his maker, to give him thanks, and to maintain a familiar intercourse with him. The angels themselves, those pure and sublime intelligences, were but little superior to him; and thou didst give him dominion over thy creatures. Thou didst establish him the master and lord of all the works of thy hands; thou didst put under his command all the animals which walk or creep upon the earth, the birds which fly in the air, and the fish which make to themselves a path in the deep waters of the sea. With how much honor and glory, great God, didst thou invest man as he came from thy hands! Thou didst crown him at his creation, and place him at the head of all thine other works.

But alas man did not long enjoy these blessings; he fell from the state of glory and happiness in which he was created; he made himself the slave of the creatures of which he had formerly been the master ; and sin and death took place in him of holiness and life. But in this deplorable state of misery into which he had fallen, thy mercy, O most gracious God! prepared for him a remedy much more glorious than the blessings which he had forfeited. The eternal word descended from the bosom of thy glory, to unite with the nature of man. He took upon him the infirmities and sins of man, that he might make expiation for them. The human nature mounted with him to the right hand of thy glorious majesty, and saw itself raised above all principalities and heavenly powers. From thine adorable Son we receive the dignified title of his brethren, and he is as the first born among us. Thou wast our God; thou wouldst also be our Father. We were but thy workmanship; and we have become thy children. O thou great creator of the universe! It is not in producing from nothing all thy creatures, that thy power and the greatness of thy name appear the most admirable; it is in causing thine own Son, the brightness of thy glory, to descend upon earth, clothed with

the meanness and infirmities of our nature; it is in manifesting to us the great mystery of godliness, which thou preparedst before the foundation of the world, and which will be the consolation and astonishment of all future ages. "O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth !"

PSALM X.

Devout meditations and addresses to God, suitable for a person under affliction, when viewing the prosperity of the wicked, and the calamities which befall the righteous in this world.

VERSE 1. Why standest thou afar off, O LORD, why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble?

A

LMIGHTY and eternal God! Thou hast taught us that the present is not a state of rewards and punishments; and that from the transitory blessings and evils of this life, we cannot judge of thine eternal counsels of justice and mercy towards the children of men. At times, thou seemest to stand afar off from thy servants here below; so that some are ready to think that thou regardest them not, and that thou art insensible to the afflictions and tribulations under which thou seest them labor. They seem in vain to call on thee for protection; that powerful succor which they look for in seasons when it appears the most necessary comes not; and thou leavest them in affliction, oppression, and darkness.

VERSE 2. The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor; let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined.

THE sinner, surrounded with pride and prosperity, and enjoying, with insolence, property acquired by unjust means, looks with eyes of contempt upon the poor and humble condition of the righteous, and reproaches them for their fidelity to a master who, he impiously says, cannot give prosperity and happiness in this world to those who serve him, and who have chosen him for their portion. But, O thou God of justice! thou wilt one day confound the impiety and folly of such thoughts. Thou wilt surprise the wicked who are so intoxicated with their greatness and their riches, at the time when, arrived at the height of their wishes, they are applauding themselves for the success of their projects and their measures. In the twinkling of an eye, thou wilt overthrow that pompous edifice of pride and injustice which they have raised upon the tears and misery of thy people; and in which they think themselves securely sheltered against all the revolutions of fortune. The illusion will vanish, and surprised, when they least expect it, and when they are, perhaps, meditating new schemes to increase their immense riches, they will find that all their perishable wealth is but a heap of clay which crumbles to pieces,-a smoke which is dissipated,-a vain shadow which had seduced them, and which escapes from their grasp;they will find that there is nothing real and durable for man but holiness and righteousness, those invisible blessings of thy grace.

VERSE 3. For the wicked boasteth of his heart's desire, and blesseth the covetous, whom the LORD abhorreth.

It is not astonishing, O God, that such unholy and dissolute men forget thee in prosperity. Every thing which surrounds them seduces them, and lulls them

to sleep by continual adulation. Their most iniquitous desires, their most criminal proceedings always find praises from vile and mercenary mouths. To their most shameful vices the respectable names of virtues are given. They think that every thing is lawful for them, because every thing in which they indulge themselves is applauded. O most holy God! Thou permittest it thus to be; thou punishest the corruption of their hearts, by the very applauses which justify it in their view, or conceal it from them. Thou sufferest them to deceive themselves, and quietly to enjoy their error. They love to be seduced; and the seductions of flattery are never wanting to those who love them, and who can purchase them by liberal rewards.

VERSE 4. The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God:

THUS, gread God, sinful man, in his elevation and prosperity, is so intoxicated with the praises which flattery incessantly prostitutes upon him, he knows himself so little, or rather, is so full of himself, that he regards thee as if thou wast not. He thinks it nothing to affront thee daily by new outrages. Satiated with one sinful pleasure, he has recourse continually to new pleasures still more sinful. By being long accustomed to common sins, he has lost his relish for them, and therefore is continually seeking new ones, frightful for their singularity, to stimulate and gratify his pampered appetites and passions. He even gives himself credit for superior eminence and distinction in vice, as if common transgressions were not sufficiently offensive to thee. He applauds himself for having found out some secret methods of affronting thee, methods unknown to the rest of the world. He endeavors to persuade himself, that the idea of thy heavy wrath is but a false terror raised to frighten the weak and the credulous. He boldly asserts

that thou art too highly exalted to abase thy greatness, by noticing what passes among men; that, instead of seeking hereafter to destroy the sinner, thou wilt forget him as though he had never been; and that, contented with enjoying thyself, thou hast prepared neither punishments for vice, nor rewards for virtue. Such impiety, O thou most high! affronts thy providence,dishonors thy holiness and justice, -robs thee of every divine, adorable attribute,—and makes thee a God without power or justice. It therefore renders thee inexorable towards the impious transgressor, and draws down upon him thy most terrible judgments. Thou abandonest him to himself; thou permittest him to go on, undisturbed, in his own ways; thou sufferest him to drink in large draughts of the empoisoned waters of iniquity. But thou wilt scon make him feel that thou art more terrible in thy judgments, when thou thus permittest the wicked to go on, and takest no notice of their sins, than when thou restrainest them by temporal calamities.

VERSES 4, 5. -- God is not in all his thoughts. His ways are always grievious :

O HOLY and righteous God! As soon as thy patience, having been pushed to the extremity, has delivered up the proud, unbelieving sinner to the corruption of his own heart, he publicly proclaims his rejection and contempt of thee; and speaks of thine infinite, adorable essence as a chimera which the error and credulity of man have formed. He lives and acts as if he depended on himself alone, as if he derived from his own powers the means of his existence upon earth, and as if there was not a supreme and eternal being, in whom we live, by whom we are, and who gives life and motion to all. And indeed, O God, it is very necessary that the impious transgressor should endeavor to persuade himself