are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.' On these words the reader may see a full comment, Rom. i. 28-32.

2. The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there was any that did understand, and seek God. 3. They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy, or, putrefied there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

Like a watchman on the top of some lofty tower, God is represented as surveying, from his heavenly throne, the sons of Adam, and their proceedings upon the earth; he scrutinizes them, and as it were searches diligently, to find among them a man of true wisdom, one whose heart was turned toward the Lord his God, one who was enquiring the way to salvation and glory, that he might walk therein. But as the result of this extensive and accurate survey, God informs his prophet, and commissions him to inform the world, that all had declined from the paths of wisdom and righteousness; that the mass of human nature was become putrid, requiring to be cleansed, and the vessels made up of it to be formed anew. Such is the Scripture account of man not having received grace, or having fallen from it; of man without Christ, or in arms against him. See Rom. iii, 11, 12.

4. Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread, and call not upon the Lord.

The workers of iniquity,' work for the wages of death; they fight against God and their own souls;

1 Between the preceding verse and this are three others inserted in our common translation, which, though taken by St.

they barter eternity for time, and part with happiness for misery, both in possession and reversion. Well therefore may it be asked, ' Have they no knowledge?' For common sense, after all, is what they want. They who, with an appetite keen as that to their food, prey upon the poor, and devour the people of God, will themselves be preyed upon and devoured by that roaring lion, whose agents for the present they are; and such as now call not on' the name of the Lord' Jesus for pardon and salvation, shall hereafter call in vain upon the rocks and mountains, to shelter them from his power and

vengeance.

5. There were they in great fear; for God is in the generation of the righteous.

In the parallel place, Psal. liii. 5, after the words, There were they in great fear,' are added these, 'where no fear was,' which certainly connect better with what follows, for God is in the generation of the righteous.' David is supposed to be speaking primarily of Israel's defection from him to Ab salom, and here to be assigning the motive of that defection in many, namely, fear of the rebel's growing power, and distrust of his ability to protect them; which fear, he observes, was groundless, because his cause was the cause of God, who would not fail to appear in its support and vindication. The subjects of Christ, in times of persecution, are often tempted to renounce their allegiance, upon

Paul from other parts of Scripture, yet because (Rom. iii. 13) they followed the words cited from this Psalm, were probably added thereunto in this place by some transcribers of the copies of the LXX. For in other copies of the LXX. they exist not any more than in the Hebrew, Chaldee, or Syriac.

the same principle of fear; although of them it may more emphatically be said, that they fear where no fear is, since God is in the generation of the righteous;' and they who are engaged on the side of Messiah, will, in the end, most assuredly be triumphant. The latter clause of this verse, in Psalm liii. runs thus: For God hath scattered, or, shall scatter, the bones of him that encampeth against thee; thou hast, or shalt, put them to shame, because God hath despised them :' the sense of which is evidently the same with God is in the generation of the righteous:' he will defend them. and overthrow their enemies: therefore let them not fear, neither let their hearts be troubled. If this interpretation be disapproved, the words, There were they in great fear,' must be understood of the enemy; and clause, where no fear was,' must be rendered interrogatively thus, and was there not cause for them to fear? since God is in the generation of the righteous, or, will scatter the bones of him that encampeth against thee,' &c.

6. Ye have shamed the counsel of the poor, cause the Lord is his refuge.

be

This is plainly addressed to the adversaries, and charges them with reproaching and scoffing at that confidence in the Lord, expressed by the afflicted righteous, in the preceding verse.

7. O that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! When the Lord bringeth back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.

The consideration of the apostacy and corruption of mankind, described in this Psalm, makes

the Prophet express a longing desire for the salvation of Israel, which was to go forth out of Zion, and to bring back the people of God from that most dreadful of all captivities, the captivity under sin and death; a salvation, at which Jacob would indeed rejoice, and Israel be glad. And how doth the whole church, at this time, languish for the consummation of her felicity, looking, even until her eyes fail, for that glorious day of final redemption, when every believing heart shall exult, and all the sons of God shout aloud for joy!

PSALM XV.

Third Day.-Morning Prayer.

ARGUMENT.-This is one of the Psalms appointed to be used on Ascension-day. The Prophet, 1. inquires concerning the person, who should ascend into the hill, and dwell in the temple of Jehovah; 2-5. he receives, in answer to his question, a character of such person.

1. Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? Who shall dwell in thy holy hill?

The prophet alludes to the hill of Sion in the earthly Jerusalem, to the tabernacle of God which was thereon, and the character of the priest, who should officiate in that tabernacle. But all these were figures of a celestial Jerusalem, a spiritual Sion, a true tabernacle, and an eternal priest. To the great originals therefore we must transfer our ideas, and consider the inquiry as made after Him, who should fix his resting-place on the heavenly mount, and exercise his unchangeable priesthood

in the temple not made with hands. And since the disciples of this new and great High Priest become righteous in him, and are by the Spirit conformed to his image, the character which essentially and inherently belongs only to him, will derivatively belong to them also, who must follow his steps below, if they would reign with him above.

2. He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart.

The man, therefore, who would be a citizen of Zion, and there enter into the rest and joy of his Lord, must set that Lord always before him. Renewed through grace, endued with a lively faith, and an operative charity, he must consider and imitate the life of that blessed Person who walked amongst men, without partaking of their corruptions; who conversed unblameably with sinners; who could give this challenge to his inveterate enemies, Which of you convinceth me of sin?' in whom the grand accuser, when he came, found nothing;' who, being himself the Truth,' thought and spake of nothing else; making many promises, and performing them all.

3. He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbour, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour.

Who, knowing the sins, follies, and infirmities of all mankind, made his tongue an instrument, not of disclosing and exasperating, but of covering and healing these sores in human nature; who, esteeming every son of Adam as his neighbour, went about doing good; and then laid down his life, and resigned his breath in prayer for his