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Probably the fathers knew much more of the expressive significance of the cherubim than we; and whatever may be thought of the above theory regarding them, it seems plain, that within view of these awful symbols the patriarchs worshipped. It was the primitive holy place.' All this, taken in connection with the full institution of sacrifices already noticed, exhibits a very complete system of worship. And then they had their altar; for Noah builds one as a thing well known, (viii. 20.) They had their priesthood; for Melchizedec's office as priest of the most high God,' is mentioned as if well understood; and the peculiar privileges of the firstborn may have been in connection with the same. Here were plain revelations of the chief truths of redemption; for Adam had received the promise of the seed of the woman, and Enoch had received the vision of his coming in glory, (Jude 14.) Faith was in busy exercise, (Heb. xi. 2—7,) bringing the sinner's guilt to the Mediator, and receiving righteousness in exchange. The church of God then was occupied in the same essential truths as the church of God now. There is not a simple believer in the Church of Scotland but would be able at once to sympathise in the feelings and exercise of the saints before the flood. Rites and ritual may be thrown aside, like the shell from the kernel, and living, vital faith in the Saviour, and fellowship with God, appears the same then as

now.

So truly were the spiritual character and views of the ancient saints the same as under the New Testament, that whoever lingers over the history, and evolves its principles, is found engaged in no other employment than manifesting the truth to every man's conscience. The obvious strain of the narrative often leads Dr Candlish into such full developments of truth as the following. Speaking of the words, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake,' (Genesis, viii. 21,)—

"There is a tremendous truth involved in this argument; it shuts the door of mercy on the impenitent and unbelieving. If the waters of the flood could not amend the wicked heart of man, neither will the fires of hell. If grace do not couvert him in this world, judgment cannot convert him in the next. The punishment then awaiting him can never redeem or renew; therefore, it can never end, it is and must be ETERNAL." P. 219.

Again, when the sons of God allied themselves with the daughters of men,

"How amiable, how generous, how frank and cordial might the growing liberality of the children of God seem, when, laying aside their narrow and sectarian prejudices, they consented to mix with their fellow-men, as still, in spite of all differences of opinion, their brethren; how admirably fitted to recommend religion, and to win all men's hearts to it! Such might be the judgment of human wisdom. But what says the Lord? No sooner is this

concession made by the godly, than the doom of the world is sealed. spirit,' says God, will strive no longer."" P. 169.

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The faith of Abraham, tested by different trials, and at different times, leads to the following statements regarding faith:

"Abraham is justified by faith; but the faith by which he is justified is as little to be trusted as any of his other virtues. It cannot therefore be on account of its own worth that it justifies or saves, but because by its very nature it looks to a worthiness or righteousness beyond itself, and rests on it alone for salvation. It was in God's promise, and not in his own faith, that Abraham trusted, and it was this alone which ensured his recovery from his sad fall: otherwise when his faith failed, his only ground of safety must have been fairly and finally driven from beneath his feet. But the anchor of his soul was in God, and therefore, though cast down, he was raised up again;—and the salatary lesson which he learned, was that of distrust in his own faith, as well as his own wisdom, and reliance on the Lord alone." P. 301. "The power or efficacy of faith to justify, cannot be in itself; for by its very nature, faith ever looks beyond itself, and borrows all from without; if it rely on itself,-on any worth, or value, or virtue in itself,—it ceases to be faith,-it becomes quite another act or exercise of the mind." P. 367. "On that starry night Abraham has nothing whatever to do-nothing whatever to suffer-nothing whatever to sacrifice. He simply believes in the Lord,-takes God at his word,-and closes with the free promise. That is all, and it is enough." P. 368.

"A similar

crisis, once, or it may be oftener, every believer must, in his own experience, know-a time when he is, as it were, shut up to the necessity of taking God simply at his word,-believing what God testifies, and merely because he testifies it, without any, the least respect to anything in or about himself—to any grace he may be exercising, or any duty he may be doing." P. 370.

