TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFUL, Mr. Edward Stafford, of BRADFIELD in the County of BERK: Grace and glory. SYR: It hath pleased GOD, since my departure from the College, to visit me with continual sickness, (I am the man that hath seen affliction in the rod of his indignation,) Lam. 3.1. a Burning-fever, having for these nine Months exhausted my body, and made it almost a Skeleton: All which time of my weakness, when my indisposition, by my cruel disease, would permit, my study was wholly in the Psalms of David; a Book fit for one in my case, being full of Psalms of humiliation under God's rod: what comfort I found therein, I feel in my soul, I need not, I cannot express. Among many other Psalms of sad subject, I was much affected with the 79. Psalm, the reporter and bemoner of jerusalems' destruction: an argument full of heaviness, agreeable to my dull and sad disposition; on which Psalm I then conceived some Meditations, which for some reasons, I am willing to impart to the world, and have vowed in myself, if this first Essay be kindly accepted, to bestow now in my health, better pains upon all the whole Book of the Psalms, and to make this Schedell a just Volume. I present it to you as the first fruits of my active life, being moved thereto by duty and respect: and somewhat to incite you to make this Book the object of your Contemplation. Believe me, Sir, other Books make men good Scholars, but above all, the Book of the Psalms maketh men good Christians. I doubt not of the acceptance of this poor Mite, or the employment thereof. God who hath given you in your youth, a sober and honest heart; give also that by my unworthy service, you may continue, increase, and grow old in his Grace: so my study shall be ever profitable, and you blessed. Which I hearty wish, and remain Your Worships in all duty and observance I. Dunster. HIERUSALEMS' destruction. PSAL. 79. O God, the Heathen are come into thine inheritance, thine holy Temple have they defiled, and made Jerusalem heaps of Stones. SAint Hilary, in his Prologue upon the Psalms observeth, that to every Psalm there belongeth proper Keys; by which we may open and enter into the sense thereof: and those Keys are said to be twain: 1 The Inscription. 2 The person to whom, of whom, against whom, the Psalm is indicted. 1 The Title or Inscription of this Psalm, is, Psalmus Asaph, in Saint Hieroms translation Canticu●● Asaph, the Song of Asaph, either because composed by Asaph, the son of Barachiah; or rather, because sung by that company of Levites, or Singing-men, which were under Asaphs government: for we find, 1 Chro. 25. that there were three orders or forms of singing-men; some under Asaph, others under Idithun, and the third under Ethan. 2 The person of whom or against whom this Psalm is penned, according to the diverse opinion & judgement of the learned, is likewise diverse: Lyran. some will have the person to be Nabuchadnezzar, and the Babylonians, by whom the first Temple, Augustinus. Cassiodorus. built by Solomon, was defaced, and Jerusalem sacked. Others, Antiochus, surnamed Epiphanes; who burned Jerusalem, and polluted the second Temple, built by Zorobabel, after the captivity: and this opinion is most probable, for 1 Macca. 7.17. we find the third verse of this Psalm, (Their blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem) applied to Antiochus his cruelty, by the ministry of Alcimus: Remigius. Some there be that understand it of Vespasian and Titus, josephus saith that the Priests did first set fire on the Temple and afterwards came to yield themselves to Titus, who made them this answer, Decere sacerdotes, intirire Templo? What use was there of Priests when there was no Temple? who made desolate the City Jerusalem, and burned the third Temple, which was 40. years in building by Herod the first, surnamed Asealonita, who slew the little children in the Gospel. But I do not see how venerunt in haereditatem tuam may be verified of the jews under the Romans, because they were now repudiated, and the Gentiles subrogated into their place. But whosoever the person be against whom this Psalm was indicted. Sure I am it is a mere Elegy and mournful lamentation; literally of the jews, for the destruction of their City and Temple; Tropically of Christians, bewailing the devastation of Christ his Church here on Earth by the malice of cruel persecutors, whether that Aper de syluâ, the Turk, or the Purple whore, the great Antichrist of Rome. Verse 1. O God, the Heathen are come into thine inheritance, etc. Here is a pathetical exclamation, O God