The arm of the wicked' one 'is broken:

Thou mayest search for the wicked, but thou canst not find him!

Jehovah is king for ever and ever.

The heathen are perished from off his earth!

Thou hast heard the desire of the humble;

O, Jehovah! thou strengtheneth their heart;
Thou dost bend thine ear,

To judge the destitute and afflicted;

That he may no more oppress.

'He,' a mortal from the earth.*

We seem to gather that some great mortal adversary is in the view of the spirit of prophecy, whose destruction, in the last days, shall lead to a happier state of things; a happier state of things on earth. We cannot forbear conjecturing that this must be again the ungodly scoffers of Enoch's prophecy; that host, whose destruction is sworn by the tremendous oath of the Almighty, in the Song of Remembrance;-Israel's last enemy; after whose destruction the nations are to rejoice with his people.† And here it is further discovered to us that Jehovah, "the Lord from heaven," who executes this vengeance, is to be "king for ever," King, when the idolatrous heathen are perished from his earth. This "reign upon earth,” here, indeed, plainly asserted, will come more in view hereafter.

In the following psalm, after, as it should seem, a trial of great distress from the scoffs of the enemy, their destruction is described, and the instrument of their destruction, fire from heaven, is much to be noticed;

Psalm x. 14.

+ Deut. xxxii. 40, &c.

because it is distinctive of that particular destruction which ends the conflict between the people of God and their last mortal foes:

He will rain upon the wicked lightning, fire, and sulphur; And the hot wind of the desert shall be the portion of their cup.

If I understand the next psalm, it describes these same enemies "speaking great things against the Most High;" — and the end is,—

On every side shall the wicked depart;

When HE, the scorn of the children of men, is exalted. +

The despised Saviour is therefore the JEHOVAH that is to reign." The Lord," as Enoch had said, comes to convict sinners of all their hard speeches against him.”

The two following psalms belong to the same subject. Remark the end of the fourteenth.

O, that the salvation of Israel were given out of Zion!
When Jehovah restoreth his captive people,

Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.

Let this remind us, that, according to what we have read in the more ancient oracles, the general redemption of mankind is only to be expected in connexion with Israel restored from its long captivity. To Zion our eyes must still be directed.

The following psalms, as I have endeavoured to show in another work, all relate to the same subject, — the character; the injuries of the Redeemer, in his person or in his people; his conflict with wicked men and angels; his death and glorious resurrection, and then his final

• Psalm xi. 6.

+ Psalm xii. 8.

+ Ver. 7.

victories. The nature of the present work only allows me to take notice of the most remarkable passages, and those that relate clearly to the transactions of the second advent.

In the twenty-first psalm, addressed in his character of king, the Redeemer is, as it were, saluted victor over the last foes.

Thy hand reacheth all thine enemies ;

Thy right hand reacheth them that hate thee;

Thou puttest them into a furnace of fire,
At the time of thine appearing;
Jehovah swalloweth them up in his wrath,
And the fire consumeth them.

Their fruit perisheth from the earth,
And their seed from the children of men:
When they designed evil against thee,
They formed a plan that they could not effect;

But thou dost set them as a target;

Thou preparest thy bow-string before their faces.
Arise, O Jehovah! in thy strength,

And we will chant and sing thy power.

We remark here, what must have struck us in considering the former prophecy, that this judgment of Christ's enemies, their destruction by fire at the time of his appearing, is not coeval with the last general judgment, when the earth itself is destroyed, and the whole race of men becomes extinct. But there is to be a season, when it may be said of the enemies of God," their fruit is perished from the earth, and their seed from the children

• Ver. 9.

of men;" or, as in a former quotation," the wicked are perished from off his earth.”

The mystic storm of the twenty-ninth psalm, I have no doubt refers to the same grand catastrophe, though future oracles are necessary to explain it. A storm of tremendous thunder, with an overwhelming inundation, is described as entering the Holy Land, on its northern border, extending to its utmost breadth, and penetrating to the desert on the south. It is quelled and subdued by the voice of the Almighty. His kingdom succeeds; - From his temple his voice proclaimeth his glory:

Jehovah sitteth above the deluge;

Jehovah sitteth as king for ever.

Compare psalm the thirty-second, verse the sixth.

For this shall he mediate for every beloved one,
Before thee, at the season of his finding pity:
In the inundation of many waters

They shall not reach unto him.

The prayer of the dispersed Israel, in the forty-second and forty-third psalms, ought not, perhaps, to be passed over; especially the anxious wish expressed concerning "the land of Jordan and the Hermons, and mount Mizar:" since, as we have learned in a former Scripture, in connexion with God's having "mercy on his land," is the final happiness of his whole church to be expected.* But I hasten to the forty-fifth psalm, where we have a plain and very remarkable prophecy of the second advent: certainly of the second advent; for the Redeemer is announced, not as the suffering, but as the

• Deut. xxxii.

triumphant Saviour. He appears, not as one pre-eminent in sorrow, among many meek and afflicted followers, comforted with assurance of future help, but he appears as the KING in his royal majesty; and the happiness of his church, at that era, is represented under the metaphor of a magnificent marriage procession.

1. My heart hath laboured with a delightful theme,
I address my work to the king;

My tongue is the pen of a ready writer.

2. Thou wast fairer than the children of men ;

Grace was diffused on thy lips;

Therefore God hath blessed thee for ever.

This eternal blessing, we notice, is plainly ascribed to personal merit: It is the righteousness of the Messiah as man that procures this blessedness, in which his people are to share.

3. Thy sword is girded on thy thigh, O mighty one! In thy splendor and majesty go forth;

4. Ride on in the cause of truth, and on behalf of justice;

And let thy right hand show thee dreadful weapons;

5. Arrows sharpened for' the nations:

Let them fall beneath thee into the heart of the king's

enemies.

This is most evidently that day of vengeance on certain, nations, the enemies of God and his Christ, whose destruction we have learned before, to be one of the events, of the second advent.

6. Thy throne, O Elohim, is for ever and ever;
A just sceptre is the sceptre of thy kingdom:
7. Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity: