is a splendour and a majesty, in the midst of which only Jesus Christ, the son of God, can be embosomed; they could not look fully upon God, and live. Or the second reason is, they were unworthy to do so; for we must not forget, that the heavens are said to be impure in the sight of God; that he charges his holy ones with defectibility: as created beings they are necessarily defectible—they are liable to transgression, and to sin. He looketh upon the moon, and it shineth not: he sealeth up the stars. How feeble are our conceptions of the transcendant purity of God. The seraphim, who had brighter views of it, veiled their faces with their wings. We are told of Abraham, that he bowed with his face to the earth. We are told of Elijah, that he hid his face in his mantle of Daniel that he kneeled upon his knees: of the Apostle John, that he fell down as one dead: of the seraphim, that they veil their countenances. And, one may say, if these are scarcely accepted, if these illustrious men were scarcely saved, where shall we and our devotion appear?

"With twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet." That is, as having not performed any work or service which is worthy of divine regard. The fact here stated is the sign and symbol of their services and their operations; they felt that they had done nothing meritorious in the divine sight. What shall we say of ourselves? Our righteousnesses are defiled, our very breath is contaminated, more or less, not figuratively, but really and absolutely by sin. And yet God did accept their services, and through Christ he will also accept ours. A cup of cold water: "I was hungry, and ye gave me meat; thirsty, and ye gave me drink," at the day of judgment Christ will say: and the answer is, When? where?

They cover their feet with their wings. It is very remarkable, that in the vision of Christ to the Apostle John, his feet are uncovered, they are revealed; and they are said to shine like fine gold, as if burning in a furnace. The great work of Jesus Christ in its spotless perfection cast the services and the labours of the seraphim into the shade; it is that great work of his by which we are to be justified, and we abandon alike our sins and our services together, that we may confide in it in the matter of our justification. His feet were refulgent and revealed, and, like gold in a great crucible, the brighter and the more splendid, the more fully it was tried.

“With twain he did cover his feet, and with twain he did fly;" ready on all occasions promptly to execute the will of God; to be swifter than the wind; to go with a velocity greater than the light. "Bless the Lord, ye his angels, hearkening to the voice of his word." It is their glory that "with twain they did fly," and let it be ours also promptly to execute the will of God. If, as Mr. Henry says, they were so ready to come down on their missions and services to us, shall we not also be ready, whenever God shall call, to go up and enjoy glory, and splendour, and blessedness with them?

"And one cried unto another." One cried, and but one: they spake but one at a time. The text defines what we call a solo. "One cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts." There is something delightful in one voice, in one lark rising in the heavens; or, when the shades of evening come down, one bird, a nightingale, warbling in the woods. One human voice has been known to replicate miraculously, and to fill the ears of a vast and death-silent audience; the audience being enchanted by it, held in the most exquisite captivation. What shall it be to hear a seraphim sing? I exaggerate nothing; I come not up to the real import of the text: for it is said, that when he

cried "the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried:" and they were no common posts; they were Jachin and Boaz; they had their names on account of their stature, and strength, and glory, but they trembled at the seraph's voice. I have been told, that on a great musical occasion in Westminster Abbey, in the reign of George the Third, there was one stroke, a swell so deep and so amazing, that the building shook, and that they were afraid of its repetition. But let me tell you, that high anthems are sung in heaven. When they laid that stone, that poor paltry stone, at the building of the second temple, there was shouting which filled all heaven again. But when Christ's great work is done, when all the myriads of the saints shall be gathered home, and all the unsinning creatures in his universe shall be gathered together to be the witnesses, they will raise such a chorus, they will hold such an anthem, as shall make the arches and the canopies of the universe to quiver again, as in sympathetic joy. And I do believe, that in the heavenly world there will be the solitary solo, and the social worship by twos, and by threes, and by fours, and the great united adoration of the immense multitudes of myriads who shall come together on high festive occasions.

