May our God give us grace to chuse that which is good; may he enable us to bow before the rod of his power, and to own his influence here, so may we have communion with him hereafter, where he sitteth at the right hand of the Majesty on High.

SERMON XVII.

Psalm cx. 1.

THE LORD SAID UNTO MY LORD, "SIT THOU ON MY RIGHT HAND, UNTIL I MAKE THINE ENEMIES THY FOOTSTOOL."

WHEN last I was permitted by Providence to address you from this place, I endeavoured to set before you a general view of the occasion, design, and object of this interesting Psalm. Avowing my conviction with the learned Horseley, that the Redeemer can be found in every page of the book of Psalms, by those who read to find him--I stated, that I regarded this one in particular, as exclusively applicable to Christ; that in close connexion with two other sublime, but deeply mysterious poems, it formed what may, perhaps, be termed, by a word well known to all students in Greek Dramatic Literature, a sacred trilogy, and with them completed the awful series of the ascension of the Messiah, and his in

auguration into his mediatorial Kingdom.In this Psalm we are admitted within the portals of Heaven, we hear the Father addressing the triumphant Son in the language of promise and of prophecy-declaring that he had "set him on his holy hill of Sion,” and had "placed all things under his feet;" that his great work had been accomplished-man's redemption completed-his spiritual enemies subdued—and as a Priest and Prophet, intercessor and conqueror, the man Jesus Christ was to be placed for ever at the right hand of God. To this development of his offices, in subordination to the regal, do I conceive this Psalm dedicated, which opens by that exaltation of humanity in the person of the Redeemer, and closes by the cheering view of his influence poured out upon his followers; which commences by the execution of the decree that had been from everlasting, and terminates not until the mediatorial Kingdom has ceased, and "God," the inscrutable triune Jehovah "becomes all in all." I purpose in this discourse to continue the subject, to point out more minutely the bearing and connexion of the different parts of the Psalm, and to shew their coherence and connexion with the whole design. Before proceeding with this review, I would beseech my hearers to bear in mind, the justice of

Bishop Horseley's description of the Psalms of David, that they are "all poems of the lyric kind, that is, adapted to music, but with great variety in the style of composition-some are simply odes; in these the author delivers the whole matter in his own person-but a very great, I believe the far greater part, are a sort of dramatic ode, consisting of dialogues between persons sustaining certain charactersthe persons are frequently the Psalmist himself, or the chorus of Priests and Levites, or the leader of the levitical band-Jehovah sometimes as one, sometimes as another of the three persons, Christ in his incarnate state, sometimes before, sometimes after his resurrection, and the human soul of Christ as distinguished from his divine essence—the part of Jehovah is sometimes supplied by an oracular voice, suddenly breaking out from the Sanctuary."-Such is the opinion of that great critic, whose originality of conception was equalled but by his clearness of diction, and extent of learning; who is almost unequalled for his variety of acquirement, and the manner in which he has dedicated all to the service of the Sanctuary.

I have stated my belief, that the subject of this sacred poem, was the reception of the Son of God in his Father's Kingdom, when