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Spirit, Ephes. i. 13. 2 Cor. v. 5. All these, and infinitely more to the same effect, prove his sovereign and unceasing agency. But having already swollen this article beyond the usual limits, I must close these observations with only praying that holy and eternal Teacher in the church of the Lord Jesus, to grant some sweet and precious token of his grace and power, by setting his seal in the heart both of the writer and reader, that the truth of his ministry may be known, and felt, and adored, to his glory, and to our comfort and joy. "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost." (Rom. xv. 13.) HONEY. There is frequent mention made in Scripture concerning honey. It is made, indeed, by the Lord himself, a type of the promised land. And the manna from heaven, that the Lord fed the church with in the wilderness forty years, is said in taste, to have been "like wafers made with honey." (Exod. xvi. 31.) Notwithstanding this, it is somewhat remarkable, that the Lord forbade the offering of it upon the altar. (Lev. ii. 11.) The Lord Jesus, in commending the loveliness and sweetness of his church, compares her lips to the "droppings of the honeycomb." (Song iv. 11.) We may well suppose the figure is just, as well as beautiful, because Christ himself useth it. And when the church is in public prayer, or a believer is in private devotion, and the Holy Ghost is leading the soul in those sacred exercises, it is indeed "sweet as the honeycomb to the soul, and health to the bones." (Prov. xvi. 24.) And when Jesus's name and salvation are the gracious themes of the believer's exercise; whether in prayer or praise or reading the word, or religious conversation; every act, like the sweetness of honey, is grateful.

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The prophet describes the blessed effect in a very lively manner. (Mal. iii. 16, 17.) "Then they that feared the Lord, spake often one to another, and the Lord hearkened and heard it; and a book of remembrance was written before him, for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name. And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him." See Milk.

HOPE. In the strict and proper sense of the word, this is Christ; for He, and He only, as the prophet hath described him, " is the Hope of Israel, and the Saviour thereof." (Jer. xiv. 8.) And, indeed, this view must be uniformly preserved and kept up, because, without an eye to Christ, there can be no such thing as hope, for all our whole nature is, in its universal circumstances, "without God, and without hope in the world." (Eph. ii. 12.) And it is very blessed to turn over the Scriptures of God, and behold the Lord Jesus Christ set forth under this endeared character, in a great variety of figures and representations, throughout the whole Biblé.

Jesus was the grand hope of all the Old Testament believers before his incarnation. They all, like Abraham, saw "his day afar off,” rejoiced and were glad; and, like him, amongst all the discouraging circumstances they had to encounter" against hope, they believed in hope." Hence, though the longing expectation of the church, as Solomon expressed it, was like "hope deferred, which maketh the heart sick;" (Prov. xiii. 12.) yet, as Jeremiah was commissioned to tell the church, there was still "hope in the end, saith the Lord, that the children of Christ should come to their own border." (Jer. xxxi. 17.)

Christ, therefore, being held up to the church's view as the hope of his redeemed, is set forth under various similitudes corresponding to this character. His people are called "prisoners of hope." (Zech. ix. 12.) And the apostle Paul, under the same figure, calls himself the Lord's prisoner, and saith, it is for "the hope of Israel, I am bound with this chain." (Acts xxviii. 20. Eph. iv. 1.) And elsewhere, he described it under the strong metaphor of "an anchor to the soul, both sure and steadfast." (Heb. vi. 19.) In short, Christ is the only hope of eternal life, to which we are "begotten by his resurrection from the dead. In him our flesh is said to rest in hope," when returning to the dust; and all our high expectations of life and immortality are expressed, in "looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the Great God, and our Saviour, Jesus Christ." (See those Scriptures, Titus ii. 13. 1 Pet. i. 3. Ps. xvi. 9.)

As Christ then is the only true hope the Scriptures speak of, it is very evident, that every other hope, not founded in Christ, is and must be deceitful. The world is full of hope, and the life of carnal and ungodly men is made up of it. what saith the Scripture, of all such. of the hypocrite, saith Job, shall be

But

"The hope cut off, and his trust shall be as a spider's web.” (Job viii. 14.) So that the hope of the faithful, which is Christ himself, affords the only well-grounded confidence for the life that now is, and that which is to come, And this "hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost." It is founded in Christ, and is, indeed, Christ formed in the heart, "the hope of glory." (Rom. v. 5. Col. i. 27.)

HOPHNI. One of the sons of Eli. His name signifies

to cover, from the Hebrew Chaphah. This man's history is a very a very awful one, as we read it, 1 Sam, ii. iii. iv. His brother Phinehas, or Pinehai more properly, and which signifies a countenance or face, from Panah, to behold, was another such a character as himself. Both lived in the commission of the same sins, and both died under the same judgment of God. The infamy of these men while ministering before the Lord, the Holy Ghost hath faithfully recorded; and their history presents itself as a mounment in the church, to be read by all that minister in holy things. Oh, that the Lord may cause it to operate as an alarm in the Lord's holy mountain!

The sin of those priests respecting the sacrifice is not, at first view, so generally understood. The peace-offerings, as prescribed by the law, (Lev. iii. 1, &c.) give directions for the fat of the beasts offered in sacrifice, and also for the parts to be taken away. The portion allotted to the priests Moses directed. (Lev. vii. 31-34.) For the servants, therefore, to demand the portion for his master before the Lord's portion, was irreverent and unbecoming. Add to this, they were not content with the priest's portion, it should seem, but took more, and that, if not immediately given, by violence. They were what the prophet called "greedy dogs, that never could have enough.” (Isa. Ivi. 11.) The irreverence of the priests brought contempt, as might well be supposed, upon the offerings of the Lord. Alas! what accumulated evils follow the commission of sin in the service of the sanctuary! See Eli. HOR. The mountain where Aaron died, the fortieth year of Israel's departure from Egypt. The name of Hor means, who conceives.

HOREB. The memorable place where the visions

of God began with Moses. Here it was, that this great leader of the armies of Israel had his first view of God in Christ. That this was Christ, the Angel of the Covenant, who manifested himself to the man of God, there can be no question, by comparing the account of this solemn interview, as it is related in Exodus, chap. iii. and as it is explained by Stephen, Acts vii. 30-32. Horeb, and mount Sinai, were so close to each other, that they both, at a distance, appeared but as one mountain. Here it was, that Moses struck the rock at the foot of Horeb. (Exod. xvii. 6-8.) And Rephidim was near at hand. From hence the progress of the rock that followed Israel took its rise, and which the apostle to the Corinthians plainly declares was Christ. (1 Cor. x. 4.) So that Horeb, which in its original sense signifies a desert and dryness, was admirably suited both to Moses and Israel, to teach them that from the dry and desert state of our fallen nature ariseth the very cause of finding springs in Christ. It is from our misery Christ takes occasion to magnify the glory of his mercy; and from the drought of Horeb, the rock that follows Israel, even Christ, furnished a fulness of living water to the soul. The name of Rephidim, which is in the plural number, and signifies places of rest, from Raphab, rest, is no unapt representation of our nature resting in itself, without any thing in our own power to give satisfaction to the dry soul. Here will be always "Massah and Meribah, that is, temptation and chiding," till Christ, the rock of living water, is discovered and enjoyed. See Sinai.

HORITES, An ancient people, who dwelt in mount Seir. (Gen. xiv. 6.) Perhaps, in latter days, they were mingled with, and lost their name in the Edomites, or children of Esau. (Deut. ii. 1, &c.)

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