the apostle was not to be heard; the voice of Jesus is to be alone attended to. He is head over all things to his church; he has been given as a leader and commander to his people; he alone is to have authority, and no subordinate or inferior ministry should ever encroach upon his proper and rightful prerogatives.

Thus, we perceive, that the announcement which came from heaven on this occasion consisted of three distinct clauses. Some have thought that these were intended to refer to the three offices which Christ sustains, and that they have been derived from the three leading departments of the Old Testament: that the first clause, "This is my beloved Son," has a reference to the kingly power of Christ, who is spoken of in the 6th and 7th verses of the 2nd Psalm, as the Son of God exalted as King upon the holy hill of Zion: that the second clause, "in whom I am well pleased," has a reference to his priestly office, in the execution of which he magnified the law by a sacrifice well-pleasing to God, according to the declaration of Isaiah, in the 21st verse of his 42nd chapter, "The Lord is well pleased for his righteousness' sake: he will magnify the law, and make it honourable:" and that the third clause, "Hear him," refers to his prophetical office, and is spoken in allusion to the prediction of Moses recorded in the 15th verse of the 18th chapter of Deateronomy, "The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him shall ye hearken."

We are now arrived at the conclusion of the history of this splendid transaction. "When the disciples heard the voice, they fell on their face and

were sore afraid." When God speaks in the language of authority, it is no wonder that men should tremble. The voice of God fills the soul of man with fear on account of his sinfulness and weakness. But, blessed be God! we can never be so cast down and overwhelmed with terror, as that the mild and merciful command of Him, who is our righteousness and strength, shall prove ineffectual in restoring us to a state of tranquillity and peace. When the disciples were lying prostrate on the ground, in apprehension and dismay, “Jesus came and touched them, and said, Arise, and be not afraid." Thus, whenever we feel the Saviour's touch, our hearts are instantly filled with that love which casteth out fear, and his voice at once restores the sweetest confidence to the most dejected soul. The narrative concludes by telling us, that "when the disciples lifted up their eyes, they saw no man, save Jesus only." All was now over. The splendid scenery had now departed. Their eyes could bear the sight no longer, nor could this world any longer contain that light and glory, which can only remain as the permanent embellishment of that new earth in which righteousness shall for ever dwell. Moses and Elias were taken away: Jesus was left to finish the work which the Father had given him to do, and the apostles to sustain the trials, and discharge the labours that awaited them, encouraged by the bright and happy prospect of appearing again, not as spectators only, but as the immediate companions of their glorified Master, in that eternal kingdom of blessedness and immortality which it is the ultimate design of his mediation to establish over the whole extent of a renovated earth.

PSALM I. 5.

"Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous."

MANY are the incidental allusions to important doctrines which lie scattered, as with a careless hand, throughout the word of God. Often these references are not understood by those who peruse the passages where they occur. They remain hidden until some peculiar state of the church, or the prominence of some peculiar controversy or article of faith, discovers them at once to our view; as the near and partial flashing of a torch will bring out figures from the dark back-ground of a picture, which had been before unseen, amid the broad and general light of day.

The passage which I have placed at the head of this paper, is a striking testimony to the truth of this fact. The great point to which it alludes has been so entirely overlooked by the framers of our English version, that they have translated it in quite a different sense to what the original clearly implies. Martin Luther had done the same before them; and we can only attribute this to the sinking of many invaluable portions of divine truth, in the all-absorbing question of Popery, or no Popery ?-Rome and slavery, or the Bible and freedom?' which was, with both Luther and our own Reformers, the watchword of the church. Other subjects were deemed of more

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or less importance, in proportion as they bore upon the grand matter then at issue in the struggle between Scripture light and Popish darkness.

Since those times, fresh topics have taken the place of these. Conformity and non-conformity once split the Church of England. Calvinism and Arminianism split it again, though not so visibly. Millenarianism and Anti-Millenarianism afterwards took their places, and made many a rent in the texture of the religious world; and even these have lately given way before the disputes arising out of the Puseyite controversy.

Now in each of these successive eras of the English church, the points chiefly in dispute have been deemed the most important points of religion. Organs and surplices were considered quite as momentous things in the days of our first James, as 'bell, book and candle,' had been in those of Elizabeth. 'The five points,' and the number of the beast,' have since occupied their places, as objects of controversy; the same place now held by the Apostolic succession,' 'the system of reserve in preaching,' and the excellence of tradition.

Thus the wheel has gone round; now one part uppermost to public view, and now another; and according to the subject disputed, has been the supreme importance attached to certain parts of scripture, and the lack of attention paid to others. Some have disparaged the epistle to the Hebrews,-Luther questioned that of St. James; while John Wesley went so far as to paste up the ninth chapter of that to the Romans. The book of Revelation has sometimes superseded all other portions of the Bible; while, at other periods, it has been as a sealed book, scarcely to be opened, even by the clergy.

All this is alike wrong. "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for" the various necessities of the church. One book is not to be supremely extolled, nor another unjustly depreciated; every part has its peculiar bearing on the mighty whole of the Christian system.

Perhaps the good which results from this evil, (for we know that every apparent evil carries its respective good in its bosom,) is the bringing out the full meaning of particular books and passages of holy writ, and the discovery of many previously unnoticed allusions to subjects which are apparently unconnected with the texts where the allusions are found.

This has been especially the case with prophetic subjects. By the controversy upon them, light has been thrown on many an obscure passage and parable, and several apparently dim prophecies, when compared with each other in this fresh illumination, have stood out in clear and conspicuous forms. Probably my readers have never perceived any possible reference to " the first resurrection" in the first Psalm. Yet there is a very clear and striking one, though it is much obscured by the translation. The literal rendering of the fifth verse runs thus, "For this (reason) the wicked (or condemned) shall not rise, in that judgment: nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous," (or justified.) The difference from the common version will be seen at once. I do not wish to deny that the Hebrew verb koom, here spoken of the ungodly, signifies also to stand; but that is its secondary meaning, its primary one is to rise; which will be evident to common sense, if we remember that a person or thing must rise up previously to standing.