the leaves which the sybil scattered in the wind. 24.-The great effort of practical wisdom is to imbue the mind with right tastes, affections, and habits, the elements of character, and the masters of action. 25.-Truth is simple and uniform, while error may be infinitely varied. 26. If a system of politeness, the mere garb of humility, be of such indispensable necessity, that society could not subsist without it, how much better still would the harmony of the world be preserved, were the condescension, deference, and respect, so studiously displayed, a true picture of the heart? 27.-There is no vice so opposite to the spirit of Christianity, as pride; yet there is none which, even in the Christian world, has, under various pretences, been treated with so much indulgence. 28.-Humility is the first fruit of religion. ESSAYS TO THE JEWS. (Continued from col. 707.) seed-time and harvest, and summer and winter, shall never cease, Gen. viii. 22. To some of them, indeed, he has granted large portions of the good things of this life. So we read of Job, that he was the greatest of all the men of the East. Abraham, too, was blessed with abundance of temporal good things. And Jacob, who had fled from the fury of an offended brother, was so overpowered with the goodness of God, in this respect, that he exclaimed, on his return to the land of his nativity, "With my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I am become two bands," Gen. xxxii. 10. And who does not recollect the grandeur and magnificence of Solomon, that they were even proverbial among the nations? Now, all this may teach us, that no rank in society, however elevated, is absolutely incompatible with the life of God in the soul; though it still holds as a general principle, that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called; but that God revealeth himself to babes, and hath chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith, Essay VIII.-Of the Privileges of the and heirs of the kingdom, 1 Cor. i.26. Spiritual Seed of Abraham. HAVING determined the important point, that it is believers of all ages and nations, and them only, who constitute the spiritual children of Abraham; we proceed to remark, concerning their privileges, that as every believer is a compound being, consisting of a body as well as a soul, like the rest of his brethren of mankind-an old life derived from his connexion with the first man, and a new or spiritual life, hid with Christ in Godtherefore, as long as both these are to be maintained, his wants, and the bountiful supply of them from the hand of the munificent God, in which consisteth his privileges, must, by consequence, be of a mixed nature. Though the spiritual children of Abraham are not of this world, yet as they are, for many wise and gracious purposes, designed for a season to be sojourners in it; so, while here, they have a variety of bodily wants to be supplied, in common with other men. God, therefore, who causeth his sun to shine on the evil and on the good, on the just and on the unjust, has, for the sake of his people in general, decreed, that while the earth remaineth, James ii. 5. Though God promised to Abraham, that his natural descendants should possess the land of Canaan as their inheritance in this transitory state, yet as that seems only to have been for certain reasons peculiar to themselves; so, in speaking of the temporal good things which the spiritual Israel of God in general enjoy, we do not think it would be proper to take the promise of that land of Abraham, and his literal descendants, as the pattern of the temporal blessings to be enjoyed by the spiritual Israel. Though the heathen, for instance, be promised to Christ for an inheritance, and the uttermost ends of the earth for a possession; yet this is to be understood only in a spiritual sense. Nor is there a promise in the whole scripture, of any particular portion of the globe more than another, to which the converted among the nations are to resort. It then follows, that the general covenant with Noah, that "while the earth should remain, seed-time and harvest, and summer and winter, should not cease;" and the grant, that "every moving thing that liveth, should be meat for man, even as the green herb was from the beginning," Gen. ix. 3. are the only examples and patterns to which we can refer, in respect of the temporal blessings to be enjoyed by the spiritual seed of Abraham. And to these agree the words of our Saviour, when speaking of the same subject, Mat. vi. 25, &c. "Take no anxious thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on," &c. "Behold the fowls of the air, for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin; and yet I say unto you, that even Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field,-shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith ?" But as it is not by miracle we are to expect the supply of our wants, but by the ordinary means God has appointed; the believer must attend to his duty, and be diligent in business, at the same time he is fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; knowing that if any will not work, neither should he eat, and that he that provideth not for his own, and especially for those of his own house, hath denied the faith he professes, and is worse than an unbeliever, Rom. xii. 2. 