how old he was answered that he was in health and to another that asked how rich he was answered that he was not in debt q. d. He is young enough that is in health and rich enough that is not in debt Now all this Job was yet and therefore Satan ill apaid and unsatisfied And all that he hath will a man give for his life Life is sweet we say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aesop 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist and man is a life-loving creature saith the Heathen fond of life and afraid of death which is Natures slaughterman and therefore the most Terrible of Terribles as Aristotle stileth it The Gibeonites refused not to be perpetuall slaves so they might but live Those that are overcome in battle are content to be stript of all so they may have quarter for their lives Marriners in a tempest cast their lading into the sea though never so precious in hope of life If Job may escape with the skin of his teeth it is some favour he may not think much to sacrifice all that he hath to the service of his life his conscience only excepted Some good people have strained that too for love of life as when Abraham denyed his wife David changed his behaviour Camd. Elis fol. 325. Peter denyed his Master Qu. Elizabeth though afterwards she could say When I call to mind things past behold things present and expect things to come I hold them happiest that go hence soonest yet in Queen Maries time shee sometimes heard divine service after the Romish religion and was often confessed yea at the rigorous sollicitation of Cardinall Pool shee professed her self a Romish Catholick yet did not Queen Mary believe her saith mine Author remembring that shee her self for feare of death had by Letters written with her own hand to her father both renounced for ever the Bishop of Romes authority Ibid. Introd and withall acknowledged her father to be supreme head of the Church of England under Christ and her Mothers marriage to have been incestuous and unjust Those good soules did better that loved not their lives unto death Rev. 12.11 that by losing their lives saved them Matth. 10.39 that held with that Martyr Julius Palmer that life is sweet only to such as have their souls linked to their bodies as a thiefs foot is in a pair of fetters Verse 5. But put forth thy hand now See notes on chap. 1.11 This God did at Satans motion yet non ad exitium Jobi sed ad exercitium Jobs temptation is of Satan but his triall and invincible constancy is of god God in a sense tempted Job Satan also even as the dog may be said to bait the beast and the owner of the beast too that suffered him to be baited And touch his bone and his flesh pinch him to the quick that not his flesh onely may feel it but the marrow also in his bones Psal 6.2 and 32.3 and 51.8 The bone and flesh are the chief materials of mans body which is fitly compared to a fabrick wherein the bones are the timber-work the head the upper-lodging the eyes as windowes the eye-lids as casements the browes as pent-houses the ears as watch-towers the mouth as a door to take in that which shall uphold the building and keep it in reparations the stomack as a kitchin to dresse that which is conveyed into it the guts and baser parts as sinks belonging to the house c. as one maketh the comparison Now in all these and the rest of his parts of body Satan would have Job to be smitten and then he made no question of a conquest Paine is a piercing shaft in Satans quiver of temptations hence he stirred up his agents to tympanize and torment the Martyrs with as much cruelty as the wit of malice could devise but all in vain Heb. 11.35 36. Apollonia had all her teeth pulled out of her head hence Papists make her the Saint for tooth-ach Blandina tired those that tortured her Theodorus was cruelly whipped racked Scerat Theodor. and scraped with sharp shells by the command of Julian but yeilded not Rose Allen had her hand-wrist burnt by Justice Tyrrell who held a candle under it till the sinews brake that all the house heard them and then thrusting her from him violently said ah strong whore wilt thou not cry thou shamelesse whore thou beastly whore c. But she quietly suffering his rage for the time at the last said Sir Acts Mon. 1820. have you done what you will doe and he said yea and if thou think it not well then mend it Mend it said she nay the Lord mend you and give you repentance if it be his will And now if you think it fit begin at the feet and burn the head also for he that set you a work shall pay your wages one day I warrant you As little got the divel by these worthies as he did by Jobs biles and carbuncles We are ashamed said one of Julians Nobles to him we are Ashamed O Emperour the Christians laugh at your cruelty and grow the more resolute And he will curse thee to thy face Heb. If he curse thee not to thy fade q. d. then damne me send me to hell presently This Satan holds in by an Aposiopesis being therein more modest then our desperate and detestable God-damn-mee's let them see how they gratifie the divel who curse and blaspheme or protest openly what they know to be false This the divel did not Verse 6. And the Lord said unto Satan who hath his request it is not alwayes a mercy to have what we wish Deus saepè dat iratus quod negat propitius Be sure we bring lawful petitions and true hearts Heb. 10.22 and then we shall have good things and for our greatest good Behold he is in thine hand Here God puts his child into his slaves hand to correct but not to destroy And surely if we give reverence to the fathers of our flesh who correct us for their own pleasure shall we not much more be in subjection unto the Father of Spirits Heb. 12 9 10. Busbeq chastning us for our profit and live The Turks though cruelly lasht are yet compelled to return to him that commanded it to kisse his hand and to give him thanks and to pay the officer that whipt them This last we need not do but the former we ought taking Gods part against our selves and resting contented though as Paul delivered up some to Satan that they might learn not to blaspheme so God deliver us up to him and his agents such as Satanically hate us and are divellishly bent against us Psal 32.21 causing us to suffer more then any ever did out of hell that we may learn not to be proud secure sensuall and may preach forth the vertues of him who hath brought us out of darknesse into his marvellous light 1 Pet. 2.9 Let us not say if God would take
man a blessed man this the world wondreth at and can as little conceive of or consent to as the Philistines could of Sampsons riddle of meat out of the cater c. How can these things be say they It will never be saith Sense it can never be saith Reason it both can bee and will bee saith Faith the property whereof is to gather one contrary out of another life out of death happinesse out of misery assurance of deliverance out of deepest distresses and to believe God upon his bare word and that against sense in things invisible and against reason in things incredible What if the afflicted man be Enosh that 's the word here a sorry sickly miserable man so the world esteemeth him yet Blessed is the man there he is called Geber the gallant man whom thou 〈…〉 O Lord and teachest him out of thy Law Psal 94.12 Oh the happinesses the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the present and future happinesse of the man whom God correcteth and withall instructeth chastening him with pain upon his bed and withall opening his cares to counsel and sealing his instructions Job 33.16 19 disputing him out of his evil practises with a rod in his hand Therefore despise not than the chastening of the Almighty Fret not faint not be not so impatient as to think that either thy crosses come not from God or not in mercy or that he is not All-sufficient to beare thee up under them or to help thee out of them Set not light by his love-tokens this is one of those two extremes Solomon warnes us of Prov. 3.11 neither despise afflictions nor despond under them See my Treatise called Gods love-tokens and the afflicted mans lessons page 37 38 39. c. Loath we are to take up the crosse and when called to carry it we shrink in the shoulder no chastening seemeth joyous but grievous as averse the best may be to it Psal 75.8 as a sick man is to those physicall slibber-sawees he had as lieve die almost as take them down How then alass will wicked men doe to drink off that cup of Gods wrath that hath eternity to the bottome Let the saints be content and say Ferre minora voto ne gravior a feram It is the Lords mercy that we are not consumed Lâ—in 3.22 that wee are set safe from the wrath to come what-ever here betideth us It is the chastening of the Almighty who could as easily crush us as correct us See Isai 13.6 Jeal 1.15 Verse 18. For he maketh fore and bindeth up As a Surgeon maketh an incision to let out the impost humed matter and then heals up the wound againe God hath a salve for every sore a medicine for every malady he is both a Father and a physician hee 〈◊〉 us not unlesse aâ—ed be 1 Pes. 1.6 Wee are judged of the Lord that we may not be condemned with the world Would wee that God should let us alone to perish in our 〈…〉 Ephraim Hos 4.14 and not meddle with us 〈…〉 they are set 〈◊〉 up our fores before they 〈…〉 mercy more cruel then any cruelty as a Father calls it And yea most 〈…〉 of by Luther who being in his 〈…〉 to take in good part his present pain as a token of Gods love answered Ah quam velim alios amare non me If this be his love I could wish he would love others and not me Luth. in Gen. He woundeth This is more then to make sore or sick like as Heb. 12.6 Scourging is worse then Chastening God sometimes makes bloody wales upon the backs of his best children he wounds them with the wound of an enemy Psal 68.21 110.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cruentavit and leaves them all gore blood as the word here used importeth And his hands make whole He hath as a Chirurgion should have a Ladies hand soft and tender a fathers heart relenting over his pained Ephraims Hos Lam. 3.33 11.8 Hee afflicteth not willingly or from the heart it goeth as much against the heart with him as against the hair with us and evermore Dejicit us relevet promit ut solatia prastet Enecat ut possit vivificare Deus Verse 19. He shall de liver thee Heb. Snatch thee away or pull thee out as a brand out of the fire or as a prey out of the teeth of a wilde beast Thus God snatcht Lot out of Sodom David out of many waters Paul out of the mouth of the Lion Jonah out of the belly of hell c. As birds flying so will I defend Jerusalem Isa 31.5 A metaphor from the Eagle and other birds which when they flie highest set a watchfull eye upon the nest to rescue their young ones in case of danger In six troubles Or straits such as enemies or other evils put men to Israel at the red sea for instance where they were sorely distressed encircled with troubles neither was there any way of escape unlesse they could have gone up to heaven which because they could not heaven came down to them and delivered them Yea in seven A certaine number for an uncertain boundlesse deliverances will God grant to his people even as oft as they shall need deliverance enemies oft plow upon their backs and God as often cuts their traces Psal 129.3 4. As Catâ— was two and thirty times accused and two and thirty times cleared and absolved so shall it be with the Saints and this not only at the end of the world as Gregory and others interpret this text as if by six and seven allusion were made to Gods creating the world in six dayes and resting on the seventh and so must his servants labour here under afflictions and rest in heaven but in this life present where many are the troubles of the righteous millions some render it but the Lord delivereth them out of all Psal 34.19 Yea in them all as this text hath it by his supporting grace and those divine comforts which as blown bladders beare them aloft all waters There shall no evill touch thee so tactu qualitativo with a deadly touch God chargeth afflictions as David did his Captaines concerning Absolom Handle the young man gently for my sake Touch not mine annointed c. Either touch them not at all or not to hurt them Troubles may touch the Saints but evils must not 1 Cor. 10.14 Verse 20. In famine be shall redeeme thee from death They that be slaine with the sword are better then they that be slaine with hunger Lamen 4.9 Famine therefore is here set as the first and greatest of the six ensuing evils the sorest of Gods judgments Ezek. 6.11 Jer. 24.10 The certaine harbinger of death as here From this so great a death God delivered Abraham Gen 12. Isaak Gen. 26. Jacob and his family Gen. 47. The poor widow 1 Kings 17. The Israelites in the wildernesse by quailes the Rochellers by a miraculous shoale of shel-fish cast up into their town in a strait
too c. Gregory the Great trembled whensoever he read those words of Abraham to the rich Glutton who thought this life to be his saginary or boares-frank Son remember that thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things Luke 16. Yee have lived in pleasure upon earth Jam. 5.5 no fit place for such a purpose God did not turn you out of one Paradise that you should here provide your selves of another earth is a place of banishment and bondage Of the wickeds prosperity here see Job 21.7 8. with the Notes And whose belly thon fillest with thy bid treasures That is with Gold and other precious things digged out of the earth saith Aben-Ezra Opimis rebus saith Junius with abundance of outward blessings and benefits saith another which are called Gods hidden treasures not because they are not seen but because they are not so well perceived and used of the ungodly as were meet or because the reason of their present plenty of all things is hidden from them and yet it appears not but shall bee made manifest that these fatting ware are but fitting for the slaughter They are full of Children which they send forth as a flock Job 21.11 See the Note there Or their Children are full carne porcinâ saith the Arabick here or of wordly wealth and mountaines of mony left them by those faithfull drudges their rich but wretched Parents and progenitours whose only care was to heap up hoards of wealth for their posterity Vers 15. As for mee I neither envy nor covet these mens happinesse but partly have and partly hope for a farre better I will behold thy face in Righteousnesse which none can do but the pure in heart Mat. 5. and those that keep close to God in a constant communion being justified and sanctified persons I shall be satisfied Better than those muck-worms and their Children are When I awake sc Out of the dust of death at the Resurrection With thy likenesse With the visible sign of thy glory in Heaven 1. Job 3.2 PSAL. XVIII TO the chief Musician Some render it Adtriumphandum and well they may for this is old Davids 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or triumphant song after so many victories and deliverances and it is twice recorded in Scripture with very little variation See 2 Sam. 22. for the great worth and weightinesse of the matter that wee may the more observe it and bee the better versed in it This here recorded seemeth to bee the Review of it and thence those small additions and alterations that are found here and there but not of any great moment A Psalm of David Who having now gotten some breathing while from his troubles gave not himself to Idlenesse or worldly pleasures as the Romans used to do after that they had once ridden in triumph but calling to mind Gods great mercies towards him composed this sweet Psalmodie to his glory The Servant of the Lord So hee stiled himself before Psal 36. when hee first entred upon the Kingdome and now here again when being to lay it down together with his life hee breatheth out his holy soul to God in this divine ditty Sic ubi fata vocant c. This hee did after that as a faithfull servant of the Lord hee had done all the wills of God Act. 13.22 had served out his full time Verse 36. and dwelt in Gods house to length of dayes Psal 23.6 Who spake unto the Lord the words of this song God lets out his mercies to us for this rent of our praises and is content wee have the benefit of them so hee may have the glory The Hebrews give this Note here Every man for whom there is wrought a miracle of mercy and hee thereupon uttereth a song hath his sins forgiven him This is better yet than that of the Papists who promise pardon of sin to those that shall hear two Masses a day Wee who have received so many mercies should compass God about with songs of deliverances and not only servire Deo sed adulari as Tertullian hath it From the hand of all his enemies Heb From the Palm of other enemies as less considerable but from the hand or clutch-fist of Saul And from the hand of Saul his greatest enemy and of longest continuance So Christ is said to save his people from their sins by a specialty Mat. 1.21 because these do us the most mischief Vers 1. I will love thee O Lord my strength Heb. I will love thee dearly and entirely Ex intimis visceribus from the very heart root from the bottom of my bowels with like intention of affection as a tender-hearted Mother doth her dearest Babe that is her own bowels her self of the second edition Neither did David herein super-erogate for God requireth to be loved with all the heart minde soul strength Modus sig siâ—â— modo Beâ—â— as one that is best worthy good without measure that hath loved us without measure and therefore is without measure by us to be beloved Not that we are bound to love God in quantum est diligibilis so much as he is lovely or love-worthy for so God only can love himself but Nihil supra aequè aut contra Nothing must we love above God or so much as God much less against God we must be able to say affectionately with David Psal 73.25 26. Whom have I in heaven but thee there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee And as Bernard Amo te Domine plus quam mea meos me I love thee Lord more than my goods my friends my self A Christian begins with loving God for himself but he ends in loving himself and all other both persons and things in and for God His friend he loveth in the Lord his foes for the Lord but God he loveth absolutely and for himself affecting not only an union with him but even an unity his heart being turned as it were into a very lump of love as was Maries Luke 7.47 Histories tell of a certain Woman that came to Vespasian the Emperour professing that she was in love with him he commanded that a liberal reward should be given her for the same and when his Steward asked him under what Item he should put that gift in his Book of Account Vespasiano adamato said the Emperour Item To her that loved Vespasian God saith the Apostle is not unrighteous to forget your labour of love c. Heb. 6. I love them that love me saith Christ Prov. 8. and his love is not like the Winter Sun which hath light but not heat c. he is the strength of his people their Rock Fortress c. Vers 2. The Lord is my Rock and my Fortress c. i.e. He is all in all for my preservation Ten words say the Hebrews he here heapeth up in reference to Ten signal Victories or rather because his thankful heart was so enlarged that hee could never satisfie himself in saying what God had been to
