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view shall serve to introduce the history of | hand of a brother; but immortal by his faith the other lives, which the sacred volume in and piety, qualities not liable to the stroke succession, presents to our observation, and of death. By faith he offered to God" an has sketched for our information and im- excellent and an acceptable sacrifice. In provement. presenting the firstlings of his flock, he had a respect to the great Lamb of atonement, and thereby, "being dead, he yet speaketh.' Prematurely taken away, but not for a crime;

Messiah, the Prince, cut off, but not for himself," crucified and slain in the prime of life, by the impious hands of his nearest kindred. And, living under the influence of the same principle, we too shall become immortal, shall endure as seeing him, who is invisible, and present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is our reasonable service."*

In Adam, we behold at once our natural first father, and our federal head: from whom, as men, our existence is derived, and by whose conduct our character has been deeply" a victim to malice and envy, he typified affected, and our state in some respects determined. "Our father Adam, where is he?" He fulfilled his day, he accomplished the purposes of the eternal mind, he then fell asleep, and is now seen no more. But, however remote the date of his formation, and of his death; however distant from us the region in which he lived, however apparently unconnected with us in interest, in fame, or fortune, we are, we know, we feel ourselves deeply involved in what he was, in what he did. In Adam we all died; we all forfeited a natural, and lost a spiritual and divine life: and, in Adam, we received the promises which have since been fulfilled, and to him first were opened prospects, which the course of Providence has realized, even the restoration of our fallen nature, by one "greater man," who has regained for us seats more blissful than those from which by transgression he fell; namely, the "seed of the woman, who has bruised the serpent's head." Our first father, where is he? Lost indeed to us, but not to God. All traces of him, excepting those only which perpetuate the memory of his guilt and its woful consequences, are effaced and forgotten; but his station before God remains unchanged, his importance undiminished. Dead to us, he lives to Him, with whom "a thousand years are as one day, and one day as a thousand years."

Can we meditate upon the first man who was created upon the earth, without rising in our thoughts to Him who created him out of the dust of the ground, and “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life? And who has of one blood formed all nations of men to inhabit upon the face of the whole earth." Can we think of our father after the flesh; and not connect with him the idea of our Father who is in heaven? Is not the painful recollection of him in whom all died, happily relieved and done away by reflecting on the glorious second Adam, in whom an elect world is made alive? And O, how is the loss of an earthly paradise compensated by the promise of "new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness;" that paradise of God, in the midst of which grows the tree of life, always blossoming, always bearing fruit, and exempted from the dangerous neighbourhood of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Our brother Abel, where is he? Cut off in the bloom of life; fallen, fallen by the

In the life, and more particularly in the exit of the patriarch Enoch, life and immor. tality were more clearly brought to light. Hitherto, men had terminated their earthly course by descending into the grave and seeing corruption. But, when we come to inquire concerning Enoch, "where is he?" The scriptures reply, "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." "He was not, for God took him." Our thoughts here settle, not on the gloomy mansions of the dead, "the house appointed for all living," but on the regions of eternal day, irradiated with the glory, and beautified with the presence of God. We rise in faith and hope to that bright world from which Christ descended, and to which, having finished his work, and achieved his victory, he afterwards reascended, leading captivity captive. And all who are partakers of the same precious faith, contemplate with joy that same mansion of everlasting rest, "prepared for them from the foundation of the world," and "ready to be revealed in the last time," when the body shall be redeemed from the power of the grave, and the Saviour, lifted up on high, shall "draw all men unto him." In Enoch, "walking with God," and passing immediately, soul and body, from earth to heaven, the world that then was, saw, in a figure, Him that was to come, whose meat and drink it was to do the will of his heavenly Father, and who has opened a passage, through the very gates of death, into the heavenly world, and that not for himself only, but for all who believe on his name, and who love his appearing. Enoch, our father, where is he? There, O my soul! there, O my christian friend, where, through the grace that is in Christ Jesus, we have everlasting consolation, in the good hope of arriving also. "O death, where is thy sting! O grave, where is thy victory! Thanks be to God, who ↑ Heb. xi. 5.

Rom. xii. 1.

giveth us the victory, through Jesus Christ | ten. Let him who is rearing a mansion of our Lord."

11

one thousand feet by five hundred, meditate on one of six by two, and learn to die.

and unloading its precious treasure without the loss of a single life-are so many successive, distinct, pleasing, and instructive views of the plan formed, followed, and, in due time, perfected, of man's deliverance from sin, and death, and hell, by the Lord Jesus Christ; who thus speaks of his redeemed, and of himself, in his last solemn address to his Heavenly Father, "While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me, I have kept, and none of them is lost;"* and in another place, "I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand. My Father which gave them me is greater than all and none is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand."+

Advancing to the times of Noah, we behold the world first deluged with an over- The ark which Noah prepared for the flowing flood of sin, and then with an inun- saving of his house, where is it? It fulfilled dation of waters. The measure of human ini- its destination, it escaped the wreck of worlds, quity full, and the vials of divine wrath filled, it preserved, and rendered up, its precious in order to punish it, up to the brim, and poured deposit, then fell into decay. It exists but out upon an impious generation, to its utter in description, it has no form but what fancy extinction and ruin. Nevertheless, a rem- has bestowed upon it in a picture, or upon a nant is saved, and mercy rejoices in the midst coin. But its fame, its use, its end, its antiof judgment. Animated by the same prin- type, are immortal. That magnificent vessel, ciple which inspired his venerable ancestors, not the contrivance of man, but the appointthat principle which gave value to Abel's ment of God; constructed according to the sacrifice, which strengthened Enoch to walk pattern, formed and prescribed by infinite with God, and through which he was trans- wisdom; preserved in the wild uproar of lated without tasting of death, Noah "pre-conflicting elements, by the almighty power pared an ark for the saving of his house." of God;-resting at length on solid ground, The history and method of redemption, by the Lord Jesus Christ, are so clearly prefigured in every part of this wonderful event, that he who runs may read them. Noah, "a just man, and perfect in his generations;" Noah, who "walked with God,” and was "a preacher of righteousness;" Noah, who, "warned of God of things not seen as yet, and moved with fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his house," is evidently in all these characters and actions, a type of the Holy and Just One, whom the world despised and rejected; a type of "the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, and hath declared him" unto men; a type of the great "teacher sent from God," to warn a guilty devoted race to flee from the wrath to come, and to conduct them to a place of safety; a type of him, who, chosen of God, and moved by pity and affection, prepared a present refuge, and an everlasting habitation, for perishing sinners. Of Noah, his pious prophetic father, when he imposed his name, exultingly exclaimed, "This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed:" and, in the blessed Redeemer of mankind, all his pious, believing children, enjoy the prospect of a period, and a world, wherein "there shall be no more curse;" and on whom the eternal Father by the tongue of an angel, imposed the name of Jesus, because he should "save his people from their sins." Noah, our father, where is he? where is the man who was Enoch's contemporary, who conversed with the sages of the old world, who saw the globe one vast ocean, whom all the waters of a deluge could not drown, who received a grant of the whole renewed earth for an inheritance? All these successive changes led but to the grave, and we see him no more. "All the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years, and he died." Let the possessor of a continent think of this, and check his pride. Let florid, vigorous youth, think of three score years and † Gen. v. 29, L

1 Cor. xv. 55. 57.

The emblems of the raven, the dove, the rainbow, the altar, the sacrifice, and others which enter into the history of this patriarch, are beautiful and significant illustrations of the same interesting, all-important subject. And the whole taken together, satisfyingly demonstrate, that if "death reigned from Adam to Noah," and the "offence abounded," yet "grace did much more abound;" and that out of the ruins of human apostacy, guilt and misery, the hand of Heaven was gradually rearing that glorious fabric of salvation, which, when completed, an enraptured universe shall contemplate with astonishment and delight. "This is the day which the Lord hath made: this is the Lord's doing; it is marvellous in our eyes." The sight of the world restored, renewed, and blessed to Noah, the second father of the human race, leads us forward, borne on the wings of promise, to the still more magnificent prospect of the restitution of all things;" to the day when he who sitteth upon the throne shall say, "Behold I make all things new;" when, according to his word, a new, more splendid, and more durable system of the universe shall arise under the plastic hand of the great Author and Finisher of the Christian faith, from the wreck of worlds consumed by fire;

* John xvil. 12.

