THE COMING OF MESSIAH IN GLORY AND MAJESTY.

PART II. (CONTINUED)

PHENOMENON VI.

PHENOMENON VII.

BABYLON AND HER CAPTIVES.

§1. LET us proceed to reconnoitre the other fortress whereto the doctors betake themselves, which is the captivity of Babylon. Though indeed it be not of such importance as the preceding, it may on that very account prove the more inconvenient; because it is not here pure allegory, but the letter itself, which serves them for a shield. He who readeth the prophets with attention, and sets himself to compare the magnificent promises which they make in favour of the Jews, with the advantages which were apportioned to them, by the coming up out of Babylon, and their return to the land of their fathers, can do no less than wonder that the Lord should employ expressions so grand for things which were comparatively so trifling. He will not wonder less, if, upon reading the terrible threatenings against Babylon, he observes, as well in sacred history as in profane, that this city maintained itself without any material change, for the space of many ages after the departure of the captives, notwithstanding that Isaiah, in the forty-seventh chapter, had announced those great calamities as about to come upon her in a moment. “But these things shall come upon thee suddenly in one day, the loss of children and widowhood.” From all which, it will not be difficult to infer, that at that time were not verified, nor have yet been verified, the extraordinary events which the prophets announce by such great and vivid expressions. And to the end it may be seen what an insignificant part of the things we meet with predicted, can be applied in the literal sense to the captives of Babylon, and to their deliverance, we shall set forth a summary of that which hath be fallen the children of Israel from their banishment until this day; and we shall confront the same with the words of the prophets, in order that we may see that hardly any thing hath been accomplished.

Summary of the History of the children of Israel, from the beginning of their Captivity and Dispersion till the Present Time.

§ 2. ONE hundred twenty and two years after the ten tribes, which composed the kingdoms of Israel and Samaria, had been banished and carried away captive into Assyria, by Salmonezer king of Nineveh, the two tribes which remained, and composed the kingdom of Judah, were in like manner, and for the same causes, exiled and carried away captive into Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar. This transmigration was perfectly concluded eleven years thereafter, when the same Nebuchadnezzar, irritated by the rebellion of Zedekiah, uncle of the last king (whom he had entrusted with the regency of the kingdom, and honoured with the title of king), returned with more fury against Jerusalem: and having sacked it, and laid it entirely in ruins; and perhaps executed the like upon all the cities of Judah, he carried their inhabitants along with him, not leaving in all the land, save some “few of the poor of the people, which had nothing,” Jer. xxxix; who not feeling themselves secure, tarried not long, but became voluntary exiles, by flying into Egypt.

The seventy years, predicted by Jeremiah (chap. xxix.) having been accomplished, the king who, by the death of Darius, had just seated himself on the throne of the empire, moved and inspired of God (as he himself doth declare in his public edict, and as Isaiah had foretold, chap. xlv.) granted permission to such of the Jews as pleased, and even exhorted them to return to Jerusalem, and build the temple of the true God anew; commanding that the holy vessels which Nebuchadnezzar had transported should be restored; and that they should be supplied with all help necessary for the sacred building. With this licence certain returned with Zerubbabel, who appointed by king Cyrus himself, as the conductors of that troop of voluntary sojourners, who were all of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, with certain priests and Levites, as it is expressly written in the book of Ezra Chap i. “Then rose up the chief of the fathers of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites.” And in the second chapter, for the greater clearness, it is said, that those who returned to Jerusalem were descendants of those very persons whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried up captives to Babylon: “Who went up out of the captivity of those which had been carried away, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away unto Babylon, and came unto Jerusalem and Judah.” Of the other ten tribes there is not spoken a single word.

Although the cities and provinces of Media, where the ten tribes had been placed (2 Kings xviii.) were at that time under the jurisdiction of Cyrus, of whose empire they formed a considerable part; it is certain that to them was not given the power of returning to their respective countries: both because these countries were occupied by other nations, which the same Salmonezer had sent into the room of Israel, as is written in the seventeenth chapter of the 2^nd book of Kings; and because the intention of Cyrus respected only the temple of the true God. So it is to be seen that his royal edict or schedule spoke solely of the rebuilding of the temple of the God of heaven, which heretofore stood in Jerusalem, and of the worship of the same God. Consequently it speaketh to the Jews and the priesthood, to whom this pertained. “Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, The Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he hath charged me to build him an house at Jerusalem, which is Judah. Who is there among you of all his people? his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the Lord God of Israel, (he is the God,) which is in Jerusalem. And whosoever remaineth in any place where he sojourneth, let the men of his place help him with silver, and with gold, and with goods, and with beasts, beside the freewill offering for the house of God that is in Jerusalem.” Ezra i. 2-4.

After many years (not fewer, as seemeth to me, than sixty) the seventh year of Artaxerxes, this holy and learned priest, commissioned by that king to visit his brethren, and see if they observed faithfully the laws of their God, and those of the king, went forth from Babylon to Jerusalem, accompanied by six hundred persons, forasmuch as he was a man full of wisdom, zeal, and piety, that he might freely and without any impediment instruct the ignorant. “And thou, Ezra, after the wisdom of thy God, that is in thine hand, set magistrates and judges, which may judge all the people that are beyond the river, all such as know the laws of thy God; and teach ye them that know them not. And whosoever will not do the law of thy God, and the law of the king, let judgment be executed speedily upon him, whether it be unto death, or to banishment, or to confiscation of goods, or to imprisonment.” Ezra vii. 25,26. Thirteen years alter Ezra, in the twenty-first year of the same Artaxerxes, Nehemiah, who was his cup-bearer and favourite, obtained permission of the king to go unto Jerusalem, bearing ample powers (which till now had not been granted the Jews) to build the city anew, and surround it with walls in all form, which he did, not without great opposition from all the surrounding nations, as may be seen in the book of the same Nehemiah, which is oft called the 2^nd of Esdras.

Now it is certain from the scripture itself (Ezra ii.), that those who returned from Babylon to Jerusalem in these three parties, hardly made the amount of forty and two thousand and six hundred men; which is as much as to say that they were only a very small portion of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin (which, a few years before the captivity, in the time of king Jehoshaphat, could furnish one million one hundred and three score thousand soldiers, who were enrolled and ready at the command of five captains-general, besides those who kept the strong-holds, as is expressly said in the second book of the Chronicles, chapter xvii). Consequently the most of the individuals of Judah and Benjamin remained in their exile, either because they could not come, or because they chose it not, regarding with indifference the land of their fathers and the worship of their God. All these certain and sure notices ought to serve the end of informing and assuring us of a truth the most important in the subject whereof we treat. Which is, that the Jews who returned, in those times, from Babylon to Judæa did not return more free than those which remained, nor lived more free, in the land of their fathers, than they had lived in Chaldea. They went out of Babylon by permission of the prince; but they went not from under the bondage of Babylon. They changed their land, but they changed not their condition: almost as if they had but passed from one province of the same empire to another. On this account they themselves made their lamentation, more than sixty years after having come out of Babylon; when, being congregated in Jerusalem, by Nehemiah and Esdras, to celebrate the feast of tabernacles and hear the reading of the law, they one day burst forth into a bitter lamentation, upon which followed a very fervent prayer, wherein, among other things they offer to the Lord these words: “Behold, we are servants this day, and for the land that thou gavest unto our fathers to eat the fruit thereof and the good thereof; behold, we are servants in it; and it yieldeth much increase unto the kings whom thou hast set over us because of our sins: also they have dominion over our bodies, and over our cattle, at their pleasure, and we are in great distress.” Nehemiah ix.36,37.

True liberty forsooth! Republic worthy of the name! For this my friend, is the illustrious name with which the Christian doctors commonly honour the Jews who returned out of Babylon with Zerubbabel, Esdras, and Nehemiah. The reason they have for giving it the name of republic, is so clear that the most short-sighted may see it.

After the temple and city were built, after they, who returned, had established themselves throughout Judea, which they probably found deserted; for it is not said that the kings of Babylon sent any other nations to people it, as is said with respect to the lands occupied by the other ten tribes; after all this, until the revolutions occasioned by Alexander, it appears evident and undeniable that Jerusalem, as well as the whole of Judæa, remained, as before, without any change, in respect to its entire subjection and dependence upon the empire of Babylon. Nor is it known that the inhabitants of Judæa enjoyed any exception, above the inhabitants of Chaldea, Media, and Persia, except the privilege, afforded to them by Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes, of being able to offer to their God public worship in Jerusalem, and to live according to the laws which they had received from God’s own mouth; without therefore failing punctually to observe the royal laws: “and whosoever will not do the law of thy God, and the law of the king, let judgment be executed speedily upon him whether it be unto death, or to banishment, or to confiscation of goods, or to imprisonment.” Ezra vii.

26.

The prince Zerubbabel was not only of the house and family of David, but lineal grandson of the last king of Judah (I say, last, because Zedekiah, who reigned last, did not hold any right to the crown, but was violently set up by Nebuchadnezzar). Moreover Zerubbabel held a legitimate right, by being the son of Salathiel, who was the son of Jeconiab, or Jehoiakim, who was carried away to Babylon, and imprisoned there, until Evil-Merodach succeeded to the throne. (2 Kings xxv.) Nevertheless, neither did Zerubbabel, nor those who were along with him, ever think of such a kingdom or of such a crown: nor is it known that there was in their hands more power or authority, than that which Cyrus had committed to them, whereof the whole amount was restricted and limited to the simple rebuilding of the temple; and if Zerubbabel enjoyed any beyond this, it was only the respect and courtesy given to him by those who knew of what lineage he was.

After the empire of Chaldea or Persia (which is one and the same), founded by Nebuchadnezzar, and enlarged by his successors, was entirely destroyed by the Greeks, who took possession of it; the Jews, who dwelt in Jerusalem and Judæa, were not left free; nor thought of setting upon the throne any of David’s descendants; nor of erecting themselves into an independent republic; nor even so much as refused tribute and vassalage to their new lords. They were always the servants and subjects of the Greek princes; now of one, now of another, according to the dominant party. As these princes did command and dispose of everything in the other provinces of their empire, so likewise did they in Jerusalem and Judæa; laying their hand even on that which was most sacred: for it is known by the two books of Maccabees, that they put down and set up, at their will, the high priest; and possessed themselves of the treasures of the temple, destined for the divine worship, and the sustenance of the poor.

The only change of any account which took place in those times, was that which was occasioned by the impiety and imprudence of one of those kings, who is called in Holy Scripture, the Root of Sin, the famous Antiochus. This wicked and insensate king, having returned worsted from his expedition against Egypt, thought to console himself in some way, by turning all his rage and fury against the Jews, Accordingly, without any other motive than a slight suspicion of its fealty, he went straight to Jerusalem, with all his troops, made himself master of it without opposition, sacked it, and burned it, and destroyed it almost entirely; shed the innocent blood of eighty persons; sold as many men for slaves; made the daily sacrifice to cease; spoiled the temple of God of all its ornaments and riches; profaned it with the greatest and most sacreligious profanation, both placing in it the statue of Jupiter Olympus, and permitting in it such excesses as to harrow up and horrify the most careless ear. “For,” saith the Scriptures, “the temple was filled with luxury and the feasts of the Gentiles, and with the abominations of harlots.” And, above all, as if this were a small matter, he did likewise take pains to convert the Jews into Gentiles and make them renounce their God and their religion; they might adore the gods of wood and stone, which the other nations adored, and entirely accommodate themselves to their customs and manner of living: and all this upon the pain of death. But God, who watched over the preservation of his church, at the same time that he chastened her for her sins, having permitted so great evils, did then give most notable demonstration of his greatness; he stirred up his Spirit in a sacerdotal family, which he clothed with valour from on high, and armed with holy zeal and courage, and by means of that family, with a few men, did work such mighty prodigies, as we read with amazement in the two books of the Maccabees. This interval being passed; and it was neither very large nor very happy, for all was full of continual wars, inquietude, and disturbance; and the true religion having triumphed over so many and grievous oppositions, the state in all other respects continued as before, with very little, or no substantial alteration. The inhabitants of Jerusalem and Judæa, not less than the surrounding nations, continued to serve as vassals and subjects to the empire of the Greeks, paying their tributes and suffering their rule, until the Romans became absolute masters of all the east, as they were already of all the west.

In this state things remained, until the Messiah came, who, far from delivering them out of that servitude into which they were brought, five hundred years before, by Nebuchadnezzar, declared to them, on the contrary, that they ought to pay to Cæsar that which was Cæsar’s, and to God that which was God's; and he himself paid the tribute. (Matt. xxii.) Shortly after, drawing nigh to Jerusalem, whither he went to suffer, he opened himself more fully to his disciples and friends who followed him, in the persuasion “that the kingdom of God should immediately appear,” He opened himself, I say, by that admirable and very clear parable, which is found in the nineteenth chapter of the Gospel of St. Luke: “A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive to himself a kingdom, and return.” Luke xix. 12. Whence he gave them very clearly to understand, that the thing which they thought ripe, and hoped for, though expressed in the Scriptures was still very far distant. That many other scriptures equally clear and express, had first to be accomplished, which spoke of his passion, of his death, and of all its consequences; “that he must first suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation.”

Finally: Messiah being dead, glorified, and risen again, the servitude and captivity of the children of Israel did not cease, nor was mitigated thereupon; but it was aggravated the more, and became incomparably more severe, in punishment for their having rejected Messiah, as the scriptures announced, and as the Lord himself had foretold a few days before his passion: “For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations.” Luke xxi. 22-24. In fact, a few years after the death of Messiah, they were once more cast forth from Jerusalem and from Judæa by the Romans; the temple and the city were destroyed to the foundations; and their captivity, their servitude, their straits, their tribulations not only followed as before, but were remarkably increased and aggravated; and since then, have not ceased to increase, and, at times, to be still more bitterly aggravated in all nations.

But this present captivity, this servitude, in which the whole world has beheld the Jews, since the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, cannot be called, with propriety, a new captivity and a new servitude; although only those should be taken into the account who then dwelt in Judea, which was a very small part in respect to that which was then called the dispersion of the ten tribes. Even speaking, I say, of these alone, it appears certain, that the Romans did nothing more in reality than revoke the licence which king Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes, had given them, to build the temple of their God and dwell in Jerusalem and Judæa. As God moved the heart of these princes to concede to them such a liberty, so afterwards moved he the heart of Vespasian and Titus, and still more of Adrian, to revoke the whole; confirming the first decree of Nebuchadnezzar, and causing it to be executed without mercy.

That permission of Cyrus, announced by the Holy Spirit two hundred years before, (Isa. xlv.) was without doubt convenient and even necessary; both to the end that due worship might be rendered unto the living God in his holy temple, and that the people of God might not be turned aside by the idolatry and iniquities of Babylon; and also, and principally to the end that, in his time he might have in the holy land a considerable body of the nation and of the priesthood, who should either receive Messiah, whose coming drew nigh, or reject him, and hang him on the cross; seeing the one and the other extreme ought to have been within their power.

These notices are compared with the Prophecies.

§3. FROM the whole of this history, which we have related, there result these truths: 1^st. That the ten tribes which Salmoneser carried away captive, and placed in Assyria and Media, have not yet returned from their exile. 2^nd. That of the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, which Nebuchadnezzar carried into Babylon, there did return only a slender portion to the land of their fathers; the most part remaining in Chaldea, and in the same servitude. 3^rd. That this small portion which came out of the captivity of Babylon, and returned to Jerusalem and Judæa, continued as much in slavery to the king of Babylon as they were before; obeyed his laws, and those of the Greeks and Romans in succession; had no princes of their family to govern them as before the captivity, hardly ever enjoyed peace and tranquillity in all those times, but truly suffered continual disquietudes and afflictions. 4^th. That by the coming of Messiah their ruin and dispersion was entirely completed, in the very terms in which they had been foretold, without till this day having experienced the least alleviation. Let us now see shortly, some of the promises which were made in behalf of the house of Abraham, and we shall easily deduce whether they were accomplished in the coming up out of the captivity of Babylon.

First in Isaiah, (eleventh chapter) it is said, that God will gather the fugitives of Israel and the dispersed of Judah, from all the four quarters of the earth: “And shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah, from the four corners of the earth:” that these being gathered into their own lands, shall be lords over those very nations of which they had been the slaves, (chapter xiv.) “And the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the Lord for servants and handmaids: and they shall take them captives, whose captives they were: and they shall rule over their oppressors:” that the Lord shall then give them rest from their troubles, from their oppressions, and from that servitude in which they had been for so many ages; that the name of an exacter or of tribute, should not be heard amongst them; that they shall then say full of joy, “How hath the oppressor ceased, the exactress of gold ceased? The Lord hath broken the staff of the wicked, the sceptres of the rulers, &c.” (Isa. xiv.) That this rod of the domination of men being broken into a thousand pieces, all the land shall rest quiet and in stillness, and at the same time full of joy and exultation: “The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: it rejoiceth and breaketh forth into singing.” That in that day, finally, the Lord shall take from the neck and shoulders of the men of Israel that yoke and that burden so heavy, which they had borne in their long captivity. “And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulders, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing.” Is. x. 27.

In Jeremiah it is said, that God shall gather the remnants of his flock from all the lands whither they were dispersed, and conduct them with his omnipotent arm to their own fields: that there they shall increase and multiply in peace and quietness, without fear and dread of the evil beasts, so that no one shall fail nor be lost from their number: “neither shall they be lacking saith the Lord;” (chapter xxiii.) and in the thirty-second and thirty-third and thirty-fourth chapters it is said, that the Lord will gather all the children of Israel from all the nations, lands, and places, whither he cast them in the time of his fury, of his wrath, and of his great and most just indignation; and shall bring them once more to their own land, where they shall dwell confidently. That they shall then be his people; that be will give them all one heart and one soul; that he will make with them an everlasting covenant; that henceforward he shall never fail to benefit them; that he shall rejoice in his benefits, and not have wherefore to repent of having bestowed them; that he shall infuse into their hearts his holy fear, that they may no more offend their God, nor depart from him; that he shall heal their wounds, and close all their scars; that he shall pardon their sins and their iniquities, and cast into perpetual oblivion all the past: that all the nations who shall hear or know the innumerable and stupendous benefits which he shall confer upon them, “shall be afraid and shall be confounded at all the benefits and all the peace which I bestow upon them.” That, finally, he shall plant them anew in the very land which he promised to their fathers, and that with all his heart and with all his soul:” “And I will set mine eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them again to this land: and I will build them, and not pull them down; and I will plant them, and not pluck them up:” Jer. xxiv. 6. that in those times they shall not say, “The Lord liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; but, The Lord liveth, which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land.” Jer. xxiii. 7,8. And the time shall come saith the Lord, in which "I will raise up unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS Jer. xxiii. 5,6. And to say all in one word, in the fiftieth chapter, ver. 4, “In those days, and in that time, saith the Lord, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together, going and weeping: they shall go, and seek the Lord their God. They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward, saying, Come, and let us join the Lord in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten.” Jer. l. 4,5. “In those days, and in that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found." Verse 20.

In Baruch, chapter v. it is said, that the captives who shall come out from their land with ignominy, “they departed from thee on foot, and were led away by their enemies,” shall return from the east and west, conducted with honour like the sons of the kingdom. “But God bringeth them unto thee, (Jerusalem) exalted with glory as children of the kingdom;” which perfectly accordeth with that which is written in Isaiah (lxvi. 20). That “moreover even the woods and every sweet smelling tree shall overshadow Israel by the commandment of God;” Baruch v. 8; that “God shall lead Israel with joy in the light of his glory with the mercy and righteousness which cometh from him:” verse 9, that their justice, holiness, and faithfulness to their God, shall then be ten times greater than their iniquity had been; that, in fine, he shall bring them to the land, which he promised with an oath to their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and thus also render another covenant, sure and everlasting, and he shall not again come to remove them from the land which he hath given to them. ‘And I will bring them unto the land which I sware unto their fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them it…and I will make an everlasting covenant with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be to me a people: and I will no more remove my people the children of Israel from the land which I have given them.’

In Ezekiel, it is said, that God will gather the dispersed of Israel from all the lands where they shall be found, and will give them his own land; that then he shall give to all a new heart and a new spirit, taking from them the heart of stone, and giving them a heart of flesh: (xi. 17.) that he shall break into pieces their yoke and their chains, delivering them entirely from the hand of those who ruled over them, and that henceforth they shall dwell in their land “safely, neither bear the shame of the heathen any more.” (xxxiv. 27.) That he shall pour upon them pure and clean water, in which they shall be washed from all then past iniquities (xxxvi 25.) In sum, in chapter xxxvii. 21. these words are written, “Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land and I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel, and one king shall be king to them all. And David my servant shall be king over them” Ezekiel xxxvii 21, 22.

In Hosea it is said that the children of Judah and of Israel, who before were enemies to one another, shall be gathered after their exile, and be united once more, as they were in the time of David and Solomon, and that then “they shall appoint themselves one head, and they shall come up out of the land: for great shall be the day of Jezreel” Hosea i. 11.

In Amos it is written, “And I will plant them upon then land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the Lord thy God.” Amos ix. 15. and in Obadiah it is said, “And the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions” Verse 17. [Vulg. eos qui se possiderant; i.e. those who had possessed them.] In Micah it is said, “According to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt will I shew unto him marvellous things. The nations shall see and be confounded at all their might…they shall be afraid of the Lord our God, and shall fear because of thee.” Micah vii. 15-17. In Zephaniah it is said, “The remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity, nor speak lies, neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in then mouth; for they shall feed and lie down, and none shall make them afraid.” Zeph iii. 13. And speaking to Zion the mother, it is said, “Behold, at that time I will undo all that afflict thee: and I will save her that halteth, and gather her that was driven out, and I will get them praise and fame in every land where they have been put to shame.” Verse

19. Finally, in Zechariah, who prophesied after the return out of Babylon, it is said, “And men shall dwell in it, and there shall be no more utter destruction, but Jerusalem shall be safely in habited” Zech xiv. 11. These things shall you find at every step in all the prophets, beginning with Moses.

Now tell me, friend, in sincerity and truth, what think you of these prophesies? Let us suppose for a moment there were no others in all the scriptures but the few which we have now pointed out. Even speaking of them only, is it possible to apply them to those few slaves who returned by permission of Cyrus from Babylon to Judea? Reflect, my dear Sir, upon this capital point with all your attention and with all your judgment. I shall wait with patience for your answer. Meanwhile you must bear with me also while I draw the following legitimate and forcible consequences.

First; the captivity, exile, and dispersion of the children of Israel of which the prophecies speak, cannot be that which two tribes merely suffered in the time of Nebuchadnezzar, Secondly; the return of the children of Israel from captivity, exile, and dispersion, of which the prophecies speak, cannot be the return of certain individuals of only two tribes which happened in the time of Cyrus, by his permission and good will; and the rather as those prophecies do not name Babylon, but only say in general that they shall return from all lands, from all peoples, from the east and the west, from the four quarters of the earth, &c. Thirdly; it followeth that this return, with all the general and particular things thereof spoken, hath not yet been accomplished. Fourthly and lastly; one of three things must necessarily be; —either the prophets erred, or God is not true, or all shall be at some time accomplished exactly as they are written, neither more nor less. I subscribe to the third, and I leave the first and second to those who may choose them.

But you will say to me, —it is true that the whole of the prophecies cannot apply to the coming out of Babylon; but it may be said, that one part was accomplished in those few persons who returned to their country: another great part may be understood allegorically of the redeemed by Jesus Christ from the captivity of sin, of which the captivity of Babylon is a figure: and the part of the prophecy which can neither be explained in the one sense nor in the other, may be considered as verified in an anagogical sense in those souls which pass to blessedness, when they shall enjoy that peace and abundance which the prophecies announce.

Much could I say to you upon this interpretation, but I confine myself to two questions merely. Tell me upon what foundation you rest this method of dividing the prophecy into pieces and applying them in such different senses? Is it not that you may be able to reconcile them to your system and to the authority of the interpreters who proceed in this way? Sure you see that this is a poor refuge. Tell me moreover if it appeareth to you right and agreeable to the high veracity of God, that upon the same subject he should speak now in one sense, now in another, now in none? In an ordinary man you would take this to be an intolerable defect. If, then, you see that the first part of the prophecies, which is the dispersion of Israel, hath been accomplishing itself to the letter, why should their reunion and settlement in the land of their fathers, which the same prophecies announce with all the advantages as you have seen, be understood in another sense, making God to speak in a different manner?

It is indispensable, you reply, because the prophecies not having been completely accomplished in that deliverance, we ought to understand that the peace, justice, and stable felicity which are promised to the people of Israel should belong to the present church, which is the true Israel of God: and if not, when shall the prophecies be accomplished? Wait a little, my Christophilus, and tell me why from those sure premises thou dost not draw more legitimate consequences? Why dost thou not infer thus? Therefore, if the prophecies have not in this part also been accomplished in the literal sense, they will be accomplished. —Is the hand of God shortened that he cannot save? as saith Isaiah. If the sons of Abraham who have been dispersed have not yet been gathered again from all the four quarters of the world; if the sons of Israel and of Judah have not even been reunited in order to return to the promised land, if yet it has not come to pass that they should be seen to inhabit the mountains of Judah in such a peace, quietness, and independence, that so far from being tributaries of any, they shall rule over those who oppressed them; if yet the heart of stone hath not been changed, nor that pure water poured upon them which is to cleanse them from their iniquities, if, in fine, that wise and just King under whose shade Judah and Israel shall dwell with confidence, doth not yet reign over them, if all this hath not happened yet, why hopest thou not that it will happen? and when?

Surely thou perceivest, my Christophilus, that though I know not the time when, that is no reason why this conclusion should not be surrendered to me. I will tell thee, however, that all these things will come to pass when the Lord shall gather the dispersed fragments of Israel. In fact, in the twelfth chapter of Daniel, at verse 7, I find that the angel having manifested to the prophet these great mysteries which are written in the chapter preceding, like one stunned, the prophet asks, How long shall it be to the end of these wonders? And the angel, who, as is declared in the 14^th verse of the tenth chapter, had been sent express to instruct him in that which should befall his people, “in the latter days, for yet the vision is for days,” testified in these words, lifting up his hands to heaven, “that it shall be for time, and times, and half a time: and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished.”

Yes, friend Christophilus, when the dispersion of the holy people, caused by God’s hand, is entirely concluded; when the troubles of the children of Israel are finished; when their exile, their dispersion, and their captivity have come to an end; then shall all these wonders be accomplished, —all these annunciations, and all these mysteries, which now are so hard to be understood. Unless we would wholly offend the veracity and the omnipotence of God, we cannot doubt that as he hath promised, so he will fulfil it.

Threatenings against Babylon.

§4. THAT which we have hitherto spoken of the captives of Babylon, we may say of Babylon herself. The prophecies which are against her are so terrible, so wonderful, so emphatic, and in appearance so full of execution, as to place them in the same condition with those made in favour of the captives which we have seen have not been accomplished till this present time. I imagine that the Babylon against which the prophets speak directly or indirectly, is a Babylon rather general than particular: I would say, as the captives in whose favour so much in so many ways is spoken, cannot be limited by any means to those only whom Nebuchadnezzar carried to Babylon, and who returned to Judea by permission of Cyrus, as we have just proved; so the Babylon against whom it is spoken in the prophets, can as little be limited to that single and individual Babylon, which in those times was the capital of the first empire of the world. The prophets of God would seem to do no more than touch the one and the other of these two objects in passing; as a courier, who, being come to an intermediate city, leaves in it some orders of his prince; yet stops not, neither detains himself, but passeth quickly on to the end and termination of his mission. In this way, it would seem, did the prophets of God. Not being able to stay, as an ultimate object, with those captives, or with that Babylon, as not being the primary and direct object of their mission, (although they visited both without tarrying long,) they pass them both over as intermediate objects, in order to reach the entire destruction of Babylon, (taking that word in all its extent of signification,) and arrive at the full and perfect liberation of their brethren.

The proper character of the prophet Isaiah is thus always to go to ultimate things; as if these were his principal ministry and his particular vocation. “He saw by an excellent spirit what should come to pass at the last, and he comforted them that mourned in Zion,” saith scripture itself, Ecclesiasticus xlviii. 24. Accordingly that prophet is seen as it were ever occupied in things of the last times, without forgetting them, even when it seems he should have been withdrawn from them by the other matters which he treateth. With those last things he doth frequently comfort Zion and her miserable children under the tribulations which he himself announceth to them. So that, although he toucheth many points pertaining to the state of the people of God in his time, —now blaming, now threatening, now exhorting, now instructing, and all with an admirable vivacity and elegance; although he speaks not unfrequently of the first coming of Christ, —of his life, of his virtues, of his doctrine, of his agonies, of his passion, and of his death; although he speaks of the most unhappy state in which Israel should abide after Messiah’s death, and in consequence of having rejected him; although he speaketh clearly and expressly of the vocation of the Gentiles into the place of Israel; yet is it easy to observe that he passeth almost insensibly, and as by a pleasant bound, towards that which may be called his proper vocation; to wit, the end.

That which we say in general of all Isaiah’s prophecy, is most to be remarked when he speaketh of Babylon. In the thirteenth chapter, for example, he places as its title, The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah saw: and the whole chapter, excepting two or three verses, more or less, is absolutely inapplicable to the ancient Babylon: it is all visibly directed to the other Babylon, which we have mentioned. The same happens in the fourteenth chapter, in which he treats the same matter. Throughout, he utters of Babylon and her king things so great, so extraordinary, and so new, that it is impossible to accommodate them to that Babylon and to her king, Belshazzar. The most literal of the expositors, after having wearied themselves not a little with that accommodation, confess it to be so: and many are of opinion that Antichrist is there spoken of under the king of Babylon (and on that account, perhaps, they have made him to be born in Babylon, and to begin to reign in it, as we said in the Third Phenomenon, Article II.): the truth is, that things not yet passed, but much greater things than these yet future, are there insinuated.

Although there were no other countersign than the last words with which the prophecy concludes, this were alone sufficient for penetrating the whole mystery. “This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth; and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations.” Isaiah xiv. 26. Of the forty-seventh chapter of the same prophet, when he returns to speak of Babylon, we say the same and much more.

Jeremiah in his two chapters, fifty and fifty-one speaks the same as Isaiah, with more diffuseness and at greater length; that is, he casteth a glance at that Babylon of Chaldea, dischargeth upon her a tempest of lightning, gives her to wit of the commandments of God, which pertained to her directly; after which, he passeth onward, until he is brought in spirit to another Babylon, so named by similitude, not by propriety; from whence, finally, he draws forth into freedom all the captives, as well of Judea as of Israel; and not only makes them free, but just, holy, entirely reconciled to their God, and restored with great privileges to the honour and dignity of his people; he planteth them anew in the land promised to their fathers, and promiseth to them from God that they shall not come again to be ruled over by any power upon the earth.

In order that this may be more perceptible, let us make two or three observations as a specimen of those which might be made. First: in the fiftieth chapter verse 3, he speaketh thus, “For out of the north there cometh up a nation against her, which shall make her land desolate, and none shall dwell therein: they shall remove, they shall depart, both man and beast.” If the prophet speak here of the ancient Chaldea Babylon, it is certain that nothing of the kind was accomplished upon her, when the nation of the north under Darius and Cyrus came against her. That nation far from destroying Babylon, far from reducing her and all Chaldea to a solitude and desert, did no other remarkable thing than place upon the throne of Nebuchadnezzar, Darius the Mede, and afterward Cyrus the Persian. Babylon after that epoch remained the principal court of the same empire for many years, and maintained itself on foot many more, without any change. As little did Alexander the Great, who destroyed that first empire two hundred years after Darius, destroy Babylon or reduce the land to a solitude, but lived in it, and there terminated his days. In the time of Antiochus, who began to reign in the 137^th year of the kingdom of the Greeks (1 Mac. i. 11.) Babylon was still a considerable city, where the royal successors of Alexander dwelt when it pleased them; for it is said expressly in the scripture, (1 Mac. vi. 4.) that king Antiochus not being able to spoil the temple and city of Elymais in Persia of its riches, “he departed with great heaviness and returned to Babylon.”

I observe secondly, that the same Jeremiah, in the place quoted, continues to say, “In those days, and in that time, saith the Lord, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together, going and weeping: they shall go, and seek the Lord their God. They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward, saying, Come, and let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten.” Jer. l. 4, 5. If it be here spoken of ancient Babylon, and the times in which it was taken by the Medes and Persians, it is certain that in those days and in that time, nothing of this kind was accomplished. After that the Medes and Persians had made themselves masters of Babylon, certain of the children of Judah returned; but those who throughout the scriptures are called the children of Israel in contradistinction to those of Judah, did not return, they and the children of Judah together. In those who returned by Cyrus’s permission, as little was that

which follows verified, or hath it been verified to this day, come and let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten.

I observe in the third place, Jer. l. 20. “In those days, and in that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found: for I will pardon them whom I reserve.” Of those days and times of Darius and Cyrus, or of any which have succeeded till now, how is it possible to understand these words? Turn your eyes back to all past times, until you ascend to Cyrus and Darius, seeking in them all for the iniquity of Israel, and you shall find it; seeking for the sin of Judah, and you shall likewise find it; nor will much diligence or much study be required to find that which has been, and is open to the eyes of all. “Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.” Acts vii. 51. This may be said with great truth, of the more than five hundred years after Cyrus. With the same truth spake Messiah himself, “ Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.” Matt. xv. 7, 8. And in another place, “Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.” Matt. xxiii. 28.

To this you may say, what upon this text of Jeremiah the interpreters commonly say, to wit, that by these words, the iniquity of Israel and the sin of Judah, the prophet speaks of idolatry only, which they say ceased entirely after the return from Babylon. Who would believe that in a thing so clear any refuge should be needed? But if this refuge be examined closely, it is found to resemble a painting in perspective. The delusive appearance vanishes the moment we give way to reflection. First; on what foundation do they assure us in a decisive tone, that the iniquity and sin whereof this prophet speaks, is only idolatry? Certainly upon none. These words, iniquity and sin, are and have ever been, words of universal import, containing under them all moral evil, whether with respect to God, or with respect to our neighbour; why then in this case, limit them to idolatry merely? Idolatry is certainly a very heinous iniquity and sin; but ought all sin and iniquity to be reputed idolatry? Secondly; the prophet expressly speaks of Israel and Judah as returning in union to the land of their fathers, without carrying along with them the sin and iniquity which heretofore oppressed them: and though it were certain that Judah did at that time return without idolatry, Israel did return neither without idolatry nor with it, for she returned not at all. Thirdly; to speak, however, only of those who returned, they were not so free from idolatry, as not to be found almost all idolaters in the time of Antiochus: and Judas Maccabeus, who persecuted them with so much zeal and fervour, had no need to light a lamp in order to find them, for they were met with in all parts. And what shall we say of the rest of the children of Judah who remained in Babylon and in Chaldea? Did they live without defiling themselves?

It hence followeth that either the prophecies have proved false, or have not had for their primary and direct object the ancient Babylon of Chaldea, but that there is shut up in them another great and more general mystery which claims all our attention. The ancient Babylon appears to enter into them only as a sign, similitude, or parable of all which has come to pass, continuously from Nebuchadnezzar till now, and yet remains to be concluded. In fact, it is so written expressly in Isaiah, (chap xiv.) when speaking to all Israel and announcing to them their return from their exile, and the end of their labours, he saith these words: “And it shall come to pass in the day that the Lord shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve, That thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased! The Lord hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the sceptre of the rulers.” Isa. xiv. 3-5.

If this text can be applied, or in any way accommodated to the ancient Babylon, or to her king Belshazzar, and to those few captives, who without ceasing to be captives did return with Zerubbabel, it appears that there will be no great difficulty in believing that the word parable should here have no other mystery or signification, than that of an elegant and festal song, as they pretend to tell us; but the difficulty is, that the former not being possible, we remain at full liberty with respect to the latter. The word parable ought here to signify the same as in so many other parts of scripture, that is, a speaking by similitude not by propriety. Accordingly this canticle which Isaiah puts in the mouth of Israel against a certain time, without ceasing to be festal and elegant, is at the same time a true parable and all which is spoken in it, is spoken by similitude and not by propriety; consequently, the king of Babylon, and Babylon itself, ought to be regarded as a true similitude, not as a proper appellation. With what truth and with what propriety could Israel utter this song in the time of Cyrus? Not so much as even its first words, which are these, “How hath the oppressor ceased, the exactress of gold ceased?” If any one should have so spoken on coming forth from Babylon, or upon at arriving in Judæa, certainly his word would not have been believed, all would have at once taken him for mad, saying with truth that which they did say in the time of Nehemiah, “Behold, we are servants this day, and for the land that thou gavest unto our fathers to eat the fruit thereof and the good thereof, behold we are servants in it: And it yieldeth much increase unto the kings whom thou hast set over us because of our sins: also they have dominion over our bodies, and over our cattle, at their pleasure, and we are in great distress.” Neh. ix. 36, 37. Compare this text with that other “How hath the oppressor ceased, the exactress of gold ceased,” &c. and see if you can make them to harmonize in the same time, and the same persons.

This manner of reasoning is still further confirmed and cleared up.

§ 5. IN order well to understand all the prophecies which are written against Babylon, and the true end and termination to which they are all directed, it appeareth to me sufficient to take the keys into my hand and open the gates. Scripture itself offereth to us these keys, with the help of which all is easy; without which all remaineth obscure, difficult, and inaccessible.

First key. The apostle St. Peter writing from Rome to all the churches of Asia, concludeth his first epistle in these words, “The church that is in Babylon elected together with you saluteth you.” What meaneth this? St. Peter certainly did not write from the Euphrates, but from the Tiber, not from Chaldea, but from Rome. In St. Peter’s time, ancient Babylon no longer existed, and was almost as much forgotten as it is now. Of what Babylon then speaketh he? Of Rome itself. But for what reason giveth he this name to the capital of the Roman empire?

To this difficulty, the interpreters commonly make answer, that the apostle St. Peter put Babylon instead of Rome only by way of precaution, that is, not to occasion without necessity any persecution against himself, or against the Christians, if this epistle should by any accident have fallen into the hands of the heathen and come to the knowledge of the emperor. But what had either St. Peter or the Christians in such a case to fear? What would they have found in it to blame, or for which to persecute Christianity? On the other hand they would have found much to praise in that part of it which they could understand; which is the morality of it: for example, “Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme; or unto governors…For so is the will of God…Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king. Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the forward…Likewise ye younger submit yourselves unto the elder.” &c. 1 Peter ii. 13. 17, 18;

v.5. I do not know that any prince or republic could blame this doctrine of the chief shepherd of the Christians.

Perhaps it will be said that St. Peter feared not on account of the morality of his epistle, but because it spoke of Jesus Christ and of the Christian religion. And is it to be believed that St. Peter would fear on this account? In the epistle itself he exhorts the Christians not to fear the persecution which might come upon them as Christians, but that which might come upon them as guilty and delinquents; “but let none of you suffer as a murderer or as a thief…Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf.” 1 Peter iv. 15,16. Besides when St. Peter wrote this epistle, there was not any edict of the emperor against the Christians nor any prohibition of Christianity; for these same authors affirm that St. Peter wrote it in the thirteenth year after the death of our Lord, which, as appears, corresponds to the beginning of the emperor Claudius, which is more than twenty years before the first persecution of the church in the time of Nero. What then, at such a time, served the fear of St. Peter? And putting the case that he wished to use some precaution, was it not more natural that he should say to the Christians to whom he wrote, this church saluteth you, without naming Rome or Babylon or any other determinate city? Would not the Christians know in what part of the world the vicar of Christ was at that time?

Second Key. After some years (and not a few, for there had past at least thirty), St. John wrote his Apocalypse; and in the sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth chapters, he speaks expressly and by name of Babylon, prophesying against her things nowise ordinary. And to the end that none might disallow the Babylon of which he speaks; that no one might equivocate by thinking that he spoke of the old Babylon, which no longer existed, he sets down so many signs and characteristics, that it is absolutely necessary to recognize her, however repugnant it may be to our inclination. So that even doctors, the most passionately in favour of Rome, find themselves under the inevitable necessity of confessing and conceding on this point the simple truth. What ought chiefly to be remarked upon these passages of the Apocalypse, is the very clear allusion they make to all the prophecies against Babylon: which are all here called upon; are all made to appear; are all constrained to serve against the new Babylon; and not only are the vivid expressions of the Prophets drawn into use, but sometimes their very words, as we shall immediately see. And it is very easy to remark, that the beloved disciple punctually makes use of the most vivid words and expressions of the prophets, which had no application, and could have none to the ancient Babylon. But that we may not be thought desirous to be believed upon our word, it may be well to give here some examples.

Allusions or Appeals from the Babylon of the Apocalypse to the Babylon of the Prophets.

§ 6. ISAIAH, speaking of Babylon, saith, “A grievous vision is declared unto me;…therefore are my loins filled with pain: pangs have taken hold upon me, as the pangs of a woman that travaileth: I was bowed down at the hearing of it; I was dismayed at the seeing of it…The night of my pleasure hath he turned into fear unto me.” Chap. xxi. 2.3,4. Does it appear to you probable, that the fall of Babylon, by Darius and Cyrus, could have produced upon Isaiah effects so great as he himself declareth and enlargeth on with such vividness?

St. John, speaking of future Rome, says with more brevity, when he beheld her seated upon the beast, “And when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.” Read the seventeenth and the following chapters, and you will there see what great reason the beloved disciple had for wondering at beholding Rome in that most unhappy state which he himself announceth.

The same Isaiah speaks thus to Babylon: “Therefore hear now this, thou that art given to pleasures, that dwellest carelessly, that sayest in thine heart, I am, and none else beside me; I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children: but these two things shall come to thee in a moment in one day, the loss of children and widowhood…And desolation shall come upon thee suddenly, which thou shalt not know.” Chap. xlvii. 8,9.11.

How is it possible to accommodate this to the ancient Babylon, taken by Darius and Cyrus? Read, my friend, any expositor; compare that which he will tell you with the text, and with the history of that event, which thou art not ignorant of, and without more trouble all your doubts shall vanish. Much more, if you refer to the text of the Apocalypse, which, speaking of future Rome, thus declareth: “How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow. Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.” Rev. xviii. 7,8.

Jer. l. 29. “Recompense her according to her work; according to all that she hath done, do unto her.”

Rev. xviii. 6. “Reward her even as she rewarded you,. and double unto her double according to her work.”

Jer. li.13. “O thou that dwellest upon many waters, abundant in treasures.”

Rev. xvii. 1. “Come hither, I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters.”

Jer. ii. 8. “Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed.”

Rev. xviii. 1,2. “And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen.” Which likewise alludeth to the twenty-first chapter of Isaiah, where it is written, verse. 9. “Babylon is fallen, is fallen.”

Jer. li. 6. 45. “Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul…My people go ye out of the midst of her, and deliver ye every man his soul from the fierce anger of the Lord.”

Rev. xviii. 4. “And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.”

Jer. li. 7. “Babylon hath been a golden cup in the Lord’s hand, that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunken of her wine; therefore the nations are mad.”

Rev. xvii. 2. “With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.”

Rev. xviii. 3. “For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her.”

Jer. li. 64. “Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the evil that I will bring upon her: and they shall be weary.”

Rev. xviii. 21. “And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all.”

Jer. li. 48. “Then the heaven and the earth, and all that is therein, shall sing for Babylon; for the spoilers shall come unto her from the north, saith the Lord.”

Rev. xviii. 20. “Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her.” And in the nineteenth chapter, he continues the strain, saying: “And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Allelulia; Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God: For true and righteous are his judgments: for he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand.”

These few allusions suffice to make known to us, or at least to awaken in us strong suspicion, that the Babylon of the prophets cannot be limited to that ancient and individual city, which was the court of the first empire. As that first empire, which at the beginning stood in the head of gold of the statue, has gone on descending with time, from the head to the breast and arms, then to the belly and thighs, and lastly to the legs, and feet, and toes; so that first Babylon, considered not in its physical structure but in its moral principle, hath been following the same steps. I do not say solely from Nebuchadnezzar, or from the first of the four most famous empires; but even from the commencement of empire in general; or from the beginning of the government of one single man over many, which we call monarchy, which, as is seen in the tenth chapter of Genesis, had its first beginning in Babylon.

In this aspect then, it appears to me the prophets consider Babylon, when they denounce upon it by so many, such vivid, and magnificent expressions, things which till now have not been seen in the world; things which were not accomplished in any way, upon that first and ancient Babylon.

Babylon being considered in this aspect, the prophecies do at once, without any embarrassment, unfold themselves, which otherwise remain certainly more than difficult, even obscure and inaccessible. This appears to be that same aspect which was most present to the apostles, St. Peter and St. John, when they gave the proper name of Babylon to that great city, which was, in their time, the mistress of the world, as being the capital of the Roman empire. It is true that this empire long ago descended from the belly to the feet and toes of the statue; but we may say nevertheless, that it perseveres morally in one of its chief effects, that, in relation to the people of Israel. It perseveres, I say, in respect to the captivity, the entire and complete dispersion of that unhappy people, which was carried into execution by the Romans, after the death of Messiah, and hath been continued, confirmed, and aggravated by the fourth empire. Take this in combination with what is said in the 2^nd Section of the Third Phenomenon.

§. 7. IN sum, that ancient Babylon, situated on the Euphrates, exists no longer in the world: it is long since it died, and there is no hope of its ever rising again. “And it shall no more be inhabited for ever, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation…No man shall abide there, neither shall any son of man dwell therein.” Jer. l. Nevertheless the prophecies which are against Babylon, have not been completely verified till now; for although Babylon be destroyed, yet was it not destroyed in that way, nor with those particular circumstances which are expressly read in the prophecies concerning it.

Various interpreters and historians, and amongst the rest the learned M. Rollin, speak of the destruction of Babylon, and quote the prophecies, with a kind of confidence and security, as if that destruction and those prophecies were in perfect accordancy. But if we ask, out of curiosity, from what monuments, from what archives, from what sources, they have drawn such remarkable knowledge? we find, to our great surprise, that really they have had no other sources, no other archives, no other monuments, but the prophecies themselves.

Well: and if there be any monuments to the contrary, not only in profane history, but likewise in sacred: in this case, should we feign ignorance of them? Now so it is. So far as sacred history is concerned, I have already pointed out to your observation, in various parts of this Phenomenon, several monuments and sure notices, altogether incompatible with the prophecies. I could, with little trouble, have noted many others. As to profane history, it appears to me that it will be sufficient to inform or to remind you, that Alexander the Great died in Babylon, two hundred years after Babylon should have been entirely destroyed, if the prophecies had spoken of her directly.

Moreover, I have made you remark, that all the most grave things and circumstances which the prophecies notify, and which failed in the destruction of ancient Babylon, are seen to reappear, and as it were rise from their graves, after long ages, in the Apocalypse of St. John; and these as things proper and peculiar, not to that ancient Babylon, now defunct, but to another and a new Babylon, which still exists. Finally; with the prophecies which speak against Babylon, it hath fared exactly as we have seen that it hath fared with those which speak of the captives under her; that though it be certain that, very many ages ago, some Jews came out of Babylon, and re-established themselves once more in Judea, it is likewise certain that neither that coming forth, nor that re-establishment, happened in the manner, nor with the circumstances which the prophecies foreshow.

What then, have the prophets erred? Hath the word of the Lord failed? Such extravagant conclusions are almost inevitable on the ordinary system; but they vanish at once, if we deny ourselves thereto, and stand to that system which the scripture itself offereth. It is certain that the prophecies are not accomplished till the present time; but likewise it is certain that the world is not yet come to an end. It is likewise certain, that the captives spoken of still exist in the world, and exist still in the condition of captives. It is likewise certain, that it hath not been possible to exterminate them, nor to confound them with other nations, nor to enlighten them, nor to take from them their heart of stone, nor to remove the veil from their heart; which are all things standing most clearly announced in the prophecies themselves. Who then hinders us from thinking, and freely saying, that as very many of the prophecies which are found in scripture, respecting them, have been fulfilled, so, in their appointed time, shall many others be accomplished which still remain to be fulfilled.

Let us conclude then that those two great fortresses, unto which the interpreters of scripture betake themselves, (to wit, Babylon with her captives, and what is competent to, or what is not competent to the christian church,) are in reality two fortresses which partake much of the perspective, and being seen from a certain distance, put on a great appearance, and beget I know not what fear, but disappear both of them as we draw nigh and reconnoitre them.

APPENDIX.

THE things which we have just observed in this Phenomenon, form in substance the most grave of all the difficulties which the Jews have opposed, and to this day oppose, to those who speak to them of the coming of Messiah. When they find themselves surrounded and tied down on all sides by their own scriptures; when they can find nothing to reply to the most effectual arguments brought against them by the Christian doctors; when they see themselves convicted and silenced by the evidence, they betake themselves in the end to the prophecies, and their manner of reasoning reduced to a few words, is this. The prophecies (if they mean what the Christians have said) are certainly not accomplished, therefore Messiah is not come. The antecedent they prove by showing one by one, not only the few which we have observed, but many others which we have omitted. The consequence they deduce from the prophecies themselves; among which it is easy to observe that some expressly announce, and others suppose that all the vision and prophecy shall have been accomplished when Messiah comes, or shall be fully and perfectly accomplished in his coming; suffice it to read the ninth chapter of Daniel, where (ver. 24.) these two things amongst others, are found joined united, and as it were inseparable, to wit, the full and perfect accomplishment of the whole prophecy and vision, and the unction of the Most Holy. “To seal up the vision and prophecy, and anoint the most Holy.” So that if Messiah be come, the whole vision and prophecy should have been fully and perfectly accomplished. But it is so, that they have not been accomplished with all fulness, therefore Messiah is not come.

This argument of the Jewish doctors, is of all which they advance, the only one to which the Christian doctors unto this day have not been able to reply in a distinct manner, capable of contenting and satisfying one who desires truth, and can repose in truth alone. In every thing besides, I hold it certain and indubitable, that they evidently convict the Jewish doctors, confound them, and put them to silence. And that with so much power and evidence, that we have seen some modern Rabbis, by the force of arguments compelled to allow, that Messiah according to the scriptures ought to have come many ages ago, but that he has delayed his coming on account of the sins of his people. Others still more learned and sincere have said, (in which they appear to have spoken the pure truth without understanding it,) that Messiah is already come, but remains concealed for the same reason, that is, for the sins of his people. (Pinamonti.)

But although in every thing besides, the Christian doctors do convict and confound the Jews, on that particular point which we now handle, they have done nothing according to their system but speak in a decisive tone, exaggerate much, suppose much, and in the end leave the difficulty untouched. Witness now the whole reply, and solution which they give. First; they salute the Jewish doctors by calling them gross and carnal, in having imagined that the prophecies dictated by the Holy Ghost, were to be accomplished as they read, or after their gross manner of understanding them (in which last they speak not without reason). They add secondly, that they have understood the scriptures according to the letter which killeth, not according to the Spirit which maketh alive (which yet may be so much nearer the true sense). Thirdly; they teach that the prophecies ought to be understood, not as they read or according to the sense which appeareth, because in that sense it would be necessary to suppose God to be possessed of material hands and feet, eyes and ears, which are frequently read of in the prophecies. They ought therefore to be understood only in that true sense in which God hath spoken them. And what is that true sense? It is, they say, the spiritual and figurative sense; in which sense have been verified in the present church, almost all those prophecies which cannot be verified nor find application in the Jews, excepting some few, whose perfect accomplishment is reserved till the end of the world. And is there no further reply than this, no other solution of so grave a difficulty? No, my friend, there is no more, so far as I have been able to sift the matter.

Oh Jews, verily poor and unhappy, into all parts ye are followed and accompanied by the guilt of your crimes, and the righteous indignation of your God! Oh system, not less fatal and prejudicial to you than that which your own doctors imprudently embraced! This made you disallow, reject, and crucify Israel’s hope, and reduced you in righteous recompense to the miserable state in which for so many ages you have been found, while that by its atrocious violence has darkened you much more. In the system of your doctors there evidently lacketh half of the prophecies, or half of Messiah himself; and in this second system of the interpreters, it is no less evident, that there lacketh the other half.

The one and the other of these errors have fallen upon you, and completed your misery. Oh that it were possible to unite these two halves according to the scriptures! Thereby alone it seemeth to me that all would be remedied: there would be need of nothing more, whether for the true and solid well-being of the Christian Gentiles, or for the remedy of the miserable Jews: sed hoc opus, hic labor est, but this is the burden, this the labour. If these two halves could be well united, the whole scriptures would at once be understood. It would be seen how both those would be accomplished which speak against the Jews, and for the Gentiles; and those in like manner accomplished which speak against the Gentiles, and in favour of the Jews. These would then take account of the circumstances which according to the scriptures were to accompany the first coming of Messiah, and might perhaps believe in it; and those, compelled by the force of the reasons, would expect the accomplishment of many other prophecies, by the second coming in glory and majesty, and would not violate their meaning to the prejudice of the third party.

