ing for the falvation of God:-he then builds upon a rock against which the gates of hell cannot prevail.-He may be troubled, it is true, on every fide, but shall not be distressed, -perplexed, yet not in despair :--though he walks through the valley of the shadow of death, even he fears no evil; this rod and this ftaff comfort him.

The virtue of this had been fufficiently tried by David, and had, no doubt, been of use to him in the course of a life full of afflictions; many of which were fo great, that he declares, that he should verily have fainted under the fense and apprehenfion of them, but that he believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. He believed!-how could he do otherwife? He had all the conviction that reafon and infpiration could give him,that there was a Being in whom every thing concurred which could be the proper object of truft and confidence ;-power to help,-and goodnefs always to incline him to do it.-He knew this infinite Being, tho' his dwelling was fo high-that his glory was above the heavens,yet humbled himself to behold the things that

are done in heaven and earth :-that he was not an idle and distant spectator of what passed there, but that he was a present help in time of trouble :-that he bowed the heavens and came down to over-rule the course of things; delivering the poor, and him that was in mifery, from him that was too ftrong for him; lifting the fimple out of his distress, and guarding him by his providence, fo that no man should do him wrong:-that neither the fun fhould fmite him by day, neither the moon by night. Of this the Pfalmift had fuch evidence from his obfervation on the life of others, with the strongest conviction, at the fame time, which a long life full of perfonal deliverances could give;-all which taught him the value of the leffon in the text, from which he had received fo much encouragement himself,— that he transmits it for the benefit of the whole race of mankind after him, to fupport them, as it had done him, under the afflictions which befel him.

Truft in God;-as if he had faid, whofoever thou art that shall hereafter fall into any fuch straits or troubles as I have experienced,

-learn by my example, where to feek for fuccour;-truft not in princes, nor in any child of man, for there is no help in them :—the fons of men, who are of low degree, are vanity, and are not able to help thee;-men of high degree are a lie,-too often deceive thy hopes, and will not help thee :—but thou, when thy foul is in heaviness,-turn thy eyes from the earth, and look up towards heaven, to that infinitely kind and powerful Being, who neither flumbereth nor fleepeth; who is a prefent help in time of trouble:-despond not, and fay within thyfelf,- why his chariot wheels ftay fo long? and why he vouchfafeth thee not a speedy relief?—but arm thyself in thy misfortunes with patience and fortitude; -trust in God, who fees all thofe conflicts under which thou laboureft,-who knows thy neceffities afar off,-and puts all thy tears into his bottle;-who fees every careful thought and penfive look, and hears every figh and melancholy groan thou uttereft.

In all thy exigencies truft and depend on him;-nor ever doubt but he, who heareth the cry of the fatherless, and defendeth the

cause of the widow, if it is juft, will hear thine, and either lighten thy burden, and let thee go free; or, which is the fame, if that seems not meet, by adding ftrength to thy mind, to enable thee to fuftain what he has fuffered to be laid upon thee.

Whoever recollects the particular pfalms faid to be compofed by this great man, under the feveral diftreffes and cross accidents of his life, will perceive the juftice of this paraphrase, which is agreeable to the ftrain of reasoning, -which runs through,-which is little else than a recollection of his own words and thoughts upon thofe occafions, in all which he appears to have been no less signal in his afflictions, than in his piety, and in that goodnefs of foul which he discovers under them.I faid, the reflections upon his own life and providential escapes, which he had experienced, had had a fhare in forming thefe religious fentiments of truft in his mind, which had fo early taken root, that when he was going to fight the Philistine,-when he was but a youth and stood before Saul,-he had already learned to argue in this manner :-Let no man's

heart fail him;-thy fervant kept his father's fheep, and there came a lion and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock, and I went out after him and fmote him, and delivered it out of his mouth; and when he arofe against me, I caught him by the beard, and fmote him, and flew him;-thy fervant flew both the lion and the bear, and this uncircumcifed Philiftine will be as one of them;-for the Lord, who delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will alfo deliver me out of his hand.

The conclufion was natural, and the experience which every man has had of God's former loving kindness and protection to him, either in dangers or diftrefs, unavoidably engage him to think in the fame train. It is observable, that the apoftle St. Paul, encouraging the Corinthians to bear with patience the trials incident to human nature, reminds them of the deliverances that God did formerly vouchfafe to him, and his fellow labourers, Gaius and Ariftarchus;-and on that ground builds a rock of encouragement, for future trust and dependance on him.-His life had been in very