ters, are the most prominent features of the prophetic page. Unless, therefore, we have in the outset a right apprehension of them, it is most probable that we shall fail to adopt correct principles of interpreting the prophecies which concern them. In order, however, to arrive at a proper apprehension of these things, it will be useful just to glance at the history of man's apostacy.

By permitting man to fall at various periods into a state of disobedience and rebellion, and to experience the misery and darkness consequent on such a state, the Lord would apparently teach every order of intelligent beings,-the thrones and principalities and powers in heavenly places, as well as the whole human race, that the strength of the creature, both moral and intellectual, is derived immediately from the Creator; and that the creature, therefore, cannot stand for one single moment upright, but through the power of Almighty God. No natural or local circumstances, however advantageous,-no external means of grace, however imposing,-no inward talents or endowments, however dazzling, will avail of themselves to keep the creature erect, if he trust to them: he must look up throughout to GoD; he must learn that he is sustained in all respects by HIM; he must know that "in Him he lives, and moves, and has his being;" or he will certainly apostatize.

To say nothing of the condition of the angels who left their first estate and fell, how various have been the trials vouchsafed to man. He has been placed in a condition of nobility and innocence, and has fallen! He has witnessed the terrors of Mount Sinai and the glory of the Shecinah, and had the Lord speaking to him daily by his Spirit in his prophets, and has fallen! He has been now for nearly two thousand years under a dispensation, which was ushered in with the most striking spiritual gifts and endowments, and yet he has been continually apostatizing; insomuch that we cannot place our finger on one single spot on the globe, where we are assured Christianity was enjoyed during the first three centuries in its purity, without perceiving at the same time the most lamentable historical proof connected with it, that man has fallen: and the prophetical account of the close of this dispensation shows, that, with the exception of a very small remnant-an election upheld by grace-this fall will become universal and most signal! Man is further destined, in the dispensation which is approaching, to enjoy a combination of all the advantages hitherto experienced from the foundation of the world, together with an unparalleled degree of splendour, power, and prosperity; and we know that he is also destined in the end

to fall! And then only will that great moral lesson be completed, which the Lord is thus practically, through every age, teaching to his creatures; that they may know throughout the eternity that remains, that GOD IS ALL IN ALL.

Another great and important matter has however been gradually unfolding, parallel with the development of the apostacy of the creature; and that is the great plan of redemption through the Messiah, and of the ultimate restoration of man, and of the world from all the disastrous effects of the curse. If the earth has been filled ever since the fall with violence, and deceit, and misery, arising from the influence of those unrighteous principles which the darkened mind of man has supposed to conduct to personal happiness; the word of prophecy has held out to the expectation of those, who have been brought to understand the cause of their misery, not only a way of obtaining the pardon of their sin, but the prospect of a time when the creature shall be redeemed from the bondage of corruption, and from the vanity to which, through sin, he is subjected; when wars shall cease in all the earth; when Satan, the great deceiver of the nations, shall be restrained and ultimately destroyed; and a reign shall ensue of righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. In this period, even those on whom death has passed, shall be restored to life in a spiritual and heavenly body, which no longer will be the seat of sin, but in every respect a handmaid to the Spirit; until which period the dead rest from their labours.

Various indistinct intimations of these things, prior to the giving of the Law, might be pointed to: as the promise to Eve that the Seed of the woman should bruise the Serpent's head, which avowedly has reference to the final destruction of the devil and his works; the prophecy of Enoch, which we know from St. Jude, (v. 18.) foretold "the coming of the Lord with myriads of his Saints;" the manner in which the faithful dead are spoken of, as being "gathered to their people," (doubtless to be reserved to stand in their lot at the end of days,) whilst the living were threatened, if rebellious, to be "cut off from their people." But instead of dwelling upon these and other similar intimations, it will be more satisfactory to pass at once to the terms of the CoVENANT made with Abraham, and amplified with Isaac and Jacob.

And here the reader is requested to bear in mind that the Covenant made with Abraham is what is called the "New Covenant" and the "Covenant of Promise:" for unless he be clear in this matter also, he will be unable to understand "the hope of his calling" in Christ Jesus, as set forth in the word of prophecy. It is the more needful to premise thus much,

seeing that many, even pious Christians, have but a vague notion of the nature of the covenant of grace. They seem not to understand that there is any document in existence, other than the whole of the New Testament; in which they suppose it to be throughout diffused, intermingled with the narrative and moral precepts which also there abound: so that if any would obtain more definite ideas of it, they must, by a divine chemistry, decompose and separate the whole, and laboriously collect the scattered particles they want. But St. Paul puts the matter in a very clear and simple point of view, by informing us, that it is the covenant made with Abraham which we are now under: for this covenant (he argues) the law, that was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect. (Gal. iii. 17.) So that the instrument was in reality drawn up, and formally signed and sealed in the days of the great Father of the faithful; though, like other testaments, it was not published and fully acted upon, till after the death of the Testator. (Heb. ix. 15-17.) And thus it is evident that it is in relation to the period of its coming into force, not to the period of its being given, that it is called the New Covenant-being in reality an older Covenant than that given through Moses.

This covenant which, as before observed, was first made with Abraham, and afterwards confirmed and amplified with Isaac and Jacob, is to be found in the following places in the book of Genesis: viz. chapters xii. 1-3; xiii. 14-17; xv. 4-21; xvii. 4-16; xxii. 15-18; xxvi. 3, 4; xxviii. 13-15.* There can be no reasonable doubt, since it is this covenant which St. Paul refers to, that it contains the substance of all those blessings afterwards enlarged upon by the prophets and apostles. The whole, however, appears reducible to three distinct heads, on each of which it will be necessary to offer a few observations.

