Page images
PDF
EPUB

33

UNACCOMPLISHED PROPHECIES NOW FULFILLING.

NO. IV.

In the last essay on the Prophecies of the Old Testament now accomplishing, the mystery set forth by the history of Egypt was explained, but the signal judgments by which that land was visited at the departure of the children of Israel were not considered. Some writers have erroneously taught that the deliverance then effected by God for his people, is a type of the work which Christ did in the days of his humiliation : it is, however, never referred to in the New Testament for this purpose; whilst it is constantly quoted in the Old Testament as the example of the final deliverance from all oppressors, which has yet to be accomplished. It is much more complete in all its parts, and condensed into a smaller compass, both of narration and of time, than any other typical act, and therefore eminently fitted for subsequent reference: it contains a process of mercy, and of judgment; of salvation, and of destruction; of pleading, and of hardening, which always accompany each other;-the emancipation total; every man, woman, child, and beast, every article of clothes and furniture, every relic, even the bones of their ancestor Joseph the destruction also was total; of the army, generals, and king himself.

:

We have often shewed in this Journal, that all the prophecies which are to be fulfilled to the Jew in the letter, are first of all to be fulfilled to the church in the spirit: since therefore the exodus was not a type of the work which Christ has done already, but a type of that which He is yet to do; since the destruction in the Red Sea is but an epitome of the final and total destruction of all the oppressors of Israel yet to take place; our business is to point out its present fulfilment in the spirit to the true church of Christ, previous to her translation into the clouds to meet the Lord, and consequently long prior to its fulfilment in the letter to the Jews.

In order to do this, the mystery of Egypt, as explained in our last Number, must be fully borne in mind. It was there shewn that the bondage under which the spiritual members of Christ at present groan is occasioned by the wisdom, science, learning, eloquence-all the forms of the natural man, in which he most prides himself, and which are indeed his noblest characteristics; and, being so, constitute the strongest chains wherewith the Spirit of God was ever yet restrained, and the mightiest weapons with which He was ever yet opposed. All this wisdom is the cause of despising the Spirit, who appears a foolish worker it is the source of delusion: it is light which is kindled and fed by Satan, and is the blackest darkness to all the things of God. This judg

[blocks in formation]

ment has come upon the church for rejecting the Holy Ghost. Her struggles, and pretended reformations at various periods, have been like the amendments of the kings of Samaria: one would destroy the priests of Baal, and another would cut down his groves, but none would do that which alone was effectual,-abandon his calves at Samaria, and go up to worship in the temple at Jerusalem. In like manner, the Christian church would at one time protest against transubstantiation, and at another against the withholding of the Scriptures from the people; but she would never do that which constituted the essence of the dispensation, -cry to be indwelt by God; to set forth the mystery continually, of God manifest in flesh; and exhibit the fulness of Christ in his members to the world.

The first judgment that came upon the church was turning the rivers, the waters, the ponds, and the pools into blood. "There is a river the stream whereof makes glad the city of God," and there is but one; it is the river of pleasures which is at the right hand of God; it is the brook at which Jesus drank, wherefore he did lift up his head; it is the river flowing from the fountain of life,-even the stream of the Holy Spirit proceeding from the very being of God.-All the fish that were in the rivers of Egypt died, and the people could not drink of the waters. Water from the stream of the river of God being despised, the ordinances which should have conveyed life, conveyed it no more; they conveyed poison; the streams were turned into delusions, which led from God, and not to him. God's call had been despised, and then, and not before, the smiting of the rivers followed the Spirit being rejected, the judgment proceeded: they who had life, and were really living upon the water, could no longer be sustained by it: the creatures who have drunk have died, and the pastors are responsible for the murder of the innocents. The whole body of the people loathe the old waters, though they were never sustained by them.-The river of Egypt was smitten in the sight of Pharaoh, implying that the manifest and acknowledged abuses, the universal want of life and holiness, is seen and felt by all. The magicians, the greatest and wisest men of the land, seem to have procured a little water from some other source, and turned this into blood also, thereby increasing the evil and helping the hardening of Pharaoh. In like manner, the best men in the church now have drawn the doctrine of the kingdom and true humanity of Christ, and some similar doctrines, as a means of giving a little renovation to the old decayed system; but these too they have turned into delusion, and helped to forward the blinding of the rulers, rather than to refresh and vivify them.-The Egyptians dug round about the river for water; they turned not to God, who smote them, but sought to open new wells of instruction hard by the spoiled river; they

would get at least some filtered soakage: like the Evangelicals in these days, who would strive after some influences of the Spirit while they reject the Spirit himself.-Moreover, the judgment was upon all ponds and pools of water, the reservoirs and depositaries of the smitten running streams. Let the reservoirs be sought for where they may; let them be examined in the different churches, in the colleges of the priesthood, in the theological classes, in the books whence the various tribes of the Egyptians have been nourished-the Tomlines, Mants, Gills, Wesleys, Clarkes, Henrys, Scotts, &c., the whole army of Libri Critici-all alike want the life of the living, all alike shew water turned to blood.-This first judgment was never reversed during the whole period that the other judgments were being inflicted on the Egyptians; it continued all the while: and this continuation is the more remarkable, because it is not necessary to the two subsequent judgments in the letter, while it adds greatly to the force of the interpretation of the mystery signified therein.

