Explanatory Notes and Quaint Sayings (part 1 of 2)

Whole Psalm.—The magnificent scenery to which the poem alludes is derived entirely from a contemplation of nature, in a state of pastoral seclusion; and a contemplation indulged in, at noontide or in the morning, when the sun was travelling over the horizon, and eclipsing all the other heavenly bodies by his glory. On which account it forms a perfect contrast with the eighth Psalm, evidently composed in the evening, and should be read in connection with it, as it was probably written nearly at the same time: and as both are songs of praise derived from natural phenomena, and therefore peculiarly appropriate to rural or pastoral life.—John Mason Good.

Whole Psalm.—The world resembleth a divinity-school, saith Plutarch, and Christ, as the Scripture telleth, is our doctor, instructing us by his works, and by his words. For as Aristotle had two sorts of writings, one called exoterical, for his common auditors, another acroamatical, for his private scholars and familiar acquaintance: so God hath two sorts of books, as David intimates in this Psalm; namely, the book of his creatures, as a common-place book for all men in the world: “The heavens declare the glory of God,” verses 1-6; the book of his Scriptures as a statute-book for his domestical auditory, the church: “The law of the Lord is an undefiled law,” verses 7, 8. The great book of the creatures in folio, may be termed aptly the shepherd’s kalendar, and the ploughman’s alphabet, in which even the most ignorant may run (as the prophet speaks) and read. It is a letter patent, or open epistle for all, as David, in our text, Their sound is gone out into all lands, and their words unto the ends of the world; there is neither speech nor language but have heard of their preaching. For albeit, heaven, and the sun in heaven, and the light in the sun are mute, yet their voices are well understood, catechising plainly the first elements of religion, as, namely, that there is a God, and that this God is but one God, and that this one God excelleth all other things infinitely both in might and majesty. Universus mundus (as one pithily) nihil aliud est quàm Deus explicatus: the whole world is nothing else but God expressed. So St. Paul, Rom. i. 20: God’s invisible things, as his eternal power and Godhead, “are clearly seen” by the creation of the world, “being understood by the things that are made.” The heavens declare this, and the firmament showeth this, and the day telleth this, and the night certifieth this, the sound of the thunder proclaimeth, as it were, this in all lands, and the words of the whistling wind unto the ends of the world. More principally the sun, which as a bridegroom cometh out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a giant to run his course. The body thereof (as mathematicians have confidently delivered) is one hundred and sixty-six times bigger than the whole earth, and yet it is every day carried by the finger of God so great a journey, so long a course, that if it were to be taken on the land, it should run every several hour of the day two hundred and twenty-five German miles. It is true that God is incapable to sense, yet he makes himself, as it were, visible in his works; as the divine poet (Du Bartas) sweetly:—

“Therein our fingers feel, our nostrils smell, Our palates taste his virtues that excel, He shows him to our eyes, talks to our ears, In the ordered motions of the spangled spheres.”

So “the heavens declare,” that is, they make men declare the glory of God, by their admirable structure, motions, and influence. Now, the preaching of the heavens is wonderful in three respects. 1. As preaching all the night and all the day without intermission: verse 2. One day telleth another, and one night certifieth another. 2. As preaching in every kind of language: verse 3, There is neither speech, nor language, but their voices are heard among them. 3. As preaching in every part of the world, and in every parish of every part, and in every place of every parish: verse 4, Their sound is gone into all lands, and their words unto the ends of the world. They be diligent pastors, as preaching at all times; and learned pastors, as preaching in all tongues; and catholic pastors, as preaching in all towns. Let us not then in this University (where the voices of so many great doctors are heard), be like to truants in other schools, who gaze so much upon the babies⁸, and gilded cover, and painted margent of their book, that they neglect the text and lesson itself. This is God’s primer, as it were, for all sorts of people; but he hath another book proper only for his domestical auditory the church: “He sheweth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel. He hath not dealt so with any nation, neither have the heathen knowledge of his laws.” Psa. cxlvii. 19, 20. Heathen men read in his primer, but Christian men are well acquainted with his Bible. The primer is a good book, but it is imperfect; for after a man hath learned it he must learn more; but “the law of the Lord,” that is, the body of the Holy Scriptures, is a most absolute canon of all doctrines appertaining either to faith or good manners; it is a perfect law, converting the soul, giving wisdom to the simple, sure, pure, righteous, and rejoicing the heart, etc.—John Boys.

Whole Psalm. Saint Chrysostom conjectures that the main intention of the greatest part of this Psalm consists in the discovery of divine providence, which manifests itself in the motions and courses of the heavenly bodies, concerning, which the Psalmist speaketh much, from verse 1 to verse 7. Saint Austin upon the place, is of a quite different opinion, who conjectures that Christ is the whole subject of this Psalm; whose person is compared to the sun for excellency and beauty, and the course of whose doctrine was dispersed round about the world by his apostles, to which Saint Paul alludes (Rom. x. 18); “Have they not heard? Yes, verily, their sound went into all the earth,” etc., and the efficacy of whose gospel is like the heat of the sun, which pierceth into the very heart of the earth, so that into the secrets of the soul. I confess this allegorical exposition is not altogether impertinent, neither is that literal exposition of Saint Chrysostom to be blamed, for it hath its weight. But to omit all variety of conjectures, this Psalm contains in it:

1. A double kind of the knowledge of God, of which one is by the book of the creature; and this divines call a natural knowledge: there is not any one creature, but it is a leaf written all over with the description of God; his eternal power and Godhead may be understood by the things that are seen, saith the apostle. Rom. i. 20. And, as every creature, so especially “the heavens” do lead us to the knowledge of a God: so verse 1 of this Psalm: “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament sheweth his handywork;” they are the theatres, as it were, of his wisdom, and power, and glory. Another is by the book of Scripture; and this knowledge is far more distinct and explicit: with the other even the heathens do grope after a deity, but with this Christians do behold God, as it were, with open face. The characters here are now fresh, spiritual, complete, and lively. The word of God is the singular means to know God aright. Look, as the light which comes from the sun, so that word of God, which is light, is the clearest way to know God who is light itself. Hence it is that the Psalmist stands much upon this from verse 7 to verse 12, where he sets open the word in its several encomiums and operations; namely, in its perfection, its certainties and firmness; its righteousness, and purity, and truth; and then in its efficacy—that it is a converting word, an enlightening word, an instructing word, a rejoicing word, a desirable word, a warning word, and a rewarding word.

