also with their idolatry. Hence the Lord graciously promised, in this sweet and condescending Scripture, to remove the temptation to this sin, by taking the names of Baal and Baalim out of their mouths. As if the Lord had said, by being called Ishi, my man, the Lord would came home nearer to their affections.

I must not dismiss this view of the glorious and fearful name of JEHOVAH, of which we are so repeatedly told, in the word of God, the Lord is jealous, without first begging the reader to remark with me the very tender intimations the Lord gives of this name, in the person, work, and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Hence the church sings," Because of the savour of thy good ointments, thy name is as ointment poured forth." (Song i. 3.) And when a poor sinner, sensible of the loathsomeness of his own person, hath found Jesus, and what is contained for all the purposes of salvation in the person and glory of Christ, then is the name of Jesus more fragrant than all the costly perfume of the sanctuary. The soul then enters into the enjoyment of all those names of Jesus which the prophet hath described him by, in one full constellation: "His name (saith he) shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace !" (Isa. ix. 6.)

NAOMI. The wife of Elimelech. Her history, and a most interesting history it is, we have in the book of Ruth. Her name signifies beautiful or pleasant. NAPHISH. Son of Ishmael, Gen. xxv. 15,-derived from Naphish, soul. NAPHTALI. Son of Jacob by Bilhah. (Gen. xxx. 8.) The name signifies struggling. The margin of our Bible saith, that Rachel called him thus,

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my wrestlings." The patriarch when dying gave a particular blessing to Naphtali, and said "Naphtali is a hind let loose: he giveth goodly words." (Gen. xlix. 21.) This prophetical blessing of Jacob hath not been regarded in terms equal to its importance, according to my apprehension; and yet the Holy Ghost seems to have called up the attention of the church to it, upon various occasions, in his holy word. I would ask, are not many of the dying patriarch's benedictions to his children considered more with reference to Christ, than to the twelve patriarchs? Do we not consider the blessing of Judah, as one whom his brethren shall praise, and as one from whom the sceptre shall not depart, as having respect principally, if not altogether, to the person of Christ? And are not the several blessings prophesied of Joseph, on the dying bed of his father, spoken directly with an eye to Joseph's Lord? And if so, why may we not with equal safety, in the blessing of Naphtali discover Christ also? Is Naphtali an hind let loose? And can we overlook that hind of the morning, even Jesus, whom the hunters pursued, and the dogs of Bashan compassed around? (See Psalm xxii. in the title of it, and throughout the Psalm.) And when we read what the church saith of her Lord, as a roe or a hind upon the mountains of spices, and thus frequently through the book of the Songs, surely it can be no difficult matter to behold Jesus in the type, and regard him who giveth goodly words.

I am the more inclined to those discoveries of Jesus, in the view of Naphtali, because, in my apprehension of the subject, Moses, the man of God, in his dying benediction concerning Naphtali, confirmed what Jacob in his dying moments had before said concerning him. (See Deut. xxxiii. 23.) "O Naphtali! (said Moses) satisfied with favour, and

full with the blessing of the Lord, possess thou the west and the south." And to whom are we to look for any, or for all the tribes of Israel in the possession of the divine favour, and so satisfied with it? Of whom, among the sons of Jacob, can it be said. with truth, that they are full of the blessing of the Lord," unless we first behold him in whom it hath "pleased the Father that all fulness should dwell," and from him, and in him, and by him, all the seed of Israel "are justified and shall glory?" Surely it is blessed first to eye Christ as possessing and being the cause of the true Naphtali's portion, and then, by virtue of an union with him, and interest in him, to behold those blessings flowing in upon his inheritance. It is Jesus alone who hath satisfied for sin, and with whom alone JEHOVAH is satisfied; and therefore Jesus, as the Head of his body the church, is satisfied with favour, and full of the blessings of the Lord. Both the west and the south are his for a possession; yea, his dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of earth, men shall be blessed in him, and all nations shall call him blessed." (Ps. Ixxii. throughout.) See Hind.

