MEDITATIONS AND DISQUISITIONS, UPON The Seven psalms of DAVID, commonly called the Penitential PSALMS.  
NAMELY, 

The 6.  
The 32.  
The 38.  
The 51.  
The 102.  
The 130.  
The 143.    
By Sir RICHARD BAKER Knight.  
LONDON, Printed by I.D. for Francis Eglesfield, and are to be sold at the sign of the Marigold in Paul's Churchyard. 1640.   

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE MARY, Countess of DORSET; the Virtuous Lady, of the Right Honourable, Edward Earl of DORSET.  
MOST Honoured Lady; It is not the least of your Virtues, that you are not proud of your Virtues; which, if it had been in the Angels that fell, they had perhaps not fallen. And because you delight so much in Humbleness; It makes me bold to Present unto you, these Psalms of David's Humiliation. How happy were I, if I could make a Descant, answerable to David's plain song: but what is wanting in mine, your own Meditations will happily supply; which cannot but be excellent, being followed by the practice of so Virtuous a life; of which I wish I could as well make a Monument to remain to all Posterity, for their Example; as it will certainly remain to your own Posterity, for their glory. But lest I should add the offence of tediousness to boldness: I humbly crave pardon for having said so much; but more, for having said no more; and make it my aspiring suit to be accounted as I truly am,  
Your Ladyship's devoted Servant, RICHARD BAKER.   

Recensui Meditationes has in Septem Psalmos Davidis, & Typis mandari permitto.  
SAMVEL BAKER. Ex Aedibus Londinens: junii 5. 1638.   

THE SIXTH PSALM.  
1O Lord rebuke me not in thine anger, neither chasten me in thy heavy displeasure.  
2 Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am weak; Heale me, for my bones are troubled.  
3 My Soul also is troubled, but thou, O Lord, how long?  
4 Return, O Lord, and deliver my Soul; save me for thy mercy's sake.  
5 For in Death there is no remembrance of thee; and who shall praise thee in the Grave?  
6 I am weary with my sighing; all the night make I my bed to swim; I water my couch with my tears.  
7 Mine eye is consumed because of grief; and is waxed old because of all mine enemies.  
8 Depart from me all ye workers of iniquitte; for the Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping.  
9 The Lord hath heard my supplication; the Lord hath received my prayer.  
10 Let all mine enemies be ashamed and sore vexed, Let them turn their backs and be confounded, suddenly.   

MEDITATIONS And disquisitions upon the Sixth Psalm.  
O My soul, what is it thou hast done? hast thou been striving with the Angel, about the body of Moses? For why else shouldst thou be afraid of the Angel's imprecation to Satan, when he strove with him about it, The Lord rebuke thee? Certainly either the Angel was very mild in his imprecation, or thou art very sharp in thy deprecation. But O wretch that I am! If Satan deserved rebuking for striving with an Angel; how much more do I deserve it, for striving with the Creator of Angels? and not about taking away the body of Moses, but about taking away the glory of his holy Name? For such, and so execrable are my sins, that through them, the holiness of God's glorious name is blasphemed among the Gentiles. And have I not just cause then to fear that he will, and therefore just cause to pray, that he will not, Rebuke me in his anger, nor chasten me in his heavy displeasure.  
But though rebuking were an imprecation to Satan, yet to me it is not so, seeing I do not more deserve it, than I need it; as I deserve it for my sin, so I need it for my amendment: for without rebuking, what amending? what amending indeed without thy rebuking? For alas, the flesh flatters me, the world abuseth me, Satan deludes me; and now O God, if thou also shouldst hold thy peace, and wink at my follies, whom should I have? Alas, whom could I have, to make me sensible of their foulness. If thou shouldst not tell me, and tell me roundly, I went a stray, how should I ever, alas, how could I ever be brought to return into the right way? To thy rebuking therefore I humbly submit myself; I know thou intendest it for my amendment, and not for my confusion; for my conversion, and not for my subversion: It may be bitter in the tasting, but is most comfortable in the working: hard perhaps to digest, but most sovereign, being digested: Yet I cannot endure thou shouldst rebuke me in anger, I cannot endure it in affection, but I can less endure it in ability: It is grievous to me, to think thou art angry, but it is insupportable to me, to feel thou art angry: the hand of thine anger is heavy, and though of thyself thou be as it were a sweetly breathing air; yet anger makes thee a consuming fire, that if thine anger be kindled, yea, but a little, Blessed are all they that put their trust in thee.  
When I consider with myself the many favours, undeserved favours, thou hast vouchsafed unto me, and consider withal, how little use, how ill use I have made of them all, though I know I have justly deserved thy rebuking, yet my hope is still, thou wilt add this favour also, not to rebuke me in thine anger: but when I think, how unkind a thing thy rebuking is, but how terrible a thing thine anger is; when I think, what a pain it is to have thee chasten me, but what a death it is, to have thee chasten me in displeasure; then I fall a trembling in all my joints, and never think I can make haste enough to say, and to say with sighing; O Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger, neither chasten me in thy heavy displeasure.  
But why may not God rebuke me, as Eli rebuked his sons? for he rebuked his sons for their sins, and yet no anger appeared in him at all. O my soul, wilt thou make Eli a pattern for God? because God is a loving Father, wilt thou therefore make him like Eli, too indulgent a father? Ely indeed rebuked his sons with a rod, but he made his rod of Roses and Violets: he rebuked them for sins of presumption, as if they had been but sins of infirmity: he rebuked them for sins of wilfulness, as if they had been but sins of ignorance: and what was this, but instead of striking them, to stroke them, and instead of stopping them in their race, to add rather a spur unto them? And was it not for this, that God rebuked Eli in his anger, because Eli rebuked not his sons in his anger? I deny not O God, but that my sins deserve thine anger; or rather I acknowledge they justly provoke thine anger: but alas, O Lord, if thou shouldest enter into judgement with thy servants, what flesh were able to stand before thee, and not be consumed? O vile sin of mine, enough to put patience itself into choler, able to anger a saint, nay, even the King of saints. That if thou O God, shouldest rebuke me in thine anger, if chasten me in thy heavy displeasure, I could not say, but that thine anger were lenity, and thy displeasure, mildness.  
But what boldness of language is this in speaking to God? am I not worthy of rebuke, for praying God, not to rebuke me in his anger, as though I thought that God could be angry? For, is not anger a passion of humane infirmity, and will I make God subject to passions of infirmity? Is not anger a defect in reason is? not God a perfection above reason? and can there be defect in perfection? can there be passion in him, that is Purus Actus? But is it not, that anger in God is not a passion, but an action, not a defect, but an effect: for than is God said to be angry, when he puts his judgements in execution, when his rebukings tend not to conversion, but to confusion: when his mercy attempters not the rigour of his justice. Oh then, rebuke me O God, but not in thine anger; rebuke me as thou didst the Ninevites, who at thy rebuking repent and were converted: but rebuke me not as thou didst Pharaoh, who hardened his heart at thy rebuking, and was confounded. If thou O God, shouldst rebuke me in thine anger, I should more have an eye to thy rod, then give an ear to thy lesson: I should be more terrified with thine anger, then edified with thy rebuking, and should be made uncapable of thy doctrine, with the terror of thy teaching: for I, alas, am as a nail under the workman's hammer, better driven in with gentle strokes, then with hard blows: Oh therefore, rebuke me not O God, if thou be angry, or if thou rebuke me, be not angry: Two such sharp notes, as anger and rebuking are, can never make any pleasing music, if they meet together. Anger in rebuking, makes the water troubled, and thick that should be drunk clear, makes the Air sultry, and hot, that should be breathed in cold, extremely both of them unwholesome for the body: and seeing thou intendest my health, and seekest not to make me sick, Let not anger inflame thy rebuking O God, that so the air of it I may take in the cooler, that so the water of it I may drink the clearer. I, alas, am as a narrow mouthed vessel in the hand of the drawer, better filled with softly pouring in, then with pouring in hastily, which commonly spills more than it fills: and seeing thy rebuking is too precious a liquor to be spilt, O pour it in with the softly hand of patience, and not with the hasty hand of anger; that so it may the sooner fill, & the better enter without spilling, into this narrow mouthed vessel of my empty soul. Thy rebuking O God, is to me as thunder, but thine anger is as lightning: and is it not enough, that thou terrify my soul with the thunder of thy rebuking, but thou wilt also set this flax of my flesh on fire with the lightning of thine anger? Thy rebuking of itself is a precious Balm, but mixed with anger, turns to a Corrosive: O keep thy Corrosives, O God, for such hardened hearts as Pharaohs was; Apply to me only the simple Balm of thy rebuking, and let it not have any mixture at all of thy Corroding anger in it. What though I have offended thee with sins of anger, must thou needs take revenge, in the same kind thou art offended? and if needs thou must do so, why mayst thou not then take revenge of my sins in thy good pleasure, seeing I have offended thee as much with sins of pleasure? Thou didst walk in Paradise with our first Parents, in the cool of the day, when the heat of the sun was over, and this made thy presence as cheerful, as glorious: Vouchsafe O God, to deal so with me, rebuke me in the cool of thy Spirit, when the heat of thine anger is overpast; for else alas, it may be glorious, but can never be comfortable.  
But if rebuking me in thine anger, be so bitter a Potion, what is it then, to chasten me in thine indignation? for where the worst of thy rebuking in anger, is but threatening of punishment: the best of thy chastening in indignation, is inflicting of punishment: and though a strong heart may perhaps endure such threaten, yet no strength of heart is able to bear such inflictings. It is terror enough to hear thee but chide, but to feel thee strike, and that with strokes of indignation, what power of any creature is able to endure it? I ask not, thou wouldst not chasten me: this were to ask, thou wouldst not love me; for whom thou lovest, thou chastenest; and would I lose thy love, for any chastening? O gracious God, chasten me in what manner, with what measure thou pleasest: chasten me as thou didst Lazarus, by making him lie for hunger at Dives gate: chasten me as thou didst job, by making him lie with sores upon the dunghill: chasten me, as thou didst Daniel, by making him be cast into the Lion's den: but then chasten me in love, and not in indignation; for thy chastening in love, though it pain, yet it heals; though it bruise, yet it comforts: Thy rod & thy staff, they comfort me; but thy chastening in indignation, is pain without hope, is bruising in despair, or rather not a pain but a torment, not a bruising, but a breaking: that no misery can be comparable to this chastening, to be chastened in thine indignation.  
Chastening and love may well be matched together, they are like to jacob and Rachel, though there be seven years of service more, yet Rachel will be had at last: but chastening and indignation are as badly matched as may be, for chastening inclines to conversion, and indignation is wholly bend upon confusion; oh therefore, match thy chastening with love, and not with indignation, that so, at least, I may come at last, to enjoy my Rachel, that is, thy favour: Chastening and love, may lodge both together in the bowels of a father, but indignation comes not where bowels are: and how then, O God, canst thou chasten me in indignation, but thou must as it were disbowell thyself, and utterly abandon the name of a Father? and shall any thing make thee to leave that Name? I know, O God, it is a name so dear unto thee, that I hope I shall commit no such sin; and suffer me not O God, to commit any such sin as shall ever be able to make thee abandon it. Indeed here, where we call thee Lord, indignation may appear, and be bold to show itself: but when we come to name thee Father, indignation must be gone, and never presume to come in place. If thy chastening be intended for reforming, or for polishing, what wouldst thou do with indignation, that tends to abolishing? And if thou chasten whom thou lovest, and then destroy whom thou chastenest; what difference will there be between thy indignation, and thy mercy? Oh let not thy chastening, which is ordained to be a rod for thy children, be made a knife to slaughter thy Children: Consider, O God, I am but a pot made of brittle Clay, that if thy hand hold not a temper in striking, I shall soon be broken, and beaten in pieces, and then thy workmanship will be defaced. And shall it ever be said of thee, that with one hand thou makest, and with the other hand destroyest? Remember O God, whose title it is, to be a destroyer: thy title is to be a Creator: and shall I find no more favour at the hands of a Creator, than I might look to find at the hands of a destroyer?  
Alas, my soul, I know full well, it were a grievous case for me, if God should let his chastening and his indignation join together, and assail me with them both at once; but how shall I do to keep them asunder? Have I any Moses to stand for me in the gap? Blessed be thy glorious Name, O God: I have indeed a greater than Moses, even him, whom thou didst chasten in thy heavy displeasure; to the end thou mightst not chasten me in thy heavy displeasure; for his agony of crying, My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me; giveth me boldness to cry, and confidence in crying, My God, My God, have mercy upon me: This I know will help, when all other helps sail. But what have I in myself to plead, why God should not chasten me in his heavy displeasure? Can I say, I have not deserved it? Or can I say I have not even provoked him to do it? Alas, O God, I have nothing in thee to fly to, but only thy mercy; nothing in myself to plead, but only my weakness; Have mercy upon me, O God, Verse 2 for I am weak.  
But is not this a weak Plea, to allege weakness for a Plea? weak indeed with men, who commonly tread hardest upon the weakest, and are ever going over where the hedge is lowest; but no weak Plea with God, whose mercy is ever ready upon all occasions, and then most, when there is most need: and seeing there is greatest need, where there is greatest weakness, therefore no Plea with God so strong as this; Have mercy upon me, O God, for I am weak.  
But why should David pray for mercy to help his weakness? for what can mercy do? Mercy can but pity his weakness, it is strength that must relieve it. But is it not, that mercy, I may say, is as the steward of God's house, and hath the command of all he hath: that if wisdom be wanting for direction, mercy can procure it. If justice be wanting for defence, Mercy can obtain it: If strength be wanting for support, Mercy can command it: and therefore no Plea so perfect to be urged with God, as this, Have mercy upon me, O God, for I am weak.  
