let us "seek early after God, and return from our "sins, remembering the rock of our salvation, and "the high God, our Redeemer." Thus may we entertain some hope, that our conversion is sincere; that we do not "flatter and lie" unto our Maker; that our "heart is right with him," and we shall continue "steadfast in his covenant." And then, a plant that is set and lives in the heat of the day, how will it thrive and flourish under the cool and moist influences of night!

38. But he being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not: yea, many a time turned he is anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath. 39. For he remembered that they were but flesh; a wind, or, breath, that passeth away, and cometh not again.

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Had God" stirred up all his wrath," the Israelites. must have been exterminated in the wilderness. But then the promises made to Abraham, of mercy and "compassion" to them, and by them to all mankind, had failed. Therefore they were "forgiven," and not destroyed:" judgement was executed, from time to time, upon the person of offenders; but still a remnant was left; the nation subsisted, until the Seed came to whom the promise was made. Nay, although, in consequence of their last and greatest crime, their polity was subverted with their city and temple, the race is yet marvellously preserved; and, we trust, preserved for mercy to be shown them in the last days. Be not angry, O Lord Jesu, for ever with them, or with us; but remember of what materials we are made, and into what a state we are

fallen; how weak and how frail we are; how liable to be seduced into sin, and blinded by error. remember this, O Lord, and forgive us; and teach us to remember it, that we may forgive one another.

40. How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert! 41. Yea, they turned back, and tempted God, and limited the holy One of Israel. 42. They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he delivered them from the hand of the enemy: 43. How he had wrought his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Zoan.

The question which the Psalmist here asks, con cerning Israel in the wilderness, is elsewhere asked by him concerning mankind in general: "Who can "tell how oft he offendeth?" Ps. xix. 12. God informs Moses, who had interceded for the people, and, in the name of the great Mediator, obtained their pardon, that "those men which had seen his glory, and his miracles which he did in Egypt and "in the wilderness, had tempted him ten times, and "had not hearkened to his voice :" Numb. xiv. 22. Forgetfulness of the mercies of redemption is the beginning of sin; and though every one knows how to resent and detest the crime of ingratitude in another, he yet thinks that his best benefactor will overlook the most flagrant instances of it in himself.

44. And had turned their rivers into blood; and their floods, that they could not drink. 45. He sent divers sorts of flies, Heb. a mixture, whether of beasts, or insects, noisome and destructive, among them, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them, 46. He gave also their increase unto the caterpillar,

and their labour unto the locust. 47. He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycamore trees with frost. 48. He gave up their cattle also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts, or, flashes of lightning.

The Psalm goes back to the subject of Israelitish ingratitude, mentioned at the beginning, verse 11, 12. in order to introduce an account of the miracles wrought in Egypt previous to the Exodus, These miracles were intended to evince the superiority of Jehovah over the elements and powers of nature, which at that time were objects of worship amongst the Egyptians, but plainly appeared to act at the command of Moses, in subordination to their great Creator, the God of the Hebrews. In the heavens, on the earth, and in the waters, supremacy and independency were demonstrated to belong to him only: fire and air, thunder and lightning, wind, rain, and hail, obeyed his word: rivers became blood, and their inhabitants perished; insects and animals left their wonted habitations, to destroy vegetables, or torment man: so that wherever the gods of Egypt were supposed to reside, and to exert their influences in favour of their votaries, in all places, and all circumstances, victory declared for Jehovah. Hence modern as well as ancient idolaters may learn not to put their trust in the world, but in him who made, and who can and will destroy, it; whose power can render the most insignificant of his creatures instruments of his vengeance, and, in a moment, arm all the elements against sinners; and whose mercy will employ that power in the final salvation of the church; when, as

the author of the book of Wisdom expresseth it, "He shall make the creature his weapon for the re

venge of his enemies, and the world shall fight for "him against the unwise:" Wisdom, v. 17. 20. The curious and striking reflections which that author makes on the plagues of Egypt, in chap. xi. xvii. xviii. xix. are well worthy an attentive perusal. It is also to be observed, that St. John describes the judgements of the last days in terms plainly alluding to those poured out upon the Egyptians, "as locusts "and frogs; blood and darkness," &c. See Rev. ix. and xvi. et al. Under these images are represented, false teachers and erroneous doctrines, carnality and ignorance, and, in a word, whatever contributes to ravage the moral or spiritual world, to deface the beauty of holiness, and destroy the fruits of faith. And of all the divine judgements, these are by far the most dreadful, though generally the least dreaded.

49. He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels among them.

Some of the Egyptian plagues having been specified in the foregoing verses, others of them are here thrown together, and the whole scene is affirmed to have been a full display of wrath and vengeance, executed upon the oppressors of the church by "evil angels, agents, or messengers:" whether by this expression we 'understand the material instruments of divine displeasure; or angels employed as ministers of vengeance; or the actual appearance and ministration of evil spirits, suffered to torment the wicked in this world, as they certainly

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will do in the next. Tradition seems to have favoured this last opinion, since the author of the book of Wisdom, above referred to, describes the Egyptian darkness as a kind of temporary hell, in which there appeared to the wicked, whose consciences suggested to them every thing that was horrible, "a fire "kindled of itself very dreadful; they were scared "with beasts that passed by, and hissing of serpents; "and they were vexed with monstrous apparitions,

so that they fainted and died for fear; while over "them was spread an heavy night, an image of that "darkness which should afterwards receive them." Wisdom, xvii.

50. He made a way to his anger: he spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence; 51. And smote all the first-born in Egypt; the chief of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham.

The last plague was the death of the first-born both of man and beast; Exod. xii. 29. when God, having removed every obstacle that mercy had thrown in the path of justice, "made a way to his "indignation," which then rushed forth like a fiery stream. An unlimited commission was given to the destroyer, who at midnight passed through the land, and gave the fatal stroke in every house. "While "all things, O Lord, were in quiet silence, and "that night was in the midst of her swift course, "thine Almighty WORD leaped down from heaven

out of thy royal throne, as a fierce man of war "into the midst of a land of destruction, and "brought thine unfeigned commandment as a sharp "sword, and standing up, filled all things with