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LV. 19 Because they have no changes, therefore they fear not God.

Because their prosperity continues, and they find no change of their estate, no interposition of crosses and troubles, therefore their hearts are hardened against that God, by whom they are insensibly blessed; neither do they stand in awe of that hand of justice, whose smart they have never felt.

LVI. 3 What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.

Howsoever, such as my weakness is, I cannot but be overtaken with some fear; yet my fear shall never transport me from my trust and confidence in thee; but in the midst of that my natural timorousness, I will cast myself upon thee, and repose my heart upon thy mercy.

LVI. 8 Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle are they not in thy book?

O God, thou takest full notice of all the persecutions, that I have undergone; thou notest every step of my long and forced wanderings: oh let not any of those tears which I shed, be spilt in the dust; keep thou them, as most precious liquor, in thy bottle: yea, Lord, thou hast done it already; thy favour hath prevented me; thou hast set down the number of all my tears, in thy book of everlasting record.

LVII. 4 My soul is among lions: and I lie even among them that are set on fire, even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongues a sharp sword.

O Lord, I am beset with cruel and bloody enemies, whose hearts are inflamed with deadly malice against me; even men given over to wickedness; whose mouths are full of mischievous slanders and reproaches, wherewith they endeavour to wound me to the death.

LVII. 7 My heart is fixed, O God (or, prepared), my heart is fired: I will sing and give praise.

O God, I do not suddenly and abruptly break forth into these praises of thy name, as a thing not before thought of, but I have seriously digested in my soul these my hearty thanksgivings unto

thee.

LVII. 8 Awake up, my glory; &c.

And therefore, O thou my tongue, which is the only instrument wherewith I can express the glory of my God, be thou stirred up cheerfully to utter the praises of my gracious deliverer.

LVIII. 2 Ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth. Instead of balancing all things by justice, ye weigh them according to the violence of your own passions: that measure, which may satisfy your malice, and no other, is held sufficient.

LVIII. 3 The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born.

Neither is this any sudden surprisal with evil, but it is a long con

tinued habit of wickedness: their disposition hath been perverse and malicious, even from their infancy; and so they still continue, proceeding from evil to worse.

LVIII. 4, 5 Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear; Which will not hearken to the voice of the charmer, charm he never so wisely.

My enemies, O Lord, are like unto serpents, and their malice like unto deadly poison: yet are they not like every serpent; some there are, which are not so crafty, and whose poison is not so deadly; but my enemies are like the asp or adder, whose venom killeth speedily; and, which beside is so subtle, that laying one ear to the earth, and stopping the other with his tail, he eludeth all the power of whatsoever incantation: so do these enemies of mine; no wholesome and holy advice can possibly fasten upon them; no threats of judgments can beat them off from their intended mischiefs.

LVIII. 9 Before your pots can feel the thorns, he shall take them away as with a whirlwind, both living, and in his wrath.

Let their dispatch be quick and sudden; even before the pot can boil with a fire of dry thorns put under it, let them be consumed : yea, God shall fetch them furiously away, as in a whirlwind; swifter than thought, in the midst of their life and the height of their strength, but in the extremity of his wrath.

LIX. 5 Be not merciful to any wicked transgressors.

Thou seest, O God, that these agents of Saul do maliciously persecute me: they know well enough that I am innocent, and yet they seek to take away my life: oh do not thou give way to their wilful spite and rancorous malice.

LIX. 6 They return at evening: they make a noise like a dog, and go round about the city.

Mine enemies are like to ravening dogs, which run about the city, all day long, and only late at night come to their kennel; in the mean time, barking and baying for a bone to supply their hunger even so do mine enemies incessantly bestir themselves for my destruction.

LIX. 9 Because of his strength will I wait upon thee: for God is my defence.

The more strong, and the more malicious Saul is, the more will I look up unto thee, and cast myself upon thee for thy protection and deliverance; for thou, O God, art my sure refuge in my greatest distresses.

LX. 2 Thou hast made the earth to tremble; thou hast broken. it: heal the breaches thereof; for it shaketh.

O God, thou seest, that, through thy just judgment upon our land, all things are out of order; and, as it is seen oftentimes in earthquakes, here are fearful breaches made in our state, by reason of our sins: oh do thou heal up these breaches, which our sins have made.

LX. 3 Thou hast made us to drink the wine of astonishment. Thou hast made us giddy, and unable to guide ourselves, through astonishment at thy judgments; even as the man that is drunk with wine reeleth, and knows not where to place his steps.

LX. 4 Thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee, that it may be displayed because of the truth.

O God, thou hast given to thy people a happy victory against the Syrians; and hast thereby encouraged them to depend upon thee, in these assaults of the men of Edom; that thou mayest thereby be glorified, in the truth of thy promises and performances.

LX. 6. God hath spoken in his holiness; I will rejoice, I will divide Shechem, and mete out the valley of Succoth.

The holy God, who can never fail his promises, hath said that concerning me, wherein I will both trust and triumph: behold, he hath graciously assured me that he will perfect and accomplish this kingdom of mine, which he hath begun; and that part of it which is yet withheld in the hands of Ishbosheth, Saul's son, namely Shechem and the valley of Succoth, I shall receive into my full possession.

