Christian Witness: Volume 3

“Therefore every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven, is like unto a man that is an householder, which bringeth forth cut of his treasure things new and old.” (Matt. 13:52.)

In the midst of so much to humble us in the present state of the Church, it is cheering to notice that the fullness of the Scriptures as containing all truth, has been gradually developing itself to the minds of many of God’s dear children, Many are now brought to estimate the value of this treasure committed to their trust. They have discovered. how much Satan has prevailed to draw them away from this pure source to the writings of men, and in this manner secretly to discredit the Word of God. Many a truth which man has reached unto as a probability, by the long and laborious process of induction, they have therein found simply revealed to faith. “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” (Heb. 11:3.) Many a difficulty has been found to have arisen either from ignorance of the Scriptures, or from doubting their sufficiency to meet it, and from doubting the guidance of the Spirit into truth through the means of it.

All Scripture as being given by inspiration of God, addresses itself to faith. And herein is the all-important difference in value of the same Scriptures, in the estimation of one led by his natural understanding, and of one led by the Spirit of God. In the one, the Scripture is subjected to the understanding; in the other, his mind is subjected to Scripture; it is addressed to him with authority—“Thus saith the Lord.” Hence it necessarily comes to pass that, (save as an authentic record of facts,) the Scriptures of the Old Testament have no value in the estimation of the wise men of this world. They are looked upon as the writings of men of different ages, under a great variety of circumstances, disconnected one from another, and without any unity of design. They may appear to involve contradictions, and instead of affording the kind of light, which the mind expects to find, often lead “to oppositions of knowledge falsely so called.” The perplexities and difficulties arising from the Scriptures to the mind of man, naturally skeptical, must be familiar to every Christian, who finds in his daily experience that the difficulties of Scripture are so peculiarly its own, that they cannot be removed by reasonings. Whilst therefore, in subjection of his will to God, he understands whether the doctrine be of God, the natural man (in the pride of self-will,) turns the Scriptures of God against himself. Thus it was with the parables of our blessed Lord, whilst they conveyed instruction and opened mysteries to faith, they blinded the minds of those who believed not, “They stumbled at the word, being disobedient.” And unto this day in propounding the most simply revealed truths of God, to the mere natural understanding, they say “Doth he not speak parables?” But, whilst it is generally admitted that “the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned,” the tendency in the spiritual man to exercise his own mind on things revealed by the Spirit of God, has not been sufficiently guarded against. There is such a thing as a natural knowledge concerning the things of God, as it is written, “what they know naturally as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.” Philosophy, jurisprudence, commerce, ethics, have availed themselves of the Scriptures, when it has served their purpose so to do, but not using the Scriptures for the end. for which God gave them, they have not profited by them; or rather, they have corrupted themselves by the very means by which they should have been profited. And it is in this way that Christians have failed to profit by the Scriptures, they have gone to them for the confirmation of a truth, rather than for the ascertainment of the mind of God. They have traced throughout Scripture some great principle of God, and seeing it in great prominence have only valued the Scripture, as bearing on this single point.

We have a striking instance of this in the recovery of the blessed truth, of a sinner’s Justification before God. at the time of the Reformation. The Scriptures were searched from one end to the other for this single point, and this truth (so intimately connected with God’s glory and man’s blessing,) is traceable from Abel downwards. But although this principle is illustrated throughout Scripture, it does not exhaust the Scriptures in which it is to be found, but there are many truths taught in them beside, and they are peculiarly appropriated by God, and (however applicable in principle at all times,) are capable of, and intended to bear a most distinct and definite interpretation. We are constantly failing, because we are looking for a truth in the Scriptures instead of the truth from them. Hence we have attached to the several parts of Scripture their relative importance, instead of viewing it as a whole. Hence we have attempted. to systematize, but the Scriptures will not bear our yoke.

Now one cause of our failure in coming at the truth will be found. to arise from our not having sufficiently attended to the way in which it has pleased God to make it known. All Scripture is occupied in gradually unfolding to us the accomplishment of the purpose of God with respect to Man, in Creation, and in Redemption; taking up the apparent failure in Creation, and showing not only all things created by Christ Jesus, but “for Him.” Now God in His wisdom has been pleased to announce His purpose generally, as, “Let us make man in our image and in our likeness, and let them have dominion.” God’s purpose has not failed, the new man, conformed to the image of God’s own Son, is made a Priest and King unto God. But how much of God’s counseled wisdom, how much is there needful to be learned both of Him, and for man to learn of himself, before this original purpose is accomplished. And in how many other ways is God to be manifested, the progress of which manifestation is detailed in the Scriptures.

Now let us take as an example the case of Abraham, there to learn the manner which God uses of throwing light on His own purpose in bringing it about. We find first the promise in general terms, “ Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will show thee, and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing, and 1 will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee, and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, “Unto thy seed will give this land.” (Gen. 12:1,7.) Again, (c. 13:15.) And the Lord said unto Abram after that Lot was separated from him, “Lift up now thine eyes and look from the place where thou art, for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever.” But God had left Himself room, so to speak, to introduce a great deal more into the body of this promise, so as gradually to unfold the manner and the time of its accomplishment. And as to its practical bearing on Abram, it was not the general promise, but the subsequent light, which taught him to be a pilgrim and stranger in the land of promise. Had nothing by way of filling up the outline been added to the original promise, Abram might have expected its immediate fulfillment. But the communication and vision (c. 15.) taught him how to look for the accomplishment of the promise, and using this later light which the Lord had given to him, he was kept in calmness and patience of spirit, assuredly believing that what God had promised He would perform. Now the using of the later light in order to the development of God’s purpose, I believe to be of great importance, and very helpful indeed in order to produce that settledness of mind as to the great truths of Scripture, which alone leads to practical results. There is such a thing as “always learning and never coming to the knowledge of the truth,” always questioning a first principle, which we allow and see abundantly revealed, by arraying against it all the difficulties with which others may suppose it to be encompassed; and thus rather to attribute the difficulty to want of clearness in the Scripture, than to the lack of a spiritually enlightened understanding in ourselves. It is thus that Satan effectually hinders God’s truth from becoming sanctifying, and many have thus been driven back from Scriptural truth, to receive again the doctrines and traditions of men. It is a proof of no small hardihood on the part of man, that he even ventures to explain away Scripture by the very light of Scripture, in the face of such solemn assertions as these, “The Scripture cannot be broken,”—“It is not possible that the word of God hath failed.” (Rom. 9:6. Greek.) Surely we ought to seek the harmony of its several parts, instead of making it apparently to have failed, because we have used the light which God hath given us to minister to our own selfishness, instead of to the revelation of His own purpose.

Now in seeking rightly to divide the word of truth, there are two principles which will be found very helpful indeed. The first is, “Known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world.” (Acts 15:18.) There is no afterthought in God; no remedy because of failure on His part; but man’s failure has been the occasion of bringing out into light, the counseled wisdom of God. He is always steadily working to the accomplishment of His own purpose; oftentimes it may seem to our shortsightedness and ignorance as though it had been forgotten or changed. “Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, my way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God? Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not neither is weary? there is no searching of His understanding,” (Isa. 40:28, 29.)

Israel is not forgotten, although so long and dreary a blank would intervene. So again, “The Lord is not slack, as some men count slackness, but is long-suffering to usward, not desiring that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” This therefore must be a fixed principle in our souls—God’s promise cannot fail; it may to us appear forgotten or thrust out, because of something new to us which He has brought to light, but in fact, the works were all known unto Him from the beginning of the world—all orderly arranged, but only brought out into manifestation in God’s “own times.”—ιδιοις καιροις (1 Tim. 6:15.) in “the fullness of time.”

There might have been some difficulty in the minds of the Apostles, as to the faithfulness of God to Israel, in taking from the Gentiles a people for Himself; God might have seemed to have altered His purpose. But no; James, led by the Spirit of truth, was enabled, to put this work of God in its right place, as not at all infringing His purpose with respect to Israel; but as that which filled up a blank, which had been left in the Lord’s declarations concerning that people. This new thing did not do away with, or supersede the old. There was a space left for a something from the casting off of Israel, to their restoration, and that space was just filled up by the declaration of that mystery which had been hid in God from the foundation of the world. In the Prophet we find the Lord bringing His own people down to the level of the nations. “Are ye not as the children of the Ethiopians unto me, O children of Israel? saith the Lord, Have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Assyrians from Kir?” Thereon follows their judgment: “Behold the eyes of the Lord are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from the face of the earth, saving that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob: but lo I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations,” &c. Next follows the promised restoration: “In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen,” &c. (Amos 9:7, &c.) Here in the interval between the dispersion and the restoration, James, as a scribe instructed unto the kingdom of heaven, brought forth new and old; not making the new to nullify the old, but to throw light on it. There was no difficulty in his mind to see the promise to Israel as yet awaiting its fulfillment, but meanwhile another work that God had purposed from the beginning of the world, brought into action. “In that day,” says the Prophet—“After this,” says the Apostle—able to show a thing which had not been revealed to the Prophet.

The other principle is, “the Vail is done away in Christ.” Of this, the most striking proof to us, is our ability to understand the Old Testament; whilst those to whom these Scriptures were addressed, are blinded as to them to this day. “Because they know Him not, nor yet the voice of the Prophets which are read every Sabbath day; they fulfilled them in condemning Him.” However clearly this principle may be recognized with respect to Israel, it is not so easily seen that in measure the same blindness attaches to us, because our capacity to see God’s truth, only arises from our being so placed in blessed. security in Christ, as to draw from above the wisdom which is without partiality and without hypocrisy. Till established in Christ, we are prone to use the Scriptures with partiality, as ministering to our own selfishness. We anxiously search them (and surely not without profit and comfort) in order to gather something suitable to our own case, and thus are not in the capacity to judge righteous judgment. I believe that our own slowness in understanding the things written in the Prophets, arises in a great measure from our being little established in the gospel of that grace wherein God hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence.

Now, by the grace of our God, we are put in possession of things new. “it is given unto you (the disciples of Christ) to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear; for I say unto you, that many Prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them, and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.” And this declaration of our blessed Lord becomes more forcible when it is said of Him, in teaching these new things, “I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world.” Now it is in rightly applying these new things, so as to obtain the light which the Lord hath designed to give, that our wisdom will be discovered. And I believe we shall find the revelation of any new truth to cast its light back on what had previously been revealed, to show us how to fill up its outline, or to make us acquainted, as it were, with God’s working place. The fact of the incarnation is the leading clue to guide us through Scripture; the 8th Psalm, the 110th Psalm, the 50th of Isaiah, only become intelligible to us through the knowledge of the incarnation. “The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”

But to speak more particularly, Jesus being presented to the Jews as the Messiah, their rejection of Him made way for opening the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. If we put ourselves in the place of a Jew, hearing John the Baptist’s testimony, (Matt. 3) we should have been prepared to expect, that the moment He came to whom John bare witness, his work being before Him, that it would have been executed in rapid succession. The ax would have been up lifted, and would have hewn down the trees; the wheat would have been gathered into the garner, and the chaff burnt up with unquenchable fire. We cannot read Isa. 40 without perceiving that from such a testimony this would naturally have been Jewish expectation. There is no intimation of the cutting short of the career of the forerunner, nor of Him whose messenger he was. It was this which our Lord opened to His disciples, when tie said, “Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise also shall the Son of Man suffer of them.” (Matt. 17:12.) This rejection of the forerunner, and of Him whose messenger he was, makes a break in this testimony to the Messiah as properly Jewish; and standing in this break we are enabled to see the harmony of the prophetic testimony unto the sufferings of Christ and the glories which should follow. But at the second coming, these testimonies, so to speak, will be taken up afresh and acted out continuously. Of this we have a very plain instance in Isa. 61. There was a proclamation of the great jubilee, the year of general release. It would have appeared from this single Scripture, that the moment that the One came who could say— “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because He has anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek,” &c. that the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God, would have been simultaneous in deliverance to the people of Israel, and in fury towards their oppressors. But very early in His ministry the Lord showed an interruption in this prophetic strain. And there was delivered unto Him the book of the Prophet Esaias, and when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor, He hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.” Here then He stopped, and said unto them, “This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears.” This was a plain intimation of an interruption—so that there would be a sense in which there would be an acceptable year of the Lord apart from its connection with “building the old wastes, and raising up the former desolations.” Here again the rejection of Jesus as the Messiah, snapped a link in the chain of prophecy. The whole course of Messiah’s dealings with His own, to whom He came and they received Him not, was thereby disarranged. It must ever be borne in mind, that to those under the law, strictly speaking, were the prophecies given, and the marvelous wisdom of God in them is thus shown, that whilst the failure of man is proved. complete, and God’s succeeding dealings apparently originate from that failure, everything has been done “according to the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God.” It was thus that our blessed Lord on a subsequent occasion instructed His disciples. “We (said they to Him, at that time unknown to them) trusted that it had been He which should have redeemed Israel.” Then He said unto them, “O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the Prophets have spoken! Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into His glory?” Until we recognize the important truth that God is showing His own unchangeableness in the constant failure of man—and that His counsel standeth after all, we are hardly morally capacitated into Scripture. “In Christ the vail is taken away.” When we see the Church as something new, completely sui generis, set up in the purpose of God before the foundation of the world, but brought it to manifested reality, by the coming down of the Holy Ghost, after the ascension of Christ, the Revealer and Communicator of the spiritual blessings in the heavenlies; then we are not driven to the necessity of forcing Jewish prophecy into present application, or of assigning to it a vague and indefinite interpretation. But we are enabled to see every promise to them of earthly things made good by the sovereignty of God’s grace, and secured in Jesus, which have failed when left in the least degree to their own strength. Here then again, may we see “when it shall turn to the Lord, the Vail shall be taken away,” and this prophetic strain in Isa. 61 receive its orderly fulfillment. The link which has been snapped by the rejection of Jesus, shall be riveted at His second appearing, and the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God be at one and the same time, as it was previously written, “And He saw that there was no man, and He wondered that there was no intercessor, therefore His arm brought salvation to Him, and His righteousness it sustained him. According to their deeds, accordingly He will repay, fury to His adversaries, recompense to His enemies, to the islands He will repay recompense. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him, and the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the Lord.” (Compare Isa. 59; Rom. 11)

Another instance in which we are able to carry the light back to the opening of Scripture, is concerning the title our Lord instantly assumed to Himself, “the Son of Man.” That this was equivalent to Jewish ears to the claim of being Messiah, is clear from John 12:34. “the people answered, we have heard out of the law that Christ abideth forever, and how sayest thou the Son of Man must be lifted up. Who is this Son of Man?” Now the part of Scripture in which this appellation is most clearly given to the Messiah, is Dan. 7:13,14. “I saw in the night visions, and behold One like the Son of Man, canto with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought Him near before Him, and there was given Him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve Him; His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.” Here the Son of Man is connected with the glory of His kingdom, and no intimation whatever of His being lifted up. “Who is this Son of Man?” as if they had said, “we know one of this title to be invested with supreme dominion, but nothing of a Son of Man to be lifted up.” It was at the time the Gentiles came to ask to see Jesus, that He, (looking at His rejection by His own,) had brought before Him most vividly the whole scene of His sufferings, through which these Gentiles would be brought into blessedness. He had been rejected on earth, “but I (says He) if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all to me. This He said signifying what death He should die.” Now the ascertainment of this fact of the lifting up of the Son of Man, the fact now known to us as the basis of all God’s dealings, not only with the Jew but with the world, the fact on which all blessing is suspended, leads us into the discovery of a great deal that is new, but not the setting aside of that which is old. The glory of the Son of Man and the abiding of His kingdom are truths; and we know that these are yet future, from the testimony of the Lord on the very eve of suffering. “Hereafter shall ye see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.” The High Priest fully understood this to be tantamount to His claiming to be the Son of Man, mentioned Dan. 7. Thus did Jesus still point at Himself, as the proper object of Jewish expectation; and in this character, as the Son of Man, to be manifested in God’s “own times.” After His resurrection, the thing uppermost in the disciples’ minds, (and they were not to tell the vision of His glory which they had seen on the Mount, till after He was risen from the dead,) was, “Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?” They had seen Messiah to have suffered according to the Scriptures, and to have risen again; what then hindered the bringing in “the everlasting covenant, even the sure mercies of David?” The reply of the Lord clearly showed that they were not yet so placed as to be able to see the fullness of God’s truth. There were many things which they could not then have borne, which the coming of the Holy Ghost, the Comforter would reveal to them. The expectation was quite right as to. the restoration of the kingdom to Israel. “But He said unto them, it is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father hath put in His own power, (τη ιδια εξουσια) but ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you; and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” It was after the Holy Ghost had come to them revealing “what eye had not seen, neither had entered into the heart of man to conceive,” that they would be enabled to see the order of the fulfillment of God’s promises, which had always been so ordered, that the times and seasons of them were always kept in God’s “own power.” Our present ability to do, this is the recognition that the blessings of the Church are not earthly but heavenly, and that its date is not in time, but from before the foundation of the world; and therefore it was never intended to thwart or supersede any of God’s earthly arrangements. It is this alone which enables us to put the several parts of God’s truth in their right places, and not to use them so as to neutralize one the other. No time-arrangements can interfere with that which was promised and settled before the world began; on the other hand, (although for the manifestation of this, which had been “hid in God from the beginning of the world,” (Eph. 3:9.) there was necessarily one interruption in them,) those arrangements stand based upon the unchangeable promise of God, however they may await “His own times” for their completion.

To take another instance from Rom. 9. The Apostle quotes two distinct passages in a cursory way from the Prophet Hosea; not.as giving their interpretation, but for the purpose of establishing that which he had before him—i.e. that God’s purpose of taking out of the Gentiles a people for His name, was no violation of His faithfulness to Israel. The burden of the Prophetic testimony to them was their rejection and subsequent restoration. In the interval between these, room was left for another work of God, which then had just begun to be filled up, by calling Gentiles into the fellowship of the body of Christ. However true therefore it might be in application, that the Gentiles who were not owned as a people by God, were now, in the called out, so owned; yet in the passage under consideration, it is clear that the Apostle did not mean to interpret “not my people” of the Gentiles. The passages quoted are these—Hos. 2:23, “I will say to them which were not my people, thou art my people.” (literally, I will say to the Lo-ammi, Ammi, thou.) Then the former part of the verse, “I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy,” (I will have mercy on Lo-Ruhamah.) These typical names were given to the children of the Prophet. (c. 1:8, 9.)

The other passage is c. 1:10.—“And it shall come to pass that in the place where it was said unto then], ye are not my people (Lo-Ammi, ye), there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God.” The argument of the Apostle appears to turn on this—During the time that Israel was nationally “Lo-ammi,” was God to have any on the earth whom He could recognize as worshippers, and as His? Yes—the vessels of mercy which He had afore prepared into glory, even us, whom He hath called, “not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles.” Here was the space left for this work of God—the time and season of which He had kept in His own power. This would easily be apprehended by those who were in Christ, but on the others blindness would rest.

Having thus shown the value of making our own standing in Christ to bear on the Scriptures of the Old Testament; we may briefly mark the same principle in the New Testament, viz, the gradual unfolding of the purpose of God. If we turn to the gospels, (for example to the first chapter of Luke,) everything at the first is of a Jewish character. “Jesus Christ was made a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers.” The annunciation to the Virgin bears marks of this. “The Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David, and He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there shall be no end.” So again in the song of the Virgin, “He hath holpen His servant Israel, in remembrance of His mercy to Abraham, and to his seed forever.” The whole strain of Zacharias, when filled with the Holy Ghost, is the accomplishment of the mercy of Israel in the Person of Jesus. And this is in fact the great point of prophecy, connecting everything with the seed to whom the promise was made—the Person of Christ. In these testimonies we have the faithfulness of God to Israel announced, in that He had raised up to them a Savior, Jesus. But the ministry of the Lord gradually prepared the minds of the disciples for something besides God’s faithfulness to Israel. This was done at first in opening to them the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, and then more plainly in those peculiar Church discourses. (John 14 to 17.) Everything there struck deeply at Jewish feeling, an unseen instead of a seen Savior mansions prepared in heaven, instead of each under his vine and fig tree—tribulation and persecution, instead of deliverance from the hands of their enemies. The only comfort held out to their sorrowing minds was, “I will come again to you.” The question of Judas is sufficiently indicative of the feeling of the disciples at the novelty of Jesus as the Messiah seen by them, but unseen by the world. “Lord how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself to us, and not unto the world?” (John 14:22.) Their thought was “the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.” (Isa. 40:5.) They knew not until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead, and the Comforter had come, how that glory could be secretly revealed to the souls of some, and not publicly manifested. The Lord’s reply to Judas (while it tended to cast him simply on His word,) pointed to the coming of the Comforter, for clearing up the present difficulty, and bringing further light, which would then become available. “He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you.” And repeatedly throughout these discourses, we find the clearing up of difficulties referred to the time of the Comforter, “who should guide into all truth, and show things to come.” This teaching of the Comforter we get in the Epistles, which fill up and supply that which had been left in obscurity. The Epistles to the Ephesians and Colossians appear to be but the amplifying and enlargement of the Word of the Lord. “At that day (the coming of the Holy Ghost,) ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.” And, in passing, let it be noticed that the things which Paul taught, he insists on as being by direct revelation from the Lord from heaven; so that we have, as it were, in the visions and revelations given to Paul, that which would fill up the outline left by the Lord, according to this Apostle’s own word, “the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God, (rather to complete or fill out πληρωσαι the word of God, which had not previously been set forth in all its dimensions,) even the mystery,” etc.. (Col. 1:25,26.) In the Epistles, so peculiarly our own, we have ample directions for the conduct of those, who, being brought into the fellowship of Christ, are yet in an evil world. Sorrow and suffering are there pointed out as the allotted portion of such, till the coming of Christ. This one point is the encouragement to diligence—the consolation under suffering—the caution unto watchfulness. The darkening prospect before the Church here, (especially in the moral signs, iniquity abounding, love waxing cold, profession solely based on selfishness,) is most plainly intimated. The world is only recognized as judged, but yet the subject of the riches of God’s goodness and long-suffering—to be terminated only by the coming of Christ. But we have, even after this, things new. The coming of the Lord Jesus is taken up in the Revelation and established as the sustaining point of hope. “Behold He cometh with clouds, even so, Amen.”

Thus established, the soul is prepared to view all the corruptions of the Church, first become the subject of the judgment of the Son of Man; (c. 2, 3.) And next of prophetic testimony, dealt with only in longsuffering, as the world was represented in the Epistles. But, what is deeply interesting to us, we here find the same One (who, previously to His going away from the earth, had told His disciples what they were to expect in and from the world,) again, as the Lamb opening the seals and telling forth all the disasters of the Church, lest they should be offended. Thus showing the largeness and darkness of that interval before His appearing, which had first been generally stated in His own discourses, “Ye shall weep and shall lament, but the world shall rejoice;” then more enlarged in the Epistles, but now filled up in the Revelation. Again, from the light afforded in the Epistles, (except in the way of indefinite statement, as in the expression, Eph. 2 “ages to come,”) we might have expected the dispensation commencing at the coming of the Lord, to have been the final one. But here we have another measured dispensation, which we are enabled to look through, to the introduction of one beyond it. This work of God, known unto Him from the beginning of the world, but only here made known definitely to us, is the light which God has given us, in order that we may rightly divide the word of truth. There must be consistency in the truth of God, not to be reached by forcing into one point, according to our own narrowmindedness, all that He has revealed, but by patiently seeking after His order, who has put the times and seasons in His own Dower. Now had there been no fresh light thrown on 2 Peter 3:10-13, “The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat;...... nevertheless we according to His promise look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness,” we might rightly have looked for the introduction of a perfect state immediately on the Lord’s coming. But not more rightly than the disciples looked for the restoring of the kingdom to Israel, after that Jesus had suffered and risen. There was something to intervene (which God had known, and kept in His own power, from the beginning in both these cases,) the introduction of which did not at all nullify the previously revealed purpose of God. There was room left for it there, however the promise of God might appear to man to be deferred. There are few whose minds have not been perplexed by the passage of Peter above, who see most clearly the ample testimony from Scripture, to the Pre-millennial advent of Christ, and yet have failed to receive it in its practical power, because of the difficulty here presented, Now surely it is our wisdom to take back the fresh light given to us in the ascertainment of this measured dispensation, and to see that it intervenes before He that sits on the throne says, “Behold I make all things new.” (Rev. 21:5.) Now the knowledge which we have of this intervening dispensation is a very principal Key to unlock the treasures of Old Testament prophecy. We have declarations of a state of blessedness in the earth, perfect as compared with the present, yet still with imperfection in itself, and we have at the same time declarations of a state of unmingled blessedness; as it is written, “Behold I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former shall not come into mind; but be ye glad and rejoice forever in that which I create, for behold I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy; and I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people, and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying.” Now here we have first a statement of general blessedness, then an earnest of it in the case of Jerusalem. But there are other statements which harmonize with the perfect blessedness of Jerusalem, but not with the universal blessedness of the earth. Now if we once bring to bear on this the Revelation of the Millennium, and then a dispensation subsequent to it, we at once get the true character of the Millennial state, as one of extended blessing, yet imperfect and progressive; and see the harmony of prophetic statements. We have seen that our mistake has ever been to run before God, and to get all truth exhausted as speedily as possible, by bringing it all to bear on that which is our own point of hope, but it is our wisdom patiently to mark the unfolding of the counsels of God, and to see How He is bringing out into revelation and public manifestation, “the works known to Him from the beginning of the world.”

Second Letter to a Friend on Prophecy.

MY DEAR FRIEND,

It is not, as a subject of mere interesting speculation, that I would desire to bring before you the promised period when “creation shall be freed from the bondage of corruption,” (Rom. 8:21) and “when nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.” (Mic. 4:3,) It is rather that We may avoid speculation and conjecture, and learn simply from the Scripture: for if it is the Scripture which alone enables us to say that such a period will come, it will surely be wise in us to inquire whether it also reveals anything respecting the characteristics of this time of blessedness, and the steps which lead to it, and to beware of farming any conjectures respecting the appointed means, beyond (or otherwise than) what God has declared.

The Church of God believes (for they have learned it from the Prophetic Scripture) that the Lord Jesus will come again—that His saints shall be raised to meet Him at His coming—that Satan shall be bound, and that a period of peace and righteousness on earth shall finally be accomplished. But the order of these events we have sought to arrange for ourselves, I might almost say without reference to Scripture: and thus the stream of events has been supposed to be flowing steadily forward into the haven of predicted. peace—the abyss which lies open at the close of this present Gentile dispensation, has been concealed: and we have not been taught, like the early Church, “to wait for God’s Son from heaven,” (1 Thess. 1:10.) as the one necessary prerequisite to those “times of restitution, which God hath spoken of by the mouth of all His holy Prophets, which have been since the world began.” (Acts 3:21.)

The Scriptures testify that the Lord must first “come out of His place,” and then the inhabitants of the world will be punished, and Satan also; but the world itself will be filled with fruit, because Israel shall blossom and bud. (Isa. 27:6.) The 97th Psalm, which describes not the destruction, but the rejoicing of the earth, because the Lord reigneth, cannot, according to the testimony of the Apostle, (Heb. 1:6.) be fulfilled until God again bringeth the first begotten(i.e. the risen Jesus) into the world: (see Col. 1:15) and when our Lord Himself speaks respecting the coming of “the kingdom of God,” His words are these—“There shall be signs in the Sun, and in the Moon, and in the Stars: and upon the earth distress of nations with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring; men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of heaven shall be shaken; and then shall they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.... When ye see these things coming to pass, (γινομενα) know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand.” (Luke 21:25-31.)

The “groaning of creation” (Rom. 8) beneath the power of Satan, as “the strong man armed,”—the thick darkness which broods over the heathen countries—the hopeless apostasy of those districts where the Apostles first preached—the increasing profligacy and infidelity of Germany and the western nations—the thralldom of the Church, where it does exist, to the schemes and interests of an ungodly world—all these things and many more, sufficiently show the meaning of that inquiry, “When the Son of Man cometh shall He find faith on the earth?” It is for this reason we are commanded to pray, “thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth as it is done in heaven,”—because the foundations of the earth are out of course, and so will continue to be, until He come that shall come, and “take unto Himself His great power, and destroy them that destroy the earth,” (Rev. 11:17,18.)

The necessity of the direct government of God, (as a prerequisite to the earth’s blessing,) and its future exercise by the Lord Jesus, (in the distinct though combined characters of the Son of David, and the Second Adam,) has been referred to in my former letter; We have now to consider the future glory of the Saints, as “bone of His bone, and flesh of His flesh,”—a help-meet for the Second Adam, in the enjoyment of His glory.

But He was “made perfect through suffering,” (Heb. 2:10.) and it is written of the saints likewise that they must suffer, in order “to reign with Him.” (2 Tim. 2:12.), The Lord Jesus suffered because He lived AGAINST the course of this present world, and never sought to deliver Himself by resistance when trial or persecution came. When He was reviled, He reviled not again, when He suffered, He threatened not; “He was led like a Lamb to the slaughter, and like a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth.” The fierce spirit of the world has not altered, neither has the lamb-like spirit of the Lord of glory, and His words unto His followers still continue to be, “Behold I send you forth as lamb sin the midst of wolves;” for the time is not yet come, when it can be said of the earthly path of the redeemed, “that no lion shall be there, neither shall any ravenous beast go up there on.” Daily at present are they in danger from him, who, as a ravening lion, goeth about seeking whom he may devour; and they would soon fall before his devices, if they were not watched over by the Almighty power of Him who is their Head, and who sustains and guides them by His Spirit. But there is only one path into which He guides—the path of meek and long-suffering patience. “When one smiteth thee on the one cheek, turn to him the other also.”— “If when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God.” Whenever therefore it can be said by any that they are suffering, in consequence of meekly and humbly following the commandments of the Lord; whether they suffer from conflicting with their own evil natures, or with the world’s evil, or with some messenger of Satan, who may be sent to buffet them, they are suffering because of Jesus their Lord. They suffer because of their contrariety to evil, and to the world, whilst it is still allowed to lift itself up against God. The fatally of Faith have in every age suffered; and so it will continue to be, until the Lord taketh unto Himself His great power, and destroys them who destroy the earth.

Accordingly, we have seen that those who sleep in Him, are to be raised to meet Him when He cometh, before He inflicts the judgments which He comes to minister; and it is in this awful ministration, that they are first spoken of as united with Him in His glory. “He that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will 1 give power over the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessel of a potter shall they be broken in pieces, even as I received of my Father.” (Rev. 2:26.) These words refer to the 2nd Psalm, which describes the period already referred to in my last letter, when “the kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against His Christ, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh them to scorn, the Lord shall have them in derision.” This is written of those who shall soon be gathered together to the battle of that great day of God Almighty; when He shall send the rod of Christ’s power out of Zion, saying, “Rule thou in the midst of thine enemies.” (Psalm 110:2.)

But there are other passages also, which connect the ascension glory of the saints with the state of the earth, as blessed and governed by them. The creation is said to be earnestly waiting for the manifestation of the Sons of God and if it be asked what the manifestation of the Sons of God is, the Apostle tells us that it is their being made like unto their Lord at His coming. “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it is not yet manifested what we shall be; but we know that when He shall be manifested, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” (1 John 3:2.) Surely nothing can more plainly show that the hope of creation rests upon the manifestation of Jesus and His risen saints. The following passages bear testimony to the same truth.— “Know ye not that the saints will judge (or rule) the world.” (1 Cor. 6:2.) “Thou hast made us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign over (επι) the earth.” (Rev. 5;10,) “This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection, on such the second death shall have no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years,” (Rev. 20:5, 6.)

If this were, the only testimony, there would be enough to show that the first creation, which God made and blessed, does not pass away when the saints are raised in glory; but if we examine further, we shall find abundant confirmation. In the last two chapters of the Revelations, we find the only description which the Scripture furnishes of the heavenly home of the glorified. There is nothing fleshly there, but all is heavenly, and according to the state of those who are in spiritual bodies, made like unto the body of their risen Lord. “The children of this world marry and are given in marriage; but they, which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage; neither can they die any more, for they are equal unto the angels, and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection.” (Luke 20:34-36.) But although there will be nothing earthy there, yet, it is written, “that the kings of the earth shall bring their glory and honor into it;” and again, “they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into it;” (Rev. 21.) and although there shall be no sickness or sorrow there, yet the tree of life, yielding her fruit, shall be in the midst of it; and “the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.” (Rev. 22:2.) Now whatever may be thought respecting the tree of life, whether it be a symbol or a reality; yet this at least is evident—that the home of the saints, where all is perfect according to the perfection of God, is connected with an earthly state, external to itself, where imperfection and suffering are; and this suffering is remedied by secondary means, which God dispenses through the medium of the heavenly city.

Such a connection between Earth and Heaven was one of the earliest subjects of prophetic vision. When the patriarch Jacob took the position of a child of Faith, and (in consequence of choosing the future blessing of the birthright,) was driven as a solitary wanderer from his father’s house, “he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven, and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it.” (Gen. 29:12.) This vision hath never yet been fulfilled; even as it is written of Jacob and the others, of whom the world was not worthy, that they, “having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise,” God having appointed that they should wait until we, who believe in the blood of Jesus, are added to them, before they attain the perfection of their promised blessing. The fulfillment therefore of the vision has been delayed, but it was again proposed by our Lord as an object of faith, when He said to Nathanael, “Hereafter ye shall see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.” (John 1:51.) For a short moment the heavens were opened over Jesus, in testimony that there was something upon earth which God could approve; and the Lord Jesus opened them over Stephen His faithful servant; thus manifesting His own predicted exaltation to the right hand of God, and also His care for those who kept His testimonies: indicating too, that all the children of faith were beloved children in Him, and were (though it might not be manifested) standing in that same relationship to heaven in which He had stood when it was said, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.”

Heaven is not slow to be opened, when there is anything which it can sanction on earth. It gave its sanction unto Jesus, but Jesus was despised and rejected, and therefore we have never yet seen heaven opened, AND (i.e. in addition thereunto) the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. But when the hitherto rebellious seed of Jacob “shall look upon Him whom they have pierced;” (Zech. 12:10.) when they shall be named the priests of the Lord; and when men shall call them the ministers of our God; when it shall be said unto Jerusalem, “Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee; thy people also shall be all righteous,” (Isa. 60) then at last heaven can be opened over the earth, not merely in transient testimony, but in abiding and manifested ministration of blessing to it.

“I will make the place of my feet glorious,” (Isa. 9:13, and Ezek. 43: 7.) are the words in which the Lord has declared His purposes towards His earthly city; even as it is written, “Jerusalem is the city of the great King.” (Matt. 5:35.) It is, as it were, the place where the foot of the ladder of Jacob will rest; a place which is not heaven, but will be connected with heaven, just as the court of the Jewish worshippers in the temple was not the holy pace, but it was connected therewith, and therefore brought into direct reception of blessing.

Accordingly, the resurrection glory of the saints is as distinctly connected with Israel and Jerusalem, as with the earth. On the night of the last slipper, just after the Lord had given the cup of the New Testament in His blood to His disciples, He said unto them, “Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations, and I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me, that ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom; and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” (Luke 22:28-30.) And again, “Verily I say unto you, that ye which followed me, in the regeneration (i.e. the times of restitution) when the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of His glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” (Matt. 19:28.) And again, “In that day shall they call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord.” (Jer. 3:17.)

The place of Israel, as gathered around the foot of Sinai, when the Lord descended upon it, may illustrate what the position of Jerusalem will be in the days of her coming glory. The Israelites were not in the glory, for it was far above them; yet it came for their sakes, and they received blessing through the ministration of angels therefrom. And so, when the appointed time cometh, Jerusalem and all the re-gathered seed of Jacob, fitted to enjoy and to retain the blessing, shall walk in the light of that glory in which the Saints shall dwell, as ministering Priests unto them. And again, when the Queen of Sheba beheld the glory of Solomon, it is neither “the meat of his table, nor the setting of his servants, nor the attendance of his ministers,” which is mentioned as the consummation of his glory, but “his ASCENT by which he went up into the Temple of the Lord.” (1 Kings 10:5.) And so doubtless, the great marvel of Jerusalem’s future glory will be the ascent of her King, in the glory of His Melchisedec Priesthood into the heavenly city: even as it is written in Israel’s earthly song of praise, “God is gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet. Sing praises unto our God, sing praises, sing praises unto our King, sing praises. For God is the King of all the earth, sing ye praises with understanding.” (Psalm 48). And again, “O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth, who hast set thy glory ABOVE the heavens.” (Psa. 8:1.)

But it is in the courts of the temple, patterns (as we are told by the Apostle) of greater things, ( Heb. 9.) that we find the clearest illustration of the future connection of earth and heaven. It is manifest to the most casual observation that the books of Moses, (and especially his songs and dying prophecies,) are pregnant with reference to the glory of the earth and of Israel in the latter day. “There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun, who rideth upon the heavens in thy help, and in His excellency on the sky. The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms; and He shall thrust out the enemy from before thee, and shall say, ‘Destroy!’—Israel then shall dwell in safety alone; the fountain of Jacob shall be upon a land of corn and wine; also His heavens shall drop down dew. Happy art thou O Israel; who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord? the shield of thy help, and the sword of thy excellency; and Thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee, and thou shalt tread upon their high places.” (Deut. 33.) These are the closing words of Moses. Accordingly, that tabernacle of which it was said, “See that thou make all things according to the pattern showed to thee in the Mount,” was devised, not merely to typify something which man’s willfulness might shatter, but as a type and security for blessings which God’s power and faithfulness would fulfill.

The outermost enclosure of the temple was the court of the Gentiles—the innermost was the holy of holies, where the glory of God rested upon the mercy-seat. These two courts were united by means of others, which were links, (as it were, intermediate links,) in the chain of blessing; and this is just a picture of what the promised blessing is—God sitting upon the throne of His holiness, and dispensing blessings through intermediate agency, even to the very limits of creation.

It may tend to the illustration of this subject, to consider the place of the Lord of glory in reference to these courts, when He came to be a Servant, and to learn obedience by the things which He suffered. He descended, as it were, into the lowest, even as it said, “Out of Egypt have I called my Son;” and again, His dwelling place was not Jerusalem, but Galilee of the Gentiles, His proper place (as being of the seed of Abraham) was of course in the second court, or that of Jewish worshippers; beyond which none but the Levitical priesthood were allowed to enter.

It was when He was led as a Lamb to the slaughter, that He may be said to have figuratively entered the third division, or court of the Priests, where the altar of burnt sacrifice was placed; and it was here our blessed Lord completed His last act of earthly worship, “in offering Himself without spot to God.” These three divisions then—the court of the Gentiles—the court of the Jews, and the court of the Levitical priesthood, may he considered to represent the sphere of earthly worship.

Whilst the Lord Jesus was upon earth “He could not be a Priest;” (Heb. 8:4.) but as soon as He was lifted upon the cross, into dissociation from the earth, and had shed the blood which was needful to priestly consecration, the Father said unto Him, “Thou art a Priest forever, after the order of Melchisedec,” Here then was His title to enter, not only into the Holy Place, but even into the Holy of Holies within the vail, where the present place of His blessed ministration is; and they who own Him, have “a High Priest that is passed into the heavens;” but they who own Him not, have no Priest and no sacrifice, and therefore their sin remaineth.

But if we look at Lev. 16, (where the ministration of the High Priest is specially described,) we find that the consecration of the Holy and most Holy Places was only one part of the appointed. service; and that the outer courts (i.e. the courts of earthly service) were to be hallowed also. Whilst atonement is being made for the Holy Place, it is written, that there shall be no man with the High Priest, UNTIL he come out, and have made an atonement for himself, and for his household, and for all the congregation of Israel. Accordingly, we know that Jesus is still by Himself alone, the “first fruits of them that sleep;” but when the time cometh for the result of His atonement for His household—i.e. the Church, (Heb. 4:6) and for all the congregation of Israel, to be manifested; then He shall remember the place of earthly service, and He shall GO OUT unto the altar that is before the Lord, and shall cleanse it, and hallow it from all the uncleanness of the children of Israel. When He came in humiliation as Jesus of Nazareth, and entered Jerusalem as its King upon the ass’s colt, His first act of royalty was His purification of that house, which He said should be “a house of prayer for all nations.” He came in weakness, (2 Cor. 13:4.) and therefore His work was frustrated; but it remains as a type of what will be on that day when He will come, not in weakness, but in Melchizedek glory, to take possession of that which is His own. “The Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple, even the Messenger of the Covenant whom ye delight in: behold He shall come, saith the Lord of Hosts. But who may abide the day of His coming? And who shall stand when He appeareth? for He is like a refiner’s fire, and like fuller’s soap; and He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord as in the days of old, and as in former years.” (Mal. 3:1-4.) “Also the sons of the stranger that join themselves to the Lord, to serve Him and to love the name of the Lord, even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar, for my house shall be called a house of prayer to all nations; the Lord God which gathereth the outcasts of Israel saith, yet will I gather others to Him besides those that are gathered unto Him.” (Isa. 56:6-8.) Wherefore we have not only typical, but also direct prophetic testimony to the coming of that time, when all the courts of God’s house, from the holiest to the outermost, shall be hallowed, through the Beloved One unto the Lord.

But who, it may be asked, dwell in these courts? God dwelleth in the holiest on the mercy-seat, and no veil divides His dwelling-place from that where the household of Jesus—i.e. the Church of the firstborn minister; as answering to the show-bread and to the golden candlestick. Little is revealed respecting the heavenly places, but we know that there is a third heaven, (2 Cor. 12:2.) and the “heaven of heavens.” We know also that the heavenly Jerusalem is not the heaven of heavens, because it descended therefrom; neither is it separated from the manifested presence of God, nor they who dwell therein are “kings and priests unto Him.” But Priests for whom? For those upon earth—for men, righteous indeed and servants of the Lord, but still in unredeemed and corruptible bodies; needing intercession, and looking for every blessing from above; even as it is written, “I will hear, saith the Lord, I will hear the heavens and they shall hear the earth.” (Hos. 2:21.) So that the ministration of the heavens, and those in the heavens unto the earth will be the great feature of millennial blessedness, “Thou hast made us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign over the earth.”

Such then being the appointed relation of the saints to the earthly system in its millennial blessedness, we can well understand the words of the Apostle, when he says “that all creation, groaning and travailing in pain together, waiteth for the MANIFESTATION of the sons of God.” (Rom. 8:22; 1 John 3:2.) The creation has been subjected, not willingly, but on account of the first Adam’s transgression, to disappointment and sorrow; and it awaits the period when the Kingship and Priesthood of the saints of Jesus shall be manifested in glory, unhindered and unresisted by the power of Satan. “We see not yet all things put under them;” but the time will come, when in virtue of the glory of Jesus their Head, all things shall be put under them, “all sheep and oxen, yea and the beasts of the field, the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas;” for nothing is too lowly for God to bless, who careth for the sparrows, and feedeth the ravens. It is to this period that such Psalms as the following belong, where all creation is called upon to praise the Lord. “Praise the Lord from the earth, ye dragons, and all deeps: fire, and hail; snow, and vapors; stormy wind fulfilling His word: mountains, and all hills; fruitful trees, and all cedars: beasts, and all cattle; creeping things, and flying fowl: kings of the earth, and all people; princes, and all judges of the earth: both young men and maidens; old men, and children: let them praise the name of the Lord: for His name alone is excellent; His glory is above the earth and heaven. He also exalteth the horn of His people, the praise of all His saints, even of the children of Israel, a people near unto Him, Praise ye the Lord,” (Psa. 148:7-14.)

I quote this Psalm the more especially, as connecting the deliverance of creation with the restored glory of the children of Israel. This is often referred to in the Scripture. For example, in the 3rd of Acts it is said, not to Gentiles but to Jews, “Repent and be converted, that (οπως αν) the times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send Jesus.” And again, in Hosea it is written, respecting Israel, that when the Lord. shall again speak comfortably unto her, and cause her to sing as in the days of her youth, as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt, “In that day, saith the Lord, I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground; and I will break the bow, and the sword, and the battle out of the earth, and will make them to lie down safely; and I will sow her unto me in the earth.” (Hos. 2)

The iniquity which will characterize Jerusalem in the day, when, for the last time, she shall be visited by the judgments of the Lord, has been already referred to. It shall be a day of fearful visitation, when “the Lord whom they seek, shall suddenly come to His temple.” (Malachi 3:1.) But neither Jerusalem, nor the Gentile nations, will be ready to receive Him. Nevertheless He will spare “a third part” of the inhabitants of Jerusalem; (Zech. 13:9,) and “the multitude of the terrible ones that afflict her, shall be as the chaff that passeth away; yea, it shall be in an instant, suddenly:” (Isa. 29:5.) for He “will remove the iniquity of that land in one day.” (Zech. 3:9) And “a nation shall be born at once.” (Isa. 66:8.) “I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, saith the Lord, but for mine holy name’s sake; for I had pity for my holy name.” (Ezek. 36:21-32.)

In that day the vision of Ezekiel shall be fulfilled (chap. 43) in which the glory (which he had previously seen depart,) was again beheld returning to the beloved City—He beheld the likeness of the appearance of a man sitting upon a throne of sapphire, above a firmament of crystal, and controlling the agency of living creatures beneath. And “when the living creatures went, there were wheels which went by them; and when the living creatures were lifted up the wheels were lifted up; whithersoever the spirit was to go, they went, thither was their spirit to go, and the wheels were lifted up over against them: for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels.” (Ezek. 1:19-20.) In other words, Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of the blessed, shall sit upon the sapphire throne of the God of Israel, above the firmament, in the perfectness of the purity of heaven, and thence direct all the executive agents of the power of the Most High God, in their resistless course, perfect in intelligence, for “the wheels were full of eyes,” and resistless in power, for “they turned not when they went.” Such was the glory which Ezekiel saw returning to Jerusalem in the latter day, and at the same time he heard a voice saying: “Son of Man, the place of my THRONE, and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel forever.” (Ezek. 7) “In that day they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord.” (Jer. 3:17.) “The name of the city shall be from that day forth (Jehovah-Shammah) the Lord is there.” (Ezek. 48:35) “Then the Sun shall be confounded, and the Moon ashamed, when the Lord of Hosts shall reign in Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before His ancients gloriously.” (Isa. 24:23.)

Thus then, through the return of their King, even of Him who was born, and in derision was robed, crowned, and crucified as “King of the Jews,” and hereafter is to be manifested as the Lord God of Israel—through His return “the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem; for unto her shall it come, even the first dominion.” (Mic. 4:8.) But she shall not only be glorious in the eyes of men, she shall be truly holy unto the Lord; for “her people shall be all righteous, they shall inherit the land forever.” “All her children shall be taught of the Lord, and great shall be the peace of her children.” (Isa. 60:21; 54:13.) “They shall be priests of the Lord, men shall call them the ministers of our God.” (Isa. 61:6.)

Jerusalem shall be, as it were, the earth’s altar, where “prayer shall be made continually, and the King be daily praised.” (Psa. 72:15.) It shall be a place in which also the goodness of earth shall be consecrated to the glory of the Lord. (Mic. 4:13.) And the difference will be shown between Babylon which glorifieth herself, and the City where God’s name only shall be excellent. Immanuel’s land shall be delightsome in the sight of the nations, and “all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of God.”

But though blessed to the full of human capacity upon earth, yet it is an earthly city still. Its inhabitants will be in bodies unredeemed—death the last enemy will not be destroyed. (1 Cor. 15; Rev. 20) And there will still be the possibility of sin. “Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will sow the house of Israel, and the house of Judah, with the seed of man, and with the seed of beast; and it shall come to pass, that as I have watched over them to pluck up, and to break down, and to throw down, and to destroy, and to afflict; so will I watch over them to build, and to plant, saith the Lord. In those days they shall say no more, the fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children’s teeth are set on edge, but everyone shall die for his own iniquity, every man that eateth the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge.” (Jer. 31:29.) Nevertheless the blessedness of Jerusalem shall be steadfast forever, even as it is written, “I will betroth thee unto me forever; yea I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving-kindness, and in mercies; I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness, and thou shalt know the Lord:” (Hos. 2:19.) for the power of the Lord shall countervail the weakness of man: even as is at present the case with all Believers, whose Strongest and most blessed expressions of confidence now, are borrowed from the triumphant songs of Jerusalem then.

But the blessedness of Jerusalem will be strictly the blessedness of earth, and therefore different in character from that of the heavenly city; for the glory of the terrestrial is one, and the glory of the celestial is another. Nevertheless the happiness of both is based upon the same principles of unchanging grace: they are “married” by the same covenant; and the lesser glories of the one will be reflections of the more excelling glories of the other.

It is thus that the descriptions, which in the Old Testament are confined to the earthly city, are used by the Apostles to express the glories of Jerusalem which is above; for these are the expansion and heavenly antitype of the typical (though real) glories of Jerusalem below. They both belong to the same system—they are different courts of the same glorious temple, visibly united and yet distinct. In virtue of this union their glory is one, and both are hallowed by the ministration of the same High Priest, and the sprinkling of the same blood; yet it was the Holy of Holies in which the presence of the glory was; and it was through connection with it that the other courts derived their principal excellency, and their glory.

But not only Jerusalem—the land of Immanuel also shall teem with blessedness. “The wolf and the kid shall dwell together.” “They shall sit every man under his own vine, and under his own fig tree.” These things are blessed in themselves, but they will be outwardly and manifestly then, what they are in description to the eye of faith now—that is, pledges and symbols of a more perfect “rest which remaineth for the people of God.”

But when it shall be said unto Jerusalem, “Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee,” what shall he the state of the nations? the Scriptures answer that “ darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the peoples;” and therefore, even as she receives her blessings from another city which is above, so also she is herself made the communicator of blessing unto others. “The remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people as a dew from the Lord, as the showers upon the grass that tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for the sons of men.” (Micah 5:7) “If the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles, how much more their fullness? for if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be but life from the dead?” (Rom. 11:12, 15.)

Nevertheless, while she is thus the witness and administrator of blessing to all who submit themselves, she is also the minister of chastisement and destroying judgment to those who refuse and rebel. Thus it is written, “The nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish, yea those nations shall be utterly wasted.” (Isa. 60) And again, “the remnant of Jacob shall he among the Gentiles, in the midst of many people, as a lion among the beasts of the forest, as young lion among the flocks of the sheep, who if he go through, both treadeth down, and teareth in pieces, and none can deliver.” (Mic. 5:8. see also Isa. 41:15.) Nothing can more plainly show than these and similar passages, the imperfectness of the millennial state on earth: for the rod of chastening and correcting power is unneeded and unknown in heaven there is no conflict with moral evil there—Earth only is the place where it is necessary to “rebuke” the nations.

But there is yet one more character, in which we have to regard Jerusalem. It will be not only the source of judgment, and of kingly power, it will also be the source of merciful and converting testimony; even as it is written, “flow beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of Him that bringeth good tidings; that publisheth peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation: that saith unto Zion, thy God reigneth I thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing, for they shall see eye to eye, when the Lord shall bring again Zion.” (Isa. 52:7.) “And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills: and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.” (Isa. 2:2, 3.)

It will be the great harvest time from the earth, for they who are at present gathered in this season of humiliation, are but as a “kind of first fruits of His creatures,” (James 1) an earnest of those which shall be finally gathered into the garners of God.

Whilst therefore the deliverance of creation from the curse, the binding of Satan, and the blessed guardianship and rule of the Son of Man and His saints, (Dan. 7:22.) will render the state of the earth during the millennium, essentially different from its condition now; yet whilst the bodies of those who dwell on it are still fleshly and unredeemed, and whilst death remains undestroyed, it will not be a state perfect according to the perfection of God; but will still require the further exercise of that power which is able to say, “Behold I make all things new.”

The progressive subjection of evil during the millennial period is clearly referred to by the Apostle in the Corinthians. It is between the “resurrection of the saints of Christ” at His coming, and “the end;” it is during this interval (which we learn from the Revelation to be a thousand years) that He is engaged in putting down “all rule, and all authority, and power;”—“the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death;” but not (as we are taught in the Revelation) till the end of the millennial period—“the end” which is spoken of in the Corinthians when He shall deliver up unto God, even the Father, the power which He received as Son of Man, that God may be all in all, The kingdom of the Son, as glorifying the Father, is over that which is evil and unreclaimed; but all that is perfected, and fully reclaimed from the power of evil, is placed in the kingdom of the Father; even as it is written of the saints, as perfected in glory at the coming of Jesus, that they shall “then shine forth as the Sun in the kingdom of their Father;” whilst earth remains under the special government of the Son, until the time when that also shall be fully and perfectly reclaimed unto the Father. The terms which are used in Scripture to denote the millennial period, such as “the times of refreshing or reanimating,” (Acts 3:19.) “restoring,” (Acts 3:21) “regenerating.” (Matt. 19:28.) “redeeming,” (Eph. 1:14) (for such is the literal translation of the words,) appear purposely intended to indicate the progressive advance towards the period of completion, when all things shall be fully regenerated and restored. And although the judgments at the close of the present dispensation upon the rebellious Jews in Jerusalem, upon the Gentile nations who are gathered together against it, and upon the tares, or those who profess the name of Christ, shall be more fearful than we can attempt to describe, yet some (though they be but as the gleaning of grapes when the vintage is done) shall be spared to illustrate, as it were, by the future operation of His grace towards them; that although He may be slow in perfecting the counsels of His grace, yet that is not because He is slack in giving, but because He is “long-suffering, not desiring that any should perish:”—for even the millennial period shall be a time of salvation unto many, “who shall look upon Him whom they have pierced,” and find Him the true Joseph, blessed alike to Jew and Gentile, who was sent beforehand to preserve life.

Perhaps our present condition as believers may tend to illustrate the relation of the heavenly city to the earth, during the millennial period. We have a new nature distinct from our old, but acting on it, and bringing, not only much present blessing as the means of fellowship with the Lord and service in His household, but being also the earnest of a more glorious change hereafter, when all shall be made new. Such, as it appears to me, will be the relation of the heavenly city to the earthly system. The earthly Israel will have, by their connection with Jerusalem above, present blessing: but this will not be all, they will see in it the earnest of a new heavens, and a new earth; when the former shall not be remembered, not come into mind: and whilst they are encouraged to expect this, they are at the same time bidden to rejoice and be glad in that which had been already bestowed upon them; and to know (howsoever it might be with others) that their blessing should be steadfast forever. I say—howsoever it might be with others—because we know that whilst Jerusalem is “betrothed forever,” (Hos. 2) the other nations are again allowed to be assailed by Satan; and, in spite of every privilege, again rebel, till fire cometh down from heaven and devoureth them all. This is on the millennial earth; and then He said], “Behold, I make all things new;” the first heaven and the first earth pass away, and there is found no place for them; and a new earth is formed fit for entire communion with heaven and the heavenly city, where God is “all in all.”

Such I believe to be the revealed purpose of God, as to the means of bringing in the promised blessing. How forcibly the knowledge of them bears upon us practically, our consciences may feel! I will only add, that as grace only could give, so also grace alone could fit for such an inheritance of glory—“It is of faith that it might be by grace to the end the promise might be sure.” It is received in Him, who after having by Himself purged away forever the sins of all who believe, hath sat down on the right hand of God, the witness of complete forgiveness and blessing, that he that glorieth might glory in the Lord.

Yours truly,

X. Z.

Passages in the Book of Revelation Connected With the Old Testament.-No. 1.

MY DEAR BROTHER,

It is especially important for us to bear in mind the Perfectness of Scripture—that it is ever its own interpreter, and that if we desire to know the mind of the Lord in any portion of His word, we should seek the light which is thrown thereat] by other parts of it.

The application of various passages from the Old Testament Scriptures, made by our Lord and His Apostles, often gives us the clue to understand those applied portions; and any principle broadly stated by them sheds it light on the whole.

Such a statement as this of the Apostle Peter, “To Him (Jesus) give all the Prophets witness,” establishes at once a principle, which must ever be borne in mind whilst searching the writings of the Prophets; this principle is one of which none who value the truth, “that through His name, whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins,” (Acts 10:43) would for a moment doubt or question.

Now there is another principle as clearly declared by the same Apostle, that “God hath spoken of the times of the restitution of all things by the mouth of all His holy Prophets since the world began.”— “Yea, and all the Prophets from Samuel, and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days.” (Acts 3:21, 24) This principle then, is equally largely stated, and is equally needful to be borne in mind in learning from Scripture. Had the Church felt its importance as strongly as they have that of individual salvation—had they indeed known that the coming of Jesus, and the consequent restoring; of all things, was the point of hope to which it ought to be their glory and joy to look—had they remembered that “Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God,” (2 Peter 3:12) is that which was once declared to be their right place, oven at the same time when they were called on “earnestly to contend for the faith once delivered unto the saints;” (Jude 3)—then surely, the prophetic record which the loving-kindness of our God hath given unto us, “to show unto His servants things which must shortly come to pass,” would have been seen as fully to bear testimony to the day when “the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together,” as it is universally acknowledged by the Church of God to do to the person and sufferings of Jesus.

“The sufferings of Christ, AND the glory that should follow,” is that to which the Spirit of Christ testified in the holy men of old; the two things are inseparably connected in “the sure word of prophecy,” and their importance must be judged of by that which is written concerning them.

I merely state these two important elementary principles, to illustrate what I mean by calling the Scripture its own interpreter; but the same holds good in more specific details; such as the citation (for example) of Old Testament prophecies, and their interpretation or application in the New. Thus our Lord, by stating “This is he of whom it is written, Behold I send my messenger,” &c, gave at once a definite meaning to the cited passage, whereby we are left in no doubt concerning its being rightly applied to John the Baptist, whatever more complete fulfillment it may yet receive.

When we read that Jesus rode into Jerusalem upon an ass’s colt, “that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Prophet, saying, Tell ye the daughter of Zion, Behold thy King cometh unto thee meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass;”—we see at once the definite meaning of the prophecy, and its literal accomplishment; although, previous to the fact, it might have been supposed to be but symbolic. In such a passage as this, the Old and the New Testaments are united by an obvious and tangible bond; but I believe that it will be found that the word of God, in cases where the connection is not so instantly obvious, or is not stated in as express words, gives its own clues, which if followed aright will show the connections. Thus when Jesus declared, “Henceforth shall ye see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power; and coming in the clouds of heaven,” (Matt. 26:64.) I see that He applied to Himself a passage in the 7th of Daniel.

But do I learn nothing more than the application of an isolated passage? Is this all the result of the connection? Assuredly not; for I see at once that many things connected with the assumption of power by the Son of Man are unfolded; and hence I learn (even had I no other means of knowing it) that the time spoken of in Dan. 7, when the Son of Man cometh with clouds, and is brought unto the Ancient of Days, is yet future; and I find also, that suffering is to be the portion of the saints UNTIL the time of that manifestation, and then shall the saints possess the kingdom.

Paul, in writing to the Hebrews, (12:26) quotes from the Prophet Haggai—“Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven;” and then argues on it as a thing yet future. Now if we look at the Prophet, we shall find that this “shaking” is the prelude to the time when “the desire of all nations shall come, and I will fill this house הזה הבית the Temple at Jerusalem; which, or whatever the building might be) with glory, saith the Lord of Hosts ... The glory of this house shall be greater, the latter than the former, saith the Lord of Hosts; and in this place I will give peace, saith the Lord of Hosts.” Certainly we ought to think it a thing worth knowing, whether these events, which the Lord has so solemnly testified to us, are present, past, or future; and this we are enabled to see by the connection with the New Testament.

The following is the first prophecy of the Scripture—“The Lord God said unto the serpent, I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; IT shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise His heel.” (Gen. 3:14, 15) The New Testament teaches us to look for the accomplishment of this in Christ—the Seed. We learn from Rev, 20:2, that the “old serpent is the Devil and Satan;” we find that “Satan entered into Judas Iscariot” (John 13:27) when he was going to betray the Lord; when He was delivered into the hands of sinners He said, “this is your hour and the power of darkness.” (Luke 22:53.) Here then is the fulfillment of one portion of this word. Let us now examine the other—the heel of the seed of the woman has been bruised; but has the Bruised One yet exerted His power over the serpent? We read in Isaiah 26 and 27 that the Lord shall punish the serpent, in that day when He cometh out of His place to punish the inhabitants of the earth—This makes it plain that the accomplishment of the former part of the prophecy is to take place the last; and from Heb. 2:14, we know that the former part was to be brought about by means of the latter being first fulfilled; “that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil.” As the prophecy was stated, it might have seemed as though some real triumph were given to the serpent; but when we see that this triumph was the purposed plan of God for His defeat, and when we find that it pleased Jehovah to bruise Jesus, that by His stripes we might be healed, (Isa. 53) we see that this was a thing ordered of God; and that the then bruiser was the instrument of bringing to pass God’s counsels of grace, even unto his own destruction. The exercise of power then is only delayed; but until when? until those for whom the Lord was bruised, (even His Church,) shall be united to Him at His return; when all the scattered children of God shall be gathered; and when “shall be brought to pass that saying, Death is swallowed up in victory.” Christ, in His own person, has destroyed the power of death, by being “the first fruits of them that slept;” but when He takes to Himself that power which is now His in title, His risen saints shall be with Him—“The Lord my God shall come, and all His saints with thee.” This blessed association of the Lord Christ and His Church, His bride, shows us the force of the declaration of Paul, “The God of peace shall bruise Satan under YOUR feet shortly.” (Rom. 16:20.) Thus do we find that applied to the saints which the Lord God at first foretold of Christ Jesus and His Church are united: “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne.” (Rev. 3:21.)

Thus we see how that, which was at first spoken indefinitely and obscurely, and (if I may so speak) disorderly, is illustrated by many concurrent Scriptures, which teach the true order of events; and the varied light which they afford us, makes manifest that which had once been obscure, We still see “the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.”

Now if there be any portion of the word of God pressed upon us with an especial force, it is surely that which the Lord thus introduces to us— “Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy; and keep those things which are written therein; for the time is at hand.” (Rev. 1:3) To the book of Revelation, the principle of seeing what the light is, which Scripture throws on itself, will, I believe, peculiarly apply, as tending to clear up the meaning to us. I give the following comparison of passages for this purpose, and I trust that the connections are such as will afford a clue to much of its contents. But there is another view in which I think such a comparison is valuable—in throwing back the light afforded us in this book to the Old Testament prophecies; and thus not only using them to illustrate it, but using it to elucidate them, and often so to combine them as to make them illumine one another, Frequently in this manner things, of which the order and the connection had been scarcely traceable, are seen to stand in lucid and harmonious arrangement.

There is one principle which will, I believe, be found true, (with regard to the Revelation at least) and to have much practical value for understanding the connections and citations of this Book and the Old Testament. It is, that when similar language is used in both, the subject matter is either absolutely identical; or else that in each case, there are such similar circumstances of features, that an analogy may be drawn between them.

I have, I believe, brought together most of the connected passages; and I have, in several instances, tried to show the result of their comparison. Often, when the immediate object is not very evident in itself, instruction may be drawn from seeing what are the characteristic features.

I would always wish to give my own opinions with caution, just stating what appears to me to be clearly taught by the Scripture; and viewing circumstances in the light in which they are shown to stand by the concurrence of Scripture testimony.

I do very earnestly desire that these compared passages may have their use, not in gratifying any vain or idle curiosity, but in helping some to know a part of “the things that are freely given to us of God,” we have still in this Book the same things testified of as in the other Prophets— “the sufferings of Christ,”—here looked at as a past thing. “I am He that was dead, and am alive,”—“Unto Him that washed us from our sins in His own blood, be glory.”—“Worthy is the Lamb that was slain.” And the thing introduced is “the glory that should follow,”—Jesus of Nazareth—the crucified—cometh forth as “King of kings, and Lord of lords,” having on His head many crowns—His glory is now manifested to all; but who are those with Him, “clothed in fine linen white and clean?” Even those who “came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” Those with Him, “are called, and chosen, and faithful;” who have lived against the course of this world, and “have overcome Satan by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony.” This hath our Master given to His Church as a word, of comfort and of joy in the midst of trouble; “If we suffer with Him, we shall also reign with Him.” (2 Tim. 2:12.) They, who being sanctified by the blood of Jesus, have gone to Him without the camp bearing His reproach, now share His triumph. Here may those, who feel the world’s enmity on account of their fellowship on earth with the rejected Jesus, see how great a hope is held out to them of glory with Him, when He cometh forth in His glory to destroy them that destroy the earth. “I saw thrones, and they sat upon them; and judgment was given unto them; and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God; and those who had not worshipped the beast, and they lived and reigned with CHRIST a thousand years. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection.”

HE WHO TESTIFIETH THESE THINGS, SAITH, “SURELY I COME QUICKLY.” AMEN, EVEN SO COME; LORD JESUS.

Passages in the Book of Revelation

connected with

Passages from the Old Testament.

Chap. 1:1—The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto Him, to shew unto His

Amos 3:7—Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but He revealeth His secret unto His servants the Prophets.

servants things which must shortly come to pass; and He sent and signified it by His angel, to His servant John.

Dan. 10:14—Now I am come to make thee understand what shall befall thy people in the latter days.

Jesus, the great High Priest of His people, is here brought before us, as the one who delivers this Revelation unto His servants; thus showing the faithfulness of our God in giving unto us the light which it is our wisdom to use and to prize. God hath made Him to be Head over all things unto His Church; out of His fullness He administers blessing unto us, and this Book may be especially looked upon as the last direct testimony which He has given us for our teaching—for the comfort of those who love His appearing—until His return.

Ver. 4—Grace to you and peace from Him that is.

Exod. 3:14—God said unto Moses, I am He that is. (LXX).

Here the Septuagint version shows the connection. God manifests Himself to Moses as ὁ ων—He who is—the existent. With reference (I believe) to that passage, the message here runs—απο του ὁ ων—from THE He that is—the expression is just as anomalous in Greek as it is in English; but it has (when the connection is seen) its peculiar force and propriety.

Ver. 4—And from the seven Spirits that are before His throne.

Exod. 37:23—Seven lamps. 2 Chron. 4:20—The candlesticks with they lamps, that they should burn after the manner before the oracle.

The Holy Spirit, as the One who takes of the things of Jesus and shows them unto the Church, seems to be thus described, with reference to the golden seven-branched candlestick which was placed of old in the tabernacle of God, “the patterns of the things in the heavens.” The holy oil (which typified the Spirit) was there burned, thus giving light without the vail; within Jehovah’s manifested glory gave light, but none except the High Priest had entrance there; the place where the household of the Priest ministered, was without, and there was the candlestick placed.

Ver. 5—And from Jesus Christ the faithful witness; the first-begotten from the dead, the prince of the kings of the earth.

Isa. 55:4— “Behold I have given Him for a witness unto the people.”

Psa. 89:27—I will make Him my first-begotten, (πρωτοτοκον LXX) higher than the kings of the earth.

Thus is the previous statement amplified by the retrospect of “the sufferings of Christ;” in the Psalm He had been called the “first-begotten;” but now “from the dead” is added, showing the new character in which He stood as the Second Adam.

Ver. 6—To Him that hath made us kings and priests unto His God and Father, be glory, &c.

Exod. 19:5,6—If ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my Covenant. . . ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, an holy nation.

This is an instance of similar language being used to express analogous circumstances. Israel is God’s earthly people; the Church His heavenly—Israel has failed in keeping their part of the Covenant proposed; but, when (in spite of their failure) the Lord shall plant them in their own land for His own name’s sake, then shall they be “named Priests of the Lord,” (Isa. 61:6) then shall the earthly dominion belong to Israel, as it is written, “The nation and the kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish.” (60:12.) But far higher is the place of blessing and of glory to which God’s Church is called; their priestly ministrations are heavenly, and their kingdom and dominion “over the earth” is to be exercised from the heavenly Jerusalem.

Ver. 7—Behold He cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see

Dan. 7:13— One like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven.

Is. 40:5—The glory of Jehovah shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

Him, they also who pierced Him; and all the families of the land shall weep because of Him.

Zech. 12:10-14.—They shall look upon me whom they pierced, and shall weep because of Him. . .. The land shall weep, families by families. . . .All the families that remain.

Three portions of Prophecy are here so combined, as to show their synchronism and their definite application. The Son of Man shall Come with clouds, (Dan.) then “shall the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, be given to the people of the saints of the heavenlies.” When all flesh shall see the manifested glory of Jehovah, then shall Jerusalem be comforted, and her warfare shall have been accomplished; as it is written in another place, “When the Lord shall build up Zion, He shall appear in His glory,” (Psa. 102:16.) From Zechariah it is shown that “in that day shall a fountain be opened to the house of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness;” then shall it be manifested that Jesus died, not only to gather together the scattered children of God, but also for that nation. Then shall “a nation be born at once.” (Isa. 66:8) even that third part whom He will bring through the fire. (Zech. 13:9.) Our Lord made a similar combination of Dan. 7 & Zech. 12 (Matt. 24:30.)

Ver. 8—I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending.

Is. 44:6—I am the first and I am the last, and besides me there is no God.

Ver. 11—I heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet.

Exod. 19:16—And the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud.

Ver. 11—What thou seest write in a book.

Jer. 30:2—Write all the words which I have spoken unto thee in a book.

Ver. 12—I saw seven golden candlesticks.

Zech. 4:2—I have looked, and behold a candlestick all of gold. . . .and his seven lamps thereon.

It is stated (ver. 20.) that the seven candlesticks are the seven Churches; no longer united (like the golden candlestick of old) to one shaft—the following chapters show the state in which they now were, so as for it to be said, “I will remove thy candlestick out of its place, except thou repent,”—Jesus here stands in the midst of His Churches to execute judgment, and give warning.

Ver. 13—One like unto the Son of Man; clothed with a garment down to the foot (ποδηρη)

Ver. 14—His head and His hairs were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes were like a flame of fire; and His feet like unto fine brass as if they burned in a furnace; and His voice as the sound of many waters.

Dan. 7:13—One like the Son of Man.

Zech. 3:4—Unto Joshua, the High Priest, He said, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and will clothe thee with change of raiment. (LXX. ποδηρη)

Dan. 7:9—The hair of His head was like the pure wool.

Chap. 10:6—His face was as the appearance of lightning, and His eyes as lamps of fire; and His arms and His feet like in color to polished brass; and the voice of His words like the voice of a multitude.

Ezek. 43:2—His voice was like the noise of many waters.

Jesus, the “Son of Man,” (Dan. 7) unites in His own person the attributes of the Ancient of Days—of the declarer to Daniel of what should befall His people in the latter day—and of the returning glory of Jehovah to that house of which God hath declared, “Mine eyes and my heart shall be there perpetually.” (2 Chron. 7:16.) His name is indeed above every name.

Ver. 16—And out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword.

Ver. 17—And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead; and He laid His right hand upon me, saying unto me Fear not; I am the first and the last.

Ver. 18—I have the keys of Hades and of death.

Dan. 8:17—When He came I was afraid, and fell upon my face.

Chap. 10:8, &c.—I was left alone and saw this great vision, and there remained no strength in me. . . then was I in a deep sleep on my face, and my face toward the ground; and behold an hand touched me, which set me upon my knees and the palms of my hands. . . Then said He unto me, Fear not.

Is. 44:6—I am the first, and I am the last.

Psa. 68:20—Unto God the Lord belong the issues from death.

There is something very wonderful in the idea that this glorified One, before whose feet John fell as dead, was He with whom he had lived in the most tender friendship, and upon whose bosom he had laid on the night of His betrayal. John had stood by His cross—had beheld His lowest humiliation, and now he saw something of His glory; as perhaps he might have desired; as he wrote, “Beloved, now are we the sons of God; and it has not yet been manifested what we shall be; but we know that when He shall be manifested we shall be like Him.” (1 John 3:2) Jesus claims the incommunicable attributes of Jehovah, (compare ver. 8.) but still declares Himself to be the same who laid down His life that He might take it again; “I am He that liveth, and was dead, and behold I am alive forever and ever.” This He declares to “the disciple whom He loved,” when He says, “Fear not;” for only the knowledge of this could give confidence before Him— “Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died; yea rather that is risen again.” (Rom. 8:34)

Ver. 2—Thou hast tried those who say they are Apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars.

Deut. 13:1—If there arise among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder come to pass whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods. . . thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet.

Chap. 18:22—When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not nor come to pass; that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken; the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously; thou shalt not be afraid of him.

“The Scripture cannot be broken;” these two canons which God has given us, if applied rightly, will guard the Church from receiving as sent of God, (whether calling themselves prophets or apostles) any who by these tests shall be found liars. Miracles without “sound doctrine” are not to be regarded; “the faith once delivered to the saints” is to be held, whatever “signs or lying wonders” any may do in confirmation of any heresy; and especially let it be remembered, that the Holy Ghost gives us a third canon by John, (who is here charged with the commission of commending the Ephesian Church in this matter,) that “every spirit that confesseth not Jesus Christ come (ελη̄λυθοτα) in the flesh (i.e. confesseth not the MYSTERY (1 Tim. 3:16) of our Lord’s person and incarnation) is not of God.” (1 John, 4:3)

But it is yet more evident (for false doctrine may be veiled in enticing words) that wherever there are false prophecies, the thing cannot be of God’s Spirit.

Let us take heed; “for there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Behold I have told you before.” (Matt. 24:24)

Ver. 7—To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.

Gen. 2:9—The tree of life also in the midst of the Paradise. (LXX.)

Ver. 28—All the Churches shall know that I am He who searcheth the reins and hearts, to give to every one of you according to your works.

Jer. 17:10—I, Jehovah, search the heart, I try the reins, to give to every one according to his ways.

Psa. 62:12—Thou renderest to every man according to his work.

We have here brought before us the present position of Christ as regards His Church; now is the time in which He judges them, and chastens them, lest they should be condemned with the world. (1 Cor. 11:32.) The world is still borne with in long-suffering.

Ver. 26—He that overcometh and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations; and he shall rule (ποιμανεῖ) them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken in pieces; even as I received of my Father.

Psa. 2:8—I will give thee the nations for thine inheritance. . . . Thou shalt break (ποιμανεῖς, shalt rule, LXX) them with a rod of iron; as a potter’s vessel shalt thou break them in pieces.

This is almost a verbal quotation from the LXX, only applying “to him that overcometh,” that which had been spoken of Him through whom he overcame. (Rev. 12:11.) The saints of God have now no power over the nations, (nor indeed is it the time for them to desire it, or to exercise it,) and therefore the setting of the Lord Jesus Christ as King on Zion, is yet future; even as it is written in another Psalm, “Sit thou at my right hand, UNTIL I make thine enemies thy footstool; the Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion; Rule thou in the midst of thine enemies.” (Psa. 110:1, 2.) The saints are to be with their Lord; “Where I am, there shall also my servant be.” (John 12:26.)

Chap. 3:5—I will not blot out his name out of the book of life

Exod. 32:33—Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book.

Ver. 7—He that hath the key of David; He that openeth and no man shutteth, and shutteth, and no man openeth.

Is. 22:22—The key of the house of David will I lay upon His shoulder, so that He shall open and none shall shut; and He shall shut and none shall open.

Ver. 9—I will make them to come and to worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee.

Is. 60:14—The sons also of them that afflicted thee, shall come bending unto thee; and all they that despised thee shall bow themselves down at the soles of thy feet.

Ver. 12—Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out.

1 Kings 7:21—And he set up the pillars in the porch of the temple; he set up the right pillar, and called the name thereof Jachin, (he shall establish;) and he set up the left pillar and called the name thereof Boaz, (strength in it).

Ver. 17—Thou sayest I am rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing.

Hosea 12:8—And Ephraim said yet am I become rich, I have found me out substance.

Ver. 19—As many I love, I rebuke and chasten.

Prov. 3:12—Whom the Lord loveth He correcteth.

Ver. 20—Behold I stand at the door and knock.

Cant. 5:2—It is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying, Open to me, my sister, my spouse.

Ver. 21—To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne; as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in His throne.

Ps. 45:6—Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever.

Ps. 110:1—The Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.