and the reason thereof, the Heathen are come into thine Inheritance, etc. O God Deus! ah Deus! aspicis haec? O God Let men be in prosperity they seldom think of, or pray to God. Rarae fumant foelicibus arae. Sil. It. Men in prosperity seldom need or use Sacrifices at the Altar to purchase God's favour, but men in calamity think they never do enough. They were a stubborn people, afflictio facit religiosos, rebus secundis nec Deus nee diws quispiam nobis venit mentem. Erasm. in Naufr. of whom it was said, Clama●erunt ad Dominum cum tribularentur, yet their necks being bended by tribulation, they bowed their knees and hearts likewise. On a Feast, or Marriage-day few talk of God, but if a house be on fire, or the pestilence in the City, all men hold up their hands to Heaven. Fill their faces, O Lord, with shame, and they will seek thy Name, saith the Prophet Isay. It is said of jonas, Zeno Episc. ver. lib. 2. Ser. 38. Vigilat in ceto qui stertebat in nave. Mira res. A wonderful matter! He that slept in the Ship is broad-waking in the Whale's belly, praying unto God so zealously as if he would force Heaven with his prayers. 2 The cause of the exclamation, The Heathen are come into thine inheritance.] Idolaters, who know not thee to be the true God, have invaded, yea, possessed as their own, yea ravaged and foraged in thine inheritance. The Gentiles, cursed, abhorred Gentiles, dogs, wild Olives, if not Brambles rather, of whom thou saidst, Lamen. 1.10. They should not enter into thy Church, have with the foot of pride and disdain trodden upon thine Altars, profaned thy sacred Temple, slain thy Priests, and done violence to the Apple of thine own eyes. (Custodiu●t quasi pupillam oculi sui, Deut. 32.10.) The Chaldaeans, or Antiochus, or the Romans, have broken down the hedge of thy Vineyard, thy people, that thy people, whom thou lovedst as thine own soul (Dedi dilectam animam meam in manus inimicorum, jerem. 12.) have they in miserable captivity. O God Deus! ah Deus! aspicis haec? Thy holy Temple have they defiled.] Whether that of Solomon, if you understand this Psalm of the Chaldaeans, or that of Zorobabel; if of Antiochus, or that of Herod; if of Vespasian and Titus: Thy Temple they have defiled, coinquinated, profaned, either by overthrowing thine Altars, and demolishing the Temple itself; or by exportation of the holy vessels into profane banquets, Dan. 5. 1 Mac. 1.57. Stupris & alijs immandicis illud polluerunt. Haymon Remegius. or by placing in thy Temple the Image of jupiter Olympius, or by abusing our wives and daughters in thy Temple: either by some or all these ways have they defiled thy Temple. — Fuerat hoc prorsùs nefas Sen. Danais inausum, Templa violastis. Haereditatem tuam, Templun tuum.] Thine inheritance, thy Temple. Have regard to thine own worship: defend thine own Altars: safeguard thy Priests: keep thine own house, I do not say from Buyers and Sellers, but from the invasion of thieves, who are already entered therein, and have made thereof a Den of thieves. The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up, and forceth me to say once again, O God Deus! ah Deus! aspicis haec? And made jerusalem heaps of stones.] jerusalem, famous for her first Founder, Melchisedech, King of Salem, a notable type of Christ: for her Antiquity, builded in the days of Abraham: for her situation and form, being the platform and type of heaven: for her Temple, all of gold, even to the Snuffers: for the Kingdom and Priesthood both resident in her: for her name, jerusalem, the vision of peace; where the God of peace was to seal the covenant of peace, and whence was to be sent abroad the Instrument of our peace, the Gospel of Reconciliation. This jerusalem, the City of God, the holy City, the City of the great King the School of our Faith, the cradle of our Salvation, the bed in which the life of the world slept, rose again, and ascended into heaven; this jerusalem is now made in Pomorum custodiam, as a lodge in a Vineyard, or Garden of Cucumbers: nay, in a lodge there is fashion of orderly building, in aceruum lapidum, heaps of stones, Mat. 23. not one stone left upon another in orderly building. — Columen eversum occidit Pollent is Asiae, Sen. caelitum egregius labour. — Hostis— horrei afflictam quoque Victanque quamuis videat haud credit sibi Potuisse vinci.— Is this the City that men call the perfection of beauty, and joy of the whole earth? Lam. 2.15. O God, the Heathen are come into thine inheritance, Tollebant manus prae admiratione. Thomas. O quanta i●●tatio rerum! Rupertus. thine holy Temple have they defiled, and made jerusalem heaps of stones, etc. Why God should thus forsake his inheritance, and not remember his Footstool, in the day of his Wrath. The causes I take to be two: 1 His love to his People. 