Moses, who brought them out of Egypt, nor Joshua, who settled them in Canaan, was "He that should come," but they were still to "look for another;" and so on, through the whole calendar of temporal saviours, who, like the legal ministers," served only," by their wars and victories, "to the example and shadow of hea venly things." "The body," or substance, in either instance, "was of Christ.". For he who arose "a Priest for ever," arose also "a King immortal;" a mighty Horn, or Power, of salvation; a Moses, to deliver us from this present evil world; a Joshua, to put us in possession of the heavenly Canaan; in short, every thing, to fill up every prefigurative character. This mighty Saviour, this omnipotent King of Israel, God raised up "in the house of his servant David," as he had promised, "that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne."* And to this agree the words of the angel, at the annunciation: The Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David; and he shall reign for ever and ever over the house of Jacob; and of his kingdom there shall be no end."+ 3. As he promised by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world beganIn a matter of so great consequence as man's redemption God left not the world without information, from the beginning: so that wherever we find ignorance, it must be charged to the account of man, as having rejected, and not to that of his Maker, as having denied the necessary means of instruction. We see the Christian church now supported in her belief of Messiah's second advent, on which all her hopes are fixed, by the discourses of the apostles, as the ancient church was supported in her belief of his first advent by the discourses of the prophets. There is no more difficulty in one case than in the other. The ancients lived in faith, and so do we. They died in faith, "not having re * Psal. cxxxii. 11. Acts ii. 30. ceived the promises," and so must we : for though some promises are fulfilled, yet others are not, nor can be, in this world. Our knowledge is not the less certain, nor our faith, built upon it, the less firm, because we have not exact and adequate notions of the manner of Christ's coming, the circumstances of the last judgment, and the glory that is to follow. The facts are sufficiently predicted; for an idea of the mode we must be contented to wait till faith shall give place to sight. And let the same observation be applied to the Patriarchs and Israelites. Such a sal 4. That we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us. The enemies and the salvation, here intended by Zacharias, are, without doubt, spiritual. vation, therefore, from such enemies, God" promised by the mouth of his hoily prophets, which have been singe his people of old from their enemies, the world began." When he saved and from the hand of all that hated them, his mercy, so displayed, was a figure for the time then present, a pledge and earnest of eternal redemption; as if he had said, "Ye shall see greater things than these." And the psalms formerly composed to celebrate the deliverance of İsrael from Egyptian and Babylonian captivities, are now used, by the church Christian, to praise God for salvation from sin, death, and Satan: they are sung NEW in the kingdom of Messiah.. "Old things are passed away, behold all things are become new:" legal figures are vanished, and the terms employed to describe them are transferred to evangelical truths. When the prophets composed psalms on occasion of temporal deliverances, they looked forward to a future spiritual salvation; as Zacharias, in his hymn, the subject of which is a spiritual salvation, looks back, and has a reference to past temporal deliverances. 5. To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant The "mercy promised to our fathers" was, therefore, a spiritual mer ey; and the covenant" made with them was a Gospel covenant; for otherwise, God could not be said, by raising up Christ, to have " performed that mercy," and "remembered that covenant." Accordingly, we are elsewhere told," the Gospel was preached to Abraham;"* and the covenant made with him is styled, "the covenant of God in Christ." The Gospel, then, was prior to the law, and was the patrimony of all the children of Abraham. "The law, which was four hundred and thirty years after," whatever might be its intention, could not disposses them of this their inheritance; it could not "disannul the covenant, and make the promise of none effect." But if, on the contrary, it was designed to keep up, and further the knowledge of them; if it was a standing prophecy; if it was a schoolmaster" by its elements training up and conducting its scholars "to Christ;" then certainly nothing was wanting on the part of God. The Jews minded earthly things; but to infer from thence, that they were never taught the knowledge of things heavenly, would be a method of arguing too hazardous to be ventured upon: since, from the behaviour of many who profess the Christian religion, it might as fairly be concluded, that their Master promised nothing but "loaves and fishes." Israelites might set their hearts too much on " fields and vineyards," forgetting or neglecting better things, as men are apt to do who are blessed with prosperity in this present world, But when they did so, they did wrong: prophets were sent to reprove the error, and judgments to convince them, that Canaan was not the end of the "covenant," nor a plentiful harvest "the mercy promised." 6. The oath which he sware to our forefather Abraham The amazing condescension of God, in vouchsafing, for man's satisfaction and assurance, to confirm his promise by an oath, is finely touched upon in the Epistle to the Hebrews. "When * Gal. iii. 8. † Ibid. 17. God made promise to Abraham, be- ness of God, who hath given his O the infidelity of his creatures, who distruct that assurance! 7. That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, 8. In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life. The promise, made with an oath to Abraham, was made, after the intentional sacrifice of Isaac, in the following terms: "By myself have I sworn-that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." The objects of the blessing here promised are the faithful children of Abraham, whether Jews or Gentiles; the "seed," in whom they are blessed, is Christ; the manner in which he obtains the blessing, is by "possessing the gate of his enemies," that is, by subduing them, and seizing their strong holds; the blessing itself consisteth in a redemption from bondage under those enemies, and an admission into the service of God. Such is the substance and intention of the promise made with an oath to Abraham, as explained by Zacharias and fulfilledunder the Gospel. In the mean time, between the promise and its accomplishment it pleased God to interpose till upon a dispensation, which exhibited a Exod. iii. 12. Zacharias concludes his divine song with an apostrophe to the infant Baptist, as one who was designed by Providence to be the precursor of such a Saviour, and the publisher of such salvation. 9. And thou, child, shalt be called "The law prophesied until John,”, who succeeded it in its office of pointing out the Messiah, and spake the language of its institutions, when he said, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." "Remission of sins" is the doctrine in which the Christian religion justly glorieth, as that most ne cessary and fundamental point, in which every other religion fails. The Heathen confesseth himself to be in the dark; he guesseth only what is the will of God, whom he knoweth not. He hath not strength to perform what he imagineth to be such; and he understandeth not the meaning of the sacrifices and lustrations derived to him by tradition. The blood of bulls and goats cannot wash away the sins of the Jew; and his oblations, since the truth is come, which they were intended to prefigure, are preposterous, and impious. The Mahometan hath no evidence for the mission of his prophet, no argument for his religion but the sword, and no heaven but sense. The doctrine of "salvation by the remission of sins," through faith in a Redeemer, was, from the beginning, the sum and substance of true religion, which subsisted in promise, prophecy, and figure, till John preached their accomplishment in the person of Jesus. Paganism was a corruption of it, before that time, as Mahometism hath been since; and modern Judaism is an apostasy from it. And shall we go away and forsake our Redeemer? To whom can we go? He hath the words of eternal life: he only can give "salvation by the remission of sins." It is this reli gion which enlightens the understand- tions into "the way of peace," that ing with true knowledge, and warms the heart with true charity: it is this which alone brings confidence, and comfort, and joy, and bids fear and despondency fly away: it is this which raises the soul, as it were, from the dead, puts new vigour into all her powers and faculties, and animates her to duty, by the powerful motives it suggesteth: it is this which is a counterbalance to the temptations of sense, by the promises made to our faith; which supports the infirmity of nature by the glorious objects proposed to our hope; and which triumphs over the opposition of the world, by the love of God shed abroad in our hearts; it procures us the only solid happiness there is in this world, and opens way to the felicities of the next it holds him out to us, who is our "shield" on earth, and will be exceeding great reward" in heaven; who guides us with his counsel, and will, after that, receive us to glory-Whom have we in heaven, O Lord, but thee; and there is none upon earth we can desire in comparison with thee !"