"her;" as he faith, Upon this rock will I build

my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Matt. xvi. 18.

6. The LORD hall count when he writeth up the people, that this man was born there.

In the book of life, that register of heaven, kept by God himself, our names are entered, not as born of flesh and blood by the will of man, but as born of water and the spirit by the will of God; of each perfon it is written, "that he was born there," in the church and city of God. That is the only birth which we ought to value ourselves upon, because that alone gives us our title to "the inheritance of "the faints in light. In Jefus Chrift there is neither "Greek nor Jew, circumcifion nor uncircumcifion,

barbarian, Scythian," noble or ignoble, "bond or free; but Chrift is all, and in all." Col. iii, II*.

7. As well the fingers as the players on inftruments fhall be there; all my Springs are in thee.

The literal verfion of the words, as Dr. Chandler obferves, seems to be-" Cantantes erunt, ficut cho"ream ducentes: omnes fontes mei in te. They "fhall fing like thofe that lead up the dance," i. e. moft joyfully; finging and dancing frequently accompanying one another. And the burthen of the fong thus joyfully fung in praife of Sion, was to

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• Dr. Durell thinks the verfe relates to the pedigree of our Lord, recorded among the Jews, and given us by the Evangelifts The Lord will have this recorded, in registering the people, that HE," the WIRI W's mentioned above," was born "there."

be

be this: "All my fprings," or fountains, " are in "thee." And if fuch be indeed the incomparable excellence of the church, and fuch the benefits of her communion, as they have been fet forth in the foregoing verfes, what anthem better deferves to be performed by all her choirs? In thee, O Sion, is the fountain of falvation, and from thee are derived all those springs of grace, which flow, by the divine appointment, while the world lafts, for the purification and refreshment of mankind upon earth,

PSALM LXXXVIII.

ARGUMENT.

This Pfalm, as Mr. Mudge obferves, may well be faid to be compofed, according to it's title, to create dejection, to raise a pensive gloom or melancholy in the mind; the whole fubject of it being quite throughout heavy, and full of the most dismal complaints. The nature and degree of the fufferings related in it; the strength of the exprefsions used to describe them; the confent of ancient expofitors; the appointment of the Pfalm by the church to be read on Good Friday; all these circumftances concur in directing an application of the whole to our bleffed Lord. His unexampled forrows, both in body and foul; his desertion in the day of trouble; his bitter passion, and approaching

G 4

death;

death; with his frequent and fervent prayers for the accomplishment of the promises, for the falvation of the church through him, and for the manifestation of God's glory; these are the particulars treated of in this inftructive and most affecting compofition*,

1. O LORD God of my falvation, I have cried day and night before thee: 2. Let my prayer come before thee: incline thine ear unto my cry.

We hear in thefe words the voice of our fuffering Redeemer. As man, he addreffeth himself to his Father," the LORD God of his falvation," from whom he expected, according to the promises, a joyful and triumphant refurrection: he pleadeth the fervency and importunity of his prayers, offered up continually, day and night," during the time of his humiliation and fufferings; and he entreateth to be heard in these his fupplications for his body myftical, as well as his body natural; for himself, and for us all.

3. For my foul is full of troubles; and my life draweth nigh to the grave.

Is not this exactly parallel to what he faid in the garden, "My foul is exceeding forrowful, even unta

Cum Pfalmis xxii et lxix ad omnia convenit Pfalmus lxxxviii, quod argumento eft, eum eodem modo a nobis effe explicandum. Continet igitur pariter orationem Chrifti ad Patrem e cruce fufam. Auctor hujus Cantici non alium in finem illi titulum dedit "w" erudientis,” quam ut Ecclefia pofteriorum temporum ex eo defceret ultima hæc Meffiæ fata. VITRINGA, Obfervat. Sacr. Lib. II. Cap. ix.

"death? Full," indeed, " of troubles" was thy "foul," O bleffed Jefus, in that dreadful hour, when, under the united weight of our fins and for rows, thou wert finking into the "grave," in order to raise us out of it. Let us judge of thy love by thy fufferings, and of both by the impoffibility of our fully comprehending either.

4. I am counted with them that go down into the pit: I am as a man that hath no ftrength.

Next to the troubles of Chrift's foul, are mentioned the disgrace and ignominy to which he fubs mitted. He who was the fountain of immortality, he from whom ho one could take his life, who could in a moment have commanded twelve legions of angels to his aid, or have caused heaven and earth, at a word fpeaking, to fly away before him, he was "counted with them that go down into the pit," he died, to all appearance, like the rest of mankind; nay, he was forcibly put to death, as a malefactor; and seemed, in the hands of his executioners, as a "man that had no strength," no power, or might, to help and to fave himself. "His ftrength went «from him; he became weak, and like another "man." The people shook their heads at him, say ing, "He faved others, himself he cannot fave."

5. Free among the dead, like the flain that lie in the grave, whom thou remembereft no more: and they are cut off from thy hand.

"Free among the dead" that is, fet at liberty, or difmiffed from the world, and separated from all communication with it's affairs, as dead bodies are; "like" other "corpfes that lie in the grave, whom

"thou

"thou rememberest no more," i. e. as living objects of providence upon earth; in this fenfe," they are "cut of from God's hand," which held and supported them in life. And in no other sense can these expreffions be understood; fince to imagine that the Pfalmift, who so often speaks in plain terms of the refurrection, should here, when perfonating Meffiah, deny that doctrine, would be a conceit equally abfurd and impious.

6. Thou haft laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps. 7. Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and thou haft afflicted me with all thy waves.

The fufferings of Jefus are reprefented by his being plunged into a dark and horrible abyss, with the indignation of God, due to our fins, refting upon him, and all the waves of affliction rolling over him. The fame image is used in Pf. Ixix. and many other places.

8. Thou haft put away mine acquaintance far from me thou haft made me an abomination to them: I am hut up, and I cannot come forth.

At the apprehenfion of Christ, "All his disciples "forfook him and fled." Matt. xxvi. 56. Peter denied and abjured his Mafter, as if his acquaintance had been a disgrace, and "an abomination:" at the crucifixion, it is obferved by St. Luke, that "all "his acquaintance ftood afar off, beholding these "things;" xxiii. 49. beholding the innocent victim environed by his enemies, and at length "fhut up" in the fepulchre. The day muft come, when each perfon, who reads this, fhall be forfaken by the whole world; when relations, friends, and acquaint

ance