2 His hatred to the sin of his people. His love to his people: Whom God loveth he correcteth, You only have I known of all the Nations of the earth, therefore I will visit you for all your iniquities, Amos 3.2. he scourgeth every son whom he receiveth: the more his anger, the greater is his love. His best people, chosen and culled out of all the nations of the earth, tasted almost of an Anniversary Captivity. (jerusalem taken * 1 By jebusites. 2 By David. 3. 4. By Nabuchadnezzar. 5 By Sesack, King of Egypt, in Roboams time. 6 By Alexander the great. 7. 8. By Antiochus. 9 By Pompey. 10 By Herod. ten times, before her desolation by Vespasian and Titus,) often captivated, yet never extinguished; yea, God hath reserved a remnant of Israel to be saved in the end of the world, after their so long dispertion. Moab is therefore more full of sin, because never dealt withal as jerusalem, never removed from her lees, never poured from vessel to vessel, saith the Prophet. While God striketh us, it argueth he hath his face towards us, and not his back, which is the greatest judgement of all, when God goeth from us as if not caring for us. I will not visit your daughters when they are harlots, nor your spouses when they are whores, Hos. 4.14. My wrath is departed from me, I will cease, and be no more angry, Ezek. 16. Nolo istam misericordiam: I will none of that mercy (saith S. Bernard.) Ser. super Cant. Misericordia puniens: & parcens crudelitas. Aug. This pity is beyond all wrath: Hîc urat, hîc secet, dùm parcat in aeternum; let him cauterize, let him use incision in this life, so he spare in the life to come. Ex hoc intelligimus, nos Deo curae esse, quoniam cùm peccamus irascitur: By this (saith Lactantius) we know that God careth for us, because when we sin he is angry. The bitter pill of afflictions is no way to be shunned of a good Christian. 1 Because they come from GOD, howbeit sometime inflicted by Satan, God's instrument. Behold it shall come to pass, that the Devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried, and ye shall have tribulation ten days. Be thou faithful unto the death, and I will give thee the crown of life. Reu. 2.10. 2 Because they work for our good: We are chastened of the Lord, because we should not be condemned with the world. 1 Cor. 11.32. Amarasalubria: bitter Potions are wholesome. 3 Because they assimilate us to Christ: He suffered and so entered into his glory. He went to heaven by weeping Cross, and we must follow him the same way. It were monstrous there should be delicata membra sub capite spinoso, saith Saint Bernard. 4 Because howbeit they be grievous, yet they be but short, for a little while have I forsaken thee, but with great compassion will I gather thee: for a moment, in mine anger, I hide my face from thee for a little soason, but with everlasting mercy have I had compassion on thee, Isa. 54.7.8. The Sun is not always overcast with a cloud; It is not ever winter; Mariners feel not always the fury of Winds: Nec fera tempestas toto tamen errat in anno, ovid. in Fast. Et tibi, crede mihi, tempora Veris erunt. Every affliction hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 2 Cor. 2.10. a forth, Intermissa gratior libertas, ac reddita quàm seruata. Petr. or an escape: Sorrow and mourn o Daughter Zion! like a woman in travail, for now thou shalt go and dwell in the field, and go into Babel, but there shalt thou be delivered, Micha 4.10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, He hath, he doth, and yet he will deliver us, There befalleth us no other temptations, 1 Cor. 10.11. but such as befall men. According to our weakness, God proportionateth his cup of affliction: therefore I think called a Cup of affliction, Matth. 20. because no Physician more carefully assigneth a potion for his Patient, nor weigheth out more accurately ounces and drams, than God doth afflictions for his children. 