the open fields, whom thou canst not inclose, are all ready at hand to do me service.

Ver. 12. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee, for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof.] If I were hungry, I would not come to acquaint thee of it, that thou mightest provide me food; why should I be beholden to thy poverty, when I am so rich? For the whole world is mine, and all that it contains.

Ver. 13. Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?] Canst thou be so absurd as to imagine that I need meet or drink? and for that reason, call daily for the flesh of bulls, and the blood of goats, to satisfy my hunger, and to quench my thirst? Or that my nature is such, that I can be pleased merely with the smoke of these upon my altar?

Ver. 14. Offer unto God thanksgiving, and pay thy vows unto the Most High.] They have their use, but if thou wilt bring me acceptable sacrifices, know that I value, in the first place, a truly thankful heart, which gratefully acknowledges my benefits, above all the peace-offerings in the world; and, next, that I expect thou shouldst faithfully perform all the vows and promises thou makest, when thou beggest any blessing of me; and not think to put me off (who am too great to be dallied withal) with sin-offerings of

the breach of them.

Ver. 15. And call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver thee: and thou shalt glorify me.] And, thirdly, devoutly commend thyself unto me, when thou art in any trouble, by ardent prayer; piously confiding in me, and thou shalt find it more powerful than all burnt-offerings; for I will certainly deliver thee, that thou mayest honour me with thy praises, and proclaim my power and goodness, to invite others into my service.

Ver. 16. But unto the wicked Gad saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth ?] Not that this is all that I require of thee; for if thou leadest a wicked life, and art injurious to thy neighbours, what care I for thy praises, or for thy zeal to boot, in pressing my commands upon others which thou dost not observe thyself? Thou braggest thou art a doctor of the law, and thou declarest to the people my will and pleasure, and makest often mention of my covenant, whereby they stand bound to be obedient to me; but to what purpose is it? or with what face canst thou do it?

Ver. 17. Seeing thou hatest instruction, and castest my word behind thee.] Since, by thy example, thou teachest them to contemn all those instructions, to which thou hatest to be bound thyself; and by thy actions declarest thou hast no regard at all to any thing, either that I have bidden thee do, or threatened I will do to those that violate my precepts.

Ver. 18. When thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst with him, and bast been partaker with adulterers.] When thou hast observed a man thrive by stealth and robbery, instead of having him punished, thou hast greedily accepted the proffer of being a sharer with him; and, which is worse, the adulterers find favour

with thee, and thou art partaker with them in their filthiness.

Ver. 19. Thou givest thy mouth to evil, and thy tongue frameth deceit.] Thou lettest thy tongue loose to slanders; and backbitest those who are not present to answer for themselves; and dost not stick to contrive artificial lies and deceits, to cheat those that have any dealing with thee.

Ver. 20. Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother, thou slanderest thine own mother's son.] Nay, when thou sittest in an open court, solemnly to judge men according to the law, thou makest bold to speak falsely (for a reward); and that not against a stranger, but thy own brother; yea, thou wilt not spare. him that lay in the same womb with thee; but load him with calumnies and reproaches.

Ver. 21. These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such`a one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes.] All this wickedness thou hast committed, and I have forborne to punish thee; but instead of amending thy life, to which my patience should have invited thee, thou hast presumed so much upon my lenity, as to add another sin to all the rest; and imagined that I am ignorant of what is done in secret, or am altogether as well pleased with these things as thyself; and therefore now I have sharply rebuked thee for them, (so hateful they are to me), and set them all in order (that thou mayest see nothing can escape my knowledge) distinctly before thy eyes.

Ver. 22. Now, consider this, ye that forget God, lest 1 tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver.] Let this be a warning to you, and to all those that abuse the patience and long-suffering of God; never thinking of his just severity against such wicked doers. Consider this seriously, and repent in time; lest my patience be turned into indignity and wrath, and I lay hold on you, and snatch you away, to suffer your deserved punishment; and none of your companions, whom you have served in their sins, shall be able to give you any relief; but all perish together with you.

Ver. 23. Whoso offereth praise, glorifieth me; and to him that ordereth his conversation aright, will I shew the salvation of God.] Remember I have told you what sacrifices I am well pleased with; not with those of beasts, but with the sacrifice of praise, and hearty thanksgiving for all my benefits; which doth me more honour than all the lifeless sacrifices of bulls and goats; but he that thus devoutly worships.me, must take care withal to dispose his life into a conformity with all my precepts; for this is the man whom I will make partaker of the blessings which I have promised.

PSALM LI.