PHENOMENON VIII.

THE WOMAN CLOTHED WITH THE SUN. —REVELATIONS XII.

“AND there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born. And she brought forth a man-child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she had a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days. And there was war in heaven; Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time. And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man-child. And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent. And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth. And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus, Christ. And I stood upon the sand of the sea.” [Vulg. stetit, he stood, i.e. the dragon stood.]

What is found hereupon in the doctors.

§ 1. THAT we may be able to observe this great Phenomenon with all exactness, and with a complete knowledge of the matter, it will be very profitable to know the various understandings or explanations, which till now have been given of it, and well to understand what it is they really convey to us.

The opinions upon this mystery which we find in the doctors, will all reduce themselves to these three. The first, (most frequent among the panegyrists) declares or supposes that the woman clothed with the sun, is the Most Holy Virgin Mary, Mother of Christ. To this supposition which no one has thought of proving, they devoutly and ingeniously set themselves to accommodate some words of this prophecy, for to accommodate all is impossible. But every one knows that the mysteries of this twelfth of the Apocalypse speaks as much of the most holy Virgin Mary, as do the books of Wisdom. It is true that the church in the festivals of the mother of Christ, do read certain passages of those holy books; but her intention is not, nor can be to persuade, or to insinuate that those passages which she readeth unto us speak really of our Lady, or that this is their true signification.

Let us come then to the explanation of those doctors, who are not panegyrical but literal, that is, of those who search into the true signification of the Holy Scriptures. These, according to their general system, are of opinion that the mysterious woman of whom St. John speaketh, can be no other than the church of Christ. In which general proposition, though they be all agreed, yet in the particulars they are divided between two opinions. The first maintains that the mysteries contained in this prophecy, are mysteries already past, which had their full accomplishment fifteen centuries ago in the terrible times of the persecution of Dioclesian. The second which is the common one, holds, that they shall be all accomplished in times still future, and much more terrible, which shall come in the tribulation of Antichrist. The first of these two opinions, though defended by grave, pious, and learned authors, we do nevertheless hold unworthy of special attention, believing for certain that they did not embrace it till they could no longer endure the truly unintelligible explanation, of the other literal authors. This simple reflection forms all their apology. It remaineth to us then, to examine a little more at length the principal opinion which has almost exclusive currency amongst those who look for the truth by the literal interpretation.

Explanation of the Prophecy according to the literal Authors.

§ 2. THE present Christian Church, say the literal interpreters, is, when the critical and terrible times of the persecution of Antichrist shall arrive, the whole of the mystery or mysteries contained in this twelfth chapter of the Apocalypse. The church in those times is represented as a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and crowned with twelve stars. That which is declared to us by these magnificent figures, is, that Jesus Christ, the sun of righteousness, according to his infallible promises, shall then clothe his church and illuminate her with his splendour, after the same manner as he hath clothed and enlightened her till now; for he himself said before departing, “Lo, I am with you always, even until the end of the world:” (but this is not a new attire, nor is there any reason for expressing it by so extraordinary a sign.) The crown of twelve stars is the symbol of the twelve apostles, who are her masters and teachers. The moon under her feet signifies that the church shall then despise all corruptible and mutable things, and all the vain glory of the world, symbolized by the moon (but this the church ought ever to have done). Nevertheless, granting all this, (though the gospels and other scriptures announce to us quite the contrary,) the accommodation might be tolerable, if the whole prophecy with all its mysteries concluded here; but the labour is only to begin.

This woman (continues the sacred text) was pregnant, and as the hour of delivery drew nigh endured great affliction, anguish, and pain, which manifest themselves openly by the wailings and groans which she uttered: “And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.” Rev. xii. 2. What meaneth this? It meaneth, that the Christian church, which in times of peace brings forth her children without pain, without inconvenience, and without hinderance, shall bring them forth with great difficulty in the tempestuous and terrible times of Antichrist…If the word Antichrist be changed into the word Dioclesian, and the past be substituted for the future, you have the first opinion, and perhaps with less violence. Let us proceed: “And I saw another great sign in heaven, and beheld a great dragon,” &c. While the woman was in this anguish there appeared, on the other hand, another sign in heaven, not less worthy of admiration; to wit, a shapeless dragon, of a red colour, with seven heads and ten horns, whose tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, casting them to the earth; which being executed, the dragon immediately placed himself before the woman, waiting the hour of the birth to devour the fruit of her womb. What is here signified is, that the infernal dragon, or Satan, with seven heads and ten horns, clothed with Antichrist himself, (who is so described in the following chapter,) hearing the cries of the woman, or well knowing the great tribulation in which the church is found, shall try to avail himself of so excellent an opportunity to afflict her more heavily, or to overwhelm her utterly by devouring the child which she is about to bear; that is, the children whom she shall bear. Whereupon God, who cannot forget his church, shall send the archangel St. Michael with all the armies of heaven to defend her from the dragon and from Antichrist. Immediately a great battle shall be joined between St. Michael and the dragon, and between the angels of the one and of the other; and, the dragon being conquered, the woman, or the church, shall bring forth her sons with less affliction: “and she brought forth a man child:” and those children which the church in those times shall bring forth shall be so manly, that though oppressed from their birth, they shall oppose Antichrist, and with valour resist him; whereupon they shall deserve to be caught up to the throne of God; that is, to heaven, by means of martyrdom: “and her child was caught up to God and to his throne.” Now of this child it is said, that he it is who is to rule or govern all the nations “with a rod of iron.” When shall this be? Probably at the day of judgment in the valley of Jehoshaphat. Let us continue.

When the dragon saw himself conquered and cast out to the earth with all his angels, and knew that the woman had brought forth prosperously, and that her child was carried to the throne of God, says the holy text, he turned all his rage and fury against the mother, and persecuted her with all his might: “And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child.” Verse 13. To the woman were thereupon given the two wings of a great eagle that she might flee to the wilderness, to the place which God had prepared for her, where she shall be nourished “for time, and times, and half a time; or for a thousand, two hundred, and threescore days;” which means no more than three years and a half. All which is here announced, (says the explanation,) shall be accomplished when the church, so cruelly persecuted by Antichrist and the dragon, shall find herself compelled to flee and hide in the mountains and most solitary deserts; for which end there shall be given to her two wings of a great eagle (which some understand in one way, others in another, others in no way at all, which seems the better course). In this wilderness and solitude the church shall exist a thousand, two hundred, and three-score days; precisely the days that the persecution of Antichrist is to endure; God sustaining her with corporeal things miraculously, as he sustained Elias and so many other anchorites —and in spiritual things, by means of her pastors. I could wish to pursue and conclude the remainder of the prophecy according to the explanation of these authors: and why not? Is not this of itself enough for making up a prudent judgment of all the rest? He who is not satisfied may easily procure information for himself by consulting such of the literal interpreters as may appear to him the best.

Reflections upon this Interpretation.

§ 3. 1^st. When we say that the Christian church begets true sons of God, what we mean by this figurative manner of speech is, that the active church, which is properly our mother, having benignantly admitted and received into her bosom any unbelievers who seek that benefit, instructs them first in the mysteries which they ought to believe, and in the laws which they ought to observe. All the time that this instruction continues, they are with propriety said to be in the womb of the mother; who, as saith Augustine, ‘with suitable food nourisheth those whom she beareth in her womb, and rejoicing brings them full of joy to the day of their birth.’ This day of birth is no other than the day of baptism; after which the church recognizeth them for her children, as those who are already the children of God by the regeneration of the Spirit. (S. August. de Symb. ad catecum.)

This being supposed, we reason thus: if the woman clothed with the sun is the church in the times of Antichrist, that which is announced by these words, “she being with child, cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered,” will signify the difficulty which she shall have in instructing, and much more in baptizing the catechumens. And, notwithstanding this difficulty, she shall at last bring them forth to Christ, or baptize them: “and she brought forth a man child.” Consequently these catechumens must be the same whom the dragon expected to devour immediately, upon the instant of their being baptized: “and the dragon stood before the woman, ready to devour the child as soon as it should be born.” Thus far all goes well: but the words which follow, — “and she brought forth a male child, who was to rule the world with a rod of iron,” how do they apply? In truth, that you should not concede to all the baptized that which the second Psalm attributes to the Son of God only.

2^nd. If the woman clothed with the sun be the church in the times of Antichrist, the church in those times shall have to flee and hide in the mountains and dens of the rocks after the birth, be that birth what it may “and she brought forth a man child…and the woman fled into the wilderness.” And, by her flight, she will have to leave in the utmost danger and abandonment, the children she has just brought forth, notwithstanding the love and tenderness of a mother. It is true the text says, that this male child was forthwith caught up to the throne of God; but the explanation says, that this shall be by means of martyrdom and death; which, though to the son, or to the male children, it be an inestimable benefit, is no excuse, and brings no honour to the timid mother, who abandoned them in order to save her self. Even beasts the most defenceless and of the lowest instincts, appear on such occasions like lions, and do honour to themselves.

3^rd. Above all, the difficulty and embarrassment of this interpretation increases, if we well consider the time in which the flight of this woman is to take place. The authors suppose that it will be in the time of Antichrist, and by reason of his persecution, because it is to that persecution they attribute the pains of the birth, and the anguish in bringing forth; and to this same persecution they attribute the coming of St. Michael, and the battle with the dragon. But if the sacred text be attended to, it is clear that both the battle of St. Michael with the dragon, and the birth of the woman, and the catching up of her child to the throne of God; and likewise the flight into the wilderness, are events which ought to precede Antichrist and his persecution.

In fact, the text says, that the woman shall flee into the wilderness after having brought forth, and that in the wilderness she shall remain forty and two months, or one thousand two hundred and threescore days, that is the exact time of the persecution of Antichrist; therefore those pangs, that birth, that battle, are things anterior to this time of affliction; a time of which the church shall not prove the pain, being in the wilderness sustained by the hand of the Lord. The text likewise says, that after the woman has brought forth and fled into the wilderness, the dragon, although conquered in battle, did not therefore cease to persecute her, and that not being able to reach her, he cast out of his mouth a river of water, “that he might cause her to be carried away of the waters:” and seeing that this last effort had succeeded ill, for the earth opened her mouth and swallowed the river of water; being furiously irritated, he went immediately “to make war with the remnant of her seed,… and he stood upon the sand of the sea:” and immediately St. John says, that he saw a beast with seven heads and ten horns come out of the sea; and he continues throughout the following chapter to announce the mysteries of Antichrist, and the terribleness of his persecution, “And I saw a beast coming up out of the sea,” &c. So that when the beast or Antichrist comes up out of the sea, when he is revealed and publicly manifested, when he begins his persecution in all form, the woman had already brought forth with great pain, the man child had already flown to the throne of God, the battle and victory of St. Michael over the dragon had already taken place, the said woman had already fled to the solitude, and the dragon had pursued her; and despairing of reaching her, had returned full of fury to make war “with the remnant of her seed.” This is the clear and palpable order of all this prophecy. How then do we suppose the church in the time of Antichrist, and under the terror of his persecution, suffering great pains and straits in order to bring forth new children, and fleeing after their birth into the wilderness?

If any one can reconcile all these things in an easy and intelligible manner, I will subscribe to his opinion; but if this is impossible, and insuperable difficulties present themselves thereto, I may be permitted to abandon this road, and at the same time to point out another which may prove more plain and easy.

Another understanding of this Prophecy is proposed.

§ 4. BEFORE all things, we ought to bear constantly in mind that the whole of this prophecy from the first to the last word of it is a metaphor, a parable, or a similitude. The events announced in it have all the air of being great, new, and extraordinary, in proportion to the novelty and grandeur of the similitudes by which they are announced; but for this same reason, they present to us as it were impenetrable enigmas. The person, or the subject, or the moral body, spoken of; and whereof such remarkable things are said, is certainly something real, to which they are very appropriate, though by resemblance only, not by propriety. As the word woman is a metaphor or a similitude, so is the sun with which she is clothed, as well as the moon which she hath under her feet, and so also is the crown of twelve stars, the heaven where this great sign appeareth, and likewise her pangs, griefs, and delivery.

On this indubitable supposition it is at once perceived, that in order to comprehend well the particular things which are spoke of this woman, it is necessary first to know, what woman she is, or what it is which is here offered to us under the similitude of a woman. If this be not known, much more if by this woman be understood something different from that which in reality she signifies, it will be morally impossible to explain in a clear and perceptible way the whole of this prophecy. On the contrary, if this woman be known, all the rest will become accessible, all will be explicable in a consistent and natural way, without artifice, and without violence, although for other accidental reasons and circumstances it may cost us some trouble.

I will not dare to assert as a truth that the woman whom I am about to propose, is undoubtedly the same the prophecy speaks of. What I take upon me to assert is, that on this system the whole prophecy, with all its metaphors, expressions, and similitudes, can be explained without any embarrassment, which is all that can be required of any system, in order to decide upon its goodness.

SYSTEM.

THE woman of whom St. John speaks throughout the twelfth chapter of the Apocalypse, is that same woman spoken of before his time in very many passages of Holy Scripture, which must be forthcoming throughout this discourse. She is for example, that same woman to whom it is said, “For the Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when thou wast refused, saith thy God. For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee.” Isa. liv. 6,7. She is the same to whom it is said, “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee…Whereas thou hast been forsaken and hated, so that no man went through thee, I will make thee an eternal excellency, a joy of many generations.” Isa. lx. 1.15. The same to whom it is said, “For I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the Lord; because they called thee an outcast, saying, This is Zion, whom no man seeketh after.” Jer. xxx. 17. The same to whom it is said, “Put off, O Jerusalem, the garment of thy mourning and affliction, and put on the comeliness of the glory that cometh from God for ever…For God will shew thy brightness unto every country under heaven.” Baruch v. 1.3. She is in short the ancient spouse of God, or the house of Jacob cast out for her iniquity and enormous ingratitude, till the time in which she shall be recalled to her dignity, and restored to all her honours, according to what was set forth and proved in the 3^rd Article of the fifth Phenomenon. Of this woman, in that time, shall be verified most fully all the things which this prophecy announceth under hieroglyphics so great and magnificent. This is the system.

In order now to see whether this accordeth with the prophecy, it seems necessary to follow the order of the whole, explaining one by one all the eighteen verses of which it is composed; and for the greater clearness, it appears good to me to divide the whole of the explanation into certain articles, comprehending in each, now two, now three verses, and now perhaps only one according to the necessity of the case.

§5. Advertisement. For the better understanding of these mysteries, as likewise of all the Apocalypse, it will be of great importance to recollect what we have remarked on various occasions, especially in the Fifth Section of the third Phenomenon, to wit, first, that the divine book of the Apocalypse is a prophecy entirely directed to the second coming of Messiah: secondly, that this prophecy is all, or almost all, a continued allusion to the whole scripture, as it were an abstract or analysis of scripture itself. Unless you give heed to these observations the Apocalypse will be obscurity itself. How is it possible to understand that divine book if we do not attend to and without prejudice admit the most remarkable passages of Moses, of the Psalms, and of the Prophets, to which it so frequently alludeth? Its most obscure passages would have passed from darkness to light, if the doctors had not engaged with an impossibility, which is to harmonize them with their system. This advertisement will be of great service to us as we proceed.

ARTICLE I.

The whole of the twelfth chapter of the Apocalypse is explained upon this system.

§ 6. “AND there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: and she being with child, cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.” Rev. xii. 1,2.

The great sign, the prodigy, the new and wonderful phenomenon, which shall appear in heaven, or in the sight of all, a little before the revelation of Antichrist, is nothing else, we say, than the ancient spouse of God, ignominiously cast out, so many ages ago, from the house of her husband in anger and great wrath; and at that time to be gathered and collected in great mercy (Isa. liv.) That unhappy spouse, to whom a new espousal is promised under a new covenant; (Hosea ii.) she, who for her levities, her disobedience, her most enormous ingratitude, hath drunk to the very dregs the cup of God’s indignation, until she remained, as it were, intoxicated and out of her mind, (Isa. ii.); she whom the spouse himself threatened so often with troubles and miseries in which she now lieth, and to whom in like manner he had promised another estate infinitely different, in which “her former troubles shall be forgotten” (Isa. lxv.); she it is, I say again, whom St. John here representeth to us towards the beginning of her future vocation and reception into favour and fulness, which are the very terms that St. Paul the apostle useth when treating this subject (Rom. xi.); I would say, when the merciful God of her fathers, in those times and seasons which the Father hath kept in his own power, being appeased by her plentiful and most sorrowful penitence, and melted with her tears, shall at length pronounce those words which stand already entered by himself in the fortieth chapter of Isaiah, “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God: Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins,” Isa. xl. 1, 2; when he shall call her, I say, when he shall enlighten her, when he shall open her eyes and her ears; when, in short, she shall have spiritually conceived Christ, and Christ shall have been formed in her; then shall this great and miraculous sign be seen in heaven: then with wonder shall be beheld that which is written in the scriptures, and from which its very greatness hath hitherto appeared obscure and incredible.

Now this ancient spouse of God is represented, in the time of her future vocation, under the metaphor of a woman, no longer poor, miserable, naked, and abominable, as all the world hath seen her, and as she is now seen at this day; but clothed and adorned with the most precious and brilliant garment which can fill the imagination: to explain which, there is no similitude more proper than the sun itself. “A woman clothed with the sun.” Which appears to be what Malachi promiseth; “But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings.” Mal. iv. 2. There shall arise to you, in the fulness of time, the Sun of righteousness, who in his wings or glorious light, shall bring you health: —otherwise thus; the Sun of righteousness shall arise, who shall give you wings, and, by means of them, health. Of these wings we shall speak by-and-bye. It is the same in spirit with what Micah saith: “When I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me. I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him, until he plead my cause; and execute judgment for me: he will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold his righteousness.” Micah vii. 8,9. Accordingly we can understand nothing else by this woman’s clothing of the sun, than the same celestial light “which cometh down from the Father of lights:” and the expression appears to us most appropriate, most lively, most natural, in order to explain, in some the way, according to the scriptures, that torrent of lights, which ought then to inundate and circulate throughout all parts of the spouse; whom her own husband doth now mercifully awaken from her profound lethargy; whom he calls and invites with that multitude of consolations, and most joyful announcements, which are already prepared in the scriptures of truth: for example, these: —“Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup of his fury.” Isa. li. 17.

“Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city:…Shake thyself from the dust; arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem: loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion.” Isa. lii. 1, 2.

“Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.” Isa.

lx. 1.

“Fear not; for thou shalt not be ashamed: neither be thou confounded; for thou shalt not be put to shame: for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more.” Isa. liv. 4.

“Rejoice and be glad for the children of the just, for they shall be gathered together, and shall bless the Lord of the just.” Tobit xiii. 13.

“Arise, O Jerusalem, and stand on high, and look about toward the east, and behold thy children gathered from the west unto the east by the word of the Holy One, rejoicing in the remembrance of God.” Baruch v. 5.

Besides having the sun for her clothing, the woman appeareth with the moon under her feet “And the moon under her feet.” This similitude appears clearly not to pertain in any way to the adorning or attire of the spouse. For what new ornament, brightness, or splendour, can the light of the moon bring in the presence of the sun, or to a person clothed and girt about with the sun? If it be to denote, as some think, a shoe corresponding to the richness of the vesture, in that case, the expression under the feet seems not to be appropriate, since the shoe is not only under the feet, but to clothe and entirely cover them: it ought, in this case, to be said, upon the feet, which denotes another thing much inferior to the shoe itself.

It appears to us then, following the metaphor, and searching out for it all possible propriety of application, that the expression, and the moon under her feet, is nothing else than a consequence of the admirable state in which the woman is found: forasmuch as being clothed with the sun, and all enveloped in his splendour, there is no night to her; and therefore the moon, which serveth only to enlighten the night, is wholly useless to her, and ought to be no-where but under her feet. Some one may perhaps allege, that this explication has altogether the air of a popular discourse; and I will allow that he has good reason for saying so, when he shall have explained the metaphor, the moon under her feet, in a more proper and natural way upon any other system.

Much in the same way do we reason of the twelve stars, which formed the woman’s crown. Being clothed with the sun, the stars could add nothing to her splendour; for we know by experience that these disappear or become wholly useless in the presence of the sun. What then meaneth this similitude: “And on her head a crown of twelve stars?” To me this appears a most clear and vivid allusion to two passages of scripture. The first is, the 9^th verse of the thirty-seventh chapter of Genesis, or the prophetic dream of the patriarch Joseph. “I beheld in my dream,” (said he innocently to his father and his eleven brethren), “that the sun, and the moon, and the eleven stars made obeisance to me.” Where, besides representing Jacob and Rachel by the sun and the moon, the eleven patriarchs, Joseph’s brethren, are signified by the similitude of eleven stars. The twelfth star was Joseph himself. The second passage to which St. John seemeth to allude, is in the 17^th verse of the twenty-eighth chapter of Exodus, where is described the breast-plate of judgment of the high priest, wherein God commanded Moses to place twelve precious stones, set in the purest gold, and having inscribed on them the names of the twelve patriarchs of the children of Jacob. In fine, the number twelve is the hieroglyphic, the characteristic and appropriate arms of the house of Israel. If any one insist upon it, that the twelve stars of the crown should signify the twelve apostles of Christ, we reply, to save disputation, that the twelve apostles of Christ are, and shall for ever be, the true and legitimate children of the woman of whom we speak, and as such, might in those times well form the crown of their mother: but the true and proper signification appears to us to be the twelve patriarchs, because they are signified in the scripture itself by twelve stars.

Having thus obtained the knowledge (such knowledge as can be had in these subjects) concerning all which pertains to the exterior of this wonderful woman, to wit, of the sun which clothes her, of the moon which she has under her feet, of the twelve stars which constitute her crown; we pass now to consider her inward part, and that which she enclosed with her womb, which appears the effect and likewise the cause of the splendours which outwardly manifested themselves.

The sacred text says immediately that the woman was pregnant; and the hour of her delivery approaching, she suffered terrible sorrows and pangs in bringing forth the fruit of her womb, and indicated them by voices and cries which she uttered. St. John appears here, according to his continual allusions, to refer, by this similitude, to the twenty-sixth chapter of Isaiah, which is throughout an admirable song, that shall in those days be sung in the land of Judah. “In that day,” the chapter begins, “shall this song be sung in the land of Judah.” In order now to know what day this is, whereof the prophet speaks, there is need of no more research than to read the song itself. Wherein will be seen, without the power of doubting, that the song neither has been sung, nor could have been sung, during all the days, years, and ages that have past, until the present time. And in order to make ourselves still more sure of this, it may be good to take a full draught, and read the two preceding chapters, and likewise the following one, since they have manifestly all one mystery and one time in view. This new and wonderful song is competent only to the remnant of Israel, in great mercies gathered together in those days to the hand of Judah, seeing it is of them it speaks; or to speak more accurately, it is they who speak in spirit through the whole of the twenty-fifth chapter, and they likewise continue to speak in the song of the twenty-sixth chapter.

Now among the things which, in this prophetic song, the holy and precious remnant uttereth to their God, one of them is that which had just happened to them upon their calling by the goodness and mercy of God himself. “Like as a woman with child, that draweth near the time of her delivery, is in pain, and crieth out in her pangs; so have we been in thy sight, O Lord. We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it were brought forth wind.” (Or as the LXX. read, whose version the apostles used) ‘So have we been thy delight, because of our fear of thee, O Lord, we have been with child, and we have travailed, and we have brought forth the spirit of thy salvation.’

But what are signified in both promises by this metaphorical conception; by these pangs and outcries to bring it to the light, and by the birth itself, with all its consequences? The birth we shall consider as we proceed (Article 3^rd): the conception, the pain and anguish in bringing it to light, will clearly appear by following out the same thread of metaphor which we have begun. So as that Zion the mother, with all the wrecks of her family, who, be the number determinate or indeterminate, are to be “a hundred and forty and four thousand sealed of all time tribes of the children of Israel,” Rev. vii. 4; being enlightened or clothed with celestial light; having opened the inward eye and the inward ear, to see and hear what till then, by the just judgment of God, she had not seen or heard; she shall at once conceive in her womb, that is, figuratively, Jesus Christ, and him crucified (who, through the fault of her doctors, has ever been to her a true scandal); and Christ Jesus shall begin to form himself in her very womb, still in a figure, and there also shall he proceed and grow unto the perfect day. This is clear and needs no further explanation.

Moreover, as it is not sufficient for salvation that we should conceive Christ Jesus in the secret of the heart, but likewise necessary to bring him forth; or, so to speak, to bring him to light, publicly to manifest this conception, and to declare for him, “for with the heart men believe unto righteousness, but with the lips confession is made unto salvation:” the spouse being come to this, straits, pangs and outcries naturally begin, because of the great difficulties, contradictions, and embarrassments which earth and hell shall then oppose, in order that the pregnancy may be without fruit. What persecutions shall not be raised in those days against the woman! what strangeness, what disgust, what disquietude shall not be caused in those days by so pressing a novelty, which no body dreamt of! Surely it will be a novelty capable of changing the public quiet and disturbing the peace of the world; in those days, I say it again, in which charity and likewise faith shall be found so lukewarm and scanty, through the abounding of iniquity. (Matt. xxiv. 12.)

The first who will oppose themselves to the birth of the woman will probably be the Jews themselves, “of every tribe of the children of Israel:” those, I mean, who by their own fault have not entered into the number of those sealed with the seal of the living God; who, as is said by Zechariah, shall be two third parts at the least “And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein. And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people; and they shall say, The Lord is my God.” Zech. xiii. 8,9. I said that those not sealed with the seal of the living God will be two third parts; and I added, at the least; because it appears to me very natural and very agreeable to other passages of scripture, that in the fiery proof of tribulation, through which this third part shall have to pass, there will be left much dross or tin, which pertaineth not to the fine gold. And so God himself announceth it by Isaiah: “And I will turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin.” Isa. i. 25. And in another place it is clearly said, that after having passed through the proof they shall come out decimated (either leaving a tenth in the fire, or, as others think, bringing only one in ten out of it): “and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land. But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves: so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof.” Isaiah vi. 13. The same is declared in the 8^th verse of the sixty-fifth chapter.

It appears then very probable that two third parts of the house of Jacob shall persecute with all their might the other part which has believed, as they also did in the beginnings of the church. But this persecution (if it do come to pass) shall hardly be as the picture or shadow of that which the dragon shall stir up by means of those seven beasts and ten horns, whereof we treated so largely in the Third Phenomenon. These seven beasts spread over all the world, shall then stand not only in friendship and good accord with one another, but on the eve of confirming a treaty of union or a formal league “against the Lord and against his anointed.” This is the other sign which at the same time appeareth in heaven.

ARTICLE II.

“AND there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads: And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.” Rev. xii. 3,4.

There is here represented the old serpent, “who is the devil and Satan,” full of the most vehement apprehensions, and in consequence of his fears, leaping up and down at the great novelty in the state of that woman, whom till now he had slighted. What occasions him the greatest anxiety is, the terrible circumstance of seeing her pregnant, without having power to hinder this evil, perhaps without having known of it, and without now being able to prevent the birth which is about to take place. In order in any possible way to remedy so great a mischief, and fraught with the very worst consequences, he opens himself to his friends and implores their help. To them he hath recourse at once: he sets them all in motion, agitates and animates them against that terrible and wonderful woman, who may yet ruin all his projects. This is the reason why he lets himself be seen under the figure of a monstrous dragon, of red colour; that is, full of fire, of wrath, and of fury, and with seven heads and ten horns; —which cypher requireth no new explanation, having been sufficiently explained in the Third Phenomenon.

And as if these armies were still insufficient for combating the woman, he calls likewise to his succour another sort of soldiers, much more dangerous than all the armies in the world. He draws with his tail (a proper symbol of leasing, of cozenage, and of seduction; for, as it is written in Isaiah, “the prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail.” Isa. ix. 15.); he draws, I say, with his tail no less than the third part of the stars, of heaven, and casts them to the earth, in order that they may serve him. By these metaphorical stars torn from their places in heaven by the tail of the dragon, I understand nothing else to be signified save that which I find in certain grave authors who on this point, quote and follow St. Jerome and Theodoret. ‘His tail,’ says the latter, ‘drew a third part of the stars of heaven; that is, of those principal men in the church, not only political men, but ecclesiastical doctors, and religious persons, who, like stars in the firmament, do outshine and surpass the rest:’⁴ which doth not fail to accord with that which we said in another place, when speaking of the beast with ten horns. (Phen iii. § 9.) It is true, that the fall of these stars, like all the rest of the mysteries contained in this prophecy, are placed by the doctors in the very times of Antichrist. But we have already observed, that in the times spoken of throughout the whole of this twelfth chapter, Antichrist is not yet arrived in the world. Before which it is necessary that the woman should first have brought to light that which was within her, and afterwards that she should flee to the solitude and be placed in safety; for so it seemed good to the purposes of God, as we shall see hereafter.

The dragon then, being arrayed with all his armour, shall present himself before the woman, who standeth ready to bring forth, in order to hinder the birth, if that be possible, or at least to devour it so soon as it shall be born, “to devour her child as soon as it was born;” that is to say, in order to render it useless and fruitless, and hinder its producing those terrible consequences, which with so much reason he suspects and fears that he might cause it to be as it were carried from the womb to the grave. Now what doth all this in reality mean? what particular mystery is shut up under this similitude? Follow the metaphor, and you shall have no great difficulty in comprehending that mystery.

In the first place it is to be supposed and indeed collected very clearly from the text itself, that the dragon either has not known of it (God having hidden it from him), or has not been able to hinder the woman from conceiving Christ within herself, or that Christ should be formed within her “by the hearing of faith:” in which work Elias shall have laboured, seeing it is his proper ministry, to which he was destined, and, along with Elias, certain other workmen of God chosen from amongst the Christian people. In the second place, it is to be supposed that in that time and those circumstances, in which the dragon presents himself with his terrible arms before the woman, he shall as little be able to hinder her metaphorical delivery, that is, hinder her from publicly professing her faith and declaring for Christ Jesus.

⁴ Cauda ejus trahebat tertiam partem stellarum cœli, id est, virorum illorum principum ecclesiæ, non modo politicorum, sed et ecciesiasticorum doctorum, et religiosorum, qui instar stellarum in orbe aliis prælucent, et præcellent.

In this situation, so critical; in this conflict, in this urgency, what remedy remaineth? There is no other than to devour the birth itself that is to say, to labour with all possible pains, with threats, with seduction, with open force, that the woman may repent of her act, that she may, as if it were not her own, disavow the fruit of her womb which she has just brought into the world with so many pangs; that she may deny it, reject it, and consign it to oblivion. To this end, doubtless, are those armies, and those terrible arms in which the dragon appeareth arrayed; “having seven heads and ten horns: and for the same end are the innumerable stars which he hath swept from heaven with his tail, the proper symbol of deceit and seduction. This is all which can be apprehended or suspected to be in that wonderful similitude: “And the dragon stood before the woman that he might devour the child as soon as it was born.” I do not believe the dragon to have been so senseless as to imagine himself capable of really devouring the child itself which is here spoken of.

ARTICLE III. “AND she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.” Rev. xii. 5.

Notwithstanding the sight of the dragon and his legions, notwithstanding the pangs and straits which afflict the woman, that which she had within her womb at length appears; it appears safely a male child, destined to rule all nations with a rod of iron, which is no sooner born than it is snatched away to God and placed before his throne.

Two principal points we have here to consider. First, who is this man child whom the woman produced amidst so many pains and alarms? Secondly, what mystery is contained in this child’s being presented before the throne of God so soon as it was born? These two mysteries have been as it were two most lofty and insuperable walls, which have stopped the progress of all interpreters of the Apocalypse: for in the ordinary system, they do not recognize in this man child the very person of Jesus Christ, notwithstanding that there is no other person either in heaven or earth to whom the characteristic will apply: “who should rule all nations with a rod of iron.” As little can they explain upon that same system with any propriety this presentation of the son at the throne of God. But, on the system which we follow, both these points appear so clear, that it is sufficient merely to propose them, in order at once, without using violent or artificial reasonings, to comprehend that all should so happen.

Do not forget, Sir, that indubitable truth which we have already set forth in the 4^th section; to wit, that here it neither is nor can be a natural mother or a material birth which is spoken of. The woman who appears amidst such various distress, and the child itself, are confessedly a metaphor or a similitude: but this similitude doth not hinder, but rather supposeth, that both the mother and the child should be some physical or real things, to which these similitudes have a most suitable application. This being laid down, we say first, that although the offspring of this woman, like the woman herself, is metaphorical, the son, figuratively born, who is to rule all nations with a rod of iron, can be no other than Jesus Christ himself, the son of God and the son of the Virgin Mary, not certainly at this time physically conceived and born, but spiritually conceived by faith, and born by public confession of the same: conceived, I say, and spiritually born of that same mother, who, many ages before, had conceived and borne him but only materially, and who through the greatest blindness, the proper effect of her actual iniquity, had not known his value and infinite preciousness, but had confounded him with the lowest of the people, and reputed him as one of the most wicked of her family. In truth, she had conceived and brought him forth, but without that faith, which is the principle of every good; without faith in this her son, whom she had present with her, and who did evidently manifest in all his words and in all his works, according to all the scriptures, that he really was the very Messiah so much desired and sighed for by the whole body of the nation.

This, from all the countersigns, appears to be that great and unheard of prodigy, whereof Isaiah speaketh in the 7^th verse of the sixty-sixth chapter. “Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she was delivered of a man child. Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things?” So that the woman of whom we speak certainly brought forth the Messiah many ages before. But how? Before she travailed, before conceiving him or knowing him: she brought him forth without sentiment, without spirit, and without faith: and therefore that birth cannot be any advantage, but was as “a rock of offence and a stone of stumbling. Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law: for they stumbled at that stumbling-stone; as it is written.” Rom. ix. 32, 33.

But when God shall exercise to this same woman those great mercies, which he had promised to her; when he shall call her “as a woman forsaken, and a wife of youth cast off;” when he shall gather her in great mercy; then shall she conceive and bring forth in spirit this same Messiah: that is to say, with knowledge, with faith, and with esteem, with a most sincere and a most ardent love, and likewise with the pains and perils of a true and bitter repentance, which in that time and in those circumstances shall be inevitable.

This spiritual birth of Zion, this faith, and her confession of it, this acknowledgment and publication at every risk, that the same Jesus, whom heretofore she rejected, upon whom she invoked the cross, is her true Messiah; is he for whom alone God waiteth, in order to join that great council, and constitute that majestic tribunal, so much spoken of in the fourth and fifth chapters of the Apocalypse, which are a most manifest and vivid allusion to the seventh chapter of Daniel, as we shall see immediately; for this is the second point which we now proceed to consider.

“And he was caught up to God and to his throne.”

The woman having brought forth, saith the sacred text, the Son was as it were instantly caught up to God, and presented at his throne. What meaneth this? Let us in spirit follow this son who hath just been born; let us follow him with humility, but without fear, to the very throne of God, and become eye-witnesses as far as our present state will permit, of what he doth there, and of the new and admirable mysteries which begin to be accomplished. The entrance to this supreme council is not impossible nor so very difficult, if we will avail ourselves of those keys which are given to us. “I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit,…I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.” Dan. vii. 9. 13,14.

This prophet, after having concluded the mystery of the four beasts, and unfolded it all from the beginning to the ending, as we observed under the Second Phenomenon, turns back a few paces, in order to relate particularly another mystery, which, although having a close relation with the other, could not take its due place without interrupting the order of the four beasts. (This method, still practised among good historians, is common among the prophets, and especially in the Apocalypse.) The mystery is, that the great council being entered upon, and the Ancient of days, or God himself, being seated upon the throne (expressions accommodated to men’s understanding), there was seen to come immediately, as upon the clouds of heaven, “as it were the Son of man,” who entereth directly into the very council; and being entered thereinto, advanceth at once to the very throne of God, before whose presence he was presented (it is not said by whom). “And he came unto the Ancient of days, and they brought him in before him.” The result of this presentation to the throne was, that God immediately gave to this admirable person, to this Son of man (by distinction, who is likewise so called frequently in all the four Gospels), gave to him power, and honour, and a kingdom, that all peoples, and tribes, and tongues, might serve and obey him, as his subjects, “that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him.”

Compare with this text of Daniel, those words in the Apocalypse, “And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne,” Rev. xii. 5. and you shall see in them so close an analogy, that the first will appear an explanation of the second. So that the delivery of the woman being accomplished, and the man-child born of her in the manner we have seen, instantly he flies to God, and presents himself, or is presented before his throne. If we ask now for what end, Daniel replies to us, that it is to receive of the same God publicly, in his great council, power, honour, and a kingdom, not certainly in right merely (for in this way he holds it now, and hath ever held it), but in actual exercise, for to that effect it is immediately added, “and all peoples, tribes, and languages, shall serve him;” or, according to St. John, “who is to rule all nations with a rod of iron.”

Whence it naturally follows, that this power, this honour, and this kingdom, which in that time shall be given to the Son of man, he receiveth not till then (however much the ordinary ideas assert the contrary). It is true, that after his resurrection, the Lord said to his apostles, “All power is given to me in heaven and in earth;” but by the very context it is at once known, though there were no other foundation for it, that the Lord spoke only of the spiritual power of the high priest, seeing it is the very same power which he communicates to the apostles, in consequence of having received it of his Father; and so he immediately adds these words, “Go ye therefore and teach all nations,” Matt. xxviii. 18. As if he had said, There has been given to me all power in heaven and earth, in virtue whereof I send you over all the world, not to subdue it as lords, but to teach it as masters, “teaching them to observe all things which I have commanded you.” Who does not see that these words are not proper of a king, but of a high priest only? And who doth not see that these are the things which pertain only to the priesthood? Not that we affirm that Jesus Christ hath not full power at present to do and undo at his pleasure; but that this power which is holy and well ordered, he exerteth not at present, save in things which are proper to a High Priest. This full power of doing and of undoing, he held even while he lived in mortal flesh; and yet in all his most holy life he did nothing but teach in words and works. So far was he from using the power of a king, that, to one who said unto him, “Speak to my brother that he may divide the inheritance with me,” he replied, with surprise, “Man, who made me a judge or a divider over you.” Luke

xii. 14.

It is true, I say again, That after, by his resurrection, this Son of man went to heaven, “or into a far country, to receive a kingdom and to return;” Luke xix. 12; it is true that then he did seat himself with great honour and glory at the right hand of the Father. It is true, that in heaven, at the right hand of his Father, he is honoured and glorified by all angels and saints. He is certainly constituted universal king and heir of all things created: seeing by him and for him they were all made. “Whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom he made the worlds —for whom and by whom are all things.” Heb. i. 2. ii. 10. But it is likewise true, that this inheritance, this actual power, this kingdom, this honour, so proper and so due to the man-God, till now he has not received, for till now he has not conferred it. “But now, (said St. Paul, and we still say the same thing with equal truth), “But now we see not yet all things put under him.” Heb. ii. 8. If still all things be not seen subjected to him, he hath not yet in fact received the power, the honour, and the kingdom; because the subjection and obedience of all things to him ought to be the necessary and immediate consequence of his power, honour, and kingdom: “For in that he put all things in subjection to him, he hath left nothing that is not put under him.” Ibid. If otherwise, what power, honour and kingdom would there be to confer in the time whereof Daniel speaketh”? Accordingly, although the Son of man, Jesus Christ, be actually in a state of glory free from all suffering, he doth not therefore cease to be in a state of real and true expectation, until the time arrive in which all the power, honour, and dominion are given to him, of which he is irrevocably constituted the heir, the government being wholly laid upon his shoulders, (Isa. ix.) and all things placed under his feet. “He sat down on the right hand of God” says the same apostle, (Heb. x. 13.) from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.”

In order to comprehend with greater clearness what we have just said upon this Son of man, presented before the throne of God, let us open another window, and view this same mystery under a new light. Let us read, I say, the fourth and fifth chapters of the Apocalypse with somewhat greater attention, in which the whole text of Daniel is manifestly repeated, explained, and illustrated. These two scriptures being combined, it doth not otherwise appear but that these two prophets were present in spirit at that same court (the one five hundred years before the other), and that they were eye-witnesses of what there took place, or was to take place in due time; although to the latter, as to a disciple so much beloved, were manifested in the same vision several things more particularly. “After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter. And immediately I was in the Spirit and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne. And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald. And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white rainment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold” Rev iv. 1-4.

What remaineth of this prophecy, which is somewhat less than two whole chapters, may be viewed and considered in the fountain itself, for I cannot detain myself so long upon one single point, being called at the same time to so many others, of greater or equal importance. For my particular object it is sufficient to make here one short reflection, from comparing the one prophecy with the other, in order that it may be seen that the mystery of which they speak is the same in substance, only explained in different words, and with some things added in the second, which are not found in the first, a thing most frequent in all the allusions of the Apocalypse.

First; the times of which they speak appear evidently to be the same. Daniel saw the great council constituted in the times of his fourth beast, which, as we said in its place, and no one doubts, not is it possible to doubt, are the times very immediate upon the coming of the Lord (and this, be that beast whatever they please to make it) St John evidently presents to us this same council and judgment in the same times.

First; by the general reasons which have been pointed out in different parts, particularly in the Third Phenomenon, section 5, where it is said, and likewise proved, that the Apocalypse evidently from the fourth chapter is a consecutive prophecy, whose main object is the second coming of Messiah, wherein are comprehended all the most notable things which are to precede, to accompany, and to ensue upon it; which, in whole or in part, almost all the expositors fail not either expressly or tacitly to allow. Secondly; because this solemn council and judgment here spoken of has not been formed till this day: seeing that hitherto have not come to pass any of those very great and magnificent things which the prophecy announceth as the immediate consequence of that assize. Thirdly; because the context itself gives us to know the times, as we shall see immediately.

Daniel says, that in the times of the four beasts he saw that many thrones were placed and they sat upon them: where was seated, first, God himself, whom he calleth “the Ancient of days;” and beside him, upon inferior thrones, the assessors of judgment: “I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit.” St. John says the same in different words. Instead of “the Ancient of days,” he says, “One sat upon the throne:” and with respect to the assessors of the judgment, he merely signifies their number: “And four and twenty elders sitting upon the seats (thrones) round about the throne.” Daniel saw thousands of thousands of angels round about the throne of God: “Thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him.” St. John not only saw all these thousands of thousands of angels round about the throne, but likewise heard their voices: “And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels…and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands.”

To cut short, Daniel represents to us a singular and admirable person, “one like the Son of man,” who, entering into that great and supreme council, presents himself before the throne of God, who presideth there, of whom he immediately receiveth power, and honour, and a kingdom: “and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him.” Dan. vii. 13, 14. St. John represents to us this same singular and admirable person under another similitude, and with other circumstances still more particular and still more admirable; that is, under the similitude of a most innocent lamb, who presents himself and stands on his feet before the throne of God, “as it had been slain,” as presenting the infinite merit of his obedience unto the death. On which account he receives from God himself a certain book, shut and sealed with seven seals, which no one is worthy to open or can open but he alone. He opens it himself in sight of that most numerous and worshipful assembly, who wait with lively expectation that blessed moment; which being arrived, there instantly follow in all that assembly so great admiration and joy, so universal a jubilee, that not only the angels and the assessors of judgment, but along with them all the creatures of the universe, even the irrational and the insensible, cry out with one voice: they all give glory to God, and rejoice to behold the open book in the hand of the lamb.

The same beloved disciple assureth us that he heard over the whole universe all these voices of sacred jubilee that minute the lamb receiveth the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne, and publicly opened it in that extraordinary assembly The very counsellors and assessors of judgment fell down before the lamb “And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.” Rev. v. 9,10. The thousands and thousands of angels said, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.” Verse 12. The other creatures of the universe cried with one voice, “ Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.” Verse 13. The whole of which admirably accordeth with an infinitude of similar things, which stand already announced and prepared against those times in the Prophets and in the Psalms. Read among very many other passages which we cannot now quote, the whole of the seventy-second Psalm, and consider especially the last words of it; “and blessed be his glorious name for ever: and let the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen, and amen.” Verse 19. and the ninety-sixth Psalm, “Let the heavens rejoice, and the earth be glad” Verse

11.

JERUSALEM

AFTER two ways do the scriptures speak of Jerusalem; the one historical the other prophetical. That which pertaineth to history hath not to do with our purpose, and needeth no particular observation. We agree with all Christians in faithfully believing all those events according as we find them written: which we understand literally without any great difficulty; and into no one’s thought will it come to give them any sense different from what the words obviously and literally convey. Not so hath it fared with the Jerusalem in prophecy; for the doctors appeal to various senses, according to the things which are announced of her: whereof some are manifestly contrary, others favourable to Jerusalem. Some announce to her so many and such horrible chastisements, as the world hath seen fully and perfectly accomplished upon her; others announce so many favours, and such extraordinary benefits upon her, that they have appeared and do still appear utterly incredible. Some announce upon her indignation and vengeance, not only for the times anterior, but much more for the times posterior to Messiah; and others announce to her love, compassion, and mercy. Some announce terror, ruin, and desolation, others goodness and peace, re-edification and creation; some death and ignominy, others resurrection and glory.

The first are without difficulty understood in their proper obvious, and literal sense: so that as the doctors say, this is their only sense, because in this sense they have been fully accomplished. God so spake by his prophets, and every thing has been accomplished as he spake it. The last prophecy against this iniquitous and ungrateful city was that of Messiah himself, who “when he saw the city wept over it.” Luke xix. 41. And that prophecy (already mentioned in the ninth chapter of Daniel, at the 26^th verse) was perfectly accomplished forty years after the death of the Lord, as is notorious to the whole world. It is then clear, that all the prophecies which are written in the scriptures against Jerusalem, are to be taken according to the letter, and in that sense to be understood, forasmuch as we already see them to have been fully accomplished in that sense. But the favourable prophecies not. And why not? Because these till now have not been accomplished, nor been able to be accomplished, nor is it yet the time that they should be accomplished to the letter, especially those great and magnificent ones, whose very greatness show that beneath the shell great treasures are concealed.

You have here reduced to a few words, the practical way adopted by the doctors, of reasoning upon Jerusalem, as also upon so many other questions which we have spoken of. And you see here, I repeat again, that grand hypothesis, which hath made so large a portion of the prophecies unintelligible; the hypothesis to wit, that the great mystery of God containeth no more than the present church and heaven; that is to say, the vocation of the Gentiles into the room of Israel, because of their unbelief, and the end of the world. From which it is, as by necessary consequence, impossible that those magnificent prophecies should be properly and literally verified, which announce to Jerusalem such grandeur, majesty, and glory; and at the same time such righteousness and holiness, as hath never been seen, nor could have been seen in former ages. Accordingly, they who have looked upon that hypothesis as a truth, have not only cast out the proper and literal sense in the explanation of all these favourable prophecies, but with great and hottest zeal have most harshly abused the Jews, and treated as judaizers, as gross and imbecile, and sometimes as heretics, those who in this and other like points have believed rather in the affirmation of God, than in human suppositions.

The great and the only argument which they oppose to all the prophecies favourable to Jerusalem, is a prophecy of Daniel ix. 26. in which, speaking of the death of Messiah, (according to the common notion,) and of all the terrible results to Jerusalem and all the people of Israel, he thus declareth, “And the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined…even until the consummation, and that determined, shall be poured upon the desolate.” [Vulg. until the consummation and the end.] The truth of this prophecy being supposed, which no one disputeth, they argue thus. The ruin and destruction of Jerusalem here spoken of, is evidently that which came to pass in the reign of Vespasian, about forty years after the death of Messiah; and of it the prophet declareth that it is to continue until the consummation, and until the end: therefore vain and even erroneous is the hope of any other Jerusalem; therefore they have manifestly erred, who have believed or suspected that those great and magnificent prophecies which announce another future Jerusalem upon this our earth, ought to be or can be literally understood. Which is confirmed by the nineteenth chapter of Jeremiah, at the 11^th verse, where you read this sentence against Jerusalem, “Even so will I break this people, and this city, as one breaketh a potter’s vessel, that cannot be made whole again,” which sentence, as St. Jerome explaineth, was not verified in that first Jerusalem which the Chaldeans destroyed, because this was rebuilt again a few years there after; but was verified to the letter in that which the Romans destroyed, for this hath not been renewed nor shall ever he renewed; as happeneth to a potter’s vessel, which being once broken to pieces, “cannot be made whole again.” But before contesting this point, it occurs to me to remark the very great inconclusiveness into which the most famous interpreters fall. They themselves, who, to take away from us all hopes of a new Jerusalem, lay before us this prophecy of Daniel, do themselves assert in many places that Antichrist the Jew of the tribe of Dan, shall build Jerusalem anew, and therein plant the court of his universal empire. But in this case, what becomes of the prophecy of Daniel? Either it is falsified, or the argument derived from that prophecy is not so conclusive as is imagined. It is a truth that Antichrist cannot survive the consummation and the end, and it is equally a truth according to Daniel, that the desolation of Jerusalem shall endure till the consummation and the end: when then shall Antichrist rebuild Jerusalem?

This being adverted to, we come now to that which is more important, to reply to this argument which offers at least a great show of strength. In two ways may the reply be rendered: one by the straight line, the other by the crooked line, or by fetching a short compass; of which, although the former be sufficient of itself, we do not therefore deem the second to be useless, for it may aid us not a little in the better and more easy understanding both of this and of other similar points. This second mode reduceth itself to the proposal of a doubt, which as it is very well applicable to various other cases, is so especially to this.

A hundred prophecies at the least speak to me expressly and by name of Jerusalem, not in any indeterminate state, but of Jerusalem destroyed for her sins, desolated, trodden underfoot: and buried in the dust; of which they tell me with all clearness, that one day she shall arise from the dust of the earth, and be revived, be rebuilt anew, and be seen in her glory. (Ps. cii.) And that this Jerusalem, of which they spake, might not be confounded with that other which was built “in troublous times,” by those who returned from Babylon, they give me certain marks so clear and so individual, that it is impossible to confound the one with the other. For example, one prophecy tells me that in the time of which it speaks, Jerusalem shall be called the throne of God. “At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord; and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of the Lord, to Jerusalem: neither shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evil heart.” Jer. iii.

17. Another tells me that her name from that day forth wherein she is built anew, shall be, “the Lord is there.” Ezek. xlviii. 35. Another tells us of the same Jerusalem, that after the great tribulations which are denounced upon her for her iniquities, she shall be called the City of the Just one, the faithful city. “Thou shalt be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city.” Isa. 1. 26. And in another place, “Thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name. Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God. Thou shalt be no more termed forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed desolate: but thou shalt be called Hephzibah, and thy land Beulah: for the Lord delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married.” Isa. lxii. 2-4.

The same is said in another place, “Whereas thou hast been forsaken and hated, so that no man went through thee, I will make thee an eternal excellency, a joy of many generations…Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders…Thy people also shall be all righteous.” Isa. lx. 15.18.21. “I will extend peace to thee like a river.” Isa. lxvi. 12. And to be brief, (for these are things which are most frequently found in the prophets of God,) another prophecy speaking of Jerusalem and of the Jews, says, “And men shall dwell in it, and there shall be no more utter destruction; but Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited.” Zech. xiv. 11.

These and other prophecies which exceed a hundred, lead me to expect another Jerusalem still future, but Daniel in the ninth chapter takes from me all hope, because he assures me that the desolation of Jerusalem, which was to begin from Messiah’s death, should last irrecoverably till the consummation and the end; “and he shall make it desolate even until the consummation and the end.” Upon this supposition, which is not to be doubted, I ask, should we hold by the former prophecies, which promise a future Jerusalem, or by this last of Daniel which denies it to us.

The resolution of this doubt is not the same in two different tribunals. The one practically decides that we ought to stand by the last prophecy, though it be one only, and explain all the rest, though they be a hundred or a thousand, in other senses. The other tribunal decides that we ought to stand for the hundred prophecies, and explain the one by the hundred, and not the hundred by the one: for which three very brief reasons are alleged; first, because these are many, and this is but one; secondly, because these are clear, and this is not so; thirdly, because these are certainly favourable to Jerusalem, and that is contrary to it, and in all cases of doubt the favourable interpretation should have the advantage. Without setting myself to resolve which of these two opinions is the more just, for this belongs to impartial judges; I do only take upon myself the liberty of concluding, that as the doctors interpret the hundred prophecies in the sense which suits them, that they may not destroy their system, most frequently doing violence to them, so likewise might I do the same with this of Daniel, and with better reason.

