And The Name Of Jesus Christ

p.242 It is written in the prophet Micah, that "the Lord shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off (from Jerusalem);" and as the result thereof, " they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into scythes: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree ; and none shall make them afraid. And "in that day, saith the Lord, I will assemble" Israel, "and make them A STRONG NATION: and the Lord shall reign over them on Mount Zion FROM HENCEFORTH, even for ever." And "unto thee O Zion, shall it come, even the FIRST DOMINION ; the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem (Mic. 4:3-8)." And the judge, who shall be Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from everlasting, "shall stand and feed in the strength of Jehovah, in the Majesty of the Name of the Lord His God; Israel shall abide ; for now shall He be great to the ends of the earth. And this Man (Christ the Lord) shall be the peace when the Assyrian (the Russo-Assyrian) shall come into our (Israel's) land." And "Assyria shall be wasted with the sword, and the land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof; thus shall He (the judge of Israel) deliver us from the Assyrian (Gog) when he cometh into our land." "And 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. And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the Gentiles in the midst of many people as a lion among the beasts of the forest, as a young lion among the flocks of sheep; who, if he go through both treadeth down and teareth in pieces, and none can deliver. Thine hand shall be lifted up upon thine adversaries, and all thine enemies shall be cut off." "And I will execute vengeance in

p.208 In the former part of this work I have shewn that it has been the purpose of God from the foundation of the world to set up a kingdom and empire of nations, which shall supersede all others previously existing upon the globe. We have now arrived at that part of our subject which relates to the development of this imperial constitution of the world, which, when brought to the birth, will have occupied six days of a thousand years each in its formation. No topic can surpass this in interest and importance to every man that breathes the breath of life. God has made the belief of the things concerning it a condition of partaking in the glory, honour and incorruptibility which belong to it. Whatever ignorance may be overlooked, ignorance of the things pertaining to this kingdom alienates men from the life of God. This is equivalent to saying that no man can attain to eternal life who does not believe the gospel, for the subject matter of the gospel is this very kingdom which it is the purpose of God to establish for the Son of Man and the saints.

p.289 ABRAHAM'S faith having been perfected by the severe trial to which it was subjected on the Mount of the Lord, the remainder of his sojourn among the living appears to have been no further illustrated by angelic visitations. Sarah had died "at Kirjatharba, the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan," two years after his removal from Beer-sheba; where he continued to reside for the rest of his days, being a period of thirty-eight years. During this time, "the Lord blessed him in all things;" and he became great in the midst of Canaan, though he possessed of it only the field and cave of Machpelah, which he had purchased for a burial place of the sons of Heth. The Lord had given him flocks, and herds, and silver, and gold, and men-servants, and maid-servants, and camels, and asses (Gen. 24:35); and so gave him an influence and consideration among the surrounding tribes which riches are sure to create. But in all his prosperity, he did not forget the promises. He had trained up Isaac in his own faith; and in order to preserve him from the evil and corrupting influence of faithless women, and to contribute to the future welfare of his descendants, he took an oath of his steward that he should not take a wife for his son of the daughters of the Canaanites among whom he dwelt, but from among his kindred in Mesopotamia, who appear to have also believed in God (Gen. 24:50, 11). The steward, however, thought it possible he might not succeed; but Abraham had no such misgiving. "The Lord God of heaven," said he, "who took me from my father's house, and from the land of my kindred, and who spake unto me, and sware unto me, saying, Unto thy Seed will I give this land: he shall send his angel before," and prosper thy way.

p.316 DURING the one hundred and fifty-four years that elapsed between the death of Joseph and the returning, of the Israelites from Egypt, they multiplied so much as to excite the apprehensions of the Egyptians. "Behold," said Pharoah, "the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we: come on, let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply, and it come to pass, that when there falleth out any war, they join also unto our enemies, and fight against us, and so get them up out of the land." From this it would seem that the idea prevailed in Pharoah's court that the Israelites contemplated a wholesale emigration to some other country. His policy, however, was to prevent it, by maintaining the numerical superiority of the Egyptians, by destroying their male children in the birth, and exhausting them by oppressive toil. But what can the policy of kings effect when they undertake to combat the purposes of God? The cup of Egypt's iniquity was well-nigh running over. They had not retained God in their thoughts, being wholly given up to the basest superstition and idolatry. They had forgotten their obligation to God, who had saved their nation by the hand of Joseph; whose posterity they had enslaved, and cruelly destroyed. What then remained, but that God should judge them? That he, the Lord of all the earth should step in between the profane tyrant, and those whom He purposed to be His people, and give to Egypt according to its works? Israel's four hundred years of affliction were accomplished. They had served the oppressor long enough; and the time had at length arrived, when the nation which had reduced them to servitude should be judged, and themselves remunerated for their past sufferings and services, by the spoil of their adversaries. This was a just and equitable decree; the illustration of which is yet to be exhibited on a grander scale, "when God shall set His hand again A SECOND TIME to recover

p.342 By this time, I presume, the reader well understands what the Lord has promised, or covenanted, to do. Let him, then, in view of these "exceeding great and precious promises," take a mental survey of Canaan, of Israel, and of the nations -- of Canaan in its desolation, of Israel in their dispersion, and of the nations in the abyss of mortal ignorance, and of dark and cruel superstitions; and prostrate under the iron heel of bloodstained and murderous tyrannies. This is truly a bottomless abyss from which neither Israel nor the Gentiles are able to extricate themselves. The strength of lsrael has hid His face from them; they are therefore powerless among the nations, and can neither "restore all things," nor return to their country. As for the pagan, papal, protestant, and mohammedan, peoples, their case is equally desperate with that of the Jews. They groan under the armed oppressor; they sigh after "liberty, fraternity, and equality;" they long for the regeneration of society; but instead of looking to heaven for deliverance, they curse God and despise His laws; and grasping the sword undertake the amelioration of society by deeds of blood! Mankind have not yet learned that the world's redemption from all its evils is from God; nor are they aware, such is the impenetrability of human ignorance, that they have neither virtue, knowledge, power, nor wisdom, enough, to deliver themselves from their miseries, and to re-constitute society to the promotion of their own happiness, and to the glory and honor of the Most High. There is no man, nor any combination of men, under the heavens, that is competent to the work of social regeneration. If individuals be unable to regenerate themselves, which is unquestionable; no association of persons however multitudinous, can renew the world, and make it what it ought to be. That it needs regeneration is self- evident to all the "sons of light;" and that it cannot of itself compass that necessity is equally

p.317 the remnant of His people which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Khush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. And when He shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea (the Red Sea); and with His mighty wind shall shake His hand over the river (Nile), and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make men (Israel) go over dry shod. And there shall be a highway, for the remnant of His people, which shall be left from Assyria; like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt" (Isaiah 11:11,15,16). I quote this passage here by way of a hint to the reader, that If he would understand how Jehovah [Yahweh] will arbitrate between Israel and the existing nations when He grafts them in again, he must give himself to know the particulars of their deliverance under Moses: for the exodus under him is the type, or representation, of their future exodus under the Lord of Hosts.

p.289 Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah, with whom he lived in Sarah's tent, who had been dead three years. At the end of thirty-five years from this time, Abraham died,

p.208 It is of primary importance that we believe the truth, and not a substitute for it; for it is by the truth only we can be saved; "the truth as it is in Jesus," neither more nor less, is that to which our attention is invited in the word. "The truth" is set forth in the law and the prophets, but we must add to these the apostolic testimony contained in the New Testament, if we would comprehend it "as it is in Jesus." The kingdom is the subject matter of "the truth;" but "as it is in Jesus" is the truth concerning Him as the King and Supreme Pontiff of the dominion, and the things concerning His name, as taught in the doctrine of the apostles. As a whole "the truth" is defined as "the things concerning the Kingdom of God and the Name of Jesus Christ" (Acts 8:12). This phrase covers the entire ground upon which the "one faith" and the "one hope" of the gospel are based; so

p.243 anger and fury upon the heathen, such as they have not heard" (Mic. 5:1, 2, 4-9, 15).

p.343 apparent to all, save those who are of the night. What then is the hope of the believer in the world's extremity. Let the "testimony of God" be our oracle; and let Him reveal to us the help He has provided, the deliverance in reserve.

p.243 From this passage, which is only a specimen of the general tenor of the law and testimony, we are informed,

p.209 that if a man believe only the "things of the kingdom," his faith is defective in the things of the name;" or if his belief be confined to the "things of the name," it is deficient in the "things of the kingdom." There can be no separation of them recognised in a "like precious faith" (2 Pet. 1:1) to that of the apostles. They believed and taught all these things; God hath joined them together, and no man need expect His favour who separates them, or abolishes the necessity of believing the things He has revealed for faith.

p.290 being a hundred and seventy-five, having "dwelt in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise" (Heb. 11:9), for fifteen years. "He was gathered to his people. And his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah" in a good old age, as the Lord had told him. "He died having obtained a good report through faith, not having received the promises; that he without the rest of the seed, might not be made perfect" (Heb. 11:13, 39, 40). Such is the Scriptural obituary of all who die in hope of the kingdom of God.

p.317 But, spiritually dark as were the Egyptians with all their wisdom, the Israelites could boast of little more light than they. The relative condition of these two people was very similar to what it is now in regard to the Jews and papal nations among whom they are scattered. The Jews have a vague idea of the promise made to Abraham, and therefore cherish the hope of restoration to Canaan; but of the name of God they are as ignorant as the generation to whom Moses was sent. "Who is Yahweh," said Pharoah, "that I should let lsrael go? I know not who the Lord God of Israel is." This is the predicament of existing nations. They are called by the name of Christ, but as to God's character, they are as ignorant of it as of His person. As to Israel of "the fourth generation," we have seen that "they understood not" when Moses supposed they would have recognized in him their deliverer; and, when God was about to send him for that very purpose forty years after, Moses inquired what he should say unto them when the elders of Israel should say to him, "What is his name?" -- The name of him whom he styled the God of their fathers (Exod. 3:13-16). Thus, without understanding of the promises, ignorant of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and serving the gods of Egypt, they differed only from the Egyptians in being the oppressed instead of the oppressor, and "beloved for the fathers' sake" -- a type of their present condition, preparatory to their everlasting emancipation from the tyranny of as ignorant, but more brutal, nations, than themselves.

p.343 In the testimony a voice is heard addressing the nations in these words, saying, "Listen, O isles, unto Me; and hearken, ye people, from far; the Lord hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name. He hath made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of His hand hath He hid me, and made me a polished shaft: and said unto me, thou art my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified." Need the reader be told who this great and mighty one is? Whose name was mentioned by the Lord before his birth? Hear the scripture -- "And Gabriel said to Mary, behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS (Heb. Jehoshua, or Jehovah [YAHWEH] tzidkenu, the Lord our righteousness) for he shall save his people from their sins. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end" (Matt. 1:21; Luke 1:31-33). But he was born, and has departed, and is hid in the shadow of the Lord's hand; and has neither received David's throne, nor does he reign over Israel, who, though born to rule over them, "curse their king and their God, and look upwards" (Isaiah 8:21). We shall see how this is. In the oracle quoted, the Lord Jesus, who makes proclamation to the isles of the Gentiles, announces himself as the Servant of Jehovah [YAHWEH] in whom He will be glorified. Now a servant implies work to be performed for, and in behalf of, another. What work, or service, then, has the Lord Jesus to execute for the Father? "Behold the Lord will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him: behold his reward is with him, his work before him " (Isaiah 40:10). We want to know what this work is. Hear then what the word saith. "The Lord formed me from the womb to be his servant to bring Jacob again to him." But is the restoration of the tribes of Israel all he will have to do? We shall find not; for Jehovah [YAHWEH] says to him, "It is a light thing that thou shouldest be My servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the desolation of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be My salvation to the ends of the earth"

p.318 Such was the benighted condition into which God's people Israel had fallen "when the time of the promises (the end of the four hundred years) drew nigh, which God had sworn to Abraham." But though Israel had forgotten them, God had not. They were overwhelmed and absorbed in their personal sufferings, which elicited a cry of great distress. This was the crisis of their fate. "Their cry came up to God by reason of the bondage. 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 had respect unto them."

p.290 After Abraham's decease, Isaac broke up his encampment at Hebron, purposing to go down into Egypt in consequence of a famine in the land of Canaan. He had travelled south as far as Gerar of the Philistines on his way thither. But the Lord appeared unto him there, and said, "Go not down into Egypt: dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of. Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee: for unto thee, and unto thy Seed will I give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father; and I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries and in thy seed shall, all the nations of the earth be blessed because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, and commandments, my statutes, and my laws" (Gen. 26:2-5). In these words, the gospel was preached unto Isaac as it had been to Abraham before him. He also believed the Lord; for on the faith of these promises, he proceeded no farther on his way to Egypt, but "dwelt in Gerar." There was no uncertainty in Isaac's mind. He did not look beyond the grave as to "an undiscovered bourne whence no traveller returns" The future was no mystery to him. "Heaven" was to him a state of blessedness upon earth -- a well-defined, and definable, constitution of things. "I will bless thee," said God: and mark the grounds, upon which his blessing was predicted; "for," continued the Lord,

p.209 There can be no doubt of the truth of these statements in view of Paul's emphatic declaration that "though we (apostles) or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel to you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we 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. 1:8). Here, then, he pronounces a curse upon even an angel if be should come and offer to us any other gospel than that which was preached by himself and the other apostles. It is our wisdom, therefore, to receive nothing which has not the sanction of their authority. Paul styles everything else but what he preached "another gospel," that is, "a perversion of the gospel of Christ;" and as we can only be saved by belief of the truth, such a gospel is both useless and injurious.

p.243 1 -- That the nations are to be subdued, and that universal peace shall prevail in consequence;

p.344 (Isaiah 49:1-3, 5, 6, 8). The Lord Jesus, the servant of Jehovah [YAHWEH], then, is in reserve at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens, for the purpose of a future manifestation, not to destroy the earth and to burn up the wicked, but to fulfil the covenants of promise; in putting an end to the desolation of Canaan, restoring the tribes to their native land, re-establishing the commonweaIth of Israel, enlightening the nations, regenerating society, filling the earth with the glory of the Lord, establishing his sovereignty in the world, and in rewarding the saints. All this is to be accomplished when the Lord comes. The God of the fathers will then remember the covenants which he began to fulfil when he called Israel out of Egypt under Moses; and when he called Jesus out of Egypt in the days of Archelaus. These were but earnests of the good things to come, in the manifestation of which the promises will be perfected in every jot and tittle of the word.

p.243 2 -- That when this shall occur, the Israelites shall become a strong nation;

p.209 Gospel is a word which signifies good , or glad tidings, and the gospel, some particular good . "Blessed," say the Scriptures, "are they who know the joyful sound," or the gospel; and the reason is because it makes known the "blessedness" which is to come upon the nations, and will give everyone an interest in it who believes and accepts it. The gospel of God is the good of blessedness promised in the Scriptures of the prophets, and summarily expressed in the saying, "In thee, (Abraham), shall all nations of the earth be blessed." The making of this promise to Abraham is termed by Paul the preaching of the gospel to Abraham, for, says he, "the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith preached before the gospel to Abraham, saying, 'in thee shall all nations be blessed'"(Gal. 3:8). This he styles "the blessing of Abraham," which is to come upon the nations through Jesus Christ. Abraham holds a conspicuous place in relation to the blessedness of the gospel. He is named by Paul six times in the third chapter of Galatians, which he concludes by saying "if ye be Christ's then are ye Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise."

p.290 2. I will give all these countries to thy seed who is Christ," says the apostle;

p.318 He sent an angel to deliver them. Moses was tending the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, in the vicinity of Horeb. Seeing a bush on fire yet not consumed, he drew near to take a closer view of it. As he approached, the angel addressed him in behalf of the Lord, saying, "I am the God [ELOHIM] of thy fathers, the God [ELOHIM] of Abraham, the God [ELOHIM] of Isaac, and the God [ELOHIM] of Jacob. I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrow: and I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, &c. Come now, therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharoah, that thou mayest bring forth my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt" (Exod. 3:2,6-10). Thus Moses, whom forty years before they refused, saying, ''Who made thee a ruler and a judge? the same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush" (Acts 7:35).

p.344 This is the sense in which James understood the testimony of God. "Simeon," said he, "hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for His name." Then, in quoting the words of Amos, he continues, "After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up: that the residue of men (Edom) might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord" (Acts 15:14-17). This was adduced as a quietus upon the Judaizers to prove the acceptance of Gentiles by the Lord as well as of Jews, and upon the same terms. But I have introduced it here to show the arrangement of things in relation to the work to be performed. We see that there is a certain labor to be finished, to wit, the taking out a people from among the nations for the Lord's name. By the time this is accomplished, the Lord will return. But what does the text before us say he returns for? To set up David's kingdom which is in ruins. But again, what ulterior purpose is to be effected through this restitution? The turning the Gentiles from their delusions to serve God according to the institutions of the Age to come. The People for the Lord's name are the saints or "heirs of the kingdom." Such an institution requires administrators; and as from its nature only righteous and immortal men can inherit it, it became necessary to call them out, first from Israel, and then from the nations, upon the principle of the obedience of faith. This is one reason why so many

p.318 Moses being thus called of God, was first sent to the elders of Israel to make proclamation to them of the good of deliverance from Egypt, and of national independence in the land promised to their fathers. Moses was not only called and sent, but he was also equipped for the work; and prepared to prove that he was Jehovah's [YAHWEH'S] ambassador to them and Pharoah. The Lord knew how incredulous they would reasonably be of the validity of Moses' pretensions to the high office of His plenipotentiary. They had refused Moses forty years before when he was in favor at the court of Egypt; it was not likely, therefore, that they would accept him as a returned exile. Hence, something more was wanting than Moses' bare assertion that he was the ambassador of God. He was, therefore, endued with divine

p.290 4. I will give this multitude of people all these countries; and, I will bless all nations in thy seed; the Christ.

p.210 Hence, men are required to be Christ's that they may be Abraham's seed. But why is it so important to be of the seed of Abraham? For the very obvious reason that as the promise was made to Abraham it is only by being constitutionally "in him" that any son of Adam can obtain a participation in what belongs to Abraham.

p.243 4 -- That the judge of Israel, formerly treated with indignity, shall be their King;

p.345 ages have elapsed from the promise of it to Abraham until now. If it had been possible to set it up in Abraham's time, where would have been the kings and priests to answer its requirements, seeing it is to rule over all nations? It would have been a kingdom without rulers. Hence, the gospel, or glad tidings, concerning it have been preached for the purpose of obtaining kings, priests, and princes of all ranks and degrees, for the kingdom, when the time comes for the God of heaven to establish it by the hand of His servant, the Lord Christ. If Jew or Gentile aspire to this glorious station in the Age to come, "the prize" is attainable on the simple condition of believing the things concerning the kingdom and the name of Jesus Christ, and of being baptized; and thenceforth walking as becomes men, who are to be, not only the rulers, but the companions of Christ, and examples to the nations in righteousness, equity, and faith. The time, however, for collecting together the nobility of the kingdom is almost elapsed. It has been continuous with the desolation of Jerusalem. She was to be "trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles should be fulfilled" (Luke 21:24). These times are almost accomplished. Only a few more years remain, and then ''the accepted time and day of salvation" will have passed. The door into the kingdom will be shut, and no more can obtain a right to enter in. Men who may survive the worse than Egyptian plagues coming upon them, may live in the future age in hope of immortality when the age has passed away; but in the glory and honor of Shiloh's "everlasting dominion," they will have neither part nor lot in the matter.

p.243 5 -- That Jerusalem shall be the metropolis, and Mount Zion the throne of the kingdom.

p.210 This idea may be illustrated by reference to the law of inheritance among all civilized people. If a man be possessed of an estate, the members of his family alone have any right to it at his decease. Though all the world may be his friends, unless they are named in his will, they can have no part in the inheritance he may leave behind. And again, if he have no heir, his estate and property would escheat to the lord of whom he happened to hold his title; but to avoid this it would be quite competent for him to adopt an heir according to the law. The person so adopted would become his seed in every respect save that of natural birth. In the case before us, God hath promised an estate to Abraham; therefore he is styled "THE HEIR OF THE WORLD" (KOSMOS), that is, of the glory, honor and power of the nations throughout the globe in their millennial blessedness -- a gift worthy of Him that hath promised it. Now the promise of this to Abraham and his seed is a promise to no one else; no stranger can lay claim to it. He must be Abraham's seed, or he has ao right to Abraham's property. On this principle, no one who is not a lineal, or fleshly, descendant of Abraham can inherit the world with him when God fulfils the promise. This is the view taken of the matter by the Jews, who found their hope of participation in the world, when it becomes Abraham's and his seed's, upon the acknowledged fact that they are Abraham's flesh and blood. This would be very well if no other condition of inheritance were specified. But the word saith that "the children of the flesh are not the children of God; but the children of the promise (those who believe it) are counted for the seed" (Rom. 9:8). If the children of the flesh had a right to share with Abraham when he obtains possession of the world which God has promised him, then all descended from Ishmael and Esau, his son and grandson, as well as from Isaac, would have equal rights. But God, who not only promises the estate, but specifies the conditions of heirship, has restricted the inheritance to those termed the "children of the promise, as Isaac was" (Gal. 4:28). He has proclaimed the great truth that "the son of the bond-woman shall not be heir with the son of the free-woman" (Gal. 4:30). To be a son

p.290 As Abraham had died without receiving these promises made to him also, and as Isaac knew they were to inherit together,

p.319 power by the exercise of which his claim to their acceptance might be attested. His staff could be turned into a serpent; his hand could become leprous as snow by putting it into his bosom; and water of the Nile spilled upon the ground converted into blood. By these three signs given him to perform as his credentials he was assured by the Lord they would recognize him. He was to execute them in their presence "that they might believe that the Lord God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, had appeared unto him. And I will be with thy mouth," said God, "and teach thee what thou shalt say." "I have made thee god to Pharoah, and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet."

p.345 In the everlasting covenant made with David, the son promised him, who is to sit upon his throne and to wear his crown for ever, is also set forth as a sacrificial victim; as it is written, "In suffering for iniquity I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes due to the children of Adam." So the passage is rendered by Adam Clarke. It is in strict accordance with the truth in the case; and in agreement with the testimony, which says, "He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed" (Isaiah 53:4, 5).

p.319 Having received his appointment after this manner, he was commanded to go and introduce himself to the elders of Israel in his new capacity. He was ordered to say to them, "The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations. This, the Lord God, hath appeared unto me, saying, I have surely visited you, and seen that which is done to you in Egypt: and I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction in Egypt (Gen. 15:13,14, 16) into the land of the Canaanites, &c.; into a land flowing with milk and honey" (Exod. 3:15-17).

p.291 the promise of "all these countries" to him was equivalent to an assurance that he should rise from the dead, when he would see his father and the Christ in possession of the land, and his descendants increased to a great multitude, and then become a mighty nation exclusively occupying it, and all the nations happy and contented under the dominion of Christ. This was the gospel he believed; and the heaven, and blessedness for which he hoped.

p.211 of the free-woman, a man, although a Jew, must believe in the promise made to Abraham; he must be of a like disposition with Abraham; he must be obedient like Abraham; he must be constitutionally inducted into Christ by immersion into the Father, Son and Holy Spirit -- being the subject of these conditions he is included in the family of God, to whose members it is said, "ye are all the children of God in Christ Jesus through the faith. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is no distinction of Jew or Gentile, bond or free, male or female, among you, for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise" (Gal. 3:26-29). These are the children of the promise, the children of God, the brethren and joint-heirs of Jesus Christ, the sons of the free woman, and Abraham, Isaac and Jacob's seed, who are alone entitled to possess the world with him.

p.243 Such is the revealed purpose of the Most High. But a consummation like this requires preparation, and that, too, a very long one, especially as it is to be developed on certain moral as well as political, principles. When the time shall come for the kingdom to be possessed, it will be said to the heirs of it, "Come ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." From this it appears that the work of preparing the kingdom takes from the foundation of the world to the resurrection of the dead. All this time the kingdom is preparing; but when the King descends and rebukes the nations, and wastes the land of Nimrod with the sword, and makes Israel a strong nation, it will then be said that the kingdom is prepared.

p.346 But, being a sacrifice for sin, who should be the priest in the case, and enter into the Most Holy with his blood to make atonement, or reconciliation, for his people? Where there is a sacrifice there is also of necessity a priest. There were priests under the law of Moses, who went into the Most Holy with the blood of the slain beasts, and sprinkled it upon the lid of the ark called the propitiatory, or, mercy-seat, upon which the cherubic faces looked. But the blood of David's Son was not to be sprinkled there. It was not to be carried into the Most Holy made with hands, either by himself, or by the high priest of the law; and wherever its memorial was presented, it could only be exhibited by a high priest. The Son of David could not officiate as a priest on earth so long as the covenant from Sinai continued the law of the land; because it permitted only the tribe of Levi to minister in holy things. He belonged to the tribe of Judah, "of which Moses said nothing concerning priesthood." He could not enter into the temple after his resurrection and present himself before the Lord in its most holy place; neither could the levitical high priest enter heaven with the memorial of Shiloh's death. What, then, was to be done? David's son must appear in heaven in his own person, and as the high priest of a new law offer himself before God.

p.243 The reader will probably inquire, what does this work of preparation consist in that it should take so long a time? This is an important question, and, in reply, I remark that if physical force only were employed in preparing the kingdom, it need not take so long. A kingdom may be set up in a few days, and abolished as speedily, as we have witnessed in our own time. But it is not so with the kingdom of God. The physical is subordinated to the intellectual and moral; and, as men, among whom it is being prepared, are so earthly and sensual, the mental progresses much more slowly than the physical, and, therefore, a kingdom founded upon moral principles requires longer to prepare, but is more enduring when completed. In the following pages my endeavour will be to set forth an answer to the question in detail.

p.211 Jesus came to preach the gospel. "The spirit of the Lord," saith He, "is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; and to preach the acceptable year of the Lord" (Luke 4:19). It is admitted, then, that Jesus fulfilled His mission; consequently, in His proclamation, He preached the good of the acceptable season, or BLESSED ERA of the Lord. But what was the great focal truth of this acceptable year? Let Jesus answer the question in His own words: "I must preach the kingdom of God; for therefore am I sent" (Luke 4:43); and so, much did He preach about this kingdom, that the people became impatient and sought to take Him by force and make Him King. But He would not permit it, "and because they thought that the kingdom of God was immediately to appear, He spake a parable to them,"in which He gave them to understand that He must first take a journey into a far country to be presented before the Ancient of Days to receive from Him the kingdom, and then to return, when He would bestow upon His servants power and authority over the cities of the world (Dan. 7:13,14,18,27; Luke 19:11-17). According to this arrangement Jesus rose from the dead and took His departure, when He ascended to the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens, where He is now, He has not yet received the kingdom, glory and dominion, or He would have already returned. He is waiting for this, "sitting at the right hand of God until His foes are made His footstool" (Psalm 110:1). He will then appear in His kingdom and rule as King over all the earth.

p.291 After this Isaac sowed in the land, and received that year a hundred-fold; and "he waxed great, and went forward, and grew until he became very great; and the Philistines envied him." And their king said, "Go from us: for thou art much mightier than we." So he left Gerar, and went to Beer-sheba. After this, he received a visit from the king of Gerar accompanied by one of his friends, and the general of his army. But Isaac did not seem pleased at their coming; for he asked them, "Wherefore come ye to me, seeing ye hate me, and have sent me away from you?" Their answer shows that they were aware of the relation Isaac sustained to God and to his promises; for they replied, "We saw certainly that the Lord was with thee; we wish therefore to make a covenant with thee that thou wilt do us no hurt;" and they ended by stating their conviction, saying, "Thou art now the blessed of the Lord;" that is, Abraham being dead with whom we made a covenant before, the blessing of God promised to him now rests upon thee, from whom we seek amity and peace (Gen. 26:29; 21:23).

p.258 In obedience to the voice of God, Moses presented himself before the elders of Israel, accompanied by his prophet. He announced himself as the messenger of God, and laid before them his "memorial unto all generations." As I have shown on page 258, this memorial, which is God's name for ever, reveals the resurrection of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the last of whom had then been dead two hundred and eight years. This was an important announcement, and amounted to this, " I, Moses, am sent to you by the God, of your fathers, who are to rise again." This was a startling declaration for a fugitive from Egyptian vengeance, and a Midianitish shepherd, to make to a whole people. I am "called and sent" of Him, Who is the God of the living, and hath appeared unto me, to inform you that He hath come down to deliver you by my hand from your grievous bondage in this country of the Nile. This was as astounding a pretension as that of the "ministers" and "clergy " of this time, who also claim to be "called of God as Aaron was," and to be sent with the word of the Lord to the people as His ambassadors! The important difference, how-

p.346 But the covenant made with David, while it speaks of his son as a sacrifice, and, by implication, of his resurrection, and future occupation of his throne for ever; says nothing about him as high priest of his kingdom. Hence, in order that he might enter his divine Father's presence as a high priest, and hereafter sit as a priest upon the throne of David's kingdom, "the word of the oath '' (Heb. 7:28) was given for the purpose. This was necessary; for "no man taketh this honor upon himself, but he that is called of God as Aaron was."David's son was called to the high priesthood of the kingdom, as distinctly as Aaron was to the same honor under the Mosaic law. "He glorified not himself to be made a high priest; but He that said unto him, "Thou art my Son, to-day have I begotten thee"; saith also in another place, ''Thou art a Priest for ever after the Order of Melchisedec" (Heb. 5:4-6; Psalm 110:4).

p.320 ever, in the case is, that God attested the truth of Moses' pretensions, but does not confirm theirs. Clerical and ministerial ambassadorship rests upon their word, and is predicated upon a feeling which no one can perceive but themselves. It is assertion without proof; and until they can adduce credentials divinely attested as in all other cases of real appointments in scripture, if they are not set down at once as impostors (which would be quite justifiable after waiting for credentials many centuries) mankind are at all events under no obligation to attend to the word they profess to have received.

p.291 When Isaac was sixty, and Abraham a hundred and sixty, Esau and Jacob were born. Before their birth, the Lord said to Rebekah, "Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger." Upon this election, the apostle makes the following remarks, saying, "When Rebekah had conceived by our father Isaac: -- for the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth; it was said unto her, the elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated" (Rom. 9:10-13; Mal. 1:2, 3). This election had relation to the purpose of God revealed in the promises to Abraham and Isaac. He purposed to make "a mighty nation" of their posterity, out of whom "He should come that shall have dominion" (Numb.

p.212 The gospel, then, was preached to Abraham by the angel of the Lord, and it was preached by Jesus to His own nation, and to them only, for He "was not sent, save to the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Matt. 15:24). Paul also declares that it was preached to that generation of Israelites whose carcases fell in the wilderness, but it did not profit them because they did not believe it (Heb. 4:2). Therefore God sware in His wrath that they should not enter into the rest it proclaimed (Heb. 3:18,19). Before He suffered on the accursed tree, Jesus sent His apostles, and seventy others, throughout the land, to "preach the kingdom of God." In recording their obedience to His command, Luke says, " they went through the towns preaching the gospel" (Luke 9:2, 6); so that it is clear that to preach the kingdom is to preach the gospel, and to preach the gospel is to preach the kingdom of God.

p.243 A kingdom is the dominion of a king. An empire is also the dominion of a king, but with this difference; the kingdom proper

p.346 Here, then, are two orders of priesthood -- the Order of Melchisedec, and the Order of Aaron. Melchisedec's was contemporary with Abraham; Aaron's was not instituted until 430 years after the confirmation of the covenant. Of Melchisedec the apostle could have said much more than he did say; but he

p.244 or " the first dominion," is restricted to regally constituted territory; while the empire, or secondary dominion, though belonging to the same king, extends over other peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues, than those of the royal domain. This is illustrated in the case of the British kingdoms and empire. The kingdoms are restricted to England and Scotland, which are by constitution regal territories; but the empire is a secondary dominion of the same united crowns, extending over Canada, Hindoostan, and other parts of the globe, with all the nations, languages, and people, they contain.

p.212 This is a most important demonstration, for it enables us to determine when we hear the gospel. The gospel is not preached when the things of the kingdom are omitted. And this is one grand defect in modern preaching; either there is nothing said about the kingdom, or a kingdom is preached which is a mere matter of speculation, a kingdom of heaven in principle, in the hearts of men, or somewhere beyond the skies! But, the gospel does not treat of such a kingdom as this, a mere fiction indoctrinated into men's minds by "the cunning craftiness of those who lie in wait to deceive." So inseparable is the idea of gospel from that of kingdom, that we find them not only substituted for each other, but associated together as terms of explanation. Thus, "Jesus went throughout every city and village, preaching and showing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God" (Luke 8:1; Mark 1:14); and in the prophecy of Mount Olivet it is written, "THIS gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the habitable (EN HOLE OIKOUMENE, the Roman empire) for a testimony to all the nations: and then shall come the end" (Matt. 24:14).

p.292 24:19). This Purpose could not be accomplished if left to the undirected will of man. Abraham would have made Ishmael his heir, and Isaac would have elected Esau, both of which, as events have shown, would have defeated, rather than have promoted, "the purpose of God." The wild Arabs of the desert, who have descended from Ishmael; or the Edomites, the posterity of Esau; both of which races illustrate the moral obliquity of their fathers: would have been a sorry election in which the purpose of God might be established. The rejection of Ishmael, and the election of Jacob, prove the wisdom and foresight of him with whom the fathers had to do. He sees the end of all things from the beginning; and perceiving the future characters of the two races, he said by Malachi, "I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness."

p.320 When Moses received his commission, he objected to go to Israel, for, said he, "they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice: for they will say, The Lord hath not appeared unto thee." It was then the Lord empowered him to work the first sign; and if that did not convince them, then the second; but if still incredulous, afterwards the third, which would be irresistible. Now, when through Aaron he had spoken all the words commanded, "he did the signs in the sight of the people." If they had believed his simple word, the signs would not have been given; but as they were all given, it is evident that they did not believe his bare assertion. When they saw the wonders, however, they came to the conclusion of Nicodemus in relation to "the prophet like unto Moses," that he was a person "sent from God, for no man could do the miracles he did except God were with him" (John 3:2); as it is written, "and he did the signs in the sight of the people, and they believed that the Lord had visited the children of Israel, and that He had looked upon their affliction" (Exod. 4:31).

p.347 has said enough to give us an idea of his order of priesthood. In this he was without predecessor, or successor, without sacerdotal genealogy, and without beginning of official days, or end of life: but, assimilated to the Son of God, abideth a priest continually; of whom also it is testified that he liveth (Heb. 7:3, 8). The Aaronic priesthood was the reverse of all this. Its priests were descended from Aaron, their mothers were of the tribe of Levi, their fathers in office before them, upon which they entered at thirty years, and vacated it at fifty. But the priesthood of Shiloh is not like this. His pedigree is royal, and not sacerdotal. He had no predecessor, nor will he ever vacate the office that another may take his place.

