Soldiers Counselled and Comforted

p. 1Souldiers Counselled and Comforted▪ It is written in PSAL. CXIX.109. My Soul is continually in my Hand; yet I do not forget thy Law.

WHEN there was made unto the famous and faithful Iohn of old, that Application whereof we have that Account in Luc. 3.14. The Souldiers demanded of Him, saying, What shall we do? We find that He left them not without those Divine Words of Command ▪ which He thought proper and useful for them. 'Tis in Conformity to his Great and Good Exemple, that I count my self under Obligations at this Time to attempt the satisfaction and answer the Expectation of the Souldiers, whose worthy Leader has brought them into this p. 2Assembly, that they might hear a short Sermon adapted unto Their peculiar Circumstances. We are informed in the Sacred Pages, that in the Expedition of the Israelites against the Canaanites, There came down those that Handled the Pen of the Writer. 'Tis the unhappiness of the Expedition which we are at this day concerned in, that our present and pressing Dangers involve every person some way in it. Even Scholars must either Accompany or Encourage Souldiers; and they that have handled none but Pens, must either carry or sharpen Swords. We are in the Briars of a Perplexity, wherein, Omnis Home Miles est, Every man is in his way to bear Arms; and Those that I have to assist you with, I must fetch out of that Christian Panoply the Holy Bible.

'Tis there, my Fellow-Souldiers, that I find the Copy of a Renowned Souldier, to suit your Enquiries, when you repair unto me with your What shall we do? Behold in That of the Psalmist, both your own Condition, and your own Direction. Your Condition is, To have your Lives continually in our Hands. Your Direction is, To not forget Gods Law.

The Text now offered unto your Consideration, is in the longest, and yet the sweetest of all the Psalms. 'Tis in a Psalm, which (as one saith) consisteth of words, Non tam Legenda quam Vivenda, to be Lived rather than Read or Heard; p. 3a Psalm, which (as another says) is, Quanto rolixior eo prestantior, having an Excellency transcendent like its Prolixity; a Psalm which the wittiest of the Ancients in a Dream or Vision had presented unto him, as The Tree of Life in the midst of the Paradise of God; What shall I say more? a Psalm which well deserves to be set as the Preface of the Scripture, being the Encomium, and indeed the Epitome of it all.

p. 3A Coherence, and so an Analysis, of the several Paragraphs in the Psalm, is not sollicitously to be sought: the Regard had unto the Order and Number of the Hebrew Letters, throughout the whole, giving us cause to look for a Cohaerence of Letters rather than of Matters in it; however in our Context there seems to be some Dependence. We have here the Lovely David, that Eminent Servant and Souldier of the Lord, asserting his own Integrity, against the Temptations of a Various Assault; an Assault both from Snares and Swords. He was Assaulted one while by Fraud; and as to the Temptations thereof he says, The Wicked have laid a Snare for me, yet I have not erred from thy Precepts. He was Assailied another while by Force; & as to the Temptations thereof, he says, My soul is continually in my Hands; yet I do not forget thy Law. Suppose this incomparable General, now skulking and scowring about the Woods, in the Wilderness of Palestine; pursued like a Patridge, by that bloody Fowler Saul, with all his cruel setting Dogs about p. 4him. Suppose him, now in Arms, and thus Expressing of himself. Behold in our Text:

First, the Affliction of a great Souldier. 'Tis, my soul is continually in my Hand. By the Soul may be meant the Life, which does consist in a Vital Union between the Soul and the Body. But how may this be said to be, In the Hand? remember Austin upon this place, confesses, he could not conceive what the Psalmist meant. But Ierom hits the Nail, by noting that it is an Hebraism, Quo significatur vitam habere periculo Expositam; signifying to go in Danger of ones Life. The Graecians have a Proverb, as well as the Hebrews to the same purpose; 〈non-Latin alphabet〉. He hath his Soul in his Hand. To put it out of Doubt, that this is the Intent of the Psalmist here, we find it elsewhere, that when the Life of this very person had been obnoxious to an extraordinary Danger, 'tis thus deciphered in 1 Sam. 19.5. He did put his Life in his Hand. And hence the never enough Regarded and Commended French Translation, so renders the passage, we are now upon, Ma Vie a este continuellement en Hazard; my Life has been continually in Hazard. A Souldier must continually look to be Hazarding of his Life.

p. 4Secondly the Affection of a good Souldier. 'Tis Yet I do not forget thy Law. A Souldier must indeed Forget all things, but Gods Law, and his own Sword. For the Object which he is to be Affected with, 'tis Gods Law. That is one of the Ten p. 5Words, one of which is used in almost every verse of this glorious Hymn, to denote, The ways and means by which the blessed God reveals His Will unto the Children of Men; and the Will it self revealed in those ways and means.

And then for the Respect which he is to place upon this Object, it is, Not Forgetting. But we are to bear in mind, That according to the Received Rule of Expounding Scripture Phrases to Remember, denotes also, to Know, to Love, to Do. All That is intended here.

And hence the Doctrine here provided for you is, That the Remembrance of Gods Law, is a Thing of no small Importance to them that have their Lives continually in their Hands.