brute force employed against it, by the propagation of principles. A man originally became a member of the Christian polity by having his judgment convinced, and voluntarily submitting to be immersed in water, from which no visible effect ensued. Christianity spread by the inculcation of principles which became ultimately diffused throughout the Roman empire, in spite of all the efforts of the rulers to destroy those who professed them. The Christian Church was spoiled by the inculcation of principles of superstition, but no one can say in what year, nor even in what century, and it is finally overthrown by the dissemination of principles of lawlessness, which, though they began to be inculcated at the time of the Reformation, have appeared only in their most deadly form in the Evangelicalism, Republicanism, and Chartism of these last days; it produced its political fruit in the time of Cromwell and at the French Revolution; and its corresponding ecclesiastical fruit may be expected every hour.

It is of the utmost importance to understand this total dissimilarity between the Jewish and Christian dispensations, in order to use aright the Scriptures which predict the restoration of the Jews to their own land, and which are, no doubt, applicable in spirit to a revival of some sort, and in some place or other, of the Christian Church. For want of this understanding the strapgest confusion has appeared in the operations of all those societies and individuals, (with the exception, indeed, of the author of "Basilicus,") who have busied themselves with that which they are pleased to call the conversion of the Jews. Now, in the first place, there are quite as many Christians who have become Jews within the last century, as Jews who have become Christians. Some persons have been surprised at the assertion of Mr. Borrow, that he had met in Spain with Priests officiating in the Roman Catholic Church who were yet Jews; but there is no doubt that there are several such, and any one who is well acquainted with the interior of the Roman Catholic Church could give many examples. A Rabbi in Germany might be named to whom several Priests have come from Spain, and other places, in order to be circumcised; and not long ago, a clergyman of the Church of England underwent that rite also. But a Christian cannot become a Jew; he may apostatize from Christianity, but he cannot enter into the Abrahamic covenant: if he blaspheme Christ he shall have no blessing whatever the Jew who has never believed in Christ shall have the measure of his reward as a child of Abraham. It is very right to preach the Gospel to Jews as to all other men;

but when they are baptized they as much leave behind and renounce all Jewish promises, and blessings, and privileges, as a Mahometan or Heathen does. The conversion and regeneration of men is an individual thing; the conversion and restoration of the Jews is a national thing. When the Jews shall be restored to their own land, they will re-enter it as they did at the beginning, with sword in hand, and garments stained in blood, trampling their enemies like ashes under the soles of their feet. They are not converted to Christ by the dissemination of principles, but by looking upon Him; not looking in faith, as some vainly dream, but looking on Him with their fleshly eyes, when He is on His throne surrounded by His risen saints, and consequently not till after the translation of the saints, and after the Christian dispensation is closed for ever.

Respecting the order of the resurrection of the saints who have fallen asleep in Jesus, and the translation of the living at the appearance of the Lord, we are left in no doubt, because it is distinctly stated, "that the dead in Christ shall rise first, then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up to meet Him." The dead in Christ spoken of in this passage are not, so far as we know, yet raised, and therefore we have a right to infer that they are not. Now these two successive events must either take place previously to any of those referred to under the figures of the harvest, rebuilding of the temple, sun rising, morning star, &c., &c., or they must take place subsequently, or they must interlace in order with them. It seems that the second of them-that is, the translation-is identical with the gathering of the first ears artificially ripened, and gathered before either the wave sheaf, or the great ingathering of the whole field; and also that it is identical with the morning star. Our Lord certainly arose on the very first moment of the third day; for all the narratives use the expressions, " very early in the morning," "while it was yet dark," "as it began to dawn;" and if the body of the Lord be planted in the likeness of His death, so that it is to go through all the contempt and suffering which He himself went through, much more shall it be planted in the likeness of His resurrection, and rise at the very first moment of the day on which it is appointed to do so.

There are three other figures on which people are specially apt to deceive themselves: these are the bride, the temple, and the kingdom. The only bride with which we have practically anything to do, is the whole baptized world; doubtless there is an election within

12

this; doubtless they are not all Israel who are of Israel: but this election is known only to the Father; we can never know anything about it, and all attempts to find it out are worse than folly. The sects in which the members pride themselves in not "sitting down to partake of the ordinance next to one who may be a worldling," as is their slang, are the most narrow-minded, uncharitable, and ignorant of any. The members of the body of Christ are fashioned in the lowest parts of the earth, and began to be so at Pentecost, and never can be seen or known until seen with the second Adam, the Lord from heaven, on His throne. The difference between this figure and the others of the temple and kingdom is, that the bride is completed at the second advent of our Lord, and can receive subsequently no addition, alteration, or change; consequently it does not spread into the next dispensation, as it did not stretch into the last; it is limited and prescribed between the two advents: none who lived before the first shall be of it, nor any who shall live on the earth in the ages to come shall be joined to it. This is the speciality of our hope beyond that of all other men. This is the treasure hid in the field, for the sake of which our Lord purchased the whole world. This is the Queen of heaven, the all-glorious one, the rose of Sharon, the lily of the valleys. This is she to whom belong all those titles which Papists have erroneously attributed to the Blessed Virgin; and for which they have, however, this excuse, that she is a type of the Church, and especially in the last days.

