"It is stated, 'God created the heaven and the earth.' This was the united act of the earlier part of the first day. A created heaven was therefore the womb of the earth in her darkness. It was the room' provided for her first draught of light. The earth was herself formed out of nothing, and the only requirement for her infant state in the nucleus was an appointed space in the regions of infinity, wrought and occupied by the eternal God. This was the original appointed expanse for all her ultimate system. This law pertains to this hour as a rule for a great design. First, to clear out, or obtain a spot and space where all the ultimate works will find no older works, a hindrance to the new, and then to make that a boundary definition as the light and glory to the end. No star of the heavens now existing, and created for the benefit of the earth's blessing on the fourth day, but has found a place in that 'Rehoboth.' The first and last banner over the earth is 'love.' On this fact we have the comment of Moses in the general summing up of attestation in evidence. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.'

"Thus the earth appeared at first in a very primitive state-a state of birth perfectly in accordance with all the analogy established in her system, for the secondary organisms on her bosom; a mere nucleus of matter, perfectly fitted to shew the power and mysterious wisdom of God, in a process of birth and growth. The profound shadow of her future was over her, as a real darkness of state. For all her progress was to be under, and by, the Divine provision, and use of her mistress-fountain of progress-material light.

"The earth is next spoken of, as both without form, and void.' These terms have most important meanings bearing on natural generations; but they have no affinity with the modern dream of Chaos or confusion. There can be no confusion in any work coming direct from the hand of Omnipotence. And God is not so confined for means or space as to want one of His old worn-out machines to work up a new one. Such impressions are ignorant

insults to His works.

"The classic mythologists, and the modern doctrine of all nature under a metempsychosis of eternal antiquity and process of change, have, by foisting this insulting interpretation of the terms here used, much damaged the process of reading this chapter in union with discovery. Those who get the laws of creation into an ideal chaos at first start, are not likely to make much progress in science or revelation.

"In the terms without form, and void,' we have before us the first created demonstration, or seed of the great man-system, of whose fulness in perfection, both in moral and physical progress, Ezekiel saw in 'the likeness of the glory of the Lord,' where man is seen in Jesus the centre of attraction, master, and final purpose by the Father, Word, and Spirit, among the wheels within wheels. One God involves that the whole was unique. A germ may be ever so unformed and primitive in the womb of time; but while in personal inertia, it may have its first proper state, native heaven, and be a proper seed, without a prior state of confusion or beauty, it must be a very first and real beginning, or the programme is of a mere entail and use, and not a creation declared in its real generations from the hand of God.

"With the earth in this stage, there is one property all nature shews as divinely entailed by the fact of existence-i.e., gravity. This law is the fundamental one of all organic progress in the earth and her fruits. It cannot be ignored in any part of the system. To lose it would be to lose all fellowship with the law of generic procession.

"It is known to be a fixed law, by the discovery of Kepler, dependent on mass of matrix and distance. But the possession of one property, or subjection under it, does not give power, which is ever by the intercommunion of different properties. It is simply the law of the body-existence and inertia. A snow-flake or icicle under the powerful collapse of polar condensing gravi

tation, is simply drawn into uncertain points and angles, according to the measure and weight of body, until the fall of light resolves it to fulness of form as the globule fit for cohesion with that stream.

"The moral idea in this law is most important, and in the name still shews, the man who believes, capable of giving correct titles to the things God brings before him to that end. It teaches the idea of the law-natural claimpower in a given, primitive, moral purpose, by the Creator, to draw on him, means to this end, in beauty and glory. Thus the first state of the creature, and the best for a beginning, is to be just out of nothing, and be but little other, for God to shew a procession of works, and to teach a progression of thoughts of His love.

"The two laws of gravity, mass and distance, shew the idea of a requisite regulating consistency, in a given power to draw on the bank of infinite resource, and the need of a rule of openness, or a wide distance in the possible progress, from first state to the last.

"Gravity is therefore a Physical Morality, avowing in every grain of dust, as a first law, the eternal and infinite claim of God to draw all things to Himself, and progress them to His end; as He has given this, as the first working power in the 'Self' desire or vacuum draft of all corporate forms in the system. All material properties are deputations to shew the Lord.

"It is a well-known law of all mechanics, that to find a body, and yet create in it a vacuum, is the first means to display the elasticity of agency, to an end; and the best to make it, an unmixed experiment clear of all doubt of intrusive matter or details. And the more crude the original means found, the more skill in the architect, if by royal combinations a master result be obtained.

"Does not our God know how to go to work, to shew forth His own purposes, and write out the Word Creator as Wonderful?'

