those curtains, the clouds, which are like a bright covering on the inside of it.

[434] Concerning the Book of Psalms. That the penman of the Psalms did pretend to speak and write by the inspiration of the Spirit of God as much as the prophets when they wrote their prophecies, the following things do confirm :

1. Singing divine songs was of old one noted effect of the inspiration of the Spirit of God in the prophets, insomuch that such singing was called by the name of prophesying. 1 Sam. x. 5, 6." Thou shalt meet a company of prophets coming down from the high place, with a psaltery, and a tabret, and a pipe, and a harp before them, and they shall prophesy, and the Spirit of the Lord will come upon thee, and thou shalt prophesy with them." See also 1 Chron. xxv. 1, 2, 3. This seems to have been the most ancient way of prophesying. In spired persons of old used to utter themselves in a parable, as sometimes it is called, or a kind of song. Thus it was that Miriam uttered herself when she did the part of a prophetess, Exod. xv. 20, 21, “And Miriam, the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand, and all the women went out after her, with timbrels and with dances, and Miriam answered them, Sing ye to the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously, the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea." She in the xii. chap. of Numb. ver. 2, boasts that God had spoken by her as well as by Moses. She seems to have reference to this time, for it does not appear that God ever had spoken by her at any other time, and it is probable that it was from her being inspired at that time, (or at least chiefly,) that she was called a prophetess. And this was the way that Moses delivered his chief and fullest prophecy concerning the future state of Israel, and the church of God, and the world of mankind, in that song in the xxxii. of Deut.; the words were all indited by God, as appears by Deut. xxxi. 19, 20, 21. And Moses's blessing of the children of Israel, and his prophecy of their future state, in Deut. iii., is delivered song-wise, which especially appears in the beginning and ending. And so are Balaam's prophecies, or parables. Jacob's blessing and prophecies concerning the future state of the posterity of his twelve sons, Gen. xlix., is delivered in a like style, as may be plain to any one that observes. Zechariah is said to prophesy in uttering a song, Luke i. 67.

2. Singing these very psalms in the sanctuary by the musi cians that David appointed, is called prophesying, 1 Chron. xxv. 1, 2, 3. And Asaph is called a seer, or prophet, and re

presented as speaking as such in uttering those psalms that he penned, 2 Chron. xxix. 30.

3. We are expressly informed of David in an eminent instance wherein he uttered himself in a remarkable manner as the sweet psalmist of Israel, that he did profess himself to speak by the immediate inspiration of the Spirit of God. 2 Sam. xxiii. 1, 2, &c. "Now these be the last words of David." (And then in what next follows David's words begin, as may be confirmed by comparing them with Num. xxiv. 3, 4. 15, 16.) "David, the son of Jesse, hath said, and the man who was raised up on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob, and the sweet psalmist of Israel, said: The Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and his word was in my tongue. The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spake to me." In its being said that these are the last words of David, it is implied that there had been many other words; that he, as the sweet psalmist of Israel, had uttered many things before; and when David, in these his last words, says, "The Spirit of the Lord spake by me, it must be understood of all these words spoken of in this place, whether mentioned or referred to, all the words that he had uttered as the sweet psalmist of Israel. And there can, perhaps, no other good reason be given why he should be mentioned under that character of the sweet psalmist of Israel here in the introduction of these his last words, rather than all other places of his history, but only because these were the last words that David had uttered as the sweet psalmist of Israel, and as it were the sum of all those preceding records referred to, expressing the main drift and substance of those holy songs he had sung by the inspiration of the Spirit of God all his life time, and the ultimum, the chief thing he had in view in those psalms.

4. It is evident that the penman of the Psalms did pretend to speak by a spirit of prophecy, because the Psalms are full of prophecies of future events, as Ps. xi. 6. Ps. xxii. 27, to the end. Ps. xxxvii. 9, 10, 11. Ps. lx. 6, 7, 8. Ps. lxiv. 7, to the end. Ps. lxviii. 31. Ps. lxix. 34, 35, 36. Ps. lxxii. Ps. lxxxvi. 9. Ps. xcvi. 13. Ps. cii. 13-22. Ps. cviii. Ps. cxxxviii. 4, 5. Ps. cxlix. 7, 8, 9. And many other things in the Psalms are uttered in a prophetical manner and style.

5. It is also most manifest that the penman of the Psalms did pretend to speak by the Spirit, and in the name of the Lord, as the prophets did. By this, that God in the Psalms is very often represented as speaking, and the words are evidently represented as his words, in like manner as in the prophets, as Ps. xiv. 4. Ps. 1. 7-14. Ps. lxxxi. 6—16. Ps. lxxxii. Ps. liii. 4. Ps. lxxxi. Ps. lxxxvii. Ps. xci. 14, 15, 16. Ps. xcv. 8, 9, 10, 11. Ps. cxxxii. 14, to the end. Ps. xlv. 16, to the end. Ps. ii. 6, to the end. Ps. xxxii. 8,

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to the end. Ps. lx. 6, 7, 8. Ps. lxviii. 13. Ps. lxxxix. 3, 4. 19— 37. Ps. cviii. 7, 8, 9. Ps. cx. 1. 4.

[440.] The Book of Psalms. It is a further confirmation of these things that we find that David very early was endowed with the spirit of prophecy and miracles; he wrought a miracle when he slew the lion and the bear, and acted and spake by that spirit of prophecy when he went forth against Goliath, as is very apparent by the story.

