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THE 
 
 ArOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 THE DAY OP JUDGMENT, THE RESURRECTION, 
 
 AND 
 
 THE MILLENNIUM, 
 
 Irtseuiei in a ietofigll 
 
 THE REPO=;SESSIOX OF PALESTINE l]i' THE JEWS AND THEIR 
 CONVERSION TO CHRIST AS THEIR MESSIAH. 
 
 VOL. II. 
 
 NEW YORK : 
 E. FRENCH, 12 BIBLE HOUSE, 
 
 ASTOR PLACE. 
 
 1853. 
 
Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1853, by 
 
 E. FRENC H, 
 
 ill the Clerk's office of the District Court for the Southern District of 
 New York. 
 
THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED, 
 
 CHAPTEK XIY. 
 
 THE SUCCESS OF THE REFORMATION, AND ESTABLISHMENT OF THE 
 PROTESTANT RELIGION. 
 
 The thirteenth chapter has just given us a rapid sketch of 
 the poUtical history of Europe under the form of the beast 
 with seven heads and ten horns, likewise of the rise of another 
 power under the form of the beast with iioo horns, whose 
 manner of speaking like a dragon shows that it was also 
 political ; — it was, in fact, the politico-religious power of the 
 Romish Church existing simultaneously with the first great 
 beast, and acting in concert with it. Of this harmony in the 
 action of the two beasts we shall see more in a future chapter. 
 
 Nothing occurred to call out the religious character of the 
 two beasts, and to exhibit its persecution and bigotry, until 
 the early part of the sixteenth century, when Lutlier com- 
 menced a public and systematic opposition to the errors and 
 corruptions of the Church of Rome. 
 
 The Reformation was met at its first appearance by the 
 violence and bigotry which distinguished the heathen opposi- 
 tion to the infant Church of Christ in Rome ; and the two 
 beasts of the thirteenth chapter set themselves to put it down. 
 But the struggle which this purpose produced is not alluded 
 to in that chapter for the reasons stated, that tlie chapter is 
 entirely political in its description. But, turning to the thir- 
 teenth chapter, we shall find the contest most distinctly re- 
 
6 THE APOCALYPSE UNYEILED. 
 
 ferred to ; and there we shall see the woman, representing 
 the gospel church, surrounded by enemies, but still gaining 
 ground, being nourished and fed in her wilderness state. 
 
 But the prophet, after the episode of the thirteenth chapter, 
 in which he treats of the political powers of Europe, and 
 shows that its whole religious system was nothing more than 
 a government of 7n.oral tyranny, returns to acquaint us, as he 
 does in the fourteenth chapter, with the result of the contest 
 between this tyranny and the Reformation. This result is 
 seen in the first five verses of the chapter, and it is remarkable 
 what an affinity there is between the language of the royal 
 prophet of Judah* and the prophet of the Christian Church. 
 Did they both refer to the same event ? No doubt they did. 
 
 1. And I looked, and lo, a Lamh stood on the mount Sion, 
 and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his 
 Father\s name written in their foreheads. 
 
 2. A7id I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many 
 waters, and as the voire of a great thunder ; and I heard the 
 voice of harpers harping with their harps : 
 
 3. And they sung as it were a new song hefore the throne, and 
 before the four beasts, and the elders : and no man could learn 
 that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand which 
 were redeemed from, the earth. 
 
 4. These are they which are not defiled with women ; for they 
 are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamh witherso- 
 ever he goeth. These were redeemed from amongst men, being 
 the first-fruits unto God and to the Lamh. 
 
 5. And in their mouth was found no guile : for they are 
 without fault before the throne of God. 
 
 These five verses show the success of the Reformation to 
 the point where Protestantism became established. It had 
 conquered its enemies so far as to secure equal rights with 
 them in the free exercise of its religion. This picture is de- 
 signed to show the first separate and independent establish- 
 ment of Protestantism as a church, when it was placed be- 
 youd the reach of the authority and power, either secular or 
 * Psalm iL 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 7 
 
 ecclesiastical, of the popedom. She has overcome the politi- 
 cal power of the great beast, and the religious tyranny of the 
 two-horned beast, and she is now represented by the prophet 
 as standing with the Lamb on the mount Sion. 
 
 The meaning of this figurative scene is, that the Pro- 
 testant Church, or the Church of the Reformation, had taken 
 a position before the world so elevated in point of morality 
 and piety, that her doctrines were clearly seen by men to be 
 from Christ. This is implied by the Lamb standing with 
 them. This is the first great feature of the church ; it is the 
 Church of Christ, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, hav- 
 ing his Father's name written in their foreheads — that is, 
 they have the knowledge of the true God ; their knowledge of 
 salvation is derived from the Word of God, and not from the 
 dogmas of a fallen and corrupt church. 
 
 This triumph of the religion of Christ is rej^resented in the 
 second verse as causing great joy, and producing wonderful 
 and happy changes in the condition and prospects of men. 
 
 Great changes in the civil or religious condition of nations 
 are represented in prophetic style, by sounds that are heard 
 at a great distance; startling and astonishing the people 
 who hear them. Hence, the prophet says, when this scene 
 of the Lamb and the multitude of the redeemed appeared : 
 And I heard a voice from heaven (that is from Christendom) 
 as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of great thunder : 
 and I heard the voice of harpers, harping, with their harps. 
 
 This was a loud voice indeed, which required the tremen- 
 dous roar of cataracts, and the peals of mighty thunders to 
 give us any adequate idea of it. But the changes which 
 were to follow the Reformation, and reconstruction of the 
 gospel church, were not over-estimated, even by this great 
 voice. The voice was not the result of a wild tumultuous 
 outburst of excited passions. The harps gave a sacred char- 
 acter, an order and mellowness to the great sounds, such as 
 would harmonize them with the happy effects produced by a 
 religion which breathes peace and good will to men. 
 
8 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 But there is more implied in this great voice than merely 
 religious transport. It expresses the general effect produced 
 upon the nations by the establishment of the Protestant 
 religion. The happy changes which have been introduced in 
 civil government; the amelioration of the condition of the 
 people, and the increase of light in all things connected with 
 the happiness of man, have all come out of the success of the 
 Protestant religion — the establishment of a scriptural and 
 national Christianity in the earth. These are the effects 
 which are represented by the great voice from heaven — they 
 are still jDrogressing, still enlarging the sphere of human 
 happiness — and that voice is still widening and extending its 
 sound. These changes which are represented by the voice of 
 great cataracts and peals of thunder, may be considered as 
 political and moral, and as bearing chiefly upon the govern- 
 ments and kingdoms of the world, in softening the hard and 
 cruel features of despotism, and breaking the chains of 
 tyrannical power. But another effect is described in the 
 third verse, of an individual and personal character — this is 
 the religious change which is wrought in the hearts and lives 
 of those who embrace it. This is represented by the new 
 song which the great multitude sung before the throne, 
 and before the four beasts, and the elders. The subjects 
 of the Reformation now enjoy the fullest liberty in the exer- 
 cise of their religion. Openly, and without fear, they pro- 
 claim their faith and express their joy in the Protestant 
 religion, in the face of the greatest earthly power, and amongst 
 all nations dwelling in the four quarters of the earth. 
 
 This feature of the prophecy very well illustrates the pre- 
 sent age of the world, when we behold the gospel in its 
 general diffusion over the world, giving peace to the nations 
 and happiness to the Church of Christ, before the throne and 
 the four beasts and the elders, according to the views already 
 expressed on this point, signify the four grand divisions of 
 the earth and the nations that dwell in them. Through the 
 effects of Protestantism, the gospel has been sounded — the 
 
CHAPTER Xiy. 9 
 
 new song has been sung in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, 
 besides the isles of the sea ; that is, it has been preached, 
 either by a living, zealous ministry, or published in the differ- 
 ent languages of the earth. A^id they smig, as it were, a iiew 
 song. The people heard this as something new under the 
 sun, as something that had never been heard of before ; 
 whereas, it was as old as Christianity, as old as from the days 
 of Christ himself, who was its author. But superstition, 
 bigotry, and ignorance, false systems of religion invented or 
 corrupted by men, had banished it from the knowledge of 
 the people, and usurped its place. But now those are driven 
 back, and the true light shineth again, by means of the Re- 
 formation and the consequent spread of the gospel in all lands. 
 But there are still dark places in the earth, even in Christen- 
 dom ; there are multitudes as ignorant of Christianity as the 
 Pagans of Rome were, when it first made its appearance 
 there! In truth, true gospel Christianity has received its 
 severest treatment from the hands of Christians — such as 
 bore the mark of the two-horned beast, and worshiped his 
 image! The reason why there is so much delusion, such an 
 amount of ignorance on the subject of religion, the prophet 
 explains in the third verse: And no man could learn that song, 
 but the hundred and forty-four thousand which were redeemed 
 from the earth. In plain terms the prophet means just what 
 Christ says, and his apostles have reVterated — that no mau 
 can learn, know and comprehend the gospel, but those who 
 are redeemed by it — have experienced its power in convert- 
 ing and saving them from their sins. Such are the hundred 
 and forty-four thousand, which does not imply a number at 
 all, as I have before stated, but signifies equality in the 
 Divine favor to all, of whatever na7}ie, or whatever nation, 
 who fear God and work righteousness. The gospel was not 
 given to man as a subject of speculation, but as matter of 
 experience, a divine reality, a saving power ; and the man 
 who does not know it in this way is wholly ignorant of it; he 
 
10 THE APOCALYPSE UN VEILED. 
 
 cannot learn this divine song in any other way than through 
 this redeeming power. 
 
 It will be seen that I take this song, spoken of by the pror 
 phet, to signify the whole gospel scheme of salvation, with 
 its saving power and the comfort and joy it imparts to the 
 saints of the Most High ; and that we may not deceive 
 ourselves as to who and what those saints are we will hear 
 the prophet's description of them as he gives it in the fourth 
 and fifth verses. 
 
 The first feature in the character of the hundred and forty 
 and four thousand is their utter rejection of all participation 
 in the corruptions and defilements of the woman. The text 
 does not convey the precise meaning of the prophet ; it is 
 evidently a mistranslation. It would be more consistent if it 
 read — "These are they which are not defiled with the wo-, 
 man." 
 
 By turning to the seventeenth chapter, second and fourth 
 verses, the true meaning of the prophet will be seen. It is 
 there shown that the defilement he speaks of was spiritual — r 
 with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, 
 and the inhahitants of the earth have been made drunk with the 
 wine of her fornication. 
 
 These terms, expressive of debauchery, have reference to 
 the corrupt and demoralizing doctrines taught by the Church 
 of Rome. That church is symbolized here by the woman, 
 having a golden cup in her hand full of abomination and 
 filthiness of her fornication. 
 
 All Christendom, before the Reformation, was stupified 
 and intoxicated with the contents of this cup, which the wo- 
 man pressed to their lips ; but the hundred and forty-four 
 thousand, all those who had embraced the religion of the Re- 
 formation, rejected her cup, and would not partake of the 
 al)omination and filthiness which it contained. They are vir- 
 gins, and they utterly discard the false doctrines and idola- 
 trous worship, together with the vices allowed, authorized, 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 1 1 
 
 and sanctioned, by the church which this woman represents.* 
 They kept themselves pure from her corruptions by following 
 the Lamh, practicing his teachings, and looking for salvation 
 by faith in his blood. 
 
 A very different religion from that the world had learned 
 from Rome, which hid Christ from the eyes of the people, and 
 taught them to look for salvation by the merit of saints and 
 the worship of images. These, the prophet says, were re- 
 deemed from among men, and were the first fruits or early 
 harvest unto God and the Lamb, which sprung from the seed 
 that had been sowed by the Reformation. And in their 
 mouth was found no guile : for they are without fault before 
 the throne of God. 
 
 This is the brief but comprehensive description the prophet 
 gives of the people of God. Where are they ? Wherever 
 they are found, and whatever name they may bear, they be- 
 long to the hundred and forty and four thousand ; they are 
 redeemed from amongst men. 
 
 In those two verses (the fourth and fifth) we have a per- 
 fect model of the Church of Christ, and a striking illustration 
 of the virtues and graces which adorn and dignify it. 
 
 This fourteenth chapter brings us upon a new theater, 
 where everything wears a new aspect. The old, ferocious 
 scenes, in which dragons and many-headed beasts were con- 
 spicuous, are entirely changed. These have all disappeared, 
 as wild beasts of the forest do at the approach of day. An- 
 gels now are the ministering spirits in the affairs of men. 
 Quite a new influence is felt amongst the nations ; they 
 breathe easier, and man looks upon his fellow-man with a 
 confiding sympathy, which assures him that a happier day 
 has risen upon the hopes and prospects of men. The reason 
 of all this is, Christianity is established in the earth. The 
 people of God are no longer hunted, persecuted, and de- 
 stroyed, for their faith in Christ ; they now stand in triumph 
 
 * See the Sale of Indulgences by Totzel, Sampson, and others. 
 
12 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 with the Lamb upon mount Sion. The stake and the fire, the 
 rack and torture of the Inquisition and edicts of despotic 
 power, no longer assault and oppress the people of God. 
 
 The freedom which the Church of Christ now enjoys from 
 all this tyranny and persecution is happily expressed in the 
 sixth verse under the representation of an angel ; not creep- 
 ing on the earth with fear and apprehension, hntjlying in the 
 midst of /leavert, in the presence of all earthly power and do- 
 minion, proclaiming freely and boldly the everlasting gospel 
 to all nations, people and tongues. This angel represents 
 the numerous and various means, such as the public ministers 
 of the gospel, bible, missionary, and tract societies, and every 
 other means employed by the church to extend the knowledge 
 of the gospel over the earth ; and in this way it is eminently 
 characteristic of the great revival and the wide diffusion of 
 gospel religion which have distinguished the last hundred 
 years of the church's history. 
 
 The sixth and seventh verses show precisely what was 
 taught in the everlasting gospel which this angel promul- 
 gated. 
 
 6. And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having 
 the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, 
 aTul every nation, and kindred, and tongue^ and people, 
 
 *I. Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to 
 him ; for the hour of his judgment is come : and worship him 
 that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of 
 waters. 
 
 The great principle of gospel command, as announced by 
 the angel, is, that men should fear God and give glory to him. 
 This warning was necessary to correct the superstitious fear 
 that men almost universally labored under of the power of 
 the Pope and his interdicts, anathemas, and excommunica- 
 tions. Wherever the authority of the Romish Church ex- 
 tended, this dread of its power held the people in a stupefied 
 state of mind, and in a condition of moral slavery, as un- 
 friendly to religious and intellectual improvement generally 
 
CHAPTER Xiy. 13 
 
 as intoxication is to the proper exercise of the rational facul- 
 ties. The woman, as we have seen, had debauched all na- 
 tions with the cup of her abominations. 
 
 It is evident that the people had been under this fear of 
 the Pope to such an extent that all distinct recognition of 
 God as the moral governor of the world was lost out of their 
 minds. To correct this false fear and draw the people away 
 from their superstitious error, this first command is announced 
 by the angel : Fear God, and give glory to him. Tlie second 
 command is : And worship him that made heaven and earth, 
 and the sea, and the fountains of waters. 
 
 Idolatrous worhip, in one form or another, is almost a ne- 
 cessary consequence of this ignorant and superstitious fear. 
 Under its influence men are ever inclined to worship the crea- 
 ture more than the Creator. Angels or images, sticks or 
 stones, or any sensible objects, present to them subjects of 
 worship much more congenial with their degraded minds than 
 the invisible God. The gods made by men's hands, and set 
 up in the churches, private dwellings, or the public high- 
 ways, are the objects of their highest veneration. Against 
 all this idolatry the second warning of the angel is directed, 
 but particularly against image worship, as being the most 
 common form in which this idolatry was practiced by the 
 Church of Rome. 
 
 The angel urges th'ese commands by the solemn assurance 
 that the hour of God's judgment is come. Men will no 
 longer be excused in the practice of these degrading vices. 
 Whatever excuse the days of their former ignorance might 
 have furnished for their idolatrous worship, the light of the 
 gospel now points out to every man the only true object of 
 religious worship, and leaves him no alternative but the judg- 
 ment of God if he now persists in degrading Christianity and 
 dishonoring his Maker by worshiping saints and images. 
 
 The hour of his judgment is come, is equivalent to saying 
 that a stricter accountability is now exacted of men, because 
 
14 THE APOCALYPSE UNYEILED. 
 
 a day of greater light and freer religious instruction has ar- 
 rived. 
 
 No principle in the divine economy is more clearly set 
 forth than this, that God holds men to an accountability, the 
 strictness of which is in proportion to the light they have 
 and their means of improvement. This our Savior taught on 
 several occasions : Where muck is given, much is required. 
 He that knew not his Lord's will, and did things worthy of 
 stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes ; but he that hiew his 
 Lord's tcill and did it not, shall be beatemvith many stripes. St. 
 Paul reVterates the same principle in the divine government 
 in the dignified and courteous discourse which he delivered 
 on Mars Hill to the literati of Athens. After rebuking the 
 degrading practice of worshiping gods made of gold and sil- 
 ver, or wood or stone, he says, the times of this ignorance 
 God winked at — overlooked — mercifully passed by the errors 
 and follies of men when they had no means of knowing bet- 
 ter ; but now that the gospel has come into the world, diffusing 
 the knowledge of the true God and his will, he commandeth 
 all men everywhere to repent, and turn away from these dumb 
 idols. 
 
