greatness and power marking its arrival, so that men noticing it should say " Lo here! or lo there! For behold the kingdom of God is among you." That kingdom, about which ye inquire when it shall come, is here already-among you-in the midst of you— before your eyes. No wonder, if these Pharisees indignantly exclaimed, as on another occasion, "Are we blind also?" John ix. 40. To disciples the subject rises in its interest, when we view it as exhibiting the contrariety of the ways and thoughts of God to the thoughts and ways-not of the Jews merely-but of man, fallen man, in every age and country. Indeed, in any other view, it would only tend to impress us with a notion of the extraordinary wickedness of the Jewish people and their leaders, above ourselves. But what have been all the attempts to incorporate Christianity with the various civil constitutions of Europe, but vain and ungodly attempts to transform the kingdom of Christ into a kingdom of this world? what, but attempts to take him (as it were) by force, and make him a king after the fashion of earthly kings, in opposition to his most express declaration, and, we may say, protestation against it?

While the Jewish dispensation lasted, there was indeed a real incorporation of church and state, of their religious and their civil code. They were, in fact, identified; and both emanated, not from man, but from the God of Israel. Yet even that dispensation, in which the institutions were shadows of better things then to come, and the peculiar sanctions of its law, temporal and earthly in their nature; even that dispensation is continually spoken of in the New Testament Scriptures as worldly, and carnal, and passing away; in contrast with the Messiah's kingdom which displaced it, and "which cannot be moved." (Heb. viii. 5, ix. 1—24, xii. 22.)

The Lord himself marks this contrast in his memorable confession before Pilate; while he declared himself a king, declaring as distinctly" My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but Now [de] is my kingdom not from hence." (John xviii. 36.) That word, now," is emphatic; and plainly distinguishes the character of his kingdom from that of the Mosaic dispensation, which it superseded.

But just as the Jews, who "despised and rejected" Jesus of Nazareth, were most ardently attached to the false Messiah they had imagined, and were ready at any time to fight for such a king of Israel; even so, multitudes in anti-christian Europe burn with zeal for the false Christ, whom they have set up in their union of church and state, while they scorn and detest the only true Christ, the Christ of God, and manifest this by their contemptuous rejection of the word that testifies of him. The earthly splendour and pomp of the temples they have consecrated to their idol, the wealth of their endowments, the various orders of lordly priests, and various rituals of service they have appointed for his worship,-all these are things that of course have strong attractions for their earthly minds, and the stronger their attachment to these, and admiration of them, the more cordial is the disgust and hatred excited in them by that, which rejects them all.

Greatly, however, should I be mistaken, if I were understood to mark this Judaizing corruption of Christianity as peculiar to the religious establishment of the country. In various forms it just as much pervades the general mass of Dissenters. Hence all their efforts to attach some worldly respectability to their several synagogu s and systems, respectability from the number or rank of their adherents, respectability from the paltry splendour of even their edifices, respectability from the talents and eloquence of the Reverend gentleman, who apes the clergyman in his garb and style, and whose ministrations to a crowded audience of admiring pewholders and hearers are substituted for the assembling of a few saints on the first day of the week, to break bread. But hence, above all, the various schemes of Churchmen and Dissenters conjointly to cover the offensiveness of the unadulterated GOSPEL, by concealing that heavenly truth which publishes salvation to the lost, justification to the ungodly, mercy higher than the heavens to the chief of sinners, and "reigning through righteousness by Jesus Christ unto eternal life;" concealing, I say, this heavenly and joyful truth, by substituting for it, the several counterfeit doctrines of men and lies of Satan, which are forged in opposition to that truth, but attired in its perverted phraseology.

And just as, among the Jews, the ringleaders of the opposition to Jesus of Nazareth, those who excited the populace to join in the cry

'crucify him, crucify him,"-were the persons most eminent in the nation for religious knowledge and zeal and strictness; as these were the persons most fired with indignation at Him, who avowed himself the friend of publicans and sinners;" even so is it now. The Scribes and Pharisees would have borne with a great many other things which they disliked, and have been ready perhaps to acknowledge the Lord as a divine teacher and prophet; if he had only intimated that he came to favour persons so good and respectable, as they considered themselves, and had scowled upon the confessedly wicked. They would then have been ready, with the good young ruler, to admit his claim to the character of goodness, and, it may be, would have joined with that very serious inquirer in consulting him on the good question*—" what good thing shall we do that we may inherit eternal life?" So full of goodness and excellent moral dispositions were these "betrayers and murderers of that just One," whose coming they professed to expect most confidently, and to desire most earnestly.