2. A singular and experimental knowledge of himself.—So it seemeth, that that word which David did so much commend, he did commend it from an experimental efficacy; he had found it to be a righteous, and holy, and pure, and discovering word, laying open, not only visible and gross transgressions, but also, like the light of the sun, those otherwise unobserved and secret atoms of senses flying within the house; I mean in the secret chambers of the soul.—Obadiah Sedgwick, 1660.

Verse 1.—“The heavens declare the glory of God,” etc.—The eminent saints of ancient times were watchful observers of the objects and operations of nature. In every event they saw the agency of God; and, therefore, they took delight in its examination. For they could not but receive pleasure from witnessing the manifestations of his wisdom and beneficence, whom they adored and loved. They had not learned, as we have in modern times, to interpose unbending laws between the Creator and his works; and then, by giving inherent power to these laws, virtually to remove God away from his creation into an ethereal extramundane sphere of repose and happiness. I do not say that this is the universal feeling of the present day. But it prevails extensively in the church, and still more in the world. The ablest philosophers of modern times do, indeed, maintain that a natural law is nothing more than the uniform mode in which God acts; and that, after all, it is not the efficiency of the law, but God’s own energy, that keeps all nature in motion; that he operates immediately and directly, not remotely and indirectly, in bringing about every event, and that every natural change is as really the work of God as if the eye of sense could see his hand turning round the wheels of nature. But, although the ablest philosophy of modern times has reached this conclusion, the great mass of the community, and even of Christians, are still groping in the darkness of that mechanical system which ascribes the operations of the natural world to nature’s laws instead of nature’s God. By a sort of figure, indeed, it is proper, as the advocates of this system admit, to speak of God as the author of natural events, because he originally ordained the laws of nature. But they have no idea that he exerts any direct and immediate agency in bringing them about; and, therefore, when they look upon these events they feel no impression of the presence and active agency of Jehovah.

But how different, as already remarked, were the feelings of ancient saints. The Psalmist could not look up to heaven without exclaiming, “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard.” When he cast his eyes abroad upon the earth, his full heart cried out, “O Lord, how manifold are thy works! In wisdom hast thou made them all; the earth is full of thy riches.” In his eye everything was full of God. It was God who “sent springs into the valleys, which run among the hills.” When the thunder-storm passed before him, it was “God’s voice in the heavens, and his lightnings that lighted the world.” When he heard the bellowings, and saw the smoke of the volcano, it was “God who looketh on the earth, and it trembleth; he toucheth the hills, and they smoke.”—Edward Hitchcock, D.D., LL.D., 1867.

Verse 1.—“The heavens declare,” etc. Man has been endued by his Creator with mental powers capable of cultivation. He has employed them in the study of the wonderful works of God which the universe displays. His own habitation has provided a base which has served him to measure the heavens. He compares his own stature with the magnitude of the earth on which he dwells; the earth, with the system in which it is placed; the extent of the system, with the distance of the nearest fixed stars; and that distance again serves as a unit of measurement for other distances which observation points out. Still no approach is made to any limit. How extended these wonderful works of the Almighty may be no man can presume to say. The sphere of creation appears to extend around us indefinitely on all sides; “to have its centre everywhere, its circumference nowhere.” These are considerations which from their extent almost bewilder our minds. But how should they raise our ideas toward their great Creator, when we consider that all these were created from nothing, by a word, by a mere volition of the Deity. “Let them be,” said God, and they were. “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.” “For he spake, and it was done. He commanded, and it stood fast.” Psalm xxxiii. 6, 9. What must be that power which so formed worlds on worlds; worlds in comparison of which this earth which we inhabit sinks into utter nothingness! Surely when we thus lift up our thoughts to the heavens, the moon and the stars which he hath ordained, we must feel, if we can ever feel, how stupendous and incomprehensible is that Being who formed them all; that “the heavens” do indeed “declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.”—Temple Chevallier, in “The Hulsean Lectures for 1827.”

Verse 1.—I have often been charmed and awed at the sight of the nocturnal heavens, even before I knew how to consider them in their proper circumstances of majesty and beauty. Something like magic has struck my mind, on transient and unthinking survey of the æthereal vault, tinged throughout with the purest azure, and decorated with innumerable starry lamps. I have felt, I know not what, powerful and aggrandising impulse, which seemed to snatch me from the low entanglements of vanity, and prompted an ardent sigh for sublimer objects. Methought I heard, even from the silent spheres, a commanding call to spurn the abject earth, and pant after unseen delights. Henceforth I hope to imbibe more copiously this moral emanation of the skies, when, in some such manner as the preceding, they are rationally seen, and the sight is duly improved. The stars, I trust, will teach as well as shine, and help to dispel both nature’s gloom and my intellectual darkness. To some people they discharge no better a service than that of holding a flambeau to their feet, and softening the horrors of their night. To me and my friends may they act as ministers of a superior order, as counsellors of wisdom, and guides to happiness! Nor will they fail to execute this nobler office, if they gently light our way into the knowledge of their adored Maker—if they point out with their silver rays our path to his beatific presence.—James Hervey, A.M., 1713-1758.

Verse 1.—Should a man live underground, and there converse with the works of art and mechanism, and should afterwards be brought up into the open day, and see the several glories of the heaven and earth, he would immediately pronounce them the works of such a Being as we define God to be.—Aristotle.

