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Circumcision, to the exclusion of That Which was the Seal of The New Covenant in CHRIST JESUS, and of Which the Former was but the Type, he adds, with peculiar emphasis, "Behold, I, Paul, say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, (referring, doubtless, to Those who, whether actually circumcised or preparing to be so, relied on the efficacy of that sacrifice, and not on That of Which Faith in CHRIST was the Sign), CHRIST shall Profit you nothing; for I testify again to every Man that is circumcised, that he is Debtor to do the whole Law: CHRIST is Become of no Effect unto you, Whosoever of you are Justified by the Law; ye are fallen from Grace!" But then, not to give rise to the erroneous idea that a profession of Faith could Save, without our sincere adoption of It and Its Fruits, which are repentance and obedience unto Holiness, he writes, "For we, through The SPIRIT, wait for the hope of Righteousness by Faith: for in JESUS CHRIST neither Circumcision availeth anything, nor Uncircumcision, but Faith which worketh by love."—Gal. v, 1 to 6. So also, in his Epistle to the Ephesians, St. Paul saith, "We are GOD'S Workmanship, Created in CHRIST JESUS unto good works, which GOD hath before Ordained that we should walk in them!” And then the Apostle shows the Glorious Privileges that belong and are Assured to Such as have faith in CHRIST: Wherefore (adds he) remember, that ye were in time past Gentiles in the Flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the Flesh made by hands; that at that time ye were without CHRIST, being Aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel, and Strangers from the Covenants of Promise; having no hope, and without GOD in the World. But now in CHRIST JESUS ye, who sometimes were far off, are Made Nigh by the Blood of CHRIST. Now, therefore, ye are no more Strangers and Foreigners, but Fellow-Citizens with the Saints, and of the Household of GOD; and are Built upon the Foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, JESUS CHRIST Himself Being The Chief Corner Stone; in Whom All the Building, Fitly Framed Together, Groweth unto An Holy Temple in The LORD: in Whom ye also are Builded together for An Habitation of GOD through The SPIRIT."-Eph. ii, 10 to 13., 19 to 22. In the Epistle to the Hebrews, the Writer (supposed to be St. Paul) designates The DIVINE NATURE of JESUS CHRIST, by an express assertion of His having Himself Elected to be That SEED of Abraham, from Which The Promised Blessedness unto all Nations was to Flow, saying, "Verily He Took not on Him the Nature of Angels; but He Took on Him the Seed of Abraham." —ii, 16.

REFLECTIONS ON DAVID'S HISTORY.

Having taken a view of the character and influence of Abraham, we proceed to look into the not less importantly profitable one of David, thus so Eminently Distinguished as the Stem, equally with Abraham as the Root, from which The BRANCH, That Bears the Soul's most Nutricious and Delicious FRUIT is Gathered by Believers in The Incarnation of The SON of GOD for Man's Salvation. For David, who was "the Man after GOD'S Own Heart," as well in the sincerity of his repentance for sin, as in his piety and general devotedness to the Will and Cause of GOD, may be unto us a valuable Example, and emulate us to be, as professing to be Servants, and hoping to be Children of The MOST HIGH, perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works, through the supplicated Aid of The HOLY SPIRIT.-2 Tim. iii, 16, 17.

MATT. i, 1.—"The Book of the Generation of JESUS CHRIST, The SON of David, The SON of Abraham."

