ment proceeds from him no less than the prosperity. This appears even from general grounds. Both have the same root, the same object-the prosperity of the kingdom of God. The six cannot be regarded as evil angels. This would be in contradiction to the whole doctrine of Scripture on the subject. It uniformly attributes the punishment of the ungodly to the good angels, and the trial of the pious, under God's permission, to the evil; as is seen, for example, in the trial of Job, the temptation of Christ, the buffeting of Paul by a messenger of Satan. If this, then, be established, it is equally so, that the judgment on this occasion belongs to the angel of the Lord. For all inferior angels are subordinate to him, the prince of the heavenly host, so that all they do is done by his command. But in addition to these general grounds, there are special reasons, which are entirely decisive. It deserves consideration, that he who was clothed in linen appears in the midst of the six. They surround him as his followers, his servants. Still more weighty, however, and of itself sufficient, is chap. x. 2, 7, "And the Lord spake to the man clothed in linen, and said, Go between the wheels under the cherubim, and fill thy hand with coals of fire, which are between the cherubim, and scatter them over the city; and he went before mine eyes.-And a cherub stretched out his hand. between the cherubim, to the fire that was between the cherubim, and took and gave it unto the hands of him who was clothed in linen. And he took it, and went forth." The fire is an image of the Divine anger. The angel of the Lord is here, therefore, expressly designated as the one who executes the judgments of the Divine justice. The importance of the transaction extends beyond the explanation of the passage before us. We have here the Old Testament foundation of the doctrine of the New, that all judgment has been committed to the Son; and a remarkable example of the harmony of the two Testaments, which in recent times has been but too much overlooked. (Comp. Matt. xiii. 41, xxv. 31.)”

In regard to what was ordered to be done on the present occasion by the angel of the covenant and his attendant ministers of righteousness, a few particulars deserve to be noted. (1.) It was pre-eminently a work of judgment against sin. Of this the moving of the Divine glory from the inner sanctuary to the threshold without, was itself an impressive sign, indicating that

God was rising out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the land; yet even in doing this, the Lord showed the care and fidelity with which he watched over his own. For the first part of the charge given to the presiding angel has respect to the safety of the good-the small remnant of faithful ones, who, so far from going along with the prevailing tide of evil, were daily sighing and crying for the abominations that were proceeding around them. These were to be kept under the shadow of the Almighty, while destruction, like a whirlwind, was sweeping on every side of them. So has it ever been in the history of God's judgments. The angels, who were charged with the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, declared they could do nothing till righteous Lot had made good his escape. Nor was the destroying angel sent forth to slay the first-born in Egypt, till the families of Israel found time to sprinkle on their door-posts the blood of reconciliation. So also in Revelation, before the great tribulations begin, the peremptory command was given, "Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of God in their foreheads." Refreshing thought! The Divine faithfulness still abides sure to the true children of the covenant, even though they should exist but as a few grains of wheat among heaps of chaff destined to destruction. Let such, therefore, trust in the Lord at all times, and fear not, that it shall be well with the righteous.

(2.) In respect, again, to the method taken to separate between this faithful remnant and others, though there is something peculiar in it, yet it evidently points to the preservation of Israel in Egypt by the sprinkling of the paschal blood on the door-posts. Here, however, as it was not for families, but for individuals, that the sign was needed, a change in the mode was necessarily adopted. "Set a mark (literally, mark a mark) upon their foreheads," is the command given to the angel of the covenant. What kind of mark is not specified, and, indeed, would scarcely have been suitable, as it was a mere symbol of the personal security of the individuals referred to-not a mark to be actually imprinted and seen upon their persons, but as an indication of the place they held in the watchful oversight and directing agency of God. And that the forehead is named-the most prominent and conspicuous part of the person-as that on which the mark was to be set, this was simply to show, how clear

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and certain their interest was in the guardianship and protection of Heaven; it was as if God would have all men to take notice of their connection with his service, and their sure inheritance of blessing from his hand.1

(3.) Further, we cannot but perceive, in regard to the sentence of judgment, executed upon the rest of the community, that it is ordered so as most fitly to express the utter loathing and abhorrence with which the sins of the people had filled the mind of God. The work of slaughter was appointed to begin at the sanctuary, that all its courts might be defiled with the blood of the slain. In consequence of the aggravated and shameful guilt of the worshippers, it had already lost the reality of holiness, and, in accordance with its true character, the appearance of an abominable place must now be given to it. Not only so, but the very first persons whose blood is reported to have been shed there, was that of "the ancient men before the house,"the seventy elders mentioned in the preceding chapters, them

