mountains of Zion: for there the LORD commanded the blessing, even life for evermore.' Unity, beginning in the prince, and diffused through the people, is here illustrated,' saith doctor Delany, 'by two images, the most apt and beautiful that ever were imagined. Kingdoms are considered as bodies politic, of which the king is the head, and the people, in their several ranks and orders, the parts and members. A spirit of union beginning upon the prince, whose person is sacred, is like oil poured upon the head of Aaron, which naturally descends, and spreads itself over all the parts of the body, and diffuses beauty and fragrance over the whole, reaching even to the skirts of the garment. Oil is, without question, the finest emblem of union that ever was conceived. It is a substance consisting of very small parts, which yet, by their mutual adhesion, constitute one uniform, well united, and useful body. The sacred oil carries the idea and the advantage of union yet farther; which being extracted from various spices, yet made up one well cohering and more valuable compound. The next image carries the exhortation to union, and the advantages of it, still higher. Hermon was the general name of one mountain, comprehending many lesser and lower hills, under the surround of a greater. Union in any nation is the gift of God; and therefore unity among brethren, beginning from the king, is like the dew of heaven, which falling first on the higher summit of Hermon (refreshing and enriching wherever it falls), naturally descends to Zion, a lower; and thence even to the humble valleys. Zion was the centre of union to all the tribes; there God himself had promised his people rest, and peace from their enemies; which, however, were of little value without union and harmony among themselves.' ' Thus far this learned and pious author, whose explanation of the Psalmist's imagery, as descriptive of civil unity in the state, is so just and elegant, that I could not forbear transcribing the passage at length. It only remains to be added, that dity of making the dew of Hermon, a mountain on one side of Jordan, towards the eastern extremity of Canaan, descend on the mountain of Zion, which was situated on the other side of Jordan, at Jerusalem. Life of King David, vol. iii. p. 204. these divine pictures receive an additional beauty, and the coloring is much heightened, by their being viewed in another light, as representations of spiritual unity in the church. The spirit of heavenly love was that oil of gladness which Jehovah poured without measure on him who is the high-priest and head of his church. Insinuating and healing, comforting and exhilarating, it is diffused from him over his body mystical, even down to the least and lowest members; of his fulness have we all received; and, as it is said of Mary's box of spikenard in the Gospel, the house is filled with the odor of the ointment.' Nor did the dew of heaven, in time of drought, ever prove more refreshing and beneficial to the mountains of Judah, than are the influences of grace when descending in soft silence from above on the church; in the union and communion of which, God hath 'commanded the blessing, even life for evermore.' O come the day, when division shall cease, and enmity be done away; when the tribes of the spiritual Israel shall be united in a bond of eternal charity, under the true David, in the Jerusalem which is above; and saints and angels shall sing this lovely Psalm together! PSALM CXXXIV. ARGUMENT. [With this Psalm, Christians in the church, like the Levites of old in the temple, 1, 2. call on each other to bless God, and 3. on God to bless them all.] 6 1. Behold, bless ye the LORD, all ye servants of the LORD, which by night stand in the house of the LORD.' 2. Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, and bless the LORD.' The first word in this verse, 'Behold,' seemeth to point at the reasons which the priests in the temple had to bless Jehovah; as if it had been said, Behold, the house of God is built, the holy services are appointed, and the Lord hath given you rest from your enemies, that you may serve him acceptably; set about it, therefore, with gratitude and alacrity. We read, 1 Chron. ix. 33. that the Levitical singers were employed in their work day and Div. No. XXV. 2 B night;' to the end, doubtless, that the earthly sanctuary might bear some resemblance of that above, where, St. John tells us, the redeemed are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple:' Rev. vii. 15. Christians are the redeemed of the Lord, redeemed from the guilt and dominion of sin, delivered out of the hands of their enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil, that they may become the servants of Christ. He hath built his church, and in it he wills that men pray, lifting up holy hands, and that they offer the sacrifices of thanksgiving. Behold,' therefore, bless the Lord Jesus, all ye servants of his ;' bless him in the cheerful and busy hours of day; bless him in the solemn and peaceful watches of the night; making melody, even then, in your hearts at least, if not with your voices. The pious Mr. Nicholas Farrer exhibited, in the last century, an instance of a Protestant family, in which a constant course of psalmody was appointed, and so strictly kept up, that through the whole four and twenty hours of day and night, there was no portion of time, when some of the members were not employed in performing that most pleasant part of duty and devotion. The reader may see the curious life of this extraordinary person, as drawn up by Dr. Turner, bishop of Ely, in the Christian Magazine, vol. ii. p. 356. 