for to thee doth it appertain Jer. 10 7. Rev. 15.4 Vers 11. The counsell of the Lord of standeth for ever That counsell of his whereby he hath decreed to maintain government amongst men to relieve the oppressed to punish the Wicked to uphold the Church is firm and inviolable Divinum consilium dum devitatur impletur humana sapientia dum reluctatur comprehenditur saith Gregory There is a councell in Heaven will dash the mould of all contrary counfells upon earth Vers 12. Blessed is the Nation whose God is the Lord viz. By speciall favour and covenant The preservation of the Church which hath so few friends on earth and so many enemies in earth and hell is justly brought as an evident argument of the divine providence Christ standeth upon Mount-Zion and that mountain shall bee exalted above all mountaines The Church as it is highest in the favour of God so it shall be set above all the World and het enemies shall be in that place that is fittest for them the lowest the footstool of Christ The people whom he hath chosen Some read it The people which hath chosen Hims for their inheritance It cometh all to one See Deut. 26.17 18 19. Vers 13. The Lord looketh from Heaven Ita râ—spicit universos quasi singulas it 〈…〉 sâ—lâ—s And this Doctrin of Gods particular providence is fides natinnum quarum Deus est Dominus saith Kimchi taught in the Church only Vers 14. From the place of his habitation he beholdeth And this is a very great condescension sith he humbleth himself to behold things in Heaven Psal 113.6 to look out of himself upon the Saints and Angels how much more upon the inhabitants of the earth Vers 15. Unum paâ—â—ter acaliud Kimchi He fashioneth their hearts alike i. e. Ones as well as anothers The Arabick hath it Format sigillatim he fashioneth them severally one after another and not all soules together as the Origenists and some Jew-doctors held Hee considereth all their works Their hearts are not hid from him sith he made them as is said before much lesse their works These God considereth and therefore men had need consider them and turn their feet to his Testimonies Psal 119.59 Vers 16. There is no King saved by the multitude of an hoast Witnesse Sennacherib Xerxes Bajazet Away then with Creature-confidence it will be the ruine of all that rest in it whether it be in men or means that they trust See Psal 62.9 10. with the Notes A mighty man Or A Giant Goliah for instance As the most skilfull swimmers are often drowned So here Vers 17. Pausan An Horse is a vain thing And yet a warlike creature full of terrour See the Note on Psal 32.9 and so swift in service that the Persians dedicated him to the Sun See Job 41.20 Prov. 21.31 With the Notes Vers 18. Behold the eye of the Lord is on them that fear him Hee looketh upon such with singular delight not without sweet intimations of his singular kindnesse and care of their good Upon them that hope in his mercy Here we have a description of that true Church which God will never forsake sc It is a company of such as truly serve God and boast not of their merits but possessing their soules in hope and silence wait for his mercy Vers 19. To deliver their soul Freedom from troubles He promiseth not but deliverance in due time he assureth them and support in the mean while to keep them alive in famine Vers 20. Our soul waiteth for the Lord i. e. Patiently tarrieth the Lords leisure We can both wait and want for a need Vers 21. Our heart shall rejoyce in him We shall be sure of an happy issue and event but yet so as that we pray for it as in the next words Vers 22. Let thy mercy O Lord be upon us according as we hope in thee Not that we would have no more mercy than we have trust but we would shew that our trust is bottomed upon thy promises and that we humbly expect the full accomplishment of the same in due time PSAL. XXXIV VErs 1. A Psalm of David An Alphabeticall Psalm which David newly delivered from the Philistines Semper in Ecelesia his Psalmus piis suit commendatissimus Moller who had taken him prisoner and presented him to their King as a speciall prize composed with singular art as fit to be committed to memory by all godly people who may here meet with many excellent lessons and cordiall comforts When he changed his behaviour Heb. gust um hoc est gestum This he did being put to his shifts but not without sin Lib. 3. Od. 11. for he was splendide mendax as Horace saith of Hypermuestra at the best neither can this dissimulation or officious lye of his be excused as some have by distinctions indeavoured it but in vain Before Abimelech Or Achish King of Gath 1 Sam. 21. for he was binominiâ— saith Aben-Ezra or else Abimelech that is Father-King was his title of honour As Augustus would be stiled Pater Patria the Father of his Country R. Solomon saith that Abimelech was a common name to all the Philistin-Kings as Pharaoh to the Egyptian Who cast him one For a mad man 1 Sam. 21.15 wherein there was a sweet providence of God who can order our disorders to his own glory and our good like as an Artificer with a crooked tool can make straight work or as an Apothecary of a poysonfull Viper can make a wholesome triacle And he departed Into some parts of Judea where he might repent of his sin first as Peter did when got into a corner and then compile this Psalm of thanksgiving to God who had so graciously delivered him out of that hard and hazardous condition not only above but against his desert Vers 1. I will blesse the Lord at all times As not satisfied with any thing I can do herein at any time The Saints have large hearts and could bet eem the Lord a great deal more service than they are able to perform A certain Martyr said at the stake I am sory that I am going to a place where I shall be ever receiving wages and do no more work His praise shall continually be in my mouth For this remarkable mercy especially which I will still be telling of and speaking good of Gods name to as many as I can possibly extend unto This thankfull man was worth his weight in the gold of Ophir Vers 2. My soul shall make her boast in the Lord This holy gloriation is a Christians duty not to be neglected The Church in the Canticles is much in it and so is St. Paul It sheweth an heart full of joyes unspeakable and full of glory 1 Pet. 1. 8. And besides God is thereby greatly glorified Jer. 9.23 24. The humble shall hear thereof and be glad Not for my sake only but their own as conceiving good hope of like deliverance But then they
greatnesse before Absolens disturbed mee and drove mee out though he could not but be sensible of such a losse we know what miserable moans Cicere made when fent into banishment how impatient Cato and many others were in like case so that they became their own deathsmen but after Thee Lord and the enjoyment of thy publick ordinances from which I am now alasse hunted and hindred After that Gods holy Spirit hath once touched a soul it will never be quier untill it stands pointed God-ward Vers 2. My Soul thirsteth for God More than ever it did once for the waâ—er of the Well of Bethelem and that because he is the living God the fountain of living waters that only can cooll and quench my desires Jer. 2.13 17.13 so as I shall never thirst again Joh. 4.14 whereas of all things else we may say Quo plus sunt pota plus sitiuntur aqua The Rabbines note here Ovid. Kimchi Aben-Ezra that David saith not so hungreth but so thirsteth my soul because men are more impatient of thirst than of hunger they can go diverse dayes without meat Curt ex Diodoro but not without drink Alexander lost a great part of his army marching through the Wildernesse of the Susitans by want of water When shall I come and appear before God Heb. And see the face of God viz. in his Tabernacle Eheu igitur quando tandem mibi miserrimo dabitur ut te in aede tua conspiciam These earnest pantings inquietations and unsatisfiable desires after God and his ordinances are sure signes of true grace But woe to our worship-scorners c. Vers 3. My tears have been my meat day and night Hunters say the Hart sheddeth tears or something like tears when he is pursued and not able to escape Hereunto David might allude Sure it is that as Hinds by calving so men by weeping cast out their sorrowes Job 39.3 Expletur lachrymis egeriturque dolor And Act. and Mon. 1457. Affert solatium lugentibus suspiriorum societ as saith Basil sighs are an ease of sorrow Of Mr. Bradford the Martyr it is reported that in the midst of dinner he used oft to muse having his hat over his eyes from whence came commonly plenty of tears dropping on his trencher 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The better any are So Psal 80.5 the more inclined to weeping as David than Jonathan 1 Sam. 20. Here we have him telling us that his tears were his meat or his bread as Gregory readeth it and he giveth this reason that like as the more bread wee eat the dryer we are and the more thirsty so the more tears of godly sorrow we let fall the more we thirst after that living fountain springing from above Davids greatest grief was that he was banished from the Sanctuary and next to that the reproachfull blasphemy of his enemies hitting him in the teeth with his God as if not able or not willing to relieve him now in his necessity and bitterly upbraiding him with his hopes as altogether vain Whiles they continually say unto mee Where is thy God Violenti certe impetus saith Vatablus here these were violent shocks indeed and such as wherewith Davids faith might have been utterly overthrown had it not been the better rooted and withall upheld by the speciall power of the Spirit of grace Other of Gods suffering Saints have met with the like measure At Orleance in France as the bloody Papists murthered the Protestants they cryed out where is now your God what is become of all your prayers and Psalms now Let your God that you called upon save you if he can Mr. Clarks Gen. Martyrol P. 316. Others sang in scorn Judge and revenge my cause O Lord Others Have mercy on us Lord c. The Queen Mother of Scotland having received aid from France forced the Protestants for a while to retire to the High-Lands whereupon she scoffingly said where is now John Knox his God My God is now stronger than his yea even in Fife but her braggs lasted not long for within a few dayes Mr. Knox his life by Mr. Clark six hundred Protestants beat above four thousand French and Scots c. Gods Servants fare the better for the insolencies of their enemies who when they say where is now their God might as well say betwixt the space of the new and old Moon where is now the Moon when as it is never nearer the Sun than at that time Vers 4. When I remember these things viz. My present pressures compared with my former happiness Cic. de Fin. 1. 2. Sen. deben 1.4 c. 22. Miserum sanè est fuisse felicem The Epicures held but I beleeve they did not beleeve themselves therein that a man might be cheerful amidst the most exquisite torments Ex prâ—teritarum upluptatum recordatione by the remembrance of his former pleasures and delights David found this here but a slight and sorry comfort though he better knew how than any of them to make the best of it and his delights had been farre more solid and cordial I pour out my soul See Job 30.16 with the Note For I had gone with a multitude Heb. A thick croud or throng of good peole frequâ—â—ting the publick Ordinances and David in the head of them One rendreth it In umbra vel umbrella sicut mos est Orientalium ambulare umbrellis contra ardorem solis accommodatis I went with them to the house of God Lente Itabam I went with a gentle pace Gressâ—â— grallatorio He speaketh saith Vatablus of the order observed by the faithful when they went to the Sanctuary viz. in comely equipage singing praise to God Kimchi in 〈◊〉 Radiâ— and confessing his goodness Vers 5. Why art thou â—ast down O my soul Here David seemeth to be Homo divisus in duas partes saith Vatablus a man divided into two parts as indee devery new man is two men and what is to be seen in the Shulamite but as it were the company of two Armies Cant. 6.13 David chideth David out of his dumps So did Alice Benden the Martyr rehearsing these very words when she had been kept in the Bishops prison all alone nine weeks with bread and water and received comfort by them in the midst of her miseries Act. Monâ— 1797. And why art thou disquieted in me A good mans work lieth most within doors he hath more ado with himself than with all the world besides he prayeth oft with that Ancient Libera me Domine à malo homine meip so Deliver me Lord from that naughty man my self How oft do we punish our selves by our passions as the Lion that beateth himself with his own tail Grief is like Lead to the soul heavie and cold sinking it downward taking off the wheels of it and disabling it for duty like as a Limb that is out of joynt can do nothing without deformity and pain Keep up thy spirit therefore and watch against
the like in not tobe found in holy Scripture wherefore it is to be read and used with very great judgement and not as those miscâ—â—ants of whom Faber writeth Quod more magicâ— clam 〈◊〉 bunc Psalmam per 〈◊〉 exectation is in torum bestes that after a conjuring fashion they muttered out this Psalm by way of curse upon their enemies Vers 1. Hold not thy peace But plead my cause clear mine innocency O God of my praise The object of my praises or thou that keepest up my credit as a witness judge and avenger of mine integrity Vers 2. For the mouth of the wicked There is nothing more easie than to wag a wicked tongue They have spoken against me with a lying tongue But with so much impudence as if it were a very truth Socrates in his Apologie My Lords said he to the Judges I know not how you have been affected with mine accusers eloquence while you heard them speak For mine own part I assure you that I whom it toucheth most was almost drawn to beleeve that all they said though against my self was true when they scaâ—oe uttered one word of truth Vers 3. They compassed me about also c. So that I could not find out any way to clear my self though never so innocent And fought against me So they smote Jeremy with the tongue and our Saviour suffered the contradiction of sinners Heb. 12. Vers 4. For my lave they are mine adversaries Heb. They Satanico By hate me To render evil for evil is brutish but to render evil for good is devillish But I give my self to prayer Heb. But I am prayer or a man of prayer as Psal 120.7 But I am peace So being defamed we pray I Cor. 4.12 When out Saviour was wearied out with the Peoples obstinacy he turns him to God by prayer Mat. 11.26 and prayed for his Crucifiers Mat. 27. Send me to my Toads again in the Dungeon where I may pray for your Lordships conversion said Saunders the Martyr to Winchester Vers 5. And they have rewarded me See vers 4. Flectere naturam gratia nulla potest Vers 6. Set thou a wicked man ever him Whose tender mercies may be cruelties let the Devil be his Task-master Thus he prayeth against Doeg or Ahitophel but certainly Judas Act. 1.20 And so the primitive Christians prayed against Julian the Apostate and afterward against Arius the heretick whose death was precationis opus non morbi Lib. 1. cap. 15. the effect of prayer rather than of his disease saith Socrates We are bound to pray daily Thy Kingdome come but must be advised how we pray as David here doth against particular persons His curses here and elsewhere are indefinite or conditional either he nameth not the man or intendeth it if God intend it so or they are non tam vota quam vaticinia not so much prayers as prophecies And let Satan or an Adversary stand at his right hand To withstand him and get the better of him as Zach. 3.1 Or to aggravate his fault before an unjust Judge Vers 7. When he shall be judged Let him him be cast in all his Sutes causa excidat And let his prayer become sin Quet opud judicem preâ—es adhibebit tot fibi mulctas accersat If he beg favour of the Judge let it be the worse for him as it befel Haman Est 7.7 8. Vers 8. Let his dayes be few Let his execution be hastened as Hamans was Ahitophel and Judas were their own deaths-men Doeg doubtless come to an ill end and so did other persecutors See the book of Martyrs And let another take his office Praefecturam Officers are oft-times the Churches chiefest enemies Popish Bishops especially as here in Q. Maries dayes Judas was guide to those that took Jesus Act. 1.16.20 Vers 9. Let his children be fatherless Helpless and shiftless A sore vexation to many on their death-beds and just enough upon graetlesi persecutors But happy are they who when they lye a dying can say as Luther did Domine Dous gratias age tibi quod vâ—lueris me esse pauperem mendicum c. Lord God I thank thee for my present poverty but suture hopes I have not an house lands possessions monies to leave behind me Thou hast given me wise and children behold I return them back to thee and beseech thâ—e to nourish them keep them safe as hitherâ—o thou hasâ— done me O thou Father of the 〈◊〉 judge of 〈◊〉 Vers 10. Let his children be 〈…〉 Let them wâ—ndring wâ—nder â—â— Gen. 4.12 Cains curse Let them rogue about timedâ voce ragare cibet This is many times a token of Gods wrath Out of their desolate places Or for that their places are desolate and will afford them no succour Vers 11. Let the extortioner catch all that he hath As it were in nets and snares that is in bonds debts morgages So Chrysostome expoundeth Psal 10.9 Et ipsum omars ejus facultates inexplicabilibus sasis laqueis immitas foeneratores irretiant let the merciless usurer make a prey of him and his estate And let the stranger c. Who hath no right to it and will shew as little mercy The Chaldee here hath it Colligat fiscus omnia quae ipsius sunt And Quae non capit Christus rapit fisous saith Bernard Vers 12. Let there be none to extend mercy to him Let God in his justice set off all hearts from him that had been so unreasonably merciless Thus no man opened his mouth to intercede for Haman Judas was shaken off by the Priests and bid see to himself c. Neither let there be any to favour his fatherless Pupillis pusillis Let there be none to plead their Pupils cause against the griping extortioner or the stranger that violently invadeth their right Vers 13. Let his posterity be cut off Sit ejus exitus excidium so some render it Let his end be destruction but it is better to take it as we translate Let his posterity c. Let them be razed and rooted out of remembrance they and their whole race Let their name be blotted out That they may not live so much as by same The Edomites Moabites Ammonites have no memorial but what they have in the Bible and that is for no good And the like may be said of Meroz Judg. 5.23 which seemeth to have been some City near the place where the battel was fought but what it was none can determine sith there is no mention elswhere to be found of it which seemeth to be an effect of that bitter curse pronounced against it See Prov. 10.7 Vers 14 Let the iniquity of his fathers c. In whose sinful steps he treadeth be charged upon him And let not the sin of his mother Who bred him no better but cockered him in wicked courses and gave him no good example Partus fer e sequitur ventrem Vers 15. Let them be before the Lord Stand ever upon record in his presence
very cold and for the other four it was Winter Vers 8 Neither do they which go by say c. As they use to do to harvest men Ruth 2. 3 Joh. Christianity is no enemy to curtesie yet in some cases saith not God speed PSAL. CXXX VErs 1 Out of the depths have I cryed unto thee i. e. Ex portis ipsis desperationis from the very bosom and bottom of despair caused through deepest sense of sin and fear of wrath One deep calleth to another the depth of misery to the depth of mercy Basill and Beza interpret it Ex intimis cordis penetralibus from the bottom of my heart with all earnestness and humility Hee that is in the low pits and caves of the earth seeth the stars in the firmament so hee who is most low and lowly seeth most of God and is in best case to call upon him As spices smell best when beaten and as frankincense maximè fragrat cum flagrat is most odoriferous when cast into the fire so do Gods afflicted pray best when at the greatest under Isa 19.22 26.16 27.6 Luther when hee was buffeted by the Devill at Coburgh and in great affliction Joh. Manâ— loc com 43. said to those about him Venite in contemptum diaboli Psalmum de profundis quatuor vocibus cantemus come let us sing that Psalm Out of the depths c. in derision of the Devill And surely this Psalm is a treasury of great comfort to all in distress reckoned therefore of old amongst the seven Penitentiâ—â— and is therefore sacrilegiously by the Papists taken away from the living and applyed only to the dead for no other reason I think saith Beza but because it beginneth with Out of the Depths have I cryed a poor ground for Purgatory or for praying for the souls that are there as Bellarmine makes it Vers 2 Lord hear my voice Precum exauditie identidem est precanda Audience must be begged again and again and if hee once prepare our heart t is sure that hee will cause his ear to hear Psal 10.17 as when wee bid our Children ask this or that of us it is because wee mean to give it them Vers 3 If thou Lord shouldest mark iniquities This and the next verse contains saith one the summe of all the Scriptures Twice hee here nameth the Lord as desirous to take hold of him with both his hands Extremity of Justice hee depreâ—â—â—h hee would not bee dealt with in rigour and rage Extrema fateor commeritus sum Deus Quid enim aliud dixers It is confessed I have deserved the extremity of thy fury but yet let mee talk with thee as Jer. 12.1 or reason the case O Lord who shall stand Stand in Judgement as Psal 1.5 and not fall under the weight of thy just wrath which burneth as low as Hell it self How can any one escape the damnation of Hell which is the just hire of the least sin Rom. 6.23 and the best mans life is fuller of sins than the Firmament is oâ— stars or the furnace of sparks Hence that of an Ancient Vâ— homiuâ—â— vitâ— quantumvis laudabili si reâ—â— miscericordiâ— judicetur Woe to the best man alive should hee bee strictly dealt withall Surely if his faults were but written in his forehead it would make him pull 〈◊〉 hat over his eyes Vers 4 But there is forgiveness with thee This holds head above water that we have to do with a forgiving God Neb. 9.31 none like him for that Mic. 7.18 For hee doth it naturally Exod. 34.6 abundantly Isa 55.7 constantly as here there is still is forgiveness and propitiation with God so Job 1.27 the Lamb of God doth take away the sins of the World t is a perpetuall act and should be as a perpetuall picture in our hearts That thou mayest bee feared i. e. Sought unto and served It is a speech like that Psal 65.2 O thou that hearest prayer unto thee shall all flesh come If there were not forgiveness with God no man would worship him from his heart but flye from his as from a Tyrant But a promise of pardon from a faithfull God maketh men to put themselves into the hands of justice in hope of mercy Mr. Perkins expoundeth the words thus In mercy thou pardonest the sins of some that thou mightest have some on earth to worship thee Vers 5 I wait for the Lord I wait and wait viz. for deliverance out of misery vers 1. being assured of pardoning mercy Feri Domine feri à peccatis enim absolutâ—◠〈◊〉 said Luther strike Lord while thou wilt so long as my sins are forgiveâ— I can bee of good comfort I can wait or want for a need And 〈…〉 viz. Of promise that ground of hope unfailable Rom. 5.5 of 〈◊〉 unfeigâ—â—ed 1 Tim. 1.5 Vers 6 My soul waiteth for the Lord Or Watcheth for the Lord Heb My soul to the Lord an eclipticall concise speech importing strong affection as doth also the following reduplication Prae custodibus ad mane prae custodibus ad manâ— I say more than they Or More than they that watch for the morning wait for the morning wherein they may sleep which by night they might not do Vers 7 Let Israel hope in the Lord Hope and yet fear as vers 4. with a filiall fear fear and yet hope Plenteous Redemption Are our sins great with God there is mercy matchless mercy Are our sins many with God is plenteous redemption multa redemptiâ— hee will multiply pardons as wee multiply sins Isa 55.7 Vers 8 And hee shall redeem Israel By the value and vertue of Christs death by his merit and spirit 1 Cor. 6.11 PSAL. CXXXI VErs 1 Lord my heart is not haughty Though anointed and appointed by thee to the Kingdome yet I have not ambitiously aspired unto it by seeking Souls death as his pick thanks perswaded him nor do I now being possessed of it proudly domineer as is the manner of most Potentates and tyrannize over my poor subjects but with all modesty and humility not minding high things I do condescend to them of low estate Rom. 12.16 Now Bucholc in alto positum non altum sapere difficile est omnino inusitatum sed quanto inusitatius tanto gloriosius It is both hard and happy not to bee puffed up with prosperity and preferment Vespasian is said to have been the only one that was made better by being made Emperour Nor mine eyes lofty Pride sitteth and sheweth it self in the eyes as soon as in any part Ut speculum oculus est artis ita oculus est naturae speculum Neither do I exercise my self in great matters Heb. I walk not manes intra metas I keep within my circle within the compass of my calling not troubling my self and others by my ambitious projects and practices as Cleâ—n did Alchibiades Cesar Borgia and others Ambitionists Or in things too high for mee Heb. Wonderfull high and hidden things that pass nay