p.320 Being accepted as a ruler and a deliverer, he and his prophet, accompanied by the elders of Israel, presented themselves before Pharaoh. Moses announced himself as the bearer of a message to him, from the Lord God of Israel, saying, "Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto Me in the wilderness." This demand astonished Pharaoh exceedingly. "Who," said he, "is the Lord that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go.

p.292 It may be remarked here, that the election of Scripture bath reference to "the purpose of God " in relation to the constitution of the kingdom. He hath elected its territory; He hath elected the nation to inhabit it for ever; He hath elected the king to rule over it; and He hath elected its saints to assist Him in the administration of its affairs. The election in all these cases has been "of him that calleth." This election, however, is not such as "divines" contend for; nor does it relate to the subjects of which they treat. He does not say to this man, "I elect you from all eternity to be saved from the flames of hell, do what you may;" nor does He say to that, "I predetermine you to reprobation, and eternal torture, do what you can." To affirm this of God is to blaspheme His name. The scriptures declare, that "He is no respecter of persons; "that" He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way, and live; "and that" He is long-suffering, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance" (Acts 10:34; Ezek. 33:11; 2 Pet. 3:9). Such a statement as this, is entirely at variance with "theology," whose traditions are the exhalations of the carnal mind of a fierce and gloomy age.

p.212 After He rose from the dead He commanded the apostles, saying go preach the gospel to every creature: he that believes and is immersed shall be saved: and he that believes not shall be condemned," and "lo, I am with you unto the end of the world." In view of these texts can anyone be so mystified as not to see that salvation is predicated on believing the gospel of the kingdom, and being baptized into Jesus Christ? They were to preach "this gospel of the kingdom" in the name of Jesus; how did they execute the work? "They went forth and preached everywhere,

p.244 There are various elements necessary to the constitution of a well-organized kingdom. In the first place, a kingdom must have a territory. To maintain the opposite would be to contend that somewhere is nowhere. A kingdom is not located in a feeling, or in heart ; though a belief of its future existence, a comprehension of its nature, or an attachment to it may exist there. It must have a place, a locality, as well as a name. It would be highly absurd to say, that the kingdom of England and the throne of Victoria were in Spain ; yet this would be as reasonable as to say, that the kingdom and throne of David are beyond the skies! an orthodox dogma contained in the fiction that Jesus is now sitting upon the throne of His father David! What conceit after this is too ridiculous for creed-makers and systernatizers to promulge!

p.347 It is probable that Shem was the personage to whom Abraham paid tithes on his return from the slaughter of the kings. Abraham died thirty-five years before Shem reached his five hundred and second year after the flood. At this date, Isaac was one hundred and ten, and Jacob fifty; so that they were contemporary with Shem for these periods of their lives. There is no account of Shem's death in the scripture; on the contrary, it is testified, as we have seen, that the person called Melchizedec still lives. Now, Melchizedec is a word expressive of the character of the person who bore it. It signifies king of righteousness, or righteous king. He was the greatest king in Canaan, and reigned in Salem, which signifies peace, and afterwards called Jerusalem; so that this righteous king was King of Peace. Shem, king of righteousness, and king of peace, and priest of the Most High God, is the type, contemporary with the holder of the promises, of the Seed, or Christ, on the throne of the kingdom of God.

p.244 In addition to a territory, a kingdom requires subjects, which compose the nation over whom there is a king. But, simply to set up a man and call him "king" would be unwise. It would be consonant only with the barbarism of savage tribes. A well-regulated monarchy requires gradation of ranks, and orders of the best men, with whom the king may divide his power and glory, and administer the laws of the kingdom. These laws should be in conformity with the provisions and spirit of the constitution, which defines the principles, and creates and combines the elements of the state. Now, it is worthy of remark, that the subjects of a kingdom do not possess the kingdom. They are simply the inhabitants of the territory, who are defended against external agression, and protected as civilians by the power and law ot the state. The possessors of the kingdom are the king and those with whom he is pleased to share his authority. This is an important distinction, and must not be forgotten in studying "the things of the kingdom of God." The subjects of the kingdom and empire are a totally different class from the heirs

p.213 the Lord working with them, and confirming THE WORD with signs following" (Mark 16:20). They began at Jerusalem, passed throughout Judea, then went to Samaria, and, lastly, to the end of the land (ESCHATOU TES GES). They began on the day of Pentecost and preached only to the Jews for several years, at the end of which Peter and Paul began to proclaim the kingdom to Gentiles also. The labors of the apostles were indefatigable. They filled the Roman empire with their doctrine, and made such an impression upon it that tumults were excited, and they were charged with treason against the state, because they proclaimed another king than Caesar (Acts 17:7, 31) who should rule the world in righteousness as the sovereign Lord of all the earth. "They spake the word of God with boldness." "The multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul," and great kindness was among them all. In about thirty years the gospel of the kingdom was proclaimed in all the world, to every creature under the heaven (Col.1:6, 23). They finished their work, and fell asleep, the Lord having abundantly fulfilled His promise of co-operating with them to the end of the world.

p.292 God elects saints for His kingdom, not by foregone conclusions which are irreversible; but men are "elect through sanctification of spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ" (1 Pet. 1:2). This reveals to us the means, and design of the election in relation to the present time. "Sanctification of spirit" is the means; "obedience and

p.320 Wherefore do ye, Moses and Aaron, hinder the people from their works? get you to your burdens." The only effect of this application was to double their toil, and to cause the officers of Israel to be beaten, because they were not successful in extorting from their brethren what was impossible. They remonstrated with the tyrant, but to no other purpose than to be

p.347 The word of the oath, saying, "I have sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedec," having changed the priesthood of the kingdom, "there is made of necessity also a change of the law" (Heb. 7:12) of the State. No revolution was more complete and radical than that necessitated by the substitution of the Melchizedec for the Aaronic priesthood of the commonwealth of Israel. Under the Mosaic code the regal and pontifical offices were divided, and held by two distinct orders of men. The regal was hereditary in the family of David, and the pontifical was hereditary in the family of Aaron; but when the new code shall be promulged, that, namely, which is to "go forth from Zion" when Christ shall give peace to the

p.321 spurned from his presence as idle fellows. They perceived that they were in the aggravated evil that had befallen them. Moses, indeed, could not deny it. He had nothing to say in extenuation; but in his extremity returned to expostulate with the Lord. "Wherefore," said he, "Lord, hast thou so evil-entreated this people? Why is it that Thou hast sent me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Thy name, he hath done evil to this people; neither hast Thou delivered Thy people at all" (Exod. 5:22). After this manner, being made to feel the need of deliverance, Moses was sent again to them with glad tidings of a sure and speedy redemption. In communicating it to Moses, the Lord prefaced the message with a reiteration of the memorial. "I am the Lord," said he, "and I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH [YAHWEH] (He who shall be: Isaiah 42:8, 9) was I not known unto them. And I have also established My covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, wherein they were strangers. And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage: and I have remembered my covenant."

p.293 sprinkling of Christ's blood," the end. How this is brought about is explained in these words -- "Ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the spirit" (1 Pet. 1:22). The manner in which men are brought to obedience, and purification by the sprinkled blood, through the spirit, is practically explained in the use of the keys by Peter on the day of Pentecost, and at the house of Cornelius. The spirit through the apostle, "convinced men of sin, and righteousness, and judgment to come;" and confirmed his words by the signs which accompanied them. They believed and obeyed the truth; and "in obeying it" were purified from all past sins by faith in the blood of sprinkling. Thus, they were "washed, sanctified, and justified by the name of the Lord, and by the spirit of God;" and after this manner elected according to His foreknowledge and predetermination.

p.213 Thus the same gospel that was preached to Abraham was preached also to Jews and Gentiles by the apostles after the ascension of Jesus to the right hand of power. There was, however, this difference -- when it was preached to Abraham and to the generation which perished in the wilderness, it was altogether a matter of promise, but when preached by the apostles to the Roman nations some things connected with the promise were fulfilled, so that the gospel of the kingdom as they preached it was partly a matter of promise, partly a matter of history, and partly doctrinal. It was thus presented to mankind in a threefold point of view, which may be stated in this form --

p.245 or possessors of the dominion. From this brief view, then, of the nature and constitution of a kingdom, its elements may be stated as consisting of,

p.348 world, and judge among the nations, the kingly and priestly offices will be united, and their functions exercised by one person, even Jesus, "who is King of Righteousness and King of Peace, and Priest of the Most High God," as Melchizedec was. Jesus the high priest will inherit the throne of David by virtue of the covenant made with him. If there had been no other oaths than that with Abraham, and this with David, David 's son could not have been a priest upon his throne; but the word of the oath coming in, the throne and pontificate of the kingdom become the right of Christ, the Lord.

p.245 1. A territory; 2. Subjects; 3 A king; 4. A constitution; 5. Laws, civil and ecclesiastical; 6. Aristocracy; 7. Attributes, or, prerogatives, rights, privileges, &c.

p.213 I. Promises to be fulfilled; or things concerning the kingdom of God.

p.293 No man need flatter himself that he is one of God's elect, unless he believes the gospel of the kingdom and obeys it, and walks in the steps of the faith of Abraham. A man then knows, and feels, that he is elected; because God hath said, "He that believes the gospel, and is baptised, shall be saved." In the prophecy of Mount Olivet the elect are named in connection with the suppression of the Hebrew commonwealth. It is there written, "Except those days be shortened, there should no flesh be saved;" that is, no Jew should survive: "but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened" (Matt. 24:22). These elect were the servants of the Lord in Israel, to whom Jesus had granted power to become the sons of God; as well as the fathers, for whose sake Israel is beloved (Rom. 11:28); and for whose future blessedness and glory, the nation is preserved. This preservation of Israel for the elect's sake, is beautifully expressed by the prophet, saying, "Thus saith the Lord, as the new wine is found in the cluster, and one saith, Destroy it not: for a blessing is in it: so will I do for my servants' sake that I may not destroy them all. And I will bring forth a Seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains; and mine elect shall inherit it, (the land of Canaan) and my servants shall dwell there. And Sharon shall .be a fold of flocks, and the valley of Achor a place for the herds to lie down in, for my people that have sought me" (Isaiah 65:8, 9). "God," then "has not cast away his people Israel, whom he foreknew," and spoke of to Abraham and Isaac, before they had any sons. He has chastised them for their sins;

p.321 Such was the preamble. The God of Abraham was about to begin the fulfilment of the covenant in that part of it which related to "the fourth generation" of the natural seed. He was therefore in relation to Israel about to become known as the performer of His word. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob knew Him as Almighty; but as they had died without receiving the promises covenanted, they knew Him not as Jehovah [YAHWEH]: yet as Jehovah [YAHWEH] is now the narne of Abraham's God unto all generations, Abraharn, Isaac, and Jacob will know Him as set forth in his memorial, when they rise from the dead. He will then be Jehovah [YAHWEH] to them.

p.348 In the everlasting covenant made with David, it is declared of his immortal son by the Lord, saying, "He shall build a house for my name." David wished to execute this great national work, but was forbidden. It was afterwards accomplished by Solomon, and in this he eminently typified the "greater than Solomon," who is to construct a similar edifice, only on a vastly more magnificent scale. This will appear from the following testimony. After Solomon's temple was laid in ruins, and while the Jews after their return from Babylon were erecting a new one upon the site of the old, the word of the Lord came to the prophet, saying, "Behold the man whose name is THE BRANCH: and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord; even he shall build the temple of the Lord; and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne; and shall be a priest upon his throne. And they that are far off shall come and build in the temple of the Lord" (Zech. 6:12,13,15). Let the reader turn to the texts below, and he will have no doubt as to the person styled the Branch (Zech. 3:8; Isaiah 11:1; Jer. 23:5; 33:15; Rev.22:16). The Melchizedec Son of David, then, is to build the third temple in Jerusalem to the name of Jehovah [YAHWEH]; and as the Tyrian Gentiles aided Solomon to rear his edifice, so those who are far off from Jerusalem, where the prophecy was delivered, are to co-operate in the erection of Shiloh's, which is to be "a house of prayer for all people" (Isaiah 56:7), when the Lord shall "plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art my people" (Isaiah 51:16). If the reader wish to know more about the temple to be built by Shiloh in Jerusalem, he can consult Ezekiel (Ezek. 40, 41,42). The description comes in between the battle of Armageddon in which Nebuchadnezzar's image is

p.321 Because, then, after nearly 430 years from its confirmation, God had remembered his covenant, he said to Moses, "Say unto the children of Israel, I am Jehovah [YAHWEH], and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments: and I will take you to Me for a People, and I will be to you a God: and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God, who bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. And I will bring you in unto the

p.294 but "there is a remnant according to the election of grace." The election hath obtained the grace, by accepting Jesus as the Seed, and inheritor of the land; and the rest are blinded until this day." But this blindness is not permanent. They will yet become a great and mighty nation, rejoicing in the service of the Lord Jesus and the elect; for "blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved" (Rom. 11:2,5,7,8,25,26) -- that is, all the twelve tribes shall be reunited into one nation and kingdom upon their own land, and be received into the favor of God (Ezek. 37:25-28; 36:33-38; 39:25-29); they will then have been grafted in again, according to the word of the Lord.

p.213 III. The doctrinal import of the fulfilled promises; or things concerning His Name.

p.245 Now, "the kingdom of God and His Christ" will consist of all these things; and will be as material an institution -- as real and terrestrial a monarchy as those of Great Britain, Belgium, or Spain. It is not now an existent reality; for, though it once existed under a constitution, which hath waxed old and vanished away, its elements are dissolved from their previous combination and remain dispersed. Their restitution is, however, a matter of promise, attested by two immutable things, by the oath and existence of the living God. His kingdom and empire on earth are a great truth, but not an existing fact; they are visible only to the eye of faith, and are required by their Founder to be received in the "full assurance of hope," with rejoicing and confidence to the end (Heb. 3:6,14 ; 6:11,18, 19).

p.349 broken to pieces on the mountains of Israel, and the earth shining with the glory of the Lord. The first nine verses of the forty-third chapter show that the era of the Temple described is when Shiloh "dwells in the midst of the children of Israel for ever, and His holy name they shall defile no more." This is conclusive; for ever since their exode from Egypt until the present time, they have incessantly defiled the Lord's name; but the prophecy contemplates a period when they shall do it "no more."

p.245 In studying the things of the kingdom of God, the foundation laid in the beginning must not be forgotten, for at that epoch its preparation was commenced. The system of the world is an adaptation to man in his fallen state; and out of the things thus arranged, it is that Christ's imperial dominion is being evolved. By the laws of procreation has been provided a population, which by the confusion of tongues, has been distributed into nations, whose habitations have been fixed by the controlling power of the Elohim. Thus nations have been formed which are destined to flourish in the blessedness of the future age. Their history records the fiery ordeal through which their generations have passed. For the most part, men see nothing in it but a strife for territory and glory, for the advantage of their rulers; but the Scriptures reveal the workings of an invisible machinery, whose activity is perceived by the believer, in the incidents which occasion the conflicts among them. He discerns the leaven, hid in the measures of meal, at work leavening the minds of men, and developing the "enmity" between the seeds. And though the strife is terrible, he feels no dismay, but rejoices with a firm

p.213 A man might believe all the promises and their doctrinal import, but if he did not believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the subject of them, he would make a very good believing Jew under the law, but he would not be a Christian under grace. This is the great turning point in the faith of an enlightened Jew, and Christian. Is Jesus of Nazareth the personage described in the law and the prophets; has He right and title to the throne of David.

p.294 In conclusion, everything in relation to the kingdom is ordained upon sovereign principles. Nothing is left to the will of man. Hence, the apostle saith, "It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy." The call of the Gentiles to take part in the future kingdom is a striking illustration of the truth of this. Had things been left to the apostles, they would not have extended the invitation to men of other nations to become with them heirs of the kingdom of Canaan, and of the dominion of the world. They were running to and fro among their own nation, calling upon them to become the children of the promise who are counted for the seed; but it was not of their will, but contrary to it, that "the word" was preached to the Gentiles, opening the kingdom to them. The invitation to our race, as the apostle truly saith, was "of God that showeth mercy." Pharoah of Egypt is another illustration of this principle. God purposed to show forth his power that his name might be declared throughout all the earth. This manifestation was not left to the wisdom or pleasure of Moses. The display was to be according to the divine will. The world was overspread with ignorance and superstition, and Pharoah was the autocrat of the age. He was totally ignorant of who the Lord was, and therefore refused to obey Him. He was "a vessel unto dishonour" -- an idolator under the dominion of the propensities. Had he been left to himself, he would have continued like all other chiefs of the sin-power, "a vessel of wrath fitted for destruction." His tyranny had come to this crisis, namely, either the Israelites must be exterminated, or their oppressor and his power must be destroyed. The judgment in the case belonged to the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of

p.322 land, concerning the which I did swear to give it to Abraliam, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it you for an heritage: I am Jehovah [YAHWEH]." According to all these words Moses spoke to them, "but they hearkened not to him, for anguish of spirit, and for cruel bondage" (Exod. 6:6-9).

p.349 When the Lord Jesus shall sit upon the throne of his father David, as high priest of the nation, and has dedicated the temple to the Most High, what then? "Many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house (or temple) of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths" (Isaiah 2:3)." The sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the Lord, to serve Him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be His servants, every one that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of My covenant: 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." And "there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts " (Zech. 14:16-21; Isaiah 66:20,21,23) Want of space for the third part of this work will not permit me to enlarge here; I must therefore leave these and many other testimonies of the same sort to the reflection of the reader, without any further comment, and pass on to a brief consideration of the things which concern

p.322 After this the judgments of God fell fast and heavy upon Pharaoh and the Egyptians, until at length they rose and thrust the Israelites out of Egypt. The record of this event is thus given by Moses. "Now the returning (VEMUSEB) of the children of Israel who dwelt in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years. And it came to pass, at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the self-same day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt. It is a night to be much observed unto the Lord, for bringing them out from the land of Egypt: this is that night of the Lord to be observed of all the children of Israel in their generations" (Exod. 12:40-42). The period here indicated was 430 years from the confirmation of the covenant now remembered of God, which occurred on the 14th of Abib, or Nisan, at even, the month when the Jewish year and calendar begin (Exod. 12:2), answering to the latter half of March and the former part of April.

p.295 Jacob; the result could not, therefore, be for a moment doubtful. He that has power over the clay had appointed Israel to be "a vessel unto honour," upon whom it was His sovereign pleasure to have mercy. They were, therefore, "vessels fitted for mercy," whom He had before prepared, that on them He might make known the riches of His glory, both then and in a time to come. To affect their deliverance then; to punish Pharaoh and his abettors for their tyranny; and to make himself known to the surrounding nations -- He stirred up the Egyptian king to show all that was in his obdurate and relentless nature. Upon this view of the case, He elected Pharaoh and his host to a terrible overthrow; while He elected Israel to become His people in the land of Canaan. Thus "He had mercy on whom He would have mercy, and whom He would He hardened" (Rom. 9:14-33). Such is the doctrine of election as taught in the scriptures of truth. Let us return now to the further consideration of the case of Esau and Jacob.

p.214 and to the dominion of the world? The Jew says "no; we look for another" but the Christian replies "He unquestionably is the person; we look for no other, but assuredly expect the reappearance of 'this same Jesus' on earth, to restore the throne and kingdom of David, to occupy them as the King of the Jews, and to be the Melchisedec High Priest and Ruler of the nations." Hence, it is the foundation truth of the gospel of the kingdom, that Jesus of Nazareth is the Anointed King, and Son of the Living God. He is the Rock, or Strength of Israel, whose power will never be restored till He sits upon the throne of their kingdom, and is acknowledged as King by the nation.

p.246 and unwavering confidence in the certainty of the triumph of the truth and its adherents, because God has assured him in His word, that the King He has provided shall crush the sin-power and make the nations lick the dust like a serpent (Mic. 7:17) Now this implies their subjugation, and it is to this crisis that all things are at present tending. And what then? Obviously, the transfer of the conquered to the sceptre of Jehovah's King, who overcomes them (Rev. 17:14), as it is written, "the Gentiles shall wait for His law" (Isa. 42:4); and "He shall reign over them" (Rom. 15:16). The nations, then, are the subjects of the Theocratic empire. By the truth and judgments of God brought to bear upon them, exciting and controlling their activity, they are being moulded like clay in the hands of the potter, for the dominion of the saints in the future age.

p.349 If I have been successful in making a distinct impression upon the reader's mind as to the nature of "the kingdom of God and of His Christ;" and that impression have originated within him a desire to know what he must do to inherit it, it remains now to direct his attention to the things of the name of Christ. This is a subject which would occupy very much space if all were to be said about it that would be profitable. I find myself, however, compelled to confine myself to a mere sketch, which the reader must more highly finish as the result of his own investigations.

p.246 The hope of these things, whose seeds were sown in the constitution of the world at the beginning, was the hope of the gospel then in its most general enunciation. The subjects and territory of the empire, and the rulers thereof, were plainly marked out. The earth, and the conquered seed of the serpent, obedient to the victorious Seed of the woman, was the gospel of the kingdom in its most simple form. No particular portion of the globe, however, was indicated as the territory of a kingdom. The Spirit began with universals; but, as the world became older, the particulars of the promise were unfolded to the eye of faith. But never, from the foundation of the world to the sealing up of the testimony of God, was such a kingdom, or dominion, promised, as that which is believed in, and glorified in the "sacred" psalmody of the Gentiles. Earth, and not the skies, is the region where alone it will appear. I shall show this abundantly, and thereby prove, that they who sing such ditties as those of which the following is a specimen, sing what ne'er is, nor e'er shall be :

p.214 On the other hand, a man may believe that Jesus is the Son of Cod, that He was sent of God as a messenger to Israel, that there is remission of sins through the shedding of His blood, that He is the Saviour, and that He rose from the dead -- if he believe these things, but be ignorant, and consequently faithless, of "the things of the kingdom," he cannot obtain glory, honour, incorruptibility, and life, in that kingdom. The condition of salvation is the belief of the whole gospel, and obedience to it. It is not, "he that believes in Jesus Christ and is immersed shall be saved;" but "he who shall believe THE GOSPEL, and is immersed" (Mark 16:15,16). Simply to believe in Jesus is to believe no more than in "THE MESSENGER;" but He was sent to preach the gospel to the poor, to shew the glad tidings of the kingdom of God; this was His MESSAGE, the message of God to the Jew first and afterwards to the Greek. Let it be remembered then, that salvation is predicated upon belief in the MESSENGER and in the MESSAGE He brings from God. The unhappy condition of the professing world at the present time is that they have no faith in the message of God, but rather ridicule it and heap insult upon those who contend for it. "I came to preach the kingdom of God," says Jesus. "Oh! we believe that Thou camest from God, because no man could do the miracles Thou doest unless God were with him; but we do not believe a word in a kingdom in Judea under Thy rule. We have no idea of Thy coming to this cursed earth again to reign in Jerusalem, and to sit as a Priest upon a throne there. This is nothing but the day dream of those who take Thy words, and the sayings of the prophets, as if they were to be understood in the carnal, or literal sense. It would be derogatory to the interests of God to suppose, or to desire such a consummation. No, no; we believe Thou art at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens, now reigning over

p.295 The boys grew to be men. "Esau was an expert hunter, and a man of the field." The result of these pursuits was to surround himself with warriors, whose power grew into the future kingdom of Edom. When he was ninety-one years old, he was able to march with four hundred men against Jacob, then on his return from Mesopotamia. But Jacob was of a more peaceful disposition. "He was a plain man, dwelling in tents." While they sojourned with their father, Esau was Isaac's favourite; and Jacob, his mother's. One day while Jacob was preparing a pottage of red lentiles, Esau came in from hunting very much overcome with fatigue. He requested Jacob to let him partake of the red lentiles. But Jacob was not disposed to part with it without a consideration. Esau was the elder, and according to the custom of primogeniture, was entitled to certain privileges, termed birthright. Now, Jacob, whose name signifies "supplanter," wished to supplant him in this right, that he might afterwards be entitled to the precedence over Esau, which God had indicated in saying, "The elder shall serve the younger." Therefore before he consented to Esau's request, he said, "Sell me this day thy birthright." Esau reflected on the demand a little; at length he said, "Behold, I am at the point to die; what profit shall this birthright do to me?" "Swear then," said Jacob, "to me this day: and he sware unto him: and sold his birthright to Jacob. Jacob then gave him the red pottage. From this time Esau acquired the surname of Edom, which

p.322 The terrible display of power by the hand of Moses, while it filled the minds of the Egyptians with dismay, convinced Israel at length that God was able and willing to perform what He had covenanted to do. He had said to Pharaoh, "Israel is my son, even my first-born; therefore, let my son go, that he may serve Me; and if thou refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay thy son even thy first-born." This threat had at length been carried into execution; and "there was not a house in Egypt where there was not one dead.'' First-born for first-born: if Pharaoh desired God's first-born, God would retaliate upon him, and not spare his. Let the reader mark the style here. "Israel is my son my first-born." What does this import? Did not God tell Abraham that He had constituted him a father of many nations? Then these nations are in effect his sons; for a father implies sons. But of this family of nation-sons which of them is the first-born son? The testimony before us declares that Israel is. The nation of Israel then is the heir, and nearest to the throne in the empire of the world. But it is now, and will be for a few more years, as it was in the days of Pharaoh, Israel God's first-born is scattered, oppressed, and destroyed, by the tyrants of the nations, and a subject of reproach among the

p.349 The NAME Of Jesus Christ comprehends all that is affirmable of him; and is therefore the summary of his character as a prophet, sacrifice, priest, and king. Hence, to understand his name we must know what is testified of him in the law, the

p.323 people. But the sentence of God is still unrepealed; and at a coming crisis, He says, to the Autocrat, "Let my son, Israel, go that he may serve Me; and if thou refuse, I will slay thy son, even thy first-born." When the events in Egypt shall be re-enacted in the nineteenth century (*), "a nation," even Israel, "shall be born in a day;" and other nations will soon after follow him in a birth into Christ and the political family of Abraham. When this comes to pass, all the nations of the earth will be Abraham's sons and rejoice in Israel their elder brother.

p.296 signifies red; and commemorates the fact that "Esau despised his birthright" (Gen. 25:27-34).

p.215 mankind; that we are Thy ministers and ambassadors on earth, and that in enriching us the world is giving its substance and doing homage to Thee; and that when we die we shall come to Thee, and kingdoms rule beyond the skies. Our churches are Thy kingdom here, and it is our deep and pious conviction that the more they confide in us, and the less they trouble themselves about the millennium, the better it will be for them, and for the peace of the denominations to which they belong." This is, in effect, the language of the religious leaders of the world, and of those who surrender their understandings to the traditions with which they make of none effect the "word of the kingdom of God." But these traditions are sheer nonsense, and without the least foundation in the Scriptures. They belong to a dark and foolish generation, and find their origin in the speculations of men of corrupt minds and reprobate concerning the faith.

p.246 "With Thee we'll reign, with Thee we'll rise, And kingdoms gain beyond the skies!"

p.350 prophets, the psalms, and the apostles. From the "Old Testament" we may become acquainted with the Shiloh's name. This is absolutely necessary; for unless we understand what sort of a person Christ was to be, how can we, when we learn the name of Jesus as described by the Apostles, be able to say that the name of Christ as set forth in the prophets, and the name of Jesus, are the name of one and the same person? But by comparing the apostolic history with the testimony of prophecy, we can intelligentIy confess that "Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ the Son of the Iiving God." This, then, is a first principle of the name of Jesus. Admit that he is the Shiloh, and all things predicted of the Shiloh are solely applicable to him.

p.246 "According to your faith be it unto you." This is the first principle of religion delivered by the Great Teacher Himself. It is just and right that it should be so. No one can blame God for not bestowing upon them what they do not believe in, and, consequently, do not want, or seek after. This is precisely the position of the present generation of religionists in relation to the kingdom of God. They have faith in a sort of kingdom which He bath not promised, and in the one He has promised they

p.215 When the apostles preached on the day of Pentecost, they announced that God had raised up Jesus to sit upon the throne of David (Acts 2:30). In the porch of the temple they told the Jews that God would send Jesus Christ to them at the time of the restitution (Acts 3:21). When Philip preached the word concerning Christ to the Samaritans, he announced "the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ" (Acts 8:12). In the convention of the apostles and elders, James invited their attention to Peter's narrative and the prediction of Amos. He stated the work to be done was to take out of the nations a people for the name of God, as it is written, "AFTER THIS I will return, and raise up the dwelling place of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it up in the days of old: that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the heathen which are called by My name. And I will bring again the captivity of My people Israel, and they shall build the waste cities and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens and eat the fruit of them. And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the Lord" (Acts 15:14-18; Amos 9:11-15). In Athens, Paul announced that God intended to rule the world in righteousness by Jesus Christ, and that He had raised Him from the dead as an assurance of its verity (Acts 17:31). In the Ephesian synagogue he disputed for three months, persuading the things concerning the kingdom of God (Acts 19:8; 20:20-27). Paul

p.296 When Esau was forty years old he married two Hittite women, who were a grief of mind to both his parents. About thirty years after this, when Isaac was one hundred and thirty one, he determined to bestow his blessing upon Esau, although he had sold his birthright. But the faithful vigilence of Rebekah circumvented it. The, elder was to serve the younger, and she intended that Isaac's blessing should take that direction. Accordingly, in blessing the supposed Esau (for his eyes were too dim to see accurately), he said, "God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine: let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee: be lord over thy brethren, and let thy mother's sons bow down to thee: cursed be every one that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee." Here was a blessing, contrary to the will of Isaac, pronounced upon Jacob, whom God had predetermined to bless to the same purpose. Truly, "it is not of him that willeth, but of God that showeth mercy."

p.323 But, when Israel was brought to the birth, and stood trembling on the shore of the Red Sea, they were about to be introduced into Moses. They had been begotten of God as His national first-born; but were they to be born of water into the everlasting possession of Canaan; or into a possession in which they were only "strangers and sojourners" in the land? That would depend upon the question of their national baptism into Moses, or into Christ: if into Moses, they could only inherit according to his law; but if into Christ, then they would obtain an everlasting national possession of the land, of which no other nation, or confederacy of nations, could deprive them. But they could not be nationally baptized into Christ, for Christ had not come; and until He came, and as the mediatorial testator of the Will, suffered death, neither individual nor nation could have everlasting inheritance in the land; for the Will, or covenant, was of no force while the testator was undeceased.

p.350 Now there are certain things affirmed of Jesus Christ, the belief of which are highly essential to the constituting of a believer an heir of the kingdom. These things have regard to Jesus as an offering for sin. He died, was buried, and rose again. These are facts. But what is the truth, meaning or doctrine, of the facts? "He was delivered for our offences and raised again for our justification" (Rom. 4:25; Isaiah 53:5,10); that is, for the justification of those who believe the gospel of the kingdom. It is a great mistake to suppose that the belief in the sacrificial part of the name of Jesus Christ, is sufficient for salvation. Salvation in the kingdom is not promised to those who only believe that Jesus is Son of God, and died and rose again for sin. It is equally necessary to believe in the promises of the covenants; not more so, but equally so: for if one believed the things of the kingdom, but rejected the sacrifice of Jesus, and his resurrection, he could not be saved. The gospel must be taken as a whole, and not cut up into pieces,

p.323 But there is an end of all question in the case. The apostle in reference to the passage of the Red Sea, writes, "I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and were all baptized INTO Moses in the cloud and in the sea" (1 Cor.10:1, 2). This was the national baptism. An entire obscuration of a whole nation from the view of all beholders on either shore. It was buried, not in the sea only, but in the cloud and in the sea -- a cloud, which was black with darkness to the Egyptians, but light to Israel between the icy walls of the sea. But, though buried, the nation rose again to a new life upon the opposite shore, leaving all their tyrant taskmasters, and all their bondage behind thern, washed away by the returning waters of the deep. First, then, believing in Moses and in the Lord, they were baptized into Moses, and so "saved that day out of the hands

p.296 Esau had fully calculated on the blessing although he had bartered away his birthright, seeing that Isaac had promised to bestow it upon him on his return from the field. When, therefore, he entered to receive the blessing, and announced himself as the real Esau, "Isaac trembled very exceedingly" when he found that he had been imposed upon; nevertheless, he confirmed what he had done, saying, "Yea, and he shall be blessed." When Esau discovered what had happened, "he cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry, saying, Bless me, even me, also, 0 my father!" And he lifted up his voice and wept. But the thing that was done could not be revoked, for the hand of God was in it.

p.216 stood at the bar of Agrippa and was judged "for the hope of the promise made of God unto the fathers; unto which promise the twelve tribes of Israel, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come" (Acts 26:6,7). Hence, he preached the hope of Israel's twelve tribes, as set forth in Amos and all the prophets, and directed their attention to Jesus as the personage whom God had raised up to accomplish their desire. Indeed, he told the Jews at Rome plainly, that he was a prisoner in chains on account of the hope of Israel, and in illustration of it "be expounded and testified the kingdom of God, both out of the law of Moses and the prophets, . . . preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ" (Acts 28:23,31). According to the law and the testimony he spoke, diffusing the light of the glorious gospel of the blessed God, for two whole years in Rome, "the great city which reigns over the kings of the earth."

p.247 do not believe. Hence, they believe in a non-entity; and, believing in what is nothing, they will get nothing but confusion of face. But we propose to show them a more excellent way, and in so doing invite their attention to

p.350 and one or two selected which suit the taste, and the rest set aside as unimportant and non-essential. Without the sacrificial ingredient of the name, there would be no means of justification by the name; but then Jesus as a sin-offering is not the end of faith; but a means to the end, which is the inheritance of the kingdom with him in all his glory.

p.247 "THE PROMISE MADE OF GOD UNTO THE FATHERS." "The hope of Israel."

p.216 To understand the relations of things, it must be known that the gospel stands related to Abraham's descendants before the preaching of John the Baptist; to Israel from John to the day of Pentecost, and from this epoch until the calling of the Gentiles; and then to the Gentiles at large. "The law and the prophets were until John, then the kingdom of God was proclaimed" to Israel by John, Jesus, the seventy and the twelve. There was "a mystery," however, connected with the gospel which was not manifested in the proclamation of it before the day of Pentecost. The people were taught in parables, but the apostles were favoured with an interpretation of them in private; for, said Jesus to them, "to you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God, but to them it it is not given" (Mark 4:11). Referring to this, Paul says, "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 made known to all nations for the obedience of the faith" (Rom. 16:25,26). "Pray for me," says he, "that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which l am an ambassador in bonds" (Eph. 6:19). Again, "by revelation God hath made known unto me, (Paul) the mystery, which in other ages was not made known to 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 Christ by the gospel. To me was given to make all men see what is the FELLOWSHIP of

p.296 The apostle cites the case of Esau as a warning to believers lest any of them should "fail of the grace of God." All who are Abraham's seed by being in Christ have obtained the birth right; and are thereby entitled to the blessing of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that hereafter "people should serve them, and nations bow down to them; and that they should be lords over their brethren." But, if for some temporal advantage they should "sin wilfully," and thus barter it away, "there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment, and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries" (Heb. 10:26-27). There is no scope afforded to

p.323 *Dr. Thomas anticipated that the nineteenth century would see the advent of Christ.

