nefs of fummer – The change was, as if he had been removed at once from the depth of winter, into midfummer; as if all the storms, and rains, and clouds of that gloomy feason, (the finest emblems of grief) were changed, at once, into ferenity and funfhine all heaven clear, unclouded, and fmiling upon him. THE fame thing is alfo evident, as I apprehend, from Pfalm cxxx. plainly written in the spirit of a penitent who trusted in the infinite mercy of Gop, and hoped for forgiveness, but had not yet obtained it *. BUT to proceed DAVID, being now fully fatisfied, that his guilt was too well known to the world, and that God would purfue it with public vengefound it high time to do every thing ance, + So the word fhould be tranflated. * 3. If thou, Lord, wilt be extreme to mark what is done amifs: O Lord, who may abide it? 4. For there is mercy with thee: therefore fhalt thou be feared. 5. I look for the Lord, my foul doth wait for him: in his word is my trust. 6. My foul fleeth unto the Lord: before the morningwatch, I fay, before the morning-watch. 7. O Ifrael, trust in the Lord; for with the Lord there is mercy and with him is plenteous redemption. 8. And he fhall redeem Ifrael from all his fins. that that in him lay, to wipe off the reproach he had brought upon his holy religion, and make all poffible reparation for the offence he had given to GoD and man; and (I doubt not) rejoiced in the occafion of taking public fhame to himself, for fuch complicated and aggravated guilt; and making a public confeffion of it before the whole world. And to this purpose, he then composed and published the fifty-first Pfalm, directing it To the chief musician; and, without doubt, commanding it to be publicly fung in the tabernacle, in the prefence of all his people: himself attending, and proftrate before the throne of mercy. It is furely matter of uncommon curiofity to contemplate upon David, in this condition. Behold the greatest monarch of the earth, thus humbled for his fins before GOD! confeffing his fhame, with contrition, and confufion of face! calling out for mercy, and imploring pardon, in the prefence of his meaneft fubjects! There is something in such an image of penitence, more fitted to strike the foul with a dread and abhorrence of guilt, than it is poffible to exprefs: fomething more edifying, more adapted to the human infirmities, infirmities, and more powerful to reform them, than the most perfect example of unfinning obedience; efpecially, if the fupplications and petitions he pours out to Go D, be throughly suited to the folemnity of the occafion, and condition of the penitent; as they undoubtedly are in this fifty-first Pfalm. Here the penitent humbly and earnestly begs for mercy -He acknowledges his fin, and his innate depravity, the fource of it —He begs to be renewed in the grace of GODand in that health which the horror of his wickedness had impaired. -Above all, he earnestly befeeches GOD, not to caft him off, nor deliver him up to a reprobate sense: Caft me not away from thy prefence, and take not thy holy Spirit from me -- O give me the comfort of thy help again deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God, thou God of my falvation In one word, the foul of fame, of forrow, of remorfe, of fincere repentance, and bitter anguish under the agonies of guilt, breathes strong, and fervent, through every line of this hallowed compofition. And it is (I doubt not) David's greateft confolation at this moment, when he bleffes God for the providential effects effects of his fall, that thofe crimes, which wrought his fhame, and forrow, and infamy, have in the humility, the piety, the contrition of confeffing them, (in this and several other Pfalms compofed upon the fame occafion) rescued, and reformed, millions. GIVE me leave to add, that there were two circumftances of distress, which attended upon David's fall; and have not (as I apprehend) been fufficiently confidered by any of the commentators and yet, they are, beyond all question, the greatest, and the fevereft, that human nature can fuffer. THE firft is; The distress he endured, on account of the obloquy and reproach brought upon the true religion, and the truly religious, by his guilt: And the second; The reproach, and endless infults, brought upon himself, even by his repentance, and humiliation before GoD and the world. BOTH these are fully fet forth in the fixty-ninth Pfalm. VER. 3. I am weary of my crying, my throat is dried: mine eyes fail, while I wait God. for my 5. O God! thou knoweft my foolishness; and my fins are not bid from thee. 6. Let 6. Let not them that wait on thee, O Lord God of hofts, be ashamed for my jake: let not those that seek thee, be confounded for my fake, O God of Ifrael! 7. Because for thy fake I have borne reproach: Shame hath covered my face. 8. I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother's children. 9. For the zeal of thine houfe bath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me. 10. When I wept, and chaftened my foul with fafting, that was turned to my reproach. 11. I made fack-cloth also my garment : and I became a proverb unto them. 12. They that fit in the gate, fpeak against me; and I was the song of the drunkards. 13. But as for me, my prayer is unto thee, O Lord, in an acceptable time: O God, in the multitude of thy mercy bear me, in the truth of thy falvation. 14. Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not fink: let me be delivered from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters. 15. Let not the water-flood overflow me, neither let the deep fwallow me up, and |