'Perfectly still was the earth as first created and thrown in space, under her own inertia, but God had made it, and thus she could with the still small inaudible voice of gravity, call on Him who made, to shew the purpose in a means of progress, consistent to a worthy end. But here is the meaning of the first pause in the Mosaic statement. The claim was ordered, felt, and owned. And the Spirit of God moved (or brooded) upon the face of the

waters.

The Book of Psalms; with an Exposition, Evangelical, Typical, and Prophetical, of the Christian Dispensation. By W. WILSON, D.D., Vicar of Holy Rood, Southampton, and Canon of Winchester. 2 vols. London: James Nisbet and Co. 1860.

THE Church of God is never weary of the Book of Psalms; and we suppose expositions of this Book, like visits to the Holy Land, may be published from year to year without any risk of wanting readers. Every man of God has found his soul peculiarly at home in some of the Psalms. He has at times felt the special adaptation to his case of some of the holy breathings, and strong cries, and plaintive musings, and joyful thanksgivings and adorations.

In those Churches where it is the custom to adhere very closely to the Psalms in the department of praise, it has been observed that the minister's cast of mind often appears very curiously in the portions which he is wont to select for singing. Thus one minister, whose turn of mind is for systematic divinity will, if he turn to the 89th Psalm, be sure to select the opening verses that sing of the Covenant; while

another, who delights in pressing the gospel on his hearers, will select ver. 15, and onwards, because of "the joyful sound;" and another, who is fond of the Old Testament garb of the truth, will give out for praise some such verses as ver. 12, that speak of Tabor and Hermon. We could name ministers whose characteristic turn of thought has been thus exhibited. So also we could name one who has, during a long ministry, been noticed to be peculiarly apt to revert to Ps. xviii. 16, &c., and Ps. lxxvii. 7, &c., and Ps. lxxxi., as his favourites; and another. whose people knew that something was burdening his mind by his giving out as the commencing psalm Ps. lxxiii. 23, &c. But we are wandering from the book that lies open before us.

Dr Wilson's exposition is sound in doctrine, savoury too, and sensible, and is spiritual everywhere in its tone. It is brief, however, has not much freshness, and scarcely ventures on an original view. The prophetic element in it is very scanty, except in reference to the first coming of the Saviour, and the author is not a Premillennialist. The accuracy of some of his suggestions that involve reference to the Hebrew may be questioned, e. g., his translating Ps. xcvi. 6, " Vigour and majesty," instead of "Honour." We think, too, he might have found more of Christ in the Psalms than he has done. But the reader is sure to light upon valuable remarks. Thus, Ps. xxvii. 8

"Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee,' &c. The language of the Psalms has much to do with the heart,-the heart of God to his own, the heart of the faithful towards God, the heart of God in respect of the wicked, the heart of the wicked against God and God's people, the heart of the pious, fervent in love to their own enemies and the enemies of God; at the same time fervent in zeal against their wickedness. There might be gathered from the Psalms only a history of the Divine heart, and a history of the human heart. Burkius in loc."

Again, in Ps. xxxi. 22

6

"I said in my haste;' lit., ' In my hurried and rapid flight.' Whether the expression refers to any real flight or not, it shews how much of trembling anxiety and fear there was in his case, concealed under the strong faith and confidence he had before expressed."

Again, in Ps. cxxxix., as to its general drift. It is uttered as something to warn, but rather,

"David contemplates under the guidance of the Spirit the omniscience and omnipotence of his Covenant God. The survey of this extensive subject is calculated to support the Church under oppression and persecution, and to purify and console the believer under all his trials."

Once more, Ps. cxxx. 3, 4

"The depth of affliction seems to let down the eye of God upon the soul, as the depth of a well or cavern makes us to see those stars in the firmament which are not visible in the brightness of the day."

We said that the author is not a Premillennialist; nevertheless his hope looks forward to the New Heavens and New Earth; for in Ps. cxlviii. 14, we hear him exclaim :

"When creation is restored to that state worthy of Him who framed it; when the new heaven and new earth come forth after the last judgment; when the earth shall cast out her dead; when all the bondage of corruption, under which this world has so long groaned shall have been broken, and the world becomes a fit habitation for a redeemed and glorified Church-heart has not conceived what that state will be !"

The Day of the Lord, the Dissolution of the Earth by Fire, and the New Heavens and the New Earth of St Peter and St John, in connexion with various other Details, Millennial and Postmillennial. By GEORGE OGILVY, Esq. London: J. Nisbet & Co. 1860.