2 His hatred to the sin of his people: Puto, (saith Titus) if the Romans had not come up against them, they would have been swallowed up of the earth, or perished in another Noës-floud, or have been burnt with lightning. Ios. surely had not jerusalem been so sinful God would never have dealt so hardly with his own inheritance. He would never have taken the girdle from his loins, and said; Non es populus meus; thou art not my people. It is their own confession, capti sumus in iniquitatibus nostris: and it was God's profession, Israel, si in viâ Dei ambulâsses, habitâsses utique in pace super terram. Numb. 31.16. Balaam knew that if Balak could but make the people of Israel sin, that God would eftsoons forsake them, and therefore he advised him to put stumbling blocks before them, even that great stumbling block of the world (Quid non mihi faemina praestas?) These caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit a trespass against the Lord. jud. 5. The garish beauty of lascivious women's a Cosby to tempt Zimry. And Ach●or (in the Story of judeth) telleth Holoferues, that if the jews were guilty of any great sins, than they should easily conquer them, for God would forsake them; if not, si non est offensio populi huius coram Deo suo, all would be but in vain they should attempt. When Calais was taken by the French, under Charles the 7. and the Frenchmen, in scorn asked the English when they would come for Calais again; a wise Captain made answer; Cum peccata vestra erunt nostris graviora, when your sins shall be more than ours: intimating that for sirme God giveth over a Kingdom, or a City to the spoil of enemies. Now the sins for which jerusalem is indicted in the Book of God, and so often found guilty, are especially three: 1 Idolatry: According to thy Cities are thy Gods o Israel! They served Chemosh, and Melcome, and Astheroth, and Baalim: and indeed they were insatuated with this sin. You know of old they said to Aaron, fac nobis Deos? Make us Gods. Ab homine exigunt ut Deos faceret, they require a man to make them a God What stock or stone would ever have made such a foolish petition? 2 Cruelty towards the Prophets and Servants of God, jerusalem, jerusalem, which killest the Prophets, etc. 3 And above all, the sacrilegious parricide of our blessed Saviour: other sins caused only their transportation into Captivity, this their final desolation. The anger of the Lord hath scattered them he will no more regard them, Lam. 4.16. (Of the Romans) out of their hands, I will not deliver them Zach. 11.6. Verse 2. The dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat unto the Fowls of the Heaven, and the flesh of thy Saints to the Beasts of the earth. Verse 3. Their blood have they shed like water round about jerusalem, and there was none to bury them. THE jews first bemoan the wrong done to God, and to his Temple; [they have defiled thy Temple;] now they lament their own calamity: they were slain with the edge of the sword; but yet if they might be interred in their Father's sepulchres, or but buried at all, their misery would be so much the less; Sense in Deel. Quid in morte miserius quàm sepeliri non posse? What is more grievous in death, than not to be buried? But behold Burial is denied them: Zenacherib commanded Tobiah to be slain for burying the jews. Tab. 1. Antiochus saith, Macc. 2.9. that the jews are not worthy of burial, but to be left to be eaten up of ravenous Birds, and wild beasts: and under Titus the slaughtered bodies were so many, they could not be interred, (there died by the Famine, Sword and Pestilence, eleven hundred thousand: joseph.) It is a true saying of S. Augustine, Lib. 1. de Civit. Dei. cap. 12. The care of our Funeral, the manner of our Burial, the exequiall pomp, all these Magis sunt vivorum solatia quam subsidia mortuorum, are rather comforts for the living, than any way helps for the dead. To be interred profiteth not the party deceased, his body feels it not, his soul regards it not; and we know that many holy Martyrs have been excluded from burial, who in a Christian scorn thereof bespoke their persecutors, in their words which were slain at Pharsalie. Nil agis hâc irâ, tabesne cadavera soluat, An rogus, haud refert. — Luc. But yet there is an honesty which belongeth to the dead body of man. Quisquis hon●● tumuli. Virg. 10. Aen. jehu commanded jezabel to be buried. David thanked the people of jabes Gilead, for burying of Saul. Peter that commanded Ananias and Saphira, those false abdicators of their patrimony to die, commanded to have them buried being dead. Eccles. 7. It is an axiom of charity, Mortuo non prohibeas gratiam: withhold not kindness from the dead. It shows our love and regard to men in our own flesh to see them buried; it manifesteth our Faith and Hope of the Resurrection; and therefore when that body, which is to rise-againe, and to be made glorious and immortal in Heaven, shall be cast to the Fowls of the air, or Beasts of the Field, jer. 22.11. it argueth in God great indignation against sin. (Of jehoiakim, He shall be buried as an Ass is buried, and cast forth without the gates of Jerusalem:) in man inhuman and barbarous cruelty. I only dislike these three things in burial. 