venly kind in Christ, and then, by a further extension of his will towards his children, Christ is made of God to them wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Thus a secret connection with the head of grace is the basis on which all the openings of God's wisdom toward and in his church has ever been unfolded. Choice to union with Christ in the love of God, takes the people chosen into his person comprehensively, the same as a unit is a perfect number, and radically contains all the numbers which grow out of it. The junction of natures in the person of the Son of God, gives to the nature acquired an importance which no other creature beside it can possess; and the union of the church to his complex person, is the highest sanctity that God has provided for her. Whatever is the kind of life possessed by Christ, it is a provisional good for the whole election of grace, and every one of them is ultimately made a partaker of it. This solemn decision of Almighty God is a separation of part of the foreknown family of man to be to him an everlasting portion. But the people who are chosen, and comprehended in the person of the Lord of life and glory, are also, by favour, adopted to be the family of God. Election is an act of God's will, whereby he separates from the mass of creatures which lay before him a certain number for himself; but predestination is an act of his understanding, assigning them to a heavenly relationship to himself in the great heir of all things."According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love; having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will." Favour in God, is the ground of a heavenly relationship to the person of his Son. Constituted by God his children, we are his heirs; but as the centre, where the relationship is founded, is the root where the whole family is comprehended and blessed, we are, with the Lord of Glory, joint heirs. Thus we are again reminded, that there can be no true religion possessed by any creature of God; but the formal reason of it is, that creature has ever stood by grace in Christ, the Lord of the church, or the Spirit of Christ would not dwell in him.

By a representative union with Christ, we intend, that when the Son of God took flesh, according to covenant engagement with the Father to put away sin, there was a legal union of persons under law. The manner of Christ's taking flesh was different to that of our being generated by our parents, by which act, the corruption of our nature is imparted to us; for although the body of Christ was conceived in the womb of the Virgin, it was not begotten by man. Conception is the essence of being; therefore, when the Holy Ghost formed the body of our Lord, and he was conceived in the womb of his mother, he

took, substantially and physically, our flesh, and came so near to us, as to be bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh; and, at the same time, shut out all accidents peculiar to our lapsed state of being. This legal union of persons was necessary, in order that the purpose of God in our salvation might be accomplished. Making Christ and his seed one in law, was an act of grace, by which the interest they had in each other on the basis of eternal love was upheld and maintained. For though the church of God by sin fell from Eden rectitude, she never lost her interest in her heavenly husband. He was her life hidden with God above the fall, and had contracted in heaven on her behalf to become incarnate, and to redeem her from sin to God. Sovereignty transferred to the person of the God-man all the sins of the election of grace, and he took, voluntarily, upon him to restore the honour of the law, which had been taken away by the breach of it. The holiness of God that is unfolded to our view in the law, was insulted by the vile nature of sin, and there could be no reconciliation effected between consummate beauty and enormous deformity, therefore, as Christ ever existed above law when he was made under it, his personal purity was such, that he met justice upon its own terms, and filled the law with the holiness of his person, and then bare in it the punishment which was due for sin committed. By this we learn, the just abhorrence of God towards sin; but we also behold his amazing love to sinners. When the great Immanuel had righteously made an end of sin, he acquired for his brethren an equitable right to be released from the condemnatory sentence of law, and, finally, from the being of iniquity. Through all this plan of wisdom, the Deity of the great Redeemer is manifested; for it is undeniably evident, had he been a mere creature, he could never have met Divine justice, armed, as it was, with a right to pronounce the sinner accursed for trespassing upon God's governing authority, and give satisfaction to that steady foe of all unrighteousness by his obedience unto death; but the atonement made by the Son of God, is the gracious and legal foundation on which the sinner can build his hope for acceptance with God, to communion with him here, and to glory hereafter.

That union to Christ which we have denominated vital, is the production of the Holy Ghost; for although every part of Divine truth is nominally in the head of the church before it is found in any of his members, yet no man has a scriptural right to call himself a christian until he is regenerated. Election to holiness in the person of the Son of God, and redemption by him from sin to God, can never render conformity to him unnecessary, nor undesirable. By supernatural creation, the Holy Ghost produces such a change of state in the heirs of grace, as destroys the dominion of sin in them. This work is called saving of them by the washing of regeneration. That which is produced in the

heart by the Holy Ghost, is a principle of heavenly life; which is sanctification, radically considered. This change of state is alike in all the regenerate, and it cannot be increased nor destroyed. In the life imparted there is comprehended every grace and virtue peculiar to a heavenly order of existence. The faculty produced by the Spirit of God, is preserved by his indwelling, and made active by his inworking, for it is by it that he renders the soul vigorous in the performance of duties and services. Without such faculty in the mind, there is no perception of the requirements of law nor the beauties of truth in the gospel. But where it is there is a discerning eye to behold the holiness and justice of God, as made known by law, and of the inconceivable evil of sin. The ministration of equity in the hand of the Eternal Spirit, slays the enmity of the heart against God, and by it the sinner dies unto it as a covenant of works, and lives to God by a knowledge of Christ as a redeemer. His conformity to Christ is beheld by faith with affection, and the freedom which he experiences from the dominion of guilt and love of sin, warms his heart with the most sincere love to Christ, to whom he is indebted for it. Grace brings to him the holiness of the person of Christ, and the different offices in which he stands related to God and the church, are daily opening upon him by the ministration of the Holy Ghost, whereby he learns that he is complete in him. Thus the legal union under law, existing according to the will of God between Christ and his members, is the formal cause why he has for ever perfected them. Faith receives the testimony of it from the word of God, and the belief of it is as truly nutritious to the soul as the food which we daily eat is to the body.

We might amplify this fact, but as in the course of the year upon which we have entered, if God is pleased to prolong life, there are many features of the christian which we shall look at, we forbear proceeding farther at this time. But before we conclude, ye saints of the most high God, suffer us to remind you of the origin of your salvation-it is the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. God has laid your life and safety so high, that no enemy can reach it. Be cautious, prayerful, and watchful, that your enemies may not gain an advantage over you. Be grateful to God for what he has made known to you by the Spirit, and continue to hope in him for larger supplies of the fulness of Christ to be conveyed to you, to support you through life and uphold you to his heavenly kingdom.

FRAGMENT.

STUDY to be altogether a christian, for if a man be but almost a christian, he is like to be but almost saved; though he may think he is not far from the kingdom of heaven, yet he will find the kingdom of heaven is far from him," Agrippa said unto Paul, almost thou persuadest me to be a christian." Acts xxvi. 28.

THOUGHTS CONCERNING THE TWO WITNESSES. Rev. xi.

HAVING been led to take a somewhat different view of prophecy, as contained in the eleventh chapter of Revelations, from others, the writer ventures with deference upon the following observations.

It is well known that some have supposed the Two Witnesses to symbolize the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments; while others have thought two distinct branches of the church to be intended. Objections to both these, as well as to other interpretations, might be advanced: but the writer's object is respectfully to offer his own opinions, and not to oppose those of others.

A comparison of Rev. xi. 4, with Zech. iv. 2, 3, 11, will throw considerable light on the subject. The identity of the Two Witnesses with the Two Anointed Ones is plain. The witnesses were then in existence, although the definite period of 1260 days, or years, assigned them to prophesy in sackcloth, according to the vision of St. John (prophetical of the church's history during the dominant state of the Roman apostacy), had not then commenced. The Witnesses were nevertheless in existence in the time of Zechariah, and therefore cannot symbolize any two branches of the christian church, which of course did not then exist; nor yet the two Testaments, not one of which was then completed.

If we examine what is predicated of them, both by Zechariah and John, we shall find divinity necessary to sustain their attributes. The writer at once expresses his opinion, that the Holy Spirit and the Son of God, in the official and ministerial character which they bear, in relation to the church, or the candlesticks, are the Two Witnesses.

Zechariah saw them as two olive trees emptying the golden oil out of themselves to supply the candlesticks. Thus they appear as reservoirs in their life-giving and life-sustaining character, containing in themselves an inexhaustible supply; fitly represented, not as vessels of limited capacity, but as trees containing life in themselves. Verses 6 and 10 also lead us to the Spirit and the Son.

The dignified station also which they occupy, standing" by the Lord of the whole earth;"-not before or around, as created spirits are represented, but by Jehovah, as fellows of the Lord of Hosts, upon an equality with "the Lord of the whole earth."

The application of the term "anointed ones," is by no means at variance with the divine character of the persons considered, as referring to their official undertaking. Christ himself is expressly said to be anointed, and bears the very name which answers thereto,-Christ, Messiah, the anointed; and although

the same term may, upon the first view, seem inapplicable to the Holy Spirit, yet when it is considered that anointing symbolizes the assumption of office, and that the Holy Spirit has, in the economy of grace, condescended to assume office-office exactly in accordance with the figure of supplying the candlestick or the church from himself, the uncreated source, it will appear that the term "anointed," as symbolizing dedication to office is by no means at variance with the character of this divine witness.

It will also be readily admitted, that in applying the term "witnesses" to these two divine persons, we use no borrowed term, but are following the precedent of the inspired volume; the Son and Spirit, in various parts of scripture, sustain the character of witnesses.

The writer of this article freely admits, that much caution is needed before any chronological dates are prefixed to prophetical events: so far, however, as he may here venture to assume any dates of this kind, he is venturing upon nothing novel; great and good men, who have devoted much time and attention to the study of history and prophecy, and have already given to the public their opinions that the "time, times, and the dividing of time," or the 1260 days, or years, alluded to the power that was to arise and to "wear out the saints of the Most High," Dan. vii. 25, commenced A. D. 533, when by the edict of Justinian, which made over the civil power and the compulsive force of the sword to the Bishop of Rome,-that apostacy assumed an ostensible being, the distinguishing feature of which was, to wear out the saints of the Most High."

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Those acquainted with the history of the papacy, will not fail to recognize in it this feature, and at the same time to see that though the Two Witnesses did prophesy during that period, (the doctrine relating to them being acknowledged by the Roman church), yet no term can be better chosen to express the general state of things, during that space of time, than that used concerning the ministry of Christ and the Holy Spirit during the period alluded to,-" They shall prophesy, clothed in sackcloth, a thousand two hundred and three score days." Rev. xi. 3.

What follows in the 4th and 5th verses of this last-named chapter, seems to fix the identity of the character of the Two Witnesses, and especially the 6th verse; for how can it be said with correctness of any created persons or things, of any churches or writings, That they have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy; and have power over waters to turn them into blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues as often as they will."

If the space of their prophecying in sackcloth (as commensurate with the domination of popery), did commence as already named A. D. 533, the 1260 days or years bring us up to the time of the French Revolution; and it is for those who know the