Paul (Heb. 1:8.) gives the application of Psa. 45 to Jesus; from Rev. 20 we learn more of the reign of the saints with their Lord; of this but few particulars have been given us—the manifestation of Jesus is that for which we must wait, in order to know folly that to which we are to be conformed—to know the glory which shall be ours at His appearing; until then let us take heed to the word of Jesus, “What I say unto you, I say unto all, watch ... ”

Throughout the second and third chapters we have brought before us, “Remember from whence thou art fallen; and repent, and do the first works, else I will come unto thee quickly, and remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.” God’s warnings and rebukes to Israel bad been just such, but they were not regarded; and the whole rejection of Israel is analogous to that of the Church—gathered (not of the Jews only) but also of the Gentiles. When Paul wrote to the Hebrews, the Church was still united, but he says, “ye have forgotten the exhortation, which speaketh unto you as unto children; my son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him, for whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth,” etc. (Heb. 12:5.) The Church had been set as “the light of the world;” here, in the Revelation, we find lights, (owned of God as such) but not united; these are more severely rebuked and threatened; even as Paul had written to the Romans, “if thou (the Gentile) continue in His goodness; otherwise thou shalt be cut off” (11:22.) These warned Churches are not. They had backslidden, they were warned; they turned not, and thus became apostate. Thus it hath been everywhere: the Church is not to be found which the Lord could acknowledge and could thus address as a Church. But comfort may be drawn from the analogy of Israel; —the remnant that returned from Babylon were consoled in their weakness, “My Spirit remaineth among you, fear ye not” (Hag. 2:4.) So it is with the true (in contradistinction to the visible) Church; the words of Jesus are still faithful, “the Comforter, the Holy Ghost, shall abide with you forever.” (John 14)

“Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” (Matt. 18:20.) Although the glory and the blessedness which belonged to the Church is gone, together with its united light, yet the presence of Jesus is still known to the faith of His saints; the power of individual testimony is indeed but a weak thing when compared to that of the united Church, (John 17:21.) yet they still may aim to be “blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as LIGHTS in the world, holding the word of life.” (Phil. 2 If.) They can still be “like men who wait for their Lord.”

Chapter 4:1—I looked, and behold a door was opened in heaven.

Ezek. 1:1.—The heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God,

Ver. 2, 3.—Behold a throne was set in heaven, and One sat on the throne: and He that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald.

Ver. 26-28.—And above the firmament was the likeness of a throne; as the appearance of a sapphire stone; and upon the likeness of a throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it; and 1 saw as the color of amber, as the appearance of fire round about within it; from the appearance of His loins even upwards; and from the appearance of His loins even downwards, 1 saw as it were the appearance of fire; and it had brightness round about, as the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about.

Ver. 4.—And round about the throne were four and twenty thrones; and upon the thrones I saw four and twenty Elders sitting, clothed in white garments, and they had upon their heads crowns of gold. the high priest.

Zech. 6:13.—He shall be a priest upon his throne.

Chapter 2, 5.—They set a fair miter upon his head, and clothed him with garments.

Chap. 6:11.—Take silver and gold, and make crowns, and set them upon the head of Joshua the son of Josedech

However obscure, there seems to me to be some connection between these things. Joshua the high priest is in both places in Zechariah spoken of in immediate connection with the Branch—the enthroned Priest. I would notice this passage as one for consideration.

Ver. 5.—And out of the throne proceeded lightnings, and thunderings and voices; and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.

Ver. 6.—And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal.

And in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four living creatures full of eyes before and behind.

Ex. 19:16. —There were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud.. (See chap. 1, verse 4.)

Ezek. 1:22.—And the likeness of the firmament was as the color of the terrible crystal.

Ex. 24:10.—Under His feet as it were a paved work of sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness.

Ezek. 1:5.—Out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures.

Chapter 10:12.—And their whole body, and their backs, and their hands, and their wings ... .. were full of eyes round about.

Chapter 1:10.—As for the likeness of their faces; they four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion on the right side; and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four also had the face of an eagle.

(6:2.) Each one had six wings......and one cried to another and said, Holy, Holy, Holy; Jehovah of Hosts, the whole earth is filled with His glory.

Psa. 148:5.—Let them praise the name of the Lord.

Neh. 9:5.—Blessed be thy glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise; thou, even thou, art Lord alone; for thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host; the earth and all things that are therein; and thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven worshippeth thee.

Ver. 7.—And the first living creature was like a lion; and the second living creature was like a calf; and the third living creature had a face as a man; and the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle.

Ver. 8.—And the four living creatures had each six wings about him.... and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty; that was, and is, and is to come.

Ver. 11.—Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, and honor, and power; for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are, and were created.

In this description of the glory of God, there are combined the vision seen by Ezekiel—the glory of the God of Israel as manifested upon Mount Sinai—and “the King the Lord of Hosts,” the Lord Jesus Christ, (John 12:41.) as seen by Isaiah. Here some parts of the description more accord with the one, and some with the other of the visions of the two prophets. There is this remarkable difference in the living creatures seen by John from those described in Ezekiel; here they are four with one face apiece, there the four have each four faces; unless indeed John only describes the face that was looking forward, and omits the other three. Here they are “round about the throne, and in the midst of the throne;” in Ezekiel they are below; and in Isaiah the Seraphim stand above,(םמעל) which the LXX render around, (κυκλω) which is the word here used. God is here praised as the Creator; and the rainbow round about the throne appears to refer to His covenant with all creation. (Gen. 9:9.)

Chap. 5:1.—And I

saw in the right hand of

Him who sat on the

throne a book, written

within and on the backside.

Ezek. 2:2.—And when I looked, behold

an hand was sent unto me; and to

a roll of a book was therein; and He

spread it before we; and it was written

within and without.

Ver. 5.—Behold, the

Lion of the tribe of Judah,

the root of David,

hath prevailed.

Gen. 49:9.—Judah is a lion’s whelp.

Ps. 110:1.—The Lord said unto my

Lord.

“David therefore himself calleth Him then his Son ?” (Mark 12:37.)

Ver. 6.—A Lamb as

it had been slain,

having seven horns, and

seven eyes, which are the

seven Spirits of God, sent forth into all the earth.

Isa. 53:7.—He is brought as a Lamb

to the slaughter.

Zech. 4:10.—Those seven, they are the

eyes of the Lord, which run to and

fro in all the earth.

2 Chron. 16:9.—The eyes of the

Lord run to and fro throughout the whole

earth, to spew Himself strong in behalf

of them whose heart is perfect toward Him.

Here these seven eyes—the attributes of Jehovah in the Old Testament, are given to the Lamb that was slain, together with plenitude of power—seven horns.

Ver. 8.—Golden vials

full of incense, which are

the prayers of saints.

Ps. 141:2.— Let my prayer be set

before thee as incense.

Ver. 9.—They sung a

new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof, for thou wast

slain ; and hast redeemed us to God, by thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and

nation ; and hast made us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign over (επι) the earth.

Ps. 98:1.—O sing unto Jehovah a

new song, for He hath done marvelous things Jehovah hath made known His salvation.

Is. 53:12.—Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong; because He hath poured out His soul

unto death and He bare the sin of many.

Exod. 12:13.—The blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are ; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you.

Is. 49:6 —I will also give thee for a

light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest he

my salvation unto the ends of the earth.

(See on chap. 1:6.)

Dan. 7:18.—The saints of the heavenlies (עליונין) shall take the kingdom.

Zech. 14:9.—The Lord shall be King

over (על LXX επι) all the earth.

It has been supposed from this passage and others like it, that the home of the saints is described as on the earth; and this has, I believe, very much tended to cause some to look upon the reign of Christ and His Church as an earthly hope. The reign of Jehovah (after His coming with all His saints) is spoken of in the same manner in the Old Testament as it is here; and I believe no one ever looked on the reign there mentioned, as anything to be thought lightly of as earthly or fleshly. Jesus having been rejected from the earth—having suffered—the future glory into which His people are introduced, has been shown to be heavenly with Him—this reigning is no lowering of the saints’ hope, but (if rightly understood) gives it an especial blessedness, as showing the entireness of our fellowship with our risen Lord, to whose image we shall be conformed at His appearing. It has been thought, I believe, that it would be a lessening of the happiness and the glory of those who unite in this ascription of praise, for them to have anything more to do with earth: but it does not necessarily follow, from the manner in which they appear in this vision, that it is the present state of any departed saints which is here described. (See on chap. 6:1.)

But this passage, as Griesbach reads it, does not appear to include the living creatures or the Elders amongst the redeemed from every nation; his text runs thus— “Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed to God by thy blood of every family, and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made them kings and priests unto our God; and they shall reign over the earth.” It may perhaps seem as though some word were wanting in English to supply the place of “us” in the first part of the sentence, but in the Greek (see 2 John, 4.) there is nothing like an hiatus. I do not doubt myself that this reading is the true one. If it be thought from their ascription of praise to the Lamb that was slain that they must be redeemed saints, let it be observed that Jesus took not hold of angels, (Heb. 2:16.) yet they unite in the strain “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain,” (v. 12.) and in Him are all things in heaven and on earth to be gathered together.

Ver. 11.—Many angels round about the throne and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands.

Ver. 12, 13.—Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing. And every creature that is in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I, saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever.

Dan. 7:10.—Thousand thousands ministered unto Him (the Ancient of Days) and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him.

Psalm 103:2, 3.—Bless the Lord, O my soul who forgiveth all thine iniquities.

Ver. 22.—Bless the Lord all His works in all places of His dominion.

Psa. 101:6.—Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord.

1 Chron. 29:11.—Thine, O Jehovah, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty. Blessed be thou O Jehovah the God of Israel our father, forever and ever.

Dan. 7:14.—There was given unto Him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom—His dominion is an everlasting dominion .

The Lord is often glorified by the holy men of old as the forgiver of iniquity; in Psa. 103 (for instance,) we have this very beautifully set before us; “As the heaven is high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward them that fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us;”—the fact they could rejoice in, the manner had not (save to the eye of faith dimly) been as yet manifested. It was told them that “Messiah should be cut off;” that “many should be justified by the knowledge of One, who should bear their iniquities;” that “the just shall live by faith;” that there should come a Redeemer; that a child should be born whose name is “the Mighty God.” Blessedly as we can now (by New Testament light) see the “gospel preached before” (Gal. 3 8.) in all this; yet it was a testimony given “in many parts and in many manners,” (Heb. 1:1) and how far they could know the connection of all this with atonement by blood (continually shown forth in the law) is not told us. It was “the forbearance of God” (Rom. 3:25.) that was made manifest, “in the remission of sins that are past,” (i. e. sins committed before the shedding of the blood of Jesus,) and not His righteousness; the Apostle shows from this very fact, that there was a necessity for something to vindicate God’s righteousness; this the death of our Lord supplied; and God was both vindicated in His mercy (already extended by anticipation,) and enabled “to be just, and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus.”

The manner, in which God’s purpose of blessing was brought about, gives a yet higher theme of praise and of glory than is expressed before. The name of “Him who hath washed us from our sins in His own blood” is the glory of the new song in heaven; There “every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

The Creator had His claim to all praise; but sin had entered and marred the work; now the glory of the Redeemer is shown; and through Him creation is made (as shall be manifested in “the times of the restoring of all things,”) a theme of praise and thanksgiving, (Compare chap. 4 and 5 also Psa. 148, etc.)

The typical analogy between the Paschal Lamb and “The Lamb that was slain”— “Christ our Passover” (1 Cor. 5:7.) is very beautiful and striking. That which was spoken of the Lamb (Ex. 12:46.) is applied to Christ. (John 19:36.)

Israel believed the message concerning the Lamb, and the threaten destruction of the first-born; and they obeyed, and sprinkled the blood; the first-born so preserved were thereby separated unto the Lord, (Num. 3:13.) thus it is with the ransomed saints, “the Church of the first-born;” they are sanctified by the blood of sprinkling unto God; they have believed the record concerning the Lamb of God, the One bearing away (ὁ αιρων) the sin of the world; (John 1:20.) they know the blood on the lintel to be the mark by which the Lord will own and distinguish them from the world which remains at enmity, when He cometh out of His place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. Jesus has borne the wrath for them, and they can join (though now, if need be, in heaviness) in the triumphant song—, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain!” Nor is this all; for they shall be sharers in the dominion which shall be given to the “Son of Man,” when He cometh in His power and great glory.

Chap. 6:2.—I saw, and behold a white horse; and He that sat on him had a bow ; and a crown was given unto Him ; and He went forth conquering and to conquer.

Psa. 45:4.—In thy majesty ride prosperously... thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the king’s enemies.

Dan. 7:14.—One like the Son of Man ... . came to the Ancient of Days ... . and there was given to Him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom.

The point which is the object of hope is frequently set before us the first, although the last in order of time—thus, the triumph of the Seed of the woman is foretold before His humiliation; so that something is proposed to faith before the previous evil is told. We have a very remarkable instance of this in Isaiah. In the second chapter is stated the future glory of the mountain of the house of Jehovah; and then comes sorrow upon sorrow; and in the concluding chapters we re-arrive at the same point of expectation. The intervening evil has been set before us, and then the particulars of the vision of hope are dwelt upon and amplified.

Now the opening of this first seal is the beginning of those things, which the Lamb that was slain, hath taken for us from the hand of Him who sitteth upon the throne. The first thing we see is one riding on a white horse, who goes forth, “conquering and to conquer.” In chapter 19 we have a similar vision in several respects, in which the conquests of Him that sat on the horse are described. Now I think that these two persons are identical; just as much as “the House of the God of Jacob,” (Isa. 2:3) and “the House of my glory,” (60:7) are one and the same.

Ver, 8.—And power was given to him over fourth part of the earth ; to kill with the sword, and with famine, and with death, and by the beasts of the earth.

Ezek. 14:21.—When I send my four sore judgments upon Jerusalem ; the sword, and famine, and the noisome beast, and pestilence, (דבר LXX. θανατον death) to cut off from it man and beast.

Ver. 9.—I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God.

Lev. 4:7 & 18.—And the priest.... shall pour out all the blood at the bottom the altar of burnt-offering.

Ver. 12, &c.—And I beheld when He had opened the sixth seal, and lo! there was a great Earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; and the stars of heaven fell into the earth, even as a fig-tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind; and the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places, And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and every bondman, and every freeman, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the mountains and to the rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of His wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand?

Isa. 13:13.—I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place. (Ver. 10.) The sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.

Hag. 2:6.—Yet once it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens and the dry land.

Joel 2:31.—The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come. (chap. 2:10. & 3:15.) The sun and the moon shall be black, and the stars shall withdraw their shining.

Is. 34:4.—And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll • and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf faileth from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig-tree.

Is. 2:9.—And the mean man boweth down, and the great man humbleth himself, therefore forgive them not. Enter into the rock and hide thee in the dust, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of His Majesty. (Ver. 19.) They shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the ragged rocks, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of His Majesty, when He ariseth to shake terribly the earth.

Hos. 10:8, —They shall say to the mountains, Cover us and to the hills, Fall on us.

Isa. 13:13. –I will shake the heavens . . . in the wrath of the Lord of Hosts, and in the day of His fierce anger.

Psa. 110:5. —The Lord at thy right hand shall strike through kings in the day of His wrath.

Joel 2;11.—For the day of the Lord is great and very terrible ; and who can abide it ?

Our Lord in His prophetic discourse upon the mount of Olives spoke of a definite future event in this manner; “In those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, the stars of heaven shall fall, and the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken; and THEN shall they see the Son of Man coming in the clouds.” (Mark 13:24.)

When they were leading Jesus to be crucified, He said to the women who deplored Him, “Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me; but weep for yourselves and for your children; for behold the days are coming, in the which they shall say, ‘Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps that never gave suck;’ THEN shall they begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us,’ and to the hills ‘cover us;’ for if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?” (Luke 23:29-31.)

Now I think that all these prophecies are identical in their accomplishment; and that the darkening of the sun and moon refers to one definite future event. The prophecies of the day of darkness in Joel are manifestly unaccomplished; for that day is plainly shown to be at the time when God’s wrath against His people Israel shall cease; when their permanent peace shall commence; when Judah and Jerusalem shall be restored, (3;1) when “Judah shall dwell forever; and Jerusalem from generation to generation;” (v. 20.) and the word shall be accomplished, “Jehovah dwelleth in Zion.”

It is very conclusive to my own mind to observe how “the great day of the WRATH of the Lamb” is spoken of here. The Psalmist, when he says, that the Lord at the Lord’s right hand (i.e. the Lord Jesus Christ) shall strike through kings in the day of His wrath, is speaking of the time when Jehovah shall send the rod of Christ’s strength out of Zion, saying “Rule thou in the midst of thine enemies.”

Now the time of the arising of the Lord to shake terribly the earth (Isa. 2), has certainly not yet taken place; this shaking is spoken of in such a way as to appear to be one definite event—even (as I doubt not) the same shaking that was foretold by Haggai, and is referred to by Paul, who quotes that prophet.

In Isaiah some of the parallel prophecies come in among the predicted judgments upon Babylon and upon Edom; now I believe that those prophecies (however fulfilled in some important particulars) are not exhausted, and that the events of the latter day alone will entirely show their accomplishment.

The Lord’s manifested appearing seems plainly to form a portion of the events in this passage in the Revelation; for the kings would scarcely else attribute their consternation to “the wrath of the Lamb.” “As the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west, so shall the coming (παρουσια presence) of the Son of Man be; ... then shall all the families of the land mourn; and they shall see the Son of Man corning in the clouds.” (Matt. 24:27-30.) Nothing less than the coming of the day of God could I think be described in such terms; which terms our Lord Himself employed to describe His return.

But this prophecy does not merely coincide in terms with one prediction of the coming of the Son of Man, but with many; and that too—not in trivial or subordinate particulars—but in the most characteristic features. It is “the great day of the wrath of the Lamb;” when the kings of the earth are confounded; even as it is written in the 2nd Psalm: “The kings of the earth set themselves against Jehovah and against His Messiah ... , THEN (אז) shall He speak unto them in His wrath, and vex them in His sore displeasure.” (v. 2.) Then shall the nations be the inheritance of Jesus (ver. 8.) and of His Church, (Rev. 2:26.) The Lord shall be King over all the earth. (Zech. 14:9.) And the saints shall be glorified with Him.

I would remark in concluding, that the knowledge that the Scripture is the utterance of God’s mind, ought to give us such a value for the things therein revealed, as to make us anxious not to neglect any portion of its contents; if we do not see how some part can bear upon us as individuals, God can and does; and He has given the revealed record to us, and therefore we ought to seek the teaching of His Spirit, so as to use it “for instruction in righteousness.” From this neglect of parts, whose practical use was not seen, has arisen the want of testimony in the Church to the coming of that day when “the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels; in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; ... when He shall come to be glorified in His saints.” (2 Thess. 1:8.)

God set His Church in the world as His witness of these things against the world; even as Noah in his day was the witness of the coming judgment. The Church has indeed a heavy responsibility resting on her for her want of testimony, and for her forgetfulness of the cowing of her Lord.

May the Lord grant, for His own name’s sake, that His Church (careless and unheedful as she hath been) may see from whence she hath fallen, and repent; may He grant her to give no uncertain testimony to the world that the day of the Lord cometh upon them as a snare; and may she, in true faith, and fully knowing the high import of the petition, pray “Our Father who art in heaven, THY KINGDOM COME.”

I trust (if the Lord will) shortly to continue the comparison of passages,

And remain

Your brother and servant (2 Cor. 4:5.) in the Lord,

S. P. T.

Plymouth, Dec. 15, 1835,

Types.-No. 2.

RIGHTLY to value every subsequent part of revealed truth, we cannot too often fall back upon the simple history of the entrance of sin and sorrow into the world that God had made in beauty, and blessed because He delighted in it. It is as though we should. leave the wide estuary bearing on its surface hundreds of peopled vessels, and washing with its waves the walls of the thronged cities of confusion and traffic, and make our way back, out of the maze of thought and feeling such scenes call forth, to the source and spring of the mighty river; and find it breaking forth in its young strength, in the loneliness of some unfrequented wild—there everything is within our reach. There is little else to contemplate but itself, and the rock from which it gushes; and this is not beyond our easy range. Just so, do a few simple circumstances, produced by principles as simple, start into life, and then rush on, widening and widening in their course; till those who live in the ample scene to which they have enlarged, are unable to account for anything justly, and do but reflect from within the confusion which such complicated events and things must produce.

In the early chapters of Genesis we are, as it were, in the solitary grandeur of a beautiful world; with but two persons before us, the objects of the care and favor of Jehovah at first, and then of His judgments—and if our attention is fixed on them, we are introduced, in the brief narrative of their happiness and fall, into every principle that can give a reason for the many perplexities of our present circumstances; as well as into the presence and power of our God, and the crafty wickedness of man’s unfailing enemy—that old Serpent, the Devil. There is no difficulty here; the parties are but few, the time but brief, and the events contained in it very simple: and here it is wise to take our stand, and look around us. Two guileless and happy creatures are set over the beautiful works of God’s hand, and the Lord God walks with them in the garden which He had planted for them; and Satan was there in disguise and these are the parties. The time was surely short, but this is not accounted for to us, nor is it necessary for us to know: but the events (few as they are) what are they? These that were holy had become sinful—the happy and light-hearted— the slaves of sorrow, care, sickness, and death; and the garden that their God had made and adorned for them, shut against them; and above all, their God, from whom flowed every blessing, turned against them in judgment; and they, with the law of creation unaltered, sent forth to be the Parents of all the evil and sorrow that was pressing its heavy burden upon them; to be the hapless progenitors of every sigh, tear, and sin, in which unseen centuries were to abound; and then Satan had done this, for he had tempted the woman and the woman the man. And “By one man’s disobedience sin entered into the world, and death by sin.” Here then we have the disastrous facts, and the narrative accounting for them all. What then? And where are we? Surely inheritors of all that Adam had gained—sin, and therefore sorrow and death; and losers with him of all that he had forfeited. We are out of Paradise, and we are sinners; we are in fact circumstantially as he was, when he might have looked back in agony of thought, and seen the flaming sword, barring his entrance to that beautiful place, where he had heard the blessed voice of his God, and where nothing could call forth a tear—nay, where there was no tear in his heart to shed. How full of heaviness must he have been! how full of busy thought!—and could he not simply and easily account for all his loss, and for all his gain? Oh surely, he had sinned and God had turned away from him in anger, and he had turned away from God in fear; and Satan had caused it, and he had heard of the continuance of Satan’s power against him, till the woman’s seed should rise up to bruise his head. Are not these our circumstances? We are not in Paradise, for we have been born under the forfeiture of our sinning father; we are in a world of woe, subject to sorrow and death. No one will deny this; cannot we then as easily tell why this is? even that we have inherited his circumstances by being heirs of his sin; all is entailed upon us.

Sin is our entailed condition: sorrow and death our entailed circumstances as to this world; while Satan lives as busily to seduce to more sin, and to aggravate our aggrieving case; and God is from everlasting to everlasting, and the same to us as to Adam—the offenders’ righteous judge, and therefore, as to his condition, excluding still from Paradise; and more than this, the sure judge of every added sin while out of Paradise. Let us carefully sum this up again. The loss of Adam was holiness and peace as to his own condition; the glory and beauty of the garden suited to that condition—the favor, grace, and presence of his God—his gain positive sinfulness, and therefore wretchedness as to condition; a world of thorns and thistles accursed for his sake, as suited to that condition; the present judgment of God on him, as condemned already in his exclusion from Paradise, and subjection to sickness and death; and a surely anticipated eternal judgment upon every subsequent sin: besides the constant, restless, skillful enmity of one, whose power to seduce he had known so well. Oh! this is enough to wither the heart that thinks of it. Is this man’s case? are these his circumstances? These were Adam’s! and what else has he given to us? Yes, these are our only derived possessions. As we breathe our first breath in this poisoned world, it is but being as Adam was, when in infancy of thought and feeling, though in manhood of stature and capacity, his wretched forsaken soul realized in busy memory the brief but exquisite sweetness of the past; and looked onward to the dark and fearful chaos of the future, when these words were fulfilled— “He drove out the man;” and the flaming sword turning every way shone with the certainty of God’s judgment upon the untrodden waste of sorrow before him. But had he gained nothing else? yes he had: he had gained the knowledge of good and evil—he had gained intellectual power. If any read this paper, who are carried along in the thoughtless tide of this day’s prominent sin—the exaltation of man’s intellect, I entreat them to pause and consider what is asserted here. I ask them to consider Adam’s condition morally and circumstantially; and can they gainsay it? Is it not theirs? Then let them consider that along with all this evil and sorrow came in upon man the thing they boast in—mental power—I do not pretend to describe the measure of increased power Adam attained; but this is written, that the act of sin (which robbed him of everything else) gave him increased knowledge and power. It was not a false word of Satan when tempting him, “In the day ye eat thereof then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as Gods, knowing good and evil;” nor a false conclusion of the poor tempted woman, that the fruit was not only “pleasant to the eyes,” but “to be desired to make one wise,” for “The Lord God said,” (when describing the condition of these fallen and degraded ones) “Behold the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil.” He had then become wiser—he had attained increased knowledge; “their eyes were opened,” etc. But oh! shall we not learn from this how infinitely God sets holiness above wisdom or power; that without the first, the second does but lead the last into open rebellion against God. Can any question Satan’s possession of that which he tempted man to lose all else to win? and what will be the utmost exercise of his attained power with an unchanged heart, but rebellion as awful as Satan’s? Surely the less power a sinning man can have the better, for his sin will be the less flagrant; and Adam’s gain of wisdom and power was but accelerating the torrent of evil that was to overflow the world; and be the power what it may, (and it is great, and greatly cultivated and increased in this day) after all, what can it do to brighten the dark scene of moral waste before us? What could it do for Adam? It did not enable him to take sorrow from his heart, or sin from his soul; nor to remove the curse from the ground on which he trod. He might devise instruments of skill to till it; he might learn its riches, both in fruits and metals; he might find the silver and golden veins to deck and garnish about his sadness with: but the thorn and thistle ceaselessly springing from beneath his feet, and the sweat upon his brow would yet tell him of something which neither his skill or toil could touch. He might, as he does, search out the causes of the tempest and the cloud, yet they would both tell him of “SIN.” The groan of his heart which he can ill smother, and the groan of creation in the earthquake and storm go together, (though one is more unceasing than the other) in speaking the same shaming truth, (which his intellect may be busily seeking to deny,) that sin reigns unto death, and none can let it.

“Knowledge is power” indeed; but how poor an exchange for happiness, and when it is in the hands of a child of disobedience the whirlwind is less fearful, Adam attained knowledge, but his holiness and joy were gone; and what could his knowledge do for him but aggravate his sorrow, by giving him a deeper perception of the good he had lost, and the evil he had gained? But it gave him no clue by which to regain his loss, or to be rid of his gain. Whatever his intellectual advancement, it could not make him master of his evil circumstances, nor make a path for him back to God; but alas! as it has ever been, its knight is but exhausted in devising schemes to charm away the evil of the world to which it is banished, or to veil the horrors that sin has produced, so that they are questioned till the veil is rent, and there is no escape from them. Yes, its one constant effort has been, and is, to deny all truth, or so to soften its ruggedness as to make it very different from what it really is—to conceal its hideous features under a mask; to call light darkness, and darkness light; sweet bitter, and bitter sweet; to make the world attractive, as though there were no curse in it, and it were not the place of banishment; to make an Eden, where the thorns and thistles grow; to invent sweet music to fill the ear that might be pained by cries and tears, and pleasant pictures of things that are not; to rob death of its sting and shame by attaching a thousand pleasant feelings to the name of bravery; in short by making some gilded falsehood to go along with the sternness of every truth, and so to deceive and cheat into eternal ill by concealing that which (rightly understood) would have startled the soul, it might have been into the mercy of its God. This is fallen intellect. It is great, very great; almost all things are within its reach—but one—the knowledge of truth; “for the world by wisdom knew not God;”—and it uses all that is within its reach to hide the facts that might lead to that wisdom. Yes, it can dispute, and conceal, where facts are too plain for dispute; but can it dry up the fountain of tears that sin has opened in man’s heart can it stay the hand of Satan in sickness or death? Oh no; do what it will, these are the facts no philosophy can account for, and no intellectual skill remedy; but God’s blessed word has revealed to us the mystery—Sin, awful sin, irreparable by man, has entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death hath passed upon all men, for all have sinned.

And thus the glory of Paradise was hidden; “The sun had gone down while it was noon; and the earth was darkened while it was clear day.”—The little stream which flowed from its bosom soon began to widen. The word, “be fruitful and multiply” was unaltered; and Cain was horn, not in holiness, but in sin; not in Paradise, but in the desert. It has been often said, and it maybe so, that the exclamation of Eve on his birth, is expressive of her belief that her first-born was to be the seed so graciously promised to destroy her destroyer; but if so, how sad a proof is this of her fellowship with all her children, in their light and careless estimate of sin; that a child of sinners, born under the curse, conceived in sin, and born in iniquity, and crushed before the moth—should be the repairer of mischief—but little known, if it is not known to be infinite in extent and awfulness; how could this be? Alas! the first-born of sin was but a faithful exhibition of all that sin has done—a pattern of manhood in its fallen greatness; physically strong, (for Abel could not cope with him) yet morally helpless; intellectually great, (or what in these days would be called a master mind) for he was the builder of a city, and the father of Enoch, or the instructed one; and there speedily sprung up before him Jabal, the great musician, and Tubal-cain, the instructor of every artificer in brass and iron; but he was a despiser of truth, too proud to accept the salvation of his God—envious, and a murderer. Was he not a great man then? Yes, as the word is used by sinful men. Is it not a noble sight (they say) to see a man struggling with evil circumstances and mastering them? And surely Cain has no equal in this among all his descendants to this day. It was but a little before that the joys of Paradise were lost to him, and oftentimes doubtless he must have heard his parents speak with burning words of the bright scenes that had so quickly faded from before them; but yet there was something left, there were a few cleaving the faster to one another because of the desolation; there was a family circle, where the sorrows of each might be told to the other, and where the record of mercy might be dwelt on; this had been broken—there were but a few beating hearts in this world; and the gentlest and the holiest (for grace had changed it) had ceased to beat, and Cain’s hand had done this, and he was an outcast again—not from Paradise, that he had been before, but from this little hapless circle—not from God only as his Creator, but from God as his promised Redeemer—a fugitive and a vagabond a second time, and forever. I have asked my reader to consider the case of Adam; I now ask him to consider Cain’s; he said it was greater than he could bear: Oh! it is too fearful for the heart to realize as its own without distraction; yet what was the fact? why with the judgments of God doubled on him, the shame and sin of exposed murder, and the loss of the sympathy of every heart, yet did this man meet these adverse circumstances—grapple with them—give his intellect its freedom, and with no instructor, yet by the effort of his own genius, become the architect and builder of a city, and the father of mechanics (it may be) as able as we have this day; but vast as he was in the prowess of his intellect, and in the energy of his character, “he was of the wicked one;” and the first to execute the judgment of God, and give proof of the certainty of the word he questioned; for “death had passed upon all men,” and “he slew his brother,”

But my business is with the type presented to us in this first scene of the world’s fallen history—but I cannot speak of it without pausing a little to say, that I have purposely said nothing of the only really valuable possession which poor fallen Adam carried with him from Paradise—I mean “THE PROMISE,”—it was his all, and he might “take it on his shoulder, and bind it as a crown to him;” the first glimmering of the day-spring from on high in the midst of all the darkness—the only antidote his racked soul could have: Oh! how faith must have clung to it, dwelt on it, sought out its full meaning, and rejoiced in the riches of the grace, that could thus set about to counteract the evil ere it had well taken its first step.

All the grace of God is folded up in this promise, and so of course it is the basis upon which the types rest—indeed they are the development of it, or expressive of faith in it. I refer the reader to what has been said of Types in Vol. 2, Pages 250, 251. In the history before us we have a typical person and a typical thing united—Abel and his sacrifice, The conduct of the typical person is an exhibition of faith in all the truth revealed, and so foreshowing the Lord Jesus in His life and giving Himself to death—the sacrifice was typical of the sacrifice of the Lamb of God; as enforcing and explaining the previous word “thou shalt bruise his heel” more fully; in a few words I would say, they contain all the truth afterward amplified concerning the two-fold position of Christ as suffering from man and from God. For the sake of righteousness suffering from man, as Abel from Cain, in life and unto death—as a propitiatory sacrifice, suffering from God on account of the sin which He had reproved in His life.

The Scriptures refer us to these things, and in so doing explain them. First: “By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous; God testifying of his gifts, and by it he being dead yet speaketh.” (Heb. 11:4.)

Now in this, not only the principle of faith is introduced, as that which actuated Abel in all that he did, but the value of the sacrifice on which his faith rested, as unequivocally typical of the true sacrifice since slain; God did not testify of his faith, but of his gifts; the value was not in his faith, but in the gift that his faith presented—he offered it is said “a more excellent sacrifice;” and God testifying of the gift, he testified also that the presenter of it was righteous in it, “for by it he obtained witness that he was righteous.”

Secondly— “That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed. upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel, unto the blood of Zacharias, son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the porch and the altar.” (Matt. 23:35.)

Here the righteous conduct of Abel, through the same principle of faith by the indwelling of the Spirit, is adduced—freed from condemnation by the excellent sacrifice, he walked not after the flesh but after the Spirit: and having the mind of God concerning all the things of the fallen world around him, receiving not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, (1 Cor. 2:12.) he condemned the unbelief and misconduct of the world as seen in Cain; “and Cain slew his brother: and wherefore slew he him? because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous.” (1 John 3:12.) In this Abel was a type of Christ, who was essentially righteous, and not partially so, but perfectly in all His ways—who in His conduct was the light of truth, condemning the darkness of the world—who lived by faith in all that God had said and so walked contrary to the world that disbelieved God’s judgment of it; and who, above all, presented Himself to God as the only sacrifice excellent enough to cleanse the sinners of the sin, which His life had reproved and made manifest; and though as Jesus, the Brother of the Cain world, yet the world slew Him, because His deeds were righteous, and contrary to theirs. As Abel suffered for righteousness sake, so did He by faith “resist unto blood, striving against sin;” and it is called the blood of righteous Abel—how much more that of the Son of God, who endured the contradiction of sinners against Himself, and in perfect righteousness resisted unto blood from the hand of man, that the righteousness so proved and perfected might be available for the stained and sinning hand that slew Him—it was righteous blood, and His death from the sinners (because He strove against sin) was the proof of it; but because He suffered at the same time for sin from the Father, it becomes imputable to him, who proved the righteousness of it by slaying [Jim, through the merciful wisdom of Him, who thus planned the meeting of things so contrary.

Thirdly— “And to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.” The aspect of Christ’s suffering to death from the hand. of the antitypical Cain, as striving against sin, in which alone the death or blood of Abel is typical of Him, is full of dreadful import; for it is that which was and is the fullest proof of man’s wickedness, as it will be the full and terrible cause of His judgments; “for this is the condemnation, light is come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil;” and as in the days of Christ’s death, they sought to quench the light, that they might cover themselves with darkness to do their deeds of night unreproved, so do they turn away from the deed itself with all its condemning meaning, and say, “am I my brother’s keeper?”—but Christ has been in the world; and with a brother’s love, He has declared all to us, and shown us sin by His own holy obedience; and the voice from heaven to all who have the prolonged testimony concerning Him must be, “Where is Abel thy brother?” and then alas “what hast thou done? the voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground,”...... This is the only cry of a righteous sufferer; it is for vengeance, and it is a true and awful thought, that the blood of the Son of God does so cry from this wicked earth; and not all the accumulated sin of its other deeds can cry so piercingly for the vengeance of God on it; and in this way the blood of Abel spoke typically, but it could say no more—not so the blood of Jesus; it does speak this, but it speaks ether and better things too, and of this the Apostle speaks, who is declaring the Church’s acceptance and glory; and in it he throws us off Abel, as a type, to the sacrifice which he presented, as giving us the propitiatory meaning of Christ’s death for sin, not from the hand of man, but from God—“it pleased Jehovah to bruise Him, to make his soul an offering for sin,” and by this are the better things, righteousness, peace, love, glory, adoption, power, and dominion obtained—all that that sin—removing and destroying sacrifice from the hand of a righteous Judge, giving sin its due, could open to us; even as it is written in the verses above, “ye are come to Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and Church of the first-born, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the new Covenant,”—entrance into that city of glory, and fellowship with God, and Jesus, and all its blessed inhabitants, is the claim of that blood of sprinkling; it removes the flaming sword and claims admission there; it calls for blessing, not curse; and thus “speaks better things than that of Abel.”

There is something remarkable in the harmony of every feature in these typical histories. Abel was a keeper of sheep; Cain a tiller of the ground. I do not say only that the employment of Abel had reference to that which gave him his righteous standing before God, but that his flock which provided the typical victim Must have been a constant remembrancer to him of this truth. He owned God as his Creator and the Creator of his flock, in giving him the firstlings; but he owned Him in His holiness and mercy too as His Redeemer, in presenting the blood of it, as well as the fat. It was besides a more simple occupation, and required less natural skill and energy than that of Cain. Cain’s chained him to the earth; Abel was but a wanderer on the face of it; Cain sought to make the best of the world he was driven to, by gathering fruits and flowers from it; Abel only that he might return to whence he had been driven; Cain’s would have given him esteem before men—Abel’s requiring neither skill nor enterprise, and therefore held in contempt for its simplicity; and this is shown in the word of God, in that when Jacob and his sons joined Joseph in Egypt, (famed for its natural wisdom and might,) Pharaoh’s question “what is your occupation?” was replied to by Israel, “thy servants are shepherds, both we and also our fathers;” but yet “every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians,” and of this they were neither afraid nor ashamed. (Gen. 46:33, 34.)

But it is when they together come before God as worshippers, that the difference is so strikingly seen between them. Cain as the elder comes first; he does not forget God; he does not set Him altogether at naught; nay, he gives Him His high and holy place as God, and comes to Him as His creature in religious service—he was (in few words) a religious man—in the sense so commonly given to this title—he owned God as the Lord of the ground he tilled, and brought Him the first fruits of it to show his allegiance; it was the fruit of his own hard toil too, and therefore surely of value, in his account at least; and then too in comparing with the offering and worship of his younger brother, he might say, “There was no cost in that—it was an easy thing to give that in which there was no labor; and besides, God cannot he pleased with suffering and death; I present Him with the life and beauty of the world He made, surely this must please Him most.” It is remarkable that, up to this moment, as well as in this act, Cain was blamelessly both a religious and moral man—he was diligent in his occupation, and gave his diligence in part to God; how estimable a character in the world’s view would this be now—a man who goes to his church, keeps the sabbath, and is meritoriously filling the duties of his station in life, able, and enterprising—but being wrong in his judgment about God, he was really wrong in everything, and only wanted opportunity, which was soon given in the holy conduct of his brother, to show himself proud, envious, and a murderer.

Abel, with no fruit of his own labor, no work of his own hands to offer, brings what was God’s before, and in the face of all natural thoughts of right and wrong, and in apparent cruelty of heart, slays the unoffending lamb and presents it to God; and “The Lord had respect to Abel and his offering;” and the Scriptures as plainly tell us his act was the obedience of faith—the other’s the haughty rejection of what God had declared of Himself and the offerer, and so disobedience and sin, whatever its appearance and pretension.

And in what consists the difference? but that the one acted as though he had still been in Paradise, and was no sinner; and the other as a sinner, who knew “that without shedding of blood there could be no remission of his sin.” The one did not bring sin into the account, but acted as Adam might when he had not offended—the other, as knowing that he could not approach God at all as a sinner without a propitiation for his sins. When accepted of God, then Cain might have brought his fruits and flowers as offerings of thanksgiving for his acceptance in the blood of the Lamb; but to bring them as he did was but to set at naught the holiness of the God whom he pretended to worship, and to think as little of his own sinfulness. Sin was in question, and it must be avenged, or God would deny Himself; but the promise was given that His love would lay it on another, and in faith of this Abel presented his typical offering and in it, doubtless, did God and the offerer see the only fit victim; and God testified of his gifts that he was righteous, that his sin was prospectively laid on Him, whom the firstlings of his flock represented, and he stood acquitted; according to the word given in after days, as describing the righteousness which is by faith. “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered; blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity.” I need say little of the offering itself, as it may be permitted me to open them at some future time in the continuance of the types; but I judge that it embraces very much, yet not all, of the truth afterward expanded before us in the book of Leviticus—it might be that the firstlings were not put on the altar, but treated as a sin-offering, while the blood flowed on or beneath it; but that the fat, as an offering made by fire, for “all the fat is the Lord’s,” (Lev. 3:16.) was put on the altar, and consumed by fire from heaven, as in Lev. 9:23—the one denoting judgment and death; the other acceptance and life.

The acceptance of Abel’s offering was the first token, given as a witness to everyone, of the only way of a sinner’s meeting God, and of God’s readiness so to receive him. Cain was not rejected altogether, but he was as coming in that way; and as now, so did God then, graciously remonstrate with him in his self-righteousness, telling him that if he came in a right way he should be accepted too, and that the sin offering was lying at his door, (for this I judge to be the meaning of the 7th verse,) and that he had only to present it, and then all would be well; and that instead of his brother’s being preferred before him, he would still be in subjection to him as the elder brother. Unmoved in self-righteousness he went to talk with Abel, who doubtless did not disguise from him all that his soul knew of its sinfulness and yet of its peace: the first and the last must have been alike odious to Cain, and “he slew his brother; and wherefore slew he him? because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous.” What works but those presented to us in this history? it was an evil work for an unholy creature to make light of his sin, and the holiness and love of his God, and set them all aside, as though he could hide them under his offering of the fruit of the ground: it was a righteous work for a sinner, who knew his sin, to shelter himself in the blood of a blameless victim, when presenting himself before the holiness of God; “and he obtained witness that he was righteous:” and for this his acted and doubtless declared testimony for truth he died under the Socinian hand of his brother; and “he being dead yet speaketh,” telling us, that if we present the blood of Jesus, the fire from heaven will enter our souls, sealing us, and enabling us to speak of the acceptance we know, and calling us with Him, though in gentleness, yet to “resist unto blood striving against sin.”

Every feature of “the way of Cain” (Jude 11) is described to us in the history of the rejecters of the antitypical Abel—the Lord Jesus Christ—personally righteous, and always worshipping in Spirit and in truth, He needed not to present an offering for Himself; but under all circumstances He bore witness to the value of the ritual services that told the great truth, “without shedding of blood there is no remission;” saying to the leper whom He cleansed, “Go thy way, show thyself to the priest, and offer for thy cleansing those things which Moses commanded for a testimony unto them.” As owned and accepted of the Father, He was hated by them; He did always those things which pleased the Father; but they said, “Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil?”

They were a religious people, even as Cain, “they made long prayers, they compassed sea and land to make though it were but one proselyte, they paid tithe of mint, anise, and cumin, they built the tombs of the prophets, and garnished the sepulchers of the righteous, they appeared outwardly beautiful,” etc. But while this was true of them, they were a proud, self-righteous, unbelieving people, like Cain, “following after righteousness, but not attaining it; and wherefore? because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law; for they stumbled at that stumbling-stone. They had zeal for God, but not according to knowledge; for they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God.” (Rom. 9, 10.) Any testimony that would underrate the righteousness they were actively seeking to establish, (going about to do so,) would of course produce their enmity, as destroying that which they were cherishing, and condemning their zeal and religion, as really ignorance and sin. This Jesus did, and therefore all the schemes to waylay and destroy him; and as Cain talked with Abel his brother, so did the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herodians, one after the other, (as seen in Matt. 21 and 22; John 8, etc.) “seek counsel to entangle Him in His talk;” and though “they marveled,” and “no man was able to answer Him a word,” yet slew they Him; and wherefore? because His works and words were righteous and true, and theirs evil and ignorant.

That righteous blood has cried from the earth ever since, both for blessing and for judgment; and with it all who hear of it have to do: it is the witness of all truth acted in the world—not in word only, as revealed by God, but revealed truth sealed and confirmed in act; he who knows his sin, and sees the value of that blood, knows as to himself how much better things it speaks than that of Abel; but he knows also that it cries for a judgment, that will be commensurate in awfulness with its propitiatory value before God—And that it is but “yet a little while and He will lay judgment to the line, and righteousness to the plummet;” “where is Abel thy brother?” will be the demand of Him, who gave Him in His love; and it will be vain to say as now “I know not, am I my brother’s keeper?”

As far as judgment in this world can reach, it is clear that Cain, as a fugitive and a vagabond, represents to us—“Jerusalem that now is, in bondage with her children;” like Ishmael, cast out, of whom it was said, “his hand will be against every man, and every man’s hand against him, and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren;” for Israel had said “His blood be on us, and on our children;”—but as looking to a yet future judgment on the Gentile world, who have taken no warning from the Jew, but like them are madly seeking to appear before God (as Cain did) in their own righteousness, “there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment, and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.” For they are described, as having “trodden under foot the Son of God, and counted the blood of the Covenant an unholy thing, doing despite to the Spirit of grace;” (Heb. 10:26-29) so “Cain went out from the presence of the Lord.” And so it will yet be said, “Depart from me, ye cursed.”

Generation succeeded generation of Cain’s children, and they appear all to be engaged in amusement and gain until Lamech, apparently uninstructed concerning the sin that was upon them, or how to escape from it—even as with the Jewish people to this day— “His blood be on us, and our children.” It was in another race, beginning with Seth and in his son Enos, that truth was retained— “then men began both to call upon, and to call themselves by the name of the Lord.” In Lamech however, mercy breaks in again, and he too calls upon the name of the Lord. In continuing the type, as bearing most expressly upon the Jewish people, the marked and fugitive Cain even of this day, I see them sustained through a purpose of mercy under this word, “therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold; and the Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him:”—and so it has been, their distinctness, and their sin, have been marked together—degradation is on their brow, for they are the thankless murderers of their blessed King—who, though He was rich, became as Abel (vanity or vigor) lowly and poor, that the sinner through His poverty might be made rich—but though it has been erringly thought that vengeance was man’s and not God’s, and crusades have been made for their extirpation, God has preserved them, and has been angry with their persecutors; and like Ishmael, they dwell in the presence of all their Gentile brethren far and wide unto this day: marked for their sin, and for their security too—for yet “all Israel shall be saved, when the fullness of the Gentiles is come in: for God will send a Deliverer out of Zion to turn away ungodliness from Jacob.” (Rom. 11) And then I judge they will be as Lamech, openly confessing their special and distinctive sin; he called his wives, and apparently in deep penitence of soul recurred to the entailed sin of his forefather Cain; he had other sins, and in the grace of God had doubtless learned them, but this was the greatest: in Cain he had slain, and in his own person slain again by despising the righteous Abel, “crucifying the Son of God afresh, and putting Him to open shame.” (Heb. 6) It was then he gave an answer to the prolonged cry from heaven to this earth, “Where is Abel thy brother?” “I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt;” his sin had found him out, and he confessed it—the blood of Abel was upon him, and crying out against him—it was no longer “Am I my brother’s keeper?” but with the full sense of the responsibility, which the shining of “ the true light” in the world had put on him; which his soul had quenched, if his hand had not—he bows before the cross, as having slain the Holy victim that was accursed there. And thus it must be with all that are saved—the sin of all whose hearts are at enmity with God, since His love has been revealed in the Person of Jesus, is enmity against Him, and the Father as revealed in Him; according to His word, “now they have seen and hated both me and my Father;” and this is the sin which the Holy Ghost reveals above all other sin, who speaks not of Himself, but of the Lord Jesus—“of sin because they believe not on me,” (John 16) and this is the soul’s sorrowful and penitent reply—

“And did that head, (circled with glory now,)

Those wreathed sorrows wear? the tale is true—

Yes! these, these hands did weave them for thy brow,

This bosom was the desert where they grew.”

“I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt;” or (according to the prophetic statement concerning the Jews in the latter day,) “they shall look on me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for Him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.” (Zech. 12:10.) “Behold He cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him.” (Rev. 7.)

But then never till the cry of that blood for vengeance be answered by the seven last plagues, will it be understood and heeded by man as against him, without his learning also, that it has another voice, “and speaketh better things than that of Abel;”—he who has learned its value, as a testimony of righteousness, will surely be led to learn its propitiatory power. The Spirit, that reveals its holiness, will tell of its cleansing power: it cries for vengeance on those that scorn it, or shed it afresh; but for blessing and favor to the full on those who see that God shed it, as well as man—and thus Lamech; in the confidence of acceptance in that which had proved his sin, (“for if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness,”) no sooner declares his sin, than he does his acceptance, and says, “if the poor outcast Cain, with the unrepented sin upon him, was avenged sevenfold, surely now though I may go through trouble and. sorrow abundantly greater than he did, I shall be avenged seventyfold.” This was the consciousness, not of God’s forbearing mercy, but of His favor—and will not this be Israel’s place in the coming last days hated now of the Gentiles, yet far more hated and persecuted the:; for it will be “the day of Jacob’s trouble,” when the nations will be gathered against Jerusalem, and they will say, “come let us cut them off from being a nation, that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance,” (Psa. 83) but if Cain be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold— “O my God make them like a wheel, as stubble before the wind; let them be confounded and troubled forever, that men may know that thou, whose name alone is Jehovah, art the Most High over all the earth;” and thus is it ever, whether to the individual now, or the nation of the Jews then, however aggravated, the sin offering lieth at the door.—If the sin is seen, the sin reveals the sin offering. The Cain of one moment may be the Lamech of the next; standing in penitence in the blood which has proved the sin, righteous in the righteousness of God; come what may; though called to take the place of Abel, and suffer for the righteousness in which he is accepted, he can say “truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold.” “So let all thine enemies perish, O Lord; but let them that love Him be as the sun when he goeth forth in his might.” (Judg. 5:31.)

Church Canons.

The Commandments of the Lord Jesus Christ and His Apostles, for the Ordering of the Church of God, as Well as the Conduct of Individuals

IN bringing forward the following collection of Scripture Rules for the ordering of the Lord’s Church, it may not be amiss to state, that the immediate object in collecting them together, was that they should form in themselves an answer to the commonly received opinion that the Scripture did not adequately provide in detail for the OUTWARD order and discipline of the Church of God; so that it is commonly believed, that if the Church were to lose the aid of human laws and human systems, it would become all confusion, and be “without law.” They have been arranged under various heads, to show the simplicity and variety of the Lord’s commandments in ordering the association of His people, as brethren, in the midst of a wicked world, bud separate from its evil. They will speak for themselves, whether (always looking to the Spirit of God, which is the Spirit of love, for help and direction) they do not embrace everything which can occur in the Church in her collective capacity, as well as in the private walk of an individual Christian. And it is hoped likewise that the children of God may be led to see that the secret of true order and true unity (the desire after which is by the Lord’s mercy increasing, we trust, amongst many) is to be found in forsaking the tradition of men and cleaving only to the commandments of God. We should remember that union to be righteous union should be carefully founded on the commandments of God’s word; and further, that that word to be a uniting word, must be held by us not in the letter only, but in the Spirit; not merely in profession and in form, but in truth and in power. Our union must be in the Lord to be unity at all; it must stand not in the wisdom of man, but in the power and truth of God. It is one thing to witness in practical obedience to the truths the heart has received; and another to acknowledge with the lips that which is as practically denied.

It is in what is called “The Sermon on the Mount,” that our Lord fully asserts His pre-eminent authority as Teacher; and seems to have anticipated the objections urged against His mission, that because He brought in a new dispensation, He must of necessity destroy what had gone before, (and which is now brought against some of His followers) by saying, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law and the prophets, I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill,” as the Apostle afterward replied to the same charge, “being not without law to God, but under law to Christ.” (1 Cor. 0:21.)

He taught that the law or righteous commandments, to which the Scribes or Pharisees gave outward obedience, were insufficient for the guidance of the children of the kingdom of heaven. “Except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter the kingdom of heaven.” And addressing them as children and not servants, He asks, “What do ye more than others? be ye therefore perfect even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”

He was Himself the end of the law which was given to the flesh for righteousness, and became the fountain of a life of obedience to the further commandments He Himself taught, as coming from the Father; and all His instructions under the authoritative, “I say unto you,” are what the child of Heaven is called to listen to and obey.

Every word of God to the flesh is condemning. Every word of Jesus, where received in the Spirit from Him, is life and blessing, and therefore power imparted to obey.

The importance of this Sermon is to be found in its fixing the state, character, and privileges of those that belong to Christ; and us a consequence, practical duties to be expected from them. They may be arranged thus—

Verse

1-12

13-15

13-16

Their Character

in the world.

Their happy

privileges.

Their position

and standing towards

the world,

or the design of

God in them.

Their duty and

responsibility.

Poor in spirit.

Mourning.

Meek.

Hungering and thirsting after righteousness.

Merciful.

Pure in heart.

Peacemakers.

Persecuted for righteousness sake.

The kingdom of heaven is theirs.

They are to be comforted.

To inherit the earth.

To be filled with righteousness.

To obtain Mercy.

To see God.

To be called the children of God.

Their reward in heaven will be great.

The salt of the earth.

The light of the world.

The City on a hill.

The light on a Candlestick.

To let their light shine.

To keep their savour.

To have their eye single.

To serve One Master.

To seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness.

To have their treasure in heaven.

VER. 17-20.

Our Lord opens the intent of His mission, showing its purpose is to fulfill the law of God; while exceeding all that the law required both in His teaching and conduct.

Our Lord judges the sin of “anger without a cause” by that which, under the law of Moses, applied to murder. (Ver. 21, 22.)—The admonition upon this is, “Be reconciled to your brother.” (Ver, 23, 24,) “Agree with your adversary,”

Lust is accounted adultery. (Ver. 28) Mark 42-50. It follows as the admonition upon it to the disciples— “Mortify your members which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness,” &c. (Col. 3:5.) “If thy right hand or right foot offend thee cut it off.”

Our Lord forbids a man to divorce a wife except for one cause. The law regulating the hitherto general practice is thereby made useless.

Our Lord says— “Swear not at all.” The law therefore for the performance of oaths and vows has no place.

The law of retaliation is set aside; in its place Jesus says, “Resist not evil.”

“Thou shalt hate thine enemy” is set aside; Jesus saying, “Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you, pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be the children of your Father, who causes His sun to shine upon the evil and the good, being perfect as your Father is perfect.”

Having thus shown what we should be toward to the world and toward each other, the spiritual character of our service toward God is pointed out by three injunctions to secrecy, that what we do of spiritual service, we may do to God and not to Man—viz. that we give alms in secret; (Matt. 6:1-6.) that we pray in secret; (7-15.) that we fast in secret. (16-18.) The Lord then opens general principles, as necessary to the feelings, and acts, and life of His disciples, which suits the high practice He had been pressing upon them; and which indeed are necessary in carrying them out. They hang upon what our Lord calls “a single eye,” and “serving one Master,” being separate from the world; for example, see the command—“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, but lay up treasures in heaven,” that the heart may be there; “for where your treasure is, there the heart is also.” Then follows—

“Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or for your body what ye shall put on; but seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and these your Father shall add unto you.”

The Sermon finishes with various directions, which show how our Lord contemplated the evils which should eventually mar and destroy the Church. (Chapter 7.)

The first caution is against judging a brother; its object seems to keep love in the Church, and prevent sectarianism. The second caution is to preserve the purity of the Church; and directs itself against the misplaced charity, which would extend fellowship in holy things to the world—“Give not that which is holy,” &c. Thirdly—universal love to all, &c, willingness to impart is pressed upon all, from the circumstance of God’s love and willingness to give all that He is asked to give (Ver. 7-12.) it is directed against covetousness, the crying sin of Christians.

The Lord then shows the necessity of entering in at the straight gate, from the circumstance of their being another gate and way in which the greater part of persons would walk and be lost.

Then follows a caution against false Prophets, (the Church’s greatest enemies and snares) showing how they were to be known—by their fruit, and in judging them thereby.—“Beware of false Prophets,” etc. (Verses 21-23.)

The whole closes with a prophetical account of the rejection of many for want of holiness, who seem to have done many things for Christ and exercised many gifts; but Jesus will say to them, “I never knew you;” and finally shows that sincerity is built upon obedience. “He that heareth these sayings and doeth them,” &c. so proving the truth of Rom. 8:3, 4 that Jesus, while putting away the law of Moses, did provide for the fulfillment of the law of God in righteousness, by those who being quickened by Him and framed after His mind, “Walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit;” and that obedience to God’s will, is now the very thing which is effected by the gospel, calling the disciples of Jesus out of darkness to be the light of the world, and to walk as children of light; proving what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God; showing forth the praises of Him who hath called us out of darkness into marvelous light; that men seeing their good works may glorify their Father which is in heaven.

Now it is in this position of holiness toward God—love toward one another—grace and mercy toward the world at large, with separation from its evil, that the Church of God is legislated for by the Apostles, who spoke by commandment through the Holy Ghost, who testified of Christ as He had done of the Father, being indeed His voice to us—the way by which He makes good His own words to us, that He would be with us always, even to the end of the world. May we then receive, as His own words to us, the following directions, which so clearly point out His care for us as individuals and as a Church, in all our relative connections to one another—to our families—to the world; and may He make us obedient in all things.

Prefatory Texts.

“Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am.” (John 13:13.)

“He that receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.” (John 12:48.)

“If any man think himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things which I write unto you are the commandment of the Lord.” (1 Cor. 14:37.)

“Therefore, brethren, stand fast; and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word or our epistle.” (2 Thess. 2:15.)

“Be mindful of the commandments of us the Apostles of the Lord and Savior.” (2 Peter 3:2.)

Canon 1

Explanatory of the principle by which the Church of Christ is constituted; and therefore a guide to any part of it in the reception of members.

“To whom coming as unto a living stone; disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious. Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house.” (1 Peter 2:4, 5.)

“There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling.” (Eph. 4:4.)

“He that is joined unto the Lord is one Spirit.” (1 Cor. 6:17.)

“For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body; whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.” (1 Cor. 12:13.)

“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.” (2 Cor. 5:17.)

“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision, but a new creature; and as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them and mercy.” (Gal. 6:15, 16)

“Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3.)

“To as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the Sons of God, even to them that believe on his name; which were horn not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:12, 13.)

Jesus died, “not for the Jewish nation only, but that also He should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad.” (John 11:52.)

“And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.” (John 12:32.)

“If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thy heart that God Lath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture saith, whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed..” (Rom 10:9-11.)

“For the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon Him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Rom. 10:12, 13.)

“He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.” (Mark 16:16.)

“Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as thou Father art in me, and I in thee, that they may be one in us.” (John 17:20, 21.)

“They that gladly received his (the Apostle Peter) word were baptized; and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.” (Acts 2:38 to end.)

“Howbeit many of them which heard the word believed; and the number of the men was about five thousand. And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul.” (Acts 4:32.)

“And some of them which were men of Cyprus and Cyrene, which when they were come to Antioch, spoke unto the Grecians, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed, and turned unto the Lord.” (Acts 11:19-21.)

“And it came to pass that Barnabas and Saul assembled themselves with the Church at Antioch, and taught much people.” (Acts 11:26.)

“Now when Paul and his companions came to Thessalonica, Paul opened and alleged that Jesus was the Christ. And some of them believed and consorted with Paul and Silas: and of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and of the chief women not a few.” (Acts 17:1-4.)

“Paul, Silvanus, and Timotheus unto the Church of the Thessalonians.” (1 Thess. 1:1.) See also—

Acts 18:7, 8; 1 Cor. 1

Acts 16:14; Rev. 2:18.

Acts 16

“Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations.” (Rom. 14:1.)

“Wherefore receive ye one another, as Christ also received us to the glory of God.” (Rom. 15:7.)

“Whosoever shall receive one of such children in my name, receiveth me: and whosoever shall receive me, receiveth not me, but Him that sent me.” (Mark 9:37.)

“Whose shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea.”

“Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones.” (Matt. 18:6-10.)

Canon 2

The place and office the Church holds on earth both toward God and. the world.

“Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy Priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifice, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 2:5.)

“I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men for kings, and all that are in authority.” (1 Tim. 2:1, 2.)

“I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth, as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” (Matt. 18:19, 20.)

“Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you that ye should go and bring forth much fruit, and that your fruit should remain; that whatsoever ye ask of the Father in my name, He may give it you.” (John 15:16.)

“I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what His Lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.” (John 15:15.)

“It is written, eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him; but God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that He may instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.” (1 Cor. 2:9-16.)

“Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men.” (1 Cor. 7:23.)

“Brethren, let every man wherein he is called, therein abide with God.” (1 Cor. 7:24.)

“For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die: we die unto the Lord; whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s; for to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that He might be Lord both of the dead and the living.” (Rom. 14:7-9.)

“Know ye not, that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.” (1 Cor. 3:16, 17.)

“Know ye not, that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God? and ye are not your own, for ye are bought, with a price; therefore glorify God in your body and spirit, which are God’s.” (1 Cor. 6:19, 20.)

“What agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” (2 Cor. 6:16.)

“They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world; as thou hast sent me into the world, even so also have I sent them into the world.” (John 17:16, 18.)

“Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” (1 Peter 2:9.)

“Blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life.” (Philippians 2:15, 16.)

“For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord, walk as children of light ... .whatsoever doth make manifest, is light.” (Eph. 5:8, 13.)

“Ye are the salt of the earth.”

“Ye are the light of the world; a city that is set on an hill cannot be hid let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” (Matt. 5:13-16.)

“He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked because the darkness is past and the true light now shineth.” (1 John 2:6, 8.)

“If I depart, I will send the Comforter unto you, the [Church,] and when He is come He will reprove the world [by the life and testimony of the Church,] of sin, because they believe not on me; of righteousness, because I go Only Father and ye see me no more; of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.” (John 16:7-11.)

“The Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.” (1 Tim. 3:15.)

Canon 3

On the supremacy of the Lord Christ in the Church.

“This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him.” (Matt. 17:5.)

“Ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you, that ye resist not evil,” &c. (Matt. 5:20 to end.)

“Be not ye called Rabbi; for one is your Master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren. Neither be ye called Masters; for one is your Master, even Christ.” (Matt. 23:8-10.)

“Ye call me Master and Lord, and ye say well; for so I am.” (John 13:13.)

“Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and lo! I am with you alway, even to the end of the world.” (Matt. 28:19, 20.)

“There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy.” (James 4:12.)

“Christ, as a Son, over His own house, whose house are we,” (Heb. 3:6.)

“Paul, an Apostle, not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead.” (Gal. 1:1) as likewise the headings of the other Epistles.)

“Unto every one of us is given grace, according to the measure of the gift of Christ; wherefore He saith, When He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men: and He gave some, Apostles; and some, Prophets; and some, Evangelists; and some, Pastors and Teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.” (Eph. 4:7-12.)

“Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear,” (Acts 3:17.)

“This do, in remembrance of me.” (Luke 22:19.)

“For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which He was betrayed, took bread,” &c. (1 Cor. 11:23.)

“If I forgave anything to whom I forgave it for your sakes, forgave I it in the person of Christ.” (2 Cor. 2:10; 1 Cor. 5:4, 5, also.)

“I saw seven golden candlesticks, and in the midst of the seven candlesticks, one like unto the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the foot. . . and He had in His right hand seven stars, and out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword. . . The mystery of the seven stars, which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks, the seven stars are the Angels of the seven Churches; and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest, are the seven Churches.” (Rev. 1:12, 20.)

“Unto the Angel of the Church of Ephesus write, These things saith He that holdeth the seven stars in His right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks.”

“To the Angel of the Church of Pergamos write, These things saith He which hath the sharp sword with two edges,” Etc. (Rev. 2:1, 12) as also all the messages to the seven Churches.)

Canon 4—Christ’s New Commandment the Bond of the Church

“A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one toward another.” (John 13:34, 35.)

“This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.” (John 15:12-14)

“Hereby perceive we the love of God, because He laid down His life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” (1 John 3:16.)

“And this commandment have we from Him, that he who loveth God love his brother also.” (1 John 4:21.)

“And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness; and let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body.” (Col. 3:14,15)

“And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves; for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.” (1 Pet, 4:8.)

This Love is fully described in 1 Cor. 13, Rom. 14:15-21, 1 Cor. 8:11-13.

Canon 5—On Receiving the Lord’s Supper

“With desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. . . And He took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, this is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me; likewise also the cup, after supper, saying, this cup is the New Testament in my blood which is shed for you.” (Luke 22:15-20 also Matt. 26:26.)

“For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which He was betrayed, took bread: and when He had given thanks, He brake it, and said, take, eat; This is my body, which is broken for you; this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also He took the cup, when He had supped, saying, This cup is the New Testament in my blood; this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For has often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord’s death till He come Wherefore my brethren, when ye come together to eat, tarry one for another. And if any man hunger, let him eat at home; that ye come not together unto condemnation.” (1 Cor. 11:23-34.)

“The cup of blessing—which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? the bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ For we being many are one bread, and one body for we all are partakers of that one bread.” (1 Cor. 10:16,17.)

“And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow.” (Acts 20:7.)

Canon 6—On Public Prayer

“I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” (Matt. 18:19,20.)

“The hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth.” (John 4:21-24.)

“I exhort therefore, that first of all supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and for all that are in authority. I will therefore, that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting: in like manner, also that women adorn themselves in modest apparel.” &c. (1 Tim. 2)

“Is any sick? let him call for the Elders of the Church, and let them pray over him......And the prayer of faith shall save the sick.” (James 5:14,15.)

“I will pray with the Spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also.” (1 Cor. 14;15.) (in the public assembly.)

Canon 7—On Singing Psalms and Hymns in Assemblies of Christians

1st.—The example of the Lord and His Apostles when together eating the last supper. “And when they had sung an hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives.” (Mark 14:26.)

“And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises to God, and the prisoners heard them.” (Acts 16:25.)

The practice in the Church proved, (though in disorder,) hi the Church at Corinth— “I will sing with the Spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also How is it brethren? when ye come together every one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine. Let all things be done unto edifying.” (1 Cor. 14:15,26.)

“Be filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourselves in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord.” (Eph. 5:18,19.)

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another; in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.” (Col. 3:16.)

“Is any merry? Let him sing psalms.” (James 5:13.)

“Having the harps of God.” (Rev, v. 14, 15.)

Canon 8—On Reading the Holy Scriptures in the Assembly

“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.” (2 Tim, 3:16.)

“Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.” (1 Tim. 4:13.)

“Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy.” (Rev. 1:3.)

“When this Epistle is read among you, cause that it be read also in the Church of the Laodiceans, and that ye likewise read the Epistle from Laodicea.” (Col. 4:16.)

“I charge you by the Lord that this Epistle be read unto all the holy brethren.” (1 Thess. 5:27.)

“And when they had gathered the multitude together, they delivered the Epistle, which when they had read, they rejoiced for the consolation.” (Acts 15:30, 31.)

Also the example of the Lord, and His Apostles when opportunity was given them—

“And as His (the Lord’s) custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up for to read, and there was delivered unto Him the book of the prophet Esaias, and when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written,” &c. (Luke 4:16.)

“And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures.” (Acts 17:2.)

Canon 9

On the mode of ministry in the assembly of saints, each person exercising his gift.

“Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as ye see the day approaching,” (Heb. 10:25.)

“We have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office; so we being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another; having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith; or ministry, let us wait on our ministering; or he that teacheth, on teaching; or be that exhorteth, on exhortation.” (Rom. 12:3,8.)

“As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God; if any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth, that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion forever and ever, Amen.” (1 Peter, 4:10, 11.)

“Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are diversities of administrations, but the same Lord; and there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all.” (1 Cor. 12 throughout.)

“For ye may all prophesy one by one, that all may learn, and all may be comforted.” (1 Cor. 14:31.)

“When He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men; and He gave some, Apostles; and some, Prophets, and some, Evangelists; and some, Pastors and Teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.” (Eph. 4:8-11.)

“Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine.” (1 Tim. 4:2.)

“All these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit, dividing to every man severally as He will.” (1 Cor. 14:11,)

Canon 10—Rules for Preserving Order in Such a Mode of Using Ministry

“Let all things be done unto edifying.” (1 Cor. 14:26.)

“For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.” (Rom, 12:3.)

“If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability that God giveth; that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter, 5:10, 11.)

“Therefore my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak.” (James 1:19.)

“My brethren, be not many masters, (teachers) knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation; for in many things we offend all; if any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.” (James 3:1,2.)

The rule for ordering the use of the gift of tongues is in 1 Cor. 14:27,28.

“Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the other judge; if anything be revealed to another that sitteth by, let the first hold his peace; for ye may all prophesy one by one, that all may learn, and all may be comforted for God is not the Author of confusion but of peace, as in all Churches of the saints.” (1 Cor. 14:29-33.)

“Let your women keep silence in the Churches; for it is not permitted unto them to speak, but to be under obedience; as also saith the law; and if they will learn anything let them ask their husbands at home; for it is a shame for women to speak in the Church.” (1 Cor. 14:34, 35. 1 Tim. 2:11.)

“Let all things be done decently and in order.” (1 Cor. 14:40)

It should be added that it appears implied in 1 Cor. 11 that there were occasions when women prayed and prophesied, in which case they were commanded to be veiled.

Canon 11—On Giving and Collecting Money

“Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the Churches of Galatia, even so do ye. Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come.” (1 Cor. 16:1, 2.)

“If there be first a willing mind, it is accepted, according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not; for I mean not that other men be eased and ye be burdened, but that there may be equality.” (2 Cor. 8:12, 13, 14.)

“Avoiding this, that no man should blame us in this abundance, which is administered by us: providing for honest things, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men.” (2 Cor. 8:20, 21.)

“But this I say, He which soweth sparingly, shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully, shall reap also bountifully. Every man, according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, nor of necessity; for God loveth a cheerful giver.” (2 Cor. 9:6, 7)

Canon 12—Regarding Days, Meats, and Carnal Ordinances

“In vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. Hear and understand; not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man, but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man,” (Matt. 15:9-11.)

“I know, and am persuaded, by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself; but to him that esteemeth anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean.” (Rom. 14:14.)

“One believeth that he may eat all things; another, who is weak eateth herbs; let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth; for God hath received him.” Rom. 14:2, 3.)

“One man esteemed one day above another; another esteemeth every day alike; let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day to the Lord, he doth not regard it; for none of us liveth to himself.” (Rom. 14:5-7.)

“Meat commendeth us not to God; for neither if we eat are we the better; neither if we eat not, are we the worse.” (1 Cor. 8:8)

“Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days, which are a shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ. Let no man beguile you of your reward, in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels; intruding into those things which he hath not seen; vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, and not holding the Head, from which all the body, by joints and bands, having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God. Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances, (touch not, taste not, handle not, which all are to perish with the using,) after the commandments and doctrines of men? which things have indeed a show of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body, not in any honor to the satisfying of the flesh.” (query—but for the satisfying of the flesh?) (Col. 2:16-23.)

“Now, after ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years; I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labor in vain.” (Gal. 4:9-11.)

“Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free; and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. . . . For brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.” (Gal. 5:1,13.)

Canon 13—On Receiving Brethren From Other Churches

“And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived, the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas, the right hands of fellowship.” (Gal. 2:9.)

“Beloved, thou doest faithfully whatsoever thou doest to the brethren, and to strangers, which have borne witness of thy charity before the Church; whom if thou bring forward on their journey after a godly sort, thou shalt do well; because that, for His name’s sake, they went forth, taking nothing of the Gentiles. We, therefore, ought to receive such, that we might be fellow helpers to the truth.” (3 John, 5-8.)

“Need we, as some others, Epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you.” (2 Cor. 3:1.)

“I commend unto you Phoebe, our sister, which is a servant of the Church which is at Cenchrea; that ye receive her in the Lord as becometh saints, and that ye assist her in whatsoever business she hath need of you; for she hath been a succourer of many, and of myself also.” (Rom. 16:1,2.)

“And if Timotheus come, see that he may be with you without fear; for he worketh the work of the Lord, as I also do. Let no man therefore despise him, but conduct him forth in peace, that he may come unto me.” (1 Cor. 16:10.)

Canon 14—Respecting Our Conduct Towards False Teachers or Brethren, as Well as Heretics

“There be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ; but though we, or an Angel from heaven preach any other gospel to you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As I said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.” (Gal. 1:7,8, 9,)

“He that troubleth you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be.” (Gal. 5:10)

“Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned, and avoid them; for they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple,” (Rom. 16:17,18.)

“If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions, and strifes of words; whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness; from such withdraw thyself.” (1 Tim. 6:3,4,5.)

“Shun profane and vain babblings, for they will increase unto more ungodliness, and their word will eat as doth a canker, of whom is Hymeneus and Philetus ... If a man, therefore, purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.” (2 Tim. 2:16,21.)

“There are many unruly and vain-talkers, and deceivers, whose mouths must be stopped......wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith.” (Titus 1:10,13.)

“A man that is an heretic, after the first and second admonition reject; knowing that he that is such, is subverted, and sinneth, being condemned of himself.” (Titus 3:10, 11.)

“Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God......if there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not your house, neither bid him God speed. For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.” (2 John 9-11)

“I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and bow thou canst not bear them which are evil, and thou hast tried them which say they are Apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars.” (Rev. 2:2.)

“In the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their ownselves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof, from such turn away.” (2 Tim. 3:1-5.)

“And of some have compassion, making a difference, and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.” (Jude 22, 23.)

Canon 15—How to Deal With Disorderly Brethren, Whether as to Personal Offense or General Misconduct

“Take heed to yourselves: if thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him, and if he repent, forgive him. And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent, thou shalt forgive him.” (Luke 17:3,4.)

“If thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone; if he shall hear thee thou hast gained thy brother. But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses, every word may be established. And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the Church; but if he neglect to hear the Church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a Publican.” (Matt. 18:5-17.)

“Now we command you brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which ye received of us. . . And if any man obey not our word, by this Epistle, note that man, and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed. Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.” (2 Thess. 3:1, 14, 15.)

[This last injunction evidently does not bear on those who disobey, while purposing to obey; it does not lay the sin on those who, mistaking a command, unintentionally (and perhaps zealously) err, but on those who know to do good and do it not, and to such it is sin.]

Canon 16—How to Deal With a Scandalous Person Called a Brother

“In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered. together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.” (1 Cor. 5:4, 5.)

“Of whom is Hymeneus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.” (1 Tim. 1:20.)

“Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. I wrote unto you in an Epistle not to company with fornicators; Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world. But now I have written unto you not to keep company; if any man that is called a brother he a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or an extortioner, with such an one no not to eat, For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within? But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.” (1 Cor. 5:6-13,)

Canon 17: On Our Conduct to a Brother Who Has Been Beguiled Into an Offense or Error

“Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not.” (2 Cor. 11:29.)

“Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself; lest thou also be tempted. Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” (Gal. 6 l. 2.)

“Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him, let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his ways, shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.” (James 5:19,20.)

“If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death; I do not say that he shall pray for it,” (1 John 5:16).

“Them that sin, rebuke before all, that others also may fear,” (1 Tim. 5:20.)

“And of some have compassion, making a difference, and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment spotted with the flesh.” (Jude 22, 23.)

Canon 18: Penitents to Be Re-Admitted

“But if any have caused grief, he hath not grieved me, but in part; that I may not overcharge you all. Sufficient to such a man is this punishment, which was inflicted of many. So that contrariwise ye ought rather to forgive him, and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow. Wherefore I beseech you that ye would confirm your love toward him ... To whom ye forgive anything, I forgive also: for if I forgave anything, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ; lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.” (2 Cor. 2:5-11; Gal. 6:1).

Canon 19. On Fasting

“When ye fast, be not as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in Secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.” (Matt. 6:16,17, I8).

“Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.” (Matt. 17:21.)

“And the disciples of John and of the Pharisees used to fast, and they come and say unto Him, Why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but thy disciples fast not? and Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bride-chamber fast, while the bridegroom is with them I as long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days.” (Mark 2:18,10,20.)

“As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.” (Acts 13:2,3.)

“And when they had ordained them Elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they believed.” (Acts 14:23.)

Canon 20: On Sickness in the Church

“If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it.” (John 5:16.)

“Is any sick among you? Let him call for the Elders of the Church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up, and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.” (James 5:14,15.)

