dence of fulfilled prophecies having now, however, entirely superseded the necessity of supernatural interference, our lot unquestionably is to wait, in our spiritual nature, in the celestial sanctuary, till our blessed Lord cometh, and reckoneth with us at the last final day. But let us not lament, for blessed are those that wait; (Dan. xii. 12;) blessed are those holy realms wherein we are to wait a very little season; for, behold, He cometh quickly, and his reward is with him, to give to every man according as his work shall be. (Rev. vi. 10.) The perfect equity which settles these accounts will probably exalt the Christian martyrs over Enoch and Elijah; they, we are told, are to sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. They are described, in some degree, as in a restless state; they cry with a loud voice, saying, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood?" (Rev. vi. 10.) They cry not thus from discontent, that is a feeling ever banished from paradisaic regions; they cry from strong desire for power to serve their Lord in the expanded sphere of angels. Their pious appeal ascended up to God, and white robes were given unto every one of them; it may be, some appendant medium augmentative of usefulness and bliss yet the irrevocable decision of unerring wisdom ordained them still to wait. It was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until the Almighty Saviour comes to judge the world in righteousness,-until that final restitution, when the first will be last and the last first. This exercise of patience will here give no

offence. Pride, envy, competition are wholly extirpated from our celestial minds; all here have learned in honour to prefer the honour of another. Perhaps in no instance is supreme wisdom more illustriously conspicuous than in this prolongation of resignation in his beloved saints. Pride lost the angels heaven, humility regained it; and no residence can be so admirably adapted for the perfecting this virtue as is paradise. The highest services which kindness, mercy, charity, courage, learning, intellect, or all of these combined, may have achieved on earth, in this illustrious clime may be eclipsed by the surpassing exploits of our new associates. Not an hour elapses here that may not weigh down, by entrance of superior excellence from the vast mass of worlds, the glory of its highest inhabitants; and when the blessed time arrives which will translate them to the highest heavens, their importance will descend, for they will there be joined to the company of cherubims of glory; and, in the presence of the God of glory, all other glory vanishes to nothing. Therefore, if we here delight in excelling our fellows, that is, if we feel disappointment, rather than satisfaction when our intellectual performances, or any other advantages, are lessened in human estimation by the productions of more enlightened talents, or any other display attracting admiration; if our consequence is diminished by the exaltation of competitors, and such a circumstance occasions painful feelings, it behoves us to beware-for we are not fit for paradise, or paradise for us-that blessed seat of happiness in

effable would be to us a place of unceasing mortification. O may we then not now reject the gracious invitation of the meek and lowly Saviour! Come unto me, all ye that travail, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my light and easy yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. Rest here, rest in paradise, and everlasting rest in the kingdom of God. Our greatness there will be proportioned to our humility here. (Matt. xviii. 4.) It is those who here abase themselves will be exalted there; the poor in spirit, theirs is this blessed kingdom; the pure in heart, it is they shall see their God. We doubtless are to here improve our talents, of whatever kind they are, unto God's glory; but in celestial regions the loftiest flights of the most brilliant genius will not excite surprise, and much less adulation; all adulation here will point unto the source from whence all genius flows. Whatever is found right, we have the promise of God's word He will himself repay; but what our lot will be, whether we shall be high or low in the scale of moral excellence, who is to sit on the right hand, or on the left of Christ, are prohibited inquiries. (Mark x. 40.) It is enough for us to know, that God has a work to do, and that He will cut it short in righteousness. Let us then go our way till the end be; for we shall rest and stand in our lot at the end of the days. (Dan. xii. 13.) But let us labour, strive, and pray, that our lot may then be with the righteous.

CHAPTER IX.

WE shall here subjoin but one more observation on the heavens, relative to their tripartite division; namely, that previous to the formation of the figurative tabernacle, or portable temple by Moses, and the erection of the figurative temple by king Solomon, there is much reason to suspect mount Sinai and its surrounding wilderness to have served as a pattern of the tripartite universe; and that it had probably been represented as such to (at least the elders of) the children of Israel. That a communication of that nature should have been much obscured, if not lost, in the long lapse of dark and barbarous ages, in the Assyrian and Babylonian captivities, in those unparalleled calamities which preceded the final dispersion of the Jewish nation, when great distress was in the land, and wrath upon that people; when they fell by the edge of the sword, and were led away captive into all nations, and Jerusalem was trodden down of the Gentiles: (Luke xxi. 24 :) and also

* 1 Sam. iii. 3. We have here the tabernacle denominated the temple of the Lord, as follows:-" And ere the lamp was gone out in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was."

that the truth of this conjecture has been left to the determination which reason deduces from desultory information and abstract passages of Scripture, rather than direct revelation, are circumstances which, if duly weighed, will not, we think, excite surprise. This fact (should it on investigation be allowed one) may, we conceive, be placed among those of minor import, which, as before remarked, Supreme Wisdom has designedly left somewhat obscure, for the purpose of exercising mental faculties. That the shadowy sanctum sanctorum, or the holiest of all, was, as already stated, held by the Israelites to be a type of heaven, is proved by the records of their own historian. Josephus says "If a man mark the composition of the tabernacle and its appendages, he shall find that their lawgiver was a man of a divine spirit. For if without partiality it be duly examined, it will be found divided into three parts; whereof two are left (he should say, one was left) for the sacrifice, as a place prophane and common; but the third part

It is observable, that although there was no vicarial sacrifice ever offered upon the golden altar in the holy place, yet it was at all times accessible unto the legal priests. They, as the epistle to the Hebrews declares, went always into the holy place accomplishing the service of God; and it is hourly opened (as we have recently had occasion to observe) unto the contaminated spirits which we know are therein continually received from out our little world, (and it may be, many others.) The stationary inhabitants that are therein encamped, the symbolic patterns clearly ascertain, do partly consist of beings who, in their intermediate state, have been advanced unto the dignity of cherubic nature the Scriptures show us of the spirits of just men made perfect, and of contaminated spirits who will attain perfection in this cleansing sanctuary. Josephus might, therefore,