except that the church will be there, when the things themselves transpire? All he sees there, as well as all the action described in the ensuing chapters, is in harmony with this view; while on any other ground the chapters before us are inexplicable. At the very commencement of this work it was our endeavour to shew, that the descent of Jesus into the air, to raise his sleeping saints and transform those that are alive, translating both into his own presence in glory, is the one, true, scriptural hope of the church. Our object in certain subsequent parts has been to shew, that the fulfilment of this hope is not dependent on earthly events: that while the day of the Lord" cannot come till the man of sin is revealed, "the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together unto him" * may be at any moment; that it only waits the Father's good pleasure, and the completion of the church, which is Christ's body-his bride. Such is the uniform doctrine of the epistles. What further light does the Apocalypse shed on the subject? This—that while it makes no historic mention of the fact, it shews from the beginning of ch. iv, that the fact has taken place ere the scenes it pourtrays begin to open. The only place in which the church is seen from ch. iv, 1, to ch. xix, 14, is in heaven. There, as symbolized along with Old Testament saints by the four and twenty crowned elders, it is seen throughout these chapters, and it is seen nowhere else. In ch. xix, the marriage of the Lamb having been solemnized in heaven, he, as the rider upon the white horse comes forth, to tread the winepress of the wrath of God; and then we are told, "the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean." The action of the intermediate chapters consists of successive judgments upon the earth's wicked inhabitants. The church is not amid the sphere on which these judgments fall. On the contrary it is seen to occupy the heavens whence these judgments proceed. In ch. iv, the symbols of the church, the crowned elders, are first seen peacefully seated on the thrones which surround the central throne, and then prostrating themselves before that throne, worshipping him that sits thereon and owning his title as Creator. In ch. v, one of these elders instructs and comforts the apostle, weeping because no one can as yet be found, worthy to open the seven-sealed book in the right hand of him that sat on the throne. When the Lamb takes the book, the whole company of these * See pages 221–240 ; especially from page 233. crowned elders fall down and worship, in the song at which we have already glanced. In ch. vii, they are seen, as always, in closer proximity to the throne than the angels themselves; and one of them again becomes the instructor of the apostle, as to the white-robed multitude to whom his attention is directed. The sounding of the seventh trumpet in ch. xi, re-awakens their praises. "And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God, saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come." They are again seen in ch. xiv, and in ch. xix, 4, but still in heaven. After that these symbolic personages are seen no more. The reason is obvious. They represent the redeemed in their unincorporated form, as translated to heaven, already both crowned and enthroned, but awaiting the moment of their descent with Christ to the earth. Hence, when the marriage of the Lamb has taken place, the church ceases to be represented by the crowned elders, because now corporately acknowledged as "the Bride, the Lamb's wife." The one symbol merges in the other; and from this point, it is in her bridal character that the church is seen. Along with the Old Testa"the ar ment saints she follows her Lord out of heaven : mies which were in heaven followed him." Along with these, and the martyrs of the crisis, she reigns with Christ a thousand years. But her own bridal glory, as the com-panion and sharer of her Lord's joy, and the minister of his beneficence to the earth, over which she reigns with him, is set forth to us in the vision of "that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God." One point must not be overlooked. There are saints on earth during the period embraced by chs. vi-xix, of the Apocalyse. It is this which has led so many to suppose that the church remains on earth throughout that period. But it has been already shewn from the Old Testament, that amid the sorrows of the closing crisis there will be Jewish saints, broken hearted on account of sin, zealous for God's glory, and desiring the advent of the Messiah, whose calling, experience, and hopes, differ most widely from those of the church-from those of christians under the present dispensation. It has been shewn, moreover, that many of these will suffer death at the hands of the last proud adversaries of God. Now it is our firm conviction, that a patient and unbiassed consideration of the Apocalypse is calculated to satisfy the christian, that what is there said of saints on earth, is more in harmony with the known standing, experiences, prayers, and hopes, of these Jewish saints, than with his own, or with those of the church of God. Not that we are to suppose there will be no saints of the approaching crisis but such as are Jews. We believe that one thing in which the Apocalypse supplies instruction omitted in the Old Testament is, that there will in that period be Gentile as well as Jewish saints. In ch. vi, some who have been slain are heard imploring vengeance on those who have shed their blood. In chapter vii, one hundred and forty and four thousand out of the tribes of Israel are sealed with the seal of God in their foreheads; while an innumerable company out of all kindreds and nations are seen to have come out of the great tribulation, and to have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb. In ch. viii, an angel presents with much incense at the golden altar, the prayers of