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CHAP. XXII.

Verfes 1st, 2d. AND he fhewed me a pure

river of water of life,

clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God, and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and of either fide of the river, was there the tree of life, which bore twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

The river of the water of life, and the tree of life, are fymbols taken from the river which watered the terrestrial paradife, and from the tree of life which grew in the middle of it. As fymbols, they fignify in general, that this period of the church and of the world shall be a kind of paradifaical one, on account of its purity, fimplicity, and happiness. These fymbols fignify in particular the food, by means of which the fpiritual life is preferved and strengthened. In the paradifaical ftate, men lived on the fruits of trees, and drank of the pure water. Hence the tree of life, and the

water

water of life, fignify the whole food which fupports the fpiritual life. True religion is the food of the fpiritual life. It is this which preserves and invigorates in the foul that life which was first produced in it by the Spirit of God. Solomon calls true religion a tree of life, Proverbs, chap. iii. 18. “She " is a tree of life to them who lay hold upon her."

This tree of life had twelve manner of fruits. It is that fyftem of religion which is contained in the infpired writings of the twelve apostles, and which is adapted to the actual fituations of all men however diverfified. It is the Chriftian fystem proceeding not only from God, but alio from the Lamb, Jefus Chrift.

The river ran down the middle of the city, and a tree of life grew on each fide of the river, in the fpace between it and the streets of the city which ran parallel with the river. And the tree yielded its fruit every month. This fymbol fignifies that true religion fhall then be fo fituated that no perfon fhall be at any loss to find it, and all shall have the most easy access to it. In that period the religion of Jefus fhall appear in the greatest purity and plenty, and fhall preferve and ftrengthen the spiritual life in all the citizens of the new Jerufalem.

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"And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations." Trees bear leaves as well as fruits. The leaves, by fheltering the bloffoms

and

the fruit from the inclemency of the weather, promote their growth. The tree of life alfo had leaves. As the tree of life fignifies true religion, its leaves are the fymbol for the means of religion; even thofe pofitive inftitutions, which, in the present state of the world, are as neceffary to train men up to real religion, as the leaves of fruit trees are, in fuch a world as this, to shelter the bloffoms, and to nourish up the fruit to maturity. These leaves or pofitive inftitutions, few and fimple as they shall be in that period, shall even then be neceffary for the healing of the nations. So long as men shall be in this world, they fhall be imperfect; fo long as they are imperfect, they can. not arrive at abfolute perfection in religion; fo long as they are not absolutely perfect in religion, the proper means of religion shall be neceffary for them. In heaven, the state of perfection, real religion fhall exist without any pofitive inftitutions; and to such a state only is such pure, real, and perfect religion adapted. While men need any degree of healing, the leaves as well as the fruit of the tree of life fhall be neceffary. When they fhall arrive in that world in which "the inhabi "tant fhall not fay, I am fick," their whole religion fhall be feated in their understanding and their heart, and shall be not the medicine but the food of the fpiritual life for ever. By the percep tion of truth, and the exercife of right affections,

the

the fpiritual life, under the bleffing of God, fhall be preserved and invigorated throughout eternity. The reader is defired to confult Ezekiel iv. 7,—

12.

Verse 3d.-And there shall be no more curfe: but the throne of God and of the Lamb fhall be in it; and his fervants shall ferve him.

The firft clause of this verse runs thus in the original: Και παν καταναθεμα εκ εσαι έτι; which should have been tranflated, “And the whole curse "denounced against it shall not be yet." The word naτavadeμa evidently refers to a curfe denounced. The whole or final curfe denounced against the earth, is contained in the last chapter of the prophecies of Malachi, verse 1. “For be"hold the day cometh that shall burn as an oven, " and all the proud, yea and all that do wickedly, "shall be stubble, and the day that cometh shall "burn them up, faith the Lord of hosts, that it "fhall leave them neither root nor branch." Verfes 5th, 6th. "Behold I will send you Elijah "the prophet before the coming of the great and "dreadful day of the Lord. And he fhall turn "the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the "heart of the children to their fathers, left I come “and smite the earth with a curse." This final

curfe

curfe denounced upon the earth is farther explained by the apoftle Peter, 2 Epif. iii. 7. "But the hea"vens and the earth which are now, by the fame "word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against "the day of judgement and perdition of ungodly "men." Verse 10th, "But the day of the Lord "will come as a thief in the night, in the which "the heavens fhall pass away with a great noise, " and the elements fhall melt with fervent heat, "the earth alfo and the works which are therein "fhall be burnt up."

It is evident from both these paffages that the curfe which is denounced against this earth is, "that it fhall be burnt up," and that it is predicted that the millennium fhall happen before this curse shall be inflicted upon the earth. For Malachi fays verfe 2d, "But unto you that fear my "name fhall the fun of righteousness arise with

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healing in his wings, and ye fhall go forth and

grow up as calves of the ftall," verses 5th, 6th. And Peter fays, verfe 13, "Nevertheless we ac"cording to his promise look for new heavens and "a new earth wherein dwelleth righteoufnefs." When therefore it is faid here, that the whole curfe fhall not be yet, the import of this fymbol is, that however great the wars and revolutions fhall be by which Papal Rome shall be overthrown, and however awful the difpenfations of divine providence shall be by which the millennium fhall be VOL. II. introduced,

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