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ATTENTION TO THE BIBLE AND ITS REAL

MEANING.

Christ is more indignant at injuries done to his truths than even to his saints; for the truth makes saints, and the husbandman is more careful of his seed corn than of the increase.

MATTHEW xvi. 18.

"I say unto thee that thou art Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”

It is well known that this passage contains the essence of the controversy between the Romish and the Protestant churches. Consequently, more discussion and criticism have been expended on it than on any other single portion of the sacred volume. A few observations upon it, with the view of showing the folly of the Romish interpretation, as well as to give a somewhat clearer exhibition of its meaning, cannot be useless or improper.

It is plain that Peter is the sole person addressed. I say unto thee. Peter did not on this occasion speak for the other apostles. He was not the spokesman for the whole; for if he had been, the whole would have been equally blessed. In the previous words we read, Jesus asked his disciples, saying, &c. In reply it is stated, They said, &c. Who are they? Why, of course, the persons spoken to, viz. the disciples. Then Jesus once more said, But whom say ye that I am? And SIMON PETER answered. It is not said, nor intimated, that he spoke for the rest, for after he had spoken, Jesus answered and said to HIM, not to them; and in the reply he solely confines his discourse to Peter.

Our Lord then goes on, after having spoken to him by his proper name, Simon Bar-Jona, which means, Simon, the son of Jona, to pronounce a blessing upon him, and to declare that flesh and blood had not re

vealed IT to him. Revealed what? Why that which Peter had declared just before, namely, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. There was something remarkable in this confession. The disciples had on former occasions declared their belief that he was the Messiah, and yet no blessing followed. It is evident that this confession of Peter contained more of the truth respecting Jesus, than had ever before been expressed. Jesus had asked, Whom do men say that I the SON OF MAN am? This title, Son of Man, plainly indicates Christ's deity, since it is equivalent to his saying, that I, a divine person, have become the Son of Man. In this sense, Peter doubtless understood the phrase. But then, in his confession, he not only recognises this important truth, and bears testimony to Jesus being the Christ; but he adds, Thou art the Son of the living God, which is equivalent to his saying, that as man, he was united to the Godhead. Such a testimony was never borne to Christ before by any of his disciples; and as Peter's confession amounts to the full and explicit avowal of the mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh, we need not wonder that the Saviour pronounced a blessing on the person who uttered a truth so important and remarkable.

Thou art Peter. Names are of two kinds; personal and appellative. Thus Simon was a name given to distinguish him from the rest of his family, as any other name would. Such names answer to what we

call christian names. But Peter (πετρος) is an appellative, implying the existence of certain qualities in the character of the person to whom it is applied. Barnabas was the son of consolation; doubtless a person of mild, persuasive, soothing eloquence. Boanerges were the sons of thunder; persons of an impressive, daring, impassioned, and alarming eloquence. Names of this kind describe, as it were, by an epithet, some leading quality or circumstance by which the person so named is distinguished. They perpetually occur in the Hebrew language. A rock is always used to signify something very enduring and substantial. It is,

perhaps, less liable to decay and change than any other material substance. Hence the language of our Lord respecting the man who built his house upon a rock. Hence, too, the reason why a rock is chosen, when practicable, for the foundation of edifices which are intended to endure through many ages.

But was Peter more firm in his attachment than any other of the disciples? No, certainly not; for very soon after this memorable confession he was severely rebuked by Christ, and subsequently denied him. He also exhibited a vacillation which Paul rebuked most sharply; and these traits in his character and conduct are at variance with the supposition that he was so much the more firm, and faithful, and enduring, than the other apostles, as to be pre-eminently called a rock in comparison with them. Our Lord, then, does not mean that he would build his church on Peter !

But this blessing was uttered immediately, and in consequence of his confession. We must look to it, therefore, to see the reason why the Saviour addressed the apostle by this remarkable appellation. What is the confession? A distinct statement of the peculiar doctrine of Christianity, viz. the deity and humanity of Christ. This is an everlasting, solid truth. The truth itself is personified in our Lord's language, by substituting the speaker in its place, a very striking but common mode of expression. Therefore one may paraphrase the words in this way. I say unto thee that thou art rock, because you have uttered a truth, solid, enduring, and unchangeable, as the everlasting rock; and on this self-same rock (ezi tavty tĥ πetpα,) viz. this very self-same truth, I will build my church.

Here we have a plain, intelligible sense, which accords with the sacred text without any difficulty, and agrees with the scripture testimony to the Messiah. Further observations on the following verses will appear in a future number.

INFIDELITY.

The state of infidelity among us at this moment, may be compared to that of a rebel faction, beaten often in the open field, but insinuating itself through the country, not appearing in open hostility, but insidiously corrupting and infecting with its treason different portions of the mass of the inhabitants.

CONSIDER YOUR INCONSISTENCY.

DID you ever suffer a sharp pain-a severe, agonizing, tormenting, protracted pang? Call it to mind; think of the distress you felt at that moment, and of what would have been your emotions, if some fellow-creature standing by and witnessing your anguish, had mocked, and laughed at your sufferings, or treated them as trifling, or even as a subject of sport? "Is human suffering a proper object of mockery?" you would have asked. Or did you ever see a house in flames, and some poor creatures appearing in a situation of the most imminent peril from which they could not escape; and after every attempt had failed to rescue them, suppose you had seen them enveloped by the flames, sinking, at last, in the conflagration; would such a sight awaken in any mind a disposition to sport or mock? Would you not denominate such a one worse than a brute? since he must have done violence to his feelings and his conscience-must have inhumanized himself before he could have brought his heart to turn such a scene into merriment. Or suppose you were standing on the sea-shore, and beheld a vessel struggling against a storm, and after striving in vain to gain a safe harbour, it is wrecked upon the rocks, and you see the scattered fragments floating upon the waves; but presently you discover one of the unhappy crew clinging to a piece of the shattered vessel-he seems floating towards the

shore, and after much striving in the utmost peril, he seems just ready to gain a point of land, or make sure his footing on a piece of rock, when a violent wave or surge returning against him, drives him again out to sea; it seems as if he must now perish; but by another arduous effort, he nears the shore, and your heart is wrought up to the highest degree of anxiety; you exult in the thought that he may yet be saved. Your hope and fear alternately rise as you see him overwhelmed by the waves, or emerging again and again from the abyss-but he is still driven back, and still he clings to the fragment, and struggles for life; and while you witness all this with extreme excitement and a palpitating heart, there is one standing by who mocks the unfortunate man. Or did you ever see a hospital full of poor, diseased, suffering, groaning fellowcreatures, labouring under all manner of maladies, and sustaining various degrees of pain? Some writhing in agony, others undergoing the keen anguish of the surgeon's knife; others smarting with the torture of recent wounds; what would you think of the individual who could walk through the midst of such a scene and turn the whole into sport? Or did you ever witness the distressed and disconsolate widow, with her numerous family of fatherless children, following to the grave the lifeless remains of her beloved partner, her only human support and stay; and did you look into the opened grave, and see it receive all that remained of the husband and the father;—and did you think it a scene for merriment and mockery? But the reader will wonder, and well he may, why such questions have been asked-because there would not be found, perhaps, in millions, a single human being so thoroughly a monster, so recreant to all humanity, as to be capable of making sport at any of these scenes. And yet there are myriads who make a mock at sin, which is the cause of all the sufferings that befall human nature. If the reader will reflect but for one moment, he will perceive that there is not a pain, nor a sorrow, nor an affliction, nor a death in the world, but sin is the effi

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