Page images
PDF
EPUB

shed), "and shall no more cover her slain" (those whom she hath slain). In like manner here, Death and Hell are made to" deliver up their dead" (those whom they had killed, and had power over, thereby, to keep down in death and hades from troubling them upon the earth).

5. Death and Hell themselves (not the dead which they were compelled to give up) are the main parties cast into the "lake of fire" (ver. 14).

6. The expression (ver. 15), kaι ei тig bк evρeon, &c. either does but specify who Death and Hell are (viz. all whose names are not written in the book of life), or is, at most, but a subjunctive exception to the deliverance of those whom Death and Hell were made to give up. The verse reads, to all intents, supplementary and explanatory. At any rate, it can present no more difficulty than what has already been met in Dan. xii. 2, which is undoubtedly a pre-millennial_resurrection. And for our own part, we cannot but think that Dan. xii. 2 does most plainly declare the arising of some of the wicked synchronously with the righteous, before the Millennium. Nor do we perceive that Rev. xx. 4, 5, necessarily excludes at all the arising of the wicked; for, properly speaking, it does not describe the resurrection, or act of arising, at all; but only represents the life of the righteous subsequent thereto. These were risen, judged, and rewarded with thrones. And John saith of these "noav," for he saw them living but of "the rest of the dead" he saith " εκ εζησαν,” for he did not see them living. And seeing that the vision is not of the act of arising, but of the subsequent living and reigning of those who were arisen, the comment in the next verse, "This is the first resurrection," is only convertible into "These are the first risen ones;" not in anywise to the exclusion of others having possibly arisen with them, according to Daniel. It would appear, then, that some shall awake on that morning merely to perceive that they are not; and that there is an important distinction between arising at the first resurrection, and the "having a portion" therein for "Blessed and holy is he that hath a portion (ò εxwv μɛpos) in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power," &c. With this distinction, under the above observation, all appearance of discrepancy between the two prophets seems easily to vanish, and the view which we are suggesting of the judgment before the great white throne acquires increased probability.

7. "We must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in his body, whether it be good or bad" (1 Cor. v. 10). Those enthroned ones, therefore (Rev. xx. 4), had appeared before his judgment-seat to receive their reward: and we believe his "judgment-seat" to be this "great white throne;" and that these are they whom Death

and Hell give up, with others besides them. And these others (probably the ει τις εχ ευρέθη εν τη βιβλω) are cast, with Death and Hell, into the lake of fire.

8.They were judged every man according to their works" (vers. 12, 13). "Unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy for thou renderest to every man according to his work.'

[ocr errors]

9. Again, in this judgment "the books were opened" (ver. 12). We have in Dan. vii. a judgment set to destroy the fourth monarchy; that is, a pre-millennial judgment; and there, before a great throne," the books were opened."

10. From the face of Him that sat on the throne "the earth and the heaven fled away, and there was no more place found for them" (ver. 11). The thing represented to John by this would seem to be only the rapid and utter removal of all the worldly and ecclesiastical fashion of things present at the epiphany of the Lord. For in the new earth, which succeeds this removal (xxi. 1), there is "no more sea :" whereas in the physical world to come we know that there shall be a sea, by Ps. viii. as applied by Paul in Heb. ii. The physical earth, heaven, and sea, are consequently not meant here, whatever physical changes they are to undergo, as elsewhere revealed. The thing seen probably depicted summarily what is elsewhere described more deliberately.

11. "And there was no place found for them" agrees with many Scriptures:-"Thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be:" "The former things shall not come into mind, nor be remembered," &c.