eager his delights ravishing his hopes longing so his hatred is deadly his anger fierce his grief deep his fear terrible c. Zeal is an extreme heat of all the affections Rom. 12.11 boyling-hot hissing-hot as the Greek importeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Verse 4. Then were assembled unto me It was soon noysed and noticed among the godly party how exceedingly Ezra was troubled they therefore trouble themselves as our Saviour is said to have done John 11.33 and as Paul felt twinges when others were hurt Who is offended saith he and I burn not Sheep when frighted will get together 2 Cor. 11.29 Swine when lugged will grunt together What should Saints do in case of National sins or judgments but assemble and tremble together as here but vow and perform Reformation to the Lord their God as in the next chapter Every one that trembled at the words At the judgements of God whilest they yet hang in the threatnings To such looketh the Lord with speciall intimations of his love Isa 66.2 When as those that tremble not in hearing shall be crushed to pieces in feeling said Mr. Bradford the Martyr That had been carried away But had not learned by the thing that they had suffered were as bad as before if not worse having lost the fruit of their afflictions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is fearful a sad signe of an incorrigible castaway Jer. 6.30 Vntill the Evening-sacrifice This time of the day good people usually took to pray at that together with the sacrifice their prayers might come up for a memorial before God in those pillars of smoke Cant. 3.6 Act. 10.4 See Luk. 1.10 Act. 3.11 Verse 5. I rose up from my heavinesse In affliction sc of spirit wherewith his heart was leavened and sowred as Davids was Psal 73.21 Imbittered as Peters Matth. 26. ult powred out upon him as Jobs chap. 30.16 He did really afflict himself with voluntary sorrowes for the transgressions of his people And having rent c. See ver 3. I fel upon knees This gesture did both evidence encrease the ardency of his affection And spread out my hands With the palmes open toward Heaven in an having craving way as Beggers This was the Jewish manner of praying and it was very becoming Verse 6. And said O my God This was a prayer of faith and founded upon the Covenant that bee-hive of Heavenly honey as One well calleth it I am ashamed and blush Sin is a blushful thing and hales shame at the heeles of it Illum ego periisse dico cui periit pudor Sallust Rev. 3.17 Therefore when a man hath committed a sin he blusheth the blood as it were would cover the sin But he is past grace that is past shame and can blush no more then a sackbut For our iniquities He maketh himself a party because he was one of the same Community with them that had done that evil He also knew himself to have an hand if not upon the great cart-ropes set upon the lesser cords that might draw down divine vengeance upon the Land Hence he includeth himself after the example of Daniel chap. 9.5 Are increased over our heads As an overwhelming flood Psal 38.4 That threateneth to go over our soules too Psal 124.4 and to sink them in the bottomlesse lake that lowermost part of hel imported by that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 locale as Hebricians Note Psal 9.17 And our trespasse is growen up unto the Heavens So great is our guilt that it is gotten as high as Heaven that is as high as may be For beyond the moveable Heavens Aristotle Natures best Secretary saith there is neither body nor time nor place nor vacuum De Coelo Text. 99. See Revel 18.5 with the Note Mans sinne defileth even the very visible Heavens which must therefore be purged with the fire of the last day Yea it pierceth into the Heavens of Heavens maketh a loud out-cry in gods eares for vengeance Gen. 4.10 18.20 Verse 7. Since the dayes of our Fathers Confession with aggravation is that happy Spunge that wipeth out all the blottes and blurres of our lives for if we confesse our sinnes and therein lay load enough upon our selves as Ezra here Daniel doth c. 9.5 mark how ful in the mouth these good men are out of the abundant hatred of sin in their hearts God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins c. 1 John 1.9 But in confession we must not extenuate or excuse every sin must swel as a toad in our eyes and we must spet it out of our mouthes with utmost indignation shewing the Lord the iniquity of our sin the filthinesse of our leudnesse the abomination of our provocations Rom. 7.13 Thus if we weigh our sinnes in a true balance and put in so many weights as to bring to a just humiliation to a godly sorrow then it will prove a right Apology the same that the Apostle maketh a fruit and sign of sound repentance 2 Cor. 7.11 Chennit Exam. quae magis deprecatione constat quà m depulsione criminum such an Apology as consisteth rather in deprecating then defending We havebeen in a great trespasse unto this day And so there hath bin a concatenation a continued series of our sinnes from one generation to another We are a race of Rebels a seed of serpents c. And for our inquities have we our Kings and our Priests Our National sinnes have produced National plagues which yet we have not improved to a publike or personall reformation Many hands have drawn the cable with greatest violence the leprosy hath over-run the whole body there is as Physicians say of some diseases corruptio totius substantiae a general defection a conjuncture of all persons in all sins and miseries which like cloudes cluster together and no clearing up by repentance And to confusion of face So that we are a scorn to our Enemies and a terrour to our selves in a low and lamentable condition Verse 8. And now for a little space Heb. point or moment of time God let loose his hand for a while and gave them some little liberty to make them instances of his mercy who had been objects of his wrath but nothing would mend them and make them better And to give us a nail that is some settlement some subject of hope and support of faith He seemeth to allude to such nailes as wherewith they fastened their tents to the ground Jael drove one of those Tent-nails thorough Sisera's Temples and laid him safe enough or else to those nailes that driven into pales do fasten them to their nailes That our God may lighten our eyes Id est Chear up our hearts and so clear up our eye-sight which when the spirit is dejected grows dim for want of spirits Profectò oculis animus inhabitat saith Pliny Truly so it is that the heart dwelleth in the eye there it sitteth and sheweth it self pleased or displeased with whatsoever
finished And this he recordeth not out of ostentation but to shew that the love and feare of God constrained him as it did afterwards Paul that spiritual builder who laboured more then they all and denied himself to bring others to heaven as himself setteth forth 2 Cor. 11. In praising our selves our end must be that our light may be seene not our selves seene Matth. 5.16 Mens praise may be sought modò tibi non quaeras sed Christo saith Aretius so that Christ be thereby set up and served Neither bought we any land As easily we might have done with the surplusage of our revenue especially if we had exacted the utmost of our right But publike spirits mind not their own interests Joshua divided the land to Israel and left none to himself And that portion that was given him and he content withal was but a meane one in the barren mountains as Hierome observeth The late victorious King of Sweden a second Joshua in his reprehensory speech to the German plunderers hath this passage Mr. Clark in his Life I protest before God that I have not by all this warre enriched my self so farre as a paire of bootes cometh to yea I had rather ride without bootes then in the least degree to enrich my self by the damage of poor people Verse 17. Moreover there were at my table c. He did not eate his morsels alone as that Pamphagus Nabal and as many misers now-adayes who like little children though they have their hands full and their mouths full yet will part with none Ecce Deo similis vir dapsilis atque benignus Palingen Besides those that came unto me from among the heathen Either as State-Agents or upon other occasions Nehemiah entertained them that they might not lie upon the publike charge And herein he trode in the foot-steps of hospitable Abraham whom Synesius calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gods Host The Primitive Christians likewise won much upon the Heathens by their hospitality towards all Epist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost in Joan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Julian the Apostate confessed all that he could say against them for it was that they did it all in hypocrisie and vain-glory which was an envious and false charge Verse 18. Now that which was prepared for me daily A very great table he kept at his own charge all yet nothing so great as Solomon 1 Kings 4.22 23. or as once Cardinal Wolsey here who besides all strangers that came had four hundred of family whereof one was an Earle nine Barons very many Knights and Esquires But then he had more yearly revenue then all the Bishops and Deanes in the land had take them al together Godw. Catal. And once in ten dayes Then he kept an extraordinary table inviting guesse for whom he had store of the best wines The Turkish Bashawes feast forreigne Embassadours with Rice and mutton and fair water out of the river wine is a forbidden ware with them Mahomet their Prophet having told them that in every grape there dwelt a Devil Yet for all this I required not This he did and this he here recordeth not for a name as Crates the Philosopher did when he cast his goods into the Sea meerly to be talked of and is therefore worthily called by Hierome gloriae animal popularis aurae vile mancipium Epist ad Julian cons a base slave to vain-glory but for better and higher ends see verse 16. Verse 19. Think upon me my God for good i. e. Both of grace and glory saith Lyra a confluence of all comforts and contentments especially spiritual blessings in heavenly things Ephes 1.3 He that first called riches goods was surely a better husband then Divine saith one Oftendam tibi omne bonum I will shew thee all good said God to Moses when he gave him a glimpse of himself Nil bonum absque summo Bono saith Austine There is no good without the chief good Say therefore with the Church Hos 14.2 Take away all iniquity and do good and as here Remember me O my God for good According to all that I have done for this people Here is nothing for Merit-mongers It is mercy in God to set his love on them that keep his Commandments Exod. 20.6 to reward every man according to his works Psal 62. ult A poor Gardiner presenting a rape root being the best gift he had at hand to the Duke of Burgundy was by him bountifully rewarded His Steward observing this and hoping for the like recompence presented him with a very fair horse The Duke ut perspicaci erat ingenio saith mine Authour being a witty man perceived the craft and therefore thought good to receive the horse and to give him nothing again Let those that dreame of merit expect the like disappointment and let them learn of Nehemiah chap. 14.22 the best glosse upon this text to urge not their merits with the Pharisee but their miseries with the Publican for obtaining mercy So Psal 25.11 CHAP. VI. Verse 1. Now it came to passe LO here another let to the good work in hand That in the fourth chapter was externall onely that in the fifth internal onely This here is mixt that is partly cast in by the Enemies without those cruel-crafties and partly helped on by the perfidious Prophets and ignoble Nobles within conspiring with the Enemy against the good of their own Countrey Thus Fluctus fluctum trudit And the rest of our Enemies The Churches Enemies are not a few 1 Cor. 16.9 She is like unto a silly poor maid saith Luther sitting in a Wood or Wildernesse compassed about with hungry Wolves Lyons Boares Beares assaulting her every moment and minute The ground of all is that old Enmity Gen. 3.15 That I had builded the Wall This Wall made Nehemiah as Winchester-tower at Windsor made William Wickam Godw. Catal. that is raised and renowned him and in a like sense as God is said to have made Moses and Aaron 1 Sam. 12.6 that is to have advanced them in the hearts of his people And that there was no breach left therein It had been but half-built chap. 4.6 and the breaches but began to be stopt ver 7. yet now all is finished amidst much opposition so shall the work of grace be in our hearts But whilest here a Christian hath his Vlteriùs still which was Charles the fifth his Motto his Superiùs as the guest in the Gospel that was bid to sit higher c. something is yet wanting to his ful and final salvation which he is still to work out Philip. 2. ver 12. like as here the doores were not yet upon their hinges Verse 2. Then Sanballat and Geshem sent unto me As if sollicitous of my safety and careful of the common good He that hateth dissembleth with his lips and layeth up deceit within him When he speaketh fair beleeve him not for there are seven abominations in his heart Prov. 26.24 25. Nehemiah
ò grati â—periuntur Cic. Verse 2. And is was found written It was God who directed the Reader to that very place like as he did the Eunuch to Esay 53.7 8. where reading of the meeknesse of Jesus Christ he was transformed into the same image as was likewise Johannes Isaac a Jew converted by reading the same chapter Hoc ego ingenuè profiteor saith he Caput illud ad fidem Christi me adduxisse This I confesse ingenuously that lighting upon that chapter I was brought thereby to the faith of Christ Austin thought he heard a voice saying Tolle lege take up the Bible and reade accordingly he took it up and opening it fell upon that text in the Romanes chap. 13.14 which was the main meanes of his Conversion That Mordecai had told of Bigthana c. See chap. 2.21 Verse 3. And the King said What honour and dignity hath been done to Mordecai for this Lyra saith that he had waited six yeares for a reward and had none In Princes Courts men are sure to meet with two evils 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not so in heaven The Butler forgate Joseph Solomon speaketh of a poor wise man who by his wisdome delivered the City yet no man remembred that same poor man Eccl. 9.15 This is merces mundi the worlds wages Mordecai had saved the Kings life and yet is unrewarded The Kings of Persia used to be very bountiful to those that had well deserved of them â—erod l. 8. or of the Common-wealth calling such Orosangae and setting down both their names and their acts in the Chronicles as Herodotus testifieth Among the rest he mentioneth one Phylacus Qui inter benè de rege meritos ascriptus est multo tractu soli donatus â—erod l. 3. who was put upon record for his good service to the King and rewarded with a great deal of land given him Others had great store of gold and silver and a gallant house as Democedes Crotoniates the Physician who cured Darius had at Susis It is well known out of Xenophon what rich gifts Cyrus gave to his friends and followers chains of gold â—ib 8 Cyroâ—ed armelets bridles bossed with gold Persian Stoles called Dorophoricae c. Herodotus telleth us that this Ahashuerus alias Xerxes gave Megabyzus for his good service at Babylon a golden Mill weighing six talents Plutarch writeth that he gave Themistocles above two hundred talents and three Cities besides viz. Magnesia Lampsacus and Mâ—untis to finde him food â—lut in Themist and for clothing and furniture two more viz. Percos and Palaescepsis How came it then to passe that good Mordecai was so forgotten Surely it was a great fault in this ungrateful King but Gods holy hand was in it that Mordecai should not have no present recompence but that it should be deferred till a fitter opportunity when God might be more glorified in the preservation of his people and destruction of their enemies Let us not therefore be weary of well-doing for however men deal by us we shall be sure to reap in due season if we faint not Gal. 6.9 God best seeth when a mercy will be most sweet and seasonable When his people are low enough and the enemy high enough then usually it appeareth that there is a God that judgeth in the earth and a rich reward for the righteous Men may neither remunerate nor remember the good turnes we have done them but there is a book of remembrance written before the Lord for all them that feare him and that think upon his name Mal. 3.16 See my Treatise on that text called The Righteous mans Recompence annexed to my Comment upon the Small Ptophets Then said the Kings servants The Eunuches or Gentlemen of the bed-chamber ingenuous men they were and not disaffected to Mordecai whom yet they could not but know to be a great eye-sore to Prince Haman Si juvenes isti vulgari invidentâ—â— morbo laborâssent saith Lavater If these young men had been sick of that common disease of envy they would have extenuated his good service and have said Mordecai is a despised Jew a stranger a captive If he revealed the conspiracy he did but his duty and provided thereby well for his own safety Is it not reward enough that he lives and at Court where he hath a place an office c Courtiers we know love not to have others come over their heads but think all lost which themselves acquire not Qâ—icquid noâ— acquititur danâ— num est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Xen. Cyrop l. 8. Ep. Praes Enarr in Hos as Seneca saith Sejanus did We know how it was in the Courts of Pharaoh Saul Herod That 's a rare commendation that is given by Xenephon of Cyrus his Courtiers that though a man should seek or choose blindfold he could not misse of a good man Davids Court might very well be such Psal 101. and Queen Elizabeths and George Prince of Anhalts of whom Melancthon writeth that his chamber was Ecclesia Academia Curia a Church an University and a Court Palaestra pietatis literarum as Tremelius saith of Cranmers family a School of Piety and Learning There is nothing done for him And yet the Apocryphal Additions chap. 12. ver 5.6 say otherwise Verse 4. And the King said Who is in the Court Josephus saith that he first asked What a clock it was and understanding that it was morn-light for so long he had heard his servants reade and till then it was not that Mordecai's matter was mentioned Haman being now ready to get a warrant for his execution he asked Who 's there without as desirous to proceed by counsel in a businesse of that consequence Now Haman was come c. He was early up and at Court for a mischief but never the nearer save only to his own utter ruine To speak to the King to hang Mordecai Which till it were done he could neither sleep in quiet nor eat with comfort Little considered he how the Gallowes groaned for himself The righteous is delivered out of trouble and the wicked cometh in his stead Prov. 11.8 Vivit adhuc Christus regnat regnabit usque Atque hostes omnes sub ditione premit Verse 5. Behold Haman standeth in the Court For into the Presence he might not come uncalled And to be thus called in he held it no small happinesse but was soon confuted He came into the room as men come to a Lottery with his head full of hopes but he went thence with his heart full of blanks And the King said let him come in See here saith Merlin a sweet and special Providence of God in this that Ahashuerus should take advice about honouring Mordecai and not of his servants that attended upon his person but of Haman then present though for another purpose and concealing the man he meant should make Haman say what was fit to be done and then do it accordingly Neither the King nor his