[506] The Book of Psalms. That this is divinely inspired may be further argued from this, that it is every way probable that what are called the songs of Zion, and the Lord's song in Ps. cxxxvii. 3, 4, are songs contained in this book. It appears that Zion, or God's church, had sacred songs fancied as such in the world, and that they were properly called the Lord's songs, which argues that they had God for their author, and were consecrated by his authority, as a word being called the word of the Lord, argues it to be a word that came from God, and as a house being called the house of the Lord, signifies its being an house consecrated to God by divine authority. So of the Lord's day, the city of God, the altar of God, &c. &c.

When all the utensils of the temple were exactly, and even in the most minute circumstances, formed by divine direction, it would be strange if the songs of the temple, which are vastly more important and material in the worship of God, should not be formed by divine direction. These were not merely external circumstances of divine worship as the other, but the very matter of the worship. As David was divinely instructed in all the place, and form, and instruments of the temple, and all the new ordinances relating to the attendance and orders of the priests, and the Levites, and the circumstances of their ministration, and particularly of the singers, it would be strange if the songs that they were to sing, the most material and effectual thing of all, should not be of divine appointment, but should be left wholly to human wisdom and invention. (See 1 Chron. vi. 31, and xvi. 4-7. xxiii. 6. 25, to the end, and chap. xxv. and xxviii. 11, to the end, especially ver. 19 and 21.

We have an account that David and Samuel the seer acted jointly in appointing the orders of the porters of the Levites, 1 Chron. ix. 22, and much more the orders of the Levites that were to be singers. It is noted that some of those Levites themselves that were appointed by David as chief musicians, or singers, were seers, or prophets. So of Heman, 1 Chron. xxv. 5. And the expressions there lead us in this verse and the context, to suppose that he acted as a prophet in that matter in assisting David in composing psalms, and appointing the order of singers. Yea,

it is expressly said that the order of the singers was appointed by David with the assistance of the prophets, by the commandment of the Lord. 2 Chron. xxix. 25. "And he set the Levites in the house of the Lord with cymbals, with psalteries, and with harps, according to the commandment of David, and of Gad the king's seer, and of Nathan the prophet: for so was the commandment of the Lord by his prophets." And Asaph, another of the chief musicians, and penman of many of the psalms, is spoken of as acting as a seer, or prophet, in this matter. Ver. 30. "Hezekiah the king commanded the Levites to sing praise unto the Lord, with the words of David and of Asaph the seer." (See the like of Jeduthun, chap. xxxv. 15.)

[95] Psalm viii. 2. "Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength, because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger." It seems to me that mankind are principally intended here by babes and sucklings; it is of God's loving kindness to men that the psalmist is speaking, to the end of the psalm; by the enemy and the avenger is meant the devil. Men are as babes and sucklings in comparison of the angelic nature. By so advancing the human nature, the devils are disappointed and triumphed over.

[298] Psalm xvii. 4. "Concerning the works of men, by the word of thy lips, I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer." By the destroyer here is doubtless meant the devil, the same with him that is called Abaddon and Apollyon in the Revelations. God's people under the Old Testament were sensible that there was an evil and malignant spirit, or invisible agent, that sought the ruin of man, as even the heathen nations had a notion of evil dæmons. This evil spirit the Hebrews were wont to call by several names; one was Satan, or the adversary. So it is said Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number the people. So in several other places in the Old Testament. Another name was the destroyer; so devils are called destroyers in Job xxxiii. 22. "Yea, his soul draweth nigh unto the grave, and his life to the destroyers."

[328] Psalm xix. 4, 5, 6. "In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun; which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race: His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it, and nothing is hid from the heat of it." It appears to me very likely that the Holy Ghost in these expressions which he most immediately uses about the rising of the sun, has an eye to the rising of the Sun of Righteousness from the grave, and that

the expressions that the Holy Ghost here uses are conformed to such a view. The times of the Old Testament, are times of night in comparison of the gospel day, and are so represented in scripture, and therefore the approach of the day of the New Testament dispensation in the birth of Christ, is called the day spring from on high visiting the earth. Luke i. 78. "Through the tender mercy of our God, whereby the day spring from on high hath visited us," and the commencing of the gospel dispensation as it was introduced by Christ, is called the Sun of Righteousness rising. Mal. iv. 2. But this gospel dispensation commences with the resurrection of Christ. Therein the Sun of Righteousness rises from under the earth, as the sun appears to do in the morning, and comes forth as a bridegroom. He rose as the joyful, glorious bridegroom of his church; for Christ, especially as risen again, is the proper bridegroom, or husband of his church, as the apostle teaches. Rom. vii. 4. "Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit to God."

He that was covered with contempt, and overwhelmed in a deluge of sorrow, hath purchased and won his spouse; (for he loved the church and gave himself for it, that he might perfect it to himself; now he comes forth as a bridegroom to bring home his purchased spouse to him in spiritual marriage, as he soon after did in the conversion of such multitudes, making his people willing in the day of his power, and hath also done many times since, and will do in a yet more glorious degree. And as the sun when it rises comes forth like a bridegroom gloriously adorned, so Christ in his resurrection entered on his state of glory. After his state of sufferings, he rose to shine forth in ineffable glory as the King of Heaven and earth, that he might be a glorious bridegroom in whom his church might be unspeakably happy.

Here the psalmist says that God has placed a tabernacle for the sun in the heavens, so God the Father had prepared an abode in heaven for Jesus Christ; he had set a throne for him there, to which he ascended after he rose. The sun after it is risen ascends up to the midst of heaven, and then at that end of its race, descends again to the earth; so Christ when he rose from the grave ascended up to the height of heaven and far above all heavens, but at the end of the gospel-day will descend again to the earth.

It is here said that the risen sun rejoiceth as a strong man to run his race. So Christ when he rose, rose as a man of war, as the Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle; he rose to conquer his enemies, and to show forth his glorious power in subduing all things to himself, during that race which he had to