of the larger size, is printed in that character which is used to distinguish the words which have been inserted by the translators, to make the sense perspicuous to the English reader, without any thing expressly corresponding in the original. Omitting the word "women," our translators might have given the verse, according to their conceptions of the preceding word which describes the women, thus:

"Kings' daughters are among thy honourables;"

that is, among the persons appointed to services of honour. But the original word thus expressed by "honourable women," or by "honourables," is indeed applied to whatever is rare and valued in its kind, and, for that reason, to illustrious persons, ennobled and distinguished by marks of royal favour: and in this sense, it certainly is figuratively applicable to the persons whom I shall show to be intended here. But the primary meaning of the word is, "bright, sparkling;" and it is particulary applied to brilliant gems, or precious stones. Sparkling is in all languages figuratively applied to female beauty; and the imagery of the original would be better preserved, though the sense would be much the same, if the passage were thus rendered:

"Kings' daughters are among the bright beauties of thy court." The beauty certainly is mystic,—the beauty of evangelical sanctity and innocence.

But who and what are these kings' daughters, the lustre of whose beauty adorns the great monarch's court? "Kings daughters," in the general language of holy writ, are the kingdoms and peoples which they govern, of which, in common speech, they are called fathers. The expression may be so taken here; and then the sense will be, that the greatest kingdoms and empires of the world, converted to the faith of Christ, and shining in the beauty of the good works of true holiness, will be united, at the season of the wedding, to Messiah's kingdom. But, inasmuch

as Messiah's kingdom is not one of the kingdoms of the world, and that secular kingdoms will never be immediately, and in their secular capacity, vassals of his kingdom, I rather think, that the kings' daughters mentioned here are the various national churches, fostered for many ages by the piety of Christian princes, and now brought to the perfection of beauty, by the judgments which shall have purged every one of them of all things that offend: for they may well be called "kings' daughters," of whom kings and queens are called, in the prophetic language, the fathers and the mothers. From these, the Psalmist turns our attention to another lady, distinguished above them all, by her title, her place, and the superlative richness of her robes.

"Kings' daughters are among the bright beauties of thy court;
At thy right-hand the consort has her station,

In standard gold of Ophir."

Some expositors have imagined, that the consort is an emblem of the church catholic in her totality; the kings' daughters, typical of the several particular churches of which that one universal is composed. But the queen consort here, is unquestionably the Hebrew church; the church of the natural Israel, reunited, by her conversion, to her husband, and advanced to the high prerogative of the mother church of Christendom: and the kings' daughters are the churches which had been gathered out of the Gentiles, in the interval between the expulsion of this wife, and the taking of her home again, that is, between the dispersion of the Jews by the Romans, and their restoration. The restoration of the Hebrew church to the rights of a wife, to the situation of the queen consort in Messiah's kingdom upon earth, is the constant strain of prophecy. To prove this, by citing all the passages to that purpose, would be to transcribe whole chapters of some of the prophets, and innumerable detached passages from almost all. In addition to those which I have already cited, in my former Discourses upon this subject, I shall produce

only the latter part of the second chapter of Hosea. In that chapter, Jehovah, after discarding the incontinent wife, and threatening terrible severity of punishment, adds, that nevertheless the time should come, when she should again address her offended lord by the endearing name of husband." And I will betroth thee to myself for ever. Yes; I will betroth thee to myself, with justice, and with righteousness, and with exuberant kindness, and with tender love. Yes; with faithfulness, to myself I will betroth thee." These promises are made to the woman that had been discarded, and cannot be understood of mercies to be extended to any other. The prophet Isaiah speaks to the same effect, and describes the Gentile converts as becoming, upon the reunion, children of the pardoned wife. And I must not omit to mention, that St. Paul, in his Epistle to the Romans, to clear up the mystery of God's dealing with the Jews, tells us, that "blindness is, in part only, happened unto Israel, till the time shall arrive for the fulness of the Gentiles to come in; and then all Israel shall be saved; for the gifts and calling of God are without repentance." To expound these predictions of the ancient prophets, and this declaration of the apostle, of any thing but the restoration of the natural Israel, is to introduce ambiguity and equivocation into the plainest oracles of God.