But why should David make his weakness a motive to God for mercy? for is not weakness an effect of sin? and can God love the effect, when he hates the cause? but it is not the weakness in David that God loves, but the acknowledging of his weakness: for what is this, but the true humility? and who knows not in how high account such humility is with God, seeing it is indeed of this wonderful condition, that though nothing be so low, yet nothing reacheth so high, and therefore no motive so fit to move God, as this; Have mercy upon me, O God, for I am weak. Mercy indeed looks down upon no object so directly, as upon weakness; and weakness looks up to no object so directly as to mercy: and therefore they cannot choose but meet, and meeting, not choose but embrace each other. Mercy, weakness as her Client: weakness, Mercy as her Patron: that no Plea can be with God so strong, as this, Have mercy upon me, O God, for I am weak. Let thy indignation, O God, be laid upon Pharaoh, and such as trust in their strength, for upon them thou mayst get thee honour: but alas, what honour can be gotten, by pouring thy indignation upon so weak a Creature as I am? Thy honour shall be as much to support my weakness by thy mercy; as to abate their pride, by thine indignation.  
But what though David be weak? is every weakness sufficient cause to run to God about? might he not take Restoratives and Cordials, and such other comfortable things, and so help his weakness without going to God? O my soul, what comfort is in a Cordial, if it be not of Gods making? what strength in a Restorative, if it be not of Gods giving? No, O Lord, thy mercy is the only restorative that can help my weakness; the true Aqua Coelestis, to comfort my spirits.  
I know, O God, thou sweetly disposest all things both in weight and measure; Thou considerest man that he is but dust; Thou knowest me, that I am a worm, and no man; and can it then be thou shouldst have no consideration of my weakness? wilt thou not proportion thy burden to the bearer? wilt thou load a Gnat, as thou wouldst load a Camel? Oh have mercy upon me, O God, and consider my weakness, for I am weak.  
But why should David make his weakness; a cause for God to spare him? for how came he by his weakness? was it not by his own disorder? and then, if his weakness be one of his faults, hath not God just cause to strike him the harder for his weakness? It seems, indeed, that David cannot deny but that he deserves it, and therefore lays not his Plea in the Court of God's justice, but of his mercy; for his mercy, he knoweth, hath bowels of compassion, and will not always be ruled by rigour; but finding contrition, will have a regard of weakness. And indeed, seeing the end of Gods chastening is but to piece up my breaches, why should he strike so hard, to break me in pieces.  
But are there not some men, that feign themto be selves poor, when yet they be rich, because they would pay but a little tribute? And may not David be such a one, feign himself to be weak, when perhaps he was strong, because he would have God to spare him in his chastening? But never have such a thought of David: for hear him what he says farther: Heale me, for my bones are troubled, and surely, if his bones be troubled, he may well be allowed to say he is weak. For if there be any strength in our bodies, it is in our bones: they are both ablest to withstand harm, and farthest removed out of harms way; that before any trouble can come to them, it must pass the skin, the flesh, the membranes, and all other parts, that if once the bones come to be troubled, we may justly say, Res rediit ad Triarios, the matter is come to the height of extremity: And therefore, David finding trouble in his bones, had just cause to complain of weakness, and to say; Heale me, O God, for my bones are troubled. Distempers and infirmities are ever more hard, or easy to be cured, as they are seated in parts, more hard or easy to be wrought upon: and therefore distempers in the spirits, are of all other the easiest to be cured, more hard in the humours, but in the solid parts hardest of all, for than they grow to be Hectic; and such, in all account, are scarce held curable: and seeing of all the solid parts the bones are the most solid, and therefore diseases in them the hardest to be cured; David had just cause to call to God for help, and to say; Heale me, O God, for my bones are troubled. If the beams of a house be unsound and shaken, how is it possible the house should stand, and as little is it possible, that this body of mine should be saved from ruin: if my bones which are the beams of it, be out of order, and troubled.  
But if the trouble of the bones be so incurable, is it not presumption in David to say; Heale me, O God, for my bones are troubled: being as if he should say, cure me, O God, for I am passed all cure, and so tempt God, with desiring him to do a work that is impossible? But is it not, that David knows to whom he speaks? he knows he speaks not to Galen, or to Hypocrates, he knows he speaks not to Aesculapius, or to Apollo, but he speaks to him that is a transcendent to all these: One to whom, not only nothing is impossible, but to whom all impossible things are nothing. It were indeed an unreasonable request in the eye of Nature, but very unreasonable in the eye of Faith: seeing Faith indeed is then most reasonable, when most it is above all reason; which therefore-made Abraham, the Father of the faithful, because contrary to hope, he believed in hope, that God would make him such a father. And indeed most properly than it grows to be a cure for God, when in man's judgement it is grown incurable: as Christ would not go to heal Lazarus until he was dead, and had been four days buried, thereby perhaps to prepare belief for his own resurrection: seeing it might well be believed he could rise himself the third day, who had raised another after four days. Never therefore fear, my soul, to say with David, Heale me, for my bones are troubled: for the time will come, when he shall heal thee, not only when thy bones be troubled, but when they be mouldered away into dust and powder: for even then he will gather them together again, and make them stand up, and serve for beams to this body of thine, as now they do.  
But how can the bones be troubled, seeing they have no sense? for it is the flesh and the membranes that feel the pain, the bones feel none. Oh then consider how great my trouble is, which strikes a sense of pain into my very parts that are not sensible.  
And now, it would be comfort indeed to have my bones healed, if when they were healed, I might then be at quiet; but alas, what comfort is it now to be healed of their trouble, when Gods chastening hand pursues me still, and lays more, and greater troubles upon me continually? for though the trouble of the bones be the height of trouble; yet it is but the trouble of the body; my soul all this while hath been at quiet, Verse 3 but now my soul itself is troubled also, and so extremely troubled, that I feel it, and feel it sensibly, in all the parts of my soul; I feel it in my memory, when I remember the grievous sins I have committed: I feel it in my understanding, when I consider thy glorious Majesty, whom I have offended: I feel it in my will, when I think upon the terror of thy displeasure which I have incurred. If the trouble were but in this or that part only: I might yet find comfort in the other: but now that every part of my soul, now that all my whole soul is troubled, and extremely troubled; Alas, now I may truly say, was ever sorrow, like my sorrow, was ever trouble like this of mine?  
But can the soul be troubled? is it not a spiritual substance? and are not all earthly things too gross, to trouble that which is a spirit? They should be so indeed, and they would be so indeed, if the soul had her right. But alas, while we live here, the soul is but an Inmate to the body, and therefore the body crows over it, as being upon its own dunghill, and makes us all of kin to Martha, troubled about many things, when but one is needful. And yet these be not the things that trouble the noble soul, not the soul of David. In matters indeed between the World and us, the soul is forced to look down upon the earth, as upon that which sustains it, and if it find a want there, it finds withal a trouble indeed; but a trouble to the body only: or if to the soul, but in the body's behalf, which is not much: That which properly troubles the soul, is the proper trouble of the soul, and is only in matters between God and us: and in matters of this nature, it looks up to heaven, for there indeed is the soul's freehold: and if that inheritance be once questioned, than the soul finds itself in trouble presently, and so extremely troubled: that where the trouble of the body, is but the body of trouble, this trouble of the soul is, I may say, the soul of trouble: and is not this inheritance questioned, if God fall once to rebuke me in his anger? For seeing the inheritance is but a mere gift proceeding from his favour; how can I expect it, if I be in his displeasure? When I was in my greatest weakness, yet my bones afforded me at least some strength; and when my bones were troubled, yet my soul was able to take care of their curing: but now that my soul itself is troubled: Alas, O God, who is there but thyself only, of whom I can hope for any comfort? and therefore, O Lord, How long? How long wilt thou let me lie languishing in my weakness? How long wilt thou suffer me to struggle with oppression? How long wilt thou see the extremity of my misery, and not relieve me? Thou indeed inhabitest Eternity, and no time to thee is either short, or long: but I alas, am a subject of times, and nothing so much tyrannizeth over me, as this tyrant time; and specially when it joins with misery: for then, as a thousand years are with thee but as a day, so a day with me is as a thousand years: Measure me not therefore by thy standard of Eternity, but measure me by the standard of time: And then O Lord, How long? How long shall thy chastening hand lie heavy upon me? How long wilt thou pour upon me the vials of thine indignation? How long shall my soul be kept from her true inheritance, which is, to bear a part in the consort of Angels? My soul is a free spirit, and is with nothing so much delighted, as with liberty; with nothing so much vexed, as with thraldom: and in thraldom alas, in miserable thraldom, is my soul detained: and therefore, O Lord, How long? How long shall my soul be restrained of her liberty? How long shall I lie groaning in the dungeon of captivity? How long shall no date be set, to give a period to my thraldom? My soul, I may say, is all heart, and therefore every trouble it feels, must needs go to the heart, yet none so deep as this, that I am forced to cry to thee out of the deep, and cannot yet ascend out of this vale of misery: And therefore, O Lord, how long? How long shall I live in the death of this fear, the fear of death? How long shall I desire to be dissolved, that being reunited again, I may never more be dissolved? How long shall my immortal soul be kept from the possession of her immortality, from the immortality of her possession? If the Saints in heaven, who now tread time under their feet, do yet continue this question still, to ask How long? How long, O Lord, holy, and true, wilt thou not avenge our blood on them that live in the earth; Is it marvel, that I who live under the tyranny of time, should begin this question, to ask how long? How long, O Lord, merciful, and just, wilt thou not avenge me on the world, and sathan, for the wrongs they have done me? How long shall I be kept from saying, O Death, where is thy sting, O grave, where is thy victory? How long shall the Angel with the flaming sword, keep me from entering again into Paradise? Where is the morning of joy I promised to myself, when I said, sorrow may be in the evening, but joy cometh in the morning? For how many evenings, how many tedious nights of sorrow have I endured, and yet can see no morning of joy, no dawning of morning toward? Where is the truth of that Aphorism; Dolour si gravis, Brevis, for what dolour so grievous as this of my soul, and yet O Lord, how long? How long shall I stand complaining, and say: my soul is troubled? Is it not, that I shall never cease to say, my soul is troubled, till he return again, who once said for me, that his soul was troubled: For alas, his soul should never have been troubled, but to take away, amongst others, the trouble of mine: seeing he is the sacrifice for all our sins, and with his stripes we are healed. And now therefore, O Lord, how long? How long wilt thou turn away thy face, and not show me again the light of thy countenance? How long wilt thou absent thyself from me, and not afford me the joy of thy presence? How long wilt thou be going still farther from me, and not so much as once offer to return? Verse 4 Oh return at last and deliver my soul, save me for thy mercy's sake; for alas, O Lord, all my troubles are come upon me, because thou went'st from me; all my grievance is long of thine absence: for as long as thou wert with me, and that I had thy presence, my soul was at quiet, my bones were at rest; and I enjoyed then a sweet and pleasing calm over all my parts: but as soon as thou departedst from me, and didst but turn away thy face; my calm was presently turned into a tempest, a violent tempest of thunder and lightning: Thunder of thy rebuking, and lightning of thine anger: that if thou stay not thy hand from chastening, and return the sooner, I shall never be able to hold out living, to taste of thy mercy. Saint Peter was never so near drowning, when he cried out to Christ, Lord save me, or else I perish: as David is now near sinking in the pit of perdition, if God return not speedily, and deliver his soul. But what speak I of David, as though it were not my own case? and if my danger be as great, shall not my prayer be as earnest? or can I find a better way of saving, than thy returning? No, O Lord; for if thou return, I am sure thou wilt not, I know thou canst not leave thy mercy behind: and mercy when it comes, I know it cannot, I am sure it will not ever suffer it to be perdition: For though my soul were at the pits brink, and ready to fall in, yet even then would mercy put forth her hand and save me.  
Thou requirest me to return to thee; and alas, O Lord, how can I, if thou return not to me first? can I come to thee, unless thou draw me? and canst thou draw me to thee, if thou withdraw thyself from me? I know thou returnest continually, to dispose and order the Oeconomie of thy creatures: but this returning is in thy providence, and is not that which I desire: I know thou returnest often to visit and judge the sins of the world, as thou didst at Sodom: but this returning is in thy justice, and therefore, neither is this returning for my turn; but thou hast a returning, in Grace and favour, when thou returnest to me, to make me return to thee, a returning from thine anger to thy patience, from thine indignation to thy loving kindness: and this is the returning which I so earnestly desire and sue for.  
But O my soul, before God return in this manner to thee, thou must look to hear him expostulate with thee in this manner: Alas my Creature, what hast thou done, to bring these troubles upon thyself? Did I not make thee at first a sound body, and did I not give it a strong constitution? and how happens it now that thy bones should be troubled? Did I not breathe into it a perfect soul, and gave it endowments, after mine own image? and how comes it now to be so quite out of order, and so clean bereft of all my graces? Thou wilt perhaps answer; It is true O Lord, my bones are troubled: and how can they choose, seeing thou tookest one of them away from me, which thou gavest me at first? My soul also is troubled: and how can it choose, seeing thou didst suffer the Serpent in Paradise to disturb and trouble it? But may not God then justly reply, I took one of thy bones from thee indeed, but it was to make thee an helper: I let in the Serpent into Paradise indeed, but it was to try thee, for thy better perfecting; and when I saw thee so foolishly hurt thyself with thy helper, and so easily won from me by a Tempter; had I not just cause to leave thee to them, for whom thou leftest me? and now forlorn wretch, what hast thou to say, unless thou have leave to say; Return, O Lord, and deliver my soul, save me for thy mercy's sake.  