taking a turne in the Palace Garden before he passed sentence upon the Delinquent Rex amici memor paulisper cunctatur deliberandÃque gratiâ modicum secessit saith Severus that is the King mindful of the friendship that had been betwixt him and Haman maketh a pause and retireth for a while that he may deliberate with himself what to do If these were the reasons it was a piece of prudence in the King for anger is known to be an evil counselour and as smoke in a mans eyes hindreth his sight so doth rash anger the use of reason De sera numinis Vindic. Hence wise men have refrained the act when angry Plutarch telleth of one Architas that displeased with his servants for their sloth he flung from them saying Valete quoniam vobis irascor farewel for I am angry with you and may not therefore meddle with you Vapulares nisi irascerer I would pay thee but that I am displeased at thee said Plato to a servant of his And of Alphonsus King of Arragon it is reported that vexed at his Cup-bearers stubbornnesse Val. Mâ—x Christ l. â— c. 20 he drew his dagger and ran after him but before he came at him he threw away his dagger nejam prehensum iratus feriret lest he should catch him and kill him in the heat of his anger This was better then Sauls casting a javelin at Jonathan Alexanders killing of his friend Clitus and others in his drink Herods commanding the Keepers of the prison to execution Acts 12.19 Whether Ahashuerus went into the garden as Jonathan took his Artillery and went into the field to divert and mitigate his anger is uncertain Possibly he might do that to edge and increase it Of Tiberius it is storied that the more he meditated revenge Lentus in 〈◊〉 dâ—tando triâ— ribus dictis 〈◊〉 trocia facta â— jungebat 〈◊〉 the more did time and delay sharpen it and the farther off he threatened the heavier the stroke fell Most certain it is that Haman gat little by the Kings going into the garden for upon his return he was the more enraged Nempe impiis omnia ad malum cooperantur saith Lavater to the wicked all things work together for the worse And Haman stood up to make request for his life See what a strange turne of things here was all upon the sudden He that was bowed unto by all men is now upon his knees before a woman He that was erst the professed enemy of the Jewes is now suppliant to a Jewesse He that had contrived the death of that whole people is now begging for his own life He that had provided a Gallowes for Mordecai feares nothing more now then that himself shall be hanged on it Discite justitiam moniti non temnere sanctos Haman hoped that Esther would have interceded for him to the King but there was little reason for it a drowning man will catch hold on any twig Esther knew him too well to befriend him so farre Let him have judgement without mercy thinks she who shewed no mercy Quisquam nec ipsum supplicem Quamvis jacentem sublevet Psal 109. Let him lie for me and die according to his deserts A man that doth violence to the blood of any person shall flee to the pit Let no man stay him Prov. 28.17 to mediate for such an one is no mercy neither is it any almes-deed as we say for save a Rogue from the Gallows and he will cut your throat if he can as the proverb hath it and experience hath confirmed it Magnentius slew Constans the Emperour Anno Dom. 337. who had formerly saved his life from the souldiers fury Speed Parry the Traitour offered the lie to Queen Elizabeth who had pardoned him after that he had been condemned to die for burglary Michael Balbus slew his Master Leo Armenius the Emperour that same night that he had pardoned him and released him out of prison Zonar Aâ—â— Those that are habituated and hardened in wickednesse will not be mollified or mended by any kindnesse that is shewen them For he saw that there was evil determined against him Vidit quod completum esset malum rem ad restim rediisse He perceived himself to be altogether in as ill a condition Speedâ— as Judge Belknap in Richard the second his time who said there wanted but an hurdle an horse and a halter to have him to the place where he might have his due where he might weare a Tyburne-tippet as father Latimer afterwards phraseth it Verse 8. Then the King returned one of the Palace-Garden Where he had either increased his choler and cast on more fuel by plodding or as some think strove to disgest it as horses do by biting on the bit Vt fragilis glacies occidit ira morâ Ovid. Vnto the house of the banquet of wine Called also by the Hebrew Beth-mittoth Stuccius tiq Corâ— the house of beds triclinium because at beds they used to sit as we do at tables to eat and drink See chap. 1.6 And Haman was fallen upon the bed whereon Esther was he had stood up before for he saw the Queen took no felicity in his company to make request for his life which now was in suspense here he falls down either as swooning or supplicating at the Queens feet to beg her favour But she very well knew that there is both a cruel mercy and a pious cruelty and that although the sword of justice should be furbished with the oyle of mercy yet there are cases and this was one wherein severity ought to cast the scale when there is no hope of curing men must fall to cutting Immedicabile vulnus c. Then said the King will be force the Queen also Haman had little minde of any such matter as being now in the hands of the King of terrours and ready to be devoured by the first-borne of death as Bildad hath it Job 18.13 But the angry King was willing to misinterpret him and to take all things at the worst It is an easie matter to finde a cudgel for a dog to pick a quarrel where men intend a mischief Ahashuerus was not unwilling to misconstrue the posture of Hamans body whiles prostrate he spred his armes in a vehement imploration up to the Queens bed How oft might he have done so and more whilest he was in favour uncensured Actions are not the same when the man alters Men either judge or not judge as their passions and affections carry them See this Acts 23.9 Before Paul had discovered himself to be a Pharisee this man is not worthy to live said they but when he had cried out in the Council I am a Pharisee the sonne of a Pharisee oh how finely do they mince the matter Perhaps an Angel bath revealed it to him c. Paul was an honest man then Impedit ira animum ne possit cernere verum But though the King were unjust in judging thus amisse
have been dumb because thou didst it But it is a faire step to perfection and victory when one can kisse Gods rod and say as Psalm 44.17 All this is come upon us yet have we not forgotten thee nor declined from thy way Job was not without his impatiencies but being he was right for the maine and at length bewailed them God looked not upon him as he doth upon those refractaries who to their impatience adde impenitence and to their passive disobedience active That thou set test a watch over me That thou surroundest me with sorrowes and wilt not suffer me to die Psal 191. â—sal 141.3 Here Job should have set a better watch over his lips then thus boisterously to have blustered against God who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not to be called to an account for his proceedings like the raging sea or unruly whirle-poole He should have considered that the best men have somewhat of the sea in them that must be bounded and somewhat of the whale that must be watched and kept under and that God never layes more upon a man then there is need though he may think otherwise Verse 13. When I say my bed shall comfort me The bed was the most proper and probable meanes of refreshment but it is not the bed that can give sleep nor the couch ease Creatures are not able of themselves to give out the comforts committed to them their common nature must be assisted with a special word of blessing or else they do us no good Man liveth not by bread only c. God maketh the merciful mans bed Psalm 41.3 So he giveth his beloved sleep quiet sleep Shena with an Aâ—eph quiescent Psal 127. He is the God of all mercies and the Father of all consolation 2 Cor. 1.3 It is he that shines through the creature which else is but as the aire without light Look now the aire lights us not without the Sun nor fuel heats us not without fire so neither can any man or means comfort or content us without God My couch shall ease my complains Heb. Shall lift up or take away viz. the burthen of my cares and griefe some part of my load at least but it fell out otherwise for Verse 14. Then thou skarest me with dreames Extremam tentationem describit saith Vatablus and the divel doubtless had a great hand in this business for it was within his commission and he would not neglect any part of it but Job taketh notice of none but God the chief agent and to him he applieth himself His providence is exercised even about dreams which in melancholy people fall out especially when they are sick to be oftentimes very horrid and hideous as that they fall down from some high place commit some capital offence are slain torn in pieces by divels c. Bishop Foliots terrible night-vision was before mentioned Richard the third after the murther of his two innocent Nephews and Charls the ninth of France after the Parisian massacre had such dreadful dreams that they became a terror to themselves and to all about them But to instance in better men Beza in vitae Calvin in the year of grace 1562 being sick of the gout dreamed that he heard a great noise of drums beaten up most vehemently as they use to be in warlike marches Pareus also Anno 1618 saw in a dream the City of Heidelberg set on fire in may places and the Prince Electors palace all on a light flame this he set down the next morning in his day-book and added these words O Deus clementissime averte sinistrum omen c. Such fearful dreams cause a sick sleep and a worse waking This Job complaineth of here Philip. Par. in vita Patris and yet more fully in the next words Verse 15. So that my soul chuseth strangling i. e. Quamvis durissimam sed praesentissimam mortem any violent or ignominious death so it were a speedy death Hippocrates telleth us that may have been so affrighted with dreams and apparitions that they have hanged themselves leaped into deep pits or otherwise made themselves away Let those that either have not been so terrified or so tempted or so deserted of God bless him for that mercy And death rather then life Heb. Rather then my bones that is any kind of death rather then such a body which is no nothing else but a bag of bones or then such rotten bones full of sores and ulcers he maketh mention of his bones because his pain had pierced as farre as his very bones the putrefaction had sunk down into his marrow Verse 16. I loath it I would not live alway I loath or abhor it that is my life or I loath them that is my bones verse 15. I would not live alway that is Aug. de civitato Dei l. 9. c. 10. long in this world and in this condition Plotinus the Philosopher held it a special mercy of God to men that they were mortal and did not alwaies live to labour under the miseries of this wretched life Caâ—o professed that if he might have his age renewed as the Eagles so that he might be made young again he would seriously refuse it Cic. Cato Major How much better might Job say thus sith the righteous hath hope in his death and might well take up that of the Poet. Vsque adeóne mori miserum est The dayes of the best are so full of evil both of sin and pain that it is good they are not fuller of dayes if they should have length of life added to heaps of sorrows and perpetuity with all their misery how miserable were they Christ promiseth it as a point of favour to his that the dayes of trouble should be shortned Matth. 24.22 and that he may put an end to the world he dispatcheth away the generations with all the convenient speed that may be Therefore let me alone Some read thus I cannot live for ever or very long Quod citò cessat deficit Mercer in Pagnin therefore let me alone that is give over afflicting me and let me go quietly to my grave Psalm 39.13 Here one well observeth that the world and time while they continue are alwaies ceasing and therefore have their denomination from this word which signifieth to cease For my dayes are vanity Hebel a puffe of wind or a bubble on the water Mans body is a bubble his soul the wind that filleth it The bubble riseth higher and higher till at last it breaketh so doth the body rise from infancy to youth from youth to age c. till at length it cracketh and dissolveth The life of man is a vain life This Job often beats upon and why see the Note on ver 7. Verse 17. What is man that thou shouldst magnify him i. e. make so much adoe about him or look upon him as a fit match for the great God to grapple with Psalm 14.3 or to take care of his
none out of hell have ever suffered more then Gods dearest children and Heb. 12.6 He not only chasteneth but scourgeth every son whom he receiveth God will not cast away a righteous man said Bildad chap. 8.20 That is totally destroy him in temporals but restore him again no such matter saith Job for it may and many times doth fall out that a godly man may as to this life present perish as well as a wicked man he may be totally and finally bereft of outward comforts The righteous perisheth Isa 57.1 Only with this difference as hath been before noted Gods judgments on the wicked are penal and typical of eternal torment whereas upon the godly they are no more then medicinal or probational c. Verse 23. If the scourge slay suddenly By scourge here is meant a common calamity such as rides circuit compassing a country as a scourge doth a mans body round about Any sweeping judgment is a swinging scourge in Gods hand such as is the sword Isai 10.26 which when it rides circuit as a judge it is in commission Turk hist 211 Ezek 14.17 Jer. 47.6 7. devouring flesh and drinking blood Thus Attila the Hâ—nne stiled himself Gods scourge Tamerlane was commonly called The wrath of God and terrour of the world Think the same of famine pestilence wilde beasts Ezek. 14.12 c. these oft slay suddenly Isai 30.13 Jer. 18.22 as did the sweating sicknesse here in England the Massacre of France and that later of Ireland that scourge if ever any slew suddenly the perfect and the wicked When an over-flowing storm sweeps away the wicked the tail of it may dash their best neighbours He laugheth at the trial of the innocent The Vulgar readeth He will not laugh at the trial of the innocent but there is no Not in the Original others thus Will he laugh at the trial of the innocent q. d. No he will not God may seem to slight his own in affliction as Psalm 77.2 3. The Lion lets her whelps roare sometimes till they do almost kill themselves with roaring The truth is and I think the true sense of this Scripture God scorneth the allegation of innocency or the justification and plea of the most upright man breathing Mr. Abbot in the way of exemption or prevention of his just and wise dispensations when he pleaseth to inflict them involving good and bad in the same common calamity Verse 24. The earth is given into the hand of the wicked God many times suffereth the wicked most licentiously to raign in the world Jer. 27.6 Dan. 5.18 19. And it is thought by some that Job speaking here in the singular number aims at some famous tyrant in those parts known both to himself and to his friends such as was Phocas the Emperour who when he had slain his Master Mauritius and was set up in his stead there was an honest poor man saith Ceâ—renus who was wonderful importunate at the throne of grace to know a reason why that wicked man prospered so in his design he was answered again by a voice that there could not be a worse man found and that the sins of Christians and of the City of Constantinople did require it He covereth the faces of the Judges thereof i. e. That Tyrant above-mentioned subverteth all order of justice condemneth and putteth to death even the Judges themselves Spartian if they will not pervert justice as Bassiaâ—us did Papinian The covering of the face was the mark of a condemned man Esth. 7.8 Job 40.8 Isai 12.17 Mar. 14.65 Or thus God blindeth the Judges by giving them over to error or permitting them to take bribes so that they cannot discern right from wrong c. Some by judges here understand the Saints who shall one day judg the world but are in the mean-while grievously afflicted by the wicked If not where and who is he Which things if we say they are done besides the will and foreknowledg of God we shall thrust God out of the world and set up fate and blind fortune or thus It is even so or if not where is he and who is he see Esth. 7.5 Mal. 2.17 that can disprove what I have asserted Mercer pagnin Vatab. prodeat siquiâ— me potest falsi arguere I would fain see the man that can convince me of errour Verse 25. Now my dayes are swifter then a pâ—st c. Not my prosperous dayes only as Broughton glosseth but the whole course of my life the vanity whereof Job expresseth by many similitudes and here search is made into three of the four Elements earth water and ayr to find out a fit one What is swifter upon earth then a post who rides without stop oâ— stay and spares for no horse-flesh indeed he taketh some time to rest in but so doth not mans lise it is ever in motion and every moment we yeild somewhat to death Animantis cujusque vita est fâ—â—a saith the Philosopher our last day stands the rest run Cum crescit vita decrescit to live is but to lie a dying Sen. They flee away As David fled from the face of Absolom Psalm 3.1 as Brentius was advised by that Senator of Hala to flee for his life citò citiùs citissimè with all possible speed sith they were at hand that sought it See 1 Sam. 19.11 18. They see no good But are few and withall evil Gen. 47.9 Job 14.1 See the notes there Some good dayes Job had had but they were so soon over and his present pressures so great that he was scarce aware of them nor could take the comfort of them now the Epicures indeed held that a man might be cheerful amidst the most exquisite torments ex praeteritarum voluptatum recordatione Cic. de Fin. l. 2. Sen. de benef l. 4. c. 22. by the remembrance of those pleasures and delights that formerly he had enjoyed Job held this but a slight comfort his care was in prosperity how to make the best use of it his thoughts ran upon the uncertainty of all creature-comforts that he might hang loose to them and hold them no otherwise then a child doth a bird in his hand open c. Verse 26. They are passed away as the swift ships Heb. They are changed gliding away insensibly as the ships of desire so called Labitur uncta vadis abies Virg. because they seem willing to beat the haven as soon as may be or as the ships of Ebeh a very swift river in Arabia saith Rabbi Solomon or as the Pirates ships so Broughton such as are your nimble Frigots fly-boats and catches c. Let our souls be like a ship which is made little and narrow down-ward but more wide and broad upward Let them be ships of desire hastning heaven-ward and then let our dayes passe away as they can we shall but be the sooner at home Mortality shall appear to be no small mercy As the Eagle that hasteth to the prey When hunger addeth
now I have ordered my cause Heb. my judgment Hee had spoken before of his Declaration which is conceived to be a Law-term for in law-suits the Plaintiffe putteth in a declaration of his grievance Job had his declaration ready drawn and craved audience he asketh afterwards Who will plead with me and here in the like language he telleth us that he had ordered his cause he had marshalled and methodized his arguments he had set and stated the controversie Lo here I stand ready prepared to plead and am confident I shall prevail I know that I shall be justified That is I am perswaded or I am sure as Rom. 8.38 I believe and I know as John 6.59 sc with a fiducial knowledg that I shall be justified sc from my sins by Christs righteousnesse imputed yea that I am so already and that for ever for Peccata non redeunt discharges in justification are not repealed or called in again and that I shall depart from Gods bar acquitted in this particular controversie And so he did for God justified Job and reproved his three friends chap. 42. Verse 19. Who is he that will plead with me Of my justification in both respects I am so confident that I dare encounter any that shall deny it Who is he and where is he that shall lay any thing to my charge sith it is God that justifieth Rom. 8.33 Having ordered my cause and cleared my conscience by confession and self-judging and now being justified by faith I can cast down the gauntlet to all comers and Goliah-like call for an opposite to grapple with in the name of the Lord of hosts I will undertake him and am sure to come more off then a conquerour even a Triumpher 2 Cor. 2.14 there being not any one condemnation neither from God nor the divel from the law sin or death to them that are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit as Job did Rom. 8.1.33 Here he challengeth all the world saith Gregory if they could to accuse him for any thing outwardly done amisse by him And herein if none could tax him there was nothing but evil cogitations in his heart of which he could be guilty but for these from which none can be free he held not his peace but spake and complained internally hereof to God by reproving his own wayes and if he should have been silent and not speak hereof and bewail them he should die and perish for so he readeth the following words according to the Vulgar translation For now if I hold my tongue I shall give up the ghost Vulg. Wherefore being silent I am consumed Broughton If now I speak not I should starve The Hebrew is for now I shall- be silent and die q. d. My passion must have a vent or else it will make an end of me as chap. 7.11 so tormented I am with these aspersions of my friends that I know not how to live unlesse I may wipe them off or at least unlesse I pour out my soul into Gods blessed bosom Verse 20. Only do not two things unto me Accord me only two conditions and then I will not fly the combate he knew he might have any thing of God that was fit and lawful to be asked When poor men make requests to Princes they usually answer them as the Eccho doth the voice the answer cuts off half the petition and if they beg two boons at once they may be glad that they get one But God dealeth by his servants and suppliants not only as the Prophet did by the Shunamite when he bad her ask what she needed and promised her a son which she most desired and yet through modesty asked not 1 King 4.16 but also as Naaman did by Gehezi when asking one talent he forced him to take two This Job well knew and therefore he beggeth two things at once but better he had begged that one thing necessary Patience or if two that best use of his present sufferings As we read of one good man Mr. Leigh his Saints encouragement c. pag. 164. Dr. Halls Rem of prophanenesse p. 143. that lying under great torments of the Stone hee would often cry out while his friends melted with compassion towards him The use Lord the use And of Mr. William Perkins that when he lay in his last and killing torment of the stone hearing the by-standers pray for a mitigation of his pain he willed them not to pray for an case of his complaint but for an increase of his patience Thus if Job had done he had done better but by what he doth here we may easily gather that he expected no freedom from his misery but from God alone and that hee was wont familiarly to impart to God all the thoughts and actings of his heart and lastly that he acknowledged him to be a most righteous Judge who would not deale with his people upon unequal conditions but give them a faire trial Then will I not hide my self from thee i. e. I shall have no cause either through fear or shame to hide my self It is not safe for a man to indent with God and make a bargain with him for so one may have the thing he would have but better be without it as those workmen Matth. 20. who bargained for a peny a day and yet when they had it were no whit contented Socrates thought it was not fit to ask of God any more then this that he would bestow good things upon us but what and how much to leave that to him not being over-earnest or presuming to prescribe ought Sir Thomas Moors wife was mightily desirous of a boy that was her word and she had one that proved a fool and saith her husband you were never quiet till you had a Boy and now you have one that will be all his life a Boy But what were those two things that Job was so earnest for Verse 21. With-draw thy hand far from me and let not c. Neither afflict me nor affright me See the same request chap. 9.34 and granted by God chap. 38.3 and 40.7 They must be very sorry prayers indeed that God will not heare if they come from honest hearts Psalm 31.22 I said in my haste I am cut off from before thine eyes Neverthelesse thou heardst the voice of my supplications when I cryed unto thee For the sense of this whole verse see the Notes on chap. 9.34 And let not thy dread make me afraid Appear not unto me in thy Majesty but in thy mercy come not upon me in such a terrifical manner as through astonishment at thy surpassing glory to kill me for who can see thy face and live Surely as the sight of the eye is dazeled with the Sun or a chrystal glasse broken with the fire so there is so much dread in the face of God that the best cannot behold it Destruction from God was a terrour to me and by reason of his highnesse I could