p.350 A very circumscribed and superficial view of the gospel is that which finds it stated in the words, "Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, was buried, and rose again the third day according to the scriptures" (1 Cor. 15:3,4). The "our" for whom Christ died are those who believe the gospel of the kingdom, not those who are ignorant of it; or, as the apostle expresses it, those "who keep in memory A CERTAIN

p.324 of the Egyptians" who were washed up "dead upon the seashore" (Exod. 14:26-31).

p.297 such for repentance; for they have placed themselves precisely in Esau's position. Hence, the apostle exhorted his brethren to look diligently to it, that none of them proved to be "a profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright: "for," said he, "ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no possibility of a change of (Isaac's) mind (METAUOIAS TOPOU OUCH EURE) though he sought it carefully with tears" (Heb. 12:15-17) God is merciful; but He is also jealous; and "will by no means clear the wilful." If His children sell their birthright to the world for anything it can tempt them with, His mind, like Isaac's, is immovable; and transgressors cannot change it, though they may seek carefully to do so with tears, and prayers, and with great and exceeding bitter cries.

p.217 the mystery, which from the beginning of the world (apo ton aionon from the beginning of the ages) hath been hidden in God, by (TO) whom all things were created for Jesus Christ. To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in the high places might be made known through the church [ECCLESIA] the multifarious wisdom of God" (Eph. 3:3-10).

p.247 There is no one, I suppose, who reads the Scriptures but admits that Paul was persecuted, being imprisoned, scourged, arraigned, and manacled, because he preached the gospel of the kingdom in the name of Jesus. This is admitted by all, it matters not, then, in what terms he states the cause of his trials, it will all amount to this declaration, namely, "for the gospel I am called in question, and am judged, and bound with, this chain."

p.351 WORD (TINI LOGO) I preached unto them." What word? That which he taught among them a year and six months; and which he preached wherever he went. The word concerning "the hope of Israel" on account of which he was taken prisoner to Rome; and which the Jews listened to patiently (Acts 18:4), so long as he did not mention the name of Jesus; but when that was introduced, they opposed themselves and blasphemed (vs.5,6). Because, the apostle is made to say in the, common version, that he "delivered first of all" the death and resurrection of Christ, persons, who know no other than their mother tongue, conclude that the sacrifice of Jesus for sin was the first thing spoken, and the very gospel itself! But the apostle did not write "first of all;" his words are EN PROTOIS, that is, among the first things. And why does he call up the things mentioned in the third and fourth verses in preference to the other things he delivered? Because he was about to refute the Platonic notion taught by some in Corinth, to wit, "that there is no resurrection of the dead;" and to do so it was necessary to remind them of his having preached to them the sacrificial death and resurrection of Jesus, which was all a fable, if there were no future resurrection as they said; because it had "passed already" (2 Tim. 2:18) : "Ye are then," said he, "yet in your sins, and they who are fallen asleep in Christ are perished."

p.247 But, we will let the apostle state his own words. When he stood before Ananias, the high priest, and the council of the Jews, he cried out, "on account of the hope, and resurrection of dead persons (NEKRON) I am called in question" (Acts 23:6). But, it may be asked here, "Concerning what hope was the question between Paul and his persecutors about?" He tell us in his defence before Agrippa; "I stand and am judged," say he, "for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers: unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come. For which hope's sake, king Agrippa, I am accused of the Jews" (Acts 26:6, 7). Now, from this statement it appears,

p.217 From these writings, we learn that the gospel of the kingdom of God is a phrase which embraces the whole subject; and that the mystery of the kingdom, and the fellowship of the mystery, are things pertaining to the gospel of the kingdom in a special sense, but unknown until revealed to the apostles. The mysteries of the kingdom were placed on record in the sacred writings, but their signification was hidden from the prophets themselves until "THE KEYS" thereof were vouchsafed to the apostles. Hence, says Peter, "of the salvation of souls (PSUCHON) the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you: searching into certain things, (EIS TINA) also what point of time (KAIRON) 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 Spirit sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into" (1 Peter 1:10-12).

p.297 Jacob having been involuntarily appointed heir of the blessing by Isaac, Esau conceived a hatred of him, and was overheard to threaten him with death when their father was dead. This determination was reported to Rebekah, who, having sent for Jacob, informed him of Esau's malice, and advised him to escape into Mesopotamia, and remain awhile with her brother Laban at Haran, until his brother's fury should subside. It was necessary, however, to get Isaac's consent, that no breach might be made between him and Jacob, for Esau was his favourite son. Rebekeh knew well how to manage this. Isaac as well as herself was sorely annoyed by Esau's wives, whose demeanour appears to have been very disgusting to them. She complained to Isaac of the grief they were to her, and declared to him that if Jacob were to take a wife from among the daughters of the land, her life would be of no value to her. This being also Isaac's feelings in the case, he fell into her views immediately, and having called Jacob, he blessed him, and charged him, saying, "Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan." He then directed him to go and take a wife of Laban's family; and said, "God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou mayest be a multitude of people: 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" (Gen. 28:1-4). Such was Isaac's understanding of the blessing in regard to the time of its accomplishment. He did not expect it until the Seed, or Christ, was manifested; but when he appeared in possession they, even Abraham, Isaac,

p.324 In celebration of this great deliverance, they sang the song of Moses. What a thrilling incident was this! Six hundred thousand men, besides women, children, and a mixed multitude, encamped upon the shore, and singing the song of the Lord's victory over their enemies! After magnifying the gloriousness of His power, and the great salvation with which He had delivered them, they rejoiced in the future that awaited their nation, when it should realize the possession of the land of Canaan under the sceptre of Shiloh "for ever and ever." "Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance; in the place, 0 Lord, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in; in the sanctuary, 0 Lord, which thy hands have established. The Lord shall reign for ever and ever (Exod. 15:17, I8).

p.351 Three things were to be preached in the name of Jesus Christ to them who believed in the promises made of God to the fathers, These were first, repentance; secondly, remission of sins; and third, eternal life (Luke 24:44-47; John 20:31). To preach the kingdom in the name of Jesus Christ was to expound the things concerning it; and to offer them to all who would become the subjects of repentance and remission of sins in his name. Neither "flesh and blood," nor "sinners," can inherit the kingdom of God (1 Cor. 15:50). These are fixed principles. But, why not? Because "the kingdom shall not be left to other people," and because those, who inherit it are to possess it for ever. Now "flesh and blood" is mortal; how then can mortality inherit immortality? It is a physical impossibility. In other words, a man who only lives seventy years, cannot hold office for a thousand years; he must be made deathless before he can retain it for ever. Again, it is a moral impossibility for sinners to possess the kingdom, because the law of the kingdom is that "he that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in

p.324 Let the reader peruse the song of Moses, and bear in mind that it is not only a magnification of the past, but also prophetic of as great, or a greater deliverance, of the nation under Shiloh. Under Moses they were saved by the angel of God (Exod. 14:19); but when the time of the second exodus from Egypt arrives, they will be saved by the Lamb of God, whose prowess will be applauded by God's harpists of the crystal sea, who will sing the new song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, "Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints. Who shall not fear thee, 0 Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy; for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest (Rev. 15:1-5). The song of Moses, we have seen, celebrated the overthrow of the Egyptians; the song of the Lamb, "the prophet like unto Moses," will celebrate his future triumph over all the nations in His deliverance of the twelve tribes from their tyranny; a redemption, which will result in the submission of all nations to His sovereignty, as predicted in the song. And, it is to be observed, that the Lamb's victory being the accomplishment of the prophecy in Moses' song, and a victory gained on a similar occasion, and in connection with the same nation, the Lamb's song is styled in the apocalypse," "the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb."

p.298 and Jacob, would be blessed with him. Let us proceed now to the consideration of

p.217 The mystery of the kingdom, then, has been made known and we find that it had relation to the sufferings of the Christ; and repentance, remission of sins, and eternal life in His name, to Jews first and afterwards to the Gentiles. The prophets who foretold these things, were not able to penetrate the mystery of them; and the angels themselves, who brought the word to them, desired to understand them. But this was not permitted; and and it was preserved as a secret until after the sufferings of Christ, which were to be the foundation of the manifestation.

p.247 1 -- That God had made a certain promise to the fathers of Israel;

p.352 the fear of God." It is the inheritance of saints, to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Two things are therefore indispensable before Jew or Gentile can inherit the kingdom -- first, a moral purification; and secondly, a physical, or corporeal, purification. The first is compassed in obeying the truth; the last, by a resurrection unto life.

p.247 2 -- That this promise became the hope of the nation, and was therefore a national question;

p.217 When the "point of time" drew nigh for "the finishing of the transgression, the making an end of sin-offerings, the making reconciliation for iniquity, and the bringing in of everlasting righteousness" (Dan. 9:24), Jesus, who had been anointed the Most Holy, the sealed prophet of the Father, and fully confirmed as Messiah the Prince, selected one man of the twelve (who had least reason to exalt himself above his brethren as " the prince of the apostles," ) as the depository of the keys of the mysteries

p.298 On the night after his departure, while asleep under the canopy of heaven, the Lord appeared to him in a dream. In the vision he saw as it were, "a ladder set up on the land, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. And the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed: in whom all the families of the earth shall be blessed. And behold, I am with thee, and will protect thee in all places whither thou goest, and I will bring thee again into this land: for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of" (Gen. 28:10-15). Thus, in the blessing that now rested upon Jacob as well as upon Abraham, and Isaac, God promised.

p.324 The generations of Israel's nation are reckoned from Abraham. Between seven of them there is a remarkable relationship

p.352 Now the repentance which results from believing the gospel of the kingdom is not "sorrow for sin;" nor does it contain the least bitterness or remorse of feeling in it. The scripture word translated repentance is METANOIA, and signifies, a change of mind and purpose (Acts 5:31; 11:18). When such a change takes place from believing the truth, it is a disposition and mode of thinking such as characterized Abraham; who is the model of the faith and temper, which precedes justification in the name of the Lord. But a change of mind and purpose however "evangelical," is only granted for repentance in the name of Jesus Christ. That is to say, though a believer of the gospel of the kingdom might possess this state of mind and child-like disposition, he would not be regarded as in repentance any more than in Jesus, until the name of Christ was named upon him according to "the law of faith." It imports not how much a woman loves a man, she is not his wife, and therefore entitled to none of the benefits he is able to confer, until she puts on his name according to law. The name of Christ consummates everything. "Complete in him;" but out of him every thing is imperfect. Faith is unfinished, and the change of mind and disposition is incomplete, until the believer of the gospel of the kingdom puts on the name of Christ. In the act of doing this, his faith is counted to him for righteousness, or remission of sins that are past; and his change of mind and disposition is granted to him for repentance.

p.325 in the way of type and antitype. These are the fourth, the fifth, the fourteenth, the fifteenth, the thirty-second, the forty-second, and, possibly, the rising generation of the present time. The events of the fourth occurred under Moses; of the fifth, under Joshua; of the fourteenth, under David; of the fifteenth, under Solomon; of the thirty-second, under Zorobabel; of the forty second, under Christ; and of the last, the substance of all that have preceded it, and as yet in the undeveloped, but not unrevealed, future. The six generations present so many pictures, as it were, of what will be transacted in the seventh. But want of space forbids more than an allusion to the fact. Referring to the remarkable incidents of Jewish history, the apostle says, "all these things happened unto them for types ( TUPOI, representative things): and they are written for our instruction upon whom the ends of the ages (TA TELE TON AIONON) have come."

p.298 1. That at some future time not specified, He would give Jacob actual and personal possession of the land he was then lying upon, and upon which the town of Bethel stood for ages:

p.218 of the kingdom of God. This highly honored individual was Simon Peter, son of Jonas, who denied his Master with oaths and curses. But being converted, and restored to favor by his gracious Lord, he was prepared to be the unaspiring "servant of the least," and to strengthen his brethren in all the trials and afflictions they were called upon to endure for the truth's sake. "I will give unto thee, Simon Bar-jona," said the King, "the keys of the kingdom of God; and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shalt be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (Matt. 16:19). Here was an appointment of Peter in a special sense to the particular function of binding and loosing men on earth. But, we would ask any reasonable man, unspoiled by human folly and absurdity if a power be conferred on A, eighteen hundred years ago, is it therefore bestowed on B, living eighteen centuries after? The keys were promised to Peter, and not to successors of Peter, if it were possible for him to have them in such an office; which none but the most stupidly ignorant of the Scriptures would venture to affirm. The custody of the keys by a successor of Peter is the most farcical assumption that ever poor crazy mortals were guilty of. When we come to see what the keys of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven are, we shall see at once that the very use of them for the first time operates on Peter's own possession of them, as the telling of a secret to all the world does upon his power over it afterwards by whom it was told. Had Peter, instead of using the keys, hid them till his death-hour, and then imparted them to a single person, this individual might truly be said to have "succeeded to the keys." But this he did not, dared not, do. He communicated them to such multitudes of Jews and Gentiles that they became the common property of the world; and none but men, "earthly, sensual, and devilish" as the priests, "seducing spirits, speaking lies in hypocrisy," whose trade it is to "make gain of godliness" -- none but such as these would have conceived the possibility of a transfer of the keys of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven to a successor; especially to such a succession of impious impostors as the prophets of the Roman See.

p.247 3 -- That this promise bad been the hope of the twelve tribes in all their generations; was the ground of their worship; and that they hoped to attain to it by rising from the dead.

p.352 But a right to eat of the tree of life in the paradise of God is also imparted to the believer through the name of Christ. The life-giving efficacy of his name is derived from his resurrection as the first-fruits of them that sleep. Had Jesus not risen from the dead, men could not have obtained a right to eternal life through his name. This is the doctrine of the apostles and the prophets. An unrisen sacrifice is only a temporary propitiation for sin. This was the nature of the sacrifices under the Mosaic law. Hence the law had no vitality in it; "For if there had been a law given that could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law" (Gal. 3:21). But this was im-

p.247 But we have a still plainer avowal, if possible, of the identity of this national hope with the hope for which the apostle suffered so much. The Lord Jesus had appeared to him after his arraignment before Ananias, and said to him, "Be of good cheer, Paul; for as thou hast testified of Me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome." When he arrived at this city, he called the chief of the Jews together, and told them that he had nothing to accuse his nation of, but had sent for them to inform them how matters really stood. He then told them how it was they

p.218 A key is used in Scripture as a symbol of the power of revealing, or interpreting, secret things; also for power in general. As a key is to a lock, so is power to things intellectual, moral, and political. The Scriptures say of Messiah, "the key shall be upon His shoulder," i. e. "the government shall be

p.298 2. That he should have a seed, or descendant, in whom all nations should be blessed; and,

p.325 Having been baptized into Moses they looked to him for meat and drink. The angel had brought them out by his hand into a waste and howling wilderness, under a promise to give them a land flowing with milk and honey. But after three days the nation found itself without water; and though soon after they found some, it was so bitter they could not drink it. And they murmured against Moses. The Lord heard them and healed the waters. A month after their departure from Egypt, their provision failed them. Again they murmured against Moses and his prophet; and turned back in their hearts to the land of their affliction. But God heard them, and gave them bread and meat to the full, and continued to them this sustenance for forty years, until they came to the borders of the land of Canaan. One would have supposed that after giving them bread from heaven all their murmurings would have ceased. But when they came to Rephidim and found no water they murmured again, and were ready to stone Moses, and tempted God, saying, "Is the Lord among us, or not?" Though the manna still fell, the rebellious-hearted Israelites questioned the presence of the Lord among them! Though tempted, He still bore with them; but yet was angry with Moses for their sakes. He commanded him to go to the rock in Horeb, on the top of which he would take his stand. He was then to smite it, and to speak to the rock before their eyes, that it might give forth water. Having convened them, he addressed them, saying, "Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock? And he smote the rock twice; and the water came out abundantly, and they

p.353 possible. Moses was the mediatorial testator of the covenant from Sinai. He died, and the Lord buried him; but there was no testimony added of his resurrection: and though he lives (for he appeared to Jesus on the Mount) it was after the law came into force. The Mosaic law is therefore, a minister only of death and cursing. But Jesus died and rose again, and lives for evermore. Hence, the gospel in his name, and the new code hereafter to be promulgated from Zion, are efficacious to the bestowal of a right to eternal life upon all who believe through his name.

p.326 drank " (Numb. 20:10,12; Exod. 17:6). Moses in his indignation smote the rock once too often. in this he exceeded his commission; therefore the Lord said, "Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them."

p.298 3. That Jacob and his seed should have possession of Palestine and Syria together, that is, at one and the same time.

p.219 possessed by Him." And again, "I have says Jesus, "the key (KLEIS) of the unseen (HADOU) and of death;" which is to say, that Jesus hath the power to open the abode, or chamber, of the dead, and to restore them to life. In these instances, a key is the symbol of political, and physical, power; but it also represents scientific, or knowledge-imparting, power. Thus, under the law of Moses, it was divinely appointed that "the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and Israel should seek the law at his mouth: for he was the messenger of the Lord of Hosts." The priests, however, became so corrupt and ignorant, that Israel sought in vain for knowledge at their lips, and therefore perished for lack of it. The Lord charged this home upon them by the hand of Malachi. "Ye are" says He, "departed out of the way, 0 ye priests; ye have caused many to stumble at the law; ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi, saith the Lord of Hosts. Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people, according as ye have not kept My ways, but have been partial in the law" (Mal. 2:7). This was precisely the state of things when "THE MESSENGER OF THE COVENANT" made His appearance in Judea. He denounced them for their corruptions. "Ye have made" said He, "the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition. Hypocrites that ye are, ye draw nigh to God with your mouth, and honor Him with your lips, but your heart is far from Him. But in vain do ye worship Him, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." Among these hypocrites were the lawyers, who, feeling the keenness of His reproaches, remonstrated against it. But He turned upon them, and said, "Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the KEY OF KNOWLEDGE: ye enter not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered" (Luke 11:52).

p.248 found him in the custody of a Roman soldier, with fetters upon his person: "On account of THE HOPE OF ISRAEL," said he, "am I bound with this chain " (Acts 28: 20). This is conclusive. The hope of the promise made to the fathers, was, and, indeed, is to this day, the hope of Israel; and for preaching this hope, and inviting the Gentiles to a participation in it without other circumcision than that of the heart, he was denounced as a pestilent fellow, and unfit to live (24:5, 6.; 22:21, 22).

p.353 While a believer is out of Christ, he is in his sins, and while he is in his sins he is under the sentence of death; for "the wages of sin is death." As soon, however, as his sins are forgiven through Christ's name, in the act of forgiveness he passes from under the sentence of death; and as there is no middle, or neutral, position, he comes under the sentence of life, and rejoices in hope of the kingdom of God. Thus Jesus Christ hath abolished death, and brought life and incorruptibility to light in the gospel of the kingdom " (2 Tim. 1:10). There is no other way of obtaining them than through his name, and by a resurrection from the dead; or, if living at the setting up of the kingdom, by a change in the twinkling of an eye. Such is the doctrine of Christ as opposed to the vain philosophy of Plato. The papist and protestant admirers of this heathen speculator, contend for the hereditary immortality of an immaterial essence, innate in sinful flesh; while the Lord Jesus has made known that life and incorruptibility are attributes of the kingdom of God, which they only can obtain who are accounted worthy on gospel principles of inheriting it. In fine, incorruptible life is part of the reward of the righteous; and no where in the Bible is immortality predicated of, or promised to, men who die in their sins. Out of Christ, immortality there is none.

p.248 But what was the hope of Israel about? The answer to this question is easy. Having made the chief of the Jews at Rome acquainted with the cause of his appeal to Caesar, they remarked to him, that they should like to hear of him what he thought upon the question of the national hope, as so strenuously contended for by the sect of the Nazarenes. As it was not, however, convenient then, they appointed a future day when they would meet him, and hear what be had to say upon the subject. Accordingly, at the time appointed they came together at Paul's lodging, and he proceeded to lay before them his thoughts upon the subject of Israel's hope. But I cannot do better than to state what he did in the words of Luke, who says that "he expounded and testified to them the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses and out of the prophets, from morning till evening" (Acts 28:23). Now who can be so dim of vision as not to perceive that the subject-matter of the hope of Israel is the kingdom of God? And observe that, in giving his thoughts of the national hope, the apostle's persuasions turned upon things concerning Jesus. The kingdom of God and Jesus were the subjects of Paul's testimony, when he preached "the hope of Israel," or "the hope of the promise made of God unto the fathers." Having begun his testimony with the chiefs of the Jews, some of whom received it, he continued to publish it for two years in his own hired house to all that visited him, "preaching the kingdom of God and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence" (Acts 28:30, 30). In this way he bore witness for Jesus in Rome, as he had done before in Jerusalem.

p.219 This was the unhappy condition of the Jewish nation at the appearing of Jesus; as it is of all the nations at the present time against whom the kingdom is shut by clerical traditions. The Lord Jesus came to restore to Israel the key of knowledge. "They erred not knowing the Scriptures;" but He was about to open them, so that in spite of the hypocrites, they might enter into the kingdom of God. 0 that men could be induced now to devote themselves to the study of the Scriptures without regard to articles, creeds, confessions, and traditions! These things are more rubbish, monuments of presumption and folly of former generations indoctrinated with the wisdom from beneath. If a Berean spirit could be infused into them; if they could be

p.298 The exact time, I say, was not specified in the promise. Jacob, however, was given to understand by the representation in the vision, that it would be a long time after the epoch of his dream. As the apostle says, " he saw the promises afar off, and was persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that he was a stranger and pilgrim on the land." He saw the fulfilment of the things promised afar off in point of time; but not afar off as to place: for the place where they were to be fulfilled was Bethel, about fifteen miles from Jerusalem. He was at the place; and so well did he understand this, that he termed Bethel "the gate of heaven."

p.326 These incidents had a secondary import which is found in the antitypes of the forty-second generation. Thousands of Israelites and Gentiles believed the gospel of the kingdom, and were baptized into Christ. As a whole they constituted "a holy nation" -- a nation within the nation -- which fed upon the true bread of heaven, and drank of the water of life by faith in the things of Christ. But they were and are still strangers and sojourners in the world, which to them is like the wilderness of Arabia to Israel of the fourth generation. But there have been multitudes in Christ, as there were in Moses, who did run well but were afterwards hindred. They turned back in their hearts to Egypt, loving the present world, and not having faith enough to get the mastery over it. Now, the apostle likens such to those of the fourth generation who were murmurers, and faithless, and whose carcasses fell in the wilderness, from which they will never arise to enter the land of Israel under Shiloh. "They did all eat the same spiritual meat," says he; "and did all drink the same spititual drink; for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them: and that rock was (or represented) Christ. But with many of them God was not well pleased; for they were overthrown in the wilderness. "Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted" (1 Cor. 10:3-6). Their faith was addressed through sensible objects; ours through written testimony. But for the most part professors look not beyond "the things which are seen and temporal." Whether in Moses, or professedly in Christ, they are mere creatures of sensation, who walk by sight and not by faith. Let us, reader, not be of this number; but let us rejoice in hope of the promise made to the fathers, though at present it seemeth not to the eye of sense to grow. "If a man eat of this bread (the spiritual) he shall live in the Age (EIS TON AIONA);" and, drinking of the blood of Christ, which is the spiritual drink represented by Horeb's stream, the Rock of Israel will raise him up at the last day to life in the age to come (EIS ZOEN AIONION.) But if, after their example, we love the present world, though we may have believed and obeyed the truth in

p.353 By "the great salvation" is meant deliverance from the grave by a resurrection to life, and a share in the kingdom of God. This, as we have seen, is predicated on faith in the promises made to the fathers, an Abrahamic disposition, baptism into the name of the Holy One, and faith made perfect by works. In other words, salvation is promised to those only who walk in the steps of Abraham's faith. To deny this is to deny the testimony of God. His own Son was not exalted until he was made perfect by suffering. "He that believes the gospel, and is baptized,

p.327 the beginning, we shall come under the sentence of exclusion from "the rest which remains for the people of God."

p.298 Now, the fulfilment of time between the giving of the promise and the fulfilment of it, was represented to Jacob by a ladder of extraordinary length; one end of which stood at Bethel, and the other end against the vault of heaven. Here were two points of contact, the land of Judah and heaven ; and the connecting medium, the ladder between them. This was a most expressive symbol, as will be perceived by considering the uses to which a

p.220 persuaded to "search the Scriptures daily" (Acts 17:11,12) for the truth as for hid treasure, they would soon leave their spiritual guides alone in all their glory of mysticism and patristic lore, and rejoice in that liberty of that truth which can alone make men "free indeed."

p.248 But, one might say, if the hope the apostle preached, and the hope of the twelve tribes, were the same hope, why was he persecuted by the Jews? The answer is, because Paul and the rest of the apostles, testified that Jesus, whom they had crucified, was the King whom God had anointed to be the Judge of Israel in His kingdom, of which they were

p.354 shall be saved; and he that believes not shall be condemned. This fiat has never been revoked; it is, therefore, as valid and exceptionless as when it fell from the lips of the Son of God.

p.249 natural born citizens. They had been constituted "a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation" by the covenant of Sinai; and had on that occasion accepted Jehovah as their King. They were therefore the kingdom of God. In after ages, they had demanded a king who might go in and out before them. He gave them David; and promised to raise up from among his descendants, sleeping in the tomb, a King, who should be immortal, and reign over them for ever, according to the provisions of a new constitution. Now, the apostles testified that God had raised up Jesus from among the dead for this very purpose, and had sent them to the Jews first, to inform them that if they desired to reign as princes over Israel and the nations with His King, it was not enough for them to be natural born descendants of Abraham; but that they must acknowledge Jesus as King of Israel, and walk in the steps of Abraham's faith. They testified furthermore, that if they would not acknowledge Him as their King, seeing that the kingdom and empire of God would require kings and priests to administer its affairs, they would turn to the Gentiles, and invite them to accept the honor and glory of the kingdom, upon terms of perfect equality with Israel; for so the Lord had commanded them to do. This mortified the Jews exceedingly. They despised Jesus because of His poverty, and ignominious death. A suffering and crucified king was a reproach to the nation in their esteem; and to be put on a level with Gentiles, whom they regarded as "dogs," filled them with indignation and madness against the preachers of such pestilent heresies. But it was the apostolic mission to withstand their fury with "the testimony of God," and to establish their preaching by what is written in the law of Moses and the prophets, and by what they had seen and heard, and which was attested by the power of God exhibited in the miracles they performed.

p.220 The gospel invites men to enter into the kingdom of God. The way of entering is made exceedingly plain in the Bible. There is now no hidden mystery concerning it as there was before the sufferings of Christ were manifested. The mystery of the kingdom has been unlocked. The key of knowledge has been given, but unfortunately it has been stolen again by Peter's pretended successors, and by every other ecclesiastic upon a smaller scale who would discourage or throw hindrances in the way of a free, unbiased and independent examination and avowal of Bible truth in their churches, or an unrestricted advocacy of it, though at variance with the institutes of dogmatic theology, in all the pulpits of the land. The leaders of the people dare not permit such a course to be pursued; for the Bible is hostile to their systems, and sets forth things, which, if believed, would empty their rostrums, disperse their flocks, and close their doors, and elaborate such a social revolution, that truth and righteousness would triumph amidst the earth, and the people be enlightened in the knowledge which comes from God. Such a consummation, however, need never be hoped for, so long as the instruction and government of the nations are in the hands of the existing orders of rulers, lay and ecclesiastical; for "like priests like people," and vice versa; they are corrupt and altogether gone out of the way; and, therefore, are devoid of all power to resuscitate the things which remain, and which are ready to vanish away.

p.299 ladder is applied. It is a contrivance to connect distant points, by which one at the lower end may reach a desired altitude. It is, then, a connecting medium between two points of distance. Now, if instead of distant localities distant epochs be substituted, the ages and generations which connect them will sustain a similar relation to the epochs as a ladder to the ground on which it rests, and the point of elevation against which it leans. The ladder, then, in Jacob's vision was representative of his seed in their generations and appointed times. One end of it was in his loins; the other, in the Lord Jesus when he should sit upon His throne, reigning over the land upon which Jacob was asleep.

p.327 On the tenth day of Abib, the first month of the year, being 430 from the confirmation of the covenant, the Israelites were commanded to put up a lamb for each house, and to kill it upon the fourteenth day in the evening. They were to take its blood and to sprinkle it upon the door-posts of their houses, and to eat its flesh that same night, roast with fire, with unleavened bread, and bitter herbs. Nothing of it was to be left till morning. They were also to eat it in haste, as if about to hurry off upon a journey. The meaning of this was, that God was about to destroy the first-born of every family in Egypt, would cause them to be thrust out of Egypt with great haste, and that when the destroying angel should see the blood on the door posts, he would pass over that house and not destroy the first born there. For this cause the lamb was termed the Lord's Passover (Exod. 12.). Not a bone of it was to be broken. No stranger, foreigner, hired person, or uncircumcised individual was to eat of it; a servant, however, bought with the money of an Israelite, provided he were circumcised, was permitted to partake of it.

p.354 Now, in view of this irrefutable truth, what shall we say of that system, which holds out assurances of "heaven" to men of earthly, sensual, and devilish, lives, when they find themselves prisoners of disease, and convicts in the clutches of the law? When death stares them in the face, they are exhorted by their "spiritual guides" to "make their peace with God;" and even when preparing for the scaffold are taught by "gaol chaplains to expect to meet in heaven the companions of their crimes; and that by partaking of the "sacrament" they are making their souls ready "to meet their God!" And upon what is all this "consolation of religion" founded? Upon a terrible apprehension of the molten and flaming sulphur in hell's cauldron, into which the "penitents" are taught their "immortal souls" will be plunged by God, and where they will be tormented by the Devil for all eternity. Not many weeks since a gaol-chaplain at Coventry actually burned a female convict's hand with the flame of a candle as a foretaste of her tortures after death if she did not repent! This was his plan of proceeding in the "cure of her soul!" But if disease, or crime, had not captured the "penitents," their career would have been still onward in iniquity. Finding there is no escape from death either by the rope, or in the ordinary way, their audacity and impiety are suspended. They are imposed upon by the clerical assurance that the Lord is "waiting to be gracious;" they are directed to the thief upon the cross; and they are deceived by the falsehood, that "while the lamp holds out to burn, the vilest sinner may return." All is ready, the gospel feast is prepared, and nothing is wanting but for them to believe that Christ died for them, to be sorry for the past, profess themselves at peace with God and all mankind, and to pray for forgiveness through Jesus Christ. Thus the "spiritual guides" of the people shrive them to perdition. An act of the mind, prompted by terror and their persuasions, is proposed by them as a set off for a whole life of impiety and crime! What base views must such men have of the God whose ministers they pretend to be! Their "consolations" are unmitigated blasphemy, and false from first to last. Need they be surprised at the little impression they make upon the public mind by their preaching; and that mankind are daily increasing in infidelity? The million, though ignorant, are

p.327 But this institution represented more than the facts upon which it was founded. It pointed to events of the forty-second, and present (?) generations of Israel. The apostle styles Christ the believer's passover, who was sacrificed for them (1 Cor. 5:7); and exhorts them to "keep the feast with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." Jesus was the Lamb of the feast whom God had provided. Not a bone of him was broken. His blood was sprinkled, not upon the door-posts of houses, but upon the doors of believers' hearts by faith in the blood of sprinkling. None can eat his flesh, if they would, but those who are circumcised in heart; for to eat his flesh is to digest, and make a part of our mental selves, the truth concerning the kingdom of God and Jesus Christ. This is the spiritual food upon which the believer's spiritual existence is sustained. As Jehovah's [YAHWEH'S] first born son was saved by the blood of the passover lamb in Egypt, so also is the believer in the kingdom saved by the blood of Christ; so that when the day of retribution comes, and the first born of all the nations, "who know not God and obey not the gospel," are destroyed, the angel of death will pass over him, and he shall not be harmed.

p.299 But upon this ladder of ages and generations, with Jacob at the bottom and his seed, the Shiloh, at the top, " the angels of God were seen ascending and descending." This represented to him that the affairs of his posterity, natural and spiritual, in all their relations with the world, would be superintended by the Elohim, who would pass to and fro between earth and heaven, in the performance of their work. Hence, the apostle styles them "all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who are about to inherit salvation" (Heb. 1:14) (DIA TONS MELLONTAS KLERONOMEIN DOTERIAN.) Israel and the nations are under their vicegerency till the Lord Jesus comes to assume the sovereignty of the world. When he appears in his kingdom, the land of Israel especially will be no longer subjected to their superintendence. The apostle styles Palestine and Syria, when the Hebrew commonwealth is reconstituted upon them, the future habitable (Heb. 2:5) (TEN OIKONMENEN TEN MELLONSAN). When he wrote this, these countries were inhabited by Israel under the Mosaic constitution, mixed up with, and in subjection to, the Gentiles. Under this arrangement their affairs were superintended by the angels of God. But with the future habitable it will be different; for, the apostle says, "God hath not put it in subjection to the angels:" but "when He brings the first-born back again into the habitable (EIS TEN OIKONMEVEV). He says, "let all the angels of God do homage to him." This return of the Lord to the habitable cannot be referred to the epoch of his resurrection; because he had not then left it. Indeed he never left it but once before his resurrection, and that was involuntarily when Joseph and Mary carried him into Egypt. He said himself that he had not been to the Father before rising from the dead (John 20:17). He was in the habitable only asleep in

p.220 Before a man can enter into the kingdom of God, he must be unloosed from his sins in the present state, and liberated here after from the prison-house where the dead lie bound in chains of intense darkness. The unloosing from sins, Jesus committed to Peter; but the enlargement from the chamber of death, He reserved to Himself (Rev. 1:18; 20:1). Knowledge is the key to remission, or release from sins, and to an entrance into the kingdom of God. No one can enter this kingdom in his sins, and destitute of a character approved of God; and none could answer the question, "how can a man obtain the remission of sins, and what kind of character would God account worthy?" -- until the apostle revealed the secret, communicated to him by

p.249 We have, then, arrived at a great truth, namely, that the "one hope of the gospel" preached by the apostles to the Jew first, and afterwards to the Greek, was "the hope of Israel;" that the subject of it was the kingdom of God and Shiloh; and that these were the matter of the promise made to the fathers. It remains for us now to look into this promise so that we may come to understand it well, for, its provisions are the things of the kingdom, and to be ignorant of these is to be without understanding, and therefore faithless of the gospel of Christ. The apostle Paul, who will be our interpreter, tells us that the promise, which is the subject of the "one hope," was made to

p.355 not fools. " What necessity for us," say they, "to trouble ourselves about religion. We can be shrived in half an hour for all the offences of a long life of sin." It is the preachers that make men infidels by the preposterous absurdities they preach in the much abused name of Christianity.

