Chap. 23 . An äxvo.fition upon the Eookof TO B. Verf. it. 397: the left ; theremay be an exceeding, and there may be. a coming fhort in thole, as to a Lions, who,as to their fate,are come home to God ; there things are poftìble, yea common, but we (peak of what many godly men doe, and what thould be the aim ,and de- figne of every godly man, that is, to keep the way of God, and not to decline, to keep himfelfe up in ipirituall firer geh, and to keep himfelfe on'in a ipirituall t urie; yea every, godly man may, and can fay as `David did (Pfal. i8. 2e.) I have kept the wage: of the Lord. and have not wickedly departedfoorr, rnGod. Though every godly mancannot fay as godly lob did ,lhave kept his way,andnot drelined, yet every godly manmay fay as David, ',have kept his wayes, and have not wickedly departedfrom my God; we thould he afraid ofdeclining and decaying, we fhould ftrive tobe alwayes advancing and encreafing. And asSaints are under a command to be futh, fo they are tinder a promífe to be filch, (7ig+1. 92 12, 13, 14 ) The righteous /hall l,urifh like a Palree tree : he lb%!l grow,/=ke a cedar in Lebanon. Thofe that be planted in the houle ,f theLord, Jhallfleurifh in the Courts ofour God, the) `Ball flill bringforthfruit in old age : they /ball befat andflvsri(b. ing. Here is not oily a mentionofgrowing, but offlourithing, and here's flnurahing three times mentioned, and 'cis growing & flourifhing not onely like a trees but like a Palme tree, (which fiourifheth under opprefiìon) and like a Cedar (not growing in ordinary places but) in Lebanon, where were the goodliefi Ce- dars. Nor doth the Spirit promífe here a flourifhììng in boughes and leaves onely (as fome treesdoe, and doe no more) but i fruit; And this not onely fruit for once in a yeare, or oneyeare, but theyflit bring forthfruit, and thatnot onely in the yeares of their youth, or beginnings in grace, but in old ag*e, and that not only in the entrance ofthat ítbte which is called oldage,threefcore years,but that which the Scripture calls the perfeftion ofoldage, threefcore yeares and ten, as the learned Hebrewes obferve upon the word ufed in thePfalme.What a divine climax doth the Spi- rit ofGodmake in this Scripture, to thew that the godlyman, as to his flate,is to forre from declining,that he is ftill climbing high. er and higher ? And ifany íhall aske how comes it to paffe then, that fomegodly men are obferved not only by themfelves, but byothers, todecline often inand .fometimes from the wayes of God?
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