Christian Witness: Volume 4

4. A Letter on the Person and Deity of the Holy Ghost

The Apostleship of St. Paul

THE book of the Acts of the Apostles is rather the book of the acts of St. Peter and St. Paul, the Apostle of the circumcision, and the Apostle of the Gentiles. In the events recorded in that part of it which gives us St. Peter's ministry, (that is, chapters 1-12.) I judge that we can discern such an order and meaning as prepares us for the Lord's further purposes among the Gentiles by the subsequent ministry of St. Paul.

I would thus briefly notice and interpret these events.

1.-While waiting, according to the commandment, for the promised power from on high; the disciples, under the leading of St. Peter, (constituted chief in the Jewish ministry, Luke 22:32. John 21:16.) commit it to the Lord to fill up the vacant bishopric of Judas. This was needful, as I shall observe more particularly by and by, that the Jewish order of twelve Apostles might stand full and complete, and that this was done with the full intelligence of the mind of God, appears further from this-that the Lord seems at once to undertake what His servants thus commit to Him, for He honors the lot, (the Jewish form of discovering the divine will in such matters, 1 Chron. 24:5. Num. 26:55. Josh. 19:10.) and Matthias is numbered with the eleven Apostles; and the Holy Ghost in the next chap. seems to adopt Matthias in his new office by falling upon him equally with the rest without any rebuke.

2-7.-The number being thus filled up, the Holy Ghost is given according to promise; and Peter again takes the lead, and preaches the risen Jesus to the Jews. The enmity of the Jews however, sets in, and proceeds through these chapters, increasing gradually, just as it had done before against the Lord The Apostles, however, like their Lord, go on with their testimony undismayed; great grace is upon all-holy discipline keeps them pure-and with great power the Apostles give the testimony to the resurrection. But as the enmity had worked against the Lord till they crucified Him; so now does it work against the Apostles, till they run upon Stephen and stone him. And as the heavens had received the crucified One, so do the heavens open to His fellow-sufferer, and witness. And in him the Church receives a living pledge that the heavenly glory was for her as well as for her Lord, for the world had now rejected both.

VIII,-This being so, Jerusalem could no longer receive the sanction of God, for it had fully declared its sin, and for a season must be cast out of His sight. The disciples are therefore now scattered from Jerusalem, and the Jewish order is disturbed: this chapter giving us the acts of one who had not been sent forth either as from Jerusalem or by the Apostles at all. Philip goes forth-and at first preaches Christ in Samaria, and is then sent down by the Spirit " to Gaza, which is desert," to bring into the fold, a lost sheep that was still straying there, but known to God before the foundation of the world. But, immediately afterward he is borne by the Spirit to Azotus, (the place next to the desert where men and women could be found) that he might proclaim there and in all other places, the grace which says-" whosoever will, let him take of the water of life." Thus by his mission to Gaza, and then by his rapture to Azotus, Philip's ministry is made to signify the sovereignty and the universality of that grace which the Lord was to publish.

9-The channels for the life and power that is from the Son of God to flow in among the Gentiles were now fully opened; for the Jews, and the Samaritans, and the Proselytes, had been called. All was ready for the gathering of the first fruits of the Gentiles. But before this was done, and present judgment upon Israel thus publicly sealed, the Lord gives in the conversion of Saul of Tarsus, a sign of the future conversion of Israel. (see 1 Tim. 1:16) A sample, no doubt it is, of that long suffering that saves every sinner. But Israel is to be made the great final witness of that long suffering, and is principally pointed at by this sign, and therefore all that accompanies this great event is a foreshewing of the things that are hereafter to mark and accompany the repentance of Israel. Saul's looking on Him whom he had pierced-his being shut up three days without sight, and neither eating nor drinking-the removal of this judgment, and his baptism, all shows us the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem looking on Him whom they pierced and mourning, every family apart and their wives apart, and then proving the virtues of the cleansing fountain opened for their sin and for their uncleanness. Jerusalem will then be the signal witness of sovereign grace, as Saul now is. (Zech. 12, 13.) And in further proof of this mystical character of Saul's conversion, we may observe that he tells us himself that he obtained mercy because he did it ignorantly in unbelief; and this is the very ground of final mercy to Israel, as the Lord prayed for them-" Father forgive them for they know not what they do." (see also Acts 3:17.)

10, 11.—A. pledge of Israel's future conversion being thus left them, proclamation of present judgment upon them is made by the call from among the Gentiles of a people for God. This is done by the ministry of the Apostle of the circumcision; and most fitly so. For he had received the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and was also the representative of Jerusalem, who is (however faithless, and as such divorced for a while) " the mother of us all." But Peter's title to this, as representing Jerusalem, being thus allowed, we find a Church of Gentiles gathered at Antioch by other hands and Barnabas and haul rather than Peter called to the help and comfort of it.

12.-And now the Lord had only publicly to dismiss Jerusalem for a season. But as He had before pledged Israel's future conversion, so does He, as I judge, now pledge to them their future restoration. To me I confess this chapter has great beauty and meaning, presenting both the sorrows and the deliverance of the remnant in the latter day, and the full ruinous overthrow of their enemies. James is slain with the sword, as hereafter at Jerusalem the complaint will be this, " their blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem." (Psa. 79:2, 3.) Peter also, the hope of the circumcision, is cast into prison, the enemy thus all but prevailing against the Israel of God. But he was to go no further, for Peter is to appear to be the Lord's prisoner, rather than Herod's. He sleeps between his keepers. He lies there " a prisoner of hope." The enemy is strong and mighty, and the remnant have no relief but in God. But that is enough. They make prayer without ceasing for him, till at length this prisoner of the Lord is sent forth out of the pit, as Israel will be in the latter day. (Zech. 9:11, 12.) At first he was like one that dreamed, thinking that he saw a vision; and so were his company, saying,—-" it is His angel." But so will Israel be hereafter. They will sing, " when the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream." But in the sudden joy of their heart, they will have to add, " then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing"—as 'Peter coming to himself now. says-" Now I know of a surety that the Lord bath sent His angel, and hath delivered me out of the hand of Herod, and from all the expectation of the people of the Jews."

All this is to me sweetly and strikingly significant. But the sign does not end here. In royal apparel Herod sits upon his throne, baying thought it well to be highly displeased, as though vengeance belonged to him. He makes an oration to the people, and they give a shout for him saying, " it is the voice of a god and not of a man." Thus he takes to himself the glory which was God's and immediately the angel of the Lord smote him, and he was eaten with worms and gave up the ghost." So will the lawless one magnify himself above all, and sit upon the mount of the congregation on the sides of the north, saying-" I will be like the most High." Ile will do " according to his will;" but he shall come to his end and none shall help him-" So let all thine enemies perish, 0 Lord; but let them that love Him be as the sun when lie goeth forth in his might."

Thus is final mercy pledged to Israel. Under these signs of their conversion and restoration, and of the overthrow of their enemies, they are now left prisoners of hope. The Lord Himself gives them a sign, and then hides His face from them, goes His way for awhile, and leaves His sanctuary. All this prepares us for a ministry beyond the bounds of Israel; and accordingly in the opening of the next chapter, we find the word sent forth to the Gentiles, Jerusalem as the Source of grace and ministry forgotten, and the name of Jew and Gentile left without distinction.

Such I judge to be the course and meaning of the events that occurred during the ministry of the circumcision under the hand of St. Peter, as we have them recorded in these chapters. But what, I ask was the nature of the ministry itself? What were the hopes that it spoke of to Israel, and what was the call that it made upon Israel?-We shall find, in answer to these inquiries, that the Apostles spoke of the proper national hopes of Israel, calling on them to repent in order that they might attain them, and be blest in the earth. They declare Israel's sin in crucifying the prince of life; God's acceptance of this crucified One, and upon repentance, the remission of Israel's sins and the fulfilling of Israel's hopes.

Thus in Peter's sermon in the 2nd chapter, his testimony to Israel was this-that the resurrection secured the promises made to David's throne, that the ascension was the source of the given Spirit, that Jesus was to alp:de in the ascended place till His enemies were made His footstool; and upon all this He calls on Israel to repent. But he says nothing about the Church ascending after her head and her consequent heavenly glory.-So in the 3rd chapter (after he and John had recognized God's house at Jerusalem,) in his preaching, he calls on Israel to repent in order that the times of refreshing might come from the presence of the Lord, when Jesus should return to them, and all things promised by Moses and the prophets be accomplished. But all this in like manner was a testimony to the hopes of Israel and the earth, and not a testimony to the heavenly glory. It was a publication of the acts and promises of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to the children of the prophets and the children of the covenant. And so in the 5th chapter we have this-" Him hath God exalted with His right hand to be a prince and a Savior, for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins,"-words very strongly marking the value which the Spirit in St. Peter gave to the resurrection of the Lord, applying it merely to Israel as God's nation.

And as the proper fruit of this preaching and of these hopes, we find the conduct and practice of the saints to have been this -they present beautiful order and grace in the way of settling their earthly possessions-they get favor with all the people, as Jesus had in His infancy at Nazareth-they continue daily in the temple, as though they knew not how soon the Lord might return to it-and they heal all disease among the people, as the Lord had done when He walked through the cities and villages of Judea. But beyond all this, perfect as it was in its season, there was something still. The Church had still to take with Jesus Jeer earth rejected and earth rejecting character. Citizenship in heaven, death as to the earth and life hid with Christ in God, a looking forth towards the things within the vail after the glorious forerunner, were great and new things still to be brought out of the treasury. Neither St. Peter's, testimony nor the Church's conduct, were such as exhibited them. The glory within the vail first looks through, when Stephen's face shines as the face of an angel: And this was beautiful in its season also; for Stephen was soon to be made the first witness of the heavenly calling. Martyrdom was the needed ground of the full manifestation of this calling. The Apostles might have suffered shame, and stripes, and imprisonment, but there was still space for repentance to Israel, as there had been during the Lord's ministry, (though He in like manner suffered shame and rejection) till. His last visit to Jerusalem. The cross however had closed the earth upon the Lord, and so did the martyrdom of Stephen close it now upon the Church, and awful separation for a while was made between all who are the Lord's and this present evil world.

Thus till this death of a saint after the resurrection, the time had not come for the bringing out of this new thing, (the heavenly calling of the Church) from the treasury of the divine counsels. Types, and the other intimations of it had been from the beginning. Our Lord had given the vision of it on the holy mount, but it was dimness in the eyes even of the Apostles. He hinted at " the heavenly things" which the Son of man alone could speak of, (John 3) but they were not perceived.-" The little while" of his abiding with the Father, was as strange to the disciples as to the Jews. His ministry of these things was to them proverbs. (John 16:25.) And so even the ascension of the Lord was not of itself adequate ground for the manifesting of that glory. For it was needed to the Lord's forming the Jewish Church for godly citizenship on the earth, the Holy Ghost being received through the ascension, "for the rebellious," that is-for Israel, " that the Lord God might dwell among them-dwell among them here. But on the martyrdom of a believer in the Lord thus risen and ascended, the time had fully come for the manifesting of the heavenly calling, for the showing out of this mystery, that Christ was to have a body which was to share with Him in the glory on high into which He had Himself ascended, whose citizenship was not to be in Jerusalem, but in heaven,

" In the regeneration," as the Lord speaks, that is-in the coming kingdom of the Son of man, there will be again a Church that will find her proper place on earth, the Israel of God. And then the twelve Apostles will be manifested in connection with the twelve tribes and the saints with the world. (see Matt. 19:28. 1 Cor. 6:2, 3.) All this will be the glory and joy of that happy time, and most beautiful and perfect in its season. The Son of' man seated on His throne of glory-the Apostles judging the twelve tribes-and the saints, the world. The servants will then share in the kingdom of their Lord, having authority with Him and under Him over the cities of His dominion. But this time is now delayed, for the earth has refused it. Israel has cast the heir of the vineyard out, and killed them that were sent to them. (1 Thess. 2:16.) Another testimony was therefore now to go forth, a testimony to the loss of Israel's and the earth's hopes for the present, and to the call of an elect people out of earth into heaven. And Saul the persecuter, that is-Paul the Apostle was made the special bearer of it.

And how rich was the grace displayed by the Lord in choosing Saul to be the vessel of this heavenly treasure! At this very time he was in full enmity against God and His anointed. At His feet the witnesses whose hands had been first upon Stephen, laid down their clothes. But this is the man that is to be made God's chosen vessel; and such is the way of the Lord in abounding mercy. Before this, man's fullest enmity had been met by God's fullest love; for the cross was at the same moment the witness of both, as the person of Saul now is. The soldier's spear, as one has observed, drew forth the blood and water-sin has drawn forth grace. And now, as we may say, Saul's journey to Damascus, was tire spear making its way a second time into the side of Christ, for he was now going with commission and slaughter against the flock of God. But it was on this journey that the light from heaven arrested him. The blood of Jesus thus, again met the soldier's cruel spear, and Saul is a pattern of all long suffering.

The sovereign grace that saves the Church was thus displayed in Saul. But the heavenly glory that is reserved for the Church, was also displayed to him, for he sees Jesus in it. And by these things his future ministry is formed.

And here I may observe in connection with this, that at the times of calling out new ministries, there have commonly been characteristic exhibitions of Christ. Thus-when Moses was called forth at Horeb, he saw a burning, but yet unconsumed bush, out of the midst of which Jehovah wake to him. And the ministry which he then received was according to this vision, to go and deliver Israel from the affliction of Egypt, in the midst of which God had been with them, preserving them in spite of it all. When he and the people afterward stood under Sinai, the mountain was altogether in a smoke, so that even Moses himself exceedingly feared and quaked. But all this was so, because there was about to proceed from it, that law which poor fallen man can never answer, and which therefore is but the ministry of death and condemnation to him, though he be such an one as Moses himself. When Moses afterward drew towards God, standing between Him and the people, he receives (in accordance with the mediate place which he thus occupied,) his commission to deliver as the national mediator, the laws and ordinances of the king.-But when in the last place, he goes up to the top of the hill, far beyond both the region of horrible fire and the mediate place which he occupied as the mediator of the nation, and where all was calm and the presence of the Lord around him, he receives the tokens of' grace, the types of Christ, the savior and priest, and is from thence made to minister to Israel, " the shadows of good things to come." In all these we see much that was expressive of the ministry about to be appointed.

So afterward, though in a more limited way. Then Joshua was about to receive a commission to compass Jericho with men of war, the Lord appears to him as a man of war with a sword drawn in His hand.-When Isaiah was called to go forth as the prophet of judgment against Israel, the Lord was seen in His temple in such terrible majesty, that the very posts of the door moved at His voice, and the house was filled with smoke. (Isa. 6) When our Lord stood in the land of Israel the minister of the circumcision, according to this place and character, He appoints twelve to go forth to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. But after the resurrection when He stood on the earth in a larger character, all power in heaven and earth being then His; He commission His Apostles accordingly,-" Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. And so now. Ascended into heaven and having there received the Church to Himself, He appears to Saul from that glory; and in him appoints a ministry formed upon the principle of this manifestation. Heaven was the birthplace of Paul's Apostleship; and according to this, he was sent forth to gather out and raise up a people from earth to heaven.

Thus from the place from whence his call into office came, we at the beginning might be prepared for something new and heavenly. But his Apostleship was out of due time as well as out of due place. (1 Cor. 15:8.) It not only did not come from Jerusalem, but it arose after the Apostleship there had been perfected: Judas' forfeited bishopric had been filled up by Matthias, and thus the body of twelve as ordered by the Lord at the beginning was again complete; and Paul's Apostleship is thus a thing born " out of due time."

But though in this respect, " out of due time," yet not so in every respect. The times and seasons which the Lord has taken for the unfolding of His counsels, are doubtless all due and rightly ordered and having " the mind of Christ" (the present inheritance, through grace, of every spiritual man) we may seek to know this, remembering first of all, whose counsels we are searching into, and how it becomes us to walk before Him with unshod feet. May Ile keep us, brethren, thus treading His courts; and may the haste of enquirers, never take us out of the place and attitude of worshippers. Let us remember that it is in his temple we must inquire. (Psa. 27:4.)

As, then, to these times and seasons, I observe that our Lord marks successive stages in the divine procedure with Israel, when He says, " the law and the prophets prophesied until. John." Here He notices three ministries, the law, the prophets, and John: But these extended only down to our Lord's own ministry, and therefore now in the further progress of the divine counsels we can to these add others.

The Law.-This dispensation put Israel under a covenant which exacted obedience as the condition upon which they were to continue in the land, and in the blessings which Jehovah had given them. But we know that they broke it.

The Prophets.-After offense and trespass had come in prophets were raised up (among other services,) to warn and encourage Israel to return to Him, from whom they and their fathers had revolted, that they might recover their place, and blessing under the covenant. But Israel, we know, refused their words, stoning some and killing some.

John.-The baptist is then raised up not as one of the prophets merely to call Israel back to the old covenant, and to the obedience which it required, but to be the herald of a kingdom that was then at the doors, the forerunner of One who was coming with the sure blessing of His own presence. He summoned the people to be ill readiness for Messiah. But John they beheaded.

The Lord.-Thus introduced by John to Israel; the Lord accordingly comes forth, and offers the kingdom in His own person to them, and Israel is summoned to own it and worship Him. But we know that the heir of the vineyard was cast out by the husbandmen. "His own received Him not." The builders disallowed the stone. They crucified the prince of life; but God raised Him from the dead, and seated Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places.

The Twelve Apostles.-They had companied with our Lord all the time that He had gone in and out among them, from the baptism of John to the day that He was taken up from them, and they were now called forth (being endued with the Holy Ghost,) to be witnesses to Israel of the resurrection. And these witnesses tell Israel that the times of refreshing, the times of accomplishing all promised good to them, waited only for their repentance; for that Jesus was now exalted to be a prince and Savior to them. And now the final trial of Israel was come. What could be done more than had now been done? Trespass against the Son of man had been forgiven, at least the way of escape from the judgment which it called for had now been thrown open to Israel by the testimony of the Holy Ghost in the Apostles; but what could provide relief if this testimony were now despised? (see Matt. 12:32.) But the Holy Ghost is resisted, the testimony of the twelve is despised by the martyrdom of Stephen, and the Lord's dealings with Israel and the earth are therefore necessarily closed for a season.

St. Paul.-The Apostle of the Gentiles then comes forth, fraught with further treasures of divine wisdom, revealing purposes that had been till now (while God was dealing with Israel and the earth) hid in God. He comes forth with this testimony-that Christ and 'the Church were one-that heaven was their common inheritance: and the gospel committed to him, was the gospel, as he expresses it, of " Christ in us the hope of glory." This gospel he had now to preach among the Gentiles. (Gal. 1:16. Col. 1:28.)

We are thus enabled to see the dullness of the times in which the mysteries of God have been revealed. It must be so we know, for God is God. But through His abounding towards in all wisdom and prudence, He gives us grace to see something of this that we may adore Him, and love Him, and long for the day when we shall see face to face, and know as we are known. For all these His ways are beautiful in their season. Israel was the favored earthly people, and it was due to them to try whether or not the fountain would be opened in Jerusalem, from whence to water the earth. But this debt of Israel had now been paid by the ministry of the Lord, closed in by that of the twelve"; and Stephen's speech in the 7th of Acts, is God's conviction of Israel's rejection of all the ways which His love had taken with them. They had silenced, as he there charges them, the early voice of God in Joseph-they had refused Moses the deliverer-7-they had persecuted the prophets-slain John, and others who bad showed before of the coming of the Just One-been the betrayers and murderers of that Just One Himself-and finally, were then in His person resisting, to the end resisting, as they had ever done, the Holy Ghost. The Lord therefore had only to forsake His sanctuary, and with it the earth, and the martyr sees the Lord in heaven under such a form as gives clear notice that the saints were now to have their citizenship in heaven, and their home in the glory there, and not on the earth.

This martyrdom of Stephen was thus a crisis or time of judgment, and the final one with Israel and a new witness to God is therefore called out. There had been already such times in the history of Israel. Shiloh had been the scene of the first crisis. The ark that was there was taken into the enemy's land-the priest and his sons died ingloriously; Ichabod was the character of the system then, and Samuel was called out as Jehovah's new witness,-the help of Israel-the raiser of the stone Ebenezer.