of penitent Suppliants causeth us to abhor our selves and repent in dust and ashes which were anciently the signes and symbols of true contrition And now sith Christians ought to repent all their life long and to grieve for their sins let them be alwayes cloathed with sackcloth not without but within and let them put dust on their heads by remembring that they are but dust and that they cannot be raised out of the dust and in stead of sackcloth be cloathed with the robes of glory but by the mercy of God through the merits of Christ c. Verse 16. My face is foule with weeping Is swelled saith the Vulgar Is shriveled up say the Jew-Doctors is double dirtied so one rendreth it So far was Job from stretching out his hand against God and strengthing himself against the Almighty as Eliphaz hâ—d charged him chap. 15.25 That he lay at Gods feet as a Suppliant with blubbered and beslubbered cheeks having furrowes in his face and Isickles from his lips with continual weeping yea he had wept himself blind almost for so it followeth And on mine eye lids is the shadow of death i.e. Mine eyes doe fail with teares as Lum 2.11 Mercer Largâ lachry marum copiâ aciâ—â—â—oculorum obstruente they are even wasted away and sunk into my head as in a dying man Much weeping spendeth the spirits weakneth the visive power and sometimes blindeth as it did Fanstus the son of Vortiger King of this Island by his own daughter who is said to have wept himself blind for the abominations of his parents See Davids teares and the effects thereof Psa 6.7 and 38.10 Verse 17. Not for any injustice Heb. violence or wrong doing in my hands Job could wash his hands of that rapine and bribery wherewith they had injuriously charged him 3. Serm. before K. Edw. chap. 15.34 and safely say of it as afterwards Father Latimer did of Sedition As for that sin for ought that I know me thinks I should not need Christ if I might so say Some failings there might be in him in doing justice but no intendments of doing injustice Also my prayer is pure As proceeding from an heart washt from wickednesse Jer. 4.14 and presented with holy hands lifted up without wrath or doubting 1 Tim. 2.8 That he regarded not iniquity in his heart he was well assured Psal 66.17 Prayer is the powring out of the heart if iniquity be harboured there prayer will have the sent and savour and that incense will strike off the hand which offereth it God requireth that in every place Incense be offered unto his name and a pure Offering Mal. 1.11 It standeth a man in hand to see that though his work be but mean yet it be clean though not fine yet not foule soiled and shibbered with the flur of a rotten heart An upright man in afflictions is not without his cordial as is to be seen in Job here and 8 Paul 2 Cor. 1.12 Verse 18. O earth cover not thou my blood Job had made an high profession of his innocenty and integrity This he 〈◊〉 confirmeth 1. By an imprecation against himself 2. By an appeal to God ver 19 in this imprecation or wish of his which Mr. Broughton taketh to be meant by the foregoing words Also my prayer is pure rendred by him thus Bar my wish is clean saying Oh earth cover â—â—t c. he hath an eye no doubt to the History of Abelo blood shed by Cain Gen 4. and it is as if he should say If I have committed murder or â—hy the like wickednesse cover it not O earth but do thy office by crying out against me yea cry so loud to God for vengeance as to drowne the voice of my supplication And let my cry have no place A most pathetical speech able to 〈◊〉 the heart of his friends to relent to hear it and straightway to 〈◊〉 their opinion of him whiles he thus bespeaketh the earth and maketh res 〈…〉 the 〈◊〉 and lifelesse creatures his hearers Verse 19. Also now behold my witnesse is on heaven Here 's his appeal to God so great is the confidence of a good conscience We also may do the like if there be no other way left of clearing our innocency provided that we do it with a cleare conscience and in a matter of consequence not in jest but in judgement Some of the Martyrs appealed thus and cited their Persecutors to answer at Gods Tribunal Yea to help the truth in necessity a private Oath betwixt two or more may be lawfully taken so it be done sparingly and warily for in serious affaires and matters of great importance if it be lawful in private to admit God as a Judge why should he not as well be called to withesse Again the examples of holy men shew the practise of private Oathes as not unlawful Jacob and Laban confirmed their covenant by a private Oath so did Jonathan and David c. Verse 20. My friends scorn me Or Play the Rhetoricians against me David likewise complaineth of his Rhetorical mockers at feasts that made as it were set speeches against him One rendreth it My friends are Interpreters or rather mis-interpreters of my speeches For my love they are my adversaries but I give my solf unto prayer Psal 109.4 But mine eye powres hâ—ut tears unto God Expletur lachrymis egeriturque dolor The Hebrew hath it Mine eye droppeth or distilleth to God Prayers and tears are the weapons of the Saints whose eyes glazed with tears are fitly compared to the Fish pools of Heshbon Cant. 7.4 These tears have a voice Psal 39.12 Hold not thy peace at my tears they are most powerful Oratours Christ going to suffer on the Crosse could not but turn back and comfort those weeping women God will powre out comforts into their bosomes who can poure out teares into his they can never be at any losse who find out God to weep to Verse 21. Oh that one might plead for a man with God Heb. And he wil plead for a man with God and the Son of man for his friend that is say our late learned Annotators to whom we are greatly bound for this most sweet and spiritual exposition of the words Christ who is God and man will plead my cause with his Father He can prevaile because he is God equal to the Father he will undertake it because he will be man like to me This interpretation agreeth best with the coherence and the words following And it seemeth that Job knew the mystery of Christs Incarnation chap. 1.25 26 27. where he speaketh of him both as God and as a visible Redeemer Christ is frequently called the Son of man in the New Testament and believers are called his friends John 15.13 14 15. By this Text thus expounded wee see that the Doctrine of a Mediatour betweene God and man was knowne and believed in the world long before Christ came into the world He is the Lamb of God slaine from the foundation
belongeth unto the Lord Here is much in few Fulgentius saith that the most golden sentence is ever measured by brevity and suavity Brevis suavis planeque aurea est haec sententia Salvation in the full extent of it and it is very comprehensive is of the Lord. It properly denoteth the privative part of mans happiness freedom from evils and enemies of all sorts But it importeth the positive part also fruition of all good and all is from the Lord he alone is the chief efficient and Author of all Act. 4 in Veâ— the true Sospitator the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which saith Tully is a word so emphatical that other Tongues can hardly finde another word fit to express it See the Note on Jon. 2.9 Thy blessing is upon thy people Selah Or prayer-wise Let thy blessing be upon thy people Etiam qui imprudenter ad Absalomum desciverat Jun. even upon those also who have foolishly taken part with Absalom against me thus David prays for his Rebels as Christ and Stephen afterwards did for their Persecutors and Murtherers but especially upon those that do yet adhere unto me and are shortly to fight for me David knew that victory is of the Lord and must be got by prayer For it Queen Elizabeth could say Cui adhaereo praeest He whose part I take shall get the better how much more may the Lord of Hosts say so This the people also knew and therefore perswaded David not to venture his person amongst them in the Field but to stay at home and pray for them 2 Sam. 18.3 It is better say they that thou succour us out of the City thence shalt thou help us or cause us to be helped that is thy prayers shall prevail with God for our assistance as the Rabbins sense that text Solah or so be it Hoc ratum firmumq esto See vers 2. PSAL. IV. TO the chief Musician Or 〈◊〉 Chro. 25. 1 2. to the most excellent Musick-master to the chief Chaunter Asaph was this and some other Psalms committed that they might be sung in the best manner and with greatest care So Alexander on his Death-bed left his Kingdom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Optimatum optime to him that should be the best of the best 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hoc jamdiu â—onsecutus est Roscius ut in 〈◊〉 quisque arâ—ficio excelleâ—t in suo geâ—ere Roscius 〈◊〉 Cic. de Orat. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was Tully's Motto that is strive to excel others to crop off the very top of all vertues as Scipio is said to have done to be best at any thing to be careful to excel in good works Tit. 3.8 and to bear away the bell as we say in whatsoever a man undertaketh On Neginoth i.e. Instrumemta pulsatilia stringed Instruments such as are to bee touched or plaid upon with the hand Lord saith Nazianzen I am an Instrument for thee to touch Let us lay our selves open to the Spirits touch and so make musick Vers 1. Here me when I call O God of my righteousness that is O thou righteous Judge of my righteous Cause and of my good Conscience David speaketh first to God and then to men This is the right method Wee therefore speak no better to men because no more to God It is said of Charls the Fifth that he spent more words with God than with men When we are vilified and derigrated by others as David here was let us make God acquainted with our condition by his example But why doth David beg audience and mercy in general only and not lay open to God his particular grievances Surely because he looked upon the favour of God as a complexive blessing that perfectly comprehendeth all the rest as Manna is said to have had all good tasts in it For particulars David was content to be at Gods dispose I humbly beseech thee that I may finde grace in thy sight my Lord O King said that false Ziba to David 2 Sam. 16.4 q. d. I had rather have the Kings favour than Mephibosheths Lands David really had rather have Gods love and favour than all this worlds good and therefore so heartily beggeth it above any thing Thou hast inlarged me when I was in distress Heb. Thou hast made roomth for me Hoc autem in Prophetia dictum est saith R. David this was Prophetically spoken Thou hast that is thou wilt enlarge me who am now in distress God will surely be nearest unto his in their greatest straights and because they have made him the God of their Mountains he will be the God of their valleys also Vers 2. O yee sons of men Yee Grandees Psal 49.3 who think to carry all before you with those big looks and bubbles of words yee who are potent at Court and therefore insolent above measure David having poured out his heart to God in prayer takes heart of grace thus freely to bespeak these great ones his enemies How long will yee turn my glory into shame i. e. attempt to put me beside the Kingdom whereunto God hath designed and destined me You think belike to jeer me out of my right and by casting upon me Cart-loads of Calumnies and contumelies to make me desist and hang up my hopes But it is otherwise beleeve it Psal 14.6 7. yee have shamed the counsel of the poor because the Lord is his refuge But will he therefore give over praying No for in the next words he falls on and says O that the Salvation of Israel were come out of Zion c. How long will yee love vanity c. i. e. trouble your selves to no purpose whiles yee plot and plow mischief to him who is blessed and shall be blessed ingratiis vestris you love you seek that is you both inwardly affect wickedness and outwardly act it but all in vain Vers 3. But know that the Lord hath set apart him that is godly Quod separatum asseruerit that God hath destined mine head to the Diadem of the Kingdom and therefore it shall not be in your power to hinder me Sith voluntas Dei necessitas Rei and this I would have you to know and rest assured of Let us be no less confident of the Crown of Glory Luke 12.32 Fear not little flock for it is your Fathers good pleasure to give you a kingdom And 2 Tim. 2.19 The foundation of God abideth sure having this double seal i. e. The Lord for his part knoweth who are his and we for our parts may know that if we but name the name of the Lord in prayer and depart from evil we shall certainly be saved The Lord will hear when I call unto him Being that I am a godly man a gracious Saint one that have obtained mercy and am thereby made merciful to others for so much the word signifieth I doubt not of audience and acceptance in Heaven God regards not the prayer if the person be not right For Witches some plead that they use
a most curious and strange Piece of Work devised and perfected by the most cunning Astronomers for Maximilian the Emperour whose noble minde never spared for any cost to obtain things of rare and strange devise But what was all this to the Heavens That Work of Gods finger That is most elaborate and accurate a Metaphor from Embroyderers or from them that make Tapestry Aben-Ezra's Note here is Digiti sunt decem sphaera sunt decem As there are ten Fingers so there are ten Spheres c. The Moon and the Stars No mention of the Sun because included in this word Heaven wherein by Day the Sun is most conspicuous as by Night the Moon and Stars VVhich thou hast ordained That was a witty speech of Cyril They were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Athiests by Night who worshipped the Sun and Atheists by Day who worshipped the Moon and Stars Vers 4. What is man that thou art mindful of him Sorry sickly man a Mass of Mortalities a Map of Miseries a mixture or compound of Dirt and Sin And yet God is mindful of him he not only takes care of him in an ordinary way as he doth other Creatures but singularly attendeth and affecteth him as a Father doth his dearest Childe Heis Divini ingenii cura saith one he is the end of all in a semi-circle saith another Philosopher meaning that all things in the World were made for man and man made for God Neither is there so much of the glory of God in all his Works of Wonder as in one gracious performance of a godly person But if we understand the Text as the Apostle doth Heb. 2.6 of the Man Christ Jesus Hic homo filius hominis qualis quantus est Deus bone saith Junius And the Son of Man Heb. Arrian in Epictet Of earthly men for what is the greatest Potentate but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a peece of Clay neatly made up That thou visitest him That thou mindest him more than other Creatures and makest him Lord of all thy visitation preserveth his spirit Job 10.12 Vers 5. For thou hast made hima little lower than the Angels Compare here with Heb. 2.6 7. and it will appear that whatsoever is spoken here of man is applied to Christ and so is proper to the Saints by vertue of their union with Christ in which respect they are more glorious saith one than Heaven Angels or any Creature This is their dignity and for their duty they must therefore give the more earnest heed to the Doctrin of the Gospel lest at any time they should leak or let slip the same but retain and obey it This is the Apostles own inference Heb. 2.5 6 7. for thus he argueth Unto the Angels God hath not put in subjection the World to come where of we speak But to man for whose sake the Son of God came in the flesh for whose sake the Gospel was preached for whose sake wee speak of that World to come he hath therefore it behooveth man to observe and obey the Gospel And hast crowned him with glory and honour Some refer this to the reasonable Soul whereby he not only differeth from Beasts but draweth nigh to the heavenly Nature As Rome was an Epitome of the World as Athens was the Greece of Greece and as one said to his Friend who desired to see Athens Viso Solone vidisti omnia when thou hast seen Solon thou hast seen all Athens So man is a little World and is therefore called every Creature Mark 16 15. and the Saints in whom Gods Image is repaired are called All things Colos 1.20 Christ being unto them All and in all Vers 6. Thou madest him to have dominion c. He had so at first Gen. 1.26 and shall have again Zech. 8.12 Rev. 21.7 mean while though Rebellis facta est Creatura homini quia homo numini the Creature rebelleth against man because man doth against God yet we cannot but see some foot-steps remaining of that ancient Soveraignty Tully Plutarch Eâ—ncus which the very Heathens also acknowledged and there-hence fetched excellent Arguments for a Providence Lions hate Apes but fear men though Simia quam similis turpissima bestia nobis Hereof no probable reason can be given but this That God hath put all things under mans feet insomuch as that the most timerous men dare kick and beat the hugest Elephants Indeed by reason of Sin as was said we see not all things subdued Heb. 12.8 But why hath Nature denied to Horses Bodin Theat Nat. p 405. Asses Camels Elephants Deer c. a Gall which it hath given to Lions Wolves and other fierce Creatures Surely herein appeareth the wonderful Wisdom and goodness of God who hath done this that those so serviceable Creatures might be the better tamed and subdued by man Let man consider saith one well what excellency he hath lost through Adams fall and bewail his misery Let him also on the other side well weigh the grace bestowed on him in Christ and be joyful and thankful or mercy knowing this that if the Creatures be not now subjected unto us it is by reason of the Body and relicks of Sin that yet remain in us and that therefore if we would have a conquest over the Creatures we must begin first to get a victory upon sin or else we shall never profit that way Thou hast put all things under his feet The Earth hath its name from treading upon it teaching us Terra à teendo 1 To trample upon earthly things as base and bootless not to dote upon them with out hearts nor grasp them over greedily with our hands as that covetous Cardinal Sylberperger who took so great felicity in Mony that when he was grievously tormented with the Gout his only remedy to ease his pain was to have a Bason full of Gold set before him into which he would put his lame hands turning the Gold upside down But if Silver and Gold be a mans happiness then it is in the earth and so which is strange nearer Hell than Heaven and so nearer the Devil than God The ancient Romans had for a difference in their Nobility a little ornament in the form of a Moon to shew that all worldly things were mutable and they wore it upon their shooes to shew that they trod all under their feet 2. By this posture of all things sunder mans feet God would teach him to use them as a Stirrop for the raising of his heart to those things above A sanctified fancy can make every Creature a Ladder to Heaven and say with that Father Si tanti vitreum quanti verum margaritum If this trash be so highly esteemed of how much more the true Treasure Vers 7. All Sheep and Oxen c. There are Beasts ad esum et ad usum saith one Some are profitable dead not alive as the Hogge some alive not dead as the Dogge Horse c. some both as the Oxe