Let it not, however, be thought that I pretend to give to the prophecy of Daniel another sense but the literal and obvious one. This would be out of harmony with myself. In the same sense in which I understand the hundred prophecies, do I without any difference understand the last, and therefore hold it for certain and infallible, that the present desolation of Jerusalem will endure until the consummation and the end. But what follows from this? that we are not to expect another and a new Jerusalem? This consequence which the interpreters draw upon their system, is precisely what I deny, as being illegitimate and false: it appeals to me that this other conclusion, in all respects most just, ought to be drawn; to wit, that the future Jerusalem, which the prophets of God so frequently announce, will not be built before but after the consummation and the end. Not before, for in that case the prophecy of Daniel would be falsified, after surely, because without this an hundred prophecies would be falsified. This conclusion which I admit and embrace as the true one, and as being so conformable to the scriptures, is likewise my second reply by the straight line.

The consummation and end of which Daniel speaks, can be no other than that of which so many prophets speak, especially Isaiah, Jeremiah, Nahum, Zephaniah, and Zechariah; and which is likewise spoken of in various parts of the gospels. Consequently, it cannot be the consummation and end of the world, as upon the ordinary system is believed, but the consummation and end of the age.

Between these two words, world and age, although they be many times taken in the same sense, and signify the same thing, there is really a great and notable difference, and very important in the subject of which we now treat. The world is properly used of the whole immense machine of the universe, and also more immediately it is used of this terraqueous globe on whose surface we dwell. The age is used, not only of the revolution of an hundred years, but likewise, and with more propriety, of all the external apparatus of our world or our globe, its pomp, its luxury, its fraud, its vanity, its falsehood, its sin: in short, this name age is given to this passing day of man, his power, his dominion, his virtue, his judgment, his government, &c. in distinction from the day of the Lord. I find very frequently in the scriptures, especially in the gospels, these words, the consummation of the age; and I do find more, find those, the consummation of the world.

In this sense, then, in which the other scriptures speak, Daniel declareth, that the actual desolation of Jerusalem, which began from the death of Messiah, must last till the consummation or ending of the age; that is to say, until the present day be concluded and brought to its end, and the day of the Lord begin to dawn, and Messiah come in glory and majesty, with which second coming shall begin the day of his power in the glories of the saints (Psalm cx.); until that terrible judgment upon the beast spoken of by Daniel himself, and in the Apocalypse, shall have been fulfilled: until the great statue shall fall to the earth by the blow of the stone, and disappear like light dust in the midst of a mighty wind: until the evacuation of all principality, power, and authority, spoken of by St. Paul, shall have taken place: until, finally, the times of the Gentiles shall have been accomplished. Compare in passing, these the last words of the Lord with those of Daniel, and methinks you will find the very same mystery without any difference, “Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, till the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” —“And the desolation shall last until the consummation and the end.” (Vulg.)

That is evidently the consummation and the end whereof Daniel speaks, which shall happen at the coming of the Lord: and therefore, the Lord himself compareth his coming to the day of Woe “when the flood came and took them all away.” (Matt. xxiv.) This consummation and end other prophets do likewise announce in the most vivid expressions, and with very particular circumstances, as we have so often observed; and yet these very prophets assure us expressly, that Jerusalem destroyed and trodden down of the Gentiles shall be rebuilt anew, with so great grandeur, with so great splendour, with so great righteousness, and with such and such circumstances; which not having been verified till this day, nor having been able to be verified before the consummation and end, or before the times of the nations are fulfilled, we ought to expect when all is verified after the consummation and end of the age, “that thy prophets may be found faithful.”

Let us now say two words upon the text of Jeremiah, which served for a confirmation to their argument. “Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Even so will I break this people, and this city, as one breaketh a potter’s vessel, that cannot be made whole again;” Jer. xix. 11. These words (say some, following St. Jerome, though others be of a contrary opinion) cannot be properly and rigorously understood of that first Jerusalem which the Chaldeans destroyed, because that was built again a few years after; but they are with all propriety applicable to that Jerusalem which the Romans destroyed after the death of Christ, which till this day continues destroyed and desolated, and must continue in this condition to the end of the world. The words of St. Jerome are these: ‘Evidently this is spoken not of the Babylonian, but of the Roman captivity. Because after the Babylonians, both was the city renewed, and the people brought back into Judæa, and restored to their former fulness. Whereas, since the captivity, which first took place under Vespasian and Titus, and afterwards under Adrian, the ruins of Jerusalem shall remain till the consummation of the age.’⁶

Who can deny this last point? Whoever reads the last verse of the ninth chapter of Daniel must confess as an indubitable truth, that “the ruins of Jerusalem shall abide until the consummation of the age.” But the first, that Jeremiah was not speaking of the Jerusalem destroyed by the Babylonians, but of the Jerusalem destroyed by the Romans six hundred years afterwards, how can we admit, if we read the text of the prophet consecutively: “And (he continues forthwith in the 13^th verse) And the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, shall be defiled as the place of Tophet, because of all the houses upon whose roofs they have burnt incense unto all the host of heaven, and have poured out drink-offerings unto other gods.” Jer. xix. 13. This countersign alone, although there were no other, seems more than sufficient at once to make known the times of which he is speaking, and the Jerusalem against which he spake. When the Romans under Titus and Vespasian destroyed Jerusalem, did they destroy at the same time along with it the houses and palaces of the kings of Judah? What kings of Judah were there at that time? Did they destroy at that time all those houses wherein were offered sacrifices to idols? What idols found the Romans in Jerusalem, save those which they themselves carried up thither and placed in it after its destruction? But if we cast our eyes upon that former Jerusalem which the Babylonians destroyed in the lifetime of Jeremiah, we find houses and palaces of the kings of Judah, and we find idols in thousands, upon the terraces and the most lofty places of almost all the houses of the

⁶ Perspicue hoc non de Babylonica, sed de Romana dicitur captivitate. Post Babylonios quippe, et urbs instaurata, et populus redactus in Judæam, et abundantiæ prestinæ restitutus est. Post captivitatem autem, quæ sub Vespasiano et Tito, et postea accidit sub Adriano usque ad consnmmationem seculi ruinæ Jerusalem permansuræ sunt.

iniquitous Jerusalem. Therefore is it clear by this countersign alone, that Jeremiah is speaking of the former Jerusalem destroyed by the Babylonians, not of that which the Romans destroyed. If this is so, it may be replied, how do you understand with propriety that similitude of which the prophet maketh use: “this city as one breaketh a potter’s vessel, that cannot be made whole again; and they shall burn them in Tophet, till there be no place else to bury.” Jer. xix. 11.

The understanding of this similitude offered to us by the other doctors who disagree with St. Jerome, is as follows. ‘It ought to be explained (says one of them) of the renewal of its own power; for after seventy years were fulfilled, the Jewish vessel was renewed, and at the end of the age it shall be again renewed, —but by divine power, to which that is easy which to man seemeth impossible.’⁷ And to the end you may see that these words of Jeremiah cannot admit so absolute a sense as you seek, read those of the thirty-first chapter at the 38^th verse, where it is written: “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that the city shall be built to the Lord,…it shall not be plucked up, nor thrown down, any more for ever.” Jer. xxxi.

38.40. And in the last chapter of Zechariah these words are found: “And men shall dwell in it, and there shall be no more utter destruction; but Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited.” Zech.

xiv. 11. Ill would all this be verified if that similitude as a potter’s vessel is broken in pieces, will not yield somewhat of its force.

Many other general and particular things have we to say upon Jerusalem; but these pertain directly to the third part, where we shall endeavour to give them a place, as well as many other points, which as yet we have not been able to take up. I content myself then with transcribing that famous prophecy of the holy Tobias, and therewith shall conclude this second part, presenting this great point for profound meditation.

“O Jerusalem, the holy city, he will scourge thee for thy children’s works, and will have mercy again on the sons of the righteous. Give praise to the Lord, for he is good: and praise the everlasting King, that his tabernacle may be builded in thee again with joy, and let him make joyful there in thee those that are captives, and love in thee for ever those that are miserable. Many nations shall come from far to the name of the Lord God with gifts in their hands, even gifts to the King of heaven; all generations shall praise thee with great joy. Cursed are all they which hate thee, and blessed shall all be which love thee for ever. Rejoice and be glad for the children of the just: for they shall be gathered together, and shall bless the Lord of the just. O blessed are they which love thee, for they shall rejoice in thy peace: blessed are they which have been sorrowful for all thy scourges; for they shall rejoice for thee, when they have seen all thy glory, and shall be glad for ever. Let my soul bless God the great King. For Jerusalem shall be built up with sapphires, and emeralds, and precious stone: thy walls and towers and battlements with pure gold. And the streets of Jerusalem shall be paved with beryl and carbuncle and stones of Ophir. And all her streets shall say, Allelluia; and they shall praise him, saying, Blessed be God, which hath extolled it for ever.” Tobit xiii. 9-18.

This famous prophecy is doubtless one of those many and great prophecies of which can be affirmed at the same time, two contradictory things, to wit, that it is a clear and an obscure prophecy, an easy and a difficult, an intelligible and an unintelligible one. If the idea of the kingdom of Christ here on earth, and of another Jerusalem still future, is, as they would have it, a false and erroneous idea; the prophecy of Tobias is certainly the most obscure, the

⁷ Exponi debet de instauratione quæ propria potentia fiat, nam post expletos 70 annos instaurata est laguncula judaica, at sub finem sœculi rursus instaurabitur sed potentia divina, cui facile est quod hominibus impossibile videtur.

most difficult, and the most unintelligible which can be imagined. On the other hand, if that idea is true and just, as it is so conformable to the other scriptures, then the prophecy is at once intelligible throughout upon the mere reading of it; so that the understanding or the not understanding of it, consists solely in the admitting or the not admitting of that idea. The interpreters pretend that there is no necessity for such an idea in order to understand the prophecy. And therefore they have made the greatest efforts in order to explain it. Whether they have succeeded or not, any one, may easily judge who will read their explanation, and compare it faithfully with the prophecy.

They say in general, and that without any definitive proof, that the whole of the prophecy, excepting the four first lines, can admit no other sense than the allegorical, mixed with the anagogical; because Tobias, as a prophet did the same (they say) as the other prophets did, that is, had in his eye at one time, both the church militant and the church triumphant, and speaks of them both under the name and figure of Jerusalem. On this supposition the interpretation requireth three senses, and even these will not wholly compass it. The first is the literal, but this serveth only for the first four lines. Why? Because they are against Jerusalem. In them being announced her chastisements, her ruin, her extermination, which was all fully verified a few years afterwards. The second sense is the allegorical, which must enter immediately in the room of the literal. Why so soon? Because these four lines being passed, it immediately begins to speak in her favour, and declare of her, or promise to her so many famous things as have not been verified, neither can possibly be verified upon the ordinary system; so that they ought to be accommodated so far as can be to the present church. The third sense which must supply all the defects of the second is the anagogical. Why? Because the allegorical, or the accommodation to the present church can with difficulty be continued through a short space, which being passed it becomes wholly unserviceable; and for that reason it is necessary, if we would not turn back, promptly to take the wings of an eagle, and make a flight to the loftiest pinnacle of heaven, in order to accommodate there, what here it is not possible to accommodate. But as little is it possible there to accommodate some considerable portion of the remainder of the prophecy, and therefore it is necessary in the prophecy to ascend and descend continually, because in the prophecy are mingled, as they say, the things of the militant and of the triumphant church: the result of so blamable a labour being that which at once discovereth itself, the violence and impropriety of the accommodation.

But if for a moment we quit the inconvenient and unintelligible gibberish of these three senses, we shall easily understand the whole prophecy, distinguishing in it its two capital points, to wit, that which is against, and that which is in favour of the same Jerusalem. We shall understand, first, how from the beginning is announced against this ungrateful and delinquent city that horrible chastisement, which hath come over her, with the dispersion and captivity of the residue of Israel, that is, the kingdom of Judah. We shall understand, in the second place, how speaking to this same Jerusalem, chastised and overthrown, he announceth to her against other times, which certainly have not arrived, all the majesty, splendour, and glory, which may be collected from these words, even although there were no other, “Thou shalt shine with glorious light, and all the ends of the earth shall adore thee.” (Vulg.) To whom are these words, and all which follow to the end, spoken, and to whom are they declared? Is it not clear that they are spoken to the same Jerusalem, to whom was before announced her imminent chastisement and total ruin? If this chastisement and ruin be not spoken to the militant Church nor to the triumphant, with what reason can it be asserted that all the prosperities which follow immediately are not spoken of the chastised and destroyed Jerusalem, but of the church partly militant partly triumphant.

With this prophecy of Tobias agree perfectly, among innumerable others, the whole of the sixtieth chapter of Isaiah, the whole of the fifth chapter of Baruch, the thirtieth and thirty-first chapters of Jeremiah, the last chapter of Zechariah; of all which St. John makes his use in the twenty-first chapter of his Apocalypse. The prophecy of Baruch being short and remarkable, may, I judge, be very well set down in this place.

“PUT off, O Jerusalem, the garment of thy mourning and affliction, and put on the comeliness of the glory that cometh from God for ever. Cast about thee a double garment of the righteousness which cometh from God; and set a diadem on thine head of the glory of the Everlasting. For God will shew thy brightness unto every country under heaven. For thy name shall be called of God for ever The peace of righteousness, and The glory of God’s worship. Arise, O Jerusalem, and stand on high, and look about toward the east, and behold thy children gathered from the west unto the east by the word of the Holy One, rejoicing in the remembrance of God. For they departed from thee on foot, and were led away of their enemies: but God bringeth them unto thee exalted with glory, as children of the kingdom. For God hath appointed that every high hill, and banks of long continuance, should be cast down, and vallies filled up, to make even the ground, that Israel may go safely in the glory of God. Moreover even the woods and every sweet smelling tree shall overshadow Israel by the commandment of God. For God shall lead Israel with joy in the light of his glory with the mercy and righteousness that cometh from him.” Baruch v.

THE COMING OF MESSIAH

IN GLORY AND MAJESTY

PART III.

THE COMING OF MESSIAH

IN GLORY AND MAJESTY

PART III.

Which containeth the fruit of the preceding observations.

INTRODUCTION.

HITHERTO we have been almost entirely occupied in establishing a great space of time between the glorious coming of the Lord, of which all are in expectation, and the general judgment and resurrection: being intimately persuaded that, by this alone, without more diligence the understanding of the whole Sacred Scriptures would be plain and easy, even of that part which passes for the most obscure and difficult, which is prophecy. Whether this space of time be sufficiently established, it rests with learned, attentive, considerate, and impartial judges to decide, after having examined this great cause in all its aspects.

Besides this space of time, which is the substantial point of our system, and which any one who would directly impugn us must set himself to combat, we have likewise proposed, examined, and proved some other very important points, relative to this same space of time, most closely connected with it, and which evidently suppose it. It would be to do injustice to considerate readers, which class alone we desire, to repeat here what we ought to take for granted, that they have attentively read and considered all the phenomena which have been observed, and likewise the preparations of the first part.

Now this great space of time after the glorious coming of the Lord being once admitted and known, without its being reasonable to deny or even to doubt it, the desire appears most natural of drawing near, and ascertaining with some distinctness and clearness, if it be not possible at least to descry, though it may be from afar, some of the principal and most notable events of that momentous age. This is what we proceed to set forth, according to the notices which we find in the scripture of truth.

It is not now the question to prove the kingdom of Christ upon our earth; or, which is the same, the kingdom of God which is to come, and for the coming of which we pray according to the commandment of Christ himself. It is not now the question to prove his most glorious coming with thousands of his saints, nor the resurrection of those thousands of saints who shall be reckoned worthy of that age and the resurrection of the dead, long before the general resurrection: nor is it the question, to prove the judgment or reign of Christ over the living, nor the time which this judgment requires according to the scriptures. These things are already proved, with all the evidence which can be had in questions of this sort.

The only question now is, concerning the mode and circumstances, according to which all this is to take place. The mode of existence of so very grand and wonderful a thing is, there can be no doubt, difficult and even impossible to conceive in the present state. But can this be a just cause for doubting the said event, or for daring to deny it? Even in things purely physical, such a way of reasoning would be reputed foolish and even insufferable. Let us now pass on to propose, with all clearness and plainness, that which remains to us in handling this important subject.

CHAPTER 1.

The very day of the coming of the Lord according to the scriptures.

OF this day we have spoken not a little in various parts of this treatise, according as it has occurred; so that we have hardly any thing more to do in this place, than to make a short recapitulation of the same, —not to add any thing to the most clear and vivid expressions of the prophets and evangelists, but from the beginning to take up the thread and follow the course of so many mysteries.

This day is called in the scriptures, “the great and terrible day.” Mal. iv. it is called, “the day of the tumult of the Lord, the day of his wrath and fierce anger.” Isa. xiii. and xxxiv. It is called, “the day of Midian,” in allusion to the famous battle of Gideon. Isa. ix. 4. and x.

33. It is called, “a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of the trumpet and alarm.” Zeph. i. 15,16. It is called, “a great day, so that none is like it.” Jer. xxx.

7. It is called, “a day coming at unawares;” which day “as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth.” Luke xxi. 35. It is called, “the great day of his wrath.” Rev. vi. 17. that is, of the wrath of God Almighty and of the Lamb: and, in fine, for shortness it is called, “the day of the Lord.”

“The times and seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power,” being then concluded, the whole orb of the earth and the church itself, with the exception of some individual few, being “as it was in the days of Noe,” Matt. xxiv. 38. and as it came to pass in the days of Lot, Luke xvii. 28. that day shall come at length so much spoken of in all the prophets and evangelists and in the writings of the apostles, and more expressly and with the most individual notices and circumstances in the last canonical prophecy, which is the apocalypse of St. John; I say, the man-God will return from heaven to earth, manifest himself in his proper person with all his majesty and glory, lovely and desirable to a few, terrible and wonderful in respect to the many. “And they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.” Matt. xxiv. 30. “Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.” Rev. i. 7. This glorious coming of the Lord Jesus is a divine truth, as essential and fundamental in Christianity as is his first coming in suffering flesh. They say that this coming shall not happen till the end of the world, when there shall be no longer in it all one living man, every thing being consumed by fire, and the universal resurrection having succeeded: but if the Holy Scripture saith most frequently, and evidently supposeth, quite the contrary, —which ought we to believe?

This great day, which heaven and earth expect with the greatest longings, being arrived, “the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God.” 1 Thess. iv. 16. Then, at his coming from heaven to earth, (and, as I figure it to myself,) at the very moment of his touching the atmosphere of our globe, there shall happen in it, in the first place, the resurrection of all those saints “who shall be counted worthy of that age and of the resurrection from the dead;” Luke xx. 35. of whom St. Paul says, (continuing the passage above quoted,) “and the dead in Christ shall rise first.” In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, this first resurrection of the saints of the first order having taken place, the few worthy of that name who shall still be found alive upon the earth, for their uncorrupted faith and righteousness, shall be caught up along with the dead saints who are just raised, and shall ascend along with them “to meet the Lord in the air.” All this is most clear and of the most easy comprehension, as was observed and insisted upon chiefly in our first part, dissertation second.

Things being then in this state, and the Lord having nothing in the whole orb of the earth to contemplate, save only a certain solitary woman, who is deploring in the desert her past blindness and iniquities, and whom he shall save in that day, according to his promises, (though for this end some great miracles will be necessary,) there shall forthwith begin to be accomplished over this orb of the earth all those great and horrible things which are announced for that day: all which, to shun prolixity, I comprehend in those few words of the most elegant of all the prophets, of whom it is said in the Ecclesiasticus, that “he saw by an excellent spirit what should come to pass at the last, and he comforted them that mourned in Zion.” Ecclus. xlviii. 24.

“Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth. And it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake. The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly. The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again.” Isa. xxiv. 17-20.

Then, in this confusion of all which existeth upon the surface of our globe, in this commotion and agitation, in this obscurity and darkness, in this fear and trembling, in this raining down of those beams of the which the gospel calleth stars, as is said in the book of Wisdom, “Then shall the right aiming thunderbolts go abroad; and from the clouds, as from a well drawn bow, shall they fly to the mark:” Wisdom, v. 21. there is no doubt that the greater part of the human race shall perish; those, in the first place, who had in any way gathered themselves together under the fourth beast of Daniel, or pertained to the two beasts of the thirteenth chapter of the Apocalypse. Of these I hold it for certain that not one shall remain alive; for thus I see it expressed in both prophecies: “And I beheld,” says Daniel of the fourth beast, “till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame.” Dan.

vii. 11. “These both,” saith John of his two beasts, “were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth:” Rev. xix. 20,21. which I find in a thousand ways confirmed in the prophecies and in the Psalms, as hath been said.

But although I hold it to be certain, that of this class of people there shall not one single individual be left alive; so, in the same manner and with the same foundation, it appeareth to me certain that there shall remain alive many individuals, not only of those who shall then pertain to true Christianity (as are those who go in the clouds to meet Christ, and those who shall compose the solitary woman), but likewise of those pertaining to the three first beasts, and who have not joined themselves to the congregation of the fourth, as hath been said and proved in other parts; which company of the living, compared with the dead, shall yet be very few. Accordingly we read expressly in the same fourteenth chapter of Isaiah at the 13^th verse: “When thus it shall be in the midst of the land among the people, there shall be as the shaking of an olive tree, and as the gleaning grapes when the vintage is done. They shall lift up their voice, they shall sing for the majesty of the Lord, they shall cry aloud.” Isa.

xxiv. 13,14. In the fourteenth chapter of the Apocalypse at the 19^th verse, this metaphorical vintage is spoken of in a way capable of making the boldest tremble. “And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.” Rev. xiv. 19.

This horrible vintage will be necessary and indispensable at the coming of the Lord, in consequence of the miserable state in which the vine of the earth shall be found, as well to evacuate all rule, and authority, and power, or which is the same, to destroy the great image and convert it into powder, as to bring such great iniquity to an end, and anew to plant righteousness, giving their last culture to the few plants which remain fit for use; and by these means to collect most copious fruits, and most worthy of God, which till now have not been gathered, contrary to the intention of the Redeemer himself.

Now, if with moderate attention we study the scriptures, as well of the Old as of the New Testament, we shall be compelled to declare and confess that thus it shall be, in the day in which the Son of man shall be revealed (Luke xvii. 30). Jesus Christ, when he shall come again, shall certainly find our earth as it was a little before the deluge, that is, “corrupt before God and replenished with iniquity;” consequently without faith, without righteousness, without religion, and in the highest disorder and most lamentable carelessness. And he shall find it inevitable and necessary to enter into his kingdom, as Isaiah describeth him: “For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of salvation upon his head; and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloke. According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay, fury to his adversaries.” Isa. lix. 17,18. And in the sixty-third chapter, the Lord himself declareth, “And I will tread down the people in mine anger, and make them drunk in my fury, and I will bring down their strength to the earth.” Isa. lxiii.

6. To enter, I say into his kingdom with an unsheathed sword: “And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations.” Rev. xix. 15. And as his father David, speaking of him in the spirit, declareth: “The Lord at thy right hand shall strike through kings in the day of his wrath. He shall judge among the heathen, he shall fill the places with the dead bodies; he shall wound the heads over many countries.” Psalm cx. 5,6. Many, he saith, not all; and though the explanation of this passage, as also of others the like, for example of the 2^nd verse of the twelfth chapter of Daniel, be given by several of many, that is, of all who are very many; this explanation is manifestly violent, nor resteth upon other foundation than an arbitrary and false supposition, which neither is proved nor can possibly be proved.

This first and necessary act of the judgment of Christ was concluded upon the living, this kind of fearful vintage; although the vine of the earth and the earth itself shall appear unpeopled, almost as much so as it was after the deluge, there shall not on that account fail to exist, dispersed hither and thither, some few small grapes, as likewise even happeneth in a great vintage. “There shall be as the shaking of an olive tree, and as the gleaning grapes when the vintage is done.” Isa. xxiv. 13. Those few relics (continues Isaiah in the passage just quoted) when the great tempest is overpast, shall lift up their voice, and praise the Lord: “They shall lift up their voice, they shall sing for the majesty of the Lord.” Isa. xxiv. 14. When he shall have been glorified in the destruction and ruin of all the wicked, they shall cry and sigh for him with desire and longing, to know him and to adore him; even those who are found in the utmost ends of the earth, separated from this continent by the widest seas: “They shall cry aloud from the sea…From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs, even glory to the righteous.” Isa. xxiv. 14.16. This passage of Isaiah being taken in connexion with the context of this chapter, cannot, in any way that I can comprehend, be accommodated to the preaching of the apostles and the vocation of the Gentiles, which appeareth the only interesting object that the interpreters of the scriptures carry in their eye.

On these few therefore who shall remain alive upon the earth, and on all their most numerous posterity, shall for many ages (which St. John in round numbers calleth a thousand years) continue the judgment of Christ upon the living; or which appears the same, his kingdom over the living and the sojourners, until these shall wholly fail, according as we shall see in its proper time.

CHAPTER II.

A General Idea of the Judgment of Christ, according to the Scriptures.

THESE two words, kingdom and judgment, or king and judge, in scripture phrase, and according to the universal understanding of all peoples, do not, neither can signify two different things, but one only. A king and sovereign prince, received and acknowledged as such by all their respective subjects, is nothing different from a judge in whom resideth entire judgment, in respect to these their subjects: nor is their reign anything else than judgment. Not that every judge is entitled to the name of king, or prince, or sovereign; but every king, or prince, or sovereign, is entitled to the name of judge, which is in justice due to him, because he is so in reality. “Thou hast chosen me (saith the wisest of kings unto God) to be a king of thy people, and a judge of thy sons and daughters,” Wisdom ix. 7; and in the sixth chapter, speaking unto all the kings of the earth, he giveth them indiscriminately the appellation of kings and of judges: “Hear therefore, O ye kings, and understand; learn, ye that be judges of the ends of the earth.” Wisdom vi. 1. The same doth David his father declare, in the second Psalm: “Be wise therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth.” Psalm ii. 10. And the same thing it is very easy to observe at almost every step in reading the Holy Scriptures. The very word Rex (king) is evidently derived from the verb rego, which signifies to govern, to direct, to order, to command, to reward, to punish, &c: each of which acts doth presuppose the act of judgment. Accordingly all kings, sovereigns, or princes (be they individual persons or moral bodies) are just so many judges of their respective dominions, to whose well being and happiness they ought to attend, and watch over their protection and defence, appointing unto all and to every one what they deserve according to their works.

Now, forasmuch as the kings and sovereigns of the earth cannot by themselves judge everything, natural reason, experience, and the necessity of the case, have, from the most ancient times, taught them to have recourse to that expedient which Moses was counselled by Jethro his father-in-law to adopt; that is, to share amongst many “able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness,” Exod. xviii. 21, a certain power of judgment to abide upon them, giving to every one that portion of it and for that certain time which might appear best: but upon the indispensable condition that they should all acknowledge their dependence upon the sovereign himself, from whom every one received the portion of judgment which he holdeth, that is, the power of judging within the limits of his jurisdiction. These assessors of judgment are properly the associates of the kingdom, those who along with the king do constitute the active kingdom, or the executive part of the kingdom, which is its principal part. This seems to be the true, simple, and clear idea of a kingdom or monarchy. And this appears in like manner (preserving the due proportions) to be the true idea of the judgment of Christ, which in the scriptures is announced against the proper time.

This judgment cannot be a passing thing limited to some hours, days, or years, like that of one who seated on the tribunal, doth give final sentence, after having examined and substantiated the cause of an accused person. This idea, confusedly taken up from a parable in the gospel, is by no means so just as not to call for a more attentive consideration. The judgment of Christ, though beginning in the day of his power, or the day of his glorious and majestic coming, must be a judgment permanent and eternal as Christ himself. As Christ in quality of king is to be eternal, his kingdom shall likewise be eternal, “whose kingdom shall have no end;” and so also in quality of judge shall he be eternal, because judgment is essential to a king. Neither is it possible to conceive a king or sovereign, as king or sovereign, without conceiving united with him, and residing in him, judgment, or the power of judging, of ordering, of commanding, of ruling, and of governing. Christ when he came the first time did certainly not come as a king, and consequently not as a judge; nor is there in all the ancient scriptures, nor in the gospel, nor in the writings of the apostles, one single word which persuadeth us, or in any way indicates the idea that he did, but on the contrary they do all indicate and persuade us of an idea infinitely different. To sum it all up in one word, (which certainly is worth a thousand,) our Lord himself doth assure us expressly, and with the greatest clearness of which the subject is capable; “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” John iii. 17. So that they are two most widely different things, to judge the world as a king or judge, and to save as a saviour or redeemer, those who believed on him, and trusted to him, and conformed their works to their faith, which is true belief, and without which there cannot be salvation.

But when he shall come the second time, (which all who love him believe and eagerly hope for,) he will doubtless come as a king; “and it came to pass that when he was returned, having received the kingdom.” Luke xix. 15. Consequently, he will come as a judge. “For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son:…and hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man.” John v. 22.27. In which power substantially consisteth the new and eternal covenant of God, as how the Father doth thereby renounce and wholly make over to the Son, and deposit in his hands, all judgment, and this because he hath made himself man, and in his capacity as man, “And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man.” John v. 27. “And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.” Dan. vii. 14.

This judgment of Christ the scriptures present to us not only as most holy, most upright, and most just, but as highly magnificent, wonderful, and so full of all those perfections and excellencies, which no judgment of man hath ever, or ever could have possessed. Accordingly, it is said of Christ, in the ninth Psalm, as a thing new and unheard of in the whole world, “The Lord hath prepared his throne for judgment; and he shall judge the world in righteousness, he shall minister judgment to the people in uprightness.” Ver. 7,8. And in the ninety-sixth and ninety-eighth psalms, all the creatures even the irrational and the insensible, are invited to make themselves merry, and to rejoice, not only because he cometh, but because he cometh to judge the earth. “Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad; let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof. Let the field be joyful, and all that is therein: then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice before the Lord: for he cometh, for he cometh to judge the earth: he shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with his truth.” Ps. xcvi. 11-13. “Make a joyful noise before the Lord, the King; Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. Let the floods clap their hands: let the hills be joyful together before the Lord; for he cometh to judge the earth.” Ps. xcviii. 6-9.

On the ordinary idea of the judgment of Christ and of his coming, I know not how there can be room for such mirth. Of such passages of scripture might be quoted two or three hundred, for there is nothing more obvious in the prophets and the psalms: but because this probably would be as wearisome as it is fruitless, I am contented at present with one single passage from Isaiah, which I shall observe in the following chapter.

CHAPTER III.

Which containeth the examination of an important text of Isaiah.

UNDER the second document of the first aspect of the fifth Phenomenon, I remember well to have kept the observation of the first half of the eleventh chapter of Isaiah in suspense till now, which appeareth to me to be a more proper and seasonable place than that. He thus speaketh: “And there shall come forth a Rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge, and of the fear of the Lord; and shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears: but with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins. The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf, and the young lion, and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the dear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious.” Isa. xi. 1-10.

It is most certain that the Jewish doctors, at least the most learned and intelligent of them, understood in the stem and the branch which were to grow from the root of Jesse, (or the family of Jesse,) two things, proper, peculiar, and essential, to the very power of Christ. By the rod they understood his absolute and universal power as king and monarch of all creation, and as supreme and sovereign judge, in whom should one day be established for ever, all judgment, as also all principality, power and rule. In the same manner they understood by the flower [Vulg. read flos, flower where we read Branch] which is to come forth, not from the rod or by means of the rod, but from the root itself, “And a flower shall grow out of his root;” the sweetness, the equity, and blessedness of his reign or judgment, together with the beauty and loveliness of his person.

This understanding appeared to these doctors the most natural, the most proper, the most agreeable to the whole context of this chapter. The rod, say they, has been ever regarded among all civilized nations, as the proper symbol, and even the peculiar insignia of power, of judgment, and of government; and in scripture itself the use of this symbol is most frequent, not only when the kings, judges, and magistrates, whether of Israel or of foreign nations, are spoken of but likewise when it is expressly spoken of Messiah, in his glorious coming as king and judge: “Ask of me, (saith God to him in the second Psalm,) and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” Ps.

ii. 8,9. As the sceptre [rod] of the kingdom is a right sceptre [rod of righteousness] Ps. xlv. 5. “The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion: rule thou in the midst of thine enemies.” Ps. cx. 2. “The Lord hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the sceptre [rod] of the rulers.” Isa. xiv. 5. And to be short, in this prophecy of Isaiah, upon which we have begun to make our observations, Messiah himself is represented and seen, as one who carries in his mouth the rod of his rule and power, with which he strikes the earth, and destroys and annihilates every wicked person and all wickedness. “And he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.” Isa. xi. 4 And with respect to the other, what symbol is more appropriate for beauty, felicity, loveliness, than a flower? Messiah says of himself in Spirit, “I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys.” Canticles ii. 1. Notwithstanding the propriety of this interpretation, its clearness, its simplicity and perfect conformity with the whole context of this prophecy, and of so many others, the interpreters upon their system were so far from admitting it, that they directly impugned it. And for what reason? Was it, indeed, because of the very gross and hardly decent manner in which they spoke of the kingdom of Messiah, and of his person, as one would speak of a fabulous hero or of a mere man? Was it because it is the interpretation of the Rabbis? Yes, that is the pretext, but not the true reason. This hath already been pointed out in various parts of this work, and is here manifest of itself. In this passage, as in a thousand others, one of two extremes is necessary; either to allegorize and spiritualize the whole of the prophecy contained in this and the following chapter, accommodating every thing, cost it what it will, to the present church, or entirely to change the system. The latter is not to be thought of, and therefore the former seems to be the ordinary resource in all emergencies. And being thus forced to accommodate the whole of the prophecy in a purely spiritual and allegorical sense to the present church, they are likewise forced, to smooth the path from the very first words of it, disposing of this first embarrassment, by giving another widely different understanding of the rod and the flower, which are to grow from the root of Jesse. Let us see what this understanding is, and in a just balance weigh it against the former.

“And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots.” Isa. xi. 1. The rod and the flower or branch (they say) symbolize two different persons, both great and admirable in the house or family of the holy king David, and therefore pertaining to his Father Jesse. By the rod ought to be understood the Holy Virgin Mary, the mother of Christ, and by the flower or branch, Christ himself. But we (says an ancient doctor, to whom all or the greatest part subscribe, following the same system) understand the rod from the root of Jesse to signify the holy Virgin Mary, having no fruitage adhering to it, and the flower our Lord and Saviour, who saith in the Song of Songs, “I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys.” Upon this flower, which suddenly arose from the trunk and root of Jesse, by means of the Virgin Mary, shall the Spirit of God also rest,” &c.⁸ St. Jerome upon Isaiah.

I do not oppose, nor without impiety can oppose, the truth of divine faith here mentioned by this holy doctor, that Christ was born of the most holy Virgin Mary, who was a royal virgin of the race of David. This truth all Christians ought to know and most firmly to believe. But is this truth of divine authority, and therefore certain and indubitable the same

⁸ Nos autem, virgam, de radice Jesse Sanctam Mariam Virginem intelligamus, quæ nullurn habuit sibi fructicem cohærentem et florem Dominum Salvatorem, qui dicit in cantico canticorem, ego flos campi, et lilium convallium. Super hunc igitur florem, qui de trunco et radice Jesse per Mariam Virginem repente consurget, et requiescet spiritus Domini, &c.

truth that is announced or spoken of in these first words of Isaiah’s prophecy? After having read and meditated the entire prophecy, together with the preceding and the following chapters (which should also come into consideration), as the accommodation which is pretended to be made of it to the present church will be found infinitely violent; so will it not be known to what purpose the birth of Christ of the holy Virgin Mary entereth in this place. Although we should attend merely to the first clause of this chapter, separating it entirely from all which precedes and from all which follows after it; even in this case the common understanding of it cannot subsist: there is seen in it, and of its own accord there presents itself a most grievous inconvenience and an insufferable consequence.

If the rod here spoken of (it may be objected by any incredulous person) really be the holy Virgin Mary, Christ was not born of her, nor could she be his mother, according to this passage of scripture. Why? Because it is expressly said that the flower should grow not out of the rod, nor by means of the rod, but immediately from the root from which the rod itself springs: “And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.” Isa. xi. 1. So that either the holy Virgin Mary had no more part in the generation of Christ than what this prophecy declareth, which is none whatever; or if it is desired that the most holy Virgin Mary should be signified by the rod, it will be necessary to alter so clear a text, freely adding to it two words, in order that it may speak that which is pretended, reading it thus: And a branch (flower) shall arise out of its root through the rod. I know not that such a liberty may be permitted.

And the difficulty groweth on us if we attend to the context. Even from the preceding chapter, the times which are spoken of, as well as the events and the persons, begin to be marked. It is clearly the residue or the precious remains of the house of Jacob which is here spoken of; who (as is foretold in a thousand other places of Holy Scripture, which we have observed) shall be thoroughly converted unto God, before the coming of the day of the Lord. Here it is said of them, that already they have ceased to trust in man, or to rest from thenceforward upon the princes or powers of the earth, by whose instrumentality they had been chastened of their God, beat down and humbled to the uttermost; and that they now rested solely upon the Holy One of Israel, and that in sincerity and truth. “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel, and such as are escaped of the house of Jacob, (remember the woman who fleeth to the wilderness, with one hundred and forty-four thousand, sealed in their forehead with the seal of the living God, as is set forth in Phenomenon VIII.) shall no more stay again upon him that smote them: but shall stay upon the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.” Isa. x. 20. Here it is said and promised to the residue of Jacob, that the yoke which for so many ages they have borne upon their necks, and the enormous weight which hath oppressed their shoulders, shall in that day be entirely taken away. “And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck.” Isa. x. 27. Here finally is declared as the conclusion of the whole of this tenth chapter, the humiliation of the proud, and the entire ruin of all human greatness, under the similitude of Mount Lebanon with its loftiest cedars: “Behold the Lord, the Lord of hosts, shall lop the bough with terror: and the high ones of stature shall be hewn down, and the haughty shall be humbled. And he shall cut down the thickets of the forests with iron, and Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one.” Isa. x. 33,34. And thereupon follows immediately the eleventh chapter, declaring that “a rod shall come out of the stem of Jesse,” &c.

Giving good heed to this previous and very important context, proceed now with the attentive reading of this whole tenth chapter, and the song of praise and act of thanksgiving, sung in the following chapter by this very residue of Jacob, delivered in that day with such great prodigies, and gathered in great mercies; and I take upon me resolutely to affirm, that thou wilt not find one single expression, nor even so much as one single word, which, all circumstances considered, can in any reasonable way be applied to the first coming of the Lord, or to its effects upon the present church. And if thou desirest to be fully certified of this truth, so that there shall not remain even a shadow of doubt, open any exposition of scripture upon this passage, and compare what thou there readest with the prophecy, and this, much more readily than all argument, will completely open thine eyes, and make the darkness vanish into light.

Furthermore, if thou refusest not to take a little bodily labour, open the Concordance of the Bible, and turn up the word Rod, and after having examined one by one all the passages in which this word is found, I hold it certain (having myself made the experiment), that thou wilt not find a single one, where it is not used in the same general sense of the actual power of judging, governing, commanding, correcting, and punishing; and some few times for the very instrument of correction or punishment: of which no one, in these its several places, hath ever thought of calling in question. From the times of Moses we read, speaking expressly of Messiah, that famous prophecy of Balaam: “There shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Scepter (virga, a rod) shall rise out of Israel…Out of Jacob shall come he that shall have dominion.” Num. xxiv. 17.19. Notwithstanding that certain more modern and very ignorant Rabbis (to whose way of thinking el Tostado inclineth) have pretended to accommodate this prophecy to David, to Solomon, and other kings of Israel and of Judah, all judicious interpreters do but smile, and with reason, at the impropriety and insolence of this understanding of it, and with all their might maintain that Messiah is therein evidently spoken of, and that He and no other is signified, as well by the rod or sceptre as by the star; nor hath it come into the head of any one to imagine that by the rod here is the holy Virgin Mary to be understood, nor to say that of this rod the Star is to be born. In one word, when expressly speaking of Christ, this same rod is used, and that most frequently, in the Prophets, in the Psalms, in the writings of St. Paul, in the Apocalypse; and it is always used in the same sense, without any change or alteration. Wherefore then in this passage of Isaiah alone, is this rod to be converted into the Holy Virgin Mary? If we may speak frankly, as the gravity of the subject requireth, it appeareth to me clear, that no other true reason is there whatever, save the fear and dread of the rod itself; and the very great and very circumstantial things, so foreign and contrary to the received system, which are predicted thereof in this passage of scripture.

From the root of Jesse, or from the house and family of David, to which the promise was given, shall arise, saith this prophecy, a rod, and a branch or flower. Upon which flower and rod, that is to say, upon this empire, upon this power, upon this admirable person, shall abide with eternal permanency the sevenfold spirit of the Lord; and by reason of that septiform spirit whereof this prince remaineth full, he shall not judge the world, as heretofore it hath been or could have been judged, by kings or judges who are mere men; that is to say, according to the allegation and the proof, or by the witness of eye and ear: “And he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears.” Isa. xi. 3. The rod of his dominion (continueth Isaiah) shall be held, not in his hand, but in his mouth; in order to denote the promptitude and ease, wherewithal shall be at once accomplished the thing which he commandeth. With this rod (which St. John calleth a sword with two edges) he shall in the first instance strike the whole earth, slay every wicked one, and entirely destroy the whole mystery of iniquity. “And he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.” Isa. xi. 4. To which passage of Isaiah the whole of the eleventh chapter of the Apocalypse evidently alludeth, as also St. Paul, when he declareth of the Man of Sin, “Whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.” 2 Thess. ii. 8.

After this first blow of the rod, (which at the beginning shall certainly be a rod of iron,) after this first act of Christ’s judgment, necessarily a severe and rigorous one, the prophet beginneth straightway to describe the blessedness of another age, or time, wholly new, which is immediately to follow upon this our earth: whose peace, whose quietness, whose justice, whose sanctity in the presence, or under the rod and government of the wise and pacific Solomon, (of which are spoken these words of the forty-fifth Psalm quoted by St. Paul, (Heb. i. 8.) “a sceptre or rod of righteousness, is the rod of thy kingdom.”) are announced by similitudes and expressions so lively, so admirable, so new and unheard of in all preceding times, that their very novelty and grandeur hath made them to be discredited. Some of them I shall here set down.

In that time the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall sleep by the side of the kid. The calf, the lion, and the fatling, shall dwell together in one habitation, and “a little child shall lead them:” the bear and the cow shall feed in the same meadow; and the young ones of both, though of such diverse inclinations, shall sleep together in the same place. The lion shall then be content with that simple food which the ox useth. A tender and innocent child shall be at liberty to divert itself upon the hole of the asp, and even to lay his hand upon it without any peril, because in those times the poisonous beasts, which are now so fearful, shall not hurt nor destroy; and this not in some one determinate spot of earth, but generally “in all my holy mountain.” And what holy mountain of God may this be? To my mind, from all the signs combined with other passages of scripture, it appeareth to be that very mountain which is to become so great as one day to cover the whole earth, and which was spoken of under the first Phenomenon. “And the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.” Dan. ii. 35. And this conclusion is placed beyond doubt by the words immediately following, pointing out the cause and origin of such very great wonders, to wit, “for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea,” Isa. xi. 9. All these things, together with others of equal or greater significancy, doth this same prophet oft times repeat with equal vividness and clearness, especially in chapters xxxv and lxv, of which we say the same thing as of the eleventh, that the things are all of them not passed, nor present, but manifestly reserved in the treasury of God, against other times still future, as is demonstrated, and made palpable by their very strangeness and grandeur.

Finally, the prophet concludeth this point by saying, “In that day there shall be a root of Jesse, (or as Pagnini and Vatablo read it, “he who shall come forth from Jesse’s root) which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious.” Isa. xi. 10. This same one who now standeth for a sign, or a standard to the people, in order that under this banner those may enlist who would take part with him, and this too, according to Simeon’s prophecy, (Luke ii. 34.) “and a sign to be spoken against,” this same one shall be reverenced and adored of all the Gentiles, to whom they shall all bow the knee, in him hope and repose upon him all their dependence: “unto him shall the Gentiles seek,” (Vulg. deprecabuntur, pray); and as St. Paul addeth Rom. xv. 12.; following herein the LXX, “in him shall the Gentiles trust,” (Vulg. sperabunt, hope); and his rest, his seat, his tabernacle, his throne, shall not only be glorious, but glory itself; according to the LXX, et erit requies ejus honor, and his rest shall be honour; according to Pagnini and Vatablo, et erit requies ejus gloria, and his rest shall be glory.

No one can wonder (at least with any reason or justice) that I should read those last words of this famous prophecy of Isaiah after the LXX, and after Pagnini and Vatablo. I am not ignorant that St. Jerome reads them differently, giving to them another respect widely different, which is, “and his sepulchre shall be glorious:” which will occasion you some surprise, but wait a little. The most sincere interpreters, and those most intelligent in the Hebrew tongue, ingenuously confess against Jerome, that the word sepulchre, is not that which properly correspondeth to the original, except sometimes in a very wide and improper sense. The Hebrew word, they say, correspondeth perfectly to the Latin word requies, rest. But this word requies, or rest, is very general, and may easily be applied or restricted to many particular things according to circumstances: the act of sitting or reclining is commonly called rest, and likewise the seat or couch in which this rest is partaken: sleep, or the act of sleeping, is called rest: the simple cessation from all labour corporal or mental, is called rest: death itself, is called rest, especially when preceded by a troublesome, laborious, sorrowful, and wearisome life: and, finally, the place where a dead body is deposited, and which hath the name of sepulchre, is likewise, though with very great impropriety, denominated rest. Whence it appeareth clear, that whosoever hath preferred this last sense should surely discover, that in that time the same great concourse of Christians will certainly continue, which ever since the fourth and fifth centuries have gone to Jerusalem to visit the church of the holy sepulchre of the Lord.

CHAPTER IV.

The new heavens and the new earth.

ON the coming of the Lord Jesus in his glory and his majesty, the heavens and the earth which now are, being entirely destroyed, new heavens and a new earth shall begin to be, wherein righteousness shall thenceforward dwell. “Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness,” saith St. Peter in the third chapter of his second epistle. And what meaneth he thereby? Doth he indeed mean that the heavens and the earth, or the world which now is, shall then cease to be, or shall be annihilated, in order to make room for the creation of other heavens and another earth? Thus perhaps may it be imagined by one who readeth only one part of the text. There is no doubt that the whole of it looks obscure and difficult, partly by reason of the extraordinary conciseness of the expression, partly also by the collocation of his words. But in the midst of this conciseness and apparent obscurity, any one may discover the proper and natural sense, if he will read with reflection.

According (saith St Peter) as the heaven and the earth which were before the universal deluge, perished at the word of God by means of water, “Whereby the world that then was being overflowed with water, perished: 2 Peter iii. 6. in like manner the heaven or heavens, and the earth which now are, shall also perish by the same word of God and by fire; “But the heavens and the earth which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.” 2 Peter iii. 7.

Now I put this question: Of what sort were the heavens and the earth which perished by water in the times of Noe? Were they haply those solid heavens which the Chaldeans, the Egyptians, the Greeks imagined, and which the Romans adopted from them? Or, were they those which on the present system are called heavens, that is, all the celestial bodies, sun, moon, planets, comets, and fixed stars? And, speaking of this globe of ours which we call earth, did the substance thereof haply perish by the deluge of water? It appears most certain, that neither did the one or the other so perish. For as to the heavenly bodies, the deluge of water could not reach nor touch them. And as concerneth our globe, the waters covered it as they covered it when God spake the words: “Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear.” Gen. i. 9. But its substance did not therefore perish. What then was it that perished by the water of the deluge according to the expression of St. Peter? To this question I find no answer more natural, or more conformable to truth, than this simple one, that in the earth perished whatever was on its surface, all its inhabitants, men and beasts, excepting only the few of every species which were preserved in the ark of Noe: all the works which till that time man had wrought upon the earth perished, of which no monument hath remained to us; all the beauty, all the fertility, the admirable disposition and order according to which God had created it for man just and innocent, not for man ungrateful and sinful.

If we speak now of heaven or the heavens, thus spoken of by St. Peter: “For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: but the heavens and the earth which are now,” &c. 2 Pet. iii. 5-7. Of this heaven or heavens, we may say the same which we have just said of our earth, to wit, that in the deluge perished the heaven or heavens which had been before the epoch of that great event. And what heaven or heavens were these? Not different, nor other, (in my poor judgment) than all the atmosphere which surrounds our globe as an essential part of it, which atmosphere diversified into so many climes, is, according to the scriptural way of speaking, and also according to that of all nations, whether barbarians or civilized, called generally or universally, the heaven or heavens.

Those climes and different parts of the atmosphere are doubtless, in my opinion, the heavens spoken of by St. Peter: for there are no other heavens of which it can be said with truth, that they perished in the deluge. Those of which we speak did truly perish in the deluge; but in that same sense in which the earth perished, that is to say, they were altered, deformed, deteriorated, and changed from being good, to become evil. Till the time of the universal deluge, it appeareth more than probable that our globe and all its atmosphere, and all which we call its nature, had continued in that same physical state in which they had proceeded from the hands of the Creator; because there doth not appear any great extraordinary and universal event capable of altering in any remarkable manner any of these things; but we have on the contrary a positive foundation, to wit, the very long lives of men, to account for which no other reason appeareth, save the good disposition of the earth and its atmosphere. But this terrible epoch having arrived, it appears equally certain, that all was altered, earth, sea, and air. The surface of the earth and the sea was altered, the waters occupying ever since to the present time, a great part of that which before was an united continent, as is to be seen in the islands, especially of the Archipelago; while that space which they occupied before remained free, as is proved by the infinite marine productions, which the curious every day meet with in countries far away from any sea. Likewise was changed, and by the same general cause, (which we shall set forth in due time) the whole atmosphere of the earth, all the climes or different regions thereof, passing from their benignity to rigour; from temperance to intemperance; from a quiet and peaceful uniformity, to an almost continual disturbance and alteration.

Accordingly the apostle St. Peter spake in the most proper and natural terms, when he said, the earth and the heavens which were before the deluge, perished by the word of God and by water: “but the heavens and the earth which were of old…the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished.” He adds, that the heavens and earth which are now, (certainly inferior to the Antediluvian) shall likewise perish in their time, not however by water, but by fire. “But the heavens and the earth which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire:” 2 Peter iii. 7. and in their room shall follow new heavens, which shall surpass in goodness and perfection, as well physical as moral, both the present and the past. “Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.” 2 Peter iii. 13. In sum, as those present heavens and earth, though in substance the same with those which were before the deluge, are nevertheless, most widely different in respect of order, disposition, beauty, and effects; so the new heavens and the new earth which we look for, although they be in substance the same as at present, shall be infinitely different in every thing besides. This appeareth to me to be the true understanding, and the only one that can be admitted of the text of St. Peter. Which being allowed, we pass to another important observation.

The new heavens and the new earth which we expect, (saith this chief of the apostles) we expect according to the promise of God, “we according to his promise look for.” Now, where doth this promise of God appear? If with care we search all the Holy Scriptures, we find in them no other passage than the sixty-fifth chapter of Isaiah, and the sixty-sixth, when mention is again made of what was said in the preceding. It is true, that in the twenty-first chapter of the Apocalypse of St. John, it is likewise magnificently spoken of those new heavens and that new earth; but St. Peter could not quote the Apocalypse of St. John, which was certainly written many years after his death; and St. John according to his custom of continual allusions to all the scriptures, doth clearly refer to this passage of Isaiah. Now, as in all the scriptures, there is no other place where this promise of new heavens and a new earth expressly appeareth, save this sixty-fifth chapter of Isaiah, it is clear that to this passage St. Peter referreth us, and likewise St. John; and it is likewise very clear that to understand well the concise text of St. Peter, as also that of St. John, we ought to study first the text of Isaiah, where the promises of God of which we at present treat are found as in their proper fountain. They manifestly and evidently speak of fallen Jerusalem and the precious relics of the Jews, as is at once and easily seen and comprehended both by what precedes in this sixty-fifth chapter, and by all which is said in the ten preceding ones. Let us enter then to the attentive and impartial examination of this fundamental document for the promise of God.