But what more necessity is there of Gods returning to deliver his soul, then there was before to heal his bones? and in that case he spoke not a word of returning: and why should he more importune it now? Is it not, that many diseases may be well enough cured, only by relation of symptoms, though the Physician come not where the patiented is: and of this sort it seems was the healing of his bones: but to deliver his soul, is of another nature, and requires perhaps a feeling the pulse, perhaps, an inspection of the patiented: and therefore no remedy, here but the Physician must himself be present.  
But is it enough to make suit to God in general terms, to pray him to deliver my soul, and not tell from what it is, he must deliver it? Can any man think that God will return upon so uncertain an occasion? Alas, O Lord, it is not unknown to thee, that my soul wants no clothes: and therefore, it is not to deliver it from nakedness: my soul needs no meat, and therefore it is not to deliver it from hunger: my soul is never old, and therefore it is not to deliver it from the wracks of time; but it is indeed to deliver it from trouble: and what it is that can trouble my soul, thou knowest: for my soul is thy servant, depending wholly upon thy favour, and having offended thee, desires to be delivered from all fear of thine anger: My soul was at first a free spirit, but is now become a bondslave to sin, and therefore desires to be delivered from this bondage: My soul is itself immortal, but is troubled here with a mortal body, and therefore desires to be delivered from this body of death: and in effect it is all but sin, and the train that sin draws after it, from which I desire my soul should be delivered. And therefore return, O Lord, and deliver my soul, save me for thy mercy's sake.  
But O my soul, with what reason canst thou expect that God should ever return to thee? for who would be willing to come to one in trouble, as thou art, lest he pay for his coming, with drawing a trouble upon himself? and if he should return and come unto thee, wouldst thou be so satisfied? wouldst thou not presently be importuning him for further favours? He must help thee in thy troubles; He must help thee out of thy troubles, or thou wouldst never be at quiet. And is it a small matter to deliver a soul out of trouble? Do souls use to be troubled for trifles? and were he not better then to endure thy importunity for his returning, then being returned, to be troubled with importunity for thy deliverance? But O my soul, be not frighted with these vain objections: for, is God like man, that he should be afraid of being troubled? Is he not the God of mercy; and can it be a trouble to his mercy, to do the works of mercy? Is it not his delight to be; Is it not his title to be called; Is not his glory to be counted a deliverer? and is any deliverance so fit for his mercy, so worthy of his mercy, as deliverance of souls? Alas, O Lord, it is a small work for thee to return; but thou shalt do an infinite work by thy returning: for thou shalt deliver my soul out of trouble, my grieved soul out of grievous troubles; and wilt thou not afford me so much kindness, to do so small a matter, for effecting of so great a matter? Oh return, O God, and deliver my soul, that as thou art called a deliverer, so I may call thee my deliverer, and may sing with Moses: Thou, O God, art my strength, and my song, for thou hast been my deliverance.  
But why should this be made so great a matter? For though in saying, return, O Lord, and deliver my soul: I seem to require of God, two several works: one to return, and another to deliver me; yet they are in truth but both as one: at least, no more differing then the cause and the effect; seeing his very returning is itself a deliverance. The only turning his face towards me, makes me to see the light of his countenance; and no sooner doth that light shine upon my soul, but all the clouds that darkened it, are presently dispelled: all the troubles that vexed my bones, are instantly healed. But though deliverance be an effect of Gods returning, yet it must be when he returns in a good mood, and not in a rebuking, or in a chastening disposition: for if his anger continue still, were it not better for me, he should tarry away? and why then am I so importunate with him to return, before I know in what terms I stand with him; and whether he be angry still, or no? but it is even for this that I importune his returning, that I may be assured his anger is past; for as long as he is angry, he never comes where I am; to do that, were a greater favour than his anger can afford; but as soon as his anger is a little over, he is apt of himself to return unto me; for his delight is with the children of men, and specially with those that call upon him: and when he returns, his anger being over, he useth to do as the Dove did, that when the waters were a little abated, returned into the Ark, and brought the Olive branch with her in her mouth: so God returning, when the waters of his displeasure are a little abated, brings the Olive branch of peace, and deliverance along with him.  
But say my soul that God should return, and should deliver thee; wouldst thou then be quiet, and not trouble him with any more suits? should this be the last request thou wouldst make? Alas no, I have one suit more to make; and Thou O God, that gavest Abraham leave to importune thee with one suit after another, vouchsafe me this favour, to make this suit also, and this indeed shall be the last I will ever make: Save me for thy mercy's sake. For as thy returning would be to small purpose if thou didst not deliver me: so thy deliverance will be to small purpose, if thou do not also save me. To deliver me, and then leave me to be seized upon again, would make thee but Author imperfecti operis; leave thy work imperfect, which cannot agree with the perfection of thy most perfect workmanship. And now, O God, if thou take pleasure in conjunctions, be pleased to take pleasure in this conjunction, not to join thy rebuking and thy anger together: not to join thy chastening and thy indignation together, but to join thy deliverance and salvation together: for those conjunctions separate us from thee, this conjunction unites us to thee: those bring us to shipracke, this brings us into the Haven: Deliverance avoids the rocks, salvation sets safe on shore. And is not this that which David means, when in another place he saith, With thee, O God, there is plenteous redemption? It is redemption indeed, if thou but only deliver my soul: but it is not plenteous redemption, unless besides delivering, thou also save me. O then be pleased in thy plenteous redemption, to grant me this conjunction of deliverance and salvation, that I may return thee the conjunction of praise and thanksgiving; and may sing and say, O Lord, I will praise thee: though thou wast angry with me, yet thine anger is turned away. Behold, God is my salvation, I will crust, and not be afraid.  
But how can God return to deliver me, and to save me: if he return not a deliverer and a saviour? and when will this be? O my soul, in how much better state art thou, than David was? for he only expected when it should be, but thou art assured when it was. For than was God manifested to return a deliverer, and a Saviour, when the Angel brought this tidings to the shepherds; This day is borne to you a Saviour, of whom also a voice from heaven testified; This is my well-beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Oh then return to me, in this Saviour, in whom, thou art well pleased: that so I may be sure, for so I shall be sure thou wilt not chasten me in thy displeasure.  
As there have been many particular Deluges and floods, yet but one general: so there have been many particular deliverers and saviours, yet but one general: and from this general Saviour it is that I desire & expect salvation: for though his being a general Saviour, may make him be thought less careful of me, having so many others to care for besides: yet have no fear of that, my soul, seeing he is as much a Saviour to me, as if he were a Saviour to none but me; and this general Saviour will save me generally, not only from temporal, but from spiritual enemies: Not only from trouble of bones, but from trouble of soul: Not only from miseries here on earth, but even from miseries, when earth itself shall be no more. O happy salvation, when this Saviour shall come and save me: but how may I do to get him to come? for he comes not but upon some motive. If I had all the gold of Ophir, I would willingly give it all, to get him to come and save me: but, alas, I neither have it to give, nor doth he care to have it: if any thing win him to do it, it must be for his mercy's sake, and for his mercy's sake he will do it, if ever he will do it.  
But is not this strange? My weakness was the motive before to move God to mercy; and must his mercy now be itself the motive to move him to save me? yet so it is: For when God's mercy finds no motive from us; rather than fail of moving, it becomes a motive to itself: and happy it is from us, that so it is: for else we might often be without it, when most we need it: or rather always be without it, seeing we always need it. Indeed this motive, For his mercy's sake, is the Primum mobile of all motives to God, for showing his favour. He had never delivered the Israelites out of Egypt, but for his mercy's sake: He had never saved Noah in the Ark, but for his mercy's sake: but above all, He had never sent his Son to save the world, but for his mercy's sake: And how then can I doubt, and not rather be confident, that for his mercy's sake he will also deliver my soul, and save me. Never therefore my soul look after any further motives: for upon this motive will I set up my rest: His mercy shall be both my Anchor, and my harbour; it shall be both my Armour, and my Fortress: it shall be both my ransom and my garland; it shall be both my deliverance and my salvation.  
And now, O God, thou seest the manifold troubles I am in, thou seest how weak I am; thou seest how my bones are troubled; thou seest how my soul is troubled; and what now can thy chastening hand have more of me, but only to take away my life? and even my life I would willingly make a sacrifice to appease thy displeasure. Verse 5 But alas, O Lord, what good can it be to thee, to have me die? Can I praise thee in the dust? but can I praise thee when I am turned to dust? Is there remembrance of thee in death? or is there hallowing of thy Name in the grave? As long as I have breath in my body, I can praise thy Name: unworthily indeed, but yet I can praise it: As long as I am numbered among the living, I can show myself thy servant; an unprofitable one indeed, but yet a servant: but if my soul and body be dissolved once, alas, than all my service of praising thee is at an end, I cannot then do it, though I would; but I cannot then will it, though I should: my soul will want her instruments with which thy praises should be sounded. O vile death, I hate thee for nothing so much, as for thy hindering me in this service? O cruel grave, I abhor thee so much for nothing, as for thy stopping my mouth for this praising? O merciful God, If I could but remember thee in death, I would never be loath to die. If I could but praise thee in the grave, I would willingly go to it of myself, and never be carried to it by force: but alas, death is forgetful, the grave is dumb; and therefore deliver my soul, O God, save me for thy mercy's sake.  
It is not life that is so dear unto me: but that in life I may praise thee, that art so dear unto me: It is not death that is so frightful to me, but this affrights me in death, that being dead, I cannot remember thee: It is not the grave that is so loathsome to me, but that in the grave I am forced to forget thee; If death will spare me but to praise thee, let death come and never spare me: If the grave will but let me be sensible of thee, the grave shall come and be welcome to me; but alas, death hath no mercy, the grave hath no sense: and therefore return, O Lord, and deliver my soul, save me for thy mercy's sake.  
Who knows not, that death is a mortal enemy to all natural memory: and therefore makes all men at last to end in a Lethargy: and what hope then of remembering thee in death? Who knows not that the grave never opens its mouth to let out any thing, but still to take in? and what means then of praising thee in the grave. If I could but get death to learn the Art of memory, or if I could but hear the grave to say once it had enough; I could then like to have some dealing with death, some traffic with the grave but alas, death's Lethargy is incurable, the graves mouth is insatiable; and therefore return, O Lord, and deliver my soul, save me for thy mercy's sake.  
But doth David's prayer tend to this, that he may not see death? is this the intent of his request, that he may not descend into the pit? doth he pray to be as Enoch, or Elias, taken from the earth, without returning into earth? Alas, he knows this to be either altogether impossible, or altogether unlikely: and therefore no likely request to be made by so wise a man. This therefore is certainly the intent of his prayer, that God will not so chasten him in his indignation, as to leave him in the hands of death: but that as death receives him from life, and delivers him to the grave, so the grave receiving him from death, may deliver him again to life, that as Christ commanded his Apostles to shake off the dust from their feet, when they came into any unworthy house, and to come away; so he coming into this unworthy house of death, the dungeon of the grave, may be able to shake off the dust from his feet, and by the power of of him that said, Lazarus come forth, have his soul and body reunited again: and so united, be admitted into the choir of Saints and Angels, eternally to sing the eternal Allelujah. For as the departing of the soul from the body, is the death of the body; so the dividing of the body from the soul, is a kind of death to the souler that it is not, as it would be, nor fully enjoys itself, until it can meet with the body, and be united to it again: For though it find the body here but a base cottage, or rather a loathsome prison, yet it shall find it there a glorious Palace, or rather a holy Temple consecrated to God: and therefore until this be had, it will not fully be accomplished that is here prayed for: Return, O God, and deliver my soul, save me, for thy mercy's sake.  
The remembrance of this, that I cannot rememember thee in death, makes me forgetful of myself in life: and because I cannot praise thee, nor pray to thee in the grave, it makes me to sigh and weep to thee in my bed: and what I want in continuance, to supply with violence. Verse 6 For I am weary with my sighing: all the night make I my bed to swim, I water my couch with my tears. Oh let my remembering thee in life, supply the place of my forgetting thee in death: and when I lie in my grave senseless and silent, be pleased to remember how I have lain in my bed sighing and weeping. My sins, as being disordinate passions, make me undergo a passive penance: and this hath been my weakness, my trouble of bones, and my trouble of soul: but being also disordinate actions, they make me liable also to do active penance: and what is this, but my sighing, and my weeping? and though I cannot act sorrow, so well as sin, yet my bed and my couch can be witnesses of my sorrow, as well as of my sin. Mine eyes indeed chief have done the penance, because mine eyes first began the offence: if mine eyes had not set me first on fire, mine eyes had not shed such showers of tears: but now, how could burning be quenched but with water? how burning rising from mine eyes; but with water falling from mine eyes? But yet why should my bed suffer? for my bed had no hand in the fault of mine eyes? but alas, how could my bed but prove a Deodand; which so apparently, I may say, did Movere ad mortem? Though my bed were not principal in the act, yet my bed was accessary to the fact, as receiving unlawful and stolen pleasures.  
But though my sins indeed be my greatest enemies, yet there are personal enemies that have their malignity also, which though I cannot say they trouble me as ill, yet I may truly say, they trouble me as well as these: for mine eye is consumed because of grief, Verse 7 and is waxed old, because of all mine enemies. You may say perhaps that my sighs were feigned, and that my tears were counterfeit: but the consumption of mine eye, is a witness of my sorrow, without exception; that if my passive penance before, were not cause sufficient: at least, my active penance now gives me just cause to say, Was ever sorrow like my sorrow? was ever grief like this of mine? And all this penance I suffer and do, because of mine enemies: for how could I choose but sigh and weep, to see the vile, the execrable dealing of mine enemies, that persecute me in their hearts, and yet speak peace with their mouths: that lay shares to entrap me, and yet bear me in hand it shall be for my good: that prejudice my cause, as if it would never succeed; and prejudicated my prayers, as if they would never be heard.  