12. To conclude: it is submitted that this whole vision of the great white throne, which is from Rev. xx. 11 to xxi. 5 and onwards, is really the counterpart of Daniel's vision of the Ancient of Days: what John was made to see being fit to represent the facts, and the aspect of them, most concerning the church of Christ; what Daniel saw being fitter to represent the facts, and the aspect of them, most concerning the Jewish people; in that day when the combined representations of the two visions shall be realized, during the epiphany of Christ in the glory of the Father. It follows, as a matter of course, if the above remarks be correct, that Rev. xx. 10 must be looked on as the last intimation of the revealed purposes of God. To whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

I will just add one observation more, which hath struck me a long time, and perhaps hath struck others also. In Dan. vii. (where the Ancient of Days is Christ in the glory of the Father), that one "like the Son of Man," who “ came with the clouds of heaven and came to the Ancient of Days" (ver. 13), seemeth without doubt to signify the saints' being caught up in clouds (Ev vepeλais—not, into the clouds) to the meeting of the Lord, into the air (iç aɛpa). 1 Thess. iv. 17.

Σ.

[ocr errors]

E

MOAB, EDOM, AND AMMON.

We have only time and space at present briefly to point the
attention of our readers to the changes now taking place in
the East, in preparation for its becoming the theatre for dis-
playing the literal fulfilment of all the glorious promises made to
the Jews, at the same time that all the judgments threatened
on apostate Christendom shall be fulfilled in the West. The
prophecies which refer to these events give a prominent place to
Egypt, Moab, Edom, and Ammon; as Isai. xi. 14, Dan. xi. 41;
and these powers come under judgment in their literal repre-
sentatives in the East, while the several forms of wickedness in
the church, which are spiritually designated by these titles, shall
be put to shame and utterly come to an end. Egypt, which is
now rising so rapidly into power, and before whom the empire of
the East is crumbling to dust, typifies Science and Learning in
Christendom, before which we vauntingly assume that the Papal
empire in the West is speedily to come to an end. The Pasha
of Egypt at present affects great liberality to Christians and
Jews, and has lured them into his service, and has removed all
imposts and disabilities; and our learned and scientific Egyp-
tians profess great liberality for those who profess religion,
and to desire nothing further than removing all disabilities and
impediments; that each man may follow the dictates of his
own conscience, responsible to God alone, and unmolested by
The ulterior end which the professors of Liberality have
in view is not yet developed; but it is easily surmised, and has
been often insisted on in former numbers of our Journal. But
Egypt, it is stated in Scripture, shall become wealthy in the latter
day, and become in consequence the spoil of the lawless and
godless king who shall then arise, who shall have "
the treasures of gold and silver, and over all the precious
things of Egypt" (Dan. xi. 43). And in like manner the
Egypt of the West shall be delivered into "the hand of a cruel
lord, and a fierce king shall rule over them" (Isai. xix. 4). Edom
typifies Rome and at the same time that Arabia and the coun-
tries south of Judea are visited with war and bloodshed and
temporal judgments, greater than they have hitherto experi-
enced, the Western apostasy is the special subject of the sword
of the Lord, which shall come down upon Idumea and upon the
people of his curse to judgment. This vengeance exceeds that
of the East in the degree of aggravation of guilt incurred by a
greater abuse of far higher privileges; in the degree that spiri-
tual exceed natural obligations. The Lord hath a sacrifice in
Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Idumea: it is the
day of his vengeance, and the year of recompences for the
controversy of Zion" (Isai. xxxiv. 10).

man.

power over

The spiritual antitype of Moab has never been fully made out

till of late, when it has been shewn to belong to the Evangelical church of the present time, as we hope to shew out at large in our next Number. Moab is commanded to hide the outcasts of the Lord, and to be a covert to them from the face of the spoiler (Isai. xvi. 3). And the judgments on Moab are spoken of in precisely the same terms as the judgments on Christendom (Isai. xxiv. 17; Jer. xlviii. 43). But Moab, in the pride and haughtiness of her heart, refuses the counsel of the Lord; and her foundations are stricken, till every one howls for Moab; at the very time that the throne of the Lord shall be established in mercy, and he shall sit upon it in truth, in the tabernacle of David, judging and seeking judgment and hasting righteousness (Isai. xvi. 5).

