VERSE 4. He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his foul unto vanity, nor fworn deceitfully. It is very obfervable, that in afcertaining the qualifications of the citizens of the spiritual Jerufalem, the Pfalmift does not fo much as mention the external observances, the coftly and laborious rites of the ceremonial law, in which the Ifraelites generally prided themselves, but dwells alone on the great and effential 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 Mofaic law, fo 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 ftatutes by which a man could not live. In the fiftieth Pfalm, we have an express declaration to this purpofe; " Hear, O my people, and "I will speak; O Ifrael, and I will testify against "thee: I am God, even thy God. I will not reprove "thee for thy facrifices, 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 For every beast of the foreft 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 Moft High, and call upon me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver "thee, and thou shalt glorify me." The qualifica

tions 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 our religion enter into the heart, we have no religion at all. The form of godlinefs is infufficient and unavailing without the power thereof. We can never attain to the true beauties of holiness, unless, like the king's daughter, we be all glorious within. On the other hand, when clean hands and a pure heart are united in the fame perfon; when a converfation without blame, and a confcience void of offence, coincide, they are in the fight of God of great price. A life facred to devotion and virtue, facred to the practice of truth and undefiled religion, joined to a heart, pure, pious, and benevolent, conftitute an offering more acceptable at the altars of the Moft High God, than whole hecatombs of burnt-offerings, and a thousand hills of frankincefne in a flame.

By lifting up the foul unto vanity, the Pfalmift means making riches and honor, thofe vanities of the world, the object of our affection and purfuit; faying to the gold, thou art our truft, or to the moft fine gold, thou art our confidence. Or it may mean the worshipping of idols, which, in Scripture, go under the denomination of vanity, as in Jeremiah," Are "there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that "can caufe rain ?" Swearing deceitfully, includes all manner of perjury. This vice is always reprefented

in Scripture in the most dreadful colours. He that fweareth falfely, and he that feareth an oath, is an equivalent term for the wicked and the righteous. As an oath is the greatest pledge of veracity, and the end of all ftrife, general and cuftomary violations of it must have the moft pernicious effect upon fociety. Such a practice would entirely banish religious principles from the world; it would diffolve the bands of fociety, it would shake the fundamental pillars of mutual truft and confidence among men, and deftroy the fecurity arifing from the laws themselves. For human laws and human fanctions cannot extend to numberless cases in which the safety of mankind is effentially concerned. They would prove but feeble and ineffectual means of preferving the order and peace of fociety, if there were no checks upon men, from the fenfe of divine legeflation; if no belief of divine rewards and punishments came in aid of what human rewards and punishments fo imperfectly provide for. We have, in the next verfe, the rewards promifed to the perfons poffeffed of these qualifications.

VERSE 5. He fhall receive the blessing from the Lord, even righteoufnefs from the God of his falvation. This alludes to the appointed custom of the Jewish priests, who, on folemn and ftated occafions, were wont to blefs the people. Their form of blefling we have prefcribed in Numbers vi. 22. " And the Lord fpake "unto Mofes, faying, Speak unto Aaron and unto "his fons, faying, On this wife shall ye bless the peo

ple of Ifrael, the Lord blefs thee and keep thee; "the Lord make his face to fhine upon thee, and "be gracious unto thee; the Lord lift up his coun"tenance upon thee, and give thee peace." But as

the priest was a fallible creature, his bleffing might be indifcriminately beftowed, and fail of its effect. But the perfon who hath clean hands and a pure heart, who hath not lift up his foul unto vanity, nor fworn deceitfully, fhall receive the bleffing from God himself, whofe favour is better than life, and whofe blefling maketh rich, and addeth no forrow. These bleffings are fummed up in the eighty-fourth Pfalm, "The Lord God is a fun and fhield; the Lord will

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give grace and glory; no good thing will he with"hold from them that walk uprightly." Righteousnefs from the God of our falvation, may either mean the reward of righteousness, as the work in Scripture is frequently put for the reward; or it may mean kindness, mercy, and the benefits from righteousness, as in 1 Sam. xii. 7. Now therefore ftand ftill, that I may reason with you before the Lord, of all the " righteousnesses of the Lord, which he did to you "and your fathers:" where it is evident, from what follows, that by righteousnesses of the Lord, he means the deliverances that God had wrought for them.

VERSE 6. This is the generation of them that seek him, that feek thy face, O Jacob, or, O God of Jacob, as it might better be rendered. This is the generation, who, in obedience to the commandments of God, and in the methods of his appointment, feek his face, that is, his favour and friendship, and to whom he never faid, "Seek ye my face in vain."

Animated by his fubject, the Pfalmift proceeds to higher strains, and, in the fublime spirit of eastern poetry, calls upon the gates of the temple to open and admit the triumphal proceflion.

VERSE 7. Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye

come in.

lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory fhall To illustrate this part of the Pfalm, we must take a short view of the Hebrew pfalmody. The Pfalms of David are of various kinds. Some of them are dramatic, having fpeakers introduced, making a kind of mufical dialogue. Of this the ninety-first Pfalm is a remarkable inftance. In the first verse, the high-prieft, rifing up, declares the happiness of him who putteth his truft in the Almighty. In the fecond verse, David himself, or one of the fingers, representing the faithful among the Jews, declares his faith and confidence in God From the third to the fourteenth, the ode was performed by the facred fingers, both with the voice and inftruments of music. The three last verses were spoken by the high-priest alone in the character of God Almighty.

Many of the Pfalms are intended to be fung by two divifions of the facred fingers, the chorus and the femichorus. Such is the Pfalm before us. Every verse is divided into two members, exactly of the fame length, and generally reprefenting the fame thought, expreffed in a different manner. "The "earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof;—the "world and they that dwell therein." When we come to the seventh, the verfe is evidently altered. The verfes are not divided into two members as before, and for a very good reason. The femichorus asked the question, and the chorus made the reply. Apoftrophes, or addreffes to inanimate nature, are among the boldest figures in poetry, and when properly introduced, as in this place, are in the highest manner productive of beauty. The fimple