Verse 1.—When we behold “the heavens,” when we contemplate the celestial bodies, can we fail of conviction? Must we not acknowledge that there is a Divinity, a perfect Being, a ruling intelligence, which governs; a God who is everywhere and directs all by his power? Anybody who doubts this may as well deny there is a sun that lights us. Time destroys all false opinions, but it confirms those which are formed by nature. For this reason, with us as well as with other nations, the worship of the gods and the holy exercises of religion, increase in purity and extent every day.—Cicero.

Verse 1.—“The heavens declare the glory of God,” etc. They discover his wisdom, his power, his goodness; and so there is not any one creature, though never so little, but we are to admire the Creator in it. As a chamber hung round about with looking-glasses represents the face upon every turn, thus all the world doth the mercy and the bounty of God; though that be visible, yet it discovers an invisible God and his invisible properties.—Anthony Burgess, 1656.

Verse 1.—None of the elect are in that respect so unwise as to refuse to hear and consider the works and words of God as not appertaining unto him. God forbid. No man in the world doth with more fervency consider the works of God, none more readily lift up their ears to hear God speak than even they who have the inward revelation of the Holy Spirit.—Wolfgang Musculus.

Verse 1.—During the French revolution Jean Bon St. André, the Vendean revolutionist, said to a peasant, “I will have all your steeples pulled down, that you may no longer have any object by which you may be reminded of your old superstitions.” “But,” replied the peasant, “you cannot help leaving us the stars.”—John Bate’s “Cyclopædia of Moral and Religious Truths,” 1865.

Verse 1.—“The heavens declare the glory of God”—

How beautiful this dome of sky, And the vast hills in fluctuation fixed At thy command, how awful! Shall the soul, Human and rational, report of thee Even less than these? Be mute who will, who can, Yet I will praise thee with impassioned voice. My lips, that may forget thee in the crowd, Cannot forget thee here, where thou hast built For thine own glory, in the wilderness!

William Wordsworth, 1770-1850.

Verse 1.—“The firmament sheweth his handywork”—

The glittering stars By the deep ear of meditation heard, Still in their midnight watches sing of him. He nods a calm. The tempest blows his wrath: The thunder is his voice; and the red flash His speedy sword of justice. At his touch The mountains flame. He shakes the solid earth, And rocks the nations. Nor in these alone— In ev’ry common instance God is seen.

James Thomson.

Verse 1.—

These are thy glorious works, Parent of good, Almighty! Thine this universal frame, Thus wondrous fair. Thyself how wondrous, then Unspeakable, who sitt’st above these heavens To us invisible, or dimly seen In these thy lowest works; yet these declare Thy goodness beyond thought, and power divine.

John Milton.

Verses 1, 2.—In order more fully to illustrate the expressive richness of the Hebrew, I would direct the attention of my reader to the beautiful phraseology of the XIX. Psalm. The literal reading of the first and second verses may be thus given:—

“The heavens are telling the glory of God, The firmament displaying the work of his hands; Day unto day welleth forth speech, Night unto night breatheth out knowledge.”

Thus the four distinct terms in the original are preserved in the translation; and the overflowing fulness with which day unto day pours forth divine instruction, and the gentle whisperings of the silent night, are contrasted as in the Hebrew.—Henry Craik, 1860.

Verses 1-4.—Though all preachers on earth should grow silent, and every human mouth cease from publishing the glory of God, the heavens above will never cease to declare and proclaim his majesty and glory. They are for ever preaching; for, like an unbroken chain, their message is delivered from day to day and from night to night. At the silence of one herald another takes up his speech. One day, like the other, discloses the same spectacles of his glory, and one night, like the other, the same wonders of his majesty. Though nature be hushed and quiet when the sun in his glory has reached the zenith on the azure sky—though the world keep her silent festival when the stars shine brightest at night—yet, says the Psalmist, they speak; ay, holy silence itself is a speech, provided there be the ear to hear it.—Augustus T. Tholuck.

Verses 1-4.—“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handywork.” If the heavens declare the glory of God, we should observe what that glory is which they declare. The heavens preach to us every day.... “Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.” Sun, moon, and stars are preachers; they are universal, they are natural apostles. The world is their charge; “their words,” saith the Psalm, “go to the end of the world.” We may have good doctrine from them, especially this doctrine in the text, of the wisdom and power of God. And it is very observable that the apostle alludes to this text in the Psalm for a proof of gospel preaching to the whole world. Rom. x. 18. The gospel, like the sun, casts his beams over, and sheds his light into all the world. David in the Psalm saith, “Their line is gone out,” etc. By which word he shows that the heavens, being so curious a fabric, made, as it were, by a line and level, do clearly, though silently, preach the skill and perfections of God. Or, that we may read divine truths in them as a line formed by a pen into words and sentences (the original signifies both a measuring line and a written line), letters and words in writing being nothing but lines drawn into several forms or figures. But the Septuagint, whose translation the apostle citeth, for Kavam, their line, read Kolam, their sound; either misreading the word or studiously mollifying the sense into a nearer compliance with the latter clause of the verse, “And their words to the end of the world.”—Joseph Caryl.

Verses 1-4.—Like as the sun with his light beneficially comforteth all the world, so Christ, the Son of God, reacheth his benefits unto all men, so that they will receive them thankfully, and not refuse them disobediently.—Robert Cawdray.

Verse 2.—“Day unto day,” etc. But what is the meaning of the next word—One day telleth another, and one night certifieth another? Literally, dies diem dicit, is nothing else but dies diem docet. One day telleth another, is one day teacheth another. The day past is instructed by the day present: every new day doth afford new doctrine. The day is a most apt time to learn by reading and conference; the night a most fit time for invention and meditation. Now that which thou canst not understand this day thou mayest haply learn the next, and that which is not found out in one night may be gotten in another. Mystically (saith Heirom), Christ is this “day,” who saith of himself, “I am the light of the world,” and his twelve apostles are the twelve hours of the day; for Christ’s Spirit revealed by the mouths of his apostles the mysteries of our salvation, in other ages not so fully known unto the sons of men. One day telleth another, that is, the spiritual utter this unto the spiritual; and one night certifieth another, that is, Judas insinuates as much unto the Jews in the night of ignorance, saying, “Whomsoever I shall kiss, that is he, lay hold on him.” Matt. xxvi. 28. Or, the Old Testament only shadowing Christ is the night, and the New Testament plainly showing Christ, is the day.—John Boys.