3. The LORD that made heaven and earth, bless thee out of Zion.' The two preceding verses, as Mr. Mudge observes, seem directed to the priests of the temple, by some person, probably of consequence, come up to pay his devotion. This third verse is therefore returned, as from the priests. And thus it is, that prayer and praise, which by grace are caused to ascend from our hearts to God, will certainly return in the benedictions of heaven on our souls and bodies, our persons and our families, our church and our country; like the vapors, which, exhaled by the warmth of the sun from the bowels of the earth, mount upwards into the air, but soon fall again in fruitful showers, causing the little hills to rejoice, and the valleys to laugh and sing. PSALM CXXXV. ARGUMENT. [In this Psalm, 1, 2. the servants of Jehovah are exhorted to praise him, 3. on account of his goodness; of the pleasure to be found in the employment; 4. of the peculiar mercies shown to Israel; 5. of his infinite superiority over the gods of the nations, manifested, 6, 7. in the works of creation, 8-14. in his dealings with the church, and with her adversaries. 15-18. The folly of idolatry, and of those who practice it, is described; and 19-21. Israel is again stirred up to praise Jehovah.] 1. Praise ye the LORD. Praise ye the name of the LORD; praise him, O ye servants of the LORD.' 2. Ye that stand in the house of the LORD, in the courts of the house of our God.' 3. Praise the LORD; for the LORD is good: sing praises unto his name; for it is pleasant.' All the servants of God, they, more especially, who minister in the temple, are repeatedly, as in the foregoing Psalm, excited to praise their blessed Master. Two reasons are assigned why they should do this. First, the goodness of that Master, and secondly, the pleasantness of the employment. The latter of these reasons hath a natural and necessary dependence on the former. A sense of the divine mercy will tune our hearts and voices to praise. We, who are on earth, often find ourselves indisposed for the duty of thanksgiving, because the concerns of the body, the cares and pleasures of life, extinguish for a time, this sense in us, until grace, prayer, and meditation, render it again lively and active. the inhabitants of heaven, who behold God without the veil of matter interposed, it is always so; and therefore, they rest not day or night from singing hallelujahs, nor cease one moment to rejoice in God their Saviour. 6 4. For the LORD hath chosen Jacob unto himself, and Israel for his peculiar treasure.' 5. For I know that the LORD is great, and that our LORD is above all gods.' A third reason why the children of Israel should praise the name of Jehovah, was the circumstance of their hav ing been selected from among the nations to be his church, to receive the law and the promises, to have his presence residing in the midst of them, and to be the guardians of the true faith and worship. And a fourth reason, was the superiority of Jehovah their God over the gods of the heathen, and consequently over those who worshipped them; from whence followed this comfortable inference, that he was able to protect and to defend his people against every enemy that had evil will to Zion. Shall not we Christians, then, praise the same gracious Lord, who hath chosen us out of the world, who hath given unto us his Gospel, who dwelleth in us by his Spirit, and who, by that Spirit, maketh us more than conquerors over our spiritual adversaries? 6. Whatsoever the LORD pleased, that did he in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and all deep places.' The pre-eminence of Jehovah above the gods of the nations is evinced by this consideration, that he, at the beginning, created and formed those powers of nature, whose operations in the heavens, the earth, and the waters, led the heathen world, after it had lost the knowlege of the Creator, to adore the creature as independent. Let us praise him, who, in the intellectual as in the material world, is Lord and King; who is obeyed by the angels in heaven, served by the church on earth, and feared by the spirits imprisoned in deep places beneath. 7. 'He causeth the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; he maketh lightnings for the rain; he bringeth the wind out of his treasuries.' They who in old time paid their devotions to the elements, imagined those elements to be capable of giving or withholding rain at pleasure. Therefore we find the prophet Jeremiah reclaiming that power to Jehovah, as the God who made and governed the world: Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain? or can the heavens give showers? Art thou not he, O Jehovah our God? Therefore we will wait upon thee: for thou hast made all these things:' Jer. xiv. 22. Among the Greeks and Romans we meet with a Jupiter possessed of the thunder and the lightning, and an |