p.250 "the fathers." This is a phrase which signifies sometimes the predecessors of the generation of the apostles' time, who were contemporary with the prophets (Heb. 1:1), and at others, the fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Exod. 4:5). It is in the latter sense the apostle uses the phrase in connection with "the promises;" It for speaking of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, he says, "these all died in faith not having received the promises," that is, the things contained in the promise: and after adding "a cloud of wit nesses," who lived in after ages, and who illustrated their faith in the promise made to the fathers, he concludes by saying, "these all, having received a good report through faith, received ) not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect " (Heb. 11:13, 39, 40), by a resurrection from the dead to inherit the kingdom. They must rise from the dust before they can receive the promise. They are imperfect now, being in ruins. But when they are re-fashioned by the Spirit of God, and spring forth for glorious, incorruptible, and powerful, men, "equal to the Elohim," they will then have been "made perfect," and fit for the kingdom of God. But, these are not to be thus perfected until all the believers of the promise are brought in; for all the faithful of previous ages are to be perfected together.

p.221 the Spirit, on the day of Pentecost. If the reader peruse the second chapter of the Acts he will there learn how Peter used one of the keys of the kingdom given to him by its King. On that occasion, I say, he used but one of the keys. He revealed the mystery of the gospel of God's kingdom to the Jews only. They believed in the kingdom, glory, and dominion, promised to the Son of Man in Daniel and the prophets; they were well aware that the kingdom was to belong to their nation, that the King was to be David's Son, and to live for ever, and the righteous were to take the kingdom with Him: these things were the substance of the national hope; but they did not then know upon what conditions the obtaining of them was predicated. Hence, it was Peter's duty to instruct them. He first called their recollection to certain notable things concerning Jesus -- that the wonders He performed by the power of God evidently showed that God approved Him; that they had been guilty of His death in clamoring for His crucifixion, but that all this was predetermined of God; that God had "loosed Him from the pains of death" by raising Him from the dead. He then proceeded to show by their prophets that the things which had thus happened to Jesus were verifications of certain predictions. He adduced the testimony of David, that the Christ was to be "raised up to sit upon David's throne," and consequently, must previously suffer death; and that after He was resurrected, he was to ascend to the right hand of God. He then concluded by saying, "let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus whom ye have crucified, both Lord and King Anointed (CHRISTOS)." For the truth of this statement he appealed to what they saw and heard, to the cloven tongues like fire sitting upon their heads, the "sound of a rushing mighty wind," and the many languages spoken by Galilean fishermen without previous study.

p.300 death. But when he ascended then he departed into a far country to receive the kingdom; and when he had received it, to return. But, he has not yet received it, or he would be at this time reigning in the future habitable land. Till the Lord Jesus, however, sits on his throne as "King of the Jews" (John 18:33-39; 19:12-19), the providential direction of human affairs is committed to the Elohim; who are termed the angels of the little ones who believe in Jesus" (Matt. 18:3-6,10), because they minister to their profit, in causing all things among the nations to work together for their ultimate good.

p.328 But while the passover has this spiritual signification, it also represents facts, or events, which will be made manifest in connection with Israel at the appearing of their king in glory. This is evident, from the saying of Christ while partaking of the Passover with his apostles, the future sovereigns of the tribes. "With desire," said he, "I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer: for I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God;" and "I will not drink of the fruit of the vine, until the kingdom of God shall come." And of this kingdom, He said, "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 22:15,16,18, 29,30; Matt. 19:28). From this, then, it is clear, that the passover was prophetic of what is to be fulfilled in the kingdom of God. Has that kingdom come? If it has, as some very erroneously affirm, then Christ has eaten another passover, and has again drank of wine with his apostles; for he said he would do so when the kingdorn had come. But no man in his senses will allirm this. Another passover could not be celebrated till a year after; so that Jesus could not eat it with his disciples before that. Where is the testimony to his eating it with them then? There is none; but much of a contrary nature every way. The gracious declaration of Jesus is, I will eat of this passover, and drink of the fruit of the vine, with you in the kingdom of God when it shall be come. He did not say, when you shall go to the kingdom beyond the skies, but when the kingdom shall come, which he had taught them to pray for.

p.355 But the worst, and most repulsive, form, of ministerial blasphemy is exhibited in gaol-chaplain consolations. These are a striking manifestation of clerical ignorance of the letter and spirit of the truth. The scripture saith, that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him;" and that even he that hateth his brother is a murderer," and, consequently, beyond the pale of mercy. Murder can only be pardoned through a faith in the truth that works by love and purifies the heart, and made perfect by obedience. If after this such a believer fail of the grace of God, and hate, and murder, his brother, there is no forgiveness with God, "he shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth upon him." What with sprinkling infants in the name of the Lord, and calling it christian baptism; shriving reprobates at the gates of death, and calling it repentance; and committing their loathsome carcasses to the earth under a repetition of "common prayer" read over myriads of times, and styling it christian burial; surely, there is superabundant reason to conclude, were we even ignorant of the truth itself, that both priests and people are deceiving and being deceived. To call the popular system of religion by which we are surrounded, the religion of Christ, is not only a misnomer, but an imputation on the wisdom of God. Infant-sprinkling, death-bed repentances, and "christian butials," as they are termed, are mere human inventions. They belong to the apostasy, and are no part of the "things of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ." If a man serve the lusts of his flesh all his life, no remorse, or resolves, on a bed of death will serve him in the least. "He that sows to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap" (Gal. 6:7,8); and again, "to be carnally-minded is death;" and "they that are in the flesh cannot please God" and "if ye live after the flesh ye shall die" (Rom. 8:6,8,13). These are testimonies, which in few words show, that there is no salvation for a man who serves himself all the days of his life, and when he is no longer able to grasp the world, offers the extreme fag end of his existence to God. It is like eating all the meat of a joint, and throwing the bone to your friend. If he would feel

p.328 It is perfectly ridiculous to talk about the kingdom having come, and of the apostles being on their thrones. To affirm this proves that the professor is totally ignorant of the gospel. A pretty sitting upon thrones it was, when they were all arraigned at the bar, condemned, imprisoned, and scourged, for preaching the gospel of the kingdom in the name of Jesus! What havoc the apostasy has made with the truth! The gospel preaches no such stuff as this. It treats of a kingdom which the God of heaven shall set up in Judea, which shall never be removed from thence; in which the whole twelve tribes shall rejoice; which the saints of all ages shall possess; and which shall rule over all. Its elements at present are all scattered. It is not a matter of fact; but a thing of hope, in which only they rejoice who believe the promises made of God to the fathers.

p.300 When that remarkable change in the constitution of things is brought to pass, when Jesus having received the sovereignty, the angels shall do homage to him, there will be a great national jubilee throughout the earth. The nations which are now groaning under the blood-stained tyrannies of the world, and imprecating curses loud and deep upon the heads of their destroyers, will send up to heaven a shout "like mighty thunderings, saying Alleluia: for the Lord God, the Omnipotent reigneth" (Rev. 19:6). Paul evidently had a view to this period of blessedness, when he quoted the saying, " worship Him all gods." He quoted this from the ninety-seventh psalm, which celebrates the epoch of the reign in these words: -- "The Lord reigneth; let the earth rejoice; let the multitude of the isles be glad. Clouds and darkness are round about Him; righteousness and judgment are the habitation of His throne. A fire goeth before Him, and burneth up His enemies round about. His lightnings enlightened the world; the earth saw and trembled. The hills melted like wax at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth. The heavens declare His righteousness, and all the people see His glory. Confounded be all they that serve graven images, that boast themselves in idols: worship Him all ye Elohim. Zion heard, and was glad; and the daughters of Judah rejoiced because of thy judgments, 0 Lord. For Thou, Lord, art high above all the earth; Thou art exalted far above all the Elohim." Such will be the manifestation when the Father shall bring the Lord Jesus back again to the habitable. At present, the Elohim are ascending and descending the ladder, so to speak, between the Lord Jesus who is at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens, and the earth: but, when "He reigns on Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem before His ancients gloriously" (Isaiah 24:28), heaven and the habitable will be one; and the Elohim will

p.221 The result of the apostle's reasoning was their conviction that Jesus was indeed the King of Israel, even the Shiloh that had been promised them for so many ages. They acknowledged Him to be the "Son whose NAME should be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Founder of the Future Age, the Prince of Peace" (Isaiah 9:6). This belief, however, also convinced them that, being this great Personage, they had committed an enormous crime, and had "killed the Prince of Life." Their consciences smote them; "they had denied the Holy and just One, and desired a murderer before Him," and had imprecated

p.250 The study of the promise unconnected with the study of the fathers is impossible. Those who are ignorant of the biographies of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, must be ignorant of the gospel, for these patriarchs were the depositories of the promises (Heb. 11:17), which constitute the gospel-hope, and of them Abraham is especially designated as the holder of the promises (Heb. 7:6) TOU ECHONTA TAS EUAGGElLIAS. It is for this reason that a man must become of Abraham's seed by adoption through Jesus Christ. Unless a son of Abraham by a like faith and disposition with him, neither Jew nor Gentile can share in Abraham's estate. It is only Abraham's spiritual family that can divide with him the promises he holds. God has made him the spiritual father of mankind, and the Lord Jesus the elder Brother of the family. If, therefore, a man become a brother of Jesus, he at the same time becomes a son of Abraham, for Jesus is Abraham's seed, and was in the loins of Isaac when Abraham offered his only son, and received him from the dead again in a figure. If the reader understand this matter, he will fully comprehend the meaning of the apostle's saying, that believers "are all children of God (being Abraham's) by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many as

p.356 himself insulted, in what estimation would God hold a similar treatment of His majesty; would he not spurn the hypocrite from his presence, and justly too?

p.251 have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. And if Christ's THEN Abraham's seed and HEIRS according to the promise" (Gal. 3:26-29).

p.222 His blood upon themselves and their posterity. Of what use was their faith to them in this extremity? They believed in the kingdom, they believed in Jesus, they were penetrated with remorse, but still they were conscious only of guilt, and of judgment well-deserved. It was yet a hidden mystery to them what should be done for pardon of this great transgression. What was "the righteousness of God" which He required of them? Should they go to the high priest, and offer a whole burnt offering, and confess their sin? This would have been impracticable. Caiaphas would have offered sacrifice for them upon the altar upon no such confession as this, for in confessing themselves sinners for killing Jesus they would have charged the high priest as a principal in the crime. To what, or to whom, were they to look for a solution of "the mystery?" Who could unlock it and open to them the door of liberty and loose them from their sins? Is not the, reader prepared to answer, "the Holy Spirit alone could reveal to them of righteousness, because Jesus, had gone to the Father?" This is true, and the time had arrived to do it. But how, or through what channel, was the Spirit to do this? Was it to be by words thundered from heaven, by a still small voice whispering in their ears, by a feeling that they were forgiven, by words of inspiration spoken by the tongues of angels, or by the mouth of man? After what has been said, the reader will be prepared to say, "the keys of knowledge, or the power to reveal the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, were committed to Peter; therefore the new doctrine concerning righteousness, or justification to life, was to be revealed through him." This is also true; but the "devout Jews" were ignorant of this arrangement; therefore instead of addressing Peter alone, they inquired of all the apostles, saying "men, and brethren, what shall we do (Acts 2:37)?" Mark, reader, though the question was put to all, only one of them, and that one, Peter, replied to the inquiry. He was the spokesman of the twelve, by whose mouth God had chosen that Israel should hear the word of the gospel, and believe, or, as Paul writes, "the gospel of the circumcision was committed to Peter, in whom God wrought effectually for the purpose" (Gal. 2:8).

p.301 ascend and descend upon him. Heaven will then be open to the eyes of His saints, and they will behold the wonders of the invisible. For such is the doctrine taught by the Lord himself; who, when Nathanael recognised him as the Son of God, and King of Israel, because he revealed his secret actions, said to him, "Thou shalt see greater things than these. Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man" (John 1:51). Then will the future habitable have been subjected to the Son.

p.356 It is because of these abominations that the judgments of God are falling upon the nations. Ministerial and popular iniquities have brought the pestilence upon this people; and war and famine upon others. They are but the beginning of sorrows. At present the storm has lulled; but it is only that it may gather force to sweep before it all refuges of lies. "Woe to the world because of offences!" In former pages, I have endeavoured to show the reader what the truth is. I have advanced nothing that I can recollect, but what I have adduced "the law and the testimony" to prove. Let him view the landscapes of the moral world by the light of the truth, and he will behold the darkness visible. He will see its drapery in tatters, and its rags falling to pieces from very rottenness. Its fabric is rent from the dome to its foundations; and its structure is like a bowing wall and a tottering fence. There is no safety under its roof. Even the owls and the bats of its crannies are panic-stricken. Come out, then, dear reader, and leave the den, if unhappily you sojourn there. Believe the truth for its own sake, and obey it; and if you stand alone, be of good courage; I have tried it for many years, and can assure you from experience, that there is more real satisfaction in knowing, and being able to prove, the truth, and in contending single-handed for it, than in all the honor and enjoyment derivable from the applause of men, or the abundance of the world's goods a man may possess. There remains scarcely time enough to "work out one's salvation with fear and trembling before.the Lord comes. If the righteous "scarcely be saved what scope is there for the ungodly and the sinner; and if judgment began at the house of God in the persecutions it endured, "what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?" (1 Pet. 4:18, 17). Be not deceived by the traditions of the gentile scribes, and orators. Their ministrations have no vitality in them, and leave their flocks in their own predicament, "dead in trespasses and in sins." Therefore, "come out from among them, and be ye separate, and touch not the unclean; and I will receive you, and will be a Father to you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty " (2 Cor. 6:17,18).

p.329 The passover must be restored before it can be eaten of by Christ and his apostles in the kingdom of God. This is one of the things to be re-established at "the restitution of all things;" and the law of its restoration is in the following words: "In the first month, in the fourteenth day of the month, ye shall have the passover, a fast of seven days; unleavened bread shall be eaten. And upon that day shall (Messiah) the Prince prepare for himself and for all the people, of the land a bullock for a sin offering" Ezek. 14:21-22). This was spoken by the prophet to Israel of the fourteenth generation concerning the observance of the passover by Israel of the generation contemporary with the "restoration of the kingdom again to Israel" when it should be constituted under the Prince. Moses' law said all about the observance of the passover before the Prince appeared; but as Moses ceased to be the lawgiver when He came, a New Code is revealed through Ezekiel which will become the law of the kingdorn under Shiloh. When Ezekiel's passovcr is observed at Jerusalem, Christ will be there, the apostles also, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, and many from the four winds of heaven -- all of them the first-born redeemed from the earth, saved by the sprinkled blood of the true paschal lamb of God, and who shall find themselves in Canaan as inheritors of its attributes; celebrating their own redemption, and the overthrow of all their enemies by the Lord Jesus at his revelation in flaming fire, attended by the angels of his power.

p.301 The ladder of ages and generations, as I have said, connects the commencing and terminating, epochs, of a long period of time. Of this interval about three thousand seven hundred and sixty years have elapsed. A few more years only remain, and the top of the ladder will be attained by Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and by all others with them who shall be accounted worthy of the kingdom of God. They will have reached to heaven; not by flying thither as ghosts upon the wings of angels, but by heaven being brought down to earth, when the Lord Jesus shall descend in glory.

p.222 The answer given by Peter announced for the first time what believers of the gospel of the kingdom and in the things concerning Jesus must do, in order to become joint-heirs with Him of the promise made to the fathers. To these devout Jews, who now believed what both the prophets and apostles had

p.251 After what has been advanced, no more, I think, need be said upon the importance of the subject before us. I shall therefore proceed now to a more particular illustration of the glad tidings of the kingdorn by an exposition of

p.329 The bread and wine of "the Lord's Supper" are the remains of the passover, which are to be shared by the circumcised of heart and ears, until Christ comes in power and great glory. I am informed by a Jew, that when they eat the passover they eat no lamb, but have a dry bone of one on a dish; and that all who celebrate take hold of the lip of the dish, and unitedly offer a petition. This is remarkable. They have slain the true lamb, which believers of the gospel feed upon; while only a dry bone remains to them, strikingly illustrative of themselves. Faith in the Lamb of God supplies the absence of the lamb in the Lord's supper. The broken bread and poured out wine, memorialize His sacrifice for believers; and the testimony, "this do in remembrance of me until I come," keeps alive the hope of His appearing in the Kingdom of God. When hope becomes a reality, the supper will give place to the passover; for when Christ is come, the memorial of His coming ceases to be prophetic of the event.

p.251 The descendants of Noah were beginning to tread in the foot steps of the antediluvians. They became ambitious of making "a name" for thernselves, irrespective of the name of the Lord. This, their way, was their folly, yet their posterity approved their endeavour. Idolatry was beginning to prevail, and they proceeded to build a city and a tower whose top should reach to heaven, in honor of their god. But the Lord came down and put a stop to their enterprize by confounding their language and scattering them abroad over the earth (Gen. 9:9).

p.223 spoken, who were now humbled in disposition as little children, swift to hear, and anxious to do, whatever the Spirit should dictate, the holder of the keys to unlock the mystery of the gospel, said, " REPENT and BE BAPTIZED every one of you IN THE NAME of Jesus Christ FOR THE REMISSION OF SINS" (Acts 2:38).

p.301 Jacob sojourned with his uncle Laban twenty years (Gen. 31:38). While residing in Mesopotamia eleven sons were born to him. The twelfth, named Benjamin, was born of Rachel, the mother of Joseph, at Bethlehem Ephratha, where she died and was buried. Now, as Joseph was thirty-nine when Jacob went down into Egypt, being at that time a hundred and thirty years old (Gen. 41:46 ; 45:6; 47:9), it follows that Jacob was ninety-one when Joseph was born, and seventy-one when he fled to Haran. After the birth of Joseph, the angel of God appeared to him, and said, "I am the God of Bethel, where thou anointedst the pillar, and vowedst a vow unto Me: now, arise, get thee out of this land, and return unto the land of thy kindred." He obeyed. Having secretly collected together all his substance, he fled from Laban, taking up his route "to go to Isaac his father in the land of Canaan. "Having crossed the Euphrates, he arrived at the river Jabbok, which flows into the Jordan about midway between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. Not very far from the confluence of these rivers "the angels of God met him," and on this account he named the place Mahanaim, that is, God's host. Having sent messengers to Esau in the land of Seir to propitiate him, and got over all that he had, he remained on the north side alone. It was here that he wrestled with one of the angels, who blessed him; and

p.330 The Israelites being born into national existence under Moses as a ruler and deliverer, he led them from the Red Sea to the foot of Mount Sinai to meet with God. On their arrival there, the Lord commanded Moses to say to them, "Ye have seen what I did to the Egyptians; now, therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine, and ye shall be UNTO ME a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" (Exod. 19:3-6). This was an offer on the part of God to become their King, predicated upon what He had done for them. If they closed in with the proposal, they would henceforth be a kingdom. Hitherto they had been a crowd of slaves subject to the will of the kings of Egypt. But He proposed to organize them; to give thein a constitution, religion, and laws; to appoint them a government; to exalt them by his instructions to the freedom, independence, and moral excellence, which are attainable only by the influence of divine truth; to make them the envy and admiration of surrounding nations: to make them, in short, his kingdom, and his beloved nation. This was a proposal rich with blessings. All God would require of them was obedience, and adhesion to the covenant He had made with their fathers. The terms of the compact were highly eligible. No nation had received such a liberal and honourable proposal before, or since. Would they accept it, and abide by it? Moses was sent to see.

p.302 changed his name from Jacob to the more honorable one of Israel, which signifies a prince of God. As a memorial of this honour, the angel touched the tendon in the hollow of his thigh, and caused it to shrink. So that Jacob became lame, "and halted upon his thigh."

p.223 Such an annunciation as this had never been made before. In this way "repentance and the remission of sins" were "preached in the name of Jesus." This is God's way of righteousness, and, besides this, there is no other way of salvation; "for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). God's salvation is placed in the name of Jesus; and this name is accessible to mankind only upon the condition of believing "the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus," and being baptized by His name -- "he that believes the gospel and is baptized shall be saved" -- is the unrevoked fiat of the Son of God.

p.251 Noah had lived 292 years after the flood, when three sons were born to Terah, a descendant of Shem, Terah being 70 years old. Shem was a worshipper of the true God, whom Noah styled, "the Lord God of Shem" (Gen. 9:26). Terah, however, seems to have departed from the simplicity of the truth, and was, probably, engaged in the mad scheme of making "a name" for the sons of men in the land of Shinar. But that undertaking being interrupted, it is probable he migrated from Babel, the name of the city they were building, in a northerly direction. Be this as it may, we find him in Chaldea at a place called Ur (Josh. 24:2,14,15,24). At this place, eastward of "the great river Euphrates," Abram, Nahor and Haran were born to Terah. They lived there many years, serving the gods of Shinar. The idolatry of Terah's family appears from the testimony of God Himself who said to Israel, "Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood (the Euphrates) in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor: and 1hey served other gods." When Joshua reported this to the people, he admonished them, saying, "put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt, and serve ye the Lord. And if it seem evil to you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord. And the people said unto Joshua, The Lord our God will

p.330 Having arrived at the encampment, he convened the elders of the people, and laid the proposition before them. Having consulted the nation, they returned answer to Moses, saying, "All that the Lord hath spoken we will do." Upon this, Moses returned the words of the people to the Lord. In this transaction a formal agreement was entered into between Israel and the Lord. In the word they sent back by Moses, they accepted the Lord as their King, and became his subjects, or "the children of his kingdorn." The relation of God to the tribes as their king is undoubted; for when they demanded a visible king like other nations, the Lord told Samuel that they had not rejected him but the Lord himself, whose representative among them he was. By this political compact, Abraham's natural seed became "THE KINGD0M OF GOD." It was the first, and the only kingdom, He has ever had among the sons of men. He will yet have other kingdoms. All the kingdoms of the world will be

p.252 we serve, and His voice will we obey" (Gen. 15:7; Acts 7:2,3)

p.223 The words of the Spirit by the mouth of Peter went home to the hearts of these devout Jews. They that gladly received his word were baptized: "and the same day there were added to the congregation about three thousand souls. And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers" (Acts 2:42). These disciples were "a kind of firstfruits of God's creatures, begotten of His own will by the word of truth" (James 1:18), which "lives and abides for ever."

p.302 Having crossed the Jabbok to Penuel, and joined his company he had an interview with Esau, who received him with apparent kindness, though with evident mistrust on the part of Jacob. A reconciliation ensued. Esau accepted a liberal present, and pressed upon Jacob the unwelcome protection of his warriors. Jacob, however, persuaded him to depart without him; and he would follow "softly, until," said he, "I come unto my lord unto Seir." But as soon as Esau was well on his way, Jacob pushed on to Succoth. Having halted there for a time, he crossed the Jordan, and pitched at Shalem, in the land of Canaan. After his sons had taken vengeance upon the city on account of Dinah their sister, God appeared to him again, and told him to go and dwell at Bethel, and erect an altar there to God, who appeared to him when he fled from the face of Esau. The gods of Laban were still in the possession of his family. In obeying the voice of God, therefore, he ordered his household to put them away. This they did, and surrendered their ear-rings with them, and Jacob buried gods and jewels under an oak near Shechem.

p.331 come his; and will yet acknowledge the king He has provided to rule over them (Rev.11:15). But even then, the kingdom founded at the beginning of the ages, the kingdom of Israel, will be his "peculiar treasure above them all." If, then, we would understand "the things of the kingdom of God," we must never lose sight of Israel in connection with the kingdom. Indeed, without them there is no kingdom of God; and to affirm the contrary is to believe in a kingdom over which there is no nation to rule! No misconduct of Israel can dissolve the covenant entered into between them and God. The rebellion of a nation does not do away with the rights of the king. If they set his laws and government at defiance it becomes a question of might. If the rebellion triumph the king is dethroned; but if the rights of the throne prevail, the rebel nation has no alternative but to submit to whatever terms the conqueror may prescribe. This is precisely the state of things between God and Israel. The tribes have rebelled against Him. He has appointed Jesus of Nazareth to be King of the Jews. But they say no good thing ever came out of Nazareth, and they will not have him for their king. They have no other king, they say, but Caesar; hence, they crucified Jesus, and have served Caesar ever since. But has God surrendered his rights? Will he allow himself to be dethroned by rebels, and his Viceroy to be treated as a malefactor? All who deny the restoration of Israel in effect say, "they have rebelled successfully against God and his Christ." But this cannot be. God will restore them "for his name's sake." He will plant them in Canaan; settle them in the land according to their old estates; and place Jesus upon David's throne in triumph; for He has sworn that "at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that he is Lord to the glory of God the Father" (Phil. 2:9-11). The great rebellion will then be suppressed; God will have recovered his rights; his kingdom will be re-established; and Israel will thenceforth "obey his voice and keep his covenant," as they originally agreed to do.

p.302 When he arrived at Bethel, he built the altar as God had told him. And God said to him there, "I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply: a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins: and the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee will I give it, and to thy Seed after thee will I give the land" (Gen. 35:12). In this renewal of the promise, the additional idea was revealed to Jacob, that the nation constituted of his descendants would contain a plurality of nations, that is, be a national association of tribes. He was to inherit the land with them, and with the Seed, or Christ; and as he knew they were to be oppressed by another nation till four hundred years, after which that nation would be judged, and his children would come out with great wealth; this blessing at Bethel reminded him, that he would rise from the dead with Abraham, and inherit the land for ever with his Seed. Having left Bethel, he journeyed towards Bethlehem, on the way to which Rachel died. After her death, he spread his tent beyond the tower of Edar, on Mount Zion.

p.223 But, though the mystery of the gospel was thus made known in the name of Jesus, even Peter, to whom the keys of the mystery were given, did not yet understand "the FELLOWSHIP of the mystery." The keys were not given to him when Jesus spoke the words, nor were both of them given to him on the day of Pentecost. The mystery was revealed to the Jews first, and, several years elapsed before it was known, or supposed, that the Gentiles would be admitted to a joint-heirship with Jesus on an equality with the Jews. During this.period of about seven years the body of Christ consisted solely of believing Israelites, sons of Abraham by flesh and faith. At the end of this time, however, God determined to "visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for His name." He graciously resolved to invite men of all the nations of the Roman territory to accept honor, glory and immortality in the kingdom and empire about to be established on the ruins of all others. Hitherto He had only invited His own people Israel to this high destiny, but now He was

p.252 While Terah's family dwelt in Ur of the Chaldees, the Lord appeared to them, and said to Abram, "Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall show thee" (Gen. 12:1). This command caused them to, remove from Ur, and to journey towards the land of Canaan; on their way to which, they arrived at Haran and dwelt there (Gen. 12:4, 5). Thus, Terah, Abram, Sarai, and Lot, obeyed the voice of the Lord, and separated themselves from the idolators of the Chaldean district of Mesopotamia. They remained in Haran till the Lord appeared again to Abraham. On this occasion, the Lord came to show him the land he was to go to, but did not immediately name it. He appears only to have told him to travel eastward until He met him again; for it is written, that he went in that direction, "not knowing whither he went." At this interview in Haran, the Lord said to Abram, "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 I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed" (Heb. 11:8,10). Alluding to this promise, the apostle says, that in making it, "the gospel was preached to Abraham" -- the glad tidings of blessedness to the nations, when Abraham and his descendants should be great, and renowned throughout the earth. Abraham believed this gospel promisorily announced to him by the Lord God. Nor was his faith inoperative. It was a living, moving faith -- a faith through which he obtained a good report. By the influence of the faith, which embraces the things hoped for, it is testified that Abraham "when he was called to go out into a country which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. For he looked for the city having foundations, whose architect and builder is God" (Heb. 11:8,10). He turned his back on Babel, and with Sarai, and his nephew, Lot, and all his substance, he left his father's house, crossed the Euphrates and the Jordan, and entered the land of Canaan, still travelling onward until he arrived at Sichem, in the plain of Moreh. Having come thus far into the country, the Lord appeared again to Abram to let him know that he was in the land He intended to show him; and added this remarkable promise, saying, "Unto thy SEED will I give this land" (Gen. 12:7).

p.331 The nation being adopted as the kingdom of God, and having received its constitution three days afterwards, which was fifty days from its redemption as Jehovah's [YAHWEH'S] first-born of nations; and also having received its religion, and civil laws, as related in Exodus and Leviticus -- all things were prepared for transferring the tribes from the wilderness to the land of Canaan. Moses had announced to them this consummation while groaning in

p.253 this promise. Here was a country, lying between the Euphrates and the Mediterranean, in which were Abraham and all his house with his flocks and herds, and which was in the actual possession of warlike tribes, living in cities walled up to heaven; concerning this country, the Lord, to whom heaven and earth belong, said to Abraham, I will give it to thy Seed, when as yet he had no child. But it is particularly interesting to know who is intended by Abraham's Seed in this promise? Is it the "great nation" spoken of in the former promise; or, is it some particular personage to whom the land of Canaan is here promised as an inheritance? I shall offer no opinion upon the subject, but let the apostile to the Gentiles answer the question. In writing to the disciples in Galatia about the inheritance, he says, "The promises were made to Abraham and to his Seed. God saith not, And to seeds as of many persons; but as of one person, as it is written, And unto thy Seed, which is Christ" (Gal. 3:16). The apostle tells us that the land of Canaan was promised to the Christ when God said to Abraham, "Unto thy Seed will I give this land." Let the reader, then, bear this in mind as one of the first principles of the kingdom. Deny this, and there is an end to all understanding of the truth.

p.224 Before this, however, could be accomplished according to the principles laid down in God's plan, it was necessary to prepare Peter for the work. Although an apostle, he was still a Jew, and had all the prejudices of the Jew against the Gentile. He considered it "unlawful for him to keep company, or come unto, one of another nation." The Jews had no more social dealings with the Gentiles than with the Samaritans. And if any had suggested the propriety of his going and preaching the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus to the Gentiles, he would have positively refused. If, however, he had been ever so willing, he could not have done it for various other reasons. In those days no one could preach effectually unless he were sent; and as he had not been sent of God, his mission would have been a failure. Then, he did not know whether God would accept the Gentiles on the same conditions as the Jews, if, indeed, He would admit them to a joint-heirship at all. But the law was a sufficient wall of separation to keep Jewish preachers and Gentiles apart until God's time should arrive to do it away, and to bring them together into "one body."

p.303 From thence he came to Hebron, where his father Isaac dwelt. Twenty-nine years having elapsed after this re-union from Jacob's departure from Laban, Isaac died, having attained the age of one hundred and eighty years; and his sons., Esau and Jacob, buried him (Gen. 35:29).

p.332 Egypt. But they hearkened not for anguish of spirit. When, however, they were "baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea," they came to believe on the Lord and in him as his servant. But their probation in the wilderness was too much for their faith. They were continually turning back in their hearts to Egypt. The time, however, had now arrived to put this fourth generation to a final test. Twelve principal men, one for each tribe, were sent from the wilderness in Paran to view the land of Canaan, and to bring back a report to the people. After an absence of forty days they returned. They said the land was all that could be desired, and flowing, indeed, with milk and honey; but as to being able to take possession of the country that was impossible; for the inhabitants were gigantic and strong, living in well-fortified cities, and could not be overcome by Israel, who were but as grasshoppers when compared to them. But Caleb and Joshua, who believed on God, testified to the contrary; and encouraged the people to go up at once, and possess it; for they were well able to overcome it. "The land, " said they, "which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good land. If the Lord delight in us, then He will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey. Only rebel not ye against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us their defence is departed from them, and the Lord is with us fear them not " (Nunb. 13, 14.).

p.303 A parable is the setting forth of a certain thing as a representative of something else. Hence, it is a comparison, or similitude. It may be spoken, or acted. In the former case fiction is used to illustrate that which is real; while in the latter, real actions on a smaller scale are representative of remoter and grander events. Whether spoken, or acted, parables are dark and unintelligible to those who are not skilled in the things of the kingdom; but when once they come to comprehend these, the things they resemble immediately appear. To allegorize is to represent truth by comparison. For certain features of the kingdom of God to be illustrated parabolically, is to speak, or act, allegorically; and is a mode of instruction more calculated to keep up the attention, and to impress the mind permanently, than a set discourse, or formal disquisition. The scriptures are constructed after this ingenious plan, by which they are made so much more interesting, and capable of containing so much more matter, than any other book on the same subject, and of the same size. They are a study of themselves; and no "rules of interpretation," or of "logic," are of any value to the understanding of the things which they reveal.

p.224 Peter, then, had to be prepared for the work. The narrative of his preparation is contained in the 10th chapter of Acts. A direct attack was made upon his prejudices. He became very hungry about twelve o'clock in the day. While waiting on the housetop for something to eat, an amazement came over him. In this state, he saw a great sheet full of all sorts of unclean creatures, fit and appropriate emblems of the moral condition of the Gentiles. At this crisis the Spirit said, "Rise, Peter, kill and eat!" But Peter preferred hunger to defilement, and would not consent, until it was repeated for the third time that the legal distinction between clean and unclean was done away "what God hath cleansed call not thou it common" or unclean.

p.253 Having built an altar at Sichem, to commemorate the Lord's promise concerning his Seed's inheritance, and sojourned there for a while, he removed to a mountain between Bethel and Hai, where he built another altar, and called upon the name of the Lord. After this, he journeyed, going on still toward the south.

p.332 Now, when all the people heard the evil report, they cried and wept all night. They murmured against Moses, and wished they had died in Egypt, or the wilderness, before they had been brought into this extremity. They proposed, at length, to make a captain, and march back into Egypt. As for Caleb and Joshua they bid stone them to death.

p.253 Having been driven into Egypt by famine in the land of Canaan, he sojourned there for a time, and acquired much wealth. After it had subsided, he left Egypt and returned to the station between Bethel and Hai, where he called on the name of the Lord. Soon after this, Lot separated from Abram, and went and dwelt among the cities of the plain, now submerged under the Dead Sea. After this separation the Lord appeared to him again, and said, "Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art, northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward: for all the land which thou seest, to THEE Will I give it, and to thy Seed FOR EVER. And I will make thy seed (plural here) as the dust of the earth; so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered. Arise, walk through the land in the length of it, and in the breadth of it: for l will give it unto thee" (Gen. 13:14-17)

p.224 The impression made on Peter by this vision is best expressed in his own words. "God hath shewed me," says he "that I should not call any man common, or unclean. Therefore came I to you (Gentiles) as soon as I was sent for." In this way the second key of the kingdom was imparted to him. Its use was to make known the fellowship of the mystery.

