all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity, I will mock when your fear cometh; when your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: for that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord. They would none of my counsel they despised all my reproof. Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way; and be filled with their own devices" (Prov. i. 20-31).

Though in the premises I have not sought to connect the experience of the Philadelphian minister with that which I myself, and many besides me, have had in these days, both of good and of evil, I have felt, as the Spirit opened the matter to my mind, that it was given to me to write these things for the comfort of all those ministers, and all those people who are waiting for the consolation of the church. No false modesty, no fear of public scorn, shall prevent me from expressing my honest belief that within these few years there hath been opened a door of truth and of holiness, in the house of David our King, for which we cannot be enough thankful, as being by far the greatest proof of our King in the midst of us, and the surest token of a day of great things and glorious, already dawned upon the church. The light which hath been cast on the darkest prophecies of Scripture; the life, the thrilling life, which hath been put into the tones of David's harp, which so long hung upon the willows, in the water courses of Babylon; is a thing not to be hidden, but to be avowed, not to be talked of between brethren, but to be sounded forth as I now do it, in the ears of the world. Be amazed, and be horribly afraid, ye who love darkness, for the light hath shined. Ye who love the light, be joyful; for it is bursting forth like the noon day. Come, ye children of the light and of the day, and let us examine ourselves in the light, that our evil deeds may be discovered; come and let us walk in the light of the Lord. O but though no one should lift up the voice of this song, though all should be afraid because of a scornful world, and an unbelieving church, I myself will sing the praises of the Lord, for the new light which he hath opened upon

my soul, and the new truth which he hath enabled me to utter with my voice. Moreover there have arisen a host of enemies to deny the new opening of truth which God in this time of the end promised, and according to his promise hath bestowed. All the organs of public opinion, without one exception, have taken arms against the interpreters of prophecy, and the preachers of the coming glory and kingdom of Christ; who have found it necessary, in order to make their views known, to set on foot an organ for that end, which again hath been attacked and reviled in all ways possible. High church and low church, moderate and evangelical, and dissenters of every name, and newspapers of all factions, and the whole literature of the kingdom, have lifted up their voice, their tumultuous waves they have lifted up, to drown the voice of truth: they have combined their strength under the mastery of the evil one, to shut the door which God hath opened; but they cannot, they cannot, for the Lord is on high he is mightier than the voice of many waters. "The Lord sitteth upon the flood: yea the Lord sitteth King for ever. The Lord will give strength unto his people, the Lord will bless his people with peace" (Psalm xxix. 10, 11), Now then, O ye who know the Lord, know wherein your strength consisteth, and wherefore you have received this succour from the Lord. It is because ye have little strength: continue so weak, and ye shall be strong; number not the people who hold with you, number them not. Count not

upon your gifts natural, upon your eloquence, upon your talents, upon your wit, upon your learning. O beware, beware of good report, court not honour in the sight of men, be contented, rejoice to be despised. Calculate not upon the names, however august, of those who have held with you in times past. I pray you, dear brethren, seek not the honour which cometh from men, but the honour which cometh from God only; and count not upon the venerable names of Church of England or Church of Scotland, nor expect to retain your honours or immu. nities therein. Be ready, aye, ready to be cast out: and the more you are weakened, the more rejoice; for your weakness is your strength: only keep the word of Christ, and let it not go. Confess his name, and deny it not; and be assured the door that is open will never be shut:

the gates of hell cannot prevail against it. O how much of God's glory, and of Christ's honour, resteth at this moment with a few rejected and despised men ! Thus be constant and true: O be stedfast and faithful. There is nothing to be found in history like the church in her present condition, save the liberties of poor Scotland, when they lay in the hands of a few persecuted and outlawed men, the Wallace and the Bruce, and their forlorn comrades, against whom was marshalled the nation of mightiest prowess, under her king of highest renown for wisdom and for war. Such a season of forth-driving and endurance, surely abideth us, with such a recompence of freedom and of renown. Be stedfast, O my brethren; be valiant; your case is that of David and his wretched band, who were the hopes of Judah and of Israel, though hunted like the partridge on Judah's wilds, by Judah's king, and dwelling in the caves and ragged rocks of Judah's solitudes, and driven to desperation, and almost to despair, by the combination of Judah's people. God of his mercy grant to us songs in the night, such as he gave to David in the cave of Adullam, and in the wilderness of Ziph. O for the harp of David, of faithful David, of David the man after God's own heart! O for that spirit of faith and valour which made him mightier than misfortune, and stronger than despair. It will all be needed, and it will all be given, given by Thee who hast the key of David, who openeth, and no man shutteth; who shutteth, and no man openeth.