“For, behold, I create new heavens, and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. But be you glad and rejoice for ever (or in seculum seculi, for the age of the age, as Pagnini and Vatablo read it) in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying. There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days; for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner, being an hundred years old, shall be accursed. And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. (or as Pagnini, after the LXX more clearly hath it, non egredietur inde ultra ad sepulchrum infans dierum, sive immaturus et senex, quæ non impleverit tempus suum, erit enim ado lescens centum annorum, &c. i.e. there shall not be any more carried out from thence to burial an infant of days, or a youth, or an old man who hath not filled his time, for the man of a hundred years shall be a youth, &c.) They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree, are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth for trouble: (or according to the LXX, neque filios generabunt in maledictionem, i.e. nor shall they beget children for a curse:) for they are the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and their offspring with them. And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent’s meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord.” Isaiah lxv. 17

25.

You see here the great and famous prophecy which St. Peter evidently cites when he says, “Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness: “2 Pet. iii. 13. and you likewise see here one of those prophecies which have put the finest minds to the greatest pain, and, as it were, to real torture. Upon their system they have imagined two methods of explaining it; or, to speak more correctly, of eluding it: which explanations, though widely different, do yet agree in this single and interesting point, of denying to this prophecy, as well as to many others, that proper and natural sense, which at once presents itself to every one who can read.

The first explanation, or the first method of eluding it, declares that these new heavens and new earth, whereof Isaiah speaketh, and, after him, St. Peter and St. John, are against a time posterior to the universal resurrection; when all things shall be renewed, when, in respect to the blessed, “the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind;” when “the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying;” Isaiah lxv. 17,19. when… This is all well; this is as true as it is inapplicable and foreign to the present question. And what sense can be put upon so many other remarkable things which this wonderful prophecy expressly announceth? None at all: for they are all omitted, because it is not possible to explain them.

The second explanation, and the most common with the literal interpreters, flees to the last refuge capable of preserving their system, which is pure allegory. But it is a thing truly admirable, to see the most embarrassed, confused, and obscure way in which so great men explain themselves, or rather do not explain themselves. The system, doubtless, is chargeable with all the blame; of which behold an instance: —“For lo, I create new heavens and a new earth;” that is, says the explanation, ‘I create a new metaphorical world, viz, the church of Christ, which is much more ample, more beautiful, and august than the synagogue, and, as it were, a world altogether new.’ A great truth! but how wide of the time and foreign from the spirit of this prophecy! “For behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy;” that is, says the explanation, ‘I create the church of Christ, rejoicing and exulting in the Holy Spirit.’ “And the voice of weeping,” saith God, “shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying. There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner, being an hundred years old, shall be accursed:” that is, says the explanation, ‘in my church shall all fill their days in living uprightly and performing righteously the offices and duties of their age; and he who shall prove himself a sinner, though he were a hundred years old, shall be held in no estimation, but reprobated and accursed of all.’ An idea how contrary to what we derive from history, as well as from our eyes and our ears! “For as,” says God, “the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth for trouble: for they are the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and their offspring with them:” Isa. lxv. 22,23. the sense of which is, according to the explanation, ‘my faithful ones shall be of long life, cheerful, and truly sound in body and in mind; just as though they had been in their primeval state of innocence, and fed upon the fruit of the tree of life.’

As the substance of this explanation is the same in different words amongst all those who follow it, I have chosen two of the most learned and most literal, from whom I have copied the very words, in order that thence a conception may be obtained of the whole explanation. And if any one would make himself more sure, he can easily peruse it with his own eyes. Now I ask this question, Are the things which they thus seek to accommodate to the present church, under the name of Jerusalem, really applicable to that church? Are these things, when spoken of the church, really true? Nay, are they not all manifestly false? Can a prophecy spoken by the Spirit of God announce to the present church, under the name of Jerusalem, things which have never existed, nor can exist, in the present dispensation of providence? For example; that there should be heard in her neither lamentation nor crying; that there should be neither old man nor young man, who doth not complete his days in ‘living uprightly and rightfully discharging the duties of his age;’ that all her faithful children should live many years in health and joy, as if they did eat of the tree of life; that he who should build a house, should live in it; that he who should plant a vineyard, or a tree, should peaceably enjoy its fruits, without any one to make him afraid.

At every step, in the gospels, we find annunciations diametrically opposite to these; and large experience has taught us, that the miseries of human life —infirmity, pain, disgust, affliction, crying, and weeping, &c. are general evils, incident to all the children of Adam, from which no one is exempt, not even the most righteous and holy; to whom indeed, on the other hand, are immediately addressed those words of the apostle, “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution:” 2 Tim. iii. 12. and those words of Christ himself; “Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice:” John xvi. 20. “If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you.” John xv.

20.

The apostle, St. Peter, who doubtless understood all these things better, evidently quotes this prophecy of Isaiah, and gives to these new heavens and new earth according to the promise a place, not now, but after this present earth and these heavens have perished. As these entered not till after those before the flood had perished, so must these in present being perish, in order that the new ones may enter. “Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: but the heavens and the earth which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire…Nevertheless we; according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.” 2 Pet. iii. 6,7.13. From these very clear words of the apostle, are to be drawn the following indisputable consequences: first, that those new heavens and that new earth cannot be the church of Christ; because, according to the apostle, the new heavens and the new earth which are promised, shall not come till after the present ones have perished by means of fire; but this has not yet happened; therefore either these heavens are not the church of Christ, or the church of Christ is not yet in the world. Secondly, as little can those new heavens and new earth be some time posterior to the general resurrection, as the first explanation pretends; because then there shall be neither death, nor sin, nor generation, nor need of houses or vines; whereof Isaiah says, that they shall all be in existence in those new heavens and new earth to which St. Peter refers. Thirdly, therefore after these present heavens and this present earth have perished by fire, and before the general resurrection is accomplished, those new heavens and this new earth, whereof St. Peter speaketh, shall be seen, and those things shall come to pass which are reserved for that epoch, according to the prophecy of Isaiah, the only one which contains any such promises. Let us now see what times and what things these are really to be, according to the prophecy.

First, the times of which this great prophet is speaking, as well in this sixty-fifth chap. as in the twenty-four preceding ones, are evidently the times close to and almost immediate upon the coming of the Lord; (as was said and proved in section fifth, aspect third, of the fifth Phenomenon;) that is to say, the times of the vocation, conversion, and ingathering with many mercies of the remnant of Israel. After the Lord hath shown himself as if inexorable to the most fervid prayer which this very Israel pours forth in the preceding chapter; after having replied to her with severity, and upbraided her with her unbelief, with her ingratitude, and with all her ancient iniquities, he suffers himself to be overcome, and gives signs of having heard her prayer, and benignly condescendeth, if not to the whole of Israel, at least to the remnant of her, saying at ver. 8. “Thus saith the Lord, as the new wine is found in the cluster, and one saith, destroy it not; for a blessing is in it: so will I do for my servants’ sakes, that I may not destroy them all. And I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains: and mine elect shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there.” Isa. lxv. 8,9. He passeth thereupon to speak of the most unhappy lot which shall fall to all of them who shall not hear his voice, who (as was said in the eighth Phenomenon, article second) will be at least two thirds of them. After this he turns his eyes once more on the precious relics of this very Israel, and announceth and promiseth to them, from ver. 17^th to the end of the chapter, the new heavens and the new earth, with all the other particulars which in those times shall come to pass, as well in Jerusalem and Israel, as in all the residue of the Gentiles, to wit, peace, quietness, security, justice, and holiness, innocence and simplicity, and the large periods of human life, as in the times before the flood.

In those times (in which, as saith St. Peter, righteousness shall dwell) no one shall die, saith Isaiah, before mature age; if any one shall die a hundred years old, it shall be said he hath died while still a youth, and if in that age a sinner shall die, he shall be accursed then as he is now, and as in all times it is necessary that he should be. Whence it is plainly to be gathered that even in the midst of so much righteousness and knowledge of the Lord, as in that age to come shall overflow our whole earth, there shall not however fail therein, either sin or sinners, because, in a word, all shall then be as free as they are now, and all shall have it in their power to make a good or a bad use of their free will. Lamentation and crying continues Isaiah, which are now so frequent in every class of men, shall not be heard, or shall most rarely be heard in those blessed times. He who buildeth a house shall dwell therein, he who planteth a tree or a vineyard there shall eat its fruits; it shall not then happen as it hath so often happened in former ages, that he who hath not builded a house nor planted a vineyard shall make himself its master and possessor, either by force or by right of conquest, as they say. The days of my people, continues the Lord, shall be equal or greater than those of the tree he hath planted, and the labour of his hand shall wax old under his eyes. Mine elect shall not labour in those times in vain, nor beget children, for slavery and a curse, but they shall be a generation blessed of the Lord, and their children and their grandchildren blessed along with them. Of a surety all these things, and others the like, hard to be numbered by reason of their prodigious multitude, are expressly spoken of the future Jerusalem, and the precious remnant of the Jews; moreover from many other passages of scripture, and of Isaiah himself, which we have pointed out, it clearly appeareth that the remnant of all other peoples, tribes, and languages, shall most abundantly participate in all these natural and supernatural blessings, which are primarily promised to the remnant of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob: nor are we Jews so avaricious in this matter as to exact it wholly for ourselves, to the exclusion of all the nations.

CHAPTER V.

Conjecture upon these new Heavens and new Earth.

§ 1. IT appears somewhat more than probable that this our earth, this terraqueous globe on which we dwell, is not now of the same form nor in the same situation in which it stood from the beginning till the great epoch of the universal deluge. This very important proposition may be easily proved by the present aspect of the globe itself, and by all the observations which till now have been made and every day are making by the naturalists; much more if this aspect and these observations be combined with what is contained in holy scripture.

In the first place the scripture declareth that God before he created any living thing, while the earth was yet without form, and void, that is, invisible and unorganized, did cause that the waters which covered the whole should fall asunder into two parts; whereof the one part should ascend through the air, rarefied and separated by means of the firmament, and extend itself over all which we call with truth the atmosphere of the earth, and the other part should gather itself into one determinate place to which was given the name of the sea, or the abyss, leaving all besides free and disencumbered, and capable of being inhabited. That determinate place which God then appointed to the inferior waters there is not any reason for saying, or even for imagining, they did naturally leave before the universal deluge; nor as little that they left it through any great and extraordinary accident whereof there is no trace, either in sacred history, or even in the fables of the Egyptians and the Greeks. On which account we may believe and rest assured that the inferior waters continued, till the deluge of Noah, to keep, without any remarkable alteration, that very place which God appointed them from the beginning. This being laid down, let us pass immediately to observe the surface of all our globe, of our earth as now inhabited, and not only now but from time immemorial.

The actual aspect of this surface, and all the discoveries of the curious observers thereof, oblige us to believe, without being able rationally to doubt, that the waters of the sea in former times did occupy that which now is dry land, or at least a great part thereof, and this not as it were in a state of passage, but constantly and for many ages. Wherefore? because in all, or almost all which is now called dry or habitable land, (excepting only those mountains which naturalists call with good reason primitive) are found at every step clear and palpable remains of sea animals, not only on the surface of the earth, or a little beneath it, but to the depth of sixty or eighty feet; and this not only in the valleys or plain grounds, but likewise in the hills and secondary mountains, to which that name is given, because they appear to have been formed afterwards, and as it were accidentally, by the violent and confused movement and concourse of different materials.

From this certain and undeniable principle, combined with sacred history, it follows legitimately that our terraqueous globe is not now as it was in its first times, or the times of its youth. Consequently that there has happened in it, in times very remote from the present, some great and extraordinary accident, some universal subversion of all its parts, which hath caused it entirely to change its appearance, and obliged the inferior waters to change their site, and converted the sea into dry land, and likewise the dry land into sea, and caused new seas to be formed, new rivers, new valleys, new elevations, new mountains; produced in one word, a new earth or new world very different from that which till then had been. This accident can have been nothing else, let philosophisers say as they please, than the universal deluge of Noah, whereby, as saith the apostle St. Peter, “the world that then was, being overflowed, perished;” and as saith Christ himself, “the deluge came and took them all away.” Matt. xxiv. 39. The same general cause which produced over all our globe a new sea and a new dry land, did likewise necessarily change the whole aspect of the heaven; I mean to say not only the ancient order and temperament of our atmosphere, but the ancient order and disposition of the sun, of the moon, and of all the heavenly bodies, with respect to the terraqueous globe. And what general cause was this? To me it appears that no other can be pointed out, than the very omnipotent hand of the Creator, who, in his wrath against all the earth, corrupted to the last degree, caused it suddenly to move from one pole to the other, inclining its axis 23½°, and causing it to point with one of its extremities towards the star which we now call the polar star, or towards the extremity of the tail of the lesser bear.

By this sudden inclination of the axis of the earth, there would follow two necessary consequences; first, that every thing which is found in the surface of the globe, liquid as well as solid, would lose its equilibrium, and be left in the utmost disorder and confusion, not less horrible than universal; that all would be disordered, all subverted, things all falling one above another, and mingling altogether; and that, the fountain of the great deep, as saith the sacred history (Gen. vii. 11.), being broken up, the sea likewise bursting all its bounds, and pouring its waters over what was then dry land or earth, our globe would come to be entirely covered with water, as in the first moments of its creation.

The second consequence which ought necessarily to follow this inclination of the axis of the earth (upon the supposition of which we are speaking), is that the circle, or equinoctial line, which till now had been one with the ecliptic, should separate into two, of which the latter would cut the former in two points diametrically opposite, which are called the nodes; that is, in the first degree of the constellation Aries, and in the first degree of the constellation Libra. Whereof the result would be, that our globe would no longer look directly to the sun with her equator, save only in two days of every year, the 21^st of March and 22^nd of September; presenting always, of all other days of the year, a new spot of its surface to the direct ray of the sun. And what would result from thence? There would naturally result the four seasons which are called Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter; which, from the days of Noah even until the day of the Lord, have been, are, and will be the ruin of the health of man, and as it were a universal punishment or pestilence, which has shortened our days, and made them full of pain and almost insufferable.

Then, before the deluge had the four seasons no existence? No, my friend, as I judge, and as many other grave and pious authors have judged before me. (See, amongst others, the very religious and elegant author of the Spectacle of Nature.) It is true that many others have not chosen to adopt this opinion, because it appeared to them that the world must ever have been as it now is; but it is likewise true, that the reasons which they bring against it are weak, obscure, inconclusive, and sometimes prove the direct contrary. As it is a subject of pure conjecture, any one may think as he pleaseth. I am of opinion, that before the deluge these four seasons of the year, which at present are our trouble and our ruin, were not; but that our globe always enjoyed a perpetual equinox or equality of night and day. On this hypothesis (for it is no more than an hypothesis) I seem to understand every thing, the observations of the naturalists, as well as what is found in the Holy Scriptures.

First. Upon this hypothesis, all climes, and even all circles parallel to the equator, though differing from one another, would be every one at all times uniform with itself. Secondly, The atmosphere of the earth being in all parts uniform, would be everywhere quiet; not certainly in that quietness which has the name of inertia or immobility, as a rock or a mountain remains quiet in the place which God has appointed it; but in that kind of natural and relative rest which is proper to a fluid when it is not violently agitated by any external cause, which forceth it to lose its peace, its rest, or which is the same thing, its equilibrium. Thirdly, In those times, there were not, nor could naturally be, horrible, dark, and obscure clouds, by the concourse and mixture of all sorts of different vapours and exhalations of every kind: nor would there be the violent shock of the one against the other, from the contrariety of the winds; nor by these shocks would the electric fluid be enkindled, nor consequently would there be any of those heavy rains, thunders, or lightnings, which now occasion such dread and destruction, as well to the inhabitants of the earth as to all the works of their hands.

Whence it resulteth, and must naturally result, that obstructions, plagues, infirmities of every kind, which now are numberless, were then few or unknown; and that men, and even beasts, lived naturally ten or twelve times longer than they live at present, dying of pure old age, after having lived healthy and robust, some seven hundred, others eight hundred, and several more than nine hundred years, as is clear from sacred history, that is from the only authentic history which we have of those times.

§ 2. LET us now take two steps backward. St. Peter, in the place cited, says expressly that the ancient antidiluvian world, being overflowed with water, perished; and that this present one which came in its stead shall in like manner perish by fire. “But the heavens and the earth which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire.” 2 Pet. iii. 7. Whence it legitimately follows, first, that in the same manner and in the same sense in which that ancient world perished by water, this present one shall perish by fire. It follows legitimately, in the second place, that as that ancient world did not perish in its substance, but only in its accidents, that is, was horribly deformed, changing from good to evil, and after the deluge looking like a new world, very different from the old one (even as a man appeareth after long infirmity), so this world which now is, shall likewise perish by fire, not in respect to its substance, but shall only be changed from bad to good, recovering thereby its former health, and coming to appear with great amelioration, with all that beauty and perfection in which it proceeded at first from the hands of its Creator. Although this last consequence doth not appear to be contained in the words quoted, it is so in those which follow: “Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.” 2 Pet. iii. 13.

So that the new heavens and the new earth, or the new world which we look for after the existing one, must be incomparably better than the present, and that not only in respect of the moral, but likewise of the physical and material. In respect of the moral, because in it righteousness shall dwell, “wherein dwelleth righteousness;” which general words can be spoken with truth neither of the present world, nor much less of the old one. Likewise in respect of the physical and material, forasmuch as the new world we expect shall be according to the promise of God, and this promise in the sixty-fifth chapter of Isaiah, where alone it is found, expressly and clearly speaks, not only of a moral, but likewise of a material and physical goodness.

This great change which we look for, in our present world from evil to good, it appears to me, ought to commence according to my system, in that same way in which in the time of Noah it commenced from good to evil; that is to say, by the restoration of the axis of the earth to that very situation in which it stood before the deluge, or which is the same, by the union of the ecliptic with the equator, without which, as there cannot be a perpetual equinox, so can there not cease to be the four seasons of the year, which are the perpetual and implacable enemies of the health of man; consequently you cannot otherwise conceive of that natural blessedness so great and extraordinary, and worthy of a new earth and new heavens, nor can it be understood how in the course of nature, or indeed without a continual miracle, the long lives of men should come to be as they were until the deluge, nor how so many other wonderful and magnificent things should be accomplished as they are frequently written in the prophets of God, concerning that natural felicity accompanied with righteousness. Whereas on the contrary, if that perpetual equinox should return to our earth, the four seasons would be forever banished out of the earth, and everything would remain most plain and easy both to be conceived and to be explained.

§ 3. THE first thing which is comprehended at once on this hypothesis, is the terrible announcements which at every step are made in the scriptures against the great day of the Lord. All these announcements harmonize with each other, and perfectly harmonize with our hypothesis; which harmony to perceive, imagine for a moment, that now in our day such an inclination should be given to the axis of the earth as would bring the ecliptic and the equinoxial into one, so as to form the same identical line: imagine likewise, that from a certain, suitable, and secure elevation, we did observe with good telescopes all the various things which would result here below in consequence of the union of these two lines. Upon this event, which we suppose sudden and violent, would naturally follow all the consequences, which we find written in the scripture of truth; first, that our earth or globe being moved from pole to pole would really remove from its place, according to that which is written in Isaiah, chapter xiii. 13. “Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the Lord of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.”

Second consequence. That the earth being violently removed from one pole to another, it would be natural for all the inhabitants thereof to think that the heavens with all the heavenly bodies, sun, moon, planets, and stars, did move with the same violence or rapidity, in a contrary direction. This appearance or illusion is as frequent as it is natural; those who sail with a good wind upon the sight of any land, rock, or fixed cloud, fancy that their ship is at rest, and that the other objects under their view, are in motion in a direction diametrically opposite. Which is exactly what is written in the text of St. Peter, so often quoted. “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise.” 2 Peter iii. 10. It is likewise what is written in Rev. vi. 14.: “And the heavens departed as a scroll when it is rolled together.”

Third consequence. That the earth being violently moved from pole to pole, it is according to nature that our whole atmosphere should be disturbed and frightfully darkened, and that the turmoil and intermixture of so many heterogeneous particles swimming therein should for the time interrupt the distinct view of the heavenly bodies. Not as the clouds now do, which, though very dense, do always permit many rays of light to pass through, but after another manner, unusual and infinitely more horrible, which without entirely hiding from us those celestial bodies, shall make them appear to us, now black, now pale, now bloody, producing on the surface of our earth another kind of obscurity very similar to the darkness of Egypt. Now this is what is announced by Isaiah l. 3. “I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering.” This is what is announced in Zech. xiv. 7. “But it shall be one day which shall be known to the Lord, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening-time it shall be light.” This is what is announced in the gospel, Luke xxi. 25. “And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations.” This is what is announced, finally, in the Apocalypse, chap. vi. 12. “And, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood.”

Fourth consequence. That the earth being violently removed from pole to pole, all things whatsoever which are found upon its surface will lose their equilibrium, which being lost they shall fall one above another in helpless confusion, as happened in the days of Noah. Now this is what Isaiah announceth chap. xxx. 25. “in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall.” This is what is announced in the Apocalypse xvi. 19. “and the cities of the nations fell:…And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.”

Fifth consequence. That the earth being moved from pole to pole, the waters of the sea shall likewise lose their equilibrium, which being lost, they shall rush in confusion and overflow many places of that which now is dry land, and terrify with their horrible roarings those likewise who are distant from their shores. Now this is exactly what is announced in the gospel, Luke xxi. 25,26: “And upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth.” Not that there is any reason to apprehend another deluge upon our earth like that of Noah’s, for which we have already said it was not sufficient that the fountains of the great deep should be broken up, and that the waters of the sea should overflow the dry land, but it was also necessary besides that there should be an incessant rain for forty days, and forty nights; it was necessary that the cataracts of heaven should be opened, and the superior waters should descend at the command of the Omnipotent, and help the inferior waters to cover the whole earth; an event which shall not happen again, as we know from the clear and express promise of God himself.

Sixth consequence. That, all the atmosphere being disturbed and so many exhalations and vapours intermingled, in their mutual shock they shall excite the electric fire, and consequently produce a prodigious multitude of flashes, which shall consume and reduce to ashes the greater part of men and their handyworks. Now this is what is most frequently announced in the scriptures; this is what is written in Psalm xviii. 13,14: “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 lightings and discomfited them.” This is what is written in Psalm xcvii. 3,4: “A fire goeth before him, and burneth up his enemies round about. His lightnings enlightened the world: the earth saw and trembled.” This is what is written in the gospel, Matt. xxiv. where it is said, “and the stars shall fall from heaven,” words which I agree with many others, can have no other true meaning. Finally, this is the very thing which is written in the Apocalypse vi. 13: “And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig-tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.”

That fire which is so oft announced against the great and terrible day of the Lord, cannot, according to the scriptures, be a universal fire to cover all our globe, as did the waters in the time of Noah, nor such as shall consume and reduce it to smoke and ashes, as so many have imagined. This idea so little according to the truth, nay, manifestly false, resteth on no other foundation than an imperfect examination of the text of the apostle Peter. Some authors indeed, and not a few, are not ashamed to quote in this behalf, three or four verses of the false sybils, as if they were worthy of any estimation among Christians. The text of St. Peter, though obscure, ought upon every principle of sound, pious, and religious criticism, to be explained by hundreds of clear texts in the Holy Scriptures, and not hundreds of clear texts by one that is obscure. St. Peter himself in this very epistle, chap. i. 18. speaking of the transfiguration of Christ, whereof he was himself a witness, hath these words, so full of sincerity and truth: “And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount. We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place,…Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” 2 Peter i. 18—21. How can it be a universal fire which burneth up and consumeth every thing without exception upon our globe, and the globe itself, when the scripture saith, “Then shall the right aiming thunderbolts go abroad; and from the clouds, as from a well drawn bow, shall they fly to the mark.” Wisdom v. 21. How can it be a universal fire indiscriminately consuming all things upon our globe, and the globe itself, when the scripture saith, Isaiah

xxiv. that some individuals on the earth shall remain alive and unhurt. “There shall be as the shaking of an olive-tree, and as the gleaning-grapes when the vintage is done.” Isa. xxiv. 13. This point has been treated of in other places, see the addition which stands at the end of the first part, to which I refer, and likewise to the third section of the first Phenomenon.

In sum, the day of the Lord is, according to all the scriptures, directed only against his declared enemies, who in the times of which we speak shall be the most part of men, or almost all, as hath been remarked throughout the whole Phenomenon of Antichrist. This idea is found constantly and uniformly in all the scriptures of the old and new testament, as any one who will read them with care shall easily perceive. See here three or four passages as an example of very many others, altogether similar, which might be quoted.

In Isaiah xiii. 9^th, it is said, “Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate; and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it. And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.” Isa. xiv. 9. 11. In Jeremiah, chap. xxx. “Behold, the whirlwind of the Lord goeth forth with fury, a continuing whirlwind; it shall fall with pain upon the head of the wicked…In the latter days ye shall consider it” Jer. xxx. 23,24. In Malachi, chap iv. it is said, “For, behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven, and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.” Mal. iv. 1. and to be short, in the book of Wisdom, chap. v. it is said, “He shall put on righteousness as a breastplate, and true judgment instead of an helmet. He shall take holiness for an invincible shield. His severe wrath shall he sharpen for a sword, and the world shall fight with him against the unwise. Then shall the right aiming thunderbolts go abroad; and from the clouds, as from a well drawn bow, shall they fly to the mark.” Wisdom, v 18-21.

§ 4. THIS great day being at length concluded, (the time of the duration of which we know not,) the horrible tempest being overpast, all the impious and sinful being exterminated thence, the ecliptic and equator being united in one and the same individual line, the whole atmosphere hushed, the air cleared, the sea quiet, and all its waters gathered into the place which shall then be appointed; there must necessarily forthwith appear a new earth, a new heaven, a new terraqueous orb, in every thing widely different from what the present is, even as the present appeared in every thing very different after the flood of Noah was past; and in every thing it shall be at least as good as it was in its primitive state. I say at least, because it appears to me highly probable, that in respect and honour to a person of infinite sanctity as is a man-God, every thing upon our globe should renew and ameliorate itself, taking on in its natural aspect (as it is to take in its moral) a new and sublime degree of perfection. “Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.” 2 Pet. iii. 13. “And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.” Rev. xxi. 5. To all which agree the words of the apostle, when he says, “according to his good pleasure which he had purposed in himself; that in the dispensation of the fulness of times, he might gather together in one all things in Christ.” Ephes. i. 9,10.

And here thou dost behold the present age concluded, and the day of men come to its end. Thou seest here the consummation and the end of the age, whereof so much mention is made in the scriptures, especially in the gospels. Thou seest here the dawning of the bright day of the Lord, and the beginning of the age to come, whereof it is spoken still more and with equal or with greater clearness. Now beginneth to manifest itself upon our earth, that kingdom of God, for the coming of which we so often pray, “thy kingdom come.” Now beginneth the revelation or manifestation of Jesus Christ, and the day of his power, in the resplendent glory of his saints. Now beginneth the revelation of the sons of God, which are no other than the risen saints which come with Christ. Now begin the thousand years of St. John, at the beginning of which the imprisonment of the devil must take place, with all the circumstances which are written expressly throughout the twentieth chapter of the Apocalypse; and now the new testament of the Father being opened, which constitutes the Son in his capacity of man heir of all things, all principality and power and rule being cast out, and all things subjected to the man-God, he beginneth to reign and to exercise his rule, his judgment, and absolute power, full of wisdom, goodness, and equity, “And the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.” Isa. ix. 6. Now beginneth to be manifested more completely the great and incomprehensible mystery of the word of God, being made man, the very only begotten of God, the very God. Now in fine beginneth to be seen and known with greater clearness, the end and termination to which all vision and prophecy are directed.

Full of these ideas, (and without giving them time to evaporate and be confounded with others,) go thy ways now and read the Holy Bible, read especially the prophets; and I dare take upon me to assert, that without difficulty thou shalt understand the whole in regular order; the seventy-second and ninety-third psalms especially shalt thou read with understanding and with relish, and it shall be very easy for thee to read and to examine the whole scripture to thy satisfaction. By which means I promise to myself that which I cannot hope to obtain merely by my words and reflections.

As this new earth and these new heavens to which we are now arrived, do likewise comprehend new events and new mysteries, proportioned to an age wholly new, it is not possible for us to consider them all in the same place. We ought therefore to consider a part, if not all these new mysteries, at least the principal or chief thereof, whence an infinitude of others may be inferred.

ADDITION.

ALTHOUGH it was said at the beginning of the fourth section that it is uncertain how long the great and terrible day of the Lord’s coming will endure, that is the commotion, perturbation, and agitation of our globe; yet having now read with greater reflection the twelfth chapter of the prophet Daniel, it appeareth to me certain that it cannot endure a shorter time than the space of forty-five natural days. Whoever readeth this chapter shall at once perceive, without the possibility of a doubt, that it is a prophecy wholly directed to the last times, very immediate upon the coming of the Lord, forasmuch as there are announced therein these two capital points only; first, the vocation and conversion of the Jews; second, the antichristian temptation and tribulation of the Gentiles. Of this latter the prophet, or the angel who speaks to him, says, that it shall endure in all its force twelve hundred and ninety days, which is forty and three months. “And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days.” Dan. xii. 11. Which days being concluded, (doubtless in the first beginning of the day of the Lord,) these words are added, which have ever appeared to, me an impenetrable mystery; “Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days;” Dan. xii. 12. the difference between which two periods is exactly forty and five.

Why then shall he be blessed who waiteth or abideth alive during these forty and five days? Because he will be one of the few untouched by the two-edged sword which proceedeth from the mouth of the King of Kings. Because he will be one of the few clusters which shall remain untouched in the great vine when the “vintage is done.” Because he will be one of the few which shall not have been deemed an object for the wrath of God Almighty, nor for the wrath of the Lamb. Because he will be one of the few who having seen this present earth and these heavens, shall be worthy to behold likewise the new heavens and the new earth, which “we according to his promise do look for.” This appeareth to me the true understanding and resolution of that enigma. I invite all the intelligent to examine it with greater attention, considering, as ought to be done, the whole context from the beginning to the end of the chapter.

In this examination it is very natural that some may be struck with another kind of enigma, which though accidental to the point in hand, might yet occasion a degree of embarrassment; which is, that the prophet Daniel makes the anti-christian tribulation to last for a thousand two hundred and ninety days, or forty and three months, whereas St. John in his Apocalypse assigneth to it only the duration of one thousand two hundred and sixty days, which is thirty days less. This difficulty occasioned me in other times not a little embarrassment, until I recollected those words of Matthew xxiv. 22. “And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.” As St. John wrote after this prophecy and promise of Christ, he sets down the time of that great tribulation as actually abbreviated, and so strikes off thirty days from the time that it was to endure according to the prophecy of Daniel. In a pestilence or conflagration so great and universal, appeareth it to thee a slight mercy to assuage the fire thirty days before the time of its appointed duration, that all flesh might not perish?

CHAPTER VI.

The Holy City and New Jerusalem which cometh down from heaven.

§ 1. THE heavens and the earth “which now are,” having perished in the coming of the Lord; a new earth and new heavens, another terraqueous globe, in every respect new, having taken their place, “according to his promise;” the first thing which presents itself to our consideration, is the King himself, who hath just come to our earth “from a far country, having received a kingdom;” who is just arrived “in the glory of his father with his angels,” Matt. xvi. 27; “with ten thousand of his saints,” Jude 14; “in the splendours of his saints” (the beauties of holiness), Psalm cx; “with the ancients of his people and the princes thereof,” Isa.

iii. 14; “to be glorified in his saints,” 2 Thess. i. 10. All which, as the Lord himself declareth, is to be understood of those saints only “who shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world (age), and the resurrection from the dead,” Luke xx. 35; who are all to compose the court or the active kingdom of the great and mighty King, who as such “hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.” Rev. xix. 16. This court of him who is by nature the son of God; this court of the Son of man, of the son of the Virgin, of the Son of David, of the Son of Abraham, of the Man-God, which according to the scriptures of the Old and New Testament, is one day to descend along with the King himself from heaven to our earth, that he may dwell in glory on our earth, is what St. John the apostle calls the holy and new city of Jerusalem which cometh down from heaven; and by another name, the bride and wife of the Lamb.

It is true that the beloved disciple placeth this great event in the twenty-first chapter, immediately after having finished speaking, in the twentieth chapter, of the universal resurrection and judgment. This accidental circumstance, which appears favourable to the vulgar system, is evidently that which hath occasioned the great equivocation of which we shall immediately speak. But of what importance is this? St. John in this place observes and follows out the same order and method which he hath continually observed in his prophecy, that is to say, when two or three or more mysteries concur in one and the same time, he divides or separates the one from the other, speaketh of the one as if the other were not, which he leaves until he has finished with the former; which being concluded, he steps back three or four paces, and taking up the other, carries it in like manner onward to its termination and so of the rest. And what good historian does not observe the same method? This order and method of the Apocalypse from the beginning to the end, it is easy to observe; and without first adverting to this, it is not conceivable how that divine book can be rightly understood, which comprehendeth in so small a space so great, so grand mysteries, pertaining all (at least from the fourth chapter,) to the revelation of Jesus Christ, or which is the same, to his second coming in glory and majesty.

Do not expect, friend Christophilus, that I should here tell you great and extraordinary, new and unheard of things, concerning the interior glory of that new court, of that new and holy Jerusalem; which is one day to descend from heaven unto our earth; nor as little concerning what pertains to the exterior thereof. All these things are much above my comprehension; and even the Apostle says of them, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” 1 Cor. ii. 9. Accordingly, I purpose not to dwell upon things which I understand not, and which pertain not to my main subject.

I agree in good faith with all the interpreters of the Apocalypse in this, that the twenty-first chapter is full of metaphors or similitudes, even as the whole of the book is; but do these metaphors or similitudes signify anything or nothing? Do they signify some individual, real, or true thing; or are they absolutely void of all signification? If then they signify something real and true, what is that thing? Is it some pure allegory, or is it some visible and corporeal thing? And has that thing, be it what it may, yet descended from heaven to earth? If it has not descended till this day, as evidently appeareth, shall it one day really and truly descend? Shall it be with living and sojourning men, and shall it abide with them upon our earth? After it is descended, shall “all the nations of them which are saved” in our globe, go on no longer in darkness, but in the light and brightness, or which is the same, under the direction and government of that same city? Shall the kings, princes, or heads of all tribes and nations which are saved on our earth, bring or send all their glory and honour to this same city which hath descended from heaven to our earth?

Now, my friend, the whole of this is said, and clearly and expressly affirmed in this passage of the Apocalypse. All this in very many passages of the Psalms and Prophets is said and affirmed of that same new and holy city of Jerusalem which descends out of heaven from my God; whereto doubtless those words of the eighty-seventh Psalm are directed: “Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God. Selah.” Psalm lxxxvii. 3; as also those words with which that Psalm concludes: “All my springs are in thee.” [Vulg. the dwelling of all the joyful ones is thee.]

§ 2. THE interpreters of the Apocalypse, following their general system, have taken infinite trouble to accommodate all these things, and to explain them in a such a way as not to prejudice their views; attributing part of them to the triumphant church, or to that Jerusalem which is above, according to the expression of the Apostle, Gal. iv. 26; and attributing part to the militant church, not to speak of that other part which is slighted and passed over, because it is not possible to make it answer to the one or to the other. They say in general, that the holy city whereof we are speaking is the celestial city, the eternal glory and felicity of the saints.

Hitherto they proceed agreeably enough to the scriptures; but the difficulty is in explaining how the city, after being built of living and chosen stones in the heavens, should descend to our globe, in order there to be seated, to be strengthened and solidly established, “the joy of the whole earth,” Psalm xlviii. Upon this capital point (which if they avoid, all their labour is to no effect), I ingenuously confess that I find almost nothing in all the interpreters of the Apocalypse whom I have read. Some say that this city, that is, the celestial city and glory of the saints, was shown to St. John under the aspect, as it were, of descending from heaven, in order that he might see it the better, that he might observe its size, its structure, and felicity, and glory, &c. But shall this city, which was shown to St. John as in the act of descending from heaven, really and truly descend to our earth? To this, others reply that it will. But when and how? The city will descend, they say, in the day of universal judgment, and that for a few hours. By which they mean, that in the day of the universal judgment and resurrection, all the souls of the righteous shall come with Christ to our earth, and taking their proper bodies, will compose in the air, right over the valley of Jehoshaphat, a kind of city, after the manner of an amphitheatre; which amphitheatre after the manner of a city shall return to heaven before the darkness. Is not this, my friend, the general, and as it were the almost universally received idea? But is not this generally received idea manifestly false? Is it not evidently irreconcilable with the prophecy itself, with all the context, and even with all the words thereof? The following are some observations which occur to me thereon. First, St. John saith, that the holy city of the New Jerusalem, spoken of throughout the twenty-first chapter, was seen by him to descend from God out of heaven to our earth, at that very time at which he saw a new heaven and a new earth: “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God.” Rev. xxi. 1,2. According to this it is clear, that when the blessed time arriveth, in which the promises of God shall be accomplished concerning the new heaven and the new earth (which “we look for,” according to his promise), then ought to appear on our earth the court of the new King, or the holy city of the new Jerusalem, which descendeth out of heaven to our earth. Upon this undeniable principle, go back and read our fourth chapter; wherein you shall find, without being able reasonably to deny it, that the promises of God concerning the new heavens and the new earth, are not given for, nor can they be made to apply to the day of the universal resurrection and judgment. Because those promises, which clearly appear only in the sixty-fifth chapter of Isaiah verse 17, do speak, as present in those times, of generation and corruption, of life and death, of righteousness and sin, of long and of short lives, of the building of houses, of the planting of trees and vine yards, of oxen, of lions, of serpents living amicably together, eating of the same mess, and living upon the same food. Which all has no place, neither can have any, in the day of the general resurrection and judgment; and still less after that last day. Whence we infer, that if the new earth and the new heavens be not in Holy Scripture announced for a time posterior to the universal resurrection and judgment, as little for that last epoch can be announced this holy city of the new Jerusalem, which, immediately upon the accomplishment of the new heavens and the new earth, is to descend from heaven to our globe.

Secondly. “And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it.” Rev. xxi. 24. These words of verse 24, not only allude to, but are the very same with what we read in the sixtieth chapter of Isaiah, “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.” Isa. lx. 1-3. The same in substance is declared by Jeremiah, chap. iii. “At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord; and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of the Lord, to Jerusalem: neither shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evil heart.” Jer. iii. 17. The same is found written in Psalm lxxii. “He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth. The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents: the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts. Yea, all kings shall fall down before him: all nations shall serve him.” Ps. lxxii. 8.10,11. The same is found in Dan. chap. vii. The same is found in the fourteenth chap. of Zech. And generally speaking the same idea in substance is found in all the prophets, and in half of the psalms, at the least. Tell me now, my Christophilus, can any of these things possibly be accomplished, or have any place after the universal resurrection and judgment in your empyrean heavens above. I know certainly that thou wilt now recur once more to the present church, but in that allegorical arbitrary accommodative, and therefore most unmeaning sense, which now my soul nauseates.

Thirdly. “In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of nations.” Rev. xxii. 2. The same thing we read in Ezek. xlvii. 12. “The leaf thereof for medicine.” In the universal judgment, or after the universal resurrection and judgment, in the heaven above, what use can there be for those medicinal leaves which are for the healing of the nations? The various explanations or ingenious accommodations which they have endeavoured to give of all these things, may perhaps delight one who hath a taste for the loose conceptions of the preacher, but it appears impossible that they can satisfy him who searcheth after truth.

From these few reflections which we have just made it appears clear (and this is the capital point on which the understanding of this whole prophecy dependeth,) that the holy city whereof we speak ought one day in deed and in truth to come down from heaven to our earth, not certainly the day of the universal judgment and resurrection, but the day of the “coming of the Lord with ten thousands of his saints.” It is to be established and as it were solidly founded, the joy of the whole earth, as the court and throne of the great and supreme king, “for it is the city of the great king.” Matt. v. 35. The Lord himself, in the third chap. of the Apocalypse, long before St. John saw this holy city descending from heaven, speaketh these words which affirm or suppose the same capital point. “Upon him that overcometh I will write the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh out of heaven from my God.”

This celestial Jerusalem being come to our earth, “the kingdom shall be the Lord’s.” Obad. v. 21. “And the Lord shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and his name one.” Zech. xiv. 9. Then says David, all nations shall come and worship before him, because the kingdom is the Lord’s, and he ruleth among the nations. Then also shall be accomplished what is written in the ninety-sixth psalm, “fear before him, all the earth. Say among the heathen that the Lord reigneth: the world also shall be established, that it shall not be moved: he shall judge the people righteously.” Ps. xcvi. 9, 10.

§ 3. I CANNOT deny, but sincerely confess that I am not able to reply to the questions which may be put to me concerning this holy city: knowing full well that it is not the same thing to be able to prove by the scriptures the substance of any particular event which they announce, and to be able to explain the mode in which that particular event shall come to pass, and the circumstances which are to accompany it. If the mode of its existence be not found written in the scriptures, either because God pleased not to reveal it, or because in our present state we are not capable of understanding it, how should we be able to understand it? We may be able, however, to make some conjectures thereupon, and if even these prove not satisfactory, we ought religiously to confine ourselves within the limits which God hath set to our reason. It would then be temerity in us to refuse to recognize the substance of a thing for this reason, merely that we cannot conceive its manner of existence. For by that same reason I might conclude that Jesus Christ after being raised did not abide here upon our earth forty days, even though the scriptures declare it. For why? Because I know not and conceive not how he existed, nor where. I know not and conceive not what he did, or wherein he occupied himself the whole of that time, except the few instants in which he suffered himself to be seen by his disciples. Nor do I know if he were cloathed or un-cloathed, nor do I know how he entered when the doors were closed, nor do I know how the many saints who are with him existed, nor what they did, nor do I know…I know only that as Christ existed, so likewise did his saints for forty days on our earth, in a manner worthy of the state in which they were then found, that is, with their glorified bodies, or with their persons raised again and blessed. Though I do not conceive the mode with clear notions, I am not at liberty to deny the fact. In place of denying it, I legitimately infer, and religiously conclude, that in this present state I am not capable of comprehending these things, nor doth God command me to comprehend them but to believe them. Let this similitude then be applied to the subject which we treat of.

Here I close this point entirely, confessing myself incapable of saying more thereon. I seem to myself to hear that last sentence which was intimated to Daniel when he prayed, “O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things,” chap. xii. 8. The answer was this, “Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.” Dan. xii. 9. He who, not content with this, will yet desire more information, may attentively read and reflect upon that last prophecy contained in the two concluding chapters of the Apocalypse, by which the whole canonical scriptures are closed, and after which we have nothing worthy of faith divine.

CHAPTER VII.

An answer is rendered to certain Questions.

THIS point being then closed, and with it certain things which it is not “lawful for a man to utter,” we ought yet to reply to certain questions of which the answer is required of us in the way of mere conjecture.

1^st. Shall this city which is to descend from heaven to our earth be a material city, with all that structure and those dimensions which are expressly written in the prophecy? To this we answer, yes, there being no necessity nor any reason whatever to spiritualize or allegorize. The square or cubical figure, and the three geometrical dimensions of length, breadth, and thickness, are surely not competent to things purely spiritual, but to things corporeal and material. This holy city is doubtless for the habitation not of pure spirits, but of persons composed of body and spirit, that is for the habitations of the thousands of saints who shall come along with Christ, having been raised from the dead. If these are to be material and corporeal, why not also their habitation? Very many grave authors lay it down and affirm as I do, with this accidental difference only, that this material city they will not place on our earth where the scriptures place it, but above in a solid heaven, which they have imagined far beyond all the universe. But if in this imagined heaven, the material city with all its structure and dimensions is not repugnant to their ideas, why should it be repugnant in a situation not imaginary, but true and known of all? If it be admitted in an uncertain place, where the scriptures do not place it, why should we not be able to admit it, in a certain and determinate place, where the scriptures do place it?

2^ndly. In case that it is admitted upon our earth, shall this holy city be really as great in its three dimensions as St. John seems to describe it? He gives its breadth as well as its length, twelve thousand furlongs, whereof eight go to make up a Roman mile; so that the extent of the city on each of its four sides must be a thousand and five hundred miles; and, if its height is equal to its length or breadth, as appears to be conveyed from these words, — “the breadth and the length and the height of it are equal,” there will result a city of a cubical figure, of an enormous extent in length and breadth, and of so great a height as to surpass the limits of the atmosphere of our globe.

Upon this second question we have two things to speak to: —first, the length and breadth of the city; secondly, its height, or elevation. With respect to the first, it appears to me, from the text itself, that the twelve thousand furlongs ought not to be taken in a straight line, but by square measure: “And the city lieth foursquare, and the length is as large as the breadth: and he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs.” Rev. xxi. 16. It is not said, that with twelve thousand furlongs he measured the length or the breadth of the city, but the city itself; whence we may suspect that the twelve thousand stadia apply to the whole city, and not to each of its sides. Upon this supposition; not to be despised, the whole entire city would extend twelve thousand square furlongs, or 187½ square miles, which corresponds on each of its sides to little more than thirteen miles and a half; an extent not so extraordinary as not to have existed in other cities, as Nineveh, Babylon, Memphis, Pekin, &c. With respect to the second point we say, or suspect, after the same manner. The text saith not, that the city and its buildings were as high as the length and breadth; but simply, “the length and the breadth and the height of it are equal:” a mode of speaking which may well admit of these two senses; first, the city, or its buildings, is as great as its length and breadth, —in which very improbable sense the city would not be square, but cubical: secondly, the length, breadth, and height are equal amongst themselves in such a manner as that the city, regarded in its length and breadth, carries the same equal and uniform aspect as when regarded with respect to its height; because its buildings are all equal and uniform, no one higher than another, no one more rich or beautiful than another, no one longer or broader than another; “the length and the breadth and the height of it are equal.” This second sense appears to me the more natural of the two, and agreeable enough to the language of the text.

3^rdly. What is the meaning of the twelve gates of this city, at all times open, the names of the twelve tribes of Israel inscribed thereon, and the twelve angels which stand at them? In order to know what all this signifies, it is sufficient to become acquainted with those angels who stand at the gates, every one at his proper gate. To me it clearly appeareth that they do not signify twelve guards of the city, to prevent the passage of any traveller who might wish to enter; to accomplish which the ready way were to close the entrance by barring the gates, or entirely walling them up.

It likewise appeareth clear, that these twelve angels are much like those seven angels of the seven churches, who are spoken to in the second and third chapters of this same Apocalypse. So that, as those seven angels manifestly do signify nothing else than the Christian priesthood, or the active department of the present church, regarded under the seven or many very different conditions, in which it hath been to this day, so the twelve angels of the twelve gates of the new and holy Jerusalem, “which descendeth out of heaven from my God,” do signify nothing else than the judgment of Christ, or than his active kingdom; that is to say, twelve supreme judges, each one in his several gate, in whom is to reside all judgment emanating from Christ himself in quality of Supreme King and High Priest.

No one is ignorant that anciently judgment was held not within the cities, but in the gates thereof: this is clear from sacred as well as profane history. As little can any be ignorant of that famous and magnificent prophecy of the Son of God and his twelve apostles; “Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel; Matt. xix. 28. and in St. Luke xxii. he said to them with still more expressiveness and clearness, “Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations: and I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me, that ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel” Luke xxii 28-30 As by these last words, “and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel,” shall by the consent of all be accomplished, not in heaven above, but here on our earth; so those which immediately precede them ought also to be accomplished on our earth, and not in heaven, forasmuch as they do together compose one and the same clause, connected, simple, and clear. Of these thrones St. John manifestly speaketh when he says, immediately after the coming of Christ and the imprisonment of the devil, “And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them” Rev xx 4.

It likewise appeareth clear that the twelve tribes of Israel, certainly gathered in those times in great mercy, shall find easy access to the gates of the holy and heavenly Jerusalem, forasmuch as there were “at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel.” Which liberty of access shall, doubtless be, not to pay honour and deference to their respective princes, but to consult them on any doubt, and through them to receive the orders of the supreme King, and to communicate them to all the earth. For then, as it is written in Isaiah and Micah, “ the law shall go forth from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.”

This administration of justice by the twelve apostles over the twelve tribes of Jacob, is found, though obscurely, in all the interpreters; but the two passages from the gospels cited above, being read without prejudice, it appears clear and undeniable, that the twelve apostles of Christ are destined to become the immediate princes or judges of the twelve tribes of Israel, every one over that tribe which shall be appointed to him; nor is it to be believed or even to be endured, as seems to me, that so great and express a promise of the Son of God, given by name to his twelve apostles, should in the end reduce itself to what we find it reduced to on the common system, that is, to nothing at all. St. Jerome upon this passage hath this exposition, ‘Ye shall sit upon twelve thrones condemning (instead of judging) the twelve tribes of Israel, because when you believed they would not believe.’ But shall this honour extend merely to the twelve apostles of Christ, shall it not be the common privilege of all who have believed, of every tribe, and language, and people, and nation? Shall these not all in the same sense condemn the unfaithful ‘who would not believe while they did believe.’ Others altogether confound the promise of Christ to his twelve apostles, with the promise which is made in the same place to all who shall forsake father or mother, &c. But to this latter class he saith merely, “and every one who shall forsake…shall receive an hundred fold, and life everlasting.” He doth not say to them, “ye shall sit,” &c. Others proceed by other courses equally rough and obscure, and they all confusedly terminate in the day of resurrection, and the universal conflagration, upon which idea (inconsistent or little according with the truth) we have already spoken enough.

4^thly. Will the inhabitants of this holy and celestial city live therein so inclosed, and so invisible, as not to have power to go forth of its walls, and allow themselves to be seen by the sojourners? To this the answer is, that they shall enjoy upon this a perfect liberty. They shall stay, or they shall go from the Holy City when they please, and for what time they please. Where they shall abide, they shall be able to say with the greatest truth, “It is good for us to be here.” When they shall go forth they shall bear along with them all felicity without any fear of losing it, or diminishing it the least by any accident. They shall not only go to see, and personally visit the whole orb of the earth, but likewise all the bodies celestial, and all the works of the Creator. “When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers; the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained.” Psalm viii. 3. Being now heirs with God and joint heirs with Christ, the whole universe shall be theirs, as it is Christ’s, who is the heir of all things. Then, and then only, shall be accomplished in those saints that which is written in the book of Wisdom: “And in the time of their visitation they shall shine, and run to and fro like sparks among the stubble. They shall judge the nations, and have dominion over the people, and their Lord shall reign for ever.” Wisdom iii. 7, 8. Then, and then only, shall be accomplished that which is written in Psalm cxlix. “Let the saints [Vulg. the saints shall] be joyful in glory;” and then only can an answer be surely given to that question of Isaiah, “Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows?” Isa. lx. 8.

This which we say of the saints of Christ, his joint heirs who reign along with him, we say proportionally of the King himself. He shall stand in his court, and he shall go forth from it at his pleasure. He shall permit himself to be seen when it pleaseth him, and how it pleaseth him, by the sojourners, in like manner as he permitted himself to be seen by his disciples after his resurrection. Is there in this any repugnancy or inconsistency? Shall Jesus Christ when he cometh, be perhaps less good, less benign, in respect to his faithful lovers, than he was after his resurrection, to whom he showed himself, being seen of them forty days? Those forty days, and that which happened therein, according to the gospels, may suffice, and more than suffice to teach us the character of our King; that is, his benignity and bounty in respect to his friends. Of the saints who rose with Christ, the gospel saith that they “appeared unto many.” Matt. xxvii. 53. The same we should believe will happen in the times whereof we speak, that they will show themselves or not, according as it shall appear to them necessary or convenient.

5^thly. And shall those living ones, who, according to the apostle in his epistle to the Thessalonians, shall be caught up with the risen saints in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, likewise pertain to this Holy City? What shall be their lot, what their occupation and their ministry? St. Paul speaking expressly of these most blessed living ones, doth not clearly resolve this great and important question: the whole mystery is shut up in these few words: “Then we which are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” 1 Thess. iv. 17. Now these last words, in my poor judgment, do not mean that these living ones should, before passing through the general and indispensable law of death, enjoy the beatific vision and the whole complete blessedness of the risen saints, but that having had once bestowed upon them the change or the faculty of unrestrained motion, having ascended through the air up to the highest part of our atmosphere, having seen with their eyes the sacred and holy humanity of Jesus Christ in all its glory and majesty, they shall hereby remain confirmed in grace, and likewise confirmed in the gift of unrestrained motion which they have received. Because the gifts of God, as the apostle tells us, are without repentance, Rom. xi. 29; consequently they shall remain able and free to serve the Lord most promptly in any ministry which shall then be appointed or suggested to them; and what is this ministry to be according to the scriptures? I find none more clearly expressed than that pointed out in Isaiah. “Go, ye swift messengers, (or as the LXX read mentis leres, ye of active mind,) to a nation scattered and peeled, to a people terrible from their beginning hitherto.” Isa. xviii. 2.

