instilled into the heart of a man, then the seed of the wicked one is sown; by admitting, retaining, and cherishing the diabolical suggestion in his mind, he "conceiveth" a purpose of "mischief;" when that purpose is gradually formed and matured for the birth, he "travaileth with iniquity;" at length, by carrying it into action, he "bringeth forth false"hood." The purity of the soul, like that of the body, from whence the image is borrowed, must be preserved by keeping out of the way of temptation.

15. He made a pit, and digged it, and is fallen into the ditch which he made. 16. His mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate.

All the world agrees to acknowledge the equity of that sentence which inflicts upon the guilty the punishment intended by them for the innocent. No one pities the fate of a man buried in that pit which he had dug to receive his neighbour; or of him who owes his death-wound to the return of an arrow shot against heaven. Saul was overthrown by those Philistines whom he would have made the instruments of cutting off David. Haman was hanged on his own gallows. The Jews, who excited the Romans to crucify Christ, were themselves, by the Romans, crucified in crowds. Striking instances these of the vengeance to be one day executed on all tempters and persecutors of others; when men and angels shall lift up their voices, and cry out together, Righteous art thou, O LORD, and just are thy "judgements."

17. I will praise the LORD according to his righ

teousness; and will sing praise to the name of the LORD most high.

Whatever doubts may at present arise concerning the ways of God, let us rest assured that they will all receive a solution; and that the "righteousness" of the great Judge, manifested in his final determinations, will be the subject of everlasting hallelujahs.

PSALM VIII.

ARGUMENT.

This is the first of those Psalms which the Church has appointed to be read on Ascension-day. It treats, as appears from Heb. ii. 6, &c. of the wonderful love of God, shown by the exaltation of our nature in Messiah, or the second Adam, to the right hand of the Majesty on high, and by the subjection of all creatures to the word of his

power.

1. O LORD, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens.

The Prophet beholds in spirit the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow; like St. Stephen afterward, he sees heaven opened, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God; the sight fills his heart with wonder, love, and devotion, which break forth in this address to "Jehovah," as "our Lord;" for such he is by the twofold right of creation and redemption, having made us, and purchased us. On

both accounts," how excellent," how full of beauty

and honour, is his name, through "all the earth!"

diffused by the Gospel But more especially do

men and angels admire and adore him for the exaltation of his "glory," the glory of the only begotten, high "above the heavens," and all created nature, to the throne prepared for him before the foundation of the world.

2. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained, Heb. founded, or constituted, strength, because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.

This verse is cited by our Lord, Matt. xxii. 16. and applied to "little children in the temple, crying, "Hosanna to the Son of David!" which vexed and confounded his malignant adversaries. The import of the words, therefore, plainly is, that the praises of Messiah, celebrated in the church by his children, have in them a strength and power which nothing can withstand; they can abash infidelity, when at its greatest height, and strike hell itself dumb. In the citation made by our Lord, which the Evangelist gives from the Greek of the LXX, we read, "thou hast perfected praise," which seems to be rather a paraphrase than a translation of the Hebrew, literally rendered by our translators," thou hast ordained "strength."

3. When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained: 4. What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?

At the time of inditing this Psalm, David is evi

dently supposed to have had before his eyes the heavens as they appear by night. He is struck with the awful magnificence of the wide-extended firmament, adorned by the moon walking in brightness, and rendered brilliant by the vivid lustre of a multitude of shining orbs, differing from each other in magnitude and splendour. And when, from surveying the beauty of heaven, with its glorious show, he turns to take a view of the creature man, he is still more affected by the mercy, than he had before been by the majesty, of the Lord; since far less wonderful it is, that God should make such a world as this, than that He, who made such a world as this, should be " mindful of man," in this fallen estate, and should "visit" human nature with his salvation.

5. For thou hast made him a little, or, for a little while, lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. 6. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands : thou hast put all things under his feet.

On these two verses, with that preceding, St. Paul has left the following comment: "One in a cer"tain place TESTIFIETH, saying, What is man, that "thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that "thou visitest him? Thou madest him a little lower "than [marg. a little while inferior to] the angels;

thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and "didst set him over the works of thy hands; thou "hast put all things in subjection under his feet. "For in that he put all in subjection under him, " he left nothing that is not put under him. Bur Now we see not YET all things put under him.

"But we see JESUS, who was made a little lower "than the angels, for the suffering of death, "crowned with glory and honour." Heb. ii. 6, &c. See also 1 Cor. xv. 27.

7. All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; 8. The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the sea.

Adam, upon his creation, was invested with sovereign dominion over the creatures, in words of the same import with these; Gen. i. 28. which are therefore here used, and the creatures particularised, to inform us, that what the first Adam lost by transgression, the second Adam regained by obedience. That "glory" which was "set above the heavens,” could not but be over all things on "the earth." And accordingly, we hear our Lord saying, after his resurrection," All power is given unto me in heaven "and in earth :" Matt. xxviii. 18. Nor is it a speculation unpleasing, or unprofitable, to consider, that he who rules over the material world, is Lord also of the intellectual, or spiritual creation, represented thereby. The souls of the faithful, lowly and harmless, are the sheep of his pasture; those who, like oxen, are strong to labour in the church, and who, by expounding the word of life, tread out the corn for the nourishment of the people, own him for their kind and beneficent Master; nay, tempers fierce and untractable as the wild beasts of the desert, are yet subject to his will; spirits of the angelic kind, that, like the bird of the air, traverse freely the superior region, move at his command; and those evil ones, whose habitation is in the deep abyss, even to the