taste and therefore it is that my words relish not with you Blessed is the man c. See Psal 2.12 with the Notes Vers 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O fear the Lord yee his Saints Yee that having tasted of Gods sweetness are separated from the World with its lusts and can live with a little Fear the Lord and then you shall not need to fear want of any thing for he is All-sufficient to those who are altogether his and with-draw not from him by mistrust or misdoing For there is no want to them that fear him Habent omnia qui habent habentem omnia David when captive among the Philistines wanted not Paul had nothing and yet possessed all things Contrarily the wicked in the fulness of his sufficiency is in straights Job 20 22. Vers 10. The young Lions do lack and suffer hunger And yet they will have it if it be to be had H c est sceleratorum imago saith Beza Lion-like wicked oppressors rich Cormorants as the Septuagint render it who live on the spoil of poor people and are never satisfied do yet perish with famine as Eliphaz saith of the old Lion Job 4.11 and come ost to great poverty so that they pine away Donec mis◠tabeseant Beza and miserably perish But they that seek the Lord That content with his blessing alone seek not their nourishment any other way but from his hand and will rather lye in the dust than rise by evil Principles these have an autarkie a self-sufficiency such as godliness is never without 1 Tim. 6.6 Some Rabbins say Aben-Ezra Loc. that the servants of Achish had almost famished David under pretence haply of reducing him to his right mind but God sustained him by Miracle as he did Elias 1 King 17. Shall not want any good thing Want they may this or that which they may think would be good for them but God knoweth it to be otherwise or else they should be sure of it Of good nothing followeth of it self but good but if by accident any evil followeth yet it is turned into good to such as seek the Lord in sincerity Vers 11. Come yee children hearken unto me Yee that are little and low in your own eyes as seeing your want of holy Learning I will teach you the fear of the Lord That best Trade whereby you shall be sure to be kept from want for by humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honour and life Prov. 22.4 He then who shall teach this fear should be honoured and respected as a Father The Jews at this day account a mans Master or Tutor worthy of more respect than his Father for he hath given him only his being Leo Modena◠the other his wel-being Vers 12. What man is he that desireth life This is Davids Doctrin and to draw company about him he proclaimeth and promiseth that which he well knew every man coveteth happy life many days and a comfortable enjoyment of all Now who is it that would have these saith he Austine bringeth in all sorts saying Ego ego I would and I would But as all men desire health but few take a right course to get it and keep it so all would be happy but few hearken to this wholsome counsel for the compassing of true happiness Vers 13. Keep thy tongue from evil c. This is an hard saying think the most who will therefore rather venture it than yeeld to be so tied up The Tongue is an unruly member and can hardly be hampered But who would not temper his tongue and bind it to the good abearance for true blessedness Who would not rather bite it off and spit it out as that ancient Martyr did his into the face of the Tyrant who solicited him to deny Christ than miss of Heaven Ficinus after his Tracts De sanitate tuenda of keeping good health and another of recovering health and a third of prolonging life because all will not do wisely addeth a fourth Of laying hold on eternal life which cannot be done but by mortifying this earthly member a loose and lewd tongue For by thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned saith the Judge himself Mat. 12.37 Compare Gen. 49.21 with Deut. 33.23 and it will appear that good words ingratiate with God and Men. Vers 14. Depart from evil and do good For negative goodness helpeth not A man must so abstain from evil as that he do good or he doth nothing It is said of Ithacius that the hatred of the Priscillian Heresie was the best that could bee said of him this was but a slender commendation Seek peace and pursue it As Hunters do the prey If it fly from thee make after it it will pay thee for thy pains It is said of Frederick the Third Emperour that by putting up many injuries he reigned quietly fifty and three years and five months He had need be patient that would be at peace Vt habeas quietum tempus Val. Max. Christian 30 Augustin perde aliquid was a Proverb at Carthage not unlike that of ours Do any thing for a quiet life Concedamus de jure ut careamus lite And if in this pursute of peace thou meet with many rubs and remoraes yet be not discouraged considering what follows in the two next verses Vers 15. The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous He seeth and weigheth the wrongs they sustain for peace sake and they shall be no losers thereby provided that their pursute of peace proceed from the filiall fear of God which David here professeth to teach Vers 11. Gods eyes are intent his ears attent to these righteous ones Palà m clà m as Aben-Ezra here openly secretly he will right them and recompense them Should not God see as well as hear saith another his children should want many things Wee apprehend not all our own wants and so cannot pray for relief of all Hee of his own accord without any monitor is wont to aid us And his ears are open to their cry Heb. Are to their cry Or as St. Peter hath it His ears are into their prayers 1 Pet. 3◠to shew that though their prayers are so faint and feeble that they cannot enter into the ears of the Lord of Hoasts yet that he will bow down and incline his ears unto nay into their prayers their breathings Lam. 3.56 Vers 16. The face of the Lord is against them that do evill Let not such dream of a long and happy life as Vers 12. This they are apt to do but shall be carried from a fooles Paradise to a true prison For that people may not imagin God to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so made up of mercy as to forget his judgements the Wicked are here affured that the face of the Lord is against them that he beholdeth them from Heaven with a terrible countenance that he
lying rather than to speak righteousness For thou hast cunningly insinuated for thine own base ends and against thine own Conscience that those innocent and faithful Priests were of the combination and so hast built thy self upon their ruines thou false Sycophant artifex doti Selah Vers 4. Thou lovest all devouring words Verba devoratoria the Greek hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that devoure and swallow up so as the Sea doth things cast into it So elsewhere their throat is an open sepulchre which devoureth all bodies but rendreth none without a Miracle Some render it Verba voraginis the words of a Whirlpool which first turns men round and then lucks them in Others Verba absorptionis in reference to that use of the tongue which is to sup up dish-meats Sic lingua attrahit homines itâ— ut absorbeautur saith Vatablus The vulgar hath it Verba precipitationis words that hurl one down headlong Ex edites adium vel rupium as Hilary hath it from the top of houses or high rocks O thou deceitful tongue Because although it were for most part truth that hee spake yet he did it maliciously and by dishmulation pasled over that which might have made for Ahimelech viz. that he releeved David in the simplicity of his heart as thinking him to be high in the Kings favour and employed by him Egesippus saith of Pilate that he was Vir neguam parvi faciens mendacium a naughty man and one that made no bones of a Lye such another was Doeg D excid Jerus 1.2 c. 5. Vers 5. God shall likewise destroy thee Here are quot verba tot tonitrâ—a so many words so many thunderclaps Judicium ipsum lethale describitur As thou hast destroyed the Lords Priests and then whole City razing and harasing it so God will demonith and destroy thee utterly as an house pulled down to the ground so that one stone is not left upon another Lev. 14.45 So shall God pull down Doeg from that high preferment which he by Sycophancy hath got at Court He shall take thee away As a coal of fire is taken with the Tongs Psa 30.4 Exurette Vatah. that it do no further mischief some render it He shall burn thee R. Gaon He shall â—â—â—rifie thee And pluck thee out of thy dwelling place Or shall sweep thee out of thy tabernacle R. Gaon interpreteth it Both hamidrash the Lords Tabernacle whereinto a Doeg may set his foot as farre as a David but God will pluck him thence And root thee out of the land of the living Everret evertet ie cum tota familia He shall utterly ruinate thee and thine leaving thee neither root nor branch chick nor childe Selah i.e. Veritas est saith Aben-Ezra It is even so think not that these things are spoken only in terrorem for a Scarebug for they shall all be surely fulfilled upon thee Vers 6. The righteous also shall see and fear With a reverential fear from which shall spring sincere service Aliorum perditio tua sit cautio let other mens perdition be our caution let us wash our feet in the blood of the wicked There is an elegancy in the original that cannot be englished And shall laugh at him With an holy laughter not that of irrision but of exultation in God for his righteous executions Vers 7. Lo this is the man Or rather now the Monster to be pointed at once so mighty now so miserable O quantum haec Niobe c. what a strange change is here c As the true Israelite is pointed out with a Behold for imitation Job 1.47 so is this counterfeit Israelite for detestation That made not God his strength But carried the matter as if hee had been some petty-god within himself But trusted in the abundance c. Never true to those that trusted them And strengthened himself in his wickedness Heb. In his woful evil in his putting many poor Creatures to their Wo is me Vers 8. But I am like a green Olive-tree c. Thus when Doeg blasted David David blesseth himself Let him flourish in the Court I shall much more in the House of God My name shall be precious among the Saints when he stinketh above ground hee shall wither when I shall bee fresh flourishing and fruitfull I trust in the mercy of God Not in riches as Doeg and this faith is the root of my fruitfulness cheerfulness c. Gul. Parisiensis reporteth of true Chrystal that by touching only it reviveth the decayed vertue of other precious stones sure it is that faith reviveth the vertue of other precious graces Vers 9. I will praise thee for ever because thou hast done it Hast delivered mee from Doeg and others Quod non perierim centies Or thou hast done execution upon Doeg i.e. Thou wilt undoubtedly do it And I will wait on thy name i. e. Depend upon thy Promises and Providence PSAL. LIII MAschil a Psalm of David Purposely set down here the second time see Psal 14. to instruct what every man is by nature and that hee who is scholar to his own carnal reason is sure to have a fool to his master The Heathens are very obstinate in propugning mans nature witness Cicero and both the Senecaes saying that if men would but follow the bent of their own natures they could not do amiss And we have much ado to perswade people that their Natures are so foul their ways so wicked c. twice therefore is this Psalm recorded that all may be convinced that there is no safety in such a condition nothing better than to hasten out of it Vers 1 2. The Fool c. See the Notes on Psal 14.1 2. Vers 3. Every one of them is gone back Diogenes in a great assembly going backward of purpose and seeing every one laughing him to scorn asked them aloud if they were not ashamed so to do sith he went backward but once they did so all the days of their life Vers 4. Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge Etiam scient in fine dolebunt saith one Know they shall to their sorrow in the end that they have eaten that on earth which they must disgest in hel Vers 5. There were they in great fear Heb. They feared a fear God they feared not of men they were greatly feared and yet here they feared a fear where no fear was viz. without themselves only facti sunt à corde suo fugitivi they feared and fled before their own consciences their own trembling heart Deut. 28.65 the sound of fear that is in their ears Job 15.21 the sound of a leaf chaseth them Levit. 26.36 they flee when none pursueth Prov. 28.1 Naturalists tell us of a certain little bird quae fertur metu ne in ipsam coelum ruat imponere sibi semper dormienti alterum pedem which for fear lest the Skie should fall on her head sleepeth still with one foot laid upon her head The Gaules that dwelt neer
forth to seek mee but wentest home again by weeping-crosse Vers 9. Who will bring mee into the strong City Into Rabbah of the Ammonites which at length he got 2 Sam. 12. and now wisheth for Kimchi readeth it in the preter-tense who hath led mee into the strong Cities who hath brought mee into Edom Hast not thou O God c Vers 10. Wilt not thou O God Or hast not thou c. The glory of all victories is to be given to God in solidum Strong Cities are nothing when he will have them subdued and sacked Which hadst cast us off See Psal 44.9 The Churches prosperity like checker-work is intermingled with adversity Vers 11. Give us help from trouble Give it us whensoever we need it as hitherto thou very graciously hast done For vain is the help of man As they had lately experimented in Saul a King of their own chusing but not able to save them from those proud Philistines No more could the Romans the Britans oppressed by their Northern enemies They sent to Aetim the Roman Praefect of Gaul and thus complained to him The barbarous enemy beateth us to the Sea the Sea beateth us back to the enemy Dan. Chron. between these two kind of deaths we are either murthered or drowned c. But their implorations prevailed not For Aetius at that time had enough to do to keep his own head and Valentinian the Empire The Saints comfort is that where human help faileth divine beginneth as Philo told his Country-men when rejected by Caius the Emperour Vers 12. Through God we shall do valiantly Faciemus militiam some render it and it is true of the Spiritual warfare also we shall be more than Conquerours even Triumphers 2 Cor. 2.14 Meminisse oportet ist a nunc esse ad spirituales Ecolesiae hostes potius quam adversus armatas ferro copias referenda saith Beza in his argument and use of this Psalm He it is that shall tread down our enemies Corporal and Spiritual this is a part of Christs Kingly Office to the which he will not be wanting Psalmus hic est de Messia imperante sicut David saith Kimchi out of Derash Rabboth This Psalm is concerning Messiah reigning as David did PSAL. LXI TO the chief Musician upon Neginah c. Vincenti in melodiis Davidis Vatab. It is probable that he made this Psalm when driven out of his Kingdom by his Son Absolom he took up at Mahanaim beyond Jordan 2 Sam. 17.24 and therehence prayed from the ends of the earth or rather of the land vers 2. Howbeit R. Obadiah saith that this Psalm is De pugna cum Aram in confinibus Israel concerning the battle with the Syrians in the borders of the Land See 2 Sam. 10.14 c. and 1 Chron. 19.16 amp c. Vers 1. Hear my cry O God Heb. My shouting my sad out-cry for he was in great extremity vers 2. and seeks ease by prayer This is the way Job 22.21 Philip. 4.6 7. walk in it Prayer hath Virtutem pacativam it doth sweetly settle the Soul and lodge a blessed security in it Vers 2. From the end of the earth Or of the Land In all places men may lift up holy hands Sic dicit res pectu arae à quiexulabat longe in bello contra hostes R. Sol. 1 Tim. 2.8 Job 4.21 and speed A desert may be a goodly Oratory When my heart is overwhelmed Or covered over Vt fit in deliquiit lipothimiis as is usual in swoones See a like expression Psal 102. title Lam. 3.65 where the word rendred sorrow of heart signifieth such a covering like a shield such a lid put over the heart that is suffocated as in the Cardica passio Davids Harp was not more out of tune than his heart sometimes He prayeth and is helped Lead me to the rock that is higher than I i.e. Do for me that I cannot do for my self set me in safety Vers 3. For thou hast been a shelter for me Thou hast and therefore thou wilt is an ordinary Scripture-medium and well it may for God is unchangeable and his Decree for preserving his people is as the Poet saith well 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 irrevocable Vers 4. I will abide in thy tabernacle Et scribam mirabilia tua in memoriale saith R. Obadiah by way of gloss And I will there register up thy wonderful works Or I shall there worship thee and do thee acceptable service again though for present I am banished or busied abroad He saith not I shall abide in my Palace but in thy tabernacle which he more highly esteemed Some render it I shall dwell in thy Tent or Pavilion Royal making it a metaphor from warfare where those that are in the Kings own Tent must needs be in greatest safety And this sense suiteth well with the following words I will trust in the covert of thy wings Vers 5. Hinc Graeci precationem dicunt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For thou O God hast heard my vows i.e. My prayers which had vows of thankfulness annexed unto them Thou hast given me the heritage Even the sure mercies of David grace and glory and inheritance in the World to come as the Chaldee hath it besides what we have here Vers 6. Thou wilt prolong the Kings life The King Christ saith the Chaldee who shall see his seed he shall prolong his days and the pleasure of the Lordshall prosper in his hand Isa 53.10 David himself also lived and reigned longer than most Kings do being old and full of days And his years as many generations sc In his sons and successors So Psa 72.17 Filiabitus nomine ejus The name of Christ shall indure for ever it shall be begotten as one generation is begotten of another there shall bee a succession of Christs name Vers 7. He shall abide before God for ever Or He shall sit viz. upon the Throne a long while in his person but for ever in his Son Christ Luke 1.32 and this affordeth sweet and singular comfort to the whole Church and each Member thereof for as much as the dignity of a King cannot stand unless his Subjects bee in safety O prepare mercy and truth which may preserve him Hos duos custodes adhibe quibus unis innitatur Let these two thy Mercy and thy Truth be the supporters of his Throne let them be of his Life-guard let them be his due and prepared portion as the Hebrew word Man here used signifieth Some understand the words thus Junius Furnish the King with these two Vertues Clemency and Truth that thereby his Throne may be established See Prov. 20.28 29.14 Vers 8. So will I sing praise unto thy name for ever Conclusio votiva Praise is so pleasing a service to God that he indenteth with his people for it Psal 50.15 and they knowing his minde therein do usually restipulate that they will perform it as holding it the least that they in conscience can do and
obstinate yea confident or rather impudent in their evill practices They commune of laying snares privily viz. To intangle and intrap mee See Neh. 4.11 with the Note They say who shall see them God who is All-eye shall but they having hid God from themselves think they can likewise hide themselves and their snares from God But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vers 6. They search out iniquities Abstrusissima quaeque exquisierunt they search the Devils Skul for new inventions who is ready enough to lend them his seven heads to plot and his ten horns to push at good people How wittily wicked was Saul to destroy David if he could have done it See his counsell to the Ziphites 1 Sam. 23.22 They accomplish a diligent search Heb. A search searched i. e. They seek out all occasions they try all tricks they do all that can be done to undoe mee Whereunto he fitly subjoyneth this Epiphonema by way of exclamation Adeo intimum viri cor profundum est So deep is the inward part and heart of man for so I read it so deep and fathomlesse so deceitfull and desperately wicked Vers 7. But God shall shoot at them c. He shall overshoot them in their own bow pay them home in their own coyn he will deal with them lege talionis for he loveth to retaliate see verse 4. they shall find that he can handle his armes a fair deal better against them than they did against David With an arrow suddenly As was Ahab and the rich fool Luk. 12. whiles he sat pruning himself like a bird on a bough death fetch'd him off suddenly by his shaft shot at him and down he came tumbling See 1 Thes 5.3 Vers 8. So they shall make their own tongue c. According to Prov. 12.13 Psal 59.12 See the Notes And all that see them shall flee away With horrour and astonishment Heb. they shall wander about in their flight this is spoken of their favourers and abbetters fearing to fall under the like punishment and being agitated by the furies of their own evill consciences Vers 9. Poena ad paucos metus ad omnes And all men shall fear Seeing such and such hanged up in Gibbits as it were for a terrour to others And shall declare the work of God viz. His power and providence which some doubt of till thus powerfully convinced as Claudian was by the destruction of Ruffinus Abstulit hunc tandem Ruffini poena tumultum Absolvitque deos non jam ad culmina rerum Injustes crevisse queror tolluntur in altum Ut lapsu graviors ruant Vers 10. Inde arripient fanctae cujuldam jictaâ—â—â— argumentum Beza The Righteous shall bee glad in the Lord Not my self only but all the Saints shall be comforted confirmed and occasioned to make their boast of God with an holy gloriation PSAL. LXV A Psalm and song of David Made by him as it is thought when the people were delivered from that three-years famine for the slaughter of the Gibeonites 2 Sam. 21. and that three dayes pestilence for Davids 〈◊〉 in numbring the people 2 Sam. 2.4 Vers 1. Praise waiteth for thee O God in Sion Tibi silentium lam tibi Deâ—â— in Zion so Beza rendreth it There is first a deep silence in Sion and then due praise a silence of admiration a silence of religious a we and devotion such as was afterwards that in the Christian Church Revel 8.1 or a silence of expectation to receive mercies and a praise by way of retribution for mercies received Or silence in all other places not sensible of Gods favours but praise in the Church where God is magnified first for blessings proper and peculiar to his own people secondly for preserving Common-wealths and thereby providing graciously for Human society and thirdly for giving men all things richly to enjoy as in the end of this Psalm And unto thee shall the vow be performed That is solemn thanks shall bee rendred Thy people stand ready prest with their praises and memories as Josephs Brethren once did with their Presents against the time that hee shewed himself Vers 2. O thou that hearest prayer And art thereby known to be the true God 1 King 18.38 39. and no such dull deity as the Heathens worshipped Isa 45.16 19. Mic. 7.17 18. O happy we that have to deal with such a Prayer-hearing sin-pardoning God vers 3 Basil compareth prayer to a chain the one end whereof is linked to Gods Ear and the other to mans Tongue Flectitur iratus voce rogante Deus Vnto thee shall all flesh come And well they may sith he keepeth open house his Mercy doors are ever wide open as were the doors of the Aediles or City Chamberlains in Rome that all who had occasion of complaint might have free access unto them at any time A good house-keeper is seldom without company Why ply we not the Throne of Grace upon such encouragement Why sith wee are not straitned in God are we straitned in our own bowels Why make we not our selves happy by asking sith wee may have but what we will of God even all that Heaven and his Grace can afford us Vers 3. Iniquities prevail against me And seek to choke my prayers they prick me in the foot as it were that I cannot come to thee in prayer or not with that confidence but that is more than needs sith As for our transgressions thou shalt purge them away So that if wee turn from them they shall not hinder good things from us No man was ever rejected by God for his confessed badness as sundry have been for their supposed goodness witness the Publican and the Pharisee Luke 18. Vers 4. Blessed is the man whom thou choosest Whom thou choosest for thy love and then lovest him for thy choyse And causest to approach unto thee i. e. Effectually callest Here Vocation is fetcht from the Fountain as is also Justification in the former verse viz. Gods free election See that golden chain Rom. 8.30 That he may dwell in thy Courts viz. To hear thy Word and partake of thine Ordinances For our Saviour telleth the Jews Hee that is of God heareth Gods Words yee therefore hear him not because yee are not of God John 8.4 our Worship-scorners then have a black brand upon them We shall be satisfied He maketh himself one of the number of Gods elect as Paul also doth often and there-hence concludeth to himself and the rest a beatifical communion of all good things Vers 5. By terrible things in righteousness wilt thou answer us As he did when he gave the Law in Mount Sinas and ever after in his Oracles and Ordinances God loveth at once familiarity and fear familiarity in our conversation and fear in his Worships he loves to be acquainted with men in the walks of their obedience yet he taketh state upon him in his Ordinances and will bee trembled at in his Word and Judgements Who art the confidente of all the
