celestial beings, as in Psalm viii, 5: "Thou hast made him a little less than the , elohim, angels." The apostle quotes Psalm xcvii, 7, thus: "When he bringeth in the first-begotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God, ayyeλo Ocov, worship him." Hebrews i, 6. Thus he whom the Psalmist calls "Jehovah, the Lord of the whole earth," (Psalm xcvii, 5,) the apostle calls, "the first-begotten" of the Father. It is a clear proof that the Psalmist is to be understood in that place as setting forth the dominion and supremacy of the Son of God, the Messiah. It is also clear, from a comparison of the above texts, that the phrase "worship him, all ye gods,” is exactly equal in sense to the phrase, "Let all the angels of God worship him.”

2. But the Psalms, in common with the more spiritual portions of the "Law and the Prophets," teach the doctrine of a suffering Messiah. His humiliation, embracing his incarna tion, many circumstances of his persecution and sorrow, his death, his burial, and also his exaltation, embracing his resurrection, ascension, and his investiture with the mediatorial kingdom, are, in various ways and under various suggestive circumstances, clearly set forth. The remarkable declaration of Christ himself fully proves this, when, after his resurrection, he thus reproved the sluggish faith of his disciples: "O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself." Afterward he said to them: "These are the words that I spoke unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning me." Luke xxiv, 25-27, 44. The Old Testament did most fully and circumstantially set forth the Messiah as suffering and dying for the sins of the people; and it would be inexplicable if this most evangelical thought, which occupied so large a place in the Hebrew rituals, and in the faith of the Church, should find no utterance in their most devotional and spiritual poetry. A few instances only can be here cited.

Psalm xvi, 9-11: "Therefore my heart is glad, and my

glory rejoiceth; my flesh also shall rest in hope. For thou wilt not leave my soul in bix, sheol, the grave, [i. e., thou wilt not leave me in the grave,] neither wilt thou suffer thy Holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt show me the path of life," &c.

This passage is literally quoted by the apostle Peter, and applied to the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, Acts ii, 26-34; and by Paul, Acts xiii, 35-37.

Psalm xxii is remarkably circumstantial in its delineations of the sufferings of Messiah, and is often quoted and alluded to in the New Testament:

Verse 1: "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Literally repeated by Christ in his agony upon the cross: Matthew xxvii, 46; Mark xv, 34.

Verse 7: "All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head." These are expressions of derision and contempt, by which the sufferings of the Redeemer were aggravated and insulted. Matthew xxvii, 39: "And they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads." So also Mark xv, 29; Luke xxiii, 35.

Verse 8: "He trusted in the Lord that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him." Quoted by the Jews, and insultingly applied to Christ when he hung upon the cross: Matthew xxvii, 43.

Verse 16: "For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet." The last clause is prophetic of the manner of Messiah's death, by nailing to the cross: Matthew xxvii, 35; Mark xv, 24; Luke xxiii, 33; and is quoted by the evangelist John with this application, (John xix, 37:) "They shall look on him whom they pierced." The same apostle quotes the same language, (Revelation i, 7:) "Every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him." The prophet Zechariah had repeated the declaration of the Psalmist, and given clearness and accuracy to this important item of Messianic prophecy, (Zechariah xii, 10:) "And they shall look upon me whom they have pierced."

Verse 18: "They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture." Literally and wonderfully fulfilled in the Saviour's history, (Matthew xxvii, 35:) "And they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots; that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet. They parted

my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots." See also Mark xv, 24, and Luke xxiii, 34. John xix, 23, 24, is very explicit: "Then the soldiers, when they had crucified him, took his garments, and made four parts, to every soldier a part; and also his coat, [or cloak:] now the coat [or cloak] was without seam, woven from the top throughout. They said, therefore, among themselves, Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it whose it shall be; that the scripture might be fulfilled which saith, They parted my raiment among them, and upon my vesture they did cast lots."

Verse 22: "I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee." Quoted by the apostle, (Hebrews ii, 12,) and applied to Christ, to prove his real participation in a perfect human nature, and his consequent brotherhood with us.