To the chief musician. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone into Bathsheba.

THE ARGUMENT.-Here now begins a new collectio of some Psalms whereof David was the author; which, I suppose, were found after the first book was published, and this second begun; to the end of which, from this place they continue; as we read expressly, Psal. lxxii. ult. For though the author of the two last before that be not mentioned in the title, yet the very matter of them, as well as the conclusion of the book, assures us they were composed by David; who, in this 51st Psalm, (as the title tells us), most sadly bewails the sin which he had committed with Bathsheba, and those that followed it. In which he had also continued for some time, till Nathan the prophet came with a message from God to reprove him, and to pronounce a very sore judgement against him and his family for his crimes.

After this divine reprehension and threatening, he was very much humbled, and, to make himself as notorious an example of true repentance, as he had been of foul wickedness, he composed this penitential hymn; and sent it to the master of music in the tabernacle, to be used perpetually there, as a testimony of his unfeigned sorrow for what he had done, and of the miserable condition he thought himself in, without the infinite mercy of God to him. Which he begs with the greatest earnest ness, together with the assistances of his grace; which he promises to employ for the reducing other sinners, beseeching him withal to be favourable to his people, especially to the city of Jerusalem; and not let them, and that, suffer for his offences.

Ver. 1. HAVE mercy upon me, O God, according thy loving-kindness; according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.] O God, the supreme Judge of the world, whom I have most highly offended many ways, and therefore may most justly be condemned to suffer the effects of thy severest displeasure; I cast down myself before thee, and humbly supplicate for mercy; unto which I am encouraged by thy known clemency, and thy infinite compassions, which will move thee, I hope, to take pity upon a grievous sinner, and to pardon the adultery and bloodshed, accompanied with à number of foul circumstances, which I have committed.

Ver. 2. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.] I have made myself indeed exceeding loathsome by my repeated wickedness, which, like a stain that hath long stuck to a garment, is not easily got out: but do not therefore, I beseech thee, abhor me, but rather magnify thy mercy in purifying me perfectly, and cleansing me so throughly, that there may be no spot remaining in

me.

Ver. 3. For Í acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.] For how stupid soever I was, before thou sentest thy prophet to awaken me, I am now deeply touched with a sense of my horrid transgressions; which I both sorrowfully confess and

bewail in the presence, and in the face of the public congregation; and carry also a sad and amazing remembrance thereof, continually before my eyes.

Ver. 4. Against thee, thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight; that thou mightest be justifie.i when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. Not because I stand in fear of punishment from men, who have no power over me; but because I am so obnoxious to thee, whose judgements I ought to dread the more, the less I am liable to give an ac count of my actions unto others. O how it afflicts me, that I presumed, because I had none to controul me, here on earth, to offend thy majesty, thy allseeing majesty, at whose tribunal the highest must be judged; and if thou should pronounce the heaviest sentence upon me, for my crimes, and execute it also with the greatest severity, I could not accuse thee of too much rigour, but must still justify thee in thy proceedings, and clear thee from all such unjust imputations.

Ver. 5. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me. It is true, indeed, and thou, O Lord, knowest it better than I, that there is in me an innate proneness to evil; but I am so far from representing this as an excuse for what I have done, that I confess the consideration of it ought to have made me the more watchful and diligent to suppress those bad inclinations, which I knew to be so natural, that I brought them into the world with me.

Ver. 6. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts; and in the bidden parts thou shalt make me to know wisdom.] I am amazed at ny folly, that I should be so careless, when I was not ignorant that thou requirest us not to entertain, with the least kindness, those first motions which we find in our thoughts and desires after any evil, but uprightly to oppose them; for which end thou hast put a principle of better motions into us, and indued me with wisdom; which secretly checks and corrects those brutish inclinations.

Ver. 7. Purge me with hyssop, and 1 shall be clean ; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.] I have nothing therefore to say in my own behalf, but wholly betake myself to thee for a gracious pardon of my sin, which every thing I can think of sadly aggravates. I am as impure as a leper, and deserve to be banished from thy presence, and shut t from among thy people; far more impure by touching Bathsheba, than he is that toucheth a dead body; yet I am not so foul, but, if thou pleasest, thou canst purify me, and make me as clean and white as snow: vouchsafe me that grace, O Lord; expiate me, I beseech thee, (Lev. xiv. 6. Numb. xix. 17. 18.), and restore me perfectly unto thy favour, and the happy fruits of it, which I have justly forfeited and lost.

Ver. 8. Make me to hear joy and gladness, that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.] Raise me out of this wofully dejected state wherein I lie; and as the terrible message I received by thy prophet, hath cast me into such insufferable anguish and pain, as if my bones were crushed in pieces by my fall,

to send me the most comfortable news of my reconciliation with thee, to ease me of the torment I endure under the weight of my guilt, and the sense of thy heavy displeasure; and to turn it into the height of joy and gladness.

Ver. 9. Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.] Remember not any longer how wicked I have been, nor lay my sin to my charge; but pass by all my transgressions, and acquit me from the punishment they deserve.

Ver. 10. Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.] And bestow upon me withal such purity of heart, (which, alas! I have lost, and am not able to recover without thy grace), that I may utterly hereafter detest all such filthy motions; and because we are apt to revolt from our good resolutions, do thou daily supply me with fresh strength from above, to confirm and settle them, that I may never return to folly.

Ver. 11. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy Holy Spirit from me.] I deserve, I confess, to be rejected by thee, as my predecessor was, (1 Sam. xv. 25. 26), and to be admitted no more into thy favour; but I humbly beseech thee, deal not so severely with me, nor deprive me (as thou didst him, compare 1 Sam. x. 6. with xvi. 14.) of the gift of thy Holy Spirit, wherewith thou hast anointed me, (1 Sam. v. 13.)

Ver. 12. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free Spirit.] Let not that evil spirit which troubled him, seize on me; but restore to me the joy which I was wont to have, when I saw myself so much in thy favour, as to be delivered by thee out of the greatest danger, (Psal. xxi. 1.); support me and my authority, with such a chearful, free, and generous spirit, as becomes him whom thou hast appointed to be the governor of thy people.

Ver. 13. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto thee.] That I may have the confidence to admonish those of their duty that transgress thy laws, (as I will not fait to do), and they may not take the boldness to despise my instruction; but the very worst of them may, by my authority and my example, be reclaimed from their sinful lives, and become, like me, thy faithful ser

vants.

Ver. 14. Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God, thou God of thy salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.] Though I have added the sin of murder to that of adultery, the murder of a trusty servant, of several of my servants, (2 Sam. xi. 17.), who by my order were exposed to that danger wherein they lost their lives; let it not hinder this grace which I beg of thee; but, O God, the God from whom I have received so many deliverances and blessings, vouchsafe this one favour more, to deliver me from the punishment due to this crying sin; and I will not spare to proclaim, as loud as ever I can, thy infinite goodness and clemency, together with thy truth and faithfulness in thy promises to returning sinners; it shall be my joy to speak of these,

though therewithal I publish my own most horrid wickedness.

Ver. 15. O LORD, open thou my lips, and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise.] Try me, O God, and let the sense of thy gracious pardon give me the boldness and liberty to open my lips, (which shame, confusion, and fear, have closed and shut up), and my mouth shall every where declare thy mercy, to thy perpetual praise and renown.

Ver. 16. For thou desirest not sacrifice, else would 1 give it thou delightest not in burnt-offering.] This shall be the sacrifice I will offer to thee, as an acknowledgement of thy kindness; but that of beasts, I know, thou desirest not I should bring thee; the whole burnt-offerings being no pleasure at all to thee, but only as they are tokens of a grateful mind.

Ver. 17. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.] With which I will also join that divine sacrifice of a humble, sorrowful, and penitent heart: for a soul that is truly contrite, and entirely submits its will to thine, is such an acceptable sacrifice, that thou canst not possibly reject it.

Ver. 18. Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion ; build thou the walls of Jerusalem.] And the same mercy I desire for myself, 1 beg also for all thy people. Spare them, good Lord; and let not my folly be the occasion of bringing upon them any calamity; or upon that city, which is called after my name, where I have set both thy throne and mine, (2 Sam. v. 7. 9. vi. 16.; but be favourable to that place, and do it good; let the walls of Jerusalem, which I have begun to build, (2 Sam. v. 9.), be perfectly finished, 1 Kings, iii. 1. xi. 27.

Ver. 19. Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt-offering, and whole burnt-offering; then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.] Then shall the righteous be very thankful to thee; and express it by bringing peace-offerings in abundance, and all other sacrifices; they shall offer thee the choicest sacrifices upon thy altar, (1 Kings, iii. 5. viii. 63. 64.), which from such pious persons shall be acceptable to thy majesty.

PSALM LII.

To the chief musician. Maschil. A Psalm of David, when Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul, and said unto him, David is come to the house of Abimelech.