p.303 A parable was enacted by Abraham in offering up Isaac. The things transacted were real, but they were also parabolic, or figurative, of something else, even of the sacrifice and resurrection of the Seed, or Christ. After the death of Isaac, and when Jacob was waxing old, Joseph was selected from among his sons by the arrangements of God to be the typical representative of the future Seed, through whom the promises were to take effect. Hence, the life of Joseph became a living parable by which was represented to Jacob and his sons, and to believers afterwards, what was to be transacted in the life of Christ. In itself the story of Joseph is an interesting and moving history; but when we read it as though we were reading of Christ instead of him, the narration assumes an importance which highly commends itself to the student of the word.

p.332 The reader's attention is particularly requested to this passage of Jewish history. The apostle, in commenting upon these incidents, says that the gospel was preached to them on this occasion; and that the land spied out was connected with God's rest. His words are these -- "They could not enter into His rest because of unbelief:" then addressing his brethren, be says, "Let us therefore fear, lest a promise being left of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached as well as unto them; but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it" (Heb. 3:18, 19; 4:1,2). In the context of

p.303 Jacob had resided seventeen years in the land of Canaan after leaving Laban. Joseph was then seventeen, and Isaac one

p.224 As soon as Peter's preparation was complete, even while he was debating within himself the meaning of the vision, three Gentile messengers from Cornelius, a centurion of the Italian regiment, arrived from Caesarea, to request him to visit him.

p.254 Sichem. At the former place, the promise of blessing which was to come upon him and the nations, and in which his seed, in the sense of a multitude, was to become great -- was given in general terms; at the latter place, the Christ was promised as descending from him to inherit the land of Canaan: but in these promises, nothing was said about what Abram was to have, nor as to how long the Christ was to possess the country. In the promise, however, amplified near Bethel, these desiderata were supplied. Abram was informed that be should inherit the country as well as Christ; and that they should both possess it "forever." Having received this assurance, he, removed his tent from Bethel, and went and pitched it near Hebron, in the plain of Mamre, and built there an altar to the Lord.

p.333 this passage the apostle had been speaking of Moses and Christ, the former, as a faithful servant in another's house; and the latter as a son over his own house: whose house the believers in the things spoken of the land are, "if they hold fast the confidence and rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end." He then introduces the case of the fourth generation as a warning of the fatal consequences of letting go the hope of the promise. He quotes from a scripture written in the fourteenth generation, in which the Holy Spirit repeats the sentence upon them, and upon all like them, who harden their hearts, saying, "They shall not enter into my rest" (Psalm 95:7). What rest is here spoken of? The peaceable possession and enjoyment of the land so highly commended by Caleb. They did not enter in, but were turned back towards the Red Sea, and wandered in the wilderness for forty years until the carcasses of all the rebels above twenty years old fell to their lowest estate. But the fifth generation obtained the rest under Joshua when they possessed the land. No, says the apostle, they did not; "for if Joshua had given them rest, then would God not have spoken afterward by David of another day," The rest which Joshua gave the nation was only transitory. When he and his associates of the fifth generation died, the nations which God had not driven out, were as thorns in their sides which gave them but little rest in after years. "There remaineth then," saith he, "a rest for the people of God;" even Canaan in the age to come, under Shiloh, the Prince of Peace, whose ''rest shall be glorious" (Psalm 132:11-18), and undisturbed by war's alarms.

p.254 When Abraham had resided nearly ten years in the land of Canaan, the whole country was in arms east of the Jordan, and to the north and south of Abram's encampment. A rebellion had broken out against Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, who appears to have been the principal potentate of the time. During the war, Sodom was attacked and, taken, and Lot and all his goods carried away with the spoil of the city, for he dwelt there. Abram having heard of this, hastily collected a company of three hundred and eighteen retainers, and started in pursuit of the spoilers, whom he overtook and put to the rout as far as Hobah on the west of Damascus. He recovered all the spoil, and returned south, considerably disturbed in mind, doubtless, on account of the danger of the times.

p.225 The Spirit told Peter to go with them, nothing doubting, for He had sent them.

p.304 hundred and sixty-eigbt. It was, therefore, when Jacob was one hundred and twenty, and twelve years before the death of Isaac, that Joseph had his remarkable dreams. These are the first examples on record of symbolical prophecy. They represented to Joseph that he should be lord over his brethren; and when repeated to them, they as clearly understood them to indicate his supremacy and their subjection, as though it had been ever so literally predicted. I mention this to show that prophecy by symbols and symbolic action, is as intelligible as prophecy in the plainest words.

p.333 Now this rest under Shiloh was preached unto them. The possession under Joshua was the first step to the full accomplishment of the covenant. Had the nation continued to obey the Lord's voice and to keep the covenant, and when Christ came received him as king on the proclamation of the gospel, they would doubtless have been in Canaan until now; and he might have come ere this, and be now reigning in Jerusalem, King of the Jews and Lord of the nations. But had this been the case, we Gentiles would have had no part in the kingdom. We might attain to eternal life at the end of the reign; but in the glory of the kingdom, and in the administration of its affairs, as heirs of the world with Abraharn and his seed, we should have had no part; for it was the unbelief of the forty-second generation of Israel that became the riches of the Gentiles.

p.304 Joseph was the beloved of his father, and the envied and hated of his brethren, whose conduct caused him to give his father an "evil report" of them. He dreamed that he and they were binding sheaves in the field, and that his sheaf stood upright, and theirs also round about, and that they made obeisance to his sheaf. When he told them his dream they caught at the meaning at once. "Shalt thou," said they, " indeed reign over us? or, shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams and for his words." In his second dream "the sun and the moon, and the eleven stars, made obeisance to him;" which Jacob interpretled, saying, "Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth? And his brethren envied him, but his father observed the saying."

p.225 Now, while God was preparing Peter's mind for a ready obedience, He had sent a messenger to tell Cornelius to send for Peter. It would be well for the reader to reflect on the character of Cornelius before the angel visited him. He was not a pagan Gentile, or a wicked sinner in danger of hell-fire, but a proselyte of righteousness, or an outer-court worshipper. "He was a just and devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, gave much alms to the Jews, among whom he was of good report, and he prayed to God alway." No better man, lay clerical, can be produced from any modern sect than Cornelius. He was a God-fearing, "pious," and generous-hearted man. He was not a perverse, hot-headed, ignorant disciple of some sect, but a man approved of heaven, whose prayers and alms ascended before God as a memorial of him. But why dwell so on the character of this excellent man? Because a special messenger was sent from heaven to tell even this good man, this just and devout Gentile, to send for the apostle Peter, that he might come from Joppa and tell him what he ought to do. But, as though this was not explicit enough, the angel stated that "Peter should come and tell him words whereby he and his house might be saved." Now it is worthy of especial note by the religionists of this self complacent generation, that this just person was not in a saved state under the new order of things, that he had both to hear words, and to do something for his salvation which he had then as yet neither heard nor done. And let it be observed, furthermore, that the angel of God was not permitted to preach the gospel to Cornelius, or, in other words, to tell him what he ought to do, or "the words by which he and his house might be saved." He was only allowed to tell him to send for Peter. According to modern notions this was quite unnecessary; for, cries popular ignorance, it would have saved both time and trouble if the angel had told Cornelius at once what it was necessary for so excellent a man to believe and do, instead of sending three men through the broiling sunshine to fetch Peter to Caesarea. 0 what a lesson is contained in this interesting narrative for the "clergy," "ministers" and people of these times! How it convicts them of infidelity to the gospel, and sinfulness before God; or, if sincerity be granted to them, and doubtless there are among them many honest and well-intentioned

p.254 At this crisis, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, and comforted him with the assurance, saying, "Fear not, Abram, I am thy shield, and thine exceeding great reward." Abram was now eighty-five years old, and he had no child. How then, could the promise made of God at Haran, and repeated at Sichem and Bethel be fulfilled, seeing that he was childless? He was even now an old man, and had concluded to make Eliezer of Damascus his heir; how then could the great, the exceeding great, reward be realized by him? Prompted by these considerations, but in no wise distrusting God, Abram said, "Lord God, what wilt Thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus? Behold, to me Thou hast given no seed; and lo, one born in my house is my heir," But, "but the word of the Lord came to him, saying, 'This (Eliezer) shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir."' The Lord's

p.334 belief." Neither can we unless we also believe what they rejected; for the same gospel that was preached to them, was preached by the apostles to the forty-second generation; but cannot be said to be preached to us of this century. I am endeavouring, however, to set it before the people in this book; though I feel it a difficult work, seeing that men's minds are so mystified, and preoccupied, with the jargon of the schools. God's rest in Canaan -- by which is not meant that all his saints will be living there, though all that abide there will be a righteous people; the things which belong to Canaan will overspread the world; and where there are nations to be governed there will there be saints to rule -- but this rest, I say, is the great theme of the gospel whether preached by Moses, by Jesus, or by the apostles. The rest and the kingdom are but different terms, though substantially the same. They will both be of Canaan, and are both the subject of the promise made of God to Abraham and his seed for ever.

p.255 messenger, who brought this word to Abrarn, then led him forth from his tent, and directed his attention to the heavens, saying, "Count the stars if thou art able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be." This was a great draft upon the faith of an old man of upwards of fourscore, with a wife of seventy-five years of age. But it is testified of him, that "against hope he believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, saying, So shall thy seed be. And not being weak in faith, he considered not his own body afterwards dead, when he was about a hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb: he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief: but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; and being fully persuaded that what He had promised, He was also able to perform" (Rom. 4:18-21). Such was the manner of Abram's faith, his mode of thinking upon the things reported to him in the word of the Lord, and his disposition in relation to them. So pleased was God with him, that "He counted it to, him for righteousness."

p.226 persons, who "err, not knowing the Scriptures" -- grant, then, that they sincerely love truth in the abstract, yet, comparing their creeds and preaching and practices with the testimonies contained in the second, tenth and eleventh chapters of the Acts, to say nothing of others -- how condemned are they as vain talkers, and deceived leaders of the blind. It is really painful to listen to the superficial dissertations of the textuaries, retailed to the people from the pulpits of the day. Theological speculations on isolated scraps of Scripture are substituted for the words of Peter and the other apostles, by which alone even the "Pious" can be saved. They talk of true religion, of primitive Christianity, of the gospel, of churches of Christ, and of an evangelical ministry; but where, among papist or protestant, church or dissent, are these things to be found, reflecting the precepts, precedents and morality of the "pure and undefiled religion" of the New Testament? This New Testament Christianity is the grand desideratum of the protestant world, which, however, we despair of beholding even in theory until Messiah shall appear in His kingdom, and abolish all existing names and denominations, which serve, indeed, as a kind of ecclesiastical police, but are perfectly useless as institutions capable of indoctrinating mankind with the things which they ought to believe and do, if they would become joint-heirs with Jesus of the kingdom, glory and empire of the Ancient of Days.

p.304 Now in these little incidents we read, not only Joseph's exaltation, but the treatment Christ would afterwards receive from the sons of Joseph's brethren, and his subsequent exaltation to reign over them, when Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and his family, shall bow down before him to the earth. Jesus gave an evil report of his brethren, who saw that he was beloved of God; he troubled them with his parables, and reproofs; and they envied him and hated him for his words. The fate of Joseph awaited him; for as the eleven conspired against Joseph to kill him, and actually sold him to the Ishmaelites of Midian for twenty pieces of silver, so was the Lord Jesus sold for thirty, and subjected to a violent death by the rulers, thinking thereby to falsify his words, and extinguish his pretensions to lordship over them.

p.334 The covenant made with Abraham promised an immortal inheritor of Canaan; and in Jacob's last prophecy it was plainly revealed that he should be its King, and should descend from Judah. By this, it was understood that Judah would be the royal tribe; but it was not known what family of Judah he would be born of. This was a matter which remained in abeyance until the fourteenth generation. The nation had been long settled in Canaan. For four hundred and fifty years the laws of the kingdom had been administered by judges, until at length the people demanded a king who should go in and out before them, as among the neighbour nations. This happened in the days of Samuel the prophet, who laid their request before the Lord. Though He was displeased at the demand, as it was in effect a rejection of Him, He nevertheless granted their request, and gave them Saul, of the tribe of Benjamin, until another man upon whom He had set His heart, should have been sufficiently trained in the school of adversity to take his place. This was David, the son of Jesse, and of the tribe of Judah. God ordered Samuel to anoint him king over Israel. By this act David became the Lord's anointed, or Christ; and when he ascended the throne, ruled the nation as Jehovah's [YAHWEH'S] king.

p.304 Joseph, having become the property of the Midianitish merchants, was "separated from his brethren," and as good as dead to them. They lost sight of him entirely, and at length forgot him altogether. Their conspiracy to all appearance had perfectly succeeded; they had got rid of "the master of

p.226 2 -- That good and pious men must believe certain things and do certain others, for salvation;

p.255 Abram, having first sought the kingdom of God in leaving his father's house to "seek the city, whose architect and builder is God," had now become the subject of the righteousness of God by faith, so that the Lord was now prepared to add all other things to him (Matt. 6:33). He reminded him of the purpose for which He had brought him into the land of Canaan, saying, "I, the Lord, brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees to give thee this land to inherit it." Abram had been in the country ten years. He had become well acquainted with the land, and he perceived that it was a noble and desirable inheritance. When, therefore, the angel referred to the Lord's promise, Abram requested a sign, saying, "Lord God, whereby shall I know that I shall possess it?" In reply to this he was commanded to take "a heifer of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtle dove, and a young pigeon. Having killed them, "he divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another, but the birds divided he not." This sacrifice was, representative of the qualities of the Christ, concerning whom confirmation was about to be made, attestative of Abram's and his Seed's possession of the land in the fulness of the times afterwards to be arranged. From the time of the sacrifice until the going down of the sun, Abram was engaged in watching the carcases, so as to keep off the birds of prey. It is probable that

p.334 In the former part of his reign he was much engaged in war, which was at length terminated by the Lord giving him rest from all his enemies. At this crisis of his history, it came into

p.256 the sacrifice was exposed about three hours ; at all events, "when even was come" (Gen. 15:12), and the sun was going down, Abram fell into a state of figurative death, by a deep sleep and horror of darkness coming over him. This is a very remarkable feature in the case before us. Abram had built altars, and had called upon the name of the Lord before; but there were no such attendant circumstances as these. Here, however, he stands watching the exposed sacrificial victims until even, and then he is laid powerless in the similitude of death, and in the intense darkness of the grave. While he was in this state, the Lord revealed to Abram the fortunes of his descendants in the ensuing four hundred years, the judgment of the nation that should oppress them, their subsequent exodus from bondage with great wealth, his own peaceful death in a good old age, and the return of his descendants into the land of Canaan again. The following are the words of the testimony: "Know of a surety that thy seed shall be stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; and also that nation whom.they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward they shall come out with great substance. And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again; for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full."

p.226 3 -- That these things, indispensably necessary for salvation, are set forth in Peter's words spoken to his contemporaries;

p.305 dreams; and had imposed upon Jacob the falsehood, that he had met with a violent death from a savage beast. But "God was with him;" and though they had made every thing sure, their sin was certain to overtake them.

p.335 his heart to build a magnificent temple for the ark and cherubim of glory. Though the Lord highly approved of the feeling which prompted the resolution, He forbid him carrying it into effect. The work was too momentous to be undertaken by one in David's case. Jehovah [YAHWEH] being the real king of Israel did not permit a national temple to be erected in His kingdom by a subordinate ruler without His primary direction. David had shed much blood which was urged as an objection to his doing more than collecting the materials; which his son should put together after his decease.

p.305 Joseph was carried into Egypt when he was seventeen years old; and he was thirty-nine when he was made known to his brethren at their second interview; hence, he was separate from his father's house for twenty-two years. During this time his fortunes were varied, but always tending to the promotion of God's purpose through him. The work to be accomplished was to plant the Israelites in Egypt; that they might be strangers in a land not theirs, and serve them; and be afflicted, until the time should arrive for their oppressors to be judged, and their deliverance effected to the glory of Jehovah's [Yahweh's] name. God works by human instrumentality in the affairs of men. Hence, He selected Joseph, as He has since done the Lord Jesus, whom He has also "separated from his brethren," to be the honoured agent in the developing of His purpose in regard to Israel in relation to their own destiny, and the judgment, and subsequent blessedness, of the nations.

p.226 4 -- That Peter's words are the keys to the mystery and fellowship of the gospel of the kingdom;

p.256 I suppose the reader need hardly be informed that all this was literally accomplished. Jacob and his family, consisting of seventy persons, migrated into Egypt two hundred and fifty years after the revelation was made to Abram. When a king arose in Egypt who knew not Joseph, the saviour of the country under God, the Israelites were sorely oppressed till the end of four hundred years from Abram's deep sleep. After this four hundred years had expired, even thirty years after, God having judged the Egyptians, they left the country with great substance; and in the fourth generation re-entered the land of Canaan, as God had said. The iniquity of the Arnorites was then full; and Israelites, under Joshua, became the executioners of divine vengeance upon them.

p.335 At this time the word of the Lord came to Nathan, saying, "Go and tell David my servant, thus saith the Lord, thou shalt not build me a house to dwell in. But the Lord telleth thee that He will make thee a house." What follows is an explanation of what is meant by this. "And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shalt proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever. I WILL BE HIS FATHER, AND HE SHALL BE MY SON. Even in suffering for iniquity I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes, due to the children of Adam. But my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee. And thy house and thy kingdoin shall be established for ever BEFORE THEE: thy throne shall be established for ever" (2 Sam. 7:11-16).

p.256 But God had said to Abram at Bethel, I will give THEE the land of Canaan FOR EVER, and in the answer to this question "whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?" here tells him that he should die and be buried in a good old age! Now the promise to Abram rests upon the veracity of God. If we attempt to interpret it by the history of the past, we are brought

p.226 5 -- That there is no difference between Jews and Gentiles in relation to this mystery;

p.305 The second chapter of the Josephine parable begins with Joseph in the house of Potiphar. Being there the victim of a false accusation he was immured in the state-prison. But even here he found favor, as he had in Potiphar's house before; for Joseph was a righteous man, and God was with him. He had been in prison two full years, when the king of Egypt had his dreams of the kine, and the ears. The report of his correct interpretation of the chief butler's, and the chief baker's, dreams, while in durance, caused him to be brought before Pharoah to interpret his. It was then believed that "interpretations belong to God " (Gen. 40:8); that is, when He causes men to dream prophetically, He reserves the interpretation of them to Himself. This is illustrated in the case before us, and afterwards in that of Nebuchadnezzar. Pharoah consulted all the magicians and wise men of Egypt, but there was none that could interpret his dreams. But God revealed their interpretation to Joseph, who exhibited fo the king a luminous exposition of them as indications of what God was about to do; and offered him such advice in the emergency as convinced Pharaoh that Joseph was "a man in whorn the Spirit of God was," and that "none were so discreet and wise as he." "Therefore," said the king, " thou shalt he over my house, and according unto thy

p.335 These promises are styled "an everlasting covenant even the sure mercies of David" (Isaiah 55:3; Acts 13:34). There can be no doubt to whom they refer, for the apostle has applied them to Christ (Heb. 1:5). In his last words, David thus expresses himself concerning them, "The God of Israel spake to me, saying, He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God. And He (the Just One) shall be as the light of the morning when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds; as the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear sbining after rain. Although my house be not so with God; yet He hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure; for this is all my salvation and all my desire, although He make it not to grow" (2 Sam. 23:3-5).

p.306 word shall all my people be ruled: only in the throne will I be greater than thou."

p.226 6 -- That God hath appointed men, and not angels, to preach the gospel;

p.257 to the conclusion that the promise to Abram has failed. Stephen alludes to this apparent failure of the promise to Abram in his speech before the Sanhedrim in these words, "God said to him come into the land which I will show thee. Then came he into this land in which ye dwell. And He gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on: YET he promised that He would give it to him for a possession and to his Seed (T0 SPERMATI, in the singular, to one person called the Seed) after him when as yet he had no child" (Acts 7:5). What shall we say then? Shall we dare to say that God hath lied to Abram; or, that He meant something else than what He promised? Far be it from the writer or reader to insult God by any such insinuation; but rather let us say with the apostle in reference to this particular incident that "God cannot lie ;" that in promising to Abram an everlasting possession of the land of Canaan, and nevertheless, afterwards declaring that he should die and be buried, and his posterity be oppressed for four hundred years -- "He promised" to him a resurrection to "eternal life" before the arrangements of the times (PRO CHRONON AIONION, Tit. 1:2). If Abram were sentenced to die, how could the promise of God concerning the land be fulfilled unless he were raised from the dead? And as he is to possess it for ever, when he is raised, he must be also made incorruptible and immortal to enable him to possess it everlastingly. The promise of eternal life, then, consists in promising a mortal man and his Son possession of a terrestrial country for ever; and this promise to the two, becomes a promise to all who believe it, and are constituted one in them. Abram understood this, and so do all who become Abraham's seed through Jesus the Christ, concerning whom the promise was made. The apostle says he saw the promises in their fulfilment afar off, but was persuaded of them, and confessed that he was a stranger and pilgrim on the land. And in saying such things he plainly declared that he was seeking a country. And truly, if he had been mindful of the Mesopotamian Chaldea from whence he emigrated, he might have returned if he had pleased. But no; he desired a better country than that beyond the Euphrates, that is, the land of Canaan under a heavenly constitution: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the God of all whose faith is like theirs in word and spirit: for He prepares (HETOIMASE, indefinite tense) for them a city (Heb. 11:8-16).

p.335 This covenant of the throne and kingdom was David's desire and salvation, because it promised him a resurrection to eternal

p.257 This manner of teaching the doctrine of a resurrection, namely,

p.226 7 -- That Peter was to be sent for, because to him alone the keys were given;

p.306 When Joseph was thirty-seven years old, the famine began in Egypt. It extended to all the surrounding countries, and was sore in the land of Canaan. Hearing that there was corn in Egypt, Jacob sent "Joseph's ten brethren" to purchase some. Now, Joseph, being governor was the man who sold the grain. This caused the sons of Israel to appear before him; and as he had predicted, "they bowed themselves before him with their faces to the earth." Joseph knew them; but they did not recognise him. He affected to believe they were spies, and put them in ward for three days; but afterwards released them, retaining one as a hostage, for their re-appearance with their youngest brother; and then sent them back loaded with grain for their father's house. The harsh treatment they experienced from Joseph brought to their recollection the manner they had treated him two and twenty years before. Their consciences accused them; and not knowing that Joseph understood Hebrew, for he spoke with thern through an interpreter, they confessed their guilt to one another in his presence, saying, "We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear; therefore is this distress come upon us."

p.336 life, in the assurance that his house, kingdom, and throne, with God's son and his son, one person, sitting upon it, should be established in his presence for ever. "I have made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn unto David my servant, saying, Thy seed will I establish for ever, and build up thy throne to all generations. He shall cry unto me, Thou art my Father, my God, and the Rock of my salvation. Also I will make him my first-born, higher than the kings of the earth. My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing which has gone out of m lips. Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David. His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me. It shall be established for ever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven'' (Psalm 89:3, 4, 19-28, 34-37).

p.306 Having visited Egypt a second time they were introduced into Joseph's house, when Simeon was restored to them. On Joseph's entrance "they bowed down their heads, and made obeisance." They were placed at table in regular order from the eldest to the youngest; and they ate, drank, and were merry with Joseph, ttill supposing him to be an Egyptian. Having departed on their return to Canaan, Joseph caused them to be pursued, and brought back under pretence of having stolen his drinking cup. At this second interview, Judah made supplication for his brethren; and confessed that God had found out the iniquity of himself and brethren; and that they were now fairly the servants of the lord of Pharoah's kingdom. Judah having finished, Joseph could refrain no longer, but wept aloud, and announced himself as their brother, whom they had sold into Egypt. They were greatly troubled at his presence; but he tranquillized their fears, and assured them that it was all of God, who had sent him before them into Egypt to "preserve them a posterity in the earth, and to save their lives by a great deliverance."

p.226 8 -- That though piety and morality alone cannot save, neither can faith, unaccompanied by fruits meet for repentance, give a man inheritance in the kingdom of God.

p.258 by promising, or declaring, something that necessitates it, is not peculiar to the case before us. There are other instances; one, however, will be sufficient at present. I refer to the dispute between Jesus and the Sadducees. The latter, who admitted as authority only the writings of Moses, denied the resurrection of the dead. In proving it, therefore, to their conviction, it was necessarv to demonstrate it from his testimony. This Jesus undertook to do. He first stated the proposition, saying Moses has shown that the dead are raised. He then directed their attention to the place where Moses teaches this resurrection (Exod. 3:6). It is there written, "I, the Lord, am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob ;" In recording this, Moses teaches the resurrection of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. "But," says one, "I see nothing said about resurrection there." Nor did the Sadducees. " No," continues the objector, "nor about the dead either; for Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, are not dead; but alive in heaven, where Christ and Lazarus, and the thief are. They are all living; and, therefore God is their God." This is very good Platonism, but very bad logic, and egregious nonsense. When Jesus quoted the passage, it was to prove that "the dead are raised;" the question therefore is, how does this testimony of Moses prove it? In this way -- Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, are dead; but, "God is not the God of the dead," yet He is called "their God;" therefore, in order to be their God, they must be made alive, for God is the God of the living:" hence, to style Him "God of Abraham " teaches the resurrection by implication; "for all live to Him" in the age to come (Luke 20:27-38). But why call Him the God of these fathers now? By anticipation; for, says the apostle, "God, who makes alive the dead, styles the not being (TA ME ONTA) as being" (HOS ONTA; Rom. 4:17) that is, God's promise is so certain to be fulfilled that He speaks of what is to be as though it were past. He has promised to raise Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who while dead have no being; and as He cannot lie, their restoration to being is inevitable; God therefore speaks of them as though they had already been raised from the dead and "is not ashamed to be called their God." God is not the God of dead men who are not to rise again. He is the God only of those who become His children by being the children of the resurrection; and who can die no more, because they are equal to the angels (Luke 20:36). Such, then, is the way in which the doctrine of the resurrection is taught by the Lord God in Moses and the prophets; plainly

p.336 After these testimonies there requires no further proof that David's family was constituted by a solemn covenant the Royal House of God's Kingdom; and that one of David's posterity whom God should acknowledge to be his son, should be its everlasting king. The claims of Jesus to be David's Seed and God's Son have been fully established by his resurrcetion from the dead; which is an assurance to all men, both Jews and Gentiles, that God hath appointed him, as the Holy one of Israel their king; to rule the world in righteousness, and to establish truth and equity among the nations; as God sware to Moses, saying, "Truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord." Let us then proceed now to some further inquiries about

p.259 indeed, but in such a manner as to require the exercise of the reasoning faculties of men.

p.226 Peter, having arrived at the house of Cornelius, announced to

p.307 Jacob having received information of all that had been transacted, proceeded to break up his encampment, and to go down into Egypt as Joseph and Pharoah had invited him to do. Isaac had been dead ten years, and Jacob had attained the age of one hundred and thirty. Having arrived at Beer-sheba on his way thither, he offered sacrifices to the God of Isaac. On this occasion, God spake unto him, and said, "I am God, the God of thy father; fear not to go down into Egypt; for I will there make of thee a great nation: I will, go down with thee into Egypt; and I will also surely bring thee up again: and Joseph shall put his hand upon thine eyes." In this promise, Jacob was re-assured of a resurrection to life. The action of putting the hand upon the eyes represents death; for this was one of the last offices of the nearest relations. Hence, to tell Jacob he should die, and yet that he should be brought up again, was telling him in effect that he should rise from the dead again to possess the land:

p.336 There are, as we have seen, two everlasting covenants of Promise upon which the kingdom of God is based -- the one made with Abraham, and the other, with David. The former gives the land of Canaan to their Seed for ever; the latter, the kingdom and throne established upon it, as long as the moon endures. They are called David's because his family alone can possess the kingdom. David's kingdom, however, is also "the kingdom of God and of his Anointed," or Christ; for, whether David, or David's Son of the twenty-eighth generation after him, sit upon the throne, they are both the Lord's Anointed, and ruling as his representatives in his kingdom. The great difference between the two in regard to the anointing is, that David the First was anointed with holy material oil by the hand of Samuel; whereas Jesus was anointed with the Holy Spirit at his emergence from the Jordan direct from the excellent glory.

p.307 Seventeen years having passed away after his arrival in Egypt, the time drew nigh that Jacob must die. This residence in the land of Ham had not at all diminished his attachment to the land of Canaan. When, therefore, he found his end approaching, he took an oath of Joseph, saying, " Bury me not, I pray thee, in Egypt: but I will lie with my fathers, and thou shalt carry me out of Egypt, and bury me in their burying place." And Joseph promised to do as he had said. But why was Jacob thus anxious? Surely it could make no difference to him where he should crumble into dust! Nor would it, if Jacob had been a faithless Gentile; or a religionist whose mind was perverted by Platonism. He would have cared nothing about his body; all his solicitude would have been about his "immortal soul." But in Jacob's death-bed scene, he expressed no anxiety about "his soul;" all his care was for his body after death, that it might be duly deposited in the cave of Machpelah, where Abrabam, Isaac, Sarah, Rebekah, and Leah, were sleeping (Gen. 47:29-31;49:29-33). This was equally the case with Joseph; for although Egypt had been the theatre of his glory, and he was venerated there as the saviour of the country, in which he had also lived ninety-three years, yet his last thoughts were upon the land of Canaan and the disposal of his bones. "I die," said he; "and God will surely visit you, and bring you out of Egypt unto the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob!" and he took an oath of

p.227 all present "the things which God had commanded him to speak." Having stated the great discovery made to him by the Spirit, how that "God was no respecter of persons, but that in every nation he that fears Him (not, however with that fear 'which is taught by the precepts of men'), and works righteousness (such as God requires) is accepted of Him" -- he directed their attention to "that WORD which God sent unto the children of Israel by Jesus Christ," preaching peace. He told them that they were acquainted with that word, for it was published throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after John's proclamation. As they knew it, he did not occupy time in repeating it in detail. The reader knows what the word was that God sent to Israel by Jesus Christ, for we have already spoken of it; but, lest it should have escaped him, we will reiterate it. "I was sent," says Jesus, "to preach the kingdom of God." This was His message to Israel. Hence, He styles it, in the parable of the sower, "the word of the kingdom." This word was so notorious to all that sojourned in the land of Israel, that it was as familiar as any question could possibly be. It was known also to every one, how that Jesus was anointed, or christened, with the Holy Spirit at His immersion in the Jordan by John, and how He went about doing good and healing the infirmities of the people; and none knew better than Roman centurions that He was slain and hanged on a tree. These were matters of household notoriety and belief -- a far more comprehensive faith than that of the moderns, but yet impotent to the justification of Cornelius and his house. More words were yet to be reported to them. Peter therefore affirmed that God raised Him from the dead, and shewed Him openly, not to the public in general, but to certain witnesses previously chosen for the purpose, even to the apostles, who could not possibly have been deceived, because they ate fish and bread with Him, and drank with him, after He rose from the dead. These things they heard and believed. The next thing he declared to them was that God had commanded them to preach to the people of Israel, and to testify that Jesus was He that is appointed of God to be the Judge (KRITES, King as well as Judge, since in the East the king is judge) of the living and the dead (2 Tim. 4:1). Now, said Peter, and this was the fellowship of the mystery, to Him give all the prophets witness, that WHOSOEVER believeth in Him SHALL RECEIVE REMISSION OF SINS THROUGH HIS NAME."

p.259 But to return to Hebron. Eternal life having been promised to Abram and Christ by constituting them heirs of the land of Canaan for ever, the Lord proceeded to grant Abram a sign whereby he might know assuredly that he and his Seed should inherit it. The sun having gone down entirely, which was figurative of the setting of "the Sun of Righteousness" below the horizon of life, Abram beheld "a smoking furnace, and a flame of fire pass between the pieces." This was a sign which could not be mistaken. The animals he had slain, and watched and defended so long from the birds of prey, were consumed by fire from heaven. By this he knew, and was assured, that he and his Seed, the Christ, should inherit the land for ever. But this was not all. On the same day the Lord converted His promise made at Sichem, and repeated near Bethel, into a covenant with Abram, as Moses testifies, saying, "in the sarne day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, unto thy Seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:" inhabited by "the Kenites, and the Kennizzites, and the Kadmonites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites and the Rephaim, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girghashites, and the jebusites" (Gen. 15).

p.337 Hence, Jesus, who is David the second as well as the second Adam, is Jehovah's [YAHWEH'S] Christ, or Anointed King, in a higher sense than "his father David." The Lord Christ and king David are associated in several prophecies; because the everlasting covenant of promise made with the latter, declares its mercies to them both at one and the same time. David is to witness the fulfilment of its promises; for the record is, "Thy house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever" -- but when? "BEFORE THEE." From this it is evident, the everlasting establishment of his kingdom cannot take place under the circumstances which have obtained since the death of David until this present time; because, if it is to exist perpetually "before," or, in the presence of David, David must be raised to life for immortality; for, if mortal, he could not behold his throne occupied by Christ for ever. But "David is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre," said Peter, "is with us until this day " -- ''He is not ascended into the heavens" (Acts 2:29,34). If then, he "is dead," and not "gone to heaven," as the phrase is, he is alive in no sense; and consequently the covenant promises are not fulfilled. David must be alive when they are accomplished. Christ, his divine son, has been manifested and glorified; and God has recognized him as his son; but in no other particular has the covenant been fulfilled: for he has inherited neither the land of Canaan, nor the kingdom and throne of David once upon it.

p.259 In commenting upon these things, the apostle saith, "the covenant previously confirmed by God concerning Christ (EIS CHRISTOU) the law which came into existence (GEGONOS) four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect. For if the inheritance (the land of Canaan and its attributes) be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise" (Gal. 3:17,18). To understand this, we must know that a question agitated the congregations of Galatia, namely, that it was necessary for the disciples from among the Gentiles to be circumcised, and to keep the law of Moses as well as to believe the gospel and be baptized, or they could have no part in the inheritance covenanted to Abraham and Christ. The apostle styles this judaizing, and preaching "another gospel." It was the beginning of that awful apostasy the fruit of which we behold in the ecclesiastical system of our day, He contended strenuously against this perversion of the truth in all places. The Judaizers argued that a right to Canaan when made a heavenly country under Christ, was derived from the law of Moses; the apostle denied this, and maintained that the law

p.227 This was new doctrine to Gentiles. They had heard of it before as preached to Jews, but they heard it now for the first

p.308 them, saying, "Ye shall carry up my bones from hence." Why, I ask, is all mankind's anxiety now about their "souls," and a heaven beyond the skies, when the friends of God, who had all their pilgrimage been the honored subjects of his fatherly care, manifested no such carefulness; but, on the contrary, exacted oaths of their survivors expressive of their love for Canaan, and of their concern that their bodies should moulder there? The reason is that the moderns have no faith in the promises of God. Neither protestants, nor papists, "believe on God." They have a system of faith which bears no affinity to the religion of God; and hence they hope for things which He has not promised; and, consequently, the most pious of them die with a lie in their right hand. The faith and hope of protestantism are not the faith and hope of "the fathers," whom God has constituted the "heirs of the world." The last thoughts of these holy men were on "the exceeding great and precious promises" which are to be manifested in the land of Canaan; where their posterity will yet become "a great and mighty nation" under Shiloh and His saints as the lords of Israel and the Gentiles. Seeing this, then, though afar off, they gave expression to their faith by giving commandment concerning their bodies; as it is written, "by faith Joseph, when be died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel and gave commandment concerning his bones" (Heb.11:22). He was, therefore, embalmed, and put into a coffin; and at the end of one hundred and fifty-four years his bones were carried out of Egypt by Moses; they accompanied Israel in all their journeyings through the wilderness; and were finally deposited by Joshua in the cave of Machpelah, where his fathers slept (Gen. 50:24; Exod. 13:19; Josh. 24:32). When professors believe the truth, they will have as much interest in Canaan, and the disposition of their bodies, expressive of their faith, as we find testified of Israel and Joseph by those who are high in the favor of their God. We must believe the promises concerning Canaan, if we would be immortal of body in the kingdom of God.

