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revealed that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you, with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven." We will now examine Peter's sermon on the day of Pentecost, and see what report he gives of the four prophets under consideration. The first passage quoted shall be the 33rd verse of Acts ii.: "Being by the right hand of God exalted." Without at present examining into the nature of Christ's kingly and priestly office, let me merely notice the fulfilment of the prophecies which spake of a throne, and the ance as of a man upon the throne. This is Ezekiel's, and also Daniel's testimony, but I will take only the prophecy of Isaiah, that being sufficient for our purpose; "I saw, also, the Lord, sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up.' "Now how does Peter reveal this mystery? Let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ ;" and being made Lord and Christ, he must have the pre-eminent place of Lord. So Peter likewise says, that he was by the right hand of God exalted, according to David; "The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand till I make thy foes thy footstool." Isaiah's prophecy was to come to pass in the last days, which concerned Judah and Jerusalem, and Peter says, of his days, These be the days of which all the prophets, from Samuel and those that follow after, have spoken." These be the days which concern Judah and Jerusalem, for I say, saith Peter, let all the house of Israel know assuredly. These be the days in which Isaiah saw the Lord sitting on his throne; for I tell you, saith Peter, you dreamers of an earthly Messiah, you worshippers of a kingdom that is of this world, that Messiah is now exalted at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens, is now a king entered upon his dominion. These be the days when Isaiah prophesied, "The law shall go forth out of Zion," the law of grace and faith, excluding your law of works; for I warn you, saith Peter, “ Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, into the name of Jesus Christ. God hath raised him from the dead, whereof we all are witnesses; and if you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God hath raised him from the dead, you shall be saved; for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." (Rom. x. 9.) This is the law of Sion, which the Apostles preached. The feast of Pentecost was appointed in commemoration of the law of Sinai, so likewise the same feast is the appointed time for the law of Sion. So much, then, for Isaiah's testimonies, as explained by Peter. I will take another of the prophets, Daniel, respecting another particular of the Pentecostal day. Daniel writes, "A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him that sat upon the throne.' Jesus, being made Christ, as the Lord's anointed, received the promise of the Father, the promise of the Holy Ghost and fire; and, saith Peter, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear. Compare the word "shed" with the " fiery stream," and there is established a connexion between the two portions. This brings me to another prophet, in reference to the Pentecostal day— David, in the Psalm already quoted, "Like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard." This ointment was

prefigured in the circumstance of the woman with an alabaster box of ointment, coming to Jesus to anoint him. They that stood by lamented the waste, and thought the ointment might have been sold for so much, and given to the poor. What was the answer?" She did it for my burial. And verily I say unto you, wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, which this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her." O what a precious memorial, when we can understand it as it was intended, and witness the memorial on this Pentecostal day! We can behold a beautiful correspondence between the ointment running down, and Jesus, shedding forth the Holy Ghost, the oil of joy, the unction from the Holy One; that anointing of which John writes, "Little children, ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things. The anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you; but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth." Surely this is the tenor of the new and better covenant, "They shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, (as under the law,) saying, Know the Lord; for they shall all know me, from the least (little children), even unto the greatest (fathers), of them. This anointing is a vast theme. It is shadowed forth under many figures: "The dew of Hermon," or, "I will be as the dew unto Israel." Peter quotes Psalm cx. in his Pentecostal sermon, and was not this portion of that Psalm fulfilled at that time, "Of the womb of the early morning, to thee the dew of thy youth, seeing that then a nation was born at once, and the earth was made to bring forth in one day."