The Scriptural History of David opens with Samuel's anointing him as King, on the defection of Saul from The DIVINE Commandment: It is taken from the xvi ch. of the 1st Book of Samuel.-" And The LORD Said unto Samuel, How long wilt thou mourn for Saul, seeing I have Rejected him from reigning over Israel? Fill thine horn with oil, and go! I will Send thee to Jesse, the Beth-lehemite; for I have Provided Me a King among his Sons.' And Samuel said, 'How can I go? If Saul hear me, he will kill me! And The LORD Said, Take an heifer with thee, and say,--I am come to sacrifice to The LORD;--and call Jesse to the Sacrifice! And I will Shew thee what thou shalt do; and thou shalt Anoint unto Me him whom I Name unto thee! And Samuel did That Which The LORD Spake; and came to Beth-lehem; and the Elders of the Town trembled at his coming, and said 'Comest thou peaceably? And he said, 'Peaceably: I am come to sacrifice unto The LORD: Sanctify yourselves, and come with me to the Sacrifice! And he sanctified Jesse and his Sons; and called them to the Sacrifice. And it came to pass, when they were come, that he looked on Eliab, and said, Surely The LORD'S Anointed is before Him! But The LORD Suid unto Samuel,Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature! Because I have Refused him; for The LORD Seeth not as Man seeth: for Man looketh on the outward appearance; but The LORD Looketh on the heart.' Then Jesse called Abinadab, and made him pass before Samuel. And he said, 'Neither hath The LORD Chosen this! Then Jesse made Shammah to pass by; And he said, Neither hath The LORD Chosen this! Again, Jesse made Seven of his Sons to pass before Samuel. And Samuel said unto Jesse, The LORD hath not Chosen these.' And Samuel said unto Jesse, Are here all thy Children?' And he said, 'There remaineth yet the Youngest; and, behold, he keepeth the sheep.' And Samuel said unto Jesse, Send and fetch him! for we will not sit down till he come hither.' And he sent, and brought him in. Now he was ruddy and withal of a beautiful countenance, and goodly to look to. And The LORD Said, Arise, Anoint him! For this is he.' Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and Anointed him in the midst of his Brethren: and The SPIRIT of The LORD Came upon David from that day forward.”—1 Sam. xiii, 1 to 13. THE ALMIGHTY had Previously Declared His High Estimation of David, and his worthiness, notwith

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standing the humbleness of his occupation as a Shepherd, to be King over The Chosen People of Israel; having, in the Denunciation of The DIVINE Displeasure against Saul, through the mouth of the Prophet Samuel, thus Foretold David's Election.-" The LORD hath Sought Him a Man after His Own Heart, and The LORD hath Commanded him to be Captain over His People."1 Sam. xiii, 14. That David was the Person here Alluded to, we have the double testimony of Jew and Christian, for the Jewish History establishes David to have been the immediate Successor of Saul on the Throne: and St. Luke, in his Account of the Acts of the Apostles, relates St. Paul to have thus preached before the Jews at Antioch in reference to the same event, saying, " Men of Israel, and ye that fear GOD, give audience! THE GOD of this People of Israel Chose our Fathers: and Exalted the People, when they dwelt as Strangers in the Land of Egypt; and with an High Arm Brought He them out of it; and about the time of forty years Suffered He their manners in the Wilderness. And, when He had Destroyed Seven Nations in the Land of Canaan, He Divided their Land to them by lot. And after that, He Gave unto them Judges about the space of four hundred and fifty years, until Samuel the Prophet. And afterward they desired a King: and GOD Gave unto them Saul, the Son of Cis, a Man of the Tribe of Benjamin, by the space of forty years: And when He had Removed him, He Raised up unto them David to be their King: to whom also He Gave Testimony, and Said, I have Found David, the Son of Jesse, a Man after Mine Own Heart, which shall fulfil All My Will." The Apostle then goes on to confirm the Connection of this with the History of JESUS CHRIST, saying, "Of this Man's Seed hath GOD, According to His Promise, Raised unto Israel A SAVIOUR, JESUS; when John had first Preached, before His Coming, the Baptism of Repentance."Acts xiii, 16 to 24.

