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and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created."

Some have inclined to think, that "the sea of glass like unto crystal," which we have explained as the symbol of matter in its purified form, hath a reference of some kind or other to the brazen or molten sea which was in the temple of Solomon. But against this view several things militate. First, There is no allusion to brass in the description of it. Secondly, The brazen sea contained water; but this containeth no element of water whatever. Thirdly, Though we have had occasion to refer to the ordinances of the temple more than once, in order to explain, or rather to illustrate some of the things of this vision, we are far from thinking that it hath any express respect to the scenery of the temple, like the vision of chap. viii., or chap. xi., or chap. xiv.; but is that great original of which the tabernacle was but a copy, or rather, perhaps, to speak more correctly, of which the Holy of Holies was a copy. It is the representation of the heavenly throne, and the order in which all things are subordinated under it; all which now hath existence in the invisible, and shall hereafter be brought out into the visible. It is, if I err not, the representation of the New Jerusalem above, and which shall in due time be let down unto the earth, whereof it shall be the blessedness and the glory. To the presence of this better Sun the earth shall acknowledge all the pure and perfect blessedness which she shall enjoy through the Millennial ages; into which kings shall bring the glory of their riches and their power; and from which shall flow forth the river of God's goodness to make the nations glad. I am well aware that our allegorisers (for I refuse them the name of spiritualisers; seeing they deny the perfect work of the Spirit in matter concerning which I discourse), will look upon all this as very crude and material. I tell them once for all, that I believe in matter, that it is an essential part of man's person; yea, and of Christ's person also as Christ ; and that I believe it shall abide a part, and a most important part, of God's creation, so long as Christ remains body of man as well as soul of man, and Son of God, which is for ever. And so believing, being no Berkleyan to believe matter a fic

tion, but being a Christian to believe it a created, fallen, and redeemed substance, I am going forward on my path and shewing forth the glorious things which God intendeth towards it, in that day when the devil shall be cast out of it into the bottomless pit; and its most glorious citadel and temple shall come down from heaven. Every step I take is upon the neck of their false views of God's purpose, which they loosely speak and think of, as if it were the annihilation of matter; whereas it is the spiritualizing of it, that is not the making of it into spirit, but the making of it, under the hands of the Spirit, to become a most glorious monument of the power of God, putting himself forth in the person of his Son as the Redeemer, whose office it is as Redeemer to deliver God's fallen creation from the bondage of sin, and present it to him in eternal righteousness and glory. Theirs is a wretched system of abstractions, which can only stand in the ignorance or misinterpretation of the Scriptures; ours is a system of realities, which comes out of the Scriptures, believed and explained in the simple meaning of their terms. Theirs is a system of mystification, ours is a system of explanation; and I say it again, theirs is a system of intellectual abstractions, ours is a system of spiritual realities.

Such is the picture of the celestial throne, and such are the things of which its various parts are symbolical. It presenteth us with God manifest unto, operative upon, and ruling all things in and by the risen Christ, who is one with God as to his Divine nature, and one with man the prince of the creatures, as to his manhood: as God knowing God, as man governing all things, and as Godman communicating the knowledge of God to every subject creature. The glory with which his throne is encircled is the glory of the redeemed earth, the rainbow glory of the earth for ever guaranteed against destruction; and the peers of his kingdom, his subordinate kings, the thrones unto whom he delegateth his power are the redeemed sons of men, who exercise rule with, and under him, over all creatures, angels, archangels, and beings of every name; and the basis upon which the throne of the eternal rests is matter in its renewed and resplendent and glorified form. These things we have attained unto,

and now there stands before us one other thing of deepest signification, which is,

THE FOUR BEASTS, OR LIVING CREATURES, which the seer beheld in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne. Now what is the condition of place intended by this description? I observe that similar language in the sixth verse of the next chapter is used of the Lamb: " And I beheld, and lo, in the midst of the throne, and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain."-What notion do these words convey? To my mind both of these descriptions were utterly unintelligible until, in studying the same mystery in the first chapter of Ezekiel, I seemed to myself to obtain some light from these words, ver. 13: "As for the likeness of the living creatures their appearance was like burning coals of fire, and like the appearance of lamps, it went up and down among the living creatures, and the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth light; and the living creatures ran and returned, as the appearance of a flash of lightning." This suggested to my mind, that the living creatures, as seen by John, were not stationary, but kept in continual motion, like those of Ezekiel. Their motion, however, being limited within the circuit of the throne, the midst of the throne, and round about the throne; and as Ezekiel saw burning coals of fire like the appearance of lamps going up and down among the living creatures, so do I reckon that the Lamb slain is seen every where in the midst of the throne, and the four living creatures; and likewise in the midst of the elders. And the mystery of the whole is, as it seemeth to me, the mystery of life; Christ is the life of the church; the four living creatures, and the four-and-twenty elders, are the church; and he who became the life of many by dying himself (" unless a grain of wheat fall into the ground, it abideth alone,") is represented as having an omnipresence in the body of his church, both of the living creatures and the elders. As life hath an omnipresence in the body, so that if it could be represented to the sight, it would be represented every where, and wholly in every place; so Christ in virtue of his being slain, being the life

