Explanatory Notes and Quaint Sayings

Title.—“To Jeduthun.” A Levite of the family of Merari, and one of the great masters of the temple of music. The department superintended by Jeduthun and his colleagues in the temple service was that of the “instruments of the song of God,” by which are intended the nebel or psaltery, the kinnor or harp, and the metsiltaim or cymbals. In 2 Chron. xxxv. 15, Jeduthun is called “the king’s seer,” which would seem to indicate that he was the medium of divine guidance to David. The name occurs in the title of Psalms xxxix., lxii., lxxvii.; where some have thought that it indicates some special kind of composition, and others some instrument of music, but without reason.—William Lindsay Alexander, in Kitto’s Cyclopædia.

Whole Psalm.—The most beautiful of all the elegies in the Psalter.—H. Ewald.

Verse 1.—“I said.” It was to himself that he said it; and it is impossible for any other to prove a good or a wise man, without much of this kind of speech to himself. It is one of the most excellent and distinguishing faculties of a reasonable creature; much beyond vocal speech, for in that, some birds may imitate us; but neither bird nor beast has anything of this kind of language, of reflecting or discoursing with itself. It is a wonderful brutality in the greatest part of men, who are so little conversant in this kind of speech, being framed and disposed for it, and which is not only of itself excellent, but of continual use and advantage; but it is a common evil among men to go abroad, and out of themselves, which is a madness, and a true distraction. It is true, a man hath need of a well set mind, when he speaks to himself; for otherwise, he may be worse company to himself than if he were with others. But he ought to endeavour to have a better with him, to call in God to his heart to dwell with him. If thus we did, we should find how sweet this were to speak to ourselves, by now and then intermixing our speech with discourses unto God. For want of this, the most part not only lose their time in vanity, in their converse abroad with others, but do carry in heaps of that vanity to the stock which is in their own hearts, and do converse with that in secret, which is the greatest and deepest folly in the world.—Robert Leighton.

Verse 1.—No lesson so hard to be learned of us here, as the wise and discreet government of the tongue. David promised a singular care of this, “I said, I will take heed,” etc. Socrates reports of one Pambo, an honest, well meaning man, who came to his friend, desiring him to teach him one of David’s Psalms, he read to him this verse. He answered: this one verse is enough, if I learn it well. Nineteen years after, he said, in all that time he had hardly learned that one verse.—Samuel Page.

Verse 1.—“That I sin not with my tongue.” Man’s mouth, though it be but a little hole, will hold a world full of sin. For there is not any sin forbidden in the law or gospel which is not spoken by the tongue, as well as thought in the heart, or done in the life. Is it not then almost as difficult to rule the tongue as to rule the world?—Edward Reynor.

Verse 1.—“I will keep a muzzle on my mouth, whilst a wicked man is before me.”—New Translation, by Charles Carter.

Verse 1.—“While the wicked is before me.” It is a vexation to be tied to hear so much impertinent babbling in the world, but profitable to discern and abhor it. A wonder that men can cast out so much wind, and the more they have to utter, the more they are prodigal of their own breath and of the patience of others, and careless of their own reckoning. If they believed to give account of every idle word, they would be more sparing of foolish speaking. I like either to be silent, or to speak that that may edify. At tables or meetings I cannot stop the mouths of others, yet may I close mine own ears, and by a heavenly soul-speech with God divert my mind from fruitless talking. Though I be among them I shall as little partake their prattling as they do my meditation.—William Struther.

Verse 2.—“I was dumb with silence,” etc. That is, for a while I did what I resolved; I was so long wholly silent, that I seemed in a manner to be dumb, and not able to speak. “I held my peace, even from good;” that is, I forbore to speak what I might well and lawfully enough have spoken, as from alleging anything that I might have said in mine own defence, from making my complaint to God, and desiring justice at his hands, and such like; to wit, lest by degrees I should have been brought to utter anything that was evil, and whilst I intended only to speak that which was good, some unseemly word might suddenly slip from me; or lest mine enemies should misconstrue anything I spake.—Arthur Jackson.

Verse 2.—“I was dumb with silence.”—We shall enquire what kind of dumbness or silence this of the Psalmist was, which he is commended for, and which would so well beseem us when we smart under the rod of God, and then the doctrine will be, in a great measure, evident by its own light. We shall proceed in our enquiry, 1. Negatively, to prevent mistakes. 2. Positively, and show you what it doth import.

First, negatively. 1. This dumbness doth not import any such thing, as if the prophet had been brought to that pass that he had nothing to say to God by way of prayer and supplication. He was not so dumb, but that he could pray and cry too. Verses 8, 10, 11. 2. Nor was he so dumb, as that he could not frame to the confession and bewailing of his sins. 3. Nor was it a dumbness of stupidity and senselessness. It doth not imply any such thing, as if by degrees he grew to that pass, he cared not for, or made no matter of his affliction, but set, as the proverb is, an hard heart against his hard hap. No, he did make his moan to God, and as he smarted, so he did lament under the sense of his afflicting hand. 4. Neither was he so dumb as not to answer God’s voice in the rod that was upon him. 5. Much less was he dumb, and kept silence in any such sort as they did of whom Amos speaks (vi. 10), that in their misery they took up a resolution to mention the name of God no more, in whom they had gloried formerly.

Secondly, affirmatively. 1. He was dumb so as neither to complain of, nor quarrel with God’s providence, nor to entertain any hard thoughts against him. Complain to God he did; but against him he durst not. 2. He neither did nor durst quarrel, or fall out with the ways of holiness for all his sufferings, a thing we are naturally prone unto. 3. He was dumb, so as not to defend himself, or justify his own ways before God, as if they were righteous, and he had not deserved what he suffered. 4. He was dumb, so as to hearken to the voice of the rod. “I will (saith he in another place) hear what God the Lord will speak.” Psalm lxxxv. 8. Now a man cannot listen to another while he will have all the talk and discourse to himself. 5. Lastly, the prophet was dumb, that is, he did acquiesce, and rest satisfied with God’s dispensation; and that not only as good, but as best.—Condensed from a Funeral Sermon by Thomas Burroughes, B.D., entitled, “A Soveraign Remedy for all kindes of Grief,” 1657.

