whence he is frequently called by the Jews Bar-David, the son of David.' The Gospel saith, 'Jesus Christ was the son of David, the son of Abraham.' The law, that he was to be born of a virgin.' The gospel, that 'Mary, a virgin, brought forth this Jesus.' The law, 'that he was to be born at Bethlehem Ephratah.' The gospel, that this Jesus was born there.

"The law says, that he was to be 'brought out of Egypt.' The gospel, that Jesus was called thence. The law saith, that one should go before the Messiah,' and should cry in the wilderness.' The gospel, that John Baptist did so before Christ. The law, that the Messiah should preach the doctrine of salvation in Galilee,' which sitting before in darkness should see great light. The gospel, that Jesus did so. The law, that, in the Messiah's days, 'the eyes of the blind should be opened, and the ears of the deaf should be unstopped, and the lame leap, and the tongue of the dumb sing.' The gospel, that it was so in the days of Jesus Christ. But for all these wonders and miracles, the law saith, they should hear, but not understand; and see, yet not perceive.' And the gospel, that seeing, they did not see; and hearing, they did not hear; neither did they understand.' The law, that he should be 'despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.' The gospel, that 'Jesus Christ had not where to lay his head;' 'his soul was exceeding sorrowful, even unto death;' yea, 'he was in an agony, and his sweat was as drops of blood:' so well was he acquainted with grief. The law says, that he should ride into Jerusalem upon an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of an ass.' And the gospel, that Jesus Christ, as he was going to Jerusalem, having found an ass, sat thereon.' At which time, the law saith the people should cry, 'Hosannah, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.' The gospel, that the multitude did so to Christ. The law, that' one of his own familiar friends, in whom he trusted, which did eat of his bread, should lift up his heel against him.' The gospel, that Judas, who was one of Christ's disciples, and so ate of his bread, did betray him into the hands of the Jews. The law, that he should be prized at, and sold for thirty pieces of silver, with which should be bought the potter's field. The gospel, that they covenanted with Judas to betray Jesus for thirty pieces of silver, with which they afterwards bought the potter's field. The law, that he should be numbered amongst transgressors.' The gospel, that Jesus was 'crucified betwixt two thieves.' The law, that he should be wounded and bruised.' The gospel, that they scourged Jesus,' and 'smote him.' The law saith, 'they should pierce his hands and feet.' The gospel, that they crucified Jesus;' which was a death wherein they used to pierce the hands and feet of those that were put to death, and nailed them to the cross. But though they should pierce his flesh, yet the law saith that they should not 'break his bones, no not one of them.' The gospel, that they brake not the legs of Christ.' The law, that they who should see him, should laugh him to scorn, shoot out their lips, and shake their heads, saying, he trusted in the Lord that he would deliver him, let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.' The gospel, that the scribes and elders did so to Christ. The law saith they should give him gall for meat, and vinegar to drink. And the gospel, that they gave Christ vinegar to drink, mingled with gall The law, that they should part his garments amongst them, and cast lots upon his vesture. The gospel, that they parted Jesus' garments, casting lots.'

"And as for the time of this Jesus' coming into the world, it is certain

that this Jesus came before the 'second temple was demolished;' for it is said, that He went into it; yea, Himself, taught daily in it;' by which means the 'glory of the second temple was greater than the glory of the first,' according to the prophecy. And as for Jacob's prophecy, that the sceptre should not depart from Judah, nor the lawgiver, till Shiloh,' or the Messiah, 'came,' it is certain that it did not depart from Judah till Herod, by the senate of Rome, was made king of Judea, in whose days this Jesus was born. And so did Daniel's seventy weeks, or four hundred and ninety years, exactly reach unto, and were determined in, the days of this Jesus, as might easily be demonstrated. So that all the old prophecies concerning the time of the Messiah's coming are perfectly fulfilled in this Jesus of Nazareth.

"But further, the law saith that though the Messiah should be crucified, yet God will not leave His soul in hell, nor suffer His Holy One to see corruption;' and that when God should make his soul an offering for sin, he should see his seed, and prolong his days;' which plainly implies, that though the Messiah should die, yet he should rise again, and that within few days, too, otherwise he would have seen corruption. Now, the Gospel saith, that this Jesus rose from the dead,' and that He was seen of several after His resurrection, as of Mary Magdalen,' of the eleven disciples,' of the two that were going to Emmaus," of Peter,' 'and of the disciples that were gathered together, the door being shut.' And, to be sure it was Himself and not an apparition, Thomas, one of the twelve, 'thrust his hands into his side and found it flesh and blood,' indeed, as before. And He ate before them,' which it is impossible for a spirit to do; yca, 'He was seen of above five hundred at one time,' and of Paul himself.' Neither did He lie so long as to see corruption, for He was buried but the day before the Sabbath,' and rose the day after.

