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afcend to heaven; let the application be made to "God," who will both "hear," and help; not to the world, which will not do one, and cannot do the other. The cries of the Son of God alone were heard for his own fake; the cries of all other men are heard for his fake.

2. In the day of my trouble I fought the Lord; my fore ran in the night, and ceafed not; Heb. my hand was fretched out in the night, and ceafed not, or, without intermiffion; my foul refufed to be comforted.

To a foul deeply fenfible of the world's vanity, and the mifery of fin, every day is a "day of trouble," and the whole time of her pilgrimage is a long, dark, and wearifome "night," during which the feeks after her beloved by prayer; and for the sake of him, and thofe future joys which fhe expects in his prefence, the pleafures of fenfe are put away from her, and fhe "refufes to be comforted" by fuch comforters: An Ifraelite cannot enjoy himself in Babylon; a Chriftian cannot find perfect fatisfaction in the world; a return to Jerufalem will employ the thoughts of both.

3. I remembered God, and was troubled: I complained, and my Spirit was overwhelmed. Or, I remembered God, and made a noise, i. e. in prayer to him; I meditated, and my spirit was obfcured, or darkened, through grief and affliction.

This is a fine defcription of what paffes in an afflicted and dejected mind. Between the remembrance of God and his former mercies, and the meditation on a feeming defertion under prefent calamities, the affections are variously agitated, and the prayers dif

turbed,

turbed, like the tumultuous waves of a troubled fea; while the fair light from above is intercepted, and the face of heaven overwhelmed with clouds and darkness.

4. Thou holdest mine eyes waking: I am so troubled that I cannot speak.

Through grief and anxiety it is, that the eyes are made to keep all the watches of the night, and wait in vain for fleep to relieve them from duty, until the dawning of the morning. To a night so spent, may a feason of captivity, or perfecution, be compared. Thus the ancient church looked for the first advent of Chrift; and thus doth the church, which now is, expect his fecond; prolonging her vigils, even unto the dawning of that morning, which is at once to put a period to darkness and to forrow. In the mean time, fhe giveth herself to meditation and prayer.

5. I have confidered the days of old, the years of ancient times, 6. I call to remembrance my fong in the night, I commune with mine own heart, and my Spirit maketh diligent fearch.

Recollection of former mercies is the proper antidote against a temptation to defpair, in the day of calamity and as, in the divine difpenfations, which are always uniform and like themselves, whatever has happened, happens again, when the circumftances are fimilar; the experience of "ancient times" is to be called in to our aid, and duly confulted. Nay, we may perhaps "remember" the time, when we ourfelves were led to compofe and utter a fong" of joy and triumph, on occafion of fignal mercies

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vouchfafed us. Upon thefe topics we fhould, "the night of affliction, commune with our own "hearts, and make diligent fearch," as Daniel did in Babylon, into the cause, the nature, and the probable continuance of our troubles; with the proper methods of shortening, and bringing them to an end; by fuffering them to have their intended and full effect, in a fincere repentance, and thorough reformation.

7. Will the Lord caft off for ever? and will he be favourable no more? 8. Is his mercy clean gone for ever? Doth his promife fail for evermore? 9. Hath God forgotten to be gracious? Hath he in anger Shut up his tender mercies?

The Pfalmift now relates the process of his meditations, and of that controverfy which arofe in his heart between faith and diftruft. While he viewed the diftrefsful fcene around him, he found himself ftrongly tempted to question God's love of the church; to think that he had finally rejected his people; that the promised mercy of redemption would never be accomplished; and that indignation had constrained the bowels of our heavenly Father; which no longer yearned towards his afflicted children. Thefe were the thoughts fuggefted to a defponding foul by the defolations of Sion at that time; and the ftate of things in the world may poffibly be fuch, as to fuggeft the like thoughts to many in the Chriftian church, before our Lord fhall appear again, for her final redemption. Imaginations of the fame caft will offer themselves to the mind of the finner, when the hand of God has lain long and heavy upon

him, by the infliction of outward calamities, or the terrors of conscience.

10. And I faid, this is my infirmity: but I will remember the years, or, changes of the right hand of the most High.

To the infinuations of diftruft, faith now begins to reply. The fufferer checks himself in his former train of thought, and humbly acknowledges it to have sprung from a mind difpirited, and rendered timid, by misfortunes; "I faid, this is my infirmi

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ty;" but he immediately ftrengthens himself by reflecting, that all "changes" in the conditions of men are effected, for reafons of infinite wifdom and goodness, by "the right hand of the most High;" which is not fhortened, but can ftill, as formerly, when he fees fit, deliver and exalt, as well as punish and depress his people. What, therefore, though the daughter of Sion be in captivity, and her enemies infult over her? Meffias cometh, who fhall redeem her, and all nations; and then shall "the right "hand of the moft High" work an univerfal and a glorious "change" upon the earth.

11. I will remember the works of the Lord: furely I will remember thy wonders of old. 12. I will meditate alfo of all thy works, and talk of thy doings.

Thus reftored to a right frame of mind, the Pfalmift, instead of brooding any longer over the calamities of his own time, refolves to turn his thoughts towards the divine difpenfations of old; to meditate on God's former works and wonders; his works of juftice and mercy, of power and wisdom, of nature and grace; and, by gratefully celebrating them,

them, to invigorate his faith in the falvation to come, of which they were so many earnests and pledges. And it is this confideration, which makes the euchariftic Pfalms ever pleafing, and ever comfortable to the mind; they are appeals to those attributes which have been fo often difplayed, in the cause of the church; they are acts of faith, looking backward to the past, and forward to the future; they are praises, and they are prayers.

13. Thy way, O God, is in the fanctuary, or, in holinefs; who is fo great a God as our God?

Faith, now reinftated in its fovereignty over the prejudices and fears of the foul, and again placed upon the judgment feat, pronounces the "ways" or proceedings of God to be fuch, as, when weighed in the balance of the " fanctuary," and judged of by the divine rule and manner of acting, will be found agreeable to the ftandard of perfect "holinefs." An affurance is likewife expreffed, that the power of God, however it may, for a time, lie dormant, yet ftill retains the fame fuperiority, of which former exertions fhew it to have been poffeffed, over the gods of the nations, the elements of nature, and the powers of the world: infomuch that nothing, which was ever called by others, or called itself "God," was able to ftand before Jehovah, the God of Ifrael; "Who is fo great a God as our God?" Thus, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth," faith our bleffed Lord, Matt. xxviii. 18. for the everlasting confolation of the Chriftian church.

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14. Thou art the God that doest wonders; thou haft declared

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