The expreffions of joy reiterated are very fit to defcribe that exultation and exhilaration of heart and spirit, with which the justified in Jesus Christ muft, as it were, be fwallowed up, and loft in a fpiritual inebriation at receiving the Holy Spirit, as the bride in the Canticles is in union with the poufe. The juftified under the law, the apoftle tells us in 1 Cor. x. 1-4, eat and drank the fame fpiritual meat and drink out of the cloud of fire, and blood and vapour, the GLORY; for it was the fpiritual body of the angel of the covenant, and of the prefence, ages before he affumed our flesh, to fuffer and fhew judgment againft it, even in his own felf, a finner by imputation, and voluntary fubjection to the fin which Adam brought upon us all, by real tranfgreffion and for this obedience in flesh, once done, he received as a reward, in right of that death on the cross, the open and declared power of taking away flesh, or death, and putting upon man the glory which Adam loft for us all. The great falvation here intimated was never published to the nations but at the Pentecofte, when a portion of Jews and Gentiles, as a firft fruits for all tongues, and peoples, and tribes, and nations, received the earnest and pledge of the baptifm of holy Spirit, even fire, which fhall, in the end, be poured out on all flesh. Joel ii. 28-32. Acts ii. 17. Ifa. xliv. 8. Calmet, who has learning enough for an hundred scholars, without one glympfe of Spiritual know

ledge,

ledge, fays, the Jews are represented as celebrating a high feftival, and of being transported with joy: and that David and his people offered a vast number of facrifices, and all figns of public feftivity, as it is recorded, 1 Chron. xv, and xvi. But if the royal prophet had feen no further into the myftery of burnt-offerings and peace-offerings, than this commentator and his brethren, what dark fayings did he fing of with his harp? and of what great importance were these temporary rejoicings over their fellow-creatures, but as figures and earnefts of greater enemies to be flain, and of better gifts than wine, and oil, and corn of the old covenant? And that beautiful Pfalm cv. which David then gave to be fang by Ethan and his brethren, was fung in the spirit and truth, when Jesus Christ drank the fruit of the vine new in his father's kingdom at Pentecofte, where the burnt-offerings and peace offerings, that is, the afcenfions by fire, and the offerings of the double ones, fo making peace, were made known, when they became brides, ifheh, facred by fire, and accepted into a portion of the glory; and when the bridegroom gave them the new wine at his marriage feaft and fupper, for they were fome of his virgins, not efpoufed only, but married and made one under the heavenly* chuppa,

the

* The antient Hebrews by the chuppa, bed or nuptial heaven, mean no more than being united with the world of emanations,

where

́the cœlum nuptiale of the aziluth; by the fpirit overfhadowing them, and clothing them with the purple, and fcarlet, and fine linen of that body which will never die. Here they were, as David before was in fpirit, mocked and despised by Michal, the daughter of Saul, the first rebellious king in Ifrael: They were thought drunk with new wine by the ftupid Jews, who at that day had loft the key of knowledge as much as the teachers of Auguftinifm, commonly called Calvinifm, have loft it at this day, and can interpret nothing, the voice and mouth of the dragon in it. Now the juft, who are thus rejoicing; as born of flesh and blood, were by Adam children of the wrath, the fentence of death paffed on all his pofterity: but as it was foretold, that the juft, or righteous, fhall

but with

where all the powers of the heavens and earth are in liberty, as in the cloud of glory. And this is that Schechinab they expect will return, and be the garment of falvation, as we find it was at the true Pentecofte of the Meffiab. Whoever wishes to know more of the Schechinah or dwelling-place of God may read the tract of Lord Barrington in his Mifcell. Rom. ii. 23. All have finned and come fbort (are deprived) of the glory of God. J. B. Carpzovius has drawn a comparison between the doctrine of the Hebrew church, concerning the nuptial bed, and the overshadowing of the holy Spirit in Luke i. 35. To which I will add the words of Peter The fpirit of glory, even of God, refleth upon you, that is, it is not moveable as the glory of old, but tabernacleth always upon you. By which, if we have eyes, we may understand the true fenfe of atonement, properly the covering of the glory returned to us.

live

live by faith, obtain life by the means of that justi fication God had prepared before the aonial times; they knew themselves to be abfolved from the power of death, and of past fins in their flesh, not by any natural or inherent righteousness, nor by the dead works of the law, a figure only, a memorial or witness of better gifts, but by the spirit and truth revealed by Chrift; and through him by a free grace, poured out of his fulness on his members. They knew vitally and experimentally the prefence, power, and peace and joy in the holy Spirit; not by the figures of the altars of fire, and of the lamb, and his blood and his cloud and his meat and drink-offering; but by the truth to all these, manifested in their new and inner man, the fecret place of the divine presence in them:-The Jews deceived by false prophets, that is, false interpretation of thofe expreffive and fignificative fymbols and figures of the temple-miniftry, fought righteoufnefs by the law, which was a public national record of condemnation of all flesh, and the only one among all nations: it fhewed the rife of it in the record of Adam's tranfgreffion, coming forth from paradife in a coat of fkins; by the knife of circumcifion, and by the woman's uncleannefs in her fountain or iffue of blood, after bringing forth flesh, fentenced to fervile labour, fears, cares, dangers, fickness, and to death in this world, which the wife called Afia, where matter is in hard

nefs

1

In

nefs and condenfation, fit for the fentence of earning bread with the fweat of the brow: beyond thefe evils, no curfe was threatned, or intended, oppofition to all these monitors, they fought righteousness by the means that pointed out their fall and ruin: they rejected the juftification by faith; and hence they disclaimed the want of the gifts of the fpirit from the fecond Adam, the Lord from heaven. And to this day, like other unbelievers ftand, without the covenant, and muft die in their fin, that is, they muft undergo the fecond death, which is the everlasting deftruction of that flesh, whofe evil lufts and paffions have hitherto fealed up their eyes from seeing the truth in Christ: as Paul speaks, if our gofpel, our good message be hid, it is to thofe, whofe God is their belly, and their glory is in their fhame, who favour earthly things, Phil. iii. 19. It is for fuch ftubborn and obdurate hearts, that the stripes of the fecond death are prepared, and must be executed to the total consumption of all fin and iniquity, death and hell, which is the chaff and stubble to be burned in that unquenchable fire. Obad. vi. 18. Matt. iii. 12. and

Rev. xx. 14.

Verle 4. Sing unto God; praife his name: prépare the way for him who rideth on the heavens by his name JAH; and rejoice before his faces.