Moses his prayer. Or, An exposition of the nintieth Psalme.: In which is set forth, the frailty and misery of mankind; most needfull for these times. Wherein [brace] 1. The sum and scope. 2. The doctrines. 3. The reasons. 4. The uses of most texts are observed. / By Samuel Smith, minister of the Gospel, author of Davids repentance and the Great assize, and yet living.

Hence we learn, [Doct. 2]

That the misery of man since his fall is exceeding great; * 1.1 because let his life be what it will be, yet his very best time is full of labour and sorrow. As Jacob said to Pharaoh, The dayes of the years of my pilgrimage, are few and evil: So true is that of Job, * 1.2 Man that is born of a woman is of few dayes, and full of trouble.

The very honey and sweetnesse of this life is mixed with wormwood and gall: what day almost passeth o∣ver our heads without some crosse or other, and cause of grief. He that drank deepest of the cup of all worldly pro∣sperity; as Solomon took his fill of them yet at last concluded, * 1.3 That all was but vanity and vexation of spi∣rit.

That mans day•• are full of sor∣rows, and his travel grief of heart, we see our joyes are uncertain, our sor∣rows and grief more sure: whilest as Job saith, The evils which we fear, befall us, and the comforts we desire fail us.

We are still expecting better dayes

and times, but finde worse: In our mirth there is mourning, in our joy there is sorrow; our false fears beget reall grief, though the things we fear never come to passe: And as if our present miseries were not enough to make our lives miserable, we torment our selves, in laying hold of those we have already suffered, and fear those that are to come, by which means, many times, we torment our selves before the time. In a word, there is no age or time of mans life, nor estate or condition we are in here, but it meets with its severall miseries inci∣dent thereunto, youth, middle age, old years, all of them have their labour and sorrow, daies of vanity, full of misery.

Seeing our life here in this world is so frail and so miserable, [Use 1] full of la∣bour and sorrow, both inward and outward, of body and minde; this shewes, that the greatest part of the world are far from this perswasion of Moses, as look not upon this world to be so full of misery; for many a man could wish, he might ever live

here, and never die. It seemes, these men did never yet tast of the misery of sin, and of the misery of this life; or, else they could never yet see what a blessed thing it is, to be freed from these miseries, and to live eternally in Heaven.

Secondly, seeing our life is so short, [Vse 2] frail and miserable, full of labour and sorrow; this should teach us that les∣son of the Apostle, To use this world as though we used it not, seeing it is so full of misery and trouble. We see a Mother, when she would wean the Child from the breast, she laies some bitter thing upon it, that so the Child tasting of it, might be out of love with it, and desire it no more. Even so the Lord, knowing that we are exceedingly in love with the world, with the pleasures and profits of this life, lest we should surfeit with these things, hath laid many bitter troubles and afflictions upon us, and all to wean us from the immoderate love of it.

This doth David acknowledge from experience, O Lord, thou hast made my daies as an hand-breadth.

Surely every man in his best estate is but vanity. * 1.4 And that this might be remembred of us, he sets upon it a note of attention, Selah, and shewes what use himselfe made of it, O Lord, my hope is in thee: He casts off all care of the world, and only flies to God and seeks to him for succour.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Misery of man since the fall, great. Gen. 47.9.
• * 1.2

  Job 14.1.
• * 1.3

  Eccl. 2.13.23.
• * 1.4

  Ps. 39.5, 6.