A SAVIOUR'S COMPASSION. 203 case? If thou be effectually melted in thy very soul, and looking to Him whom thou hast pierced, dost truly mourn over Him, thou mayst assure thyself the prospect His weeping eye had of lost souls, did not include thee. His weeping over thee would argue thy case forlorn and hopeless; thy mourning over Him will make it safe and happy. That it may be so, consider further, that, 4. They signify how very intent He is to save souls, and how gladly He would save thine, if yet thou wilt accept of mercy while it may be had. For if He weep over them that will not be saved, from the same love that is the spring of these tears would saving mercies proceed to those that are become willing to receive them. And that love that wept over them that were lost, how will it glory in them that are saved? There His love is disappointed and vexed, crossed in its gracious intendment; but here having compassed it, how will He joy over thee with singing, and rest in His love! And thou also, instead of being involved in a like ruin with the unreconciled sinners of the old Jerusalem, shalt be enrolled among the glorious citizens of the new, and triumph together with them in eternal glory. EDWARD POLHILL, ESQ. OF BURWASH. FOR the contributions to religious authorship by Christian laymen, we acknowledge a special affection. In such contributions no period has more abounded than our living day, producing, as it has done, the "Internal Evidence" of Mr Erskine; "Truths" and "Errors regarding Religion," by Mr Douglas of Cavers; Mr Sheppard's "Christian Encouragement and Consolation;" Isaac Taylor's "Natural History of Enthusiasm;" the Hymns of James Montgomery, and the little practical treatises of Dr Abercrombie. Not to mention that the disinterested and unsuspected testimony of spontaneous witnesses may influence minds, which regard as mere professional advocacy the reasonings and exhortations of ministers, we believe that no readers profit more than ministers themselves by the writings of pious and accomplished laymen. They are hints to the pulpit from the pew, and often direct attention to lines of thought and topics of inquiry which were in danger of being overlooked in the routine of conventional sermonising. Nor is it a small advantage to have a fresh eye and a freer pencil set to work on subjects which have grown trite under the treatment handed down by tradition from our reverend and right-reverend fathers. Even when writing for the press, theologians are apt to wear the gown and cassock, and it is ten to one that the anonymous review or biographical sketch will betray the homily. From this failing the nonclerical author is exempt. Even should he become prolix and prosy, he does not preach; and in point of directness, vivacity, and literary grace, the advantage is usually on the layman's side. In the century which boasts of laymen like Selden, and Sir THE GREAT SACRIFICE. 205 Matthew Hale, and Sir Harry Vane, and John Milton, and the Honourable Robert Boyle, we are disposed to award the meed of merit as a theologian to Edward Polhill. His "Speculum Theologiæ," his treatise on "Precious Faith," and his "Mystical Union betwixt Christ and Believers," are noble productions, replete with sound divinity, rich in experimental piety, and written in a lofty strain of thought and feeling. It is much to be regretted that our information regarding the author is so scanty. He was proprietor of Burwash, a parish in Sussex; a county magistrate; a friend and protector of the persecuted non-conformists; and his widow appears to have been a member of Dr Owen's church in London. But beyond these meagre facts, and the five or six masterly volumes which bear his name, it would seem as if his memorial had perished.* Our first extract is from his "Speculum Theologiæ in Christo: or, A View of some Divine Truths which are exemplified in Jesus Christ." The second is from Preparation for Suffering in an Evil Day." The Great Sacrifice. The truth of all the types and shadows was set forth in our Saviour, who was the body and substance of them all. There was in Him somewhat that did symbolise with them, and somewhat that did infinitely transcend them. Manna came down from heaven, and so did Christ; but He came from the highest heaven, the place of God's glorious presence, to give not a temporal life, but a spiritual, an eternal one— not to one nation only, but to a world. The rock smitten by Moses' rod supplied the Israelites; and Christ, smitten by the curse of the law, supplies the Church, not with earthly water, but with heavenly-with rivers of living graces and comforts * Even the dredge of "Notes and Queries," (vol. vi. 461), has failed to fish up any additional information. VOL. II. -following believers not for a time, but indeficiently and for ever. Hence the Jewish rabbies say, that the turning the rock into water, was the turning the property of judgment into the property of mercy. All mercies issue out from this spiritual rock. The brazen serpent was lifted up upon a pole, and Christ was lifted up upon the cross: that healed the wounds made by the outward serpents in the body, and He heals the wounds made by sin in the conscience. The corporal cure came by the eye-by looking to the brazen serpent; the spiritual one comes by faith-by looking to our Saviour for salvation. God dwelt in the tabernacle and temple, and in Christ He dwelt in the flesh; not in types and symbols, but really and hypostatically; not for a time, but for ever. Christ is the true Tabernacle and Temple, who hath all the holy things in Him. Here's the Shekinah-the Divine Majesty appearing in our nature. Here's the Ark, where the tables of the law, broken by men, are kept inviolate. Here's the Mercy-seat, or Propitiatory, which covers our sins, and from whence God communes with us in words of grace. Here's the Veil, the flesh of Christ, which hid His deity, and through which there is a way into heaven itself. Here are the Holy Lamps, the spirit of wisdom and grace derived from our Saviour. Here's the Altar of Burnt-offering-the deity of Christ sanctified His humanity to be a sufficient sacrifice for a world and the Altar of Incense-the odours of His merit perfume all our services, and render them acceptable unto God. Almost everything did breathe forth Christ, and speak to His honour. He was in one, in all the sacrifices, and was more than all of them. Sacrifices began with the first promise of the Messiah, and, after almost four thousand years' standing, they ended in His death; a singular respect they had to Him, and a full complement in His perfect sacrifice. Now, touching the sacrifices, two things are to be noted :— The one is this: There is somewhat in Christ which answers to the expiatory sacrifices. The sacrifice was to be perfect and without blemish, that it might be accepted; the blind, or broken, or maimed, or corrupted thing was not to be offered up to God. Answerably, the human nature of Christ, which was the great sacrifice, was without spot or guile; it was formed by the Holy Spirit, and it breathed out nothing but sanctity, that it might be a pure offering unto God. Had there been any blemish in it, it could not have been united to the person of the Word, nor offered up as a sacrifice to God for us. The sacrifice, pure in itself, was substituted in room of sinful defective men; there was life for life-the life of a beast, instead of that of a man. Suitably, Christ, the meek, patient, immaculate Lamb of God, stood in our room: He died for us: He gave His life a ransom, åvтɩ ñoλλŵv, “instead of many (Matt. xx. 28). His person was put in the room of ours, and His sufferings, too, in the room of ours. Had He not stood in our stead, He could not have been capable either to bear the stroke of penal sufferings, or to free us from the same: not to bear penal sufferings-He being nothing but mere innocency in Himself; nor to free us from them-He being in no conjunction with us. The sacrifice being put in the sinner's room had sin imputed to it: they were to lay their hands upon the head of it (Lev. i. 4); a confession of sins was made over the scape-goat (Lev. xvi. 21); their sins were in a sort transferred upon the sacrifice, that it might bear them away. Thus it was with Christ. He was made sin for us (2 Cor. v. 21). The Lord laid on Him the iniquities of us all (Isa. liii. 6). Our guilt was imputed to Him so far as to render His sufferings penal; and, as an ancient hath it, He was "delictorum susceptor, non commissor." Having no guilt of His own, He stood under ours, in order to a glorious expiation and abolition of it in His death and satisfaction. Sin being charged upon the sacrifice, there was a destroying of the thing offered. So it was with Christ, when our sins were laid upon Him. With |