objections which may seem to lie against the use of Jewish, services in Christian congregations, cease at once. Thus, it may be said, Are we concerned with the affairs of David and of Israel? Have we any thing to do with the ark and the temple? They are no more. Are we to go up to Jerusalem, and to worship on Sion? They are desolated and trodden under foot by the Turks. Are we to sacrifice young bullocks, according to the law? The law is abolished, never to be observed again. Do we pray for victory over Moab, Edom, and Philistia; or for deliverance from Babylon? There are no suchonations, no such places in the world. What then do we mean, when, taking such expressions into our mouths, we utter them in our own persons, as parts of our devotions, before God? Assuredly we must mean a spiritual Jerusalem and Sion; a spiritual ark and temple; a spiritual law; spiritual sacrifices; and spiritual victories over spiritual enemies; all described under the old names, which are still retained, though old things are passed away, and all things are become new.' By substituting Messiah for David, the Gospel for the law, the church Christian for that of Israel, and the enemies of the one for those of the other, the Psalms are made our own. Nay, they are, with more fulness and propriety, applied now to the substance, than they were of old to the sha dow of good things then to come. And, therefore, ever since the commencement of the Christian æra, the church hath chosen to celebrate the Gospel mysteries in the words of these ancient hymns, rather than to coms pose for that purpose new ones of her own. For, let it not pass unobserved that, when, on the first publication of the Gospel, the apostles had occasion to utter their transports of joy, on their being counted worthy to suffer for the name of their dear Lord and Master, which was

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12 Cor. v. 17. Ergo arrige aures, Christiane Lector, et ubi talia in Davide legeris, tu mihi fac cogites, non Arcam, fragile lignum, aut bernaculum contectum pellibus; non urbem lapidibus compositam; non Templum divinæ Majestati angustum sed Christi et Ecclesiæ Sacra menta; sed vivos lapides, Christo angulari lapidi coaptatos sed ipsam Eucharistiam præsentis Dei testem; denique cœleste regnum et æternam felicitatem. BOSSUET. Dissertat. de Psal. cap. i. ad fin,

2 Heb. x. 1,

then opposed by Jew and Gentile, they brake forth into an application of the second Psalm to the transactions then before their eyes: see Acts iv. 25. The primitive Christians constantly followed this method, in their devotions; and particularly when, delivered out of the hands of persecuting tyrants by the victories of Constantine, they praised God for his goodness, and the glorious success and establishment of Christ's religion, no words were found so exquisitely adapted to the purpose, as those of David, in the 96th, 98th, and other PsalmsSing unto the Lord a new song: sing unto the Lord, all the earth. Sing unto the Lord, and praise his name: be telling of his salvation from day to day. Declare his honor unto the heathen, his worship unto all people,' &c. &c. &c. In these, and the like Psalms, we continue to praise God, for all his spiritual mercies in Christ, to this day.

The Psalms, thus applied, have advantages which no fresh compositions, however finely executed, can possibly have; since, besides their incomparable fitness to express our sentiments, they are, at the same time, memorials of, and appeals to, former mercies and deliverances; they are acknowlegments of prophecies accomplished; they point out the connexion between the old and new dispensations, thereby teaching us to admire and adore the wisdom of God displayed in both, and furnishing, while we read or sing them, an inexhaustible variety of the noblest matter that can engage the contemplations of man.

Why is the mind more than ordinarily affected, and either melted into sorrow, or transported with joy, when, on the days set apart for the commemoration of our Saviour's birth, passion, resurrection, &c. the Proper Psalms are read, which the church hath appointed, following herein the directions of evangelists and apostles, and the usage of the early ages? Why, but because, by such appointment, we are necessarily put on transferring our ideas from the complaints or exultations of David and Israel, to those of a suffering or glorified Messiah, of whose sufferings or glories we participate, as members of his mystical body? And how much more intense

would be the effect, if, in the sermons preached on those occasions, such Proper Psalms were expounded to the people, and their propriety evinced, as it might easily be! Discourses of this kind would make the hearts of the auditors to burn within them;' and men would cease to wonder, that three thousand Jews were converted to the faith by St. Peter's animated discourse on part of the 16th Psalm. Were believers once brought well acquainted with these Proper Psalms, they would be better enabled to study and apply the rest, which might likewise be explained to them, at different times, and certainly afford the finest subjects on which a Christian orator can apply his eloquence. That this was done in the primitive church, we learn from the exposition of the Psalms left us by St. Chrysostom in the east, and St. Augustin in the west, those expositions still subsisting in the form of homilies, as delivered to their respective congregations, Is it not to be feared that, for want of such instructions, the repetition of the Psalms, as performed by multitudes, is but one degree above mechanism? And is it not a melancholy reflection to be made, at the close of a long life, that, after reciting them, at proper seasons, through the greatest part of it, no more should be known of their true meaning and application, than when the Psalter was first taken in hand at school?

