deep, and hast cast us down into the extremest degree of sorrow and misery.

XLV. 1. “I speak of the things which I have made touching the king my tongue is the pen of a ready writer."]-I speak of that holy ditty which I have made touching king Solomon, in the type of him that was greater than Solomon, even the King of Glory, the great Bridegroom of his spouse the Church: my tongue shall be swift and free in her expressions of his just praises.

2. "Thou art fairer than the children of men: grace is poured into thy lips."]-O Saviour, there is more true inward beauty in thee than in all the sons of men; yea, all the glory and excellence which they have is only derived from thee: so full of grace were thy lips, that thou spakest as never man spake.

3. "Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty, with thy glory and thy majesty."]-As thou art armed with infinite power, O thou Lord of Hosts, so let it please thee to buckle thyself to the exercise of this power, to the subduing of the many and mighty enemies of thy Church, and deck thyself with such glory and majesty as may confound thy opposers.

4. “And in thy majesty ride prosperously, because of truth and meekness and righteousness; and thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things."]-Go thou on happily to execute the great administration of thy kingly office, in the behalf of thy Church, because of the meekness of thy person, and truth of thy word, and righteousness of thy promises and performances; and the right hand of thy power shall bring to pass strange and fearful things. "Thine arrows are sharp, in the heart of the king's enemies whereby the people fall under thee."]-Thy judgments are severely and mortally executed upon the enemies of thy Divine. Sovereignty; and upon the sight thereof the people of the world are glad to humble themselves under thine almighty hand.

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6. "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre."]—The thrones of earthly princes are, like themselves, brittle and variable, and their government many times drawn aside to protect evil and depress good; but thy throne, O Saviour, is everlasting: even when heaven shall pass, it shall continue, and thy government can be no other than holy and righteous.

7. "Therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows."]-Therefore God, even

thy God, hath anointed thee from everlasting, as the King, Priest, and Prophet of thy Church, with that heavenly oil, whereby he hath gladded the hearts of all thy chosen people; and hath endowed thine assumed humanity with all divine graces above all mere mankind.

8. "All thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory palaces, whereby they have made thee glad.”]— As thy garments, O Solomon, are perfumed with that precious confection, which is made of the choicest odours, when thou comest out of thine ivory palaces, with which excellent fragrancies thine attendants have cheered thy heart: so it is with thee, O Saviour; thy human nature, wherewith thou art clad, is furnished with all graces and perfections, when thou descendest out of the glorious palace of heaven, whereby thou wert cheerfully enabled to perform this great work of thy mediation.

9. "Kings' daughters were among thy honourable women: upon thy right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophir.”]— Thou hast the honourable attendance of many noble and famous congregations, that desire and delight to wait upon thine ordinances; but the Spouse, thine holy Catholic Church, is so honoured by thee, that she is set upon thy right hand clothed with all true glory and magnificence.

10. "Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; forget also thy father's house."]-And now, O daughter of Egypt, hear what I shall say to thee, in type of the true Church and Spouse of my Saviour: in lieu of so great mercy as God hath showed thee in singling thee out of the world, it is thy duty to forget the corrupt condition of thy nature, and to be aliened in thine affections from all earthly things; it is not for thee to think any more of the Egypt of this world, but to be as a stranger to all earthly vanities.

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11. "So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty: for he is thy Lord and worship thou him."]—So shall God take pleasure in those graces which he hath given thee thus to improve, and be graciously affected with thy holy obedience which thou justly reservest for him alone; for he is the Lord thy God, and therefore all thy worship and service is due to none but him.

12. "And the daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift; even the rich among the people shall intreat thy favour."]—The neighbouring and yet foreign churches shall, in an acknowledgment of thy great honour and happiness, present thee with the

service of their love and gifts of their bounty, and those that are great and famous in their reputation shall seek communion with thee.

13. "The king's daughter is all glorious within: her clothing is of wrought gold."]-Solomon's bride the daughter of Pharaoh, and Christ's Spouse the daughter of the King of Heaven, are both inwardly glorious; the one with rich embroideries, the other with excellent and heavenly graces; the one is clothed with gold, the other with the righteousness of her Saviour and with all divine virtues.

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"She shall be brought unto the king in raiment of needlework: the virgins her companions that follow her shall be brought unto thee."]-Neither hath she this glory put upon her only to please and amaze the eyes of the beholders, but the main use of this goodly bravery is, that she shall appear glorious in the eyes of the King of Glory, her celestial Husband, to whom she shall be presented in this goodly habit of grace; not without the attendance of all those believing souls that appertain to that blessed train of hers.

