is written, "Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses " (Matt. viii. 17). Was there any death before sin entered? Shall there be any in the paradise of God? Did not Christ come to do his Father's will? and if sickness were the will of his Father, why did he remove it? Was he not manifest just to destroy the works of the devil? As if sickness were not one of his works, but a work of God; why did God's servant destroy it, and declare the cure, and not the sickness, to be to the glory of God? Were the sicknesses of the Jews, in the time of our Lord, not such as all flesh partaketh of? Is not madness now a plain possession of the devil, from which he hath persuaded the baptized to seek deliverance at his own hands, instead of casting him out by the power of the name of Jesus? At any rate, was madness the only disease which Jesus healed? Did he not heal all? Was not the woman who had a spirit of infirmity declared to have been bound of Satan for eighteen years? (Luke xiii. 16.) Is it not said of the whole mighty works of healing performed by the Son of Man, that " God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power; who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him?" (Acts x. 38.) Did not our Lord demonstrate that the healing of the body was the fittest type of the remission of sins, by being the liberation of the flesh from Satan's oppression through sin, when he commanded the healing of the paralytic in this form of speech, "Thy sins be forgiven thee?" (Luke v. 20.) And was not the like connection invariably seen, when the Apostles, who preached deliverance to the captives in the name of Jesus, received their commission to heal the sick, saying, "the kingdom of God is come nigh" (Luke x. 9), and executed that commission by preaching the Gospel and healing every where? (Luke ix. 6.) The truth is, that men have forgotten what the fall was; and how really it is now to be perceived in every thing, without exception, pertaining to the age that is now, save where overcome by the power of the world to come in the Holy Ghost. It is not that he who suffereth sickness hath therefore peculiarly sinned; but it is that sickness stands as the visible expression of the corruption of sin. It is not the work of God. First, He is no more unrighteous in suffering it, than in suffering sin or suffering its author; for He is the God of patience. If He desire to manifest the first-fruits of the kingdom in shewing that Christ hath spoiled the sick-bed and the grave; let us not frustrate that desire, but purge ourselves from all unbelief to be at any moment sanctified vessels fit for the Master's age and glory. And if he desire that we keep in sickness the word of Christ's patience, then let us keep that word, waiting for the time when the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick. But, above all, let us learn of God for be assured, that he never suffereth the devil to

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oppress us without an end of love; the word of Christ's patience is always a word of tenderness and love. And he suffereth the devil to bind us, not that we may believe his lies, and be content under it, as if it were the bond of God; but that we may see the wickedness of the bond, and learn the exceeding sinfulness of sin by all its fruits, and admit the bond to the glory of the name of Jesus; or groan under it with that earnest groaning wherewith the whole creation groaneth, waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God, and with a mind at one with the mind of Christ, and patient while he is patient, who is far more provoked than we. Oh, this lie, that mere suffering is chastening, a supplanter of the Holy Ghost, a substitute for the answer of a good conscience in the blood of Jesus, a blind by which to conceal the groanings of this world under Satan, hath slain its thousands, and is one of Satan's prime devices for the hour of Antichrist. Against which, remember, dear brother, whoever readest, that chastening is instructive from God by suffering (as Jesus learned obedience unto death by the things which he suffered when his Father gave him up to the power of darkness); that all God's instruction is by the Holy Ghost; and that the Holy Ghost never lays men on beds of sickness: Satan is the cruel lord.

