NICENE AND POST-NICENE FATHERS OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH-VOLUME I- CHAPTER 2

PROFESSOR IN THE UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, NEW YORK,

IN CONNECTION WITH A NUMBER OF PATRISTIC SCHOLARS OF EUROPE AND AMERICA.

VOLUME I

THE CONFESSIONS AND LETTERS OF ST. AUGUSTIN,

CHAPTER II.—A Sketch of the Life of St. Augustin.

It is a venturesome and delicate undertaking to write one’s own life, even though that life be a masterpiece of nature and the grace of God, and therefore most worthy to be described. Of all autobiographies none has so happily avoided the reef of vanity and self-praise, and none has won so much esteem and love through its honesty and humility as that of St. Augustin.

The “Confessions,” which he wrote in the forty-fourth year of his life, still burning in the ardor of his first love, are full of the fire and unction of the Holy Spirit. They are a sublime composition, in which Augustin, like David in the fifty-first Psalm, confesses to God, in view of his own and of succeeding generations, without reserve the sins of his youth; and they are at the same time a hymn of praise to the grace of God, which led him out of darkness into light, and called him to service in the kingdom of Christ.  Here we see the great church teacher of all times “prostrate in the dust, conversing with God, basking in his love; his readers hovering before him only as a shadow.” He puts away from himself all honor, all greatness, all merit, and lays them gratefully at the feet of the All-merciful. The reader feels on every hand that Christianity is no dream nor illusion, but truth and life, and he is carried along in adoration of the wonderful grace of God.

AURELIUS AUGUSTINUS, born on the 13th of November, 354,  at Tagaste, an unimportant village of the fertile province of Numidia in North Africa, not far from Hippo Regius, inherited from his heathen father, Patricius,  a passionate sensibility, from his Christian mother, Monnica (one of the noblest women in the history of Christianity, of a highly intellectual and spiritual cast, of fervent piety, most tender affection, and all-conquering love), the deep yearning towards God so grandly expressed in his sentence: “Thou hast made us for Thyself, and our heart is restless till it rests in Thee.”  This yearning, and his reverence for the sweet and holy name of Jesus, though crowded into the background, attended him in his studies at the schools of Madaura and Carthage, on his journeys to Rome and Milan, and on his tedious wanderings through the labyrinth of carnal pleasures, Manichæan mock-wisdom, Academic skepticism, and Platonic idealism; till at last the prayers of his mother, the sermons of Ambrose, the biography of St. Anthony, and above all, the Epistles of Paul, as so many instruments in the hand of the Holy Spirit, wrought in the man of three and thirty years that wonderful change which made him an incalculable blessing to the whole Christian world, and brought even the sins and errors of his youth into the service of the truth. 

A son of so many prayers and tears could not be lost, and the faithful mother who travailed with him in spirit with greater pain than her body had in bringing him into the world,  was permitted, for the encouragement of future mothers, to receive shortly before her death an answer to her prayers and expectations, and was able to leave this world with joy without revisiting her earthly home. For Monnica died on a homeward journey, in Ostia at the mouth of the Tiber, in her fifty-sixth year, in the arms of her son, after enjoying with him a glorious conversation that soared above the confines of space and time, and was a foretaste of the eternal Sabbath-rest of the saints. If those moments, he says, could be prolonged for ever, they would more than suffice for his happiness in heaven. She regretted not to die in a foreign land, because she was not far from God, who would raise her up at the last day. “Bury my body anywhere, “was her last request, “and trouble not yourselves for it; only this one thing I ask, that you remember me at the altar of my God, wherever you may be.”  Augustin, in his Confessions, has erected to Monnica a noble monument that can never perish.

If ever there was a thorough and fruitful conversion, next to that of Paul on the way to Damascus, it was that of Augustin, when, in a garden of the Villa Cassiciacum, not far from Milan, in September of the year 386, amidst the most violent struggles of mind and heart—the birth-throes of the new life—he heard that divine voice of a child: “Take, read!” and he “put on the Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. xiii. 14). It is a touching lamentation of his: “I have loved Thee late, Thou Beauty, so old and so new; I have loved Thee late! And lo! Thou wast within, but I was without, and was seeking Thee there. And into Thy fair creation I plunged myself in my ugliness; for Thou was with me, and I was not with Thee! Those things kept me away from Thee, which had not been, except they had been in Thee! Thou didst call, and didst cry aloud, and break through my deafness. Thou didst glimmer, Thou didst shine, and didst drive away my blindness. Thou didst breathe, and I drew breath, and breathed in Thee. I tasted Thee, and I hunger and thirst. Thou didst touch me, and I burn for Thy peace. If I, with all that is within me, may once live in Thee, then shall pain and trouble forsake me; entirely filled with Thee, all shall be life to me.”

He received baptism from Ambrose in Milan on Easter Sunday, 387, in company with his friend and fellow-convert Alypius, and his natural son Adeodatus (given by God). It impressed the divine seal upon the inward transformation. He broke radically with the world; abandoned the brilliant and lucrative vocation of a teacher of rhetoric, which he had followed in Rome and Milan; sold his goods for the benefit of the poor; and thenceforth devoted his rare gifts exclusively to the service of Christ, and to that service he continued faithful to his latest breath. After the death of his mother, whom he revered and loved with the most tender affection, he went a second time to Rome for several months, and wrote books in defence of true Christianity against false philosophy and against the Manichæan heresy. Returning to Africa, he spent three years, with his friends Alypius and Evodius, on an estate in his native Tagaste, in contemplative and literary retirement.

Then, in 391, he was chosen presbyter against his will, by the voice of the people, which, as 5in the similar cases of Cyprian and Ambrose, proved to be the voice of God, in the Numidian maritime city of Hippo Regius (now Bona); and in 395 he was elected bishop in the same city. For 

eight and thirty years, until his death, he labored in this place, and made it the intellectual centre of Western Christendom. 

His outward mode of life was extremely simple, and mildly ascetic. He lived with his clergy in one house in an apostolic community of goods, and made this house a seminary of theology, out of which ten bishops and many lower clergy went forth. Females, even his sister, were excluded from his house, and could see him only in the presence of others. But he founded religious societies of women; and over one of these his sister, a saintly widow, presided.  He once said in a sermon, that he had nowhere found better men, and he had nowhere found worse, than in monasteries. Combining, as he did, the clerical life with the monastic, he became unwittingly the founder of the Augustinian order, which gave the reformer Luther to the world. He wore the black dress of the Easter cœnobites, with a cowl and a leathern girdle. He lived almost entirely on vegetables, and seasoned the common meal with reading or free conversation, in which it was a rule that the character of an absent person should never be touched. He had this couplet engraved on the table:

“Quisquis amat dictis absentum rodere vitam,

Hanc mensam vetitam noverit esse sibi.”

He often preached five days in succession, sometimes twice a day, and set it as the object of his preaching, that all might live with him, and he with all, in Christ. Wherever he went in Africa, he was begged to preach the world of salvation.  He faithfully administered the external affairs connected with his office, though he found his chief delight in contemplation. He was specially devoted to the poor, and, like Ambrose, upon exigency, caused the church vessels to be melted down to redeem prisoners. But he refused legacies by which injustice was done to natural heirs, and commended the bishop Aurelius of Carthage for giving back 

unasked some property which a man has bequeathed to the church, when his wife unexpectedly bore him children.

Augustin’s labors extended far beyond his little diocese. He was the intellectual head of the North African and the entire Western church of his time. He took active interest in all theological and ecclesiastical questions. He was the champion of the orthodox doctrine against Manichæan, Donatist, and Pelagian. In him was concentrated the whole polemic power of the catholic church of the time against heresy and schism; and in him it won the victory over them.

