ousness, and thy salvation all the day; for I know not the numbers thereof. I will go in the strength of the Lord God; I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of thine only," Ps. lxxi. 15, 16.

I often admire the expression of strong faith and stability which these men of old so frequently uttered; they seemed to possess a holy familiarity and communion with God in a most eminent degree-"Surely," said one," in the Lord have I righteousness and strength. In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory," Isa. xlv. 24, 25.

In Christ the whole of our righteousness and strength centres : he is the one glorious Alpha and Omega of the church above, and the church below; and to him the whole election of grace are all equally dear, and by him equally beloved. We, as well as those who are gone before, have an undoubted right to receive out of his fulness, whatever our wants may require; and it is in proportion as we are enabled to do this, that the Lord pours out of his abundant fulness for our every need. We are often either lifted up, or ready to hang our harps on the willows; but it is impossible that we can be cast down, sorrowful, or distressed, while we are receiving out of the fountain of the grace of life.

The last words of dying men are generally listened to with great attention, and especially at the death of saints; their expressions are caught with great eagerness by their brethren in the Lord and well they may be, for they are often peculiary interesting and important. Hence it is, that the last words of the patriarch Jacob, of Moses also, and others, who were eminent for their great faith and spirituality, are most minutely handed down to the whole church.

My text is a part of the last words of the dying patriarch David. If you turn to your bibles, you will see how they are introduced; and may the Lord give you a clear apprehension of their true spiritual meaning, and why it was that the Holy Ghost put them into the mouth of his servant.

"Now these be the last words of David; David the son of Jesse:" observe his humility, in calling himself, now, when most exalted, the son of the poor man Jesse; and which is in strict accordance with the same humble opinion that he had of himself when he married Michael, Saul's daughter-" Seemeth it" said he, "to you a light thing to be a king's son-in-law, seeing that I am a poor man, and lightly esteemed "1 Sam. xviii. 23.

David was not ashamed of his origin and birth, and he found it good even in this sense to look to the hole of the pit whence he was digged. Indeed he need not have been ashamed since he was hewn from so noble a rock as Christ. "Hearken to me," saith the Lord, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord look unto the rock from whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged. Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you; for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him. For the Lord shall comfort Zion, he will

comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord; for joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving and the voice of melody," Isa. li. 1-3. These are the promises which God has made to the humble, the poor in spirit, and the broken-hearted, of which number, the great king David was a striking example. "These be the last words of David. David the son of Jesse said, and the man who was raised up on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob, and the sweet Psalmist of Israel." Thus he looks back to the time when the Lord called him, and raised him to his exalted sphere, and by sovereign grace made him appear most amiable in the eyes of all the spiritual people of Israel. David, therefore, could only glory in the Lord; he was the substance of all his rejoicings, of all his confidence, and all his happiness. He well knew that in his flesh, or by nature, he remained exactly the same as he was born; and this is true of us all, for our Adam-state is not altered for the better even by regeneration. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh :" it is not at all better after regeneration than it was before. By regeneration we become new creatures in Christ Jesus; but this is not effected by any power of our own, nor for any merit or good quality found in us; we are as passive in the Lord's hands in our new birth, as ever we shall be in the resurrection of our bodies. Indeed it requires the exercise of the same power to accomplish the one as the other; it is the same Spirit which raised up Christ from the dead, and which dwelleth in us, by which we are made partakers of the new birth. "If the Spirit of him that raised up Christ from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead, shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you," Rom. viii. 11.

And that our bodies, our corporeal existences, never experience a change in this life, is further illustrated by the appellation which Paul gives them of vile. "The Lord Jesus Christ," said he, "shall change our vile bodies," Phil. iii. 21. The body therefore undergoes no change this side the grave.

Whatever of good we inherit is altogether of God; "every good and every perfect gift cometh down from above." This is declared as with one voice throughout the scripture-so in that remarkable chapter, Ezek. xvi., where the church is set forth as a destitute and forsaken infant; no sooner born, than it was cast out into the open field, and there left to perish. But, saith the Lord, "When I passed by and saw thee polluted in thine own blood,I said unto thee, when thou wast in thy blood, Live; yea, (he adds) I said unto thee, when thou wast in thy blood, Live! Behold, thy time was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over thee: and covered thy nakedness: yea, I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, and thou becamest mine. Then washed I thee with water; yea, I throughly washed away thy blood from thee, and I anointed thee with oil. I clothed thee also with broidered work, and shod thee

with badgers' skins; and I girded thee about with fine linen, and I girded thee with silk. I decked thee also with ornaments, I put bracelets upon thine hands, and a chain upon thy neck; and I put a jewel on thy forehead, and earrings in thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon thy head. Thus wast thou decked with gold and silver, and thy raiment was of fine linen, and silk, and broidered work; thou didst eat fine flour, and honey, and oil: and thou wast exceeding beautiful, and thou didst prosper into a kingdom. And thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty: for it was perfect through my comeliness, which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord God."

For

Then

After this the church is represented as lapsing into numerous abominations and whoredoms; but what does the Lord say? "Thou hast borne thy lewdness and thy abominations, saith the Lord. thus saith the Lord God, I will even deal with thee as thou hast done, which has despised the oath in breaking the covenant. Nevertheless I will remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth, and I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant. thou shalt remember thy ways, and be ashamed, when thou shalt receive thy sisters, thine elder and thy younger and I will give them unto thee for daughters, but not by thy covenant. And I will establish my covenant with thee, and thou shalt know that I am the Lord; that thou mayest remember, and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame, when I am pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord God."