Verse 2.—“Day unto day,” or day after day; the vicissitude or continual succession of day and night speaketh much divine knowledge. The assiduity and constancy without any intermission by the heavens preaching is hereby expressed.—John Richardson.

Verse 2.—“Uttereth,” poureth forth abundantly; “sheweth,” demonstrates clearly and effectively, without ambiguity. Job xxxvi. 2. Many in the full light of gospel day, hear not that speech, who yet in the night of affliction and trouble, or in the conviction of their natural darkness, have that knowledge communicated to them which enables them to realise the joy that cometh in the morning.—W. Wilson.

Verse 2.—“Sheweth knowledge.” We may illustrate the differing measures in which natural objects convey knowledge to men of differing mental and spiritual capacity by the story of our great English artist. He is said to have been engaged upon one of his immortal works, and a lady of rank looking on remarked, “But, Mr. Turner, I do not see in nature all that you describe there.” “Ah, Madam,” answered the painter, “do you not wish you could?”—C. H. S.

Verse 3.—“There is no speech,” etc. The sunset was one of the most glorious I ever beheld, and the whole earth seemed so still that the voice of neither God nor man was heard. There was not a ripple upon the waters, not the leaf of a tree nor even of a blade of grass moving, and the rocks upon the opposite shore reflected the sun’s “after-glow,” and were again themselves reflected from or in the river during the brief twilight, in a way I do not remember ever to have beheld before. No! I will not say the voice of God was not heard; it spoke in the very stillness as loud as in roaring thunder, in the placid scene as in rocks and cliffs impassable, and louder still in the heavens and in the firmament, and in the magnificent prospect around me. His wondrous works declared him to be near, and I felt as if the very ground upon which I was treading was holy.—John Gadsby.

Verse 4.—“Their line is gone out,” etc. “Their sound went,” etc. Rom. x. 18. The relations which the gospel of Christ Jesus hath to the Psalms of David I find to be more than to all the Bible besides, that seldom anything is written in the New Testament, but we are sent to fetch our proofs from these. The margin here sends me to the Psalm, and the Psalm sends me back to this again; showing that they both speak one thing. How comes it then that it is not one, for “line” and “sound” are not one thing? Is there not some mistake here? Answer—To fetch a proof from a place is one thing, an allusion is another. Sometimes the evangelists are enforced to bring their proofs for what they write out of the Old Testament, else we should never believe them, and then they must be very sure of the terms, when they say, “This was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken,” etc. But the apostle was not now upon that account; only showing to the Romans the marvellous spreading of the gospel, alluding to this passage of David discoursing of “the heavens,” to which the prophet compared the publication of the word; the sun and moon and stars not only shining through, but round all the earth. The same subject Paul was now upon, and for this purpose makes use of a term fitter to express the preaching of the gospel, by the word “sound,” than that other word expressing the limitations of the law, by the word “line:” both of these agreeing that there is no fitter comparison to be fetched from anything in nature than from “the heavens,” their motions, revolutions, influences upon sublunary bodies; also in their eclipses, when one text seems to darken another, as if it were put out altogether by crossing and opposing, which is but seemingly so to the ignorant, they agree sweetly enough in themselves; no bridegroom can agree better with his bride, nor rejoice more to run his course. So they both conclude in this, that the sun never saw that nation yet where the world of truth, in one degree or other (all the world, you must think, cannot be right under the meridian) hath not shined.—William Streat, in “The Dividing of the Hoof,” 1654.

Verse 4.—“Unto the end of the world.” Venantius Fortunatus eleven hundred years ago witnesses to the peregrinations of Paul the apostle.

He passed the ocean’s curled wave, As far as islands harbours have; As far as Brittain yields a bay, Or Iceland’s frozen shore a stay.

John Cragge, 1557.

Verse 4.—“Their line is gone out through all the earth,” etc. The molten sea did stand upon twelve oxen, that is, as Paul doth interpret it, upon twelve apostles (1 Cor. ix. 10); which in that they looked four ways, east, west, north, and south, they did teach all nations. And in that they looked three and three together, they did represent the blessed Trinity. Not only teaching all nations, but also in that sea of water, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Wherefore, though the two kine which carried the ark wherein were the tables of the law, went straight and kept one path, turning neither to the right hand nor to the left; yet these twelve oxen which carried the molten sea, signifying the doctrine of the gospel, went not straight, neither kept one path, but turned into the way of the Gentiles; yea, they looked all manner of ways, east, west, north, and south. And those two kine stood still and lowed no more when they came to the field of Joshua, dwelling in Bethshemesh, that is, the house of the sun. To note, that all the kine, and calves, and sacrifices, and ceremonies of the old law were to cease and stand still when they came to Jesus, who is the true Joshua, dwelling in heaven, which is the true Bethshemesh. But these twelve oxen were so far from leaving off, either to go, or to low, when they came to Christ, that even then they went much faster and lowed much louder; so that now “their sound is gone out into all lands, and their words to the end of the world;” and “in them hath God set” Bethshemesh, that is, a house or “tabernacle for the sun.” Therefore, as the material sun, through the twelve signs of the Zodiac, goeth forth from the uttermost parts of the heaven, and runneth about to the end of it again: in like sort, the spiritual Sun of Righteousness, by the twelve apostles, as by twelve signs, hath been borne round about the world, that he might be not only “the glory of his people Israel,” but also “a light to lighten the Gentiles;” and that all, “all the ends of the earth might see the salvation of our God.”—Thomas Playfere.

Verses 4-6.—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 unto God.” He that was covered with contempt, and overwhelmed in a deluge of sorrow, has purchased and won his spouse, for he loved the church, and gave himself for it, that he might present 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 a 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 run, which is from his resurrection to the end of the world, when he will return to the earth again.... That the Holy Ghost here has a mystical meaning, and has respect to the light of the Sun of Righteousness, and not merely the light of the natural sun, is confirmed by the verses that follow in which the Psalmist himself seems to apply them to the word of God, which is the light of that Sun, even of Jesus Christ, who himself revealed the word of God: see the very next words, “The law of the Lord is perfect,” etc.—Jonathan Edwards, 1703-1758.

