adorning his doctrine, and protected by his Priesthood; and in that Priesthood we see the end and consummation of God's mysterious scheme, without which Christ's reign would be a reign of terror, and his sceptre one of iron-in that Priesthood which is confirmed by the unchangeable declaration of God himself, "the Priesthood after the order" or matters" of Melchisedec." Of the Mosaic sacrifices Christ was the antitype, and they ceased-of the Levitical Priesthood he was the fulfilment, and it was abolished-but the Patriarchal Priesthood, which was universal and not limited, which was one of intercession and blessing, not of repeated immolationwhich was more ancient than the Mosaic Institution, and to which the Father of the Faithful paid homage-this was the order of the Messiah's Priesthood; it completed and sanctified his kingly office, and by it was reconciliation with God, and the infinite blessings of redemption sealed to Abraham's spiritual children.

The two verses which succeed this solemn close of God's decree, are evidently to be given to another speaker-they address Jehovah, and are spoken of Adonai. This is not perceived in our common Bibles, where the word Lord is usually marked by a larger character, which is the common mode of ex

pressing the Hebrew Jehovah. They require but little comment; they contain in strong and energetic symbolism, the destruction which will be manifested upon Messiah's enemies, when the day of forbearance shall have expired, when the sins and provocations of the ungodly shall be ripe for judgment, and He the man Jesus Christ, shall descend in his own and his Father's glory, to execute judgment and justice on all the obstinate workers of iniquity. Whether this awful display of divine retribution precedes or follows the final judgment, whether the Psalmist alludes to the condemnation of the apostate faction, which we are taught to believe, will in the latter day array itself against the Lord and his Christ, or to the last awful distribution of justice, when the throne shall be set, and the books shall be opened, it matters not to the subject of our Psalm.-— Christ, the Messiah, the Word, is equally the agent in both, and whether as conqueror or judge, he is identified by the Prophet and the Apostle with the Antient of Days, the rider upon the white horse, as he "who in righteousness doth judge, and doth make war.” It is deserving of notice, that the execution of judgment is here as in all other places of Scripture, assigned to the Redeemer as his peculiar office, while in the first three verses,

the task of extending the Redeemer's kingdom is given to Jehovah, as if to mark the agency of another person of the Godhead, to display the mysterious influence of the blessed Spirit, and to prove that man's redemption is but the development of the character of the ever blessed Trinity. By this consideration is the union of the Father and the Son rendered consistent with the economy of grace, and the difficulty of Jehovah's agency in the establishment of Messiah's reign reconciled with his sovereignty, a difficulty which Vitringa has mentioned, but has not removed.

The last verse has been supposed to allude either to Christ's character as a conqueror, or to his humiliation and subsequent triumph. I have been induced to take a different view. I cannot but consider as harsh, the metaphors which the advocates of the former opinion would introduce, and the passages of Scripture adduced in support of the latter, seem to me to derive their meaning from the context in which they are found, and not to bear upon the point.-I would consider the passage before us, as a parallel to that of Isaiah, in which he declares, that "in the day of the great slaughter, there shall be upon every high mountain, and upon every high hill,

rivers and streams of water;" I would interpret it of the effusion of divine grace, so often figured in Scripture under the image of that fluid so necessary for the support of human life, and I would translate the passage before us in the following manner, with but a small deviation from our version, "he shall make," or give "to drink of the stream on the way, and thus shall he raise up the head." The Hebrew scholar will perceive that the change in the original is but of one conjugation to another, and affects only the vowel points, an unessential part of the language; he may, perhaps, agree with me, that the original word which we have translated "brook," is best explained as a current of water, which makes its way among interposing hills, and whose course is perceptible, but by the verdure of its banks, and the riches of its overhanging foliage, and therefore, forming no unsuitable image of the operations of the Spirit, whose influence is often compared to "rain upon the mown hay, or showers that water the earth," who maketh his fruits to

"spring up as among the grass, like willows by the water courses;" and that this interpretation which has been hinted by an obscure, but learned critic, giving meaning to a passage confessedly difficult, and presenting a most cheer

ing contrast for Christ's servants and soldiers, with the fate that awaits the impenitent, forms no inconsistent conclusion to a Psalm, which developes with such amazing accuracy the agency of God in man's redemption, his bounty in promising, his faithfulness in executing, the destruction which awaits the impenitent, and the blessings which are prepared for the righteous.

May these awful truths be brought home with power to our hearts, may we receive Messiah as our King, believe in him as our Prophet, and trust in his atonement as our Priest, and when the day of his visitation comes, may we be enabled to say, "Lo, this is our God, we have waited for him, and he will save us—this is our Lord, we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation."-Amen.