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imagined, that our blessed Lord, as a member of the Jewish church, and an attendant on the service of the synagogue, though conscious to himself of no sin, did not frequently join with his brethren according to the flesh,' in the repetition of the Penitential, as well as the other Psalms, on the days of humiliation and expiation, when the use of them might be prescribed. If, from his circumcision to his crucifixion, he bare our sins in his own body; why should it be thought strange, that he should confess them, on our behalf, with his own mouth? The offence taken at the supposed uncharitable and vindictive spirit of the imprecations, which occur in some of the Psalms, ceases immediately, if we change the imperative for the future, and read, not LET THEM BE confounded,' &c. but, THEY SHALL BE Confounded,' &c. of which the Hebrew is equally capable. Such passages will then have no more difficulty in them, than the other fequent predictions of divine vengeance in the writings of the prophets, or denunciations of it in the Gospels, intended to warn, to alarm, and to lead sinners to repentance, that they may fly from the wrath to come. This is Dr. Hammond's observation; who very properly remarks, at the same time, that in many places of this sort, as particularly in Psalm cix. (and the same may be said of Psalm lxix.), it is reasonable to resolve, that Christ himself speaketh in the prophet; as being the person there principally concerned, and the completion most signal in many circumstances there mentioned the succession especially of Matthias to the apostleship of Judas. It is true, that in the citation made by St. Peter from Psal. cixa in Acts i. 20, as also that made by St. Paul, from Psalxix. in Rom. xi. 9., the imperative form is preserved; LET his habitation be void,&c. LET their table be made a snare,&c. But it may be considered, that the apostles generally cited from the Greek of the LXX version; and took it as they found it, making no alteration, when the passage, as it there stood; was sufficient to prove the main point which it was adduced to prove. If the imprecatory form be still contended for, all that can be meant by it, whether uttered by the Prophet, by. Messiah, or by ourselves, must be a solemn ratification of the just judgments of the Al

mighty against his impenitent enemies, like what we find ascribed to the blesseds spirits in heaven, when such judgments were executed Rev. xi. 17, 18. xvi 5, 6, 7: see Merrick's Annotations on Ps. cix. and Witsii Miscellan. Sacr. lib. i. cap. xviii. sect. 24. But, by the future rendering the verbs, every possible objection is precluded at once. The method has therefore been adopted in the ensuing Commentary.

Of the psalms which relate to Israel, some are employed in celebrating the mercies vouchsafed them, from their going forth out of Egypt, to their complete settlement in Canaan. These were the constant standing subjects of praise and thanksgiving in the Israelitish church. But we are taught, by the writers of the New Testament, to consider this part of their history astone continued figure, or allegory. We are told that there is another spiritual Israel of God; other children of Abraham, and heirs of the promise; another circumcision; another Egypt, from the bondage of which they are redeemed; another wilderness, through which they jour ney; other dangers and difficulties which there await themother bread from heaven for their support, aand another rock to supply them with living water; other enemies to overcome; another land of Canaan, and another Jerusalem, which they are to obtain, and to possess for ever. In the same light are to be viewed the various provocations and punishments, captivities and restora tions, of old Israel afterwards, concerning which it is likewise true, that they happened unto them for ensam. ples, types, or figures, and were written for our admol nition!" Care has therefore Sheen taken to open and apply, for that salutary purpose, the Psalms which treat of the above-mentioned particulars and rabov192979 What is said in the Psalms occasionally of the Law and its ceremonies, sacrifices, ablutions, and purifications: of the tabernacle and temple, with the services therein performed; and of the Aaronical spriesthood call this Christians transfer to the new law to the oblation of Christ to justification by his blood, and sanctification of thesdi od nɛɔ tedt lls tot bobres 2 Cor. x.11qor¶ aft

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by his Spirit; to the true tabernacle, or temple not made with hands; and to what was therein done for the salvaone respect, a

tion of the world, by Him who was, in

Sacrifice; in another, a Temple; and in a third, a High Priest for ever, after the order of Melchisedek. That such was the intention of these legal figures, is declared at large in the Epistle to the Hebrews: and they are of great assistance to us now, in forming our ideas of the realities to which they correspond. Under the Jewish economy,' says the excellent Mr. Pascal, truth appeared but in a figure; in heaven it is open, and without a veil; in the church militant it is so veiled, as to be yet discerned by its correspondence to the figure. As the figure was first built upon the truth, so the truth is now distinguishable by the figure. The variety of strong expressions used by David in the 19th and the 119th Psalms, to extol the enlivening, saving, healing, comforting efficacy of a law, which, in the letter of it, whether ceremonial or moral, without pardon and grace, could minister nothing but condemnation, do sufficiently prove, that David understood the spirit of it, which was the Gospel itself. And if any, who recited those Psalms, had not the same idea, it was not the fault of the Law or

Hæc inter, veri et spirituales Judæi, hoc est, ante Christum Christi discipuli, altiora cogitabant, et rerum cœlestium Sacramenta venerati, novam Jerusalem, novum templum, novam arcam intuebantur. Bossuet. Dissertat. in Psal. cap. i.-Lex, juxta Spiritum accepta, ipsum erat Evangelium, sub veteribus figuris delitescens, et ceremóniarum velis obtectum, ab ipso quidem Mose (inprimis in Deuteronomio) aliquatenus et pro temporum ratione explicatum, a prophetis verò succedentibus (ut visum est Divinæ Sapientiæ) dilucidius ostensum, demum a Christo et apostolis plenissime et luce ipso sole clariori patefactum. BULLI Opera per Grabe, p. 614.-If the Jews, as our Saviour tells them, thought they had eternal life in their Scriptures,' they must needs have understood them in a spiritual sense; and I know not what other spiritual sense, that should lead them to the expectation of eternal life, they could put on their Scriptures, but that prophetical or typical sense, which respected the Messiah. Jesus expressly asserts, at the same time, that their Scriptures testified of Him.' How generally they did so, he explained at large, in that remarkable conversation with two of his disciples after his resurrection; when, beginning at Moses, and ALL the prophets, he expounded unto them in ALL the Scriptures, the things concerning himself.'-HURD's Introd, to the Study of the Prophecies, Serm. ii.

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of the Psalms, of Moses or of David, or of him who inspired both, but it was their own; as it is that of the Jews, at this hour, though their prophecies have now been fulfilled, and their types realised. He that takes his estimate of the Jewish religion from the grossness of the Jewish multitude,' as the last cited author observes, 'cannot fail of making a very wrong judgment. It is to be sought for in the sacred writings of the prophets, who have given us sufficient assurance, that they understood the Law not according to the letter. Our religion, in like manner, is true and divine in the Gospels, and in the preaching of the apostles; but it appears utterly disfigured in those who maim or corrupt it.'

Besides the figures supplied by the history of Israel, and by the Law, there is another set of images often employed in the Psalms, to describe the blessings of redemption. These are borrowed from the natural world, the manner of its original production, and the operations continually carried on in it. The visible works of God are formed to lead us, under the direction of his word, to a knowlege of those which are invisible; they give us ideas, by analogy, of a new creation rising gradually, like the old one, out of darkness and deformity, until at length it arrives at the perfection of glory and beauty; so that while we praise the Lord for all the wonders of his power, wisdom, and love, displayed in a system which is to wax old and perish, we may therein contemplate, as in a glass, those new heavens, and that new earth, of whose duration there shall be no end.' The sun, that fountain of life, and heart of the world, that bright leader of the armies of heaven, enthroned in glorious majesty; the moon shining with a lustre borrowed from his beams; the stars glittering by night in the clear firmament; the air giving breath to all things that live and move; the interchanges of light and darkness; the course of the year, and the sweet vicissitudes of seasons; the rain and

Read nature; nature is a friend to truth;
Nature is CHRISTIAN, preaches to mankind;
And bids dead matter aid us in our creed.

YOUNG.

the dew descending from above, and the fruitfulness of the earth caused by them; the bow bent by the hands of the Most High, which compasseth the heaven about with a glorious circle; the awful voice of thunder, and the piercing power of lightning; the instincts of animals," and the qualities of vegetables and minerals; the great and wide sea, with its unnumbered inhabitants; all these are ready to instruct us in the mysteries of faith, and the duties of morality:→→

They speak their Maker as they can,

But want and ask the tongue of man.

PARNELL.

The advantages of Messiah's reign are represented, in some of the Psalms, under images of this kind. We behold a renovation of all things, and the world, as it were, new created, breaks forth into singing. The earth is crowned with sudden verdure and fertility; the field is joyful, and all that is in it; the trees of the wood rejoice before the Lord; the floods clap their hands in concert, and ocean fills up the mighty chorus, to celebrate the advent of the Great King.

I believe, a good natural philosopher might show, with great reason and probability, that there is scarce beast, bird, reptile, or insect, that does not, in each particular climate, instruct and admonish mankind of some necessary truth for their happiness either in body or mind.' Dr. CHEYNE'S Philosophical Conjectures on the Preference of Vegetable Food, p. 73. That which a celebrated writer has observed concerning a poet, may perhaps be equally applicable to a divine-To him nothing can be useless. Whatever is beautiful, and whatever is dreadful, should be familiar to his imagination; he should be conversant with all that is awfully vast, or elegantly little. The plants of the garden, the animals of the wood, the minerals of the earth, and the meteors of the sky, should all concur to store his mind with inexhaustible variety; for every idea is useful for the enforcement or decoration of moral or religious truth; and he who knows most, will have most power of diversifying his scenes, and of gratifying his reader with remote allusions, and unexpected instruction. By him, therefore, no kind of knowlege should be overlooked. He should range mountains and deserts for images and resemblances, and picture upon his mind every tree of the forest, and flower of the valley; the crags of the rock, and the mazes of the stream.' RASSELAS, chap. x. The reader may see this exemplified in some • Disquisitions on select Subjects of Scripture,' by my worthy friend, the Rev. Mr. JONES, whose labors make it evident, that true philosophy will ever be the handmaid of true divinity.