Presbyterian Deacon
Puritan Board Graduate
(Psalm 143:3, 9)
For the enemy hath persecuted my soul; he hath smitten my life down to the ground; he hath made me to dwell in darkness, as those that have been long dead...Deliver me, O Lord, from mine enemies: I flee unto thee to hide me.
All this the enemy has done to me; but what enemy? Is it not the enemy of all mankind, who has singled me out, as it were, to a duel? And can I resist him myself alone, when the whole army of mankind cannot? But is he not the enemy of Thyself, O God, and who is but my enemy because I am Thy servant? ANd wilt Thou see The servants persecuted...and not protect them?
Alas, O Lord, if they were but some light evils that were inflicted upon me, I would bear them without complaining...but they are the three greatest miseries that can be thought of: the greatest persecution, the greatest overthrow, and the greatest captivity. For what persecution is so grievous as to be persecuted in my soul; for he plays no less a game than for souls...
And he strikes no light blows, for he has striken my life down to the ground...and being himself the prince of darkness, has kept me in darkness...And it is no ordinary darkness that he has made me to dwell in, but even the darkness of dead men, and that in the ultimate degree as those who have been dead a long time. They that have been dead but a little while, are yet remembered sometimes, and sometimes talked of; but they that have been long dead are as forgotten as if they never had been...Deliver me from my enemies, O God. And if it should be so, have we not then just cause to love our enemies, just cause to embrace our persecutors, seeing it is they that often made us lift up our souls, and flee to God...
--Sir Richard Baker, Meditations and Disquisitions, Sprinkle Publications. As quoted by I.D.E. Thomas, Puritan Daily Devotional Chronicles (page 98).
For the enemy hath persecuted my soul; he hath smitten my life down to the ground; he hath made me to dwell in darkness, as those that have been long dead...Deliver me, O Lord, from mine enemies: I flee unto thee to hide me.
All this the enemy has done to me; but what enemy? Is it not the enemy of all mankind, who has singled me out, as it were, to a duel? And can I resist him myself alone, when the whole army of mankind cannot? But is he not the enemy of Thyself, O God, and who is but my enemy because I am Thy servant? ANd wilt Thou see The servants persecuted...and not protect them?
Alas, O Lord, if they were but some light evils that were inflicted upon me, I would bear them without complaining...but they are the three greatest miseries that can be thought of: the greatest persecution, the greatest overthrow, and the greatest captivity. For what persecution is so grievous as to be persecuted in my soul; for he plays no less a game than for souls...
And he strikes no light blows, for he has striken my life down to the ground...and being himself the prince of darkness, has kept me in darkness...And it is no ordinary darkness that he has made me to dwell in, but even the darkness of dead men, and that in the ultimate degree as those who have been dead a long time. They that have been dead but a little while, are yet remembered sometimes, and sometimes talked of; but they that have been long dead are as forgotten as if they never had been...Deliver me from my enemies, O God. And if it should be so, have we not then just cause to love our enemies, just cause to embrace our persecutors, seeing it is they that often made us lift up our souls, and flee to God...
--Sir Richard Baker, Meditations and Disquisitions, Sprinkle Publications. As quoted by I.D.E. Thomas, Puritan Daily Devotional Chronicles (page 98).
