Bookshelf/ Vol.I / Vol. IV. Part VI. Contents. Chapter I. 1. 2. 3. II. 1. 2. 3. III. 1. 2. 3. IV. 1. 2. V. 1. 2. Appendix I. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. II. 1a. 1b. 2a. 2b. 2c. 3. 4. III 1. 2a. 2b.

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And let me just repeat here, what was passingly observed before 33 with reference to the literal Israel’s part in the matter, that there has been a very general abandonment by modern commentators, of the decided anti-Jewish views of the predicted blessedness held by the ancient Fathers. It was laid down by Origen, Augustine, and others, that though the Jews would be converted to Christ before the final judgment, its result would be only their becoming part and parcel of the Church Universal; and being then so merged in it as to lose all national distinctness, and of course to have no national restoration to their own land and their ancient city. 34 But, after the Reformation, other views gradually obtained more and more on the subject: and Whitby,35 in common with others of the same as well as of different prophetic views, 36 declared himself compelled by force of Scripture evidence to admit that, on the times of the Gentiles being fulfilled, the converted Jews will, as a distinct people, re-occupy the Holy Land and Jerusalem. And indeed, admitting their conversion, (which who can doubt?) the strength of evidence on this point seems to me irresistible.37 So that we cannot eliminate this condition out of our problem. We cannot admit into the list of possible hypotheses, so as we might otherwise have done, not without much plausibility, that the Jerusalem of the latter-day glory predicted in the Old Testament is to be construed , either with Irenæus as figuring simply and solely the millennial glory of the Christian Church on earth, or with Augustine as figuring the eternal glory of the Church of the resurrection, in a still higher and heavenly state of blessedness.38 It must be confessed, I think, that the literal Israel, in its national character, and its city the literal Jerusalem, enter, beyond what these old patristic expositors taught, into Old Testament prophecies of the future blessedness.39 And the only question for the Apocalyptic exposition is,

33. p. 87.

34. Whitby, in his Appendix to the xith Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, thus describes Origen’s view. “In his (Origen’s) Book against Celsus, he saith not, ‘They shall never be converted to the Christian faith,’ but that they should never be restored to their own worship or country: . . ‘We confidently affirm (oti oud apokatastaqhsontai) that they shall never again be restored to Jerusalem or the land of promise, which before they were.’” - So too Augustine only speaks of their conversion: never, I believe, of their national restoration in Palestine. (See p. 72 Note 605.) And when Jerome, on Habak. iii., speaking of the cursed fig-tree in Matt. xxi. 19 as signifying a curse on the Jews, adds, “Sed cùm sæculum istud pertransierit, et intraverit plenitudo gentium, tune etiam hæc ficus afferet fructus suos, et omnis Israel salvabitur,” he means similarly, I believe, only their conversion, not their national restoration. - So too Tertullian adv. Marc. iii. 24; Chrysostom adv. Jud.; Jerome on Is. i.; Ephrem Syrus on Dan. ix. 27; &c.

35. See the citation p. 88 This fact of their restoration to their own land, and rebuilding of Jerusalem “may probably be collected,” he says, “from those words of Christ, ‘Jerusalem shall be trodden down till the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled;’ and all the prophets seem to declare that the Jews shall then return to their own land. See Jer. xxxi. 38-40, “Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that the city shall be built to the LORD from the tower of Hananeel unto the gate of the corner. 39: And the measuring line shall yet go forth over against it upon the hill Gareb, and shall compass about to Goath. 40: And the whole valley of the dead bodies, and of the ashes, and all the fields unto the brook of Kidron, unto the corner of the horse gate toward the east, shall be holy unto the LORD; it shall not be plucked up, nor thrown down any more for ever.”. Yet,” he adds, “do I confidently deny that the temple of Jerusalem shall be then built again:” &c.

36. Prideaux, in his Inaug. Orat. vi. 7, notes as agreeing on this point, “inter recentiores, P. Martyr, Beza, Grinæus, Panæus, et in Hexaplâ and Willetus.” So too Prideaux himself, though a decided anti-premillennarian, the learned Dr. Owen, &c.

So again in the present day Mr. Scott; also Mr. Brown, as cited by me p. 87, 88 suprà. Nor does Archbishop Whately deny that there may be a political or national restoration of the Jews; though strongly denying that there will be any religious distinction. See his Millennial Chapter, in the Essay on a Future State.

