save them."* His contest was with the Archenemy, the champion of Sin; and he came into the world neither to execute judgment on the sinner in life, nor with weapons adapted for any other conflict than with Satan. Thus too David takes off the head of his adversary, as Christ-the true Leader of the Church-in fulfilment of the prophecy, "bruises the head" of Satan ;-" that all the earth may know, that there is a God in Israel." And thus again in the promise which was made to the victor, the terms are of admirable coincidence in the type and its accomplishment. "The man who killeth him, the king will enrich him with great riches, and will give him his daughter, and make his father's house free in Israel." And Christ in his exaltation was greatly enriched by the King of Heaven; and received in marriage the king's daughter-the Church of Christ; and has given freedom, not only to Israel, but to all nations under the canopy of Heaven.

And thus it speaks home-and most impressively to ourselves. We are of those nations to whom freedom has been given by the victory of the spiritual David. Sunk in barbarism and idolatry;-aliens to God;-slaves through sin, under the tyranny of the Evil One; unnamed and unknown for centuries after the battle of the valley of Elah,- we are of those whom the triumph of Christ has made "free of his father's house in Israel." The gifts which God of old gave eminently to David, as the follower of Jesus, he has given equally to us. The strength in which David stood in his contest with the Defier;in the plenitude of his mercy God has freely en

* Luke ix. 56.

dowed us. What David was to Israel, as the asserter of her rights, and the sustainer of her faith, that is every Christian soul amongst us, as the life and the vigor of God's Church. We have the power by the inspired influence of God,-who giveth to all who seek, abundantly,-to be with David full of heroism and courage. God forbid, that we should lack the will, at the least to seek an equality with him in the fidelity, zeal, and virtues of his soul.

The life of David amongst other resemblances to former histories which have been examined—that of Joseph for instance-possesses this very remarkable one; that having, in the commencement of his career, given a rough draught, as it were, of the scheme of Redemption, it repeats at intervals several truths in a more enlarged form, though without regular sequence, and perfectly unconnected. It is under this idea that I would counsel the reader to study the remaining acts of his history both in those dependant on the determined hostility of Saul towards him, in his former quality as a type of the world, such as he appeared in the war of Amalek; -and in those which took place, after the death of that monarch, when, long the anointed, he became at last the actual King of Israel. The persevering hatred of Saul; his repeated attempts on his life;the avidity which he displayed for his destruction, come forth with great splendour, when tested by this principle. We perceive the beauty of the parallel in a thousand instances. And the conduct of David at that period, opposing, - vanquishing, gaining the complete power over that monarch,-holding his life repeatedly at his mercy, and yet using only

the arms of reason, not of force or violence against him;-appealing to his mind and feelings, instead of crushing him at once by his superior power; - suffering him still to exist, although perfect master of his every movement; this conduct, from its entire spiritual conformity with that of Christ in regard to the fallen world, conveys a lesson to the mind, from the study of which it will reap some of the choicest fruits of Scriptural instruction. And in many of the later passages of his life, when God had invested him with the sovereignty of the world, the deeds, and sufferings, and exaltation of David will never appear in such glorious dignity as when rehearsing, in secret cypher, in enacted prediction - the corresponding scenes in the life of Jesus. Driven from his kingdom by the conspiracy of his own blood, I can never regard David with so deep an interest in his exile, as when I see in him Christ banished from the throne given him by his Father, by the men of his own nation, his kinsmen of the flesh. I never follow him up "the Mount" laden with the curses of his people, without sympathizing with him in a far higher and holier feeling, because I see in the indignities and the violence which he endured, the dreadful sufferings of Christ in his ascent of Mount Calvary, followed by furious multitudes at once bearing their sins and overwhelmed with their reproaches. Nor do I ever accompany him on his return to his kingdom, hailed with acclamations, and exalted to the pinnacle of greatness, and might and glory, with so joyous and gratified a sensation, as when I see in the distance the spiritual return of Jesus to his monarchy of the world; when the

minds of men shall coalesce in one faith, and one hope, and one desire - when they shall be "of one speech and one language," and every voice and soul shall look to Jesus as their King, and hail him their Ruler; - their Redeemer and their God!

With the same motive, would I urge the subjection of the greater portion of the acts of the subsequent kings of Judah and of Israel, to a similar process of interpretation. There are few which will not endure the trial; and those, as in many of the acts of David, may easily be separated by an ordinary exercise of judgment. Many we omit, in that they are almost a repetition of matters which have already been reviewed; and many, because by descending so much into details and points of a less bold and striking character, we might seem to weaken those which stand out in such pre-eminence. Thus the revolt of the ten tribes, under the evil and idolatrous Jeroboam, from the tribe of Judah-the chosen of God; the possessor of the Holy Temple, figures the rebellion of the world, in its formidable array of passions, superstitions and violence, against God. It is the revolt of the human will against the heart that remains firm in its faith and its allegiance to God. Thus too the position of Elijah in regard to Ahab; his denouncements of his worldliness and iniquities; his judgment on Baal in the person of his Priests; his prediction of the king's destruction and the forfeiture of the crown from his posterity; in the principle of these things Samuel and Saul live again in Elijah and Ahab; and the secret truths which have been drawn from the one, would be found in an enlarged-and ramified form, in the acts

of the other. In principle the characters are most · strictly the same;-changed in name, but possessing the same properties, and leading to the same results. The judgment, indeed, of Elijah on the Priests of Baal stands out in singular prominence and clearness; the application of which cannot well be mistaken. Israel was halting between two opinions ;-a state of spiritual inactivity; and the question was to be decided before them whether the Lord or Baal should be God. Ahab the figure of the carnal Will and Nature had openly reared an altar to Baal. The Divine Will was dormant in himself and in the greater part of his subjects; and hence the heavens were as brass; the rain descended not to refresh the earth. The dew of God's blessing was restrained; and a sore spiritual famine prevailed over the land. The prophet repairing the broken altar is an easy figure of Christ repairing the divided will of the human heart; - of which the altar was a type; the heart which Baal- the God of the carnal nature-had strewed in fragments and confusion. This victory gained by the Divine Fire of the Lord--is the victory which Christ gained by the Holy Spirit over the senses. And the destruction of the Priests of Baal-the fearful judgment of Christ over unbelievers and the workers of iniquity and sin.

In the captivity also of the two nations the same facts are observable, and an identity of principle clearly to be deduced; and this not only in that greater bondage which destroyed for the time their whole political existence; but in those lesser defeats by which the Heathen monarchs reduced them