Now what can be more plain than this? In our dying moments, therefore, we may well remember all the way which the Lord our God has led us and David, thinking of this, sings his last song of triumph. "Now these be the last words of David. David the son of Jesse said, and the man who was raised up on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob, and the sweet Psalmist of Israel said, The Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and his word was in my tongue. The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spake to me, He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God. And he shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds."

Who is this mighty One that ruleth over men? He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God; and he shall be as the light of the morning to his people. Who is this but our most glorious Christ, concerning whom I am to speak to you this morning! And in proceeding to do this, I shall first of all beg your attention to the foundation of our salvation and of all true religion, the Holy Three in One that bear record in heaven. We shall then come to speak more particularly of this our most precious Lord Jesus, which is the subject I had most in view when I first entered the pulpit; and this will lead us to observe that all the poverty of the children of God is in consequence of their ignorance of his person and it may be that the Lord will give some a clearer apprehension of his glory than they have ever had before; so that they may be enabled to view him

as "the light of the morning when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds." Oh that this subject were proclaimed throughout every spot of the earth where the Lord's people are scattered! for. then would the redeemed of the Lord lose sight of all they are the objects and the subjects of, and be absorbed and swallowed up in the lustre of their covenant head.

First. We here find God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, the subject of this last song of David. "The Spirit of the Lord," (God the Holy Ghost) said he, "spake by me, and his word was in my tongue." And then David goes on to speak of God the Father by the glorious name of the God of Israel," and then of God the Son by that of the "Rock of Israel."

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The God of Israel is the peculiar and distinguishing title of the Father throughout the bible; and our dear Lord is emphatically called the Rock that followed the people of Israel" They drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ." I Cor. x. 4. This blessed Rock here speaks, as it were, in the third person. "The Rock of Israel spake to me," saith David. "He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God." "He shall be as the light of the morning when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds." Thus David, when on the eve of dying, found all the three persons in the Godhead present to his mind, and proclaimed his faith in the same to the whole church. It was also equally precious to Moses immediately preceding his dying moments, to sing of that God that had borne him and all his immense charge as on eagle's wings; and such was his sense of that glorious power, love, and grace, that he at last burst out as if unable to contain himself" There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun, who rideth upon the heaven in thy help, and in his excellency on the sky. The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms," Deut. xxxiii. 26, 27. And then adds, "Happy art thou, O Israel: who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord, the shield of thy help, and who is the sword of thy excellency! and thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee, and thou shalt tread upon thy high places," Deut. xxxiii. 29.

Oh my brother, in the awful days in which we live, when the judgments of God are going to and fro in the earth, and while amidst the afflicting circumstances of a dying world, through which we are hastening to our eternal mansions, swifter by far than the race of the fleetest colt that runs towards the goal, what can support us, what foundation have we to rest upon, what basis is sufficient to bear up our spirits, but the holy Trinity? But having this for the ground and bottom of our most holy faith, we shall not fear death any more than they did who are gone before, and who are now sitting down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; yea, with Father, Son, and Spirit in the kingdom of heaven.

I love to take the bible in my hand, and run, as it were, into eternity to see how the Holy Three in One in the council of peace

entered into covenant; and to regard the covenant transactions of the eternal God, in his Trinity of Persons, planning, settling, and establishing a suitable way of bringing poor sinners out of the Adamfall transgression, into union and communion with himself. "I will sing (said Ethan, the writer of the 89th Psalm) of the mercies of the Lord for ever with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations. For I have said, mercy shall be built up for ever, thy faithfulness shalt thou establish in the very heavens." Why so? Because, saith the Lord, "I have made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn unto David my servant, (that is, the great antitype of David, our most glorious Lord Jesus), thy seed will I establish for ever, and build up thy throne to all generations." Verses 1, 2, 3, 4. The same subject runs all through the psalm. At verse 20 Christ is again called by the name of David "I have found David my servant;" and at the 28th and 29th verses it is said, "My mercy will I keep for him for evermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him, his seed also will I make to endure for ever, and his throne as the days of heaven." And again, "Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David; his seed shall endure for ever, and hi; throne as the sun before me." Verses 34-36. Here we find the Father speaking to the Son, establishing and confirming the covenant of grace and redemption on behalf of the people of God; the benefits of which are to be made known and applied to each of them severally by the power and influence of the Holy Ghost; according to John xvi. 15. "All things that the Father hath are mine, therefore said I (the Son) he (the Holy Ghost) shall take of mine and shew it unto you." Thus all the persons in Jehovah cooperate and agree in the salvation of the whole church.

This is also seen in the benediction of the priest, which in substance is similar to that of the apostle-"The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all," 2 Cor. xiii. 14. On this wise were Aaron and his sons commanded to bless the children of Israel" The Lord bless thee, and keep thee; the Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee; the Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace," Numb. vi. 24-26. And then it is

added, "They shall put my name upon the children of Israel, and I will bless them." Here we find the name of God, the holy Trinity, according to their covenant engagements, or their respective offices in the economy of redemption, made known to the old testament church.

My second particular leads me to the contemplation of the person of Christ, to his great work, and to his lovely character as the light and glory of his church.

In discoursing on this, our great object should be to know how far we are interested in this great salvation, what apprehensions we have of the subject, what we know of him in his underived essence of