's word only the Nineveh shall be destroyed and yet Nineveh repents and Nineveh is not destroyed The irreversible under God's Oath also Though these three men were in it Noah Daniel and Job as I live saith the Lord they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters c. 3. The commonness and frequency of the motion of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or proficiency of one of these states into the other the change that some addition of judgments and years and sins and intercalary mercies may make in God's decrees their improvement into irreversible Thus is it very possible that upon the first breaking out of these Judgments upon this Land the beginning of this rouzing Sermon the fate and state of this Kingdom might be a reversible mutable state like the Souls of men in Maximus Tyrius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a pendulous middle posture But since the prodigious unkindly working of these medicinal inflictions as of the bitter water in the trial of Jealousie making the thigh to rot and the belly to swell since to all the sins that before we had borrowed from our Neighbours we have added so many more from the Fiends and Furies to the rifling and impoverishing as it were of Hell it self since those Armies of high uncleannesses of lies of crafts of multiplied oaths a strange discordant grating harmony in the ears of God of sacrilegious rapines and prophanations of I beseech you save me the pains of confessing them for you that sin might be exceeding sinful and destruction exceeding destructive and after some intermission of Judgments but none of provocations since a Dove-like embleme of peace hath been hovering over our heads but not permitted to rest upon us disclaim'd and driven out of our Region as a Vulture or Scriech-owl the most ominous hated enemy since the concurrence of all these I say 't is also as possible we may be now improv'd and advanc'd to our full measure But then 4. I should have shew'd you also the indiscernibleness to the eye of man of the difference of these distant states till God by his promulgate Sentence have made the separation we have not such skill in Palmestry as to interpret the lines and strokes in God's hand which hath been long upon us nor in Symptoms as to judge whether 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whether it be infallibly mortal or no and from thence the possibility yet that it may not be too late for us to return and live to set God a Copy of repenting But then 5. Till this be done every minute we breathe we suck our poison we run upon all the Spears and Cannons in the World nay if God should hear us before we have answered him if Mercy should interpose before Repentance and Reformation make us capable of it that very Mercy were to be deprecated as the greatest Judgment in the world a kind of Hell of desertion a why should ye be smitten any more a not vouchsafing us the medicinal stripes a delivering us up to our selves as to the fatallest revengefullest enemies the most merciless bloodiest executioners God may spare us in wrath relieve us in fury give us a treacherous settlement a palliate peace the saddest presage and fore-runner imaginable and such it is sure to be if the surface of the flesh be healed before the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the depth of the wound in the heart be search'd and mollified if God repent before we repent and against such mercies we have more reason to pray than against all the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and intestine flames all the Tophets and Purgatories and Hells that the fury of men or devils can kindle within our coasts The same motive that made St. Basil call for his Fever again to wit if the recovering of his Health were the re-flourishing of his Pride may move us to pray for the continuance of this State-fever till our impenitent hearts be humbled I will make you my Confessors till this Kingdom be really and visibly the better for stripes I cannot without some regrets some fears of uncharitableness pray absolutely for peace for it Lord purge us Lord cleanse us with thy sharp infusions cure and heal our Souls by these Causticks of thine and then thou mayest spare that charge pour in thy Wine and thine Oil instead of them but till then Domine nolumus indulgentiam hanc Lord we are afraid of thy indulgence we are undone if thou be too merciful we tremble to think of our condition if thou should'st give over thy Cure too early if thou should'st tear off our plaisters and our flesh together restore our flourishing before thou hast humbled and chang'd our Souls I have done with my last particular also Please you now but to spell these Elements together the sad threats of a direful Kingdom the but one word between us and that only Repentance to sanctifie it to us and avert it from us the Baptist miraculously born to preach it to them and the same Voice now crying in the Wilderness to this Nation in the midst of a whole Africk of Monsters a Desart of
Names of them to blaspheme by That he should be delivered up to Satan as the primitive Offenders were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be corporally tormented by him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the tearing that foul tongue that noisome piece of flesh out of his mouth that by that means at least 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he may be disciplin'd or taught not to blaspheme Will you look into another sin a time of humiliation may be an excuse for the digression that of uncleanness whether of the eye the libidinous look that men are so hardly perswaded to believe to be a sin i. e. in effect that Christ forbad any thing under that phrase of looking in a Woman to lust or whether that of the tongue that oris stuprum unsavoury discourse rotten putrid noisome conversation which makes it so absurd for that man ever to pray to bless God in the Church with that part that was so polluted in the Chamber or whether the grosser sin the making the members of Christ members of a Harlot meant by the Apostle as an huge expression members of a Swine a Toad had been nothing to it what is this but a Barabbas still a Robber in competition with Christ for that body which is saith the Apostle for the Lord and not for fornication 1 Cor. 6.13 A vile infamous crime that staies not for the most part for its hell its punishment in another world meets with its Limbo its Tophet here torments and curses enough in this life if they might have leave to be consider'd 'T is worth observing in the New Testament that the Name of Idolatry not often mention'd there doth most times very probably denote this sin of uncleanness or carnality the observation might be made good at large if 't were now seasonable and I would to God my auditory would be perswaded thus to keep themselves from Idols to flie from this kind of Idolatry that mens natures have a thousand times more temptations to than that other sin that bears the envy of all our misery the Idolatry that the sacrilegious so declaim at believe me there is not a sin more incompetible with the Gospel-mercy a more unreconcileable rival of all godliness a greater waster of conscience griever and quencher of the Spirit a more perfect piece of Atheism and Heathenism be it the fairest outside Christian nor withall a greater blasting and curse to a Nation an Army a Garrison town than the permission of this one sin the voice of it crying to Heaven as loud as Sodom for fire from Heaven for judgment upon the place Remember the fierce judgment in Shittim Numb 25. upon the peoples joyning to Baal Peor that filthy heathenish Idol expounded ver 1. by committing whoredom with the daughters of Moab the heads of the people remember that the heads of the people the principal men in Israel either because they were most guilty or because the matter required such a◠expiation must be hang'd up against the Sun that the anger of the Lord might be turned away from Israel and I believe 't would pose a man to give any reason why this sin of adultery at least in this Land as well as stealing of a trifle should not be awarded