Verse 2.—“I held my peace.” A Christian being asked what fruit he had by Christ: Is not this fruit, said he, not to be moved at your reproaches? In cases of this nature, we must refer all to God; si tu tacueris, Deus loquitur; if thou hold thy peace, God speaks for thee; and if God speaks for us, it is better than we can speak for ourselves. David saith, Obmutui, quia tu fecisti. “I held my peace, for it was thy doing.”—Christopher Sutton, B.D., 1629, in Disce Vivere.

Verses 2-9.—An invalid who had been ordered a couple of pills, took them very absurdly, for, in place of swallowing them at once, he rolled them about in his mouth, ground them to pieces, and so tasted their full bitterness. Gotthold was present, and thus mused: The insults and calumnies of a slanderer and adversary are bitter pills, and all do not understand the art of swallowing without chewing them. To the Christian, however, they are wholesome in many ways. They remind him of his guilt, they try his meekness and patience, they show him what he needs to guard against, and at last they redound to his honour and glory in the sight of him for whose sake they were endured. In respect of the pills of slander, however, as well as the others, it is advisable not to roll them about continually in our minds, or judge of them according to the flesh, and the world’s opinion. This will only increase their bitterness, spread the savour of it to the tongue, and fill the heart with proportional enmity. The true way is to swallow, keep silence and forget. We must inwardly devour our grief, and say, “I will be dumb, and not open my mouth, because thou didst it.” The best antidotes to the bitterness of slander, are the sweet promises and consolations of Scripture, of which not the least is this, “Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven.” Matt. v. 11, 12. Alas, my God! how hard it is to swallow the pills of obloquy, to bless them that curse me, to do good to them that hate me, and to pray for them that despitefully use me! But, Lord, as thou wilt have it so, give it as thou wilt have it, for it is a matter in which, without thy grace, I can do nothing!—Christian Scriver.

Verse 3.—“My heart was hot within me, while I was musing the fire burned.” They say of the loadstone (that wonder in nature), when either by carelessness in keeping it, or by some accident it loses its virtue, yet by laying it some good space of time in the filings of steel, it will again recover its virtues: when the spirit of a Christian by not looking well to it, loses of its heavenly heat and liveliness, the way of recovery is by laying it asteep in this so warming and quickening meditation. Oh, how burning and flaming may we often observe the spirit of the holy Psalmist David, in his acting of meditation! Musing made him hot, yea, burning hot at the heart. Thus oft in the beginning of a Psalm we find his heart low and discouraged but as this musing was acted and heightened, his spirit grew hotter, and at last flies all on a flame, flies up to a very high pitch of heavenly heat. Oh, how do all the conscientious practisers of meditation, ever and anon experience these happy, heavenly heats, and heart-enlargements! Ah, if all the saints’ so glorious heart-quickenings were gathered together, what a rich chain of pearls, pearls of rare experiences, would they make up of the heart-warming efficacies of meditation.—Nathanael Ranew.

Verse 3.—“I was musing.” What a blessed (shall I say duty or) privilege is prayer! Now meditation is a help to prayer. Gerson calls it the nurse of prayer. Meditation is like oil to the lamp; the lamp of prayer will soon go out unless meditation cherish and support it. Meditation and prayer are like two turtles, if you separate one the other dies; a cunning angler observes the time and season when the fish bite best, and then he throws in the angle; when the heart is warmed by meditation, now is the best season to throw in the angle of prayer, and fish for mercy. After Isaac had been in the field meditating he was fit for prayer when he came home. When the gun is full of powder it is fittest to discharge. So when the mind is full of good thoughts, a Christian is fittest by prayer to discharge; now he sends up whole volleys of sighs and groans to heaven. Meditation hath a double benefit in it, it pours in and pours out; first it pours good thoughts into the mind, and then it pours out those thoughts again into prayer; meditation first furnisheth with matter to pray and then it furnisheth with a heart to pray. “I was musing,” saith David, and the very next words are a prayer, “Lord, make me to know mine end.” I muse on the works of thy hands, I stretch forth my hands to thee. The musing of his head made way for the stretching forth of his hands in prayer. When Christ was upon the Mount, then he prayed: so when the soul is upon the mount of meditation, now it is in tune for prayer. Prayer is the child of meditation: meditation leads the van, and prayer brings up the rear.—Thomas Watson.

Verse 3.—“Musing.” Meditation is prayer in bullion, prayer in the ore, soon melted and run into holy desires. The laden cloud soon drops into rain, the piece charged soon goes off when fire is put to it. A meditating soul is in proxima potentia to prayer. This was an ejaculatory prayer shot from his soul when in the company of the wicked.—William Gurnall.

Verse 3.—“The fire burned.” My thoughts kindled my passions.—Matthew Pool.

Verse 3.—“The fire burned.” Meditate so long till thou findest thy heart grow warm in this duty. If, when a man is cold you ask how long he should stand by the fire? sure, till he be thoroughly warm, and made fit for his work. So, Christian, thy heart is cold; never a day, no, not the hottest day in summer, but it freezeth there; now stand at the fire of meditation till thou findest thy affections warmed, and thou art made fit for spiritual service. David mused till his heart waxed hot within him. I will conclude this with that excellent saying of Bernard: “Lord, I will never come away from thee without thee.” Let this be a Christian’s resolution, not to leave off his meditations of God till he find something of God in him; some moving of the bowels after God; some flamings of love, Cant. v. 4.—Thomas Watson.

Verse 3.—His company was bad, but his thoughts were good; even while the wicked was before him his heart was hot within him, while he was musing the fire burned. His thoughts inflame his affections with holy zeal, and this holy fire, as by an ante-peristasis, burnt so much the hotter for the frost of cursed contrariety that was about it. When the careful magistrates or officers of a city break into a suspected house in the night-time, the great question is, What company have you here? So when God breaks in upon our dark hearts, the enquiry is, What thoughts have you here? Why do thoughts arise in your minds? Are ye not become judges of evil thoughts? Luke xxiv. 38; James ii. 4.—Faithful Teat.

Verse 3.—“Then spake I with my tongue, Lord,” etc. It is, indeed, a happy circumstance when that silence which has long been preserved is first broken before the Lord.—John Morison.

Verse 4.—“Lord, make me to know mine end,” etc. But did not David know this? Yes, he knew it, and yet he desires to know it. It is very fit we should ask of God that he would make us to know the things that we do know; I mean, that what we know emptily and barely, we may know spiritually and fruitfully, and if there be any measure of this knowledge, that it may increase and grow more.... We know we must die, and that it is no long course to the utmost period of life; yet our hearts are little instructed by this knowledge.—Robert Leighton.