Of this bride no Jew forms any part. Neither Abraham, nor the Patriarchs, nor Moses, nor David, nor Solomon, nor the Prophets, nor any down to the time of John the Baptist, form a part. Their hope was to be the metropolis of the earth, and that hope shall be realized to every faithful Israelite now upon earth; but to no liberal Jews, to no reformed Jews, to no semi-infidel Jews, but only to the faithful, bigotted observer of the law of Moses. If he will become a member of the bride of Christ, he must renounce all Jewish hopes and expectations whatever, and embrace the higher calling. He must be baptized, in order to receive, through Jesus the crucified and risen One, the Holy Ghost; and he must ever after feed on the flesh and blood of Christ in the Holy Eucharist, in order to preserve the new life he has received in baptism. His hope must be, not to be a citizen of the metropolis of the earth, and to worship in a restored and re-beautified temple at Jerusalem, but to dwell in the presence of Jesus Christ for ever in the invisible, assisting Him in the govern

ment of the universe, and leading up to Him the praises and thanksgivings of a regenerated creation.

The temple and kingdom are figures differing from the bride in two particulars, namely, that they commence before Pentecost, and continue after the second advent. The temple began just after the Exodus from Egypt, in the setting up of the tabernacle, and is eternal; it is always in a material form upon the earth, builded of the things which the earth produces, metals, stones, and timber; as it was in the wilderness, and when builded by Solomon, and as it shall be again, according to Ezekiel: it is eternal in the heavens, composed of men, and women, and children, as a body for the habitation of God the Holy Spirit, of the Father and of the Son. This temple has always been visible since the Exodus, either complete or broken down, either natural or spiritual, first in Jerusalem, and next in Christendom, and the site of both discoverable by all who would take the trouble to seek after it. So far as it is made of men and women, God has put forth His Spirit creating a desire for its reparation; and so far as it is made of materials of this earth, it shall be rebuilded whenever God's servants the Jews regain possession of Jerusalem, where alone it can stand, and to re-organize the Priesthood for which Elias shall appear. It is made for all the circumcised, and the Church is made for all the baptized; and no one sect, part, or division of the baptized is more the Church than another; as no one tribe of the Jews is more the people of God than another; all that can be said for or against any is, that one is organized more according to God's mind than another.

The kingdom is a larger and more extensive figure still than the temple, for it began with Adam, the end of whose creation was, that he should have dominion over all the works of God's hands; and the kingship of Christ, being His first and highest title, is the last which He assumes; for although he entered on His priesthood at the ascension, when he presented His blood in the Holy of Holies, even in the presence of God Almighty, He has not entered upon and taken possession of His kingdom. If there is some confusion in men's minds respecting what is a church, there is a tenfold confusion when they speak of the kingdom. The various figures which describe the people of God are so far blended that they all relate to the same individuals; but still they must not be so blended as to be confused, and to convey no definite idea. A kingdom is not only a geographical thing; it is also an organized body. A confederacy of men may be as

numerous as a populous kingdom, but it is not a kingdom, because it has not the due organization, in the mutual subdivision and dependence of the parts. The kingdom of Christ is to be revealed geographically in Palestine. It is now in a mystery, and in the process of formation in Christendom; it is a figure for all the baptized, even as the bride is a figure for all the baptized, and the invisible shall answer to the visible, as the Christian Church does now to the temple of old. The kingdom of Christ is a government carried on by Christ, and that government must be conducted, as all governments are, by the help of subordinate agents. The constitution or organization of this kingdom we are called upon to know, in order that we may promote its interests, and not oppose them, which men do in proportion to their ignorance, activity, and zeal. The organization was shown out amongst the Jews by the captains of thousands, and captains of hundreds; it is shown out in the Church by each Church having its own Bishop, and the Priests and Deacons under his jurisdiction subordinated to him; and these Churches and Bishops, all independent of each other, united by Ministers of the Universal Church, Apostles with their delegates;-and to the twelve it was promised that they should sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel, even as the whole earth was divided between the twelve tribes and the seventy families of the sons of Noah. To preach the kingdom of Christ is to teach and to show men the form of the government of Christ; to preach the Gospel of the kingdom is to tell men the good news that this government is begun to be organized, or, at least, that the hearts of many are stirred up to desire it to be so. To enter into the kingdom of Christ is for men to yield themselves up to Him, in order to be put in their proper places, and to learn how to serve Him in the government and bringing out of that kingdom; and the proof that they who do so yield themselves have followed no cunningly devised fable, but have been led of God to bear witness for this kingdom, will be by their translation, and by nothing else-by no wonders that shall strike the eye, no outward and visible attractions; even as a proof that John the Baptist was a true Prophet was not given by anything until his Ministry was ended, and as the proof that Jesus was the Son of God was given by his resurrection from the dead. No miracles shall be worked but to faith, to strengthen and encourage those who already believe, for which end such signs have never been lacking throughout the Catholic Church; but no miracles shall be worked to convince the gainsayer, for no new dispensation is to be brought in until the bodies of the saints have been changed; and