make his boast; and that it is more blessed to give than to receive.

4. The wicked through the pride of his countenance will not seek after God; God is not in all his thoughts; or, all his imaginations are, there is no God.

The counsels of heaven are not known by the wicked, because they are not sought after; and they are not sought after, because of a diabolical self-sufficiency, which having taken possession of the heart, displays itself in the countenance, and reigns throughout the man. He wants no Prophet to teach him, no Priest to atone for him, no King to conduct him; he needs neither a Christ to redeem, nor a Spirit to sanctify him; he believes no Providence, adores no Creator, and fears no Judge. Thus he lives a stranger from the covenants of promise, and without God in the world," Eph. ii. 12. O that this character now existed only in the Psalmist's description.

5. His ways are always grievous, or, corrupt; thy judgments are far above out of his sight, as for all his enemies, he puffeth at them.

As are a man's principles, such will be his practices; and if he hath not God in his thoughts, his course of life will be corrupt and abominable, his end, his means, and his motives, being all wrong, and polluted with concupiscence. There would have been some chance of holding him by fear, but that is gone with his faith; for no man can tremble at judgments in which he does not believe.

6. He hath said in his heart, I shall not be moved, for I shall never be in adversity.

Prosperity begets presumption, and he who has been long accustomed to see his designs succeed, begins to think it impossible they should ever do otherwise. The long-suffering of God instead of leading such an one to repentance, only hardens him in his iniquity. Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, he thinks it will not be executed at all. He vaunteth himself, therefore, like the proud Chaldean monarch, in the Babylon which he hath erected, and fondly pronounceth it to be immortal. Such, it is too evident, are often the vain imaginations of triumphant wickedness.

7. His mouth is full of cursing, deceit, and fraud: under his tongue is mischief and vanity.

From the thoughts of the sinner's "heart," mentioned in the preceding verse, David goes on to describe the words of his "mouth." And here we may illustrate the character of the antichrist, by setfing that of Christ in opposition to it. The mouth of one poureth

forth a torrent of curses and lies; from that of the other flowed a clear and copious stream of benediction and truth. Under the serpentine tongue of the former is a bag of mischief and vanity; but honey and milk were under the tongue of the latter, so pleasant and so nourishing to the spirits of men were all his communications.

8. He sitteth in the lurking places of the villages; in the secret places doth he murder the innocent: his eyes are privily set against the poor.

From "words," the description proceeds to "actions." And with regard to these, as the Son of God went publicly preaching through cities and villages to save men's lives, so this child of Satan lieth in ambush to destroy them, privily bringing into the church, and diffusing among the people, pestilent errors, and damnable heresies, for that purpose.

9. He lieth in wait secretly as a lion in his den; he lieth in wait to catch the poor; he doth catch the poor, when he draweth him into his net.

The disciples of Jesus, like their blessed Master, are ever vigilant to catch men in the evangelical net, in order to draw them from the world to God: the partizans of Satan, in imitation of their leader, are employed in watching, from their lurking places, the footsteps of the Christian pilgrim, that they may spring upon him in an unguarded moment, and draw him from God to the world, and from thence to the devil.

10. He croucheth and humbleth himself, that the poor may fall by his strong ones.

Our Lord, who is styled "the Lion of the tribe of Judah," became a "Lamb," for the salvation of mankind; but when his adversary at any time "humbleth" himself, when the wolf appears in sheep's clothing, let the flock beware; it is for their more effectual destruction. And if, allured by an outward show of moderation and benevolence, the simple ones shall venture themselves within his reach, they will soon find that his nature is disguised, but not altered.

11. He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten; he hideth his face, he will never see it.

For the chastisement of his people, God often suffers the enemy to prevail and prosper, who then ridicules the faith and hope of the church, and solaces himself in the conceit, that if there be a God, he either knows not, or cares not, what is done upon earth. These Epicurean notions, however absurd and unworthy of the Deity they may seem, do yet in some measure take possession of every man's mind at the instant of his committing a sin; since it is most certain, that, with a due impression of the divine omniscience

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upon his soul at the time, he would not commit it for all that the tempter could offer him. But faith is apt to sleep, and then sin

awakes.

12. Arise, O LORD, O God lift up thine hand: forget not the humble. 13. Wherefore doth the wicked contemn God? He hath said in his heart, thou wilt not require it.

The church now prays, that Jehovah, in vindication of his own honour and attributes, would arise to judgment, and make bare his glorious arm for the defence of his elect, who cry day and night unto him. Thus would the insolence of the wicked one and his agents, founded on the divine forbearance, be repressed, and all the world would see that God had not forgotten, but still, as ever, remembered and regarded the low estate of his handmaid.

14. Thou hast seen it, for thou beholdest mischief and spite to requite it with thine hand: the poor committeth himself unto thee, thou art the helper of the fatherless.

"The wicked" above "saith in his heart thou wilt not require it." But the faithful are taught other things by the promises in Scripture, and the experience of unnumbered histories. They know assuredly, that God beholds all that travail and vexation which some inflict, and others sustain, upon the earth; and that he will infallibly recompense to the former their deeds, to the latter their sufferings. Destitute should we be of every earthly help, in the state of beggars and orphans, yet in him will we trust, who, as the Father and protector of all such, saith unto every one of us, " I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee."