37.Deut. xxx. 1-6, seems to me almost by itself decisive on the point. “And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath driven thee,  2: And shalt return unto the LORD thy God, and shalt obey his voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thine heart, and with all thy soul;  3: That then the LORD thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath scattered thee. 4: If any of thine be driven out unto the outmost parts of heaven, from thence will the LORD thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee: 5: And the LORD thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers. 6: And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.” - So that the only ground on which a denial of Israel’s national restoration to Palestine seems maintainable is a denial of their national conversion. A denial which who can make after St. Paul’s declaration, Rom. xi. 25, 26, “For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. 26: And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:” - &c.; not to say that, to the same purport, of nearly all the prophets?

As a late eminent testimony to this effect, I may refer to the late Bishop of London’s (Bloomfield’s) Sermon before the Jews’ Society. “That which is here spoken of as a possible contingency,” (viz. the repossession of their own land, &c., as predicted in Deut. xxx. 3, &c.,) “is distinctly foretold by later prophets, as an event which will assuredly come to pass. The eighth and three last chapters of Zechariah cannot, we think, without doing violence to all the laws of interpretation, be so explained as not to imply a future restoration of the Jews to their ancient and covenanted inheritance, and the re-establishment of the holy city of Jerusalem in splendor and strength. ‘Jerusalem,’ says the prophet, ‘shall be safely inhabited; it shall be lifted up, and inhabited in her place: and men shall dwell in it; and there shall be no more utter destruction.’” Then, after observing that these words can scarce by possibility be understood in a purely spiritual sense, of the heavenly Jerusalem, - the Bishop adds, that any such spiritual interpretation is positively precluded by Christ’s prophecy about

where Jerusalem being trodden down by the Gentiles till the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. For, “as the city of Jerusalem is to be trodden down, so the city  of Jerusalem shall be built up.”

38.This last without any yet future earthly Millennium of righteousness first intervening. - As to Augustine’s idea of the Millennium being past, its Apocalyptic position after Antichrist’s destruction (see p. 75 suprà) is a difficulty that the Protestant advocates of this view can never overcome.

39.Some writers indeed still deny this; for example, the Author of the “Rector in Search of a Curate.” His theory is that wherever a national or local restoration of the Jews is predicted, it either means the first restoration from Babylon; or a restoration conditionally promised, and which, from the circumstance of the Jews not fulfilling the conditions, has not been, and will not be fulfilled. (Of prophecies, such as in Deut. xxx. and Zech. xii., where God promises his Spirit’s effusion in order to enable them to fulfill the conditions, he says nothing.) In all other prophecies he applies what is said of the latter-day glory of Jerusalem to the Christian Church. ^[1] It will, I think, suffice to satisfy the reader on this theory’s unsoundness, if he try it simply by those chapters of Zechariah which the Bishop of London refers to.  The British Quarterly Reviewer (p. 168) only escapes from the cogency of these last-mentioned prophecies by the suggestion that they are not Zechariah’s but the writing of an earlier prophet.

where to place them in his scheme of unfulfilled prophecy; and how to associate the blessedness of Israel’s national restoration with, or how dissociate it from, the predicted glories of the Millennium of the Apocalypse and its New Jerusalem.