[Referring to 2 Tim. 4:20; Philippians 2:27; 1 Cor. 11:30, does it not appear that these rules apply mainly to cases when sickness is sent on a believer, as a judgment on evident carelessness or sin?]

Canon 21: Rules for Ascertaining Who Are Ministers Sent of God

“He that speaketh of himself, seeketh his own glory; but he that seeketh His glory that sent him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him.” (John 7;18.)

“Am I not an Apostle? ... . are not ye my work in the Lord?”

“If I be not an Apostle unto others, yet doubtless I am to you, for the seal of mine Apostleship are ye in the Lord.” (1 Cor. 9:1,2).

“Beware of false prophets!” (Matt. 7:15).

“Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.” (Matt. 7:20.)

“We have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.” (2 Cor. 4:2.)

“Thou hast tried them, which say they are Apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars.” (Rev. 2).

“When they saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me, as the gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter: (for he that wrought effectually in Peter to the Apostleship of the circumcision, the same was mighty in me towards the Gentiles,) and when James, Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right bands of fellowship.” (Gal. 2:7, 8, 9.)

“Receive us, we have wronged no man, we have corrupted no man, we have defrauded no man.” (2 Cor. 7:2.)

Canon 22: The Character Becoming Such, by Which Also the Previous Canon May Be Confirmed.

“Giving no offense in anything, that the ministry be not blamed.” (2 Cor. 6:3.)

“The servant of the Lord. must not strive, but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves, if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledgment of the truth.” (2 Tim. 2:24, 25.)

“The love of money is the root of all evil. . . but thou, O man of God, flee these things, and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.” (1 Tim. 6:10,11.)

“But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children.” (1 Thess. 2:7.)

“We then that are strong, ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.” (Rom. 15:1.)

“Let no man despise thy youth, but be thou an example of the believers in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.” (1 Tim. 4:12.)

“In all things showing thyself a pattern of good works: in doctrine showing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity.” (Titus 2:7.)

“Ye know from the first day after what manner I have been with you at all seasons, serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears, and temptations; and how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, and have showed you, and have taught you publicly; and from house to house.” (Acts 20:18, 19, 20.)

“My speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.” (1 Cor. 2:4).

“Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling-place; and labor, working with our own hands: being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it: being defamed, we entreat; we are made as the filth of the earth, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day.” (1 Cor. 4:11-13.)

“Not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved.” (1 Cor. 10:33).

“We are not as many which corrupt the word of God; but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ.” (2 Cor. 2:17.)

“In all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses in labors, in watchings, in fastings; by pureness, by knowledge, by long-suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report; as deceivers, and yet true; as unknown and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed; as sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich: as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.” (2 Cor. 6:4-10.)

“Christ in you, the hope of glory whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom: that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus: whereunto I also labor striving according to His working, which worketh in me mightily.” (Col. 1:28, 29).

“Our exhortation was not of deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor in guile: but as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts. For neither at any time used we flattering words, as ye know, nor a cloak of covetousness; God is witness, nor of men sought we glory, neither of you, nor yet of others. For ye remember, brethren, our labor and travail; for laboring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God. Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily, and justly, and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe, as ye know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you, as a father doth his children, that ye would walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto His kingdom and glory.” (1 Thess. 2:3-12).

“If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith, and of good doctrine.” (1 Tim. 4:6.)

“Preach the word, be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine.” (2 Tim. 4:2.)

Canon 23: On Elders, or Overseers, or Pastors, With Instructions for Their Conduct

“Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his Lord hath made ruler over His household, to give them meat in due season?” (Matt. 24:45.)

“Feed my sheep.” “Feed my lambs.” (John 21:15,16.)

“Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the Church of God, which He hath purchased with His own blood. Watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears. I have coveted no man’s silver, or gold, or apparel. Yea, ye yourselves know, that these hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me. 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.” (Acts 20:28-35).

“Warn them that are unruly, comfort the feeble-minded, support the weak, be patient toward all men.” (1 Thess. 5:14.)

“The Elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an Elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly: not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind, Neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but being ensamples to the flock. And when the Chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.” (1 Peter 5:1-4).

“Not for that we have dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your joy.” (2 Cor. 1:24.)

“This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a Bishop, [or overseer the desireth a good work. A Bishop then, 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, but patient; not a brawler, not covetous: one that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity; (for if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the Church of God?) Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover he must have a good report of them which are without; lest be fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.” (1 Tim. 3:1-7.)

“If any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children, not accused of riot or unruly, for a Bishop (or overseer) must be blameless, as the steward of God; not self-willed, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, nor given to filthy lucre, but a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate, holding fast the faithful word, as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine, both to exhort, and to convince the gainsayers.” (Titus 1:5-9.)

“And He had in His right hand seven stars.” (Rev. 1;16.)

“The mystery of the, seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches; and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest, are the seven churches.” (Rev. 1:20.)

“For we are laborers together with God, ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building.” (1 Cor. 3:9.)

Canon 24: On the Deference and Honor Due to Such

“Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God.” (1 Cor. 4:1.)

“Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God; whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation Jesus, Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and forever.” (Heb. 13:7,8).

“Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief, for that is unprofitable for you.” (Heb. 13:17.)

“Salute all them that have the rule over you.” (Heb. 13:24.)

“And we beseech you brethren, to know them which labor among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake.” (1 Thess. 5:12,13)

“I beseech you, brethren, (ye know the house of Stephanas, that it is the first fruits of Achaia, and that they have addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints,) that ye submit yourselves unto such, and to everyone that helpeth with us and laboureth.” (1 Cor. 16:15,16).

“Let the Elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially they who labor in word and doctrine.” (1 Tim. 5:17).

“Against an Elder receive not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses.” (1 Tim. 5:19.)

“And these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and Apollos for your sakes; that ye might learn in us not to think of men above that which is written, that no one of you be puffed up for one against another.” (1 Cor. 4:6.)

“Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things.” (Gal. 5:6.)

“Even so hath the Lord ordained, that they which preach the Gospel, should live of the Gospel. But I have used none of these things.” (1 Cor. 9:14.)

“The laborer is worthy of his hire.” (Luke 10;7;1 Tim. 5:18.)

Canon 25: Regarding Deacons

“And in those days, when the number of disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration. Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said, It is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables. Wherefore brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost, and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business; but we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word, And the saying pleased the whole multitude: and they chose whom they set before the Apostles, and when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them” (Acts 6:1-6).

“Likewise must the deacons be grave, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre; holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. And let these also first be proved; then let them use the office of a deacon, being found. blameless. Let the deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well. For they that have used the office of a deacon well, purchase to themselves a good degree, and great boldness in the faith which is in Jesus Christ.” (1 Tim. 3:8-13.)

[The 11th verse of this Chapter in connection with Rom. 16:1 gives countenance at the least to the office of deaconess.]

Canon 26: On the Church’s Maintenance of Its Members

“For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat. Now them that are such, we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work and eat their own bread.” (2 Thess. 3:10, 12).

The complaint of the Grecians in Acts 6 is a proof that the widows were specially considered the Church’s care in the daily ministrations; and rules regarding them are given as follows—

“Honor widows that are widows indeed; but if any widow have children or nephews, let them learn first to show piety at home, and to requite their parents; for that is good and acceptable before God.. . . But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel. Let not a widow be taken into the number under threescore years old, having been the wife of one man, well reported of for good works, etc., etc., but the younger widows refuse. . . . If any man or woman that believeth have widows, let them relieve them, and let not the Church be charged, that it may relieve them that are widows indeed,” (1 Tim. 5:3,16.)

Canon 27: On Worldly Callings

“And let ours also learn to maintain good works (to profess honest trades, marg.) for necessary uses, that they may not be unfruitful.” (Titus 3:14.)

“Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called. Art thou called being a servant? care not for it; but if thou mayest be made free, use it rather; for he that is called in the Lord being a servant, is the Lord’s free man. Likewise also, he that is called, being free, is Christ’s servant ... .Brethren, let every man wherein be is called, therein abide with God.” (1 Cor. 7:20-24.)

“Let him that stole steal no more; but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.” (Eph. 4:28.)

“And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you; that ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing.” (1 Thess. 4:11,12.)

“And because he (Paul) was of the same craft, he abode with them (Aquila and Priscilla) and wrought; for by their occupation they were tentmakers.” (Acts 18:3).

Canon 28: On Keeping Company With Those Without

“I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil!” (John 17:15.)

“I wrote unto you in an Epistle not to company with fornicators; yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolators; for then must ye needs go out of the world.” (1 Cor. 5:9, 10.)

“If any of them that believe not bid you to a feast, and ye be disposed to go, whatsoever is set before you, eat, asking no questions for conscience sake: but if any man say unto you, this is offered in sacrifice unto idols, eat not for his sake that showed it, and for conscience sake. “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” (1 Cor. 10:27, 31.)

“Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time. Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt: that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.” (Col. 4:5, 6.)

“Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts; and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear.” (1 Pet. 3:15.)

Canon 29: On the Honor and Subjection Due to Power Without, or of the World

“Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s.” (Matt. 22:21; Luke 20:25.)

“Then said Paul, I wist not brethren that he was the high priest; for it is written, Thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people.” (Acts 23:5.) [This would as fully bear on authority in the Church.]

“Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers, for there is no power but of God; the powers that be are ordained of God: whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God, and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation; for rulers are not a terror to good works but to evil: wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same; for he is the minister of God to thee for good; but if thou do that which is evil, be afraid, for he beareth not the sword hi vain; for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil; wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but for conscience sake. For this cause pay ye tribute also; for they are God’s ministers, attending continually on this very thing. Render therefore to all their dues; tribute to whom tribute is due, custom to whom custom, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor,” (Rom. 13:1-7).

“Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake, whether it be to the king as supreme, or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by Him for the punishment of evil doers, and for the praise of them that do well. For so is the will of God, that with well-doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men: as free, and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of God. Fear God, honor the King.” (1 Peter 2:13-17.)

“ Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work,” (Titus 3:1.)

[It should be observed that there are no instructions to those in authority; submission and obedience are alone taught.]

Canon 30: On Going to Law Before the World, or Using Its Power

“If any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also.” (Matt. 5:40.)

“Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints? do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life? if then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the Church. I speak to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you? no, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren? but brother goeth to law with brother, and that before the unbelievers; now therefore there is utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law one with another: why do ye not rather take wrong? why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded.” (1 Cor. 6:1-7.)

[It may be well also to refer to the conduct of the Apostle Paul toward the magistrates at Philippi, and his plea of Roman citizenship before the centurion at Jerusalem. (Acts 16:36-39; Acts 22:25-28). In the first instance, the magistrates had unrighteously punished him unheard and “uncondemned,” and sought then to let him and their injustice go privily away together. The requirement of the Apostle was, that the iniquity should be charged in its right place and not upon him, when he had done no wrong; he did not seek redress, but that all might know he had suffered for Christ’s sake, and not for breaking the laws. The magistrates were the law-breakers not the Apostle; they were not subject to their own laws, while he was; and for the Gospel’s sake he desired this to be known. In the next case, he saved the centurion from a similar violation of the law of which he was the guardian. Paul had not sought Roman citizenship, he was free born; but he could not see the law broken in his case, without remonstrating and setting the injustice of the act before him; in neither case did he go to law, or seek redress of wrong; but that the iniquity of breaking known laws in his person, should be made known or prevented.]

Canon 31: On Our Conduct in Natural Relationships, and in Our Households

“Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the Church: and He is the Savior of the body. Therefore as the Church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything ... .Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the Church, and gave Himself for it ... .Let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself, and the wife see that she reverence her husband.” (Eph. 5:22, 33.)

“Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them.” (Col. 3:18, 19)

“Likewise ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands, that if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives; while they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear; whose adorning, let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price. For after this manner in the old time, the holy women also who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection to their own husbands......Likewise ye husbands dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers be not hindered.” (1 Peter 3:1-7.)

“Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor thy father and mother (which is the first commandment with promise) and ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” (Eph. 6:1-4.)

“Children obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing unto the Lord. Fathers provoke not your children, lest they be discouraged.” (Col. 3:20,21)

“Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ. Not with eye-service, as men-pleasers, but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart; with good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men; knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free. And ye masters, do the same things unto them, forbearing threatening, knowing that your Master also is in heaven, neither is there respect of persons with Him.” (Eph. 6:5-9.)

“Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with eye-service, as men pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God. And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men, knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance, for ye serve the Lord Christ Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal, knowing that ye also have a Master in heaven.” (Col. 3:22; 4:1.)

“Let as many servants as are under the yoke, count their own masters worthy of all honor, that the name of God and His doctrine be not blasphemed. And they that have believing masters, let them not despise them, because they are brethren; but rather do them service, because they are faithful and beloved. If any man teach otherwise he is proud, knowing nothing,” etc. (1 Tim. 6:1-3.)

“Exhort servants to be obedient unto their own masters, and to please them well in all things, not answering again, not purloining, but showing all good fidelity, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things.” (Titus 2:9, 10.)

“Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward. For this is thankworthy if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully.” (1 Peter 2:18,19).

Canon 32: On Distinctions Between Rich and Poor in the Church

“Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate.” (margin, be contented with mean things.) (Rom. 12:16.)

“If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet; for I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done unto you. Verily, verily, I say unto you, the servant is not greater than his Lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him. If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.” (John 13:4-17.)

“And all that believed were together, and had all things common; and sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need: and they continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God, and having favor with all the people.” (Acts 2:41-47.)

“My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, with respect of persons. For if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment; and ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place; and say to the poor, Stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool; are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts? Hearken my beloved brethren, hath not God chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom, which He hath promised to them that love Him if ye fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, ye do well: but if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors.” (James 2:1-9.)

“Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted: but the rich, in that he is made low; because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away.” (James 1:9, 10.)

“Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.” (Phil. 4:5)

Canon 33

Concerning apparel; and use of riches by the Church.

“Ye are not your own; for ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” (1 Cor. 6:20.)

“I beseech you brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.” (Rom. 12;1, 2.)

“Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof; but be that doeth the will of God abideth forever.” (1 John 2:15-17.)

“In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broidered hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array, but (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works.” (1 Tim. 2:9, 10.)

“Whose adorning, let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; but let it be the bidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, given the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight God of great price. For after this manner, in the old time, the holy women, also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their own husbands.” (1 Peter 3:3, 4, 5.)

“I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed; and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear.” (Rev. 3:18.)

“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth. . . . but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal; for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” (Matt. 6:19, 20.)

“If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come and follow me.” (Matt. 19:21.)

“Whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him; how dwelleth the love of God in him?” (1 John 3:17.)

“Having food and raiment, let us be therewith content; but they that will be rich, fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil, which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” (1 Tim. 6:8, 9, 10.)

“Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not high-minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; that they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate, laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.” (1 Tim. 6:17-19.)

“Being enriched in everything to all bountifulness.” (2 Cor. 9:11.)

“He which soweth sparingly, shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully, shall reap also bountifully.” (2 Cor. 11:6)

It is more than probable, that many rules are yet to be found in the Scriptures, not brought forward here; indeed it is in no way intended to be asserted that this arrangement contains the whole; but enough are produced to show how grievously both the Church at large, and almost every individual in it are walking in disobedience; and not only so, but that they are not seeking to ascertain God’s commandments, that they might order their steps according to them. Alas! how unlike even the most disorderly of the Churches of old, to which it could be said, “Now I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances as I delivered them to you,” (1 Cor. 11:2.)

[It should be added also, that it is not supposed that they meet every exigency of every kind that might arise. The Holy Ghost, dwelling as a Spirit of wisdom in the Church, will ever supply the need in such cases, where looked to.]

Philanthropy

The desire which originally seduced man from his allegiance to God, has been, and is still strongly marked as the characteristic of his being. “Ye shall be as Gods,” was the object proposed by the tempter unto disobedience. And so strong has been the predominance of this principle, that man has used the blessings which God has given to him, and even the very light which He has revealed, in order to assert his own sufficiency and independence. It seems the constant tendency in man to rejoice in the work of His hands; it furnishes him in his own mind with a kind of creative power. It is this which makes the works of man to be the subject of admiration and astonishment, when those of God, so much more wonderful in their kind, and mightier in their degree, pass unnoticed or unheeded. Man will put no restraint on himself, as to the means he may use to compass the end which he fondly imagines to achieve. He will avail himself of God and the things of God, to help him in erecting a fabric, which may make him a name in the earth. He will even boast himself of God, in order to establish his own righteousness; and what he calls religion, is that which he uses as he would any other scheme, not that to which he himself is subject. Hence it has arisen, that the greatest corruptions in the earth have been brought about by man’s abuse of the privileges which God has given him; in other words, by religious corruption. The close of the former dispensation was of this character; even as it is distinctly marked in the prophetic word, that it shall be of this, “in the last days perilous times shall come.” (2 Tim. 3)

At the period of the ministry of our blessed Lord among the Jews, it was comparatively a very religious era. The observance of the Passover, and reading the Scriptures, had shortly previous to the Babylonish captivity, almost gone into desuetude. Thus in the days of Hezekiah, it is said of the Passover, “they had not done it of a long time in such sort as was written,” and when the invitation went forth to summons them of Ephraim and Manasseh to the solemnity at Jerusalem, “they laughed them to scorn, and mocked them.” (2 Chron. 30) So again when the copy of the law was found by Hilkiah the Priest, in the days of Josiah, “when the king had heard the words of the law, he rent his clothes,” and he sent “Go, and inquire of the Lord for me, and for them that are left in Israel and in Judah, concerning the words of the book that is found, for great is the wrath of the Lord that is poured upon us, because our fathers have not kept the word of the Lord, to do after all that is written in this book.” (2 Chron. 34), In the days of our blessed Lord, on the contrary, we find all the set feasts regularly attended, according to the words of the law, (Ex. 23:17.) and not only did the males go up three times a year to appear before the Lord in Jerusalem, but a great many of the women and children also. (Luke 2:41) Scribes and Doctors of the law abounded; and there was hardly a town or village without its synagogue. But however fair this might appear to the eye of man, which saw only the outside, however these might have been adduced as proofs of an increasing love of godliness among the nation, one who judged not according to appearances, but who judged righteous judgment, was enabled to detect under all this outward show, an Apostasy in principle and practice, just ripening unto judgment. The twenty-third chapter of Matthew’s gospel lifts up the veil, and displays the real state of Religion, at a time of so much apparent zeal and activity. There was much regard and outward reverence shown to the memory of the Prophets, who had suffered. for their testimony from their forefathers; they built their tombs, and. honored the dead and silent witnesses, while the same spirit which they condemned in their fathers, was about to show itself in a more flagrant manner in their treatment of the then living Witness, to all the Prophets had borne witness. All their zeal about the things of God only tended to make those things subserve to their own ends. They did what they did to be seen of men, they compassed sea and land to make a proselyte, in order to glory in his flesh; they would make long prayers, and yet devour widows’ houses. They derided the notion of the impossibility of serving God and Mammon; and whilst they contended vehemently for the sanctity of the Sabbath, they contrived to evade whatever was onerous in showing that honor to parents which the law of God required. In a word, all their knowledge of God, and all their religious privileges were turned to a selfish account. Man was the end they proposed to themselves, and not the glory of God; whatever thwarted their end, was, according to their apprehensions, to be avoided. On every occasion did this religious selfishness show itself, insomuch that even the temple itself was turned into a scene of merchandize. No other moral condition apparently could have prepared the way for the rejection of Jesus, of whom they were the betrayers and murderers, when even the heathen governor would have let Him go. Had Jesus been acknowledged, the supremacy of themselves was gone, the notion of man’s goodness and competency must be given up, and therefore the language of their heart was “this is the Heir, come let us slay him, that the inheritance may be ours.” They professed the good of man to be their object; they did all to have praise of men; and when He came whose right it was to bless others, and to be honored by them, they received Him not—such was their Philanthropy.

Now the word of God most distinctly marks a declension and apostasy, parallel to this in its leading features, as terminating the present dispensation; only it will be much fairer in its appearance. It is the result of man’s using (or rather abusing) the knowledge of God, and of the things of God, to the furtherance of his own scheme of Philanthropy. For what is the high sounding title in the lips of man, when weighed in the balance of truth, but this, that “Men shall be lovers of their ownselves”—that man’s well-being, according to his own short-sighted view, will become his object; and therefore, that Christianity itself, instead of being self-denying, and hating the life in this world, will only be recognized so far as it can be made to subserve man’s self-interest, and to promote his self-exaltation, “They will be lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God”—The effort of man will be to secure the greatest possible sum of human happiness in the present state—this will be his object. To this will be directed his moral and. intellectual powers; to this will his religion be made subservient. Increasing knowledge will mightily increase the power of man, and difficulties may perhaps be surmounted more rapidly than even he can imagine. It is not attempted to be denied that there is something very plausible in such speculations, and very pleasing in the expectations held out. But one might well pause, and ask the reason why such expectations have never been realized? What is there peculiar in the present age to render nugatory the experience of six thousand years? It may be answered, “Christianity is to shed its blessed influence over every institution of man for ameliorating the condition of his species.” Now what is here attempted to be shown is that this is not the object of Christianity, and that it stands, in this respect, in direct contrast with Philanthropy. When we look at it in its best sense, Philanthropy is only remedial; and there is hardly a thing in which it glories that is not so intimately connected with sin, that its glory is only in our shame. It may improve the discipline Of prisons, but v: by are there prisons at all? It may multiply hospitals, but can it prevent sickness? Is it not engaged against a power which is continually asserting its supremacy, and when one evil is overcome, another rises in its place, like the fable of the hydra. In result, all these prove the inveteracy of the power of evil, from the failure of the wisest and best plans to counteract it. There was one who could day, “I have overcome the world;” but the philanthropist must constantly confess that the world overcomes him. And when the evil is looked fairly in the face, and seen in its last and most appalling form—death; what can Philanthropy avail against it? It is actually driven, in open defiance of Scripture, to look on death as man’s natural constitution, instead of as his moral condition on account of sin. And in this instance, we see the boasted goodness of man brought into direct collision with the truth of God. So long as it can use religion for its own end, it will. God will be acknowledged by it, when God can be subjected to it. But the moment its end is interfered with, even by God Himself, then its real exaltation of itself, and insubjection to God is made manifest.

According to Philanthropy the estimate of everything is utility—the language of the heart is, “Who will show us any good?” and as much, very much, of Christianity so evidently tends to the blessing of Society, in promoting soberness, righteousness, and temperance; therefore man, in his effort to promote these for his present good, and for his own ends, will boldly say he is forwarding the gospel. He will acknowledge the excellence of the gospel in the very act of subverting its principles. “Thou that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the law, dishonourest thou God?” And the same principle might be applied to those who take the standard of utility, instead of that of the will of God. To do so, is to get off the ground of faith, and to walk by sight. Faith knows nothing of results; it considers them not; God is its sufficiency and warrant for action and expectation. On the contrary, man proposes a certain scheme, in order to a supposed result, and pursues it by all the means he can muster, and with a singleness of eye, and a determinateness of purpose which may well shame the children of light. But what said the Lord in reply to the sneer of the Utilitarians of His day? “Why was this waste of the ointment made, why not given to the poor?”—what was His vindication of the apparently unmeaning action? it was done to Jesus; faith wrought by love, and a lasting memorial is given to the work of a poor woman, which called forth the scorn of man, whilst the most splendid efforts of Philanthropy have perished or been forgotten.

There is something in the description of the coming Apostasy in the second Epistle of Peter, and in that of Jude, so fearful and revolting, that we almost shrink from applying it to a religious era, descriptive of a state of society looked on, and gloried in as Christian. But the Scripture of truth is intended to set appearances in their real light, and the most loathsome comparisons are purposely employed to convey to our minds a sense of the abomination in the sight of God, which is concealed under the fair show of an outward profession and busy activity. It is hard indeed, until we enter deeply into the working principles of man’s mind, to realize the state of Sodom before its destruction, as less guilty and more tolerable than that of the Jewish nation in the time of our Lord; and it does require abiding in Jesus, and walking in the light, to detect under the show of Philanthropy, the features of an Apostasy, marked as the way of Cain, the error of Balaam, and the gainsaying of Korah. But what are these features, but the assertion of the sufficiency of man, the using of the light of God for our own selfish ends, leading to the rejection both of the Priesthood and Lordship of Jesus. And let it be calmly asked, if there be a Philanthropical Institution in existence, not excluding but acknowledging Christianity in part at least, in which the working of such principles may not more or less be discovered. Nothing indeed is a more striking characteristic of modern Philanthropy, than the union of the extremes of faith and opinion, to the exclusion of the mastery of any, as if there were no such thing as truth. This in fact is its boast, the occupation of ground common to all, except the uncompromising Spirit of Christ, which can never really rest, never be healthfully exercised, unless it can claim the ground as its own entirely. But farther than this, there is something more than the danger of neutrality to be apprehended. Philanthropy, so called, actually invades the province of God, and usurps His place. It is the vain pretense of man to be wiser and better than God, in meeting and dealing With evil, and with the misery of man, There is indeed such a thing as real Philanthropy; not the experiment of a being under the power of evil to extricate himself or others from that power, or so to mitigate it, as to make it tolerable—but the assertion of One, of His sole supremacy over it, in His ability to rescue wan from under its power— “the Philanthropy of God.”— “After that the kindness, and love of God our Savior toward man appeared, (φιλανθρωπια, the Philanthropy of God our Savior,) not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy 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; that being justified by His grace, we should be made heirs, According to the hope of eternal life.” (Titus 3) This is the gracious and noble design of God, the Philanthropy of God. He alone knowing the full extent of man’s necessity, could devise a plan adequate to meet it. And the extent of the misery and evil of man can only be duly estimated by viewing it as the occasion of the display of the counseled wisdom, power, and goodness of God, in order to its remedy. The object of God is the rescue of man: and when man proposes a similar object to himself, to be compassed by his own powers, he virtually rejects God, and only compasses himself about with his own sparks, in the end to “lie down in sorrow.” (Isa. 50:11.)

Now since God’s love to man is the very thing set forth in the gospel of His Son Jesus Christ, can that really be worthy to be called love to man, which (even should it obtain what it aims at) leaves him infinitely short of the blessing which God proposes in the gospel. The question is not as to the propriety of meeting man’s complicated misery, in order to its relief by any means in our power; this surely love would be officious in doing, even as Jesus went about doing good—but whether the pretension of man to Philanthropy, stopping so very short of God’s intention in the gospel, is not in its principle, virtual infidelity? For when God, out of His love toward man, proposes to Himself one object—and man, out of his love to himself, proposes another object, what is man’s persisting in his object but an impeachment of the goodness and wisdom of God? It is thus that man is still guided by the old principle of his seduction, “Ye shall be as gods;” and making even Christianity subservient to his own aims, he brings in that which is a second and more fearful corruption of the earth, (compare Gen. 6:13; Rev. 11:18; 19:2.) ending in the judgment of God. Such is the use which “the Christian world” has made, and is making, of those privileges which are indeed great every way—they use them wrongly—putting, the new piece to the old. garment, and the rent becomes worse—putting the new wine into old bottles, they burst, and the wine is spilled. Christianity loses its distinctiveness, and is only known as a theory of dogmas, instead of a new and active energy; while a morbid and sentimental Philanthropy, busy and daring, is substituted in its place. The necessary consequence of this adaptation of Christianity to present circumstances is, that it becomes itself the subject of human expediency, occupying a secondary place, instead of being a dominant principle, bringing everything to its own standard. In attempting to infuse something of it into human institutions, the salt only loses it savor, instead of seasoning that to which it is imparted; and not the grace of God, but the wisdom of man reaps the glory. The world (for example) knows full well how to use Christianity in urging any benevolent work of its own—but it dare not use it in discountenancing covetousness, for that is its own principle—the world loves its own, and this is the basis of almost all human legislation. The Philanthropist would seek to infuse something of the spirit of Christianity into a criminal code; but stops short on the one hand, of its intolerance of evil of any kind; and on the other, of passivity as the proper place of a Christian under its pressure. Christianity is looked upon by them at best as only subsidiary, and the moment it comes to interfere with convenience, its obligation is denied. Because men may be engaged in promoting the things which are commanded by the precepts, and commended by the example of Christ, without the least regarding either their motives or their objects, they conclude they must be right. “Jesus went about doing good;” no human misery was there which did not find His sympathy, and feel His power to meet it. Thousands received blessing from Him, who yet were strangers to eternal life. Ten Lepers were cleansed, one only returned to Jesus, to give glory to God, and got the further and substantial blessing; “Arise, go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole.” (Luke 17:9.)

When Jesus had healed the impotent man at the Pool of Bethesda, and found him afterward in the temple, He said to him, behold thou art made whole, sin no more, “lest a worse thing come unto thee.” His Philanthropy did not end where man’s does, and would end; he saw a worse thing far beyond the measure of the human misery he had remedied—there were yet death and judgment before him, who had been so marvelously delivered; he had yet the blessing to seek which alone belongeth to faith, even deliverance from death and its power, sin. This is the sad mistake of Philanthropy, its proposed end, even if attained, stops short of deliverance from “the worse thing.” And therefore, granting all that Philanthropy aims at to be accomplished, though this is indeed allowing much—granting it could be said by it, to the misery that disfigures society,

“Behold thou art made whole,” the root of the evil remains untouched; and whilst man may be glorying in the success of his efforts, his very success may prove the occasion of blinding him to a sense of his actual state before God; that “the worse thing” is yet before him. It is impossible to say to what extent man’s misery may actually be mitigated, or the social system improved, by the mighty powers and resources of man now being developed, and by the use of Christianity itself, as one of the many means to obtain such an end. But experience has hitherto shown, that whilst the outer surface may be healed, even to the eye of man, it is but falsely healed, the wound still festers beneath. And just when a goodly fabric has been raised, decked with the fair show of religion by the wisdom of man, it has withered away before the power of some new evil. But as Christians, we have something more sure than experience, (man’s utmost certainty,) even the testimony of God—that the end of this scheme will he disaster. The gospel is necessarily humanizing and civilizing in its effects, but this is not the real design of God in it. And although it may answer man’s end so to use it, he “has his reward” in attaining his object; but still there is the worse thing which may befall him, and the very perfecting of his scheme is precisely its ripeness. for judgment. (Dan. 4:30, 31.) It is of solemn importance to realize, that God regards the objects at which we aim; if He is aiming at one, and we at another, we cannot be fellow-workers with Him. It is therefore very possible to be very busy indeed in religious things, and yet to be very wide of God’s object. The end therefore of such zeal must be disastrous, not attaining to the purpose of God. Thus it was with Israel; they did not submit themselves to the righteousness of God; they used the law for one end, God gave it for another. Thus also is it characteristically marked as to the present dispensation. “To them who; by patient continuance in well doing, seek for glory, and honor, and immortality, (here their object is marked) eternal life. But to them who are contentious (opposed to enduring and suffering, and marking the way of the world,) and do not obey the truth (have not God’s object, do not submit to His righteousness) but obey unrighteousness, tribulation, and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil.” (Rom. 2) “God is not mocked, but whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap.” He has made known to man in the gospel of His Son, an available power against evil—“Christ crucified, the power of God, and the wisdom of God.” The peace which the gospel gives, and the blessed fruits which it produces, man would fain take if he could to embellish the fabric of his own rearing. Hence every system of religion which man has attempted to establish—has always had a second object, (or rather one besides that of God,) which being the proximate, has had the first share of manes thoughts. To the truth of this we have an unexceptionable witness in J. Wesley, who perceiving the increased symptoms of worldliness among his own followers, appears not only to have almost despaired of Methodism, but of Christianity itself. “How astonishing a thing,” (says he,) “is this? How can we understand it? Does it not seem (and yet this cannot be) that Christianity, true scriptural Christianity, has a tendency in process of time to undermine and destroy itself? For wherever true Christianity spreads, it must cause diligence and frugality, which in the natural course of things must beget riches; and riches naturally beget pride, love of the world, and every temper that is destructive of Christianity. Now if there be no way to prevent this, Christianity is inconsistent with itself, and of consequence cannot stand, cannot continue long among any people, since wherever it generally prevails, it saps its own foundation.”

However true and humbling the fact, that such has been the course of Christianity, is it not clear that God’s object in “true Scriptural Christianity” was quite overlooked by the holy man who wrote the above? That object is not to make men comfortable in the world, but to give them a power to live above it; at the same time that true Scriptural Christianity does produce such fruits as must commend themselves to the conscience of man, although he knows not whence they spring. Man sees these, and he seeks them, but not victory over the world. It is on this common ground of the effects of Christianity, righteousness, temperance, that real Christians and Speculative Philanthropists meet; but being neutral, at once shows it to be ground on which a Christian ought not to be. “He that is not with me is against me;” and wherever a Christian, on the principle of his association, cannot confess Christ, he is clearly off the ground of faith.

It must doubtless have excited the attention of even the careless observer, that this is a day, not only marked by the wonderful development of man’s power and resources, but by many a busy and active philanthropic scheme. I enter not into them, only seeking to point out the ground which they take as unsafe for a Believer, in fact, helping to consummate the Apostasy. The end proposed by man is, the blessing of his species; to this end all means are to be rendered subservient—Legislation, Science, Machinery, Education, Christianity. Now it is manifest, that the three first can only affect the present state of man; and although the two last may have an onward and future aspect, they are not used as such; at the best the aim is man’s moral and intellectual improvement. Now in the estimation of God, the condition of man before Him is so bad, that it is absolutely irremediable. Every experiment of God on man (to speak after the manner of men) has failed; and instead of improving, has only tended to develop successively and increasingly the weakness and perverseness of man. Hence the end of God’s Philanthropy is salvation, deliverance out of such a state as this altogether, and not the improvement of it. “According to His mercy fie saved us,” not only in reference to man’s lack of claim on Him, but in reference to the greatness and kind of the salvation itself which could never have entered into the thought of the creature. As the starting point, the worthlessness of man, is acknowledged, the cross is God’s estimate of the flesh—i.e. man as he is; this faith recognizes. “By the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost” —here is the manner of the salvation; not the improvement of anything old, but the introduction of a new existence; the bringing out of that family, whose inheritance is sin and death, into union with the Head of another family, from whom flow Spirit and Life. It is a new life—life out of death—new in its origin, its objects, and desires, and requiring an aliment peculiar to itself—the renewing of the Holy Ghost. Thus the inheritance is not that of sin and sorrow, but of eternal life. Now, unless we start from the same point as God, and have the same object in view, all our attempts will end in disappointment and disaster. The starting point with God is the irremediable evil of man, and the remedy a new one, even Resurrection Life. It is Jesus and the Resurrection which is to be preached, as the only adequate remedy. To take, therefore, either a more favorable view of the present constitution of man than God does, or to propose any remedy short of the resurrection to meet it, (dignify it with whatever name we may,) is only to deceive ourselves through false philosophy. Our blessed Lord clearly saw what expectations man would form as to the result of His wondrous love and condescension, in coming into such a world as this. They would look for so great an amelioration in the condition of man, as to make the present state one of possible, if not of probable enjoyment. But how completely does He nullify any such expectation—“Suppose ye, that I am come to give peace on earth?” (Luke 12:51.) Such would be the necessary consequence of the introduction of a new life. Had it been merely an improvement of the old life, it would have been borne, and hailed as a blessing by man; for all men naturally allow to a consistent Christian an advance on them in degree, but not a difference from them in kind. But the new life comes into direct collision with the old, and must cause necessary discomfort here, and be, in its exercise, a continual course of self-denial—a hating of our lives in this world. Now the end. which Philanthropy proposes, is confessedly nothing beyond the improvement of the old life; and it is not now my purpose to urge farther the failure of such an attempt, but rather to show the necessary collision into which Philanthropy and Christianity must come; in other words, that the way of God and the way of man to meet evil, not coinciding, must issue in conflict; and that one trial of the faith of the disciples of Christ will arise from Philanthropy. Everything is now rapidly tending to the concentration of the powers of man against the evil of his condition; the barriers of ages which appear hitherto to have prevented the full exercise of these powers, are falling before them one after another, and a fair field seems opening to man for the experiment of the regeneration of his species. Now, whilst Christianity will lend its aid to further this scheme, it will be tolerated, praised, and caressed; but the moment Christians assert their own principles, and stand on their own ground, that is the Resurrection, it will cast such shame and contempt on the efforts of Philanthropy, as to be esteemed an enemy and a hindrance in its way. Whilst man is working to his end, God assuredly is to His and that is to bring out His own into separateness from everything foreign to them; and this is no less evident to Him who can judge all things, than the movement of the spirit of the age in philanthropical schemes. At this very day we see this work of God’s Spirit among Christians, so as to cause dissatisfaction at all around them; and although we be slow in distinguishing His leadings, and are liable to the seductions of error, yet the result is the desire awakened of occupying our own ground, and standing simply on the Lord’s side.

Viewed in the light of God’s truth, Philanthropy is the minding the things of the flesh. Give it all the success to which it aspires, grant it all its usefulness, death ends all its efforts—to mind the things of the flesh is death. Here it is that the reality of Christianity begins, where Philanthropy ends. It starts from death unto life—to mind the things of the Spirit is life and peace. Hence where real Christianity as an active living energy is exhibited, it necessarily must thwart,. however unobtrusive in itself,. the vain and impotent effort of man to better the condition of his species by schemes of his own devising. The time may come when men will even think they are doing God service in slaying the real disciples of Christ; for they alone will appear to stand in the way of the perfection of that system, which man would fain raise as a monument of his own greatness.

It appears to me that the separation of the two great principles of the gospel, Justification by Christ, and life in the Spirit—in other words, Jesus and the Resurrection, has given rise to a most unhealthy state of things; either leaving professed Believers in practical ungodliness, or encouraging a morbid sentimentality—in either case justifying worldliness. The distinction between flesh and Spirit has often been held in justification of sin; the Cross being gloried in only selfishly, and not realized in its moral power of crucifying the world unto us, and as our power too against the dominance of sin. On the other hand, those who have most systematically contended for the Spirit, have only owned it as a higher influence, working on the mind unto a certain indescribable sentiment called spirituality, but only tending to form an inner circle of worldliness, where the excrescenses that offend reason or morality may be lopped off: But Christianity with them is mere sentiment; and where so called Evangelicalism is professed, it answers, for the most part, to the stony-ground hearers. The truths of Christianity are brought to work on the natural affection, causing excitement and busy activity, but giving no peace, no. victory, no stability—in time of trial, on account of the word, they fall away. Now these last are most forward in schemes simply philanthropical.

Now the Scriptures set before us Flesh and Spirit, as two distinct departments conversant with different subjects. Wide indeed is the range of flesh; all the phenomena of man’s constitution, and the world around him, that which meets the eye—but it is bounded; the things which are seen are temporal, and death is their end, or at least separates us from them. On the other hand, vast is the range of the Spirit—they are things which “eye hath not seen;” all the realities revealed to faith, and opening a field for the exercise of an enlightened understanding. It is true indeed, that the works of God, and His ways in Providence, will be an object of interest to the Spirit, (for the spiritual man examines all things, though the flesh cannot intrude into its department, 1 Cor. 2:14.) but the difference will be, that they will be looked on as declaring the glory of God; and the flowers of the field will so much display it, that all the glory of Solomon, yea all the achievements of men will sink into obscurity. The natural man rejoices in the works of his hands—the spiritual in the works of God. “The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein.” (Psa. 111:2.)

These two departments, therefore, have their definite tendencies, Death and Life. Hence the great practical power of a Believer to live above present things in his conversance with those of a higher range. Live in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. But to mind the things of the flesh is enmity against God. It is to occupy the field that He has given up to judgment—to say that we can better it, after He was rejected who had all blessing in His hand; it is to try the miserable experiment of getting good out of those very things which crucified the Lord of glory. The friendship of the world is enmity with God, “If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in Him.” All that is in the world passeth away. He alone that doeth the will of God—walks with Him in unity of object and purpose—abideth forever. Everything now is finding its place; and may the Lord’s people know theirs to be, to have risen with Christ, that they may seek and mind the things above, and be content to be expectants for real and abiding good, till Christ who is their Life shall be manifested, and then they shall be perfectly conformed to Him—the second Man, the Lord from heaven—Head of the new creation—where there shall be no more curse, or sorrow, or death.

Passages in the Book of Revelation Connected With the Old Testament.-No. 2

MY DEAR BROTHER,

PRECIOUS indeed are all the truths of God for their own sake, and as such we should prize them, even had there been no other reason for our giving heed to the things that are revealed. It has been well said by one of those Reformers whom the Lord raised up for His own glory, and for the Church’s blessing. “The Scripture is the school of the Holy Spirit; in which, as nothing necessary and useful to be known is omitted, so nothing is taught which it is not beneficial to know; whatever, therefore, is declared in the Scripture. . . we must be cautious not to withhold from the faithful, lest we appear to defraud them of the favor of their God, or to reprove and censure the Holy Spirit for publishing what it would be useful by any means to suppress. Let us, I say, permit the Christian man to open his heart and his ears to all the discourses addressed to him by God; only with this moderation—that as soon as the Lord closes His sacred mouth, he shall also desist from further inquiry. This will be the best barrier to sobriety, if in learning we not only follow the leadings of God, but as soon as He ceases to teach, we give up our desire of learning.” Calvin. (Institutes, Book iii. Chapter 21) But we have the testimony of a greater than Calvin, in the farewell address of the Apostle Paul to the Bishops or Elders of the Church of Ephesus— “I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men, FOR I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.” (Acts 20:26.) No portion, then, of all that God has given us can we be justified in withholding from others; much more must it be incumbent on us to know all these things for ourselves.

Man, in the pride of his busy intellect, searches into the depths of natural things; he seeks to grasp all that his mind can reach or fathom; he desires to comprehend everything concerning this earth on which he treads, and all the objects, animate or inanimate, thereon—the motions of the heavenly bodies too he seeks to understand—and even searches into the nature and powers of his own mind—Science, physical and metaphysical, has a charm for him for its own sake, merely as a thing in which his intellect may expand.

How much more, then, should he who knows the truth as it is in Jesus—who has an understanding to know Him that is true—who looks on this earth as a thing cursed for man’s sake—who knows the visible heavens but as a part of the work of Him whom it is his privilege to call “Abba, Father,”—who knows that his mind and its desires are by nature enmity against God, and who sees all things here as under condemnation—how much more should the Christian look forward in joyful expectation to the day, when, “in the dispensation of the fullness of times,” God shall “gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth.” Now if we but knew God’s purpose of blessing, there would be much, very much, in that alone for the mind of him who is taught of the Spirit, to rest on and to enjoy; because his God and Father would be glorified therein, and that alone should be enough to rejoice our souls, if we are indeed those who have learned to discern the things that are more excellent—but when we know our portion in these things, that our privilege is to have fellowship in them (even as it is written (Rom. 8) “heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ”) then have we far more reason to lay hold of them, to anticipate them as ours, (having received the earnest of this inheritance—the Spirit of God,) and to walk as those who look for such things, and who in the light and glory of them can rejoice, even though now in unredeemed bodies, and in a condemned world, and perchance in heaviness through manifold temptations.

Marvelously indeed has Satan prevailed in blinding the Church of God as to “what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance iris the saints.” Although unable to pluck the sheep of Christ out of His protecting hand, and unable to deprive them of those things which are theirs, secured in Jesus—he has most grievously hindered them from realizing their true position, by causing them not to receive aright the whole counsel of God.

Nothing can more concern us as individuals than God’s revealed purposes; there we see disclosed to faith our future allotment of blessedness; and in this knowledge we learn what our present place is, both as individuals, and as the Church of God, preserved in Christ Jesus—“WHEREFORE, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of Him in peace, without spot and blameless.”— “Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for, and hasting unto the coming of the day of God.” (2 Pet. 3)

“WHEREFORE, we receiving a kingdom that cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear.” (Heb. 12:28)

These exhortations had once their practical force on the Church, and nothing but the forgetfulness and ignorance of our hope and expectation—the appearing of Christ our Life—prevents their having the same now. It is indeed a cause for thankfulness that many of the saints of God have learned even now the power of these things, and have thus been enabled to testify of them (“I believed, and therefore have I spoken,”) but on those, whose hearts have been so brought to acknowledge these truths, an especial responsibility rests—that of testifying faithfully to them, (not as matters whereon we may speculate, but as important practical truths;) and of showing their operation as sanctifying principles.

You will, I think, fully agree with me as to the extent and weight of this responsibility, and I trust that it is with some feeling of its true importance that I would now press it. To be witnesses for God is a place of privilege, and as such it ought (in this, as in other things) to be regarded. It is our place to testify to the world—that it is already condemned, but that in the blood of Jesus there is salvation for every one who believeth—and to the Church—that their position ought to be “like unto men who wait for their Lord;” and at the same time, by practical separation from evil, we should show the sanctifying power of these truths of God.

Let not those who have been taught to “wait for God’s Son from heaven” shrink from this their responsibility, but seek to fulfill it as unto the Lord, in the power which his Spirit giveth; “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye KNOW that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” (1 Cor. 15:58.)

Chapter 7:2.—And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God; and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea; saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.

Ezek. 9:2, &c.—And one man among them was clothed with linen; with a writer’s inkhorn by his side;.......and the glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the Cherub whereupon He was, to the threshold of the Louse; and He called to the man clothed with linen, who had the writer’s inkhorn by his side; and the Lord said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men who sigh, and who cry for all the abominations that are done in the midst thereof.

Ver. 9 After this I beheld and lo, a great multitude whom no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and peoples, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palms in their hands; and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God, who sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.

Zech. 14:16.—Every one that is left of all the nations shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts; and to keep the feast of Tabernacles.

Lev. 23:40.—Ye shall take you on the first day [of the feast of Tabernacles] the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm trees.

Jer. 3:17.—At that time (i.e. when Israel shall be restored) they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord: and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of the Lord, to Jerusalem.

Ver. 23.—Truly in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel.

Psa. 68:20.—Our God is the God of salvation.

Zech. 9:9.—He (Christ) is just, and having salvation.

A most striking analogy seems to me to be here exhibited between the things in heaven and the things on earth. As all that are left of the nations on earth shall be gathered unto Jerusalem, (which shall then be called the Throne of Jehovah,) to worship, and to keep the feast of Tabernacles—so do, these, the redeemed of every nation, appear to be gathered around the Throne of God, worshipping, and as it were, keeping the feast of Tabernacles in heaven.

Often do we see in the New Testament, plainly set before us, the analogy that there is between us, the Church of God, and Israel in the wilderness; they were going forward in order to enter into their rest; even so “we who have believed, (εισμεθα) are going towards rest.” (Heb. 4:3.) The feast of Tabernacles was given to Israel as a memorial of their sojourn in the wilderness; (Lev. 23:43) and thus it seems to me, that we have here the memorial feast kept by the redeemed; (—the antitype of the things on earth—) when they shall have fully entered into that “rest which remaineth for the people of God.”

The people of Israel appear to have hitherto observed this feast very imperfectly; if indeed they did at all from the time of their first entering upon the possession of the land promised to their fathers, until the return of the remnant after the captivity; see Neh. 8:17. This seems to confirm the supposition that the chief reference of this feast is prospective; and that it will be fully and truly kept when Israel, being restored to the favor of God, shall be the source of blessing to the nations of the earth; and when the Church of God shall have received that heavenly inheritance, of which the Spirit of promise, dwelling in those who believe, and by whom they are sealed, is the earnest. This heavenly and this earthly blessing appear to be synchronous, both being consequential to the Lord. taking to Himself His great power.

Ver. 11.—And all the angels stood round about the throne and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God.

Psa. 103:19, &c.—The Lord hath prepared His throne in the heavens......Bless the Lord, ye His angels who excel in strength.

Isa. 6:2.—The seraphim, each one bad six wings, with twain he covered his face.

Ver. 14.—These are they that came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes (στολας), and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

Isa. 1:18.—Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

Ex. 29:20.—Then thou shalt kill the ram and sprinkle the blood upon the altar round about; and thou shalt take of the blood that is upon the altar ... and sprinkle it Aaron, and upon his garments (LXX. στολη) and upon his sons, and upon the garments of his sons with him; and he shall be sanctified, and his garments, and his sons, and his sons’ garments with him.

Garments sanctified by blood appear to be a characteristic mark of those who are constituted Priests unto God. Aaron and his household were thus set apart; although Aaron was first, by himself alone, consecrated with the Holy anointing oil without blood. (Ex. 29:7.) Thus Christ (typified by Aaron) could, without needing any sacrifice, from His own inherent holiness, receive the Holy Ghost; even as when He was baptized, the Spirit was seen descending upon Him, and the voice of the Father was heard witnessing to His acceptance; as also it is written, “God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit.” But that the household of Aaron might be consecrated as his associates in the priesthood, blood was needed; a sacrifice was provided upon whose head they should lay their hands, and whose blood was sprinkled upon them, and thus they became separated unto God. So it is with the Church, the household of the true Aaron; they are sanctified. by the blood of the one sacrifice for sin. Jesus, who stood before God inherently holy, for the sake of His Church entered on His priestly ministration by blood-shedding, that they might be united with Him therein; their priesthood is through Him; even as that of Aaron’s sons was from their being associated with their father, as it is said, “he shall be sanctified, and his garments, and his sons, and his sons’ garments with him.” So is it written of Believers, “justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.” (1 Cor. 6:11.)

Ver. 15, &c.—Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple; and He that sitteth upon the throne shall dwell among them; they shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat; for the Lamb that is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters; and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.

Psa. 134:1.—Behold, bless ye the Lord, all ye servants of the Lord, who by night stand in the house of the Lord.

Psa. 23:6.—I shall dwell in the house of the Lord to length of days.

Ex. 29:45.—I will dwell among

the children of Israel, and will be their God.

Isa. 49;10.—They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun smite them; for He who hath mercy on them shall lead them; even by the springs of water shall He guide them.

Ps. 23:1.—The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want; He maketh me to lie down in green pastures, He leadeth me beside the still waters.

Mic. 5:4.—He shall stand and feed [His flock LXX.] in the strength of the Lord.

Isa. 40:11.—He shall feed His flock like a Shepherd.

Isa. 25:8.—The Lord God will wipe

away tears from off all faces.

Isa. 65:19.—I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people; and the voice of weeping shall no more be heard in her, nor the voice of crying.

The above quotations from the Prophet Isaiah are spoken of Israel, at the time of their restoration to the favor of the Lord; their application in the Revelation to the redeemed, shows how striking is the analogy existing between “the patterns of the things in the heavens” and “the heavenly things themselves;” glorious as are the descriptions given in Isaiah of the blessedness of God’s earthly people, they are but the shadowing forth of the blessedness of God’s heavenly people—His Church; even as the Tabernacle and its vessels of earthly ministry were but a faint typifying of heaven itself; Israel will have glory, but the Church of God a glory far excelling in greatness and in blessedness.

The end of this chapter (or rather the first verse of the 8th) Concludes the vision which commences in chapter 4. This chapter contains some circumstances connected with the concluding events in the 6th. We know that the vision so concludes, because we find the time of blessing here brought in, which cannot be until after the judgments are past, and Christ hath taken His kingdom, and then shall His ransomed saints obtain their purchased possession.

It is important to notice, that whenever in this Book we come to the time of the Lamb possessing His great power, there we may be sure that we arrive at one and the same definite point of time; and after that a new vision commences; until in chap. 19 the power of the Lord Christ, and His recompence to His enemies are detailed; and then (in chap. 20) we find the blessing of the saints and other events spoken of continuously; but it is always the power of God that is displayed, until we come to the manifested. glory of the Lamb.

Chapter 8:3, &c.—And another angel came, and stood. at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints, upon the golden altar which is before the throne; and the smoke of the incense ascended before God, with the prayers of the saints from the hand of the angel.

Lev. 16:12.—He shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire from of the altar before the Lord, and his hands full of sweet incense beaten small, and bring it within the vail; and he shall put the incense upon the fire before the Lord, that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy-seat.

Ex. 30:8.—And when Aaron lighteth the lamps at even, he shall burn incense upon it, (the altar of incense) a perpetual incense before the Lord.

Ex. 40:26.—He put the golden altar in the tent of the congregation before the vail.

Psa. 141:2.—Let my prayer be set before thee as incense.

The angel standing offering up incense before God, appears in a priestly character; like Aaron within the rail on the day of atonement, and himself or his household at other times in the holy place.

Prayer is in Scripture connected with incense; thus it is written of Zacharias, “that while he executed the priest’s office before God in the order of his course, according to the custom of the priest’s office, his lot was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord; and the whole multitude of the people were praying without at the time of incense.” (Luke 1:8.)

It was with the incense that the prayers of the people came up acceptably before God, and so are those of the ransomed saints accepted through Him who stands in the presence of God for us, and who Himself ever liveth to make intercession for us.

Ver. 5.—And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it unto the earth; and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake.

Ezek. 10:2.—He spake unto the man

clothed with linen, and said, Go in between the wheels, even under the cherub,

and fill thine hand with coals of fire from between the cherubim, and scatter

them over the city. And he went in my sight.

Ver. 7.—The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast unto the earth, and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all the green grass was burnt up.

Joel 2:30.—Blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.

Ex. 9:23.—And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven, and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along the ground. Ver. 25.—The hail smote every herb of the field, and brake every tree of the field, only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, there was no hail.

The former of these citations from the Old Testament appears to be (whether in itself literal or symbolical) direct prophecy; the other a typical action.

Ver. 8, &c.—And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea, and the third part of the sea became blood; and the third part of the creatures that were in the sea and had life, died.

Jer. 2:25.—Behold I am against thee,

O destroying mountain, saith the Lord;

which destroyest the whole earth; and I

will stretch out my hand. upon thee, and roll thee down from the rocks, and will make thee a burnt mountain.

Ex. 7:20.—All the waters that were in the river were turned into blood; and the fish that was in the river died, and the river stank.

Ver. 11.—The third part of the waters became Wormwood, and many men died of the waters because they were made bitter.

Jer. 9:15.—Behold I will feed them, even this people, with Wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink.

Ver. 12.—The third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars.

Ezek. 32:7.—I will cover the heaven, and make the stars thereof dark, and I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light.

Ver. 33.—Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabitants of the earth.

Ezek. 2:10.—Lamentations, and mourning, and woe.

Chapter 9:2.—He opened the bottomless pit, and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace: and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth.

Ver. 4.—It was commanded them that they should hurt ... only those men who have not the seal of God upon their foreheads.

Isa. 14:31.—There shall come from the north a smoke.

Ex. 10:14.—And the locusts went up over all the land of Egypt they covered the face of the whole earth, so that the land was darkened.

Judg. 7:12.—The Midianites. . . lay along the valley like locusts

( אדבה LXX. ακρις) for multitude.

Ex. 8:23.—I will put a division between my people and thy people.

Ex. 12:23.—When He seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the Lord will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you.

Ezek. 9:6.—Come not near any man upon whom is the mark.

Ver. 6.—And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.

Jer. 8:3.—Death shall be chosen rather than life, by all the residue of theta that remain of this evil family.

Ver. 7, &c.—And the shapes of the locusts, were like unto horses prepared for battle. . . their teeth were as the teeth of lions... and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle.

Joel 2:4.—The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen so shall they run.

Joel 1:6.—A nation whose teeth are as the teeth of a lion; and he hath the cheek-teeth of a great lion.

Joel 2:5.—Like the noise of chariots upon the tops of mountains shall they leap......as a strong people set in battle array.

There is much in the woes that follow the sounding of the seven angels, that bears a strong resemblance to the plagues of Egypt, as well in the woes themselves, as in this, that as the Egyptians and Israel were distinguished by God, the latter being preserved from those things which fell on the former, especially in the exemption from the slaughter of the first-born, when the blood on the lintel caused the Destroyer to pass by; so here those sealed are spared—sealing in Scripture is spoken of the Spirit (the witness to the blood)—“in whom

Ver. 11—And he said unto me, Thou must prophecy against (επι) many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.

Jer. 1:9—The Lord said unto me, Behold I have put words in thy mouth; see I have set thee this day over (LXX επι) the nations, and over the kingdoms.

The commission given here to John, embraces much of those to Ezekiel, and to Jeremiah. The particulars of the delivery of the “little book” and of its being eaten by the Apostle, are almost identical in their detail, with those in Ezekiel. And in the charge of prophesying “over the nations,” he receives that which had especially belonged to Jeremiah. And truly with regard to the nations and the kings of the earth we find. nothing here recorded as their future history but evil, until their opposition to the Lord and hi is Christ is consummated by their being assembled by the agency of Satan at Armageddon; when Jesus shall take to Himself His great power, and shall reign—when His enemies shall be made His footstool; and then those who have been separated. unto Him as “a peculiar people,” from out of all the nations of the earth shall be gathered together in blessed fellowship with their glorified Lord. Surely the knowledge of these things ought to cause us to take heed to our ways, that we may realize even now our separated position, separate from the world—separate unto God; that we may in nothing be entangled by those things which we know (because in the light of God’s Truth we have so seen them) to be contrary to our Lord and Master. May the Lord teach us (in the knowledge of our own weakness) to seek His strength through Christ, that we may walk as risen with Him.

Chapter 11:1.—And there was given me a reed like unto a rod; and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar.

Ezek. 40:3.—Behold a man... with a line of flax in his hand, and a measuring reed; and he stood in the gate.

41:13.—He measured the house.

40:47.—He measured the altar which was before the house.

The symbolical action of measuring appears to me to denote preservation; the temple, &c. in Ezekiel is measured when the time of Jerusalem’s blessing is arrived; and so here the temple (i.e. what is symbolized by the temple) and the worshippers are measured; this is, I suppose, analogous to the sealing of the servants of God in chap. vii; evil is coming to pass, but there are those whom God will preserve unto His kingdom and glory, who shall be kept; although all form of earthly worship. (symbolized by the court without) will be unacknowledged, and therefore allowed to be trampled down.

Ver. 2.—But the court which is without the temple is given to the Gentiles, and the holy city shall they trample under foot forty and two months. (i.e. three years and six months.)

Psa. 79:1.—O God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance, thy holy temple have they defiled.

Dan. 7:25.—They (the saints of the heavenlies) shall be given into his hand until a time and times, and half a time. (i.e. three years and six months.)

Ver. 3.—And I will give power unto my TWO WITNESSES, and they shall

prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days clothed in sackloth. (i.e. for the same time as the trampling down by the Gentiles.)

Mal. 4:4.—Remember ye the law of MOSES my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb, &c. Behold I will send you ELIJAH the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.

The particulars which are foretold of the “two witnesses” in this chapter, are some of the things which characterized Moses and Elijah, who also appeared with our Lord at His transfiguration. John the Baptist came “in the spirit and power of Elias,” but when the Jews asked him, “Art thou Elias?” he answered, “I am not;” (John 1:21.) now as John thus disclaimed being Elijah, and as he did not (in consequence of his rejection by the people of the Jews) perform that which was foretold of Elijah, so do I think that his coming is yet future, and therefore suppose that the resemblance in this chapter consists not in a mere similarity of circumstances, but in the identity of one of the witnesses with Elijah the prophet, who will (I doubt not) yet testify in Jerusalem—the other witness seems to be Moses; the law of Moses is in Malachi immediately connected with Elijah the prophet. One thing is remarkable—that Elijah was caught up in a chariot of fire; and that although Moses died, there were something peculiar about what became of his body. (Jude 9.)

Ver. 4.—These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks, standing before the God (Lord, Griesbach) of the earth.

Zech. 4:3.—Two olive trees by it.

Ver. 11.—What are these two olive trees upon the right side of the candlestick, and upon the left side thereof? (ver. 14.) These are the two anointed ones which stand by the Lord of the whole earth.

Ver. 5.—And if any man desire to hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies; and if any man desire to hurt them, he must in this manner be killed.

2 Kings 1:10.—And Elijah answered, and said to the captain of fifty, If I be a man of God, then let fire conic down from heaven and consume thee and thy fifty; and there came down fire from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty.

Ver. 6.—These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy. [i.e. for three years and six months.]

“Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain; and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.” (James 5:17.)

1 Kings 17:1.—And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, 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.

And have power over waters to turn them to blood.

Ex. 7:20.—Moses and Aaron did as the Lord commanded, and he smote the waters that were in the river; and all the waters that were in the river were turned into blood.

Ver. 7.—The beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war with them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.

Dan. 7:21.—The same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them.

Ver. 11.—The Spirit of life from God entered into, them and they stood upon their feet.

Ezek. 37:10.—The breath ( רוח το πνμα [ζωης] the Spirit [of life] LXX Alex.) entered into them, and they stood upon their feet.

This appears to be merely a verbal similarity.

Ver. 15.—The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ; (Griesbach, the kingdom has become, &c.) and He shall reign for ever and ever.

Psa. 22:28—For the kingdom is the Lord’s, and He is the Governor among the nations.

45:6.—Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever.

Dan. 7:14.—There was given Him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages should serve Him; His dominion is an everlasting dominion.

Ex. 15:18.—The Lord shall reign for ever and ever.

The twenty-second Psalm presents with peculiar vividness “the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow;”—part fulfilled in our Lord’s humiliation—part unfulfilled, in His hitherto unmanifested reign over the nations—here the faith of the saints may rest, joyfully knowing that a day is yet to come when this part also shall be accomplished—when “all the ends of the world shall remember, and turn unto the Lord,” even unto Him, who in His agony could say “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me.” Then shall we with joyful lips, and unhindered by our bodies of sin, join in ascribing “Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood; and hath made us kings and priests unto His God and Father; to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever! Amen.”

Ver. 17.—We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty.......because thou hast taken to thyself thy great power, and hast reigned. And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come;

and the time of the dead that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and to them that fear thy name, small and great, and shouldest destroy them that destroy the earth.

Psa. 98:1.—O sing unto the Lord a new song; His right hand, and His holy arm hath gotten Dim the victory.

Psa. 2:1.—Why do the heathen rage (ver. 5.)—Then shall He speak unto them in His wrath.

Psa. 46:6.—The nations raged; the kingdoms were moved; He uttered His voice, the earth melted.

Dan. 7:10—The judgment was set, and the books were opened.

(ver. 22.)—The time came that the saints possessed the kingdom.

Psa. 115:13.—He will bless them that fear the Lord, both small and great.

Dan. 11:44.—He shall go forth with great fury to destroy.. yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.

A time is to be, when the kingdoms of this world shall belong unto the Lord: we know full well that at present it is not so, but that the world is still “in the wicked one.” (1 John 5:19) The Lord has not as yet taken to Himself His great power, but it is a thing to be waited for, until the day of His long-suffering shall be gone by, when the rod of Christ’s strength shall be sent out of Zion, “Rule thou in the midst of thine enemies.”

These things are plainly told us—that this assumption of power shall be when the rage of the nations is stirred up, when there are those ruling “who destroy the earth:”—that the power so assumed by Christ shall be continued, and shall be manifested in the destruction of those who so destroy—that then the saints shall all be rewarded.

Nothing can, I think, be more manifest, than the connection of the above quotations with the 7th of Daniel. In each we find Christ receiving power, and an unending kingdom; in each the saints receive a reward. Vain then is it for us to expect the blessing of the earth until that time; for until Christ with the breath of His mouth shall destroy the wicked, the time cannot be when the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth; until Satan, “the god of this world,” be bound, the kingdom cannot be Christ’s—there is necessarily an order and consecution in these things, for (from their inherent incompatibility) they cannot coexist. The world has rejected Jesus, and still rejects Him (even when professing to honor His name), those therefore who are His, have to share His rejection, (and this is the saints’ privilege)—and to suffer from the world; in all this having fellowship with the Captain of their salvation; and when He takes His great power, when the world which has refused to acknowledge Him in grace, shall be compelled to do so in judgment—then shall His people receive their reward, sharing His glory and His dominion. “Here is the patience of the saints.”

This assumption of power marks the end of the vision.

Chapter 12:2.—She being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.

Isa. 66:7.—Before she travailed she

brought forth; before her pain came, she was delivered of a man-child ... As soon as Zion travailed she brought forth her children.

Mic. 4:9, &c.—Pangs have taken thee as a woman in travail; be in pain and labor to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail; for now shall thou go forth out of the city. . . thou shalt go even to Babylon, there shalt thou be delivered, &c.

There is apparently much more than a casual resemblance between this passage from Isaiah and that in the Revelation; contrasted as they are in circumstances, there seems much that is the same in each of them. But it is there varying circumstances that I wish particularly to notice here; the woman here seen (whatever may be thereby personified) brings forth a child with pain and sorrow; this birth is before the coming of “the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ,” (ver. 10.) This child is born, “to rule the nations with a rod of iron,” which is spoken of the saints (chap. 2) as well as of the Lord Jesus Christ. (Psa. 2) It applies to the saints wholly in their fellowship with their Master in the heavenly glory; and so here this man-child (whatever it may symbolize) receives not the earthly dominion spoken of in Isaiah, but is caught up to God, and to His throne—now the birth in Isaiah without pain or sorrow, is at the time when the Lord shall appear to the joy of those who tremble at His word, when shall be heard the voice of the Lord that rendereth recompence to His enemies; when the Lord shall extend peace to Jerusalem like a river; when the day of Zion’s blessing shall have come—this difference of time is enough to account for the variation in the description, because then the circumstances of the saints and also of Israel, will be contrasted to those in which they now are.

In Isaiah, the man-child who is born is described as symbolizing “a nation,” — “shall a nation be born at once,” (ver. 8.) and this nation is spoken of as being blessed in Jerusalem—so here, I assuredly think, that the man-child symbolizes those of the Jews, who being converted by testimony in Jerusalem (see chap. 11:3.) are blessed in the heavenly glory—let this at least be noticed—their allotment is spoken of in the same terms as is that of the saints in their glorification with Jesus—and the birth is spoken of (properly allowing for the changed circumstances) like that of the nation to whom shall pertain the earthly glory—that is, the remnant of the Jews who shall be spared, and be made the blessing of the earth.

Ver. 3.—A great red dragon, having. . . ten horns.

Dan. 7:7.—A fourth beast dreadful and terrible. . . and it had ten horns.

Ver. 4.—And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth.

Dan. 8:10.—It cast down some of the host, and of the stars to the ground, and stamped upon them.

Ver. 5.—She was delivered of a man-child, who was to rule all the nations with a rod of iron; and her child was caught up to God and to His throne.

Isa. 66:7.—She was delivered of a man-child.

Psa. 2:10.—Thou shalt rule (LXX) them (i.e. the nations) with a. rod of iron.

Ver. 6.—And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days.

Ver. 14.—Where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.

Dan. 7:25.—He shall speak great words against the Most High ( עלאה ), and shall wear out the saints of the heavenlies ( עליובין );......and they shall be given into his hand until a time, and times, and half a time.

The period of the power of evil exercised by the little horn in Daniel, just synchronizes with that of the affliction of the saints in this book; it is variously spoken of—forty and two months, (11:2.) twelve hundred and sixty days, (11:3.)—it is mentioned in this chapter twice, and also chap. 13:5. It has often been said that this period must mean one thousand two hundred and sixty YEARS, instead of DAYS, because these are prophetic dates; but the reasons for supposing that their literal acceptation is not to be taken appear to me to be very slight.

Dan. 9:24.—“Seventy weeks are determined,” &c. שׁבעים שׁבעים , (Shavungim Shivngim) Seventy hebdomads, is all the force of the words, whether of years or days; thus chap. 10:2. “I, Daniel, was mourning three full weeks” ימים שׁבעים שׁלשׁה (Sheloshah Shavungim Yamim) “three hebdomads of days,”—the word days is expressed in order to define the meaning, so that this passage does not support the idea attached to prophetical days.

Num. 14:34.—“After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years.” Here the substitution of a year for a day is expressly mentioned, and the reason is given why such a representation should be made.

Ezek. 4, &c.—Here the prophet is commanded to perform a symbolical action, in which he is told, in express words, that each year is represented by a day. None of these three passages give us any ground for forming a canon of criticism, so as to state that a day in prophetic language must mean a year; sometimes (as in the case of our Lord’s resurrection) this is manifestly impossible, and it seems much more reasonable to understand a thing simply stated in prophecy literally, and not by an arbitrarily devised principle; especially in such a case as this, where the same period is spoken of in many coincident ways; for the time is stated in days, in months, and in years, all agreeing in the time—three years and six months; as literal, I should judge, as any historical date in Scripture.

Ver. 7.—There was war in heaven, Michael and his angels fought against the dragon.

Isa. 34:5.—My sword shall be bathed in heaven.

Dan. 12:1.—And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince that standeth for the children of thy people.

Ver. 10.—Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of It is Christ; for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, who accused them before our God day and night.

Psa. 145:11.—They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom, and talk of thy power.

Zech. 3:1—He showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him.

Job 1:9.—Doth Job serve God for naught? &c. &c.

Little do we apprehend aright the fearful power which Satan possesses; that he has access to God to accuse us we know from this passage. In the knowledge of this, and of our own evil, we find how great is our blessedness in having “an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous,” who hath reconciled is to God by His own blood, and who “ever liveth to make intercession for us.”

Ver. 12.—Woe to the inhabiters of the earth, and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.

Dan. 12:1.—There shall be a time of

trouble, such as never was since there was

a nation, even to that same time.

The time of trouble in Daniel is when Michael stands up for the Jews; so here this woe, consequent on Satan coming down having great wrath, is when Michael shall have cast him from heaven, when he was ready to devour the child that should be born; these things seem to be thus connected.

Chapter 13:1.—I saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns.

Ver. 2.—And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion.

Dan. 7:3.—Four great beasts came up from the sea. (v. 7.) And it (the fourth beast) had ten horns.

v. 6.—I beheld, and to! another like a leopard.

v. 5.—Another beast, a second, like to a bear.

v. 4.—The first was like a lion.

Ver. 5, &c.—And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things, and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months; and he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, and His tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to over come them; and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.

Dan. 7:8.—A mouth speaking great things.

v. 25.—He shall speak great words against the Most High; and shall wear out the saints of the heavenlies, and think to change times and laws; and they shall be given into his hand until a time, and times, and half a time.

8:10.—And it waxed great, even to the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground, and stamped upon them; yea he magnified himself even to the Prince of the host, and in consequence of him, (ממנו αυτν LXX) the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of his sanctuary was cast down.

v. 24.—And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power; and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practice, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people.

11:45.—He shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas, in the glorious holy mountain.

Chapter 5:10.—And for the majesty

which He gave him, all people, nations, and languages trembled and feared before him.

2:37.—Thou, O King, art a King of kings; for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and, glory; and wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field, and the fowls of the heaven, He hath given into thy hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all.

The beast seen by John combines all those in Daniel; it has the body of the third (the kingdom of Alexander)—the feet of the second (the Persian empire)—the mouth of the first (the dominion of Nebuchadnezzar)—and the horns of the fourth (the Roman empire.) All the characteristics of this beast are the same as those of Daniel’s fourth, after the springing up of the little horn—(for I should judge that we are to understand the actions of the horn to be those of the whole beast, when possessed of that horn,)—and thus it is the last Concentration of Gentile power that is here shown forth, (standing Possessed of all the authority given by God to Nebuchadnezzar,) When corrupted (as all God’s gifts become in the hand of man) to the utmost.

In Daniel three of the horns are plucked up before the little horn, so here there are seven heads, being the number of the kings left by this little horn. (ver. 24.)

In chap. 12 we find a great red dragon, as the persecutor of the saints, (this last power of evil, I should judge, as energized by Satan,) having seven heads and ten horns, with seven crowns, showing, I suppose, the state and the number of the kingdoms when in the actual exercise of their power, when three kings shall have been destroyed; here the ten horns are crowned, being the number of kingdoms into which the Roman empire (the fourth beast) is yet to be divided. Many lists have been made of such ten kingdoms, but they have always been confined to the western part of the empire, and few have agreed as to what they were; the fifth and sixth centuries too, have been the date when they have been sought—now the whole of the empire is thus to be divided, (five kingdoms arising from the eastern, and five from the western branch, as shown by the toes of the image, Dan. 2) and therefore no period previous to A. D. 1453 (when the Mahometans destroyed the eastern empire,) can be assigned for this division; and certainly no such kingdoms have existed since.

In Daniel the beast is recorded from its origin; and thus, I think, its last power is shown by the springing up of “a little horn;” here the beast is seen in its last state of power, and thus the whole beast is the agent.

In chapter 11 we find the two witnesses prophesying, clothed with sackcloth for three years and a half; in chap. 12 when the dragon is cast down, having great wrath, knowing that his time is short, the woman is nourished for three years and a half, and he makes war with the remnant of her seed; in chap. 13, the power of the beast is for three years and a half which is also the time of the dominion of the little horn (Dan. 7); and which is the time mentioned Dan. 12 when “the end of these wonders” shall be.

Ver. 8.—And all those who dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names have not been written from the foundation of the world, in the book of life of the Lamb that was slain.

Dan. 12:1.—There shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation, even to that same time; and at that time thy people shall be delivered, even every one that is written in the book.

Ver. 10.—He that leadeth into captivity, shall go into captivity; he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword.

Is. 14:2.—They shall take them for captives whose captives they were.

Gen. 9:6.—Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed.

Ver. 13.—And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth, in the sight of men; and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by means of those miracles which he had power to do, &c.

[See chap. 11:5, 6, and compare with Ex. 7:11,22; 8:7 which I think show parallel events; the time the prophecy of the witnesses clothed in sackcloth, and that of the beast being identical; i.e. three years and six months.]

Ver. 18.—Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast.

Dan. 12:10.—The wise shall understand.

Many have been the interpretations given in order to make the number 666 apply to the Papal power—λατεινος, and (when it was found that in Greek, this name was spelled without ε)ή λατινη βασιλεια, and many others; in fact, if this were the way in which wisdom is to be used, the beast might be found almost any where; but all this shows (I think) that the application has not yet been seen by the Church, because that to which it belongs is not yet manifested.

Chapter 14:1.—And I looked, and lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion; and with Him one hundred and forty and four thousand, having His Father’s name written in their foreheads.

Psa. 2:6.—I have anointed my king, upon Zion, the mountain of my holiness.

Isa. 59:20.—The Redeemer shall come to Zion.

Zech. 14:5.—The Lord my God shall

come, and all his saints with thee.

This chapter stands, I believe, by itself; and although embracing many of the things in the one previous, yet it appears to be a vision distinct from what precedes and from what follows, although embracing almost the whole of their subject matter in a small compass. The Son of Man crowned, sufficiently disconnects it from the subsequent vision.

Ver. 4.—These were redeemed from among men, being the first fruits unto God and to the Lamb.

Num. 3;13.—All the first-born are mine, for on the day when I smote all the first-born in the land of Egypt, I hallowed unto me all the first-born in Israel.

Ex. 12:23.—The Lord will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when He seeth the blood [of the Lamb] upon the lintel and the two side-posts, the Lord will pass over the door; and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite [the first-born]

Ver. 5.—And in their mouth was found no guile.

Ps, 32:2.—Blessed is the man......in whose mouth (LXX) there is no guile.

Ver. 8.—Babylon is fallen, is fallen; that great city; because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.

Isa. 21:9.—Babylon is fallen, is fallen.

Jer. 51:8.—Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed. (ver. 7.) Babylon hath made all the earth drunken, the nations have drunken of her wine.

Ver. 9, &c.—If any man worship the beast and his image, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture (του κεκερασμενου ακρατου) into the cup of His indignation; and he shall be tormented with tire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb; and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever; and they have no rest day nor night.

Psa. 75:8.—In the hand of the Lord there is a cup, and the wine is red, (חמר, ) it is full of mixture (οινου ακρατου πλρες LXX,) and He poureth out of the same; but the dregs thereof all the wicked of the earth shall wring them, and drink them.

Psa. 11:6.—Upon the wicked He shall rain snares, (פחים burning coals) fire, and brimstone, and an horrible tempest; (זלעפות דוח a wind of burning blasts) this shall be the portion of their cup.

Isa. 34:10.—It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up forever and ever.

Ver. 14.—Behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud One sat like unto the Son of Man, having on His head a golden crown.

Isa. 19:1.—Behold the Lord rideth upon a swift cloud.

Dan. 7:13.—One like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven. ver. 14. And there was given Him.... a kingdom.

