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within thy holy tabernacle, than to be settled in whatsoever dignity, out of the bounds of thy Church.

LXXXIV. 11. For the LORD God is a sun and shield.

For the Lord God is the author and fountain of all good and comfort, that can befall his children; and the protector and defender of them from all those evils, which they might be incident into.

LXXXV. 8. He will speak peace unto his people, and to his saints: but let them not turn again to folly.

God will be exceeding gracious, no doubt, unto his people, both in his remission and blessings; but let them take heed, that they keep steadfast unto him; and that they be not foolishly miscarried again, into idolatry, and other such grievous offences, as whereby they may justly forfeit his favours.

LXXXV. 10. Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness peace have kissed each other.

and

The kingdom of Christ, under the Gospel, shall be exceeding glorious and happy; for therein, the mercy and truth of God will approve themselves to be fully accorded: in that, both God will be found true, in the making good of his decreed threats of death to sinful man; and also merciful in saving mankind, lost by sin, through the blood of the Redeemer: and in men, answerably, shall righteousness and peace embrace each other; for that, upon this imputed righteousness of Christ, joined with true inward sanctification, shall follow a happy peace both with God and with our own consciences.

LXXXV. 11. Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven.

By the effects wrought upon men here on earth, shall God make good the truth of his promises; and righteousness, which is the free gift of God to men, shall descend from above.

LXXXV. 13. Righteousness shall go before him; and shall set us in the way of his steps.

His servants shall walk before him, in holiness and righteousness; and shall, by these graces, be directed in all the ways of his commandments.

LXXXVI. 8. Among the gods there is none like unto thee, O LORD. Amongst those, that are falsely called gods, O Lord, there is none that is like unto thee; there is no less difference, than between that which is nothing and infinite.

LXXXVI, 17. Shew me a token for good; that they which hate me may see it, and be ashamed.

O Lord, do thou give some good and sensible proof of thy merciful respect to me; such as whereby mine enemies may be convinced, and may with shame confess their error, while they spitefully said, There is no help for him in his God.

LXXXVII. 1. His foundation is in the holy mountains. God hath founded his city Jerusalem, and his holy temple, upon the mountains, which he hath chosen.

LXXXVII. 2. The LORD loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob.

The Lord taketh more pleasure to dwell in his tabernacle, and his temple, on Zion hill, than in all the rest of the land of Judah or Israel.

LXXXVII. 4. I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon to them that know me: behold Philistia, and Tyre, with Ethiopia; this man was born there.

I rejoice to see that the Church of God shall not always be confined to these narrow bounds of Judea; but that it shall extend itself to all nations: insomuch as I make account of the most unlikely nations of Egypt and Babylon to be admitted into the bosom thereof; and even amongst the most spiteful Philistines, and the Tyrians, and Ethiopians, there shall be sons born unto God.

LXXXVII. 5. And of Zion it shall be said, This and that man was born in her; and the highest himself shall establish her.

And Zion, the true spiritual Zion, shall be so enlarged, that it shall be said of every professed Christian, that he was born in her; and God shall so establish her, that the gates of hell shall not prevail against her.

LXXXVII. 7. All my springs are in thee.

All the living waters of true comfort, all graces, and all salvation are to be found in thee only (viz. the Church of God).

LXXXVIII. 5. Free among the dead.

I am as a man already admitted into the society of dead men, free and perfectly acquitted from all the cares and affairs of this

life.

LXXXVIII. 10. Shall the dead arise and praise thee?

Shall the dead arise out of their graves, and live here among men, and celebrate thy praises?

LXXXVIII. 12. Shall thy wonders be known in the dark? and thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?

Shall notice be taken of thy wonderful works, in the grave? and shall the dead carcasses, in that estate of death where all these earthly things are forgotten, be sensible of thy righteous dealings with the living?

LXXXVIII. 15. I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up: while I suffer thy terrors I am distracted.

My trials and sufferings, as they have been grievous, and such as have brought me to the very brink of the grave, so they have been also long and tedious; for even from my youth up, hitherto, have I been exercised with them; and, besides the sense of evils, the fear and expectation of them hath been, and is, no small torment and distraction to me.

LXXXIX. 2. For I said, Mercy shall be built up for ever: thy faithfulness shalt thou establish in the very heavens.

After all my troubles, I came to this resolution; Thy mercy, O Lord, is as some goodly structure, which thou wilt never leave to build up (till thou have finished it) so firmly, that it shall stand for ever: thy faithfulness in making good all thy promises, is as surely established, as the very heavens themselves.

LXXXIX. 10. Thou hast broken Rahab in pieces.

Thou hast overthrown the proud Egyptian in the Red Sea. LXXXIX. 12. The north and the south thou hast created them: Tabor and Hermon shall rejoice in thy name.

Thou hast made all the coasts of heaven: the north and the south are created by thee: Tabor that is in the west, and Hermon towards the east, do rejoice in thee, and acknowledge thy power. LXXXIX. 15. Blessed are the people that know the joyful sound. Blessed are the people whose ears are enured unto the cheerful sound of the sacred trumpets of God, in their solemn feasts and sacrifices.