But what means David by this? will not his weeping make his enemies rejoice the more? will not the seeing him thus dejected, make them the more insulting over him? will they not be ready to say, Is this he that encountered a Lion, and a Bear? He that entered combat with a Giant, the terror of a whole Army; and now to fall a crying one cannot tell for what? But David is a better husband of his tears then to spend them idly, he knows for what he spends them, because of his enemies indeed, but not for fear of his enemies: They are neither tears of fear; for whom should he fear, that hath God on his side? Nor tears of vain glory; for why then should he shed them in the night, when none can see them: Nor tears of joy; for how then should they make him look old, which is an effect of grief: but they are tears of supplication, and tears of compassion. First of supplication; that God will either convert them, or confound them: and not converting, than tears of compassion, to think of their confusion. For such is the tenderness of a godly eye, that it hath tears to shed even for enemies: And when these two waters, the tears of supplication, and the tears of compassion meet together, what marvel if they make a flood in David's bed, seeing the concourse of like waters made the great Deluge in the whole world? for what are his tears of supplication, but as the waters that risen from the springs of the earth? and what are his tears of compassion, but as the waters that fell from the Cataracts of heaven? Or is it not perhaps that David makes his enemies here, a figure of his sins, which are indeed his greatest enemies? as also that he makes his own passion, a figure of Christ's compassion, which was indeed one of his passions? for than he wept over jerusalem in compassion of their confusion, when with tears of supplication he could not prevail with them, in compassing their conversion: when they would not hear him how often he would have gathered them together as a Hen gathereth her Chickens, with tears of supplication, Then they hear him say, There shall not a stone be left upon another, which shall not be cast down, with tears of compassion.  
I grieve not so much that mine eye is waxed old, though it be waxen old with grief, as I grieve to see that my enemies have no eyes at all, at least, no eyes but of malice, who rejoice at my afflictions, and make themselves as merry with my weeping eyes, as the Philistims made themselves with Sampsons' blinded eyes. I grieve to see their destruction draw near, and they laugh at my grieving, and at the oldness, and alteration which grief hath brought upon me. And was it not so with my Saviour Christ, which made the jews say; thou art not yet fifty years old, as though he looked like one near fifty, when he was indeed not much above thirty:  
But seeing with all my sighing and grieving, I cannot reclaim them; I here disclaim them: Verse 8 Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity: Away from me, all ye that are Wolves in sheep's clothing: I put not away poor penitent sinners, that do penance for their sins as I have done, and may rather be said to suffer sin, then to do it; as being more of infirmity, then of will: I put away them that make iniquity their work, and think it a penance when they be not committing of sin: Them that are journeymen to the trade, or rather Masters in the mystery, Them that vilify my sighs, and say, they are but suitors In forma pauperis, and therefore that God scorns them that reproach my tears, and say, they are but dumb solicitors, and therefore God cannot hear them: but see how much they are deceived: For now contrary to their hopes, and more to their wishes; The Lord hath heard the voice of my tears, hath heard it: and therefore does not scorn it; the voice of my tears, and therefore my tears are not dumb: and where all other voices may be doubted, whether God will hear them or no: the voice of tears, hath God's ear, I may say, at command; at least is never denied access unto his hearing. And this is but my first, and lowest degree of comfort, for a higher than this: Verse 9 He hath heard my request. But what? hath God no Masters of Request about him, but is Master of Requests himself? Indeed when he would know the sins of Sodom, he took not information from the Angels, but came down himself to see: and should he in person see sins, and not in person hear prayers? And to show himself to be his own Master of requests indeed, he hath taken my petition into his hands; that I cannot now doubt of having my request granted: seeing the Prince that must grant it, is himself the Master of Requests to present it: and what is it to receive a supplication into his hands, but to receive the suppliant into his favour?  
If he only heard the voice of my tears; I might doubt lest he thought them but like the tears of Esau, and so should slight them: Or if he only heard my request, I might fear lest he thought it but like the request of the mother of Zebedees' sons, and so reject it: but now that he hath taken my supplication into his hands, now I may be sure he means to do something in it: seeing he never takes any thing in hand, which he brings not to a happy and successful period, against all opposition. The voice of my tears brought God to cast his eye upon me: My request brought him to bow his ear unto me: but the taking my supplication into his hand, hath brought him to compassionate my estate: and seeing his compassion is active, and his pity relieving; my tears of sorrow may now be turned into tears of joy, my lamentations into songs of thanks giving. The lamentable accent of my language, made God first to look upon me: The pitiful nature of my suit, made him next to listen to me: but the justness of my cause in hand, made him lastly, to take my petition into his hand, which is in effect to grant it out of hand.  
Indeed God is with no music so much delighted, as with that of voices; with no voices so much, as with those of tears; with no tears so much, as with those of the heart, and such were mine, though sent forth by the eyes: And now, whose eyes would not be moved at so strange a sight, to hear eyes speak? whose ears would not be moved at so strange a hearing, to see tears be a suitor? whose hands would refuse so strange a writing, where eyes, I may say, are the Pen, tears the Ink, and sighs the paper? Pardon my curiosity O God, in imagining wonders, while I meditate of thee, in whom are nothing but wonders.  
And what remains now, but that my sorrows remove their lodging, and sojourn with my enemies, as they have done with me: what remains, but that my sighs be turned upon mine enemy's breasts, my tears upon their eyes, and that the pit they digged for me, they may fall into themselves; and that, with the violence of falling suddenly. As for me, I shall live to see mine enemies turn their backs and be ashamed: I shall live to see them hid their faces, and be confounded: but before all, and above all, I shall live to magnify thy glorious Name, O God, who art blessed for ever.  
But is David's charity come to this, to be turned into curse and imprecations? Indeed no otherwise than God to the Serpent, when he said, Cursed art thou above all Cattles: for when men are grown into that reprobate sense, that they are more like to limbs of Satan, then to creatures after the Image of God; than it is lawful in God's cause, to take God's course, and to turn them over to shame and confusion. * ⁎ *   

THE TWO AND THIRTIETH PSALM.  
1BLessed is he whose iniquity is forgiven, and whose sin is covered.  
2 Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.  
3 When I kept silence my bones waxed old, through my roaring all the day long.  
4 for day and night thy hand was heavy upon me; my moisture is turned into the drought of Summer.  
5 I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid: I said I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord, and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.  
6 For this, shall every one that is godly prey unto thee in a time when thou mayst be found: surely the floods of great waters shall not come nigh unto him.  
7 Thou art my hiding place; Thou shalt preserve me from trouble; Thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance.  
8 I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will fix mine eye upon thee.  
9 Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule which have not understanding, whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee.  
10 Many sorrows shall be to the wicked; but he that trusteth in the Lord, Mercy shall compass him about.  
11 Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice ye righteous: and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart.   

MEDITATIONS and Disquisitions upon the 32. Psalm.  
Blessedness was cried in the first Psalm, but was there held so dear, that few or none have ever been able to go to the price. Now in this Psalm it is cried again, and at a low rate; and if it be not taken now, it is not like hereafter to be ever had so cheap again. For, where before it must have cost an absolute declining from sin, and a perfect delighting in the Law of God, with a continual exercising in it day and night; Now if we can but get our iniquities to be remitted, and our sins to be covered, it will serve the turn, and be accepted.  
But is this so much an easier rate? For though the purchasing of Blessedness, were before a great work to be done, yet it was a work that might be done by ourselves: where the purchasing it this way, must be the work of another: and were it not better to have it by a way in our own power, then by a way in another's will? But O my soul, Is it in man to direct his own way? Is it in man's power, to perform the work that is required? hath he not long since put out the light that should have guided him in it? hath he not long ago cut off the lock, that should have been his strength to perform it? Oh therefore, blessed be he that affords us blessedness at this rate: For though it be in another's will to grant it, yet consider whose will it is; even his that is more ready to forgive, than we are ready to ask forgiveness, and is rather a suitor to us to take a pardon, then stays for us to be suitors to have a pardon.  
But may it not be thought, because blessedness is set here at a lower rate, that it is not so good a blessedness as the other? and than what is gotten by the bargain? a lower price indeed, but meaner ware. But this cannot be, for blessedness admits no degrees of comparison; as blessed they, that have their sins forgiven, as they (if any such were) that have no sins to forgive. For though blessedness be a positive thing, yet it is a superlative thing: and if there want any thing of being a superlative, there must needs want something of being a blessedness. Blessed then are they that have their sins forgiven: for to be forgiven, is as much as never to have been guilty: and to say, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven; is all one as to say, Blessed are they that never sinned. When our sins are once forgiven, we are then at peace with God with whom, until they were forgiven, we were at enmity: and if no misery be comparable to this, to have God's displeasure; then no blessedness can be comparable to this, to have his favour: and his favour we shall be sure to have, if he forgive us our sins; and therefore, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven.  
But is all the way as smooth as this? Is there not a rub in the way here? for to say, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, is very plausible; but to say, Blessed are they whose sins are covered, seems to mar all. For what if my sins be so great that they cannot be covered? must I therefore be forced to lose my blessedness? It is true indeed, though my sins be in number as the sands of the Sea, yet the Sea is great enough to cover them all: But alas, the sea covers not sins, though it cover the sinners; and what blessedness can there be in such a covering? If I go to the world to cover them, and indeed the world is wide, and no doubt a great coverer of sins: but alas, the world's covering is but Hypocrisy; and what were this, but to cover one sin with another, a lesser with a greater, and so I should be covering them still, and never cover them, but lay them more open in the sight of God, than they were before. If I go to the Heavens to cover them; and indeed the heavens are large, Et tegit omnia Coelum: but alas, the Heavens are full of lights, and will sooner discover that which is hidden, then cover any thing that lies open to view. Yet I may hope to get the Cherubims to cover them, for they have broad wings, and of a wonderful extent: but alas, the Cherubims have use enough of their wings to cover their own faces: they cannot with all their wings so much as cover the least of all my sins. And what hope then to have my sins covered, when neither the Sea, nor the World, neither the Heavens, nor the Cherubims that are above the Heavens, be able to cover them. Yet they must be covered, or there can be no blessedness. And how am I then in any better case for attaining of blessedness, than I was before? Two ways propounded for attaining it, and both impossible: There, the price not possible to be paid: Here, the bargain not possible to be performed. But O Thou that sittest in the Heavens, O Thou that ride beteewn the Cherubims, Blessed be thy glorious Name: For thou camest thyself from Heaven of purpose to cover them; Thou broughtest that with thee from Heaven, which only is able to cover them: for what can cover sins but righteousness? what cover infinite sins, but infinite righteousness? and where is any infinite righteousness to be found, but in him only that is infiniteness itself? Be comforted therefore my soul; for now it is not a hope, it is an assurance that my sins at last shall come to be covered; It is not a hope, it is an assurance, that I shall come at last to this blessedness in covert.  
There are some perhaps will grant, that blessedness may consist in covering indeed, but not in covering of sins: They think rather in covering their Tables with rich plate, and dainty dishes: or in covering their houses with slates of Gold; like Aurea domus Neronis; or in covering their backs with silk and soft raiment, such as Christ saith are in King's houses: but Nabuchodonozor will come in for one, Dives for another, and Haman for a third, and give clear evidence that all these are deceived, and that David only tells us the truth; They, they only are the blessed men whose sins are covered.  
But what needs all this scamning and discussing? For, what more mystery is there in saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; then if it were said, Blessed are they, from whose iniquities thou turnest away thy face, and whose offences thou blottest out? Or, (because the Scripture hath plenty of expressings in this kind) then if it were said; Blessed are they whose iniquities thou castest behind thy back, and whose sins thou removest from thee as fare as the East is from the West? for to what tends this variety of expressing, but either for illustration: or at most, for vehemency of asseveration, that our sins are pardoned? But if it be conceived to be not so much a divers expressing of the same way, as an expressing of a divers way to blessedness; then indeed, as being more mystical, it will be more misty for discerning clearly what the meaning of David is. Is it then, that forgiving our sins is the work of God's mercy; for it is mercy's work only to forgive; covering our sins, the work of his love; for love covers the multitude of sins: not imputing our sins, the work of his will; as he saith, I will have mercy, on whom I will have mercy: that so we may have here a three fold cord of God's goodness to rely upon for our blessedness? Or is it, that remission is necessary for sins of commission, Covering, necessary for sins of omission; but not imputing may serve for sins of transmission; that is, for sin original, transmitted to us from our first Parents? Or is it that forgiving is mentioned as the work of God the Father, whose work properly it is to forgive: as he saith, I am he that blot out transgressions: Covering is mentioned as the proper work of God the Son; as with whose righteousness our sins are covered: and therefore Saint Paul saith, Put ye on the Lord Christ jesus: Not imputing is mentioned as the work of the holy Ghost; who being all love, compassionates our infirmities, and so all the persons in the Deity have a hand, (as it is fit they should) in this great work of procuring to us our blessedness: that as at the making of man at first; so at the making of man blessed at last, they may all join together, and say, Faciamus hominem ad imaginem nostram.  
As long as iniquities are unforgiven, the conscience lies as it were on a Rack tortured and tormented, day and night; but as soon as there comes a pardon, it is presently taken off the Rack, and laid at ease: and is not this a blessedness? As long as our sins remain uncovered, God turns away his face, and frowns upon us; but as soon as our sins be covered, he shows us again the light of his countenance: and is not this a blessedness? As long as our sins are imputed to us, we are in the state of Adam when he was cast out of Paradise: but as soon as we are freed from this imputation, we presently hear Christ say; This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise: and is not this again a blessedness? And is it not now, that David expresseth it three ways, to show, that by it a godly man is not only blessed, but thrice blessed?  
