power, and are in authority; which they abufe to the oppreffion of the meaner and weaker fort: and make no confcience by what arts they bring their defigns about. Against thefe men the Pfalmift humbly befeeches the divine vengeance, and refts affured, that they fhall be fuppreffed.

Ver. 1. Why ftandeft thou so far off, O Lord; and hideft thy face in the needful time of trouble?

2. The ungodly, for his own luft, doth perfecute the poor; therefore let them be taken in their own net, and in the crafty wilinefs that they have imagined, or contrived.

3. For the ungodly hath made boast of his own heart's defire, and fpeaketh good of the covetous, whom God abhorreth.

4. The ungodly is fo proud that he careth not for God; neither is God in all his thoughts, or, all his thoughts are, there is no God.

5. Are we to wonder then, if his ways are always grievous? For thy judgments are far above out of his fight, and therefore defieth he all

his enemies.

6. For he hath faid in his heart, Tufh, I fhall never be caft down; there fhall no harm happen unto

me.

7. His mouth is full of curfing, deceit, and fraud; under his tongue is ungodliness and vanity./

8. He fitteth lurking in the thievifh corners of the ftreet; and privily in his lurking dens doth he, murder the innocent, his eyes are fet against the poor.

9. For he lieth waiting fecretly, even as a lion lurketh he in his den that he may ravish or ravage the poor.

10. He doth ravih ravage the poor, when he getteth him into his net.

11. He falleth down and humbleth himself, that the congrega

tions of the poor may fall into the hands of his captains.

12. He hath faid in his heart, Tufh, God hath forgotten, he hideth away his face and will never fee it.

13. Arife, O Lord God, and lift up thine hand in their defence, and forget not the poor.

14. Wherefore should the wicked blafpheme God, while he doth fay in his heart, Tush, thou God, careft not for it? (d)

15. But furely thou haft feen it, for thou beholdeft ungodliness and

wrong.

16. And furely thou wilt punish it, for that thou mightest take the matter into thy hand, the poor committeth himself unto thee, for thou art the helper of the friendlefs.

17. Break thou the power of the ungodly and malicious; take away his ungodliness, and thou fhalt find none, or until thou shalt find none. (e)

18. I am perfuaded thou wilt, for the Lord is King for ever and ever; and the heathen are perished out of the land.

19. Lord thou hast heard the defire of the poor, thou preparest their heart to pray, and thine ear hearkeneth thereto.

20. To help the fatherless, and poor unto their right, that the earth be no more exalted against him.

(d) Ver. 14. Thou God, careft not for it.] We may collect from hence, that there were two forts of infidels at the time this pfalm was written; one of which made God a fort of Epicurean Deity, and fuppofed him not to concern himself with the moral government of the world, mentioned here; the other altogether denied his being, mentioned ver. 4.

(e) Ver. 17. Until thou shalt find none.] i. e. Deftroy him utterly, or fo fubdue him as to put it out of his power to do hurt. Thus the latter part of the verfe agrees very well with the former, Break thou the power,

REMARKS

REMARKS

ON MATT. xi. 5, 6, &c.

JOH

JOHN the Baptist having finished the bufinefs of his own million, in order to inftruct his difciples that they were now to feek from the Lamb of God himself, the accomplishment of that teftimony, which he had borne of him; he fent two of them to our Lord, to enquire whether he claimed the character of the promifed Meffiah or not, and what proof he could give of his title to it; in anfwer to which, our Lord faid unto them, "Go and fhew John again those things which you do hear and fee: the blind receive their fight, and the lame walk; the lepers are cleanfed, and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached unto them." This anfwer is a clear reference to a fignal prophecy of Ifaiah, concerning the Meffiah; and therefore it is manifeft, that he referred the enquiries for the conviction at once to the evidence of prophecies and miracles. The finger of God is manifeft in the whole occurrence. It could not be by chance, that John fent his difiples to propofe this important queftion to our Lord, at the very time when he was enabled to give the fulleft fatisfaction to it, and to confirm, in fo remarkable a manner, the teftimony of the Baptift. It could not be by chance that the enquiry after his divine character was made, at that critical period, when he was difplaying the ftrongeft marks of it; in that fame hour, when he was engaged in curing many of their infirmities and plagues, and of evil fpirits, and in giving fight to many that were born blind.'

