and glory of the eternal King; 3. describes the danger she is often in from persecutions, &c. but, 4. strengtheneth herself in God her Saviour, whose house, 5. ought to be, like himself, full of truth and holiness.

1. The LORD reigneth, he is clothed with majesty, the LORD is clothed with strength, wherewith he hath girded himself: the world also is established, that it cannot be moved.

From the beginning, God, as Creator, was sovereign Lord of the universe. He was also formerly, in a more especial manner, King of Israel. But since that time, a new and spiritual kingdom hath been erected by Jesus Christ, as Redeemer, whom the church now celebrates, and whose praises she sings continually. Risen from the dead, and ascended into heaven, the Lord Jesus reigneth, and shall reign, "till he hath put all enemies under his feet," 1 Cor. xv. 25. By the glorification of his human nature, he is "clothed with majesty; all power is given unto him in heaven and in earth;" Matt. xxviii. 18, so that he is girded with strength; and through that strength, he hath established the new world, that is to say, his church, that it cannot be moved, or subverted, by all the powers of earth and hell. 2. Thy throne is established of old; thou art from everlasting. Earthly thrones are temporary; they are set up and cast down again, neither is any trust to be reposed in them. But the throne of Christ is eternal and unchangeable. Constituted before the foundation of the world, it is to endure when no traces of such a system having once existed, shall any more be found.

3. The floods have lifted up, O LORD, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their waves. 4. The LORD on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea.

In the first of these verses, the church appears, like a ship in a stormy sea, to which she is often compared. Persecutions and afflictions are those floods, those waves of this troublesome world, which threaten every moment to overwhelm and sink her. With a fearful and desponding tone of voice, therefore, she crieth out, "The floods have lifted up, O LORD, the floods have lifted up their voice, the floods lift up their waves!" But immediately she strengtheneth and comforteth herself in the Lord her God; "The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea:" He can say to sorrows and temptations, as he doth to the waters of the ocean, Peace, be still; hitherto shall ye come, but no farther;" and his word is with equal power in both cases.

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5. Thy testimonies are very sure: holiness becometh thine house, O LORD, for ever.

God's testimonies are the promises made in scripture to the church, that he will be with her during the afflictions which befall her here below, and will in time deliver her out of all her troubles. These testimonies are very sure; these promises do not, they cannot fail. Holiness, therefore, which consisteth in obedience and patience, "becometh," is the proper ornament, grace, and beauty of his house, and of Christians, those living stones that compose it. Sacred and inviolable is the word of our King; sacred and inviolable should be the loyalty of his subjects.

PSALM XCIV.

ARGUMENT.

The Psalmist, complaining of corrupt and troublous times, in the person of the church, 1-4. prayeth for the downfal of prosperous wickedness; 5, 6. he describeth the cruelty, and 7-11. reproveth the atheistical folly of those who persecute God's people; 12, 13. he extolleth the blessedness of the persecuted, if they are endued with faith and patience, inasmuch as, 14, 15. the divine promise and their future reward are certain; he therefore, 16-19. throweth himself wholly upon God, whose mercies never fail, who 20, 21. cannot be on the side of iniquity, but, 22, 23. will preserve his saints, and destroy their enemies.

1. O LORD God, to whom vengeance belongeth: O God, to whom vengeance belong eth, show thyself. 2. Lift up thyself, thou Judge of the earth: render a reward to the proud.

The church, however unjustly oppressed and afflicted, remembereth that vengeance belongeth not to her, had she the power to inflict it, but to God only, who hath said, “vengeance is mine, I will repay," Rom. xii. 19. To him, therefore, she maketh her supplication, that he would manifest his glory in her salvation; that he would ascend the tribunal, as Judge of the earth, try her cause, and avenge her of her insolent and cruel persecutors.

3. LORD, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked triumph? 4. How long shall they utter and speak hard things? and all the workers of iniquity boast themselves.

The triumphs of wickedness, the hard speeches, taunts, and scoffs of infidelity against Christ, and all who belong to him, are a continual grief of heart to the faithful in the world, who desire nothing so much as to see the empire of sin at an end, and the

kingdom of righteousness established. But for this great event they must wait with patience, until the time appointed by the Father, when the iniquities of the world and the sufferings of the church shall be full. "I saw under the altar," saith the well-beloved John, "the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held. And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And white robes were given unto every one of them, and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow-servants also, and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled," Rev. vi. 9, &c.

5. They break in pieces thy people, O LORD, and afflict thine heritage. 6. They slay the widow and stranger, and murder the fatherless.

Some instances of cruelty, exercised by the enemies against the people and heritage of God, are here specified. Widows, strangers, and orphans, are destitute of the help and protection afforded by husbands, friends, and fathers. Christ is become a husband to the church, a father to her children, and the only friend to both in time of need. Else were we all in the state of strangers and orphans, exposed with our widowed mother to the unrelenting malice and fury of the great oppressor and murderer.