But seeing forgiving, and covering, and not imputing of sins, are all but privative things; how can they make a blessedness, which is a positive thing? They may take away misery, but can never make a blessedness. But is not the very taking away of misery, in this case, a blessedness? for seeing we were ordained by God at first, to a blessed estate, and nothing bars us from that estate, but sin; are we not by the removing this bar, either left in this estate, or at least restored to it again? O gracious God, grant me the forgiveness of mine iniquities, and the covering of my sins, and let me never come at Heaven, if I make not of these privatives, a jacobs' Ladder to climb up to Heaven. Neither yet is remission of sins a mere privative, but it hath in it an influence of Grace also; which brings with it a shower of blessings, turns Ebal into Gerizim: and of the Thief upon the Cross, makes a saint in Paradise.  
Hitherto, David's doctrine we may well subscribe to, Verse 2 but what means he by this; And in whose spirit there is no guile? For, if there be no guile in his spirit, what needs either covering, or forgiving? But is it not, as Christ said of Nathaniel: Behold a true Israelite, in whom there is no guile: and yet who doubts, but in Nathaniel there was sin? It seems therefore meant, that though covering and forgiving be all God's work, yet there is a condition required in him whose sins are to be forgiven: and this is the condition, that there be no guile in his spirit: but that his repentance be sincere and unfeigned, and without hypocrisy. And it is, as if he had said; Blessed is he whom God justifies, and justifying sanctifies: for having said, Blessed is he to whom the Lord imputeth no fin; which is our justification: it presently follows, and in whose spirit there is no guile, which is our sanctification. Or is it here annexed with a conjunction, perhaps to show that sanctification doth not so much follow, as it is annexed; and from the same breath of God's spirit, riseth together with justification? Or is it therefore added, lest we should think blessedness to be in such sort God's gift, as that there should be nothing required in us towards the attaining it: which yet is so in us, that it is not of us, but must come from God to us? for alas else, what spirit of ours could be without guile, if it were not influenced by that spirit, which is the truth itself?  
It seems this is a doctrine, in favour plainly of plain dealing: but is this a world for plain dealing to thrive in? and if no thriving, what blessedness? But is it not said of jacob, that he was a plain man, and yet would any man desire to thrive better than he did? who went over jordan with nothing but his staff, and returned bacl with multitudes of Cattles. Never therefore fear thriving by plain dealing; for God that requires plainness in thy dealing with him, will no doubt bless it in thy dealing with others; and they that make themselves rich by guile, will but find themselves beguiled in the end, when God blows upon them, and that they find that guile in their fortunes, which they so greedily entertained in their spirits.  
But why am I so earnest against guile in the spirit? do I not herein speak against myself? Verse 3 For was there not guile in my spirit, when I held my peace, for confessing my sins, and yet cried out for sense of my pain; as though I would have made God believe, it was for sense of my sin? but God knows I was silent in that, and that silence is now cause of my roaring: for if I had spoken and confessed my sin at first, I might have been heard in a lower voice: but having deferred my repentance so long, what marvel if God be gone so fare out of hearing, that a lower voice then roaring will never be heard? Every sin we commit, makes God to turn away his face and departed from us: and the longer time the sin is unrepented, the longer time he hath to go from us the farther; and the slower we are in repenting, the more he hastens his pace: and have we not need then to cry the louder, to make him to hear us, that by long deferring our repentance is gone so far from us? Oh the foolishness of men that defer repentance! for to defer the repenting of sins, is a greater sin, than the sins to be repent: and have we not need then of the louder voice to obtain forgiveness, when to our former sins to be repent, is added this great sin of deferring our repentance? O foolish tongue, how often hast thou spoken when it nothing concerned thee! and wouldst thou not speak now when it concerned thee so much? how often hast thou spoken at the urging of impatience, and wouldst thou not speak now at the entreaty of repentance? But why then is it said, Non ulli tacuisse nocet, as if to hold one's peace did never hurt any? silence indeed never hurts any by sins of commission, but by sins of omission often: silence is never guilty of idle words, yet guilty often of idleness, in letting slip opportunity. And therefore Solomon's counsel seems much the sounder: There is a time to speak, and a time to hold one's peace: and if there be a time for each of them, than each of them in their due time is good; out of time is bad: it is as great a fault to be silent when it is fit to speak, as it is to speak when it is fit to be silent: and if any time be fit for speaking, unfit for silence, this is the time, when sins are to be confessed, and when our iniquities are to be acknowledged and made known to God. Now therefore am I justly punished for my silence: for seeing I held my peace when it was fit to speak, now my speaking will not serve, but I am feign to roar: seeing I would not spend a few hours in prayer at first, now I am feign to lie crying and praying all the day long. Alas, to what a miserable state had I brought myself, that could neither make use of my silence, nor of my crying out: for if I held my peace, I concealed my sin, and the sore still festered more and more: and if I cried out, it spent my spirits, and the very pain did Ages work for it in my bones, and made them old, while my body was young. The truth is, I felt myself in pain, but knew not what I ailed: I knew all was not well with me, but knew not well why it was so: Now after much searching and examining the cause, I find what it was: It was even sin, that lay all this while in my bosom, as a fire raked up in the embers of security, and burned me to the very bone: but finding it to be sin, I was ashamed to confesseit: and so between shame of revealing, and danger of not revealing, I lived a long time as a man distracted, holding my peace for very shame, and crying out for very pain: And alas, O Lord, Verse 4 how could I choose, when it was thy hand that lay heavy upon me; thy hand of which it is said, that with it thou dost terrible things: and that which is in terror the most terrible, when thou once beginnest, thou never givest over: thine anger is not as an Ague, but as a Fever; comes not by fits, but is a continual fit without either remission, or intermission: and what marvel then, if in this torrid Zone of affliction, my Almond tree flourish before the time, and my strong men bow themselves under the burden? As a flower that is parched with the sun, and is ready to fall from the stalk that upheld it: and as earth that is overdried with the heat, and is ready to crumble into dust and powder: such, O Lord, was I, while neither wind, nor so much as a breath of thy favour blew upon me; while neither shower, nor so much as the dew of thy Grace instilled into me: and in this maze of distress whither could I think to turn myself for help? I thought sometimes that time might help me: but alas, time was no friend of mine; for the longer time I stayed, the more my sore festered and rankled within me: then I thought that place might help me; but alas, I turned me from side to side, and could neither find rest in resting, nor ease in motion: Then It hought of friends, but alas, my friends were my fortunes, and not mine; they bore me fair in hand, while the weather was fair; but as soon as a storm came, they shrunk in the wetting. So I bethought me at last of a way, which the world would rather think a Precipice, than away, and yet perplexed as I was, I thought best to venture it. Verse 5 I said I will confess my sins to God: A dangerous way I vow, to go for help to him whom I had offended: to look, his hand should raise me up, that had cast me down: yet see the event, or rather wonder at the wonderfulness of God's goodness; I confessed my sin to God: and he for gave me the iniquity of my sin. Oh let every sinful soul take this from me: There is no such way in the torment of sin, as to confess it to God. For it is not with God as it is with men, Gods ways are not as men's ways: if we confess a debt to men, no way but we must pay it: but in a debt to God, the very confessing it is a payment, and it is instead of ability, that we acknowledge our felves to be unable.  
And indeed, O my soul, what danger can there be in confessing thy sins to God, who knows them already better than thyself? Thou informest him of nothing he knew not before: thou dost but discharge thy conscience, and prostrate thyself at the foot of his mercy: and he is the Lion of the tribe of judah: and who knows not that it is the noble nature of the Lion to spare any thing that prostrates itself before him. If Adam had confessed his sin to God, would God have cast him out of Paradise? If Eve had confessed her sin to God, should she have had such throws in her childbearing? Oh then let every Adam that would recover Paradise, let every Eve, that would have ease in her labour, confess their sins to God: for they may be confident a true confession shall never return, either unregarded, or unrewarded: that where it was said before, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered: we may now alter the stile and say, Blessed are they whose iniquities are confessed, and whose sins are discovered. For if we confess them, God is just, and will forgive them; if we discover them, God is merciful and will cover them: that as it was said of Abraham, he believed, and it was counted to him for righteousness: so it shall be said of us; we confess our iniquities, and it is imputed to us for innocence.  
But is there nothing required to forgiveness of sins but only the confessing of them? Alas, confession is but a part of repentance God's pardons are always entire, and is it likely that he will grant a whole pardon, for only a piece of repentance? Indeed so great is God's forwardness in showing of mercy, so great his favour towards penitent sinners: that as he useth the figure, I may say of Anticipation in his grace to them, so he accepts of the figure synecdoche in their performance to him: though confession be but a part of repentance, yet if it be a true part he accepts it for the whole, and puts a penitent in possession of a full pardon upon his first payment. But than it must not be a bare confession, such as the earth was in the beginning, Vacuaet informis: of which, it was not said, Et vidit Deue quod erat bonum: as the confession of Pharaoh & judas was: but it must be Confessio informata, a confession of one in whose spirit is no guile: a confession not only Gravida, but Parturiens, In labour, which is contrition: such as the Publicans was, who in confessing stroke his breast. And yet this is not all, but it must be a confession made to God: Pharaoh indeed confessed, but it was but to Moses: and judas confessed, but it was but to the Rulers, neither of them to God, as David doth here: and yet, neither is this all, but it must be a confession, with professing to confess; as it is here: I said I will confess my sin to God: and this kind of confession is so acceptable to God, that next to a Martyr, he loves a Confessor.  
For this, Verse 6 shall every one that is godly prey unto thee in a time when thou mayst be found: for what favour can a prayer look to find, that is made to one that is not to be found? But are there then critical times for finding of God, as there are for taking of Physic, or for setting of figures in Astrology? Is not God every where, and therefore to be found in any place? Eternal, and may be found at any time? O my soul, it is neither time nor place that is any considerable circumstance for finding of God: but if thou wouldst know the true place to find him indeed, thou must look him in thy heart: if the truest time, thou must observe thy repentance: for in a penitent heart are all the considerable circumstances for finding of God, either for time or place: look him there, and then thou shalt find him: look him then, and there thou shalt find him. O than my soul, if my heart be the true place for finding of God, had I not need to look him there betimes? for how long am I sure I shall keep my heart? I may be sure, not long; seeing it is always upon going, and makes all the haste it can to be gone: and if it should be gone before I find God in it, alas my soul, there would be no finding him there, for thee for ever. And as the heart is the true place; so what may we say is the true time when God may be found? What, no doubt, but the present time? for seeing in God, there is neither time past, nor time to come, how should we look to find him where he is not? For this therefore shall every one that is godly prey to God while he may be found, that is, presently, and at this very instant, and not defer repentance to the time to come, in which God is not found, no more than it is found in God.  
God no doubt may be found at all times; but we are not at all times in case to find him: for how should we find him, when we have no eyes to look him? and am I sure I shall have eyes always? God knows, I am sure I shall not, for I find them to grow dimmer every day than other; and this dimness ere long, must needs end in darkness. Oh than my soul, make haste to find God, before the crystal of thine eyes be broken: for if thou tarry till then, there will be no finding him; and if not find him, no ask him forgiveness: and if not ask it, not have it; and not having forgiveness, there will be no blessedness. For this shall every one that is godly prey to God while he may be found, that is, before his lights be put out, and before he go to dwell at the City of Worms, in the dungeon of darkness. There is indeed no finding of God, without repentance, and no repentance without faith: which because it shall cease in the life to come, we must therefore find him now, or shall not at all, either here or not hereafter.  
But if no more but repentance be required for finding of God: what hinders, but he may be found at any time: seeing what hinders, but I may repent at any time? O my soul, who tells thee so? For haste thou the heart to break thy heart at any time? and if thou hast not, then canst thou not repent at any time: for true repentance is a breaking of the heart. Thou mayst perhaps quench the spirit when thou pleasest: but canst thou set it a burning when thou pleasest? If thou canst not, then canst thou not repent when thou pleasest; for a true repentance, is never without a burning ardour of God's Spirit.  
But is there indeed any time when God may not be found? Is he like to some Princes, who shut themselves up in state at times, and are not then to be spoken withal, or seen? O great God, thou art not like man, and therefore not found after their manner: found, when only their persons are found: but to find thee, is to find thee gracious, without which, as good lost thou wert, as found: and gracious can none find thee, but only the penitent: and therefore for this, shall every one that is godly prey unto thee, so that through the grace of a true repentance, he may find thee gracious.  
When a sin is committed, a shower of God's anger raines presently down upon the sinner; and continues raining, till there be repentance: and if the repentance be deferred long, it may rain down anger so long, till it make a flood, and then there will be no going near to God for water: but rather the water will go near to be a cause of drowning: for it is not every one's case to have an Ark to save himself in from the flood of God's anger; he only may be confident to be saved, that like Noah, gins to make his Ark betimes, and returns to God with a speedy repentance.  
But why is it said, every one that is godly, and not rather, every one that is wise? seeing it is wisdom, and not godliness, that can discern the fitness of times and seasons? Is it not, that wisdom, and godliness in spiritual matters, are terms convertible: No true wisdom without godliness, no godliness without true wisdom: but therefore rather said godly then wise, because indeed there is no other godliness, though there be other wisdom.  
And now, O my soul, consider the blessedness of a true repentance, and what a conversion it makes in a penitent heart: I could never think before, but that the world was the safest sanctuary; the flesh, the best Paradise: but now I cansay; Thou, O God, Verse 7 art my refuge from tribulation; thou my jubilee against all perfecutions: the place from which I hide myself before, is now become the place to hid me in: and that which I fled from before, as my only terror, I now fly to as my only succour. Before I repent, I thought that to go to God, was to run upon a rock: but now I find it is to go into the Haven: Before, I thought still upon that saying, A man shall leave Father, and mother, and cleave to his wife: but now I find, that Adhaerere Deo bonum est, there is no blessedness but in cleaving to God. Before I repent, I aspired to nothing, but to sit at Dives his table, and to far deliciously every day: I took pleasure in nothing, but in wearing soft raiment, in mirth and jollity: but now I find that all the dishes I fed on there were poison: I find there is no wearing like to sackcloth, nosweet powder like to ashes, and say to laughter thou art mad. Thou, O Christ, art the true food that nourisheth to eternal life: Thou, the true garment, that gives me entrance to the marriage of the Lamb, and makest me to hear the melody of Heaven, in the choir of Angels. Before I repent, I said to the world Egypt, thou art my staff, and to the flesh Dalilah, thou art my joy: but now I can say, Thou, O God, art my refuge in all tribulations; Thou, the joy of my heart, against all my persecutors.  
