(Zech. iii. 8), as was promised indeed at the very time of its first conception by King David (2 Sam. vii. 13). The mystery of the temple therefore is, that since the days of Moses it hath been a constant accompaniment of the presence of the glory of the Great King. And what is become of it now? It is there where his glory is, in heaven. And therefore in this book, so soon as we are entered upon the delineation of his glory, we have his throne declared to be in the temple in heaven. The temple is there where his glory is. And when his glory descends, his temple, the New Jerusalem, descends along with him. That the New Jerusalem is his temple, is manifest from its being called his tabernacle, Rev. xxi. 3; from their being no temple in it, verse 22; from its being the bride of the Lamb, or the accomplished number of the elect, who are called the living stones of his spiritual temple, 1 Pet. ii. 4. The Book of Ezekiel, which is the Apocalypse of the Jew, concludes with the description. of the natural temple, which the natural seed of Abraham shall possess; the Apocalypse concludes with the description of the spiritual temple, which the spiritual seed of Abraham shall possess: in the one of which Christ shall be seen as the natural eye can behold him; in the other of which he shall be seen as he is. This city, inheritance, temple, or by whatever name it is called, is now above in the heavens, and is the thing signified by the rа έπšρavia, "the heavenly places," and "heavenly things," but literally the heavenlies." Of these "heavenlies" the tabernacle was an exact pattern, as it is written, Heb. ix. 23, 24. The tabernacle was purified with typical blood of Christ, but the “heavenlies” with his very blood. That is to say, every living stone which is builded into the New Jerusalem, is a spiritual stone, which receives its spiritual form from this one thing; even the holy death of Christ, his spotless blood, which obtained for him his spiritual body, in and by which he becomes the head of a spiritual generation, out of whom he, whose name is the all-fruitful Branch, doth build the spiritual temple of the Lord, the New Jerusalem, the city of my God, the bride of the Lamb, the tabernacle of God.-It is not now the time to open these things in order. These are only the hints of high discourse; necessary to possess us with information concerning the place of God's throne.

Out of the throne, it is said, there "proceeded lightnings, and thunderings, and voices." Not from Him that sat upon the throne, but out of the throne itself proceed those emblems of power and intelligence: the origin of which is found in those who occupied the throne,-namely, the four living creatures. The throne is instinct with life; which manifests itself in acts and words of power. Of this awful throne of God, the first exhibition was given upon the top of Sinai, after the children of Israel had been sanctified for two whole days; and the appearance of it is thus described, Ex. xix. 16: “And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled." And that this is a similitude of what shall be on Mount Zion for ever, is declared in Psalm lxviii. 16, 17: "Why leap ye, ye high hills? this is the hill which God desireth to dwell in; yea the Lord will dwell in it for ever. The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels: the Lord is among them as in Sinai, in the holy place." Whereby I understand it to be declared, that the manifestation made to the people on the top of Sinai, is the same in substance, is the manifestation of the same glory of God as shall hereafter abide on Sion for ever: but how far different in character is declared by the Apostle in that sublime passage of the Hebrews xii. 18-24, which represents the invisible things within the cloud as shewn to the Israelites from Sinai, to be in perfect opposition with those which are now shewn to the Christian church. It may then be asked, And if so, why is the throne, as seen by the Christian seer, still emitting lightnings and thunderings? The answer is, that he saw the throne of the Governor and Judge of the world, who ruleth the nations with a rod of iron, not the throne merely of the Head of the church. This is the throne from which goes forth the lightnings and thunderings and earthquake, and great hail, by which the thrones and dominions of the world are subverted. From this throne proceed all the acts of the seals and trumpets and vials; and therefore it must be represented with lightnings and thunderings, which are in all Scripture the symbols of God's hot and fiery indignation. The throne blazes out and bellows forth destruction upon all the enemies of

God and of his church, who therefore are found under the sixth seal exclaiming in horror, "And saying to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand ?" And not only at that time, but ever since Christ's resurrection we are given to understand that every thing calamitous which the earth hath experienced, is derived from the holiness of this throne, which is all instinct with wrath against iniquity.

