cut off before his time; and his office, (1 Sam. xxi. 7. xxii. 9.), wherein he behaves himself with such insufferable insolence and falsehood, be transferred to a better man.

Ver. 9. Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.] Let not his fatherless children succeed him in any thing that he hath, nor his widow have any thing left to maintain her.

Ver. 10. Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg: let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places.] Let them not have so much as an house wherein to put their heads, but be perpetual vagabonds, supporting a miserable life by begging an alms, and seeking where to lodge, because their own dwellings are laid waste and desolate.

Ver. 11. Let the extortioner catch all that he hath: and let the stranger spoil his labour.] Let his creditor (pretending a judgement) seize on all his estate; and a stranger, by that means, reap the fruit of all his care and labours.

Ver. 12. Let there be none to extend mercy unto him: neither let there be any to favour his fatherless children.] Let no man shew the least kindness to his memory, or upon that account bestow an alms upon his fatherless children.

Ver. 13. Let his posterity be cut off, and in the generation following let their name be blotted out.] Let them rather be odious for his sake, and the sooner destroyed; so that they be the last of the name, and, in the next generation, not one of that family be found. Ver. 14. Let the iniquity of his fathers be remember ed with the LORD: and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out.] But, according to the just sentence of thy law, (Exod. xx. 5.), let the punishments (which were due long ago, but thy patience moved thee to forbear) fall all upon him; let him suffer for the sins of his progenitors on both sides, in whose wicked steps he would not cease to tread.

Ver. 15. Let them be before the LORD continually, that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth. Let it be seen that their wickedness is not forgotten, though committed many years ago; but prosecute it with a continued vengeance, till nobody remember that there were such people in the world.

Ver. 16. Because that he remembered not to shew mercy, but persecuted the poor and needy man, that be might slay the broken in heart.] This will be but a deserved recompence for all his cruelties; for as he let all benefits slip out of his mind, and was ungrateful to those who had obliged him, so he had no sense of that common compassion which is due to the calamitous; but when he saw me in a necessitous condition, destitute of friends, and dejected in spirit, made no other use of it but to persecute me to death.

Ver. 17. As he loved cursing, so let it come unto him: as he delighted not in blessing, so let it be far from him.] What can be more just, than that the mischief, in which he delighted, and both wished and designed to others, should fall upon himself! and that he should never meet with the blessing of those righteous courses which he always hated and avoided!

Ver. 18. As he clothed himself with cursing like as with bis garment, so let it come unto his bowels like water, and like oil into his bones.] His very business was to slander others every where, taking a pride in the mischievous effects of his cursed lies, and therefore, let him feel the miserable fruit of his wickedness spreading itself, like the water he drinks, into every vein of him, and sticking as close to him as oil unto the bones.

Ver. 19. Let it be unto him as the garment which covereth him, and for a girdle wherewith he is girded continually.] Let him be involved in perpetual misfortunes and miseries, and never be able to shake them off; let him be hampered with straits and difficulties, without any possibility of getting out.

Ver. 20. Let this be the reward of mine adversaries from the LORD, and of them that speak evil against my soul.] This shall most certainly be the reward, which the righteous Lord will give to my malicious adversaries, for all the pains they have taken, by slanderous reports and calumnies, to take away my life:

Ver. 21. But do thou for me, O God the LORD, for thy name's sake: because thy mercy is good, deliver thou me.] Which I commend to thy protection, O Lord, the Governor of all things; beseeching thee to take my part, and appear for me, though not for my honour, yet for thy own, whose kindness is so exceeding bountiful unto all, that for that reason I am encouraged to hope thou wilt deliver me, to whom thou hast engaged thyself by many promises of mercy.

Ver. 22. For 1 am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me.] Which I never needed more than now; for I am so poor, and forsaken of all my friends, (1 Sam. xxv. 8. &c.), that I am ready to faint away with grief and sorrow, like one that is wounded at the very heart.

Ver. 23. I am gone like the shadow when it declineth: I am tossed up and down as the locust.] The evening shadow doth not vanish sooner than I from the place of my present abode, (1 Sam. xxii. 1. 3. 5. xxiii. 13. 14.), which I am forced to quit on a sudden, and to wander, like the locust, which flies, or is driven, with the wind, uncertainly from place to place.

Ver. 24. My knees are weak through fasting, and my flesh faileth of fatness.] And for want of food in those desart places, I am sometimes scarce able to remove; for my body, which heretofore was plump and fat, (1 Sam. xvi. 12.), is now grown lank and thin, like one of those miserable lean creatures.

Ver. 25. I became also a reproach unto them; when they looked upon me, they shaked their beads.] Which, instead of moving their pity, hath exposed me to such contempt and scorn, that when I am seen by any of them, they deride and scoff at me as an undone wretch, that vainly hopes to escape their hands.

