;

The Wicked in their Pride do PERSECUTE the Poor And boast themfelves of their Heart's Defire, and bless the COVETOUS, whom the Lord abhorreth.

Through the PRIDE of their Countenance, they will not feek after God; God is not in all their Thoughts: Their Ways are always grievous; the JUDGMENTS of God are far above, out of their Sight.

They fay in their Hearts, they fhall not be (f) MOVED, and that they fhall never be in ADVERSITY.

Their Mouth is full of Curfing, Deceit, and Fraud; under their Tongue is Mifchief and Vanity.

They fay in their Hearts, God hath FORGOTTEN, he hideth his Face, he will never fee:

(f) Rev. xv111. 5. Her Sins

have reached unto Heaven, and God hath remembred her Iniquities.

vcr. 7,8. For fhe faith in her Heart, I fit a Queen, and am no Widow, and fhall fee no Sorrow. Therefore

fhall her Plagues come in one Day, Death, and Mourning, and Famine; for STRONG is the Lord God, who JUDGETH her.

(g) 1 Pet. 111. 12. The Eyes of the Lord are over the RIGHTEOUS,

and his Ears are open to their Pray

ers: But the Face the
AGAINST them that do evil.

But God beholdeth (g) MISCHIEF and SPITE, to requite it with his Hand. The Poor committeth himself to God, who is a HELPER of the FATHERLESS:

He will break the Arm of the wicked and the evil Man. For the Lord is King for ever and ever, and the Heathen fhall perish out of the Land.

The Lord trieth the RIGHTEOUS; but the Wicked, and him that loveth Violence, his Soul hateth.

• Pf x. 2, to 7, 11, 14, to 16. Pf. XIV. 1, to 5.

(b) Luke xx1. 34, 35. Take heed to your felves, left at any time your Hearts be overcharged with SURFEITING and DRUNKENNESS, and CARES of this Life, and fo that Day come upon you unawares. For

as a Snare fhall it come on all them that dwell on the Face of the whole Earth.

Upon the (b) WICKED he fhall rain Snares, Fire, and Brimftone, and an horrible Tempeft; this fhall be the Portion of their Cup.

For the righteous Lord loveth RIGHTEOUSNESS; his Countenance doth behold the Upright.

The Fool hath faid in his Heart, There is no God;

B

they are corrupt, they do abominable Works: They neither will understand, nor feek God.

$ Pf. XI. 5, 7.

They

(i) See before Rom. 111. 12, &c.

The Workers of INIQUITY have no Knowledge, who eat up God's People as they eat Bread, and call not upon the Lord.

They (i) are altogether become filthy.

But God is in the Generation of the RIGHTEOUS. Their Sorrows fhall be multiplied, that haften after another God.

The Hand of God fhall find out all his Enemies. He fhall make them as a fiery Oven, in the Time of his Anger; the Lord fhall fwallow them up in his Wrath, and the Fire fhall devour them :

Their Seed fhall be deftroyed from the Earth.

God will give them according to their Deeds, and according to the Wickednefs of their Endeavours, he will render to them their Deferts.

Because they regard not the Works of the Lord, nor the Operation of his Hands, he shall deftroy them, and not build them up.

The lying Lips fhall be put to Silence, which speak grievous things proudly and contemptuously against the RIGHTEOUS.

Many Sorrows fhall be to the Wicked: But he that trufteth in the Lord, Mercy fhall compass him about.

The Face of the Lord is against them that do Evil, to cut off the Remembrance of them from the Earth.

Evil fhall flay the Wicked, and they that hate the RIGHTEOUS fhall be defolate :

O

They fhall be as Chaff before the Wind.

Their Way fhall be dark and flippery, and the Angel of the Lord fhall perfecute

them.

DESTRUCTION (k) fhall is DESTRUCTION, whofe God is (k) Phil. 111. 19. Whofe End come upon them at unawares, their Belly, and whofe Glory is in and the Net that they have their SHAME; who mind earthly things.

hid fhall catch themselves.
The P Tranfgreffion of the
Wicked faith, that there is no Fear of God before their
Eyes.

They flatter themselves in their own Eyes, until their INIQUITY be found to be hateful.

h Pfalm XVI. 4. 1 Pfalm xxxI. 18. • Psalm xxxv. 5, 6, 8.

Pfalm xxi. 8,9, 10.
Pf. xx11. 10.
P Pfalm XXXVI.

L

n

Pfalm XXVIII. 4, 5.
Pf. XXXIV. 16, 21.
I, 2, 3, 4, 12.

Their

Their Words are Iniquity and Deceit, they have left off to be wife and do good.

They devife Mifchief upon their Beds.

The Workers of Iniquity are caft down, and fhall not be able to rife.

Confider 4 this, ye that forget God, left he tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver.

The Fool hath faid in his Heart, There is no God; they are corrupt, and have done abominable INIQUITY.

God looked down upon the Children of Men, to fee if there were any that did understand, that did feek the Lord.

They are altogether become filthy.

For the Workers of INIQUITY have no Knowledge, who eat up God's People as they eat Bread, and call not upon God.

f

Death fhall feize upon them, and they fhall go down quick into Hell; for Wickedness is in their Dwellings, and among them.

