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attain unto the wisdom of God therein contained: and upon the whole we were inclined to believe, that the spiritual church, which in the age to come shall possess the New Jerusalem that cometh down from heaven, is the substance of the mystery; and we gave it as our opinion, that the secret thing revealed by the twofoldness of the representation of redeemed men is, that in the age to come, of the partakers in the first resurrection, they of the Old Testament will arise to rule the nations with the law of righteousness, the law given at Sinai, which will then shew what goodness there is in it, while we of the New Testament will arise to dwell with Christ in the most holy place, the New Jerusalem, and reign with him in spiritual power and glory. But this is a deep and difficult question, which we keep open for further information, as the Lord may be pleased to grant it.

Such is the quiescent scene of glory which burst upon the ravished seer, when he was borne by the Spirit within the portals of the invisible world. But beside the quiescence of the scene, there is an activity going on within the celestial court, which we now proceed to open, as it is written in the last four verses of the fourth chapter.

THE OCCUPATION OF THE FOUR LIVING ONES, AND THE FOUR-AND-TWENTY ELDERS.

"They rest not day and night saying, Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come. This feature of the living creatures, that they have no rest in their worship, confirms our idea expressed in the former Lecture (p. 1040), that spirit is the distinctive and specific meaning of this symbol; for of man, as he now is clothed upon with fallen flesh, with fallen flesh, it is a necessary thing to have rest in the midst of his occupation, and the more he is elevated into the lofty moods of the Spirit, the more is his mortal and corruptible part exhausted of its strength; insomuch that Paul, when he was taken up into paradise, was relieved from the consciousness of the body altogether: "Whether in the body I know not, or whether out of the body I know not, God knows." When therefore it is said, that these four living ones are incessant in their worship, it is a token to me that their substance is entirely spiritualized. Concerning the spiritual body in

deed we cannot speak aught positive, save that in the instance of our Lord after the resurrection it shewed itself capable of passing and repassing through material substances, of appearing and disappearing at its pleasure, of ascending and descending, while at the same time it was flesh and bones, and did eat and drink. If I err not, this ceaseless activity of worship, together with their unresting motion like a flash of lightning is the reason why they are called Swa or live things, because there was in them the continual action and motion of life.

While our interpretation of the symbol is confirmed. by their incessant worship, there is taught unto us by the same this important doctrine, that the church spiritual, the regenerate body of Christ, doth in that condition into which by baptism she is virtually, and by resurrection actually, introduced, occupy herself with nothing else but the praise and service of God; whereby it is signified to us, who are virtually risen with Christ and seated with him in the heavenly places, that there is no time, nor place, nor condition which ought not to be occupied in the worship of God; that worship is not with the bended. knee, nor the outstretched hands, nor the uplifted voice completed, nor to the church, nor to the house, nor the closet, confined; but is accomplished by the service of every power and even faculty of body and mind, in all times and seasons of this our mortal estate. He that believeth hath everlasting life, not a life which acts by fits and starts, but a life which ever dureth. Wherefore it is written by the Apostle, "Whether ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God;" and again, " Whether we wake or sleep we should live together with him." That we do not so is our sin, is the sin, the sickliness, the wretchedness of this fallen man revealed, it is not the insufficiency of the Holy Spirit that is within us, whose power is of the same measure and degree with that which changed Christ out of mortal and corruptible flesh into that spiritual power and glory which he now possesseth (Eph. i. 19). By witnessing what bonds and fetters the natural man prevaileth to impose upon the Spirit of Christ wherewith we are sanctified, we do abhor our present state, and cry out with the Apostle, "Oh wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death ?" while at

the same time we do discover what a mighty work of Divine power and grace it was in the Son of God always to resist and overcome those inherent inclinations of the nature which he took, to awaken its sluggishness, to empower its weakness, to reduce its disaffection, rebellion, and alienation, into obedience unto, and observance of God; so that he should ever say, It is as my meat and drink to do the will of my Father which is in heaven. Thus by his work in flesh, he became the great Head of sanctification, shewing that it was possible in mortal and corruptible flesh to present a perfect service, a complete sacrifice unto God. Whereby we who are regenerated by the same Spirit, after the image of God in righteousness and true holiness, are able to say without a fiction, or rather God is able to say to us, Ye should be perfect, be ye perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect; and thus obtain we a perfect standard of holiness in the Gospel, by defect from which to reckon the number and aggravation of our sins. While thus the continual action of the four living ones doth represent to us in the body what ought to be our reasonable service, it doth likewise represent what is the actual service of the disembodied part of the church: for I cannot believe that the Holy Ghost uniting me with Christ, and empowering me completely to subdue and actuate unto holiness this my mortal and corruptible flesh, will, when delivered of the same, leave me in some sleep or prison-house of spirits, to pass away the interval between death and the resurrec tion. In contradiction of this, I do believe that such incumbrances being removed, I shall by the Spirit of Christ be empowered to serve God and my Lord with an unresting service of active worship, which yet is not weariness or exhaustion or burdensome; for that very reason that it is without cessation and needeth no rest, and therefore in itself is most perfect rest. Within the scope and to the utmost bounds of spiritual power, I have no doubt the disembodied church are at this time occupied in the service of God. The further question, how this service affecteth the church visible, will come before us in its own place and time.

