which his glory appeared over the tabernacle, being now also perfected: the latter in the seven lamps of fire; the other in the sea of glass); and whilst the glory of the Father thus shines forth in the person of the God-man, there is seen, as the throne of the Father's glory, the mystical body, the church on the new earth: as the light of the church, and the revealer of the glory of the Father, is the Holy Ghost, under the visible form of the seven lamps of fire. Beginning from the lower parts, we see the new earth as the "house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens," the habitation of the church. The church itself, as" the fulness of Him who filleth all in all," the seat or habitation of God the Father, in the person of the Son, and all this through the Holy Ghost, as the new heavens speaking forth the glory of God in the eternal hallelujahs of the church, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come."

Here then is the eternal purpose in the perfected subject, through the fulness of the dispensations of time, become the glorious work of God, the manifestation of Trinity in Unity.

Many persons have great difficulty in conceiving any thing, either visible or material, in the eternal state. Having their eye fixed on the spiritual, as the predominating quality of all things, they fill their minds with the notion of an all-pervading spiritual glory, and think this necessarily excludes both visibility and materiality, more particularly the latter. But surely there is no necessary confliction between visible and spiritual, nor between spiritual and material: a spirit may assume form, and a spirit may dwell in a material body. We certainly may well be warranted in our dislike to that system of earth-ing heavenly things, by setting out the eternal state of the world as strictly accordant with the paradisaic state; and as much may we doubt concerning the animalizing of the resurrection bodies, by supposing them to eat and drink. Concerning the state of the world, the words of St. Peter are plain; "The earth also, and the works that are therein, shall be burned up;" "The elements shall melt with fervent heat." If, therefore, the earth and all vegetable and animal life must pass through the fire, and be as literally overwhelmed in fire as the first world was in water, there is surely an end to the paradisaic state of green trees, and shady groves, and cooling fountains, and fertile earth: as we see in the sea of glass, the rain is changed into crystal, so shall all mutable substances be changed into an immutable form, which may abide the trial by fire. And if all vegetable life will be so changed, where is the meat and drink to be found which some would furnish to the resurrection body? If there shall be meat and drink, then vegetable life in its mutable state of bud, blossom, and fruit, must continue; the seasons in their changing form of winter, spring, summer, and autumn, must continue;

the varieties of temperature, and the rain or mists, as in Eden, must continue. Now, change is a symbol and a mark of incompleteness; and change cannot consist with the perfection of the new creation state. But with all this perfection and immutability, there is nothing to clash with the notion of visibility and materiality. The new earth may be both visible and material, as will be the resurrection body; and yet it may have passed through the fire: for many substances have we which will pass through fire unchanged, having been first by fire purified from all inflammable particles. The earth visible and material may also be filled with the Spirit of glory, as the waters cover the sea and the resurrection body may be spiritual from the indwelling of the Spirit, and yet be material also. The very idea of a manifestation implies visibility, as the idea of a body implies materiality.

In the present world all vegetable and animal creation is used for the support of the animal life of man; and the bodily labour and travail of man is to maintain his animal life: but in the world to come, when man will have laid down the animal life, and have taken the spiritual, surely the means of supporting the animal life will be no longer necessary; but, instead of labouring to such an end, the regenerated man will be devoted unto the glory of God. That the world, as it shall emerge from its fiery trial, will not come forth a barren desert, but replete with every variety of form and being which now covers it, we must fully admit; and add, that it shall be such as to stand an eternal record of all it ever has been: but, whatever form is given it as it comes forth in its newness, the same form will it eternally preserve; and, whatever variety of being shall be seen upon it, all will be filled with the glory of God.

We have now taken a view of God's completed work of selfmanifestation, and have, we may trust, obtained some insight into the reasons of God's working after the form and manner in which he does work.-1. We have seen, that his eternal purpose was complete in itself; because He, as the Eternal Father, is in himself unchangeably perfect. 2. That this purpose was ordained to perfect itself in a subject which should pass through changes, and to work out in this subject a perfection and unchangeableness by bringing it into union with God; because the Eternal Son is the subject of the Father's will, and in Him all the purposes of the Father are Yea and Amen: he is unchangeable as the Father is unchangeable; and he can, according to the will of the Father, shew forth and perfect an unchangeable perfection, even in a creature naturally mutable and imperfect in him, therefore, as was meet, is shewn forth the essential being of the Father. 3. That the completion of the eternal purpose in the Eternal Son was ordained to be wrought out through successive ages; and, in the course of its progress,

