vens, that he might fill, or fulfill all things, mean ing every promife of his bleffing and grace, as he had fulfilled all the ftates of humiliation and fufferings, by descending into the lower parts of the earth before. Eph. iv. 8-13. Many have been the afcenfions and defcenfions of the Meffiah in the journeys of the cloud of glory, where falvation travelled with that throne of the father and fon: yet this paffage describes the noblest sense of his ascension, when his own perfonal fufferings, and not those of his feed or people, were ended in the flesh of the woman under the law, that is, under death, and under uncleanness, as all blood was reputed by that teftimony and record of the fall by a mixture of bloods, which make two houses, two kingdoms and nations at ftrife for maftery, as in the birth of Efau and Jacob from one womb this truth was declared. Compare Gen. xxv. 23. Two nations are in thy womb, with what John fays, who are not born of bloods, but by the will of God, meaning of one blood of the lamb; from which fprings one flesh, body or veffel, incorruptible forever. John ch. i. 13 In this Pfalm, which fhews the victory over the ferpent, the head of rebellion, bruifed by his fufferings in the heel, the lowest form of man under fin; he came to receive gifts for man, or in the man bearing away fins as the goat loaded with curfes and fins of the people was fent into the wilderness, and seen no more. Now the extent of this precious grace was to be

the

the most perfect as to love and goodness, and therefore comprehends not only man but angels, the firft tranfgreffors, and the ancient Ifrael that fell from heaven with their head, the old dragon, called alfo the king of Babylon, the covering cherub caft out of the mountain of God, and Nebuchadnezzar driven from his throne in Babylon, till feven times pass over his bestial life and degradation, before he acknowledges his great fin, and is reflored. The following scriptures confirm this truth. Rev. xii. 5-8. Ifa. xiv. 12—15. Ezek. xxviii. 12—19. Dan. iv. 16-32. and refer to the fame event, which the ancient Jews eftablish with one voice. Now the father has rewarded the fufferings of his beloved fon with the most excellent of all recompenses to a good being, the power of fubduing enmity and evil, and then pardoning and bleffing the tranfgreffor. For this exalted joy, Chrift endured the cross, defpifing the fhame and pains, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God, expecting till his enemies be brought down to his feet; and when he has trod them, as vintagers tread the wine-prefs, and as potters tread the clay; \or as he, by the perpetual fire at the altar, trod down and confumed * under his feet the fin and

trespass

* As foon as any one loses fight of the altar of Mofes, and the facred fire, by which the victims were consumed and fan&tified, as

Vitringa

trefpafs-offerings continually under the law; he will then rebuild the finners represented by their oblations, and clothe them with the garments of praise and falvation in the attributes of mercy and grace. In this most noble contest for fuperiority in fuffering for the good of fuch who caused it, is Facob raised above Efau in the figure; and Jefus Chrift in the truth: in this battle, not by force or violence, but by patience and refignation to him who judgeth righteous judgment, is Jofeph exalted in the fupremacy of good-will to his brethren, who envied and hated that virtue, which was to be their future guardian, friend and feeder. In this view, ftripes, wrath and vengeance have been, and will continue to be executed against the evil and enmity, both in men and all other lapfed creatures, till it be taken away, that the Lord God may dwell again in the places, once wafte and desolate, but rebuilt in the mercy of their father by the glorious instrumentality and mediation of one fon, beloved and exalted for his fuperior excellency in obedience unto the death, and for the end of that death the restoring the miferable and loft children and

Vitringa juftly observes, that not the altar, but the fire fhadowed forth the majefly of the holy spirit; then the key of knowledge is taken away, and the whole gospel opened at Pentecofte, falls back under the clouds and darkness of Sinai.

brethren

brethren to the bleffings of his own, and his fathers house and family.

Verse 20, 21. Blessed be the Lords (Adonaj) who will load us day by day; the God of our falvation. Selah. He is the God to us, and GOD of SALVATIONS. And to JEHOVAH the Lord (Adonaj) the goings forth from death.

The fense is obvious. The Lord will continue to accumulate benefits upon us, not afflictions, as fome 'conjecture. Salvation is firft wrought in Ifrael, which has a sense confined to the firft fruits confecrating the whole lump, and to the first born as the root fanctifying the branches. Rom. xi. 16. John fees this Ifrael on mount Zion, at the head of the redemption in the full congregation of 144000. As they are kings, they clothe, feed and protect their own fubjects gathered from their own brethren: and as priests, they must fanctify and bring their brethren clean by their altars of fire and blood, supplied from their high-prieft, of whole fulness they receive, and gift for gift, to pour down treasures and bleffings on the heads of their younger brethren, as Jacob did to Efau, and Joseph to his trembling and guilty brethren. The writer of anonymous notes on Merrick's tranflation of the Pfalms p. 142. miftakes in translating thus. "He will fupport, meaning under heavy burthens." Bythner is more just to the fenfe, he will heap his gifts in full meafure.

66

For

For we know Ifrael never receives for himself, but to be more like their head, and his God; as Chrift often used this expreffion. "It is more bleffed to give, than to receive." Thefe are the two glorious rewards for that true virtue of the gospel, which will crown the faith, patience and fufferings of the real faints, who will be exalted above their brethren that afflicted them; and from this fupremacy, be enabled to bless their own great families from the race of Adam which must bow down to their elders, and receive the free, liberal and chearful beneficence of fuch excellent kings and priests, after the pattern of God and his fon. At v. 21. "The God of us, is the God of our falva"tions." The writer of anonymous notes says, tranflate, God is ours: the fenfe is more diftin&t and particular to interpret, our God is the God of falvations, because the God of Ifrael is the Lord God, the most high God, confequently fuch a glory belongs to him, as the great author of all beings, fo the great fountain of grace and loving kindness in redeeming mankind from fin and death. Bythner gives the true fenfe worthy of the ONE GOOD, who has numberlefs ways of falvation at his command, or rather one way of falvation by one precious blood and fanctifying fire, which shall have that blessed extent the apoftle mentions in 1 Cor. xv. 22. as in Adam all die, fo in Christ shall all be made alive, but every man in his own order. The apostles

M