himself that appointed this extraordinary and unreasonable mean for the cure of a serpent bitten Israelite; He directed Moses how to make it, and how to use it. Had Moses made and erected this brazen serpent of his own invention, as Aaron and the people did their golden calf, it might have proved to them a snare, but not a remedy. Whatever virtue this brazen serpent had, it had only from Divine institution; for the healing virtue was not in the brazen serpent itself, but in the commanding powerful will of God. It was not the brazen serpent, but God's word that healed them; for it is written, "He sent forth his word and healed them." Psalm cvii. 20. His word, saith Musculus, his word of command, and his word of promise. It was his word that made this brazen serpent an effectual mean for the healing of their bodies. And God alone maketh the ordinances of the New Testament to be the effectual means for imparting spiritual good to the hearts of the believers. It is not in the outward elements or ordinances, nor yet in the ministerial instruments. It is not in the water; it is not in the bread or the wine; which being in themselves but water, and bread, and wine, what can they do to the washing, nourishing, or reviving of the spirits of men; what virtue can the ministerial instruments infuse into them? None! The power of the Lord must be present to make these means effectual to the end; and God's command to his ministering servants is, "Tarry ye in the City of Jerusalem, until ye be endowed with power from on high." And the promise runs in these words, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen." And "they go forth and preach, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen."

5. This brazen serpent was to be lifted up on a pole, that all Israel might see it, or that those who felt themselves wounded by the fiery serpent might look upon it and live. "And Moses made

a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.

Having briefly noticed some of the particulars in the Type, we must now attend to the Antitype, which is Jesus Christ: the sum and substance of all the types and shadows under the law. Moses lifted up the serpent, &c., so must the Son of Man be lifted up, &c.

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The Son of Man, is an appellation common to all the Sons of Adam in the order of natural generation. The first man, Adam, was the only natural man to whom this appellation could not belong. "O ye sons of men," saith the Psalmist. Psalm ix. Ezekiel is called the "son of man." Ezek. ii. 1. And Daniel is called" son of man." Dan. viii. 17. In the Psalms we find Christ is called the son of an handmaid. For instance, in the 86th Psalm, entitled "A Prayer of David," the only Psalm so entitled-Christ is set forth

and

The

as in prayer to God the Father, saying, "O turn unto me, and have mercy upon me; give thy strength unto thy servant, and save the son of thy handmaid." Again, in the 116th Psalm, Christ is set forth as saying, " O Lord, truly I am thy servant, the son of thy handmaid: thou hast loosed my bonds." reader will observe, that in both Psalms, Christ is described as the servant to the Father, and the Virgin Mary is described as Jehovah's handmaid. The appellation, therefore, of the Son of Man in the Psalms, and in the Prophecy of David, is properly applied to Christ as the builder of the Tabernacle of David which had fallen down; he is therefore called the Son of David. Christ was not to be the fruit, but of the fruit of David's loins. Therefore Christ had no man for his father.--Acts ii. 30; xv. 16.

In the New Testament, Christ applies the term "Son of Man" to himself; in no instance do we find it so applied to him by any of his disciples, or by the pen men of the New Testament. There are two remarkable scriptures, where Christ speaks of himself as the Son of Man; where he testifies that He did not cease to be a divine person by being made flesh. "No man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man which is heaven."-John iii. 13. The other is in John vi. 62, which will be noticed hereafter.

If pre-existence made one man pre-eminent to another, as some men assert, then Adam would be inferior to all the creatures, for they all pre-existed Adam. So true it is, that the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. This was as hard a saying to Nicodemus as Christ's saying, that his flesh was meat indeed, was to the Jews, for it destroyed their human soul pre-existerian tradition, which tradition they, in the wisdom of this world, thought did constitute them, or give them the pre-eminence over the Gentiles, whom they called dogs.

As Christ had no man for his father, and as that which was begotten in Mary is of the Holy Ghost, Mr. Ambrose Serle observes, "Christ, as to his human nature, is the Son of the Holy Ghost, by whose operation that human nature was formed in the virgin's womb."-See Hora Solitariæ vol. ii. title " Most High." I shall therefore take the interpretation of the title "Son of Man" from the Old Testament Scripture, wherein Christ is called ben Adam, and bar Enosh or Anush.-See Psalm 1xxx. 17, and Daniel vii. 13.

The Hebrew word ben is derived from a root which signifies, he built, raised, repaired.-See Mr. Frey's Hebrew Dictionrry, p. 126. And as Adam is generally admitted to signify earthy, taken out of red earth, the originality of man's nature being of the dust of the ground; it would be degrading Christ, as well as contrary to divine revelation, if we were not to interpret the term Ben Adam, the builder, raiser and repairer of man; for such Christ is.

He is entitled the "The Builder of the Tabernacle of David,” Acts xv. 16. "The Raiser up of the Tabernacle of David,". Amos ix. 11. And "The Repairer of the Breach."-Isaiah Iviii. 12. From the Scriptures, the spiritual reader must see, that no one could be the builder of the tabernacle of David, but God the builder of all things;-Heb. iii. 4.-that no one could be the raiser up of the tabernacle of David, but God who quickeneth the dead. Romans iv. 17. For" as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will,” -John v. 21-and as no creature could satisfy justice for the sins of, or bring in an everlasting righteousness for, an innumerable company out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; so no creature could be the repairer of the breach; for the term ben Adam, Son of Man, must and can only mean God manifest in the flesh. He could only repair the breach made by man's transgression! It is, therefore, no marvel that our Lord's disciples, or that the penmen of the New Testament have never called our Lord "Son of Man," for he never was literally the son of man; or that the astonished disciples should exclaim, "what manner of man is this! for he commandeth even the winds and the sea, and they obey him." Neither is it any marvel that after our Lord had said, "I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me;" that the people should reply, "Who is this Son of Man?"-John xii. 32-34.

Bar Enosh, or Anush. The Hebrew word bar, according to Mr. Taylor, signifies corn or wheat; it is rendered corn by our translation in Gen. xli. 35, 49, &c. It is rendered wheat in Joel ii. 24, Amos v. 11, &c. And it is rendered clean in Prov. xiv. 4, and son in Psalm xi. 12. And hence it is worthy of observation that in John xiii, where our Lord speaks of himself as a corn of wheat, verse 24, he always speaks of himself, " 1, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me;" whereupon the people answered, who is this son of man.-John xii. 32-34. As being born of the Spirit is the same as being born from above→ See John iii. 3-7, note the marginal reading-so our Lord declared that his disciples were not of this world ;-See John xviii. 16. for they were by washing of regeneration, born from above, that is, of the Spirit, their second birth being heavenly; so we find that as our Lord's humanity was begotten in Mary of the Holy Ghost, so our Lord declared he was from above, and not of this world,-See John viii. 23.-and in accordance therewith, our Lord said to the Jews, "I am the living bread which came down from heaven, (or born of the Spirit, or from above) and which bread our Lord declares is his flesh, whereof if a man eat he shall live for ever.-Jer. vi. 51. Therefore the son or bar means Christ the corn of wheat. Again, It is also rendered clean as denoting his purity who knew no sin, who did no sin, and in whom was no

sin. (2 Cor. v. 21. 1 Pet. ii. 22. 1 John iii. 5. The Hebrew word Enosh or Anush signifies, amongst other things, miserable man. The union of these two words bar Enosh is remarkable, for they describe our blessed Lord as clean although born of woman, and as "a man of sorrow and acquainted with grief, or the clean one sorrowful even unto death."

It is observed by a learned man (Mr. Brinsley) that Christ is never called beni Ish, the son of noble man, for the phrase Enosh imports meanness of condition; importing our Lord's state of humiliation upon earth. Being God blessed for ever, and the Lord of all, he made himself, his own voluntary act, of no reputation, took upon him the form of a servant, was made not in the likeness of God, but in the likeness of Enosh, sinful flesh.

Brinsley further observes, "that it denotes one in a very mean condition, so as not to be the owner of anything;" and in proof thereof, Christ said, "The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the son of man hath not where to lay his head; (Matt. viii. 20.) the phrase sounding as much as that of the prophet Isaiah, as rendered by Junius-"a man despised and rejected of men."

He also saith, that as Christ speaks of himself as "the son of man being lifted up," signifying what death he should die, we are to understand, a whole Christ is to be lift up, for by the union of the human nature, or manhood to his divine person, God is said to purchase the church with his own blood: that is, that person who was truly God, as well as man, suffered, but it was in the flesh, and was put to death in the flesh. Such was the inseparable union of his Godhead to his manhood, that the union was not dissolved even in death; for as the soul and body of a man in a trance are not separated, although the body be insensible of the union, even so the union of his Godhead with his manhood continued even in death-and here it is proper to observe, as God is said to purchase the church with his own blood, so the son of man is said to be in heaven when talking to Nichodemus upon earth, the union being hereby shown to be inseparable. In like manner, our Lord in that other Scripture astonished the Jews, when after speaking of himself, the living bread, he said, " Doth this offend you?" What, and if ye see the Son of Man ascend up where he was before."(John vi. 62.) That is before he was of man's nature, for the Christ of God is the Creator of all things. He is not the human pre existerian's Christ, for many of his then disciples, such as were human soul pre-existerians, for that saying, went back, and walked no more with him.-See John vi. 51-56.

Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? I answerGod! For Christ was begotten in Mary of the Holy Ghost. And which is born of God sinneth not, neither can it sin, (1 John iii. 9.) for Christ's human nature was begotten of the Spirit.-See Matt. i. 20, and note the marginal reading. (To be continued.)

MERCY SHINING IN TAE FACE OF JUSTICE.

"For in thee the Fatherless findeth mercy."

"A Father of the Fatherless is God in his holy habitation." THERE is nothing more profitable and consoling to the Lord's people than the doctrine of salvation by the free favour of God in Christ Jesus. This is the uniform testimony of both the Old and the New Testaments, and all the blood-bought throng in Heaven and in Earth, the church triumphant above, and the regenerated below, are engaged in the same subject of admiration, wonder and praise, at the grand displays of the lovely character of God, as the God of all grace. The fountain of grace is the everlasting love of God; this love was set upon Christ as the head, and his elect people considered in him, and being limited to these objects, and not alike extended to all, either angels or men, it is specia!, peculiar favour. This grace is absolutely sovereign, and was given only as the Lord pleased, without the consideration of worthiness or unworthiness in the persons to whom it is manifested. This grace is not only sovereign but it is perfectly free, more free than the air we breathe; this is evident by the characters who have been made the happy partakers of it-sinners of every sort and every size; the vilest characters by nature, and the base backslider, that has disgraced his profession, dishonoured his God, wounded his own soul, and grieved the generation of the righteous. 'Tis well for such the grace that saves sinners is immutably the same, and that grace that has first chosen him, and redeemed him, that has preserved him, and called him, is able to recover him from after relapses into the world and into sin, because this grace is not only eternal, rich, glorious, immutable, sovereign, and free, but it is Almighty; and surely nothing short of this infinite power of free favor would at first have awakened our souls, opened our eyes, subdued our enmity, removed our prejudices, convinced us of sin, brought us to the Saviour, manifested our pardon, cleansed us from idols, justified the soul, and overcome the heart with divine mercy; kept us in the truth, and caused us to love the adorable Redeemer, his truth, his people, and his ways; and made us willing to devote soul and body, time, strength and talent, to his service, honour and glory. What a rich display of Almighty grace is this! besides the manifestation of it in seasons of trouble, temptations, and distress, inward and outward, what sensible and momentary support has been afforded ; what strength given to prayer, to praise, to faith, hope, and patience, and what surprising deliverances have been wrought out for us! This grace has been most divinely displayed in renewing the mind, recovering the soul, and restoring us, after many sad seasons of departure from the best of fathers and the best of friends. While with broken hearts and broken bones, we have been led to make humble confession of sin-have been brought to