Now, that we are not to identify the restored Jewish people with the constituency of the Apocalyptic New Jerusalem, or their restored earthly and holy city with that Holy City, appears to me perfectly clear. For it would be contrary to the whole analogy of Apocalyptic interpretation to attach to these symbols such a meaning; seeing that from the very beginning of this prophecy, even throughout, Jewish emblems have been proved to be used of the Christian Church. - The fitness of this application of them seemed to us evident à priori. The natural Israel as a nation having rejected, and so been rejected by God, the Christian visible Church, primarily Jewish, and though made up chiefly of a Gentile constituency, yet of Gentiles engrafted by the apostles on the Abrahamic-stock, became, as it were, God’s substituted visible Israel: ^[2] and thus by St. Paul, we saw, ^[3] as well as other apostles, had had Jewish titles and emblems, both civic and ecclesiastical, as well as the Abrahamic promises, applied to it, ^[4] long before St. John’s exile to Patmos. Then, in the introductory Apocalyptic vision, the representation of Christ, the Christian Church’s head, under guise of the Jewish High Priest, and that of the seven Asiatic Christian Churches under the symbol of seven golden lamps, like those of the Jewish temple, was an express recognition of this principle of application; and prepared the Seer for a similar application of Jewish emblems to the Christian Church in the subsequent visions, upon a larger scale. ^[5] And so the temple-court and service marked in those visions its ecclesiastical state and service; ^[6] the twelve tribes of Israel the constituency of its visible professing body, i.e., so soon as it should have attained dominancy and a political form in the Roman world: ^[7] an election out of these tribes (“144,000 out of all the tribes of Israel”), Christ’s true Church, on the mass becoming corrupt, and at length heathen-like and apostate: ^[8] and the Holy City, the polity of the same holy seed, the association of the faithful and elect, the true Israel. ^[9] Which being so, how could the symbol of “Holy City, the New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven,” be interpreted with an consistency to signify the converted Jews, and earthly rebuilt Jerusalem? How to signify anything else than the same body of the 144,000, Christ’s spiritual Israel, “the called and chosen and faithful,” - inclusive of course of all their successive generations, agreeably with its mystic form of a cube made up of many squares: ^[10] - of these generations, I say, caught up to Christ at his coming, and now in the resurrection-state glorified as “the sons of God:” ^[11] perfect, according to the Redeemer’s intercessory prayer, ^[12] in number and unity, as well as glory; the City of God (to use Augustine’s phrase) now at length made complete; the Jerusalem above, (to use St. Paul’s,) long time preparing for the saints its citizens, which is the mother of us all? ^[13] Indeed Christ’s promise in Apoc. iii. 12, “Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.” - fixes this meaning on it.

As to the very interesting but difficult question of the chronological place of the Apocalyptic vision of this New Jerusalem, whether inclusively millennial or wholly post-millennial, a cursory reader might deem it at once settled by the introduction statement in Apoc. xxi. 1, “And I say a new heaven and a new earth; (for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away;) and I say the holy city Jew Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven:” compared with that in Apoc. xx. 11, just before, that it was “from the face of him that took seat on the great white throne” that “the [former] earth and heaven fled away, and there was no place found for them.” Surely, it might be thought, this is a post-millennial definition of time and order not to be mistaken. - And then too, the fact of death and the curse having no existence in the New Jerusalem state will seem to him strong confirmation of that view; compared with the previously stated fact of its being not till after the judgment of the great white throne, that death and hades were cast into the lake of fire.

On a more enlarged consideration of the question, however, the following strong presumptive evidence will be found to favor the view which supposes the New Jerusalem to have had existence from the commencement, and throughout the progress, of the millennial period.

