to escape the tribulations which are coming upon the earth, and to stand before the Son of Man."

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"And I heard a voice from heaven as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps: and they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders and no man could learn that song, but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth" (Rev. xiv. 2, 3). The object of these verses is to convey to us the knowledge of a great and glorious era in the history of God's church, over which the celestial quire are moved to sing a new song of praise and thanksgivings. Certain new disclosures of the excellent grace of our God they perceive, and are so rejoiced that they lift up their voice in one vast utterance; wherein the voice like many waters, which is the voice of the Son of Man (i. 15), as Head of the congregation, and the voice of a great thunder, which is the same voice expressed through the four living creatures (vi. 1, iv. 5), or the cherubim, the church in its spiritual endowments, and the voice of harpers harping with their harps, which are the four-and-twenty elders (v. 8), the church in its power, do all combine together the sweet harmony and powerful minstrelsy. And the song is sung in the presence of the throne, and the four beasts, and the four-andtwenty elders, that is in the heavenly places, into which John was lifted by the Spirit. (Rev. iv. v.) Now the singers and the minstrels are the one hundred forty and four thousand whom he saw standing upon Mount Zion under the Lamb, who are, as to their local habitation upon the high places of the earth, but as to their spiritual presence before the throne; because they have every one of them received that uplifting and enwrapping of the Spirit, which carried John into the vision and understanding of heavenly things; which is the effect of the sealing with the Father's seal in their foreheads, being the reality of that into which we are baptized, "to sit with Christ in the heavenly places, and take part with him in the heavenly worship." And the truth of it Paul proved, when he was caught up into the third heaven, and heard things unutterable. Ofttimes in the primitive church was the same thing proved, when, for ends of consolation, some of the brethren would be entranced and lifted into the realities of the spiritual world. And we have now received the beginnings of it in the speaking with tongues, which is not, as the thoughtless imagine, for speaking to foreigners, but, as Paul declareth, for speaking to God in a way which no man understandeth (1 Cor. xiv. 2); and which the Apostle himself understandeth not in the fleshly understanding, but only in the spiritual mind (1 Cor. xiv. 14). A church of spiritual seers and singers there shall be, who, while they stand upon Mount

Zion, in the place of safety, "for there shall be deliverance in Mount Zion," shall in Spirit dwell in heaven, and converse and commune in the presence of the heavenly host. And none besides these sealed ones shall have such Divine sight, and knowledge, and utterance, but shall abide in the darkness of the natural sense, and of the natural mind; endeavouring to guide themselves by rules of human wisdom, and to defend themselves by confederacy and combination.

To this inheritance of "all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus," the church was called at the first, and with it blessed; and to the keeping and enjoying of it was continually called by the Apostles, under the name of the "high calling," and the "heavenly things," and the "citizenship of the saints." Jesus himself placeth the new birth of water and the Spirit among the earthly things (John iii.), and so also the eating of his flesh, and the drinking of his blood (John vi.); in both cases referring to another and a higher mystery, under the name of "the heavenly things," on which he could not and did not enter, in his ministry, save by veiled parables; which veils, like the Old Testament, waited for the discovering of the Holy Ghost. Baptism and the Lord's Supper are, in the substance of them, "earthly things;" the one being the regeneration of water and the Spirit, to quicken in us a life of holiness on the earth; the other being the nourishment of that same holy life in the midst of the earth. But each is the type of a heavenly thing; the one of the baptism of the Holy Ghost, to usher us into the fellowship of Christ's heavenly life; the other of the continual nourishment thereof from the risen body of Christ; and together bringing in a real presence of the Father and the Son into the soul of the believer, so that we should no longer have our citizenship in the earth, but in the heavens. To this, their high, or " above calling," the Apostle himself pressed onward (Phil. iii.), and prayed that the Ephesian Church, which had been sealed, might be carried forward, "the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of your calling, and what the riches of the glory of God's inheritance in the saints." But the baptized and sealed church, instead of pressing forward to this mark, fell back into the earthly things of regeneration and righteousness, which are good, but not the good thing which was committed to our trust. For we are not members of Christ in the flesh, but of Christ in glory; and the power which worketh in us, is not that power which wrought in his generation merely, but which wrought in his resurrection, to raise him from the dead, and set him in the heavenly places. And that power being in us, should effect the same superlative exaltation of lifting us out of this mortal estate, into that spiritual excellence of glory and communion in which

He sits, who is one with us, and desireth to pour into us, on earth though we be, "the fulness of Him who filleth all in all, that we may be filled with all the fulness of God." From this our standing in the new Jerusalem, which we have in the spirit, and ought every one of us, through strength of faith to enjoy, the church hath sunk down into that condition in which she is now found, below the earthly things, knowing not the grace nor the good of the two sacraments in their fleshly import, and utterly dark as to any heavenly thing, which they think was a wonder of a few years' standing never to be repeated again. Nay, verily, we have brought ourselves out of the liberty and power to be holy in the flesh, through faith in Christ Jesus, into absolute bondage to the flesh, so that it should be impossible to be redeemed from its wicked influences on this side the grave. And some who were clean escaped from this abominable sink of iniquity, have gone back into it, "like the dog to his vomit, and the sow which was washed to her wallowing in the mire." And in justification of their carnal doctrine, they appeal to the ages of carnality which have run over the head of the church since the days of the Apostles.

