Use.

Let not us fit out vvhen all joyn to glorifie God, let not any of us like the fleece of Gideon be dry, vvhen all the floore is watered vvith the joys and jubilations of the Church. David is not content vvith a bare praifing of the name of God, as they that fay alway. The Lord be praised, but he requireth Pf.149.1. both a fong, Canticum novum, a nevv fong, and that in the congregation of the Saints.

Verse 3.

Verse 4.

Verfes.

Veríe 6.

He also requireth a dance, he requireth also inftruments of mufique, he gives reason.

He vvould have us delight in the service that we do to God, therefore he addeth.

The Lord taketh pleasure in his people, he will beautifie the meek

with Salvation.

Let the Saints be joyfull in glory, let them fing aloud upon their

beds.

Let the high praises of God be in their mouth.

This is that vvhich this example requireth, not to be shallovv and fleight in the promises of God,but to ftrein our felves to the uttermoft: the inward man of the heart, the voice, the hand playing, the feet dancing, till vve cover the heaven, and fill the earth vvith his glory.

Verfe 6. He stood and measured the earth, he beheld, and drove in funder the Nations,and the everlasting Mountains were scattered; the perpetuall hils did bow: his ways are everlasting.

2

Ere is a commemoration of the power and glory cf

HGod, in giving to his Ifrael the Land of Canaan, for

their poffeffion.

Diverfe judgments have made diverse constructions of thefe words.

Mr. Calvine is of opinion, that they declare God in his glorious Lordship, over all the world, for as David, when he fhould come to be abfolute Monarch of Judah and Ifrael,faid, I will rejoyce therefore, and divide Shechem, and mete out the val

Ley

ley of Succoth, &c. So God is here declared abfolute Monarch. in this phrase of measuring of the earth: as David would caft his fhooe over the Philistines would rejoyce: So God is here declared Conquerour of all by dividing in funder the nations, &c.

St. Auguftine turnes all into Allegory, and applieth it to Chrift.

You remember,how before, I found that the Church doth comfort their prefent miferies, with remembrance of Gods former mercies, therefore I choose to keep pace with the story of Gods former mercies to his Ifrael. And as before he spake of the comming of God from Teman and Paran, when he appeared glorious to them in giving the law, fo now he comes to another powerfull mercy, that is, when he gave them the promised Land, for then he that went before them all the vvay of their journey in their removes, now stood ftill, as declaring that novy they wvere come to the land of their reft, as he had promised it.

And there, He measured the Earth, it is ascribed here to God, that he divided the land amongst the Tribes, because it vvas done by lot, vvherein not chance, but God answered.

This hath reference to that story vvhich vve read fofbua 5. for when the people vvere entred into the land of Canaan, and vvere come fo far in to it as Gilgall, that the Ark of God was fetled in Gilgall

Then God commanded the Sacrament of Circumcifion to be revived, vvhich in the vvhole journey between their comming out of Egypt to this place had been omitted, fo long vvas it omitted, because of the journey that there entred into Canaan, but two of all that came out of Egypt, who had received the Sacrament of Circumcifion, who vvere Caleb and fofbua

Novv all the males are circumcifed at Gilgall, there the children of Ifrael kept the Paffeover, and there they began to eat of the old provision of corn, that they found in the land, and as foon as they had eaten thereof, Manna ceafed, and there,Verse 13.

There

There ftood a man over against him,with his fword drawn in his hand,to whom Joshua went,and said unto him. Art thou for us,or for our adverfaries? he said,nay; but as a Prince of the boast of the Lord,am I now come, and fohua fell on his face, and did wor hip.

Compare that ftorie with this text, and you fhall fee that this man that stood before fofbua, is he that ftood in my text, and after measured the earth: and fo foshua conceived him to be, elfe he had not worshipped him, for fofbuah was not to learn that Angels are not to be worshipped.

So this place will not help the Church of Rome for the maintenance of the worship of Angels, though Lyranus lay, that it was adoratio dulie, quia cognovit eum effe Angelum. The man that stood there was that Son of man, that Prince of the Lords Armies, which brought Ifrael out of the Land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

And he stood there, for there was the Ark fetled, and the Sacrament revived, and they were at home when they began to feed upon the provifion of the promised Land and next it followeth, that He measured the Earth.