Jerusalem was afterward the scene of another crisis. The house of David had filled up its sin; the king-, and the people with all their treasures were taken down to Babylon, and tile city laid in heaps; and Jesus (for the interval as to this purpose need not be estimated,) is called forth God's new witness-the sure mercy and hope of Israel. But He was refused, and in judgment turned His back upon Jerusalem, saying -"behold your house is left unto you desolate." That was a season of judgment also, judgment of Israel for the rejection of the Son of man; and another witness is then called out-the twelve Apostles, who testify, as I have been observing, in the Holy Ghost to the resurrection of the rejected Lord, and that repentance and remission of sins were pro-vided in Him for Israel. Bat they also are rejected and cast out. Then comes the final crisis.-Stephen is their representative, and be convicts Israel of full resistance of the Holy Ghost, and then a new and heavenly witness is called forth. Such witness is the Church, and of the Church, and of the Church's special calling and glory, Paul is made in an eminent sense the minister.

" It pleased God to reveal His Son in me," says he. This is the ground of the Church's special dignity, and the gospel which Paul preached. It was not the gospel of Messiah, the hope of Israel, nor the gospel of the once crucified One, now exalted " to be a prince and a Savior, to give repentance to Israel, and re-mission of sins;" but it was the gospel of the Son of God revealed in Him. The Son had been revealed to the disciples by the Father before; (Matt. 16:17.) but now He is revealed in Paul. He had the Spirit of adoption. The Holy Ghost in him was the Spirit of the Son; and anointed with this oil of gladness, he had to go forth and spread the savor of it every where. And upon the Son thus revealed within, hangs everything that is peculiar, as I have observed, to the calling,. and glory of the Church. Thus we read -" the Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God; and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ: if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together." (Rom. 8:16, 17.) And again, we read, that we are predestinated to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ," that is-as St. Paul here speaks of himself, to have the Son revealed in us. And this being the predestinated condition of the Church, there comes forth, as in the train of this, all the Church's holy prerogatives-acceptance in the beloved, with forgiveness of sins through His blood-entrance into the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, so as to have made known to us the mystery of the will of God-future inheritance in and with Him in whom all things in heaven and earth are to be gathered.-and the present seal and earnest of this inheritance in the Holy Ghost. This bright roll of privileges is inscribed by the Apostle, thus—"spiritual blessings in the heavenlies;" and so they are; blessings through the Spirit flowing from and linking us with Him who is the Lord in the heavens. (Eph. 1:4.-12.)

All this follows upon the Son being revealed in us, by which the Church puts on Christ, so as to be one with Him in every stage of His wondrous way; dead, quickened, raised, and seated in heaven in Him. (Eph. 2:6.) And of this mystery Paul was especially the steward. The Lord had hinted at it in the parable of the vine and the branches, He had spoken of it as that which the presence of the Comforter was to effect, saying,-" at that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye to me, and I in you." He spoke of it also to His disciples through Mary Magdalene after the resurrection, saying,-" I ascend unto my Father and your Father, unto my God and your God," thus telling them that they were to be one with Him in love and joy before the throne, all through this present dispensation. But this mystery did not fully come forth till St. Paul is sent to declare it. It is a calling of exceeding riches of grace, but nothing less could meet the mind of God towards His elect, for He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified were to be all of one. (Heb. 2:11.) Thus stood the covenant of love before the world was. A mediator such as Moses, whose best service was to keep Jehovah and the people asunder, (see Deut. 5:5.) could not answer the purpose of this marvelous love of our God; but in the Son the elect are accepted; and while His work and merit are all their title to anything, they have everything by their oneness with the mediator Himself. (John 17:26.) Nothing less than this could fulfill the desire of our heavenly Father's heart towards us! The partition wall whether between God and sinners, or between Jew and Gentile, is broken down; and we sinners stand together on its ruins, triumphing over them in Christ; our heavenly Father rejoicing over them also. This is the marvelous workmanship of the love of God, and the forming and completing of this union of Christ and the Church, is the husbandry which God it now tending. He is not, as once He was, caring for a land of wheat, and oil, and pomegranates, that His people might eat without scarceness of the increase of the field; (Deut. 11:12.) but He is the husbandman of the vine and the branches. He is training the Church in union with the Son of His love, till all come into the knowledge of Him to a perfect man. It is this union which makes us of the same family with the Lord Jesus, and entitles us to hear of Him as " the first born." (Rom. 8:29.) It is this union which gives us the same glory with the Lord Jesus, and entitles us to look after Him as " the forerunner." (Heb. 6:20.) It is this which gives character to that life which we now have, and to that glory in which we shall be manifested when He who is our life shall appear.

Our life and glory are thus both of a new character.

The life is a new life. The man in Christ is a new creature, he is a dead and risen man. His powers and affections have acquired a new character. His intelligence is spiritual under. standing, or " the mind of Christ." His love is " love in the Spirit." The power in Him is "glorious power," the person of Christ's resurrection. And so he knows no man after the flesh, but all things are become new to him. It is not enough that human affections or natural tastes would sanction anything, for being after the Spirit, he minds the things of the Spirit. He serves in newness of spirit, and the name of the Lord Jesus is the sanction of what he does either in word or deed. He has been translated into the kingdom of God's dear Son, and there he walks, going forth in assurance and liberty to do service from morning till evening, living by faith on Him who loved him and gave Himself for him.

The glory is also a new glory. It is something above all that was seen in previous ages. Excellent things have been spoken of Adam and of Israel; but not equal to what is told us of the Church. Christ• is to present the Church to Himself, as God presented Eve to Adam, to be the companion of His dominion and glory. The saints are to be conformed to the image of the Son. It is " the joy of the Lord" that is prepared for the saints, a share with Christ in the authority of the kingdom, in that which He has received from the Father. They are not so much brought into the glory as made glorious themselves-as we read, "the glory that shall be revealed ire us;" and again, " glorified together," that is, together with Christ;" " fashioned like unto His glorious body." The place of the Son is the scene of their glory. They are not to stand on the footstool, but to sit on the throne. Israel may have the blessings of the earth, but the Church is to know the upper or heavenly glory.

And it is life and glory that makes us what we are. The life makes us sons; the glory makes us heirs; and our sonship and inheritance are everything. And it was the gospel of this life and glory that St. Paul was specially called out to minister, Peter and the others forwarded it: we know, but Paid was the distinguished steward of it. And Peter and the others did not forward this gospel as being the twelve at Jerusalem. As the twelve they had borne their testimony to Israel and been rejected like their Lord, and now had become witnesses to the heavenly calling of the Church. The vision which instructed Peter in the fact that God had sanctified the Gentiles, might also have told him that God had made heaven and not earth, the place of their calling and the scene of their hopes. The vessel with its con, tents was let down from heaven and then taken up again into heaven. This was, by a symbol, a revelation of the mystery hid—from ages. It denoted that the Church had been of old written in heaven and hid there with God, but now for a little season was manifested here, and in the end was be to hid in heaven again, having her glory and inheritance there. This was signified by the descending and ascending sheet, and such, I judge, is the character of the mystery hid from ages and generations. And ac cording to this, Peter under the Holy Ghost speaks to the saints of their inheritance, " reserved in heaven," and exhorts them to wait with girded loins as strangers and pilgrims on the earth. tie presents the Church as having consciously come to the end of all things here, and looking, like Israel in the night of the passover, towards Canaan, having done with this Egypt-world."

But Paul was apprehended in a special manner for this ministry. A dispensation of the gospel was committed to him, and woe to him if he did not preach it. (1 Cor. 9:16, 17.) Though as he speaks, it were even against his will, yet he must preach it. The Son was revealed in hi a, for this very purpose that he might preach Him among the heathen. (Gal. 1:16.) For when the Lord converted his soul, he sent him out with this gospel, " Rise and stand upon thy feet, for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these timings which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee."

I do indeed judge that it is very profitable to the saints that they discern rightly that St. Paul's ministry was thus one stage in the divine process of telling out the purposes of God. That he holds a distinguished place in the Church, the feeling of every saint will at once and without effort bear witness; for there is no name more kept in the recollections of the saints than that of our Apostle, save the name of Him who in the hearts of His people has no fellow.

And his office being thus from heaven, he refuses to confer with flesh and blood-refuses to go up to Jerusalem to them that were Apostles before him. He was not to get himself sanctioned there or by them. Before this, the twelve at Jerusalem had all authority. But the Apostles at Jerusalem are nothing- to Paul or his ministry. They had not cast the lot over him, nor are they now to send him fin-tit; but it is the Holy Ghost who says,—-" separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them." And having thus received grace and Apostleship from the Lord, in the glory, and being now sent forth by the Holy Ghost, in full consistency with all this, he and Barnabas receive recommendation to the grace of God, from the unconsecrated bands of some unnamed brethren at Antioch. All this was a grievous breach upon that order that was to establish the earth in righteousness, beginning at Jerusalem

And not only was Paul's Apostleship and mission thus independent of Jerusalem and of the twelve; but the gospel which he preached, (the nature of which we have before considered) he did not learn either there or from them. He received it not from man, neither was he taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. He goes up, most truly, from Antioch, with Barnabas, to Jerusalem, to confer with the Apostles about circumcision; but before he does so, Ile withstood some though they had come from James, and rebuked Peter before them all. And these things were ordered in the provident wisdom of the Spirit; just as our Lord's rebukes of Elis mother; the Spirit of God foreseeing the boasts in the flesh which would arise from both these sources, from Mary and from Peter; and thus has given the wayfaring man these tokens of His heavenward path. He circulates the decree upon the question of circumcision, for present peace. But when counseling the Gen-tile Churches afterward§ on one of the subjects which this decree determines, viz-eating meats offered to idols; he does so on the ground merely of brotherly love. He never refers to this decree. (1 Cor. 8) He was taught his gospel entirely by revelation, (Gal. 1:12.) for at his conversion it had been so promised to him. (Acts 26:16.) And accordingly it was from the Lord Himself that he received his knowledge of the death, burial, resurrection; (1 Cor. 15:3.) and his knowledge also of the last supper and its meaning; (1 Cor. 11:23.) though these things lay within the common acquaintance of those who had companied with the Lord, and he might have received them from them. But no, he must be taught them all by revelation. The Lord appeared to him in those things of which he was to be a minister and witness. The Lord was jealous that Paul should not confer with flesh and blood, should not be a debtor to any but to Himself for his gospel. For as the dispensation was to allow of no confidence in the flesh, neither was Paul's Apostleship. All that might have been gain in the flesh was to be counted loss. Confidence with those who had seen and heard, eaten arid drunk with Jesus might have been gain, but all this was set aside. Paul would thankfully be refreshed in spirit by the mutual faith of himself and the humblest disciple. Nay, he would have such acknowledged; all such in whose belly the Spirit had opened the river of God for the refreshing of the saints. (Rom. 1:12. 1 Cor. 16:18.) But he could accept no man's person. The previous pillars of the Church could not be used to support his ministry. The Jewish order was gone. Of old, Jehovah, we know, had respect to that order. It was according to the number of the children of Israel; that at the first he divided the nations. (Deut. 32:8.) Afterward he distributed the land of Canaan according to this number, also, that is—among the twelve tribes. (Joshua 19.) So David in his clay, under the guiding of Jehovah, had respect to the same number, when he settled the ministries of the temple and the officers of the palace at Jerusalem. (1 Chron. 23-27.) And in like manner the Lord providing for the healing and teaching of Israel, appointed twelve Apostles, still having respect to the Jewish order. And this order of twelve Apostles was preserved, as Vg e have seen, under the hand of Peter afterward, for he was the guardian of the Jewish order, and pastor of the Jewish Church. But Paul's Apostleship is at once an invasion upon all this. It has no respect whatever to Jewish earthly or fleshly order. It interferes with it. It is a writing under the hand of the Spirit of God for the revoking of that order. And this was, as Was natural, a great trial to the Jewish christians. They could not easily understand this undue Apostleship, and we find that be was considerate of them under this trial. And indeed those who stand with him in the assertion of the sovereignty of the Spirit, and in the rejection of all fleshly authority; should with him likewise be considerate of the difficulties which many now experience from the Jewish feelings and rules of judgment, in which they have been educated.. But still Paul was an Apostle, let them hear or let them forbear.

And not only was it a trial to Jewish believers, but there were found evil men moved of Satan, who made their use of this state of things. We find it to have been so at Corinth. In Galatia it was not this. In his epistle to the Churches there, he does not speak of his Apostleship, because it had been slandered among them; but because it was the divine sanction of that gospel which he had preached, but from which they had departed. But at Corinth his Apostleship had been questioned, and by what witnesses would be have it approved? why by his pureness, his knowledge, his armor of righteousness. (2 Cor. 7) How does he seek to be received? why because he had corrupted no man, he had defrauded no man. (2 Cor. 7) How does he vindicate and establish his ministry? read his proofs in such words as these—-

Am I not an Apostle? am I not free? have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? are ye not my work in the Lord? if I am not an Apostle unto others, yet doubtless I am to you, for the seal of mine Apostleship are ye in the Lord:" and again -" for though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel." Does he not by all this commit the proof of' his Apostleship to the manifest presence of the Spirit with him? His children in the faith, were the seal of his office; (1 Cor. 9:2.) the epistle that ought to commend it to the acceptance of all men. The signs of an Apostle had been wrought by him. (2 Cor. 12:12.) And must it not have been so? What office or ministry could now be warranted without the presence and exercise of the gifts received for men? Could the purpose of the ascension be evaded or annulled? Could fleshly authority and order be allowed in despite of the revelation now given, that the ascended Head was the dispenser and Lord of all those ministries that were for '" the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ?" When the Lord ascended, on His way up, He was a conqueror in triumph, leading captivity captive. But when He reached His heavenly seat, He became a crowned priest, and sent down coronation gifts to His Church, by the ministry of which He is either forming or strengthening the union between Himself and the members here, and their union among themselves. Then ministries thus act like the joints and bands in the human body; and all other ministries the Apostle sets aside as " rudiments of the world," fitted to those who are alive in the world, but most unsuited to those who are dead and risen with Christ, as the Church is. (see Eph. 4:16. Col. 2:19 -23.)

We are therefore not true to the ascension of our Head, if we do not look for His ascension-gifts in those who minister in His name. They constitute the hand writing of the Lord in the Church's genealogies. The Jews were careful to put from the priesthood those whose genealogy could not be proved. They refused to register them. (Ezra 2:62. Neh. 7:63.) And this too in a day when all was feebleness in Israel. No cloudy pillar had led them on their way home from Babylon-no arm of the Lord had gloriously made a passage for them through the deserts-no rain of angel's foot! from heaven, nor ark of the covenant was with them. All this and more than this was gone. But did they plead their feebleness and do nothing? Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah, do what they can. They cannot recover everything, but they do what they can and among other services, they read the genealogies, and do not allow the holy things to be eaten by unproved claimants of the priesthood. And ours, dear brethren, is a day of feebleness like theirs. Much of the former strength and beauty is gone, and we cannot recover everything. But it is not therefore to be a day of allowed evil, nor are we in the spirit of slumber to fold the arms, and say,-" there is no hope." We should do what we could, and among other services, we can study the genealogies; when any one seeks their register, and thus they run -" A bishop must be blameless, the husband of one wife; vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach, not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre." (1 Tim. 3)

Thus run the genealogies of the bishops of the flock of God; thus has the Spirit of the ascended head of the Church written in His word. The time for glorying only in the Lord, and in that authority, arid in that only which had been formed by the Holy Ghost had now fully come, and therefore the fact that the Lord had given Paul authority in the Church, was shown by witnesses to the presence of the Spirit with him. The signs of an Apostle were wrought by him. His authority stood approved by this, that he could "do nothing against the truth, but for the truth;" and because the power used by him was used " to edification and not to destruction." (2 Cor. 13:5-10.) He claims no authority save what was thus verified by the presence of the Spirit with him, and used by him for the furtherance of the truth and the profit of the Church. For the Holy Ghost had been publicly avouched to be sovereign in the Church, as the Son had been proclaimed head Iv the Church. The gifts of the Spirit may be among, us in various measures of strength; but the Holy Ghost in us is the title of all present worship and service. Whatever worship is now to be had in the temples of God, it is to be in the Spirit, for " we are. the circumcision which worship God in the Spirit;" and the Apostle speaking of worship; says-" no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, (that is, no man can call Jesus, Lord, or say, "Lord Jesus,") but by the Holy Ghost." (1 Cor. 12:2) So whatever service is now to be rendered in the Church is with this limitation, "according to the ability which God giveth;" it is by this rule, " the manifestation of the Spirit." Paul might lay hands on Timothy, and Titus might appoint elders; but the presence of the Spirit was in measure according to the authority and service.. Timothy was left in Ephesus; but the charge entrusted to him there, was according to the gifts bestowed upon him. (1 Tim. 1:18; 4:14; 2 Tim. 1:6) To assume any ministry beyond this measure, is to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think. (Rom. 12:3.) And as every individual saint has title through the indwelling spirit to " prove all things.;" (with this condition doubtless, that he " hold fast that which is good,") so the congregations of the saints, or the temples of God, as spiritual, are to judge also; (1 Cor. 14:29) and if the resources of the flesh, the name, the human advantages, or earthly distinctions of men be gloried in and trusted, the temple is defiled, And the temple of God at Corinth, was thus defiled. (1 Cor. 3:16-23.) Some had rested in Paul, some in Cephas, some in Apollos. But this was carnal. This was walking as men, and not in the presence and sufficiency of the Spirit whose temple they were. They became untrue to the Spirit who dwelt in them.

And here let me say, that it is not so much right to minister which the New Testament speaks of, as obligation. If any man have the gift, he is debtor to exercise it, and to wait on his ministry. The habit of looking on ministry as a right, rather than as an obligation has given the Church its worldly aspect. The "great house" has forgotten that service on earth is glory. But our Apostle did not forget it, and he never affected anything that might have its influence in the world, upon the world's principles. He was one whom the world would pass by. He labored with his own hands, followed his trade, and made tents, just at the time when in the authority of the Spirit he shook his raiment upon the unbelieving Jews. He was among the meanest of his company (mean in the world's judgment) gathering sticks for the fire, when in the power of Christ lie shook the viper from his hand. Beloved! this is unlike all that which corrupted Christendom has sanctioned in her ministers as their due and suitable dignities! But Paul was in his own esteem, (and would have others esteem him by that rule also) just what the Lord had made him. He would not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ had not wrought by him. (Rom. 15:18.) He measured himself only by that line which the Lord had distributed to hint. (2 Cor. 10) What folly does he count all boasting in the flesh. He was compelled for a little moment thus •to be a fool before the Church at Corinth, but with what zeal, with what revenge, with what clearing' of himself does he leave off this "folly" as he calls it? (2 Cor. 11.) Would that the same mind were in us all, the same zeal for the Lord, the same revenge upon the flesh which is fit, like the offal of a sacrifice, only for the burning outside the camp.

To me, brethren, I confess, these principles are very clear from the New Testament. The Lord knows that naturally, I would rather have all continued and settled in the flesh, that we might the more securely hold on our quiet and even way. But I pray for more faith, for more living and powerful apprehension. Of this truth, that the earth and its inhabitants are to be dissolved, and that Christ alone is to bear up its pillars. We need the faith that would root us out of that earth in which the Cross of the Son of God was once planted, and in which the course of this world, continuing the same as it then was, has fixed that cross only more firmly. We want that faith that would call us to arise and depart from it, and to go forth and meet the bridegroom.

But I would now hasten to a close, having extended my paper further then I would have chosen, and take a few short notices of our Apostle in his person, ministry and conduct; for in these he will be found to illustrate many features of the dispensation, as his Apostleship was the general sign of it.

In his person we see much of the dispensation reflected. He could call himself the chief of sinners, when he would magnify the grace of the dispensation, and show that it could reach over all the aboundings of sin. But he could also call himself blameless as touching the righteousness which is in the law, when he would make known the character of the righteousness of the dispensation, and show how it sets aside all other as loss and dung. (1 Tim. 1:1.5. Phil. 3:8.) These things are wondrous and yet perfect. Saul of Tarsus is taken up by the Spirit, in order to present in him the grace and the righteousness that are now brought to us Strange that we should find the first place in the first rank of sinners occupied by him who was thus touching the law blameless. But so it was. A fair, bright, and full sample of the workmanship of the dispensation is given to us in him who was made the representative minister of it. The grace of God and the righteousness of God are displayed in his person.

