all promises made to David, that all power given to him, and all acts wrought of God in him or by him, came from the root of Christ, and were for the end of representing that which in Christ should yet be fulfilled. I confess, if this be not contained in it, I know not wherefore it is used: if it merely mean that he is God, and, as God, is the cause of all things, it might as well be said, root of any other man. In such vague generality all power of interpretation vanisheth: but understanding it in the true and literal force of the words, interpreted by sound reason, I see both a greater meaning and a most beautiful appropriateness in the use of the name "The Root of David.” So very exact is the correspondence between Christ and David, that he is not unfrequently denominated simply by the name of David, without even the hint of a similitude or analogy. Of this these are undoubted instances: Jer. xxx. 9: Ezek. xxxiv. 23, 24; xxxvii. 24, 25: Hos. iii. 5. And that it is not David himself, in his resurrection dignity and power, is sufficiently shewn by this, that it is promised to the Virgin's Son, both in the prophecy of Emanuel (Isa. ix. 7), and in the salutation to the Virgin (Luke i. 32), "that he shall sit upon the throne of his father David." So, also, that promise (Isa. lv. 3), “I will give him the sure mercies of David," which is applied by the Apostle to the resurrection of Christ (Acts xiii. 34), doth evidently shew that the covenant made with David was for Christ, as truly as that with Abraham was for the seed. Let any one study the lxxxix th Psalm, and deny, if he can, that a greater than David is there, to whom the name of God's first-born is applied, and who shall say unto God, "Thou art my Father." The xviiith Psalm was sung by David, when he had received the victory over all his enemies, and was at rest: but who that reads it doth not perceive that no one but Messiah is there spoken of, who is made the Head of the heathen. Our Lord declares that David speaks IN SPIRIT concerning Christ, in the cxth Psalm, and so doth he speak in all the rest. These Psalms, which we sing, are not of the exploits of the king David that was, but of the King David that is to be, our King and our Lord. The name, David, signifies "beloved;" and thus God names his Son, "This is my beloved Son;" which in the Hebrew would have been," This is David

my Son." And, again, the Apostle Paul, speaking of the elect, saith that they are accepted in "the beloved one: in whom we have obtained an inheritance." Nothing doubting, therefore, that by "the Root of David” is signified Christ the supporter and informer of David; David's Adonai, or Lord, or base, we now proceed to examine the propriety of David's office and action, to which the Holy Spirit assuredly directeth our attention by this name, "the Root of David."

Now in studying the Psalms of David, which by the Holy Ghost are applied to Christ, I find that the name of Christ, or Anointed, is most frequently used in common of David and of our Lord (Psa. ii. 2 and 6 ; lxxxix. 38; xlv. 7; xx. 6). These are a few instances amongst many whereby the Spirit declareth that the unction of David was a great type, in truth the type of the unction of Christ. Now, behold how, for the end of anointing David, Samuel was given to Hannah, a barren woman, as John was given to Elizabeth for the baptism of Christ. Observe, also, how David being anointed king, and having slain Goliath of Gath, whereby he purchased for himself a wife, was fain to flee and hide himself in desert places; so Christ being anointed of the Baptist, and by God avowed to be his Son, David the Beloved, and having by his death and resurrection destroyed the devil, and upon his cross made an open exposure of the principalities of evil, and thereby purchased to himself the election for his wife, disappears for a season and hides himself from this earth, the seat of his throne, and the territory of his kingdom. Now all those Psalms which are indited of King David and his afflictions, of his persecutors, of his confidence in God under all trials, and of his assured faith to be brought unto his kingdom, are proper to, and were indeed in spirit spoken of, Christ suffering from the time of his anointing by the Holy Ghost, in the baptism of John, unto this day, either in himself personally, or in the members of his body, which are as truly one with himself, as he is one with the Father. I am able to use all those songs, both in my family and in the church, with the greatest delight, entering into the fellowship of my Lord's sufferings, and praying for him, and for all his saints that we may soon come unto our kingdom, and ever expressing

