ner in which he was treated, when "he came unto his own, and his own received him not," John i. 11. Sometimes, "the mouth of the wicked was opened upon him,"* roaring against him, like the roaring of lions, while they cried out, "He is a Samaritan, and hath a devil, and is mad; away with him, away with him, crucify him, crucify him." Sometimes "deceitful and lying tongues" were employed, either to entangle and entrap him in his talk, or to bear false witness against him. And all this was done, not only without a cause, but men were his bitter and implacable adversaries, in return for that love which brought him from heaven, to save them with an everlasting salvation. Let the afflicted and traduced disciple rejoice, in that he is conformed to the image of his Master. And from the example of that Master let him learn what course to take, when in such circumstances-"But I give myself unto prayer."

6. Thou wilt set a wicked man, or, the wicked one, over him, and Satan shall stand at his right hand. 7. When he is judged, he shall be condemned, and his prayer shall become sin.

A transition is here made to the adversaries of Messiah; primarily to Judas, "who was guide to them that took Jesus;" Acts i. 16. secondarily to the synagogue, of whom Judas may be considered as an epitome and representative. It is foretold, that by betraying and murdering the best of Masters, they should subject themselves to the tyranny of the worst; that they should become slaves to the "wicked one," who should justly be "set over them,” when they had delivered themselves into his hands; that Satan, who had stood by them to tempt them, should stand at their right hand to accuse them at the tribunal of God; that when tried, they would be convicted and condemned, and even their prayer would be abomination in the sight of the Lord, as being offered without true contrition and repentance, without faith, hope, or charity. Such is the wretched state of the Jews, estranged from God, and in bondage to the devil; such the prayers, which, from hardened and malignant hearts, they continually utter, for the excision of all Christians, and for the extirpation of that * Hæc autem cecinit David spirituali sensu in personâ Christi a Judæis impetiti omnimodis blasphemiis. Bossuet.

As most of the following verbs are in the future tense, and the rest have evidently a predictive and future import, the same liberty is here taken, as in Ps. Ixix. of rendering them throughout uniformly in that tense: by which means the curses pronounced in this Psalm will at once appear to be of the same import with those in the xxviiith chapter of Deuteronomy. The reader is entreated, when he shall have perused this Psalm, to turn to that chapter, and judge for himself.

blessed name on which Christians call. These prayers, instead of lightening the burden of their sins, certainly add to its weight. Enable us, O Lord Jesus, to resist Satan as a tempter, that he may not be our accuser; and grant us all so to pray that our prayers may be heard.

8. His days shall be few, and another shall take his office.

This is the verse which St. Peter hath cited and applied, in his discourse to the disciples, at the election of Matthias into the place of Judas. "Men and brethren, this scripture must needs have been fulfilled which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas, who was guide to them that took Jesus. For he was numbered with us, and had obtained part of this ministry. Now this man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity, and falling headlong, he burst assunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out-For it is written in the book of Psalms, Let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein: and, His bishopric let another take." The former of these two citations is made from Psalm Ixix. 25. the latter is a part of the verse now before us. If Judas, therefore, be the person whose destruction the sufferer foretelleth, the person speaking in this prophetical Psalm must of necessity be our Lord himself, who suffered by the treachery of Judas. In Ps. Ixix. 25. the prediction is in the plural number, "Their habitation shall be void; yet St. Peter applies it, in the singular number, to Judas. The passage in our Psalm is singular, yet applicable not to Judas only, but to the whole nation of the Jews; whose days, after they had crucified the Lord of glory, were few; who were dispossessed of the place and office which they held as the church of God, and to which, with all its honours and privileges, the Gentile Christian church succeeded in their stead, when the Aaronical priesthood was abolished, and that of the true Melchizedek established for ever.

9. His children shall be fatherless, and his wife a widow. 10. His children shall be continually vagabonds, and beg: they shall seek their bread also out of desolate places.

If, by the wretched death of Judas, his wife became a widow, and his children orphans, vagabonds, and beggars, their fate was but a prelude to that of thousands and ten thousands of the same nation, whose husbands and fathers came afterwards to a miserable end at the destruction of Jerusalem. Their children, and children's children have since been continually vagabonds upon the earth, in the state of Cain, when he had murdered his righteous brother, not cut off, but marvellously preserved for punishment and Having nothing of their own, they roam through all parts of the world, civilized or barbarous, the scorn and contempt of

wo.

mankind. And even if they are able to amass wealth, their unparalleled avarice still keeps them poor and beggarly in the midst of it. Thus Dr. Hammond, in his Annotation on these verses"By this is described, in a very lively manner, the condition of the Jewish posterity, ever since their ancestors fell under that signal vengeance, for the crucifying of Christ. First, their desolations and vastations in their own country, and being ejected thence; secondly, their continual wanderings from place to place, scattered over the face of the earth; and, thirdly, their remarkable covetousness, keeping them always poor and beggarly, be they never so rich, and continually labouring and moiling for gain, as the poorest are wont to do; and this is continually the constant course attending this people, wheresoever they are scattered."

11. The extortioner, or, creditor, shall catch, or, seize, all that he hath, and the stranger shall spoil his labour. 12. There shall be none to extend mercy to him : neither shall there be any to favour his fatherless children.

