Verses 5 and 6. "Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, or sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish." The miseries which the wicked endure here, are but the begining of their sorrows. That God, whose grace they abused, whose mercy they undervalued, and whose power they despised, is now their awful and inexorable Judge. The wicked have no cause to complain of the sentence that is passed upon them. They have brought it upon their own heads. They have been the instruments of their own ruin. They have brought themselves into a situation in which it is impossible for them to be happy. Let us suppose them to be admitted into the company of the blessed, their situation would be still deplorable. They would pine in the mansions of bliss, and search for heaven in the midst of paradise. We may venture to say, that it is even impossible 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, "Vessels of wrath fitted for destruction." "Therefore they shall not stand in the judgment." The poor and the distressed whom they refuse to relieve, the widow and the fatherless whom they oppressed, the innocent whom they injured, the unhappy wretches, whom, by their artifices, they betrayed into the paths of destruction, shall rise up and witness against them. Their own hearts will condemn them. The final sentence is pronounced; they are driven from the presence of the Lord; they are cast into outer darkness, where the worm dieth not, where the fire is never quenched; and it had been happy for them they had never been born.

I shall conclude with one reflection. You see, my brethren, from what has been said, that a life of wickedness is gradual and progressive. One criminal indulgence lays the foundation for another, till, by degrees, the whole superstructure of iniquity is complete. When the sinner has once put forth his hand to the forbidden fruit, and thinks that he can taste and live, he returns with greater and greater avidity to repeat his crimes, till the poison spreads through all his veins, and all the balm of Gilead be ineffectual for his cure. Fly, therefore, I call upon you in the name of Heaven, fly from the ap

proaching foe. Guard your innocence as you would guard your life. If you advance one step over the verge of virtue, unless the grace of Heaven interpose, down you sink to the bottomless abyss. Come not then near the territories of danger. Stand back. One sin indulged gathers strength and abounds; it increases, it multiplies, it familiarizes itself with our frame, and introduces its whole brood of infernal inmates, worse than pestilence, famine, or sword.

LECTURE II.

PSALM XXIV. Ver. 1-7.

The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof; the world and they that dwell therein. For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods. Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? and who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob. Selah. Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in.

HIS Psalm was composed when David removed the

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ark of the covenant from the house of Obededom to Jerusalem. But, though it was composed for that occasion, it is evident from the latter part of it, that it was ultimately intended for that more illustrious event, when Solomon transferred the ark from the tabernacle into the temple which he had built. As David was not only the Poet, but also the Prophet of God, he foresaw the future events of the Church, by the inspiration of the Divine Spirit; and, by the same inspiration, he composed songs and pieces of music adapted to these events. These he

committed to Asoph, Hemon, and Jeduthum, the prefects of sacred poetry, to be sung as opportunities required.

The occasion of this psalm is one of the grandest and most illustrious that any where occurs in history. Solomon, by the Divine direction, had now finished the temple, that superb monument of oriental magnificence and glory, which drew the princes of neighbouring nations to come and contemplate. The feast of tabernacles, the most solemn and most frequented of the Jewish festivals, was now at hand. All the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, were now assembled at Jerusalem to the feast. It was then that Solomon proceeded to dedicate the temple, and to fix the ark in its appointed place. The procession to the temple was grand and triumphant. Solomon, arrayed in all his glory, attended with the elders of Israel, and the heads of the tribes, went before; after him marched the priests, in their sacerdotal robes, bearing the ark; to them succeeded the four thousand sacred musicians, clothed in white robes, and divided into classes, some of them singing with the voice, others playing upon harps and trumpets, and psalteries and cymbals, and other instruments of music; behind them followed the whole congregation, with palms in their hands, rejoicing and wondering. Solomon had, on this occasion, made an oblation of twenty-two thousand oxen, and one hundred and twenty thousand sheep, of which the Almighty testified his approbation and acceptance, by causing the sacred fire come down anew from heaven, and consume the sacrifice. The Priests and Levites as they went along sprinkled the ground with the blood of the victims, and perfumed the air with frankincense and sweet odours. This, with the fumes of incense which rose in clouds from the altars, had diffused such a potent perfume through the air, that people at a distance reflected on the breath they drew as a celestial influence, and regarded the strains of harmony Which they heard, as something more than mortal; actually imagining that the God of the Hebrews had descended from his heaven to take possession of the temple which they had dedicated to his service. Nor were they mistaken. For, after the priests had carried the ark into the holy of holies, had placed it between the cherubim, and had reverently withdrawn, the cloud of Divine glory descended and rested upon the house. The Shechina, or Divine presence, took up its abode in the most holy place.