p.337 But where are the kingdom and throne of David? "In heaven, beyond the skies, where Christ is at the right hand of God; and where precious souls go to when they die." Such is the answer given by gentile theology! Need we wonder at Jews having such a contempt for what is called "christianity," when they hear its professors gravely affirm such absurd nonsense as this? Have Canaan, Jerusalem, and the twelve tribes, been translated beyond the skies? 0 no, say they, these things remain, but then they are types of things which exist where Jesus is! Alas, what sorry stuff, what shilly-shally twaddle is this, to come out of the mouths of "great and good and pious men." It is admitted that David and Solomon's reigns were typical, or representative, of Christ's reign; not beyond the skies, however; but upon their throne and in their kingdom upon the veritable land promised to Abraham. But, inquires one, if not beyond the skies, where are the kingdom and throne of David? In answer to this question, reader mark it well -- at present they

p.308 Jacob being a hundred and forty-seven years old, and about to die, called his sons together to tell them "what should befall them in the last days." From what has been already advanced on "the end of the world," the reader will understand to what period the prophecy of Jacob principally refers. But, lest any

p.228 time, that "whosoever believed," whether Jew or Gentile, should receive remission of sins through His name. Peter had made a very straight-forward and simple statement of truth to them. This he called preaching "repentance and remission of sins in the name of Jesus." There was no sermonizing, or text-weaving, no scratching of itching ears; everything was delivered in a concise and dignified manner, which carried the impress of truth upon its very front. But, he not only opened the mystery of the gospel of the kingdom to these Gentiles, but he "preached the gospel to them with the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven;" for, "while he yet spake these words, the Holy Spirit fell on all them who heard the word." When the six Jewish Christians who accompanied Peter saw this, they were astonished, because that on the Gentiles was poured out the gift of the Holy Spirit, as on the apostles themselves on the day of Pentecost. They could make no mistake about this, for "they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God."

p.260 could give no title to it -- that it could only be obtained "through the righteousness of the faith, for the promise that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham or to his Seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if they who are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise is made of none effect: because the law worketh wrath. Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end that the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that (portion of the seed) only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all," both Jews and Gentiles, "before God whose promises he believed;" as it is written, "a father of many nations have I constituted thee" (Rom. 4:13,16,17). The Judaizers claimed a right to the inheritance because they bore the seal of the covenant, marked in their flesh by circumcision ; the apostle, because he believed the same things that Abraham did, and was the subject of God's righteousness through the faith of Jesus Christ, without any title derived from the law of Moses.

p.338 exist no where. They once existed, and while they had a being they were the kingdom and throne of God among men. He has kingdoms and thrones in other orbs; but we have nothing to do with them; and have no more right, had we the power, to go and take possession of them either as "souls," or bodies, than the angels have to come and seize upon all the thrones and kingdoms of earth, which belong to Christ and his brethren by inheritance. But let us leave to the owls and bats the idols of the schools, the worshipful phantasmata of the apostasy, and let us turn to the enlightening testimony of God.

p.260 Seeing that he threw the law out of the question altogether, he anticipates the objection, viz, if this be so, wherefore, then, serveth the law? Of what use is it? To this he replies, "It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made." "It was a schoolmaster untii Christ; but when the things of the Name of Jesus Christ were manifested for faith, or, as he expressed it, "after that faith is come," Israel is "no longer under a schoolmaster. For ye are all," both Jews and Gentiles, "the children of God in Christ Jesus through the faith" (Gal 3:19-29).

p.228 Here, then, was the word preached, and the word confirmed by the Lord working with Peter. No one that heard the account of these things could doubt for a moment whether "God had purified their hearts by faith," and accepted them. But still there was something wanting. Peter had told them of remission of sins through the name of Jesus to every one that believes in Him, but be had not informed these believers how they could avail themselves, of this omnipotent name. How were they to be washed, sanctified and justified by this name? How were they to take it upon them? In what manner was it to be named upon them? The apostle says that when the Spirit fell upon them he had only "begun to speak." If he had not been interrupted by this extraordinary effusion he would doubtless have fully explained himself upon this point; for he was not only commanded to preach the name of Jesus, but to command believers to be immersed "INTO THE NAME (EIS TO ONOMA) of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit" (Matt. 28:19).

p.309 should have forgotten, I will repeat, that it relates to events which were to happen in the last days of the Hebrew commonwealth, under the constitution from Mount Sinai. It sketches the political fortunes of the twelve tribes which, with the blessing on Joseph's sons, it now constituted; touches upon the peculiar features of the several portions of Canaan which should be allotted to them; and reveals certain principal events in connexion with the tribes of Levi, Judah, and Joseph.

p.338 The scripture foreseeing that God would temporarily abolish the kingdom of David, saith in view of the covenant, "But Thou hast cast off and abhorred, Thou hast been wroth with thine anointed. Thou hast made void the covenant of thy servant: Thou hast profaned his crown by casting it to the ground. Thou hast broken down all his hedges; Thou hast brought his strong holds to ruin. All that pass by the way spoil him: he is a reproach to his neighbours. Thou hast made his glory to cease, and cast his throne down to the ground. The days of his youth hast Thou sbortened: Thou hast covered him with shame" (Psalm 89:38-45). This is descriptive of the state of the kingdom of God and of David for twenty-four centuries past. The crown and throne are in the dust, and the territory and people a bye-word among the nations. Instead of the covenant being fulfilled, if the present state of things were final, it would be "void," and the promise of God have failed. In view, then, of the promises and things as they are, the scripture inquires, "How long, Lord? Wilt Thou hide thyself for ever? Lord, where are thy former loving-kindnesses which thou swearest unto David in thy truth?" (verse 46-49). Yes; where are they? In promise still.

p.309 It will not be necessary for me to do more than to point out these special incidents as bearing upon the kingdom of God. After Reuben, Simeon and Levi are conjoined in the prophecy. They had slain Hamor and Shechem, and all the males of their city. This circumstance is taken as a characteristic of their tribes in the last days. "Instruments of cruelty," said Jacob, "are in their habitations." And foreseeing the part they would play in relation to the Seed, he exclaimed, "0 my soul, come not thou unto their secret, unto their assembly (Psalm 2:2 ; Matt. 26:14), mine honor be not thou united." But why not Jacob? "For in their anger they slew a man (Matt.26:57, 59), and in their self-will they digged down a wall," that is, overthrew a city (Gen. 34:25-29). "Cursed be their anger for it was fierce: and their wrath, for it was cruel." The verification of these things will easily be recognized in the history of the tribe of Levi at the era of the crucifixion. It was the priests who sought and at last accomplished the death of Jesus, to whom Jacob refers; and to mark his sense of their conduct, he said "I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel." This was fulfilled in giving Levi no cantonal inheritance in the land, and in including Simeon's portion within the limits of the canton of Judah (Josh. 19:1,9). From this arrangement, Levi, Simeon, and Judah, became the tribes principally concerned in the transactions of the last days.

p.228 Here then is a great matter. The NAME OF JESUS is placed in the institution of immersion, based on an intelligent, childlike, belief of the things of the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ. God has always placed His name in His institutions. Under the law He placed it in the Tabernacle, and afterwards in the Temple at Jerusalem; but, under grace, He has placed it in such a baptism as we have just defined, in conformity to which we can "worship Him in spirit and in truth," without going to

p.260 The apostle lays great stress upon the covenant of promise being prior both to circumcision and the law of Moses; consequently, Abram could not derive his title to Canaan and the world, from either of them; for the promise was given before he became the subject of the righteousness which is by faith of it: and he was constituted righteous before the promise was made a covenant and confirmed; and this confirmation was fourteen years before the institution of circumcision, and 430 years before the promulgation of the law of Moses. "Faith," says the apostle, was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness when he was in uncircumcision;" and then it was he was constituted the father of many nations, and heir of the world.

p.338 In the face of facts, what are we to say to the testimony, that "David shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of the House of Israel?" Thus saith the Lord, "If ye can break My covenant of the day, that there should not be day in its season; then may also My covenant be broken with David, My servant, that he should not have a son to reign upon his throne" (Jer. 33:17, 20,21). What shall we say to this? There has been no son of David reigning upon his throne since the dethronement of Zedekiah by Nebuchadnezzar five hundred and ninety-five years before the birth of Christ. But it is not a question of uninterrupled succession; but of the everlasting occupation of

p.260 The promise, before it became a confirmed covenant with Abram indicated the country he is to inherit, but it did not point out its

p.229 Jerusalem or Samaria. Cornelius and his household were in Caesarea, and in a private house. Peter did not require them to go to Jerusalem, or to a synagogue, in order to worship, or do homage, to God in spirit and in truth. They had believed the truth spoken by the Spirit through Peter, and they awaited the command of the Spirit as to the manner in which they might work the righteousness of God. Peter, feeling his way with caution, because of his six brethren of the circumcision who accompanied him, inquired, "Can any man forbid water, that these should not be immersed, who have received the Holy Spirit as well as we?" From this question we learn, that there were cases in those days in which the use of water was forbidden, or considered as improper. The apostles did not preach water to the people as the moderns do. They permitted no one to have access to the water unless they believed he was a proper subject. They were sometimes deceived, but that was not their fault; they did their best to discharge their duty faithfully. If a man did not believe the gospel of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they would not immerse him; for, it was commanded them that "he that believeth not should be condemned," i. e. should not be unloosed from his sins in the name of Jesus. The paidorhantists do well to refuse to be immersed; and the baptists do wrong to urge it upon them. For the sprinklers do not believe the gospel of the kingdom, and neither have they the spirit of the gospel, and therefore they are not fit to be immersed. The institution of God's name ought not to be desecrated by the immersion of such misbelievers into its formula. Water should be forbidden them. It is not water, but faith, they need at present -- that one, heart-purifying faith, such as Cornelius and his household possessed, and "without which it is impossible to please God."

p.309 Having spoken of the death of Christ by Levi and Simeon, he then proceeded to speak of things connected with Judah alone. Of this tribe he affirmed,

p.339 the throne according to the covenant. When the time comes for this to be fulfilled, noted by David's resurrection, from thenceforth shall his son fill the throne of Israel's kingdom for ever. But what saith the scripture?

p.310 8. That his garments should be dyed with the blood of his enemies; and,

p.229 It cannot be said, that the paidorhantists (from PAIDES and RANTISTAI sprinklers, that is, infant-sprinklers) make too little of water; one great offence against high heaven which they commit, is making infinitely too much of it. The efficacy the apostles put in the heart-purifying faith, and conscience-cleansing name of Jesus, they place in a few drops of "holy," or common, water, and a physical regeneration of a hypothetic principle in the flesh! They require no faith, no repentance, no confession to qualify their subjects for the water and formula of the Name. They ask only a suckling of eight days, with godfathers and godmothers, whose characters are not even inquired into, to

p.261 territorial frontiers. This deficiency was supplied at the confirmation. It was to extend from the Euphrates to the Nile, comprehending a tract of country of considerable extent, and inhabited by the nations enumerated in "the will." Abram, therefore, could be at no loss to know in what direction, or to what limits, his future country was to extend; for he had travelled it all over in its entire length and breadth. Now, if a map of the territorial area indicated in the covenant be examined, it will be seen that the broadest extent is "from sea to sea" as it is expressed in Scripture (Psalm 72:8; Zech. 9:10); that is, from the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf; and its greatest length, from the rivers to the ends of the land;" or, from the Euphrates at its junction with the gulph, northward; and from the Pelusiac branch of the Nile, to the entrance into Hamath.

p.339 Just before the fall of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, the sins of Judah and its king had attained the full. Zedekiah was then on the throne wearing the crown of David. Ezekiel was commanded to say to him, "Thou profane wicked prince of Israel, whose day is come, when iniquity shall have an end, thus saith the Lord God, 'Remove the diadem, and take off the crown: this (Zedekiah) shall not be the same (son of David spoken of in the covenant): exalt him that is low (even Jesus), and abase him that is high,' " -- that is, dethrone Zedekiah. But, then, what is to become of the kingdom of David? Hear the Lord by his prophet -- "I will overturn, overturn, overturn it: and it shall be no more UNTIL he (Shiloh) shall come whose right it is: and I will give it him" (Ezek. 21:25-27). According to this word so it has been to the letter. The king's eyes were put out; Zion was ploughed as a field; and not a tribe remained in the land. After seventy years captivity, there was a restoration under Ezra, Zerubbabel, Joshua, and Nehemiah. But until B.C. 165, the Israelites in Canaan were not even a kingdom; but a subject province of the Persian monarchy, and afterwards of the Macedonian. About the year named they became a kingdom again; but not David's. The throne was that of the Asmoneans, who were of the tribe of Levi. Their dynasty was superseded by the Roman senate, which set up Herod's family instead. He was an Idumean, and reigned till after the birth of Jesus, whom he sought to put to death. He was succeeded by Archelaus, who was deposed by the Romans, and Judea reduced into the form of a province under a procurator; thus verifying, as is supposed, that the sceptre should depart from Judah when Shiloh came: and so it came to be when God called his son Jesus. out of Egypt. From that time to this, there has been no kingdom, or throne of Israel, in Canaan. The Hebrew commonwealth was broken up by the Romans about thirty years, or so, after the crucifixion; and it has been, and will be, no more, until the Lord Jesus come, who is the King of the Jews, and whose sole right it is to reign.

p.261 But, the frontiers of the territory were afterwards more particularly marked out at the time of the captivity in Babylon. The twelve tribes were then all in exile form the land and it was once more wholly possessed by the Gentiles, as it is now. They were powerless and prostrate under the heel of the oppressor, and with out hope of recovering the country by their own efforts. At this crisis, the Lord revealed to them the extent to which in after times they should repossess their country. "This," said He, "shall be the border whereby ye shall inherit the land according to the twelve tribes of Israel. And this shall be the border of the land toward the north side, from the great sea (Mediterranean), the way of Hethlon, as men go to Zedad; Hamath, Berothath, Sibraim, which is between the border of Damascus and the border of Harnath; Hazarhatticon, which is by the coast of Hauran. And the border from the sea shall be Hazarenan, the border of Damascus and the north northward, and the border of Hamath. This is the north side of the land. And the east side ye shall measure from Hauran, and from Damascus, and from Gilead, and from the land of Israel by Jordan, from the border unto the East Sea." And this is the east side running along the Euphrates. And the south side southward from Tamar to the waters of strife in Kadesh, to the river toward the Great Sea (Ezek.47:19; 48:28). This is the south side toward Teman. The west side also shall be the Great Sea from the (west end of the south) border, till a man come over against Hamath. This is the west side. So shall ye divide this land unto you according to the tribes of Israel" (Ezek. 47:13-21).

p.230 answer questions, which oftentimes they do not understand, and often have no intention to conform to the requirements of; or, dispensing with these godless gods, give them the infant with a proxy parental faith in the dogmas of a sect, and it will suffice. Paidorhantist "ministers," with solemn mockery of the holy and august name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, will sprinkle the face of the mindless weakling, and impiously proclaim to the people, that such is the "one baptism" of the religion of Christ! ! ! Is it not wonderful, that God has witnessed this blasphemy for ages, and not rent the heavens with indignation upon them. Great, indeed, is the forbearance of the Most High; but the time hath at length come, when His patience will have an end. How astounding is the presumption of such! "The people of the Lord" say they "are we! Wisdom will die with us!" Yet they are faithless of the words of Peter, for they do them not; and have changed the ordinance of God, and made it contemptible. A rhantized, but unbaptized, community, is the vast majority of the professing world; and therefore "without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope (no true one) and without God in the world." They that honor God, He will honor; but they who seek honor one of another and desecrate His name, are fattening their hearts for the day of slaughter, and are fit only for capture and destruction.

p.310 9. That the fountains and rocks of the country should exuberate with grapes and pasture.

p.339 In reference to this good time, which is near at hand, it is written, "Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will perform that good thing which I have promised to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah. In those days, and at that

p.310 Such are the points into which the members of Jacob's beautiful prophecy concerning the things of the kingdom,in connexion with Judah as the royal tribe, are resolvable when converted into literal, or unfigurative, speech. But, it is very clear from the past history of the tribe, that the prophecy is only partially accomplished. Judah is now "stooping down, and couching as an old lion ;" and in view of his present prostration, Jacob inquired, "Who shall rouse him up?" Yes; who shall do it? Who shall start him to his feet again, that he may rend and tread down, and devour the enemies of Jerusalem? Who but the Shiloh, whose goodly horse in the battle Judah is appointed to be? (Zech. 10:3-5 ; 12:6; 14:14).

p.230 Cornelius and his household differ from these in toto. They all believed the words of Peter, awaiting his commands. He had inquired if there were any present who could, in the face of what they saw and heard, "forbid water that they should not be baptised." He doubtless paused a reasonable time, that objections might be urged if any could possibly exist. But all Jewish prejudices were abolished by "the demonstration of the Spirit," and they held their peace. Things being brought to this crisis, it only remained for the Spirit of God to pronounce the word. Therefore Peter opened his mouth, and "COMMANDED them to be BAPTISED IN THE NAME OF THE LORD."

p.262 things of the kingdom of God," that the Israelites have never possessed the country as defined in this survey since it was revealed to them through the prophet. The twelve tribes have not even occupied the land together; and those of them that have dwelt there after the return from Babylon to the overthrow by the Romans, held but a very small portion of it, while the Gentile kingdoms lorded it over all the rest. Now either God is a liar, as some people make Him out to be who deny the restoration of the twelve tribes; or the time He refers to in the promise of the land according to these boundaries is not arrived. This is the only conclusion a believer in the gospel of the kingdom can come to. All theories opposed to this are mere sublimated infidelity. If Israel be not restored, then the promise to Abraham will have failed. But Abraham's seed are under no apprehension of this kind. They believe in God, who has sworn by Himself, that what He has promised He is able, willing, and determined, to perform. Here, then, is a noble domain, lying between Assyria, Persia, Arabia, the Red Sea, Egypt, and the Mediteranean, capable, when peopled by an industrious, enlightened, and well and strongly governed nation, of commanding the sovereignty of Asia, and the wealth of Europe and America. Such is the land, containing, according to the survey of the British government, 300,000 square miles, concerning which God said to Abram, "to thee will I give it and unto thy Seed for ever."

p.340 time, will I cause the Branch of Righteousness to grow up unto David; and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land. In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalein shall dwell safely; and this is the name whereby he shall be called the Lord our Righteousness in her" (Jer. 23:5, 6; 33:14-16; Ezek. 48:35; Isaiah 24:23). The kingdom of God, then, has existed once, but, for the present, exists "no more." It existed from the fourth to the twenty-eighth generation, a period of rather more than a thousand years; but it has been extinct upwards of two thousand four hundred years -- a time so long, that the promise of its restoration has become a mere fable, or speculation, in the estimation of the world! But the believer in the gospel of this kingdom rejoices in the sure and certain hope of its restitution, and glorious and triumphant existence for a thousand years, at the expiration of which kingdoms on earth will be no more, but God will be all and in all. The reader, then, will perceive from this exposition, that the kingdom of God must be studied in the two periods of its existence -- in the thousand years of the past, and in the thousand years of the Age to come. As God's kingdom of the past, it is the grandest theme of ancient, or modern, history; but as His kingdom of the future, it is the sublime topic of "the truth as it is in Jesus." In the past, it existed under the law of Moses, which made nothing perfect. Its kings and priests were frail, and mortal men, who held the kingdom for a brief space, and then "left it to other people." Its subjects were rebellious; and its realm invaded and wasted by the hands of ruthless and barbarous foes. But how changed will be its fortunes in Messiah's age! The same land and nation will then be under the law of the New Covenant which goes forth from Zion. All things will be perfected. Its king and pontiff will be the king immortal from the right hand of God. The rulers of the tribes will be the fishermen of Galilee, "shining as the stars for ever and ever." The chiefs of its cities; and the possessors of its glory, its honors, and its dominion, will be the holy ones of God, "equal to the angels," and subject unto death no more. In short, "the saints of the Most High will take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever" (Dan. 7:18; 2:44), never receding from their position, nor leaving it to be possessed by others.

p.262 But, the apostle says that the covenant, confirmed 430 years after the law was promulged, was " concerning Christ " especially. It was the Father's will, of which Christ being the Mediator, He became the Testator of the will. This being the case, His death was necessitated; for so long as He was alive the covenant had no force. Neither Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, nor Himself, could inherit the land for ever, until the covenant was ratified by His death. Hence, His was "the blood of the New Testament, which was shed for many;" that they which are called might receive the remission of sins, and obtain the promise of the inheritance for ever (Matt. 26:28; Heb. 9:15-17). The covenant of promise, then, was typically confirmed 430 years before the law; and finally dedicated by the death of the mediatorial Testator; this being accomplished, the will could not be disannulled, or added to (Gal. 3:15). But when we look at Jesus in the light of this Divine will and testament, we perceive some grand and important deficiencies in the administration of its legacies, if the history of the past is to be taken as the criterion of its accomplishment. In

p.230 After this manner Peter used the keys of the kingdom of heaven given to him by the Lord Jesus Christ. When be had accomplished this work, he no longer retained the power of the keys. They were transferred to the multitude of the believing Jews and Gentiles. The Spirit had revealed the mystery of the kingdom, and the fellowship of the mystery, by the mouth of

p.310 Two appearances of the Shiloh are indicated by Jacob; first, at the departure of the sceptre from Judah; and secondly, at the attainment of the tribe to the dignity of giving laws to the gathered people. The sceptre departed from Judah at the appearing of Jesus; but neither Jesus, nor the tribe, have promulgated a code of laws to Israel or the Gentiles. Moses was a lawgiver, not of Judah, but of Levi, but when Shiloh comes as the lawgiver of Judah, then "the law shall go forth from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem" (Isaiah 2:3).

p.310 The blessing on Judah contains in it the hope of Israel. It shows what views Jacob had of the promises made to him, and his fathers. His faith was of things substantial and definable. He looked for a kingdom and an empire, whose royal domain should be the land of Canaan, and especially that part of it allotted to Judah (Ezek. 48:8-22); and whose imperial ruler should be the Giver of Peace, descended from his loins in the line of Judah. The Spirit of God in Jacob marked him out to wield the sceptre and to give laws to the world, possessing the gate of his enemies, and blessing all the nations of the earth. It is generally supposed that Jacob saw the sceptre depart from Judah. This is implied by the English version, "not depart until Shiloh came," which is as much as to say, when Christ appears it shall depart: which is not in accordance with the facts of the case.

p.231 Peter on Pentecost, and at Caesarea; so that the keys became the common property of all believers. The Lord, "who hath the key of David, hath opened, and no man can shut (Rev. 3:7); He hath set before the Gentiles "an open door, and no man can close it," so long as the Scriptures are in the hands of the people. The false prophet may dangle keys at his girdle, and affect the power of the Son of God; but so, long as "THE LAW AND THE TESTIMONY" are accessible, "whosoever is athirst may come; and "whosoever will may take the water of life freely." The Scriptures contain the keys. Popes, priests, clergy and ministers may suppress, torture and garble the truth, and throw hindrances in the way; but the man who discards their authority and thinks for himself, may, by the enlightening efficacy of the living word, become "wise unto salvation by the faith which is in Jesus Christ." Let, the people then help themselves, if they would that God should aid them.

p.263 the historical view of the will, we are led to the conclusion that it hath not been administered at all; and that its legatees have received none of their Father's estate. Look at Abraham, He has received nothing. The same is true of all who believed the things hoped for from that day to this. Even the Lord Jesus, who has been perfected, has received nothing of what is willed to Him in the covenant, or testament. "I will give," said God, "this land to thy Seed for ever." Now look at the facts in the case. "Jesus came to His own, and His own received Him not" (John 1:11). What is to be understood by this? What is signified by "His own" twice repeated in this text? It reads in the original, "He came EIS TA IDIA and HOI IDIOI received Him not." The facts in the case must supply the words understood. Jesus came to His own kingdom, or realm, but His own people, the Jews, who are the "children of the kingdom," did not receive Him, but rejected, and crucified Him. The reading is, then, "He came EIS TA IDIA BASILEIA into His own realm, and HOI IDIOI LAOI His own people did not receive Him. But to as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become sons of God, to them who believe in His name." But, what constituted the land of Canaan His realm, more than John the Baptist's, or any other Jew's? Because it was promised to Him in the covenant, because He was the sole surviving Heir of David's throne. We see, however, that, like His father Abraham, He never possessed even so much as to set His foot upon; and so poor was He, that though "foxes had holes and the birds of the air had nests, yet He had not where to lay His head." Under God, He was indebted to some of those who received Him for His daily bread. What significance this fact attaches to that petition of the prayer He taught His disciples, saying, "Our Father, who art in heaven, give us this day our daily bread." There were thirteen of them, Himself and the twelve, who had all to be provided for from day to day, and though He could multiply a few loaves and fishes to feed thousands, His own wants were supplied by contribution.

p.263 When Jesus was crucified, and buried, His enemies conceived that His claims to the realm and throne of David were extinct. The common people would have taken Him and made Him King, if He would have permitted them; but the rulers, already possessed of the vineyard, hated Him; for they knew that, if He should obtain the kingdom they would be cast out. They rejoiced, therefore, at His death. But their joy was soon turned into dismay, for God raised Him from the dead. And for what purpose?

p.231 From what has been advanced it is manifest that "the word of the kingdom" presents itself to us in the Scriptures in a threefold relation;

p.310 Having blessed Judah in the terms recorded in scripture (Gen. 49:8-12), he passed over Zebulun., Issachar, Dan, Gad, Asher,

p.311 and Naphtali, with a brief notice, and then dwelt with emphasis upon Joseph. He described in general terms the fertility of the cantons of Ephraim and Manasseh, and invocated blessings of every kind upon his posterity. Recalling Joseph's history in the past as indicative of his descendants' in the future, he predicted that they would be sorely grieved by their enemies, and separated from the other tribes. Nevertheless their bow, though unstrung, should abide in strength, and they should be made strong again "by the hands of the Mighty God of Jacob, who should help them," and bless them above what their progenitors enjoyed before they were carried away into captivity. He saw that they would be a royal tribe, and that at some period of their nationality, "the everlasting hills" unto their utmost bound, should bow to his sceptre, who is destined to rule them (Hab. 3:3-16).

p.231 2 -- As the same gospel preached in the name of Jesus on Pentecost, or the mystery of the gospel of the kingdom; and

p.264 In the words of the apostle, God raised up Christ to sit upon David's throne (Acts 2:30; Luke 1:31-33); for, in the words of David, "the righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein for ever;" and again, "wait on the Lord, and keep His way, and He shall exalt thee to inherit the land (Psalm 37:29,34).

p.264 But, even after His resurrection, when He was made both Lord and, Christ, though "Heir of all things," yet were not all things subjected to Him. He received neither the land nor the sceptre, but ascended to heaven, having received nothing promised in the will. He left the land, the kingdom, Abraham, and all the prophets, behind Him. In after years the land was reduced to a wilderness, its cities laid waste, and the Hebrew commonwealth dissolved. It became the battle ground of crusaders, Saracens, and Turks, and, until this day, has been subjected to the worst of the heathen. Thirty-nine centuries have passed away since God confirmed His promise of the land to Christ, who has been waiting eighteen hundred years at His right hand for its fulfilment. Is Jesus never to possess the land from sea to sea, and from the rivers to its extremities? Are the Turks and Arabs, and a motley crew of papists, Greeks, and Fellahs, to perpetuate its reproach for ever? Or is a Gentile dominion to be established there to lord it over Asia? Where is there a believer of the gospel of the kingdom to be found who will affirm it? Millions of "professing Christians" imagine something ot the kind; but they are infidels, and insulters of God, not believers in the "covenants of promise." To affirm any other destiny for Palestine and Syria, than that stated in the promise, is, in effect, to tell God that He has spoken falsely. But, on the ground that "He cannot lie," what does the nature of the case necessitate in order to fulfil the promise to Abraham and Christ? This is the answer, and let the reader mark it well: -- to meet the demands of the covenant it is indispensable that Jesus returns to Canaan, and that He raise Abraham from the dead. Reason and Scripture agree in this. Hence, the second advent is as necessary as the first. The appearing in sinful flesh was necessary for the dedication of the covenant by the death of the substitutional testator; and the second appearing in the spiritual nature in power and great glory, for the administration of the will by the sole executor. For it is manifest that the will cannot be administered except by one who is all powerful. Abraham Isaac, and Jacob, and all constitutionally in them, are legatees. The legacies bequeathed to them are eternal life, the land of Canaan, and "a city," or state, " whose

p.231 3 -- As the fellowship of the mystery of the gospel preached, first by Peter to circumcised Gentiles, and afterwards by Paul to the worshippers of idols.

p.311 But in the blessing of Joseph, Jacob gave a very remarkable intimation concerning the Shiloh. He styles him "the shepherd and stone of Israel" (Isaiah 28:16). In his blessing on Judah, he foretold his descent from him; but in the blessing of Joseph, he declares he is from the God of Jacob; and (being thus spoken of in connexion with Joseph) after the parable of his history. In other words, that the Seed should be both son of Judah and Son of God; and that his relation to the tribes of Israel should be after the representation of Joseph's to his brethren. "The archers should sorely grieve him, and shoot at him, and hate him; but his bow should abide in strength, and his arms be made strong by the God of his fathers, who should help him; and cause all blessings to rest upon his crown, who should be long separated from his brethren."

p.311 After the death of Joseph, which occurred two hundred and seventy-six years after the confirmation of the covenant concerning Christ, Levi and his sons Kohath, Amram, and Moses, may be regarded as the more especial conservators of the faith with which God is pleased. Many of Jacob's family in the period which elapsed between the death of Joseph and their glorious exodus under Moses, had given themselves up to the service of Egypt's gods (Josh. 24:14). This, however, was not the case with all. Some still kept the promises of God before them; and we find it testified of Moses when only forty years old, and before he fled from Egypt, that "he supposed that his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver

p.231 These are not three gospels, but one and the same gospel, as before stated -- originally all promise, then promise, history and doctrine preached to Jews only, and afterwards offered to the Gentiles upon the same terms as to the Jews. But, though I have set forth these things with some minuteness, the reader will still feel that the treatise is incomplete so long as I have not set forth "the things concerning the kingdom of God," to which such frequent reference has been made, as the grand theme of "the glorious gospel of the blessed God," and, without the knowledge of which a man's faith is destitute of the "one hope of the calling," which is the anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast within the veil in Christ Jesus, who is there "waiting to receive the kingdom and return." This, then, will be the subject of future illustration, in the hope that we shall make it so plain that "he who runs may read."

p.265 architect and builder is God." Hence, the executor must be able to form them out of the dust and to give them life for ever. He must be mighty in battle; for He will have to expel the Mohammedans, catholics, and other barbarians, from the land, and to restore the kingdom of David "as in the days of old." The accomplishment of these, and many other things to be hereafter developed, makes the future pre-millennial advent of Christ a necessity. There is no room for opinion upon the subject, for opinion implies doubt. It is a matter of absolute certainty, and the belief of it is as essential to a participation in the kingdom of God as faith in the death and resurrection of the Lord. For a man to deny the advent of Jesus to Palestine in power and glory before the millennium, is to proclaim to men and angels his utter ignorance of the glorious gospel of the blessed God. To talk about His coming at the end of the millennium to make a bonfire of the world, is ridiculous. Restitution and renovation, and not destruction of the earth, is the Almighty fiat, as I have already shewn at length. "Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly is the heart-breathing of the true-believer, who, with the hearing ear, rejoices in the Bridegroom's voice, which says, "behold I come as a thief, and quickly; and My reward is with Me, to give every man according as his work shall be. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame" (Rev. 21:12; 16:15). The prolonged absence of Christ for ten more centuries would break the hearts of the saints of God, who have long since cried with loud voice saying, "how long, 0 Lord, holy and true, dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood on them who dwell on the earth?" No, no, the day is come at length, when He is about to gather the vine of the earth, to reward His saints, and to destroy the oppressors of the world (Rev. 11:18;14:19, 20). Then will "the kingdoms of the world become those of Jehovah [Yahweh] and of His King, and He shall reign for ever and ever," and the covenant with Abraham concerning Christ will be fulfilled in every jot and tittle of its details.

p.265 Abraham and Christ are inseparably associated as co-heirs of the covenant of promise. Hence, they, are joint-legatees of the country mentioned in the will. But, out of this rises a question of considerable interest, namely, when they jointly possess the land of Canaan, what will be their relation to the world at large?

p.231 I shall now proceed to say a few words upon apostolic succession.

p.312 them: but they understood not " (Acts 7:25). This was forty years before their deliverance, and one hundred and fourteen years after Joseph's death. Seventy-four years after this event Moses was born to Amram the grandson of Levi. The supposition he entertained concerning his brethren's spiritual intelligence is an indication of his own; for he evidently judged them by his own understanding of the divine promise. AIthough "he was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians," this did not divert him from the faith. He had been indoctrinated into this in his tender years by his parents. For, it is testified that "by faith they hid him three months, not being afraid of the king's commandments;" thus becoming heirs of the righteousness which is by faith of the promises (Heb. 11:7,23). This testimony to their faith shows that, however delinquent others might be, "the faith," the one faith of the gospel, dwelt in them. They instilled this faith into Moses, on the fleshly table of whose heart it was so indelibly inscribed, that not all the blandishments of the court of Egypt could efface it. The result of the parental instruction he had received was that "by faith when he came to years he refused to be called the son of Pharoah's daughter; choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he had respect to the recompence of the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured, as seeing Him who is invisible" (Heb. 11:24-27).

