They are now, by this blessed principle, the just that please God, "for without faith it is impossible to please him :" but by this faith they please God, and have this testimony with righteous Enoch, that they please God, for by faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death, and was not found, because God had translated him; for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God, and those that now have faith have also this testimony. "I will make mention(says the Psalmist, lxxxvii. 4,) of Rahab and Babylon to them that know me," because it is only by faith, as before proved, that we can possibly know God, or have any evidence or assurance that God has spoken; so that his words may have place and effect in us. Even so hath God, in his wisdom, selected these two remarkable instances of faith in Rahab and Babylon, of which he will make mention to them that know him. Paul, in the 11th chapter of Hebrews, 30 and 31st verses-(and it is very remarkable)— makes mention of these two effects of the power of faith together, viz.: "By faith, the walls of Jericho (the frontier city of Canaan, and type of Babylon) fell down after they were compassed about seven days.” "By faith, the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies in peace." JERUSALEM THE CENTRE AND JOY OF THE WHOLE EARTH. "ALL ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, SEE YE, when he LIFTETH up an ENSIGN on the mountains; and when he bloweth a TRUMPET, HEAR YE." (Isa. xviii. 3.) "For I, saith the Lord, will be unto her (Jerusalem) a wall of fire, round about, and will be the GLORY in the midst of her." (Zech. ii. 5.) PART I. GOD has established in all his works order and harmony hence everything that he has made hath a centre, both as to principle and place, without which unity, order, and perfection cannot be preserved and maintained. If we cast our eyes up to the heavens, behold the Sun is the centre round which all the planets perform their revolutions. If we cast our eyes down upon the earth, it receives all its light and heat from the same source. If we look at man, God's own image and representative, all his powers and faculties originate from one heart, as his centre. Every perfect system or organization, every piece of machinery, down to a wheel, cannot be maintained without a centrifugal and centripetal force. Religion or Theology claims one principle, (as to God,) but as to place, there is no unity or concentration. What is the cause of this? Is it because the church conceives that holiness as to heart or estate, is the perfection of God's work, and all that God requires? No; she mourns and laments that she is divided and subdivided, and torn up in rents and factions, party against party, and doctrine against doctrine. But here she mistakes, if she supposes that this dispensation of the Spirit, or spiritual dispensation, has nothing to do with place, nor ever will have— that her unity and concentration is to be perfected in God, as the first and great principle, without a place, as a centre of unity where God has placed, and will again place, his name, and where only he will manifest his glory and power. Some say Rome is, and ever will be, the great centre of unity, and is to be the mother of us all : but God says, and the Prophets say, and Paul says, Jerusalem is to be the great centre of unity, where he will place his great name, and that she is the mother of us all, and that she is to be the centre and "joy of the whole earth." David, in the 48th Psalm, verses 2, 3, says, "Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion," (at "Jerusalem,"*) "on the sides of the north, the city of the great King. God is known in her palaces for a refuge." God speaks through David again in the 132nd Psalm, 13, 14; "For the Lord hath chosen Zion; he hath desired it for his habitation. This is my rest for ever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it." * See Isaiah xxx. 19. But, it may be answered, These psalms do only declare that Mount Zion is the joy of the whole earth, and that the Lord hath chosen Zion, and desired it for his habitation, that this is his rest, here will he dwell for ever; but this is not saying she shall become the great centre of the earth, and all nations shall flow unto her. Let us then see what the prophet Micah says: "And it shall come to pass, in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it." Here then is concentration to one place with a witness, and exaltation of place, too; but the prophet goes on further, and says, " And many people shall go and say, Come ye, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths for out of Zion shall go forth the Law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem," (Micah iv. 1, 2; so also declares Isaiah, ii. 2, 3.) Here are three witnesses; and we are assured, in the "mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established." It is proved from the mouth of two prophets, and from the Psalms of David, that Jerusalem is to be the centre and joy of the whole earth. Here, then, we have the centre (as to place) established by the word of God; and if we consider the plain |