shall bodily reign over the nations of Israel and Judah, sitting actually and literally upon the throne of his father David.

III. For this is the next question; and in the discussion of this I really think I must abstract the principle of the argument, and the points of ambiguity, to which Mr. Pym assigns a particular significance; for the texts which he has heaped together as to the purpose are, in volume, no less. than one-third or fourth part of the whole actually prophetic scriptures; indeed he might have included them all.

The case is this.-Before the Lord took our flesh and manifested himself to the world, he perfected a long course of preparation, by which the truth of the mysterious doctrine and supernatural knowledge which he came to impart, might rest upon the sure evidence of prophecy; and further than this, that such a course of revelation as he adopted, opening the secrets of the Divine counsels by parts and degrees, might, by gradual effect, prepare the human understanding for the apprehension of the marvellous truths of which himself is the foundation and the vehicle; the contemplation of one part of the scheme, and familiarity with signs and types of strong significance, reconciling the mind to the communication of those spiritual mysteries in which the whole revelation should be perfected.

God created man in a state of innocence, in a condition a little lower than the angels, under a covenant that should have exalted him in due time, if man had fulfilled his part, saying, Keep my commandments, and you shall have (immortal) life

adjoining the sacramental sign of the fruit of the tree of life as the instrument of the covenant; "but disobey, (that mysterious first cause and prolific source of all sin and evil) and you shall die." Man fell, and death should have past on him at once, as the sentence of death did; but the decree -of salvation by the mediation and vicarious actions of the Son of God, reprieved and placed him under a new covenant, with a prophecy and a rite prefigurative at once of his redemption, and making significant confession of his present real state, and just and certain liability. The prophecy was, that the seed of the woman should bruise the head of the serpent; the rite was, the offering of the sacrifice of blood, the taking away the life of a creature, of which the skin might clothe and protect the nakedness of his body, as the covenanted virtues of the sacrifice should cover the sin of the soul. Such a course did God adopt from the beginning, delivering a prophecy of his divine counsels from the moment they came into operation, for even then were they virtually accomplished; and accompanying the prophecy with a command, which complied with, should be at once a means of grace, and a conveyance of some part of religious truth, by the adaptation of the sign to our modes of comprehension. The same course he repeated with Abraham, when, after all the world had gone astray, he selected one man to be the founder of a nation, with whom he might transact a preparatory scheme, for bringing the whole world back to a knowledge and pursuit of the true God and of the way of salvation. Witness the relinquishment of home, the wandering

and sojourning in strange countries, with the promise of a land hereafter, exercises as full of moral effect in his case, as they were significant of prophetic truth, and are lessons of pregnant meaning. To the same patriarch he revealed his mighty purpose in the dire command of filial sacrifice, which he made also the great occasion of the blessing, as that which the one signified was the means of procuring what was represented in the other. Again, with the people of Israel, whom he found in Egypt, the land of sin, and the land of bondage, he saved them from the doom which passed over the land by a sign of the same action, and brought them out through water into a place of passage and a wilderness, in which their whole lifetime was spent, looking forward to that land which they were not to reach in their own persons; but they going down into the grave, the new generation arrived there, having been all the time they were in the wilderness, through which their journey lay, supported by heavenly food, and drinking of the miraculous stream from the rock, which rock was a sign of Christ. Here are foreshown the elements as well as the signification and the virtues of the christian sacraments; as those, together with the former signs, are the images of better things than do appear. And here, too, is the figure for our instruction of a Christian's whole course, from his natural birth to his translation to heaven. It is no figure, I say,-this entrance into the holy land under Joshua,-of another entrance into the same earthly country under Christ, but of an entrance into a heavenly, which it is testified by St. Paul in the Epistle to the Hebrews, (chap. ii. 16,) that all

the fathers looked for. And so again, throughout the whole constitution of the Jewish church and state, we perceive the way opened to the revelation of Christ in the sacrifices, the purifications, the feasts, the temple, historical characters, and political achievements; as the course and conduct of the people is a lesson and a warning, and an occasion of divinest instruction and consolation to all, in the many earnest remonstrances, pathetic commiseration, and clear declarations of his will and commandments, which God addressed to them from time to time by his prophets, as also in the matter of devotion which the Holy Spirit took the same occasions to furnish to us.

In such a course was laid the ground-work of that religion which was intended for the world, as on the side of God its first relation was with Adam, and its virtues had continued in operation ever since. The Jewish people were adopted for an occasion, and as a temporary representative of the church, which, the partition wall being broken down, should embrace the whole race of man. But in them, and to them, in a proportionate manner, was foreshown what was either of a much more exalted signification, or of a much more extensive application. They were promised a king who should vanquish their enemies, and they had David for a sign, but they had Christ for the everlasting Saviour both of them, and of all mankind. They had a highpriest, and sacrifices, and a temple; and Christ was all these for ever. They forsook God, and left his worship and his commandments, and the Lord let them fall into the hands of their enemies; but he

promised to bring them back on their repentance, and to reign over them for ever, and so he did to the end of their days. But the Gentiles were in the same condition, and the merciful purposes of God comprehended them too; and the Lord came as a spiritual prince to reign over the house of Israel, the seed of Abraham, who was the father of all the faithful for ever. For ever! that is, for ever in this world, throughout this dispensation: as to the Jews, the promises of God were for ever, that is, in a confined sense, while that suitable dispensation lasted; in a better sense, for evermore: as the christian for ever is an introduction and an assurance of a perennium that shall never end.

The question is, what is the ultimate and highest purpose of all the Jewish prophecies and figures? Is it the salvation of all mankind, the restoring of all that died in Adam to a new life in Jesus, the gathering of the scattered nations of the world into one communion and fellowship with Christ, to be hy him conducted into the promised possession, the prophetic land, that is, the heavenly (Heb. ii. 16,) which Abraham himself and all the fathers looked for? Or is all this but an inferior and imperfect object, a mere sign and earnest of the still grander purpose of leading the Jews back again into the very same land, which was first given to the patriarchs as a sign of that eternal reward of faith, and end of all hope, the land of peace and happiness, and divine inhabitance, to which Christ is understood in the christian religion to be at once the way and the guide, the true Joshua, as he is also the real David, the prince and shepherd of the great flock of faithful and to be