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9 The princes of the people are joined unto the people of the God of Abraham: for God, which is very high exalted, doth defend the earth, as it were with a fhield..

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Pfalm xlviii. Magnus Dominus.

REAT is the Lord, and highly to be praised: in the city of our God, even upon his holy hill,

2 The hill of Sion is a fair place, and the joy of the whole earth upon the north fi de lieth the city of the great King; God is well known in her palaces as a fure refuge.

3 For lo, the kings of the earth: are gathered, and gone by together.

4 They marvelled to fee fuch things: they were aftonished and fuddenly caft down.

5 Fear came there upon them, and forrow: as upon a woman in her travail.

6 Thou shalt break the fhips of the fea: through the eaft-wind.

7 Like as we have heard, fo have we seen in the city of the Lord of hofts; in the city of our God: God upholdeth the fame for ever.

8 We wait for thy loving kindness, O God: in the midft of thy temple.

9 O God, according to thy Name, fo is thy praife unto the worlds end thy tight hand is full of righteoutnets. 10 Let the mount Sion rejoice, and the daughter of Judah be glad because of thy judgments.

11 Walk about Sion, and go round about her: and tell the towers thereof.

12 Mark well her bulwarks, fet up her houses: that ye may tell them that come after.

PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS.

Pfalm xlvii.] This pfalm fhould excite us to praise God, and to celébrate his glory with holy transports, as he is the king of the whole earth, and deferyes the adoration of all men; but above all, because he has chofen us to be his people and his inheritance. What we read in this pfalm is particularly applicable to the times of the gospel, and efpecially to our Lord's triumphant afcenfion to the glory of his kingdom, a tọ the happiness which the feveral nations of the earth now enjoy in being accounted the people of God. PRAC

13 For this God is our God for ever and ever: he fhall be our guide unto death.

Pfalm xlix. Audite bac, omnes.

Hear ye this, all ye people: ponder it with your ears, all ye that dwell in the world.

2 High and low, rich and poor: one with another. 3 My mouth fhall fpeak of wisdom and my heart fhall mufe of understanding.

4 I will incline mine ear to the parable, and fhew my dark fpeech upon the harp.

5 Wherefore fhould I fear in the days of wickedness; and when the wickedness of my heels compaffeth me round

about.

6 There be fome that put their truft in their goods: and boaft themselves in the multitude of their riches.

7 But no man may deliver his brother: nor make agree. ment unto God for him:

8 For it cost more to redeem their fouls; fo that he must let that alone for ever;

9 Yea, though he live lorg: and fee not the grave.

io For he feeth that wife men alfo die, and perish together as well as the ignorant and foolish, and leave their riches for other.

11 And yet they think that their hoyfes fhall continue for ever: and that their dwelling-places fhall endure from one generation to another, and call the lands after their own

names.

PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS.

Pfalm xlviii.] The reflection we are to make upon this pfam is, that the church has often been attacked by the kings and nations of the world, who had confpired together to destroy it; but that God has always watched over it, and rendered all the confpiracies of its enemies vain, and turned them to their own confufion. This pfalm affures us very exprelly, that the church is the dearest thing to God upon earth, that he dwells in the midst of it, that he encompaffes it with his protection, and that he will always fupport it. Thefe promifes are fiH better fuited to the Chriftian than to the Jewish church, and ought to convince us of our happiness in being members of Christ's church, and fill all fincere Chriftians with ftedfal hope and confidence in God.

PRAC

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12 Nevertheless, man will not abide in honour: feeing he may be compared unto the beasts that perifh; this is the way of them.

13 This is their foolishness and their pofterity praife their faying.

14 They lie in the hell like fheep, death gnaweth upon them, and the righteous fhall have dominion over them in the morning: their beauty fhall confume in the fepulchre out of their dwelling.

15 But God hath delivered my foul from the place of hell: for he fhall receive me.

16 Be not thou afraid, though one be made rich; or if the glory of his house be increased;

17 For he fhall carry nothing away with him, when he dieth neither fhall his pomp follow him.

18 For while he lived, he counted himself an happy man; and fo long as thou doeft well unto thyfelf, men will speak good of thee.

19 He fhall follow the generation of his fathers: and fhall never fee light.

20 Man being in honour hath no understanding: but is compared unto the beafts that perish.

PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS.