in the style of that text with hanging up against the Sun and the command there is to them in place of Judicature to see the execution of the Law against them Slay you every one his men ver 5. But this is a Judaical outdated punishment among us and it hath been the cunning of Satan that it should be so who having prospered so far for his Clients would not be quiet till he had gotten all kind of restraint or discouragement of this sin to be so too till he had made the foulest incest a far cheaper sin and safer possession than the practice of some Christian vertues nay which is observable to the lasting shame of this Land till the injur'd man thus despoiled and robbed by the Adulterer be made by a kind of national custom the only infamous person and the Barabbas that robb'd him punished only with that curse in the Gospel of having all men speak well of him O what is this but as the Psalmist saith to bless them whom God abhors or as the Prophet Mal. 3.14 And now we call the proud happy and they that work wickedness are set up Believe it one or two such ponderous guilts as these are able to keep the justest cause from buoying up it self and our ferventest prayers from their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from working any saving miracles upon a Land I wish there were now no more Barabbas's amongst us a canvassing against Christ but I must not flatter you with so short a catalogue Look on your indevotion that heartless zealless behaviour in this very house of God Your Hearing which is mostly the fairest part of you what is it but as of a Rhetor at a Desk to commend or dislike the same which you have as well for the Stage as the Pulpit a Plaudite or an Hiss and for that other of Prayer though it be for those blessings of peace of safety the Shalom that many men have more devotion for than that other great sense of that word the salvation of their souls and which ardent prayer is the only means to bring down upon us yet what cold addresses what wandering eyes and thoughts what irreverent negligent motions what yawning instead of sighing out our parts of it what absolute indifference if God will take our own witness whether we be heard or no This want of ardency in us this no-fire on our Altar of Incense is certainly the thing that hath provoked God to deliver up our Liturgy to Satan to oppose and malign to calumniate and defame as at this day the Lord pardon us our part of this sin This is the preferring of Barabbas a Robber a Devil perhaps that steals away our hearts from Christ even when we are in closest converse with him As for fasting what is that but an empty formal unsignificant name The scorn of the Pharisees twice a week hath quite driven it out of our Calendar O consider this and but once more consider Look on the Sermon in the Mount the several graces and duties that there make up the Christian somewhat above the pitch of a Scribe or Pharisee and then every of the contrary vices nay the very Jewish or Heathen the moral or natural mans vertues that come short of that high Philosophy are every one the Barabbas in the Text directly this Jewish choice He that cannot forgive an enemy bless him pray for him heap all the hot burning coals of Charity upon his head and melt him by that artifice rather than break him ruine him damn him by any other what doth he but prefer his own revengeful lust that hellish piece of sensuality that food for the Wolf the Vultur the Salamander the Devil in him directly before the commands not only counsels of
is engaged in such a pile of flames If there be any Charity left in this frozen World any Beam under this cold uninhabitable Zone it will certainly work some meltings on the most obdurate heart it will dissolve and pour out our bowels into a seasonable advice or admonition that excellent Recipe saith Themist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That supplies the place and does the work of the burnings and scarifyings a cry to stop him in his precipitous course a tear at least to solemnize if not to prevent so sad a fate And it were well if all our bowels were thus imployed all our kindness and most passionate love thus converted and laid out on our poor lapsed sinner-brethrens souls to seize upon those fugitives as Christ is said to do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. xi 16 to catch hold and bring them back ere it be yet too late rescue them out of the hands of their dearest espoused sins and not suffer the most flattering kind of death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Gal. de Athl. the Devil in the Angelical disguise the sin that undertakes to be the prime Saint the zeal for the Lord of Hosts any the most venerable impiety to lay hold on them Could I but see such a new fashioned Charity received and entertained in the World every man to become his brothers keeper and every man so tame as to love and interpret aright entertain and embrace this keeper this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this Guardian Angel as an Angel indeed as the only valuable friend he hath under Heaven I should think this a lucky omen of the worlds returning to its wits to some degree of piety again And till then there is a very fit place and season for the exercise of the other part of the passion here that of Indignation the last minute of my last particular as the how long is an expression of Indignation Indignation not at the men for however Aristotles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A man ought to have indignation at some persons may seem to justifie it Our Saviour calls not for any such stern passion or indeed any but love and bowels of pity and charity toward the person of any the most enormous sinner and St. Paul only for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the restoring setting him in joynt again that is thus overtaken in any fault but Indignation I say at the sin at the simplicity and the folly that refuse reproachful Creature that hath the fate to be beloved so passionately and so long And to this will Aristotles â—eason of indignation belong the seeing favors and kindness so unworthily disâ—eâ—ced the uâ—tarts saith he and new men advanced and gotten into the greatest dignities knowledge to be proâ—estly hated and under that title all the prime i. e. Practical Wisdom and Piety and simplicity i. e. folly and madness and sin to have our whole souls laid out upon it O let this shrill Sarcasm of Wisdoms the How long ye simple ones be for ever a sounding in our ears Let this indignation at our stupid ways of sin transplant it self to that soyl where it is likely to thrive and fructifie best I mean to that of our own instead of other mens breasts where it will appear gloriously in St. Pauls inventory a prime part of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the durable unretracted repentance an effect of that godly sorrow that worketh to Salvation And if it be sincere O what indignation it produceth in us What displeasure and rage at our folly to think how senselesly we have moulted and crumbled away our souls what unthrifty bargains we have made what sots and fools we shall appear to Hell when it shall be known to the wretched tormented Creatures what ambitions we had to be but as miserable as they upon what Gotham errands what Wild-goose chases we are come posting and wearied thither O that a little of this consideration and this passion betimes might ease us of that endless wo and indignation those tears and gnashing of teeth quit us of that sad arrear of horrors that otherwise waits behind for us Lord do thou give us that view of our ways the errors the follies the furies of our extravagant Atheistical lives that may by the 〈◊〉 reproach and shame recover and return us to thee Make our faces ashamed O Lord that we may seek thy Law Give us that pity and that indignation to our poor perishing souls that may at length â—wake and fright us out of our Lethargies and bring us so many confounded humbled contrite â—tentiaries to that beautiful gate of thy temple of mercies where we may retract our follies implore thy pardon deprecate thy wrath and for thy