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thee, are beaten. It is time thou shouldest come, and look after thine own affairs. Even so, come Lord Jesus! Come quickly!

To put it beyond a doubt that the taking of the book, and the opening the seals thereof hath respect unto this earth, and that the name and dignity of kings and priests hath respect to nothing else, they, the church in heaven, which have the prophetic harps of God, conclude with this asseveration," and we shall reign on the earth." Does that mean we shall not reign on the earth? so says the multitude of those calling themselves preachers of the truth. So say not I: God forbid. Doth it mean we shall reign in heaven? No; for they are now seated on the thrones of heaven with golden crowns upon their heads, and earth does not mean heaven; and in chap. xx. they are represented as living and reigning with Christ, on that earth whose nations Satan being loosed from the pit, doth afterwards deceive. I wonder much how men will not believe the very word of God. They must be resisted to the death. Can it be a matter of small importance for us to hold fast, as our hope, that which the church in glory delighteth in, and boasteth of as theirs? Surely, no. Reign therefore we shall on the earth, for these reigners are not four, and twenty-four, but the hosts, the armies in heaven, who come forth with Christ (Rev. xix. 14), to triumph over the destroyers of the earth, to destroy them (xi. 18), and to rule over it in holiness and blessedness. Should this truth be hidden? It shall not be hidden while I have breath to utter it and woe be to him who, knowing it, is ashamed to confess it! He barters his kingdom away for the applause of men; he eclipseth the glory of Christ, to enhance his own! O far be this from the servants of the Lord! O far be this from the ministers 1 Awake, awake, O thou church! awake, awake, O ye men! awake, awake, O ye ministers of truth! awake, awake, O ye kings and judges of the earth! and thou, O nature! groaning under oppression, awake unto hope! for thy great Redeemer cometh, whose coming shall be like the morning, and his voice like the songs of morning. Hear how the Apostle Paul writes, O ye scorners of the truth! "And if children, then heirs: heirs of God, and jointbeirs with Christ: if so be that we suffer with him, that

we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope. Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth, and travaileth in pain together until now and not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen, is not hope for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered" (Rom. viii. 17-26.

THE SONG OF THE ANGELIC HOST.

We now come to the voice and song of the angels; "And I beheld and heard the voice of many angels encircling the throne, and the living ones, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands saying in a loud voice, worthy is the Lamb to receive power, and riches, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing." These angels are distinguished, on the one hand, from the redeemed church whom they encompassed, and, on the other hand, from the mere creatures, or created things, whose song or voice is given afterward. Now though the name Angel, as hath been observed above, be employed in this book to signify a member of the elect church in glory, a redeemed man, yet in this place there can be no doubt it representeth the innumerable company of the angelic host. Of them mention is often made in Scripture, as in Heb. xii. 22, where, after the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem is mentioned: first, "an innumerable company of angels :" secondly, "the general assembly and church of the first

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born, which are written in heaven," and along with them. "God the Judge of all," which I consider parallel to God enthroned upon the four living creatures: thirdly, "the spirits of just men made perfect," which I consider as being in some way or other parallel with the four-and-twenty elders; and fourthly, "Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant,' which is parallel with the Lamb as it had been slain; and fifthly, "the blood of sprinkling," by which all these heavenly things are purified. These angels, these elect angels, which have not fallen, take a great interest in the work of redemption; for the reason, I believe, that they themselves stood through the virtue of Christ, as a sustaining Head, and longed for the appearance of Christ, as Abraham did, who saw his day afar off and was glad; as the prophets and wise men of old, who desired to see his day, and were not permitted. From whatever cause this longing of the angels may proceed, there can be no doubt that they take the deepest interest in man, seeing when the earth, the habitation of man, was founded, it is written (Job xxxviii. 7), "The morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy:" and at the birth of Christ, in the stable of Bethlehem, the multitude of the heavenly host sang in the silent night unto the shepherds, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men ; and it is said (Eph. iii. 10) that the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, do learn, through the instrumentality of the church, the manifold wisdom of God. And again it is written, 1 Peter i. 12, that "the sufferings of Christ and the glory which should follow," are things into which the angels desire to look. We do, therefore, certainly conclude, that the angels have a secondary interest in the great progress of redemption. Now, forasmuch as this opening of the seven-sealed book is after the incarnation, the next step in that progress, being in truth the investiture of Christ with power over all God's created universe, we might expect that the angels would express their deep interest therein in a secondary and inferior place, and, as it were, under the leading and guidance of the church. The church sings the song, the angels add the voice, thereby proving themselves to be the chorus which swells the anthem of heavenly praise. Their inferiority unto the church, which is the body of Christ the