LXXXIX. 19. Then thou spakest in vision to thy Holy One, and saidst, I have laid help upon one that is mighty, &c.

Thou spakest by way of vision to thy holy prophet Samuel, and after him to Nathan thy prophet; and saidst, I have ordained to give help and victory unto my people, by my strong and mighty champion, David.

LXXXIX. 25. I will set his hand also in the sea, and his right hand in the rivers.

I will establish his rule over those which dwell on the sea coast, and from the river Euphrates to the land of the Philistines; so as both the Red Sea, and the Mediterranean, together with the rivers of Euphrates, Jordan, and the rest within that compass, shall be swayed by his sceptre.

LXXXIX. 27. Also I will make him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth.

As he whom thou, O David and Solomon, dost represent, as types of him to come, is the firstborn of every creature, and in all things hath the pre-eminence; so thou, in figure of him, shalt be advanced to the honour of the highest prince upon earth, having therein the true privilege of primogeniture.

LXXXIX. 33. Nevertheless my loving-kindness will I not utterly take from him, &c. See 2 Sam. vii. 15.

LXXXIX. 36, 37. His throne shall be as the sun before me. It shall be established for ever as the moon, and as a faithful witness

in heaven.

The spiritual government of Christ, the Son of David, shall continue as firm and stedfast, as the sun and moon, and those other heavenly bodies, which are the faithful witnesses of God's unfailable power and providence.

LXXXIX. 39. Thou hast made void the covenant of thy ser vant thou hast profaned his crown by casting it to the ground.

But now, as if thou meantest to reverse and recant that word of thine, and to frustrate the covenant with thine Anointed, thou hast, for the time, suffered his crown to be pulled off his head and to be cast upon the ground, and his government to be openly despised.

XC. 11. Who knoweth the power of thine anger? even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath.

O Lord, who is able to conceive how fearful a thing thine anger is? and yet, it is fit to tremble at the conceit thereof; for, according as men do more or less tremble at thy judgments, so dost thou more or less execute them.

XC. 13. Let it repent thee concerning thy servants.

Call back those evils, which are threatened, and, as it were, gone out against thy servants; and do, as we men are wont, when we repent of our actions, forbear to punish us thy servants any more.

XCI. 1. He that dwelleth in the secret places of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

He, that puts himself under the protection of the Almighty, shall be sure to be safely preserved under the shadow of his wings. XCI. 3. Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler and from the noisom pestilence.

He shall deliver thee from those sceret dangers, which the craft of devils or men has devised to entangle thee in; and from the fearful and noisom contagion of the pestilence.

XCI. 5. Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day;

Thou shalt be freed from the fear of either secret or open evils; whether by day, or by night; inward, or outward; from all the violent machinations of enemies; and from the immediate judgments of God, that strike swiftly and insensibly:

XCI. 6. Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.

Thou shalt not be afraid of that plague of pestilence, that infecteth secretly, and spreadeth insensibly, and yet destroyeth openly; and, where it rageth, leaves the footsteps of death to be lamentably viewed at midday.

XCI. 7. A thousand shall full at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.

In a common mortality, God shall make a difference betwixt his own and others: for his own, save where and when he sees it best for them to suffer and hath decreed their advantage by the stroke, he shall save, and preserve them; so as, while many thousands fall on each hand of them, yet they shall be free.

XCI. 11. For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.

So great is his care of the good of his children, that, besides

his own immediate protection, he shall give charge to his most glorious creatures, the angels of heaven, and that not to one, but to many of them, to attend upon their persons and ways.

XCI. 13. Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder; the young lion and dragon shalt thou trample upon.

Thou shalt be delivered from the danger aud annoyance, of whatsoever creatures may be hurtful unto thee; whether by their violence, or by their venom: so as the most fierce or the most poisonous shall be trampled upon by thee without harm.

XCII. 13. Those that be planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God.

Those, that are truly planted in God's Church, being rooted in a lively and steadfast faith, shall flourish and spread forth into a fruitful profession to the glory of their God, and benefit of others, and their own happiness.

XCIII. 3. The floods have lifted up, O LORD, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their waves.

The great waters roar loud; and the combined multitude of the enemies of thy Church, O Lord, make great noises of threats, and furious attempts against thee and thy people.

XCIII. 4. The LORD on high is mightier, &c.

But the Lord on high can allay and quiet them, at pleasure.

XCIV. 19. In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul.

In the multitude of the sad and perplexed thoughts of my heart, the comforts of thy word and Spirit have cheered up my soul.

XCIV. 20. Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee, which frameth mischief by a law?

Wilt thou, O Lord, have any thing to do with, or give any supportation to, the tyrannical government of wicked persecutors, which do enact sin and mischief; countenancing it both by their example and authority? No, thou hatest them and their devilish

courses.

XCVII. 2. Clouds and darkness are round about him.

See 2 Sam. xxii. 12.

XCVII. 3, 4. A fire goeth before him. His lightnings enlightened the world. See 2 Sam. xxii. 9, 13, 14.

XCVII. 11. Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart.

There is much joy and happiness laid up in store for the godly man; howsoever it do not yet make any shew to carnal minds: the seed of their comfort lies under the clods of affliction, for the time; but it shall surely sprout out, and fill their hearts, when their harvest comes, with gladness.

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