fign through the whole hath been, to draw forth the leffons of heavenly wisdom and comfort, contained in this interesting compofition, for the fervice of believers, who, while they are accomplishing their pilgrimage and warfare upon earth, fhould continually folace themselves with the cxixth Pfalm, and repair to it as to a fountain, which can never be exhausted. Between the verses of each portion, a connection is frequently to be traced, but it doth not often seem to extend from one portion to another. The many words employed to exprefs the revelations of God's will, have diftinct fignifications, denoting different parts or portions of the Scriptures, which it hath fometimes been found of great use to take into confideration, while at others the terms appear to be used promifcuously, in a general fenfe, and for the fake of variety.

ALEPH. PART I.

1. Blessed are the undefiled, Heb. perfect, or, fincere in the way, who walk in the law of the LORD.

By fin, mifery entered into the world; holiness alone, therefore, can lead us to happiness." The "law of Jehovah" is the path of life, and by "walking in the way," we fhall attain to the end. But, alas, we are out of the way; we have walked

in the law of fin, after the lufts of the flesh; who will direct and ftrengthen us to walk in the law of God, after the defire of the Spirit? We are fallen from our integrity; who will raife us again? The Gofpel, which was preached to Abraham before the Mofaic difpenfation, and which was prefigured and believed under it, returneth us, to all these questions, anfwers of peace. The Redeemer hath prevailed for the pardon of our errors; the Redeemer hath raised us from our fallen flate; he hath reconducted us to the path of life; in his name we arife and walk; he maketh us righteous, and, confequently, he maketh us "bleffed." For, " Bleffed are the fincere in the way, "who walk in the law of Jehovah."

2. Bleffed are they that keep his teftimonies, and that feek him with their whole heart.

The divine revelations and inftitutions, whether of the old or the new law, are called God's "tefti"monies;" they are the witneffes of his will, and the pledges of his love. They are committed to the church, as a precious depofit, or truft, to be by her children" kept," and obferved. In and by thefe God is to be fought; "they that feck him with their "whole heart," with ardent and undivided affection, fail not to find him, as an inftructor and a comforter; and they who find him, find all things, and are "bleffed" indeed.

3. They alfo that do no iniquity, they that walk in his ways.

O blissful ftate of thofe, who are redeemed from the earth, and all earthly defires; who are delivered from the dominion of fin; who" follow the Lamb

"whither

"whitherfoever he goeth," and, like Zacharias and Elizabeth," walk in the ftatutes and ordinances of "the Lord blameless." Luke i. 6. Enroll us, O Lord, in the happy number of these thy fervants; pardon our offences; give us a new nature, and new defires, averse from fin, and inclined to fanctity: and guard us, that the wicked one touch us not.

4. Thou haft commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently.

He who made us, and redeemed us, hath a double right to our fervice. We are not our own, having been bought with the blood of our Lord; his will, therefore, and not our own, is to be done by us. And his will is, that we should " keep his precepts dili"gently," because in "keeping" them, and in keeping them" diligently," fo as not to halt between God and the world, but to serve one Mafter only, doth our happiness confift. Now, when the commands of our Superior, and our greatest Benefactor, of our Friend, our Father, and our God, coincide with our own interests temporal and eternal, what pretext can there be for difobedience and rebellion?

5. O that my ways were directed, or, prepared, and established, to keep thy ftatutes!

The faithful foul, enraptured with the contemplation of that bleffed nefs, which is the confequence of ferving God, but confcious, at the fame time, of an inability to attain it, fighs after the refreshing and ftrengthening influences of divine grace. She beholdeth her Saviour afar off; the beholdeth the beauty and glorious majefty of his heavenly kingdom; she beholdeth the way, which leads to it; but The hath not power to walk therein. This confideration

deration caufeth her to groan earneftly within herself, and at length to breathe forth a wish, that the Spirit of truth and love would fix and establish her in a holy courfe of thinking, fpeaking, and acting, upon all occafions, and would prevent her from turning aside out of it, to the right hand or to the left.

6. Then fhall I not be afhamed, when I have reSpect unto all thy commandments.

ALL the commandments have the fame author, and the fame fanction. He who thinketh to atone for the breach of one, by the obfervation of another; he who referveth to himfelf a licence of indulging any favourite darling luft, while, in general, he preserveth the appearance of an exemplary conduct, is a hypocrite, and unlefs he repent, will be brought to "fhame," if not before men here, yet before men and angels hereafter. "Shame" is the fruit of fin; confidence is the effect of righteoufnefs. Wherefore, in all our proceedings, let us "have respect," not to the opinions of men, to the corrupt customs of the world, or to the deceitful fuggeftions of our own hearts, but "to the commandments, to all the com"mandments of God;" let us, as St. John exhorteth, "abide in Chrift; that when he fhall appear, we 66 may have confidence, and not be ashamed before « him at his coming." 1 John ii. 28.

7. I will praife thee with uprightness of heart, when I fhall have learned thy righteous judgments.

Confidence in God will always be productive of joy, and undiffembled "praife" will accompany true converfion. The Scriptures are ftyled God's "rightcous judgments," as containing an account of his

decrees

decrees and determinations concerning us, with a hiftory of cafes and precedents, entered upon record for our admonition. By these we are to form our opinions, and to regulate our conduct. And when we shall have fo "learned" thefe, as to walk according to them, we fhall praise God with an "upright heart;" our tongues will utter what our hearts feel.

8. I will keep thy ftatutes: O forfake me not utterly. The refult of our meditations on God's word, and on the advantages of ftudying, in order to obferve it's directions, fhould always be a refolution fo to do, and a prayer for grace to execute that refolution. Lord, we "will keep thy ftatutes;" for love can do all things, when thou haft fhed it abroad in our hearts. "Love worketh no ill; therefore love is the fulfill"ing of the law;" Rom. xiii. 10. and mercy will accept what grace enableth us to perform. Be thou, therefore, ever with us, and "forlake us not;" or if, at any time, to try our faith, and to exercise our patience, thou shouldest depart from us, and leave us to ourselves for a time, short be thy abfence, and speedy thy return! "O forfake us not utterly!"

BETH. PART II.

9. Wherewithal Shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to thy word.

Youth enters upon the journey of life, headstrong and inexperienced, with a bias of original corruption, and all the paffions awake. In fuch circumstances, how shall a young man direct his steps, fo

as