deliverance from so deep an Hell from so infamous a vile condition from so numerous a tale of deaths never leave praising thee and saying Holy holy holy Lord God of Hosts Heaven and Earth are full of thy glory Glory be to thee O God most high To whom with the Son and the Holy Ghost be ascribed c. SERMON IV. MATT. I. 23 Emmanuel which is by interpretation God with us THE different measure and meanâ— of dispensing Divine Knowledg to several ages of the World may sufficiently appear by the Gospels of the New and Prophecies of the Old Testament the sunshine and the clearness of the one and the twilight and dimness of the other but in no point this more importantly concerns us than the Incarnation of Christ This hath been the Study and Theme the Speculation and Sermon of all holy Men and Writers since Adam's Fall yet never plainly disclosed till John Baptist in the third of Matth. and the third Verse and the Angel in the next Verses before my Text undertook the Task and then indeed was it fully performed then were the Writings or rather the Riddles of the obscure stammering whispering Prophets turned into the voice of One crying in the Wilderness Prepare ye the ways of the Lord c. Isa xl 3 Then did the cry yea shouting of the Baptist at once both interpret and perform what it prophesied At the sound of it Every valley was exalted and every hill was brought low the crooked was made straight and the rough places plain v. 4. That is the Hill and Groves of the Prophets were levell'd into the open champain of the Gospel those impediments which hindred God's approach unto mens rebel hearts were carefully removed the abject mind was lifted up the exalted was deprest the intractable and rough was render'd plain and even in the same manner as a way was made unto the Roman Army marching against Jerusalem This I thought profitable to be premised to you both that you might understand the affinity of Prophecies and Gospel as differing not in substance but only in clearness of revelation as the glorious face of the Sun from it self being overcast and mask'd with a cloud and also for the clearing of my Text For this entire passage
respect to this Incarnation of Christ that the hopes the belief the expectation of Salvation which the Father 's lived and breathed by under the types of the Law was only grounded upon and referred unto these Promises of the future Incarnation that they which were not in some measure enlightned in this mystery were not also partakers of this Covenant of Salvation that all the means besides that Heaven and Earth and which goes beyond them both the brain of Man or Angel could afford or invent could not excuse much less save any child of Adam That every Soul which was to spring from these loins had been without those transcendent mercies which were exhibited by this Incarnation of Christs plung'd in necessary desperate damnation Your patience shall be more profitably imployed in a brief Application of the point First That you perswade and drive your selves to a sense and feeling of your Sins those sins which thus pluckt God out of Heaven and for a while depriv'd him of his Majesty which laid an engagement upon God either to leave his infinite Justice unsatisfied or else to subject his infinite Deity to the servile mortality of Flesh or else to leave an infinite World in a common damnation Secondly To strain all the expressions of our hearts tongues and lives to the highest note of gratitude which is possible in answer to this Mystery and Treasure of this God with us to reckon all the Miracles of either common or private preservations as foils to this incomparable Mercy infinitely below the least circumstance of it without which thine Estate thy Understanding thy Body thy Soul thy Being thy very Creation were each of them as exquisite Curses as Hell or Malice could invent for thee Thirdly To observe with an ecstasie of joy and thanks the precious priviledges of us Christians beyond all that ever God profest love to in that we have obtained a full revelation of this God with us which all the Fathers did but see in a cloud the Angels peep'd at the Heathen world gap'd after but we behold as in a plain at mid-day For since the veil of the Temple was rent every man that hath eyes may see Sanctum Sanctorum the Holy of Holies God with us Fourthly To make a real use of this Doctrine to the profit of our Souls that if God have designed to be Emmanuel and Jesus an Incarnate God and Saviour to us that then we will fit and prepare and make our selves capable of this Mercy and by the help of our religious devout humble endeavours not frustrate but further and promote in our selves this end of Christs Incarnation the saving of our Souls and this use is effectually made to our hands in the twelfth to the Hebrews at the last Wherefore we receiving a Kingdom that cannot be moved i. e. being partakers of the Presence the Reign the Salvation of the Incarnate God Let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear And do thou O powerful God improve the truth of this Doctrine to the best advantage of our Souls that thy Son may not be born to us unprofitably but that he may be God not only with us but in us in us to sanctifie and adorn us here with his effectual grace and with us to sustain us here as our Emmanuel and as our Jesus to crown and perfect us hereafter with glory And so much for this point That Jesus and Emmanuel import the same thing and there was no Salvation till this presence of God with us We now come to the substance it self i. e. Christs Incarnation noted by Emmanuel which is by interpretation c. Where first we must explain the word then drive forward to the matter The Word in Isaiah in the Hebrew is not so much a name as a sentence describing unto us the mystery of the Conception of the Virgin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with us God where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God is taken in Scripture either absolutely for the nature of God as for the most part in the Old Testament or personally and so either for the Person of the Father in many places or else distinctly for the Person of the Son so Hos i. 7 And will save them by the Lord their God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their God i. e. Christ and so also most evidently in this place out of Isaiah where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies the Son Incarnate God-man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and many the like especially those where the Targum paraphrases Jehovah or Jehovah Elohim by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Word of the Lord i. e. Christ Jesus Joh. i. 1 As for instance Gen. iii. 22 that Word of the Lord said and Gen. ii 6 the Word created Secondly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies in its extent near at with or amongst Thirdly the Particle signifying us though it expresses not yet it must note our humane nature our abode our being in this our great World wherein we travel and this our little World wherein we dwell not as a mansion place to remain in but either as an Inn to lodg or a Tabernacle to be covered or a Prison to suffer in So that the words in their latitude run thus Emmanuel i. e. The second Person in Trinity is come down into this lower world amongst us for a while to travel to lodg to sojourn to be fetter'd in this Inn this Tabernacle this Prison of mans flesh or briefly at this time is conceived and born God-man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same both God and Man the Man Christ Jesus And this is the cause and business the ground and theme of our present rejoycing in this were limited and fulfilled the expectation of the Fathers and in this begins and is accomplished the hope and joy of us Christians That which was old Simeons warning to death the sight and embraces of the Lord Christ Luk. ii 28 as the greatest happiness which an especial favour could bestow on him and therefore made him in a contempt of any further life sing his own funeral Nunc Dimittis Lord now lettest thou c. This is to us the Prologue and first part of a Christians life either the life of the World that that may be worthy to be call'd life or that of Grace that we be not dead whilst we live For were it not for this assumption of flesh you may justly curse that ever you carried flesh about you that ever your Soul was committed to such a Prison as your Body is nay such a Dungeon such a Grave But through this Incarnation of Christ our flesh is or shall be cleansed into a Temple for the Soul to worship in and in Heaven for a robe for it to triumph in For our body shall be purified by his Body If ye will be sufficiently instructed into a just valuation of the weight of this Mystery you must resolve