By this nation and people, I understand nothing else than the relics of all nations which shall survive in the various quarters of our globe, to the utmost bounds of the earth. “There shall be as the shaking of an olive-tree, and as the gleaning-grapes when the vintage is done.” Isa. xxiv. 13; of which remnants Isaiah speaketh in that twenty-fourth chapter, and in this twenty-eighth at verse 7, he continues “In that time shall the present be brought unto the Lord of hosts of a people scattered and peeled, and from a people terrible from their beginning hitherto; a nation meeted out and trodden under foot, whose land the rivers have spoiled, to the place of the name of the Lord of hosts, the mount Zion.”

From all the context of this very brief chapter, and by regarding and well combining the four chapters with one another, it appears to me somewhat more than probable, that these fleet messengers or swift angels, of whom we now speak, are to be the envoys or ministers of the supreme King, and of his court, to whom at that time shall be appointed the commission or general order which is found in the ninety-sixth Psalm. “Declare his glory among the heathen, his wonders among all people…Say among the heathen, that the Lord reigneth.” Psalm xcvi. 3. 10.

Of these swift angels, or swift messengers, mention is likewise made as I judge, in the last chapter of Isaiah, which, with the preceding chapter, is a continued narrative of what shall happen to our earth in the age to come, or in the new heaven and the new earth; where one of the things mentioned is as follows: “And I will set a sign among them, and I will send those that escape of them unto the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, that draw the bow, to Tubal and Javan, to the isles afar off; that have not heard my fame, neither have seen my glory; and they shall declare my glory among the Gentiles.” Isa. lxvi. 19.

These are probably to be those good and faithful servants, though few, of whom the Lord speaks in various parables, that he shall find at their post when he comes, and of whom he thus speaks, “Blessed is that servant whom his lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing. Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods.” Matt. xxiv. 46,47. Which to cut short, is explained in the nineteenth chapter of Luke; “And he said unto him, Well, thou good servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities…Be thou also over five cities.” Luke xix. 17.19.

These expressions, and so many others quite similar where with the gospels abound, ought to be understood in a real sense, intelligible to all, and to be explained to the letter in some way accessible by our understanding. The good and faithful servants of whom the Lord frequently speaketh, might, in the accommodative sense, well enough signify all those who have been found, are found, and shall be found prepared at the hour of their death. But this does not satisfy one who would give to the text its literal sense, and understand it only of those good and faithful servants whom the Lord shall actually find at his glorious coming, because he saith “when the Lord shall come.”

These then, from what appears, shall be as it were a second apostleship, or the new teachers of the new earth, who being sent to all the relics of the nations, even to the utmost bounds of the earth, shall collect them, instruct them, civilize them, sanctify them, and as it were create them anew. Not surely with those contradictions and persecutions which the first apostles experienced and suffered, but on the contrary with general benedictions and acclamations full of sincerity and truth, for as much as it is written in the twenty-fourth chap. of Isaiah at the 14^th verse, that these blessed relics of all nations “shall lift up their voice, they shall sing for the majesty of the Lord, they shall cry aloud from the sea.” Wherefore (it is said to these new apostles, and teachers of that new earth) glorify ye the Lord in the fires, even the name of the Lord God of Israel in the isles of the sea. From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs, even glory to the righteous.” Isa. xxiv. 14-16. I am not ignorant that all these things they endeavour to accommodate by courtesy to the first coming of Christ, or the mission of his twelve apostles throughout all the world, but whether with propriety they obtain their purpose by so doing, let the learned impartially judge.

6^thly. Shall the saints who shall come with the Lord to our earth, risen and completely blessed, and who shall form the court of this great king, consist of all who have been saved hitherto? St. John in the twentieth chapter of the Apocalypse speaks only of the martyrs of Christ, who have been beheaded or violently put to death, for the testimony of Jesus and the word of God, and of those who did not adore the beast, although their blood was not therefore actually shed. The same is clearly insinuated in the 9^th verse of the sixth chap. and in the 9^th verse of the seventh chap. to the end St. Paul speaks to the same effect, saying, “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.” Thess. iv. 14. In Isaiah twenty-sixth verse 19^th the same idea, the very same mystery is found, “Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.”

Besides these dead in the Lord whom he himself calls his own, and who have died a violent death for the testimony of Jesus, and for the word of God, there shall doubtless be very many more of particular sanctity and goodness, who shall be thought worthy of that age, and of the resurrection from the dead. Among these shall be found all those who have wrought righteousness, and taught it by their words and their works; “whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven;” and in Dan. xii. 3. it is found written, “And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars for ever and ever.” Of the one class and the other speaketh the apostle, when he saith, “Christ the first fruits, afterwards they that are Christ’s at his coming,” 1 Cor. xv. 23. In order that this expression, those who are Christ’s, may not have a very wide and definite extension given to it, as if it spoke of all who should be saved, the same apostle explains it in another place by these formal words, “but they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its corruptions and lusts.” Gal. i. 24. And thinkest thou, friend, that all Christians who have been saved to this day, or shall be saved from this time forth, are or shall be in Christ in such a manner? Or is there wanting in you discretion to judge between cattle and cattle, between the fat cattle and the lean cattle. Ezekiel chap. xxxiv. Seest thou not as it were an infinite difference between the one class and the other.

Of those last who have crucified the flesh with its corruptions and lusts, and of those who have suffered violent death for the testimony of Jesus, the Lord himself speaketh in his sermon upon the mount, in the first and the eighth blessing “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven,” Matt. v. 3.10. The first are evidently the humbled in heart, who being crucified to the world, Galatians sixth 14^th, do live an innocent and pure life, do most punctually observe the precepts of God, doing nothing conformed to the maxims of the world, desiring to be wholly conformed to the living image of God himself; that is to his only Son Jesus Christ, whom they intensely love, and for whom they sigh night and day: The second class properly consists of those whom we call martyrs, or witnesses, whether that martyrdom for Christ and for righteousness be or be not to the shedding of blood and the loss of life. This circumstance appears purely accidental, and hath with the greatest reason been always regarded by the church as such, because the actual shedding of blood, or the dying for Christ is certainly not in the hands of the martyr, but in the hands of the tyrant, and the honour of martyrdom ought to be placed not so much in the ill will of the persecutor, as in the good will of the persecuted, who makes an entire surrender of himself for the love of righteousness.

Of those two classes of saints the Lord says not merely that they shall enter into life, or into the kingdom of heaven, but that the kingdom of heaven shall be theirs. What meaneth this singular expression? O my friend Christophilus, dost thou not here mark the difference, dost thou not most clearly observe here, the active and the passive part? Is it the same thing that I should enter into a kingdom and establish myself therein, as that the kingdom into which I have entered, and been of pure mercy permitted to establish myself; should be my own? Dost thou not see in this the supreme king, with his court, with his tribunal, with his assessors of judgment, and sharers of the kingdom, who hold a part in the lordship, in the dominion, in the government, in the empire, and in the power, and likewise those who are to obey this empire, and be commanded and governed? Or wouldst thou that there should not be a hierarchy in the kingdom of Christ? or wouldst thou that there should not be a stable and permanent order of ranks, from the supreme head which is Jesus Christ, to his assessors of the judgment and the kingdom, from these to others beneath them, and from these again to the lowest of his kingdom, who shall certainly be the most numerous? Do not theologians admit such a hierarchy, and orders of ranks, even among the blessed angels?

And now we may be able to arrive at the knowledge of this point, whether the vulgar idea that in heaven, or in the kingdom of God, all shall be kings, be allowable or not. All be kings? Then no one shall be or can be so. All be kings? Then all will command and none obey; then all will be superior and none inferior; then in the kingdom of heaven there will be no order. You will say, my friend, that the common idea of being kings in the kingdom of God, or in heaven, ought not to be understood in so strict and rigorous a sense as to exclude all order and hierarchy, but in a very wide sense, so as that all who shall enter into that kingdom shall be eternally blessed, as in this world we reckon kings and sovereigns of the earth to be. But even with this limitation, the general idea seems merely vulgar and possessed of little justice.

We do not therefore deny that all faithful Christians who observe the precepts of God, or at least offer true repentance for their sins, shall at some time enter into the kingdom of God. But it may very well be denied that those who in this way shall hardly enter into life, or into the kingdom of God, shall be or can be kings, or reign together with Christ. It may be and ought to be denied that these shall have any part in the first resurrection, and consequently “in the holy and celestial Jerusalem which descendeth out of heaven from my God.” This holy city must be composed only of saints of extraordinary sanctity, “who are Christ’s…who sleep in Jesus…who have crucified the flesh with its corruptions and lusts,” who have suffered persecution for righteousness’ sake, and resisted constantly “even unto blood,” if not in fact; at least in spirit, “of whom the world was not worthy.”

Of those Christians then who do not pertain to this privileged class, what shall be the lot in that day? if they are not to have a part with the great saints in the first resurrection, what shall be their portion? We reply that they shall remain still as they now are, enjoying their souls with beatific vision, according to the capacity of every one. Now this same condition shall they hold in the future age of which we are speaking, with this single difference, that they shall come with Christ to our earth, but shall not rise till the first resurrection, “the rest of the dead lived not (says St. John) till after the thousand years were accomplished.”

7^thly. And shall any wicked ones of remarkable wickedness and iniquity have likewise a part in that first resurrection? Yea, doubtless, as is to be gathered from various texts of scripture. Those very wicked men being raised in that day together with the greatest saints, are doubtless the same who Ezekiel xxxii. 26. caused their terror in the land of the living. Men, proud, haughty, inhuman, and cruel, who, abusing the power “given them from above,” and forgetting that they are men “of like passions with ourselves,” did make the human race to groan.

Of the resurrection of these, and others of the like kind, Daniel speaketh chap. xii. 2. “And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” And to this agreeth, perfectly the fifth chapter of the book of Wisdom, “when they see it they shall be troubled with a terrible fear, and be amazed at the strangeness,” &c. To all which, Isaiah addeth in the last verse of the last chapter, that those same wretched men when raised, to whom he gives the name of carcasses, shall not only see with terrible fear the glory of the sons of God whom they despised and persecuted, but shall themselves be seen of all, and be exposed as it were to the abhorrence of all.

CHAPTER VIII. THE COMING UP OF THE SOLITARY WOMAN OUT OF THE DESERT, AND HER ESPOUSALS.

The literal interpretation to this effect, of the Song of Songs.

§ 1. THE woman clothed with the sun, who is one day to fly upon the two wings of a great eagle into the wilderness, unto a place “prepared for her of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days,” shall come up out of that wilderness; those forty and two months being past, and be manifested to the new world in a manner worthy of the greatness of God, worthy of the magnificent expressions of the great prophecy contained in the whole of the twelfth chapter of the Apocalypse, and likewise worthy of so many other expressions, which have been remarked by us and observed upon in the Phenomena of the Second Part. We have there observed the end for which God shall conduct her to the wilderness, and the wonders which to that end he shall perform.

That famous woman then, the ancient spouse of God (not less remarkable in her prosperities than in her adversities), being prepared from the times of old for Messiah by means of providences and even of miracles almost without intermission, and at length being ignominiously scattered unto all the winds, “until the times of the Gentiles should be fulfilled,” is one day, according to the same scriptures, to return again into favour with her husband, is once more in her remnant to be called precious, and gathered in great mercy, and likewise received, according to the expression of St. Paul, to her ancient dignity, as hath been not only said, but proved in various parts of this work, especially in the Fifth Phenomenon.

This then is the first and the most wonderful thing which shall come to pass in our new heavens, and new earth, and therefore immediately after the coming of the Lord to the holy and celestial Jerusalem. The prophecies which announce this great event are innumerable, at the same time that they are most clear, which it will be well to have now present to the mind, especially those few most notable ones which have been already studied, and which it is not possible to repeat without wearying those who read. Among these I take upon me to repeat only that one which is found in the second chapter of Hosea, who is the most laconic of all the prophets.

The Lord begins by threatening his faithless and most ungrateful spouse, that the crisis would arrive when he would cast her away from him, and no longer regard her as his spouse, nor have compassion upon her or upon her children. “Plead with your mother, for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband…And I will not have mercy upon her children.” He passeth on then to announce great and innumerable afflictions, which she should have to suffer in the times of her exile and total abandonment. “Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths…I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast-days, her new moons, and her sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts. And I will destroy her vines, and her fig-trees.” Hosea ii. 6.11,12. And is not this the condition wherein this wretched wife has been seen for eighteen centuries, and is still beheld by the whole world?

Finally, from verse 14 to the end, are announced to her nothing but mercies, beneficence, and such very great prosperities, that their very greatness filleth us with admiration: such as her vocation and true conversion, her conveyance to another solitude such as that of Mount Sinai, in order there to speak comfort unto her heart: her penitence, her lamentation, her justification and complete sanctification; and after all these blessings, as a necessary consequence of God’s promises, her espousals under another deed, testament, or covenant, which shall have no end. “Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her. And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope; and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.” Hosea ii. 14,15.

2. IN that day whereof we speak, and upon the occasion of this new and most solemn espousal, it appeareth seasonable to treat of that sublime song, that admirable prophecy which is entitled “the Song of Songs.” This song, one of the most celebrated compositions to be found in the holy books: this song, manifestly divine, forasmuch as it is ever read, even when not understood, with a certain inward delight which flesh and blood cannot produce: this song, I say, is wholly unintelligible unless we be guided by true lights.

There is no doubt that some things in it have been well enough accommodated to the passion of Christ; others to the holy virgin Mary, the mother of God, &c. Who doth not read with relish the sermons upon the Canticles of the most devout father St. Bernard? Who doth not read with like relish and edification what St. Francis of Sales hath written upon this Song, and the jesuit, Luis de la Puenta, and several other mystics who have followed those famous masters of spiritual things? They all utter good, pious, religious, and holy things, as being derived from places of scripture, and agreeable to the morality of the gospel.

But not to speak now of the mystical doctors, let us come to the interpreters, who are denominated literal. These commonly say, or at least suppose, that though Solomon composed this sublime marriage song for his nuptials with the daughter of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, yet did the Holy Spirit, which guided his pen, adopt this daughter of Pharaoh as a figure of the Christian church (understanding thereby this present church of the Gentiles), and Solomon as a figure of Christ. This first part of the supposition not only appeareth false and improbable, but even insufferable. How should the Holy Spirit move the pen of king Solomon, in the composition of a song for his nuptials with Pharaoh’s daughter, when these nuptials were contrary to law? and this because Solomon and the daughter of Pharaoh figured, or that they might figure forth Christ and the present church?

You will perhaps, allege, that the marriage of Solomon with the princess of Egypt was not unlawful, both because the law did not speak expressly of Egyptian wives, but only of those of the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Jebusites, &c. and likewise because that princess renounced her idols and embraced the true religion. But both reasons appear to me false and improbable. False; because the scripture blameth Solomon equally for his alliance with the daughter of Pharaoh, as for his many other strange wives. “But king Solomon loved many strange women, (together with the daughter of Pharaoh,) women of the Moabites, Amnionites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites; of the nations concerning which the Lord said unto the children of Israel, (Exod. xxxiv. 11.) Ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in unto you: for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods. Solomon clave unto these in love.” 1 Kings xi. 1,2. Improbable; because this fact is not found in sacred history: and it appears improbable and even impossible that it should not be found there, if it had so taken place. Upon the same foundation may I say, that all the other wives which Solomon took, Moabites, Ammonites, Idumeans, Zidonians, Hittites, &c. did likewise renounce their idols and embrace the true religion, notwithstanding that this most sensual king did for all and every one of them build temples, where they sacrificed and offered prayers unto their idols: and the same king of Israel, now effeminated and “his heart being turned away by his wives after other gods,” 1 Kings xi. 4. did not refrain himself from honouring with his presence the festivals and sacrifices of his wives.

Who then is the author, or the writer, of this divine song? My friend, I do not know, nor desire to know; because this knowledge is of no importance to me. Only I know, that its true author is the Holy Spirit, “who spake by the prophets;” because in this esteem have the ancient synagogue, as also the Christian church, ever regarded it among the canonical or divine books, and held it in an estimation and veneration not inferior to Moses and the prophets. This single consideration is sufficient for me to believe that the Song of Songs containeth no mutual and immodest loves of the young Solomon with Abishag the Shunamite, the last spouse of the holy and decrepid king David, as many rabbis think; as little any loves with the daughter of Pharaoh, as the Christian doctors have thought.

But it is at least certain, you say, that the spouse of the Song is no other than Jesus Christ, and the wife can be no other than the church of Christ. This second part of the proposition I would allow without much difficulty, if I did not certainly know that you understood by these words, the church of Christ; that is to say, the present church, of the Gentiles, in the state in which it has abidden to this day, and which it shall, or may retain until the coming of the Lord. In this understanding we can never agree. Why? Because it is a most violent interpretation, and, moreover, false and improbable. Upon which point (to cut short unprofitable disputes), I do not cite, nor think of citing, any other authority or witness than yourself.

You are not ignorant, that most ingenious and learned men have been at infinite pains to accommodate and appropriate this divine marriage-song to the present church. As little can you doubt that the result is to suppose and to affirm, but not to prove, that they say and do not, affirm and prove not. They say and affirm in general, that the spouse of the Song is the present Catholic Church; but being come to the accommodation of the different particulars which are written in the Song, no such church is any longer to be found. She is sought and is not found, except two or three times, that she may not seem to be entirely forgotten. In her stead we find substituted any good soul which would enter upon a devout life, and aspire to Christian perfection. And why so? Doubtless because to the present church, whether it be taken in its widest sense, of restricted merely to its principal part, which is the priesthood, nothing, or almost nothing, can apply of all which the husband speaketh to the spouse, or which she speaketh of herself. If this accommodation were possible, would they forsake the universal church, and pass to an individual person?

It is not to my purpose here to prove at length that there is not a single word spoken in it concerning the present church or spouse of the Gentiles; to which a great volume would be necessary. In order to be fully convinced on that head, so much labour is not necessary. It is sufficient merely to consider with attention, some one or other of the innumerable expressions which this divine song offereth to us. For example, “Thou art all fair, my love, there is no spot in thee,” Cant. iv. 7. If this solitary expression of praise (though there were no others of the like kind), which the husband giveth to the spouse, be certainty not capable of accommodation to the present church of the Gentiles, on this ground alone we would have a right to conclude that she is not at all spoken of anywhere in this divine song, but some one else much better, whom we, according to the Scriptures, should yet expect.

Haply you will say, that this praise, which the husband here bestows upon his spouse, doth well apply to the present Catholic church, which the Apostle designates “the pillar and ground of the truth,” because therein only is taught and practised the true faith “which worketh by love.” To which the brief answer is, that if this alone were ground enough for truly bestowing such praise on the church or present spouse, it ought likewise to be so for conferring the same praise upon the ancient church or spouse, which we commonly call the synagogue; who, in the time while she reigned, always and without interruption taught the true righteousness, and likewise practised it in very many of her members: from whom, or by means of whom, we have received and learned almost all the good which we possess. If she had not always taught true faith and true righteousness, it appears impossible that Messiah himself would have referred to her, thus teaching both the crowds and his own disciples; “Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples, saying, The Scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat: all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.” Matt. xxiii. 1-3.

You will likewise say, that the Apostle and Master of the Gentiles saith, that Christ delivered himself up to the bitter and ignominious death of the cross, “That he might present it to himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.” Eph. v. 27. Here also you may add, that the same Apostle in the same Epistle (i. 4.) says, to all and to every one of the Christians of whom the church consisted and was composed, that God had chosen them all “that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.” But what Christian can doubt of this truth? That most certainly was, is, and shall be the will of God, and the intention and design of the Redeemer. Consequently that is the vocation, and obligation of all the church, and all and every one of its members. And yet, it is not less certain and visible that this will of God hath not had its full effect until this present day, as it appears most certainly from the scriptures it shall one day have.

In sum, my Christophilus, let us not confound ideas, nor seek voluntarily to blind ourselves: the present church of Christ is doubtless a moral and mystical body, whose head, that is Christ, is perfectly holy, and holy the spirit which animates her, holy her faith, her morality, her laws, her sacraments, her means of salvation, “if any one shall use them carefully.” But all these things do not prove the fairness, the beauty, the righteousness, the sanctity of the Spouse; they only prove the goodness and the liberality of the husband towards her: consequently they prove very much in her favour, but none in his. More clearly thus: This moral and mystical body, whose head is Christ, is composed of innumerable members; amongst which the perfectly sound are and have ever been few, the weak and infirm very many, the useless and unserviceable without number, and the very bad and hurtful innumerable, is it not so, my good Christophilus? Hath it not ever been so (now more, now less, with slight variations) in all the ages, years, and months of the Christian era?

To this moral body, then, composed of wise and foolish virgins, of good and bad fishes, of faithful and unfaithful servants, of a little wheat, much chaff, and likewise many tares, would you dare to appropriate that word of highest praise, and so many more similar thereto, wherewith the divine Song aboundeth, “Thou art all fair, my love, there is no spot in thee?” I dare then say to you, in the language of the apostle and master of the Gentiles, “Your boasting is not good.” It appears that with greater foundation you might appropriate those other words which were spoken to the first spouse, who was not less satisfied with herself: “For though thou wash thee with nitre, and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord God. How canst thou say I am not polluted?” Jer. ii. 22,23. You will say that the idolatry of the former spouse is here spoke of: but, First, idolatry was not general to the whole spouse, but only to many of the members which constituted that moral body. Secondly, it is not idolatry alone that staineth and deformeth the soul, but iniquity of every sort. St. Paul, speaking of iniquity in general, and in particular of avarice, he saith that it is idolatry. (Col. iii. 5.)

§ 3. OF whom then are these words and so many of the like kind spoken? Who is this spouse, so holy as to bear the application of praises so high, as that higher can scarcely be imagined? I have sought for this holy spouse in all histories, sacred and ecclesiastical, but have not been able to find her. I have sought for her in the Prophets, from Moses to the Apocalypse, and no other do I find, after all my search, but that one only, still future, who is clothed with the sun, whom we considered at large in the VIIIth Phenomenon, whom we accompanied to the solitude, and whom we left there retired, quiet, and secure “from the face of the serpent.” When she shall issue from the solitude, and be espoused anew, under another testament and eternal covenant, which, according to the prophets, cannot happen till that most happy age which they themselves announce, or which is the same, in the new earth and new heaven. And then shall we find the spouse to whom so many commendations are addressed.

She is manifestly the same person who is spoken of in the fifty-fourth chapter of Isaiah, at the 6^th verse: “For the Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when thou wast refused, saith thy God…For this is as the waters of Noah unto me: for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth, so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee.” Isa. liv. 6. 9.

She is the same spoken of, Isa. li. 17, “Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup of his fury: thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling, and wrung them out” She is the same who is spoken of, Isa lii 2 “Shake thyself from the dust; arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem: loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion” Isa. lx. 15, “Whereas thou hast been forsaken and hated, so that no man went through thee, I will make thee an eternal excellency, a joy of many generations.” Jer. xxx. 17, “For I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the Lord; because they called thee an Outcast, saying, This is Zion, whom no man seeketh after.” Baruch v. 1, 2, “Put off; O Jerusalem, the garment of thy mourning and affliction, and put on the comeliness of the glory that cometh from God for ever. Cast about thee a double garment of the righteousness which cometh from God; and set a diadem on thine head of the glory of the Everlasting.” —These and a thousand other things altogether similar, are surely promised, and to be accomplished in their time, to this poor woman, now “deprived of her children and desolate, a captive, alone, and removing to and fro,” Isa. xlix. 21. In the times I mean, still future, of her fulness, of her restoration to favour, and her new espousals: and all these passages harmonize perfectly with those which are found in the Song of Songs. It would not serve my purpose to bring them all forward in this place; and therefore I content myself with giving a general idea of them, and pointing out some of the most distinct and luminous.

First: The holiness which the prophets announce in that time to this metaphorical woman or former spouse, of whom we speak, is so great as till now hath never been seen on our earth. If it has not yet been seen, it must necessarily be manifested at some future time, in “order that the prophets of God may be found faithful.” The expressions of these prophets apparently could not be more clear. Take these few amongst thousands. “And the Lord have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land. But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil-tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them when they cast their leaves, so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof.” Isa. vi. 12,13. If now you would know certainly who is here spoken of, you need take no more pains than read with moderate attention this same chapter, at least from verse 8; wherein you shall see announced most clearly the present blindness, deafness, and hardness of Israel; the duration of this hardness, deafness, and blindness; and likewise the end and termination of it. Whereupon you shall see, without its being possible to doubt it, that she “who had been forsaken,” and who has been and still is blind, deaf; and most obdurate, is the same who shall return, and be for observation (Vulg. in ostensionem), “I will also make thine officers peace, and thine exactors righteousness; violence shall be no more heard in thy land, thy people also shall be all righteous.” Isa. lx. 17. Thou wouldst likewise accommodate these things to the present church. But how? Are all in her righteous, have they ever been so, shall they at any time be come so? “The people which were left of the sword found grace in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest…And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more,” Jer. xxxi. 2. 34. “ In those days and in that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found: for I will pardon them whom I reserve.” Jer. 1. 20. “For as it was your mind to go astray from God: so, being returned, seek him ten times more. For he that hath brought these plagues upon you shall bring you everlasting joy again with your salvation,” Baruch iv. 28,29. “They shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them. And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they and their children, and their children’s children, for ever; and my servant David shall be their prince for ever. Moreover, I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore. My tabernacle also shall be with them; yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And the heathen [‘nations’ , that is Christian, because at that time these were all heathen] shall know that I the Lord do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore.” Ezek. xxxvii. 24-28. “Neither will I hide my face any more from them: for I have poured out my spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord God,” Ezek. xxxix. 29. “The remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity, nor speak lies: neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth…In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear thou not: and to Zion, Let not thine hands be slack. The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing,” Zeph. iii. 16, 17.

Compare now these few passages of the Prophets, and so many other’s quite similar, with all which is written under admirable figures and similitudes throughout the Song of Songs, and you shall find, or at least have a very great and strong suspicion, that the spouse of the Canticles is no other and can be no other than the spouse of the prophets. If she is one day to be so holy, that in all her borders “wickedness shall be heard no more;” if one day she is to be so holy, that though “sin be sought it shall not be found;” shall not the spouse, at such a time, be able to say of her with the greatest truth and propriety,” thou art all fair, my love, there is no spot in thee.” And shall he not be able, at that same time, to address to her with the greatest propriety and truth an infinite number of similar commendations with which the Song of Songs is full?

§ 4. BUT let us now observe some particulars in this Song, which it is impossible to accommodate to any spouse, except to her who comes up out of the wilderness.

First; The husband in this divine Song, who can be no other than Messiah, the Son of David and Son of Abraham, gives several times the name of sister along with that of spouse; “my sister, my spouse.” To whom doth this singular expression with all truth and propriety apply, save to the woman clothed with the sun, or to the former spouse in the time of her new espousals? She likewise gives to the spouse the name of brother, Chap. viii. 1. Assuredly, you will say, that Jesus Christ gives the name of brothers and sisters, and even of mother, to every one who should do the will of his Father: “For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.” Matt. xii. 50. Well; but I ask you then, if Jesus Christ, by these words spoken in such circumstances, did deny that he was the true Son, according to nature, of the holy Virgin Mary? Did he deny that that most holy and wonderful creature did the will of his Father? Did he deny that those were his parents, or, in the ordinary phrase of scripture, his brethren, who on that occasion accompanied his most Holy Mother? Surely not. So that what these words of Christ prove is simply this: that the spouse we speak of shall in those times have two true titles for which to deserve the name of sister, which the husband gives to her, and even that of mother, which he likewise gives to her, chap. iii. 15; the former because she was so in reality, both being children of Abraham and Sarah, of Isaac, and of Jacob; the latter because in that time the spouse shall fully and perfectly perform the will of her heavenly Father, and that in a way till then unheard of. Accordingly the same spirit of God declares and announces of her against that time, Isa. lxii. 4. “Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken;…but thou shalt be called Hephzibah,” that is, My delight in her: and, in ver. 12. “And they shall call them the holy people, the redeemed of the Lord.”

Secondly. Only to this spouse of whom we speak, and in the time and circumstances to which we refer, will those words, (Song of Solomon ii. 12.) “the voice of the turtle is heard in our land,” apply with any propriety. The voice or song of the turtle, appears to be nothing else than a continual lamentation and most sorrowful complaint; which has been almost all the occupation of the spouse during the whole time of her retirement and solitude, during which the spouse has spoken in her ears by means of her conductors, and to her heart. Being perfectly cured of her past blindness, deafness, and obduracy, that dense and cloudy veil whereof St. Paul speaketh, 2 Cor. iii. 14. being taken away; being at the same time, washed and clothed in celestial light as with a garment, in short, the whole mystery of her Messiah, and Messiah himself, according to the scriptures, being known, what else shall this holy and precious remnant employ herself withal, but in weeping and lamentation, imitating the moaning of the turtle? Weeping, I say, and lamenting both over the memory and remembrance of all that past before Messiah, and because of that horrible excess of his suffering and ignominious death, and from heartfelt thankfulness for the present mercy which is shown unto them, and in fine, from hearty love and ardent desire after Messiah himself. Which weeping and groaning is very clearly announced in the scripture of truth, against its own time. See what was said thereon in the Eighth Phenomenon, which treated expressly concerning the solitude of this woman.

Thirdly. To her, and to her only with any truth and propriety will these words apply which the husband uses when speaking of her, “Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness leaning on her beloved?” To this question (to which no answer is given in the Song,) Isaiah doth well reply in these words: “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel, and such as are escaped of the house of Jacob, shall no more again stay upon him that smote them; but shall stay upon the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. The remnant shall return, even the remnant of Jacob, unto the mighty God.” Isaiah x. 20,21. Combine now these words “such as are escaped of the house of Jacob,” with those others of the twelfth chapter of the Apocalypse, “and the woman fled into the wilderness,” and you shall find the same mystery which is contained in those words of the Song which we have now observed, “who is this that cometh up from the wilderness leaning on her be loved?” (Vulgate, and abounding with delights.) Now the abundance of delights with which the spouse cometh from the wilderness, is a necessary consequence of her coming leaning upon her beloved, or upon the Holy One of Israel in truth. Of this same affluence, the Psalms and the prophets speak most frequently, as we shall observe in due time.

Fourthly. “Who is this that cometh out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frank incense, with all powders of the merchant?” Song of Solomon iii. 6. Who does not perceive in this admirable metaphor the righteousness and heroic virtues wherewith the spouse appeareth adorned in the presence of her husband, upon her coming up out of the wilderness? By other similar and not less wonderful metaphors doth the spouse describe that same righteousness, those virtues of the spouse in various parts of this divine Epithalamium, particularly in the fourth chapter at the 10^th verse, how fair are thy breasts. (Vulg. or thy loves, as Pagnini and Vatablo read, and as it ought to be read according to the testimony of that modern, most learned in the Hebrew tongue, Signior Matei.) “How fair is thy love, my sister, my spouse!…a garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed…Awake, thou north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out.” Which is all included by the prophet, or the Holy Spirit that spake by his means in these words, in this formal promise made to the spouse, or to this holy and precious remnant. “I will accept you with your sweet savour, when I bring you out from the people, and gather you out of the countries wherein ye have been scattered.” Ezek. xx.41.

Fifthly. Finally, we make this simple and very short reflection: the husband in this Song whenever he speaks to the spouse, supposeth her in no other place than the desert and the wilderness, in mountains, in brakes, in woods, and caves of the earth, &c. This is a very grave circumstance and of the utmost weight. If we seek for this condition and find it not in all the spouses which till now have been imagined by the most ingenious minds, that were alone sufficient, though we had no other proof, to conclude at once that none of those spouses who till now have been thought of, is the spouse of the Song. And if this most weighty circumstance be clearly and palpably found from the scriptures to belong to this spouse, and if in her many other circumstances equally grave concur according to the same scriptures, and at the same time, all the expressions, forms of speech, and even words of the Song itself, ought not this to be a clear and manifest truth that the spouse of this song is the same with the spouse of the prophets? If she be the same with that of the prophets, she is likewise manifestly the same with that of the twelfth chapter of the Apocalypse, as we observed under the Eighth Phenomenon, who shall one day flee, fly, or be conducted to the wilderness, in order that God may speak there to her heart, instruct her, teach her, sanctify her, as is set forth in Isaiah, Hosea, Micah, and Ezekiel; and as is declared in that passage of the Apocalypse, that they may feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days. Upon the supposition of this spouse, every thing clears up, and all according to the scriptures, without this, away from this, nothing is clear.

From this desert and wilderness (doubtless after the expiration of the one thousand two hundred and three-score days) the husband calleth her right often, and ever with words and expressions full of love and tenderness, telling her to come forth and be crowned, for that the stern days of winter are past; that is, the times of her chastisement, her obscurity and tribulation, and likewise the days of her trial: “Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone…Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away. O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs:” Song of Solomon iii. 10-14. “Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse, with me from Lebanon; look from the top of Amana, from the top of Shenir and Hermon,” (all lofty and rugged mountains of Palestine,) “from the lions’ dens, from the mountains of the leopards.” Song of Solomon

iv. 8.

This coronation, to which the husband with such importunity calls the spouse, it appears from the same song, shall be mutual as the new espousals ought to be: I mean to say, that the husband is to crown the spouse, his sister; seeing for this end he calls her from the wilderness, “come and be thou crowned,” and at the same time he is crowned by her. Both of these truths are found most clear in the scriptures, as we shall immediately see. In the same way it appears that this espousal and coronation of these two brethren shall be most public and solemn, such as upon our earth has never been seen. All which anciently happened to that same spouse in the day of her youth, in her first espousal, in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, was but as the preliminary and the very obscure shadow of that which shall happen in the second espousal, of which whereof we now speak. There all was fear, terror, and dread, while a covenant was made with most rude persons, hardly superior to the beasts; insomuch that those persons who composed that spouse, asked as a favour, that the husband might not speak to them himself, but by means of Moses: “And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die.” Exod. xx. 19. Here all, on the contrary, shall be love, which doth cast out fear and dread: “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear.” 1 John iv. 18.

There, in that first espousal, the only witnesses and ministers were the angels: here, in the second espousal, the ministers, witnesses, partakers of the joy and jubilee of that most solemn day, shall not be the angels only, but likewise the whole court of the King —all the holy and heavenly Jerusalem, which hath just descended from heaven to our earth. Whereby are naturally understood, without any violence or artifice, those words of the epithalamium, or marriage song: “Go forth, O ye daughters of Zion, and behold king Solomon with the crown wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals, and in the day of the gladness of his heart.” Song of Solomon iii. 11. By which words is at once comprehended, not only the new and most glad espousal between the two brethren, but likewise the new coronation, as the peculiar King of the Jews, and as the King and Lord of all creation. Both crowns (the universal and the particular) are clearly and distinctly read of in the scriptures. The universal is most frequent in the Psalms and in the Prophets; and it were a shameful thing to be ignorant of it, or to doubt it. —The particular one may be seen in the ninth chapter of Isaiah, in the ninth chapter of Amos, at the 11^th verse, in the eighty-ninth and 132^nd Psalms; and, to be short, in the first chapter of the Gospel by St. Luke, at the 32^nd verse. The particular crown of the spouse herself, of whom we speak, may be seen throughout the fifth chapter of Baruch, where, among other things, these words are written: “Cast about thee a double garment of the righteousness which cometh from God; and set a diadem on thine head of the glory of the Everlasting. For God will show thy brightness unto every country under heaven.” Baruch v. 1,2. These words sound very lofty, and there is no reason to lower them, much less is there any for accommodating them to another spouse, of whom and to whom there is certainly nothing spoken in this place.

§ 5. IF the particulars which we have just observed convince you as to who is the true spouse of the song, I take upon me to assure you, that you will profit greatly in the understanding of that divine epithalamium, by comparing it continually with the Prophets and with the Psalms. I know likewise, that you will still meet with obscure and difficult matters, both from not understanding at once the true signification of the metaphors, or wonderful similitudes by which these obscurities are opened up, and likewise because, after having understood their substance, you will not be able without difficulty to confine them to the mystery and time whereof we speak. These particular things which are not many, held me also for no short period in suspense and indecision, until I adverted, or began to suspect that the spouse sometimes here relateth all that hath happened to her in the times of her blindness, of her darkness, of her widowhood, of her barrenness, of her transmigration, and dispersion among all nations.

For example, when she says in chapter iii. “By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not. I will rise now, and go about the city; in the streets, and in the broad ways, I will seek him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not.” Song of Solomon iii. 1,2. And is not this punctually what has happened to that unhappy one ever since she by her unbelief and wickedness did hide herself from the sun of righteousness and leave herself in darkness? Is not this the very thing which her Messiah did most clearly announce, when he said unto her, “Ye shall seek me, and shall not find me: and where I am, thither ye cannot come.” John vii. 34. Those who had these words, St. John continues, did say among themselves, (and they spoke the truth without understanding it:) “Whither will he go, that we shall not find him? will he go unto the dispersed among the Gentiles, and teach the Gentiles? What manner of saying is this that he said, Ye shall seek me, and shall not find me: and where I am, thither ye cannot come?” John vii. 35,36. On another occasion the Lord spake to them these words, taken manifestly from the 118^th Psalm: “For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” Matt. xxiii. 39. And St. Paul, fully instructed in the true meaning of the scriptures, saith expressly, “that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written.” Romans xi. 25, 26.

The spouse takes up the word and relateth what had past during those nights of her darkness, tribulation and grief, “the watchmen that go about the city found me.” Of those sentinels who guard the city, the spouse speaketh to several times, and in a very different manner. Whereby we may suspect that she speaks of two sets of sentinels, both metaphorical, yet very different personages. And who are these? History and daily experience seem to point them out to us as with the finger. Of the one class she saith, “The watchmen that went about the city found me, they smote me, they wounded me: the keepers of the walls took away my veil from me.” Solomon’s Song v. 7. These, as I think, cannot it seems be other than the nations among whom that unhappy one is dispersed, be they heathen, or Mahomedan, or Christian. Who that knows ought of history is ignorant of the great persecutions, tribulations, concussions, cruelties and barbarities which this miserable widow hath had to suffer in all the lands of her captivity? Who is ignorant that upon her have been accomplished to the very full, so many and such clear prophecies, as did announce to her that very fate from Moses even unto Malachi. “All (saith Jer. 1. 7.) that found them have devoured them; and their adversaries said, We offend not, because they have sinned against the Lord, the habitation of justice; even the Lord, the hope of their fathers.” These tribulations, it is clear and undeniable, have been the greatest and the cruellest among Christians, especially in times of ignorance and barbarism, when the sentinels, not knowing “what spirit they were of,” slew, burnt, and besought fire from heaven upon them, thinking that they did God service. To which the spouse seemeth to allude in the Song, saying, “the children of my mother fought against me.”

Of the other watchmen, she sayeth merely that having fallen in with them, she besought them saying, “saw ye him whom my soul loveth?” Here is the question, but the answer is wanting. The meeting with these watchmen we see, but no beatings nor cruelties do we see, only instead of any reply, a deep silence. And who can these be? To me the Rabbis or Hebrew doctors present themselves. Of whom, saith the spouse (chap iii.) she asked for her beloved, or asked of them sure marks of the Messiah, but received no information nor distinct reply. And is not this what comes to pass, and hath come to pass until this day? Wherefore she concludes by saying, “It was but a little that I passed from them, but I found him whom my soul loveth, I held him and would not let him go.” As if she had said, after that my teachers said nothing to me, nor gave me any clear idea of my beloved, after that I left them and despised them as most false and most ignorant masters, after that instead of hearing them, I heard Elias, “who indeed will come and restore all things,” and along with Elias, Moses and the prophets, Luke xvi. 31. then instantly at once I found him whom I desired, “it was but a little that I passed from them but I found him whom my soul loveth, I held him and would not let him go.”

If with this idea in the mind, the whole of this nuptial song be read, if it be judiciously and rightly combined with the prophets, and the Psalms, and with other scriptures of the New Testament neither few nor obscure, it appears to me certain that there will remain no insuperable difficulty in any part of this Song of Songs, but that it will all be found easy and plain, from the first word even to the last. A thing which doth not happen, nor can easily nor even possibly happen upon any idea, system, or mode of thinking, which till now hath obtained concerning this Song, not certainly carnal but spiritual, not human but divine, and I may add this one word more, a Song not for this age, or for that age, but for the age to come, in the new heavens and the new earth after Messiah shall return from heaven to our earth, having received a kingdom in glory and majesty. Read now the forty-fifth Psalm, and you shall understand it wholly.

O what things remain behind yet to be spoken, and what very important reflections I see myself constrained to omit! But may I not leave this defect to be supplied by learned and considerate readers? To whom for the present I refer, because I have neither time nor talent for so much.

The division of the Holy Land among the remnants of the twelve tribes of Jacob. The Jerusalem of the prophets still a sojourner: and her temple.

THE solitary woman having come up out of the wilderness, “as the dawning of the morning…leaning upon her beloved;” having held her new espousals under a new bond, even an everlasting covenant, with infinitely greater solemnity than that of the wilderness of Mount Sinai; having anointed and crowned her brother and her spouse as her own king, notwithstanding that he cometh crowned by his Father, the universal king of all creation, there ought straightway to follow a full and perfect accomplishment of those very great and magnificent promises of God, which we read so express and clear in the scriptures of truth, and which till now have not, nor could have obtained, consistently with scripture, their full and perfect accomplishment. Although those promises whereof I speak are little less than innumerable, we shall make our observations upon those three principal ones, from which all the rest do depend, or follow by natural consequence, and which on that very account are the most obscure (as they say), but it were perhaps better to say, the most repugnant, the most hostile, the most hurtful to the vulgar system. First: the new division of the Holy Land among the twelve tribes of Jacob, which hath never been seen in our earth. Secondly: the future Jerusalem, not certainly that which is to come down from heaven to our earth, and which we have already considered in the Sixth Chapter, but that which according to the scriptures is still to be a sojourner, and as such the sacerdotal city, the royal city, and as Jeremiah calleth it, Lam. i. 1. “The great among the nations, the princess among the provinces,” the capital and centre of unity, not only of the twelve tribes of Jacob, but likewise of all the inhabitants and sojourners of our earth.

Thirdly: the magnificent temple of this city, unique in its kind, with that which shall be therein, and therein only, can exist in those times consistently with God’s own commandment. These three very grave points whereof the prophets speak most frequently, (and from which all men shrink, fearing the entire ruin of their system) shall form the subject of the whole of this chapter.

§ 1. The Lord, by Ezekiel, in the last chapter, announceth a new division of the holy land among the remnants of the twelve tribes of Jacob, collected again by his almighty arm; which having not yet been accomplished, shall without any doubt be accomplished in its own time, for which it was announced. If you would know what time that is, read the prophet, from the thirty-seventh chapter through all the thirteen chapters which intervene before the last, and you shall find one and the same mystery constantly continued, which is the mystery, of the vocation and conversion of the remnant of Israel, with all those general and particular events which are to precede and to follow, according as we have observed above.

We know for certain that the division of the promised land, which was made in the time of Joshua, (besides which no other hath ever been made,) is infinitely different from this which is announced and prescribed by Ezekiel. That was as it were in different circles or spaces, and those very unequal, among themselves; wherein some tribes had a larger and some a smaller portion; some were established towards the sea coasts, others not a little distant from the same; some on this side, and others on that side of Jordan: whereas the division announced by Ezekiel is perfectly equal over all the tribes, all lying four-sided from east to west: and all these oblongs extending from a certain height far to the east of the sea until they terminate in the sea itself; they all proceed in the way of equal belts or stripes: whence it happeneth that to all and every one of them is assigned the same portion of territory, excepting the tribe of Joseph for his two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh; “because (saith the same prophet) Joseph shall have a double portion:” which privilege shall be retained, even in that time, for the patriarch Joseph, in virtue of the particular gift made to him by his father a short while before his death: “I have given to thee one portion above thy brethren.” Gen. xlviii. 49. The tribe of Levi is likewise excepted, to which Ezekiel assigneth a double measure, (Ezek. xlviii. 8-23.) notwithstanding that tribe anciently did not hold, nor by the law could hold, any possession among his brethren, because God only was his possession. To all which it ought to be added, that in the ancient division of the promised land, the tribes of Judah and Benjamin were the farthest to the south, as consequently were also Jerusalem and her temple: but in the division of Ezekiel, the tribe of Judah and Jerusalem are in the middle of all the tribes; and the holy land will extend much more to the south, “even to the waters of the strife of Kadesh,” Ezek. xlvii. 19. in order to make room for five tribes, which are to be planted to the south of Judah; those, to wit, of Benjamin, of Simeon, of Issachar, of Zebulun, and of Gad, which all, in the ancient division, lay partly to the north and partly to the west of Judah.

And what say the interpreters upon so clear a prophecy? How manage they to evade it? Some appeal to Babylon, and say, that literally it began to be fulfilled there; but that, in the allegorical sense, it hath its whole aim to the church. But how? I know not: but this I know, that the text is much more clear than the explanation which they try to give. Others, more spirited, would try to persuade us, that all the things we speak of, or the most part of them, will not admit of a literal sense. And why not? Is there any thing in the Holy Scriptures, or can there be any thing, which doth not admit, and which really holdeth not a literal sense? If any one passage be shown to me, I will at once open the Holy Bible and, fixing upon that which first occurs, will say with equal animosity, that what I read, be it what it may, admits not of a literal sense? Wherefore? Because there is not any reason, neither can be, why some things do admit a literal sense, (that is, a proper and genuine sense,) and others not.

All the things of which we speak, (I hear it answered,) do not admit, neither can admit, a literal, proper, and genuine sense; because they contradict, because they shock, because they annihilate, in sum, because they are not conceivable. But is this inconceivableness, this contradiction, this repugnancy, haply with some dogma of divine faith, or some other truth, already known and indubitable? No, Christophilus. If this were, I say not certain, but even probable, the catholic doctors would speak upon those things with a loud voice, and in a tone of security, as they have done, and with good reason, upon all points of faith; and they would show us, as with the finger, that truth of the divine faith, which these things in question do oppose and contradict.

So that all the difficulty and repugnancy consist solely in the vulgar system, upon which they all proceed, and from which they all set out, as from a solid and firm principle. But once raise this veil and draw aside this curtain, and immediately all difficulties disappear, and the truth of God, which was covered by this veil, is seen clear and manifest in all its splendour. The learned and pious Cornelius a Lapide hath the following words when speaking of the division of the holy land, contained in the last chapter of Ezekiel. —‘But how this division of Ezekiel’s lots is to be understood, or to be made, nobody explaineth, nor dare I conjecture.’ By which words it is seen, that all till his time had shunned these things. ‘Nobody explaineth:’ and, I add, that since the time of that learned man until this day, the same thing hath happened, —‘nobody explaineth:’ all shun, all fly it; as if the Holy Spirit had commanded all these things to be written, in order that those who read might avoid and flee away from them.

§ 2. The simple argument which we have just made upon this first point, we confidently extend to the two following ones. The capital city, of which Ezekiel speaks from the fortieth to the forty-eighth chapter, is evidently the same which is spoken of by almost all the other prophets, and more than of the rest, the holy king and prophet David, and after him Isaiah. This city of the prophets cannot be that which we have already considered in the sixth chapter, and which descended from heaven to our earth. The difference is palpable, if both cities be with any degree of attention compared with one another. St. John of his giveth all marks possible, to signify that it is a city composed entirely of risen and perfectly blessed saints. Ezekiel, on the contrary, gives all possible marks (as do also the other prophets) that the city of which he speaks is composed entirely of sojourners, righteous and holy, who have not seen death —nor yet passed through it. St. John says of his city, “And I saw no temple in it: for the Lord God and the Lamb are the temple there of.” Ezekiel, on the contrary, not only placeth a temple in the city whereof he speaks, but stops to detail at great length the structure of that temple, with all its measurements, with all its laws, and with all the particulars of the service which is to proceed therein according to God’s commandment. St. John saith of his city, which descended from the heavens, “And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there.” Rev. xxi. 25. Whereas Ezekiel, speaking of the eastern gates of his city, doth say of one of them, by which the glory of the Lord entered, “This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter in by it; because the Lord, the God of Israel, hath entered in by it, therefore it shall be shut. It is for the prince; the prince, he shall sit in it to eat bread before the Lord.” Ezekiel xliv. 2,3. And many other distinctive peculiarities you might easily find, by considering and comparing the one prophecy with the other.

Of this city of Ezekiel so much is spoken in the other prophets, that it would be an endless task to quote them all; some we pointed out in the fifth phenomenon; take now these few. —In the 102^nd Psalm it is said, “So the heathen shall fear the name of the Lord, and all the kings of the earth thy glory. When the Lord shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory…This shall be written for the generation to come: (or, as Pagnini and the Chaldee paraphrase read, ‘for the last generation;’) and the people which shall be created shall praise the Lord.” Psalm cii. 15-18.

The 122^nd Psalm, “I was glad when they said unto me,” is well worthy of consideration, as also the 147^th. The things which are spoken in these, and not a few other parts of scripture, do not square with the time of David, nor of the return from Babylon, as is most clear from sacred history. For example; “When the Lord doth build up Jerusalem, he shall gather the dispersed of Israel into one.” (Vulg. cxlvii. 2.) In the time of David Jerusalem stood built up, and there were yet no dispersions of Israel. In the return from Babylon, although Jerusalem was built up anew, the dispersions of Israel were not gathered, nor have been, till this day, but only some few pertaining to the kingdom of Israel.

In Isaiah you shall find such things, so great, so new and unheard of, concerning the future Jerusalem still sojourning upon the earth, that this prophet alone will make you to forget almost every thing besides which we have read. Read, at least, the sixtieth and sixty-second chapters, without being

affrighted, or being driven back by the violent explanations which the doctors give. After this perusal, and an attentive consideration, I intreat you, my dearest Christophilus, not voluntarily to shut your eyes to light so clear. Observe now, that I here make use neither of reflections, nor of any artificial reasoning; I only invite thee to read with thine own eyes the sacred text with all its context.

In Jeremiah you shall find, in chapters iii. xxx. xxxi. and xxxii. things very particular, great, and remarkable; amongst which consider well the words I now place before you. “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. And the measuring line shall yet go forth over against it upon the hill Gareb, and shall compass about to Goath. 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 towards the east, shall be holy unto the Lord; it shall not be plucked up, nor thrown down any more for ever.” Jer. xxxi. 38-40.

These last words appear to be the proper and natural key to all this prophecy. Consider now the great extent which Jeremiah gives to the city of which he speaks, and which the ancient Jerusalem never had: for mount Calvary, Gareb, the valleys of the sepulchres and of the ashes, where the ashes of the temple were scattered abroad, were always beyond, and never within, the walls of Jerusalem. This is so weighty a difficulty, that all perceive, but no one resolves it.

Finally, to be brief, read the whole of the eighth chapter of Zechariah, bearing in mind that it was written long after the return from Babylon; consequently all refuge to the return from Babylon and to that Jerusalem which was then built in difficult times, must be here altogether out of the question. Consider, then, these words: “Thus saith the Lord; I am returned unto Zion,” or, “I will return,” as it is in the original, “and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth; and the mountain of the Lord of hosts the holy mountain…If it be marvellous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in these days, should it also be marvellous in mine eyes? saith the Lord of hosts…Behold, I will save my people from the east country, and from the west country…And I will bring them, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem…And it shall come to pass, that as ye were a curse among the heathen, O house of Judah, and house of Israel; so will I save you, and ye shall be a blessing.” Zech. viii. 3, 6-8, 13.

Continue to read this chapter to the end, and it appears to me certain, that you shall not find any one thing in it which hath been verified up to this day. And if you will read to the fourteenth chapter you shall find in it (verse 8 to the end) another key and most certain sign of the times which are there spoken of: for example, “And men shall dwell in it, and there shall be no more utter destruction; but Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited.” Zech. xiv. 11. See if those who returned came from the east and from the west, and if they dwelt so securely in the midst of Jerusalem.

The great and only difficulty which is opposed to this Jerusalem whereof we speak, and whereof so many scriptures speak, is that text of Daniel (chapter ix. 27.) which says of the Jerusalem destroyed by the Romans after the death and rejection of Messiah, ‘even until the consummation and the end shall the desolation continue.’ Vulg. But this, the only difficulty, hath already been resolved in the phenomenon of Jerusalem, to which I have nothing to add, and nothing to take away from it, and therefore do simply refer to it.

