A03620:518
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 4 (verses 10-20): ¶The fourth 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.
In the end of this verse the Prophet saith,1 The depths were troubled. In the which words he hath aptly showed the mighty power of God, and perceiveth how the record of Gods fact may be his consolation. In this that he saith, The depths were troubled: there be divers understandings. If the mean of the seas, when they are troublesome & tempestuous by soul weather, he speaketh rather after the judgement of such (as suffer the trouble and peril of the waves,) that think at one time they fall to the bottom of the sea, & at an other time they be rather upon high mountains then upon the waters, the rages thereof be so extreme: yet in deed, the bottom of the seas be not felt, neither doth the ship that is saved descend so far: but the tempests be so sore, that it seemeth to the sufferers thereof, that no extremity can be more. In this sense it serveth marvellously the Prophets purpose.2 For as they that endure the tempests of the sea, think there could be no more extremity then they sustain: so do they that suffer the tempest of mistrust and despair (for a time) of the conscience, think they could endure no more extremity of conscience: whereas in deed, if God should suffer them to feel the extremity, it were eternal death: as the extremity of the sea in tempests, is shipwreck and loss of man and goods. But if it be understood as if standeth in the letter, then hath the Prophet relation to the mighty hand of GOD, that brake the red sea even unto the very bottom,3 and also the water of Jordan:4 that his people might have both a nigh way, a safe way, & a glorious way towards the land that the Lord had promised them. And then in this sense we learn, that although water and wind, with all troubles else, cover the face of the earth, in the bottom of the ⟨image 124⟩sea, and is not possible to come to the use of man: even so the troublesome temptations, and great terror of Gods wrath against sin, covereth the soul of man, that unto the judgement of the flesh, it shall never come to have the use and fruition of Gods holy favour again. 5