In the preceding section, we have stated that fire is an emblematic figure of that preaching of the gospel which was with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. I might go on at great length, shewing the continual application of that figure through various scriptures of the apostolic epistles; i. e., how we may understand that it is the word of God, or the New Testament in Christ's blood which is signified, when the figure of fire is used. The Apostles, according to a prophecy before quoted out of Daniel, were to judge on thrones as a fiery stream, by their fire ministry. So we find that immediately before the Lord delivered to his disciples the parable of the faithful and wise steward, in Luke xii., he had said unto them, "Let your loins he girded about, and your lights burning." How peculiarly applicable was the figure of light, we learn from the sermon on the mount, Ye are the light of the world: a city that is set on a hill cannot be hid." After the Lord had delivered the parable above mentioned, he proceeded to say, 'I am come to send fire on the earth, and what will I if it be already kindled.' 'I have a baptism to be baptised with;' surely a baptism of the Holy Ghost, as he was put to death in the flesh, but quickened in the spirit, through the operation of mighty power wrought in him when raised from the dead. The kindling of this fire is a dissension in one house:

five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three. This house is, without doubt, the house of Judah, as the description exactly accords with the words of the rich man,—'I have five brethren.' The dissension is exhibited in the history of the Acts of the Apostles, wherein we find the opposition of Judaism and Christianity; the gospel being the fire and sword which brought discord among those who had hitherto lived together as brethren in the house of Moses, the servant. In the same book of Acts, we find the Holy Ghost preached gospel, a fire, in pricking to the heart the multitude on the day of Pentecost in causing a Felix to tremble, and an Agrippa to confess himself almost persuaded to be a Christian: in discovering the deceit of Ananias and Sapphira, and from the mouth of man, yet that man an inspired minister, sending them to their doom. In the apostolic epistles, the figure of fire may be read in that powerful description of the word which Paul delivers in Hebrews iv. -the word of faith which he preached" For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." The latter clause of the verse is equally applicable to the figure of fire, and, indeed, so is the whole description. The like figure is elsewhere expressed, as in 2 Cor. iii., where we read the marks of a real evangelist, "Who hath made us able ministers of the New Testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." And then, once more, in the consummation of all things, in the end, let that end be what it may, we still behold the word of God signified by the same figure, as in 1 Corinthians iv. 5, "judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the heart.” What is meant by the light-what is this making manifest? I go back a little way, to third chapter of that Epistle, wherein it is written, "Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it for it is revealed in fire, and the fire shall try every man's work, of what sort it is." What other connexion need we seek for this verse, than that of the baptism with the Holy Ghost and fire? What other interpretation is required, than that of the two covenants, the one as a fire, consuming the wood, hay, stubble, gold, silver, and precious stones of the other for the trial of faith should be more precious than that of "gold which perisheth," equally with the stubble. And instituting such connexion, and receiving such interpretation, what difficulty should there be in concluding with certainty respecting "the day and the judgment thereof? What difficulty, except in minds which have been nurtured from earliest infancy in the nursery tales of helltorments, and are resolved to adhere to such follies to their dying hour? Quotations illustrating the gospel under the figure of fire might be multiplied. When Paul tells the Thessalonians that "the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven, with the angels of his power, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and obey not the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ;" I take that scripture and compare it with another, in Romans ii., in which he writes of" a day when God will judge the secrets of men, according to his gospel." When I read

in Peter's last chapter of the heavens being reserved for fire to the day of judgment: of the heavens being on fire and dissolved of the elements melting with fervent heat, and the earth and the works therein being burned up: and when I know that these heavens, earth, and elements resolve themselves into the simplicity of the two covenants, then here also, hitherto, I can bring the Pentecostal baptism: this, also, I can see to be the fire of that word, of whose Author the Apostle to the Hebrews writes, "Our God is a consuming fire," and writes, moreover, immediately after he had signified a removing of an earth and a heaven, as of things that could not remain, in the establishment of a kingdom that could not be moved. (Heb. xii. 26-29.) This comparison alone satisfies me so much of the true meaning of the last chapter of Peter's Second Epistle, that it would not move me for one moment, if I stood alone in my opinion.

