with some enlargement and explanation, as the fundamental principle of the interpretation I am about to give, the observation with which I closed my last discourse, —namely, that the war in which the psalmist represents the Saviour as engaged, is very different from the wars which the princes of this world wage with one another: it is not for the destruction of the lives of men, but for the preservation of their souls. It may happen indeed, -it has happened heretofore,-in our own times it has happened, and it will inevitably happen again, that the struggles of Christianity, with the adverse faction, may kindle actual war between the secular powers, taking part on one side or on the other. This our Lord himself foretold. "Suppose ye," he said, "that I am come to give peace on earth? I came not to send peace, but a sword." Such wars are, on the one side, no less holy, just, and good, than, on the other, they are wicked and impious; for when the antichristian powers attack religious establishments by the sword, by the sword they may and must be defended. It is the mere cant of puritanism to allege the precept of mutual forgiveness, the prohibitions of returning evil for evil, and of resisting persecution, as reprobating such wars. All those injunctions relate to the conduct of individuals with respect to one another, or with respect to the government of which they are subjects. The individual is to be ready at all times to forgive his personal enemies: he is not to indulge a spirit of revenge in the retaliation of private injuries; and least of all is he to resist by force even the injustice, as affecting himself, of his lawful sovereign. But when Antichrist arms his powers for the persecution of the faithful and the extinction of the faith, if Christian princes arm their powers to oppose him, their war is godly, and their cause is blessed. These wars, however, are not within the purview of this prophecy, as the sequel of my discourse will show. This prophetic text

of the psalmist relates only to that spiritual war which Christ wages with the enemies of man, for man's deliverance, to the war arising from that enmity which was originally put between the seed of the serpent and the woman's seed.

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The offensive weapons in this war of charity, according to the psalmist, are of two sorts,-a sword, and arrows.

The common military sword is a heavy massive weapon, for close engagement: wielded by a strong and skilful arm, it stabs and cuts, opens dreadful gashes where it falls, severs limbs, lops the head, or cleaves the body.

The arrow is a light missile weapon, which, in ancient times, was used to annoy the enemy at a distance, and particularly when put to flight. It comes whizzing through the air unseen; and, when it hits, so small is the wound, and so swift the passage of the weapon, that it is scarcely felt, till it fixes its sharp point in the very heart.

Now both these weapons, the sword and the arrow, are emblems of one and the same thing; which is no other than the word of God, in its different effects, and different manners of operation on the minds of men, represented under these two different images.

The word of God may be divided, indeed, into two parts, the word of reproof, commination, and terror; and the word of persuasion, promise, and hope. The former holds up to the sinner the picture of himself,→ sets forth the turpitude of sin-the holiness of GodGod's hatred of unrighteousness,-and alarms the conscience with the danger of a state of enmity with God, and with denunciations of implacable wrath and endless punishment.

The second, the word of persuasion, promise, and hope, sets before the penitent the riches of God's mercy,

displayed in the scheme of man's redemption,-points to the cross, where man's guilt was expiated,-bids the contrite sinner rely on the Redeemer's intercession,offers the daily supply of grace to confirm him in his resolutions, and assist him in his efforts to conform himself to the precepts and example of the Saviour,—and promises victory and glory to them that persevere : thus turning despondency into hope, and fear into love.

The first, the word of terror, is the sword girt upon Messiah's thigh; the second, the word of persuasion, is the arrow shot from his bow.

For the sense of the first metaphor, we have the authority of the sacred writers themselves. "The sword of the spirit," says St. Paul to the Ephesians, "is the word of God." And in the epistle to the Hebrews, the full signification of the figure is opened, and the propriety of the application shown: "For the word of God," says the inspired author, "is quick and powerful (rather, lively and energetic), and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing to the parting of soul and spirit, and to the joints and marrow;"-that is, as the soldier's sword of steel cuts through all the exterior integuments of skin and muscle, to the bone, and even through the hard substance of the bone itself, to the very marrow, and divides the ligaments which keep the joints of the body together; so this spiritual sword of God's awful word penetrates the inmost recesses of the human mind -pierces to the very line of separation, as it were, of the sensitive and the intelligent principle-lops off the animal part-divides the joints where reason and passion are united-sets the intellect free to exert its powerskills sin in our members-opens passages for grace to enter and enrich the marrow of the soul, and thus delivers the man from his body of death.

Such are the effects for which the powerful word of terror is compared to a two-edged sword.

The comparison of the word of promise to the arrow is more easily understood; being more familiar, and analogous to those figures of speech which run through all languages, by which, whatever makes a quick and smart impression on the moral feelings, is represented under the image of a pointed missile weapon,—as when we speak of " the thrilling darts of harmony," or "the shafts of eloquence." The psalmist speaks of these arrows of God's word, as sticking in "the hearts of the King's enemies,”—that is, of the enemies of the King Messiah; for he, you will remember, is the only king in question. His enemies, in the highest sense of the word, are those who are avowedly leagued with the apostate faction,―atheists, deists, idolaters, heretics, perverse disputers,-those who, in any manner, of set design oppose the gospel-who resist the truth by argument, or encounter it with ridicule-who explain it away by sophisticated interpretations, or endeavour to crush it by the force of persecution. Of such hardened enemies there is no hope, till they have been hacked and hewed, belaboured, and all but slain (in the strong language of one of the ancient prophets), by the heavy sword of the word of terror. But, in a lower sense, all are enemies till they hear of Christ, and the terms of his peace are offered to them. Many such are wrought upon by mild admonition, and receive in their hearts the arrows of the word of persuasion. Such, no doubt, were many of those Jews who were pricked to the heart, by St. Peter's first sermon, on the day of Pentecost: and even those worse enemies, if they can be brought to their feeling by the ghastly wounds and gashes of the terrific sword of the word of threatening, may afterwards be pierced by the arrow, and carry about in their hearts. its barbed point. And, by the joint effect of these two weapons, the sword and the arrow, the word of terror and the word of persuasion, "peoples," says the psalmist,--

"shall

that is, whole kingdoms and nations in a mass, fall under thee,"-shall forsake their ancient superstitions, renounce their idols, and submit themselves to Christ.

So much for the offensive weapons, the sword and the arrows. But the defensive armour demands our attention; for it has its use, no doubt, in the Messiah's war. His person, you will remember, is clad, in the third verse, "with refulgent dazzling armour." This may be understood of whatever is admirable and amiable in the external form and appearance of the Christian religion. First, the character of Jesus himself; his piety towards God-his philanthropy towards man—his meekness, humility, ready forgiveness of injuries, patient endurance of pain and death. Secondly, the same light of good works shining, in a less degree, in the lives of his disciples, particularly the apostles and blessed martyrs. Thirdly, whatever is decent and seemly in the government, the discipline, and the rites of the church. All these things, as they tend to draw the admiration and conciliate the good will of men, and mitigate the malice of the persecutor, are aptly represented under the image of the Messiah's defensive armour, and had a principal share in the effect of making "peoples fall under him."

It yet remains to be explained, what is meant, in the psalmist's detail of the Messiah's war, by those " wonders" which "his own right hand was to show him:

"Thy own right hand shall show thee wonders." Our public translation has it "terrible things." But the notion of terror is not of necessity included in the sense of the original word, as it is used by the sacred writers: it is sometimes, indeed, applied by them to frightful things; but it is also applied, with great latitude, to things extraordinary in their kind-grand, admirable, amazing, awful, although they should not be frightful. We