As the prophet began, in a rapture, to speak of the holy city, so now, in fresh transport, he changes the person, and suddenly addresses himself to it. The old Jerusalem was "the city of God, and glorious things were therefore said of it" by the Spirit. Pleasant for situation, and magnificent in its buildings, it was the delight of nations, the joy of the whole earth; there was the royal residence of the kings of Judah; there was the temple, and the ark, and the glory, and the King of Heaven dwelling in the midst of her; her streets were honoured with the footsteps of the Redeemer of men; there He preached, and wrought his miracles, lived, died, and rose again; thither He sent down the Spirit, and there He first laid the foundations of his Church. To know what "glorious things" are said of the NEW Jerusalem, the reader must peruse Isa. lx. and Rev. xxi. xxii.

4. I will make mention of Rahab, or, Egypt, and Babylon, to them that know me: Behold, Philistia, and Tyre, with Ethiopia, or, Arabia, this man was born there. 5. And of Zion it shall be said, This and that man was born in her and the highest himself shall establish her.

The accession of the nations to the Church is generally supposed to be here predicted. God declares by his prophet, "I will make mention of," or cause to be remembered, Egypt and Babylon," the old enemies of Israel, "to," or "among them that know me," that is, in the number of my worshippers; "Behold" also

Philistia, and Tyre, with Arabia;" these are become mine; "this," or each of these, "is born there," i. e. in the city of God; they are become children of God, and citizens of Zion; so that "of Zion," or the Church, "it shall be said, This

and that man," Heb. " a man and a man 1," i. e. great numbers of men in succession, "are born in her;" alluding to the multitudes of converts under the Gospel, the sons of that Jerusalem "which is the mother of us all;" Gal. iv. 26; "and the Highest himself shall establish her;" as He saith, "Upon this rock will I build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Matt. xvi. 18.

6. The LORD shall 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 person 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 saints in light. In Jesus Christ there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian," noble nor ignoble, “bond nor free; but Christ is all, and in all." Col. iii. 112.

1 Dr. Durell renders w WX, "The man, even the man," that is, "The man of men;" or, "The greatest of all men." The reduplication, he thinks, according to the oriental phraseology, must mean the superlative, or highest degree. He adds-According to this interpretation, every one will see who this eminent personage was to be, from whose birth Zion (used by a synecdoche for Judea) was to acquire so much glory. The latter hemistich"And the Highest hmself shall establish her"-seems to me to have reference, not to God the Father, but to his Son; it appearing to be exegetical of the preceding one, and to describe his Divine, as the other does his human nature.-CRITICAL REMARKS, p. 167.

2 Dr. Durell thinks this verse relates to the pedigree of our Lord, recorded among the Jews, and given us by the evangelists "The Lord will have this recorded," in " registering the people, that HE," the wxx mentioned above, 66 was born there."

7. As well the singers as the players on instruments shall be there: all my springs are in thee.

The literal version of the words, as Dr. Chandler observes, seems to be "Cantantes erunt, sicut choream ducentes : omnes fontes mei in te." They shall sing like those that lead up the dance," i. e. most joyfully; singing and dancing frequently accompanying one another. And the burthen of the song thus joyfully sung in praise of Zion, was to be this: "All my springs," or fountains, "are in thee." And if such be indeed the incomparable excellence of the Church, and such the benefits of her communion, as they have been set forth in the foregoing verses, what anthem better deserves to be performed by all her choirs? In thee, O Zion, is the fountain of salvation, and from thee are derived all those springs. of grace which flow, by the Divine appointment, while the world lasts, for the purification and refreshment of mankind upon earth.

PSALM LXXXVIII.

ARGUMENT.

This Psalm, as Mr. Mudge observes, may well be said to be composed, according to its title, y, to create dejection, to raise a pensive gloom or melancholy in the mind; the whole subject of it being quite throughout heavy, and full of the most dismal complaints. The nature and degree of the sufferings related in it; the strength of the expressions used to describe them; the consent of ancient expositors; the appointment of the Psalm by the Church to be read on Good Friday; all these circumstances concur in directing an application of the whole to our blessed Lord. His unexampled sorrows, both in body and soul; his desertion in the day of trouble; his bitter passion, and approaching death; with his frequent and fervent prayers for the accomplishment of the promises, for the salvation of the Church through Him, and for the mani

festation of God's glory; these are the particulars treated of in this instructive and most affecting composition1.

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

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We hear in these words the voice of our suffering Redeemer. As man, He addresseth Himself to his Father, "the Lord God of his salvation,' from whom He expected, according to the promises, a joyful and triumphant resurrection: He pleadeth the fervency and importunity of his prayers, offered up continually, "day and night," during the time of his humiliation and sufferings; and He entreateth to be heard in these his supplications for his body mystical, as well as his body natural; for Himself, and for us all.

3. For my soul is full of troubles: and my life draweth nigh unto the grave.

Is not this exactly parallel to what He said in the garden, "My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death?" Full, indeed, "of troubles," was thy "soul," O blessed Jesus, in that dreadful hour, when, under the united weight of our sins and sorrows, Thou wert sinking into "the grave," in order to raise us out of it. Let us judge of thy love by thy sufferings, and of both by the impossibility 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 strength.

Next to the troubles of Christ's soul, are mentioned the disgrace and ignominy to which He

1 Cum Psalmis xxii. et Ixix. ad omnia convenit Psalmus lxxxviii., quod argumento est, eum eodem modo a nobis esse explicandum. Continet igitur pariter orationem Christi ad Patrem e cruce fusam. Auctor hujus Cantici non alium in finem illi titulum dedit ɔwn, "erudientis," quam ut Ecclesia posteriorum temporum ex eo disceret ultima hæc Messiæ fata. —VITRINGA, Observat. Sacr. lib. ii. cap. 9.

submitted.

He who was the Fountain of immortality, He from whom no 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 speaking, 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 save Himself. "His strength went from him; he became weak, and like another man." The people shook their heads at Him, saying, "He saved others, himself he cannot save."

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

"Free among the dead;" that is, set at liberty, or dismissed from the world, and separated from all communication with its affairs, as dead bodies

are; "like" other " corpses that lie in the grave, whom thou rememberest no more," i. e. as living objects of providence upon earth: in this sense, they are cut off from God's hand," which held and supported them in life. And in no other sense can these expressions be understood; since to imagine that the Psalmist, who so often speaks in plain terms of the resurrection, should here, when personating Messiah, deny that doctrine, would be a conceit equally absurd and impious.

6. Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in dark ness, in the deeps. 7. Thy wrath lieth_hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves.

The sufferings of Jesus are represented by his being plunged into a dark and horrible abyss with the indignation of God, due to our sins,