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As his weakness increased, his voice and his powers of articulation became more inaudible. His last words, I believe, were to his granddaughter, who said, "I think you are worse:" "O yes," he said, “I am worse; I shall soon be gone.' He has gone, and his end was peace, Thus lived, and thus died, a great and good man. Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright; for the end of that man is peace."

ON THE REDEEMER OF THE Jews,
AND THE LAND IN RESERVE FOR

THEM.

Some few weeks before his departure, I remember being highly pleased and gratified with his conversation. Accosting me as usual, he said, "O Sir, I long to be gone; I long to depart and to be with Christ, which is far, very far better." "To one in your circumstances," I said, "the change must be glorious." "O yes," he said, "I know it will: I have no doubt of it. I have no fear of death. What a glorious promise that is, Whosoevernot one, but all," said he, "Whosoever believeth in me, though he were dead yet shall he live, and I will raise him up again at the last day. And what a many more; yes, there are many great, very many IT has been the good pleasure of great and precious promises.' "You God to utter some predictions, and must now feel their value." Yes, to establish some types, with exactly I do, I do," was his reply. such a portion of light as has been During his last illness, his in- of essential service to those endued creasing weakness and distressing with spiritual discernment, whilst cough almost prevented that conver- the spiritually blind have, as a sation with him which many desired. righteous judgment, been left to subYet, amidst his increasing infirmi- stitute error for truth. Even the ties, he was enabled to express his first promise to fallen man was thus unlimited confidence in the Saviour. a pillar of fire to the just, and a pilThe substance of his daily prayer lar of cloud to the unjust. was, "O! my blessed, blessed Lord, man as Abel, therefore, becoming I long to be gone; to depart and acquainted with what is now reto be with Christ, which is far, very corded in Gen. iii. 15, and considerfar, better.' But my days are all ing that the seed or offspring of the numbered; there is an appointed woman was called IT, or rather HE, time for man upon earth, and I (and not THEY,) would thereby be must wait patiently till my change led to have confidence in ONE mighty come.' To one of his grand chil- to save, concluding as Paul does in dren, who had been performing reference to another prediction, “Jesome little office of affection, he hovah saith not, And to seeds, as of said, "O! my dear I love many; but, as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ," Gal. iii. 16. That a remarkable individual, and not the human race in general, was anticipated by some Antediluvians as Eve's offspring, or "the Son of the man,' seems obvious from the expectations raised by the birth of a promising son. Thus in Gen. v. 28, 29, we read, "Lamech had a son, and called him Noah, (or COMFORTER,) saying, This same individual shall COMFORT US Concerning our work

you for your kindness, yet not so much as to wish to stay in this world with you; I long to go to my dear Jesus."

His confidence in God was firm and unshaken. The Divine promises were constantly upon his lips, and he was often repeating such as these, " As thy day is, so shall thy strength be;"' "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee;" "Where I am, there shall also my servant be."

Such a

case, his infinite dignity so enhanced the value of his sufferings, that his tasting death for every man," as described in Heb. ii. 9, was intrinsically an equivalent for the eternal death of unnumbered millions, though available in eternity to those only to whose sanctification it avails in time through sovereign grace and Divine influence.

worlds, and when the great enemy shall become powerless as a slaughtered serpent, no more infesting the camp of the saints, nor exalting himself against Him who is King of kings, as to this world, and Lord of lords, as to the world of spirits.

and toil of our hands because of the ground which Jehovah hath cursed." Nevertheless, wherever there was an absence of that faith which prepares persons to enter, in some measure, into the views of Jehovah, it was easy for things revealed to babes to be hid from the wise and prudent. Nay, even Satan himself, with the gigantic intellect of an archangel, seems to have been misled from the Thus in wounding the heel of want of spiritual discernment, and "the son of the man," the "Old to have thus mistaken the times Serpent" had done his worst, and when the serpent lurks in the grass little thought of the series of attacks and bites man's heel for that period he was doomed to receive on his when the Saviour said to his adver-own head in return, even from Imsaries, "This is your hour, and the manuel's first triumph after his repower of darkness," Luke xxii. 53.surrection to the day when all things Such erroneous interpretation too shall be subdued to him amidst the must have derived much of its plau- wreck of nature and the crush of sibility from the fact that the serpent race no longer retained their original rank in creation, whatever it might have been, but were doomed to a disadvantageous change of position and of food. For, in reference to the seductive medium to which Satan had recourse, Jehovah Like the first promise, the rite of said, Upon thy belly shalt thou circumcision also seems to have go, and dust shalt thou eat all the pointed out glorious things to the days of thy life," Gen. iii. 14. Per-righteous, whilst it left the unrenewed ceiving, therefore, that, in addition groping in the regions of darkness. to the enmity between man and the To a thinking mind it is obvious serpent race, the curse placed that that a rite for a nation's observance race in a position to have their heads on the eighth day, must, at first, be crushed by man, he who in Rev.xii. 9, observed by many later than the is styled, "That Old Serpent called eighth day, since it is beyond the the Devil and Satan," seems to have power of the aged to make themoverlooked that part of the curse selves young. Nevertheless, as even which related to himself. Hence, the Jewish sabbath was not allowed like a serpent by the way, or an to occasion the deferring of circumadder in the path, he attacked the cision till the ninth day, we perceive object of his enmity to the full ex- that the eighth day was an essential tent of the opportunity afforded, part of the type. As, therefore, a which, however, was so limited that male child born on one sabbath and the Saviour said, "It is finished, circumcised the next, was circumand bowing his head, yielded up his cised in connexion with an entrance spirit." When, indeed, a wicked on the second period of existence; man dies, his death-pangs are but it will be seen that the first week of the taste or anticipation of that life was typical of man's abode in death of which he is to drink, as the this present evil world, and that the cup of Jehovah's wrath, for eternal eighth day was typical of the comBut, in the Great Redeemer's mencement of an eternal existence