Many sensible and well-disposed persons, therefore, who, when they read or sing the Psalms, desire to read and to sing with the spirit and the understanding,' have long called for a commentary which might enable them to do so, which might not only explain the literal sense of these divine compositions, and show how they may be accommodated to our temporal affairs, as members of civil society;' but might also unfold the mysteries of

A concern for the present peace and prosperity of the world, and of that kingdom in it to which we belong, ought ever to be entertained and cherished by the most exalted Christian. And if this part of the subject should, at any time, in the following work, appear to be but slightly touched on, the reason is, because it lies obvious on the surface, and has been so frequently inculcated by other expositors. Nor are mankind indeed so liable to forget the relation they bear to the world, as they are to overlook that which subsists between them and their Creator and Redeemer.

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the kingdom of God, which are involved in them, and teach their application to us, as members of that spiritual and heavenly society of which Christ Jesus is the head, and for whose use, in every age, they were intended by their omniscient Author. A work of this kind, though often desired, has never yet been executed, on any regular and consistent plan. The survey of a province in theology, hitherto almost unoccupied among the moderns, which promised a great deal of pleasing as well as profitable employment, gave birth to the attempt which hath been made to cultivate it, in the ensuing Commentary; in which the author has only en deavoured to evince, by an induction of particulars, the truth of what so many learned and good men have asserted in general, concerning the prophetical, or evangelical, import of the Psalter. Dr. Hammond, in the preface to his Annotations, tells us, he chose to leave every man to make applications of this kind for himself, finding he had work enough on his hands in the literal way. But so much having been done by him, and other able critics, in that way, it seems to be now time that something should be done in the other, and some directions given, in a case where directions cannot but be greatly wanted.

Very few of the Psalms, comparatively, appear to be simply prophetical, and to belong only to Messiah, without the intervention of any other person. Most of them,

it is apprehended, have a double sense, which stands on this ground and foundation, that the ancient patriachs, prophets, priests, and kings, were typical characters, in their several offices, and in the more remarkable passages of their lives, their extraordinary depressions, and miraculous exaltations, foreshowing Him who was to arise, as the Head of the holy family, the great Prophet, the true Priest, the everlasting King. The Israelitish polity, and the law of Moses, were purposely framed after the example and shadow of things spiritual and heavenly; and the events which happened to the ancient people of God, were designed to shadow out parallel occurrences, which should afterwards take place, in the accomplishment of man's redemption, and the rise and progress of the Christian church. For this reason, the

Psalms composed for the use of Israel and Israel's monarch, and by them accordingly used at the time, do admit of an application to us, who are now the Israel of God," and to our Redeemer, who is the king of this Israel.2

Nor will this seem strange to us, if we reflect, that the same divine Person, who inspired the Psalms, did also foreknow and predispose all the events of which he inten ded them to treat. And hence it is evident, that the spiritual sense is, and must be, peculiar to the Scriptures; because of those persons and transactions only, which are there mentioned and recorded, can it be affirmed for certain, that they were designed to be figurative. And should any one attempt to apply the narrative of Alexander's expedition by Quintus Curtius, or the Commentaries of Cæsar, as the New Testament writers have done, and taught us to do, the histories of the Old, he would find himself unable to proceed three steps with consisteney and propriety. The argument, therefore, which would infer the absurdity of supposing the Scriptures to have a spiritual sense, from the acknowleged absurdity of supposing histories or poems merely human to have it, is inconclusive; the sacred writings differing, in this respect, from all other writings in the world, as much as the nature of the transactions which they relate differs from that of all other transactions, and the author who relates them differs from all other authors.

This double, or secondary, sense of prophecy, was so far from giving offence to Lord Bacon, that he speaks of it with admiration, as one striking argument of its divinity. In sorting the prophecies of Scripture with their events, we must allow (says he) for that latitude, which is agreedble and familiar unto divine prophecies, being of the nature of the Author, with whom a thousand years are but as one day; and therefore they are not fulfilled punctually at once, but have springing and germinant accom

1 Gal. vi, 16.

2 That expressions and descriptions' in human writings are often so framed as to admit of a double sense, without any impropriety or confusion, is shown by the very learned Mr. MERRICK, in his excellent Observations on Dr. BENSON'S Essay concerning the Unity of Sense, &c. subjoined to his Annotations on the Psalms.