7. Yet they say, the LORD shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it. 8. Understand, ye brutish among the people; and ye fools, when will ye be wise? 9. He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? He that formed the eye, shall he not sce? 10. He that chastiseth the heathen, shall not he correct? He that teacheth man knowledge, shall not he know? Or, He that instructeth the nations, shall he not rebuke; even he that teacheth man knowledge?

The Psalmist informeth us that men are encouraged in their injustice and villany by a persuasion, that God doth not behold or regard what they do to his people. The absurdity of such a conceit is shown from these considerations; that it is God who bestoweth on man the powers of seeing and hearing, and therefore that he himself must needs be possessed of those powers in the highest perfection; that it is God who hath instructed the world by his revelations in religious knowledge, and consequently, without all doubt, he cannot be ignorant of the use and abuse which men make of that his unspeakable gift.

11. The LORD knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity.

So far is God from being a stranger to the actions, that he is

privy to the first thoughts of men, from whence those actions flow; he is acquainted with all their counsels against his church, and knoweth them to be vain as the imagination that he is ignorant of them. The wicked can no more escape the hand, than they can elude the eye of heaven.

12. Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, or, instructest, O LORD, and teachest him out of thy law: 13. That thou mayest give him rest from the days of adversity, until the pit be digged for the wicked.

Since, therefore, the schemes of the adversary are vain, and the counsels of Jehovah shall infallibly stand, happy is the man, who having learned from the scriptures of truth, the lessons of faith and patience, enjoys tranquillity of mind in time of trouble, while destruction is preparing for the impenitent. Then, when the days of adversity are over, shall pain and sorrow take a final leave of the righteous, to go and dwell with the wicked to eternal ages. The former shall enter into the rest and joy of their Lord, the latter into the fire prepared originally for the devil and his angels.

14. For the LORD will not cast off his people, neither will he forsake his inheritance. 15. But judgment shall return unto righ teousness and all the upright in heart shall follow it.

The faith and patience of the saints are built upon the foundation of God's promise not to cast off and forsake, however he may chasten and correct, his people and inheritance. At a fit time, judgment shall return to righteousness, which it might seem to have forsaken; iniquitous oppressors shall meet with the punishment they have deserved, and the faithful shall experience the promised redemption. For thus Dr. Hammond renders and expounds the last clause of the two verses under consideration-and after this, i. e. after judgment shall have returned to righteousness, all the upright in heart; i. e. it shall be their time; they shall succeed and flourish. Such were those halcyon days enjoyed by the Jews, after the fall of Babylon, and their return to their own land; such those times of refreshment to the church Christian, when the Pagan persecutions were at an end, and the Roman empire became Christian. Far transcendent is the felicity of a soul, when it exchanges the miseries of the world for the delights of paradise, there to wait, with its sister spirits, until the bodies of saints shall pass from the dishonours of the grave to the glories of immortality.

16. Who will rise up for me against the evil doers? Or who will

stand up for me against the workers of iniquity? 17. Unless the LORD had been my help, my soul had almost dwelt in silence.

But in the mean season, while "evil doers" are permitted to prosper, and "the workers of iniquity" carry on their designs, the prophet asks, in the person of the church, who is there that will, or can protect, defend, and deliver? The answer is, God only can do it; "Unless the LORD had been my help, my soul had almost dwelt in silence," or, I had almost been in the state of death. How often have our spiritual enemies arisen against us, threatening to bring us into a state of eternal death? but the Lord Jesus was our help and our salvation.

18. When I said, my foot slippeth: thy mercy, O LORD, held me up.

When the child of God, walking in the slippery paths of life, findeth himself falling into temptation, if he confesseth his inability to stand his ground, and crieth out, like Peter on the water, to his heavenly Father, "Lord, save me, I perish;" a merciful, gracious, and powerful hand will immediately be stretched out, to support his steps, and establish his goings.

19. In the multitude of my thoughts within me, thy comforts delight my soul.

The excellent Norris, in a masterly sermon on this verse, has given us the following elegant and affecting paraphrase of it— "When my mind sallies out into a multitude of thoughts, and those thoughts make me sad and heavy, anxious and solicitous, as presenting to my view my own weakness and infirmity, and the universal vanity of all those seeming props and stays, upon which my deluded soul was apt to lean; the many great calamities of life, and the much greater terrors of death; the known miseries of the present state, and the darkness and uncertainty of the future; still urging me with fresh arguments of sorrow, and opening new and new scenes of melancholy, till my soul begins to faint and sink under the burthen she has laid upon herself: when I am thus thoughtful, and thus sorrowful, then it is, O my God, that I feel the relief of thy divine refreshments; I find myself supported and borne up by the strong tide of thy consolations, which raise my drooping head, strike a light into my soul, and make me not only dismiss, but even forget that sorrow and melancholy which my thoughtfulness had brought upon me.' Who, that reads this, will not thankfully take and follow the advice offered in another part of the same discourse? "Whenever therefore thoughts arise in thy heart, and troubles from those thoughts; when thy mind is