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therefore heaven and earth united, the visible and the invisible connected, Christ and the creatures, the church glorified and the church militant, shewn in their relations to one another, all which is within the veil of the heavens; the secret springs, the moving causes, the guiding personages, of all which is transacted without the veil, in this visible world. It is a scene the most glorious and the most instructive, that was ever revealed to mortal eye; a scene which, under symbols taken from visible and real objects, doth present unto us that knowledge of the invisible world, which every soul panteth after, which even the heathen sought to know, and to which ancient poets were wont to conduct the heroes of their tales. But to us not through the corrupted tradition of ancient mythology, composed after the imagination of poets, but through revelation of the messenger of Christ, and inspiration of the Holy Ghost, cometh that knowledge of the invisible world through which we shall be able to discover the causes of those great revolutions in the state of Christendom, and of the world, of which history is the record, but how seldom, alas! the exposition.

As there is, however, some diversity of opinion upon the subject of this vision, whether it be the revelation of the spiritual world as it now is administered and proceeding, or whether it be the representation of that glorious state of things which is to be realized hereafter in the Millennial kingdom, I count it good to set forth the grounds upon which I prefer the former opinion. First, as hath been said above, this celestial agency is throughout the book represented as beholding, interpreting, and bringing the successive actions to pass. For example: each of the four seals is shewn to the secr by one of the four living creatures (chap. vi. 1, 3, 5, 7), and the seventh is interpreted by one of the elders. Now no one doubteth that the seals are under the succession of time: they bear inward demonstration of this truth. Referring backward and forward to one another, and seeing that the celestial personages are contemporaneous with the parts of that action, we ought to conclude, that the state of things, the powers, and influences, and persons which they represent, are likewise in existence, to take the parts which are assigned

to them. And this remark which I have made with respect to the seals may be extended to the other visions, with which I have shewn above that these celestial per sonages do intercommune.-Secondly, The action of the seals, which is confessedly under the condition or category of succession in time, doth depend entirely upon another action contained in the vth chapter; to wit, the Lamb's receiving the seven-sealed book, in which action all the celestial personages, living creatures, elders, and angels, and inferior creatures, take a part; and therefore they and the scene in which they act, must have a priority of time to the actions which depend upon them. The elders and living creatures sing their song of redemption when he receiveth the book, and then also do the angels and inferior creatures bring up their offering of homage and worship. Now the book must be received into the hands of the Lamb before any of its seals are opened, and therefore the celestial action of chap. v. to which the celestial scene of chap. iv. is the introduction, or rather preparation, must be prior to the action of chapters vi. and vii. and therefore prior to all the rest of the book.-Thirdly, With respect to the difficulties of conceiving where heaven is, and what is the state of the separate soul, and where is its place, and other questions of the like kind, they concern me not, as an interpreter of this symbolical vision and symbolical action; which I do not consider to be either in conditions of time or place, though I have argued above, that it is prior in time to the following acts, or rather that it hath an existence all the while of their coming into existence. It is not a history that is contained in the ivth and vth chapters, but it is an idea, or representation of those powers in the invisible world through the causation and instrumentality of which the historical visions are brought to pass. It is a continual presence of celestial agency, revealing itself in a succession of outward events, and the office of an interpreter is to lay out the persons, prerogatives, and mutual dependencies, of these celestial powers, and the parts which it is given them to perform in the historical events which follow. And this, the legitimate office of the interpreter who trembles at God's word, I will by his grace endea vour to perform.

HE UPON THE THRONE.

First he saw a throne, and upon the throne one seated; this is "the throne of God in the heavens," of which so much is spoken in the Old Testament: "The Lord hath prepared his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom ruleth over all" (Psal. ciii. 1): and in the New Testament also; "Swear not by heaven, for it is God's throne " (Matt. v. 34): “ Heaven is my throne" (Acts vii. 49). And to this throne Christ hath already made distinct allusion, in the last words of the preceding vision: "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne." With these words the former vision concludeth; and as if to link them together, as if to make the next vision the argument and illustration of that which went before, this begins with the description of that heavenly throne, and of Him who sat upon it. Now, if so be, according to Christ's own declaration, that he is set down upon his Father's throne, whom should we expect to find seated there but Christ himself? And yet in the cx th Psalm, so oft referred to in the New Testament, as the great authority upon this subject, the Father saith unto Christ, "Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool;" by which words we have Christ advanced unto "the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens" (Heb. viii. 1). And again, in the iid Psalm, where the kings of the earth, and their peoples are represented in confederacy against Jehovah and his Anointed, it is said (verse 4), "He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh ; Jehovah shall have them in derision ;" where doubtless Jehovah, or the Father, in contradistinction to the Son, is represented as sitting in the throne; for he thus speaketh, concerning Christ: "Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Zion:" the Father's throne is in the heavens, and Christ's throne is on Mount Zion. So, in like manner, in the passage already quoted from the former vision, Christ makes a distinction between his own throne to be established against a future time upon the earth, not for himself alone, but for every one who doth overcome, and his Father's throne now in the heavens, occupied by his Father and himself. There can be no doubt, from these

