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souls of men. And they are under a great mistake who suppose it an easy and a
common matter to treat of these practical things usefully, to the edification of
them that do believe; because both the nature of the things themselves, with the
concerns of the souls and consciences of all sorts of persons in them, require that
they be handled plainly, and without those intermixtures of secular learning and
additions of ornaments of speech which discourses of other natures may or ought
to be composed and set off withal. Some, judging by mere outward appearances,—
especially if they be of them from whom the true nature of the things themselves
treated of are hid,—are ready to despise and scorn the plain management of them,
as that which hath nothing of wisdom or learning accompanying of it, no effects
of
any
commendable ability of mind for which it should be esteemed. But it is
not expressible how great a mistake such persons, through their own darkness and
ignorance, do labour under. In a right spiritual understanding, in a due percep-
tion and comprehension of these things,-the things of the sins of men and grace
of God,-consists the greatest part of that wisdom, of that soundness of mind,
of that knowledge rightly so called, which the gospel commands, exhibits, and puts
a valuation upon. To reveal and declare them unto others in words of truth and
soberness fit and meet; to express them unto the understandings of men opened
and enlightened by the same Spirit by whom the things themselves are originally
revealed; to derive such sacred spiritual truths from the word, and by a due pre-
paration to communicate and apply them to the souls and consciences of men,—
contains a principal part of that ministerial skill and ability which are required in
the dispensers of the gospel, and wherein a severe exercise of sound learning,
judgment, and care, is necessary to be found, and may be fully expressed.

Into this treasury, towards the service of the house of God, it is that I have cast my mite in the ensuing exposition and discourses on the 130th Psalm. The design of the Holy Ghost was therein to express and represent, in the person and condition of the psalmist, the case of a soul entangled and ready to be overwhelmed with the guilt of sin, relieved by a discovery of grace and forgiveness in God, with its deportment upon a participation of that relief. After the exposition of the words of the text, my design and endeavour hath been only to enlarge the portraiture here given us in the psalm of a believing soul in and under the condition mentioned; to render the lines of it more visible, and to make the character given in its description more legible; and withal, to give unto others in the like condition with the psalmist a light to understand and discern themselves in that image and representation which is here made of them in the person of another. To this end have I been forced to enlarge on the two great heads of sin and grace, -especially on the latter, here called the "forgiveness that is with God." An interest herein, a participation hereof, being our principal concernment in this world, and the sole foundation of all our expectations of a blessed portion in that which is to come, it certainly requires the best and utmost of our endeavours, as to look into the nature, causes, and effects of it, so especially into the ways and means whereby we may be made partakers of it, and how that participation may be secured unto us unto our peace and consolation; as also into that love, that holiness, that obedience, that fruitfulness in good works, which, on the account of this grace, God expecteth from us and requireth at our hands. An explication of these things is that which I have designed to ensue and follow after in these discourses, and that with a constant eye, as on the one hand to the sole rule and standard of truth, the sacred Scriptures, especially that part of it which is under peculiar consideration; so, on the other, to the experience and service unto the edification of them that do believe, whose spiritual benefit and advantage, without any other consideration in the world, is aimed at in the publishing of them.

AN

EXPOSITION UPON PSALM CXXX.

VERSE 1. Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O LORD. 2. Lord, hear my voice; let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.

3. If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?

4. But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared. 5. I wait for the LORD, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope.

6. My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning: I say, more than they that watch for the morning. 7. Let Israel hope in the LORD: for with the LORD there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption.

8. And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.

A PARAPHRASE.

Verses 1, 2.-O Lord, through my manifold sins and provocations, I have brought myself into great distresses. Mine iniquities are always before me, and I am ready to be overwhelmed with them, as with a flood of waters; for they have brought me into depths, wherein I am ready to be swallowed up. But yet, although my distress be great and perplexing, I do not, I dare not, utterly despond and cast away all hopes of relief or recovery. Nor do I seek unto any other remedy, way, or means of relief; but I apply myself to thee, Jehovah, to thee alone. And in this my application unto thee, the greatness and urgency of my troubles makes my soul urgent, earnest, and pressing in my supplications. Whilst I have no rest, I can give thee no rest. Oh, therefore, attend and hearken unto the voice of my crying and supplications!

Verse 3.-It is true, O Lord, thou God great and terrible, that if thou shouldst deal with me in this condition, with any man living, with the best of thy saints, according to the strict and exact tenor of the law, which first represents itself to my guilty conscience and

troubled soul; if thou shouldst take notice of, observe, and keep in remembrance, mine, or their, or the iniquity of any one, to the end that thou mightst deal with them, and recompense unto them according to the sentence thereof, there would be, neither for me nor them, any the least expectation of deliverance. All flesh must fail before thee, and the spirits which thou hast made, and that to eternity; for who could stand before thee when thou shouldst so execute thy displeasure?

of

Verse 4.-But, O Lord, this is not absolutely and universally the state of things between thy Majesty and poor sinners; thou art in thy nature infinitely good and gracious, ready and free in the purposes thy will to receive them. And there is such a blessed way made for the exercise of the holy inclinations and purposes of thy heart towards them, in the mediation and blood of thy dear Son, that they have assured foundations of concluding and believing that there is pardon and forgiveness with thee for them, and which, in the way of thine appointments, they may be partakers of. This way, therefore, will I, with all that fear thee, persist in. I will not give over, leave thee, or turn from thee, through my fears, discouragements, and despondencies; but will abide constantly in the observation of the worship which thou hast prescribed, and the performance of the obedience which thou dost require, having great encouragements so to do.