2. The second of these gracious benefits which the chief Shepherd and only Head of his church proposeth to this faithful keeper of his word and confessor of his name, concerneth the Jews, who have not been mentioned in this series of historical portraits of the church, save once in the times of the church of Smyrna, where they are introduced with the same characteristic features as the "synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews, but are not." But in that case their blasphemy alone is rebuked, without the addition of any notice of their recovery out of the snare of Satan, and reunion to the church of the living God. This note of gladsome hope unto the Jew, and likewise unto the Gentile-" for if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the

their nation, and in honour of Jesus, den to undertake. For if Christ himnot of the name of Jew upon receiving eth them not of what that name doth y if they please (I say not they ought, my way clearly, but surely there is nt them) keep those observances in which their nation keepeth in honour of hereupon they should claim any supeurch, then would they destroy the unity Christ, where there is "neither Jew nor n, Scythian, bond nor free." But because n of male and female, no one would therefemale had not still a female's part to per, performing this faithfully, and carefully m the office of the man, she doth thereby ism into the church: nor, because it is thus nd and free, would any one say that a bondinsist upon his liberty, and refuse the coms master, because he and his master are like in Christ; or that his master should, chism, at once emancipate his slaves; seeing y contrary is enjoined by the Apostle in all and especially in one, where he requireth the › be less, but rather more dutiful, because his a Christian. They who thus speak, and even he church are not ashamed thus to speak, have a totally erroneous view of Christian unity, deth not in uniformity of rank, or station, or t in equality and levelness, but doth, in spite ́al diversities, yea, in harmony with all appointces of creation and providence, preserve unity nd of end, and of blessedness. Why, then, if female, bond and free, can well enough consist, are required to consist, with Christian liberty, ild the poor Jew thus go to the wall, and be › become Scotchman, or Englishman, or German, yterian, or Episcopalian, and just what you please d become, in order, forsooth, that there may be in the body? Why, if you can be Presbyteriar copalian, and preserve the unity of Christ, r Jew remain Jew, and do the same? It is

ticularly to speak; but I do perceive in the xith, and likewise in the viii th, chapter of Daniel, as also in the iid chapter of the Second of Thessalonians, and perhaps also in some of the symbols of the Apocalypse, a ground for the ancient tradition, that antichrist was to be a monstrous birth between the devil and the tribe of Dan. Passing this however for the present, we observe that the next characteristic of the people is, that "they claim to be Jews, and are not, but do lie;" whereof the meaning is, not that they were of another stock than Abraham's, but that the name Jew means something higher and better than to have Abraham's blood flowing in our veins. Wherefore also the Apostle saith (Rom. ix. 6), "For they are not all Israel which are of Israel;" and more distinctly still (ii. 28, 29), For he is not a Jew which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh but he is a Jew which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men but of God." We do wrong, therefore, in applying the name of Jew, which is derived from Judah, and signifieth praise, to these malignant revilers of the Lord, who curse, and praise not, who blaspheme, and adore not, the name of Jesus. In saying that they are Jews, our Prophet declareth that they lie; and we, in permitting them in their presumption, do encourage their lie; and from this cometh, in no small degree, that error which we hinted at above, that they must renounce Judaism in order to become Christian. We misname them Jews in their state of unbelief: the word Jew thus becomes the characteristic of one that believeth not in Jesus of Nazareth; and so when they believe we require them to throw off that name and badge of unbelief. But who made the name Jew characteristic of unbelief? Not the word of God; which twice over in these epistles teacheth the churches that their unbelief disqualifies them for such a name. They become Jews by believing; and then may well and rightly use that honourable name. Nor can I see any reason to prevent them from using the peculiarities of a Jew, provided always they use them as glorying in Jesus Christ, as a partial forthshewing of that fulness which came in him; provided also that they impose not upon the Gentiles any of these observances,