O, thou great God, whose piercing eye Through all the windings of my heart, Then let the visits of thy love, DISCOURSE XIV. THE SACRED FIRE. LEVITICUS Vi. 13. The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar; it shall never go out. THE instances recorded in holy Scripture of fire falling from heaven, and consuming the sacrifices of Jehovah's worshippers, are four in number : First That which fell upon and consumed the sacrifices offered by Moses at the dedication of the tabernacle. Lev. ix. 24. Secondly: That which descended upon Manoah's sacrifice, when the angel-messenger promised him and his wife a son, who should become a deliverer and an avenger in Israel. Judges xiii. 19, 20. Thirdly That which further fell upon the sacrifices of Solomon at the dedication of his gorgeous temple. 2 Chron. vii. 1. And, fourthly That which consumed Elijah's sacrifice upon Mount Carmel, when the prophets of Baal were so signally discomfited before the prophet of the Lord and the assembled thousands of the people. 1 Kings xviii 38. sent purpose. Of course, it is with the first of these memorable events we have to do, as specially pertaining to our preStill we may observe, in passing, that the miraculous fall of fire from above, in order to the consumption of any offering expressly devoted to the service and glory of some great unseen and eternal Being, manifestly demonstrates, first, the absolute existence of such a Being; secondly, his undoubted notice of men's actions and proceedings with reference especially to himself; and, finally, an implied certainty of acceptance and of merciful regard to the offerer through an atoning sacrifice. Emblematical references to fire in the sacred volume are very numerous. As one of the four elements in nature (although perhaps the discoveries of modern science will scarcely now admit the elementary properties of matter to be just four in number)-the Holy Ghost frequently adopts and uses it as a figure or illustration of sublimer objects. The word of God itself is compared to fire; as we read, Is not my word as a fire? Jer. xxiii. 29, full of vitality and energy; warming, melting, healing, purifying my people; and consuming mine enemies as stubble? Fire is also to try every man's work of what sort it is; and particularly work done in the sacred ministry; and so to prove its truth or falsehood, solidity or frothiness. 1 Cor. iii. 13. But the most remarkable appliances of fire which occur ir Scripture, are to the several Persons of the great Tri-unity. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, are all comparable to this element, and truly wonderful are the attributes and the actings of each of the sacred Three-in-One as represented under this similitude. It is applied, we conceive, to the Father absolutely; to the Son mediatorially; and to the Holy Spirit emblematically. When applied to the Father absolutely, we understand the fire to signify the glorious holiness or the strict severity of God's justice. Thus the Divine justice is piercing, penetrating, devouring in its qualities, after the manner of fire in its power to decompose the substance of material things. Hence St. Paul, speaking of individuals who sin wilfully after they have received the knowledge of the truth, declares there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shalldevour the adversaries. And further onward in his Epistle, the same apostle exhorts, Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: for, adds St. Paul, our God is a consuming fire. Heb. x. 26, 27, and xii. 28, 29. We do not, however, apprehend these scriptures to be always fairly and correctly interpreted in connexion with their contexts. Certainly, not every deadly sin willingly committed after baptism is sin against the Holy Ghost, and unpardonable. Wherefore the grant of repentance is not to be denied to such as fall into sin after baptism. After we have received the Holy Ghost, we may depart from grace given, and fall into sin, and by the God we may rise again, and amend our lives. The sin therefore which provokes the Divine judgment and fiery indignation, we deem to be known and deliberate apostasy from the gospel-faith; a wilful departure, in sentiment and in practice, from the ways and word of the Almighty. Then again, when St. Paul declares our God to be a consuming fire, the reference in the apostle's mind to this remarkable expression, was, we believe, not to Deut. iv. 24, where the words first occur in the P grace of Bible, but to Deut. ix. 3, where they again recur. In the former scripture, the God of Israel is a consuming fire with reference to all objects which supplant himself in the affections and worship of his people: he is jealous of their fidelity and attachment to himself: his glory will he not give unto another: and his jealousy, like a fire, shall consume the enemy which usurps his throne. In the latter scripture, namely, Deut. ix. 3, God threatens to be a consuming fire for Israel's sake unto Anak. He would establish his people in the land promised to their fathers: in order to this, he must destroy the children of Anak, their opposers: to the latter therefore he would demonstrate his holy indignation, while to his chosen Israel he would be a pardoning and a long-suffering God, a God full of compassion and of tender mercy. Just so do we think, in order to our reception and enjoyment of the kingdom which cannot be moved, even the everlasting kingdom, glory, and dominion of our Lord Jesus Christ, will God be as a consuming fire to every anti-christian confederacy, to all opponents of his Son's and of his people's reign. Hence follows the necessity of grace whereby to serve God acceptably, with reverence and with godly fear. To such as serve him thus deferentially and piously, God will be no consuming fire, but rather pure, unbounded, and eternal beneficence. Jesus said unto his disciples, The Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God. John xvi. 27. These remarks, we trust, will ease some timid minds, and tend to strengthen confidence in a faithful God. Why should we needlessly invest even an absolute Deity with terror, when out of the bosom of paternal Deity itself flows every gracious gift and the whole of our salvation, with all its attendant blessedness and |