 For almost a thousand years before the Reformation nearly 
 every feature of the Christian had vanished from the church. 
 A cloud of ignorance and superstition had gathered over 
 Christendom which efiTectually shut out the light of divine 
 truth from the minds of the people. The Church of Rome 
 imparted no spiritual light ; her lamps had gone out, and the 
 people groped in darkness, not knowing whither they went. 
 They were the black horse of the third seal on which the 
 Pope and the priests sat, goading and driving them on in the 
 most oppressive and abject spiritual drudgery. 
 
 This ignorance, with its attendant vices, the people had no 
 power to correct or escape from, and in the forbearing gov- 
 ernment of God his judgments were held back. But now 
 the reformation has scattered the cloud of darkness, and the 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 15 
 
 light of the gospel shines again upon the earth. The things 
 of the former darkness must now be laid aside, for the hour 
 of his judgment is come, and men will be held to a strict ac- 
 count for the abuse of the light they have. 
 
 The prophet is presenting a review of the progress and ef- 
 fects of the Reformation. Thus far it has established two im- 
 portant principles : the first is, the proper object of religious 
 fear ; and the second, the true object of religious worship. 
 
 Having produced so great a change in the religious char- 
 acter of the people, drawing them away from their former 
 delusion, the effect would naturally be the downfall of the 
 system which had deceived and corrupted them. This is an- 
 nounced in the eighth verse : And there followed another 
 angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city; 
 because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of 
 her fornication. On the subject of the great city, the reader 
 is referred to what is said on the eighth verse of the eleventh 
 chapter. The name of Babylon is here added to show the 
 cruelty and oppression which the people of God had suffered 
 from the great city, A well-known characteristic of ancient 
 Babylon was the unmitigated cruelty with which she op- 
 pressed the Jews in their captivity to her power. The title 
 is added here to show a similarity in the spirit and temper of 
 the two powers. The latter is not only distinguished as an 
 oppressor, but also as a great corrupter of the morals and 
 manners of the people. She made all nations drink of the 
 wine of the wrath of her fornication. In the parallel text in 
 the seventeeth chapter, it is said she made them drunk with 
 the wine of her fornication. But, as the people lose their 
 relish for this wine, and are reclaimed from their moral intox- 
 ication, the whole system supported by this religious stupor 
 begins to fall. The prophet represents the final effect ; but 
 the system is yet only in a course of declension, going down, 
 but will finally be, as he says, fallen, fallen — Babylon is fallen. 
 The ninth, tenth, and eleventh verses, contain a warning to 
 
16 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 the nations of Christendom of the judgments which will surely 
 follow if they persist in supporting the corrupt religion, re- 
 ferred to as the abomination and filthiness contained in the 
 cup of the woman. 
 
 The Reformation had to conquer kingdoms as well as this 
 great ecclesiastical Babylon, The civil powers were so united 
 to the Romish Church, that, although the two were separate 
 in their respective sphere of action, they were one in religious 
 sentiment and purpose. 
 
 This feature of reciprocal support and mutual exercise of 
 power, ecclesiastical on one side and political on the other, 
 for the maintenance and aggrandizement of each other, is 
 most forcibly expressed in the figurative language of the pro- 
 phet, seventeenth chapter, second verse : icilh ichom the, kings 
 of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of 
 the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornica- 
 tion. 
 
 The first branch of the text refers to the reciprocal exer- 
 cise of power by the church and the thrones for the aggran- 
 dizement of each other. The Popes crowned the kings and 
 emperors, and these in their turn confirmed the election of 
 the Popes, and defended them in the exercise of their exorbi- 
 tant pretensions. The second branch of the text refers to 
 the unrestrained license granted by the church in the sale of 
 indulgences and otherwise, to the exercise of the warst pas- 
 sions and principles of human nature. 
 
 It is manifest that such a combination of civil and ecclesi- 
 astical power would prove a serious obstacle in the way of 
 the Reformation. Yet nothing is too strong for God ; but 
 still he chooses to accomplish his wise and beneficent pur- 
 poses by the employment of such means as are compatible 
 with the purity and dignity of his designs and the happiness 
 of man ; but if these means are despised and rejected, he then 
 employs the rod of his anger. This is precisely what the pro- 
 phet designs to show us in the next three verses. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. n 
 
 9. And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, 
 If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark 
 in his forehead, or in his hand, 
 
 10. The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, 
 which is 'poured out withoitt mixture into the cup of his indigna- 
 tion ; and he shall he torinented with fire and brimstone in the 
 presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb : 
 
 11. Aiid the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever a7id 
 ever : and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast 
 and his image, a7id whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. 
 
 The third angel lays down in these three verses the law 
 which governs the divine procedure in relation to those peo- 
 ple and kingdoms that uphold the power and authority, and 
 maintain the religion of the two-horned beast, wearing his 
 mark in their forehead and hands. These shall suffer the 
 judgments figuratively expressed in the tenth and eleventh 
 verses. 
 
 The support given to this beast as a religious system, and 
 the opposition and obstacles thrown in the way of the Refor- 
 mation, arose chiefly from the kingdoms and governments 
 allied with the papacy. 
 
 " The powers that be" are ordained of God as auxiliaries 
 in the great work of recovering the world from the deep de- 
 generacy and moral barbarism into which it had fallen ; and 
 civil government answers this great end of all government 
 only so far as its institutions rest upon the acknowledged 
 sovereignty of God as the moral governor of the world. 
 Whatever comes in between God and his government over 
 the world, is the usurpation of a power which he has reserved 
 wholly to himself. The apostle clearly refers to such a 
 usurpation when he speaks of a power sitting in the temple of 
 God, showing himself that he is God — (2 Thess., 11 chap. 4 
 verse.) The apostle, while he is instructing the Church of 
 Thessalonica, takes occasion to deliver this prophecy and 
 give notice beforehand of the blasphemous pretensions that 
 would be set up in future ages by the pretended head of the 
 
18 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 church. He sat in the, temple of God, therefore the prophecy 
 can allude to no other than an ecclesiastical power. 
 
 The ecclesiastical power w^hich assumed this dominion over 
 the spiritual as well as the temporal interests of men, struck 
 directly at the moral government of God over his creatures; 
 and tended, inevitably, to produce, sooner or later, a 
 moral revolution. The Reformation struck directly at this 
 power. It was the great outburst of moral sentiment, which felt 
 itself to be unrighteously bound and oppressed. And what fol- 
 lows this effort to throw off the burthen of moral wrongs and 
 oppression, but political revolutions ? If we had not seen the 
 Reformation we should not have seen the political revolutions 
 which have followed it. The political or civil condition of 
 man must be improved, to correspond with his improved moral 
 condition; and this necessarily produced struggles and revo- 
 lutions before it could be accomplished. Old things in this 
 sense too, must pass away and give place to new things. 
 
 What has marked the track of the world's history with 
 the wrecks of empire and the ruin of kingdoms, once strong 
 in power and wealth, but this principle of opposition to the 
 Divine government over mankind? If we look upon the 
 face of Europe, and consult her history since the Reforma- 
 tion opened the eyes of men, we shall see these effects pre- 
 cisely where this principle is most in practice. 
 
 We shall see the nations which have the mark of the beast 
 in their hand and in their forehead, tormented, as the pro- 
 phet expresses it, with fire and brimstone ; their governments 
 revolutionized, their kingdoms falling to pieces, and others 
 rising in their place only to meet with the same fate, and to 
 be shaken down by the same powerful hand of moral and 
 intellectual progress. We shall see intestine commotions 
 wasting and impoverishing the nation, or the dread of them 
 perpetually agitating and distracting the people. 
 
 The prophet describes this condition of the nations in the 
 vivid language of the eleventh verse : A^id the smoke of their 
 torment ascendeth up for ever and ever — that is, their sufler- 
 
CHAPTER XIY. 19 
 
 ing will be continuous with the existence of the cause that 
 produces it — and they have no rest day nor nighty who ivorship 
 the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his 
 name. 
 
 I^ow, let any unprejudiced man turn his eyes upon Europe, 
 and look at the history of her nations for two centuries past, 
 and he will not fail to see a living, practical commentary 
 upon the announcement of this third angel, from the ninth to 
 the eleventh verse, inclusive. Most strikingly will this ap- 
 pear in the history of Portugal and Spain, the two nations 
 that were conspicuous in executing the Pope's commands to 
 extirpate the heretics, meaning the promoters and subjects 
 of the Reformation. These two nations distinguished them- 
 selves for their zeal in carrying the terrors of the Inquisition 
 wherever the Reformation extended its influence. They 
 were then distinguished for wealth and great political conse- 
 quence, now they are sunk deep in national poverty, torn and 
 distracted by intestine commotions, with hardly enough gov- 
 ernment remaining to them to be ranked as kingdoms ; grop- 
 ing in the darkness of their antiquated bigotry, without any 
 of those great improvements which characterize the present 
 enlightened day ; holding the doubtful sceptre of their totter- 
 ing authority with a palsied hand, and are strong in nothing 
 but their bigoted adherence to the mark of the beast. Kor 
 is Italy herself any better. Rome may be said to be a city 
 of assassins, where murder is plotted through the day and 
 executed in the darkness of night. The smoke of this tor- 
 ment may be seen ascending from other nations, from the 
 same cause ; France has exhibited clouds of it. 
 
 Upon the other hand, we shall see the nations where the 
 Protestant religion has been embraced, and where the light 
 and power of a gospel Christianity are enjoyed by the people, 
 living in a state of increasing prosperity, enjoying the bless- 
 ings of civil liberty, and constantly developing great moral 
 and intellectual powers, producing the most wonderful im- 
 provements in the arts and sciences, all tending to bring 
 
20 THE ArOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 mankind into a state of brotherhood, and to establish peace 
 and good will amongst men. As a general rule these are 
 fruits found only amongst the nations where civil and reli- 
 gious liberty are enjoyed by the people. 
 
 Let us now return to the prophet. He says that these 
 torments shall be suffered in the presence of the holy angels and 
 in the 'presence of the Lamh. 10th verse. 
 
 The presence of Christ with his church on earth is one of 
 the plainest truths in the Bible. He says : wheresoever two 
 or three are gatheMd together in my name, there am I in the 
 midst of them. 
 
 The meaning of this difficult passage seems to be, that the 
 nations and people, amongst whom is the true church of Christ, 
 are designated here by the title of holy angels, they belong to 
 God in a peculiar sense; diff'erent from that in which all men 
 are his. They shall witness these judgments upon tlie up- 
 holders of a corrupt religion, while, at the same time, their 
 own peace and security are unthreatened. They behold 
 nations around them, torn and distracted by storms of anar- 
 chy and revolution, but they remain in peace and quietness : 
 their safety arises from the presence of the Lamb who stands 
 with them in Mount Zion — the true church of God. 
 
 The rich poetic strains of the ninety-first psalm give us a 
 beautiful description of that watchful care which God's provi- 
 dence exercises over the nations that walk in his law and fear 
 his name. 
 
 That part of the psalm which is applicable to the present 
 subject is embraced in the seventh, eighth, and ninth verses : 
 A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right 
 hand, hut it shall not come nigh thee. Only with thine eye shalt thoxh 
 behold and see the reward of the icicked. Because thou hast 
 made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the Most High, thy 
 habitation, SfC. 
 
 This general view of the subject is confirmed by the twelfth 
 verse, in which it is said, here is the patience of the saints. 
 Here is the end to which they looked — here is the day of 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 21 
 
 gospel light and liberty, which had its dawning in the Refor- 
 mation, and was borne along by the faith and patience of the 
 saints, until it now reflects its light, not only over Christen- 
 dom, but upon heathen lands, making the solitary places to 
 rejoice, and the desert to blossom as the rose. The latter 
 clause of the verse shows that this represents an earthly 
 scene : Here are they that hep the commandments of God and 
 the faith of Jesus. Language such as this can only apply to 
 Christians dwelling upon the earth, and it holds up the purity 
 and holiness of their lives, and the peace and security of their 
 state, in contrast with those who are sufl'ering the judgments 
 of God's displeasure. The conclusion is, that all those scenes 
 throughout this entire chapter refer to events which have 
 their origin and consummation in this world. 
 
 13. And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, 
 Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth : 
 Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors ; and 
 their works do follow them. 
 
 The doctrine contained in this verse is not announced by 
 the angel ; but it is the voice of the gospel : And I heard a 
 voice from heaven, Sfc. 
 
 One of the grand peculiarities of the gospel is that it alom 
 brings life and immortality to light. What was before dimly 
 seen even by good men, and but partially understood, is by 
 the gospel made as clear and distinct to the believer's mind 
 as any other truth which it proclaims. 
 
 This chief light of the Christian's hope, together with al- 
 most all the other truths of divine revelation, were lost in the 
 general darkness which involved the church for a thousand 
 years. Ji was recovered by the Reformation, and is now 
 proclaimed by the gospel church as a most comfortable and 
 encouraging doctrine. The proj^het is commanded to icrite 
 it — that is, to place it permanently and conspicuously before 
 the world as the great solace and comfort of the Christian in 
 his trials and afflictions of this life ; that whenever or hoW' 
 ever he may fall, he is blessed in his death, even more than 
 
22 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 he could be in his life. Write it, proclaim it from henceforth, 
 blessed are the dead who die in the Lord, that they 7/iay rest from 
 their labors. They enter at once into rest — endless, glorious 
 rest. 
 
 How needful it was that this doctrine should occupy a po- 
 sition in the foreground of the new gospel church, will be 
 seen when we consider the absurd and monstrous assumption 
 of the Church of Rome in presuming to control the future 
 state of the dead. By the doctrine of purgatory, that church 
 claims to exercise an agency over the souls of men after they 
 have left this world. 
 
 To be consistent with a state of purgatory, the text should 
 read : " Blessed are the dead when they have escaped from 
 purgatory ;" for surely they do not rest while they are in pur- 
 gatory. 
 
 All idea of this intermediate state as a means of purifica- 
 tion from sin of the departed, is exploded by the text — 
 Blessed are the dead ivhich die in the Lord, for they rest. When 
 they die they rest from their labors ; they go at once to this 
 glorious reward, not to purgatory. 
 
 To this monstrous device of the Romish Church is very 
 nearly allied the saying in the service of another church, " he 
 *' descended into hell." This too strongly supports the 
 Romish doctrine of the existence of a state of purgatory after 
 death. 
 
 The Protestant Episcopal Church disclaims all idea of 
 meaning that Christ actually descended into the place of tor- 
 ment. But would it not be much better to drop the objec- 
 tionable phrase altogether ; and if they mean to quote the 
 Apostles' Creed, to say that which would convey the true 
 meaning of the apostle, instead of what he never meant to 
 say? (1 Cor. XV.) Let us return to the text. And their 
 works follow them. Not to a bar of final judgment, as some 
 have supposed ; but the influence and light of their godly 
 lives while on earth still remain, and perpetuate their good 
 deeds and holy example amongst men. 
 
CHAPTER XIY. ^8 
 
 The life of a good man does not die with him ; it lives in 
 the memory and is cherished in the hearts of his Christian 
 friends who remain on earth ; and whilst the recollection of 
 his godly conversation cheers and stimulates the weary pil- 
 grim with fresh hopes and renewed purposes of holy effort, it 
 often, like the writing upon the walls of Belshazzar, strikes 
 the heart of the sinner with fear and trembling. When no 
 outward voice will be Hstened to — when the minister warns 
 in vain, and cries aloud to no purpose, from some silent tomb, 
 where rests a departed saint, a voice comes up and smites the 
 conscience of the ungodly with penitential sorrow. 
 
 Perhaps a pious mother, whose tears and entreaties were 
 spent in vain upon her obdurate son, uttered, as the last ex- 
 pressions heard from her death-cold lips, " my son I" These 
 words never left his ear, but kept his mother's holy life and 
 pious counsel present to his mind, until he bowed himself 
 to a voice from the grave which he would not listen to in life. 
 Thus do their works follow them. 
 
 THE HARVEST AND THE VINTAGE. 
 
 The remaining portion of the chapter, from the fourteenth 
 verse, is employed in referring to the two grand divisions of 
 the Christian dispensation, and in showing the mode of the 
 divine government in each of them. 
 
 Upon this point I wish to make myself distinctly under- 
 stood, as the views and opinions which I have drawn from 
 the Bible differ materially from the commonly-received ex- 
 planations of these verses. I speak of the two great divisions 
 of the Christian age, in the sense in which I think the Jewish 
 prophets and Christ and his apostles spoke of them — the first, 
 a day eminently distinguished for its grace and mercy ; and 
 the second, a day as eminently distinguished for the primitive 
 dispensations of the divine providence — a day of judgment. 
 
 The former is the period when the mercy of God is em- 
 ployed in drawing and entreating men to repent and be saved ; 
 
24 THE APOCALYPSE .UNYEILED. 
 
 when God, with all long-sufifermg and forbearance, is, in 
 Christ Jesus, reconciling the world unto himself. The idea 
 the Bible gives us of this part of the Christian age is, that 
 the Divine Mercy puts up with every sort of insolence and 
 insult which the sinner may throw in the face of heaven ; 
 that it bears long and is kind to men, to convince them that 
 God desires not the destruction of the sinner, but rather that 
 he should turn to him and live. But the words of Christ 
 present the strongest view of the tender mercy and long- 
 suflfering shown to the wicked in this jSrst portion of the 
 Christian dispensation. He says : All manner of sin and 
 blasphemy, except that against the Holy Ghost, shall be forgiven 
 unto men. This is the character of the day of grace given by 
 our Lord himself ; this is the day he speaks of when he says, 
 ioo7'k while it is called to-day ; for the night cometh when no man 
 can see to work. 
 
 The common interpretation given to these words of Christ, 
 that the night he speaks of means the state after death, has 
 no fitness at all in it. It would hardly comport with the dig- 
 nity and wisdom of Christ, as a teacher, to spend time in ad- 
 monishing men that they will not be able to work after they 
 are dead. It is the universal sentiment of mankind that 
 death puts an end to all things. 
 
 It was not the death of the body that Christ referred to 
 when he spoke of the night when no man could work. He 
 meant that this age of great gospel mercy, in which the grace 
 of God was urging and pressing men to accept of salvation, 
 would have an end, and would be followed by an age as dif- 
 ferent in the mode of the divine dispensations as the night is 
 from the day. Therefore he urges his church to avail herself 
 of those gracious means to spread her influence over the 
 earth — to do all she can do while this day and those means 
 last. 
 
 The great day of these means of grace is fitly illustrated 
 by the harvest season of the world: the time of gathering and 
 Baving men by means of gospel grace and mercy. Christ 
 
CHzVPTER XIV. 25 
 
 compares this day to a harvest: The, harvest truly is great, 
 hut the laborers are few, pray you therefore the Lord of the har- 
 vest that he may send forth more laborers into his field. Jere- 
 miah, 8 chap. : 20,' emploj-s the same mode of illustration : 
 The harvest is past and the summer is ended and we are not 
 saved. 
 
 The use I wish to make of these quotations is to show that 
 the prophet, when he speaks of reaping the earth, does not 
 mean the infliction of judgment upon the earth, as some 
 commentators have imagined, but the contrary ; he means a 
 gathering of the people into the fold of Christ by the means 
 which God's tender mercy has appointed for that purpose. 
 The harvest state of the world is the gospel day, and is re- 
 presented in the three following verses : 
 
 14. And J loohed, and behold a ichite cloud, and upon the 
 doud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a 
 golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickk. 
 
 15. And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a 
 loud voice to him that sat on the cloud. Thrust in thy sickle, and 
 reap : for the time is come for thee to reap ; for the harvest of 
 the earth is ripe. 
 
 1.6. And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sicJde on the 
 earth; and the earth was reaped. 
 
 The first of these verses presents a scene which the eye 
 may dwell upon with pleasure. It does not show us the 
 black storm-cloud, speeding its way over the heavens, and 
 by its flashing lightnings and pealing thunders making the 
 very earth tremble with fear ; but it shows the soft ivhite 
 cloud which portends no angry storm ; spreading its fleecy 
 drapery over the horizon, and as it receives the rays of the 
 descending sun reflects them in a thousand brilliant and beau- 
 tiful hues. 
 
 Upon the white cloud sat one like unto the Son of man, 
 wearing a golden crown, and bearing in his hand a sharp 
 sickle. The whole figure represents preeminent power, pure 
 and holy in its dispensations, as the crown of gold signifies. 
 
 VOL. II. — 2 
 
26 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 In ,1 word it is the gospel dispensation. Christ administers 
 it bj his Spirit! this is the holy person seated upon the cloud 
 being like unto the Son of man. The Spirit is to do in the 
 church, and in the hearts of the people, just as Christ would 
 do if he were personally present. The sickle signifies the 
 effective means employed in the salvation of men ; as the 
 sickle is the proper instrument of reaping the harvest, the 
 white cloud shows the dispensation to be one of preeminent 
 mercy, and not of wrath. 
 
 Another angel came out of the temple crying with a loud 
 voice, to him that sat on the cloud : thrust in thy sicJde : for 
 the time is come for thee to reap ; for the harvest of the earth 
 is ripe! What is this loud voice coming out of the temple, 
 but the earnest and fervent prayer of the church for the 
 spread of the gospel and the conversion of the world ? And 
 he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle in the earth and 
 the earth was reaped. 
 
 The power of the Spirit and the prayers of the church 
 have been blended in this holy effort ever since the introduc- 
 tion of Christianity into the world. But not always with 
 equal success. During the dark ages of the church, the time 
 of her great apostacy, almost nothing at all was done but 
 sowing tares. But when the Reformation had fully restored 
 the day of gospel light, the cry went out: thrust in thy sickle, 
 for the time is come for thee to reap. The eighteenth and nine- 
 teenth centuries, at least so far as the latter has transpired, 
 will ever stand prominent as the period in which the power 
 of God and the conquests of divine grace were most remark- 
 able in the salvation of men. 
 
 We have not yet reached the period signified in the last 
 clause of the sixteenth verse : And the earth was reaped. 
 Still the white cloud holds its station in the sky, like the 
 covenant bow, and the angel, uniting his sickle with the 
 pniyers of the saints, is still reaping. 
 
 ]5ut tliis harvest has its end — this reaping comes to a close, 
 and in the language of Jeremiah, multitudes and millions will 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 2t 
 
 say : The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not 
 saved. When this will be is not for me to say ; all that I 
 shall undertake to do, will be, to show what is to follow the 
 reaping of the earth ; the chief characteristics of that time, 
 are condensed in the following four verses of the chapter : 
 
 17. And another angel came out of the temple which is in 
 heaven, he also having a sharp sicJde. 
 
 18. And another angel came out from the altar, which had 
 poiver over fire ; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the 
 sharp sicJxle, saying. Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the 
 clusters of the vine of the earth ; for her grapes are fully ripe. 
 
 19. And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and 
 gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great wine- 
 press of the wrath of God. 
 
 20. And the wine-press was trodden without the city, and 
 blood came out of the wine-press, even unto the horse bridles, by 
 the space of a thotosand and six hundred furlongs. 
 
 These verses introduce the wine-press age of the world, and 
 present a dispensation as different from the gospel-day as the 
 night is from the day. 
 
 It is said in relation to the work of the first angel, when 
 it was completed — and the earth was reaped, signifying that 
 the dispensation of the harvest was ended. Then follows the 
 wine-press dispensation. 
 
 This is the idea presented by those two representations. 
 Nothing could more fully express the severe judgments, the 
 fearfull calamities, which the Scriptures inform us will dis- 
 tinguish the latter-day trials, than the crushing pressure of 
 the wine-press ; and, as if to give additional force to the 
 figure, the prophet says — and blood came out of the wine-press, 
 even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six 
 hundred furlongs, representing these judgments as most fear- 
 full in their effects and extensive in their operations. This 
 has been taken by commentators to signify devastating wars, 
 because mention is made of the flowing out of a great quan- 
 tity of blood, even to the horses' bridles. But both the blood 
 
28 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 and the horses, as well as the press and clusters of grapes, are 
 figurative, and are used only to heighten the effect of the 
 symbolical representation. The wine-press age will be an age 
 in which the indignation of heaven against all ungodliness 
 will be revealed by the most severe and overwhelming judg- 
 ments, and that age will succeed the present dispensation of 
 gospel mercy. 
 
 There is much to be said in support of this opinion of two 
 distinct dispensations in the Christian era ; but I shall not 
 now enter fully into that subject, but will defer the arguments 
 upon it until I come to speak of the day of judgment, which 
 I intend to do in a separate chapter. Something more, how- 
 ever, may be said at present of the nature and design of the 
 wine-press dispensation. Of its purpose it might be sufficient 
 to say that it is to effect the objects which the gospel itself 
 has aimed at — viz.: to turn men from their iniquities and 
 bring them to the fear of God. 
 
 The wine-press age will not be a war of destruction and 
 carnage of human life ; but it will be an unrelentless war 
 against the false and corrupt systems of men, by which wick- 
 edness is shielded, and the righteousness of God is opposed. 
 These systems will all be broken down — scattered and de- 
 stroyed like the chaff of the summer threshing-flour, or, as it 
 is elsewhere expressed, be burnt up like stubble. Christ has 
 reference to this wine-press day when he says : The Son of 
 Man shall send forth his angels^ and they shall gather out of 
 his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity. 
 The angels he refers to can be nothing less than the severe 
 judgments of the wine-press dispensation, adapted to the pur- 
 pose of destroying the institutions of ungodliness amongst 
 men. 
 
 That the two dispensations, the harvest and the wine- 
 press, belong to the Christian era, is evident from the fact 
 that the prophet says he saw the two angels that directed 
 and presided over each dispensation come out of the temple — 
 that is, as he means to say, both these institutions will exist 
 
CHAPTER XI Y. 29 
 
 successively in the Christian age of the world. When the 
 gospel is no longer effectual in drawing men to God, his judg- 
 ments will then be employed in revealing the wrath of God 
 against all unrighteousness of men. The wine-press dispen- 
 sation synchronizes with the seventh trumpet age. It is the 
 symbol which gives character or feature to the administra- 
 tion of the divine government in that period of the Christian 
 age — a time of severe and pressing judgments. But it does 
 no more ; it does not signalize particular events. This the 
 prophet does himself. 
 
 Another fact we learn from the prophet is, that this age of 
 judgment is not for the people of God ; it is not intended to 
 form tlie rule of the divine proceeding with respect to the 
 church, and hence he tells us the wine-press was trodden with- 
 out the city. 
 
 City, is a term used to denote Christian institutions ; 
 churches, and even civil governments, or countries whose 
 political institutions are strongly imbued with the doctrines 
 and teachings of Christ and his apostles, are called a city. 
 But still the term does not always imply a church entirely 
 pure in its doctrines and its practice. It may hold the 
 essential truths of the gospel, and yet incorporate in its prac- 
 tice things highly offensive to God. Examples of this occur 
 amongst the seven churches of Asia — that of Thyatira par- 
 ticularly. So that when the prophet speaks of the city, we 
 must look at the peculiar circumstances with which that city 
 stands connected in his vision, in order to ascertain the char- 
 acter of the Christian church he refers to. 
 
 As before stated, the judgments and trials of the wine- 
 press came in after the gospel or harvest age is over, conse- 
 quently all those who were brought to God by the gospel, 
 and were enlightened and saved by it, will not require the 
 judgments of the wine-press age. 
 
 The wine-press beiug trodden without the city, can signify 
 nothing else than that its calamities will fall only upon those 
 nations and peopY who reject the gospel, and upon Christian 
 
30 THE APOCALYPSE UNYEILED. 
 
 churches that hold the truth in uurighteousness, and have, 
 by their worldly spirit and ambition, changed the truth of 
 God into a lie, as the apostle foretold would be done. Such 
 are outside of the city, not holding and practicing the gos- 
 I)el doctrines in their purity. This opinion will be found to 
 coincide with the pictorial representation of the wine-press 
 age, as the prophet saw it, in the next chapter. 
 
CHAPTER XY. 
 
 HE SEA OF GLASS. 
 
 1. And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvellous, 
 seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled 
 up the wrath of God. 
 
 2. And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire; 
 and them that had gotten the victory over the least, and over his 
 image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, 
 stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God. 
 
 3. And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and 
 the song of the Lamh, saying, Great and marvellous are thy 
 works, Lord God Almighty ; 'yust and true are thy ways, thou 
 King of saints. 
 
 4. Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name ? 
 for thou only art holy : for all nations shall come and worship 
 before thee ; for thy judgments are made manifest. 
 
 After introducing the seven angels who are appointed to 
 execute the judgments of God in the wine-press age, the 
 prophet gives a description of the first remarkable scene 
 which was disclosed in this vision : And I saw as it were a 
 sea of glass, mingled with fire. 
 
 Fire is the emblem of severe and trying affliction — not 
 always in the same form ; sometimes it is brought on by 
 wars, which consume nations and overwhelm the people with 
 distress. Pestilence, and famine too, are amongst the calami- 
 ties of which fire is the most striking emblem. 
 
 The fire which mingled with the sea in the prophet's de- 
 
32 THE APOCALYPSE UNYEILED. 
 
 scription, is to be regarded in no other light than as judg- 
 ments, or Divine inflictions, with which he will, in that period 
 of the world visit ungodly nations. So common and univer- 
 sal will they be as to give character to that age ; it is spoken 
 of as the Day of Judgvient and perdition of ungodly men ! 
 So much, by way of explanation, of the fire which mingled 
 with the sea of glass, or what appeared to the prophet to be 
 a sea of glass. 
 
 The next enquiry is, what does the sea of glass represent ? 
 I have just said that the fire is emblematical of the judg- 
 ments of that day ; and, we must regard the sea of glass as 
 representing the moral and intellectual state of mankind in 
 that age. It certainly can have no reference to anything 
 physical or natural. The progress and improvement of the 
 human intelligence, even in the present time, is a subject of 
 wonder and astonishment to man himself ] and from its state 
 now we may indulge in the largest expectations of what it 
 will be when that age arrives, which will be distinguished 
 by the sea of glass. 
 
 In this sense the glass signifies transparency, a clear and 
 quick perception of things ; when nothing is in doubt or 
 darkness ; — the wine-press age will, in respect to the human 
 mind, be a luminous age. 
 
 Christ and St. Paul both speak of this period in terms 
 that leave us in no doubt as to the meaning of the sea of 
 glass. 
 
 Christ says, to this effect : that which is now sjpohen in the 
 closet or whispered in the ear : meaning the secret counsels and 
 private schemes of men, which they are generally able to 
 keep to themselves until they have effected their selfish and 
 wicked purposes, will be as fully known on that day as if 
 they were proclaimed upon the house top. Every thought, 
 every secret purpose of the heart will then be made known, 
 by the keen, clear perception of the human mind. Men will 
 not then be able to conceal their evil designs under the cloak 
 of religion; they will not then, as Pollock say : " Steal the 
 
CHAPTER XV. ' 33 
 
 " livery of heaven to serve the devil in," without incurring 
 the hazard of prompt exposure. Nothing that offends or 
 maketh a lie can be secretly contrived in that day ; the 
 deceit, falsehood, and hypocricy, by which men now pros- 
 per, and deceive their fellow-men, will not then avail any- 
 thing. 
 
 St. Paul, speaking for the church, says of this same period: 
 Now : that is, in the present time or gospel age — / know in 
 jpart, hut then I shall know even as also I am known. Now ice 
 see through a glass darkly, hut then face to face. All things 
 will then be known, and men will comprehend each other's 
 motives and purposes as distinctly as they now see the fea- 
 tures in each other's face. This great improvement in the 
 human mind does not imply anything miraculous, it will be 
 the natural result of the expansion of mind by improved 
 modes of instruction. In almost every department of life 
 great and astonishing improvements appear, but in the mode 
 of teaching or imparting knowledge to the mind, the old sys- 
 tems maintain their position. These, probably will all be 
 swept away, and be made to give place to methods of instruc- 
 tion which will rapidly expand the intellect and fill the mind 
 with knowledge, as far above its present attainments as the 
 improvements in the arts and sciences now surpass the un- 
 civilized state of man. This will bring about a state of 
 human intelligence corresponding with what Christ and the 
 apostle, in the above quotations, say respecting it. 
 
 The principles and purposes of the Divine government, 
 especially the judgments with which the Almighty will pun- 
 ish unrighteousness, will then be distinctly seen and clearly 
 comprehended by men of that day. In short the age repre- 
 sented l3y the sea of glass will have none of that darkness, 
 mystery, and uncertainty •^^hich now make the ways of Pro- 
 vidence obscure and incomprehensible. Everything con- 
 nected with man's moral accountability and God's primitive 
 government will then be made manifest. 
 
 There is nothing in the present age of the Christian dis- 
 
 VOL. II. — 2* 
 
34 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 pensation, more mysterious and dark tlian the judgments of 
 God. Of many of these we know nothing at all, so as to 
 connect the cause with the judgment ; and, it is very likely, 
 we are frequently called to witness scenes of sorrow and to 
 sympathise with men in their calamities, about which we 
 should entertain different views, if we could see things as 
 they will be seen in that sea of glass. This mystery has 
 always shrouded the Divine judgments. The Psalmist was 
 so amazed in his contemplation of them, that he exclaimed : 
 Thy judgments are a great deep ! comparing them to the sea, 
 into which the vision of man cannot penetrate, and discover 
 what lies concealed in its profoundest depths. But this great 
 sea of God's judgments will become, as it were, a sea of 
 glass, in which all the acts of Divine Providence will be as 
 manifest to the enlightened mind of man as the objects which 
 now surround us are to our sense of seeing. The fourth verse 
 confirms this view. The song which the prophet had heard 
 sung by them that stood upon the sea of glass concludes 
 with this declaration : For all nations shall come and ivorship 
 before thee ; for thy judgments are made manifest. The people 
 of that day will know, assuredly, that the calamities they 
 suffer are not produced by the caprice or passions of men, 
 but are in reality the judgments of God, now made clear and 
 manifest to all. 
 