The patriarchal world had the knowledge-at least the rudimental knowledge of the same sanctifying truths as we. And that oft-times they made more of them than saints now, would appear from the eminently holy walk of such as Enoch and Noah. They were a holy people. And not less were they a happy people. They had their songs of praise and their sweet melodies. For Enoch's prophecy, as well as Lamech's address, discovers a regular mode of poetic composition already begun. The parallelism of Hebrew poetry might be found existing before the flood. Such a song as that wherein Enoch teaches them to anticipate the triumphs of the Lord, must have been sweet to the saints before the flood, as they sang together, (Jude 14,)

"Behold the Lord has come !

With his ten thousand holy ones!
To execute judgment upon all,

And to convince all their ungodly ones," &c.

But, passing from this topic, which indeed is scanty in materials, we return again to the faith of the patriarchs. They had their ob

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*There is much emphasis in the original in the position of the two words that close the song. They seem to be intended as an exclamation of indignant horror, Αμαρτωλοι! ἀσεβεις 13

jects of hope and desire, as well as a present rest to their anxious souls. And the chief object in the future to which they looked forward was the Saviour's appearing. But it was not to his first coming only that they looked; they had a full view also of the second. They could have sympathised with us in this hope also. Indeed, it is remarkable how much of the future destiny of the earth is brought before our view in the book of Genesis, by type and by prophecy. The book which shows us the commencement of this earth, has in it also the roots of what earth is yet to be. Dr Candlish has not failed to notice these references, and he has done it with singular power and beauty. Thus, he takes the judgment of the flood as but a type of the still more awful judgment of fire. The earth saved from water is reserved for fire; for by both elements, by the baptism both of water and of fire, it must be purged, ere it be fitted for the habitation of the Lord and his redeemed.' (2 Pet. iii.)

"The men of the world, living at ease, because all things continue as they were, may marvel, and may rage, when they see any of us, who once were of the world, roused by a wary fear of coming wrath, seriously betaking ourselves to the only hiding-place. But let us hear the word of the Lord, Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers,'-the chambers prepared, made ready, and set wide open for you, in the Lord's ark, which is his house,' enter into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee; hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. For, behold, the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth.' (Isaiah xxvi. 20.) And who then may stand? where shall the ungodly appear? shut in, imprisoned, with no door of escape, while fire is devouring the earth. But let the Lord hide us now, shut us up to Christ's gospel of reconciliation, shut us into Christ's elect and holy church, separate us from an evil world; and then, when the elements melt with fervent heat, and this earth and these heavens are dissolved, we, along with Christ, shall be hidden in security, floating in air above the fiery storm; and, finally, as the judgment passes away, an olive-branch will be brought to us from the renovated world, and in the new heavens, and the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness, we shall dwell for ever with the Lord, and offer the sacrifices of praise continually." P. 190.

In the chapter entitled 'The creation considered with the eye of faith and the spirit of prophecy,' the author introduces a most ingenious and interesting view of Psalm civ., which he considers to be a devotional accompaniment to the historical record in Genesis. He connects the history of fallen creation with its final renewal, when the Redeemer shall make his earth his eternal sojourn.' (P. 38.)

"The earth is too precious in God's sight, as the work of his hands, in which at first he rejoiced, and as the scene of his Son's obedience, and sufferings, and death, in which he delighteth still more, to be wholly given over as reprobate. There is a place prepared for the devil and his angels, into which the ungodly shall be cast; but the earth is the Lord's,' and the 'King of glory shall at last enter in' to possess it. (Psalm xxiv.) The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.' He hath 'given it,' indeed, to the sons of men,' (Psalm cxv. 16,) and grievously have they abused

the gift. But it is the Lord's still. He made it; he founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods.' It is his, and he will claim it as his. It sympathized with the agony of his cross; and by the earthquake, and the opening of the graves, acknowledged his victory. Resuming it, therefore, out of the hands of those who have destroyed it, redeeming it, and purifying it anew, he will himself establish the mountain of his house in the top of the mountains, and exalt it above the hills, (Isaiah ii. 2.) His tabernacle shall be with men,' (Rev. xxi. 3.)" "When all is ready, when the face of earth is renewed, and sinners are consumed out of it, there is a shout heard, as of a rushing multitude drawing near,—the shout of those who have come with the Lord, or met him in the air, (1 Thes. iv. 16, 17.) The earth is formally summoned to open her gates, even her everlasting doors.' There is an illustrious Conqueror waiting to be admitted. He enters with his company of risen and changed saints, (1 Cor. xv. 51.) He is the King of glory.' He takes possession accordingly, as the King of Glory, of his ransomed and recovered earth. And the humble believer, who has shared the bitterness of his cross, rejoices in his crown." Pp. 55, 56, 57.

