with us it is altogether vernacular. I have my doubts, indeed, whether flattery be the thing meant by the Hebrew words. Is it not rather that the persons in question, by plausible arguments, and an ensnaring eloquence, contrived to set a fair appearance upon mischievous maxims and pernicious practices. Libertines, in all ages, have not wanted excuses for their riot and debaucheries. The idolaters of antiquity, contrived to give an air of mysterious sanctity to the idlest fables, and the foulest rites; and the philosophical atheists of modern times, throw an air of wisdom over the most absurd doctrines, and the most wicked principles. Thus, the words of the wicked are fair, while their practices are abominable, and they promise well with the worst intentions. The passage, therefore, may be

not ill rendered:

An open sepulchre is their throat,

They set-a-polish with their tongue. *

[G] Ver. 12.

with favour wilt thou compass him as with a shield." E. T. The original hath nothing rendering the English preposition with, before either of the nouns favour or shield. The preposition, therefore, in both places is supplied by the translators. The original, rendered word by word, runs thus:

*Compare Psalm XII, 2. & XXXVI, 2.

"Like a shield, good-will, thou-wilt-stand-guard-aroundhim." The easiest exposition which the passage, as it stands, may admit, is to understand the noun good-will as having that relation to the noun shield, which, in the Latin or Greek languages, would be expressed by putting good-will in the ge

nitive case.

-"Like a shield of good-will."-The chief objection to this exposition of the words will be, that ought to be Л. But the use of the absolute state for the constructed is so frequent, that this seems no difficulty. Mr Mudge thinks that

Y is a spear rather than a shield. But, in either sense of this word, the grammatical exposition of the words, as well as the general sentiment contained in them, will be the same.

-stand-guard-around-him." The verb by which literally signifies "to crown, to surround," or compass, is, I think, a military term, denoting the posture of guards standing round a king for the defence of his person. The general sentiment, therefore, is this, that God's good will towards the JUST ONE is to him, instead of the shields or spears of an armed band, surrounding his person to keep off the enemy.

PSALM VI.

A PENITENTIAL PRAYER IN THE CHARACTER OF A SICK

PERSON.

TITLE TO THE GIVER OF VICTORY. UPON THE STRINGED IN

STRUMENT.

OF DAVID.]

CONCERNING THE SUPERABUNDANCE.

A PSALM

The supplicatory Psalms may be generally divided into two classes according to the prayer; which, in some, regards the public, and in others, the individual. In those of the latter class, which is the most numerous, the supplicant is always in distress. His distress arises chiefly from the persecution of his enemies. His enemies are always the enemies of God and goodness. Their enmity to the suppliant is unprovoked. If it has any cause, it is only that he is the faithful servant of Jehovah, whose worship they oppose. They are numerous and powerful, and use all means, both of force and stratagem, for the suppliant's destruction ;—an object, in the pursuit of which they are incessantly employed. The suppliant is alone, without friends, poor, and destitute of all support but God's providential protection. When the great inequality between the suppliant and his enemies is considered, with respect to their different rank and fortunes in the world, it seems strange that

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 miraculously 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.

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