 The next feature connected with this sea of glass mingled 
 with fire is, that which represents the righteous — the saints 
 of the Most High, as standing upon this sea of glass ! 
 
 The prophet speaks of these in the second verse : And I 
 saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire ; and them that 
 had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and 
 over his mark, and over the number of his nam.e. These signify 
 the apostate church, which had tts existence in connexion 
 with these enumerated powers ; against these — against all 
 opposition, the people of God prevailed : And they now staiid 
 on the sea of glass ; having the harps of God. These repre- 
 sent tlie dty, without, or outside of which the wine-press was 
 
CHAPTER XV. 35 
 
 trodden. Their position : standing on the sea of glass min- 
 gled with fire, is intended to exhibit the true church of God 
 in that day, as not connected with the judgments of the wine- 
 press, she is not affected by them, she stands upon, or 
 above them. This, I repeat, is a pictorial illustration of the 
 saying of the prophet : And the wine-press was trodden with- 
 out the city. The employment of those he saw, having the 
 liarps of God, and singing the songs of Moses and the Lamb, 
 identify them as the city of the living God. 
 
 The great and trying judgments of the wine-press age, are 
 typified by the fire mingling with the sea of glass. These 
 judgments are the necessary means of contending with the 
 proud and lofty intelligence of the men of that day. The 
 scoffers spoken of by St. Peter, who will, in their pride, 
 scornfully deride the threatened judgments of the Almighty 
 against them. 
 
 Perhaps some of my readers do not yet perceive the appli- 
 cation of these remarks, as explanatory of the saying of the 
 prophet : And the wine-press was trodden withont the city. I 
 will, therefore, conclude what I have to say upon that 
 point, by introducing the beautiful language of the Psalmist, 
 in his XCI. Psalm, where he celebrates the safety of the 
 righteous in the time of great calamity : A thousand shall 
 fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand, hut it shall 
 not come nigh thee ! Only with thine eyes shalt thou lehold and 
 see the reward of the wicked. Because thou hast made the Lord, 
 which is my refuge, even the Most High, thy habitation, Sfc. 
 
 The song of them that stood upon the sea of glass, con- 
 cludes with the declaration that : All nations shall come and 
 worship before thee ; for thy judgments are made manifest. 
 This instructs us as to what is the true end of those judg- 
 ments — this fire, that mingled with the sea of glass. It is,^ 
 that the nations may acknowledge God, bow themselves to 
 his authority, and make his will the rule of their government. 
 This is the meaning of the song : For all nations shall come 
 and worship before thee — and this they will do in consequence 
 
36 THE APOCALYPSE UNYEILED. 
 
 of the judgments by which God will speak to them in that 
 day. 
 
 6. And after that I looked, and, hehold, the temjple of the 
 tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened : 
 
 6. And the seven angels came out of the temple, having the 
 seven plagues, clothed in pure and white linen, and having their 
 breasts girded with golden girdles. 
 
 7. And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven 
 golden vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and 
 ever. 
 
 8. And the temple urns filled with smoke from the glory of 
 God, and from his power ; and no man was able to enter into 
 the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled. 
 
 After the sea of glass, the prophet proceeds to speak of 
 other remarkable features of this vision. 
 
 He saw the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in 
 heaven,- o^cTic^/ This corresponds with the disclosure of the 
 last verse of the eleventh chapter, describing the scenes of 
 the seventh trumpet, and confirms what had been previously 
 said : that the wine-press and the sea of glass have their 
 fulfillment in the seventh trumpet age. 
 
 Yery little remains to be said respecting this notice of the 
 temple, as.it has been treated upon in the eleventh chapter. 
 
 But as it is now referred to by the prophet, in connection 
 with the scenes of the present vision, we must suppose that 
 he means to make other suggestions from it. 
 
 As this period now under consideration is emphatically a 
 time of judgments, inflicted upon the wicked, the tabernacle 
 of the testimony being open, may be designed to show that it 
 is God, now speaking to the nations, and not men ; and to 
 do away with the belief which still clings to the religious 
 faith of popish nations, that the bulls and anathemas of the 
 Pope are the judgments most to be dreaded. But the tem- 
 ple of the tal)ernacle of the testimony being open, signifies 
 that it is God, and not men, who is now present and speak- 
 ing with the nations. 
 
CHAPTER Xy. 3"^ 
 
 Under tlic Israelltish economy, when the door of the taber- 
 nacle was open, all the people knew that God was speaking 
 with Moses, and they awaited with solemn awe the result of 
 the Divine communication. The presence of God with the 
 people was expressed by the open tabernacle then, and the 
 open temple seen by the prophet signifies the same thing. 
 
 Out of this open temple the seven angels came. They 
 are appointed to fulfill the wrath of God in executing his 
 judgments in the last day. They are connected with the 
 Christian economy ; they fulfill and complete its great scheme 
 of redemption. 
 
 The prophet is particular in describing the dress of these 
 angels, not to gratify idle curiosity, or to excite vain admira- 
 tion, but to show that the judgments which they are repre- 
 sented as pouring out, are a necessary part of the -perfect and 
 righteous government of God over men. Truth and righte- 
 ousness are the fundamental principles of Christianity ; and 
 these are designated by the purity of the white linen and 
 golden girdles which the angels wore. 
 
 One of the four beasts is represented as giving the vials 
 of the wrath of God to the seven angels. This judgment age 
 will begin to develop where the religion of Christ has been 
 most opposed, and where his people have suffered the severest 
 persecutions from the enemies of God. This is in Europe. 
 There has been the great struggle which Christianity has 
 maintained with the principalities and powers of darkness 
 and superstition, and with wickedness in high places, asso- 
 ciated with and upholding the claims of spiritual Babylou 
 to universal dominion. Giving the vials of wrath to the 
 seven angels, is the same as giving evidence, that these pecu- 
 liar judgments have begun to be poured out upon the ene- 
 mies of God — the angels have entered upon the work of 
 gathering out of Christendom all things that offend. 
 
 A more vivid description of the sensible presence of Jeho- 
 vah, as it will be known in that day of judgment, is given in 
 the following verse : 
 
38 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 8. And the temjph was filled with smoke from the glory of 
 God, and from his power ; and no man was able to enter into 
 the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were ful- 
 filled. 
 
 This representation is taken from the scenes of the ancient 
 tabernacle and the dedication of Solomon's temple. (See 
 Exodus, xl. chap. 34, 35 ; and 1 Kings, viii. chap. 10 and 11 
 verses.) 
 
 The temple and the tabernacle were covered and filled 
 by the cloud, and with the power and glory of God, in a 
 manner so overwhelming that the priests could not stand to 
 minister in the temple because of the cloud ; for the glory of 
 the Lord had filled the house of the Lord. In like manner 
 the cloud covered the tabernacle of the congregation ; so that 
 Moses was not able to enter into it because the cloud abode 
 thereon, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. 
 
 The solemn awe with which Moses and the priests were 
 effected in sight of those symbols of the divine presence, kept 
 them from entering into the tabernacle and the temples; nor 
 did the camp of Israel move forward at all until the cloud 
 was lifted up from off" the tabernacle. 
 
 The temple which the prophet presents to our view is filled 
 with the glory of God and with smoke — the smoke cor- 
 responding with the cloud of the Jewish temple. 
 
 The purpose of this representation seems to be to impress 
 all minds with the conviction that God alone is the actor in 
 the scenes of the seven vials. All human power stands in 
 silent awe before the wonderful works of the Almighty, and 
 seems to say, in the language of profound adoration, the Lord 
 is in his holy temple ; let all the earth keep silence before him. 
 No man was able to enter into the temple till the seven plagues 
 of the seven angels were fulfilled. This corroborates this view 
 of the purpose of the temple figure. No strength or power 
 of man could produce or restrain the judgments that will be 
 witnessed under the seven vials. 
 
 The august presence of the power and majesty of heaven 
 
CHAPTER Xy. 39 
 
 and earth, as it is symbolized by this temple, is also celebrated 
 in the appropriate strains of the forty-sixth psalm : Come, he- 
 hold the works of the Lord, lohat desolation he hath made in the 
 earth ! He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth : he 
 hreaketh the how and cutteth the spear in sunder ; he hurneth the 
 chariot in the fire. Be still, and know that I am God : I will 
 he exalted among the heathen, I will he exalted in the earth. The 
 Lord of hosts is with us ; the God of Israel is our refuge. 
 
 And again, in the fiftieth psalm, there is a similar celebra- 
 tion of the appearance and grandeur of Jehovah : Our God 
 shall come, and shall not keep silence : a fire shall devour hefore 
 him, and it shall he very tempestuous round ahout him. He 
 shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he 
 may judge his people. Gather my saints together unto me, those 
 that have made a covenant icithme hy sacrifice. And the heavens 
 shall declare his righteousness, for God is judge himself. These 
 prophetic strains of the Psalmist refer to the seventh trumpet 
 age. 
 
 There is another feature in which the temple of the pro- 
 phet filled with smoke corresponds with the ancient taberna- 
 cle, and that is in the paitse which the Israelites made when 
 the cloud descended upon the tabernacle. They remained in 
 their camp, and journeyed not until the cloud was lifted up 
 from off the tabernacle. 
 
 I have already described the period now before us as being 
 beyond the day of gospel effort. The gathering of the harvest 
 will have ended when this period commences. Tlie wine- 
 press, the sea of glass mingled with fire, and the temple filled 
 with smoke, all belong to this period. 
 
 This is the silence in heaven of the seventh seal. Chris- 
 tianity, or the spiritual Israel, pauses ; its efforts to gather 
 men to the fold of Christ have ceased ; and the churcli stands 
 still, and in silence beholds the works of the Lord. The 
 church will be silent until the seven plagues of the seven an- 
 gels are fulfilled. Then the cloud, or the smoke, will be lifted 
 off the temple, when the Church of Christ will move forward 
 
40 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 again ; not as she has journeyed hitherto, bufifeted by her 
 adversaries, and struggling with powerful enemies, but she 
 will move to her appointed station, to her heavenly Canaan. 
 
 Bat what is to be done during this state of quietude of 
 the Christian Church ? Much will be done. The Almighty 
 is represented as sjjeaking to heaven and earth, and com- 
 manding them to be still ; and they shall know from his 
 works which he will then do that he alone is God. This is the 
 period when the angel will go forth and gather out of Christ's 
 kingdom all things that offend and them which do iniquity; 
 and when, as the Psalmist says, our God shall come and shall 
 not keep silence ; afire shall devour before him, [mingling with 
 the sea of glass,] and it shall he very temjpestuous round about 
 him, turning and overturning the nations that have rejected 
 his word and despised his mercy. He will call heaven and 
 earth to witness while he judges or justifies his people, and 
 separates the vicious from the virtuous ; vindicating his saints 
 that have made a covenant with him by sacrifice, and de- 
 nouncing his wrath against those who have hated his instruc- 
 tion and cast his words behind them. 
 
 In all this work the church has nothing to do ; this is the 
 half hourh silenoe in heaven. The cloud now rests upon her 
 tabernacle, and she quietly and peacefully awaits in her camp 
 the issue of the storms of wrath which shake and alarm the 
 nations, while God is making a final disposition of his and 
 her enemies through the ministration of the seven angels. 
 When the seven plagues are fulfilled the smoke will leave the 
 temple, the cloud will rise from the tabernacle, and the 
 church will then move forward once more, and will ascend to 
 her final state in the kingdom of God. Come, ye blessed of 
 my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foun- 
 dation of the world. Such will be the glorious welcome with 
 which Christ will then introduce his saints into the kingdom 
 of God. 
 
CHAPTEE XYL 
 
 THE SEVEN VIALS. 
 
 We have in this chapter the account of the pouring out of 
 the seven vials. But this is, as yet, in the future, at least 
 as to the final efforts of those plagues or judgments, which 
 are represented as being poured out of the vials. The final 
 effect may not be clearly seen for a long time after the ope- 
 ration of the causes which will produce it have been operat- 
 ing. It is no one, direct, and instantaneous act of Divine 
 Providence which is to produce the result ascribed to each 
 vial ; but probably the causes will begin in some remote cir- 
 cumstance of small consequence in our eyes, and will gradu- 
 ally produce effects of as little notoriety. But these very 
 effects will themselves become the causes of other and greater 
 effects, and in this way the ultimate end of Providence will 
 be brought about. Just as the stream which takes its rise 
 from some obscure rivulet, and meanders its way through the 
 quiet glen, gathering, as it goes here and there, the number- 
 less rills which fall from the hill-side, until finally they swell 
 out into a torrent stream, forcing every impediment, and 
 sweeping away every obstacle. 
 
 Any attempt to explain fully the exact nature of those 
 plagues might be justly regarded as presumptuous. But 
 still, from what we have already been able to gather from 
 the teaching of our Lord, his apostles, and the ancient pro- 
 phets, as well as from profane history, we may offer conjec- 
 tures that will throw some light upon the subject. 
 
 The design of these plagues, or judgments, as they are also 
 called, is evidently to break down all those institutions of 
 
42 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 men which propagate and perpetuate ungodliness, whether 
 they be civil or ecclesiastical governments, political or social 
 systems. 
 
 Nothing has served to maintain a false religion in the 
 world so much as corrupt and despotic power, whether that 
 power be civil or ecclesiastic. In proof of this, it is only 
 necessary to notice the spread and prosperity of the Christian 
 religion where the people enjoy civil liberty, freedom of 
 thought, and the free exercise of religious liberty. 
 
 The overthrow of all such institutions as obstruct the pure 
 light of the gospel, and to punish those who obstinately ad- 
 here to them, is the work of this great day of judgment. 
 
 1. And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the 
 seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath 
 of God upon the earth. 
 
 2. And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth ; 
 and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which 
 had the mark of the beast, and upo7i them which worshiped his 
 image. 
 
 3. And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea ; 
 and it became as the blood of a dead man : and every living soul 
 died in the sea. 
 
 The first verse assures us that these plagues are appointed 
 by God alone. The angels are commanded by a great voice 
 out of the temple, to go their ways and pour out the vials of 
 the wrath of God. God was in the temple, and it was there- 
 fore his voice that gave this command. 
 
 The first angel poured out his vial upon the earth. The 
 term earth distinguishes mere civil or political governmcut 
 from that which is ecclesiastic, or, as it is frequently called, 
 heavenly. Those civil governments are first struck, as being 
 the chief supporters of a corrupt and antichristian religion. 
 
 The plague of this first vial consisted in a noisome and 
 grievous sore, that fell upon the men which had the mark of 
 the beast, and upon them. which worsliii)ped his image. This 
 sufficiently indicates that the sufferers under the first vial are 
 
CHAPTER xvr. 43 
 
 to be chiefly the po\\'ers of Europe that support the temporal 
 power of popery and its image. 
 
 A noisome and grievous sore implies a condition of painful 
 and vexatious irritation, and fitly represents those insurrec- 
 tions and revolutions which break out upon the body politic, 
 and either entirely destroy it or totally purge its constitu- 
 tional corruption. These governments, then, will be either 
 quite destroyed, or their religious principle will be entirely 
 changed, and they will not only cease to uphold the old cor- 
 rupt politico-religious system of Popery, but will become its 
 armed enemies, and will burn it with fire, as the prophet has 
 before said in speaking of the ten horns of the great beast. 
 
 T'he second angel poured out his vial upon the sea, which be- 
 came as the blood of a dead man, and every living soul died in 
 the sea. 
 
 Most commentators have considered this as a visitation 
 upon some maritime power, and explain its allusion by the 
 destruction of the Spanish Armada. But the sea, like every- 
 thing else in this vision, is spoken of in a figurative sense, and 
 any attempt to apply a literal meaning must utterly fail to 
 give the true import of the text. 
 
 The subject upon which the second vial is poured out 
 is, like the sea, immense in its extent ; reaching as the sea 
 does, from continent to continent. This is the meaning of the 
 sea, as used here ; and how very appropriate the figure is, 
 will appear, when we consider that the papal religion, which 
 is the subject represented, did, formerly, not only cover all 
 Europe, but by the indefatigable labors of the Jesuits, was 
 extended to every continent on the globe. The sea became 
 as the blood of a dead man! Wlien the blood has lost its 
 vitality, it is no longer capable of supporting the functions 
 of life, and the body dies ; and because the sea became as 
 the blood of a dead man, every living soul died in the seal 
 
 A great multitude and variety of functionaries, spiritual 
 and temporal : popes, cardinals, bishops, monks and priests, 
 of every order and degree, have their life in this sea, and 
 
44 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 when Popery loses its influence over men, and can no lon- 
 g-er command the obedience of the people, then these will 
 be of no more worth in the estimation of the world, than 
 were the dead fish of the Nile, when its waters were turned 
 to blood by the judgment upon Egypt. All these function- 
 aries will then die. Popery having lost its vitality will no 
 longer be capable of supporting their existence. 
 