1. Whereas two things had been mentioned previously, as its subjects of congratulation, in the Church’s joyous song of triumph on Antichrist’s overthrow, Apoc. xix. 6, 7, “And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. 7: Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.” - viz. the one, the fact of Christ’s mundane reign beginning, the other, that of the Lamb’s marriage having come, and his wife having made herself ready, - and, whereas, of these two things, the establishment of the kingdom was immediately afterwards figured to St. John in the emblem of thrones being set, and the risen martyrs and saints taking seat thereon, and judgment being given them, ^[14] - whereas, I say, the first of these two things was thus duly symbolized whatsoever in the Apocalyptic visions of the Lamb’s synchronical bridal, and bride, ^[15] unless this emblematic vision were supposed to represent it; and consequently to synchronize in its introduction with the setting of the thrones of judgment, and opening of the Millennium. ^[16] 2. The account St. John gives of the manner of his seeing the New Jerusalem confirms this view of the matter. For while, on the one hand, the fact of his having been a symbolic man, or representative of Christ’s earthly Church, ^[17] thus far in the prefigurative visions, would lead us in consistency so to regard him still, and consequently in the circumstance of his being carried away in the spirit, through angelic ministration, to a sight of its interior state and glory, to recognize the indication of an earthly Church distinct from, though synchronous with, this New Jerusalem of the resurrection-saints, ^[18] such as we know will continue through the Millennium, - on the other, what could be the reason of one of the Angels that had the seven last Vial-plagues showing it him, unless to mark that the thing he exhibited was to be the speedy consequence or sequel of those Vial-outpourings? Besides which, there is the very singular coincidence of St. John’s being said (I presume as a symbolic man) to have fallen down at the feet of the revealing Angle to worship him, on this exhibition of the Lamb’s bride, the New Jerusalem just as he was before said to have done on the Angel’s primary intimation to him after Antichrist’s destruction, concerning the bride and bridal, and to have received in either case precisely the same answer and rebuke: - a coincidence scarce explicable, as it seems to me, except on the hypothesis of the fallings down being one and the same act, though twice noted in the Apocalyptic description; ^[19] indeed as noted probably for the very purpose of marking more significantly the chronological parallelism or identity of the two visions. - 3. To the same effect, thirdly, is what is said of “the nations [of them that are saved] walking in the light of it, and the kings of the earth bringing their glory and honor into it; ^[20] and again, of “the leaves of the tree being for the healing of the nations.” ^[21] For how can we explain this, except on the supposition of men existing on earth, and in the earthly state, such as needed healing, ^[22] contemporarily with the higher and heavenly glory of the New Jerusalem: the idea of these men, nations, and kings of the earth signifying saints in the resurrection-state, being an alternative which few probably will be inclined to embrace? No doubt we may suppose men living on the earth, to whom this healing apply, after the Millennium. But would not the healing virtue be needed by men, in order to its being a millennium of happiness, just as much during it? And, if so, whence to be derived but from the New Jerusalem? - 4. Then comes the important consideration, (one already briefly alluded to in my preceding Chapter,) ^[23] that in Dan. vii. 18, “But the saints of the most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever.” - the saints everlasting reign being made to date from Antichrist’s fall seems to require that the everlasting reign predicated in Apoc. xxii. 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.” - of the saints of the New Jerusalem should date similarly from Antichrist’s destruction, and so include the Millennium as its commencing æra. For when the Apocalypse says of the saints, with reference, incipiently, as would seem, to the state and æra of the New Jerusalem, “they shall reign for ever and ever,” can we well suppose that its “for ever and ever” means Daniel’s “for ever and ever” minus the first 1000 years? - Yet once more, 5thly and lastly, comes up for consideration the all-important parallelism of Isaiah’s new heaven and earth with the Apocalyptic new heaven and earth of St. John. For surely all fair presumption is in favor of their identity; Isaiah’s main object of description only being the new earth, St. John’s the new heaven. And if so, then, since Isaiah’s commence from the restoration of the Jews and of their earthly Jerusalem, at the opening of the Millennium, we seem all but forced to suppose the same of the Apocalyptic new heaven and earth; and, by consequence, of their heavenly Jerusalem also.

It may indeed be suggested that the epoch of the New Jerusalem’s descent from heaven, and manifestation to men, noted in Apoc. xxi. 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.” - may be an epoch in the history of the Holy City later than that of its first constitution at the saints’ rising; the one marking the commencing æra of the Millennium, the other its conclusion. But this seems inconsistent with St. Paul’s explicit declaration that it is the manifestation of the sons of God, or glorified body of the risen saints, (that is, of the New Jerusalem,) that is to be the occasion of the creation’s deliverance from the bondage of corruption, in other words of the first commencement of its millennial blessedness. Besides, if Isaiah’s new heaven and earth fix on the Apocalyptic new heaven and earth a millennial commencement, this involves the same commencing date also to the Apocalyptic New Jerusalem, as first seen by St. John coming down from heaven to earth; seeing that it was then that Christ said, “I make all things new.” And indeed the phrase “prepared as a bride” could scarce be said of it, except at the epoch of the bridal.