§ 3. I AM not ignorant, O Christophilus, that those two points which we have just considered, though very grave, are not those which give you the most trouble, nor appear to you the most repugnant, in all this large prophecy. The new division of the holy land among the twelve tribes of Jacob, and the new Jerusalem in the midst of them, might, in your opinion, be in some degree tolerable in another distant age, were there not added by the same prophet, and that with equal and even greater clearness, a third thing, which is —the temple, described with an exactness and prolixity so great as to appear excessive; and much more that which he announces and even appoints to be done against those times in that very temple; to wit, several, or even many of the ancient sacrifices and ceremonies.

This temple, you say, as it were with trembling, —this new temple, with these august sacrifices and ceremonies, if it is meant to be taken in the literal sense, carries along with it most weighty objections and inconveniences which have obliged the Christian doctors of all ages absolutely to interdict this literal sense, without, however, directly denying or impugning it. But why so many fears to believe and hope in that which God himself hath with so much clearness announced and promised against another time? Why so many fears, O Christophilus, where there is nothing to fear?

It cannot be, I hear you reply; because, granting that we should tolerate a new temple of a new Jerusalem yet to be, there appear along with them these intolerable sacrifices, ancient rites, and ceremonies showing themselves, as it were arisen from the dead and reestablished anew in that very temple. The reason of this repugnancy (you continue) consists in and rests upon a truth; which is —that the ancient sacrifices of the ancient temple of Jerusalem, with all those which were offered to the true God from the time of the righteous Abel to that of the righteous Noah, and from that time until Moses, have already been rejected by God himself, as being all mere figures of the sacrifice of Christ upon the cross; which being once consummated, the things which figured it must thenceforth cease and wholly disappear. This, Christophilus, is all your argument: and I do not wonder at it; because, as theologians acknowledge no other Christian church than the present, nor any other time or age than that which now is, we ought not to marvel that they should find in all these things whereof we do now speak, (as in so many others which we have already considered,) great and insuperable difficulties. But such of us as do not speak of the present state of the Christian church, which hath obtained and shall obtain until the glorious coming of the Lord; such of us as hope for another very different state thereof, another age, a new earth and new heavens, “wherein dwelleth righteousness,” and this not after any arbitrary ideas of our own, but solely “according to his promise,” do find no repugnance, no difficulty which doth not disappear at the first breath, and upon the first reflection. Let us, however, proceed in order.

§ 4. IN the first place we ask, were the sacrifices and the other rites which by divine institution were offered to the true God in the temple of Jerusalem, prohibited in the Christian church? They all answer yes, and I believe so likewise. We ask, moreover, were they absolutely and forever prohibited by any direct law divine or ecclesiastical? It certainly appeareth not. For neither in the writings of the apostles, nor in the canons of the church doth any such law appear, nor hath there ever been a necessity for it. On the other hand, we know with all certainty, that while the temple of Jerusalem remained, that is, till about forty years after the foundation of the Christian church, the legal sacrifices were carried on as they ever had been without any change. The Christians who lived in that city, and those who came thither from abroad, the apostles themselves, and even the apostle of the Gentiles, frequently entered into that temple, as into the temple of the true God, offered prayer in it, assisted at the various sacrifices thereof, purified themselves according to the law, and in everything conformed without scruple to that which others did; a thing which they could not have done neither would have done if there had been any positive law against it.

How then were the ancient sacrifices and other rites of the ancient temple of the Jews prohibited, and how are they unlawful in our church? They are so because from the time that the temple of Jerusalem was founded, it was prohibited by God himself to offer sacrifice anywhere but in it. There being, then, no temple in Jerusalem, no sacrifice could be offered. So that the prohibition of the ancient sacrifices is indirect, and therefore it is those sacrifices were likewise prohibited in the time of the captivity of Babylon; and therefore they shall continue prohibited from the time that the temple was overthrown by the Romans, until the end and the consummation of this age; because till then according to Daniel’s prophecy, chap. ix. ver. 27. the destruction of the temple of Jerusalem is to continue; but if after that great epoch the city and its temple come to be rebuilt again, as it clearly appeareth from the scripture they will, then at that time altogether new may the legal sacrifices which were therein offered return without any hindrance, provided indeed no new prohibition of God, whereby he manifests his will, should oppose the same. And shall there then be such a prohibition or not? Undoubtedly not, because the prophecy formally assures us in clear and precise terms, that in that time, and in that temple, which they likewise announce, not only shall they not be forbidden, but they shall take place by God’s good pleasure, and even command. Is not that enough to quiet our vain fears and scruples? would we forsooth give laws to God himself, and bind up his hands?

As God when he required sacrifices from his people with certain laws and ceremonies, and in a certain determinate place, did bind men and not himself, but remained in full and perfect liberty, to command anything else, when and how it pleased him; so in like manner when he indirectly prohibited the same sacrifices, by commanding that only place whereto he had linked them to be destroyed, he did prohibit men and not himself, and doth remain in most full and perfect liberty to return and enjoin them again in that time and in those circumstances which may please him, ‘thus God commanded the things of the law, not to set a law unto himself, but unto men.’ (St. August…quest. 36 in Judices.) So that when he ordered those rites, he did not bind himself never to relinquish them, and when, for the most righteous causes, he did abandon them, why shouldest thou oblige him never to return and institute them again, and this notwithstanding he himself hath declared and promised it by the mouth of the prophets?

§ 5. I AM not ignorant, O Christophilus, of the answer which thou wilt make to all this, neither am I ignorant of the various subtle, ingenious, and likewise religious and pious ways whereby you endeavour to escape from this, and fly with honor from the most enormous weight of divine authority which is brought on the other side, and which you cannot deny. You answer, then, first according to the literal sense, that this great and prolix prophecy of Ezekiel, as well as several others, which seem to announce legal sacrifice against a future time, do only respect the coming from Babylon, and that Jerusalem and temple, which existed thereafter. But I see that this sense, which thou callest literal, cannot go along with the text so much as two steps, and thou thyself dost confess, either by thy silence or thy declaration, that it is an absolutely impossible attempt to reconcile them, being opposed to all sacred history, and even to common sense. If it were possible to accommodate these things to that return out of Babylon, by this means alone would the great difficulty be overcome, and there would be no reason for making so much work about the obscurity of the last chapters of Ezekiel.

All refuge to the coming out of Babylon being then absolutely cut off, you have your next recourse in pure allegory, whereby at least to say something which may be for edification. You assure us that the city as well as the temple of Ezekiel, and whatever is announced and prescribed therein, the Holy Spirit doth take merely as a shadow or figure of our present church; and by this figure, and under these similitudes, chiefly intendeth to signify our church, and that worship which shall be offered therein to the end of the world, for which the only proof which you quote to me is from certain homilies of St. Gregory upon Ezekiel. Yes, friend, I have read those homilies, or panegyrics of our church, and have found therein very many good, pious, and ingenious things, sincerely accommodated, and all full of good moralities. The same I have found, though in a different manner, set forth in the exposition of St. Jerome; but, to speak the truth, neither in the one, nor in the other of those doctrines, do I find the prophet Ezekiel or his prophecy. That which they say concerning this large prophecy, is no doubt holy, good, and edifying: but it appears likewise indubitable, that the whole of it is very foreign from the prophecy itself, and incapable of edifying any one who seeks what is really announced therein: and for this very reason you recur finally to the last castle, which appears to you most strong and even impregnable; which is reasoning, and you argue hence, —The legal sacrifices with all which was offered to the true God, from the time of Adam until Moses, were figures of the sacrifice of Christ upon the cross; which sacrifice being accomplished, those ought to cease, and to remain not only useless, but proscribed and unlawful, not being able, without an egregious falsehood, to figure as future, that which is not future, but present or past. To this terrible argument (which hath indeed appeared such to many) I reply very shortly, by these two questions. First, were the ancient sacrifices, whether legal or not legal, mere figures of the sacrifice of Christ upon the cross, and nothing more? Secondly, can that which was the figure of a thing future never in any case remain in life and co-existence with that which it figured? The one of which suppositions appears as false as the other.

With respect to the first; if we read sacred history, and the histories of all nations, we find no other origin of sacrifices, save the intimate persuasion of men upon the existence of a God, and their entire dependence upon that infinite Being, who had created them, and from whose beneficence they received whatever they possessed. Accordingly it is found that sacrifices began with man, and God received them graciously, while they proceeded from a simple, faithful, grateful, religious, and pious heart. God as being infinitely great and most blessed in himself, hath certainly no need of the obsequies and sacrifices of man. But man ever feeleth the obligation and necessity of paying homage to his God, and offering external marks of his faith, of his reverence, of his thankfulness, and entire dependence. And in what other way more simple, or more natural, could he give those outward signs, than by offering to God sacrifices in honour and worship of him, or consecrating some portion of that which he received from his hand.

It is true that the ancient sacrifices, as well which preceded the law as which God enjoined to his people, had no virtue or operation in themselves, whose effect did wholly depend upon the faith, piety, and sincere heart of the offerer. So saith the scripture, “And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering: but unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect.” Gen. iv. 4,5. And why so? Not certainly because of the diversity of the offerings or sacrifices, but the diversity of their hearts. Even in the temple of Jerusalem, sacred history saith to us, that sometimes God accepted the offerings which were offered to him there, as in the times of Solomon, of Hezekiah, of Josiah, of Nehemiah, &c. and in other times he gave clear demonstration of the very contrary.

Whence, in my opinion, it follows, that the sacrifices by which anciently external worship was offered to the true God, as well before as after Moses, were not mere figures, were not instituted and ordained solely in order to figure or signify the sacrifice of Christ upon the cross, but likewise and primarily for other righteous, religious, and pious, and in these times, necessary ends. Because if they had only been instituted to figure the sacrifice of Christ upon the cross, God would have revealed this secret to some one of his ancient friends, in which case there would have remained in the scriptures some clear and indubitable vestiges of that institution, and of the only end for which it was intended, which however we do not find. Moreover, in this case the ancient sacrifices would have been acceptable to God on account of that which they figured, even though in another respect he might be offended at the iniquity and unworthiness of those who brought them. And consequently he would not have said by Isaiah, “To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats…Bring no more vain oblations: incense is an abomination unto me.” Isa. i. 11.13. Certain it is that God spake not so of the sacrifice of righteous Abel, nor of that of Noah, nor of that of Abraham, nor of that of Melchisedek; but on the other hand the scripture, speaking of Noah’s sacrifice, saith, “and God smelt a sweet savour.” Gen. viii. 21. And the church, in the canon of the mass, prayeth to God that he would accept that sacrifice, “as thou didst deign to accept the offerings of thy righteous child Abel, and the sacrifice of our patriarch Abraham, and that which was offered to thee by Melchisedek the high priest,” and finally God himself, would have prohibited them as useless and even prejudicial, from the moment that he expired on the cross. Which all indicates that the primary and immediate end of the institution of the ancient sacrifices was, “that God might be worshipped, and that the mind of the worshipper might be ordered of the Lord.” Nor therefore is the secondary and indirect end denied, to wit, the signifying or prefiguring of the sacrifice of Christ upon the cross; which indeed is found expressly declared in scripture itself. (Heb. ix. 10.) If any one, nevertheless, would persuade us that this last end was the main one in the mind of God, and that other the secondary one, I do not purpose entering into a dispute no less troublesome than useless, and which would bring no furtherance to my purpose.

My second question is this: May that which was the figure of some future thing, never co-exist well with that same thing which it figured? I do not find in this any repugnancy, but it appears to me a thing which may easily enough happen; and I could even produce here not a few examples of it (which I will not tarry long in pointing out), it being sufficient for the present occasion that the temple of Jerusalem itself, and the sacrifices which were therein offered by divine appointment to the true God, were figures of the sacrifice of Christ upon the cross. Well: I believe this, and I hold it to be indubitable; and yet for all this, I know for certain that this very temple, which for so many ages had figured our church, did co-exist with it, when founded, established, and propagated in Asia, Africa, and Europe, for much about the space of forty years. I know in like manner, that the sacrifice of Christ upon the cross having been most fully verified, the sacrifices of that temple did not cease, but continued without any alteration to be observed with the same solemnity, and with those very ceremonies which were instituted and commanded by God himself.

You will doubtless say, that in these forty years neither the temple nor its sacrifices signified or prefigured any future thing; seeing that which for so many ages they had signified and prefigured, was no longer future, but present and past; and consequently they were as if they had not been. Nevertheless, I say, that same temple, which so many years had figured, and now did not figure, a future thing, still existed, and was really the temple of God, and was a house of prayer: that Christians having “the first fruits of the Spirit,” entered into it, prayed in it, and in it adored the true God. Of St. James, the very bishop of Jerusalem, it is said, in his history, “that to him alone was it permitted to enter into the Holy of Holies.” If this is true, to what purpose did that holy bishop enter the temple, if the temple was then as if it was not? After a similar manner we reason of the sacrifices. That which they did signify and prefigure was now fully verified, and yet the sacrifices continued the same as before, in honour and worship of the true God, until the Romans destroyed the temple; nor had the Christians any scruple to assist at these sacrifices. To all which may be added that which St. Luke saith; “And a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith,” Acts vi. 7; which priests I have no doubt neither quitted the ministry of the temple nor were deprived of it: and withal upon this point the sacred historian declareth nothing.

From all this, and a thousand other reflections, which it were easy to make upon this point, it appeareth to me, that we may legitimately conclude, both, that the temple of Jerusalem, with its sacrifices and other rites, were not figures only, or mere significations of the future, and that even though they had been so, they might very well co-exist with that which they figured.

§ 6. FEAR not, O Christophilus, that in this our present church, before the glorious coming of the Lord, there shall ever have to be offered to the true God, the legal sacrifices of the ancient dispensation: nor as little do thou think for a single moment, that I am capable of advancing so manifest an absurdity. The prophets of God, who so often and with such clearness announce another Jerusalem, still future and certainly in the state of a sojourner, another temple (in part, but not wholly), similar to the first, and some of the sacrifices which then were offered, do not speak these things of this time, nor of this present church, nor of this day of men: in short, they do not speak of this old earth, and these old heavens, or climes of the heavens, in which we have abidden since the deluge of Noah; They speak only of the new earth and new heavens, “which according to the promise we look for;” for otherwise they would be contradictory to themselves.

As the ancient temple of Jerusalem, and Jerusalem itself, cannot be built according to the scriptures, so long as this age shall continue, this the time of the Gentiles, this old earth which we live in; as there is no reason to apprehend at present any such sacrifices in the temple of Jerusalem; what have we to fear at present, when we knew that Jerusalem and its temple shall remain destroyed until the consummation and the end? Whence we infer (and this is a true apology for the Christian doctors who have touched these points, from the fourth century until this day), that those who, being affrighted by the great and terrible phantasm of the Millenarians, did reject a future age, another day, another new earth and new heavens, another great space of time between the glorious coming of the Lord and the judgment or the general resurrection, have all had the best reason for being so much alarmed, and for endeavouring to put to flight or to interdict everything which we read in the prophets of God, concerning the future Jerusalem, and concerning its temple and its sacrifices, &c.

But this true phantom having vanished, what have we to fear? Who has asked our dictate or good pleasure, in order that God may do, or have it in his power to do, in another and a different age, or in another earth wholly new, whose government concerns us not? God will then do whatever he pleaseth, and all with infinite wisdom. He will do things new and unheard of till this day: “And he who sat upon the throne said, Behold I make all things new.” He will do things which now we are incapable even of imagining; and amongst these he will undoubtedly likewise do all that he hath announced and promised for that time, “by his servants the prophets;…because it is impossible for God to lie.”

Consequently, there will be in those times, and in that new earth, a city called Jerusalem, the capital and centre of unity; there will be in this capital city a magnificent temple, neither more nor less than as Ezekiel describeth it; there will be deposited in that new temple the very sacred ark of the old covenant, the tabernacle, and the altar, which Jeremiah, being “warned of God,” hid in a cave of Mount Nebo, prophesying at the same time, “As for that place, it shall be unknown until the time that God gather his people again together, and receive them unto mercy. Then shall the Lord shew them these things, and the glory of the Lord shall appear, and the cloud also, as it was shewed under Moses, and as when Solomon desired that the place might be honourably sanctified.” 2 Mac. ii. 8. In sum, there shall come again to be performed in that temple, and there only, that which is now so much feared, as if it were spoken concerning us, to wit, some or many of the ancient sacrifices and ceremonies.

But to what end (I hear you in the last place make answer), to what end is this new temple (still Christian, as is supposed), and these antiquated sacrifices and ceremonies of the old covenant? To what end should there come to be placed in it the same ark, the same tabernacle and altar which were made in the desert, “according to the pattern which was shewed to Moses in the mount?” Oh, my Christophilus! Put this question to the Holy Spirit —not to me. What, would you that I should know the ends and counsels of God? “For who hath known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been his counsellor?” “And yet permit me to say, in the words of Christ, “If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.” Mark ix. 23. If thou canst sincerely believe all these things, and others the like, which thou readest clear and express in the scriptures of truth, thou shalt not find any such difficulty in understanding them. But if thou wouldst first understand, if, in order to believe them, thou dost expect to see them all harmonize with a system which thou hast forged; in this case, it appears impossible thou shouldst understand them. On the contrary, all these things being once believed, thy simple and humble faith will become a solid and firm principle, upon which thou mayest labour with good hope, in the understanding of those ends or counsels of God; by help at least of certain reasonings from congruity and some prudent conjectures. One such offereth itself to me, which I now proceed to lay before thee for thy consideration, leaving a wide field open for thee to range over in quest of better. It is as follows.

The ancient sacrifices which, according to the scriptures, shall come to re-appear in the future age, in the new earth, in the new and last temple of Jerusalem, will be nothing else than a new and most wise liturgy instituted and ordained by the Eternal High Priest, Jesus Christ. They will be, I say, nothing else than ceremonies, not only significant, but clearly demonstrative, and which shall in that individual temple, and in that only, precede the bloodless sacrifices of the Eucharist. And why this? In order that the ancient figures may once meet and embrace that which they foreshewed; in order that those figures may at some time be seen close at hand, and being brought face to face with the original then present, may be all understood with clear apprehension, and the infinite wisdom of God be admired and blessed in their institution.

What findest thou to blame or to wonder at in this conjecture? In the present liturgy, wisely instituted by the church, doth not the reading of the prophecies which announce it, expressly or figuratively, oft-times precede our very holy sacrifice? and is it not often preceded by many old and new ceremonies, more or less significant of the same sacrifice? In the last supper of the Lord, did not the legal rites immediately precede the institution of the Eucharist? What repugnancy, then, or what absurdity can be imagined in presenting to God in those times, in that age, and in that only temple, the true and most holy sacrifice of the body and blood of Jesus Christ, preceded by the rites of the law which prefigured it? What repugnancy, that the very ark of the old covenant, where were deposited not only the two tables of stone written “with the finger of the living God,” but likewise a pot of manna, the figure of our sacrament, should then serve for the laying up and perpetual preservation of the same sacrament? What repugnancy, in short, that in that time, and in that age altogether new, should be verified all that the prophet Ezekiel foretells with so much diffuseness and prolixity? If it be not verified then, when shall it be verified?

Thou sayest here (what must needs occur to every one) that St. Paul (1 Cor. xi.) asserts, that the sacrifice of the body and blood of Christ shall continue only until he come. “For as oft as ye eat this bread, and drink of this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come.” Consequently, after he is come, there will be no more offering of this sacrifice of righteousness, nor, therefore, of the ancient rites. This small difficulty is easily resolved, simply by understanding the proper and genuine signification of the adverb, ‘until,’ (donec) either in the latin language, or still more in the phrase of Holy Scripture: e.g. “Sit at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool.” These words of the 110^th Psalm, it is most certain, do not mean that after the enemies of Christ have been put under his feet he will cease to be seated at the right hand of God; for this rest, honour, or glory is to be eternal. In the same sense, saith St. Matthew, speaking of St. Joseph (i. 25.) “And he took unto him his wife; and knew her not till she had brought forth her first-born son.” And yet the perpetual virginity of this our Lady, is a point of divine faith; consequently the until, doth not signify in these passages the termination of that which is announced. In like manner may we say of the till he come of St. Paul. It doth not mean that when the Lord shall come, he shall entirely take away the sacrifice of his body and blood, but simply that it shall never fail throughout the space of time which is to intervene between its institution and the glorious coming of the Lord. This, and no other, is, in my opinion, the true sense of the text of St. Paul.

§7. RETURNING now to that which we said above, that is, to the concurrence which will take place, or which may take place in that time, and in that temple only, between the bloodless sacrifice of the body and blood of Christ, with the ancient rites, it appears to me that I see the same very clearly announced in several passages of scripture. Of which two or three follow.

First. In the 51^st Psalm I read these words, “Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem. Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness; with burnt offering, and whole burnt-offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.” Psalm ii. 18,19. What sacrifice of righteousness (Vulg. sacrificium) can this be which God will accept, together with oblations, holocausts, and calves, when the walls of Jerusalem shall be built up? The explanation which you give to these words comes to this, that God will accept the sacrifices which are made to him by a pious heart. But hath the sacrifice which proceedeth from a righteous and pious soul never been accepted of God before he had a temple in Jerusalem. Do the sacrifices of animals deserve the illustrious name of ‘sacrifices of righteousness.’ Others well perceiving the great difficulty, judge (as seemeth to me rashly) that these words were added to the Psalm by the captives of Babylon. But from what history worthy of faith do they derive this piece of knowledge? And though it were granted, what sacrifice of righteousness did they offer to God, who returned from Babylon? The same as formerly, without any innovation; others, finally, and those the most numerous, betake themselves here to the ordinary refuge, which is allegory “that the walls of Jerusalem shall be built,” that is, the Christian church, in which God will accept the sacrifice of righteousness, which can be no other than that which Christians offer. According to this opinion the whole burnt-offerings, and the calves, which are laid upon the altar of God, should also be allegorical holocausts and calves.

Secondly. In Malachi, it is said, “Behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts: but who may abide the day of his coming?…for he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fuller’s soap:…and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. Then shall the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord, as in the days of old, and as in former years.” Malachi

iii. 1-4.

I am not ignorant, Christophilus, of the very obscure and violent interpretation which you pretend to give of these words, in order, if possible, to accommodate them to the first coming of the Lord. Your principal and only foundation which carries any favourable appearance is, that Jesus Christ himself speaking of John the Baptist, quotes the first verse of this third chapter of Malachi saying expressly that he spoke of St. John. “For this is he of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.” Matt. xi. 10. See also Luke vii. 27.

To this argument it is answered that Jesus Christ quotes the first verse of this prophet, with the best reason and highest propriety, because in it St. John the Baptist is manifestly spoken of. But in this first verse is it St. John the Baptist alone that is spoken of? This is what I deny. Of what other messenger then, or envoy extraordinary is it here spoken? It is manifestly and properly spoken, my worthy Sir, of the prophet Elias, and of his mission still future, and at the same time, though indirectly and secondarily, of the mission of St. John the Baptist; who came, as saith the gospel, “in the spirit and power of Elias;” (Luke i. 17.) St. Mark begins his gospel with the preaching of St. John the Baptist, for which he quotes not only the text of Malachi, whereof we now speak, but likewise the third verse of the fortieth chapter of Isaiah, “the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert an highway for our God;” and there is no doubt that in both texts, the mission of the Baptist is announced, “in the power of Elias;” but principally that of Elias himself, in his appointed time. Read the whole context of both prophecies, and I feel persuaded that it will be sufficient to open your eyes. The context of Malachi you will finish by reading onwards from the first to the fifth verse; the context of Isaiah you can see in that which precedes and follows the particular text quoted by St. Mark, which is the third verse of the fortieth chapter as is mentioned above. It is sufficient to read those three first verses, in order to know the times whereof this prophet speaks directly or indirectly, to wit, the times of the future mission of Elias, and secondarily, and indirectly, the times now passed of the mission of St. John, who appeared in the world “in the spirit and power of Elias.”

“Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins. The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” Isa. lx. 1-3. In the time of St. John Baptist the warfare of Jerusalem (or of Israel, of which it was the capital) was not accomplished, nor was her iniquity pardoned, nor had she received “double for all her sins;” because that double she hath suffered even until this day, and continues to suffer, without knowing how long it is to endure. “The voice of one crying in the wilderness” was certainly verified in the mission of St. John, and shall yet be more completely verified in the mission of Elias; by means of which Jerusalem shall be called, with whatever is comprehended under that name. Then he shall speak comfortably to her, and pardon all her past iniquity, as to one that hath received double for all her sins.

This appeareth to be the manifest and palpable sense of that prophecy (and the same I say of that of Malachi): which Jesus Christ himself expressly confirmed, when he said, speaking of St. John Baptist, “Elias indeed hath come, and they knew him not, but did unto him whatever they pleased:” but in order that no one might confound the spirit and power of Elias, in which St. John came as the forerunner of his first coming, with the very person of Elias which shall come as the precursor of his second, he added, “Elias shall indeed come, and restore all things,” Matt. xvii. 11: whereby, continues St. Matthew, the disciples knew that in speaking of Elias, he spake likewise of John; “then his disciples understood that he spake to them of John the Baptist.” So that the first verse of Malachi certainly speaketh of the future preaching of Elias. The four following verses cannot be applied to the times of St. John, or to the first coming of the Lord, because in these times was not fulfilled, neither till now hath been fulfilled, anything therein contained. “Behold he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts: but who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fuller’s soap: and he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.” Mal. iii. 1-3.

These expressions do all appear very improper and utterly foreign to that sweet and pacific, humble and plain style in which the Lord appeared the first time on the earth, when he came in suffering flesh. Who far from purifying the sons of Levi, as silver and gold are purified, left them for the most part in all their uncleanness, wherein they continue until this day. Then they did not offer unto God sacrifices in righteousness. Fix now your eyes upon the second coming of the Lord, which the mission and preaching of Elias are to precede, and you shall at once understand when and how the Lord will purify the sons of Levi, as gold in the crucible, that is, during the forty and two months of solitude and penitence, in which the relics of Levi will be truly, most regarded. Then those relics of Levi, now purified and sanctified, shall offer unto God sacrifices in righteousness. It may be good here to remark that the prophet speaks in the plural number, sacrifices; and it is certain, that in the present church (to which they would accommodate all this) has not had, neither hath, nor can have, more than one sacrifice, which is the body and blood of Christ. But in those future times, whereof this prophecy speaketh, it will be possible to have, and then only to have the present sacrifice conjoined with the old one, and both in true righteousness. On all which accounts, the spouse shall in those times be able to say, with all truth and propriety, those words which are already entered into the Song of Songs: “The new and the old, which I have laid up for thee, O my beloved.” Cant. vii. 13.

I conclude this point with a luminous passage of that very learned author, Antonio Vieyra, whose manuscript work, “Concerning the consummation of Christ’s kingdom upon the earth,” I have at length had it in my power to read. In the second volume, chap. xi. he treats diffusely of Ezekiel’s temple and of everything therein announced, and of the six modes which he proposes for the literal understanding of that temple, the third is in substance the same which I have just thrown out. It is true that his system begins from a false principle, in supposing that Jerusalem and her temple may come to be built before the coming of the Lord and the consummation of this age: but setting this aside, that learned man says, ‘What inconvenience is there in the figure and the thing figured being joined together? May not Alexander the Great and his picture meet together in his palace? In the very supper, and even in the very mass, were not the paschal lamb and the august sacrament of the altar found joined together? Nothing then, is there of repugnancy in the idea that in that future temple, the shadow and the truth, the figure and that which it figured, should be seen together: and in order that we may not thereby be startled, this learned man goes on to relate what he himself saw at Rome.

“I assert a thing which I remember to have seen in the course of the year of our salvation, 1650: that by Innocent X. in the church dedicated to the name of Jesus, upon occasion of the solemnity of the forty hours, there was erected with all wonted magnificence, a most spacious theatre, set off with artificial lights; of which the effect is to augment the prospect; and therein was the temple of Solomon represented in a wonderful way. In the lower part Solomon himself was to be seen with the ministering priests and Levites, offering sacrifice according to the ritual of his country: but in the upper part there shone forth from the midst of a cloud, clothed around on every side with radiance, the true bread which cometh down from heaven, consecrated according to the Christian rites, to which alone with bendings of the body and beatings of the breast, adoration was offered by an innumerable multitude of citizens and foreigners gathered together. Than which no device can be conceived or framed more worthy of representing the temple of Ezekiel, and its legal sacrifices joined in harmony with the faith of the present church and the law of grace. For there, the figure and the thing figured, the sun and the shadow, the one sacrifice and the many sacrifices, were seen together:…that the true, these the adumbrations of the true; that for worship and adoration, these for pomp merely and appearance. Now, if in that theatre the sacrifice of Christ, not future, but sometime prefigured and now present, did show forth the legal sacrifices of Solomon, why may we not, without prejudice or peril to the faith, be permitted to philosophize concerning the temple of Ezekiel and the sacrifices thereof.”

CHAPTER X.

The Residue of the Nations.

§ 1. AMONGST the great difficulties and embarrassments which the common system hath at every step to struggle with, one is the resolution of a certain problem in which the scriptures are found opposed to themselves; forasmuch as when speaking of one and the same event, some passages affirm and others deny it; some assert that the thing will infallibly happen, while others declare the very contrary. There is no doubt that this opposition of some passages of scripture to others, can only be apparent, because the Holy Spirit cannot contradict himself. But how, upon the ordinary system, to make this appearance vanish, is the great difficulty.

In very many passages, with a clearness and definiteness of expression, which doth leave the most scrupulous exactness nothing to desire, it is asserted, that there is at length to arrive a certain day, age, or time (for these three words are used promiscuously by the sacred writers to signify one and the same thing), in which the whole of our earth, all its bounds and limits, in whatever way you look upon it, all its nations, tribes, families, and kindreds, and even all its individuals, shall be blessed in Christ, shall all believe and hope in him, shall know him, adore him, bless him, love him, and consequently be all Christians and good Christians, united in one faith, animated by one spirit; as it were one great flock, simple and harmless, under the guidance and government of one Shepherd. I shall now give, as it were under one point of view, several of these passages of scripture.

The first which offers itself to our consideration, being the most ancient of all, is the promise which God made, and which at sundry times he repeated and confirmed to his most faithful friend the righteous Abraham: “In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.”

Gen xii. 3. And in the eighteenth chapter ver. 18. “And all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him.” And in the 18^th verse of the twenty-second chapter, “in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.” We have it here then that all the kindreds or families of the earth shall one day be blessed in the seed of Abraham, that is Christ, as St. Paul explains, Gal.

iii. 16.

Here you say, and you say it with the greatest truth, that all these promises made to the father of all believers, were fulfilled eighteen centuries ago, to many peoples, nations, and kindreds of the earth, who have believed in and obeyed the gospel: to which I make answer that you are right, taking, however, leave to add one word which you cannot deny; to wit, that all which the Lord during these eighteen centuries hath done, is still very small in comparison with his infallible promises; and consequently that much still remaineth to be done, in order that these promises may reach their entire and perfect fullness: and to the intent you may see this, we proceed a little forward.

In the twenty-second Psalm, which is all evidently spoken of Christ, who himself spake it in spirit upon the cross, and which relateth his straits, his desertion, his nakedness, the wounds both of his hands and his feet, he himself uttereth these words, as containing a necessary consequence, in due time, of his death and passion: “All the ends of the earth shall remember, and turn unto the Lord; and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee. For the kingdom is the Lord’s; and he is the governor among the nations.” Psalm xxii. 27,28. In the seventy-second Psalm it is declared of Christ: “He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth. They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him; and his enemies shall lick the dust. The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents: the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts. Yea, all kings shall fall down before him; all nations shall serve him…And daily shall he be praised…And let the whole earth [Vulg. shall] be filled with his glory. Amen and Amen.” Psalm lxxii. 8-11.19. In the eighty-sixth Psalm ver. 9. “All nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee, O Lord; and shall glorify thy name.” In Isaiah xi. 9. “For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” In chapter

lxvi. 23. “All flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord.” In Daniel vii. 14. it is said, “And there was given to him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.”

To make short: in the admirable song of the Magnificat, the Most Holy Virgin foretelleth, among other things, “and all generations shall call me blessed:” which all agreeth well with what was observed under the first phenomenon. “And the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.” Dan. ii. 35. In all these passages of Holy Scripture, and in others of the like kind which we could quote, there is first to be observed, the generality or universality with which they speak of all our globe, of all its bounds and limits, of all races, of all nations, tribes, and peoples, of all kindreds and families, without any exception. This very observation maketh St. Paul, upon the word all, of the eighth Psalm, saying, “for in that he hath put all things under him, he left nothing that is not put under him.” Heb. ii. 8. Which, as the same apostle addeth, had not happened up to his own time; and, we may add, nor till ours: “but we see not yet all things put under him.” if still we see not all things subject to him, we ought to expect another time in which they shall be so: “For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak,” Heb. ii. 5. saith the same apostle in the place cited.

The second thing which is to be observed on the passages of scripture cited above, is, that not only do they announce the faith of Christ to all the inhabitants of the earth, but together therewith, a universal righteousness, never seen nor heard of in our earth. The most lively words and expressions made use of by the prophets of God, do all bear and signify all this: e. g. all kindreds of the earth shall bless —shall adore —shall praise —shall magnify — shall bless him all the day —shall serve him and obey him: and in the 145^th Psalm; “They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness, and shall sing of thy righteousness.” Psalm cxlv. 7. By what words more appropriate and more expressive can the universal righteousness of the earth be declared? This universal faith and righteousness of the whole earth, now covered with the knowledge of the Lord “as the waters cover the sea,” most certainly hath never been seen upon our earth, but the very contrary hath been seen: therefore, if the prophets are to be believed,we are compelled to declare and confess, that this time is yet to be. But when? That, O my Christophilus, is the great trouble, the great, the insuperable difficulty in your system.

§ 2. THOU canst not be ignorant, Christophilus, that very many catholic doctors (ancient and modern) have recognized, have avowed and maintained, as an undeniable truth, that blessed time, in which, all the nations of the whole world being converted to Christ, there shall reign universally upon it one uniform faith, religion, righteousness, concord, and peace: “every one under his own vine, and under his own fig tree, without any to make him afraid.” It is true that many others with St. Jerome, doubtless discerning in this opinion something most grievously inconvenient upon their system, neither confess it expressly, nor dare deny it; and, nevertheless, when they come to certain passages of the prophets, the psalms, the evangelists, St. Paul, they both suppose it and speak upon the supposition, as if there were no inconvenience involved therein.

Well then; where is this most blessed time, not yet seen nor ever heard of in our earth, to be placed? Surely, upon the ordinary system, before the coming of the Lord, after which they will admit no space of time whatever: —and so, in fact, it is placed. Some before Antichrist, others after; and both parties seem to forget very many scriptures which clearly, expressly, and manifestly oppose their manner of reasoning. Before Antichrist it cannot be, consistently with the ideas which the gospels and the writings of the apostles give us, as we have already observed; after Antichrist, still less, as was demonstrated in the fourth phenomenon; and consequently at no time.

Let us, nevertheless, for a moment allow that this blessed time is to be before the glorious coming of the Lord, and let us attentively consider the legitimate and necessary consequences which will follow from thence. First; it follows that before the coming of the Lord (be it before or after Antichrist) all the prophecies above cited, and the like which might be cited, shall have already obtained their full and perfect accomplishment. Secondly; it follows that before the coming of the Lord all the peoples, all the nations, all the congregations, or families of the whole earth shall have been converted to him. Thirdly; that before the coming of the Lord all our earth shall be filled with the knowledge, or acknowledgment, of the Lord, as all the channels of the sea are full of waters. Fourthly; that before the coming of the Lord, all peoples, tribes, and languages, the Jews included, shall have been not only Christians, but excellent Christians. Fifthly; that before the coming of the Lord, there shall have been an age or time, determinate or indeterminate, yet very great, wherein all the inhabitants of the earth shall have served and obeyed Christ, shall have been faithful, just, and holy, which is what the prophecies announce. Sixthly, and finally; that in that blessed age or time, there shall be in our earth neither idolatry nor superstition, nor false religion: there shall be no heresies, nor schisms, nor scandals, nor tares; there shall be no longer good servants and bad; there shall be no longer prudent virgins and foolish ones; there shall be no longer in the great net good fishes and bad; there shall, finally, no longer be anything of that, which Christ himself says and assures us so often there shall ever be until he come, and which till this day has been found to be most punctually fulfilled, without wanting one jot or one tittle.

§ 3. IN order to see the difficulty in all its extent, let us briefly confront some of the prophecies with others, and see whether they can be harmonized with one another upon the common system; to which intent we set down these two propositions.

First: According to the prophecies which we have noted in the first Section, before the coming of the Lord, which we expect in glory and majesty, all peoples, tribes, and languages, all kindreds and families of the whole earth, shall be converted, shall adore the true God, shall enter into the church of Christ; all shall be blessed in him; all shall love him, shall obey him, shall serve him; all shall live in mutual peace: righteousness and peace, till now irreconcilable enemies, at length uniting and kissing one another: they shall all cast away as wholly useless all sorts of arms, offensive and defensive, “neither shall they learn war any more:” all, in sum, shall compose one gentle, peaceful, innocent flock, under the care and guidance of one shepherd.

Second: According to other prophecies, and especially according to the gospels, before the coming of the Lord, which we look for in glory and majesty, although “the gospel shall have been preached in all the world,” Matt. xxiv. not all nations, but a few only, shall have received it. Even among those few who shall receive the gospel, not all shall observe it, the good seed falling frequently “some by the wayside, some upon a rock, and some among thorns;” Luke viii. 5. there shall never fail from amongst them great and terrible scandals; there shall be heresies, schisms, formal apostacies; there shall be hatreds of one another, emulations, envies, bloody and interminable wars; there shall be anti-evangelical customs; there shall ever be a great opposition, a formal and continual war between righteousness and peace; there shall be without ceasing, now on one quarter, now on another, now on many at one time, furious winds and horrible tempests, which shall make the ship of Peter “to be tossed of the waves,” and that it will be necessary to cry out, “Lord, save us, we perish.” There shall be as it were always a great prosperity upon the ways of the impious, and as it were a continual adversity, tribulation, and persecution upon those who would live godly in Christ Jesus; “because, as the Lord himself announceth, “if they persecute me, they will persecute you also.” In one word, —there will always be tares to choke the wheat and not suffer it to grow to maturity, and this onward, “even until the harvest.”

All which is contained in this second proposition, is frequently read in the gospels and in the writings of the apostles, and the large experience which we have had hath taught us the truth of these prophecies. I do not here cite them particularly, because they are things known of all; and whosoever readeth the scriptures of the New Testament, shall fall upon them at every step. Nevertheless it appeareth to me convenient not wholly to omit one of them, in which is contained, and unfolded in brief compass, the whole of this mystery: that is, the parable of the tares.

In this very clear parable or prophecy, propounded and explained by Christ himself, we see that ever and without interruption the tares are joined with the wheat and always occasion loss: for the workmen having proposed to the master of the field, that, if it appeared good to him, they would go and root them up, he replied, “Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.” Matt. xiii. 29, 30. The explanation which the Lord gives of this parable is as follows; “He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man; the field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one; the enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world.” Matt. xiii. 37-39

So that from the preaching of Christ until the consummation of the age, there will always be in the world good grain joined with the tares, and mixed amongst them. So that until the consummation of the age, the same shall always and constantly come to pass, (more or less) which has come to pass till this present time. So that until the consummation of the age, there ought always to be joined and mixed together “children of the kingdom, and children of the wicked one,” the latter always causing the same evil which tares do in the field. And if this shall even come to pass until the consummation of the age; and if no space of time is to be admitted from the consummation of the age until the world’s end; and any short space of time is to be regarded as an error, and a dream, and a delirium, and a fable; tell me now, my good Christophilus, when and how all these prophecies which have been already cited, and so many others of the like kind which might have been cited, are to find any decent place. Turn thyself, and read them with some greater attention, and thou shalt see expressed in then without any possibility of equivocation, a faith, a peace, a righteousness universal among all the nations and all the families of the world, which condition of things is wholly incompatible with the tares of the gospel, which are to last until the end.

§ 4. WE shall search to no purpose through all the doctors, for the harmony of those two propositions; because those who with the prophets maintain the truth of the first proposition, disregard the second; and those who regard this, can as little agree to the former. And I do not wonder at it. Because it is no more than to see clearly announced in the prophets, a time wherein all the world shall enjoy peace, righteousness, and sanctity, and to read at the same time in the New Testament, these and other such expressions, “heresies must needs arise,” “it is necessary that scandals should come,” “let both grow unto the harvest,” and this harvest to be the end of the only time which they allow. The flaw is no where, my Christophilus, but in this, that the prophets, as well as the evangelists, state the truth, which on your system, can no way be harmonized; it becomes absolutely necessary, that either your system should give way, or the prophets should give way: and thou perceivest already, how very hard a thing this alternative is. It is bound upon thee then, to confess that the scriptures of truth are not capable of announcing for one time only, two things so contradictory as those which the propositions comprehend.

As on your system there is but one time only, that, to wit, which interveneth between the first and the second coming of the Lord; as on your system, the consummation of the age, or the vintage and the harvest is the same with the end of the world; as on your system there is no other time, or other age, no new earth and new heavens, after the great vintage, after the harvest, after the consummation of the age, for that very reason cannot any harmony be made among the prophecies, so as to make their apparent contradictoriness to disappear. But if the due distinction be made between time and time, as the Holy Scriptures doth, they will all be found clear, and plain, and easy. May not the things opposite, diverse, and inimical to one another, which cannot agree in one and the same time, but must destroy one another, appear in different times, each in their proper time? If before the consummation of the age, or the vintage, or the harvest, all cannot be verified, may not a part of them be verified before, and a part after? This however, (you will reply again) it is very hard to admit, for it will be the utter death and destruction of our system. Well, and what hardship find you in that? Is not this the drift and chief end to which the whole of this work is directed? Is not this what we have been proceeding to do from the beginning until now? Whence I draw this legitimate consequence that your system is not good, neither can be so judged in any tribunal, neither is capable of harmonizing certain parts of scripture with others, nor with themselves.

§ 5. WE have already proved, that on the coming of the Lord, which is abiding us, as this present earth hath to perish in order to give place to another and a new earth, so in the universal convulsion, will the greater part of the human race likewise perish, some few grapes remaining in being and unhurt, after the great vintage of all peoples, and tribes, and languages of the whole world; who, because of their innocency and simplicity of heart, shall not be deemed obnoxious to the wrath of Almighty God, as the just Noah and his family were not in the time of the universal deluge. These few and small grapes, (saith Isaiah) “shall lift up their voice, they shall sing for the majesty of the Lord, they shall cry aloud from the sea…From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs, even glory to the righteous.” Isaiah xxiv.

14. 16.

From which text of Isaiah alone, though there were not very many others to confirm and clear it up, as we shall see in due time, it is evidently to be gathered that all this residue of the nations which shall remain scattered hither and thither in all the countries and boundaries of our globe, shall not thenceforward be in the same ignorance and distraction, in which they formerly were in respect to the true God, but shall believe on him, praise him, desire him, and submit to his dominion with the greatest complacency and satisfaction. Which idea is substantially the same as is found in Jeremiah; “At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord; and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of the Lord, to Jerusalem: neither shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evil heart.” Jer. iii. 17. The same idea also, as in Tobit; (last chapter, according to the version of the LXX.) “And all the nations shall be converted in truth to fear the Lord God, and all nations shall bury their idols out of their sight, and bless the Lord.” And the same is found in all the scriptures.

And now by these alone (though proposed with such generality), thou dost see the whole of our earth entirely renewed, with the whole of the miserable lineage of Adam. Thou seest here all the lines drawn, and all the foundations solidly placed, for re-establishing solidly upon our earth the kingdom of God, which we expect and pray for, the fifth incorruptible and eternal kingdom, which, as is written in Daniel (ii. 44.) “shall bruise and break in pieces all these kingdoms, and shall stand for ever.” This residue of the nations, being perfectly instructed, sanctified, and as it were, erected anew, not less than the residue of Israel, shall compose along with it, the “one sheepfold and one shepherd” of the gospel, (John

x. 16.) shall multiply in peace, and grace, and once more fill the whole earth, continuing from generation to generation, for many, for very many ages, (which St. John explains by the perfect number, one thousand), the faith, the simplicity, the innocence, the fear and the knowledge of the Lord. This last point may seem to you hard to be believed, considering what hath ever taken place amongst men from the beginning unto the present time. But to this consideration you ought to add these others: that all times have not been equal and uniform; that God hath in some times given more than in others; that in the later times there has always been more given than in the times before; that his mystery towards men hath been more opened from day to day; that this mystery shall one day open to the perfect day, “because the hand of God is not shortened.” In sum, that he predicted the mystery of the vocation of the Gentiles, with all the good and evil effects of it, which we have actually seen most fully verified. Is not the experience of the veracity of God in time past and time present, guarantee enough for relying upon it in time to come?

CHAPTER XI.

The extraordinary Providences for preserving in those times, faith and justice over all the earth.

§ 1. SO great, so universal a faith and righteousness as is so oft, and with such magnificent expressions, announced to the new earth in the scriptures of truth, cannot certainly be conceived without some new, great, and extraordinary means or providences, as well positive, as negative, and general for the whole world. When I say new means, I do not intend thereby to exclude altogether those which we have at present, much less those which are of divine institution, as the seven sacraments, the ecclesiastical hierarchy, the doctrine, the precepts and counsels of Jesus Christ contained in the gospels, the doctrine of the apostles, and, generally speaking, all the morality of the scriptures. Those things, there is no doubt, are sufficient, and more than sufficient for our perfect sanctification, as they have been for so many saints, nor shall they ever fail while there are sojourners here below. But besides these means which we now possess in consequence of the death of the man-God, of his resurrection, and of the effusion of the Holy Spirit; we still find others in the Holy Scriptures, which now certainly we have not, and which are evidently reserved for the coming age, or for the new earth which we look for; even as we now possess so many new ones which the ancients had not, because God has never given at any one time, all which he had to give.

Among the new means whereof we speak, the first which presenteth itself to our consideration, is the presence of Christ himself upon our earth, not only as we now have him, merely in that mystery of faith, the sacrament of the Eucharist, (which sacrament in those times shall not fail,) but likewise in his proper person and majesty, as he now is in the heavens. Now this real and personal presence of Jesus Christ, as High Priest, as King or Judge Universal over all the earth, together with the presence of his saints now risen, as judges and sharers of the kingdom, cannot do less than produce great and marvellous effects in all the earth, and fill it entirely (as Isaiah announces, chap. xi.) with the knowledge of the Lord, “as the waters cover the sea.” It is very credible, and somewhat more than probable, that the most benignant and humane king (and all his saints by his example) should sometimes permit themselves to be seen by the sojourners, now in one, now in another part of the earth, now by one person, now by many. Which appearances, one would think, shall be very frequent in those times. The experience of what happened during the whole time the Lord was upon our earth after his resurrection, may both teach us, and make us acquainted with his proper and natural character, which can never change. In those forty days he ofttimes appeared now to one only, now to two, now to the eleven apostles, now also, as St. Paul addeth, (1 Cor. xv. 6.) “was he seen of more than five hundred brethren at once.” Of the saints who then arose with Christ, St. Matthew says that after their resurrection they appeared to many, “And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.” Matt. xxvii. 53. The gospel doth not inform us that this happened on the very day or morning of Christ’s resurrection, and for that day only, (as so many doctors have dreamed, especially those who pass upon these risen saints the unjust and cruel sentence of a second death,) but it simply informeth us that those appearances took place after the resurrection of Christ, “after his resurrection;” by these words all the forty days are left in our power, during the whole of which, or in many of them, these appearances may have taken place, as did the appearances of Christ him self, “for forty days appearing to them.” Shall Jesus Christ and his saints who are to come with him in that future age, when they return from heaven, be found less humane, less benignant, less charitable, than they were during that short time they abode upon our earth before passing to heaven?

The second means though negative, is not on that account the less effective. I mean to say, the absence of the dragon, “which is called the devil and Satan, who deceiveth the whole world,” who in these times shall be effectually secured in the bottomless pit, and there strictly bound with a great and very strong chain, answerable to his nature; and the gate of his prison shut and sealed, “that he may not any more deceive the nations until the thousand years be expired.” Which mystery is likewise found in the twenty-forth chapter of Isaiah, at the 22^nd verse, as we observed in another part. The great good which must result to the whole earth from the total absence of this enemy, doth not require much elaboration: it is enough to consider the infinite evils which he hath ever caused to the miserable race of Adam from the beginning of the world until this day, which at present he causeth, and will still, according to the scriptures, cause, until the coming of the Lord, “because the devil is a sinner from the beginning.”

Along with the dragon and his angels, there shall be altogether absent from the new earth, those whom scripture denominates false prophets, under which name are comprehended all sorts of false teachers, seducers, and most wicked hypocrites, “who come in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.” These in all times have been the principal instruments of the prince of darkness. These have caused, do cause, and until the harvest will cause lamentable and irreparable mischiefs. Now all these shall infallibly fail in those times, as it is written, “And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord of hosts, that I will cut off the names of the idols out of the land, and they shall no more be remembered; and also I will cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to pass out of the land.” [Vulg. earth.] Zech. xiii. 2. Hath this promise of God been ever fulfilled? When? If it hath never been fulfiled, a time must be on the wing when it will be most amply fulfilled. Will that time, according to the scriptures, be before the vintage and the harvest, and the consummation of the age?

§ 2. FROM the beginning of the world until the present day, as universal righteousness hath never been seen on our globe, so hath it never been able to experience universal peace: these two things being absolutely inseparable, as being mutually dependant upon one another. This then is the third means which God hath in reserve for the universal righteousness of the whole earth, that is, universal peace. That universal peace, according to the expression of the holy scripture, must be as it were the basis, and the primary and fundamental law of the reign of Christ. Accordingly we find announced against those times, nothing less than universal righteousness; “righteousness and peace have kissed each other,” or as the Arabic version reads, “shall see each other face to face;” (Psalm lxxxv.) which Psalm being read with any moderate degree of attention, is found entirely, from the first to the last word of it, inapplicable to other times besides the future times or the future world. In the forty-sixth Psalm the same idea is found, “Come, behold the works of the Lord, what desolations he hath made in the earth. He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder: he burneth the chariot in the fire.” Psalm xlvi. 8,9. The same is seen in the seventy-sixth Psalm, “In Salem also is his tabernacle, and his dwelling-place in Sion. There brake he the arrows of the bow, the shield, and the sword, and the battle. Selah.” Psalm lxxvi. 2,3. Follow out the consideration of this brief Psalm to the end, and you will at once understand both that which it predicts, and the times to which it refers. In Isaiah ii. 4. it is said of Messiah, doubtless with the view of his second coming, (because of the first it hath not happened nor been able to happen,) “And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” In Micah, “And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it.” Micah iv. 3,4.

To desire or to pronounce that all these things have been verified in the first coming of Messiah, or the present Church, while we have seen quite the contrary for the eighteen centuries which have preceded us, appears the utmost height to which despotism and violence, or to speak more correctly, the fear and dread of the Millenarian phantom can carry men. But of this subject we have treated diffusely over all the ten Phenomena.

The fourth means most conducive to the unity of faith, and customs and brotherly love among all nations and families of the earth, will doubtless be the uniformity of idiom or language, which shall then be only one over all our globe, to which God shall probably restore the primitive language which was spoken from Adam till Noah, and until the confusion of tongues brought in at the building of the tower of Babel. Now this confusion, this innumerable multitude and diversity of languages, which till now divideth and separateth nations from one another, as if they were not children of the same father, and of the same mother: these, I say, shall altogether cease, shall fall away, shall be annihilated, and the memory of them no longer be during the age to come; one only being left which the remnant of all peoples, tribes, and languages shall soon attain, and consequently all their posterity and descendants.

It is most certain that this information is not found clear and express, save in one prophet, Zephaniah. But what mattereth this? Shall that be less certain which the Lord hath spoken by the mouth of but one prophet, than that which he hath spoken by many? Observe then the whole and entire text of Zephaniah, (iii. 8.) whereby it doth indubitably appear to be so promised of God against the times of which we speak. “Therefore wait ye upon me, saith the Lord, until the day that I rise up to the prey: for my determination is to gather the nations; that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them mine indignation, even all my fierce anger: for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy. For then will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the Lord, to serve him with one consent” Zeph iii. 8,9.

