"Here his whole name appears complete, The power, the wisdom, or the love." Every motion of the wheels his wisdom has constructed admonishes some new token of this triple blessing. Hence he has ordained a furnace for his people, where he sits to refine and purify them from their dross, and to separate the corruption which overspreads its tinsel on the pure gold of grace. To remove this base alloy is the blessed end of sanctified affliction, which consists in a mortification and subjection of the principles of nature, the curbing their actions, the overthrow of their dominion, and the establishment of the peaceable dominion of grace on the wreck. In this furnace nature undergoes no change; such a conjecture is at variance with truth, and is inconsistent with a belief in its record of the immutability of evil, aptly described by the apostle as essentially evil, evil itself, evil continually. The heaven-born principle of grace is denominated pure gold, from its derivation, worth, solidity, and freedom from alloy. Beheld in Jesus every saint is absolutely spotless, being newly created in his immaculate image. Every word and action proceeding from the newly created production is perfect in its kind as its source. All the dross which is seen cleaving to their garments is fruit from the Adam stock; these are "things which defile the man," and to purge away this defilement is one grand design of affliction. For this purpose Jesus has established in Zion his furnace, into which every saint is cast" for the trial of his faith" and graces. This is a mercy past comprehension, and it is reserved for eternity to unfold the full blessedness connected with these conflicts. When we can calmly look at the wisdom which ordained crosses as well as our communion enjoyments, we can then say, " he hath done all things well." And who is so suitable to the believer for the official station of a refiner as the Redeemer, who has passed through flames to take possession of their crown? Let the tried believer consider him in his affliction who was tempted by Satan and his legions, who was buffetted by his foes, who endured the cross and despised the shame; such a remindal may be profitable to check a rising murmur in such seasons, and producing, under sanctified operations, submission to every covenant appointment. Oh! how gladly would the dear children of God escape the rod of affliction if left to their carnal choice and influence but Jesus loves them too supremely to grant their prayer; and, blessed be his name for ever, he knows well how exactly to time them, and to mete out the very quantity to fulfil his ever gracious purposes. He nicely adjusts the heat and temperature of the furnace accordant with his inscrutable arrangement; and every affliction he sends is only for an appointed time, and the love which devises it lays the afflicted under the deepest and ever growing obligations. It might have appeared surpassing strange to the Israelites that they should be constrained to wander forty years in a circuitous route through a desert land, when they might have reached the desired Canaan by a less tedious march. So of the children of God, their beloved Jesus might speedily convey them home was such a plan connected with his purposes of wisdom. The truth is, the saint's vanity is never more fed, than when he is momentarily left to the gratification of his own carnal propensities; but what miserable contrivances does he devise; his every carnal action becomes an excrescence which must be severed from him, and can only be cut asunder by the fiery ordeal. The glory of the promises, and the immutable faithfulness and power of Jehovah's arm, as constantly exercised towards his chosen heritage, would lose their end and preciousness could affliction's rod be dispensed with; and there would be no knowledge of the boundless lengths and breadths of sovereign love evinced in deliverance from trials were it possible to be exempted from them; and in such a case, the consolations of the Spirit would indeed be small with them. But, this is not, it cannot be. The fire of the furnace is ordained for all; for the young convert, who flies for relief from his burden to Sinai's mount, for the more advanced in spiritual discipline, and the aged in Christ. All need welding in the furnace, and none are too mean to be overlooked and left untempered by the Lord of the furnace. Some have domestic troubles to grapple with; others have losses of dear friends by death, and by other means arising out of mutability; some have bereaving dispensations in the family circle, and in their property; while others suffer a shipwreck of spiritual hope, at least all but its faint glimmer, of interest in the Redeemer; while all, more or less, have to mourn under the hidings of their Saviour's reconciling countenance, even though the faith of many is as an anchor to the soul sure and