So in his person we see the "thorn in flesh." And let this particularly be what it may, it was in the judgment of the world, a blot. The comeliness that the world could estimate, was tarnished by this. In the Spirit he had wondrous revelations, and the secret of God was blessedly with him; but before men there was a stain upon him. But all this is in character with the dispensation. The saints exalted in Christ, before men are to be humbled. The world is not to know them. The dispensation admits of no confidence in the flesh. In it God has set the flesh aside as profitless. The right eye is gone, and the right hand is gone, things after the external appearance are not to be looked after, there is to be no measuring or comparing of things by any such rule. And according to this, Paul had a temptation in the flesh. There was put upon him something that tempted the scorn of men. As when Jacob became Israel, he halted across the plain of Peniel. The flesh was marred, when before God he got a new and honorable name. But the shrinking of his thigh was in the same love as his victory over the divine stranger. And so the thorn in Paul's flesh, was in the same love as his rapture into paradise. Hezekiah in the day when he was exalted, had been left alone, that God might prove him. (2 Chron. 32:31.) But the Lord was gracious to Paul, and would not leave him alone, but put a thorn in his flesh. And if he had stood in the full intelligence of the Spirit, he would not have prayed for its removal; for he had soon to recall his prayer, and to glory rather in his infirmities. Thus there is none perfect, dear brethren, but the master Himself. Favored and honored as Paul and others may have been, there is none perfect but the Lord. This is comfort to our souls. God rests well pleased in Him forever, but in Him only. He never had a desire to recall, never a prayer to summon back from the Father's ear.-" He was heard." But Paul had to learn that he had mistaken the rule of blessing and of glory; he had to learn, as every saint has, that when he was weak, then he was strong. And thus with the thorn in his flesh, but the power of Christ testing on him, he shows forth the saints in this dispensation.

In his ministry, we see something of the dispensation also. " The foolishness of God" and " the weakness of God," (that is the testimony to Christ crucified which the world judges " mean and slight") were now dispensed, and according to this was Paul's ministry. It was weak ant foolish in the judgment of the Greeks of this world. He came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom. His preaching was not with enticing words, but he was among the saints in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. (1 Cor. 2)

But further extended as his preaching was over the world, it set forth the comprehensiveness of the grace of God in this dispensation. In principle the sound of this grace was to go to the ends of the earth; and so St, Paul speaks of his ministry as stretching itself on the right hand and on the left, from Jerusalem round about unto Illyricum. He had received " Apostleship for the obedience to the faith among all nations,'' and he felt himself debtor both to the Greeks and to the Barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise. He spake to the Jews, and to the devout persons, to the common people as many as he met with, and then—with the philosophers. (Acts 17) His purpose was to compass the whole earth. And thus he speaks continually to the Churches of passing from place to place, by Corinth into Macedonia, returning from thence to Corinth again, and so being brought into Judea; and again-he speaks of going to Rome as he takes his journey into Spain. God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, and the Spirit that was in this Apostle of God, therefore, thus reached the ends of the world. He was calling on men everywhere to repent, as did the dispensation. And when he could no longer go about with the gospel, being the prisoner of Jesus Christ for the Gentiles, " he received all that came in unto him, preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concerned the Lord Jesus Christ." (Acts 28:30.) All this was expressive of the comprehensiveness of the grace that was now calling in " bad and good, that the wedding might be furnished with guests." In the Jewish times the ordinances of God were all at Jerusalem. It was there that men ought to worship. The priest abode in the temple, for the dispensation was one that re-fused converse with men, but in righteousness kept the flock of God folded in the land of Judea. But now the dispensation is one of grace, going forth in the activities of love, to gather home the lost sheep that have gone astray upon the mountains; and preaching is therefore the great ordinance of God now. Preaching is the new appointment of God, something that is beyond the mere services of a secluded temple; and of this new ordinance Paul was made the most distinguished minister.

Then in his conduct, I may say, that in a very general way it was made to exhibit the dispensation. In his conduct, as he says, there was " a manifestation of the truth." And this is what faith always in measure does. Faith in a living form reflects the truth dispensed. The conduct of faith, as one has observed, is always according to the principle of God's present dealing As St. John says,-" If God so loved us, we ought also to love one another." And as St. Peter says,-" not rendering evil for evil, or railing, for railing, but contrariwise blessing, knowing that ye are there. unto called, that ye should inherit a blessing. (1 Peter 3:9.) That is, blessing being bestowed on us, blessing is required of us. And so in St. Paul's conduct, we trace the great principles of God's present dealing with the Church. The Son of God emptied Himself of the glory that He had before the world was; And while on earth ever refused Himself. With title to call for legions of angels, He was dumb as a sheep before his shearers; being free as the Son, He submitted to the exactions of others. (Matt. 17:27.) So St. Paul, though free from all, made himself the servant of all, becoming all things to all men for their good. (1 Cor. 11:1; 2 Cor. 11:29.) And mark his words to the Ephesian elders, when he takes leave not only of them but of his ministry, ready to go into prison or unto death, for his master-Jesus. (Acts 20:17-35.) Mark what he there declares his conduct in his ministry had been, and how he testifies of himself that "he had showed them all things"-thus telling them that he had been made to take the honored place of reflecting the actings of God in the gospel, letting the Churches see in him the blessedness of dealing in grace, which is, (as we to our salvation know). the way of the Son of God in the gospel. " I have showed you all things, how that so laboring ye ought-to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said-it is more blessed to give than to receive." This was a holy testimony which the Spirit enabled him to bear. And in a certain sense I would say that he even surpassed the gospel; not the spirit of it, (that was impossible) but the mere conditions of it. The Lord had ordained that they which preach the gospel, should live of the gospel; but he had not used this his power in the gospel. (1 Cor. 9:12.) He might have been burdensome to the disciples as an Apostle of Christ, but he was desirous to impart to them-not the gospel of God only, but his own soul, because they were dear to him. (1 Thess. 2:9.) But what does this reflect but the unmeasured and untiring love of God, which has visited us in the gospel? So effectually had he learned Christ-so blessedly was he through grace enabled to exhibit the dispensation-and beside, so fully was he a pattern of that conversation to which the dispensation calls us, that he could say, " brethren be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so, as ye have us for an ensample; for our conversation is in heaven." lie lived on earth as a citizen of the heavenly city, and was (as the Spirit allowed him strikingly to express it) " unto God a sweet savor of Christ."

But however honored he might thus have been as the Apostle of the Gentiles, and in his Apostleship, person, ministry, and conduct, the witness of the dispensation; yet he was not sent, as he tells us, to baptize, but to preach the gospel. For there was now to be no gathering point on earth. If any such, this Apostle would have been it. But no! Christ was the center of all renewed souls, and He was in heaven. The Lord was not now setting up one visible point as he had once done at Jerusalem. The dispensation was heavenly: its source of power and its place of gathering was the upper sanctuary. It was "a citizenship in heaven" that was now enrolling, for not yet was it to be said of Zion-" this and that man was born in her." All that in every place called on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, were now recorded on high, as in the Lamb's book.

Such was our Apostle: and far more might be added of the same character, but I will not further speak of them. I would now notice only one other thing, that was peculiar to him also. I mean his rapture into Paradise. In this he stands also as the representative of the dispensation, inasmuch as it was as "a man in Christ," that he was favored with this rapture. In it he knows himself only as such, and therefore this paradise is the portion of all such. I judge it assuredly to have been the place of the spirit of the saint while absent from the body, and to which the pardoned thief went on the day of his crucifixion. Paul was actually caught up to it for a season, but no other man has ever had the same joy. He calls it "paradise"—"the third heaven," the place of abundant visions and revelations. Whether in or out of the body he knew not, but there he was. He has not been allowed to tell us much about it, and scripture is generally silent on the nature of it. But there he was, and in this rapture of our Apostle, as by the teaching of scripture, it Is witnessed to us that it is better to depart and be with Christ, and that the place of the delivered spirit is a place of abundant revelation, and a paradise of visions of Christ.

The actual being of such a place was opened fully to the faith of the Church, (though it might have been apprehended before,) when the head of the Church said—" Father, into thy hands commend my spirit." And again was it verified to our faith when, Stephen, "a man in Christ," said, " Lord Jesus receive my spirit." But still this is not the Church's perfection. The Spirit given to us of God is but the earnest of the house " eternal in the heavens." (2 Cor. 5.) The throne of the Son of man, is the inheritance of the saints, and the glory for which the Church waits.' But that place of glory is not yet prepared, as the place of the spirit of them that depart in the Lord is. There may have been visions of it, as on the holy mount, but it rests still only on vision; it is the hope still long deferred-Christ waits at the right hand for it, and the Spirit and the bride say-Come. The whole creation groaneth for it. But it still tarries. However, beloved! The word is, wait for it-it will surely come and will not tarry.

Many whom I love much in the Lord, may not judge with me in these things. And surely I know that we know now but in part, and therefore can but prophesy in part. But we may be helpers of each others joy, and so has the Lord appointed it. Nevertheless, let us take heed, brethren, that we be not taught the fear of God by the commandment of men. Let us take heed of obedience in the flesh; but watch that we do what we do in the power of communion with the Lord. And in whatever of enlarged knowledge we are instructed through others, let us have grace to try it all by a conscience exercised before our God, and inquire after truth as. in His presence.-Be it, so with thy saints, blessed Lord, more and more! Amen.

The Trial Of Jealousy: Numbers 5

"His blood be upon us and upon our children," said the Jews of their betrayed and crucified king. And so it is with them unto this day. Their land which should have been the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts, has become an aceldama-a field of blood; and they themselves, as they loved cursing, so has it come upon them.

The Lord in His doctrine determined this-that we are the children of Him whose works we do, and whose ways we imitate. (John 8) Hence it is manifest that in the judgment of God, Israel at this day are not the children of Abraham, for they have not done the works of Abraham; but the seed of Judas, for they did his work, being one with him of old in the betraying of Jesus; and still in the disowning and rejection of Jesus. (see Acts 1:16., 7:52., 1 Thess. 2:15.) But Psa. 109 leads us directly to this mystery. There the rejected Messiah first complains of His adversary, and Judas we know is intended. (Psa. 109:8. and Acts 1:20.) But afterward He speaks of His adversaries (ver. 20.) calling for judgment on them as the children of His adversary; and the Jews we may also know are intended. For surely it could not have been the natural seed of Judas, the adversary, (even if he had any,) but his mystical seed. And his mystical seed, as we have seen, are the Jews in their unbelief, for they it was who joined with him in his deed, and still in spirit imitate his evil way.-Consequently the various judgments invoked in that Psalm, upon the children of the adversary, may be seen lying on the Jews to this day. They it was who persecuted the poor and needy man; (v. 17.) and they have their reward. They it was who delighted not in blessing, (v. 17.) refusing to say—" Blessed is lie that cometh in the name of the Lord;" and blessing is therefore far from them. They it was who " loved cursing," saying of Jesus, "crucify Him, crucify Him;" so has curse come upon them; a curse and an astonishment, and a by-word are they made, through all the nations of the earth unto this day.

But in the course of the holy complaint and invocation of vengeance by the disowned rejected king of the Jews, set forth in that Psa. 1 may observe, that Ile makes reference to the ordinance of the " Trial of Jealousy;" (see Psa. 109:14-18. and Num. 5:23-27,.) and therefore as to that ordinance, I would speak more particularly.

This ordinance was for the discovering of unconfessed infidelity. A suspected wife was set by the high priest in the presence of God as the searcher of hearts. Her head was uncovered, in token that on the present occasion she knew of no subjection to any but to the Lord; and therefore she removed the covering from her head, for that covering was the sign of subjection to her husband. (1 Cor. 11:3.) The priest then put into her hand " the offering of jealousy," which was a meat-offering prepared by her husband, in a manner suitable to her present approach to God, and which the priest afterward took from her hand, and waved before the Lord, offering the memorial of it on the altar; by which action was signified on both the husband's and the wife's behalf, the committal of this matter to God. Then holding in his hand a vessel containing holy water or water taken from the brazen laver mingled with dust, (the sign of curse or fruit of sin; Gen. 3:19.) the priest solemnly adjured the woman, and read to her the curses that would come upon her if she were guilty. To this, if she pleased to stand the trial after all this warning, she said-" Amen, Amen;" and then the priest wrote the curses in a book, blotted them with some of the bitter water, and gave the rest of it to the woman to drink. The trial was then made. If she had been unfaithful, the water would enter into her and become bitter; her belly would swell, and her thigh rot; and she would be made a curse among the people. But if her husband's suspicions had wronged her, none of these things would happen to her, but the curses in the book would all be blotted out, so as to be legible no more; and thus being freed and avenged, she would receive strength of the Lord to conceive seed.

Now in the 109th Psalm, the Lord appears as one who had brought Israel up to this trial, and by it had found her guilty. He was entitled so to bring her up for this trial, for He had of old married her, (Jer. 31:32.) of old had spread His skirt over Jerusalem, (Ezek. 16:8.) and at the time of the marriage had warned her of His holy jealousness. (Ex. 20:5.) And time after time subsequent to the marriage; He had been provoked to jealousy, but had forborne, and been patient, calling again and again for repentance and confession. (Deut. 32:21; Ezek. 8:3.) But at length He pleads with her by this ordeal, while she like any hardened wife who would dare to stand the trial with the consciousness of sin upon her, defies divine justice. "His blood be upon us and upon our children," from the lips of Israel, was as the woman's " Amen," to the invocation of the curse. But their confidence has been their shame. The sin of their mother was not blotted out in the trial. (Psa. 109:14.) The water entered in and did its deadly work, (v. 18.) and to this day they are under the penalties of convicted infidelity.-Israel has been judged as a woman that breaks wedlock. (Ezek. 16:38.)

Such is the end of their ways. But the Lord has His ways also, and if theirs ended in conviction, and shame, and judgment, His will end in mercy, in peace, and in honor. There is with the Lord forgiveness for Israel. As Jesus said on the cross, " Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." There is to be acceptance for this unfaithful one with her injured Lord. She has played the harlot it is true, and so has the trial of jealousy found it, she has said, " I will go after my lovers;" but the Lord has also said, " I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving-kindness, and in mercies." (see Hosea 3.) And when that comes to pass, the very blessing which is promised to the wife who stood acquitted in the trial of jealousy, shall be Israel's, for she shall then be made free, the free-woman and a joyful mother of children. (see Num. 5:28. and Isa. 54:1.)

But before she be thus married to her maker and redeemer in the bonds of the new covenant, she is to have a time of espousals, in which the Lord will discipline her and form her for Himself. She is never to be restored to the old covenant. Her ruins under that lie as enduring as the ruins of Sodom and Gomorrah; but God will remember His covenant with her and establish unto her an everlasting covenant. (Ezek. 16:55, 60.) And her day of espousals will prepare her for this abiding union. In that day she " will be brought to know her own ways and loathe herself for all her abominations, be confounded and never open her mouth any more because of her shame. But she will also be taught to know the Lord's ways, and rejoice in the grace and the fullness of His love, whereby. He will then be pacified towards her. (Ezek. 16:60 -63.) In that day He will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and then speak comfortably unto her. He will hedge up her way with thorns, and make a wall so that she shall not find her paths; but all this discipline will only be, in order to lead her to say, " I will go and return to my first husband, for then was it better with me than now." (Hos. 2) " She shall in that day, seek again the Lord her God, and David her king." (Hos. 3) " The Lord will give her the spirit of adoption." (Jer. 3:19.). " She shall forget her own people and her father's house." (Psa. 45:10.) " She shall hearken. and incline her ear, and the king shall greatly desire her beauty. Then shall the cry of " Ishi" be put into her mouth, and the Lord will delight in her, and call her His Hephzibah." (Isa. 62, Hos. 2.)

The book of the Song of Solomon and a large portion of the Psalms, give us the exercises of Jerusalem, the elect bride or the remnant in Israel, during that day of her espousals and discipline. Ruth who first gleaned in the fields and afterward lay at the feet of Boaz on the threshing-floor, is the type of Jerusalem thus in discipline and in espousals, as Ruth the wife of Boaz the mighty man of wealth, is her type in all that honor and estate to which she shall be brought when the day of espousals ends in the covenant. And these things are also variously celebrated by all the prophets. But in all that they notice of those things, and of the Lord's tender love to His Jerusalem, I must mark one feature which has its peculiar interest for us. It is this-when the Lord has brought her to Himself in the bonds of the covenant, He does not refer to her former estate as one of divorcement, but rather of widowhood. That is, He does not call to mind the shame, but rather the sorrow of her former estate. Though it had been divorcement and shame, (Isa. 1:1.) yet the Lord will not remember it as such. May we not, brethren, notice the perfectness of such love as this. Does it not sweetly and affectingly tell us that with our God there is forgetting as well as forgiving? the taking away the sting of rebuking recollections, as well as the covering of the multitudes of sins? We see this in that beautiful chapter. (Isa. 54) There Jehovah re-married to Jerusalem, looks back as in pity on her widowhood, and not as in anger on her divorcement. All this is perfect in the ways of the divine love. The human expression of this we get in Joseph, who is the type of Christ in this His love to Israel. For when Joseph forgave and accepted his brethren, he would have the memory of all that which was their guilt and dishonor blotted out forever. " Now therefore" said he "be not grieved nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither, for God did send me before you to preserve life."

These are some of the ways of His grace, beloved, but the source of them all which is in Himself, is unsearchable. Unmeasured heights, and lengths, and depths, and breadths of love are there-a love that no man knows, and that is preparing for us what eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, 0 that we drank more simply, more unmixedly of these waters! We should think much of the love of God, as it is in its fountains in Himself, and as it is in its streams spreading and diffusing itself among us poor withered sinners. Let us not so much brood in sorrow, and complaint over thoughts of our narrow love to Him, but rather let His love be shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, our enlarged souls entertaining the thought of it continually.

And here for a moment, I would turn aside to express what I have felt at times touching the book of God, that in one respect it is indeed a melancholy saddening book, But I mean, only as it is a record of man's ways. Open any historical portion of it, and there you will see man in his evil courses, going on in active enmity or reckless forgetfulness of God. Open any prophetic portion of it, and there you will hear the voice of God's minister ex-posing, rebuking, warning or threatening poor evil man. All this makes the book a melancholy and saddening volume. Front Genesis through Exodus, and onward to the end, as your thoughts are led through man's paths, your heart will be led into lamentation and mourning. But it is a book of light and joy also, full of rest for the weary, and of refreshing for them who are thus sick of man and his doings. But I mean only as it is the record of God's ways. Open it in any place of it, and there you will find His grace meeting man's sin, His counsels correcting man's foolishness, his efforts of love assaying one method after another, to bring man home to Himself; and in the end you see Him though refused arid slighted, in the sovereignty of His grace building up families for heaven and earth, and filling all things with creation's joy in His own praise. Thus, brethren, let one page of this wondrous book show man to us, and all is sorrow and shame; let another show God to us, and all is rest and joy. And this will be found to be just as it should be, that " according as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord."

