Into this ti-easury, towards the service of the house of God, it is that I have cast my mite in the ensuing exposition and discourses on the 130th Psalm. The design of the Holy Ghost was therein to express and reijresent, in the person and condition of the psah^iist, the case of a soul entangled and ready to be over- whelmed with the guilt of sin, reheved by a discovery of grace and forgiveness in God, with its deportment upon a participation of that rehef. After the exposition of the words of the text, my design and endeavour hath been only to enlarge the portraiture here given us in the psalm of a believing soul in and under the condi- tion mentioned ; to render the hues of it more visible, and to make the character given in its description more legible ; and withal, to give unto others in the like condition with the psalmist a light to understand and discern themselves in that image and representation which is here made of them in the person of another. To this end have I been forced to enlarge on the two great heads of sin and grace, — especially on the latter, here called the " forgiveness that is with God." An in- terest herein, a participation hereof, being our principal concernment in this world, and the sole foundation of all our expectations of a blessed portion in that which is to come, it certainly requires the best and utmost of our endeavours, as to look into the nature, causes, and effects of it, so especially into the ways and means whereby we may be made [)artakers of it, and how that participation may be secured unto us unto our peace and consolation ; as also into that love, that holi- ness, that obedience, that fruitf ulness in good works, which, on the account of this grace, God expceteth from us and requireth at our hands. An explication of these things is that which I have designed to ensue and follow after in these dis- courses, and that with a constant eye, as on the one hand to the sole rule and standard of truth, the sacred Scriptures, especially that part of it which is under peculiar consideration ; so, on the other, to the experience and service unto the edification of them that do believe, whose spiritual benefit and advantage, without any other consideration in the world, is aimed at in the publishing of them.
AN
EXPOSITION UPON PSALM CXXX.
Yerse 1, Out of tlie depths have I cried unto thee, 0 Lord,
2. Lord, hear my voice; let thine ears be attentive to the voice
of my supplications.
8. If til on, Lord, should est mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall
stand?
4. But there is forgiveness Avith thee, that thou mayest be feared.
5. I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope.
6. My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning: / say, more than they that watch for the morning.
7. Let Israel hope in the LoRD: for with the LoRD there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption.
8. And he shall redeem Israel from all his miquities.
A PARAPHRASE.
Verses 1, 2. — O Lord, through my manifold sins and provocations, I have brought myself into great distresses. Mine iniquities are always before me, and I am ready to be overwhelmed with them, as with a flood of waters; for they have brought me into depths, wherein I am ready to be swallowed up. But yet, although my distress be great and perplexing, I do not, I dare not, utterly despond and cast away all hopes of relief or recovery. Nor do I seek unto any other remedy, way, or means of relief; but I aj)ply myself to thee, Jehovah, to thee alone. And in this my application unto thee, the greatness and urgency of my troubles makes my soul urgent, earnest, and pressing in my supplications. Whilst I have no rest, I can give thee no rest. Oh, therefore, attend and hearken unto the voice of my cry- ing and supplications !
Verse 8. — It is tme, O Lord, thou God great and terrible, that if thou shouldst deal with me in this condition, with any man living, with the best of thy saints, according to the strict and exact tenor of the law, which first represents itself to my guilty conscience and
328 AN EXPOSITION UPON PSALM cxxx. [\er.4-S.
troubled soul; if thou slioulclst take notice of, observe, and keep in remembrance, mine, or their, or the iniquity of any one, to the end that thou mightst deal with them, and recompense unto them ac- cording to the sentence thereof, there -woukl be, neither for me nor them, any the least expectation of deliverance. All flesh must fail before thee, and the spirits v/hich thou hast made, and that to eter- nity ; for who could stand before thee when thou shouklst so execute thy displeasure?
Verse 4. — But, O Lord, this is not absolutely and universally the state of things between thy Majesty and poor sinners; thou art in thy nature infinitely good and gracious, ready and free in the purposes of thy will to receive them. And there is such a blessed way made for the exercise of the holy inclinations and purposes of thy heart towards them, in the mediation and blood of thy dear Son, that they have assured foundations of concluding and believing that there is pardon and forgiveness with thee for them, and which, in the way of thine appointments, they may be partakers of This way, therefore, will I, with all that fear thee, persist in, I will not give over, leave thee, or turn from thee, through my fears, discouragements, and despon- dencies ; but will abide constantly in the observation of the worship which thou hast prescribed, and the performance of the obedience which thou dost require, having great encouragements so to do.