great work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians and the people feared the Lord, and believed the Lord and his servant Moses" (Exod. xiv. 31). The church, thus gathered, "werè baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and did all eat the same spiritual meat; and did all drink the same spiritual drink; for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ" (1 Cor. x. 2). The Christian church was gathered in the same way: "They were pricked in their hearts, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the Apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost....save yourselves from this untoward generation....and fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the Apostles: and all that believed were together....praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved" (Acts ii. 37-47). The wanderings of the children of Israel, their idolatries, their temptings of Christ, their murmurings; "all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come" (1 Cor. x. 11). "Take heed, therefore, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God: but exhort one another daily, while it is called To-day....again, he limiteth a certain day....To-day, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. For if Jesus [Joshua] had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God" (Heb. iii. 12, 13; iv. 7-9). "Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it” (Heb. iv. 1). Thus the entrance of Israel into their rest typified the sabbath which remains for the people of God, and completes the history of the church under this aspect: Pharaoh, the dragon (Isai. li. 9, Ezek. xxix. 3), typifying that old dragon, which is the devil and Satan (Rev. xii. 9), who shall be bound when the rest of the church begins (Rev. xx. 2). But this history exhibits the church in its insulated, separated state in the wilderness; no trials from external enemies, but all springing up in its own body. From Joshua to Samuel the church is typically represented in a different aspect: as struggling with external enemies, as given over in consequence of its rebellion into the hands of oppressors, as delivered from these enemies whenever it cried to the Lord, and as preserved by the Lord notwithstanding their many provocations. Each of these provocations typifies some backsliding or idolatry of the church; and every judge and deliverer raised up by God for the Jewish

people, is a type of the final deliverance of the church in the forthcoming days; as is manifestly the case with Barak and Gideon (Isai. ix. 4, x. 20), and as we hope to prove respecting them all in a future paper.

From Samuel to Solomon the church is represented under the aspect of a kingdom. This is its complete aspect, inclusive of all the preceding: it is that form under which it has been ever regarded in the purpose of the Lord, who "is the true God, the living God, and an everlasting King" (Jer. x. 10). It is also the form in which it shall be for ever manifested, when the Lord shall set his King upon his holy city of Zion (Psal. ii. 6; xlv. 6, 7; Heb. i. 8). But the people should have considered the Lord, who had so often delivered them, as their King, and not have asked Samuel to make them a king like all the nations. In this they sinned greatly: "And the Lord said unto Samuel, they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them" (1 Sam. viii. 7). The invisible God was a King whom their gross imaginations could not apprehend: but God overruled this their sin to the fuller manifestation of his own purpose. The man of the people's choice was shewn in Saul, typifying one to arise in the church who should endeavour to forestall and antedate the Millennial kingdom, without waiting for its true King: the man after God's own heart was shewn in David, typifying that King of kings, "whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him " (Dan. vii. 27). David is more strongly exhibited by his contrast with Saul, of whom it is said, "he was higher than any of the people from his shoulders and upwards" (1 Sam. x. 23); while of David it is said, "Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart" (1 Sam. xvii. 7): and the same contrast holds throughout. At the commencement of Saul's reign, when Samuel is reasoning with the people of all the righteous acts of the Lord, their sin in asking a king is attested by thunder and rain. This not only denotes the anger of the Lord, but indicates how untimely was their desire of a king; thunder in that climate ushering in the rainy season in the ninth month, and it being "wheat harvest to-day," that is, the second month. Thunderings, too, always usher in the kingdom of the Lord, and therefore accompany the instalment of the first king of Israel, though not the David (1 Sam. xii. 17; Rev. xi. 19, xvi. 18). Saul's reign began prosperously, but he soon fell into sin. The sins which lost him the kingdom were two, and very characteristic: the first was usurping the priestly office, and not waiting for Samuel; for which he is told that his kingdom shall not continue: the second sin was covetousness, for which his kingdom

is rent from him and given to David. Samuel had appointed Saul to wait at Gilgal till he should come to offer sacrifices, and direct him what to do (1 Sam. x. 8); but Saul himself offers the burnt-offering, as if he were priest; wherefore "Samuel said to Saul, Thou hast done foolishly: thou hast not kept the commandment of the Lord thy God....now thy kingdom shall not continue the Lord hath sought him a man after his own heart" (1 Sam. xiii. 13, 14). But the Spirit of the Lord did not yet depart from Saul, and he has another opportunity; for "Samuel said unto Saul, The Lord sent me to anoint thee to be king over his people, over Israel: now therefore hearken thou unto the voice of the words of the Lord.... Go, and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not " (1 Sam. xv. 1, 3). Instead of doing so, Saul and the people "spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice unto the Lord" (ver. 15), and Agag the king; "but the rest they utterly destroyed." And Samuel said, "Wherefore didst thou not obey the voice of the Lord, but didst fly upon the spoil, and didst evil in the sight of the Lord?.... Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice.... for rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king" (vers. 19, 22, 23). And this is subsequently given as the reason: "For the Lord hath rent the kingdom out of thire hand, and given it to thy neighbour, even to David: because thou obeyedst not the voice of the Lord, nor executedst his fierce wrath upon Amalek, therefore hath the Lord done this thing unto thee this day" (chap. xxviii. 17). David is then chosen by the Lord, and anointed by Samuel; "And the Spirit of the Lord came upon David, from that day forward:....but the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him" (chap. xvi. 13, 14). This evil spirit is calmed by the minstrelsy of David: whom, notwithstanding, Saul endeavours to slay; who flies for his life from the presence of Saul, and is hunted by him "as when one doth hunt a partridge on the mountains" (chap. xxvi. 20). During the lifetime of Saul, David has no rest; but when Saul was slain, David became king in Hebron, over the house of Judah, while Ishbosheth reigned over Israel; and, he being treacherously slain by his servants, David attains the entire kingdom. The ark is then brought up from Kirjath-jearim, "and set in his place, in the midst of the tabernacle that David had pitched for it (2 Sam. vi. 17) on mount Zion. David then desires to build the temple of the Lord; but is told that this honour is reserved for his son, the "Jedidiah, beloved of the Lord," the "Solomon, prince of peace," whose throne shall be established for ever. The series of historical events which we have thus briefly gone over

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represents the church acquiring rule, or taking its royal dignity. It has ever been a point of orthodox faith that Christ is the source of power; that kings, knowing whose ministers they are, may above all things seek His honour and glory and hence comes the force of the admonition, Be wise now therefore, O ye kings; be instructed, ye judges of the earth" (Psal. ii. 10). But it is also a point of orthodox faith, and to be maintained with equal care, that the church has no present sovereignty, and would sin greatly if it attempted any authority over the civil magistrate, whose prerogative it is to rule all estates and degrees committed to their charge by God, whether they be ecclesiastical or temporal.' She is thus required to wait for the coming of her Melchizedek, King of Righteousness and King of Peace (Heb. vii. 2); “The Man whose name is the Branch; who shall sit and rule upon his throne, and shall be a Priest upon his throne and the counsel of peace shall be between them both" (Zech. vi. 12, 13). This reign of Christ upon earth during the Millennium was indisputably typified in that of Solomon: its establishment we believe to be even now in preparation; and we therefore maintain, that the church is now arrived at that period in its progress which was typified by the latter part of the reign of David. It has been rendered probable in a preceding Number (M.W. No. III. p. 307), that David's removal of the ark to mount Sion corresponds with the Lamb and sealed tribes standing on mount Sion in Rev. xiv. 1, which chapter is interpreted as beginning at the French Revolution. From this time, tracing the chief periods backward, we should place Ishbosheth's death in correspondence with the Revolution of 1688; Saul's death, with, the time of the Reformation; and the election of Saul, with the origin of the Papacy. The Jewish people in Samuel's time, and the Christian church in the fourth century, committed the same kind of sin, in desiring a man to rule over them, like all the nations," when the Lord was their King. For the case of the Jewish people, God's displeasure was indicated by "thunderings ;" and the first seal of the Apocalypse is accompanied with, " as it were, the noise of thunder" (vi. 1). "When Saul stood among the people, he was higher than any of the people from his shoulders and upwards....none like him among all the people" (1 Sam. x. 23). The Papacy came up among them, "having eyes like a man, and a mouth speaking great things....whose look was more stout than his fellows (Dan. vii. 8, 20). Saul's first act of disobedience was his not waiting for Samuel to offer the burnt-offering and seek direction from the Lord, but he offered it himself: thus not only thrusting himself into the priestly office, but going to God without a mediator. "No man taketh this honour unto himself but he that is called of God, as was Aaron" (Heb. v. 4). "Ordained in the hands of a mediator, till the Seed should

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come to whom the promise was made" (Gal. iii. 19). Presumption like this of Saul lies at the root of all the Papal abuses the Pope called himself Christ's vicar upon earth, and took upon himself all the prerogatives of Christ-disposing of all dignities, pardoning all sins, dispensing with all obligationsand doing it immediately from himself alone; making himself the mediator between God and man, though it is written (1 Tim. ii. 5), "There is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." But the Spirit of the Lord did not at once depart from Saul, but strove with him, as with the Antediluvians, for a season; and he has another offer of serving God, by executing his vengeance on "the sinners the Amalekites." From this command of God Saul was turned aside by covetousness, under the pretence of religion: "he spared the best of the sheep, and the oxen, to sacrifice unto the Lord." Just so was it with the Papacy: its head had seated himself in the throne of Christ, and usurped the prerogatives of God: having done so, he was bound to execute the laws of the kingdom with inexorable justice, and not spare any of those sins against which the command of God pronounced, "destroy them utterly." Not so did the pope : every thing that was vile and refuse, that he destroyed utterly; but the chief offenders, the Agag, and all who were rich enough to pay for impunity, "the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings (of the second sort, marg.), and the lambs, and all that was good," he spared, and would not utterly destroy them. This crime in Saul rent the kingdom from him; and this crime in the Papacy brought about the Reformation; for it was the shameless sale of pardons and indulgences, by which the wealthy escaped the punishment of the very crimes which in the poor met with no lenity, that roused Luther against the system, while it had prepared men's minds to second him. David is anointed by Samuel soon after this second sin of Saul; and the history of Protestantism may be shewn to run very parallel with the events of David's life,-which we shall draw out in a future paper, having only space in this for a few of the prominent correspondences. The Spirit of the Lord left Saul and rested upon David: so at the Reformation those who were taught of God, and on whom the Spirit of the Lord rested, forsook and protested against the abuses which made the Papacy the sinful and offensive thing it had then become: and in this point of view many individuals, who still nominally belonged to the Church of Rome, are to be ranked among the friends of David, like Jonathan, and not among the abettors of Saul, like Doeg. David with his harp tamed the evil spirit in Saul; and so the Protestants produced a great change in the Papacy itself, shaming them into moderation, and the reform of many evils. But