of the body which is the church, the four living creatures, and the four-and-twenty elders, is represented as every where in the body, and all in every place. In Ezekiel, it was fire not diffused abroad, but a lamp of fire, having entireness and unity, yet every where present by rapidity of motion: this was proper to denote the life of Christ in the church to a seer in the former dispensation, because fire is the symbol of the Holy Ghost, and under the law did the work of giving new form to the sacrifice, transmuting it from the earthy form of the creature into its aerial or spiritual form. But to a seer, under the New Testament, when the sacrifice had appeared as the Lamb of God, and by life out of death had given life, it became proper to represent the life of the church, not by fire, but by a Lamb slain, yet living still, flitting in his unity from place to place, and having in the sight of the beholder, an omnipresent unity; so that as the definition of God is, all in every place, a circle all centre without any circumference, the definition of Christ, as Head of the church is, all life, or complete life, in all his members: which again hath its similitude in the system of the body, wherein the Head, which is the region of sensation, and from which if any member be cut off, it is senseless, hath yet an ubiquity or omnipresence over the whole body, by the communication of the nerves; so that the feeling seemeth to be in the hand, in the feet, and over every part.

This, which I believe to be the true condition of place conveyed by the words, "a Lamb as it had been slain in midst of the throne, and of the four beasts, and in midst of the elders," doth give us that which is meant to be conveyed of the four living creatures, by saying, that they were in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, or literally in midst of the throne, and circle of the throne; that is, every where, from centre to circumference. Not by diffusion, but by ubiquity; wherever you looked you saw them: " They ran and returned, as the appearance of a flash of lightning" (Ezek. i. 14). To teach us, that the throne of God is the living church; that as the throne which sustaineth the king is the most honourable place, the most honoured implement of his kingdom, wherefore it is adorned with such splendour ; so the bound of the redeemed church is the seat, the

honoured seat of God, the throne of the eternal, where he dwelleth, where he sitteth, and reigneth in glory and in power. As the Shechinah rested in the arms of the cherubim of gold, which stood upon the mercy-seat of God, so the true Shechinah, which is the glorified body of Christ, which is the presence of the Eternal King, resteth upon the church, upon the living creatures, all instinct with life, and that life, the life of the Lamb which had been slain. Before leaving this glorious symbol of the church as the living throne of God, I have to observe, how exactly coincident herewith is the New Jerusalem; which, while it is called the Lamb's wife, one with him, and he one with it, as the four living creatures are one in place with the Lamb, and the Lamb one in place with them, is likewise called the tabernacle of God, whose temple the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are; whose sun and moon, the glory of God and the light of the Lamb, are; where is the throne of God and of the Lamb (Rev. xx.); and by Jeremiah expressly called the throne of God (iii. 7); like the temple of Peter, a temple composed of living stones and inhabited by God, is the New Jerusalem, at once the living wife of Christ, his elect church, his body, and a place, a city, a habitation of risen saints in their risen bodies, a tabernacle of God Most High.

Now, for the appearance of these four living creatures, they were full of eyes before and behind; and in verse 8, full of eyes within: so was it with the wheels of Ezekiel, of which the rings were full of eyes round about them four (Ezek. i. 18). And in Ezekiel x. 12, it is said of the wheels and cherubim combined, for in both there was but one spirit, "that their whole body (Heb. flesh), and their backs, and their hands, and their wings, and the wheels, were full of eyes round about, even the wheels that they four had." The Lamb also has seven eyes, denoting totality and completeness of knowledge; and these, as well as the seven horns in his head, are declared to be the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. Totality of power, totality of observation are assigned to the Lamb, and the earth is given as the region over which his observation and his power were extended. But to the living creatures is given only much observation and insight: eyes before and behind, to denote

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