teonial times fpoken of by Paul, Rom. 16. To this time we muft bring his judgment, and his coming in clouds, Rev. 1. and at this affumption we muft find his figure under the law, in * Abram, for I called him alone Echad, and blessed him and increased him. Ifa. li. 2. which is confirmed by Ezek. xxxiii. 24. Abraham was one, and he inherited the land. Hence Jacob is called in the third number or generation, Ifrael my servant, whom I have chofen, the feed of Abraham my friend. Ifa. xli. 8, 9. and by Paul, Abraham is called heir of the world. Rom. iv. 13. The law or figure is but a fervant, as Mofes was in that tabernacle: and the building of this dwelling place for the glory to abide upon, is only a fhadow of a better tabernacle, even in its ultimate sense, heaven itself, where reft or fabbath is found, and never paffes away. Hence when Mofes firft fung this hymn, in Numb. x. 35. As the tabernacle journeyed, with the cloud of glory, the chariot of the most High God and the angel of the faces, and of the covenant * He was first Abram to answer to this fon, the male, who had yet no Sarah, no bride of incorruptible matter in him, but was married to Bathsheba of ancient time, after his affumption to the throne of God: and is now manifested under the gospel, as the one only begotten in John i. 14. and as the first born, or Jacob called Ifrael, in Mat. i. 25. For the first, or Abrahamical head, called Kether by the ancient Hebrews, is hid in the light of Isaac, heir of all his father's goods, and can no more be seen, than darkness in the root of the fun. with him: he forefaw the deftruction of all enemies, the fpirits of darkness, and our own flesh and blood, the houfe of fin and death, by the glory, the fire of holy vengeance confuming the carnal mind, the enmity against God, and our fleshly lufts which war against our fouls: and that thefe, as Gell observes in his noble effay for an amendment of the laft tranflation of the bible, p. 441. would be scattered by the rifing up of God, in his holy fire, the baptifm of the fpirit, for fuch are his, and our trueft enemies, that muft flee before his wrathful face, as the fin and trefpafs-offering went up in smoke of the everlasting fire of the altar, where the judgment and wrath of God and the Lamb were figuratively fhewn to Ifrael every day of the fervice of the tabernacle, and temple. And the enemies which the fword of Mofes, Jofhua, and David deftroyed in the flesh, fhall be quickened in the fpirit by the Meffiah, who has the fword of the fpirit going out of his mouth, and breathing the breath of lives into his people, as at the paffover in fecret to the twelve, and at pentecofte to all flesh in the eyes of the nations. Verse 2. As fmoke is driven away, thou fhalt drive them away: and as wax melteth before the face of the fire, the wicked fhall perish before the faces of God. The The * smoke in this place leads us to the fire of the altar, called the mediator, where the Jews faw the bulls, rams and goats of the law, brought down and flain at the north-fide; and where the Lamb fat on the typical throne of judgment by fire, in the double character, as the avenger and destroyer of fins and trefpaffes devoured by the ravenous mouth of that fire, myftically called Ariel, the lion of God tearing to pieces the bones and flesh of the victims which consumed away in smoke before his noftrils: and by which rapid consumption, the image of the beaft, figuring man in the flesh of fin was foon eat up into the victorious fire of the Lamb's holy wrath, and was feen no more. On which throne, he fat alfo, as the feeder of Ifrael, diftributing the typical meat and drink offering, afcending and defcending in the cloud, over the Smoke, fhadow and clouds are three things of a momentary duration, fays Bythner. But had he not forgot the clouds of glory, the everlasting dwelling places, the Schechinabs of the most high God? did the vapor of smoke at Pentecofte ever perish? here it is true, the fmoke, and the melting of wax, (a proverbial expreffion for quick destruction) infinuate with what facility and speed, God will destroy his enemies. No bad news to them. Michaelis in his notes on the Bishop of London de facra poefi Heb. obferves, that this smoke is a fublime, and a very poetical image. But had he viewed the fmoke and clouds of the altars of brafs, and gold under the law, he might have seen such a destruction of enemies, particularly in the feventy bulls at the feast of tabernacles, as fuited to the name Jehovah, proclaimed in Exod. xxxiv. 5, 7. heads of the priests, ftanding round that throne, where their king and high-priest was figured out in the Lamb, rejoicing in that fire, the type of his father's throne, as fhewn in Dan. vii. 13. and of his own judgment feat during that dispensation of fhadows. Flesh by the facred records is fin, and - Chrift was fent in likeness of the flesh of fin, the body of death, and the body of our fall, Rom. viii. 3. Phil. iii. 21. to condemn fin, and fhew fin by executing judgment against it, as he was the finner by voluntary affumption of that which we inherit through Adam's tranfgreffion. This is the veil and covering caft over all peoples, as Ifaiah speaks, xxv. 7. which the Lord will deftroy in his holy mount. And what is flesh, but the fruit or child of blood; an expreffion familiar to the Jews to denote mortal man; but never used by the prophets, but by our Lord to Peter at firft; and afterward by Paul, his fervant. It was rejected by the law, a standing teftimony against all flesh, as condemned to the fire, and a promise of a better and nobler flesh that shall bear the fire of the Lord, and rejoice unconfumed in that garment of glory. *Refbagnim, as Michaelis remarks, is a term of condemnation in a judicial fenfe, and is oppofed to the juft, or fuch as are declared innocent. But let us obferve, that all men are finners in Adam; and that no flefb, can be justified, or declared good before The The womb that bare the flesh foon to die, and before death a flave to toil, cares, fears and dangers, in the house of bondage; this womb was unclean for forty and fourfcore days. The Jews bore the teftimony of this humiliating truth in the face of all the nations; and were the derifion and fcorn of their neighbours for the fign of circumci fion, teftifying a faith in a new blood and garment or body, by taking away the firft generation of flesh, and by the second birth of spirit, John iii. 3, 6. Now the gofpel or good news from heaven to this part of the law is this, that Jefus Chrift, the true Lamb, fhall communicate a feed of his precious blood, and the holy fire, before which the finner fhall diffolve away, and melt before the baptizing fire of the new altar: and when he has destroyed this man of fin, the old Adam, and the outer man, by the breath of his mouth, as in John xx. 22. compared with Gen. ii. 7. and by the brightness or mahifeftation of his prefence, 2 Theff. ii. 8. as he did openly at Pentecofte, where Joel mult be compared with the altars and clouds of Mofes, that of brass and of gold; we may then God, whofe law marks it for destruction. As the juft, or justified freely by grace muft live by faith, muft receive life by the gofpeldifpenfation, and confefs unto the juftice of God in the death of the firft man by fin, and of us in him; and unto the mercy in the righteousness, or juftification unto life by Jefus Chrifl, the Naza |