us by these places of the scriptures, and to provide against them; and who securely presume that they shall be saved by good actions alone, without any fighting. Not so, ye ungodly, not so! The enemy is ever at the door, great, powerful, having many ways, very mighty, and indefatigable; whose single attacks (to say nothing about his magnitude, his multitude, his strength, his perseverance,) we are not able to withstand, unless the Lord be our strength; because we ourselves all the while, without any attack from the enemy, are prone to every evil.

But by what way or art shall it be brought about that the Lord shall be our strength, our foundation, our refuge, our deliverer, and our helper, in this hostile multitude, of great, powerful, and persevering ones? David answers, it will thus come to pass, If thou call upon the Lord praising for by this praising prayer,' thou shalt be saved from all thine enemies as it is said, Rom. x. from Joel ii." And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved." And again, Prov. xviii. "The name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it and is safe." This indeed is of all doctrines the most noble, and altogether a golden doctrine in tribulation; it is the best of all counsels, and whereby we may be delivered from all evils,—if, under tribulation, we are enabled to justify God, to bless him, and to proclaim him, according to that example of the three children; and Dan. ix. 7, “O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces as at this day." It is inconceivable how efficacious this praising of God is, and how powerful a remedy it is in all times of peril: for as soon as ever you thus begin to praise God, the evil becomes lighter, trust in God increases, and upon this immediately follows calling upon him with confidence.

Let all the servants of God, therefore, see that they attempt not to get consolation or to overcome their evils in any other way, or by any others means, than what is here prescribed in this verse. Call not upon God first; but first praise him and then call upon him.

For there are some who call upon him and are not heard as we have it in this same Psalm a little below, ver. 41," They cried but there was none to save them : even unto the Lord, but he answered them not." And why?-because they called not upon him with feelings of praise, but with feelings of indignation: they set not before them the sweetness of the Lord, but considered and were wrapt up in their own bitterness. But no one is ever delivered from evils by looking at, and dwelling in bitterness upon, those evils; he overcomes them only by cleaving close to God and looking at his goodness: as we have seen, Psalm xvi. 8, "I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved." O deep and rare counsel, and hard to attain unto!-to set before one's self a sweet and praise-deserving Lord, in the midst of evils and dangers; and to look to an absent and incomprehensible God, with more steadfastness than at present evils, and even when those evils are all the while hindering our thus looking at God! I cannot find it in my power to set forth and commend worthily the grace and virtue contained in this short but excellent verse, and which are conveyed in such appropriate words, and so expressively arranged.

But, they who do not begin conquering with this praising of the Lord, but look at the consolations of men, or turn aside to their own merits, and who do not lay hold of the hope of a better life to come, will never be overcomers; for the matter is fixed, He that prayeth praising, shall be delivered from his enemies, and no other. Thus it is written, Isaiah xlviii. 9, "I will restrain thy mouth with my praise, that thou perish not." And Isaiah 1. 4, "The Lord hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary.”—It is on this account that the second commandment is given us, "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain." It is to this end also that we pray' Hallowed be thy name.' And it is for this, that the present Psalm begins with so many praises of God, and glories

in the love of God. So that David seems in this verse to give a reason why he so glories and hopes in the Lord. As if he had said, It is in this way that we ought always to begin to call upon the name of the Lord, commencing with a feeling love towards him.

Only let any one try this: let him apprehend some praise of God, when he is in distress, and he shall presently feel a relief and an easement. Every other consolation but this, either does not profit at all, or else profits falsely and deceivingly: that is, in truth, it does injury. So great is the power and blessing of the name of the Lord. I confess that I have often unburdened my heart from heaviness in this way.

Ver. 4.-The sorrows of death compassed me round about; the floods of iniquity made me afraid.