You say to this, that this whole prophecy may be well accommodated to the vocation of the Gentiles, which happened after the resurrection of Christ, because towards the beginning of that great epoch, while yet hardly forty years had expired, God did gather against the Jews the nations and the kingdoms, that is, the Roman legions, under Vespasian and Titus, and poured out upon them, that is upon the Jews, “my indignation, even all my fierce anger, for all the earth shall be devoured by the fire of my jealousy.” (all the earth, that is all the land of Judæa.) Now upon this most violent accommodation, what sense can those words of the same context have? “For then will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the Lord, to serve him with one consent.” Zeph. iii. 9.

You reply that the sense of these words may be this; in the day of my resurrection, or after that day and thence forward, I will return to the people, or I will give them (O Christophilus! is it the same to give and to return, to give and to restore?) a chosen lip, that is, pure and holy, in order that they may all invoke the name of the true God only, praise him, magnify him, and this every one in his own language. Nor ought you to remain much satisfied with this explanation, when you add another which is to supply the defects of the former; to wit, that this elect lip or language or idiom shall be accomplished in heaven above, after the universal resurrection; because in that most blessed country, all peoples, all individuals of every tribe, and people, and language, and nation, who shall enter therein, shall speak one and the same language, that is, the elect language, or that which God gave in paradise to our first parents.

El Terino (a very learned author) addeth upon this passage two or three words, which although he left them disconnected, alone, and as it were isolated, do nevertheless reveal that he had a good insight, or at the least, a strong suspicion of the whole of this mystery, forasmuch as he expressly confesseth that this choice lip, or universal language over the whole earth, shall be fully realized before the end of the world. His words are these: “But it shall be fully accomplished towards the end of the world, in the general conversion of all the Jews unto Christ.” That which is here declared and avowed by this learned man, is substantially the same which I say, with this only difference, that I place after the end of the age, the same event which he without any reason pretends to place “towards the end of the world.”

Read, O Christophilus, this holy text in order, and continue it to the end of the chapter. You shall find in it no other idea but the future vocation of all Israel; and along with this great event announced in almost all the scriptures, you shall likewise find the end of the present earth, or which is the same, the end of the day of men, which the Lord so frequently calleth the consummation of the age; and immediately after this day, you shall find that of the Lord, the age to come, the kingdom of God, the new earth and the new heavens, wherein dwelleth righteousness; to which righteousness, peace, love, and uniformity in the same faith, in the same worship, in the same laws and customs, a uniformity of language among all the peoples, tribes, and families of the whole earth, will greatly contribute.

CHAPTER XII.

The Confluence of all the Nations of the whole World to one common centre.

§ 1. ANOTHER of the most efficacious means for preserving universal righteousness in those times upon the earth, will, according to the scriptures, be the coming up unto Jerusalem, then the centre of unity of their whole earth. Of this peregrination to the future Jerusalem (that is, Jerusalem the sojourner) the Prophets and Psalms do often speak, as a most frequent thing in those times, or as a general and indispensable law unto all the peoples of the earth. We shall here present you with several of the most clear and perspicuous passages to that effect upon which, after having well considered them, you can make the most serious reflections; as also upon the understanding, purely accommodative and confessedly most violent, which they pretend to give them upon the common system. “And it shall come to pass” (we read in Isaiah, chapter ii. 2,3.) “in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.” The same is written in the fourth chapter of Micah; and the same in the seventy-second, sixty-fifth, and sixty-sixth Psalms. In Isaiah also, chap. lx. it is announced unto Jerusalem evidently future, among other things, at verse 5; “Then thou shalt see, and flow together, and thine heart shall fear, and be enlarged; because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee, the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee. The multitude of camels shall cover thee.”

And in the forty-ninth chapter it is announced at the 21^st verse, “Then shalt thou say in thine heart, Who hath begotten me these, seeing I have lost my children, and am desolate, a captive, and removing to and fro? and who hath brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; these, where had they been?” And at verse 18: “As I live, saith the Lord, thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all as with an ornament, and bind them on thee as a bride cloth. For thy waste and thy desolate places, and the land of thy destruction, shall even now be too narrow by reason of the inhabitants, and they that swallowed thee up shall be far away.” All which we observed at large in the Fifth Phenomenon. In Tobit, chap. xiii. 11. it is said to the same Jerusalem, “Many nations shall come from far to the name of the Lord God with gifts in their hands, even gifts to the King of heaven; all generations shall praise thee with great joy.”

Finally, to cut short, in Zechariah, it is said, “There shall come people and the inhabitants of many cities: and the inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, Let us go speedily to pray before the Lord, and to seek the Lord of hosts…Thus saith the Lord of hosts, In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold, out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you; for we have heard that God is with you.” Zech. viii. 20,21,23.

And in the fourteenth chapter, being finished with announcing the total consummation and ruin of our age, he straightway announceth, at the 16^th verse, not only that there would be left a remnant of all the nations, but likewise what this remnant and their descendants will do in the age to come: “And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations, which came against Jerusalem, shall even go up from year to year to worship the King; the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles.” Zech.xiv. 16. From this prophecy, read and considered to the end of the chapter, and from so many others, it appears somewhat more than probable, that this confluence of all the relics of the nations to Jerusalem, will be free to every individual who may be moved by his devotion to go thither; but it will likewise be as it were a fundamental law, to all peoples, tribes, and kingdoms, to present themselves every year, by means of certain deputies, in order to worship, in the name of their whole nation, the supreme King, to make protestation of their vassalage, and receive his particular orders, by means of his legitimate ministers.

And as to the one class, so to the other, shall the journey to Jerusalem in those times be most easy; both because the new earth and the new heavens shall be of a better disposition and temperament, than they now are; and because neither by sea nor land shall there be found any embarrassment, seeing there shall be no longer on the whole earth, either robber, or pirate, or foreign soldier, to interrupt the passage; and likewise because mutual love and hospitality among all nations shall be found in all perfection, especially in Jerusalem and in Judæa, where, as the same prophet Zechariah addeth in the last verse, all the pots or cauldrons shall be Holiness unto the Lord; that is, destined to hospitality. “Yea, every pot in Jerusalem, and in Judah, shall be Holiness unto the Lord of hosts; and all they that sacrifice shall come and take of them, and seethe therein: and in that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts.” Zech. xiv. 21.

§ 2. THESE peregrinations of the nations to Jerusalem, “to adore the King the Lord of hosts,” shall not then be sterile or of little fruit, as for the most part such peregrinations have been up to this time; whereof, not without great reason, the venerable Thomas à Kempis hath said, “Those who make many pilgrimages are seldom or ever sanctified,” The fruit in that blessed age shall be great, in proportion to the novelty and the stupendousness of the things whereof they are the eye-witnesses. And what shall these things be?

O my Christophilus! There shall doubtless be very many which are not written in the Holy Bible, and which the Holy Spirit hath hidden from our consideration; but besides these there shall be in the first place the few which are written, and which there is not any necessity to take from their proper, obvious, and literal sense: among which I consider only three of the principal and most notable ones, from which many others may be inferred.

First; Those pilgrims shall see, at least sometimes, the very person of the Man-God, either after a plain and familiar manner, as the apostles did after the resurrection; or in all his glory and majesty, as upon Mount Tabor. For thus do the lively expressions of the prophets obviously and naturally bear. “And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it, (or as the LXX. read, “All flesh shall see the salvation of God, because the Lord hath spoken it,”) Isa. xl. 5. “And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, [Vulg. thy righteous one] and all kings thy glory,” [Vulg. thy glorious one] Isa. lxii. 2. “Every one of them in Zion appeareth before God,” Psalm lxxxiv. “All people shall see his glory; all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.”

Secondly; They shall see and experience for themselves the sanctity of Jerusalem and of all its inhabitants, to whom they shall speak in the same language, and receive from them all sorts of attentions; and in whom they shall see no other thing but examples infinitely more powerful to persuade than words. Of this the future sanctity of Jerusalem we have spoken already in various parts, especially in the eighth chapter, and have no reason to repeat it here. These most devout pilgrims, from all the nations and peoples of the new earth, appear to be the same which are spoken of in the last chapter of Isaiah. “Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all ye that love her: rejoice for joy with her, all ye that mourn for her: that ye may suck and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations; that ye may milk out, and be delighted with the abundance of her glory. For thus saith the Lord, Behold I will extend peace to her like a river.” Isa. lxvi. 10-12.

In the very temple where they shall enter frequently, as into the house of prayer, seeing it is so written, in the fifty-sixth chapter ver. 7. “For mine house shall be called a house of prayer for all people,” they shall see what Ezekiel announceth for his new temple: “ And I looked, and, behold, the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord; and I fell upon my face,” Ezek. xliv. 4; they shall see what is announced in the descriptions of Jeremiah, 2 Mac. ii. 8. “And the glory of the Lord shall appear, and the cloud also, as it was shewed under Moses, and as when Solomon desired that the place might be honourably sanctified.” Then shall be well understood, because it shall have been fulfilled, that famous prophecy of Haggai, whose explanation has always seemed to me very inconvenient; “Yet once it is a little while (or as quoted by St. Paul, following the LXX.) “Yet once more I will shake the heavens and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; and I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of hosts. The glory of this latter [Vulg. the last] house shall be greater than of the former, saith the Lord of hosts: and in this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of hosts.” Hag. ii. 6-9.

This you say was all literally fulfilled in that second temple, which those who came out of Babylon built, because Messiah permitted himself to be seen in it, and preached and taught in it, &c. To which I reply briefly that you are not right: first, because that temple, although it was the second, was not the last or ultimate one; neither could that name be applied to it with propriety. Against this idea, universally received upon the common system, the truth of the scriptures loudly exclaim, which promise for the future another temple infinitely greater, both in respect of its physical and moral character. Secondly; because in that second temple, during all the four hundred years that it stood, this promise of the Lord was not accomplished: “In that place will I give peace.” Thirdly; because the glory of that second temple was not greater than, no, nor equal to that of the first, which was built by Solomon: which you yourselves confess on other occasions, seeing it is undeniable according to all sacred history. If we read the book of Nehemiah, and the two books of the Maccabees, we find quite the contrary. If we read the Gospels, we find that second temple lying under such profanation and in so great ignominy, that Messiah himself upon entering it, felt consumed with zeal for the house of the Lord, “The zeal of thy house hath eaten me up,” John

ii. 14; and he drove out of it with lashes those who profaned it by selling and buying. Compare now, in passing, this event with those last words of the prophecy of Zechariah, “And there shall be no more the Canaanite (Vulg. the merchant) in the house of the Lord of hosts:” and find a verdict according to judgment and in justice.

Furthermore, whether in the temple or out of it, in the whole of the great Jerusalem and its confines, those happy passengers shall behold and enjoy around them that magnificent banquet which is announced and promised to all peoples in the twenty-fifth chapter of Isaiah, at the 6^th verse. “And in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined.” Very vivid expressions and similitudes, which prove much, and declare more than we can now imagine. It is with reason that the holy Tobias saith, “Happy shall I be, if the remnant of my seed shall live to behold the splendour of Jerusalem.” “For Jerusalem shall be built up with sapphires, and emeralds, and precious stone: thy walls and towers and battlements with pure gold. And the streets of Jerusalem shall be paved with beryl and carbuncle and stones of Ophir. And all her streets shall say, Alleluia; and they shall praise him, saying, Blessed be God, which hath extolled it for ever.” Tobit xiii. 16-18.

It is not improbable that they may behold without, the holy city descended from heaven; or if haply this should be hid from them, as I suspect, by reason of its being outwardly covered with some cloud, (in like manner as it actually happened on mount Sinai,) that they shall at least behold that cloud, and upon it certain external signs not equivocal of the ineffable holiness and glory of that place. Jesus Christ said once to certain of his disciples, in the presence of Nicodemus, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.” John i. 51. May not this promise, manifestly alluding to Jacob’s ladder, and which doth never appear to have been accomplished, be most fully accomplished in those times.

§ 3. FINALLY; in order to root still more deeply in all the nations, tribes, and families of the whole earth, a holy and religious fear of God, which is the beginning of true wisdom, all these deputies, before returning to their respective countries, shall have likewise to descend to hell and behold with their own eyes, that horrible spectacle. Descend to hell? Yes, Christophilus, they shall have personally to descend into hell. Do not therefore think that they shall have to descend to the centre of the earth, or according to the expression of St. Paul, “to the lower parts of the earth:” the hell of which I speak shall then be visible enough, even to the natural eye, upon the surface of the earth. The text of Isaiah, (chap. lxvi. ver. 24.) by which an end is put to his whole prophecy, (besides that which was observed under the seventh question, chapter vii. which it will be good to have present to the mind,) doth admit no other understanding, however much you may search for or desire one. In it he again touches upon the new earth and the new heavens, of which he had spoken diffusely in the preceding chapter; and directing his word to the relicts of Israel, he comes and reassures them from God of all that is written in her favour, and all that he himself had announced to them throughout his large prophecy. “For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain.” Isa.

lxvi. 22. Give heed now and consider that which immediately follows, ver. 23,24. “And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord. And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcases of the men that have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall he an abhorring unto all flesh.”

By those words clearly appeareth; first, the peregrination of all the Gentiles to Jerusalem, I do not say of all the individuals, which appears not only morally but physically impossible, but of all the Gentiles, by means of certain envoys, besides those who desire or may go of their own devotion and curiosity, who will not fail to be innumerable, “all flesh shall come to worship before me, saith the Lord.” Secondly; the horrible sight of hell and the damned, whereof we have just been speaking, “and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh.” Thirdly; that the place where these notable delinquents shall be incarcerated having been then raised up “to shame,” (Dan. xii.) shall not be distant but very near to Jerusalem. This is obviously and naturally intended by these words, “and they shall go forth and look upon.”

I most strongly suspect, from another passage of the same prophet Isaiah, that this horrible prison will be nothing else than the sombrous valley of Tophet, near to Jerusalem, and contiguous to the valley of Kedron. This valley of Tophet was very famous in other times for the horrors which were executed there, and by which the people of God were so greatly dishonoured; as, that fathers and mothers sacrificed their own little children in a most cruel manner to the idol of Molech. Of this valley Jeremiah oft speaketh, as of the most abominable place of the world: and it appears that those abominations were wrought there from times anterior to David, seeing mention is made of them in the 106^th Psalm; and that they continued till the times of the holy Josiah, of which sacred history maketh mention. “And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech.” 2 Kings xxiii. 10.

Now of this valley Isaiah declareth these words, “For Tophet is ordained of old; yea, for the king it is prepared: he hath made it deep and large; the pile thereof is fire and much wood: the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it.” Isa. xxx. 33. In order to taste the full relish of these words, and to know the event and time of which they speak, it will be convenient to read attentively the whole of this thirtieth chapter of Isaiah, at least from verse 18^th, from which place he beginneth to speak clearly of the conversion and future state of the Jews, and likewise of the Lord’s glorious coming. After this it will in like manner be very profitable to compare the one text with the other, the context of both being considered; from which it will be seen that in the one is declared the substance of the event certainly future, and in the other is signified the time. Compare the last verse of the thirtieth chapter with the last verse of the sixty-sixth chapter, and this will very clearly appear. But be it as it may, with respect to the locality of this prison, this Ge-ennon, this Gehenna, thus much at least appeareth indubitable, that those most famous and miserable delinquents, being raised up only to disgrace, shall in those times be set forth for a public example to all flesh, which horrible spectacle, all those who come to Jerusalem, “to adore the king the Lord of Hosts,” shall behold with their own eyes; to the end that at one time upon the surface of our globe may be laid open, the providence and the justice of God, and the infinite difference which there is “between the righteous and the wicked, between him who serveth God and him who serveth him not.” Mal. iii. 18. In like manner it doth indubitably appear, that this horrible sight shall make all flesh to tremble, producing in as many as behold it, or hear it from the eye-witnesses of it, all those salutary effects which do ever flow from the religious and true fear of God.

From the lively image and remembrance of this horrible sight, and from the equally lively image and remembrance of every thing they have seen and heard in Jerusalem, shall these religious foreigners return, manifesting all those salutary sentiments and affections, which the Holy Spirit hath sought to express in the 145^th Psalm, “One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts. I will speak of the glorious honour of thy majesty, and of thy wondrous works. And men shall speak of the might of thy terrible acts: and I will declare thy greatness. They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness, and shall sing of thy righteousness…They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom, and talk of thy power; to make known to the sons of men his mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of his kingdom.” Psalm cxlv. 4-7. 11,12.

What a very excellent and efficacious means will this journeying to Jerusalem prove, for preserving in all perfection, faith, the fear of God, righteousness, peace and innocency, over all the inhabitants of the earth! While this law shall be observed, there will be no fear of any breach worthy of consideration or difficult to remedy; but the great difficulty will be, to make the observance of this fundamental law perpetual, as we shall see in the proper place. Meanwhile, in order to fill up some gaps, we shall require here to go into a sort of digression.

CHAPTER XIII.

Wherein satisfaction is given to various questions and difficulties.

§ 1. THAT which hath been written in this third part, you will say, appeareth very poor, correspondeth not with expectation, nor is capable of satisfying one’s curiosity. We were in the expectation of knowing great and marvellous things concerning the kingdom of Jesus Christ on our earth.

We had hoped for clear and minute information, not only as to the substance, but also, and more especially, as to the circumstances and manner of this his kingdom. We had expected, for example, to see and perfectly to understand the economy and government of so great a kingdom which is to comprehend the orb of the whole and entire earth; “And God shall be king over all the earth,” Zech. xiv. 9; its hierarchy, as well ecclesiastical as civil; its laws, civil and ecclesiastical; its liturgy; its ceremonies of external worship; its discipline; the true limits and line of demarcation between the ecclesiastical and civil powers; whether they shall be united in one person only, in such a way as that the pastor shall at the same time be the king of all that portion of country comprehended in his diocese; —a thing, you say, which is not improbable, seeing that they are so perfectly united in the supreme King and High Priest Jesus Christ, as they were united in his type Melchisedek, who was at once king of Salem and priest of the Most High God. (Gen. xiv. 18.)

Of such-like questions you may make as many as shall present themselves to your imagination, because the field is certainly of the largest kind; but the answer to them all appeareth to me as easy as it is short and compendious. If I were to answer that I know none of these things, because I do not find them in revelation; would you directly deny the whole matter on that account?

Parable.

§. 2. A FEW years before the birth of Jesus Christ, while the whole Roman empire still abode in peace under Augustus, an insignificant Rabbi, deservedly reputed as amongst the lowest of his order, set himself to read and study the Sacred Books; adding, for the better understanding thereof, the study of whatever writers or doctors of the law were accessible to him. In which study, having persevered for more than twenty years, he understood at length among other things, three capital points, and very important mysteries, which were close at hand, or could not, according to the scriptures, be long delayed. He understood, first, with clear conviction, and without being able to doubt it, that Messiah being come (whose coming was near at hand according to the weeks of Daniel, chap. ix.), the people of God, the holy people, the Hebrew people, who for so many ages had expected and desired him, would prove his greatest enemy, persecute him, reject him, and treat him as one of the vilest delinquents. (Ps. xxi. Isa. liii. Dan. ix.) He understood, secondly, that for this extreme crime, and still more for their incredulity and obstinacy, Israel would be rejected of God, and that Messiah, in respect to Israel would be “for a rock of offence and a stone of stumbling to the two houses of Israel, a trap and a gin to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.” Isaiah viii. 14. That they should be cut off at length from being the people of God. (Dan. ix. Hos. i. and ii. Isa. vi. 10.) He understood, in the third place, that in the room of the wicked Israel, and instead of that unbelieving nation, which would neither gather itself, nor be gathered together, (“Though Israel be not gathered,” Isa. xlix. 5.) God would call all nations, tribes, and languages, from amongst which (those who should hear and obey the gospel) he would draw forth another Israel, another people, another church unto himself, incomparably greater and better; in which church or people of his, scattered over all the earth (yet gathered into one moral body, animated and governed by one and the same Spirit of God), there should be offered in all parts a sacrifice of righteousness, clean and pure, and infinitely agreeable to God (Mal. i. 11.); and that this sacrifice would not be offered up “after the order of Aaron, but after the order of Melchizedek.” (Psalm cx.)

Upon which three capital points our Rabbi wrote a poor and simple little work; yet so convincing, that the most learned and erudite found no reasonable way (although they sought it with all possible pains) of directly impunging it. Why so? Because he faithfully cited the clearest passages of scripture itself, “beginning from Moses and all the prophets.” Because he combined passage with passage, and thereby made the truth of God more manifest. Because by this very truth of God, clear and undeniable, he did convict the arbitrary, improper, violent, and consequently false interpretations given by the Rabbis to those same passages of Holy Scripture.

Nevertheless, as those ideas, although conformable to the scriptures, were diametrically opposed to the commonly received notions, it came to pass in the natural course of things that not a few did raise a tumult. The greater number (and these the least kindly) said: is not this one of the lowest of our scribes? How then is it credible that he should come to discover mysteries so great, so new, which till now have been hidden from our men of learning? “And they were scandalized in him.” Others of a kinder heart and greater sagacity, knowing well the difficulty of directly combating the substance of that treatise, (in which was found nothing but scripture faithfully quoted and combined) directed their whole opposition to the circumstances.

They began immediately to load this insignificant author with questions, not less impertinent than ridiculous, to which neither he nor any other was capable of rendering an answer. They asked him, for example, How could this new people of God, this new Israel, be composed of so many nations, people and languages? What would be their order and their hierarchy; what their capital city and centre of unity; what their laws, their customs, their discipline, their exterior worship, their priesthood, their sacrifices, their ceremonies? Some strongly insisted that he should explain himself more fully upon the literal interpretation of that text of Malachi i. 10. I have no pleasure in you, saith the Lord of hosts, neither will I accept an offering at your hand. For from the rising of the sun, even unto the going down of the same, my name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering: for my name shall be great among the heathen, saith the Lord of hosts.”

They begged of him to explain in a clear and distinct manner what sacrifice this might be; with what rites and ceremonies it should be offered up to the true God, if there would be temples in every place, as magnificent as was the temple of Jerusalem, if there would be priests taken in differently from all peoples, tribes and languages, or from one particular tribe and family, what vestments they would wear, as well in their temples as out of them? &c.

Our poor and insignificant Rabbi, hardly worthy of the name, felt not only embarrassed, but oppressed with so many questions. His answer to them all was one and the same, nor could be other, seeing that the particular circumstances of our present church were not certainly found in revelation, notwithstanding the whole substance of that great mystery be found most clear; and so he said with a loud voice, dreading nought the shower of stones which he saw in the hands of the lowest of the people: The thing will come to pass precisely according as it is written. Israel will cease to be the people of God by reason of their unbelief, and the nations will be called to occupy their place. The particular mode and circumstances, by which this great mystery will be brought into operation; I know not, because I do not find it clearly and expressly written in the Holy Scriptures.

I only know by these very scriptures, (he continues to declare) that when Messiah cometh, he shall offer himself as a sacrifice to God his Father for the sins of the whole world. “Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.” Isaiah liii. 10. I know only that this seed prolonged for many days, or which appeareth to be the same, this continued succession of the children of God begotten by Messiah through means of his most grievous death, his blood, and the effusion of his Holy Spirit, will be so numerous upon the earth, that it shall be impossible to count them; “by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.” Isaiah liii. 11. I know only from the 110^th Psalm, that having offered himself for sin he shall become an eternal priest, “not after the order of Aaron, but after the order of Melchizedek,” whose oblation and sacrifice was the simplest of all, reducing itself simply to bread and wine.

In such a way did our simple Rabbi reply to all those questions which they put to him, to all those difficulties which they proposed to him. And in fact, how was it possible that a man should answer thirty years before the birth of Jesus Christ, so many and such different questions as to the mode of the existence of our present church? Who could know at that time with clear ideas, and individual circumstances, that which was to happen in the world after the death of Messiah? The substance of this great mystery was certainly to be found in the scriptures, and our own experience hath taught us so, and hath made us most frequently give heed to it, but the particular circumstances were not found therein. How then could they be known, or even suspected by those who lived in Jerusalem during the time of Augustus?

Could it at that time be proved by any passage of scripture, that Messiah would elect twelve ignorant, humble, and simple men to lay the foundation of his church, to call and gather into it all kinds of people? Could it then be proved from any passage of holy writ, that one of these ignorant men, being constituted chief over the rest, should be sent to plant his seat in the very capital of the great and haughty Roman empire? That this humble seat should maintain itself in Rome firm and immoveable, against all oppositions, contradictions, and violences of the greatest empire of the world? That this seat should be acknowledged and respected as the true centre of unity of all believers upon the earth? That they should build in all cities and nations, innumerable temples for offering worship therein to the true God? That in all these temples there should be unremittingly offered unto the living God the continual sacrifice, that is, the pure sacrifice and oblation spoken of in Malachi? That this pure sacrifice and oblation should be nothing else than the body and blood of Christ which was once offered on the cross; and that under the species of bread and wine “according to the order of Melchisedek?” That this pure sacrifice and oblation should be offered to God with such and such ceremonies? Could all these individual things which we now see and enjoy, be known thirty years before the birth of Jesus Christ, merely from the reading of the law and the prophets? Apply now the similitude to the subject of which we treat. The application cannot but be very easy to thee.

§ 3. To all those inquiries which were made at me by the curious, and to all those questions and difficulties which they propose to me, I can answer in no other way. I honestly confess (nor am I ashamed of this confession) that I am absolutely ignorant of innumerable things which shall happen in that blessed age, but which the scripture relateth not. I am ignorant likewise of the mode and circumstances according to which, those even which are most clearly announced shall be fulfilled, whereof however the substance or general mystery appeareth to me undeniable. Nevertheless, in the midst of this ignorance and obscurity, I persuade myself that things will in these times proceed after a way far better and more perfect than aught we can imagine; chiefly because it will be the reign of the Lord and not of man, according to Isaiah, chap. xxxii. ver. 1. “Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment.” Then shall the true limits between the priestly and the kingly power be certain and palpable, then shall the high priest Christ Jesus be at the same time “king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and his name one.” Zech. xiv. Consequently, the laws as well civil as ecclesiastical shall be most wise and proportioned to that blessed time, in which shall exist in full vigour all those particulars which we have observed; to wit, no war between man and man, unbounded peace and fraternity, peregrinations and visits to the sanctuary of the Lord: besides that I am well persuaded the most wise and righteous king will accord whatever providences may be suitable for the good government of his kingdom, because he himself declareth, “that the law shall go forth from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.”

CHAPTER XIV.

The ending of the thousand years spoken of by St. John, with the loosing of the Dragon.

§ 1. WE have arrived at length at the last, or we may rather say, at all, but the last epoch of this globe which we inhabit. I said all but the last epoch, because after this which we now proceed to consider, there still remaineth to us one other which is eternal. Until the confines of this epoch, almost all the ancient prophets have accompanied and mightily helped us. Henceforward we need consult them no longer, because they all forsake us. They all close their prophecies in the kingdom of God, and of Messiah his Son, here on our earth, over the living and the sojourners. They all stop here, and no one passeth beyond. The last of the prophets only, that is the apostle St. John, follows out to its very end the thread or great chain of the mystery of God to men: he follows it, I say, until the entire and perfect consummation of that mystery of God, or which is the same, to the universal resurrection and judgment. “And when the thousand years are accomplished, Satan shall be loosed from his prison.” Rev.

xx. 7. I have already said in other parts that the divine and admirable book of the Apocalypse is the true and only key of all the prophets, explains them all, clears them up, abridges them, extends them, and most frequently fills up not a few voids which they leave. This is to be seen, and as it were sensibly felt, in the four last chapters of the Apocalypse, which we may regard with great reason as a paralipomenon, or very brief supplement of many particular and very substantial things which they omit. I say omit, because they do not declare them, and they do not declare them, because it was not yet the proper time. If this idea be admitted after thorough examination, the whole ancient scriptures are at once seen to be full of light. If it be not wished to examine it, and for want of examination be not admitted, it appears to me as a necessary consequence, that we should continue with respect to the understanding of the scriptures, in the same obscurity in which we are at present.

Notwithstanding this general truth, for such I regard it, I am forced to confess, and I confess it ingenuously, that being come to the 7^th verse of the twentieth chapter of the Apocalypse, there is a short-coming, a defect and desideratum in this paralipomenon, or supplement of the prophets, one very substantial thing, the want of which curtails and evidently interrupts the great chain of the mystery of God with man. I explain myself: The beloved disciple speaketh only of that which is to take place in our orb after the consummation of his thousand years; or, which is evidently the same thing, after the consummation of that most blessed time, or day, whereof the prophets of God speak so largely under these expressions; —in that day, in those days, in the last days, in the last of the days, in that time, &c. But he doth not tell us one word upon the causes, nor upon the manner and circumstances with which that same day, or time of the Lord, which he calls “a thousand years, shall be concluded.” He only informs us very briefly, that when this time is accomplished, the dragon shall be loosed once more, and, being placed in his ancient liberty, shall again go about to seduce the nations. “And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth.” Rev. xx. 7,8. But I ask if it be credible or possible, that this new loosing of the dragon, with all the terrible and wonderful effects thereof, expressed in the same text of St. John, should take place, without having been preceded among these same nations with some general and most grievous faults, worthy of the most righteous indignation of God Almighty. What faults in these times can there be so grievous and universal? This is exactly the ring or link of the great chain of the mystery of God which is wanting in the text of the Apocalypse.

As this ring hath always appeared to me a piece of the utmost importance, I have sought for it with the greatest diligence I am capable of in the ancient prophets; and at length it appears to me that I have found it in Zechariah, who was all but the last of them, at the 16^th verse of the last chapter. Let us consider attentively the text of this prophecy with all the context, and let us consider with the same attention the truly cold and even confessedly false interpretation which they have sought to give of that passage, since the beginning of the fifth century to this present time. “And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations, which came against Jerusalem, shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain. And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, that have no rain; there shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles.” Zech. xiv. 16-18. This general threat being made, the prophecy immediately continues to speak thus; “This shall be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all nations that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles:” Zech. xiv. 19. So that the text of this prophecy being well considered with all the context, and being combined with that of the Apocalypse, the whole substance of the general mystery of which we are speaking discovereth itself, and likewise some of its principal circumstances. It is seen, first, that this remnant of the nations and all their posterity shall stand obliged, as by a fundamental and indispensable law, to present themselves once a year in Jerusalem; (doubtless by means of their deputies,) “to adore the King, the Lord of Hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles.” This feast of tabernacles, and the ends which God had in view in instituting it, may be seen in Deuteronomy, xvi. 10.

Secondly: It is seen that many, or very many ages being passed, which St. John includes in the perfect number of a thousand, this blessed time, I say, being passed in innocence, in simplicity, in goodness, in faith, &c. there shall begin, by little and little, to enter now into this, now into that country of our earth, a certain kind of lukewarmness, remissness, and tedium, with respect to these annual journeys to Jerusalem. Which lukewarmness, as is most natural, will go on to increase from day to day; for it is not likely that the world should be suddenly perverted, or even in a few years.

This lukewarmness of the nations then being come to a certain height and no longer dissembled, the Lord shall begin to chastise them gently, with that kind of chastisement with which a good father is wont to treat a disobedient and rebellious son. He will begin, I say, to chastise them, and even almost entirely to deny them necessary support; and he will send a scarcity upon them. This scarcity the prophet explains in these simple words, “Upon them shall be no rain;” seeing it is well known that without rain there can be no harvests.

Thirdly: It is to be perceived, by joining the one text with the other, that these personal chastisements not sufficing to recal the nations to their ancient devotion and fervour, nor the other sweet and gentle methods, which the infinite goodness of God our Father may well be supposed to employ, (though no mention be made of them,) the time will come at length, in which all the measures of endurance being filled up, he shall treat them with the utmost rigour: that is to say, the time will come for opening the abyss, and giving to the dragon once more his entire liberty. “After that he must be loosed a little season. And when the thousand years are expired,

Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations.” Rev.

xx. 3.7,8. Dost thou not see here, my friend, from all that we have just observed, the link, or ring, which is doubtless wanting in the text of St. John.

§ 2. HAVING found in Zechariah the ring which is wanting in the text of the Apocalypse, the chain of the whole mystery is consecutive and continuous. St. John tells us, that after his thousand years are accomplished, liberty shall once more be given to the dragon: and Zechariah clearly points out the reason and cause of this loosing, but without taking one step forward, or explaining the results of it. These results we find continued by the beloved disciple, who, having brought the mystery of God with man to its end, continues, “And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.” Rev. xx. 7,8. The deceiving of the nations, then, and their general insurrection against the beloved city, will be the consequences of the loosing of the dragon. But already I perceive, my Christophilus, that you rise up against me, and in a decisive tone propose to me an argument in these terms. —If the twentieth chapter of the Apocalypse is to be literally understood, Jesus Christ himself with all his saints now risen, ought actually to reign in Jerusalem over the whole orb of the earth, and that for a thousand years, determinate or in determinate. If this be admitted, all which is spoken in that same text ought, as a necessary consequence, to be admitted, since there is no more reason for the one than for the other. It ought then to be admitted, that those thousand years of the pacific kingdom of Jesus Christ, being passed in innocence, in simplicity, in goodness, and righteousness, the dragon will again be loosed, and will return to deceive the whole world. And finally it must be admitted, that all this world will turn anew against its legitimate sovereign, take arms against him, go and make war upon his very court, surround and lay formal siege to that very court: “and compass the camp of the saints about.” All which is announced in this very chapter, from the seventh verse. “And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. 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.” Rev. xx. 7-9.

Upon these premises, thou sayest? And will it be possible that, with Jesus Christ reigning over all this earth, it should become perverted to such a degree as to need chastisement, and the loosing of its greatest enemy? And is it credible that men should come to the extreme of madness, of seeking to surround God in his court? This alone, thou concludest, is sufficient to make the millennarian system to be regarded as a fable, a raving, a dream; because, this not being imaginable, as little can all the rest be so.

Now calm thyself a little, my Christophilus, and do not so readily take the point as concluded. —Hear with patience two or three words, which will perhaps disarm thee. In respect to the first reflection which thou makest to me, thou oughtest to bear in mind, my Christophilus, that men shall then be sojourners as they are now, and shall hold in their own hand the good or bad use of their free will, that they walk even as now by faith and not by sight, and that therefore they are liable to sin. What wonder, then, if after a thousand years, (or, if you please, a hundred thousand,) of righteousness and goodness, the world should once more come to be perverted? I will not take upon me to assert the very manner in which this shall come to be fulfilled; because, in the things of futurity there is no guide to me but revelation, which is very scanty respecting the circumstances of those times. Nevertheless, perceiving that St. John tells me that after a thousand years the dragon shall be loosed, and believing that I have found in Zechariah the cause of this evil, I may with much plausibility reason thus. —Let us imagine, that after very many ages of peace, innocency, and righteousness, there shall begin to creep over the nations, now in this now in that country, a certain distraction from the things of God, and in the train thereof, slowly and by degrees, a lukewarmness in the love of God, and a certain cleaving to the delights and conveniences of the earth. In consequence of which they also begin, by little and little, to decline from their journeyings to Jerusalem to adore the King, the Lord of Hosts, and so come to forget the greatness of God and the examples of his righteousness, which we touched upon in the foregoing chapter. That, finally, those failings go on increasing, without the tender chastisements of the celestial Father being able to restrain them. —Have we not thus the great sin which Zechariah saith Egypt and the other nations shall commit? And upon this sin is it not a consequence that there should ensue a falling away of faith and of righteousness, the separation of the centre of unity which will then be in Jerusalem the sojourner, and consequently anarchy, disorder, and the dissolution of customs? Is it much then that in such circumstances the Lord should loose the dragon; permitting him to ascend from the abyss in order anew to deceive these demoralized nations, to precipitate them into the abyss of the lake, and thus complete the great mystery of God with men? Is this haply a new thing? Have we not, on various occasions, seen the Lord permit the nations to become blind and not see, in just chastisement of their obstinacy? Then the same, we reason, may then happen; for, according to Ecclesiastes, “That which is done, is that which shall be done.” Eccles. i. 9.

This being supposed, my Christophilus, you will not wonder at that on which you laid so much stress in your second reflection. The dragon being loosed, and full of desire to destroy the human race, a relish of which he hath been so long deprived, it is not difficult to believe that he will ply all the means of seduction whereof his infernal cunning is capable; nor is it less conceivable how far the nations may suffer themselves to be corrupted. We have plentiful examples of the one and the other, the remembrance of which maketh us to weep. Count it not wonderful then that he should stir up the nations, that he should move them, that he should make them to rebel against their lawful Prince and Lord. Do not understand, Christophilus, that those words of St. John, “And they went up upon the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city,” signify precisely the new Jerusalem that is descended from heaven, for there is no foundation for any such thought. They surely point out Jerusalem the sojourner and dwelling place or habitations of the Jews, whose remnant, thou knowest, the scriptures call by the name of holy, and who shall then possess the land promised to their fathers. Against these then, and against the centre of unity of the whole world, the arrows of the nations and the fury of the dragon are directed. Lastly; I pray you to recollect, my Christophilus, that the not conceiving with clear ideas the mode and particular circumstances with which any thing may be accomplished, which yet is expressly announced in the Holy Scriptures, hath never been, nor is, neither can ever be, a sufficient ground for denying it. If this be looked upon as in any case passable, or even tolerable, what can we answer to so many unbelievers, whose only ground for denying and for impugning our most holy mysteries, is nothing else than this very same reason that they cannot conceive them.

§ 3. WE have just seen the first effect of the loosing of the dragon, to be the seduction and formal rebellion of all the nations, or the greater part of them, “which are upon the four corners of the earth.” It remaineth to us now very shortly to consider the issue of this abortive attempt, with all its results. “Fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.” Rev. xx. 9,10. By these words the beloved disciple gives us a compendium of the whole mystery, which he immediately sets himself to explain with greater extension and minuteness, as very frequently happeneth throughout his prophecy.

Upon this last text these two questions may be asked. First; Who, or what is this Gog and Magog here spoken of by St. John with so much brevity? Is this mystery perhaps the same which is diffusely described by the prophet Ezekiel, in his two chapters xxxviii and xxxix, as is commonly thought? Secondly; shall this fire, of which St. John says that it is to consume the multitude of Gog and Magog, who compassed the camp of the saints about and the beloved city, be universal over the whole of our globe? Shall it entirely consume all the living and the world itself?

With respect to the first, we say, that the Gog and Magog of St. John do signify no other thing than those nations “which are upon the four corners of the earth;” for this is the precise explanation which is given by the apostle himself to those two words Gog and Magog. And what, say you, doth this signify? Is our earth, on whose surface we dwell, peradventure some square or oblong, with right, acute, or obtuse angles? Is it not certainly a sphere or almost perfect globe, whose diameter from one pole to the other is found a little less than that from east to west, drawn through at the equator?

Thou art right, my friend; but all thy inquiries or difficulties scatter at the first dawn of reflection. Gog and Magog, saith St. John, are the nations who inhabit the four corners of the earth. What corners are these? In order to form a clear idea thereof, draw merely two lines which cut or cross one another under your feet, one from east to west, another from north to south. Merely by this trouble, most easy in any part of the world where thou mayest happen to be, thou shalt see under thy feet four right angles, each of ninety degrees. This then is what St. John calleth “The nations which are upon the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog.

By this most simple and easy understanding of the passage, we deliver ourselves from entering here on that question in dispute (no less embarrassing than useless), respecting the true origin of these two words, Gog and Magog; and the determinate country or place of the earth where these two tribes, nations, or generations have inhabited, do inhabit, and shall inhabit, until those times. Upon which points they do no more than guess, forasmuch as there is no more light than that which is given to us in the Apocalypse, by those very few words, “The nations which are upon the four corners of the earth.”

In the whole text of the beloved disciple it is an infinite consolation, not to read in it the word all. I read in it, that the dragon issuing from his prison “shall deceive the nations which are upon the four corners of the earth;” but I do not read that be shall deceive all the nations, nor all the individuals. Whence I may prudently suspect and piously believe, that many, or even very many, of those who shall then dwell upon the four corners of the earth, shall not enter into the general defection, into which it appears that the greater part shall enter.

If now we seek, in the way of erudition or diversion, for this Gog and Magog in the family of Noah, the second father of the human race, we find Magog second son of Japhet; but Gog we do not find, either in Genesis or any other part of scripture, till we come to the thirty-eighth chapter of Ezekiel, and afterwards in the twentieth chapter of the Apocalypse; only in the first book of Chronicles, v. 4, there is named a certain one, Gog the grandson of Reuben, of whom nothing is known, nor doth he make any figure in history. From which I suspect that the Gog both of Ezekiel and the Apocalypse, is no other than Gomer the elder brother of Magog, and the first begotten of Japhet. Of the families of these two, and of their five younger brethren, scripture saith these words: “By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations.” Gen.

x. 5. This is the only thing we find upon this point, in the Holy Scriptures, which appeareth well to agree with the text of St. John, “ the nations which are upon the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog.” And all beyond this is nothing better than guessing.

§ 4. Now is this Gog and Magog of the Apocalypse haply the same mystery which is spoken of diffusely by Ezekiel, in his two chapters xxxviii and xxxix? The interpreters suppose so, but do not prove it. The difference and distance of the one mystery from the other is so visible, that the simple reading of both places is enough to convince us at once, without leaving a doubt upon the mind. First, the times of the one and the other mystery are evidently very different. The mystery of Ezekiel, by the confession of all, and according to the text itself, should happen much before the coming of the Lord, and even before Antichrist, according to the various scriptures which have been already observed, especially in the Eighth Phenomenon Article 8; because after the destruction of the very great multitude of Gog, of which Ezekiel speaks, after his burial in the valley of Hamon-Gog on the east of the sea, there must be a great and indeterminate time for the Jews, now re-established in the land of their fathers, and against whom the great multitude shall come, to gather the spoils of these enemies: “Weapons, both the shields and the bucklers, the bows, and the arrows, and the handstaves, and the spears, and they shall burn them with fire seven years: so that they shall take no wood out of the field, neither cut down any out of the forests; for they shall burn the weapons with fire.” Ezek. xxxix. 9,10. But in the mystery and text of St. John there is found an idea infinitely different, both because this mystery can only be fulfilled a thousand years (or be it a thousand ages) after the coming of the Lord in glory and majesty, after the death of the beast and imprisonment of the devil; and because immediately thereupon, without the interval of any thing, comes the universal resurrection and judgment. “And fire descended from God out of heaven and devoured them…And I saw a great white throne.” Rev. xx. 9.

11.

Secondly, the prophet Ezekiel speaks only of Gog and to Gog, not to Magog: whom he supposeth quiet and unmoved in his country. Accordingly he says of Magog (and it is only once that he names him, whereas he nameth Gog eleven times.) “And I will send a fire on Magog, and them that dwell carelessly in the isles; and they shall know that I am the Lord.” Ezek. xxxix. 6. But St. John in his last mystery nameth the two, Gog and Magog, “the nations which are upon the four corners of the earth,” which nations, that is, Gog and Magog, “compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.” Rev. xx. 9.

Thirdly, the mystery of Ezekiel is evidently the same which the other prophets announce, as he himself expressly saith when speaking to Gog, in these words: “Thus saith the Lord God, Art thou he of whom I have spoken in old time by my servants the prophets of Israel, which prophesied in those days many years, that I would bring thee against them? And it shall come to pass at the same time, when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord God, that my fury shall come up in my face.” Ezek. xxxviii. 17,18. Those prophets of God anterior to Ezekiel, who spake of this same mystery of which he spoke, are; David in various Psalms, chiefly in the 118^th; Joel in chap. iii.; Habakkuk in chap. iii.; Zechariah in chapters viii. and xiv.; Micah in chap. vii. &c. (See what is said upon this topic in the Eighth Article of the Eighth Phenomenon.) Certainly to none of these places doth St. John allude in the twentieth chapter, but in the twelfth chapter verses 15 and 16, where he represents that great multitude under the admirable and most appropriate metaphor of a river of water sent from the mouth of the dragon against the woman who hath fled to the desert: “And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.” Rev. xii. 15,16. All which is read in Ezekiel without any metaphor, in these words: “And it shall come to pass at that day, that I will give unto Gog a place there of graves in Israel, the valley of the passengers on the east of the sea; and it shall stop the noses of the passengers: and there shall they bury Gog, and all his multitude; and they shall call it, The valley of Hamnon-gog.” Ezek.

xxxix. 11.

In fine, that we may not lose the time, let all this prophecy of Ezekiel be read, which is contained in the thirty-eighth and thirty-ninth chapters; and for the greater clearness, let the two chapters which go before, and the nine which follow after, be likewise read, and this will be enough to convince you at once, that it is manifestly all spoken of the conversion, the restitution, the assumption, and the fulness of the precious remnants of Jacob, against which the multitude of Gog with all their might shall set themselves. These being destroyed, their flesh being eaten by the birds and wild beasts, which shall be invited to this great supper, and their bones being buried in the valley of Hamon-gog, we do see in all the text of this prophecy the continuation of other great events, new and extraordinary, which require time, and very much time to be fulfilled; or to speak more correctly, from that time ought to begin another epoch and age infinitely different from the past. It doth not so happen in the continuation of the text of St. John, both because it speaketh only of the end of that epoch, and because between the end thereof and the universal resurrection and judgment, nothing is found to intervene. “Fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever. And I saw a great white throne.” Rev. xx. 9-11.

From this last text which we have just copied (and it is the only one of all the canonical scriptures which speaketh clearly and expressly of the end of all the living sojourners; of the universal resurrection and judgment,) it hath been prudently suspected that this last fire, which shall fall down and consume all those rash nations “which went up upon the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city:” that this fire, I say, will be universal over all our globe, and will make an end of all the living, “from man even unto cattle, and from the creeping thing unto the fish of the sea.” I have also sometimes thought so, but always with fear, because I did not find this particular information or circumstance expressed in the holy text with such clearness as to constrain me to pass the limits of a mere suspicion. It is not so certain (I say again) as is commonly thought, that this fire of which St. John speaketh, should make consumption of all the living of our globe, because the text speaketh only of those furious persons who, gathered together and set on by the dragon, shall compass the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city, “and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.”

Then, how shall this world and all its inhabitants be put an end to? Is it not a certain point of divine faith, that all generation and corruption is at one time to cease? Yes, my friend, all this is most certain, and of divine faith, and I do religiously believe and confess it with all faithful Christians; but the particular mode and circumstances by which it is all to come to pass, I am absolutely ignorant of, because I do not find it clearly expressed in the scriptures, and therefore I do not purpose to engage myself in endless disputes which concern not the substance of my particular subject. I say the same with respect to the manner and the circumstances which we find written in an infinite number of books; we seek for them in the book of the truth, and we do not find them. In the prophets it is most certain that nothing is found clear and express, excepting only the substance of the mystery. In the gospels, and in all the scriptures of the New Testament, the same is the case; and the little which there is on this point, is the twenty-fifth chapter of the gospel of St. Matthew, verse 31, which appears a pure parable, whereof the primary and principal end is, a doctrine most important, and even most necessary to all believers, to wit, love to our neighbour, “inasmuch as you have done it unto one of the least of these my children, you have done it unto me…Inasmuch as you have not done it unto one of the least of these my children, ye have not done it unto me.” —Which we have set forth in the Eighth Chapter of the First Part.

There remaineth to us, therefore, no other passage more clear or express than the twentieth chapter of the Apocalypse, from the 17^th verse to the end, wherein it is spoken, surely with all clearness, both of the universal resurrection of all the individuals of the human race, (consequently of the death of all, which shall have preceded it) and of the universal Judgment of all, where to every one shall be awarded the last irrevocable and eternal sentence. As I am not capable of representing these things with the propriety and vividness with which St. John doth, but do rather with good reason, fear to obscure them by my explanations; read, Christophilus, the whole text of that apostle and last of the prophets, read it with all attention, and be content with it, because certainly there is not in all the Holy Scriptures any thing upon this point, either more express, or more clear, or more vivid, or more definite. “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.” Rev. xx. 11. An admirable most vivid expression, most appropriate for denoting the greatness, the majesty, the infinite sovereignty of that throne and of the supreme prince who sitteth thereon, before whose presence, and in whose sight the heaven and earth should flee away and hide themselves, with all who dwell, and all who are found therein. “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. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and deaths and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.” Rev. xx. 12-14.

I firmly believe with all Christian believers everything which is here written, in its proper, obvious, and literal sense, without, however, omitting to perceive beyond all doubt, that it is only the substance of the mystery, not the manner nor the circumstances of it, which is here announced. Upon which manner and circumstances, as also upon the end of all the living sojourners, as also upon the resurrection of all, and the universal judgment, let no one trouble me. As I find not these individual things in revelation, it is absolutely necessary that I should be ignorant of them, and be content with my ignorance. Nevertheless, among these individual things pertaining to this very mystery, I find only one which I am not ignorant of, nor can fail to perceive, which is, the circumstance of the time at which the whole mystery shall come to pass. I mean that the whole mystery, or which is the same thing, the resurrection of all the individuals of Adam’s race, the last judgment, the ultimate sentence, and the execution of this ultimate sentence, cannot take place immediately upon and in the very natural day of the coming in glory and majesty of our Lord Jesus Christ, because that idea is visibly and evidently repugnant to the very text of St John. Much more is it repugnant, if it be considered and examined along with all the context as it ought to be. And very much more repugnant is it, when considered in union and combination with all the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. All which, as it is the primary and principal subject of this whole book, we have continued to set forth, and demonstrate up to this very point.

CHAPTER XV.

The state of our terraqueous globe and of the whole universal world, after the universal resurrection and judgement.

§ 1. ALL flesh of Adam’s race being raised, the universal judgment being concluded, and the irrevocable sentence executed, to some of life, to others of death eternal, I hear thee say, my friend Christophilus, what will be after these things? To this general question I cannot answer, save by the general answer of Jesus Christ himself, “these shall go into everlasting punishment, and those into life everlasting.” I see, moreover, that thou art not satisfied with these generalities, and dost desire to know some other particulars pertaining to this mystery, in the way in which these things can now be known; that is, either by divine revelation, or at least by good reasoning, or by prudent conjecture solidly founded on revelation. Wherefore thou askest me among a thousand other things, which occur to thee, these three principal and fundamental questions.

First. What do I think, according to the scriptures, as to the lot or condition, in which this our miserable and most wicked world, on whose surface we dwell, will be found after the universal resurrection and judgment; extending also thy curiosity to all the innumerable worlds which are presented to our view in a serene night when we lift up our eyes to heaven? Secondly. What do I think, according to the scriptures, respecting the place where all those who shall rise to life shall go, in order there to enjoy as well the fruition of the vision of God, as other accessory things which are likewise promised to them? Thirdly. What idea do I form of the felicity which is promised to those who live, especially after the universal resurrection; not so much upon their glory and substantial blessedness which consisteth in the fruition of the vision of God, and the possession of the chief good, and is ineffable and inexplicable, as upon that glory and felicity which we call accidental, and which is competent to this soul of ours, not in its separated, but in its state of closest union with the body, not as pure, rational, and intellectual, but likewise as sensitive, through the means of the organs of the body, no longer, in short, as pure spirit, but inseparably united with that same body for which it was created?

Oh, my friend, thou propoundest a hard matter. Who is capable in the present state, of giving full satisfaction to these thy inquiries? I will tell thee, nevertheless, that which my very limited light revealeth to me.

§ 2. BEGINNING with the first point, thou wilt find a great diversity of opinions, thou wilt find a prodigious multitude of questions, all as it were emanating from the principles of an unsound system of physics: I do not think of involving myself in this labyrinth, and losing time uselessly in things which bear nothing upon my subject, either for or against it. I would only briefly consider three principal opinions, the last of which I embrace with both my arms.

Some think, and these not of the lowest class, that by the action of fire, whereof St. Peter speaks, our terraqueous globe will be left perfectly chrystalized, and consequently diaphanous, and transparent to a certain distance from its surface towards the centre. If you ask to what distance, they answer you so deep as to include the limbo of little children who have died without baptism, because it is not credible, they add, that those poor creatures, who had not, nor could have had, personal sin, should be condemned after their resurrection, to perpetual darkness. But the light and clearness of this great globe of crystal shall not reach, they continue, to the limbo, or hell of the condemned; “who shall never see the light,” (Psalm xlix.) Ask them now from what quarter they have been able to obtain such very remarkable information, and expect thine answer for ever and beyond.

