the refuge, we are in it. All that is needful is just to know where we are-to know the God to whom the hand appertains to know the things that are freely given us of God. Fleeing into the city of refuge and going into the ark are just material types of believing in Jesus. And as soon as we know the meaning of that word, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father." We know that the hand of the infinite and omnipotent God, away from which we cannot go, is the hand of our brother "who loved us and gave himself for us, and tasted death for every man.

The parable of the prodigal son is interpreted in the same way, and it is said, " You must not only believe in the love of God, but you must also arise and go to your Father." Now, in truth, unbelief is the far country, we never move out of our Father's hand, and as soon as we know Him as he is revealed in Jesus, we know ourselves to be in our Father's house.

Well, but this history of the brazen serpent is merely used as an illustration of the way in which alone men can obtain the life from above, the eternal life. "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him might not perish but have everlasting life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him, should not perish, but have everlasting life."

I have shown that the Gospel is shadowed out by the serpent lifted up, in two different ways-first, in the bodily healing-secondly, in the soul-healing. And I have shown how the material type, namely, the bodily healing, by the mere beholding of the serpent, subserved the purpose of the soul-healing, and was a basis to it-1st, by proving the fact of a gene

ral forgiveness, seeing no one died after the lifting up of the serpent, by the sentence of God, but by his own choice-2dly, by showing that their sufferings did not proceed from any lack of love in God, for that the very infliction itself by which sin was punished, was in the purpose of God to become the source of new life. These two truths were the gospel preached to the Israelites doomed to die in the wilderness. And nothing can be a gospel to creatures in our circumstances, which does not contain these two truths. There is no provision for spiritual life, where these two truths are wanting, for the knowledge of them is absolutely necessary in order to confidence before God, and life rises out of the confidence in the true character of God. But if the shadows and dawning of the gospel contained these truths, much more does the substantial gospel, which is Christ Jesus, the fulness of the Godhead in a body—and which hath come to us, that we might have life more abundantly.

In Him who is the Sun of Righteousness, all the rays of light scattered over the former dispensations are gathered up, as they in truth proceeded originally from him-for he is the "Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world." And in Him they appear with advantage-for these former dispensations, glorious as they were, had no glory by reason of the glory which excelleth in the Christ. Whatever, then, we have of love or forgiveness or hope set before us in these former dispensations, we are to consider but as the distant whisperings of that full voice with which the Lamb, who came from the bosom of the Father's love to take away the sin of the world, and to unite man to God, proclaimed the love of God, the forgiveness of sin, and the hope of glory, when He said, " It is finished."

It must then be evident to the reader, that unless he discovers in the Son of Man lifted up, all that he has seen to be contained in the serpent lifted up, namely, a past forgiveness to all, and a love working life through affliction and death to those offenders who believe in the love, he really does not understand the truth declared in the Son of Man lifted up, for thus the antitype would be inferior to the type, and the substance to the shadow, which cannot be true. We ought surely to find more, and much more, in the thing typified than in the type. it the principle in the mind of God from which the good things revealed in the type proceed. For in Christ the way into the holiest is laid open, and the serpent belonged to a dispensation which had no glory, by reason of the glory which excelleth in that dispensation of which the Son of Man lifted up is the grand and characteristic feature.

We ought to find in

In the former dispensations, it was the spoken word that gave the light, but now it is the substantial word, the word made flesh. But our knowledge of the power of the light, and of its intensity, and of its extension, is intimately connected with, or arises mainly out of, the word being made flesh. Actions are our only measures of mind and feeling. And, therefore, whilst the word continued to be only a spoken word, we could not rightly enter into the mind and feelings of God towards us. But God did not content himself with uttering sounds or sending messages to us. He came himself Jehovah the word became flesh, and in the history of the word made flesh, we have a concentrated history of God's actions towards our nature, our flesh; and thus we have a standard by which we may at all times measure the mind of God towards ourselves and every individual of the nature. For that

which the divine nature did to the human nature in Christ, was done to him in character of head and representative of the human nature; and, therefore, is to be considered as indicating the mind of God to every

man.

Now, mark how the true principle of the serpent lifted up is contained with unutterable advantage in the Son of Man lifted up.

A forgiving love condemning sin-yet bestowing blessing through penal affliction, and life through penal death-is the true principle of the serpent lifted up. Well, look at the cross. What do we see there? A man suffering a most agonizing and shameful death between two thieves, to signify that his death is specially penal. Now, why does that man suffer? Is it because God hates him that he has thus bruised him? No. That man is the well-beloved, only begotten Son of God.-He is himself God in flesh.-And why does he thus torture and kill the flesh which he has assumed into so near and indissoluble connexion with himself? Why, just that he may raise it to the throne of heaven, and make it capable of partaking of the glories of Godhead, and that he may fit it to become a fountain of eternal life for that whole nature, of which it is a part, and in which he personally dwells. We have thus the strongest possible evidence that the sufferings endured by him who is lifted up are inflicted by God, not in hatred, not through negligence or indifference, but in love-in the tenderest love and in order to accomplish the purposes of love -for the Son of Man lifted up is the Son of Godthe well-beloved Son-and thus only can he be highly exalted in the office which he has assumed, thus only can the desires of his heart be fulfilled, and the joy set before him attained to. Well, reader, but

what is this to you and me, that that man is suffering not from the hatred but the love of God? It is every thing to you and to me and to every man. For, 1st, not only is that man God in our nature, giving himself as a gift of love to us; and we are to measure His love by his at first condescending to become a partaker of our nature, and then by all that he suffered in our nature; for all was in love to us, to you and me, as individuals of the world to which the gift was made; but, 2dly, and specially, that man is the man, the representative man, the head of the nature; and all that is done to his flesh is done to our flesh, to your flesh and my flesh, for there is but one flesh;* and the love which God bore to his flesh God bears to our flesh. Here therefore we see the manner and intent of that love which God bears to every man. This is the secret of sorrow, and the secret is love, and to them who know this secret all things work together for good. They know that God afflicteth not willingly, but to make us partakers of his holiness.

Now, I humbly say, that unless this interpretation is admitted, I cannot conceive where the principle of the serpent lifted up can be discovered in the Son of Man lifted up: To say that the soul is to be healed by believing in the one, as the body was healed by looking at the other, is to say nothing. I ask where is the principle? What is the meaning of it? Unless that flesh on the cross is my flesh, there is no parallel between the two things. I have no way of connecting myself with the principle of its sufferings. It must be my flesh, else it does not say to me what the serpent lifted up said to the Israelites in the wilderness. But why was this suffering of our nature in the person of Jesus needful? It was a fallen na

Heb. ii. 14. Rom. i. 3. Acts xvii. 26.