In his last years he took a critical review of his literary productions, and gave them a thorough sifting in his Retractations. His latest controversial works, against the Semi-Pelagians, written in a gentle spirit, date from the same period. He bore the duties of his office alone till his seventy-second year, when his people unanimously elected his friend Heraclius to be his assistant.

The evening of his life was troubled by increasing infirmities of body and by the unspeakable wretchedness which the barbarian Vandals spread over his country in their victorious invasion, 6destroying cities, villages, and churches, without mercy, and even besieging the fortified city of Hippo.  Yet he faithfully persevered in his work. The last ten days of his life he spent in close retirement, in prayers and tears and repeated reading of the penitential Psalms, which he can caused to be written on the wall over his bed, that he might have them always before his eyes. Thus with an act of penitence he closed his life. In the midst of the terrors of the siege and the despair of his people he could not suspect what abundant seed he had sown for the future.

In the third month of the siege of Hippo, on the 28th of August, 430, in the seventy-sixth year of his age, in full possession of his faculties, and in the presence of many friends and pupils, he past gently and peacefully into that eternity to which he had so long aspired. “O how wonderful,” wrote he in his Meditations,  “how beautiful and lovely are the dwellings of Thy house, Almighty God! I burn with longing to behold Thy beauty in Thy bridal-chamber.…O Jerusalem, holy city of God, dear bride of Christ, my heart loves thee, my soul has already long sighed for thy beauty!…The King of kings Himself is in the midst of thee, and His children are within thy walls. There are the hymning choirs of angels, the fellowship of heavenly citizens. There is the wedding-feast of all who from this sad earthly pilgrimage have reached thy joys. There is the far-seeing choir of the prophets; there the company of the twelve apostles; there the triumphant army of innumerable martyrs and holy confessors. Full and perfect love there reigns, for God is all in all. They love and praise, they praise and love Him evermore.…Blessed, perfectly and forever blessed, 

shall I too be, if, when my poor body shall be dissolved,… I may stand before my King and God, and see Him in His glory, as He Himself hath deigned to promise: ‘Father, I will that they also whom Thou hast given Me be with Me where I am; that they may behold My glory which I had with Thee before the world was.’” This aspiration after the heavenly Jerusalem found grand expression in the hymn De gloria et gaudiis Paradisi:

“Ad perennis vitæ fontem mens sativit arida.”

It is incorporated in the Meditations of Augustin, and the ideas originated in part with him, but were not brought into poetical form till long afterwards by Peter Damiani. 

He left no will, for in his voluntary poverty he had no earthly property to dispose of, except his library; this he bequeathed to the church, and it was fortunately preserved from the depredations of the Arian barbarians. 

Soon after his death Hippo was taken and destroyed by the Vandals.  Africa was lost to the Romans. A few decades later the whole West-Roman empire fell in ruins. The culmination of the African church was the beginning of its decline. But the work of Augustin could not perish. His ideas fell like living seed into the soil of Europe, and produced abundant fruits in nations and countries of which he had never heard.

NOTES ON THE APOCALYPSE--CHAPTER XXII

 

LAST CHAPTER

1. And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.

2. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

3. And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him.

4. And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads.

5. And there shall be no night there: and they need no candle, neither light of the sun: for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.

Vs. 1-5.—These verses, being a continuance of the description of the "holy city," naturally belong to the preceding chapter.—The angel proceeds to show John the source and current from which emanate all heavenly blessings. The allusion is to Ezekiel, xlvii. 1-12; but both he and John call our attention to man's primeval state, when our first parents dwelt in Eden. This abode of the blessed is beautified and enriched with all the products, delights and attractions which are adapted to the refined senses of holy creatures,—"pleasant to the eyes, and good for food." It is Paradise restored, by the "doing and dying" of the second Adam. It is also Paradise improved, having not only the "tree of life," as the first had, but also, in addition, the "water of life." The "tree of life" was to sinless Adam a symbol and pledge of immortality to himself and all his posterity whom he represented in the Covenant of Works. Now that heaven is procured for all believers by the second Adam, it is emblematically represented to our weak apprehension by directing our attention to the primitive and earthly Paradise. This is repeatedly done in Scripture. The Lord Jesus, before he expired upon the cross, said to the penitent thief,—"To day shall thou be with me in Paradise. (Luke xxiii. 43.) Paul was "caught up" thither, (2 Cor. xii. 4;) and he calls the place "heaven," (v. 2;) and in this book, (ch. ii. 7,) the Lord promises,—"I will give to him that overcometh to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God." The "tree" is an emblem of Christ, (Song ii. 3;) the "river of the water of life" symbolizes the Holy Spirit, (John vii. 38, 39;) for as the Son and the Holy Ghost proceed from the Father, the former by generation, the latter by emanation from eternity,—so "that eternal life which was with the Father" in the person of the Son, and purchased by the Son, is communicated by the Holy Ghost to all the redeemed by regeneration. (2 Cor. iii. 6; Rom. viii. 2.)—Thus, the eternal duration of life in glory "proceeds out of the throne of God and the Lamb." On each side of the river "the tree of life" is accessible by the inhabitants; and the fruits of the tree, ripe in all months of the year, and adapted to every taste, each one may "put forth his hand" as he passes, "and take ... and eat, and live for ever." (Gen. iii. 22.) Or, "the people that are therein" may "sit down under its shadow, and its fruit will be sweet to their taste."—"The leaves of the tree" are for medicine, being preventive of all disease, so that "the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein are forgiven their iniquities." (Is. xxxiii. 24.) "There shall be no more curse." Satan gained entrance into the garden of Eden, and succeeded in entailing the "curse" upon man, and upon beast, and upon the fruits of the ground; but he shall never be loosed again, or emerge from "the lake of fire," to disturb the repose of that blessed society in heaven, (ch. xxi. 27.)—As the "throne of God and the Lamb" is one, (ch. iii. 21;) so it is remarkable that the distinction of persons is omitted, as though the Father and the Son were but one person. True, Christ said, "I and my Father are one," (John x. 30;) but he referred to unity of nature and purpose, not of personality; for, in consistency with this, he said also,—"My Father is greater than I;" an assertion which must consist with the former, and which plainly involves personal distinction, (ch. xiv. 28.)—"His name shall be in their foreheads."—Which of them? We have found Christ's Father's name "written in the foreheads" of a hundred and forty-four thousand saints militant, (ch. xiv. 1.) While in conflict, "the world knew them not," and the adherents of Antichrist "cast out their names as evil," branding them as heretics; but now they are known to the whole universe, as the covenant property of both the Father and the Son, (ch. iii. 12.)—"Behold, I and the children which God hath given me;" (Heb. ii. 13.) "I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me cut of the world. Thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word. ... All mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them." (John xvii. 6,10.)—There will be no intermission or interruption of service, "no night there,"—no hidings of God's countenance, no desertions; for "they shall see his face" in the "express image of the Father's person," be assured of his love;—"need no candle," nor any earthly accommodation; "for the Lord God giveth them light; and they shall reign for ever and ever," in fulness of joy and unalloyed pleasures for evermore. (Ps. xvi. 11.) How different is this heaven from the Mahometan paradise, which, if real, could gratify only carnal and sensual sinners! yet the imaginations of many, and their aspirations too, with the Bible in their hands, are little better than those of Mahometans or pagans. All speculations of heathen philosophers about the "chief good," or the enjoyments of their imaginary gods, are so gross and brutish as to demonstrate the all-important truth, that "except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." (John iii. 3.) And it is too evident that some modern philosophers are as little acquainted as Nicodemus with the humbling doctrines of the gospel. The society of learned men, making perpetual advance in natural science, especially in astronomy,—would seem to be the highest conception of happiness which too many modern philosophers can reach. They know not some of the elementary teachings of the Holy Scriptures; such as,—"Without holiness no man shall see the Lord;" and that this indispensable preparation for heavenly felicity consists in "the washing of regeneration, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost."