But O the vanity of the world, have I lived to hear that glorious acclamation, Saul hath killed his thousand, and David his ten thousand: and is my glory come now to this, that I am glad of a place to hid me in? Indeed, Sic transit gloria Mundi. But O my body, never do thou trouble thyself for the matter, for thou art sure enough of a place to hid thee, seeing a span or two of earth will serve thy turn: It is thou my soul, that makest me glad of a place to hid me, for thou indeed art not easily hidden, thou lie est open to all assaults of Satan, to all temptations of the world, and that which is more than these, to the angry hand of God: and from this it is chief, I am glad of a place to hid me: though the world may think it strange I should go to God, to hid me from God: But O foolish world, it is not strange, for I go to God's Mercy, to hid me from his justice; for God forbidden, I should be of those, that call to the Mountains to cover them, and to the Hills to hid them. No, dear jesus, Thou art the Mountain that must cover me; Thou, the Sanctuary, that I fly unto: to which if joab had fled, it had not been Abner that could have drawn him forth.  
But had not David Towers, and Fortresses to defend him, and could he not be safe unless he were hidden? and say he were brought to a necessity of hiding himself; yet is he well advised to make choice of God, for his place to hid him? The darkest places are fittest for hiding; and what hiding then could he look for of God, who is nothing but light? O my soul, there is no hiding so excellent, as to be hidden with light; for thither my enemies, who are children of darkness can never come. When I am hidden with light, I can see my enemies, and they not see me: not much unlike the advantage that God himself hath over us. When I am hidden with light, there is more glory in the light, than desparagement in the hiding: and have I not reason then, to make choice of God who dwells in light inaccessible, for my place to hid me? Others hiding can but keep me from the eyes of my enemies, it cannot keep me from the hands of my enemies: Gods hiding can do both: For, Thou, O God, shalt preserve me from trouble: though in others hiding, enemies perhaps cannot, yet troubles at least may find me out; but when thou hidest me; as enemies cannot, so troubles dare not: I shall be as free from the fear, as from the sense of troubles. And yet, O God, if thou shouldst only preserve me from trouble, this were no more, than I might enjoy, if I were a senseless creature; for what trouble, where there is no sense? but thy hiding will do more than this: it will compass me about with songs of deliverance: and this will give me a sense, and in that sense a delight of the happiness I enjoy by the benefit of thy hiding.  
If thou shouldst deliver me but in part, I should in part be in bondage still: and what would my state be the better for this? seeing in this case, all figures are synechdoches; a part here as much as the whole: to be a Prisoner in part, is to be a Prisoner altogether: but when thou compassest me about with deliverance; this leaves no place for synechdoches, but gives me a total and absolute freedom; and makes me obnoxious to no molestation, And yet if thou shouldst also compass me with deliverance, and so leave me; I might be still both insensible of it in myself, and unthankful for it to thee, and so my state but little the better for this neither: but when thou compassest me about with songs of deliverance; this makes me a Quirister in the Choir (I might say of Angels,) but that their songs are all songs of jubilee, and mine only of deliverance. O my soul, God is not a deliverer like a half Moon, bright in one part, and dark in another; but he is a deliverer like the Sun, his deliverance shines always the whole compass: and with his deliverance, he delivers also songs of thankfulness to him, and in myself of joyfulness.  
But what need is there of Plurality of songs? may not one song serve? and if one may, what need many? One song perhaps, may serve for one deliverance: but if there be many deliverances, must there not be many songs? and must there not be many deliverances, when there are many bondages? and are there not many bondages when I incur a new bondage, as often as I commit a new sin? and yet another reason as great as this: For say that God's deliverance be but one, will that one deliverance require but one song? O my soul, it deserves, and therefore requires, I say not a Plurality, but an infinity of songs: for there must be some songs to express it, and others to extol it; some songs of miserere, and others of Magnificat: some de profundis, and others in excelsis, some songs of praise, and others of thanksgiving: and though there will be a time when all these songs shall be collected into one, and so collected make the great Canticum Canticorum: yet till that time come, there will be need of many songs: and seeing I shall need many; I hope, O God, thou wilt not see me want, and tie me to one song: but wilt compass me about with songs of deliverance.  
But alas, O Lord, I am fare as yet from being compassed with songs of deliverance; I have not so much as one song of deliverance to sing: for how should I sing of deliverance, that am still in bondage? how sing at all, that am still a weeping? But I know thy goodness O God, I know how much thou delightest in the Music of Thanksgiving; and therefore, am assured, the time will come, and (considering the haste thou makest) will come speedily, that thou wilt compass me about with songs of deliverance.  
But have I been all this while right, in the understanding of David's meaning, where he saith, Thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance? for are they songs that are sung for me, or songs that are sung by me? if sung for me, than they are men and Angels that sing them, as rejoicing for my deliverance; if sung by me, than it is I, O God, that sing them to thee, as giving thanks for my deliverance. Songs of deliverance, of my deliverance, that I am delivered: or songs of deliverance, of thy deliverance, that thou hast delivered me. Take them in either sense, & David is pleased; take them either way, and God is glorified. So there need be no question of this, yet of this, there will be question: how I can be sure of repenting, if I am not sure to repent when I list? and this question David seems to answer, putting the matter upon God; Verse 8 and therefore brings God in, as speaking thus: I will give thee understanding, and will instruct thee in the way that thou shalt walk; I will fix mine eye upon thee: and God's instructions are never in vain: for with the lessons he gives, he gives also an aptness to understand them; and with the aptness, a capacity to perform them: and then having God, for an instructor, by teaching thee the way, and for an overseer, by fixing his eye upon thee: how canst thoudoubt of profiting in a learning, where all the learning is but one lesson of repentance. Repentance indeed is but one lesson: but it is the hardest lesson in all the book: and we may see how hard it is, by the great ado that is about it: for first, God must give us understanding for it; and this will not be enough; then he must give us instructions in it; and neither will this be enough; then he must have a continual eye upon us, to hold us to it, and all these together will be but little enough; Alas, all these together will be too little, and not enough, if we be wanting to ourselves. Be not therefore, O my soul, like the Vineyard of which God said, what could I do more to my Vineyard, than I did, and yet it hath brought forth nothing but wild grapes? No my soul, Be not like to Horse and Mule, that have no understanding: Verse 9 when thou art showed the right way, do not wilfully run another way: when one comes to dress and keem be thee, do not offer to bite and strike; do not cast thy Riders, nor kick at thy Rulers: Be not headstrong like the Horse, nor lazy like the Mule: for if thou use thyself like a Horse and a Mule, thou must look to be used like a Horse and a Mule; have a bridle put in thy mouth, and a snaffle in thy jaws: and if these will not serve, a spur and a rod too, to quicken and beat understanding into thee. For consider, O my soul, in what state thou standest: though thou have understanding, as being made Ad similitudinem Dei; yet if thou use not understanding, thou makest thyself Ad similitudinem Bruti: or rather so much worse than a Beast, as corruption makes worse than privation: for if a man shall do that by abusing Reason, which a Horse doth by wanting Reason; shall he not do it, not only with more shame, but with more violence, as making that an instrument of stubbornness, which was given for a furtherance of obedience? Is it not a shameful thing that a man should be bridled and spurred as a Horse? yet if he use not understanding, but will be like a Horse, he must be so: for as understanding is the stern, I may say, of a man, to direct him in his course, so a bridle is the stern of a Horse to guide him in his way; and he that will not take into his heart, his own stern of understanding, must be forced to take into his mouth, the Horses stern of a bridle; for a stern he must have, no remedy, either his own stern or a Horses, either understanding or a bridle: that we may truly say, there is not a more necessary trade in the world than a bridle-maker is; seeing without such a one, there would be no living in the world, for the multitude of unruly Horses.  
And thus when men grow so wicked and so void of understanding, to be like Horse and Mule: It may justly then be said, Many are the troubles of the wicked: Verse 10 for there will be troubles of bridle, and troubles of snaffle, troubles of spurro, and troubles of rod; from all which the godly are free: No bridle in their mouths, because they do that willingly, which the foolish Horse will not do but by constraint. No spur in their sides; because with the assistance of God's grace, they use understanding, and run readily of themselves, to the mark that is before them.  
But why then should David in another place say; Many are the troubles of the Righteous? for by this it should seem, there is nothing lost by being wicked, nothing gotten by being righteous; for whither wicked or righteous, there will be troubles still. It is true, there will be troubles, but is there not a difference? The troubles of the godly are but only outward, but the troubles of the wicked are inward rather: The troubles of the godly are but to exercise them, but the troubles of the wicked tend to ruin. The troubles of the wicked have a Corrosive, I may say, a worm within them, but the troubles of the godly have a Cordial, I may say a kernel within them, a sweet kernel indeed, that makes ample amends for all the hardness and fracture of their shell. The troubles of the wicked, have no deliverer: but of the troubles of the godly, it is said, The Lord shall deliver them out of all. And all this long of God's mercy that compasseth them about. It is no doubt, a strong fortress to the godly, that the Angels pitch their tents about them: but it is a far stronger, that God's mercy compasseth them about: for that which is but Ministerial in the Angels, is Primitive in God: and though the Ministry of Angels may be: yet God's mercy can never be frustrate; and especially when it compasseth about; for then, neither troubles on the right hand, nor troubles on the left; neither tumors of Prosperity, nor gripings of Adversity: then neither troubles before them, nor troubles behind them; neither agonies of terror, nor racks of persecution, shall ever come so near them, as to touch them; at least, not so prevail against them, as to hurt them. That notwithstanding all their troubles: Verse 11 It shall be justly said still; Be glad ye that are righteous, and rejoice in the Lord: shout for joy, all ye that are upright of heart.  
And may it not be as well said to the wicked: Be glad, and shout for joy? or rather have they not more cause of rejoicing, than the godly: The wicked indeed may rejoice to see their full barns and their full bags: but alas, what becomes of their joy, when they hear it said; Stulte hac nocte repetent animam tuam? They may rejoice to sit with Belshazzar at their full cups, in revelling and feasting: but alas, what becomes of their rejoicing, when they see it written upon the wall before them, Mene, Tekel, Peres? All gladness of the world is often converted, always convertible into sorrow: only the gladness that is in God, never suffers Eclipse. A single kind of joy the wicked may have, but because their rejoicing is in the world, and not in God; they are fare, God knows from shouting for joy. None but the righteous rejoice in the Lord: and therefore none but the righteous can shout for joy. This David did, when he danced before the Ark: and this Abraham did; when Exultavit ut videret diem Demini: He leapt for joy, to see the day of Christ. Is there shouting for joy at Olympic games, where but a Garland is gotten perhaps of Bay, at most but of some fading matter: and shall their not be shouting for joy, at the game of the great Olympus, where there will be a crown gotten of glory, that shall never whither nor fade away? O my soul, there will be the victory, that is only worthy of shouting for joy: which as it is common to all the godly, so it is proper to only the godly: who being upright in heart, and having their conversation in Heaven already, they see with clearer eyes than Abraham saw Christ's day, the saints expecting them, the Angels ready to receive them; and that which is more than the most that can be said or thought, God himsefle preparing for them their several Mansions of Beatitude: that we may justly conclude as we began; Blessed are they whose iniqui-quities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth no sin, and in whose Spirit there is no guile.   

THE THIRTY EIGHTH PSALM.  
O Lord rebuke me not in thine anger, neither chasten me in thy heavy displeasure.  
2 For thine arrows slick fast in me; and thy hand presseth me sore.  
3 There is no soundness in my flesh, because of thine anger: neither is there any rest in my bones, by reason of my sin.  
4 For mine iniquities are gone over my head, as an heavy burden, they are too heavy for me.  
5 My wounds stink and are corrupt, because of my foolishness.  
6 I am troubled, I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day-long.  
7 For my bones are filled with a loathsome disease: and there is no soundness in my flesh.  
8 I am seeble and sore broken: I have roared through the disquietness of my heart.  
9 Lord, all my desire is before thee; and my groaning is not hid from thee.  
10 My heart panteth, my strength faileth me; and as for the light of mine eyes, that also is gone from me.  
11 My loversand friends stand aloof from my sore, and my kinsmen stand a fare off.  
12 They also that seek after my life lay snares for me; and they that seek my hurt, speak mischievous things, and imagine deceit all the day long.  
13 But I as a deaf man heard not; and I was as a damn man that openeth not his mouth.  
14 Thus I was as a man that beareth not; and in whose mouth are no reproofs.  
15 For in thee, O Lord, do I hope: Thou wile hear me, O Lord, my God.  
16 For I said, Hear me, lest otherwise they should rejoice over me: when my foot slippeth, they magnify themselves against me.  
17 For I am ready to halt, and my sorrow is continually before me.  
18 For I will declare mine iniquity; I will be sorry for my sin.  
19 But mine enemies are lively, and they are strong; and they that hate me without cause, are multiplied.  
20 They also that render evil for good, are mine adversaries; because I follow the thing that good is.  
21 For sake me not, O Lord, O my God, be not fare from me.  
22 Make haste to help me, O Lord my salvation.   

MEDITATIONS upon the 38. Psalm.  
