pression, aggravated thefts, bar- | fatal effects of this evil, as it resbarous robberies and horrid mur-pects the temporal welfare of ders. The love of money has been the cause of almost all the blood that has been shed, from the foundation of the world, to the present period. This has commonly enkindled those animosities, which have disposed nation to lift up sword against nation, and to learn and cultivate the fatal art of war. Millions have fallen a sacrifice to kings, and to men in powTowns, cities and whole countries have been drenched in blood and laid in ruins, to satiate the unbounded avarice of ty er. rants. The love of filthy lucre originated the unnatural and abominable traffic, in the human species. In consequence of this, thousands of innocent Africans, have been torn from their dear relatives and their country, and have either lost their lives or have been destined to drag them out in a most miserable vassalage. Indeed, the love of the world has reduced many a person, who was entitled to liberty by the laws of his country, to the base condition of a slave. How many through their unbounded desires after wealth, rise early, sit up late, and cat the bread of sorrows, that they may accumulate a large earthly treasure. Nay, so full of perplexing concerns are their minds, lest some of their substance should be lost, that their sleep often departs from them, or they are "scared with dreams, and terrified with visions of the night." No bond-servant ever served his master with greater rigor than many serve mammon. men, I shall, in the second place, consider its destructive iufluence upon their spiritual interest. Through the depraved temper which is native in man, we may conclude that the souls of great numbers are ensnared and ruined, by the love of the world. This is abundantly taught by our Saviour. In the parable of. the sower he hath shown, that the cares and lusts of sinful men often cause the word preached to prove as unproductive of any good effects, as the seed that is sown among thorns. How little spiritual benefit will persons gain, though they may set under the most enlightening and faithful preacher, throughout their whole lives, while their hearts are constantly going after their covetousness? An avaricious spirit prevents people from that due consideration and serious reflection on their spiritual condition, which alone will lead them to a thor ough reformation. It hinders them from reading or hearing the word of God attentively, and from that meditation and selfapplication, which will discover to them the badness of their spiritual state, and their need of a Saviour. The prayers of multitudes are hindered, through their eager attention to their secular concerns. This prevents not a small proportion of people from praying at all, and renders others very inconstant and superficial in this duty. Such persons may be charged as were the ancient Israelites, with robbing God; or with offering the blind and lame for sacri 2. Having briefly hinted at the Ifice. We may learn the destructive influence which the love of the world has upon the souls of sinful men, from the repeated and solemn cautions which Christ hath given. "Take heed and beware of covetousness! Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time, your hearts be overcharg kenness, and the cares of this There are like exhortations Great numbers by their inor-ried on to suicide, and plunged dinate love of earthly objects, into endless perdition! are kept from a compliance with the self-denying terms of the gospel. When they hear the proposals of Christ, respecting the way in which they may obtain salvation, like the young man in the gospel, they go away sorrowful. This has led people to the invention of numerous schemes and sentiments in reli-ed with surfeiting and drungion, which comport with a worldly spirit, that they might pacify conscience, and bolster up themselves with false hopes of heaven. This leads to infidelity as it blinds the mind, hardens the heart and sears the conscience. In proportion to the strength of men's attachment to the objects of time and sense, will be their aversion to divine things, and their enmity to the doctrines of the cross in particular. Such as mind earthly things, as their chief portion, are "enemies to the cross of Christ." This evil has also occasioned the apostacy of many, after they had apparently set out for the kingdom of heaven. Paul observes in one of his letters to Timothy-" For the love of mo-wealth brought Achan and his ney is the root of all evil, which family to a disgraceful and fearwhile some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows." He gives us an instance of this kind" Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world." "Covetousness,-let it not once be named among you, as becometh saints." "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world; if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him."‡ We have also the aggravated and destructive nature of this sin set forth, by the sore judgments which have been sent upon individuals, and upon nations, for the punishment of their covetousAn unlawful thirst for ness. ful end. hazi and entailed it It was this sin, which brought the plague of leprosy upon Gehis upon posterity for ever. It was this provoked God to destroy the lives of Annanias and his wife Sapphira, in a sudden and awful manIt was the love of money, thatner.-God told the people of Iscaused the apostacy and terrible rael by the prophet Isaiah, “For ruin of Judas Iscariot. For the the iniquity of his covetousness sake of obtaining a moderate I was wroth, and smote him: sum, he betrayed the innocentI hid me and was wroth, and he blood of Christ, and through the horrors of conscience which followed the bloody deed, was hur *Heb. xiii. 5. + Eph. v. 3. 1 went on frowardly, in his heart." | pear as king Solomon represents Isa. Ivii. 17. Covetousness is a sin which is repeatedly mentioned in the word of God, amongst those abominable things, which will exclude people from the kingdom of heaven. And saith Paul, "They that will be rich, fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and them to be, "Vanity of vanities." When the mind of one, who has led a carcless and impenitent life, is struck with a deep conviction of the reality of future things, his first cry is, "The "world is a vain and empty 66 place it can afford no satis"faction to an immortal soul. "I must have a better treasure, "or perish for ever." perdition."