Ver. 15.—Thrust in thy sickle and reap, for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe.

Joel 3:13.—Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe.

Ver, 19.—The angel. . . gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God; and the winepress was trodden without the city; and blood came out of the winepress.

Joel 3:13.—Come, get you down, (LXX go ye out, tread) for the press is full, the fats overflow, the wickedness is great.

Isa. 63:3.—I have trodden the winepress alone;... their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments.

It has been said by those who apply the prophecies respecting the beast (chap. 13.) and Babylon, to the Church of Rome, that it is in some measure a palliation of the evil of that system for any to understand them otherwise. The testimony of the Reformers has been resorted to, in order to support that application by their authority. The Reformers saw (and in this they were anticipated by the Franciscan Friars) that many of the MORAL FEATURES of Babylon were similar to those of the Papal Church; they therefore applied them there, fully believing that to have been intended to be designated by the Lord.

The Scripture is often capable of being thus applied in principle—warnings and exhortations addressed to particular Churches are applicable now as circumstances may arise, and thus is obtained very much of the practical counsel, rebuke, and encouragement which the Scripture affords; and so in this instance—wherever we see in any measure the features of Babylon, we can safely say, that there is that which is contrary to the Lord’s mind, even though we be unable to interpret the prophecy itself.

Those then, who (like the early Church) look to the accomplishment of the prophecies in Daniel, the 2nd of Thessalonians, and this book, in the arising of a personal Antichrist, cannot be justly charged with upholding, in any measure, the system of Popery. Because they see a wider and a further scope in these predictions, they can warn against the deceit of Satan, not only in Romanism, but in his other, and yet more destructive wiles; for it is written, “If any man worship the beast and his image, he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone, in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb!” Surely not even the most strenuous asserter of the identity of Popery and Babylon, can suppose that every one who acknowledged the authority of the Romish Church, should (without exception) perish everlastingly!

But further, I believe, that much evil and blindness have arisen in the Church of God, from the common practice of Protestants of applying to Popery everything respecting Babylon; they have thus thought that they could themselves by no possibility be involved in what is denounced in the Revelation, and therefore have not felt in its true and practical force, the necessity of separation from whatever bears the impress of Babylon.

Supposing that in this prophecy Babylon could in no sense, even of principle or application, belong to the Apostate Church. at all, yet still we should find in this chapter in “THE VINE OF THE EARTH,” that which designates it with awful clearness. The true vine, with its branches, are Christ and the Church, (John 15)—that which bears fruit unto God; and so apparently “the vine of the earth” is that which professes to bear fruit to God—that which bears the name of Christ, and is under the responsibility of the Gospel—but it is “cast into the great wine-press of the wrath of God!”

The professing Church receives this fearful doom; let not it be said then by any, that because they belong not to the Church of Rome, that because they are Protestants, they shall escape the judgment of God. The (so called) Protestant Churches do but little recognize that the whole Church is Apostate—i.e. that it has departed from the ground on which God placed it. They have too exclusively charged Apostasy upon the Church of Rome, without inquiring how far they themselves are involved in it. In Romanism it stands in its undisguised. features; but the recovery by any of the blessed truth, that a sinner is justified before God through faith in the blood of Jesus, does not necessarily show that they are no longer Apostate.

The word of warning to those gathered from the Gentiles, was, “Be not high minded, but fear; for if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest He spare not thee; behold therefore, the goodness and severity of God; on them which fell severity; but towards the goodness, Of thou continue in His goodness; OTHERWISE THOU ALSO SHALT BE CUT OFF.” (Rom. 11:20-22)

But there is a Church chosen of God unto salvation, and preserved. in Christ...Jesus; they too are mentioned in this chapter, “the first fruits unto God, and to the Lamb;” and where shall they be found? Even with the Lamb—they have been sanctified by His blood; they have gone to Him without the camp bearing His reproach—they now are united with Him in blessedness, (ver. 4,) Whatever may befall, they are secure in Jesus; “It is yet a little while, and He that shall come, will come, and will not tarry;” surely in this we can rejoice in hope, knowing in whom we have believed.

The knowledge of these solemn Truths should make us take heed that we be separate from all that is evil, whether avowedly of the world, or nominally of the Church; this I believe we are the more enabled to do the more we realize our position—“Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; AND YE YOURSELVES LIKE UNTO MEN THAT WAIT FOR THEIR LORD.”

I remain,

your brother and servant in the Lord,

S. P. T.

Plymouth, March 8, 1836

The Good Confession Before Pontius Pilate

John 18:33-37. 1 Tim. 6:12-14.

THE life of righteousness on earth, the life that is pleasing to God, midst needs be a life of faith; because the great transgression has estranged God from the world that was made by Him, (John 1:10.) and so polluted it that it cannot he the rest and portion of the righteous. Wherefore it is written, “He that cometh to God, must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.” (Heb. 11:6.)

Faith is, therefore, the principle of all righteousness, practical as well as personal—personal righteousness or justification is of faith, that it may he of grace; (Rom. 4:16.) and practical righteousness or godliness must, as we thus see, be of faith also. Faith was thus, the secret power that was working in all those who have ever obtained. a good report. (Heb. 11:2.) Excellent things are indeed spoken of them; but these were all wrought through faith, which is of the operation of God. Faith in Noah floated the Ark, while as yet, for 120 years, nothing but the dry land appeared. Faith in Abraham inherited the place and the everlasting city, while as yet those things rested only in vision and in promise. Faith in Moses saw Him that was invisible; and in multitudes, (whom time would fail to tell of,) faith would have nothing but the “better resurrection.” In all these, there was found the simple vigorous exercise of the soul, believing the word and promise of God, No religion of their own wrought this in them; no effort at raising affections towards God and unseen things could have done it, but the blessed power (which is faith).. of taking God’s own word from His own mouth as true; of counting Him faithful who had promised. And so too, above all, in Jesus, the first and chiefest in the noble army of martyrs—“the author and finisher of faith,”—faith rejoiced in what “was set before Him,” and reached after it, though it lay on the other side of the terrors and shame of the cross; such terrors, (“thy face was so marred more than any man,” thou bruised Lamb of God,) as the heart of man had not conceived.

Paul exhorts his son Timothy “to fight the good fight of faith, and to lay hold on eternal life,” in remembrance of this faith that was in the blessed Savior Himself. “Fight,” says he, “the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses. I give thee charge in the sight of God, who quickeneth all things, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession, that thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Tim. 6:12-14.) Eternal life was to be laid hold on by Timothy, and nothing was to be allowed, as it were, to shake him off his prey. As the brightness of “the joy set before him” was never dimmed in the perfect faith of Jesus, though the cross tried his tenure of it to the uttermost; so was Timothy to keep his grasp of eternal life, let him forego what else he might. God in promise had set that before him; and that, He would bring out in all its promised blessing and glory, at the appearing of Jesus; and to that Timothy was to cling by faith, in spite of all the world. The world around him were contentedly getting their portion in this life; and many through the love of it had erred from this faith; (ver. 10.) but Timothy was to flee this in his pursuit of eternal life, Faith knew its object from the word of promise; and Timothy was to embrace it at every cost.

But there is ever to be confession as well as faith, “With the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” (Rom. 10:10.) For God is to be confessed in a world that has disowned Him, as well as believed. on in a heart that has departed from Him. This is His present glory in His saints, and this their service into Him—service, which (it is true,) may try them here; their faith, like gold, may be cast int the furnace now, but it shall come forth hereafter stamped with the King’s own image, for it shall “he found unto praise and honor, and glory, at the appearing of Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 1:7.)

When Jesus was a child, in subjection to His parents at Nazareth, He grew in favor with man as well as with God; for He was then serving as under the law, infinitely attractive in all that was blameless and good. “And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.” (Luke 2:52.) But when called from under that subjection, to witness for God in a God-denying world, then the world began to hate Him; as He says to His brethren, “The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it that the works thereof are evil.” (John 7:7.) Then did His sorrows at the hand of the world, (because of this His testimony,) begin and take their course; every man’s hand was against Him, while He sat alone. All His life then became confession, and innumerable evils at once and continually encompassed Him. His supports were the supports of faith, and the light of God’s countenance, and the hope of “the joy set before Him.” Thus was He throughout His ministry: but in an eminent sense was He the Confessor, when He fully entered into the character of “the Lamb of God.” Previously to this, He had been either in controversy with the unbelief of the Jews, or manifesting the name of the Father to those who had been given Him out of the world; but His character as “the Lamb of God” was formally taken up at the supper, when, like the worshipper under the law, He presented Himself as the victim or offering, saying, “this is my body”—and in that character He stood and suffered, from the time of His entrance into the garden, down to His giving up the Ghost on the accursed tree.

In the progress of His deep and mysterious journey, after He had thus entered upon this character, He was successively called before both the Jewish and the Roman powers: and before both He stands the Confessor, ready, (as He afterward accomplished,) to seal His testimony with His blood.

And here I would turn aside for a while to inspect this blood, the blood of this precious chosen Lamb of God; for surely there is much in it of which we do not properly make our account. That blood was shed for the remission of sin, and it makes clean the conscience of the believing sinner. But what is found in that blood, that it should bear with it such a savor of rest and refreshing with God, and be of such virtue with Him for tainted sinners who plead it. It was, it is true, blood of God’s own; as Paul says to the Ephesian Elders, “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with His own blood.” it was the blood of Him who was Jehovah’s fellow, without which indeed it had been nothing save that of a mere man. But this was not all that it was; it was the blood of the righteous one also—of Him who had magnified the law and made it honorable, presenting Himself to God without spot—of one who willingly poured it out rather than fail in one jot of service and obedience to God. It was the blood of Hint who had finished the work that was given Him to do; who had stood for God against the whole world, at the expense and loss of everything; who had before emptied Himself of glory, that God in the Son of Man might be glorified, as in man He had been dishonored; and after He had thus emptied Himself, He still went down even to the death of the cross. There was all this in the blood; it was poured out bearing all this in it, and the savor of it with God was refreshing; “a sacrifice and an offering to God for a sweet smelling savor.” The joy in it entered so deeply, that “God said in His heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake.” (Gen. 8:21.) It was the blood of the Son, it was the blood of the righteous obedient servant, it was the blood of Jesus the Confessor.

Confession is that which stands by the truth of God against the, lie of man, and stands by it at the hazard of everything; and this confession was witnessed by our Jesus. Throughout His life and ministry, it is true, it had been the way of the Son of God to hide Himself: for having emptied Himself of glory when He took the ministry of our peace open Him, his manner was, to refuse to know Himself save as the servant of God: for He had come in His Father’s and not in His own name—to seek not His own glory, but the glory of Him that sent Him. But the time was to be, when He must openly stand confessed. Therefore when adjured by the High Priest to answer whether He were the Christ, the Son of the Blessed, He stood to the confession of the truth, and of His glory, saying, “thou hast said.” (Matt. 26:64.) But this was at the cost of everything; for then they at once began to spit on Him, to buffet Him, to cover His face in shameless effrontery, and to lead Him off as their prey, saying, “what need we further witness? for we ourselves have heard of His own mouth.” (Luke 22:71; Matt. 26:67.)

And He was to make confession still more public than this—more as in the presence of the world’s collected powers and enmity—and more immediately too in the very face and shame of the cross: and therefore is it that this last testimony of the great Confessor, is so singularly marked out by the Spirit of God as His “good confession.” (1 Tim, 6:13.) But I desire here to be somewhat particular, and listen very attentively to the character and bearing of this good confession, recorded as it is in John 18:33-37.

“Then Pilate entered into the judgment-hall again, and called Jesus, and said unto Him, art thou the King of the Jews?”

Pilate throughout this solemn scene was clearly desirous to quiet the people, and deliver Jesus from the malice of the Jews. It appears from the very first, that he was sensible of something peculiar in this prisoner of theirs. His silence had such a character in it, that as we read, “the Governor marveled greatly.” And what divine attractions (we may here observe) must every little passage of His life, every path that He took among men have had about it, and what must the condition of the eye and the ear, and the heart of man have been, that they did not discern and allow all this! But it is ourselves dear brethren we have looked in the face of the Son of God and have seen no comeliness there! The Governor’s impression was strengthened by everything that happened as the scene proceeded; his wife’s dream and her message to him, the evident malice of the Jews, and above all, this righteous guiltless Prisoner, (though thus in shame and suffering) still persisting that He was the Son of God, all assailed his conscience. But the world In Pilate’s heart was too strong for these convictions. They made a noise, it is true, in his heart, but the voice of the world there prevailed, and he went the way of it, though thus convicted. Could he, however, have preserved the world for himself, he would willingly have preserved Jesus. He let the Jews fully understand that he was in no fear of this Pretender, as he might judge him to be; that Jesus was not such an One as could create with him any alarm about the interests of his Master the Emperor. But they still insisted that He had been making Himself a King, and that if he let this Man go, he could not be Caesar’s friend.

And here we are led to see that there is no security for the soul but in the possession of that faith that overcomes the world. Pilate had no desire after the blood of Jesus as the Jews had: but the friendship of Caesar was not to be hazarded. The rulers of Israel had once feared that if they let this Man alone, the Romans would come and take away both their place and nation; (John 11:48.) and Pilate now fears to lose the friendship of the same world in the Roman Emperor, And thus did the world bind him and the Jews together in the act of crucifying the Lord of glory: as it is written, “For of a truth, against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together, for to do whatsoever thy band and thy counsel determined before to be done.” (Acts 4:27, 28.)

But still, as we have observed, Pilate would have saved Jesus, could he at the same time have saved his own reputation as Caesar’s friend; and therefore it was, that he now entered the judgment-hall, and put this inquiry to Jesus, “Art thou the King of the Jews?” For as the Jews had committed the Lord to him upon a charge of having made Himself a King, (Luke 23:2.) if he could but lead the Lord to retract these his kingly pretensions, he might then both save Him, and keep himself unharmed. With the design of doing so, he seems thus at this time to have entered the judgment-hall. But the world in Pilate’s heart knew not Jesus; as it is written, “the world knew Him not.” (John 1:10; 1 John 3:1.) Pilate was now to find that the god. of this world had nothing in Jesus— “Jesus answered, sayest thou this thing of thyself, or did others tell it thee of me?” Our Lord by this would learn from Pilate himself where the source of the accusation against Him lay; whether His claim to be King of the Jews was thus challenged by Pilate as Protector of the Emperor’s rights in Judea, or merely upon a charge of the Jews.

Upon this hung, I may say, everything in the present juncture, and the wisdom and purpose of the Lord in giving the inquiry this direction is most manifest. Should Pilate say that he had now become apprehensive of the Roman interests, the Lord could have at once referred him to the whole course of His life and ministry, to prove that touching the king, innocency had been found in Him, He had taught the rendering to Caesar the things that were Caesar’s; He had withdrawn Himself, departing into a mountain alone, when He perceived that the multitude would have come and taken Him by force to make Him a king. His controversy was not with Rome. When He came He found Caesar in Judea, and He never questioned his title to be there; He rather at all times allowed his title, and took the place of the nation, which, because of disobedience, had the image and superscription of Caesar engraver, as it were, on their very land. It is true, that it was despite of the Majesty of Jehovah that had made way for the Gentiles into Jerusalem, but Jerusalem was for the present the Gentiles’ place, and therefore the Son of David had no controversy with them because of this. Nothing but the restored faith and allegiance of the nation to God could rightfully cancel this title of the Gentiles. The Lord’s controversy was therefore not with Rome, but with the rebellion and unbelief of Israel, with the “sinful nation.” And therefore, Pilate would have had his answer according to all this, had the charge proceeded. from himself as representative of the Roman power. But it did not so. Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew?” Thine own nation, and the chief priests have delivered thee unto me; what hast thou done?

Now this answer of Pilate conveyed the full proof of the guilt of Israel. In the mouth of him who represented the power of the world at that time, the thing was established that Israel had disclaimed their King and sold themselves into the hands of a stranger. This for the present was everything with Jesus. This at once carried Him beyond the earth and out of the world. For Israel had rejected Him, and His kingdom was therefore not now from hence. Neither indeed, could it be for it is written, “In Judah is God known, His name is great in Israel. In Salem also is His tabernacle, and His dwelling-place in Zion. There brake He the arrows of the bow, the shield, and the sword and the battle.” (Psa. 76:1-3.) Zion is the appointed place for the King of the whole earth to sit and rule: and the unbelief of the daughter of Zion must Deep the King of the earth away.

The Lord then, as this rejected King, listening to this testimony from the lips of the Roman, could only recognize His present loss of His throne. “Jesus answered my kingdom is not of this world; if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews, but now is my kingdom not from hence.” He had no weapons for war if Israel refused Him. There was no threshing for his floor now, for Israel is His instrument to thresh the mountains, (Isa. 41:15. Mic. 4:13. Jer. 2:20.) and Israel was now refusing Him. Out of Judah is to come forth the corner, the nail, and the battle bow, and the house of Judah, and that only is Messiah, to make His goodly horse in the battle. (Zech. 10:4.) Therefore in this unbelief of Judah He had nothing wherewith to spoil the stout-hearted and to be terrible to the kings of the earth, nothing wherewith to break the arrows of the bow, the shield, the sword, and the battle. (Psa. 76) His kingdom therefore could not be of this world, it could not be from hence; He had no servants who could fight that He should not be delivered to His enemies.

But this loss of a kingdom, which is “of this world,” is but for a while: for Israel who once said, “crucify Him, crucify Him,” shall be brought to say, “Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord;” and then shall the goodly horse be prepared for the battle, Judah shall be bent for Messiah, his bow shall be filled with Ephraim, and the daughter of Zion shall arise and thresh His floor.

And the answer of the Lord to Pilate intimated this final recovery of His kingdom: for while from the thus witnessed unbelief of His nation, Jesus perceived and allowed His present loss of it, yet He allows this in such terms as fully expresses His title to a kingdom, leading Pilate at once to say, “Art thou a King then?” And to this His “good confession” is witnessed. For Pilate would have had no cause to dread either the displeasure of his Master, or the tumult of the people; he might have fearlessly followed his will and delivered his prisoner, if the blessed Confessor would now after the word that had gone out of His lips, and withdraw His claim to be a King. But Jesus answered, “Thou sayest that I am a King.” From this His claim there could be no retiring. Here was His “good confession before Pontius Pilate.” Though His own received Him not, yet He was theirs; though the world knew Him not, yet was it made by Him. Though the husbandman were casting Him out, yet He was the Heir of the vineyard. He was anointed to the throne in Sion, though His citizens were saying, that they would not have Him to reign over them; and He must by His “good confession” fully verify His claim to it, and stand by that claim before Pontius Pilate, and in him before all the power of the world. It might arm all that power against Him, but it must be made. Herod and all Jerusalem had once been moved at hearing that He was born who was King of the Jews, and sought to slay the child; but let the whole world be now moved and arm its power against Him, yet He must declare God’s decree, “I have set my King upon my holy hill of Zion.” His right must be witnessed, though in the presence of the usurper, and in the very hour of His power.

But now we are led into other and further revelations.—

This “good confession” being thus witnessed, the Lord was prepared to unfold other parts of the divine counsels. When He had distinctly verified His title thus in the very presence of Caesar—i.e. of the world—i.e. of the usurper, a way was opened for Him to testify His present character and service. “To this end was I born,” says the Lord, “and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth; every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.” His possession of the kingdom was now for a time hindered by the unbelief of His nation, but He here shows that there had been no failure of the purpose of God by this, for that He had come into the world for other present work than to take His throne in Zion. He had come to bear “witness unto the truth.”

The Lord by this “good confession” was “witness to the truth,” for His testimony of course was true. But this character extends far beyond this “good confession,” and the Gospel of John is used by the Holy Ghost as the especial instrument of unfolding it. For in John we see that the Lord had been conducting His ministry as “witness unto the truth” from the very beginning; as is said in the 1st chap. “the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.” He had been manifesting the name of the Father to those who had been given to Him out of the world, (John 17:6.) and this is the same as bearing witness to the truth. (see John 8:26, 27.) He had come to give His elect an understanding that they might know Him that is true. (1 John 5:20.) Every one that was “of the truth,” as He here speaks to Pilate, had been hearing Him—His sheep had heard and. known His voice, while others believed not, because they were not His sheep. (John 10:3, 4, 26.) He that was of God had heard God’s word at His mouth, while others had not heard His words because they were not of God. (John 8:47.) And hereby had been made manifest the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error. (1 John 4:6,) He had come into the world that He might say, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life, no man cometh unto the Father but by me.” (John 14:6.) He was the Good Shepherd come to search out His flock—to gather to Himself and to the Father all who were His to bring into the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God all the elect children, and thus to fill up their full prepared measure; to bring forth sons unto God by the word of truth—to seal them with the spirit of adoption, and to prepare for them mansions in the Father’s house. The heavens were now to be opened, and the fullness of Him that filleth all in all, by the truth and through the Spirit, was to be prepared. and bought into them.

Such was the Lord’s present ministry, for such was He born; and had come into the world, and such had He been throughout opening to His disciples, as He says, “I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world.” (John 17:6.) Though a King, and King too of the Jews, and as such of the kingdoms of the world, He was not as yet to take His power, for His title had been denied by His own nation. Israel’s rejection of their King had now been sealed by that testimony of Pilate, “thine own nation hath delivered thee unto me;” the trial had now therefore fully proved them to be “reprobate silver;” the Lord’s tarrying among them, if haply they would repent, was therefore now to be over; He could no longer go through their cities and villages healing and preaching the kingdom, but must take on Him other ministry; and that ministry Be now fully and formally reveals, saying “to this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth; every one that is of the truth heareth me.”

But by this we at once discern the different purposes of God in His dispensations by Israel and by the Church; for the further development of which I have judged this passage of Scripture to be thus worthy of more careful notice than is perhaps commonly given to it. It is not as a King holding His citizens in rule, but as the manifester of the Father, making us sons, as we have seen, that the Lord is now fulfilling His pleasure. Through the word and by the Spirit, He is gathering all that are “of the truth,” (as He speaks to Pilate,) filling up the measure of His body the Church, which is His fullness.

We thus from this scripture get further evidence of the distinct purpose of God in His dispensation by Israel and the Church; a subject that has been often considered in previous Papers of the “Christian Witness.” But while we trace these things, may we know the power of them in our own souls more and more! Knowledge without communion with God would only expose our souls to Satan; may the Lord preserve us in so tempting a day as this.

And from all this we learn that the present absence of the Lord is to be interpreted differently as respects Israel and the Church. As respects the Church, it is gracious, because for them it was expedient that he went away, as by that they have received the Holy Ghost to be in them, to teach them, as the Spirit of truth, the testimony of Jesus who was the witness to the truth, the revealer of the Father.

But as respects Israel, it is judicial: and righteously so—because it was Israel’s unbelief and sin that occasioned it; it was by the wickedness of the husbandmen that the heir of the vineyard was cast out. According to all this, when the Lord left Israel He turned His back on their city, leaving it for desolation, and saying, “Behold your house is left unto you desolate.” (Matt. 23:38.) He hid His face from them. But when He left His Church, He left them in the act of lifting up His hands and blessing them; (Luke 24:51.) His face was inwards them. The one action was judicial, the other gracious. When He left the Jews, He said, “Yet a little while am I with you, and then I go unto Him that sent me, ye shall seek me and shall not find me, and where I am thither ye cannot come.” But when He left His disciples, He said, “A little while and ye shall not see me; and again, a little while, and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father.” When of old the glory departed from Israel, every ray of it, as it were was gathered up and not a trace left behind, no present mercy remained; (Ezek. 11:23.) but when Jesus ascended from the midst of His saints, it was but to give gifts to them; (Eph. 4:12, 13.) and as He said, “I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you,” (John 14:18.) As to Israel, the Lord is now asleep, (Psa. 44:23,) but as to the Church, He is ever wakeful and active, their advocate and Priest on high. (Heb. 9:24. 1 John 2:1.)

All this shows the different purpose which the Lord has as respects the Church and Israel. The Church during His absence is preparing through the Holy Ghost to stand in the glory of the Son, but it is the time of Israel’s judgment.

And here I cannot refuse to notice the same distinct and decided teaching as to this, which we get in the parable of the talents. (Luke 19)

The Lord is there presented to us as a Nobleman who went into a far country, to get for himself a Kingdom, and to return; who, previous to his departure, committed his goods to his servants to be occupied for him during his absence, and then on his return took account of them severally, and executed righteous judgment on his citizens who had plainly told him before he went away that they would not have him to reign over them.

Now in this exhibition of the ways of God we shall find very clearly that the purpose (among others) of the present dispensation is, to provide companions for the King in His glory, to give to Him those who shall share the throne of the Kingdom with Him. The servants are distinguished from the citizens in this parable. The servants have their occupation during the nobleman’s absence, but during that time the citizens are not within view at all. So is it with the Church and with Israel. During this dispensation, which is the time of the Lord’s absence, the Church occupies the scene, and Israel as a nation is forgotten—there is neither Jew nor Greek—and after the return the distinction between the servants and the citizens is still as clear. The servants (found faithful) are called into the fellowship of the kingdom, and the citizens are punished for their rebellion. So is it with the Church and with Israel. The saints of the Most High are to take the Kingdom with the Son of Man. They who have continued with Jesus in His temptation, are to have a Kingdom appointed them by Him, as He receives a Kingdom from the Father. They who overcome are to sit with Him on His throne. The saints are to judge the world.

The servants of this parable are not the subjects but the co-heirs with the returned nobleman: and such are the saints, “heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ;” they share the dominion with Him. They are not after the nobleman’s return to bring forth their fruit, but they will then rather reap the glory of dominion with him, as the reward of their having brought forth their fruit to him now in this time of his absence. “Because thou hast been faithful in a very little,” will be said to the servants by the returned nobleman, “have thou authority over ten cities.” But Israel in the day of the return of their once rejected but then glorified King, are to meet the vengeance. Israel are the citizens, for Zion is the city of the Great King, and Jesus is the King of the Jews. It is as a King with His subjects or citizens that the Lord is to be associated with the people of Israel, and not as Heir with His co-heirs, And their cry, their rebellious cry, “We have no King but Cesar,” in the day of the returned nobleman, the day of the revelation of Messiah the King, is to be answered thus— “those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither and slay them before me.” (Luke 19:27.) The present absence of the Lord is not working their repentance; but rather the old rebellious spirit is judicially working in them till His return finds them ripe for the judgment. And thus will that return bring the “day of vengeance.” (Isa. 61:1, 2. Luke 4:18-21.) “the time of Jacob’s trouble” (Jer. 30:7.)—of trouble such as never was since there was a nation. (Dan. 12:1.) In that day an alarm will be sounded, for it will be “a day of clouds and, thick darkness” (Joel 2:12.)—“in all the land two parts shall he cut of and die” (Zech. 13:8.)—it will be a day that “shall burn as an oven,” and who, as says the Prophet, may abide it? (Mal. 3:2. 4:1.)

But let us not forget that the nobleman has returned “having received the kingdom,” and that the faithful servants have been promised their ten and their five cities. Therefore though the rebellious be thus judged, the scene of dominion is not to pass away in the judgment, The cities have been promised as the rewards of service, the kingdom has been received by the nobleman, and this earth to which the nobleman returns, (for the place of his return is the place of his kingdom) must remain for the exhibition of that kingdom, and to be the scene of those rewards:, And therefore we read in other scriptures that it is “all people, nations, and languages,” the people, nations, and languages of this earth which shall be given to this king and His servants. “The Son of Man shall be given dominion and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations and languages should serve Him.” Judgment then shall be given to the saints of the Most High— “The saints shall judge the world” and shall possess the kingdom. (see Dan. 7:13, 14, 22. 1 Cor. 6:2.)

From all this then, we gather that this present Dispensation is giving a family of children to the heavenly Father, and to the blessed Son of Man, companions in the glory of His throne. These are its purposes. By the ministry of the “Witness to, the Truth,” which is the Son, and “the Spirit” which is the Holy Ghost, the saints are made sons and daughters, for whom are prepared the mansions in the Father’s house. They are all one in the adoption of their heavenly Father, equally and surely belonging to Him, “all fitly framed together;” but in the inheritance of the glories of the corning kingdom (for which they are now getting ready) they are not one, as it is said to them, “have thou authority over ten cities,” — “have thou authority over five cities.”

And in this is the perfection of the ways of our God; for in this will be found all that quiets the soul while it awakens it, all that would lead us forth to service, and yet never take us from our sweet retreat, the full assurance of our Father’s equal love, O that the love of Christ may constrain us more and more to be willing servants one of another. This is the only real dignity, the only true praise. “I am among you as one that serveth,” said the Lord and Master of us all. Whatever the outward aspect and bearing of our life may be, the spirit of service should be the hidden principle. “If we be beside ourselves”—what should we still be able to say? “it is unto God”—“if we be sober,” what should we still be able to say? “it is for your cause.” No man liveth unto himself, and no man dieth unto himself. This is the only true rule of Christian action, this the hidden and only effectual spring to set all our movements aright, as under God and life to Jesus.

The Feasts.-Lev. 23

I apprehend that these Feasts must be taken to apply entirely to that which is earthly. Other knowledge may enable us to carry our eyes onward to results of what is here taught, which have their place in the heavenlies, but as addressed to the Jews, they cannot historically, I conceive, be taken beyond that which took place on earth. But this is of infinite value and importance to us, because whatever the results may be, the heavenly and glorious results, still many of the most important subjects and resting-places of faith were accomplished on the earth historically. The Lord was offered up a sacrifice on earth. The Holy Ghost descended on the disciples on earth. The Church, though its glory may not be on earth, has been formed in suffering on earth. And the Church itself looks for the deliverance of the creature from the bondage of corruption. And the value and character of what has been done on earth, of which the Church is partaker, is here delineated in detail.

There are Seven Feasts—The Sabbath—The Passover—That of Unleavend Bread—The Feast of Weeks, or First-fruits—of Trumpets—of Atonement and of Tabernacles.

But the first was distinct in character. Before all the history of the transactions which brought in the Rest or preceded it, the great truth that there was a Rest that remained, was made prominent and conspicuous. It was the primary and characterizing truth. Between the three former also of the six remaining ones and the three latter, there is a large gap, a characteristic gap, so that the full course of the year to the seventh month goes on, before the trumpet is blown for the first of them. This interval had no feast, and one only remark is made as to it, which may be noticed by and by.

A similar arrangement we find in the Seven Parables, in the 13th chap. of Matthew—the prophetic history of the kingdom of heaven, as this is of the earthly dealings in grace with Israel, in many things, we know, by adopting grace with us also. This—the history of what prepared the Rest, preceded by the statement of the Rest, God’s Rest, in type: that of the effects and character of the work preceded by the generic statement of the workman, and the manner of the reception and result of his labors in principle.

The Rest of God is that which distinguishes man from the brute, and from being as a brute, with hopes and labor ending only here in that which perishes, to say even the best of it. The promise is left us, says the Apostle to the Hebrews, of entering into God’s rest. This is the portion of communion and blessing in which God, in the delight of His works of creation or redemption, refreshed Himself, and into which He introduces us in the riches of His grace, and by His work, into fellowship of delight and joy with film, whether of heavenly communion or of earthly blessing. The Rest of God is the great end and beginning of thought and desire into which the renewed creature is brought in fellowship, now, of hope. Here God and the creature are brought into unity a community of happiness, the creature—even we by the Spirit, being capacitated for this communion. The creation also has blessing and rest. Faith, and patience, and conflict, now are involved in it, and hence the complex character of the believer’s mind; for one is sure, is certain, and his; the other present and he toiling in it.

The Sabbath then, even the Seventh Day, was the first great characteristic and repeated feast—the Seventh Day, because the rest was at the close of labor, and rest not known in the flesh, and under the law until the end of labor; and the rest of the world, and of the earth, creation rest, was after all the toil and labor that sin had introduced into it had ended and was passed away. This seventh day was God’s creation rest, and it remained when labor and toil came in to man, the pledge and type, as in the flesh and having earthly things, of the rest that remained to the world and him.

But the saints have nothing in the world, they are dead. to it; to them Resurrection is the beginning and withal the substance and end of their hope and life. The first day of the week in which Jesus rose from the dead is the living witness to them in joyful service (and remembrance of that through which it was purchased) of the rest that remained to them, which they have now in Spirit, and go forth from that to toil yet awhile in the world in which they are conversant. It is not to them creation and earthly rest, but redemption, resurrection, and the hope of heavenly rest, and is therefore enjoyed not on the day of God’s rest in creation, but of Jesus, (beginning of blessing and glory as head of the Church “the first-born from the dead”) in resurrection, in which He rested as to work to be done in redemption, rested save as to everlasting blessing and service to His saints, in which they have joy and communion with Him as their Priest—the leader of their praises, in which, as in living strength now in Spirit, then in body also, they rest not. Thus in this double type the whole millennial rest is taken in, heavenly or resurrection, and earthly or rest for the flesh; of this, however, save in the great general principle, the earthly rest is only told of here—creation rest. Of this the law maintained the type, though it proved that man could not attain it under it, and therefore when the Lord was accused of breaking the Sabbath, he replied, “my Father worketh hitherto and I work,” showing the divine intervention (of the Father and the Son) in grace accomplishing that comfort which the law could not do; in which man, in a word, impotently failed; and therefore God, in sovereignty and in redemption glory, as Father and Son, had now manifested Himself as having set Himself to work to do, nor rested, for He was in grace where wretched man found no rest. Hitherto, for yet man was not delivered, they worked.

But to turn to the other feasts. The Passover and the Feast of Weeks of the first three have their own distinct characters—being leading feasts, in which all the males were to gather at the place where the Lord set His name. But we must take their order from the text. They are divided into ordinances by the expression— “And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying.” The first paragraph, or ordinance, closes at the 8th verse, connecting in one continuous train the Sabbath, and the Passover, and Feast of Unleavened Bread, though distinguished by the 4th verse as beginning the six yearly feasts historically, yet morally in constitution the Rest connected and identified with it. For it is by the Passover and simply so that the rest is obtained; there may be other conducive workings, but by this the rest is obtained; and this is true also of the Church in principle as well as of the earthly rest ικανωσεν ημας hath qualified us for the inheritance, says the scripture. (Col. 1:12.) And this is a very important principle. The passover of God is the simple single ground of rest and security; upon the blessed value of this the children and people of God can feed within, the security of the blood being upon their doorposts. That meets the destroying angel, and he goes, and can go no farther. Within all is peace—judgment may be around, and conflict and trial before, but the Church rests in the security, which faith has afforded or enjoys in the Paschal Lamb, eaten within the blood-stricken doors. This is not the work of the Spirit of God save as revealing it in and to us—the work of the Spirit detects sin, leads into conflict, animates into those exercises which ever bring to light the evil short-comings and failure of our own hearts, but is never the ground and warrant of peace. It may be the means on being charged by the enemy of proving that the peace we have is not a false one, but is never the proper ground and warrant of peace; for it is ever connected with imperfection, and perfectness somewhere must be the ground of peace with a perfect God. “By one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.” “He has made peace by the blood of His cross.” Nothing can be mixed with this, nothing in us come up to the measure and expression of holiness which that blood affords, or therefore can make peace as it does. It is the very vindication of perfect holiness against all sin, and therefore the perfect peace of the Believer against all sin; for the thing which alone adequately measures it, puts it away, cleanses from all, those that are walking in the light.

“But Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.” And we have thus definitely the antitype of the Lamb that was slain. It is moreover in this character that Christ at present holds the throne as regards His work, and its worthiness, as it is written, Heb. 1:3; Phil. 2:9, 10; Rev. 5:9.

The secondary feast connected with this was the unleavened bread. This was consequent upon the other, As received by the blood, we feed on and apprehend. the unleavened perfectness of Christ. It is His intrinsic character as known by faith; there was no “leaven of malice and wickedness” in Him, and in the Spirit of His holiness in our new nature we hold communion with delight in, and feast upon, Him, The spotless sacrifice and unleavened perfectness of Christ, with which we have communion, are the things then presented by this feast, the sure ground of rest, the rest which remaineth to the people of God. This of Christ as in the world—we know Him such here.

At ver. 9, a new ordinance begins, which continues to ver. 23—the connection of Christ as risen and presented before the Lord in resurrection, and the Church—that is, properly, the Jewish remnant connected with Him; the Gentile adoption being another thing, though abundantly shown in Scripture, there being neither Jew nor Gentile in the full result, but here confined to resurrection.

On the morrow after the sabbath, the unbroken sheaf of first-fruits was waved before the Lord. On the first day of the week the Lord Jesus, not having seen corruption, rose from the dead, become the first-fruits of them that slept. Thus, as well as of the Passover, we have in this case the literal and authenticated fulfillment of the type given. On the same day a lamb for a burnt-offering and a meat-offering were offered to the Lord. I must shortly digress here with regard to the offering, the use of which will appear also in the subsequent part of the ordinance we are now treating of. it will be seen ver. 19, that with the first-fruits of the feast of weeks a sin offering also was offered, and a peace offering, but not with the sheaf of first fruits typical of Christ’s resurrection, on which the Church and Jews rest for acceptance, as it is written, ver. 11, “to be accepted for you.”

The offerings recorded in the book of Leviticus (into the details of which, with the Lord’s permission, we may enter some other opportunity) were these—The Burnt Offering—the Meat Offering—the Peace Offering—the Sin Offering and the Trespass Offering, and in this order. The first two present Christ offering himself spotless and perfect to God—the next the communion of the worshipper in it and with God by it—the two latter the necessity of the worshipper, as a sinner before God, borne for him by the victim vicariously substituted for him, and treated consequently as himself, under and responsible for the sin thus taken upon it. These are very distinct things in their character, and all true of the death and offering of Jesus. The Burnt Offering was the complete surrender of life, on which all hung, and this not by virtue of imputed transgression, but His own offering of Himself, not an imposed necessity, but of His own voluntary will, as in John 10 “Therefore doth my Father love me because I lay down my life that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself; I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment I have received of my Father.” Now the whole life of Jesus was on this principle, His death was the full accomplishment and exhibition of it—proved all the rest, “He gave himself for us.” Of this—i.e. His giving Himself, describing Him especially as the Son of God, the gospel of John is the especial witness: I speak merely as refers to this subject. There is besides the quoted passage—no garden of Gethsemane—but “arise, let us go hence,” “I am He,” and “they went backward and fell to the ground.” “If ye seek me let these go their way, that the saying might be fulfilled which he spake, of them which thou hast given me, I have lost none”—even them who all forsook Him and fled, There was no “My God my God! why hast thou forsaken me?” not merely εξεπνευσεν he expired, but “Father, into thy hands I commend my Spirit,” and having so said παρεδωκε το πνευμά He gave up His Spirit, or the Ghost. Here then we have the burnt sacrifice offered to the very uttermost of His own voluntary will, at the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation. It was always true in principle, “His meat was to do the will of Him that sent Him”—but it was wrought to the full effect when the blessed Master and Lord, the free Lord of all, gave up His Spirit to the Father. This sacrifice was an offering made by fire, a sweet savor to the Lord. This was not said of the sin offering as such. The fat, to connect it with the burnt offering in principle, for both were one in Christ, was burnt on the altar, and this was of a sweet savor, but the offering in its differential character was not an offering made by fire nor of a sweet savor to the Lord. This the meat offering was however as well as the burnt offering—one being it appears to me the complete offering of the life, the other of all the natural faculties of the Lord as man, which being perfect as His will, He was in them all an offering made by fire a sweet savor to the Lord. The peace offering was as far as the fat burnt upon the altar an offering made by fire, a sweet savor to the Lord; then the offerers feasted on the flesh, and being the communion of the worshippers, evil was mixed in them, and they were to offer leavened bread therewith. On the sin-offering sins were confessed—it was burnt without the camp as a vile thing, not an offering made by fire—no sweet savor. It was the vicarious substitute for offenses bearing them on its head and in its body, made sin for the sinner, vile and treated as such. With the offering therefore of the sheaf of first-fruits there was no sin offering, no peace offering, but only accompanying this presenting of Christ to God, waved before Him as risen uncorrupted, the witness of the perfectness of that self-sacrifice in which Jesus had offered Himself living and dying to God—His own perfect offering of Himself. As to leaven there could be no question of it, the seed sown and the first risen sheaf were alike by their nature free from any portion or partaking in it. With this the Church is connected, on this it is built, indeed all hope, I say, upon the resurrection. Sin and death having entered, resurrection is the only way out of it. One alone could provide a spotless sacrifice which should bring others out of it. Resurrection was the witness, the power, of the Church’s acceptance; for its sins, which Jesus as representing it had borne in His own body on the tree, were gone, discharged. He rose free from them all in every sense. “He was delivered for our offenses and raised again for our justification,” therefore we have peace. Resurrection was also the spring, and source, and character of its life, as well as the power in which Jesus exercised all the functions in which he secured “the sure mercies of David” to the Jew, and glory by a continuous priesthood, for the Church—the sinner called by grace. The Church is quickened together with Him, being forgiven all trespasses. But connected with this, in the communicating energy by which it and all resulting from it is enjoyed, is the gift of the Holy Ghost answering to the gift of the law after the redemption from Egypt. Accordingly on the morrow after the seventh sabbath, after the former offering of first-fruits, (called hence the day of Pentecost,) the associate feast was introduced, a new meat offering was to be offered, the feast of first-fruits. “Ye shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of two tenth deals, they shall be of fine flour, they shall be baken with leaven, they are the first-fruits unto the Lord.” These, it is to be remarked, were to be baken with leaven. The force of this in such case may be seen.1 Cor. 5:8. This leaven mixed with the cakes of first-fruits is spoken of also in the direction as to the meat offering (Lev. 2). “No meat offering which ye shall bring unto the Lord shall be made with leaven, for ye shall burn no leaven nor any honey, in any offering of the Lord made by fire.” As for the oblation of the first-fruits, “Ye shall offer them unto the Lord but they shall not be burnt on the altar for a sweet savor.” Now of this subsidiary feast to the resurrection sheaf we have also the fulfillment historically afforded in Scripture, the history of “the day of Pentecost fully come” is too well known to need the proof of its application. By this the Church was first formally gathered, and though the operations of the Spirit were continued in gathering even till now, still they partook of the same character. “Of His own will begat He them with the word of truth, that they might be a kind of first-fruits of His creatures.” As then we had Christ sacrificed as the Passover, and raised and waved as the sheaf of first-fruits uncorrupted to God, and the burnt sacrifice and meat offering in which was no leaven offered therewith, so we have here consequent thereon and connected therewith, the quickening gathering operation of the Holy Ghost, but the cake which it made the first-fruits of the creature, mixed with leaven. There was still in the work which it produced other besides itself, leaven was there, consequently though offered to the Lord it could not be burnt on the altar for a sweet savor. Here then we have the essential difference between the Church and Christ. The one in all its parts perfect, and in His offering a sweet savor made by fire, unleavened beauty and perfectness, and fit and able to be presented to God in the holiness of His judgment; the other under the operation of the Spirit, offered indeed to the Lord, but let it be ever so blessed, leaven, the leaven of malice and wickedness still there, and incapable of being presented as a sweet savor, an offering made by fire unto the Lord. Such then is the character of the Church still, as presented in itself to God. The fruits of the Spirit in it may be most pleasant to the Lord, and are so and of a sweet savor, the flesh may be subdued and kept down, and these blessed fruits, against which there is no law, most pleasant to God as the offspring in us of the seed of His grace glorifying Him, the rather, as produced in such a soil, but as presented in itself to God still such. But for this there was also characteristic provision: in vers. 19, 20, we find a sin-offering offered, waved with the leavened cakes, and as the offering of Christ was in its own purity and could be a sweet savor, so this was accepted through that which accompanied it—the sin-offering which met, as it were, and supplied the defect of them, was waven. There was also a peace offering because there the joy and communion into which the Church was brought by the Spirit.

The whole of this dispensation rests under the character of this feast; the passover and unleavened bread is connected with the Rest; the sheaf of first fruits, with its suited offerings of perfectness, and the leavened cake consequent upon it, with its called for offering of sin-bearing and resulting offering of communion, still characterized by accompanying leaven. (Lev. 7:13.) The work of Christ for Rest, and the gathering and state of the Church met by the sin offering, are brought into clear and distinct light, nor does this dispensation pass beyond these things. Next we find allusion to the Harvest, but it is not actually treated of. It embraced heavenly things, the wheat in that Christ was rejected, risen, and glorified, was to be gathered into His barn. It passed beyond earthly things for He had. The whole condition and circumstances of the Church, though under the energy of God’s Spirit brought out on earth, did not belong there, it was a leavened cake still. The harvest was properly associated with the waved sheaf—with resurrection—it is passed by because the risen Church would be associated with Christ in heavenly glory. But there is allusion to it, no feast nor part of a feast, but a fact connected with it. The harvest did not, and in God’s purpose, was not meant to clear the field. The corners were unreaped, the gleanings ungathered. There was left in the field by the harvest still that which, though not gathered into the barn, was wheat, and of this only is such a thing here spoken. We have nothing to do with tares here. Hereupon we return to the course of earthly things. Long months had passed since the purpose of God had begun to work, and long months ere the full time came round, after the unnoticed period of heavenly things, for returning to purposes properly earthly. The first-fruits characterizing the whole period, and only noticing, as to the harvest, that it did not clear the field.

The 23rd verse of the chapter introduces, as accompanying the ushering in of the 7th month, a holy convocation, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a day of joy and holiday. The Lord was called to mind in it. Such is the character of this feast—it was a memorial. When the Moon began afresh to receive its new light from the Sun, yet feeble and heretofore waxed dim. When the other thoughts had passed away the Lord’s memorial takes effect. The trumpets were blown at other times for a memorial to be remembered before the Lord. Now it was the feast of remembrance—the trumpets characterized the very object of the feast, only it was upon the re-appearance of the Moon not the Sun of Righteousness. It had hitherto eclipsed the Moon, yet now from it, this renewed, should receive its light; gradually had it waned to be hidden in his splendor, now emerging from it risen in his light reflected—forgotten in it, to man’s judgement at least. The trumpet is blown in the new moon, on the solemn feast day. (Psa. 81:3. Isa. 51) For if a woman should forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on the fruit of her womb, yet if to man forgotten, “she was graven on the palms of His hands” who fainted not, neither is weary, there is no searching of His understanding. “If He had spoken against them, He earnestly remembered them still,” “His servants were now to think upon her stones.” But the summons was public and loud, though in the new moon—it demanded the attention of the Isles, yea all the inhabitants of the world and dwellers upon earth when he blew a trumpet. The circumstances and interpretation of that 8th chapter of Isa. I do not enter into, but it marks the connection of the period.

The great public summons being now given, brings on the day of atonement for Israel—that is, their coming in personal humiliation under it, and this was separative in its character. It was a day for them to afflict their souls, ceasing irrespectively from all worldly employment, “ye shall do no work;” whatever soul was not afflicted was to be cut off, and so it will be; we find it in Joel 2 we find their character in Zeph. 3:12 we find the affliction itself in Zech. 12. Their acknowledgment in terms of the value of that which made peace for the mourners is in Isa. 53

These two are yet to come, ordinances for Israel, whose antitypical accomplishment is yet to be looked for, after the lapse of the period allotted in specific character to the Church, gathered by the Spirit as a waved cake of first-fruits with leaven. The day of blowing of trumpets, and the day of atonement—of humbling, afflicting their souls to Israel was followed in the perfected time of twice seven days, by the great solemn assembly of the feast of tabernacles, at which all the children of Israel were to appear, “the great congregation.” As to this there are some remarkable circumstances. This alone, save the feast of Passover once in Deut. 16:8, with, I believe, a similar purpose, is called a solemn assembly, as far as I am aware, or day of restraint. It was the great final feast of the year. It was at this feast that Solomon’s temple was dedicated, when the king turned his face and blessed the whole congregation of Israel, when the blessed Lord God. of Israel had with His hands fulfilled that which He had spoken with His mouth to His father David, and the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God. It was in this feast that the children of Israel found themselves assembled under Nehemiah, on their restoration from Babylon to their own land after the captivity, It was at this feast that the brethren of Jesus proposed that He should show Himself to the world; but His time was not yet come, though their time was always ready, and He went not up (then) unto the feast. It was the final assembly of the whole congregation of Israel. There was, however, another remarkable circumstance in the feast of tabernacles—there was an eighth day, or as we should say, a first day of the week, which was not the case with the other feasts. This is noticed, after the regular history of the feasts which we have been tracing, in ver. 39; again, and in connection with another feature, that it was after the gathering in the fruit of the land. All born Israelites, moreover, we are told in this second notice of it, were to dwell in booths in witness that they had been made to dwell as pilgrims in booths under the Lord’s shadow, as it were in a houseless homeless wilderness. It was the feast of ingathering. Now this eighth day, as we observed, is the first day of the week, the resurrection day; the whole seven days they were to rejoice before the Lord, such was their portion in their Rest, but the eight day was the solemn assembly, “the great day of the feast.” This surely marks the connection and introduction, the extraordinary connection of the Resurrection Church with the Rest that remained to the people of God. Our Lord’s reference to this “great day of the feast” marks and confirms, indeed. establishes this. Upon the last day, that great day of the feast, at which though typically present, He declared He would not show Himself then to the world, He cried and said, “If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink, and out of his belly shall flow, as the scripture has said, rivers of living water. This spake He of the Spirit which they that believed on Him should receive.”

In the first place, there is the admission of the Gentiles here, “If any man thirst; and there is the gift of the Holy Ghost, the witness of heavenly things, whence flowed the refreshing streams of divine knowledge and grace, concerning that which was verified in the ascension where Jesus was glorified, of which it was the witness as coming from it. This is doubtless in allusion to the Rock in the wilderness, on their coming out of which into the land, they were to keep the feast of tabernacles. Jesus was not yet manifest to the world, nor would He be till He came in glory. In the meanwhile His thirsting saints would be in the wilderness, “in a barren and dry land where no water was,” waiting to see the glory which would give them rest—the first day of the new and everlasting week when Jesus should appear. But then as to each, out of his belly would be a river of living waters; his own soul, through the Holy Ghost dwelling in him, would be the channel of boundless refreshment; each one that once thirsted would be the source of refreshment to others. It was not merely He was born of the Spirit; it was not merely that it dwelt in Him as a well springing up in Him unto everlasting life; but it should be from His soul a river flowing forth of spiritual, heavenly things, all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. “Out of His belly,” because it was not merely as to the believer a conferred gift the lowest way in which it would be present, for Jesus might still say “I never knew you,” but from the planting and reforming the affections of his soul, capacitating them, through the energy of the Spirit, for the communicative possession and enjoyment as well as statement of all these heavenly joys which should be accomplished when, in the great eighth day of the feast, Jesus, long bidden and doing things secretly, should show Himself to the world. This then embraces what we are accustomed to call the Gentile Church—the glorified Church, of which the indwelling Spirit in its blessing of all power in the individual soul, had been marked by the Lord as the sign in the wilderness; not merely a rock out of which for all, but out of his belly who believed should flow rivers of living water. Thus the force of the Eighth Day is made very distinctly apparent.

The Feast of the ingathering properly embraced Israel, the people of God, restored out of the wilderness to the place of God’s rest, to rejoice there gathered back out of all lands; but it involves with it another scene, dimly marked and given room for, in which indeed Israel and the world too had resulting blessing, but which flowed, as the eye of the believer filled with the Spirit is opened to see, from higher sources, though it might refresh the gladdened plains below—exhaustless boundless sources of heaven caught supplies. When to the desires thus quickened and thus exalted, the Lord should “pour forth His fullness, and the Lord should hear the heavens, and the heavens should hear the earth, and the earth should hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil, and they shall hear Jezreel.” God would “sow her unto Him in the earth, and have mercy on her that had not obtained mercy, and say to them on whom Lo-ammi had been written, thou art my people, and they shall say, Thou art my God;” a time when the mountains catching the full rain of blessing from above shall but distribute them by the vallies which the Lord has formed, and the wide scene beneath shall be refreshed by goodness and blessing, which its own far distant lowness would have never reached or drawn. Blessed shall be that day, a full unhindered united time of joy, when all long severed, never properly one in glory, knit only in the misery which he who had defiled the heavens and deceived and ruined man upon the earth had brought in—brought into one fullness in ordered and united and suited blessing, in connection with a far higher even the highest infinite fullness through Him who, being Lord from heaven, descended. into the lower parts of the earth, that Ile might fill all things—gathered together in one both which are in heaven and which are on earth, in Him; in whom we have received an inheritance, shall be in Him, to the praise of His glory; shall minister in perfect unison of various reflective glory to the perfectness of His love, whose all the glory is. And the blood of the Lamb, through which it has been accomplished, shall be seen in all its glory, in all its value. They shall declare its excellency in marveling thankfulness forever. It hath cleansed and redeemed us for communion with the Highest, and purged the defiled inheritance—the now accomplished rest of God in love and peace.

Luke 14-16

IT is one common but remarkable feature in the history of the progress of the spiritual mind, that it gradually is turned away from the external evidences of Christianity, because of the convincing testimony of the Scriptures themselves to their divine origin. “He that believeth on the Son of God, hath the witness in himself;” and this is the most happy liberty of the simple minded believer in Christ. He is delivered from that ceaseless questioning characterized as “always learning but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth,” which is the miserable state of those who, indulging the natural unbelief of their heart, are ever requiring a demonstration subjected to their understanding, instead of the exhibition of the moral glory of God in the person of His Son, addressed to their consciences. This indeed is the question between God and man. “Light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” For after all, infidelity in its moral character, (and as such it is always treated in Scripture,) comes to this, man’s setting himself up in comparison with the Lord Jesus Christ, and giving himself the preference. But he that believeth on the Son of God, knows Him to be the great subject of the revelation of God, the grand doctrine taught of God, as well as being in His own person the revealer of God, and a teacher sent from God. Hence it is that the Scriptures are of such a peculiar character; they have a definite point in view—the unfolding the purpose of God in Christ. Hence even those parts of the Scriptures which are historical or biographical, pass over some incidents which, in the estimation of man, would be the best worth recording, and dwell on others which, insignificant in themselves, have a typical character, or are illustrative of some of the great principles of God. The rest of the acts of a king of Israel or Judah, monuments it might be of his genius or prowess, are written in the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Israel and Judah; but that which is profitable for us to know is written for our admonition in the Scripture of truth. If examples were wanting, why, it may be asked, is the incest of Judah so largely (comparatively speaking) recorded? Why the history of Ruth introduced into the sacred Canon? The answer is found by a spiritual understanding in Matt. 1:3-5, “Judas begat Phares and Zara of Tamar; and Salmon begat Boaz of Rachab; and Boaz begat Obed of Ruth; and Obed begat Jesse; and Jesse begat David the king.” It was connected with the genealogy of David and “of the Son of David.” In the New Testament, in the Gospels, we have the biography and we have the doctrines of Jesus— “all that Jesus began both to do and to teach;” and yet we should have but a very imperfect account indeed, if we looked only at these notices, of Him who went about doing good, and lose the most valuable instruction, if we did not seek for more than a mere historical record. The astonishing things which Jesus did would, each one by itself, in man’s estimation, have filled a volume. He went about doing good; and hardly a step did He move without doing that which, if man had been the recorder, and man’s fame the object, would have furnished materials too ample for man to digest. (John 20:30, 31, 21:25.) “And Jesus went about all Galilee teaching in their Synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people; and His fame went throughout all Syria, and they brought unto Him all sick people that were taken with diverse diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatic, and those that had the palsy, and He healed them.” It is in a way so succinct as this that works the most stupendous in the eyes of men, are noticed by the Spirit of God. It is “the Word made flesh, and that dwelt among us full of grace and truth,” which is exhibited to us in the gospels. And the occasions appear to be watched, arising either from contrast or circumstances, of bringing forth this grace and truth which was in Him to light.

It is not merely the personal biography of Jesus, neither is it the exhibition of film in one character alone which is there intended, but the setting Him forth as the Light and the Truth. Hence it is in a great measure that the orderly narration of events is not so much studied nor prominence given to those, which in our fleshly judgment were the most important, because it is not the event but the person and his manner and way in it which it is so important for us to know, Each of the Evangelists, as has been remarked in vol. i. of this publication, holds up Jesus in a different relation, the one is not supplemental to the other, but that which Jesus did. or said is either recorded. or omitted, as it tended to elucidate that part of His manifold character which the Holy Ghost, who glorifieth Jesus was thus by man’s instrumentality unfolding to us. The testimonies of John the Baptist to Jesus in Matt. 3 and John 1 and 3 are very different, but characteristically different in that Matthew is the historian of the “Son of David, the Son of Abraham” of Jesus the Messias, John of Him who was “from the beginning” “the Word made flesh.” But marked as these differences are in the narratives themselves, no less marked is the manner in which the Lord Himself takes the opportunity of evolving the truth. Almost all the recorded discourses of the Lord are incidental, they arose out of the circumstances in which He was, or from the observations of the bystanders. These constantly afforded. occasion for contrasting the thoughts and ways of God with those of man; not only showing them to be higher, but showing what grace was in God, and what truth was, by the absence of both in man.

It was a rare thing for the Lord to appear out of that place to which He had humbled Himself, though equal with God, the place of a Servant; for He took upon Him the form of a Servant being made in the likeness of men. He had voluntarily come into it (which no creature not the highest Archangel could do, for Servant is His proper place) and acted consistently in it—waiting Himself to receive the commandments of God to tell them to others. “The words that I speak unto you, I speak not of myself but the Father that dwelleth in me He doeth the works.” It was as thus humbled. that He watched His opportunity of instruction, waiting upon His Father, as He speaks, “the Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: He wakeneth morning by morning, He wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned.” (Isa. 50:4.) It was thus as He said in another place, “My doctrine is not mine but His that sent me,” (John 7:16.) and it was brought out on the suitable occasion.

Hence arises the great danger of systematizing Christianity—it was not so introduced. The law was given by Moses, grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Moses comes clown from the Mount and continuously narrates to the people what he had heard and seen in the Mount. It was law, an ordered system; it was that which befitted. the holiness of God, and therefore capable of being at once exhibited. The Prophet like unto Moses but greater than Moses, for “He that cometh from heaven is above all,” testified to what He had seen and heard; but it was not law, but grace and truth; which, except in His own Person, were incapable of being at once exhibited, but required to be unfolded gradually, according as the manifold necessities of man discovered themselves; for there is not a single necessity of man (hard. as it is for us to learn all our wants) which is not met by the fullness of that grace which is in Christ Jesus. It is therefore of no small importance to notice attentively not only the matter but the manner of the Lord’s discourses—that which led to them as well as the point to which they tend. And it is this which ever gives a peculiar freshness to the gospels. In the epistles we have, as it were, God’s plans most graciously subjected to the spiritual understanding; but in the gospels the living, speaking, acting truth itself. Among other ways of the Lord, one appears very frequently marked, (standing as He did as “the minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers,” and yet in all the consciousness of rejection by His own, and with a Baptism before Him to be baptized with which so deeply straitened His soul,) He seized on every suitable occasion to break in on Jewish feeling and Jewish expectation, in order to lead the mind to another state of things. One very frequent way of doing this was by performing acts of mercy on the Sabbath, which afforded such matter of controversy between Him end the Scribes and Pharisees. (Matt. 12; John 5; 7:21-24.) And the record of this and the reference by the Lord to it, prove it to be an instructive point. It was clearly the breaking in on Jewish feeling, as to any rest in earthly things then. God had rested. in creation; man had broken in on that rest by sin. God had again, as it were, rested in bringing the Israelites out of Egypt, supplying their wants with bread from heaven, (Ex. 16;23,) but they immediately broke it again and fell to murmuring. (Ex. 17) Joshua did not lead them into the typified rest; the commandment stood on the table of the covenant, it stood marked not as their present blessing, but as the memorial of God’s rest in creation and pledge and type of it. But man would rejoice in the works of His hands and although as a people they had notoriously profaned the Lord’s sabbath, (Ezek. 20:13-16.) they still kept them for their own sakes, so that the charge against them was, “the new moons and sabbath I cannot away with.” (Isa. 50) It formed an easy part of their religion, to make up by a scrupulous austerity on the seventh day for exaction and covetousness on the six. It was thus at the time of the Lord’s ministry that they were settled down in self-complacency, taking rest here, instead of anticipating their entrance into God’s rest. The reason of our Lord’s prominent acts of mercy being then done on the sabbath day, He Himself gives, “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.” (John 5:17.) It was not yet the rest of God; however they might take complacency in the existing system, God could not. This could not fail to be an instructive testimony to the Jews, as indeed is abundantly evident from the power it had of exasperating them. But it is not less instructive to us—there is no rest of God in the world—it is the subject of His long-suffering and forbearance, not of His complacency. There is One in whom His soul does rest, even Jesus, and in Him also does the Believer rest; and hence it is not the sabbath which the Christian delights himself in, but the Lord’s day, even in the resurrection of Jesus, where his soul can dwell on that which is not subject to change—even the inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven. This infringement of the supposed sanctity of the sabbath, whilst it furnished a positive testimony to the glory of His Person, “the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath,” was especially intended to lead to a new hope and a new order of things, of which the sabbath was not properly typical. This was of frequent occurrence. But there were incidents from which the Lord took the occasion of seeking entirely to dissociate the minds of His disciples from the existing system, and to lead them on to another dispensation at direct contrast with it. Such an occasion was furnished by the confession of Peter. (Matt. 11:16.) As the patient servant, when Jesus saw the teaching of His Father to Peter as to the glory of His own Person, He immediately makes mention of the Church, a thing entirely new to them. His own Person thus confessed being the rock on which it was founded. He showed them that it was to intervene before their expectation would be realized, (ver. 27.) He points out its characteristics connected with His own humiliation (24, 25.); its assured blessing under all circumstances, chap. 18 its heavenly treasure, chap. 19 and the great principle of its gathering, the sovereignty of grace, chap. 20. And then again, chap. 21 He appears in the character properly of Messiah, and so leaves them, 23 ad. fin: Another instance is the inquiry of the Greeks to see Jesus, (John 12:21.) Here it is that Jesus went through in Spirit, (Isa. 49:1-6.) and takes the occasion to open the coming dispensation—its character and reward of service, 21-24—and to establish its principle—not Messiah come to His own, and the people gathered unto Him; but the Son of Man lifted up an attractive point to sinners—“this He said, signifying what death He should die.” Now I believe the 14, 15, 16 chapters of Luke furnish another occasion of the way which the Lord took to break in on Jewish thoughts and expectations. “It came to pass as He went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the sabbath day, that they watched Him.” He answered their unexpressed thoughts, making themselves the judges, and immediately healed the man of the dropsy. But how marked is the contrast: with all the eager desire of attaching blame to Jesus, and finding in Him some iniquity in which they could rejoice, they could convict Him of none. But He had only to turn His eyes on the scene before Him, and immediately the opportunity was presented. of showing forth the great principle of His own conduct and of His kingdom—the principle of God in its contrariety to the principle of man. “And He put forth a parable to them, when he marked how they chose out the chief rooms.” (ver. 7.) it was the unfolding of His own grace; He took the lowest room, and could say, “Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” Humility may be learned in the distance between the Creator and creature, but as man would himself try to fill up that distance, it gives no rest to the soul. Humility also may be learned when awakened to sin from the light of the holiness of God— “I repent and abhor myself in dust and ashes;” but here there is no rest, till the power of the blood of Jesus in cleansing from all sin is known. But the humility which Jesus here inculcates, arose from the circumstances of man; the Lord of Glory could only take the lowest place in an evil world—He could not be great in man’s estimation, whose praise was not of man but of God. It is the ascertained condition of the world, as lying under the wicked one, that necessarily brings one who is risen with Christ into heavenly fellowship, to desire to be nothing in it; and this is humility, meekness, and lowliness. The desire to be great or high in the world, is to be great and high in the estimation of evil. “The day of the Lord is against everything which is high and lifted up.” This is now known to faith, Jesus came to do God’s will, and in doing it among those who were fulfilling the wills of their flesh and of their mind, he was necessarily lowly. The world passeth away, but “he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.” Hence the word to us, “Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate.” But farther than this, the Lord here taught the rule of service in His kingdom— “take the lowest place, and he that bade thee when he shall come, shall say unto thee, Friend go up higher, and then shalt thou have glory before those who sit at meat with thee.” This is the great rule of the kingdom, so often repeated— “Whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted”—a rule totally opposed to Jewish feeling, as it is to: the course of the world; for what is Judaism in principle? “elements of the world;”—in its perfection—a worldly sanctuary, worldly worship, and worldly blessing. Now this was the thing to be broken down. God could not in an apostate world, about to consummate its apostasy by the rejection of the Lord of Glory, have a worldly people or worldly worship; and hence the constant effort of Jesus, both by teaching and practice, to break in upon its order, and to introduce those principles: on which at least the world, when pressed, has the honesty to confess it cannot possibly go on.

In ver. 12-24, we have opened to us, first the riches of God’s race; and, secondly, the compelling power of grace in testimony.

The usages of man then, as well as now, afforded the opportunity of setting in strong contrast the ways and thoughts of God, with those of men. “When thou makest a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, nor thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbors, lest they also bid thee again; but when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, and thou shalt be blessed.” Now whilst this, as preceptive, is a direct infringement on the refined social order of man, it is the most just exhibition of that grace, which invites those who have no claim and cannot recompense, to come freely to partake of all the bounty and blessedness of God. Hence, in the parable that follows, (ver. 21.) the very same persons are invited as he directed his host to invite. “Then the master of the house being angry, said to his servants, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, the maimed, the halt, the blind.” But whilst exhibiting this grace, the Lord in answer to the observer’s remark, “Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God,” showed the contempt in which men would hold the kingdom of God, by the preference of that which was connected with his own social arrangement. The Lord is put off with civility, decency, or reasonableness; but the excuses of the two first, as well as the rationality of the other, all arise from the circumstances of the course of the world; the question as to man, morally before God as a sinner, and the possibility of one so constituted, eating bread in the kingdom of God, does not arise in their thoughts. One great question at issue between God and man is, whether He shall arrange the world for blessing in His own way, or man improve it by his powers. Whilst man is for standing by his own order, anything however innocent in itself becomes a positive hindrance to his entering into the kingdom of God, or God’s order. The piece of ground fairly purchased, the oxen bought, the wife honestly married—preoccupied minds and hearts, effectually hindered the reception of the testimony to another order of things.

While, however, we get this general moral instruction, our Lord seems especially to have had in view the Scribes and Pharisees and Religionists of the day, who would have had everything to give up, in order to come to Jesus. They were invited—the Lord presented Himself to them as Messiah—but they excused themselves. The Lord. would have some, and therefore it was no longer invitation, but “bring in those” who had nothing, from the lanes of the city. Surely these are the poor of the flock to whom the Lord turned. when rejected by the nation, (Zech. 11) brought in on the sovereignty of His grace— “But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved even as they καθ ον τροπον κακεινοι.” (Acts 15:11.) “To the poor the gospel is preached”—a new order to them would, humanly speaking, be a blessed change for them. But after they were brought in there was room, and the servant is sent out to the highways and hedges to “compel them to come in.” This is not in the city—but the going into all nations in the power of testimony, and compelling them to come in who would have had no thought of such a blessing themselves. For the faithfulness of God, Jesus was presented to the Jews—He came to His own and His own received Him not; but God’s faith was in no wise pledged to the Gentiles—they were “strangers from the covenants of promise”—but He was “preached unto the Gentiles, that they might glorify God for His mercy.” (Rom. 15:8, 9.) A Gentile comes into the kingdom upon simple pure mercy (so indeed a Jew); but there were children of the kingdom cast out. (Matt. 8:2.) Those to whom God. was pledged in faithfulness to offer the kingdom—they were invited, but they refused; now it is compel them—Go ye therefore into all nations. The ignorant, the unwilling, the unlikely—those who have no thought of the kingdom themselves, are to be pressed with the testimony of it. “The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.” This is the blessed gospel ministry—the ministry of reconciliation—Go and compel. “The love of Christ constraineth us. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did. beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.” Now this is widely different from the Jewish priesthood—the man had to come to the priest, or to be brought or to bring his offering. There was no provision in the law strictly corresponding to this ministry. It was a new thing arising out of the new aspect in which God was presenting Himself to the world. In giving the law, Jehovah Himself had commanded barriers to be put round the mountain forbidding access unto Him; but now He breaks through the barrier, first, by sending His Son into the world, not to condemn, and then the Son sending others with the ministry of reconciliation. Nothing has tended more to obscure the riches of God’s grace than the attempt of man to confound the ministry of the gospel with priesthood, as if they were the same in nature, differing only in degree, whereas they are distinct.

Another violent inroad on Jewish feeling was immediately made by our Lord’s description of discipleship (ver. 25.); “And there went great multitudes with Him; and He turned and said unto them, If any man come unto me and hate not his father and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.” How different was this from the feeling of the disciple of Moses; there it was, “He (the Lord) will love thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee; He will also bless the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy land, thy corn and thy wine, and thine oil, the increase of thy kine and the flocks of thy sheep, in the land which He sware unto thy fathers to give thee.” (Deut. 7:13.) Jesus was abhorred by the nation, despised and rejected of men, and about to bid farewell to every earthly association; and therefore discipleship was to bid farewell to all one hath—πασι τοις εαυτ8 υπαρχ8Jιν—all subsisting things then present with which man was conversant, in order to be introduced into a new sphere of unseen and eternal realities, to which faith would give a present subsistence, (Heb. 11:1.) Therefore it is written, “If any man be in Christ Jesus, he is a new creature, old things have passed away, Behold all things are become new;” he must forsake all to follow Jesus—evidently connecting this with the excuses for not following Him. (v. 18.) Any admixture would spoil the disciple. Christ should be everything unto him, and if he be not a savor of Him he is worse than useless. (34, 35.)

The 15th chap. introduces Jesus giving a practical exhibition, in His own conduct, of that grace He had been pressing on others. In the former chap. He had been eating in the house of one of the chief Pharisees; but in this— “Then came near unto Him all the publicans and sinners for to hear Him; and the Scribes and Pharisees murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners and eateth with them.”

The charge was a charge against the very principle He had been pressing on them— “When thou makest a feast call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind;” and His invitation, “Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring hither the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind.” The coming of all the publicans and sinners was, as it were, the answer to the invitation, and afforded a further occasion of unfolding the riches of the grace of God. Jesus did receive those whom they would not. What a marvelous contrast! God in His unsullied purity able to receive and bless a sinner; but man, a sinner himself, scornfully rejecting a fellow-sinner as degrading for him to receive. But here the pride of man led Jesus into vindication of the grace of God; yes, we have here, as it were, God before the tribunal of His own creatures, vindicating His character, not for judging, but for waiving His title to judge sinners, and to deal with them in grace. Man would fain vindicate himself and deny the title of God to judge him; but the gospel is that of the grace of God, and Christ Himself, God’s vindication of His own character for exhibiting such surpassing grace. On this suitable occasion, with the fact before his eyes, it seemed strange in man’s judgment that God should show mercy to a sinner, acknowledged as such; but herein are God’s ways not as our ways, and His thoughts not as ours. Man would expect mercy, because in his own estimation he was righteous: God would show mercy, because, in His righteous judgment, man was a sinner—lost, ruined, helpless. Man would prefer his claim for mercy, God would show it where no claim could be so preferred. Thus it was that grace and truth came by Jesus Christ; and constantly was the opportunity afforded of putting in the strongest contrasts the ways and thoughts of God with those of men, and meeting the reasonings of man against God, but in fact against himself, by bringing out in this way “mercy rejoicing against judgment.” The most refined casuistry of man, relative to his standing before God, leaves him at best in uncertainty as to his condition, but the reasoning of God in respect of His grace to man, whilst it shows its perfect consistency with His own character, that it is, as the Apostle says, “the righteousness of God,” at the same time answers the very thoughts and reasonings of man against himself in reference to God. I enter not into the further unfolding of the parables in this chapter, as illustrating the conduct of God in grace; only here it is that we see distinctly brought out the thoughts of earth and heaven on the same subject. Man on earth is indignant at Jesus, the Son of God—God manifested in the flesh receiving a sinner; angels in heaven rejoice. “For,” says the Lord, “as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isa. 55:9.) There is one other point of correspondence between this and the former chapter, which I think is to be found in the conduct of the elder brother. He was angry at the reception of the worthless younger brother, and would not come into the feast; therefore came his father out and entreated him. In the former chap. we find the feast ready and the guests bidden, but they would not come in. (17-21.) But here we have further the reason set forth—The elder brother might have come in and been welcome, but he would not. This seems clearly to represent the Jew in his moral standing before God, just where the Apostle leaves them in Rom. 10 and they are found to this day.—“They being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.” And thus, while on the one hand the conduct of the elder son fully proved his ignorance as to the manner of obtaining blessing, He, in whom all the promises of God are Yea and Amen, could vindicate God’s faithfulness to the Jew in that blessing he coveted—i.e. earthly blessing. Israel was still God’s first-born: (Ex. 4:22.) to him still pertained the adoption and the promises; (Rom. 9:1) and therefore it is said, as showing that their unbelief did not make the faith of God. without effect, (Rom. 3:3.) “Son thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine.” It was pride and selfishness which effectually hindered his entering into the meetness of making merry and being glad at that time, when all the grace of the father’s heart was shown, and the openness of his house displayed to the returning worthless one. He kept back from that feast in which alone the fatted calf was killed, because the most worthless came in unto it. And how does the same pride and selfishness work in us to hinder our entering into the meetness of God to rejoice over one returning sinner. How effectually do the very riches of God’s grace (and surely hereby the sin of man is exceeding sinful) binder man, sufficient of himself in his own thought, from coming to the full blessing of God, because the vile and worthless may come into it on the very same ground as himself. “But wisdom is justified of her children.”

Chapter 16—In its commencement, is directly addressed by Jesus to His disciples— “And he said also unto His disciples;”—and it appears to me to have been intended specially to detach them from the then existing system of things, as the former chapter had served to break in on their principle of establishing their own righteousness. The Jew was God’s steward—their privileges were a sacred deposit, as it is written— “What advantage then hath the Jew? much every way; chiefly because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.” (Rom. 3:2.) But there was their “lie”—their failure: instead of God being benefited by their stewardship, they had wasted His goods—the name of God was blasphemed among the heathen through them. The stewardship was to be taken away—their distinctive privileges were to be withdrawn—the oracles of God no longer entrusted to their keeping—as it is written, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.” (Hos. 4:6)

The time was coming, when God would be no longer worshipped at Jerusalem, and when “Lo-ammi” would be legibly written on the Jew. The prospect therefore was most humiliating. “I cannot dig; to beg, I am ashamed.” While the Lord is leading the minds of the disciples onwards, so as to carry them on to the everlasting habitation, He seems by the way, in these words, to characterize the Jew. He has no land to till, and his pride is so indomitable that he refuses to beg of a dog of the Gentiles; so that cleverness, overreaching, and dishonesty alone open a field to him of prosperity. But the instruction to the disciples was most important—seeing that all these were about to pass away, it would be their wisdom to be provided with another house; to make themselves friends, whilst they could, of the mammon of unrighteousness—giving it up and forsaking it, that they might have everlasting habitations. The steward’s wisdom was for a temporary accommodation; theirs would be for everlasting habitations—a residence unaffected by changes here.

But farther: the change would be to those who were faithful from little to much—from the unrighteous mammon to the true riches—from stewardship to proprietorship—as those who would be sons; and if sons, heirs of God. (10-12.) It is thus the Lord drew the minds of His disciples away from that which, however glorious in itself, would have no glory by reason of that glory which excelleth. The Lord give us to know the riches that are “our own.”

In the next place, we find the Lord meeting the readiness of our minds to blend the two systems—one conversant with the mammon of unrighteousness, and the other with the true riches—by stating the impossibility of success in the attempt, “Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” But here the discourse turns to others than the disciples.— “The Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things; and they derided Him.” Now just so far as the world can have a show of godliness, it must proceed as if the Jewish system was still in being and recognized of God. To be sober, diligent, thriving, and at least outwardly devout, is that which the eye of man can recognize; and so “long as you do well to yourself men will praise you:” but in the rejection of the Jewish system by God—the rejection, be it remarked, of the only system of worldly polity or worldly worship ever owned of God—outward prosperity ceased to be the proof of God’s favor, though not of man’s praise. And the Lord said unto them, (the Pharisees,) “Ye are they which justify yourselves before men, but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.” The το ανθρωποις υψηλον—is covetousness, using God Himself for its cloak; making even the very privileges conferred of God to subserve selfishness. “Men shall be lovers of their ownselves; having the form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.” But the Lord showed them that God’s worldly dispensation was run out; “the law and the prophets were until John.” Worldly prosperity was therefore now out of the question; it was now, as to God’s blessing, the kingdom of God or nothing. “Since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it.”

Whilst “every man” shows its principle to be of grace, the Publican and Harlot as well as the Pharisee, the word “presseth into it” shows the urgent necessity of getting that or losing everything. But again does the Lord press on their consciences the integrity of the law and its inviolable sanctity; it could not be adjusted to bend to man’s weakness, as he vainly supposed. “It is easier for heaven and earth to pass than one tittle of the law to fail.” They might put it away from them, but if they did not really see it as dead, and they become joined to another, they would be treated as adulterers. (James 4:4. Rom. 7:1-3, compare with ver. 18.) The importance of this instruction we cannot fail to recognize, if we mark well the leadings of our mind, ever to attempt the admixture of Jewish blessing, present and earthly, with Christian privilege and hope—spiritual, heavenly, and eternal; and to connect Jewish worship, earthly and worldly, with the Christian worship in heaven, in Spirit and in truth. The Jewish rural was adapted to the world; the first tabernacle had ordinances of divine worship and a worldly sanctuary. (Heb. 9:1.) There was a mountain of the Lord’s house, a house made with hands, owned of God—as the center of worship, called by our Lord, “my house;” and when the Lord again has an earthly people, His house shall be “a house of prayer for all people.” (Isa. 56:7.) But the attempt of man would be to unite this worldly system and the kingdom of God, and the result would be confusion. The law was a perfect system in itself, one tittle could not pass away: if a man was circumcised, he was a debtor to the whole law. So is the system of grace perfect in itself; it leads not to a mountain that might be touched, (Heb. 12; John 4:20.) or to a temple made with hands, but to heaven itself. (Heb. 9:21.) There is the proper scene of Christian worship, in the power of the resurrection of Christ, as those who are alive from the dead, worship in Spirit and in truth—the true worshippers—those whom the Father seeks.

In ver. 19, there is a continuation of the address to the Pharisees, and it would appear an amplification of the το εν ανθρωποις νψηλον. In the rich man we have a picture of the happiness to which those before him would aspire who derided the lowliness of Jesus and His self-denying teaching; and also the issue of the attempt to serve God and mammon, with its secret principle disclosed, infidelity at heart. It is a deeply solemn representation of the refined worldly religionist, infidel in principle, though not avowedly so, but moral it may be in character. He would call Abraham his father; he could make all the use of that which came to him hereditarily, as many can of Christian privileges. But though he was Abraham’s seed, he was not Abraham’s son. (John 8:37-39.) Abraham stands out as the acknowledged father of all, whether Jew or Gentile, before God; (Rom. 4:12.) not as boasting in anything outward, not as finding anything as to the flesh, but as giving up all that was present for the promise of God. He was before God, and had God for his portion—not his country—not the land of Canaan—not his good things—but God. It is of this he reminds the rich man, (ver. 25.) “Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst THY good things,” the good. things that he preferred; in fact he had his reward, and must not expect that which he never valued nor sought until his good things could profit him no longer. In ver. 27-31, we have the statement of condition in which those of similar character would be left; and it appears to be the general character of the nation; who, because “they knew not Jesus nor the voices of their own prophets, which are read every sabbath day,” would be given over to blindness, and collectively reject the testimony unto the resurrection of Jesus. In Lazarus we have the representation of those who gladly picked up the crumbs, which were the refuse of the rich man, rich in his own conceit, rich and increased in goods, having store laid up for many years. Here in principle the Gentile comes in. (Matt. 15:27.) What were once crumbs to the eye of the rich man, were precious in the eye of Lazarus and the Syrophoenician woman, and precious too in the sight of God. For in Lazarus we see the resurrection glory; despised by the Jew, and by all who, like them, stand. by the existing order, and seek for glory and honor, and happiness in it. We find the resurrection state always in Scripture connected with suffering in the world.—“Likewise Lazarus evil things:” “In the world ye shall have tribulation:” “ but now he is comforted and thou art tormented.” “Verily, verily, I say unto you, that ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice; and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy; and ye now therefore have sorrow, (answering to “thou in thy lifetime receivedst My good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things,”) but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no one taketh from you.” Such then is the solemn warning of the Lord to those who would seek to serve God and mammon. Many of us have, in the Lord’s forbearing love, learned the folly of such an attempt by our own painful experience. May the consideration of the issue of such an attempt lead us into more decision; that with purpose of heart we may cleave unto the Lord, and only spend and be spent in that labor which is in the Lord, which will not be in vain.

But let us more specifically consider the latter part of this chapter. (ver. 27-31.) In these verses the character of the unbelief of the nation is most distinctly brought out. The Jews ever sought a sign, but a sign is not the warrant of faith, but the word of the Lord; at this “they stumbled, being disobedient.” They had Moses and the prophets but they heard them not, and therefore no proof could be to them convincing. The fact of one rising from the dead was to them as an idle tale, to them who shut their eyes to the evidence from Moses and the prophets, that “the Christ ought to have suffered and enter into His glory,” “that He died according to the. Scriptures, and rose again according to the Scriptures.” And what is the fact before our eyes at the present day? that the great bulk of the Jews hear not Moses and the prophets; that they evade by the arguments and the subtleties of the infidel, the force of their own Scriptures relative to Messiah suffering; and not only do they stand before God morally as others guilty, but positively as incapacitated from any religious worship properly Jewish—i.e. national, priestly, and sacrificial. “Surely God hath given them the Spirit of slumber—eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear.” (Rom. 11:8) Now it is very profitable to remark that the hearing of Moses and the prophets, is with the Jew repentance; by disobedience to their voices, they first rejected, then condemned Jesus, to whom those Scriptures testified. And when He was preached to them as risen and glorified, preached to them nationally as in Acts 3 repentance was to precede their blessing, consistently with the latest declaration of their prophetic Canon. “Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto Him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statues and judgments.” “Behold I will send unto you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord, and He shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of their children to the fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.” (Mal. 4) It was quite in the Spirit of this, that the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, the Great Prophet, as well as the subject of prophetic testimony, addressed them, “Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father, there is one that accuseth you even Moses, in whom ye trust; for had ye believed Moses ye would have believed me, for he wrote of me; but if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words;” (John 5:45-47.) And the remnant according to the election of grace received Jesus, as the one testified of by Moses and the Prophets. “Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, we have found Him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Joseph.” (John 1:45.) Here then must be their repentance—the acknowledgment of Moses and the prophets. God can never sanction disobedience; and the same principle in them which made them turn a deaf ear to Moses and the prophets, necessarily led them not to hear Jesus; it was the rejection of the same God in both cases, who spake by Moses, and sent His Son. If they had been of God they would have recognized Moses and heard the voice of Jesus. It is a solemn warning to ourselves to find the Lord thus asserting the real value of the Scripture, and pointing out the source of unbelief. Man wants something more than the word of God; he desires a proof to be subjected to his senses; this is the most daring disobedience—rebellion against God, in that which makes him to be God, even that he is the true God. We know so little of the “evil heart of unbelief,” we estimate so imperfectly its real moral character, that we think lightly of the sin of confessing the Scriptures to be the word of God, and then refusing submission to their authority. Man is still heard, and authority attached to his saying; but where is “the ear to hear” what Jesus says? Man can give an opinion, but none but Jesus can say, “Verily, verily.” The simple character of unbelief is not hearing Moses and the prophets— “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Man may require more proof, but no proof will satisfy him who hears not God’s word. It is this will be the judge— “The word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.” (John 12:48.)

But it is especially here to the purpose to notice, that it is the written word which is here appealed to— “written also for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come;” and this same record corroborated unto us by subsequent facts, again become matter of written testimony. Surely we may well tremble when we see Scripture made light of; we must anxiously fear for the state of that soul which would be now requiring a sensible proof over and above the written testimony, to Jesus and His work, and demand other authority than the light of that word for guidance—authority I mean as superseding and going beyond it; for surely the word and Jesus, to whom both it and the Spirit testifies, are in perfect harmony—the living acting truth, even Jesus, exhibiting in the example He has left us, the best comment on the commandments He Himself gave. Apart from Jesus, the living Word, the written word is used by man to foster his own pride, and to aid the natural skepticism of man’s heart, so that the inquiry is, What is truth? But when once the mind is subjected to Him, however imperfect and slow the progress of the spiritual mind may be, nevertheless it ascertains some certain truth, and not probable opinions. Hence it is that we find the highest in-subjection to God, the most desperate apostasy of man, (surely yet to be manifested, but now in its principles actively at work,) to be thus characterized— “Because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved; and for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” (2 Thess. 2)

It is awfully serious not only to think of the probability, but to be assured that it will actually be so: that whilst through the energy of Satan, “with all signs, and powers, and lying wonders,” many will be deceived and ruined, all signs, and powers, and wonders of truth would fail of convincing the mind that rejected the testimony of the scripture. “If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead.” God is now revealed to faith, not subjected to sense. The experiment of God so dealing with man has been fully made, and man failed; and yet presumptuous man would think that if he saw, then he would believe. The way God taught Israel was by what happened to them, either in the way of deliverance or judgment.— “Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples, τυποτ.” “Did ever people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as thou hast heard, and live? or hath God assayed to go and take Him a nation from the midst of another nation, by temptation, by signs, by wonders, and by wax, and by a mighty hand, and by stretched out arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes; unto thee it was shewed, that thou mightest know that the Lord He is God, and there is none else beside Him:” (Deut. 4) But Israel failed; “they could not enter in because of unbelief.” God subjected Himself to the judgment of man’s senses, and the failure proved both that man would not trust God, and that God could not trust man. Hence, therefore, faith is the only security; it honors God, it gives Him glory, it blesses, stablishes and settles man. But faith rests on that which is written; these things are “written for out admonition;” “these things are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that, believing, ye might have life through Him.” (John 20:31.) It is proof of a most unhealthy state of soul when disciples of Christ are looking to signs or wonders without, instead of subjecting their minds to the word. Obedience to it, is that which God now requires in His people, that they may be so molded according to it, that even they may win those who obey it not. Any particle of the word of God known and obeyed, is real strength, is positive sanctification. But Satan’s will is to turn, by any means, the soul from the word, to set it afloat on speculation, to lead it to question everything, and become a prey to its own restlessness, because it finds not sensible proofs where God never designed. to give them. Thus they are “ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth;” because they obey unrighteousness. As such God looks on it; for the first principle is, “Have faith in God.”

“Without faith it is impossible to please God;” and the warrant of faith to us is that which is written. Surely, therefore, if we believe not Jesus and the Apostles, we are morally incapacitated from exercising a right judgment. May we then prize the word—give ourselves to it—weighing well His testimony “who spake as never man spake.”

“Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him to a wise man, which built his house upon a Rock, and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon a Rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand, and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it,” (Matt. 7:24-27.)

Priesthood

THE definition of High Priesthood, given us by the Lord the Spirit, (Heb. 2, 5, 8) is “Headship for men in things pertaining to God.” In this concise description three parties are placed before us; on the one side Deity, on the other side man, and the person of the high priest the connecting link between them. No accurate idea of priesthood can exist where this double relationship and this doable service are not perceived. In Jesus alone, the subject of our consideration has been fully exemplified. He is the connecting link between heaven and earth, the only Mediator between God and man. From Deity above He is the Mediator downward to man beneath, and from man beneath He is the Head upward to Deity. This surely is a blessed subject of meditation, as presenting us with the full body of all truth in the person of Jesus. Let us look at it a little closely. The term God, as Horsley has observed, denotes proximity in external things; in other words, it implies relationship. This is shown from our Lord’s argument, ex vi terminorum, (Matt. 22:31,32.) “I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” (see also Isa. 40 and context.) The honors of the priesthood and the majesty and dignity proper to it, are, if this be so, at once seen: Jehovah stands in relationship with a people: for He is the God spoken of as connected, through the High Priest, with the sons of men. But who can measure the riches of Jehovah’s glory? Infinite in wisdom, infinite in power, infinite in love, infinite in everything excellent and good, He stands in recognized and honored relationship with the sons of men. Relationship with such an one must be most blessed, most glorious! A self-existing, ever-flowing spring pours forth its pure and living, its healing and lifegiving waters. What would a world in harmony with Jehovah be, and not in harmony only, but whose harmony, in every part, bore the full impress of His own glorious likeness, and was also sustained by the presence of His own Spirit throughly pervading it— “Eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive” such glory: but, yet a little while, how little, how little, and we shall see it once and forever. Widely as it shall then be diffused, and varied as in aspect, it will all have flowed through One. How glorious must that One be! that One, through whom all this life and immortality has been poured out, and in whom also all the honor of the many thus glorified is gathered together in one Head, Himself at once the origin, and mean, and Head of it all. If we were to look at the office of high priest apart from the person of Him who fills it, and at its duties and services, and then at Jesus—His suitability for the office, and His only, throughout the wide range of existence, would appear. As the master work of God, this priesthood was the display of all His wisdom, and at His power, and all His knowledge and understanding; and the all of these was Jesus Himself. But it is not the suitability of Jesus for the office, at which I desire now to look, but the character put upon the office, by its being set forth as the channel of living relationship with Jehovah. Surely the present state of this evil world is not God’s state, not a state proper to relationship with Him. When Jehovah looks at His only begotten Son as His own appointed Head for the sons of men, the Headship in which, in thought, He rests, as well as the state of those subjected to this Head, are both radiant with glory, honor, and immortality. The second Adam, the Lord from heaven, reigning as God’s King gloriously over the whole earth, with all His enemies put under Him, are the titles in the insignia of which He shall be known.

As connected also with man, the other party with whom the priesthood has to do, nothing short of the full glory of the sons of God, in a new heavens and a new earth, can be considered as the proper bourne of thought, or in any way a faithful and correct estimate of the blessedness of being under such Headship. Propitiation and righteousness, &c. are indeed seen to be indispensably requisite both to God and man, when the insulted Majesty of the one, or the fallen, sin-stricken state of the other are looked upon. The vicarious offering of Christ is all important, as THE ONLY WAY into blessing; yet it should not be looked upon but as a part, and a small part of His official duties as priest of God—it is a mean to an end, and not the end itself; for the full value and true character of the offices of Christ are not yet known but to faith, nor will be until the day of the manifestation of the sons of God,

Mediatorship then is the leading thought of high priesthood, and the rest which remaineth for the people of God, full of glory and immortality, the only sphere proper and peculiar to the exercise of such office. The Church’s mind has, I think, been very defectively instructed on this subject, and from looking at its own things, and not at those of Jesus, it has circumscribed its ideas of High Priest to sacrifice, &c. and forgotten the royal and divine honors attaching to it from its connection with Jehovah of Sabaoth. At some future time attention might well be directed to the details of the office, and to the wonderful way in which our blessed Master was fitted for it, and fulfilled its duties; but at present let us consider some of the more striking anticipatory exhibitions of it found in the Old Testament. From the commencement the plan was perfect in God’s mind, and that which shall hereafter be openly seen, has, in sundry ways and in divers manners, in measure, always been presented to faith. The richness of the divine counsel in this also has been shown; for whilst ever holding up the same priesthood of His Son, He has presented it in such different aspects, at different times, as that when we bring together the various testimonies of the Spirit from the different parts of the word, we find modifications of the truth, according to His own good pleasure.

In a first promise or type we often find a nucleus of glory and truth, though not unfolded in it, of which subsequent testimonies of the same thing come short. This has been referred to in a former number of the “WITNESS” as connected with promise and covenant, and is strikingly illustrated in the present case. The Epistle to the Hebrews we may look upon as “A treatise upon the Person and work of the Mediator;” in it, the priesthood of Jesus is once and again declared to be “after the order of Melchizedek.” (chap. 5:6-10. 6:20. 7:1, &c.) Now there was much very strange and singularly glorious about this order; the nature of its honors were divine, for Melchizedek “was made like unto the Son of God,” as it is written, “without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life.” The insignia of its glory also were most royal—by nature, Melchizedek, King of righteousness; by position, King of Salem—that is, “of peace.” Its character also was very anomalous; the priesthood of a stranger and He entering whence we know not—not in the direct course and line of covenant blessing, yet above it, for He tithed Abraham, the friend of God, and blessed him that had the promises, blessed him moreover as though His own hand were master of God’s stores in heaven and in earth.

Yet as to this priesthood no mention is made of sacrifice: His priesthood was one specially of blessing, not the offering of gifts or sacrifices to God, but conferring blessings on man. “He brought forth bread and wine.” And this was doubtless so appointed, because He who was to have its honors and be an High Priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, King of righteousness and King of peace, had, ere He could enter upon its glory, to be Himself the Victim, and by the one sacrifice of Himself to perfect them that are sanctified. Let this be remembered. There are many works connected with priesthood, and sonic of these were set forth in time, previous to the introduction of Melchizedek, but as to the outline of personal glory and circumstantial honors, there were none in whom the likeness of Jesus was so faithfully portrayed (the state proper to God’s High Priest) as Melchizedek—To the Believer, to him that has faith, this Headship of Jesus is a hope full of immortality,

In the progress of redemption four different states are presented to us; we find, first, under the patriarchs, God was in heaven, but the worshippers and sacrifices on earth; secondly, in the worldly sanctuary, God was on earth, and the worshippers and sacrifices there also; third, now, God is in heaven and the sacrifice there, as also in Spirit and by faith the worshippers also; and, fourthly, in the age to come, God in both heaven and earth, and worshippers and sacrifices in both also. Were we to consider the portions of truth connected with priesthood in each of these, we should find assuredly the reflection of much of the glory of Jesus, and I think different parts of it magnified at different times, with the view of giving facility to our dull understandings. In each and all, the priesthood is vested there, where there is most honor—that is, in the head of the family. Time and space would fail to examine each case; that of Melchizedek, though cursorily, we have looked at, and in it we found the dignity of the person and the divine and royal honors of the priesthood shown. The necessity of this is manifest, when the glory of Jehovah as a God of relationship is considered.

There is another exhibition on which I would gladly rest a little, as the display of that which our minds ever feel needful, when, enlightened by the word, we reverse the prospect, and look from the present state of man upward to the righteous Majesty of heaven. When we remember our lost estate, when we feel our weakness and the enmity against God of the carnal mind, the law of sin and of death in our members, we need something besides the glory of God to be opened to us, even a way of access thereinto. This the Epistle to the Hebrews shows us to have been pointed out in the works and sacrifices of the Aaronic priesthood. The 9th & 10th chaps. especially show how the works and actings of that order were but feeble shadows of greater things to come, and that the blood of God’s dear Son once offered, was the way into the holiest of all. Here also the office was not a service apart from glory and honor; He that sustained it was called by God thereto; not Himself the Mediator, yet as the Head of the people appearing before God and bearing their unholiness and defilement, as well as their names, before the Lord. Still the brightest ray of the glory of Jesus, which was granted to the Aaronic order to reflect, was assuredly that spoken of by the Holy Ghost, as pointing, however dimly, to Jesus, as the way into blessing. And there was something beautifully responsive between this and the character of the dispensation from Mount Sinai. The one was the cry of the ministration of condemnation; the other the echo of deliverance.— “The depths of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God” (Rom. 11:33.) is set forth in His care, so to give as that the gift may always be seen and felt to be of mercy. In the garden of Eden man fell, and sold himself and his inheritance to Satan. This is handled in Genesis. In the case of Job, the next book in the Bible, we have the weakness of human nature evidenced in the case of a saint—one who knew that his Redeemer lived—one who was very careful in the means of grace—one, of whose grace God Himself was not ashamed to boast. Tried by Satan however, it was soon apparent that his strength was neither “of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.” His earthen vessel could not endure the flames; his wisdom and discretion leaked out, and he had to abhor himself for his folly and presumption in having supposed that he could understand God. To the known character of his God he should have clung in darkness as in light, and strengthened himself with His counsel in spite of all appearances. The circumstances also which brought out the failure magnified the weakness: whilst affliction touched his circumstances and his person—whilst folly assailed him from his wife, he was strong in his integrity—there was manifest evil to press against, and his weakness did not appear. But when his three friends, in the fear of God and deep sympathy towards himself, had come by appointment, each from his own place, and had shown out their deep sympathy, then his weakness was shown. They came “to mourn with him and to comfort him; but when they lifted up their eyes afar off, and knew him not, they lifted up their voices and wept; and they rent every one his mantle, and sprinkled dust upon their beads towards heaven, and so they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spake a word unto him, for they saw that his grief was very great.” This brought on the state of collapse; that which should have been strength, evidenced weakness, and he failed.

In Exodus we have a record of a somewhat similar trial of human nature, and the same lesson taught, though under circumstances somewhat varied; for the trial here was of human nature simply as such, without grace within. Just as it fell in the garden of Eden, human nature was here taken up; a position of blessing was found for it, and its introduction into it accompanied with a strong expression of what the Creator’s mind had been about the creature; what the fealty and allegiance was which the creature, as a creature, endowed with such power as man was endowed withal, should render to the Creator, and must render in order to be happy. The result is largely set forth by Paul. (Rom. 6 & 7) The consciousness of the Creator’s claim, when understood, stirred up the law of sin and death, excited the enmity of the natural mind, and so brought death. This was the proof not as in Job of the defectibility of the vessel, but of its natural contrariety to God. It was then most congruous to the goodness of God, to hide in the heart of this dispensation the secret of the cure of man’s ruin. And largely indeed is the light of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ reflected from every rugged stone within that which in itself was but a dark cavern of condemnation yawning to destruction. For it was not only the priest entering with blood once every year which pointed to Jesus. In the worldly sanctuary God gave a miniature of heaven, and an orderly exhibition in this model of the divine abode, of things connected therewith. “For see,” saith He, “that thou make ALL things according to the pattern shewed thee in the mount.” (Heb. 8:5.) “Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry, and almost all things are by the law purged with blood; it was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices.” This is seen also by a comparison of Exodus, Hebrews, and the Revelations. In the tent of the congregation (Heb. 9:2. Ex. 40:24.) before the veil, stood the candlestick with its seven branches, as “before the throne (Rev. 4:5.) are seven lamps of fire burning, which are the seven Spirits of God.” The table with the show-bread evidently sets forth the accepted people; seen, I think, both in the 4th and 5th of Revelations, in those who sing the song of redemption. The altar of incense is shown us in Rev. 8. Whilst without was the altar of burnt offering in front of the tent, and the laver intervening. I rest not upon this particularly, though I believe, surely, that like figures unto all the tabernacle furniture are found in the book of Revelations. It may be well to notice that the temple is never referred to in Hebrews, because it was the type not of “things in the heavens,” the place where the final glory rests, until a place on earth has be prepared for it; the only place where, during the militancy of the Church, it could rest. The militant state was set forth in those times also by the form of the kingdom, as seen in Numbers, “a camp.” In David we read not “of patterns of things in the heavens,” but he gave the pattern of all that he had “by the Spirit;” and “all this,” said David, “the Lord made me understand in writing by His hand upon me, even all the works of this pattern.” (1 Chron. 28) Here the truth presented was “an establishment.” The chosen people no longer a pilgrim band with its moveable tabernacle, nor the kingdom a camp in the wilderness; but the type was concerning the glory established in the earth in the latter day, as well as in the heavens, and bands of musicians and choirs of singers—splendor and joyful pageantry marked the temple and its sacrifices.

In the Epistle to the Hebrews, to the range of which I have confined myself, there is a third display referred to, as an anticipatory exhibition of the Headship of Jesus. I refer to the position in which He is now presented by the Spirit to faith. (Heb. 2:8, 9.) The contents of the Epistle generally, show us that He has finished every preparatory work, made an end of sacrifice, and brought in everlasting righteousness. The next thing we should have thought would have been immediate glory: but no; though entered into the name of Melchizedek, He sits upon “the Father’s throne,” opening in a new, unthought of, anticipatory display, the riches and power of resurrection life.

And thus, in three anticipatory displays of priesthood, we have Him presented as the truth, the way, and the life. THE TRUTH, He is fully and properly only as Melchizedek: THE WAY, as those works connected with sacrifice, &c. and THE LIFE, blessed be His name forever, we know Him as now, even the resurrection and the life.

Before leaving this, I would repeat what I have said before: There are certain things, in God, and certain things connected with God, which He has been pleased to make known to the children of men. His dispensations have varied; the way in which He has revealed truth has changed, kit the grand. leading ideas and truths have been few and the same. Variation in the nature of the things with which God, from time to time, has connected Himself, will or may cause a variation in the testimony, yet without destroying the leading thought common to such manifestations. In this way do I account for the variation in the testimony of the different dispensations. Much attention should be given to the nature and properties of that in which God has revealed Himself. The leading truth and thought I would consider to be that which is always present, whatever else may in some be added to, or in others be taken from it. Holiness is separation, in whatever matter the truth be shown, and righteousness is privilege to the separate. So in priesthood, mediatorship and headship, in things pertaining to God, has been shown to be the leading truth; and this is found in Melchizedek, in the Patriarchs, and in the Aaronic order; and yet in these different displays of priesthood, while this leading truth is preserved, each pointing onward to Jesus, they respectively vary in the truths connected. with Him specially brought out to light in each. In one only, the glory, the refreshment, gladness and strength is shown—“He brought forth bread and wine:” in the other, as found in a dispensation which was the trial of the flesh, we have Christ as picking up our infirmities and sins, because meeting the Church in her infirmities and sins, specially presented. to faith.

Again: the rest of glory, as the alone proper sphere for us and our Head to be in, if in relationship with Jehovah, is pointed out in the Sabbath. The orderly character of the sanctuary seems to have made it necessary that when God came to abide on earth (I speak not of the incarnation, for then He was as Son of Man, and that must be looked upon as part of a great whole, but) as King of Israel (because here it was Deity), all these leading thoughts should be set forth strongly. And this was the ease, so far at least as these types pointed to the great matter of redemption, and so far as its principles were concerned in God’s rule over the nation Israel. Thus purity stood in meats and drinks, and divers washings and carnal ordinances, &c. Separation it was, but separation of a low order. As to “the rest,” I doubt not the exact form of the sabbath day was revived in the case of Israel, because it was a thing connected with “the course of nature,” the pristine state in the garden of Eden. The seventh day was originally consecrated, because God rested from all His works of creation, and to a state of nature was most proper. When the law of nature therefore (grace for a while being put in the background) was revived, the exact form of the day was revived; but there was a grand truth in the divine mind, ere the sabbath day had its being, and it was that which led, even in creation’s week, to the appointment; I refer of course to the second rest of Him, who, from before the foundation of the world, was the Lamb slain. As a truth of preeminent importance, as much as for other reasons, that which then set it forth was reiterated in various ways. Its impress was stamped on days; oft on weeks, (as in the feast of weeks,) on years, and weeks of years, and weeks of weeks of years. How strongly also is the same leading thought (though not in a seventh day, because set upon an entirely other basis and hope than any found in nature) pressed upon us in Heb. 4.

One important use of types and shadows is, to suggest to the mind matter for research. Difference and similitude to the fools and slow of heart, are more quickly seen in matters around us with which sense is conversant, than in things in the heavens. It was grace therefore, which seeing the infirmity, deigned to present the same truth to us in type and shadow, that there we might learn. I do not say that we are at liberty to follow types, and to bend the truth to them, I deprecate this as awfully dangerous. Let us take hints from them to guide our research, and proving all things, hold fast that which is truth. As to sacrifices, the orderly system of the worldly sanctuary, perhaps, gathers together all the truth concerning them. There seem to have been three—first, peace offerings; secondly, burnt offerings; and thirdly, sin offerings. The regulations concerning these three varied. In the peace offering, the expression and mean of communion, a part was offered to the Lord, and the priest and offerer partook of the rest. Just so in Jesus, as our point of intercourse with God, He Himself rejoices in the works of His hands, the results of the offering to the Father, and we rejoice with Him, for “our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.” This truth was embodied also in a larger scale, specially in the passover, the first great feast of the Jewish year: for the passover was the expression of recognized communion with God. Israelites and circumcised they were before, and this was their privilege as such; moreover its observance pre-supposed both acceptance and personal cleanliness, being prohibited to the uncircumcised, (Ex. 12:48.) and to the unclean. (Num. 9) The feast was subsequent to the sacrifice; the blood on the door post being seen both by God and the Israelite. “And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are, and when I see the blood. I will pass over you.” They could therefore, eat the flesh in full confidence of acceptance.

In the second, the burnt offering, the sacrifice, if a living creature, was a holocaust. This was, as I deem it, “the presenting of merit to God,” which in the creature must always be a holocaust, for its service cannot go beyond its powers; and the full service of every power given, is the Creator’s claim from the creature. Where the burnt offering was a mincha or bloodless offering, as pointing to the Lord in resurrection life, it was not necessarily a holocaust. In the holocaust, therefore we contemplate what was seen in Jesus, when He said, “Lo I come do thy will O my God,” presenting Himself in the Church’s stead—every energy in passiveness; Himself but the expression of what was in the Father. The truth of the presentation of merit was definitely set in the second great Epoque in the Jewish calendar.

The third, the sin offering, was eaten of by the priest, save when the sin had been connected with rule. Propitiation or atonement was the truth taught, as also in the third great feast; in which Jesus has a most perfect joy, rejoicing before the Father in the work of His own hands, as the daily cleanser of the consciences of His saints. God seems also to have bound up these together in a very remarkable way, in the Jewish year; for the passover with its peace offering corresponds to the Jewish dispensation which is past, in that both were “the earth in attempted communion with God.” The feast of weeks, with its offerings of the sheaf and the wave loaves, certainly prefigured the present display of resurrection life; first, in the person of Jesus; and fifty days after, in the Church. And the feast of tabernacles with its great day of atonement, as to dispensation, points onward to the future Jewish. Thus in the cycle of the Jewish year, was there contained a series of dispensations in type, each severally the magnified view of one of the three aspects in which the Lord stands as “the offering.” To ourselves, as in the Spirit, I know there is the sure and present possession, through faith, of everything that Jesus was, or is, or shall be; and in speaking of atonement as in any wise a future thing, all that is meant is the open show of it, when they shall look upon Him whom they have pierced.

I will only add, that those who are inclined to follow up the subject will find. that the four last books of the Pentateuch present much glorious matter; they vary one from the other much as the four Gospels vary. One subject is carried through the four, but it is seen in different aspects; and the special object of the Book decides what shall be mentioned, what left out. The sanctuary; the priest-service; the kingdom (as a camp in the wilderness); and the land are the four aspects, in which God’s witness is looked at. For illustration of this, I would refer to a comparison of the portions in each of the four books connected with the feasts, and especially to Lev. 23 and Num, 28 & 29.

Babylon

MY DEAR FRIEND AND BROTHER,

FULFILLED prophecy is commonly (and properly) relied on as one of the evidences of the truth of Christianity; for.no one but He who knoweth the end from the beginning could declare with minute precision those events which have been already accomplished, (especially those relating to the sufferings of our Lord,) and which had previously been set forth in the Scriptures of the prophets.

But although much is to be found there written, which has been manifested to have proceeded from the Lord by its literal and definite fulfillment, there yet remains a very large portion either partially or wholly unaccomplished; and the fulfillment of this part ought to be looked for by the Church of God as a thing which shall be equally full, definite, and unambiguous.

Many of those who have written on the evidence which is given by prophecy to the truth of Christianity, have relied much on predictions which have been strikingly fulfilled in some important and in many subordinate particulars; these have been dwelt on, and they have been made the basis of mach argument; whilst at the same time, those particulars which were (perhaps) the most important, are either passed over in silence, or else explained in some figurative manner.

But if any one were to show that these prophecies, supposed to be thus fulfilled, were not accomplished; nay, that in some very striking features they were pointedly discrepant from the supposed. accomplishment; if he were to be able unanswerably to prove that, if the Christian had nothing but this to rely on for the truth and certainty of his faith, he would be trusting to that which so far from affording satisfactory evidence, bears in itself the strongest marks of discrepancy—would it not afford triumph to the infidel? And might it not throw a stumbling block in the way of many? I fully believe that such a statement of facts might be made, as would startle those whose minds have been accustomed to regard prophecy in its main features as being already accomplished; and who deem the present state of various countries, mentioned in the Old Testament Scriptures, to be an incontrovertible evidence of the truth of divine revelation.

I have been led to make these remarks from considering the prophecies concerning BABYLON in the Old Testament—the present state of that city and country—and the supposed fulfillment and exhaustion of the predictions concerning them. I say supposed fulfillment—for I feel fully persuaded, that if these prophetic declarations be accomplished, their fulfillment has in many respects been neither definite, literal, nor exact—and further that in many points there is (as it were) a designed discrepancy which no explanation can remove, as though the Lord Himself had intended not to leave us room for doubt, as to whether that which was in His mind when He gave forth the prophetic word has been fulfilled or not.

Here I would make one remark; I believe that the great subject of prophetic testimony is “the last days,” (2 Peter 3:2,3.) or “the times of the restitution of all things,” of which it is written, (Acts 3:21.) that “God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began:”—i.e. (if I understand the declaration aright) the circumstances and events connected with this time, are THE theme of all the prophets; and thus we might almost suppose a priori that any and every prophetic declaration was in some way or other connected either with the evil of the latter day—the return of our Lord, which will check that evil by destroying judgment—or the blessings which will be the consequences of that advent—those Scriptures which set forth our Lord’s humiliation are also intimately connected with His glory, as it is written, “the sufferings of Christ AND the glory which should follow;” and again, in another place, (Heb. 2:9.) we read of Jesus “crowned with glory and honor in consequence of the suffering of death.”

Thus the Christian needs not to be in doubt or perplexity on account of the hitherto non-fulfillment of the prophecies concerning Babylon; if he be convinced that they are yet future, he can with confidence say that they will be fulfilled because they are written; and he can say further that they will probably be fulfilled in the latter day, when Gentile dominion shall have risen to its height; and this probability will (I believe) become a certainty when the testimony itself shall have been examined.

I scarcely need more than refer to Babylon as being the, city of human greatness. (Gen. 11:4.) “Let us make us a name.” But God confounded the builders and scattered them, and immediately after we find Abram called; the sacred history then becomes the history of him and his seed, and of the city which God chose to set His name there—Jerusalem. Babylon disappears from our view for fifteen hundred years; until in the unfaithfulness of Jerusalem, the prophetic word went forth that they should go into captivity, even into Babylon. But it was not only declared that Babylon should be the scourge of Judah; but the Lord in His mercy to His people also told them of the utter destruction and entire desolation of Babylon, and of their own final (and therefore even now yet future) deliverance.

Many of the circumstances stated in these prophecies are such as appear clearly to connect them with the coming of the day of the Lord; to those contained in Isa. 13 and 14 I will now refer.—

The coming of “the day of the Lord,” is declared (ver. 6, 9,) the darkening of the sun and moon, and the shaking of the heavens and the earth; (ver. 10, 13.) all which circumstances are such as no one can state to have been definitely fulfilled, and which, from the terms in which they are declared, appear to belong to that which is often spoken of in other Scriptures as “the day of the Lord;” no indefinite expression, but one which is in the word of God used with peculiar and marked precision of meaning. Connected with these signs a destruction of Babylon is foretold—Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees’ excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, &c. &c. For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel. Was there even a semblance of an accomplishment of this in the deliverance of the Jews from their captivity by Cyrus? Babylon had been taken by Darius and Cyrus, but it was not destroyed; it was not made a desolation; and the deliverance of the Jews (though a consequence) was not the immediate effect of this capture—It is also written, “They shall take them for captives whose captives they were, and they shall rule over their oppressors.” (14:2.) Nothing of this kind has yet been; the restored remnant were entirely dependent, and subject to the Persian Government; and the only semblance of independence they again obtained was during the days of Judas Maccabaeus and his successors; but even they in no way ruled over their oppressors.

After this predicted deliverance of Israel it is said that they shall take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, “How hath the oppressor ceased,” &c. “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most Nigh—Yet shalt thou be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit,” &c. &c.

I do not think that this prophecy can be applied to any king of Babylon hitherto; Nebuchadnezzar was the conqueror of the Jews, but to him it was obviously inappropriate; we do not read of any such enormity of blasphemy being committed by him as is here spoken of, and we also read (Dan. 4:34.) that in consequence of the corrective chastisement with which the Lord visited him, that he blessed the Most High, and praised and honored Him that liveth forever and ever.

Evil—Merodach has nothing recorded of him in the Scripture, except having freed Jehoiachin, King of Judah, from the prison. (Jer. 52:31.)

Belshazzar has nothing mentioned concerning him which would connect him personally with Jerusalem, and in no way could this prophecy belong to him.

Thus I am fully justified in regarding this as an unfulfilled prophecy; although comprehending within itself many things which have been fulfilled partially, but which (like many other prophecies) are not exhausted, nor will be until the final fulfillment shall take up the whole, and definitely meet all the terms of the prediction. I say definitely, for surely it will be definite; for nothing less than the most clear and explicit fulfillment can answer that which the Lord has testified concerning the events of these two chapters; (Isa. 13 & 14 to ver. 27.) “The Lord of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand.”

I will now examine a few passages in Jer. 50 & 51—After speaking of the taking of Babylon, we find this prediction (ver. 20.) “ In those days and in that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found; for I will pardon them whom I will reserve.”

This must most plainly be seen to belong to Israel’s future, final deliverance. (see Jer. 31:34. and Zech. 3:9; 13:9.) (ver. 40.) “As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and the neighbor cities thereof, saith the Lord, so shall no man abide there, neither shall any son of man dwell therein.” It is not to be supposed that the Lord would compare together things in themselves totally dissimilar. The destruction of Sodom was sudden in one day, that of Babylon slow and gradual; its decay having occupied a period of more than one thousand years. It was taken by Cyrus but not destroyed; it was taken by Darius Hystaspes, and part of the walls was demolished, but the city itself left undestroyed; it was taken by Alexander the Great, and so far from seeking its destruction, he purposed to make it his metropolis; from his days it gradually became of less and less importance, until about the fifth century (or probably a little later,) it had almost or quite disappeared. Let this slow work of decay be contrasted with the above prophecy, and also with the following passages. “At the noise of the taking of Babylon the earth is moved, and the cry is heard among the nations.” (50:46.) “I will send against Babylon farmers, and they shall fan her, and shall empty her land.” (51:2.) “Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed, howl for her.” (ver. 8.)

The heaps of ruins which cover the plain of Babylon, furnish the neighboring country with materials for building, as though this marked discrepancy was purposely given lest the Church of God should erringly think this prediction to be fulfilled; for it is written, — “They shall not take of thee a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations, but thou shalt be desolate forever saith the Lord.” (51:26.)

The desolation of the plain of Babylon has been often adverted to, as showing the accomplishment of these prophecies; “No man shall abide there, neither shall any son of man dwell therein.” (50:40.) “Every purpose of the Lord shall be performed against Babylon, to make the land of Babylon a desolation, without an inhabitant.” (51:29) “Her cities are a desolation, a dry land and a wilderness, a land wherein no man dwelleth, neither doth any son of man pass thereby.” (51:43.)

In order to show the remarkable non-fulfillment of these prophecies, I must advert to the present state of the plain of Babylon. On each side of the river Euphrates there are large mounds of ruins scattered over a great extent; these are a most mournful desolation, but still the whole of the site of ancient Babylon is not such a waste, for the town of Lillian stands in the very center of the ruins. (See Mr. Rich’s Memoir on the plain of Babylon, or Penny Cyclopaedia, Art: Babylon.) It would be impossible to draw a ground plan of Babylon from a survey of the ruins without including Hillah in the midst, and the very existence of any town in such a situation sufficiently proves the point which I wish to press.

I find the following incidental statement in Mr. Groves’s “Journal of a residence at Bagdad,” and I the rather quote him as an authority, because at the time when he wrote he looked upon Rome as being the “mystical Babylon.”

In speaking of the ravages of the plague Mr. Groves writes— “At Hillah, the modern Babylon, population ten thousand, there is, Seyd Ibrahim told we today, scarce a said left, and the dogs and the wild beasts alone are there feeding on the dead bodies.. . If mystical Babylon is suffering, as the seat of this Archbishopric of the literal Babylon, the times are not far off when the river Euphrates shall be dried up for the kings of the east to pass over.” (page 136) Again, p. 1.54, he speaks thus—“May 15, 16, I have heard today that the French Roman Catholic Archbishop of Babylon has been dead a long time, and two of his priests, and the remaining two fled.” Thus I learn, from this incidental source, that Hillah is the see of the Archbishop of Babylon, appointed by the apostate Church of Rome, whilst I also know (from Mr. Rich’s Memoir) that this very town is the actual occupant of a portion of the site of the ancient metropolis of Chaldea: in other words, that Hillah is Babylon.

Mr. Groves (p. 108.) speaks of Hillah having been seized, to which his Editor adds the following note— “Hillah is a small town on the Euphrates, a little below the ruins of Babylon; it was built in the year 495 of the Hegira, or 1115 of the Christian era, in a district called El Aredh Babel; its population does not exceed between 6 and 7000: consisting of Arabs and Jews, there being no Christians, and only such Turks as are employed in the government. The inhabitants bear a very bad character. The air is salubrious, and the soil extremely fertile, producing great quantities of rice, dates, and grain of different kinds, though it is not cultivated to above half the degree of which it is susceptible.” Now as to the site of this town being below the ruins of Babylon, any one who will examine the plan engraved in the “Penny Cyclopcedia,” will at once see that it is not possible to assign any position for the walls of Babylon which will not include Hillah; and if we follow Mr. Rich as to the probable position of some of the ancient buildings, (for which he assig, us what appear to me to be satisfactory reasons,) Hillah will just occupy the center. Whether the population be 6000 or 10,000, the fact of the non-fulfillment of the prediction of its being waste without inhabitant, is equally established.

It will be of some advantage I believe for me to refer to Mr. Keith’s “Evidence of the truth of the Christian Religion, derived from the literal fulfillment of Prophecy.” So far from weakening what I have been led to see from the Scripture, as to the hitherto non-fulfillment of the prophetic testimony concerning Babylon, these views have been very materially confirmed from seeing what his statements are, and what the literal words of the Scripture testify.

It is to be borne in mind what I have already shown from various authorities to be the present state of Babylon, as to its population, and the extraordinary fertility of its soil.

It is written, (Jer. 51:8.) “Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed;” but Mr. Keith says— “According to the most accurate chronologers, 160 years before the foot of an enemy had entered it, the voice of prophecy pronounced the doom of the mighty and unconquered Babylon. A succession of ages brought it gradually to the dust; and the gradation of its fall is marked till it sunk at last into utter desolation.” (p. 248. seventh edition.) “It fell before every hand that was raised against it; yet its greatness did not depart, nor was its glory obscured in one day. Cyrus was not its destroyer; but he sought by wise institutions to perpetuate its preeminence amongst the nations.” (p. 272.) “The golden city thus gradually verged, for centuries towards poverty and desolation.” (p. 278.) Mr. K. speaks of this land having been subjected by “Cyrus and Darius, kings of Persia; Alexander the Great; and Seleucus, king of Assyria; Demetrius and Antiochus the Great; Trajan, Severus, Julian and Heraclius, emperors of Rome; the victorious Omar, the successor of Mahomet; Holagon and Tamerlane.” (p. 270.) There is nothing in all this gradual decline to meet the terms in which the Lord foretold. Babylon’s destruction; this destruction is connected with the deliverance of Israel, as it is written, “for the Lord will yet choose Israel;” but we find it is a thing impossible to fix any precise date when Babylon ceased to be. Thus Mr K. says again— “The progressive and predicted decline of Babylon the great, [but it is to be observed that the predicted fall was NOT a progressive decline,] till it ceased to be a city, has already been briefly detailed. About the beginning of the Christian era, a small portion of it was inhabited, and the far greater part was cultivated. In the second century nothing but the walls remained.” &c. (p, 296.) It would be interesting to inquire how this last statement consists with the fact of the Talmud of Babylon, having been compiled by the Jewish Rabbles there resident about the fifth century.

Mr. Keith makes many quotations to prove the present sterility of the plain of Babylon; wishing thus to show that it is no longer the exuberant spot which it once was: I have remarked on this already, and will only add one of the citations which he makes from Mr. Rich—“The whole country between Bagdad and Hillah is a perfectly flat and (with the exception of a few spots as you approach the latter place) uncultivated waste.” (p. 289.) Thus the vicinity of Babylon stands marked in contradistinction to the surrounding country.

The prediction “They shall not take of thee a stone for a corner,” &c. (Jer. 51:26.) is applied by Mr. Keith to one large vitrified edifice, which cannot be made available for building with; but if the whole passage in Jeremiah be carefully read, it will be seen that “the destroying mountain” is Babylon, and not any temple or other edifice in it,

I believe that I have said enough to prove that nothing has yet occurred which answers the terms of the prophecies, and therefore I think myself fully justified in regarding these predictions as being yet to be fulfilled on Babylon—the actual, literal city in Chaldea. The Babylon of the Old Testament is (I believe) identical with the Babylon of the New. “The Church that is in Babylon, elected together with you, saluteth you.” (1 Peter 5:13) This has been assumed (why, I know not) to mean Rome; but surely when the Apostle wrote, the ancient city had some existence; and it is remarkable that the Syrian Church (who may at least be supposed to be capable of judging as to the fact of the existence of a city in their own country) ranks Babylon (Hillah) as one of the five patriarchates, or principal Churches founded by Apostles. (See Graham’s Topographical Dictionary of Palestine.)

In Genesis Babylon is the first concentration of Gentile power; in the Revelation it is the last: and the yet future destruction of this will doubtless exhaust the predictions of the Prophets; all matters of detail I now leave, only again adverting to the necessary connection of these judgments with the time of Israel’s blessing.

When I first thought, from reading the prophetic word, that these things were yet unfulfilled, the idea seemed so strange, so entirely contrary to my own pre-conceived opinions, that I was disposed to look on it as an untenable hypothesis: but the more I have searched into the evidence of Scripture, and compared it with incontrovertible acts, the more have I been confirmed in regarding the true arid literal Babylon to be the city on which God’s judgments are yet to be poured out.

In Zech. 5 there is a symbolic prediction indicating a restoration in the land of Shinar; in Rev. 9:14 four angels bound in the river Euphrates are loosed—these things indicate a change in the state of that country in the time of the end. And would it not give a strong ground to the infidel to triumph, if he were to see Babylon once again a glorious city, while Christians are looking on its destruction as an evidence of the truth of their religion? Surely these things will be thus; the greatness of the lands whose abasement is foretold, will, (I doubt not) before the time of the end, cause the scoffer to exult, and to contemn the testimony of God; and also will cause others to think that the predicted judgments are exhausted, and the time of blessing commenced.

If the “more sure word of prophecy” be “a light shining in a dark place, whereunto we do well to take heed,” it is incumbent on us to add to our faith knowledge, that we may rightly divide the word of truth, and not say “this has been fulfilled” of any portion, when in fact much of it remains in no way accomplished; and in this instance we have yet to look forward to that sudden and total destruction of Babylon (like that of Sodom) which was thus symbolically foreshown— “Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that should come upon Babylon, even all these words which are written against Babylon: and Jeremiah said to Seraiah, when thou earnest to Babylon, and shalt see, and shalt read all these words; then shalt thou say, O Lord thou hast spoken against this place to cut it of that none shall remain in it, neither man nor beast, but that it shall be desolate forever; and it shall be when thou hast made an end of reading this book, that thou shalt bind a stone to it, and cast it into the midst of Euphrates; and thou shalt say, Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the evil that I will bring upon her; and they shall be weary.”

I will thus sum up the facts as to the present state of Babylon—Hillah occupies one portion of its site containing from 6 to 10, 000 inhabitants.

It is the See of the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Babylon. It is recognized by the Syrian Church as a Patriarchate.

