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may reveal even this unto us." To increase the number of disputes among us, is, therefore, by no means the intent of this publication. The author having, for many years, accustomed himself to consider and apply the Psalms, while he recited them according to the method now laid down, has never failed to experience the unspeakable benefit of it, both in public and in private; and would wish, if it so pleased God, that death might find him employed in meditations of this kind.* He has likewise frequently taken occasion, in the course of his ministry, to explain a Psalm upon the sanie plan, from the pulpit; and whenever he has done so, whether the audience were learned or unlearned, polite or rustic, he has generally had the happiness to find the discourse, in an especial manner, noticed and remembered. But still, many may be of a different opinion, who may conscientiously believe the doctrines, and practise the duties of the gospel, whether they see them shadowed out in the Psalms or not. Such will enjoy their own liberty, and permit their brethren to do the same. Or, if they shall think it necessary to take up the polemical pen, he desires only to receive that treatment which he has himself shown to every writer, cited, or referred to by him. Instead of engaging in a tedious, and, perhaps, unprofitable altercation upon the subject, he feels himself, at present, much rather inclined, in such a case, to follow, at his proper distance, the amiable example of his greatly respected Diocesan, who reprinted in England the objections made by a foreign Professor to some parts of his Lectures on the Hebrew poetry, and left the public to form its own judgment between them. From that Public, the author of the following

"I have lost a world of time," said the learned Salmasius, on his death. bed; "if I had one year more, I would spend it in reading David's Psalms, and Paul's Epistles."

† Detur igitur erratis meis venia: Ipse demum exemplo meo mihi prosim, qui neminem eorum a quibus dissenserim, contumeliis affeci, qui non, vitio Criticorum, in diversæ sententiæ propugnatores acriter invectus sum; qui denique eam veniam antecessoribus meis libens tribui, quam ab iis, qui hæc in manus sumturi sint, velim impetrare. Pearce in Præfat. ad edit. Cic de Oratore.

"In his si quæ sunt quæ mihi minus persuasit Vir Clarissimus, ea malui hoc modo libero Lectorum nostrorum judicio permittere, quam in disceptationem et controversiam, injucundam, et fortasse infi uctuosam vocare." Lowth, in Præfat. ad edit. 2dam Pralect. de Sacra Poesi Hebræorum. -"Authors should avoid, as much as they can," says another very learned critic, "replies and rejoinders, the usual consequences of which are, loss of time, and loss of temper. Happy is he who is engaged in controversy with his own passions, and comes off superior; who makes it his endea

work is now to expect the determination of his fate. Should its sentence be in his disfavour, nothing farther remains to be said, than that he has honestly and faithfully endeavoured to serve it, to the utmost of his power, in the way in which he thought himself best able; and to give the world some account of that time, and those opportunities, which, by the Providence of a gracious God, and the munificence of a pious Founder, he has long enjoyed in the happy retirement of a college.

vour, that his follies and weaknesses may die before him, and who daily meditates on mortality and immortality." Jortin's Preface to his Remarks on Ecclesiastical History, p. xxxiv.

That the Reader may the more easily turn to such Psalms as will best suit the present state of his mind, according to the different circumstances, whether external or internal, into which by the changes and chances of life, or the variations of temper and disposition, he may, at any time, be thrown, the common Table of Psalms, classed under their several subjects, is here subjoined.

PRAYERS.

1. Prayers for Pardon of Sin. Psalm 6, 25, 38, 51, 150. Psalms, styled Penitential, 6, 33, 38, 51, 102, 130, 143.

HI. Prayers composed when the Psalmist was deprived of an opportunity of the public exercise of religion. Psalm 42, 43, 63, 84. III. Prayers wherein the Psalmist seems extremely dejected, though not totally deprived of consolation under his afflictions. Psalm 13,

22, 69, 77, 88, 143. IV. Prayers wherein the Psalmist asketh help of God, in consideration of his own integrity, and the uprightness of his cause. Psalm 7, 17, 26, 35.

V. Prayers expressing the firmest trust and confidence in God under afflictions. Psalm 3, 16, 27, 31, 54, 56, 57, 61, 62, 71, 86. VI. Prayers composed when the people of God were under affliction or persecution. Psalm 44, 60, 74, 79, 80, 83, 89, 94, 102, 123, 137. VII. The following are likewise Prayers in time of trouble and affliction. Psalm 4, 5, 11, 28, 41, 55, 59, 64, 70, 109, 120, 140, 141, 142.

I.

Psalm 45, 48, 65, 66, 68, 76, 81,

84, 98, 105, 124, 126, 129, 135, 136, 149.

Psalms of Praise and Adoration, displaying the Attributes of God. General acknowledgments of God's Goodness and Mercy, and particularly his care and protection of good men. Psalm 23, 34, 36, 91, 100, 103, 107, 117, 121, 145, 146. II. Psalms displaying the Power, Majesty, Glory, and other attributes of the Divine Being. Psalm 8, 19, 24, 29, 33, 47, 50, 65, 66, 76, 77, 93, 95 96, 97, 99, 104, 111, 113, 114, 115, 134, 139, 147, 148, 150.

Instructive Psalms. I. The different characters of good and bad men; the happiness of the one, and the miseries of the other, are represented in the following. Psalm 1, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 17, 24, 25, 32, 34, 36, 37, 50, 52, 53, 58, 73, 75, 84, 91, 92, 94, 112, 119, 121, 125, 127, 128, 123

II. The excellence of God's Law. Psalm 19, 119

III The vanity of human life. Psalm 39, 49, 90.

IV. Advice to magistrates. Psalm 82, 101.

VIII. Prayers of intercession. Psalm V. The virtue of humility. Psalm 20, 67, 122, 132, 144.

Psalms of Thanksgiving.

I. Thanksgivings for Mercies vouchsafed to particular persons. Psalm 9, 18, 22, 30, 34, 40, 75, 103, 108, 116, 118, 138, 144.

131.

Psalms more eminently and directly prophetical.

Psalm 2, 16, 22, 40, 45, 68, 72, 87, 101, 118.

Historical Psalms.

II. Thanksgivings for mercies vouch- Psalm 78, 105, 106. safed to the Israelites in general,

A

COMMENTARY

ON

THE BOOK OF PSALMS.

FIRST DAY.....MORNING PRAYER.

PSALM I.

ARGUMENT.

This Psalm, which is generally looked upon by expositors as a preface, or introduction to the rest, describes the blessedness of the righteous, consisting, ver. 1. negatively, in their abstaining from sin; 2. positively, in holy meditation on the scriptures, productive of continual growth in grace, which 3. is beautifully represented under an image borrowed from vegetation; as 4. is the opposite state of the unbelieving and ungodly, by a comparison taken from the threshing-floor. The two last verses foretell the final issue of things, with respect to both good and bad men, at the great day.

V

́ER. 1. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

The Psalter, like the sermon on the mount, openeth with a "beatitude," for our comfort and encouragement, directing us immediately to that happiness, which all mankind, in different ways, are seeking, and inquiring after. All would secure themselves from the incursions of misery; but all do not consider, that misery is the offspring of sin, from which it is therefore necessary to be delivered and preserved, in order to become happy, or "blessed." The variety of expressions here used by David, inF

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