The Text. sharp correction, thy good will be done: give us strength to bear that thy wisdom will lay upon us, and lay on us what thou wilt. Thou gavest us thy law to be a bridle, to rule our wicked desires, and keep us within the compass of them; but we, like madmen, or rather wild and untamed beasts, that cannot be tied in chains nor holden in any bands, have outrageously broken all thy commandments. No laws could rule us, no saying compel, nor correction could stay us; but wilfully we followed our own fantasies. There is nothing, O Lord, that thou canst lay to our charge, but we willingly and frankly confess ourselves guilty thereof: for we have neither kept thy commandments, which thou gavest us by Moses thy servant, wherein privately we might learn how to direct our lives both towards thee our God, and also toward all men; nor the ceremonies, sacraments and sacrifices, which thou appointedst us to keep in thy religion, and in them to worship thee, we have not duly regarded and kept, but cast them away, and followed the fashions of the heathen people about us, and such as we devised ourselves. Our priests and prophets have taught us lies and devices of their own heads; yet have we been more ready to hear, believe and follow them, than thy holy will and word, declared unto us in thy book of life. The civil laws, by which thou appointedst thy commonwealth to be ruled, we have broken and disobeyed, living at our own lust and pleasure. Our judges, rulers, and lawyers have sought their own gain more than justice to their people, oppressing them wrongfully. There is no goodness in no sort of us: prince, priest, people, judge, ruler, and all sorts from the highest to the lowest, we have all run astray we deny it not, but with many tears and grievous heart we fall before thy throne of mercy, earnestly craving and faithfully believing to find mercy, grace and pardon at thy hands. : With these and such like words he poured out his grief before the Lord. For no doubt he spake much more than is here written; but these may suffice to teach us the like. v. 8. Remember, I beseech thee, the word that thou commandedst Moses thy servant, saying, Ye will offend, and I will scatter you among the heathen: 9. And if ye turn unto me, and keep my commandments, and do them; if ye were cast to the uttermost parts of heaven, from thence I will gather you, and will bring you to the place which I have chosen to set my name there. 10. They are thy servants, and thy people, whom thou hast bent to the prayer of thy servants, which desire to fear The xxxii. Give me leave, Lord, I beseech thee, to speak unto thee, and put thee in remembrance of those things which thou seemest to us to have quite forgotten. Thou forewarnedst us by thy faithful servant Moses, that if we offended thee, thou Deut. iv. wouldst drive us out of that pleasant country which thou gavest us, and scatter us among the heathen people in all countries; yet, if we would turn unto thee again, and keep thy commandments, there was no part under heaven so far off, nor none so mighty or cruel against us, but thou wouldst bring us again and settle us in that place which thou hadst chosen and appointed us to call on thy name there. first part, O God, we find too true: we have sinned, and thou hast punished us: we have broken thy laws, and thou hast scattered us into all countries: and if we lived among a people that knew thee, or loved thee, our banishment and loss of our country would be less grievous unto us. But, alas, good God! we live amongst them that hate thee, and laugh at us they worship gods of their own making, and think them to be of greater might than thou, the almighty and ever-living God, art. This grief we cannot digest: this is so tedious unto us, that we cannot be merry until thou restore us. After our long captivity by Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon thou seemedst to remember us something, and movedst the good king Cyrus to give licence to as many as would to go home and build thy temple again; and this was some good token of thy love and favour towards us: but yet, alas! O Lord, there be as many years or more past, since Cyrus began this our deliverance; and yet we live among the unbelieving Persians, a people as cruel and wicked as the Babylonians and the Chaldeans were: thou changest our captivity from one kingdom to another, and from country to country; yet we never a whit the better. We are not brought to thy promised place and holy land: our city is burned up, and lieth uninhabited; the walls are pulled down, and the gates lie open, that our enemies may rush in on every side, spoil and murder us at their pleasure. By thy good servant, king Darius, thou didst build us a temple to call upon thy name in it; and that was some good hope that thou wouldst fully deliver us from our enemies, and mercifully restore us to our undeserved country. Thou seemest, O Lord, to have kept part of thy promise; but yet the greatest part is behind. Remember, O God, I beseech thee, thy promise, and bring us home again; finish the thing that thou hast so prosperously begun. Thy enemies will think that either thou canst not or wilt not perform thy promise: arise, O Lord, and deliver us fully, that the world may know thou art a true God in keeping thy promise: let thy enemies see that there is no people so strong to hold us, nor country so far off, but thou both canst and wilt destroy them that rebel against thee, and fully deliver us and bring us home again. Pardon my rude boldness, gracious God, which so saucily speak unto thee; the