ther the refiner of metals by fire, nor the fuller who cleanses cloth by soap, are like, they cannot be compared, the one to the fire, nor the other to the soap he uses. But Jesus Christ, the Mediator, etc., is, by a parabola, like both; viz: the refiner's fire, and the fuller's soap. Therefore, as it is the refiner's fire, that purifies the silver of its dross, and the soap of the fuller, that cleanses the cloth or garment from filth or impurity, so it is Jesus Christ, the Covenant given to the people, who cleanses the people from their sins, and purifies them from all their iniquities: He is, therefore, in the prophetic sense, like the fire and the soap; for the reason, that the fire, and the soap, are the indispensable and efficient causes, mean, and medium, of the purification of the silver, and the cloth or garment; without which, the refiner and the fuller would be powerless. The true relation, therefore, shows the truth. The cause is the fire, that separates the dross from the silver. The effect, is the purity of the silver. The refiner and the fuller, are, in reality, mere adjuncts, while the process of the cleansing by the fire, and the soap proceeds. But the nation of Israel is the impure metal. The adjuncts in this case, I will proceed and exhibit.*

The prophet proceeds: "And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness."

The

There is obviously an impropriety in comparing the Lord Jesus Christ, in his official capacity as the Mediator, to a refiner of silver. It is the fire that is the efficient medium; and the comparison of the prophet introduces the fire, and not the refiner of silver, as the figure of the Mediator.

The reader is requested to notice, that in the text the word as, is a supply by the translators. They make the text say, "He shall sit as a refiner," etc. This perversion of the text, represents the Messenger of God's Covenant as a mere adjunct of the efficient medium, the fire. Whimsical stories of refiners of silver, sitting over the crucible that contains the melted silver, and looking down into the crucible, beholding their face reflected, when the metal becomes pure, etc., have originated from this erroneous view of this passage. The phrase, "He shall sit a refiner of silver," etc., is a metonymy, signifying that the official capacity of the Messenger of God's Covenant, shall be manifested by the purification of sinners from their sins. Therefore, as the fire of the refiner acts on the metal, the Messenger is represented to be like the fire-not like the refiner.

The process of refining silver is as follows-Impure silver is put in a crucible, and subjected to a great heat-nitre is added, and the alloy

consequences are further explained, as purification to Judah, and Jerusalem. The reader is requested to notice the following particulars:

First-The tribe of Levi was set apart to the priesthood under the law.* (See Num. i. 47-53.) They were not numbered to the war, as soldiers; and Moses was forbidden by God to include them, as part and parcel of the physical force of Israel. They had charge of the Tabernacle of Testimony, and the consecrated vessels. If a stranger approached, he was put to death. (See Exod. vi.) JACOB's son LEVI, the head of one of the twelve tribes, had three sons. KOHATH, Levi's second son, was the father of AMRAM-and Amram was the father of MOSES and AARON. Amram, signifies an exalted people; and Aaron, by a variation from the root, signifies lofty, or a mountain, etc. Of the priesthood under the law, it is common to designate it as "the priesthood of Aaron," it being in his family; and he, as well as Moses, of the tribe of Levi. Aaron's special designation was as follows:-" And the LORD said unto Moses, See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh; and Aaron shall be thy prophet," &c. (See Exod. vii. 1; xvi. 32, 34; xxviii. 1-12.) And Aaron and his sons, were set apart to minister unto God, in the priest's office. "The sons of Levi," therefore, is a phrase used by the prophet Malachi, as a metonymy for the Jewish Church, which had become corrupt, and was buried, in one undistinguished ruin, with the city and temple of Jerusalem.

rises in scoria; that is, in an oxydated state; the oxygen of the air, (pneuma,) or atmosphere we breathe, co-operating with the fire; consequently, the fire and the air, combined, consume the impure metal, or alloy, and leave the silver in the crucible pure. During the operation of this process, the fumes evolved or thrown off, are so destructive, that no man would venture to sit over the crucible! When the silver is pure, the surface is bright, appearing like the surface of polished steel; and, as a matter of course, must reflect that image, whether the side of the crucible, or any other object whose relative position will admit of the action of the law of reflection, etc. The figure is singularly expressive, and full to the point, when it is considered, that fire acts with the oxygen of (pneuma, wind, or the air,) the atmosphere; and vice versa. Oxygen, the vital principle, etc., of the air, is expressive of pneuma, spirit, that giveth life; and fire includes, or embraces in the figure, not only the Pneuma, Spirit, but the operation of the Spirit, etc.

* The destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, was to the Jews, as confounding as the confusion of languages at Babel. The tribe of Levi or family of Aaron, were buried beneath the ruins of that terrible catastrophe. Blind Israel has no priest, no temple, and no heaven, or church!

Second-The purification spoken of by the prophet, is, as we have seen, by Jesus Christ. And it is the purification of the Church, or sons of Levi; who, as they were designated as priests, are the figure of the means, that should operate to cleanse the impurity of Jacob; the type of Judah and Jerusalem, or the people Israel. Under the law, the sons of Levi offered incense, (see Exod. xxx.) and the command was, "to burn a perpetual incense, &c. This was significant of the cleansing influence of the offerings of the Levitical priesthood. The fire, therefore, which the prophet introduces as a figure, is to perform an office, or to operate as a cause, in an efficient way, that the incense of the Levitical priesthood had failed in accomplishing. So very significant is the parabola of the prophet, that he represents the real Priest, Prophet, and King, Jesus Christ, God's Covenant of purification from all sin and transgression, as purifying even the priesthood, the Jewish Church; and effecting that which all the offerings under the law, had wholly failed to accomplish.

