one, so inconsiderable as he is described to be, should at all attract the notice of persons so greatly his superiors, or that having once incurred their displeasure, he should not be immediately cut off. But, although their malice is perpetually at work, their point is never carried. They keep him indeed in perpetual alarm and vexation, but they seem never to advance a single step nearer to the end of their wishes, viz. his destruction. The suppliant, on the other hand, often miracu lously relieved, is yet never out of danger, though he looks forward with confidence to a period of final deliverance. `` If at any time he is under apprehension of death, it is by the visitation of God in sickness. And at those seasons, the persecution of his enemies always makes a considerable part of the affliction. They exult in the prospect of his dissolution; upbraid him as deserted by his God; and, in the end, feel the highest disappointment and vexation at his recovery.

From these circumstances, which in the aggregate will not apply to any character in the Jewish history, there is good reason to conclude that the suppliant is a mystical personage; sometimes the Messiah, sometimes the Church, sometimes an individual of the faithful. The enemies, too, are mystical;—the devil, and the evil spirits his confederates, and atheists and idolaters, considered as associated with the rebellious angels. The sickness, too, is mystical: When the Messiah himself is the sick person, the sickness is his humiliation, and the wrath which he endured for the sins of men: When the Church is personated, her sickness is the frailty of her

members. But in some Psalms, the sick suppliant is the believer's soul, labouring under a sense of its infirmities, and anxiously expecting the promised redemption; the sickness is the depravity and disorder occasioned by the fall of man.

Ver. 5, 6. For in death," &c. The language, as it may seem, of despair; but not so when the expressions are critically analyzed. "Death" is an affection of the body, and of that only. is the mansion of departed souls, where they wait the general resurrection. The verb properly relates to acts of public worship. The assertion therefore is, that the dead body has no remembrance of God at all, nor are there any public acts of worship in Sheol.

Ver. 7. Mine eye consumed;" rather, "is

grown stiff."

Ver. 8. workers of iniquity;" rather," dealers in vanity." The idolaters, who take occasion of the sick man's danger and alarm, to entice him over to their party, by the offer of relief through their arts of incantation. Their insidious attempts to seduce him, rouse his mind, and revive his trust in God. This is the only reason that appears for the sudden transition, from the language of despair to that of confidence and joy.

A

hath heard;" rather, "hears," or " is hearing."

Ver. 9. hath heard," as before, "hears," or "is hear

ing."

Ver. 10. Let all mine enemies;" rather, "All mine ene mies shall be."

let them return and be ashamed, suddenly;" rather, -they shall again suddenly be-brought-to-shame."

PSALM VII.

[A] Ver. 1.

renting it in pieces while there is none to deliver." E. T. The verb p signifies not only to rend, or break, but also to rescue by force; (see Ps. cxxxvi, 24. and Lam. v, 8.) And in this sense the participle was understood in this place by all the ancient interpreters, unless Apollinarius be considered as an exception. Μὴ ὄντος λυτρουμένου μηδὲ σάν Corros. LXX. Dum non est qui redimat, neque qui salvum faciat. Vulg. The Syriac is to the same effect. It should seem that, in the copies used by these translators, the whole line stood thus,

ואין פרק ואין מציל

As the line now stands in the Masoretic text, p should be taken as the verb in the imperative:

Rescue, for there is no deliverer.

Having no helper among men, he prays that God would rescue him.

Apollinarius seems to have taken the word as a passive participle, rendering it viribus confractus, and descriptive of the suppliant's own condition :

זאת

Μήποτ' ἐφαρπάξεις λέων ἐμὸν οἷα τις ἦτου,

Πάμπαν ἀνάλκοντος, καὶ ἀμύντορος οὐ παρεόντος.

Perhaps, if we had the particulars of the depositions of the false witnesses against our Lord, we might find an appropriate application of these protestations to our Lord himself. Л may refer to some particular crime laid to his charge. But is it not possible, that our Lord may take to himself the false accusations of his servants, when things of which they are innocent are laid to their charge as Christians, as crimes to which their religion is supposed to lead them;-as, at this very day, violences of which they are innocent are hourly laid to the charge of the emigrè clergy of France, as Christians, by the atheistical government of that country, merely as a pretence for persecuting the Christian name? Messiah takes to himself these false accusations of his religion, and, in the shape of protestations of his own innocence, gives the lie to these accusers of the brethren, and threatens them with the

Divine vengeance.

Bishop Horne's notion of this Psalm was not different from this, for he says "it may be considered as the appeal

VOL. I.

of the true David and his disciples, against the grand Accuser

and his associates."

[B] Ver. 4. Yea I have delivered him," &c. E. T. This parenthesis not only intervenes aukwardly, but the characteris tic parallelism of the Hebrew distich is altogether missing in this place. The substantive is twice used for spoils stript from the carcase of a slain enemy. Hence it should seem that the verb may signify not only to deliver, but to strip, spoil, or plunder. Indeed its primary sense is extrahere, or detrahere. If the sense of plundering may be admitted, the proper parallelism will appear in the distich:

If I have made an ill return to him that was at peace with me, Or, without provocation, have plundered my greatest enemy.

The verb ' in the Chaldee dialect confessedly bears this sense, to spoil. Houbigant's emendation, therefore, is unnecessary, though it consists only in a single transposition;

אחלצה for אלחצה

Dr Durell thinks the passage may be thus rendered :

"If I have taken up arms without cause against my enemy.”

He says the verb 5 is so used Num. xxxi, 3. xxxii, 17,

* viz. Judges xiv, 19. and 2 Sam. ii, 21.