“Thou, O Lord (saith the Psalmist) hast searched me out and known me; thou knowest me altogether; thou understandest my thoughts long before they are conceived by me. Wherever I move, whithersoever I go, thou surroundest me on every side; and being ever present with me, thou beholdest all my undertakings, and my works, and my ways, and all that I think of doing or undertaking. There is no speech, not even the least word, upon my tongue, but thou, O God, knowest it, before I utter it. Thine eyes beheld me, when yet imperfect in my mother’s womb; and thou didst wonderfully form and fashion me there.” And (ver. 6) the Psalmist exclaims, “Such knowledge is too high and wonderful; no mortal thought can attain unto it.” Here, it is as if the Psalmist had said, it is not in the capacity or powers of any mortal to think or determine how he will lead his life, what he will undertake, what he will do, what he will speak, what he will think, where he will go, or to, or from, or in what place he will turn; but all our acts, motions, and thoughts, are nothing less than the works of God ever present with us, doing and ruling all things as he will. And hence (ver. 19.) he utters his indignation against the wicked; saying, “Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O God.” Here he burns with zeal against hypocrites, who, being ignorant of all the works and words of God, and utterly blind and mad, ascribe all their doings to their own works and merits. These mortals are perpetually putting forth and boasting of their own ability and works, and are ever relying on their own doings and merits, and ascribing unto themselves that glory which belongs to God alone; whereas they have not one of their words in their own power, as of, or from, themselves; but all their words and thoughts are in the hand of God.—This glory, I say, they arrogate to themselves, when they are all the while so far from the wisdom of God and his divine works, that they neither know themselves nor any one part of themselves; nor understand how they were formed or fashioned in the womb of their mother; nor what their own body is, nor what are its properties and organs; nor what their eyes are, nor what their brain is; nor what the origin and nature of that motion is, by which their body is moved; and, in a word, when they know not what the soul and this natural life are; nor whence arise all those various motions and affections of the mind within, nor how they are uttered outwards by the tongue.