1 The ambitious desire of ungodly men to be buried in the Church; of some, if superstitiously affected, in the Quire nay under the Altar: and to purchase this, thy give a great legacy, whereas Constantine the great thought himself not worthy to be buried in the Church, but at the Church door whence, I take it is that Saint chrysostom called him Petri piscatoris ianitorem. S. Hom 66. add Pop. Antioch. Peter the fisherman's porter Our Saviour condemned sitting in the first place in men alive, & will he approve of the like contention in the dead? 2 The superfluous pomp of Funerals; to be attired with rich apparel in stead of a winding sheet; to be spiced with Balms, Mirre & Aloes, to feast the worms withal; to have a long black army of mourners; to have their Arms carried in triumph before them; to have a sumptuous and tedious banquet after the exequys; as if men who never care to follow Christ in their lives, would emulate him in their deaths: and because it is said and was fulfilled of him, Erit Sepulchrum eius gloriosum, Isay 11. Therefore their Funerals shall be glorious also. Yet I know there is a state which belongs to Princes, below which, as they might not live, so neither may they die. 3 The cost and magnificence of their Sepulchres, matchable with Artemisias Mausoloeum, and the Egyptian Pyramids, when (me thinks) it should be enough for us Christians, who in this last age of the world are in continual expectation of a sudden resurrection, to be covered with a bed of thin earth, I may say, quid perditio haec? Sure I am, it were better if not for their bodies, yet for their souls, and for occasioning of a blessing upon their posterity, that this cost had been bestowed to Charitable uses. Verse 4. We are a reproach unto our neighbours, a scorn and derision to them that are about us. TO have a good Neighbour is a good purchase, and therefore Themistocles being to sell his Field, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Hes. commanded the Crier to add among other commodities, that it had a good neighbour. But our jews have not only enemies from far, Chaldaea and Rome, but in vicinia, round about them; in their dwelling, Moabites, Ammonites, Idumaeans, Philistines, who were so far from helping them against the enemy, that they did not pity them; from pitying of them, that they did reproach, scorn, and deride them. Totus iste textus a Principio crescens schema istud nobilissimum facit, quod vocatur Auxesis. Cassiod. in hunc verse. It is misery enough to be in adversity, but greater misery not to find comfort in distress, but to be scorned in stead of comforted is a weight of misery, able to make the stoutest heart heavy to death. I do think the mocking of our Saviour with ave Rex judaeorum, and vah qui destruis Templum, was more bitter to him then the Sponge of Vinegar he tasted off on the Cross. Homines contumeijs magis moventur quam verberibus (Plutarch. in Timoleon.) Men are more moved with contumely then with stripes. Saint chrysostom gives the reason thereof: Because the feeling of a stripe is equally distributed between soul and body, but the sense of reproach seizeth only and immediately upon the soul: And Tully in his fift against Verres, Habet quendam aculeum contumelia quem pati prudentes & viri boni difficillime possunt; contumely hath a sting with it, which makes to bleed the heart of wise and good men, Leviter volat, sed graviter vulnerat; leviter animum penetrate, sed non leviter exit, etc. saith Bernard: It is a good rule, Afflicto non est danda afflictio. We must have a hand to help not a foot to keep down men in affliction. Verse 5. Lord, how long wilt thou be angry? for ever? shall thy jealousy burn like fire? Enemy's are cruel, Neighbours are scornful and what hope or help is there but in thee, O Lord? and thou art angry too: how long wilt thou be angry, for ever? Spare us now at length, deliver us from our enemies: It is time that the Lord have mercy vp●n Zion, yea, the time is come. Psal. 102. — Miseris coelestia numina parcunt. ovid. Nec semper laesos & sine fine premunt. We have endured 70. years under Nabuchadnezzar, 3. years under Antiochus, many hundreds of years since our crucifying of Christ, and usque quo! How long Lord wilt thou be angry? for ever? (Will he keep his anger for ever? will he reserve it unto the end? thus hast thou spoken, but thou dost evil even more and more, jerem. 