Even so at this day the false teachers, hired by the people to feed them with the lies they love, hold out various false Christs, as in various degrees helping the well-disposed, those who have good desires, and much willingness to avail themselves of the offered aid.

The commencement of Christ's reply to that inquirer is commonly read with an emphasis very falsely placed,—placed on the word me, instead of on the word why. "WHY callest thou me good? There is none good but One, that is God." The young ruler had complimented Jesus with the title, just as he thought that it belonged to himself. But he heard in reply a principle, which laid the axe to the very root of all his goodness, while it left the Lord's claim to the title of good neither affirmed nor denied.

And the doctrine that encourages such, that instructs and excites them to lay hold on the blessedness which is placed within their reach by the false Christ of the system, is termed evangelical. But to the absolutely bad and ill-disposed, who have no good desires, these teachers have no gospel, or none till they become good; and the Apostolic Gospel, which publishes a Saviour of such wicked, stubborn rebels against the Most High, is just as much an object of scorn and detestation and blasphemous reviling to these zealous champions of goodness, as ever it was in the Apostolic age.

We often find that the Pharisees expressed their desire, that the Lord would shew them "a sign from heaven," some display of sensible glory in the sky; having in view, no doubt, the prophecy concerning the Son of Man in Dan. vii. 13, 14. That sign of the Son of Man they demanded to see prematurely, that he might be authenticated to them as the Messiah; but he refused it to that generation, while he assured his disciples that they should see it in due season. (Matt. xxiv. 30.) On one of those occasions, the Lord rebuked the Pharisees and Sadducees for their blindness to the signs of the times, that were before their eyes. (Matt. xvi. 1-3.) At this day, in like manner, that second coming of Christ, which forms one of the articles of the national creed, much engages the thoughts and speculations of the religious world; they consider it to be at hand, and look anxiously for signs of its near approach. But I apprehend that the signs they mainly look for are connected with their false conceptions of Christianity; more national conversions, and an increased flourishing of their religion by an addition of numerous and respectable proselytes; while they see not the signs, which most distinctly mark to disciples the approach of "him that cometh."

Among these signs of the times, I especially regard that" consumption of the man of sin" (2 Thess. ii. 8.), which is quietly but progressively going on, "by the spirit of the Lord's mouth," by the word of truth, that "sword which proceedeth out of his mouth." This noiseless recalling of disciples to the purity of Apostolic doctrine and practice, from which they had been more or less borne aside by the wide flood of anti-christian corruption, this-so far as it excites the attention of the religious world at all-excites also their disgust and indignation. Yet this is among the most conclusive signs of the times, which indicate to disciples that the great day is at hand.

When the number of the elect is fulfilled, and the last of them gathered in out of Babylon, this world will then be as the lifeless carcase, upon which, wherever it is, the birds of prey fall, "the eagles are gathered together." (Luke xvii. 37.) It was so in the days of Noah. It was not till the day of Noah's entrance into the ark that the flood came. It was so in the days of Lot. It was so in the day of Jerusalem's judgment. And even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed." And his coming shall be suddenly, in an instant-" as the lightning, that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven, shineth unto the other part under heaven;" —“ in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye." (1 Cor. xv. 52.) How wisely and graciously is this ordered and revealed! All the

vain speculations are thus put down, which would lead us to calculate the particular time of his appearing; and with them all that agitation, that commotion of mind, which the idea of its immediate arrival would necessarily occasion. This mental perturbation is the thing really imported by the expressions "shaken in mind" and "troubled," in 2 Thess. ii. 2. Our utter ignorance also of that day and that hour impresses on disciples, every day and every hour, that salutary monition-" Watch, as men who wait for their Lord, watch."

XIV.

INSTANCES OF INACCURACY IN THE RENDERING OF TENSES.

"And they called him Zacharias, after the name of his father.”—Luke i. 59.

