gested in the objection. It is evident also, that the curse did not exist before the Fall, but was introduced after it.

Whether the renovated state described in this chapter will be a state of probation;—or, if so, what the test of their obedience will be;-is altogether uncertain. But as the angels, at their creation, were placed in a state of probation, (which is evident from the fall of so great a number of them,) and as our first parents, during their innocence, were also in such a state, it is not at all improbable that it will be probationary.

Nevertheless, should this be the case, and a possibility of falling be admitted, the prophecies give us sufficient assurance that a general lapse will never again take place.

(To be continued.)

ART. IV. THE FEASTS AND FESTIVALS OF THE JEWS CONSIDERED AS TYPES OF FUTURE GOOD THINGS TO THE WHOLE HOUSE OF ISRAEL.

THE annual feasts or festivals of the Jews formed an essential part of their religious and political life. They were prospective as well as retrospective-they were typical and prophetic, as well as commemorative. They taught the Israelites to look for future and better things. The Israelite of the time being was identified and united by them with the Israelite of the past and of the future, and his associations and sympathies were awakened for the nation in all times.

In his past deliverances, his present blessings, and his future prospects, the Israelite was taught to recognise and acknowledge God. In his history God was everything. Thus the Israelitish nation was kept, more than any other, faithful to their God, and true to their nation. It was distinguished both by its patriotism and its piety. The nation's history was read in the nation's institutions, and he who attended to the latter could not but be well-instructed in the former. The chief lesson taught was the constant interposition of God in behalf of His ancient people.

These feasts had in every respect a national reference and a national application,—in the past, the present, and the future. Some of them are in complete abeyance, others are partially observed, because the Israelites themselves are under a cloud, and banished from the scenes where these institutions had their home; but when the light has come to Israel, and the

glory of the Lord has risen upon her, these types will have their fulfilment in national mercies, in national blessings, and in national services.

It is admitted by all that all the feasts and festivals have not been antitypically fulfilled. I shall endeavour to shew that not any have been fulfilled, but are yet to be fulfilled in the future. In their annual celebration, the Israelite learned that God was his covenant God for ever and ever, that the temporal was a pledge and earnest of the everlasting covenant, and that the favour and blessings enjoyed in the land were but instalments of greater and more lasting blessings to be bestowed upon them. By these was foreshadowed a future history for the Israelite, far more eventful, and far more glorious than even the past.

These things, shadowed forth in types in the Jewish feasts and festivals, are in perfect accordance with the express declarations of the prophets of the Old Testament, and with the visions of John, the prophet of the New. In the following pages I shall endeavour to prove this, and thereby endeavour to illustrate and explain a considerable portion of this important and wonderful book, the Book of Revelation.

I shall begin with the feast of the Passover, and bring under review the several feasts, in the order in which they were observed.

The occasion on which the Passover was instituted, the nature of the ordinance and its intention, as declared in the laws of its institution, are familiar to all.

It is admitted by all that it had a typical import, and was intended to draw the attention of the Israelites to future good things, and to fix their faith and hope upon them.

It appears to me that the typical import has been misunderstood in too many instances, and that the future prospects have been confined within too narrow a compass, and do not include many blessings that have been promised.

The leading ideas brought before us in the Passover are, national deliverance, a new national existence, national prosperity, leading to the accomplishment of God's great purposes. It is true that Christ, our passover, is sacrificed. He is the true Paschal Lamb, of which the lamb slain at the Passover was a type and an emblem. The type, however, has not as yet been fulfilled. The whole congregation must be assembled, and exercise faith in Christ as the Lamb slain-His blood must be applied by faith to "every family apart"—a national existence of a superior kind to that which they had must be bestowed-a superior freedom nationally guaranteed-and a

future career of usefulness must be initiated before the Passover be antitypically fulfilled.

Spiritual blessings conveyed to an elect number of the Jews under the present dispensation do not comprehend all that is held out and promised to the whole house of Israel.

