the sake of procuring riches or power, should I bring fear and anguish on myself, in that hour, when my sins will find me out, and neither riches, nor power, can deliver me from the punishment due to them? Thus Bossuet and Mudge understood the verse. But I am clear, that Bishop Lowth's idea is the true one; and then the purport of the question is plainly this-Why should I give way to fear and despondency, in the time of calamity, when the wickedness of my wealthy and powerful adversaries compasseth me about, to supplant and overthrow me?

6. They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches;' 7. None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him :' 8. (For the redemption of their soul is precious, and it ceaseth for ever :)' 9. That he should still live for ever, and not see corruption.'

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In this world, as the wise man observeth, Eccles. x. 19. money answereth all things;' and therefore worldly men place their trust and confidence in it; but, in the evil day,' riches shall not be found: nor, if they could be found, would they avail any thing towards eternal salvation. For, what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?' saith one, who best knew the value of souls; as he paid the price of that 'precious redemption,' which otherwise must have ceased for ever;' when he suffered for us on the cross, and arose, on the third day, to life and immortality, without seeing corruption."

10. For he seeth that wise men die, likewise the fool and the brutish person perish, and leave their wealth to others.'

The inability of man to save his brother or himself from death, is evinced by daily experience, which showeth us, that the penalty due to sin is continually levied on all wisdom and folly go down into the dust together; and then, whose shall those things be, which have

'Hos versus ad Christum patres referunt, ut sensus sit: nemo purus homo fratrem redimit, sed tantum ille homo qui etiam Deus est. Memorant etiam interpretes R. Mosen Hazarden, qui verba hæc de Rege Messia intelligit, qui pro redemptione fratrum mortuus, postea in æternum vivat, uti prædictum est ab Isaia, liii. 10. BossUET.

been provided?' Luke xii. 20. Their possessions come into the hands of others, perhaps of those for whom they never intended them, and who have neither inclination nor ability to do the dead man any service.

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11. Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue for ever, and their dwelling-places to all generations; they call their lands after their own names.'

Various are the contrivances of vain men, to have their names written on earth, and to procure, after their deaths, an imaginary immortality, for themselves and their families, in the memory and conversation of posterity; which is not often obtained; and, if obtained, is of no value; when, with less trouble, they might have had their names written in heaven, and have secured to themselves a blessed immortality, in the glorious kingdom of their Redeemer.

12. Nevertheless man being in honor abideth not; he is like the beasts that perish.'

The continuance of man in the world is as that of a traveller at an inn, who tarrieth but for a night; so that if honor and wealth do not soon leave him, he must soon leave them, and, like the brutes around him, return to his earth, never more to be seen, and little more to be thought of.' Families decay, and are extinguished, as well as individuals; and the world itself is to perish after the same example. That such beings, in such a place, should think of becoming glorious and immortal!

13. This their way is their folly; yet their posterity approve their sayings.'

The practice of laboring to acquire wealth and greatness, which can be of no service after death, and of endeavouring to perpetuate the possession of the most uncertain things in nature, is doubtless a folly; but it is a folly which, like many others, is at once blamed, and imitated.

14. Like sheep that,' or they, are laid in the grave, death shall feed on them; and the upright shall have

Comparatus est jumentis;' quoad temporalia, nihil habet amplius, atque omnino instar jumenti est, nisi æterna meditatur. BossUET.

dominion over them in the morning: and their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling.'

The high and mighty ones of the earth, who cause people to fear and nations to tremble around them, must one day crowd the grave; in multitude and impotence, though not in innocence, resembling sheep, driven and confined, by the butcher, in his house of slaughter. There death, that ravening wolf, shall feed sweetly on them, and devour his long-expected prey, in silence and darkness, until the glorious morning of the resurrection dawn; when the once oppressed and afflicted righteous, risen from the dead, and sitting, with their Lord, in judgment, shall have the dominion over their cruel and insulting enemies; whose faded beauty, withered strength, and departed glory, shall display to men and angels the vanity of that confidence which is not placed in God.