 The resemblance between this sea, in the effects that 
 result from its becoming as the blood of a dead man ; and 
 the river Nile, after it was changed into blood by God's, 
 judgment upon Egypt, is very striking. 
 
 The Nile had always been an object of religious venera- 
 tion with the idolatrous Egyptians, on account of the refresh- 
 ing and delicious qualities of its waters. But after it became 
 blood and all the fish in it died, and stank upon the shore, 
 the river was then converted into an object of loathing to 
 those who before had worshiped it ; they now hated the 
 sight of it and turned from it with disgust. 
 
 This plague upon the waters of Egypt, in this respect too, 
 corresponds with the effects produced upon the sea by the 
 plague of the second vial. The whole papal economy will 
 fall and the ten horns, or kingdoms, which before had upheld 
 it — had worshiped the beast and his image — the prophet 
 tells us in another place, turned with hatred from their former 
 object of worship, and burned it with lire. This will be the 
 end of the second vial. 
 
 4. And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers 
 and fountains of waters ; and they became Mood. 
 
 5. And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righ- 
 teous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shall he, because thou 
 hast judged thus : 
 
 6. For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and 
 thou hast given them blood to drink ; for they are worthy. 
 
 7. And I heard another out of the altar say. Even so, Lord 
 God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments. 
 
CHAPTER XYI. 45 
 
 The third angel poured out his vial in the fountains and 
 rivers. 
 
 Rivers and fountains are the scriptural emblems of the 
 grace and mercy of the gospel system, and they are used 
 here to designate those countries, in which the Reformation 
 took its rise. 
 
 A fountain is the source, or first breaking forth of waters; 
 the river, is its increase, or enlargement. Both France and 
 Germany are embraced in this designation. In France the 
 first murmurs were heard, which, at first, grew into loud and 
 decided reprobation of the errors of Popery. The Albigenscs 
 were the fountain, which first bubbled up in France ; and 
 speedily met with the usual modes of popish discipline iu 
 that day, to suppress it. 
 
 In Germany, the Reformation, under Luther, became a 
 river, which so increased in depth and force, that even in the 
 days of Charles Y. it swept away half of Germany from the 
 Romish faith, and extended the Protestant religion into 
 other countries. The subject of the Reformation has already 
 had full notice, and nothing further need be said in relation 
 to it ; it is adverted to now, merely to show tiie application 
 of the figure of the fountains and rivers. 
 
 I consider that France and Germany are the countries re- 
 ferred to under the third vial ; and it is probable that their 
 political institutions are chiefly referred to. The same mark 
 of Divine reprobation as that which was made upon the sea, 
 under the second vial, applies to them ; — they will become 
 Mood ! denoting utter worthlessness. 
 
 The mysticism of German theology, and the infidelity of 
 France, will become hateful even to those who once held, 
 them in the highest esteem. The prophet heard the angel 
 of the waters, by which we understand the spirit and the 
 doctrines of true religion ; and a voice out of the altar — the 
 prayers of the righteous', uttering a solemn approval of the 
 judgment : pronouncing it just and righteous, for the reason, 
 in that they had shed the blood of saints and prophets, and 
 
46 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 thou hast given them blood to drink! This, in a literal sense 
 might be justly charged upon France and Germany, since 
 Protestant blood was made to flow no where so freely as in 
 those two countries. But this would be giving a literal in- 
 terpretation to the words of the prophet, which I do not 
 think would be consistent with his meaning. 
 
 It is not to be supposed that it was the fountains and rivers 
 themselves, that this vial was poured out upon ; and as if to 
 guard us against such a conclusion, the angel of the waters 
 declares, that the nations alluded to by these emblems, had 
 been guilty of shedding the blood of saints and prophets. 
 The true scriptural meaning of shedding blood is, taking 
 aicay life ! The precepts and doctrines which the early 
 saints and prophets, or teachers of the Reformation had given 
 to those nations, were cast away, or had become so mixed 
 up with mysticism and infidelity, as to be utterly worthless. 
 They had killed, as far as they could, the true religion taught 
 them by the zealous Albigenses, and the preaching and writ- 
 ings of the German reformers, and had substituted, in place 
 of these, unscriptural and anti-christian doctrines. Having 
 thus thrown away the water of life, after they had enjoyed 
 its blessings, and adopted the corrupting waters of a mys- 
 tical and infidel religion, it is declared a true and righteous 
 judgment to give them blood to drink, for they are worthy 
 of such judgments. The history of these two countries, for 
 the last quarter of a century, looks very much as if they were 
 under the third vial. 
 
 A nation can no more separate itself from the effects of its 
 religion, than an individual can avoid the consequences of 
 his own vicious habits. A spurious and corrupt religion 
 will involve a nation in such crimes as God always has, and 
 always must punish. The infidelity and mysticism which 
 have turned a pure Christianity out of France and Germany, 
 will ever keep those nations under the judgments of the 
 Almighty. 
 
 When judgments are employed as correctives, and are in- 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 47 
 
 tended to draw nations from their errors, they are generally 
 mild, being mixed with mercy ; but the judgments of the 
 great day, when the wrath of God will be revealed from 
 heaven against all unrighteousness, £^nd the seven last plagues 
 which will be fulfilled, are not those judgments that are mingled 
 with mercy ; but are such as the apostle describes in the 
 tenth chapter of Hebrews, 26th and 27th verses, where he 
 refers to just such cases as those under consideration : For 
 if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of 
 the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins ; hut a cer- 
 tain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, 
 which will devour the adversaries. When such judgments are 
 seen in the earth they will indicate the period of the third 
 vial. 
 
 The fourth vial is poured out upon the sun. Under the 
 sixth seal, I have given my reasons for considering the sun 
 to be the symbol of England. Pouring out this vial upon 
 the sun, designates the power that will be conspicuous as the 
 instrument in carrying out the plague of this vial. It does 
 not say that the sun was injuriously affected by this vial 
 being poured out upon it, but that it had power given unto 
 it to scorch men with fire. 
 
 I understand this vial to signify, that England will become 
 the instrument in the providence of God, of inflicting some 
 political judgment upon the powers opposed to the Protest- 
 ant religion. Such an event may be brought about by the 
 persevering efforts of the Pope, to establish in England and 
 other Protestant countries, some hierarchal authority over 
 the subjects of those governments. Efforts of this kind, 
 persevered in by Popery, would probably lead to a coun- 
 teracting policy amongst Protestant nations, even to the 
 length of banishing the authority of the Pope from those 
 countries. In this way, men would be scorched with great 
 heat. 
 
 Aggravated by such defeats, they are represented in the 
 agony of their disappointment, as blaspheming the name of 
 
48 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 God, which hath power over these plagues. Showing that 
 the subjects of this scorching, will be a people who held the 
 doctrine of God's punitive judgments upon men. And they 
 repented not to give Him glory. They still maintained their 
 principles in defiance of what they suffered, and which they 
 acknowledged to be the judgment of God upon them. This 
 vial is in the future. 
 
 The fifth angel poured out his vial ujpon the scat of the 
 least ; and his kingdom teas full of darkness. 
 
 There are only two beasts referred to in the Apocalypse, 
 after the four described in the fourth chapter. Those two 
 are the beast with seven heads and ten horns, and the two- 
 horned beast, already described. 
 
 I consider the beast alluded to, under the fifth vial, to be 
 the two-horned beast, or the temporal sovereignty of the pope- 
 dom. For, although the universal dominion claimed by Gre- 
 gory yil. continued only 666 years, the Pope is still a tem- 
 poral prince, possessing and exercising temporal sovereignty 
 in Italy, as other princes do in their kingdoms. In this 
 sense only, and not in a religious sense, does the term least 
 apply to the popedom. 
 
 The seat of the beast then, is the whole extent of his 
 temporal dominion. The fifth vial will be poured out upon 
 his political, or secular interests. This view accords with 
 what is said in the 27 chap. : 16 : And the ten horns ichich 
 thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall 
 make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh and burn 
 her with fire. Takii;ig these terms in their natural significa- 
 tion, they are more applicable to the destruction of temporal 
 than ecclesiastical interests. 
 
 The ten horns are, undoubtedly, political powers, and 
 when they resolve to put an end to the Pope's temporal 
 sovereignty, from whatever motives of policy, it will fill his 
 kingdom with darkness. It will disorganize the whole sys- 
 tem, and throw it into confusion. The chagrin and mortifi- 
 cation of a measure so humiliating to the pride of the Rom- 
 
CIIxiriER XYI. 49 
 
 ish hierarchy are expressed hi this strong language : And 
 they gnawed their tongues for pain, and blasphemed the God of 
 heaven because of their pains and their sores. 
 
 But although they will be driven out of the strong posi- 
 tion they held by their temporal power, yet they will hold 
 on to their ecclesiastical system ; they will struggle to keep 
 up the church, although they are stript of their worldly 
 power : they repented not of their deeds. But it is not likely 
 that a church which has from its first rise, been sustained by 
 its connexion with temporal power, will long survive a separa- 
 tion from it. We shall see in a future chapter that it will 
 not. The blow received from the circumstances of the fifth 
 vial, so shattered its power that the whole system finally 
 dies from the effects of it : Every living soul died in the sea 
 when it became as the blood of a dead man. This will be the 
 final result of the fifth vial. 
 
 The entire course of this vial will be political ; and, 
 amongst the circumstances which will mark its progress, will 
 probably be measures of policy adopted by Protestant coun- 
 tries, to rid themselves of the interference of a foreign power, 
 which, although ecclesiastical, may be found exerting a dan- 
 gerous political influence. 
 
 The doctrine that the Pope is the spiritual head of the 
 whole church on earth, requires the presence of his power and 
 authority, in the person of some one or more of his various 
 functionaries, wdierever the Catholic Church exists ; and, if 
 the exercise of such power and authority was not permitted 
 in Protestant countries — if ecclesiastical functionaries, de- 
 riving their authority from, and holding allegiance to, a for- 
 eign power, should not be tolerated in countries not under 
 the spiritual dominion of the Pope, how soon his kingdom 
 would be filled with darkness ! Something will be done in 
 the course of the fifth vial that will aggravate and afflict 
 that church, even to the gnaiving their tongues for pain. 
 
 But whatever those measures may be that will agonize the 
 papal power, the prophet informs us that they will not have 
 
 VOL. II. — 3 
 
50 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 the effect of changing or purifying its religion. They blas- 
 jphemed the God of heaven, because of their pains and their sores, 
 and repented not of their deeds. 
 
 The conclusion, I think, is unavoidable from the text, that 
 papal power, under the fifth vial, will become very much re- 
 stricted in its authority and limited in its existence. 
 
 We shall see in the events which some of the succeeding 
 chapters unfold, how wonderfully that church, which once 
 ruled all Christendom, will be reduced and brought down by 
 the acts of those very kingdoms, and how deeply it will be 
 made to drink of the bitter cup which it once pressed to the 
 lips of Protestantism ; but not in the same spirit of bigotry 
 and bloody violence which it practiced, — this would be re- 
 pugnant to the Protestant religion ; but in the total loss of 
 the confidence and respect of the powers of Christendom, ex- 
 pressed in the utter rejection of the faith and worship of the 
 Romish Church. (See chapter eighteen.) 
 
 SIXTH VIAL. 
 THE END OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE I 
 
 Following up the series of events which mark*thc progress 
 of time and illustrate the page of prophacy, we come now to 
 consider one which, in its consequences, will reach and effect 
 almost all nations of the earth, while it cannot fail to impart 
 a thrill of joy to every Christian's heart. 
 
 The scenes of this vial are not connected with any elements 
 of terror and violence. There is no fire nor blood mentioned 
 as the concomitants of this plague. A great change is effected 
 without the interference of any of those agents of terror and 
 commotion : it is the gradual and final extinction of the Ot- 
 toman Empire. 
 
 The Turks drove the Christians from Jerusalem, and 
 planted the crescent on its ramparts and its temples. The 
 land of Judea and all Palestine fell under their dominion, and 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 51 
 
 at a later period they pushed their victorious arms into Eu- 
 rope by the conquest of Constantinople. 
 
 All Europe was struck with dismay, and was in constant 
 dread of these invaders. Their ferocity was equalled by their 
 indomitable courage ; and wherever the scimeter was un- 
 sheathed, humanity aiforded no protection against the vio- 
 lence and horrors of their sanguinary warfare. 
 
 Christianity was the scorn of the Turk, and the Jew was 
 no less the object of his brutal animosity. And yet this 
 power, with all its fearful might and merciless passions, is 
 to pass away and disappear, like the dreaded icebergs when 
 they dissolve under the genial influence of a temperate zone. 
 
 This vial is poured out on the great river Euphrates, and 
 its waters were dried up. How simple and how quiet is the 
 l^rogress of this great change ! 
 
 The reasons for considering the Euphrates as the emblem 
 of the Turkish Empire have been already assigned. 
 
 The successful marches and rapid conquests of the Turks 
 left them no reason to distrust the invincibility with which 
 fanaticism had covered their arms. The boasted superiority 
 of their religion over the religion of all other people, and 
 their national pride, which led them to scorn and despise all 
 who did not embrace the koran, were the chief causes of their 
 ferocious and sanguinary principles of warfare. 
 
 But this proud disdain of all Christendom began to be 
 checked by occasional victories obtained over them, and they 
 were finally subdued and tamed by the battle of Navarino, 
 where their powerful fleet was entirely lost, their ships were 
 burned, sunk, and captured, and this great arm of their war- 
 like achievements was irretrievably broken. 
 
 This blow had the effect of humbling the proud temper of 
 the Turk, and brought him to regard Christian nations in a 
 more favorable light. It led also to intercourse and com- 
 mercial relations with the European powers, and ultimately 
 obligations of a more friendly'nature towards other nations 
 assumed the form of treaties. 
 
52 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 This commercial intercourse with other powers has worn 
 off to a great extent the ferocious temper of Turkish pride, 
 and, by bringing them to a better acquaintance with the rest 
 of Europe and America, has at the same time showai them 
 their great inferiority to ahnost all other nations, and has 
 produced that conviction, spoken of by traders as being en- 
 tertained by the Turks, '' that their empire is destined, ere 
 *' long, to utter and inevitable dissolution." In the language 
 of the prophet, the great river w^ill l)e dried up. 
 
 This drying up of the Euphrates has been going on rapidly 
 and sensibly to the eye of the observant politician for the last 
 twenty-five years ; and indeed nothing has delayed its entire 
 evaporation but the use that other powers of Europe have 
 made of Turkey to preserve the balance of power. So soon 
 as she is no longer necessary as a make-weight in the great 
 scale of European politics, she will sink under the paralysis 
 of her ow^n enervating and debasing religion. 
 
 The drying up of this river will be an event of vast con- 
 sequence to the world, in a moral and political view, even if 
 it stood alone ; but that which is to follow it, and to w'hicli 
 it is only introductory, is the subject which will fill the world 
 with amazement, and all Christendom with joy. The design 
 of drying up this river is, that the ways of the Kings of the 
 East may he prepared; or, in simple and direct terms, without 
 the use of metaphor — that the way may be opened for the 
 return of the Jews to the land of their ancestors I 
 
 Whoever has attentively perused the prophetic writings 
 of the Jewish scriptures, could not have failed to be struck 
 with the frequent, clear and joyful annunciations of this 
 event, by the several prophets of the Jewish Church. Our 
 prophet glances at it as a circumstance connected with the 
 drying up of the great river, and then retires from the sub- 
 ject, as if he said : " Their own prophets have fully jiro- 
 " claimed this grand event, and I can add nothing to the 
 " vivid and magnificent imagery in which they have presented 
 " it." We shall, therefore, take- leave of our prophet for a 
 
CHAPTER XVI, 53 
 
 short season, and follow his elder brethren, in their prophetic 
 description of this glorious recovery of God's ancient people. 
 
 THE RESTORATION OF THE JEWS. 
 
 The term kings, as employed to distinguish those whose 
 way is prepared by the drying up of the waters of the great 
 river Euphrates, is not intended to convey the idea of posi- 
 tive royalty. It does not mean persons who wear the crown 
 or wield the sceptre of empire ; it is employed to express 
 quality, or preeminent excellence of character, arising from 
 their former rank and station in the world. 
 
 Taken in this sense, the appellation of Kings of the East 
 will be readily understood, from its correspondence with the 
 names or titles which God himself and the ancient prophets, 
 and more recent apostles, applied to the Jews as a nation. 
 See Exodus, 19 chap.: 6 : And ye shall be unto me a kingdom 
 of friests, and an holy nation. Deuteronomy. Y and 26 chap.: 
 6 and 19: For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God ; 
 the, Lord thy God hath chosen thee to he a special people unto 
 himself, above all people that ore on the face of the earth, and 
 to make thee high above all nations, which he hath made, in 
 praise and in name, and in honor. Jeremiah, 11 chap. : 3 : 
 Israel was holiness unto the Lord and the first fruits of his 
 increase : all that devour him shall offend ; evil shall come upon 
 tltem saith the Lord. 
 