Verse 5.—“Which is as a bridegroom,” etc. The sun is described like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, dressed and prepared, and as a giant rejoicing to run his race; but though the sun be thus prepared, and dressed, and ready, yet if the Lord send a writ and a prohibition to the sun to keep within his chamber, he cannot come forth, his journey is stopped. Thus also he stops man in his nearest preparations for any action. If the Lord will work, who shall let it? Isaiah xliii. 13. That is, there is no power in heaven or earth which can hinder him. But if the Lord will let, who shall work? Neither sun, nor stars, nor men, nor devils, can work, if he forbids them. The point is full of comfort.—Joseph Caryl.

Verse 5.—“Which is as a bridegroom,” etc. The Sun of Righteousness appeared in three signs especially; Leo, Virgo, Libra. 1. In Leo, roaring as a lion, in the law; so that the people could not endure his voice. 2. In Virgo, born of a pure virgin in the gospel. 3. In Libra, weighing our works in his balance at the day of judgment. Or as Bernard distinguisheth his threefold coming aptly—venit ad homines, venit in homines, venit contra homines: in the time past he came unto men as upon this day⁹; in the time present, he comes by his spirit into men every day; in the time future, he shall come against men at the last day. The coming here mentioned is his coming in the flesh—for so the fathers usually gloss the text—he came forth of the virgin’s womb, “as a bridegroom out of his chamber.” As a bridegroom, for the King of heaven at this holy time made a great wedding for his Son. Matt. xxii. 1. Christ is the bridegroom, man’s nature the bride, the conjunction and blessed union of both in one person is his marriage. The best way to reconcile two disagreeing families is to make some marriage between them: even so, the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us in the world that he might hereby make our peace, reconciling God to man and man to God. By this happy match the Son of God is become the Son of Man, even flesh of our flesh, and bone of our bones; and the sons of men are made the sons of God, “of his flesh and of his bones,” as Paul saith, Eph. v. 30. So that now the church being Christ’s own spouse, saith, “I am my Beloved’s, and my Beloved is mine.” Cant. vi. 3. My sin is his sin, and his righteousness is my righteousness. He who knew no sin, for my sake was made sin; and I, contrariwise, having no good thing, am made the righteousness of God in him: I which am brown by persecution, and black by nature (Cant. i. 5), so foul as the sow that walloweth in the mire, through his favour am comely, without spot or wrinkle, so white as the snow, like a lily among thorns, even the fairest among women. Cant. ii. 2. This happy marriage is not a mar age, but it makes a merry age, being “the consolation of Israel,” and comfort of Jerusalem’s heart. Indeed, Christ our husband doth absent himself from us in his body for a time; but when he did ascend into heaven he took with him our pawn, namely his flesh; and he gave us his pawn, namely, his Spirit, assuring us that we shall one day, when the world is ended, enter with him into the wedding chamber, and there feast with him, and enjoy his blessed company for evermore.—John Boys.

Verse 6.—“There is nothing hid from the heat thereof.”—This is literally the case. The earth receives its heat from the sun, and by conduction, a part of it enters the crust of our globe. By convection, another portion is carried to the atmosphere, which it warms. Another portion is radiated into space, according to laws yet imperfectly understood, but which are evidently connected with the colour, chemical composition, and mechanical structure of parts of the earth’s surface. At the same time the ordinary state of the air, consisting of gases and vapour, modifies the heat rays and prevents scorching. Thus, the solar heat is equalised by the air. Nothing on earth or in air is hid from the heat of the sun.... Even the colour of some bodies is changed by heat.... Heat also is in bodies in a state which is not sensible, and is therefore called latent heat, or heat of fluidity, because it is regarded as the cause of fluidity in ponderable substances. It can fuse every substance it does not decompose below the melting point, as in the case of wood. Every gas may be regarded as consisting of heat, and some basis of ponderable matter, whose cohesion it overcomes, imparting a tendency to great expansion, when no external obstacle prevents, and this expansive tendency is their elasticity or tension. Certain gases have been liquefied under great pressure, and extreme cold. Heat, also, at certain temperatures, causes the elasticity of vapours to overcome the atmospheric pressure which can no longer restrain them. An example of this is the boiling point of water; and, indeed, in every case the true instance is the boiling point. Philosophers are agreed that the affinity of heat for any ponderable substance is superior to all other forces acting upon it. No ponderable matters can combine without disengagement of heat.... And the same occurs from every mechanical pressure and condensation of a body. In all these cases, and many more, there are like evidences of the presence and influences of heat; but the facts now advanced are sufficient to show us the force of the expression, that in terrestrial things nothing is hid from, or can by any possibility escape the agency of heat.—Edwin Sidney, A.M., in “Conversations on the Bible and Science,” 1866.

Verse 6 (last clause).—“There is nothing hid from the heat,” nothing from the light of Christ. It is not solely on the mountain top that he shines, as in the days before he was fully risen, when his rays, although unseen by the rest of the world, formed a glory round the heads of his prophets, who saw him while to the chief part of mankind he was still lying below the horizon. Now, however, that he is risen, he pours his light through the valley, as well as over the mountain; nor is there any one, at least in these countries, who does not catch some gleams of that light, except those who burrow and hide themselves in the dark caverns of sin. But it is not light alone that Christ sheds from his heavenly tabernacle. As nothing is hid from his light, neither is anything hid from his heat. He not only enlightens the understanding, so that it shall see and know the truth; he also softens, and melts, and warms the heart, so that it shall love the truth, and calls forth fruit from it, and ripens the fruit he has called forth; and that too on the lowliest plant which creeps along the ground, as well as the loftiest tree....

