A Table of fuch pfalms of David, &c. as are contained in this volume. The larger numerals denote the number of the pfalm as it ftands in the english bible; the leffer point to the page of this work.

XIII

EXPLICATION, in alphabetical order, of fome terms and phrafes that occur in the following collection of pfalms, or in others from which thefe have been felected.

ALL languages have their peculiarities. Languages of the fame age differ in different countries; and languages of different ages in the fame. The languages of ancient times, and of the eaftern world, are extremely different from ours; and this not merely in the founds by which they exprefs the fame ideas, but in the combinations of words, in the import and value of the phrafes which thefe combinations form, in images, allufions, and even in conceptions and ideas. The Jewish language, as muft neceffarily be the cafe from the fingularity of the conftitution and manners of that people, is fingular. The New Teftament was writ by Jews, and though not in their own proper language, yet it every where betrays the character of the writers, and bears upon it the peculiarities of that language. The terms and phrases of it cannot always be accurately expreft by a literal version of them; and fometimes those which look as like as poffible to

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the terms and phrases we would exprefs, being connected with modern practices and ideas, and their value estimated thereby, will lead us far from the conceptions and the purpose of the writer. In fuch cafes we are fometimes in danger of being misled by the connection which the terms we employ have, even with practices and ideas that took their rife from thofe fcriptural ones which we would explain. To us, therefore, the terms and phrafes of the fcriptures, even of the fcriptures in our own language, muft, of course, need explication: and, confequently, fince it has been the custom to form the style of pfalms, hymns, and other books of devotion in ufe among us, upon that of fcripture; in thefe fuch expreffions will often. be occurring, as, if we are not aware, will awaken no ideas, or only obfcure and unjust ones; and and yet these obfcure and unjuft ideas will acquire an establishment and an authority in our minds that is not due to them, thro' the reverence we owe to the word of God from which they will appear to be derived. A careful explication of fcripture-terms, drawn from its true fources, is the more defirable, that it has been fo much the practice of Christian Divines. to use them and explain them, not according

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to their original import in the facred writers, but annexing to them ideas, and connecting with them trains of ideas, effential in artificial fyftems of theology, yet probably unknown altogether to the writers whofe language they are employed to illuftrate.

If the following table fhall be of use to any that wish for fuch affiftance, it will be well. The reader, however, will be cautious in the ufe of it; and, in his perufal of the fcriptures, will be attentive to obferve how far the explications, herein contained, give light to him in that employment, and accord with what he finds in the word of God. In Acтs XVII. II. Luke records it to the honour of the Berceans, that they fearched the fcriptures daily, whether those things, which Paul and Silas told them, were fo.

ADOPTION. In fcripture-language, communication of the right and power to confider God as our father, and ourselves as his children. See SON OF GOD.

ATONEMENT.

ATONEMENT. Removal of that by which incapacity or difqualification for the fervice of God has been contracted: reconciliation with God; declaration of it: fanctification: confecration to God, or to his fervice.

· BABEL. In allufion to the high tower by which men vainly fought to prevent their separation from each other, this term is fometimes ufed figuratively, to fignify the vain projects by which men oppose the counfels and providence of God.

BAPTISM. On the part of him who adminifters it, a fymbolical declaration that the baptized is confidered by him as pure, not unfit for the service of God, or the communion of men: On the part of the voluntary subject of it, a fymbolical profeffion of this purity, according to the baptizer's views and principles; of defire to continue in it; and, for this purpofe, of attention and fubmiffion to him as a director and instructor.

BOWELS. This term, in fcripture, fignifies thofe inward parts that are confidered as the feat of life, thought, memory, wifdom; of fincerity, affection,