p.312 From this testimony, then, we learn that the faith in Amram's family was concerning Christ, and the recompense of the reward; that this was so little sympathized with, that those who embraced it were subjected to reproach, and called upon to endure on account of it; and that the things connected with Christ were esteemed by those who understood them, as of greater value than the most enlightened, wealthy, and powerful of kingdoms, possessed in all its glory. Now, as the faith of Amram's family is the "faith without which it is impossible to please God" in any age, it will be of advantage to us to have as distinct a view of it as possible. Omitting, then, the general principles of religion, stated on pages 183 and 184 of this work, in which all the faithful were instructed; I shall present in this place a summary of the things, which were "all the salvation, and all the desire" of Abraham's family; though for a long

p.232 "Divines" contend that the mantle of the apostles fell upon the elders, or bishops, of the churches, who survived the: that these survivors were "the successors of the apostles," and that when these died away the apostolic mantle fell upon those who, succeeded to their offices in the churches, being invested by the imposition of hands; and that thus from generation to generation until the present day, the succession has been perpetuated by the institution of ordination, or "holy orders," so that the living orders of ecclesiastics, composed of pope, cardinals, bishops, priests and ministers, are "successors of the apostles," endued with like authority and power in the churches, and entitled to the same obedience and consideration. They found their claim to these high pretensions upon certain passages of Scripture written concerning the apostles and their co-labourers, which they apply to themselves, and argue that the grace of office has been transmitted from one to another by the imposition of "holy hands!" Thus, when an aspirant to apostolic succession presents himself before a bishop for ordination, the latter says to this effect, "Receive thou the Holy Ghost by the imposition of my hands for the office, or work, of a priest in the house of God: whosesoever sins you remit are remitted, and whosesoever sins you retain are retained." This, says the thirty-sixth article of the national religion, "hath nothing of itself that is superstitious or ungodly." By virtue of this consecration and ordering, absolution or remission of sins is pronounced by the priest standing up alone in the midst of the people, who kneel to receive it; and in the form it is declared that "Almighty God hath given power and commandment to His ministers, to declare and pronounce to His people, being penitent, the absolution and remission of their sins." Thus the national parsonocracy claim the apostolic attribute of remitting and retaining sins, of binding and loosing, even as the papists, with this modification, however, that they remit sins in the gross, while the latter do it both wholesale and retail. Thus do the national and popish clergy speak blasphemy continually (Matt.9:2,3,6).

p.265 The answer to this is, that at that time their name will be great in the earth; Abram's decendants will be a great nation; and he

p.266 and Christ will be a blessing, by all the families of the earth being in them. This was stated in general terms when the gospel was preached to Abraham at Haran. In searching out these matters the phrases "in thee" and "in Him," and "in thy Seed," should be particularly attended to. They are little words but full of meaning. The reader knows what it is to be in a house, and he is aware that he must pass into it before he can be in it. This is literal. Now, suppose we call the house a man; and in answer to the question, where is he? we say he is in the man, this would be to speak figuratively; but still Scripturally and intelligibly. Before, however, a person, or a nation, or a multitude of nations, could be said to be in the man Abraham, and in the Man Christ Jesus, it is equally clear that they must pass into Abraham and into Christ. Now although many nations may literally come out of one man, a multitude of nations cannot literally be packed into one man. When, therefore, nations and individuals are said to be in Abraham and in Christ, it is manifest, it must be in a figurative sense. Hence, "in thee," "in Him," and "in Christ." are figurative expressions, or terms of constitution. They are things of stubborn import. They do not express a feeling, but a relationship which is predicated on belief and obedience. These are literal and actual things; for there is no Scriptural faith without belief of the letter, or written, or spoken, word; nor any obedience without conformity to prescribed action. To pass, or to be introduced into a man, is to sustain a relationship towards him of faith, affection, and allegiance, as prescribed. No person, or nation, can introduce themselves into a man; their induction, in other words, must be according to prescription, and not according to their own appointment. God, or He to whom as His Substitute He has committed all authority, is the only person that can prescribe the formula of induction. Mankind are diseased, and cannot cure themselves. "The blessing of Abraham" is for their restoration to health and happiness. They are, therefore; the recipients of favor, and not the prescribers, or legislators, in the case. The nature of the inducting formula is determined by the kind of subject to be induced. If the subject to be passed into Abraham and Christ be an individual, the formula is spiritual; that is, it places him in a moral and domestic, or family, relation to them: but, if the subject be a nation, or a multitude of nations, then the formula is civil and ecclesiastical, or political. A person in Abraham and Christ (and a man cannot be in one without being in the other) is the subject of adoption by a spiritual formula,

p.232 But, the state-clergy are not alone in their assumption of apostolicity; the dissenters are condemnable on the same account. They claim to be ambassadors of Jesus Christ, and they permit none to "administer ordinances" who are not ordained by the imposition of hands. The ordained do not undertake to forgive sins after the manner of the apostles, but they apply to themselves Scriptures which relate only to the apostles, by which they

p.313 time "God made it not to grow." I shall begin the enumeration with the most.elementary principle, and ascend to the more complex in the order of their development in the promises of God. They believed, then,

p.313 1. That a son of Eve would take away the sin and evil of the world;

p.233 But the truth is that neither state nor nonconformist clergies are entitled to be regarded as "successors of the apostles." The nature of the office may be comprehended by the qualifications of the office-holders which were indispensable. They may be thus stated:

p.267 which will be perfected in "the redemption of his body" at the resurrection; while nations in Abraham and Christ are adopted by a political formula, which is perfected in the blessings of good government, peace, equitable laws righteously administered, the enlightenment of all classes in the knowledge of God, universal prosperity, and so forth. The formula of spiritual adoption is exhibited in the gospel. It requires a man to believe "the promises made of God to the fathers" concerning the land of Canaan, the Christ, the blessedness of the nations in Abraham and his Seed, eternal life by a resurrection, &c.; and to be baptized into the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. When an individual has done this, he is in Abraham, and Christ, and an heir with him of the promises he believes. So that "the Seed," though spoken of one person, that is, of Christ, comprehends all the believers of the promises, who by adoption are "in Him." The phrase, "the Seed" is therefore used in an individual and federal acceptation. Hence, whatever is promised to Abraham and Christ is also promised to their federal constituents -- to the sons of Abraham, and brethren of Christ, by adoption into the family of God.

p.267 But, the formula of national, or political, adoption, has not yet been promulgated to the world. No people has ever been politically in God but Israel. The natural descendants of Abraham in the line of Isaac and Jacob, became the people of God in a national sense, by the adoption provided in the Mosaic law. But no other nation before or since has ever stood in the same relationship to Him. Neither Egypt of old, nor Britain and America of modern times, can say, "we are the people of the Lord " God has never called these nations "Mypeople," for they have never been the subjects of political adoption as Israel were. State religions are established upon the hypothesis that the people are God's people, and therefore as acceptable worshippers as the Jews under the law; and 'that they are constitutionally "in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ!" Hence, they call the nations of Europe "Christian nations." But a greater fallacy was never entertained. There are no Christian nations; neither indeed can there be until the formula of political adoption shall be made known. The nations are now in satan their father, and in his vicegerent the lord pope. Hence, it may be said to them as Jesus said to the rulers and clergy of Israel, "Ye are of your father the devil, and the works of your father ye do." The devil is their father by birth and constitution. The nations of Europe

p.233 1 -- An apostle of Christ to the circumcision must be one who has companied with the Lord Jesus, from His baptism until His ascension; so as to be a witness to His resurrection (Acts 1:22, 23).

p.313 2. That until the sin-power should be subdued, there would be perpetual strife between his adherents, and the partizans of sin;

p.313 3. That in this war the Son of the woman and his allies would suffer much adversity, and be temporarily overcome; but afterwards, conquer all their foes;

p.233 2 -- An apostle of Christ to the Gentiles must have seen Jesus (1 Cor. 9:1.) and have conversed with Him as well as the former.

p.268 became the people of satan by constitution, when they put on the pope as their high priest and mediator according to the Justinian code. Having received this, they became satan's seed, and the pope's brethren; and being thus, in satan and in the pope, are joint-heirs with them of a "just punishment, even an everlasting destruction" to issue forth "from the presence of the Lord and the glory of His power" (2 Thess.1:8), which hangs over them like the hair-suspended sword of Dionysius, ready to fall with death-dealing vengeance on every side.

p.268 But a time is coming when the anti-christian, mohommedan, and pagan, nations of the world, will all become the people of God, and, therefore, Christian. This is evident from the testimony of Scripture, which saith, "In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians SHALL SERVE with the Assyrians. In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land: whom the Lord of Hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egvpt MY PEOPLE, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel Mine inheritance" (Isaiah 19:23). And again it is written of Christ, "He shalt come down like rain upon the mown grass; as showers that water the earth. In His days shall the righteous flourish; and abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth. He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth. They (the Arabs) that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before Him; and His enemies shall lick the dust; the kings of Tarshish, and of the isles, shall bring presents; the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts. Yea, all kings shall fall down before Him: ALL NATIONS SHALL SERVE HIM. His name shall endure for ever; His name shall be continued as long as the sun; and men shall be blessed in Him: all nations shall call Him blessed" (Psalm 72:6-11,17). According to this testimony it is proved that the nations, or families, of the earth will become the people of God, as well as Israel, who will have the pre-eminence arnong them as the inheritance of the Lord; and so Israel and the nations will constitute a kingdom and empire, which will then compose "the world," and be blessed in Him and Abraham; whose subjects will reciprocate the benefits bestowed upon them, and serve their God-like rulers with heart felt loyalty, and blessings upon His name for ever.

p.233 3 -- An apostle must be chosen, ordained, and sent, of the Lord (John 15: 16); and authorized by Him to forgive and retain sins (John 20:22,23).

p.313 4. That Eve's son would descend from Abraham in the line of Isaac, Jacob, and Judah;

p.313 5. That Abraham's descendants in the line of Jacob would become "a great and mighty nation;" and that when this came to pass, Abraham's name would be great in all the earth;

p.233 4 -- An apostle must be able to work signs and wonders and mighty deeds, as signs of his apostleship (2 Cor. 12:12).

p.268 But when we contemplate the nations now in Satan, and Israel scattered to the four winds, and compare their present condition

p.269 with what is to be when they all serve Christ and are blessed in Him and Abraham, we perceive the womb of futurity to be pregnant of a mighty change; and one, too, which cannot be effected by mild and persuasive measures. The time for persuasives has passed away. The nations turn a deaf ear to everything which is not in harmony with their lusts. Hence, coercion can alone bring them to wait for the Divine law. For this reason it is testified of Christ -- "He shall break in pieces the oppressor," and "will execute vengeance in anger and fury upon the heathen, such as they have not heard. And the nations shall see and be confounded at their (Israel's) might: they shall lay their hand upon their mouth, their ears shall be deaf. They shall lick the dust like a serpent, they shall move out of their holes like worms of the earth: they shall be afraid of the Lord, Israel's God, and shall fear because of Thee!" This testimony shows the nations will be reduced to abject submission, even the most powerful among them. Their courage and means of resistance will have departed; for by the sword of the Lord and of Israel they will have been subdued. At this crisis, however, they will find a Deliverer in Him who hath overcome them (Rev. 17:14;19:11-21). "Look unto Me," saith He, "and be ye saved all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else. I have sworn by Myself," to Abraham, "the word has gone out of My mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, that unto Me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear, saying, surely in the Lord have I righteousness and strength: even to Him shall men come" (Isaiah 45:22, 23). If we turn to this oath of subjection and future blessing, we shall see what is meant by every knee bowing to the Lord. "By Myself have I sworn," saith the Lord, "for because thou, Abraham, hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea-shore; and thy Seed (Christ) shall possess the gate of His enemies; and in thy Seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed My voice" (Gen. 22:16-18).

p.233 5 -- To be an apostle a man must have believed the pure gospel of the kingdom of God (Gal. 1:8), have been immersed (Luke 7:29; Acts 22:16) and walk according to the truth of it (Gal. 2:14).

p.313 6. That all nations should be blessed, in a social, ecclesiastical, and civil sense, in Abraham and his Seed, whom I shall here after term Christ:

p.313 7. That this personage, the hope of Abraham's family, should possess the gate of His enemies; that is, gain the victory over, them:

p.233 With these qualifications, the thirteen apostles (APOSTOLOI, men sent with commands) directed the affairs of the churches [ECCLESIAS], which they had formed and established in the world. Their administration was, in fact, the administration of the Spirit through them, so that in their word was power (1 Cor. 4:20,21) to the healing of disease, the infliction of it (1 Cor. 5:4), and the destruction of life (Acts 5:9,10). They conferred spiritual gifts upon believers by the imposition of their hands (Acts 8:14-17), and gave commandments to the faithful as the vicegerents of the Lord (Matt. 28:20). Now, reason and common sense teach that if men are real successors to apostolicity, they will be like Peter and Paul in all their qualifications and attributes; but reason also teaches that after the ascension of Jesus, no man can be qualified for the apostleship unless the Lord appear to him, as in the case of Paul. But the truth is, that this claim of apostolic succession is as groundless as the claim of the clery of the apostasy to tithes on the ground of their succession to the rights of the Levitical priesthood. If their apostolicity be granted, it can only be as "false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no marvel," continues Paul, "for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed

p.269 The nations being prepared by coercion, the formula of political adoption is promulgated to them. This is contained in the law which goes forth from Zion. The details of this law are not all specified. In the general, it establishes the power of the Lord, then become "a great mountain filling the whole earth" (Dan. 2:35), above all other powers; and constitutes the newly erected

p.270 Temple in Jerusalem "the house of prayer for all nations" (Isaiah 56:7). This law gives the kingdom to the daughter of Jerusalem which is Zion; where the Lord reigns over them henceforth for ever (Mic 4:7, 8). The nations accept the law which saves them from extermination. This is evinced by the effects which follow its promulgation. They all flow to Jerusalem as the centre of the world, and fountain of all blessings; for "My springs," saith the Lord, "are in thee." They go thither for instruction in the ways of the Lord, and return to walk in His paths, to live at peace among themselves, to abandon the study of war, and to devote themselves to agriculture commerce, and the arts (Isaiah 2:2-4) This is the millennial future state. Abraham and Jesus are, then, the greatest personages upon the earth; the former being the spiritual father of Jesus and the saints, and the political father of a multitude of nations, over whom Christ and His brethren rule until "the end" (1 Cor. 15:24).

p.234 as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works" (2 Cor. 11:13-15).

p.313 8. That Christ should possess the land of Canaan from the Euphrates to the Nile; that He should possess it "for ever," and therefore be immortal:

p.313 9. That Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, should possess Canaan with Christ for ever:

p.234 It is a stronghold of these pretended apostles, that the Lord promised to be with them always to the end of the world. They contend (though, as learned men, they must know better) that the phrase "the end of the world" indicates a period of time yet future, and, therefore, that Jesus had reference, not to the apostles only, but to their "successors" likewise. Hence, they argue that the command yet remains with them to be executed, which says, "Go ye therefore into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." But to this I object that the end of the world to which Jesus referred arrived seventeen hundred years ago; secondly, that the work enjoined upon the persons in the text was fully accomplished by the apostles; thirdly, that the Lord is not with them who pretend to be their successors; fourthIy, that the moderns cannot execute the command, because they are utterly ignorant of the gospel, and therefore cannot be the individuals referred to.

p.270 Such is "the world" of which Abraham and his Seed are the heirs. Speaking of the latter in this relation, the apostle says, "whom God hath appointed Heir of all things, and on account of whom He constitutes the Ages" (Heb.1:2) --DI OU KAI TAS AIONAS EPOIESE -- the Age of Jubilees, and the Jubilee Age. And to the joint-heirs of Abraham and Christ He says, "Let no man glory in men: for all things are yours; the world, life, death, things present and things to come; all are yours; and ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's" (1 Cor. 3:21-23). And again, "Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world" (1 Cor. 6:2)? The verb here rendered judge is the same as is translated "go to law" in the preceding verse. The apostle, therefore, asks if they do not know that they will sit judicially, and dispense justice to the world, according to the divine law; and because this is their destiny, he positively forbids believers in the covenants of promise to submit themselves to the judgment of the unjust. It is better, says he, for one to be defrauded than to submit to such a humiliation. Let the heirs of the world arbitrate their own affairs in the present state; for it is a strange thing if men, whose destiny it is to judge the world and angels, cannot settle things pertaining to this life. Thus, then, there are three parties, yet constitutionally one family, who are heirs of the world as it will be politically organized in the future age, namely, Abraham, Christ, and the believers in the promises made to them, called saints; who are in Abraham as their father, and in his Seed as their elder Brother. These are the inheritors of the kingdom and empire

p.271 attached to the land of Canaan; "the children of the promise who are counted for the Seed;" and "not of the world," or subjects. These are men in the flesh, Jews and Gentiles, whose lives and fortunes will be at the disposal of the Royal Family of God. The members of this circle are not known now by the world which has set its affections upon those who mislead it, teaching it to look for a visionary elysium beyond the skies! But such leaders have no light in them, for they do not speak according to the law and testimony. The word of God converts their wisdom into folly, declaring in the teeth of their traditions, that "he that putteth his trust in God shall possess the land, and shall inherit His holy mountain" (Isaiah 57:13); while Israel in the flesh "shall be all righteous; they shall inherit the land for ever, as the branch of the Lord's planting, the work of His hands, that He may be glorified. A little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation. I, saith the Lord, will hasten it in its time" (Isaiah 60:14,18,21,22).

p.234 In the first place, the Lord Jesus did not use the phrase "the end of the world" in the vulgar English sense of it. He said to the eleven, "Behold, I am with you, PASAS TAS HEMERAS, all the days, HEOS TES SUNTELEIAS TOU AIONOS, until the end of the age." Here are certain days indicated, which were comprehended in the period to elapse from the time when Jesus made the promise until the end of the age. These days are termed by Paul "these last days" (Heb. 1:2), which he characterises as those in which God spoke to the Israelites by a Son, as well as those in which he was writing to the Hebrews some thirty years after -- "these last days," says he. Now, these days taken collectively he styles, according to the English version, "the end of the world," as it is written, "Now once in the end of the world hath Jesus appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself" (Heb. 9:26). The reader will easily perceive, by the mark in the text, that the world spoken of was that to which Jesus stood related by death; that it was near its end when He was crucified by it. But if the world is to be taken in the vulgar English sense, Paul was wrong in saying that Jesus sacrificed Himself in the end of it, for surely that period was not the end of the world, which passed away eighteen hundred years ago! But the truth is, Paul was perfectly accurate in what he wrote. He knew nothing about the English sense of his words, for there were neither Englishmen nor English words in his day. He penned Hebraisms in Greek words;

p.313 10. That Abraham was the constitutional father of nations; and with his sons, namely, with Christ and His brethren, the "heir of the world;" which was memorialized by the change of his name from Abram to Abraham:

p.313 11. That kings would descend from Abraham in the line of Judah, &c.; and that, therefore, the twelve tribes would constitute a kingdom in the land of Canaan; of which Judah would be the royal tribe:

p.235 that is, he put the things God had taught Israel into a Greek dress. He wrote "the things of the spirit in the words of the spirit selected from the Greek language. What he said in the text before us was, "but now once for all EPI SUNTELEIA TON AIONON at the end of the ages hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself." The constitution of Mount Sinai was the founding of the Hebrew world, or KOSMOS, because it ordered, or arranged, the things pertaining to Israel as a system SUI GENERIS. This system had times peculiar to itself, which were appointed at. the promulgation of the law. These are termed in Scripture AIONES, that is, AIONS, from AEI alway and ON passing. The etymology of AION does not express the duration of the time; its continuance is defined by the Mosaic law. The Hebrew Commonwealth under the Sinaitic constitution was not intended to continue always. The time of its existence was predetermined of God, but not revealed in the law or the prophets, but "reserved in His own power" (Acts 1:7; Mark 13:32). It is termed AION, and its approaching termination SUNTELEIA TOU AIONOS the end of the time, that is, of the Hebrew Commonwealth under the Mosaic law. But, though the precise duration of this great time (1697 years) was kept secret, the lesser times, or AIONES, aions, of which it was composed, were very minutely specified, as in the case of the Jubilees, so that the whole time of the commonwealth was the AION TON AIONON, the aion of the aions, the time of the times, or age of the ages. Hence, while the Lord Jesus designated the consummation as the end of the time, Paul indicated it as the end of the times, or ages.

p.271 It was fourteen years after the confirmation of the covenant, and when Abram had attained the age of ninety and nine, that the Lord appeared to him to repeat His promises, and to appoint the token of the covenant. On this occasion, God talked with him, and changed his name from Abram to Abraham, as an everlasting memorial that He had made him heir of the world, by constituting him a father of a great multitude. "Behold," said God, "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 constituted thee." And besides this constitutional fatherhood, the Lord assured him that though so old, he should be prolific of multitudes which should descend from his own loins. "I will make thee" said He, "exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee; and kings shall come out of thee." The Lord then announced that the covenant He had confirmed should be established between Him and Abraham, and his fleshly descendants in their generations for an everlasting covenant; and that He would be a God to him and to them. He also again declared His oft-repeated promise, saving, "I will give unto thee, and to thy Seed after tbee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God" (Gen. 17:1-8).

p.271 In the passage from which this is taken, God says, "I will make My covenant between Me and thee;" and afterwards,

p.235 That the delivering of the law was the beginning of the AION, or Hebrew world, is obvious from the words of Peter. Addressing the men of Israel, he said, "God will send Jesus Christ to you; whom the heaven must retain until times (CHRONON) of reconstitution of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets AP AIONOS from the age; for Moses truly said to the fathers, etc-" (Acts 3:20,21). In the Authorised Version it is rendered "since the world began." If this be preferred, it is evident that the world referred to was coeval in its beginning with Moses, for he is cited as the first of the holy prophets by whose mouth God spoke of the reconstitution of the Hebrew commonwealth at the appearing of Christ from heaven. Paul refers to the same epoch, saying, "the fellowship of the mystery hath been hid in God APO TON AIONON from the ages;" in the common version, "from the beginning of the world" (Eph. 3:9). From

p.313 12. That through Judah, as the lion of Israel, their enemies should be subdued:

p.313 13. That "the Shepherd and Stone of Israel" would be a Son of Judah and Son of God; and that He would be the Lawgiver and King of all nations to the utmost bound of the everlasting hills:

p.236 the beginning of the age, or of the ages, is the correct rendering of the Greek in these texts. They both refer to the beginning of the commonwealth of Israel in the giving of the law from Sinai.

p.272 "behold My covenant is with thee. The "will make" refers to a covenant subsequent to that confirmed fourteen years before. That to be made was the token of that which was already made; and "the seal of the righteousness of the faith which Abraham had when it was counted to him for righteousness" (Rom. 4:11). "This," said God, "is My covenant which ye shall keep, between Me and thee and thy seed after thee: every man-child among you shall be circumcised; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt Me and you, Abraham." The appointing of this token in their flesh was the establishment of the covenant with Abraham's seed in the time of Isaac and Jacob in their generations. When, therefore, Israelites behold the mark in their flesh it reminds them that they are "the children of the covenant which God made with their fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy Seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed" (Acts 3:25); that the land of Canaan, all of it, is promised to them for an everlasting possession; but that an everlasting possession in it can only be attained by belief of things promised in the covenant being counted to them for righteousness in the way of God's appointment. They know, or rather ought to know, that the sign of circumcision and the Mosaic law, can give them no title to the everlasting occupancy of Canaan, either as individuals or as a nation. It is circumcision of the heart, of which circumcision of the flesh is but the sign of the circumcised heart of Abraham, that confers a title to the land and all its attributes. Before Israel can inherit the land for ever, and so be no more expelled by "the horns of the Gentiles," they must "circumcise the foreskin of their hearts, and be no more stiff-necked;" and "love the Lord (Jesus) their God with all their heart, and with all their soul, that they may live " (Deut. 10:16; 30:6). This may seem to some to put their restoration a long way off. And so it does, if the circumcision of their hearts is to be effected by the instrumentality by the Society for the Conversion of the Jews. By the well-meant endeavors of this body it can never be accomplished; for the Society and its agents are themselves deficient in this particulart. But "God is able to graft them in again" (Rom. 11:23); and testifies by His prophets, saying, "A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you, O lsrael: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep My judgments and do them. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your

p.273 fathers; and ye shall be My people and I will be your God. I will also save you from all your uncleanliness; and I will call for the corn, and I will increase it, and lay no famine upon you. And I multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of the field, that ye shall receive no more reproach of famine among the heathen" (Ezek. 36:26-30; 39:35-29). In this testimony, while Moses exhorted them to circumcise the foreskin of their hearts, the Lord says that He will change their hearts Himself; not, however, by "the foolishness of preaching," for that has failed even by the mouth of apostles energized by the spirit: but by means in reserve which will astonish Israel and the world, and of which He has spoken at large in the holy Scriptures. I will anticipate this part of the subject so far as to say that the Lord has left on record an illustration of the manner in which He changes the heart of a nation, and plants them in a land flowing with milk and honey, in the history of Israel's exode from Egypt, and their settlement in the land of Canaan. This is a representation on a small scale of how He intends to graft them in again, as He has declared by the prophets.

p.236 To speak in the vernacular, God promised eternal life to man before the world began. Such a statement as this would be incomprehensible to a mere English reader; yet such is the import of the saying "God, who cannot lie, promised eternal life before the world began (PRO CHRONON AIONION); but in due times (KAIROIS IDIOIS) hath manifested His word by preaching" (Tit. 1:2, 3). To whom did He promise it? Certainly not to any one before the formation of man. The world referred to cannot therefore be that founded in the six days, but a constitution of things long subsequent to it. A literal translation removes all difficulty. The phrase PRO CHRONON AIONION is before the aionian times; that is, before the times of the Hebrew commonwealth were arranged, God promised eternal life, and in KAIROIS IDIOIS definite times, such times, namely, as are particularised in Daniel (Dan. 9:24-26), He made His word, which had before been a hidden mystery, manifest (Rom. 16:26) through the apostolic preaching.

p.313 14. That Christ would be slain by the tribe of Levi after the parable of Isaac:

p.314 15. That as Christ and Abraham are to inherit the land of Canaan for ever, they would rise from the dead to possess it; and that the same thing must occur in the case of all others who should inherit with them:

p.236 In the parable of the sower (Matt. 13:37-40) the phrase "the world" is used in different senses, which are not distinguished in the English version. Jesus says there, "the field is the world." Did He mean it was the "whole habitable," "the age," or the Israelites; for world is applied to them all? If it had been the, He would have said "the field is the HOLE OIKOUMENE; if the second "the field is the AION;" and if the third, "the field is the K0SMOS." The last is the record in the case. He represents Himself as the sower and says that the seed which He sowed was "the word of the kingdom," that it was "good seed," and that He sowed it into the hearts of the Israelites, or "children of the kingdom," of whom there were two classes, good and bad (Matt. 8:12). These, then, were the field, and therefore the KOSMOS, or nation-world. But the enemy sowed tares into this field, which were to be gathered out and burnt. This conflagration was to be at harvest-time, concerning which Jesus said, " the harvest is the end of the world." Did He mean the end of the nation-world? No ; therefore He used another word, namely, AION instead of KOSMOS. The harvest was to be at the end of the aion SUNTELEIA TOU AIONOS, and not at the end of the KOSMOS, or extermination of the nation of Israel from among nations. The extinction of Israel from the earth will never take place, though a full end will be made of all other nations. But at the end of what aion was

p.273 In after times circumcision came to be performed as a mere custom, or ceremony. An institution of God, that was appointed as a memorial of His promise concerning the everlasting possession of Canaan and the world, and of that righteousness by faith of the promise which could alone intitle to it, and which was to express those who practised it -- degenerated into a mere form which was observed, like infant-sprinkling by "the pious" and most ungodly characters alike. But it is evident that circumcision, being instituted after the covenant of promise was confirmed, and after Abraham had obtained a title to it by a righteousness of faith, could confer upon the person circumcised no right to possess the things promised for ever, and certainly none to reprobates who practised it. as Turks and wild Arabs do now, because their fathers have done it before them, time immemorial to them. What obligation, then, did this sign of the covenant, and seal of Abraham's justification by faith without circumcision, impose upon the circumcised? Let the apostle answer the question. "I testify," says he, "to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to the whole law." (Gal. 5:3). This was a fearful obligation for a man to be brought under, who sought to be justified, to the end that he might obtain an everlasting inheritance in the land of Canaan, which implies the acquisition of eternal life and glory. The law was weak through the flesh; and gave only the

p.274 knowledge of sin. It was an unbearable yoke of bondage, and a law which no man born of the will of the flesh had been able to keep without sin. If, then, a man sought to obtain a right to an everlasting possession of the land by obedience to it, he had undertaken an impossibility; for the law, on account of human weakness, could give no one a right to live for ever; and without life eternal a man could not everlastingly possess the land; and this life no one can attain to who is not justified from all his past sins; for if in his sins, he is under the sentence of death, as it is written, "the wages of sin is death." The apostle speaks directly to the point; for he says "If there had been a law given, which could have given (a title to) life (eternal), verily righteousness (or justification from past sins to life) should have been by the law" (Gal. 3:21): "for if righteousness had come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain" (Gal. 2:21). He says explicitly, "by the law shall no flesh be justified." A circumcised person is therefore bound to keep that which he cannot possibly keep, and which if he did keep could not benefit him, because justification to life is by faith in the prornise, and not by conformity to the Mosaic law.

p.237 the harvest to be? Jesus replies, "as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire at harvest-time, so shall it be En TE SUNTELEIA TOU AIONOS TOUTOU, in the end of this age," that is, in the end of the AION in which He flourished. Then He would send His reapers, namely, the Romans, His angels, or messengers (AGLELOI) of destruction, to "gather out of His kingdom" of Judea all the tarelike children of Israel, and cast them into the place of the Lord, whose fire is in Zion, and His furnace in Jerusalem" (Isa. 31:9), where there should be wailing and gnashing of teeth. When this should be accomplished the aion would be finished, and the commonwealth of Israel should "be no more until He should come whose right it is" to reign (Ezek. 21:25-27). "Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father."

p.314 16. That after his resurrection and exaltation to power and dominion, ten tribes of Christ's brethren after the flesh would go down into Egypt a second time; and meeting them there, make himself known to them; receive their humble and sincere submission; and we may add, like another Moses and Joshua in one person, lead them out of Egypt and plant them in the land of Canaan:

p.314 17. That to share in this consummation would be the reward of a righteousness counted to those who believed the things promised:

p.237 As Jesus sat on the Mount of Olives, His disciples asked Him, saying What shall be the sign of the end of the age -- TI TO SEMEION TES SUNTELEIAS TOU AIONOS, or, in the common version, "of the end of the world?" He replied, "This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole habitable (ENOLEOIKOUMENE) for a testimony to all the nations: and then shall come the end" (Matt. 24:3,14). Having said this, He gave them "the sign," namely, the standing of the abomination of desolation in the holy place, or city, as foretold by Daniel (Dan. 9:27). First, then, the gospel was to be fully preached to every creature by the apostles, and afterwards the sign was to appear. Did the apostles perform their work, or does it yet remain to be accomplished? Their pretended successors answer "no, they did not." They contend that there are vast regions which were unknown to the ancients, where the gospel has never been preached, and therefore that, as it is to be preached to every creature, it is incumbent on them to do it, and that the end of the world will not come until they have converted all the nations to Christianity! Hence, they have established societies de propaganda fide both Romish and protestant. Every principal sect has its missionary society, whose utopian speculation is the conversion of the world under the warrant of the apostolic commission! As if a command given to the apostles to preach the gospel of the kingdom were a command given to modern missionaries to go and preach churchism and dissenterism, calvinism, arminianism and popery to "all the world!" But the apostles were not sent to "all the world" in the Gentile acceptation of the phrase. They were sent to all the nations of the then habitable, or civilised world, principally

p.274 The relation of the Jews to eternal life as individuals and to the everlasting possession of Canaan in blessedness and peace as a nation, is manifest. They are circumcised and therefore bound to keep the whole law; by which law they seek to be justified. But how vain and impossible is their enterprize! The Law says, "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do thern" (Deut. 27:26); and so unexceptional is this sentence, that it even cursed the Lord Jesus saying, Cursed is every one that hangeth upon a tree" (Deut. 21:23; and in this way He was made a curse for men (Gal.3:13). Now, the law teaches, that without the shedding of blood their is no remission of sins, and prescribes certain sacrifices which must be offered upon an altar in Jerusalem, and there only. To say nothing of other impossible things, these offerings, which are indispensable, the Jews neither do nor can, present. These are things, then, they do not continue in, and therefore they are cursed by the law, and condemned by Moses, in whom they trust. They are under the sentence of death, and of eternal exclusion from all inheritance in Canaan and the world. They may possibly believe in the promise made to Abraham, that God will give the land to him and the Christ; but they deny that Jesus is the person named in the will, which is tantamount to rejecting the covenant itself.

p.275 While circumcision obliged Israel to keep the whole law, in which there was an annual remembrance of national offences, it gave them through that law only a tenant at will occupancy of the land of Canaan; and that not to the extent which pertains to its everlasting possession. This appears from the words of Moses, as it is written, "If thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this law, ye shall be plucked from off the land whither thou goest to possess it " (Deut. 28:58, 63). The condition of their tenancy was their good behaviour. If they served God according to the law of the land He had given, He would bless them in their basket and store; but if they served other gods, He would let in the worshippers of those gods upon them, and expel them from the country. Israel has rebelled, and therefore they are in dispersion, until the time appointed shall come to remember the covenant made with the fathers, and, therefore to remember the land (Lev. 26:40-42).

p.238 and almost exclusively comprehended in the limits of the Roman dominion. Nor were they sent under the idea of converting them nationally to the gospel, but to preach it EIS MARTURION for a testimony: that is, for their information, that disciples might be made among them all, so that a people might be taken out of them (EX ETHNON) for the administration of the affairs of God's kingdom and empire upon earth (Acts 15:14). The apostles left nothing for "successors" to do under the commission given to them. They preached the gospel of the kingdom to "every creature" of the Roman nations; if not in the Gentile sense of "every creature," at least in the sense of the phrase as used by the Lord Jesus. I feel strong upon this point, sustained as I am by the direct testimony of Scripture which is worth all the theories and all the logic of the schools en masse. The apostle, in speaking of the "one hope of the calling" (Eph. 4:4) contained "in the word of the truth of the gospel," tells the Colossian believers Col. 1:5,6) that "it had come to all the world" (PARONTOS EV PANTI TO KOSMO) in the sense of "every creature," as appears in another verse (V.23) of the same chapter. In this place he says "the hope of the gospel was preached to every creature which is under the heaven." This was the result of some thirty years apostolic labour; for the epistle in which he makes the statement is assigned to A.D. 62, which was about eight years before the desolating abomination appeared before the walls of Jerusalem, as "the sign" of the end of the age.

p.314 18. That every one to whom this righteousness was reckoned must be a circumcised person, or otherwise be cut off from his people; and that circumcision was the token of the covenant of promise, and the seal of the righteousness by faith.

