A03620:451
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.
Commentary Psalm 77 › Body of exposition › Part 3 (verses 2-9): ¶The third part.
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.
Out of this temptation we may learn how foolish and how impatient we be. When God sendeth troubles,1 we think such to be best at ease that want them:2 whereas the Lords book declareth, that it is necessary,3 and also very expedient, that we should have them. Again, there is to be noted how that the Prophet in the cogitations of his mind,4 maketh no mention of the grief of the body, whereof he spake before at the beginning of his troubles. For in the second and fourth verse he declareth how he held up his hands all night, cried with his voice until he was speechless, and lay waking & could not sleep. Of the which sorrows now he maketh no rehearsal, ⟨p. 107⟩but saith: his spirit was searching and inquisitive, Whether God would absent himself for ever, with divers like interrogatories of Gods nature, as follow in the Psalm. Whereof we learn the vileness of our own nature, and also the treason and subtlety of the devil. For as long as we sin, we have such delight and pleasure therein, as though it were but a play to transgress and break Gods holy commandments.5 But when sickness and trouble have laid the wicked the body abed.6 and made it weak and feeble:7 our conscience is waked by the Law of GOD, and we put in such terror and fear, that nothing can quiet us. Also, as long as we do sin, the devil beareth us in hand that God is so merciful, (do what we will,) that he will not be angry: but when sickness or death invadeth, then turneth the devil his tale, and persuadeth with us, that GOD is only extreme just, and nothing at all merciful. And this grief of the mind is so sore and vehement, that all the pains of the body seem nothing in comparison thereof: as we see in this place by the holy Prophet Asaph, that was very sore unquieted in his body, yet did his spirit make no account of it, but still he stayed and staggered, trembling and quaking at the heaviness and sorrow of the spirit, that could not feel, for the time of his trouble, any certainty or consolation in the promises of God.