The second opinion, which is that of many ancients and moderns, pretend, that this our terraqueous globe, as well as the celestial globes, the moon, the sun, the planets, and the stars, shall after the universal judgment return to the nothingness from which they proceeded. Which opinion is founded upon two or three passages of Holy Scripture, which have perhaps been read with an indiscriminate haste. The passages of scripture are these: “Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath, for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke (or pass away, deficient, as Pagnini and Vatablo read; the LXX read Cælum sict fumus firmatum est, the strengthened heaven hath been as smoke,) and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished.” Isaiah li. 6. In the 102^nd Psalm it is said, “Of old hast thou laid the foundations of the earth; and the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure; yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed: But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end.” Psalm cii. 25-27. To which the Lord alludeth when he saith, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.” Matt. xxiv. 35.

To these few passages of Holy Scripture, not well meditated, the greater number and the abler part of the interpreters and theologians, and I with them, make answer, that the sense which is pretended to be given, of perfect annihilation and total destruction, is not, neither can be, its proper, obvious, and literal sense; but at the most, a sense purely grammatical. So that, first, the texts cited, ought to be taken and understood literally, by similitude, not by propriety, because really they speak by metaphors or similitudes; which mode of speaking, common among all people, tribes, and languages, is likewise ordinary with all the prophets of God; for example, “the mountains leaped like rams, and the little hills like lambs…the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs.” Psalm xxxvii. “Like a crane or a swallow so did I chatter, I did mourn as a dove.” Isaiah xxxviii. 14. Secondly, the texts quoted do not speak, neither can they speak of those solid heavens which the ancients figured to themselves, and as little do they speak of the planets, stars, &c. but of the great atmosphere which on all sides surround our globe, which globe is the only thing the prophets of God regard. Thirdly, and principally, the texts quoted do not speak by absolute affirmation, but by comparison of the being of all that is created, which may be corrupted and perish, with the being of the Creator of all, with his truth and his word which never fail. “Heaven and earth shall pass, but my words shall not pass.” Building upon this simple and natural understanding of the texts quoted, the most part of the doctors with St. Gregory the great, and St. Augustine, maintain that there is never to be any such total annihilation or destruction of our earth, or of that which we see above us; but a great and very notable change from evil to good, and from good to better.

This third opinion is that which I embrace, because I find it conformed to the scriptures, and affirmed there in express and clear terms. Among many other passages which might be cited, and which I shall cite by and by, I select at present this only which appears to me decisive: “I know that whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever.” Eccies. iii. 14. This text alone, although there were no others, well explaineth both the obscure text of St. Peter, and the two or three others which the annihilators cite. St. Gregory the Great appears to have had it before him when he said: ‘The heavens pass away with respect to that image which they have not, but remain for ever with respect to their substance.’⁹ And St. Augustine in the

₁₄^th

chap. of the twentieth book of the city of God, ‘For this world shall pass away by the change of things, but not at all by destruction…for the figure, not the nature of it, passeth away.’¹⁰ And in the 16^th chapter, ‘To the end indeed that the world being renewed for the better, may be properly fitted for men, who in their flesh have likewise been renewed for the

⁹ Cœli per eam quam non, habent imaginam transeunt, sed tamen per essentiam sine fine subsistunt. (Lib. 17. Morc.)

¹⁰ Mutatione namque rerum, non omminodo interitu transibit hic mundus…figura enim præterit, non natura. (Lib. 20. de Civitat Dec. c. 14.)

better.’¹¹ Keep well in your mind this express and clear opinion of these two very great doctors, that you may not lightly accuse me of novelty in the things which I proceed to propose and to consider.

§ 3. THE universal judgment being concluded in the manner in which it shall be (and of which in our present state we are not capable of conceiving a clear idea) Jesus Christ says, “that the just shall go into life eternal.” Upon these words of the Lord, and upon this essential and fundamental article of divine faith to all true Christians, it is asked, Whither and to what determinate and material part or place of all the world shall the just, now raised to the enjoyment of life eternal, proceed? To this question I perceive, my Christophilus, that you at once reply full of satisfaction and security, that they do all proceed to heaven, absolutely abandoning this miserable earth, this valley of tears. But I tell thee, my friend, that I understand not thy reply. The word heaven, in the phrase of the Holy Scripture, and likewise in the phrase of all peoples, tribes, and languages, is very general; whatever encompasseth our earth and is beyond it, not only our atmosphere but likewise the immense space which surroundeth it, is called heaven. Accordingly we say with great truth, that the moon, the sun, the planets, and all the stars, are in heaven, and we can add with the same propriety and truth, that our earth or terraqueous globe is in the same manner in heaven.

In order to make your reply more clear, you answer, secondly, that all the just being raised up, shall proceed to the celestial paradise. But this is to leave the thing in the same state of obscurity in which it was. This word paradise, or be it celestial paradise, is as general and indeterminate as the word heaven. The scripture calleth that place paradise whither the righteous Enoch was translated, “that he should not see death.” Heb. xi. 5. As the same scripture calleth the place heaven whither the great Elias was conducted in a chariot of fire; “who shall come and restore all things.” Jesus Christ a short while before he expired on the cross called hell itself paradise, when he said to the penitent thief, “today shall thou be with me in paradise;” and it is certain, and a point of divine faith, that Jesus Christ that same day (and therefore along with him the holy thief) “descended into hell,” and did not thence ascend until the third day. So that it appears necessary that these two general words, heaven and paradise, should be more fully explained, in order to satisfy the particular question under consideration.

In order to satisfy this fully, and to explain the two words, heaven and paradise, thou answerest in the third place, that all the just now raised up shall go to enjoy life eternal in the empyrean heaven. O my Christophilus! permit me to tell thee here, that by this word empyrean (a Greek word which signifies fiery or of flame) thou pretendest to explain one obscure thing by another more obscure. Where is that heaven which we call empyrean? Hath any one of the ancient or the modern philosophers seen it, or any one of the prophets of God? Is this heaven haply solid like molten brass? Is it a liquid like some fused metal which yields to the action of a very violent heat? For the one or the other of these two things is conveyed by the word empyrean.

I have sought for the word or some equivalent for it, in the holy scriptures, in the writings of the fathers, and ecclesiastical writers, and I have not found the least trace of it; and on this account I suspect that the word empyrean heaven is more modern than is generally thought. That only which I have been able to find upon this point, is that some ancient philosophers, especially Plato and certain of his disciples, as they imagined many

¹¹ Ut scilicet mundus in melius innovatus, apte accornodetur hominibus, etiam carne in melius innovates.

solid heavens, now three, now nine, now eleven, now more; so they imagined above them all a superior heaven, which they called empyrean or fiery, which they looked upon as the centre or region of fire, and likewise as the soul or life of all the universe. The Aristoteleans imagined this same empyrean, so far forth as it is a region of fire, to be much nearer us, placing it between the earth and the moon.

Returning to holy scripture, which is the most respectable authority, no other thing is to be found therein upon the point which we now handle, save general words; to wit, heaven, heavens, heaven of heavens, heavens of heavens, kingdom of the heavens. But these words, certainly general and indeterminate, are well explained in the same scriptures, and in a way perfectly agreeable to the point of divine faith, and likewise to right reason. For example, “then hear thou from heaven thy (Vulg. sublime, lofty) dwelling place,” saith Solomon to God, 2 Chron. vi. 30. and verse 39^th, “Then hear thou from heaven, even from thy (Vulg. firm) dwelling place.” What thing is this lofty and firm dwelling place of God? Is it haply some great palace or temple, or material heaven, or some determinate place? “Do not I fill heaven and earth, saith the Lord?” Jer. xxiii. 24.

Of this same habitation of God, most lofty and firm, speaketh the apostle when he saith, 1 Tim. vi. 16. “who dwelleth in light that is inaccessible.” And in another place, Acts

xvii. 27. “though he be not far from every one of us: for in him we live, and move, and have our being.” This had been already said with particular vividness, elegance, and propriety in the 139^th Psalm ver. 8. “If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.” Which all teacheth us that essential attribute of God which is an article of divine faith, to wit, his immensity, or real and true presence in all the universe, and in all and every one of the parts which compose it. And yet I hear you always reply that it is absolutely necessary to grant some determinate place, physical and real, where the glory of God is manifested to the blessed, where God himself is with all his glory, and where they enjoy most fully the vision of him, and are perfectly happy, chiefly after the universal resurrection and judgment. This point, of great importance, needeth a particular consideration. Upon which let us enter.

§ 4. IT is absolutely necessary to admit some determinate physical and real place, where God manifests himself in all his glory to the righteous now raised up, and where those may evermore behold him with intuitive and fruitful vision. This proposition, which appeareth to you so certain, is exactly that which I deny, not only upon scripture grounds, but upon the ground also of natural reason. You say, doubtless, that it is too much to deny a determinate place, which is admitted by all: and I answer you that you are under an equivocation. The determinate place whereof we speak, not all nor even many do admit. They only imagine or fancy it to themselves; and this fancy or imagination is that which the Ascetics call composition of place, good and most helpful to meditation, the fixing our unquiet, wandering, and in constant imagination upon some determinate thing or place. But this determinate place it is most certain that the imagination of itself doth fancy and construct in its own way, according to the talent and taste of every one. Of this composition of place, the origin is, I doubt not, to be traced to that image of glory with which the painters furnish us, good in itself and inoffensive; but shall we therefore infer that this glory shall be found fixed for ever in some determinate place of the physical and real heaven. That is, O Christophilus, what I again deny. And that you may feel as it were with the points of your fingers your egregious equivocation, permit me upon this point to put one single question. Tell me if thou canst point out in what part of heaven this determinate spot is. To this simple question, seeing thou dost not yet comprehend my secret purpose, thou answerest at once, (lifting up thine eyes and hands to the highest part of heaven,) that it is in your Zenith, and in all the parts around it. Having heard and well understood your answer, I put the same question to all the inhabitants of the earth, and to my great admiration I find that all without one exception answer me as you do, all and every one lifting up their eyes and their hands to the highest point of heaven, point out to me the same physical and real place, that is to say, their zenith. But I remark, and very easy it is to remark, that this physical and real place which all point out to me, though it appeareth one and the same relatively considered; yet in reality every people, tribe, language, and even every individual pointeth out to me a place absolutely different from all others, because every one hath his own particular zenith. Whence it is inferred that this determinate place, which you have figured out to your self, corresponds at the same time to all and to every one of the points of the earth where inhabitants are found, and consequently will extend to all that immense convexity which compasseth within itself the whole universe. Seest thou not then how all this is a pure imagination or construction of place?

§ 5. AFTER all that we have just advanced I perceive, my Christophilus, that thou abidest still unsatisfied. Thou still givest weight to a text of the apostle and two or three of the prophets, which in spirit, thou sayest, look to the celestial paradise or determinate place, where God is manifested to his angels and to his saints. To this small difficulty I acknowledge myself bound, and confess that I ought to reply in some distinct way.

In the first place, the text of St. Paul, speaking of his visions and revelations, in 2 Cor.

xii. 2,3.4.” I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven. And I knew such a man…how that he was caught up into paradise.” From this thou concludest that the celestial paradise, or determinate physical place where God now manifesteth himself, and shall through eternity be manifested, to angels and to saints, must be the third heaven. But how are you not ashamed of that multitude of solid heavens, one above another, and all transparent, which the ancients imagined? Now I see that instead of those thou dost imagine three only, the two first fluid liquid, and the third solid: the first thou callest aerial, that is, all the atmosphere which on every side compasseth our terraqueous globe; and there is no doubt that this atmosphere is frequently called heaven in the Holy Scriptures, even as that name is given to it among all peoples and nations. The second thou callest ethereal; and what is that? It is, thou sayest, the whole of that immense and indefinite space, wherein dwell or wherein swim the moon, the sun, the planets, and the stars without number. The third, superior to all, is that which thou callest the empyrean heavens, beyond which there is nothing.

But what else is all this, my friend, but to suppose and affirm the very thing which is in dispute? Our present controversy rests and turns merely upon this point, to wit, whether there is a solid heaven high above all, fiery, or if you please, lucid, superior to all the material creation, on whose immense surface there is a determinate place or paradise, where is manifested to the blessed the glory of God, and God himself. Well, thou knowest, that any such heaven is neither admitted by good physics, nor can rest upon revelation, is surely a suppositious or imaginary heaven, which is only found in the fictions of the Gentiles. Now, St. Paul, writing to the Corinthians, which was one of the most flourishing cities of Greece, most prudently accommodates himself to the opinions which prevailed amongst them concerning the system of the heavens. It is very well known, that in things purely physical, which do not pertain to religion, nor to faith, nor to morals, all the sacred writers do ever speak as the people are wont to speak; for never doth the Holy Spirit, nor any one of the prophets, teach a truth of pure physics. So that they will speak of the heavens and of the heavenly bodies, not as they in reality are, but as they appear to our eyes; which point it is necessary to admit and acknowledge, under the penalty of most weighty inconveniences. St. Jerome, upon the twenty-eighth chapter of Jeremiah, hath these words: “Many things in Holy Scripture are spoken according to the opinion of that time in which the transactions are related, and not according to the exact verity of the matter.”¹² If this sentence of that very learned doctor is true (and I hold it for such), it is so principally and perhaps only in things of pure physics, upon which the Holy Spirit hath ever maintained a most profound silence, abandoning them wholly to the occupation and disputations of men. “I have seen the travail which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it” (saith the most wise of men). “He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart.” [Vulg. tradidit disputationi eorum —he hath delivered to their disputation,] &c. Ecci. iii. 10,

11.

The reply to three or four passages which thou citest from the prophets, and even from the Apocalypse, is much more easy. These, thou sayest, behold, in some I know not what determinate place, the glory of God, and God himself surrounded with innumerable angels, and sitting upon a throne high and lifted up: as saith Isaiah, chap. vi; Daniel, chap. vii; Ezekiel, chap. vii; and St. John, in various parts of the Apocalypse, especially in the fourth and fifth chapters. But art thou ignorant, O Christophilus, that all, or almost all, the visions of the prophets of God, were visions presented to the imagination? For God himself set forth, and made the prophets to behold these things by means of images and animated figures, very similar and analogous to those which we acquire by the senses. As then the things which are seen by this medium are no more than images, so also is it with the place where they are seen, which varies according to circumstances; so that the argument taken from the rapture of St. Paul, and from such like passages of the prophets, proves nothing in favour of a determinate, physical, and real place, where the glory of God and God himself shall be eternally manifested to angels and saints.

There remaineth still another difficulty, on which we ought to say a word or two. The most holy humanity of Christ, the man-God, thou sayest with great reason, according to a doctrine of divine faith, did after his death and resurrection ascend into heaven, “where he sitteth at the right hand of God the Father.” Now this man-God is not a pure spirit, and therefore must necessarily occupy some determinate place, worthy of his greatness. The same we may say with respect to the most holy Virgin Mary, and the other saints who arose with Christ. And what place is that? Where is it? Moreover, where is the holy city of the new Jerusalem, which is one day to descend from heaven to our earth; and which is actually building of “living and elect stones?” In what part of heaven is this great edifice constructing?

To this difficulty it is briefly answered, that the holy and heavenly city of Jerusalem hath been building for many ages, in that very place where Jesus Christ is; and consequently, the most holy Virgin Mary, mother of that man-God, already raised, the other saints who were raised along with Christ, and all the very great company “which no man can number,” who have entered till now, and shall enter henceforth into life, are there where Jesus Christ their Redeemer is. And where (you return and ask in reply) is Jesus Christ himself? This last point, my Christophilus (if it is a determinate place you speak of, which is the particular and only point upon which we at present dispute), this last point I do not know, nor you, nor any one who now liveth on the earth. I do only know, and this without being able to doubt it, that

¹² Multa in Scripturis Sanctis dicuntur juxta opinionem illius temporis, quo gesta referuntur, et non juxta quod rei veritas exigebat.

Jesus Christ, ever since the day of his wonderful ascension to the heavens, has been, is at present, and shall henceforth be, where he has been, where he is, and where he desired to be: has been, is, and shall eternally be, “in the glory of God the Father, at the right hand of the Father, at the right hand of God, at the right hand of the power of God,” &c. And there likewise he is, and shall eternally be, with all his court, at present part in the body and part only in spirit; and after the general resurrection, all in spirit and in body. This court, composed wholly of the sons of God and brethren of Christ, doth at present enjoy (and shall enjoy for ever, in whatever part of the universe it may be found, united or divided) the most beatific vision, the chiefest good; and all and every one, in whatever part of the universe existing, are now and shall be for ever blessed. Is not this a truth?

Then with what reason wouldst thou enclose the man-God, not only now, but eternally, and along with him enclose all his angels and saints, in one only determinate place of heaven, and that of your own imagining? Is he not Lord of all? Hath not all been made for him, and by him, and in honour of him? Composition of place is good in itself, and very good in the meditation of glory. Use it, my friend, for no one hinders or restrains you, as so many righteous and spiritual men have used it, and I with them, although a sinner. But if you pretend that this particular and determinate place, which you yourself have composed and ordained according to your taste, must be now and eternally the only, the true, the physical, and real place, where God doth now manifest himself, and shall be for ever manifest, to his angels and saints; I ought in good friendship to tell you that your pretension is irregular, not to say unjust. That which St. Paul saith is much more satisfactory to me: “He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.” Eph. iv.

10. Whether this “that he might fill all things” be done, or be now actually doing, or shall be so after the universal resurrection, I know not. It appears to me that it is actually doing, and that hereafter it shall stand in its utmost degree of perfection. It now remains to me to consider your last petition, which by reason of its boundless extent will require a separate chapter.

CHAPTER XVI.

A general idea of the eternal Blessedness of all the Righteous, after the universal Resurrection and Judgment.

§ 1. THE general idea which we can form to ourselves of this blessedness, according to the principles which we have just laid down, is not only magnificent and sublime, but likewise becomes in proper time, by its simplicity, easy and perceptible to all sorts of people. Because there not being any determinate place, where God permits himself to be enjoyed by his saints, it is clear that it will be the whole universe, and every one of the innumerable bodies which compose it, without excluding this our globe from the number. In fact, this is our system, being according to our understanding, the system of the scriptures, as we shall see.

St. Paul, the teacher and master of the Gentiles (touching these very points which we now touch), saith, first, that Jesus Christ is constituted by his divine Father heir of all the creation; because by him, and for him, and to him, was it all made: “Whom he hath constituted heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds…For whom are all things, and by whom are all things.” Which St. John repeateth in the beginning of his Gospel: “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.” John i. 3. The apostle declareth in the second place, that the day must come, wherein all the creation shall be wholly and perfectly subjected to this man-God. “Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him,” Heb. ii. 8; and in another place: “And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all,” 1 Cor.

xv. 28. That is to say, when all things (without any exception) shall be subject to him fully and perfectly, then he who is by generation the Son of God, and made man, or the man-God, as elder brother, as head of all the righteous, and cause of their righteousness, shall be subject along with them, constituting one and the same body, to his divine Father, “who hath put all things under him,” in order that he may be eternally “ All in all.” To which St. John addeth, “Beloved, now are we the sons of God; and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him, purifieth himself even as he is pure.” 1 John iii. 2,3.

St. Paul declareth, in the third place, that all the adopted sons of God, as brethren of Jesus Christ, and conformed to him, some more and others less, shall likewise be heirs of God, and joint—heirs with the elder son, which is Jesus Christ. “And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.” Rom. viii. 17. Whence it naturally floweth, that the elder brother, being heir and lord of all things without any exception, we shall likewise proportionably be all joint-heirs. It is true, that among so many joint heirs there shall be an infinite diversity, according to the merits of every one: Some shall be greatest, others great, others middle, others less, and the greatest number least, but as love, “which is the bond of all perfectness,” shall then be in the most perfect degree to which it can come, there shall not be, it shall not be possible that there should be, among these many sons of God, meum et tuum, mine and thine, that freezing word, but what is thine shall be mine, and what is mine shall be thine; what belongeth to all shall belong to every one, and what is Christ’s shall be the portion of all; “and God all in all.” This general idea, though hardly touched in the briefest manner, appears to me true, reasonable, and just, in all its aspects. Let us now come to particulars, principally upon the glory which we call accidental.

The Material, Extent, and Greatness of the Kingdom of God.

To the end that we may be able to have some worthy conception of the greatness and extent of the kingdom of the heavens, in so far as pertains to the accessory and accidental part thereof, lift, O Christophilus, thine eyes to heaven, and that in any place or country where thou mayest happen to be, and contemplate for the space of one quarter of an hour, that magnificent spectacle which is presented to thee by that multitude of bright celestial spheres which the Creator alone can reckon up: consult the most learned and diligent observers of them, and they will tell thee that the multitude of heavenly bodies is absolutely incomprehensible, and that with the aid of the best telescopes there is hardly discovered the most insignificant part of these lights of the sky. They will tell thee that all the innumerable celestial bodies which we call stars must be luminous in themselves, because at the prodigious distance at which they are, in respect to our sun, they cannot receive from him so much light as to reflect it back to us with such great clearness and brilliancy: That the size of those innumerable brilliant bodies must at least be as great as that of the sun which enlightens us; because it hath been demonstrated by very many famous astronomers, that our sun, situated at an equal distance from us as any star, would seem as small as it doth.

They will tell thee that the distance of one star from another must, according to analogy, be equal (a little more or less) to the distance of our sun from the star which is most near to it, which distance is incalculable: that those stars, luminous in themselves, and as distant from one another as the sun is from the nearest of them, cannot be idle, that is, cannot enjoy for themselves alone their light and heat; but ought apparently to communicate thereof to other bodies, cold and dark in themselves, as our sun doth.

They will tell thee, that if every luminous star cannot of itself be considered as idle, but be destined to warm and to enlighten other distant and cold bodies which surround it, and revolve in its vicinity or sphere of influence, each star is a solar and planetary system, as certainly our sun is, and therefore each star hath many bodies (more or less), which surround it as the common centre of motion, and which have need of its light and heat.

They will tell thee finally, that this light and heat, which each star freely shareth among the dark and cold bodies which surround it, cannot have respect to mere inanimate bodies; but ought, it would seem, to enlighten and warm living animated creatures, part only sensible, analogous to our beasts, part and principally rational creatures, composed of body and spirit, analogous to men the inhabitants of our globe.

I am very far from taking a side for this last idea. The specious reasons which are alleged in its favour are all derived from pure conjecture and congruity; consequently, they can only prove that the thing is not repugnant, nor impossible, nor contradictory to some truth; but they prove nothing in favour of their real existence.

That only which can and ought to be defended, is, that if haply there be in other globes other creatures analogous to man (be they what and how they may), they must all pertain to Jesus Christ, and be entirely subject to his dominion, because all these, not less than we, were created by him and for him “by whom are all things, and for whom are all things.”

Perhaps you will say, that all these innumerable creatures, composed of a body and reasonable soul (if haply there be such in other worlds), not only ought to pertain to the man-God, Christ Jesus, in quality of King and Lord of all, but likewise in quality of Redeemer, Mediator, and peace-maker, between God and the creatures, even as he is and shall be, with respect to the whole race of man. Well: and what difficulty findest thou in this? How do we know, ether you, or I, or any one, whether those creatures we speak of, analogous to man, have held, either before, or at least since the death and resurrection of the man-God, some divine mission by the ministry of angels and of remarkable saints, as Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David and others? So that all these innumerable creatures analogous to man (if haply there be such) may well enough pertain to the man-God Christ Jesus, not only in his capacity of King and universal Lord of all creation, but likewise in his capacity of Redeemer, Mediator, and Peace-maker between the Creator and his creatures. Upon this point, that text of the Apostle, of no small difficulty, may have a bearing, when speaking of the fruits of the passion and death of the man-God, he saith, “For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; and, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.” Col,

i. 19,20. What rational creatures, inhabitants of the heavens, can these be, “who are in the heavens,” and who were reconciled to God by the death of Christ, as the race of Adam upon the earth have been reconciled? Consider it well: but do not therefore think that I give this understanding to the text of the apostle as if it absolutely affirmed, but only in the case (which is not impossible nor absurd) that the heavenly bodies are inhabited by creatures analogous to man. Beyond this case, I will say that I am ignorant of his true meaning; nor is it my mind to set myself to take a part in any such dispute; I confine myself merely to the matter of it, and in order that it may serve as a rest to the magnificent idea which philosophers have formed of this most beautiful work, which we consider at present merely in respect to the blessedness of the joint-heirs of Jesus Christ.

All which we behold in the universe with our eyes, all which we compass with our view by the best telescopes, and all which we cannot bring within our ken (which perhaps is the greatest and the best), all this, my friend, is the inheritance of the man-God Christ Jesus; and consequently of all his younger brethren after the universal resurrection. And all this will be as it were an appendage, an accessory and an accident of their substantial blessedness and glory, that is, the vision of the enjoyment of God, and the possession of the supreme good. This vision of God pertaineth solely to the soul in its natural and intellectual capacity; but, in its capacity of sensitiveness by means of the organs of the body, for which it was constituted and destined, the vision, the possession, the fruition of all the material creation will be added thereto. So that all shall be able corporeally to go whither they please, and with their eyes to look upon, and with their hands to touch, with full understanding, all and every one of the infinite works of the Omnipotent, without any fear, that time will be wanting to behold and to observe them thoroughly: “When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained,” Psalm viii. 3: And without being, by this vision and observation of God’s works, impeded or one moment distracted from the vision and fruition of the chief good that shall never be lost, and which they shall find unchangeable, and equal, and alike, in all places. For now in the present state, “the body which is corruptible weigheth down the soul,” Wisdom ix. 15; and very often it happeneth “that the Spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh weak.” But in that most blessed state, the body, now incorruptible and glorified, far from disturbing the soul, or one moment hindering its contemplative fruition and intimate love of the chief good, shall rather help it therein; because partaking of its glory, it shall serve it for an instrument wherewith to taste all, to praise, and to bless in all and for all, the Creator of all.

Thou wilt not here confound, my Christophilus, this clear and simple idea, solidly founded in revelation, with those ridiculous, dry, unjust, and insufficient ideas, which have been invented by certain people in the dark ages, and who went about to persuade themselves that after their death their souls would go from globe to globe, acquiring new knowledge in the physical sciences, in order to become perfect therein; for such people do wander egregiously from the way of revelation. But leaving these poor men to divert themselves, and for a moment to comfort themselves with their ridiculous imaginations, let us return to take up the thread of our discourse. We, O Christophilus, do not build, as thou knowest, upon pure imaginations; but upon real, solid, stable, and eternal foundations, which the word of God furnisheth, his authentic and clear word which he hath confirmed with an oath: “Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath: that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us.” Heb. vi. 17,18. So our hope doth not stand in pompous words, nor in proud decisions, but in undeniable facts; to which right reason, far from opposing itself, doth rather give favour and aid with all her power. As I do not speak with these graceless persons, but with Christophili, or lovers of Christ, I reason simply and confidently thus: —There is evidently a supreme Being, eternal and uncreated, from whom every thing that is hath received its being; “he made us; and not we ourselves:” There is a God, infinite in everything, the Creator and Lord of heaven and of earth, “of all things, whether they be visible or invisible.” This living and true God, in his great goodness hath condescended from the days of old to enter into communion, into covenant, into commerce with men, the inhabitants of this great world. He hath deigned to reveal himself to them, to reveal to them his manner of existence, ineffable and incomprehensible; that is, the one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity; to reveal, besides himself, many other mysteries, and to make thousands of promises to them. He hath deigned, besides all this, to unite himself to our nature in the person of his Son, in order to remedy our ills: “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John iii. 16.

Now, this Son of God, made man, or this man-God, must necessarily be “heir of all things,” because for him and by him all hath been made; “by whom are all things, and for whom are all things;” and it shall all one day be eternally made subject to him. Besides being the only begotten Son of God in his nature, and as such “heir of all things,” he is likewise the “first-born of many brethren;” and at present hath, and shall for ever have, many younger brethren, adopted sons of God, who have made good use, and shall continue to make good use, of the powers which all who believe in him do receive from him: “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.” John i. 12. Of these I say, that by their sincere and incorrupt faith, and by their righteousness under every proof, shall be conformed to him, (some more, others less,) and shall, by this conformity, be counted worthy to enter into the number of the sons of God, and as such be joint-heirs with him. If then for this end God the Son made himself wholly man, and his brethren and joint-heirs are to reign with him, and this be in reality the kingdom of the heavens, what else can this be than the universal world, and whatever things are contained therein? what else can it be than the whole of the universal world, and all the innumerable creatures which compose it, of whom Jesus Christ is the legitimate heir, and all the righteous joint-heirs with him.

§ 2. I SHALL now take up the last difficulty which you proposed to me. Although it were granted, you say, that the kingdom of the heavens, the kingdom of God, the kingdom of Christ, the paradise, the celestial country were to be the whole world, and all the innumerable bodies which compose this universe, without any exception, —even in this case (you continue) it is absolutely necessary to conceive of some place or determinate globe, the most privileged of all, where should be fixed for ever the court, the throne, the judgment, the centre of unity of so great a kingdom; because, in this kingdom, though very vast, though composed entirely of sons of God, blessed and sinless, there ought yet to be a righteous and pacific subordination of some to others (and that clear, known by all, and indisputable); that is to say, a subordination of the least to the less, of these to others greater, of these to the great, of the great to the greatest, and of all to the Supreme King. This hierarchy, this perfect government, do not all the doctors admit even among the angels, “who always see the face of the Father?” why, then, should not the same have place among the innumerable sons of God who shall enter into life? Accordingly (you conclude with good reason) some determinate place ought to be admitted, some physical and real place amongst the innumerable orbs which compose the universe; where ordinarily the Supreme King resideth in his court, and from whence, as from a common centre, the light may eternally issue and be diffused abroad over all parts. To this last difficulty I can most easily answer, in two ways; first, that where the king is, there ordinarily is his court: for no sovereign is obliged to reside perpetually in one and the same determinate place. If this very short reply do not content you, as may well be believed, I grant you, my friend, without any repugnancy this physical, determinate, and real place, which with so much earnestness you desire. The court of the Supreme King, and the centre of the unity of so great a kingdom, will doubtless stand, eternally in some determined place, or in some one of the innumerable orbs which compose the whole universe. I said, in some one of the orbs: because, a solid heaven, which serveth for a vault to all the universe, and encloseth all within itself, I do not admit: “and let every one be fully convinced in his own mind.” But which shall be the orb so privileged among all others? No other, Christophilus, in my poor judgment, but that very one on whose surface we dwell. This shall be eternally the most attended to, the most frequented, the most honoured of God and all his creatures, and consequently the most blessed and glorious, at least in all that pertaineth to the accidental and accessory glory, which, after the universal resurrection, cannot be small. Perhaps you will say, and I seem to hear your exclamation, “This is a hard saying, and who can bear it!” our miserable globe, which God hath cursed! our valley of tears, of infirmity, of sadness, of corruption, of iniquity, &c. shall one day become the court and centre of unity of the whole kingdom of God, and of all the unmeasured kingdom of the heavens! Yes, my friend, it shall be so. You have no reason for wondering at this proposition; which, far from opposing Holy Scripture, or right reason, is found to be protected and solidly confirmed by the one and the other. And take briefly the reasons which make in favour of our globe over all others.

First; then, God Jesus Christ our Lord, the supreme king is of this same earth “which God gave to the sons of man;” and has united himself most closely with our poor, infirm, and vilest nature, “But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man,” Phil. ii. 7,8. here he was born of the Virgin Mary, of the seed of David, according to the flesh; here he preached, here he taught, here he died, here he suffered the greatest reproach, and the most unjust dishonour, which hath been ever seen, dying naked upon an accursed cross, as one of the most wicked of men, “he was numbered with the transgressors.” Here therefore also ought to be fully and perfectly manifested his innocence, his justice, his goodness, his infinite dignity, and all which can be comprehended under those two words, man-God. In like manner do we reason of the “joint-heirs,” and especially of the chief of them. These suffered here for him, here they suffered persecution for righteousness’ sake, here they were dishonoured, brought into tribulation, very many of them even unto the death; here they wrought righteousness in the midst of the general iniquity and corruption; here “they loved not their lives unto the death.” Therefore here also, as in the place of their patience, of their righteousness, and their tribulations for Christ’s sake, they ought eternally to enjoy the fruits more than a hundred fold, of all which they here sowed; “for so it is righteous and worthy of God (as saith Tertullian, lib. 5. ad. Marc. c. 24.) to exalt his servants there, where also they have been afflicted in his name.”

Secondly; the holy city of the new Jerusalem, which is now building of living and elect stones, is most certainly one day to come down, with Jesus Christ himself, from heaven to our earth, and to be solidly established therein. Holy Scripture assures us, that it shall come and dwell with man, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them:” but never is it declared or even insinuated, that this habitation of the holy city upon our earth is only to be for a certain limited time, or that at some time it is to leave the earth, and fly to another part; but rather from the text and context of the 21^st and 22^nd chapters of the Apocalypse, we gather quite the contrary, which is much confirmed by combining it with other passages of scripture. —Consider these few: “But Judah shall dwell for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation.” Joel iii. 20. “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 towards the east, shall be holy unto the Lord; it shall not be plucked up, nor thrown down, any more for ever.” Jer. xxxi. 40. “This is my rest for ever: here will I dwell: for I have desired it.” Psalm cxxxii. 14. “Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice, from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.” Isa. ix. 7, which was the promise made by the angel to our Lady. “And the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David. And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.” Luke i. 32,33.

These and very many other passages of holy scripture, of the like import, appear to make obviously and naturally in favour of our globe. In affirming any thing contrary or different, there would be required some positive and divine foundation for explaining these passages in another sense; for such a foundation you shall search the whole scriptures, and shall not find it. If the common idea, that the universal judgment being concluded, (be it when it may,) Jesus Christ shall return from the earth to the empyrean heavens, taking along with him all the blessed of his Father, be true, is it to be believed that some intimation thereof, or at least some vestige of an event so great, would not be found in all the scriptures?

Besides the passages which have been pointed out in favour of our earth, and besides so many others with which the prophets and the psalms abound, consider finally this one only, which from its precision and clearness may stand for a thousand. “But the seed of the wicked shall be cut off. The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein for ever?” Psalm xxxvii. 28,29. And a little before it is said in the same Psalm, — “For evil-doers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth. For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be; yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place and it shall not be. But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.” Psalm xxxvii. 9-11. To which the good Master alludeth in his sermon on the mount, saying, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” To all which it should be added, that our earth, even when looked at in its present state, is not so contemptible in its physical and natural structure, as not to merit great attention. Doubtless there are now found in it, mixed and confused with one another, things good and evil, from which mixture there resulteth a whole or a compound little agreeable, or to speak better, agreeable in one respect; but disagreeable in a thousand. But separate for a moment the evil from the good, the precious from the vile: Take from our earth whatever it holdeth of evil and disagreeable, as well in the moral as in the physical world, and leave only the good: Take out of it, in the first place, concupiscence, pride, envy; take from it the ill-regulated and vain desires of its inhabitants, which are ordinarily their greatest punishment: Take from it after this, infirmity, fear, sadness, indigence, heat and cold, the variety of seasons, and their necessary results to the prejudice of our health; and in fine, the fear of death and of every evil: And thereby alone, without adding to it any positive good, would not our earth become a true paradise! If even now, in the midst of this mixture and: confusion of good and of ill, there be so many who desire to perpetuate themselves in it, merely from the good which can be fished out from amongst so many evils, what would it be were there no evil, but every thing to our satisfaction?

Now recollect, that in the glorious coming of the Lord, this earth shall be meliorated according to his promise, “that righteousness and peace shall dwell in it,” and thou shalt begin to acknowledge that it is worthy of so glorious an event. Consider the most vivid expressions which the prophets of God make use of, while speaking of our earth still in the state of the sojourner, only meliorated and renovated for the coming of the King of Kings, notwithstanding that in the whole of it (except in the holy and heavenly Jerusalem, “which cometh down out of heaven from my God”) there is yet to be for many ages, generation and corruption, sin and death, as we observed in the fourth chapter: Reflect at least upon that which is announced of this new earth in the eleventh, thirty-fifth, and sixty-fifth chapters of Isaiah, and thereby alone, without any addition, you shall see our whole terraqueous globe converted and transformed into a garden of innocent delights, much like to, and perhaps even better than that of which the scripture saith, “Now God had planted a paradise of blessedness from the beginning, wherein he placed the man whom he had formed.”

If this shall be while our earth is still in the state of the sojourner, during the judgment and kingdom of Christ over the living, what think you shall it become, after the universal resurrection, when all generation and corruption being ended, when the great mystery of God being all perfectly concluded and consummated, this very earth shall be exalted to the most high and eternal dignity, of being made the court or centre of unity of all creation, or of the immense kingdom of the heavens? Is it not infinitely probable there shall be added at that time, a thousand or a million degrees of physical and natural perfection? Is it not a thing worthy of God, that his grace, bounty, greatness, and goodness, should abound and superabound in that same globe, where iniquity hath so much abounded? In that same world in which “the word was made flesh?” In which he emptied himself? In which he “was crucified, dead, and buried?” And in which he is at length to come, in order to do the will of God as it is done in heaven, or to convert it into a heaven itself?

§ 3. THESE general ideas which we have just set forth upon the universal kingdom of the man-God, and upon the felicity of those who are judged worthy to enter into this kingdom, I take upon me to hope, after being well examined and well understood, you shall find not only conformed to the scriptures, not only great, magnificent, and therefore worthy of God, but likewise accessible and intelligible to everyone; while those which the common system offereth can hardly be perceived with all the help of subtleties. We ought nevertheless to confess, that be the system we follow what it may, we cannot in the present state form an adequate idea of the accidental felicity which the just now raised up shall enjoy: since, as it is written in Isaiah, chapter lxiv verse 4 “eye hath not seen nor ear heard,” as St. Paul repeats it, “nor have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” 1 Cor. ii. 9.

§ 4 IF however, that which I have just proposed in this last chapter should appear to you strange or dangerous, know, friend, that in this others better than I have thought in like manner. In fact, the leaned French authors who commented upon the New Testament against Quesnel, having come to the third chapter of the second epistle of Peter, say, “It is asked, who shall inherit this new earth? St Anselmo, Guilleirmo of Paris, Pico Mirandulano, El Tostado, Cayetano, and many other learned Theologians, answer, that this new earth shall be the eternal habitation of the little ones which are without baptism. Others believe that it shall be for the blessed themselves; because after the judgment, all the universe shall be the inheritance of the elect, and St John, Rev v. 10 says, that we shall reign upon the earth.

And here thou seest, O Chriystophilus, my dearst friend, that we have arrived by the favour of God at the end and termination of our copious conversation. In which I have proposed to your consideration, whatever I promised to you, and I may say with truth, much more than I proposed, because while writing, things have continually occurred which I certainly had not before thought of. It now concerns yourself to examine in order, and after that examination to judge with righteous judgment, because, as thou hast oft heard me say, I not only submit this whole writing to the judgment of the church, whose province it is to judge of the true sense and interpretation of the Holy Scriptures, but also to the judgment and criticism of any learned and considerate individual who shall condescend to read it, and to favour me with his charitable observations; for my intention is most certainly no other (“my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost,”) than to do some service to God, and to my neighbours, contributing by this small offering according to my poverty and insignificance, “to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ; in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” Col. ii. 2,3. “To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.” 1 Peter v. 11.

FINIS

CONSULTING INDEX OF VOLUME II.

PAGE* SIXTH Phenomenon is the Christian Church. 1 Preliminaries necessary to forming a clear idea of what is signified by the words Christian Church. 2 The Church, although it is one and indivisible, comprehends two parts, the active and the passive. 3 This distinction made, it is manifest that the Jews have only lost the government, or the active part of the Church. 3 The doctors would apply to the present Church, the great promises made to Zion. 4 They endeavour to confirm their idea, by a text of St. Paul. 6 That passage of the Apostle examined. 6 Distinction of the promises contained in this text. 7 This distinction of the promises proves the equivocation of the doctors. 7 Two suppositions that the doctors make concerning the active part of the Church. 8 The author proposes five truths in addition to many others antecedent; for the clear understanding of the government or active part of the Church. 11 These five propositions examined; it is questioned whether God will see it good to restore the government to the Jews, which the Church now holds. 13 Excellent discourse, and important considerations, addressed by an ancient and celebrated doctor to the Gentile Christians. 14 Speaking of the stubborn Jews, the said doctor believes that their hard ness and obstinacy will not be perpetual. 15 That the Jews were cast away as useless branches does not prove that their sin is irremissible. 16 The blindness of the Jews is much more deserving of our compassion, than of our indignation. 19 They will be called when the vocation of the Gentiles is fulfilled. 20 Demonstration continued, that like as the Gentiles were called notwithstanding their unbelief, so will the Jews be also, notwithstanding their present pertinacity and 21 obstinacy. For the sake of perspicuity, the four divisions of the xviith chapter of the Apostle Paul are adduced, the doctor from whom we have extracted the preceding arguments. 23 Reflection on this chapter of St. Paul. 24 Last observations on the text of Isaiah cited by St. Paul. 30 The silence of the holy fathers, and other doctors, is adduced against the foregoing doctrines. 36 The said objection answered. 37 The ministry of the doctors and fathers is one true cause of their silence on the subject of their former spouse. 38 So far were the fathers from speaking in favour of the former spouse, that they commonly cast her enemies in her teeth. 39 First answer to the objection that may be made, viz, why we do not always interpret the Sacred Scripture in a sense favourable to the new Spouse, agreeably to the 40 example of the doctors. Second answer, on the same subject. 40 The petition, “Thy kingdom come,” explained. 42 Seventh Phenomenon. Babylon and her captives. 45 The prophecies favourable to the children of Israel, have not yet been accomplished. 46 Summary of the history of the children of Israel; from their banishment to the present time. 46 The above compared with the Prophecies. 53 Threatenings against Babylon. 59 Elucidation of who is this threatened Babylon. 65 Allusions of the Babylon of the Apocalypse to the Babylon of the Prophets. 66 Recapitulation, or conclusion. 69 Appendix. 71 Phenomenon Eight. The woman cloathed with the Sun. 73 Common explanation of the doctors. 74 First consideration against this explanation. 78 Second consideration. 79 Third consideration. 79 Another explanation of this wonderful event proposed. 80 An attempt to reconcile this explanation with the 1st and 2nd verses of the xiith chapter of the Apocalypse. 82 Verses. 3 and 4 of the same Chapter. 89 Explanation of the 5th verse. 91 Perfect agreement between the prophecies of Daniel and St. John. 94 This harmony further proved. 96 On the Book opened by the Lamb. 98 This Book is the new and everlasting covenant of God. 99 In which the Only Begotten of the Father is constituted King and Lord of all. 100 Universal rejoicing of the Holy Council on the opening of the Book. 102 Flight of the Woman to the wilderness. 103 Battle of St. Michael with the Dragon, in the cause of the woman. 105 In the supreme council of God, the power which they had abused is taken from men. 107 Repeated Decrees against the earth issue from the Supreme Council. 108 The Dragon institutes an accusation before the Supreme Judge against the Woman, and wages a formidable battle. 109 The Dragon being overcome descends precipitately to the earth. 110 Application of chapters xii of Daniel, and of the Apocalypse, to this remarkable contest. 111 Acclamation of joy in heaven on the triumph of St. Michael. 112 The Dragon persecutes the Woman. 114 The Woman flies away with the wings given her by God. 116 On what these two wings signify. 116 Description of the flood that issues from the mouth of the Dragon, and agreement of the texts in Exodus and the Apocalypse. 119 The viith chapter of Micah agrees also with the texts quoted. 123 The Wilderness, according to Scripture, the retreat of the Woman, and how God will deal with her there. 124 The Dragon not being able to hurt the Woman, turns his wrath against the faithful sons of Abraham. 131 The calling of the Jews will be a most seasonable means for the preservation and enlargement of the Church. 132 The tabernacle of David. 135 Spiritual sense in which the Doctors usually explain the re-edification of the Tabernacle. 136 The present Church cannot be the Tabernacle, the restoration of which is promised. 138 Difference between the Priesthood belonging to the tribe of Levi, and the kingdom belonging to the family of David. 139 The not understanding the manner in which things will come to pass, is no reason for denying them. 141 The first Council of the Church assembled in Jerusalem. 142 Reflections on the answer which Jesus Christ gave to his disciples when they asked him, when would be the restoration of the kingdom of Israel. 143 Unsatisfactory explanation of the text of St. James, and the prophecy of Amos. 145 Another meaning more satisfactory of the said text of St. James. 148 All the above confirmed by other places of Sacred Scripture, the first being the ixth chapter of Isaiah. 151 The second, Luke chap. i. 152 The Third, cxxxiincl Psalm. 155 Last observation in which the xvith chapter of Isaiah is discussed at large. 157 Three reflections which facilitate the understanding of the said chapter. 162 First conclusion which follows from this exposition. 166 Second conclusion. 168 Recapitulation of the places cited in the Holy Scriptures. 171 Mount Zion on the top of the mountains. 174 Common explanation by the Doctors of these prophecies. 175 Great difficulties which the 4th verse of Isaiah, and the 3rd of Micah present, according to the explanation of the Doctors. 175 These difficulties vanish by distinguishing as they ought to be distinguished, the two times of the Messiah. 177 The doctrine of the Author is confirmed by the very context of the second of Isaiah. 184 Context of Micah. 190 Exposition of the xlviith Psalm, which confirms the system proposed. 192 Interesting reflections on the 6th verse of the same Psalm. 196 Jerusalem —her punishments, her pardon, her ruin, and her future greatness. 201 A place in Daniel pointed out which seems to oppose the future glorious state of Jerusalem. 202 It is essential to distinguish the end of the world and the end of the age. 205 A place in Jeremiah which also appears contrary to the restoration of Jerusalem, explained. 207 Celebrated prophecy of Tobit. 209 Concordance between many other prophets and Tobit. 211

PART III

Coming of the Lord, according to the Scriptures, after the long space of time established, which will intervene between the said advent and the general 214 resurrection. Resurrection of some saints, who will accompany the Lord at his advent. 215 Total destruction of those who joined themselves to the fourth beast of Daniel, and that shall be numbered with the worshippers of the two beasts described in the 216 thirteenth chapter of the Apocalypse. Destruction of the wicked by the establishment of the kingdom of Jesus Christ. 218 General ideas of the judgment of Christ, according to the Scriptures. 219 True explanation of the tenth chapter of Isaiah. 222 The rod spoken of in this chapter is a true symbol of the power that he exercises against the wicked. 223 The flower is a symbol of sweetness and beauty. 224 The new heavens and new earth, of which St. Peter speaks in his Epistle. 231 What heavens they are, of which the said Epistle treats, explained. 231 The physical order of things which existed before the flood, was lost by that terrible event. 232 Those new heavens will exist in fulfilment of the promise of God. 233 The explanations which some interpreters give of the sixty-fifth chapter of Isaiah are not genuine. 234 The terraqueous globe underwent a prodigious change by the deluge. 240 By the same cause the heavens also suffered a great change. 241 Diversity of seasons of the year caused thereby. 242 How will the existing heavens and earth perish by the fire of which St. Peter speaks? 243 Restoration of the axis of the earth to its former position. 244 Terrific consequences of this restoration of the axis. 244 The fire at the coming of the Lord will not be universal, but only against his enemies. 247 The horrible tempest of the great day of the Lord being past, the heavens and the earth will appear renovated and much Improved. 248 The trouble and commotion of the great day of the Lord will not last less than forty-five days. 250 The Holy City which descends from heaven. 251 Doctrine of the interpreters on this particular. 253 If the common interpretation of the doctors be admitted, various texts of Sacred Scripture cannot be explained without violence. 253 Inferred from passages of Scripture, that the Holy City will not descend the day of the general judgment, but on that Of the glorious advent of the Lord, before the 254 general resurrection. Although many things consequent on the coming of the Holy City cannot be explained, the event itself ought not on that account to be doubted. 256 An attempt to answer conjecturally Some questions respecting the Holy City; the first being of its dimensions and structure. 258 How are the three measurements given by St. John to be understood? 258 On the gates, and the angels in them. 259 On the inhabitants of the said Holy City. 261 On those who are alive and will rise to meet Jesus Christ. 262 Whether all the blessed will accompany Jesus Christ, or only some. 265 Also some notably wicked will revive to shame. 268 The woman quits the wilderness, and her new espousal. 268 The expositions which the doctors usually give of the Song of Solomon, though very pious, are not conformable to the literal Sense. 270 The true meaning of this Canticle shown. 274 The abandonment, and conversion, of Israel announced by Isaiah in the sixth chapter. 276 Who is the true spouse, of whom the Prophet speaks, proved, by the arguments of many Sacred Texts. 277 Division of the Holy Land among the remains of the twelve tribes. The new Jerusalem and its new Temple. 285 The division of the land, promised by Ezekiel in the last times, is very different from that made by Joshua. 286 This future partition admitted: the solidity and truth of the present plan and system appears clearly. 287 The city that Ezekiel describes is very different from that pourtrayed by St. John. 288 The future Jerusalem of Ezekiel, is also very different from the ancient Jerusalem. 289 Description of the new temple, and the difficulties in which the interpreters find themselves thereby. 291 The former sacrifices continued forty years after the founding of the Church. 292 The former sacrifices ceased with the destruction of the temple by the Romans. 292 These sacrifices will not be offered while the present Church continues. 292 The ark, the tabernacle, and the altar will be established in the new temple of the future Jerusalem. 298 For what end will these things be established in the new temple? 299 Some apparent impediments and difficulties which occur against this system removed. 300 The said system confirmed by some texts of divine Scripture. 301 In what the two precursors of Jesus Christ, John the Baptist and Elias, agree, and in what they differ, exhibited. 302 Preference to the idea or system of P. Antonio Vieyra. 304 Residue of the Gentiles. 305 Blessing of the Gentiles announced by the Prophet. 306 Many places of the Evangelists appear to contradict this blessedness and this reign of justice and peace, and cannot be reconciled with the Prophets, if the vulgar system 308 be followed. It is in vain to such to reconcile them, without a change of system. 310 An easy method of harmonizing the different parts of divine Scripture, by only varying the plan. 312 Methods fitted to preserve peace and justice in the blessed kingdom we look for. 314 First, The presence of Jesus Christ. 315 Second, The absence of the dragon, chained by the angel, and imprisoned in the abyss. 316 Third, The union of justice and peace, which shall flourish in this kingdom of Jesus Christ. 317 The multitude and diversity of tongues shall cease. There shall remain but one only language, and this shall be the fourth means of preserving the promised felicity. 317 Jerusalem shall be the common centre to which all the Gentiles shall flock. 320 Mutual charity and hospitality shall abound in this city. 322 The adorable person of Jesus Christ shall be at times visible to the strangers who resort to Jerusalem. 324 It is also probable that the deputed of the nations will clearly behold the hell where the enemies of Jesus Christ are imprisoned. 325 Several questions and difficulties answered by the simple exposition of a parable. 327 The author after confessing his ignorance and inability to give an explication of this glorious reign, offers his ideas, such as they are, endeavouring to found them on 332 certain texts of Holy Scripture. End of the millennium. Release of the dragon, and consequences of that release. 333 Cause of the decay and corruption of the Gentiles in that future state. 334 Continuation of-the same subject. 335 An argument against the system of the author is proposed, which his opponents 336 believe to be incontrovertible. Three answers to that argument. 339 Who is Gog? Who is Magog? 340 The expedition of Gog, of which Ezekiel speaks, is very different from that described by St. John. 341 There is no certainty that the fire which, according to the Apocalypse, is to descend from heaven on the living will be universal. 343 Description of the first judgment, according to the Evangelist St. John. 344 Some questions concerning the state of the universal world, after the general resurrection. 345 Various opinions on that subject. 346 The assertion that the earth will be much ameliorated, adopted and confirmed by some parts of scripture. 346

On the infants who die without baptism. 347

On the place to which the just will go. 349 Heaven is an indefinite place where God manifests his glory. 351 A text of the Apostle explained, which seems to denote that heaven is a precise and determinate place. 352 Other texts of Scripture on the same subject explained. 353 Where Jesus Christ and the blessed are will be the properly called heaven, and Jesus Christ and his saints need not occupy a fixed and determinate spot. 354 General idea of eternal happiness after the general judgment. 356 Extent and Grandeur of the kingdom of heaven. 357 On the inhabitants of the celestial bodies. 358 All the greatness and beauty of the universe will be the inheritance of Jesus Christ and his saints. 359 Although Jesus Christ with his saints may dwell any where, our earth will be the privileged place where he will fix his court. 362 Our earth, after the universal judgment, will be converted into a paradise. 365 The ideas of the author, on this renovation and magnificence of our earth, are conformable to those of other very respectable and learned men. 367

* These page numbers are those in the 1827 English Edition