NAPHTUHIM. The son of Mizriam. (Gen. x. 13.) His name means openings.

NARCISSUS. In the Greek, the word means surprise. He is spoken of Rom. xvi. 11.

NATHAN. There were many of this name in the Bible. The first we meet with is the faithful prophet in the days of David, 2 Sam. xii. The name signifies who gives. (See also 2 Sam. xii. 14.) Another Nathan is recorded, 2 Sam. xxiii. 36; another, 1 Kings, iv. 5; another, Ezra viii. 16.

NATHANIEL. Compounded of Nathan, giftand El, God. We have many of this name, Num.i. 8.

1 Chron. ii. 14; xv. 24; xxiv. 6. 2 Chron. xvii. 7; xxxv. 9. Ezra x. 22. And the eminent Nathaniel, so highly spoken of by the Lord Jesus Christ, John i.47. See Bartholomew. NATHAN-MELECH. An officer in the court of Manasseh, king of Judah, 2 Kings xxiii. 11. His name is compounded of Nathan, gift-and Melech, king.

NAVEL. In the margin of the Bible, Ezek. xxxviii. 12. "The midst of the land" is more strikingly marked by this term, Navel, to intimate the centre or middle of the earth; for as the navel of the human body is the centre of the body, so the holy land of Palestine is the Mediterranean of the world.

There is something very particular in this, and worth regarding. Christ comes upon earth for the redemption of his people.-But where shall he make his appearance? Surely as near the centre as possible. It is so then, Jesus shall appear, to fulfil all righteousness, in that part which is the solid globe of the earth, that here to this centre all the ends of the earth may have their views directed. Hence the Psalmist speaking of it, saith, "for God is my king of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth." (Ps. lxxiv. 12.) And hence the Lord Jesus is represented by the Holy Ghost as calling from his throne, in the centre of it, to his redeemed, saying, "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is none else." (Isa. xlv. 22.) And hence, at the last day, the redeemed "in their return to Zion with songs of everlasting joy upon their heads, are represented as coming from the east, and fróm the west, and from the north, and from the south, to sit down in the kingdom of God." (Luke xiii. 29.)

Now it is blessed to observe what the Holy Ghost

hath said in his records of truth concerning those things. "His foundation (saith the Lord, bythe Psalmist) is in the holy mountain.” (Ps. lxxxvii. 1.) Christ himself indeed is the foundation JEHOVAH laid in Zion. (Isa. xxviii. 16.) But here the Holy Ghost is speaking of the church of Christ founded in himself; and this foundation of the Lord Jesus is in this holy mountain, the navel, or centre of the earth. Here the Lord Christ founded it; here the Lord of his temple came suddenly to it, Mal. iii. 1.-here Jesus, as had been prophesied of him, filled it by his presence with glory, and thereby made" the glory of the latter temple greater than the glory of the former." And here it was the Lord gave peace. (See Hag. ii. 7. 9.)

And is there not yet an higher view of the subject, considered as to the glorious persons who are the united source and cause of our salvation? If salvation is wrought out for the church in the middle of the earth, is not the Son of God, by whom it was wrought, the middle person of the GODHEAD? And not only so, the middle person of the Holy Three in One who bear record in heaven, but the middle person, the Mediator, between God and man, as the man Christ Jesus? (1 John v. 7. 1 Tim. ii. 5.) And can the imagination conceive any thing more blessed and suited for the glory and happiness of the church, than that he who is the centre in all these views, should be the centre towards whom all things should move, and in whom all should centre? And hence we read, that when John saw heaven open, he saw Christ as a lamb in the midst of the throne. (Rev. vii. 17.) Nay, we are told by the Holy Ghost, through the ministry of his servant Paul, (Eph. i. 10) that the great purpose of redemption is, “that in the dispensation of the fulness of time, he might