my

flesh also shall rest in hope. For thou wilt not leave soul in Hell*, neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption. Now these words, as we are assured by St. Peter, Acts ii. 25, &c. and St. Paul, Acts xiii. 85, &c. were an express prophecy of Christ; and they could not relate to David himself because he was dead and buried, and his sepulchre remaining to

*The word here rendered Hell has probably no reference to the place of future punishment. Both in the LXX, and in the New Testament it is eo ads, that is, the grave, or, as some think, the place appointed for departed souls till the final judgment *. The soul is a hebraism often meaning the person, as in the celebrated wish of Balaam, let me die the death of the righteous, &c, the literal translation is let my soul die, &c. Some suppose however, from a passage in St. Peter's 1st Epistle that Christ actually descended into hell and preached to the spirits there. If the prophecy be explained literally, it may mean that neither should the body of Christ lie so long in the grave as to be corrupted, nor his soul continue in that appointed place whatever it may be.

* The word is variously translated: in our old version 1566, it is Hell; in Barker's Bible 1608, it is Grave; in the Vulgate it is, in Inferno; in Tremel and Junius, it is in Sepulchre; in Diodati, nel Sepolero; and in Castalio, Orco.

that

that day; but they were fulfilled in the resurrection of Christ. And a very wonderful prophecy it was, foretelling that the holy One of God should die and be buried, and yet that his body should not lie so long in the grave as to suffer the usual operation of time upon dead flesh. Neither in the natural nor spiritual sense could the holy One of God see corruption; but the prophecy must be completely unintelligible if it be supposed to apply to any other person.

So also the first words of the 22d Psalm, are applied to himself by our Lord in his agony on the cross; my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And when the chief priests mocked him with the scribes and elders they also used the words of the Sth verse of the same Psalm, clearly intimating the received application of it to their expected Messiah, which character, as they supposed, Jesus had falsely arrogated to himself; He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him: let him deliver him seeing he delighted in him, or, as it is expressed

1

in

in St. Matthew's Gospel, let him deliver him now if he will have him *. In the 16th verse also of the same Psalm, David says, they pierced my hands and my feet; and in the 18th, they part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture neither of which circumstances ever happened to him; but there can be no doubt that Christ's hands and feet were pierced when he was nailed to the cross, that his garments were literally parted among the soldiers, and that they cast lots for his vesture: And therefore the Evangelist applies this last passage to those circumstances of the death of Christ in the most direct and striking manner. He says it was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Prophet, they parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did

* 0% Dɛhei aulov, Sept. which translation was at that time in common use among the Jews; in comformity to which the Vulgate also renders this verse of the Psalm, quoniam vult eum. "From this verse to the 20th, the "words are prophetical of Christ, and literally fulfilled in "him." Dimock, in Loc.

they

they cast lots*. And in the parallel passage of St. John the same quotation is made,

and the same reason assigned for it. So that it is evident that both these Evangelists considered this Psalm as scripture, and as written by a prophet.

In the 41st Psalm too there is a passage which however applicable it might be to David in the first instance, yet was certainly prophetical of the Messiah; and was fulfilled, as Christ himself informs us, John xiii, 18, when Judas, one of his chosen followers, was about to betray him. I speak, says he, not of you all; I know whom I have chofen: but that the scripture may be fulfilled, He that eateth bread with me hath lift up his heel against me. These words are taken from the 9th verse of this Psalm; and were fulfilled almost literally, when Jesus gave the piece of bread,

*Matt. xxvii. 35. This quotation seems also to be made by the Evangelist from the LXX, because the tense of the two verbs is changed as in that version, Aiɛμɛpisavlo and 62λov. The Vulgate is in the same tense. Diviseruntmiserunt.

or sop, to Judas when he was going to betray him.

Of the 110th Psalm we have the testimony of our Lord himself, Matt. xxii. 42, &c, that it was a prophecy of the Messiah. He quoted it to shew the Pharisees their error in supposing that Christ was to be in the literal sense the son or descendant, of David; inasmuch as he called him Lord; the Lord said unto my Lord; for this had led them to a very false conclusion, that he was also to be, like him, a powerful temporal prince, who was to deliver them from the yoke of their Roman governors; and this was an error of fatal consequence, because it was one chief cause of their refusing to acknowledge the meek and lowly son of Joseph as their expected triumphant Redeemer. For though they who were believed to be the father and mother of Jesus, were indeed sprung from David, yet he wished the Jews to understand that he was in reality the son of God, that his was a spiritual kingdom, that he was the

Lord