The standard gold upon the queen's robe, denotes the treasures of which the church is the depositary, the written word, and the dispensation of grace and forgiveness of sins, by the due administration of the sacraments.

The Psalmist, beholding the queen in her costly robes, on the king's right hand, interrupts the progress of his description with a word of momentous advice addressed to her:

"Hearken, O daughter! and consider;
Incline thine ear, and forget

Thine own people, and thy father's house;

So shall the King set his heart upon thy beauty.
Truly he is thy Lord! therefore worship thou him."

If a princess from a distant land, taken in marriage by a great king, were admonished to forget her own people and her father's house, the purport of the advice would easily be understood to be, that she should divest herself of all attachment to the customs of her native country, and to the style of her father's court, and learn to speak the language, and assume the dress, the manners, and the taste of her husband's people. The "father's house," and "own people," which the Psalmist advises the queen consort to forget, is the ancient Jewish religion in its external form, the ceremonies of the temple service, the sacrifices and the typical purgations of the Levitical priesthood. Not that she is to forget God's gracious promises to Abraham, nor the covenant with her forefathers (the benefit of which she will enjoy to the very end of time), nor the many wonderful deliverances that were wrought for them: nor is she to forget the history of her nation, preserved in the Scriptures of the Old Testament; nor the predictions of Moses and her prophets, the full accomplishment of which she will at this time experience; and historically, she is never to forget even the ceremonial law; for the Levitical rites were nothing less than the gospel itself in hieroglyphics; and, rightly understood, they afford the most complete demonstration of the coherence of revelation with itself, in all its different stages, and the best evidence of its truth; showing that it has been the same in substance in all ages, differing only in external form, in the rites of worship, and in the manner of teaching. But, practically, the rites of their ancient worship are to be forgotten, that is, laid aside; for they never were of any other importance than in reference to the gospel, as the shadow is of no value but as it resembles the substance. Practically, therefore, the restored Hebrew church is to abandon her ancient Jewish rites, and become mere and pure Christian; and thus she will secure the conjugal affections of her husband, and render the beauty of her person perfect in his eyes. And this she is bound to do; for her royal husband is indeed her Lord:

Moses was no more than his servant; the prophets after Moses, servants in a lower rank than he. But the authority of Christ the husband is paramount over all; he is entitled to her unreserved obedience; he is indeed herGod, entitled to her adoration,

This submission of the consort to her wedded lord will set her high in the esteem of the churches of the Gentiles.

"See the daughter of Tyre, with a gift;

The wealthiest of the people shall entreat thy favour."

The "daughter of Tyre," according to the principles of interpretation we have laid down, must be a church established, either literally at Tyre, or in some country held forth under the image of Tyre. Ancient Tyre was famous for her commerce, her wealth, her excellence in the fine arts, her luxury, the profligate debauched manners of her people, and the grossness of her idolatry. The "daughter of Tyre" appearing before the queen consort "with a gift," is a figurative prediction, that churches will be established, under the protection of the government, in countries which had been distinguished for profligacy, dissipated manners, and irreligion. It is intimated in the next line, that some of these churches will be rich; that is, rich in spiritual riches, which are the only riches of a church, in the mystic language of prophecy,-rich in the holy lives of their members, in the truth of their creeds, and the purity of their external forms of worship, and in God's favour. But notwithstanding this wealth of their own, these churches will pay willing homage to the royal consort, their eldest sister, the metropolitical church of Jerusalem.

From this address to the queen, the Psalmist, in the thirteenth verse, returns to the description of the great scene lying in vision before him.

"The King's daughter is all glorious within."

In this line, the same person that has hitherto been represented as the King's wife seems to be called his daughter. · This, however, is a matter upon which commentators