grief of my heart is so great, it brusteth out, I cannot hold in, but talk unto thee as one doth to another. The faithful hope that I have in thee, that thou wilt perform thy promise fully, maketh me thus boldly to speak; yet the greatness of our misery and the weakness of our faith maketh many to think that thou hast forgotten us. Bear with our weakness, and pardon our impatience. The sick man that lieth in great pains, and looketh for the physician's coming, thinketh he cometh but slowly, when he maketh all the haste he can; and when he is come, except he give him some ease quickly, he thinketh that either he cannot or will not help him. But the wisdom of the physician is such, that if he should purge or let him blood presently, it were great danger; or if he should satisfy his fantasy, letting him eat and drink what he list, it would increase his pains; and therefore he tarrieth until he see better occa sion given: so we, O Lord, lie in great pains, and think thou tarriest long: we would gladly have our desires fulfilled; but thy wisdom seeth the time is not yet come. Give us patience, O God, to tarry thy leisure, or rather a speediful deliverance. Our weakness is such, that we cannot but murmur and grudge at our delays, and think thou hast forgotten us. Bear with our foolishness, O Lord, which cannot understand the secret wisdom of thy doings: we judge thee according to our own wits, as we think good, and submit not ourselves to thy wisdom, which knowest what time is best and meetest for us to taste of thy undeserved goodness. We think thou hast forgotten us, if thou speedily satisfy not our desires. Arise, gracious God, and deliver us, that the world may see that thou rememberest thy promise made so long ago to thy faithful servant Moses. This profit we have by reading thy scriptures, left unto us by thy servants the prophets, that our faith is increased, our hope faileth not, but manfully tarrieth with patience for thy coming. Faith doubteth not, and hope is not weary, though our grudging nature cannot be contented. Increase our faith, O gracious God, our hope and strength, that we fall not from thee: pardon our murmuring and mistrusting of thee: though our state be despised when we look at ourselves, yet when we remember thy promise, we cannot despair. We follow our father Abraham, who, contrary to hope by reason, hoped in thee that thou wouldest fulfil thy promise to him, though reason could not see it. And that thou mayest the more willingly do it, O Lord, consider who we be. We be thy servants; other lords and masters we seek none: we are thy people, and thou our God and King. Can any master forsake his servant, or any king his subject, that humbly submitteth himself unto him? Though we have sinned and deserved to be cast away from thee, yet art thou, O Lord, rich in mercy, a King of great power, and thy glory shall shine in our deliverance. Is any fault so great, that thou canst not forgive it? Is any man so hard-hearted, but at length he will be entreated? and shall any wickedness overflow thy goodness so far, that thou wilt not be entreated? So many years' punishment would satisfy a stony heart, and forgive and forget all that is past think on us, O Lord, what metal we be made of, and deal not with us in the balance of justice, but in mercy. We are by nature earth, dust and ashes, and therefore heavy, sluggish, and forgetful: we are born of sinful parents even from the beginning; and therefore of ourselves must needs follow their trade in ill doing: we be no angels, and therefore cannot serve thee as we should do. Take in good part, O Lord, our simple good will: that that wanteth in us, thy Messias, thy Son, our Lord and Christ, hath fulfilled for us, and made us partakers of his righteousness. Look at him, O Lord, and not at us, who redeemed us with no gold nor silver, but by his own precious blood; and let that price satisfy thee, and deliver us. I grant, O Lord, thou deliveredst our fathers from their bondage and slavery in Egypt, wherein we should have continued, if thy mighty hand, great power and strength had not made us free. And not only then, O Lord, we tasted of thy goodness, but ever since, when the Philistines, Ammonites, Moabites, or other enemies round about us oppressed us, thou heardst us, thou deliveredst us; and shall we now be clean forgotten? Arise, O Lord, speedily, and let thy people know that thou rememberest them, and hast a care over them. How shall thy goodness be known, if thou have not a people to praise thee? I beseech thee, Lord, pardon my importunity. I cannot depart, until I obtain my suit at thy hands: though thou seem to deal hardly with us so many years, yet I will say with patient Job, "Although he kill me, yet I will trust in him still." I know thou lovest us, whatsoever thou doest unto us; and therefore I will trust in thee still. Though thou hast seemed hitherto, O Lord, to look strangely on us, yet now bow down thine ear, and hear the prayer of me thy poor servant, and the prayers of all the rest of my sorrowful brethren, thy servants; which would gladly, so far as the weakness of man's nature will suffer us, fear thy name. Thy Holy Spirit giveth us a desire to serve thee; but the rebellious flesh, which we received of our first father Adam, withstandeth all such motions, and draweth us from thee. Deal not with us, therefore, O God, in the rigour of thy justice, but in the unspeakable measure of thy mercies. Rule thy servant this day, and grant me to find grace and favour in the sight of this mighty king, Artaxerxes, whose cup-bearer |