God then telleth Laodicea that his rebuke, by being a chastening, testifieth his love. And he pleadeth, "Therefore be zealous, and repent."-Now as the former means, I rebuke thee in the way of chastening; the latter saith, "Be zealous" in the way of repentance. Whence it is plain that the zeal results from the perception of the rebuke, and the repentance from the perception of the chastening which accompanies the rebuke, and which no man can perceive but by the Holy Ghost. The words λos, and now, express a violent and keen affection, which may be directed either for or against God. In the former case it expresses envy, rebellion, and reproach; in the latter, a burning anxiety for the presence, service, acknowledgment, and glory of God. Now, as the hour of the beast consists of two parts-namely, the, as it were, half hour, during which his glory shall be at its full, and the world shall believe him to be the true heir and first-born in the joy of his kingdom; and the remainder of the hour, during which the changed saints shall pour out the seven vials of wrath-the rebuke of Laodicea shall be twofold-namely, her temptation (Rev. iii. 10), when as many as will not worship the beast shall be killed; and her temptation, when the silence in heaven shall have come to an end. Her zeal therefore shall be twofold also, as resulting from that twofold condition of rebuke. But all men shall have zeal throughout the hour; so that zeal alone would neither distinguish her nor glorify God. She is to be marked out by the

zeal of repentance. In other words, while the world shall be zealous for the man of sin, she is to be zealous for the Lord of hosts; and while the world is blaspheming His holy name, because of the plagues (Rev. xvi. 9, 11, 21), she is to magnify his name in the midst of them. And I believe that she-that is, the faithful in her-will magnify it exceedingly, more than any of God's saints, save those who shall be translated so as not to see death; for our Elisha shall obtain a double portion of the Spirit of our Elijah. God will not suffer her iniquity to be complete without a complete witness to expose it; and of no church but Laodicea is it said that she is zealous.

"Behold, I have placed myself at the door and knock. If any one hear my voice and open the door, I will come in unto him, and will sup with him, and he with me" (Rev. iii. 20).— The door here mentioned is not the door of a man's heart, but the door of the supper-chamber; and although Christ be received into us by faith, our own hearts are not the common supper-chamber of both. Neither is it the door of the sheepfold. We now are the sheep of the Lord's pasture; the holiest of all is our fold into that fold the Shepherd hath entered by the door which was the veil of his flesh: that veil he hath rent in twain; the curse of the flesh he hath so put away. And now he, who as our Shepherd entered in, is himself the door; for his blood, and not the curse of the law, resteth on all flesh, and standeth between all flesh and the Father. (John x.) The first tabernacle, wherein men could worship without the veil, hath no longer a place or standing, for Jesus hath entered in with his own blood. Whoever worshippeth must worship within the veil, wherein every thing is sprinkled with blood and clean; for God is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. And the way into the holiest of all is now made manifest (Heb. ix. 8). This is the door of faith opened to the Gentiles (Acts xiv. 27); the door opened in heaven (Rev. iv. 1). This is the door which Christ opened at his resurrection, and no man can shut (Rev. iii. 8); for Philadelphia shall be caught up into the temple of God (Rev. xiv. 2; xv. 5), before she reigns upon the earth. Lastly, this is the door which shall be shut against the improvident virgins, when the provident shall enter in to the marriage (Matt. xxv. 10; Luke xiii. 25); and the improvident, though children of God, shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, where they cannot come. But there is another door, which he shall cause to be opened at his second coming, after he shall have been met by his saints in the air; the door or gate of the city, the city of this world: for here he is to establish his kingdom, and eat the marriage-supper after his marriage with the bride in the air; is to judge the world in righteousness, as it is written, "The Judge standeth before the door" or gates