Ver. 26. Help me, O LORD my God; O save me, according to thy mercy.] But my hope is, that thou, O Lord, who hast hitherto been my most gracious God, wilt seasonably interpose for my relief; and

deliver me, out of that tender mercy which is wont to extend itself to those who have nothing else to depend upon.

Ver. 27. That they may know that this is thy hand; that thou, LORD, hast done it.] Whereby they themselves may be convinced, and forced to acknowledge, that not by chance, no more than by my small forces, but by thy almighty power alone, and thy care of me, O Lord, I am delivered.

Ver. 28. Let them curse, but bless thou: when they arise, let them be ashamed; but let thy servant rejoice.] Thy blessing and protection I implore; which if thou wilt vouchsafe me, let them go on to curse and slander me as long as they please, it shall not hurt me, nay, let them assault me with armed force, they shall only be confounded at their vain attempt, and give thy servant the greater cause to rejoice at their disappoint

ment.

Ver. 29. Let mine adversaries be clothed with shame; and let them cover themselves with their own confusion as with a mantle.] Which shall so increase the confusion of my malicious adversaries, that they shall not be able to bear the disgrace; but wish they could hide themselves from the sight of their shame, which their own wickedness hath brought upon them.

Ver. 30. I will greatly praise the LORD with my mouth; yea, I will praise him among the multitude.] In hope of which defeat, 1 vow beforehand to the Lord the best expressions of my gratitude that I am able to make; not only in private, but in the greatest assemblies, where I will not cease to praise his almighty love.

Ver. 31. For he shall stand at the right hand of the poor, to save him from those that condemn his soul.] And bid them trust in God, who hath pleaded my cause, and rescued me from death, and will ever be the advocate of him that hath no helper, but depends on his goodness to deliver him from the hands of those judges, who prosecute the unjust sentence they have passed upon him to lose his life.

PSALM CX..

A Psalm of David.

THE ARGUMENT.-There is the same reason to think this psalin was composed by David, (not by some other concerning David), that there is to conclude to conclude all the rest to be so, which have the same title. And then, as it is very plain he speaks of some person much greater than himself, whom he calls his Lord, so it can be no other but the Lord Christ, of whom he here prophesies. Not, as he is wont Not, as he is wont to do elsewhere, with respect to himself, in the first place, as his type and figure, but in plain words, which can belong to none but Christ alone; for no other King but he can be said, in any sense, to sit at God's right hand; nor was there any priest of the order of Melchisedeck, that could be a shadow of him.

David indeed seems once to have exercised the office

.

of a priest, when he blessed the people at the bringing of the ark to Sion, (2 Sam. vi. 18.), and so to have been both king and priest in one person, as Melchisedeck was; but not a "priest for ever," on whom the office was perpetually establish.ed, and that by an oath," as it was on the priest here mentioned.

And therefore it is in vain to endeavour to accommcdate any part of this psalm to David, who conquered many of the neighbouring countries, smote their kings, made them bring him tributes, and at last smote the head of the country of Rabbal, (assome render the last words of the sixth verse of this psalm), that is, the king of the children of Ammon; but still we are to seek how the rest can be applied to him, who never had any pretence to such an authority as is here described, nor can in any sense call himself my Lord; but, as our Lord Christ hath demonstrated, spake concerning him, (Matth. xxii. 43. &c.), and his exaltation, after his resurrection from the dead; as St Peter and St Paul also shew, Acts, ii. 34. 35. 1 Chron. xv. 25. Heb. iv. 1.-13. v. 6.), when he set up another priesthood, and abolished that of Moses; which change is here predicted.

And though the Jews have taken a great deal of pains. to wrest this psalm to another sense, yet they are so divided in their opinions about it, (speaking inconsistent things, like drunken men, as St Chrysostom's words are, or rather, says he, like men in the dark, running against one another), that from thence alone we may be satisfied they are in the wrong, and have their eyes blinded, else they would not have embraced such interpretations as those which may be seen in them that have written upon this psalm; which some of the Jews themselves, (such as R. Moses Hadarson, Saadias Gaon, and divers others whom I might mention), have been forced to acknowledge belongs to Christ, and is a very plain prediction of his divinity, his royal dignity, his priesthood, and his victorious triumphs; which the psalmist sets forth as follows.

Ver. 1. THE LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool. This is the decree of the eternal Lord, that the great person whom we expect, and whom I honour as my Lord and Master, shall be advanced (after his sufferings) to the highest dignity (1 Kings, ii. 19.) in the heavens, and reign with him as the King of all the world, till he have perfectly subdued (Josh. x. 24.) the most powerful opposers of his kingdom, and overcome death itself, by whom all mankind are conquered, 1 Cor. xv. 25. 26.