"One cried unto another." And what they celebrate is the divine holiness; "Holy, holy, holy, is Jehovah God of Hosts." God delights in his holiness; he claims it for himself, and his creatures ascribe it to him. And it denotes in this case the transcendent excellence of it. It is uncreated purity; it is not like the holiness of an angel, it is not like the piety of man; it is something distinct and peculiar to himself. It denotes this; and also the delight which they take in contemplating and in celebrating it. God's holiness pervades all his attributes; it is the lustre which is shed over all his attributes and perfections; it is that also in which he himself pre-eminently delights; and the world, sooner or later, will be filled with the light and the glory of the knowledge of it. They said, "HOLY, HOLY, HOLY, 18 JEHOVAH, GOD OF HOSTS."

30

SECOND COMING OF CHRIST.

"PAUSE, then, for a moment, and contemplate, with the eye of faith, or if you have no faith, with the eye of imagination, this tremendous scene.— Look at that point, far away in the ethereal regions, where the gradually lessening form of our Saviour disappeared from the gaze of his disciples, when he ascended to heaven. In that point see an uncommon, but faint and undefined brightness. just beginning to appear. It has caught the roving eye of yon careless gazer, and excited his curiosity. He points it out to a second, and a third. A little circle soon collects, and various are the conjectures which they form respecting it. Similar circles are formed, and similar objections made, in a thousand different parts of the world. But conjecture is soon to give place to certainty—awful, appalling, overwhelming certainty. While they gaze, the appearance, which had excited their curiosity, rapidly approaches, and still more rapidly brightens. Some begin to suspect what it may prove; but no one dares to give utterance to his suspicions. Meanwhile the light of the sun begins to fade before a brightness superior to his own. Thousands see their shadows cast in a new direction, and thousands of hitherto careless eyes look up at once, to discover the cause. Full clearly they see it; and now new hopes and fears begin to agitate their breasts. The afflicted and persecuted servants of Christ begin to hope, that the predicted, long-expected day of their deliverance is arrived. The wicked, the careless, the unbelieving begin to fear, that the Bible is about to prove no idle tale. And now fiery shapes, moving like streams of lightning, begin to appear indistinctly amidst the bright dazzling cloud, which comes rushing down, as on the wings of a whirlwind. At length it reaches its destined place. It pauses; then, suddenly unfolding, discloses at once a great white throne, where sits, starry resplendent, in all the glories of the Godhead, the man Christ Jesus. Every eye sees him, every heart knows him.

"Too well do the wretched, unprepared inhabitants of earth now know what to expect; and one universal shriek of anguish and despair rises up to heaven, and is echoed back to earth. But louder, far louder than the universal cry, now sounds the last trumpet; and far above all, is heard the voice of the Omnipotent, summoning the dead to arise and come to judgment. New terrors now assail the living: on every side, nay, under their very feet, the earth heaves as in convulsions; graves open, and the dead come forth; while, at the same moment, a change, equivalent to that occasioned by death, is effected by Almighty power on the bodies of the living. Their mortal bodies put on immortality, and are thus prepared to sustain a weight of glory, or of wretchedness, which flesh and blood could not endure. Meanwhile, legions of angels are seen, darting from pole to pole, gathering together the faithful servants of Christ from the four winds of heaven, and bearing them aloft to meet the Lord in the air, where he causes them to be placed at his own right hand, preparatory to the sentence which is to award to them everlasting life.

"Christian, if you would gain more and greater victories over the world than you have ever done, bring this scene often before the eye of your mind, and gaze upon it, till you become blind to all earthly glory. He who gazes long at the sun becomes unsusceptible of impressions from inferior luminaries; and he who looks much at the Sun of Righteousness, will be little affected by any alluring object which the world can exhibit."-DR. PAYSON.

31

THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN THE ORIGIN AND THE
CONTENTS OF THE SCRIPTURES.

REV. HUGH M'NEILE, A.M.

PERCY CHAPEL, FITZROY SQUARË, APRIL 18, 1833.

"To whom also he shewed himself alive, after his passion, by many infallible proofs; being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God." -ACTS i. 3.