The hundreds of diverse and conflicting opinions of learned writers on the summum bonum, or chief good, proves to demonstration, that without supernatural revelation and regeneration, man cannot conceive in what happiness consists. Thus far is the description of the heavenly state; and how little can we know, or even conceive of the glory and felicity of the upper sanctuary! We must still say with the prophet Isaiah and the apostle Paul,—"Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." (Isa. lxiv. 4; 1 Cor. ii. 9.)

6. And he said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true: and the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to show unto his servants the things which must shortly be done.

7. Behold, I come quickly, blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.

Vs. 6, 7.—The angel assures the apostle and all who read, that "these sayings are faithful and true," however sublime and incomprehensible; however, incredible to infidels; however contradicted and misinterpreted by antichristian apostates and enthusiasts. They are all from "the Lord God of the holy prophets,"—from Jesus Christ and God the Father, (ch. i. 1.)—All prophets who wrote any part of the Bible, were "holy men of God." (2 Pet. i. 21.)—Of "these things" some were "shortly to be done;" and all in regular series would be accomplished in due time.—"Behold I come quickly." Christ is the speaker here, and declares that each one is "blessed who keepeth the sayings ... of this book." This benediction was pronounced on such at the beginning of this Revelation, (ch. i. 3,) and it is repeated by its immediate divine Author, to encourage all to study it. This blessing is not to be expected by any who merely read or hear, but by those only who keep the "sayings of this prophecy." Its Author foreknew its enemies and corrupters.

8. And I John saw these things, and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel, which showed me these things.

9. Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not: for I am thy fellow-servant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God.

Vs. 8, 9.—A second time, John attempts an act of idolatry! While we may wonder at this, let us not fail to admire the wonderful wisdom of God in permitting his servant to fall, as he did in the case of our first father Adam, that he might take occasion more fully to display his glory in "bringing good out of evil." The Apocalypse is directed chiefly against that primary feature of the great Antichrist, idolatry. This was part of "the mystery of inquity "which did already work" in the time of the apostles, (Col. ii. 18,) and was to be fully developed afterwards. (2 Thess. ii. 4.) This second rebuke of an apostle, by one of the most exalted of creatures, for ever answers all arguments of Papists or others, who plead for, or palliate the "worshipping of angels" or souls of men. Idolaters worship angels and souls when absent, as though they were omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent; thus giving the glory to creatures of these divine perfections: whereas this heavenly messenger, when present, keenly resents this indignity to his and the apostle's adorable Creator and Lord. Once more the angel directs John and all men to join him and all the heavenly host in observing "the first and great commandment,"—"Worship God," (ch. v. 11-14.) This angelic rebuke, leaves Papists for ever without excuse; and consequently all others who deny the supreme deity of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and yet worship him.

10. And he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book; for the time is at hand.

11. He that is unjust, let him be unjust still; and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still; and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still; and he that is holy, let him be holy still.

12. And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.

Vs. 10-12.—Christ himself addresses John in person. He had done so at the beginning of these glorious scenes of the future, (ch. i. 8.) Now he appears again in glory, though not described as before, that he may thus authenticate and close the vision.—"Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book." Why is this? The reason is assigned, because "the time is at hand" when they shall begin to be verified in actual history. The case was different in Daniel's time, who was inspired by the same omniscient Spirit to predict the same events. "O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the vision, even to the time of the end." (Dan. xii. 4.) If the vision of the empires of Persia and Greece was to be "for many days," (ch. viii. 26,) then the rise, reign and overthrow of the Roman empire, were still more remote. No wonder that Daniel, with becoming humility but intense interest inquired, "O, my Lord, what shall be the end of these things?" Such was the subdued anxiety of other prophets. (1 Pet. i. 10.) And here we may once for all notice the three distinct periods mentioned by Daniel, as measuring the duration of the Roman empire, the Romish apostacy, and as they bear upon the promised and desirable millennium. The two prophets, Daniel and John, agree in fixing and limiting the domination of the Antichrist to 1260 years. This agreement has been already pointed out. The Lord, however, to allay the laudable anxiety of his "greatly beloved" servant Daniel, makes mention of two other periods of time, 1290 and 1335 days or years, (ch. xii. 11, 12.) Now, when we have manifold assurances that the great apostacy shall terminate with the close of the 1260 years, we may venture humbly to suppose, that the next thirty years may be occupied in the conversion of the Jews, and the remaining forty-five in the effectual calling of the residue of the gentile nations; so as to bring the kingdoms of the earth and the church of Christ to perfect organization and visible harmony, and the whole population of the globe into voluntary and avowed subjection to the Lord and his Anointed,—to perfect millennial splendor, the nearest approximation to heaven. (Rom. xi. 25, 26; Ps. cii. 15, 16.) But "who shall live when God doeth this?" (Num. xxiv. 23.)—The divine Author of this book, having given to mankind a complete and sufficient revelation of his will, containing invitations and warnings, at this juncture gives intimation that obstinate sinners shall at length be left to the consequences of their own free and perverse choice, "unjust and filthy still;" no further means to be employed for their conviction; but those who have embraced the offer of the gospel, shall be confirmed for ever in holiness and happiness,—"righteous and holy still."—He also repeats the assurances of his sudden appearance to reward "every man according as his work shall be." The recompense which he brings will be of debt or justice to the impenitent unbeliever; but wholly of free grace to the believer; for the works of each class shall follow them, as decisive evidence of their respective characters, (ch. xiv. 13.)

13. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.

V. 13.—The Lord Christ here declares and asserts the eternity of his personal subsistence and official standing, as an all-sufficient guarantee of his ability and authority to deal with the righteous and the wicked, as also to bring to pass all events by his providence which are here predicted. The same guarantee he had given at the beginning of the Apocalypse, (ch. i. 8.)

14. Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.

V. 14.—Those who "do his commandments," are believers, (John xiv. 15,) and no others can obtain a "right to the tree of life"—all the blessings of Christ's purchase: for "without faith it is impossible to please God," (Heb. xi. 6;) and "this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments." (1 John v. 3.) "By the deeds of the law,"—keeping the commandments, whether moral or ceremonial, "shall no flesh be justified in the sight of God," or merit a "right to the tree of life," or to "enter in through the gates into the city." This right, power, or privilege, is confined to those, and to those only, who "receive and believe on the name of Christ." (John i. 12.) They who serve the Lord Christ, are entitled to the reward of the inheritance, (Col. iii. 24;) and in keeping of his commandments, there is great reward. (Ps. xix. 11.) This reward is of grace, not of debt to any of the children of Adam: "not of works, lest any man should boast." (Rom. xi. 6; Eph. ii. 9.) And when the last elected sinner, pertaining to the whole company of the redeemed, shall have been called, justified and sanctified, then "with gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought: they shall enter into the King's palace." (Ps. xlv. 15.)

15. For without are dogs and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.

V. 15.—"Without are dogs."—These characters have been excluded by the righteous and unalterable sentence of the judge of quick and dead, having their part in the "lake of fire:" for there is no intimation here or elsewhere, of any purgatory or intermediate place, with the delusive hope of which, those who "love and make lies," flatter themselves and their blind votaries. Oh, that such "sinners in Zion," and out of Zion, "might be afraid!"—that timely "fearfulness might surprise these hypocrites!" that they might ponder those awful questions!—"Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?" (Isa. xxxiii. 14.)