* The persons reIn proportion to the greatness fered to in this passage are those of a person's faith respecting inwho make riches the chief ob- visible things, will his affections ject of their pursuit. They are be taken from things below, the rich men, who, Christ tells and placed on things that are us, can hardly enter into the king-above, where Christ sitteth on dom of heaven. the right hand of God. I shall next point out the only remedy for this fatal evil. the minds of people, with an af2. A gospel faith will impress fecting sense of their accountability to God, for the improve There is nothing will prove an effectual cure of an inordinatement of all their worldly posseslove of the world, short of a genuine belief of the doctrines of Christianity. To believe and practise the religion of Christ, will regulate the desires of men respecting earthly objects. Because a Christian faith leads to the following things. sions. Believers in Christ view every temporal blessing they enjoy among those talents which Christ hath committed to them, to improve in his service. And that they are bound, "whether they eat or drink, or whatever they do, to do all to the glory of God." Hence they will be solicitous to "use this world as not abusing of it." 1. An affecting sense of the weight and inconceivable importance of invisible and eternal realities. "Now faith is the 3. A genuine belief of the substance of things hoped for, great truths of God's word will and the evidence of things not dispose the subjects of it, "to seen." Nothing has such a ten-mortify their members which dency to place earthly things are upon the earth, inordinate in their native light, as a real-affection, and covetousness which izing belief that there is a place is idolatry." of consummate blessedness prepared for the godly, and a hell of most exquisite and endless misery, prepared for the wicked after death. A right conception of these things, will make the objects of time and sense ap-fections and lusts." When the • 1 Tim. vi. 9. Paul saith-" I am crucified unto the world, and the world unto me." This must be the case with every sincere' Christian.For "they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh, with its af doctrines of Christ are cordially embraced by a person, he re ceives the Spirit of God to dwell in him, and to incline him to the denial of all ungodliness, and worldly lusts. He then renounces the idols of his heart, and chooses the living God for his portion. consider them individually and minutely would be a work very voluminous, will it not best correspond with the design of this publication to select only the most eminent, and to consider these only in their most prominent features? This is the method which will be adopted in the Lastly, faith in divine and eternal realities, is accompanied with an affecting view of the short-present work. The types of the ness and uncertainty of life. No-holy scriptures may be considthing short of a gospel faith will fix upon minds that deep conviction of mortality, which will cure them of an inordinate attachment to sublunary things. Let all therefore who wish for the enjoyment of true peace and comfort here, and for everlasting happiness hereafter, give up the love of mammon, and make choice of the true riches. Let them comply with the command of our Saviour, "Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations." AMATUS. An explanation of Scriptural Types. (Continued from p. 144.) No. II. YPES are representations of absent objects by sensible signs and tokens. All the types of the holy scriptures relate to Jesus Christ, in his whole character and work, as their grand object. There is good reason to believe that types were introduced immediately after the apostacy of man and the design of saving mercy was revealed, and the use of them was continued until the promised Saviour appeared to fulfil, and put them away by the sacrifice of himself. As the types of the holy scriptures are very numerous, and to ered, either as general, in which the whole work of redemption is prefigured and represented, or particular, in which some special and distinct part of it is exhibited. Of the general kind are the most of those which were given before the days of Moses; of the particular, those which were instituted under his administration. According to this hypothesis they may now be considered. PART I. General types from Adam to Moses. ADAM a type of CHRIST. If Adam be proposed as a type of Christ, from the great dissimilarity, and even the contrariety of their characters, our minds would revolt from the idea, if the scriptures had not expressly assured us, Rom. v. that he was the figure (type) of him (Christ) that was to come. Should we however in this instance adopt a peculiar (which indeed may be the scriptural,) mode of interpretation, will not our minds be relieved of the embarrassment? Let us consider Adam as a type of Christ in the way of contrast. Agreeable to this we have, The first man, Adam, of the earth, earthy; the second man, Christ, the Lord from heaven. We have the first, the head and representative of a numerous The first, by his disobedience, involving his offspring in sin and guilt; the second, by his righteousness, recovering his people who are naturally depraved and polluted to a state of rectitude and purity. An explanation of Scriptural Types. HERE is sufficient evidence from scripture, that sacrifices, typical of the atonement by Christ, were instituted immediately after the first transgression; and it has been the opinion of expositors that the garments, made for the sinning pair, were beasts which had been offered to composed of skins taken from God in sacrifice according to his immediate direction. And it is reasonable to suppose, that while the blood of those beasts represented the atonement which Christ should make for sin by his own most precious blood, covering them with skins represented covering his people with We see the posterity of the first Adam, by their connection with their head, becoming heirs of ruin; and the seed of the se-the white raiment of his rightcond, by their union with him, commencing heirs of salvation. And as by the first Adam came death; so by the second comes the resurrection from the dead. And as we see the race of man by the first, sinking into sin, guilt, death and hell; we see the seed of the second Adam, through him, rising to rightcousness, life and eternal glory. See Rom. v. and I Cor. xv. How gloriously in all things has Christ the pre-eminence! cousness, that the shame of their nakedness should not appear.As sacrifices continued until the dispensation of Moses commenced, and were incorporated as an important article in the Jewish economy, the consideration of them may be suspended until that system shall be the subject of particular explanation. ABEL a type of CHRIST. If Abel be considered as a type of Christ, will not the representation principally consist in the following particulars? 1. His name denoting his state. According to the course of nature and experience, before the birth of this holy martyr, his parents must have sensibly realized the awful alteration which had taken place in their condition, the effects of divine justice and veracity in the curse of the How admirably doth this contrasted representation exhibit the person, character and work of Christ Jesus!--Nor can we avoid remarking, how obvious it is that God hath formed this world to be a theatre for introducing and displaying the infinite dignity and superiority of his well-beloved Son, and for erect-ground which brought forth to ing and manifesting the excellence and blessedness of his glorious and eternal kingdom! VOL. V. No. 7. them thorns and thistles, in the toil of life, eating their bread with the sweat of their brows, and the infirmities, pains and K k |