hymn and the narrative point to the same event; that the one is in poetry what the other is in history: and we may not be altogether unjustified in hazarding the opinion that the Psalm itself was chanted by Jehoshaphat and his rejoicing subjects in the thanksgiving services of the time, when "with psalteries and harps and trumpets," the hosts of Israel, with their monarch in their 'forefront' marched in solemn procession to the temple of the Lord.

We have, then, so far advanced in the investigation of our subject, that we have ascertained, (as far as well-sustained conjecture can ascertain it,) the portion of Scripture we are considering to be an inspired record of past glories to Israel. It is, however, more than this: it is a summons to Israel to examine and understand their advantages. The Psalm does not simply commemorate a transaction; it invites Israel to estimate the securities and blessings which were still hers subsequent to that transaction. For she is called upon to go round the walls of her capital-so lately threatened and so peculiarly exposed to danger-and to see that notwithstanding the boast and machinations of her many foes, the towers of Jerusalem still remained uninjured, her bulwarks still erect in their strength, her palaces still unspoiled of a single ornament. In a word, the text before us fastens the attention, and calls the scrutiny of every Israelite to the stronghold which God had provided

and preserved for him, and lays it upon him as a bounden duty to proclaim to his descendants that he had seen Jerusalem threatened and yet safe, assailed and yet undismantled; that he had accurately scanned her condition and satisfied his mind of the fact, that not a defence was wanting to her battlements, nor a stone dislodged from her ramparts.

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Now, although this is undoubtedly the primary intention of our text, we are not, I conceive, unjustified in attaching to it a more extended signification. The circumstances in which the Israelites were placed naturally called for large and high-toned expressions of praise. Still we think that the language now before us is of a kind too bold and elevated to be restricted to any event in the history of that people. The Psalms are many of them somewhat more than historical they are typical and prophetic. At the same time that they record and celebrate a particular event, they point forward to some event still greater. And this harmonizes with the whole character of the Jews as a people. Their Church and polity are confessedly typical of the peculiarities of the Messiah's kingdom. What was wrought into light and fulness by the Gospel had its existence in a shadowy and contracted form under the law; and so it is, we conceive, with respect to the Psalm before us. Many of the terms of the allusions found in it are figurative as well as real. Thus, Zion in it is used in a figure. Being literally the hill on which the city of God

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stood, it is employed to denote Jerusalem itself, and then in a more extended sense to denote that of which Jerusalem was a clear and expressive type, the community of the faithful, the covenanted Church of Christ. Of this application of the term we find many instances in Scripture. Thus, in the 102d Psalm, Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Zion, for the time to favour her, yea, the set time is come." Behold, I lay in Zion, a chief corner-stone, elect, precious." (Isai. xxviii. 16.) Ye are come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, and unto the heavenly Jerusalem, the general assembly and Church of the first-born." (Heb. xii. 22, 23.) So that it is clearly allowable to us to consider our text, not simply as descriptive of the excellences and strength of Jerusalem, but as figuratively descriptive of the stability of the Church of God; and its commands as addressed not merely to the inhabitants of the city of David, but as extended to all who claim a connection with, and profess an interest in, the privileges of the spiritual Jerusalem.

Having thus endeavoured to establish our right to use our text for this purpose, we shall consider it in reference to these two topics:

I. THE FIGURE used to DESCRIBE THE CHURCH OF CHRIST;

II. THE DUTY OF HER MEMBERS IN RESPECT TO HER.

I. The figure under which the Church is here

presented to our thoughts, is that of a city encircled with its battlements and protected by its towers. This figure is applicable, in the first place, on account of the strength of its foundations. The fortified city requires to be sustained by the firmness of its under-structure. This was peculiarly the case with Jerusalem; it was founded not upon the shifting soil of a low country, but proudly planted upon the rocky eminence. "It was a city set on a hill." It was fixed "

upon the mountain of holiness, beautiful for situation; her foundation was upon the holy hills." This was amongst the reasons which induced the Israelites, in the vanity of their fleshly confidence, to believe that their capital was impregnable and secure against all invasion. The rock on which it stood protected it from undermining, and the loftiness of its position made surprisal an impossibility. This peculiarity belongs to the spiritual Zion, the Church of the first-born; its foundations are firmness itself, for it is builded on a rock. (Matt. xvi. 18.) It is raised upon the foundation of prophets and apostles, a pledge in itself of its security; for other foundation can no man lay than that already laid for it-Christ, the unchangeable, the eternal. To his Church he is the Alpha and the Omega; her hopes, her stability, her comforts, are all centred in him. It was his atonement which made a redeemed and saved community a thing possible in the counsels of God, for

iniquity had broken up the ties which bound the Creator and the creature to each other; and it was reconciliation for iniquity which made it possible for the guilty to stand in a renewed covenant with God. The Church's stability depends upon her junction with the Saviour. The covenant which ensures her salvation is made with him, and not with her; with him it is that the Father is well pleased. The promises on which she rests, the declarations on which she ventures to build, are all confirmed and ratified in him ; "in him they are Amen to the glory of God by us." The happiness she enjoys, the strength she experiences, the faith which makes her more than conqueror in her trials and vicissitudes, are all derived through him; for the Father, when he gave his Son to die for transgression, "with him gave the Church all things." She is thus, by virtue of her union with him, a city resting upon an immoveable foundation; and if her walls rise gradually into beauty and stability, it is because the work commenced in him, is carried forward by him, and through the doctrines, the providence, and the gift of Jesus, the spiritual edifice becomes the fortified and extended citadel.

2. The Church is compared to a city on account of its separate and enclosed character. The original state of society was not that of settlement and order. The tribes of the children of men were scattered upon the face of the globe, of which they found