as the Surety of his people, and substituted himself on Calvary to atone for his offences. Jesus prayed for him that his faith ultimately failed not. Simon was destined to ennoble the crown of immortal grace; and his fall, though aggravating, abominable, and vile, made way for the exuberant riches of his Lord's grace. How did he treat him on the very day he saved him from the jaws of eternal ruin? But rather let us look at the Lord's treatment of him; and here is overwhelming compassion, forgiveness. like a God! love that covers a multitude of faults, an infinite heart of unchanging regard. Jesus, notwithstanding all his baseness, his forsaking him, &c. pays him an early visit, breaks in upon him in all the overpowering glory of his graciousness, and says, "I have loved thee with an everlasting love." He knew that Peter's heart was broke under a sense of vileness, that guilt and despair had taken him captive; he therefore hastens to bind it up, by assuring him it was put away. This filled him with overwhelming wonder, and surprised his brethren, who with holy joy were telling out the riches of his grace to the two visiting brethren who had called in with the spiritual heart-burn to rehearse his mighty acts; they are saluted with the sacred tidings "The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon,"-even to Simon that denied him. What wonders of grace that the Lord should ever see him again! and Oh, the riches of his grace that he should be honoured with a special manifestation of his Lord's presence before his brethren! Here we trace out the pleasure and delight of our covenant Lord to set out the unbounded riches of his love and grace, and the grand and chief employ of his assembled saints to celebrate the all-conquering love of his heart: they were filled with holy wonder at the overcoming grace of their Lord in passing over all the conduct of Peter by a gracious visit of love.

Here was no squeamishness about the glorious doctrines of grace; no fear about the consequences; no guarded expressions lest men take liberties to sin: it was the grand theme of the assembly! they rejoiced to tell out the grace!" The Lord hath appeared to Simon." He hath put away his sin, and by looking upon him in graciousness, hath won over his heart with all his powers to himself, and fired his soul with indignation against sin in all its direful forms. And what was the effects of the overwhelming grace on Peter's heart-the grace that buried his folly, did it lead him to sin that grace may abound? Trace his movements through all the Acts, and listen to the breathings of his soul in all his Epistles, and there behold the holifying effects of pardoning love and constraining grace. And yet men standing up to preach are afraid to tell out the grace, and cautioning people to beware of these antinomian principles, charging the grace of God with licentious tendencies. Ye libellers of my God, will ye cast such a reflection on the divine throne? ye rebels against divine sovereignty, will ye impeach the God of infinite purity? will ye charge essential holiness with being a source of

impurity? will ye say of him" who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity," that he sends forth streams to swell the abominable tide? Does the lustre of his throne put out your eyes? Does this all-abounding, immortal, free, and sovereign grace, in conquering poor, lost, and vile wretches, offend your seeming holiness and piety? Does the grace, all-conquering and reigning, triumphing and abounding, in gathering in the vilest of the vile, in bringing home wanderers from the paths of folly, shine too bright for your plaistered goodness? Let your puny voice cease from impugning the God of uprightness, who will do all his pleasure! You pretend to shield the government of the divine throne, and promote holiness; under this you shelter, while you storm the citadel of irresistible grace: but it is useless ploughing on a rock; you might as well attempt to knock down St. Paul's with a feather, or stop any 120 gun ship going off the stocks. It was his everlasting design in going forth in acts of creation to manifest forth the riches of his grace; the fall of angels and men, with all the mysterious openings of his will, was to illustrate the riches of his grace; even the falls of his people with all their winding ways shall minister to this one grand end, while everlasting confusion is poured upon sin and the devil; while grace is crowned, the manifestation of it is clothed with the happiest effects. Men may raise their voice to stem the mighty torrent, and use their utmost power to stop its unhinderable march in gathering up its lost objects; but their attempt is like emptying the ocean with a sieve, or hiding the sun with a gauze curtain; for grace shall reign in majesty divine, till the top-stone of Zion's habitation is brought forth with acclamations of "grace, grace to it." What but grace, free, free, sovereign grace, saved Peter, and

"If grace is not ample, almighty, and free,

I'm sure there's no heav'n for wretches like me."

