Job is spoken of by the Lord, to Ezekiel, as equal to Noah and Daniel for righteousness; and the expressions, "these three men," (see v. 14, c. 14,) also, "their own souls," and "neither son nor daughter," (v. 20,) cut down all the power of mystifiers, when they pretend that the Book called Job is an allegory. The man of Uz was a prophet of God, and spoke of His Maker "the thing that is right," i. e. true; and God accepted Job.

God, manifest in the flesh, is "the resurrection and the life." Read the Divine testimony in John's Gospel of our Lord, eleventh chapter, 25, 26 vers., and remember that the apostle said to Christians at Ephesus, "You hath He quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;" and to the saints at Thessalonica the apostle testified, that when Christ returned, "them that sleep in Jesus, God shall bring with Him"-"they shall never die."

I return from this necessary digression, to renew my declaration, that anti Messiah, "that Man of sin," is satan's tool, dupe, and prey. It should be observed, that in the investments of gifts to the Beast, the Dragon, which is the Devil, that old serpent, and satan, does not cede to his representative the knowledge of that fact, which determines the usurper's doom, even that he, "the son of perdition," is the Head to be bruised by the Son of God. As "Son of the Morning," we have to confess, that satan, in his first estate, had all knowledge except the Infinite knowledge of God; and in his fall from holiness, his intelligence was subverted, but not lessened at all; for he is the essence of cunning, which the apostle James denominated, "wisdom from beneath, which is earthly, sensual, devilish." The malice of the old serpent against man, (whose original formation "in the image of GOD," offended satan's pride, which originated that evil

disposition called envy,) causes this foul enemy to give over his authority and power to a member of the race he detests, for the short time of his great wrath; and instead of his inherent spirit of knowledge concerning the result, he inspires "the son of perdition" to say in his heart, "I am God, I sit in the seat of God, I will ascend above the heights of the clouds," &c. Isaiah 14. Ez. 27. 2 E. Thess. 2. The incarnate devil, which is the serpent's head, (for anti Messiah lords it over his Master, holding that there is no God but his person, of course neither angel nor spirit,) is cast into the lake of fire which is prepared for him and his angels; that is, his messengers, (the false prophet, being chief among the latter,) for satan in his original being cannot thus be punished. The spiritual fire of God's eternal vengeance is certain judgment against the disembodied hosts which left their first estate, (the celestial spheres,) and the Holy Ghost administers the same, through Christ, of whom they inquired, "art thou come to torment us before the time?" Matt. 8. 29, and confessed to His Divinity, that He was the Son of God Most High. It is easy to perceive by the twenty-eighth and twenty-ninth verses of the chapter, (Matt. 8,) that the two fierce men cried out; while the thirty-first verse shows, that the devil-spirits, which besought the Holy One, "saying, if thou cast us out, suffer us to go away into the herd of swine," were the authors of the former inquiries, viz: "What have we to do with thee, JESUS, thou Son of God? Art thou come hither to torment us before the time." Is it not very apparent that satan and his angels had knowledge of the result of Christ's being manifested, even to destroy the works of the spiritual and the literal serpent's head; as also, that the time of their torment, by the decreed destruction, had been duly

appointed by a Power which was an object of dread to them, because their Prince had proved the same in his temptation of the lowly Lamb who conquered by the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, and was ever afterward confessed by devils to be the Anointed even the Holy One of God. **

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The subject under discussion in these pages (by hand of a feeble descendant from the first object of the serpent's malice in the garden of God) is appalling indeed. Man (who is separated into two sexes, and yet, by the marriage covenant is constituted one flesh) was made a little lower than the angels, crowned with glory and honour, and appointed by the Eternal Existence to reign by righteousness unto Glory and immortality over all created things. By disobedience to the law of his probation, which he understood, (for he was a living soul, reflecting the image of Divine Intelligence upon the very body that came originally from nothing, by the word of God,) this exaltation was lost, and "man became like the beasts that perish." He was virtually annihilated by the penalty threatened against a breach of the given commandment, "of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat; for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." It seems the commandment was a law of life; for the fruit of that interdicted tree is represented as too powerful for man in the morn of his existence; and he was instructed by his Creator what should be his meat, as well as commanded not even to touch this one tree. "Every herb bearing seed," and every tree in the which was fruit yielding seed, were blessed of God for man's use, while he kept the holy command of Divine Love. Satan saw the glory resulting from that blessing which God pronounced upon the happy pair, in their mul

tiplying upon the earth, and possessing dominion over every living thing that moved upon the earth, or in the air, or sea; and he beguiled the helpmate of man, by means of a slander and a lie against her Maker, the Lord GOD. Mark the expression "Lord God;" and weigh the testimony of that great apostle of Christ, recorded in 1 Cor. 11. 3 and 14 verses. Terrible havoc did the subtle enemy effect, by the mysterious influence he was suffered to obtain in the woman's mind, by an overblaze of light which was not true, and quickly operated to darken the whole body from which she originated by the word of God; for she became the very reverse of her Maker's design ("a help meet for man") by listening to the flattering lie of her wily foe; and viewing the forbidden tree as the serpent taught her, instead of the declaration of her God. She administered death to her husband, who took of the fruit at her hand; and died in the same day. N. B. Spiritually while taking the fruit, (see v. 7—11;) and literally within the compass of the day of the Lord, as it is written, "that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years," &c. (2 Pet. 3. 8.) Adam's days upon earth are recorded nine hundred and thirty years, and he died; i. e. the sentence was executed, "unto dust shalt thou return." There wanted

seventy years to complete a Day with the Lord; and if Adam had endured temptation, he would have received the crown of life, and passed from the glory of a day which is as a thousand years, to the thousand fold glory of the thousand years for a single day. He fell; and lost the kingdom. He died; and returned to dust. It should be particularly noticed that the remnant of years wanting in Adam's record, to complete a millenary or Day with the Lord, is the term allotted to his descendants, since the Law was given by Moses, according

to the testimony of that man of God, recorded in the ninetieth Psalm, 9 and 10 verses. Yes-this is the term of man's probation, till the arrival of that Great Day, won by the Blessed JESUS, as the second Adam, for whose namesake the flaming sword is removed from the garden of God at His second appearing, when He shall "create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy." When he bringeth to pass that saying, "I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people," He redeems them from death, He "will ransom them from the power of the grave;" and His "elect shall long enjoy the work of His hands." See Isaiah 65. 17. 25. Hosea 13. 14.

Now let us take particular notice of the words of our Blessed Saviour, concerning the tribulation which immediately precedes His "coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory." Let us not lose sight of the serpent's first work of desolation in the earth which God created; but fix in our minds the original lie, "ye shall be as gods," &c.; and remember that the description of the wilful king (Dan. 11. 36, 37) who will usurp the kingdom of God, is not any plainer to the literality of the serpent's head, taking the king of Babylon for a type, than the testimony, or Word of the Lord, concerning the prince of Tyrus (Ez. 28. 12-15) is analogous to Adam, who is (in his transgression) the figure of him that is to come. Romans 5. 14. It appears that by means of his success in the first temptations, satan usurped the kingdom upon earth, when Adam lost it by disobedience to the law which was its security to him; and that in the old serpent, which is the devil and satan, is invested the power of death, (see Heb. 2. 14,) which power is sin, the sting of the king of terrors, so that His reign from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned