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That which is narrated in the 12th verse of Gen. xv. of what happened to Abraham preparatory to the Divine manifestation which was made to him, corresponds with other narratives of similar revelations. It is said that after

Abraham had received directions respecting the sacrifices he was to offer on the occasion, and his compliance with those directions, "When the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and lo, an horrour of great darkness fell upon him." This account fully evinces that what is described as seen by the patriarch was visionary, like the revelations made to Isaiah,

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* Dr. Jennings, in his Jewish Antiquities, maintains that not only the symbol of the Divine presence was visionary, but that all which is related in the chapter, was transacted in a dream. His words are "To this class of impossibilities we may refer God's bringing Abraham abroad into the field, and showing him the stars, Gen. xv. 5; since it appears that it was not yet sun-set: when the sun was going down' it is said, a deep sleep fell upon Abraham,' ver. 12. From whence it is manifest that his going out before to view the stars, his ordering several living creatures for sacrifice, and his driving away the fowls that came down upon the carcases, were all performed in prophetic vision only; as indeed is intimated when it is said, 'the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision,' ver. 1.

Should we not understand by the Word of the Lord in this place the PERSONAL WORD, 27, that Divine Personage through whom all communication between God and man appears to have taken place,—the Revealer of the Divine character and will to man. See also ver. 4, and 5; and comp. Matth. xi. 27. John i. 1, 18. 1 Sam. iii. 7, 21. xv. 10. et freq. "Let an impartial reader judge whether any of the Socinian author's senses can be applied to the word Memra, in Onkelos his

Ezekiel and St. John; and not an exhibition to his bodily senses, such as was afforded severally to Adam, and to Moses at the Bush, at Sinai, and in the Tabernacle. The darkness, natural and spiritual which accompanied the vision, corresponded with the intention of the revelation made, which was truly "light shining in darkness." The exhibition at Paradise was light enveloped by a cloud. The colours of the Rainbow are refractions from a dark cloud. The luminous appearance on Sinai was "in the midst of thick darkness." The feelings of the father of the faithful appear to have been, at the awful moment, in unison with the darkness which reigned around him. The natural darkness was necessary to illustrate, as contrasts do each other, the lamp or cone of fire, which, as the symbol of present Deity, of Him whose name is Love, passed between the divisions of the sacrifice; and the tremendous awe which seized on the patriarch's mind, doubtless arising from a fearful conviction of the Divine majesty and purity, and a consciousness of his own sinfulness and that of the world, (comp. Is. vi. 5. Dan. x. 7, 8. Rev. i. 17.) was equally calculated to illustrate the spiritual truth, which the vision was intended to convey. That

Targum, Gen. iii. 8. They heard the voice of THE WORD of the Lord. And Gen. xv. 1, 5, 9, where THE WORD appeared to Abraham, brought him forth, and commanded him to offer a sacrifice to Him." Allix's Judgment p. 370.

truth may be explained in the words of St Paul, "The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord:" it was, to adopt another view of the same Apostle, "A declaration of the righteousness of God," in the plan laid for his being "just, and the Justifier of him that believeth in Jesus." In like manner the supernatural eclipse of the material sun at the crucifixion of our Lord was in unison with the state of a benighted world, and with the "hour of" spiritual "darkness," through which the soul of the Divine Mediator was then passing; and all was preparatory to that morning when, at the resurrection of our Lord, the sun of righteousness arose, with healing in his wings or beams,

to set no more.

In contemplating the revelation to Abraham, I must venture to ask, as I have asked in other instances, Is there no connexion to be formed in the mind between the glorious symbol of present Deity as seen by the patriarch, and "THE THREE WHO BEAR WITNESS IN HEAVEN, THE FATHER, THE Word, and THE HOLY GHOST," which THREE are "ONE"? Were not the three material symbols, fire, light, and spirit, present in the cone or pillar of fire and cloud? Was not their office that of witnesses or sureties for the fulfilment of

Divine engagements? Is there not an exact correspondence perceptible between this and other revelations of the Divine purpose to

redeem the world, to which I have already led your attention?

Can I, my dear friend, forbear to remark to you, before I close my letter, the advantages which faith enjoys under our own dispensation? We have not to look, like the patriarchs, through a long vista of comparative darkness, illumined only by a pillar of fire in a cloud, towards the point where the sun of glory was expected to arise. But "the Lord is risen indeed," and hath given most incontestable evidence that all things which had been written in Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning him, have been accomplished in his complex person, his birth, death, resurrection and ascension. The situation of the patriarchs was like that of the Laplander, while, through a long and dreary winter, in which glimmering stars cast their feeble gleam on his almost perpetual snow, he is waiting for the return of the sun, on which depends all his future expectation of subsistence and comfort. (Heb. xi. 13.) In our more favoured era, "Lo, the winter is past,—is gone: the flowers appear on the earth, the time of woodland melody is arrived, and the voice of the Turtle is heard in our land: The fig-tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines, maturing their grapes, yield their fragrant odour." If our mental senses are restored to a capacity for spiritual enjoyment, we may find abundant anticipations of an everlasting summer.

If, indeed, we bury ourselves in the caves of the earth, searching there for treasures which the thief may steal from us, we lose, and we deservedly lose, all the blessedness that is to be found in communion with "the light of life:" it is no wonder that the flowers and harmony of “ Paradise regained" afford us no delight. The loss is of our own creation. The cause lies in an abuse of the organs of vision, smell and hearing, and not in the absence of provision for their gratification. O may that day be hastened, when the voice from the mercy-seat, the throne of mediatorial glory, shall address the descendants of Abraham the church of Israel, saying, "Arise, shine, (or, marg. be enlightened,) for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee;"-when all" the Gentiles shall come to her light, and kings to the glory of her rising" from the dust of a long spiritual death;—when " the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day when Jehovah shall bind up the breach of his people, and shall heal the wound which his stroke hath inflicted."

And may we, my dear friend, be citizens of that city, of which the Lord shall be the everlasting light, and her God her glory!

So prays your's affectionately,

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