Verse 4.—“Lord, make me to know mine end.” David would know his end, not so much his death—the end consuming, as Christ the Lord of life—the end and perfection of all our desires; or know it, not for vain science, but in his experience feel the reward of his patience. Though thy chastisement be sharp, it will be but short, and therein sweet; thou shalt lie still and be quiet, thou shalt sleep and be at rest, Job iii. 13, 17, 18, 19. How few and evil soever thy days be in the world, by patience and rolling thyself upon God they will prove unto thee both long enough and good.—Edmund Layfielde.

Verse 4.—“Lord, make me to know mine end,” etc. Seeing that both sorrow and joy are both able to kill you, and your life hangeth upon so small a thread, that the least gnat in the air can choke you, as it choked a pope of Rome; a little hair in your milk strangle you, as it did a councillor in Rome; a stone of a raisin stop your breath, as it did the breath of Anacreon: put not the evil day far from you, which the ordinance of God hath put so near; “Remember your Creator in time, before the days comes wherein you shall say, We have no pleasure in them;” walk not always with your faces to the east, sometimes have an eye to the west, where the sun goeth down; sit not ever in the prow of the ship, sometimes go to the stern; “stand in your watch-towers,” as the creature doth (Rom. viii. 19), and wait for the hour of your deliverance; provide your armies before that dreadful king cometh to fight against you with his greater forces; order your houses before you die, that is, dispose of your bodies and souls, and all the implements of them both; let not your eyes be gadding after pleasure, nor your ear itching after rumours, nor your minds wandering in the fields, when death is in your houses; your bodies are not brass, nor your strength the strength of stones, your life none inheritance, your breath no more than as the vapour and smoke of the chimney within your nostrils, or as a stranger within your gates, coming and going again, not to return any more till the day of final redemption.—John King.

Verse 4.—“Lord, make me to know mine end,” etc. ’Tis worthy your notice, that passage you read of in Scripture, 1 Sam. x. 2. Samuel, when he had anointed Saul king, and the people had chosen him, what signal doth he give him, to confirm him anointed? It was to go to Rachel’s sepulchre. Now the reason is this, that he might not be glutted with the preferments and honours he was entering upon. The emperors of Constantinople, in their inaugurations, on their coronation days, had a mason come and show them several marble stones, and ask them to choose which of those should be made ready for their grave-stones. And so we read of Joseph of Arimathea, that he had his tomb in his garden, to check the pleasures of the place.—Christopher Love.

Verse 4.—“How frail I am.” Between Walsall and Iretsy, in Cheshire, is a house built in 1636, of thick oak framework, filled in with brick. Over the window of the tap-room is still legible, cut in the oak, the following Latin inscription:—Fleres si scires unum tua tempora mensem; rides cum non scis si sit forsitan una dies. The sense of which is “You would weep if you knew that your life was limited to one month, yet you laugh while you know not but it may be restricted to a day.” How sad the thought, that with this silent monitor, this truthful sermon before their very eyes, numbers have revelled in soul-destructive inebriation! And yet this is but a likeness of what we see constantly about us.—Quoted in a Monthly Periodical.

Verse 5.—“My days.” Man’s life is styled days because it is not conferred upon us by wholesale, by months and years, but by retail of days, hours, minutes, moments, as to check our curiosity in making enquiry how long we have to live (verse 4); so acquainting us with the brevity thereof, we may learn to depend upon God’s bounty for the loan of our life, employ it for his glory, and every day prepare for the Bridegroom, Christ.—Edmund Layfielde.

Verse 5.—“My days an handbreath.” That is one of the shortest measures. We need not long lines to measure our lives by: each one carries a measure about with him, his own hand; that is the longest and fullest measure. It is not so much as a span: that might possibly have been the measure of old age in the infancy of the world, but now it is contracted to a handbreath, and that is the longest. But how many fall short of that! Many attain not to a finger-breadth: multitudes pass from the womb to the grave; and how many end their course within the compass of childhood!—Robert Leighton.

Verse 5.—“Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreath.” The line wherewith our lives are measured, is made both of coarse and fine thread. 1. It is measured by itself, and considerable in its own frailty; so the just length of it is “an handbreadth.” 2. Secondly, with eternity, so it is found to be as nothing: “Mine age is as nothing before thee.”... “An handbreath,” and is that all? So he saith, that exactly measureth them all, and whatsoever else was created with his own hand. A handbreath is one of the shortest kind of measures. There is an ell, a cubit, and a palm or handbreath, whereof there be two kinds, the greater and the less. The greater handbreath is the whole space betwixt the top of the thumb and the little finger, when the hand is extended, called a span, in account near twelve inches. The lesser handbreadth, in a more proper and strict signification, is the just breadth of the four fingers of the hand closed together, here chiefly intended, this interpretation best agreeing with the original, and complying most with the prophet’s mind, by the unanimous consent of the choice interpreters.—Edmund Layfielde.

Verse 5.—“Mine age is as nothing before thee.” 1. David might truly have said, Mine age is short in respect of Methuselah’s; the days of Methuselah are said to be nine hundred sixty and nine years; the days of David, by computation of the time when he began and how long he reigned were not much above three score and ten, so that he lived not so many tens as Methuselah did hundreds. 2. David might have said, Mine age is very short in comparison of the age of the world. St. Paul saith of the fashion of this Macrocosm, it passeth away (1 Cor. vii. 31); but the age of the microcosm, man, passeth away far swifter. 3. David might have said, Mine age in this world is exceeding little in comparison of the duration of the other world. 4. Finally, David might have said, Mine age is scarcely anything before the angels, whose duration began with this world and shall continue in the world to come, and so is coætaneous with both the worlds. But all these are far short of this comparison which he here maketh of his age with God which is eternal, both a parte ante, and a parte post, from everlasting to everlasting.—Nathanael Hardy.