But to return, and for a little while to meditate on the Church's more immediate interest in the truths I have been considering. I would observe that scripture teaches us that the Church knows of no marriage with her Lord, but of election and grace; and of that covenant that puts away sin, and preserves union forever. In principle such a marriage as Jerusalem is to know in the latter day, and not such as Israel knew when of old thy came out of Egypt. The Church has never been married by a covenant that rests on her own fidelity and strength. Indeed as yet there has been no marriage of the Church at all. There will be, but as yet there has been no presenting of the bride to the Lamb. Nor indeed could there have been, for the Church is not yet formed, nor has the scene of their union, the home and inheritance of Christ and the Church, been as yet prepared. For heaven is the scene of the union, (Rev. 19:4.) and out of heaven the Lamb's wife is seen to descend. (Rev. 21) But it was otherwise with Israel of old. There might have been a marriage between her and the Lord of Hosts, as we have seen there was, because Israel as a nation was manifested under Joshua; and Canaan was the scene of the union. But the Church has never yet been manifested, for she is not yet formed: She is passing now through the time of her espousals, the time of discipline and preparation, that when she is married, she may be as one ready for her Lord, and fitted for abiding everlasting union with Him. She is during this age or dispensation on her journey to meet Him. She is like Rebecca under the charge of Abraham's servant, having left her father, her kindred, and her country, as the espoused of the distant and as yet unseen Isaac. But she fears not, she suspects not. She has com-mitted herself to the care of a stranger, one who is not known in this Mesopotamia of our's, one " whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him." (John 14:17.) But she knows Him, and trusts Him, and believes the report that Ile has brought her about her Isaac, and that His father has given Him all the wealth of His house. (Gen. 24:36., John 16:15.) And though she like Rebecca, has not seen Him, yet she loves; though as yet she sees Him not, yet believing, she rejoices. (1 Peter 1:8.) Her eye is toward Canaan, and her heart upon Isaac. But she has not yet reached Sarah's tent, Isaac's desired dwelling-place. She has goodly ornaments upon her, brought out from Abraham's treasures, the pledges of Abraham's wealth. of Isaac's love, and of her guide's faithfulness: but she is still only on her way. And blessed is it, brethren, when our hearts are in the way, when we are contented to know that to the end here, it is but a journey. And we must take heed, lest, like Israel, we become discouraged because of the way. For the will of God must first be done, and then the promise. (Heb. 10:36.)

Thus is it with us, beloved. It is a going still from strength to strength, through the valley of Baca. It is the way before, as well as behind us-still the way. So does the word of God describe it for us, and the word also describes this dispensation to us under the figure of the vestry to the Church, if I may so speak, where the guests are putting on their wedding garments in preparation for the marriage; a kind of' ante-room to the kingdom or the king's palace. (Matt. 22:11.) A day of espousals, as we have already spoken, in which the Church is learning the mind of the Lord, and the ways of His house. " I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you us a chaste virgin to Christ;" mark! that I may present you. The marriage is but in prospect. Personal individual union of the saints with their' head, so as to bring forth fruit unto God, there is now; but presenting of the Church unto Christ there is not as yet. Adam was cast into a deep sleep, and of the, rib taken from his side while thus in sleep, was made a woman. But not till she was fully thus made, and Adam had awaked, was she brought to him. So in the mystery. The act of forming the Church-the woman, is now going on; but the presentation cannot be, till that act be finished, and Adam awakes; till "the whole body be fitly joined together and compacted," and the Lord arises, and shows Himself, and takes His prepared and loved one.

And this mystery, the love and marriage of Christ and the Church, in three stages of it, is beautifully disclosed to us in Ephesians 5:25-27.

1.-" Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for it." That is, before the world was, when He said " lo I come;" and when His delights, as He speaks, " were with the sons of men." Then did He set His love upon the Church, and in covenant gave Himself for it, sold all that He had that He might possess her-His pearl of great price.

2.-“That He may sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word."- That is, during this present world, He is forming the Church for Himself by the virtue and continuous ministry of His word and Spirit, till she is prepared as a bride for her husband.

3.-" That He might present it to Himself a glorious Church." That is, after this world, in the coming kingdom, when He will take His bride, the Church, then formed and ready, and made glorious like Himself; that He may find her His help-meet, and be satisfied in her forever.

We thus are taught that the Church has not been, neither indeed could have been, as yet presented or married.

But the looking upon the Church as though she had been already manifested and married, has been I judge, the occasion of giving her a very undue place and condition in the world. It has been a warrant for establishing her in the earth; for an establishment is an attempt to manifest or present the Church. But this cannot be here, as we have seen. With Israel it might have been so, and was so, for the earth was Israel's home, but the Church was a stranger here. And an understanding of this, (and an understanding we should have in all things; 2 Tim. 2:7.) would have hindered this attempt. But there has not been in all this knowledge, and we have each of us, brethren, much of slowness of heart to bear with in one another, and the Lord in all of us a thousand-fold more than we ever estimate. And it is well to remember that it is written, "if any man think that he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know."

But the understanding of this, would I judge, have hindered the Lord's people from ever consenting to the establishment of the Church, which is the giving her a place and a dowry thus in the earth; as though the earth was her place and she were as yet in this age, entitled to the form and the rights of a presented or married Church. But the understanding of' this would, not only as I judge, have thus hindered error, but have furnished comfort. For it would prepare the saints for the present distracted broken condition of everything among them. And this would be great comfort. It would teach them that they were not to expect in this age a perfect exhibition of the Church, but that they must look on it only as the time for forming and fashioning the Church after the mind and counsel of God. And this would further lead them to, know that things might be really better when apparently worse, worse as to their external general condition, but better as to the great ends of the dispensation. For the purpose of the Divine Former of the Church, is to have the saints grow up in the life and power of communion with their Lord through the Spirit, rather than assume any consistency and order, however good for present credit and security, which would not stand the light and purity of that day. For this would be answering the ends of the dispensation, bringing each of us into readiness for the day when we shall all be presented together without spot.

0! let us dear brethren, have grace to cultivate this readiness for the bridegroom. It depends on this communion with Him, while as yet He is absent; and on our minds being "kept in the simplicity that is in Christ," on their being formed only in and for Christ. Christ is our salvation, but Christ is our lesson also, the holy lesson we should each be diligently learning, careful and jealous that Satan be not teaching us another. When the Lord God was fashioning Eve, His design was to make her a help-meet for Adam. His eye rested on Adam's joy, and on that only, all the while. Had any other design intruded, it would have been a corrupting of the fair workmanship. But the Lord God was true to the counsels of His love toward Adam. And so Adam found it; for when Eve was brought to him, he said "this is bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh;" expressing thus his complacency in her, and thus owning that the Lord God had prepared her for him in perfect love and wisdom, And so when Abraham's servant was getting Rebecca ready for Isaac, he clothed her with raiment, and adorned her with jewels which he had brought out of Abraham's house. Nothing of Mesopotamia was found upon her, for Rebecca was to be for Isaac, and not for her own people. And so with the Spirit now. The purpose of the Holy Ghost now, is to get the bride ready for the Lamb. We have been espoused to one husband that we may be presented to Christ. And how jealous should we be lest anything should be forming our minds for any one but for Him. The gifts that have been sent down are only for uniting us in the knowledge of the Son, and that in all things we may grow up into Him. Any other attempt is but a sleight of man and cunning craftiness. (Eph. 4) It may be fair and boastful of great and good things, but it is deceivingly an angel of light, if it be not forming us in Christ. That is the point of jealousy with the saint. It may appear to be wisdom, or knowledge, or religion, or order, or some other thing of esteem; but it matters not, it is deceitful and corrupting, if it exercise any art but the art of making us to grow up into Christ. We want the broken heart, dear brethren, the fragments of which Jesus can take up. We want to dismiss all confidence in the flesh, for Jesus cannot use the flesh. We want to know more of the widowhood, the longings of one who waits for her lord. He is absent, and many things solicit us the while, but we are to keep ourselves for him. We are to be preparing as Eve for Adam, that when he awakes be may see the fruit of his deep sleep and be satisfied-as Rebecca for Isaac, that when the solitary saint lifts up his eyes and sees her who had left her kindred and country for him, he may be comforted. (Gen. 24:62-67.) And doubtless we shall then be comforted and satisfied also. Will it not be enough to find ourselves by His side forever? will it not be enough to see Him rejoicing over us as "His pearl of great price," for the sake of which He had parted with all that He had? 0! if the sweetest joy of a faithful wife be this, to know that she has the abiding and best love of her lord; will not this be ours,' brethren, without fear of change forever? May we be true to Him who never can be false to us, who nourisheth and cherisheth us as His own flesh!

The Gospel by St. Matthew

The special design of the Holy Ghost by this gospel, is intimated in the first verse; " the book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham;" for it will be found to concern itself with our Lord, very principally, as son of David.

This verse, I read as descriptive, presenting the Lord Jesus Christ under two titles, or in two characters-" son of David," and "son of Abraham." And these titles, I judge, belong to our Lord, as interested in those covenants by which It is the divine good pleasure to fix the order and inheritance, both of the land of Israel, and also of the whole earth. But these titles do not formally bring Him into connection with His heavenly glory.

God Almighty called Abram to Himself, from his country, his kindred, and his father's house:; and in covenant, secured and pledged certain blessings to him.. All this constituted " a gift and calling," of which the Lord will not repent; (Rom. 11:29.) though man may for awhile disappoint the blessing. Jehovah afterward called David from the sheepfolds, and swearing in His holiness to him, made with him another covenant, called " the sure mercies of David," by which He promised and secured to him in like manner, certain glories. This was another "gift and calling," of which the Lord in like grace will not repent, though man may again for awhile disappoint the blessing. This covenant to David, ran thus,-" I have laid help upon one that is mighty, I have exalted one chosen out of the people; I have found David my servant, with my holy oil have I anointed him, with whom my hand shall be established, mine arm also shall strengthen him: the enemy shall not exact upon him, nor the son of wickedness afflict him; and I will beat his foes before his face, and plague them that hate him; but my faithfulness and my mercy shall be with him, and in my name shall his horn be exalted: I will set his hand also in the sea, and his right hand in the rivers; he shall cry unto me, 'thou art my father, my God, and the rock of my salvation: also, I will make him my first-born, higher than the kings of the earth: my mercy will I keep for him for evermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him; his seed also will I make to endure forever, and his throne mile days of heaven." (Psa. 89) This was David-glory. But to Abraham the promise was of still larger grace, for, it was said to him, that he should be "the father of many nations," and "the heir of the world;" and that " in his seed all the nations of the earth should be blest."

Now our Lord Jesus Christ is the true party to these covenants, and will be the heir of these promises, for He is the son of David, and the son of Abraham. And I judge from scripture, that from out of the state promised to David, (had Israel received him as David's son) the Lord would have reached forth to embrace and gather to Himself all this larger honor which belonged to Him as the son of Abraham, For it is to. Him as son of David, or king in Zion, that the uttermost parts of the earth are to be given; it is the son of David, or the Holy One of Israel that is to be called "the God of the whole earth." (see Psa. 2 and Isa. 54)

From this, we should be prepared to find the Lord, on His coming to the earth to claim His covenanted rights and honors there; coming immediately as "son of David." And accordingly it was so. We find that He came to earth with the direct intention of establishing Himself in the sure mercies of David;" that is, of seating Himself in the land of Israel in His-David glory. " He came to His own," 'but we know that " His own received Him not." His citizens in the land a Israel refused Him, and therefore all His title to glory in the earth, whether as son of David, or son of Abraham, remains to this day unacknowledged, save by faith: and His inheritance of it, is still only in prospect. However, whether they would admit or disallow His claims, His claims were righteous and most be made, And He did make them. His question, on being manifested on earth, was with Israel; and it was simply this,-" would Israel receive their promised king and prophet I" and the trial of this question is most specially reported for us in the Gospel by St. Matthew.

But in contrast with that, the Gospel by St. John begins with the result of this trial, announcing at the opening, " He was in the world: and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not; He came unto His own and His own received Him not." And consequently, the Holy Ghost in St. John brings the Lord forth in another character, that is,-as son of God in connection with the, Church, and heavenly glory, and this gives the difference of the two gospels. It is not that we have nothing of the trial of this question with t Israel, in St. John, and nothing of the higher character of Christ, in? St. Matthew. But this distinction in a general way, marks the two gospels; that by St. Matthew, shows the trial of this question, and leads us to its result; that by St. John, at the very beginning, assumes the result, and then, brings out the Lord in other and higher characters.

But as I propose merely to give the order and general character of St. Matthew's gospel, I must not allow myself to follow this further, though of interest, and profit, and delight, to the meditations, of the saints, as what of His fullness is not? For the same reason, I do not speak of St. Mark, or St. Luke; though each of them I am well assured, has specific purposes. For I entirely consent to what another has said, (see vol. 1, page 134.) "that the gospels are by no means mere coincident and concurrent testimonies to Christ, and valuable, simply as corroborative one of the other,"

I would just add, that several papers of the "CHRISTIAN WITNESS," have already given us interpretations of large portions of this gospel, so that I. may be more brief than otherwise in my present labor.

I will observe upon the chapters in their order, and in all things may the Lord hinder us from darkening His wondrous and blessed, counsels, and keep us within that measure of ability, which He Himself gives us.

1.-The genealogy of the Lord, given to us by St. Matthew, in this chapter, is His Jewish genealogy. The manner of His birth is said to fulfill a word spoken of the Lord by the prophet;. and I would here observe, that I have noticed more frequent reference to old testament scriptures in St. Matthew, than in either of the other gospels; as though the Holy Ghost were more careful by St. Matthew, than by the rest, (though of course this is done by all of them) to identify the Lord Jesus with the promised hope of Israel; with Him of whom the prophets of Israel had spoken, and thus expressly to associate Him with all Jewish recollections and prospects.

But more particularly as to the Jewish character of this opening chapter, I would further observe, that, " Jesus" is the Joshua of Israel, the captain of salvation to Israel.

Of course, the Son of God has become our Jesus, for "'He is the Savior of the body;" but by His name " Jesus or Joshua," (for the one is the Greek, the other the Hebrew form of the same name,) He was given to Israel, to do the work of the Joshua of old, that is, " to save His people from their sins." For Moses and the wilderness had not thus saved the tribes-they witnessed redemption from Egypt, but that was all; for under Moses, the people were still uncircumcised and wanderers. It was Joshua and Gilgal that thus saved them, and Joshua and Gilgal are the types of Jesus and the true circumcision, which " saves them from their sins," or " rolls away the reproach of Egypt;" as we have it in the book of Joshua. (v. 9.) And this true circumcision, or this salvation from their sins, Jesus had for His people Israel when He was born in Bethlehem; but their unbelief has delayed it, and it waits now till He brings it in the day of His new covenant with them. (see Deut. 30:6, Ezek. 36:26.)

I must also observe, that "Immanuel," (a name of the Lord which St. Matthew alone mentions) belongs to Him as the Hope of Israel. Under this title, and as this hope, He had been given to the house of David in the days of Ahaz, being then anticipatively set up as the sign of help and deliverance to the house of Judah, as an abiding pledge from Jehovah that every enemy of the house of David, should in the end be disappointed. (see Isa. 7:14. and 8:10.) Accordingly the prophet calls the land of Judah, "Immanuel's land," for Immanuel was thus securing it for Himself; and when Jesus was born, (born as He was the hope of Israel,) He was at once recognized in St. Matthew as this promised Immanuel. We know in result that the house of David proved itself to be then in unbelief, as it had done before, in the days of Ahaz, and therefore was not then established (see Isa. 7:9.) but still Immanuel was offered to them as theirs. Immanuel is not a title of the Lord, brought into connection with the Church I need not say, the Church knows Him to be "God manifest in the flesh;" her life, and joy, and strength, and everything hangs on that, but that is not properly " Immanuel." Immanuel is, "God with us;" and " God with us," is properly the cry of Israel; for in Israel God acknowledges a people on the earth, and comes to them, and sanctions them here; but the Church is not in spirit here, but in heaven; having not so properly God wills her here, but rather the Holy Ghost, the comforter, in her, and she herself in the Son in heavenly places.

2.-The Lord is here introduced in His Jewish glory, claiming His rights as " son of David;" and in Him the hopes of Israel, as of old, announced by their prophets, seem now about to be accomplished. The mission of the wise men from the east, recorded in this chapter, shows that the Gentiles were ready also to rejoice with Israel; so that all was now prepared for the manifestation of Him who was to be the Holy One of Israel, and the God of the whole earth. (Isa. 54: 5.)

But the infant king of the Jews, is at once met by the enmity of the nation, and this immediately turns his course, and changes the aspect of all his history. He must leave Bethlehem for Nazareth. Instead of coming forth from Bethlehem as governor to rule His people Israel, He must take the character of the Nazarene, the despised and rejected Galilean. He must be called as the son out of Egypt, that is, Israel in Him must begin their history again. He must take the place which Israel of old took, when they knew the favor of God, redeeming them from the enemy's land; but when they knew also the trial and discipline of the wilderness. And Canaan (shame to tell it, brethren,) the land of promise, the land that was to flow with milk and honey, the land that was to be the rest of the people of Jehovah's choice; was now to be the wilderness to Jesus! This was sorrowful indeed; sad and shameful notice of the sin and apostasy of that people.

But not only does Herod's and Jerusalem's sin thus in the apprehension of the Spirit of God, determine the present condition of the Lord Himself, but of His people Israel also. For here we find, not only " the son called out of Egypt," but in the intelligence of' the same Spirit, " Rachel is heard weeping for her children." For Israel can-I not be established, save in Jesus; and therefore the city must now sit solitary, Jerusalem must be a divorced wife, and a childless mother, while Jesus is called "the Nazarene," and wanders on earth her rejected and outcast king.

3.-The ministry of the Baptist as given to us in this chapter, is in its Jewish character, serving to introduce the Lord to Israel, and to Israel only.

Here I would observe, that it was only in this character of it, that John's ministry had been the subject of prophetic notice. The two prophets Isaiah and Malachi, who prophesied of John, speak of his ministry, simply as it referred to Israel; as it was introductory to the manifestation of the king of Israel, and as it was a call on His people to repent and be in readiness for His coming. (Isa. 40; Mal. 3, 4) The martyrdom of the Baptist, had not been noticed by the Jewish prophets. That remained in mystery, as hidden wisdom. But so it was to be. Israel, to whom the messenger was sent, was not obedient; he mourned, but they did not lament-he called for fruit meet for repentance, but they did not bring it; they did " to him whatsoever they listed"-they sacrificed him to their lusts; first, imprisoning and then beheading him. And just as the unbelief of Israel gave to our Lord's ministry a certain character which was not strictly Jewish, and of which, as I have already observed, the Gospel by St, John is the appointed witness; so did this treatment of his messenger, give his messenger's ministry a certain character, which was not strictly Jewish, and of which in like manner, the Gospel by St. John, is made the appointed witness. For in St. John, the Baptist is presented to us, introducing Jesus, not strictly to Israel His people, but to sinners generally, in the suitable characters of " the Light of the world," and " the Lamb of God;" (see John 1:7-29.) characters of which St. Matthew, on the other hand, according to his office under the Spirit of God, takes no notice whatever.

4.-The Lord had just passed, in obedience, through John's baptism,.; -not for the confession of sin, for He had none, but for the fulfilling of all righteousness, meeting the counsels of God in every dispensation of them. Immediately after that, He was acknowledged (from heaven to be the Son of God, and the Spirit descended, upon Him anointing Him for His ministry.

His ministry, as we learn, in the full purpose of it, is this,-" to destroy the Works of the devil;" (1 John 3:8.) and therefore He is now at once led up of the Spirit to make proof of His ministry, and thus to be tempted of the devil. And now it was sought by the devil to do with the Son of God what had been done with Adam, to corrupt this second federal head, as he had corrupted the first. But Adam fell when in the midst of the bounties of God, with paradise all around him. Jesus stood, though an hungered, in a wilderness, and with the wild beasts. Nothing of the principles which became engrafted on Adam, could get place in the Son of God. The woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise; " the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life," were implanted in her; but the Son of God stood untainted; „He was the Holy thing at His birth-He continued the Holy thing now in His temptation; and in the end, the grave received Him as the " Holy One.'' (Psa. 16 Acts 2) Satan down to the end, had nothing in him; the serpent could not corrupt him: and there-fore from this moment, he learned that his bruiser had entered the field-had planted his foot on the scene of conflict; and from this moment, he trembled when he met him. The stronger man had now entered his house, and he knew that his goods were to be spoiled.

But after giving this general proof of His ministry, our Lord is brought out in this chapter, in Jewish connection again, in His more special ministry, as " the minister of the circumcision;" calling Israel to repentance, and fulfilling the place and Office of that promised light that was to break forth from the land of Zebulon, and the land of Nephthalim. In this character He succeeds the Baptist. The Baptist was cast into prison, and then Jesus comes forth to Israel; but not as it had been with John, so was it now with the Lord. John had only called Israel to repentance, baptizing them who came to him upon confession of sins; but the Lord now exercises power in grace, not holding Himself back in the separated attitude of righteousness, but going forth in the activities of love, in every synagogue, preaching the kingdom; and round about the country, healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease, among the people.

