a select few, different from a literal sense known to all, the internal figurative meaning is then a mystery. Thus, the parables of our Lord were mysteries, in regard to the multitude to whom they were addressed, and who were not yet prepared to comprehend their purport. But he explained them to his disciples, and the mystery which they contained, vanished. In the same manner, the language of Moses and the prophets was a mystery; because, under the veil of types and figures, it contained a doctrine not understood by the people, to whom it was immediately addressed. But in the fulness of time Christ appeared: he fulfilled the types, he removed the figures, and the mystery was revealed the Gospel with the purpose of God to communicate it to the nations emerged into light. This is the sense in which the Apostle uses the word mystery: and the propriety of it will be evident, if we consider the false doctrine against which it is levelled.

In his letter to the Colossians, he says, chap. ii. 1, 2, "I would have you know, brethren, the earnest solicitude I have for you, and for those in Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my person in the flesh, that your hearts might be comforted, and united in love, and that your understanding might be ripened to every rich fruit, in the knowledge of the mystery of God the Father and of his Christ; in which are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." The impostors professed to teach the profoundest mysteries, and dispensed them for money to their followers. The Apostle, as his manner was, takes up their term, and he intimates that instead of the fooleries which they pretended to teach as mysteries, the only mystery which the converts had to learn, was to know that God and Father whom the deceivers blasphemed, and that Christ whom he had anointed; and the only mystery they had to practise was to ripen in this knowledge (which comprehended the treasures of all other knowledge and wisdom, as being

the knowledge of salvation), so as to produce in their conduct the rich fruits of virtue. But let us point out. an instance or two in which the Gospel was understood by Paul, as veiled in the writings of Moses.

The Lord said unto Abraham, “In blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed, as the stars of heaven," &c. Gen. xxii. 17, 18. Now, according to Paul, this very plain passage contained a mystery, because the promise made to Abraham to multiply his seed, was intended to be fulfilled in a sense much higher than the literal, but which was, at the time, little understood by the person to whom the promise was made. For this we have the Apostle's own words: "And he received the sign of circumcision, that he might be the Father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised." Rom. iv. 11. That the angel who spoke to the patriarch meant a spiritual seed is evident, because he adds, "And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." This could only mean the conversion of the Gentiles by the promulgation of the Gospel; for they became by faith the children of Abraham, and thus received the promised blessing as his seed. Accordingly the writer, in Rom. xi. 25, gives this doctrine the name of mystery: "I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, that blindness is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in." remarkable passage still: "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him." Gen. i. 27. If man was intended for immortality, it is natural to expect, that on being created, some hint should be given him of his high destination, The leading feature in the character of God is exemption from death: and he who has the glory of bearing his image, must in some sense resemble him in immortality. Accordingly, at his birth man is indirectly pronounced to be an immortal being. But after his transgression, the sentence seems to have

The following is a more

been reversed, "Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." Thus the Creator himself declares man, the noblest creature of his hands, to be mortal, and yet immortal. This at the time was a mystery, and remained so for ages. The sages of Egypt and Chaldea thought they solved the mystery, by supposing that man consisted of two distinct parts, a body and a soul, the one subject to death, the other destined to survive it. But the hypothesis must to every candid inquirer appear at variance with universal observation, and to be set aside by the strictest rules of philosophy. Human ingenuity, however, could not find a more specious method to account for the immortality of a mortal being, solemnly attested by Moses, on the authority of the Creator himself. Jesus of Nazareth, when the proper time arrived, revealed the important mystery; his resurrection from the dead gave our race the well-grounded hope of immortality. It is to the enigmatical language of Moses, that we owe the following triumphant anticipation of the Apostle Paul : "Behold I show you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written,-death is swallowed up in victory. The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ."

One of the principal features in the character of God, I repeat, is exemption from death, or immortality; and the purest Greek writers often use Jos, god, in this sense. Thus Bion. Idyl. i. 53. xx 05 sept, as ou

duvapai σe diwxsiy, I am a God, and cannot follow thee. It is the language of Venus to Adonis now dead, and means that being immortal she cannot die. See Acts xxviii. 6. Sophocles, Ed. Tyr. 871, wishing to express that the laws of Jupiter are eternal, says, μέγας εν τούτοις θεός, in these there is a great God. It is thus that we get at the real meaning of the following much-disputed passage: "Without controversy great is the mystery of Godliness: God was manifest in the flesh." 1 Tim. iii. 16. On this passage I beg attention to the following remarks:-1. This paragraph, it is allowed, refers to Jesus Christ but the Apostle cannot mean to hold him forth as a god, because in the context, and in all his epistles, he writes against men who taught his divinity.-2. His language implies that Christ was flesh, that is, he was a mortal being, or a being subject to death and corruption.-3. The Apostle asserts not the nature, but the resurrection of Christ: "God was made manifest in the flesh-was justified by the spirit, attested by angels; that is, angels declared his resurrection to the women, and his own angels or heralds attested his resurrection to mankind-was preached to the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received in glory."-4. That, as the writer alludes to the resurrection of Christ, he must mean to affirm the immortality of Christ; and this is what his language, agreeably to the strictest rules of criticism, implies. There is, says Sophocles, a great God in the laws of Jupiter :-and what does the poet mean? He means that the laws of Jupiter are incorruptible and eternal. "A God," says Paul, "made himself manifest in the flesh." And what again, I ask, does the Apostle mean? He means that Christ, who was a mortal being, by his resurrection proved himself immortal: and hence he brings to light the mystery contained in the language of Moses, that man, who is mortal, will prove immortal; that in Christ, beings who are corruptible, shall put on incorruption; and those

that are mortal shall clothe themselves with immortality. In this passage, then, there is nothing said of Christ, but what will be verified in all mankind, when Christ shall return to raise the dead. Nor should it be omitted, that the Greek philosophers, alluding, it appears to me, to the enigmatical representation of Moses, or, as others may think it more probable, to the immortal nature of the soul, call man, by way of enigma, or mystery, ó Deos Dvntos, a mortal God. This language is used by Heraclitus of Pontus, known for his affected obscurity or paradoxes, and after him by Hierocles; see Clement of Alexandria, Pœd. lib. 3. c. 1., and the Golden Verses imputed to Pythagoras, ver. 63. 70.

I beg to add one passage more, before I close this subject: "Unto him who hath power to enable you to stand according to my gospel, and to the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the development of a mystery, which hath been kept secret from the ages of old, but is now clearly revealed through the prophetic writings, according to the appointment of the everlasting God, made known to all the nations, so as to become obedient to the faith." Rom. xvi. 25. In this In this passage it is clearly stated, that the Gospel, now made known to the nations, was a mystery kept secret from the ages of old, that is, veiled under figurative language in the writings of Moses and the prophets from the most ancient times: and it may be asked, what reason had the Apostle for so repeatedly placing the Gospel in this point of view, namely, for representing it as a mystery contained in the Jewish scriptures? This reason is to be sought in the doctrine which was taught by the impostors, and which it was of high importance to set aside. They endeavoured to subvert Christianity, by maintaining that the Jewish dispensation was the production of an inferior evil Being, which it was the object of the Gospel to abolish. In opposition to this artifice, Paul represents the new dispensation, so far from being inconsistent with