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 typified 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 daughters, or ladies of honour of her court. And in this manner the type is used in many parts of the prophet Isaiah, and very reinarkably in this psalm.

In the part of it which we are now about to expound, the holy psalmist having seated the King Messiah on his everlasting throne, proceeds to the magnificence of his court, as it appeared on the wedding-day. In which, the thing which first strikes him and fixes his attention, is the majesty and splendour of the King's own dress; which indeed is described by the single circumstance of the profusion of rich perfumes with which it was scented: But this by inference implies every thing else of elegance and costly ornament; for among the nations of the East, in ancient times, perfume was considered as the finishing of the dress of persons of condition when they appeared in public; and modern manners give us no conception of the costliness of the materials employed in the composition of their odours, their care and nicety in the preparation of them, and the quantity in which they were used. The high-priest of the Jews was not sprinkled with a few scanty drops of the perfume of the sanctuary; but his person was so bedewed with it that it literally ran down from his beard to the skirts of his garment. The high-priest of the Jews in his robes of office

was in this, as I shall presently explain, and in every circumstance, the living type of our Great High-Priest. The psalmist describes the fragrance of Messiah's garments to be such as if the aromatic woods had been the very substance out of which the robes were made.

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Thy garments are all myrrh, aloes, and

cassia."

The sequel of this verse is somewhat obscure in the original, by reason of the ambiguity of one little word, which different interpreters have taken differently. I shall give you what in my judgment is the literal rendering of the passage; and trust I shall not find it difficult to make the meaning of it very clear.

"Thy garments are all myrrh, aloes, and cassia,

"Excelling the palaces of ivory,

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Excelling those which delight thee." Ivory was highly valued and admired among the Jews and other Eastern nations of antiquity, for the purity of its white, the delicate smoothness of the surface, and the durability of the substance; being not liable to tarnish or rust like metals, or, like wood,

to rot or to be worm-eaten. Hence it was a favourite ornament in the furniture of the houses and palaces of great inen; and all such ornamental furniture was plentifully perfumed. The psalmist therefore says, that the fragrance of the King's garments far exceeded any thing that met the nostrils of the visitors in the stateliest and best furnished palaces. But this is not all: He says, besides, that these perfumes of the royal garments "excel those which delight thee." To understand this, you must recollect that there were two very exquisite perfunies used in the symbolical service of the temple, both made of the richest spices, mixed in certain proportions, and by a process directed by the law. The one was used to anoint every article of the furniture of the sanctuary, and the robes and persons of the priests. The composition of it was not to be imitated, nor was it to be applied to the person of any but a consecrated priest, upon pain of death. Some, indeed, of the kings of David's line were anointed with it; bût when this was done, it was by the special direction of a prophet; and it was to intimate, as I apprehend, the relation of that