God fhall hear and afflict them, even he that abideth of old; because they have no Changes, therefore they fear not God.

See the former References.

But the Lord will bring them down into the Pit of DESTRUCTION: Bloody and deceitful Men fhall not live out half their Days.

a Pfalm L. 22. * Pfalm LIII. 1,to 4.

PS. LV. IS, 19, 23.

In other Parts of the Pfalms, and of the Holy Scriptures, are contained many more Reprefentations of the BLESSEDNESS of the RIGHTEOUS, and the MISERIES of the UNGODLY, too long to be here inferted.

HUMAN LIFE,

As it is reprefented in the

PSALMS;

Compared with other Parts of the Scripture.

Y Heart was hot within me, while I was mufing, the Fire burned; then fpake I with my Tongue. Lord, make me to know mine END, and the Measure of my Days, what it is, that I may know how (a) FRAIL

I am.

(a) Job xiv. 1, 2, 3. Man that is born of a Woman, is of few Days,

and full of Trouble: He cometh
forth like a FLOWER, and is cut
down; he fleeth alfo as a SHADOW,
and continueth not. And doft thou
open thine Eyes upon fuch an one,
with thee?
ard bringeft him into JUDGMENT
1 Chron. XXIX. 15. For
we are Strangers before thee, and
Sojourners, as were all our Fathers.

SHADOW, and there is none abiding. Our Days on the Earth are as a Ifai. XL. 6, 7. All Flefh is Grafs, and all the Goodlinefs thereof is as the Flower of the Field. The Grafs withereth, the Flower fadeth, becaufe the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it; furely the People is Grafs. The Grafs withereth, the Flower fadeth, but the WORD of our God fhall ftand for ever. 1 Pet. 1. 24,25. All Flefh is as Grafs, and all the Glory of Man as the Flower of Grafs: The Grafs withereth, and the Flower thereof falleth away; but the WORD of the Lord endureth for ever.

a Pfalm XXXIX. 3, to 13.

Behold,

I 2

Behold, thou haft made my Days as an HANDBREADTH, and mine Age is NOTHING before thee Verily every Man, at his beft State, is altogether (b) VA

as

:

NITY.

(b) Ecclef. 1. 12, 13. I the Preachcr was King over Ifrael in Jerufalem; and I gave my Heart to feek and fearch out by Wisdom, concerning all things that are done under Heaven: This fore Travail hath God given to the Sons of Men, to

be exercised therewith. Chap. 11. to ver. 12. I faid in mine Heart,

Go to now, I will prove thee with
MIRTH, therefore enjoy PLEA
NITY. I faid of Laughter, it is
SURE; and behold, this is allo VA-
mad; and of Mirth, what doth it?
I fought in my Heart to give my
felf unto WINE (yet acquainting
lay hold on FOLLY, till I might fee
my Heart with WISDOM) and to
what was that Good for the Sons of
Men, which they fhould do under
Life. I made me great Works; I
the Heaven, all the Days of their
builded me Houses; I planted me
Vineyards; I made me Gardens and
them of all kind of Fruits: I made
Orchards, and I planted Trees in
me Pools of Water, to water there-

with the Wood that bringeth forth
Trees. I
got me Servants and Mai-
dens, and had Servants born in my
Houfe: Alfo I had great Poffeffions
of great and fmall Cattle, above all
I gathered me alfo * Silver and

that were in Jerufalem before me.
Gold, and the peculiar Treasure of Kings, and of the Provinces. I gat
me Men Singers, and Women Singers, and the Delights of the Sons of
Men, as mufical Inftruments, and that of all forts. So I was great,
and increased, more than all that were before me in Jerufalem; alfo my
WISDOM remained with me. And whatsoever mine Eyes defired, I kept
not from them; I withheld not my Heart from any Joy: For my Heart
rejoiced in all my Labour; and this was my Portion of all my Labour.
Then I looked on all the Works that my Hands had wrought, and on
the Labour that I had laboured to do, and behold, ALL was VANITY and
VEXATION of SPIRIT, and there was no Profit under the Sin. ver.26.
For God giveth to a Man that is good in his fight, WISDOM, and
KNOWLEDGE, and Joy; but to the Sinner he giveth TRAVAIL, to ga
ther, and to heap up, that he may give to him that is good before God.
This alfo is VANITY, and VEXATION of SPIRIT. Chap. 111. 20, 21.
All go unto one Place, and all turn to Duft again. Who knoweth the
Spirit of Man that goeth upward, and the Spirit of the Beast, that goeth
downward to the Earth?

Surely every Man walketh in a VAIN SHEW: Surely they are difquieted in vain he heapeth up RICHES, and knoweth not who fhall gather them.

And now, Lord, what wait I for? My HOPE is in thee.

Deliver me from all my Tranfgreffions; make me not the Reproach of the Foolish.

I was dumb, I opened not my Mouth, because thou didst

it.

Remove thy STROKE away from me; I am con

There was left by David to his Son Solomon, a thousand thousand Talents of Silver, and a hundred thoufand Talents of Gold; which, according to the Bishop of Worcester's Computation of Jewish Talents, amounts to an immenfe Sum in Pounds fterling, which was vaftly increaf. ed by the Importations from Ophir.

fumed