3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven, faying, Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with

them, and they fhall be his people, and

God himself fhall be with them, and be their God.

4 And God fhall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there fhall be no more death, neither forrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are paffed away.

5. And he that fat upon the throne, faid, Behold, I make all things new. And he faid unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.

6 And he faid unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end: I will give unto him that is athirft,s of the fountain of the water of life freely.

7 He that overcometh fhall inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he shall be my fon.

8 But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and forcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, fhall have their parti in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the fecond death.

:

A new

2

A new heaven and a new earth (ver. 1.) fucceed in the room of the first heaven and the firft earth, which passed away (XX. 11.) at the general judgment. In the new earth there is this remarkable property, that there is no more fea, which whether it fhall be effected by the means which the (2) theorifts of the earth have prescribed or by any other, time muft difcover but it is evident from hence, that this new heaven and earth are not defigned to take place till after the general judgment, for at the general judgment (XX. 13.) the sea gave up the dead which were in it. Many understand the expreffion figuratively, that there fhall be no troubles or commotions in this new world. In this new world too the new Ferufalem appears (ver. 2.) in full glory and fplendor. It is defcribed as coming down from God out of heaven; it is a city, whose builder and maker is God; and is adorned as the bride of the Lamb, the true church of Chrift: and the new Jerufalem, the true church of Chrift, fubfifts as well during the millennial kingdom as after it. At the commencement of the millennium it was faid (XIX. 7.) The marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. At the

con

(2) Burnet's Theory. B. 4. Chap. 2. Whifton's Theory. B. 4.

Chap. 5.

(3) yeye

conclufion of the millennium Gog and Magog went up (XX. 9.) against the beloved city: And here it is reprefented as the metropolis of the new heaven and the new earth. The new Jerufalem fhall be the habitation of the faints of the first refurrection, and it fhall alfo be the habitation of the faints of the general refurrection. The church of Chrift fhall indure through all times and changes in this world, and likewise in the world to come; it fhall be glorious upon earth during the millennium, and shall be more glorious ftill in the new earth after the millennium to all eternity. Earth fhall then become as heaven, or rather it fhall be a heaven upon earth, (ver. 3.) God dwelling vifibly among men: and (ver. 4.) there fhall be no more death, which cannot come to pass, till death fhall be totally abolished (XX. 14.) by being caft into the lake of fire, and till the former things, the first heaven and the first earth, are passed away. He who fat upon the throne as judge of the world (XX. 11.) declares (ver. 5.) Behold, I make all things new: He is the author of this fecond as well as of the first creation, and he commands these things to be written for the edification and confolation of his church with a firm affurance of their truth

and

(3) γεγονότων δε καινων απαντων ὁ εςιν αλλο κοσμε αρχην. Novaυπο κύριες αι άρχην ἡμέρας ογδος, tis vero cundiis a Domino

and certainty. He pronounces this period (ver. 6, 7, 8.) to be the confummation of all things, when the promises of God, and the defires of his faithful fervants fhall all be fully accomplifhed; the righteous fhall inherit all things, but the profligate and immoral shall have their portion in the lake of fire and brimftone; which is a farther demonstration, that these things can-` not take effect till after the general judgment.

Many, I know, both ancients and moderns, make the millennium fynchronize with the new heaven and the new earth; and fome latitude of interpretation may be well allowed in these myfterious points of futurity: but this order of things, and this interpretation of the words, appear to me moft natural, and moft agreeable to the context. Gog and Magog, the nations in the four corners of the earth, are deceived by Satan after the expiration of the millennium; but Gog and Magog are not inhabiters of the new heaven and the new earth. It is not our business to frame theories and invent hypothefes, but faithfully to follow the word of God as our fureft guide, without regarding much the authority of men. Not but various authorities might be cited to fhow that this is no novel opinion. As St. Barnabas (3) fays,

nab. Epift. Cap. 15. Vide etiam Notas Cotelerii, &c. A a (4) Cum

octavi diei initium, hoc eft ini-
tium alterius mundi. Sancti Bar-
VOL. III.

fays,

C

When the Lord fhall make all things new, then shall be the beginning of the eighth day, which is the beginning of another world;' allowing fix thousand years to the duration of this world, the feventh thousand to the millennium, and the eighth thousand to the beginning of a bleffed eternity: and you may find many more teftimonies alleged to this purpose in the notes of Cotelerius and other critics upon this paffage of St. Barnabas. Lactantius (4) affirms, that when the thou• fand years shall be completed, the world shall

be renewed by God, and the heaven shall ⚫ be folded up, and the earth fhall be changed;

and God fhall transform men into the fimi'litude of angels; and they shall be white as fnow, and fhall be always converfant in the fight of the Almighty, and shall facrifice

<

to their Lord, and ferve him for ever.' St. Austin also (5) declares, that the judgment being finished, then this heaven and this earth fhall ceafe to be, when the new heaven and the new earth fhall begin to be.

For

(4) Cum vero completi fuerint mille anni, renovabitur mundus a Deo, et cœlum complicabitur, et terra mutabitur; et transformabit Deus homines in fimilitudinem angelorum; et

erunt candidi, ficut nix: et verfabuntur femper in confpectu omnipotentis, et domino fuo facrificabunt, et fervient in æternum. Lactant. Lib. 7. Cap. 26. (5) Peracto quippe judicio

tunc