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It is to be further considered, how greatly this feeling of indignant and resentful zeal, in combating with the enemies of goodness, would be heightened in the case of the worshippers of Jehovah, when compared with our own case, by the absence with them of that clear insight into the doctrine of future retribution, on which, amid circumstances of wrong and oppression, our own minds are so well able, and so ready, to find repose. We have been taught constantly, to look forward beyond the grave to another state of things, in which all those inequalities which we see, or think we see, in the administration of the Divine Government will be completely adjusted; when every righteous claim will be fully accorded; and when the wicked will meet with a fearful retribution. The qualification which the notion of eternity gives, at once to the 'rest' which is to be rendered 'to them who are troubled,' and to the 'destruction from the Presence of the Lord' which awaits those who trouble them,' has a mighty effect in tranquillizing the spirit in seasons of conflict with evil, and while it nerves to most steady endurance of misfortune, and to most uncompromising hatred of sin, it likewise altogether neutralizes in the Christian's zeal the element of personal animosity against those who oppose the good cause. Christian feels that he can afford to abstain from any desire to avenge himself; the utmost pitch to which his resentment can reach will be to give place to the wrath' of God, if indeed the consideration of its terribleness does not rather lead him to intercede with the Great Vindicator of Right on behalf of the sinner, and to plead with the sinner himself against the sin which is bringing upon him so dreadful a perdition. But this ingredient of feeling was almost entirely wanting with the champions of religion and goodness in ancient Israel;-just because there was then wanting the clear revelation of a future life which has accompanied the advent and departure from us of Jesus Christ. We need not enter upon a full consideration of this general fact relating to the Old Testament, that the Future Life was therein most imperfectly revealed. It was discussed at length in an article on the Book of Job, which appeared in a recent number. We only wish to notice the effect which would be produced upon the mind of the pious Israelite, by the contraction within such narrow limits as the present life, of his views of the Divine Administration. The dreadful idea of HELL did not interpose to convert his resentment against the wicked doers of his time into mere horror or into compassion. The thought of HEAVEN did not dwell upon his heart with sufficient clearness and distinctness to soothe his sorrows and vexations under present trials, or to sweeten them with the transforming feeling that all these things were working together for his greater happiness in

the future life. We do not mean to assert that the hope of future happiness never visited his bosom. We think far otherwise. But we feel that we occupy an impregnable position when we affirm, that the definite thought of it was not a common or prevailing one, and that the views of the good were, for the most part, bounded within the limits of the present life by dense clouds, which generally drew in their horizon, and which were but occasionally, it might be, parted by the Breath of Heaven to admit a moment's glimpse into the fair prospect beyond, again presently to reuniteuntil the time when they are to be dispelled by the Sun of Righteousness wholly and for ever. Meanwhile, the imperfect conception which the pious Israelite had of the whole scheme of Divine Providence, could not fail to fasten his mind upon the present rewards of the good and the present punishment of the wicked, as matters of the deepest interest and anxiety. He felt, and with truth, that certainly no sufferings which could be endured in the present life were more than the wicked around him deserved; he felt, too, that such inflictions were called for in order to vindicate the honour of God's Government, to prove that 'verily there was a God who judged in the earth,' and to assert the superiority which properly appertained to piety and virtue over vice and irreligion. And as he felt this, it was just the dictate of religion in his bosom, that he should invoke upon the wicked the judgments of Heaven, and should feel a solemn and pious complacency in contemplating them when they came.

We cannot rejoice in the displays of God's wrath against sinners, for several other reasons proper to our position as Christians, and also for this: that we connect with the notion of that Wrath the terrific punishments of the other world. And, at present, our human nature, having had its sympathies for our fellow-men called out into such lively sensibility by the doctrines of the Gospel and the Spirit which dwells in the Church, shrinks back with terror from the thought of the judgment to come, even in reference to those of our race whose characters we the most abhor. At present, this is one effect of the revelation of the future judgment. But, we have reason to believe, it is in consequence of the imperfection of our nature that we thus shrink back. The time, we are assured, will come, when the pious will cease to do so; when, like as the angels, with the serene happiness of their spirits undisturbed, we doubt not, by one single emotion of pain, will issue forth at the command of their Great King to cast the wicked into the fire that is not quenched, so also righteous men will feel a serene complacency in contemplating that vindication of the honours of God's Government and that retribution to wickedness of its own proper demerits, and will derive even an increase of their happiness from being admitted,

as we know they will be, though in what way we know not, to share with Christ in the administration of the last Judgment exercised over evil angels and evil men. (1 Cor. vi. 2, 3.) When their whole minds shall have been fully and equally developed, and shall have been brought into complete correspondency with their relations to the spiritual and eternal world, probably the result will be, that they will feel, in respect to the punishment of the wicked, in a manner analogous to that in which the pious Israelite felt, when, his field of vision being limited to the present scene, he was able to find a source of satisfaction, in contemplating the punishment inflicted in this state upon those wicked enemies of religion and goodness amongst whom it was his unhappiness to dwell.

This, then, is one reason why good men in the position of the holy Psalmists both desired the infliction of Divine Judgments upon the wicked, and took pleasure in contemplating it when it came;—because in the main they regarded this world as the field in which the Divine Administration was to justify itself, and in which right and wrong were to receive their respective rewards.