↑ John L. 28, 29.

dence of faith, are at length rewarded by two | casion, applied to both, equally and in the

At the partiality of Sarah to such a son as Isaac, we need not be at all surprised. It is pleasant to observe, however, that this partiality neither corrupted his understanding nor his heart. Neither the indulgence which And in what place, in what employment he met with, nor the prospects to which he is the destined bride of Isaac found? Indowas born and brought up, seem to have ren-lently reclined under a canopy of state, or dered him, on any occasion, insolent or as-issuing forth to breathe the evening air, acsuming. And maternal fondness met with companied by a numerous and splendid retiits dearest, best reward, in filial duty and tenderness. Sarah lived respected, and died lamented, by her only and beloved son.

persecuted of his brother, the son of his own father; and the persecution of Jesus from the sinful world he came to save, began at his birth, continued through the whole of his life, and issued in a shameful, painful, and accursed death. "He came to his own and his own received him not. He was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief."

pose. "Before Rebekah conceived she was at ease: so before spiritual regeneration, all is peace in the soul: but no sooner is the new man formed in us, but the flesh conflicts with the spirit. There is no grace where there is no unquietness. Esau alone would not have striven; for nature will ever agree with itself. Never any Rebekah conceived only an Esau, or was so happy as to conceive none but a Jacob: she must be the mother of both, But what was seen in the mountain of the that she may have both joy and exercise. Lord, forms the closest resemblance, and afThis strife began early every true Israelite fords the sublimest instruction. In the sacribegins his war with his being. How many fice on Mount Moriah, we behold the father actions which we know not of, are not with- and son like-minded in presenting it cheerout presage and signification. In this con- fully at the command of God. Abraham withtest, Esau got the right of nature, Jacob of held not his son, his only son, and Isaac vograce: yet that there might be some pre- luntarily surrendered himself, as a lamb, for tence of equality, lest Esau should outrun a burnt offering. And on Mount Calvary what his brother into the world, Jacob holds him do we behold? "God so loved the world, that fast by the heel, so his hand was born before he gave his only begotten Son, that whosothe other's foot. But because Esau was ever believeth in him should not perish, but some minutes the elder, that the younger have everlasting life."*"God spared not his might have better claim to that which God own Son, but delivered him up for us all, and had promised, he buys that which he could how shall he not with him also freely give us not win. If either by strife, or purchase, or all things?" And Jesus gave himself for us, suit, we can attain spiritual blessings, we "a sacrifice of a sweet smelling savour unto are happy. Had Jacob come out first, he God." He "loved us, and washed us from had not known how much he was indebted our sins in his blood." Here also the Father to God for his advancement." Thus far the and Son like-minded, and in the same view, bishop. And thus, at the age of threescore and for the same end, the redemption of an years, and after twenty years from his mar-elect world. "O the height and depth, the riage with Rebekah, Isaac became the happy father of two hopeful sons. And here, the expiration of your time obliges me to interrupt his story. But I must not conclude the Lecture till I have, in a very few short hints, endeavoured to show you the analogy of Isaac the son of Abraham, and Jesus Christ the son of God.

They were both raised up for one and the same purpose; even to manifest the mercy and love of God to fallen men; the one as the bright and morning-star to usher in the day, the other as the meridian sun, "travelling in the greatness of his strength." Isaac, the natural root and progenitor of Christ: Christ, the spiritual author, root and head of Isaac. Isaac was the son of much expectation, the subject of many prophecies. The set time of his birth was determined and foretold by almighty Power, by unerring Wisdom, long before it happened; thus the birth of Christ, the desire of all nations, was announced to the world by a cloud of witnesses, not years, but ages, centuries, many centuries before the time. The time, the place, all the circumstances attending it, were written as with a sun-beam, so as to render mistake impossible. Both Isaac and Christ were conceived out of the usual course of nature, that the finger of God might be seen and acknowledged in both events; Isaac of a mother beyond the natural possibility of having children, Jesus of an immaculate virgin. Isaac was early hated and

length and breadth, of the love of God: it passeth knowledge!"

The private personal character of Isaac, a man of calmness, contemplation, and peace; the dutiful son of his affectionate mother; the respectful observer of his father's will, might, without doing violence to the subject, be brought into comparison with the pure and perfect character of his antitype, whose spirit nothing could discompose, whose nights were spent in prayer, and his days in doing good; "whose meat and drink it was to do the will of his Heavenly Father, and to finish his work," and whose dying breath uttered the accents of filial affection, and provided a son, a protector, and a home, for his desolate, afflicted mother. O the glorious excellency of that character, which exhibited the example of every personal, every relative virtue: which comprised the essence of all that is amiable in every other character, and left all created goodness at an infinite distance behind! Look to Isaac and be instructed. Look to Jesus and "grow in grace," and go on towards perfection, and "press towards the mark, for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."

The next Lecture, with the divine permission, will contain the remaining part of the life of Isaac, from the death of his father to his own. May God communicate saving knowledge to us all, by every mean of instruction: and to his name be praise in Christ. Amen. † Rom. viii. 32.

John iii. 16.