THE CHARACTER OF DAVID.

"THAT such a warm and sublime spirit, so terribly tried, should have given way before the tide of its affections, I wonder not: I rather wonder, that tried by such extremity, such a strong and sublime spirit should not have burst control, and enacted right forward the conqueror, the avenger, and the destroyer. But God, who anointed him from his childhood, had given him store of inspired graces, and preserved him from sinking under the long delay of his promised crown; and kept him from contracting the sulky moods and dispositions of a hunted and persecuted man. Adversity did but bring out the sublimity of his character, which else might have slumbered.

"But to conceive aright of the gracefulness of David's character, you must draw him into comparison with men similarly conditioned; and then you shall see how vain the world is to compeer with him. (I reason as a man, and to men). Conceive a man who had saved his country-the champion of his country-and clothed himself with gracefulness and renown in the sight of all the people; who had by the chivalry of his deeds, won for himself intermarriage with the royal line; who by unction of the Lord's prophet, had been set apart to the throne itself: conceive such an one driven out from house and home, through tedious years deserted of every stay but heaven, with no soothing sympathies of quiet life, harassed for ever between famine and the edge of the sword, and keeping in savage-holds and desert places. Tell me now, in the annals of men, of one so bereaved, so straitened, so hampered, maintaining, not fortitude alone, but sweet composure and heavenly frames of mind; inditing praise to no avenging deity, couching no songs according with his savage and unsocial way of life; but inditing praise to the God of mercy, and songs which soar into the third heaven of vision: not indeed without tender touches of sorrow and complaint for his sorrowful estate-not without prophetic and awful warnings to his blood-thirsty foe, but ever culling in sweet preludes of good to come, an expression of present contentment. Find me a man so exiled, so driven out, and so behaving himself in the annals of man; and 1 yield the argument of this controversy. Men there have been, driven to wander outlaws and exiles, whose musings and whose actions have been recorded in the minstrelsy of our native land. Draw them into comparison with the Psalms of David, and know the spirit they ignorantly blaspheme: contrast the deep desperateness of the one with the rooted trust of the other. Shew me an outlaw who had never spoiled the country which had forsaken him, nor turned his hand in self-defence or revenge against his persecutors; but used the vigour of his arm against the enemies of the country which had forsaken him; yea, lifted up his arm in defence of a mother who had cast off her noblest son, girt with salvation, and who had raised the rest of her family to hunt him down and cut him off. Find me such a repudiated son lifting up his arm and smiting and desolating her enemies, whose spoil he had taken to his cost, not to enrich himself, but to comfort her and her children. Find me among the Coriolani, and the Cromwells, and the Napoleons of the earth, such a man; and I will yield the argument of this controversy, which I maintain for the fearless son of jesse. But I fear not that such another man is to be found in the recorded annals of men. Though he arose from the peasantry to fill the throne, and to

enlarge the borders of his land, he gave himself neither to ambition nor to knowledge: more basely treated than the sons of men, he gave not place to despondency: though the highest genius in poetry, he gave it not licence to sing his own deeds, nor to ennoble any worldly sentiment of the human breast, however virtuous and honourable: but constrained his poetry to sing the praises of God, and the victories of the right hand of the Lord of hosts, and the bounty of his hands, which breed admiration and wonder. And hath he not dressed out religion in such a rich and beautiful garment of divine poesy as well beseemeth her majesty? In which, religion being arrayed, she can stand up before the eyes even of her enemies, in more loyal state and more beautiful vestments, than any personification of love, or glory, or pleasure, to which highly gifted mortal spirits have addressed themselves.

"But the form of his character was vast; the scope of his life was immense, His harp was oft strained, and every angel of joy and sorrow swept the cords as he passed; but the music always breathed of heaven. Such oceans of affection lay within his breast as could not always slumber in the breast of a hundred men, yet here struggled together in the narrow continent of one single heart. And the scornful men of this world, whose life is one offence, whose heart is hard, without any streams of affection, without any noble thoughts, the scornful Pharisees have no sympathy for one so conditioned, because he ruled not with constant quietness the unruly host of adverse natures which dwelt within one soul.