5-8. With the sermon contained in these chapters, our Lord opens His instructions as the prophet. The prophet-character of the Son of God, I believe to be, a blessed theme of meditation to the saints. It is strongly marked in the New Testament, and we are instructed by the apostle, to know the special advantage which we have above the fathers of old, in having thus the Son of God for our prophet; in having in these latter days, been spoken 'to by the Son. (Heb. 1:1, 2.) This advantage, I judge from scripture, to be manifold.

lst.—The Son declares the Father. (John 1:14.) He does not merely give out certain attributes of the divine character, as other prophets had done, but He declares the Father Himself. Having been in His bosom, " being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person," He manifests Him. We get from the Son of God, an understanding to know Him that is true, and in the face of Jesus Christ, we behold the glory of God. So that He could say, he that bath seen me, bath seen the Father;" and again,-" he that seeth me, seeth Him that sent me."

2ndly.—The Son comes from heaven to testify what He had seen and heard there. (John 3:31.) Other prophets were of the earth-earthly, and spake of the earth; but Jesus tells of heavenly things, as the son of man which is in heaven. (John 3:12, 13.) His prophesying is greater than the preaching of Jonas, or the wisdom of Solomon. He leads us unto perfection-He speaks of wisdom, hidden wisdom, the wisdom of God in a mystery. (1 Cor. 2). He utters things which had been kept secret from the foundation of the, world. (Matt. 13:35.) In Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge; and hid there for the Church's use,. "for all things that I heard of my Father," says the Lord, " I have made known unto you." Thus He does not give us, as other prophets have done certain parcels of the divine counsels merely, but a revelation of the whole counsel of God; and we get the Spirit to search them out, and the mind of Christ to learn them. (1 Cor. 2:10-16.)

3rdly.—The Son gives us the mind of heaven, applied to the rules of conduct and righteousness. This duty of' His prophet-office, He fulfills in this sermon on the mount. He here in the first place, comes with the mind of God, and delineates those heavenly features of character which are alone worthy of the kingdom, and which constitute His disciples " the salt of the earth," and " the light of the world;" that is, a blessing to others, and a witness to the Father. (5:1-16.) Then after intimating (17, 18.) that He would in His own person vindicate and make honorable the law, and not allow a jot or tittle of it to pass unfulfilled; He brings the mind of heaven again, and gives its commentary upon the rules of the law, raising them to a standard worthy of God, and of the character of heaven; and this standard lie sets before us. (19,-48.) For He can make no terms with the hardness of the heart, as Moses had done. Moses and the law could not quicken man; the Lord by them, did not give a heart to perceive, nor eyes to see, nor ears to hear. (Deut. 29:4.) But the Son of God brings life and power-Ile is "the quickening Spirit," He gives the new birth, the birth from above; and therefore at once raises the standard of righteousness, making it worthy of the regeneration.

All this the Lord as our Prophet propounds in the 5th chapter. Then in the 6th, having thus given the fullness of the mind of God to the precepts that are to rule our walk on earth, he leads us to walk towards heaven, to walk here as under the eye of Him who dwells there, to be tending in spirit towards the place from whence this new mind has been revealed, that we may have our place and our treasure there also. And then in the 7th chapter, He would have us (what the law as such never called for) to walk in grace towards others, and finally He would have us (what the law again never led to,) to know that grace and strength and all things are of God; and therefore we should: be suppliants and dependents, asking that we may receive, seeking that we may find.

This with some closing admonitions, and intimations of the apostasy and judgment of the circumcision, is I judge the sermon on the mount. And I would here just observe again the same characteristic difference between St. Matthew and St. John. When St. John brings forth our Lord in His prophet-character, it is as declaring the Father, and revealing heavenly mysteries. (John 3) But when St. Matthew brings Him forth in the same character, as he does in this sermon on the mount, it is as applying the mind of God to the law, and to the righteousness of Moses, and this is quite of the general distinction between these two gospels which I have already noticed; John giving the Lord in fuller characters, Matthew in Jewish connection.

8-16. Throughout these chapters the Lord is seen pursuing His labors as the "minister of the circumcision," the prophet and healer of Israel. Israel should then have sung, " bless the Lord O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases." For Jehovah Jesus was now saying to His Israel, " I am the Lord that healeth thee," (Ex. 15:26.) and thus as it were, a second time leading them out of bondage. Every plague and sickness was removed by His hand, the lame walked, the lepers were cleansed, the dead were raised; this surely was He that was to come. He was also as it were, a second time feeding His people in the wilderness, fulfilling thus another of Jehovah's ancient mercies to Israel. (14:15, 15:32.) He takes his post also as a laborer in the harvest, but at the same time exercises his right as Lord of the harvest, and sends forth the Apostles as laborers with Himself in the harvest, by them to spread the blessing throughout the land. (10) He does the works of the promised son of David. (12:22, 23.) But Israel refused to be healed, she knew not that she needed a Physician, and therefore refused to sing the praises of Jehovah her healer, and thus is that 103rd Psalm reserved for the repentant and accepted nation in the latter day. But whether the daughter of Zion will now be healed, or I not, whether she will now learn that joyous song or not, He can but show mercy. On He goes unwearied in well doing, pitying them, healing them, feeding them, and spending Himself upon them, so that their sin was nothing less than despite of the rich self-sacrificing love of God their Savior. But there was no present judgment upon all this. He did not strive nor cry, nor lift up His voice in the street. He did it is true, begin to speak in parables, that hearing they might hear and not understand; but He did not break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax. In every possible form they express their enmity to Him. They charge Him as a blasphemer-a breaker of the Sabbath-an impugner of the traditions of the Elders-as having a devil-as not showing the needed sign from heaven; the sign, as they judged, of the Messiah and of power. He stands in all these controversies 1 with them, but throughout them, we see Him distinguishing between cattle and cattle, pitying the lame and the lean, rebuking I the fat and the strong, as the prophet had spoken. (Ezek. 34) And deeply and solemnly instructive is it to trace the way of His wisdom in all this; but of course this would delay me too long, I will only particularly notice His trial with them of the question touching the Sabbath.

The Sabbath had been given to Israel as the sign of their national sanctification: as it is written " moreover also I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them."

This being the true import of the Sabbath as given to Israel, the Lord so orders His works, as to call in question the nation's present right to it. He does miracles on the Sabbath days advisedly and constantly, and the Jews would bear anything rather than this, for they judged this to be an invasion of all that was peculiarly their own. The Sabbath was the national standard. But the Lord know that, while they clung to the sign, they had lost the true glory, and by thus doing his works on the Sabbath days, He questions their present title to all national honor, to that which the Sabbath signified, and indeed in the end more than questions it, gives them rather to know that it had all been, utterly forfeited, (see 12:1-8.) and righteously so; for while Messiah was rejected, as He now was, how could there be rest or honor for Israel? He was walking with a few poor despised disciples through the land, disowned and in poverty; He resembled David when hunted of Saul, and what could Israel boast in, while David and David's son were thus? The sanctity of the nation was gone, as much as when Adam ate of the forbidden fruit, the honor and rest of man in the garden was gone. God cannot verify, His creatures title even to the blessing which His own hand has bestowed, in the face of such acts of forfeiture. The spirit in David could not verify the sanctity of the showbread, while Israel was causing him their deliverer and anointed king, to be hungry in desert places. (1 Sam. 21:5.) David's hunger made the bread in a certain sense common. And so while Jesus was walking as the poor and despised Nazarene, his disciples, (that is Himself, though He took it not,) needing the gleanings of a cornfield, how could He sanction Israel? How could He verify the nations title to the Sabbath? Israel had become in a, certain sense common. The precious sons of Zion comparable to fine gold were now to be esteemed as earthen, pitchers. Jesus was saying, as He had said before by His prophet,. " I will profane my sanctuary, the excellency of your strength, the desire of your eyes." And so it re-plains profaned to this day, and will remain till Messiah is brought by the faith of His Israel, from the gleaning-field to the throne.

And there is much like this in the corrupted Church. A boasting in the mere parchment of our title; while acts of forfeiture of the thing conveyed are allowed and committed continually. We want more of the mind of Christ, in both its humility (Phil. 2:5.) and its intelligence, (1 Cor. 2:16.) that we may both discern and confess these acts of forfeiture, and judge them as the Lord judges them, judge them as enough, to silence that word, "the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these:" judge them as enough, to show us that we are indeed but poor, and weak, and blind. The Lord give it to us more and more, dear brethren,- more of the mind of Christ, in its lowliness and self-renunciation; and yet also in its spiritual and heavenly intelligence.

But this I say rather by the way, though I trust, in some desire, that we, as saints, were more in the mind of our Lord. But to return to our gospel. I observe, that while the Lord is thus in controversy with the Jews, he calls out His remnant, offers Himself to them as their present Sabbath, the rest of their souls, and sets Himself as their shepherd to feed them, "the poor of the flock." He interprets to them also, the mysteries of the kingdom, expounding all things in private to His disciples: among other things, letting them into this secret, that Israel was soon to be put under judgment, and that new bottles must be found wherein to put the new wine. In the knowledge of this hidden purpose of God, He gradually trains them, till in the 16th chapter, all is ready for a full disclosure to them of it, for a full revelation of the mystery of the calling of the Church and of the heavenly glory.-But for a further opening of the details of these chapters, I would refer to " The Transfiguration," a paper in the 2nd vol. of the "CHRISTIAN WITNESS."

17.-The controversy with Israel having thus closed, and the Lord having thus announced that the Church was to be called out, the set time was come for His giving the disciples a vision of the Church in her proper or heavenly glory, which He here does on the holy mount. But for the further interpretation of this scene, I again refer to the same paper, " The Transfiguration."

But I must here in addition to that, observe, that the most aggrieved word which the Lord ever pronounces on His disciples, is drawn from Him on this occasion, after His descent from the mount. On hearing the report of the father of the poor lunatic, "Jesus answered' and said, O faithless and perverse generation! how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you?" At other times He had rebuked

their hardness of heart, and their little faith: but here we have language-of deeper sorrow still. This however was (as surely was everything. with Him) perfect in its season. He had just been on the top of the hill, in communion with His elect, in all the joy which He has Himself prepared for them in heaven; He came down to the foot of the hill, and there saw the earth in all its ruin and sorrow, and His own in all their weakness and unbelief; and He feels the occasion to be one of deep trial and grief to Him. And were we, brethren, more with. Jesus in communion with the things on the top of the hill, we should I with Him in grief and trial of heart, more enter into all the shame and 4 sorrow that we find daily at the foot of it. This would be "sorrow after a godly sort," and de much in diverting " the sorrow of the world," the selfish sorrow which Jesus never knew, but which our poor hearts too often think they do well to allow and encourage.

In the case of the tribute money, which we have also in this chapter; I observe that our Lord appears to be giving a sample of that behavior which in the very next passage (18:1-5.) He presses on His disciples. He here, would give no offense Himself, as there He calls on them to give none: thus as ever, going before His sheep, when He puts them forth. And in order to this, what do we see Him doing? Simply surrendering His rights, not insisting on His privileges, or His freedom, but allowing the unwarranted claims of others upon. Him, and using His resources to meet them. This is just what marks the Lord's conduct here. He had never wrought miracles to supply his own necessities, though they were many and pressing; but He does so here for others who had really no title against Him, but lest He should offend. And this is the divine way of avoiding offense-to lay self aside-to deny self-to wait in practical forgetfulness of self, upon others, though it be upon their infirmities and unreasonableness, to let it appear as Jesus did, that we have renounced this present evil world, and therefore, while passing through it, are willing to give it up to others, and, if they will, to be their servants. This is the mind of heaven brought down to have its way and exercise for a while, in such a world as this.

All this followed upon the Lord's visit to the heavenly hill, and was the proper fruit of such a visit. And I cannot refuse in this place, to notice the corresponding chapter in St. Mark, where we observe many other such fruits. (Mark 9) We there read, that immediately after His descent from the holy mount, the people beholding "Him were greatly amazed, and running to Him saluted Him." This intimated that like Moses, He bore upon Him some impression of the glory He had been in, a glory however net overwhelming like that of Moses; for while it amazed them, it encouraged and invited them, and they ran to Him and saluted Him, instead of being afraid to come nigh to Him. (Ex. 34:30.) And such is, we know, the 1 character of that glory in which Jesus was in the holy mount.-The glory of God reflected in the law, makes the sinner cry out for fear, the glory displayed in the gospel of His dear Son, is a light to gladden Him and to guide Him to a father. We find also in that chapter, (Mark 9) that His coming down, the Lord spoke again to His disciples of His sufferings and death; and passing through Galilee, He was desirous that no man should know it:-these things in like manner, intimating to us His increased consciousness, from the heavens having thus been lately opened to Him, that He was but a stranger on the earth, and that His sojourn here was now hastening to a close. All this was further and suitable fruit of His visit to the mount, where the heavenly glory was.—And besides all this, in the close of that beautiful chapter, we see the Lord sitting Himself in the midst of His disciples, and for the very purpose of drawing out and rebuking those principles of the world that were still lurking in their hearts, that they might be led to deny and crucify them, and take their place, the rather as little ones, weak and despised in this evil world, and so be prepared for communion with the heavenly family, for which they had now been apprehended by the Son of God.

18.-" The Church" having been thus manifested on the heavenly hill, the Lord here takes occasion from an inquiry put to Him by His disciples; to present the Church again, and He does so under the symbol of "a little child;" unfolding from that sign, the principles which were to mark her, and govern her, and conduct her through the world: and forgetfulness of which, He intimates by the way, was to be her destruction. Then from another question put to Him by Peter,, He takes occasion to give something of an historical view of the Church, in the parable of the "unmerciful servant." He there exhibits her rise, corruption, and judgment, showing that she had received goodness from God, but had not continued in that goodness, and therefore was cut off, as the Apostle afterward teaches. (Rom. 11:22.) And He shows also by the way, the preservation of a remnant, some faithful ones in-the midst of the corruption, walking in goodness, in sorrowing love, in grace towards their fellow-servants, and in communion with their head, that is, (like the remnant in every apostasy,) walking in the proper power of the dispensation with testimony against the Corruption.

Such I judge, to be the character of this very important chapter; and I would simply press this, that our Lord sets forth "a little child" as the emblem of the Church, the standing sign of the Church, her fixed abiding character while on the earth. This is what the little child is—and therefore in the three gospels, the little child is not set forth by our Lord till after the Transfiguration; because the Trans., figuration, as we have already seen, was the first formal presentation of the Church. And offense of the little ones is consequently the principle of the apostasy, so that our Lord, when treating here of such offense, gives distant intimation of the doom of Babylon. (compare Matt. 18:6. with Rev. 18:21.) For Babylon is the apostate, and the great offender or despiser of the little ones, she that refused to be a little one herself, choosing rather to sit as a queen, to be called "Babylon the great," and to be the favorite of the kings of the earth, and for which cause, the doom of the Millstone awaits her. O brethren, how far have we been faithful to our Lord's standard? or how far have His standard-bearers fainted? What features of "the little child" are seen in us? It is weakness in the flesh, all weakness and scorn in the judgment of men: this is the stamp upon the Church, though the power of God is in her, and the rock of ages under her. But this is the principle of the Church, beloved-weakness in the flesh, and strength only in God. In Israel of old it was, it is true, altogether different. There was manifested strength there, strength displayed in the sight of the nations-strength such as the world could estimate.

But in the Church, there was to be that which the world would scorn, and "the little child" is her- emblem. And in like manner, St. Paul is afterward in his own person, made to illustrate all this also He was weak in the flesh, his bodily presence was weak, and his speech contemptible; he abased himself:-through infirmity of the flesh, he preached the gospel; and he was among the churches in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling: he had a thorn in the flesh, which was not to be removed, but God's grace was to be sufficient for him. He had it, as a temptation in the flesh, which might naturally provoke scorn, but which the rather in the judgment of heaven, entitled him to be received as Christ Jesus. (Gal. 4:14.) The same man which in the secret of God was caught up to the third heaven, as before men, was let down the wall of Damascus, through a window, in a basket. The power of Christ rested upon him it is true, but he was beset with infirmities-he carried divine treasure, but he was but an earthen vessel. He could not dare to boast of things beyond the measure which God had distributed to him;—he had the sentence of death in himself, that he should not trust in himself, but in God that raiseth the dead.

But the Church in apostasy, exhibits the reverse of all this. Comeliness in the flesh-strength in the flesh-wisdom in the flesh—order. and honor in the flesh, are seen there: the glorifying of herself and living deliciously-the, merchandise of pearls and purple, and all manner of vessels of ivory, of odors, and frankincense, of horses and chariots. No refusal of order and strength in the flesh is known in her-no plucking out of the eye-no cutting off the hand or the foot—and therefore is she to be thrown down, as a millstone is cast into the sea, to be found no more at all in that day, when "the 'little one") shall behold the face of the Father in heaven.

I do indeed, thus judge, that the corruption of the Church and the doom of Babylon, rose in this manner before the Lord, when the disciples betraying the desire of honor in the flesh, said to him on this occasion, "who is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?"—And He does give them solemn warning of that day, when all the pride and -fleshly order which marks the Church in her corruption,- is to meet its judgment: and the mighty angel is to take up the millstone and cast it into the sea, saying, thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all."

But for further meditation on this chapter, I would again refer to the "CHRISTIAN WITNESS;" the article entitled, " The Promise of the Lord," very strikingly and profitably opens it.

19, 20.-The Church having now, as we have seen, been manifested. and her place and character on earth, and her history in the world been also presented; these chapters give us several matters designed, I believe, by the Holy Ghost to be further exhibitions of the Church in her spirit and calling.

Thus in the first matter here noticed, namely,-our Lord's treatise so to call it, upon the law of marriage, He settles it on Church and not on Jewish principles. Then in the second scene, His again receiving and setting forth the little one," and laying His hands in blessing upon it; this is quite the calling of the Church, which is to know the arms of Jesus, and to live only by His blessing, and to be set forth by Him; it may be, the mark of man's scorn, but of His own delight, and boast. Then in the third instance here recorded, the Lord's interview with the rich young man; this instructs us to know the insufficiency of the law; and the value and requisition of the gospel. This is still of the same character, and is indeed a little incident of great moral value to the Church.

The stranger Who here crosses our Savior's path, was one who had sought to the law, for relief of conscience, and had not found it. There was utterly a fault in him. He judged that there could be some good in man, and therefore inquired, " good master, what good thing shall I do?" The Lord therefore-at once addresses Himself to this, saying,-" why callest thou me good?" at the same time vindicating the law, as that which had been " ordained unto life," 'saying if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments." But as directed by His wisdom, this only serves to bring out the insufficiency of the law, to show " what it could not do in that it was weak through the flesh," weak to call into righteousness, weak to purge the conscience, leaving, therefore, this rich young man still demanding, " what lack I yet?", Then conies out the rule of perfection, the Church's rule:- " if thou wilt be perfect, go and sell all that thou hast and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come follow me." This is the Church's rule of perfection—a single-eyed following of Jesus. But for this, the young ruler was not prepared, for we read, that, "he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions." And thus the secret is disclosed, love of money left doubt, and sorrow, and strife in his heart, and had been all along the real source of his inquiry and uneasiness; for the love of the world will ever keep the conscience restless, and cast it into the bonds of the law, and turn it aside from the cross of Christ, which is the only power of God to purge the conscience. For in it there shines such a bright self-sacrificing love, that the love of the world cannot stand before it; and when the cross of Christ is taken into the hand of God, so that God works by it, it must work according to its proper power, according to the mind of God by it. God must work by His instruments according to His own Counsels touching them, and His counsel by the cross is both to purge the conscience and to give victory over the world to the sinner that clings to it. (see Gal. 6:14.) It is not therefore, that we in the least hesitate as to the believer's title to full assurance from the cross at once; nay, we assert it. But we say, when the love of the world is retained, (as in the heart of this rich young man,) there is the allowed presence of that which must hinder the proper operation of the cross, and thus hinder the soul's confidence before God, which the cross alone can give.

