children of the remnants, the churches on earth her companions : it matters not which), "Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children, whom thou mayest make princes in all the earth." But even this falls short of the dignity purposed to the Adam, and typically exemplified in that great and illustrious noble to whom ABRAHAM, and in Abraham ALL THE TWELVE TRIBES, paid tithes! From all the Old Testament we have negative proof, and from all the New Testament positive proof, that God's future purpose toward the baptized (whether from among the Jews or Gentiles) is to make them MELCHISEDECS, joint-heirs of the Adam, the temple of his Holy Spirit, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all, the Pillar and Ground of the truth, likenesses and joint-heirs of Himself, with his Son; to make them

AS GOD;" to make them in the new Jerusalem, as himself in the cloudy pillar heretofore, "AS THE ANGEL OF THE LORD BEFORE THE TWELVE TRIBES OF ISRAEL."-"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." (1 Cor. ii. 9, 10.)

Let us take for our ensample the patriarchs of old, who "all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and being persuaded of them, and embracing them, and confessing that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth; ""wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for he hath prepared for them a city." (Heb. xi. 13, 16.) And Moses also "had respect unto the recompence of the reward." (verse 26.) And even Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith, "for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." (xii. 2.)-Surely "we will lift up our eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh our help. Our help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth. He will not suffer our foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber behold, he that keepeth Israel will neither slumber nor sleep." (Ps. cxxi. 1-4.) For "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. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual." (I Cor. ii. 9, 10, 12, 13.) And these things the Lord asked for us, saying, "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 also may be one in us that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory

which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.....And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them." (John xvii. 20-23, 26.)

For my own part, as an individual, I by no means anticipate that the believers of the Mosaic dispensation are to share the highest order of the conial dignity which I have proved to belong to as many as have received the INCARNATE WORD (John i. 11, 12). For, as far as I can discover, they had neither the promise nor the hope of it: they barely dared to desire it; they hardly knew its existence. "For verily 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" (Matt. xiii. 6). "For this cause, I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles-if ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward, how that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery (as I wrote afore in few words, whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ), which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto the holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; that the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise IN THE CHRIST by the Gospel; whereof I was made a minister.... And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ; to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Eph. iii. Η7, 9—11). "Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but Now is made manifest to his saints: to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is, Christ in you the hope of glory" (Coloss. i. 26, 27). " Now to Him that is of power to stablish you, according to my Gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations (Rom. xvi. 25,26). "Of which salvation" (the salvation of souls) "the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you; searching

your

what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us, they did minister the things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the Gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into" (1 Peter i. 10-12). "Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding, he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he" (Matt. xi. 11). Whence we may argue, 1. That every one in the kingdom of heaven was greater than John; 2. That no one born of woman was so great as he; and therefore, 3. That no one born of woman was in the kingdom of heaven. For, indeed, "Except a man be begotten from above, he cannot see that kingdom;" "except a man be begotten of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter it" (John iii. 3, 5).

Where does it appear, from any part of the Scriptures, that the Old-Testament believers were ever begotten at all" of water and of the Holy Ghost;" or that they ever entertained the thought of becoming offsprings of the Messiah-members and joint-heirs of the Seed promised to Eve, to Abraham, and to David; jointheirs, I say, of the Antitype of him to whom Abraham and Ďavid and the twelve tribes of Israel paid tithes? The fact hitherto kept secret-the fact of the regeneration-is altogether another thing than bare repentance, imputed righteousness, obedience, purity, faith, hope, charity, and the like. All these are fruits of the Spirit, borne on the branches of the elect Root; but they do not necessarily imply the engrafting, or regeneration, of any branch, because they may also be produced on other plants (planted indeed of the Great Husbandman), but only like the boughs that grow beneath the Divine scion, and are not offsprings thereof.

Abraham had that faith before his circumcision which hath made him the father of all that believe; bearing in his bosom the thousands and tens of thousands of God's children. (Rom. iv. 11; Luke xvi. 22; compared with Numb. xi. 12, &c.) But observe respecting circumcision, that it is "the seal of the righteousness that is by faith," while it availeth "nothing" in Christ Jesus (Gal vi. 15). Rahab, the hostess of Jericho, had faith (Heb. xi. 31); but Rahab surely became not therefore an Israelite, still less a daughter of Israel's king. The Gibeonites also believed; and Balaam the false prophet believed: but these are not of the genus or family of Jacob, as indeed the Scriptures testify in 2 Sam. xxi. 2, and 2 Pet. ii. 15. Our regeneration entitles us to our Christian names; and (as I understand it) " CHRIST" the surname of every one of us. Our regeneration obtains for us the

assurance and earnest of co-heirship with Israel's King, from one end of the New Testament to the other; and it is a NEW testament." "There are threescore queens, and fourscore concubines, and virgins without number: my dove, my undefiled, is but one" (Cant. vi. 8). There are eighty generations of men. (of thirty years each) from Noah to Christ, and sixty from the Ascension until three years hence, and generations without number that yet shall be born: the children of God, the partakers of the life that is in Christ the quickening Spirit, are but one uninterrupted generation, the only one of her mother, the choice one of her that bare her.

I know that it is said, John viii. 56, "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day; and he saw it, and was glad ;" and in Heb. xi. 9, 10, "By faith he sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: for he looked for a CITY which hath foundations, whose Builder and Maker is God :" and afterwards, in verse 16, it is said of all the seven worthies previously named, that "God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he hath prepared for them A CITY," in that "super-celestial country" which they desire: and from these passages, together with Matt. viii. 11, it plainly appears that Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Sarah, shall hereafter dwell in that holy city, the new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from God. But, indeed, the particularity of the style of these very texts, unless there be some other Scriptures extending their application-and any such I cannot find-I say, the particularity of these very expressions seems rather to exclude the generality of the Israelites, and even the worthies subsequently mentioned also, from that city, than to afford a ground of argument that they shall be inhabitants thereof. (Deut. xxxiv. 4, &c.)

It is in the just and legal right of Christ's primogeniture as the FIRST-BORN FROM THE DEAD, that we, his children by the Holy Ghost poured forth from his risen body (as it is written," When thou shalt make his soul an offering.... he shall see his seed," Isai. liii. 10), are to receive with him that highest exaltation. (Coloss. i. 18, 21, 22; Rom. viii. 29, &c.) For "we are complete in him, which is the Head of all principality and power, in heaven and in earth: in whom also we are circumcised, with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: buried with him in baptism; wherein also we are risen with him, through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead" (Coloss. ii. 10-12). But very different is the sentence of God, from the pen of the same Apostle, concerning the time being of the Levitical dispensation :

"I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; but is under tutors and governors. until the time appointed of the father. Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: but when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because YE are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father....For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bond-maid, the other by a free woman. But he who was of the bond-woman was born after the flesh; but he of the free woman was by promise. Which things are an allegory for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar: for this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is," (namely, in the Apostle's own time)," and is in bondage WITH HER CHILDREN. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not; for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband. Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. But, as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless, what saith the Scripture? Cast out the bond-woman and her son; for the son of the bond-woman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman" (Gal. iv. 1-6, 22—30).

The language of Genesis xvii. 4-6, et seq. is to the same effect, and of the most intense interest in the study of God's unalterable purpose towards us. "And Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying, As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee; and thou shalt be a father of many nations" (or, as we may also read it," and thou shalt be for a father" [in patrem, ]" of a multitude of Gentiles:" see Pagninus in );" and I will make thee exceeding fruitful; and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee." For observe, that these (D) nations, of which Abraham was to be as the father, cannot be the Jews, who are essentially distinguished as the nation, and never called by the plural noun-since it was written, in Numb. xxiii. 9, "The people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations:"- - so that there can be no doubt that the kings here promised to Abraham are found in Rev. i. 6; v. 10, &c.; where the four-and-twenty elders, and the church in its œonial condition, declare themselves to have been made "kings and priests unto God:" as it is in 2 Tim. iv. 8; "Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness,