Indeed, the Lord Jesus
said the same thing Himself, for He said that all power was given to
Him in heaven and earth; that He was with His churches (that is, with
all companies of Christian people, such as England) even to the end
of the world; that wherever two or three were gathered together in
His name, He would be in the midst of them; and if those blessed
words and good news be true, we Englishmen have a right to believe
firmly that we belong to Him just as much as the old Jews did; and
when we read these Psalms, to take every word of their good news--and
their warnings also--to ourselves, and to our own land of England.
And when we read in the text, that the Lord chose Jacob unto Himself
and Israel for His own possession, we have a right to say: "And the
Lord has chosen also England unto himself, and this favoured land of
Britain for his own possession." When we say in the Psalm: "The
Lord did what He pleased in heaven, and earth, and sea," to educate
and deliver the people of the Jews, we have a right to say just as
boldly: "And so He has done for England, for us, and for our
forefathers."
This then is the reason, the chief reason, why these Psalms are
appointed to be read every Sunday in church, and every morning and
evening where there is daily service--to teach us that the Lord takes
care not only of one man's soul here, and another woman's soul there,
but of the whole country of England; of its wars and its peace; of
its laws and government, its progress and its afflictions; of all, in
short, that happens to it as a nation, as one body of men, which it
is.
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