LX. Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine; Ephraim also is the strength of mine head; Judah is my lawgiver;

As for Gilead and Manasseh, which are the utmost coasts of Canaan, they are as surely mine, as if they had yielded themselves into my hands already; and as for the tribe of Ephraim, I make account of that as my chief strength, and the main power of my kingdom: Judah, as by God's appointment and prediction was fore-ordained, is the tribe of authority, which shall give laws to Israel:

LX. 8 Moab is my washpot; over Edom will I cast out my shoe: Philistia, triumph thou because of me.

And as for the bordering but malignant nations of Moab, Edom, and Philistia, I shall subdue them at pleasure, and destine them to those base offices, they are worthy of; Moab shall be as a pot of earth to wash my feet in, which I shall soon after break into sherds; over Edom I will trample and insult, as it hath scornfully insulted upon God's people; and thou, Philistia, do thou now domineer and proudly tyrannize over God's Israel as thou hast hitherto done, and if thou find cause continue thy triumphs. LX. 9 Who will bring me into the strong city? who will lead me into Edom?

Who, but thou, O Lord my God, wilt bring me into those cities of strength, which pertain to Edom? Thou canst, and thou wilt give me victory, over those proud neighbours.

LXII. 9 Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie to be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity.

Certainly, man, of what degree or estate soever, is mere vanity, and utterly deceitful in the trust that is put in them: let vanity be

laid in one end of the scales, and man in another, man shall be found lighter than vanity itself.

LXII. 10 Trust not in oppression, and become not vain in robbery. Oh then, trust not in that wealth and greatness, which is gotten by oppression and violence; for ye shall find no solid comfort and stay therein.

LXIII. 9 Those that seek my soul, to destroy it, shall go into the bower parts of the earth.

Those, that maliciously persecute me, shall, by thy just hand, be brought down into the grave.

LXIII. 10 They shall fall by the sword: they shall be a portion for foxes.

They shall fall by the sword of the encinies, and be left in the field unburied, as a prey to wild beasts.

LXIV. 6 And the heart is deep.

They have plotted secret devices against me; according to the depth of their malice, and the height of their skill.

LXV. 3 Iniquities prevail against me: as for our transgressions, thou shalt purge them away.

O God, they are our iniquities, that stand in the way of thy mercies, and prevail strongly against all the endeavours of my reformation; but, O Lord, do thou both mercifully forgive and powerfully remedy our offences.

LXV. 5 By terrible things in righteousness wilt thou answer us, O God.

O God, thou, in thine infinite justice, wilt answer the prayers and supplications of thy Church, in marvellous deliverances, and in fearful plagues upon thine enemies.

LXV. 8 Thou makest the outgoings of the morning and ecening to rejoice.

Thou glorifiest thyself by the constant succession of the day and night; and causest all the inhabitants of the earth, from the sun rising to the setting of the sun, to rejoice and sing unto thee, for the great works that thou hast done.

LXV. 9 Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it: thou greatly enrichest it with the river of God, which is full of water. After a faint and barren drought, thou graciously condescendest to send down a fruitful rain, upon the face of the earth: thou greatly enrichest it with plentiful floods sent out from God, out of the clouds of heaven.

LXVI. 12 Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water: but thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place.

Thou hast caused us to be miserably trampled upon, by our scornful and imperious enemies; and hast put us to all manner of hard trials: there is no afflictive element, which we have not passed

through, by thy just sufferance and ordination; but, at last, thou hast put an end to our troubles, and hast settled us in a quiet plenty.

LXVI. 18 If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.

If I give myself over to wickedness, I have no reason to expect favour from my God: how should I look for other, than that he should mark me out for vengeance ?

LXVIII. 1 Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered, &c.

Thy presence, O God, is with thine ark: as that ark of thine is now upon the remove, after a long rest; so do thou, O Lord, arise, after thy seeming silence and repose, and let thine enemies be discomfited and confounded.

LXVIII. 4 Extol him that rideth upon the heavens by his name JAH, &c.

Extol him that moves, and rules, and governs the heavens by his mighty power; and dwells in that inaccessible glory : praise him, in that his infinite and absolute being, which he hath within himself, without all relation and dependance; and in that bounty, whereby he communicates a being to all his creatures.

LXVIII. 6 God setteth the solitary in families: he bringeth out those which are bound with chains: but the rebellious dwell in a dry land.

He giveth plentiful issue to those that were childless, and delivers the captive out of their thraldom ; as, contrarily, those, that are rebelliously wicked, however they might seem fast rooted in a rich patrimony, he sends away into want and exile.

LXVIII. 7 O God, when thou wentest forth before thy people, when thou didst march through the wilderness;

O God, what noble demonstrations hast thou given of old, to us thy people and our forefathers, of thy power and providence ; when thou wentest before thy people, in a pillar of cloud and fire, through the wilderness.

LXVIII. 8 The earth shook, the heavens also dropped at the presence of God: even Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God, the God of Israel.

Both in the heavens and the earth, didst thou shew marvellous tokens of thy mighty protection and gracious care for thy people : all the course of nature seemed to be miraculously altered to set forth thy power: Mount Sinai itself shook at thy presence, in the delivery of thy law.

LXVIII. 11 The Lord gave the word: great was the company of those that published it.

The Lord gave abundant matter of celebration and thanksgiving, and there wanted not store of messengers to publish his victories, or of damsels of Israel to applaud them, in their songs and minstrelsy.

LXVIII. 12 Kings of the armies did flee apace: and she that tarried at home divided the spoil.

YOL. III,

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