3.5. Ye have kindled a fire in my anger, which shall burn for ever.) Lord, how long wilt be angry? shall thy jealousy burn like fire? Domine & zelus tuus. Lord, and thy jealousy: they imply God to have been the Author of all the evils which have befallen them. The Lord hath trodden the Winepress upon the virgin, the daughter of judah, La. 1.15. Who gave jacob for a spoil, and Israel to the robbers? Did not the Lord? because we have sinned against him, Isa. 42.24. Not how long will Nabuchadnezzar or Antiochus be angry? They indeed have done this unto us but as thy instruments, as thy rods. The Sabeans rob job of his substance, yet he perceived a higher hand, Dominus abstulit, the Lord hath taken; and Shimeis tongue was the whip by which God scourged David, Sinite Shimei ut maledicat David, Dominus praecepit ei. Evils which befall us in this life are of two sorts: 1 Malum Culpae. & Poenae. 2 Malum Culpae. & Poenae. God is not the Author of the first evil of sin, but the Devil tempting, and man consenting; but of the latter of Malum ponè peccatum, as the Schoolmen speak, God is the Author punishing justly what sinfully we have committed: that defileth a man, this but chasteneth and afflicteth him, that is evil in doing, this but in suffering; that in nature, this but in feeling: Si erit malum in Civitate & Dominus non fecerit? Amos 3.6. Messana a Spaniard paraphraseth it thus: Erit poenae malum in Civitate quod Dominus non fecerit, sed casus, fatum, fortuna vel hostis? Verse 6. Pour out thy wrath upon the Heathen that have not known thee, and upon the kingdoms that have not called upon thy name. WE, howbeit we be a wicked seed, yet are we semen Abrahae, of Abraham's race and lineage: Mali filii, filii tamen, evil sons, yet sons; but the Heathen are not of thy household, they are strangers from the Covenant of grace, and without God in this world. We, howbeit miserable sinners, do know and invocate thee only for our God; they are ignorant of thee, and do not desire the knowledge of thy ways, therefore Pour out thy wrath upon the Heathen, etc. Non optamus sed prop●etamus, we wish it not out of desire of particular revenge, Minuet vindicta dolorem. nor any way to ease our grief, by their Taliation. (It was the speech of an Heathen man, to go to hell with him: Vindicta bonum, vitâ iucundius ipsâ. Revenge is sweeter than life. Chrysippus, Iwen. non dicit idem nec mite Thaletis jegenium, dulcique senex vicinus Hymetto. Philosophers; Chrysipp●●s, Thales, Plato: sure I am, Christ jesus taught otherwise, not to return evil for evil: Take heed, Rom. 12. see to it, that no man return evil for evil: nay, more patience than so, 1 Thes. 1. not to resist or repel evil, but to give both cheeks to the nippers. We must leave vengeance to him whose it is; Deut. 32. Heb. 10.30. Vengeance is mine, I will repay) but prophesy, and denounce, and consent it should be so. We know where it is written he will revenge the blood of his Servants, Deut. 32. Dico vobis quia citò faciet vindictam illerum. Now shall not God revenge his Elect, which cry day and night unto him, yea, though he suffer long for them? I tell you he will avenge them quickly, Luke 18.7 8. And it is the Apostles Oracle, He that doth wrong shall receive for wrong he hath done, Col. 3.25. That we may pray for revenge upon our and God's enemies, it appeareth hence, otherwise the souls under the Altar would never cry: How long Lord, righteous and true? Revel. 6.10. otherwise Paul would never have imprecated upon Alexander the Coppersmith. 2 Tim. 4.14. All men grant it is lawful to pray for temporal evils against our enemies, that they may work their conversion; and I think for eternal likewise, if they be God's enemies also; and his Church cannot possibly have peace unless these members of Satan and Antichrist be cut off. See Zanch. de redempt. in 3. precept. Cal. in Gala. c. 6. Buc. in Psa. 16. Verse 7. Comederunt jacob:] For they have devoured jacob.] O Lord, let there remain some holy seed, let thy Church not wholly perish from the face of the earth. The Catholic Church consisting of all Nations, places, and times cannot be devoured; but some part thereof, an arm or a leg may be in the Dragon's mouth. (As a Shepherd taketh out of the mouth of the Lion two legs and a piece of an ear, so shall the Children of Israel be taken out, Amos 3.12. Particular Churches are sometime more conspicuous than other. jerusalem Templum Domini, Templum Domini, was once the most glorious visible Church of GOD: and she, if ever any, was the City seated on a hill, which could not be hid: and yet all vision is now ceased, there is no Prophet, nor Altar, nor Sacrifice, nor