Notes on the Book of Psalms, To the reader – Notice
TO THE READER, In way of ARGUMENT and APPLICATION.
ALL Scripture was written by the holy men of God, as they were moved or inspired by the holy Ghost, but this of the Psalms was not onelyonly written by a holy man, but by a holy man in holy frames, who was not onelyonly moved by the spirit to write them, but was in the spirit when he penned them; not so much acted by externall impulsion, as inward affection, warmth of zeal, and sensible experience; For the Psalms being to be a speciall part of the worship of God in all ages of the Church, whereby God not onelyonly speaks to us (as in other Scripture) but we to him, in Prayer and praise, (the Arguments of almost all of them) were therefore dictated by another spirit, than other Scripture, by the spirit of grace and operation, not onelyonly of illumination, prophesie, or inspiration; to shew us, how God is to be worshipped, not onelyonly by holy regenerate men (such as were all the sacred pen-men) but by the regenerate part of a regenerate man; else, Prayers nor praises neither come down from heaven, nor go up to heaven; It was not enough to be a Priest to offer Sacrifice, but it must be done by a holy man with holy fire. And therefore should we sing the Psalms of David in the spirit of David, and read them as he writ them, with frameable tempers to the matter treated. Of all Scripture, our meditation in the perusall of this Book of the Psalmes (so full of practicall Gospel) ought to be sweet and spirituall, of which one rightly affirms; Let all the rest of the Scripture be the body, and this is the heart, so full of heavenly affections: Every Psalm whereof is a spirituall pang, or fresh gail, breathed by the holy Ghost on Davids heart, and penned by him, and the rest, in instanti, in heat of affection: His writing is his feeling, and so should be thy reading; the musick of the Temple should make musick in the living Temples of the holy Ghost, the sons of Sion: therefore have I laboured not onelyonly to render the proper, but also the full extensive meanings of the Psalmists by congruous enlargements, to move the affections, as well as to inform the judgement: That so Davids spirit in these Psalms may be transmigrated into the experienced Reader in proportionable power & energie, wherewith they were conceived & digestedly put over by him to the Church; whereof (as of Christ) he was a most lively type, wading through so many dangers, temptations, ebbings, flowings, yea, and sins too, to create him to be a Looking-glass for the Church and Spouse of Christ, who may be black yet comly, and can never pass through any condition of sin or suffering, where first he hath not led the way, and shewen the issue, whose varieties of providences, states, and tempers made him of such an evangelicall spirit in the time of the Law, as that God stiles him a man after his own heart; so that in him we see, that neither great sins nor great afflictions can seperate us from the love and approbation of God, though the one may cost us dear, and the other may lay us low, yet neither the one nor the other can build up such a partition wall, but that the grapling irons of Faith, Prayer, and Repentance are able to demolish it, and make way for us to the throne of grace, whither if we can but come, we shall be sure to speed; for grace can deny grace to none, that graciously ask it. And therefore if ever we will gain that Encomium of being as he was, after Gods own heart, (who ever loves a zealous penitent, better than a luke-warm innocent) it must be by improving all advantages to the encrease of Gospel-growth, thus. If at any time God in his wisdom let us fall, or Satan by his subtility and strength give us a fall, or we by our weakness catch a fall, all which, may be in one and the same sin, then know, that that sin is thine advantage or opportunity, which thou art to improve to mount thee to a higher rise of Gospel-ground, and step forward towards more grace by the fresh exercise, or exercise of fresh faith and humiliation, God being more pleased with us when we penitently and faithfully confess our sin (wherein David was very ingenuous) than displeased when we commit it. For though we are not to sin that grace may abound, yet when we have sinned, its both our wisdom and duty too, to look that grace do abound, and that we make a sanctified sin of it. Acts of sinning in the regenerate (contrary to Philosophy) lessening the habits of sin. And so if we fall into afflictions, there is another opportunity. (for the promise is, that all shall work for good, and that, going in and out, we shall find pasture) yea, even a price in our hands, which if improved by the exercise of seasonable and suitable graces, will ready us in our Gospel-way, better than any trade-wind or constant gail of providence can ever do. Severall conditions make exceedingly for setting forth the Art of God in the second Creation, as severall creatures do his skill in the first, which variety in both makes us to abound not onelyonly with necessaries but delights, which Scripture calls things both new and old, which no one condition unvaried can possibly render us capable of, for it is said, all things work together for good &c. Alluding to the Art of the Apothecary in the mixing of various and diverse Simples, no one whereof alone is able to work that effect that many joyntly can. And when I speak of change of states, I mean inward as well as outward, for the soul would be as a cake unturned, excellent in something and stark naught in othersome, or as a vessel unemptied, taking taint by long standing in any one condition, and therefore God hath ordered it, that the soul as the Sea shall purge it sel… by its constant vicissitudes of ebbings and flowings, whether the winds blow without or not. But least Christians wonder at such fortunes as befall them, God hath shewen us, that we sail but the course of other men that went before us, and have landed safely through many cross winds and high Seas in a happy issue or conclusion, and David is the highest Sea-mark in all the Bible for men of shipwracked souls, bodies, states, or names, to cast their eye upon; who ever lived that endured such, and such variety of affliction, for that he was to be the type as of the Crown, so of the cross of Christ, yea, and of every Christian, or the Church in generall. And therefore what state soever thou beest in, the Psalms are as an Apothecaries stop, full of boxes, and they are full of all manner of store for men in all tempers and distempers; at all times, and in all tunes to make use of, especially when thou hast to do in a good cause against a wicked enemy. Bodily weakness disabling me for other imploiments, gave me opportunity to make thus much more progress in Scripture-paraphrase, and though the Psalms (which being so frequently used ought the better to be understood) may primâ facie seem to need none, yet they that look into them with inspection, will find much more sence than lies above board, besides that of coherence and connexion (the hardest part of paraphrase) which most Readers omit, and most expositours neglect, rendering though a true sence of the Text, if disjoyned yet, not carefully considering the scope of the contexture, they give not the sence in its full propriety, which is the endeavour of
Thine, in the work of the Lord. G. F.
Advertisements premised.
WHerein the word Maschil is prefixed to a Psalm, it imports it to be a Psalm of direction, instruction, or information, in some sort or other.
Where the word Selah is affixed to any sentence or verse, it is to be understood by way of Emphasis, or as an Emphaticall close to the matter foregoing suitable to it, by way of Exaggeration, or Amplification, for Impression sake. And so in like sort, the word Higgaion, which signifies to muse or meditate, is to be taken, when and where it is affixed to a sentence, as where Higgaion Selah concludes a verse.