"Of want of self-command you will not accuse the man, who endured Saul's javelin to be so oft launched at him, while the people were without ready to hail him king: that was self-command-was it not? Of want of self-command you will not accuse him, who endured all bodily hardships and taunts of his enemies, and endured against the power of revenge, and ruled his desperate band of outlaws like a company of saints? But that he should not have been able to enact all characters without a fault, the simple shepherd, and conquering hero, and romantic lover, and perfect friend, and innocent outlaw; and the lofty poet, and royal monarch, and the holy prophet, and regenerator of the church, and withal the man of vast soul who played not his part like a stager, by turns, but was the original of them all;-I say, that he should have fulfilled this high priesthood of humanity without an error, were more than human.

"I am not here to defend any of his wicked acts; which he himself hath more keenly scrutinized, declaimed against, and more bitterly lamented, than all his censurers. When of these acts he became convinced, if he be found less true to God and to righteousness, if he be found less disposed to repentance and sorrow and anguish, if he be found less exculpatory of himself, stout-hearted in his courses, or a formalist in his penances, or any way less worthy of a spiritual man in these than in the other of his infinite moods,-then strike him from the canon, let his psalms become monkish teachings, or records of the Inquisition, or any thing else you please. But if these penitential psalms uncover the soul's deepest hell of agony, and lay bare the iron limbs of misery, whereby the very heart dissolveth; and express the same in words which melt the soul, and bow the head even to conceive them: then I say, let us keep these records of the Psalmist's grief and despondency, as the most precious of his utterances; inasmuch as they are sure to be needed in the case of every man who assayeth to live a spiritual life."-REV. EDWARD IRVING

THE SON OF MAN THE SAVIOUR OF THE LOST

REV. W. H. COOPER,

HOXTON ACADEMY CHAPEL, AUGUST 9, 1835.

"For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost. How think ye? If a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray? Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish."-MATTHEW, xviii. 11-14.

We lose much of the beauty of the sacred writings when we do not view them as parts of the passages with which they stand in immediate connexion. For there is not only a beauty and importance in every sentence of the Word of God, but every sentence of the Scriptures, almost, gathers additional beauty and importance from the connexion in which it is to be found. If Scripture be the best interpreter of Scripture; if we find assistance in our attempts at interpreting the Word of God by comparing parallel passages with each other, we shall find important, and often equal assistance, in our endeavours to understand the contents of this inspired volume, by attending to the connexion in which these passages occur. For the connexion in which such things are introduced often serves at once to explain every difficulty, and to interpret matter that may be necessary for the elucidation of that particular passage.

This is the case, for example, with the entire connexion of the words of the text. If we were to pursue it from its commencement, from the time when our Lord took the little child and placed him in the midst of his disciples, and from the remarks which he made immediately upon that occurrence, we should find that one remark follows, and that one remark interprets another, in a beautiful and interesting manner.

But we more particularly wish to confine your attention to the words which we have read to you, connected with each other, as forming a subject for this morning's discourse. The doctrine maintained throughout the verses that have been read to you is one that is often met with objection, by some even of God's people; we apprehend in consequence of that naked, unscriptural form in which it is often presented to their minds, separated from those other truths of the Word of God, in company with which it is continually introduced in Scripture. It is often proposed as a bare subject of controversy, being placed by itself for consideration, instead of being viewed connected with those other doctrines that always lead to it, and tend to interpret its difficulties. We apprehend, that maintaining the connexion in which the words of the text stand, we shall see that they harmonize with the general system of redemption, and that other truths of the Word of God necessarily lead us to

this result. Each of the verses that we have read to you is important and interesting in itself: each of them has been frequently made the subject of separate consideration. Take them as a whole, and we may learn from their combined beauties, and their combined testimony, the nature of that work to which they bear so full and so decided a testimony.

In examining these words we find in them a proof and a statement of the Saviour's work and errand; a figurative illustration of the nature and results of that work and errand; and, finally, the assertion of the great principle of the divine conduct that was herein developed. May the Holy Spirit accompany the attempt we now make, to comment upon this passage of the Word of God, with his abundant and effectual blessing.

We have, then, in these words, in the first place, A PROOF AND STATEMENT OF THE SAVIOUR'S WORK AND ERRAND.