Temple, nor City, all being buried under ashes: and let Rome exalted upon seven hills, who brags so much of the glory & splendour of her church, beware lest her Sun lose not his beams, and grow dark at noonday (too much prosperity, or confidence at least thereof, is ever attended with an unexpected ruin.) Ab altitudine dicitimebo (saith the Psalmist.) And a King of Egypt spoke out of experience, concerning the never interrupted felicity of Polycrates, Herod in Thaliâ. Tam diuturnus foelicium rerum cursus, animum meum aliquantisper habet sollicitum, quip qui sciam, quam invidiae secunda fortuna obnoxia sit. And I nothing doubt but that the mystical Babylon, who is already fallen in God's decree, and in her type, shall fall from, or be plucked out from her chair of pride, by the forcible arms of Christian Princes. The Woman in the Revelation, after the Ascension of her Son, was driven into the wilderness, and then it was true to say, Ecce in deserto est Christus; for, caput est in corpore suo: and in the time of the ten persecutions, she was intrusa antris, shut up in caves, or in private houses, and then it was true to say, Ecce in penetralibus est Christus. The Sun itself is overcast with a cloud, and Eclipsed by the dark body of the Moon, and when he is gone down to the other Hemisphere, he seems to be lost to us. And what wonder then if Tabernaculum in Sole positum, so much urged by our Adversaries of Rome, be sometimes so overcast and darkened that we cannot see it? Verse 8. Remember not against us our former iniquities, etc. EIther done by our Fathers, for it is just with God to visit the sins of the Fathers upon the children, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. unto the third and fourth generation. God, thou recompensest the iniquities of the Fathers into the bosom of their children after them. jer. 32.18. Our fathers have sinned, and are not, and we have borne their iniquities, Lam. 5.7. And the question in this sense was well asked john 9 That this man is borne blind, who hath sinned? be, or his Parents? God doth punish the sins of the Fathers upon the children in things temporal, in their bodies & goods which they received from their Father: to wound the Father at the heart, he layeth his rod upon the Son as being the tenderest part in which he could affect him. — Heu nunc misero mihi demùm Exilium infoelix, Vir. de Lausi orcisi patre. Aen. 10 nunc aliè vulnus adactum. But God doth never punish the Son to his condemnation for his Father's sin: for the saying is express, Ezek. 18.20. Filius non portabit iniquitatem patris, to wit, to the danger of his salvation: and so Thomas accordeth Moses and Ezekiel, that Moses speaketh of temporal, Ezekiel of eternal punishment; but yet I doubt not but God who is debtor to no man, moved only by occasion of the Father's sin, doth detain his grace from the Son, and leave him to the conduit of his own sinful will, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. and to the power of Satan, to work in him pertenacie and obduration of heart, that at length he may be a mark for the exercise of his justice. Or in their imitation by us: either in our youth, (Vicina est lapsibus adolescentia, saith Ambrose: ovid. — Neque enim robustior aetas — Nec quae magìs ardeat ulla est.) or in our stronger age: O Lord! we were conceived, and have grown up in sin from our cradles: we have done all we can to fill up the measure of our Father's iniquities. O Lord! accept of our humble, ingenuous, and penitent confession of our sins, and Remember not against us our former sins. Verse 9 Deliver us, and be merciful unto our sins. THE order should have been thus; Be merciful unto our sins, and deliver us. For if sin was the cause of their misery, no deliverance thence till our sins be expiated: therefore, O be merciful unto our sins. Non operuised aperui ut operires, I have not covered, but uncovered, that thou mayst cover my sin. I know if I would have use of the Physician, I must open my disease unto him; for quod ignorat medicina, non curate (saith Hierome.) The Heathen (saith S. Augustine, wonder that we teach, sins committed in deed, to be purged in word; actually, to be done away verbally, Potest qui homicidium fecit homicida non esse? but such is the power of humble confession, that it obtaineth pardon and release; yea, full expiation for all sin. David guilty of two foul sins, after the confession of his sins, was as white as the Snow in Salmon; O quantum valent tres Syllabat, Ambros. Pecc●●i? a word of three Syllables is able to do all this. God made the World of nothing, and me, a man, of dust the worst of anything, and is he not able to make me of guilty, innocent? Verse 10. Wherefore should the Heathen say, Where is now their God? BY our misery and affliction the Heathen discredit our faith and confidence in thee. It is their persuasion, true Religion should ever be prosperous (accedit utilitas quae maximè homini divos asser it, Symmac. lib. 10. epist. 