1 The practice of imprinting marks upon men in a religious connection, was in ancient times not unknown in real life, as we learn from Herodotus (ii. 113), who says, in respect to a temple of Hercules in Egypt, "that if the slave of any one takes refuge there, and has sacred marks impressed upon him, it is not lawful to lay hands on him." In opposition, however, to what is said above, and apparently under the idea, that an actual mark was to be made on the persons in question, some of the fathers (Tertullian, Origen, Jerome), and the Roman Catholic writers generally, have strenuously contended for the specific sign of the cross, as being the mark intended. The chief philological ground for this idea is, that as the word used for mark is tau, the name of the last letter of the alphabet, the old form of that letter was a cross. On this ground, though without respect to the use made of it by the Catholics, Hitzig translates, “mark a cross." But the more ancient versions, the Sept., Aq., and Symm., all render generally a mark. And Vitringa justly observes, that "nowhere throughout Scripture are those words, which are now employed as names of the letters of the alphabet, and several of which occur, ever used to denote those letters themselves or their figures. Besides, there is connected with the word tau in this text, the verb

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, from which the other is derived. And as, among the Hebrews, such conjunctions of verbs with nouns sprung from them are common, it is probable that the tau here is of the same meaning with the verb with which it is joined. Is it not also the case, that in the parallel passage (Rev. vii. 3), where a fact of the same kind is recorded, no mention is made of any special mark? We, therefore, gladly embrace the version of the Septuagint, which accords with the interpretations of the most eminent Jews, and simply render, "mark a sign."-(Obs. Sac., lib. ii. chap. xv., § 8.)

selves the more aged and venerable portion of the worshippers, and those who might naturally be regarded as occupying the foremost rank among the people at large. The slaying of such persons first was an indication of the unsparing severity with which the Divine judgment was to proceed, involving alike in destruction "old and young, maids and little children and women." So terrible was the sight, that the prophet himself for the moment forgets the assurance that had been given by the act of sealing a preserved remnant; and, overcome by his intense feelings, falls down and exclaims, "Ah! Lord God, wilt thou destroy all the residue of Israel in the pouring out of thy fury upon Jerusalem?" A A cry for mercy which has no other effect, than to call forth a fresh declaration from the Lord of the greatness of the people's guilt, and of the necessity of vengeance being executed against it.

So very broadly marked in this portion of the vision is the distinction between the righteous and the wicked! In the ideal territory which the vision occupies, the treatment awarded to each is as different as the character respectively belonging to them; but was the distinction equally preserved amid the real transactions that followed? In the calamities that so soon fell like an overwhelming flood on the city, did the wicked alone suffer, and the good escape unhurt? Such, certainly, we are warranted to infer, would in general be the case, as we see in Jeremiah and the false prophets the one faithfully guarded, though surrounded on every hand with instruments of destruction, while the others miserably perished. Yet we cannot suppose the line of demarcation would be preserved with such perfect exactness, as that all the wicked should be destroyed, and all the righteous defended from evil. The records of history prove, indeed, the reverse. "But it must be noted," as Calvin justly remarks, "that while God apparently sends trouble to his people in common with the wicked, there is still this distinction on the side of the former, that nothing befalls them but what shall turn to their salvation. When God, therefore, forbids the Chaldeans to touch his faithful servants, he does not mean, that they should be free from all trouble and annoyance, but promises that matters should be ordered so differently with them, as compared with the wicked, that they would know in their own experience, God had not forgotten his faithful word. It may be, indeed, that God

shall not spare his own, so as to exempt them from having their faith and patience exercised; yet he will spare so far, as not to allow anything deadly to befall them, so far, as always to prove himself their faithful guardian. But when he appears to extend pardon to the wicked, this only tends to their destruction, because they are rendered by it more and more inexcusable."

CHAPTER X.

THE VISION OF THE COALS OF fire.

As soon as the prophet's attention was withdrawn from what had for the time completely absorbed it-the proceedings connected with the persecution of the good and the destruction of the wicked, he was favoured with another vision of the glory of Jehovah, such as he had already beheld on the plains of Chebar. The scene only of the Divine manifestation was different, the manifestation itself was substantially the same. Here also there were, as had formerly been seen, the cloud of glory, and the dazzling splendour filling the field of vision-the cherubim, with the likeness of a throne above, surmounted by the sapphire firmament— gigantic wheels by the side of the cherubim, full of eyes round about, instinct with life and motion, and themselves moving in the midst of glowing fire-the voice, from time to time, of these cherubim, pealing in the ears of the prophet, as the voice of the Almighty-all serving by the nature of their appearance, and the character of their movements, to shadow forth the mind and will of Him, who, amid such accompaniments of Divine majesty, occupied the throne. The presentation of this glorious vision to the of the prophet, took place in the midst of the appointed executions of judgment-one part being already past, while another was still to come. And the leading object of it seems to have been to bring distinctly into view the immediate agency of God in the matter, and to show how all proceeded, as by a law of imperious necessity, from the essential holiness of his nature. But let us first give the prophet's description of the scene itself:

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