THOUGH not quite concurring in all the details of Mr Ogilvy's exposition of the concluding chapters of the Apocalypse, we have read his volume with very great pleasure, and are thankful to him for many suggestions. We cannot help thinking that the 21st and 22d chapters of the Revelation describe both the millennial and the eternal state of things. There are expressions there which can apply only to an imperfect state, such as the millennial; there are others which can only apply to a perfect state, such as the eternal. Our conclusion is, that, like the Messianic Psalms, it is a double prophecy, receiving a partial falfilment in the former state, and a complete fulfilment in the latter. The 18th Psalm, for instance, is a case in point. It is David's psalm, and it is Messiah's psalm. You cannot rightly interpret it by overlooking or excluding either of these aspects. You must view it in both. So with the description of the new heavens and new earth. The millennial kingdom is the first stage; for then “creation is to be delivered from the bondage of corruption." Isaiah warrants us in calling this "new heavens and earth;" but the eternal kingdom is the perfect filling up of the prediction. We have never been able to see that the coming down of the new Jerusalem from heaven means its actual descent to earth, so as to become the substitute for the terrestrial Jerusalem. This is assumed by some, but the Scriptures do not say it. There is no hint anywhere of the sweeping away of the earthly city to make room for the heavenly. If we keep both Isaiah and the Apocalypse in view, and place them side by side, we shall incline to believe, that even in the eternal and perfect kingdom, there is to be an earthly and a heavenly city, a lower and an upper chamber in the palace of the great King. The conjunction of the two (not the abolition of one) is the perfection of the kingdom.

But Mr Ogilvy's book is well worth the reading, and will repay the reader's pains, although he may not agree with it all. We quote two pages from the close of the fifth section:

"We think that on a careful consideration of the whole subject the following conclusions may be safely drawn :—

"1. Although nowhere expressly stated in Scripture, in so far as we are aware, that any righteous dead shall be raised to life eternal, at the last or

general resurrection, nevertheless, it would appear from some of the foregoing passages, in reference to restored Israel, God's chosen people, that they will be subject to death, though at an extremely advanced or antediluvian age; and if so, it follows of necessity that they must arise at the final resurrection.

"2. It appears still more clearly, that although, in a general sense, restored Israel shall be all righteous,' yet that individuals amongst them shall be cut off because of sin or personal transgression in the millennial age.

"3. With respect to the Gentiles living in that age, they are threatened with extensive national judgments, in the event of rebellion or disobedience; such as famine consequent on a want of rain,' plague,' or pestilence; and it is even declared that they shall perish,' and 'shall be utterly wasted.' And this, to say the very least, implies the possibility of death in a very extensive sense.

"4. This is still further confirmed by the fact of great numbers' of those nations being destroyed by fire from heaven on their final apostasy at the close of the millennium, which implies temporal death, preparatory to the great judgment. And

"Lastly, Death cannot be said to be finally destroyed, before the termination of the great day of the Lord,' when Hades, and the grave, and the sea, shall finally yield up their dead, at which time that last enemy of man shall cease for ever, and there shall be no more death.' The abolition of death is therefore post-millennial.*

"What blessed words of comfort does the promise of a coming resurrection out of death afford to those who are in bondage all their lifetime through fear of death,' and which has followed them as a shadow, and tracked their course from the cradle onwards through every step-ever uncertain when he may grasp his prey! What blessed assurance of immortality and final restoration to Adam's fallen race of more, far more than original blessing,— all purchased through the atoning blood of our Elder Brother, the second Adam, and freely and graciously conferred on all true believers through faith in His finished work!"

"Come Out," or "Go Qut:" an Explication of Revelation xviii. 4, according to the Douay Version. Addressed to our Roman Catholic Brethren of Great Britain and Ireland. By the Rev. BOURCHIER WREY SAVILE, M.A. London: James Nisbet & Co.

MR SAVILE has spoken pointedly, calmly, and solemnly in this pamphlet; besides having gathered together a great deal of striking information. We take a page in reference to the teaching of the Romish Church on the duty of murdering heretics ::

"Let the following testimonies decide what has been the teaching of the Church of Rome on this subject :-In the Decretals of Pope Gregory IX., we read, that heretics are to be handed over to the secular power;' according to Pope Lucius III., that 'heretics are to be exterminated;' according to Pope

"Although the first resurrection is peculiarly designated the 'resurrection unto life,' the 'resurrection of the just,' being the resurrection of the bride of the Lamb unto a special glory, it does not therefore follow that at the general resurrection, or resurrection of damnation,' none shall be raised unto life. A general term does not necessarily exclude exceptions-of which there are many examples in the Bible."