And this again I might have concluded, according to the principles of the Jewish expositors, from my text; which, by the single word "the King," directs the application of this psalm to Christ in his kingly character. Christ, indeed, already exercises his regal office in his care and government of his church: but the second advent is the season when his glory and majesty will be openly manifested to the whole world, and the Jews visibly reinstated in his favour. The marriage, therefore, which is the peculiar subject of this psalm, must be that re-union of the Saviour with the Jewish church, which is to take place at that season.

Never losing sight of this, as his proper subject, the divine poet, takes, however, an ample range: for he opens with our Lord's first appearance in the flesh, when, by the promulgation of the gospel, the guests were summoned to the wedding-supper, and running rapidly, but in order, through all the different periods of Christianity, from its first beginning to its consummation in this spiritual wedding, he makes the general outline of its divine history the ground-work of this highly mystic and important song; to the exposition of which, without farther preface, I shall now proceed.

The psalm takes its beginning in a plain unaffected manner, with a verse briefly declarative of the importance of the subject, the author's extraordinary knowledge of it, and the manner in which it will be treated. My heart is inditing a good matter;"

or rather,

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My heart labours with a goodly theme;"

for the word "inditing" answers but poorly, as our translators themselves appear from their margin to have been well aware, to the emphasis of the original, which expresses, that the mind of the prophet was excited and heated, boiling over, as it were, with his subject, and

eager to give utterance to its great conceptions. "A good matter," or "a goodly theme," denotes a subject of the highest interest and importance.

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My heart labours with a goodly theme."

"I address my performance to the king;" that is, as hath been abundantly explained, to the great King Messiah.

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My tongue is the pen of a ready writer;" that is, ⚫ of a well-instructed writer, a writer prepared and ready, by a perfect knowledge of the subject he undertakes to treat.

But with what sense and meaning is it, that the psalmist compares his "tongue" to the "pen" of such a writer? It is to intimate, as I apprehend, that what he is about to deliver is no written composition, but an extemporaneous effusion, without any premeditation of his own, upon the immediate impulse and suggestion of the Holy Spirit: that what will fall, however, in that manner from his "tongue," for the coherence and importance of the matter, for the correct propriety of the expression, and for the orderly arrangement of the parts, will in no degree fall short of the most laboured production of the "pen" of any writer, the best prepared by previous study of his subject; inasmuch as the Spirit of God inspires his thoughts, and prompts his utterance.

After this brief preface, declaring that his subject is Messiah, chiefly in his kingly character,—that he cannot contain the thoughts which are rising in his mind,—that he speaks not from himself, or from previous study, but from inspiration at the moment,-he plunges at once into the subject he had propounded, addressing the King Messiah, as if he were actually standing in the royal presence. And in this same strain, indeed, the whole song proceeds; as referring to a scene present to the prophet's eye, or to things which he saw doing.

This scene consists of three principal parts, relating

to three grand divisions of the whole interval of time, from our Lord's first appearance in the flesh, to the final triumph of the church, upon his second advent. And the psalm may be divided into as many sections, in which the events of these periods are described in their proper order.

The first section, consisting only of the second verse, describes our Lord on earth, in the days of his humiliation. The five following verses make the second section, and describe the successful propagation of the gospel, and our Lord's victory over all his enemies. This comprehends the whole period from our Lord's ascension to the time not yet arrived of the fulfilling of the Gentiles. The sequel of the psalm, from the end of the seventh verse, exhibits the remarriage,—that is, the restoration of the converted Jews to the religious prerogative of their nation.

The second verse, describing our Lord in the days of his humiliation, may seem perhaps to relate merely to his person, and the manner of his address.

"Thou art fairer than the children of men;"

rather,

"Thou art adorned with beauty beyond the sons of

men;

"Grace is poured upon thy lips;

"Therefore God hath blessed thee for ever."

We have no account in the gospels of our Saviour's person. Some writers of an early age (but none so early as to have seen him) speak of it as wanting dignity, and of his physiognomy as unpleasing. It would be difficult, I believe, to find any better foundation for this strange notion, than an injudicious interpretation of certain prophecies, in a literal meaning, which represent the humiliation which the Son of God was to undergo, by clothing his divinity with flesh, in images taken from personal deformity. But, from what is recorded in the

gospels, of the ease with which our Saviour mixed in what in the modern style we should call good company,

of the respectful attention shown to him, beyond any thing his reputed birth or fortune might demand,—and the manner in which his discourses, either of severe reproof or gentle admonition, were received,-we may reasonably conclude, that he had a dignity of exterior appearance remarkably corresponding with that authority of speech, which, upon some occasions, impressed even his enemies with awe, and with that dignified mildness which seems to have been his more natural and usual tone, and drew the applause and admiration of all who heard him. "Never man spake like this man," was the confession of his enemies; and, upon his first appearance in the synagogue at Nazareth, when he had finished his exposition of a certain text of Isaiah, which he applied to himself, "All bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth." Thus, without knowing it, the congregation attested the completion of this prophecy of the psalmist, in one branch of it,-in the "grace" which literally, it seems, was poured upon his lips." But certainly it must have been something externally striking,-something answering to the text of the psalmist in the former branch, "Adorned with beauty beyond the sons of men," which, upon the same occasion, before his discourse began;-it must have been something, I say, prepossessing in his features, and something of dignity in person, which, while he was yet silent, "fastened the eyes of all that were in the synagogue upon him,”—that is, upon the village carpenter's reputed son; for in no higher character he yet was known. We may conclude, therefore, that this prophetic text had a completion, in the literal and superficial sense of the words, in both its branches,-in the beauty of our Saviour's person, no less than in the graciousness of his speech.

External feature, however, is generally the impression of the mind upon the body, and words are but the echo of the thoughts; and, in prophecy, more is usually meant than meets the ear, in the first sound and most obvious sense of the terms employed. Beauty and grace of speech are certainly used in this text as figures of much higher qualities, which were conspicuous in our Lord, and in him alone of all the sous of men. That image of God in which Adam was created, in our Lord appeared perfect and entire,—in the unspotted innocency of his life, the sanctity of his manners, and his perfect obedience to the law of God,-in the vast powers of his mind, intellectual and moral; intellectual, in his comprehension of all knowledge; moral, in his power of resisting all the allurements of vice, and of encountering all the difficulties of virtue and religion, despising hardship and shame, enduring pain and death. This was the beauty with which he was adorned beyond the sons of men. In him, the beauty of the Divine image was refulgent in its original perfection; in all the sons of Adam, obscured and marred, in a degree to be scarce discernible,—the will depraved, the imagination debauched, the reason weak, the passions rampant! This deformity is not externally visible, nor the spiritual beauty which is its opposite: but, could the eye be turned upon the internal man, we should see the hideous shape of a will at enmity with God-a heart disregarding his law, insensible of his goodness, fearless of his wrath, swelling with the passions of ambition, avarice, vain-glory, lust. Yet this is the picture of the unregenerated man, by the depravity consequent upon the fall, born in iniquity, and conceived in sin. Christ, on the contrary, by the mysterious manner of his conception, was born without spot of sin; he grew up and lived full of grace and truth, perfectly sanctified in flesh and spirit. With this beauty he was "adorned beyond the sons of men."