 These are some of the evidences taken from the sayings of 
 their own prophets, which show the exalted station the Jew- 
 ish nation held in the estimation of God. As the king is 
 superior to and above all his subjects, so the Jews were supe- 
 rior to and above all other nations of the earth. The title 
 of Kings of the East is in accordance with this high rank 
 of national supremacy, and with the superior wisdom of the 
 people. The East, in ancient times, was proverbially the 
 seat of wisdom. Wise men came from the East to pay suit- 
 able honors to the new-born King of the Jews. 
 
54 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 The appellation of Royalty, in a spiritual sense, is also ap- 
 plied to the Jews, by other writers in the Christian scriptures 
 as well as our prophet. St. Paul and St. Peter address them 
 as a kingdom of priests — a royal priesthood. They stood 
 before the w^orld in the two-fold character of kings and priests, 
 and they alone, by their superior wisdom, could teach not 
 only the knowledge of the true God, but also the sound prin- 
 ciples of good government, and political economy. 
 
 These remarkable people still hold a title by the immuta- 
 ble promise of God, to the land of their fathers. The cove- 
 nant which God made w^ith Abraham, and afterwards re- 
 newed with Isaac and Jacob, has been handed down from 
 generation to generation, and their abiding faith in the truth 
 of God's word, keeps them in anxious expectation of the 
 appointed time w^hen they shall be restored to their beloved 
 Jerusalem — w^hen the long night of their dispersion amongst 
 all lands shall end — when the veil shall be removed, and all 
 Israel shall be gathered to Mount Zion. 
 
 Every one who reads the Bible must be struck with the 
 deep solicitude that pervades the writings of St. Paul, in 
 every subject which concerns his kinsmen after the flesh. 
 
 Discoursing with the Gentiles respecting the fall of the 
 Jews, he asks : I say then, hath God cast aicay his people? 
 God forbid ; God hath not cast away his people whom he fore- 
 knew. He admits that concerning the gospel, they were 
 enemies ; that is, by their quarrel with the gospel plan of 
 salvation, which had superceded their economy of burthen- 
 some ceremonies ; they had made themselves enemies of 
 God, and cut themselves off from their covenant blessings 
 for a while ; but still, as touching the election, they are 
 beloved for the Father'' s sake. Blindness, in part, is happened 
 to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come ; until 
 that which caused them to stumble, will no longer be a stum- 
 bling block in their way ; and so (or then) all Israel shall 
 be saved — be restored to their ancient possessions, and to 
 much more than their former glory. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 65 
 
 But to return to the Euphrates. For centuries past and 
 down to the present day, the land of Canaan has been un- 
 der the dominion of Mohammedanism. The holy city has 
 been trodden down by these Gentiles. Everything sacred 
 in the eyes of the Christian, or dear to the heart of the Jew, 
 has been the scorn of the Turk and the object of his disdain. 
 
 Their implacable hostility to the Jews, while it remains, 
 must continue to obstruct the way of that people to the re- 
 possession of their ancient home, and keep them in their 
 scattered and oppressed state amongst all nations. 
 
 The removal of this ol)stacle by the gradual waste, and the 
 final extinction of the Moslem power, and the gathering of 
 the Jews, are the two great events that are to signalise the 
 era of the sixth vial. 
 
 By what particular means the Jews are to obtain the pos- 
 session of their ancient inheritance, is not even hinted at by 
 the Christian prophet. I^o intimation of violence is given 
 as the mode of their return ; the river will dry up ! it will 
 not even be turned out of its course, as the river of Babylon 
 was by Cyrus, by which he obtained an easy conquest of 
 that' great city. 
 
 It is quite possible that the Turkish government will be- 
 come so much impoverished in its finances, and so reduced 
 and wasted in its political strength, that it will be induced 
 to sell that portion of its dominion to the Jews ; vacate 
 Judea for a pecuniary consideration, and relinquish what 
 their poverty will no longer allow them to hold. The pro- 
 phet Isaiah, in celebrating the return of his people, speaks 
 of their great wealth, showing that they possess ample means 
 of securing, in this way, their long-forfeited possessions. For 
 the abundance of their riches they probably, at this time, 
 exceed all other people in the world ; this is a fact, which 
 the governments of Europe have, for a long time profited by 
 in the way of immense loans. And, if the governments that 
 have so cruelly and unrighteously oppressed and plundered 
 
56 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 them, were compelled to make restitution, it would be a day 
 of unwelcome reckoning with many of them. 
 
 But all Israel is to be recovered — God's word is pledged, 
 that he will bring home his banished ones ; and he will see 
 to the means necessary to his promise. He will not only dry 
 up great rivers, but the great seas also, if necessary to the 
 fulfillment of his word. 
 
 But the scenes of that day ! Who can adequately con- 
 ceive them ? The strongest imagination staggers under the 
 weight of their sublimity, and fails to compass the grandeur 
 of the spectacle ! 
 
 In every quarter of the world the stir and the excitement 
 will be felt. The great continents and the isles of the sea 
 will shake with the mighty move of the Jews ! They will 
 pour down from the mountains ; and they will come up, 
 like the swell of the ocean, from the cities and plains of 
 all nations. 
 
 Ths Christian world will hail with shouts of joy the re- 
 turn of the children of Abraham ; while the Gentiles will 
 gaze with astonishment upon the stupendous scene of the 
 countless multitudes of Israel, moving in solemn grandeur 
 toward the temples and tombs of their fathers. 
 
 St. Paul dwells upon this event with a glow of enthusiastic 
 feeling, very natural to one as much devoted as he was to the 
 happiness of his countrymen. He seems to labor for terms 
 to express the wonders of that scene ; but failing to com- 
 mand them, and as if the grandeur of the subject had over- 
 come him, he can only exclaim — What is it but life from the 
 dead ! Isaiah, in the forty-ninth chapter of his prophecy, 
 pours fourth a flood of eloquent and joyful declaration, as 
 the glories of this day rise before his prophetic vision. 
 
 The world-wide sensations which that «day will produce 
 cannot be conceived. The light of a thousand promises, like 
 distant stars, have for centuries twinkled and glimmered in 
 the sky of the Jewish scriptures, and seemed as if they 
 would never become larger ; now, all at once, rush to one 
 
CHAPTER XVI.- 5»7 
 
 common focus, and pour such a flood of light upon tlie world 
 of mankind as will make every one see that this is the work 
 of God : Who of old spoke and it was done, He commanded 
 and it stood fast. 
 
 What will be the amazement of the world and the emotions 
 of God's elect when this day arrives — when the sun-faced tele- 
 graph will catch up the cry of Isaiah, and fling it with light- 
 ning speed, over thousands of wires, into all lands! Arise, 
 shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of God is risen upon 
 thee. The Jews will recognize the voice of their own prophet, 
 and will respond in the language which he puts in their 
 mouth : A^id it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is onr God ; 
 we have ivaited for him and he icill save us. This is the Lord ; 
 we have waited for him ; we will he glad and rejoice in his sal- 
 vation. 
 
 The telegraph will be the ready mode of a general corres- 
 pondence and concert amongst the Jews in different lands, 
 with a view to their setting out to repossess their ancient 
 homes. When they have decided upon their measures, then 
 will the great steam-angel, with his feet of fire, walk over the 
 sea and the continents with the swiftness of the wind, and 
 will gather the sons and daughters of Abraham from the isles 
 of the sea, and out of every land whither they have been 
 scattered, and will bear them away in triumph to Jerusalem. 
 
 Who, but these people themselves, can appreciate the felici- 
 ties of that occasion ? Truly, this will be a happiness that 
 a stranger meddleth not with. If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, 
 let my right hand forget its cunning, is a sentiment instilled by 
 every pious Jew into the hearts of each succeeding genera- 
 tion of their children ; and as they approach and gather 
 upon the mountains round about Jerusalem, or move in 
 solemn procession over the plains that spread out in view of 
 her lofty spires and towered walls, they will give full scope, 
 and swell to those national feelings of religious veneration 
 which have preserved them a distinct race of people, while the 
 great powers that oppressed and wronged them have been 
 
 VOL. II. — 3* 
 
58 THE APOCALYPSE UNYEILED. 
 
 lost from the recollection of the Avorld. The whole nation 
 will now lift up its voice, in tones such as earth never heard 
 before, in celebrating the grand event of their restoration, in 
 the language of their own royal bard, uttered in the forty- 
 seventh psalm : 
 
 1. O dajp your hands all ye jpeojple : shout unto God with 
 the voice of triumph : 
 
 2. For the Lord most high is terrible ; he is a great King 
 over all the earth. 
 
 3. He shall subdue the people under us, and the nations under 
 our feet. 
 
 4. He shall choose our inheritance for us, the excellency of 
 Jacob, whom he loved, Selah. 
 
 5. God is gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of 
 a trumpet. 
 
 6. Sing praises to God, sing praises ; sing praises unto our 
 King, sing praises. 
 
 t. For God is the King of all the earth : sing ye praises 
 with understanding. 
 
 8. God reigneth over the heathen : God sitteth upon the throne 
 of his holiness. 
 
 9. The princes of the people are gathered together, even the 
 people of the God of Abraham : for the shields of the earth be- 
 long unto God : he is greatly exalted. 
 
 Isaiah occupies the same position in the Jewish Church 
 that St. John does in the Christian Church, with some differ- 
 ence as to the order of his prophecies. He does not exhibit 
 that connection and application as to the time of the events, 
 which generally prevail in the announcement of the apoca- 
 lypse. 
 
 Isaiah's prophecies are given more promiscuously, and iu 
 only a few cases can there be discovered a regular chain of 
 connection, running through as many as three or four conse- 
 cutive chapters. 
 
 The spirit and design of his luminous discourses, however, 
 
CHAPTER XYI. 59 
 
 are already manifested in every part of his eloquent and pow- 
 erful writings. 
 
 His comprehensive range of prophecy is not restricted to 
 the Jewish Church, but, like that of St. John's,' it is also ad- 
 dressed to the rulers of his people and to the kingdoms of 
 the world. 
 
 Isaiah is supposed to have been a man of noble birth and 
 of royal descent. The lofty tone of his discourses, and the un- 
 daunted manner in which he denounces the most fearful judg- 
 ments against the wickedness of the rulers of his own nation, 
 show him to have been a man eminently endowed by nature 
 and by inspiration for the dignified and commanding position 
 which he occupied in the Jewish Church. 
 
 With what tenderness does he entreat his people to walk 
 in the law of their God, setting before them the evils that 
 must befall them if they depart from his ways, and giving 
 vent to his deep sorrow on account of the frequent apostacy 
 of the nation ! He proclaims the severe chastisements of 
 God against their idolatry ; he utters the punishment of cap- 
 tivity as the consequence of such an offence in the sight of 
 God, and shows them the severe bondage to other nations to 
 which it will inevitably reduce them. 
 
 But he never separates himself from the interests of his 
 people. In his prophetic warnings and encouragements he 
 goes with them in their captivity, and consoles them with 
 hopes of deliverance. He sits down and weeps with them 
 by the rivers of Babylon, while the silent harp hangs upon 
 the pendant .willow. His soul is filled with anguish because 
 of the sufferings of his people, and with indignation at the 
 mockery and contumely with which they are treated by their 
 enemies. His noble spirit, chafed and wounded, rises and 
 swells with indignation against the oppressors. He asserts 
 the deliverance of his people — calls ui)on them to turn unto 
 God, and cry to the Most High for help. He assures them 
 that he who hath wounded will heal again, he who hath bro- 
 ken will bind again. Then, turning to their proud oppres- 
 
60 THE APOCALYPSE UNYEILED. 
 
 sors, he flings the wrathful denunciations of heaven in the 
 face of Egypt and Babylon — those incorrigible tyrants of the 
 earth, whose cruel power had crushed and ground his people 
 to the very dust, and, in terms of profound indignation, he 
 dooms them to the unerring retribution of a just and an 
 avenging God. 
 
 Foreseeing the downfall of all these kingdoms, that so 
 frequently oppressed and plundered his nation, and the re- 
 turn of all Israel unto God, and to the inheritance of their 
 fathers, he utters in strains of triumph the consummation of 
 their glory, in the language of the forty-ninth chapter of his 
 prophecy. There his full soul swells with joy, as he pro- 
 claims the unequalled glories which will distinguish the 
 Jewish people on that day. 
 
 Before we leave this subject, it will be worth while to 
 hear this noble prophet of Israel, in the remarkable man- 
 ner in which he speaks of the various means by which the 
 Jews will return to their ancient possessions. He says : 
 Thy sons shall come from afar, and thy daughters shall he 
 nursed at tUy side. The, camels and the. dromedaries shall cover 
 thee, (these were the means of travel in the prophet's time,) 
 and the ships of Tarshish shall bring thy sons from afar, S^-c. 
 (another mode of travel, where the great western sea — the 
 Mediterranean — affords the opportunity.) But still another 
 mode of conveyance passes before his view in this great pan- 
 orama of a nation's emigration, not paralleled by any former 
 custom of travelling known to the world ; and as the prophet 
 looks upon it, he exclaims, in the language of surprise: Who 
 are these that fly as a cloud! and as the doves to their windows ; 
 (or places of rest ;) as if he had said : camels and drome- 
 daries and ships, we know, but what is this ? moving like a 
 cloud, stately and swiftly over the face of the waters ! Had 
 the prophet a glimpse of our great ocean-steamers, which, 
 when enveloped in their smoke and steam, have very much 
 the appearance of a cloud as it floats along the face of the 
 sky ? Another feature he describes, in this new method of 
 
CHAPTER XYI. 61 
 
 travel : they fly as doves to their umidoic — alluding, probably, 
 to that species of the dove which we call the wild pigeon ; 
 remarkable for the swiftness of its flight, and moving through 
 the air as if without effort, in prodigious long lines. What 
 figure could be employed more appropriately than this, to 
 express the long rail-road train of cars, and the ease and 
 swiftness with which they fly over the earth ? 
 
 The Christian prophet gives a full description of these 
 wonderful modes of travel, in the tenth chapter of the Keve- 
 lations, and I have no doubt they will be chiefly the means 
 by which the Jews will be transported to their own country. 
 If so, this discovery of steam-power has in itself much that 
 is prophetic. 
 
 But it is time for us to resume the discourse of our Chris- 
 tian prophet. Having announced the drying up of the Eu- 
 phrates as an event under the sixth vial, of the greatest mo- 
 ment, because of what was to follow it, he takes a short re- 
 trospect of the political state of Christendom, and shows what 
 agents and influences have predominated over the kingdoms 
 of the earth, and the subjection they were under to those 
 influences. 
 
 13. And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of 
 the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the least, and 
 out of the mouth of the false prophet. 
 
 14. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which 
 go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the tvhole icorld, to 
 gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. 
 
 15. ^ Behold, I come as a thief Blessed is he that watcheth, 
 and keepeth his garments, lest he icalk naked, and they see his 
 shame. 
 
 16. And he gathered them together into a place called in the 
 Hebrew tongue Armageddon. 
 
 These unclean spirits, as the prophet denominates them, 
 had their origin in three distinct sources. He represents 
 them as coming out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of 
 the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false 
 
62 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 prophet, and by these spirits, acting sometimes singly and at 
 other times conjointly, the kings of the earth, and finally of 
 the whole world, are led, or drawn into measures which ulti- 
 mately produced their overthrow. 
 
 The dragon must be regarded, from the history already 
 quoted, as nothing else but popery in its persecuting charac- 
 ter. The beast is the two-horned beast, or popery in the 
 possession, or struggling to maintain the great temporal 
 power which it held for 666 years ; and the false prophet 
 will be found in the image of the beast ! the most indefatiga- 
 ble teachers and propagators of the false religion, which were 
 ever engaged in the service of popery. They were, also, the 
 most unblushing pretenders to miracle-working, and, taking 
 them all together, the most disagreeable and pertinacious 
 obtruders into state and domestic secrets. They contrived 
 to become the instructors of the noble and wealthy families 
 of Europe, and the confessors of kings and princes, as well 
 as of all the inferior orders of society. It is to this particu- 
 lar relation of intimacy with all classes of men, and all orders 
 of government, which they held, that the prophet refers, 
 when he says they are like frogs I — he means the frogs of 
 Egypt — sent as a judgment upon that land. 
 