Verse 5.-And herein, upon the account of the forgiveness that is with thee, O Lord, do I wait with all patience, quietness, and perseverance. In this work is my whole soul engaged, even in an earnest expectation of thy approach unto me in a way of grace and mercy. And for my encouragement therein hast thou given out unto me a blessed word of grace, a faithful word of promise, whereon my hope is fixed.

Verse 6-Yea, in the performance and discharge of this duty, my soul is intent upon thee, and in its whole frame turned towards thee, and that with such diligence and watchfulness in looking out after every way and means of thy appearance, of the manifestation of thyself, and coming unto me, that I excel therein those who, with longing desire, heedfulness, and earnest expectation, do wait and watch for the appearance of the morning; and that either that they may rest from their night watches, or have light for the duties of thy worship in the temple, which they are most delighted in.

Verses 7, 8. Herein have I found that rest, peace, and satisfaction unto my own soul, that I cannot but invite and encourage others in the like condition to take the same course with me. Let, then, all the Israel of God, all that fear him, learn this of me, and from my experience. Be not hasty in your distresses, despond not, despair not, turn not aside unto other remedies; but hope in the

Lord for I can now, in an especial manner, give testimony unto this, that there is mercy with him suited unto your relief. Yea, whatever your distress be, the redemption that is with him is so bounteous, plenteous, and unsearchable, that the undoubted issue of your performance of this duty will be, that you shall be delivered from the guilt of all your sins and the perplexities of all your troubles,

GENERAL SCOPE OF THE WHOLE PSALM.

THE design of the Holy Ghost in this psalm is to express, in the experience of the psalmist and the working of his faith, the state and condition of a soul greatly in itself perplexed, relieved on the account of grace, and acting itself towards God and his saints suitably to the discovery of that grace unto him ;—a great design, and full of great instruction.

And this general prospect gives us the parts and scope of the whole psalm; for we have,

I. The state and condition of the soul therein represented, with his deportment in and under that state and condition, in verses 1, 2:—

"Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O LORD. Lord, hear my voice; let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications."

II. His inquiry after relief. And therein are two things that present themselves unto him; the one whereof, which first offers the consideration of itself to him in his distress, he deprecates, verse 3:"If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?"

The other he closeth withal, and finds relief in it and supportment by it, verse 4:

"But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared." Upon this, his discovery and fixing on relief, there is the acting of his faith and the deportment of his whole person:

1. Towards God, verses 5, 6:

I wait for the LORD, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope. My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning I say, more than they that watch for the morning." 2. Towards the saints, verses 7, 8:

"Let Israel hope in the LORD: for with the LORD there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption. And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities."

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All which parts, and the various concernments of them, must be opened severally.

And this also gives an account of what is my design from and upon the words of this psalm,-namely, to declare the perplexed entanglements which may befall a gracious soul, such a one as this psalmist was, with the nature and proper workings of faith in such a condition; principally aiming at what it is that gives a soul relief and supportment in, and afterward deliverance from, such a perplexed

estate.

The Lord in mercy dispose of these meditations in such a way and manner as that both he that writes and they that read may be made partakers of the benefit, relief, and consolation intended for his saints in this psalm by the Holy Ghost!

VERSES FIRST AND SECOND.

The state and condition of the soul represented in the psalm-The two first verses opened.

THE state and condition of the soul here represented as the basis on which the process of the psalm is built, with its deportment, or the general acting of its faith in that state, is expressed in the two first verses:

"Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O LORD. Lord, hear my voice: let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications."

I. The present state of the soul under consideration is included in that expression, "Out of the depths."

Some of the ancients, as Chrysostom, suppose this expression to relate unto the depths of the heart of the psalmist: Τί ἐστιν ἐκ βαθέων not from the mouth or tongue only, ἀλλ' ἀπὸ καρδίας βαθυτάτης, "but from the depth and bottom of the heart;" i aurav s diavolas rav Bálpwv, "from the deepest recesses of the mind."

And, indeed, the word is used to express the depths of the hearts of men, but utterly in another sense: Ps. lxiv. 6, "The heart is deep."

But the obvious sense of the place, and the constant use of the word, will not admit of this interpretation: "E profundis;" from PD, "profundus fuit," is DP in the plural number, "profunditates," or "depths." It is commonly used for valleys, or any deep places whatever, but especially of waters. Valleys and deep places, because