It is not to be wondered at, where such strong arguments press antagonistically on either side, that expositors should have been greatly perplexed and divided as to the exact location of the Apocalyptic New Jerusalem vision. After much consideration and re-consideration of the subject, I have come in fine to a conclusion respecting it partly different from, partly the same with, what was given in the three first Editions. As before, I cannot resist the arguments just stated for the vision being regarded as millennial in its incipient chronology. On the other hand I feel even yet more strongly than before, (though certainly never insensible to it,) the difficulty arising out of the apparently unequivocal sequence of the Apocalyptic new heaven and earth upon the fleeing away of the old heaven and earth from the face of Him who took seat on the great white throne. - But is it then impossible to reconcile the inconsistency? It has occurred to me that it may be reconciled, and the chief difficulty of the subject overcome, by a different view, from that which has hitherto obtained, of the chronological place an æra of the great white throne. The idea first arose in my mind out of the view of the Millennium suggested by Mr. Mede, (after certain of the ancient Fathers,) ^[24] as itself the day of judgment. ^[25] This view seemed to me reasonable and scriptural. Wherefore, à priori, should we suppose the day of judgment to be one single solar day, any more than the day of salvation to be one single solar day? And, as to Scriptural evidence, might not Peter’s inspired declaration, “A thousand years are with the Lord as one day,” said in direct connection with the subjects of Christ’s judgment-day and the new earth and heaven, suffice of itself to prove its Scripturalness? Besides, if the thrones on which the souls of martyrs took seat were thrones of judgment as well as rule, and the martyrs’ rule or reign was declaredly prolonged through the 1000 years, the inference seems natural that their office of judges too, and so the judgment itself also, must be regarded as prolonged through the 1000 years. - But then what of the Chief Judge, and his throne of judgment? On turning to the parallel vision in Daniel we find it implied, as well as the subordinate thrones for the saints: - “I beheld till the thrones were placed; ^[26] and the Ancient of days did sit,” i.e. on his throne of judgment. Can we then reasonably suppose that in the Apocalyptic visions this, the most august feature in the whole scene of judgment, was wanting? Or, if figured, that it would be altogether past over in silence by the recording Evangelist? Supposing which two suppositions to be negatived, we are almost forced on the idea of the great white throne of Apoc. xx. 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.” - being the very throne in question, seeing that none other is mentioned: and so that it was occupied by the Divine Judge at the opening, as well as close, of the millennial judgment-day. ^[27] - The specified fact of “the books being opened,” before Him who sate on it, just as “the books were opened” before the Ancient of days in Daniel, ^[28] is a point of agreement so striking as to go far to identify them. - Nor do I see anything in St. John’s description to negative the idea. The circumstance of the great white throne being mentioned after the notice of God and Magog’s post-millennial outrage, is no valid objection at all against it; because retrogression, for the purpose of supplying what needed to be supplied, by way of addition or explanation, is not uncommon in the Apocalyptic prophecy. Nor can it be objected that there would be wanting on this hypothesis a judgment of those who lived not again till after the expiring of the Millennium; seeing that it supposes the judgment of the great white throne, and sitting of the Judge thereon, to be even then unfinished: there being two great acts of judgment by Him who sate thereon; the one great act at the Millennium’s commencement, the other at its conclusion. - In further corroboration of the view, I may observe that the correspondence of the vision with the announcement in Apoc. xi. 18, “And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.” - of what was to take place under the 7th Trumpet would be more evident and complete according to it, than on the usual view which postpones the judgment of the great white throne, and connected fact of the dead rising before it to judgment, altogether to a post-millennial epoch. For what was then the announcement? “The time is come of the dead that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and to them that fear thy name, small and great. And whereas, on the old hypothesis, none of the dead were expressly specified as raised or rewarded but the anti-Pagan and anti-Papal martyrs, on the present the resurrection of the dead “small and great,” mentioned in Apoc. xx. 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.” would be construed as having beginning at the beginning of the Millennium, as well as completion at its conclusion: with reward to the righteous given in the first instance; and retribution too to the wicked first privatively, afterward positively. ^[29] - As to the parallel prophecies in Isaiah, St. Peter, and Daniel, the harmony of the Apocalyptic with them too would be also then complete and evident. The passing away of the old heaven and earth, and substitution of the new, together with the commencement of the saints’ everlasting reign, would in every case begin with the fall of Antichrist, and the Jews’ restoration: - there being moreover coincidently, what St. Paul declares coincident, the “manifestation of the sons of God;” that is, of the New Jerusalem.

Yet once more, there may be light thrown on certain other prophetic difficulties by this view of the millennial judgment-day; considered with double reference distinctively to its two great epochs of the commencement and the close. E.g. a more partial conflagration might be supposed to mark the commencement of the Millennium, one more complete its close: each included, as if one, in St. Peter’s prophecy, though separated in the Apocalypse; as binary stars are resolved into two only on nearer view. Again, as to what is said of the sea being no more, ^[30] (if literally meant,) while what was known as “the sea” of the ancient world, viz. the Mediterranean, ^[31] might by the convulsions at the opening of the Millennium have its bed elevated, and made dry land, the whole ocean might at the second and final convulsion become physically no more. So too the triumph over death, begun strikingly with the saints’ first resurrection at its commencement, ^[32] would be completed strikingly by the casting of death and hades into the lake of fire at its close; and much the same of the judgment in Matt. xxv. on the righteous and wicked. In fine, as regards the New Jerusalem, it is quite consistent with our hypothesis to suppose the manifestation of its glory, and its union with the new earth and its inhabitants, though begun at the commencement of the Millennium, to be yet at its close still more complete and perfect.

Such then is the view that I conclude on, as the one most consistent alike with the Apocalypse itself, and with other parallel Scripture prophecies on this great subject.

As regards the earlier and millennial period of the New Jerusalem, it is of course among the Apocalyptic “nations” [of them that are saved], which are said to walk in its light, and “the kings of the earth,” which are said to bring their glory and honor into it, that we are to place the restored Jews and Gentile remnant saved from the primary conflagration, of whom the Old Testament prophecy speaks so much: - the Jews having now a certain pre-eminence and peculiar glory, such as seem constantly predicted of Israel and the earthly Jerusalem, in the earlier prophecies of the latter day. With which view the statement that “in Christ Jesus there is neither Jew nor Greek, circumcision or uncircumcision,” is not, I think, inconsistent: - seeing that that statement had reference to the premillennial times of the gathering out of all nations of the Church of the redeemed, the New Jerusalem; wherein equal honors and an equal reward, were intended for the engrafted as for the natural members of the true Israel: but not to the very different times, and different dispensation, of the Millennium. - It seems to me probable that by “the beloved city” of Apoc. xx. 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.” we are to understand this earthly Jerusalem; though it may also perhaps be understood of the heavenly or new Jerusalem. But in any case there must be supposed, I conceive, a most intimate connection of the one Jerusalem with the other: the earthly Jerusalem being that upon, or over which, the glory of the New Jerusalem is to rest; like as Jehovah’s pillar of fire on the tabernacle in the wilderness, or the more awful glory on the top of Sinai. ^[33] Here, I say, it would seem that there is to be the meeting-point of earth and heaven; and that same conjunction to be visibly manifested, of which I spoke before in my preceding chapter, ^[34] of the ultimate blessedness of the spiritual and of the natural seed of Abraham: - a conjunction and blending together of the two so intimate, that it is often difficult, if not impossible, to discern in prophecy where the one ends and the other begins.

And thus, when we turn to consider the state of things during the Millennium, our minds seem irresistibly directed to Jerusalem, as the Mother-Church of a Christianized universe: (for even though we admitted the literal Judaic character of the Jerusalem in Ezekiel’s last obscure construction of its temple and its sacrifices:) ^[35] I say as the Mother-Church of a Christian world, and focus and center of the glories of that latter day. There the Shechinah of Messiah’s presence is, as it would seem, to shine refulgent; ^[36] there the King to be seen in his beauty; ^[37] there too probably the manifestation to be made, more fully than elsewhere, of the perfected company of the redeemed, the general assembly and Church of the firstborn, now entered on their inheritance, ^[38] the glorified sons of God: ^[39] - who, entrusted with the new earth’s government, subordinately to Christ himself, in gracious reward of past service, ^[40] (perhaps after the example of those angels that, having kept their first estate, have had this present earth entrusted to their charge and ministry,) ^[41] shall be recognized as the constituency of the New Jerusalem, in all their resurrection glories, ^[42] resurrection dispensation. ^[43] - Meanwhile thither, concomitantly, are to converge the desires and the gatherings of the whole family of man. “The mountain of the Lord’s house having been established on the top of the mountains, all nations shall flow unto it;” ^[44] and the Lord’s prophecy be fulfilled, “I, if I be lifted up, shall draw all men to me.” ^[45] The blessedness thence resulting is to be universal. The creature, delivered from the bondage of corruption, is to experience the glorious liberty of the children of God: the river of life from God’s throne diffusing its blessings over the world, and the leaves of the trees beside it being for the healing of the nations. And as “the knowledge of the Lord now covers the earth, like as the waters of the sea,” ^[46] and holiness and peace and joy everywhere blend together, the Lord shall again rejoice in his works; ^[47] yea shall joy over them with singing, and rest in his love. ^[48] It shall be the resumption of his sabbatism; a sabbatism begun at the jubilee of man’s creation, but immediately after all suddenly and rudely interrupted by man’s apostasy: - his resumption of it after the accomplishment of that work that he has ever since then, conjointly with the Father, been engaged in; ^[49] - his work, his mightiest work, of redemption.

