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v. 3, 4.) • My heart is inditing of a good matter : I speak of the things which I have made unto the King. Thou art fairer than the children of men : full of grace are thy lips, because God hath blessed thee for ever. Gird thee with thy sword upon thy thigh, O thou most mighty, according to thy worship and renown. Good luck have thou with thine honour: ride on, because of the word of truth, of meekness, and righteousness; and thy right-hand shall teach thee terrible things. Thy arrows are very sharp, and the people shall be subdued unto thee: even in the midst among the King's enemies. Thy seat, O God, endureth for ever: the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre. Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity: wherefore God, even thy God,* hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. All thy garments smell of myrrh, aloes, and cassia: out of the ivory palaces, whereby they have made thee glad. Kings' daughters were among thy honourable women: upon thy righthand did stand the queen‡ in a vesture of gold,

attaching to spirits just escaped from sin and death, and which will all be healed in Paradise, or the holy place in heaven; and to which the corporeal maladies which were removed by stepping into the pool of Bethesda might bear some allusion.

* Thy Father and my Father, thy God and my God. He is first addressed in this Psalm as God, though God is after called his Father: but of this hereafter.

+ Above all other probationaries: but of this hereafter.

The bride, the universal church, from out our nether heavens. That this Psalm, as well as many others, predicted the Messiah, is a very obvious fact. Christ himself attests in several places the truth of this assertion; and subsequent to his glorious

wrought about with divers colours. Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear: forget also thine own people and thy father's house. So shall the King have pleasure in thy beauty: for he is thy Lord God, and worship thou him. And the daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift; like as the rich also among the people shall make their supplication before thee. The king's daughter is all glorious within: her clothing is of wrought gold. She shall be brought unto the King in raiment of needlework: the virgins that be her fellows shall bear her company, (every victorious probationary from out our starry heavens will have become members of the pure and glorious church-Messiah's spotless bride, whom He will present unto himself at the last day,) and shall be brought unto thee. With joy and gladness shall they be brought, and shall enter into the king's palace. Instead of thy fathers thou shalt have children, whom thou mayest make princes in all lands. We will remember thy name from one generation to another; therefore shall the people give thanks] unto thee, world without end." (Psalm xlv.) "Lift up your heads, O ye gates, be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in. Who is the King of glory? The Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your

resurrection, He expounded unto his disciples all things that were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning him; as He after did unto the great apostle Paul, showing him that the blood of his cross would reconcile to God all things, both visible and invisible. i. 20.) But of this hereafter.

(Col.

heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in. Who is the King of glory? The Lord of hosts; he is the King of glory," and his hosts shall follow him.

We now proceed to observe, that the types contained in the first, or lower sanctuary, are directed to be made of the subordinate metal brass, significant of its subordinate destination and station in the universe. "And thou shalt make an altar of shittim wood, five cubits long, and five cubits broad; the altar shall be foursquare, and the height thereof shall be three cubits. And thou shalt make the horns of it upon the four corners thereof: his horns shall be of the same: and thou shalt overlay it with brass. And thou shalt make his pans to receive his ashes, and his shovels, and his basons, and his fleshhooks, and his firepans : all the vessels thereof thou shalt make of brass. And thou shalt make for it a grate of network of brass; and upon the net shalt thou make four brazen rings in the four corners thereof. And thou shalt put it under the compass of the altar beneath, that the net may be even to the midst of the altar. And thou shalt make staves for the altar, staves of shittim wood, and overlay them with brass. And the staves shall be put into the rings, and the staves shall be upon the two sides of the altar, to bear it. Hollow with boards shalt thou make it: as it was shewed thee in the mount,

so shall they make it. And thou shalt make the court of the tabernacle: for the south side southward there shall be hangings for the court of fine twined linen, of an hundred cubits long for one

side: and the twenty pillars thereof and their twenty sockets shall be of brass; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets shall be of silver. And likewise for the north side in length there shall be hangings of an hundred cubits long, and his twenty pillars and their twenty sockets of brass; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets of silver. And for the breadth of the court on the west side shall be hangings of fifty cubits; their pillars ten, and their sockets ten. And the breadth of the court on the east side eastward shall be fifty cubits. The hangings of one side of the gate shall be fifteen cubits; their pillars three, and their sockets three. And on the other side shall be hangings fifteen cubits; their pillars three, and their sockets three. And for the gate of the court shall be an hanging of twenty cubits, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, wrought with needle-work and their pillars shall be four, and their sockets four. All the pillars round about the court shall be filleted with silver; their hooks shall be of silver, and their sockets of brass. The length of the court shall be an hundred cubits, and the breadth fifty every where, and the height five cubits of fine twined linen, and their sockets of brass." (Exod. xxvii. 1-18.) "Thou shalt also make a laver of brass, and his foot also of brass, to wash withal: and thou shalt put it between the tabernacle of the congregation, (or holy place,) and the altar, and thou shalt put water therein." (Exod. xxx. 18.) "And Moses, and Aaron, and his sons washed their hands and their feet thereat: when they went into the tent of the congregation,

(or holy place,*) and when they came near unto the altar, they washed; as the Lord commanded Moses." (Exod. xl. 31, 32.)

That the religious worship performed in the first, or outward sanctuary, is essential for all probationary beings, we conceive to be a point satisfactorily established. God promises that in all places where He records his name, He will come unto his servants and pour a blessing on them. (Exodus xx. 24.) But participation of the benefits derived from the regenerating laver and figurative offerings laid on the brazen altar, it is very evident, can only be designed for degraded and polluted natures. On the first, as there will be occasion to treat more fully hereafter, we shall only briefly remark, that no emblem can be more aptly representative of the necessity of inward purification, of the renewal of inward and spiritual grace, than the outward and visible sign of cleansing in pure water; and the signification of the second, namely, the spotless figurative offerings presented on the brazen altar to atone for sin, is still more obvious and forcible than the first. These must be tendered in behalf of sinning and sinful creatures. It has been already observed, that immediately subsequent to the degradation of our nature, typical representations of that unblemished perfect virtue, which, in the eternal

* "Tent of the congregation," that temporary residence prepared for the spirits of the virtuous in their intermediate state, subsequent to their separation from their mortal evil, but previous to their advancement to the holiest of holies.