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complaint, nothing to grieve or oppress, no toil or difficul ty. Their hearts shall be filled with comfort, peace and joy in God their Redeemer. There, death will have ceased in every shape; for all former things are passed away, and have left no vestige of evil behind.

Such a change would require an Almighty power, as in the first creation of the world. And accordingly Jesus Christ, who sat on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new; it shall be my work, and I now give you my assurance of true and faithful performance, for the comfort of all your brethren. A new heaven, a new earth, and man renewed in soul and body.

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It is done. All what was determined on in the councils of Heaven, concerning the redemption of the world; the whole mystery of God, as declared to the prophets, and revealed to John in this Apocalypse ; the kingdom of God is come, and his will is done in the earth, as in heaven; all are saved who would be saved, and not one of my elect is wanting. I am the Alpha and Omega,* the treasure, sum and substance of all divine knowledge and wisdom; the true Logos of God, through whom all revelation is made from God to his creatures; the beginning and the end, of whom, through whom, and to whom are all things that were, are, or shall be. Rom. XI, 36. Those who are now athirst, and ardently desire the knowledge, grace and enjoyment of the blessings of his kingdom, are here invited to satisfy themselves freely; where it will cost neither toil, conflict, self-denial nor tears. See chap. XXII, 1, where this figure is explained at large.

Verse 7. He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my Son,

8. But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolators, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

*See ch. i. 8. vol. I,

Those, who are free from the vices mentioned in the 8th verse, and remain conquerors in their various conflicts with their own, and Christ's enemies, by a life of faith and universal love to God and man, through the assistance of the Holy spirit; they shall inherit all things, or as the Vulgate reads, these things, which John here beheld on the new earth, the eternal inheritance of the saints in light. If we be dead with him, we shall also live with him if we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us: if we believe not, yet he abideth faithful; he cannot deny himself, 2 Tim. 11, 11, 12. 13. The original of the ollowing words is "a, ecomas αυτώ θεος, και αυτος έςται μοι ουιος, I shall be to him God, and he shall be to me a son, which form of expression is a Hebrewism. Eternity will discover the incomprehensible meaning of these covenant words, what an inexpressible blessing it is, to enjoy not only the grace and presence-of God as now, but him, the summum bonum himself; and what it is to be a child of God, and enjoy his paternal love and kindness. It is worthy of remark, that these are the first words again ver. 5-8, expressly ascribed to the Eternal Father, since chap. IV, 2; and it is equally worthy of observation, that the saints in heaven never address him by the familiar title of Father, but always with profound reverence and adoration of his majesty and holiness, as their God.

The eight verse contains a list of sinners, and their eternal doom in the lake of fire and brimstone; which is called the second death. They are the fearful and fainthearted, who dread difficulties, sufferings and death in following Christ, and thus withdraw from dangers under various pretences, which they call the wisdom of serpents; the unbelievers, who deny Christ and reject his doctrines,

-Pro παντα S. R. Griesbachius in textum recepit ταυτα, quod etiam Bengelius præfert.

See Lambert. Bos Ellipses gracaę.

because they have found their spark of reason insufficient to illustrate and comprehend the whole; the abominable, who are given to unnatural lusts, secret and detestable crimes; the murderers, and enemies to mankind; the whoremongers, who corrupt and abuse the female sex; the sorcerers, who poison men in a clandestine manner, or injure their neighbours by arts of Magic, i. e. a knowledge of the secret powers of nature; the idolaters, who pay divine honours to saints and images; and all liars, who deceive others by their own fictions-they are delivered over to eternal death.

Here reader let us pause, and examine ourselves. This is the awful sentence of the judge Eternal, pronounced from his throne, upon the children of wickedness. We are all corrupted by nature, and have come short of the glory of God. The point is, whither by the grace of Jesus Christ, we have overcome our predisposition to these abominations, or whether we shall be found guilty of one, or the other of these crimes, on the day of judgment.

Verse 9. And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues' and talked with me, saying, come hiether, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb's wife.

10. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusa lem, descending out of heaven from God

11. Having the glory of God : and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal.

The holy prophet, in the preceding part of this chaps tér, only had a distant view of New Jerusalem, as it first came into sight, descending down from heaven. He then attended to the several voices that spoke to him, concerning its blessing to men, and of its inhabitants; during which time the city alighted upon the new earth, where he beheld it afar off, with wonder and admiration. At this time, the same angel who formerly had shewed him

the mystic Babylon, ch. xvii, now came to John again and promised to show him the bride, the Lamb's wife. Jeugo said he come, extend all the powers of your mind, to view this great and marvellous sight. Upon which St. John was in an ecstasy and, as it appeared to him, was carried away to a great and high mountain, where he had a complete and distinct view of the city of God, in all her majesty and glory. But who can describe heavenly things by words of human import-who can comprehend the mysteries of eternity by powers of human conception! It is easy to see, that the holy man laboured to raise the minds of his readers above world and time, in order to excite in them, at least some suitable ideas of what he was favoured to behold. To this end he collects all that is glorious, costly, precious and majestic on earth, and multiplies them to a degree of riches, more than ten such worlds as ours would be able to afford. All explanations therefore, must necessarily remain far below the adequate sense and meaning of the text; which thus clearly exhibits the superiority of inspiration to all merely human productions, and the weakness of the latter. These considerations must also here be allowed to plead in favour of my feeble

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The first point to be investigated here is, the. place where the holy Seer beheld this city, which was on a great and high mountain. For the angel who measured the city, had John with him all the time, and the apostle describes what he himself saw the angel performing. The ancient Eastern sages believed the centre of the world to be a very great and high mountain, [umbelicus proos oupaAos] which the Chaldeans according to the Zend-Avesta, termed Albordj. Upon this mountain they imagined there was the original source, whence all the vital influence of heaven first reached the earth, and from whence

Zend Avesta T. III. p. 633. Ardoviss. 695. Vide Herder.

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it spread out by thousand channels into all the productions of physical nature. How holy was this mountain in their conception, how dreadful this place! It was no other but the house of God, it was the gate of heaven, Gen. xxviu, 17. This is the worthy figure of the mountain, on which St. John beheld the city of New Jerusalem. But some of my readers, perhaps, will say, how could John know this ancient opinion, who probably was not a man of letters? To which I might answer, if John did not, surely the spirit of prophecy did. However, I have shown in the Preliminary observations to the first volume that the apostle was by no means ignorant of it, and shall establish it yet more fully chap. xx11, 1.

The first impression St. John had of this city, he expresses in these words-she had the glory of God. In the AXX the expression dog ro to signifies the cover of light in which Jehovah dwelleth, and in which he discovered his presence in ancient times on earth; the majesty of God; his powerful presence in nature, and in works which bear the marks of a divine interposition. In this sence doğa is distinguished from the divine essence, [VπOlacs] as the sun from his reflecting light in a mirror. This glory of God is also ascribed to the Son of God in his human nature, as having shone forth, not in a physical light like that of the natural sun, but in a moral light, πλήρης χαρίζος και αληθείας, full of grace and truth, John 1, 14; of which he is said to be the primitive fountain, and all sufficient source [wangwua] for the whole world, John 1, 16. And St. Paul affirms, that all believers behold this glory in Christ with open face, and are made living mirrors, by which his divine lustre is again reflected to others, and they themselves thereby changed into the same image, from glory to glory, II Cor. 111, 18. The natural man is said to want this glory of God, Rom. 11, 23; and believers are said to be perfected in in it John xvil, 22-24. From this illustration it would appear, that

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