2 Cor. 1.10 Vers 4. Turn us O God of our salvation Turn us and we shall be turned do as thou ever hast done for thou art Jehovah thou changest not but art yesterday today and the same for ever And cause thine anger c. I abefacta iram tuam erga nos Vers 5. Wilt thou he angry with us for ever Dilato Christo two vel tuo adventu Such expostulations mixt with faith are Vis Deo grata as saith Tertullian such as God is well pleased with Vers 6. With thou not revive us again Who for present are all amort as it were free among the dead free of that company That thy people may rejoyce in thee A joyless life is a lifeless life Mortis habet vices quae trahitur vita gemitibus Vers 7. shew us thy mercy O Lord Thy fatherly mercy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And grant us thy salvation Thy Christ and our Jesus Luke 2.30 Vers 8. I will hear what God the Lord will speak I will not repine but listen what answer God giveth to my prayer and patiently wait a good issue of my troubles For he will speak peace unto his people viz. by his Promises and by his Providences And to his Saints For all Gods people are righteous ones Isa 60.21 justified and sanctified 1 Cor. 6.11 But let 〈◊〉 them turn again do folly i.e. to the ways of the world and of 〈◊〉 real son lest they smart for their rashness and God 〈…〉 to their words again Vers 9. Surely his salvation is nigh them c. Though they be so 〈…〉 with tears that they cannot see it and so discouraged that they have even done looking for it Luke â—â— 7 â— That glory may dwell in our Land The Fathers hath by salvation and glory dwelling with man understand Christ Job 1.26 Vers 10. Jam fides pax honor pudorque Priscuâ— neglectâ—â— redire virtus Audet apparetque beata pleno Copia cornu Horat. Iren. Aug. Mercy and 〈◊〉 are met together 〈◊〉 his Mercy is ever â—â—â—â—â—ded by 〈◊〉 conjunction his people there is a 〈…〉 and 〈◊〉 â—â—â—â—tion of Graces 2 Pet. â— â— and this is an effect of Christ Kingdom in mâ—â—◠〈◊〉 Rom. 14.17 Righteousness and peace have killed each other Have friendly saluted in allusion to the manner of the Eastern Nations See Isa 12.17 Psal 119.169 Vers 11. Truth shall spring out of the earth i. e. Heaven and 〈◊〉 shall be 〈◊〉 both of truth and righteousness Many understand all concerning Christ See Jâ—â— 3.13 Others concerning extraordinary plenty of all good things Vers 12. Yea the Lord shall give that which is good Yea hâ—st of all viz. his holy Spirit Luke 11.13 with Matthew 7.11 with a largess of outward comforts Vers 13. Righteousness shall go before him Men shall walk before God in holinels and righteousness all the days of their lives Luke 1.75 they shall not rest in outward blessings vers 12. or be satisfied with such low things but be led up thereby to the care of higher And shall set us in the way of his steps So that we shall go an upper and â—â—â—â—fore a better way Prov. 15.24 having our feat where other mens heads are and so departing from Hell beneath which 〈◊〉 gapeth for the unrighteous PSAL. LXXXVI A Prayer Left for a form for a help to devotion as was also Psal 1â—2 Title Vers 1. Bow down thine 〈◊〉 O Lord As the careful Physician doth to his feeble Patient so Basil glosseth here For I am poor and needy Having nothing to live on but what my friends privily send me or what I can get by boot-haling from the Lords enemies 1 Sam. 30.26 Vers 2. Preserve my soul for I am holy Or a 〈◊〉 a Saint merciful such an one as upon whose heart the tender mercies of the Almighty 〈◊〉 forth abundantly do leave a compassionate frame David had the Divine Nature transfused into him he was holy as God is holy and merciful as God is merciful in quality though not in equality but all of free grace and this he pleadâ—â—â— for his own safety Save thy servant Serva servum tuum thy devoted servant and not thy beneficiary only Vers 3. Be merciful unto me Lest any should by the former 〈◊〉 I 〈…〉 suspect him to be a merit-monger he beggeth mercy with instancy and constancy of request Vers 4. Rejoyce the soul of thy servant True and solid joy entreth 〈◊〉 by the door of servent prayer Pray that your joy may be fell I lift up my soul In prayer Psal 25.1 and confident 〈◊〉 of an 〈◊〉 carrying return thereof 〈…〉 24. â—â— Vers 5. For thou Lord are good 〈◊〉 Lord I am â—ell 〈…〉 are Heaven said God by prayer And plenteous in mercy Both to 〈◊〉 sin and to give good Hos 14. â— Vers 6. Give ear O Lord c. The hearing of our sutes is earnestly to be sought and reckoned among our chiefest 〈◊〉 Vers 7. In the day of my trouble c. Gods Petitioners must pray and beleeve and beleeve and pray 〈…〉 David had said verse â— God is man in mercy to all that call upon him Here he 〈◊〉 and conâ—â—â—th 〈…〉 in the day of my trouble will call upon him therefore he will answer mee Vers 8. Among the Gods Whether deputed or reputed There is none like unto thee Either in essence or in operation See 〈◊〉 15.11 Vers 9. As Nations whom thou hast 〈◊〉 come c. I were 〈◊〉 they should Rev. 4. ult 't is to be hoped they shall Isa 11. 43. not by â—hange of â—race but 〈◊〉 responâ—ing their irreligions and yeelding unto Christ the 〈◊〉 of faith Some understand this Text of that generall Assembly at the 〈◊〉 Vers 10. For thou are grâ—â—â— Great is the Lord without quantity good without quality everlasting without time omni present without place containing all things without extent within all things and contained of nothing without all things and sustained of nothing c. Now the least 〈◊〉 of this knowledge is worth all the gleams of human wisdome And doest wondrous things The Schools have laid down a threefold way of knowing God First Negation of Imperfections Secondly Affirmation of Perfections Thirdly Causation of great works Vers 11. Teach mee thy way David knew much of God and yet he desireth to be taught more delivering himself up to Gods discipline and saying as once Solon did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Unite my heart to fear thy name i. e. To serve thee with simplicity and godly 〈◊〉 2 Cor. â—â— cleavâ—â— to thee with full purpose of heart Act. 11.23 and attending upon thee without distraction 1 Cor. 7.35 As thou aâ— God alone verse 10. so let my heart be towaâ—d thee alone Behold I find it divided disjoynted and so disabled for duty for anima disper sa fit minor Oh do thou unite it I beseech thee giving mee that one heart thou hast promised until we all come unto that oneness of the faith and of the
mortis delicias quaesivit solaced himself with singing such light Sonnets as this Vovamus mea Lesbia atque omemus Rumoresque senum severiorum Omnes unius aestimemus assis And by thy wrath are we troubled Consternati sumus Symmachus Aquila transtulerant acceleravimus Death stings us and sticks us the motion and mention of it is terrible to us through sense of sin and fear of wrath Heb. 2.15 Vers 8. Thou hast set our iniquities before thee As a Judge doth the misdeeds of a Malefactor together with the proofs and evidences Our secret sins Which we either never took notice of or had utterly forgotten the sins of our youth some render it but not so well those sins which we had hoped to have secreted such was our hypocrisie In the light of thy countenance This light thou hast made use of for the discovery of our inmost evils those that lye most up in the heart of the Country as it were as the murmurings and misbeleef of our hearts c. these thy pure eyes more clear and radiant than the Sun it self have plainly discerned Nature teacheth us that the fiery eye needeth no outward light but seeth extramittendo by sending out a ray c. Vers 9. For all our days are passed away Heb. Do turn away the face See vers 3. We spend our years as a tale that is told The grace whereof is brevity q. d. dicto citins Some render it as a thought that ariseth and passeth To this sence the Greek Poet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Chaldee hath it Ut flatus oris in Hyeme as the breath of ones mouth in Winter See Jam. 4.14 Vers 10. The days of our years are threescore c. So Solon in Laertius saith the term of mans life is seventy years this few exceed and fewer attain to To the same sense speaketh Macrobius also Lib. 1. Som. cap. 6 saying Septies deni anni à Physicis creditur meta vivendi hoc vitae humanae perfectum spacium terminatur c. The Fathers lived longer but as mens wickedness increased so their days decreased and now their lives are daily shortned the Generations dispatcht away that the World may the sooner come to an end If Moses and Aaron of old and Johannes de temporibus and some few others of latter time live longer even to an hundred or more these are singular examples and it is of the generality that the Psalmist here speaketh And if by reason of strength D. Maior c. One readeth it thus And if by fortitude fourscore years even their latitude is labour and sorrow that is this inlarging of the time bringeth nothing but labour and misery because now the body is diseased c. For it is soon cut off As a Web or as Grass And we flee away As a Bird upon the wing or as an hour of the day Qui nescit quo vita modo volat audiat horas Quam sit vita fugax nos docet iste sonus I am not eternity said Epictetus but a man that is a small part of the whole as the hour is of the day Enchirid. I must therefore come and go away as the hour doth Vers 11. Who knoweth the power of thine anger None doth sith it is such as no man can either avoyd or abide and such is mens stupidity that few will beleeve tiâ—l they feel it no though their lives be so short and uncertain Even according to thy fear so is thy wrath Ira tua non est minor timore nostro let a man fear thee never so much he is sure to feel thee much more if once he fall into thy fingers Vers 12. So teach us to number our days The Philosopher affirms that man is therefore the wisest of Creatures Bâ—uâ—a non numerant because he alone can number But in this Divine Arithmetick of numbring our days to the which all other is not to be compared no though we could as Archimedes boasted number the Stars of Heaven or the Sands by the Sea shore God himself must be our Teacher or wee shall never do it to purpose R. Solomon observeth that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rendred So here if taken as numeral letters maketh Seventy and they yeers of our life are seventy out of which say other Rabbines if we deduct the time of Childe-hood and Youth which is vanity the time of sleep repose repast and recreation which is more than the one half and the time of affliction and grief which we enjoy not what a poor pittance will life be reduced unto That we may apply our hearts Heb. That we may cause them to come for naturally they hang off and make strange Vnto Wisdom To the true fear of God and mortification of sin which is the sling of death and makes it a trap-door to hell This is hard to do but must bee done or men are undone for ever To live with dying thoughts is the way to dye with living comforts Vers 13. Let it repent thee Or comfort thou thy servants Vers 14. O satisfie us early As thou didst our Fathers with Manna Vers 15. Make us glad according Let us have a proportion at least Vers 16. Let thy work appear Thy proper work which is to shew mercy for to do Justice is thy work thy strange work Isa 28.21 And thy glory unto their children That they at least may enter into the Land of Canaan according to Numb 14.31 Vers 17. And let the beauty of the Lord c. i.e. The bounty the Italian rendreth it La Giocondita jucunditas Domini sit innos And establish thou the work c. Thus we had all need to pray for Nullius est felix conatus et utilis unquam Consiliam si non detque juvetque Deus PSAL. XCI VErs 1. He that dwelleth in the secret place c. The safety of a Saint is in this whole Psalm Quo nihil neque solidius neque splendidius dici potest set forth to the life Verbis vivis animatis sententiis spiritus fâ—rvore flagrantissimis Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty Under the pleasant and assured defence of God he shall lodge under the shadow of Shaddai and there sing away care and fear Vers 2. I will say of the Lord I dare say it is so as I have said said the Psalmist whom the Jews make to be Moses and I will presently make proof of it in my self Non verbis solum praedicans sed exemplis Some conceive that the Beleever having heard the former Proposition vers 1. is here brought in professing his faith and saying to the Psalmist Behold I dwell in the secret place of the most High and shall I abide under the shadow of the Almighty The Answer follows Vers 3. surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the Fowler i. e. Of the Devil and his Emissaries 2 Tim. 2.26 who by force and fraud seek to
penned by David for private use but for publick Assemblies to be sung by the Congregation on the Sabbath and such like times It may very well be that they began their morning Sacrifice with this Psalm as the Latine Church also afterwards did their Mattens or Morning Service Let us make a joyful noyse With a clear and loud voyce as of a Trumpet singing with grace in our hearts unto the Lord. Vers 2. Let us come before his presence Heb. Prevent his face be there with the first Let us go speedily I will go also Zech. 8.21 Let praise wait for God in Sion Psal 65.1 Rabbi Gaon Praveniamus ante diem judicii Let us make haste saith he to do it before the Day of Judgement and lest we be taken with our task undone Others let us anticipate his face that is prepare our hearts at home before we come into the publick or let us give thanks for mercies already received that we may make way for more With Psalmes Oratione prorsà vorsâ Vers 3. For the Lord is a great God Understand it of Christ as the Apostle also doth Heb. 3. 4. 1 Cor. 10. Above all Gods Whether reputed so or deputed as Kings Vers 4. In his hand are the deep places Heb Searching that is much searched aster but sound to be unsearchable A 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vo'ucris volan in altum R. Solom The strength of the hills Heb. The heights such as will sport a bird to get to the top of them Depths and heights are his Vers 5. The Sea is his c. Canutus confuted his Flatterers who told him that all things in his Dominions were at his beck and check by laying his command on the Sea Hen. Huntingâ—on to come up no higher into his Land but it obeyed him not And his hands formed the dry land Worship him therefore Rev. 4. Vers 6. O come let us worship and fall down With our whole bodies prostrate on the ground Kimchi our hands and feet stretcht out The Jews gesture of adoration at this day is the bowing forward of their bodies for kneeling they use none no more do the Graecians neither stir they their Bonnets in their Synagogues to any man Spec. Eur. but remain still covered The Lord our Maeker Who hath not only created us but advanced us as hee did Moses and Aaron 1 Sam. 12.6 Vers 7. The people of his pasture Whom he turns not out into Commons and Fallows but feeds among Lillies Cant. 2.16 And the sheep of his hand His Cades brought up at hand eating of his meat and drinking of his cup and lying in his bosome as Uriahs Ewe-Lamb did 2 Sam. 12.3 To day if ye will hear his voyce i.e. Whiles the day of grace lasteth which is not long 2 Cor. 6.2 Qui paenitenti veniam spofpondit peccanti crastinum non promisit saith Gregory Vers 8. Harden not your hearts by unbeleef and the deceitfulness of sin Heb. 3.12 13. which gradually obfirmeth the heart against God As in the provocation As your fathers did at Massah and Meribah be not you as good at resisting the Holy Ghost us they were Act. 7.51 Vers 9. When your Fathers tempted mee The times all along the wildernesse Num. 14 2â— though They saw my works Both mercies and judgements Psal 98.8 yet they were refractory and unmalleable Vers 10. Was I grieved Litigavi vel cum taedio pertuli That do erre in their hearts Wandering though not so wide as to misse of Hell They have not known viz. practically and savingly Vers 11. Vnto whom I sware When put past all patience Patientia lasa fit furor If they enter c. This God sweareth cum reticentia to shew how greatly hee was incensed PSAL. XCVI VErs 1. O sing unto the Lord a new song For this new mercy of the Ark now brought into Jerusalem from the house of Obed-Edom I Chron. 16.23 but especially of Christ typified by the Ark who should bee preached unto the Gentiles beleeved on in the World received up to glory I Tim. 3 16â— Sing unto the Lord all the earth Which they could not do aright till they had heard beleeved and were sealed Ephes 1.13 Unbeleevers can have no true notion of God but as of an enemy and therefore all their verball praises are but a black sanct is suitable to such Saints Vers 2. Sing unto the Lord c. David was at this time full of affection and exultation of Sprit insomuch as Michal mocked him for it 1 Chron. 15.29 and thence this heap of holy expressions to the same purpose Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh Shew forth his salvation Evangelize Preach the Gospel of salvation by Christ see Psal 40.10 2 Sam. 18.18 Isa 61.1 where the same word is used Form day to day Other news delights us only at first hearing but the good news of our redemption is sweet from day to day ac si in eodem die redemptio fuisset operata saith Kimchi here as if it were done but to day Tam recens mihi nunc Christus est saith Luther ac si hac horâ fudisset sanguinem Christ is now as fresh unto mee as if he had shed his blood but this very hour Vers 3. Declare his glory Hob. Sâ—pher it up in the particulars that God be no loser by you His wonders among all people There is a world of wonders in the work of mans redemption by Christ and all other mercies meet in this as the lines in the center streams in the fountain Vers 4. For the Lord is great Vere magnus est Christianorum Deus said Calocerius an Heathen he is omni laude major merito mituendus saith David here and elsewhere often Sound out therefore and send abroad his worthy praises the others may hear and fear Vers 5. For all the Gods c. Deunculi deastri Those petty Gods those dunghill-deities of the Heathens are nullities indeed they are Devils and those Idolls were their receptacles and as it were their bodies from whence in some places they gave oracles but were silenced at Christs comming in the flesh to the great amazement of their superstitious worshipers But the Lord made the Heavens With singular artifice Heb. 11.10 Clem. Aleâ— Paid l. 1. c. â—â— using 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every engine of wisdome Vers 6. Honour and Majesty are before him These are his Harbingers and they go often coupled as Psal 21.45.111.145 Job 40. c. By the former seemeth to be meant outward port and splendour by the latter inward reverence and respect following thereupon Strength and beauty are in his sanctuary Gods glory shineth more in his Church than in all the World besides Vers 7. Give unto the Lord See Psal 29.1 2. One rendreth it Tribuite ponderose unde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 onus pondus portate to shew that our praises of God should bee ponderous and substantiall Vers 8. Give
efficiently say the Schools but to evil deficiâ—â—ly sc by with drawing his grace for he is a free Agent and not bound to any David prayeth God to supersede him from his wickedness and Luther saith hee was never tempted to it Vers 37. Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity Lest looking cause liking and lusting 1 Joh. 2.16 In Hebrew the same word signifieth both an Eye and a Fountainâ— to shew that from the eye as from a fountain floweth much mischief and by that window Satan oft windes himself into the soul 2 Sam. 11. â— This David found by experience and therefore prays here Turn away transfer make to pass mine eyes c. Job steppeth one degree further viz. from a Prayer to a Vow Chap. 31.1 yea from a vow to an imprecation vers 7. He knew the danger of irregular glancing and inordinate gazing And quicken thou me in thy way Who shall else dye of the wound in the eye Alexander called the Persian Maids Oculorum delores Ut vidi ut perii The Israelites were appointed to make them Fringes with blew Ribbands to look upon that they might remember all Gods Commandements and do them and not seek after their own heart and their own eyes after which they used to go a whoâ—ing Numb 15. â—9 Vers 38. Stablish thy word unto thy Servant i.e. Make good thy promise wee must by our prayers put the promises of God in 〈◊〉 and God will 〈◊〉 Who is devoted to thy fear And so am an heir of the Promises Or which word is given for the fear of thee that thou maist be feared Vers 39. Turn away my reproach Cover it cure it suffer it not to break forth to my disgrace amongst men For thy Judgements are good But their tender mercies are meer cruelties if therefore at any time I fall into opprobrious and reproachful practices Lord bee thou my Judge and not they for thy Judgements are like thy self good and righteous c. Vers 40. Behold I have longed after thy precepts This he could boldly and safely say to God offering himself to his trial for the truth of his desires See Hebr. 13.18 Quicken me in thy righteousness His desires and affections were not so large and lively but that he needed to be yet further quickned Nemo est ex omni parte beatus Vers 41. Let thy mercies come also unto me Let them come to me or else I shall never come to them 1 Pet. 1.13 Hope to the end for the grace that is to bee brought unto you Psal 23.6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me as the setting Sun doth the way faring man that goes from it The Arabick rendreth it Let thy mercies come upon me or cover me as a garment So the Spirit of the Lord cloathed Amasa 1 Chron. 12. and yee shall bee cloathed with power from on high Luke 24.49 Even thy Salvation Safety here and Salvation hereafter Austin expoundeth it of Christ Vers 42. So shall I have wherewith to answer i.e. To stop an open mouth Verbal Apologies are sometimes necessary but real always wee should by a pious conversation put to silence the ignorance of foolish men who like black Moors despise beauty like Doggs bark at the shining of the Moon We are also to begge deliverance of God for the confutation of such as say wee shall never bee delivered Vers Ne auferas id est ut spolium ut Exod. 12.36 Aben-Ezra 43. And take not the word of truth utterly Give me free utterance that in nothing I be ashamed but that with all boldness as always so now also Christ may be magnified in my body c. Philip. 1.20 Despoyl me not of my courage in a good cause let not Satan rob me of that jewel I have read of a Noble man who when he came into jearing company of great ones would begin and own himself one of those they called Puritans and so prevented them Vers 44. So shall I keep thy Law continually If thou please to give me to beleeve with the heart and to confess with the mouth I shall surely persevere in the profession and practice of the truth Vers 45. And I will walk at liberty In the full latitude of thy Commandements and not by wilful wickedness ensnare and ensnarl my self as those do who in the fulness of their sufficiency are in streights and in pursute of their lusts do pierce themselves through with many sorrows The Italian senseth it I will walk in peace of conscience Vers 46. I will speak of thy testimonies c. Nulle vel terrore vel splendore mundano impeditus Kings commonly abound with all things but only Truth as Alphonsus King of Arragon complained David would deal plainly with them though never so high especially when he should come to be of equal level with them and so to have better opportunity Vers Ethic. l. 10 47. And I will delight my self sc In contemplation of thy Word Aristotle telleth us that the principal pleasure is to be found in contemplation Vers Utrâ—que manu â—apessam 48. My hands also will I lift up c. Removing all rubs and pulling thy Word to me with both hands earnestly with my whole man with my whole might 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 straining the body and stretching out the hands to do mine utmost at it whilst others put it from them with a force and so judge themselves unworthy of everlasting life Acts 13.46 Vers 49. Remember thy Word God is not unrighteous to forget Heb 6.10 yet we must as his remembrancers Isa 62.6 put his Promises in sute Ezek. 36.37 Upon which thou hast caused me to hope God giveth us to do what he hiddeth us to do Ezek. 36.27 Vers 50. This is my comfort The Promises yeeld strong consolation Philosophical comforts are of little force as Plato acknowledgeth In Axiâ—â— and Cicero bewaileth in his Epistle to Octavius For thy Word hath quickned me When I was at last cast and drawing my last breath as it were Vers 51. The proud have had me greatly in derision Sooâ—â—ing proceedeth from pride Prov. 3.34 with 1 Pet. 5.5 Yet have I not c. They cannot flout me out of my zeal Vers 52. I remembred thy judgements of old O Lord This was to have an holy memory well fraught with profitable matter such as are examples of Gods dealing with his people and their enemies in all ages And was comforted Some degree of comfort followeth every good action as heat accompanieth fire as beams and influences issue from the Sun Vers 53. Horrour hath taken hold upon me Horripilatio turbo vortex an horrible tempest Psal 11.6 such as surprised holy Habbaâ—â—uk chap. 3.16 Because of the wicked To think of their hainous sins and horrible punishments which they dread not dream not of See Dan. 4.19 Vers 54. Thy statutes have been my songs Thy Promises which bind thee by Grace as statutes do us by Duty and are every whit as sure