This is expressed in one of those short but comprehensive passages, that frequently occur in the New Testament Scriptures, and which seem designed to sum up the contents of the Gospel in some short but well remembered form of words, that the most treacherous recollection may be able to grasp and to retain: "The Son of man is come to save that which was lost." You at once remember, that the same assertion is made in a variety of passages of Scripture, which strike at once upon your minds, as being parallel to the words of this part of our text. As, for example, "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the chief." And yet all these assertions relate to the same subject, and express it nearly in the same words, and in some short compass. If you examine them you will find an interesting variety in each. You will find that the same truth, expressed in nearly the same words, is presented in such variety of forms, as is calculated to engage and to interest the attention of those before whom that special sentence may be pronounced.

Here, for example, one feature of the Mediatorial character is particularly displayed, in the very name in which the Saviour is introduced to our attention. He might have been designated as the Lord Jesus Christ: he might have been denominated in reference to his divine nature, and more especially, and above all, in the designation of his Mediatorial character, as "the Son of God." But even in a connexion which speaks of his glory and dignity, it is deemed preferable by him that he should represent himself to us in that part of his Mediatorial character which more particularly respects the assumption of human nature; that he should represent himself to us as bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh. Though he came down from heaven, though he came down upon the errand and mission that occupied him upon the earth-he called himself" the Son of man ;" to shew how nearly he was related to those whom he came into the world to save; at once to mark out the condescending kindness of that act by which the Word became flesh, and was manifest among us for our salvation.

The words before us point out the fact of the Saviour's incarnation; not only in the title that he bears, as "the Son of man," but in the declaration that "the Son of man is come." You may here observe the emphasis of such a declaration, as delivered by the Saviour at the time when it was delivered, and in the company of those to whom it was addressed. They had not yet

learned to look at him in that point of light in which he had been exhibited to them by the ancient types and sacrifices. Even his disciples were too much regarding him merely as a great Teacher sent from God: but he reveals to them the fact, that he was more than a prophet; that he was more than a man; that he was the great and glorious being, immortalized in the inspired writings of the Old Testament as the Son of God, as well as the Son of man; that the salvation of Israel had already come out of Zion; that the Son of man had actually appeared upon earth among them; that the accomplishment of the work which his Father had given him to do is the result of his coming, as thus exhibited to us here: "The Son of man is come to save that which was lost."

And this description of the object of his coming, we may be allowed to contrast with another which he is, when he comes a second time into this our world, to achieve. The second time he is to come without a sin-offering unto salvation: the second time he is to come for the accomplishment of that salvation, not by any sacrifice of himself, as he did the first time, but by bringing the world to judgment before his tribunal, and by condemning the wicked for ever. But now he was come into the world to save and deliver from the influence and power of sin: to deliver from all those awful and everlasting consequences in which the sinner would otherwise have been involved. He "is come to save that which was lost;" that which was so utterly ruined, that but for the intervention of his almighty power and grace, it never could have been recovered or restored: that which was so utterly lost as that it might be pronounced irretrievable. And so it would have been had not the Son of man come into the world for the express purpose of saving it.

You know that in this simple phrase, our state by nature, as guilty sinners in the sight of God, is plainly and clearly described. We were lost to every thing of hope and of happiness; lost as to every object that an immortal being might look forward to with confidence and joy. We had no help in ourselves; no prospect from ourselves. We lay under the damning consequences of God's violated law, and must have been ruined for ever, had not the Son of man come to save us. We say, my hearers, that in these words you have the proof and statement of the Saviour's errand and work. The words, you will perceive, in themselves are so plain and simple, that they can scarcely need illustration in the way of comment upon the meaning of each phrase that may have been employed by the Saviour. This is the general character of those statements that are given to us in the Word of God, with respect to the great object of salvation; for though there are mysteries in the Sacred Writings, and though the very thing which is so simply stated to us here is itself the great mystery of godliness," in which there are depths that we cannot fathom, and heights to which we cannot soar, yet the words that are employed in the passage before us are as plain and simple a declaration as any that ever was made the subject of the inspired writings: and nothing can be more plain, nothing more simple than this.

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What reason have we to be thankful, that the great concerns of our salvation are so distinctly stated in the Word of God! What excuse can we make for misunderstanding and neglecting so important a subject as this? Is it not written so that he who runs may read? If there were only some one of these few plain passages of Scripture commended to your attention, would you not be