16. I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.

V. 16.—This is the "angel" whose ministry the Lord Christ was pleased to employ in making known to the church through his servant John, most of the discoveries of this book, (ch. i. 1, 11.) Many other angels have indeed been employed by the Mediator as the ministers of his providence; but this one seems to have been the principal all along. None of these heavenly messengers, however, was found competent to reveal the purposes of God, (ch. v. 3.) To this work the eternal Son of God alone was found adequate by nature and office,—the "Lamb that had been slain." Christ has a personal property in the angels, as he is their Creator and Lord; and as they are his creatures and willing servants,—"mine angel."—This is perfectly reasonable; for he is the "Root of David" in his divine nature; and the "Offspring of David," in his human nature, (Rom. i. 3.)—God-Man, Mediator. And here let it be remarked, that in speaking or writing of our Redeemer there appears to be no scriptural warrant for the popular phrases,—"the union of the two natures,"—"Christ as man;" or, "as God." These expressions militate against the unity of his divine nature and personality; and are calculated,—we do not say intended, to mislead or confuse the mind of his disciples. "In him personally, not in the Father or the Holy Ghost, "dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." (Col. ii. 9.)—By John the descent of Christ's human nature is traced through David here, because of the Covenant of Royalty; by Paul, he is represented as being of the "seed of Abraham," by reason of the more extended relation involved in the Covenant of Grace. (Heb. ii. 16.)—He is also "the bright, even the morning star." This may be in reference to the less luminous "stars in his right hand," (ch. i. 16, 20,) and by way of contrast with them: but he takes this name chiefly to intimate that he is the Author of all supernatural illumination, whether in the kingdom of grace or of glory:—"The Lamb is the light thereof," (ch. xxi. 23.)

17. And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth, say, Come. And let him that is athirst, come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.

V. 17.—Here is the unrestricted universal call of the gospel, to "come" to Christ for eternal life.—"We do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world," (1 John iv. 14.)—The invitation is manifold and pressing. "The Spirit" by the word and conscience says, "Come." "The Bride," the church militant and triumphant, says, "Come." Every one "that heareth" the invitation, is warranted to say to others, "Come." Let every one that "thirsts" for true and lasting felicity, "Come." If any one be in doubt, whether his desire be spiritual or not, it is added for his encouragement, as well as sufficient warrant,—"Let whosoever will, take of the water of life freely." Any sinner of Adam's race may "wash and be clean," in that "fountain open for sin and for uncleanness;" may with confidence and pleasure, "draw water from the wells of salvation." (Zech. xiii. 1: Isa. xii. 3.) Who can resist these calls, invitations and persuasions, and be guiltless? or who can devise easier terms of reconciliation to an offended God, than are here addressed to the chief of sinners?

18. For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:

19. And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

Vs. 18, 19.—"For I testify."—He who is "the faithful and true Witness" closes this book of prophecy, with a solemn and awful sanction. These tremendous threatenings by the "Lord God of the holy prophets," may well cause all who read or hear to tremble: for who can abide his indignation?—While the "prophecy of this book" is primarily intended, all other parts of the Bible are included in this solemn conclusion: for doubtless our Lord intended the Apocalypse to be a close to the whole canon. The threatening is twofold, corresponding to the criminality. Learned, bold and irreverent biblical critics; enthusiasts and pretenders to new revelations, are in danger of these judgments. "The plagues that are written in this book," are such as will utterly destroy the presumptuous sinner who "adds to these things." And he that impiously "takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy," exposes himself to the like awful punishment. "God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book."—Tremendous doom! All that which he seemed to have shall be taken away. (Luke viii. 18.) Great will be the sudden and unexpected loss!—These awful denunciations, however, have special reference, like the rest of the threatened judgments in this book, to the great, continued and defiant impieties of the apostate church of Rome. She has "added" her traditions to the Scriptures, as part and principal part, of the "Rule of Faith!" She has "taken away" the Scriptures from the body of her people; or shut them up in an "unknown tongue," so that "every man may" not "hear in his own tongue wherein he was born, the wonderful works of God." (Acts ii. 8, 11.) This is one of the articles in Rome's indictment here; and whatever modern infidelity or spurious charity may suggest, this theft of God's word, and robbery of his people, is not to be expiated with burnt offering or sacrifice. And he who scans all time, foresaw this attempt of the dragon and his allies to deprive the church and the world of the "lively oracles;" therefore, as he promised a blessing on the reader of this book, as it were on the title-page, here in the close he appends a malediction, that all who read or hear, may be deterred from such sacrilege.

20. He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly: Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

V. 20.—"He which testifieth these things" is the Lord Jesus. Again he reminds all to whom these presents come, of his certain and speedy appearance. These frequent assurances are not "vain repetitions." They are intended to strengthen the faith and counteract the despondency of the saints, and to alarm the consciences of his enemies. (2 Pet. iii. 3, 4, 8, 10; Jude 14, 15.) To this "promise of his coming," John responds in the name of the whole church,—"Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus," to fulfil these predictions, in their promises and threatenings; "to be glorified in his saints, and admired in all them that believe." "So shall they ever be with the Lord." (1 Thess. iv. 17.)

21. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

V. 21.—These are also the words of John. He had just been addressing the "Lord Jesus," and his next words are addressed to the "seven churches," (ch. i. 4, 11,) or to all who read or hear the words of this book: but especially the church general. This is a concise form of the "apostolic benediction," (2 Thess. iii. 18,) which is sometimes amplified, by naming the Father and the Son; or, at other times, the three divine persons. (2 Cor. xiii. 14.) However, "the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ" is originally from God the Father, procured for us by Jesus Christ, and communicated to us by the Holy Spirit. And unto the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, let equal, undivided, and everlasting glory be ascribed, by all the subjects of his regenerating and sanctifying grace, "throughout all ages, world without end." Amen.

NOTES ON THE APOCALYPSE--CHAPTER XXI

 

1. And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.

2. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

3. And I heard a great voice out of heaven, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

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

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

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

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

Vs. 1-7.—It is unquestionable that the phrase "new heavens and a new earth" is to be understood sometimes as descriptive of moral renovation in the world. As the moral change affected by grace in the character of an individual sinner is called a new creation, and is in truth no less, so in respect to a community. The analogy in this case is the same as between a revolution and an earthquake. Thus, we must understand Is. lxv. 17, lxvi. 22, of that great moral change which will characterize the millennium. But the "new heaven and the new earth" are here contrasted with the "first heaven and the first earth which were passed away," (ch. xx. 11.) The apostle Peter describes the very same grand and glorious change. Mingling the important facts of authentic history with the future facts of prophecy, he tells us that the "heavens and the earth which are now, ... are reserved unto fire."—He speaks obviously of the visible heavens and earth. These "heavens shall pass away ... and "the earth also, ... shall be burnt up." He adds,—"We look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." (2 Pet. iii. 7, 13.)—"There was no more sea," no more disorderly passions, animosities, arising from human depravity, to interrupt the delightful harmony and fellowship of saints in glory. It is estimated that about two thirds of this world are occupied by water. In that happy place occupied by the people of God, there is no sea; consequently, "yet there is room," many mansions, room enough for all the redeemed. "The holy city," compared to a "bride," two very incongruous emblems, shows the poverty of symbols, their inadequacy to represent the church triumphant: how then shall created objects furnish suitable emblems of the glorious and glorified Bridegroom? In vision the city seemed to the apostle as if suspended in the air on the same plane with himself; for now he stood neither on "the sand of the sea," (ch. xiii. 1,) for "there was no more sea," nor upon the earth, for it was "passed away." 