stedfast. All are rendered glorious in their object and termination, under his appointment and superintendance. The domestic afflictions of good old Jacob were, doubtless, exceedingly trying; but the end of his trial proved that he had a profitable lesson to learn, which no other discipline could effect. He proved, by the issue, that though Joseph was not, and Simeon and Benjamin were not, that, consequently, all these things were not against but for him. Surely, this must have been a severe tribulation, but it was equally merciful and gracious, and gave occasion for the marvellous exercise of divine faithfulness, in a super-eminent way. Of Abraham also, the pattern of the faithful, he was highly honoured by the Lord in the selection of his peculiar trial of offering up his only son, and its termination. Of Moses also, of Job, and of Daniel, and other worthies, it may be said, they have all passed through the flames of sorrow to the haven of rest. All these have had a great fight of afflictions to combat; and some have left the stage of time in fiery chariots triumphing all their way to glory. The furnace consumed their bondage of corruption, and freed their captive spirits. These have had afflictions in the family, in their own experience, in the world, and in the church: but there was a "needs be" for these dispensations that in the very hour of their midnight sadness, they might seek the Lord alone, and sit down under the refreshing shade of the tree of life. The erection of any other banner but redeeming love is a high insult to the ever-blessed Saviour, and will be visited with stripes. Whenever self-sufficiency, self-complacency, and high-minded notions interpose between the sinner and the sinner's friend, it is the harbinger of painful tribulation, and the precursor of benefit in the severation of the incongruous union. In the garden of grace, the weeds of self-righteousness will be ever shooting forth their fibres, and eclipsing the graces of the Spirit; these must be consumed; the pure gold must be refined from this baneful portion. There is no spirit so utterly opposed to the genius of the gospel as legal-mindedness; it is a canker-worm which is incorporated in the very root of our natural constitution, and its influence pervades the whole man, and adds imperfection to the exercise of every holy precept. Jesus beholds them by his omniscient eye, and will consume their influence in the furnace; or, rather, prevent its predominant and domineering reign, more or less, throughout our pilgrimage. How often has he brought down the proud heart by labour, and softened it by sanctified affliction; and though the inflictions of his hand, like a furnace seven times heated, have been truly severe, they have only been so in proportion to the end to be answered by them; and in every case, he has given support under their fiery trials, and enabled his children submissively to bear them. The Redeemer, being himself the appointer of afflictions, as well as having been subjected to them, in his mediatorial capacity while on earth, has wisely ordained them and their end. The loss of property, of the friendship of those we highly esteemed, of health and spirits, and whatever we have idolized as more precious than rubies, and above all, of the light of Jehovah's reconciling presence, these are furnace trials of great severity. The eye of Jesus is like a flaming fire, and no opposing principle can approach him with impunity; no garments can endure his flames, but the vesture of his righteousness. It is a subject of no ordinary blessedness, that there is not a single flame of the furnace into which the redeemed are cast, can consume more than the leaven of corruption. The psalmist has assured the church that before he was afflicted he went astray; and of the children of God it may be said, they are bent on wandering from his fold after carnal subterfuges; nor can they walk at liberty while the bonds of legality are closely intwined around them; it therefore is an unspeakable mercy to be cast into the flames, to be relieved from a yoke so galling. Besides, to the praise of rich grace there is not a single tribulation through which the heirs of salvation pass, but is intimately connected with their benefit, and in which is not hung pendant some marvellous revelation of the glory of Jehovah in Christ. Every cross which they may have to bear, will heighten the exceeding blessedness of the crown awaiting them, which is an eternal weight of glory. Are afflictions then, under the regulation of his hand, so truly blessed in their end, though painful to the flesh? What a mercy to be appointed thereunto by him who cannot err ! Jesus is a source of immeasurable light, and he illuminates the dreary path of every believer, more or less, through every stage of his experience, by the manifestations of himself; and though he will bring them to the river