THREE INHERITANCES.

1. Adam's Estate.

ADAM, as soon as born from the earth, was invested with an estate, real and personal, ample as is the terraqueous globe, with all its riches, mineral, vegetable, and animal. His residence was in Eden, but his patrimonial inheritance, bestowed by God his father, extended North, South, East, and West, from Pison's head to Pison's head again, embracing all within the five zones that lives or moves in air, in water, or on land. The tree of knowledge of good and evil which stood in the midst of Eden, was the only reservation in token of the sovereignty of him from whom Adam received and held the inheritance. But against this stood the tree of life to which he had free and unlimited access. He held this estate by a grant from his Creator, not on condition of his paying one barley corn per annum, but on condition of his obedience to one positive command, which, to make it still more divinely generous, required not the doing of any thing, but the simple withholding of his hand from the fruit of a single tree, His obedience to this command was, however, his tenure of the in heritance. If he transgressed all was forfeited to him. Such was his inheritance and such was the tenure of it. He disobeyed the divine injunction, and in so doing forfeited the whole estate.

God chose, rather than to vacate the whole premises, to respite Adam for a time, to debar him from the tree of life, and to doom him to incessant toil, until he should finally return again to the bosom of his mother earth.

Meantime children are born to him, and inherit from him his nature and whatever lease interest he had to the soil on which he lived, which was not for any stipulated time, because the forfeiture was complete, and the respite granted was wholly unconditioned. This great family inheritance has been parcelled out amongst the sons of Adam with all the circumstances of his bankruptcy entailed upon it. No stipulated tenure for any definite time, but a simple life-interest, whether long or short, is inherited by his descendants.

Through the mismanagement of his children, the inheritance has been still more encumbered; and on one occasion, with the single exception of one family, the whole premises have been vacated, the real estate greatly damaged, and the personal property, the goods and chattels, almost wholly destroyed. No project has ever been set up to redeem it on the part of the Original Proprietor; for he has promised to destroy it with fire, and then to create new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness shall flourish.

Concerning this inheritance it is of some importance to observe1. That it was freely bestowed upon Adam, irrespective of any thought, volition, or deed on his part. So that his possession of it was of pure favor.

2. The continued enjoyment of it was made dependent upon his allegiance, loyalty, or obedience to him who bestowed it.

3. It was forfeited by him in consequence of the transgression of a positive law.

4. The title which was then vouchsafed him, secured to him no definite possession of it, and was encumbered with many curses.

5. As all this transpired before a child was born to him, his descendants inherit in him and from him no other right or tenure than that which was bestowed upon him after his apostacy and exile from Eden.

6. But no creature other than those in Adam, or descended from him, has any right or title to the inheritance which God vouchsafed to Adam after his apostacy. These things noticed, and we proceed to the consideration of the second notable estate.

2. Abraham's Estate.

Abraham was called out of Ur, of Chaldea. He left Haran in the 75th year of his age, and went down into Canaan. While in Canaan, God appeared to him and promised to give that land to his seed. He afterwards confirmed this promise in a solemn covenant, and promised to multiply his descendants, and in the 44th generation to put his posterity in actual possession of the land.

When Abraham was 99 years old, these promises are all renewed and enlarged. He receives additional pledges that God would establish his covenant with him and his seed after him, and give Canaan for an everlasting possession. To these developments and additional promises he annexes circumcision as a seal, and calls it the covenant in the flesh-"My covenant shall be in your flesh, for an everlasting covenant." Isaac is promised, and the covenanted blessings both concerning the land and Messiah are stipulated through him. He is a child of promise. At this time Abraham and Ishmael, and all his male servants, were circumcised. These promises are renewed to Jacob, and Canaan guaranteed to his seed. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, dwell in it in tents, but have no actual possession of it; the right to the land is vested in them for their seed, but possession is deferred till the cup of the Amorites is full, till 430 years after the first promise. Canaan, at that time "the goodliest land on the face of the earth," is selected as the inheritance of Abraham's seed through Isaac and Jacob, and the best earthly blessings which under the existing circumstances of Adam's estate could be vouchsafed, are guaranteed by promise in this land.

The time arrives according to promise for taking possession of the land. The incumbrances under which it lay during the occupancy of seven nations, are now to be removed. The descendants of Abraham arise in the faith of God's promise to march into the land. Moses is their leader. Into the faith of the mission of Moses and the promise of Canaan are they immersed in the Red Sea, and under the cloud. They all pass under the cloud and through the sea. God feeds them on their journey from the storehouses of heaven. The clouds drop manna down upon them.

Their garments waxed not old in all their travels through the wilderness; yet they murmured against Moses and against God. On Sinai God met them, proposed to make a compact with them, to become the God of the nation, and to make them all his peculiar people. They acceded. Moses mediates the covenant. Their national institutions and worship are ordained by God. He takes them by the hand as his bride; is married to them; takes them under his protection and guides them on to the promised inheritance. They are tried in the wilderness. They rebel, Calamities befall them. Many are cut off. They approach the good land: but they forgot God's works and words, and believed not his promises. They fall in the wilderness. Moses and Aaron die. Joshua is raised up a leader. He and Caleb alone, of all the adults which crossed the Red Sea, with the nation then existing, cross the Jordan and take possession of the land. God verifies his word to Abraham, and his promises to Isaac and Jacob. They received that inheritance as a gift; for God gave it to Abraham by promise before circumcision, and before the law. Neither circumcision nor the law, nor obedience to the law, entitled them to that inheritance. It was a free gift, received by faith. Those who fell, fell because of unbelief. "We see they could not enter in because of unbelief."

