but it only dawned. The faint ray was just sufficient to keep hope alive, but gradually it waxed stronger and clearer. Additional intimations of the purposes of God were given from time to time-the promises were repeatedly renewed" at sundry times and in divers manners, God spake unto our fathers by the prophets" -at length the sun of righteous ness himself appeared, and life and immortality were brought to light by the gospel The word of God has been long ago cómpleted-it contains all that the wisdom of God has seen fit to communicate, and it is the only source from which we can derive the true knowledge of him and of ourselves.

Let us now consider briefly the account it gives of our lost condition by nature, and the way of our recovery. It informs us that God created man in his own image -but, that image was soon defaced by the entrance of sin into the world. Man lost at once his purity and his happiness; and from being a creature who shared the friendship of God, and enjoyed holy intercourse with him, he became an unhappy outcast from his presence-he forfeited all claim to his favour-he rebelled against the government and authority of God, and thereby exposed himself to the awfully threatened punishment of death. Having once sinned, man became a sinner, and incapable any longer of serving God aright. He was now an enemy to God in his mind and by wicked works.

Here then are two problems to be solved. "How can man be just with God?" And "how can he be clean that is born of a woman?" He is guilty, and how can he be acquitted? He is un

clean, and how can he be made hoy? Both of these things must be effected before man can be happy. Until satisfaction was made to the offended law, it would have been inconsistent with all the perfections of God, (not with his justice merely) to hold man innocent, and to restore him to favour

That could not have been done but at the expence of truth, and justice, and faithfulness, and holiness too. But the way which God hath found out, overcomes all these difficulties it is indeed worthy of him who says, "counsel is mine, and sound wisdom; I have under standing." It completely secures the honour of the divine law and justice; it marks in the strongest colours, the exceeding sinfuluess of sin, while it raises the sinner to the highest felicity, and lays him under eternal obligations to the mercy and love of God. Here, then is the plan-and O! let it be surveyed with that reverence and awe, which it ought ever to inspire! We almost tremble, lest our unworthy and inadequate conceptions should dishonour the heavenly theme-a theme

"Ne'er to be thought on but with tides of joy,

Ne'er to be mentioned but in shouts of praise."

The Son of God himself, the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, voluntarily undertook to fulfil the whole law, and to suffer its direful penalty in the room of sinners of mankind. In order to this, he took human nature into union with his own. He left the glory which he had with the Father before the world was, and came into this our world-not arrayed in majesty as the Son of

the Highest, but in the form of a servant. He lived-not surrounded with pleasures and happiness--but a man of sorrow, and acquainted with grief. He was not hailed as the great Redee.ner of a lost world-but despised and rejected of men-he came unto his own, and his own received him not! The indifference of his friends, the malice of his enemies, the reproaches that were cast on him, and the ignominious and cruel treatment he submitted to, however grievous to be borne were comparatively light-what he endured in those bitter moments when his soul was exceeding sorrowful even unto death, and when he cried out in agony, "my God! my God! why hast thou forsaken me"-no language can describe, and no heart can conceive. It was then those "arrows of the Almighty were within him, the poison whereof drank up his spirit;" and at last he ended his sufferings by dying upon the cross, but not before he could say, "It is finished." Such was "the price of pardon" demanded from the sinner's surety, and freely paid by him. Such was the method which infinite wisdom saw necessary to employ, and which nothing but infinite love could have prompted the Saviour to undertake. But let us now hear the language of Scripture itself upon the subject "God sent forth his Son made of a woman, born under the law, to redeem them that were under the law"-" for God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life" " he was made sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him"-" he died the just for

the unjust, that he might bring us to God"-he finished transgression, made an end of sin offering, and brought in everlasting righteousness" and therefore, God is now just, when he justifies the ungodly believing in Jesus. By the atonement of Christ, the curse is removed, the believing sinner is freed from condemnation

he is justified freely by the grace of God, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. But pardon is not the only blessing which flows to the guilty through this wonderful channel, -eternal life is also bestowed upon all who are thus pardoned. As we already noticed, sinners must be made holy, that they may be fitted for the enjoyment of God. We accordingly find that they who believe, are sanctified by the truth-they are made new creatures-they are renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created them-they learn to hate sin, and to love God-they delight in the law of God after the inward man-they have their fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.

When this great salvation is made known to any sinner, it might be thought that its infinitefreeness and fullness, and his own perishing need of it, would secure it a welcome reception as soon as proposed, but this is not the case. So great is the depravity and blindness of the human heart, that men put away from them the words of eternal life! "They will not come unto me," said Jesus," that they might have life,"-therefore," this is the condemnation, that light is come unto the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil." Something more than this is neces

or

The reason which induced Mr. F. to enter upon the exposition of this part of the sacred writings was not, he says, "from an idea that I at that time sufficiently understood the prophecy, but from a hope that by this means I might understand it better, and now that I have ventured to publish, it is not because I am fully satisfied of having given the true meaning in every instance. There are parts in which I can only say, I have done the best I could. If, however, I had not been satisfied as to the general meaning of the prophecy, had been conscious of having thrown no new light upon it, I should now have felt it my duty to withhold my papers from the public eye." The blessing pronounced upon him that readeth the word of this prophecy, the approaching accomplishment of it, and the wonderful events which had occurred of late years in Europe, all contributed to encourage him, with a sense of dependence upon the enlightening influences of the Holy Sprit, to enter upon a close investigation of the Apocalypse. Having suffered the inanuscript to lie by him between four and five years, he frequently re-examined its contents, he in forms us, and availed himself of any farther light, which reading and reflection afforded on the subject.

Instead of giving an opinion of a work of this kind, on which the views of good men are apt to be so various, and even contradictory, and instead of bringing forward extracts from the work

itself, we think we shall be doing our readers a greater service, by giving them entire " a scheme of the prophecy," drawn up by the author himself. This contains a

brief and connected view of the contents of the volume, and may be of service for directing the reflections of such as are induced to study this part of divine revelation.

The addresses to the seven churches are applicable to all other churches in similar circumstances, in all ages, but not prophetic-The things which the apostle was commanded to write being those which he had seen, those which were, and those the prophecy commences, not from which should be hereafter, prove that the time of the vision, but probably from the ascension of Christ, in like manner as the four monarchies of

Daniel commenced from the rfsing up of the Babylonish empire, many years before the time of the vision

.Chapters i-iii.

The book of SEVEN SEALS Con

tains the whole of the prophecy, the trumpets being only a subdivision of the seventh seal, and the vials of the seventh trumpet...Chapters iv. v. The opening of the first seal,on which appeared a white horse, and he that sat on him had a bow;

and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth eonquering and to conquer"-represents the great progress of the gospel in the apostolic age...... ....Chap. vi. 1. 2.

The opening of the second sealon which there appeared "a red that sat thereon to take peace from horse, and power was given to him the earth, and that they should kill one another,"-signifies the wars between the Jews and the Romans, who had united in persecuting Christ and his followers.......Chap. vi. 3, 4.

The opening of the third seal-on which there appeared " a black horse, and he that eat on him had a pair of balances in his hand, &c.denotes a famine, or scarcity approaching to famine, in which the necessaries of life would be required to be weighed out with the utmost the reigns of the Antonines...... care, and which was fulfilled during

.......Chap. vi. 5. 6.

The opening of the fourth seal,on which there appeared "a pale