Since the destruction of Jerusalem, how often hath this race been seized, pillaged, striped, and impoverished, by prince and people, in all the nations of the known world, none appearing, as in other cases, to favour and extend mercy to them?*“They have had no nation, none to avenge their grievous wrongs, which the Lord God of their forefathers had ordained they should suffer, at all times, and in all places, wheresoever they have come, without redress. Nay, their general carriage hath been so odious and preposterous, that albeit the Christian magistrates had conspired together for their good, they would themselves have certainly provoked their own misery." Thus that excellent Divine, the learned and pious Dr. Jackson, Vol. I. p. 142, and 135. whose reflections upon the history of the Jews, at and since their dispersion, it were to be wished that every Christian could peruse. For, as he himself observes, "Christian parents, whether bodily or spiritual, should be as careful to instruct their children what the Lord hath done to these Jews, as the Israelites should have been to tell their sons what God had done to Pharaoh," Ibid. p. 152.

12. His posterity shall be cut off, and in the generation following their name shall be blotted out. 14. The iniquity of his fathers shall be remembered with the LORD, and the sin of his mother shall not be blotted out. 15. They shall be before the LORD continually, that ke may cut off the memory of them from the earth.

* Thou shalt be only oppressed and spoiled evermore, and no man shall save thee: The fruit of thy land and all thy labours, shall a nation which thou knowest not, eat up, and thou shalt be only oppressed and crushed alway, Deut. xxxviii. 29, 33.

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The traitorous and rebellious posterity of traitorous and rebellious parents suffered an excision by the Roman sword, and in the generation following, their name, as a church and civil polity, was blotted out of the list of states and kingdoms upon earth. The iniquity of their fathers, which they had filled up, was remembered with Jehovah, and the sin of their mother, that is, perhaps of the synagogue of Jerusalem, now in bondage with her children, was not blotted out; that upon them night come all the righteous blood shed, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, whom they slew between the temple and the altar," Matt. xxii. 25. The blood of the prophets cried for vengeance against those who crucified the Lord of the prophets. God hid not his face any longer from all these horrible transgressions, but they were before him continually, and occasioned him to from cut off the memory of his people, once precious and fragrant, the earth; so that while apostles and martyrs are annually commemorated with honour, and their good deeds, blossoming out of the dust, perfume the church, and delight the souls of the faithful, the names of Judas, and Jew, are never mentioned but with contempt and abhorrence.

16. Because that he remembered not to show mercy, but persecuted the poor and needy man, that he might even slay the broken in heart. The crime which brought upon its perpetrators all the above. mentioned judgments and calamities, is here pointed out too plainly to be mistaken. They remembered not to show mercy to him, who showed it to all the world; they persecuted him who for our sakes became poor, and who condescended to ask of his creatures water to drink; they betrayed and murdered the lowly and afflicted Jesus, whose heart was broken with sorrow for their sins, and with a sense of the punishment due to them. How long will it be, ere the brethren of this most innocent and most injured Joseph say one to another, We are very guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear; THERFORE is this distress come upon us!" Gen. xlii. 21.

17. As he loved cursing, so shall it come unto him: as he delighted not in blessing, so shall it be far from him. 18. As he clothed himself with cursing like as with his garment, so shall it come into 19. It shall be unhis bowels like water, and like oil into his bones.

to him as the garment which covereth him, and for a girdle wherewith he is girded continually. 20. This shall be the reward of mine adversaries from the LORD, and of them that speak evil against my soul.

They who reject Christ reject the fountain of blessing, and choose a curse for their portion; and this portion, when they have finally made their choice, will certainly be given to them in full measure. The curse, that lighted on the Jewish nation, is resembled, for its universality and adhesion, to a garment, which covereth the whole man, and is girded close about his loins; for its diffusive and penetrating nature, to water, which from the stomach passeth into the bowels, and is dispersed through all the vessels of the frame; and to oil, which inperceptibly insinuates into the very bones. When that unhappy multitude, assembled before Pontius Pilate, pronounced the words, "His blood be on us and on our children," Matt. xxvii. 25. then did they put on the envenomed garment, which has stuck to and tormented the nation ever since; then did they eagerly swallow down that deadly draught, the effects whereof have been the infatuation and misery of 1700 years! If such, in this world, be "the reward of Messiah's adversaries, and of those who spake evil against him," what will hereafter be the vengeance inflicted on those who "crucify him afresh, and put him again to an open shame? Heb. vi. 6. And what will be the operation of the sentence, "Go ye cursed," upon the bodies and souls of the wicked? how will it at once effect all the senses of the former, and all the faculties of the latter, with pain, anguish, horror, and despair? Think on these things, ye sinners, tremble and repent!

21. But do thou, for me, O GOD the Lord, Heb. JEHOVAH the Lord, for thy name's sake: because thy mercy is good, deliver thou me. 22. For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me. 23. I am gone like the shadow when it declineth; I am tossed up and down as the locust. 24. My knees are weak through fasting, and my flesh faileth of fatness. 25. I became also a reproach unto them: when they looked upon me, they shaked their heads.

In this last part of the Psalm, Messiah petitioneth for deliverance, urging to the Father his powers as Lord, the honour of his name, and the greatness of his mercy. He then pleadeth his own humiliation and affliction, his poverty and heart-felt agony of grief. Drawing towards the evening of his mortal life, he compareth himself to a shadow, declining, and about to vanish from the earth, where he hath no rest, being persecuted from place to place, as a locust is driven hither and thither by the stormy wind and tempest; while enfeebled and emaciated by frequent fastings and long want of food during his passion, he was ready to sink under his burden; and what aggravated all his his sufferings was, that he met with no pity and compassion from those around him; his