Verse 5.—“As nothing.” If a man be so diminutive a creature, compared with the fabric of that great world, and the world itself so little that it cannot contain the Lord, so little and light that he feels not the weight thereof upon the tip of his finger, man will well merit the name “nothing,” when he is placed before the Lord. The keel of man’s life is laden with more vanity than verity and substance, if the searcher of the reins and heart come aboard to view it. Ten thousand of our days will not make God one year, and a thousand of our years in his sight are but “as a day when it is past, and as a watch in the night.” As drops of rain are unto the sea, and as a gravel stone is in comparison of the sand, so are a thousand years to the days everlasting.—Edmund Layfielde.

Verse 5.—“Verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity.” The Holy Spirit is pleased elsewhere to speak more sparingly, as it were, in favour of man; he discovers the nakedness, but yet comes backward to cast a garment of lenity over it, that somewhat shadows the shame of it. “Man is like to vanity (Ps. cxliv. 4); their days consume in vanity (Ps. lxxviii. 33); Man is vanity” (Ps. xxxix. 11); but here with open mouth and unveiled terms full of emphasis, he proclaims every man to be abstracted vanity; and as if that were short he adds, he is all vanity; mere vanity, all manner of vanity, altogether vanity: nothing else, nothing less; yea, somewhat more than vanity, “lighter than vanity” (Ps. lxii. 9); and “vanity of vanities.” Eccl. i. 2. And that no place of dubitation may be left, he ushers the doctrine unto our hearts with a strong asseveration; assuredly, in truth, without all controversy, “man is altogether vanity.”—Edmund Layfielde.

Verse 5.—“Verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity.” Bythner expounds it thus. “Every man at his best state is altogether vanity;” hoc est omni ex parte, ita ut vanitas et miseria quæ per creaturas frustratim spargitur in uno homine aggregata videatur: sic homo evadit compendium omnium vanitatum quæ in creaturis extant: that is, he is the sink and centre of all the vanities in the world; he is as it were the universe of vanity.—Quoted in William Reynold’s Funeral Sermon for the Honourable Francis Pierrepont, 1657.

Verse 5.—“Every Adam standing is all Abel.”—See Hebrew Text.

Verse 5.—“Selah.” A little word, yet of no small difficulty to explain. Left out of the Bible by the vulgar translators as though it were impertinent, where, let them consider, whether they come not within the verge of that malediction in Revelation xxii. 19. The ancient interpreters did not much meddle with it, and our editions leave it uninterpreted. But seeing “whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope” (Romans xv. 4), and till “heaven and earth pass, one jot or one title shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled” (Matt. v. 18), we have sufficient warrant after the example of the learned, and encouragement to make enquiry after the mind of the Holy Spirit, in that which he hath both commanded to be written, and hath commended unto us. Wherein, like the crystal glass, I will rather present you with the true visage of antiquity, than use any new-framed feature or painting of my own.

Selah is mentioned seventy-four times in the Scripture, whereof seventy-one in the book of Psalms, and thrice in the prophet Habakkuk, which is written Psalm-wise; and it is ever placed in the end of a Psalm or verse, four places only excepted, where, like the sun in the midst of the planets, it is seated to con-join the precedent words with the subsequent, and communicate splendour unto both. There was a threefold use of it in ancient times, whereof the first concerned the music; the second, the matter handled unto which it was affixed; and the third, the men or congregation assembled in the temple of the Lord, which two last may still have place among us Christians, who are ingrafted into the stock Christ, from whence the Jews were cut off, but from the first we cannot properly suck such nourishment as once they did.

First of the music. The king’s choir (1 Chron. xxv. 1-6; Psalm lxii., Επιγραφή; 1 Chron. xvi. 41) learned five things by it:

1st. To make a little pause, stop, or stay, when they came to Selah, and to meditate awhile upon the matter foregoing.

2nd. They knew by that cessation and interval that King David, as he was prophesying unto the people, and praising God upon the loud sounding cymbals, was at that instant inspired and taught some new lesson. Wherefore, as men being in serious discourse, when they hear a sudden noise hold their peace to listen, saying, hark! see, lo! so David’s heart being smitten by the voice of God’s Spirit, the music ceased, stopped, and he checked himself as it were thus: “Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth.”

3rd. It signifieth the change and variation of the music in some strains, or of the metre, or sense, or disjunction of the rhyme, or ceasing of some one sort of music, which howsoever St. Hierome makes some scruple of. The Septuagint, as often as they meet with Selah in the Hebrew text, in their Greek version translated it, the change of the song.

4th. It directed them to sing the same verse over again whereunto Selah was annexed. Lastly, it was their instruction to elevate and lift up their voices, praising God with louder voices and loud sounding cymbals. “Selah” called upon them for louder strains of music and shrillness of voice. But seeing the Jewish harmony and sweet melody is overwhelmed in the ruins of their glorious temple, we remain unskilled in their notes, which doth obscure our annotations upon it. Let this suffice for the “music.”

II. “Selah” concerns the text of Scripture itself, or the matter handled, in five branches. 1st. Some think it to be only an ornament of speech, to grace the language with a sweet emphasis; or a non-significant word to complete the harmony, lest the verse should halt for want of a foot, but this conjecture is infirm, and many feet wide from the truth.

2nd. It is not only an adoration of speech, but signifies an end of that verse, matter, or Psalm, where it is found, and it is ever in the end of Psalm and verse, these four places only exempted from this rule: Psalm lv. 19; lvii. 3; Habakkuk iii. 3, 9. For as we write “finis” at the end of a book, song, or poem, so the Jews underwrite “Selah,” “Salome,” or “Amen,” at the end or finishing of any canticle or work. And the modern Jews at this day, following the opinion of Aben-Ezra, take “Selah” to be the same with “Amen,” using it at the end of their epitaphs and prayers twice or thrice indifferently; thus: “Amen, Selah, Amen, Selah,” which receives some credit from this that the particular Psalms end with “Selah” (Psalm iii. 8), and the books of Psalms with “Amen.” For whereas the Psalter is divided into five books, four of them end with “Amen”—so be it. As you shall find: Psalm xli. 13, the end of the first book; Psalm lxxii. 19, the end of the second book; Psalm lxxxix. 52, the end of the third; and Psalm cvi. 48, the conclusion of the fourth.

