24 Explore and fift me thoroughly,

And winnow all my heart and ways;
If fin is with me, let me die,

And never more again me raise :
But if I ftand thy teft, O God,
Shew me thine everlafting ways;
That I may fhew thy ways abroad,
And fill the world with joy and praise :

So I fhall fing for evermore,.

And all my faints fhall fing with me;
Redeeming love they shall adore;
For I their Surety fet them free.

ANTICHRIST, that wicked, (the man of fin), revealed, whom the Lord fhall confume with the Spirit of his mouth, and fhall deftroy with the brightness of his coming.' 2 Theff. ii. 8, &c. See Pfalm vii. &c.

Lo! Antichrift, with all his ways,

By Chrift the Lord deftroy'd fhall be:
To Chrift alone be all the praife!
He comes to fave and fet us free.

LORD, refcue from the man of fin,

Preferve me from the vi'lent man': 2 Who mifchief roll their heart within, Still plotting war in dark divan.

3 Their tongues are fharp like ferpents stings, And, brandifh'd quiver in their mouth; Fierce adders poifon ever fprings

Beneath their lips, the foes of truth!

4. Keep me, Jehovah, from the hands
Of that prefumptuous hellifh foe;
Preferve me from the vi'lent bands,
Who would my goings overthrow.

5 The proud have hid a snare for me,

And by the way-fidé drawn their cords;
Their nets are spread where'er I flee :
They mean to trap me in my words.
6 I cry'd unto the Lord, and faid,

Thou art my God, I flee to thee;
The Lord regarded when I pray'd,
And fpeedily relieved me.

7 My God, my Lord, my Strength, my Might, And my Salvation evermore,

My head who cover'st in the fight, When rage and war against me roar; 8 O grant them not their wicked will, Nor profper thou what they devife; Left, when they have achiev'd their ill, 'They vaunt them of their enterprize. The works of their own lips furround 'The heads of those surrounding me; Let burning coals upon them bound;

9

Their fire unquenched ever be : 10 They fhall poffefs the fiery flame

The lake of brimftone, evermore;
Because they scorn'd Meffiah's name,

The floods of hell fhall o'er them roar.
11 That man of tongue, that fon of lies,
That hypocrite, that antichrift-
O God of truth! against him rise :

Soon let him be from earth dismiss'd.

12 I know Jehovah will maintain

1

The caufe that is Jehovah's own;
The Chrift of God fhall ever reign,
While antichrift is overthrown:

13 The Chriftians, reigning with their Lord,
Shall praife the FATHER, with the Son,
And thee, O SPIRIT, blefs'd, ador'd;
Th' eternal GOD, the THREE in ONE.

PSALM

THIS. Pfalm may be confidered as the fequel of the last, with this difference only, that, as in the former the High-prieft of our profeffion, JESUS, intercedes against his and our enemies; fo here he more immediately makes interceffion for his friends, interpofing himself, with his own blood, in the breach between them and all danger. Reader, thy foul. is at ftake! Confider the Apoftle and High-prieft of the Chriftian, profeffion, Jesus: his blood is thy life, or thy death!...

I

The Angel of the covenant,

Who brings the mercy that we want,
Stands up for all his chofen feed,
And fmites the ferpent on the head.

LORD, how I mourn and cry to thes!
O fwiftly fly, and answer me;

Give ear unto my plaintive voice, And change my forrows for thy joys: 2 Thine own Meffiah intercedes,

And, in the breach, before thee pleads,.
The High-Prieft of thy faints, O God,
Who fheds for them his facred blood:

O let my mediation be,

My God, accepted now by thee;
And let my pray'r before thee rife,
As clouds of incenfe, to the fkies:
Accept my ev'ning facrifice,
My lifted hands before thine eyes;
Accept me with my ev'ry gift,
Upon my crofs when they me lift.

3 They ftrive to catch me in my words,
While their own tongues are brandifh'd fwords;
Be thou the watch, Lord, of my mouth,

And let my lips be kept by truth.

4 Incline

4 Incline thou not my

heart unto

The evils which I fhould not do;

But draw away my heart from those

Who work the works that bring them woes.

O rather let me ne'er be bleft,

Than that their dainties I should taste,
Their works of wickedness I hate,

And fcorn the pleasures of their state:
O let the righteous God me fmite;
To do his will is my delight:

Let mercy thro' my fuff'rings conte:
My blood fhall bring the banish'd home:

Let God correct me for their fin;

My foul for that fhall ne

repine:

It fhall be like a precious oil,

Which shall not bruife, but caufe me fmile: My head hall never braised be By all my God shall do to me: My pray'r to him fhall ever rife, To fave my faints from miferies: 6 And when their judges are o'erthrown, Who rife against thy Holy One, I will not leave them fatherlefs, To wander lone in wildernefs: I'll cause my voice invade their car, And ftrike them all with joy who hear; How pleafantly my words fhall greet, And turn their bitter things to sweet! For I am with my chofen ftill, Their Shepherd, on my holy hill: What tho' our bones are scatter'd round, Like cloven wood upon the ground7. What tho' the grave devour us up? We lay us down in certain hope, That we fhall rise in joy anonBehold, O God, thy rifen Son!

8 Mine eyes to thee with boldness look,
For I have borne thy fierce rebuke,
Thine indignation, for my flock,
Jehovah, blook on Zion's Rock!
In thee I truft; O leave not me,
Now deftitute, whofe hope's in thee:
9 Preferve me from the deadly gin
Of men who glory in their fin.

10 In their own nets let finners fall,
Whilft that my foul efcapes withal;
And let my faints efcape with me:
My blood their passover fhall be.

PSALM CXLII.

THE fufferings of Chrift, and the following glory'-1 Pet. i. 11, &c. Whatever afcertains the meaning of Pfalms xvi, xxxi. xxxiv. xlvi. lxiii. lxix. &c. the fame precifely afcertains the meaning of this and the following one, which are first and fecond parts to one another.

A pray'r of God's beloved Son,

Low down into the dungeon gone,
When all the floods of death and hell
Around his foul began to fwell.

Cry'd unto the Lord amain,
In tender fupplicating strain:

2 I gave my grieved fpirit vent,

And pour'd before him all my plaint: 3 When deep o'erwhelming floods o'erflow'd My foul, thou knew'ft my way, O God: It was thy way I walked in;

4

"Twas there for me they hid their gin:

I look'd on my right-hand, and, lo,
No man was there my foul to know;

I look'd