Ver. 2. The LORD shall send the rod of thy strength out of Sion: rule thou in the midst of thine enemies.] The eternal Lord, who hath thus decreed to honour thee, O most mighty Prince, will make Sion, first of all, to feel how powerful thy sceptre is, (Acts, i. 8. ii. 34-37.), and thence extend thy empire over all the earth, where I wish thou mayest, and foretel thou wilt, prevail over all infidelity, idolatry, superstition,

and impiety, which will set themselves against thy authority.

Ver. 3. Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning; thou hast the dew of thy youth.] For in the day when thy forces, (2 Tim. ii. 3.), completely armed with a divine power, (Acts, iv. 33.), shall march forth to subdue the world unto thy obedience, they that are fit for thy kingdom, (Luke, ix. 62. Acts, xiii. 48.), shall chearfully submit themselves, and present thee with free-will offerings, in token of their absolute subjection to thee, (Acts, ii. 45. iv..34.; and great shall be the number of chosen men, (1 John, ii. 13.), who, glad to see the night of ignorance gone, shall at thy first appearance, by the celestial blessing, fall unto thee as thick as the morning-dew.

Ver. 4. The LORD hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever, after the order of Melchisedeck.] And happy are they who live under thy government, for the Lord hath unchangeably resolved that thou shalt be a priest, as well as a King, with full power to bless all thy subjects, not only in that, but in all future ages, even to all eternity; for thou shalt not be a priest like those after Aaron's order, who die to make room for others, but, like that great king and priest Melchisedeck, shalt neither have any predecessor nor successor in thine office, but continue a royal priest for evermore, Heb. vii.

Ver. 5. The LORD at thy right hand shall strike through kings in the day of his wrath.] Who, as he will be most compassionate to all those that heartily acknowledge him for their Lord, and submit unto his government, so will break in pieces the greatest powers on earth that provoke his displeasure by obstinate opposal of his authority at thy right hand.

Ver. 6. He shall judge among the heathen, he shall fill the places with the dead bodies; he shall wound the beads over many countries.] From whence he shall demonstrate himself to all the heathen world, to be their Lawgiver and their Judge; taking a severe vengeance on those that persecute his subjects, and destroying, at last, even that mighty empire which shall then rule over many countries.

letter is the fifth, not the first letter in that alphabet: In which order it proceeds, for the better help of the memory; being composed thus artificially, that every one, as well as the singers, (to whom the Hallelujah perhaps is particularly directed), might have in their minds a brief form of thanking God (especially upon festival-days) for the wonderful things he had done for that nation.

It was a meditation which the author had in time of peace and quiet; for in distress, or immediately after a great deliverance, men's spirits are not at liberty to use such art and curiosity in their composures, as there is in this psalm, being full at those seasons of such passions as make them neglect it, even when they are inclined to use it, see Psal. xxv.); for which reason I think Theodoret's opinion hath no ground, that the psalmist had respect to the great victory obtained by Jehoshaphat over the Ammonites, and other nations who invaded his kingdom, for which they gave thanks to God presently after, 2 Chron. xx. It is more likely that David, who composed those larger forms of commemoration, Psal. cv. and cvi. made this (as I said) for a compendious remembrance of what is there more largely delivered. And that he might not exceed the number of the ten commandments (as some give the reason of it) in the verses of this psalm, the metres of the two last are so short, that they have each of them three letters of the alphabet in them, whereas all the former have but two.

Ver. 1. PRAISE ye the LORD. I will praise the bly of the upright, and in the congregation.] I will make my thankful acknowledgements to the Lord, not only with my lips, or with some slight- affections of my mind, but with all my heart and soul; and that not only in the private society of those good men whom I am more intimately acquainted withal, but in the public congregation of all his people.

LORD with my whole heart, in the assem

Ver. 2. The works of the LORD are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein.] Who ought to join together to praise the Lord for his mighty and wonderful works, which it will not cost them much labour to understand, for they are easily found out by all those who take any pleasure in such inquiries.

PSALM CXI.

Hallelujah, i. e. Praise the LORD.

