proof, but as an infallible surety, that a superior power is engaged in co-operation with us, and that we are "working together with God." "For neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase." If, then, "God be for us, who can be against us?" The work of our Mission is a work of mental, spiritual culture. It is, emphatically and primitively, a work of salvation. And though our labours may not always be crowned with immediate success, yet are we enjoined to perseverance by the influence of motives as satisfactory as they are compulsive. "In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand: for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good." SUFFERING WITH CHRIST. It is so glorious a thing to be like Christ,-to be dressed like the Prince of the catholic church, who was a man of sufferings, and to whom a prosperous and unafflicted person is very unlike,—that in all ages the servants of God have put on "the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left;" that is, in the sufferings of persecution, or the labours of mortification; by toleration, or self-denial; by actual martyrdom, or by aptness and disposition towards it; by dying for Christ, or suffering for him; by being willing to part with all when he calls for it, and by parting with what we can for the relief of his poor members. There is no state in the church so serene, no days so prosperous, in which God does not give to his servants the powers and opportunities of suffering for him: not only they that die for Christ, but they that live according to his laws, shall find some lives to part with, and many ways to suffer for Christ. To kill and crucify the old man and all his lusts; to mortify a beloved sin; to fight against temptations; to keep under our bodies; to live chastely; to suffer affronts patiently; to forgive injuries and debts; to choose our side for truth's sake, not because it is prosperous, but because it pleases God; to be at enmity with the world, that you may preserve friendship with God; to own truth in despite of danger or scorn; to despise shame; to refuse worldly pleasures when they tempt your soul beyond duty or safety; to take pains in the cause of religion, the labour of love, and the crossing of your own anger, peevishness, and morosity: these are the daily sufferings of a Christian; and, if we perform them well, will have the same reward, and an equal smart, and greater labour, than the plain suffering of the hangman's sword.Jeremy Taylor. VOL. XXIII. Third Series. MAY, 1844. 2 E MISCELLANEOUS COMMUNICATIONS. THE UPLIFTED SIGN: OR, THE PUBLICITY OF THE ATONEMENT. (To the Editor of the Wesleyan-Methodist Magazine.) "AND as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life."John iii. 14, 15. "IN this troublesome desert we are all stung by that fiery and old serpent. O, Saviour! it is to thee we must look and be cured: it is thou that wert their Paschal Lamb, their Manna, their Rock, their Serpent. To all purposes dost thou vary thyself to thy church, that we may find thee everywhere." -BISHOP HALL. We are not at liberty to invent types and similitudes of spiritual things according to our fancy. Forgetfulness of this has led to endless perversions of holy Scripture. The private judgment of Origen, Tertullian, Jerome, and other Fathers, in pronouncing certain persons, actions, and things to be mysteries, which were never presented as such by divine authority, has probably done more harm to religion than the whole of the private judgment which has been exercised within the sphere of Protestantism. This evil mode of interpretation can hardly have recognised the fact, that God, both in his providence and in his word, is "his own interpreter," and that "he will make it plain." While professing reverence for his word, it has proceeded, most irreverentially and arbitrarily, to adopt methods of deducing its meaning which our Lord and his Apostles never sanctioned; and then to use the meaning so deduced, and so utterly without authority, as the basis of doctrinal teaching. And when these erring writers laid hold even of a real type and mystery, they so tortured every feature which it possessed into a spiritual significance, that its simplicity, impressiveness, and dignity were altogether lost. And this unhappy practice has been too much followed by many modern Preachers. No man, in the opinion of the writer, excelled Richard Watson in handling the mystical allusions of Scripture. Where he could perceive, by a reference to inspired authority, that there was a typical relation between some once-existing action, person, or thing, and some other action, person, or thing to exist at a future period,-then he employed his hallowed genius in eliciting the few striking points of resemblance in which the general similitude consisted; refusing to take a single step without an inspired warrant. He entrenched himself all the way behind the authority of the Holy Ghost. He did not, by any means, either take from or add to the sacred dignity of the theme; that he left untouched; but if there was a veil over it which a gifted spirit, aided by light from heaven, might remove, that veil he humbly sought to take away, in order that the dignity and the truth which it invested might be the more apparent. His exposition of our Lord's parables and similitudes, in the New Testament, will abundantly support the truth of this statement. We find throughout a most happy conjunction of majesty, beauty, and truth. And yet they were none of them his own; the truth was from God; and the majesty and beauty were not what he created, but what he brought to light. That great master, however, has been called up higher; and the work of sketching the lines of eternal truth devolves upon less gifted hands: yet may even those hands be blessed with success; not only because it is consonant with the divine plans to make use of all degrees of ability, but because the required resources are not so much found in the Spirit's endowments of human nature, as in the