EXPOSITIONS OF OLD TESTAMENT PERSONS, EVENTS, AND CIRCUMSTANCES, IN THE LIGHT OF NEW
And Enoch walked with God: and he was not: for God took him.-Gen. v. 24.
By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.-Hebrews xi. 5.
MYSTERIOUS incident in human weal;
Death the dread penalty of Adam's sin,
Enoch exempt from dying :-Wherefore this?
Why this exemption of the Seventh from Adam ?
Is there not here an intimation mild
Of after-purpose in the mind of God?
Another Seven begins its sacred round
And God's elected Number is fulfill'd:
The dead in Christ rise first; the living Saints
Are chang'd; the Prophecy of early time,
When Enoch's harp told forth the blissful news
'The Lord descendeth with his glorious train,'
Is consummate; and his people' are not,'
For they have been taken: grace ineffable!
The revolutions of the Heavenly orbs ;
Empires' mutations; strife of meaner things ;
Generations born, continuing, defunct;
E'en the first advent of the Lord of love,
All, all, o'erlook'd in Enoch's raptur'd eye,
And nothing seen but God's descending Son,
In Godhead glory to receive his own.
Translation wonderful! O for precious faith,
To walk with God in lowliest reverency;
To please Him only whom 'tis bliss to please:
Awaiting calmly Enoch's two-fold theme,
The world's rejection and the church's crown,
The death of death and life's immortal reign.
Melchisedec: the King-Priest.
Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.
MYSTERIOUS Stranger! awful is thy mien
From out the secrecy of youthful time:
Nor father thou nor mother; beginning
And end of life untold; a Royal Priest;
A Priestly King; combining in thyself
The primal grandeur of the human kind,
Kings and Priests to God: God's vicegerent thou
In this vast world; with intellect supreme
'er all to rule, and speech to vocalize
The silent wonders of Creation's Lord.
Truly the Less is of the Greater blest,
And Abram bows before Melchisedec;
Pays him the tithe of all, and owns him lord.
The bread and wine, symbolic, vigour give;
While hallow'd accents from the priestly lip,
Pronounce him blessed of the Lord Most High,
And all his foes deliver'd to his hand.
See we not here a Greater than that one,
Who met the Patriarch as the Priestly King?
Have we not here a righteousness and peace
Supernal, passing all of human thought?
Meet adumbrations of all-glorious truths?
Not Aaron sacrificing, can be also King :
Not Moses ruling, can be also Priest ;
The two conjointly must pourtray the Christ ;
The Lord enthron'd in sacerdotal state;
The Priest for ever after God's own mind;
The great Melchisedec of two worlds at once.
Fix'd be our gaze on HIM who yet shall come,
And rule the earth, a Priest upon his Throne!
Ourselves, moreover, Kings and Priests to God.
Bless'd of the Greater, we'll bless Him again,
And pour our rapture round his priestly seat.
Genesis xiv. 18-20, with Hebrews, chap. vii.
For God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed.-Job xxxiii. 14, 15.
HIE thee to Padan-aram, Isaac said:
Jacob arose and went. The blazing sun
Had travers'd th' azure arch, and now was set
To shine on other realms. The even-tide
Was come, and Jacob found no place whereon
To rest his pilgrim-weariness. Stones he took
And pil'd them for his pillow: thus he slept.
And now behold, in visions of the night,
A ladder firm uprear'd, whose tow'ring top
Reach'd to the heavens, while on earth its foot
Stood fast in stern stability. Thereon
Angels ascending and descending were;
While over all the Godhead-glory stood.
From out that glory uncreate there came
A voice of promise to the Patriarch's faith :
In blessing, I will bless thee: thy seed shall be
Numerous as dew-drops that bedeck the lawn,
Or stars that sparkle in the midnight sky.
I will be with thee, and in after time
Bring thy seed hither; thou shalt have the Land.
The gate of heav'n was this to Isaac's son;
Well might surprise o'erpower him, and the stone
Whereon his head had lain be fondly rear'd
A grateful Bethel unto Israel's God.
Now turn we to the Israelite indeed,'
The and guileless man, Nathanael.
Catch we a glimpse of his retiring thought
When Jesus saw him 'neath the fig-tree's shade,
And what behold we? Jacob's typal dream
Embodied in the Mediator CHRIST.
Humanity below: the Lord above:
And both conjointly forming the approach
Of God to man and of mankind to God.
The mystery thus of God accomplish'd stands:
God manifest in flesh; of angels seen;
By Spirit justified, and believ'd by men ;
The dream of Jacob an unquestion'd fact,
And heaven unfolded to the Sons of God.
Genesis xxviii. 12-17, and John i. 45-51.
She saw him that he was a goodly child.-Exodus ii. 2.
INTO the Mount, thou man of God, go up;
(So spake the mandate of the King supreme)
With eye undim'd and vigour unimpair'd,
View the far land of Gilead and of Dan;
The beauteous plains, the hills, the vales, the seas,
Outspread from Pisgah's top; and die thee there.
And Moses died: his pillow'd head reclin'd
On God's paternal love: in silent peace,
God kiss'd his soul away; then buried him,
In Moab's lonely unfrequented vale.
With pomp funereal, majesty divine,
That Roman Cæsar, Britain's noblest Chief,
Nor knew nor dreamt of,-Gou did bury him;
Angel and Archangel only followers there.
Pass we from Nebo to another Mount,
And Moses meets our wond'ring gaze again:
Associate now with Jesus; Elijah, too,
Without his burning car and fiery steeds,
Stands meekly minist'ring to a Mightier One.
And what their converse ?-List, ye warring worlds,
Ye heedless scorners of the ways of God,-
The Lord's Decease which should accomplish'd be
When Judah's children should refuse their King,
And crucify incarnate Love itself!
O marvellous meeting and more marvellous theme,
The typal figure of a nobler scene,—
Jesus with his own both chang'd and raised;
His kingdom come and all the earth redeem'd.
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