not exclude the living while it also comprehends the dead. He shall be Lord of both. For to this end He both died and rose and revived. And it is written, in the very next words of the prophet, "Surely shall one say, In the Lord have I righteousness and strength: to him shall men come; and all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed. In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified and shall glory.-Every knee shall bow to me. For to this end Christ both died and rose and revived, that He might be the Lord both of the dead and of the living.

The visions in the immediately preceding chapter of the Book of Revelation, showed forth the Lord's own judgment on all hostile powers, on the nations and kings of the earth and of the whole world, till all his enemies were put under his feet-the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. The previous vision in this chapter opens with the view of thrones, and they that sat on them, to whom judgment was given. The vision immediately before us is as manifestly and exclusively that of the judgment of the dead, both small and great. The next vision is that of the new heaven and the new earth. Let the things here revealed be marked, as they are shown in vision after vision. Thus it is written in two verses of Scripture-"The Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom." "For to this end Christ both died and rose and revived, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living." In these last visions of the Book of Revelation-these things are separately seen, each by itself; and that, too, in the same order. The judgment of the quick and of the dead;-Christ seen as Lord of the dead and of the living; all to be accomplished at his appearing and his kingdom. Yet, in the visions and the verses, the order, though the same in both, is alike reversed, as He judges the living and the dead, and as the end for which he died and rose and revived is accomplished, the order written is not Lord of the living and of the dead, but the Lord of the dead and of the living. The judgment comes, and then the kingdom. The last vision of the Book of Revelation is that of a new heaven and a new earth. In it is the record of the throne of God and of the Lamb in the great city, the holy Jerusalem. Whatever glorious and yet incomprehensible things are written of it, the words are as express as they are intelligible-the nations of them that are saved shall

walk in the light of it, and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into it. Thus in two separate visions, in both of which the passing away of the (first) heaven and the (first) earth, and also the doom of the righteous and of the wicked, when the judgment comes, are recorded ;—the one is that of the judgment of the dead, and the other that in which the Lamb reigns over the living, while he that overcometh—they which are written in the Lamb's book of life-shall inherit all things, and reign for ever and ever. In like manner, when the judgment, and the reign of the saints are recorded not in two separate visions but in one and the same, as in that which immediately precedes, it is first written, Judgment was given unto them; and next that they reigned with Christ. Thus, too, it is written, in the preceding chapter, In righteousness HE DOTH JUDGE and make war. xix. ii.-Out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it He should smite the nations; and HE SHALL RULE them with a rod of iron: while the same vision comprehends, too, the same sentence as executed on the beast and the false prophet, as on death and hades, and the wicked dead, as clearly as in the one chapter a lake of fire is, in the next, the lake of fire, which is the second death. As the Lord sits upon the throne, his judgment-seat, the dead, small and great, stand before him. And then, not a new heaven only, but a new earth also arise.-Christ, Lord of the living, Lord of all; every knee bowing down before him the will of God, under his reign, done on earth as it is done in heaven. And who will not pray, Thy kingdom come.-Come quickly, Lord Jesus.-The prince of darkness will still be the prince of this world till then.

Many illustrations have already been seen how the prophetic scriptures are an interwoven testimony; and how the connection is fixed and unalterable between things which they reveal, as each and all shall be accomplished, together with their concomitants, in the appointed time. Would men be now satisfied as apostles were with these words alone it is written, and were the Scriptures of truth which are the word of God who is not a man that He should lie, read in faith as they are written plain upon tablets, and searched and compared together, and no other sound listened to but what the voice of the Lord gives forth from them, then none would need to tell that there is nothing but harmony in them all to him that hath an ear to hear.

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The next vision is that of a new heaven ana a new earth. -From many scriptures hitherto adduced, as well as in the promise recorded by Isaiah, it may be seen, that the links of the testimony still multiply to the last, and are finally combined-as testifying of the restitution of all things, and thus reaching to the heavens from whence they all come down-into a golden chain on which the fate of a world already beginning to tremble does hang, till loosened at last and for ever from Satan's bondage, and from Satan's kingdom, it shall be fixed again to its Creator's throne-not with a garden of Eden only, but the earth itself a paradise, in which righteousness shall dwell, and men shall be blessed, and saints shall reign, when the Spirit shall be poured upon all flesh, and Christ, the Lord of the dead, be also the Lord of the living.

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CHAPTER XVI.

A NEW HEAVEN AND A NEW EARTH.

THE prophecy of Isaiah was fulfilled in the Jews, "by hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand." Their eyes they had closed lest they should see. To them it was not given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, while to "the disciples" of Jesus it was given to know them. The mysteries of the kingdom were made known to the faithful in Christ Jesus, so soon as Christian churches were planted on earth. "He hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence; having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself; that in the dispensation of the fullness of times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him, ," &c. Ere the gospel was preached unto the Gentiles, Peter, preaching to the Jews at Jerusalem, appealed to the testimony of all the prophets concerning "the restitution of all things," and testified that the heavens must receive Christ till then. That all things shall be gathered together in one by Jesus Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth, is the mystery of the Father's will, not hid from the faithful, but made known to them. "The restitution of all things," is the testimony alike of apostles and prophets.

There is another witness besides and above them all; to whom the Spirit was not given by measure. In an upper room in Jerusalem, when he had eaten his last supper, the passover, with his apostles, and that shadow of good things to come was to pass into its substance by the death of the Lamb of God, Jesus, ere he arose to go forth to suffer and to die, thus began his discourse to his disciples, who sorrowed because of such a parting.-Let not your heart be troubled : ye believe in God, and (kai) ye believe in me. In my

1 Eph. i. 8-10; Matt. xiii. 11-15.

Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And If I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. Having risen and gone forth, He passed not the brook Kedron, in the bottom of the valley of Jehoshaphat, and at the foot of the Mount of Olives, till the great and only Intercessor first pleaded with the Father, for those whom the Father had given him, but not for them only.— They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. -Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me; and the glory which thou gavest me I have given them, that they may be one even as we are one: I in them and Thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that Thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as Thou hast loved me. Father, I will that they also whom Thou hast given me be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. When he shall come again to take his own unto the place which he is gone to prepare for them—the kingdom which he is gone to receive unto himself, and having received it, to return-that which He shall then say to them, he has already told them, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."- Jesus showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them (his apostles) forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God."—At last, "they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?" It is not for you," was his reply, "to know the times or the seasons, which the Father

hath put in his own power. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth. And when He had spoken these things, while they beheld, He was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight." The witness of two men is true. But two wit

1 John xiv. 1-3.

2 John xvii. 20-24.