in luxury and voluptuousness. As to the compliments they use, the last image only is attended with difficulty, and must be referred, I think, to some grand and awful phænomenon in the sky, as being associated with the fairness of the dawn, the beauty of the moon, and the splendour of the sun '.

1 How much these compar isons of the spouse to the heavenly bodies are in the style of eastern poetry has been already hinted, and will appear fully by the following quo

tations.

In Dr. Balfour's Forms of Herkern' (a collection of Arabian MS. letters, &c.) a lover thus addresses his mistress: O moon of the heaven of goodness! O cypress of the garden of affection!' And she replies: The moon of my beauty may soon shine from the window; and the tree of my stature may cast its shadow on the terrace.' (See Mon. Rev. vol. lxxvi. p. 592.)

The moon is an eastern emblem of chastity, as well as beauty. 'Moon of Canaan' is an epithet their writers usually give to the patriarch Joseph. Richardson's Specimens of Persian poetry, p. 434.

A Persian writer says, The brightness of thy face is more splendid than the cheek of day.' Jones's Pèrs. Gram. p. 25. And the expression used by our translators, clear as the sun,' occurs in Bahur Danush, vol. iii. p. 6.

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Bp. Percy, and some other learned men, have thought that from the stars and planets being called the hosts of heaven, that they might be here intended but they are always designated by a very different word (say) Sabaoth. An ingenious critic has lately suggested that a comet might possibly be intended, and quotes from Richardson the following Arabian verses :

When I describe your beauty my thoughts are perplexed, • Whether to compare it

To the sun, to the moon, or to the wandering star.'

This wandering star he supposes also to be a comet, as well as the streamers in our text; but both applications are doubtful, and particularly that of the sacred writer;

Here I divide the section, and would relieve the reader from the dryness of these remarks by a few serious reflections-avoiding as much as possible a repetition of what I have before offered.

1. The church of God is compared to a city, beautifully situated-nobly built-well defended -and elegantly decorated. 'Beautiful for situa'tion, the joy of the whole earth is mount Zion, the city of the great King.-Walk about Zion, ' and go round about her; tell the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces; that ye may tell it to the generation to 'come'.' Yea, the glory of the future state is described by the image of a great and glorious city*

and as the original term is plural, I should rather refer it to the aurora borealis, as perfectly corresponding with the epithet awful' or terrible, and as well describing the splendour of the spouse, and the awe inspired by her majestic presence.

As, however, I have not at hand evidence that this phanomenon is particularly observable in Judea I have in the comment applied the passage to another object, which, if not so terrifying, is certainly not less sublime and grand the sun setting behind a crimson cloud, and gleaming between its interstices.

After all, if we must confine the term I have rendered streamers to bannered hosts, in a sense strictly literal, I can in some measure account for the connexion of the images from the eastern usage of bearing the images of the heavenly bodies in their standards. Thus the sun behind a lion (sol in leo) is the standard of the Great Mogul, and that of the crescent (or half moon) is borne by the followers of Mahomet; this custom, however could not, I think, be adopted by the Jews themselves, consistent with the Mosaic law, though the Rabbins tell us they made this use of the cherubic figures.

1 Ps. xlviii. 2, 12. 13.

2 Rev. xxi,

the New Jerusalem above-a city paved with gold-whose walls are precious stones, and her gates pearls. Now these images are certainly used in conformity with our weakness and our prejudices. Pleased with finery, and dazzled with splendour, our little minds conceive of gold, and silver, and precious stones, as the most brilliant objects in creation; whereas they are certainly but faint images of those spiritual and sublime enjoyments which are laid up for us in glory. Imagine a youth to be educated in a subterraneous palace, richly decorated and brilliantly illuminated with a thousand lamps, but totally secluded from the sun-beams. You wish, we will suppose, to give him an idea of the rising and setting sun, and of the charms of nature. You paint the pannels of his room with figures of trees and flowers, and all the charms of a rural landscape-you colour his ceiling blue to describe a cloudless sky, and to represent the sun you gild the cornice with its image such are our present discoveries of heaven and its enjoyments. But take this secluded youth into the open air-place him on a rising ground-shew him a surrounding prospect of meads, and groves, and gardens-and especially point him to the setting sun on yon mountain --and what must be his astonishment! How much must these objects exceed in beauty and in glory his utmost conceptions in his former confinement? So much as the objects of nature exceed those of art, do spiritual objects exceed those purely natural; and far more will the glories of the heavenly state exceed all the brilliancies of nature.

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Many think that the church is compared to a city for ner regularity and good discipline, her judicious police, if we may so speak; and we may observe that a chief circumstance which affected the queen of Sheba, So that there was no more spirit in her, was the sitting (or disposition) of Solomon's servants, the attendance of • his ministers',' &c. So Theodoret (addressing the church) says, They are astonished who behold thy order, there being nothing disorderly, 'nothing uncertain or undetermined, nothing con• fused and indistinct; but all orderly appointed ' and judiciously determined."

2. Passing over the repeated passage, I remark, that the church in her prosperity is the admiraration and envy of the world. By her prosperity I do not so much intend her outward glory as her inward purity. In the golden days of primitive christianity, when, in the language of the christian prophet, she was clothed with the son,' how much was she admired! See how

⚫ these chrisians love!' was a proverb among the heathen but as admiration in base minds always produces envy, so the surprise of the heathen often ended in persecution-they admired, and hated christians. Nor is this a circumstance to be referred only to ages back, or distant countries. The gospel faithfully preached, and succeeded

Kings x. 5.

* See Patrick in loc.

with the divine blessing, will produce more or less, the same effects on the lives of its professors, and on the tempers of its enemies. A gracious character will always attract the respect and approbation of spectators; but it will not, of itself, subdue their enmity to holiness; they approve the character, but they hate the person, and his religion.

3. The true church is a singular and distinguished character, she is an only one-the only one of her mother and of her beloved. There are many who assume that sacred character, who pretend to love and belong to Christ; but the true church is distinguished by her simplicity, purity, and attachment to her Lord. From this and the like passages, Cyprian [Epis. 75] undertakes to prove against the hereticks of his time, the unity of the church; and this must be granted if properly explained: but the true unity of the church consists, not in a conformity in rites and ceremonies, and church government: but in being united to Christ the head, and in union of heart and spirit among the members. We have happily proved, in the present day, that there are some in almost all denominations, who, notwithstanding great differences in circumstantials, can unite heart and hand, to promote the common cause of christianity.

4. We have the true character of the church with her progressive glory. First, in the patriarchal dispensation, she looked forth as the grey dawn or morning dusk, with some gleams of light

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