Spirit's treasury in the word. In the present instance our exposition is one, the basis of which is furnished by Him whose prophetic function was attested by an immeasurable fulness of the Holy Ghost, and who therefore "spake as never man spake." He it was who declared to Nicodemus and the learned Jews, that the lifting up the serpent in the wilderness was a mystical action, signifying that he himself should be lifted up. These men were well acquainted with the historical fact; but they never knew its spiritual import before; nor, probably, did they know it then; for the lifting up of Christ, although frequently adverted to in the Gospel of St. John, never seemed to be regarded with any definite ideas, even by the disciples themselves, until the event took place. The historical fact is related in Num. xxi. 6-9; and occurred under the following circumstances: The people of Israel had been perpetrating one of their frequent acts of rebellion against God. This was when they were entering the promised land, after having been conducted through such a series of divine manifestations, and miraculous deliverances, as ought to have banished discontent and unbelief for ever. Just as the GUARDIAN HAND was about to perform the last act in fulfilment of the promise made to their fathers, so far as that promise was temporal, the allegiance of this faithless race wavered; and in loud murmurings they proclaimed their preference of Egypt and slavery, to being cast for daily dependence on the living God. But judgment was swiftly upon them. God sent fiery serpents from the wilderness; that is, serpents whose bite was inflammatory and venomous; and apparently in such numbers, that resistance and avoidance were impossible; and the people began to fall on every hand, under this deadly and unlooked-for attack. selfishness would no longer avail them, as most sinners do, they besought Moses and Aaron to intercede with God in their behalf and be it remembered that these men and Ministers had recently been the especial objects of popular obloquy and clamour. Moses, in particular, had stood in the breach before; and Israel on that occasion had been spared in answer to his prayer; and now, though he had been scorned and insulted, he stood in the breach again,-the very prototype of a love which "beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things;" and whose history has sometimes been repeated in his successors. Again his prayer prevails; and God determines, for his servant's sake, to turn away the desolating scourge. It was not, however, turned away in a moment, nor by the immediate application of miraculous power. The wisdom of God was manifest in the method which was adopted for the rescue from death of the perishing part of the congregation. A new mystery of love and mercy had to be instituted; which, when fully unfolded, should be a sign to the world. Moses is commanded to make a serpent similar to those which were then devastating the camp; to set it upon a pole, that it might be beheld afar off: a commandment this which involved the necessity of a proclamation being made throughout the congregation, that whatsoever bitten and dying Israelite should in his distress turn and look to this elevated sign, should feel life and health immediately return. The commandment was obeyed; a serpent of brass was set up on high amid the expiring crowds of the congregation; and whatsoever individual among them believed the word of the Lord, and confidingly turned his eye to the appointed object, was immediately healed. These are the historical facts, which are full of meaning, and the key to interpret which is found in our Lord's discourse with Nicodemus; and now, with the aid of Guilt is very quick in its perceptions. The alarmed Israelites knew that the infliction was from God; and so, returning to their faith when that key, we may advert to those points of evangelic doctrine which in this ancient action are involved and taught. The type chiefly, and in the first place, shadows forth the PUBLICITY OF OUR LORD'S ATONEMENT, and the universality of its application. The action of Moses was eminently public; the serpent was lifted up on high, in order that it might be beheld by the whole of the encamped multitude; and some have thought that it was made of refulgent brass, in order, amongst other reasons, that it might be more eminently conspicuous.* It must be observed, that the sign of mercy was not commanded to be placed in the interior of the tabernacle, amongst those patterns of heavenly things which were already there; and yet, as it was actually a type of good things to come, and therefore sacred, there seemed, according to mere human apprehension, to be no reason why it should not be as much entitled to a position in the holy of holies as the ark, the cherubim, the candlestick, and the pot of manna. Justin Martyr, indeed, declares it was placed upon the tabernacle; but this is entirely on his own authority.† Had it been placed in the manner referred to, that is, within,-thousands must have died without the sight. It was set up at a crisis of terror and alarm; and had all the assembled tribes been thrown into the added confusion of hurrying to the Abarbanel putat æs adhibitum esse, ut major similitudo esset inter hunc et urentes serpentes, qui rubicundi erant ad instar æris. Sed propius ad rem facit ratio, quam ex Chaskuni affert Saubertus Palæstr., p. 333: Aeneum fecit serpentem, quoniam æs splendet et fulguris instar coruscat ; q. d., (Ezech. i. 7,) scintillantes tanquam oculus æris politi. Castra enim Israelitarum tria milliaria, tam in longitudine, quàm in latitudine, occupabant. Hinc, ut quilibet e loco suo serpentem conspicere posset, factus fuit ex ære. Sed et firmitatis ac perpetuitatis symbolum quod as habet, hic applicari potest, secundùm Bochartum. (Hieroz., pars. ii., lib. iii., c. 12; et Roa singular., tom i., lib. il., pp. 116, 117.)-Lampe, on St. John, ad loc. Justinus, Apol. ii., scribit, Aabew, &c. (Moysem accepisse æs, indeque fecisse typum crucis, eumque super sanctum tabernaculum posuisse.)-Poli Synop. Crit., ad loc., tom. iii., p. 1182. door of the tabernacle, to fulfil the condition of salvation, probably not one in a hundred could have availed himself of the benefit before the hand of death had put an end to his struggles. Besides, it must be observed, that only home-born and true Israelites would have been permitted to approach the sanctuary. Neither the Ammonite nor the Moabite was allowed to enter the congregation of the Lord, nor even the Edomite, though collaterally related, until the third generation. That there were such strangers within the borders of Israel, is evident from the fact, that not only were laws made for them by the great Legislator on Mount Sinai, but the circumstance of their dwelling and worshipping with the true de scendants of faithful Abraham is continually assumed in the sacred history. Now, these strangers, dwelling in the exterior parts of the encampment, would be the first to sustain the deadly approach of the serpents from the wilderness, and to fall from their envenomed bite. If salvation were made to depend upon hastening, or being carried, to the tabernacle, the place of sacred symbols, there to look upon the especial object that God had provided for the purpose, they were actually excluded. The stranger, in that case, must die without remedy. But is there no salvation for the stranger? The infinite mercy of God resolves this question, both in respect of the exigency of the crisis, and with regard to ing pity in after-ages. the more enlarged plans of redeemShall the stranger die? No! the serpent of brass is lifted up to be a sign for all; it is elevated so high, that all may see, the dying Moabite and the dying Jew, the stranger and the home-born, the bond and the free, the far off and the near,-and all who see may live. The object is not lifted up for that community, as it stands manifested to be Abraham's offspring; but as it is a sinful, humbled, and penitent multitude, including Jew and Gentile, deprecating the wrath of God, and flying to the succours of his mercy. necessity of looking to Him alone ; and both are included in the Gospel proclamation, which issues a beseeching summons to look without delay. In the second place, the type exhibits the vicarious character of the atonement. To the simple and unlettered Christian it appears, at first, somewhat strange and revolting, that the Redeemer of the world should be exhibited under such a figure as that of the serpent; especially as the enemy of God and man, the devil, is similarly represented in Scripture, and is spoken of as that "old serpent." But it must again be stated, that types and similitudes are not to be regarded as susceptible of explanation in all their features. Some two or three points are alone capable of conveying a spiritual signification; and hence two most opposite persons, or two most opposite truths, may be represented by different features in the same type. Lampe, in his splendid work on John, well observes, "To express the Saviour in his extreme humiliation, he is compared to a worm. (Psalm xxii. 6.)". 66 He did not die in the holy place; he did not shed his precious blood upon the identical altar on which the typical lamb was immolated. He did not die even within the precincts of Jerusalem. Had he done so, it might have been said that he died for the Jews only, and not for the outcasts of the nations. No! in order "that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, he suffered without the gate." (Heb. xiii. 12.) He was carried to a place which was common ground to the Jew and Gentile. It was selected by their common sin, bedewed with the tears of their penitential grief, and hallowed by their mutual salvation. The dying Saviour was nailed to the cross on Calvary by the heathen cruelty of the Roman, instigated by the blind malice of the Jew: this was their mutual sin. And when he was lifted up on high, and heaven and earth began to sympathize with the awful scene, the dying thief exclaimed, "Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom!" and the Gentile Centurion smote upon his breast, and said, "Truly this was the Son of God:" this was their mutual distress and grief. And now did Christ pour forth his atoning blood, the ransom-price of the world, which had doubtless been available in both the last instances, and would be henceforth efficacious in the instance of every penitent who approached him, of whatever state, or nation, or clime. Thus was the place hallowed by their mutual salvation. Our Lord did not die for man as he is a Jew or Gentile, civilized or savage, in ecclesiastical connexions or unchurched; but as he is a sinner, envenomed, wretched, and perishing; and therefore he is, again we say, set forth, a propitiation,-lifted up, a sign of mercy to a dying world. The far-off Heathen and the baptized symbolum semper in malum sensum sumi, patet unbeliever are both involved in the The collation of the devil with the lion, (Psalm xxii. 13; 1 Peter v. 8,) does not in the least hinder that the same emblem should be applied to Christ. It is allowed that goats, in Scripture, are figures of the devil; and yet Christ, in the feast of expiation, is exhibited under that type. In another way, the type of one accursed, and suspended from a tree, becomes no less strange; yet thus is Christ represented in Gal. iii. 13." "Neither," says he, "is the serpent always to be taken in an evil sense, as appears from Matt. x. 16; Exod. vii. 10; Gen. xlix. 17."* Salvatorem sæpiùs ad exprimendam suam humiliationem comparari et vermi. (Ps. xxii. 6.) .Collatio diaboli cum leone (Ps. xxii. 13; 1 Pet. v. 8) non impedit quò minùs de Christo idem emblema adhibeatur. Hircos in sacris dia boli figuras esse, conceditur. Et tamen Christus in festo expiationis sub codem typo exhibebatur. Aliàs etiam non minùs insolens fuisset typus maledicti e ligno suspensi, qui tamen ad Christum applicatur, Gal. iii. 13. Neque serpentem ex Matth. x. 16; Exod. vii. 10; Gen. xlix. 17. |