DEAR SIR:-Some of my late observations upon the Advocate, and certain portions of its contents have appeared to you, no doubt, rather cynical. However, I cannot allow the first month of the new year to pass without informing you how much I am pleased with the first article in the present number, which I suppose to be from the pen of your friend Philalethes. Articles like the one named would go far to exalt the character of the Advocate, and bring the minds of its readers directly in contact with the oracles of God, to the exclusion of human dogmas on matters of Divine Revelation. To effect this object, is surely worth labouring for, even though particular sects or churches should not be thereby increased in numbers. The writer has plainly and scripturally laid down a true rule by which to walk, in treating of the scripture phrases, " kingdom of God, kingdom of heaven," &c. And were he but to carry out, scripturally and justly, his own principle, he would find perhaps, much to his astonishment, but not the less to his edification, that his views, and those of a writer you lately reviewed, who regarded the second coming of Christ as past already, differ much more in name

passages as Acts ii. 17. Heb. i. 2. 1 Cor. x. 11. Heb. ix. 26-ii. 5 ; and shews that they all relate to the same time, and but shewed the fulfilment of such prophecies as Isaiah ii. 2-5.

Micah iv. 1-5. Now in all this I quite agree with him, and believe his reasoning to be founded on a rock which no argument or cavil can assail. But with what astonishment do I find him asserting, p. 2, col. 1., "The present are indeed the last and perilous days"! "The last days," (see Isaiah ii. 2.) he rightly says, referred to the "setting up" of the kingdom of the Messiah on the throne of his Father David, at the day of Pentecost. If so, by what scripture authority, or sound reasoning, does he say "the present are indeed the last days"? And that too, while stating that the scripture prophecies had but one meaning! Such discrepancies only shew how careful we ought to be in applying scripture language in any sense differently from the one originally intended; and I hope the writer will see cause to expunge the objectionable assertion I have alluded to, and follow out the edifying mode of illustrating scripture he has adopted.

I am, dear Sir, Yours truly,

Jan. 17th, 1851.

MACROBIUS.

merited condemnation and death --and only delivered from them by the imputed righteousness and work of the Saviour. Next in importance to this, is the knowledge of the begun union and connection of the believer with God, after the reception of the truth into his heart. Will the hope of the christian be realized? Will his justification at any after period be suspended? Will he that was delivered from the wrath to come, yet feel its power and fall under it? Or, will he that has been born from above, and made a partaker of the divine nature, lose his birthright, and be finally deprived of his renewed nature? No-verily, the same testimony which maketh known the natural state of unbelieving men, maketh known the absolute security of believing men. Their safety in Christ is complete-it cannot be overcome. This the Scriptures declare this the intercession of our Lord Jesus secures and this the past experience of the children of God verifies.

1st. The Scriptures declare that those who have believed from the heart, shall be kept by Divine power through faith unto salvation. Are the people of God poor and needy, seeking waters, and their tongue failing them for thirst? and though there is no water and no one hearing their cry, the promise runs and is sure to all of them, "I the LORD will hear them-I, the God of Israel will not forsake them. I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys, I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water." Isaiah xli. 17, 18. "And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones;

and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not." chap. lviii. 2. And so "with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation."

Is the enemy of the faith of God's elect strong and powerful, and about " to come in like a flood" upon them and attempt to destroy them? Human aid is not at hand, neither is it needed. The author and the finisher of faith knoweth that which is required. "His strength is made perfect in weakness," and at the moment of attack, "WHEN the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him." chap. lix. 19. The saints are too weak to oppose such an enemy; they would fall before him; but he is met with a power greater than his own; the standard shall stem the torrent; the Spirit of the LORD lifts it up: he shows himself to be the mighty one, strong in battle. "I will saith the LORD contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children and all flesh shall know that I the LORD am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the mighty one of Jacob." chap. xlix. 25-26.

If any of the children could remain disconsolate after reading these great and precious promises from the mouth of Jehovah, by his prophet, an additional stream of light is poured into his mind by the sweet and endearing words of the Lord Jesus Christ, who said, "He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me HATH EVERLASTING LIFE, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life." John v. 24. And "Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." Luke xii. 31. Here is rest to the soul of the

believer; here is "the work of righteousness, and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance for ever." Here are "sure dwellings and quiet resting-places," under the shadow of the promise and power of him who said "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee." And when thou passest through the waters I will be with thee, and through the rivers they shall not overflow thee; when thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burnt; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee: for I am the LORD thy God, the holy one of Israel thy Saviour." Isaiah xliii. 2, 3. So that, "There is therefore Now no condemnation to them who are IN Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Rom. viii. I.

