He, therefore, truly sanctifies the name of the Lord, who keeps himself from usurping it. And this he does, when he acknowledges that no good work belongs unto him, but unto God only; and when he confesses him to be that which he is praised as being, Psalm cxlv. 17, "The Lord is holy in all his works." Behold, this is what is enjoined in the second commandment, 'Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.' This is what we pray for when we say, 'Hallowed (or sanctified) be thy name.' And this also is what is intended, Psalm cxi. 9, "Holy and reverend is his name."

But these impious justiciaries rushing on rashly, continually pollute the name of the Lord, while they ascribe unto themselves righteousness, power, and wisdom, and are pleased with hearing their own name praised in these things. From whence it follows, that with the greater number of the gifts of God any one of them is adorned, the more perilously he lives: and therefore, no one of mortals has a greater need of the fear of God than such an one, lest he should pollute his name, and ascribe unto himself those things which are the gifts of God, or should patiently suffer them to be ascribed unto him by others. This is that temptation "on the right hand" where ten thousands fall. This is that "arrow that flieth by day," and that "demon (or destruction) that wasteth at noon-day." For which cause, Gregory takes upon him to assert in many places, that the good works of all saints are unclean; because, that is, they cannot sufficiently abstain from the name of God, nor hold him so holy and terrible as they ought to hold him: nor will do so, until the passions of nature be wholly mortified; which never will be done in this life. For how rare a thing is it to find a man who is frightened and terrified at the name and praise bestowed upon him, and shrinks from putting his hand on it as a most holy thing of God, which it is terrible to touch? Nay, we rather smile sweetly as if pleased, and, like swine, quietly suffer ourselves to be rubbed with this kind of praise.

Where, then, shall they appear who like the giants of old, from an insatiable and maddened love of praise

and of fame, carry on war againt the Lord and his name by mountains heaped on mountains; thereby endeavouring to take from the Lord both his work and his name, and to usurp it for themselves? And yet such, in the meantime, prate nothing else, but 'Hallowed be thy name,' 'Glory to God alone,' 'Thanks be to God!' 'In the name of the Lord, Amen:' and with such plastering and daubings as these, they colour, paint, and set off their Jezebel faces. And indeed, the world is so filled with the robbery of the divine equality, with the profanation of the name of God, and with the pollution of the name of God, that there is not one of them that sees, that, instead of fighting for the name of God, they are horribly fighting against it, and implacably resisting it.

What a sacrilege is it deemed for the cups, the coverings, and the linen of the churches and the altars to be touched by the laity, because they are consecrated in the name of the Lord? And yet, none more awfully pollute and defile the name of the Lord, than those very blind consecrators, those reprobate self-justifiers, and those most vain-boasters of the works and words of God themselves, by their polluted touching of his glory.

He, therefore, reverently loves the name of the Lord, who, with pious awe, trembles to touch his praise and good name, and abstains from it as from that ointment, mentioned Exod. xxx. 22-33, which was commanded to be kept holy, and that no other composition should be made like it, that the flesh of man should not be anointed with it, but the tabernacle and the vessels thereof only. For he that thus worships and sanctifies the name of God, shall be sanctified by it: according to that of Psalm xviii. "with the holy thou wilt show thyself holy." Because such an one not only reverences the name of God, that he might not touch it himself, that he might not usurp it, and that he might not anoint himself with it; but he desires that this same name should in the same way be reverenced and held holy by all: and, that this may be brought to pass, he omits to do nothing either by doing or by suffering.

And now, the sum of all that we have said, may be

set forth in a plain way, thus.-That no one should be elated with prosperity. This is indeed a thing easy to be said, but it is most hidden, and most deep to be understood, and can be known by none but by those who are brought into the experience of it: as it is written, Ps. cxi. 9, 10, "Holy and reverend is his name. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do it; the praise of it endureth for ever."

