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

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 fprung from a mind difpirited, and rendered timid, by misfortunes; "I faid, this is my infirmai

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 deprefs 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 fhall" the right "hand of the most High" work an universal and a glorious "change" upon the earth.

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

Thus restored 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 justice and mercy, of power and wifdom, of nature and grace; and, by gratefully celebrating them,

them, to invigorate his faith in the falvation to come, of which they were fo many earnefts and pledges. And it is this confideration, which makes the euchariftic Pfalms ever pleasing, and ever comfortable to the mind; they are appeals to thofe 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 holiness; 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 standard 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 itfelf "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.

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

declared thy ftrength among the people. 15. Thou haft with thine arm redeemed thy people, the fons of Jacob and Jofeph.

Ifrael, in times of trouble and diftrefs, was wont to look back to the "wonders" wrought in Egypt, and the redemption of all her tribes from that house of bondage. We Chriftians are taught, while we use the fame words, to regard parallel, but more important tranfactions; we reflect on the "wonders" wrought for the bodies and fouls of men, by the

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ftrength and the arm of Jehovah," revealed and manifested to the world in Chrift; and we celebrate the redemption, not of "the fons of Jacob and Jo

feph" only, but of all nations, from the bondage of corruption; a redemption compared with which, the deliverance from Egypt, though glorious in itself, hath yet no glory at all, by reason of the glory that fo far excelleth. Our confidence in God, during the seasons of affliction, should therefore rise in proportion.

16. The waters faw thee, O God, the waters faw thee; they were afraid: the depths also were troubled.

The waters of the red fea are here beautifully represented as endued with fenfibility, as feeing, feeling, and being confounded, even to the lowest depths, at the prefence and power of their great Creator, when he commanded them to open a way, and to form a wall on each fide of it, until his people were passed over; until his people were paffed over, whom he had redeemed. In this amazing transaction, let us behold, as in a glafs, the falvation of believers by baptifm, through the death and refurrection of Jefus VOL. II.

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Christ,

Christ, who made the depths of the grave, as he had done those of the fea, a way for his ranfomed to pafs over; and the church, like another Ifrael, faw her enemies, in effect, dead at her feet.

17. The clouds poured out water, the skies fent out a found; thine arrows also went abroad. 18. The voice of thy thunder was in the heaven: the lightnings lightened the world, the earth trembled and shook.

It is faid, Exod. xiv. 24. that at the time when Ifrael was paffing the fea, "the Lord looked upon "the hoft of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire " and the cloud, and troubled the host of the Egyp"tians, and took off their chariot wheels, and made "them to go heavily; fo that the Egyptians faid, Let us flee from the face of Ifrael; for the Lord fight"eth for them against the Egyptians." The verses of our Pfalm now before us, feem to explain more particularly the manner in which the Lord "look"ed upon, and troubled, and fought against the

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Egyptians," upon that occafion; namely, by thunders and lightnings, ftorms and tempefts, rain, hail, and earthquake, the ufual tokens and inftruments of Almighty difpleasure. Jofephus, in like manner, relates, that the deftruction of the Egyptians was accompanied by ftorms of rain from heaven; by dreadful thunders and lightnings; and, in thort, by every poffible circumftance of terror, which could testify and inflict upon man the vengeance of an incenfed God. From fcenes, like thefe, we learn to form an idea of that power, which discomfited the infernal hoft; raised Chrift from the dead; vanquifhed oppofition and perfecution; fubdued the

world

world to the obedience of faith; fupports and protects the church; will overthrow antichrift; raise the dead; caft the wicked, with death and Satan, into the lake of fire; and exalt the righteous, to fing, with angels in heaven, "the fong of Mofes "and of the Lamb." See Rev. xv. 3.

19. Thy way is in the fea, and thy paths in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not known.

The difpenfations and ways of God, like the paffage through the red sea, are all full of mercy to his people; but they are alfo, like that, often unusual, marvellous, infcrutable; and we can no more trace his footsteps, than we could have done thofe of Ifrael, after the waters had returned to their place again. Let us refolve, therefore, to trust in him at all times; and let us think we hear Mofes faying to us, as he did to the Ifraelites, when feemingly reduced to the last extremity; "Fear ye not; ftand ftill, and "fee the falvation of Jehovah." Exod. xiv. 13.

20. Thou leddeft thy people, like a flock, by the hand of Mofes and Aaron.

The loving kindness of God towards Ifrael did not stop at the red fea, but he conducted his chofen flock, by the guidance of faithful paftors, through all the perils of the wilderness, to the land of promise. We likewife, through thy mercy, O bleffed Lord Jefus, have paffed the red fea at our baptism; and are now journeying in the wilderness. Give us thofe meek, and lowly, and tractable difpofitions, which become the sheep of thy pasture; fet over us skilful and vigilant thepherds; and be thou ever, both with them and with us; until, having furmounted all difficul