p.314 In the exposition of the things of the kingdom, as unfolded in "the promises made of God to the fathers," the following points have been fairly established:

p.238 The gospel of the kingdom, so efficiently preached by the apostles, was soon after perverted by "men of corrupt minds" (2 Tim. 3:1-8;4:3,4; Tit. 1:10-14), whom Paul, who was very severe, but not too much so, upon this class of professors, styles "seducing spirits, speaking lies in hypocrisy, and having their conscience seared as with a hot iron" (1 Tim. 4:1-3). Let the reader consult the references given above. These characters were the "successors" from whom modern apostles, and ambassadors of Christ, have originated. When the Hebrew commonwealth was broken up by the Romans, they claimed to be successors to the priests and Levites of the law, as well as to the apostles. Thus they united a worldly priesthood (for all Christ's disciples are kings and priests, elected for the purposes of the approaching kingdom) with eldership; and became a distinct order unrecognized by the Scriptures, by which they are repudiated as "reprobate concerning the faith." This order of men, as I have already stated elsewhere, had the presumption to style

p.275 The national tenancy of Canaan under the law being leasehold, no purchases of freehold estates could be made in the land. If Israel had been a freeholder, the case would have been different. But the land belonged to the Lord; and they had no more right to grant it away in parcels for ever, than the tenant under a twenty-one years' lease has to cut up his holding into lots, and sell them to purchasers forever. Israel were the Lord's tenants; and the law said to them on the part of their Landlord, "the land shall not be sold for ever; for the land is Mine, and ye are strangers and sojourners with Me;" so that "in all the land of your possession ye shall grant a redemption for the land." Hence, if poverty compelled a man to sell his farm, it was always redeemable by himself, or kin, according to certain conditions; but, if neither could raise the money to redeem, the estate was not lost to the original owner; for though it remained in the hands of the purchaser he was obliged to return it for nothing at the year of jubilee (Lev. 25:23-28). Even under the new constitution, when the nation obtains everlasting possession, the servants of the Prince will have to surrender His territorial gifts at the year of liberty; while His sons will possess them for ever (Ezek. 46:16-18).

p.275 The covenant of promise confers a more extensive holding of the country than the law of Moses. At no time of their occupation did Israel possess all the land from the Euphrates to the Nile, as promised in the covenant; and even if they had, such holding would not have been in the sense of the covenant, for they have

p.239 themselves, God's heritage, or "clergy," as though He had a delight in them above all other professors! But with all their praying and preaching, and profession, neither they nor their successors love the Lord, for they do not obey Him: and He has made obedience the test of love, as it is written, "love is the fulfilling of the law." They corrupted and perpetuate the perversions of the faith from age to age; therefore, says the Scripture, "let them be accursed when the Lord comes" (1 Cor. 16:22; Gal. 1:8, 9; Matt. 7:23-31).

p.314 1. That the territory of the kingdom of Shiloh is not beyond the skies, but all the land of Canaan from the Euphrates to the Nile; and from the Gulf of Persia and the Red Sea to the Mediterranean;

p.314 2. That the twelve tribes of Israel are the natural born subjects of the kingdom;

p.239 By the ministerial influence of this order of men, multitudes departed from the faith, and by their accession to municipal and state authority they were enabled to give political existence to the apostasy they had consummated. It is unnecessary to narrate the history of their evil deeds from the beginning to the present time. I would require volumes to do justice to their ignorance, hypocrisy and crime. As ecclesiastical policemen they have kept the world in order for the advantage and behoof of the oppressors and destroyers of the earth, and have used the people for their own profit, under pretence of "curing their souls." But while this is undeniably true of the order, I am free to admit that there have been, and no doubt are, many sincere, honest, moral men who bear the names of "clergyman" and "minister" -- many who conscientiously believe their theories to be the true sense of Scripture, and who would suffer the loss of all things, and life itself, rather than surrender what they believe to be the truth. There have been many such, and may still be, should occasion arise to necessitate their manifestation. These are men who are in advance of the systems by which they have been created "clergymen" and "ministers." Their position is an unhappy one. System has made them and they conscientiously support and perpetuate the system, having been indoctrinated by their predecessors into the belief that the system is the religion of God. But I have hope that if this book fall into the hands of this respectable class of professors, it may be instrumental in opening their eyes to see the deception practised upon them by the traditions of their fathers. Sincerity, honesty, piety and morality are good qualities, without which no man can be saved. I admit they have all these. But they should remember that Cornelius was as estimable a man as they, and had the advantage of them in this, that his character was attested of God by the mouth of a special messenger from heaven, whereas they have no attestation beyond what is purely human. Now, piety and God-fearing did

p.276 not held possession according to the limits defined "for ever." "All the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession" is the promise; but the indisputable fact is, that Israel have only possessed a part of it for a limited and turbulent period. In Solomon's days when the nation was at its zenith under the law, the land was jointly possessed by Israel, the Tyrians, and the remains of the Hittites, Amorites, Perrizzites, Hivites, Jebusites, &c.; but when the age of the covenant arrives, Israel under Shiloh will possess it all; "and there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the Lord of Hosts" (2 Chron.8:7; Zech.14:21).

p.276 No uncircumcised person was permitted to be a member of Abraham's family. Horne-born, or purchased, slaves, as well as sons, were to be alike circumcised, or else to be cut off; for he that was uncircumcised on the eighth day after the first circumcisions were instituted, or not at all, had broken the Lord's covenant. This was a great calamity; for none but circumcised persons can inherit the promises. This may startle; but it is strictly true. It will however be remembered that true circumcision is of the heart. Circumcision of the flesh is but an outward sign of Abraham's circumcision of heart; and everyone who would inherit with faithful Abraham must be circumcised of heart likewise. When he was circumcised of heart his faith in God was imputed to him for remission of sins that were past. His former idolatry, &c., was forgiven, and the body of the sins of his flesh put off. Now, a man believing what Abraham believed with the same effect on his disposition and life, is also circumcised of heart, when, in putting on Christ, he is "circumcised with the circumcision made without hands by the circumcision of Christ," performed on the eighth day according to the law. In putting on Christ, his faith is counted to him for righteousness as Abraham's was. "The body of the sins of his flesh" is cut off. The foreskin of his heart is circumcised, and he is the subject of "circumcision in the spirit;" and his praise, though not of men, is pronounced of God (Rom. 2:28).

p.240 not save Cornelius; they only commended him to God's remembrance. It was necessary for him to believe words, and to be baptized in the name of the Lord, as I have already shown. These words were the gospel of the kingdom of God and His Christ. This necessity has never been abrogated. It is in full force to this day. Clergy and ministers do not believe it. Much of it they sneer at as "the millennial hypothesis." If they would attain to the kingdom of God, they must believe the doctrine concerning it. Martyrdom for opinion's sake is no substitute for "the obedience of faith." It is self-deception to say that God is with us to the end of the world, when we neither understand, nor believe and obey the truth.

p.314 4. That those of like faith and disposition with Abraham, and who walk in the steps of his faith, are the joint inheritors with its king; in other words, its aristocracy; who will share in the glory, honor, power, and blessedness, of the kingdom for ever: and,

p.314 5. That all nations will be subject to this kingdom, and constitute its empire.

p.240 Lastly, the clergy and ministers of the age, being utterly ignorant of the gospel of the kingdom, are plainly not the persons referred to in the commission. The Lord is not "with them;" and without His co-operation, were they as enlightened and faithful as the apostles themselves, they could do nothing (John 15:5). They point to what is done among the heathen in proof of His being "with them." But, there is nothing done there as it ought to be done, or, as things were done when the Lord worked with the apostles. Their missionary societies are but so many institutions for the intellectual, moral, and, social, training of the heathen in the civilization of European and American religionists. They make protestants and catholics of the natives, but beyond this they cannot go. They may extend the civilization of Japheth into the tents of Shem, and compel Ham to be their servant; but to beget them in Christ Jesus through the gospel, and .so to induct them into the heirship of the kingdom of God, is a thing they could as soon accomplish as to still the raging of the sea. If by their labours they were to make all the earth like England and America, it would still need to be converted to the religion of Christ. Ecclesiastics have done all they are able to do in "civilised" communities. They are powerless for progress among these, and men of strong minds are either indifferent to their ministrations, or have repudiated them altogether. They lack one thing, namely, the knowledge of "the truth as it is in Jesus." In default of this they occupy the minds of the people with foreign enterprises, benevolent institutions, public meetings, platform and pulpit oratory, fancy fairs, and all sorts of devices to raise the wind to keep the machine in motion. But all will not do. The people begin to flag. The masses take no interest in their preaching. Their churches are cold, formal. and death-like.

p.276 Now, I respectfully inquire, will a man who understands the signification of circumcision of the flesh, and the nature of circumcision of the heart, jeopardize his reputation for soundness of mind by saying that infant-sprinkling, even if a Scriptural practice, was divinely appointed in the room of circumcision in flesh or spirit? That the immersion of a man of the same faith and disposition as Abraham's is connected with circumcision I have shown; to

p.277 such a man immersion into the glorious name is the token of his justification by faith, as circumcision was to Abraham. It is indeed a substitute for circumcision of the flesh, but the accompaniment also of circumcision of the heart; and as all of Abraham's faith were to, be cut off from his people who were not circumcised in flesh, so all of his faith now will be cut off who are not immersed; for immersion is the appointed, and only appointed, means of putting on the circumcision of Jesus Christ by which the body of the sins of the flesh are put off (Col. 2:11,13). But this is a very different affair to the infant-rhantism coming in the room of circumcision of the flesh. Suppose it did, then the law of circumcision must.have become the law of the substitute, that is, of infant-sprinkling. The rhantized subject, then, is bound to keep the whole law, and in default thereof comes under its curse. The immersion of an unbeliever amounts to nothing. To such a person it is no token. What shall we say, then, of the rhantism of an infant? Is the sprinkling and marking it with the sign of a cross a token to it, or to otbers, that it is "justified by faith, and has peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ?" Or, is it a sign of the faith of its godfathers and godmothers, or of its parents, of their being justified by faith, and circumcised of heart? Or is it a token that the clerical minister has faith in the covenant of promise? Nay, rather, it is a token of the astounding ignorance of the letter and spirit of the gospel, and of the Judaism of all concerned; and a striking illustration of that "strong delusion" spread over the face of all people as a covering veil (2 Thess. 2:11; Isaiah 25:7).

p.241 Their "spirituality" is gone, and, unless the Lord come to raise the dead, both priests and people will be beyond reach of cure.

p.314 These five points, however, do not comprehend all the things concerning the kingdom of God. Shiloh, or the Anointed One of God, was promised in the line of Judah; but the question remained open from Jacob's decease for many centuries after, as to the particular family of the tribe of Judah He was to descend from. Besides this, there is nothing said respecting the constitution, laws, and ecclesiastical institutions, of the king-

p.315 dom. It will, therefore, be necessary for us to look into these things, that we may fully comprehend the system of the world to be established by the God of heaven, when all other dominions shall have passed away.

p.241 Apostolic succession, then, especially through such a channel, is a mere figment of the carnal mind. The only succession of which any Scriptural idea can be formed is, the following in the steps of the apostles' faith, which no one, who understands the word of the kingdom, would affirm of the ecclesiastical guides of the people. The power and the authority of the apostles died with them. Those who succeed to their faith are their successors only in this sense. Their word, which is also the Lord's word, dwells in such richly in all wisdom; and where the word of the Lord is found, there, by the belief of it, He dwells in the hearts of men. When they work according to this word they and their Lord work together. But this is not peculiar to a ministerial class, but is common to all the Lord's people; for He is no respecter of persons. A successor to the faith of the apostles delights to feel he is a layman, that he is one of the flock, and the best of the sheep it contains, because his sole anxiety is to know and obey the Great Shepherd's voice (Heb. 13:20; John 10:27) He is not a wolf, nor a dog, rending, and devouring, the flock, and investing himself with its wool; but one who would be the servant of the least, that he may be exalted to an unfading crown of glory, when the Good Shepherd shall appear to give life to all His sheep for evermore.

p.277 Abraham had two sons; Ishmael the son of Hagar an Egyptian handmaid; and Isaac the son of Sarah. Ishmael was fourteen years old when Isaac was born. He was born in the ordinary course of things, and therefore said to be "born after the flesh;" while Isaac was born out of the usual course, Sarah being ninety and Abraham a hundred, she being also strengthened of God, according to the promise, and consequently said to be " born after the Spirit." Hagar was a bondwoman, but Sarah was free: yet, had it been left to Abraham, he would have made Ishmael his heir as well as Isaac, for he loved them both. But Ishmael manifested an evil spirit towards Sarah and Isaac, which he imbibed from his mother. Moses says he mocked Isaac, or spoke contemptuously of him; which the apostle terms persecuting him, and characteristic of those of Ishmael's class. Sarah's indignation

p.278 was fired at this; "wherefore, she said to Abraham, cast out this bondwoman and her son: for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac." Although Abraham was exceedingly grieved at this, God approved of Sarah's decision, and informed him that Christ should descend from Isaac, and not from Ishmael, saying, "In Isaac shall thy Seed be called:" nevertheless, because Ishmael was his son, He would make a nation of him also with twelve princes for its fathers.

p.315 It may facilitate a clear and distinct conception of the contents of this chapter by bringing the dates quoted into a tabular form; I shall, therefore, conclude this part of my subject by presenting the reader with the following

p.315 377 ... The promise concerning Christ confirmed on the 14th day of Abib.

p.278 This fragment of Abraham's history has a signification besides what appears on the face of it. The apostle informs us that the incidents are allegorical. That is, that the two women and their characteristics, represents two covenants; and the, two sons of Abraham by them, two seeds, or classes of persons. The covenants are, "the one from Mount Sinai in Arabia," and the other, the covenant confirmed of God 430 years before that of Sinai was promulgated; and which, being a matter of promise, the subject of which is Christ as the Inheritor of Canaan, and its future King in Jerusalem, now at the right hand of God, is said to be "Jerusalem which is above." The apostle says that Jerusalem is the subject of both these covenants; but in different periods of her history. During her existence as the metropolis of the Hebrew commonwealth under its Sinaitic constitution, she was represented by Hagar the bondwoman; because the covenant from Sinai "gendered to bondage;" and in consequence the citizens of the commonwealth were in bondage with the mother city. They were "entangled with the yoke of bondage," "under the rudimerits of the world." They were bound to keep the whole law, by which they sought to be justified; and as they could not do it owing to the weakness of the flesh, they came under the curse.

p.278 But this state of things was only provisional. God did not intend the Hebrew commonwealth to exist perpetually under the Sinaitic constitution. Israel was not always to be in bondage to the law of Moses. A great revolution was predetermined of God which should result in the abolition of the Arabian covenant, and the dispersion of Israel among the nations. This is allegorically styled, "casting out the bondwoman and her son;" which was necessary for the good and all-sufficient reason, that the Sinaitic constitution was not adapted for the people and state when Christ should sit upon the throne of His father David, and the saints should possess the kingdom. The law of Moses enjoined ordinances concerning the flesh, such as " the water of separation"

p.315 391 ... Circumcision instituted ; Abraham circumcises all his males.

p.315 392 ... Isaac born; Abraham 100 years. Sojourns in the Philistines' land.

p.279 (Numb. 19; Heb. 9:3), which would be quite incompatible with the realities of the age to come. Under the law there was "a remembrance again of sins every year" (Heb.10:3); but under the new constitution from heaven, "the sins and iniquities of the people will be remembered no more" (Jer 31:31-34). The Sinaitic constitution was faulty; it was therefore necessary that it should give place to a better, which shall be established on better promises (Heb. 8:2,7). Hence, the bondwoman was to be cast out, to make room for a more perfect arrangement of the commonwealth.

p.279 Since the expulsion of Israel by the Romans, Jerusalem and her children are in the situation of Hagar and her son, while wandering in the wilderness of Beersheba. She is divorced from the Lord as Hagar was from Abraham, and "being desolate, she sits upon the ground" (Gen. 21:1), and bewails her widowhood (Isaiah 3:26). But, there is to be "a restitution of all things." Jerusalem is to become a free woman as Sarah was; and to take her stand in the midst of the earth, as "the city whose architect and builder is God." She will then "remember the reproach of her widowhood no more. For her Maker will be her Husband; the Lord of Hosts is His name; and her Redeemer the Holy One of Israel (even Jesus) the God of the whole earth shall He be called. She will then be the metropolis of the world, and her citizens, or children, will be more numerous than those she rejoiced in under the law, as a married wife. The period of her glory will have arrived; the twelve tribes be again the united, peaceful, and joyous, inhabitants of the land; the "greater than Solomon," their King; and His city, "the heavenly Jerusalem," which "is free, and the mother of us all."

p.315 427 ... Terah dies aged 205 ; Abraham 135 leaves Philistia after a residence there of 35 years.

p.315 502 ... SHEM, or Melchizedec, disappears. Jacob, 50; Isaac 110.

p.279 But, while Hagar represents Jerusalem under the law, and Sarah under the new constitution of the Hebrew commonwealth, Ishmael represents Israel, glorying in their fleshly descent from Abraham, and boasting in the law; and Isaac those of Israel and the Gentiles who regard the flesh as profiting nothing, and who are the sons of Abraham believing the promises made to him and to his seed. Hence, Ishmael and Isaac represent two seeds, or classes of mankind, who shall not be heirs together of the promise. Indeed, their natures are so opposite, that it would be impossible for them to fulfil in concert the destiny marked out for those who are to inherit the promises. The Ishmaelite-seed are wild-men, whose hands are against all who believe the truth. They are mockers; for as Ishmael mocked Isaac, so Israel

p.280 mocked Jesus, and spoke reproachfully of Him and His brethren who are one. The kingdom to be established is a righteous dominion, and requires righteous men for its administration; as it is written, "He that ruleth over men must bejust, ruling in the fear of the Lord" (2 Sam. 23:3). It is impossible, therefore, that the Ishmaelite-seed can be heirs of the promise. All the honor, glory, and power, of the state were in their hands under the Arabian covenant; and cruel and unjust was the use they made of their position. They put Jesus to death; and persecuted those to whom "He gave power to become the sons of God," believing on His name; and were "contrary to all men; forbidding the apostles to speak to the Gentiles, that they might be saved" (1 Thess. 2:15,16). They were then "first;" but power was destined to change hands, when they who were "the first shall be last." They had killed the Heir that the inheritance might be theirs; but they have been destroyed, and the vineyard now remains to be bestowed upon others, who shall render its Lord the fruits in their seasons (Matt. 21:38, 41). Thus, as in the case of Ishmael and Isaac, "he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the spirit, even so," says the apostle, "it is now;" and we may add, ever will be, until the times of the restitution of the state when "the last shall be first," and beyond the reach of evil.

p.315 529 ... Jacob leaves Isaac; sees the Vision of the Ladder: arrives at Laban's aged 77.

p.315 549 ... Jacob leaves Laban, having served him 20 years, aged 97. Isaac 157.

p.280 No one had the right, or the power, to appoint "the Heir of all things," but God. Abraham could not appoint Him, neither could He be self-appointed. Abraham wished that Ishmael might be the heir; or as he expressed it, "0 that Ishmael might live before Thee." But God would not consent to this. He therefore promised to give him one for the heir, whom be should call Isaac; and of whom He said, I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him" (Gen. 17:19). But Isaac was not only born of promise; he believed the promises likewise; for the Scripture saith, "by faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come." Now, it is written, "in Isaac shall thy seed be called ;" that is, Christ shall descend frorn him, and all who believe thcpromises, and put on Christ, shall be considered as "in Isaac;" and, being thus "the children of the promise," shall be "counted for the seed" (Rom. 9:6-8; Gal. 4:28), who shall inherit the land and the world for ever. "The seed," then, is a phrase that must be understood in a twofold sense; first as referring to Christ, and secondly, to all who are constitutionally in Him. Isaac is representative of both; for Christ

p.281 was in his loins, and all "in Him," must be constitutionally in Isaac also.

p.315 582 ... Second year of the great famine. Jacob 130: removes into Egypt; Joseph 39 years.

p.315 653 ... Joseph dies, aged 110 years. From confirmation of covenant 276 years.

p.281 For want of understanding the Scripture doctrine of the two seeds some very fatal mistakes have been made by many well meaning persons. They have gone so far as to deny that the seed of Abraham after the flesh will ever be restored to the land of Canaan; which is in effect to deny the fulfilment of a vast proportion of "the testimony of God." The seed of the serpent, and the seed of the woman, indicated before the flood, were afterwards distinguished in the seed of Ishmael, and the seed of Isaac." The children of the flesh are not the children of God: neither are they all Israel, who are of Israel." This is true; but it does not therefore follow that there is nothing more to be done with "the children of the flesh" than to burn them up. To carry out the allegory, God has yet to make of the Ishmael-seed a great nation; for though Ishmael was an outcast and a wanderer in the wilderness, God promised that he should be great, and dwell in the presence of his brethren (Gen. 16:12; 17:20). The children of Abraham according tothe flesh are "the children of the kingdom," as well as the children of the promise; only these two classes of children stand in a different relation to the government and glory of the commonwealth, and to the dominion of the nations in the age to come. The Ishmael-children were cast out of the government by the Romans; but the children in Isaac will "shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father," when the kingdom is restored again to Israel (Acts 1:6).

p.281 "In the regeneration when the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of His glory," the children in Isaac will reign as "sons" while the children of the flesh will be the King's subjects, or "servants." This distinction is apparent from the following testimony:

p.315 807 ... The Israelites return from Egypt 430 years from the confirmation of the covenant. Moses 80 years.

p.281 "Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children, whom thou mayest make princes throughout all the earth" (Psalm 45:16); of whom it is said, "If the Prince give a gift unto any of His sons, the inheritance thereof shall be His sons'; it shall be their possesion by inheritance. But if He give a gift of His inheritance to one of His servants, then it shall be his to the year of liberty; and after it shall return to the Prince: but His inheritance shalt be His sons' for them" (Ezek. 46:16, 17). The sons of the Prince are joint heirs with Him; but the servants of the Prince are only lease-holders for a certain number of years. If the natural Israel are not restored to Canaan, the spiritual Israel, that is to say, the Prince and His sons, would inherit a kingdom without subjects

p.282 to serve them. This would be like Victoria and her family reigning in Windsor Castle over the realm of Britain after all its inhabitants had expatriated themselves to the United States. it requires more than a staff to make a regiment; so also it requires a multitude of people as well as princes, priests, and kings, to constitute a kingdom in Canaan, or in any other country.

p.282 Now, the children in Isaac become the children of the heavenly Jerusalem by believing "the exceeding great and precious promises" set forth in "the manifold wisdom of God." They hope to see Canaan and Jerusalem under the new covenant, which will constitute them both heavenly. They are even now said to have "come to Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, and to the heavenly Jerusalem" (Heb. 12:22); but it is as yet only in spirit, that is, by faith and hope: and as the city and land will be made heavenly by the Lord from heaven, their glorious attributes are in truth "above;" to believe, then, in what will be brought down to the city from above, is for the children of the promise in Isaac to stand related to "Jerusalem which is above, the mother of them all" (Gal.4:26). Hence, the apostle exhorts them, saying, "If then ye be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead (to earthly things) and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then, shall ye also appear with Him in glory" (Col. 3:1-4).

p.282 Abraham was ninety years old and nine, and Ishmael thirteen when they were circumcised (Gen. 17:24-25.). Isaac was born when he was one hundred. Between the circumcision of his household and the birth of Isaac, while he was yet living "in the plain of Marnre which is Hebron," the Lord appeared to him, and again promised Sarah a son. At this crisis Sodom and Gormorrah were destroyed, and the dead sea formed. After this catastrophy, Abraham journeyed from Hebron towards the south country, and dwelled between Kadesh and Shur, and sojourned in Gerar of the Philistines (Gen. 20:1). On his arrival there, he entered into an agreement with the king of the country, which they confirmed by an oath, by which he was permitted to dwell in any part of Philistia he pleased, and a certain well of water was restored to him, called Beer-sheba, which had been violently taken away by the king's servants (Gen. 20:15; Gen. 21:25,31)

p.283 After this arrangement Isaac was born according to promise. On the day he was weaned Abraham made a great feast. It was then Ishmael was detected mocking at Isaac which caused his and Hagar's expulsion from the family. These being cast out, Abraham planted a grove in Beer-sheba, and there "called on the name of the Lord,' the everlasting God." Having thus settled himself, "he sojourned in the Philistines' land rnany days" (Gen. 21:33, 34). How long he continued there may be learned from the following considerations. In his speech before the Sanhedrim, Stephen says, "When Abraham's father was dead, he removed him into this land wherein ye dwell" (Acts 7:4); that is, he returned from Philistia to "Hebron in the land of Canaan" (Gen. 23:1, 2). Now Terah, Abraham's father, was seventy years old when Abraham was born; so that when Isaac was born at Beer-sheba, Terah was a hundred and seventy. But Terah lived two hundred and five years, and then died at Haran ; and it was after his death that Abraham removed to Hebron where Sarah died aged one hundred and twenty-seven. Now she died two years after Terah; so that it was in this two years that Abraham left Philistia. But Stephen says, it was when Terah died he moved to Canaan, which makes the "many days" he sojourned in the Philistines' land, thirly-five years from the birth of Isaac. This simple statement of facts removes a difficulty which has puzzled chronologers exceedingly. Moses says Terah died in Haran aged two hundred and five (Gen. 11:32); and Stephen is made to say that Abraham removed from Haran to Canaan when Terah died, thereby making Sarah a resident of the country only two years! This is the fault of the English version, which renders KAKEITHEN, "from thence" instead of afterwards, as it ought to be. "Abraham," said Stephen, "dwelt in Haran , and afterwards. How long after? "When his father was dead, he removed him. Where from? From Beer-sheba of the Philistines. Where to? To Hebron "in this land wherein ye dwell." Thus Moses and Stephen agree.

p.283 Now, at some time while Abraham was sojourning in the land of the Philistines, God appeared to him for the purpose of putting his faith to the proof; and of giving him in the person of Isaac, a lively representation of what was to befal his seed, the Christ, then in the loins of Isaac, before He should be exalted to inherit Canaan and the world. The trial was a very severe one. He was commanded to take Isaac, "his only son whom be loved," into the land of Moriah; and "offer him there for a burnt-offering upon

p.284 one of the mountains," which God should point out. Moriah was itself a mountain upon which Solomon afterwards built the temple (2 Chron. 3:1); and the land, or region, around, is celebrated by the mounts, afterwards called Zion, Olivet, and Calvary. The mountain chosen of God is not named; I can only therefore express my opinion that it was Calvary. It took him till "the third day " to arrive at the place, a distance of forty miles in a straight line from Beersheba. This will not be surprising when it is remembered, that he rode upon an ass, accompanied by two young men, beside Isaac, who conveyed the wood and other necessaries for the journey. Their progress was therefore slow. "On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off." He then caused the party to halt. He told the young men to stay there with the ass; "and I and the lad," said he, will go yonder and worship, and come again to you." But if he were going to slay Isaac, how could Isaac and he come again to them? The apostle explains this, saying, "By faith Abraham when he was tried offered up Isaac; and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten" of Sarah. "Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy Seed be called: accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a parable -- EN PARABOLE (Heb. 11:17,19). Abraham fully intended to slay Isaac; but be firmly believed that God would raise him from the dead again; because all the promises God had made him were to be accomplished in Isaac's Seed; as it is written, "My covenant will I establish with Isaac and with his Seed after him: "therefore, said Abraharn to the young men, "we will come again to you."

p.284 The parable, or representation, of what was afterwards to happen to Isaac's Seed, the Christ, now began. "Abraham took the wood of the burnt-offering, and laid it upon Isaac, his son ;" while he carried the fire and the knife. Isaac went on with great readiness, not in the least suspecting that he was the proposed victim. "My father!" said he, as they jogged along; and he said, "Here am I my son." "Behold, said Isaac, the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?" And Abraham said, "My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering."

p.284 Having arrived at the place, built an altar, and laid the wood in order, he bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood. He then stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. At this crisis, when Isaac was expecting instant

p.285 death at the hand of his father, who loved him as his only son, the angel of the Lord called to him out of heaven, and commanded him to do the lad no harm. A ram caught in a thicket by the horns was appointed as a substitute for Isaac, who was therefore substitutionally slain; but by his personal deliverance from death, restored to Abraham as by a resurrection. Abraham called the place of this memorable and instructive transaction, Jehovah[Yahweh]-jireh; and upwards of four hundred years afterwards, it was known by the name of "the Mount of the Lord" (Gen. 22:14)

p.285 But before we dismiss the parable of the Seed, it is to be remarked, that it was not completed in the figurative resurrection of Isaac. The sacrificial death and resurrection of Christ had been represented; but then, after these events, what was to be his destiny? The answer to this question is found in the closing incident of the parable. Moses testifies that "the angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time." The first time he announced from heaven the acceptance of the son's sacrifice; but the second time the Lord spoke from heaven, he had reference to Christ's triumph over his enemies, and his possession of the world, as preached to Abraham in the Gospel at the beginning. "By Myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou bast done this thing, and hast not witheld thy son, thine only son: that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying, I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore: and thy Seed shall possess the gate of His enemies; and in thy Seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed My voice." Thus, the parabolic representation was finished, "and Abraham returned to his young men; and they rose up and went together to Beersheba; and Abraham dwelt there."

p.285 Abraham is the father of all them who believe, and who walk in the steps of that faith which he had while yet uncircumcised. This is the apostle's testimony. I think I need scarcely say, yet it may be useful to do so, that no one can walk in the steps of Abraham's faith who does not believe the same things. This is self-evident. It is to be to Abraham according to his faith; and this is the rule for every one else. We shall inherit what we have faith in. If we have an understanding faith in the truth, we shall inherit the truth; but if we believe in what is not true, and therefore visionary, we shall inherit nothing but the whirlwind. Now, if it be asked, "What is Me truth?" -- the answer

p.286 is the things which Abraham believed, with the acknowledgment that Jesus is the Seed spoken of in the promises made to him. It is, therefore, essential to our salvation that we be familiar with the matters of his faith. To make this as easy as possible, then, I shall here subjoin a summary of the faith which was counted to him for righteousness. I would just remind the reader here, that Abraham was justified because he believed on God. This does not mean, because he believed in the existence of God. This is. implied. To believe on God in the Scripture sense is the "being fully persuaded that what He has promised He is also able to perform and because this was the case with Abraham, "therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness." Furthermore, this persuasion does not consist in saying, "whatever it is God has promised I know not, but of this I am persuaded, He will perform it." This is not the sort of persuasion God accepts. He requires men to acquaint themselves first with what He has promised, and then to consult the testimony He has given until they are fully persuaded as Abraham was. "Now," says the apostle, "it was not written for Abraham's sake alone, that his full persuasion of the Divine promise was counted to him for righteousness; but for us also to whom it shall be imputed if we believe on God."

p.286 In studying the life of Abraham his biography presents him --

p.286 2. As a believer of the Gospel preached by an angel of the Lord;

p.286 3. As justified from all past sins by faith in its promises; and

p.286 These four particulars are affirmable of all Abraham's spiritual children. Born of the flesh they are denizens of the world, and heirs of condemnation; then they believe the gospel; afterwards they are justified by faith from past sins; and subjected to a subsequent probation by which their faith is tried and made perfect. It is worthy of remark here, that Abraham believed the gospel ten years before his faith was counted to him for righteousness. This appears from the fact that the gospel was preached to him at Haran; and it was not until the occasion of the confirmation of the covenant at Hebron, that the Lord vouchsafed him an acquittal from all his past sins; which is implied in the testimony that "he believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness." This fact ought to teach the reader, that it is not at the instant a man believes that he is justifled. A. man may believe the truth for many years, and yet not be the subject of

p.287 the righteousness of God. If so, it may then be asked, "When, or at what point of time, and how is a man's faith in the truth counted to him for remission of sins? As to the manner of its imputation, this must necessarily differ from the case of Abraham. The angel of the Lord announced to Abraham his justification by word of mouth; but under the present arrangement of things, this is not to be expected. The angel sent to Cornelius did not pronounce his justification; but simply put him in the way of attaining it. I trust the reader has not forgotten the use of the key in his case. The Scriptures say that through Jesus is now preached the remission of sins to those who believe the gospel of the kingdom; and that justification by faith is through His name. That is, God has appointed an institution through which remission of sins is communicated to believers of the things of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus: so that instead of sending an angel to announce to each individual that his faith is counted to him for righteousness, as in the case of Abraham, He has caused a general proclamation to be made, that "through Chrisl's name" believers may obtain the remission of sins. Now, there is but one way for a believer of the gospel to get at this name, to wit, by being "baptized into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." The answer to the question, then, is this, that a man's faith in the gospel is counted lo him for righteousness in the act of being baplised into the name. There is no other way than this, and even a believer of the truth will die in his sins unless he submit to it.

p.287 1. That God would multiply his descendants as the stars of heaven for multitude, and make them a great and mighty nation;

p.287 3. That out of his prosperity should rise ONE, in whom and in himself all the nations of the earth should be blessed;

p.287 4. That he together with this personage should have actual possession of the land of Canaan for ever;

p.287 5. That they two, with all his adopted seed, should possess the world;

p.287 6. That the Seed, or Christ, would be an only begotten and beloved son, even the Seed of the woman only, and therefore of God; that He would fall a victim to His enemies; and in His death be accepted as an offering by being raised from the dead, after the example in the case of Isaac;

p.288 7. That at a second time, Christ would possess the gate of His enemies in triumph, and obtain the land of Canaan, and the dominion of the world according to the promise; and

p.288 8. That, at that time, He and His adopted seed, would be made perfect, receive the promises, and "enter into the joy of their Lord."

p.288 Such was the faith of Abraham in outline, and such must be the faith of all who would inherit with him. In conclusion, I would direct the reader's attention to the fact, that Abraham was the subject of a twofold justification, as it were; first, of a justification by faith; and secondly, of a justification by works. Paul says, he was justified by faith; and James, that he was "justified by works." They are both right. As a sinner he was justified from his past sins when his faith was counted to him for righteousness; and as a saint, he was justified by works when he offered up Isaac. Of his justification as a saint, James writes, "Abraham our father was justified by works when he offered Isaac his son upon the altar. Faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect. And the Scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the friend of God. Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and NOT by faith only " (James 2:21, 24). I have termed it a twofold justification by way of illustration but it is in fact, only one. The two stand related as cause and effect; faith being the motive principle it is a justification which begins with the remission of sins that are past, and is perfected in obedience unto death. The idea may be simplified thus -- no exaltation without probation. If a man believe and obey the gospel his past sins are forgiven him in Christ; but, if after this he walk in the course of the world, his faith is proved to be dead, and he forfeits his title to eternal life. But if on the other hand, a man become an adopted son of Abraham, and "by a patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory, honour, and incorruptibility" (Rom.2:7), he will find everlasting life in the Paradise of God.