BUt is it not an absurd request, Verse 1 to require God, not to rebuke me in his anger; as though I thought he would rebuke me if he were not angry? Is it not a senseless suit, to pray to God, not to chasten me in his displeasure; as though he would chasten me if he were not displeased? The frowardest natures that are, will yet be quiet as long as they be pleased: and shall I have such a thought, of the great, yet gracious God, that he should be pleased, and yet not be quiet? But O my soul, Is it all one, to rebuke in his anger, and to rebuke when he is angry? He may rebuke when he is angry, and yet restrain and bridle in his anger: but to rebuke in his anger, is to let lose the reins to his anger: and what is it to give the reins to his anger, but to make it outrun his mercy? and than what a miserable case should I be in, to have his anger to assault me, and not his mercy ready to relieve me? to have his in dignation fall upon me, when his loving kindness were not by to take it off? Oh therefore, rebuke me not in thine anger, O God: but let thy rebuking stay for thy mercy; chasten me not in thy displeasure, but let thy lovingkindnesse have the keeping of thy rod.  
But though the request be never so just; yet must it not needs be a wearisome thing to God, to have us always come to him with the same petition, as though we would persecute him with importunity, and make him do that, which he is not willing to do? for if he were willing to grant it, he would no doubt have done it before now; when in the sixth Psalm, we asked him as earnestly for it, as we can do in this. But O my soul, is importunity a fault? if it be, it is a fault I shall hardly be persuaded ever to leave. Did Christ count it a fault in the woman of Canaan, who would take no answer; but still cried after him, till he granted her suit? Did not Abraham importune God five times, about the sparing of Sodom? and did not God grant as long as he importuned? And may we not think that if he had continued his importunity still, he might as well have gotten Sodom to be spared for one man's sake, as he had done for ten? Is God like man, that the importunity of suitors should be a trouble to him? Can we think, that God should be displeased with our importunity to him, when he is pleased to use importunity himself to us? Did not God call to Samnel, three times one after another; when he bid him go to Eli, with a message? Was it not importunity which Christ used to Peter, when thrice together he asked him, Simon son of jonas, lovest thou me? Indeed Peter seemed not well pleased with this importunity: but God never was, never will be found to be displeased with it. Never therefore fear to be importunatewith God; but fear rather, thou canst never be importunate enough; for so highly is God pleased, or rather indeed delighted with our importunity in praying, that he oftentimes denies the first suit of his servants, because he would be importuned by a second; oftentimes the second, because he would have a third. Indeed, that which in suits to men is importunity, in suits to God is fervency and perseverance, and seems to resemble the nature of the Seraphims; where single prayer but of ordinary Angels, of whom as some fell, so this may fail, and often doth, the other never.  
But though importunity be to God most pleasing always: yet to us, it is then most necessary, when the cheerful face of God is turned into frowns: and when there is a justly conceived fear of the continuance of his anger: and have not I just cause to fear it, having the arrows of his anger sticking so fast in me? if he had meant to make me but a Butt, at which to shoot his arrows; he would quickly, I suppose, have taken them up again; but now that he leaves them sticking in me, what can I think, but that he means to make me his quiver; and then I may look long enough, before he come to pluck them out. They are arrows indeed that are feathered with swiftness, and headed with sharpness; and to give them a force in flying, they are shot, I may say, out of his Crossbow, I am sure his bow of crosses: for no arrows can fly so fast, none pierce so deep, as the crosses & afflictions with which he hath surprised me: I may truly say surprised me; seeing when I thought myself most safe, and said, I shall never be moved even then these arrows of his anger lighted upon me, and stick so fast in my flesh, that no arm but his that shot them, is ever able to draw them forth Oh then, as thou hast stretched forth thine arm of anger, O God, to shoot these arrows at me; So stretch forth thine arm of mercy, to draw them forth; that I may rather sing Hymns, than Dirges unto thee: and that thou mayst show thy power, as well in pardoning, as thou hast done in condemning. I, alas, am as an Anvil under two hammers: one, of thine anger, another of my sin; both of them beating incessantly upon me; the hammer of thine anger, beating upon my flesh, and making that unsound: the hammer of my sin, beating upon my bones, and making them unquiet; although indeed both beat upon both: but thine anger more upon my flesh, as being more sensible: my sin more upon my bones, as being more obdurate. God's anger and sin, are the two efficient causes of all misery; but the Procatarkticke cause indeed, is sin: God's anger, like the house that Samson pulled upon his own head, falls not upon us, but when we pull it upon ourselves, by sin.  
I know by the unsoundness of my flesh, that God is angry with me: for if it were not for his anger, my flesh would be sound: but what soundness can be in it now, when Gods angry hand lies beating upon it continually, and never ceaseth? I know by the unquietness of my bones, that I have sin in my bosom; for if it were not for sin, my bones would be quiet: But what quietness can be in them now, when sin lies gnawing upon them incessantly, with the worm of remorse? one would think my bones were fare enough removed, and closely enough hidden from sins doing them any hurt: yet see the searching nature, the venomous poison of sin, which pierceth through my flesh, and makes unquietness in my very bones.  
I know my flesh is guilty of many faults, by which it justly deserves unsoundness: but what have my bones done? for they minister no fuel to the flames of my flesh's sensuality; and why then should they be troubled? But are not my bones supporters of my flesh, and are they not by this, at least accessary to my flesh's faults? as accessaries then, they are subject to the same punishment the flesh itself is, which is the principal.  
I cannot but wonder at this condition in myself: there is nothing I more loath than sin, yet nothing I more willingly embrace: nothing that I more abhor, yet nothing I more readily entertain: what marvel then, if their bee unsoundness in my flesh, and unquietness in my bones, when I will needs be taking so turbulent a guest, so deadly a poison as sin is into my bosom? and make an idol of that, which I know so well to be a monster?  
As a man that stands in the water, as long as it comes but to his middle, or but up to his shoulders, endures and bears it safety enough; but when it comes once to go over his head, it than overwhelmes and presently strangles him: such alas am I, my sin a long time, came I may say, but up to my shoulders; and then I thought myself safe enough; now God knows, I am over head and ears in sin, and so overwhelmed with it, that my breath is taken from me, and I have not so much as any breath of Grace remaining in me. No strength is so great, but it may be overburdened, though Samson went light away with the gates of Azzah; yet when a whole house fell upon him, it crushed him to death. And such, alas, am I, I have had sin as a burden upon me, ever since I was borne: but bore them a long time as light, as Samson did the gates of Azzah; but now that I have pulled a whole house of sin upon me, how can I choose but be crushed to death with so great a weight? And crushed, O my Soul, thou shouldst be indeed; if God for all his anger, did not take some pity on thee: and for all his displeasure, did not stay his hand from further chastening thee.  
I know, O Lord, I have done most foolishly, to let my sores run so long, without seeking for help: For now, Verse 5 My wounds stink and are corrupt; in as ill a case as Lazarus body was, when it had been four days buried; enough to make any man despair, that did not know thee as I do: For, do not I know, that Nullum tempus occurrit tibi? do not I know, thou hast as well wisdom to remedy my foolishness, as power to cure my wounds? Can the grave hold Lazarus, when thou didst but open thy mouth to call him forth? No more can the corruption of my sores, be any hindrance to their healing, when thy pleasure is to have them be cured. Although therefore I have done my own discretion wrong to defer my care; yet I will not do thy power wrong, to despair of thy cure: for, how should I despair, who know thee to be as powerful, as thou art merciful; if I may not rather say, to be as merciful, as thou art powerful: Each of them indeed an Abyssus: and when Abyssus Abyssum vocat, what marvel, if their follow marvels?  
And as I do not despair, so neither do I presume: Verse 6 For I am troubled, I am bowed down, and go mourning all the day long. I am troubled no less with the grief of thy displeasure, then with the pain of my wounds: each of them alone, just cause of mourning; but both of them together, of mourning all the day long.  
I have told heretofore, how I spend my night: all the night I water my bed with tears. Now I tell how I spend my day; all the day long in mourning. And can it be, O God, thou shouldst neither regard my weeping, nor my mourning? neither my weeping all night, nor my mourning all day?  
If my flesh had continued as God made it, there had been in it, both soundness, and beauty; but alas, my sin, and his arrows, his arrows by reason of my sin, have so wounded it, that it is nothing now, but a very Cistern of corruption: for all sin hath poison in it, and breeds diseases; infinite diseases in the Soul, loathsome diseases in the body. And what will not diseases do in these bodies of ours? whose spirits can be so erect, but will be dejected? whose limbs so strong, but will be bowed down? whose heart so cheerful, but will be made to mourn with the violence of diseases? And now therefore, am I dejected, I am bowed down, I gomourning all the day long and may I not say, with the worst kind of mourning, the mourning perhaps of the chine: like Horse and Mule that have no understanding? For my loins are filled with a loathsome disease: the very disease, that made Elias, Verse 7 and john Baptist to wear girdles of beasts skins about their loins; and they with wearing such girdles, prevented in themselves, the loathsomeness of this disease: but I, alas, never thought of any girdle, much less of Beasts skins: and therefore the disease is now grown so loathsome upon me, that it hath filled my loins; so filled them, that it hath not so much as a spare room left to make a perfume in; so loathsome, that it makes me fit for no company but Lazars, for no place but an Hospital: for how should others endure the stinch of my sores, when I am not able to endure it myself? how much less, O God, canst thou endure it, whose pure sense is sensible, even of that impurity, which is to us insensible, in the stars themselves? Thou, O God, didst vouchsafe this favour to our first Parents, to make them garments of Beasts skins to cover their nakedness, and may we not be bold to think, that the Girdles of Beasts skins, which Elias and john Baptist wore about their loins, were also of thy making? Oh then vouchsafe, O God, to give me such a girdle to wear about my loins; a girdle of continence & true mortification; which though it cannot now, as in Elias and john Baptist it did, prevent the growth and loathsomeness of concupiscence in me: It may at least, as in Mary Magdalen restrain it, and make me capable of being cured.  
And as I have not despaired, Verse 8 nor presumed: so neither have I murmured nor repined at thy chastisements: I acknowledge myself most worthy to suffer them, but most unable to bear them. I am dejected no less in body, then in spirit; and yet though I could not speak for weakness, I have roured for grief; and the unquietness of my heart, hath supplied the feebleness of my tongue. Indeed if I could have been a Boanerges, and have gotten a voice like thunder, I should have used it now in speaking to thee; that if my importunity before could not, at least my loudness now might prevail with thee, to procure thee to hear me. For I am feeble and sore broken, I have roared through the unquietness of my heart. All long of the unquietness of my heart, and the unquietness of my heart, all long of my sin: for where sin is, there will never be but unquietness of heart, & an unquiet heart will always produce these miserable effects: Feebleness of body, dejectedness of mind, and roaring of voice.  
But how can roaring stand with feebleness, which seems to require a strength of spirits? Is it not therefore a roaring, perhaps not so much in loudness, as in an inarticulate expressing? that having done actions more like a beast than a man, I am forced to use a voice, not so much of a man, as of a beast? Or is it perhaps a roaring in spirit, which the heart may send forth, though the body be feeble: or rather than most, when it is most feeble: not unlike the blaze of a Candle, than greatest, when going out. Howsoever it be, this is certain; the heart is that unhappy plot of ground which receiving into it the accursed seed of sin, brings forth in the body and soul of man, these miserable fruits: and how then can I be free from these weeds of the fruits, that have received into me so great a measure of the seed? O vile sin, that I could as well avoid thee, as I can see thee; or could as easily resist thee, as I deadly hate thee; I should not then complain of either feebleness of body, or dejectedness of mind, or roaring of voice: but I should perfectly enjoy that happy quietness in all my parts, which thou, O God, didst graciously bestow as a blessed dowry on our first Parents, at their creation. And now, Verse 9 O my soul, let me ask thee a question: Why art thou cast down, and why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God; for I will yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God. But what need was thereof roaring? for what matter is it whether I speak to God in a soft voice, or in a loud? seeing thou knowest, O God, the very thoughts of my heart, and my groaning is not hid from thee. Though I speak not, but only think to speak, yet thou knowest it: though I think not, but only groan to think, yet thou knowest it; and knowing these things, thou knowest O God, that my grief is more for thy displeasure, then for my wounds: less for the pain I feel of thine arrows sticking in me, then for the unkindness I take at thy shooting them at me. As the love with which thou givest, is more dear to me then thy gifts; so the anger with which thou strikest, is more grievous to me then thy rod: and alas, O Lord, how can I then choose but roar through the unquietness of my heart, when I want both thy gifts, and thy love too, and yet feel thy rod, and thine anger too? Verse 9 All my desire, O Lord, is ever before thee, and my groaning is not hid from thee: but what avails it me, that my desire be all before thee, if it be not all for thee? what avails it me, that my groaning be not hid from thee, if it be not made to thee? If I desire any thing besides thee, that desire is from weakness, and then thou regardest it not; if I groan to any but thee, that groaning is from vainness, and then thou seest it not: but now that my desire is only for thee, and my groaning only to thee; now I know, thou both seest and regardest them; and I doubt not, O God, but me for them.  
But, alas, O Lord, Verse 10 this is not yet the whole chapter of my misery; for besides this, My heart panteth, my strength faileth me; and as for the light of mine eyes, that also is gone from me. And what is my heart, but the foundation; what my strength, but the pillars? what mine eyes, but the windows of my building? If these than be ruined, how can my whole building choose but be demolished? My heart is not wont to pant, but in some great agony; nor my strength to sail, but in some great conflict; nor my sight to go from me, but in some great disaster: how great then, alas, must my agony be, how hard my conflict, how grievous my disaster; when my heart, my strength, my sight, all sail me at once? Though my heart panted, yet if my strength continued, I should have a support: or though my strength failed, yet if my sight continued, I should have a guide: but when they all fail, and fail at once; alas, O Lord, how can I choose but fall, that have neither strength to support me, nor eyes to guide me: Thou, O God, must say to my heart, be of good cheer: Thou must say to my strength, I will be thy fortress: Thou must say to mine eyes, I will be thy light: and then, and not till then, shall I ever have case, or confidence, or consolation.  
