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GOD" is ransomed by Christ. By "waters," are also denoted, "peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues ;" and the nations which remain in infidelity, are gathered together, and they constitute the sea, upon whom darkness rests, as "in the beginning," when "darkness was upon the face of the deep ";" and these waters are separated from "the nations of them that are saved," for the latter are "above the firmament," while the former shall have their portion with him who "was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him."

As God made man in His own image, and gave him dominion over the earth'; so, through Christ, we "put on the new [man] which is renewed in knowledge, after the image of Him who created him";" through Him we are regenerated", we are "born again"," we are made "kings and priests unto God and His Father"," and we obtain "a crown of righteousness," "a crown of glory'," "a crown of lifes," in the kingdom of heaven.

GOD having "ended His work," "blessed

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the seventh day and sanctified it, because that in it He had rested from all His work which

GOD created and madet." So He hath appointed a rest for His people", that, when they have ended their work, they may enter into it, and their "rest shall be glorious "." Blessed and holy is he that hath part in this rest", "for he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works as God did from His "."

Thus in the Mosaic history of what took place" in the beginning," we discover dawnings of those important truths, which are delivered throughout the sacred writings, and which are, in so many passages in those writings, clothed in language borrowed from that history. The distinction between heaven and earth; the universal darkness dispelled by light from above; the day and the night; the "two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; the stars also;" the division of the waters, and the establishment of dry land in the midst of the seas; evening preceding morning; these are the subjects upon which Moses principally dwells in his relation of what occurred " in the beginning," when "GOD

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created the heaven and the earth;" and each of these subjects is, throughout the Scriptures, adopted as a figure to represent, or to illustrate, some part of the religious history of man.

We find Moses asserting, that "in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth," and, throughout his relation, we observe, that the several works of creation arose, whenever "GOD saida." Accordingly the Psalmist says, "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth b." The word of GOD, then, created the heavens and the earth; so St. John says, "In the beginning was the WORD-all things were made by Him ";" this "Word was with GOD and was GoDd," and was "made flesh and dwelt among use," and Christ was He by whom "were all things created." Such a strict accordance with each other, have all the several parts of the Holy Scriptures.

As the brief history, then, which Moses records of what took place "in the beginning," furnishes such strong figures for typifying and illustrating the scheme and the history of Christianity, does it not appear probable, that the creation itself had, in its several parts and ope

Gen. i. 3, 6, 9, 11, 14, 20,

24, 26.

b Psalm xxxiii. 6.

C John, i. 1, 3.

d John, i. 1.

e John, i. 14.

f Coloss. i. 16. 1 Cor. viii. 6. Hebr. i. 2.

rations, a reference to this universal scheme? As this scheme was planned, according to the "eternal purpose" of the Deity, before the creation of the heavens and the earth; as all things in heaven and in earth are comprehended in this scheme; and as, when this scheme is fully completed, those heavens and that earth will

pass away" and "be dissolved;" may we not conclude, that when the eternal WORD made those heavens and that earth, as He made them for Himself, and with a reference to the scheme of redemption which He was to ratify, so did He stamp the image of that scheme upon all that He made, and model, as it were, all the works of creation after the pattern of Christianity, thus making nature proclaim in every work, as revelation proclaims in every page, that "Christ is all, and in all ","

Thus we have seen, that "the Holy Scriptures"," comprising the Old and the New Testament, contain an exposition of that scheme of salvation which was planned, according to "the eternal purpose" of the GODHEAD, "before eternal ages," "before the foundation of the world." Being all given by inspiration of God, they

Coloss. iii. 11.

2 Tim. iii. 15.

ix. 30. Isaiah, lxi. 1. Luke, i. 68, 70. 1 Peter, i. 10, 11.

i 2 Tim. iii. 16. Nehem. 2 Peter, i. 21.

form one connected whole; so that, although the several parts of the Bible were written by a succession of inspired penmen (between the first and the last of whom, a period of above fifteen hundred years elapsed), there is, nevertheless, a strict accordance and harmony between all these parts, a perfect unity of design and of subject throughout them, which is preserved in its full integrity from Genesis to The Revelation. The subject of all these written communications from the Deity, is CHRISTIANITY. The first announcement of this stupendous scheme is veiled and obscure, it is "as a light that shineth in a dark place;" the progressive disclosure of it is shadowed out in types and ceremonies; the voice of prophecy proclaims it in highly wrought figures; the veil is gradually withdrawn, until, in the fulness of time, the SAVIOUR came, to ratify the Christian scheme by his humiliation and passion. The "veil is done away in Christ'." Still did our Saviour continue to unfold the scheme of Christianity under the figure of parable; for, so limited are the perceptions of man in his present state, and so "unspeakablem" in human speech, so incomprehensible by human intellect, are "heavenly things" (they being things which "eye hath not seen, nor ear heard,

* 2 Peter, i. 19.

2 Cor. iii. 14.

m 2 Cor. xii. 4.

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