There hardly needeth that we should explain why thunderings and lightnings should be the symbols of Divine wrath in action. They are the most powerful agents in nature; they are invisible; they have their apparent place in the heavens; and thence issuing, they shake and overthrow and scatter the most proud and mighty of the works of man. In all ages, the thunderbolt hath been looked upon as the arms of an offended God; and that the lightnings shall be one of the fierce accompaniments and swift avengers of the Son of Man, in the day of his coming to judge the quick, is in all the Scriptures declared, and no where more sublimely than in the xviiith Psalm, where the church, being brought into the last extremities, doth cry aloud to her Redeemer, who answers her supplication by his own appearance. Verses 6-16 "In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried unto my God: he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears. Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken, because he was wroth. There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it. He bowed the heavens also, and came down and darkness was under his feet. And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly: yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind. He made darkness his secret place; his pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies. At the brightness that was before him his thick clouds passed, hail stones and coals of fire. The Lord also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave his voice; hail stones and coals of fire. Yea, he sent out his arrows, and scattered them; and he shot out lightnings, and discomfited

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them. Then the channels of waters were seen, and the foundations of the world were discovered at thy rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils. He sent from above, he took me, he drew me out of many waters." This is the redemption of his church out of her last and most direful calamity: it is the triumph of her victory over her enemies; the joyful translation of her people to her King and Lord coming in the glorious cloud; and her action with him from thence to rule the world with a rod of iron, and break it in pieces like a potter's vessel. Now, forasmuch as this catastrophe of the world, and perdition of all the ungodly upon the earth, together with all the lesser inflictions of chastisement which have been administered since his ascension into glory, with the view of preventing such grievous destruction, must be seen to reside in this throne of the heavens, and to be inflicted by the most merciful and gracious Son of Man, who sitteth thereon, to whom all judgment hath been committed, because he is the Son of Man, these thunderings and lightnings are represented as proceeding from thence, and thereby it is shewn to be a throne not of mercy and salvation merely, nor yet merely of universal power and dominion, but likewise of severity and judgment, of wrath and indignation; in one word, of holiness as well as of grace.

And next, by the voices which proceeded thence, we are not to understand indistinct mutterings, or inarticulate sounds, but mighty and powerful and most instructive words and sentences, which speak and it is done, which command and all things stand fast. For example, the voice which uttered the grand finale of the world's judgment (xvi. 17), saying," It is done," proceedeth from the temple of heaven, from the throne; and again, that invocation of all the servants of God to praise him for destroying Babylon (xix. 5), proceedeth from the throne: "Behold I make all but the voice, which saith (xxi. 5) things new," proceedeth from Him that sat upon the throne. I know not wherein this distinction may stand. If, as we shall shew in the sequel, the four living creatures ever dwell within the circuit of the throne, and never come out thence, we must infer that these voices from the throne are uttered by them as the organic body

of the church, through whom He that sitteth upon the throne, who is the church's glorified Head, doth express his mind. But when he would speak, not in the character of the Head of the redeemed creation, but of the Representative of the invisible Godhead, giving forth the Father's will for the obedience of all creatures, then speaketh he in his own personality. This is the best account I can give of the distinction between a voice from the throne, and a voice from Him that sitteth on it. If I err not, all the voices in this book which are said to come out of the temple, as that mentioned chap. xvi. 1, and which are not expressly given to any speakers, are to be ascribed to the throne as their origin; which occupieth the same place in the heavenly temple that the oracle, or Word, between the cherubim, which spoke to Moses and to Samuel, did occupy in the tabernacle. In confirmation of the idea, that these voices belong to the four living creatures who alone inhabit the throne, we observe that the dignity of leading the worship is expressly given to them above the elders, and the angels, and every creature in heaven or earth (iv. 9, 10). Now, in that grand chorus, sung over Babylon's downfal, (chap. xix.) the voice of the choregos, or leader of the quire, is made to proceed from the throne (ver. 5); which two things being laid together, gives us, I think, the conclusion, that the voices from the throne are uttered by the four living creatures, and no others. And this is all which we can say at present; for the time is not yet come for searching into the mystery of these creatures.

To conclude our observations upon that which the throne emitted to sight and to hearing, we refer to a passage in the vision of Ezekiel (i. 14), where it is said that the living creatures ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning; and to another passage in this book (vi. 1), where the voice of one of the living creatures is described to be as it were the voice of thunder. These two passages incline me to believe, that every form of action, whether to sense of sight or sense of hearing, which cometh out of the throne, is the action of the cherubim, the supporters and the only inhabiters of the throne of God. That is to say, He that sitteth on the throne serveth himself with his church, to inflict, through their means, the strokes of his indignation, as