of death, he will bring them safely through it; and in that trying season, will hang out a lamp of hope to light the darksome valley, and cheer their spirits in the chilling flood. After death, corruption will no more annoy; there will then be no fiery dispensation to consume the influence of evil; for in heaven, even death itself shall have lost its power, and be succeeded by uninterrupted joy and peace for ever. It is an inconceivable blessing that the Redeemer has marked out every step of the way from the cradle to the tomb. The enemies of Jesus, who perpetrate deeds of darkness, and hurl the thunderbolts of wrath to his chosen heritage, miscalculate in their devices and actions; for while they imagine evil, the very evil they aim at alights on them, and their intended curse is converted into a source of bliss to the humble penitent, and treasures up to their perpetrators wrath against the day of wrath. Since every dispensation of the Lord is fraught with a blessed burden of infinite love, the bitters of life shall in the accomplishment yield sweets more delightful than honey to the taste, or the finest honey from the honey comb. If the vision tarry, may we wait the Lord's appointed time; it will assuredly speak in the termination, and speak truly, "Jesus hath done all things well." FRAGMENT. A Believer is "the light of the world-the salt of the earth-a city set on an hill-a child of God-a friend of God-an heir of God-a joint-heir with Christ-he is a partaker of the divine nature -he is one with Christ, and Christ is one with him-he is espoused and married unto Christ-he is a member of Christ's body-he is bone of Christ's bone, and flesh of Christ's flesh. Christ liveth in him-dwells in his heart-sups with him, and he sups with Christ -the Father, Son, and Spirit (the blessed Trinity in unity) make their abode with him," and condescend to have "fellowship and communion with him-he hath put on Christ-is in Christ-is crucified with Christ-is risen with Christ-is set down in heavenly places with Christ." "Oh! love, passing knowledge. What manner of persons ought we to be, in all holy conversation and godliness?" VOL. VI.-No. 62. Ꭰ REVIEW. On the Principles of Interpretation, as applied to the Prophecies of Holy Scripture. By John Pye Smith, D.D. THE above discourse, delivered in the meeting-house in Fetter Lane, in February last, before the monthly association of Congregational Ministers, and published at their request, is founded on Peter's second Epistle, i. 19-21. which the author, has new modelled, either to irradiate it with additional light, or to mould his subject more agreeable to his interpretation. The apostle's citation was sufficiently plain, and needed not this new device. In our opinion, it is establishing a dangerous precedent in cutting and carving the holy oracles for the sake of elucidation; but especially the more so when, in point of fact, there is not, as in this case, observable any ambiguity as to the signification. We have attentively read this Sermon on this very difficult subject; and with one exception, ("on the design of prophecy,") we are more pleased with the talent displayed, than the subject matter treated of. Dr. Smith has given the reader, in the compass of sixteen pages, his elucidation, paraphrase, necessity of having fixed principles for the interpretation of prophecy, nature, and definition of prophecy, and obviated some misapprehensions on the subject; and an historical sketch of the hebrew inspired prophets; the remainder of the volume, of seventy-three pages, contains rules for the interpretation of prophecy, which he alleges, in his text, as not being of self interpretation. We have had occasion, at the conclusion of our labours (and, we confess, it has been a tax on our time and inclination, to peruse the volume) to repeat the same objections to his work, as we have had too often cause to do to others from similar pens, that we discover no allusions whatever to the necessity of the divine illumination of the Holy Ghost, who can alone instruct to profit, whose province it is alone to enlighten the mind, by taking of the things of God, whether prophetical allusions or otherwise, and to shew them unto us. To facilitate and more effectually to unfold the problems of science to mathematical demonstration, rules are essentially requisite; but, in spiritual subjects, though we would not proscribe rules entirely, as means to inform the mind and direct to the study, we would at all times make them subordinate, and never act so insultingly to the Holy Ghost, as to neglect a most urgent appeal to the mind of the absolute necessity of his divine inspirations and teachings, as indispensable to a right apprehension of this, and every subject recorded in holy writ. We might, perhaps, be chargeable with a violation of the rules of christian charity, were we to say, that such an omission (by a |