This scene, dear brethren, of the rich young man, is thus a very affecting one the moral of which, should be deeply graven on the fleshly tables of our hearts. Peter did not use it rightly. Listening to our Lord's conclusions upon it, he too readily puts in his claim, as having unlike this young man, left all for his master. This mind the Lord rebukes in the parable, of the laborers in the vineyard; but at the same time, allows the rewards of service which severally belong to the saints, in the regeneration or kingdom. Then after all this, after, again touching on His death and resurrection, at the close of these chapters, (20:20-34.). He summarily presents something of both the Church and Israel; as we may thus see.

The Church. In His reply to the mother of Zebedee’s children, He shows the Church's sorrows in this world; and then, what that is on which her glory rests; such a rule of glory as is altogether unknown and unacknowledged, save in the Church, save in that heavenly family which is called into separation from this present evil world, and all its pride, and whose path to the glory on the other side of the wilderness, is in present humility and service.

Israel.-In giving sight to the blind men, He pledges the removal of that blindness of eye which is to this day judicially resting upon Israel. (see Isa. 6) For we may observe, that the blind men appeal to Him as "son of David," the very character in which the faith of Israel is to know Him; and He does hero the very mercy, which as "son of David," had been before announced by the prophet He should bring, and which hereafter He is to bring to His Israel. (see 12:23. Isa. 35:5.)

Thus, in closing this great section of our gospel, that is,-of our Lord's ministry in Israel, we have in these few verses, a view of His distinct dealing with the two departments of His redeemed family,- the Church and Israel. The next chapter presents Him in another action.

21-23.-In these chapters, the Lord begins and closes a new action. He formally offers the kingdom to the daughter of Zion, presenting Himself to her in full royalty as the " son of David," and as such is rejected.

But I must on this part of our gospel, refer also to the "CHRISTIAN WITNESS," Vol. 1 page 80. where a general interpretation of these chapters has been already given to us, just adding to what we have there, a little on the removal of the mountain.

After our Lord had cursed the fig-tree, which was the expression of judgment upon Israel; He encourages the faith of His disciples 'by the promise, that if they had faith, they should not only do as He had then done, but also remove and cast into the sea, the mountain 'vim which they were then walking, that is,-the mount of Olives. Now in this, our Lord was anticipating the day when the faith of Israel shall be followed by the removal and discomfiture of their confederated enemies; for that discomfiture of Israel's enemies by the hand of Messiah in the latter day, is frequently in scripture, set forth by figurative language, like that which the Lord here employs, (see among other passages, Isa. 40:4; 41:5; 64:1-3; Jer. 51:25. Heb. 3:6; Rev. 16:20.) But most strikingly in connection with the words of our Lord in this place, is the language of Zechariah, for He not only says, "who art thou, 0 great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain;" (Zech. 4:7.) but the destruction of the nations that come up against Jerusalem in the latter day, is declared by that prophet to be accompanied by the fact here spoken of, namely-the cleaving in the midst of the mount of Olives. (see Zech. 14:1-4.) And doubtless this will be, as our Lord here tells them, when Israel "has faith, and doubts not;" that is, when they turn to Him from whom their fathers have deeply revolted. The Lord therefore addresses these words to. His disciples, not properly as His Church, but as representing His Israel. Faith however, we surely know, is the Church's strength also; " we walk by faith, not by sight;" but the faith that works by love in the saints, is better than the faith that hereafter in Israel will remove the mountain. (1 Cor. 13:2.)

Without, then, saying any more on these chapters, but referring as I have done, to a previous paper; I would here take occasion to observe, that we have now in this gospel, seen our Lord presented to Israel in three distinct forms, each of which, had been the subject of the notice of their prophets; but in each of which we have also seen Him solemnly denied and rejected by Israel.

1st.-At His birth.-He was born " King of the Jews;" and as the predicted governor out of Bethlehem, the city of David, He was then presented to Israel. But as such, we have seen Him rejected. (see chap. 1, 2)

2ndly.-In His ministry.-He next in order, came forth as the promised " minister of the circumcision, for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers," and in that character, He walked through the land, the healer and the prophet of His people Israel. But as such, we have seen Him rejected also. (see chap. 4-16)

3rdly.-In full royalty.-Lastly, He entered the royal city in all the style and circumstance of " son of David," coming with the kingdom of His father David, in the name of the Lord; and thus fulfilling that word of the prophet, " rejoice greatly 0 daughter of Zion, shout 0 daughter of Jerusalem, behold thy king cometh unto thee; He is just, and having salvation, lowly and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of an ass." But as such, we here see Him rejected also. (see chap. 21-23.)

Israel had thus been fully tested, and the trial, after all this abounding and patient grace, now ends in their conviction and judgment. The Lord leaves the city, saying, " behold your house is left unto you desolate." He disclaims it for the present,-it is no longer in His sight, as it had been before, " my Father's house," (see John 2:16.) however stained and polluted by the sins of His Israel, it is not now with Him, " my house shall be called the house of prayer;" (21:13.) but it is simply, "your house is left unto you, desolate." He now fulfills His word of old " this house which I have hallowed for my name, will I cast out of my. sight; (1 Kings 9:7.) and accordingly the Lord's dealing with Israel -here ends-He leaves the city to appear there again, only in another character; that is,-as the Lamb of God- as the prophet that could not perish out of Jerusalem. '

24-25.-The Lord having been thus rejected, and as rejected, having thus pronounced judgment on. Jerusalem; He returns' from the now devoted city, with " the poor of the flock," to instruct them further in the counsel of heaven. He tells 'them more particularly about this judgment, and as connected with that of the sorrows and trials of His faithful ones, whom He here identifies with them; and ere He closes, He unfolds to them other and distant scenes of judgment, down to the settlement of the kingdom in glory and peace.

I find more reserve in my mind, in expressing itself on these chapters, than on any part of our gospel. May the good Lord pardon and direct His servant.

Upon the Lord's pronouncing judgment upon the temple, (the beauty of which, they had been vainly admiring, as they were sitting with Him on the mount of Olives;) the disciples inquire. of Him,

1st.-The time of this judgment and of things connected with it.

2ndly.-The signs of His coming.

3rdly.-The signs of the end of the world.

These inquiries the Lord answers, beginnings from the last to the first, and I distribute His words, thus:-

24:4-14.-These verses give us His answer to the third inquiry, and show the signs (which I need not here go over) that were to precede and usher in " the end of the world," or (which was the same thing to the Jews, that is, to the disciples who put the inquiry, for they were Jews, and their thoughts and associations were all Jewish,) " the end, of the Jewish age or, world." The time when these signs are accomplishing, may be called, " the beginning of sorrows."

Ver. 15.-In this verse, the Lord gives us the character of "the end of the world;" for which the signs just detailed by Hun, were to prepare. And I judge, that by this description, He shows us the abominable desolator or the willful king, setting up his standard in the holy place, thus closing the Jewish age or world. (see Dan. 9:27.) This of course therefore is future.

16-28.-In these verses, the Lord describes the interval, from the time of the abominable desolator setting of himself, up in the holy, place, to the coming of the son of man: showing the disciples what were to be, the circumstances of the Jewish nation, and what the duties of the elect during this interval; (see ver. 21. and Dan. 12:1.), and He intimates, that the elect remnant shall be scattered during this time (see Matt. 24:16-20. Mark 13:15-18. Luke 21:21.). This time (the distinguished 1260 days) may be called " the great tribulation," or " the days of vengeance." (Luke 21:22.)

29-31.-These verses contain the lord's answer to the second inquiry, and give us the signs of His Coming. These signs of His coming, will thus close the great tribulation, or, days of vengeance, as well as, usher in the coming itself, which the Lord also here speaks of, with some of its results, that is,-the joyous harvest of the earth, when He gathers together His elect from one end of heaven to the other.

32, 33.-In these verses, we have the Lord's reply to the first inquiry, if indeed it may he called a reply; for here He simply refers His disciples to the replies already given to the second and third inquiry, as the only satisfaction they were to expect of the first inquiry; thus intimating, that signs of the time, and not knowledge of the time is for us.

34-51. -He then shows the moral ground for thus giving us signs, and not knowledge of times; for after pledging His own truth and intimating His official incompetency to teach them more particularly as to the exact time; He shows that this concealment of the day and hour was wisely ordered, as it would serve to test and separate the world and the people of God; the one, using the Lord's absence and the uncertainty of the time of His return, as the occasion of gratifying their lusts; the other, using these things as the occasion of watching-the one acting as if the Lord were not, the other acknowledging Him (though absent and forgotten by the world) as Lord of all. But here I must observe, that, in the course of these verses, the Lord's thoughts seem to turn somewhat away from the remnant, towards the saints. It is the saints, I judge, that He more especially points at, when He speaks of " servants set over the household," for that is more characteristically the calling of the saints, the calling of the members of the body of Christ; all of whom have thus received at least, one talent, that is,—something that they can use in the name and service of their absent and rejected Lord. And so it is the corruption of the Church, that lie intimates in the person of " the evil servant," who said in his heart, " my Lord delayeth his coining." But of the Church or saints, the Lord here speaks of course somewhat darkly, for He was in all this discourse, primarily prophesying of Jewish things, and addressing the remnant. And besides this, I may remark, that much of the same language might be used, whether He had the remnant or the saints before Him, for both are equally expectants of His return; refusing to know any rest or kingdom till then. Therefore the Lord's thoughts could most easily pass from the one to the other, or in principle, embrace both.

25:1-30.-The two parables which we have in these verses, were evidently constructed to illustrate the necessity of that watching and working in expectation of the return of the bridegroom, which had been just enforced, and they may be read as addressing themselves in their great moral principles, to either the remnant or the saints. But like the preceding verses, as I have observed, they more exactly apply to the saints, and thus present to us the judgment of the Church, or the separation between the wise and foolish virgins, and between the faithful and unfaithful servants.

31-46.-Here in the closing parable, the Lord having, as we have seen already, presented the judgment of Israel, (24:1-31.) and the judgment of the Church, (25:1-30.) proceeds to the last scene of judgment-the judgment of the nations.

This is not the great white throne before which the -dead are to stand, (Rev. 20:11.) for there is no resurrection exhibited here. But it is the son of mares throne of glory, before which the nations are gathered; those nations (as I judge) among whom the remnant, during the reign of the abominable desolator, had, as we have seen, been scattered. (see 24:16-28.) This afflicted outcast remnant, the king here calls his brethren; and they specially will be so, for He in His day was the remnant thus outcast and disowned, and for much about the same space of time also, i.e. three years and a half, or 1260 days. The nations who favored them in their wanderings, are here called to inherit the, kingdom, or the millennial joy of the earth; and those who slighted them, are sent away from the presence of the throne of grace; into the fire prepared for the devil, into which therefore we find from another scripture, the devil is himself thereafter cast. (see Rev. 20:10.) But the principle on which this judgment of the nations; here proceeds, is of course, most fully applicable to us all, and the Lord will acknowledge the services of love now rendered by any, for His sake, to one of the least of His little ones.

26, 27.-Having thus, as Zechariah speaks, as " the word of the Lord instructed the poor of the flock," the Lord now prepares to enter upon a character in which none could stand with Him. He is now to have His price given for Him, and to become " the lamb of God," the shepherd that was to be smitten.

In the opening of these chapters, everything seems to give notice of the approaching dreadful hour. The Lord's own mind is upon the cross, and He testifies to His disciples, " ye know that after two days, is the feast of the passover, and the son of man is betrayed to be crucified;" the adversaries are holding their dark counsels to make their purpose sure-the woman (representing the Church in faith and love,) breaks her box of ointment on the body of her now devoted Lord, as for His burial; and the traitor makes his bargain for thirty pieces of silver. Thus everything seems now full of the approaching hour.

At the supper which follows, the Lord's mind is upon the cross still. He is in that scene, as the worshipper under the law, bringing his offering to the door of the tabernacle, saying, " this is my blood of the New Testament which is shed for many," or, as the victim bound to the horns of the altar. Then in Gethsemane, He enters upon His agony or the foretaste of the cross. This was to Him, the season of preparation; and to His disciples, it ought to have been the season for watching and praying, so that the willing spirit might become the powerful spirit also. But in this hour, all fail but Himself. They sleep and take their rest; but His fervent spirit labors, and He is prepared to let the world know (as He I had said in John 14:30, 31.) that He loved the Father, and as the Father gave Him commandment, so He would do. And the world does come, and He does let them know this. He might, have asked for the armies of heaven to rescue Him, but He rather fulfills the scriptures; He stands first before the Jewish power to the confession of the truth, that He was the Son of God; and then before the Roman power, to the confession of the truth, that He was the king of the Jews. He endures cruel mocking and scourgings without an eye to pity Him; for the flock was scattered, deserting, and disowning aim. And in the end, without opening; His mouth, He is led as a lamb to the slaughter. Such was His; path down to the bottom of the dark valley-from the supper to Gethsemane-from Gethsemane to the high priest's palace—from thence, through the Jewish rabble to Pilates' judgment hall-and on from that, through the hands of the cruel soldiers, down to Calvary. But all for us. He was made naked to His shame, that we might have a glorious covering: He thus emptied Himself that we might be filled. As Adam had once wrongfully attempted God's rights, so the Son of God now meritoriously surrenders His. Adam the creature of yesterday, sought to be as God;

Christ Jesus who was in the form of God, humbled Himself to the death of the cross: He entered into the darkness, and the forsaking of God for a season, that we might know the abiding light of our Father's countenance: by His blood, He rent the vail for us from top to bottom.

And here again, I may observe, that according to the general character of this gospel, St. Matthew notices the word of the Jewish prophet, touching the purchase of the potter's field. That field was bought with the price of the Lord's blood, and it was made the place to bury strangers in. But all this bad a meaning for Israel, and therefore St. Matthew specially notices it. For Judas' act was Israel's act. He Was but the guide of them that took Jesus. (Acts 1:16.) It was they who with wicked hands, crucified and slew Him. They took His blood upon themselves and their children, and therefore it is their land that is the Aceldama or field of blood to this day. It is the land of Judea that is the true potters field, or the place for the burial of strangers; the witness of death, and of the alienation and captivity of her people to this day. And thus will it be, the field of blood and the grave of the aliens, till the Lord accomplish what. He has spoken by His prophet, "I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed, for the Lord dwelleth in Zion."

28.-The night is now passed, and the morning appears. God raises up the Prince of life, the Holy One and the Just, whom the Jewish archers had wounded to death. The one denied by that generation, is glorified by the God of their fathers: the stone set at naught of the builder, is now made the head of the corner. And in this chapter, we are given to see something of the fruit of all this, for the angel introduced to us here, was not the agent, but the witness of the resurrection. He did not roll away the stone in order to let the Lord forth from the sepulcher; but the Lord having already risen, the angel comes to earth with pledges and fruits of His resurrection.

And as one sample of this fruit, He rolls back the stone, the sealed stone, which was nothing less than the representative of this world's authority. It bore the mark of the king's own signet, that the purpose might not be changed. (Dan. 6:17.) It would have been death to any man to touch it. But we know that He that sat in the heavens, laughed it to scorn; and His angel sits therefore in holy triumph upon it, and puts the sentence of death into the keepers of it. Israel had set God's sure stone at naught, and had chosen one that bore the seal of Caesar, the stamp of the world's greatness and power; but this in which they trusted, is now set at naught, for this rock was not the proper rock of God's people, as they themselves may now be judges. And the full harvest of this sample of the resurrection, will be brought forth in that day of the Lord, when His enemies shall be made His footstool.

Then as further and other fruit of the resurrection, this same angel speaks comfortably to " the poor of the flock;" the women who were seeking Him that was crucified, and shows them the trophies of the Lord's victory over death and the grave; that is, the pledges of their own peace and security. And the full harvest of which this was the sample, shall with joy be gathered in, when all His beloved and loving disciples who have in their measure, owned Him the crucified one, shall be with Him where He is, to behold His glory.

Such is the different fruit the resurrection of the Lord, such the different aspect which it bears to the world, and to His own that love Him. And in the further part of this beautiful chapter, we see these two classes still held in contrast. The enemy we find in possession of the city, with large money, and the ear of the governor at their command; while the disciples, still " the poor of the flock," have but Galilee and the mountain to flee to. The nation of the Jews (like sinful Adam who hid himself among the trees of the garden, as though they could screen him from the searching presence of God,) take covert behind a weak and silly falsehood, where they lie hid unto this day; (ver. 13.) but the disciples take commission from their Lord, to whom all power had now been given in heaven, and in earth, to go forth into the wide unpitying world, and there serve Him in the comfort of this promise; " Lo I am with you alway even unto the end of the world."

From this moment, the disciples become the little ones wills the hand of the Lord turned upon them, as the prophet says; " Smite the Shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered, and I will turn my hand upon the little ones." (Zech. 13:7.) In that scripture of the prophet, the Lord in abounding grace, interprets the scattering of the sheep when the Shepherd was smitten, not as an act of desertion on their part (which it really was,) but as that which brought themselves into exposure and defenselessness, and consequent need of the shelter and care of their Shepherd's hand; and all the Savior's intercourses with the disciples after His resurrection, were His thus turning of His hand upon them as His little ones. He meets them, as we find in this chapter, in their way from the sepulcher, with the salutation, " all hail"-He talks with two of them, as we learn from another, by the way, till their hearts burn within them-He enters in to them within the closed doors, where they had run for safety from the, wolf without, and then speaks comfortably to them-He eats and drinks with them-He meets them in the distant solitudes of Galilee, and there they worship Him; and finally He turns His hand upon the little ones, when, as we read, "He took them out as far as to Bethany, and lifted up His hands and blessed them." And so will it be with them to the end, his hand will be turned upon the little ones still; and this is everything to them; His hand upon them as their shelter, their guide, and their strength. It is the hand of the Father and of Christ from whence none can pluck them; the hand of ministering kindness and love, of guidance and care, till their scatterings and wanderings cease, and they become one fold and one Shepherd forever. Amen, even so, come Lord Jesus.

The Heavenly Calling Foreshown

The Apostle addresses his brethren in Christ as "partakers of the heavenly calling." (Heb. 3:1) This calling, in another Scripture, is styled, " the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." (Phil. 3:14.) And again, it is spoken of as the calling of the Father of glory. (Eph. 1:17, 18.) In them who are the subjects of it, God is to show, in the ages to come, the exceeding riches of His grace; (Eph. 2:7.) and in them also the Lord is to be chiefly admired in the day of the presence of His power, though that is to be a day in which all His works shall praise Him, a day of clouds of witnesses to His, glory both in heaven and earth. (2 Thess. 1:10, 11.)

This participation of the heavenly calling, thus bestowed on the saints, was not made known in other ages, as it is now revealed. For it is only to the Church that God has abounded in "all wisdom and prudence;" unto the saints only it is that "He has made known the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure, which He hath purposed in Himself." (Eph. 1:8, 9.) In a wondrous manner it is for them to testify, "we have the mind of Christ." His deep things God has revealed to them by His Spirit. (1 Cor. 10.) The mystery of God and of the Father, and of Christ it is for then: with full assurance of understanding to acknowledge. (Col. 2:2.) And their title to all this high endowment stands in this-the Son is their Prophet. They have been spoken to by the Son, who is "the brightness of God's glory, and the express image of His Person:" and " all things," says the Son, " that I have heard of my Father, I have made known unto you." (John 15) Israel never stood in such privilege as this, God, in sundry measures and in divers manners, spake to them by His prophets; but their prophets were not the Son; they came not from the bosom of the Father. They were of the earth, and spake of the earth; (John 3:31.) for Israel was God's earthly people, having. their citizenship and their place here.. But the saints, or the Church, are the heavenly family, and their Prophet is therefore He who has come from heaven, and testified what He has seen and heard there. He who was " full of truth" dwelt among us-the Son from the bosom declared the Father, and gave us an understanding to know Him, (1 John 5:20.) In Him and by Him the blessed God is revealed; for we get "the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." (2 Cor. 4:6.)