For in the next Chap. Jericho was taken; Chap. 8. Ai is overcome; and shortly after the land is measured, and by lott affigned to the Tribes. The Nations are drove in funder:] for they took and deftroyed Jericho: Ai, and the five Kings that made war against Gibeon, as David faith, He caft out the Nations and planted them in. Then the everlasting mountains were fcattered, and the perpetuall hils did bow.

Thefe titles and attributes of Everlasting and Perpetuall, are in true propriety of fenfe onely belonging to God, but this is a poeticall and figurative hymne, and by an Hyperbole, thefe words dofignifie the mighty power of God, who ftooped thefe unconquered mountains, fixt and fetled in their places,to the obedience of his people, and brought the ftrenght of the land into their fubjection. alem et ils

Declaring that by no ftrength of their own, they got the quiet poffeffion of that land,but they received it of the gift of God, who fabdued the impregnable ftrength to their hand, and gave them victory, for it followeth ;

·His

His ways are everlasting] that is, as David doth render it; He doth whatfoever he will. He long before promifed Abraham this land, and though the pofterity of Canaan have held the land in poffeffion for many ages, yet there is no prefcription against God: Nullum tempus occurrit regi, he will goe in the way, that the counsel of his wifedome hath long agoe trode out for them.

There was an old curfe which lay in the deck, and flept all this while, ever fince Cham the youngest, the fon of Noah, discovered his fathers nakedness, for then Noah awoke and knew what his fons had done to him, and he faid,Curfed be Canaan, that is, Let a curfe fall upon the pofterity of Cham: thefe be the ways of God,for the iffue of Shem drove out Canans feed and poffeffed their Land.-

Here is another argument drawn from the fame head with the former; for the Church doth comfort her it felf in present mifery, by remembring what God did for them, in giving to them the poffeffion of the promised Land, which is wholly affcribed to God, as the Pfalmift;

For they got not the Land in poffeffion by their own fword, neither Pfal. 44.3. did their own arm fave them: but thy right hand,& thine arm,and the light of thy countenance, becaufe thou haft a favour unto them.

This commemoration of Gods fetling them in the promised land ferveth to comfort the captivity of Ifrael in Babylon, because it teacheth them;

I That their tenure of that land how foever interrupted by calamities and deportations is a good tenure, they hold it by the free gift of God, who is able to maintain the right of his. donation against all.

2 That there is no counfail or ftrength against the Lord, for he that can fubdue mountains, & eternal hils, and he whofe ways are everlasting, is not to be refifted.

From which premises they conclude, comfortably,that they shall have their land again, and that their enemies shall not be able to keep them out of it with all their strength.

For God did not do fo great things. for them, to plant

Iii

them

them in Canaan, for no long time his ftanding there : as if he would fay, now I have brought them to their reft.

His driving out of the Nations to make them room, his fcattering of the mountains and bowing of the hils, all this was not done that Ifrael might hold the land of promise no longer for the promise was made to Abraham,and St.Mathew Ma.1.17. faith, that from Abraham to David are 14 generations and

Ge.15.13.

Ge.15. 16.

Ge.13.15.

from David to the deportation into Babylon 14 generations; there were from the promise of this land to the captivity but 28 generations: and the first 14 generations from Abraham to David were wel spent,before the land was poffeft;and fo much God foretold Abraham, and foure hundred years delay, and expectation of the promise we have hereof from the mouth of God to Abraham, before they should come out of Egypt: and thirty years, were found added to that reckoning before they had a deliverance, and forty more spent in the wilderness, four hundred and feventy years, which will make up much of the time between the promife and the poffeffion of this land, that is, four of the generations;

Compare this with the promise of this Land, and you fhall finde it fo.

But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again.

Now,for the terme for which they should have this land, that is fet down before..

For all the Land which thou feeft, to thee will I give it, and to thy feed for ever.

Yet we finde that for 70 years, they loft the poffeffion of their land being carried captive into Baby Lon, and our Church ftories, and the hiftories of the heathen writers old and modern, do fhew that the Jews have loft this land almost 1600 years; which may feeme to fruftrate that deed of gift in refpect of the terme, and fo it doth for matter of fact, for matter of right it is queftionable, and thereupon, fome have determined: 1 that that Land is by right as yet belonging to the feed of Abraham, by vertue of that promise.

2 That in the laft calling of the Jews, it fhall be restored to them again,and that the Common-wealth of the Jews fhall be

refetled