No intervening object could obstruct his view.—He heard a voice from heaven, saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them," as his reconciled and beloved people. As a tender Father, he will "wipe away all tears from their eyes." "There shall be no more death," either of themselves or their beloved friends, to open the fountain of tears any more for ever. But death is the last enemy to be destroyed; (1 Cor. xv. 26;) how then can these words apply to any state short of immortality in heaven? "Neither sorrow nor crying,"—for sin or suffering; "neither shall there be any more pain," causing tears or cries: and what is this but heaven? Yes, "the former things are passed away." Now "he that hath the bride is the bridegroom," and she shall never be false to her marriage covenant any more.—"He that sat on the throne," denotes the Father most frequently in this book, as he is distinguished from the Son; but the Son "is set down with his Father in his throne," (ch. iii. 21;) and the Son is to be viewed as the person on the throne here, as the following words, compared with the twentieth chapter, verse eleventh, make evident.—He it is who "makes all things new." He left his disciples as to his bodily presence, and went to "prepare a place for them," (John xiv. 2;) and now he has come again and received them to himself, in fulfilment of his promise. Having sent the Holy Spirit to create them anew and to carry on to completion their sanctification, he now sees of the travail of his soul, the Father has given him his heart's desire, and hath not withholden the request of his lips. Now, all his ransomed ones are with him, in answer to his prayer, and also their own prayers, that they may behold his glory which the Father gave him. (Ps. xxi. 2; John xvii. 24; Phil. i. 23.)—The Lord Christ said to John,—"Write; for these words are true and faithful." And what has sustained the spirits, animated the hopes, and filled with exulting joy, the confessors, witnesses and martyrs of Jesus, but faith's realizing views of the King in his beauty, and the glories of Immanuel's land? For this peculiarity the disciples of Christ have been as speckled birds, men wondered at, in all generations.—"It is done," so he said at the pouring out of the seventh vial, (ch. xvi. 17;) when the final stroke was given to the antichristian enemies: but now these words import the completion of the whole counsel of the will of God, as carried into effect by the Captain of salvation, in bringing the beloved and adopted sons and daughters of the Father home to glory. (Heb. ii. 10.) He who is the "Alpha and Omega," is the "author and finisher of their faith."—Although the Lord Jesus has made of sinners "new creatures," prepared them as "vessels of mercy unto glory," and introduced them into heaven, they are creatures still, and necessarily dependent. They thirst for refreshment suited to their holy nature; and accordingly he gives of the "fountain of the water of life freely," for the streams of which they thirsted, "as the heart panteth for the water brooks," while they sojourned in a dry and parched land, far from their Father's house. Man's sin consisted in forsaking this "Fountain of living waters," and his recovery and felicity must arise from his returning from his own "broken cisterns" to the original spring.—The water of life was purchased at infinite cost by Christ; but he offers it to the thirsty without price, (Is. lxv. 1, 2.)—Those who are refreshed by the streams of the water of life, have many enemies to encounter in their militant state, but all who overcome are encouraged in their warfare by the animating promise, that they shall "inherit all things." (1 Cor. iii. 21.)—"He shall be my son," and "if a son, then an heir of God, and joint heir with Christ."

8. But the fearful and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone; which is the second death.

V. 8.—"But the fearful," who dread suffering or reproach for the cause of Christ,—not the self-diffident who loves his Captain, but the coward or deserter, who "turns back in the day of battle," who fears the enemy more than his Captain:—"and unbelieving," not the misbelieving, as Thomas; nor the weak in faith, but such as have no faith,—infidels;—"the abominable," defiling the flesh as Sodomites:—"murderers," suicides, duelists, assassins, burglars, etc., "whoremongers," adulterers, fornicators:—"sorcerers," necromancers, spiritualists, who are the devil's prophets, pretending to new revelations, "and all liars," perjured persons, deceivers, hypocrites, false teachers, who handle the word of the Lord deceitfully, for filthy lucre's sake,—all such shall have their part in the lake, with the devil, the beast, and the false prophet. (1 Cor. vi. 9, 10; Gal. v. 19-21; Eph. v. 5, 6; 2 Cor. xi. 13.)

9. And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb's wife.

10. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God,

11. Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper-stone, clear as crystal;

12. And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel.

13. On the east, three gates; on the north, three gates; on the south, three gates; and on the west, three gates.

14. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

Vs. 9-14.—This "angel" is probably the same who had shown John the mystic Babylon and her destruction, (ch. xvii. 1;) and who now proposes to show him the "bride of the Lamb" by way of contrast.—Under the influence of the Spirit, who has access to the soul without the use of the bodily organs, (2 Cor. xii. 2,)—John was "carried to a great and high mountain," where the prospect might be sufficiently enlarged. When the angel proposed to show him the "scarlet whore," he "carried him into the wilderness," intimating that such is the only position in which the "mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her," can be clearly seen or perfectly understood. (2 Pet. i. 9.) Great indeed is the contrast. Both objects are complex, and the combination of symbols, wholly incongruous in nature, admonishes the sober interpreter to beware of indulging his vain fancy by attempting to trace analogies in detail, where none are intended by the Holy Spirit. The true church of Christ is compared to a virtuous and fruitful woman, (ch. xii. 5;) and the apostate church is symbolized by a fruitful but profligate woman, (ch. xvii. 5.) Then both are also represented by two cities, which are equally contrasted. As the women differ in their outward adornment, (chs. xix. 8, xvii. 4,) so do the cities in the quality of population, commerce and employment, (ch. xviii. 4; xxii. 14.)—The nuptials being consummated between the Lamb and his bride, and she being now "made perfect in holiness;" under the emblem of a city, she is illuminated with "the glory of God," made "comely through his comeliness put upon her," rendered beautiful and illustrious beyond conception or expression: for the happiness of heaven results from conformity to the God-man, communion with him and communications from him. (1 John iii. 2.)—"Her light" resembled the "jasper, clear as crystal." 

The knowledge of saints in heaven will be intuitive: they will no longer "see through a glass darkly," by word and sacraments; nor shall the glorious Bridegroom show himself as formerly "through the lattice;" (Song ii. 9;) but they "shall see him as he is." (1 John iii. 2.)—"A wall great and high" denotes the security of this city, which can never be scaled by an enemy. The "twelve gates" are to admit the twelve tribes of God's spiritual Israel,—the sealed ones, (ch. vii. 5-8;) who "shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God." (Luke xiii. 29.)—At the gates were "twelve angels," as guards and porters. The "foundations" of the wall, named after the "twelve apostles," denote that all who enter the city, gained admission by "belief of the truth" as taught by the apostles,—had "continued steadfast in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship," in the face of reproach, persecution and apostacy. They were "built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets,"—Old and New Testament believers saved by the blood of the Lamb: for the twelve tribes, multiplied by the twelve apostles, make a hundred and forty-four; and these again, multiplied by a thousand, make the whole number who appeared with the Lamb on Mount Zion, (ch. xiv. 1;) the public witnesses of Christ, in the church militant during the great apostacy.

15. And he that talked with me had a golden reed to measure the city, and the gates thereof, and the wall thereof.

16. And the city lieth four square, and the length is as large as the breadth. Ami he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs: the length, and the breadth, and the height of it are equal.

17. And he measured the wall thereof, a hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of the angel.

Vs. 15-17.—The apostle borrows the symbols and language of preceding prophets, especially those of Ezek. (xl. 3,) and Zech. (ii. 1.) The "furlongs" measured by the "reed," indicate a city of vast dimensions; and being "four square," each side would be about fifteen hundred miles! And as the "length and breadth and height of it are equal," we are hereby taught that no gross conceptions are to be formed in our imaginations, since a city fifteen hundred miles high, is utterly inconceivable. The instruction intended to be conveyed to us by the vast dimensions, and precious materials of this city may be, the incomprehensible nature and transcendent glory of heaven. (1 Cor. ii. 9.) A cubit, as the word signifies, "is the measure of a man" from his elbow to the end of his middle finger. The measure of the wall, in height or breadth, was a hundred and forty-four cubits, or the twelve tribes, as before, multiplied by the twelve apostles; for the idea of a cube, as the most perfect symbol of symmetrical form, seems to be intended.