Psalm xxiv, 7-10, seems a prophetic description of Christ's entry into the celestial city and the courts of the heavenly palace, after his ascension. It would, with this application, combine his kingly and his priestly office in the same act, for, as a High Priest, he has "entered into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us." Hebrews ix, 24. (See the Historical Introduction to this Psalm.)

Psalm xl, 6-8: "Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt-offering and sin-offering thou hast not required. Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart." Quoted by the apostle, (Hebrews x, 5-10,) and is a most lucid and explicit declaration of the sacrificial and propitiatory nature of Christ's death, in order to which he took on him our body.

Many portions of Psalm lxix are quoted in the New Testament as applicable to Christ in his humiliation and sufferings.

Verse 4: "They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head." The same also in Psalm xxxv, 19, quoted by the Saviour thus: "But this cometh to pass that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause." John xv, 25.

Verse 9: "For the zeal of thy house hath eaten me up." Quoted by the disciples and applied to Christ: John ii, 17.

Verse 9: "The reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me." Quoted by the apostle, (Romans xv, 3:) "For even Christ pleased not himself; but, as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me."

Verse 19: "Thou hast known my reproach, and my shame, and my dishonour: mine adversaries are all before thee." Applies to Christ's affliction and reproach. Hebrews xii, 2, 3.

Verse 21: "They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink." Literally fulfilled in Christ while on the cross. Matthew xxvii, 34: "They gave him vinegar to drink, mingled with gall: and when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink." Also Mark xv, 36; Luke xxiii, 36; John xix, 29.

Verses 22, 23, are quoted by Paul and applied to the rejectors and enemies of Christ; Romans xi, 9, 10.

Verse 25: "Let their habitation be desolate; and let none dwell in their tents." Quoted by the Apostle Peter, and applied to Judas Iscariot, the betrayer of Christ, (Acts i, 20:) "For it is written in the book of Psalms, Let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein." Also Psalm cix, 8: "Let his days be few, and let another take his office;" is quoted by Peter, in the same place, of Judas: "His bishoprick, [or office,] let another take." These solemn anathemas upon the persecutors of our Lord shed light upon the gloomy horrors of his sufferings.

Many other descriptions of Messiah's humiliation might be given, but these will amply suffice, as specimens, to indicate the evangelical character of the Psalms, with respect to the views set forth of the person, the office, and the history of Christ. The reader must keep in mind the peculiarity of Messianic prophecy in the Old Testament; namely, that it is generally thrown in and interwoven with matters which have an historical application to the writer or to his times. The condition of the writer, and his state of mind at the time of writing, as before intimated, became suggestive, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, of those higher, ulterior, and divine truths. The circumstances and feelings of the writer would seem to have some resemblance to those in which Messiah would afterward be placed, and hence they became, in some sort, the sensible media through which the Holy Spirit suggested and

conveyed those distinct and clear visions of Christ. So clear were their conceptions of Christ, that their language applied to him in the days of his flesh without alteration, and with wonderful literalness. It must not be supposed that the New Testament writers applied their quotations from the prophets of the Old Testament in a higher, more spiritual, or more evangelical sense than that in which the ancient prophets themselves understood them; nor in a sense different from that which the Holy Spirit intended who inspired those prophets. On the contrary, the New Testament application of passages thus quoted, is the legitimate application. "We cannot think," says the learned Dr. Allix, of the last century, "the Jews were so void of judgment as to imagine that the apostles, or any one else, had a right to produce the simple words of the Old Testament, and to urge them in any other sense than what was intended by the writer, directed by the Holy Ghost. It must be his sense as well as his words, that should be offered for proof to convince a reasonable man. But we see that the Jews did yield to such proofs out of the Scripture concerning the Messiah. They must then have believed that the true sense of such places was the literal sense in regard to the Messiah, whom God had in view in his inditing of these books; and that it was not literal in respect to him [who first uttered, or recorded it, and] who seems at first sight to have been intended by the prophecy."