When in the light of the Holy Ghost we review what passes in the mind in one day, Peter's vileness is not half so black. If salvation is not altogether of grace, we are ruined for ever. If the Holy Ghost gives us to see the sin of our thoughts in his light, we are the chief of sinners; and none can more eagerly catch at this sentence than the worm that is writing-"The Lord hath appeared to Simon," (and yet is unafraid to meet any man in the world, to grace be all the praise). An acquaintance with ourselves in the light and teaching of the Holy Ghost, then we welcome all the grace of his throne, its superabounding freeness over all the villainy of the heart is joyful tidings when it salutes the ears, and its inexhaustible fulness an everlasting cause of rejoicing. As one of Zion's witnesses, I will testify that every manifestation of his grace cripples the energies of sin, every sight of Christ is a paralytic stroke to the old man, and every fresh opening of his overpowering grace to the heart brings on the palsy in all his members; nothing sets me against vile self like a sight of Christ and his pardoning grace. If ever I feel a vengeance against sin, it is when I visit Calvary, and see the grace that transferred it to my willing Surety; it is then I cry out

O for the heart-constraining grace
Of Jesus, my dear Lord;

To run with sweet delight his ways,
And practise all his word.

Το say that grace does not operate and work to these glorious ends, is like saying the cool well sends forth flames of fire, or the sea is the cause of Etna. O ye heaven-taught, grace-admiring saints, join with me to extol its wonders and exult in its unconditional freeness! It matters not how base you have been, to what lengths of iniquity you have gone, how deep dyed are your transgressions, though augmented to mountainous heights, though deep as the gates of hell, though base as sin and satan could render you-here is a -heart large enough to bury all, blood enough to engulph them all, merit to sink them all in eternal oblivion, and grace to wash them all into the ocean of eternal forgetfulness.

Come, saints, and view the deep abyss,

Of this immortal, boundless grace;

Stand on th' eternal shore:

Then in the buoyant ocean plunge,
Which once did all your crimes expunge,

And bask for evermore.

Union Street, Southwark, Nov. 18, 1831.

E. M.

AN ESSAY TOWARDS AN INTRODUCTION TO THE PROFITABLE READING OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

BY SAMUEL EYLES PIERCE.

(Continued from Page 208.)

It may be as a note of memorandum to observe, from Dr. Peter Helyn, that in Cham, or Ham, our greatest antiquaries find the name of Jupiter Hammon. Mizraim they guess to be Osiris, the great god of Egypt. To him succeeded Typhon, not by right of blood, but by usurpation, who being dispossessed by Lehabim, the brother of Mizraim, (whom the Greeks call Hercules Egyptius,) the kingdom was restored to Orus, the son of Osirus. During the time of these few princes happened all those things which are recorded in the scriptures concerning Egypt, from the first going down into Egypt by Abram, in the time of Osiris, to the advancement of Joseph in the reign of Orus. These kings were commonly called by the name of Pharaoh, though they all had their proper and peculiar names. The account given of Jacob's sons, his sons and daughters that went with him into Egypt, sheweth the slow and small increase of the church in that period of time. In that Abraham's seed, in its immediate and direct line from Isaac to Jacob and his issue, were but seventy souls, or persons, in the space of two hundred and fifteen years: but in the space of two hundred and fifteen years more they were multiplied to six hundred thousand men, beside women and children. See Exod. xii. 37. Numb. i. 46.

As Jacob came near Egypt, he sent Judah to inform Joseph of his coming, who met him at Goshen, and a most affectionate interview they had. Jacob in a most nervous manner expressed his. feelings, and they cordially embraced each other and wept. Jacob is content to die, having seen his beloved son Joseph; so Simeon was when he had seen the Lord's Christ. Joseph having given instructions to his brethren what answers they should return to Pharaoh, upon his asking them such and such questions, mounts his chariot, returns and informs the king that his father and his brethren were come, and had stopped in the land of Goshen ; which Pharaoh wery politely proposes to Joseph to be their dwelling, it being the best part of the land of Egypt, the most fertile, fruitful, and fittest for cattle. Goshen was situate between the Nile and the Red Sea, bordering upon Canaan, not far from On, where Joseph's habitation was: it was separate from the rest of Egypt. Joseph presented five of his brethren, and then his father to the king, who had a free generous conversation with them. After which Joseph settled his father and his brethren, according to the direction of Pharaoh, in the land of Rameses, in Goshen. Jacob came into Egypt in the third year of famine, and lived in it seventeen years. Joseph was born to him when he was ninety-one, in the fourteenth year of his service to Laban; so that Jacob lived with Joseph in Egypt just the same term of years as he had lived with him in Syria and Canaan. So that, to use the words of Ainsworth, Joseph nourished his father seventeen years in Egypt, as Jacob had nourished Joseph seventeen years at home.

At

The time for Jacob's death drawing nigh, he solemnly charges: Joseph by an oath to bury him in the cave of Machpelah, near Hebron, in the land of Canaan, which was expressive of his firm and lively faith in the promise of God respecting the return of his posterity, and their inheritance of that land, which was a type and figure of the heavenly inheritance. Some little time after, his natural strength decaying apace, he being one hundred and fortyseven, and knowing his death was near, Joseph visits him. which time, Jacob relates how the Lord had appeared to him at Luz, in the land of Canaan; he repeats the promise which the Lord then gave him; he adopts Joseph's two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, and in faith blessed them; he assures his son God would bring him and his posterity into the land of Canaan; he repeats a confirmation of this, by assigning Joseph a double portion above his brethren. Paul tells us," by faith Jacob when he was dying blessed both the sons of Joseph, and worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff." It is worthy of our peculiar notice and regard, that the angel which Jacob speaks of to Joseph, whom he calls his Redeemer, Saviour, and Deliverer, which are titles given to God, Ps. xix. 15. Isa. xliii. 14. is Christ, the God-angel, who appeared to Abraham. Gen. xviii.; to Isaac, Gen. xxvi.; and to Jacob, Gen. xxxi. and xxxii. 9, 24. ; whom here in Genesis, xlvii. 15, 16, Jacob calls both God and an angel, as Hosea also doth, xii. 3, 4, 5.

Jacob having disposed by faith things to come, as though already possessed, he calls and causes his twelve sons to be gathered about him, on his death-bed, and under the prophetic influence of the Holy Ghost, foretells them what would befall them in their respective tribes, from that time forward to the coming of the Messiah. He begins with Reuben, whose incest he takes notice of, on account of which he should not excel; and denounces a curse on Simeon and Levi, for their cruelty on the Shechemites. He coming to Judah, speaks good things concerning him; that the blessed Shiloh, the Lord Jesus Christ, should proceed and descend from him. It is worthy of our notice and admiration, the wisdom of God in publishing and propagating the doctrine of Christ's incarnation aud redemption throughout these periods of time. He first reveals the seed the redeeming person should be of; the "seed of the woman," Gen. iii. 15. Then of what nation, Gen. xxvi. 4. Then of what tribe, as Gen. xlix. 10. of the tribe of Judah.

The Hebrew or Jewish doctors, some of them reckon Judah for the seventh patriarch from Abraham, as thus:-1. Abraham. 2. Isaac. 3. Jacob. 4. Reuben. 5. Simeon. 6. Levi. 7. Judah; and they compare him with the seventh, i. e. with the sabbath-day; and say, as Judah was the fourth of the tribes of Israel, so the sabbath is the fourth of the commandments. Jacob in his patriarchal blessing, intimates that the tribe of Judah should be most conspicuous and distinguished on many accounts. In the portion of the land of Canaan which fell to Judah's descendants, and to those of Benjamin, the city of Jerusalem was built, and the temple of God stood. But the chiefest glory and excellency for which Judah and his progenitors were celebrated in Jacob's prophecy concerning them, was, that the spotless mother, from whom the Son of God should derive his human nature, was to be one of this tribe; for of Judah, the chief ruler, Christ, the Lord of glory was to be born. The supreme power and administration of justice, sceptre, lawgiver, rule, and dominion, are predicted as belonging to this tribe. The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, is,' says Mr. Toplady, undoubtedly meant, that the administration of temporal power should belong to that tribe.' Hence the Septuagint understands by the passage, a supreme governor shall not fail out of Judah; that is, the supreme government in that tribe should be Jewish till the Messiah's advent. The words sceptre and lawgiver, are here explicatory of each other, and naturally denote a series of native governors, who should rule the Jewish nation according to its own laws. And the sense of the whole is this, that Judah should continue a distinct tribe by itself, and that its civil jurisdiction should, under some form or other, and with a greater or less degree of authority, remain in Jewish hands till the incarnation of God the Son: but that he being come, the Jews should soon after lose their intrinsic power and authority as a nation, cease to be governed by rulers of their own, be ultimately dispossessed of the land in which they had so long dwelt, and subjected to the dominion of the Gentiles, among whom they should be dispersed and sifted as