The Prophets, who spake of the earth, have given us many a notice of the earthly glory of the Lord; and sweet and gracious and wondrous is the intelligence. Isaiah speaks of the Lord's reign in Mount Zion, and before His ancients gloriously. (Isa. 24:23.) Ezekiel, who first saw the Son of Man in the glory above the firmament, after-wards saw the same glory returned to the earthly city of the Great King. (Ezek. 43:1, 2) And Daniel is very specially the witness of the glory of Christ in the earth, taking a kingdom and dominion here. Indeed the Prophets generally could speak of Christ as the King of Israel, and as such, the God of the whole earth also, the heathen being given to Him for His inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for His possession. But all this, though of the glory of the Son, was of the earth still. The circumstances in which all this glory is to be revealed must be earthly. But the Gentiles being " fellow-heirs, and of the same body," was a mystery of which it was not given to the Prophets to speak particularly. Co-heirship of God with Jesus the Lord,-spiritual blessings in the heavenlies-the sanctified and the Sanctifier being all of one-the Church: as the body of Christ and the fullness of Him that filleth all in all,-these are "the heavenly things" which the Son of Man alone has revealed, for He alone came down from heaven, and alone has thus ascended into heaven. (John 3:13.)

It is not that there is any new purpose with God; no, but there are due seasons and appointed ministries for the manifestation of His purposes. The Church is nothing new as to purpose, but new as to manifestation. Jesus, the Messiah on the earth, was the proper expectation of Israel; and therefore the songs which either ushered in, or accompanied the birth of the Lord, welcoming Him to the earth, were all in celebration of good things to Israel, and announced nothing heavenly. Neither indeed did the Resurrection of the Lord any more than His birth necessarily take Him beyond earthly glory and Jewish hopes. For the earthly people have their interest in Messiah's resurrection, as well as the Church. Their prophets foretold it, and the promise grounded on resurrection, was that to which the twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hoped to come. (Acts 26:6-9.) The hopes of David's throne are identified with the resurrection. (Acts 2:30.) It is the resurrection that makes David's mercies sure mercies. (Acts 13:34.) And therefore when the death and resurrection of the Lord were accomplished at Jerusalem, it was to Israel that the testimony was first sent. And even more than this,-the Ascension did not at once take the Lord out of Jewish connection; for it put Him into possession of the gifts which He was to receive for the rebellious,—i.e. Israel, and which under the New Covenant, He is to give to Israel. And we are taught that it is from His Ascension-place, that He is to give repentance to Israel and remission of sins. (Acts 5:31.) But the ascending into heaven after Him, and not waiting here on earth for His return, is beyond all Jewish hopes,-That is the new or the heavenly calling. Mansions in the Father's house, and the special joys and honors of the saints, as the brethren of the Son of God, were before left in a mystery, But such is the high calling to which the Church is called; and it is made known to the saints by the Spirit, sent down from the Son, thus ascended into heavenly glory, and when He had been rejected in His resurrection by His earthly people Israel. Till then, the time had not come, the ministry had not been prepared, for the revelation of this calling.

But though it were thus as to express revelation kept secret, yet from the beginning, God had been pleased to signify and shadow it, and the saints are now able, in the light of the full revelation of it, to trace out and read such signs and shadows. They see themselves thus as the heavenly family kept in remembrance, even in the midst of the Lord's dealings with the earth and the earthly people.

And I will not refrain from stating here what has lately impressed my own soul with some fresh comfort,-that amid the increasing anxiety of these times, and the deepening of the world's darkness around us, the light of our God shines pure and steady as ever.—This is comfort. The pillar was the same to Israel through whatever part ( of the desert they passed: that land of the shadow of death might/ have been gloomier to them in some stages of their wondrous march', than in others; but the pillar of God was the same. On it went, the same steady, sure, unvarying guide. It gathered none of the gloom, of the desert around it; and I can believe that the more lonely the wilderness became to them, the more steadily did the camp eye it as their abiding companion and friend. And so now with us, beloved. The way to the saint may become lonely, very lonely; but the word of the Lord endureth forever. There is no darkness there, no uncertainty there. This would be our sorrow indeed, if any of the present darkness of which we complain, were in Jesus.-But it cannot be there. The candle shines on the candlestick; God has not put it under a bushel; it gives light, as ever, to all that come in. The darkness is only in the world that surrounds us, and in the evil eye of our own body. (Luke 11:33-36.) And therefore though the night be dark and lonely, there is light to guide us and to cheer us, and the simple obedient saint finds it so. (2 Pet. 1-19.) The foundations may be destroyed, but the righteous still know what to do, for the light of God remains undimmed. (Luke 11:36.) This, brethren, is our comfort-the word of our God endureth forever; and may the gracious hand that gave it to us, ever control and guide us in using it!

It needs not to be observed, that the different typical persons in \ Scripture set forth the Lord only in certain features of His glory. No one stands out as a full exhibition of Him. Indeed the limited sphere in which they severally moved, under the hand of God, would allow of nothing more than this. In each of them we may get traces of Jesus, but that is all; one after another takes up the wondrous tale, but the half is not told us. (1 Kings 10:7.) But still we learn, and learn much from them; and something, as I would now show, of the deep things of God, which the Spirit alone searcheth out, and which God has revealed to us by the Spirit, are made known, as in figure by them.

In the union of Adam and Eve, and in the law of marriage in Eden, the oneness of Christ and the Church was from the beginning declared. In the dominion of all things there, Eve being the associate of Adam in his lordship, the joint inheritance of all things on earth by the Lord and His saints was set forth. In the structure and combination of the parts of the tabernacle, much of the same purpose of God was exhibited. The holy places, with the outer courts, were all according to heavenly patterns, presenting the union and yet distinctness of the heavens and the earth; as that same union and distinctness had been previously revealed in the vision of the exiled Patriarch of the ladder set up on the earth, but whose top reached to heaven. And much like this will be seen in the structure and combination of certain typical persons; for in the laying of them together, the one after the other, as the parts of the tabernacle, it will be found that that order of heavenly and earthly things, which in the end is to be displayed, has, from the beginning, been foreshown. Of this I have lately been strongly assured. And indeed it is the duty of the saints, as it should be their delight (ever looking to God for wisdom) to discern the ways of God under His works,-to see His mind and purpose under the moldings and fashionings of His hand,-to speak of " the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world." (1 Cor. 2:7.)

I would notice this combination of typical persons first in Enoch and Noah.-

The earth, at the first, was given to Adam; " And God blessed them, and God said unto them, be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the. earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the face of the earth." (Gen. 1:28.) But in his hand the earth became corrupt, and thus corrupted it passed into the possession of Cain and his family, as will be seen in Gen. 4 They buy, they sell, they plant, they build, they marry, and are given in marriage. They stamp their own name upon the earth, and furnish it with all, that was good and pleasant in the judgment of the flesh. They were "the world" of that day, and "the things that are in the world" they loved and cultivated. But in the midst of this Cain-earth, there was gathered from Seth, (appointed to Eve instead of Abel, whom Cain slew,) a household of faith, who " call upon the name of the Lord." (Gen. 4:26.) This is their only record. The world knew them not, for they were not of it. They died, generation after generation. (Gen. 5) They had no inheritance here; they toiled at the cursed ground, as submitting to God's righteous ordinance, and only looked for a new earth and a future rest. (Gen. 5:29.) They lived by faith, and they died in hope; of whom it may be said, "the world was not worthy." They were the heavenly family,-they acknowledged God in the midst of that world which had willingly estranged itself from His presence to seek out its own inventions.

But in process of time they also corrupted themselves, and the Lord had to testify of their apostasy, and loss of heavenly character, and to say of them, (as giving them up,) " My Spirit shall not always strive with man." Then did it repent Him that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him at His heart, for He saw that the wickedness of man was great, and that all flesh had corrupted His way upon the earth." (Gen. 6:1-8,)

But ere this, Enoch had been found among them faithful to his high calling. In the power of the heavenly hope of this Seth household,, " he walked with God," and according to the end of that hope, " God took him." " By faith Enoch was translated, that he should not' see death, and was not found, because God had translated him; for before his translation, he had this testimony, that he pleased God." This is a simple record of this holy and honored Patriarch; but it is large enough to warrant us to say, that in his day Enoch was the witness of ascension glory, and of the heavenly calling; in him death was abolished, and life and immortality were for a passing moment brought to light; He was not found on earth, for God had taken Him. The mansions in the Father's house, as it were, were already prepared and He was seated in them; and the saints were seen in Him as caught up to meet the Lord in the air.

And in perfect character with all this, Enoch prophesied of the coming of, the Lord with His saints to the judgment of the earth. Delivered in spirit out of the evil of the world, he was delivered afterward in person out of the judgment of it; and he beheld from his elevation, (like Abraham in such a case, Genesis 14:23) the smoke of the country going up as the smoke of a furnace. " Behold the Lord cometh," said Enoch, "with ten thousand of His saints to execute judgment." (Jude 14, 15.)

But Noah, on the other hand, is not taken away from the judgment, but carded safely through it. The same hand which had raised Enoch out of it, conducts Noah through it. (Heb. 11:6, 7.) He prepared an ark to the saving of his house; the waters rose around him, wave upon wave; the end of all flesh was shown to him, but he lived to rise up the inheritor and lord of a new earth, and with him the covenant that to this day establishes the earth was made, and God set His bow in the cloud for a token of it.

But this was not Enoch glory. Noah was left on the earth still. God remembered Noah assuredly, but it was only to open the door of the ark, and let him forth upon the earth again. He was found here again; for God had not translated, but only preserved him. His faith carried him through the flood into a new world, while Enoch was carried above it up to God.

And such are the divers glories of the Church and of Israel,-such the several callings of the heavenly and the earthly families, such the children of the resurrection, and the children of the circumcision.—And such too are the several seasons ordained for the revelation of these glories. Enoch came before Noah. Enoch was translated to heaven before Noah condemned the old world, and inherited the new. So will the saints be caught up to meet the Lord in the air first, and then will come the judgment of the nations and the manifestation of the Lord in His Noah character, in His glory of earthly rule and inheritance.

But this Noah-earth quickly became corrupt, as the Adam-earth had before it; and within a little while, " the children of men" became again vain in their imaginations, following the pride and naughtiness of their hearts to the very full. Flesh again proved itself to be flesh. Man was the same man still, the waters of the flood had not cleansed him, but big with the old desire to be as God "the children of men" were now for making themselves a name, and building themselves a city and a tower, whose top should reach unto heaven. (Gen. 11)

But, as before in the person of Seth, the Lord had raised up a heavenly man in the midst of the Cain-world, so now did the God of glory raise up in the person of Abraham, another heavenly man in the midst of this Noah-world. Government of the earth had been given to Noah, but Abraham is called away from the earth, away from his country, his kindred, and his father's house, to walk with God; like Seth or Enoch, a stranger and sojourner here. Abraham, like them before him, got no part in this corrupted earth. God gave him none inheritance in it, "no, not so much as to set his foot on." His tent and his altar accompanied him wherever he went, and marked him as a stranger on the earth with God. He had in the character of his calling, done with the world. He dwelt here with his children in tabernacles, and died in faith, desiring a heavenly country. He took no part with "the children of men" in their building of cities, and getting themselves a name; but he looked for a city whose builder was God, and waited, according to promise, to have his name made great by Jehovah. But God was eminently with him; his candle, as Job speaks, shined upon his head, and wondrously and blessedly indeed may it be said, the secret of God was upon his tabernacle. This was all his present glory, but it was holy glory. The Lord told him of his ways, and promised him everything. By the hand of Melchizedek heavenly and earthly treasures were pledged to him, and by the word of the Lord, heavenly as well as earthly mysteries were made known to him. He was to be the heir of the world, and the father of many nations. He- was admitted to the divine presence, and walked on earth as " the friend of God." The judgment of the world was made to pass before him, but it did not come nigh unto him, only with his eyes did he behold and see the reward of the wicked. The smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace, while Abraham looked down from on high upon it, and that too, from the very place where he had " stood before the Lord," that is, where he had been in intercession with the Lord, (Gen. 19:27.) and whichever is, in principle and character, heaven itself.

He was thus, like Enoch, the elect one-drawn out from the world before the judgment came. In the crisis of the earth he had nothing to do. But Lot his kinsman, his inferior and younger kinsman, is left as a remnant in the world after the judgment. He was sent, with sure purpose of love, mat of the midst of the overthrow when God overthrew the city of destruction, in the which he dwelt; but he did not stand on Abraham's elevation. He and Abraham never met afterward; for he was found, as it were, on the earth still, the remnant that survived the judgment like Noah before him, while Abraham was above it, and out of it altogether like Enoch.

Such knowledge of the mystery of God's will purposed in Himself from the beginning, and to be manifested in the dispensation of the fullness of times, by the gathering of all things whether in heaven or on earth in one, even in Christ, was thus in types foreshown to, and left among the Patriarchs, whether before or after the flood. And just at the beginning of the Lord's subsequent dealings with that nation which He had chosen for His own out of the earth, we may find the same purpose again foreshown.-I mean in the combined types of Moses and Joshua.

Moses came from Egypt through the wilderness; as it is written of him, " this was he that was in the Church in the wilderness.'' (Acts 7:38.) He stood on the borders of the land of promise, which was destined soon to be God's world, or that part of the earth which God was about to separate to Himself. But Moses was to go no further. There was to be nothing in this world for Moses but the wilderness and a sight of Canaan. The earth to him was to be no Canaan. His foot was never to tread a land flowing with milk and honey. " Die in the mount whither thou goest up, and be gathered unto thy people," said the Lord to him. (Deut. 32:50,) And Moses did so. He went up from the plain of Moab unto the mountain of Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, and died there. But did he die the death of all men? died Moses as a fool dieth? No, it was the Lord Himself who put him asleep; tile dead may bury the dead, but the Lord buried Moses. " He buried him in a valley in the land of Moab over against Beth-peor, but no man knoweth of his sepulcher unto this day." (Deut. 34:6.) Though He showed His care in another way, yet was it equal care for the body of Moses, as had been shown for that of Enoch, and because they were to be equally children of the resurrection. Some sleep, but they which are alive and remain shall not prevent them which are asleep, but all shall be caught up together to meet the Lord in the air. (1 Thes. 4:15- 17.) The earth does not to this day own the body of Moses. Like others, it is true, it has returned dust to dust, hut the Lord Himself buried it with sure and certain purpose of giving it a resurrection unto glory. It was not the power of death that had oppressed Moses. Though 120 years old, his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated. The Lord could have said of him (as of all the children of the resurrection) "If I will that lie tarry till I come;" for death is abolished to them all. But He was otherwise minded, and graciously so; for in Moses He has given to all those who may be called to " sleep in Jesus," a sure pledge that their bodies are not forgotten in the grave, but though sown in corruption they shall be raised in glory; though once in the image of the earthy, they shall be found in the image of the heavenly.

But there is in Moses much more of a Church or heavenly aspect, if I may so express myself, than even all this-as one thing I observe, that it is only in connection with Moses that Israel is ever called the Church. "This is he," says the Scripture, speaking of Moses, "that was in the Church in the wilderness," (Acts 7:38.) the only passage I believe where the people of Israel are expressly called the Church. And the reason I judge to be this, that it is only while they were traveling in the wilderness, that Israel bears analogy to the Church of God on the earth. The stricter analogy ends when Israel gets into Canaan, and is there organized and settled as God's nation; and therefore all things that happened to them as examples, and which are written for the Church's admonition, happened to them when in the wilderness, and are found written, all of them in the book of Numbers, Which the Jews called, and properly so, " the book of the wilderness." (see 1 Cor. 10:1-10.) And Moses was their leader and the companion of their joys and sorrows only while they continued in the wilderness; and thus in the very character of his position while on the earth, his course, as we thus see, ending in the wilderness, and he himself never taking his place among the people of Israel when organized and manifested as God's nation, we clearly discern in Moses much more of the heavenly than of the earthly calling-more of the Church character than of Israel.

Besides, Moses was constantly with the Lord Jesus in the heavens, dwelling unveiled, like the Church, in the presence of Christ beyond the region of the lightning and thunder, from whence the law was delivered, (Ex. 34:34. 2 Cor. 3:18.) and in the presence of which Israel stood. (Ex. 24:17.) He was in the peaceful sunshine on the top of the hill of God; there he walked amid the fullness of Christ, receiving token after token of His grace and salvation. He saw face to face, he beheld the similitude of the Lord, and was spoken with mouth to mouth, and he shone with the heavenly glory of Jesus in the heights. And according to all this, he is afterward seen in the Holy Mount, in company with Elijah, occupying the place which is characteristically the Church's place. (Matt. 17:3.)

And I would add this, that Moses got a wife and children when he was, through their unbelief and rejection of him, separated from his brethren the children of Israel, and when, consequently, as he says himself, he was an alien in a strange land." (Ex 11:22, 18:3) And so has the Lord been brought in among the Gentiles through the unbelief and rejection of Israel, and is gathering a Church, a wife and children, out from among them. And thus in all this, Moses is strikingly in character with the Lord in the present dispensation and calling of the Church, bearing upon him much more of the heavenly than of the earthly calling, exhibiting the Lord in connection with the Church, rather than with Israel. " This is he that was in the Church in the wilderness."

But Joshua, who comes after Moses, presents another thing altogether. He stood in the land, the good land, which the Lord gave for an inheritance to Israel. The heathen were given to him, and the kings and rulers of the earth he broke in pieces like a potter's vessel. He divided the land by lot among the Tribes, the children of the circumcision, and their reproach he rolled away. Joshua raised the altar of the Lord in 'the land, taking possession of it in His name, and the earth smiled around them, the garden of the Lord, again. Joshua was thus the man of victory, and the heir of the inheritance here; Moses had been but the man of Egypt and the wilderness, who died on the other side of Jordan. But Moses was laid up by the hand of the Lord for resurrection, while Joshua still stood upon the earth. Like Enoch and Noah of old, among the Patriarchs, Moses and Joshua now in Israel, tell out the same wondrous tale, the purpose of God concerning the heaven and the earth. And in the same order of time also. For as Enoch was translated to heaven before Noah inherited the earth, so Moses was buried by the Lord in Mount Pisgah, before Joshua crossed the Jordan and took possession of the land of promise. But in their turn, under the guiding hand of God, they each take up the same mystery, and foreshow the dispensation of the fullness of times, and of the gathering of all things in Christ, whether things in earth or things in heaven.

The glories are two, but the same Lord is the center and sustainer of both. In a glass darkly we see the heavenly family, whether alive or asleep at the coming of the Lord, in Enoch and Moses, and we see the earth restored and inherited again in Noah and Joshua.

Again, in the combined histories of Elijah and Elisha, we shall find the same testimony among the Prophets, another foreshowing of the same mystery; every age being thus made to witness this purpose of God. Elijah like Enoch before him stands in an evil day. He is called forth in a day of deep apostasy in Israel, and in the spirit of a righteous reprover, he suddenly breaks in upon Ahab and all his iniquity with a voice of judgment. -" As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years but according to my word." (1 Kings 17:1.). The Baptist's voice in another day, " Repent ye, O generation of vipers," was, as it were, but the echo of this voice of God's Prophet before Ahab. The same spirit and power were in both. And their course on the earth was of one character also. The Prophet suffers for his testimony; this was his only portion here. There was, it is true, a rejoicing in his light for a season, as afterward with the Jews in the light of the Baptist. The people fell on their faces, acknowledging the Lord God of Elijah, saying, "The Lord He is the God, the Lord He is the God;" and the Prophets of Baal were taken down and slain at the brook Kishon. (1 Kings 18:39, 40.) But the burning and shining light of God's Prophet was quickly disowned, as afterward was John, his companion in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ. Another Herod and Herodias are confederate against Elijah, and he is exiled, afflicted and destitute: the world hates him, the hand of man is against him. The Lord acknowledges his suffering witness and comforts him, but it is the comforting of one who is cast down, cast down by the enmity of man. The still small voice of love meets his ear, but it is in that wilderness out to which the hand of a persecutor had driven him. His enemies are strong and many, and from the beginning to the end, he continues to be the suffering and exiled one, the righteous witness of God cast out by an evil generation. This was his course on earth; till at last, when the suffering was all accomplished, and he had fought his fight, and finished his course, and kept the faith, he is made to enter into glory. Having believed, he lives; having suffered, he reigns. Earth disowns, but heaven receives him. Another cloud takes him out of our sight. (Acts 1:9.) The chariot and horses of Israel, seat him as a child of the resurrection among the angels, (Luke 20:36.) and the world which had troubled him for his righteousness sake now only knows that his reward is great in heaven. (Matt. 5:12.)