Now for their worship itself, it is expressed in these words, " Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty which was, and is, and is to come;" by which we are not to

understand that they do continually utter this form of words, or even that they merely utter it, though doubtless John heard it with the hearing of his ears; but that it is, through speech and hearing, a representation to our mind of that service unto God, which it is their office continually to pay, whether by meditation, contemplation, adoration, or action. The words which are put into the mouths of the symbolical personages in the Apocalypse are for the purpose of explaining to another's sense, that whereof they are symbolical; or, like the ancient chorus, to help the spectator to understand and to improve to his own edification the main action which is proceeding. Of this truth a striking example is contained in the vith chapter, where the kings of the earth are made (verse 16) to utter their own impending ruin; although we most certainly know, from various parts of the book, that besides their natural fears of change they were nothing apprehensive of the cause, or manner, or end of what was coming to pass. It is, therefore, according to the structure of this book, to interpret such speeches as that before us in a large sense, as significant of the law and end of their being in the great theatre of God's creation. For this book of the Apocalypse is no less than the great drama of creation's experience; from the time the resurrection hope was breathed into it, until the consummation, when it shall be brought into its state of unchanging life and blessedness.

Thus conceiving concerning the words before us, we would interpret them to signify that these living creatures are the image, the guardians, and the upholders of the holiness of God; that in them is the holiness of God perfected, and by them it is exhibited unto the rest of creation. This answers also very exactly to the history of the cherubim protecting the holiness of paradise, dwelling in the most holy place, and within the throne of God; and this again confirmeth our radical idea, that it is creature in the spiritual form which they express. For no creature is holy in the absolute and infallible sense, until it hath reached that state wherein it is united to the Godhead by hypostatical or personal union, without absorption into the Godhead, or becoming of the Godhead a part. Why they should repeat the word "holy" three times, I can

give no reason, unless it be to represent the complete unity of Godhead in a trinity of persons: and certainly it is remarkable that, while Isaiah maketh these words to be addressed unto Jehovah, the one God of the Jews, the Evangelist John (xii. 41) makes them to be addressed unto Jesus, as the Apostle Paul (Acts xxviii. 25) makes the person to whom they are addressed to be the Holy Ghost. Having such an authority before us for perceiving the Three Persons present in the substance of the enthroned One, I think it is a good and sufficient reason for deciding that therefore the appellation of "holy" is three times repeated. Besides this ascription of threefold holiness which is given to the spiritual church, as if they only were competent to speak thereof, I do no where find in the utterances contained in the book such a large discovery of the name of God as is put into the mouth of these four living ones; "Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come." This is the style which Christ's mouth uttereth of himself (Rev. i. 8): and to our observations contained thereon, and on ch. i. 17 and ch. ii. 8, we have few words to add, and would not repeat what we have already said. But for the continuity of discourse we observe, that the name of Jehovah, which doubtless answereth to Lord, is the name which came into man's ears for the first time, from the burning bush of Horeb, when God began to manifest himself as a glorious King, having but shewn himself to Abraham as a man in flesh (pp. 994, 995). The name God, which answers to the Hebrew Elohim, is proper to him as the Creator; the name Almighty is proper to him as the Governor of all things; and the three forms of time," which is, which was, and which is to come, is, I think, the method of denying all attributes of time, and expressing absolute unchangeableness. Now by putting so large a word into the mouth of these four living creatures, I am inclined to believe that the largeness of their knowledge of God is signified. This manifoldness of names which they are made to utter shews me, I say, that they understand the manifold wisdom of God, even as the Apostle declareth, that by the church the principalities and powers in heaven do know the multifarious or greatly diversified wisdom of God (Eph. iii. 6); and as he saith in another place (i. 23), that the church is "the

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