irrefiftable as that which fhall bring about the events predicted in this book. To the greatest part of men this call fhall be given fooner than they expect, and at a time when they are not looking for it. Then every man fhall receive a final doom from Chrift, not for, but ftrictly conformable to, his works. It fhall then be well with the righteous, and ill with the wicked. How powerful a motive is this to make men take heed to their works?

Verse 13th.-I am Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Laft.

Jefus informs John who he is, "The Beginning "and the End, the First and the Laft." That divine person who gave beginning to this world by creating it; and who fhall put an end to it by judging the men and burning the earth :-that perfon who infpired the prophets, and in whom all the prophecies terminate. This is the fame appellation with that given to Jefus in chap. i. 8.

Verje 14th.-Bleffed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.

The

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The words "bis commandments" fhould have been tranflated "its commandments:" for "this "book" mentioned in verfes 7th, 8th, and 9th, is the antecedent to this relative expreffion, as is evident from our tranflation, and still more fo from the original Greek. They who do its commandments are those who regulate their faith, worship, and obedience, by the commandments recorded in this book; who keep the commandments of God and the teftimony of Jefus. In general, they are those who habitually regulate their conduct by the commandments of God as recorded in the facred fcriptures.

The middle claufe of the verfe runs thus in the original: ἵνα ἐται η εξάσια αυτών επι το το ξυλον, which fhould have been tranflated, "that they may have "power (or rather licence) of the tree of life." σ is derived from test licet.

It was formerly fhewn that the tree of life fignifies true religion in its millennian purity, which is the food of the spiritual life in the foul. The city is the new Jerufalem, the city described in this and the preceding chapter as the hieroglyphic of the millennian ftate of the church. In the laft verfe of chap. xxi. it is declared that no wicked perfons shall enter the gates of that city, that is, become members of the millennian church, but only those perfons who are spiritually alive in Chrift Jefus. Hence the plain meaning of this

verfe

verfe is, that the way which God hath appointed for men to acquire true religion, and which he bleffes for that purpose to all who use it, is the doing of his commandments as they are recorded in facred fcripture. That the way of conformity to his commandments is the gate through which in every age true votaries fhall be introduced into the true church of Christ, and through which in particular they fhall be introduced into the mil lennian church. In doing his commandments, God gives men the faculty and licence to regain that true religion which they had loft by the depravity of their natures, and which they could not regain by human wifdom or commandments of men. 1 Corrin. i, 21. Matth. xv. 19. James i. 21,25. They who do the commandments of facred fcripture thall be bleffed thus in the honeft and diligent use of those very means of religion which God himself hath provided for obtaining it, they fhall receive that divine bleffing and aid which fhall conduct them in the way of God's commandments to the actual attainments of true religion. If they live in the millennian age of the church, they who do the commandments of God fhall be members of that church, which shall be purified from all the commandments of men taught as doctrines, and confequently fit for thofe men only who do the commandments of God. Poffeffed of true religion, and the members of fo pure

and

and profperous a church, they fhall be bleffed and happy in this world, and raised to higher degrees of endless happiness in a future world. For the citizens of the new Jerufalem fhall reign for ever and ever. And if they live in the present or any other age previous to the millennium, by doing the commandments of God, they fhall, under the divine blessing, undoubtedly learn that true religion which is the food of the fpiritual life; and they fhall become members of the true and univerfal church of Chrift, of which the millennian church is an illuftrious part. And let their outward fituations be what they will they shall be bleffed.

I am convinced that there never was an inftance of a man, who habitually endeavoured to do the commandments of God, as recorded in facred fcripture, and yet did not find true religion; nor of one whofe foul was enlightened, purified, and ftrengthened by true religion, who did not enjoy, in proportion to his attainments in religion, a degree of refined happiness in God, in himself, in the creatures of God, and in all the difpenfations of divine providence and grace. Men who with a narrow bigotry attach themselves to this or that church, modelled in many of its parts upon human inventions, and who view that as the only church of God on earth, fhall feel their minds often diftreffed for its safety, when they see its rifings and deVOL. II. clinings

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He

clinings like all the kingdoms of men. But he who knows that the church of Chrift confists of all thofe fcattered individuals through the whole world who do the commandments of God, in whatever vifible church they outwardly worship God, entertains no fears for his church. He knows that fuch an univerfal kingdom erected in the hearts of Chriftians is the kingdom of God, and that the wifdom and power of God will fupport his own kingdom againft all oppofition and danger. contemplates with delight its progrefs in the world. He beholds all things working together for its good. He fees the progress of learning, liberty, and commerce, bringing its hidden treasures to view, and carrying the knowledge of it to diftant nations. He perceives even perfecution purging it from the corruptions produced by the ftagnations of peace and outward profperity, and driving upright men against their will from their ṇative land to carry true religion, as the apoftles of Jefus, to nations fitting in darkness and under the fhadow of death. He looks forward with exultation to the millennian ftate of the church, when this kingdom of God fhall extend over all the kingdoms of the world, and when its fubjects fhall be nearly as numerous as the men who shall inhabit the earth. He looks up to heaven, and with a joy truly heavenly recognifes a church there, in