O scenes surpassing fable, and yet true!

Scenes of accomplished bliss! which who can see

Though but in distant prospect, and not feel

His soul refreshed with foretaste of the joy? ^[50]

I quote from one who is a meet minstrel on such a topic; and subjoin yet another extract from him, depicting the scene and its blessedness. ^[51] The subject is one too high and holy for my own rude touch. I pass from it.

Meanwhile (so the Apocalypse, as well as other Scripture prophecy, informs us) an awful monument will remain, and be visible, of a once different state of things; - a monument of the guilt and punishment of the age preceding. It has always been God’s plan that such memorials should exist, as a warning against sin, under every dispensation; - under the patriarchal that of the accursed ground, and then of the deluge; under the Abrahamic and Mosaic that of Sodom; under the Christian that of Jerusalem trodden down, and the Jewish exiles dispersed everywhere, with the brand of God’s curse upon them. And now there is to be that of the mystic Babylon, or Roman earth and Antichrist, swallowed up in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone; “the smoke of which goeth up for ever and ever.” ^[52] This scene the Apocalypse figured to St. John. And with it correspond those most awful and striking words which close Isaiah’s prophecy, in reference evidently to the times of the Millennium: - “And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched: and they shall be an adhorring unto all flesh.” ^[53]

So during the Millennium. - And if, notwithstanding all this, notwithstanding both the warning, and glory, and the blessedness, the Devil do yet succeed afterwards, on his being loosed, in seducing the nations in the four corners of the world, what the wonder; considering the history of the seductions of Adam and Eve in a former paradisiacal state, and when enjoying the intimacy and the vision of God. It will only be a new example how the creature, by himself, when tempted will fall. - Again, the mad attempt of those deceived ones against even “the camp of the saints and the beloved city,” need not surprise him who has studied man’s corruption and daring, in the history of Israel’s rebellion at the foot of the burning mount of Sinai. ^[54] - And to the speedy, if not instant destruction of the rebels, it needs not that I expatiate on it; or on the subsequent fate of the world. Where revelation is silent, it were vain to conjecture. Suffice it to remark from the Apocalyptic prophecy, respecting the seduced, that they are to be destroyed by fire: - respecting the Devil, the tempter, that he is forthwith, with all his associated evil angels, to be cast into the same lake, burning with fire and brimstone, where the Beast and False Prophet were cast before: - respecting the saints, that, instead of closing their reign with the Millennium, they are in some way still to reign even for ever: ^[55] - respecting the rest of men, that there is to follow after Gog and Magog’s destruction their general resurrection: and a judgment before the great white throne, which I conceive to have been first set at the opening of the Millennium, ^[56] whereby all not written in the Book of Life will be cast into the lake of fire. - In St. Paul’s comprehensive summary of the final future, 1 Cor. xv. 24, 28, (a passage already cited in the controversial part of my preceding chapter,) we read thus of this epoch; “Afterward cometh the end when He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father, that God may be all in all.” And there is yet one farther glimpse into ages still to come, opened to us by St. Paul; with reference to the influence on other worlds and intelligences of this our planet’s history. He tells how the story of its redemption is to be through eternity itself a chief lesson to them of the marvels of divine grace: ^[57] - “that in the ages to come ^[58] He might show the exceeding riches of his grace, in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.” ^[59]

I may fitly here subjoin the conclusion of the Apocalypse. - xxii. 6. “ And he said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true: and the Lord God of the holy prophets ^[60] sent his angel to shew 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. 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 shewed me these things. 9: Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not: for I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God.” 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 do righteousness ^[61] 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.

13: I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. 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. 15: For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie. 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. 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. 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 from the tree ^[62] of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written of ^[63] this book. 20: He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus

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