laws. The prohibition cannot proceed upon want. of ability, because they are not behind the rest of their countrymen in parts and learning; nor can it be sustained on the ground of piety, for no small portion of this is the imitation of God. Be ye perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect; and yet the texts, we have quoted, prove Him to be an avowed Politician, and the most thoroughly so of any being in the universe. In the previous quotations spiritual interests are seldom contemplated, and eternity rarely adds importance to the scenes; every thing is secular; the burden of the whole is the rise, progress and fall of Empires; Jehovah here builds a nation, there he destroys a state; in one place he promises all the constituents and accompaniments of national prosperity, in another he menaces with the dire calamities that prostrate a people; in this instance of political assumption he uncrowns a king, in that he lifts a peasant to the throne; or, so favors a comparatively obscure prince, that his policy is successful and victory sits upon his banners, until he becomes the most renowned, the widest ruling,. the mightiest potentate of his times throughout we perceive political bodies advised, assisted, rewarded; or, threatened, maddened, and brought to ruin; throughout we recognize a secular a political Government of God, distinct from his dominion over his chosen; its object to promote righteousness in countries both at home and in their foreign relations, and its plans and procedure evincing the consummate statesman, as much as the omnipotence of heaven. What name then are we to give it? Does it range under the denominations known among men? Is it a Democracy, an Oligarchy or a Kingdom? The unity of the Godhead decides the question. Hear O Israel the Lord thy God is one Lord. The following lines of the Grecian bard, shew that the heathens of antiquity admitted these views, though seemingly inconsistent with their Polytheism; Meanwhile apart, superior and alone, The eternal Monarch on his awful throne; Pope's Iliad, b. 11, c. 107. The moral support which this position brings to kingly sway, was also appreciated by the sovereigns of early Greece, since they rejoiced in being acknowledged the sceptred sons and delegates of Jove. But we have the direct testimony of the sacred volume, respecting the divine form of temporal government. And I will make drunk her princes and her wise men, her captains, and her rulers, and her mighty men; and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep and not wake, saith the King whose name is the Lord of hosts.-Jer. i. lvi. comp. c. xlvi, 18, xlviii 15. Who would not fear thee, O King of nations? Jer, x. 7. O clap your hands all ye people, shout unto God with the voice of triumph for the Lord most high is terrible; he is a great King over all the earth. God is the King of all the earth, sing ye praises with understanding.-Ps. xlvii. They shall speak of the glory of thy Kingdom, and talk of thy power, to make known to the sons of men his mighty acts and the glorious majesty of his kingdom. Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations.-Fs. cxlv. The argument is further strengthened by the fact, that God has made the constitution of his Church monarchical. Previous to the Advent it was proclaimed by symbols, acts and express intimations. The sacred ark over which rested a miraculous token of the Divine Presence. was engirt with a wreathed crown; as were likewise the table of shew-bread and the altar of incense. The High-priest wore a crown upon his mitre to indicate the royalty of him in whose name he acted. Isaiah says I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up and his train filled the Temple. Ezekial writes, Above the firmament that was over the heads of the living creatures was the likeness of a throne, and the appearance of a man upon it. Another illustration occurs in the magnificent spectacle found in Daniel, of the Father in immortal and regal grandeur, conferring the diadem upon his Son.-ch, vii. 9. 14. The service of the Sanctuary, the laws of the spiritual fellowship, and all sacred offices were of God's appointment; derived thence their validi ty; and the slightest change was not permitted in them, without his sanction: but they all have the impress of a sovereign even of him who in the plainest and most solemn manner, declared himself Monarch of his antient fold, and instructed them to make his regal character their joy and boast. Thus saith the Lord the King of Israel-Isa. xliv. 6. Produce your cause saith the Lord; bring forth your strong reasons saith the King of Jacob. Isa. xli. 21. O Lord of hosts my King and my God-Ps. lxxxiv. 3. I will extol thee my I Let Israel rejoice the children of Zion Is not God O King,-Ps. cxlv. I. in Him that made him; let be joyful in their King.-Ps. cxlix. 2. the Lord in Zion? Is not her king in her ?—Jer. viii. 19. The Lord reigneth let the people tremble: he sitteth between the cherubims let the earth be moved.-Ps. xcix. 1. Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised in the city of our God in the mountain of his holiness. Beautiful for `situation the joy of the whole earth is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King.—Ps. xlviii. 1.2. Lift up your heads O ye gates and be ye lift up ye everlasting doors and the King of glory shall come in, Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. The Lord of hosts he is the King of glory.-Fs. xxiv. 7—10. At length a period arrived when the Mosaic structure was taken down by Him who built it, the temporary purposes of its design having been answered; and the whole dispensation rolled away upon the Messiah's manifestation, in fulfilment of olden prophecy which said, Yet once it is a little while and I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the |