the deep things of God be unspiritual, according to the nature of that spirit which is in them; judge ye whether theirs be the Spirit of truth, or of error. We are the inheritors of God's promises to Abraham, and of his everlasting covenant with David; and have given unto us all the spiritual blessings which now abound, because of the promise "In thy Seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." Is it meet, then, for those inheritors of the promises of God, thus prophetically foreshewn in past ages, to turn aside from the consideration of such purposes as unprofitable? But let us proceed. 6. g. One other stumbling-block still remains. "Every commentator differs from his predecessor;" "No two fully agree;" "Commentators on the hidden purposes of God have been led into such wild extravagancies, that it is dangerous to enter upon the study;" "It is useless to attempt, where so many have attempted in vain ;" are the continual cryings-out of objectors, who, without entering upon the merits or demerits of the inquiry itself, take alarm at the confusion of the herd of students, and fear to enroll themselves among the number: not aware, that, in flying from this confused herd, they necessarily fall among the students of his false holiness, the pope; and are in company with those who would shut up the Bible altogether. It is the great argument of the latter, to repeat the very objections which our objector urges. Let us beseech him to consider why he would have the Bible read, notwithstanding the variety of opinion which such a study gives rise to; and let him then apply the same rules to the case of his own objection, and he will not trouble us again. 7. Turning, then, to the written word of God, in search for the revelation of the purpose of God which is to be accomplished by the gathering of all things unto Christ, as Head of his body the church; we must not expect to find this purpose spoken of throughout after the manner in which it would be spoken of in the present dispensation, when the Lord Jesus has been revealed, and the mystery of God, which from the beginning was hid in God, has been set forth, and the dispensation of the Gentiles has run much of its course. The mode of revelation of his intermediate purposes has been seen to be after one degree and method during the patriarchal dispensation, after another degree and mode during the Jewish dispensation, and in like manner varying during the dispensation of the Gentiles. To the Patriarchs, God spoke in visions; by the Son of God in the likeness of man, though not revealed as the Messiah and promised Seed of Abraham; by angels; and by an audible voice. He spoke also by his providential visitations, and visible government, and interference as God in the affairs of men. Thus God revealed himself during the patriarchal times.-To the Jews, God spoke by the fire and cloud of his presence; by an audible voice; by his providential visitations and governances; but all these having a reference to his people; by means of Moses, to his dwelling among them in his tabernacle, and to his having called them up from Egypt as his people, having taken out of them his ministers the priests, and his first-fruits the Levites (whom he formed into a church by giving ordinances in his temple wherein to minister), and setting them as those by whom the people or congregation could approach him. It was to this ministration in the tabernacle that all God's dealings with the Jews had reference. They were called up out of Egypt for a single avowed purpose, "to sacrifice unto the Lord their God." The judgments came upon Pharaoh because for this purpose he refused to let them go. The Lord was their God; therefore they prevailed against their enemies. They were called into covenant with God; and because they were so called, God dwelt amongst them. The tabernacle, ministers, ministrations, Levites, and congregation, were the special revelation of God in setting forth Christ as the sacrifice for sins; and it was because the Lord was so declared and worshipped amongst them that they were graciously dealt with.-Amongst the Gentiles, Christ is not set forth as in the shadows of the ceremonial law, but is openly declared, according to another method. The Jewish testimony served unto the setting forth of the Gentile testimony; as the Gentile testimony shall in its turn serve unto the setting forth of the Millennial or New-Jerusalem dispensation; the Gentile dispensation being a clear revelation of Christ in the flesh, the promised Messiah shadowed under the ceremonial law: whilst the revelation of Christ as "King of kings," which was also shadowed under the Jewish dispensation, and is now after a more full method shadowed also under the Gentile dispensation, will in the Millennial dispensation be fully and clearly revealed. 8. According to the degree in which the fulness and glory of Christ as the Head of his body the church was revealed, we shall find his ultimate purpose to have been opened. The form and fashion of a church" built together in Christ, for an habitation of God through the Spirit," was unto the patriarchs shadowed by the election of a family-as that of Abrahamwhereby should be seen God's purpose of choosing all for the sake of one head, "from whom the whole body, fitly joined together," "maketh increase." And in his calling himself" the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob," and entering into the covenant with them, we have a testimony strictly analogous to that borne by his calling himself" the God of Israel," and entering into covenant with them; and to that borne by his election of the Gentiles, "which in times past were not a people, but are now the people of God *;" and "all one in Christ Jesus +." In all and each of these we have a testimony of God's purpose to gather all things into one; and we must expect, according to the degree in which this great end of God was laid open, his ultimate purpose in it would be revealed. 