26. Et De quo loquitur Propheta vel populus fidelis And in this place may be asked in the Eunuch's words Of whom here speaks the Prophet either of himself or of some other Not of himself alone saith Cassianus an old Christian Writer but in behalf of all Gods children of his faithful servants The Books of Psalms is so composed saith Athanasius that every man may read his own Story in them and find therein his own particular concernments and that as punctually as if the purpose of the Psalm had been addressed and fitted only unto his occasions Let it be so and then Who may not find the quality of our late afflictions and our deliverance together in this present Psalm and read the state of our affairs in the Story of David and then draw down an easie and familiar parallel betwixt the Persons and the mercies and the places too A parallel right worthy of the pen of Plutarch if any such were found amongst us but such as seems to have been done in part already by laying before you David's troubles and his great deliverance And therefore passing by those things which apply themselves and those in which the Story of both Princes seems to make but one we will observe the method which is used by Plutarch in laying down the points in which they differ or those wherein one party seems to have preheminence above the other 27. First then It may be truly said of our English David as Commodus not without vain-glory did affirm of himself Quem Primum Sol Principem hominem vidit that he was born a Prince and that the Sun did never otherwise behold him then as Heir to a Kingdom Which cannot be affirmed of David nor of David's Ancestors though all of them might live in expectation of obtaining that Scepter which had been promised to that Tribe in the person of Iudah And as his Birth was higher so his Fall was lower and his afflictions so much greater and the more insupportable because he was more tenderly bred and less able to bear them Nay they were greater in themselves then the heavyest sorrows that ever fell upon David in the time of his troubles who kept himself most commonly unto those retreats which his own Countrey did afford him and when he was compelled to retire to Moab or to sojourn in the Realm of Gath neither Saul's malice nor his power did pursue him there But so it was not in the case of our Royal Exile Driven out of all the Forts and Cities of his own Dominions by the power of his Enemies and by their practises not suffered to remain in France nor to be entertained in Holland compelled to shift from one Imperial City to another from the Higher to the Lower Germany but pursued in all seldom nor never free from their trains and treacheries who would not think themselves secure but in his destruction Sic aquilam fugiunt trepidae Columbae Never was Patridge flown at with a swifter wing by a well-train'd Falcon nor game more hotly followed by the fiercest Hounds than this poor Prince was chased by those mighty Hunters those Nimrods those Robusti Venatores as the Scripture calls them who had the building of that Babel which they raised amongst us They had their cunning Lime-hounds to draw Dry-foot after him and plyed the chase with all the Kennil at his Heels when the Hunt was up not with a purpose to call off when they had breathed their Horses or tryed their Dogs but with a merciless retreat to hunt him down and then to wash their cruel and accursed hands in his precious bloud as is accustomed in the fall of a Buck of Stagg 28. And as the dangers which accompanyed our English David were more transcendent in respect of his Sacred Person so were they far more grievous to him in respect of his party whose tears he put into his bottles whose stripes he bare on his own body and whose calamities did more afflict his righteous Soul then his own misfortunes And if we look upon his Party with an equal eye we shall soon find them to have suffered more and far heavier pressures in his cause and quarrel then all the Hebrew Nations did for the sake of David We read indeed of 85. Priests slaughtered by the cruelty and command of Saul But we may read of more than twenty times that number of our Regular Clergy all the Bishops Deans and Dignitaries and almost all the Heads of Houses imprisoned plundered sequestred ejected their wives and children miserably turn'd out of doors some of them left for dead in the open streets And why all this but for adhering to his Majesty and his Fathers house and to the Laws and the Religion here established and for no crime else But then again we do not read of any man of quality in the Tribes of Israel condemned and executed or otherwise deprived of Lands and Liberties for his well wishing unto David Amongst us nothing was more common than the imprisoning of our choisest and most able Gentry selling the Goods confiscating the Lands and calling those in question for their very lives whose known fidelity was imputed to them for their only crime For now we had attained to that height of wretchedness that Loyalty must pass for Treason and Treason must be Unicum eorum crimen quivacabant crimine as in the worst and most deplorable condition of the Roman Empire