A supplement to the several discourses upon various divine subjects

A DISCOURSE OF THE CHURCHES STABILITY.

THE Author of this Psalm, and the time when it was penned, are uncertain. Some think it was composed after the return of the Jews from Babylon, upon the Erection of the second Temple, and designed to be sung in their constant Public Assemblies. Others think it was composed by David, when he brought the Ark to Zion, as the Repository for it, till the Building of the Temple, wherein it might honourably rest. It seems, whoever was the Author, to be Ecstatical. The Penman breaks out into a holy rapture and admiration of the firmness and stability of the Church. 'Tis also Prophetical of the Christian Church, of the glory of it, the largeness of its bounds, and perpetual duration. The Jews ridiculously interpret it of literal Jerusalem in regard of the excellency of its Climate, the goodness of the air, being seated in the middle or navel of the earth, and the seat and spring of all the wise men, accounting all fools that were to be found in other parts; 'tis true, others were not wise with a wisdom to Salvation; they were not instructed in the high Mysteries of Religion by God, as those People were. But was there not Learning among the Greeks, & Wisdom among the Chaldeans, and a ripeness in Mechanic Arts among the Tyrians which lived in the same Climate with the Jews? It can by no means be understood of the material Jerusalem and Zion; that was ruined by the Babylonians, and tho re-edified, yet afterwards subverted by the Romans, and the remainders of it at this day become a Stable for Mahomet, and the bringing in those Nations mentioned, v. 4. overthrows any such interpretation, which never were enrolled in the registers of Zion, nor became Votaries to the true Religion, while the walls of that place were standing in their glory. Zion was the place whence the Law was to come,