THE ARGUMENT. The title sufficiently instructs every one about the author; and in the occasion of this psalm, if they will but read the history to which it directs them in 1 Sam. xxii, where Doeg, (one of the seed of Esau, or that had lived so long among them, that he had got the name, as well as savage manners of the Edomites), to ingratiate himself with Saul, pretended to discover those who were confederate with David, particularly Ahimelech; whom he undertook also to kill, together with all his family, when others refused.

that bloody charge which Saul would have imposed on them. And when he had done, it should seem he bragged of it, as if it had been some gallant action, or famous atchievement; as is intimated, I take it, in the first verse of the psalm. Which David penned when Abiathar (who was the only person that escaped in that slaughter, whereby they thought to terrify others from harbouring-David, or shewing any kindness to him) came and told them the sad tidings of what was befallen their city. And it was afterwards delivered to the master of the music in the tabernacle, to be sung in perpetual memory of the thing, to the vulgar tune called Maschil, (see Psal. xxxii.); or, as Theodoret seems here to expound the word, to fortify those with patience and constancy, who unjustly suffer, by instructing them in the justice of the divine sentence in the issue.

Ver. 1. WHY boastest thou thyself in mischief, O mighty man? The goodness of God endureth continually.] A goodly feat indeed for a man to boast of! that he hath killed eighty-five innocent and unarmed priests, together with a company of women, children, and sucklings, (1 Sam. xxii. 19.). A mighty champion thou art, who vapourest, no doubt, that thou wilt do the like execution upon me but know, vain man, that the goodness of God, whereby I have been hitherto preserved, (1 Sam. xxii. 1. 3. 5.), will still defend me; for it is not a thing of short continuance, like our prince's favour, but lasts for ever. Ver. 2. The tongue deviseth mischiefs; like a sharp razor, working deceitfully.] O thou contriver of false stories! who pretendest to be the only or most loyal person in the court of Saul, (1 Sam. xx. 8. 9.), but art an egregious hypocrite; a mere designer of mischief to others, thereby to advance thyself: thy tongue was the first instrument in this butchery, being sharpened by thy malice, on purpose, like a razor newly set, to cut the throats of the guiltless, that thou mightest seem to be the most zealous of all others for the safety of the king's person and govern

ment.

to raise thyself: and more than that, he will pay thee in the same coin thou hast dealt to them; for he will utterly destroy thee, and snatch thee away as hastily as thou didst those innocents; just so will he pluck thee from the tabernacle of God, (where thou wast wont to pretend devotion, Sam. xxi. 7.), and root out, not only thee, but all thy family, from the face of the earth.

Ver. 6. The righteous also shall see and fear, and shall laugh at him.] Which just judgement of God upon thee, all good men shall mark, and be confirmed thereby in their pious fear of offending him, and reflecting upon thy vain devices to greaten thyself and family, shall deride thy folly, saying as I do;

Ver. 7. Lo, this is the man that made not God his strength; but trusted in the abundance of his riches, and strengthened himself in Lis wickedness.] Behold that mighty man, that principal favourite, who regarded not God, nor sought to support himself by his favour, but laid the foundation of his fortune (as we speak) merely in abundance of riches, and the favour of his prince in which also he endeavoured to establish himself, not by honest means, but by the most perfidious arts, and cruel enterprises; what now is become of him? and where is his greatness? Lo, his ambitious hopes are all vanished and come to nothing.

Ver. 8. But I am like a green olive-tree in the house of God: I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever.] Whilst I, at whom he principally aimed in his murderous design, am still, blessed be God, in safety; nay, compared with that destruction which shall fall on him, in a flourishing condition: for he shall drop away like a withered leaf; but I grow and increase in strength, like a green olive-tree planted in the courts of God's house; whose mercy, I trust, will preserve me to my life's end from all the mischiefs they devise against me, and make me more and more flourishing, both in my person and in my posterity.

Ver. 9. I will praise thee for ever, because thou hast done it and I will wait on thy name, for it is good before thy saints.] For which I will never cease to praise thee, because I owe it entirely to thee that I am not destroyed; and I will patiently expect the accomplishment of thy promises to me for all thy pious servants have ever found this to be the best and wisest course, to depend upon thy omnipotent goodness and faithful promises, and not to imitate those wicked men, who study to advance or preserve themselves by flattery, or other viler practices.