Its soil is peculiarly fertile, (though not above half cultivated,) and in this respect is a striking contrast to much of the country round.

~~~

Babylon in the Old Testament is the city of man’s greatness—so is it in the Revelation—it is the very concentration of all that is great and goodly in man’s estimate; though it is now depressed for a time yet its principles are in active operation in the world. When Gentile power commenced. there, God called Abram out from among. the Chaldees; and the word to every child of faith is still, “Come out, and be ye separate.”

I remain

Your brother and servant in the Lord,

Tottenham, June 7, 1830.

Extracts From the History of the Christian Religion and Church During the Three First Centuries: By Dr. Augustus Neander

Translated from the German by HENRY JOHN ROSE, B.D.

Fellow of St. John’s College, Cambridge.

THE following Extracts from the above work are given, as tending in some measure to throw light on a question which is exercising the minds of many saints at the present day, viz. Church Constitution, Church Order, and Church Authority. As it is by no means intended to review the work, very much that is valuable in its commencement on the state of Judaism and Gentile Philosophy, before and at the time of the Incarnation, is passed over, and also a masterly analysis of the principles which led to the early persecutions.

In the extracts given, it is by no means to be understood that they contain no objectionable statements, on the contrary, many and important exceptions might be taken. The Author’s views of the important distinction between Flesh and Spirit appear far from clear, when he says, “a nature, which retained, indeed, its individual character, but was regenerated and ennobled by the influence of the Holy Spirit.” However common such a notion is, it is most decidedly opposed to the truth that “that which is born of the Flesh is Flesh,” and we know is incapable of being ennobled, it “profiteth nothing.” This makes way for a very loose statement immediately following, respecting the Charismata, as if they were not actually gifts conferred, (however the vessel might be fitted and doubtless was,) but only the improvement of the natural faculties.

It should be added that the Translator says of the Author, “His Work is distinguished in general by his candor and acuteness, his diligence and fidelity, of which I have some right to speak, from having verified almost all his quotations, and I have found him uniformly entitled to this praise.” At the same time he avows that he is very far from concurring in all the views propounded in the Work, and cannot accede to the arguments by which some of them are supported, especially those which relate to the early form of Church government.

Since it is from this part of the Work that the Extracts are taken, so much need to be said in justice to the Translator, who partly in the preface and partly in notes, has stated his objections to Neander’s arguments on this question.

It has been thought best to give the Extracts in full, that the views of the Author may be fairly stated, without expressing at present what appears to be sound in them, and what to need qualification.

All Christians a Priestly Race

“THE formation of the Christian Church, being derived from the peculiarities of Christianity, must essentially differ from that of all other religious unions. A class of priests, who were to guide all other men, under an assumption of their incompetence in religious matters, whose business it was exclusively to provide for the satisfaction of the religious wants of the rest of mankind, and to form a link between them and God, and godly things; such a class of priests could find no place in Christianity. While the Gospel put away that which separated man from God, by bringing all men into the same communion with God through Christ, it also removed that partition-wall which separated one man from his fellows, in regard to his more elevated interests. The same High Priest and Mediator for all, by whom all being reconciled and united with God, become themselves a priestly and spiritual race! One heavenly King, Guide and Teacher, through whom all are taught from God! One faith! One hope! One Spirit, which must animate all! One oracle in the hearts of all!—the voice of the Spirit which proceeds from God! And all citizens of one heavenly kingdom, with whose heavenly powers they have already been sent forth as strangers in the world! When the Apostles introduced the notion of a priest which is found in the Old Testament, into Christianity, it was always only with the intention of showing that no such visible distinct priesthood as existed in the economy of the Old Testament, could find admittance into that of the New; that inasmuch as free access to God and to heaven was once for all opened to the faithful, by the one High Priest Christ, they had become, by union with Himself, a holy and spiritual people, and their calling was only this, viz, to consecrate their whole life as a sacrifice of thanksgiving for the mercy of God’s redemption, and to preach the power and grace of Him, who had called them from the kingdom of darkness into His wonderful light; and their whole life was to be a continued priesthood, a spiritual serving of God, proceeding from the affections of a faith working by love, and also a continued witness of their Redeemer.” (Compare 1 Peter 2:9, Rom. 12:1, and the spirit and connection of ideas throughout the whole Epistle to the Hebrews.)

“And thus also the furtherance of God’s kingdom, both in general and in each individual community, the furtherance of the propagation of Christianity among the heathen, and the improvement of each particular Church, was not to be the concern of a particular chosen class of Christians, but the nearest duty of every individual Christian. Every one was to contribute to this object from the station assigned to Mtn by the invisible Head of the Church, and by the gifts peculiar to him, which were given to him by God, and grounded in his nature—a nature which retained, indeed, its individual character, but was regenerated and ennobled by the influence of the Holy Ghost, There was here no division into spiritual and worldly, but all as Christians, in their inward life and dispositions, were to be men, dead to the ungodliness of the world, and thus far departed out of the world; men animated by the Spirit of God and not by the spirit of the world. The peculiar and prevailing capabilities of Christians, as far as they were sanctified and consecrated by this Spirit, and employed by it as the organs of its active influence, became charismata, or gifts of grace. Hence the Apostle Paul began his address to the Corinthian Church, on the subject of gifts, in this manner, (1 Cor. 12) ‘Once, when ye were heathen, ye suffered yourselves to be led blindly by your priests to dumb idols; ye were dead and dumb as they. Now, while ye serve the living God through Christ, ye have no longer any such leaders, to draw you blindly by leading strings. Ye have yourselves now the Spirit of God for your guide, who enlightens you. Ye no more follow in silence, He speaks out of you; there are many gifts, but there is one Spirit.’ Who shall arrogate that to himself, which the enlightened Apostle ventured not to do, to be lord over the faith of Christians?”

Outward Form Necessary

“Now, although all Christians had the same priestly calling, and the same priestly right, and although there could not be any distinct class of priests in the first Christian Church, yet every Church, as a society for establishing and extending the kingdom of God, an union for the avowal of the same faith in word and work, for the mutual confirmation and animation of this faith, for communion and for the mutual furtherance of that higher life which flowed from this faith—an union for these most lofty aims, must obtain a form and consistence proportioned to them; for without this form, nothing can continue to exist among men. Christian Churches stood still more in need of such an established order, since they must develop themselves, and make their progress in a world so foreign to them, and under the influence of such various sources of threats and disturbance, or at least of affliction. In every society, a certain government and conduct of the common interests must exist. Those forms of government must have corresponded best to the spirit of Christianity and the purposes for which Churches were formed, which were calculated the most to further the free development of Christianity, in its influence on outward conduct which proceeds from within, and also to further the collecting together and mutual efficacy of all individual powers and gifts.”

“The monarchical form of government would have too much tendency to repress and overwhelm the free development of different peculiarities, and to introduce a system by which one definite human form should be stamped on everything, instead of allowing the Spirit free choice to develop itself under a variety of human forms, and these mutually to lay hold of each other. It would too, probably lead to a result by which that which is human would be prized too highly, and one man have too much weight, so that he should become the center around which everything would gather itself, instead of the one invisible Shepherd of all becoming the center of all. How anxiously do the Apostles strive to keep off such a danger! How much does the Apostle Paul, in his first Epistle to the Corinthians, insist on the free co-operation of all, that no one power or disposition might overwhelm the rest and reign triumphant The Apostles themselves, conscious as they were of that higher degree of illumination which was necessary for them alone in their capacity of founders of the first Church, and teachers of pure Christianity for all times—conscious as they were of a higher degree of authority and power, delivered to them by the divine Founder of the Church Himself, such as was given to no other men, yet came forward as little as possible in a commanding manner, and endeavored as much as in them lay, to act with the free co-operation of the Churches in all the circumstances which concerned the Church, as we shall have occasion hereafter to notice more particularly. Peter and John, in their Epistles, placed themselves in the same rank with the leaders of the Churches, instead of claiming to be the general leaders of the Churches over them. How difficult must it have been in the Churches to find one individual who united in himself all the qualities requisite for the conduct of the affairs of the Churches, and who alone possessed the confidence of all men.”

“Far easier must it have been to find a number of fathers of families in each Church, whose peculiarities were calculated to supply each others defects in the administration of the various offices, and of whom one might be entrusted with the confidence of one part of the community, and another, with that of others. The monarchical principle in spiritual things, accords ill with the spirit of Christianity, which continually points to the feelings of mutual need, and the necessity and blessing of common deliberation, as well as of common prayer. Where two or three are gathered together in the name of the Lord, there also, He promises, will He be among them.”

In addition to this, it was the custom of Christianity to appropriate to it own use existing forms, when it found any which suited its spirit and its essence. Now there was actually a form of government existing in the Jewish synagogues, and in all the sects which had their origin in Judaism; and this was in no respect a monarchical, but an aristocratical form; a council of elderly men— זקנים πρεσβυτεροι which conducted all common affairs. This form must also, wherever Churches were established in the Roman Empire among the heathen, have appeared the most natural; for men were here accustomed from of old to see the affairs of towns carried on by a senate, the assembly of decuriones. That the comparison of ecclesiastical administration with the political really took place here, is shown by this, that the spiritual persons were afterward named an Ordo, the leading senate of the Church; for Ordo was a word peculiarly appropriated to this rank of senators.”

Presbyters or Bishops-Deacons

“In compliance with this form a council of Elders was generally appointed to conduct the affairs of the Churches; but it was not necessary that it should be strictly composed of those who were the most aged, although age was taken very much into the account; but age was rather considered here as a sign of dignity, as in the Latin Senates, or in the Greek γερουσια. Besides the usual appellation of these governors of the Churches, namely, πρεσβυτεροι, there were many others also in use, designating their peculiar sphere of action, as ποιμενες Shepherds כּדנסין ηγουμενοι-προεζωτες των αδελϕων and one of these appellations was also επισκοπος, denoting their office as leaders and overseers over the whole of the Church.”

“That the name also of Episcopus was altogether synonymous with that of Presbyter, is clearly collected from the passages of Scripture, where both appellations are interchanged, (Acts 20 compare ver. 17 with ver. 28. Epistle to Titus, chap. 1 vers. 1-5) as well as from those where the mention of the office of Deacon follows immediately after that of Episcopi; so that a third class of officers could not lie between the two. (Phil. 1:1; 1 Tim. 3:1-8.) This interchange of the two appellations is a proof of their entire coincidence; if the name Bishop had originally been the appellation of the President of this Church senate, of a primus inter pares, such an interchange could never have taken place. In the letter also, which Clement, the disciple of Paul, wrote in the name of the Roman Church, after the Bishops, as Presidents of the Churches, the Deacons are immediately named.” (See chap. 42.)

Gift of Διδασκαλια

“These Presbyters or Bishops, had the superintendence over the whole Church, the conduct of all its common affairs, but the Office of Teacher was not exclusively assigned to them; for as we have above observed, all Christians had the right to pour out their hearts before their brethren in the assemblies of the Church, and to speak for their edification. At the same time it does not follow that all the members, of the Church were destined to the ordinary office of teaching; there is a great distinction between a regular capability of teaching, always under the control of him who possessed it, and an outpouring (like prophecy or the gift of tongues) proceeding from a sudden inspiration, and accompanied with a peculiar and elevated, but transient state of mind, and the latter might very probably descend from above on all vital Christians in those first times of extraordinary excitement, when the divine life first entered into the limits of this earthly world.”

“On such transient excitements of a peculiar state of mind in individuals, care for the maintenance, propagation and advancement of clear religious knowledge could not be made safely to depend, any more than the defense of the pure and genuine apostolic doctrine against the manifold false tendencies of Jewish or heathen feelings, which had already thus early begun to threaten the Church. Although all Christians must be taught only by the one Heavenly Guide, yet regard to the weakness of human nature, which is destined to keep the treasures of heaven in earthen vessels, made it requisite that persons should never be wanting in the Church, who were peculiarly qualified constantly to set strongly before their brethren their relation to the common Guide and Redeemer of all, to impress it on their hearts forcibly, to show them how everything ought to be viewed in connection with this one relation, and to warn them against everything which threatened to withdraw them from this fundamental principle of Christian life. Such a capability of expounding, which was always under the control of him who possessed it, pre-supposed a certain cultivation of the intellect, a certain clearness and acuteness of thought, and a certain power of communicating its impressions to others, which, when they were present, and penetrated and animated by the power of the Spirit of God, became the χαρισμα δἱδασκαλιας.

“Those who possessed this charisma, were, on that account, appointed to provide for the constant maintenance of pure doctrines in the Church, and for the confirmation and advancement of Christian knowledge, without excluding the co-operation of others, each in his own station, according to the gift bestowed upon him. in the Apostolic age, therefore, the χαρισμα δἱδασκαλιας, and the rank of Teachers of the Church, δἱδασκαλοι, who where distinguished by that gift, are mentioned as something quite distinct, 1 Cor. 12:28, 14:6; Eph. 4:11. All the members of the Church might feel themselves impelled at particular moments to address the congregation of brethren, or to cry out to God, and praise Him before them; but only a few had that χαρισμα δἱδασκαλιας and were δἱδασκαλοι.”

Gift of Κυβερνησις.

“But it is also clear, from the case itself, that this talent of instruction is quite a different thing from the talent for administering the affairs of the Church, the χαρισμα κυβερνησεως which was particularly required for the office of a member of the council, a Presbyter or Bishop. A man might possess to a great extent dexterity in outward matters and Christian prudence, and in general those more practical capacities which are required for such an office in the Church, without uniting to them the turn of mind and the cultivation of the understanding requisite for that of a Teacher. In the first Apostolic Church, to whose spirit all arbitrary and idle distinction of ranks was so foreign; in which offices being considered only in regard to the object which they were destined to obtain, were limited by an inward necessity; the offices of governing and those of teaching the Churches, the office of a διδασκαλος and that of a ποιμην were accordingly separated from each other.”

“The perception of this distinction, so clearly laid down, might lead. us to the supposition, that originally those Teachers of the Church expressly so called, did not belong to the class of Rulers of the Churches, and certainly it is not capable of proof that they always belonged to the Presbyters. Thus much only is certain, it was a source of great satisfaction when, among the rulers of the Church, there were men qualified also for Teachers. Although to the Presbyters in general (as in Paul’s parting speech to the Presbyters of the Church of Ephesus, Acts 20) the guardianship over the maintenance of pure doctrine was assigned, it does not thence follow that they had to execute the office of Teacher in the stricter sense of the word; for the question here may merely have concerned the general care of the government of the Church. But when, in the Epistle to Titus, it is required of a Bishop, not only that he should for his own part hold fast the genuine pure doctrine of the gospel, but that he should also be capable of confirming others in it, and of gainsaying the adversaries of it, it clearly follows that the Bishop was required to possess also that gift of teaching. This might, under many circumstances of the Churches, as under those which are spoken of in this Epistle, perhaps be particularly desirable, on account of the danger that threatened the Church from the propagation of heresies, which the paternal authority of the Elders of the Church supported by their preeminence as Teachers was to oppose. Thus also, in the 1st Epistle to Timothy, v. 17, those Presbyters who were able to unite with the power of ruling, (the κυβερνησις) also that of teaching, (the διδασκαλια) were especially honored, which gives us at the same time a proof that both were not necessarily always united.”

Deacons-Deaconesses

“Besides this we find only one Church office in the Apostolic age, the office of Deacon. The business of this office was at first only external, as according to Acts 6 it was instituted to assist in the administration of alms; care for the poor and the sick belonging to the Church, to which afterward many other external cares were added, was peculiarly the business of this office. Besides the Deacons, there were also established for the female part of the community Deaconesses, where the free access of men to females, especially as the sexes are so carefully separated in the East, might excite suspicion and give offense. Although women in conformity to their natural destination, were excluded, from the offices of teaching and governing the Churches, yet in this manner, the peculiar qualities of females were brought into demand, as peculiar gifts for the service of the Church. By means of these Deaconesses the Gospel might be brought into the inmost recesses of family life, where from Eastern manners no man could have obtained admittance. As Christian mothers and mistresses of families experienced and tried in all the trials that belong to women, they were to uphold the younger women of the Church by their counsels and consolations.”

Mode of Election

“So far as regards the election to these offices, we are without sufficient information to decide certainly how it was managed in the first Apostolic times; and it is very possible, that from a difference in circumstances, the same method of proceeding was not adopted in all cases. As the Apostles in the appointment of the Deacons, allowed the Church itself to choose; and as this also was the case, when deputies were sent by the Churches in their name to accompany the Apostles, (2 Cor. 8:19.) we May conclude that a similar proceeding was resorted. to in the appointment to other Church offices. It may nevertheless have happened, that where the Apostles could not place implicit confidence in the Spirit of the first new Churches, they gave the important office of Presbyter to those who appeared to them, under the light of the Holy Spirit, the most fitted for it; their choice would also deserve the highest confidence on the part of the Church, (compare Acts 14:23; Titus 1:5.) although when Paul gives Titus power to appoint rulers of the Church, who had the requisite qualities, nothing is by that determined as to the nature of the election: it does not necessarily follow that an election by the Church itself is absolutely excluded. It appears to have been part of the system of discipline, that the Church offices should be confided to the first converted men, if they had the proper qualifications. (1 Cor. 16:16.) Clement of Rome brings forward the rule, as if laid down by the Apostles for the appointment to Church offices, that they should be possessed after the judgment of approved men, with the consent of the whole Church. The usual custom might be, that on a vacancy in any of these offices, the Presbyters themselves presented to the Church another to supply the place of the deceased, and that it was left to the Church to ratify their choice, or to reject on definite grounds.”

“Where the request to the Church for her consent was not a mere formality, this method of appointing to Church offices had its beneficial influence; that by its means the voice of the larger multitude would be guided by those who were capable of judging; all schisms would be suppressed, and no person would be obtruded on the Church who was not affectionately looked upon by them.”

“As to what further regards the relation of these Presbyters to the Churches, they were designed to be not unlimited monarchs, but rulers and guides in an ecclesiastical republic, and to conduct everything in conjunction with the Church assembled together, as the servants and not the masters of which they were to act.”

“The Apostles saw these relations in this manner, because they addressed their Epistles, which treated not of these dogmatical circumstances, but of things pertaining to the ecclesiastical life and discipline, not to the rulers of the Churches only, but to the whole of the Church. Where the Apostle Paul pronounces an exclusion from the communion of the Church, he represents himself as united in the Spirit with the whole Church, (1 Cor. 5:4.) supposing that for an affair of such general concernment the assembling of the Church would be regularly requisite.”

Passages in the Book of Revelation Connected With the Old Testament.-No. 3.

MY DEAR BROTHER,

GOD, in the manifested declaration of His purpose and grace, exhibits not only the perfectness that is in Himself, as standing in inherent excellence, but also as so standing in opposition to manifested failure on the part of man. However small may be our power of apprehending the counsels of God, we ought by no means to imagine that from the manner of their development there is nothing for us to learn. The revelations of God are exhibitions of Himself, and thus they bear His impress; so that although the whole of His truth and of His mind may be that in which the saints, when glorified, will be forever learning, without the possibility of exhausting their fullness, (because of their infinity,) yet even now we may learn the most profitable lessons of truth from these very things, of whose magnitude we can have neither idea nor conception; even as we can find blessing in knowing that we are (individually) cared for by a heavenly Father, although we cannot, by any powers that we possess, comprehend. Him, or in any way take cognizance of Him as the providential ruler of all things—the part that is revealed to us brings blessing, although we do not and cannot comprehend the whole.

In the revelation of the grace of God it is not only the matter but also the manner that exhibits Him. It was His purpose that the Church should be the heirs of glory; this was the counsel of His will before the foundation of the world. But how was this blessed purpose of grace carried into effect? God might, if it had consisted with His infinite will, have called the Church into being, (even as it already was in His purpose,) “holy, and without blame before Him in love,” (Eph. 1:4.) “a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, but holy, and without blemish.” (v. 27.) The Church might, if God had so willed it, have been thus set in original purity; but no!—there were other things which God would manifest in bringing the Church unto glory.

Not only would He exhibit the grace of His purpose, but He would do it, as acting against and superior to evil; thus showing how, in spite of failure from the weakness of the creature, in spite of opposition from the energetic power of Satan, He could deliver those who were “elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father,” “chosen in Christ before the world was,” “written in the Lamb’s book of life from the foundation of the world,” from all those things which to appearance would forever have hindered Him from carrying into effect His purpose of blessing.

The Church, the bride of Christ, being thus bound down by the power of Satan, God was pleased to make the most marvelous display of His love—a display for which He would otherwise have lacked opportunity—even the gift of His Son; a gift which was such as it could not have entered into the heart of man to conceive. Jesus was sent “to gather together the children of God who were scattered abroad.” He came to do this by dying for them; by shedding His blood to vindicate the righteousness of God in delivering the Church chosen in Jesus from that wrath which lay on them, and thus to sanctify by this precious blood, those who were already “sanctified (i.e. set apart) by God the Father” (Jude 1.) in His eternal purpose, Jesus died as the representative of His Church; the full penalty of their transgressions passed upon Him; He rose from the dead, the witness of their full justification, and thus they were delivered from the bond by which they had been held, and were raised up in Christ to be that in which in God’s purpose they had been from the beginning. They are united to Christ; His standing therefore is their standing—if He hath life eternal so have they; if He is justified so are they; if He stands accepted before God so do they; they are exalted to that to which it seemed impossible to any, save “God who raiseth the dead and calleth things that are not as though they were,” that they could ever have been brought, although it was to this that they were predestinated from the beginning. Thus it is that the Christian can say, rejoicingly, “the Son of God loved me, and gave Himself for me,” and he can, in some feeble measure, comprehend the riches of that grace which has acted superior to all failure, even as it was purposed. that it should; according to the word, “chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.”

There is one aspect wherein the gift of Christ is shown in its especial manifestation of grace—I mean as it regards the world; “for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son:”—in result I know that none, save the elect people of God, are saved thereby; but how much does this magnify God’s grace, that He should have given Jesus even for those who, as He knew, would in blind unbelief reject the marvelous mercy, “that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish.” It is profitable to see the wide aspect of God’s grace in the infinite gift of Jesus, co-extensive with the race of Adam; as well as the peculiar love shown unto the Church, whose sins only are said to have been borne by Christ.

To understand or measure these things is far beyond our powers; but we should not on that account reject them; if we were to wait until we could understand even the most common things of life (such for instance as how life is sustained by food) we should never be benefitted by things the most obviously needful; and so it is with regard to the Lord’s revealed purposes; we can and do find blessing in the manner of their development, although we do not understand the whole of what is exhibited therein.

But this one thing is clear, that if God had not exhibited Himself as the God of Holiness acting superior to evil—as the God of power acting superior to weakness—as the God of grace acting superior to rebellion and ingratitude—we should have failed to see, with all the power that contrast gives, the greatness of the riches of his love, and of His wisdom and grace.

Now I assuredly believe that in all God’s dealings with man, from the day when He first placed him in the garden of Eden until that day when all things shall be gathered together in Christ, He has been exhibiting Himself as the God of, grace, bringing in every blessing which He had before purposed. in His counsel at such a time and in such a manner as should show that He can and does act as one who contrasts the vastness of His own wisdom and love with the failure and ingratitude of man—every failure has been used by God thus to exhibit Himself the more fully, the sending of Jesus being the center of the whole, and the exposition of what had otherwise been inexplicable.

it is not only in the glorification of His Church that God thus develops Himself, but also with regard to His other purposes of blessing. It was the mind of God that the world which He had formed should be subjected to righteous rule, and the gift of POWER was therefore bestowed upon man, Adam stood at the head of creation; but we know that Adam failed, and all that, at the head of which he had been placed, and the blessing of which had been given to him to sustain, was involved in his fall; as it is written, (Rom, viii.) “the creation was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected it;” and also it was declared by God, “Cursed is the ground for thy sake.” (Gen. 3)

Of the dealings of God with man from the fall to the flood but little has been recorded for us by the Holy Ghost; but in that little evil was abundantly manifested, so as to show the justice with which God acted in the judgment of the flood; “the earth was filled with violence;” but immediately after the flood God declares His mind as to the exercise of righteous rule in the restraint of evil: “And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it; and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man’s brother will I require the life of man: whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God made He man.” (Gen. 9:5.) Here God meets man on the acknowledged ground of the existence of evil, and commits to him power, as remedial and retributive.

Power thus deposited in man’s hand has been tried by God in almost every variety of circumstance; in the nation of Israel there was a government accredited by God, the statutes given forth by Him, but instead of righteous exercise we find failure; “Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves; every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards; they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them.” (Isa. 50:23.) These few words exhibit the failure of power, even under the most favored circumstances, to produce that righteous rule which should. meet the Lord’s purpose of blessing. God’s gift was only used as an instrument of evil; fulfilling the contrast to His purpose of grace.

I do not now enter into the question of Gentile power, either as to principles or working, previous to the failure of God’s city, Jerusalem. Until this was fully developed the Gentiles scarcely come into view, save as used by God for the corrective chastisement of his chosen people.

But the time came when power should be taken from those who thus hail failed; as it is written, “Remove the diadem, take of the crown perverted, perverted, perverted will I make it, and it shall be no more until He come whose right it is, and I will give it Him.” (Ezek. 21:26.) In the meanwhile, from the time when power had failed in Israel, until the King, who should rule in righteousness, should take that which is His right, another field of exercise was tried; God gave power into the hand of the Gentiles in the person of Nebuchadnezzar; as it is written, “I will put my sword into the hand of the king of Babylon;” (Ezek. 30) and again, “Thou, O king, art a king of kings; for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory: and whithersoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field, and the fowl of the heaven hath He given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold.” (Dan. 2:37.) These words plainly tell us God’s committal of power to Nebuchadnezzar, “the head of gold” of the Gentile image. This gift thus committed has never been withdrawn; it has gone on successively from the gold to the silver, the brass, the iron, until in a tenfold division it shall exhibit the mixture of “iron, and miry clay.” The visions in Daniel form “the book of Gentile dominion;” we have no need to go farther than these to see the entireness of the manifested failure. The privilege conferred by God was a thing which might be used for good or for evil, for blessing or for curse; it implied necessarily a responsibility, and that a weighty one. This responsibility was not acknowledged by those who received the trust; such was the evil of man’s heart that righteous rule was a thing most hateful unto it. This was shown in the conduct of the presidents of the princes towards Daniel. (chap. 6) “They sought to find occasion against Daniel concerning the kingdom.” Gentile power then had not been thoroughly developed as to its evil; and indeed till the rejection of our Lord both by Jew and Gentile, the utter hopelessness of man’s using power in the earth for God, had not been exhibited. When the Lord Jesus Christ came, His title to power was not acknowledged; as “the Son of David” He was entitled to dominion over His own people, but they and their rulers delivered Him unto the power of the Gentiles, to be put to death; it was on the cross, when He was “lifted up from the earth,” that His title was exhibited “King of the Jews.” Here was the manifestation (the full development is yet future) of the utter contrariety of man’s use of power to the mind of God. Daniel could, therefore, before this be righteously the recipient of authority, and the exerciser of rule derived from the powers of the earth. The case now is different; those who are Christ’s are raised up with Him unto another glory, even a heavenly, and their time of power will he when their Master shall receive and exercise His—when God shall set forth His purpose of blessing in spite of man’s failure. In the Church, Christ the Head is the source of power, but this is a species of authority of which the world can take no cognizance.

But although Gentile power, from the manner of its exercise, is a thing with which the saints of God cannot interfere, yet the entrusted gift has not been taken away; it is still to be acknowledged as God’s ordinance, “The powers that be are ordained of God; whosoever, therefore, resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God;” (Rom. 13:1) thus fully does the New Testament recognize subjection to authority, as being incumbent on the saints; its exercise by them in this dispensation is not once hinted at, but the principles which are laid down as those of rule are just the very things with which the child of God may not interfere; thus it is written, “He beareth not the sword in vain; for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.” Let it be observed that this and what I have before quoted on subjection from Rom. 13 is thus prefaced. in the preceding chapter, “Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves; but give place unto wrath; for it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord; therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him to drink; for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head: be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.” This is plainly perceptive, and I would put it to the conscience of any Christian whose mind is in subjection to the written word, Whether the same person could carry these commands into effect in the exercise of the office of him “who beareth not the sword in vain,” and is “a revenger, to execute wrath.” Submission is taught, but not how to use the power of the world; the Christian must act in grace, the power in retributive justice.

Submission indeed is taught, but not acquiescence in evil; obedience to God is a paramount claim, but in other cases the powers of the world are to be obeyed.

I would say a few words as to power in the Church—this (it is evident) is a field entirely distinct; not derived from God’s original grant, but from an entirely new thing brought in, even the headship of Christ over His body the Church, and this new authority not flowing down as a thing descending from one to another, (as Gentile power did in the image) but being distributed by the Holy Ghost, who, in the absence of Christ, has been sent by Him to administer the affairs of His Church. The qualification given by Him is the only one which can confer authority in the Church; this was the way distinctly appointed by our Lord, “Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you;” (Acts 1:8.) this is the qualification, which it is manifest can neither be given by successional derivation, nor yet by the powers of the earth.

Successional derivation implies an actual ability to bestow whatever is thus delivered; with the power of the world this can be done, and has been done from the commencement of Gentile dominion unto this day. But in the Church the case is altogether different; we do not read of any provision made by Christ for raising a succession of rulers in the Church, each deriving his authority from his predecessor; so far from it, it is written that the Holy Ghost “divideth to every man severally as He will.” The true Church is not composed of those who have their standing therein by natural descent, but of those who have been quickened by the Holy Ghost to believe on Jesus, “who are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” As is the Church such surely are those who rule in it, and no principle of successional derivation has secured this.

The Romish, Greek, Syriac, and other Churches may show this succession, but in this they evidence their own utter failure, and the Holy Ghost has not been recognized as the appointer, and thus all has been wrong.

Power in the Church derived from that of the world is a yet more untenable ground to assume; and did we not know the blinding devices of Satan it would have been an astonishing circumstance that such a mistake could possibly have been made as to imagine that official authority in the Church of God could be conferred (like power in earthly things) by the will of those who rule in this world. We know that when our Lord was crucified, that “none of the princes of this world knew” the true wisdom, then they could have nothing to do with the Church. Since that time God has made no new committal of power to the Gentiles, and nothing less than this could authorize or qualify them to appoint those who should rule in the Church of God. The powers of this world either do or do not, in their interference with the Church, acknowledge the administrative authority of the Holy Ghost; if they do acknowledge this, they only show that they will try to make Him act only in the way in which they please; but if (as is the fact) they do not acknowledge this, it shows that they must be acting on principles entirely contrary to those which God has given for the directory of His Church. I fully admit (as I have before said) that the powers of this world are to be recognized as amply, as is enjoined by the Apostles of our Lord, “exhort that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for kings, and all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty:” (1 Tim. 2:1.) in their own sphere the due honor is to be shown to them and to their appointments; but when they overstep their true limit, when they take that power into their own bands which pertains solely to the Holy Ghost, even that of appointing rulers in the Church of God, acquiescence is no longer the duty of the Christian; for were he to acknowledge the official authority thus conferred, he would acknowledge the right to interfere in holy things to belong to those to whom the Lord has given no such commission.

But if those who really possess earthly power as God’s gift, have no authority thereby to confer power in the Church, much less can any body of men in any way constitute themselves to be the appointers of those who shall exercise this rule; they cannot confer gifts so as to ensure the spirituality and competency of those appointed by them, and thus, whatever may be their claims, the principle is entirely discordant with the administrative power of the Holy Ghost. In saying this I purpose to speak only of the power of conferring authority, and I will not enter upon another field which contains much for profitable inquiry—viz, the recognition of gifts whether of rule or of ministry, already conferred by the Holy Ghost; this, if we have the Spirit of God ourselves, we shall desire to do, but it is of the bestowal and not the recognition of gifts that I am speaking.

Apostasy is the departure from a certain standing wherein that of which it is spoken has once been placed; thus the Church possessed a standing in which the Lord set it; in this it possessed certain privileges and of course correlative responsibilities. When the world became avowedly and manifestly recognized by the Church, as though it had been possible for that “which lieth in the wicked one” to be united with (nay rather to be) that which the Lord set as separate from the world, in the world but not of the world, then the full principle of Apostasy had taken its effect upon the Church; no such word could now be used as had been when evil was partially tolerated, “Remember from whence thou art fallen and repent, else I will come quickly and remove thy candlestick out of his place except thou repent.” There was nothing now left that the Lord could recognize, unless (upon the ground of profession) in judgment. But in this apostate condition of the professing Church, the fullest expression of its evil was its denial of the administrative power of the Holy Ghost, acknowledging official authority to be rightfully held by those who are devoid of spiritual qualification, allowing the power of this world to appoint those who rule therein, whether it were done through the false plea of successional power, or by direct usurpation of the authority which pertains to the Holy Ghost. Thus has the professing Church, whilst in word acknowledging the headship of Christ, in fact denied it, by refusing to submit to its exercise through His appointed channel—viz. the administrative power of the Holy Ghost.

It was early that the principles of Apostasy began to manifest themselves in the Church; in the three commencing chapters of the book of Revelation—the especial testimony of Jesus Christ—their workings are made the subjects of warning: but now the candlesticks have been removed out of their place, and the position of those who are faithful to their Master is only that of a remnant gathered from out of an apostate body.

Grievous has been the failure of the Church; set as a witness it has not been such; in the world it has not shown forth the Lord’s mind, it has not manifested what His grace towards it has been in giving unto it a heavenly standing; dissevering is the sentence on the professing body; whilst in those who are indeed His, the Lord will show what His purpose and grace has been in their being united to their Lord at His return; heavenly blessing was His purpose for His Church, and though the professing body has fully manifested failure, yet in the elect remnant will be made the superabundant exhibition of His grace; even as in Israel—God’s constituted type—His grace and faithfulness to the remnant who “shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit” will be only the more wondrously shown from its standing in contrast to His judgment on the Apostate body.

But the failure with which I have now to do, is that of power in the hands of the Gentiles. When first this important gift was bestowed on them, its failure in man’s hand was revealed to the Prophet Daniel, but that which was shown to him briefly, and as it were in outline, was detailed copiously, and the lines were exhibited as filled up amply with evil in the Revelation, signified unto John by the Angel sent by Jesus Christ. The incorrigible evil of man, and especially of man in the exercise of power, is again and again detailed in the Revelation; in every instance the full development of enmity to God, and the non-recognition of the trust conferred by Him being shown; the nations, the powers of the earth give their glory to one, who in God’s estimate is called “The Beast:” they are gathered together in blind opposition to Him who has been already rejected from the earth, but who shall yet come to claim that which is His right, even the kingdom under the whole heaven, but who shall find that which in His crucifixion had been developed in principle now at length developed in fullness of evil. God does not judge hastily, but even His long-suffering will have an end, and those who have misused His gift of power (a gift which in God’s mind ought to have been used righteously for the blessing of the earth) will at length have strong delusion sent unto them that they should believe a lie! They are gathered, by the power of Satan, under their last head Antichrist, in such manifested opposition to the Lord as has not yet been seen.

But not only does God display in the prophecy of Daniel, and in “the Revelation of Jesus Christ” the utter failure and fearful judgment on the Gentile nations, but in each He brings into view His own super-abounding purpose of grace; when the beast is destroyed and given to the burning flame, one like to the Son of Man receives His kingdom; when the beast is taken by Him who sat on the horse, the blessing of the earth begins, the saints reign with Christ: this is God’s purpose of bringing the exercise of power in righteous rule on the earth; it was a gift which He purposed bestowing; in man’s hand it had failed, but when He comes “whose right it is,” it will be shown that the counsel of God’s will finds its effect in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ—He being capable of receiving, sustaining, and exercising this authority righteously.

Those who are by Him privileged to administer His authority are those who have acknowledged Him during His rejection, who came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, “who overcame the accuser of our brethren, by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives unto the death.”

Christ is not now the source of this world’s power, but it is one of those things which God had conferred before the manifestation of His Son, and thus its headship is simply pertaining to God in His providential rule—a thing conferred on man, and which might be misused by man, even as the energy used “by wicked hands” in the crucifixion of our Lord, was a power given by God, but whose misuse had not been prevented, and thus it became energized by and for Satan.

But when “the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ,” (Rev. 11) then there will be power brought to bear upon the earth exercised and upheld in righteousness.

The time chosen by God for bringing in this blessing will exhibit His grace; for it is when the enmity against Himself from those who rule in the earth will be fully developed, when the principles of evil which have long been at work, will (from Satan’s power being no longer restrained) act with unhindered energy, when evil in Jew and in Gentile shall be shown in fullness of curse—THEN shall God act superior to all the manifested failure, by bringing in His own blessing in His own way. Thus in the Old Testament Prophets, and in an especial manner in the book of Revelation, fearful evil and consequent judgment immediately precedes the bringing in of God’s blessing by rule in holiness and righteousness.

This was the blessing foreordained by God; this, the blessing, foretold by the Prophets, declared by Angels, (Luke 1:32; 2:14.) expected by the Apostles, (Acts 1:6.) promised by the Lord, (Matt. 19:28.) this has sustained the faith of the Church of God, even in the deepest suffering; (2 Tim. 2:12.) and this will manifest the victory of Christ, (fulfilling the promise made in Eden) delivering from the power of Satan that over which he has so long ruled; this will vindicate the glory of Jesus even here where He has been rejected; this will manifest the truth and goodness of God in His bringing in His purposed blessing where even the enemy had seemed to frustrate His counsel.

Then shall the earth rejoice before the Lord when He cometh: “with righteousness shall He judge the world, and the people with His truth.” Then shall the full ascription of praise be heard, “We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, because thou hast taken to thee thy great power and hast reigned.” “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing.”—Amen.

Chapter 15:2.—And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire.

Ezek. 1:22.—And the likeness of the firmament upon the heads of the living creatures was as the color of the terrible crystal.

Ver. 3, &c.—Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord, God Almighty; just and true are thy ways; thou King of nations; who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and magnify thy name for thou only art holy, for all nations shall come; and worship before thee, for thy judgments have been manifested.

Ex. 15:11.—Fearful (LXX ϑαυμαστος marvelous) in praises, doing wonders.

Deut. 32:4.—His work is perfect: (LXX true;) for all His ways are judgment.

Jer. 10:6.—Thy name is great in might; who would not fear thee, O King of nations?

Psa. 86:9.—All nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee, and shall glorify thy name; for thou art great, and doest wondrous things, thou art God alone.

Psa. 97:8.—The daughters of Judah rejoiced, because of thy judgments, O Lord.

Those who, having overcome, stand upon the sea of glass, ascribe glory to God, on account not only of the greatness of His name, and the holiness of His person, but because of the manifestation of His judgments. Moses and Israel (Ex. 15) glorified the Lord when they beheld His judgment on those who were in direct opposition to them, and therefore (as they were God’s people) to Him also: so it is with the saints; the Lord Christ is yet dishonored. in the earth, His name is as yet unvindicated in the sight of angels and of men, and until the time shall come when God shall make His enemies His footstool—until the time shall arrive when Jesus shall be no longer an expectant, (for such He still is Heb. 10:13.) those who are His (whether still in the body or not) must be expectants also. But when the hour shall come for His judgments to be made manifest, they shall rejoice with their Master and glorify His name; as it is written of His earthly people, (Ps. 98) “O sing unto the Lord a new song. . . His righteousness hath He openly shewed in the sight of the nations.”

It is not in the Lord’s mind a light thing that the glory of His holy child Jesus should be thus (in clue time) declared. The Son has glorified the Father in His perfect and holy obedience; the reward of this service shall yet be seen when, in the sight of Angels and of men, His name shall be vindicated—when “one like unto the Son of Man” shall receive from the Ancient of Days an unending kingdom and glory—when He shall come in the clouds to the joy of His saints who shall meet Him in the air, and to the confusion of His and of their enemies—“How long, O Lord?”

Ver. 6.—Seven angels. . . clothed with pure and white linen.

Ver. 7.—And one of the four living creatures gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials, full of the wrath of God, who liveth forever and ever.

Ez. 9:2.—One man among them was clothed with linen.

Ez. 44:17.—When the priests enter in at the gates of the inner court, they shall be clothed with linen garments.

Ez. 10:7.—One cherub stretched forth his hand from between the cherubim unto the fire that was between the cherubim, and took thereof, and put it into the hands of him that was clothed with linen.

The cherubim in Ezekiel, and the living creatures in this book (whatever they may be, or may symbolize) are, I believe, God’s agents in acting towards the earth, whether their place be round the throne, (as here,) or still in a more immediate relation to the earth, (as being placed below the firmament of crystal) as in Ezekiel. Who or what these agents may themselves be, is another point, but it seems pretty manifest that this is what they characteristically represent.

In Ezekiel the cherub gives the burning coals to the man clothed. with linen, which he scatters over Jerusalem—here the seven angels clothed with linen receive the vials of the wrath of God, which they pour out upon the earth from one of the living creatures—these actings appear perfectly analogous.

Ver. 8.—And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from His power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, &c.

Ez. 10:4.—The house was filled with the cloud.

Isa. 6:4.—And the house was filled with smoke.

Chapter 16:1.—And I heard a great voice out of the temple, saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God. upon the earth.

Ex. 10:2.—He spake unto the man clothed with linen, and said, Go in between the wheels, even under the cherub, and fill thine hand. with coals of the from between the cherubim, and scatter them over the city.

The chastisements which come upon the earth in consequence of the out-pouring of the vials strongly resemble (like those which follow the sounding of the angels, chap. 8 & 9) the plagues of Egypt; they are described in terms so similar that there seems to have been an evident typifying in those of “the seven last plagues.” The resemblance of these also to the plagues with which the “two witnesses” have power to smite the earth, is to be noticed.

Ver. 2.—And the first went and poured out his vial upon the earth, and there fell a noisome and grievous sore (ἑλκος). upon the men who had the mark of the beast, &c.

Ex. 9:10.—And they took ashes of the furnace, and stood. before Pharaoh; and Moses sprinkled it up toward heaven; and it became a boil (LXX, ἑλκη, sores), breaking forth with blains upon man and upon beast. The boil was upon the magicians and upon all the Egyptians.

Ver. 3, &c.—And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead. man; and every living soul died in the sea. And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers, and the fountains of waters; and they became blood.

Ex. 7:20. He lifted up the rod and smote the waters that were in the river in the sight of Pharaoh, and in the sight of his servants, and all the waters that were in the river were turned into blood.

Ver. 19.—Stretch out thine hand upon the waters of Egypt, upon their streams, upon their rivers and upon their ponds, and upon all their pools of water, that they may become blood.

Ver. 5, &c.—Thou art righteous, O Lord, who art (ὁ ων) and wast and [art] the Holy One (ὁ οσιος) because thou hast judged thus; for they have shed the blood of saints and Prophets; and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy!

Psa. 145:17.—The Lord. is righteous in all His ways, and holy (LXX ὁσιος) in all His works.

Psa. 79:3.—Their blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem.

Ex. 7:21.—The Egyptians could not drink of the water of the river; and there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt.

Ez. 16:38—I will judge thee as women that. . . . shed blood are judged; and I will give thee blood.

Ver. 7.—True and righteous are thy judgments. (κρισεις)

Deut. 32:4.—(LXX.) His works are true, and all His ways judgments. (κρισεις).

Ver. 10.—And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness.

Ex. 10:22.—And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven, and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt.

Ver. 12, &c.—And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates, and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings who [come] from the east might be prepared.

And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet; for they are the spirits of devils working miracles, which go forth to the kings of the earth, and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of the great day of God Almighty ... And he gathered them together in a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.

Jer. 50:38.—A drought is upon her [i.e. Babylon’s] waters, and they shall be dried up. 51:36.—I will dry up her sea and make her springs dry.

2 Chron. 18:19.—And the Lord said, Who will entice Ahab, king of Israel, that he may go up and fail at Ramoth Gilead?. . . Then there came forth a spirit and stood before the Lord, and said, I will entice him; and the Lord. said unto him, Wherewith? and he said I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets; and the Lord said, Thou shalt entice him, and thou shalt prevail; go out and do even so.

Psa. 2.—The kings of the earth themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His Anointed.

Zeph. 3:8.—My determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them my indignation.

Joel 3:2.—I will gather all nations and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat, &c.

Ver. 11.—Assemble yourselves and come, all ye nations.

Ver. 14.—Multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision.

Zech. 14:2.—I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations.

This future history is one of fearful importance to us; the end of Gentile power and dominion is brought before our view—gathered by Satanic agency to Armageddon; the vials which had been previously poured out failed in causing men to turn from their evil deeds; “they blasphemed the God of heaven;” “they repented not.” “Strong delusion” (2 Thess. 2:11.) is now sent unto them, so that they are gathered together to receive the righteous judgment of God

The drying up of the Euphrates, “that the way of the kings of (properly from απο) the east might be prepared,” has been supposed to refer to the restoration of the Jewish people; but it seems to me merely to belong to the same gathering of the kings as is spoken of in the next verse.

Surely the mind of the Lord is here declared plainly enough to us; “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear:”—not a word is said of progressive blessing being brought upon the earth through human agency or through the preaching of the gospel—not one word is said to give a ground to Christians for being mixed up with the polities of this world, in the hope that thus they may ameliorate the condition of their race: No—Armageddon is the close of the whole.

“Behold I come as a thief; blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.”

The Lord give unto us and to all His children to enter into His mind concerning these things; that we may use His word as a light unto our path, and being thus instructed in righteousness, we may know and realize our place of separateness.

Ver. 18.—And there were voices, and thunders and lightnings, and there was a great earthquake, &c.

Psa. 77:18.—The voice of thy thunder was in the heaven; the lightnings lightened the world, the earth trembled and shook.

Ver. 19.—Great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath.

Isa. 51:17.—O Jerusalem, which hast drank at the hand of the Lord the cup of His fury; thou hast drunk the dregs of the cup of trembling and wrung them out.

Ver. 22.—Behold I have taken out of thy hand the cup of trembling. . . thou shalt no more drink it again, but will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee.

Ver. 21—And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent, and men blasphemed God &c.

Ex. 9:24.—So there was hail and fire mingled with the hail, very grievous; such as there was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation; and the hail smote. . . both man and beast.

Ver. 34.—And Pharaoh. . . sinned yet more and hardened his heart, he and his servants.

Chap. 17:1—That sitteth upon many waters.

Jer. 51:13—O thou that dwellest upon many waters.

Ver. 2.—The inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.

Jer. 51:7—Babylon. . .made all the earth drunken; the nations have drunken of her wine, therefore the nations are mad.

Ver. 3.—A scarlet colored beast full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.

Dan. 7:7,8.—A fourth beast, dreadful and terrible; . . . and it had ten horns. . . and behold there came

up among them another little horn before whom three of the first horns were plucked up.

Ver. 25.—He shall speak great words against the Most High.

Ver. 4.—A woman ... having a golden cup in her hand, full of abominations, and filthiness of her fornication.

Jer. 51:7.—Babylon hath been a golden cup in the Lord’s hand.

Ver. 8.—The beast that thou sawest. . .shall go into perdition.

Dan. 7:11.—I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed and given to the burning flame.

Ver. 12.—The ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, who have received no kingdom as yet.

Dan. 7:24.—The ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise.

Ver. 14.—These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them; for He is Lord of lords, and King of kings; and they that are with Him are called, and chosen, and faithful.

Dan. 8:25—He shall also stand up against the Prince of princes, and he shall be broken without hand.

2:44.—In the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom. . . it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms.

Ps. 110:5.—The Lord at thy right hand [i.e. the Lord Jesus] shall pierce through kings in the day of His wrath.

Zech. 14:5.—The Lord my God shall come and all His saints with thee.

Ver. 15.—The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.

Jer. 51:13.—O [Babylon] thou that sittest upon many waters.

Psa. 65:7.—God stilleth the noise of the sea, the noise of their waves, and the tumult of the people.

Ver. 16.—The ten horns shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and shall burn her with fire.

Ezek. 16:39.—I will give thee into their hand, and they shall leave thee naked and bare.

Lev. 21:9.—And the daughter of any priest if she profane herself by playing the whore, she shall be burned with fire.

However unable we may be to explain the detail of this 17th chapter, and however mystically worded the prophecy is concerning “the beast that was, and is not, and yet is,” yet this one thing cannot be mistaken, unless we close our eyes, and willfully refuse to see what God has evidently shown unto us—namely, that the kings of the earth shall give their power unto one who shall unite them to make war with the Lamb! Thus shall be manifested the power of human wickedness when the uncontrolled energy of Satan is let loose upon the earth the horns (i.e. the kings of the earth) shall hate the woman (whatever she typifies,) and shall give their kingdom unto the beast, to him of whom (I surely think) it is written that his coming “is after the working of Satan, with all power, and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish, because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved; and for this cause, God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie; that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” (2 Thess. 2:12.)

The following chapter, (the 18th) gives to us God’s detail of the things of Babylon, of “that great city” which hath rule over the kings of the earth. Almost all the details are such as the world sees nothing in, that it can estimate as evil; but here the testimony of God’s word is given unto us, and by this we see that in the things of Babylon (though in themselves in other circumstances innocent,) there is that in which the Christian can have no fellowship, because God is not there acknowledged, and they are used against Him. The nature of a thing is not to be recognized by us apart from the circumstances in which it is placed; the spoil of Jericho was all devoted to utter destruction Achan; found among the spoil a Babylonish garment (garment of Shinar,) he might have taken it had it been in any other city, but the circumstance of the case brought in the sin against the Lord.

Achan’s transgression with the garment of Shinar occurred during that long period when Babylon is not mentioned in the page of God’s history; the things of Babylon might tempt even when Babylon (so far as manifested connection goes) was not itself existent as the ensnarer. Shall not we reap a lesson from this? Whatever or wherever Babylon may itself be, there is danger in intermeddling in the things of Babylon—to be safe we must be free from all connection with them, as well as with it.

Chapter 18:2.—Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen; and is become the habitation of devils, (δαιμονων) and the hold of every foul spirit; and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.

Isa. 21:9.—Babylon is fallen, is fallen!

xiii. 21 But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs (שׂעירים LXX δαιμονια) shall dance there; &c.

Jer. 51:7—The nations have drunken of her wine.

Ver. 3.—For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication; and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her; and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.

Ez. 27:33.—[To Tire] When thy waves went from out of the seas, thou filledst many people; thou didst enrich the kings of the earth with the multitude of thy riches, and of thy merchandise.

Ver. 4.—Come out of her my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues; for her sins have reached unto heaven.

Jer. 50:8—Remove out of the midst of Babylon, and go forth out of the land of the Chaldeans.

6.—Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his own soul; be not cut of in her iniquity. (see ver. 45.)

9.—Her judgment reacheth unto heaven.

Ver. 6.—Reward her even as she rewarded you; and double unto her double according to her works; in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.

Psa. 137:8.—O daughter of Babylon, Who art to be destroyed, happy shall he be who rewardeth thee as thou hast served us. [LXX who shall recompense (ἀνταποδωσει) thee thy recompense, which thou didst recompense to us]

Jer. 50:15.—Take vengeance upon her; as she hath done, do unto her. (see ver. 29.)

51:24—I will render unto Babylon. . . all their evil that they have done in Zion.

Is. 51:22.—[To Jerusalem] Behold I have taken out of thy hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup of my fury; I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee.

Jer. 25:15.—Take the wine cup of this fury at my hand, and cause all the nations to whom I send thee to drink it—And the king of Sheshach shall drink after them. (ver 26.)

Ver. 7.—She saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow; therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning and famine, and she shall be utterly burned with fire, for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.

Isa. 47:7, &c.—Thou saidst, I shall be a lady forever. . . I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children; but these two things shall come to thee in a moment, in one day, the loss of children and widowhood.

Jer. 51:25.—I will make thee [Babylon.] a burnt mountain.

Ver. 58—Her high gates shall be utterly burned with fire.

Jer. 50:34.—Their Redeemer is strong. . .that He may. . .disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon.

Ver. 9, &c—And the kings of the earth who have committed fornication, and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning; standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas! alas!! that great city Babylon, that mighty city, for in one hour is thy judgment come! And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her, for no man buyeth their merchandise any more; the merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble, and cinnamon, and odors, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls (ψυχας) of men.

Ezek. 26:16.—[Concerning Tire.] Then all the princes of the sea shall come down from their thrones, and lay away their robes, and put off their broidered garments, they shall clothe themselves with trembling; they shall sit on the ground, and shall tremble every moment, and be astonished at thee: and they shall take up a lamentation for thee, and say unto thee, How art thou destroyed, &c . . . the renowned city, &c.

Ezek. 27:36.—The merchants among the people shall hiss at thee. (ver. 27.) The occupiers of thy merchandise shall fall into the midst of the seas in the day of thy ruin.

Ezek. 27.—Gold, (ver. 22.) Silver, (verb 12.) Precious Stones, (ver. 22.) Fine Linen, (ver. 16 & 7.) Purple, (ver. 16.) Purple and Scarlet, ver. 7) margin.) Ebony, (ver. 15.) Ivory, (ver. 15.) Vessels of Brass, (ver.13.) Iron, (ver. 12.) Cassia and Calamus, (ver. 19.) Spices, (ver. 22.) Wine, (ver. 18,) Oil, (ver.

Wheat, (ver. 17.) Lambs and Rams, and Goats, (ver. 21.) Horses, (ver. 14.) Persons (נפשׁ LXX ψυχαιςof men. (ver. 13.)

Ver. 15, &c.—The merchants of these things who were made rich by her shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment, weeping and wailing, and saying, Alas! that great city for in one hour is so great riches come to naught: and every ship master and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off, and cried, when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What city is like unto this great city! And they cast dust upon their heads, and cried weeping and wailing, saying, Alas! alas! that great city! wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea, by reason of her costliness.

Ezek. 27:29, &c.—All that handle the oar, the mariners, and all the pilots of the sea, shall come down from their ships, they shall stand upon the land, and shall cause their voice to be heard against thee, [Tire] and shall cast dust upon their heads, they shall wallow themselves in the ashes, and they shall make themselves utterly bald for thee, and gird them with sackcloth, and they shall weep for thee with bitterness of heart and bitter wailing; and in their wailing shall they take up a lamentation for thee, and lament over thee, saying, What city is like Tyrus, like the destroyed in the midst of the sea? When thy waves went forth out of the seas thou filledst many people, thou didst enrich the kings of the earth with the multitude of thy riches and of thy merchandise.

Ver. 20.—Rejoice over her, O heaven, and ye holy Apostles and Prophets, for God hath avenged you on her.

Deut. 32:43—LXX. [Rejoice ye heavens with Him]. . . for He avengeth the blood of His sons. [Heb. servants.]

Ver. 21.—And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great 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.”

Jer. 51:63.—When thou hast made an end of reading this book, thou shalt bind a stone to it and cast into the midst of Euphrates; and thou shalt say, “Thus shall Babylon sink, and not rise from the evil that I will bring upon her.”

Dan. 2:35—No place was found for them, and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, &c.

Ver. 22.—And the voice of harpers and musicians, and of pipers, and of trumpeters shall be heard no more at all in thee, and the sound of the millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee, and the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee, and the voice of the bride groom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee; for thy merchants were the great men of the earth.

Isa. 24:8.—The mirth of tabrets ceaseth, the noise of them that rejoice endeth;......the city of confusion is broken down.

Jer. 25:10.—Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the candle.

Isa. 23:8.—Tyre, the crowning city, whose merchants are princes, whose traffickers are the honorable of the earth.

Ver. 24.—And in her was found the blood of Prophets and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.

Jer. 51:49.—At Babylon have fallen (נפלו) the slain of all the earth.

With regard to all this on which God’s righteous judgment is to be poured forth, the warning to the saints of God is, “Come out of her, my people;” even as the Holy Ghost saith by the Apostle Paul, “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? and what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? and what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God, as God hath said; I will dwell in them and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore COME OUT from among them, and be ye separate (saith the Lord) and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you; and—I will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty; having therefore these promises, clearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” (2 Cor. 6) It is not as an idle tale that we are told this; it is not as something wherein we have no concern; but if we be of the number of those who are children of God by faith in Jesus Christ, we have here stated what is the path of blessing. God’s glory is concerned in the walk of His children, that they show forth His mind in all things—their present peace and comfort is also dependent on their obedience and separateness, for if they would be blessed, it is needful that they should stand in such circumstances as the Lord can bless them in—and further, since we read of some being “saved yet so as by fire,” and of “being ashamed before the Lord at His coming,” and (on the other hand) of others who “have an entrance ministered abundantly into the everlasting kingdom,” it behooves us to know the import of the words

“Come out.” Wheresoever evil is, there is that from which we must be separate; whether it be in the world, or (nominally) in the Church. Many have, it is true, (and some of these, alas! holy men) defended connection with evil, on the ground of its being that from which we cannot escape; and this too in the Church: neglecting what our Lord said, “the field is the WORLD;” the parable of the tares has been, from the days of Cyprian (against Novatian) to this hour, rested on to uphold the toleration of evil in the Church. We must not confound the things that differ: Christians “in the world” are to be as Christ, “not of the world.” (John 17) While in the Church; the word. is express; “put away from among you that wicked person”— “withdraw from every brother that walketh disorderly.” The first three chapters of the Revelation exhibit the requirement of Christ that evil should be purged from the Church; the subsequent portion plainly states what separation from the world is and ought to be.

Chapter 19:2.—True and righteous are His judgments; for He...hath avenged the blood of His servants.

Deut. 32:4.—(LXX.) His works are true, and all His ways judgments.

Ver. 43.—He will avenge the blood of His servants.

Ver. 3—And her smoke rose up for ever and ever.

Is. 34:10—The smoke thereof shall go up for ever.

Ver. 5.—Praise our God all ye His servants, and all ye that fear Him both small and great.

Ver. 6.—And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia! for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth; let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready. And to her it was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen clean and white for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.

Psa. 135:1.—Praise ye the Lord,.....O ye servants of the Lord.

Ver. 20.—Ye that fear the Lord bless, the Lord.

Psa. 115:13.—He will bless them that fear the Lord, both small and great.

Ez. 1:24.—I heard the noise of their wings, like the noise of great waters, as the voice of the Almighty, the voice of speech, as the noise of a host.

Psa. 97:1.—The Lord reigneth, let the earth rejoice.

45:6.—Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever.

Isa. 62:5.—As the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee [Jerusalem.]

Psa. 45:14.—She shall be brought unto the king in raiment of needle-work.

Isa. 61:10.—He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation; He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness.

It is to be noticed that the quotations given above from the Old Testament, pertain to the blessing of God’s earthly people—Israel, in whom the sureness of His electing love is yet to be manifested, as it is written, “For verely the gyftes and callynge of God are soche, that it cannot repent hym of them, for loke, as ye in tyme passed have not beloved God, yet have nowe obtained mercy thorow their vnbelefe: even so nowe have they nott beloved the mercy which is happened unto you, That they also may obtayne mercy.” (Rom. 11)

In the blessing there are four parties spoken of in the cited passages from this book and the Old Testament: 1.—The Lord Jesus Christ, no longer an expectant; 2.—The Church blessed in her union with her Lord; 3.—Jerusalem blessed in the earth; and 4.—The Earth, which shall rejoice before the Lord when He cornett); (Psa. 96) as also it is written, in another place, that “the earnest expectation of the creation waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.” (Rom. 8) Thus, in Gods purpose, is the chain of blessing combined—the whole is centered in Christ; the Church shall be with Him; and He and they shall unitedly (in His marvelous grace) rule the things below. In the blessing of Israel the earth will be blessed, as it is written, (Isa. 27) “Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit.” This is our hope, and our joy, “I come quickly:” Amen, even so come, Lord Jesus!

Ver. 11, &c.—Behold, a white horse; and He that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness doth He judge and make war; His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns; and He had a name written that no man knew but Himself; and He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood:....and out of His mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it He should smite the nations, and He shall rule them with a rod of iron, and He treadeth the wine-press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.

Ps. 45:4.—In thy majesty ride prosperously, because of truth and meekness, and righteousness.

Psa. 72:2, &c.—He shall judge thy people with righteousness, and thy poor

with judgment. . .. He shall judge the poor of the people. . . . and shall break in pieces the oppressor.

98:9.—The Lord cometh to judge the earth, with righteousness will He judge the world.

Dan. 10:6.—His eyes were as lamps of fire,

Ez. 21:26.—Remove the diadem, and take off the crown. . . exalt Him that is low, and abase him that is high; perverted, perverted, perverted will I make it; and it shall be no more until He come whose right it is, and I will give it Him.

Is. 9:6.—His name shall be called Wonderful. (פלא)

Isa. 63:1.—Who is this that cometh. . . with dyed garments?

Isa. 11:4.—With righteousness shall He judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth; He shall smite the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked.

Psa. 2:9.—(LXX) Thou shalt rule them with a rod of iron.

Isa. 63:3.—I have trodden the wine ... press alone I will trample them in my fury, and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments.

Ver. 17, &c.—And he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come, and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the Great God; that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty Men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great. And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to make war against Him that sat on the horse and against His army; And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet these both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.

Ezek. 39:17, &c.—Speak unto every feathered fowl.... Assemble yourselves and come, gather yourselves together on every side to my sacrifice [slaughter] that I do sacrifice [slay] for you; even a great sacrifice [slaughter] upon the mountains of Israel; that ye may eat flesh and drink blood. Ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth. . . Thus shall ye be filled at my table with horses and chariots, [riders] with mighty men and all men of war, saith the Lord God.

Psa. 2:2.—The kings of the earth set

themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against His anointed.

Dan. 8:25.—He shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand.

Dan. 7:11.—I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flames.

In this book we have many parallel narrations, all tending to one point, and there breaking off—even to the manifestation of the wrath of the Lamb: the events which precede the making of Christ’s enemies His footstool are detailed in various aspects, until in this passage the many threads are combined in the detail of the manifestation of the Lord Christ in His power and glory, as had been stated in the very commencement of the book (1:7). Awful as is this history unto those who (being gathered by the power of Satan) are found in exhibited opposition to the Lord, to the saints of God it is full of comfort; their place is with their Lord; when He takes “the rod of iron” they will share His power and authority, whether it be in the administration of vengeance, or the dispensing of blessing, True spirituality is to enter into the mind of God in our estimate of things; now we are called to suffer, for Christ our Lord is yet rejected; then He will reign, and we shall reign with Him, as is told us in the following chapter, as well as in many other scriptures.

Chap. 20:1, &c.— And I saw an angel come down from heaven. . . and he laid hold on (τον δρακοντα τον οϕιν) the dragon, that old serpent which is the devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years; and cast him into the bottomless pit and shut him up.

Isa. 26:21, &c.—Behold the Lord cometh out of His place to punish the inhabitants of the earth, . . . in that day the Lord with His sore and great and strong sword, shall punish Leviathan (LXX τον δρακοντα οϕιν) the piercing serpent, even Leviathan the crooked serpent.

Gen. 3:15.—It (the seed of the woman) shall bruise thy head.

By the sin of Adam, creation fell under the power of Satan, although God in His grace hindered the full operation of his power by interposing the promise of the Deliverer, Him who suffered death, “that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil.” In the binding of Satan this power so obtained is to be brought into exercise. The sentence on the serpent had been “Dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life;” (Gen. 3:14.) and in the prophecy of Isaiah, the Holy Ghost when describing the time of the earth’s blessing, and exhibiting a living and characteristic type, adds “and dust shall be the serpent’s meat,” thus showing how and when the time would be when the sentence declared ages before would be manifestly put into execution, even at that time when “the wolf shall lie down with the lamb,” when “creation shall be freed from the bondage of corruption,” when “the sons of God shall be manifested,” which will be (as it is written 1 John 3:2.) when Christ shall be manifested. These blessings are consistently connected in scripture.

Ver. 4.—I saw thrones, and they sat upon them; and judgment was given unto them; and I saw the souls of them that had been beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God; and those who had not worshipped the beast.. .and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years; but the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished.

Dan. 7:9.—I beheld till the thrones were set up (רמיו Chal.) and the Ancient of days did sit.

Ver. 22.—Judgment was given to the saints of the heavenlies, and the time came that the saints should possess the kingdom.

Ver. 18.—But the saints of the heavenlies shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever.

12:2.—And many of the sleepers in the dust of the earth shall awake; these [shall be] unto eternal life; but those [i.e. the rest of the sleepers] as shameful ones [shall be] unto eternal contempt.

Ver. 9.—And they went up on the breadth of the earth and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city; and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.

Isa. 54:15.—Behold they shall surely gather together, but not by me; whosoever shall gather together against thee, shall fall for thy sake.

I place these passages in juxtaposition, because in the one I find a gathering together “but not by me,” against the nation of Israel when restored and blessed, and those who so gather shall fall for the sake of the Jews—in the other passage I find a gathering together by Satan, after the time of blessing, against “the beloved city,” and those gathered are destroyed by fire from heaven; if there be not in these things identity, there is at least far more than a casual resemblance.

Chapter 21:1.—And saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven, and the first earth were passed away.

Ver. 5.—And He that sat upon the throne said, Behold I make all things new.

Isa. 65:17.—Behold I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former shall not be remembered nor come into mind; but be ye glad and rejoice forever in that which I create, for behold I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy.

Of these quotations the one belongs to the commencement of the Millennial blessedness, the other to a post Millennial state. The blessing of Jerusalem is the earnest of the blessing of the earth when it shall be altogether renovated, even as the Holy Ghost given unto and dwelling in those who believe, is the earnest of the blessing which shall be theirs when their vile bodies shall have been changed at the appearing of Jesus. God often exhibits a purpose of grace, first in principle and afterward in fullness.

Ver. 3.—Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall he with them, and be their God; and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, &c.

Ezek. 37:26.—I will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore; my tabernacle also shall be with them; yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Lev. 26:11.—I will set my tabernacle among you;.... and I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people.

Isa. 25:8.—The Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces. He will swallow up death in victory.

65:19.—The voice of weeping shall be heard no more in her, [Jerusalem] nor the voice of crying.

The Apostle Paul, after prophesying of the resurrection of the saints, adds, Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.” (1 Cor. 15:54.) The victory obtained by our Lord over death will then be manifested in the persons of his saints, as it has been in the resurrection of Himself the first fruits.

But it is not this that willfully show His triumph; “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death,” and this will not be till the end of Christ’s yet uncommenced reign. The blessing of Jerusalem (as before noticed) is here again shown as the Old Testament earnest of the greater and ulterior blessing.

Ver. 6.—I will give to every one that is athirst, of the fountain of the hath no money water of life freely,

Isa. 55:1.—Ho! every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that come ye buy and eat.

Ver. 10.—He carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city the holy Jerusalem.

Ezek. 40:2.—in the visions of God brought he me into the land of Israel, and set, me upon a very high mountain, by which was as the frame of a city on the south.

Ver. 12.—And [the New Jerusalem] had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels; and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of Israel; on the east three gates; on the north three gates; on the south three gates; and on the west three gates.

Ezek. 48:23.—And the gates of the city shall be after the names of the tribes of Israel; three gates northward;. . . and on the. . .east side. . .three gates;. . .at the south side...... three gates;. . .at the west side. . . three gates.

Ver. 15.—And he that talked with me had a golden reed to measure the city, and the gates thereof and the wall thereof.

Zech. 2:1.—Behold a man with.... a measuring line in his hand. . . To measure Jerusalem to see what is the breadth thereof, and what is the length thereof.

Ver. 23.—And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it; for the glory of the Lord did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.

Ver 24.—And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it; and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor εις unto it; and the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day, for there shall be no night there: and they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations εις into it; and there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination.

Isa. 60:19.—The sun shall be no more thy light by day, neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee, but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory.

Isa. 60:3.—And Gentiles shalt come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.

Ver. 11.—Thy gates shall be open continually, they shall not be shut day nor night, that they may bring unto thee the riches of the Gentiles.

Isa. 52:1.—Henceforth there shall no more come unto thee the uncircumcised and the unclean.

Ez. xliv. 9.—No stranger uncircumcised in heart or uncircumcised in flesh shall enter into my sanctuary of any stranger that is among the children of Israel.

Chap. 21:1—And he shewed me a pure river of the water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb; in the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

Ver. 3.—And there shall be no more curse.

Ver. 5.—And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle neither light of the sun, for the Lord God giveth them light.

Zech. 14:8—And it shall be in that day that living waters (waters of life) shall go forth from Jerusalem.

Ez. 47:1.—Waters issued from under the threshold of the house eastward.

Ver. 7.—Behold at the bank of the river were very many trees on the one side, and on the other.

Ver. 12.—And by the river upon the bank thereof, and on this side, and on that side shall grow all trees for meat, whose leaf shall not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed; it shall bring forth new fruit according to his months, because their waters they issued out of the sanctuary; and the fruit thereof shall be for meat; and the leaf thereof for medicine.

Zech. 14:11.—And there shall be no more utter destruction (חרם “curse.”)

Is. 24:23.—Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the Lord of hosts shall reign in Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously.

60:19.—The Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory.

The simple juxtaposition of these portions of the word of God is sufficient to show how minute is the analogy between the earthly glory of the earthly Jerusalem and the heavenly glory of the heavenly city; so minute that the Holy Ghost could apply His own words written of the one in order to describe the other. Each of them has its place in the chain of blessing: in the heavenly Jerusalem “the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations,” and thus it must be connected with those who need such healing. Jerusalem will be the earthly type of the higher glory, a shadowing forth of the things above, being that which God will glorify in the earth so as to manifest the blessedness of that people whose God is the Lord, and the greatness of His faithfulness to that which in His grace He has promised.

Ver. 10.—Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand.

Dan. 8:26.—Shut thou up the vision, for it shall be for many days. [I place these passages together by way of contrast.]

We are (I believe) but little accustomed to prize the great and peculiar privilege given by God to His Church, a privilege not possessed by the Old Testament saints, I mean having the prophetic word. for our portion. Unto them “it was revealed that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things;” so that we have had that given unto us which they had not—but however much less they may have possessed of light in the day when prophecy was sealed (which it is not to us) they searched into the testimony of the Spirit of Christ; let us not then neglect the greater light vouchsafed unto us, but use it and prize it as a precious gift bestowed by God’s free grace in Jesus.

Ver. 12.—Behold come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give to every man according as his work shall be.

Isa. 40:10.—Behold the Lord God will come with strong hand, and His arm shall rule for Him; behold, His reward. is with Him, and His work before Him.

Ver. 16.—I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.

Isa. 11:10.—There shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people.

Num. 24:17.—There shall come a star out of Jacob.

Ver. 18.—If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add un to him the plagues that are written in this book: and if any man shall take away from the words of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, &c.

Deut. 4:2.—Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God.

12:32.—Thou shalt not add thereto, or diminish from it.

Ver. 20.—He who testifieth these things saith, surely I come quickly.

Hab. 2:3.—(LXX) “He who cometh will come, and will not tarry.”

“The Lord cometh!” This is a word of blessing to the saints, to those who are truly watching as their Lord commanded—it is a word. of warning to those who are wearied and faint in their minds, who are feeling lax in the work of the Lord—it is a word of rebuke to those who, although they have learned the grace that is in Christ the Lord, are still entangled by the power of this world, its desires, pursuits, or systems—it is a word of encouragement to those who are cast down in soul from feeling the power of evil in them and around them—this is a word of joy to those who, in the fear of the Lord, have sought to follow Jesus without the camp bearing His reproach; the more they have felt themselves to be strangers here in this present evil world, the greater must be their joy of soul (joy felt even in the midst of deep trouble of spirit) in resting on this promise, “I come quickly.”

But oh! how little will all that is dainty and goodly in man’s estimate be able to meet that day! then shall the veil whereby Satan has so long blinded the children of this world (yea, and alas! too much the children of God also) be rent, and those things which have excluded Jesus of Nazareth, the crucified. Galilean, will then be seen in their true worthlessness.

How little prized will the earth’s glory then be! how vain will all its pomp be deemed by those whose treasure and whose hearts have been set in those things which will not abide the day of Christ’s appearing.

Especially then it behooves us, seeing that we are not “in darkness that that day should overtake us as a thief,” since we are “children of the light, and children of the day; we are not of the night nor of darkness,” that we should “not sleep as do others; but let us watch and be sober.” If we who know these things do not evidence the reality of our belief in them, how can we expect the truth that the Lord has in great grace taught us to commend itself through us to the consciences of those that are without.

The Lord grant unto us grace in “the little while, how little, how little” (μικρὸν, οσον οσον Heb. 10:37) to do His will as wise servants, as those who desire their Master’s glory, and can trust for all things else unto His abounding grace; surely there is need that the Church of God be aroused to know where she now is, and where the Lord. would have her to be, and whether she be waiting for her Lord’s returning.

In concluding this collection of Connected Passages, I earnestly desire that the Lord may grant that they may afford materials of some assistance to others in the understanding of His revealed counsels; trust that it has not been without teaching to my own soul thus:, to have been engaged, for I believe that whatever tends to bring home the Scripture with force to the soul, will, through the Lord’s blessing, be found abundantly profitable.

There are a few remarks which I wish to make to you on the real value of portions of Scripture thus connected; we must ever remember that it is one mind which is displayed in the Scripture; be the writers who they may, it is not the word of Moses, of Daniel, of Paul—or of John that we read, but the word of God; the writers were but the instruments, and the Scripture is as thoroughly the word of God as were the ten commandments written on tables of stone “by the finger of God.”

Seeing then that it is the mind of the Spirit of the Lord, and not the minds of many men in various ages that we have in the Scripture, we may be sure of its unity, that it contains nothing accidental, but that all is given even as God purposed that it ought to be. Thus the resemblance between various portions is not to regarded as fortuitous; it is not accidentally that the Lord has spoken on various occasions in the same terms; we may (from our little power of spiritual apprehension) be unable to see wherein the analogy consists, but we cannot through this our inability or want of discernment deny its existence. Whenever two things can have many identical circumstances predicated of each, it would be reasonable to suppose that the resemblance between them must be very minute; when in the circumstances so predicated there is a consistent variation—i.e. when in one respect in the one case there is a difference from the other, and this difference is answered by an adequate variation all through as in two objects alike in matter and form but varying in their size—then we may very plainly see wherein the analogous correspondence consists and how far it extends. Now it is just thus with Scripture, what God has revealed in any one portion is, at it were, a model of His dealings, and thus we have in the various parts of the word many of these models, all bearing a certain analogy to one another; and in all of them it is to be seen bow altered circumstances change in various instances, and how in all these the Lord’s mind becomes manifested in its oneness of acting.

Now I trust that some of these collocated passages may evidence this; it has been my desire to let the Scripture speak for itself; whatever opinions I may have advanced I wish only to be looked upon as true in so far as they accord with the Scripture.

I believe that in many respects this collection of texts will be found defective; that it may be useful is what I desire, I have not so much wished to press results as to give to others a few materials.

I have attempted no exposition of the Revelation; a few principles which I believe to be true I have stated, and though we may be ever seeking more fully to be taught by the Spirit of the Lord as to things in their detail, yet I believe that every principle fully seen will bring blessing.

Whatever I have written according to the truth of God, may He bless; and forgive all that is not so, for the sake of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

I remain,

Your brother and servant in the Lord,

S. P. T.

London, Aug. 7, 1836.

The Apostasy of the Successive Dispensations

COMMUNION with God—Communion with God in a new nature, being made as the Apostle teaches us partakers of a divine nature, is both that in which eternal blessedness must have its spring and the source of all true knowledge. here God, through grace, can communicate with us in the intelligence of the same delights, and the communication of the same interests. The ultimate provision made for this is the Incarnation; and the Lord instructs in grace (renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created us) in all those elements of the knowledge of good and evil, by which the value and excellence and the divine provision of the Lord Jesus are apprehended and adequately esteemed, at least in principle and desire. We learn it humbly by the necessity of evil in us: but we learn it lustily, because we know the extent of the evil only by the infiniteness of the good, so only indeed can it be known, so has God blessedly provided for the knowledge of it for good. Thus He knows it. Thus those that are made partakers of the divine nature know it in their measure. This however we have to learn in its details, in the various dispensations which led to or have followed the revelation of the Incarnate Son in whom all the fullness was pleased to dwell. The obedient man—God manifested—The suffering Savior—the exalted Righteous One. Many many principles brought out in the exhibition of weakness and apparent exhibitions of divine power, having no settled rule, but all finding their solution in the sufferings and revelation of God in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The detail of the history connected with these dispensations bring out many most interesting displays, both of the principles and patience of God’s dealings with the evil and failure of man; and the workings by which He formed faith on His own thus developed perfections, but the dispensations themselves all declare some leading principle or interference of God, some condition in which He has placed man, principles which in themselves are everlastingly sanctioned, but in the course of those dispensations have been placed responsibly in the hands of man for the display and discovery of what he was, and the bringing in their infallible establishment in Him to whom the glory of them all rightly belonged. It is not my intention to enter into any great detail, but to show simply how, in every instance, there was total and immediate failure as regarded man, however the patience of God might tolerate and carry on by grace the dispensation in which man had thus failed in the outset; and further that there is no instance of the restoration of a dispensation afforded us, though there might be partial revivals of it through faith. The paradisaical state cannot properly perhaps be called a dispensation in this sense of the word; but as regards the universal failure of man, it is a most important instance. It is too plain, too sadly known, to require ranch proof in detail, important as showing that no condition of man set him free from the prevailing art of the great adversary. When he was innocent and untainted, surrounded by every mercy, and at the head of all blessing, he fell immediately. The man not deceived but led astray, the woman deceived and in the transgression, and though this has doubtless a higher reference, yet describes the fact and the double character of error. As it was to be shown here in principle, that man in nature could not stand, the first thing we read of is his fall, the first act consequent upon the responsibility in which he was placed after his being set at the head of creation, and his wife given to him, in a word after responsibilities were established and his glory and blessing full. Corruption, disorder, and violence, were the consequences of this, until the Lord destroyed the first world created—During the time of His patience an elect seed having been preserved in testimony and patience.

Hence dispensations, properly speaking, begin; on the first Noah, I shall be very brief, restraint and godliness should have characterized it—the government which would have repressed corruption and violence. But the first thing here found is the saved patriarch drunk, and his. son shamefully mocking him, for which the curse justly descends upon him. This issued in idolatry. (Josh. 24) The first account after his call we have of faithful Abraham, which as a minuter circumstance I also pass briefly over, is Gen. 12:13. “Say I pray thee thou art my sister that it may be well with me for thy sake, and my soul shall live because of thee,” and plagues because of him in whom the families of the earth were to be blessed. As regards man, under the calling of grace, we find shameful failure.

The history of the children of Israel is one scene of “a stiffnecked and rebellious people.” But to take up the point of the dispensation obedience under the law by which life was to be.

This obedience they undertook; and Moses returned to receive the various orderings of divine appointment as under it, and the two tables of testimony. But this dispensation which met the failure of the world, which had Gods many and Lords many, and in form was to righteousness in the flesh, came to nothing in man’s hand, before the order of it was brought down from the mount, or they had received in detail the record of what they had undertaken. They made, while Moses was in the mount, a golden calf, and said “these be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of Egypt.” The spring and foundation stone of all the commandments and ordinances was gone They had turned their glory into the similitude of a calf which eateth hay. The ordinance or dispensation of priesthood failed in like manner. Before Aaron and his sons had gone out from the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, because the anointing oil of the Lord was upon them, Nadab and Abihu had already offered strange fire and been consumed before the Lord. The sons had not eaten the sin offering in the holy place, and the blood of it was not brought in within the holy place, as was commanded. The Lord spared them but the service had failed in its very outset. And the Lord also spake unto Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they offered before the Lord and died; and the Lord said unto Moses, speak unto Aaron thy brother, that be come not at all times unto the holy place within the vail. The consequence was, that the garments of glory and beauty were never worn by the High Priest save at His consecration. For he was to wear them only on going into the holy place within the vail, and this being now only on the day of atonement, he was desired withal on that day to come in other, though holy garments. Thus failed the law—thus failed the priesthood, as all else, however God might carry it on in patience and mercy for a time, “till there was no remedy.”

The kingly dispensation failed in the same way as did the nation under the previous ordering which made way for the king. (see Judg. 2) The Lord having failed in nothing. (Josh. 23:14.) David and Solomon having exhibited the royalty in victory and peace; Rehoboam and Jeroboam are but the witnesses of its utter failure, patience and mercy still going on, till the provocations of Manasseh set aside all hope of recovery or way of mercy in that dispensation.

The rejection of our blessed Lord proved that no present mercy and grace, no present interference of God in goodness here, would meet the willful and persevering enmity of the human heart, but only showed it in its true light. But this never being set up as a dispensation but only the manifestation of His person, (to faith) I pass by.

The last we have, in humbled sense of sin in us, to notice, is the present, where we are apt to take our ease in the world, as necessarily secure, but which, and the sin of which, the Lord sees and recognizes, takes as much notice of, though not openly, as of others. The dispensation of the Spirit. Much has been said, with strong objection to it, as to the Apostasy or failure of this dispensation.

The results are but too plain. If we believe that the exhibitions of the Spirit’s power and presence in the 2nd and 4th of Acts, were gladsome and well pleasing to the Lord, if the blessed Spirit was right in these effects—and who will blasphemingly and in the darkness of his own soul dare to say He was not—then is the present picture of Christendom just as opposite as one thing can well be to another. They have not kept their first estate. The patience, and mercy, and sure grace of God. has still kept up a witness to Himself through the mediation of Christ, it is true; so it was in every dispensation; but this did not alter nor prevent the result of the apostasy; and the facts show us that it was ever at the outset the failure or apostasy took place; and that it was patience and grace, which bore with and carried it on, but never undid the result of the first failure. So to our shame has it been in Christianity, The state of the seven Churches, I think, would show this sufficiently to have been the case, and the way in which John was left at the close, to awaken the threats of judgment against a declining Church. Where was Paul to hold all in vigor and beauty for the coming of the Lord, presenting every man perfect in Christ Jesus? He had to confess at the close of his career, “I have none like-minded with me who will naturally care for your state.” Such was the result of Apostolic labor; and the history of the Book of Revelation, the testimonies of Peter and Jude, as well as the warnings of John and Paul, also show that this would be the result of Christianity, according to the solemn sentence of the Apostle, “Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; on thee goodness, if thou continue in His goodness, otherwise thou also shalt be cut off” But we may trace the immediateness of this failure more actually and definitely in circumstances to which the attention of the Church seems little directed. When the Lord was parting from the disciples, He gives them the commandment “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature; and go ye and disciple all nations.” Where is the fulfillment of this by the Apostles whom He had chosen This was their special commission from Him, as risen and having all power in heaven and earth. The principle and value of the dispensation could not be altered. But where is the fulfillment by the twelve Apostles. Scripture affords it not. There is no account of the twelve in Scripture going into all the world and preaching the gospel to every creature: nothing which Scripture recognizes as the accomplishment of this command. This in itself would be sufficient to show that the command on which the dispensation hung was, in the revealed testimony of God, unfulfilled by those to whom it was committed. But I further find, contrary to the word— “when they persecute you in one city flee ye to the next,” that on the persecution which arose about the matter of Stephen, they were all scattered abroad except the Apostles. But the testimony is not merely negative, for I find in extraordinary grace, a new arrangement entirely made. An Apostle of the Gentiles, raised up entirely distinct. “One born out of due time:” “not of man, nor by man,” who was neither Apostle with them, nor from them, but asserts, as he proved, his own independent qualifications. And the Acts of the Apostles as to ministry, are the acts of Peter, as one in whom God was mighty to the circumcision, as it was agreed that he should go to the circumcision; and of Paul, as one in whom the same God was mighty towards the uncircumcision. That is, we find an express special office of Apostle to the Gentiles and whatever work was done of the commission, “Go ye into all nations” (Gentiles) was done, as presented to us in Scripture, actually by somebody else specially and extraordinarily raised up, for the purpose. Thus, whatever grace and power from Him that was glorified might effect, this dispensation as well as any other failed and broke off in the very outset, and in point of fact the gospel has never been preached in all the world, nor all nations discipled to this day, but the Church which was gathered has departed from the faith of the gospel, and gone away backward, so as to be as bad or worse than the heathen.