But Christ is not thus to be defeated, and will manifest in the end of the day, that it was not due to his scanty supplies, but to the faithlessness of his servants, that the day of grace hath been spent so slothfully and wickedly. And in their sealed ones will the demonstration be given, who, without any new revelation, or any new promise, or any thing new at all, but by the simple belief of the words of life written in the Holy Scriptures, shall attain through patience to that state of celestial communion and fellowship of the Father and the Son, whereto the church was invoked from the first. Being still on the earth, they shall be caught up unto God and his throne, and dwell in heaven, and be blasphemed by the beast and his worshippers for this fulness of the Holy Ghost which abideth in them. They shall manifest not the baptism of the Holy Ghost merely, against which the Jewish people blasphemed, and were not cut off for ever, but shall be gathered again and blessed, but the fulness of the Holy Ghost; "being filled with all the fulness of God;" being not children or babes, but full-grown men, and men of understanding, exhibiting not the childish rudiments of the spiritual man, but his full-grown stature, "the stature of the fulness of Christ," against which they who blaspheme, shall blaspheme the Holy Ghost, and for their blasphemy be cut off from both worlds, and have their portion instantly in the lake that burneth. And thus it is that Christ at the end of the day will have his own will in the church, willing people in the beauties of holiness;" and all the carnality and bondage which hath been in the church shall be proved to

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be not of him, but of Antichrist, not of the mystery of godliness, but of the mystery of iniquity. Ah me! how I long to see it, for the confutation of those counsels, and disputers who beset us round on all hands, carrying their appeal to men of the like carnal judgments with themselves, and by their traditions making void the word of God. The Lord hath given me grace to fight in the front rank against these perverters of the truth: I will fight these with such weapons as I have, until Christ take the battle in hand himself, by sealing his church, and then I will take my place wherever it is his pleasure to appoint it. I have got a few things from the Lord: I will be faithful over them, and hold them fast, until he send us more; and I am assured the day is at hand. Even now I feel the Lord with me, as a mighty and a terrible one, whom all the enemies shall not be able to gainsay or withstand. The things that have happened have fallen out to the furtherance of his work amongst us. "For he is gracious, for his mercy endureth for ever."

I have said above, that the mystery of the witnesses (chap. xi.) and of the man-child (chap. xii.), and I may add also of the persecuted saints (chap. xiii.), and indeed every mystery defined by the period of three years and a half, is the same with the mystery of the hundred and forty and four thousand sealed ones now under consideration. This period, in its symbolical sense we have fully explained in various writings, as referring to the period of twelve hundred and sixty years, during which the Papacy had power, and covered the witnesses (the two testaments) with sackcloth, and kept the church in the wilderness, all, save one nation which was redeemed from the earth, and sealed from the judgments of God. In its literal sense, as now about to be accomplished, before the eyes of the world we are now unfolding it: or rather, I should say, the Spirit by diverse utterances hath unfolded it in our hearing; not in the way in which I am now doing, but in such hints and leadings as the Spirit is wont to give; and which being with a spiritual ear heard, and in a spiritual mind treasured up, do by and bye come out in the riches of the full assurance of understanding: to hear and meditate, and render full in forms of the understanding to the flock of God, what he is pleased to utter before me, in the vocation to which I feel myself at present called, and which I am endeavouring, through help of grace, to fulfil; nothing contradicting what I have written in former treatises concerning the symbolical application of the same prophecies to past times, but adding thereto their application to the things which are about to be: for it is the part of one and the same speech, to bring to remembrance the things which are past, and to shew us things to come.

The little book which was handed to John with circumstances

of power and splendour (chap. x.) by Christ arrayed in symbolical grandeurs so widely different from that slain flesh of a lamb in which he took possession of the seven-sealed book (chaps. iv. v.), doth contain the events of the three years and a half, wherein the church emergeth from her fleshly enclosures into the spiritual power and heavenly glory. The seven-sealed book shewed her gradual falling down into the fleshly mire, from that conquering power in which she went forth at first; until God, weary of forbearing, maketh ready to destroy her, but first will seal a company to stand forth the witnesses of his truth and faithfulness, against the multitude whom he is constrained by his holiness to destroy; the Enoch and the Noah of the second deluge, who, by their faith and their faithfulness, do condemn the world. The safety of this closer portion during the judgment of the trumpets is simply noticed (chap. ix. 4); but their history is reserved for the revelation of another book, which is that little open book, put into the hands of the seer, and which he was commanded to eat, and bring forth in the shape of prophesying again: whereby it is signified, that the church would, against the time of the sealing, break forth a second time, and witness over the wide world to many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings. That witness lasteth only during three years and a half, and is set forth under diverse symbolical representations, which are necessary for the full expression of their various and wondrous ministry. The xith chapter presents them as witnessing against the visible church for profaning the outward ordinances of religion, which are the earthly things that Christ had redeemed and sanctified; for which witness they are clothed in terrible power and majesty to strike through kings, and discomfit embattled hosts, and wield the elements of earth and heaven against their adversaries, until the time of their witnessing be accomplished. The xii th chapter presents them as the man-child, caught up into heaven, which is the same as being sealed with the Father's name in their foreheads; and these prevailing against the dragon and his angels, to cast him out of heaven into the earth; that is, to rid the church of his unholy suggestions, and deliver her from the mystery of his iniquity, and present her faultless in the day of Christ's appearing. The xiii th chapter presents them as "those that dwell in heaven," blasphemed of the beast, upon whom he maketh war, and prevaileth, to slay them after their testimony of faith and patience hath been accomplished. The xiv th chapter presents them as the sealed ones, obeying the Lamb, while all the world is deceived of the beast, preaching the Gospel before the judgment, unto all nations; pronouncing the downfal of Babylon; forewarning men of the rise of Antichrist at the conclusion of their testimony, coming with the Son