our defence, that still wee rely vpon the Lord for successe.
A second is, to stop vs from glorying in our strength. There is a caueat against it, Ierem. 9.23. Let not the strong man glory in his strength. If he will needs glory, let him glory in the Lord. Let his glorying be in imitation of the royall Prophet, Psa. 18.2. The Lord is my rocke, and my fortresse, and my deliuerer: my God, my strength in whom I will trust, my buckler and the horne of my saluation, and my high tower. The Lord is my strength.
A third is to admonish vs of a duty of ours, which is, in trouble sometimes, yea alwayes, to approach vnto the throne of grace by humble prayer, to begge of God his protection against all the assaults of our enemies, that they neuer preuaile against vs to take away our strength.
I am come to my last circumstance, the circumstance of the spoile, in these words,
Et diripientur palatia tua, And thy palaces shall be spoiled. The Vulgar Latine saith, Diripientur aedes tuae, thy houses shall be spoiled. Petrus Lusitanus preferreth Palaces, as best agree∣ing with the Hebrew. He is in the right. palaces are named, because Conquerours when they haue wonne a City by assault, doe enter into the fairest, stateliest, and most princely houses, presuming to finde in them the greatest booties.
These Palaces are by some taken Metonymically to signifie either the goods heaped vp in them, or the poss••ssions belong∣ing to them.
Wee shall not doe amisse if wee follow the letter, and take these Palaces, as they are, for the Palaces of Samaria, where∣in the Princes, Magistrates, and Rulers of Samaria, did store vp the treasures of violence and robbery, as wee saw vpon the former verse. So the meaning may be thus: Palatia tua, Thy Palaces, O Samaria, which were as the receptacles, caues, or dens, in which thou didst treasure vp thy goods gotten from the poore by violence and wrong, diripientur, they shall be spoiled: thou hast spoiled others, therefore shalt thou thy selfe be spoiled. Sic erit poena sceleri consentiens; so shall the punish∣ment be agreeable to the offence. Obserue here,