Animated by this sublime occasion, the Psalmist begins his ode with celebrating the dominion of the Deity over this vast universe, and all its inhabitants, and setting forth their entire subjection to his power and providence. "The earth is the Lord's, and the Verses 1 and 2. fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods." David ascertains the sovereignty of God over the world, and its subjection to him, from his having created it at first; from his having established it upon the seas, and founded it upon the floods. By this he opposes the sceptics and infidels of those times, who withdrew nature from the Divinity, and denied the interposition of Providence in human affairs; by this he distinguishes the God whom he adored, from the idols of the Gentiles around him, who were confined to one part or province of nature; by this he endeavours to inspire the Jews with gratitude and love to their God and King, who chose them from among all the nations whom he governs by his providence, to be his favourite people, the object of his particular providence, and peculiar lovingkindness. The Psalmist next determines where that God, whose perfections he had been describing, was to be worshipped, and which of his worshippers were to be the ob jects of his favour and approbation.

Verse 3. "Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? and who stand in his holy place?" It was usual among the Jews to add the name of God to any thing that was great, that was wonderful, and of which they would give us a high idea. Lofty cedars, in Scripture, are called the trees of the Lord: high hills are called the mountains of God: wine, on account of its generous, joyous, and exhilirating qualities, is said to cheer the heart of God and man. In this place, the phrase is not to be taken in its usual sense. By the hill of God, is here meant the hill of Zion, which the Almighty had chosen to be the place of his worship, and where he had commanded his temple to be built. Near the same tract of ground there were three hills. Zior, where the city and castle of David stood: Moriah, where the temple was built; and Calvary, where our Saviour was crucified: but these, for the most part, went under the general name of Zion. By the phrases of ascending into the hill of God, and standing

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in his holy place, the Psalmist would point out the persons who are to be admitted to worship God in his temple here, and in consequence of that, to be received into the temple of his glory above, and to dwell for ever with the Lord. We have the character and qualities of these persons expressed in the following verse.

Verse 4. "He that hath clean hands and a pure heart; who bath not llfted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully." It is very observable, that, in ascertaining the qualifications of the citizens of the spiritual Jerusalem, the Psalmist does not so much as mention the external observances, the costly and laborious rites of the ceremonial law, in which the Israelites generally prided themselves, but dwells alone on the great and essential duties of morality, which are of universal and eternal obligation. The fond affection and attachment of the Jews to the rites and ceremonies of the Mosaic law, so as to neglect other duties, is the more remarkable, as God, by the mouth of his Prophets, frequently declared that he had no pleasure in them, calling them precepts which were not good, and statutes by which a man could not live. In the fiftieth Psalm, we have an express declaration to this purpose: "Hear, O my people, and I will speak; O Israel, and I will testify against thee: I am God, even thy God. I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices, or for thy burnt offerings, to have been continually before me. I will take no bullock out of thy house, nor he-goats out of thy folds. For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee; for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof. Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats? Offer unto God thanksgiving, and pay thy vows unto the Most High, and call upon me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me." The qualifications here required are those of the heart and the life," Clean hands and a pure heart." It is not enough that we wash our hands in innocence before men; we must be pure in heart before the eyes of infinite perfection.

True religion is the religion of the heart; it is a principle dwelling in the mind, that extends its influence through the whole man, and regulates the life. Unless