Though while he was on earth, he had fullest power of bestowing every earthly gift, yet, in order that he should be able to bestow heavenly gifts with the same all-healing power, it was necessary that he should go up into heaven. When he had done so, when he had ascended into his tabernacle in the heavens, then, he promises his disciples, he would send down the Holy Spirit of God, who should bring them heavenly gifts, yea, who should enter into their hearts, and make them bring forth all the fruits of the Spirit in abundance; should make them abound in love, in peace, in longsuffering, in gentleness, in goodness, in faith, in meekness, in temperance. These are the bright heavenly rays, which, as it were, make up the pure light of Christ; and from this heat nothing is hid. Even the hardest heart may be melted by it; even the foulest may be purified.—Julius Charles Hare, M.A., 1841.

Verse 7.—“The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul.” To man fallen, the law only convinceth of sin, and bindeth over to death, it is nothing but a killing letter; but the gospel, accompanied by the power of the Spirit, bringeth life. Again, it is said, “The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul;” therefore it seems the law may also be a word of salvation to the creature. I answer; by the law there, is not meant only that part of the word which we call the covenant of works, but there it is put for the whole word, for the whole doctrine of the covenant of life and salvation; as Psalm i. 2: “His delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.” And if you take it in that stricter sense, then it converteth the soul but by accident, as it is joined with the gospel, which is the ministry of life and righteousness, but in itself it is the law of sin and death. Look, as a thing taken simply, would be poison and deadly in itself, yet mixed with other wholesome medicines, it is of great use, is an excellent physical ingredient; so the law is of great use as joined with the gospel, to awaken and startle the sinner, to show him his duty, to convince him of sin and judgment; but it is the gospel properly that pulls in the heart.—Thomas Manton.

Verse 7.—The law, or doctrine, an orderly manner of instruction, an institution or disposition, called in Hebrew torah, which implies both doctrine and an orderly disposition of the same. Therefore where one prophet, relating David’s words, saith the law of man (2 Sam. vii. 19), another saith, the orderly estate, or, course of man. 1 Cor. xvii. 17. The Holy Ghost, in Greek, calls it Nomos, a law (Heb. viii. 10), from Jer. xxxi. 33. This name is most commonly ascribed to the precepts given by Moses at Mount Sinai (Deut. xxxii. 4; Mal. iv. 4; John i. 17, and vii. 19); it is also largely used for all his writings. For the history of Genesis is called law (Gal. iv. 21), from Gen. xvi. And though sometimes the law be distinguished from the Psalms and Prophets (Luke xvi. 16, and xxiv. 24), yet the other prophets’ books are called law (1 Cor. xiv. 21), from Isa. xxviii. 11; the Psalms are also thus named (John x. 24 and xv. 25), from Psalm lxxxii. 6 and xxxv. 19. Yea, one Psalm is called a law (Psalm lxxviii. 1); and the many branches of Moses’ doctrine as the law of the sin-offering, etc., Lev. vi. 25. And generally it is used for any doctrine, as the law of works, the law of faith, etc. Rom. iii. 27.—Henry Ainsworth.

Verse 7.—“Converting the soul.” This version conveys a sense good and true in itself, but is not in accordance with the design of the Psalmist which is, to express the divine law on the feelings and affections of good men. The Hebrew terms properly mean, “bringing back the spirit,” when it is depressed by adversity, by refreshing and consoling it: like food, it restores the faint, and communicates vigour to the disconsolate.—William Walford, 1837.

Verse 7.—“Converting the soul.” The heart of man is the most free and hard of anything to work upon, and to make an impression and stamp upon this hard heart, this heart that is so stony, adamantine, “harder than the nether millstones,” as the Scripture teacheth. To compel this free-will, this Domina sui actus, the queen in the soul, the empress, it cannot be without a divine power, without a hand that is omnipotent; but the ministers do this by the Word—they mollify, and wound, and break this heart, they incline, and bow, and draw this free-will whither the spirit listeth. And Clemens Alexandrinus is not afraid to say, that if the fables of Orpheus and Amphion were true—that they drew birds, beasts, and stones, with their ravishing melody—yet the harmony of the Word is greater, which translates men from Helicon to Zion, which softens the hard heart of man obdurate against the truth, that “raises up children to Abraham of stones,” that is (as he interprets), of unbelievers, which he calls stocks and stones, that put their trust in stones and stocks; which metamorphoses men that are beastlike, wild birds for their lightness and vanity, serpents for their craft and subtlety, lions for their wrath and cruelty, swine for voluptuousness and luxury, etc.; and charms them so that of wild beasts they become tame men; that makes living stones (as he did others) come of their own accord to the building of the walls of Jerusalem (as he of Thebes), to the building of a living temple to the everliving God. This must needs be a truly persuasive charm, as he speaks.—John Stoughton’s “Choice Sermons,” 1640.

Verse 7.—“Making wise the simple.” The apostle Paul in Eph. i. 8, expresseth conversion, and the whole work inherently wrought in us, by the making of a man wise. It is usual in the Scriptures, and you may ofttimes meet with it: “converting the soul,” “making wise the simple.” The beginning of conversion, and so all along, the increase of all grace to the end, is expressed by wisdom entering into a man’s heart. “If wisdom enter into thy heart,” and so goes on to do more and more; not unto thy head only—a man may have all that, and be a fool in the end, but when it entereth into the heart, and draws all the affections after it, and along with it, “when knowledge is pleasant to thy soul,” then a man is converted; when God breaks open a man’s heart, and makes wisdom fall in, enter in, and make a man wise.—Thomas Goodwin.

Verse 7.—This verse, and the two next following, which treat of God’s law, are in Hebrew, written each of them with ten words, according to the number of the ten commandments, which are called the ten words. Exodus xxxiv. 28.—Henry Ainsworth.

Verses 7, 8.—“The testimony of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes,” revealing the object, ennobling the organ.—Richard Stock.

