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4. He promiseth to be a Father to Davids seed, and take him for his Son. ''He shall call upon me, thou art my Father, my God, the rock of my salvation. And I will make him my first-born, higher then the Kings of the earth;'' that is, the Prince and chiefe of the Kings, the most glorious and famous of all Kings. As Christ is called the first begotten of every creature, not that he was created before all other creatures, but because he is the Lord, Prince and head of every creature, and hath dominion over all creatures: and so the heire of all things, as heire, is sometimes put for Lord or owner, and pro haerede gerere, is, ''pro Domino gerere. Haeredes enim veteres pro Dominis appellabant''.

5. That his house should be established and his Kingdome for ever before the Lord, even his throne should be established for ever. His seed will I make to endure for ever, and his throne as the daies of Heaven. ''His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne shall be as the Sun before me. He shall be established for evermore as the Moon, as a faithfull witnesse in the heaven:'' that is, his Kingdome shall be perpetuall and glorious. For although the Moone waxeth and waineth and seemeth sometimes to be gone, yet it is continually renewed, and so stable: which is a fit resemblance of the Church, which hath not alwaies one face or appearance in the world, though it be perpetuall. And though for the sins of the people and Davids house, the state of his Kingdome and house decayed, yet God reserved still a root, till he had accomplished this promise in Christ.

6. That his house should be as the Morning light, when the Sun ariseth, the morning I say without clouds, and as the grasse of the earth with cleare shining after raine: that is, it shall shine with all light of glory and prosperity, and flourish or be green perpetually, as the herbes and grasse which is refreshed with seasonable rain and heate.

These gracious and free promises God made to David and to his house, and to the whole Kingdome of Israel, not for their righteousnesse, but of his manifold and great mercy. And as he promised them without consideration of their desert, so of his rich grace and love undeserved, he made them good. For Davids house was not such as it ought to be before God, they kept not promise & Covenant: but the Lord was mercifull and gracious, he did not forget his truth, nor suffer his mercies to faile. If his children