Manl. lecâ— com 78. that for three choice books hee gave thirty thousand silverlings or florens Now what were all his books to the Bible To blame then was that Anabaptist who said in Melancthous hearing that hee would not give two pence for all the Bibles in the World Vers 73 Thy hands have made and fashioned mee Plasmaverunt which Bazil interpreteth of the body curiously wrought by God Psal 139. as Made Formaverunt Firmaverunt of the soul q. d. Thou art my Maker I would thou shouldest bee my Master A body hast thou fitted mee Heb. 10.5 a reasonable soul also hast thou given mee capable of salvation I am an understanding creature still neither have I lost my passive capacity of thy renewing grace Give mee understanding And thereunto adde sincere affection v. 80. that these may run parallel in my heart and mutually transâ—â—se life and vigour into one another Vers 74 They that fear thee will bee glad c. As hoping that they shall also in like sort bee delivered and advanced Because I have hoped in thy word And have not been disappointed The Vulgar rendreth it super speravi I have over-hoped and Aben-Ezra glosseth I have hoped in all thy decree even that of afflicting mee as in the next verse Vers 75 I know O Lord that thy Judgements are right That is that I suffer deservedly To thee O Lord belongeth Righteousness c. Dan. 9. And thâ— thou in faithfulnesse hast afflicted mee That thou mayest be true to my soul and not suffer mee to run on to my utter ruine Or in faithfullnesse that is in measure as 1 Cor. 10.13 Vers 76 Let I pray thee thy mercifull kindnesse That I faint not neither sink under the heaviest burden of these light afflictions According to thy word to thy servant To thy servants in generall and therefore I trust to mee who am bold to thrust in among the rest and to put my name in the Writ Vers 77 Let thy tender mercies come unto mee c. Hee repeateth the same thing in other words and re-enforceth his request showing that hee could not live without divine comforts For thy Law is my delight Thou hast my heart and good will which sheweth that I am thy workmanship in a spirituall sense also Ephes 2.10 Oh look upon the wounds of thine hands and forget not the work of thine hands as Queen Elizabeth prayed Vers 78 Let the proud bee ashamed Theodoret thinks that David here prayeth not against but for his enemies quandoquidem confusio ignominia salutem procreat But that 's not likely For they dealt perversely with mee Writhing my words and deeds to a wrong sense Or they would pervert mee But I will meditate in thy Precepts Or I will speak of them and so stop their mouths and save my self from them Vers 79 Let those that fear thee These are fitly opposed to those proud ones as Mal. 3.13.16 Turn unto mee From whom they have shrunk in mine affliction And those that have known thy Testimonies Deum cognoscere colere to know and serve God is the whole duty of a man saith Lactantius Vers 80 Let my heart bee sound For the main though I have many failings Pray wee against Hypocrisie That I bee not ashamed As all dissemblers once shall bee Vers 81 My soul fainteth for thy salvation Saying as those good souls Jer. 8.20 The Harvest is past the Summer isended and wee are not saved Physitians let their patients blood sometimes etium ad 〈◊〉 deliquiâ—m till they swoon again Howbeit they have a care still to maintain nature so doth God the fainting spirits of his people by cordialls Isa 57.16 But I hope in thy Word Vivere spâ— vidi qui moritur◠〈◊〉 Vers 82 Mine eyes said God sometimes deferreth to help till meâ—â—have left looking Luk. 18.8 when the son of man commeth shall hee find faith hardly This hee doth to commend his favours to us and to set a price on them Saying When wilt thou comfort mee This is a Prosâ—popaia as if Davids eyes said thus whilst they earnestly expected comfort Vers 83 For I am become like a bottle in the smoke Shrivelled wrinkled withered dryed up My body by long suffering is but a bag of bones and that black and sooty confer Psal 32.3 102.3 My soul in danger of being bereft of all spirituall moisture Yet dâ— I not forget thy Statutes Nay I do the rather remember them and fetch relief from them Vers 84 How many are the dayes of thy Servant i.e. Mine evil dayes Prov. 15.15 All the dayes of the afflicted are evill See Psal 37.12 and these soon seem many to us When wilt thou execute Judgement c. This is the voice of those Martyrs Rev. 6. who are thereupon willed to have patience till the number of their Brethren is fulfilled Vers 85 The proud have digged pits for mee The pride cruelty and craftiness of wicked Persecutors are fore-tokens of their utter destruction The Greek rendreth it they have told mee tales Prov. 16.27 An ungodly man diggeth up evill Which are not after thy Law Neither they nor their pits But what care they for thee or thy law and shall they thus escape by iniquity Psal 56.7 Vers 86. All thy Commandements are faithfull Heb. Faithfullness that is they are true sure equall infallible They have persecuted mee wrongfully For asserting thy truths and adhering thereunto Help thou mee The more eagerly men molest us the more earnestly should wee implore the divine help Vers 87 They had almost consumed mee upon earth In Heaven I shall bee out of their reach But this is their hour and the power of darknesse Luk. 22.53 But I forsook not thy Precepts No trouble must pull us from the love of the truth You may pull my tongue out of my head but not my faith out of my heart said that Martyr The Saints chuse affliction father than sin Vers 88 Quicken mee after thy loving kindnesse David under long affliction had his damps and dulnesses as the best faith if long tryed will flag and hang the wing Hee therefore rouseth up himself and wrestleth with God for quickening grace which hee promiseth to improve and not to receive the grace of God in vain so shall I keep the Testimony of thy mouth Vers 89 For ever O Lord thy word It is eternall and perpetuall neither can it bee vacated or abolished by the injurie of time or indeavours of tyrants The Bible was imprinted at the new Jerusalem by the finger of Jehovah and shall outlive the dayes of Heaven run parallel with the life of God with the line of eternity The Saints also and Angels in Heaven live by the same law as wee do here and we pray to bee conformed unto them Vers 90 Thy faithfullnesse is unto all generations Hee singleth out Gods word of promise and sheweth it to bee immutable and unmoveable as the earth is in the middle of Heaven by the word of Gods power See
the rod into his own hand I could better beare it but the tender mercies of that wicked one and his imps are meer cruelties For 1. this is as if the child should say If I might choose my rod I would not care to be whipt or the condemned Noble-man If I might chuse mine executioner I would not care to lose mine head 2. It is but one hand and many instruments that God smiteth us with Our enemies are but the men of Gods hand Psal 17.14 that can do no more then is given them from above John â—9 â—â— Gods Masons to hew us here in the Mount that we may be as the polished corners of the Temple Psal 144.12 Gods scullions to scowre up the vessels of his houshold that they may shine upon the celestiall shelf as that Martyr said 3. God ever reserveth to himself the royaltie of setting them their task limiting them their time and letting out their â—edder hitherto ye shall go and no further 4. If they exceed their commission as they are apt Gods jealousie will smoke against them Zech. 1.14 But save his life Heb. his soule put oft for the life the cause for the effect Satan shook his chain at Jobs soul and would have destroyed it but that he might not do scratch him he might with his pawes but not fasten his fangs in him Job could say for a season at least as that dying Saint did My body is weak my soul is well His afflictions as afterwards St. Pauls reached but to his flesh Col. 1.24 And see that thou save his life too saith God see how he chaineth up the divel who would faine have been sucking Jobs blood and swallowing him down his wide gullet Isa 57.16 1 Pet. 5.8 Save it that is spare it see that the Spirit faile not before me and the soul that I have made I have yet some further use of him though a lamentable Lazar. Gal. 4.13 14. You know how through infirmity of the flesh that is notwithstanding the infirmity and weaknesse of my body I preached the Gospel saith Paul and my temptation which was in my flesh you despised not Daniel though sick yet did the Kings businesse and Job though scabbed all over was yet of great use and reserved to great honour therefore Save his life saith God and the divel say the Rabbines was as much vexed and wounded with this restraint as Job was with all his wounds and ulcers It is surely a vexation to malice not to do its utmost Verse 7. So went Satan forth from the presence of the Lord The like is said of Cain when he meditated the murder of his innocent brother and went to put it in practice Malefactors amongst us we know are indited in this form For that thou not having God before thine eyes but moved by the instigation of the divel didst And smote Job He pretended to touch him only verse 5. but let every good man blesse himself out of Satans bloody fingers his iron entred into Josephs soule his stroke was very vehement upon Jobs body making totum pro vulnere corpus For he smote Job With sore boiles hot boyling boyles such as the Sorcerers of Egypt were smitten with Exod. 9.10 and afterwards the limbs of Antichrist Rev. 16.2 The Indian scab some say it was or the French disease a most filthy and odious ulcer it appeareth to have been sore and mattery why else should he so scrape himselfe with a potsheard as verse 8. such as whose sharp and pricking humour penetrated the very bone and put him to exquisite paine being worse to him then Augustus his tres vomicae briae carcinomata above-mentioned or Philip the second of Spain his loathsome and lousie disease whereof he died Anno 1598. Instit princip cap. 20. Carolus Scribanius thus describeth it This potent Prince for a long time endured ulcerum magnitudinem multitudinem acerbitatem foetorem c. i. e. Many great sharp and stinking ulcers which fastned him to his bed as to a crosse for a whole yeare before his death besides six years torture by the Gout an hectick fever with a double tertian for two yeers space feeding upon his bowels and the very marrow of his bones besides a most grievous flux for two and twenty dayes a continual nauseousnesse of his stomack an unsatisfiable thirst a continuall paine of his head and eyes abundance of matter working out of his ulcets quae binas indies scutellas divite paedore impleret besides a most loathsome stench that took away his sleep c. Alsted Chron. pag. 314. thus he Think the same and worse of Job the object of Satans utmost malice and that for a whole year say the Hebrewes for seven whole years saith Suidas chrysost de Laz. Chrysostome compareth him with Lazarus and maketh him to be in a farre worse condition Pineda sheweth that his sufferings were a great deal worse then those of the wicked Egyptians under all their ten plagues this was a boile an evil boile saith the text one of the worst sort the most painful and malignant that might be and this all over his body From the sole of the feet unto his crown It was all but one continued sore universall as the leprosie and therefore incurable threatned as an utmost plague an evil an only evil Dâ—ut 28.35 If any part were left untouched it was his tongue and mouth that it might be free to blaspheme God and that herein he was not smitten by Satan some have observed from chap. 19.20 I am escaped with the skin of my teeth having no sores there as I have all the rest of my body over Verse 8. And he took him a pot sheard a piece of a broken pot for want of better oyntments he had none nor baths to lenifie his sorenesse Physicians and friends were farre from him He looked on his right hand and beheld Psal 14.2.4 Beza but there was no man that would know him refuge failed and perished from him no man cared for his soule He had still a wife and servants and as some think his houshold-stuffe left him He should therefore by them have been helped but they helped on his misery jeering him and jesting at him as he afterwards complaineth Himself therefore in this necessity taketh a potsheard a piece of an earthen-pot thereby to mind himself saith Gregory that he was of the earth earthy For which cause also He sate down among the ashes or dust as repenting in dust and ashes chap. 42.6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So Jonah 3.6 Matth. 11.22 The Septuagint say that he sat upon the dirt or dung for want of a better cushion and that he was laid without the City as if for the stink and ill savour that came from him he was not suffered to be in the City as Vzziah afterwards being a Leper dwelt in a house by himself alone 2 Chron. 26.21 Disce hîc si aegrotas saith Lanater Learn here if thou be
to provoke him to wrath A heavy curse indeed Vers 16. Because that he remembred not to show mercy Here the Prophet beginneth to shew why he useth such doleful imprecations against his enemies viz. not out of a spirit of revenge or a false zeal but as truly seeking Gods glory and his Churches safety which could not other wise be procured unless these merciless men were devoted to destruction He remembred not that is de industria oblitus est omisit he forgot and neglected it for the nonce Vers 17. At he loved cursing c. The back-slider in heart shall he filled with his own Wayes Prov. 14.14 Cursing men are cursed men as were easie to instance in sundry as Hacket hanged in Q. Elizabeths Reign and Sir Jervase Ellowaies Lieutenant of the Tower in K. James his dayes according to their own wishes See Mr. Clarks Mirror p. 210 c. The Jews are still great cursers of Christians they shut up their daily prayers with Maledic Domine Nazaraek and how it cometh home to them who knoweth not even wrath to the utmost I Thess 2.16 Vers 18. As he cloathed himself with cursing as with his garment Ut vestis commensâ—rata corpori as the inner garment that sticks closest to the body and is not done off but with much ado as he hath wrapped and trussed up himself in cursing So let in come into his bowels like water Let him have his belly full of it and his bones full too And like ey Which easily soaketh through See Nam 5.22 Vers 19. Let it be unto him as a garment Not as an inner but outer garment also Actio merces that men may see and say This it an accursed person the visible vengeance of God pursueth him Vers 20. Let this be the reward Opus vel Oper a precium The same Hebrew word signifieth Work and Wages Job 7.2 Isa 49.4 persecutors shall be sure of their payment Vers 21. But do thou for me Fas mecum sis mibi à latere stick to me act on my behalf and for my behoof Vers 22. For I am poor and needy As a Lazar sheweth his ulcers to move pity so doth David his indigency and aylements And my heart is wounden I have mine inward troubles also or I am cordicisus vulneratus almost dead animam age Vers 23. I am gone like the shadow Abii perii evenui I vanish as the long shadows do so soon as the Sun setteth As the Locust Leapeth from hedge to hedge so do I from place to place being tossed from post to pillar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I Cor. 4. Vers 24. My knees are weak through fasting Either for lack of meat or stomach to it genua laâ—am my knees buckle under me the strong men bow themselves Eccles 12.3 My flesh faileth of fatness I am lean and low brought Christ might well cry out My â—â—aâ—â—ess my leanness so busie he was for his Father and so worn out that they judged him well nigh fifty when he was not much above thirty Job 8.57 Vers 25. I become also a reproach In respect of my leanness They shaked their beads This is threatned as a curse Deut. 28. but may befall the best as it did our Saviour Psal 22. Mat. 27. Vers 26. Help me O Lord Prayer like those arrows of deliverance must be multiplied as out trouble is lengthned and lyeth on Vers 27. That they may know That I am delivered meerly by thy presence and power It is the ingenuity of the Saints in all their desired or expected mercies to study Gods ends more than their own Vers 28. Let them curse but bless thou Yea the rather as a Sam. 16.12 and I wot well that those whom thou blessest shall be blessed as Isaac once said of his son Jacob Gen. 27.33 When they arise To plead their own cause cousa extidant Vers 29. As with a mantle Sicut diploide saith the Vulgar as with a doublet q.d. Let them be double ashamed for which purpose also he here doubleth his prayer Vers 30. I will greatly praise the Lord Diligenter impense Gods blessings are binders and great deliverances call for suitable praises the neglect hereof is crimen stellionatus cousenage Vers 31. For he shall stand at the right hand As a saithful and powerful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Champion and not as Satan standeth at the persecutors right hand vers 6. From those that condemn him Heb. From the judges of his soul sc Saul and his Courtiers who judged him worthy of death PSAL. CX A Psalm of David Concerning Christ saith R. Obadiah and so say Christ himself Mat. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost and his Apostles I Cor. 15. Heb. 7. 10. though some Rabbines maliciously say otherwise as R. Joseph caâ—us qui bic caeâ—liâ— to say the best of him and other Jew Doctors who stagger here in their expositions as drunkards Vers 1. The Lord said unto my Lord In this one verse we have a description of Christs person his ware and his victory so that we may say of it and so indeed of the whole Psalm which is an Epitome of the Gospel as Tully did of Bruâ—as his Laconical Epistle Quà m multa quà m pancis How much in a little See the Note on Mat. 22.44 Sit thou at my right hand Sit thou with me in my Thronâ— having power over all things in heaven and earth Matth. 28. Christ as man received what as God hee had before Vntil I make thine enemies thy footseel Foes Christ hath ever had and shall have to the worlds end but then they shall be all in a place fittest for them viz. under Christs feet even those who now seâ— up their Crests face the heavens and say unto the King Aposâ—â—â—t◠〈◊〉 it 〈◊〉 with him Vers 2. The Lord shall send the Roâ—of thy strength That is the Gospel that Scepter of Christs Kingdome that power of God to salvation unto as many as beleeve mighty through God to work 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 10.5 Act. 20.31 even the preaching of Christs cross Out of Sin For salvation in of the 〈◊〉 Job 4. 〈◊〉 lem till c. Act. 1. Rule thou it the midst of thinâ— enemies Among Jews Pagans Turks Papagaâ—s those that will not bend let them break those that will not stoop to thy Government let them feel thy power Psal 45.5 Vers 3. Thy people shall be willing All Christs subjects are Volunteers free-hearted In Psal 1. like those Isles that wait for Gods Law Isa 42.8 Zech. 8.11 They love to be his servants Isa 56.6 Lex voluntaries quaerit saith Ambrose In the day of thy power Copiarum tuarum of thine Army or of thy Militia when thou shalt lead on thy Church Militant and be in the head of them conquering and to conquer Rev. 6.2 Some understand it of the Christian Sabbath day In the beauties of holiness i.e. In Church assemblies in the beauty of holy Ordinances at the