[LECT. assured confidence thereof. Meanwhile upon the throne, to which he was anointed, sat no usurper, but one lawfully anointed of God, who had his appointed time to accomplish, to whom David ever deferreth; against whom, though fain to defend his life by every shift, he will lift no weapon, and suffer none to be lifted up, signifying the subjection. into which we are brought to the power which persecutes us, before which we may be hunted like the partridge on the mountains, but in our utmost extremities ought to lift no sword against it. Yet have we the unction of kings in our baptism by the Holy Ghost, as he had in his; and every member of Christ is, during this life, the antitype of David anointed but not instated in his kingdom; of David, a king, but a king unseen and unknown, wandering in various disguises, and hidden in secret recesses, and removed from the knowledge of men. And though, by the violent frenzy and ignorant mistakes of throned power, it should fare with us as hardly as it fared with him, when he said unto Jonathan, "As the Lord liveth, there is but a step between me and death;" still is it our duty to flee, and not to fight; to endure hardship in the wilderness, to become the tenants of the rock, to dwell in the tents of Mesech and of Kedar, to be transformed into fools before the king of Gath; yea, to be hunted like the partridge on the mountains, and like the pelican to dwell alone in the desert; but at no rate and on no account to lift hand against the powers anointed and ordained of God. And if, as oft it will chance, our persecutor all asleep, and off his guard, should be brought within sword's length, not to lift our sword against him, because he is the anointed of the Lord. And though some of our company should say, as Burleigh said of Sharp, "The Lord hath delivered him into our band;" or as Abishai said to David, "God hath delivered thine enemy into thine hand this day: now, therefore, let me smite him, I pray thee, with the spear even to the earth at once, and I will not smite him the second time" (1 Sam. xxvi. 8); it is our part to hold his hand, and say as David said, "Destroy him not: for who can stretch forth his hand against the Lord's anointed, and be guiltless? David said furthermore, As the Lord liveth, the Lord shall smite him; or his day shall come to die; or he shall descend into battle, and perish. The Lord forbid that I

should stretch forth mine hand against the Lord's anointed.” (ver. 9—11.)

It is not for nothing, my brethren, that David's conduct in the wilderness of Ziph, and the cave of Adullam, is written and recorded by God's Spirit. I would have given the heritage of my father, ten times told, that our Scottish Covenanters had understood this part of Scripture aright. And I do commend it especially to the perusal and obedience of those in the church, who understand and believe the doctrine of the personal reign and true kingdom of Christ upon this earth; for is it not written to instruct the church how she should behave herself during the interval, the little while,-between her anointing and her installation? This will guard us against all fifth-monarchy violences and all covenanting resistances. From this period, during which David was a banished man, though an anointed king, let us now pass onward to the acts occurrent upon his reappearance in the habitable regions of his kingdom. It was not until Saul, his persecutor, had been brought low by the hand of the Lord, that David, at the command of the Lord, went up unto Hebron, and was crowned king, over Judah, in Hebron; and then, for the first time since his exile, set his eyes upon Michal, his spouse, of royal descent; and, after a space of time, he was crowned over the tribes of Israel also, and straightway went up from Hebron and possessed himself of Zion, the strong hold of Jerusalem, which, until now, the Jebusites had retained in their hand. Then came against him the Philistines, whom once and again he smote, not without God's miraculous help, in Baal Perazim. This done, he bringeth up the ark unto Jerusalem, and strengthens his heart to build a house wherein God may dwell for ever. Then smote he

and subdued the Philistines anew, and Moab, and the king of Zobah, and the Syrians, and the children of Ammon, and Amalek, and Edom; and the Lord preserved David wherever he went. And when the Lord had thus delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies, and out of the hand of Saul, he sung that song which is contained in the xviiith Psalm; a Psalm inspired on very purpose to shew that there was a mystery in these the actions of David, and to explain what that mystery is. I have now

before me that Psalm, both as it is written in the Second Book of Samuel, and in the Psalms; and, if I understand any thing of Scripture, this is, in brief, the substance of the thanksgiving.

Distress the deepest is described in the first six verses; such distress as our Lord is wont to apply unto himself, and as the church, which is set for the fellowship of Christ's sufferings, ought to apply unto herself. In this anguish of her heart, and crisis of her affairs, she crieth unto God, who heareth her out of his temple (ver. 7), and what follows? (vers. 8-17), any deliverance kindred to what David had? No. Any deliverance kindred to what Christ had? No. Any deliverance kindred to what the church hath had to this day? No. What then? the glorious appearance of our great God and Saviour shaking the foundations of the earth, and laying bare the pillars thereof. If any one say that these verses are a figurative description of any thing recorded in David's history or the history of the church, I say that he is a treacherous dealer with the word of God, and shall be least in the kingdom of heaven. If these nine verses contain not the coming of the Lord to redeem and deliver his church, then I deny that that event is contained in the Scriptures at all. Base interpreters, false interpreters, ye make void the word of God by your tradition. Being assured, therefore, that these verses contain nothing less than the appearance of our Lord, for the avenging and delivering of his people from hell's hand, and the snares of death, and the floods of the ungodly, what shall we say of the preceding distress? That it is the distress of David alone, or of Christ alone? nay, verily ; but of David and of Christ, and of all the church, until she reach her darkest hour, the hour that's nearest to the dawn; for what otherwise were the meaning of presenting the deliverance which she is hereafter to receive at the coming of the Lord, if so be that the distress reacheth not up to that event? And thus come we to the certain knowledge that David's distress and exile are, by the Spirit of God, applied to the whole church onward until the coming of the Lord. Then follows from the 17th to the 29th verse, the deliverance which David, representing the afflicted, and exiled, and persecuted church, receives by the appearing