The second judgment was upon persons: "Behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs, and the river shall bring forth frogs abundantly, which shall go up and come into thine house, and into thy bedchamber, and upon thy bed, and into the house of thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thine ovens, and into thy kneading-troughs; and the frogs shall come up both on thee, and upon thy people, and upon thy servants." The waters being turned into delusions, the ordinances of God, the channels for conveying life, are filled with unclean spirits, who take possession of persons in every class and condition of society, and are in all that they have out of the river. The streams being polluted, the places which they filled could produce nothing but unclean spirits, like frogs. No longer from their still and placid bosoms reflecting heaven's own sun, and returning his own light and brilliancy back upon the swarms of joyous winged tribes that skimmed along their surface; but sending up fogs, and damps, and dank mistiness, miasmata, and the discordant croakings of loathsome reptiles. The frogs coming upon Pharoah himself (upon thee, and upon thy people, and servants), shews a personal seizure of men by unclean spirits. These are manifested in domestic broils; in the disorganization of the houses, of society in general in the bedchambers, that is, in families; in the beds, the places of retirement and repose; while the servants and people mark no rank to be exempt. So verily to the letter is this fulfilled, that we could name three Evangelical clergymen in one town, two of whom have set the daughters of two families against their parents, and the other encouraged a wife in refusing to dwell under the same roof as her husband. The ovens and the kneading troughs shew that no one necessary act of life can be performed without finding the unclean spirit engendered

[ocr errors]

by a foul church occupying the ground. Here, too, the wise men only increase, but cannot stay nor divert, the judgment: they brought up more frogs: so do the very best of the ministers of the systems which the Lord has now cursed, and given over to the hand of the destroyer. But let it be well observed, that it was not on the land of Goshen that the magicians brought up their frogs, but on their own land. So now the mightiest leaders of Evangelicalism add to the unclean spirits in their own systems, but the Lord preserves his people, and by the power of His own Spirit within them, the evil one is not suffered to approach them.

The third judgment has been the dust turned into lice. The earth must needs be parched, when the streams which should have moistened and fructified it ceased to refresh by being turned to blood. The Holy Spirit is the only Sanctifier, and where He is not, filth and uncleanness is sure to abound. The Egyptians, and particularly the priests, were remarkable for their cleanliness; these latter shaved every part of their bodies. Without constant washing the corrupt body of men will engender disgusting animalcule; minute, indeed, but covering every part, although concealing themselves as much as possible. Without constant washing the spirit of the churches, of the priests, and of the people, engender too its corresponding vermin. And all these several forms of judgment are only the necessary consequences of the first lengthened out into their instructive details. The dust was driven about, as uncleanness is sure to be wafted by every wind of doctrine, of which people left to themselves are the ever ready victims. This judgment too the magicians tried to imitate, but failed; they could not bring more lice upon the Egyptians, since every one was covered; they must therefore have endeavoured to bring them upon the people of God, but were not permitted. Hence they could not avoid admitting that the finger of God was displayed in it; but they were not converted : they hardened their hearts and the heart of Pharoah the more. Thus some of the most strenuous opposers of the work of the Holy Ghost, now going on in the church, admit that what they call a delusion empties their congregations of the most spiritual and holiest members, yet their hearts are the more hardened against it.

The fourth judgment was from swarms of the air. Baalzebub is the god of flies, the power by which the Pharisees accused Jesus of Nazareth of performing all his signs and wonders. The prince of the power of the air is the god of this dispensation, who now and ever worketh in every child of Adam except those who are inworked and possessed by the Holy Spirit of the Almighty God. The churches having not the Spirit of God, have had the spirit of evil: children of disobedience, the prince

of the power of the air has ruled over them, and built up the mockery, the image of the true church, which the forms of ecclesiastical ceremonies every where present throughout Christendom. The Lord now makes the separation between His people and the Egyptians manifest to all: a difference had always been made, but now it is so evident that none can mistake. The power of the father of lies over ephemera—the penny magazines, the winged press, the cheap knowledge, the ETEа TTEрOEVTα, the tracts, and all the machinery by which his system of delusion is carried on-is here strikingly typified, and receiving a fearful accomplishment in these our days.

The fifth judgment fell upon the cattle. The Egyptians worshipped the ram, the bull, the ox, the heifer: these, their objects of trust and confidence, the kinds of domestic wealth of the most useful and unquestionable nature, were all smitten by the hand of the Lord. It would be tedious to enumerate all the grounds of confidence which every different city of Europe has taken up in turn: one while it has been the doctrine of a Pope, at another the decree of a Council, at another a Confession of Faith, at another a set of Articles and Homilies. All these several stays and various forms of flesh are useful, and have had their use in time past; but being perverted from what is right, have long since become little but pure evil, and now are become objects of common ridicule; each has still some faithful worshipers, but the number of idolators is decreasing daily, and no one of these several gods retains sufficient hold of the devotees to ensure a single martyr at his shrine. Out of this judgment, also, was the complete separation between the people of God and the Egyptians made more manifest.

The sixth judgment was boils and blains on man and beast : an eruptive disease presenting the whole body "full of wounds and bruises and putrifying sores," the certain symptom of universal internal corruption of the blood in every part through which it circulates. Such is the aspect which the churches and nations of Christendom now present to the spiritual eye; and even the eye that is but tolerably versed in the written Scriptures can discern their state; yet they think themselves sound at heart; they admit some little accidental weakness; but perceive not that grey hairs are upon them; and that the debility they acknowledge is that of vital disease and decrepitude, not of a casual and passing nature. The last judgment was on the beasts of the field alone: this is on man as well; and the magicians, who had resisted up to this time, are now compelled to yield to it. It was brought about, not by Moses with Aaron, like the former, but by Moses alone; representing, that in the time of the antitype the intercessory part of the church shall be well nigh ended. Ashes from the altar bring the

« PreviousContinue »