A LETTER, &c. "GRACE, mercy, and peace be multiplied unto all the spiritual Israel, through the knowledge of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ!" "The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal,-the Lord knoweth them that are his; "* and though Satan may be permitted to mislead for a season, he cannot ultimately deceive one of the elect, so as to pluck him out of the hand of our covenant elder Brother and glorious Head, in whom they were all secured before the creation, from everlasting to everlasting. I believe, that many of you, my dear friends, who are at present wandering in an intricate labyrinth of error and misconception, are of the blessed countless number, whose names are engraven upon the heart of our compassionate Surety, and written upon the palms of his hands; therefore, as is not unsuitable in one, who, by the sovereign grace and mercy of Jehovah, * 2 Tim. ii. 19. has been delivered out of the very snare in which you are held captive, and who has had a faint glimpse of "the King in his beauty," since she renounced all false views concerning the peccability of his divine humanity, she would cast the pure unleavened bread, which has been the nourishment and refreshment of her own soul, " upon the waters," in the humble trust that some of the children of the covenant may also derive from it, health, strength, and consolation. "In the morning," says the preacher of wisdom, "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.”* Having tasted its bitterness, and witnessed much devastation in the outward church, occasioned by this new-fangled doctrine of Immanuel's fallen flesh, which would degrade the purity and majesty of the meek and lowly Saviour of sinners, I do most sincerely deplore its promulgation. It is, alas! too congenial to our corrupt nature, of which it is the offspring, not to be readily embraced by the unregenerate, who have not been brought under the Spirit's teaching; and it has assumed too many plausible shapes, and been presented under too many specious modifications, not to mislead some of the "babes in Christ," who are ignorant of the complicated devices of Satan. "Some of under * Eccl. xi. 6. standing, also, have fallen into the error, and all its train of evil consequences; and their departure from the "faith once delivered to the saints," has doubtless been permitted, " to try them, and to purge, and to make them white."* I know, both from experience and observation, with what pertinacity the depraved human understanding, and pharisaical mind, will cling to any opinions, which minister to the pride and self-exaltation of the deceitful heart. There is such a filthiness in the most unsullied conceptions and imaginations of the natural mind, that unassisted by divine instruction, we are incapable of comprehending the absolute purity, and unblemished righteousness, which could alone satisfy the wisdom, justice, and holiness of the Most High God; who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, and who requires truth in the inward parts therefore has Jehovah given us "line upon line, and precept upon precept," concerning this exalted subject; conveyed in types, emblematical representations, shadows, and prophecies, until the appearance of the glorious reality, in the divine incarnation of the "only begotten of the Father," when "a man was made more precious than fine gold; even than the golden wedge of Ophir; " because essentially sinless, and incapable of falling; in whom dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead. This is a most precious truth; and I * Dan. xi. 35. Isai. xiii. 12. : implore you, my dear friends, as you value the interest of your immortal souls, to have the candour and complacency to examine with me some of the prefigurations of the Old Testament, which symbolized the holiness and impeccability of our glorious Immanuel; and may the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, vouchsafe his gracious presence, and manifest to us the beauties and loveliness of this infinitely valuable pearl, "the holy seed," the second Adam, the Lord from heaven, who was more ruddy in body than rubies, and whose polishing was of sapphires." * 66 I must first premise, that all the saints of God, under the patriarchal and levitical dispensations, were deeply convinced of their own depravity and universal pollution, and of their ruined condition without a Redeemer. They were regenerated by the same Holy Spirit, and influenced by the same divine grace, as believers are now in gospel times; and their faith was directed to the spotless Lamb of God, prefigured in the animal sacrifices; who, at the time appointed in the divine counsels, would fulfil all righteousness, as their Substitute, and pour out his innocent blood for the remission of sin. Some rays of the "bright morning star" shone through the veil, which covered the representations of our glorious Christ, before his incarnation; and many sweet foretastes were vouchsafed from time Lam. iv. 7. to time, to cheer the travellers in their pilgrimage through this vale of tears, to the land of Immanuel, where sorrow and sighing shall flee away, and there shall be no more death. Noah, whom grace alone made to differ from the reprobates by whom he was surrounded, "became heir of the righteousness which is by faith," and recognizing the fundamental doctrine of man's inherent corruption, that "every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil from his youth,"† all his hopes of salvation, were centered in the promised "seed of the woman;" the intrinsic purity of whose humanity, could alone satisfy the infinite holiness of Jehovah, who would accept him as the Head and Surety of his people; and whose new-creating Spirit should recover them out of the ruins of the fall, by renewing their souls, and making them "partakers of the divine nature." It was the substantial, holy, and undefiled atonement of the Saviour of sinners, that was prefigured by the clean beasts, and clean fowls, which Noah sacrificed after the deluge; and the smoke of these burnt-offerings ascended up before Jehovah as a sweet-smelling savour; their fragrance being derived from the purity and preciousness of the blood and righteousness of our glorious Immanuel, the Lamb of God, slain from the foundation of the world, in the # Heb. xi. 7. + Gen. viii. 21. + 2 Pet. i. 4. |