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(James v. 9; Matt. xxiv. 33); and as the Psalmist singeth in glorious vision, "The earth is the Lord's.... Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty; the Lord mighty in battle" (Psa. xxiv. 1, 7). Know then, brethren, that at the gates of this world, which the Father hath given him for a delightsome heritage and a holy temple (Psa. xvi. 6; xxiv. 3), Christ knocketh. Yet not now, but when he shall have come with myriads of his saints, followed by the armies of heaven. Then shall he knock. And how? By his word. See that ye refuse not him that speaketh from heaven," is the warning for all times, until Jesus stand upon the Mount of Olives. He knocketh by his word. Wherefore it is added, "If any one hear my voice, and open the door." As we now knock, by the voice of prayer, for entrance into the holiest, pleading in the blood and intercession of the Lamb; and God openeth unto us, admitteth us to behold the things prepared for them that love him, and to walk by their power; so in that day shall he knock by the word of his mouth. That word, however, shall have a twofold operation. In the first place, it shall be a voice of judgment and deliverance. He shall "destroy the wicked one with the Spirit of his mouth" (2 Thess. ii. 8). "The voice of the Lord is upon the waters: the God of glory thundereth, the Lord upon many waters: the voice of the Lord is powerful: the voice of the Lord is full of majesty: the voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars, yea, the Lord breaketh the cedars of Lebanon" (the kingdom of this world) (Ps. xxix. 3). But, in the second place, it shall be still for a time a voice of merciful warning and invitation; during that interval in which there shall be silence in heaven from the thundering of the God of glory upon his enemies. And what crieth it? It proclaimeth the everlasting Gospel, or the glad tidings of the age to come, saying, "Fear God, and give him glory, for the hour of his judgment is come" (Rev. xiv. 7), and uttering the prophecy of Enoch: "Behold, the Lord is come (nov) with his holy myriads, to execute judgment upon all" (Jude 14). Such shall then be the voice of God's gospel.. They shall hear it who know what is become of the raptured saints; who are made zealous with repentance; who are affrighted and give glory to God; who hear the cry of mercy in the very midst of judgment; who shall be saved, yet so as by fire, followed not preceded by their works" (Rev. xiv. 13; 1 Tim. v. 25). And how shall they obey it? Just by opening the door. Christ shall wait to enter, until the iniquity of the world, and its settlement in peace and glory under the man of sin, shall be complete. Were Laodicea to refuse to open, that would not prevent the Lord; but it would exclude herself from his supper; and Phi

ladelphia, and those now dead in Christ, would be his only guests. What Christ demands of her, is just to open the door in faith, when he crieth "Who will bring me into the strong city? who will lead me into Edom?" (Ps. lx. 9); to give him the welcome which he desireth; to join the kingdom of the true Christ; to say, Lord, we are ready to receive thee; we render up unto thee, by the consent of our hearts, this world as thine own inheritance, and would let the city have its King. Come in he will, though all men and devils forbid. But blessed shall this angel be, if Christ "come in to him." For then Christ will sup with him, and he with Christ. They shall rejoice in the company of each other. Wisdom shall rejoice in the habitable part of God's earth, having her delight with the sons of men. And men shall enter into the joy of their Lord; better late than never. Christ and his people shall feed on the same food; being of one mind and one mouth; living by his God and their God, his Father and their Father; he manifest in them, and they in him, before God the Father, who is in the Son, and in whom the Son is; who alone knoweth the Son, and whom none knoweth save the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him. Such a fellowship have the meek, "who shall eat and be satisfied" (Psalm xxii. 26); "eating that which is good" (Isai.lv. 2); eating, when they that forget the Lord's holy mountain shall be hungry (Isai. lxv. 13). They shall partake with Christ of that bread, of which he told them that he would no more eat until it should be fulfilled in the kingdom of heaven: they shall drink with him of that fruit of the vine, of which he said that he would not drink until the kingdom of God be come. They shall eat and drink at his table in his kingdom (Luke xxii. 16, 18, 30). More I have not to say on the subject; but I have to humble myself, and call upon all to humble themselves, that so little is understood of this most attractive of all the promises which the Spirit hath made unto the churches; a promise, the full understanding of which would cause our hearts to be "sick of love," for the foretaste wherein the saints sit with the Lord at his present supper table is a feast of fat things indeed. How amazing is the condescension of Jehovah's Fellow, who not only came to minister, and washed the feet of his disciples, and was among them as one that serveth, teaching them to serve one another by love; but telleth us, that in his glorious kingdom he shall be our pattern in the worship of God (Rev. iii. 12), and that he "shall gird himself and make them sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them!" (Luke xii. 37.) Verily the King of Zion is meek and lowly, for he ruleth to the glory of the Father. "He that overcometh I will give unto him to sit down with me in my throne; as I also have overcome, and have sat down with my Father in his throne" (Rev. iii. 21).—-O Lord, how shall