We fee then clearly the propriety of this enquiry, without deducing it from any fuppofed doubts, or difcontent in the mind of the BapVOL. II. No. 13.

tift himself, or even any incredulity in his difciples. John had frequently declared our Lord to be the Meffiah, which was, indeed, the grand purpofe of his own miffion. But without his doubting, or his difciples difbelieving this teftimony, they must all alike have been fenfible, that this teftimony could have no force, till it fhould be confirmed by the event; and till our Lord fhould prove himself to be what John had afferted him to be. The prophets had defcribed the Meffiah; John had pointed out our Saviour to the world, as the perfon by them defcribed. His teftimony, therefore, mit have been overthrown, had it not afterwards appeared that "all things that John fpake of this man were true." Hence it was natural, nay, it was neceffary, that he should fend his difciples to our Lord, that they might fee the prophetical defcriptions of the Meffiah, and the teftimony of their mafter, verified in him. And when now the bufinefs of his own miffion was accomplished, when his doctrine and his teftimony of our Lord's divine character, had made their due impreffion upon the people; when the report of the

mighty works of Chrift, had reached him in prifon," and he perceived that our Saviour began to difplay that divine power which the prophets had afcribed to the Meffiah, he then faw that this was the feafon pointed out to him by Providence, for fending his difciples to make this enquiry.

favour of the doctrine of a preexistent state of fouls. But it does not feem likely, that the apostles fhould introduce a doctrine, of which there are no traces either in the Old or New Teftament; ftill lefs likely, that our Lord fhould pafs by fo fingular a doctrine, with. out any direct answer or refutation.

There is another opinion, with which the later Jews were deeply infected, and which may have left fome fcruples in the minds of the apoftles I mean the opinion which the Jews entertained under their captivity, and in the calamitous times that followed, that all their fufferings defcended upon them from the crimes of their fathers, and were wholly unmerited on their own

part.

This opinion it was that drew from the pen of Ezekiel that' fevere remonftrance, and animated vindication of the ways of Providence, contained in the 18th chapter of his prophecy. Some remains of this opinion, might fill have poffeffed the minds of the apoftles, full as they were at that

time of all Jewish prejudices. They fancied they faw in the man born blind, a cafe that could not be accounted, but by fuppofing him to fuffer for a parent's guilt, "Mafter, who did fin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" The queftion, they thought, admitted but of one reply, "The crime muft precede the punishment. The punishment, in this cafe, commences before there could be any perfonal guilt in the fufferer. It muft therefore defcend from the parents' fins." But our Lord fhewed them that the cafe admitted of a very different folution," Jefus anfwered, neither hath this man finned, nor his parents: but that the works of God fhould be made manifeft in him." Suffering is not, in this cafe, the effect of fin; this is a peculiar cafe; an exception from the ordinary course of God's Providence. This private calamity is permitted for a public good: to give me an opportunity of dif playing to the world that divine power by which I act."

Saviour of the world. This was a bold affertion in the good man, who knew how this people had been fo wonderfully re-established in former times, when they were almost fwallowed up, and in the most defperate ftate of defolation, as in their deliverance out of the Babylonifh captivity, and the oppreffions of Antiochus Epiphanes. Nay, he knew that within less than an hundred years before his own time, the Jews had made fuch a powerful effort for their re-eftablishment under Barchocab, in the reign of Adrian, as fhook the whole Roman empire. But he founded his opinion on a fure word of prophecy, and on the punishment they had fo

juftly

justly incurred and we find by a long experience of 1500 years, that he was not mistaken, nay, that his opinion gathers ftrength daily, fince the Jews are now at a greater distance from any probability of fuch a re-establishment, than they were when Origen wrote.

Another means enjoyed by the learned Pagans of the three first centuries, for fatisfying them in the truth of our Saviour's hiftory, was the lives and manners of thofe holy men, who believed in Chrift during the first ages of Chriftianity. We fhould be thought to advance a paradox, to affirm that there were more Christians in the world during thofe times of perfecution, than there are at prefent in these which we call the flourishing times of Chriftianity. But this will be found an indifputable truth, if we form our calcalations upon the opinions which prevailed in those days, that every one who lives in the habitual practice of any voluntary fin, actually cuts himself off from the benefit and profeffion of Christianity, and whatever he may call himself, is in reality no Chriftian, nor ought to be elteemed as fuch. In the primitive times, the Chriftian religion fhewed its full force and efficacy on the minds of men, and by many examples demonftrated what great and generous fouls it was capable of producing. It exalted and refined its profelytes to a very high degree of perfection, and fet them far above the pleafures, and even the pains, of this life. It ftrengthened the infirmity, and broke the fiercenefs of human nature. It lifted up the minds of the ignorant to the knowledge and worship of him that made them, and infpired the vicious with a rational devotion, a strict purity of heart, and an unbounded love to their fellow-creatures. In proportion as it spread through the world, it feemed to change mankind into another species of beings. No