 In the first place, the frogs of Egypt were exceedingly 
 numerous, they were over all the land, and they were also 
 most disgustingly present, even in the culinary vessels, as 
 well as in the kneading trough and the bed-chamber ! Their 
 pertinacious obtrusiveness led them into every secret place 
 and apartment of domestic life. The resemblance between 
 the three spirits and the frogs, in this respect is very strik- 
 ing. It is found in the intimate knowledge with which the 
 church may possess itself of all domestic and state secrets, 
 by means of auricular confession. This is well known to be 
 a peculiarity of the Church of Rome, by which the priest^ 
 may learn the most important secrets of state, and have it 
 iu his power to defeat the profoundest schemes of diploma- 
 tic policy. To what other cause than this can we ascribe 
 
CHAPTER XYI. 63 
 
 the frequent expulsion of the Jesuits from some of the most 
 powerful governments of Europe ? The confessional was 
 more dreaded by many of the crowned heads than insurrec- 
 tion, or an invading army, because the secrets of every 
 cabinet were within its reach ; and the words which the king 
 uttered in his bed-chamber to-day might to-morrow be whis- 
 pered in the confessional I The same may be said of all the 
 domestic relations of life, from the kneading trough, or the 
 kitchen, to the bed-chamber ! In these respects the resem- 
 blance between the prying and obtrusive frogs of Egypt and 
 the spirit which came out of the mouth of the false prophet, 
 is striking enough. 
 
 I am not discussing the merits of auricular confession. It 
 is a peculiarity of the Church of Rome, which she deems use- 
 ful to her interests, and I admit that, if used \\\ a strictly re- 
 ligious way, it may be most advantageously employed in pro- 
 moting spiritual instruction and comfort ; but, at the same 
 time, all must be convinced that it lays open to the priesthood 
 all those matters of state policy and domestic interest which 
 the safety of the one and the peace and harmony of the other 
 require should be sacredly private. But let us now look into 
 the manner in which those three unclean spirits exercised so 
 great an influence over the kings of the earth. 
 
 The few very brief references that have been made to his- 
 tory on these subjects, have been sufficient to show that the 
 kings or powers of Europe that were in league with Popery 
 have oppressed and persecuted the Christians of the Refor- 
 mation, at the instigation or by the command of the Pope. 
 Even their own subjects, as in France and Germany, as well 
 as in other countries, have been punished and destroyed in 
 the most barbarous manner by the authority of Rome. The 
 crusades, too, afford a striking exemplification of the force of 
 that influence. These fanatical wars were got up and prose- 
 cuted for the purpose of extending the authority of Popery, 
 and by them whole countries were laid waste, and multitudes 
 of people perished by the sword, and by pestilence and 
 
64 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 famine. All this came out of the mouth of the dragon ; it 
 was the spirit of religious bigotry and persecution. But 
 above all, as the means of the most merciless torture, was the 
 holy ojjice, or inquisition. This, too, came out of the mouth 
 of the dragon. 
 
 Another spirit came out of the mouth of the beast. The 
 prophet refers to the two-horned beast ; he could not refer 
 to the ten-horned beast, inasmuch as he was the chief of the 
 kings that were led and influenced by those spirits. 
 
 The two-horned beast, as has been already shown, was the 
 popedom, in its temporal power, or seeking to obtain the 
 great dominion claimed by Gregory YII., — the 666 years' 
 reign of Popery over the kings of the earth. This exorbitant 
 demand of the popedom was resisted by some of the king- 
 doms and acquiesced in by others. The consequence of this 
 disagreement was a resort to arras, the almost invariable and 
 indispensable mode of settling disputes between kings in those 
 days. These wars were instigated by the spirit which came 
 out of the mouth of the two-horned beast. 
 
 The third source from whence the unclean spirits arose was 
 the great and powerful order of Jesuits, denominated the 
 false prophet. A prophet implies teacher, as well as one who 
 foretells future events. Religious teachers are frequently 
 styled prophets in scripture phrase. The great influence 
 which this order has exerted over the kings of the earth has 
 been referred to before in the brief notices of what history 
 says respecting them. Their superior learning gave them the 
 education of almost all Europe, and by that, as chief amongst 
 the various means which they employed for the purpose, they 
 bound the nations, hand and head, to the throne or authority 
 of Popery ; they imprinted upon the hand and tlie forehead 
 the indelible mark of submission to the See of Rome. This 
 was all done without the use of arms or any commotion 
 amongst the governments, and in that respect the result 
 looked like the work of a miracle. To the nations that had 
 been accustomed to see great accessions made to the church 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 65 
 
 by no other means than persecution, in some form or other, 
 this quiet and peaceful method of extending- the authority of 
 the Pope, even over countries in, a state of semi-barbarism, 
 must have appeared as nothing less than miraculous. But, 
 according to the statements of history, the Jesuits have not 
 failed to resort to what they called miracles, whenever that 
 was found necessary to their success. 
 
 Thus, the spirit which came out of the mouth of the false 
 prophet worked miracles before the kings of the earth, and 
 obtained great influence over them. 
 
 By these three spirits, acting at different periods upon the 
 governments of Europe, and leading their kings, the world 
 has been kept in a state of war or restless agitation for ages. 
 They go forth to the kings of the earth and of the whole world 
 to gather them to the battle of the great day of God Almighty. 
 
 Those spirits are congenial to the tastes and dispositions 
 of the rulers of this world, and hence their influence is suc- 
 cessfully employed in leading them on to their own destruc- 
 tion. This event has been gradually progressing ever since 
 the Reformation gave freedom of thought and liberty of 
 speech to the people. But there is a more decisive over- 
 throw awaiting these kings than any that has yet been re- 
 alized. Important changes and concessions have already 
 been made in the old despotic governments of Europe, from 
 the force of impressions made upon the great public mind 
 by the light of the Protestant religion. The people have 
 embraced its light, and have learned better opinions of reli- 
 gion, as well as juster views of their political rights, and they 
 demand the free enjoyment of both. But what remains of 
 the old and sullen despotism of former times, continues to 
 frown upon the liberal sentiments of the present day, and 
 submits itself to the leading of the unclean spirits, until all 
 will be gathered together into a place called, in the Hebrew 
 tongue, Armageddjon. This Hebrew term signifies a jplace of 
 destruction, and the prophet employs the name of the place 
 to signify the thing itself. These spirits led the kings of the 
 
66 THE APOCALYPSE UNYEILED. 
 
 earth and of the whole world until they were entirely over- 
 tlirown or destroyed. 
 
 The destruction alluded to will be brought about by the 
 superior knowledge the people will derive from the principles 
 and teachings of the Protestant religion. They will learn 
 what are the just rights of men as subjects of government, 
 and that religious freedom is the birth-right of all men. 
 Under this improved and enlightened state of the human 
 mind, men will be no longer deluded by false miracles and 
 corrupt doctrines ; their faith will be in God and his word, 
 and not in the pompous ceremonies and the imposing pre- 
 tensions of fallible, and frequently, very corrupt men. 
 
 Under these nobler views of religion and civil government, 
 what could be expected but that the old institutions of bigot- 
 ry and superstition, and the thrones of despotic governments 
 should be doomed to destruction — should find themselves in 
 Armageddon! All such clusters of human ignorance and 
 cruelty will be thrown into the wine-press of the wrath of 
 God, and will be trodden down by the light and power of 
 the Christian religion. 
 
 This is the battle of that great day of God Almighty, 
 spoken of in the fourteenth verse. It is the battle of the 
 pure Christian religion waging an exterminating war against 
 all systems of false religion devised by men ; and it is the 
 battle of rational and enlightened liberty against the exist- 
 ence of despotic governments. 
 
 The warning contained in the fifteenth verse is given to the 
 nations that walk in the light, and it is mtended to put them 
 on their guard against any relaxation of their effort or vigi- 
 lence, as they know not the means which these unclean spirits 
 will employ against them. It amounts to this : that the 
 Protestant powers are not to relax their efforts to spread the 
 true gospel religion, and suffer themselves to be lulled into 
 supiuencss by tlie altered tone and conciliatory manner of 
 their old adversary. They are not to allow the eueuiy, 
 although he presents himself in a suljdued manner, to enter 
 
CHAPTER XYI. 6t 
 
 their camp and have the freest access to all their defences, 
 lest he may deceive and overcome them. 
 
 Keeping one's garments about him, implies that the man 
 is on his guard, and will not be surprised by the insidious 
 measures of his foe, and thereby expose himself to the ridi- 
 cule of others. 
 
 The garment is the covering and defence of the body, and 
 is used here as a metaphor to signify the faith, prayer and 
 works of righteousness, which are the strength of the church, 
 without these, the shame of her nakedness would appear. 
 
 THE SEVENTH VIAL. 
 
 17. And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air ; 
 and there came a great voice out of the temjple of heaven, from 
 the throne, saying, It is doiu. 
 
 18. And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings ; 
 and there uas a great earthquake, such as was not since men 
 came upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great. 
 
 19 And the great city was divided into three parts, and the 
 cities of the nations fell : and great Babylon came in remem- 
 Irance before God, to give unto her the ciip of the tvine of the 
 fierceness of his wrath. 
 
 20. And every island fed away, and the mountains were not 
 found 
 
 21. And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, 
 every stone about the weight of a talent : and men blasphemed 
 God because of the plagues of the hail; for the plague thereof 
 was exceeding great. 
 
 This vial differs from all the others, in this respect, it is 
 poured out into the air. We are to infer from this, that its 
 effects will be universal, and for the most part incomprehensi- 
 ble in their origin, and various as to the portions of the 
 earth, or countries that will be affected by them. When I 
 say they will be universal, I mean not that they will exist in 
 
68 THE APOCALYPSE UNYEILED. 
 
 all parts of the earth at one time, but that they will be experi- 
 enced in different portions of the earth at different times. 
 Two peculiarities are suggested by the text : first the diffu- 
 siveness of this vial ; and, secondly, the mysterious nature of 
 its operation. 
 
 Of the air, or atmosphere that surrounds the earth we 
 know nothing, but by its effects. We hear the sound thereof 
 hut cannot tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth. When the 
 unchained tempest roars against the mountain and uproots 
 its sturdiest trees ; or sweeps over the sea, scattering whole 
 navies before it ; man hides himself, and trembles in the con- 
 sciousness of his own weakness. These storms frequently 
 break out suddenly, and rage with great violence within a 
 limited space, while the sea and the land in all other direc- 
 tions, are perfectly calm. We cannot see the wind, we can 
 only feel it in its effects. 
 
 It is a universal and mysterious element which gives no 
 account of itself to man, and disdains his authority. 
 
 The prophet groups under several distinct heads, the dif- 
 ferent forms in which the plagues of this vial will appear. 
 There were voices, and thunder, and lightnings — these are 
 the standing metaphors of disorder and i)olitical commotion 
 all through the Apocalypse, and they will continue under the 
 seventh vial, with effects exceeding any other age of the 
 world. 
 
 A great earthquake will be another prominent feature of 
 that time ; of a character so mighty, so extraordinary, as 
 had never been known since men were upon the earth. As 
 a grand effect of this earthquake, the great city was divided 
 into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. 
 
 Both in the Jewish and the Christian Scripture, the church 
 is spoken of under the metaphor of a city ; and I do not 
 know that the same figure is anywhere em{)loycd to express 
 civil government. In the eleventh chapter, eighth verse, 
 there is a great city spoken of, in the streets of which tjiat 
 notable outrage was committed upon the two witnesses. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 69 
 
 The spirit of that o:reat city was therefore hostile to the gos- 
 pel of Christ, although it was a church calling itself Chris- 
 tian. See the remarks on the eleventh chapter. 
 
 The true character of these great cities spoken of, is to be 
 learned from the circumstances with which they stand con- 
 nected. 
 
 In the case of the one now before us, there is nothing said 
 of it to lead us to suppose it is the same as the one spoken 
 of in the eleventh chapter. The prophet says of it simply, 
 that the great city was divided into three parts. It will be 
 proper just to remark here, that the term great, when ap- 
 plied to these cities, implies the extensive and powerful in- 
 fluence they exert in the world. During the ages before the 
 Reformation, and for some time after it proclaimed a free 
 gospel to all mankind, the Romish Church, in the sense above 
 mentioned, was the great city. But, from the prevalence 
 and influence which will distinguish Protestantism in the 
 days of this seventh vial, the term, great city, will become 
 more appropriate to that religion. 
 
 It seems reasonable to suppose, that the term city, is not 
 intended to comprehend all portions of Protestant Christen- 
 dom, from the fact that it is immediately said, after speaking 
 of the great city : and the cities of the nations fell. The 
 great city then is a term of distinction, showing that what 
 is spoken of is not a single, isolated body of Christians, but 
 a whole nation, whose government is founded upon the doc- 
 trines and morality of the gospel ; whose laws recognise as 
 its fundamental principles — the laws of God. Such a nation 
 is a great city ! its influence will be felt in distant nations by 
 means of those efforts of Christian benevolence which it will 
 make to carry the blessings of the gospel to the people of 
 all lands. There are two such great cities now in the world 
 — England and the United States of America. But which of 
 the two will be the great city that will be divided into three 
 parts, time and the event itself only can tell. 
 
 The earthquake under this vial is unlike the earthquake 
 
•J0 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 of the eleventh chapter. That earthquake was attended 
 with elements of terror ; thousands are represented as slain 
 by it, and the remnant as being greatly affrighted. I am 
 aware that this language is figurative, but it suggests the 
 idea of consternation. Not so in the present case. Here is 
 an earthquake it is true, but that in prophetic language sig- 
 nifies nothing more than some great change in the civil gov- 
 ernment of a country — and the earthquake is great, or other- 
 wise, according to the consequences produced by this change. 
 
 There are no appearances of terror — no shocks of over- 
 whelming ruin attending this earthquake ; a change passes 
 over the nation, and it is divided into three parts. The pro- 
 pliet makes no further use of it than merely to mention it as 
 one of the remarkable events of the seventh vial — that when 
 it occurs it will stand for a sign of the last days. 
 
 Ail that can be said as to the manner of dividing the great 
 city into three parts, can amount to nothing more than con- 
 jecture. No certainty can be reached in a matter that is 
 yet in the future ; but looking upon what has passed over 
 the world in the way of great changes in the policy and 
 government of nations, and the comparative quietness and 
 ease with which old and arbitrary forms and principles are 
 laid aside, and new and more appropriate ones take their 
 place ; we may suppose that the great city will be divided 
 into tliree parts, without the violence and bloodshed that 
 formerly attended every change in a government. Some 
 poHtical disagreement — some sectional or local interest — 
 real or imaginary, may lead to discord, and grow into dissen- 
 sion which cannot be healed. One section of the great city 
 may take an independent attitude ; and, moved by the ex- 
 ample of this one, another portion, having a different inter- 
 est may do the same, until thfre will be three governments, 
 each indejiendent of the otlier, where there was formerly 
 but one ; but all continuing to maintain the same religious 
 principles — the same gospel morality, and the same Chris- 
 tian benevolence, which distinguished the great city when 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 71 
 
 it was but one. The change will be political. But there 
 is such a strength of Christian principle, and such a strong 
 influence of gospel morality amongst the people, that every 
 change in civil government will have to bow before truth 
 and righteousness — will have to acknowledge kindness and 
 good will amongst men, as the true basis of government. 
 
 The cities of the nations fell. This is another pecu- 
 liarity of the seventh vial age. No one can say how long 
 this age will last, whether one, two, or three hundred years, 
 or even to a period beyond this ; but within this time, 
 all sectarian distinctions amongst Christians will cease — 
 all bigotry and jealousy, which will now sometimes arise, 
 and too frequently separate and estrange Christian com- 
 munities from each other, will then be banished, and all 
 the different forms and ceremonies of church service — the 
 mete wood, hay and stubble of men's different opinions will 
 exist no longer. The light of that age will enable Chris- 
 tians to see eye to eye ; there will be no dissentions where 
 all see alike. The great temple spoken of (15 chap.: 5,) 
 will fill the Christian world in that day. 
 
 Those sectarian differences amongst Christians, which now 
 exist, are not spoken of by the prophet as subjects of the 
 divine displeasure. In fact, they are unavoidable — if, in- 
 deed, they are not indispensible ; because, the temper and 
 disposition of men's minds are so various, that diversity of 
 opinions relative to church government and forms of divine 
 worship must be unavoidable ; but when all are moved by a 
 proper zeal, much more success will attend the efforts to 
 spread the gospel, than any one form of church government 
 and worship would be likely to have. The world has seen 
 this demonstrated since the Reformation. When the world 
 was under the one church power, religion became a despotism, 
 and the fear of God was entirely lost in the paramount fear 
 of the authorities of the church I But the several members, 
 or branches of the Christian Church, which have sprung up 
 from a free, Protestant, religion, have provoked each other 
 
•J2 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 to love and to good works ; they have stimulated each other 
 .to acts of Christian benevolence ; and, by this holy strife, 
 ■ they have given the gospel to all lands, where Christian 
 access was at all possible. 
 
 The seventli vial age will not w^itness these exertions ; it 
 will Ije the half hour's silence in heaven. The gospel day 
 then has passed, and these cities of the nations, these different 
 churches, will fall, and become merged in the great one tem- 
 ple filled with the glory of God. 
 
