example, so that the wonderful works of God as displayed toward the fathers afforded him no help, he comes to the wonderful works of God toward himself, and in these he finds the good-will of God towards him, and which was displayed towards him alone in so singular a way. So that, he who was singularly alone from all Israel in all other things, also singularly suffered, and was singularly saved. At length, therefore, after searching into all preceding examples in vain, he finds and discovers the wonderful works of God, as displayed towards himself, and with these he animates himself into a confidence of prayer and supplication for help:-so acutely and exquisitely do these straits drive us to search into all these chinks and crevices for help in the time of need!

In these two verses, he repeats and inculcates that work of God whereby he took him out of the belly, that he might confirm his hope and strengthen himself therein. And thus does the anxious soul continue to repeat over and over again that in which it hopes and rests, that it might persevere in keeping the mind stayed upon God. For here the same things are repeated again and again, really on account of the greatness of his feelings. For, that he might the more effectually fix in his heart this work of God, he does not speak separately and particularly of his birth and bringing up in a simple way, but sets them forth by a circumlocution and various figures. He calls his birth, 'the being taken out of the belly;' his bringing up, he calls his hope while hanging at his mother's breasts.' For we are to believe, that this is all thus spoken to commend unto us the signal miracle wrought of God, in his being conceived in a manner contrary to all nature by the Holy Ghost, and being born of a virgin mother. So that, there is a peculiar emphasis and force in the expression, "He that took me out of the belly," in this way:

Other sons of men are born of the belly of her who is both a mother, and a woman not a virgin; and also, while the belly is not only not unwilling and resisting, but yielding with a cogent and impelling consent of lust, which forces the fœtus into the recesses of nature. But (saith Christ) thou hast taken me out of a belly that was chaste, and pure from all seed (because it was a virgin); which not only did not consent to the act on its part, but had nature all the while resisting and remaining passive under thy hand. For, as the bee extracts its honey from the flower most skilfully, and does not hurt or violate the flower; so the Holy Spirit extracted or took out Christ from the belly of the virgin, without at all violating or hurting it: so that Christ had truly a fleshly nature without sin, even as the honey has the nature of the flower without the violation of the flower. Therefore, nature did not pour out of itself this offspring, but God drew and took it out of nature, nature itself remaining unviolated and uncorrupted. But when our birth is spoken of, it is in this gross way, "Thou hast made me as the clay; hast thou not poured me out as milk, and curdled me like cheese?" Where the generation of the flesh is described, as it were, almost immodestly; were it not that we know it to be the word and declaration of the all-pure Spirit.

And he says, "from the belly," not 'from the loins of the man,' hast thou taken me. As my mother (he would say) was a virgin, unviolated in the conception and in the birth, so, I was conceived and born in a singular way, different from all others, without sin, and without becoming deserving of such tribulations. For here, Christ looks at his innocence, wherein also he consoles himself, seeing that there was nothing in himself that should be a cause of his thus suffering, but it was solely because he bore the sins of others: as he says also in another Psalm, xxxv. 15, "The abjects gathered themselves together against me, and I knew it not:" that is, I was not conscious of deserving any such things.

"My hope upon my mother's breasts:" that is, as thou art he who made me hope even when I was hanging on the breasts of my mother, and when I was nourished by the help of another, being unable to help myself, that is, from my very beginning, how much less shalt thou now forsake me for ever? As thou art he who alone hadst care of me then, thou the same alone shalt have care of me now, when I am again helpless in myself. Here, again, this verse makes Christ to be without sin, when it shews us that he hoped even when an infant. For hope is the work of grace, and not of nature: therefore, this hoping cannot apply to the sons of men, who are born children of wrath and unbelief. For though the Lord has a care of them also, providentially, of his own free gift, yet he makes them not subjects of hope, nor fills them with the Spirit, until they are changed by another birth, and are afterwards 'taken out of the belly' of the church: then, they hang on the breasts of that same church, and do that in the Spirit which Christ did both in the flesh and in the Spirit.

