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CONTEMPLATIONS and COLLECTS ON THE Seventh PSALM of DEGREES, BEING The CXXVI. PSALM.
O Most dear Redeemer Jesus, who wouldest be the Lord our Righteousness, we must confess thou mightest justly become our Enemy, (as Joseph's Brethren became his Foes) because of the multitude of our Dreams; those vain conceits of Happiness which have been trusted and lean'd upon, though but Egy∣ptian Reeds, have greatly merited thy Punishment, and our farther deceptions. We have deserved to be most terribly mistaken, like the hungry wretch, who dreams he eats, but he awakes, and behold he is faint, and the more afamisht. Thus are our Souls but the more starved by those Visions of the Night; those short unsatisfying plea∣sures; those shadows, and fond imaginations, in which we have been lull'd asleep by the Flesh, the World, and the Evil one, leading us Captive by them at their pleasure. But, Lord, if thou wilt teach us like thy self, to lead Captivity Captive, and to subdue their triple Band that lies in Ambush against us, (as Abimelech's against the Men of Shechem) then shall we be like the Widow's Son raised even from the Dead: We shall not only recover our strength wonderfully, as did the Cripple, before we go hence, but be recalled with Lazarus to newness of Life, and have our Wills and Faculties unbound, our Mouths and Hearts opened, our Hands and Feet loosed and enlarged to sing the Praises of the Lord, to run the Paths of his Commands, and to teach Transgressors his ways, that so Sinners may be converted unto him, admiring the great things which God hath done for us, and we praise him for continually; for as God's Praise must be ever in our Mouths upon the account of his miraculous Redemption of us, (who were conquered and taken, enslaved and sold) so ought we incessantly to pray for the Conversion of others, (remembring those that are in Bonds as bound with them) and that thy Servants, O Christ! who are many, may be made one Bread, and they who sit in the darkness of Ignorance, or in the shadows of Error, may be delivered from the power of Satan, into the glorious Liberty of the Sons of God.
Blessed Lord! thou hast Brethren here that the World knows not, nor thinks to be such. O! that all the Sheep, though they have gone astray, may be reduced from their Wanderings, and brought out of their Wilderness, Condition, and desert State, by resting on the Shoulders of thy Power, and leaning on the Bosom of thy Love. O thou well-beloved and best loving Jesus! how grateful, gracious, and desirable, how profitable, sweet, and suitable will such a stream of Grace prove to thine Israel in their Pilgrimage? It will be a Well