troubled about the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their prophaneness and uncleanness that they were not fit for an Apostle to defile himself about their Conversion And this was the general opinion of all the Jews they of the Circumcision were astonished at the news Act. x. 45 Nay this is it that the Angels wondred at so when they saw it wrought at the Church by Pauls Ministery never dreaming it possible till it was effected as may appear Eph. iii. 10 This was the Mystery which from the beginning of the World had been hid in God V. 9. One of God's Cabinet Counsels a Mercy decreed in secret that no Creature ever wish of till it was performed And in this behalf are we all being lineally descended from the Gentiles bound over to an infinite measure both of humiliation and gratitude for our deliverance from the guilt and reign of that second Original sin that Heathenism of our Ancestors and Catholick damnation that Sixteen hundred years ago we were all involv'd in Beloved we were long ago set right again and the obligation lies heavy upon us to shew this change to have been wrought in us to some purpose to prove our selves Christians in grain so fixed and established that all the Devils in Hell shall not be able to reduce us again to that abhorred condition If we that are thus called out shall fall back after so much Gospel to Heathen practices and set up Shrines and Altars in our hearts to every poor delight that our sottishness can call a God if we are not called out of their sins as well as out of their ignorance then have we advanced but the further toward Hell we are still but Heathen Gospellers our Christian Infidelity and practical Atheism will but help to charge their guilt upon us and damn us the deeper for being Christians Do but examine your selves on this one Interrogatory whether this calling the Gentiles hath found any effect in your hearts any influence on your lives whether your Conversations are not still as Heathenish as ever If you have no other grounds or motives to embrace the Gospel but only because you are borâ— within the pale of the Church no other evidences of your Discipleship but your livery then God is little beholding to you for your service The same motives would have served to have made you Turks if it had been your chance to have been born amongst them and now all that fair Christian outside is not thank-worthy 'T is but your good fortune that you are not now at the same work with the old Gentiles or present Indians a worshipping either Jupiter or the Sun 'T was a shrewd speech of Clemens that the life of every unregenerate Man is an Heathen-life and the sins of unsanctified Men are Heathen-sins and the estate of a Libertine Christian an Heathen-estate and unless our resolutions and practices are consonant to our profession of Christ we are all still Heathens and the Lord make us sensible of this our Condition The third and in summ the powerfullest Argument to prove God's willingness that we should live is that he hath bestowed his spirit upon us that as soon as he called up the Son he sent the Comforter This may seem to be the main business that Christ ascended to Heaven about so that a Man would guess from the xvi Chapter of St. John and Vers 7. that if it had not been for that Christ had tarried amongst us till this time but that it was more expedient to send the Spirit to speak those things powerfully to our hearts which often and in vain had been sounded in our ears 'T is a phancy of the Paracelsians that if we could suck out the lives and spirits of other Creatures as we feed on their flesh we should never die their lives would nourish and transubstantiate into our lives their spirit increase our spirits and so our lives grow with our years and the older we were by consequence the fuller of life and so no difficulty to become Immortal Thus hath God dealt with us first sent his Son his Incarnate Son his own Flesh to feed and nourish us and for all this we die daily he hath now given us his own very Life and incorporeous Essence a piece of pure God his very Spirit to feed upon and digest that if it be possible we might live There is not a vein in our Souls unless it be quite pin'd and shrivel'd up but hath some bloud produced in it by that holy nourishment every breath that ever we have breathed toward Heaven hath been thus inspired Besides those louder Voices of God either sounding in his Word or thundring in his Judgments there is his calm soft voice of Inspiration like the Night Vision of old which stole in upon the mind mingled with sleep and gentle slumber He draws not out into the Field or meets us as an Enemy but entraps us by surprize and disarms us in our quarters by a Spiritual Stratagem conquers at unawares and even betrays and circumvents and cheats us into Heaven That precept of Pythagoras 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To worship at the noise and whistling of the wind had sense and divinity in it that Jamblichus that cites it never dreamt of that every sound and whispering of this Spirit which râ—stles either about our ears or in our hearts as the Philosopher saith Tecum est intus est when it breaths and blows within us the stoutest faculty of our Souls the proudest piece of flesh about us should bow down and worship Concerning the manner of the Spirits working I am not I need not to dispute Thus far it will be seasonable and profitable for you to know that many other Illuminations and holy Graces are to he imputed to Gods Spirit besides that by which we are effectually converted God speaks to us many times when we answer him not and shines about our eyes when we either wink or sleep Our many sudden shortwinded Ejaculations toward Heaven our frequent but weak inclinations to good our ephemerous wishes that no man can distinguish from true piety but by their sudden death our every day resolutions of obedience whilest we continue in sin are arguments that God's Spirit hath shined on us though the warmth that it produced be soon chill'd with the damp it meets within us For example there is no doubt beloved but the Spirit of God accompanies his Word as at this time to your ears if you will but open at its knock and receive and entertain it in your hearts it shall prove unto you according to its most glorious attribute Rom. i. The power of God unto salvation But if you will refuse it your stubbornness may repel and frustrate God's Work but not annihilate it though you will not be saved by it it is God's still and so shall continue to witness against you as the day of doom Every word that was ever darted from that Spirit as a beam or javelin of