But the point which is proved in this is not merely that it is in a bad state now, but that like all others it broke down in the commencement—no sooner fully established than it proved. a failure. This does not touch upon the faithfulness of God, but exalts it, as in the case of the Jews, where their lie abounded to the glory of God. The remnant have been preserved all through, and according to the measure of grace and faith have prospered, or have been raised up from depression according to the counsels of God, but the dispensation was gone. We belong to a better glory. Nor, this being brought in as the object of desire, can the believer seek other or old things and earthly arrangements? And as he cannot desire, so neither does Scripture present the restoration of a dispensation; it never justifies its actual condition; and though grace and faith may, as I have said, effect revivals during the long-suffering of God, the dispensation as such, is actually gone, that the glory of the principle contained in it may shine forth in the hands of Messiah. The attempt to set this dispensation on another footing, as to its continuance, than those dispensations which have failed already, not only shows ignorance of the principles of God’s dealings, for the calling of God. vas always by grace, and if it were so it never could make way for that which is to come under Messiah, but it is actually negatived by the assertion, that it stands on the same ground as to this with the Jewish, “If thou continue in His goodness—otherwise, thou also shall be cut off.”

When He is come who can bind Satan himself, so that his power in the world shall be set aside, and not merely the testimony of the Lord’s power maintained there, then shall there be continuance, until for the accomplishment of the purposes of God, and the final separation devil and good, he be let loose again for a little season, And the close of all dispensation, and the end of all question and title of authority shall come, and all being finished, God shall be all in all, without question and without failure. How the glory of God and our consequent blessing in these things is increased and enhanced might be very plainly hewn, as it is indeed just declared by the Apostle, but if the fact be recognized and its truth established as before the Lord, it may suffice now.

Reference to the second chapter of Galatians will confirm and establish the point historically as to the present dispensation, where not only is the fact stated of Paul having the ministry of the Gentiles, as Peter of the circumcision; but it was actually agreed on their conference consequent upon the grace given, that Paul and Barnabas should go to the uncircumcision. And James, and Cephas, and John, should go to the circumcision, and so far was the Apostle’s mind under Judaizing influence, that it required a position fresh revelation, to induce him to go into company with a Gentile at all, and even after this he would not eat when certain came from James. In fact the Gentile dispensation, as a distinct thing, took its rise on the death of Stephen, the witness that the Jews resisted the Holy Ghost, as their Fathers did so did they.

Notes on the Offerings. Lev. 1-8

THE sacrifices are connected with, and open out to us especially the ground of our access and manner of our approach to God.

The beginning of this book goes through the different sorts of offerings, and then takes up the Priesthood, by virtue of which we have access to God.

The first chapter speaks of the burnt-offering, the second of the meat-offering, and the third of the peace-offering.—These three have a distinctive character. Then the fourth chapter is concerning positive transgression, and the sin-offering to be offered thereupon. The 5th chapter, as far as the 13th verse, speaks specially of sins or defilement under different characters, rather than transgressions; and from the 14th verse of the 5th chapter, to the 7th of the 6th, we read of the trespass-offering—that is for anything respecting conduct, “Things that ought not to be done,” and any wrong done to God or man.

The value of these offerings is their representation of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, and our approach to God through Him.

Many of the principles spoken of in Jesus Himself, are, in measure shown out in the believer; and again that which He wrought Himself works effectually in us. One act of Christ fulfilled them all, He made the atonement, bore the guilt, and we have communion with Him, feeding on that which has been given for us.

In this chapter, verses 1, 2, 3, 4, we have directions concerning the burnt-offering. Observe, the Lord is not here speaking from Mount Sinai—there we read a statement of what the law required.

Before, however, the Israelites received the instructions from God in the Holy Mount, they had broken that covenant, so that when Moses came down, he found them worshipping the golden calf. They had departed from God, and were made naked to their shame before their enemies, (as we should be had we to stand in the presence of our enemies in our own righteousness.) Afterward the tabernacle was set up where the Lord could meet the people, and here we get “the patterns of things in the heavens,” which patterns were purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves, with a better sacrifice, even with the sacrifice of Jesus. Now the patterns given to us in the tabernacle, are for the unfolding of the manner of our coming to God by grace through Jesus Christ. We find the most holy place where the Lord met Moses, the holy place for the priest’s daily service, and the court without, where the worshipper first approached, where were the altar of burnt-offering and the laver.

The first place of approach to God is the altar of burnt-offering.—

When the Lord spake to Moses from Sinai, it was to declare His righteous requirements from man on earth. As to their approach to God, in the character of this prescribed righteousness, we have seen how all had failed. The authority of God was thrown off by making the calf, and thus the voluntary undertaking to do all that the Lord required (Ex. 24:13.) was broken, and they had failed altogether. How then could man approach to God? The law given had just brought out the evil that was in him. Was God then to deal with them acknowledging them in their wickedness? was He to give up His character? If not, He must speak from heaven in grace. There was now no possibility of dealing with man upon earth. “They refused Him who spake on earth.” The question then (as this had failed) was, how could man be brought into communion with God in heaven? “If they escaped not who refused Him that spake on earth, how shall not we escape, if we turn away from Him that speaketh from heaven?”

There must be a sacrifice; but where was such to be found as could cleanse man from sin?

There was no such thing to be found in man as one willing and competent. This was not work for a sinner. But the Son of God said, “Lo I come to do thy will O God, yea thy law is within my heart.” (Psa. 40;7, Heb. 10;5.) “Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me.” This was the body in which He was to be the obedient One, “mine ear hast thou opened,” and we see Christ willingly assuming it, to do the will of God. We have then, here, One fit to be the sacrifice—One who took on Himself the form of a servant, and became obedient to the commands of the Lord, it was His will to do it, and His capacity was, “Thy law is within my heart.” But what was the object in doing this? To keep the law which had been broken, and to be a sacrifice, to introduce sinners into God’s presence, He must not only keep the law, but become obedient even unto death, the death of the cross. He might preach righteousness in the congregation, but men hated it; He might work all works of blessing, but they envied Him, They derided Him. All the expressions of righteousness in Him were of no avail alone; He must also become a sacrifice, must shed His blood. Now the burnt-offering represents Him in this double character. In verse 3 it is said, “He shall offer it of his own voluntary will at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, before the Lord.” Now, as regards Christ, the act is simply His own. We did not offer Him; but when we have the spirit of Christ, we enter into the value of the act, as though we laid our hands upon Him. Jesus offered Himself while on earth, without spot unto God, presenting Himself as the burnt-offering. In order for us to approach through Him, He must first be exhibited as giving Himself thus willingly. Thus, in the account of the sacrifice, we see the victim first brought to the door of the tabernacle, and then killed,

If we had merely seen the fact of the death, we might have thought there was need. of it as regarded Himself; but He is first shown to us as the willing offering, bringing Himself to the door of the tabernacle, and of His own voluntary will offering Himself to God for us. This was the sacrifice of atonement, not by anything imposed on Him, but of His own free will, as the spotless One, with no yoke of sin upon His neck. As the righteous One He walked up to the door of the tabernacle, and there the prince of this world met Him, and his first effort was to hinder His exhibiting this perfect pattern of obedience on earth.

That which was singular in Jesus was His righteousness; there might have been power, but this others had had also; but simple, abstract perfect truth and righteousness, this Christ alone could exhibit; and if Satan could have made the Lord swerve in one tittle from this, there could have been no such thing exhibited on earth; Satan tried in the temptation to make our Lord exhibit power, but He was still the obedient One, and until the word came upon His ear, He would do nothing, for He came then to be the servant, the perfect pattern of obedience in all things. Satan first tempted Him to exercise His power, to make the stones bread, then to question the providential care of God, and thirdly, in respect of His rightful dominion. Having failed in his object altogether, Satan departed from Him for a season, but met Him again, to attain the object of hindering His obedience unto death. The prince of this world comes to Jesus; as the head of religion and power of the world in the Jews and Gentiles, he cannot however hinder Him, but the word is still, “That the world may know that I love the Father, as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do.” This is what, we who believe, know of Jesus, that the prince of this world had nothing in Him, and that He loved the Father, and did His will. First proving, that the prince of this world had nothing in him, He voluntarily submitted to be the sacrifice—He was thus tried and accepted.

The act was perfect in giving Himself, but there was nothing available to us, until He was killed. (See verse 5.) It is said that the Priests the sons of Aaron, (not the high-priest) shall bring the blood and sprinkle it round about the altar.—Thus we, who believe, have an interest in this, while Christ presents Himself on the day of atonement, the priests have the blood in their hands, pointing out the way of communing with what had been done.

Let the fire of the Lord search Jesus, everything in Him is found a sweet savor unto God. In us, the fire finds things in themselves offensive, but all that was in Jesus is burnt altogether, a sacrifice made by fire, for a sweet savor unto God. Noah’s sacrifice typified this, (Gen. 8:20, 21.) taking of every clean beast, and clean fowl, and offering burnt-offerings unto the Lord, and the Lord smelled a sweet savor; and the heart of God was governed by the offering instead of by the sin which it covered; so that God said, He would not again curse the ground any more. He would look at the sin in compassion, because of the sweet savor of the offering of Jesus, for it was such as the all-searching eye of God, when He took it all up in the fire, found to be perfect, this was Christ’s own work—we could take no part in it, but we find it to be that which puts away our sin, “Be ye imitators of God as dear children, and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and given Himself for us, an offering, and a sacrifice unto God for a sweet smelling savor.” Who does not know among the saints the power of this love? While the work was done in a man, and as a man—it was done in divine love, even the love of the Father. This is a wonderful thing, that One should come, having a body prepared, acting in perfect obedience, a perfect example of righteousness, giving Himself a willing offering in the fullness of divine love. The first approach to God is at the altar of burnt-offering. There the sinner meets God in judgment, but there he meets also Christ offering Himself, and therefore (in type) the blood is put on this, and not on the things within the vail. The court of the congregation represents the earth, and here it is that the act of Jesus meets the sinner, as the means of approach. It is neither in the holy, or most holy place, but on earth that a perfect sacrifice has been offered to God, in which Satan could find nothing, but God everything—In which, man could have no part nor fellowship. It was a work between the Son, and the Father, and while the saint alone reads its value, it was done in the world, Jesus Christ being evidently set forth crucified, giving a testimony to the world, which leaves the world without excuse; and if there be no other way to God but by Jesus Christ thus set forth in death, what is unbelief doing in despising and rejecting Him, who now in heaven is the giver of every blessing to them that believe.

You may be busy and careful about many things, but there is but one thing which God looks at. Has this love of God, in His Son, been but an idle tale to your hearts, while you have been eager in the pursuit after the vanity that presents itself here? Is your heart cold to the love of God? as though the place where the cross stood is a blank in the world? The natural heart hates the claim of His love and His holiness, but the cross is the power of God to redeem the heart from the love of the world.

Lev. 2—The meat-offering was of fine flour, mingled with oil, and frankincense put thereon, to be brought to Aaron’s sons, the priests, who had their portion of it; and the priest shall burn the memorial of it on the altar, to be an offering made by fire for a sweet savor unto the Lord; it is a thing most holy of the offerings of the Lord made by fire. (see vers. 1, 2, 3.) Here then is another offering made by fire; as in the burnt-offering it stands the full estimate and judgment of God, and all that comes out of it is a sweet savor unto Him. Now the fruits of righteousness are acceptable to God, but we are not represented here, for if we enter into judgment with God, no man living shall stand. Our services are indeed accepted as the fruit of His Spirit in us, through intercession.

We have in this not the character of Abel’s, but of Cain’s offering; though very different in circumstances from that, yet it is the things of nature offered to God: the Church never could be thus offered, because it is not holy.

We shall see, by and by, that when the Church is represented, leaven is commanded to be put into it; but in that which is before us, the command is, that the meat-offering be put into the hands of the Priest. Oil was poured on it, and frankincense put thereon. The perfect fragrance and grace ascends up to God—the remnant is for Aaron’s sons.

First, Jesus, as a Man, is offered to God in His perfectness, and then we feed upon Him. The fragrance of His perfectness ascends while we feed.

The ostensible anointing of Jesus was when the Holy Ghost descended upon Him in the shape of a Dove; but as we find in the first ten verses of this chapter various characteristics of the meat-offering “Thou shalt part it in pieces, and pour oil thereon”—so as well as the ostensible anointing of Jesus, there is the fullness of God dwelling in flesh.

The character of the meat-offering is this, it was brought to the Church offered to God, and then the Church’s portion was to feed on it.

When we look at the detail, we find. the wafers and cakes were to be unleavened. In this, as in the sheaf of first-fruits waved before the Lord, (Lev. 23:10,11.) we have the definite character of Christ, without sin; for in the ears of corn there could. be no leaven. But when the Church is offered, leaven is to be put in—they are the first fruits; but we find in the 12th verse of the 2nd chap. the oblation of the first-fruits, though offered to the Lord, shall not be burnt; proving that it did not come under the character of the previous offerings, which were all burned, and to have neither honey nor leaven in them. Observe, no effect of the oil could counteract the leaven, it was commanded to be absolutely without leaven. No power of the Holy Ghost counteracts the power of evil; if there was leaven in its nature it could not be an offering to the Lord. Honey is also excluded. There are many things sweet and pleasant in themselves that can never be presented to God; nothing can be offered to Him that is for the mere satisfaction of nature. Simple natural affection, though right in itself, (nay it is a sin to be without it,) is no offering to God. Our Lord’s love to His mother was perfect; we see this in His remembrance of her and care, even on the cross; but when first He begins His ministry He did not recognize natural affection as influencing Him in it, but says, “Woman what have I to do with thee?”

In Lev. 23:17, we have that which was typical of the day of Pentecost, on which day the Holy Ghost formed the Church. When Christ ascended, and presented perfect righteousness to the Father, then He could work to bring out this in the Church as the first fruits.

Accordingly we find in this 23rd chapter, that which as constitute and consecrated by the Holy Ghost, could be offered to God, but no burnt, because the old nature is still there. In Jesus, however, there is nothing of this; and in the meat-offering therefore there is to be no leaven, but oil poured on it: also in the sheaf waved before the Lord. So it was that Jesus arose and was waved before the Lord; and then fifty days afterward, parallel with Pentecost, the two wave loaves baken with leaven, were brought as the first fruits to God. Remark that there is a burnt-offering and a meat-offering offered with the wave sheaf, but no sin-offering; but in ver. 19 you will find a sin offering accompanying the wave loaves, to meet the leaven in them; for the sin-offering is that which nails the evil of the Church, or it could not be accepted.

We have this most satisfactory evidence, that Jesus was offered without spot to God, and the knowledge of the blessed truth that there was the absolute absence of sin in Him, both in nature and practice; on this account alone He could. be an offering made by fire. There could be no offering for sin presented to God in which the holiness of God, searching by fire, could discover by any possibility anything that was not positively good; it would have hindered its being an offering to God. All the fullness of the Holy Ghost could not effect this; for we see this on the day of Pentecost—there was the outpouring of the Holy Ghost, but nevertheless sin was there.

The Holy Ghost to give us peace, must come with a message of peace, even that there has been that presented in the offering of Christ, by which God’s grace can act toward us in righteousness. It is not that the act of Jesus turned. God’s mind toward us, but by virtue of it, God can act according to His own mind, righteously and consistently. If God had done an act of grace, without the act of Jesus, it would have been grace without righteousness. It is then first proved, that there is no righteousness in man, who hath both broken the law, and rejected Jesus. But in presenting Jesus to God in the world, as the intrinsically righteous One, we find Him through whom God. can act in grace toward man; in Him we find the ground of our acceptance, and the originating cause of God’s dealings with us. There is amazing blessing in looking at Jesus as the occasion of grace—the soul of the poor sinner can rest in the knowledge, that grace reigns through righteousness—and I find myself a continual debtor to grace, because when I am daily offered to God, the sin-offering is also offered, without which I could not be presented, and God is thereby glorified and not man, inasmuch as it is only through Jesus that I approach.

In leaven we see the character of sin, not only in the act, but in the abstract. It is well to distinguish between sins as the fruit of our evil nature, and sin.

The Holy Ghost not only detects sins in the act, but sin in the nature. Thus we are led to the knowledge that we are all alike; all in one condition. The Holy Ghost lays bare that which the law could only notice in its minutest actings.

The moment I have a new nature, I detect not only the acts of the old nature, but I know that in me, that is in my flesh, good does not dwell; but I have this comfort, that hating and judging the evil, I know that it is put away, not that this should make us careless—no, our privilege is to judge it before it has brought forth the bitter fruits.

Have you judged it thus in your nature? If it is there it is condemned. “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.” By presenting Jesus a perfect man, He making Him to be sin, condemned it on the cross.

If you cannot say you are without sin in your nature, living in all the spotlessness and purity of Jesus, you are condemned but recognizing Jesus as the sin-offering for you, though in yourself a poor failing wretched creature, you can be presented to God even as He, is, because you are presented with Him. Therefore the word is, “fear not.”

If you have seen Jesus, if you have found Him, feed upon Him, as the one object on which your soul can rest, the pattern in which you can delight to all eternity, the way of learning in a sinful world what is perfect in God’s sight. Take Jesus, and as a thing most holy offer it to God, delight in it—study Jesus in the gospels, in all that He was and did, as presented to us by the Spirit, and then you will learn to have your soul fashioned in its desires according to the riches of His unspeakable grace, He offered as the sin-offering, and you knowing that you shall see Him and be made like Him, seeing Him as He is.

LEV. 3.—In the first chapter there is the description of the burnt-offering, representing the Lord’s self-dedication and obedience even unto death—first coming to do the Father’s will, and then offering Himself up without spot to God. in the second, we have the meat-offering, which shows the perfection of His nature, the memorial of which was offered before the Lord, and the rest eaten by the priests, an unleavened meat-offering.

This third chapter touches on that part of the peace-offering which was offered to God; there is no mention of what was done with the body of the animal; we must refer to the 7th chap. for this. The fat and the blood, which represent the life and energy of the Spirit, are said to be the food of the offering made by fire—they may not be eaten, but are presented to the Lord, and all burnt by a perpetual statute. The life belongs to God, this is what Abel saw, and that which made his sacrifice acceptable.

We have in the peace-offering the same character as the two former. Still a sacrifice made by fire of a sweet smelling savor. The peculiar feature in this offering is, that it is that upon which the Lord. Himself feeds; it is not merely an offering, but “food of the offering.” This gives it a peculiar character.

In the 7th chapter we find the remainder of the peace-offering was eaten by the worshipper, excepting the wave breast and heave shoulder, which were the priest’s. These three things then we may observe, the blood is sprinkled, and the fat burned for a sweet savor; the wave breast and heave shoulder are for the priest, and the rest for the worshippers to feed on, as an occasion of joy and thanksgiving before the Lord.

The practice of the offerer thus partaking of his sacrifice, was, imitated by the heathen in their sacrifice to idols, to which the Apostle alludes, (1 Cor. 10:18-21.) part was offered to the idol; and with the rest they made a feast, being together common partakers of it, Again, when the Apostle is giving liberty to the Corinthians to eat what was sold in the shambles, he limits them to that which they ate in ignorance. “If any man say unto you this is offered in sacrifice to idols, eat not?” They sprinkled the blood on the altar, and then ate the sacrifice; and therefore those who knowingly partook of it, were held to be partakers of the altar, this being the way of showing communion, whether it were with an idol, or between a believer and God; and this has in it a blessed meaning. Christ is not only here represented as the perfect burnt-offering, but also as a meat-offering for us; not only is He the Lord’s delight, but that of which we can also partake with Him. He is the subject matter of communion. “As I live by the Father, so he that eateth me, he shall live by me,” The communion is between the worshipper, the priest, and God. Not only is it our privilege to see the sacrifices offered to God, opening a way of access to Him, (as in the burnt-offering and others,) but we find the Lord takes delight in communing with us about it.

The first thing to be observed in the peace-offering is, the complete and absolute acceptance of the sacrifice, so that the Lord speaks of it as His food—that in which His holiness could find intrinsic satisfaction. The inwards were presented for a sweet savor (as Jesus,)—they are tried and examined by fire, and found to be food for God Himself, The fat represents the spontaneous actings of holiness—the richness of an animal is its fat—we judge of its healthy vigorous state by this.

It is written, “Our God is a consuming fire,” This expression is sometimes wrongly interpreted, as if spoken of God out of Christ. We know nothing of God out of Christ. We may be out of Christ ourselves, and then indeed, as a destructive fire, the very presence of God would be destructive to us; but as known to us who are in Christ, He is a God intolerant of all evil, of all that which is inconsistent with Himself.

As the slain one, Jesus is that on which we must feed. He says, “The bread which I will give, is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world; whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life.” (John 6) When we come to the knowledge of Jesus, we feed on Him as thus slain, having, as it were, His blood separated from His body—“My body is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.” “Without shedding of blood, there is no remission.” We feed, on Jesus as the life given, not on His life as life, but on His life as given unto death; not only as the incarnate God, but as having given His flesh to be eaten, and His blood to be drunk; being as perfect and spotless as the life which was shed out. And here also is that which not only satisfied the justice of God, but also is esteemed, fed on by Him as His delight. This Jesus was; and of this in the light of His countenance, and as the delight of God, we too have a portion. It is the common food of those assembled round as worshippers to feast before the Lord. But if any were unclean who fed on this sacrifice, they should be cut off from the people. (Lev. 7:20.) It was only as clean persons they could meet thus with the Lord. It can only be as those already cleansed and accepted, that we can have this mutual delight in the Lord Jesus, given as a common object of communion and enjoyment between God and us. Our worship is not here as simply coming to inquire about our acceptance, but having already access, it is to rejoice with God about the sacrifice, knowing the fruits of it. It was a thanksgiving offering, praise was in it: all proceeds upon the conviction of full satisfaction having been previously made. Often our worship has not sufficiently this character in it. We have intercourse frequently with God about our anxieties, our failures, our evil condition; but if this is all, we come very far short of the privileges that belong to us. Our religion should not be altogether a religion of regrets, but rather we are called to joy, and rejoice through the Spirit in the perfectness of all that Christ has done. Not merely joy because wrath has been intercepted, but there is that in Jesus which draws out constant love and delight from the Father, and we too are introduced into the place of communion with the Father about Him. Now if we are associated in this worship, we are there as being clean, for no unclean person is able to partake of it.

In the peace-offering the priest who sprinkled the blood had his part. He stood there as Christ, who is the one who sprinkled the blood.

We learn in these sacrifices, God in the respective characters of the Trinity, as well as in the abstract character of His holiness. If we look at God as the Father, we have surely the joy of His countenance as sons, but as God we need a priest by whom to approach Him. As one with Jesus, we stand so completely accepted in the immediate enjoyment of God’s love, that Jesus says, “I say not that I will pray the Father for you, for the Father Himself loveth you because ye have loved me.” At the same time, however, we know that as still in this body of sin and death, we have continual need of the exercise of the priesthood of Jesus, and this indeed in communion we never leave out, even the joy of knowing the priest as sprinkling the blood. In our joy we never have the priest excluded. Communion is a common thing between us. God delights, we delight, and Jesus delights with us. Marvelous thought! The Priest returns from the sprinkling of blood, Himself to be a partaker of our secret joy in the holy place. (Num. 18:8-11.) It is most important to see that we have no real delight of which the source and spring is not Jesus. So satisfied is God, and so cleansed are we, that we can curve thus to enjoy the communion resulting from what Jesus has done, and as the Priest He feasts with us now in the holy place—“Where two or three are gathered together, there is He in the midst of them,” as the one to sprinkle the blood and to feast even now, while we are waiting for that day, when in person He shall be present with us to eat and drink, in the Father’s kingdom. He said once, “With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer.” He was not content without this last memorial of their oneness with Him—while the expectation was present with Him, of the time when He would drink it new in the kingdom of God, He desired them to have continual remembrance of this last interview, “This do as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.”

The offering was to be eaten the same day, or at farthest on the second day; it was not allowed to be kept longer; this marks the communion to be necessarily spiritual.

It is simply in the Spirit we can have this communion with God, if the flesh comes in all is spoiled, it must be burned with fire.

The worshipper must eat his part in connection with the burnt-offering, and the priest’s portion if eaten alone, having (as it were) from the lapse of time lost the virtue communicated from the others, it becomes an abomination, and the soul that eats, must bear his iniquity. Thus we shall continually find the communion of joy in the Lord is apt to degenerate into that which is merely natural; for instance, if a man in bitterness of heart, comes to seek the Lord’s strength in communion, the Spirit is present, and he forgets his grief. The suffering was from without, but the communion between his soul and God is within the veil, and there is no sorrow there; but if he is not very watchful, his joy degenerates—It overlasts what is spiritual, and becomes joy in the flesh.

There will be difference in the power of this communion in believers. Those who rest most simply in the sacrifice and blood of Jesus will have the most power of sustaining it. “Ye beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.” (Jude 20, 21.) As we walk in the Spirit, we shall have power to continue in this holy fellowship and joy; but the earthly vessels are not competent to bear all the glory. There is always a tendency to the flesh slipping in—we may get proud of our joy, and this at once opens a door to all the folly and madness of our evil nature. After Paul had been in the third heavens, so that he knew not whether he was in or out of the body, we find he was in danger of being puffed up. What was the remedy anything that mended the flesh? not at all, but a messenger from Satan to buffet him. There is no mending the flesh, but we know this is not the place or condition in which we shall always be, for “He shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby His able to subdue all things unto Himself.” (Phil. 3:21.)

LEV. 4.—These offerings differ in character from the preceding, being sacrifices made for actual transgressions. Before, we had the offering of Christ as a sweet savor, and the communion of the believer upon it; but here there is altogether a new revelation. The three former ones were delivered under one revelation, which is marked by the words, “The Lord called unto Moses and spake unto him,” (chap. 1:1.) they are again repeated at the beginning of this chapter. Accordingly we find that instead of the Lord Jesus being manifested to us as a sacrifice for a sweet smelling savor unto God, we have Him here typified as “bearing our sins in His own body;”—the sin-offering, the Lord bruising Him on our account.

The sin-offerings were consequent upon transgression. The accumulation of guilt was laid upon the head of the victim. We shall find under this class all the forms of transgression provided for. There are four different characters of sin-offerings in this chapter—in the 5th chapter, to the 13th verse, we have sins mentioned, analogous in nature but different in circumstance; and a trespass-offering commanded for them; and then from the 14th verse, another revelation from God, concerning the trespass-offering for anything done against the Lord; and in chap. 4 mention is made of trespasses against a neighbor.

In the chapter before us we have instances of defilements of conscience concerning “things which ought not to be done,” being against the commandment of the Lord. The natural conscience shrinks from murder and open sins, but there are other things which, although of a different character, nevertheless if committed, bring defilement before the Lord: there are things of positive requirement, about which a soul may be ignorant, but neglect of which brings defilement. Again, there are things which we know to be wrong by means of the spiritual perception God has given us—We learn from these details, that trespasses against the Lord and wrongs done to our neighbor, though not all of the same importance, yet all require a sin-offering, and present Christ to us taking upon Him our sins; He is our sin and trespass offering.

The first two cases mentioned are, “If a priest should sin, and if the whole congregation sin—in either case the directions for the offering are the same; some of the blood must be sprinkled seven times before the Lord, before the vail of the sanctuary, and the priest shall put some of the blood upon the horns of the altar of sweet incense before the Lord in the tabernacle of the congregation.” This was done that there might be no interruption to the general communion; for the whole congregation being identified with the priest, his worship in the sanctuary, at the altar of incense, would be otherwise interrupted by this collective defilement: and again, the priest being the representative of the whole congregation before the Lord, their failure was involved in his. Their sin is also charged upon the bullock that is slain, which is wholly burnt without the camp; and this is the only ground of their introduction to communion with God. Here is shown to us not the perfectness of Jesus as presented to God, but Jesus defiled with our sin. Yet we see the fat is still burned on the altar, (ver. 8.) as that has in it the character of the burnt-offering, but the whole bullock is burned without the camp; pointing out to us Jesus, as cast out and bruised on account of His having taken our sin, as in 2 Cor. 5:21, “He hath made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin.” Having presented Himself in perfectness to God, He is then made sin for us, and it pleased the Lord to bruise Him—marvelous word!—Jesus the Holy One, who knew no sin, is cast out and numbered with the transgressors.

If it was merely an individual that sinned, the order of service could still be carried on, because the communion of the congregation was not thereby destroyed. Then the blood was only sprinkled on the altar of burnt-offering, because that was the place where God met an individual, for he must be reconciled that he might have his place in the congregation to hold communion with God. It is only because Jesus bore our sins individually that we have communion. Here we find the priest is commanded to take a portion, (chap. 6:25, 26) the fat and blood only being presented to the Lord on the altar of burnt-offering. We shall see in this the character of Jesus’ work for us, and find the blessedness of it.

The Church is guilty of many offenses, not only having sin in its nature, but doing things which conscience tells them ought not to be done, and under this guilt they could have no access to God,

The character of the offenses render the offender guilty, and while under this guilt, he could not approach to God; and observe in this chapter it is not merely sin, but sins that are mentioned; and here, for a moment, I would speak of the importance of not misquoting (as is often done) the passage “Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world;” it is not said sins of the world, for if that were true, God could have nothing to charge it with. It is indeed true that the world, as a system, shall be restored to God; that place over which Satan has now gained such power, shall be redeemed, as it is said in Col. 1:20.— “By Him to reconcile all things unto Himself by Him, I say whether they be things on earth or things in heaven.” In the hands of the Second Adam, the sacrifice has accomplished the restoration of all that was alienated in the first Adam, so that His atonement not only forms a ground upon which every sinner may be addressed, but through it the world shall be restored to blessing. This result however is entirely future, as we know from the present dominion of Satan in this evil world; and in the meantime many despise and reject the blessing, for whom judgment is reserved; but to believers blessing shall come, though they have no portion in the result as yet.

In the offerings before us there is not merely this general atonement, but the bearing of sins, the actual transfer of sins to Jesus, “the free gift of many offenses unto justification of life,”—as in Isa. 53 it is said, “He bare the iniquities of many”—as well as “made His soul an offering for sin.” And here we not only see Jesus presented as an offering to God, by which any sinner may be addressed, but the believer also finds that his sins are laid upon Him; and the Church in viewing anticipatively the great result, finds that it is a saved body, and is brought into the knowledge of that which the Apostle declares, (Col. 1:20, 21.) for He goes on to say—“and you, who were sometimes alienated and enemies in your minds by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled,” &c. Thus we get full settled peace; for we know that He has not borne some of our sins, but we get at this great general truth, that all our sins are laid upon Jesus and blotted out. if we believe that by bearing our sins Jesus has justified us, then we must know that all our sins are gone from the presence of God, as He has said, “Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.” Jesus has endured the penalty, He hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, and faith is able to look at Jesus as the bearer of all sin; and in the sin being charged upon Him, the Church is raised out of all its evil, being by one offering perfected forever. What He did was that He bore the bruising due to us. We can look at the work of Jesus in no other light than as thus complete, and we must then see all the sins of the Church laid upon Him, and consequently all put away, and God righteous and just to forgive, because Jesus had already borne them. There can be no enfeebling this, it would be doing it away altogether—If I say they are not completely taken away, then which of them remain, and where are the sins from which I am not justified? When is each sin to be separately atoned for? If it is not simply as a body He presents the Church in perfectness of acceptance, what is forgiveness? If we are brought by a sense of our need of this blood-shedding, to see the value of it, then we do come to the mercy seat, where we find all our sins put away—that He “suffered the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God.” It is of course only by the Spirit we are brought to know and value this, even that Jesus was our substitute—that He bore our sins in His own body on the tree, and that having done so, God is righteous to forgive; nothing can be more simple than that, if Jesus did indeed bear our sins, then every believer is justified from all things; we may look at it in all its breadth and compass—Jesus confessed our sins, bore them, and was bruised on their account. If He has opened your heart to believe in Him as bearing sins at all, then all your sins are put away; you must either deny that He was bearing sins at all, or you are justified. Here is the certainty of peace, and we stand justified from all things, and Jesus looks at us in this character.

There is no question of past or future transgression, but He bore our sins—hold fast this, and know that you are justified. There is indeed the daily consciousness of multiplied transgression, while faith says, our sins are put away; still, in looking at ourselves, we see abundance of evil, and now we find how graciously the Lord provides for us in this daily defilement. In chap. 6:26 the priest that offered the sin-offering, was to eat it; as the worshipper and the priest ate the peace-offering together, thus representing Jesus as being identified with the joy of communion. So the priest takes part of the sin-offering, showing that Jesus is also identified with the sin which hinders communion. This offering is not common to Aaron and his sons, but the priest only who offered it was to eat his portion.

Jesus is this Priest; that part on which the sin was confessed, the priest ate, and identified Himself thus with the defilement. Now in passing through the world, we get disqualified by sin for communion, even if we wist it not; we cannot take our blindness as the measure of God’s holy requirements, the blindness of our consciences is not the blindness of God’s eye, as man is apt to think, but the riches of divine mercy has provided a way in which although God sees it all, yet He sees us free from it, because He sees the sin all upon Jesus. He bowed His head under the weight of them saying, “my sins are too heavy for me to bear.” But in His resurrection, we see they were actually and effectually borne in His own body, so that we are “justified from all things,” “perfected forever,” He rose again because we were justified.

There are many things which our consciences tell us “ought not to be done,” but of the sins of ignorance it is said, “though he wist it not, he is guilty, he shall bear his iniquity.” There is no folly like that of taking the blindness of our hearts as God’s estimate of sin, but let the evil and defilement be what it may, “the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from all sin.” In Num. 19 we have a special case of a sin-offering—there is this difference between Lev. and Num. In Lev. we have the sacrifices in their great distinguishing characters. in Num. we have the particular application of them in the trials of the walk of faith, meeting the case of individuals falling into evil, or contracting defilement.

In Num. 19 there is a red heifer taken, and burnt as a sin-offering according to the description in the chapter now before us, the ashes were kept for a water of separation—a purification for sin, any man that touched anything unclean was sprinkled with it. This shows the power of the sin-offering, as brought by the Spirit to the conscience; it is not a fresh sacrifice, there is no shedding of blood, but merely the ashes sprinkled.

There are but three instances of blood being sprinkled on individuals which are these; Aaron and his sons, or the day of consecration. (Lev. 8:23-30.) the leper on the day of his cleansing, (Lev. 14:7.) and the people on the giving of the covenant from Mount Sinai, (Ex. 24:8) There needed in fact but one sprinkling, for looked at in its whole character, the worshippers being once purged, had no more conscience of sins, but for the daily defilements there was the water of separation, the application of a past thing with present power to the conscience, as the case required. The sacrifice of Jesus is an act done long since; but when the believer once cleansed by faith in His blood, contrasts defilement in walking in this world, for this there is no fresh offering, but the sacrifice is brought to his remembrance by the Spirit.

It is the blood that cleanses us from sin, and gives us our portion as sons by adoption; but, as regards the conscience, it is the Spirit of God bringing the recollection of what Jesus has done, so as to give peace. These are the truths brought out in the sin-offering.

As the whole Church is concerned, Jesus is presented unreprovable and unblameable in God’s sight, and “being sanctified by the offering of His body once for all,” the worshipper has no more conscience of sins. Thus the believer is introduced at once to the knowledge, that all the Church’s sins are transferred to Jesus, and that in His resurrection the Church is completely justified.

Let the sin be of whatever character it may, though you wist it not, yet what cannot accord with the holiness of God’s sanctuary, shall not come into it. His holiness never varies from itself, and the more we know of the value of the blood-shedding of Jesus, the more we shall see the impossibility of communion with God in sin, but if our conscience condemn us, what have we to do? we have the blessed perception through the Holy Ghost of the ashes, even the remembrance of that which has been done, bringing us again into holy communion. The perception that Jesus has taken the defilement, maintains the standard of holiness in spite of our sin. Nothing but Jesus bearing the sin, charging it upon Himself can do this; and if we do not see the holiness maintained, we shall be making excuses for our sin, and thinking we can still have communion with God in it, and our estimate and standard of sin must of necessity be lowered. If my conscience cannot know the sin absolutely put away, I must give up communion; but seeing Jesus a burnt-offering and a sin-offering, we see Him made sin, and we made the righteousness of God in Him; and we see that He loved us and gave Himself for us, not for anything in us, but because of the prevalence of His love over all.

What blessed thoughts must we have in this knowledge of the perfectness of His love, and what must be the blindness of those who count God to be such an one as themselves, after He has given Jesus.

Lev. 6.—There is much that is important in the close of the account of these offerings. In the previous chapters the characters of the sacrifices were brought out. First, the perfectness of the offering of Jesus unto God; and secondly, as an outcast defiled by the sin that was laid upon Him. This trespass-offering partakes of the latter character. The Spirit of God is a holy detecter and judge of all that is inconsistent with Himself, nothing of sin can pass unnoticed. The Spirit does not judge according to the estimate of the natural conscience, but takes a standard according to the holiness of Jesus in the presence of God, so that our minds do not always discern that which He sees needs to be judged; but whether we discern or not, the Spirit takes account of the evil in us, and if it were not for the sin and trespass-offering, we should be in a worse case than ever, for there is no atonement for sin made by the Spirit; this is no part of His work.

The Spirit manifests all righteousness, revealing to us what Jesus taught, but we never read of the Spirit bearing our sins: this is a point of the utmost importance for our rest; the Spirit is the Spirit of testimony and holiness but in acceptance, in atonement, Jesus alone has any. part. Acceptance came in upon what Jesus had done in the flesh, by His offering of His body once for all—“In the body of His flesh through death,” &c.

The testimony of the Spirit is to unmingled holiness, bearing witness to our sins, showing us that in us good does not dwell, and also that peace and rest come by what Christ hath wrought. The effect of this testimony of holiness would be to destroy peace, if the Spirit did not still reveal the efficiency of the blood-shedding, but while it is His office to exalt the perception of the holiness God requires, He still witnesses to us that “the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin.”

When we look at the variety of sin, (for in spite of our ignorance we do perceive and know sin as still cleaving to us,) never could we have peace but through the testimony of the blood.

Supposing we have erred in the character of a worshipper committing any of those things which are forbidden, here is sin, even though we “wist it not”—the holiness of God is not limited by our conscience.

There are many things which would be sins upon the conscience, hindering communion, were it not for the blood of Jesus. The power and effect of the revelation of Jesus Christ is to bring us to God—to holiness; it is in vain, therefore, to reckon upon grace, if we do not see the place into which it brings us, even the place of worship. The effect of grace is to bring us upon ground on which nothing inconsistent with worship will be tolerated.

In the chapter before us, we have the different character of sins, which without blood could not be passed by. “He will by no means clear the guilty.” All that is inconsistent with Jesus within the veil, is guilt. In this 6th chap. we see that God’s eye equally notices sin against a neighbor, as against Himself; for the command is, “receive ye one another, as Christ also hath received us, to the glory of God.”

With unhindered liberty we have boldness to enter into the holiest, by the blood of Jesus, even where all the holiness of God is displayed, The Spirit reveals many things in us inconsistent with this holy place; but we know that Jesus has offered both a sin and trespass-offering. “God has made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him;” therefore the revelation of holiness reveals nothing to hinder our entrance into the holiest, If the holiness of God has been revealed, and you have swerved from the requirements of it, may the Spirit of God so reveal to you the offering made once for all, that you may go on, resting upon the truth of the completeness of the sacrifice, assuredly knowing that “the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin.”

Lev. 8—We have considered in detail the work appointed for Aaron and his sons, as priests to the Lord; we have here an account of the manner of setting them apart for that office. They are first washed with water, this signifying the sanctification by the word. In this the High Priest is identified with his sons, even as Jesus says, “For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.” And again, “By the words of thy lips have I kept me from the paths of the destroyer.”—And when speaking of the Church, the language is, “He gave Himself for it, that He might sanctify and cleanse it by the washing of water by the word.”

This being done, the High Priest alone is clothed in his robes, and anointed. He needed not blood to admit him into the service of God. He was the representative of one whom God could receive and own as “His servant, His elect, in whom His soul delighted.” Thus, after His baptism, we find the Spirit descends as a Dove upon Jesus, and a voice comes from heaven, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” He needed no offering for Himself, but stood as the anointed of God without shedding of blood. Afterward He identifies Himself with His sons, when sacrifices are brought to be offered for them. Thus we see Jesus in our person entering the holy place by His own blood, that we might be made fellow-workers with Him—that we might be qualified to worship with Him. This enables Him, to say, “I ascend unto my Father and your Father, unto my God and your God;” and afterward we find that blessed association with the saints which made Him say, “In the midst of the Church will I sing praise unto thee.”—“He is not ashamed to call them brethren.” We are thus marvelously introduced into the presence of the Father to partake of His fellowship with Him. “Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.” The High Priesthood of Jesus is essentially connected with our introduction into fellowship and blessing. The burnt-offering and sin-offering are offered, and also the ram of consecration; one complete act of atonement presenting them.

In the case of the leper’s cleansing, we see the same thing as a personal matter. (Lev. 14) The two birds signify the application of the blood of Jesus, and power given in consequence; one being killed, and the blood sprinkled on the person, and the other let loose in the open field. In the leper’s case, the application was individual, but here the whole Church is presented; Aaron and his sons fill their hands with the offerings, and are waved for a wave-offering before the Lord. They are qualified by the sacrifice, and obedience becomes their privilege. Their ears and right hand are consecrated for receiving instructions, and their performing service. The great toe also, that their walk through the world should be according to the blood-shedding.

The Church stands thus under the efficacy of the whole work of Christ; all that hindered from entering into the place of worship and service is done away; competency to exercise our ministry depends upon our walking in the Spirit; but provision for this has been accomplished once for all; and we cannot escape from this responsibility. Let us remember that whatever is unfit for us in entering the holy place, unfit for us as ministering priests, as worshippers in the sanctuary, must be put away.

The condition of the Church is to be introduced to all the blessings of the resurrection and ascension of Jesus. If we have anything, we are made priests unto God. As a body we are looked at according to the estimate God has of the sacrifice of His dear Son. There is no renewal of the consecration, the priests were only to wash their hands and feet, that they might carry no defilement into the sanctuary from day to day. Let us be careful thus continually to cleanse ourselves from any practical unfitness, that may defile us in our daily intercourse with an evil world.

Jesus has begun the new song of praise, and puts the same into our mouths, as sprinkled with His blood, anointed with His Spirit, and feeding continually upon Him in the presence of the living God.

Consider how far you have realized this as your standing, and be careful to cast away all that defiles you as a priest set apart for such a service.

This is something far beyond walking half in the world, and half with God—questioning ever whether you do believe or not—be assured God would have you brought out of this misery; belonging to the sanctuary, entering into all the fullness of joy that results from intimacy of fellowship and service with Jesus—kings and priests unto God. Not only blood, but anointing oil was upon Aaron and his sons, and his sons’ garments. All within and without is. consecrated. He hath loved us and washed us in His own blood, and made us kings and priests unto God and His Father. To Him be glory forever and ever—Amen.

Remarks on Light and Conscience

ALLOW me to say a few words on a very simple principle, connected with the exercise of men’s hearts before the Lord, and with questions which are now occupying the thoughts and anxieties of a body of persons, who must at present be the object of the deepest interest to any real Christian, even if not within the reach of those kindly affections by which so many are united to them. It does not appear to me, that in the agitation which the introduction of long neglected truths has produced among them, any body of Christians has presented an adequate or satisfactory exhibition of Christian truth and practice; nor has anything more struck me as to the extreme defectiveness of the views of the most noted Christian teachers at present before the world, than this manifest failure.

I am not about to enter into diffuse reasonings, but present a few considerations for their thoughts and consciences.

The first in importance is the Light in every man.

A little simple attention to Scripture I think will make this very plain.

It has been confused it seems to me, by systems of doctrine current previously in the mind.

As to mere argumentative refutation, Wardlaw has with the ability of mind with which God hath endowed him, plainly showed the inconsistency of their doctrines in their most favorable point of view, and I think, however courteous and polite in his statements, plainly shown Joseph John Gurney, to be by far the most inconsistent of all; for in Mr. Gurney’s system, while he holds Justification in an evangelical point of view, he still makes the mediation of Christ to be the procuring cause of that light, from which accountability springs—that is, that the mediation of Christ created the guilt which it put away; and consequently that there was no guilt in man previous to the mediation of Christ.

This is clearly an untenable position, and I cannot help feeling that the position held by Mr. Gurney, is the most inconsistent and unsatisfactory of any engaged in the anxieties which press upon Friends.

But while Dr. Wardlaw has refuted very ably in many respects the views he opposes, it does not appear to me that he has given anything, on the other hand, upon which a sincerely anxious mind could rest, and it also appears to me, that his view of “Christ in us” — “Christ dwelling in our hearts” is as objectionable as that of the Friends itself; and that in his anxiety to avoid. mysticism, he has destroyed in statement the living power of Christianity itself, as a present thing. His view of the law written in the heart, his substitute for this inward light, I believe to be most unsatisfactory, almost as unsatisfactory—as the inward light itself; for if the law, of which he, with many others, speaks, be so written, it is not merely a knowledge of the divine will without, but that which in some instances at least (for of such the Apostle is writing,) produces the effects of the law done; and moreover, it is spoken of, (I take their use of the sentence,) not as a law known externally which is their ground of defense, but written on the heart, the very language we may say of the power of the new covenant. It appears to me then, I confess, that this law written on the heart of unbelieving Gentiles; is at the least as objectionable, if not more so, than the inward light of Friends, and as untenable from Scripture.

As regards the passage in John, I cannot but think that a calm attention to its statements and inquiry into its import, will show to any mind taught of God, that while the divine perfectness was there as the light, our Lord is spoken of as a person coming into the world, one to whom John the Baptist bore witness, which was surely Jesus Christ come in flesh—the expected Messiah of the Jews, of whom there is this double testimony—that “He was in the world;” for the testimony was not confined to the Jews, nor was He merely their Messiah, but an universal object of faith—“He was in the world;” and further, that He surely was Jesus, the Messiah, “come to His own, (the Jews,) and His own received Him not.” How could it be said that any inward light came to His own and His own received. Him not, and that as distinct from, and additional to, His being in the world, and the world not knowing Him? If this were the inward light, would it not prove that this light was in the world, and men completely unconscious of it, which would refute itself.—Both are simply and plainly true, and the whole passage most intelligible and to the purpose, as relating to the incarnate Son of God, who was intrinsically light, and as living—as a man, a light to man, and was both in the world and made the world, and the world knew Him not, and came specially to the Jaws, and the Jews received Him not; though to as many as did receive Him He gave authority to be sons of God, not servants as they were (even though godly) under the law, and to whom John bare witness, as sent before Him. As the Lord Himself elsewhere designates Himself, “While ye have the light walk in the light. While I am in the world I am the light of the world.”

Further, as to the law written upon the heart, perhaps I shall startle some in saying that the Scripture never speaks of a law written on the heart. God puts His laws into the heart in the new covenant, but this is another and a distinct thing. Nor is sin ever said to be the transgression of the law, but the contrary. I am aware that expressions in the English Scriptures may carry such a force, but it has no such force in the original Scripture.

The passage on which accountability is made to rest on a law known, which is after all inward. light, is 1 John 3:4. “Sin is the transgression of the law.” Then it is argued further, “Where no law is there is no transgression;” still, “until the law, sin was in the world,” therefore, as there was no outward law, there must have been an inward law, as elsewhere these having not the law are a law unto themselves, and show the work of the law written upon their hearts. To follow this reasoning in Scripture—

First.—“Sin is the transgression of the law.”

The law is not mentioned in the passage. It is a reciprocal proposition. Sin is lawlessness. Sin is equivalent to the spirit of self-will and unrestrainedness. This may be, and was, whether there was a law asserting restraint on this will or not; when there was, its acts were actual transgressions, but without this, sin was there, though there no such actual transgressions till “law entered.” νομος παρεισ ηλθεν. And sin was not imputed where law was not. Not that God will not judge the secrets of men’s hearts in that day according to the gospel; but that the times of this ignorance God winked at, passed by in His dealings of retributive justice, not having a law by Him revealed to their consciences, on which He could deal with their conscience; on the contrary, He gave them up to an αδοκιμον ν8ν a reprobate mind; they did not discern to retain Him in their knowledge, but set up idol creature gods; all this argument is of the world after the flood, and therefore God gave them up to an undiscerning mind, as to that which related to lower things of good and evil in themselves, and towards others. It is astonishing in the face of this positive testimony to hear the abstract reasonings of men.

On the other hand, as to this imputation of offenses, we have the Prophet’s witness, “Thee only have I known of all the families of the earth, therefore will I punish you for your iniquities.”

Now He calls all persons every where to repent, seeing He “hath appointed a day in which He will judge this habitable earth (την οικουμενην) in righteousness, by that man (εν ανδρὶ) whom He hath ordained, whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised Him from the dead.”

In the day when God judges the secrets of men’s hearts, they that have sinned without law, shall perish without law: and they that have sinned under the law, shall be judged by the law.

This general review of the passages may clear the point as to the fact of the first text quoted, not being transgression of the law. I insert the Greek.—

H αμαρτια εστιν η ανομια, Sin and lawlessness, may be reciprocally affirmed one of another; next I state that the law is not said to be written on men’s hearts. Were it so, I do not see that we are a step removed from the inward light, save downwards—that is, we have the law written upon the heart instead of Christ there.

But as to the fact there is no such sentence as the law written in the heart.

The Apostle states, that in these particular instances in which the Gentiles did the things contained in the law, they show the work of the law written in their hearts. The law is not said to be written there, but that particular act which the law required was shown to be upon their conscience. For when the Gentiles who have not law (it is not the law at all) do by nature the things of the law, these not having law are a law to themselves, which show the work of the law written in their hearts. Written agreeing with work not with law at all, εργον τ8 νομ8 γραπτον. These are the only words in which the law is said to be written on the heart, an expression which ought in itself to have awakened suspicion in one acquainted with the truth. The expression, law written on the heart by nature, is surely one which should startle any who knew the truth of God. Dr. Wardlaw gets out of this difficulty by saying nature does not exclude grace, and that the law could be known responsibly without any subjection or conformity to it. It is a laborious effort for which the statement gives no occasion. The force of the sentence is, that there was something written proved by the deed done.

Next as to the assertion of the contrary. It is stated where no law is, no transgression is; but the Apostle is there showing, that sin and transgression of law are different things, but that there was no present imputation of it where there was not the latter.

Between Adam and Moses death reigned over those who had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, for Adam was disobedient to an express and positive command, and there was present imputation and punishment, besides the effect upon his soul. Sin was in the world, and death reigned by sin until the law, thus expressly distinguishing sin from the law and transgression. Sin being there when the law was not, and when consequently transgression was not, and giving afterward the respective consequences of sin when there was and was not law. Sin is ανομια but it is not παραβασις νομ8, although that is the character of sin when the law comes in, and it becomes then an imputable transgression.

Where then is the universal accountability of man which Christ met as light and life, and the way of peace by atonement in contrast with their state?

It is most strange to me how the students of the Scriptures should have passed over this plain and all important statement, to look for confused and reasoned notions of a law in the heart, or a light in the heart, which amount to pretty much the same thing.

“The man (האדם the race man,) is become as one of us knowing good and evil.” This is God’s account of fallen man. Satan never deceives by a mere abstract lie; he tells much attractive truth, but never leads to obedience by it. What he gave as a promise to man, God pronounced to be true, but he had it by disobedience. He knew evil in guilt, he knew it in disobedience, he knew it in the admitted power of sin over his soul, he knew it as a creature over whom it had power, he knew it by and with a bad conscience. God knows good and evil, but He knows it by the infinite and intrinsic possession of good, and Himself being good, and therefore knows evil as that which is infinitely repudiated by Him and in this, therefore, His holiness is infinitely seen. A creature knows not so, as a mere creature, for he is not supreme. Evil known to a mere creature is known in conscience; he is subject to judgment in the knowledge of it, and hates the judgment and the Judge, because selfishness cannot like its own condemnation, nor can it like to be subject to any, and cannot therefore please God. This knowledge of good and evil may be darkened in its judgment, because a false rule or guide may be introduced—God may give up to a reprobate mind, or Satan introduce a law of darkness, having power to deceive and blind, which is not God’s, and which may be made its estimate of right; but the knowledge of good and evil is inherent in fallen human nature. Man unfallen was not, properly speaking, holy: he was innocent, he knew not evil, but only beneficent good. Fallen man knows evil, with a conscience subject to judgment, and hating God. Here then is the revealed accountability and condition of man as man. There may be a false standard. The law of God is the true one, evil having come in. Paul thought he ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth, and the time was to come, when those that killed the disciples would think they did God service; however wretchedly and inexcusably false the standard assumed from men, there was the sense of good and. evil, and of obligation thereupon. It was still lawlessness to God, and sin. Subjection to God is now shown in obedience to, and honoring Christ in everything.

The law of God given, which surely is perfect for its purpose, could not have been the law to Adam, for it is conversant about, and implies the knowledge of evil. Adam had a law, which he broke, which implied no knowledge of evil—“Thou shalt not eat of such a tree,” a command which He who knew all things gave him. Adam fell with the knowledge of good and evil, for he got it in disobedience; but he had that knowledge then, to which the law, when it came in, applied the standard and prohibitory restraints, though it gave no new life so that righteousness could be by it. In the meanwhile sin reigned by death, with the knowledge of good and evil and a guilty conscience, however Satan’s and man’s lusts might darken and debase it; but none of these things gave life, nor was it their object; the fall certainly did not, yet in this came the knowledge of good and evil, conscience—so as that God said, “The man is become as one of us”—i.e. as to this. Yet death came in with this. The law which gave a standard of actual accountability to this did not give life, nor pretend to it; on the contrary, wrought wrath—entered that the offense might abound—was a ministration of death, of condemnation, and the strength of sin, not through any fault of the law, but the contrary, being just, and true, and good; if it did not give life, sin by it only became exceeding sinful.

But under all and any of these circumstances, God, who is the author of life, could and did give life; and Abel, and Enoch, and Noah, and Abraham, and Eli, and Samuel, and David, and Hezekiah, and Anna, and Simeon, and others whom we cannot number, but who are written before, and live unto God as from Him, all in various circumstances, are witnesses to His quickening and justifying power. They have “obtained a good report through faith.” I do not enter here into the power of darkness, which is most important in connection with this subject, and the active instrumentality of him who rules the darkness of this world, because I desire to confine myself to the points under consideration; but in any general view of the state of man it is most important, all important to be taken into the account, indeed without it our general estimate must be false; just as three sums, however correct, will not make a right result if there be a fourth left out. From the beginning, till peace and glory be brought in, this, the power and deceit of the adversary has been, as still is the case, the leading source of evil and alienation from God, however man’s estate may help him and his efforts to dishonor the Lord.

I would present then this sentence, “The man is become as one of us, to know good and evil,” as a very simple and easy solution of many difficulties most elaborately constructed by man’s wit and reasoning, and draw attention to what the law really is, as presented to us in Scripture in the passages referred to, and its connection with the accountability of man. It never gave life—God alone could do that: and I do entreat those who teach, who have the knowledge of the original, to weigh the force of the passages on which they rest so large and important a system. I would also urge upon them the difference of sin and sins, two things never I believe confounded in the Holy Scriptures.

As to the rule of faith, primary and secondary, the Spirit and the Scriptures. This question has really also been raised, though under different apparent circumstances, by the Roman Catholics, and it has appeared to me always in that controversy, that there was a sophism scarcely ever noticed, which was at the root of all the difficulty, and that is, confounding a rule or standard with the means of communicating, or power that communicates anything to our minds. The tacit assumption that one was equivalent to another. All “Milner’s end of controversy,” hangs upon a statement, concealing this false assumption. “The rule of faith, or means of communicating Christ’s religion,” he says, “must be such, or such;” which he then shows Scripture not to be, having identified these two ideas. Admit their identity, and no one can answer him; separate them, and his argument comes simply to nothing.

The Friends it appears to me have made the same mistake. The Scriptures are the only rule or standard of faith and practice; but the power that applies them to our minds is the Spirit, and the instruments may be many.

To make a rule or standard, we must have the whole thing fully out and expressed.

A parent, a teacher, a friend, may communicate truth, but none are a standard.

My use of the standard may be ignorant or imperfect, still it is a perfect standard in itself. I, as a Teacher, may have stated perfect truth, but it is no standard. The whole truth having been communicated, no fresh revelation to an individual soul of part of the same truth, is a standard, The Bible may be the means of communicating truth; but its great value is, that it is the standard, as well as the depository of all truth. A truth may be most perfectly communicated to me, as a measure of corn may be most accurately weighed; for the ascertainment that it is so, a standard is required. The Spirit of God may enable me to use the standard of the Word, but this does not make the Spirit of God the standard, any more than the perfect skill of the weighmaster or measurer, makes his hand or mind the standard.

I may have spiritually learned truth, and may as far as known, use this known truth as a test of all presented to me, and so far the intelligence of the Spirit may be a guide. But a standard must be a standard of everything, and for this it must be the whole record of truth, and the perfect record of truth. Moreover there are principles of universal application implanted in every regenerate mind; God is righteous, holiness is the thing which characterizes God, and the saint in communion; but what righteousness is, how sinful man is placed and led in it practically, and what is holy in conduct, is another thing; and if this be not in the mind of man naturally, it must be revealed, and if revealed to be a standard it must be revealed with authority for all, or it is not a rule or standard which every one must be responsible to; and individual responsibility, and mutual sense of righteousness is destroyed, and manifest fruits of righteousness cease to be of avail as a test of conduct and fellowship because there is no standard—common subject of reference, to which they are to be brought, for to be a standard by which man can act before God, it must be perfect, common to all, perfect with God’s perfectness; the necessary consequence otherwise will be, the destruction of individual responsibility, and the setting up of authority without any perfect rule.

I have spoken of these things merely to illustrate the difference between a rule or standard, and the power which perceives, uses, or may have learned and appropriated part, but which part though useful to communicate, cannot be a standard to another; or authority abstractedly is set up, and we lean upon man as infallible at once. No man, or any but God, is infallible. No Apostle, no Prophet; he may be absolutely right at any given time, but not infallible, for that is, the impossibility of being wrong. To receive what a man says without a standard, must be, to suppose him incapable of being wrong. And the question therefore really is, whether there is a standard at all, not what it is. Because a standard is a complete communication of divine truth, by which everything can be tried, and therefore every and all truth, necessary for the guidance of those to whom it is proposed as a standard, must be there, or it could not be such a standard.

Any subsequent communication of divine truth has nothing to do with being a standard, as is evident, however certain the perception of it in the Spirit; and though truths may be impressed upon the soul of any man, and as an instrument at any given time for the communication of them, this has nothing to do with being a standard.

If it be contended that the Spirit in each man is the rule or standard on every particular occasion, and consequently must perpetually communicate the way of truth and the truth itself, then it is an assertion that every body is infallible, and that there is no standard at all—that men are not responsible, but automatons. If I am told that the Spirit always does suggest, and is always right, (and this would apply to practice alone, for truth must be expressed to be a standard,) but that men do not always listen to it, then I say, how is this to be known? where is the ground of judgment? what is the rule and standard of this? or, is each man the warrant of all possible conduct? or, are others the irresponsible judges of him? The question still evidently is, is there a standard, a perfect revelation of God’s will at all—in a word, a complete revelation? If there be, let us humbly admit, that the Spirit, in its active divine operations, takes any scope you please, our judgment of which must be subject to this same word of revelation; but we have to acknowledge that it has given us a perfect rule by which we judge of the pretensions to its operations, and any alleged truth in, or proposed by any.

If there be any such revealed authenticated standard; it is manifest that the written word of God is that standard.

I would make a few remarks as to the communication of it. How was it to be judged of, for how was the communication of it authenticated, if any operation of the divine Spirit in an individual be not such standard? It will be still remarked, that this a question whether there be any standard at all. But I say, in reply, that God having been pleased to communicate any revelation authentically, as the communication of Moses, as having His authority, whatever should afterward be revealed is always triable by consistency with this, it might be revealed with equal authority and would be necessarily as from God, consistent therewith; no apparent authentication would be sufficient to excuse the reception of anything inconsistent with the original revelation. Though God might afford and did afford some superior authentication, as in the case of our blessed Lord, He always took care to validate a previous revelation by that, and appeal to it, as Christ, though perfectly competent to reveal, ever appealed to the word, so the Apostles, and thus there was mutual authentication; nor would a Prophet have been to be received, had he spoken anything contrary to the law and the testimony; he acted in solemn warnings as to present conduct, but always applied to conduct upon the ground of the existing law and testimony; then Messiah coming, authenticated and sealed the authority of predictions, by sealing the prophecy, whether all the particulars were fulfilled or not; and with the words of the Apostles and companions of the Lord, the Church was left to the written testimony as the law and standard. In a word, faith recognizes that the Lord has provided in His great mercy a perfect and common standard of His mind and will, in the revelation of His word, and there cannot be a greater or more signal mercy nor one more worthy of a beneficent God; an imperfect one would be but a mockery, and throwing them into the hands of designing men, and necessarily destroy responsibility to it or any standard at all, or make it an unholy and blind responsibility to man.

The communication, the apprehension, the application of truth—of all contained in the word of this whole of truth, is by the constant living operation of the Spirit of God.

It appears to me there is a vast difference between the revealing operations of the Spirit of God and the communicative operations, that the one are to conscience when they are more than external testimony: the other not. A revelation may be by an ungodly, unconverted man; and when by a saint, as usually, though by his understanding they are not to his conscience, there is nothing personal in them; he may afterward, as we read in Peter, search and inquire into their application, and who is interested in them like any other person, and find it not to himself at all. This is not the case in any internal operations of the divine Spirit, for our good and personal guidance, immediate responsibility arises therefrom. On the other hand, when the Spirit of God is pleased to use us as a means of communicating truth, it does not necessarily act on our conscience at all, it may not be applicable to my conscience in its present state at all; nay I might preach to others all truth, and be a cast-away; I might say, “I shall see Him but not now, I shall behold Him but not nigh.” “How goodly are thy tabernacles O Israel.” And this shows a distinctive difference in the operation even when the Spirit does operate. When a revelation, it is not as such a communication or operation on the conscience (or will) of the instrument at all. There is an operation of the Spirit by truth on both, which may be of the same truths as have been long revealed, and are no proper subject therefore of revelation at all, though they may be new to him in whom the Spirit works. I put no limit then to the Spirit’s operations. But I say He has given a standard, a rule Himself, by which we can judge all pretensions to them, being ourselves spiritual.

There is a point yet unnoticed, in which Dr. Wardlaw’s statements seem to me most ruinous of the real living power of Christianity. He states that Christ in us, is equivalent to Christ dwelling in our hearts by faith—that is, having Christ as the object of our heart’s affections, as the Apostle says “Inasmuch as ye are in my heart.” &c. I confess this seems to me most pernicious, and that the Church has lost the indwelling of the Spirit as a truth most sadly.

The life which we have from and of Christ, is a life of union with Him. “He that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit;” faith is the mean or instrument whereby these things are wrought, because it is by the word He begets us: but there is a life; “that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit,” as much and as truly as “that which is born of the flesh is flesh;” and to assert that Christ by the Spirit dwells really in no man, is quite as great an error as to assert that He dwells in every man, and the word of truth refutes both. “If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of His;” and “if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, and the Spirit is life because of righteousness.” To see how the word of God teaches us in this, that we are born, quickened of God by the Spirit, is recognized by all we may say who hold the truth: but I fear confusedly by some, being looked at as a mere operation on the understanding and will, and not the communication of Divine life, born really of God; as we have seen that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit, the seed of the divine life which thereon abideth in the soul. While this is of the operation of the Holy Ghost and is of God, it is not the Holy Ghost nor God, as needs scarcely be said. It enjoys, apprehends, is cognizant of, has a taste for divine things as being of God, but it knows and has the revelation of these things only by a superior power, which guides into truth, shows things to come, and takes of the things of Christ and shows them to us.

Besides this there is a partaking of the Holy Ghost.

The Holy Ghost cannot dwell in a defiled uncleaned place. He could dwell with Jesus, speaking of him as an anointed man, because He was intrinsically pure, perfect and spotless. How then with us?

The Scripture says, “we are quickened together with Christ”—that is, as out of His grave, “wherein also ye are risen together with Him, through faith of the operation of God, who hath raised Him from the dead.” Christ having borne our sins, met Satan, and undergone death, His resurrection is a power of life, clear from, and paramount to, beyond and having left behind all these, beyond the reach of all these; but we are risen with Him—that is, the life which we have of God, as quickened of the Holy Ghost, is as the life of Christ after the sins are completely put away. It is communicated to us consequent upon His having borne and put away the sins, yea, is the witness of His having put them all away, as he says, therefore, “hath quickened us together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses;” for His resurrection is the witness that they are gone, Now the blood being the life which He gave for them, and shed, having given His natural life in the energy and perfectness of the divine life in obedience. The shedding of the blood is the characteristic term and expression of this; and we, as washed in His blood, are cleansed from all sin. Our quickening then, by the Holy Ghost being then our quickening together with Him, implies our absolute justification thereby—that is, by what He has wrought, Hence the Holy Ghost not only quickens, but can take up His abode in and with us, because He views us according to His value of the blood of Jesus—that is, infinite or perfect cleansing. Thus the High Priest was anointed without a sacrifice, the sons of Aaron after and upon the blood of the sacrifices, typifying the same truth.

The Holy Ghost then, consequent upon faith wrought in our souls by His divine and quickening operation, dwells in us, as consequent upon, and witness of the value of the blood-shedding of Jesus; by virtue of whose resurrection, as having borne our sins, we are quickened: and here and hence is assurance; nor is it till we thus see clearly the power of the resurrection that we have this assurance. The resurrection is the triumph over all the results of sin, and him who had the power of it.

Thus, consequently, the Scriptures speak of the indwelling of the Holy Ghost. “Know ye not that your bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost, which ye have of God.”

“Grieve not the Holy Spirit of promise, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption; in whom, after that ye believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession.”

And that we might not think this to be merely what are called miraculous gifts, we are told how “He which establisheth us with you in Christ, is God; who also hath sealed us and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts;” and therefore we are told that “the Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God; and if children, then heirs;” for it is “the earnest of our inheritance,” and afterward “helps also our infirmities,” as in trial here, “making intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.”

So in Galatians, (chap. 3.) “We are all the children of God, through faith in Christ Jesus;” and then in chap 4. “Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying Abba, Father,” &c.

How the Holy Ghost manifests itself, whether in connection with the life of Christ as risen, or the ascension of Christ as glorified, is another thing very important and valuable, but not my subject here; but the actual presence of that other “Comforter, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world, cannot receive because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him, but ye know Him, for He dwelleth with you and shall be in you;” and He was “to abide forever.” I now speak of it as connected with the life of Christ, as belonging to the sons, the earnest of the inheritance, a well of water in us springing up into everlasting life. He who weakens this, weakens, I believe, the great stay and blessing of the gospel. If I dwell in love, God dwelleth in me, and I in God. If I confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in me, and I in God; and which, if it be disconnected with the sacrifice of Christ, and faith in Him, in those quickened by His Spirit, it is but an ignis fatuus, leading into misery and confusion. To deprive those of it who have been given this living faith is to deprive them of the living power and blessing of both the sufferings of

Christ, and the glory that is to follow. The possession of the Holy Ghost is the distinguishing characteristic of the believer of the Church of the living God. The love of God is shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost given unto him. Nor do I know anything which has reduced and degraded the Church into the world, or given occasion and opportunity to delusion and spiritual pretensions so much as the neglect of the plain scriptural truth given us on these subjects. If a man did not believe in the truth of the Holy Ghost’s dwelling in him as an additional privilege and blessing to being born again, and his, because he was so connected with the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, the Scriptures are so full of passages speaking of it, that he might easily be thrown into the hands of designing or misguided men, who could use all these passages which had no force in his mind to mislead and bewilder.

The uniform effort of those who make pretensions to gifts now, for example, is to deny the power of the child of God as individually having the Spirit to judge of and understand the word of God, and know its force, and so judge them. So precisely does a Roman Catholic priest—so would any carnal man.

Let us then thankfully receive the word of God as an infallible standard by which to judge, and know that the power and capacity by which we can do it is the Spirit of God dwelling in us, revealing these things to our new man, so as to act on our conscience, and guide our feet into the way of peace, and reveal to us the glory of that fullness which makes us abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.

Let us know that the knowledge of good and evil is our ruin taken by itself; for we are guilty, and must dread therein and dislike our Judge.

That the law cannot help us, because it does not give life, and therefore only further works wrath.

But that being quickened, we are quickened with Him who, as rising from the grave, hath put forever away all our sins—if not all, none; and are made partakers therefore of the Spirit, a witness to us of the efficacy of this work, and earnest of the inheritance before us, revealer too of it to our souls, taking of the things of Christ, even all the Father’s things, for He is heir of all things as Son, and showing them to us, and guiding us in the way, guiding our hearts and feet; for as many as are led of the Spirit of God they are the sons of God.

And let us adore Him who hath done these great things for us, and be thankful and humble under such great and exceeding mercies, in which our God is glorified—to Him be the glory, by Christ Jesus our Lord, forever.—Amen.

The full doctrine of the Holy Spirit, though the principle of it has been stated, has by no means been entered upon here. If the Lord permit, I may go into it more fully when He gives occasion.

To avoid ambiguity, I would say, that the graces of the Spirit seem connected with Christ risen, His life in us, as the fullness and headship, being in Him; and Christ ascended and glorified, with the gifts bestowed, in whatever measure or way they may be manifested.

Abraham

Genesis 12-24

THE Scriptures may be viewed in a great variety of ways; whilst they give us that information which no other writings afford; they are “profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” They are often wrested by the perverseness of man to subserve his own purpose; but more often neglected, as if their contents were well known. Now it is important for us to bear in mind that “whatsoever things were written aforetime, were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.” It is thus that we find that the great principles of God have formed the subject of the written testimony from the beginning. And however clearly they may now be brought out to us from our knowledge of Jesus as the light, they are illustrated and confirmed to us by God’s previous dealings with man.

One of the most prominent characters testified of to us in Scripture, is that of Abraham—He stands forth to us as the father of all believers before God; so that in him the great principles of faith are most amply illustrated. As it is written, “that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; and the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised. Therefore it is of faith that it might be by grace, to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not only to that which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all before Him whom he believed, even God who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were,” (Rom. 4:11, 12, 16, 17.) In examining the history of Abraham with this view, we shall not find the instruction giving in consecutive truths, such as the mind of man would expect, but in independent exhibitions of various parts of the divine mysteries. The heads are only here suggested; and only a little attention is needed to discern the bearing of the several parts, and to fill them up.

Gen. Chap. 12-13:4.—lst Part.—This illustrates the Elect one, called out of human and earthly associations by the hope of the inheritance—the obedience of faith—the trial and failure of faith, and the restoration of the soul after this failure; in short, “the life of faith” is here summarily illustrated.

13:5-12—2nd Part.—The different classes of Believers are here presented with the present special favors which single hearted service obtains from the Lord.

14—3rd Part.—This scene is a typical exhibition of the closing controversy with the powers of this world, and the rewards (from the hands of the true Melchizedek) which His faithful ones shall reap.

Note.—Thus the first recorded battle is the type of the last that is to be fought on this earth.

15—4th Part.—This chapter gives us a view of the Sonship and Heirship.

Note.—Abraham could not be satisfied that his house should be established in a servant, to whom a son is promised; he seeks to read the covenant that secures the inheritance which the Lord grants him. So is it with us.

16-17—5th Part.—These chapters gives us in detail the introduction of the law into the family of God, and the final establishment of that family under the covenant of grace.

Note.—Sarai’s unbelief brings Ishmael into the house. So was the law brought in. (see Gal. 3, 4) Circumcision is the seal of the covenant of grace to Israel. Abraham’s new name may intimate darkly his double fatherhood, and the family in heaven and on earth.

18-19—6th Part.—This scene is fruitful in meaning; we have here the Church in Abraham—the apostate world in Sodom—the Jew in Lot, and God’s various dealings with them all.

Note.—Incidentally we have the sad result of Lot’s worldly religion; his seed becomes (the Moabites and Ammonites) the principal enemies of the people of God. Solemn warning this.

20-21.—7th Part.—These chapters show us the different estate of Israel, how represented in Abraham before and subsequent to Messiah: before He is brought forth to them, they are in dishonor; but subsequently they are glorified in the eyes of the world; the earth becomes the place of peace and blessing, and of beauty again.

Note.—Ishmael will then be dismissed; their present estate (typified by Ishmael, see Gal. 4) will then be all changed and forgotten.

22—8th Part.—We have here the justification of faith, the saint standing in the day of visitation, and all the blessing afresh sealed to him.

23—9th Part.—This scene exhibits the place of the hope of the Believer—i.e. beyond the grave, or in the resurrection. He not only lives by faith, but dies in faith, (Heb. 10, 11)—he hopes “to the end.”

24—10th Part.—The mystery of the Father’s election of the Church and presentation of it to the Son, and of the Son’s acceptance of, and comfort in it, with other incidental truths, are here given to us beautifully.

Abram

—Gen. 12.

THE contents of this chapter are peculiarly important, as unfolding the dispensations of God. In other parts of Scripture may be more fully seen what the means were by which the purposes of God should be accomplished, and the great object in which those purposes found their result; but the principles on which the dealings of God hinge, are no where more clearly produced. It is in fact their first exhibition, and therefore (however succinctly) they are definitely, and very completely produced and stated—not in theoretic principles philosophically declared, but in the statement of that on which they all depended, and in the exhibition of which, therefore, they could alone be fitly taught—that is, in the sovereign actings of God upon the principles in which we were thereby to be instructed.

Thus is it that the Scripture continually teaches by realities; for in them God is introduced. No theory can reach God—the human mind is incapable of it—but God acting is always the adequate exhibition of Himself; and thus the object of faith is exhibited in the way in which He is revealed; while, at the same time, those with whom the history may be conversant, present all the characters of Man, as subject to God, or in the exercise of that will which requires to be corrected, as being alienated from Him, and opposed to Him.

The great point of this chapter is the call of God, and the principles on which it proceeds. The calling of God is a cardinal point in His dispensations. It is identified with grace, and in it there is no repentance; God does not swerve from it. it expresses His purpose, as it is written, “The gifts and calling of God are unrepented of.” (Rom. 11:29.) Of this there had been heretofore no mention; individuals may have been called, (as assuredly every saint had been, from Abel downwards,) but until this chapter it does not form the subject of the revelation of God.

It is important to consider what subjects the Scripture previously presents—they were substantially two—Adam, and Noah—Creation, and Creation secured by government. That Adam was placed as the head of natural creation will be called in question by none. That Noah stood as the representative head of government, I learn from the committal of the sword to him, or at least from the revelation of the principle to him, “Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed.” There might be repentance in these things, though in gift and calling of God there could be none. He was not declared as the God of Adam, or as the God of Noah; but He was the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; “this is my name forever, and this is my memorial unto all generations:” (Exod. 3:15.) Creation, in point of fact, as to its existing estate,) was repented of; “God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually; and it repented the Lord that He had made man upon the earth; and it grieved Him at His heart and the Lord said, I will destroy;” and He did destroy, sparing favored Noah; as it is written, “I will destroy man, whom I have created, from the face of the earth, both man and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.” (Gen. 6:5-7.) But God’s calling is His purpose; and He hath sworn in His holiness, and He will not repent.

The natural good of creation in the hands of the first man, had not only proved fallible and corruptible; but it had failed, and become corrupted; and destructive judgment had been executed upon it by the hand of God; few, that is eight souls, being spared, together with what was with them in the Ark, out of all in whose nostrils was the breath of life. To Noah (as I have before said) the principle of government was communicated, in order to restrain evil in its effects; that violence might no more cover the earth, but that in detailed instances the wrath of God might be vindicated against it—life belonging unto Him. Sin, however, in its principle, still remained at work, exhibiting itself in the failing of Noah the saint, and in the recklessness of the disrespectful father of Canaan.

As regards this part of the history previous to Abram, (that is, the earth under government,) we have the fact recorded of the division of the earth amongst its various nations and families; this we find in Gen. 10 where the fact is stated, the origin of which we find explained only in chap. 11. But first let us consider the fact—the earth was divided—(a new and not a necessary circumstance for it as placed under government,) into distinct nations, separated by place, language, and (as to the various lower branches) we may add more immediate origin. Thus (whatever may have been the particular changes since) the earth under government assumed the form which it now bears. Various indeed, in particular parts, might be the interchange, division, or growth of power; but the characteristic state of things continued to be the same; and in fact its great features were indelibly impressed. Indeed not only is this the case, but it is interesting to observe, that if we take the list of nations spoken of as gathered together under the willful king in the latter day, and under Gog in Ezekiel, we shall find ourselves brought back to the same nations, and tongues, and families, which are presented to our view at the outset, as the immediate consequence of the establishment of this principle of government in the hands of Noah, and as formed into actual condition by the sin of Babel. The rest of the intermediate Scripture is the history of calling and grace.

To the sin of Babel I would now turn. In the history of Babel we have shown the sin of man, under the circumstances in which the one family of man was then placed—even in assuming the earth to themselves—in seeking to make a name, lest they should be scattered; a city, which they purposed should be an abiding monument and center of power—but on which God writes Babel. Until they were scattered abroad, they had one speech, and one tongue, and thus they were practically one family, having a common bond of association. But the lust of ambitious selfishness was at work, and this union was broken to pieces. Hence they were separated, (and the earth being subsequently formally divided among them, Gen. 10:25, & 11:18) they became, to every intent and purpose, distinct nations. Although its origin was sin, and its character confusion, the reaching of grace was shown in the testimony of the day of Pentecost, as extended toward the world, and as contrasted with anything towards the Jews merely; this I remark in passing, but it is not on this that I would now dwell.

But although circumstances were thus altered, the principle of government remained untouched; however it might be exercised, righteously or unrighteously, it was placed in the hand of man, “not bearing the sword in vain—the minister of God to execute wrath.” It might be exercised according to its institution, in repressing evil, although merely by power; but even this in the sin of man was not the case; the result is described in the 82nd Psalm.—

“God standeth in the congregation of the mighty; He judgeth among the gods.

“How long will ye judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked?

“Defend the poor and fatherless; do justice to the afflicted and needy.

“Deliver the poor and needy; rid them out of the hand of the wicked.

“They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are out of course.

“I have said, Ye are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High;

“But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.

“Arise O God, judge the earth, for thou shalt inherit all nations.”

The Judges of the earth had all gone incorrigibly wrong—they neither heard, nor yet understood. God was obliged therefore to take the matter into His own hands; He was obliged to arise and to judge the earth. Thus is shown the failure of power in the hands of man from another part of Scripture, as is also shown in the 7th. of Daniel, &c.

We have then brought before us in Genesis, up to this 12th Chapter—Creation, and then its failure and its judgment—next we have government of the renewed earth introduced for its peace, in consequence of evil having been proved in man. Man’s pride, rebellion, and self-sufficiency, are shown together with a judgment, which did not alter the principle of the dispensation, (for had it been otherwise, evil would have been without check,) which was to continue until God should take it into His own hands—but which exhibited how man failed under it, in its common form—how under the consequent judgment it assumed the form of distinct nationality; and how the lust of personal ambition and power, and of obtaining a great name, was associated with the divinely sanctioned principle of government, and thus came into existence the beginning of kingdoms—however unrighteously this principle was exercised, it still continued to be unalterably recognized of God. Here were all the principles drawn out, and the scene was closed.

The circumstances might vary, but there was no change in the principle till God took the matter into His own hands. Countries and kindreds were now formed; and inasmuch as they were separated one from another by the spirit of intelligible association, so much the more were they united in stronger personal and local interests; selfishness became national; and adverse interests became (not simply personal) but those of countries, and peoples, and tongues.

But into the midst of all this, there was a new principle introduced. The Calling of God—A principle and a power which (while leaving these untouched) acted paramount to them all—to natural relationship, and to formed associations.

“Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will show thee.” Here is distinctly shown the calling of the “Father of the faithful.” Country and kindred were recognized as existing—how they were formed in creation, and under government (as established in Noah, and the subsequent circumstances,) we have already seen.

They were now left just as they were. They were not meddled with. In fact, in their own place (though corrupted) and as having instamped upon them that they had been God’s ordinances, they were both distinctly maintained. There is not to this day any abrogation of them, nor indeed ever will be in principle, though they will be transferred to Christ; and under Christ they will he unto righteousness and blessing, “A King shall reign in righteousness,” and although the Queen, and Jewish partner of His glory shall be taught to forget her father’s house, (being called through grace, not descent;) yet the offspring of the remnant shall be blessed with them; instead of the fathers shall be the children: however therefore evil may have overrun them, both government, and relationship, home, &c. are principles in no way rejected; nor could they be abstractedly. But the calling of God acts paramountly to them, or else there could be no other principle, and the prevailing of man’s evil in them would be left unremedied. But in the wisdom of God, the corrupted state of things was no longer judged or acted upon, but the witness of better things was introduced; had they been judged, then must have been the end in utter destruction, or the premature assumption of all into the hands of Supreme power. Yet even that by which evil was to be suppressed, that is government, being corrupted, was now become the instrument of evil; hence entirely new hopes could alone be introduced, and not merely a present amendment, for that must have come to the same end; but new principles, not destroying the sanctioned and appointed instruments of God, for such destruction would have proved, not so much the evil of man, the creature, but the evil and foolishness of the Creator’s appointment. This appointment was left just where it was, to be judged in due time upon the maintainers of it. But in grace another principle was introduced—the leaving in self-sacrifice of all these things, for better hopes. The existing ties of country and kindred are recognized, but in THE CALL OF GOD there is set up a paramount claim—“The Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house.” We have then, in the calling of God, the assertion of a paramount claim on God’s part upon an individual in grace, leaving everything out of which he was called without further change; only calling him out of it. This is one very strong, distinct, and new principle, not previously revealed, consequent upon, and acting in an especial and paramount way, in reference to the existing relationships, which had arisen out of what was previously ordered and appointed. No declaration of blessings or principles to men where they were, but the calling of them out thence, and thus a personal calling is what we find. The principle further established in it mere personal obedience, upon the ground of this call, to individual responsible action. “God had said to Abram, Get thee out.” Here on the word of God the individual responsibility of obedience attached. It necessarily and avowedly involved the breaking of subsisting relationships in person, as to his own interest in them, but without affecting them, as they stood in themselves, in the least. He was to leave his country, and his kindred, and his father’s house; they might still continue just what they were before; they might, or they might not: that was a question of Providence; obedience to the words and calling of God was the only point in grace to Abram, the only point to be considered by him. The word of God led the way in the direction which was given, and gave the promise to him, as that which should encourage him in acting. “Into a land that I will show thee;” this was the certain hope of certain faith, by which a man is made entirely a stranger where he was before at home. It was indeed merely a promise; but it was a promise which involved not only the certainty of God, but also the guidance of God unto the thing promised— “to a land that I will show thee.”

Let us turn more to the detail of this calling of God; we have seen already, that its grand distinguishing feature was separation front the world; “The Lord had said to Abram; Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house.” This was the substance of the present character of the calling, as acting upon a nationalized world; and thus was brought forward the specific character of the Church.

