Notes on the Book of Psalms, Title page – Dedication
BRIEF NOTES Upon the whole Book of PSALMS.
Put forth for the help of such who desire to exercise themselves in them, and cannot understand without a Guid.
Being a pithie and clear opening of the Scope and Meaning of the Text, to the capacitie of the Weakest.
By GEORGE ABBOT.
ACTS 18. vers. 30, 31.
And Philip said unto the Eunuch, Vnderstandest thou what thou Readest? And he said, How can I except some man should Guid me?
LONDON, Printed by WILLIAM BENTLEY, and are to be sold by Iohn Williams at the Crown, and Francis Eglesfield at the Mary-gold, in S. Pauls Churchyard. Anno Dom. 1651.
TO The truly Religious and Virtuous, Mris. JOAN PUREFOY Wife to the Honourable Colonell, William Purefoy of Caldecote in Warwickshire, Esquire, a Member of this present PARLIAMENT.
THe Authours name bespeaks entertainment for this Book with those that knew him, and the work it selfe, with those that knew him not. The return of it unto you (whose interest and property therein is greater than can be derived by any dedication) may peradventure at the first sight, have the like operation upon you which those words of Jospeph's brethren had upon their father Jacob. Is not this thy sons Coat? But upon further insight into, and more inward acquaintance with it, you shall find that he who took a great part of your heart with him out of this World, Hath distilled into this work so much of those sweet spirits and graces which were fragrant in him while he lived; as may represent and continew unto you, the fruition of him in that which was his better part: besides whom you had no other object of maternall affection, and by whom there was left no other off-spring, but the fruit of his studies and pen; the more lively characters of his heart and spirit, of which this is the last; drawn forth unto the life immediately before his death; left as a legacy to the people of God, and as an account of his expence of that time, which by reason of bodily infirmities could not be imployed in the service of the Common-wealth in Parliament whereof he was a Member; There is not a line added to it▪ by any other pencill, neither did it need any thing but midwifery to bring it forth into the World, and present it unto you as his, or (if you please) as him. The honour of which service pardon me, if I claim as of a kind of right, upon my acquaintance with his studies, and his both frequent communications with me, and obligations put upon me, for the greater part of twenty years together, in which he lived under my Ministery, and in intimate correspondence with me, whereby he put me into a greater debt to him than I can exonerate by this acknowledgment, which indeed might lessen my testimonie by misprision of partiality, had he not left a blessed memory behind him for my justification and incouragement: If I should set forth his spirituall abilities to the life, which I decline, and rather chuse to point out the way and means of his improvement to so great a measure and maturity of them, and thereby render the point at which he aimed, attainable by others that shall transcribe his copy, by shewing the line in which he moved to it. The method or discipline which God used towards him at his first entrance into the school of Christ, was not unlike to that of the Wilderness, wherein through the frequent recesses of the spirit, and Gods turning the dark side of the cloud towards him, he was exercised with fresh agitations & discomposures of spirit, so as (like massive bodies) he could not settle upon his true center without previous trepidation; whereupon he converted his studies and indeavours to the settlement of his spirituall estate, and began to search the Scriptures for the treasure hidden in that field, which together with his assiduity in hearing the word Preached, his sucking the sweet out of such Books as had marrow and experience in them, his constant trade with Heaven by Prayer, his communication of experience, and conversation with such as knew Jesus Christ, brought him to such firmness of consistence in his own spirit, as one that was the better rooted by former shakings, to such fixedness in his principles, as one that did not onelyonly understand the truth of them, but had tasted the goodness, and felt the power of them, to such riches of spirituall experiences, as he became the resort of troubled consciences, and a dexterous artist in swathing up tender and weak infants in grace, and to such spiritualty of affection, as in whom the primogeniall virtue and sence of Gods dispensations toward, and impressions upon him in his conversion, or (as the Scripture speaks) the love of his espousalls continued fresh and vigorous: As for his proficiency and progress in the way of Christianity, it was thus advanced in matter of knowledge or doctrine, his chiefest inquiry upon any point was cui bono, of what proper use and conducement it was unto practicall holiness, or fruition of good, &c. Searching out the nutrimentall pith or marrow that was in it, and not greatly ingaging his thoughts into opinions of contention or mere notion, which had no kernell. In duties altogether unsatisfied, except he found the spirit acting, and stirring in him, or were particularly sensible of the absence & withdrawments of it. In company communicative, and trading in the staple commodities of Heaven, Especially upon the Sabbath-day, wherein he used to sequester his thoughts and words to the proper work of that day, and to divert common and obvious occurrences into matter of spirituall insinuation, which day he also vindicated in his Book entituled Vindiciae Sabbati, when that controversie was rife and hot: and some began to lay open Gods inclosure into common fields, and upon which day the Lord of the day honoured him in the defence of an unfortified House, by a very few assistants against the furious assaults by fire and sword of a numerous and potent enemy. The memory of which deliverance he kept alive in himself, and exprest his sence thereof even in his last will and Testament: the rather doubtless in respect that you his ever honoured Mother being imbarked in the same bottom with him at that time, was supported with courage above your sex, and with faith above present sence, and so brought clear off that threatning storm, by the good hand of the Lord your God, unto whom (as you have learned and do know) it is all one to save, by few, as by many, I shall say no more of him, thereby to aggravate your loss, (which yet was not all yours, for the Family; the Town, the Countrey, were sensible of the influence of his exemplary holiness) but shall pray for you a heart to make a gain of it, by learning to walk with God without a crutch, and in him onelyonly to make out all deficiency and wants of secondary helps, in whom every creature-comfort is virtually and eminently contained; and so shall you quench your thirst at the spring it self, whose waters are purest and which never shall be dry. A lesson which you shall be often taught by the holy Psalmist; and the godly Paraphrast, in this Book; whereof I need not say a word, being therein prevented by the Authour himself, in his Epistle to the Reader; who shall here find the sweet spices punned, into a greater fragrancy, by the Authours accommodating his stile to the most vulgar capacity, for it was his aime to elevate affections, which in Psalms and spirituall songs are the predominant part, and therefore he wrote not so much to the eye as to the tast which (pardon the solecisme) is the best sence to read him with, so carrying on the work in this Paraphrase as also in that of Iob, as one that had not a mere notionall or carnall knowledge of spirituall things, but that peculiar light which they have which are taught of God; Without which even Schollars themselves do see the beauty of them but by candle-light, and which that it may increase in you as the light of the Sun unto the perfect day, shall be the Prayer of
LONDON, Iune 17. 1650. Your ever obliged Servant In the work of the Lord Iesus. RICHARD VINES