that we again in the Gentilism of our Fathers were all deeply plunged in a double common damnation how are we to humble our selves infinitely above measure to stretch and rack and torture every power of our souls to its extent thereby to enlarge and aggravate the measure of this guilt against our selves which hitherto perhaps we have not taken notice of There is not a better 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the world no more powerful medicine for the softning of the soul and keeping it in a Christian tenderness than this lading it with all the burdens that its common or private condition can make it capable of this tiring of it out and bringing it down into the dust in the sense of its spiritual engagements For 't is impossible for him who hath fully valued the weight of his general guilts each of which hath lead enough to sink the most corky vain fluctuating proud stubborn heart in the world 't is impossible I say for him either wilfully to run into any actual sins or insolently to hold up his head in the pride of his integrity This very one meditation that we all hear might justly have been left in heathenism and that the sins of the Heathens shall be imputed to us their children if we do not repent is enough to loosen the toughest strongest spirit to melt the flintiest heart to humble the most elevated soul to habituate it with such a sense of its common miseries that it shall never have courage or confidence to venter on the danger of particular Rebellions 2. From the view of their ignorance or impiety which was of so hainous importance to examine our selves by their indictment 1. For our learning 2. For our lives 3. For the life of grace in us 1. For our learning Whether that be not mixed with a great deal of Atheistical ignorance with a delight and aquiescence and contentation in those lower Elements which have nothing of God in them whether we have not sacrificed the liveliest and spritefullest part of our age and souls in these Philological and Physical disquisitions which if they have not a perpetual aspect and aim at Divinity if they be not set upon in that respect and made use of to that purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Clement their best friend they are very hurtful and of dangerous issue Whether out of our circle of humane heathen learning whence the Fathers produced precious antidotes we have not suckt the poyson of unhallowed vanity and been fed either to a pride and ostentation of our secular or a satiety or loathing of our Theological learning as being too coarse and homely for our quainter palates Whether our studies have not been guilty of those faults which cursed the Heathen knowledge as trusting to our selves or wit and good parts like the Philosophers in Athenagoras 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. not vouchsafing to be taught by God even in matters of religion but every man consulting and believing and relying on his own reason Again in making our study an instrument only to satisfie our curiosity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 only as speculators of some unknown truths not intending or desiring thereby either to promote vertue good works or the Kingdom of God in our selves or which is the ultimate end which only commends and blesses our study or knowledge the glory of God in others 2. In our lives to examine whether there are not also many relicks of heathenism altars erected to Baalim to Ceres to Venus and the like Whether there be not many amongst us whose God is their belly their back their lust their treasure or that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that earthly unknown God whom we have no one name for and therefore is called at large the God of the world Whether we do not with as much zeal and earnestness and cost serve and worship many earthy vanities which our own phansies deifie for us as ever the Heathen did their multitude and shole of gods And in brief whether we have not found in our selves the sins as well as the blood of the Gentiles and acted over some or all the abominations set down to judge our selves by Rom. i. from the 21 verse to the end Lastly for the life of grace in us Whether many of us are not as arrant heathens as mere strangers from spiritual illumination and so from the mystical Commonwealth of Israel as any of them Clem. Strom. 2. calls the life of your unregenerate man a Heathen life and the first life we have by which we live and move and grow and see but understand nothing and 't is our regeneration by which we raise our selves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from being still mere Gentiles and Tatianus farther that without the spirit we differ from beasts only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the articulation of our voice So that in fine neither our reason nor Christian profession distinguisheth us either from beasts or Gentiles only the spirit in the formalis ratio by which we excel and differ from the Heathen sons of darkness Wherefore I say to conclude we must in the clearest calm and serenity of our souls make a most earnest search and inquest on our selves whether we are yet raised out of this heathenism this ignorance this unregeneracy of nature and elevated any degree in the estate of grace and if we find our selves still Gentiles and which is worse than that still senseless of that our condition we must strive and work and pray our selves out of it and not suffer the temptations of the flesh the temptations of our nature the temptations of the world nay the temptations of our secular proud learning lull us one minute longer in that carnal security lest after a careless unregenerate natural life we die the death of those bold not vigilant but stupid Philosophers And for those of us who are yet any way Heathenish either in our learning or lives which have nothing but the name of Christians to exempt us from the judgment of their ignorance O Lord make us in time sensible of this our condition and whensoever we shall humble our selves before thee and confess unto thee the sinfulness of our nature the ignorance of our Ancestors and every man the plague of his own heart and repent and turn and pray toward thy house then hear thou in Heaven thy dwelling place and when thou hearest forgive remember not our offences nor the offences of our Heathen Fathers neither take thou vengeance of our sins but spare us O Lord spare thy people whom thy Son hath redeemed and thy spirit shall sanctifie from the guilt and practice of their rebellions Now to God who hath elected us hath c. Pars Secunda SERMON XIII ACTS XVII 30 And the times of this ignorance God winked at but now commandeth all men every where to repent THey which come from either mean or dishonoured Progenitors will desire to make up their Fathers defect by
of one of these three sorts either earthly the work of a plant or sensual the work of a Brute or thirdly above the condition of both these devillish Thus do you see the sin of the contempt of the light of nature which although it be dimm'd in us by our corruption yet shined so bright in the Heathen that they were left without excuse in the Jews that even their own hearts accused them for their rebellions and in us Christians that unless we move according to its directions we are fallen below the condition of men almost of Creatures 'T were now superfluous farther to demonstrate it our time will be better spent if we close with some use of it and that will prove manifold first by way of caution not to deify or exalt too high or trust in this light of nature It was once a perfect glorious rule but is now distorted and defaced it once was light in the Lord almost an Angel of light it shone as the Sun in the Firmament in majesty and full brightness but is now only as the Moon pale and dim scarce able to do us any service unless it borrows some rays from the Son of righteousness The fall hath done somewhat with it I know not what to call it either much impaired it and diminisht its light in its Essence or else much incumbred or opprest it in its operations as a Candle under a Vail or Lanthorn which though it burn and shine as truly as on a Candlestick yet doth not so much service in enlightning the room the Soul within us is much changed either is not in its Essence so perfect and active and bright as once it was or else being infused in a sufficient perfection is yet terribly overcast with a gloom and cloud of corruptions that it can scarce find any passage to get through and shew it self in our actions for the corruptible body presseth down the soul c. Wisd ix 15 And from this caution grow many lower branches whence we may gather some fruit as in the second place infinitely to humble our selves before God for the first sin of Adam which brought this darkness on our Souls and account it not the meanest or slightest of our miseries that our whole nature is defiled and bruised and weakned to aggravate every circumstance and effect of that sin against thy self