An exposition with practical observations continued upon the eighth, ninth, & tenth chapters of…

But oh! ¹the fury and rage of War when God lets it out, to dash Mother against Children. ²We read in Psal. 137. concerning the children of Idolaters, that when the Lord lets out his wrath upon the parents, he will let it out upon the children too, Happy shall he be that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones. It's a very strange phrase. And in Isa. 13. 16. ³Their children shall be dashed in pieces before their eyes. I remember Ursine in his Comment upon that place of Isa. he quotes this 137. Psal. and he hath first this Note,⁴ That though God doth thus execute his Wrath, yet usually because it is so dreadful and there is so much savageness in the thing in mans eye, therefore God doth use to do it by wicked men, and we never read that he made use of his own Saints to execute that wrath. And then he answers that doubt,⁵ I, but is it not said in the Psalm, Blessed are those that dash their little ones against the stones, it may seem that it is approved of?⁶ Now that is his answer, and Calvins, and others, that he doth not mean Blessed, that is, That they are blessed in their persons, or eternal blessings of Mercy; but it is a Prophetical wish that they might have success in the work, that they might have the blessing of success in the work, as an execution of Gods Wrath, and Gods Justice, though the Instruments did sin in it, they did it to execute their savage cruelty, yet the Prophet doth look upon the Justice of God in it, and wishes success unto them in such a work as that is, that the Justice of God may go on and have its course, speaking in the way of a Prophetical spirit.

But oh! ¹