be completed at the Lord's Second Coming; and though it be partially disclosed from time to time, is never fully revealed till then. This is no mere supposition of mine: it is the word of God Himself, Who tells you, "That in the days of the voice of the Seventh Angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as He has declared to His servants the prophets." There can be no question but that the whole scheme of man's redemption, through suffering, was irrevocably declared in the first mysterious type of man bruising the serpent's head while the serpent was permitted to bruise his heel, or, that the idea of vicarious sacrifice was revealed to Cain and Abel. There can be no doubt but that the whole plan of Christ's Church was actually laid down and determined in those days, when the long-suffering of God "waited in the days of Noah while the ark was a preparing," or that the extension of the blessing to all the nations of the earth was actually recorded in the days of Abraham, as well as the Sacrifice of the Only Son, without which the blessing was impossible. There were new revelations after these days, no doubt, but not revelations of new things: it was only that additional light was thrown upon that which was before delivered as men's eyes were able to bear it. The Passover itself showed nothing new: it simply connected the prophecy given to Adam, with the sacrifice revealed to Abraham-the act of deliverance with the blood of the Redemption. The chosen people, elect and separated from the world, and journeying through the wilderness under the immediate guidance of God Himself, was but a farther unrolling of the mystery already declared by the Ark of Noah. The rock, the manna, the brazen serpent, were but revelations of what had already been prefigured, coming forth, no doubt, plainer and plainer, as the counsels of God drew nearer and nearer to their accomplishment, but not new. The great rule, then, of all revelation, and of all inspired writing, seems to be, that it is to be discerned, not intellectually, but morally and spiritually, that it is an anticipation of the times in which the Church, by God's grace, will have arrived at the state which enables her to comprehend it. It is very doubtful whether Isaiah and Daniel, who, to our comprehension, wrote so clearly of Christ, and revealed the very time of His coming, the very duration of His stay, His Office, His Ministry, His Sacrifice, His Resurrection, knew themselves what they were writing-whether even Moses, who declared the Prophet raised up from among the brethren, and like to himself, understood the eternal revelation which he uttered or whether it ever was understood by anyone before that blessed moment, when, at the manifestation of the first Gospel type of the promised bread of life, the feeding of the five thousand, the wonder-stricken multitude exclaimed with one accord, "This is that Prophet which should come into the world." The early times received the revelations indeed, but were not capable of comprehending them; it was the increasing light, it was the first Advent of the Lord, that revealed to us, the babes, it may be, in Christ, those things which, equally open to the intellectual comprehension of kings and prophets, and equally the object of their desires, from the necessity of the case were hidden from their eyes. The successive clearing off of the mysteries which envelop the counsels of God are in themselves a perpetual advent; they declare that the night is farther and farther spent, that the day is nearer and nearer at hand at each successive revelation, just as the gradual and progressive brightening of objects in the natural landscape is the silent but unerring proof of the continually approaching advent of the rising sun. upon chosen people, elect and separated from the world, and journeying through the wilderness under the immediate guidance of God Himself, was but a farther unrolling of the mystery already declared by the Ark of Noah. The rock, the manna, the brazen serpent, were but revelations of what had already been prefigured, coming forth, no doubt, plainer and plainer, as the counsels of God drew nearer and nearer to their accomplishment, but not new. The great rule, then, of all revelation, and of all inspired writing, seems to be, that it is to be discerned, not intellectually, but morally and spiritually, that it is an anticipation of the times in which the Church, by God's grace, will have arrived at the state which enables her to comprehend it. It is very doubtful whether Isaiah and Daniel, who, to our comprehension, wrote so clearly of Christ, and revealed the very time of His coming, the very duration of His stay, His Office, His Ministry, His Sacrifice, His Resurrection, knew themselves what they were writing-whether even BY HIS SCRIPTURES. Moses, who declared the Prophet raised up The successive clearing off of the mysteries which envelop the counsels of God are in themselves a perpetual advent; they declare that the night is farther and farther spent, that the day is nearer and nearer at hand at each successive revelation, just as the gradual and progressive brightening of objects in the natural landscape is the silent but unerring proof of the continually approaching advent of the rising sun. |