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ance for the original word implies "praise, thanks, commendation," without mentioning by whom that praise was to be given: like the declaration, Psalm cxxxvii. "Blessed shall, or will, he be that taketh thy children, &c." (Common Prayer Translation) which, after what God says by the mouth of Isaiah, x. 7, &c. concerning the Assyrian conqueror, cannot be understood as an approbation of the moral principle of the Persian; whom, one of his contemporaries at least11, would not acquit of insatiable ambition though as answering the purpose of Providence, in safely conducting the Jews back to their own land and protecting them afterwards, his Almighty Controller vouchsafes him the honourable appellation of his shepherd. (Isaiah xliv. 28.) With the same view he preserved the empire established by him, even when it passed into another family, longer than either of the empires which he overthrew. And in the mind of an Israelite, the prosperity of God's people was so associated with the honour of God himself, that the song of triumph would not have carried the hearts of the attendants with it, if it had moved any doubt of the propriety of the applause to be given to her, who had by so signal a stroke of policy and courage laid the leader of the invading army at her feet. But though in such unquiet scenes,

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where might is the only law, and the voice of conscience is disregarded, it may be difficult for erring mortals to preserve their measures from moral obliquity; sound reason and true religion, while they ascribe the event to him, who only giveth victory, must conspire in separating him from the dark designs by which it has been accomplished. Such dark designs prove a want of faith in him, to whom it is as easy to save by the most direct road. St. Paul in his enumeration of the heroes of the Old Testament, though he celebrates those who atchieved the victory by a bold confidence in the God of armies, yet he mentions neither of the two whose conduct we have just been considering, i. e. neither Ehud nor Jael. Heb. xi. 32.

The superintending power and control of the Deity in all these great events are clearly expressed, and the immediate agents specified; but the leading features only of each transaction are described. The secret springs and minute circumstances are all the while concealed from us; indeed all that variety of light and shade witheld, which gives the colour and complexion of all human actions. A temperate and sound judgment therefore will restrain us from too peremptory a decision concerning the character and conduct of the several actors in this providential drama, lest, on the one hand, by ascribing to them faults of which they were not guilty, or overcharging those of which they

were, we become the means of casting an imputation upon the dispensation itself, of which they were the ostensible instruments: or on the other hand, lest by too anxiously endeavouring to justify those actions, which seem to deserve condemnation, we loosen the obligation to the strictest performance of the social duties, and give encouragement to fanatic or desperate men to plead these examples in justification of crimes subversive of the Christian spirit, incompatible with mutual fidelity, and destructive of human society. In all questions concerning the moral agency of man, where the Deity is introduced, we must bear in mind that maxim of Revelation, consonant also with the best dictates of true reason, "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all." 1 John i. 5.

CHAPTER VIII.

Imprecations in the Psalms.

THE imprecations in the Psalms having been made matter of objection against the divine inspiration of that part of Scripture, and giving offence to pious persons on the same ground, that they are inconsistent with the spirit of charity, which we are taught to maintain even to our enemies; it will not be wandering from our purpose, if we make a few observations on that

subject. That these expressions were neither meant for the private devotion of Christians, nor suitable for it, will be readily allowed by all1: but it by no means follows that David did wrong in uttering them; nor is it absurd to suppose that the Holy Spirit meant they should be applied prophetically. They were probably composed upon the occasion of the treatment, which David met with from his enemies, and were appealed to by our Saviour and the apostles as prophecies of things relating to himself. As for David's use of them, it is in fact no more than an appeal to the great judge of the nation for deliverance from those enemies, who without cause sought his ruin. For God was pleased to take upon himself not only the government of the nation, but also the executive office of the administration of justice, as appears by many instances of his promised interference in the affairs of individuals. There was no alternative: either David must have perished or his enemies, and all their schemes be completely defeated. In the former case, not only his own ruin must have followed, but that regal family, which God

1 The desire which our Reformers had, to diffuse the knowledge of the whole of Scripture as widely as possible, and the danger which they apprehended, or the obloquy which they supposed they might incur, if they suppressed any part of it, might have their weight in inducing them to insert all the Psalms indiscriminately in the public service of the church. 2 See Dissertation vi. Cap. 1.

had established for the foundation of his true religion and worship, would also have perished. All the glorious promises annexed to his kingdom must have come to an end by the prosperity of persons, who had gone too far for him ever to expect their repentance, and who had indeed set off with the express declaration, that when they unsheathed the thrown away the scabbard. the scabbard. Psalm cxxxix. 21, 22, that

sword, they had

And it

And it appears by one great cause of

David's hatred of his enemies was their hostility to God, his great protector; as Jeremiah's prayer for vengeance, cap. xi. 20-23 was connected with the loss of the opportunity of delivering the divine message, on which he was sent. In such a case an appeal to the great judge of the nation was become necessary, that he would take the cause into his own hands and bring upon those, who were leagued against his kingdom, no less than against David's, that destruction which he had threatened. In confirmation of this, it is important to mention what Dæderlein has observed in his Scholia upon the poetic books of the Old Testament, that the evils mentioned in the Psalm are exactly those divine punishments, which God threatens in the

3 Ahitophel, 2 Sam. xvi. 21. and xvii. 2.

4 Compare also Jer. xvii. 17, 18. and Cap. xviii. 18-23. and xx. 12.

5 Psalm vii. 6, 7, 8, 9, &c.

Dath. Arg. ad Psalm cix. and Doederlein.

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