speculative ones can sport and play with at their ease : but they lie in the inmost feelings of the immortal life; that is, in the feelings of the soul. It is the immortal part that suffers and is afflicted, and they are immortal things that cause the oppression and affliction;-namely, sins: the end of these things also to which they have reference is immortal; namely, an angry and reproving God: and those who urge the oppression and affliction upon us are immortal;-namely, devils, who accuse us before God; as it is written, Rev. xii.

And therefore, from all the causes, (the material, the final, the efficient, and the formal, as we are accustomed to speak,) this tribulation is eternal and inevitable. The soul can much more easily endure afflictions in that part where it is temporal and mortal; that is, in the flesh and the natural senses: but in that part, where it is immortal, it is inconsolable under its agonies.- I call the soul mortal and immortal, in order to express the nature of these things: therefore let no one entangle me in my words. For the soul dies to this life, but is alive immortally to that life which is to come. And therefore, it can more easily endure those sufferings which come from men, from the world, and from the flesh, than those which come from devils who oppress those with the accusations of their sins, who are under the temptations of death and hell. It can more easily endure under sufferings of the natural senses, than under terrors and confusions of the conscience. It can more easily endure under those sufferings which are endured as a supposed satisfaction for sin, and to bring about a hoped-for reconciliation with God, than under those which proceed from a sense of the eternal and immovable fore-knowledge of a reprobating God.

Wherefore, let no one imagine that the words of David are expressive of a trifling and common tribulation, when he says, 'thou forgettest me;' 'thou turnest away from me for ever;' 'thou dost not hear me;' 'thou dost not design to hear me;' 'thou blottest me out of thy memory, and will never look upon me again:' and as Job says, chap. ix. 16, "If I had called,

and he had answered me; yet would I not believe that he had hearkened unto my voice." As if he had said, He appears to me to be so inexorable, that even if any one should so presume to think that he heard me, I would not believe it; nay, I could not hope that even the sound of my voice had reached his ear.

He, therefore, that has these feelings concerning God, being left to himself, does that which followeth : namely, he boils and fluctuates with various counsels, trying all ways to get delivered; forming many plans to himself, and yet always remaining destitute of counsel. As Hezekiah saith, Isaiah xxxviii. "What shall I say, or what will he answer me, when he himself hath done it?" For being pressed in the midst of these straits, he knows not which way to turn himself. If he would flee unto God, he hears this sentence, 'Thou turnest away thy face from me.' And this, "what will he answer me, when he himself hath done it?" If he would flee unto any other, there is no other that can deliver him, because all things, and God also, stand against him: and thus, these things pressing him on all sides, force him to take evil counsel, and yet, they will not suffer him to find any counsel. And this is what David here says, "How far shall I take counsels in my heart?" For the word counsels here, is the same as that which we have, Psalm i. "The counsel of the wicked:" that is, the imaginations of the heart, whereby a man hopes to conduct and rule himself.

But what these counsels of this afflicted heart are, no one can know, but he that suffers and experiences them. Job, however, gives us a signal example of them, chap. ix. throughout the whole chapter, where he recounts the great and wonderful works of God; shewing how the soul, when brought into this situation, thinks of various things. At one time it rises up and considers what God has done to the wicked, in order to console itself. Again, when it hopes to consider the past good things that it has enjoyed, it soon falls, saying, ver. 20, "If I justify myself, he shall prove me perverse." Nay, he asserts, that even if any one were innocent before him, he could consume him (such are his feelings.) Hence, saith he, ver. 22, "He destroyeth both the righteous and the wicked." As if he had said, It matters not here, whether you be just or unjust, he can cast down both. Nor can the man here find any distinction that he can make between the righteous and the wicked: for he sees that all things are according to the gifts of God. But however, we have neither time nor place here, to speak upon this chapter so fully as it deserves. Christ endured this same tribulation of the cross, when he said that he had not where to lay his head. And again, "All refuge failed me, and no man cared for my soul." For here nothing but fleeing, dread, terror, and confusion reign.

