subsisted only in their generation by him to whom the promises and covenants were given. But now in the church dispensations, by which the succeeding ages were to be filled, he ordained to manifest the gathering again the many scattered members into the one body, by the one Spirit, under the one Father. Thus in the Patriarchs shewing the beginning, and in the Churches shewing the end.-But even in the Church dispensations it was necessary that a further manifestation of man's nothingness should be made. He had already shewn what he was capable of in his creature state, not having any indwelling of God; and henceforth, where God would dwell with man, man continued to shew out his creature nature in the very presence, and in defiance of the manifest power and love of God in the midst of him. Nevertheless the power and love of God is the great object of the church manifestation: and if we discard for a moment the minor points, and look only to the great substance of each series of ages, we must define the Adam, Noah, and Patriarchal ages to be the manifestation of the creature; and the Church ages to be the manifestation of God. In the first series, we see weakness continually obliterating every effort, and losing every opportunity of recovery; and creature at last sunk in the last effort into impenetrable confusion and irrevocable bondage. In the second series, we observe the power and love of God continually and increasingly manifesting itself, in defiance and in the overruling of all the confusion and darkness of sin; and in the end completely victorious in the glorious manifestation of the Church, as the fulness of him who filleth all in all; and by this means the glorious manifestation of God himself, as the All in all of every thing.

23. In the fourth age, or Jewish dispensation, God (as we have before observed) ordained to manifest, and has also wrought out the manifestation of, the Son.

24. In the fifth age, in which we live, is God manifesting the Holy Ghost.

25. In the sixth age, yet to come, God will, as we are led to believe, manifest the Father.

26. These six ages are the six days' work of new creation, in order to manifestation. In all and each of which, whatever has been the degree of the manifestation of God's glory, there has still continued mixed with it in its open manifestation the defilement of sin and uncleanness. Each day's work may, as at the creation, be pronounced very good, perfectly answerable to the end for which it was ordained; but still, as each is the development of a part only of the great whole, there will necessarily be an incompleteness in every part which points to the great whole as its perfection. As a part of the six days' work, we have the casting of Satan, the head and origin of all sin, into the lake of

fire. Thus is the casting out of all sin unto the new creation of glory finished.

But now, on the seventh day, after all the labour and travail and contention shall have come to an end, all that has been done is brought in review before the Lord. All being raised to his presence, the glory of the Lord is manifested complete in the fulness of Christ in his mystical body the church. Here, to an eternity of ages, is manifested the blessing and holiness of God; and truly may we understand why the Lord "blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it." "Who hath known the mind of the Lord?" "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Sabaoth! heaven and earth are full of the majesty of thy glory!"

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27. With regard to place, the Lord has given us three great lines of division-the heavens, the earth, and the sea; and these three comprise all the fulness of all creation. "In the beginning," it is said, "God made the heavens and the earth" (Gen. i. 1) and of the end it is said, "There was no more sea (Rev. xxi. 1). But now as a distinct part of creation the sea does exist and that it is properly called a distinct part we ascertain by reference to the language of the Apostles (Acts iv. 24), "Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven and earth and the sea, and all that in them is ;" and also to that of Paul and Barnabas, at Lystra, "Turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein" (Acts xiv. 15).

As the fulness of all creation was comprised in these distinctions of place-heaven, earth, and sea-so shall we find God has ordained to perfect all new creation within three distinct places or worlds. This is, in our view, very clearly revealed to us by St. Peter (2 Pet. iii.) Speaking of the apostasy which should deny the coming of Christ, under the delusion that all things would continue for ever in their present state (and may the Lord preserve this generation from this apostasy, for the signs of the times are pregnant!), the Apostle sets out as well their ignorance of the changes that had passed, as, for their warning, the changes yet to come. "For this they willingly are ignorant of; that, by the word of God, the heavens were of old, and the earth, standing out of the water and in the water: whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished." This is the first world." But the heavens and the earth which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire, against the day of judgment, and perdition of ungodly men." This is the second world." Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for a new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." This is the third world.

28. To confirm our accuracy, we should examine the Lord's arrangement with regard to place for the Jewish church; which

we have before found to embody in types and figures the fulness of all things. Here we find only three places; Egypt, the wilderness, and the promised land and in the great pillar of witness, the tabernacle, we find the court, the holy place, and the most holy. Thus were all the transactions of God throughout the Jewish dispensation comprised, as far as regards the place of their manifestation, within the three countries, Egypt, the wilderness, and the promised land: and thus was the glorious fulness of the resurrection attained in the type, when the high priest had passed through the first and second place, the court and the sanctuary, and stood in the third place, the most holy, before the ark and mercy-seat.

u. If we note one or two further particulars in the type, we shall the more admire the perfection and glory of God's work. It will be seen that the court answers to the first world of St. Peter, and to the sea in the visible world; that St. Peter's first world also perished by water. Now, in the court of the tabernacle stood the great laver, or, as called in the time of Solomon, the molten sea, in which all washed who went into the sanctuary. Thus did God witness for his past works; and every one who went into the sanctuary was, in a figure, made to pass through the flood of waters, and put in remembrance of his fathers' death by the flood, and his own death in the flesh, in and with them. It is obvious this is the truth of baptism by water.

b. Pursuing the same comparison; the second world of St. Peter answers to the sanctuary, or holy place of the tabernacle, and also to the earth in the visible world. St. Peter's second world, in which we live, is, as by him is revealed, to perish by fire. Now, in the sanctuary stood the seven-branched candlestick, which was kept continually burning before the Lord; and by the light of them did the high priest go into the holy of holies; God, in these figures, foreshewing the end of this present (second) world. And thus did the high priest, having passed through the flood of waters, now pass through the place of fire, before he could attain the presence of the glory of the Lord. How plainly by these types is it shewn, that the world must pass through the mighty and overflowing flood, and be burned and purified by fire, before it was made meet for the Lord's throne, and become "a new heaven and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.' This shews us the baptism of the Holy Ghost.