Verses 7-11.—All of us are by nature the children of wrath; our souls are like the porches of Bethesda (John v.), in which are lodged a great many “sick folk, blind, halt, withered;” and the Scriptures are like the pool of Bethesda, into which whosoever entereth, after God’s Holy Spirit hath a little stirred the water, is “made whole of whatsoever disease he hath.” He that hath anger’s frenzy, being as furious as a lion, by stepping into this pool shall in good time become as gentle as a lamb; he that hath the blindness of intemperance, by washing in this pool shall easily see his folly; he that hath envy’s rust, avarice’s leprosy, luxury’s palsy, shall have means and medicines here for the curing of his maladies. The word of God is like the drug catholicon, that is instead of all purges; and like the herb panaces, that is good for all diseases. Is any man heavy? the statutes of the Lord rejoice the heart: is any man in want? the judgments of the Lord are more to be desired than gold, yea, than much fine gold, and by keeping of them there is great reward: is any man ignorant? the testimonies of the Lord give wisdom to the simple, that is, to little ones, both in standing and understanding. In standing, as unto little Daniel, little John the evangelist, little Timothy: to little ones in understanding; for the great philosophers who were the wizards of the world, because they were not acquainted with God’s law became fools while they professed themselves wise. Rom. i. 22. But our prophet saith, “I have more understanding than all my teachers, because thy testimonies are my meditation,” and my study. Psalm cxix. 99. To conclude, whatsoever we are by corruption of nature, God’s law converteth us, and maketh us to speak with new tongues, and to sing new songs unto the Lord, and to become new men and new creatures in Christ. 2 Cor. v. 17.—J. Boys.

Verse 8.—“The statutes.” Many divines and critics, and Castalio in particular, have endeavoured to attach a distinct shade of meaning to the words, law, testimony, the statutes, commandments, fear, judgments, occurring in this context. תּוֹרָה, the law, has been considered to denote the preceptive part of revelation. עֵדוּת, the testimony, has been restricted to the doctrinal part. פִּקּוּדִים, the statutes, has been regarded as relating to such things as have been given in charge. מִצְוָה, the commandment, has been taken to express the general body of the divine law and doctrine. יִרְאָה, religious fear. מִשְׁפָּטִים, the judgments, the civil statutes of the Mosaic law, more particularly the penal sanctions.—John Morison.

Verse 8.—“The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart.” How odious is the profaneness of those Christians who neglect the Holy Scriptures, and give themselves to reading other books! How many precious hours do many spend, and that not only on work days, but holy days, in foolish romances, fabulous histories, lascivious poems! And why this, but that they may be cheered and delighted, when as full joy is only to be had in these holy books. Alas! the joy you find in those writings is perhaps pernicious, such as tickleth your lust, and promoteth contemplative wickedness. At the best it is but vain, such as only pleaseth the fancy and affecteth the wit; whereas these holy writings (to use David’s expression), are “right, rejoicing the heart.” Again, are there not many who more set by Plutarch’s morals, Seneca’s epistles, and such like books, than they do by the Holy Scriptures? It is true, Beloved, there are excellent truths in those moral writings of the heathen, but yet they are far short of these sacred books. Those may comfort against outward trouble, but not against inward fears; they may rejoice the mind, but cannot quiet the conscience; they may kindle some flashy sparkles of joy, but they cannot warm the soul with a lasting fire of solid consolations. And truly, brethren, if ever God give you a spiritual ear to judge of things aright, you will then acknowledge there are no bells like to those of Aaron’s, no harp like to that of David’s, no trumpet like to that of Isaiah’s, no pipes like to those of the apostle’s; and, you will confess with Petrus Damianus, that those writings of heathen orators, philosophers, poets, which formerly were so pleasing, are now dull and harsh in comparison of the comfort of the Scriptures.—Nathanael Hardy, D.D., 1618-1670.

Verse 10.—“Sweeter than honey and the honeycomb.” Love the word written. Psa. cxix. 97. “Oh, how love I thy law!” “Lord,” said Augustine, “let the holy Scriptures be my chaste delight.” Chrysostom compares the Scripture to a garden, every truth is a fragrant flower, which we should wear, not on our bosom, but in our heart. David counted the word “sweeter than honey and the honeycomb.” There is that in Scripture which may breed delight. It shows us the way to riches: Deut. xxviii. 5, Prov. iii. 10; to long life: Psa. xxxiv. 12; to a kingdom: Heb. xii. 28. Well, then, may we count those the sweetest hours which are spent in reading the holy Scriptures; well may we say with the prophet (Jer. xv. 16), “Thy words were found and I did eat them; and they were the joy and rejoicing of my heart.”—Thomas Watson.

Verse 10.—“Sweeter than honey and the honeycomb.” There is no difference made amongst us between the delicacy of honey in the comb and that which is separated from it. From the information of Dr. Halle, concerning the diet of the Moors of Barbary, we learn that they esteem honey a very wholesome breakfast, “and the most delicious that which is in the comb with the young bees in it, before they come out of their cases, whilst they still look milk-white.” (Miscellanea Curiosa, vol. iii. p. 382.) The distinction made by the Psalmist is then perfectly just and conformable to custom and practice, at least of more modern, and probably, equally so of ancient times.—Samuel Burder, A.M., in “Oriental Customs,” 1812.

Verse 11.—“Moreover by them is thy servant warned.” A certain Jew had formed a design to poison Luther, but was disappointed by a faithful friend, who sent Luther a portrait of the man, with a warning against him. By this, Luther knew the murderer and escaped his hands. Thus the word of God, O Christian, shows thee the face of those lusts which Satan employs to destroy thy comforts and poison thy soul.—G. S. Bowes, B.A., in “Illustrative Gatherings for Preachers and Teachers,” 1860.

Verse 11.—“In keeping of them there is great reward.” This “keeping of them” implies great carefulness to know, to remember, and to observe; and the “reward” (lit. “the end”), i.e., the recompense, is far beyond anticipation.—W. Wilson.