I need not say how all this is characteristic of the Lord and the Church. The rejected One walking by faith on earth, there knowing the enmity of man, and the consolations of God, is at length glorified among the angels in heaven. All this tells us of that heavenly family who walk here in faith un-vindicated and disowned, but who, believing, are to live, and who, suffering, are to reign. And as in the case of Moses, Elijah is seen in the Holy Mount, the companion of the glory, as he had been of the sufferings of Christ,

occupying that which is to he the place of the Church, or the heavenly glory.

But in Elisha we have something altogether different. No suffering for him after his Master was taken from him. He stands before kings and is not ashamed. It is not with him, as it had been with his Master; the wrath of the king prevailing to exile and to trouble him, but chief captains wait at his gates, and kings send presents to him; he discloses the secrets of one of them, disappoints the purposes of another, gives pledges of victory to a third, and grants supplies to combined armies of them. Chariots of salvation fill the mountain as attendants on the Prophet. Every path on which he treads, wears after him some trace of the greatness of him who had been traveling there; famine, disease, and death seem to own him; mercies and judgments are dispensed through his hand. He stands above all difficulty, going onward still, in the Lord, from strength to strength. Nature changes its course at his bidding; and at length even his dead body puts forth strange and surprising virtue. (2 Kings 13:21.) It sends forth the prisoners out of the pit that they might not die but live, and walk on earth again, as before the Lord, in the land of the living.

All this was a traveling in greatness of strength; but it was a traveling in greatness only upon the earth. The things that Elisha did were great things, (as it is said of them 2 Kings 8:4.) but still they were only things of the earth. It was the earth that witnessed the power of God in the Prophet; his was not with Elijah, glory among the angels in heaven, but glory in the earth, power amid the resources and over the circumstances of the world. And thus again, in these two Prophets, the same wondrous tale is told out, the same purpose of God concerning the heavens and the earth in the world to come. And the very same seasons may be observed here, as we have observed above. Elijah was taken up by a whirlwind into heaven before Elisha received the double portion of his spirit, and went through the earth in the greatness of the strength of it. All this being to foreshow the heavens receiving the Church; and then, but not till then, Israel and the earth receiving blessing again in the restitution of all things.

Such are, to me, very distinct and significant fore-showings of the heavenly calling, and of the purpose of God, which in the dispensation of the fullness of times is to be manifested. But it must not be understood that in this comparative view of Enoch, Abraham, Moses, and Elijah, with Noah, Lot, Joshua, and Elisha,-I mean to present the first rank as individually and personally belonging to the heavenly family, and the second rank of them to the earthly.-Surely not. I speak of them only in their typical bearing. They stand, when thus combined, as foreshowing the two departments of the coming kingdom of our Lord,-the Church called up to heaven and the throne,-Israel settled in honor and in blessing, with the attending nations on the earth or the footstool. But as Enoch will be found among the children of the resurrection so will Noah, and Joshua will appear with Moses, and Elisha with Elijah in the true mount of transfiguration.

And this is just what we may observe upon that typical mount itself. There Peter, James, and John, in type, presented the place which the earthly family is to hold in the kingdom; for still in bodies of flesh and blood they stood merely before the heavenly glory, and not in it. But we know that in the antitype or the kingdom, they will hold the other place, and be where they then saw Moses and Elijah, in the glory on the heavenly mount with the Lord. Himself; this St. Peter clearly declares. (2 Peter 1:16.) The inheritance of all the saints is in heaven. (1 Peter 1:4.) The Patriarchs looked for a "heavenly" country. (Heb. 11:16.) The Lord is to come and all His saints with Him, as Zechariah prophesies. (Zech. 14:5.) Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the Prophets are to be seen hereafter in the kingdom of God. (Luke 13:28.) I do judge that Scripture instructs us, that all the elect, as well those who came before the Son was revealed, as well as those who are now under the ministry of the Spirit of the Son glorified, will be found together in the heavenly glory of the kingdom.-For all are of one body. Until the Son was sent forth, they were as children under tutors and governors, under the rudiments of the world, but still they were of the Father, as we are. No better than servants, but still lords of all, as we are. (Gal. 4:1-6.)

In their measure, too, they continued with the Lord in His temptations, standing each in his day faithful, like Jesus among the faithless; and therefore their place must be that of the children, and their reward that of the faithful witnesses. They lived by faith, and they died in faith, and are laid up surely as children of the resurrection; no longer of the earth, earthy, but to bear the image of the heavenly, in the day when death is to be swallowed up of victory.

And, now in closing, let me, while having thus sought to know the deeper parts of God's ways and purposes concerning us, call to your remembrance, brethren, the ever fresh and blessed truth of the love of God our Savior. The command to you is, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul, and with all your strength;" and again the command is, " Rejoice in the Lord alway." Now never would He have thus commanded us, if He had not forgiven us, and would have us to know this forgiveness. For it were but a thankless task to try to love Him thus, and to rejoice in Him thus, while we know not that He is ours in the full joy of forgiveness. It were a commandment beyond obedience altogether, if we were not to know Him in the reconciliation. He who commands us to love and rejoice in Him, commands us to know Him to be at peace with us. He never would have said to us, " give me thy heart," if He had not addressed us with, " my son." (Prov. 23:25.) The call tells us of the relationship; the demand made upon us implies the grace which has been brought to us; and in this way we may use the sweet words of our Lord, "I know that His commandment is life everlasting." It is His command that we believe in His forgiving love. God is disobeyed if we receive not the blessing with joy. Our obedience to God therefore thus depends on our receiving the reconciliation.

But not only this, our godly use and apprehension of the things around us, depends in like manner on knowing the reconciliation through the death and rising again of Jesus. It is this which the neat creature in Christ apprehends in them all, as the Apostle speaks, " If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, old things are passed away, and behold all things are become new, and all things are of God, who hath reconciled us unto Himself by Jesus Christ." And not only so, all that which as saints is our service to others, depends on this likewise. For instance our ministry flows from it; for it is to us, as the Apostle further speaks, who are reconciled, that the ministry of reconciliation is given. (2 Cor. 5:18.) " We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, " I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak; knowing that He which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus." Our intercessions flow from it; for it is only in the consciousness of our own acceptance that we can intercede for others. Abraham drew near to the Lord when lie prayed for Sodom, The High Priest under the law went into the holiest of all. The altar of incense stood close to the second vail. And therefore when the Church is exhorted to make prayers, supplications, intercessions, and giving of thanks for all men, she is, doubtless, by that very exhortation, commanded to know her own full acceptance, and thus to pray without doubting. (1 Tim. 2) So blessedly thus, dear Brethren, does everything help to assure our hearts before God our Savior, and keep us in the sense of His forgiving and accepting love. The very commands He has delivered, the spirit in which He calls us to walk, the services He requires, all are made to witness to us the reconciliation. The full abiding sense of the reconciliation we should bear about with us everywhere; as Adam, though sent out to a world which his own sin had defiled, and which was thus a constant witness against him, bore on his shoulder the coat of skin, the pledge and witness of grace and forgiveness towards him from the hand of God Himself.

And I would add one other thing, which has touched. my own soul with comfort, while writing these pages-that if we do (as surely we do daily) and as to such joys in a world of such offense, and trespass as " this present evil world" is-if the sunshine and fruitful seasons and a thousand other springs of constant ever flowing joy be such as they are to us here, what must be the joy, when the offense is forever removed, and all is subjection and service! when God again rejoices in His works! when in the dispensation of the fullness of times He has gathered together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in Him!-May the brightness of that day be much before us, and our hearts know more and more what it is to long for its appearing.

A Letter on the Person and Deity of the Holy Ghost

The occasion of the following letter was the painful necessity of refusing to receive into Christian fellowship, in the Lord's Supper, one who proved, on inquiry, to be unsound in this very important point of the Christian faith stated above. There have ever been seasons, in the history of the Church, when a necessity has arisen for making a stand for some particular truth, which Satan has tried either openly to invalidate or covertly obscure, or more frequently to lead the children of God to neglect or despise. Of late the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ has been the point of controversy, and the faith of many shaken almost to the center on questions arising concerning His proper divinity and proper humanity, or their union in His one blessed, undivided, and spotless Person. In this day the important truth of the Person, Deity, and indwelling of the Holy Ghost, as that which constitutes the life and vigor of the Church, is very loosely held even by many who zealously assert the Deity and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The vague assertion of the necessity of the influence of the Holy Ghost, instead of His own personal presence and power, has doubtless much tended to help on the fearful error of those who deny His distinct personality and Deity, whilst they allow, in words, the existence of the Holy Spirit, or the Spirit of God. In full accordance with the judgment of the Writer, that the Church should demand confession in the faith of the Trinity, as that confession which is to be made unto salvation,-with his permission we use this letter for the common profit of Church, in the furtherance of our common faith.

The Writer is fully aware, and indeed has stated in the letter, that what he says is very far short of a complete statement of the truth on this point. So far as it goes it is most valuable; but we look to the truth on this point being followed out, both in its exposition and practical bearing, in some future papers.

My Dear Sir,

I felt myself much drawn to you from the little intercourse we had on Sunday, so that the apprehension, as it grew upon me, of anything that might prove a necessary hindrance to further intercourse, I need not say was painful to me.

I have since further meditated on the subject that was then between us, and have committed the guidance of my mind upon it to the Lord; but I feel only more confirmed in the judgment which I then had, and I have remembered the words of the Apostle, " continue thou in the things which thou hast learned, and hest been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them."-I desire now to write a little on the subject, as I promised you.

I believe the glory, of God as He is, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, might have been learned from the Scriptures of the Old Testament. But I will instance only Isa. 6.

There the Seraphirns cry, " Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts." The New Testament Scriptures show us that Christ and the Holy Ghost might have been apprehended in this vision and audience, which the Prophet then had; for says St. John, referring to that chapter, " these things said Esaias, when he saw his (i.e. Christ's) glory and spake of Him." And St. Paul, referring afterward to the same, says, "well spake the Holy Ghost, by Esaias the Prophet, unto our fathers." (see John 12 and Acts 28)

But I instance merely this place, for I have no design to go into the divine testimonies to this truth, which might be derived from the Old Testament. But when the work of the Son was accomplished, and He had risen from the dead, and was about to depart unto the Father, the full manifestation of God was made, for then the due time for this had come, and the commission to the Apostles was this, " Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

And this was just the time, as I have observed, (as doubtless everything in Scripture is perfect,) for the revelation of this glory.

The work had now been done by the Son, which had been given to Him by the Father to do, and the Holy Ghost was about to be sent down to make that work effectual in and to the Church. Therefore the Church was now to be brought into the knowledge of God, and baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

But so likewise is the Church blest in Him; the benediction pronounced upon the saints formally and fully running thus,-" the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all."

And from these things, if we had nothing further, we might know Him "with whom we have to do," in whose name we have been thus baptized, and in whose grace, love, and communion, we thus have our life and blessing.

But there is much more than this. The Scriptures of the New Testament throughout assume that, which the form in baptism thus distinctly declares. There is not the constant repetition of the already declared truth in a full formal manner, but there is the constant assumption of it, and the presenting of it in its moral power.

I will just instance the passages which on the moment, without an effort, occur to me.-

"For through Him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father."

" And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one towards another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you, to the end He may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness, before God even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints."

" And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ."

"Elect, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience, and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ." "He saved us by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which He shed on us abundantly, through Jesus Christ our Savior."

In passages like these, the truth already declared in baptism, is assumed and shown further out in its moral power and relation to us: and we learn that as saints, we are vitally concerned in the actings of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. And we are saints by thus knowing God (having fellowship with the power and grace of our God) through His own actings-the only way in which He, ever can be known, for man's thoughts will never discover. Him, and will therefore leave him but a worshipper of idols still. And this should teach the Church of God, that she dare not recognize any one who does not thus stand with her in the knowledge of God, in whose name she has been baptized, and with whose blessing she is blest. I am confining myself here rather to the doctrine of the word concerning the Holy Ghost; for that was the subject between us. We did not so much speak as to the Deity of the Lord Jesus.

As to the person of the Holy Ghost, I would then further say, that a full revelation of Him is made, not only in the Baptismal and Benedictory Forms, but also, though in another manner, by our Lord to His Apostles in John 14-16 and there too I would again say in due time as we may thus see. When our Lord spake those words, it was just after He had told His disciples that He was about to be withdrawn from them. Such a declaration filled them (as it well might, for they had given up all for companionship with Him, not as yet knowing Him in resurrection,) with sorrow; and in these chapters He brings them the consolation. And the consolation He brings them, was twofold.-

lst.-He tells them, that His present departure was not final separation, but that He was going away only to prepare places for them in the Father's house, and that He would return and receive them to Himself. This was great consolation, but this was not all; for-

2nd.-He tells them that in the meanwhile, while He was thus absent from them, and abiding with the Father, He would send the Comforter, the Spirit of truth, to be with them, and that He would do wondrous and blessed service for them, such even as His own presence with them could never accomplish. What this promised service of the Holy Ghost for the Church was, I will not here detail-it is graciously spread out before us in these chapters of St. John, as well as in the other Scriptures of the New Testament. But here it stood revealed by the Lord to His Apostles, that the Holy Ghost was to be with them, and in them, when He Himself had returned and was abiding waif the Father. Such is the revelation of the person of the Holy Ghost to the Church, such the blessed promise from the departing Son of God, that the Spirit of truth should come to make effectual to the Church, the testimony which He 'the Son had given to the Father, and to seal upon their hearts all the life, and joy, and power of that calling, which had been prepared for them before the world was.

Here the Church rests-here she abides in peaceful assured joy, knowing that God in all His fullness is for her, that her security depends on no creature-strength, but that God Himself began, did continue, and is now ending her salvation, that what in covenant had of old been planned for her, God manifest in flesh had wrought out, and God the Holy Ghost is now making effectual to the joy of all who believe. This is the blessed way in which, if I may so speak, Scripture vindicates the Baptismal Form, this is the way in which the name of God, there fully and formally published, is made known in life and power. I would further say, that without this, there would be a giving of God's glory to another. For not only is equal honor required for the Son, (John 5) but the Holy Ghost stands with the Father and the Son, as we have seen in the work which is doing for poor sinners, the divine work of salvation. The subjection of the Son to the Father, and again of the Holy Ghost to the ascended and glorified Son of Man, is abundantly exhibited in Scripture, and more than exhibited, for we are instructed in the need of these things. The Lord says "the Son can do nothing from Himself;" and again, speaking of the promised Comforter, " He shall not speak from Himself," (John 5:19. 16:13.) both passages intimating distinctly these subjections. And we learn the need of this wondrous and blessed economy. What could have canceled the offense of Adam, the offense of a creature seeking to be as God? what could have preserved the honor of the throne of God while extending pardon to the seed of this Adam, but Jehovah's fellow being Himself smitten, and He that was in the form of God emptying himself? this we learn was the needed way in which God could be just and the justifier of sinners. (Rom. 3)

And what power less than that of God, could make the work effectual to us? having begun in God, are we to be made perfect in the creature? He that has been sent to be with the Church, while traveling here in weakness and patience during the dreary night of her Lord's absence, is the Spirit Himself, the Lord, who during that night is sought unto and trusted in, to direct our "hearts into the love of God and the patient waiting for Christ."

I know there may be perplexities in the thoughts of the saints at times, on many of the great matters of Revelation, and Satan is busy to corrupt the mind from the simplicity that is in Christ. But his advantages are gained, because he finds something in us. I am conscious of this. It is the god of the world that blinds the mind, it is the evil heart that departs from the living God. At the root of many of our difficulties there is a real, though it may be undetected, desire to keep God at a distance. Just (as has been observed by another,) as with the children of Israel in the Wilderness. It was not because the manna was not pleasant, for we are told it was as Coriander seed, sweet as honey, but still they loathed it. and why? it came from the hand of God-it brought God too nigh to them. And in like manner, the world is at enmity with the doctrine of the cross, and why? it brings God too nigh to us, it brings Him to us in such amazing light of love as overwhelms us, it is too much for the narrow heart of man -it rebukes his selfishness, and he seeks relief from it in the law of works. This is illustrated in the young man in Matt. 19. It was because he was covetous that he was asking, " what good thing shall I do?" And so the Godhead of Him who now dwells in the Church is a truth that in like manner brings God blessedly nigh to us.

I have not here so much spoken of the person of our Lord Jesus, because as I have observed, that was not so much the subject of our conversation. But I would just observe that the revelation of the Son with the Father and the Holy Ghost, in the Godhead, is made to us also in the Baptismal Form, and in that particular, (as in the other which I have above considered,) all subsequent Scripture vindicates that Form, assuming the truth there-in contained, and showing out its moral life and power. The work which the Lord has accomplished for the Church, and the affections which the Scriptures claim for Him from her, brings her before Him as God her Savior. Some speak of a subordinate Deity, of God in an inferior order, but the Church knows no such mythology, as indeed I cannot refrain from calling it. "Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord," and the Son of God has come to give us an understanding, to know Him that is true, and we are in Him that is true, in His Son Jesus Christ; this is the true God and eternal life. Little children keep yourselves from idols. (1 John 5)

But the Church has also learned the subjection of the Son-that He said, in the volume of the book, (in covenant, before the world was,) " Lo I come;"-that, like the voluntary servant in Israel, (and how voluntary, if in any sense He had been debtor as an inferior?) He has had His ear bored for perpetual service. (Ex. 21 Psa. 40 Isa. 1) Blessed be His name for such unsearchable riches of grace! But all this only verifies His true Deity, verifies the revelation, that He stands with the Father and the Holy Ghost in that name which is God, and in which, to know, love, serve, and worship Him, we have been baptized.

I do not desire, dear Sir, to multiply thoughts needlessly on this subject, though I confess to you it is not grievous; for it is a sweet occupation to go over and over again those ever blessing revelations of Him who is ours in covenant everlasting love, who has displayed His full name to us. But my direct purpose now is to show you the grounds why I assuredly judge the Church of God must, in order to her fellowship, require a confession to the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. This is God, be-cause this is the revelation; for without revelation of Himself, He is not to be known. No thought of ours will do anything more than (at their best) leave us refined idolaters. God must witness Himself to us; and that He has done in His actings for His saints in the work of their everlasting salvation, and which actings have brought out to them that blessed One with whom they have to do, in whose name they have been baptized; with whose blessing they are blest-Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

I would just add here what I have omitted, (for I have followed my thoughts very much, as I was led, without order,) that the Holy Ghost is not personally put before us in the way that " the Father" and our Lord Jesus are in the New Testament generally; for the Holy Ghost is now in the Church, the life of her worship, and the strength of her service,; by His indwelling, He is making known to us the glory of the ascended. Son, (or His Lordship,) and the Fatherly character and love of our God. Hence all the Epistles open somewhat in this way, " to the Church which is in God the Father, and in the Lord Jesus Christ, grace be unto you and peace from God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ." But in the Apocalypse, where the revelation was conveyed by the ministry of an angel, the salutation runs thus-" Grace be unto you and peace front Him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before the throne; and front Jesus Christ, the faithful Witness, the first-begotten of the dead, and the Prince of the kings of the earth."

But I will not go further, dear Sir. I had thought to have sent you this on but I have been unexpectedly interrupted. You will, I trust, believe that I have but the kindest thoughts to-wards you. You may judge me, after reading this, to be narrow and bigoted, insisting on that which have learned by tradition from my fathers. But I do pray that this may not be your last thought upon it, but that you may stand in the confession of the name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, with those who have in every age of the Church, since Jesus ascended and sent down the Holy Ghost, approved themselves as the saints of God, and witnessed and lived for their Lord in this evil world, and who have gathered all their joy and strength for present service, and all their confidence and ground of hope, for future rest and glory, from the blessed and gracious God who has thus revealed His full name to them, and given Himself to them and for them.

Yours, very truly, (in the remembrance that Jesus is my Lord,)

J. G. B.

October 13, 1836.

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Christian Witness: Volume 4

Table of Contents

The Apostleship of St. Paul

The Gospel by St. Matthew

The Heavenly Calling Foreshown

A Letter on the Person and Deity of the Holy Ghost