fooner was a convert initiated into it, but by an eafy figure he became a new man, and both acted and looked upon himself as one regenerated and born a fecond time into another state of existence. We need not be more particular in the accounts of primitive Chriftianity, which has been exhibited fo well by others, and hall only obierve, that the Pagan converts, of whom we are now fpeaking, mention this great reformation of those who had been the greatest finners, with that fudden and furpriz.ng change which it made in the lives of the moit profligate, as having fomething in it fupernatural, iniraculous, and more than human. Origen reprefents this power in the Chriftian religion, as no lefs wonderful than that of curing the lame and blind, or cleaning the leper Many others reprefent it in the fame light, and looked upon it as an argument that there was a certain divinity in that religion, which fhewed itself in fuch ftrange and glorious effects. This therefore was a great means not only of recommending Chrif tianity to honest and learned heathens, but of confirming them in the belief of our Saviour's hiftory, when they saw multitudes of virtuous men daily forming them felves upon his example, animated by his precepts, and actuated by that spirit which he had promised to fend among his difciples.

[To be concluded in our next.]

affectionate core for the falvation and happiness of his creatures. Regardlef of fatisfying the defire of a curious enquirer, whether fow fhould be faved, he wifhs to engage his attention to a thing of more immediate concern; which was to ufe his utmoft ende.vors to be one of that number. As if he had faid, be not over anxious to pry into the fe ret decrees of infinite wifdom, but reft affured that if you are truly defirous of a glorious immortality, and ufe the means afforded you by God for that purpofe; it is fufficient for you to know that this, and this only, befpeaks you one of thofe happy few whom God has promifed eternally to blefs. To improve this exhortation, let us confider it as exprefsly alluding to the festivals of the Jews; who, when they invited; their friends, admitted them to their refpective company or apartment, by entering by a remarkable narrow or ftrait gate; and the guests being once entered, admittance for any others was pofitively refufed. Chrift makes ufe of this here as a metaphor, to fet forth the difficulty every one must expect, that wishes to be a candidate for heaven and eternal happinefs, Be not content barely to feek, or fondly to wifh for a refidence with me, in my Father's kingdom, but frive earnently to obtain it. The entrance, though acceffible, to all that feek it in fincerity and truth, is nevertheless fought in vain by the greater part of mankind; becaufe they deem accefs to it fo cafy to be obtained; and upon this prefume, either by indiference, or late repentance, to ingratiate themfelves into the divine favour, and fo delude themfelves with the falfe hope of a future and heavenly reward. But how very different from this is your experience who have but lately, perhaps, entered upon the Chriftian warfare, or have fet themfelves earnefly to feel after God, and the things of another world. Often.

and many times can they bear teftimony to the truth of their Saviour's affertion, that ftrait is the gate, and narrow is the road that leads to life. eternal. They find it not to easy a thing, as is generally reprefented, to be a true difciple of Chrift, or to be worthy of the name of Christian. Many difficulties there are attendant upon this holy name by which they are called, which the careless unchriftian part of the world are utter ftrangers to. Nay, no fooner are they inlifted under Chrift's banner, and promised, through divine affiftance, to adhere ftedfallly to his fervice, than they begin to receive fome affault from one or other of their spiritual enemies. Very different is the appearance of things now from what it was before.

Perhaps for no other reafon than because you have efpoufed the Chriflian caufe, a tribe of enemies will arife from your nearest relations, and your foes will become thofe of your own houfe! Those who have hitherto profeffed the greatest friendship, will now begin to mention your very name with contempt. Efteem will gradually decay, and like the bleffed Saviour of the world, your very perfon become odious. But do the enemies of Chrift and his followers ftop here, or is this all that renders an entrance into the New Jerufalem ftrait and difficult? No, behold them add to this fcornful behaviour fome intrigue or other to obftruct the Chriftian in his read to glory. Set on and employed by the enemy of all righteoufnefs, they are continually forming fome ftratagem or other against the new-born Chrif tian, and leave no means uneffayed that may tend to reduce him again into the gall of bitterness, or entangle him in the bonds of iniquity.

And what adds to increase the troubles of Chrift's faithful fervants more than all, is that conflict with