Verse 11.—“In keeping of them there is great reward.” Not only for keeping, but in keeping of them, there is great reward. The joy, the rest, the refreshing, the comforts, the contents, the smiles, the incomes that saints now enjoy, in the ways of God, are so precious and glorious in their eyes, that they would not exchange them for ten thousands worlds. Oh! if the vails,¹⁰ be thus sweet and glorious before pay-day comes, what will be that glory that Christ will crown his saints with for cleaving to his service in the face of all difficulties, when he shall say to his Father, “Lo, here am I, and the children which thou hast given me.” Isa. viii. 18. If there be so much to be had in the wilderness, what then shall be had in paradise!—Thomas Brooks.

Verse 11.—“In keeping of them there is great reward.” Not only for keeping but in keeping of them. As every flower hath its sweet smell, so every good action hath its sweet reflection upon the soul: and as Cardan saith, that every precious stone hath some egregious virtue; so here, righteousness is its own reward, though few men think so, and act accordingly. Howbeit, the chief reward is not till the last cast, till we come to heaven. The word here rendered “reward,” signifieth the heel, and by a metaphor, the end of a work, and the reward of it, which is not till the end.—John Trapp.

Verse 11.—“Reward.” Though we should not serve God for a reward, yet we shall have a reward for our service. The time is coming when ungodliness shall be as much prosecuted by justice, as in times past godliness had been persecuted by injustice. Though our reward be not for our good works, yet we shall have our good works rewarded, and have a good reward for our works. Though the best of men (they being at the best but unprofitable servants) deserve nothing at the hands of God, yet they may deserve much at the hands of men; and if they have not the recompense they deserve, yet it is a kind of recompense to have deserved. As he said, and nobly, “I had rather it should be said, Why doth not Cato’s image stand here? than that it should be said, Why doth it stand here?”—Ralph Venning, 1620-1673.

Verse 12.—“Who can understand his errors?” After this survey of the works and word of God, he comes at last to peruse the third book, his conscience; a book which though wicked men may keep shut up, and naturally do not love to look in to it, yet will one day be laid open before the great tribunal in the view of the whole world, to the justifying of God when he judges, and to impenitent sinners’ eternal confusion. And what finds he here? A foul, blurred copy that he is puzzled how to read; “who,” says he, “can understand his errors?” Those notions which God had with his own hand imprinted upon conscience in legible characters, are partly defaced and slurred with scribble and interlinings of “secret faults;” partly obliterated and quite razed out with capital crimes, “presumptuous sins.” And yet this manuscript cannot be so abused, but it will still give in evidence for God; there being no argument in the world that can with more force extort an acknowledgment of God from any man’s conscience than the conviction of guilt itself labours under. For the sinner cannot but know he has transgressed a law, and he finds within him, if he is not past all sense, such apprehensions that though at present he “walk in the ways of his heart and in the sight of his eyes” (as the wise man ironically advises the young man to do, Ecc. xi. 9), yet he knows (as the same wise man there from his own experience tells him) that “for all these things God will bring him into judgment.” The conscience being thus convicted of sin, where there is any sense of true piety the soul will, with David, here address itself to God for pardon, that it may be “cleansed from secret faults;” and for grace, that by its restraints, and preventions, and assistances, it may be “kept back from presumptuous sins,” and if unhappily engaged, that it may be freed at least from the “dominion” of them—“Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me,” etc.—Adam Littleton.

Verse 12.—The prophet saith, “Who can understand his own faults?” No man can, but God can; therefore reason after this manner, as Saint Bernard saith: I know and am known; I know but in part, but God knows me and knows me wholly; but what I know, I know but in part. So the apostle reasons; “I know nothing of myself, yet am I not hereby justified.”

Admit that thou keepest thyself so free, and renewest thy repentance so daily that thou knowest nothing by thyself, yet mark what the apostle adds farther; “Notwithstanding, I do not judge myself I am not hereby justified, but he that judgeth me is the Lord.” This is the condition of all men; he that is infinite knows them; therefore they should not dare to judge themselves, but with the prophet David, in Psalm xix., entreat the Lord that he would cleanse them from their secret sins.—Richard Stock.

Verse 12.—“Who can understand his own errors?” None can to the depth and bottom. In this question there are two considerables:—1. A concession; 2. A confession. He makes a grant that our life is full of errors; and the Scriptures say the same, while they affirm that “All we like sheep have gone astray” (Isa. liii. 6); “I have gone astray like a lost sheep” (Psa. cxix. 176); that the “house of Israel” hath “lost sheep,” Matt. x. 6. I need not reckon up the particulars, as the errors of our senses, understandings, consciences, judgments, wills, affections, desires, actions, and occurrences. The whole man in nature is like a tree nipped at root, which brings forth worm-eaten fruits. The whole man in life is like an instrument out of tune, which jars at every stroke. If we cannot understand them, certainly they are very many.—Robert Abbot, 1646.

Verse 12.—“Who can understand his errors?” If a man repent not until he have made confession of all his sins in the ear of his ghostly father, if a man cannot have absolution of his sins until his sins be told by tale and number in the priest’s ear; in that, as David saith, none can understand, much less, then, utter all his sins: Delicta quis intelligat? “Who can understand his sins?” In that David of himself complaineth elsewhere how that his “sins are overflowed his head, and as a heavy burden do depress him” (Psa. xxxviii. 4); alas! shall not a man by this doctrine be utterly driven from repentance? Though they have gone about something to make plasters for their sores, of confession or attrition to assuage their pain, bidding a man to hope well of his contrition, though it be not so full as is required, and of his confession, though he have not numbered all his sins, if so be that he do so much as in him lieth; dearly beloved, in that there is none but that herein he is guilty (for who doth as much as he may?) trow ye that this plaster is not like salt for sore eyes? Yes, undoubtedly, when they have done all they can for the appeasing of consciences in these points, this is the sum, that we yet should hope well, but yet so hope that we must stand in a mammering¹¹ and doubting whether our sins be forgiven. For to believe remissionem peccatorum, that is to be certain of “forgiveness of sins,” as our creed teacheth us, they count it a presumption. Oh, abomination! and that not only herein, but in all their penance as they paint it.—John Bradford (Martyr) 1510-1555.