It is some comfort to men in misery, when they have their friends about them; if not to relieve them, yet at least to pity them: for even pity, is a comfort to men in misery: but so miserable am I, that I am left alone, as one utterly forsaken. For even my lovers and friends stand aloof from me, and my kinsmen stand a fare off. They are all pieces that recoil, and fly bacl at the first voice of the powder. Yet it is not so much me they stand aloof from, as my sore; for if it were not for my sore, I should have enough of their company, easily enough: but they cannot abide sores, their eyes are too tender to endure to see them, and yet hard enough, not to relieve them. Or is it they stand aloof, that is so near, as to show, they are willing enough to see them; but yet so fare off, as to show, they have no meaning to come and help them. But call you these lovers and friends? Men that flutter about us like flies, in the Summer of prosperity, but vanish and are gone in the winter of adversity? Are friends but painted flowers, only for show, and nothing at all for use? Or if true flowers, yet only to make nosegays of, and never to make medicine of? Is there use of Physicians but when there are sores; and when sores come, will not they be gotten to come? Is there use of friends, but in time of need; and when need comes, will they then be gone? But alas, O Lord, was it not so with Christ himself? company enough, friends enough, when there was no need; but as soon as judas comes with a band of men, scarce a man found that will be gotten to tarry: and if they used the Master so, can I that am a servant, look to be better used?  
But say, you call them friends, yet how can you call them lovers? for it is the nature of love, to be readiest at hand, when there be troubles at hand. Doth not the Elm, alover of the Vine, support the Vine, when it else would sink down and fall to the ground? doth not the Vine stick close to the Elm, and if the Elm chance to fall, chooseth rather to fall with it, then to forsake it? And shall nature do this in trees, and shall not reason, shall not virtue, do it much more in men? or shall trees be reckoned the reasonable Creatures, and men be cashiered out of the number? But this is the world; they are called lovers and friends, of their faces, no otherwise then Baboons may be called men: for when a day of trial comes, they are often found as fare from friendship and true love, as Baboons from reason, and true understanding. And such were my lovers and friends (always excepting jonathan:) but I looked for better at my kinsman's hands: for there is in them a propinquity of nature, and nature will hardly be kept from working: yet such is my unfortunatnesse, that in my behalf, even nature herself grows idle, and I find as little comfort from my kinsmen, as from my other lovers and friends: and to say truly, rather less: for where my lovens and friends stand but aloof, Verse 11 my kinsmen stand afar off: neither of them near indeed, but yet my kinsmen the farthest off: My lovers and friends stand but aloof from my sore, as taking it perhaps for a Noli me tangere; but my kinsmen stand afar off, as taking it for no less than the very plague. My lovers and friends stand aloof from my sore, as expecting perhaps a time of recovery when they may come on again; but my kinsmen stand afar off, as never intending to hearken more after me. My lovers and friends stand aloof from my sore, as fearing more my sore than me, but my kinsmen stand a fare off, as fearing me no less than my sore: and where my lovers and friends by standing aloof, do but violate the law of a contracted friendship: My kinsmen by standing afar off, violate even the law of natural affection: And is not this a grievous thing, that the law of reason, the law of friendship, the law of nature shall all be broken, rather than I shall be relieved, or find assistance? And now, O my soul, seeing thy lovers and friends, and kinsmen prove all unloyall, unfaithful, and unnatural, in whom alas canst thou hope for help? In whom, O Lord, but only in thee? for thou art a lover incomparably more loyal, then either the Vine to the Elm, or the Elm to the Vine: Thou are a friend infinitely more faithful, then either Jonathan to David, or David to jonathan; Thou art a kinsman, but rather a father unspeakably more tender of thy children, then either Boaz of Ruth; or Abraham of his one and only son Isaac.  
But though to be thus forsaken, rejected, and even abhorred, by lovers, and friends, and kinsmen, be misery enough, and more then enough for one man to bear; yet this is not all the misery I bear, Verse 12 but they also that seek after my life lay snares for me: and they that seek my hurt, speak mischievous things, and imagine deceit all the day long. Is it not enough that my friends and kinsmen will do me no good; but there are others that will do me hurt: and it is not enough, that they wish my hurt, but they seek to do it; they hunt after me, as after a prey: and it is no small hurt they seek to do me; but they lay snares for my life: nothing but my life will serve them; and they do it not so much by open violence, which might perhaps be withstood; but they do it by fraud and deceit, which is not easy to be avoided: for first, they speak mischievous things, they raise scandals, and work the world to an ill opinion of me; and then they lie devising of ways how to entrap me; and they spend not an hour or two about it, but they imagine deceit all the day long. And alas, O Lord, is this a world to have safety in scandals? where if some be ready to devise them, others are as ready to believe them? If there be a jezabel to plot a false accusation, are there not elders to put it in execution? and do I not in this still run in the same line with my Lord Christ jesus? For did not the scribes and Pharisees, first devise mischievous things against him; and then the High-priests and Rulers believe what they devised, and execute what they believed? And what, O Lord, do I all this while? do I stand upon my guard, and have an eye to their practices? do I seek to repel their violence by force, or to frustrate their fraud with circumspection? Do I clear their scandals with apologies, or do I answer their clamours with vociferations? God knows, none of all these: I neither use arms offensive, nor defensive; all my doing is suffering, and all the apology I make for myself, is silence; Verse 13 For as a deaf man, I heard not, and as a dumb man, I opened not my mouth: For why should I hear, when I meant not to speak? and why should I speak, when I knew before hand I should not be heard? I knew by contesting, I should but provoke them, and make them more guilty, that were guilty too much before. I therefore thought it better myself to be silent, then to set them a roaring, and make them grow outrageous. No doubt, a great wisdom in David, to know that, to be deaf and dumb was in this case his best course, but yet a fare greater virtue, that knowing it, he was able to do it. O how happy should we be, if we could always do that, which we know is best to be done: and if our wills were as ready to act, as our reason is able to enact, we should then decline many rocks we now run upon; we should then avoid many errors we now run into. To be deaf, and dumb, are indeed great inabilities and defects, when they be natural; but when they be voluntary, and I may say artificial, they are then great abilities, or rather perfections. They are two stems, upon which do grow the excellent virtues of patience and charity; which though David shown in himself in a great measure, at the railing of Shimei: yet he could never so properly speak them of himself, as in the person of Christ: for of him indeed the sacred story relates, that being railed upon, and reviled, buffeted and beaten by the base multitude, yet as a sheep led to the slaughter, he opened not his mouth, but was deaf and dumb even to death.  
O grievous alteration! transcendent indignity! He that restored Cripples to health, and raised the dead to life; now to be deprived himself of the chief faculties of life, both active and passive? He that made the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak: now himself neither to speak, nor hear? A grievous case no doubt to be so: and yet no doubt, a just cause it should be so: for if he had heard, he should have heard but blasphemies: and if he had spoken, he must have spoken but reproofs: and seeing blasphemies were too profane for his sacred ears to hear, and reproofs too harsh for his mild tongue to utter: what marvel, if he that made the care, did himself not hear, what marvel, if he that was the Word itself, did not speak a word?  
And as my deafness and dumbness, Verse 15 have not proceeded from imbecility, but from patience; so neither have they proceeded from fear, but from reverence: for why should I speak, when my hope is in thee, O God, that thou wilt speak: why should I hear, when thou wilt hear for me? For alas, O Lord, when I hear, they speak what they list, as either thinking I cannot control them or not caring whether I can or no: but when thou hearest, they are glad to take heed what they say; for thou hast scales to weigh their words, and if find them light, power to censure them. Why then should I offer to hear or speak, when I know ere long I shall have a hearing before thee, where thou shalt be their judge, and wilt be my advocate. And have I not reason, till then, to consecrate my ears and tongue to thee? It is true, injurious language is a provocation able to make a dumb man to speak, and I may say, able to loosen the tongue of Croesus his dumb son: but he that so provoked, should fall a speaking, were very like to fall in speaking: for it is a slippery argument to be spoken in: and if in speaking I should slip never so little, Oh what a joy it would be to my enemies, they would never desire better sport, they would magnify themselves against me: I should be their blind Samson to make them merry, I should serve them for a stock of derision. Oh therefore, suffer me not, O God, to suffer these indignities; but do thou hear for me, do thou speak for me: for I alas, am ready to halt, Verse 17 and my sorrow is continually before me, that if my slipping and falling, be a cause to make mine enemies rejoice, they may be sure of joy enough: for how can I choose but often fall, that am of myself so ready to halt? and specially when my sorrow is always before me; that makes me I cannot see my way before me; for what doth more blind the eyes, and take away the sight, than sorrow? Was it not sorrow that hindered Mary Magdalen from discerning Christ, when she saw him at the Sepulchre? And besides, my halting is the worst kind of halting that is; for I come not to it, as jacob came to his, by wrestling with an Angel, which brought a blessing with it: but I come to it as Mephibosheth did, by the imbecility or inequality of my parts: For having two feet to go upon, my reason, and my will; how can I choose but halt, when my will is so much longer than my reason? and then, if to the aptness of my falling, by reason of my halting, there be added the inadvertency of the way, by reason of my sorrow: how can I choose but even trip at every step I take? that if mine enemies rejoice at my fall, they are very like to have their fill of rejoicing; for if a just man fall seven times a day, how often, alas; am I like to fall, that halt, I may rightly say, down right in sin? but let mine enemies rejoice to see me fall as much as they please; this shall not hinder me from seeking to rise: and seeing there is no rising from sin, but by confessing it; Verse 18 I will therefore declare mine iniquity, I will be sorry for my sin: I will declare mine iniquity, that my enemies may see, I can speak to God, though I was dumb to them; and I will be sorry for my sin, to make them see how little I envy their rejoicing, that can take pleasure in my own sorrowing: for to declare mine iniquities without sorrowing for my sin, might rather be thought an ostentation than a penitence, and rather show me proud of my sin, then ashamed of it. I will therefore be sorry for my sin, that my sorrow may testify for me, that my declaration now is out of contrition; as my declaration shall testify, that my dumbness before, was out of compassion. But though I scorn mine enemies deriding, yet I am not insensible of mine own disgrace: and therefore hope that my speaking now, shall supply my dumbness before; and make thee, O God, to take my cause into thine own hearing; and either convert mine enemies, or else confound them. This indeed is my hope, though I see as yet but small fruit of my hope; For mine enemies are lively and strong, Verse 19 and they that hate me without a cause are multiplied. I looked for abatement of their rejoicing, and they continue lively still: for abatement of their power, and they continue as strong as ever: for abatement of their number, and they are rather multiplied, and increase. But though it be an easy matter for them to be lively, being so strong as they are; and to be strong; being so many as they are: yet how easy is it for thee, O God, by thy Spirit of life, to strike a dump into their liveliness; by thy Almightiness, to suppress their strength; by thy Infiniteness, to confound their number: and why then should I be afraid what mine enemies can do unto me? why should I be frighted with an arm of flesh? But that which is most strange of all, Verse 20 they hate me without a cause: as if one should say; Their hatred to me is miraculous: an effect, without a cause: for what cause of hatred, where such motives of love? I seek to do them good, I follow the thing that is good, and yet they hate me. And yet this is no wonder, for is it not said, Qui male agit, odit lucem? They that do evil hate the light? and if hate the light, how can they choose but hate the children of light? That it appears to be cause enough to the wicked, to hate the godly, if they discern in them but any sparks of godliness: and then if this be the case, that I must either be wicked myself, or else be hated of the wicked: I shall never stand long in making my choice, seeing I shall never certainly buy their love so dear. But since they are generations of vipers, and render me evil for good: at least, O Lord, do not thou forsake me; be not thou fare from me: for as long as thou art on my side, and stayest by me, what though the waters roar, and the mountains shake with the swelling thereof? What though the bulls of Basan compasseme, and the strong bulls be set me round: seeing thou art able to deliver me from their fury, and from the hands of all that hate me.  
But O my soul, thou mayst call long enough to God, not to be fare from thee, and all in vain, if thou be fare from him. Take heed therefore, it be not found true in thee, which he sometimes said: This people draweth near me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me: for if thou be near him only with thy lips, such nearness will do thee small good: it is not the neighbourhood of lips that he cares for: but if thou wilt have him not to be fare from thee, Verse 22 thou must be careful that thy heart be not fare from him. And yet neither is this enough, O God, that thou be not fare from me, if thou stand but only looking on, and makest not haste to help me: Thy slowness may be as prejudicial to me, as thy being fare off: for alas, mine enemies are ready to devour me, and they that seek after my soul, make haste. Do thou therefore, O God, make haste also, & be not slower than mine enemies: neither let thy love, be outrun by their hatred. But O my soul, why shouldst thou require God to make such haste, as though thou wouldst as it were surprise him on a sudden? Alas, is God like man, that he should stand in need of time to consider? Are there Secundae cogitationes with him, as there are with men? Is there any thing that can be sudden, or unlooked for to him? Although therefore he be slow to anger, yet he is never slow to mercy; but for showing of mercy, he hath the wings of a Dove, and rides upon the wind. And seeing, O God, thou art able and canst do it; O show thyself willing also, and be forward to do it: Make haste to help me, O Lord my salvation: Make haste to help me, that thou mayst be Lord of my salvation; lest I fall into mine enemy's hands, that would be lords of my destruction: or rather, make haste to help me, O Lord, Thou that art my salvation: for until thou come, I am, alas, a servant of sin, and a bondslave to Satan, that would be my destruction.  
FINIS.