The saints in the world's earliest days had that blessed hope,' the appearing of the Lord in glory with his own. It was on the second coming of the Lord in victory that they set their hearts. They did not, indeed, with the later Jews, overlook his first coming in suffering and conflict, for they understood the typical meaning of their sacrifices. But still their eye rested ultimately on something beyond; and it is unquestionable that they, and the prophets after them, delighted to fill their minds with bright and glowing pictures of the advent in glory.' (P. 148.) A type of this is found in Abraham's victory over the kings:

"It is a pledge of the glory to be revealed which is here given,—a passing glimpse of the scene which is to be realised when the promise made to Abraham shall be fully accomplished, and he shall be put in possession of his longdeferred inheritance. Like the heavenly brightness which overwhelmed the three apostles on the Mount of Transfiguration, this unwonted adventure in the lowly life of the pilgrim, points to another order of things, and serves to give substance and evidence to what is still hoped for and unseen. We do not therefore follow cunningly devised fables, when we anticipate the reign of Christ and his saints. We are here, as it were, made eye-witnesses of the coming majesty of both. And we have the surer word of prophecy unfolding to us the prospect of many coming from the east and west, to sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven' for ever." Pp. 339, 340.

Throughout the whole of this volume the reader will meet with expositions of Scripture, and exhibitions of divine truth, most profitable in themselves, and profoundly interesting from their freshness and beauty. The work abounds in passages remarkable for manly eloquence, vivid imagination, and powerful intellect. There is a marvellous vigour of mind, combined with most useful practical application, in the first chapter, the creation of the world understood through faith.' No train of reasoning is ever introduced, without some ultimate end of a practical nature.

Striking appeals to the conscience of sinners often take us by surprise after some elaborate illustration of truth, and come home with remarkable power. The freshness also of the author's conceptions, and the liveliness of his manner, give the book a degree of interest that seldom attaches to such expositions. The whole is as pregnant with genius, as replete with piety.

It seems to us peculiarly refreshing to observe how the Spirit of God, as in the case before us, is dealing with the souls of those devoted men whom he has set in the front of the battle at the present day. They have often little leisure for prolonged meditation; and their hours of wrestling prayer are often broken in upon. But still the hidden manna is the true nourishment required for our men of war amid all their labours. The more there is of argument and hard discussion called for in some departments, just the more simple and eager must be the soul's enjoyment of revealed truth in the pages of the Word, if it is to retain its healthy tone of lively faith and fervent love. My soul is continually in my hand, yet do I not forget thy law,' (Psalm cxix. 109.)

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We trust we are right in taking this volume as but one specimen of the kind of sustenance given by the chief Shepherd to his faithful servants, when, at intervals, he leads them for a few hours. from the midst of trouble, and toil, and harassing cares, saying, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place and rest awhile,' (Mark vi. 31.) Men of God, fed on angels' food, will not soon give way in the day of battle.

ART. VII-1. The Divine Warning to the Church at this Time. By the REV. E. BICKERSTETH. London. 1843.

2. The Principle of Free Inquiry and Private Judgment, and its Special Importance in the Present Times. By R. S. CANDLISH, D.D. Edinburgh. 1843.

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Leighton was not a weak man; but his character was weak. And the answer he gave to his brethren in synod, when asked, if he preached to the times?' is a proof of this. Who,' he rejoined, does preach to the times? It was replied, that all did so. Then, demanded he, if all of you preach to the times, you may surely allow one poor brother to preach up Christ Jesus and eternity. This reply has been much admired for its point and piety. It has often gone the round of quotation, and at present it is coming into great repute. But if not tinged with premeditated conceit, and censorious bitterness, it is at best the result of confusion and effeminacy; and it had been as well had the youthful

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