There were involved then in it, the immediate favor of God, not in present comfort, but in personal calling; the personal revelation of Himself to Abram, (as it were,) identified him with Himself and with His purpose, and with the blessing of an appointed inheritance. This calling, however special and persona], however distinguishing in favor, necessarily involved obedience. The call of blessing to Abram was a call to get out of His country, unto a land which God. would show to him, and thus it necessarily involved obedience. Whatever the power which acted on his mind might be, obedience was the result; for in the very terms of the call it was manifest—no obedience, no blessing. He was (to use the words of Scripture) “sanctified unto obedience,” for there was nothing else now given but the command “go out”—The Lord had said. It was not to gratify the present selfishness of Abram’s nature, saying, “this is thy country,” but it was “Get thee out of thy country”—to go where “To a land that I will show thee.” It implied, therefore, implicit confidence in God for faithfulness, power, and love; taking Him for the security and the portion, (as the Scriptures reveal it,) he went out not knowing whither he went. It is on this that the Spirit of God so specially rests as characteristic of his approved faith. By separation from the world, on the ground of implicit confidence in God, he lost everything, and got nothing but the word of God; sealed of course to his soul, (for his faith rested in it,) by the power of the Spirit of God. The God of glory had appeared to him in the matter; and God would show to him the land. So Abram departed. Here then is the pattern and character of the Church;. and also of the individual Believer—they are called of God in faith out of all that into which the world and nature have been formed; (and while not meddling with these things, or disowning them in their place, but recognizing in them God’s ordering hand, but moreover the sin of man;) trusting in a promise not at once fulfilled, but taking God, and God alone, as the security, the warrant, and the guide; it is faithfulness, as being assured of the present loss of all things, and the present gain of nothing; it is a walking by faith, and not by sight, not only as regards present things relinquished, but also as to things hoped for—things to come, “for what a man seeth, why doeth he yet hope for?” But they are sufficiently assured of God; and in Him, and knowing Him, or rather being known of Him, they are ready to give up all for His word. Thus it was not the reward that was taken as the portion; but God, the promiser of the reward, and therefore it was faith. The object was as simple as the security, “They went forth to go to the land of Canaan;”—the result was as certain as He who called was sure; “they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came.” Such is the history and the character of the church of God in its calling. Called out by God into separation from the world which it leaves, just where it was, to go into a land of promise—a land which God will show it; it walks by faith, and not by sight, going forth to go thither; and thither surely coming, according to the calling and power of God.

A darker picture now remains; the actual practical conduct and condition. There was a famine in the land, and Abraham went down into Egypt; this was not confidence in God, who had brought him thither, nor was the land of Egypt the land. of Canaan, as was afterward well proved.

And here I would remark, what will, I believe, simplify the use of many types; and be found (at least I have so found it,) that men who are types represent the energy of faith, the spiritual energy of the Church, under the circumstances in which the type represents it. Or perhaps its failure therein: and that females who are presented to us as types, represent the state and condition of the Church.

Abram may act in faith in going out, and he may act in want of faith in denying his wife; Sarah is the New Covenant; Hagar the Old; a freewoman and a bondwoman—One more or less, presenting the acting of the Spirit of Christ, the Gibbor, the bridegroom—the other the estate or condition in the dispensation, whether clothed with the sun, or in the wilderness; in bondage or in freedom. And thus it is that they may vary; thus David, or Ahaz, or Manasseh, would be very differently presented as a type of any individual; but respecting the Church or Jewish economy typified by a woman, it was all One, (as being the possessor of the throne of David,) because the economy, or condition of the Church in which they so acted, was all one. I state this merely to illustrate what I mean; the woman is the state in which the dispensation is; the man is the conduct of Faith in it.

Here then, we have Abram and Sarai introduced; and afterward the actual conduct of the Church, and not the calling, is the thing brought before us.

Present circumstances were distressing in that land into which the promise of God had called him. It was still a land of promise, the Canaanite was then in the land; Abram felt the famine to be grievous, but we find no reference to God, no recurrence to Him, no directions from Him, no exercise of faith; there was no previous direction for this. The fact is all we have; Abram went down into Egypt. Alas! too true. But was the God of Abram near? he had not inquired this, but was acting on his own prudence and reasoning; fear of the Egyptians came upon him, as he drew near their land. If there was not famine for the saint, there was the denial of the blessed and indissoluble bond which subsisted between the Church and its bridegroom, represented in faith by those who stood in that relation before God. He came into the regions of the Prince of this world for His own comfort, to satisfy His present need, not of faith in God; the consequence was, the immediate denial of the holy separation from the world and union with Christ which belonged to the Church; she was his sister not his wife; true perhaps in one sense; but deadly in its actual character as to the faith of God’s elect. She was very fair to look upon, for indeed God bad set His beauty upon her, as His daughter, the object of His love as of Himself, as well as being the spouse of Christ the Son; she was commended in the world. The faith of the Church had denied and disowned its unalterable affiance to Christ; the Church was taken into the world’s house, the house of the Prince of this world; and the Prince of this world entreated Abram well for her sake. He who had denied the bond, and given up that which was essential in their connection, obtained thereby plenty and ease at the hand of the Prince of this world; “he had sheep, and oxen, and he-asses, and men-servants, and maid-servants, and she-asses, and camels.” But was this comfort to him? Was it satisfaction (if he had any truth of heart) for the circumstances in which he was placed? And if we turn from the mere beggarly circumstances of the type, to the blessed and indissoluble union between our blessed Lord Christ and the Church, how does it picture the shamefulness, the baseness, the want of faithfulness in unbelieving believers, in surrendering this charge of God, this deposit of faith. flow must every camel, every servant, every ox, as it passed before his eyes, with the stamp of Pharaoh’s kindness upon it, have smitten Abram’s heart with the thought, “But where is my wife, I have sold my wife for this.” Did he not know that she was so? Had his feeble falsehood to others dimmed his own thoughts and feelings? Had he forgotten in his love of sheep, and oxen, &c, that the wife given him of the Lord, was sold for their sake? Could he persuade himself that she was his sister, and might be Pharaoh’s wife, and not his? Where was his trust in God? where the integrity of his way? Bitter was that time to Abram, or sad the forgetfulness of an unrighteous heart. The lie must have lain. heavy on his heart, but he must receive his sheep, and the oxen; cutting as it might be, he had involved himself in the circumstances, he stood upon his own declaration that she was his sister. Had Abram intended this? No! it was an unlooked for circumstance; it was unbelief, which continually produces in judgment the evil which it seeks to avoid. The sons of men would build a tower lest they should be scattered abroad, and the Lord scattered them because they built it. Abram, fearing lest Pharaoh should take his wife, says she is his sister, (as if God would not preserve him,)—and therefore Pharaoh takes her into his house. But it was the first step that was wrong; Abram went down into Egypt. He went down without God, out of the land of faith and promise, and he could not expect (for God could not bless unbelief, though He might judge sin that acted in it unrighteously) to meet God there; his heart knew Him not in power there; and as he must act on something, he acts on his own resources prudently; but as he had departed from faith in God, so was faithfulness in the position of his wife with her true husband departed from; and he was blessed in the world (yea, and by the Prince of this world) for his unfaithfulness.

If Satan gets the Church in its state and condition into his own house, (however mercifully God may preserve it) he will bless the faithless instruments of the betrayal with the things of the world. Such then is the history (not of the calling, but) of the practical conduct of the Church: not of the calling of God, which we saw in its sure infallibility before, together with Sarai and all he had—but the acting of men in the place to which they are called—in their departure from it, not acting in faith, and such are the results. The end is not that Abram is honored, but that the Lord vindicates himself in plaguing Pharaoh and his house with great plagues, because of Sarai Abram’s wife. He asserts and maintains the title; and judges and will judge the world for thus taking another man’s wife. The Church is the King’s daughter, and is taken in the lust of its own dominion by the world. And this the Lord would, and was entitled to visit; but still the sin was Abram’s, his blessings all this while were curses; and it is worthy of remark, that it was an Egyptian handmaid that typified the fleshly covenant of bondage; the world always genders unto bondage, for it is ever opposed to the Spirit of God; and whenever therefore the world comes in, it merely produces, and in result is identified with bondage; (Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty;) for the world in its results is developed by bringing an expectation and an endeavor to procure the inheritance by a covenant of works. Such has been the actual fact in the Church, and will be, because the Spirit is opposed to the world; and that being grieved and absent, the other takes its place with the indulgence of lusts, resting on works, and union with the world. But while this was an ultimate result, I would now rest merely upon the picture which is actually presented to us in this chapter, of the cause, character, and consequence of the working of the spirit of unbelief in the Church, called out indeed, but looked at as in the hands of man. In the early part of the chapter we have its calling of God, and its results as well as character, the latter part shows its conduct in man; the shame, worldly comfort, unbelief, and sorrow; but also the merciful interposition of that God, who, when we have wearied Him with our sins, acts and. delivers for His own name’s sake, and vindicates, in righteous dealing toward the world, what the unrighteousness of man had plunged unfaithfully into its power.

I feel that I have very feebly drawn out what is here presented to our view; but if I have drawn the attention of the children of God to the application of the plain typical principles set here before us, (as applied to the history of the Church of God in this brief account, as that of the world had previously been given,) so as to lead them by the Spirit to judge from the Lord, and not from anything else, whether the world or expediency, I shall be content—and I pray the Lord to bless it.

David and Solomon

“And they made Solomon, the Son of David, King the second time; and anointed him unto the Lord to be the chief Governor, and Zadok to be Priest. Then Solomon sat on the throne of the Lord, as King, instead of David his father, and prospered, and all Israel obeyed him.” (1 Chron. 29:22, 23.)

IT is both for the glory of the Lord Himself, and for the comfort of the soul of the Believer, to know how all the purposes of God were laid in Christ before the foundation of the world. Christ was, as one has said, the foundation of all the divine counsels—the first idea, if I may so speak, in the mind of God—the Alpha—the beginning of the ways of Jehovah. (Prov. 8:22.) He was given, it is true, in due time for the Church, but the Church from everlasting had been given to Him, and not He to the Church. “The man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man;” (1 Cor. 11:8.) and therefore we hear Him saying, (touching His body the Church,) “Thine eyes did see my substance yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.” (Psa. 139:16.) So also we read of “the eternal purpose, which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord;” and again, of “His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began;” and many like passages, So as to the Savior Himself, His sorrows and glories were all prepared of old. His sorrows, as the Lamb of God, were written “in the volume of the book;” and it was by “the everlasting covenant” that all His glories were secured; for by it, as the pledge of them all, was He brought from the dead, the Great Shepherd of the sheep. (Psa. 40:7, Heb. 10:7, 13:20,)

But these His sorrows and glories were not only thus in covenant from the beginning ordered and secured, but they were also presented—in types and shadows—before the faith of His elect, when ages and dispensations had begun their course, and as they were rolling onward. Thus the sacrifices which have been offered continually since the fall of man, as is commonly known, set forth His sufferings—The tabernacle and temple, with their furniture and services, variously exhibited Him. There was no speech or language in them, but faith heard in all the wondrous tale. And it was this which made “the house of the Lord” the scene of the ancient Believer’s sweetest joy; for he there beheld, as in a glass darkly, “the beauty of the Lord.” (Psa. 27:4.)—in the temple he inquired after Jesus.

But not only in things like these was He set forth, but persons from time to time were raised up of God to present Him in different features.

In Eden, Adam, as lord of the creation, as the sleeping man, as the husband of the woman, set Him forth variously. After the transgression and loss of Eden, the promise of the Seed of the woman, made Him known in a general way as the great object of faith and hope; and then the different glories which were prepared for Him as this Seed, this Bruiser of the serpent, were gradually and successively unfolded in various persons.

But I would here turn aside for a moment to inquire how we are to trace out and search for the Lord Jesus, the Christ of God, in the Scriptures. We know He is to be found there abundantly, and indeed this is the formal reason for searching them; as He says. Himself, “Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they that testify of me.” (John 5:39.) “The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” “He wrote of me,” says the Lord speaking of Moses: and again, in company with two of His disciples, “Beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.” The Scriptures, as the Jews judged, were the depository of life; (John 5:39.) and in this they judged rightly. Their error was; that they mistook the place in the Scriptures where the life lay; they thought that it lay in the law which had been given to them, so that life was theirs exclusively. (Rom. 9:31.) But we know that it rather lay in “the testimony of Jesus,” who is the life. (John 5:40. 17:3. 2 Cor. 3:17.)

Where then, it may be asked, in the Scriptures are we to find Jesus? by what rule are we trace Him? To this I would say, there is a special gift to teach conferred on some, (Acts 13:1; Rom. 12:7; Eph. 4:11.) and their duty it is to stir up that gift for the common profit; but beside this, the Scriptures are given for the learning of all the saints, and the mind that is most spiritually exercised, will be the ablest and most skillful in searching them, and Jesus in them, so as neither to lose a trace of Himself, nor to mistake any other for Him, (Heb. 5:11-14.) I would say also; we are not told beforehand in every place where He is, but are commanded to search; but we are told beforehand in some places where He is, that our further search may in some measure be graciously and divinely directed. And above all, we should remember that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom—a single eye the surest pledge of a successful search; (1 Cor. 3:1-3; 14:20; 1 Peter 2:1.) for he that doeth the will, shall know of the doctrine, and “the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him.”

But let us know this first, that God the Spirit, the witness of Jesus, must be trusted supremely in the search to keep our feet and guide our eye. When a sight of the distant land was given to Moses, it was given to him by the Lord Himself, from the mount to which the Lord Himself had previously led him. He neither chose his point of observation, nor directed his own eye. It was the Lord who did it. (Deut. 32:49; 34:1.) And so with us now, through the Spirit; He it is who shows us things to come; His guidance of our feet, His direction of our eye are needed, while in Spirit we search out and survey the great and excellent things concerning Jesus and His glory, in all the Scriptures. Had Moses stood on lower ground than Pisgah, where God had guided him, he would not have seen all the land; had not God Himself directed his eye, he would not have distinguished Gilead from Judah, or the city of palm trees from Zoar; and so as the Lord the Spirit now graciously leads and teaches us, in such measure shall we, to the profit of our souls, behold the glory of the Lord in the Scriptures. (2 Cor. 3)

“To look upon the works of nature, and to look into the ways of nature, are very different things.” So to take up merely the materials of Scripture, and to enter into its hidden wisdom, are different: the law has its shadows, prophecy its spirit, the mysteries their wisdom, and history its allegories; but we may miss these things. Moses looking from Pisgah on the distant land, would not have looked on it aright, had he not seen it as the inheritance of Israel, though it was really then the possession of the Gentiles as to its condition at that time it was the Amorites’ land, but in the counsels of God it was Immanuel’s land, and so Moses surveyed it; and so is Scripture to be surveyed. To the eye of faith the victories of David and throne of Solomon are the victories and throne of Christ. “The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”

It is little to say to Him “the law of thy mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver;” we can know but little of the sweetness of that true honeycomb, should it cost our souls an effort to join in that utterance with the Psalmist. But we should learn also to say, may thy testimonies O Lord be my counselor, as well as my delight! by these may thy servant be warned, and in the keeping of them find great reward!

For my present purpose then, in searching out the glories of the Lord in the Scriptures, I would begin with Noah, who manifestly was His type in one very glorious character. The prophecy that went before upon Noah was this—“This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed.” (Gen. 5:29.) This introduced Him as the remover of the curse from a corrupted earth, and as the Rest, consequently, of those who had been doomed with pain of sorrow and sweat of brow, to eat of it and to till it. Now what sweet unfoldings, by way of type, of the still hidden glory of Christ have we here! Here is shown to is a pattern of beautiful things yet to come, but which in their day shall be fashioned accordingly. Here we see Christ, the true Noah, Heir of the new earth, when, as we read, “there shall be no more curse,” having all things therein delivered into His hand—the cattle upon a thousand hills; the fowl of the air and the fish of the sea owning Him as Lord, and His name as Governor made excellent through all the earth. For thus it is to be, when the gates lift up their heads to Him, and the earth and its fullness shall be His. (see Psa. 8 & 24)

Again, in further process of time, it pleased Him to make another of His glories known. In the person of the Patriarch Abraham, we have him before us as the Father of the household of God; as it is written, “Behold my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a Father of many nations, neither shall thy name any more be called. Abram; but thy name shall be Abraham, for a father of many nations have I made thee.” Now this promise was to Abraham’s seed—that is, Christ, as we learn from the Epistle to the Galatians. The Lord Jesus Christ is, really, the Father of the many nations. And so the time will be when He shall be manifested in this character, when He will gather His households around Him like flocks of sheep, when He shall be revealed “the Father of the everlasting age,” and when those to whom He has given life, shall be with Him, and He shall say, “Behold I, and the children whom God hath given me.”

Thus in Noah we see Jesus as Lord and Heir of the earth and its fullness, and in Abraham as Head and Father of the whole family of God, two bright dawnings of His predestinated glory and kingdom, when a rich demesne shall be spread out beneath Him owning His lordship, and happy households gathered about Him knowing His fatherhood. But we are still to look for the glories of His own person in the midst of all this. These we shall find in the combined dignities of the King and the Priest, two personages which are therefore made very familiar to us in Scripture. Moses and Aaron were united in order to present them together; as were afterward, though in feebler lines, (for the memorials of Christ were much effaced through the world’s increasing evil,) in Zerubbabel and Joshua.

But the fullest expression of Christ’s priestly dignity is given to us in the person of Phinehas, and that of His royal honors in Solomon. Phinehas stood in an evil day. Israel had joined himself to Baal-peor, and the heads of the people must be slain ere the anger of the Lord that was then kindled, could be turned away. Phinehas rose up from among the congregation, and executed the judgment, and thus made atonement for the people. The Lord then spake to Moses, saying, “Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, hath turned my wrath away from the children of Israel, while he was zealous for my sake among them, that I consumed not the children of Israel in my jealousy; wherefore say, behold I give unto him my covenant of peace, and he shall have it and his seed after him, even the covenant of an everlasting priesthood, because he was zealous for his God, and made an atonement for the children of Israel.” (Num. 25:11-13.) So also Christ, the true Phinehas, was glorified to be made an High Priest by Him that said unto Him, “Thou art my Son, today have I begotten thee.” He took not this honor unto Himself, He rather learned obedience by the things that He suffered, through which, as Phinehas, He made atonement and turned away wrath; but He has been “called of God an High Priest after the order of Melchisedek.” He is the Priest of the Most High God, the only Mediator between God and man. Aaron is nothing, and Levi is nothing, and Phinehas is nothing, Jesus is the Priest; in His hand alone the blessing is laid, and by Him is it ministered.

But while He is thus the Priest, He is King also: “a Priest upon His throne”—the true Melchisedek; and Solomon, as we have observed, sets Him forth the most brightly in His royal honors. Unto Solomon the whole earth sought, and brought every man his present; and so all nations whom He has made, shall come and worship before Jesus, when He shall take the dominion under the whole heaven, and a kingdom that shall break in pieces every other kingdom, and stand forever.

But here we desire to be somewhat more particular, and to take a close view of this “King in His beauty.” Would that the sight were more transforming even now, through the power of faith But surely we can at least say, that we do long to see the Man of sorrows thus; we do desire to see one of His days, wherein He, that once bore the curse for us, shall bear the glory, and that forever and ever.

In order fully to see in Solomon the type of Jesus the King, we must previously meditate on his father David; and David and Solomon thus combined, will constitute a very full and beautiful type of Him “with whom we have to do.” And while I write these words, I taste something of the sweetness of them—what marvel is it, beloved brethren, that we can speak of Jesus the Son of God, as of Him with whom we have to do. But so it is, grace has made it so; and we may therefore well take leave of all thoughts and desires that are not associated with Him.

There is one feature in the character of David, which marks him in every scene through which he passes, from the time that we see him as the shepherd in Bethlehem, to the time of his delivering up of the throne of Israel to his son Solomon. He was at all times and in all scenes the servant. It mattered not with him what the sphere of labor might be, this was his character. As a suitable introduction of him as such, we find him in the beginning of his history, slighted and forgotten, even his father esteeming him not. He was the youngest of his father’s sons, and (scarcely putting him among his children, but rather treating him as a servant,) his father says of him to Samuel, “behold he keepeth the sheep.” (1 Sam. 16:11.) From this place of scorn and neglect, however, he is drawn forth by the signal favor of God and anointed to the throne of Israel but the virtue of this anointing was still in everything to keep him as the servant. Whatever in his conduct is opposed to this, is properly not of himself. It is this which gives him throughout his character—not doing his own will, or seeking his own glory.

Thus as soon as he was anointed, this grace at once manifests itself in him. He is called up to the royal city to wait on king Saul, and as the wise charmer by the charming of his harp, to allay the evil spirit that had visited the king from the Lord. (1 Sam. 16:23.) From this service we find him returned to the care of his sheep at Bethlehem; (1 Sam. 17:15.) and when again called forth, it was only in like manner to be the minister of others. It was not, as his brother injuriously judged, that the pride and naughtiness of his heart led him to the battle with Goliath and. the Philistines in the plain of Elah; he went at the bidding of his father to carry provisions to his brothers in the camp, the servant of their necessities; but when he arrived there, occasion showing itself to him, he at once offers himself as the servant of Israel’s necessities, and of Jehovah’s glory. The Lord had been dishonored, and His people threatened, and this was “the cause” that moved David to say to Saul, “thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine.” The promised honors and riches that were to be his who killed Goliath, were not that which moved him: for after the victory we do not find him claiming them, flattering and splendid as they were, (the very things for one who sought to glorify himself,) but we hear him saying “who am I, and what is my life or my father’s family in Israel, that I should be son-in-law to the king;” and we see him becoming again the king’s harper; thus instead of seeking his own glory, ministering to others in the humblest service that might be appointed him. (1 Sam. 18:10-18)

Again, in all his sufferings at the hand of Saul, we discern nothing but the same spirit of submission that never sought its own rights or avenged its own wrongs. He yields to the enmity of the king. He retires from court, and dwells in dens and caves of the earth. He willingly loses sight of himself altogether, doing service if called on as the soldier of Israel and the king, but leaving all the profit and honor of his service to them. He would not dare to harbor the thought of avenging himself upon his persecutor. Rather than touch the Lord’s anointed, he would be “a partridge in the mountains” all his days. Though conscious that he had been appointed to the throne of Israel, he would make what promises, enter into what covenants the rival house of his enemy pleased, careless how this might tend to exalt them and abase himself. (see 1 Sam. 20:17; 23:18; 24:22.) And when his enemy fell, and his own sorrows were thus to end, and way to the throne was made plain before him, he had no heart to rejoice in those his own advantages—he looked not on his own things, and knew nothing but grief at the fall and dishonor of the Lord’s anointed. “Tell it not in Gath,” says he, “publish it not in the streets of Ashkelon, lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph.” (2 Sam. 1:20.) The messenger of the tidings did not understand David. He judged that he brought joy to David, and that he should have received a reward for his pains; but David is filled only with the sad vision of Israel’s dishonor, and the sin of this Amalekite in lifting his hand against the anointed of the Lord. “The world knoweth us not,” says one speaking as the elect of God; and this was now illustrated in David and this Amalekite; their griefs are not our griefs, nor their joys our joys.

But we have to trace the servant-character of David still further, for no change of scene or circumstance has power to work a change in the character of the energy of the Spirit of God that was in him; scenes and circumstances, change as they may, serve only to set forth this character more brightly. And indeed; Beloved in the Lord, this is that which alone can end in the reward of the kingdom. Nothing but service here shall be honored hereafter; as it is written, “Whosoever will be great among you shall be your minister, and whosoever of you will be the chiefest shall be servant of all.” And again, “If any man serve me, him shall my Father honor.”

We find David then on the throne; having received it however, not at his own will, but called to it by the Lord Himself. But what was the way of David now? why just what it had been before; just what had signalized him when his hand bore the shepherd’s crook, the harp, or the warrior-sling; just that which had marked him in the caves and holds of the wilderness now marks him seated on the throne of Israel; he is still, and that only, the servant, doing Jehovah’s pleasure alone, and seeking only His glory. He gives himself no rest. He does not pause in his course till the enemies of the Lord and of His people submit themselves; he pursued and. destroyed; and turned not again until he hail consumed them. (2 Sam. 22:38.)

And the time of peace, as well as the time of war, was the time of service with king David; at home or abroad he is the same; and therefore not only in the field is he seen pursuing the enemy, but in the city we hear him saying, “Surely I will not come into the tabernacle of my house, nor go up into my bed, I will not give sleep to mine eyes nor slumber to mine eyelids, until I find out a place for the Lord, an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob.” (Psa. 132:3.) Accordingly he makes preparation, and brings up the ark of the Lord God, which had lain neglected through the days of Saul (1 Chron. 13:3.) to its place in the midst of the tabernacle, which he had pitched for it. He waits on it himself. He offers his burnt offerings and his peace offerings there. He blesses the people in the name of the Lord of hosts; and as a girded servant, he makes them to sit down to meat and serves them. (2 Sam. 6:19.) He dances before the ark in the joy of one who knew only the joy of ministering to the praise of another; and he would be more vile than thus, and base in his own sight, and willingly be put among the abjects, so that he might but duly fulfill his service as the minister of the glory of Jehovah, and of the joy of His people. And in the end unwearied in serving as at the beginning, he purposes to build an house for this ark of the Lord. “See now,” he says to Nathan, “that I dwell in an house of cedar, but the ark of God dwelleth within curtains.” His zeal in this was somewhat without knowledge, but it was the zeal of one who desired to serve fully. And when forbidden to build the house, (for reasons which we shall consider presently) in his trouble he prepares for it (1 Chron. 22:1, 4.) gold, and silver, and brass, and iron, timber also and stone; and provides and hires all manner of cunning men for every manner of work. And not only this, but he gives patterns of all things to Solomon, patterns of the cherubim, the courts, and the treasuries, He numbers and distributes the Levites into courses for the service of the house, and settles the order of the sons of Aaron. He appoints the offices of the singers instructed in the songs of the Lord; settles the divisions of the porters, the officers, and the judges, the captains of the several months, and the princes of the tribes. And when all his service is ended, and nothing remains but to reap the fruit of it, and the glory and kingdom for the which all these things had been prepared, he retires—he ceases to be, when he must cease to serve. The throne in Jerusalem was no more to him than his shepherd-tent at Bethlehem; in both all his desire was to fill, as an hireling, his day. And now having come to the evening of his day, (“for man goeth forth to his work and to his labor until the evening,”) he retires. He will not glorify himself. “Take with you,” says he to his officers, “the servants of your lord, and cause Solomon my son to ride upon my own mule, and bring him down to Gihon, and let Zadok the Priest, and Nathan the prophet, anoint him their king over Israel, and blow ye with the trumpet, and say, God save king Solomon: then ye shall come up after him that he may come and sit upon my throne, for he shall be king in my stead, and I have appointed him to be ruler over Israel and over Judah.” (1 Kings 1:33-35.) He gives up the throne which his hands had established, and all the honors of it; these were nothing in his account—he had finished his work and service, and that was everything to him.

Thus the moment that all was ready for the full display of the glory, he disappears; he had sown, and would have another now reap; he had labored, and was willing that another should now enter into his labors. He made Solomon his son king over Israel. In the assembly of the princes and captains, with the officers and mighty men at Jerusalem, Solomon sat on the throne of the Lord as king, instead of David his father, and all Israel obeyed him, and all the princes and mighty men, and all the sons likewise of king David submitted themselves to Solomon the king. (1 Chron. 29:24.)

Thus we have in this blessed man the perfect pattern of a servant; he was the servant who would not go out free, but would serve forever. (Ex. 21:1-6.) Such was David; but in Solomon we see another thing altogether. Solomon was one who entered into another man’s labors; he reaped where another had sown; he enjoyed by inheritance the honors and the name which David in his trouble and service had gotten. In the sight of Israel the Lord magnified Solomon exceedingly, and bestowed on him such royal majesty as had not been on any king before him. He passed all the kings of the earth in riches and wisdom, and all of them sought his presence, and God made the name of Solomon better than David’s name, and his throne greater than David’s throne. (1 Kings 1:47.) For David did the Lord. call His servant, but Solomon He called his son, saying, “I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a son.” By inheritance he obtained a better name than his father. As heir of the fruit of David’s toil, Solomon appears before us full of peace and prosperity; not as David had been, the scorn of others, but the boast and joy of his people, and the very center of the world’s attraction, his fame going abroad into all the earth.

And with this better name was reserved for him the honor of building the house of God, for that work is to be regarded rather as honor than as service, an honor too great for David the servant, but reserved for Solomon the son, as God said to David, “Solomon thy son, he shall build my house and my courts, for I have chosen him to be my son, and I will be his father.” (1 Chron. 28:6.) As before He had said to Nathan, “Go and tell David my servant, thus saith the Lord, thou shalt not build me an house to dwell in; I will raise up thy seed after thee, which shall be of thy sons, and I will establish his kingdom; he shall build me an house, and I will establish his throne forever, and I will be His father and he shall he my son.” (1 Chron. 17:4, 13.) Other reasons it is true, appear in the mind of God. for hindering David from being the builder of the house; as for instance, in David’s time the children of Israel had not come to their rest, the kingdom was still unsettled, and the people were in the attitude of being girded for service or harnessed for war, and the Lord refused to enter into His settled habitation while His people were thus. In all their afflictions He had been afflicted, and in their wanderings He had walked in a tent and in a tabernacle; and till He had planted them in their ordained place, He would Himself enter no house of cedar. (1 Chron. 17) Again, David had shed blood abundantly, wars had been about him on every side, but his son was to be “a man of rest,” rest was to be given him from all his enemies round. about; peace and quietness were to be unto Israel in his days; and then, but not till then, would the Lord arise into His dwelling-place. (1 Kings 5:3; 1 Chron. 22:8-10; 28:3.) But beside all this, I say it was because Solomon was the son, as we have seen, that the building of the house was reserved for him. The house was the sign of constancy and abiding, as it is written, “the servant abideth not in the house forever, but the son abideth ever.”

Solomon’s was the time dreg. No enemy remained for him to conquer, no preparations by trouble and toil were left for him to make; he sits down full of honors and peace. And his was the time of joy also. Then for the first time did songs break forth from the midst of the congregation of Israel. Moses of old had appointed sacrifices, but no songs bad. been heard in the tabernacle. David had ordained the singers, given them their charge, and settled them in their course, but all this joy was prepared for Solomon; it was in the house that he had builded, that the priests, the trumpeters, and the singers, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun, with their sons and brethren, first awakened the praises of Jehovah in Israel. Above all days in Israel was that day joyous, when they began to sing to the Lord, “For He is good; for His mercy endureth forever.” (2 Chron. 5:13.) And glorious we may say above all was the cloud, which then filled the temple. This was a sample of the Solomon days: nothing was there but joy and glory. The priests could not stand to do their usual service, for the glory had displaced them. No sacrifices could then be bound to the horns of the altar, for nothing but the fruit of praise and joy was there, thanksgivings were heard and the voice of melody only. And in this Jehovah rested—the joy of His Zion had now come, and He that inhabits the praises of Israel filled the place with His presence. (2 Chron. 5:12-14.)

Now these things which we have been tracing in David and Solomon are shadows of better things; “the body is of Christ.” Christ is the great ordinance of God; “the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy;” the promises made to Abraham were really to his seed, which is Christ; the exhibition of grace in David, and of glory in Solomon in like manner, are really and fully all of Christ. (Gal. 3:16; Heb. 1:5.) And thus throughout; all these highly favored ones were only witnesses of the things that should be found in Jesus. This was their joy, to wait, with their various testimony, upon Him. (see John 3:29.)

We have seen in David the servant-character fully exhibited. We have tracked him from the field of the shepherd to that of the conqueror, from the court of the king to the holds in the wilderness, and from thence up to the throne, and have marked this one character throughout. And so was it perfectly and throughout in the blessed Jesus, the true David. Before the foundation of the earth he gave Himself to service, as in the volume of the book, as it is written of Him, “Lo I come to do thy will O God.” While manifest in flesh, He ever was seen as having come forth not to be ministered unto but to minister, not to do His own will, but the will of Him that sent Him. He could say at all times, “I seek not mine own glory.” He emptied Himself, and the form that He took was that of a servant. He refused to know Himself, saying, “my goodness extendeth not to thee;” and again, “why callest thou me good?”

There was always (save when the testimony for which He stood on the earth would call on Him for a while to stand confessed in His divine glory) this hiding of Himself. Thus when invited of His mother to display Himself at the marriage in Cana, He says to her, “Woman what have I to do with thee, mine hour is not yet come.” When challenged by His brethren to show Himself to the world, He replies in like manner, “my time is not yet come.” (See John 2 &7.) When He had been doing His wonted wonders of grace, and the people were astonished, His disciples desirous that He should be magnified in the eyes of the world, say unto Him, “All men seek for thee,” but His only answer was that of a servant, “Let us go into the next towns that I may preach there also, for therefore came I forth.” And such was He on the earth throughout. A body had been prepared for Him, His ear was opened, and like David, He had but to finish the work that was given Him to do.

And He was perfect in this through every stage. As a child He was subject to His parents, fulfilling all righteousness as such; and when anointed of God, like David, He still came forth only to serve, whether it were the Father’s glory, or our necessities. As towards the Father, whether in solitudes by night, or in labors by day, the Father might still pronounce upon Him, “Behold my servant.” He fulfilled His day, ever working the works of Him that sent Him; the vows of His God were upon Him, and He did all until He was entitled to say “It is finished.” He was obedient unto death. And as towards us, He was always waiting on our necessities; He “went about doing good;” every sickness and every disease among the people, every city and every village in the land knew Him thus—none sought His help in vain.

And here we would turn aside for a moment to see this great sight, the necessity for all this humiliation of the blessed Son of God. Surely it was because He had to undo the mighty mischief which our pride, had wrought, when we sought, being tempted, to be as God. (Gen. 3:5) and this could be done only by the Highest emptying of Himself; and the Brightness of the glory of God being manifest in flesh and veiling Himself in the form of a servant. Adam the creature had sought his own glory, but the Son of God emptied Himself of His. To be as God, though a creature of yesterday, was the daring design of the first man, to take the form of a servant, though in the form of God, was the willing humiliation of the Second; and thus the attempted dishonor to God by the one, was abundantly repaired by the other.

And this humiliation of the Son of God was marked, not only through His life and ministry, (as we have been noticing somewhat in detail,) but in the person that He had previously assumed, (being in the esteem of men nothing better than “the carpenter, the son of Mary,”) and also very strikingly in His death, which He subsequently accomplished at Jerusalem, in all the circumstances of it, as well as in the fact itself. The demands made upon Him then were just what the fallen creature in his pride would naturally have made. “And they that passed by reviled Him, wagging their heads, and saying, Thou that destroyest the temple and buildest it in three days, save thyself, if thou be the Son of God come down from the cross. Likewise also the chief priests mocking him, with the scribes and elders said, He saved others Himself He cannot save, if He be the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him.” (Matt. 27:39-42.) But these demands, such was the perfectness of His service and subjection, Jesus the Son of God utterly resisted, He had before this met the same temptation immediately from Satan Himself, He met it now at the hand of man. Satan had sought to have Him glorify himself; (Matt. 4:6.) and man moved by the pride that had been the old transgression in the garden, now sought the same, but he was found faultless, Satan and man came and had nothing in him. Thus was He “crucified through weakness.” Everything that the pride of the fallen creature would scorn and reject and count as weakness, was in Him; but in this was God’s delight and honor; for a Son of Man thus, in the loss of reputation and life, in the cross and its shame, met all the rebukes and enmity of man’s pride and apostasy; “for thy sake I have borne reproach,” might Jesus say to the Father, “the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.” And oh what a savor of rest with God must all this have given to His blood!—the satisfaction of it we know (and this is our comfort) entered so deeply, that “the Lord said in His heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake.” (Gen. 8:21; Eph. 5:2.)

And thus also, can He, a Son of Man, bold glory and a kingdom in righteousness. In His person, throughout His life, and by His death, as we thus see, He has given its answer to all the pride and assumption of man, and He can therefore take the honor of dominion which man has forfeited, and hold. it again in righteousness. He has loved righteousness and hated iniquity; His throne shall therefore be forever and ever. He was once crucified. through weakness, yet He liveth by the power of God. now, and the kingdoms of the world shall be His hereafter. And should not we, Beloved, be ready to be “weak in Him,” accounted of the world vile, if it will, that our present life may be more in the power of the same God, and our coming glory, glory at the hand of our God in company with the once (nay the still) despised Jesus.

But not only was He thus the perfect servant, both of the Father and of sinners, while here among us, even unto death and all its circumstances, but now in heaven the Son of God is waiting on us; as He said when leaving His Church, “Lo I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” How with them, but as using His title to all power for them? as it is written also in Mark, “And they went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them,” But not only as working with them thus in their ministry, but He serves in the heavenly Temple, continually making intercession there for us, washing still His disciples’ feet, till He present them faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. And even then, when He comes forth from this His sanctuary on high, commissioned make His enemies His footstool, it will be as the servant of the glory of God that He will come forth, He will not fail nor be discouraged till He has set judgment in the earth. (Isa. 42:1-4.) And more wondrous still, when this is done, and the enemy and the avenger are stilled, He will wait on those who shall then be found His faithful watching saints, for “He will gird Himself and make them to sit down to meat and will come forth and serve them.” (Luke 12:37.) And at last, in the midst of the throne, He will forever feed them, and lead them unto living fountains of waters. (Rev. 7:17.)

Thus is He the true David; no change of scene or circumstance working any change in His character as the servant of Jehovah’s glory and of His people’s joy. The perfectness of all this could not have been duly set forth in David, had David hesitated for a moment to retire when the time for the revelation of the glory of His throne and kingdom had come. But, as we have seen, He did not; when David ceased to have service to do, David would be no more—his right hand knew no cunning but this. And so with Jesus, who emptied Himself, and took upon Him the form of a servant; He glorified not Himself; “not my will, but Thine be done” was ever His word. But God has highly exalted Him as Solomon, and given Him a name which is above every name, at the which every knee shall bow, of things in heaven and things on earth, and things under the earth. God has said to Him, “Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.” He has crowned Him with glory and honor now, and will put all things under His feet hereafter. He will bring Him forth the second time into the world, and all the angels of God shall worship Him. On His thigh and on His vesture shall His name be written, “King of kings, and Lord of lords.” To Him whom men despised to this servant of rulers, kings shall see and arise, princes also shall worship, all nations shall call Him blessed. His throne shall be forever and ever; the oil of gladness shall anoint Him above His fellows, and the God of the whole earth shall He be called.

The King shall be seen in His beauty then: He shall bless the people like Solomon, and sustain them in all their necessities, (2 Chron. 6) on His breastplate and on His shoulders bearing their names continually. And like as Solomon builded cities, and fenced them with walls and bars, so that “all Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and under his fig-tree, from Dan even to Beer-Sheba, all the days of Solomon,” so, says the King by His prophet, “My people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings and in quiet resting places.” (1 Kings 4:25; 2 Chron. 8:4; Isa. 32:18.) The word of knowledge was with Solomon, and largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the sea shore; was given to him; and the spirit of understanding to discern judgment; so upon the greater than Solomon shall the Spirit of the Lord rest, “the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord; with righteousness shall He judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth.” (Isa. 11:2-4.) And Zion shall then be in her beauty also. King Solomon made silver to be in Jerusalem as stones, and cedars as the sycamore trees that are in the vale for abundance; but when the glory of the Lord rises upon Zion, she shall shine in fullness of beauty—every land shall deck her forth—gold from Sheba, and incense, the treasures of Midian and Kedar, and the glory of Lebanon shall be there. “I will make the place of my feet glorious,” says the King; “for brass I will bring gold, and for iron I will bring silver.” (Isa. 9) And upon her citizens shall the blessing be again pronounced, “Happy is that people that is in such a case, yea happy is that people whose God is the Lord.” (2 Chron. 9:7; Psa. 144:15.)

Such, and far beyond the range of our thoughts, will be the Kingly glory of our Beloved; but these features of it we gather from the typical times of David and Solomon, upon which we have been now meditating, and which we would now in closing, thus further and distinctly present.

First—It is to be the kingdom of the Son—it is the Son and not the servant who is to establish and inherit it, as we have already seen, the house was built by Solomon and not by David. It is therefore to have the value of the Son upon it and about it, and this is everything to us; for this is the charter of its stability and joy. Its stability, because it is not to be committed to the fallibility and weakness of a servant, as we read, “the servant abideth not in the house forever,” but it is to be set in the strength of the Son, and shall therefore abide forever; for “the Son abideth ever.” This kingdom cannot therefore be moved: “the earth and the inhabitants thereof are dissolved,” says Jesus the King, “I bear up the pillars thereof;” and in token of this stability, the pillars of Solomon’s house were called. Jachin and Boaz. Its joy, because the full and unspeakable delight of the Father in the Son shall rest on the kingdom that is His; and in token of this joy, the Lord said of the house that Solomon had finished, “Mine eyes and my heart shall be there perpetually.” And what must the repose of the creation be, when thus dwelling in the light of the Father’s favor? when the complacency, which He basin the Son of His love, is thus beaming and resting on everything; as the precious ointment on the head went down to the skirts of the garments, and the light that from between the cherubim gladdened the High Priest on his entrance into the holy place, fell with equal luster on the names of the twelve tribes which he bore upon his breastplate then.

But secondly—Throughout the kingdom there shall be a constant remembrance of “the Man of sorrows;” as everything in the Temple, the stones that fitly framed it together, the gold and the silver, the brass and the iron all spake increasingly of David; for David. in his trouble had prepared them all. (1 Chron. 22:14.) The 132nd Psalm is Solomon’s pleading with the Lord to arise into the rest which He had prepared for Him, and to fill it with glory and blessing, on the ground of his father’s afflictions. “Lord, remember David and all his afflictions,” says he; and upon this ground he prays, “Arise O Lord into thy rest, thou and the ark of thy strength; let thy priests be clothed with righteousness and let thy saints shout for joy; for thy servant David’s sake, turn not away the face of thine Anointed.” The afflictions of David were thus known amidst the glories of Solomon, and so the Limb that was slain shall be in the midst of the throne. As our fallen earth bears upon it everywhere the trail of the serpent, so will the kingdom wear the traces of the blood of the Lamb. The tabernacle and all vessels of ministry were sprinkled with blood; and so the heaven and earth, the true tabernacle or place of meeting, with all things that are therein, shall have the memorials of the crucified Jesus about them; for “blessing, and honor, and glory, and power unto Him that sitteth on the throne, and unto the Lamb,” shall be heard from the heaven, and the earth, and the sea together. (Rev. 5;12, 13.)

And lastly—The kingdom shall be the place of thanksgiving and praise, and God, even our own God, shall accept this worship, and rest in it as His honor forever. As when the temple was finished as we have already noticed, and the ark was in its place under the wings of the cherubim, and everything was in due order; “it came even to pass, as the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord, and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets, and cymbals, and instruments of music, and praised the Lord, saying, For He is good, for His mercy endureth forever, then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God.” (2 Chron. 5:13,14.) So in the kingdom, all shall be displaced to make room for the glory, all be silenced but the ceaseless unwearing song of joy and praise. Praise is now too much checked and hushed by our own thoughts upon God and His ways; faith not being at all times ready to interpret His works aright; but then the whole scene will awaken praise, for nothing will be seen, nothing heard that can of itself hinder praise—our own thoughts will be forever silenced, and God in the love of the Son will be seen and heard all around, and everything shall therefore be then full of praise. And indeed this our faith should ever now anticipate; let faith displace our own thoughts, and we shall then, even now, be giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father, and thus in spirit begin the praise in the joy of the kingdom. For praise from the heavens, and praise from the earth; praise by the angels in their hosts, and praise by kings of the earth and all people; praise from the heaven of heavens, and praise from the mountains and hills, beasts and all cattle, shall gladden and surround Him, whose name alone is excellent, and His saints who love Him, and His people who serve Him, shall be satisfied forever and ever.

Exodus

“The Lord brought you forth out of the iron furnace, even out of Egypt.” (Deut. 4:20.)

“For Zion’s sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth.” (Isa. 62:1.)

I purpose in this paper to give a short view of the order and contents of the Book of Ex. I shall not attempt to interpret any part fully, or to take up any incidental or occasional matter, but I shall notice only such parts of the Book, and interpret those parts only in such measure, as may give us to see the order of the Book and its general character. Others may follow such labor as this with an exhibition of its more hidden treasures, and a fuller application of them to the comfort and edification of the Church. But may the Lord graciously keep all our thoughts under the control and guidance of His spirit, that we may speak as the oracles of God! For the word of God is our only instrument of safety, and should be carefully used as such in days like these, when man’s thoughts are very, busy, and Satan very ready to take occasion by them to corrupt our winds from the simplicity that is in Christ.

The ends of the age are come upon us, as the Apostle speaks; (1 Cor. 10:11.) but we who are placed therein, are not now receiving the same external exhibitions of God’s will as Israel of old had—things happened to them, but words are written for us—from what happened to them we get admonitions. “Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples, and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.” Wherefore it is “to God, and to the word of His grace” that we are commended even in the worst of times—times both of wolves from without, and perverse men within. (Acts 20:30-32.) It is to the word that we are directed, as to “a light that shineth in a dark place;” (2 Peter 1:19.) and mindfulness of the words of the Prophets, and the commandments of the Apostles, is the saints’ security in the last days of infidelity and scoffing. May the sword of the Spirit make a passage of light for us through the darkness, brethren—“Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit.” (Eph. vi. 17, 18.)

In order to enter on the Book of Exodus with my present design, it is needful that I should look back at some of the earlier ways of God,

In the opening of the 15th chapter of Genesis, we hear the Lord encouraging Abram; and Abram, thus encouraged, letting the Lord into the deep desire of his heart. “What wilt thou give me,” says he, “seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus.” All was nothing to Abram, without a child. He would have his house fixed in one out of his own loins, and not in a servant. It did not satisfy Abram, as we may gather from this, that the promised inheritance should stand united with anything less than the adoption; and the Lord answers his desire, saying, “so shall thy seed be.” Though old, and stricken in years, and his body now dead, he is promised a Son; and he believes the Lord, and it is counted to him for righteousness.

Abram thus secured in the seed, immediately gets a renewal of the promise of the inheritance; for the purpose of God runs thus, “if children, then heirs.” And He said unto him, “I am the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it.” Upon this the Patriarch’s faith becomes bolder still. He desires, as it were, to read his title-deed touching this inheritance, saying, “Lord God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it.” He did not stagger at the promise of the inheritance, any more than he had done at that of the seed; but he desired to search out the ground of his confidence, he would know the covenant of his God. And the Lord hears him in this also: he directs the solemnities to be duly prepared, and then, as it were, reads and seals the covenant by which his seed was given the land, from the river of Egypt unto the. river Euphrates. (See Jer. 34:18.)

The seals of this covenant were a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp. These seals were significant, bearing on them the impressions. of God’s proposed dealings with Abram’s seed, which were now revealed to Abram, “affliction” being, as it were, written on the one seal, and “Salvation” on the other. (see ver. 13, 14.)

Now the book of Exodus will be found to unfold the full meaning of these emblematical seals. It may be entitled, “The book of the Smoking Furnace, and of the Burning Lamp.”

This will be seen by a simple exhibition of the Book in its different parts.—

1.—This chapter presents to us the Smoking Furnace now kindled for Israel, the seed of Abram, in the land of Egypt. As Moses says to them, “And the Lord brought you forth out of the iron furnace, even out of Egypt;” (Deut. 4:20.) and as Solomon afterward says, when commending Israel to the care of the Lord, “For they be thy people and thine inheritance, which thou broughtest forth out of Egypt, from the midst of the furnace of iron;” (1 Kings, viii. 51.) and as indeed the place of affliction and trial is again and again called. (see Isa. 48:10. Jer. 11:3,4. Ezek. 22:17-22)

2-4.—In these chapters we see the Lord arising to prepare the promised Burning Lamp; that is, to bring salvation and deliverance, according to His covenant with their father, to the long-afflicted children of Abraham. “And God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob, and God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them.” (Ex. 2:24,25.)

5-15:22.—The Smoking Furnace, which had waxed exceeding hot, through the urgency of the king’s command, is here, by the Lord’s own hand, completely quenched; and the Burning Lamp, which of old had passed in vision before Abram, is here seen to shine out brighter and brighter, till the full glory of it breaks forth. Now is the ancient word of promise accomplished in behalf of the seed of Abram—“that nation whom they serve will I judge, and afterward shall they come out with great substance;” (Gen. 15:14.) and the thankful joyous praises of Moses and of Israel now confess the love and faithfulness of the God of Abraham.

15:23-17—But here we listen to other sounds altogether. Their songs of praise and triumph had scarcely died away, when the sound of a rebellious cry was heard among them. It was now no longer the voice of them that shouted for mastery, but the noise of them that murmured that was heard. Their works of darkness began while they were still under the fullest shining of the Burning, Lamp of God’s Salvation.

18.—This scene is rather of an occasional character; but I would at least say this of it, that it gives us another instance of the Lord’s care of His people Israel: for the order and comfort of Moses and the congregation are here consulted and provided. for. It was, if I may so speak, a little trimming of the Lamp, a fresh acting in grace and kindness by God their Savior, though the people had been proving themselves so base and unworthy.

19.—But what shame and sorrow have we here the seed of Abraham are willingly exchanging the glory of the Burning Lamp for another Furnace, even fiercer than that of Egypt. (See ver. 18.) They willingly forego Jehovah as their salvation, to trust in their own flesh—they become, of their own accord, debtors to do the whole law, saying, “all that the Lord hath spoken we will do;” thus refusing, as it were, to know that “as many as are of the works of the law, are under the curse”

20-24.—In consequence, then, of this unbelief and hardness of heart, a second Furnace is prepared for the seed of Abraham. They trusted in themselves—let their own arm now deliver them; let it be seen if any can be “of the works of the law,” and not also “under the curse.”

The terms of the covenant are here settled, the covenant itself dedicated and sealed, and Jehovah shows Himself as “the God of Israel.” (24:10.) The nation thus solemnly affianced to Jehovah is put under the ministry of an Angel, who was to prove himself either an

Avenger or Rewarder, according to their desert. (23:20-23.)

25-31.—But here we are introduced to other things altogether, the Lord’s doings, and not the people’s. The Lord’s purposed salvation is here revealed to Moses. While the people, abiding in their own covenant, stand under the Mount, looking on its devouring fires, (24:17.) Moses is called into fellowship with the Lord’s covenant of grace and salvation, and he is therefore made to take a place away from the people in the midst of the cloud in the Mount, in a region that lay quite on the other side of all those devouring fires. (24:18.) The thunder is now behind him; the storm to him has passed by; and he dwells in the calm sunshine of the presence of Christ. (2 Cor. 3:14.) In quietness and assurance, he receives token after token of that grace which has virtue to quench the flames of Sinai. The testimony of Jesus was the Spirit of all that he saw there. Shadows of good things to come are made to pass before him, the same, in meaning, as the passage of the Burning Lamp of old before the Patriarch.

32-34.—These chapters are parenthetical, as will at once appear by reading chapter 35, in connection with chapter 31. For it will be found that they may be read without interruption, so as to exclude the chapters that lie between them—i.e. the chapters I am now considering. But although these chapters do not therefore constitute any part of the direct subject, and form a parenthesis, yet it is a parenthesis of great meaning and importance, which I will therefore consider more fully at the close of my paper, but not now interrupt my progress through the Book.

35-40.—Here, as I have just suggested, the subject of chapters 25-31 is resumed, or rather continued. We may remember that the purport of that portion of our Book was to verify, by many witnesses, the final grace and salvation that is to be brought to Israel through Jesus; in other words, the return of the Lamp of the Lord.

The patterns there shown to Moses are here copied by the hand and art of appointed workmen; and all these ordinances, (as indeed we all must know,) were no part of the clouds and thick darkness of Mount Sinai: they were not the hidden meaning of its thunder and fire. But they were the witnesses of grace and salvation, the shadows of good things to come; or, to express them according to the analogy of this Book of Exodus, they were the faint gleanings of the then distant (and, to Israel, still hidden) Lamp of the Lord.

Thus does our Exodus open with the Smoking Furnace, and close with the passing in vision before us of a Burning Lamp, brighter, far brighter than that which of old led the ransomed of the Lord—the seed of Abraham—out of Egypt. We may then, in faith, say, that the Lord has ordained a Lamp for His anointed; (Ps. 132:17.) and with comfort and confidence listen to the intercession of the great advocate—“For Zion’s sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth.” (Isa. 62:1.)

Note A.

The seed of Abraham are now about to be put under the covenant from Mount Sinai, that gendered bondage. But I must notice this—that the Lord makes no mention whatsoever of such a thing, in all His previous dealings with either them or their fathers. The affliction in Egypt had been noticed in the revelation of the divine purposes, touching his seed, to the Patriarch Abram; (Gen. 15) but no other affliction is at all alluded to. Egypt was to be the scene of the suffering which was to prepare them for becoming the people of God’s covenant. The Lord’s promises to the fathers were all of grace. “The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,” is the title of the God of Israel, as full of grace, and having salvation, and it was in that name that He claimed His people from the Egyptian king; (Ex. 3:6,8.) and with that name He had marked, as it were, all His dealings with them from the Red Sea to the foot of Mount Sinai; where they are now, in this 19th chapter, standing. I say, throughout the execution of all this mighty deliverance, which He had begun, continued, and ended in His own strength, there is no mention of Sinai terrors, no hint at anything of the kind. The counsel and expectation which are ever and faithfully kept in view, are simply this—the people holding a feast to the Lord in the wilderness, and then going up to the land of promise. (See, among other passages, Ex. 5:1; 6:1-8; 10:9, 26; 12:25; 13:5.)

But Israel (as we have observed under chapters 15:22-17:16) proves mistrustful of God. They did not answer His grace, (the way in which alone it can ever be duly answered) with confidence; and thus they ceased to be “the children of Abraham,” not doing the works of Abraham, though of course they were still His seed. (John 8:37, 39.) And this disobedience of theirs, is that which calls forth the covenant from Sinai. And necessarily so: for being now not “of faith,” they cannot be “blessed with faithful Abraham;” and even more than that, instead of repenting of this their unbelief and disobedience, and seeking the grace of the God of their fathers, they willingly become “of the works of the law,” saying, “all that the Lord hath spoken we will do;” (Ex. 19:8) thus choosing bondage, and taking their willing place under the dark terrors and consuming fires of their own covenant. Therefore the glory which in the cloudy pillar had stood for them in the face of Pharaoh and his host, and had guided them hitherto in grace, now changed its aspect, and stood against them on the top of the Burning Mount. The Lord, it is true, was about to be far better to them than they were thus proving to be to themselves—He was about to cast on all this darkness many a fair token or coming mercy—(25-31) to set His bow in their cloud; to join with the ministration of death and of condemnation, (into which they were now willingly entering,) many a pledge of life and righteousness; but this was His doing, the other was theirs. As of old, Sarai’s unbelief brought Ishmael into the house of Abram, but God’s love and power afterward brought in Isaac.

Note B.

I would open the meaning of these parenthetical chapters a little in detail.—

They begin with an act of full apostasy, which the seed of Abraham commit while Moses was in the Mount. (32:1-6.) This working the forfeiture of all the blessing engaged to them on the terms of their own covenant, the Lord therefore at once stands against them, disclaims them, and prepares to execute consuming judgment upon them. (7-10.) But Moses as speedily stands for them; and as Mediator he pleads the Lord’s ancient promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And the Lord repents when He thus hears the voice of the Mediator. (11-14.)

Having thus secured ultimate grace and salvation, but not till then, (as in the garden of old, the promise of the Woman’s seed was made before the curse was pronounced, and Adam was clothed with skins before he was driven out of Eden,) Moses conies down, and correcting but not consuming judgment is executed on the transgressors. (15-29.) He then, as Mediator, returns to the Lord; laden with the sin of the people, in order to make atonement for them, and turn the wrath away; and the Lord hears him in this also, and mercy is again promised. (30-35; 33:1-3.)

We are then given to look at the people thus convicted and judged, and also at their Mediator with the Lord. In the first place we see their present loss of visible glory: for the Tabernacle is taken from the midst of them, and they, in the attitude of repentance, stripped of their ornaments, listening to the righteous rebukes of the Lord. But still there is blessing among them, for they are humbled; they willingly take the place of shame and dishonor; they worship and wait while the Mediator is settling the great question between them and their offended God. (4-11)

We then see and hear the blessed way between the Lord and the Mediator; and the pleading of the Mediator prevails, till the full goodness of the Lord is made to pass before him, till the name of his God and Savior is proclaimed to him, and his soul is satisfied. He knows that he has now got his Lord on the side of the people; that though their iniquity and their sin were so great, yet still the Lord could take them for His inheritance; and satisfied with this mercy, he bows his head towards the earth and worships. (12-23; 34:1-9.)

It would not be to my present purpose to pursue what here opens about the ways of our Mediator. May we all have grace to know them more and more, to the glory of His name, and our own great and endless comfort!

My Advocate appears

For my defense on high:

The Father bows His ears,

And lays His thunder by. Not all that hell

Or sin can say,

Shall turn His heart—

His love away.

The Lord then, in pledge of the mercy, again enters into covenant with Israel; (10-28.) and the parenthesis thus contained in these chapters then closes with the mystery of Moses’ vail; (29-35.) which is indeed the summary of the whole matter: presenting, as in a glass darkly, the whole way between Jehovah and His Israel. For Moses vailed, (as we learn from 2 Cor. 3) typifies Israel as they now are, in the flesh, under law, and in consequent blindness of heart; Moses unvailed, typifies Israel as they shall be hereafter, in the Spirit, under Christ, and in the light and liberty of the new Covenant. Moses, when in the Mount, was turned to the Lord, and then took his vail off; and so shall Israel hereafter turn to the Lord, and walk unvailed, in the light and joy of the same countenance.

And when Israel is thus turned to the Lord, what shall it be to the world but life from the dead? The covering that is now cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations shall be then destroyed also (Isa. 25:7.) For God’s Salvation, God’s Burning Lamp, shall be “a Light to lighten the Gentiles,” as well as “the Glory of His people Israel.”

Isaiah 1-35

AFTER the settlement of Israel in Canaan, through the times of the Judges, the word of a Prophet was sent only occasionally to God’s nation; for the law and its officers, the Tabernacle and its services were provided for them. But towards the close of those times, when by reason of the iniquity of Eli’s house, the Ark had been taken and the glory had thus departed from Israel, the Lord began, in the person of Samuel, to erect among His people another ministry (the ministry of Prophets) less formal than that of the priesthood, and in some sense instead of it. And from thenceforward, in a continued succession, (Acts 3:24.) He called out to this ministry certain chosen ones, whom, in a manner quite independent of the originally established order of things which was now much corrupted, He anointed as with His own hand to their holy office.

These Prophets were, each of them in his day and generation, eminent for high and holy character. Their service was various. As the oracles of God, they heard the word as from the Lord’s own mouth and delivered it to Israel; at times crying aloud and sparing not, showing the house of Jacob their sins, (Is. 58:1; Hos. 6:5.) and at times speaking comfortably to them. They labored and taught, rebuking iniquities, though it were found in the palace or in the temple. Under the Holy Ghost they had also to write the history of the nation. And some of their own prophecies they were to seal up and preserve for an appointed time, (Dan. 12:4.) depositing them in the tabernacle; or laying them up before the Lord. (1 Sam. 10:25.)

But their great duty was to observe the signs of the times as they passed, and by interpreting them according to the judgment of God, to direct either the hopes or fears of the people. The times were a kind of parable, which the Prophets had to explain. Therefore, when meditating on their several writings, it is needful to consider the character of the times in which they severally lived.

It was in the times of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, that Isaiah was raised lip to be one of these Prophets of the Lord. During the earlier part of Uzziah’s reign, no very distinct signs for the notice of the Prophet were developed. Judah continued, as before, to burn incense in the high places, and being thus so far like Israel, (2 Kings 15:1-4,) the Prophets Amos and Hosea, who at that time were stationed in Samaria, speak of Judah as involved to some extent in the sin and judgment of Israel. But Uzziah himself was doing that which was right, as his father had done, (2 Kings 15:3.) and the Lord made him to prosper. His enemies learned that the arm of God was with him, and his name spread abroad even to Egypt. (2 Chron. 26) But power and fame spoiled him at last. His heart was lifted up to his destruction, and he trespassed against the temple; and as the Lord always judged the nation according to the conduct of the king their representative, (2 Chron. 28:19.) I believe that now it was that Isaiah was called forth to be a Prophet in Judah; for the king’s offense brought all the national sin into view, and this watchman in Judah then received his commission to denounce judgment against the house of God. (See ch. 1-5)

As to the reign of Jotham, who succeeded Uzziah, we are told that the people still continued to do corruptly, but the king followed only all that was right in his father, without trespassing as he had done; and therefore we find that God prospered him, (2 Chron. 27) and did not send the word of His Prophet against him: for Isaiah seems, during the sixteen years of Jotham’s reign, to have delivered only the vision which is recorded in the 6th chap. and that vision has no special respect to the times at all. It was rather a sacred transaction, (as in the presence-chamber of a king,) between the Lord and His minister, and had no special respect to either Jotham or his times, as we shall see, when we consider it presently a little more particularly.

The two following reigns, however, were times of no common character, and very strikingly contrasted. Ahaz, who succeeded Jotham, walked in the wags of the kings of Israel and alter the abominations of the heathen ... Idolatry was established by royal authority, and the service of God’s temple was despised. Captivities were made of His people, and confederacies against Him of His enemies, and “Judah was brought low because of the king.” But after a dishonorable reign of sixteen years, Ahaz was succeeded by Hezekiah, who followed his father David in doing that which was right in the sight of the Lord. (2 Chron. 29) In the beginning of his reign, he opened the doors of the house of the Lord, purified the temple, and restored the worship of God. With zeal like that of a greater than he, he turned the house of God from being a house of merchandise, into a house of prayer again. He renewed, as it were, the covenant between God and the people, and there was great joy in Jerusalem, such as had not been since the days of Solomon. The Lord was therefore his protector and guide, and magnified him in the sight of all the nations. (2 Chron. 32:22, 23.)

Such very marked and varied times as had now in these two reigns passed over his country—commencing in evil under Abaz, and ending in honor and peace under Hezekiah—afforded occasion to the Spirit to seal deep instruction upon the soul of the Prophet, and to open before him visions of both the judgments and mercies of God. Accordingly, during these times, the Prophet, appears to have written from chap. 7 to the end, where, with much incidental and practical matter, we find judgment beginning at the house of God, because of transgression, but the Israel of God borne safely onward through it all, up to their rest and glory.

Now this attention to the character of the times in which our Prophet lived, aids us much in our meditation on those oracles which he was called of God to deliver, but attention to the order and arrangement of the prophecies themselves will aid us still more.

The following arrangement of his first thirty-five chapters has helped me much in understanding them, and I offer it to others, thinking that perhaps some may find it a help to them likewise. My labor is very humble—it is merely that of a pioneer; useful however, though humble; for, as another has said, “as a homely digger may show a man a rich mine, so whatever the book may be that I present to you, that which I recommend to you is a matchless one.”

But then it will be inquired, flow are we to discover the distinctness and periods of these discourses? Generally, I would reply, let the Prophets be read throughout and in order, and then let attention be given, and judgment exercised to discover their distinct interruptions and periods. And as to these chapters which I have taken for our present meditation, I would observe, that one leading rule for discovering the beginning and end of a strain is this—when the Prophet treats of the sin or judgment of Israel it is at the beginning—when of its glory, it is at the end of the strain, And this order is morally just and certain; for suffering comes before glory—judgment for correction precedes salvation. (See, among other Scriptures, John 16:20-22. 1 Peter 1:11;4. 17, 18.)

Taking, then, this rule with me, and opening for instance 12th ch. I find the glory of the Lord’s house before the eye of the Prophet; and suspecting therefore that this must be at the close of a discourse, I look at the beginning of the 13th chap. and have my suspicion confirmed by finding there a new subject altogether; so that I get the end of the strain with this 12th chap. Then tracing upwards to find the beginning of it, I discover that the Prophet appears to opens a fresh roll at chap. 10:5. Then looking at the whole discourse in order, (10:5-ch. 12) I detect clearly Isaiah’s order—judgment beginning at the house of God by (on this occasion) the hand of the Assyrian—then passing over and falling upon that proud and wrathful enemy—and the whole scene closing with the rest and glory of the house of God, in the latter days.

Again, opening chap. 4 I find glory; and therefore, because of the general rule stated above, I look at the beginning of chap. 5 and am left quite satisfied with my conclusion that chap. v. ends the discourse. Then tracing upwards, I detect a plain connection among all the parts up to the beginning of chap. 2. But there I find glory again.— “in the last days the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountain,” This then appears to be an exception from the general rule; but looking at the whole prophecy, (chap. 2-4.) I see that this beginning with glory is but a momentary anticipation of the closing scene, and that the Prophet quickly leaves it, to carry on a lengthened gloomy burden of sin and judgment, as that which in fact was to precede the glory he had been anticipating; and then at the close he draws out more fully the scene of glory.

I will not here multiply instances of this order, but I would again observe that there is great moral propriety in it, as will appear to all who have become acquainted with the great and leading principles of God’s dealings with His own people and the world. The Lord says to His people “Ye now therefore have sorrow, but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice,”—and again He says “Ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice; and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy,”—and again, in Peter, “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God, and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God.” Now these are just the principles which this order, observable in these discourses of our Prophet, illustrates.

I would now only further observe, that to use the following arrangement to any profit, the Reader must have the book of Isaiah before him, making it the chief object of his attention; for I have aimed rather at presenting some little help to interpretation than any interpretation itself. And may the Lord, ever by His Spirit, control our thoughts and direct our meditations in His holy word, and withal preserve our souls in “the simplicity that is in Christ,” and in the “meekness of wisdom.”

I.—This Chapter contains the first discourse of our Prophet. It is a remonstrance against the sins, the scarlet sins of Judah, with exhortations and encouragements to repentance and threatenings of judgment. But it also presents the Lord reserving a remnant in the midst. of this evil and ruined condition of the people, and giving intimation of salvation to the daughter of Zion, in the latter day, when the sinners shall be consumed from the midst of her, and she shall be called, “the city of righteousness.”

Thus, in this opening strain of the Prophet, he might simply say, with David, “I will sing of mercy and judgment.” And to this day Zion is under this threatened judgment—the Lord has eased Him of His adversaries, and avenged Him of His enemies, and she must wait till her dross be purely purged away, and the Lord then, as is here promised, redeems her with righteousness.

2-4—The prophecy contained in these chapters, may be entitled, “The day of the Lord.” It concerns, as the Prophet himself announces, Judah and Jerusalem, and celebrates the varied character of that day, “the day of the Lord.” It shows us, as many other scriptures do, (see, among others, Mal. 4:1.) that the great body of the Jewish nation, because they had learned the ways of the heathen in pride, and wickedness, and idolatry, will meet the terrors of that day; but that while it is only a remnant (here called “the righteous,” 3:10 and the “written among the living,” 4:3.) that shall be saved, yet that that remnant shall be sanctified to the Lord, their city purged of its blood, (Joel 3:21; Matt. 27:25.) made again the habitation of glory, and all nations flowing into it; peace reigning through the earth, and the peoples thereof learning righteousness.

I would observe that, however the judgment here pronounced on Judah and Jerusalem may have had some accomplishment at the hand of Nebuchadnezzar or the Romans, it could not have been exhausted then, for we find that coincidentally with this judgment is the deliverance and consecration of the remnant, and the glory of Zion,

And these have not yet been—We may all be most profitably warned by meditating on the character of “the day of the Lord” here delineated by the Prophet. May the lesson be engraven on our hearts.

5.—This chap. forms the third prophetic word, and it may be entitled, “The judgment of the unfruitful vineyard,” No soft accents of mercy here interrupt the course which judgment takes against the vineyard of the beloved, the whole reprobate Jewish nation, the house of Israel, and the men of Judah. In this parable, the Prophet sets forth the care which this vineyard had enjoyed, the ungrateful return it had made, and its judgment. And then the Prophet, in the further course of the chapter, sets the various iniquities of the people before their eyes, and pronounces corresponding sentence upon each of them, in which we may mark the distinct retributive justice of the Lord. Thus their covetousness is to be punished with poverty; their revelry and intemperance with desolation and hunger; and their scorning the word of Jehovah, saying, “let Him make speed and hasten His work,” shall be answered by their being made the prey of that enemy of whom Jehovah would say, “behold they shall come with speed swiftly.”

Of this prophetic word I would say that it did not receive its full accomplishment by the Babylonish captivity; for our Lord, in His day, speaks of judgment even then awaiting the reprobate vineyard. (see Matt. 21; Mark 12; Luke 20) We may therefore say, that the judgment here pronounced, will not have been all executed till the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled; for till then this vineyard will still be trodden down. (See ver. 6, and Luke 21:24.)

6.—This vision is a revelation of what Paul calls “the mystery” in Rom. 11:25, 26; for Israel is here put under judgment of “blindness in part”—Israel is here “broken off” for a season “because of unbelief,” but with a sure promise that a remnant should. be preserved as the seed of the future nation; and thus, as Paul further says, “they shall be grafted in again,” and “all Israel shall be saved.”

This was a vision of the glory of the Lord Jesus, the God of Israel. (John 12:11.)—He is seen by the Prophet in the Holy of Holies, which was the figure of heaven; that is, He is seen in the very place into which the unbelief of Israel has now cast Him, (Acts 2:23,24; 3:15; 4:11; 10:40; 13:28-30.) and out of which, consequently, judgment is to fall upon them. For the stone which they disallowed has been made the Head Stone of the corner, and from thence it is to fall and grind them to powder. Thus this message, which the Prophet was commissioned to bear to the people, will equally address itself to all generations of them, till their thus predicted dispersion shall end, and the day of the Lord’s new covenant with them shall come. (See Matt, 13:15; John 12:41; Acts 28:26.)

7-9:7.—This roll of our Prophet may be said to bear this inscription, “The sure mercies of David;” for when opened, it will be found to be a pledge from the Lord that He will secure the house and throne of David forever.

At the time of this prophecy, Syria and Ephraim were confederate against Judah, and Isaiah is commissioned to restore the fainting heart of king Ahaz and his people by an assurance that this confederacy should not stand. In pledge of this mercy to Judah and David’s house, the Prophet’s two children, first the one and then the other, are given as signs, and the promised Immanuel, the Virgin’s Son also. And this promised Immanuel, “God with us,” is given as the further pledge of the Lord’s sure purpose to break up every confederacy and association of the people’s against the house and throne of David, and to disappoint all their counsels. (8:9, 10.)

But the blessing was upon this condition—that if Ahaz himself, or any other generation of the house of David did not believe, neither he nor they should be established in this promised mercy; and Ahaz proving in unbelief, the Lord accordingly threatens to raise up a rod upon His land and people. (7:17-25.)

During this unbelief of the house of David, the Prophet (as representing the remnant) is counseled how to walk, is warned of the troubles of the unbelieving nation, and receives the richest promise of final rest and glory. (8:11; 9:7.) And in the midst of this Messiah is introduced, (8:16-18.) showing how He would be found during the same period—that is, dispensing His word among His disciples, and waiting for the return of the divine favor toward Israel. (See Heb. 2:13,14.)

As to all this most striking and significant prophecy, I would say, that to this day Jerusalem is trodden down, and the throne of David. is in the dust, because of their continued unbelief. Immanuel was, according to this prophecy, offered to Israel at His first coming, (Matt. 4:15.) but their unbelief put away the grace and glory that would otherwise have then been brought to them. They are now therefore waiting for all this promised kingdom and glory, and will wait till they say, “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” (See Matt. 23:29.)

8.-10:5.—Though Isaiah, as Prophet, was set over Judah and Jerusalem, yet in this discourse the word of the Lord by him lights the most heavily upon Israel. For their pride and stoutness of heart the Lord threatens to join Syria and the Philistines together against Israel, and by these to cut them off on every side. For their impenitency and hardness of heart in despite of the divine chastening, and for their hypocrisy and evil doings, the Lord threatens to make an end. of them, root and branch, head and tail together. For the sin of the whole people, Manasseh, and Ephraim, and Judah, they are to be the prey of each other’s insatiate fury. For their oppression and perversion of judgment they are threatened with a day of visitation in which the Lord would withdraw Himself from them, so that they should be left desolate without one to succor them.

This day of visitation still hangs heavily over the nation, and will, till they “accept of the punishment of their iniquity,” (Lev. 26:14-42.) and God then in grace remembers His covenant with their fathers, (Rom. 11:25-32.) and all Israel he saved.

10:5-12.—This magnificent strain of prophecy may be entitled “The Assyrian.” In it the Lord makes His power known on the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction, and also reveals the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy. For the Assyrian falls by his own iniquity, and thus is the divine wrath on its vessels fully justified, but Israel and Judah are prepared for glory by the Lord Himself, and thus is the riches of grace on its vessels as clearly manifested.

The course of the prophecy is simply this—the people of God for their transgressions arc visited with a rod—this rod of God’s indignation abuses the commission by executing it in pride, and in the lust of power, and the scene then closes with its utter removal and destruction, and the recovery, and joy, and honor, through grace of the people of God. The Assyrian, the Lord’s rod against Israel, is cut off, and out of the dry root of Jesse is raised up a Branch to fill Mount Zion with glory and peace, and her people with the joys of God’s salvation.

Nothing can be more glowing and beautiful than this strain of our Prophet, but I would surely say, that the things which he here reveals have not been manifested fully as yet. The Lord, it is true, smote the camp of the Assyrian, and with zeal rescued Jerusalem out of his hand in the days of Hezekiah. (2 Kings 19:35.) But the man whose name is the Branch, was surely not then revealed in glory and in judgment; the earth surely did not then wear its sacred honors, as fruit of the times of refreshing, when nothing is to hurt in all God’s holy mountain, when the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the knowledge of the Lord is to fill it as the waters do the sea. The Root of Jesse did not then stand as an ensign of the people, His rest being glorious: God’s indignation against Israel did not then cease in the destruction of Sennacherib, for Israel is still under judgment, and she is not yet comforted: that was surely not the second time for recovering the remnant of the people, nor did they then come from the land of the Philistines toward the west, nor dryshod through the Egyptian sea. The Prophet is here rather celebrating that coming day when every weapon formed against Zion shall be broken, every Assyrian, every enemy of Israel shall be confounded; when the last of them, even He who shall plant the tabernacles of His palaces between the seas, in the glorious holy mountain, shall come to His end, and none shall help Him; of which the humbling of Sennacherib, the first Assyrian, was the sign to that generation. Then shall the new song be sung, even the praise of salvation, and new joys be known by the inhabitants of Zion.

13-27.—These chapters exhibit various scenes, which will, however, I judge, be found to be parts of the same solemn action, God’s judgment of the kingdoms of the world. This strain of our Prophet may be entitled, “The shaking of the heaven and the earth;” for the Prophet sees the day of the pride of the nations now passing away, and their cloudy and dark day to be at hand. The Lord is seen as arising to shake terribly the earth, to march through the lands in indignation, and to thresh the heathen in anger. The Prophet of Jehovah seems to take from His hand the wine cup of His fury, and to cause all the nations, and among the rest His own Israel and Judah, because they had made themselves like the nations of the world, and had walked in the statutes of the heathen, to drink of it one after another. But in wrath He remembers mercy, and in the end causes mercy to rejoice against judgment.

Babylon, “the glory of kingdoms,” as first in the train of nations, is first summoned forth by the Prophet. (13, 14) She is triumphed. over; the day of her glory is past; and not one note of mercy interrupts the judgment delivered against her. In the vision of the Prophet the Assyrian then falls, and Palestine is utterly dissolved.

A cry is heard in Moab, and she is warned. to take counsel and show mercy to the outcasts from Zion. (15, 16) Damascus is left a ruin; and in her fate Israel, the constant confederate of Syria, is, joined. But in the midst of the judgment on Israel, a remnant is reserved, like gleaning grapes, four or five on the utmost fruitful branches, and in the end a present of the whole people, a harvest offering of them is, as it were, waved before the Lord. of Hosts in Mount Zion. (17, 18.)

The Lord’s hand is then shaken over Egypt, removing everything out of its place, and causing the heart of the land to melt in the midst of it. But He who thus smites, in the end will heal her and sanctify her to Himself, with Israel and Assyria. (19.) Then in the mouth of a second witness (20.) the sorrow and dishonor of Egypt and of Ethiopia her companion are established

The watchman of the God of nations then proclaims a grievous vision over the desert of the sea. This is Babylon, the night of whose pleasure is now turned into fear by the arrival of a chariot with a couple of horsemen, and she is made the corn of the Lord’s threshing-floor. (21.) Dumah is then warned, and the inhabitants of Arabia are seen fleeing away, and few of them left.

The Prophet of Judah then weeps over the Valley of Vision, his much loved Jerusalem, for he sees the spoiling of the daughter of his people, a day of trouble and of treading down, and of perplexity, many breaches in the city of David, yet no looking to the Maker thereof, no respect unto Him that fashioned it long ago. But as before, when he revealed the Lord’s purposed visitation of Israel, he sounded also a lengthened note of final gathering and mercy, (see 17, 18) so now does he proclaim that mercy shall rejoice against judgment—that after captivity, and death, and loss of state and glory, there should be recovery, and honor, and dominion for Jerusalem, and the key of the house of David be laid on the shoulder of a chosen One, who would set His glorious throne there, and sustain the kingdom forever. (22.)

The Prophet then announces the Lord’s purpose to stain the pride of Tire, “the merchant-city,” “the mart of nations,” “the crowning city,” to destroy her strong holds, and to send her afar off to sojourn where still she was to have no rest. (23.)

These judgments then close in fearful consumption of the whole earth—its mirth ceasing, its joy ending, the curse devouring it because of the defiling of its inhabitants, when the hosts of the high ones on high shall he also punished, with the kings of the earth upon the earth, and there shall be a gathering together of them as prisoners into the pit. (24) This closing scene is the Lord’s controversy with this apostate world; it is the day in which Gentile pride and dominion having accomplished its measure, the Lord will smite its image, break all the parts of it together, driving them away like the chaff of the summer threshing-floor (Dan. 2:35.)—when, in the language of other and kindred scriptures, the vine of the earth (her grapes being fully ripe) shall be cast into the great winepress of the wrath of God (Rev. 14:19.)—when the heaven shall depart as a scroll when it is rolled together, and every mountain and island be moved out of their places; when the kings of the earth and their armies shall be slain, and the dragon shall be bound in the bottomless pit. (Rev. 6:14; 14:19; 19:21) But in the midst of all this fear and indignation, the Remnant in Israel is presented to view under the image of the shaking of an olive tree, and the gleaning grapes after vintage; as in other scriptures, they are called the “tenth,” “the holy seed,” “the new wine in the cluster.” (Isa. 6:13; 65:8.) The Prophet then, in spirit, hears the song of this Israel in the latter day, saluting “the righteous One,” and the whole action closes (as in all scripture with the Lord’s reign in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and before His ancients gloriously.

After all this, we have, in chaps. 25-27 what may be termed the Epilogue. The Prophet (having, as it were, listened to these revelations of the Lord touching Israel and the nations) exults in the glory promised to Mount Zion, “this mountain,” as he here calls it, where the feast of fat things should be made for all people, the vail spread over all nations be destroyed, and the hand of the Lord should rest, and His foot tread down the enemy of His Israel. In the midst of this joy of his soul, he anticipates the word of the Remnant in that day of their salvation, “Lo! this is our God, we have waited for Him, and He will save us, this is the Lord, we have waited for Him, we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation.” And then he prepares a song to be sung in that day in the land of Judah, celebrating the city of God, and rehearsing, in a varied and broken strain, the ways of the Lord to His Israel down to the time of their increase and glory. And again, having published the Lord’s slaying of the dragon in the sea, the, Prophet endites another song on the fruitfulness and security of the Lord’s vineyard, telling out how her stroke had not been like the stroke of the nations, for while they had been left like a wilderness, she had been brought through the fire only for the taking away of her sin, that she might be sanctified to the Lord again, and her outcasts gathered again, every one of them to the holy mount at Jerusalem.

Such appears to be the character and order of this discourse. I admit of course that the several burdens of the nations were not delivered by our Prophet at the same time. There may have been, I grant, long intervals between the delivering of them, but this does not effect my judgment about them, for the Spirit of God has presented them to us together; and in the whole passage taken as one—13-27—we see Isaiah’s usual order, judgment preceding salvation, and sufferings preparing for glory. O that the soul knew the power of this; as the Apostle speaks, “the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings.”

I observe, also, that the several cities and nations here noticed by Isaiah, were not only the several political powers of the world in that day, but stood before the servant of God, I believe, as representing other political powers which were to appear on the great theater of this evil world in a then far distant day, and which are to form that willful confederacy which is to be overthrown and confounded by the strong arm of the Lord, when “the nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters, but God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like the thistle down before the whirlwind.” But as in the midst of these judgments there are many notices of mercy, and at the close of them salvation and glory, so we know that this earth is not to pass away under this rebuke of the Lord, but that when all things that offend and do iniquity are by these judgments gathered. out, and those are destroyed which destroy the earth, (Matt. 13:41; Rev. 11:18.) then shall the world remain to be the scene of the Son of Man’s dominion, and the kingdoms of it shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ—Amen, even so; come Lord Jesus.

28-35—This discourse of the Prophet contained in these chapters consists of five parts. The subject of each appears to be, simply this—the people of God for their sins and rebellions are punished, but the Lord for His name-sake in wrath remembers mercy. It may be entitled, “The five Woes; or, mercy rejoicing against judgment.” In each succeeding part mercy is heard to rejoice more and more, and the dealing of the Lord with Israel in grace, is displayed with increasing fullness; and as mercy is thus progressively unfolded, the scene of sin and judgment in the same measure passes away, till at the close nothing remains but grace, and salvation, and glory to Israel.

I desire briefly to notice these Five Woes, each in its order, marking especially the gradual rising of mercy over judgment, as the Prophet proceeds through this magnificent and sublime discourse.

The first woe. (28) This woe is pronounced upon Ephraim, the most transgressing portion of God’s nation, and which therefore first awakens judgment—Ephraim is threatened with a desolating tempest, and overflowing mighty waters; for the errors of Priests and Prophets, for the People’s willfulness and scorning, the Lord threatens to arise in wrath and to do His work, His strange work, and to bring to pass His act, His strange act; at the close He gives solemn warning, and with gracious sanctions, calls to repentance. But in the midst of this dreary burden, the Prophet is heard just for a moment to strike the note of a better day, telling of Israel’s final glory and strength, of the honor and majesty they were to have in the Lord of Hosts, and of the security of those who would trust in the stone of Zion.

The second woe. (29) This woe is pronounced on Ariel, the city where David dwelt, the more favored and excellent portion of God’s house. She is threatened with distress, and heaviness, and sorrow, with earthquake and devouring fire, with enemies who shall refuse to be satisfied, with judicial blindness, and the spirit of deep sleep because of her hypocrisies and scorning. But at the close the Prophet sounds a longer and more distinct note of mercy, promising a full and glorious change of curses into blessings, of distress succeeded by fruitfulness, of the spirit of deep sleep to be taken off, and the blind made to see again, the terrible ones removed, the workers of iniquity punished, and the children of Zion made again the work of the Lord’s hand.

The third woe. (30) This woe pronounced on “the rebellious children,” a more general title embracing both Israel and Judah, Ephraim and the city of David. Their seeking to Egypt for help is here threatened to prove their shame; and because of their despising the word and Prophets of the Lord, because of their perverseness and iniquity, they are to be left desolate as a beacon on the top of a mountain, and as an ensign on an hill. But the Prophet still more fully than before proclaims mercy, The voice of joy and gladness swells sweetly in lengthened notes here, The people’s return to their Zion, the increase and fatness of their land, the shining of the heavens over them, and their own healing and binding up, are here celebrated; and then the lighting down of the Lord’s arm upon their enemies even to the last of them, the Assyrian, in overflowing wasting ruin, and their own songs and joy of triumph in the midst of this ruin, close this sublime word of the Prophet.

The fourth woe. (31, 32) This woe is pronounced on those who seek help from Egypt, a still less rebuking character than that in which they were last addressed. And here we observe the Prophet soon bears away the woe from the Holpen, and lets it fall on the Helper, carries it speedily from Israel over to Israel’s enemies. Then in striking and varied imagery he displays the Lord’s care for His people, and His vengeance on their adversaries, even as in the preceding woe, down to the last of them, the dreaded Assyrian. Then together with many features of blessing already presented, he touches, with prophetic joy, upon the best of all Jerusalem’s days, when her King shall reign in righteousness, her people be at rest under His shadow, and the kingdom be settled in judgment and justice forever. And at last, after giving notice of previous sorrow, he closes with a revelation of the latter day blessing, when the Spirit shall be poured out on Israel, (that is, when their new covenant shall come, see Isa. 59:21.) and their rest and peace shall be established forever.

The fifth woe. (33-35) This woe is pronounced not on Israel at all, but altogether on her spoiler. This is the new and distinguishing feature of grace to Israel, observable in this closing

part of this beautiful strain of prophecy. Here mercy not only rejoices against judgment, but rejoices alone. The cloud has now passed away from the Jewish heavens, and has settled darkly and big with vengeance over the spoiler and the nations. In sight of this the Prophet at once pours out his heart to God. He seems, as led. by the Spirit, to see the spoiler, who “regards no man,” and the sinners confederated with him, but he sees them only as marked for destruction. He presents the righteous remnant among them, walking for awhile in depression but yet in safety, and then in the end brought out to see their King in His beauty, and their city a quiet habitation, while the loins of the mighty and dreaded spoiler are loosened and his prey divided. The Prophet then summons the nations to hear of the day of their visitation in the land of Idumea, “the day of the Lord’s vengeance, and the year of recompences for the controversy of Zion.” He draws out the terrors of that day, in the full lighting down of the arm of the Lord on the people of His curse, in the filling of His sword with blood from His sacrifice in Bozrah, and in the giving over of the land from thenceforth, to wasteness and burning, according to the judgment written in the book of the Lord. Then does he speak of the glories that are to follow, and which are to close the purposes of God with His Israel. Here he rests with delight. He sees Carmel, Sharon, and Lebanon, yielding their excellencies to Zion, and Zion’s King coming with salvation; He hears the dumb singing; and rejoices with the lame man leaping in that day. In the wilderness he sees waters breaking out, and streams in the desert. The way of holiness is cast up before him, nothing allowed to hurt or to destroy, and the ransomed of the Lord. coming to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads.

Such is the comforting story of Israel’s future final blessing. Creation waits for it. (Rom. 8:19.) Messiah the Lord waits for it; (Is. 8:17.) and the children of Zion are ever in spirit crying for it thus— “Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! when God bringeth back the captivity of His people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.” (Psa. 53:6).

As to the whole discourse, I would just observe, what surely must have been anticipated, that the woes here pronounced have not been fully poured out. The proof of this is too plain and abundant. But our joy in meditating on our Prophet here, arises from the way in which mercy is heard to rejoice against judgment, till at length it triumphs completely, and occupies an uncontested field. And this is the principle, “the law,” as James calls it, in which the Church of God lives and glories. (Jam. 2:13.) “Mercy rejoiceth against judgment.” Judgment drove Adam out of Eden, but not till Mercy had clothed him with a coat of skin, the pledge from God’s own hand that there was a full covering for his shame. He went forth into a cursed earth, but not till he knew that an offering out of the flock would be respected by the Lord. “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” “I have sinned”—said one conscious that in him “sin had reigned unto death”— “God also has put away thy sin” —was the answer of that grace which reigns, “through righteousness unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord.” And so poor sinners, like Adam and David, find it now.

And now, I pray that these meditations may help the inquiry of the saints into this portion of God’s holy word. They aim simply at clearing the way a little. Communion with the Lord through the word and by the Spirit is the power of all knowledge, as it is our strength, joy, and sanctification also. But we should not be unskillful in the word of righteousness. Everything around us is but giving value (if it needed it) to the blessed sure unchanging light of the word. “The Scripture cannot be broken”—blessed he God! And I would close, beloved, with that word of our Prophet, addressed to the people of God, passing through a perplexing and cloudy day, “And when they shall say unto you, seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep and that mutter; should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead? To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.”

Christian Witness: Volume 3

Table of Contents

"Things New and Old."

Second Letter to a Friend on Prophecy.

Passages in the Book of Revelation Connected With the Old Testament.-No. 1.

Types.-No. 2.

Church Canons.

Philanthropy

Passages in the Book of Revelation Connected With the Old Testament.-No. 2

The Good Confession Before Pontius Pilate

The Feasts.-Lev. 23

Luke 14-16

Priesthood

Babylon

Extracts From the History of the Christian Religion and Church During the Three First Centuries: By Dr. Augustus Neander

Passages in the Book of Revelation Connected With the Old Testament.-No. 3.

The Apostasy of the Successive Dispensations

Notes on the Offerings. Lev. 1-8

Remarks on Light and Conscience

Abraham

Abram

David and Solomon

Exodus

Isaiah 1-35