English allen 7.24 43 48285 A COMMENTARY ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS; IN WHICH THEIR LITERAL OR HISTORICAL SENSE, AS THEY RELATE TO KING DAVID AND THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL, IS ILLUSTRATED; AND THEIR APPLICATION TO MESSIAH, TO THE CHURCH, AND TO INDIVIDUALS AS MEMBERS THEREOF, IS POINTED OUT; WITH A VIEW TO RENDER THE USE OF THE PSALTER PLEASING AND PROFITABLE TO ALL ORDERS AND DEGREES OF CHRISTIANS. BY GEORGE, LORD BISHOP OF NORWICH, AND PRESIDENT OF MAGDALEN COLLEGE, OXFORD. All things must be fulfilled which were written in the Psalms concerning me. Luke, xxiv. 44. THE TENTH EDITION. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. PREFACE. THE Psalms are an epitome of the Bible, adapted to the purposes of devotion. They treat occasionally of the creation and formation of the world; the dispensations of Providence, and the economy of grace; the transactions of the patriarchs; the exodus of the children of Israel; their journey through the wilderness, and settlement in Canaan; their law, priesthood, and ritual; the exploits of their great men, wrought through faith; their sins and captivities; their repentances and restorations; the sufferings and victories of David; the peaceful and happy reign of Solomon; the advent of Messiah, with its effects and consequences; his incarnation, birth, life, passion, death, resurrection, ascension, kingdom, and priesthood; the effusion of the Spirit; the conversion of the nations; the rejection of the Jews; the establishment, increase, and perpetuity of the Christian church; the end of the world; the general judgement; the condemnation of the wicked, and the final triumph of the righteous with their Lord and King. These are the subjects here presented to our meditations. We are instructed how to conceive of them aright, and to express the different affections which, when so conceived of, they must excite in our minds. They are, for this purpose, adorned with the figures, and set off with all the graces, of poetry; and poetry itself is designed yet farther to be recommended by the charms of music, thus consecrated to the service of God; that so delight may prepare the way for improvement, and pleasure become the handmaid of wisdom, while every turbulent passion is calmed by sacred melody, and the evil spirit is still dispossessed by the harp of the son of Jesse. This little volume, like the paradise of Eden, affords us in perfection, though in miniature, every thing that groweth elsewhere, "every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and "good for food:" and above all, what was there lost, but is here restored, THE TREE OF LIFE IN THE MIDST OF THE GARDEN. That which we read, as matter of speculation, in the other Scriptures, is reduced to practice, when we recite it in the Psalms; in those, repentance and faith are described, but in these, they are acted; by a perusal of the former, we learn how others served God, but, by using the latter, we serve him ourselves. "What " is there necessary for man to know," says the pious and judicious Hooker, " which the Psalms are |