* 11. — Through the tender mercy of St. John was the morning-star, that preceded the Sun of Righteousness at his rising; an event, the glory of which is due to " the tender mercy of our God;" since towards the production of it man could do no more than he can do towards causing the natural The sun to rise upon the earth. blessed effects of the day-spring which then dawned from on high, and gradually increased more and more unto the perfect day, were the dispersion of ignorance, which is the darkness of the intellectual world; the awakening of men from sin, which is the sleep of the soul; and the conversion and direction of their hearts and inclina * Psal. Ixxiii. 24. is, of reconciliation to God by the blood of Christ, to themselves by the answer of a conscience cleansed from sin, and to one another by mutual love. "Happy is the people that is in such a case; yea, happy is the people, whose God is the Lord. They are the children of the light and of the day. Their sun shall no more go down, neither shall their moon withdraw itself; for the Lord shall be unto them an everlasting light, and the days of their mourning shall be ended." T. & J. Swords have just published, "Swords's Pocket Almanack, and Christian Calendar, for the year of our Lord 1819; be ing the third after Leap Year. Containing the rising, setting, and eclipses of the Sun and Moon, the time of High Water, &c." Also Observations on the Observance of Sundays-Explanations of the Festivals American Bishops-List of the Clergy of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States Standing CommitteesTime of Conventional Meetings-Religious Societies attached to the Epis and Fasts of the Church-Succession of copal Church in the United StatesScientific, Literary, and Benevolent Institutions Officers of the Government of the United States-Ministers Plenipotentiary from the United States to Foreign Powers Ministerial Appointments from Foreign Powers to the United States-Officers of the Government of the State of NewNew-York-Courts in the State of New York-Common Council of the City of York-Clerks of the Supreme CourtMayor's Court-Rates of Postage-Times of arrival and closing of the Mails, &c. &c. &c. T. & J. SWORDS have now ready for delivery, at their Book-store, No. 150 Pearl-street, New-York, a NEW STE, REOTYPE EDITION of the BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER, which they will furnish to societies and individuals, for gratuitous distribution, at 30 cents per copy, and at 37 1-2 cents at retail. They have also a new stereotype edition on a large type, which will be furnished for gratuitous distribution, and at retail, at very reduced prices. Printed and published by T. & J. SWORDS, No. 160 Pearl-street, New-York, where Subscriptions for this Work will be re ceived, at one dollar per annum, or 24 numbers -All Letters relative to this Journal must come free of Postage. No. 24.] THE AND LITERARY REGISTER. No. 11. FOR DECEMBER, 1818. Considerations on the Life and Death of St. John the Baptist. BY BISHOP HORNE. (Continued from page 368.) SECTION III. [VOL. II. it is well known, that, even in those ages, when mankind stood astonished at the austerities practised by recluses and eremites, the episcopal or sacerdotal character was reckoned as much superier to the other, as charity is Considerations on St. John's Educa- better than contemplation. "In soli tion in the Deserts. ALL the information we have concerning St. John, from the time of his birth to that of his public appear ance, is contained in the few following words" And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his show ing unto Israel."* There, apart from the world, and under the tuition of Heaven, he was catechized in the principles of divine wisdom, initiated into the mystery of a holy life, and perfected in the discipline of selfdenial; The moss his bed, the cave his humble cell, His food the fruits, his drink the crystal well: Remote from man, with God he passed the days, Pray'r all his bus'ness, all his pleasure praise. PARNELL. 66 tude," saith a great master of this subject, a man may go to heaven by the way of prayer and devotion; but in society he carries others with him by the way of mercy and charity. In solitude there are fewer temptations, but then there is likewise the exercise of fewer virtues. Solitude is a good school, and the world the best theatre. The institution is best there, the practice here. The wilderness hath the advantage of discipline, but society furnisheth the opportunities of perfection."* To confirm this judicious state of the case, it may be observed, that the only perfect life which hath ever been led on earth, was a mixture of the solitary and social. Our Lord himself passed reth, and then appeared in public to thirty years in the privacy of Nazaexercise his ministry; but still not without frequent intervals of retirement. "It was in solitude that he kept his vigils; the desert places heard him pray; in the wilderness he vanquished Satan; upon a mountain. apart he was transfigured."+ But in public he preached the Gospel, and converted souls; in public he healed the sick, and cast out devils; in public he suffered, and, while he redeemed the world, set it a pattern of humility, patience, and charity. * From the circumstance of St. John's viii. Bishop Taylor's Life of Christ, Sect. † Ibid. 47 |