"Sorrow in my heart all the day:" that is, misery, affliction, and a casting down, (for that is the meaning of the Hebrew,) all the day. For he is in alarm every moment, fearing to be cast down to all eternity. The strait of mind itself produces sorrow, and a sorrow from which the man under the tribulation cannot escape. Hence Paul expresses all these things in these words, Rom. ii. 8, "But to them that are contentious, &c. indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Greek."

"Shall I take (or put) counsels in my heart?" The Hebrew expression is the same as this, "I have put my words in thy mouth;" and, "Put this into thine heart;" " I have put my soul in my hand." Which should express in Latin thus, capiam consilia, 'I will take counsel.' And then we have " in my soul" or 'heart' (that is, with or in myself.) Because (he would say) there is no one from whom I can receive counsel, for there is no man that knows this my sighing, nor any one that can consult for me. As therefore, the man in this state suffers alone, so he takes various and anxious counsels alone: there is no possibility here of communicating counsels, even as you could not communicate the sorrow and burden of the heart; and it is this very circumstance that renders the burden the more agonizing.

For in all other common tribulations, you may find some one who has suffered the same things, and who can give counsel and consolation.

"How far shall mine enemy triumph over me?" David first attributed all this to God's forgetting him, turning away from him, and not hearing him. Now he attributes it to his enemy. And here the victory now begins to incline in favour of the man tried, and an end of the temptation is drawing near. For it is one part of the victory to feel out the enemy in this temptation, and to feel yourself to be getting the mastery over him. For although by the permission of God the enemy is exalted; yet in the midst of the temptation this enemy does not appear, but God seems to be doing all this. And this is what the enemy aims at, that the man tried should not attribute the whole to him but to God. As was exemplified in Christ crucified, whom they so assaulted with blasphemies, that he seemed to himself to be hated of God: as we have it Psalm iii. 2, "Many there be that say of my soul, there is no help for him in his God." He does not here mention any particular enemy, but speaks in a general way: though he means the devil, and his pursuits, and designs, for it is he that properly reigns in this temptation. Hence, it is the opinion of many, that Christ often endured this temptation, especially in the garden. And John xii. 27, "Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name." These are wonderful words, and certainly full of straits of soul. Behold, here, how Christ proposes counsels to himself in his troubled soul. First, "What shall I say?" Then he prays, "save me." Then he refuses this, "But for this cause came I unto this hour." At last he says, "Father, glorify thy name." Here the conflict is at length ended; which conflict no one ought to wonder that it was brought upon him by the devil. For Luke writes, chap. iv. that, when the devil had tempted him in the desert, he left him for a season. From which some conclude, and not improperly, that he was often tried. For those are not to be heard who would have it that Christ was a mere unfeeling trunk of a tree; for we are to believe, that he was subject to all kinds of temptations as pure and real man : as he himself saith to his disciples: "But ye are they who have continued with me in my temptations."

When, therefore, we know that it is the enemy who worketh these things, the ray of divine mercy begins to glimmer, and to comfort the soul; so that it accuses its enemy and hopes well concerning God, which it could not do in the midst of the storm. And hence, this is the last part of his complaint, that the enemy triumphed

over him.

Ver. 3.-Consider and hear me, O Lord my God: lighten mine eyes, that I sleep not in death.

I shall abide by the Hebrew arrangement and punctuation of this verse, which are obscure in our translations.

Behold what a different feeling here is from that above, where he complained that he prayed in vain, that God had forgotten him, and had turned away and did not hear him: but now by persevering he begins to have a confidence that his prayer will be heard. As Christ has taught us, Luke xi. concerning perseverance in prayer, by the circumstances of one friend continuing to ask, while the other continues to refuse. So, God seems sometimes to deny for a time: but if the soul did not feel a confidence that it should be heard, it would not pray. Wherefore, David just now emerging and beginning to be conqueror, prays for an end of the temptation, and that God would consider him, and have respect unto him: though he was all the time truly and really considered and heard. For we do not pray to be considered, previous to God's considering us; but what we want is, to be enabled to feel that God does consider us, by enjoying the peace and confidence of it in our hearts. It is God's first considering us and having respect unto us by his grace, that causes us to pray that he would have respect unto us and hear us. And this prayer is thus given, that the man might not only be possessed of