The prophet proceeds, and (chap. iv.) predicts the appearance of the forerunner, John the Baptist. He was to appear "before the coming of the great_and_dreadful day of the Lord." Now, the day when the Messenger appears in his temple, is contradistinguished from this, as the one is for purification, and the other for the destruction of the wicked. This day of destruction, therefore, is the adjunct, in the sense of the parabola of the prophet. The refiner blows the fire, but the fire does the work. The dross is to be consumed, but it is the fire that consumes the dross. There is a loss in the purification, but it is dross that is consumed, and the pure silver and gold remain. And Jesus sits, officially, the refiner's fire. The same metaphor, as when he is represented as sitting on his throne. The power is supreme. No effort is indicated, so far as the purification is in question. The blowing of the refiner, and the rubbing of the fuller, are adjuncts, to destroy the dross and filth. But the fire, and the soap, that are figures of Jesus Christ's efficiency, work by a process that is unseen.

The scene of both operations, or the two-fold effect, that results from the mission of the Mediator, is laid in Jerusalem and Mount Zion. Another prophet affirms of God, "Whose fire is in Zion, and his furnace in Jerusa lem." (Isa. xxxi. 9.) And the prophet Malachi affirmed

of a day of destruction to the wicked, "Behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble; and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch." This is pointed, in its primary signification, against the Jewish priesthood; who were destroyed root and branch. Then "the Sun of Righteousness arose" from the furnace. This was the signal of a new heaven and a new earth, for the former heaven, the Jewish Church, was de stroyed, and the Jewish dominion, or earth; and, in the expressive sense of prophetic hyperbole, "there was found no place for them." (See Rev. xxi.) But a distinction is kept in view, the fire that purifies, is in Zion, in the Covenant, or King, or Mediator, who there reigns supreme. The furnace is in Jerusalem. The Aaron of the Levitical priesthood, the mountain, is below in the furnace. The true Priest is on the top of the Mountain, above the city of destruction. The Jewish Church and its adherents are in the furnace, and the Fire is in Zion. And the word of the prophet is, of the devoted Israel ites, "I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem." This was done, and a million and a half of Jews were assembled to celebrate a feast, when the Roman eagles surrounded the city, and shut up the carcass of the Jews in the furnace of destruction. "Yea," says the prophet, "I will gather you, and blow upon you in the fire of my wrath, and ye shall be melted in the midst thereof."

There is another striking fact illustrated by the figure of the prophet. A mass of metal loses its form, immediately on being melted. There is, first, a complete destruction of its form! Second, if impure, by the admixture of dross, as lead or tin with silver, the fire, and the wind, Pneuma, blown upon it, the oxydation of the lead or tin is rapid, and the silver is soon made pure from its base alloy also, it is the oxygen of the air we breathe, the vital principle that sustains the life of all whose breath is in their nostrils, that destroys the base metal; for it is the oxygen of the air, that is the cause of the oxydation. Hence the metonymy of the prophet, introduces the Pneuma of the Spirit, blowing in anger, to destroy the dross, that had polluted and made impure the work of his hand. "The sons of Levi," therefore, like the impure silver, and possessing a vile form, which they had polluted, etc., are melted down, preparatory to the

receiving the form of a heavenly image; which all, in God's own time, shall be changed into. They are no longer in existence as a corrupt church: their form has so completely disappeared, that no eye has beheld them, since they were placed in the furnace in Jerusalem. The priesthood was so completely burned up, root and branch, that it existed no longer. Therefore the declaration of David, "O LORD, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image." (Psa. lxxiii. 20.)* It was Jesus that slept the prophetic sleep of death, to be, as it were, immediately, followed by an awaking to the life of immortality, as King in Zion. He did awake; He saw their image; He melted it in the furnace at Jerusalem; and it has disappeared for ever!!!

The prophet Daniel, is the last of the holy angels, who came with Jesus as King in Zion, and witnessed the truth of their predictions, their "dark sayings," whose testimony I shall adduce in proof and illustration of this terrible subject. For such were the dreadful consequences that resulted from the eagles surrounding the carcass at Jerusalem, that the parabola of the prophet Joel, lost the force of its hyperbole: "The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble; the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining and the LORD shall utter his voice before his army; for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executeth his word; for the day of the LORD is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?" (Joel ii. 10, 11.)

The single fact, that the Lord Jesus Christ quoted the prophecy of Daniel, that had been sealed to Daniel, and, by his decision of the precise time of the accomplishment of the things predicted by the prophet, in a parabola that the prophet did not understand, fix the time of the fulfilment of the prophecy, is worth volumes of argument to prove the predictions, and find a time for their accomplishment. The corollary from these premises is certain: for God's Son, sent from Heaven, to complete the work predicted, was the only credible witness to prove the consummation of the work predicted; which was the doing the will of God who sent him. And the prophecies of all God's holy prophets, being predictions in a strict conform

This prophet, as was the case with Daniel, must have been ignorant of the full, and extensive import of his prediction. Note. It is remarkable, and full to the point, that Christ quotes from the imagery of the prophets, in Matt. xiii., the figure of the furnace of fire!