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His holy prophets since the world began.* The atonement I have received by faith in Jesus Christ: that is the poor sinner's portion. I claim it: it is mine. See Romans 5. 6-21. By the death of Christ, by the shedding of His precious blood, as the Lamb of God, I am redeemed from the curse. Jesus groaned and wept: He prayed and agonizedsuffered and died for me. I glory in His cross as my portion; and confess His glory, that as He rose from the dead, ascended to Heaven, and sent down the Holy Ghost from the Father, I am bound to believe, that every word spoken concerning Him, by Moses, or in the Psalms, or by the Prophets, and His Apostles, shall all be fulfilled to the very letter. If I neglect this, I crucify the Son of God afreshyes-over and over, just for the sake of self-always be killing him-and praise His blood; but deny his body. This would not answer to Paul's confession of Christ and Him crucified. Paul knew that the anointed of God abideth for ever; and the great apostle gloried in the cross, as His Master did suffer and die, that sin might have an end, and death itself be destroyed. In an eternal and unchangeable priesthood, (after the order of Melchisedec,) Paul knew Christ crucified, that by presenting his own precious blood as a sacrifice for the sins of his people, he obtained the excellent glory of entering into the holiest of all, in a living body, raised from the dead, and destined to locality-first, (by ascension,) to the throne of the Father; and afterward to the throne of David, which is upon earth. Paul gloried in the cross of Christ, as his Master endured it and despised the shame; for he was aware that the resurrection of His body with all the marks and scars

*After the flood.

thereupon, by a crown of thorns, by cruel scourging, by the dreadful nails, and sharp Roman spear, secured His own honour, the honour of God, and the truth of the original covenant, as the prophet that should come from Sinai, rise up from Seir, shine forth from Mount Paran, and come with ten thousand of His saints, holding in His right hand a fiery law to protect them; and prepared to write the same upon the hearts and in the minds of the people to whom (Paul declared) "pertained the adoption, and the glory, the first and outward giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises, whose are the fathers, and of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever, Amen." Paul knew very well that the cross of Christ was his Master's passport to the glory of David's throne; and that by the unbelief of his nation in the lowly Jesus, they must be broken off from their Holy One (because they rejected him) till the times of the Gentiles should be fulfilled: then, said the apostle, "There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob; for the gifts and calling of God are without repentance." Paul knew that God had never altered nor disowned his covenant; but the children of the promise they had broken it; and must be punished seven times (prophetic calculation) for despising the oath of God, the Lord, their Holy One. Never did Paul attempt to hold forth the absurd doctrine of a spiritual reign of the Messiah, the King of Israel, in the absence of that glorified body, which (Peter, by the Holy Ghost, declared) "is made of God both Lord and Christ, whom (said Peter) the Heavens must receive, until the times of the restitution of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began." I beg not to be understood that Paul denied the spiritual

kingdom and glory of his Master. O! no-the great apostle strictly adhered to the original divinity of Jesus Christ, and says, "Now the Lord is that Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." Paul described the kingdom of God, as a perfect scene of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost; and testified that flesh and blood should not inherit that kingdom: he also asserts positively that he himself knew Christ after the flesh no more; meaning that he was the Son of God, being the brightness of the Father's glory, the express image of His person; and essentially God manifest in the flesh"-separate from the likeness of sinful flesh, by His resurrection from the dead, having seen no corruption. The second appearing, which is the glorious epiphany of the Blessed One, is described by Paul in his First Epistle to the Thessalonians, fourth chapter, and sixteenth verse, as the coming of Jehovah; and this answers to the testimony of Jesus himself, concerning His return to this world; for he said that he would come in the glory of his Father, His own glory; and the holy angels. I do seriously declare, that my mind is entirely free from any sentiment which favours infidelity concerning the majesty of my Saviour's reign upon earth. I sincerely believe in its literality; but not in a divorce from the Holy Ghost. I believe in the material resurrection of His body without the blood; for He said He had flesh and bones. As to the blood-O holy mystery-O sacred offering-Where, where is it? saints and angels, can ye tell? I trow not-"Is it not sealed up among His treasures, and laid up in store with him; but not in His glorified person, His kingdom entitled humanity.

Oh! the BLOOD of the Lamb! "Blood toucheth blood!" Meekly and prayerfully Jesus yielded up

His life. He bowed His head-he gave up the ghost-the earth quaked-the sun was darkened— the veil of the temple was rent in the midst, while the Son of man uttered his dying voice in a loud cry;-but, cry; but, after He gave His spirit up to the Father, nature was quiet-quiet till the moment arrived for the emancipation of His body from the tomb-then nature's bosom heaved again, to give back to God His Son, the last Adam-a quickening spirit-and yet flesh and bones. This body material for the sake of his church, which is the bride of the Lamb, —and immaterial for the glory of God, must ascend back to Heaven, and is in the bosom of the Father, made both Lord and Christ. There He meekly waits, interceding, mediating, advocating, for mercy to endure-until Michael, the archangel, reports to the Father, that He must send Jesus Christ quickly. "Behold I come quickly"-yes-there is necessity for Michael's battle with the devil, results in the latter coming down to the earth, that is, taking possession of a body prepared-"the man of sin" "the vile person"-"the wild animal”—and this commences the devil's "short time," and "great wrath"-three years and a half previous to the close of the vision of judgment upon Jerusalem and her children, on account of the transgression of desolation, which was committed by Manasseh, who "did evil in the sight of the Lord, like unto the abominations of the Gentiles, whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel."

1. "Manasseh built the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and he reared altars for Baalim, and worshipped all the host of heaven.

2. "Also he built altars in the house of the Lord, whereof the Lord had said, In Jerusalem shall my name be for ever.

3. "And he built altars for all the host of heaven, in the two courts of the house of the Lord.

4. "He caused his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom.

5. "He observed enchantments and witchcrafts, dealt with a familiar spirit, and with wizards.

6. "He wrought much evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger. He seduced the children of the ancient covenant "to do more evil than the nations whom the Lord had driven out of the holy land.

7. "And he set a carved image, the idol which he had made in the house of God, of which God said to David and to Solomon his son, In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen before all the tribes of Israel, will I set my name for ever."

In the height of his mad career, Manasseh shed the blood of prophets whom God sent to warn the people, and he shed innocent blood (infants) very much, till he had filled Jerusalem with blood from one end to another-therefore, God said, that He would bring evil upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whosoever heareth of it, both his ears shall tingle. And I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahab; and I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it, and turning it upside down. And I will forsake the remnant of mine inheritance, and deliver them into the hand of their enemies; and they shall become a prey and a spoil," &c. &c.

This judgment of the Lord God of Israel, (which was revealed by His holy prophets) was executed about fifty years after the death of the most wilful and wicked king that ever swayed the sceptre of the kingdom of Israel or Judah; and Ezra remem

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