18. And the building of the wall of it was of jasper: and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass:

19. And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald;

20. The fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an amethyst.

21. And the twelve gates were twelve pearls: every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass.

Vs. 18-21.—The "jasper, gold and glass," are here all combined; though their natural properties and chemical elements are so different. Glass is clear, transparent, but brittle; gold is solid and shining, but opaque. In heaven, the saints shall know more than we can now imagine. The glass will be all gold. As the eye sees an object through glass at a glance, so the saints in heaven will perceive truth without the tedious process of comparison and reasoning. The gold will be all glass. All these symbols are intended to show to the devout reader, that the antichristian harlot is incomparably eclipsed by the glory of the Lamb's bride,—having "no glory, by reason of the glory that excelleth."—The twelve "precious stones" which "garnished the foundations of the wall of the city," are an allusion to those of Aaron's breastplate of judgment. (Exod. xxviii. 17-20;) indicating that the Urim and Thummim, the light and perfection of glory, shall be there, superseding the oracle and Shekinah: for one thing is peculiar to this city by which it is distinguished from the old Jerusalem,—no temple.

22. And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty, and the Lamb, are the temple of it.

23. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it; for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.

24. And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it, and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it.

25. And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day; for there shall be no night there.

26. And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it.

27. And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie; but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life.

Vs. 22-27.—There was "no temple therein." As there was a temple in the city which Ezekiel saw in vision, (ch. xli. 1,) and this fact determines the point, that his prophecy relates to the church militant; so, the absence of even the semblance of such a structure here, proves that this is a description of the church triumphant. In heaven there is no need of external, material, visible symbols of God's presence. As the ceremonial "law had a shadow of good things to come," but "vanished away" when Christ appeared, (Heb. x. 1,) so will it be in heaven; no ordinances will be used to act upon either sense or faith, these having issued in vision.

The glorious presence of "the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb," having superseded the necessity of a temple; the light of the sun and moon shall be no longer needed. "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all," (1 John i. 5;) and "as long as Christ was in the world, he was the light of the world." (John ix. 5.) We have seen that other suns and moons which were symbolical, have been darkened or blotted out of existence by the omnipotent Mediator; but now these natural luminaries are totally and for ever obscured by the ineffable effulgence of uncreated light,—the manifested and immediate presence of the Father and the Son.—All the redeemed shall "walk in the light of the Lord;" and all the glory of "the kings of the earth," concentrated in one place, would bear no comparison with the splendor of this "holy city." The gates are not to be shut during the "day" of eternity; and since the "excellent ones of the earth" shall all enter the twelve open gates from every part of the world, it may be truly said "they bring the glory and honor of the nations into it." What a delightful scene of a holy, happy, safe and harmonious fellowship!—It is observable that the apostle altogether drops personalities here. He seizes only upon properties or qualities,—"any thing,"—so holy is the place, and so holy the inhabitants; yea, so safe and secure, that no creature,—no "beast of the field which the Lord God has made," shall ever gain an entrance into this heavenly Paradise: but only those whose names are "written in the Lamb's book of life;" who, despite of the Serpent, brings all his spiritual seed safe to glory.

NOTES ON THE APOCALYPSE--CHAPTER XX

 

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1. And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.

2. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years.

3. And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that, he must be loosed a little season.

Vs. 1-3.—"And I saw an angel." This angel is the Lord Christ, (ch. x. 1.) The key is the symbol of authority. (Is. xxii. 22; chs. i. 18; iii. 7.) The dragon had been previously cast down from heaven, (ch. xii. 9;) by the Reformation, and during the "short time" of his liberty, he persecuted the woman and the remnant of her seed, on the earth. Now, however, his career is arrested. "Seizing, binding, casting into the abyss, shutting up, and setting a seal upon that old serpent," (ch. xii. 9,) are strong figurative expressions, by which his secure confinement is signified. Thus is the devil to be restrained from deceiving the nations for a "thousand years." That this period is to be taken in a proper, and not in a mystical sense, appears thus. If we multiply one thousand by three hundred and sixty, as some fancifully do, the resulting number of years, three hundred and sixty thousand, would be out of all proportion to the past duration of the world, as well as the well-defined period of 1260 years. Add to this, that when by Daniel and John definite duration is symbolically mentioned, it is by "months, days; time, times and a half a time," or "the dividing of time,"—never by "years."

At the expiration of the thousand years, Satan will be loosed a "little season,"—little, as compared with the thousand years; so little, as not to be deemed worth estimating.

4. And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands: and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

V. 4.—"And I saw thrones." Here there is no mention of heaven being opened. Nothing henceforth obstructs John's vision. "The darkness is past, and the true light now shineth."—"At evening time it shall be light." (Zech. xiv. 7.)—"And they sat on them." Who?—There is here what may be termed a remarkable chasm in the language of the text. There is no visible or proximate antecedent. Who are they who "sit on thrones?" Did Millenarians only put this question, and patiently search for the solution in the context, agreeably to the allegorical texture of this whole book, all their hallucinations might be easily and happily obviated. The inspired writer assumes, of course, that the reader will readily identify these persons, who are thus promoted to honour, now that Antichrist is no more, and society is to be reorganized.—Daniel furnishes a satisfactory answer to our question. "I beheld till the thrones were cast down." (Dan. vii. 9.) The Roman imperial thrones of civil despotism were subverted. Again,—"But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end." (v. 26.) The Roman imperial throne of ecclesiastical domination shall be destroyed. Then when Messiah "shall have put down all rule, and all authority and power," of both sorts of tyranny, "the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions, (rulers) shall serve and obey him," (v. 27.) The "saints of the Most High," according to Daniel, are to be exalted to civil rule, and these are the same whom John saw "sitting on thrones." 

Now, the effect of the seventh trumpet becomes a fact in history.—"The kingdoms of this world," which had been controlled by the beast, and bewitched by the sorceries of the lewd woman, "are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ."—For in the millennial state of the world, there will be a plurality of kingdoms.—Hence a very common petition of pious but ignorant people,—"That the kingdoms of this world may soon become the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ," neither will, nor ever can be answered.—Under the righteous and benign administration of the saints, "kings shall be nursing-fathers, and their queens nursing-mothers to the church:" for "the nations and kingdoms that would not serve her, have perished; yea, those nations have been utterly wasted." (Is. xlix. 23; lx. 12.)—The souls which the apostle saw under the altar, whose cry for vengeance he heard, and who were directed to rest for a little season, till the roll of their martyred brethren should be completed, are here presented in quite a new position, "sitting on thrones," (ch. vi. 9.) Although they are not the same identical persons physically, they are the same morally; for the life of the two witnesses is commensurate with the reign of Antichrist,—twelve hundred and sixty years. These "lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years; that is, in their successive generations: for otherwise they would over-live the age of Methuselah!—Souls are here evidently persons, and not souls as distinct from bodies, as some needlessly argue against Millenarians: for "foreheads" and "hands" are attributed to them: but foreheads cannot be literally ascribed to those who had been "beheaded." Their living is to be understood of their succeeding to the same scriptural position occupied by their predecessors, as well as succeeding them in the order of natural generation. The Holy Spirit says, "Levi, who receiveth tithes, paid tithes in Abraham." (Heb. vii. 9, 10.) Elijah reappeared in the person of John the Baptist. (Matt. xi. 14.) Jezebel and Balaam were recognised in their wicked successors, (ch. ii. 14, 20.) But this is the very structure of the Apocalypse, being composed of hieroglyphics, that the free agency of the wicked might be left untrammelled, and the diligence of God's people might be tested in "searching the Scriptures."

5. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.

V. 5.—"The rest of the dead" supposes two classes of the dead. These are the witnesses, who died a violent and cruel death, and the wicked, who died a natural death,—there "were no bands in their death." As there are two kinds of death, so are there two kinds of resurrection,—a first and second of each. Those who had been "beheaded for the witness of Jesus," etc., lived in their successors,—sat on thrones, reigned with Christ a thousand years. Of course those who were slain by Christ and his army at the battle of Armageddon, and whose flesh was given to the fowls of heaven, "lived not again" in their successors, "until the thousand years were finished." Consequently, "this is the first resurrection," with which the true disciples of Christ shall be honoured. They must, however, die as all others, and await the second resurrection: but "on them the second death shall have no power."

6. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection; on such the second death hath no power; but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

V. 6.—"Blessed and holy,"—and blessed, because holy; for sin is the procuring cause of misery. This is a summary description of the millennial period. The dragon being bound by the almighty power of Christ, and not permitted to deceive the nations, wars shall cease unto the ends of all the earth: the population of the globe must be rapidly and greatly multiplied beyond all precedent. (Ps. xlvi. 9; lxxii. 16,) the life of man will be prolonged; (Isa. lxv. 20-25,) holiness, righteousness and praise shall spring forth before all the nations, (lxi. 11.)

That condition of our globe, which divines call the millennium,—a state of holiness and happiness, second only to the enjoyment of heavenly felicity, is as clearly and frequently promised to God's people, as the promise of the Messiah was under the former economy. But as many were "in expectation that the kingdom of God should immediately appear," who then entertained unwarrantable and carnal conceptions of the Messiah's person and reign, just such groundless and gross expectations and aspirations are cherished now. A literal resurrection of all the righteous, who shall have died before the millennium is supposed to take place at the personal appearance of Christ; and this, too, before the general judgment. By personal, they mean corporeal: for the Lord Christ promised his gracious personal presence with his people all days, when he was about to disappear from their bodily vision. (Matt. xxviii. 20.) "To them that look for him shall he appear the second time, (not a third,) without sin unto salvation." (Heb. ix. 28; Rev. i. 7.) Besides, is it for a moment supposable that saints who have passed into glory, are to be brought upon earth to conflict once more with enemies, when Gog and Magog shall surround the "camp of the saints?" Such is a specimen of questions suggested by the Millenarian system, which have failed of either scriptural or rational solution by all the learning and ingenuity of its fanciful advocates.

The whole series of the Apocalypse proves that the two witnesses live and prophesy throughout the 1260 years of Antichrist's reign. Their lives and their testimony end together, (ch. xi. 7.) But the beast that slays them is himself with his ally, the false prophet, at the close of the contest, cast alive into the lake of fire, (ch. xix. 20.)

After three and a half prophetical days, the witnesses are raised, and ascend up to heaven, (ch. xi. 12;) and this is the identical fact which is more fully presented here in the 20th chapter. The resurrection of the witnesses in the 11th chapter is a spiritual and mystical resurrection in the persons of their successors; the heaven to which they were exalted is a mystical heaven: and just so of those beheaded and advanced, after their resurrection, to positions of civil and ecclesiastic power as in this 20th chapter. Thus exalted, and ruling in the fear of God, they become a terror to evil doers, and a praise to them that do well. (Rom. xiii. 3.) Then shall be realized the glorious predictions of Isaiah and the Sweet Psalmist of Israel. (Isa. xi. 1-9; Ps. lxxii. 1)

7. And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison.

8. And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.

9. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.

Vs. 7-9.—"Satan shall be loosed out of his prison."—The Lord Christ will remove the restraint which had repressed the chief enemy during the thousand years, that the Faithful and True Witness may give a final testimony to the moral universe, that neither the philosophy of proud man, nor the law of Moses,—no, nor the ordinances of the gospel, will ever change the nature of a sinner:—That neither judgments nor mercies have any efficacy to subdue the stubborn will, or renew the desperately wicked heart of man; and that it is a righteous thing with God to render tribulation to them that trouble his saints and insult his Majesty.

Thus released "for a little season," the prime enemy goes out as before to "deceive the nations." He is successful. "The rest of the dead," who lived not again during the 1000 years, at once re-appear in the persons of their genuine successors. They are the children of them that killed the witnesses;—the seed of the serpent aiming a last fatal stroke at the seed of the woman.—They are called "Gog and Magog;" and because of the identity of names, many have supposed them to be the same as those enemies of the people of God described by Ezekiel, (chs. xxxviii., xxxix.) This view is, however, without sanction in the Scriptures. The characters are mystical according to the uniform structure of the Apocalypse. Ezekiel's Gog and Magog come from the "north quarters;" those of John from the "four quarters or corners of the earth." It is also probable, if not absolutely certain, that the enemies predicted by Ezekiel are to appear before, while those of John are to arise after the millennium. The overthrow of Gog and Magog, foretold by Ezekiel, is evidently connected with the conversion of the Jews, (ch. xxxix. 22, 29;) but that event must precede the millennial period. (Rom. xi. 26.)—Magog is reckoned with Meshech and Tubal among the sons of Japheth, (Gen. x. 2;) and those nations called in history Scythians and Tartars, in the "north quarters" of Europe and Asia, as well as the "isles of the Gentiles," are supposed to be their descendants. By the "three unclean spirits," (ch. xvi. 13,) a confederacy was effected under the sixth vial to the battle of Armageddon; and the same is again presented in ch. xix. 20, as the final attempt against the saints previously to the millennium, when two of the prime instigators, the beast and the false prophet, are cast into the lake of fire. Thus we may suppose eastern and western Antichrist finally destroyed.

Ezekiel's Gog and Magog being slain in the battle of Armageddon, how or where shall we find those of John? They are to be found precisely on the same principle on which we find the witnesses of Christ in this chapter. Satan is loosed "a little season,"—little as compared with the thousand years of Messiah's reign; or rather, as compared with the 1260 years of the dragon's successful enterprises against the saints through the beast and false prophet as agents. These being now cast into the lake of fire, Satan is for ever deprived of their agency. During the millennial period people will be born in sin as at other times; and at the close of that happy period, Almighty God will display his sovereignty by withholding his grace, that a last demonstration may be given to all the world of the necessity and efficacy of that grace in changing the heart of a sinner. Without the intervention of the beast or the false prophet, Satan will prevail by more direct temptations to gather together to battle a multitude of the same spirit as Ezekiel's Gog and Magog displayed against the saints before the millennium. These are the "rest of the dead that lived not again till the one thousand years were finished." As the "deadly wound" of the civil beast "was healed," and he received a new life, to the astonishment of spectators, (ch. xiii. 3,) as the witnesses received "the Spirit of life from God," to the dismay of their enemies; (chs. xi. 11; xx. 4,) so Gog and Magog re-appear in the persons and bloody cruelties of their genuine successors. And in language similar to that in the context we may warrantably say,—this is the second resurrection; for when it is declared that the "rest of the dead lived not again," it is manifest that two classes of dead are intended. All are said to be dead; the witnesses, slain by the beast; their enemies, slain by the Lord. The witnesses rise, and "this is the first resurrection." A first implies a second of the same kind. Well, "the rest lived not again till the thousand years were finished." What then? Why, simply this,—that the other remaining class of the dead lived again; and this appears to be the obvious scope and meaning of these terms, so vexing to many critics.

By deception Satan prevails to assemble the nations in vast multitudes, "as the sand of the sea,"—a proverbial form of expression applied to Abraham's seed. (Gen. xxii. 17.) "They went up on the breadth of the earth." Coming from the "four quarters of the earth," they "compassed the camp of the saints." The allusion here is twofold: to Israel in the wilderness, in the time of Moses; and to the holy city Jerusalem, in the days of David; (Ps. cxviii. 10-12,) for often did the enemy with "joint heart" attempt to "cut off the name of Israel." (Ps. lxxxiii. 4-8.) Never was Pharaoh or Sennacherib more confident of a sure and easy victory over the saints. (Exod. xv. 9; Isa. xxxvi. 20.) As in the days of Noah, most of the generation of the righteous had been taken home to glory before the ungodly were destroyed by the deluge, so we may suppose the "camp of the saints" to be but a "little flock," when assailed for the last time, while they are in a militant state.—The issue in this case, however, will be more decisive and glorious than any other battle with the powers of darkness. We may adopt and apply the words of the prophet to God's people in the time of Jehoshaphat:—"Thus saith the Lord,—Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God's. Ye shall not need to fight in this battle." (2 Chron. xx. 15, 17.)—"Fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured" this great multitude. This most dreadful of all elements in the material universe, is that which is commonly employed to represent the wrath of God. By it Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed, Corah and his rebellious company, the captains and their fifties; fire proceeded out of the mouth of the two witnesses and devoured their enemies; Gog and Magog are consumed by this element; the heavens and the earth which are now, are reserved unto fire; the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven ... in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel,—most probably these very enemies; and all such are to be consigned to "the fire that never shall be quenched." Awful thought! Tremendous destiny! Who would not fear thee, O Lord; who art a consuming fire to all thy impenitent enemies?

10. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

V. 10.—The first rebel against the righteous authority of the Lord and his Anointed, and the ceaseless instigator of all rebellions of individual and social man, is the last to be consigned to adequate punishment. When the Lord first called sinners to account, the same order is noticeable: First, Adam, then Eve, and last the serpent. The beast and the false prophet are already in the lake of fire; (ch. xix. 20;) and now, Satan, who is here called the devil, is dismissed after them, that they may all be tormented "for ever and ever,"—words, as already noticed, which are the strongest in the Greek language, to convey to the human mind the idea of endless duration.

11. And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.

12. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God: and the books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works.

13. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.

14. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

15. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

Vs. 11-15.—Nothing now remains to bring to a close the moral administration of Messiah, but the raising of the dead and pronouncing final sentence on all the subjects of his government. There is no intimation that any events shall intervene between the casting of the devil into the burning lake, and the appearing of the Judge.

The "great white throne" is suitable to the majesty and holiness of the Judge. He is not at first called by any name, for "every eye shall see," and seeing, recognise his divine dignity. In the next verse he is styled God, not to identify him, but as a matter of course in the narrative.—No sooner did the Judge take his seat, than "the earth and the heaven fled away." The simplicity and sublimity of this language are inimitable by human genius; and rarely if at all equalled, even by those who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. The first inspired writer uses language very similar. (Gen. i. 3.) We are frequently and sufficiently taught that the Lord Christ in person is to be the judge of quick and dead. (Acts xvii. 31.) "All must appear before the judgment seat of Christ." (2 Cor. v. 10.) No person is competent to this work of judgment but one who is omniscient and omnipotent, not to speak of other divine perfections. The "Judge of all the earth" is a divine person, possessed of all the attributes of deity; and as there is not now among apostate angels, so there will not then be a child of Adam, to deny the supreme deity of Jesus Christ. (Matt. viii. 29.) Of this he gave intimation at the beginning of the Apocalypse:—"Every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him," (ch. i. 7;) yes, they pierced him for blasphemy, "because that he, being a man, made himself God." (John x. 33.) Here the Judge on the throne demonstrates to an assembled universe, the scriptural warrant for the language of the Reformers when they say he is "very God, and very man." "God is judge himself," (Ps. l. 6,) in the person of the Father; but "he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness, by that man whom he hath ordained."—(Acts xvii. 31.)

Before the righteous Judge "shall be gathered all nations," (Matt. xxv. 32,) all that have ever lived upon the earth, from the creation till the end of time, all ranks and degrees, however diversified by sex, age, or social position; righteous and wicked, Jews and Gentiles, Herod and Pontius Pilate, Cain and Abel, Judas, etc.

In order to this general assize, "the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God," (John v. 25, 28, 29;) "and many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt." (Dan. xii. 2.) The "sea, death and hell," or the grave, (or rather, the place of souls as separated by death from their bodies,) which are thus awfully, but beautifully personified, shall surrender their respective tenants, that they may stand before the Son of man in judgment.—Only such as have died are mentioned here: but some will not die, but "remain alive unto the coming of the Lord," the judge; and these, it is probable, will be the "camp of the saints" which have been miraculously delivered from the rage of Gog and Magog, (vs. 8, 9.) There is a beautiful order in the final resurrection. "The dead in Christ shall rise first." (1 Thess. iv. 16; 1 Cor. xv. 23.) Next will be raised the wicked; for "like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them, and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning." (Ps. xlix. 14.) The dead, being all raised, those who shall be alive will undergo a change equivalent to death,—"in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye;" for these "shall not prevent (anticipate) them which were asleep;" that is, they will not be changed until their companions are called from the grave, etc. All being now "before the judgment seat of Christ,"—the "books are opened!" Oh, what emotions will swell and heave the bosoms of the righteous!—"joy unspeakable and full of glory:" for before the sentence of acquittal is publicly pronounced, their position on the Judge's right hand indicates the sentence. And next what terror insupportable will now seize the wicked! What "fearful looking-for of judgment and fiery indignation," when in breathless suspense, they await the just sentence,—"Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels!" (Matt. xxv. 41; Heb. x. 27.) The righteousness of this sentence will be attested by the "opened books,"—of the divine omniscience, the human conscience, and in the case of gospel-rejecters, the Bible. (2 Thess. i. 7, 8.) And the like condemnation would pass upon the righteous, but that "another book is opened," in which are inscribed the names of all the objects of God's electing love: and this will be the key-note in their songs of praise to all eternity. (Jer. xxxi. 3; Rev. i. 5.) All are "judged according to their works," as these are witnessed by the books,—for "their works do follow them," (ch. xiv. 13.)

"Death and hell were cast into the lake of fire." Death, or the grave; hell, or the separate state, will never again be needed, as prisons to keep their inmates for trial. "The lake of fire" is the place of ceaseless and endless torment for all who are not "found written in the book of life;" and this place seems to be distinct from the "bottomless pit," Satan's "prison," out of which he had been loosed, (v. 7.)—Of the beast it was said, he "ascendeth out of the bottomless pit," but not that he was remanded thither again: he is said to "go into perdition," which must be "the lake of fire." (Compare ch. xvii. 8, with xix. 20; and xx. 1-3 with v. 10.)—The plain and obvious meaning of these closing verses of the 20th chapter, as delineated in its general import by appropriate and familiar symbols and intelligible words, for ever excludes, and emphatically condemns the conscience-stupifying heresies and blasphemies of Unitarians and Universalists. The God-man Mediator, seated upon the "throne of his glory," before whose face the "earth and the heaven fled away," is thus evidenced to be the Son of God, Jehovah's Fellow. And we may here adopt the assertion and caution of the "beloved disciple,"—"This is the true God and eternal life.—Little children, keep yourselves from idols." (1 John v. 20, 21.)—Moreover, these verses reveal a place or state, more to be dreaded than the "killing of the body,"—"the lake of fire, which is the second death," "where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." (Matt. x. 28; 2 Thess. i. 8-10; Heb. x. 26-31.)

With the 20th chapter of the Apocalypse terminate the events of time, in which the divine Author demonstrates, that "known unto him are all his works, from the beginning of the world." (Acts xv. 18.) Many, indeed, of the learned and pious have supposed the remaining chapters of the Apocalypse, to be a description of the church on earth during the millennial period. But besides the series, coherence and dependence of the several parts of the book, precluding such retrogression, this interpretation overthrows the scriptural distinction between the militant and triumphant state of the church. And it is not to be thought out of place, that the inspired prophet should describe, by suitable emblems, the outline of the heavenly state; for this he has done briefly already in a number of instances. (See chs. ii. and iii., also ch. vii. 15, 17.)—Those who consider the last two chapters as a delineation of the church on earth, have first formed in their minds ideas of a corporeal or bodily presence of Christ, and of a literal and visible reign on the earth. Such views we have already shown to be without scripture warrant, yea against plain declarations of the Holy Spirit, (as Acts iii. 21; Matt. xvii. 11, 12; Heb. ix. 28.) Hence we shall contemplate the symbols of the following chapters,—except as incidents or allusions may render this incompatible,—as shadowing forth the glories of the church's heavenly state.