3rd. Selah is an hyperbole or illustration of the truth by way of excess in advancing and enlarging it, to make the truth and sense more clear and evident, as if we should say, “that is wonderful!” or, “that is excellent!” and sometimes by way of aggravation that is “monstrous,” “intolerable,” “horrible!” “The Lord came from Teman and the holy One from Mount Paran. Selah.” Habak. iii. 3. Selah. 1. God came with great dignity, excellency, and ample majesty. “Many there be that say of my soul there is no help for him in God. Selah.” Psalm iii. 2. Selah, as if he had said, Oh, monstrous, and horrible blasphemy, to excommunicate a child out of the favour of his heavenly Father; and limit his mercy whose hand is omnipotent to relieve all that rely upon him.

4th. It serves to declare the eternity of the truth revealed in that Psalm or verse, though perhaps it only began then to be manifested to the church, or more fully at that time than in former ages. Howsoever, the people unto whom it was published, or the persons unto whom it was sent, were otherwise persuaded at the first publication of it. That it was a veritie from everlasting and shall continue for ever: instance Psalm iii. 8, “Salvation belongs unto the Lord, thy blessing is upon thy people. Selah.” As if he had said, “This is a thing beyond all controversy true, that God hath ever delivered, and will for ever bless his people.” This doctrine is sempeternal and durable, that the mercy of the Lord endureth for ever. Psalm cxxxvi.

5th. It did instruct them to meditate seriously upon those themes where “Selah” was engraven, as containing matter worthy of singular observation, meditation, and remembrance, as either concerning Christ, “Who is the King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory. Selah.” Psalm xxiv. 10. The mysteries of grace. “The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.” Psalm xlvi. 7. Man’s duty (Psalm iv. 4; Psalm xxxii. 5), or frailty (Psalm ix. 20; xxxii. 4). That as the diamond is of greater value than other precious stones, and the sun is more glorious than the planets, so those sentences are more resplendent, than other parcels of Scripture. Which though at the first bare view, it doth not always so appear, there being other texts of Holy Writ more excellent (if it were meet to make any comparison) where Selah is not found, yet if we dive into the occasion, scope, and nature of the sentence, we shall more willingly accept, when we consider, that it is an usual custom of the Holy Spirit, for our singular instruction and benefit, to propound things of a low and inferior nature to our deepest meditation. Instance Psalm ix. 16. “The Lord is known by the judgment which he executeth: the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands,” which is shut up with “Higgaion Selah,” meditation Selah, as if he had said, here is a matter worthy of observation and eternal meditation; the righteous should never forget this, that the wicked perish in their own counsels, and are taken in their own net. An observation worthy to be engraven in every religious person’s bosom, that God will one time or other be known among the wicked by his most severe judgments executed upon them, though they would never learn by his patience and mercies to acknowledge him for their Lord. Thus far of the matter. Now it remains for a conclusion to unfold the several instructions which “Selah” afforded unto the congregation, which are these six.

1st. It served as a note of attention and inattention of the mind to what was sung or said, Ps. iii. v. 2-8, that wheresoever they cast an eye upon “Selah,” they might conceive they heard the Lord’s voice from heaven speaking. “Hear this, all ye people, give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world. Both high and low, rich and poor together.” Ps. xlix. 1, 2. That as their voices were lift up in singing, so much more their hearts and affections might be elevated, that their voice and hearts being both in tune, the joint harmony might be sweet in the ears of the Lord.

2ndly. It was a note of affirmation, whereby they declared their consent and assent unto the truth delivered, as we say when we approve of another’s speech; right, just, you say truly, it is most certain. So their “Selah” was as much as true, certain, excellent. Instance, Ps. iii. 4, “I cried unto the Lord with my voice, and he heard me out of his holy hill. Selah,” i.e., It is most certain that the Lord knows the secrets of our hearts, and is the judge of the quick and dead, and will pass most righteous sentence upon us, giving to every man according to his deeds in the flesh, whether good or evil. Ps. lii. 3. “Thou lovest evil more than good; and lying rather than to speak righteousness. Selah.”—that is to say, undeniable, we all confess it, our own experience and sorrows have made us know this, that those who have not the fear of God before their eyes love to speak and do all the mischief they are able against God’s people, to hurt them rather than help them, to wound their innocent reputation rather than preserve it.

3rdly. It was a devout ejaculation of the heart and soul unto God, wishing and desiring the accomplishment of what was spoken or promised. Instance, Habak. iii. 13.—“Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people. Selah.” As if he had said, Lord, I beseech thee, evermore go out so to deliver thine anointed. Ps. lv. 17-19. “Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voice. He hath delivered my soul in peace from the battle that was against me; for there were many with me. God shall hear, and afflict them, even he that abideth of old. Selah,” i.e., O Lord, I entreat thee, ever bow down an ear unto my humble suit, and rise up against them that rise up against me.

4thly. It denoted their admiration at some strange, unusual effect, whether the work of God, or wickedness of man. Ps. lvii. 3. “He shall send from heaven and save me from the reproach of him that would swallow me up. Selah,” i.e., Oh, wonderful and admirable goodness of God, that is pleased to send sometimes his angel from heaven, always his mercy and truth, to deliver his poor perplexed servants from them that are too strong and mighty for them, Ps. liv. 3. “Strangers are risen up against me, and oppressors seek after my soul: they have not set God before them. Selah,” i.e., Oh, horrible impiety and cruelty to hunt after the life of the saints, and cast the God of life and his remembrance behind their backs.

5thly. Of humiliation and consternation of their mind, by the consideration of God’s incomprehensible majesty, and their own great frailty and misery. Instance, Ps. lxvi. 7. “He ruleth by his power for ever; his eyes behold the nations: let not the rebellious exalt themselves. Selah,” i.e., here is matter of humiliation before the King of all the world, Ps. lxviii. 7, 8. “O God, when thou wentest forth before thy people, when thou didst march through the wilderness. Selah,” i.e., my very heart trembled to consider; I am moved out of my place, to reflect upon that majesty before whom “the earth shook, the heavens also dropped at the presence of God; even Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God, the God of Israel.” Ps. xxxix. 11. “When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth: surely every man is vanity. Selah.” As if he should say, this may humble the proudest heart in the world, and cast him down to the ground.

6thly. It was a note of Doxology and praising of God in a special manner, not much unlike, or the very same with this, “For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever.” As for example, “All the earth shall worship thee, and shall sing unto thee, they shall sing to thy name. Selah,” Ps. lxvi. 4. “Yea, Lord, in thee will we boast all the day long, and praise thy name for ever. Selah,” Ps. xliv. 8. “Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things. And blessed be his glorious name for ever: and let the whole earth be filled with his glory; so be it, even so be it.” Ps. lxxii. 18, 19.—Edmund Layfielde.

