The psalmist is now come down, by a regular and complete, though a sụmmary review, of the principal occurrences of what may be called the history of the Mediator and his kingdom, the Redeemer's life on earth, his exaltation to his throne in heaven, the successful propagation of the gospel after his ascension, the suppression of idolatry, and the establishment of the Chris. tian religion in the principal empires and kingdoms of the world, the psalmist, through this detail, is come down to the epoch of the second advent, which immediately introduces the great event which has given occasion to the whole song,—the consummation of the church's happiness, and Messiah's glory here on earth, in the public marriage of the great King'with the wife of his love. This occupies the whole sequel of the psalm, and will be the subject of my next discourse.

SERMON VII.

PSALM xlv. l.

I speak of the things which I have made touching the

King, or unto the King.

WE have followed the holy psalmist, step by step, through his accurate though sunimary prospective view of the principal occurrences in the history of the Me. diator and his kingdom upon earth, from our Lord's first appearance in the flesh to the epoch of his second advent. I have explained to you the several images un. der which the psalmist represents the events of this interval. I have shown how easily they apply to Christ and his gospel,-how inapplicable they are to any other subject. I showed you, that under the figures of comeliness of person and urbanity of speech, the psalmist describes the unexampled sanctity of the life of Jesus, and the high consolations of his doctrine: that under the figure of a warrior, clad in dazzling armour, with his sword girt upon his thigh, and shooting his arrows after a flying enemy, Christ is described as waging his spiritual war against sin and Satan by his powerful word, -represented as a sword, when it is employed to terrify the conscience of the sinner, and rouse him by denunciations of wrath and punishment to a sense of his danger; as an arrow, in its milder effects, when it pricks the heart with that godly remorse which brings on the sorrow that works true repentance, and terminates in hope and love. The splendid defensive armour is an emblem of whatever is externally venerable and lovely in Christianity, and conduces to conciliate the good will of men, and mitigate the malice of the persecutor. The subjugation of nations, by the prosecution of this war, is the triumph of the church over idolatry, which first took place in the reign of Constantine the Great, when the Christian religion was established in the Roman empire, and idolatry put down by that emperor's authority. A few years after, the idolatrous temples were finally closed by his successors.

The battles being fought, and the victory gained, the eonqueror is saluted by the holy psalmist as the God. man, seated upon the everlasting throne of his Mediatorial kingdom. The psalmist then proceeds to that great event which is to take place upon the second advent of our Lord, the prospect of which has been the occasion of the whole song,--the consummation of the church's happiness, and Messiah's glory here on earth, in the public marriage of the great King with the wife of his love. And upon this subject, the inspired poet dwells throughout the whole scquel of the psalm, which makes, indeed, the greater part of the entire composition.

Before I enter upon the explanation of particulars in this part of the song, it may be proper to offer a few words upon the general propriety and significance of the image of a marriage, as it is applied here, and in other parts of Scripture, to Messiah and his church,

Our Lord said of himself, that he came to“ preach the gospel to the poor;" and the same thing may be said of the word of revelation in general,--that it was given for the instruction of all mankind, the lowest as well as the highest, the most illiterate as well as the wise and learned; and if with any difference, with a special regard to the benefit of those, who, from their condition, were the most deficient in the means of natural improvement. It may be reckoned, therefore, a necessary characteristic of divine revelation, that it shall be delivered in a manner the most adapted to what are vulgarly called the meanest capacities. And by this perspicuity, both of precept and of doctrine, the whole Bible is remarkably distinguished : for although St. Peter speaks of things in it hard to be understood, he speaks of such things only as could never have been understood at all, had they not. been revealed, and, being revealed, are yet not capable of proof or explanation upon scientific principles, but rest solely on the authority of the revelation; not that the terms in which these discoveries are made are obscure and ambiguous in their meaning, or that the things themselves, however hard for the pride of philosophy, are not of easy digestion to an humble faith. Obscurities undoubtedly have arisen, from the great antiquity of the sacred writings, from the changes which time makes ini language, and from some points of ancient history, become dark or doubtful: but these affect only particular passages, and bring no difficulty at all upon the general doctrine of revelation, which is the only thing of universal and perpetual importance. Now the method of teaching which the Holy Spirit hath employed to adapt the profoundest mysteries of religion to the most ordinary capacities, has been, in all ages, to propound then by his inspired messengers, the prophets under the law, and the apostles in the first ages of Christianity, in figurative expressions, in images and allusions, taken either, from the most striking objects of the senses in the works of nature, or from human life. The relation between Christ and his church, it is evident, must be of a nature not to be adequately tipyfied by any thing in the material world; and nothing could be found in human life which might so aptly represent it as the relation of husband and wife in the holy state of wedlock: and in this, the analogy is so perfect, that the notion of the ancient Jews. has received the express sanction of St. Paul, that the relation of the Saviour and the church was tipyfied in the union of our first parents, and in the particular manner of Eve's formation out of the substance of Adam. The most striking particulars of the resemblance are these: The union, in both cases, in the natural case of man and wife, and the spiritual case of Messiah and the church, is a union of the most entire affection, and the warmest mutual love, between unequals; contrary to the admired maxim of the heathen moralist, that friendship was not to be found but between equals. The maxim may be true in all human friendship, except the conjugal, but fails completely in the love between Christ and the church, in which the affection on both sides is the most cordial, though the rank of the parties be the most disparate. Secondly, The union is indissoluble, except by a violation of the nuptial vow. But the great resemblance of all lies in this, the never-failing protection and support afforded by the husband to the wife, and the abstraction of the affections from all other objects on the part of the wife, and the surrender of her whole heart and mind to the husband. In these circumstances principally, but in many others also, which the time will not permit me to recount, the propriety and significance of the type consists. It is applied with some variety, and with more or less accuracy, in different parts of holy writ, according to the purpose of the writer. Where the church catholic is considered simply in its totality, without distinction of the parts of which it is composed, the whole church is taken as the wife: but when it is considered as consisting of two great branches, the church of the natural Israel, and the church of the Gentiles, of which two branches the whole was composed in the primitive ages, and will be composed again, then the former is considered as the wife, or queen consort, and the Gentile congregations as her