The Lord has blessed, and is blessing many Israelites, by turning them away from their iniquities. Jesus Christ is exalted a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance and remission of sins unto Israel; but a larger measure of spiritual blessings is to be yet imparted, and temporal blessings, such as they have not hitherto enjoyed, are yet in store for them. St Paul has told us-" There shall come out of Zion the deliverer, and turn away ungodliness from Jacob; and so all Israel shall be saved. For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins." This is distinct from the remnant according to the election of grace; it is of Israel wholly and nationally that these things are spoken. With respect to the future temporal blessings, Zacharias, filled with the Holy Ghost, prophesied, saying, "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, that we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us, to perform the mercy promised to our fathers, to remember his holy covenant, the oath which he sware to our father Abraham that he would grant unto us, that we, being delivered out of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness all the days of our life." In this the Holy Ghost, by Zacharias, teaches us that a deliverance is to be effected for them, and a freedom to be enjoyed, of which, since these words were spoken, they have had no experience. The Jew, whether converted or unconverted, has not been saved from his enemies, nor from the hand of them that hate him; nor has he been so circumstanced, that he could serve God without fear, in righteousness and holiness all the days of his national life. The mercy promised to the fathers, and the holy covenant, and the oath which He sware unto Abraham, assured the Israelites that they should be lords of the world, possess the gates of their enemies, and have the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession, and from thence communicate blessings to all the nations of the earth. Now, instead of bearing rule and exercising authority over the nations of the earth, instead of dispensing blessings graciously acknowledged and gratefully received, their condition has been one of hardship and oppression; and in every portion of the world they have been despised, and hated, and persecuted, and trampled upon.

As the bondage in Egypt, and deliverance therefrom, was expressly foretold, so their sufferings, and sorrows, and servile state in all lands, and their rescue therefrom, has been as expressly foretold. We have seen the former to be literal facts; we shall see the latter as literally fulfilled.

The day of bondage has no doubt passed its meridian, but it is far from being yet set. The burdens of afflicted Israel will not be gradually lessened until they shall be entirely removed. The enlightenment and social progress of this and succeeding ages will not remove the brand from Israel's brow; nor the care and fear from Israel's heart; nor the lash of persecution from Israel's back. As in Egypt, the burdens were increased and the lash made heavier, and the torture greater, and the wrongs inflicted worse and worse, until the time of deliverance arrived; so will it be in the last days. All the woes of the past will be concentrated into one essence to be poured out upon Israel. This is called the "day of Jacob's trouble." This is the great day of tribulation through which Israel will have to pass, greater than any that ever was, or ever shall be.

The sufferings will come more regularly under our observation on another occasion, and therefore we pass on to the deliverance.

In the celebration of the passover the Jew has always been taught to look forward to the future greater passover. In the liturgical services of the day, the nation's faith and the nation's longings are embodied in her hymns and prayers. This association can scarcely be considered a vain tradition. It would seem rather to have been stamped upon the Jewish mind at the first institution of the feast. Thus, in the midst of acknowledgments for the past, they mingle prayers for the

future.

"Next year in Jerusalem."

"O Lord our God, have mercy, we beseech Thee, upon Israel Thy people, and upon Jerusalem Thy city, and upon Thine altar, and upon Thy temple, and build Jerusalem the holy city, speedily in our days, and bring us up into the midst of it, and make us glad therein."

These and other such prayers are founded upon the promises of God, as contained in the prophets of the Old Testament. Nay, more, they are warranted in mingling prayers for the fulfilment of greater and future mercies with the services of the passover. The future and the past are so associated in the Word of God. 66 According to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt, will I shew unto him marvel

lous things." So saith the prophet Micah, vii. 15. "And the Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and shall make men go over dry-shod. And there shall be an highway for the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria; like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt," saith Isaiah, xi. 15, 16.

In the prophecies a greater and more miraculous deliverance than that out of Egypt, involving permanent and more glorious results, is expressly foretold. So much greater was this after-deliverance to be, that the former was to be forgotten, and not commemorated.

In the book of the prophets, (Isa. xliii. 18, and Jer. xvi. 14, 15, xxiii. 5,) this future great deliverance is foretold.

In the first, God calls upon the Israelites to forget what is past, in the contemplation of the new thing which He is going to do for them, when He shall make them to shew forth His praise. In the two latter passages we have the deliverance in its greatness stated, and the time when, and the circumstances under which it will be effected. In Jer. xvi. 14, 15, an earthly deliverance is foretold, and this is after that they have been dispersed through all lands, as they have been since the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. In Jer. xxiii. 5, &c., the same great deliverance is spoken of, and this is accomplished when Judah and Israel, the two and the ten tribes, are restored to their land, dwelling safely, and ruled over by a king of the house of David, who is more than a king, being a protector and "the Lord our righteousness," to the children of Israel. Now, Judah and Israel have not been restored. Israel has never been delivered from their first captivity. A king of the house of David, designated and acting as here, has not been their king; but as not one jot or tittle shall pass away until all be fulfilled, we look for the sure accomplishment of these promises.

When our Lord was seated with His disciples at the last passover supper, as recorded in the Gospel of Luke, xxii. 15, &c., He leads His disciples to look for the fulfilment of the "With desire," He says, passover type on a future occasion. "I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer: for I say unto you, I will not eat any more thereof, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God." Our Lord clearly intimates that the type must be fulfilled, and that the time in which it is to be so is at His appearing and kingdom. This is analogous to that which we have just seen in Jer. xxiii.