the scenes are shifted; but the stage and the drama continue the same.

9. Do unto them as unto the Midianites: as to Sisera, as to Jabin, at the brook of Kison: 10. Which perished at Endor: they became as dung for the earth. 11. Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb: yea, all their princes as Zeba and as Zalmunna: 12. Who said, Let us take to ourselves the houses of God in possession.

The church, having recounted the enemies which compassed her about on every side, looks up for succour to that Almighty power which had of old so graciously interposed on her behalf, and rescued her from her persecutors, in the days of Deborah, Barak, and Gideon see Judg. iv. viii. Fully sensible that those deliverances were wrought by the immediate hand of Jehovah, she offers the prayer of faith for a like manifestation of his glory, and a like victory over those who intended, in the same manner, to seize and devour his inheritance. Of how great use and comfort are the Old Testament histories to us, in all our afflictions!

13. O my God, make them like a wheel; or, like thistle-down; as the stubble before the wind. 14. As the fire burneth a wood, and as the flame setteth the mountains on fire; 15. So persecute, or, thou shalt pursue, them with thy tempest, and make, or, thou shalt make, them afraid with thy storm.

The fate of those is here predicted, who invade the inheritance of Jehovah, and say, "Let us take to "ourselves the houses of God in possession." The inconstancy and mutability of their fortunes is resem

bled to "thistle-down," or some such light revolving body, and to "stubble" or chaff, whirled about and dissipated by the "wind:" the suddenness, horror, and universality of their destruction, are set forth by the similitude of a "fire" consuming the dry trees in a "forest," or some combustible matter on the "mountains." Such is the storm and tempest of God's indignation, which pursues and terrifies the sacrilegious and ungodly.

16. Fill their faces with shame; that they may seek thy name, O Lord. 17. Let them, or, they shall, be confounded and troubled for ever; yea, let them, or, they shall, be put to shame and perish. 18. That men may know that thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art the Most High over all the earth.

The punishments inflicted by Heaven upon wicked men, are primarily intended to humble and convert them. If they continue incorrigible under every dispensation of merciful severity, they are at last cut off, and finally destroyed; that others, admonished by their example, may repent and return, and give glory to God. Salutary are the afflictions which bring men, and happy the men who are brought by them, to an acknowledgement of "JEHOVAH our

Righteousness," our exalted and glorified Redeemer, "the Most High over all the earth;" whom all must acknowledge, and before whom all must appear to be judged, in the great and terrible day.

PSALM LXXXIV.

ARGUMENT.

This Psalm, for the subject-matter of it, bears a resemblance to the xliid. Under the figure of an Israelite, deprived of all access to Jerusalem and the sanctuary, (whether it were David when driven away by Absalom, or any other person in like circumstances at a different time), we are presented with, 1, 2. the earnest longing of a devout soul after the house and presence of God; 3-7. a beautiful and passionate eulogy on the blessedness of his ministers and servants; 8-10. a fervent prayer for a participation of that blessedness; and, 11, 12. an act of faith in his power and goodness, which render him both able and willing to grant requests of this nature.

1. How amiable are thy tabernacles, O LORD of hosts!

Thus ardently doth a banished Israelite express his love for Sion, his admiration of the beauty of holiness. Nay, Balaam himself, when from the top of Peor he saw the children of Israel abiding in their tents, with the Glory in the midst of them, could not help exclaiming, "How goodly are thy tents, O

re

Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel!" Numb. xxiv. 5. "How amiable," then, may the Christian say, are those eternal mansions, from whence sin and

sorrow are excluded; how goodly that camp of the saints, and that beloved city, where righteousness and joy reign triumphant, and peace and unity are violated no more; where thou, O blessed Jesu, “Lord "of hosts," King of men and angels, dwellest in glorious majesty, constituting by thy presence the felicity of thy chosen !

2. My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth, for the courts of the LORD: my heart and my flesh crieth out, or, shouteth, for the living God.

It is said of the queen of Sheba, that upon beholding the pleasantness of Jerusalem, the splendour of Solomon's court, and, above all, the magnificence of the temple, with the services therein performed, "there was no more spirit in her :" 1 Kings x. 5. What wonder, therefore, if the soul should be affected, even to sickness and fainting, while, from this land of her captivity, she beholdeth, by faith, the heavenly Jerusalem, the city and court of the great King, with all the transporting glories of the church triumphant: while, in her meditations, she draweth the comparison between her wretched state of exile upon earth, and the unspeakable blessedness of being delivered from temptation and affliction, and admitted into the everlasting "courts of Jeho"vah ?" Whose "heart and flesh" doth not exult, and "shout" aloud for joy, at a prospect of rising from the bed of death, to dwell with "the living "God;" to see the face of him, " in whom is life, "and the life is the light of men?" John i. 4. Did the Israelites, from all parts of Judea, go up, with the voice of jubilee, to keep a feast at Jerusalem ;

and shall Christians grieve, when the time is come for them to ascend, and to celebrate an eternal festival in heaven?

3. Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow, or, ringdove, a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O LORD of hosts, my King and my God.

The Psalmist is generally supposed, in this verse, to lament his unhappiness, in being deprived of all access to the tabernacle, or temple, a privilege enjoyed even by the birds, who were allowed to build their nests in the neighbourhood of the sanctuary. It is evidently the design of this passage to intimate to us, that in the house, and at the altar of God, a faithful soul findeth freedom from care and sorrow, quiet of mind, and gladness of spirit; like a bird, that hath secured a little mansion, for the reception and education of her young. And there is no heart, endued with sensibility, which doth not bear its testimony to the exquisite beauty and propriety of this affecting image.

4. Blessed are they that dwell in thy house : they will be, or, are, still praising thee.

Here the metaphor is dropped, and the former sentiment expressed in plain language. "Blessed "are" not the mighty and opulent of the earth, but

they that dwell in thy house," the ministers of the eternal temple in heaven, the angels and the spirits of just men made perfect; there every passion is resolved into love, every duty into praise; hallelujah succeeds hallelujah ; " they are still," still for ever, praising thee." And blessed, next to them, are