passages of Scripture, that the throne in heaven is properly the throne of the Father, and the throne which is hereafter to be established upon Mount Zion is the throne of Christ. And likewise, that Christ who is hereafter to occupy the throne of David, promised to him in all the Scriptures, doth presently occupy in heaven the throne of the Father; not indeed alone, but at the Father's right hand, with, or beside, the Father. Are we then, from this the concurrent language of Scripture, to look for two persons seated upon the throne of the heavens! It may not so be expected, because the Father no one hath seen, neither can see. He is essentially invisible, incomprehensible; not within the region of creation, nor within the region of the senses, ever to come. If then the Father, as retaining in his person the uncontained essence of the Godhead, be not by sense, nor yet by comprehension, to be taken in, what are we to expect to find upon the throne which is set in heaven? We are to expect to find thereon the person of the Father, represented in the Son. In the Son under symbols proper to his incarnation, not as light, but as a man, must the glory of the Father now be exhibited upon the throne. Under the former dispensation, God was exhibited in that most holy place, which was the symbol of the heavens, by light, because Christ was the Light. But now that the Light has become the life of man, now that the Life has become manifested in our nature, and been taken up to the throne of the Father, we must expect to behold the Father manifested through the risen glorified body of Jesus. It is the Father's invisible person becoming manifest on the throne of heaven, through the enthroned Christ. And thus have we the Father and Christ upon the throne. Christ the visible, the Father the invisible, yet, though invisible, revealing what of himself can be revealed through Christ. I am the more particular upon this point, because Christ himself appears in this same heavenly scene, as a Lamb that had been slain; and in this character he receives the sealed book out of the hands of him that sitteth upon the throne and to these two persons, to Him that sitteth upon the throne and to the Lamb, are the adorations and exaltations of heaven ascribed. Likewise also the Holy Spirit hath his place in this representation of

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the invisible world, being the seven lamps before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God. It is necessary therefore, I think, most distinctly to be remembered, that the person represented upon the throne is the Father, that the person represented in the Lamb is the Son, and the person represented in the seven lamps of fire is the Holy Ghost; all indeed represented under symbols derived from Christ, in whom dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, so that it could be said, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father: the Spirit shall take of the things of mine, and shew them unto you." As in the days of his flesh, when wishing to be shewn the Father, a certain disciple was directed to look upon Christ, “Have I been so long with you, Philip, and sayest thou, Shew us the Father?" so say I unto you, if ye would know how the Father is beheld by the hosts of heaven, look upon him, even Christ, seated upon the throne, and say unto yourselves, He that hath seen him hath seen the Father. "He was," saith the text, "to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone;" literally, a stone jasper and sardine, by which I understand, not that one part of him was like a jasper and another part like a sardine, but that altogether his aspect was like the combination of a jasper and a sardine. Let us now examine what that combination is, and what truth is revealed under this symbol.

The sardine is the colour of flesh, or blood red, by common consent; but the jasper is thus described, by the Lord (Rev. xxi. 4): "New Jerusalem, having the glory of God, and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper clear as crystal." These two, therefore, combined together give us the aspect of flesh beaming forth the light and glory of God; being, as I take it, the best representation which can be given of the appearance of the spiritual body arrayed with its celestial glory, God manifested in glorified flesh unto the celestial, as unto us on the earth he was manifested of the earth earthy. Illustrative of this the appearance of the King of heaven, I find two passages in the Old Testament; the one in the Lamentations of Jeremiah, and the other in the Prophecies of Ezekiel. In the Book of Lamentations (iv. 7), the appearance of the Nazarite, in the day of Jerusalem's glory, is thus described: "Her Nazarites were purer

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