which has so liberally afforded fuel to the flames of lust of rage and wild desire and thereby without Gods gracious mercy to the flames of Hell This is a most profitable point yet little thought on and therefore would deserve a whole Sermon to discuss to you 3. To observe and acknowledge the necessity of some brighter light than this of nature can afford us and with all the care and vigilancy of our hearts all the means that Scripture will lend us and at last with all the importunities and groans and violence of our Souls to petition and sollicit and urge Gods illuminating spirit to break out and shine on us To undertake to interpret any antient Author requires say the Grammarians a man of deep and various knowledge because there may be some passage or other in that Book which will refer to every sort of learning in the World whence 't is observed that the old Scholiasts and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were most exquisite Scholars Thus certainly will not any ordinary skill serve turn to interpret and explain many dark sayings which were at first written in the Book of our hearts but are now almost past reading only that omniscient spirit that hath no shadow of ignorance the Finger that first writ must be beseeched to read and point out the riddle We must make use of that rotten staffe of nature as far as its strength will bear and that very gingerly too never daring to lean or lay our whole weight upon it lest it either wound with its splinter or else break under us our help and stay and subsistence and trust must be in the Lord our Eyes must wait on his inlightning spirit and never lose a ray that falls from it Fourthly to clear up as much as we can and re-inliven this light within us And that first By stirring up and blowing and so nourishing every spark we find within us The least particle of fire left in a Coal may by pains be improved into a flame 't is held possible to restore or at least preserve for a time any thing that is not quite departed If thou findest but a spark of Religion in thee which saith A God is to be worship't care and sedulity and the breath of Prayers may in time by this inflame the whole man into a bright fire of Zeal towards God In brief whatever thou dost let not any the least atome of that fire which thou once feelest within thee ever go out quench not the weakest motion or inclination even of reason towards God or goodness how unpolish't soever this Diamond be yet if it do but glissen 't is too pretious to be cast away And then secondly By removing all hindrances or incumbrances that may any way weaken or oppress it and these you have learnt to be corrupt affections That democracy and croud and press and common people of the Soul raises a tumult in every street within us that no voice of law or reason can be heard If you will but disgorge and purge the stomach which hath been thus long opprest if you will but remove this Cloud of crudities then will the brain be able to send some rayes down to the heart which till then are sure to be caught up by the way anticipated and devoured For the naked simplicity of the Soul the absence of all disordered passions is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Aphrodiseus that kindly familiar good temper of the Soul by which it is able to find out and judge of truth In brief if thou canst crop thy luxuriant passions if thou canst either expel or tame all the wild Beasts within thee which are born to devour any thing which is weak or innocent then will that mild voice within thee in the cave take heart and shew it self In the mean time this hurry of thy senses drowns that reason and thou canst not hope to see as long as like old Tobit the dung and white film doth remain upon thine Eyes If thou canst use any means to dissolve this dung of affections which an habit of sin hath baked within thee the scales will fall off from thine Eyes and the blind Tobit shall be restored to his sight In brief do but fortify thy reasonable Soul against all the undermining and faction and violence of these sensual passions do but either depose or put to the Sword that Atheistical Tyrant and Usurper as Jamblichus calls the affections do but set reason in the Chair and hear and observe his dictates and thou hast disburthened thy self of a great company of weights and pressures thou wilt be able
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LXXII and so Lat. Arab. Aeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ‖ Tom. 1. p. 541. l. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ‖ Prefect of the stringed instruments See Psalm 4.1 †On the eighth * To supplicate for his sin Arab. †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chald. ‖ Set a trembling 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or troubled so the Syr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LXXII and so Lat. Aeth †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chald. how long wilt thou defer to give me some refreshing †Confess or praise thee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ‖ fretted motheaten 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 corrosus est a tinea †indignation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chal. of which see Note on Psal 4. d. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 anger Lxxii and so Syr. Lat. Arab. Aeth ‖ distressers oppressers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ‖ hath received so all the antient Translations render the future 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ‖ All my enemies shall be put to shame and terrified greatly See v. 2. they shall be turned back and put to shame 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ‖ A Psalm or Song ‖ that did it to me or have despoiled ‖ cause my honour to dwell 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ‖ in or over See Note c. †raise up for me the judgment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Chaldee read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 speed or hasten for me ‖ for that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the hoose of thy Majesty Chald. †Wickedness shall now consume or destroy the wicked and thou shalt establish ‖ my sheild is on 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 †is a righteous judge so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is rendred by all the antient Interpreters ‖ See note c. †will make or hath made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ‖ or pursuing or burning arrows †confess 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our master or teacher say the Chaldee ‖ miserable or mortal man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 †Adam or earthly man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 †or a little while See Annot. on Heb. 4. c. †The Chaldee read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Leviathan that passeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ‖ or the death of the Champion †exult leap for joy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LXXII exultabo Lat. Syr. Arab. Aeth †be galled or lamed ‖ from thy face or sight 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 †pleaded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 See note on Psalm 2â—2 a. ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the wicked Goliah Chald. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the peoples of the Philistims Chald. ‖ consummate to the end or for ever †extirpated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ‖ And the Lord shall endure for ever he shall sit he hath ‖ And the Lord shall endure for ever he shall sit he hath * for reasons or opportunities in distress 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LXXII in opportunitatibus in tribulatione Lat. ‖ his miracles Arab. †afflicted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ‖ affliction or oppression from my enemies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ‖ See note on Psal 3.6 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the fear or worship of God Chald. †opprest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the son of wicked man Chaldee ‖ or set them a razor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ‖ on Ps 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 †Ibid. p. 296. l. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lxxii See Psal 9.9 ‖ or In the pride of the wicked the poor is set on fire * and the covetous blasphemes and provoketh God ‖ The wicked in the haughtiness of his look †saith God will not require or consider or search out all his devices or will not seek all his thoughts are there is no God * His ways shall travail or bring forth at every season ‖ I shall not be moved for ever and ever that not on mischief or from doing mischief †iniquity or falseness * or fields ‖ infidiously watch Ï€ in a close or secret place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ω by drawing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 α and teareth him in pieces ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lxxii rapit Lat. Arab. β he humbleth himself and falleth that he may prevail over the poor ‖ the afflicted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * provoke See v. 3. note b. * thou shalt seek his wickedness not find it * tyrannize 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 × ã€ˆâ—Šã€‰ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ו 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ‖ the ‖ For the strong holds will be demolished * or and the wicked and he that loveth violence hateth his own soul ‖ a tempestuous wind shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ‖ the Right see Psal 6. * or fidelities 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LXXII and so Syr. Lat. Arab. Aethiop * one with another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ‖ with a heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 †with us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * will the Lord say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ‖ he will speak freely to him or puffe at him or it shall speak out to him * a crusible or sining pot 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 †preserve him ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * of the sons of men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 splendor Chald. ‖ death or to or in death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 †rendred good or
how he sware unto the Lord But the ancient interpreters authority may be preferred for the latter rendering yet not for that of afflictions for what reference could those have to his vow of preparing a place for the Ark or of building the Temple but of humility meekness or pious affection to God which excited him so to swear And this the rather because when he had built himself a palace 1 Chron. 15.1 it appears by the context that he did not bless it ch 16.43 nor consequently live in it for that he might not doe till it were blest untill he had first prepared a place and brought up the Ark to it So again when he designed to build a temple for it the first proposition which he made to Nathan to this purpose was introduced with a consideration and speech of great humility 2 Sam. 7.2 See now I dwell in a house of Cedar but the Ark of God dwelleth within curtains He was so humble that he could not dwell in his house till the Ark of God was brought to Sion nor then could he think meet to be himself in so stately a palace whilst the Ark of God was but in a plain tent or tabernacle But especially this humility of David's is discernible in the passage recited 1 Chron. 17.16 c. where upon God's promise to him that he would build up his house establish his family in the Kingdom he came and sate before the Lord and said Who am I O Lord God and what is my house that thou hast brought me hitherto and so on in a speech of greatest humility and meekness and fit here to be commemorated in the beginning of this Psalm which belongs not onely to the preparing a place for the Ark on David's part but also to God's promise of establishing the Kingdom on his seed v. 11 c. V. 6. Heard of it The chief difficulty in this Psalm is what is here meant by hearing of in Ephrata And first it is certain that Ephrata is Bethleem Mich. 5.2 secondly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies we have heard it rather than we have heard of it And then it may be interpreted that in the procession of the Ark through the tribe of Judah being returned from the Philistims we heard the joyfull acclamations which accompanied it in Bethleem this not onely when 't was placed in Kiriath-Jarim but when 't was settled at Jerusalem Bethleem as Aben Ezra saith being but three miles from Jerusalem And in accordance with this sense Kimchi Jarchi and Aben Ezra agree to interpret the fields of the wood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be Jerusalem as in the Prophets frequently the Temple is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the wood And to this inclines the correspondence between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we found it v. 6. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 till I find out a place for the Lord an habitation c. v. 5. This seems the most probable meaning of this passage the difficulty of which the learned Castellio hath remarked with this note Hujus loci sententiam non intelligo I understand not the meaning of this place Some probability there is that the fields of the wood should be the house of Amidadab in the hill of Kiriath-Jarim so called because it was a city in a woody place 1 Sam. 7.1 from whence David and all Israel resolved solemnly to fetch it and brought it to the house of Obed-Edom v. 13. And then hearing of it at Ephrata must signifie hearing it much talkt of when he dwelt at home in his fathers house at Bethleem But the former is the more obvious interpretation The Jewish Arab is obscure and probably corrupted yet the words seem thus to sound And we behold heard it in the grass or pastures of multitude abundance or plenty and we found it between the desart and the wood V. 15. Provisions The Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to hunt signifies any victuals that is taken with hunting and absolutely flesh food provisions for a journey so Jos 9.11 take in your hands 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 provision for your journey The LXXII renders it literally 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not in the notion of hunting but to signifie that which is hunted and so taken as among us venison the English of venatio is the flesh which is thus caught But this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was it seems mistaken and by transcribers disguised into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 widow and so by the Latin rendred viduam and so transfused into many other interpretations V. 16. Salvation What 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 salvation here imports will be best judged by Psal 116. There the taking the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cup of salvations v. 13. is expounded v. 14. by paying his vows unto the Lord those oblations which he had vow'd as his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 expressions of thankfulness for God's deliverances as Psal 50.14 offering of thanksgiving and paying of vows are put together and in plain terms v. 17. the sacrifice of thanksgiving Accordingly as the LXXII rendred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the trespass-offering or peace-offering Lev. 7. by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sacrifice of salvation v. 1. so they vary the style and reade 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sacrifice of praise v. 2. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sacrifice of saving praise v. 3. see note on Heb. 13. e. The Chaldee Psal 116. reade 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the cup of redemptions i. e. such a cup as they that have received any redemption or deliverance are wont to take to express their thankfulness the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cup of blessing in the Christian style and so here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the garments of redemption were such literally as the Priests use in time of sacrifice when they are solemnly to acknowledge any deliverance or mercy received from heaven or more probably a Poetical or Rhetorical scheme such as Isa 59.17 righteousness as a breastplate and the helmet of salvation and Eph. 6.14.17 and 1 Thess 5.8 And accordingly to the Priests being cloathed with salvation is here annext her saints shall sing aloud with joy V. 17. Lamp The notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lamp here will be discerned by considering the double property of a lamp or candle 1. that it shineth 2. that from that when it is near spent another may be lighted and burn afresh and so the light be from one to another perpetually kept in For by this double resemblance a succession of Kings in a family is lively exprest Of David himself it is said 2 Sam. 21.17 thou shalt go no more with us to battel that thou quench not the light of Israel and of the succession 1 King 11.36 Vnto his son will I give one tribe that David my servant may have a light or lamp alway before me in Jerusalem and again ch 15.4 for David's sake did the Lord give him a lamp in
Jerusalem to set up his son after him And so here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a lamp to mine anointed is a royal seed or posterity to rise up in stead of David and sit upon his throne The same was before meant by the budding of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 horn of David The horn is proverbially the regal dignity and the budding thereof the bringing forth successors to the Kingdom The same is again repeated v. 18. upon him i. e. his posterity shall his crown flourish where for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his crown the LXXII reade 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not his but my and taking 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the notion of separation or sanctification reade 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my holiness That this doth mystically refer to Christ the Jews confess So saith R. Saadiah The lamp is the King which illuminates the nations and Kimchi that the horn of David is the Messias To whom it is farther agreeable that he is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to flourish or bud forth which is another of his titles and to that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may possibly be added also The Hundred and Thirty Third PSALM A Song of Degrees of David The hundred thirty third is the magnifying the felicities of holy peaceable fraternal communion and was fitly accommodated to the return from the captivity and their uniform conjunction in the service of God 1. BEhold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity Paraphrase 1. There is nothing that is more acceptable to God and matter of greater joy and present delight to the persons themselves than a peaceable friendly conversation of pious men with a perfect union of minds and communion in devotions and joint endeavours of doing and helping one another to doe those things that are most excellent 2. It is like the precious oyntment upon the head that ran down upon the beard even Aaron's beard that went down to the skirts of his garments Paraphrase 2. It cannot be more fitly compared to any thing than to the unction of Aaron the high-priest of God the oyntment of a most precious sort very fragrant and odoriferous It was by order to be poured upon his head and in that plenty that being so poured it diffused it self not onely on his face and beard but ran down also upon the upper part or collar of his garments see note a. and this whole ceremony instituted by God himself thereby to consecrate Aaron and his successors after him to the high-priests office to offer sacrifice to God and bless the people And in all these particulars the proportion holds This of fraternal charity union and communion is 1. very precious highly valued 2. very gratefull and welcome a pleasant and refreshing spectacle to all beholders to God Angels and men 3. it is so rich and plentifull a grace that it communicates it self to all the meanest persons in the society not onely to superiour and more eminent parts but to every inferiour member of the community making supplies to all sorts of all their wants and 4. no grace or vertue more signally commanded and recomended by God or 5. more required to make our prayers acceptable to God or our offices usefull to others or our selves 3. As the dew of Hermon and as the dew that descended on the mountains of Zion for there the Lord commanded the blessing even life for evermore Paraphrase 3. And accordingly God hath promised abundant blessings to those that thus live all happiness here and all glory in another world And in that respect it is most fitly compared to the innumerable drops of dew that fall in a morning upon many several and distant hills Hermon on one side of Canaan and Zion on the other or to that cloud of dew which is seen hanging as such on the highest hills but dissolves in showers of rain upon the lower which cherish and refresh wheresoever they fall For so do God's blessings severally descend in great abundance upon every member of such a peaceable united community be they in their condition as distant as Hermon and Zion in place yet the goodness of God finds them out and rewards them severally bestows all benedictions upon them Annotations on Psal CXXXIII V. 3. Zion It is here thought very difficult to resolve what is the meaning of the phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which descended on the hill of Zion For if it be spoken of the dew of Hermon foregoing then 't is not imaginable how that should descend on the hills of Zion Zion being very distant from Hermon Zion at Jerusalem and Hermon on the other side of Jordan on the utmost part of Canaan toward the East and so opposed to Tabor Psal 89.12 as East to West This hath put some learned men on a conjecture that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Zion here should be changed into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Schion which is another name of Hermon But this is not found in any ancient or later copy nor yet favoured by any of the ancient Interpreters who uniformly reade it Zion and not Schion nor hath any the least ground but that of the nearness of the words and the conceited difficulty of the matter that the dew of Hermon should descend on Zion at that distance But for these 1. It is most unsafe to use that liberty of conjecture thereby to change words at pleasure into any that have affinity with them 2. By this conjecture the difficulty is but changed not taken away for it would then be still difficult and but little more reasonable to suppose that the dew of Hermon should be said to descend from Hermon upon Schion i. e. upon it self than that it should from Hermon descend upon the most remote mountain 'T is therefore most seasonable to take notice of that which hath here occasioned the difficulty or seeming improbability of interpreting the words of Zion at Jerusalem The similitude in the former verse of the oyntment falling directly and by descent from the head to the beard hath led men to conceit a falling of that in like manner from a higher to a lower place which indeed cannot in any sense be applied to mount Hermon and the hills of Zion whereas in the truth this of the dew were the hills never so near and subordinate one to the other would still be a similitude unfit for that turn for dew is not like rain which streams down from hills to valleys or from an higher to a lower hill but remains in the place where it falls be it high or low The dew therefore in this place may possibly be set to express onely the plenty of that which is spoken of as elsewhere the dew of the morning is proportionable to the sand of the sea in respect of the numerousness see note on Psal 110. a. and the blessing and refreshing quality thereof and so to usher in God's commanding a blessing and