And again, another great excellency of the Book of Psalms is this. In other scriptures and histories, for the most part the works and bodily exercises only of the saints are described: you have very few histories which give you the words, expressions, and sighs of the saints, which are the indexes of the state of their minds. But it is in these things that the Book of Psalms may be a feast of delight for the meditations of the godly. In these respects, therefore, the reading of a Psalm is peculiarly sweet; because you have therein, not only the works and acts of the saints, but their very words and expressions, nay, their sighs and groans to God, and the utterance in which they conversed with him during their temptations; and all these are recorded in such a lively and descriptive manner, that those saints, though now dead, seem still to live and speak in the Psalms. Thus all other histories and lives of the saints, which describe their acts and works only, when compared to the Book of Psalms, set forth to us nothing more than dumb saints; and every thing that is recorded of them is dull and lifeless. But in the Psalms, where the very expressions of those that prayed in faith are recorded, all things live, all things breathe, and living characters are set before us in the most lively colours: the saints are represented to us as standing supported by their faith, even in the midst of afflictions and tribulations. A dumb man, indeed, is rather a lifeless post than a man; for man is distinguished from the brute creation by nothing more than by the power of speech. A stone even, under the hand of the artificer, may represent the figure of a man. And, as to eating and drinking, all dumb animals can do those things as well as he: they can use the organs of sense as well as he: and indeed, as to strength of body, they have greatly the advantage of him. Hence, it is the power of speech that so distinguishes man from, and raises him above, the brute creation: and that speech is the index of, and the mirror that reflects, the mind. As, therefore, the Psalms describe the words and expressions of the saints, they give us an exact picture of their minds. For the Psalms record not those common and everywhere-heard expressions of the saints, but those ardent and pathetic utterances, by which, in real earnest, and under the very pressure of temptations, and in the very wrestlings of their souls, they poured out their hearts like Jacob, not before man, but before God! The Psalms give us, therefore, not only the works and words of the saints, but the very hidden treasure of their hearts’ feelings—the very inmost sensations and motions of their soul.