tions from the past, no peace in the prefent, no hopes from the future; who must confider himself as a folitary being in the world; who has no friends without to pour balm in the cup of bitterness he is doomed to drink; who has no friend above to comfort him, when there is none to help; and who has nought within him to compenfate for that irreparable and irredeemable lofs. Such a perfon is as miserable as he is wicked. He is infenfible to every emotion of friendship; he is loft to all fenfe of honor; he is feared to every feeling of virtue.

In the class of thofe who fit in the chair of the fcorner, we may include the whole race of infidels, who mifemploy the engines of reafon or of ridicule to overthrow the Chriftian religion. Were the dif pute concerning a fyftem of fpeculative opinions, which of themselves were of no importance to the happiness of mankind, it would be uncharitable to include them all under this cenfure. But on the Christian religion, not only the happiness but the virtue of mankind depends. It is an undoubted fact, that religion is the strongest principle of virtue with all men, and with nine-tenths of mankind is the only principle of virtue. Any attempt therefore to deftroy it, must be confidered as an attempt against the happiness and against the virtue of the human kind. If the heathen philofophers did not attempt to fubvert the false religion of their country, but, on the contrary, gave it the fanction of their example, because, bad as it was, it had confiderable influence on the manners of the people, and was better than no religion at all, what fhame, what contempt, what infamy, ought they to incur, who endeavour to over. FFf

throw a religion which contains the noblest ideas of the Deity, and the purest system of morals, that ever were taught upon earth? He is a traitor to his country; he is a traitor to the human kind; he is a traitor to Heaven, who abufes the talents that God has given him, in impious attempts to wage war against Heaven, and to undermine that system of religion, which, of all things, is the best adapted to promote the happiness and the perfection of the human kind. Bleffed then is the man who hath not brought himself into this finful and miserable state, who hath held faft his innocence and integrity in the midft of a degenerate world; or if, in fome unguarded hour, he hath been betrayed into an imprudent step, or overtaken in a fault, hath made ample amends for his folly by a life of penitence and of piety.

VERSE 2. His delight is in the law of the Lord. He makes religion and virtue the grand business of his life, and his bufinefs becomes his delight. He does not take it up occafionally, and by fits and starts, it is his employment day and night. In the morning he riseth with the fun, and joins with the choir of angels and archangels in celebrating the great Creator. He looks around him with a pious pleasure an the living landscape which the hand of the Almighty hath drawn for his delight, and he adores that benevolent power who makes all nature beauty to his eye, and mufic to his ear; but he has a fairer profpect within, than nature can furnish without, and the still small voice of confcience whispers peace to his heart in fweeter ftrains than all the music of the morning, which hails him on every fide. With a cheerful and a grateful heart, he contemplates the

wonders of creating bounty, he recollects the inftan ces of preferving goodness, and he traces the annals of redeeming love. He looks through the veil of created things, and raises his thoughts from this' world to that state of happiness and immortality which is reserved for the fpirits of juft men made perfect!! His religion does not confift in contemplation alone. He goeth about doing good. He inftructs the igno! rant in the light that leads to heaven; he pours the balm of confolation into the wounded mind; and he wipes the tears from the cheeks of the diftreffed. He diftinguishes every day with fome good, fome memorable deed; and he retires to reft with that inward, ferene, and heartfelt joy, that fober certainty of bliss, which is only to be found in a life of holi nefs and of piety.

VERSE 3. And he fhall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his feafon; his leaf alfo fhall not wither, and whatsoever he doth fhall profper. A tree planted by the rivers of} water, is a beautiful object in all nations; but to the Jews, who lived in a hot country, and were fcorch ed with the heat of the fun, it was an object both of fignal beauty and of fignal utility, by affording them a fhadow from the heat. Hence, when they defcribe mankind in their happiest state, they represent them as fitting under their vines and their fig-trees. This allufion expreffeth well the flourishing ftate of the righteous man. Planted in the garden of his God, and watered with the dew of heaven, his leaf is ever green, and he brings forth the fruits of righteoufnefs in due feafon. His goodness is liberal and unconfined, and his beneficence is fhared promif

cuously by friends and foes. He is clothed with righteousness, and his judgment is a robe and a diadem. The ear that hears him blesseth, and the eye that fees him gives witness to him, because he delivereth the poor, the fatherlefs, and them that have none to help. He is eyes to the blind. He is feet to the lame. The loins of the naked blefs him. The blefling of him that is ready to perifh comes upon him, and he caufes the widow's heart to fing for joy.

All he doth fhall profper well. Among the Jews, to whom this Pfalm was addreffed, this held invariably true. There was a particular difpenfation of providence exercised towards that people, diftributing temporal rewards to righteousness, and temporal punishments to fin. In the ordinary course of providence now, this does not always hold. Succefs and disappointment are administered variously to the fons of men. But ftill, in all his endeavours, the good man bids the fairest for fuccefs. While he acts in character, he will attempt nothing but what is just and honorable in itself, or beneficial to the interests of fociety; he will always have the good wifhes of mankind on his fide. And although he should fometimes be disappointed, the consciousness of his good intentions will keep his mind at ease, and his faith in the good providence of his heavenly Father, will fill him with a contentment and peace of mind, that is a stranger to the breaft of the wicked man, even when he obtains his wishes.

VERSE 4. The ungodly are not fo: But are like the chaff which the wind driveth away. The Pfalmift hits upon the diftinguishing feature in the character of a

wicked man. He never acts upon a plan. He lives and acts at random. He has no rule for his life but the veerings of paffion. Prefent gratification being his only object, different and contrary paffions folicit him at the fame time. One appetite faith unto him, Go, and he goeth, another says, Come, and he cometh. The flave of sense, and the sport of paffion, he is driven to and fro like the chaff before the whirlwind, and his life is one continued fcene of levity, inconfiftency and folly.

VERSES 5. and 6. Therefore the ungodly shall not ftand in the judgment, nor finners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous But the way of the ungodly fhall perish. The miseries which the wicked endure here, are but the beginning of their forrows. That God, whose grace they abused, whose mercy they undervalued, and whofe power they defpifed, is now their awful and inexorable Judge. The wicked have no cause to complain of the fentence that is paffed upon them. They have brought it upon their own heads. They have been the inftruments of their own ruin. They have brought themselves into a fituation in which it is impoffible for them to be happy. Let us fuppofe them to be admitted into the company of the bleffed, their fituation would be ftill deplorable. They would pine in the manfions of bliss, and search for heaven in the midst of paradife. We may venture to fay, that it is even impoffible for Omnipotence to make a wicked man happy; it implies an express contradiction. They have put themselves out of the reach of divine mercy, and become what the Scripture most emphatically calls, "Veffels of wrath fit