Having thus proved the Apostolic ministry, under the figure of a baptism of fire, our next step is to prove the same thing under the figure of a baptism of water. In the 14th chapter of Zechariah we read, "And it shall be, in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem." That day, is the day of the Lord. Without inquiring into the day, we are at once satisfied upon the meaning of the living waters, from infallible testimony; "He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." How invaluable is the commentary which follows in a parenthesis, "But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive; for the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified." (John vii. 38, 39.) The Holy Ghost was given on the day of Pentecost. Then were the prophecies fulfilled which spake of pouring water upon him that was thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground; which water and floods are explained by what immediately follows in the prophet; "I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring, and they shall spring up among the grass, as willows by the water-courses." (Isaiah xliv. 3, 4.) Then, indeed, was the invitation given with effect, the invitation which depended upon the sure mercies of the resurrection David, "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters." "I am the root and offspring of David, and the bright and morning star. And the Spirit and the bride say Come, and let him that heareth say Come, and let him that is athirst come, and whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely." (Isaiah lv., compared with Rev. xxii.) And when we compare Zechariah's prophecy of living waters going out of Jerusalem, with Christ's commission to his disciples, that repentance and remission of sins be preached in his name, beginning at Jerusalem, do we not see the application of these living waters to the day of Pentecost, (which we have made from Isaiah and Revelations,) further confirmed? would require a volume to open up the glorious things spoken of Zion, which are connected with this similitude of water. Bearing in mind the comparison which we formerly instituted between the journey through the wilderness, and that through the trials and tribulations of the Apostolic state, what a magnificent figure we have in the typical record, "He smote the rock, and the waters gushed out, and the streams flowed withal." And again, we read, "When the poor and

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needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them. I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of valleys. I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and dry land springs of water." (Isaiah xli. 17, 18.) When we read this glowing description, and take it to Apostolic times, and apply it to the poor and needy, the weary and heavy laden, to whom the ministry of Immanuel was directed when we apply it to the refreshment afforded to these in preaching the glad tidings of the gospel of peace—when we witness the prophecy fulfilled in those Jerusalem sinners praising God, and living together in gladness and singleness of heart, then indeed the Bible does exalt itself above the word and the testimony of man. Then, truly, we can pity poor, enquiring souls, who now-a-days are tormented by the title of poor and needy, weary and heavy laden, for we can give this title its proper time and place. And if we should allow, as indeed we do, that there are hundreds of our day who answer to the above character, who are fast bound in the bondage of Moses, and his covenant of works, we ask here, as in former cases, Who is to blame for this? Religious systems, again, is the answer. And if we were willing that this character of poverty and need should be diverted out of its true place, still we should most strenuously deny that the experimental preachers, who are so fond of descanting upon that character, could direct to this living water, seeing that we also know from experience, that these their waters are as little like the gospel streams, as were the waters of the Nile when running with blood like her waters when overflowing the banks; seeing that such waters are so destitute of any refreshing or reviving power that I can compare them to nothing so well as to this, "The wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt." I have a lively recollection of having been once asked by a dear friend to preach from the text, "When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none;" &c., but speaking on such a text was then out of the question. And why? because I was myself seeking water, and there was none. I was looking for the living among the dead, expecting to find the desired object among the dogmas of religious systems; and thus, like as Saul, when seeking his father's asses, met with a kingdom, so, pursuing that which was no better than the morning cloud and early dew, I have lighted on a kingdom that fadeth not away. This is the kingdom—"The gift of God is eternal life,—and this is life eternal, to know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent;"-and this is the knowledge-not in part, as it was during the dispensations, but to know as we are known; that which is perfect being come, and that which was in part being done away.

Before I leave the subject of the Apostolic ministry, as signified by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost, (Titus iii. 5, 6, with Acts ii. 33,) the new birth of water and the Spirit, I have one or two important observations to offer. As, in speaking upon the baptism by fire, we brought that figure to bear upon the consummation of all things, at the close, as we believe, of the Apostolic dispensation, so now I shall bring the figure of the baptism of water to the same conclusion. In discoursing upon Christ's ministry, we