And thereupon it was concluded in the School of Tyrannus that they who were so prodigal of their Money Arms and Victuals to another man especially to one marked out for ruine by their mighty Masters should have no bread to feed their Families or money to maintain themselves or other Arms but Prayers and Tears to save them from the violence of unjust Oppression even from Death it self 29. Besides it might be some alleviation unto David's followers to suffer by the hands of a lawful King a King set over them by God by the Lord himself whose Power they were not to resist whose Person was too Sacred and his Authority too transcendent to be called in question But it must be a torment unexpressible to a generous spirit to be trode underfoot by an Adoni-bezek to have their lives and Vineyards taken from them at the will of an Ahab to see the Bramble Reign as King over all the Trees our tallest Oakes felled down by a shrub of yesterday and all the goodly Cedars of the Church grubbed up to make room for a stinking Elder 30. In the next place as the calamities which fell upon our English David and his faithful followers were more in number and more grievous then all those which had been suffered by the other so was the kindness of the Lord more marvellous in his preservation the hand of God more visible in his Restitution And first the kindness was more marvellous in his Preservation because we do not find that David ever hazarded his own
Israel till all Sauls sons were hanged in Gibeah before the Lord of which the Scripture speaks in the second of Samuel chap. 22. So that we may declare in favour of the first opinion that the great kindness so much magnified by the Royal Psalmist relates to his deliverance from the house of Saul when he was setled in Ierusalem and reigned in peace and glory over all the Tribes In which estate he sung this Benedictus to the Lord his God that is to say Benedictus Dominus Blessed be the Lord for he hath shewed me his marvellous kindness in a strong City 3. The Text it self contains in it these two general Parts God's Mercy David's Thankfulness God's mercy unto David in that great deliverance and David's thankfulness unto God for so great a Mercy In the first General God's Mercy we have these particulars The Subject of it first and that was David David the King the Lord 's Anointed one chosen by the Lord out of all his Family to be the blessing of his Tribe and the Prince of his People Mirificavit mihi He hath shewed to me 2ly The condition extent thereof as being not only called a kindness a great kindness too in our old Translation but misericordia mirabilis a marvellous great kindness a kindness which had very much of a Miracle in it 3 ly The Author or the Donor of it Misericordia sua His kindness or the Lord 's own kindness And lastly On what Theatre or Stage this marvellous kindness of the Lord was acted in Civitate munita in a strong City Over all which I mean to draw so thin a veil that under it we may behold the face of our own affairs but helped by some reflections from the Glass of Scripture and some comparisons of the Copy with the old Original In the next General David's Thankfulness we shall observe the Retribution which he made to the Lord his God for such multiplyed mercies whether it were expressed in his words or actions And then the duties of the Day will come in of course as the Conclusion followeth on the Premises in a well-formed Syllogism I begin therefore with the first General God's mercy unto David in that great deliverance and therein first of all with the Subject of it David the King the Lord 's Anointed the Author of this Psalm and the argument of it 4. Expertâ morbi molestiâ evidentior fit jucunditas Sanitatis as St. Austin hath it None can so rightly estimate the benefit of a perfect health as he who hath been long oppressed with a languishing sickness Contraries set together do most perfectly illustrate and express each other If therefore we would know how great God's kindness was to David in the time of his Glories we must a little look upon him in his fall in his lowest fortunes his wanderings in the vale of misery or rather in the Valley of the shadow of Death as his own words are A misery which fell upon him when he least looked for it when he conceived himself most happy and on the steps of his Ascendent to the Throne of Israel Anointed privately by Samuel in his Father's House and by that art designed for the next King of the House of Iacob Of great esteem amongst the people for taking up their quarrel against Goliah when all men else fell off and refused the combate Amongst the Priests as men that had some secret notice of the designation or otherwise beheld him as a man replenished with the Spirit of God Amongst the Courtiers as a Prince of the Royal Family in being married unto Michâ—l his Master's Daughter Amongst the Military men for his singular valour made known in many fortunate skirmishes against the Philistims two hundred of whose fore-skins he brought back with him for a sign of his Victory And finally amongst the Damosels or Ladyes of Israel for his personal gallantry who playing on their