inftrumentis refertâ, amiffæ. præfat. Maimonidis in More Nevochim. a J. Buxtorfió. A feries of texts which ferve as a key and manuduction, to the subjects of this Pfalm, of all the prophets, and of the whole gofpel fulfilled in Jesus Christ. The myftic fenfe of facred writ fupported by these paffages, and revealed to those; whom the wife contemn. Matt. xiii. 35. I will open my mouth in parables: I will utter things concealed from the foundation of the world. These words are transferred from Pfalm lxxviii. 2.—Matt. xi. 25. I thank thee, O father, Lord of heaven and earth; because thou haft hid these things from the wife and prudent, and haft revealed them unto babes. Even fo, father, for thus it seemed good in thy fight. See Luke x. 21. and Ifa. xix. 14. 1 Cor. i. 19, 20. You fee your calling, brethren, how that not many wife after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God hath chofen the foolish things of the world to confound the wife; and the weak inftrumentis refertâ, amiffæ. præfat. Maimonidis in More Nevochim. a J. Buxtorfió. } A feries of texts which ferve as a key and manuduction, to the subjects of this Pfalm, of all the prophets, and of the whole gofpel fulfilled in Jefus Chrift. The mystic fenfe of sacred writ fupported by these paffages, and revealed to those; whom the wife contemn. Matt. xiii. 35. I will open my mouth in parables: I will utter things concealed from the foundation of the world. These words are transferred from Pfalm lxxviii. 2.—Matt. xi. 25. I thank thee, O father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou haft hid these things from the wife and prudent, and haft revealed them unto babes. Even fo, father, for thus it seemed good in thy fight. See Luke x. 21. and Ifa. 8. xix. 14. 1 Cor. i. 19, 20. You fee your calling? brethren, how that not many wife after the lefh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God hath chofen the foolish things of the vorld to confound the wife; and the weak THE PREFACE. TH HE character and Pfalms of this royal prophet, David, have been much of late infulted and mocked on account of the curfes, and imprecations of judgments on the heads of his enemies. Voltaire in particular has emptied the fhaft of his envenomed arrows against him, and triumphs with a petulant malignity of wit and sarcasm for thofe paffages in the Pfalms, which declare only the law of retaliation, of evil for evil; of meting out to the cruel and unmerciful, to the blood-thirsty and inhuman, an adequate measure of just vengeance; beyond which, the wrath of God in his own theocracy, as judge and avenger, never extended; nor ever infinuated any further feverity, than to make the ftubborn and obftinate finners fee their wicked deeds, falling back upon their own heads; and that the pits, and fnares, which they had digged for others, fhould catch their own feet. What man of fober A 2 |