Hieronymus renders it, The lines (or cords) of death compassed me about; the floods of Belial made me afraid. In 2 Sam. xxii. the Hebrew word which Hieronymus here renders' cords,' is different from what it is here and which Hieronymus there renders ‹ the bruisings.' But Reuchlin seems to me to be correct here, who renders it gatherings together,' or heaps,' instead of cords:' as we have it, 1 Sam. x. "Thou shalt meet a company of the prophets." So that the sense of the passage is, Death with many and great forces compassed me about. And thus the forces of death are joined with the floods of Belial' in the latter part of the verse. So that, by both expressions, he sets forth the magnitude and the multitude of the evils, which, like mighty torrents, or mighty armies, rushed upon him.

David had said and taught, that the Lord is to be called upon with praise and love by those who would wish to be delivered from their enemies. And now, he tells us that he himself did this, and gives us the history of himself as an example of his doctrine which he had delivered; beginning with those worst and most terrible of all enemies, death and hell. And although it is true that David himself often suffered these punishments and

sorrows of death and hell, (as he confesses in many of his Psalms, and especially Psalm cxvi. 3, "The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me; I found trouble and sorrow: then called I upon the name of the Lord:" where he uses the same words and describes the same feelings as in the present passage,) yet, we have begun to understand this Psalm of Christ, and to omit the general meaning in the meantime, and therefore, we receive this passage as having reference to the death and hell of Christ.

This verse speaks especially of "death," and the following one of "hell;" each setting forth the same thing with a repetition of expression. For "the sorrows of death compassed me about," and "the floods of ungodliness made me afraid," and "the sorrows of hell compassed me about," and "the snares of death prevented me,” are all one and the same thing: this, however, is my opinion, but I am not disposed to contend if any one wishes to understand these four things as having each a different signification.

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These words are placed very expressively, passed me about," not came upon me' only, nor pursued me, but, held me fast and hemmed me in on every side, shut and fastened me in by myself and utterly alone; and this is that which especially increases the agony of death for if we had to go out of the world with a great company with us, whom we could behold all the while and have as companions, death would be a much lighter pain and trial.

The cords' or 'enclosures,' which our translator calls "sorrows," signify thus, It is not one object only that surrounds me, not one minister of death only that comes upon me; but many, yea, many forces, many multitudes. And here, again, that solitude is intimated, which is so bitter in death. And these 'cords' or 'enclosures' we may understand to be ungodly men, whose ministration and instrumentality death and the devils use: according to that of Psalm xx. 12, " Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have

beset me about." And again, ver. 20, "Deliver my soul from the sword, my darling from the power of the dog. Save me from the lion's mouth, for thou hast heard me from among the horns of the unicorns."

Our translator, however, not improperly, understands these forces' as signifying the multitude of pains and sorrows which rush in at the hour of death, because there is no creature which does not increase and further this death and horror: for all things that are seen are death and not life: and thus, death is armed with the whole world, and the whole universe fights against the person dying or lying under the horror of death, who is left alone, deserted by all, and surrounded by all terrors. And hence it was, that David could give no name to these terrors, and could only express them in a metaphorical way by calling them 'cords,' or enclosures,' or 'forces,' of death. For death, that last and extreme of all evils, would be more tolerable if there were but companions to us when under this evil. But we have said, in our observations upon the former Psalms, that Christ truly suffered the horrors, pangs, and wearying sorrows of death for us; though we do not all suffer the like things.

"The floods of Belial," is again a figurative expression, setting forth the violence and the army of these evils without any particular name. For in truth the pain of death is so great that it can neither be expressed, nor conceived in thought. Those who are under it feel that they are in the worst of conditions, but cannot express or describe to another what it is they feel, and therefore there is no remedy: just as, on the other hand, those who get a taste of eternal life, feel indeed that they enjoy the best of all things, but cannot shew or describe to another what it is they feel: and hence this is called tasting the floods or the rivers of the

pleasures of God. "They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house: and thou shalt make them drink of the rivers of thy pleasures," Psalm xxxvi. 8, And here he is speaking of the floods of ungodliness or of Belial,'