54.) nam cum ratio omnis in operto sit, unde rectuis quam de memoria atque documentis Rerum secundarum cognitio venit numinum? and this heathenish opinion hath infected the Church, which calieth herself Catholic, Bell. lib. 4. the eccles. Milita. cap. vlt. makes temporal felicity a note of the true Church. They never will believe Electos Dei pia agere & crudelia ●olerare, as S. Gregory speaks, that Gods elect do well and suffer ill, & therefore Tully proves the jews to be hated of God, because they were so miserable. Miseriae judaeorum testantur quam non sint chari Deo pro Flacco. The miseries of the jews do testify against them that they are not beloved of God: and no doubt, but the Turks at this day are more confirmed in their Mahometan impiety, by reason of their good success against Christians: and therefore, O Lord, to free thy name, stop the mouth of this blasphemy, pull thy hand out of thy bosom, let them at length perceive that thou carest for thy Church. Verse 11 Remember the blood of thy slain servants. Remember gemitus & compedes, the sigh of the prisoners yet alive, but children of death, aiudged and destinated for death. Antiochus felt the effects of this imprecation, 2 Mac. 9 etc. for lying on his deathbed, worms crawling out of his bowels, howbeit he did promise to set free Jerusalem, to make the jews equal to the citizens of Athens, and to rebuild and adorn the Temple which he had spoiled and to allow for sacrifices out of his own revenues; nay himself to become jew, to glorify that GOD whom he did now feel to have offended, yet God would show him no mercy. Verse 12. And render to our neighbours seavenfolde the reproach wherewith they have reproached thee O Lord. FOrget not, good LORD, our neighbour-enemies; let Ismaels' mocking of Isaac be remembered: remember the children of Edom, how in the day of Jerusalem they said, Down with it, down with it, even down to the ground. Let the Moabites taste of thy rod as well as the Chaldaeans, let them have no mercy from thee that had no mercy for us. Verse 13. So we thy people, and sheep of thy pasture, shall praise thee for ever, and from generation to generation will set forth thy praise. THey promise thankfulness, and (because primum Senescit beneficium, & nihil facilius quam amor putrescat. Sen.) this thankfulness to be perpetual in themselves and their posterity. They have nothing else to return God for his cup of salvation, but the kindness of their lips; which, if unfeigned, Psal. 50.15. is the best and sweetest incense: Call upon me in the time of thy tribulation, and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. The sum of all, is, Anfer iniquitatem, dabonum, & reddemus vitulos labiorum nostrorum. Hos. vlt. Pardon our sins, return us prosperity, so will we render the calves of our lips. FINIS. To the Reader. THus hast thou (gentle Reader) the literal Exposition of this whole Psalm, there is behind the Exposition according to the Trope, the destruction of spiritual Jerusalem, the Church militant, by the Turk and Pope. Privata iniuria maior quam Deus & pietas, & defendenda cruore religio? Mantuanus Tom. 1. Exhort ad Reg. This latter I intended first, but that building could not well be without this foundation. It grieveth me, that the City where our salvation was wrought, should be in the power of Infidels. God forgive it them that have been the cause thereof, Quis ferat obfuisse (reip.) ecclesiae privata certamina? Symmachus. While Maximilian wars against the Swissa●● Baiazel makes his impression upon the Venetians; while Charles the fift is busy to recover Milan from the French, Solyman takes Belgrada. jerusalem shall be trodden under foot of the Gentiles until the time of the Gentiles be ful●●●●●d. Luke 21.24. We Christians fight one against another as in the day of Madian, and that Homo ferus advanceth his victory by our discords. If we cannot, or it may be, may not regain the holy city, yet let us keep the holy Church from the rage of the wild Boar, and from the Beast in the Revelation, who, what wrong they have done, shall appear in my next, of which I send this only as a Prodromus. Pray for my health, and I will labour and pray for thy spiritual profit. FINIS.