ages.

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after death. This reminds us of thing to make signal of his hope Naaman's being required to dip him- according to the commandment of self seven times in the Jordan, a Jehovah. “He received the sign of river more excellent than Abana and circumcision, a seal of the righteousPharpar, rivers of Damascus, inas-ness of the faith, which he had yet much as it was nearer Calvary. But, being uncircumcised," Rom. iv. 11. if Naaman had dipped himself six Moreover, it is said in reference times only, he would have come out to any male who wilfully rejected of the water a loathsome leper; and, circumcision, or in whose case cirin a moral view likewise, the per- cumcision was wilfully rejected, fected just in the realms of bliss are "That soul shall be cut off from his those only who endure to the end. people: he hath broken my coveThat" singleness of heart*," there- nant." Thus we behold the Land fore, which characterizes those who of Canaan so established as a type enter the regions of the perfected of the HEAVENLY WORLD as for the just is that ultimate spirituality to terms THE Land*, Jehovah's Rest†, which circumcision had reference. THE LAND OF ISRAEL, Jerusalem, Hence in contemplating the penitent ZION, &c. to mean, under different Jews of the latter days, Moses says, modifications, the regions of eternal "The Lord thy God will circumcise bliss: and in connexion with such thy heart, and the heart of thy off-modes of speaking the pure in heart spring, to love the Lord thy God who make no attempt to serve with all thy heart, and with all thy Mammon or Fame, as well as God, soul, that thou mayest live," Deut. xxx. 6. The covenant made with Abraham was virtually the Gospel Covenant, not annulled by what was afterwards national; and one item in that covenant is, "Without holiness no one shall see the Lord," Heb. xii. 14. Abraham, therefore, being one of those who have faith that purifies the heart, and who consequently "hunger and thirst for righteousness" "walked in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless," even to the intentional sacrifice of his own son. To him, therefore, of whom the Apostle says, He looked for the city which hath the foundations," (Heb. xi. 10,) it was no unmeaning

are accounted circumcised. In this world those who are growing in grace are washing in the Jordan seven times; and when this process shall be completed, happy anticipation! the leprosy shall no more cleave to them for ever. But, as to those who never surmount the formalist's reserve for what is sublunary, though they may escape being cut off from the people of the earthly Canaan, according to the procedure under the Jewish dispensation, yet they must inevitably experience what is the substance of which that shadow gave intimation, and thus find themselves excluded for ever from "Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and from ten thousands of angels,— from the general assembly and church of the first-born, who are enrolled in heaven, and from God the judge of all, and from just men

* David, as a king, knew the value of such men as espoused his cause with a mind so freed from other considerations, as not to turn back in the day of battle. Of adherents of this description it is said in 1 Chron. xii. 33, "They were not of double heart:" and for such singleness of heart in the cause * By an oversight, the original for land of Jehovah David himself prayed when he is sometimes translated earth, as in Ps. xxxvii. said to this effect: "Endue me with a mar-11, Matt. v. 5, &c.

tyr's oneness of mind to fear thy name ↑ See Psalm xcv. 11, compared with Ps. lxxxvi. 11.

Heb. iv. 8, 9.

made perfect, from Jesus also, the mediator of the new covenant, and from the blood of sprinkling which speaketh better things than that of Abel."

In the Hebrew language, Venus, that pre-eminently bright star which the morning produces, is called, "Son of the Morning." A city likewise, being regarded as producing such citizens as are contemplated in a detached point of view, and being accounted a female by the Hebrews, in whose language every object was either he or she, it was natural that Jerusalem, or Zion within its precincts, should be accounted a mother. Hence females of the holy city are called " daughters of Jerusalem;" and males interested in the mountain of the Lord's house, " sons of Zion." On this principle too the Apostle Paul speaks of two Jerusalems. Hagar," says he, "serves to illustrate Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which is above, is free, which is the mother of us all," Gal. iv. 25, 26. A Jew, therefore, became a son of the heavenly Jerusalem, or came to mount Zion as expressed in Heb. xii. 22, when he turned his back on Jerusalem in bondage as Bunyan's pilgrim turned his back on the city of destruction, or when, to use our Lord's expression in Matt. xi. 12, "He took possession of the kingIdom of heaven by force." Nor should it be forgotten that Holy Writ declares that the Gentiles shall come to Mount Zion as well as the Jews. "In the latter days," says Jehovah," the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on the top of the mountains; and it shall be exalted above the hills: and ALL NATIONS shall flow unto it," Is. ii. 2. From the strong terms, therefore, in which the Apostle Paul speaks of the conversion of the Jews in days yet future, we may

infer that the Jews will come to Mount Zion as Gentile converts did in the Apostolic age, and as the fulness of the Gentiles will do in the days of the Millennium.