Musical Instruments did use to answer one another saying That Saul had slain his Thousands and David his Ten Thousands 5. But Eminentis fortunae comes est invidia said the Court-Historian This general applause and those publique honours made him a fit subject for as great an envy and drew upon him the displeasure of that mighty Tyrant who looked not only on him as his Rival in pursuit of glory but a competitor with the Princes of the house of Kish for the Regal Diadem And being once possessed with these fears and jealousies he thinks of nothing but to bring him to a swift destruction and to that end incenseth all his servants to conspire against him reproves his daughter for not betraying her husband to his rage and fury and darts a Javelin at his own son Ionathan for daring to affect the man whom his father hated No safety being to be found for David in or neer the Court he must be take himself to places more remote and private and in his flight obtains both Arms and Victuals from Abimelech being at that time the High Priest of the Iewish Nation For which small courtesie Abimelech himself and more then fourscore of the Priests such as did wear a linnen Ephod as the Text informs us were miserably slaughtered by the hands of Doeg a malitious Sycophant their City sacked their Wives and Children smitten with the edge of the Sword their Sheep their Oxen and their Asses together with the rest of their goods and substance given over for a prey to their Barbarous Enemies Poor David in the mean time had retired to Akish the King of Gath and consequently the old Enemy of his native Countrey where he could promise to himself no great hopes of safety considering those many sorrows and that foul dishonour he had wrought unto them in the death of their Champion 6. I should both tire my self and afflict your patience if I should lead him back again to the land of Iudah follow him there in all his wanderings from thence wait upon him to the Court of Moab where he was forced to leave his Parents that he might save them from the fury of the present Army And he might rather choose to leave them in that Countrey then in any other by reason of his Descent from Ruth a Moabitish woman as the Scripture tells us and therefore like to find some favour amongst those of her kindred But look upon him where we will either in the cave of Adullam the wilderness of Ziph the Desarts of Mahum or the Rocks and Mountains of Engeddi Inter Serpentes aprosque avidâ—sque Leones and we shall find him no where safe from the hand of his Enemies as long as he continued in the Realm of Israel The Keylites whom he had redeemed from the power of the Philistims resolved to have betrayed him to the malice of Saul had he not been fore-warned by God of their ill intentions The men of Ziph more savage then the wild Beasts in
all those Desarts had entertained the like design but were as happily prevented as the treacherous Keylites Nabal the churl whose flocks had been protected by him from all Thieves and Robbers refused to gratifie him with some part of that superfluity which was provided for his Sheerers And though his Brethren and some few of his next Relations had repaired unto him yet generally his friends and kindred look upon him as a man forlorn whom they could neither privately supply without manifest danger nor openly relieve without certain ruine 7. And yet he was not so deserted but that some companies resorted to him from all parts of the Realm either to mend their own condition or to sweeten his Not altogether men of such desperate fortunes as Nabal the old churl reported and perhaps believed Some of them questionless might be persons no less eminent both for place and quality as for their good affections to him though generally they were as the Scripture telleth us either is debt or discontent or some great distress that is to say such as were either discontented with the Tyranny of the present Government or were indebted to some cruel and unmerciful creditors from whom they could expect no favour and as little Justice or in a word were otherwise distressed upon some suspition that they were wedded to the Interest of the son of Iess The taking of these few Volunteers for a guard to his person is publiquely declared to be the Levying of a War against the King and all the Forces of the Realm must be forthwith armed to suppress those men who were not able to withstand the twelfth part of a Tribe This drives him once again to the Court of Akish where he found better entertainment then he did before because he came accompanyed with a Train of couragious followers from whom the Barbarous King assured himself of no mean assistance in his next Wars against his Neighbours without excepting those of the house of Israel 8. But now the Tide begins to turn and a strong floud of mercies of flow in upon him As there is no deep Valley but neer some high Mountain so neer unto this Vale of Misery was a Hill of Mercy and we shall see him climb the top of it without any great difficulty Akish beholds him as a person so depressed and injured by the power of Saul that no reconciliation could be made between them and thereupon bestows upon him the strong Town of Ziglag to serve for him and his adherents as a City of Refuge to which his party might resort upon all occasions And for his better welcome thither the news of Saul's uncomfortable but unpittied death is swiftly posted to him on the wing of Fame which opened the first passage to him for the Crown of Israel For now there dayly came unto him many men of note and merit whose names are on record in the Book of Chronicles affirmed there to be mighty men experienced in the use of Arms Captains of Hundreds and of Thousands and such as seemed to carry Victory in their very countenances And they came thither in such numbers as they made up a great Host like the Host of God as the Scripture calls it that is to say a puissant and mighty Army fit for the undertaking of the noblest actions By whose incouragement but chiefly at the instigation of the men of Iudah who had repaired to Ziglag amongst the rest he goes up to Hebron the Principal City of that Tribe having first taken Gods direction commission with him There he is cheerfully received and anointed King King only over Iudah his own native Tribe the rest of Israel still adhering to the house of Saul For Abner Captain of Saul's Host and one as neer to him in bloud as in place and power had gained so far upon the Military men that they agreed to set the Crown upon the head of Ishbosheth the eldest of Saul's Sons which survived his Father And this he did not on design to divide the Kingdom to break it into two and set up Scepter against Scepter as Ieroboam and on the death of Solomon but with a purpose to compel the men of Iudah by force of Arms to cast off David to unite themselves to the rest of Israel and all together to be subject to a Prince of the house of Saul A Prince indeed of no great parts affirmed to be a person of a dull and unactive spirit more given to ease and pleasures then to deeds of Arms magis extra vitia quam cum virtutibus in the words of Tacitus but fit enough to bear the Title of a King whilest Abner and the Souldiers managed all affairs as to them seems best 9. This brings new troubles upon David though they held not long A breach is made between the new King and that great Commander Who being impatient of rebuke and netled with some words which escaped his Master resolves upon delivering the whose Kingdom to the hands of David to which end he maintains a Treaty with him and concludes the business But before all things could be setled the Titulary King is murthered by the two sons of Rimmon both of them Captains in his Army both Natives of the Tribe of Benjamin his Fathers Tribe and possibly both of them of some kindred and relation to him This puts an end unto the war the west of Israel seconding the Tribe of Iudah and altogether calling upon David to accept the Government To which end they annoynt him the third time and own him by that Sacred Ceremony for their Soveraign Prince And such as Prince as must have somewhat in him of the Priest and the Prophet also For Rex est mixta persona cum Sacerdote as our Lawyers tels us and capable on that account of the Sacred Unction if some of our Masters of the Ceremonies have not been mistaken But so it was that those of Benjamin could not so easily forget their late pretentions to the Crown of Israel which they had held successively under two great Princes and therefore came not up to Hebron with the rest of the Tribes to confer the Kingdom upon David but to obtain it for themselves as Iosephus telleth us A secret not to be concealed from David a discerning Prince and one that was well studied in his own concernments Who therefore to cut off their hopes and prevent their practises resolves to get into his hands the strong City of Sion Which standing in a corner of the Tribe of Benjamin might serve for a sufficient bridle to hold them in if they should practise any thing against his quiet for the time to come And being afterward inlarged at the charge of David by taking in the City of Salim and building all from Millo inward as the Scripture telleth us he caused it to be called Hierusalem peopled it with such Families as he might confide in and made
Idols made a colour for committing Sacriledge such Sacriledges too as seldom or never had been heard of amongst the Gentiles Pictures and Images in Church-windows retained for Ornaments till this day in the Lutheran Churches defaced on purpose for the ostentation of a swifter Zeal than could keep company with Knowledge But in the mean time such a worshipping of Imaginations advanced and countenanced as seemed no less destructive to all Christian Piety than the worship of Images and in a word all the exploded Heresies of the elder times revived and justified without reproach to them that did it to the displeasure of Almighty God the dishonour of the Church the grief of all good men and the shame of the Nation Nor did we speed much better in our Civil Rights in reference to that liberty and property which seems peculiar in a manner to the English Subjects Quocunque aspiceres luctus gemitus que sonabant in the Poets language No news in any of our Streets but that of leading men into fresh captivity nor Musick to be heard in our private Houses but the sighs groans and cries of afflicted people who either suffered in themselves or their friends and kindred Our persons haled unto the prisons and our heads to the block our children born to bondage and brought up to servitude our goods taken from us and exposed to sale all our Lands either held in villenage or which was worse ad voluntatem Domini during the will and pleasure only of our mighty Landlords Such a confusion in the City such spoils and rapines in the Countrey and such oppressions in all places under their command that greater miseries never fell upon God's own people in those wretched times in which there was no King in Israel 46. To put an end to which misfortunes God brings the King unto his Throne as upon this day and brings him to his Throne after such a manner as makes it seem all-miracle in the eyes of Christendom When first like Noah's Dove in the book of Genesis he left the Ark of his retreat and preservation that he might trie whether the waters were asswaged from the face of the earth he found no resting place for the soles of his feet but when he took his second flight and came next amongst us and brought an Olive leaf in his mouth to be a Pledge of Peace and Reconciliation betwixt him and his people he made his coming most agreeable to those very men who before most feared it A coming so agreeable to all sorts of people that never King was entertained with more signs of joy or welcomed with a greater concourse of his faithful Subjects all of them with Te Deum in their mouths and the Magnificat in their hearts old women being as busie at their Benedicite's in their dark retreats as Children were at Hosanna's in the wayes and fields The mountains skippe like Raws and the little hils like young Sheep as he passed along the Trees bowed down their heads to salute their King and the glad earth rejoyced to become his footstool But when he came within the view of the Royal City Good God! what infinite throngs of people did run out to see him With what a gallant equipage did the Nobility and Gentry set forth to meet him Never did England see it self so glorious as upon that day nor old Rome so magnificent in her stateliest Triumphs as our great City then appeared in the eyes of those who flocked from all parts of the Kingdom in such infinite numbers that London could no more be called the abstract or epitome of the Realm of England but the Realm it self 47. Incouraged with which general Welcome he hath received here here in this Church he hath received his last Anoynting to the great joy of all his true and faithful Subjects who once again repaired to our Capital City but in greater multitudes that by their quality numbers and external Gallantry they might express their good affections and add some new Lustre to the accustomed Pomp and Splendour of the Coronation The Pomp and Splendour of which day is not to be described by a readier pen than I am able to pretend to nor to be equalled by any other in the times preceding but only by the glorious day of the Kings Reduction of which we may affirm with the Court Historian though with no such flattery Laâ—itiam illius diei consursum totius civitatis 〈◊〉 pene inferentiâ—m coelo mâ—â—is c. What pen is able to express the Triumphs of those two great dayes when all the bravery of the Nation seemed to be powred into the City and the whole City emptied into some few streets the windows in those streets to be glased with eyes the houses in a maner to be tyled with men and all the people in the streets the windowes and the house tops also ingeminating and regeminating this most joyful acclamation God save the King 48. For which great mercies and the rest of this glorious day let us sing our Benedictus also to the Lord our God Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for he hath visited and redeemed his people and hath raised up a mighty salvation for us in the house of his servant David To which Immortal and Invisible God the Almighty Father and to the Honorable true and only Son the Lamb that sits upon the Throne and to the Holy Ghost the Comforter Let us ascribe as we are bound all Majesty Might Praise Power and Glory from this time forth for ever more And let all the people say Amen THE END a Prov. 15. 23 2 Sam. 20. 1. 2 Sam. 16. 5. 1 Sam. 16. 13. 1 Sam. 17. 24. 1 Sam. 28. 28. 1 Sam. 18. 27. 1 Sam. 18. 1 Sam. 19. 1 Sam. 19. 1. 1 Sam. 20. 33. 1 Sam. 21. 6 9. 1 Sam. 22. 18 c. 1 1 Sam. 21. 10. 1 Sam. 22. 3. 1 Sam. 23. 1 Sam. 23. 20. 1 Sam. 25. 11. 1 Sam. 22. 1. 1 Sam. 27. 2. 1 Sam. 22. 2. 1 Sam. 29. 8. 1 Sam. 27. 2. 1 Sam. 27. 6. 1 Chr. 12. 1 c. 1 Chr. 12. 22. 2 Sam. 2. 1 4. 1 Sam. 14. 50. 2 Sam. 2. 8 9. 2 Sam. 3. 8. 2 Sam. 4. 2. Antiq. Iud. lib. 7. cap. 2. August in Confes lib. 8. cap. 2. 1 Sam. 23 6. ☞ Muscul. in Psal. 31. Psal. 127. 1. Origen in Rom cap. 9. Horat. Aâ—iq Iud ic 〈◊〉 7. chap 3. loseph de â—ello Iud. lib. 7. c. 17. Id. ibid. Athanas. in Epist ad Mar. in Tom. 3. Virgil. Aencid 1 King 18. 44. Tacit. Hist li. 2. Vellei 〈◊〉 Hist. l. 2. Antiq. Iudaic. lib. 7. chap. 10. Aug Conf. lib. 10. ch 23. Id. ibid. Dan. 3. 5.