15. With gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought; they shall enter into the king's palace."]—With unspeakable joy and triumph shall they be presented unto the throne of glory even into that palace not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, the seat and mansion of the everliving God, shall they be brought, by the ministry and with the acclamation of the blessed angels of God.

16. "Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children, whom thou mayest make princes in all the earth."]-This happy marriage of thine shall be blessed with multitudes of children, who shall succeed their fathers in a comfortable and during government; the issue and condition whereof shall be so large and happy, that they shall be so many kings upon earth; and all thrones shall be furnished with princes from thy loins, forasmuch as all thy spiritual children are a royal generation unto God.

17. "I will make thy name to be remembered in all generations therefore shall the people praise thee for ever and ever."] O my God and Saviour, I, who by thy gracious inspiration have made this bridal-song unto thee, will celebrate and praise thy blessed Name to all generations, and will stir up thy people to bless and praise thee for ever and ever.

XLVI. 4.

"There is a river, the streams whereof shall make BP. HALL, VOL. III.

glad the city of God."]-Let the sea of this world roar and be never so unquiet, the holy city Jerusalem, the type of God's Church, hath a little river, even Gihon or Kidron, whose calm and gentle streams shall abundantly refresh it: and the mystical Jerusalem hath both the waters of life, the word of the everliving God, to comfort and satisfy it here; and those living waters of life eternal in the Paradise of God, to make it everlastingly happy.

9. "He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in pieces; he burneth the chariot in the fire."]—He can, when he pleaseth, put an end to those broils and tyrannous oppositions and persecutions wherewith his Church is wont to be infested, and can cause the enemies thereof to be still.

XLVII. 4. "He shall choose our inheritance for us, the excellency of Jacob whom he loved."]-He hath graciously made choice of us for his peculiar people, and of the land of Canaan for an inheritance for us; and hath purchased and prepared a more glorious inheritance for us above, even the inheritance of his saints in light; and in the mean time hath graced us with all those noble privileges which are appropriated to the seed of Jacob whom he loved.

5. "God is gone up with a shout, the LORD with the sound of a trumpet.”]—As the ark of God is gone with much triumph and joy to be placed in the temple of the Lord, so the Son of God is with much rejoicing of angels and men both received into his evangelical Church on earth, and afterwards taken up into the glory of heaven.

9. "For the shields of the earth belong unto God."]-Unto God only belongeth the safe and gracious protection of his Church and children; and he accordingly raiseth up and defendeth those princes and governors, under whose rule his Church is preserved in peace.

XLVIII. 4." For, lo, the kings were assembled, they passed by together."]-The heathen kings, especially Sennacherib and his mighty hosts and assistants, came up against Jerusalem with menaces of utter destruction; but they stayed not long before those walls ere they were sent away with shame and slaughter.

7. "Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish with an east wind."]As a navy by sea is dispersed by a furious east wind, so didst thou, O Lord, scatter and discomfit those mighty enemies that came up against Jerusalem.

8. "As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the LORD of hosts."]-According to the relation of thy former deliverances of thy people, reported to us by our forefathers, so have our eyes been witnesses of thy present rescue of our city and nation.

12, 13. "Tell the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces."]-Look well, O ye beholders, upon the many and goodly towers of Jerusalem, upon her strong fortifications, upon her fair palaces; and, as thereby you shall be excited to praise God for the deliverance of so noble and beautiful a pile, so take occasion thereby to think of the splendour and glory of that heavenly Jerusalem which is above.

XLIX. 5. "Why should I fear in the days of evil, when the iniquity of my heels shall compass me about?"]-Why should I fear upon any occasion whatsoever? whether it be upon the conscience of the iniquity of my own footsteps; or whether upon the prosecution of those enemies which follow me at the heels, and are ready to environ me?

7, 8. "None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him; for the redemption of their soul is precious, and it ceaseth for ever."]-It is not in the power of the wealthy and great men of the world to ransom another man from death by all their riches and treasures; for the life of man is of greater price and value than can be countervailed by any earthly thing; and therefore this redemption is a thing not to be effected or hoped for at all.

14. "And the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning; and their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling."]-But, however they flourish and sway here, yet, after the long night of the grave is past, in the morning of the resurrection, the just and righteous servants of God, whom they have here trampled upon, shall so have dominion over them, that they shall sit as their judges: in the mean time all their glory and bravery shall be consumed and rot away in the dust of their grave.

20. "Man that is in honour, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish."]-That man who lives in outward honour and yet wants true wisdom and understanding, to know God and himself, lives as a beast, and dies as a beast, brutishly.

L. I. "The mighty God, even the LORD, hath spoken, and called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same."]-Hear, O ye inhabitants of the earth; the great and mighty God of heaven, having taken just notice of the extreme