Verse 6.—“Man walketh in a vain shew.” I see that we who live are nothing else but images, and a vain shadow.—Sophocles.

Verse 6 (first clause).—When in the Bristol election, his competitor died, Burke said, “What shadows we are, and what shadows we pursue.”—William S. Plumer.

Verse 6.—Every carnal man walks in a vain shew, and yet how vain is he of his shew of vanity! He is “disquieted in vain,” and it is only vanity which disquiets him. He labours all his life for the profit of riches, and yet in death his riches will not profit him. He that views an ox grazing in a fat pasture, concludes that he is but preparing for the day of slaughter.—William Secker.

Verse 6.—“He heapeth up riches.” This is the great foolishness and disease, especially of old age, that the less way a man has to go, he makes the greater provision for it. When the hands are stiff, and fit for no other labour, they are fitted and composed for scraping together.—Robert Leighton.

Verse 6.—“He heapeth up riches.” The Hebrew word rendered, “He heapeth up,” signifies to rake together; in which there is an allusion to the husbandman’s collecting his corn together before he carries it to the barn. The metaphor is elegant, intimating the precariousness of human life, and the vanity of human acquisitions; which though heaped up together like corn, by one person, may soon become the possession of another.—Samuel Burder.

Verse 6.—

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow. Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, To the last syllable of recorded time; And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life’s but a walking shadow; a poor player, That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more; it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.

William Shakspeare.

Verse 6.—The plentiful showers of tears which stand in our eyes when we come from the womb, and when we draw to the tomb, are faithful witnesses of man’s vanity. We bid the world “good morrow” with grief, and “good night” with a groan.—Edmund Layfielde.

Verse 7.—“Lord, what wait I for?”

At first her mother earth she holdeth deare, And doth embrace the world and worldly things: She flies close by the ground and houers here And mounts not up with her celestiall wings.

Yet vnder heauen she cannot light on ought That with her heauenly nature doth agree; She cannot rest, she cannot fix her thought, She cannot in this world contented bee.

Then as a bee which among weeds doth fall. Which seeme sweet flowers with lustre fresh and gay She lights on that, and this, and tasteth all, But pleased with none, doth rise, and soare away.

So, when the soule finds here no true content, And like Noah’s doue, can no sure footing take, She doth returne from whence she first was sent, And flies to Him, that first her wings did make.

Sir John Davies.

Verse 7.—

O loose this frame, this knot of man untie, That my free soul may use her wing, Which is now pinioned with mortality, As an entangled, hamper’d thing. What have I left that I should stay and groan? The most of me to heaven is fled; My thoughts and joys are all pack’d up and gone. And for their old acquaintance plead.

George Herbert.

Verse 7.—“My hope is in thee.” Sweet is it that our hope should rest in him who is never shaken; should abide in him who never changeth; should bind us to him who can hold us fast to himself, who alone is the full contentment of the soul; should, as it were, enter into him; since “in him is our being,” who is love.—E. B. Pusey, D.D., 1853.

Verse 8.—“Make me not the reproach of the foolish.” Let not their prosperity and my misery give them occasion to deride and reproach me for my serving of thee and trusting in thee to so little purpose.—Matthew Pool.

Verse 8.—“Make me not the reproach of the foolish.” Doubt not this; that of all the bitter agony which will be the portion of the lost soul at that, “Depart, ye cursed,” not the least will be the bitter reproaches and derision of those evil spirits who have seduced him to his ruin. “For this morsel of meat to have sold thy birthright! For the fleshly pleasures of a few days to have bartered thine eternal jewel! For a few grains of yellow earth to have missed the city with streets of gold, and gates of several pearls! O fool, beyond all folly! O madman, beyond all insanity! Truly we have need to pray with all earnestness, ‘Make me not the reproach of the foolish.’”—Origen, quoted by J. M. Neale.

Verse 9.—“I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because thou didst it.” See David’s carriage here; it was a patience not constrained, but from satisfaction of spirit: he saw love in his affliction, and that sweetened his soul.—Joseph Symonds.

Verse 9.—“I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because thou didst it.” God is training up his children here. This is the true character of his dealings with them. The education of his saints is the object he has in view. It is training for the kingdom; it is education for eternity.... It is the discipline of love. Every step of it is kindness. There is no wrath nor vengeance in any part of the process. The discipline of the school may be harsh and stern; but that of the family is love, We are sure of this; and the consolation which it affords is unutterable. Love will not wrong us. There will be no needless suffering. Were this but kept in mind there would be fewer hard thoughts of God amongst men, even when his strokes are most severe. I know not a better illustration of what the feelings of a saint should be, in the hour of bitterness, than the case of Richard Cameron’s father. The aged saint was in prison “for the Word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.” The bleeding head of his martyred son was brought to him by his unfeeling persecutors, and he was asked derisively if he knew it. “I know it, I know it,”—said the father, as he kissed the mangled forehead of his fair-haired son—“it is my son’s, my own dear son’s! It is the Lord! good is the will of the Lord, who cannot wrong me or mine, but who hath made goodness and mercy to follow us all our days.”—Horatius Bonar, in “The Night of Weeping,” 1847.

Verse 9.—“Because thou didst it.” This holy man had a breach made both at his body and spirit at this time; he was sick and sad; yet he remembers from whose hand the blow came. Thou, Lord, didst it; thou, whom I love dearly, and so can take it kindly; thou whom I have offended, and so take it patiently; yea, thou, who mightest have cast me into a bed of flames, instead of my bed of sickness, and therefore I accept thy correction thankfully. Thus he catches at the blow without retorting it back upon God by any quarrelling discontented language.—William Gurnall.

Verse 9.—“Because thou didst it.” We digest not a blow from our equals, but a blow from our king we can well digest. If the King of kings lays his hand on our backs, let us, beloved, lay our hands on our mouths. I am sure this stopped David’s mouth from venting fretful speeches. “I held my tongue and said nothing.” Why didst thou so, David? “Because thou, Lord, didst it;” and God gives this testimony of such an one; that he is a prudent man that keeps silence at an evil time. Amos v. 13.—Nicholas Estwick, B.D., 1644.

