They are themselves, all of them without exception, made kings, and have a kingdom given unto them by their Lord, similar to that which has been conferred on the Messiah him- self by his heavenly Father''. Hear ye this, ye poor and needy souls ! Are ye not amazed, that ye should be " taken, as it were, from a dunghill, and set among princes, and made to inherit a throne of glory ^?" Yet be assured, that this is your portion, if only you approve yourselves faithful to your Lord and King. Yes : " be ye faithful unto death, and you shall, every one of you, inherit a crown of life."]
r Rev. iii. 21. « 1 Sam. ii. 8.
Ps. Ixxii. 16. There shall he an handful of corn in the earth upo?i the top of the mountains ; the fruit thereof shall shake like Lehaiion : and they of the city shall flourish like grass of the earth.
IN many parts of Scripture the typical sense is more manifest than the literal. It is so in the psalm before us. This psalm is a description of the reign of Solomon, who was the first of the " kings" that was also a " king's son." The extent, duration, and happiness of his government are predicted by David his father. But a greater than Solomon is here. There can be no doubt but that the glory of the Messiah's kingdom is here described. The extent of that is unbounded, and the blessedness of it is eter- nal. The words of the text, according to their literal meaning, declare the fruitfulness of the land, and the increase of population in the days of Solomon ; but they typically represent the spread of the Gospel under the Christian dispensation, and the multitudes of converts that shall become the subjects of Mes- siah's kingdom. They naturally lead us to consider,
I. The representation here given of the preached Gospel —
The Gospel is compared to seed cast upon the earth —
[This is a frequent comparison in the Scriptures ; nor can any other be more just. The seed is that from which the whole