The Discrimination of The DIVINE MIND is the Effect of Its Omniscience: to That the Future, the Present, and the Past are Alike. And as it is the Spirit of Man that knoweth what is in Man, so The SPIRIT of GOD, Which is Mightier, Alone Knoweth of what that Spirit in Man is formed; and though to Man That DIVINE SPIRIT be Invisible, or but dimly seen by the eye of Faith, yet doth It Penetrate the inmost recesses of the Human Soul, and is Fully Acquainted with all the imaginations of the thoughts of Men's hearts, even ere they are formed. In the selection of a Successor to Saul, a Prophet was mistaken, for on Eliab, the First-born of Jesse, being presented to him, he said "Surely The LORD'S Anointed is before Him!" the loftiness of his figure and the probable nobleness of his mien, added to his primogeniture, had, in Human eyes, rendered him apparently most deserving of the dignity that was to be conferred on One of his Father's Sons; but the pride and naughtiness of his heart (though as will afterwards appear, himself accusing David of those failings), his jealousy of merit, though possessed by his own Brother, and his confidence in the arm of Flesh, instead of a prayerful dependence on the Power and Protection of GOD, unfitted him for being The Chosen Servant of The LORD: and That Omniscient BEING, All Whose Judgments are Righteous, Said unto Samuel, "Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature, because I have Refused him. For The LORD Seeth not as Man seeth; for Man looketh on the outward appearance: but The LORD Looketh upon the heart!" How Great a Truth is here Revealed; and how Acceptable a Guide should It prove to us in the journey through life! Others of our Fellow-Creatures, though honoured even with the appellation of Prophets, yea, the Parent that begat us, and watched over us from infancy to maturity, nay, even our ownselves we may deceive, but we cannot deceive Him on Whom all Being depends; and Who will Sit in Judgment upon every Human Soul, Determining in Equal Righteousness and Wisdom the Sentence to be Pro

nounced on every word and work, and thought and purpose, and which His Omniscience will Faithfully Reveal before Men and Angels. If these Things be so, and Assuredly They are, as GOD is TRUTH, how should Hypocrisy be driven from the heart, and a holy love and devout obedience to the Will of GOD Abound in us, did we sufficiently take heed to Them. And though Man seeth not as GOD Seeth the Fulness of the Effects of the Relative Judgments Which Await the Righteous and the Wicked, or him that serveth The LORD and him that serveth Him not; yet is Enough Laid Open to our finite comprehension to excite us to avoid the One, and to cleave to the Other; Teaching us that on our decision and adoption will depend the Election or Rejection of us, when The SPIRITUAL DAVID Assumes His Everlasting Government.

So little expectation did even Jesse, the Father of so many Sons, entertain that the Last would be the Foremost in The DIVINE Adoption, that, though all Others were, he was not even called to the Sacrifice, as directed by the Prophet, no exception having been made by him; and the care of the sheep, perhaps, weighed additionally in the Father's mind. But how shallow are the reasonings of Man when put in competition with The DIVINE Counsels. GOD it is That Setteth the Solitary in Families. HE Bringeth down Some, and Setteth up Others; and Whom The LORD Will, He Chooseth, and there is no evading His Decrees. In all our exercises of elective powers, and most especially in those appertaining to Spiritual appointments and administrations, we should, like Samuel, pray in fervency to The LORD to Guide us in our choice, that we prefer not an Eliab to a David.

"And The SPIRIT of The LORD Came upon David from that day forward.” GOD Giveth the life of the Body, and why should it be doubted that He Giveth the life of the Soul? This indeed, in a degree, He Giveth equally to All: but we all use not the Gift alike; for too Many of us, in too many instances, misuse It: we pervert the faculties and powers of the Body from the paths of temperance, sobriety, and chastity; we dedicate its energies less to the honour of The GIVER, than to the promotion of our own selfish and sensual gratification. But with All it is not so; and though None of us but grieve The HOLY SPIRIT at times, yet it is not in the disposition of All to be so reprobate, as entirely to quench Its Influence. "The LORD Knoweth Them that are His." Even Gifted as was David thus Pre-eminently with DIVINE Grace, yet was not his free Agency taken from him; for, as will be shown hereafter, he resisted The SPIRIT by yielding to the impulse of carnal desire,―his conscience, however, soon convinced him of his error, and his heart was vexed, and he grieved for the sin he committed, and he deeply repented of it; and The LORD in Mercy Put away the Remembrance of his iniquity for CHRIST'S Sake, and Renewed a right Spirit within him and the Work of The LORD Prospered in his hand.

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But The SPIRIT of The LORD Departed from Saul; and an evil Spirit from The LORD troubled him: and Saul's Servants said unto him, Behold, now an evil Spirit from GOD troubleth thee; let our Lord now command thy Servants which are before thee, to seek out a Man who is a cunning Player on an harp, and it shall come to pass, when the evil Spirit from GOD is upon thee, that he shall play with his hand, and thou shalt be well! And Saul said unto his Servants, Provide me now a Man, that can play well, and bring him to me! Then answered One of the Servants and said, 'Behold, I have seen a Son of Jesse, the Beth-lehemite, that is cunning in playing, and a mighty valiant Man, and a Man of war, and prudent in matters, and a comely Person; and The LORD is with him.' Wherefore Saul sent Messengers unto Jesse, and said, 'Send me David, thy Son, which is with the sheep! And Jesse took an ass laden with bread, and a bottle of wine, and a kid, and sent them by David, his Son, unto Saul. And David came to

Saul, and stood before him: and he loved him greatly: and he became his ArmourBearer. And Saul sent to Jesse, saying, 'Let David, I pray thee, stand before me! for he hath found favour in my sight.' And it came to pass, when the evil Spirit from GOD was upon Saul, that David took an harp, and played with his hand: so Saul was refreshed, and was well; and the evil Spirit departed from him."— 1 Sam. xvi, 14 to 23.

Where The SPIRIT of GOD is not, there prevails the Spirit of evil, from the very principle of our Nature, for Servants we must be either of GOD or Mammon; and Satan reigns in the heart, with all evil affections, where the Graces of The HOLY SPIRIT are obstinately and presumptuously expelled. But the evil Spirit, that was Visited upon Saul, was probably a mental malady, which tore and grievously tormented him; leaving him, for the time, no power of reason, though holding the reins of Government, thus placing him, though the first Man in the Nation, lower in the scale of misery than the Meanest of his Subjects. It was a temporal Chastisement for a Spiritual offence. The Power of The LORD was thereby Manifested in Executing Judgment upon the Earth. A faint semblance of the furies of the Damned was exhibited in Saul's sufferings; and Merciful indeed will That GOD Prove Who Inflicted it, if this be all the Punishment for Saul's guilt in unmindfulness of his CREATOR'S Command; and that the Great Work of GOD'S Reconciliation through CHRIST'S Mediation (Which is alike Applicable to all times and Ages of the World) shall, in the Day of Universal Judgment, be Realized in him, when the Wicked shall cease from troubling. The influence of music upon the mind is too generally felt not to be generally acknowledged: and the direction of it to the Praise and Glory of GOD, as exemplified by King David even from his opening Manhood, may occasion the Spirit of evil thoughts in the war between the Flesh and the Spirit, whether in Ourselves or Others, to depart from its corrupting and contaminating hold upon

the Soul.

The character of David, though thus concisely drawn by a Servant of Saul, has yet much in it of feature to interest and instruct. He was not only cunning, that is skilful, in playing upon an instument, having dedicated some of the leisure hours that a pastoral life afforded him to the culture of music, with a taste the most chaste and devotional, but he was also a valiant Man, endowed naturally with vigour of body and firmness and collectedness of mind.-The trust he had in his GOD, Who is The Arm of Strength, and the purity of his own motives, which had GOD for their AUTHOR as well as their End, gave him that fortitude and courage, which nothing could subdue, but which rose with the difficulties opposed to them. And it will invariably be found, whilst unhappily the occasion for the display of valour exists from the ambitious and encroaching dispositions of Some of our Fellow-Creatures, that the truest courage belongs to the truest Christian; and that the reverential and habitual walking as in the Sight of GOD excludes from the Soul the sense of fear at the eye or violence of Man. To valour it seems David added the virtue of prudence from an early age, "a virtue without which not only (in the language of One of the ablest Champions in the cause of Virtue and Religion) is knowledge useless, wit ridiculous, and genius contemptible," but valour is Self-destructive. To the graces of the mind and the heart was added to David the attractiveness of Person, of very secondary consideration, and no otherwise produced by or dependent upon ourselves than as sweetness of temper, intelligence of mind, and general temperance are calculated to ornament (which they indisputably do) a countenance associated with them. But the most valuable Property of David was That of having "The Hand of The LORD with him :" a Property in comparison with Which all the excellence of skill, all the fruits of valour, all the effects of prudence, and all the

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