But now the continued enjoyment of the inheritance is made to depend upon obedience: "If you be willing and obedient you shall eat the good of the land." But if they rebelled against the Lord, he would cast them out of it. They did so; and he ejected them. They repented, and he forgave them and brought back some of them. They again apostatized from God and crucified his Son. Then he scattered the remnant of Judah and Benjamin to the utmost bounds of the earth, and gave their land to the destroyers. Jerusalem shall continue to be trodden under foot of the Gentiles until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.

As the matters now stand, the Gentiles have no right to Abraham's estate, and the literal and fleshly descendants of Abraham have no right to any other land than Canaan. They admit this even in the 19th century. They hold not, as a nation, any territory among the Gentiles. They claim Canaan as their inheritance; but having broken the covenant, they cannot now possess it. But their right to the inheritance under all conditions was in Abraham. It is only as the descendants of Abraham, and as connected with him in the original grant, they can claim possession. On this inheritance be it observed

1. That it was a free gift bestowed to Abraham, and in him to his seed, and was first possessed by his heirs through the obedience of faith.

2. The continued enjoyment of it was made dependent on the allegiance and obedience of the heirs, according to the tenor of the Sinaitic agreement.

3. It was forfeited to them that apostatized from that institution. 4. The descendants as a people or nation had the promise of it always; but no individual had any personal assurance of it for any definite period of time.

5. But no person other than those in Abraham, either by natural descent, or by agreement, according to the compact, had any right, title, or interest to any part of that inheritance.

Messiah's Estate.

God has constituted his Son "heir of all things." He is not, like Abraham, the heir of a world; but of all worlds. His is the eternal inheritance. All things were created for him. He is now made Lord of his own inheritance. All things are put under his feet. He has all authority in heaven and earth. His, now, is the kingdom, the power, and the glory. His Father gave him power over all flesh that he might be able to give eternal life-the inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and unfading,―to as many as are given to him.

He is all benevolent, and willing to divide the inheritance; for it can be shared amongst many, greatly to the honor, interest, and happiness of all. He is willing to have many joint heirs, and God has conferred it upon him that he might bestow it upon others to his own glory and their honor and felicity.

All things that are desirable, whether present or future, belong to it. Angels, authorities, and powers, celestial and terrestrial; apostles, prophets, evangelists, and teachers, of every rank; the world, life, death, imortality, are amongst its treasures. Pardon, adoption, sanctification, the Holy Spirit, are its present earnest, in token of the full fruition of heirs of God through Christ. To be an heir of God is surpassing admiration. No eye has seen, no ear has heard, nor heart has conceived the magnitude of such riches, honors, bliss; but all is ours in Christ: for the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

As in the first inheritance the right of enjoyment, such as it is, was vested in Adam; and in the second, or typical inheritance, in Abraham, by a political arrangement through Isaac and Jacob; so in the third, it is vested in the Messiah, and subject to the accompanying regulations concerning the actual possession and continued enjoyment,

Whatever right any person has to the estate of Adam, is derived simply from natural relation; whatever right any Jew had to the promised land, was derived from natural and political relation to Abraham by a covenant in the flesh; so whatever right any Jew or Gentile has to the eternal inheritance, is derived from spiritual relation to Messiah, according to the will of him whose inheritance it is.

The will of the donor or original proprietor, in all cases, settles the principle on which the actual possession and continued enjoyment shall depend. Hence, in reference to the earthly and heavenly Ca

naan, which are made analogous to each other, there is to each a will appended. The Old Will and the New Will, as they are sometimes called, accompany the two inheritances. No person can inherit but according to the Will of the Testator. Now it is altogether unreasonable, and without precedent, for any Jew to expect to inherit the Messiah's estate by virtue of his natural or political relation to Abraham: for Messiah's estate is not willed through the flesh or through political relation to Abraham. A Gentile might as reasonably claim a portion in Canaan by virtue of his descent from Adam, as for a Jew to claim inheritance with Christ because he is descended from Abra ham. For as respects the promises made to Abraham concerning the Messiah, it was decided that men must be Christ's before they can be Abraham's seed and heirs of the heavenly inheritance, according to the promise concerning it. Again, as no Gentile can claim a right to Canaan, so neither can he claim a portion in the Messiah's estate by virtue of relation to Adam. The inheritance is Christ's. It is in him we have obtained an inheritance. Those who belong not to his family can have no portion in his estate.

But as the pilgrimage of Israel from Egypt to Canaan is made adumbrative of our progress to the eternal inheritance, we must regard the things appointed to them and which happened them on their journey, as types, and as "written for our admonition." They believed the promise, were immersed into Moses, ate the manna, drank from the rock, and kept the institutions. Such as did so obtained the inheritance; such as did not do so, failed of the inheritance. To us the inheritance lies beyond Jordan. We must believe the promise, be * immersed into Christ, eat his flesh, drink his blood, keep the institutions, and hold fast our begun confidence unshaken to the end.

Behold the love of our God! He has washed us from our sins in the blood of his Son, adopted us into his family, inspired us with his Spirit, made us heirs, and given us the hope of an inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled, and unfading. But all this in his Son, and according to his own will. The receiving it in whatever way God is pleased to convey it, derogates not from the favor of the donor. It is to the intelligent as full a proof of the wisdom and goodness of God that he has conveyed this estate to the adult or discriminating portion of his family in the manner revealed, as it is to have prepared for man such an inheritance before the foundation of the world. The necessity of receiving it in some way militates not with the awful and glorious saying, "The wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." EDITOR.

ERRATUM-Instead of the "44th generation," page 252, line 18, read 4th

generation.

"THE COMING OF THE LORD."

“A CONNECTED View of some of the Scriptural Evidence of the Redeemer's speedy Personal Return, and Reign on Earth with his glorified Saints, during the Millennium; Israel's Restoration to Palestine; and the Destruction of Antichristian Nations with Re