cept only ver. 5. where there is a much greater alteration; and the 6th wholly omitted; which makes it probable, there was some new occasion for the using this hymn again, though an occasion exceeding like the former. What it was, writers do but guess; and if I take the liberty also to interpose my conjecture, it will be nothing so remote as all those that I have met withal seem to be. If we suppose the defection of the people, in the rebellion of Absalom, to have been the matter of his complaint in the 14th psalm; then, it looks like a probability, that the new revolt, which the Is raelites generally made, immediately after the other, before David had quite recovered Jerusalem, and his settlement there, was the occasion of this. For you read, that upon the quarrel which arose between the men of Judah and the men of Israel, about precedency in bringing back the king, Sheba blew the trumpet of rebellion afresh; and it is said, that every man of Israel left David, and followed after him, 2 Sam. xx. 2. This is the revolt, I apprehend, here spoken of, ver. 3. where the psalmist says, "Every one of them is gone back." And a dangerous revolt it was, as David apprehended, more dangerous than the former, unless timely checked, 2 Sam. xx. 6.), which made him, before all his army could be assembled, (ver. 5.), send his guards to pursue him speedily, ver. 7. As they did through all the tribes of Israel, ver. 14. Who being afraid of the issue, (ver. 5. of this psalm), fell off from Sheba more and more, the farther he went, and left him at last to shift for himself, so that he was shut up in the city of Abel, there taken and beheaded, ver. 22. After which, his body, it is likely, was exposed to the fowls of the air, or the wild beasts; insomuch that his bones were indeed at last scattered, (as the Psalmist here speaks, ver. 5.), and all his adherents made contemptible.

This David desired should be commemorated, together with his deliverance from Absalom's rebellion; and therefore, making a review of the 14th psalm, (wherein that distress is described), he delivered it again to the master of the music, (as appeared after the first collection of the book of psalms was finished), with some alterations, relating to this new business; desiring God, for instance, to give them still some farther and new salvation, ver. 6. For the word here is in the plural number, but in the 14th psalm in the singular; which hath made me render it here complete salvation, which he implores with the same earnestness he had done before, and orders also how the psalm shall be sung upon Mahalath, or the hollow instrument, (flute or pipe), to the tune of Maschil, (or as a caveat against rebellion, see Psal. xxxii.) If any be not satisfied with this account of the psalm, because of the word captivity, in the last verse, which they may think ought to be taken properly, then they may suppose this psalm to have been reviewed by Asaph the seer, in the days of Hezekiah, when abundance of the people had been in

deed carried captive, Isa. v. 13. But there is no need to have recourse to this: for the word captivi ty imports no more in some places, but only great desolation such as was made of Job's estate and family, xlii. 10. and by the Philistines, when Shiloh was destroyed, Judg. xviii. 30. 31.

Ver. 1. THE fool bath said in his heart, There is no God corrupt are they, and have done abrminable iniquity: there is none that deeth good.] Though the wicked are not yet so impudent as openly to deny God with their mouths; yet such is their abominable filthiness, so shameless are they in their wickedness, so universally depraved, that their secret thoughts sure are, God takes no notice of what they do, or that he will not judge them for it.

Ver. 2. God Loked down from heaven upon the chil dren of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God.] But let them know, that he exactly observes them, and all the ways of the sons of men, which are naked and bare before his eyes; though, alas! there is nothing now to be seen but ignorance and contempt of his majesty.

Ver. 3. Every one of them is gone back: they are altogether become filiby: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.] The Israelites have made a new separation, and are entirely revolted; being like a body without spirit, so rotten and putrified, that it is hard to find so much as one that hath any kind of goodness in him.

Ver. 4. Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge, who eat up my people as they eat bread? they have not called upon God.] Strange, that they should still be thus senseless! and (after such a defeat us they have lately received) continue to work iniquity; nay, to be cruel and void of all pity and compassion to my poor people; the reason is, they have no religion.

Ver. 5. There were they in great fear where no fear was: for God hath scattered the bones of him that encampeth against thee: thou hast put them to shame, because God hath despised them.] And none more cowardly than such atheistical wretches; whose courage so soon failed them, that a pannic fear seized them before my forces could approach them: for they ran away, and dispersed themselves, when I sent but a small party after them. God, O my soul, hath broken him in pieces, and his bones lie scattered on the ground, who thought to oppress thee: thou hast obtained this favour of him, to put them to shame; for he despised those who had so little regard to his majesty.

Ver. 6. O that the salvation of Israel were come out of Sion! when God bringeth back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.] And he is mighty to save, (whatsoever such wicked people think), and resides by a special token of his presence there, on Mount Sion: O that it might please him to complete our deliverance from thence; and restore us all again to the happy enjoyment of that place, from whence we have been banished: It would turn our sad lamentations into the most chearful thanksgivings; and fill, not only Judah, but all the tribes of Israel, with joy and gladness.