PSALM 15. (L. M.) Religion and Justice, Goodness and Truth; or,
Duties to God and Man; or, the Qualifications of a Christian.
I
Who shall ascend thy heavenly place,
Great God, and dwell before thy face?
The man that minds religion now,
And humbly walks with God below:
II
Whose hands are pure, whose heart is clean,
Whose lips still speak the thing they mean;
No slanders dwell upon his tongue;
He hates to do his neighbour wrong.
III
Scarce will he trust an ill report,
Nor vents it to his neighbour's hurt:
Sinners of state he can despise,
But saints are honour'd in his eyes.
IV
Firm to his word he ever stood,
And always makes his promise good;
Nor dares to change the thing he swears,
Whatever pain or loss he bears.
V
He never deals in bribing gold,
And mourns that justice should be sold:
While others gripe and grind the poor,
Sweet charity attends his door.
VI
He loves his enemies and prays
For those that curse him to his face;
And doth to all men still the same
That he would hope or wish from them.
VII
Yet when his holiest works are done,
His soul depends on grace alone;
This is the man thy face shall see,
And dwell for ever, Lord with thee.
Since our blessed Saviour, in the New Testament, has so much
explained the duties of the law and published the gospel, I could
not pass over this psalm of the characters of the jewish saint, without
inserting some brighter articles that must belong to the christian:
Such as, alms and charity to the poor, love to enemies, blessing those
that curse us, doing to others as we would have them do to us, and
hope of acceptance only through divine grace.
I thought it necessary also to leave out the mention of usury,
verse 5. which though politically forbidden by the Jews among
themselves, was never unlawful to the gentiles, nor to any christians,
since the Jewish polity expired.