1. The first is the promised seed. If we consult Galatians iii. 16, we must feel persuaded, that this has principally a reference to CHRIST, who is pre-eminently the Seed in which all the nations of the earth are to be blessed. (Gen. xxii. 18.) For though the promise appears primarily to relate to Isaac,

* That it is one and the same covenant made with all three is evident from the terms of it. God says to Abraham, "I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after thee:" and afterwards more expressly he says, "But my covenant will I establish with Isaac," &c. (chap. xvii. 21.) Then to Isaac he declares, "I will bless thee, &c. and perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father. (xxvi. 3.) Afterwards Isaac, in his prophetic blessing of Jacob says, "God Almighty give thee the blessing of Abraham;" and God confirms this by reiterating the same promises at Bethel, and declaring, "I will not leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken of." (xxviii. 12-15.)

yet is it afterwards renewed to Isaac himself, and subsequently to Jacob, in similar terms: "and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." (Gen. xxvi. 4; xxviii. 14.) and as it would be absurd, on the one hand, to suppose that the seed of Jacob could mean Isaac his father; so, on the other hand, in reference to Jacob's posterity, there appears to be none eminently the child of promise, excepting Christ.

But, beside this reference to Christ as the seed, the posterity of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are likewise spoken of in this covenant in a more general sense. First, they are expressly designated to Abraham, when God says, "I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after thee, in their generations, and I will be their God. (Gen. xvii. 7, 8.) Secondly, it is implied in the promise, that God will multiply his seed as the stars of the heaven, as the sand upon the seashore, and as the dust of the earth, (Gen. xv. 5; xvii. 2, 4; xxii. 17; xxviii. 14; xxxv. 11;) which places evince that multitudes are contemplated, and not the one individual Christ. And, thirdly, it is evident in that the apostle declares: viz. that all who are mystically members of Christ are accounted as the seed, and heirs according to the promise. (Gal. iii. 29.)

2. The second particular of this covenant is the inheritance promised. The locality of this inheritance is more immediately PALESTINE, in its fullest extent, "from the river of Egypt to the great river Euphrates." (Gen. xv. 18-21.) Now it is important to notice who are the parties who shall inherit this land, according to the full meaning of the terms of the grant. Many are wont to limit the promise to the posterity of Abraham, who were led into Canaan by Joshua. Such an interpretation, however, will not, for many reasons, answer to the terms of the covenant. The promise of the land is, in the first instance, to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, personally and individually. To Abraham the Lord said, "I am the Lord, that brought thee out of Uz of the Chaldees, to give thee-this land -to inherit it." (Gen. xv. 7.) "And I will give it unto thee, AND to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession." (Gen. xvii. and xiii. 14, 15.) To Isaac the promise is similar: "Unto thee AND to thy seed I will give all these countries." (Gen. xxvi. 3.) And so to Jacob: "The land whereon thou liest-to thee will I give it AND to thy seed." (Gen. xxviii. 13.) "The land which I gave to Abraham and Isaac, to thee will I give it, AND to thy seed after thee will I give the land." (Gen. xxxv. 12.) When the Lord afterwards appeared to Moses, he referred to the land as specially granted to all three of these fathers, together with their seed: "And I appeared unto Abraham,

unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty: but by my name Jehovah was I not known unto them; and I have established my covenant with them,-to give them the land of Canaan,-the land of their pilgrimage wherein they were strangers." (Exod. vi. 3, 4.) It is difficult to conceive language more explicit and precise, to signify that these patriarchs were severally themselves to inherit that land as possessors and not as pilgrims, than the passages which are here brought forward. Had Abraham received the promise in the first instance without any mention of his seed, and the promise had been referred to ever after as relating to his seed, without mention being again made of him, it might then more plausibly have been inferred, that the original grant never contemplated any other possessors; but the careful repetition to each of the patriarchs of his own name, together with his posterity-"to thee and to thy seed"-puts it beyond a reasonable question. No lawyer would ever think of interpreting such a title deed to their exclusion, otherwise than by arguing from the fact, that they had all died without ever having received the promise, and therefore the inheritance was not apparently designed for them. This, however, is made a ground of argument in scripture, that they are to inherit the land; only it is by means of a resurrection. For as Abraham was, we are assured, persuaded, that God would have raised up Isaac from the dead, and have restored him, had he actually sacrificed him on Mount Moriah, (Heb. xi. 17-19;) so it appears from the scriptures, that he and the other patriarchs looked forward to the day of Christ, as the period when these promises should ultimately be fulfilled, (John viii. 56; Heb. xi. 10, 11;) and with Daniel they enjoyed the assurance, that they should stand in their lot at the end of days.

The circumstance that they are spoken of as pilgrims and strangers, in respect to this very land, is of itself worthy of particular remark, considering that the land is nevertheless so expressly promised to them. When Isaac sends Jacob to Padan Aram he uses these words: "And God Almighty bless thee, &c., and give thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee and to thy seed with thee, that THOU mayest inherit the land wherein thou art a stranger, which God gave unto Abraham." This same Jacob afterwards declares himself before Pharaoh to be only a pilgrim: "The days of my pilgrimage are one hundred and thirty years; few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers, in the days of their pilgrimage." (Gen. xlvii. 9.) The Lord, speaking of them to Moses, says (as we have seen) that he established his covenant with them,