Verse 9.—Perkins, in his “Salve for a Sick Man,” gives the “last words” of many holy men, among others of Calvin:—“I held my tongue, because thou, Lord, hast done it—I mourned as a dove—Lord, thou grindest me to powder, but it sufficeth me because it is thy hand.”

Verse 9.—I wondered once at providence, and called white providence black and unjust, that I should be smothered in a town where no soul will take Christ off my hand. But providence hath another lustre¹⁴ with God than with my bleared eyes. I proclaim myself a blind body, who knoweth not black and white, in the unco¹⁵ course of God’s providence. Suppose that Christ should set hell where heaven is and devils up in glory beside the elect angels (which yet cannot be), I would I had a heart to acquiesce in his way, without further dispute. I see that infinite wisdom is the mother of his judgments, and that his ways pass finding out. I cannot learn, but I desire to learn, to bring my thoughts, will, and lusts in under¹⁶ Christ’s feet, that he may trample upon them. But, alas! I am still upon Christ’s wrong side.—Samuel Rutherford.

Verse 9.—A little girl, in the providence of God, was born deaf and dumb. She was received, and instructed, at an institution established for these afflicted ones. A visitor was one day requested to examine the children thus sadly laid aside from childhood’s common joys. Several questions were asked, and quickly answered by means of a slate and pencil. At length the gentleman wrote, “Why were you born deaf and dumb?” A look of anguish clouded for the moment the expressive face of the little girl; but it quickly passed, as she took her slate, and wrote, “Even so, Father; for so it seemeth good in thy sight.”—Mrs. Rogers, in “The Shepherd King.”

Verse 10.—“Remove thy plague away from me:” thy plague and mine; thine by affliction, mine by passion; thine because thou didst send it, mine because I endure it; thine because it comes from thy justice, mine because it answers my injustice; remit what I have done, and remove what thou hast done. But whosoever laid it on, the Lord will take off.—Thomas Adams.

Verse 10.—“Remove,” etc. Having first prayed off his sin, he would now pray off his pain, though it less troubled him; and for ease he repaireth to Jehovah that healeth, as well as woundeth. Hosea vi. 1.—John Trapp.

Verse 11.—“Thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth.” The meaning may be, As the moth crumbles into dust under the slightest pressure, or the gentlest touch, so man dissolves with equal ease, and vanishes into darkness, under the finger of the Almighty.—Paxton’s Illustrations of Scripture.

Verse 11.—“Thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth.” Moths I must not omit naming. I once saw some knives, the back bone hafts of which were said to have been half-consumed by them. I also saw the remains of a hair-seated sofa which had been devoured. It is no uncommon thing to find dresses consumed in a single night. In Isaiah li. 6, “wax old” probably refers to a garment that is moth-eaten. So in Psalm vi. 7, and xxxi. 9, “consumed” means moth-eaten; and again in Psalm xxxix. 11.—John Gadsby.

Verse 11.—“Like a moth.” The moths of the East are very large and beautiful, but short lived. After a few showers these splendid insects may be seen fluttering in every breeze, but the dry weather, and their numerous enemies, soon consign them to the common lot. Thus the beauty of man consumes away like that of this gay rover, dressed in his robes of purple, and scarlet, and green.—John Kitto.

Verse 11.—The body of man is as a “garment” to the soul: in this garment sin hath lodged a “moth,” which, by degrees, fretteth and weareth away, first, the beauty, then the strength, and, finally, the contexture of its parts. Whoever has watched the progress of a consumption, or any other lingering distemper, nay, the slow and silent devastations of time alone, in the human frame, will need no farther illustration of this just and affecting similitude; but will discern at once the propriety of the reflection which follows upon it.—“Surely every man is vanity.” George Horne.

Verse 11.—“Surely every man is vanity.” What is greatness? Can we predicate it of man, independently of his qualities as an immortal being? or of his actions, independently of principles and motives? Then the glitter of nobility is not superior to the plumage of the peacock; nor the valour of Alexander to the fury of a tiger; nor the sensual delights of Epicurus to those of any animal that roams the forest.—Ebenezer Porter, D.D., in Lectures on Homiletics, 1834.

Verse 12.—“Hear my prayer, O Lord.” etc. Now, in this prayer of David, we find three things, which are the chief qualifications of all acceptable prayers. The first is humility. He humbly confesses his sins, and his own weakness and worthlessness. We are not to put on a stoical, flinty kind of spirit under our affliction, that so we may seem to shun womanish repinings and complaints, lest we run into the other evil, of despising the hand of God, but we are to humble our proud hearts, and break our unruly passions.... The second qualification of this prayer is, fervency and importunity, which appears in the elegant gradation of the words, “Hear my prayer,” my words; if not that, yet “Give ear to my cry,” which is louder; and if that prevail not, yet, “Hold not thy peace at my tears,” which is the loudest of all; so David, elsewhere, calls it “the voice of my weeping.”... The third qualification is faith, “He who comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” Heb. xi. 6. And, certainly, as he that comes to God must believe this, so he that believes this, cannot but come to God; and if he be not presently answered, “he that believes makes no haste,” he resolves patiently to wait for the Lord, and to go to no other.—Condensed from Robert Leighton.

Verse 12.—“Hold not thy peace at my tears.” We may, in all humility, plead our heart-breakings and weepings in sense of want of mercies which we crave, and our pantings and faintings after the same.—Thomas Cobbett.

Verse 12.—“For I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were.” Both in thy judgment expressed (Levit. xxv. 23), and in their own opinion (Heb. xi. 13), Upon which account thou didst take a special care of them, and therefore do so to me also.—Matthew Pool.

Verse 12.—“I am a stranger with thee and a sojourner.” How settled soever their condition be, yet this is the temper of the saints upon earth—to count themselves but strangers. All men indeed are strangers and sojourners, but the saints do best discern it, and most freely acknowledge it. Wicked men have no firm dwelling upon earth, but that is against their intentions; their inward thought and desire is that they may abide for ever; they are strangers against their wills, their abode is uncertain in the world, and they cannot help it. And pray mark, there are two distinct words used in this case, strangers and sojourners. A stranger is one that hath his abode in a foreign country, that is not a native and a denizen of the place, though he liveth there, and in opposition to the natives he is called a stranger: as if a Frenchman should live in England, he is a stranger. But a sojourner is one that intendeth not to settle, but only passeth through a place, and is in motion travelling homeward. So the children of God in relation to a country of their own in another place, namely, heaven, they are denizens there, but strangers in the world; and they are sojourners and pilgrims in regard of their motion and journey towards their country.—Thomas Manton.

Verse 12.—“A stranger.” 1. A stranger is one that is absent from his country, and from his father’s house: so are we, heaven is our country, God is there, and Christ is there. 2. A stranger in a foreign country is not known, nor valued according to his birth and breeding; so the saints walk up and down in the world like princes in disguise. 3. Strangers are liable to inconveniences, so are godly men in the world. Religion, saith Tertullian, is like a strange plant brought from a foreign country, and doth not agree with the nature of the soil, it thriveth not in the world. 4. A stranger is patient, standeth not for ill usage, and is contented with pilgrims’ fare and lodging. We are now abroad, and must expect hardship. 5. A stranger is wary, that he may not give offence, and incur the hatred and displeasure of the natives. 6. A stranger is thankful for the least favour; so we must be thankfully contented with the things God hath bestowed upon us: anything in a strange country is much. 7. A stranger, that hath a journey to go, would pass over it as soon as he can, and so we, who have a journey to heaven desire to be dissolved. 8. A stranger buyeth not such things as he cannot carry with him; he doth not buy trees, house, household stuff, but jewels and pearls, and such things as are portable. Our great care should be to get the jewels of the covenant, the graces of God’s Spirit, those things that will abide with us. 9. A stranger’s heart is in his country; so is a saint’s. 10. A stranger is inquisitive after the way, fearing lest he should go amiss, so is a Christian. 11. A stranger provides for his return, as a merchant, that he may return richly laden. So we must appear before God in Sion. What manner of persons ought we to be? Let us return from our travel well provided.—Condensed from Thomas Manton.

Verse 13.—“O spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go hence, and be no more.” Man in his corrupt state is like Nebuchadnezzar, he hath a beast’s heart, that craves no more than the satisfaction of his sensual appetite; but when renewed by grace, then his understanding returns to him, by which he is enabled in praying for temporals to elevate his desires to a nobler end. Doth David pray that some farther time may be added to his temporal life? It is not out of a fond love for this world, but to prepare himself the better for another. Is he comforted with hopes of a longer stay here? It is not this world’s carnal pleasures that kindle this joy in his holy breast, but the advantage that thereby he shall have for praising God in the land of the living ... “O spare me, that I may recover strength.” David was not yet recovered out of that sin which had brought him exceeding low as you may perceive, ver. 10, 11. And the good man cannot think of dying with any willingness till his heart be in a holier frame: and for the peace of the gospel, serenity of conscience, and inward joy; alas! all unholiness is to it as poison is to the spirits which drink them up.—William Gurnall.

Verse 13.—“O spare me,” etc. Attachment to life, the feeling cherished by the Psalmist, when he thus appealed to the Sovereign of the universe, varies in its character with the occasions and the sentiments by which it is elicited and confirmed. Take one view of it, and you pronounce it criminal; take another, and you pronounce it innocent; take a third, and you pronounce it laudable. I. Life may inspire a criminal attachment, warranting our censure. The most obvious and aggravated case is that in which the attachment has its foundations in the opportunities which life affords, of procuring “the wages of unrighteousness,” and “the pleasures of sin.” II. Life may inspire an innocent attachment, awakening our sympathy.... Life is a scene in which we often descry a verdant and luxuriant spot, teeming with health, and ease, and harmony, and joy. We have beheld the husbands and the wives whose interwoven regards have, from year to year, alleviated all their afflictions, and heightened all their privileges. We have beheld the parents and the children whose fellowship has yielded them, through the shifting seasons, a daily feast. There are indulgent masters, and faithful servants; some neighbourhoods are undisturbed; some Christian societies are exquisitely attractive; here and there we have intercourse with those individuals in whom are seen the beauties of high character irradiated by the beams of general prosperity. You would pronounce no censure on a man thus happily connected, were he, when beginning to languish, as one “going the way of all the earth, to cry,” “O spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go hence, and be no more.” III. The last view which is has been proposed to take of human life, shows that it may inspire a laudable attachment, at once challenging our approbation, and urging us to bring our minds under its influence. The language before us admits of being illustrated as the prayer of a penitent, a saint, and a philanthropist. 1. Commend him who pleads for life as a penitent. Was it recently that the Holy Spirit first wounded him with the arrows of conviction? Perhaps, he doubts the source, the quality, and the result, of his powerful feelings. He knows that we may be solemnly impressed, without being converted. There are many considerations which entitle to favourable opinion those who, not having arrived at a view of their moral state, at once evident and encouraging, wish earnestly to live, till grace shall have carried them from victory to victory, and enabled them “to make” their “calling and election sure.” Even they may fall from their steadfastness; and these words, “O spare me, that I may recover my strength,” may proceed from the lips of a backslider, once more blushing, trembling, and petitioning to be restored. 2. Commend him, in the next place, who pleads for life, as a saint.... The distinguished office of pleading, acting, and suffering, for the advancement of the divine honour among the profane, the sensual, the formal, and the worldly is delegated, exclusively, to “the saints which are upon the earth.” Yet, surely he whose attachment to life is strongly enhanced by a commission which dooms him to the contradiction of sinners, and defers “the fulness of joy,” a saint so magnanimous and devoted, puts forth the expressions of a piety which the very angels are compelled to revere. 3. Commend him, finally, who pleads for life as a philanthropist. I refer to the generous patron, a man intent on doing good. I would also refer to a fond parent. I would now refer to “a preacher of righteousness,” “a good minister of Jesus Christ.”—Outline of a sermon entitled “Attachment to Life,” preached by Joseph Hughes, M.A., as a Funeral Sermon for Rev. John Owen, M.A., 1822.

Verse 13.—May not the very elect and faithful themselves fear the day of judgment, and be far from fetching comfort at it? I answer, he may. First, at his first conversion and soon after, before he have gotten a full persuasion of the remission of his sins. And again, in some spiritual desertion, when the Lord seems to leave a man to himself, as he did David and others, he may fear to think of the same. And lastly, when he hath fallen into some great sin after he is a strong man in Christ, he may fear death and judgment, and be constrained to pray with Job and David, “O spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go hence, and be no more.”—John Barlow’s Sermon, 1618.