15. But God will redeem my soul,' or animal frame, 'from the power of the grave; for he shall receive me.’ The righteous, as well as the wicked, descend into the grave: to the bodies of the former it is a resting place, as the prison was to St. Peter, till the angel of the Lord shall awaken them, and call them forth; while to the latter it is a condemned hold, from which, at the appointed day, they are to be dragged to execution. The Prophet here expresseth a full and firm faith in the resurrection; and may be conceived as speaking in the person of Him who was first redeemed from the grave, and accepted by the Father; who did not despond in the days of evil, and when the wickedness of his supplanters compassed him about;' as foreseeing their speedy destruction, and his own approaching resurrection and exaltation. And therefore, he thus exhorts each disciple of his in the subsequent verses of our Psalm:16. Be not thou afraid when one is made rich; when

Impiorum inanitate despecta, assurgit ad bonos in Deum sperantes, quorum Deus animam ab inferis redimit, cum a sepulchro assumptos ad vitam æternam transfert. Alioqui, neque qui sperat in Domino plus reliquis haberet, neque præfationi responderet hujus Psalmi doctrina. BOSSULT.

the glory of his house is increased.'

17. For when he

dieth, he shall carry nothing away; his glory shall not descend after him.'

This is the conclusion of the Psalm, naturally following from the premises; and addressed, by way of exhortation and comfort, to the meek and humble disciples of the Lamb; directing them to fear God, who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell, and not to be afraid of the short-lived power, conferred in this world, by wealth, over the body only. For this purpose, nothing is requisite, but to strip the worldling of the pomp and parade, the connexions and relations of life, and to consider him, as he is to appear on the day of his burial, when nothing shall attend him, but his shroud, to the grave, and his works to the judgment-seat. View him in this light, which is the proper light to view him in, and he will cease to be the object of fear or envy.

18. Though, while he lived, he blessed his soul; and men will praise thee when thou doest well to thyself.' Such must be the worldling's end, as described above; however, in the day of health and prosperity, he may bless himself, and say, 'Soul, thou hast goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. Nor will such a speech, whenever it is spoken, want its admirers; it will have the applause of numbers, whose opinion it is, that there is nothing better for a man, than that he should eat, and drink, and enjoy himself, all the days of his life, which God giveth him under the sun.'

19. He shall go to the generation of his fathers; they shall never see light.'

They who follow their fathers in sin, must follow them likewise into the torments of that sad place where darkness has fixed its everlasting abode, for the reception of those that ever loved and embraced it; and where the light of life and salvation no longer visits those, who always hated, and rejected it.

20. 'Man, that is in honor, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish.'

The sum of the whole matter is, that it can profit a man nothing to gain the whole world; to become posses

sed of all its wealth, and all its power; if, after all, he lose his own soul, and be cast away, for want of that holy and heavenly wisdom which distinguishes him from the brutes, and sets him above them, in his life, and at his death.

TENTH DAY.-MORNING PRAYER.

PSALM L.

ARGUMENT.

[This Psalm presents us with a magnificent description, 1,2. of the promulgation of the Gospel, followed, 3, 4. by a prediction of the terrible manner of God's coming to judge his apostate people, Israel; 5, 6. of the assembly to be present, and his appeal to men and angels; 7—13. the rejection of the legal, and, 14, 15. the establishment of the Christian, worship and services; 16-20. the impenitent Jews are arraigned, and 21. threatened; and, 22. exhorted to consider, to repent; and, 23. to embrace the evangelical, or spiritual religion. It is to be observed, that in this Psalm, as in our Lord's discourse on the same subject, the particular judgment of Jerusalem is a figure and specimen of the last general judgment. Hypocritical and wicked Christians are, therefore, to apply to

'Such is the general idea entertained of this Psalm, by the best Christian expositors, cited in Poole's Synopsis, where we are likewise informed, that the Jewish rabbies affirm the subject of it to be, that judgment which will be executed in the days of Messiah'-ignorant, alas! that they themselves, and their people, are now become the unhappy objects of that judgment. Psalmi quinquagesimi argumentum est ex genere didactico ad moralem theologiam pertinens, grave imprimis et fructuosum : Deo nimirum non placere sacrificia et externos ritus religionis, sed sin ceram potius pietatem, laudesque ex grato animo profluentes; neque vero has ipsas pietatis significationes, sine justitia cæterisque virtutibus. Ita duas habet partes; primo arguitur cultor pius quidem, sed ignarus et superstitioni obnoxius; deinde improbus pietatis simulator. Si totum hujusce odæ apparatum et quasi scenam contemplamur, nihil facile potest esse magnificentius. Deus universum genus humanum solenni edicto convocat, ut de populo suo judicium publice exerceat: ponitur in Sione augustum tribunal: depingitur Dei advenientis majestas imaginibus a descensu in montem Sinam petitis: cœlum et terra invocantur divinæ justitiæ testes: tum demum inducitur Dei ipsius sententiam dicentis augustissima persona, per reliquam oden continuata; unde cum cæteris ejus partibus admirabilis illa exordii majestas et splendor communicatur.' LOWTH, Prælect. xxvii. ad init,