II. The intercession of the Lord Jesus in Heaven secures the safety of the believer in the possession of his purchased inheritance.

Jesus, as the sin-atoning one, had no sooner taken away sin by the shedding of his precious blood in behalf of sinners, than he entered "into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us." He appeared there with his own blood. "He ever liveth to make intercession for them" by it. His work will never lose its efficaciousness. "All that the Father giveth me shall come to me: and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. And this is the Father's will who hath sent me, that of all whom he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day." John vi. 37, 39. The mediation of the Lord

Jesus effects the will of the Father. By the carrying out of that will through the appointed medium, not one purchased soul can be lost.

To the great and alone "mediator between God and men," has heen given power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as the Father hath given him. chap. xvii. 2.

The salvation begun in the believer on this earth, will be perpetuated to him in time and in eternity by the life of Jesus.-Says an apostle, "If when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son; much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life." Rom. v. 10. The work of reconciliation commenced upon the sinner when in a state of enmity towards God; it was complete in slaying that enmity and turning the mind and affections to centre in the God of love; this work of salvation or reconciliation coming because Jesus ever liveth as an infrom God, is upheld and continued tercessor, and when any believer commits sin, then "the Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous," in virtue of his holy and unchangable office, proves that his blood crieth for mercy to the sinner, and averts the wrath due to him, because He hath been "the propitiation for our sins." And after Jesus has fully and for ever finished his glorious work, and presented his glorified person, with his glorified saints, as one united and risen body, He saith of them, and to them, "Behold I, and the children which God hath given me." Heb. ii, xiii. What "a fulness of joy" is in these words.-" He shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied "--and here it is. "The pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hands," and here it is seen. "Because I live ye shall live also," is the surest pledge, the greatest glory, and the closest union.

The patriarch Job was a type of

66

the Lord Jesus, as the mediator between God and his three friends. The Jewish lawgiver was the same as standing in the breach, between God and the rebellious among the children of Israel; and Aaron and every successive high priest, were eminently so, because the official service of the high priest required that he should enter in within the vail, into the most holy place, with the blood of the sacrifice shed upon the altar, and also carry on his breast-plate the names of the children of Israel, and with both, there, to represent the death in the blood and the intercession in the breastplate of "the great high priest of our profession, Christ Jesus," who has entered into heaven with his own blood, now to appear in the presence of God for us.' Not one can be forgotten in this great and glorious work. The services of the former priests were local and limited, not so the service of Jesus the Son of God. Jew and Gentile equally partake of it. "I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me." And no power can ever prevail against him that hath his hands so engraven with the names of the members of his spiritual body, neither against them who are the justified in Christ Jesus. "Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth; who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us;" and in the certain knowledge and conviction of this all-powerful intercession of the righteous and accepted one who is on the right hand of God, angels, principalities and powers being made subject to him, the apostle triumphantly asks,

"Who'shall separate us from the love of Christ ?" Rom. viii. 33, 35.

III. The past experience of the people of God verifies the faithful words of the prophet," The righteous shall hold on his way,

and he that hath clean hands shall grow stronger and stronger.”

"Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up," said the Lord Jesus,or every plant of divine planting, shall receive divine culture, and shall manifest divine growth. Those who are planted in the house of the LORD, shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing, to show that the LORD is upright "in not forsaking the work of his own hands. Psa. xcii. 13-14. The people of God, in all the past ages of his church, have not only experienced divine planting, but also divine protection from evil. They have found their God to be a God at hand, and not a God afar off. He has been with them, in them, and around them— for "The eyes of the LORD are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry," And "GOD FAITHFUL, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation, also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." 1 Cor, x. 13. When Abimelech, king of Gerar, who lived in the days of Abraham, was placed in the way of temptation, and coveted unknowingly another man's wife, and became exposed to sin against God, and to sin against Abraham, divine power was at work in protecting him in the hour of temptation, and divine mercy saved him. The LORD said to him in a dream, "I withheld thee from sinning against me,

IS