"For thy hand is heavy upon me day and night, and my moisture is like the drought in

summer.

"I will acknowledge my sin unto Thee; and my unrighteousness have I not hid.

"I said I will confess my sins unto the LORD; and so Thou forgavest the wickedness of my sin."

Psalm li. ver. 1-6.

"Have mercy upon me, O God, after thy great goodness: according to the multitude of thy mercies, do away mine of fences.

"Wash me thoroughly from my wickedness, and cleanse me from my sin.

"For I acknowledge my faults, and my sin is ever before me.

"Against Thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight that Thou mightest be justified in thy saying, and clear, when Thou art judged.

"Behold, I was shapen in wickedness, and in sin hath my mother conceived me.

"But lo, Thou requirest truth in the inward

parts; and shalt make me to understand wisdom secretly."

It is impossible for a mind that has preserved any taste for moral beauty, to peruse these overflowings of touching and animated devotion, without imbibing something of a similar spirit; and we accordingly find that these Psalms were adopted by the Jewish Nation at large into their National Worship, (and are continued to this day by most Christian Societies) to express at once their sentiments of piety, and their conviction of the truth of the doctrines, as well as of the predictions they contained.

Now I think, nothing of this species of filial devotion, nothing of this practical reference to the paternal government of Providence over each individual of the world, is to be found in any of the numerous Philosophers of the Heathen World: still less are they discernible in the habits of the multitude, as far as we have the means of ascertaining them. - Rational Prayer to the Divine Being, and an habitual direct regard to his Will, in the ordinary

course of moral conduct, formed no part of their philosophy.

This distinction is remarkable; and is to be traced, I conceive, to two circumstances; namely, to the juster views of the Deity entertained by the Jews; and particularly to their more settled conviction of the truth and certainty of those views. Their Faith did not rest on the vague and contradictory speculations of their philosophers, but (as they believed at least) on Divine Authority: else whence this wonderful superiority and comparative sublimity in religious sentiments and worship in a people naturally gross, and in all other respects justly enough deemed barbarous by the then civilized part of the world? Can any natural cause be assigned for it?

Upon the whole, I believe we may without fear of reasonable contradiction, affirm that the singularly just opinions held, throughout so many ages by the Jews, (as a People; and not merely by a few of their Philosophers,) and by them only of all nations upon the earth, respecting the Unity, Spirituality, and Sanctity

of the Deity, as well as his Providence; together with the beneficial influence the universal and settled conviction of these truths had on their national worship and sentiments, afford no mean presumptions of the justice of their pretensions to Divine Revelation: and that these presumptions are greatly strengthened, when coupled with what we have noticed above of the fulfilment of the Predictions contained in the Psalms. No candid mind can, I think, satisfactorily refer the whole of these peculiarities to any given natural causes; and if not, we are reduced to the necessity of admitting supernatural interference.

In the hope that this humble attempt to il lustrate some of these beautiful compositions may lead to their perusal, (whether in the course of public worship or in private,) with increased interest and edification, I shall conclude the subject with the following cautionary observations:

First, That the Reader is by no means to suppose that these remarks are offered, as con

stituting the chief (much less the whole) evidence for the Truth of Revelation. That evidence consists principally of very powerful testimonies to the reality of the miracles asserted in the Scriptures to have been performed, and of a long chain of connected Prophecies delivered during a series of ages, commencing almost with the Creation, and remarkably accomplished in the person and dispensation of CHRIST.

It is to be remembered that of this last topic of evidence, we have here examined merely a single branch, and that too very superfi cially.

My next observation is so trite that it would require an apology, but for its supreme importance: it is briefly this: -That an actual Revelation from the Deity to man, confirmed by the occasional suspension of the Laws of Nature, and by supernatural communications, must necessarily be a matter of no slight concern: and that while it is of the very essence of folly, to bestow our least attentions on our highest interests, it is of the first consequence to impress