It should be" they were calling him Z." [exaλouv.] They were about calling him after the name of his father; and would have done so, but for the interference of Elizabeth, to whom her husband had, no doubt, by writing communicated the name prescribed by the Angel.

"Our friend Lazarus sleepeth." John xi. 11.-It should be―" hath fallen asleep." [κεκοιμηται.]

WE are told that the Lord, after receiving the message from Martha and Mary announcing their brother's illness, "abode two days still in the same place where he was." And it is evident that he purposely waited so long, in order that the death and burial of Lazarus might take place before he should arrive at Bethany. With what anxious alternation of hopes and fears did the sisters, we may suppose, look out for his arrival, during the progress of their brother's illness! With what a sad sinking of the heart were their hopes apparently extinguished by his death! and not unaccompanied perhaps with some chagrin, when they heard that Jesus was coming. Little were they aware, that all which passed in their house of sorrow, had passed under his observant ken, and that he had purposely allowed it to take place, for the greater display of the glory of God.

Surely his followers may learn cheering and profitable lessons from the narrative, in seasons of their sorest affliction, and when the lookedfor relief is longest delayed.

"For yet a little while, and he that shall come, will come, and will not tarry."

Heb. x. 37.

I should decidedly prefer to render this literally-" he that cometh," or, "he that is coming." ['o sexoμeros] This more emphatically expresses our confidence that his arrival approaches, than the indefinitely future expression-" he that shall come." I would make the same alteration in Matt. xi. 3. and Luke vii. 19,-"Art thou he that cometh, or look we for another?"

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From the latter passages we may collect, that the expression "he that cometh" was, with the Jews, a kind of title distinguishing the MESSIAH; for this was certainly the designed and understood import of the Baptist's inquiry.* And the phrase appears to have received this current acceptation from its use in Psalm cxviii. 26, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the LORD." In this language, the multitude of rejoicing disciples who attended the Lord on his last entrance into Jerusalem, acknowledged him as the MESSIAH; and in the same sense did the Lord apply the language to himself in his last lamentation over Jerusalem. Matt. xxiii. 39.

At this day indeed believers have to remember with joy, that the coming of Christ in the flesh has taken place; that coming which

Some have conceived, that it was not for the satisfaction of his own mind the Baptist made this inquiry, but for the satisfaction of his disciples, through whom he proposed it. They think it impossible that any doubt upon the subject could have occurred to himself, after the divine information he had received, the evidence he had witnessed, and the testimony he had borne, identifying Jesus of Nazareth as the MESSIAH. But this idea proceeds upon a false estimate of what is in man. I am far indeed from conceiving that the Baptist was allowed to renounce that view of the Lord. But it is evident from the narrative, that he was staggered in his mind; and staggered, (it is more than probable) from finding that the Lord did not interfere at all to release him from prison. According to the generally prevalent misconceptions of the nature of the MESSIAH's kingdom, (prevalent, we know, at that time, among the most favoured disciples of the Lord, and no doubt affecting also the Baptist's mind,) he appears to have been quite unable to reconcile it with the greatness of that kingdom, that he himself should be left so long in the hands of his enemies. Perhaps also he designed, by making the inquiry, to put himself and his situation in the Lord's revived recollection.

Those who imagine, that so great a prophet could not have fallen into such a halting state, are puffed up with a vain admiration of him, and a vain conceit of themselves. Accordingly, the Lord, in his reply to the Baptist's inquiry, treats this manifestation of his fleshly mind with no more indulgence than he treated a similar manifestation in Peter, (Matt. xvi. 23.) Simply referring to the works of mercy in which he was engaged, he adds the declaration-"Blessed is he, whosoever shall not stumble at me:' words which plainly mark the mind that he rebukes in the Baptist, as the mind of unbelief; the tendency of which is to make men stumble at that stone, against which whosoever falls shall be broken. This mind "savours not the things that are of God, but the things that are of men:" and is of precisely the same ungodly character in those who are saved from its destructive tendency, as in those whom it destroys. When the iron (2 Kings vi. 6.) was miraculously made to ascend from the bottom of the water, and to float on the surface, its own tendency to sink to the bottom was just the same as before; and would have been at any moment manifested, if the supernatural power which raised it were but for a moment intermitted. Even such is every fancied improvement of our own nature by what the religious world miscall Grace.