1 Tim. v. 8. Such are the temporal privileges of believers ; and we have the experience of one, who says, "I have been young, and now am old; yet have I never seen the righteous forsaken, nor his children begging bread." No, indeed; "the hand of the diligent maketh rich, and qualifieth him to stand before kings, and not before mean men,' Psalm xxxvii. 25. Proverbs x. 4. and xxii. 29. With respect to their spiritual privileges, " eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither could it enter into the heart to conceive the things which God hath prepared and revealed in the scriptures, for them that love him." As their situation was once the most deplorable, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenant of promise, having no hope, and without God in the 81.-VOL. VII. world; so now, through grace, is it most blessed, having obtained peace with God, through their Lord Jesus Christ, 1 Cor. ii. 9. Eph. ii. 12. Rom. v. 1. It would be to our purpose, were we here to enumerate all the blessings of the new covenant, or covenant of grace; or, in other words, that old covenant which was formed and planned in the councils of eternity, ere the world began; and which is termed new, because it was never ratified, so to speak, save in a symbolical and typical manner, till the shedding of the blood of Christ, in this new dispensation, which is the blood of this. new and everlasting covenant. This covenant, which regards the salvation of the guilty, and which is indissoluble and eternal in its nature, extends to the whole elect of God, who either have, or do, or shall exist in the world. It knows no distinction between Jew and Gentile, Barbarian, Scythian, bond or free, but regards all men alike. The only distinction it recognizes, is a distinction of character, alone produced by the belief of the truth. And as it is character alone which it recognizes, so there are certain terms it applies to those who possess the character, to distinguish them from others. In plain language, devoid of all figures, they are distinguished as believers, righteous, justified, sanctified, &c. In figurative language, they are called Jews, Israelites, the circumcision, the children of God, the children of the promise, the seed of Abraham, and so on. But it is to be observed, that to these figurative expressions, there are generally annexed some qualifying phrases, which, on the one hand, shew that they are not used in the literal sense, and, on the other, determine the sense in which they are employed. When the term " Jew," for instance, is employed in this spiritual sense, they are said not to be Jews outwardly, but inwardly, Romans ii. 28, 29. "Circumcision" is distinguished in like manner, and also by a worshipping of God in the spirit, Phil. iii. 3. 66 Israel," by the expression, that they are not all Israel who are of Israel, Rom. ix. 6. And when they are represented as "the children of God," or "children of the promise," or " seed of Abraham," then we are referred to the typical signification of the birth of Isaac, who was the child of the promise; 3 E 66 and thus are we led to conclude, | one way of salvation, and one only, for from Gal. iv. that his supernatural all men; for Jews and Gentiles, rich birth, by the power of God, typified and poor, old and young; for those the regeneration, or new birth, pro- born of believing parents, and those duced in the souls of men by the same who are not; and that such only as power. Thus, we perceive, in the are converted, in every age and nacases both of Abraham and of Isaac, tion, are to be reckoned, in the spiritual that while the one was constituted the and higher sense, the children of Abrafather of all believers, the circum- ham by faith, and heirs of the prostances attending the birth of the mises, to whom the inheritance, in other, were of such a nature as figura- this highest and most excellent sense, tively to represent this relation, which shall undoubtedly be made sure. subsists between Abraham and his spiritual children. This is evidently the light in which the apostle places the subject, in the passage above alluded to. It is Isaac's and Ishmael's birth only, which are there spoken of as being typical. The one typified the real, spiritual, and free born people of God in all ages; the other, the state of the Jews as a nation, from the days of Abraham, or, more properly speaking, of their great legislator, till the coming of Christ. And as it was the very nature and design of that dispensation to convince of sin, and so keep the sinner in bondage, till he found an escape by faith in the promised Seed, which was yet to come; so, the type, Ishmael, and the bond-maid, fitly represented not only the moral state of the Jews, during this dispensation, but the state of the whole human race in the sight of God,—in like manner as Isaac, who was born of the free-woman, represented the state of believers in all ages. In speaking of the privileges of the spiritual people of God, therefore, we ought to pursue the same method of illustration under both dispensations; for all the blessings of the new dispensation existed in the old, under a variety of types, and shadows, and symbolical representations; so that, were we to draw a contrast between the two, we might see, that in point of clearness indeed, this which