"Lastly. He was not only to rise again, but the law saith, He was to ascend on high, to lead captivity captive, and to give gifts to men.' Now, this cannot but be an undoubted character of the Messiah, not only to rise from the dead, but to ascend up to heaven, and thence to disperse His gifts among the children of men; and that Jesus did so, is likewise evident from the Gospel; for, after He had spoken with them, He was received up into Heaven, and there sat at the right hand of God.' And He gave such gifts to men, as that His disciples, of a sudden, were enabled to speak all manner of languages;' to 'work many signs and wonders,' to 'heal all manner of diseases,' yea, with a word speaking, to cure a man lame from his mother's womb.'

"Thus, the Gospel seems to me to be a perfect transcript of the law, and the histories of Jesus nothing else but the prophecies of Christ turned into a history. And, when to this I join the consideration of the piety of the life which this man led, the purity of the doctrine which he taught, and the miraculousness of the works he wrought, I cannot but be further confirmed in the truth of what is here related.

"Neither was the doctrine of the Gospel only established at the first, but likewise propagated by miracles afterwards, as it was necessary it should be; for, if it had been propagated without miracles, itself had been the greatest miracle of all. It was, no doubt, a great miracle that a doctrine so much contrary to flesh and blood should be propagated by any means whatsoever; but a far greater, that it should be propagated by a company of simple and illiterate men, who had neither power to force, nor

eloquence to persuade men, to the embracing of it. For who would have thought that such persons as these were should ever make any of the Jews, who expected a king for their Messiah to advance them to temporal dignities, believe that that Jesus, whom they themselves scourged and crucified at Jerusalem, was the person? Or, that they should be able to propagate the Gospel amongst the Gentiles also, who neither believed in the true God, nor expected anything of a Messiah to come and redeem them? But this they did, and brought over, not only many persons, but whole nations and countries to the profession of the Gospel; propagating this most holy doctrine among the most barbarous and sinful people in the world, maugre all the opposition that the world, the flesh, and the devil, could make against it. Now, can any man, that exerciseth his reason, think they did all this purely by their own strength? No sure, none of these wonderful effects could ever have been produced by anything less than the wisdom and power and faithfulness of their Lord and Master, whose service they were engaged in, and who promised to be with them to the end of the world.' Questionless, it was nothing else but the Spirit of the most high God, that went along with them, and accompanied the word they preached; otherwise, it never could have made such deep impression upon the hearts of them that heard it, as not only to command their attention, but to hinder them from resisting, when they strove and endeavoured to do it, the power and authority by which the disciples spake.

"And now, methinks, I begin to perceive this Divine Spirit is come. upon me, too, and seems, by His powerful influence, to be working up my heart into a thorough persuasion that it is Christ, and Christ alone, I am to cast my soul upon; that it is He alone that is the way to life, and His word alone the word of life, which, whosoever believes and is baptized into shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned.' Away, then, with your Pagan idolatries, your Mahometan superstitions and Jewish ceremonies; it is the Christian religion alone that I am resolved to live and die in, because it is this alone in which I am taught to worship God aright, to obtain the pardon and remission of my sins, and to be made eternally happy. And, since all His doctrines and precepts are contained in the Holy Scriptures, it is necessary that I should assent unto them as a standing revelation of God's will, and an eternal treasure of divine knowledge; whereby all that sincerely believe in Christ may be sufficiently instructed, as well as thoroughly furnished, unto every good word and work.

"Without any more ado, therefore, I believe, and am verily persuaded, that all the books of the ancient law-with all those that have been received into the canon of the Scripture by the church of God, since the coming of Christ, which we call the New Testament: I say, that all these books, from the beginning of Genesis to the end of Revelation, are indeed the word of the eternal God, dictated by His own Spirit unto such as Himself was pleased to employ in the writing of them; and that they contain in them a perfect and complete rule of faith and manners, upon the due observance of which, I cannot fail of worshipping and serving God in such a manner as will be acceptable to Him here, and of enjoying hereafter 'those exceeding great and precious promises' that He has reserved in Heaven for such as do so.

"Unto these books, therefore, of the law and Gospel I am resolved, by His grace that wrote them, to conform all the ensuing articles of my faith, and all the actions and resolutions of my life. Insomuch that whatsoever

I find it hath pleased His Sacred Majesty herein to insert, I believe it is my duty to believe, and whatsoever He hath been pleased to command me, I believe it is my duty to perform."

Brief Notes on the Life of Abraham.

(BY REV. W. BARKER, BLACKFRIARS.)

No. I.

WHEN Abraham was called of God, the descendants of Noah were broadly distinguished from each other, and very far spread over the fair lands of earth. The pride and idolatry of the builders of Babel had dispersed them, Shem and his sons possessing Persia, Thibet, and Tartary; Ham,-Africa, Canaan, and the borders of Arabia; and, subsequently, Japheth the whole continent of Europe and the Isles of the Gentiles. Noah seems to have spent the remainder of his days, after the deluge, amongst the sons of Shem, whose various descendants, to this day, pride themselves in those traditions which relate to him, and their own early settlements. The Chinese have also their tradition of the deluge, and the anger of the Great Spirit in scattering their fathers. Abraham was a descendant of Shem, in the ninth or tenth generation, and his family, like most of the tribes of that period, were fast losing the knowledge of the true God, and becoming corrupt and wicked. The Jews tell us that his father was a maker of the teraphim, and that the boy Abram, disgusted with these practices, sought to escape from them. And who shall say that he, as a youth, had no divine impulse which dimly pointed to his future lot? yea, who can account for his name but on some such ground,—for his parents called him Abram (father)?

Some of the men of Abraham's time, we hope, were good men. Noah himself had lived till within about three years of Abraham's birth, and Shem was in the early bloom of his days. We think it probable that he and Abraham knew something of each other,--and if so, what an important connecting link Shem would be between the old world and the new! Shem was contemporary with Abraham about 152 years, and only died 23 years before the patriarch himself. Shem had lived in the time of Methuselah and Lamech, being near 100 years old when Methuselah died. Methuselah had been contemporary with Seth, the son of Adam, for about 450 years; thus we need but five persons to connect the father of the race and the faithful together, as far as any traditional knowledge could be imparted from the one to the other. What an eventful life Shem's had been! He had talked with the third man from Adam; he had seen the awful wickedness of men, and the terrible deluge which swept them away; he also had heard their wicked taunts against his godly father; he had seen the impious builders of Babel scattered in confusion, their several empires rise to power, pride, and sin, and sat, a venerable patriarch, among his numerous sons, when God said to Abraham, "Get thee out of thy country, from thy kindred, from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee."

The life of Abraham and his destiny were of great importance to his own seed, and to all the nations, through One who was pre-eminently the Son of Abraham and the Son of God. The choice of Abraham was not an

arbitrary thing, but important ends were to be answered by it, which we shall briefly notice in our concluding observations.

1. The election of this man and his seed was of a twofold charactersecular and spiritual,-the secular element being exclusively confined to themselves, the spiritual not so, else all his seed must of necessity have been the children of God, but they were not. The spiritual seed are formed in Christ, not in Isaac; and the link of connexion is not natural birth, but the birth of the spirit, the law of faith. He, then, that hath this faith is blessed with faithful Abraham,-is a child of Abraham.

2. They were set apart from the families of men for the safe deposit and full illustration of divine, saving truth. This would be more easily and surely accomplished by entrusting it to one people than to many,-by embodying it in one set of symbols and types than in many, in various hands, so that they possessed advantage every way: "Chiefly, because unto them were committed the oracles of God."

3. The restrictive laws which formed the basis of civil and religious life among the sons of Abraham, were intended, not for their good alone, but for the Gentiles who should comply with the conditions of the blessing, and whose then should be the grace, life, and glory of the coming Messiah: in Him, therefore, "all nations of the earth should be blessed."

4. The selection of this nation, and its seclusion from the rest of the families of the earth, was intended to give distinctness to the character and work of the Messiah, as a matter of vital importance to the whole world. Hence, first, he must be the Son of Adam; then, in succession, the Son of Abraham, of the tribe of Judah,-the Son of David, and the antetype of His kingdom. Then He was to be born in Bethlehem, in an appointed time: all which matters were secured and intended by the call of Abraham.

Thus, the election of Abraham had a threefold end: "To make of him a great nation; to make his name great; and to make all the families of the earth blessed in him. So now, Christians, you, as the spiritual children of the patriarch, are a holy seed,—a nation of pilgrims and strangers, -a light to the darkened world in which you dwell,-and a blessing to all the families of men by your holy life and active Christian efforts;—yea, and to the natural sons of Abraham also, to whom you are to cause the light of life to come. Remember, there is a mysterious connexion between their dispersion and your election and gathering into the fold of Christ. Pray ye for the time when "there shall be one fold and one Shepherd," -when, of the "twain, there shall be one new man, and so peace," joy, and eternal blessing amongst the united sons of God and man, in Him who is the divine Redeemer and elder Brother.

The Jews at Marazion, Cornwall.

MARAZION is famous for its beautiful mount, which is rich in tin, in topaz, chalcedony, and garnet. It is separated from the main land by rocks, extending about a quarter of a mile, which at ebb-tide may be crossed on foot, like a rude bridge, but at half tide are impassable except

in a boat.

The village is venerable for its high antiquity, and for the history universal tradition attaches to it, and which geological research, so far as it goes, seems to confirm.