Ammon comes into judgment with Moab, Tyre, Edom, and Damascus, in many parts of Scripture (Amos i.; Jer. xlix.; Isai. xv.): her guilt is similar, and her judgments the same. Its antitype is to be sought in the half-brethren of the Evangelical church, the Presbyterians of the North. Ammon offended in the same kind as Moab against the children of Israel: and the only two classes who shew determined hostility to the people whom the Lord is now bringing into the inheritance of all his promises, are the Evangelical church of the South, and the Presbyterian church of the North. Theirs is the only active hostility; they have the greatest resemblance to the hostility of Moab and Ammon to the returning Israelites.

The events to which we are referring are proceeding with equal pace in the East and in the West to which we wish to direct the special attention of our readers, as we expect that in the interval between this Number and our next these events will be so far developed, both in their literal and spiritual aspects, as to give us much matter for comment and for instruction. We have referred above to the principal passages containing the judgments, but may particularly mention Dan. xi. 43 and Isa. xi. 41, for the literal peoples; and to Isa. xvi. compared with Isa. xxiv. to xxix. for the character of these adversaries of the people of God. And should we seem to any seeking for fanciful and invidious comparisons, to wound the feelings of those who may be opposed to the doctrines we hold, let them give some weight to the assurance we give them, that this is not the case; and let them examine for themselves whether these characters do not, in very many cases, apply beyond contradiction to the persons to whom we have applied them. And let those who still think that the judgments on Edom, Moab, and Ammon, cannot come down upon the churches of the present day, be very careful to study the characters of those people, that they may avoid the sins which call down those judgments.

COMMENTARY ON GENESIS, CHAP. III.

THEY Who esteem it a cardinal point of sound doctrine to maintain that the Word made flesh, unto eternity is, by the will of the Father and the work of the Spirit, constituted the voluntary head of all things for the church, and destined to reduce all things, by life or death, under God, when the end shall come, will, in contemplating the work of creation, be the first to admit, that for Christ, and through Christ, and unto Christ, the total universe (Ta Tavra) did once acquire and yet retaineth a being (Heb. ii. 10, Eph. iii. 9, Col. i. 15-20): insomuch that, in the boundless embrace and steadfast foreknowledge of that purpose which the Father, Son, and Spirit have from everlasting entertained concerning the Son incarnate in due time unto glory, the things made did proceed into existence through the Word incarnate, with an unvarying and ceaseless reference to that redemption under God in the flesh, for which alone they were created. And such persons will deem it no mere imagination, that this work of universal exstitution, or putting forth by creation, should, in the features of its detail by the Spirit, typically bespeak the yet vaster work of constitution, whereby are to be resumed all things-the subjects and the theatre at once of redemption-the objects of the deed and the receptacle of Him that enters to do it—made and delivered alike, not for their own sakes, but for the sake of an eternal purpose.

Creation thus gives us the parallel of redemption-an amalgam of subject and work from which to educe a visible token of his will, and a foreshadowing of futurity to that faith, which, not content to grope round the prison-house of things natural, breaks forth to expatiate, under the teaching of God, among the glorious plenitudes of his counsels, the mighty progress, the eternal building, whereof things seen do afford but an abridged sketch and miniature lineaments.

[ocr errors]

As I have already elsewhere traced the correspondence between the record of creation given in the first two chapters of Genesis, and the narrative of redemption afforded by the Scriptures at large the latter being the archetype rather than the antitype of the former. an observation or two may here suffice. On the fifth day, the type of the ungodly, the sea; on the sixth, the type of the church, the earth; bring forth. At the end of the former, and the beginning of the latter, stands the birth of Jesus Christ, the great first-born of the church. The transactions of the sixth day, which fall under the biography of the Word incarnate, and reach to the giving up of the kingdom at the end-and therefore to the commencement of eternal rest at the marriage of the Lamb to that total

« PreviousContinue »