The Church Militant being, in some respects, one with the Church Triumphant, the spiritual good attained in this world is regarded as being eternally perpetuated. Hence the same mountains of Israel that the Jews inhabit before the era of Gog and Magog's violence, are for ever afterwards their undisturbed possession. To have recourse to a type established 406 years later than that already adverted to, it may be observed that in this world true believers enter the Holy Place, and eat of the shew-bread: and in the world to come they enter the Holy of Holies, and partake of "the hidden manna." The body, therefore, that gravitates towards the earth's centre, is the veil that for a time, intercepts the believer's flight to the celestial regions: and, when this veil is removed, there is a transition from the light of seven lamps in the Holy Place to the inexpressibly glorious light "within the veil, whither a forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made a high priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek."

Both Jews and Gentiles, therefore, will at last be found no longer within gunshot of the sons of strife, whose former tumultuous rage will be like the howling of the northern blasts in the ears of the traveller safely arrived at home, and enjoying the genial warmth and efficient pro tection of his own habitation. For the tribes of Israel, therefore, to be where the wicked cease from troubling, and where the weary are at rest, and thus to contrast former dangers with subsequent safety, is to be in their own land in the sublimest sense, and to witness what is predicted in Is. lxvi. 23, 24. shall come to pass," says Jehovah, "that from one new moon to ano

"It

nium, instead of making infidels, and hardening them when made, will have the influence of miracles in attesting the Divine origin of the Christian religion. Then, as suggested in Rom. xi. 11, may the Gentiles hope to provoke the Jews to jea

ther, and from one Sabbath to ano-conduct in the days of the Millenther, all flesh shall come to worship before me; and they shall go forth, and look upon the carcasses of the men that transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh." Of every earthly inheritance men lousy. Thus when multitudes not must be dispossessed, for "here have we no continuing city:" but the land in reserve for the Jews is an eternal possession. "I will plant them in their land, and they shall no more be rooted out of their land which I have given them, saith the Lord God." Amos ix. 15.

Stratford, Essex.

descended from Abraham shall be beheld participating in the lovingkindness of Jehovah there will be a fulfilment of what is written in Is. xlix. 14-" But ZION saith Jehovah hath forsaken ME, and my Lord hath forgotten ME: to which unfounded conclusion Jehovah reWe cannot say, however, that the plies, "Can a woman forget her Jews will not again inherit the sucking child, that she should not earthly Canaan, laying aside the have compassion on the son of her pomp and ritual worship of former womb? yea, they may forget, but ages, and manifesting the same I will not forget thee. Behold I Christian simplicity as the Waldenses have delineated thee on the palms of and Albigenses did in their seques-ny hands; and thus thy walls contered retreats. In short, we cannot tinually present themselves to my J. F. say that any nation will not take view." possession of that once highly favoured country, because we know not the specific designs of Jehovah. But as the great bulk of the Jews have once lost an interest in Immanuel's kingdom through an inordinate fondness for things temporal, ON returning home, after a lengthlet us not contribute to their splitting ened absence occasioned by indisagain upon the same rock, by our ex-position, I availed myself of the citing expectations incompatible with first season of leisure to walk to a those trials which, by unerring wis- neighbouring village to see an aged dom, are allotted to those who are pilgrim whom I had left in a state pilgrims and strangers; and who, of increasing feebleness and decay. instead of cleaving to the world, On entering the village, I saw two have a faith that overcometh the young friends, whose appearance world. there, at that time, caused some surIn 2 Kings xxiv. 14, we read con- prise. The reason I soon conjeccerning Nebuchadnezzar, "He car-tured—our venerable friend was no ried away ALL JERUSALEM :" and more! I left him longing for the as Jerusalem was thus eventually berepose of the blessed, and now his held in Babylonian territories, so the present Jerusalem in bondage is scattered among the Gentiles,* whose

The first Christian church too, being founded at Jerusalem and afterwards scattered, became, in like manner, Jerusalem scattered;

THE DEAD AND THE DYING.

and when Gentile converts were added, it was Jerusalem replenished. Moreover, when formalists and persecutors overran the church, it was the holy city trodden under foot by the Gentiles, or profane sinners of Sodom and Egypt, as described in Rev. xi. 2, 8.