succeeds, excels much that which went before; but that still one and the same object, and, of course, privilege, was common to both. It is upon this principle, that the apostle, in writing to the Hebrews, proceeds; in which he clearly shews the admirable unity that runs through the whole plan of mercy, from beginning to end. All was designed to teach the same heavenly truths; to bring in the whole world as guilty before God; to shew that there is but In order to the further illustration of this subject, I might refer, in the first place, to the epistle to the Hebrews, in which the reader will find the subject, as it regards the spiritual import of the former dispensation, explained by an infallible guide; and in the next place, to all the epistles addressed to the churches, in which both the present privileges and future prospects of believers are so fully detailed, that, to do justice to the subject, it would be necessary to transcribe a great proportion of them verbatim. In the epistle to the Hebrews, for example, the first superior privilege mentioned, as accruing to believers under the gospel dispensation, is, the dignity of the messengers employed in its promulgation, Heb. i. 1, 2. "God, who, at sundry times, and in divers manners, spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath, in these last days, spoken unto us by his Son," whom he hath constituted heir of all things; who is described as the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, by whom also he made the worlds, and upholds all things; and so is infinitely superior in nature and office to all God's former messengers, by whom he revealed his will of old, whether they were the most eminent prophets, such as Moses, or even angels, by whose ministry the law was delivered at Mount Sinai. From this superior privilege of the divine dignity of the Founder of the gospel dispensation, the apostle justly infers a corresponding duty in those who profess it. Is it the case, that God, who, at sundry times, and in divers manners, spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son,-we ought, therefore (or on this account) to give the more earnest heed to the things which were spoken by so dignified a messenger, lest at any time we should let them slip. For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward; how shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which, at the first, began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him, &c. Heb. ii. 1-3. Another privilege of the gospel dispensation, consists in the subjection of all things under the power and government of the Son of God: That the gospel kingdom is not subjected to the government of any of the angels, however dignified, but to that of the Son of God alone; to whom all things, without exception, are subjected, and under whose feet all his enemies shall finally be subdued: And that though he was for a little while made lower than the angels, by assuming the same mortal flesh and blood with the children which God had given him, and so became subject to sufferings and death; yet was it for such a glorious purpose as was every way worthy of God, namely, that by his death he might expiate their sins, defeat their enemies, sympathize with and succour them under all their trials and afflictions, and, as the Captain of their salvation, conduct them to the glory of the heavenly kingdom. This is all clearly set forth in chap. ii. were priests on earth, ministers of a worldly sanctuary, and of the holy places made with hands, which were only figures of the true; but Christ having risen from the dead, is not a priest on earth, but has passed through the heavens with his own blood, and is a high-priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, where he officiates as a minister of the heavenly sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man; and there he ever lives a merciful and faithful high-priest, making intercession for his people, and so is able to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by him: chaps. iv. vii. viii. ix. With regard to the sacrifices and purifications prescribed by the law; the apostle shews, that though, by virtue of God's appointment, they sanctified to the purifying of the flesh from ceremonial defilements; yet they were but figurative institutions and carnal ordinances, imposed upon the Israelites until the time of reformation, when they should all be set aside. They had no intrinsic worth or virtue in themselves, to procure a real and everlasting remission of sins; for it is impossible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins, or cleanse the conscience of the worshipAnother privilege consists in the per from the guilt of them, otherwise superior dignity of his sacerdotal of- they would have ceased to be offered; fice, and the sacrifice which, as the whereas, in the repetition of these saPriest of the Most High God, he offer- crifices, there is a remembrance again ed up. Attached, as the Jews were, made of sins every year, which shews to the legal priesthood and sacrifices, that they were not really expiated. the apostle expatiates at great length With these ineffectual sacrifices, the upon the superior excellence and effi- apostle contrasts the sacrifice of Christ, cacy of the priesthood and sacrifice of and proves, Psalm xl. that Christ came Christ. The Levitical priests were into the world to do his Father's will, made according to the law, and after by offering the one sacrifice of himself, the order of Aaron; but Christ was by which he hath set aside all the legal made a priest by the word of the oath sacrifices; made at once a complete which was since the law, and after the atonement for sin, and hath for ever superior order of Melchisedec, who perfected them that are sanctified; and was both a king and a priest. They that his sacrifice is not to be repeated, were mortal men, and not suffered to like the legal sacrifices, it having procontinue by reason of death, and so cured, which they never could, an were many priests, succeeding one everlasting remission of sin, as is another; but He is a priest for ever, evident from the circumstance, that after the power of an endless life, and when he had offered it, he "for ever so his priesthood does not pass from sat down on the right hand of God," him to a successor. The priests under and from God's promise in the new the law had sinful infirmities, and so covenant, "their sins and iniquities had to offer for their own sins as well will I remember no more." "Now," as for the sins of the people; but He therefore, as the apostle concludes, was without sin, being holy, harmless," where remission of these is, there is undefiled, separate from sinners. They no more offering for sin," chap. ix. x. The mind is the more disposed to receive impressions of this nature, in proportion to the degree of its ignorance; and hence much of the surprising, that is to be discovered in the writings of the earlier inquirers, and in popular opinion, is found to assume a different and more moderate aspect in the severer researches of the modern naturalists. To guess, is the work of a moment, and asks only a lively imagination; but patient assiduity and repeated observation are necessary, before such facts can be collected as shall stand the test of experience. I have endeavoured to keep these things in view, whilst recording my remarks Thus, in every view of the subject, is the superiority of the privileges of this latter dispensation over those of the former, quite apparent. The spiritual seed of Abraham, to which the privileges and spiritual blessings of the new covenant belong, are said to be "come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first-born, which are written or enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh bet-relative to this creature; and though ter things than that of Abel." And the contrast between these glorious privileges, and those of the former dispensation, is clearly stated in the passage at large, Heb. xii. 18-24. So that the spiritual seed of Abraham, from among the Jews, instead of sustaining any privations by the abrogation of the old economy, and introduction of the new, are great gainers by the exchange. The apostle's inference from the above-mentioned privileges, is therefore as natural as it is solemn: "See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven," Heb. xii. 25. (By J. Couch, F.L.S.) THE chameleon is a creature that has attracted much attention from the observers of nature, on account of the extraordinary circumstances connected with its history. And, as is always the case, where there is any thing surprising, it has also given origin to stories largely partaking of the romantic. Observers, not content with barely recording the things that are remarkable, or speculating on their causes and connexions, frequently set their imaginations to work; and that which is sufficiently wonderful in itself receives an accession from the nature of the medium through which it is viewed, so as to render it still more wonderful and extraordinary. they lie under the disadvantage of being made in a country foreign to its natural habits, yet even this is not without its use, since it enables us to ascertain the variations this animal can endure, and the effect they are capable of producing. The chameleon is classed by naturalists in the genus Lacerta, or Lizard. The individual, of which I became possessed, measured ten inches in length, of which the tail was four and a half. The head is compressed, the jaws of equal length, having slight cartilaginous teeth; from above the upper jaw, in front, commences on each side a ridge that passes upward over each eye. In the centre of the top of the head, begins another ridge, which, passing backward, forms an elevated crest, of a triangular shape, the posterior edges of which pass down, one on each side, to the hinder angles of the jaw. The eye is large and conical, covered with the common skin; the pupil is deeply seated in a hole scarcely larger than that which a pin would make; it is black and lively, surrounded with a goldcoloured iris, as slender as a thread. The eyeball is capable of very extensive movement, the actions of one eye being independent of those of the other; so that they are very rarely seen directed to one object, except when the creature is in the act of taking its prey. The body is much compressed, the back ridged, and, on account of the tubercles, slightly serrated; the belly also has an obscure ridge. Above the hinder legs, the body is much attenuated. The tail is flattened at its origin, round and tapering through its latter half. The legs |