exceeds the boldness of western imagery: he may proceed to ask us, if amplification prevail on fome occafions, why not on others? To which we may anfwer, that an obvious distinction fubfifts between figurative, and fimple language. In the abovementioned pfalms, we have no tropes nor figures: all is eafy and unadorned: David and Solomon are, by our own fuppofition, no farther figurative characters, than as every illuftrious ancestor represents an illuftrious defcendant, and in whom he himself, in common language, is faid afterwards to exift. Nor is the propriety of such language affected by difference of rank and dignity. It is this very difference that juftifies our interpretation.

With the great event of Chrift's manifeftation so many paffages are connected; there are so many promises of establishing the throne of David from generation to generation, and for ever, that it were as fuperfluous, as it is endlefs, to recite them. David declares that in the perfon of Chrift he fhall rife again of himself, St. Peter inconteftably proves, that fuch a declaration could not be true. Thou

с

Acts ii.

wilt

C 2

wilt not leave my foul in bell, neither wilt thou fuffer thy Holy One to fee corruption. What a forced conftruction would it be to apply this to any temporal diftrefs? How does it appear that David laboured under any at that time? Throughout the whole pfalm he rejoices in his profperity: the tranfition from present to future bleffings is easy and natural; a tranfition to that refurrection by which Chrift hath paffed through the gates of everlasting life, and hath opened them to us.

The hundred and tenth pfalm is quoted by our Saviour, and fo little were the Pharifees able to explain the first verse, that from that day forth none durft afk him any more questions. It has been infinuated that our Lord's intention was rather to perplex, than to inform. This is a mere fuggeftion of fancy; nor is there a fingle expreffion calculated to countenance fuch a conftruction. If we fhould be referred to the two paffages, wherein our divine Master filenced his oppofers, one relating to the miffion of St. John the Baptist, the other to the payment of tribute, the argumentation in each is folid and unanswerable. If the fear of the people, or the consciousness of secret treachery, either terrified or fhamed

fhamed them into filence, let this be no derogation from the dignity of our blessed Lord; let it not diminish the real importance of his inftructions. The hundred and tenth pfalm, unless applied to the Meffiah, will be full of real difficulty. The dew of thy birth is of the womb of the morning is well explained: *"The "dew of thy offspring will exceed in fecun

66

dity the dew of the morning." How beautifully does the pfalmift here express the great, the speedy, and yet gentle increase of the Meffiah's kingdom? The worship of Christ seems to be foretold in the former part of the verse: In the day of thy power shall the people offer thee free-will offerings, with an holy worship, or, thy people shall be liberal in the day of thy power in holy honours, borrowing the expreffion from the Jewish oblation. The gofpel dispensation alone clearly, and incontestably proved him an object of worship, and additional motives of gratitude render him in a peculiar manner, the Lord our God. David in his last moments declared his own faith and ftrengthened ours. The Spirit of the Lord fpake by me, and his word was in my tongue. The God of Ifrael faid, the Rock of Ifrael fpake to me, he that ruleth over man must be just, ruling in the

d V. 3.

* Præl. 10.

C 3

@ 2 Sam. xxiii.

fear

fear of God. And he shall be as the light of the morning, when the fun rifeth, even a morning without clouds; as the tender grafs fpringing out of the earth by clear fhining after rain. Although my houfe be not fo with God, yet he bath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and fure: for this is all m falvation, and all my defire, although he maketh it not to grow, that is, although he have not yet caufed the branch to bud, although this great event, which is the fure cause of joy and thanksgiving to me, be at fome distance.

That the idea of a double meaning in fome paffages may not be thought altogether fanciful, we fhould do well to recollect, that among the Latin poets, who never foared into the regions of imagination with the fublimity of eaftern poetry, there are many paffages which have a hidden import beyond the literal meaning. Indirect praife, and indirect cenfure, moral and religious inftruction are frequently conveyed by fuch methods, more familiar perhaps to contemporaries than to fucceeding ages, but having fufficient marks and indications to be understood by the intelligent and attentive. And when it is remembered, that no prophecies were intended to be delivered. with

with the fullness of hiftorical evidence, we shall perhaps be the less furprized that the real meaning requires very careful investigation.

Juftin Martyr faw clearly that the feventyfecond pfalm could not with propriety be applied to Solomon, whose melancholy apostasy he exposes. He likewife applies the twentyfourth, the forty-fifth, and the ninety-eighth pfalms to the Meffiah, without offering the leaft violence to any of them.

The Song of Solomon alfo, upon the principles of just criticifm, may be supposed to describe the union between Chrift and his Church. As marriage is the most facred union among men, fo the writers of the Old Testament use it figuratively concerning the Jewish Church, and St. Paul transfers it to the Chriftian. Hence likewife, Idolatry, to excite the greatest abhorrence, is called adultery. Solomon therefore will be ranked amongst the Prophets, and, as far as he was a Prophet, must confeffedly have been inspired.

Whether, as hath been infinuated, great wifdom joined with long experience could have produced a collection of useful precepts C 4

and