And this is the same which now follows, "Upon thee have I been cast from the womb;" which, as I have observed, is said by way of repetition; excepting that, this more clearly points out the hope of Christ in God. For to be cast upon God wholly, is to commit one's-self unto God, and, as we say, to cast one's-self with reliance into the hands of God: as we have it said, Psalm lv. 22, "Cast thy burden upon the Lord, (that is, thy care or thy trouble,) and he shall sustain thee." And, 1 Peter v. 7, "Casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you." And, Psalm xl. 17, "But I am poor and needy, yet the Lord careth for me." And, Psalm xxvii. 10, "When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up."

And this is the same here, when Christ encouraging himself speaks of God as his creator and preserver from his youth, and sets it forth with sweet and fervent expressions, speaking of the belly, the womb, and the breasts of his mother. For these works of God carry a great deal of consolation with them, when contemplated with anxious investigation. It is as if thou shouldst say with Christ, Thou wast so careful of me, O God, that thou formedst me in the womb of my mother: and then, that I might be preserved and nourished when thus formed by thee, thou filledst the breasts of my mother with milk, and cherishedst me in her bosom.

It is in the same feelings as these that Augustine expatiates in his Confessions, Book i. praising God for, and admiring, his creation; and, as he says, lauding the mercies of God for taking him up and nourishing him, and for his tender care, through the instrumentality of his mother. And David says, Psalm cxxxix. 15, 16, "My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book were all my members written." Which thoughts, although they seem puerile and weak, and are considered most ill-timed, and not used at a proper time when employed in the midst of such great dangers; (for it is thus that the wisdom of the flesh complains of the neglect of decorum, which should in such times see that all things are done manfully and courageously;) yet experience, nay the example of Christ also teaches us and rightly instructs us in this place, that we should engage our memory about these most sweet and most tender works of God, and, in the midst of the most terrible and powerful effects of the wrath and rod of God, go back to the tenderness of the milk, the belly, and the mother's care, and all those most tender mercies which God manifested towards us in our infant years. So that, as in the day of evil we are commanded to remember the good, so, in the day of most powerful chastisements, we are to remember the tender mercies; and, while we suffer as men, we are to call to mind those things which were bestowed upon us in our childhood.

In a word, how powerful and efficacious this remembrance of the milk, and of our mother's breasts and care is, and how sweet, and pure, and chaste, and delightful, all these things appear, which, out of temptation, would appear filthy and contemptible, experience and feeling sense alone can teach. When we begin to view, with a contemplating heart, Christ hanging at the breasts of his mother, or lying in a manger, what evil is not put to flight, what infirmity is not strengthened! Only make the trial, and you will understand what it is to behold

that divine Majesty engaged in such infantine things; that is, in such scenes of weakness and puerility!

But yet, Christ alone can say, " Upon thee have I been cast from the womb." For we are cast upon the devil from the womb, with respect to spiritual life; though we also are cast upon God from the womb, with respect to our natural life. 'For God wills that all men should be thus saved; and he multiplies his grace, that he might save both man and beast, opening his hand and satisfying the desire of every living thing.' Hence, it was Christ only that could say, 'Thou wert my God from my mother's womb:' for we are all born idolaters, and conceived and brought up in sin.

Thus, in contemplating his own innocence, and the all-tender solicitude of his Father, the greater tortures of his mind by degrees give way; and he comes now to the tortures of the body, praying with still more powerful earnestness than in the beginning, where he complained that he was forsaken and not heard. Now he begins to pray indeed, and to hope that he shall be heard; and he speaks now in a different way from what he did at the beginning. For now, being instructed, he knows that he is heard, not unto the saving of the mortal life, but of the better.--He now says therefore

Ver. 11.-Do not depart far from me, for trouble is hard at hand; for there is none to help.

Hieronymus and the Hebrew have it thus, 'Be not far from me.' For Christ does not mean that God was now departing, as if he had been near before; because, he had before said that he was forsaken. But what he means, is, that God would not continue to remain afar off, but that he would at length hasten to his relief, as he had now remained far off too long. And that this is the meaning of it, is manifest in the next clause, "For trouble is hard at hand:" which trouble would not have been thus nigh, if God had not been far off. Therefore, saith Christ, Let the Lord draw near, that the tribulation may depart: let him be near, that the tribulation may be far off. For this trouble or tribulation