"the glory of his Father, to reward every man ac"cording to his works." Chrift thus come, as judge of the whole world, to perform the laft office of his Father's will; "The books," fays the prophet, "were opened," referring, as I humbly apprehend, to the two books of the Old and New Teftaments, those infpired and facred oracles of the revealed will of God. The fame books are mentioned by Daniel, as being opened before God, when HE paffed his decree against the four beafts*; and again by Zechariah, under the figure of " the two candlesticks, ❝, or the two anointed ones, that stand by the Lord "of the whole earth;" and again by the prophet himself, under thofe of the two witneffes of "God; the two candlesticks and olive trees ftand"ing before the God of the earth," or before Jesus Chrift. These two infallible witneffes of his divine truths, revealed through Chrift, these two holy and ancient records manifefting the inceffant invitations and expoftulations, gentle chaftifements, and unbounded love of God towards finners, and their contumacious and reprobate ditobedience to his holy commandments in their former ftate, are now to be opened, that the truths they contain may be perfectly known, as well to the judged as the judge; and moreover, that the wicked may be tried and acquitted, or condemned, by them, and their own confciences, now alive to a sense of every crime, of every deed done in the body; and that as men, when tried at a human bar, they may be convinced of the righteousness, juftice, and mercy, of the awful fentence which fhall be paffed upon them, by his BLESSED Son, whether it fhall condemn them to eternal mifery, or to a life of immortal happiness. But there is another book alfo to be opened, on this momentous day. The prophet fays, "another "book was opened, which is the book of life." This is the fame book to which Daniel alludes, when foretelling the fame great event *; and the fame book referred to by the prophet, in his epiftle to the church at Sardis, "And I will not blot out his name out "of the book of life, but I will confefs his name be"fore my Father, and before his angels" and again, he calls it "the Lamb's book of life," in the new Jerufalem, and in divers other places, meaning, as I humbly apprehend, not literally a book, but fome divine rule, or law, or place, in and by which the righteous, and redeemed, fhall be for ever diftinguished, and feparated from the condemned. For Chrift himself tells us, that on this day § he "will "feparate the nations one from another, as a fhep"herd divideth his sheep from the goats, and that he "will fet the fheep on his right hand, and the goats on the left; and he will fay unto them on his right "hand, Come, te bleffed of my Father, inherit the 66 kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of "the world: and to thofe on his left hand, Depart " from me, ye curfed, into everlasting fire, prepared "for the devil and his angels." However, out of "the books," meaning the two books first mentioned, the dead, now changed into a fpiritual fiate, fhall be judged; " and the dead were judged out of "the things written in the books, according to their "works:" and whofoever was not found in the "book of life," i. e. on the right hand of the Son of God, "were caft into the lake of fire. And death and hell (the grave) were caft into the lake of "fire alfo; and this is the fecond death." And Chap. vii. 10. † Chap. iii. 5. Chap. xxi. 27. thus, thus, according to the express prophecy of St. Paul, "Chrift will have now reigned until he hath put all "enemies under his feet;" even death itself, the last enemy which he had upon the earth, and which he came to destroy. So that nothing of his great and holy truft will now remain to be performed, but to deliver up his kingdom to his Father, from whom he received it," that the Son alfo himself may be fub"ject unto him that put all things under him, that "God may be ALL in ALL." THE TWENTIETH AND TWENTY-FIRST CHAPTERS OF THE REVELATION. Of the bleed state of the righteous and redeemed through Chrift, in a fpiritual life to come. THESE two, the laft chapters of the Revelation, relate to the state of mankind in a fpiritual and never ending life, and more efpecially of thofe who fhall be redeemed by their works, and the imputed righte oufness of the Son of God. They relate to matters and things, which the utmoft extent of the intellectual faculties of man, in his mortal ftate, cannot reach. Matter and mortality cannot comprehend the nature of immateriality and fpirit, nor form an adequate idea of any thing belonging to them; and yet we find, that the unerring fpirit of prophecy and truth has thought proper to give us a faint defcription of them. Such a defcription, we cannot doubt, as was neceffary to raife, in the limited underftandings. of mankind, during their mortal and probationary fiate, a proper idea of the fuperior, the fupreme excellence of a life of truth and piety, above that of difobedience 4 difobedience and fin; the latter of which they daily find attended by remorfe of confcience, and the fear of death and alfo, that it might ferve as the anchor by which the faith and hope of the believers in the word of God might ride in fafety, amidst the ftorms of human paffions and lufts; and moreover, as the great pole ftar, to direct them to the goal of their falvation. For, as St. Paul fays, when speaking of the utmost extent of our knowledge in this life," We know in part only, we fee through a glass -66 darkly, but when that which is perfect is come (evidently alluding to a future ftate), we fhall "then fee face to face," or things as they really are in that ftate. Hence we may conclude, that this view of the ftate of things in a life to come, is all that God intended to give, and all that the mind of man is able to comprehend: an attempt, therefore, to give any explanation of it, muft be fruitlefs, if not prefumptuous. I fhall, therefore, conclude my comments upon this moft perfect and awful theme of the Revelation, by laying before the pious reader a fummary view, extracted from the most striking parts of Scripture, as near as poffible in the words of the prophets and apoftles. Ifaiah, when defcribing this ftate of inexpreffible and never-ending beatitude, tells us, from GOD HIMSELF, "Behold I create new "heavens and a new earth; and the former fhall "not be remembered, nor come into mind: but be you glad, and rejoice for ever, for behold I create "Jerufalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. And "I will rejoice in Jerufalem, and joy in my people; "and the voice of weeping fhall be no more heard " in her, nor the voice of crying*." Again, "For " as the new heavens, and the new earth, which I ❝will make, fhall remain before me, faith the Lord, "fo fhall your feed and your name remain *." St. Peter is equally explicit on the fame fubject; "Nevertheless, fays he, "we, according to his promife, "look for new heavens, and a new earth, wherein "dwelleth righteousness." But St. John, in the two chapters before us, is much more copious in his defcription of the future happy ftate of the bleffed, when fpeaking from the fame great authority; "Be"hold I make all things new. Write (i. e. pro"phecy, and tell mankind), for these words are true "and faithful." And thefe new things, the prophet declares, were fhewn him in his vifion, that 18, "That the first heaven, and the first earth, being paffed away, and there being no more fea, he faw a new heaven, and a new earth, and THE HOLY "CITY, NEW JERUSALEM, Coming down from "heaven;" that "the tabernacle of GOD was with "MEN;" that "HE will dwell with them, and they "fhall be his people; that GOD HIMSELF fhall be " with them, and be THEIR GOD§; and that God "fhall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and "there fhall be no more DEATH, neither forrow, 66 66 nor crying, neither fhall there be any more pain." From this ftate of the redeemed, through the immaculate righteoufnefs of the eternal Son of the ever LIVING GOD, the prophet paffes to that of the unhappy and jufily miferable state of the condemned. But let us first hear the prophet Ifaiah upon the fame fubject. "Because when I (GOD) called, ye did "not anfwer; when I pake, ye did not hear, but "did evil before MINE EYES, and did choose that in "which I delighted not; behold my fervants fhall eat, and ye shall be hungry; behold my fervants 66 |