But, in the next place, we are to remember, that throughout the progress of the economy under which they lived, the servants of God had been commissioned by God Himself, to be the ministers of His vindictive justice in inflicting punishment upon His enemies. This was in some respects their very calling, and upon its execution was, in many instances, made dependent their possession of the Divine Favour. A few illustrations of this point, which at first sight may seem to be of a painful description, will be found, on a closer inspection, to be of great value in determining the distinctive character of the whole dispensation, and in enabling us to estimate those passages in the Psalms which we are now more particularly considering.

The religious economy which had been founded in God's revelations to the Patriarchs and was fully developed through Moses, was that of a national and worldly religion. Perhaps it is not so correct to say that Church and State were united, or that the persona of a member of God's Church and that of a member of the Commonwealth of Israel were borne by all the Israelites alike, as that the Church was the State, and that the functions of the Church were political rather than spiritual. Piety to God, so far as it was a part of the Mosaic dispensation, assumed the form of political obedience. The enemies of Israel were the enemies of God, and, conversely, the enemies of God were to be regarded as the enemies of Israel. It was in conformity with this fundamental principle of the dispensation, that, as from all the idolatrous nations Israelites were commanded to keep separate and aloof, so against certain specified

tribes, which had been declared by God Himself to be especial objects of His vengeance, they were commanded to wage unceasing hostility and even a war of extermination, and that the very foundation of their fixed being as a nation, was laid in a course of bloody and unsparing conquest pursued against these seven devoted nations of Canaan. It is painful to us to follow in imagination the march of their hosts as they executed the fearful commission which had been delivered to them, and in the discharge of which they made the country, of which they were put into possession, the scene of an universal and indiscriminate slaughter; yet such was the command that the Supreme Lord and Judge had imposed upon them. We are not called to enter into a justification of HIS procedure. Our present purpose is only to notice, that this work of judgment had been imposed by the Almighty upon His peculiar people, and made the very foundation of their subsistence as a localized nation. Neither did this injunction stand alone among the other laws of the dispensation; a similar course of punitive infliction was prescribed to be followed, whenever either any single individual Israelite, or any family or township, should be found to have departed from His worship and fallen into idolatry. The law was, that the defection from Jehovah should be punished with death—with unpitying extermination. True, the law was not constantly carried out; but, nevertheless, it was the declared I will of God that thus it should be dealt with those who forsook His worship for that of idols; and this being the case, it was clearly a matter of religious obedience with the pious, that they should pursue the enemies of Jehovah with personal hostility and unsparing hatred.

Every nation has a traditionary spirit peculiar to itself, which forms in course of time what we call its constitution, and propagates an animating influence through each successive generation. Of the constitutional spirit of the nation of Israel, so far as it continued in obedience to its Great Head, the prescription and practice above referred to unquestionably formed one most characteristic feature. And this spirit, we find, diffused itself throughout its history. It might be expected to do so, in a degree, merely from historical recollection; but it was, further, continually quickened and perpetuated by interpositions of Divine Revelation calling it forth into renewed practical activity. It was in this spirit, quickened by Divine Excitation, that the Judges delivered Israel and took vengeance on Israel's enemies-that Saul smote Amalek though falling short of the full obedience prescribed to him-that David warred with the Philistines, and that Elijah slew the prophets of Baal-that Jehu, herein consciously doing the will of God, punished the idolatry of the royal house

of Ahab, and that Josiah restored the worship of God. As long as Heaven continued to make known its will to the theocratic nation, this same spirit was kept alive, and showed itself by deeds of vengeance against the irreligious impugners of the Divine Worship. So that the inspired Psalmist was not employing words of extraordinary or overwrought enthusiasm, but merely answering the requirements of God's revealed will with a simple and literal obedience, when he said: 'Do not I hate them, O Lord, that 'hate thee? And am not I grieved with them that rise up against 'thee? I hate them with perfect hatred; I count them mine 'enemies.'

The habit of mind which the Supreme Lawgiver and King required to be maintained, in respect to those who openly impugned His authority and renounced His service, would of course extend itself to the maintenance of the cause of goodness in general. It would be naturally felt that this cause was the cause of God, and was to be asserted and vindicated in the same spirit. As the holy Psalmist felt that if he had done any such thing' as he was falsely charged with having done, ‘if there was iniquity in his hands,' then it might justly follow that 'his enemy should persecute his soul and take it, and that he should tread down his life upon the earth and lay his honour in the dust,' so likewise he felt it right that the same principle should be applied to his enemies, and continually demanded that it should be so, and rejoiced when it was. It was according to the genius of the whole dispensation under which he lived that he should feel thus. It was not, as we are sometimes apt to feel, the mistaken impulse of corrupt human nature, but the carrying out of maxims not merely legitimated, but expressly enjoined by the God whom he served.

It is from this point of view-to take one instance in which it has sometimes been felt to be difficult to justify the course pursued-that we must look at the injunction which on his death-bed David laid upon his successor respecting Shimei and Joab. The case of Joab deserves particular attention. To secure to himself the supreme command over the army, together with that weight in the king's councils which such an office would carry along with it, he had long before murdered first Abner and afterwards Amasa with circumstances of especial atrocity. But his royal uncle had not felt himself strong enough to contend with him; perhaps, too, latterly his own crime, in procuring through Joab's instrumentality the murder of Uriah, had further crippled his administration in dealing with this daring offender. But, when he comes to die, it evidently weighs upon his conscience that he had not punished him as he ought. He accordingly requires Solomon to deal with the case according to its merits. This latter,