29. We are confirmed, then, in our view, that in three theatres or places God has ordained to complete the new creation. This distinction is in full accordance with what we before stated concerning God's course of manifestation by creation, death, and new creation. The Creation world is the first world, existing until the Flood: the Death world is the second world, which is brought

-through one form of death, in the Flood, and reserved unto fire: and the New-creation world is the third world, the new heavens and the new earth. These three changes are, as we must conclude, indicative of the Lord's operations upon the mystical body of Christ before it is made meet for his acceptance; and they answer to the Lord's dealings with the person of Christ. He was in the flesh, the creation-state, until brought down to death in the sacrament of baptism. He was then, though under death in the flesh, yet preserved in the Spirit, until he had completed the works for which he was sent. Then he was exalted unto glory. So that Christ in the flesh, Christ in the Spirit, and Christ glorified, is in his own person a fulfilment of that which his mystical body the church must be: and that which the church was ordained to be, has God ordained to be stamped upon the theatre or place of the church manifestation.

30. Now the first, or creation world, is made to stand in analogy to the church in the flesh; or, to explain, it is in analogy to the body of men in the flesh whom God had, by his covenant engagements, ordained to build together as a church, but who are not yet, through baptism, brought into the form and outward manifestation of a church. Them God brings down into death by baptism, as he brought the first world under death by the flood of waters. The second, or death world, is in analogy to the baptized church-members, or visible church, who have been brought under death by water, and are yet preserved alive by the indwelling of the Spirit of God, working out by and in them the manifestation of God. These visible churchmembers must be baptized with the Holy Ghost and with fire before they are exalted to the resurrection glory; even as the death-world must be burned up by fire before it becomes the "new heavens and new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.' The third world, or "new heavens and new earth," is in perfect analogy to the resurrection church.

Some have made a question, whether the "new heavens and new earth" are not the same with the resurrection church; but, perhaps, without due consideration; for as the language of St. Peter is one and the same as applied to the first heavens and earth and to the present heavens and earth, as well as to the new heavens and earth, we are no more warranted in saying that the resurrection church shall be the "new heavens and new earth" than we should be in saying the visible church now is the second heavens and earth spoken of by St. Peter.

We need hardly refer to the analogy between God's dealings with the world and his dealings with every individual believer; for, as the church itself is but the aggregate of individuals, so God's dealings with the church are his dealings with every individual member of it: yet we may, perhaps, as a hint to

those who have not been led into this view, remark, That every believer, in the flesh, is a figure of the first world: after baptism, the same believer is conformed to the second world : when raised by the Spirit of glory, he is renewed after the similitude of the new world. Every believer, being a temple of the Holy Ghost, is a theatre of manifestation, even as the world's theatre.

31. Let us now compare the relations of time and place in God's work of manifestation. Time, as we have seen, is completed in seven ages: place is perfected in three stages. The seven ages are running their course; whilst the three stages are spreading forth. Two of the ages-the Adam age and Noah age-are acted upon the first stage: four ages-the Patriarchal, the Jew, the Gentile, and the Millennial-are acted upon the second stage and the eternal age-the Resurrection-has for its theatre the eternal world, the third stage.

32. In the first stage of the world's progress, which is the theatre of creation, we find the transactions of time to have shewn forth in the Adam age man's unworthiness of the sonship, and in the Noah age man's unworthiness of the Spirit of adoption. God having created him as a son, man did in these two ages manifest his complete unfitness for his creation state; and God, in just judgment, brought the destroying waters over creation, and it perished.

33. But now under death the Lord brought out the manifestation of life. Having visited the world with the judgment of death, God's power over death was shewn forth in bearing up the pillars of the world. He had already shewn that creation was not worthy of continuance, because of sin; and he now designed to shew, that he could make it worthy of eternal glory, because of righteousness: That as the Almighty Father of all, he was able to raise up sons unto glory, even from among those who had condemned themselves, and shewn their unworthiness in themselves to receive the adoption. Yet before he thus entered on the manifestation of himself, he would have man to shew that man was unable and incapable of the Father's office. God brought Noah through the destroying flood, endued him with the spirit of life and of glory, gave him dominion over all things and the covenant against death: yet with all this did Noah fail in his office of father, and his whole seed shortly rebelled against God. Then, when the creature nothingness was shewn forth, did God begin to shew forth his own power to make of man what man could not make of himself. God called Abraham, and made him a father of the faithful, giving to him the promise, "In thy seed shall all families of the earth be blessed." This seed is, we know, Christ; who after the flesh was a son of Abraham. We know also, that all who "have been baptized into Christ, are all one in Christ Jesus;" and that "if ye be