8. a. "And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God: walk before me, and be thou perfect: and I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly." 8. b. God also spake unto Israel; " And God said unto him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful, and multiply: a nation and company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins §." These are the declarations of the Lord to the patriarchs, which will be seen to set forth the great ultimate purpose of God in so dealing with them, and in declaring himself to be" the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob." But as it will be necessary to pursue to a lower period the course of manifestation laid down by the Lord to himself, before we can attempt to shew the exact force of the declaration "I am the Almighty God," we will not now stay to examine them. 8. c. "And God said unto Moses, I am that I am: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I am hath sent me unto you." "And God spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I am the Lord; and I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty but by my name Jehovah was I not known to them....Say unto the children of Israel, I am the Lord.... And ye shall know that I am the Lord your God, which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.... And I will give it (the promised land) you for an heritage: I am the Lord." Again; " The Lord spake unto Moses, saying, I am the Lord: speak thou unto Pharoah." The above declarations by the Lord to Abraham and Jacob, are the only declarations by him of his being "the Almighty;" and his declaration to Moses was his first revelation of himself as" Jehovah" (which name expresses Self-existent Loveliness ¶); and these are the only declarations, in the revelation given to the Patriarchs, whereby God expressly shews his ultimate purpose in revealing himself to them. He did, in the promises to them, open in a measure the glorious truths which are now made known through Christ, and so must be seen to have dimly shadowed the same ultimate purpose which gives its impress to * 1 Pet. ii. Ex. iii. † Gal. iii. ↑ Gen. xvii. § Gen. xxxv. all his arrangements: but we are searching for the explicit declarations of this ultimate purpose, that we may carry conviction even to those who will not receive a weaker testimony; and we are therefore bound to confine ourselves to the very words of God, and, without seeking help from the symbolical language of the church ordinances, to adhere to the literal signification of the words cited. Let the reader ponder in his heart upon the significancy of those declarations, and why it was that the Lord should preface his promises by them. Why should he say to Abraham, "I am the Almighty God," but that this declaration was the reason and explanation of that which followed, "Walk before me (the Almighty God thus revealed), and be thou perfect; and I (the same Almighty God thus made known) will make my covenant between thee and me, and will multiply thee exceedingly?" This is the dependency of all the promises upon the first declaration :-" I declare myself to you to be the only true God: having made known myself to you, you must so walk before me as to acknowledge me the very God in all things; and I the very God will bless you in it." Here, then, is God made known by himself; God acknowledged in the service of man; and God blessing man because he is thus acknowledged in him. What does this amount to, but that God will manifest himself, and blesses the means whereby he does manifest himself; The I Am, manifested in or unto you, blessing you? 66 9. Thus God, by covenant with Abraham, became the God of Abraham. And he appeared at Bethel to Jacob, "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 and thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth; and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee, and in thy Seed, shall all the families of the earth be blessed;" thus confirming in Jacob his promises unto Abraham, according to his covenant with him. And when he appeared again, as before cited, declaring himself unto him as God Almighty, he confirmed the name of Israel unto him, as shewing how he was become "a prince with God;" and sealed to him, now no longer Jacob, but Israel, the promises made to him as Jacob at Bethel. Be it noted, that as God, speaking to Abraham, revealed the ultimate purpose under the declaration "I am the Almighty God," so he revealed the end of all things in Christ by I will make my covenant between thee and me, and multiply thee exceedingly:" and now, in speaking to Jacob, he observes the same manner; revealing himself as the covenant God (which is in Christ) as well as the Self-existent One. 10. When, by reason of the bondage of the children of Israel in Egypt, their groaning cry came up unto God, "and God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob," and called unto Moses in Horeb; he spake to him as " the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob," and gave him a message to the children of Israel: But when Moses asked of him by what name he should name him to them, he revealed himself as the "I Am," and as "Jehovah," as above cited; hereby giving the same testimony as was given to Abraham; but giving, moreover, a further revelation of his own external excellency, in the name of "Jehovah," inasmuch as the ministration of Moses was to be more glorious than that of Abraham. 11. The Lord here manifests his faithfulness to his promise, and declares his purpose, according to that promise, to call up the children of Israel from their bondage under Pharoah, unto the service of himself. This he would do by "a stretched-out arm and by great judgments." And, now that we have endeavoured to discover the ultimate purpose of God, written in his promise unto Abraham, in the declaration, “ I am the Almighty God;" and have concluded that those promises were given as a blessing unto those by whom God would especially manifest or make known himself; so we must look in the fulfilment of these promises for a more explicit declaration of that ultimate purpose. We shall see, too, a ground for the expectation of such an increased display of that purpose, in the prominency which is assumed by those who are no inheritors of these promises, but who are the enemies and oppressors of the inheritors, and the power that withholdeth them from their inheritance. This power was not until this period the lord over the children of promise; God having, from the calling of Abraham unto the going down into Egypt, given to them peace and prosperity: but now it had obtained the mastery, and become notable as the oppressor and cruel tyrant over them. This oppression had been revealed unto Abraham* ; and that the Lord would judge the oppressing nation, and bring the children out with great substance. But as the revelation unto Abraham declared only the ultimate purpose of God in making himself known and in biessing Abraham's seed, we should look for a declaration of this ultimate purpose especially with reference to his acts towards those who, having no part in these promises, strove against them, and would wickedly defeat their accomplishment. 12. We accordingly find in God's message to the children of Israel, after declaring he would bring them out from under the Egyptians, and would take them to himself for a people and be a God unto them, he adds, "And ye SHALL KNOW that * Gen. xv. |