15. Break thou the arm of the wicked and evil man: seek out his wickedness till thou find none.

This may be either a prayer or a prediction, implying that the time will come, when the power of Jehovah will dash in pieces that of the enemy, by the demolition either of sin or the sinner, until wickedness become utterly to an end, and righteousness be established for ever in the kingdom of Messiah. And lo,

16. The LORD is King for eve r and ever: the heathen are perished out of the land.

Faith beholds the Lord Jesus, as already manifested in his glo rious majesty, the kingdoms of this world become his, and the Canaanites no more in the land of promise. Each individual experiences in himself a happy prelude to this manifestation, when Christ rules in his heart by the Spirit, and every appetite and affection is obedient to the sceptre of his kingdom.

17. LORD, thou hast heard, or, hearest the desire of the humble; thou wilt prepare, or, thou preparest their heart; thou wilt cause, or, thou causest thine ear to hear.

How many important and comforting truths have we here, in a few words? As, that the "humble" and lowly, whatever they may suffer in the world, are the favourites of Jehovah that he attends to the very "desires" of their hearts: that such hearts prepared" to prayer, are so many instruments strung and tuned by the hand of heaven: and that their prayer is as music, to which the Almighty himself listens with pleasure.

18. To judge the fatherless and the oppressed, that the man of the earth may no more oppress.

For the sake of the elect, and their prayers, the days of persecution and tribulation will be shortened; the insolence of the earth-born oppressor, the man of sin, will be chastised; the cause of the church will be heard at the tribunal of God, and victory, In the foregoing triumph, and glory, will be given unto her. exposition, regard has been chiefly had to the case of the church, and to her sufferings from the spirit of antichrist, in whomsoever existing and acting, from time to time in the world; this being judged the most generally useful application, which Christians, as such, can make of the Psalm. Particular accommodations of it to the various oppressions of innocent poverty by iniquitous opulence, will meet the eye, and offer themselves at once to persons so circumstanced, for their support and comfort under their respective afflictions; which will be also not a little alleviated by the consideration, that the whole church of God groaneth with them, and travaileth in pain, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of the body. Then, and not till then, tears shall cease to run down the cheeks of misery; and sorrow and sighing shall fly away to return no more for ever.

PSALM XI.

ARGUMENT.

The Psalmist, under persecution, 1-3. declareth himself resolved to trust in God alone, at a time when he was advised to fly to some place of refuge; 4. he expresses his faith in the omniscience and overruling power of Jehovah; 5. assigns the reason. why good men are afflicted; who, after that the wicked, 6. shall be destroyed, will appear to have been all along, 7. the favoured of God.

1. In the LORD put I my trust; how say ye to my soul, flee as a bird to your mountain?

The Christian, like David, in perilous times, should make God his fortress, and continue doing his duty in his station; he should

not, at the instigation of those about him, like a poor, silly, timorous, inconstant bird, either fly for refuge to the devices of worldly wisdom, or desert his post, and retire into solitude, while he can serve the cause in which he is engaged. Nor indeed is there "mountain" on earth out of the reagh of care and trouble. Temptations are every where; and so is the grace of God.

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2. For lo, the wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string, that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart. These seem to be still the words of David's friends, representing to him, as a motive for his flight, the extreme danger he was in from the "arrows" of the enemy, already, as it were, fitted to the "string," and pointed at him "in secret," so that not knowing from whence they were to come, he could not guard against them. The Christian's danger, from the darts of the infernal archers, lying in wait for his soul, is full as great as that of David. But" the shield of FAITH" sufficeth in both cases.

3. If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? This likewise seems to be spoken by the same persons, discouraging David from making any farther resistance, by the consideration, that all was over; the "foundations" of religion and law were subverted; and what could a man, engaged in the most “righteous" designs, hope to "do," when that was the case? Such arguments are often urged by the timid, in similar circumstances; but they are fallacious; since all is not over, while there is a man left to reprove error, and bear testimony to the truth. And a man who does it with becoming spirit, may stop a prince, or senate, when in full career, and recover the day. But let us hear David's farther reply to his advisers.

4. The LORD is in his holy temple, the LORD's throne is in heaven; his eyes behold, his eyelids try the children of men.

In the first verse, the Psalmist had declared his trust to be in Jehovah. After reciting the reasonings of his friends, he now proceeds to evince the fitness and propriety of such trust, notwithstanding the seemingly desperate situation of affairs. "Jehovah is in his holy temple;" into which, therefore, unholy men, however triumphant in this world, can never enter: "Jehovah's throne is in heaven;" and consequently superior to all power upon earth, which may be controlled and overruled by him in a moment: “his eyes behold, his eyelids try the children of men;" so that no secret wickedness can escape his knowledge, who scrutinizeth the hearts as well as the lives of all the sons of Adam. Why, then, should the man despair, who hath on his side holiness, omnipotence, and omniscience?