to set forth as well the nothingness of the creature subject in which it was made, as the almightiness of the Eternal Son, who brought it to pass; because the Holy Ghost, who is unchangeable as the Father and the Son, is yet proceeding from the Father and the Son; and it is only through the Holy Ghost that the Father and the Son exist in the unity and completeness of the Godhead. In brief, the Father purposed once and for ever, that which the Son performs and perfects, in the creation, redemption, and sanctification of his mystical body the church, through the procession of the Holy Ghost, shewing forth the alone glory of God as Father, Son, and Holy Ghost in the unity of the Godhead. In this view we find the whole stupendous work a simple act of God, acting according to the relations of the three God-Persons in the Godhead. Because it is the office of the Father to will, and the Father is distinct in his personality from the Son, the purpose was itself distinct from its manifestation. Because the Son is the Person in the Godhead “in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily," and the personality of the Son is distinct from the Father and the Spirit, the manifestation and completion of the purpose as an act must be in the Son. The Son could not join himself to a creature without preserving a record of his own distinctness from creature as the essential Son; therefore must creature go into death: the Son, with such distinctness, must join himself to the creature, in order that it should, by union with him, be made meet for eternal life; therefore the incarnation. Because the Holy Ghost proceedeth from the Father and the Son, and is a distinct Person in the Godhead, therefore must there be a procession of the work of manifestation, and the work itself be only completed through the procession of time. The Holy Ghost being the unity of the Father and the Son, so is he the unity of all the members of the church in the one mystical body; and the Spirit only proceeding from the Father and the Son, could only go forth of the promise of the Father in the Son Jesus, and, being one with the Father and the Son, could only be given to them who should have the Father and the Son. Therefore has the purpose of God been completed in the world created, redeemed, and sanctified through the succession of the seven ages; and thus is this completed purpose the work of God and the one act of God, wrought out according to the greatness and majesty of Him who did it.

A few considerations may be profitably bestowed upon the predestinate completeness of this work. God's purpose is, that it shall be completed; and therefore, as God is true, and "calleth things which are not as though they were," and as with him "one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day," the whole work may now be viewed as predestinately completed it will assuredly be done, and in God's purpose is done. Predestinately, then, it is done it is predestinately

completed. The utmost importance attaches to this, because it will be seen that from the beginning the God-Persons have been acting according to the relations they assume in this glorious purpose. The Eternal Son, as the predestinately risen God-man, has from the foundation of the world acted in all things; the Holy Ghost has from the beginning acted as the Spirit of the predestinately risen Christ. In the eternal purpose did the essential Godhead in its Trinity of person assume the relations of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost: the first Person in the Godhead becoming Father to the second, who, by taking flesh, would become a Son; and the Third Person in the Godhead became the Spirit of the Father and the Son. The essential God-Persons assumed these relations one to the other because these assumed relations do, as accurately as a finite mind can comprehend, convey the knowledge of their eternal, unchangeable, and essential relations. Now, speaking of the relations of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost simply as assumed relations, the Son did not in act become a Son until the incarnation; and therefore, until the incarnation, the Father was not actually Father, nor the Spirit actually the Holy Ghost, but predestinately Father, Son, and Holy Ghost were completely such from the beginning, and, being predestinately such, as such they have from the beginning severally acted. And as we thus see the incarnation to be the root of the whole transaction, so is the resurrection the fruit and completion of it: and that which creation was to incarnation, is new creation to resurrection: Christ in the flesh, the true Foundation; Christ in the glory, the Topstone of the summit.

Behold, then, Jesus the Head over all things to his Church: in him the Father dwelling in all fulness; in him the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of light and glory, opening the mystery of all things in him the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, manifested as the alone Source and the alone worthy End of all things; the alone Reality, without which all is but a shadow ! Behold Him as the Head over his mystical body the church; in which is elaborated and shewn forth in detail the unfathomable fulness which dwells in him as the Head! Behold him also as Lord over death and hell; having delivered and glorified his church, and having dealt just judgment upon all sin; shutting it up within metes and bounds, and setting a seal upon the place of judgment, that it shall no longer speak in wrath to his church, but shall reflect back around it his mercy! Behold the everlasting testimony to the eye of Glory Unsearchable: behold the everlasting testimony to the mind of Wisdom Unfathomable: behold the everlasting breathings of the Spirit, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty!"

R. B.

161

REVIEWS AND MISCELLANIES.

ENGLISH REVOLUTION OF 1831.

ALTHOUGH, in speaking of the revolution which broke out in France last July, we anticipated that the time was not far distant when it would be our painful duty to call the attention of our readers to a revolution nearer home, we little thought that our prediction was so soon to be verified, and still less that it was to be effected by the Ministers of the Crown. The only points which we had to set forth, in order that the nature of the recent changes in France and Belgium might be duly appreciated, were the facts of grievance under which the people laboured, and the immediate acts which excited them to revolt: we were not liable to the influence of personal interest or of party attachments, and had therefore no need to be jealous of ourselves on that score: but on the present occasion we feel that the atmosphere of politics, general or local, which every Englishman breathes, may very likely bias our views of English public events, and we shall therefore be as general as possible in the observations which we offer. We have higher motives than the accusation or defence of any parties of men. There is no evil in the city but that which the Lord has sent; and we must endeavour to discover the cause. Living in the days when the visitation has come upon the children, we must inquire what is the sin of the fathers that has produced it; and we shall have no difficulty in finding that corruption has been long acknowledged, justified, and persevered in, by which systematic oppression has been produced upon the poor. This corruption was first openly denounced by the great Lord Chatham, who predicted from it, that, "if the House of Commons was not reformed from within, it would be reformed from without, with a vengeance." Mr. Hallam, in his Constitutional History of England, observes, that he can find no direct mention of a seat in Parliament being sold prior to the year 1760, although it was indirectly alluded to so far back as 1747. From that time it is notorious that seats have been sold as commonly as any other property: Lord Glenbervie, Hatsell (in his Precedents), and Mr. Grenville (in his speech on bringing in his bill to direct the management of election committees), all assert, in the strongest language, the profligate injustice by which the decisions of the House of Commons were disgraced. An East-Indian sovereign had at one period several paid traitors in the house West-Indian men-stealers have constantly obtained admission there by money payments: and no attempt has