VERSES 3, 4. If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? The LORD is in his holy temple, the LORD's throne is in heaven; his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men.

BUT under all the evils which my persecutors have brought upon me, and under a view of those with which I am still threatened, this is what comforts me, -this is what prevents my delivering myself up to impatience, anger, and revenge, that my protector is not a feeble man, whose good will is often of no avail for want of power; it is the all-powerful God, whose throne is in the heavens ;-who sees under his feet the world and all that it contains ;-who speaks, and, at his word alone, every thing is done, every thing is executed, so that his designs are never frustrated. And this powerful God is also a God supremely good, the father and comforter of all those who suffer unjustly. He does not so inhabit the heavens as to give himself no trouble to notice what happens upon earth; his penetrating eye sees and considers carefully, from the height of his throne, every thing which passes here; but his most tender regards fall upon the poor and the oppressed. Yes, gracious God, far from being indifferent to what concerns them, thou considerest as done to thyself the smallest good or evil which is done to the least of them; and as thou wilt not leave without recompense a cup of cold water, which shall be given to them in thy name, so thou wilt exact, before thy righteous tribunal, a strict account of those proud and insolent men, who, seeming to forget that they are men, all sprung from the same stock, all nourished by the same clay, dare to treat their fellow men as if they were of a different nature from themselves.

VERSES 5, 6. The LORD trieth the righteous but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth. Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest : this shall be the portion of their cup.

YES, ye proud, unfeeling sinners! who have despoiled yourselves of every sentiment of humanity towards your fellow men, you must appear before the dread tribunal of the sovereign judge; and those whom you have persecuted and oppressed will appear there also. But they will be there to receive consolation, to have their tears wiped away, by the hand of their heavenly Father, and their patience crowned with a crown of glory and immortality; while you shall be there to see laid open, to the view of the universe, your iniquitous vexations, your violence, your injustice; and the overwhelming confusion with which you will there be covered will be followed with a terrible sentence, condemning you to eternal punishment.

Enter then into yourselves, all ye who love iniquity! If you believe in a future state, and in the blessings of eternity, how can you sacrifice them to the barbarous and inhuman pleasure which, from the wickedness of your hearts, you find in making the innocent suffer? What enemy can injure you so much as you injure yourselves? By nourishing in your hearts a cruel hatred of others, you amass over your heads a treasure of wrath, and kindle a fire which will torment you eternally. That malignant satisfaction which you take in doing evil will lead to bitterness in the end; and you will find yourselves suddenly overwhelmed with a deluge of evils which you little expect. The long patience of God, wearied at last by your excess in iniquity, will be changed into wrath; and you will find, but too late, what a terrible thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God. How greatly will things then change? Those whom

you have persecuted, having been proved in the furnace of affliction, as gold is tried in the fire, shall shine forth as the sun. Their afflictions, though distressing at the time, may in reality be called light, because what so soon passes away is as nothing but their reward, their felicity will be great, and infinitely great, because it will be eternal. But as for you, oppressors of innocence, you will then be seized with trouble and with dread amazement, at the sight of your offended judge, who will pronounce upon you the frightful sentence of eternal misery. What will then be your astonishment, to see those men whom you thought deserving of all sorts of reproach and ill treatment, and whom you trod under foot as the dirt, to see them enjoying a fulness of bliss, elevated to the rank of children of God, and partaking of the honors and felicities of his kingdom? Then, more tormented, in one sense, with the sight of their happiness, than with your own misery, what will be your sighs?-what will be the anguish of your hearts?how will you deplore your sin and folly ?

VERSE 7. For the righteous LORD loveth righteousness; his countenance doth behold the upright.

AND is not this what you ought to expect for yourselves, and what you would expect, if the corruption of your hearts had not blinded you, and destroyed in you those ideas of justice which even the most savage people find in themselves, when they consult their reason? Do you not know that the God whom we worship is a just God, or rather that he is justice itself? But what would that justice be, how different from the idea which all men have always formed of it, if the oppressor and the oppressed were not to have a different destiny after this life? And is it not in this very thing that justice consists, in rendering to every one according to his works? Prevent then

such a season of rage and despair, whilst the arm, which is to crush you remains suspended over your heads, and whilst the goodness of the Lord incites you to repentance. Cease to do evil; repair the wrong which you have already done. If God counts as nothing that we do good to those only from whom we receive good, think how guilty those must be in his view who oppress the innocent, and render evil for the good which they receive from them. For myself, O God, in the expectation of that day in which thou wilt distribute rewards and punishments, with perfect equity, if my enemies do not become weary of persecuting me, I will not be weary of suffering their unjust persecution, I will not give up my heart to revenge, which would render me as guilty in thine eyes as my persecutors themselves.

PSALM XII.

Serious addresses to God of a saint lamenting the general corruption of the world, and praying for grace. to enable him to resist temptation and persevere in holiness.

VERSE 1. Help, LORD: for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men.

A

LMIGHTY and most merciful God! Why hast thou not placed me in some secure and holy retreat, remote from the dangers and general corruption of the world? I should then have had nothing to fear but from myself. But thou hast not designed for me, in thine eternal counsels, so desirable a situation. I am connected with the world by ties which thy holy hand has formed; but what a world! What a deluge of iniquity overwhelms the earth! Exposed as I am incessantly to the contagion of evil examples, my corrupt heart and passions inclining me to imitate them, can I promise myself that I shall not be at last led away by them, if thou dost not preserve me from this unhappiness, by a singular and continual protection? In vain, O Lord, do I look around me for examples of virtue, to support and animate me. I find nothing but allurements to sin,nothing but a universal prevalence of iniquity. Thy saints, the faithful few who love and serve thee, conceal themselves; they live retired from the world; they banish themselves from public view, and are as if they were not. And how can they take pleasure in such a world? How can they forbear thus to withdraw themselves from it? Thy holy name is hardly known among men; the truths of thy word are rejected by the proud spirits of the age, and considered as acknowledged by the weak and credulous only; religion has degenerated into a mere decent form of