Head, under whose feet all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name, are placed, is further shewn by the place which they occupy in a circle farther from the throne. First, there is the Heavenly Majesty seated on the throne, within whose circumference dwell the four living creatures, as the inseparable body of Christ; the throne of the eternal, before which, as serving Christ and the church, are the seven lamps of the Holy Ghost; and the sea of glass, symbolical of matter's purified, clarified, eternal, and incorruptible state; upon which crys. talline basis resting are four-and-twenty enthroned crowned elders, compassing the throne and the four living creatures around. Then, beyond all this assembly of the Redeemer and the redeemed ones, of the King and of his peers, is this grand circle of innumerable angels, standing ever ready harnessed, to minister unto them which shall be heirs of salvation; -just as when a king and his council are seated in high deliberation concerning the estate of the kingdom, guards of soldiers compass them about, to prevent the intrusion or the attack of others, and to carry forth into the remotest parts of the kingdom, and execute, the purposes which are resolved upon. Now while I believe from the universal custom of this book, that the communication between Christ and the church on earth is carried on by the intercession of the church in heaven, I do likewise believe that the angels do carry on the communication between the church and the inferior creatures, whose song follows next after theirs. Through the angelic hosts it is, I believe, that the providence of God, and the purposes of God towards the animate and inanimate creation, the church excepted, is carried on. Christ's dignity is, to be named Son of God, and our dignity is, to be named sons of God, in that same sense unto which the angels have not attained; of whom he saith, "who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire." And to me it is manifest, from reflecting on this passage in the first chapter of the Hebrews that the contrast between Christ and the angels standeth in this, that while the former is every where in Scripture designated Son of God, angels. are designated winds and flames of fire, to shew that by how much more excellent a work is the perfect Son of God, in his human nature, than the winds and the flashes

of lightning which do God's will, by so much more excellent is the dignity of Christ, and his redeemed people, than the dignity of angels. The winds and flames of fire, which did encompass the summit of Mount Sinai, and intercede between the glory within and the visible world without, are the outward manifestations of angels; but the outward manifestation of Christ is a man, the perfect man, declared to be the Son of God, by the resurrection from the dead, into which glorious likeness the redeemed church shall at length be brought. All therefore that pertaineth to the natural world, I consider to be under the dominion of the angels; but all that pertaineth to the spiritual world, which is the church, I consider to be under the dominion of Christ and the church in glory; wherefore the distinction is taken in the second chapter of the Hebrews, ver. 5: "Unto the angels hath he not put into subjection the world to come, whereof we now speak;" which shall all be exhibited under the dominion of Christ, according as it is written in the viiith Psalm, and confirmed by the Apostle in that same passage of the Hebrews. Meanwhile in this present age I believe, as I have said, that all, save the church, is under the government of angels, through whom God receiveth from every kingdom of creation the homage and the incense thereof. From the sun, and moon, and stars, receiving through the guardian angels thereof the harmony of their several notes of praise, and from every herb that grows upon the ground, and from every animated creature upon the earth, and in the deep beneath, and from the inanimate substances of the earth, with their several properties and laws endued; and from the winds of heaven, and from the mists and exhalations of the earth, doth God the Creator of all receive, I deem, through intelligent spirits, the homage of their worship, and the incense of their thanksgiving. So that those superstitions of all countries which live in the traditional faith of the people, and which when a poet of gifts ariseth, are brought into the beautiful forms of supernatural ministers, such as Ariel in the Tempest, are the image of a truth; and this truth is, I believe, the ministry of angels.

Thus conceiving of the trust and ministry of angels in the creation of God, we should expect to find their honour of the Lamb which was slain, and is now receiving

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