Pfalm xlix.] There are many very important reflections to be made on this pfalm. It teaches us, that fuch as trust in their goods and riches, or that are puffed up with their honours and credit, are fools and blind. We have here reprefented the vanity and folly of the projects and fchemes laid by worldly men for their own advancement, and the glory of their families. The prophet remarks, that God makes all their fchemes abortive; that death robs them of all their glory; that they become a prey to the grave; and that their riches cannot redeem their fouls, nor fecure them from death and the judgment of God; but that it is not fo with thofe that put their truft in God, fince they are fure that he will redeem them, even from death, and will take them to himself to all eternity. High and low ought to attend to and meditate on thefe inftructions, as the prophet exhorts them thofe who are rich, or in an exalted ftation, hould remember them, left they forget God, and fall into pride; and people of mean rank, fhould learn from hence, never to envy the glory, Fiches, and profperity, which fall to the lot of others; and all in general are here taught to wean their affections from the world, and to feek their happiness wholly in the favour and love of God.

MORN

10th

MORNING

THE

PRAYER.

Pfalm 1. Deus deorum.

HE Lord, even the moft mighty God, hath spoken: and called the world, from the rifing up of the fun, unto the going down thereof.

2 Out of Sion hath God appeared: in perfect beauty. 3 Our God fhall come, and fhall not keep filence: there fhall go before him a confuming fire, and a mighty tempeft fhall be stirred up round about him.

4 He fhall call the heaven from above: and the earth, that he may judge his people.

5 Gather my faints together unto me: thofe that have made a covenant with me with facrifice,

6 And the heavens fhail declare his righteoufnefs: for God is judge himself.

7 Hear, O my people, and I will fpeak: I myself will tefiry againit thee, O Ifrael; for I am God, even thy God, 18 I will not reprove thee because of thy facrifices, or for thy burnt offerings: because they were not alway before me. 9 I will take no bullock out of thine houfe: nor he-goat out of thy folds.

10 For all the beafts of the foreft are mine: and so are the cattle up on a thousand hills.

11 I know all the fowls upon the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are in my fight.

12 If I be hungry, I will not tell thee: for the whole world is mine, and all that is therein.

13 Thinkeft thou that I will eat bulls flesh and drink the blood of goats?

14 Offer unto God thanksgiving: and pay thy vows unto the moft Highest.

15 And call upon me in the time of trouble: fo will I hear thee, and thou shalt praife me.

16 But unto the ungodly faid God: Why doft thou preach my laws, and takeft my covenant in thy mouth;

17 Whereas thou hateft to be reformed: and haft caft my words behind thee?

18 When

18 When thou faweft a thief, thou confentedft unto him: and haft been partaker with the adulterers.

19 Thou haft let thy mouth fpeak wickednefs and with thy tongue thou haft fet forth deceit.

20 Thou fatteft and fpakest against thy brother: yea, and haft flandered thine own mothers fon.

21 Thele things haft thou done, and I held my tongue, and thou thoughteft wickedly, that I am even fuch a one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and fet before thee the things that thou haft done.

22 O confider this, ye that forget God: left I pluck you away, and there be none to deliver you.

23 Whofo offereth me thanks and praife, he honoureth the and to him that ordereth his converfation right, will I fhew the falvation of God.

H

Pfalm li. Miferere mei, Deus.

Ave mercy upon me, O God, after thy great goodness: according to the multitude of thy mercies do away mine offences.

2 Wash me thoroughly from my wickedness: and cleanse me from my fin:

3 For I acknowledge my faults: and my fin is ever before me.

4 Against thee only have I finned, and done this evil in thy fight that thou mighteft be juftified in thy faying, and clear when thou art judged.

PRACTICAL

OBSERVATIONS.

Pfalm 1.] This pfalm teaches us, that the true worship which God requires, is to ferve him in fpirit and in truth, to praife him, to call upon him, and to do his will. As for those who profels to ferve God, to take his covenant in their mouths, and who, nevertheless, abandon themselves to fin, and particularly to injuftice, impurity, deceit, and flander; we fee here, that God cannot endure their hypocrify; and that though he does not punish them immediately, they must not imagine they fhall efcape his judgment. Sinners and falfe Christians fhould carefully inprove to their advantage what is faid in this pfalm; and all of us ought ferionfly to reflect upon it, that we may not offend God by an hypocritical worship, but calling upon him with fincerity, and studying above all things to do what he commandeth, may render to him fuch fervice as hall be acceptable in his fight, and procure his favour towards us.

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