'PASSION," is one of those words which has changed its meaning since our Bible was translated: it then signified "suffering:" it now signifies "anger," or " vehement desire." In this text, it signifies suffering, and the statement here made is, that, to the chosen disciples, Jesus shewed himself alive, after his suffering, assuring them that it was he himself; that he continued so with them for the space of forty days, and that, on those occasions, he conversed with them concerning the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. The suffering of the Lord Jesus was a suffering unto death: this the disciples knew. The crucifixion that he endured was no fanciful act, but a real one: it was not conducted by any of his friends or adherents, to leave room for the suspicion of any fraudulent connivance or plan, whereby they might secure the subsequent advantage of a supposed resurrection. It was conducted by the Roman soldiers, who had no personal interest in the matter beyond securing their wages for their recompence; and the multitude on the occasion were the inveterate enemies of Jesus, the priests and elders of the Jews. It was done publicly also, in a public place, on a public day, in the presence of a concourse of people; and, as if to invite an extra share of publicity to the act, over his cross was written "Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews." His burial was also well known: it was, indeed, transacted by his friends, but it was carefully witnessed by his enemies, whose jealous fears prompted them to adopt precautions which afterwards turned into proofs against themselves. Their fears were urgent:." We remember," said they to the Roman governor, "that this deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again. Command, therefore, that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night and steal him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead: so the last error shall be worse than the first." The Roman governor left them to take their own course: their precautions were well concerted: they set a watch of Roman soldiers opposite the sepulchre, and they sealed the stone. Here was a double precaution: the watch was set to guard against the disciples, and the stone was sealed to guard against fraudulent collusion among the watchmen. In the meantime, the disciples were wholly disconcerted: they had expected much from their Master, whilst they were witnesses of his wonderful works and auditors of his wonderful discourses: they expected that he would restore the kingdom to

Israel. Now, their expectations seemed to fail; and, either forgetting his prediction, that he would rise again, or losing faith in it when his enemies triumphed, their hope seemed to be buried in his grave.

It is quite obvious, that the resurrection of Jesus is the turning point of the whole question; the grand fact of revealed religion. In history, facts are plain things in argument, facts are stubborn things. Opinions may fluctuate and vary, feelings may deceive; but facts are the doings of God, and they alter not with the opinions and feelings of men. It is the peculiar glory of our religion that it rests not upon the opinions of men, however well supported by argument, neither upon the feelings of men, however well regulated by reason; but that it rests upon the truth of God. God loved the world: this was a feeling. Had he retained this feeling in his own bosom, it could have availed us nothing; Had he revealed it in words only, still it could have availed nothing; nay, rather, it would have been worse than nothing; for it would have increased our perplexity, while we perceived that his sense of justice hindered his acting on a feeling of love. But he proved by such a fact that, while it gave most eloquent expression to the existence of God's love, it removed every hindrance to the exercise of God's love. He gave his Son, when the world was about four thousand years old: the Eternal Son of God came into it," made of a woman, made under the law, that he might redeem them that were under the law." This was the great fact of the birth of Christ. About thirty-three years after the same wonderful act, Jesus Christ, "being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God," was seized by the hands of wicked men, and unjustly condemned and crucified as a malefactor. This is the great fact of the death of Christ. On the third morning following, the same mysterious Being rose from the dead, laid aside his grave clothes, resumed his flesh, unchanged by corruption and mortality. This is the great fact of the resurrection of Christ. But, now, observe the essential difference between this fact and the other two. The other two, so far as the circumstances connected with them were generally known, were common occurrences. That a child should be born; that a man, after devoting his life, actively and diligently teaching the great truths of religion, and corroborating his statement by wonderful works, to prove him a messenger sent from God-that that man, after all, should meet a violent death, a death apparently provoked by his exceeding zeal and goodness;-these were common things; the Jews were accustomed to such things from the days of Abel : therefore they might admit these facts, and yet deny that there were any doctrines peculiarly connected with them; and they did not deny them. He had lived and died amongst them; and what then? It is true, there were certain peculiarities connected with these facts; but they were not generally known. It was true he was born of a virgin, which could not be said of any other man: it is true he died, by a voluntary act of his own, before the crucifixion would hav caused his death: this could not be said of any other man. But these peculiari ties were not known; and the fact of his birth and death were readily admitted, and any peculiarities connected with them were easily denied. There were indeed very strange peculiarities connected with them. As concerning his birth, it was declared, that He who was in the beginning with God, and who was God, was manifest in the flesh. He who had "made all things, and without whom not any thing was made that was made," was manifest in the flesh. Again, concerning his death, it was said, that it was a sacrifice for sin; that his blood cleansed from all sin. These were peculiarities indeed; but these were opinions con