THE ARGUMENT.-It is certain this is the title of the psalm, which consists of as many short metres as there are letters in the Hebrew alphabe; and therefore cannot begin with Hallelujah, whose first

Ver. 4. He hath made his wonderful works to be remembered; the LORD is gracious, and full of compassion.] And such is his goodness, lest we should forget his benefits, he hath instituted solemn times for the commemoration of the wonders he hath done for us, (Exod. xii. 14. xiii. 3. 9. &c.), which are everlasting testimonies that we serve a most gracious and compassionate Lord:

Ver. 5. He hath given meat unto them that fear him; he will ever be mindful of his covenant.] Who

Ver. 6. He hath shewed his people the power of his works, that he may give them the heritage of the beathen.] He hath evidently demonstrated to his people the greatness of his power in destroying Sihon the Amorite, (Deut. ii. 24. 25.), and Og the king of Bashan, (Deut. iii. 21. 24.), with the rest of the Amorites, and other nations in the land of Canaan; (Josh. x 6.-11. 12. &c.), which he took from the ancient inhabitants, that he might give it us for our possession.

Ver. 7. The works of his bands are verity and judgement; all his commandments are sure.] In which he did them no wrong, but was exactly just in fulfilling his promise to us, and in executing his judgements upon those wicked wretches, (Deut. ix. 5. Gen. xv. 15.); for all his orders of either kind are in pursuance of most righteous decrees.

Ver. 8. They stand fast for ever and ever, and are done in truth and uprightness.] Which he doth not alter and change at pleasure, but hath settled as eternal rules; because there is no partiality or inquiry in them, but they were enacted with a sincere respect to all men's good and happiness.

Ver. 9. He sent redemption unto his people; he hath commanded his covenant for ever: holy and reverend is his name.] And it was in conformity to these that he at first sent Moses and Aaron, to bring our fathers out of Egypt, (Exod. vi. 6.), and then exercised his supreme authority over them, in giving them a law, which he tied them by a covenant perpetually to observe, (Exod. xix. 4. 5. xxiv. 8.), appearing in such majesty to them, (Exod. xx. 18. xxiv. 10. 11.), as might possess them with an awful regard to him, and make them for ever dread, by any profaneness, to offend him, who infinitely excels all other beings.

Ver. 10. The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do bis commandments: his praise endureth for ever.] And indeed, it is the first and principal point of wisdom to fear the Lord, and carefully observe his commandments; the practice of which gives men a better understanding of what is good for them, than any po. litic maxims can infuse into them. Therefore let the Lord be for ever praised, who hath given us these good and wholesome laws, and thereby shewn us the way to eternal honour and praise.

PSALM CXII.

THE ARGUMENT.-This psalm is composed after the very same manner with the former, and seems to be intended for a short commentary upon the last verse of it: shewing how well and wisely they consult their good and happiness, who observe

rity, or doing good to others. Of which that they might be always mindful, the psalm is contrived for the help of their memories, into as many short versicles as there are letters in the Hebrew alphabet. Hallelujah, therefore, is no part of them, but the title prefixed to the psalm, (see Arg. upon Psalm cxi.) to excite them to praise the Lord, who had made it their present interest to be religious.

Ver. 1. PRAISE ye the LORD. Blessed is the man that feareth the LORD, that delighteth greatly in his commandments.] Happy is that man whose chiefest care it is to please the Lord, by observing his commandments; which will yield, in the issue, the highest pleasure and satisfaction to himself;

Ver. 2. His seed shall be mighty upon earth: the generation of the upright shall be blessed.] And procure a blessing also upon all belonging to him; first, upon his children, and those that shall descend from them in future times; who shall fare the better, and be more powerful and prosperous, for the sincere virtue of their pious forefathers:

Ver. 3. Wealth and riches shall be in his house; and his righteousness endureth for ever.] And next on his estate; which shall not only be rich and plentiful, but so firmly settled and entailed on his posterity, that they shall reap the perpetual fruit of his justice and charity.

Ver. 4. Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness: he is gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous.] Or if any affliction come, it will be so far from making him unhappy, that, besides the divine comforts imparted to him for his support, it will make the virtue of upright men the more illustrious: while one exercises meekness and sweetness to those that provoke him, another forgives offences, and pities the instruments of his troubles; and a third exercises the greater justice of mercy, and will not be tempted to do any dishonest or cruel thing for his own deliverance.

Ver. 5. A good man sheweth favour, and lendeth ; be will guide his affairs with discretion.] But, above all other men, he leads the most comfortable life, who is so kind, that he supplies the needs of others; giving to one, and lending to another, as occasion serves; and yet ordering all his affairs so judiciously, that he doth not impair, but rather maintain, the good estate of his own family.

Ver. 6. Surely he shall not be moved for ever: the righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance.] Sure it will not be in the power of the most mighty and malicious enemies (though they may disturb him) quite to overthrow him; and when they are forgotten, or mentioned with contempt, the worthy actions of this sort of righteous men shall be celebrated with neverceasing praises.

Ver. 7. He shall not be afraid of evil tidings; bis heart is fixed, trusting in the LORD.] He is not af frighted and disconiposed at the false reports that are raised of him; nor at the rumour of dangers which