saints-prayers, the answer to which is, that the angel takes the censer, and fills it with fire, and casts it into the earth; on which "voices" immediately ensue, with "thunderings and lightnings and an earthquake." The sackcloth testimony, the martyr-death, and the triumphant, visible ascension to heaven, of the two witnesses in ch. xi, we considered in our last. We add nothing now to the considerations then pre→ sented to shew, that this is not only what has not been fulfilled as yet, but so contrasted, in spirit and principle, with the character of the present dispensation, as to preclude the thought of its having been accomplished. Ch. xii, exhibits to us Israel's glory according to divine counsels: Israelthe mother, as all know, of the man-child who is to rule all nations. The man-child is caught away from the dragon's rage to God and his throne; but when, besides this, the dragon shall be cast out of heaven, and come down to earth, having great wrath, because he knows that he hath but a short time, against whom will his wrath be directed? Against the woman, and "the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." That is, against Israel, and especially the remnant, whose destinies, whether spared or martyred, we have been tracing in recent numbers of this work. Saints on earth are again mentioned in ch. xiii, as victims of the beast's enmity against God, and against all who own his name but this only serves to identify such saints with the evidently Jewish martyrs of Dan. vii, under "the little horn." So of ch. xiv, 12; chs. xv, and xvi; while ch. xx, 4, shews us, as explained in our last, that these martyrs of the crisis, being precluded by their death from the earthly hopes of blessing under Christ's millennial reign, are advanced to the far higher dignity of sharing, with Old Testament saints and with the Church, the privilege of reigning with Christ a thousand years. "The things which thou hast seen "-Christ's glory as walking amid the golden candlesticks-John has recorded in ch. i. "The things which are"-the successive states of the professing body, with Christ's judgment thereof, ending in its being spued out of his mouth-form the subject of chs. ii, and iii. "The things which must be after these" begin to be unfolded in ch. iv; but, that he may understand and communicate them, the apostle is caught up to heaven. There he witnesses a scene unlike the present, and equally unlike the millennial state of things. It belongs to neither the millennial period nor the present, but is a transitional period between the two, in which “the things which must be after these" have their fulfilment. During this period, the true church is in heaven. It sits there, is crowned there, worships there; and, deeply interested in the action which takes place on earth, it manifests its interest from time to time. Seals are openedtrumpets blown-vials of wrath poured out. All these are judgments from God upon the earth. They increase in intensity to the last. The objects of these judgments, Babylon and the Beast, are described. When Babylon's overthrow has taken place, the marriage of the Lamb is celebrated in heaven, and judgment is executed by his own hand on the Beast and on his armies. The armies which were in heaven attend him when he thus comes forth to conquer and make war. All enemies are overthrown. Satan is bound, Christ and the saints, including those of the crisis, as well as the Church and Old Testament saints, reign over the earth a thousand years. For a little season at the close, Satan is loosed, and a rebellion takes place, which is crushed by instant judgment, and the winding up of all things follows. The heavens and the earth pass away, and give place to new heavens and a new earth-to the everlasting state-in which God is all in all. Such seems to us to be the outline of this wondrous book. We commend it to the prayerful consideration of our readershoping in our next to consider at large the subject of “ The first resurrection." : LONDON PARTRIDGE AND OAKEY, Paternoster-Row. (Price One Penny.) No. 19.]Plain Papers on Prophetic[July, 1854. and other Subjects. "THE FIRST RESURRECTION." 66 There is perhaps no point on which the church at large has more widely departed from those habits of thought, feeling, and expression which characterised apostolic christianity, than that of the place given to death on the one hand and to resurrection on the other. With the apostles and with christians of their day, death was, so to speak, left behind; while resurrection, or rather the coming of him whom they knew as the Resurrection and the Life," was the one object of their joyful, triumphant hope. As to all that makes death really terrible-the fact of its being God's righteous sentence upon mankind as sinners—its connexion in this character with that eternal death of which to unbelievers it is at once the type and portal-its import as the expression of vassalage to Satan who "had the power of death" against all who were his slaves as to all this, we say, the first christians knew how death had been borne for them by Christ, and robbed of all its terrors. The sentence against their sins had been executed on Jesus; the entrance to eternal death had thus been closed against them by him whom they knew as their deliverer from "the wrath to come;" and as to Satan-the resurrection of Christ was to them the demonstration, that "through death he had vanquished him that had the power of death." Death was thus regarded by these christians as a conquered foe. Nay, they were accustomed to speak of Jesus as the One who had abolished death, and brought life and immortality (or incorruption) to light through the gospel." Consciously partakers of the risen life of Christ-Christ risen being in fact their life-they looked back to his death for them as having discharged every claim upon them, whether of the law, or of divine justice, or of Satan, or of death; and 66 U |