changed the symbol of Christianity for the letter of it: that Divine. Mystery emblematically represented under the figure of the Cherubim having been clearly revealed, in the Incarnation of one of the Divine Persons in the Godhead; and the subsequent direction given to the Apostles to baptize all nations in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; those three Great Ones, who had engaged themselves in Covenant for the redemption of fallen Man.

In proceeding to the revelation of things that are to come to pass at the end of days; when the Patriarch, the Jew, and the Christian shall be assembled before the throne; we find the symbol and the letter blended together: we behold the Son of Man, the typical Lainb under the Law, who had been slain for the sins of mankind, standing in the midst of the throne, and of the four Beasts, or rather living creatures; which, according to the testimony of Ezekiel, were intended to exhibit “the appearance of the likeness of the Glory of the Lord," Ezek. i. 28.under those Dispensations, in which God thought

thought fit to convey divine knowledge through a symbolical medium; as if, by bringing into one point of view the different parts of the Divine Economy in the work of Redemption, to convey this essential idea; that in the character and office of Jesus Christ, each Dispensation of Grace had received its accomplishment.

Whoever then can fairly read his Bible, and conclude that all that apparatus of divine wisdom, (if it may be so called) manifested in the Dispensations preparatory to the perfection of the Gospel, was made use of for the purpose of introducing Jesus Christ into the world, in the sole character of a moral teacher, must have a vail before his eyes, as thick as that, which is judiciously suffered still to remain before the eyes of the carnal Jew. To us, (on whom we trust the light hath shined,) the divinity of the promised seed, that" Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world; who, in the Book of Revelations is called "the Word of God;" which Word, St. John in his history expressly tells us " was God;" appears to be written, as it were with a sun-beam, in almost every page of the Sa

cred

cred Scripture. It is the substance of the Law, the Spirit of Prophecy, and the perfection of the Gospel. That divine Person, the only ground for hope to fallen man, we trace in every Dispensation. By the light of the Gospel, we see him in the ceremonials of the Jewish Ritual, as clearly as we behold Him in the appointed ordinances of the Christian Church. And seeing Him as we do, we tremble for the condition of those in an enlightened country, who see Him not. Whatever flattering ideas they may annex to their due acknowledgment of God in his character of Creator and Governor of the world, and to the conscientious discharge of moral duties; yet certain it is, from the general tenor of Revelation, that "without shedding of blood there is no remission." he that despised Moses' Law, died without mercy, under two or three witnesses, of how much sorer punishment shall they be thought worthy, who have trodden under foot the Son of God, and counted the blood of the Covenant an unholy thing? For their sacrifice, however perfect in its kind, resembles not the sacrifice of Abel, which

If

which was accepted; but that of Cain, which was rejected; because it was not a sacrifice in correspondence with the covenant of Grace. With this conviction on our minds, we have but to offer up our earnest prayers to God, for those who now sit in darkness; that the eyes of their understanding being opened, they may be brought acquainted with the fulness of Divine Wisdom in the great mystery of Redemption; and thereby become prepared to join in that new song, which shall, at the end of time, be sung to the honour of the Redeemer; on the consideration, that it is "through Him alone, that there is access to the Father." "I beheld (says St. John in a vision) and lo! in the midst of the throne and of the four Beasts, and in the midst of the Elders, stood a Lamb, as it had been slain: and He came, and took the Book out of the right hand of Him, that sat upon the throne.

And when He had taken the book, the four beasts, and four-and-twenty elders, fell down before the Lamb: and they sung a new song, saying; Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for Thou

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wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation. And I beheld and heard the voice of many angels round about the throne, and the beasts and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands: saying with a loud voice; Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the seas, and all that are in them, heard I say; blessing and honour, glory and power be unto Him that sitteth on the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever."-Amen.

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