A03620:21
Certain comfortable expositions of the constant martyr of Christ, M. John Hooper, Bishop of…Certeine comfortable expositions of the constant martyr of Christ, M. Iohn Hooper, Bishop of…
Certain comfortable expositions of the constant martyr of Christ, M. John Hooper, Bishop of Gloucester and Worcester written in the time of his tribulation and imprisonment, upon the XXIII. LXII. LXXIII. and LXXVII. Psalms of the prophet David.Certeine comfortable expositions of the constant martyr of Christ, M. Iohn Hooper, Bishop of Glocester and Worcester written in the time of his tribulation and imprisonment, vpon the XXIII. LXII. LXXIII. and LXXVII. Psalmes of the prophet Dauid.
London: printed by Henry Middleton, 1580London: printed by Henrie Middleton, 1580
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
The Lord feedeth me, and I shall want nothing.
King David saith,1 the Lord feedeth him: wherefore he can lack nothing to live a virtuous and godly life. In this first part some things are to be considered. First, of God that feedeth: and next of man that is fed. GOD that feedeth, David calleth by the name of a shepherd, and his people he calleth by the name of sheep. By this name of a shepherd, the Prophet openeth and discloseth the nature of God to all his miserable and lost creatures, that he is content, not only to wish and desire man that is lost, to be found and restored again: but also doth seek and travel to restore and bring him home again: as it is written in Isaiah the Prophet,2 He shall gather together his lambs in his arm. 3And in Ezekiel the Prophet, the Lord saith, Behold, I will require my flock of the shepherds, &c. And I will deliver my flock from ⟨image 7⟩their mouth, and they shall be no more their meat: for thus saith the Lord: Behold, I will search out my sheep, and will visit them as a shepherd doth visit his sheep, when he is in the middest of his scattered sheep, so will I visit my sheep, and deliver them from all places whereas they have been scattered, &c. And Jeremiah the Prophet in the same sort,4 declareth the nature of God towards the lost flock, saying: He that dispersed Israel shall gather him together again, and keep him as the shepherd keepeth his flock. Christ our Saviour nameth him self a good shepherd,5 and saith, that He was sent to call such as were not sheep of the utter mark and sign in the world, to be his sheep. This nature of the heavenly father saw king David, when he said at the beginning of this heavenly Hymn: The Lord feedeth me, &c.