But they who do not understand the fear of the Lord in any other way than in being terrified away from the commission of sin by the fear of punishment, do not understand any thing of it at all; nor will such ever learn to glory in the Lord, for the fear of the Lord is that whereby we fear to arrogate to ourselves, or arrogantly pollute, any of those things which are the Lord's: that is, his glory and his name: and when we fear to touch such things lest we should defile them. And in this fear we must proceed so far, as not to usurp to ourselves either temporal things nor spiritual, nor to imagine that there is any thing of ours in them but the being allowed to use them to supply our necessities, and those of our neighbours; and as being granted to us by the free bounty of God, to be possessed with godly reverence, and to be returned to him with faithful gratitude. The praise of such endureth for ever: that is, that they did not glory in themselves, nor in any men that praised them, but, according to Paul, 1 Cor. i. 31, desired only to "glory in the Lord!" And "then, (as he saith again, 1 Cor. iv. 5,) shall every man have praise of God." And Psalm xxxiv. 2, "My soul shall make her boast in the Lord." And again, 2 Cor. x. 18, "For not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth." And God praises and commends those only who take all praise from themselves, and give it unto him, and who do not desire their works to be seen for any other end than that their Father who is in heaven might be glorified, whose name they love and therefore, he loves and praises them again as he saith, 1 Sam. ii. 30, "For them that

honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed."

It is, however, a hard matter to be brought to, though it is necessary, to expect praise and a name from God, neglecting, in the meantime all the names and praises given us by men, and when they happen to be given us, to give them all back to God as being borne with in fear, rather than possessed, for the salvation of others. This is serving the Lord with fear, and rejoicing before him with reverence. This is, not being in despair when tried, and not lifted up in presumption when comforted and favoured: (as I have often observed before.)

Ver. 12. For thou, O Lord, wilt bless the righteous; as thou hast crowned us with the shield of thy favour.

Hieronymus translates it thus, For thou, O Lord, wilt bless the righteous; as thou wilt crown him with the shield of favourable kindness:' he omits the pronoun "thy:" and the pronoun "him" is more appropriate than the pronoun "us," for it refers to the "righteous." But I think that this genitive would be better turned into the ablative; thus, With thy favour, as with a shield.' But the force lies in the punctuation : our translator begins the last verse with the vocative "O Lord:" which, in the Hebrew, is the end of the middle one of the last three verses.

The sense of this verse is the same as that of Psalm iii. 8, though the words are somewhat different. "Salvation is of the Lord, and thy blessing is upon thy people." And as all the force and emphasis of this passage lie in the pronoun "thy," and the genitive "of the Lord;" so, in the passage now before us, they lie in the pronoun "thy" and the vocative "O Lord." The understanding of which depends upon the contrast drawn between the righteous and wicked generation. Men bless the wicked and curse the righteous: but thou, O Lord, says David, shalt bless the righteous: on which we have before spoken more at large in the end of Psalm iii.-But David is here explaining also the

preceding verse, where he had said, that all those rejoice who hope in God, that they rejoice in the time of adversity, and are the care of God; and that in prosperity all glory in God who love his name. And this they do, O Lord, (says David,) because they know that thou only blessest the righteous: and being instructed in this knowledge, they despise all the blessings and cursings of men, who bless them only that love their own name, but curse all those who love the name of the Lord only; that is, the righteous. Wherefore, it is not without a forcible meaning that he adds "the righteous:" thereby making a manifest distinction between them and the wicked, whom men bless, and not God, with a very different kind of blessing.

And here, again, we may remark the words of the prophet as spoken in the Spirit. For as he had before called these characters the workers of iniquity, malignant, and ungodly, who, before men, have any thing but this evil appearance, nay, have an appearance and form of godliness, while they deny the power thereof, 2 Tim. iii. 5. Therefore, the prophet by "righteous, here, means those who are such in spirit, but who, before men and in their eyes, seem unworthy not only of the name of "righteous," but of the name of men; and who are always considered fools, evil men, and mad men in the sight of those externally showy saints who rest securely in the blessing. And this disease, or rather impetuous flood of ungodliness, prevails at this day in the church even unto despair of all remedy. Therefore, whatever the great ones choose to do, they have plenty to favour and bless them, as if what they did were the will and pleasure of God also: and, if you doubt this at all, or mutter any thing against it, you must be immediately called a heretic, a son of the devil, and a son of perdition.

In this way does the holy and reverend name of God suffer in the present day in this way is it prostituted in the holy lusts of such men: thus is it made to serve the all-cruel tyranny of the Turkish ecclesiastics :