 The next striking feature of that age is great Babylon, 
 just now brought under the power of the divine displeasure. 
 There is a peculiarity in the manner of the prophet's expres- 
 sion just liere. He says : And great Babylon came in remem- 
 brance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the 
 fierceness of his icrath. This mode of expression implies that 
 the power alluded to had its seat in some distant place, quite 
 ouside of the sphere in which the great events revolved that 
 have hitherto occupied the attention of the prophet. This 
 Babylon was not within the temple of God and the altar that 
 were measured by direction of the angel, (chap, xi.,) but had 
 its seat in the court which was without, and w^hich was given 
 to the Gentiles ; and the manner of noticing it now signifies 
 that it had been overlooked or disregarded in the previous 
 dispensations of the divine justice — its time had not yet 
 come. 
 
 This great Babylon is, without doubt, the vast Moslem 
 hierarchy — the Turkish religion. 
 
 In order to force the Koran upon the world, the Turk has 
 eni[)loyed his power with characteristic cruelty, and has 
 equalled, in the treatment of his Christian captives, the 
 greatest ))arbarities which ancient Babylon ever inflicted 
 uj)on the Jews. 
 
 Upon the great calendar, where nations and empires are 
 set down for divine adjudication, the case of Mohammedanism 
 is now reached, and the cup of the wine of the fierceness of 
 God's wrath is given unto her. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 73 
 
 The sixth vial was poured out upon this power, 1)ut its 
 eifects were political. Under the seventh vial the Moham- 
 medan religion is struck, and then this dark, sullen, and fero- 
 cious delusion will come to an end. The glory of God and 
 the happiness of man equally require that it should come to 
 an end. 
 
 Mohammedanism is so distant from the morality of the gos- 
 pel, and its principles so repugnant to Christianity and so de- 
 basing to the human mind, that no Christian effort has ever 
 been able to approach it. It has ever been invulnerable at 
 every point to the light of the gospel. This monstrous sys- 
 tem of religion, the compound of cruelty and sensuality, 
 throws its mountain form directly across the highway of the 
 Christian religion ; and while the nations around it are cast- 
 ing off their old systems and springing into new life and 
 vigor, this Moslem power remains as unexcited and as insen- 
 sible to the stirring scenes of the age, as if it were a dead 
 carcass. There it lies, unmoved and shrouded in the hideous 
 and impenetrable gloom of its own fatalism. 
 
 Having disposed of the errors and overthrown the impure 
 systems which had grown up in Christendom, the Almighty 
 now stretches forth his hand and shakes down this great 
 mountain, and puts an end to this Mahometan Babylon. 
 
 The complete extirpation of Mohammedanism from the 
 earth is expressed in the figurative language of the twentieth 
 verse : And every island Jlcd away, and the mountains were not 
 found. 
 
 These cumbersome and coarse metaphors are employed as 
 suitable to that sensual and degraded religion. But another 
 Babylon, another system of religion, is to be overthrown, 
 which, as we shall presently see, is illustrated by metaphors 
 of an intellectual kind. 
 
 The last providential act which occurs under the seventh 
 vial judgment is named hi the last verse of the chapter : And 
 there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, cj-c. This hail, 
 whatever it may import, will be conspicuous amongst the 
 
 VOL. II. 4 
 
"74 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 events of the seventh trumpet age, and will be, perhaps, the 
 most fearful of all the judgments of that judgment-day. 
 
 Hitherto the chastisements of heaven upon the nations 
 have been produced chiefly by wars and famines ; but these 
 will cease, and will no longer be known in the earth. The 
 prevalence of Christianity — of course I speak of a Christianity 
 which has God in it — will put an end to wars, an event re- 
 ferred to by the Psalmist in the forty-sixth psalm : 
 
 9. He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth ; he 
 hreahcth the how, and mtfeth the spear in sunder ; he hurneth 
 the chariot in the fire. 
 
 10. Be still, and know that I am God ; I will he exalted 
 among the heathen ; I will he exalted in the earth. 
 
 The peculiar language of these two verses of the psalm 
 api)ly with striking fitness to this unique visitation. The 
 vial form in whicli it came was poured out into the air, im- 
 plying that the visitation would be diffusive, extending gene- 
 rally throughout the earth. And God, in the prophetic 
 words of the Psalmist, is represented as saying, to the ordi- 
 nary means of judgments upon men, stand still; retire, or 
 give jili-'ce to my voice, which I will cause to be heard ; not 
 in Christendom alone, but in all the earth — not amongst the 
 nations only that have heard my gospel, but the heathen shall 
 also know, by means of this last visitation, that / am God, 
 and my name shall he exalted in all the earth — far and wide, as 
 the air which extends over all the earth, so shall this last 
 visitation extend to all people and lands. 
 
 Famine, as well as wars, will cease to afflict the earth. 
 This also will be a consequence of the influence of Christianity. 
 Under its enlightening power, all the great improvements 
 which are beneficial to man and conduce to his happiness 
 have their origin. Increased knowledge in the arts of hus- 
 l)undry, and the vast extent of agriculture, under a state of 
 universal peace, will fill every land with abundance ; and if 
 any j)art of the earth should happen to fail in its supplies, the 
 telegraph will instantly send the cry of want into other couu- 
 
CHAPTER XVI. »J5 
 
 tries, and the great steamers and the swift lines of railroad 
 trains will promptly supply the want ; so that famine can 
 hardly be contemplated 'as a possibility in the greatly im- 
 proved state of agriculture, and the rapidity with which su|> 
 plies can be thrown from one country into another. 
 
 AVhat is to be the rod* of this judgment in the last dispen- 
 sation ? The prophet speaks of it as a great hail falling upon 
 men out of heaven. His language is metaphorical, and is 
 intended to represent the existence of some great evil acting 
 upon men with fearful effect — exciting the most intense 
 anxiety and dread. And yet, like the air, it is unseen, un- 
 controllable, and mysterious; known in all lands, but equally 
 inexplicable to all people. 
 
 To answer the question, what is it — what is implied by 
 this great and ponderous hail ? I should say that there is 
 nothing of an effective providential character known to the 
 world so likely to be this rod, as the Asiatic cholera. Proba- 
 bly the Psalmist, speaking as a prophet, for he was not speak- 
 ing of his own times, referred to this very extraordinary dis- 
 ease, which he appropriately denominated the pestilence thai 
 walketh in darkness — a most forcible illustration of a disease 
 that wraps itself in mystery, and in the midst of noon-daj 
 light of medical science eludes and confounds the most keen- 
 sighted and penetrating researches of medical genius. Nothing 
 answers to the fall of the great and ponderous hail so suita- 
 bly as this dire and incomprehensible disease. And there fell 
 upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight 
 of a talent ; and men blasphemed God, because of the plague of 
 the hail ; for the plague thereof was exceeding great. 
 
 The blasphemy spoken of in the text is not to be taken in 
 the common acceptation of that term ; but what it means 
 here is, that men ascribed to some inferior agency that which 
 was the direct appointment of God. This pestilence, although 
 so mysterious and inexplicable upon any known laws of dis- 
 ease, men still attempted to account for and explain upon 
 natural causes — thus defeating the ends or purposes of this 
 
76 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 judj^ment Iw taking it out of the hand of God, and making it 
 a natural or common-place occurrence. Notwithstanding the 
 plague of tiiis hail was exceeding great — meaning the whole 
 character of this pestilence, its origin and its operation, w^as 
 strange and wonderful beyond anything known in the order 
 of diseases, and might well entitle it to be regarded as a 
 judgment from God. 
 
 The seventh vial was poured out into the air, and this hail 
 fell out of heaven, the common expression for the atmosphere 
 above and around us. 
 
 The cholera has its home in the air, and, like the air, we 
 hear the sound of it, but cannot tell whence it cometh or 
 whither it goeth. We feel and behold the effects of the 
 cholera in its death-ravages, but we know nothing else of it. 
 "When it suddenly falls upon a whole city and hurries away 
 a part of its population, who has ever been able to tell where 
 it came from ? And when it sheathes its destroying sword 
 and departs, who will tell us whither it goeth ? It steps from 
 continent to continent, and from one country to another, aud 
 all that we know of it when it makes these gigantic strides 
 is its foot-prints of death which it leaves behind it. At one 
 time it fills the city with death and lam^entation, at another 
 it points its death-finger at the quiet cottage, and some of its 
 innuites fall. The mountain-top and the healthful vale afford 
 no security from its ravages. It travels in the crowded 
 steamboats, and makes the solitary river-banks populous with 
 its dead. It strikes its death-blow even in the railroad-car 
 while on its rapid flight. It seizes upon one island in the sea 
 and almost depopulates it, while neighboring islands feel 
 nothing of its effects. It lays its hand of death upon the 
 crowded and busy emporium, and the thronged streets are 
 hushed to silence. Men forsake their occupations and their 
 wealth and fly for their lives, while a neighboring city is un- 
 touched by it. 
 
 Nor does the cholera pay any more respect to climate or 
 Bcasou than it does to healthy or unhealthy localities. 
 
CHAPTER XVr. "Jt 
 
 If we trust to the purifying frosts of winter to shield us from 
 its grasp — behold! we hear the wail of cholera-death mingling 
 with the storms of sleet and snow. If the balmy breath 
 of summer promises us health and safety from it, alas I the 
 cholera is found concealed in our most delicious fruits. No 
 place, no circumstance, no condition exempts us from it ; the 
 sea and the land, the crowded city and the open country, 
 wealth and poverty, are all alike subject to, and have be^u 
 visited by this most mysterious and inscrutable pestilence. 
 
 Is not this precisely what our Lord means, in that memor- 
 able conversation with the Pharisees, when they demanded 
 of him when the kingdom of God should come ? After giv- 
 ing them many of the circumstances and signs which will 
 precede, or attend the advent of that kingdom, he speaks in 
 this wise : I tell you in that night — Christ had spoken of the 
 night that cometh when no man can see to work — In that 
 day there shall he two in one led; the one shall he taken and the 
 other left. Two shall he grinding together ; the one shall he 
 taken and the other left. Two shall he in the field ; the one 
 shall he t alien and the other left. 
 
 What can this mean, if it does not refer to this singular 
 and mysterious pestilence ? Here are three conditions, which 
 may represent the different states into which human society 
 is divided. First, here is the bed— signifying a state of ease, 
 comfort, and affluence. Secondly, the grinding at the mill 
 is the laboring classes, who work within doors, or free from 
 exposure to the vicissitudes of the weather ; and, lastly, the 
 class that performs the laborious service of husbandry; they 
 are upon the open fields, exposed to the heat of summer and 
 the cold of winter. And in those three classes or conditions 
 of men, the agent, or influence, our Savior referred to, made 
 no distinction ; and yet, in each of those conditions it makes 
 a marked personal discrimination. Persons situated pre- 
 cisely alike, are strangely separated ; one part is cut down, 
 the other is untouched I This accords strictly with the mys- 
 terious cause of the cholera. 
 
78 THE ArOCALYPSE UXVEILEP. 
 
 But some will ask, was not Christ speaking of the destruc- 
 tion of Jerusalem, when he used the language above quoted ? 
 Whoever thinks so, let him apply these sayings to that event, 
 and if he can discover any meaning in them under such an 
 api>lication, let him do so. 
 
 The Pharisees w^ere very solicitous to learn where this 
 most surprising event should take place ; but our Savior 
 made it his business to impart instruction rather than to 
 gratify curiosity, and knowing that these events did not apply 
 to their age, (though they may to our age,) he simply an- 
 swered : Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be 
 gathered together. He does not mean any particular place 
 l)y this answer, he means to say these things will certainly 
 come to pass. As certainly as the eagles from their lofty 
 flight discern their prey, and rush from the clouds to seize 
 upon it, just so certainly will these things that I have spoken 
 to you come to pass in their appointed time ; they will not 
 fail any more than the prey of the eagle fails to fall under 
 the keen, penetrating, far-reaching eye of that bird. But 
 to return from our digression. 
 
 With what a mockery does the cholera treat the science 
 of medicine ? How" it spurns the laws which govern and 
 give identity to all other diseases ! How strange are its 
 movements, and how it changes its form and features with- 
 out changing its fearful power. Indeed, so relenting does 
 it appear at times, that the man of medicine fancies he has 
 succeeded in binding this Sampson of pestilence — that he 
 has found out a remedy ; and indulges a strong hope that 
 he will recover the patient ; but when he calls again, he 
 finds his bands, with which he hoped he had securely bound 
 the strong foe, l)roken and shattered like shreds of tow, and 
 lie is confounded in beholding the minister of death standing 
 before him in a form in which he had never seen him before. 
 
 If the Almigiity should commission this destroyer of men 
 to empty tlie land which he had given to Abraham and his 
 seed fur a possession for ever ; how short would be the work ? 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 79 
 
 how soon would the avenues of their cities be choked with 
 the dead, and the fields be strewed with the dying! In sliort, 
 how soon would the whole country present just such a scene 
 as that which is described in the thirty-ninth chapter of 
 Ezekiel. 
 
 The history of Sennacherib's army records a frightful 
 instance of the terrible effects of this angel of death. 
 
 The Assyrian came up in all the pomp and pride of a 
 mighty conqueror, to tread down Jerusalem. His heralds 
 proclaimed his approach, and in his name demanded the sur- 
 render of the city. He scorned the God in whom the peo- 
 ple trusted, and boastfully asked, what gods had been able 
 to save other countries from his victorious arms ? 
 
 The good Hezekiah, then upon the throne of Judea, 
 pleaded with God for help against this powerful and pre- 
 sumptuous adversary. By the mouth of the prophet Isaiah, 
 God assured the king, that the Assyrian should not come 
 into the city, nor should he shoot an arrow there; but should 
 be driven back by the way that he came. 
 
 Hezekiah was not left in long suspense as to the issue ; 
 that very night the angel of death smote the Assyrian, and 
 the next morning beheld one hundred and eighty-five thou- 
 sand corpses scattered throughout the camp. 
 
 This angel of death, doubtless, was what is now called the 
 Asiatic cholera. The dreadful scene of mortality produced 
 in Sennacherib's army in one night, resembles very much the 
 ravages of the cholera in Asia, and Europe, and our own 
 country, within the last few years — sudden in its attack, and 
 quick in its work of death. 
 
 It is no argument against this view of the providential use 
 of the cholera, to say, that it is not a new infliction or calamity 
 upon men— that it is as old as Sennacherib's army, and that 
 its very name, " Asiatic cholera," denotes that it has long 
 been known in the earth. 
 
 All this is admitted. But what this explanation, of at least 
 one striking peculiarity of the seventh vial, contends for is, 
 
80 THE APOCALYrSE UXVEILED. 
 
 that this is one of the principal, and perhaps the most re- 
 ma rkaljlc one, of the mysterious means of chastising nations, 
 adopted as a suhstitute for those which have passed away. 
 
 Tlie cholera may have been known ages ago, but has never 
 before, perliaps, been taken up by Providence as a means of 
 general national chastisement. It is an old visitation, now 
 ap})lied to new purposes — an old rod hitherto used only in 
 remote and secluded portions of the earth, but is now brought 
 out and em})loyed by the Almighty to chastise the obstinacy 
 and rebellion of the people. Nor does it at all conflict with 
 this view of the subject to say that the righteous also fall by 
 tliis pestilence. What judgment of God ever visited any na- 
 tion that the righteous did not fall, more or less ? As human 
 society now exists, the righteous unavoidably participate, to 
 some extent, in the evil brought upon the world by the un- 
 godly, whether it be war, or famine, or pestilence. But they 
 do not suffer as enemies of God, but as his children, whose 
 afflictions are sanctified to their good, whether they live or 
 die. 
 
 When the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air, a 
 great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, made 
 this solemn enunciation : It is done ! Imagination can add 
 nothing to the grandeur and solemnity of this announcement. 
 It is the unalterable and eternal decree of Jehovah himself, 
 proclaiming tlirougli the temple — that is, his church — that ;!! 
 that is earthly, all the institutions and systems, powers mid 
 principalities, hitherto known and familiar with men, wili fade 
 away from tlie earth, will disappear and be no more kii< uu 
 when tlie effects of this vial have been completed. The united 
 voice of the whole Church of Christ, which once, while the 
 gospel day lasted, called men to repentance, and implored 
 thein to receive the proffered mercy of God, through Jesus 
 Christ, now, upon the authority of God — that is, the voice 
 from the throne — proclaims the day of grace is passed, the 
 suunner of mercy is ended, the work of salvation has ceased — 
 it is done. A word more upon the last plague. 
 
CHxVPTER XVI. 81 
 
 Numerous instances are upon record of sudden visitations 
 of the Divine judgments upon a community or a country — 
 such as the case of Sodom and Gomorrah of Egypt, and the 
 history of the Israelites, and afterwards of the Jewish nation. 
 But in all these cases the visitation was for a local or present 
 purpose, to punish for social or national sins. But we are to 
 suppose that the latter day, or judgment-day judgments, if I 
 may so call them, by way of distinction, which will reach 
 over all the earth and abide amongst all nations, will not 
 come in that sudden manner, but will appear, and then dis- 
 appear again, like the clouds, which for awhile obscure the 
 face of the sun, then disappear, and all is bright again as be- 
 fore. Then they will rise again, and again disappear ; but 
 finally the whole sky is overcast, and the destroying tempest 
 howls over the land and the sea. 
 
 The cholera arose in some remote part of Asia, and ravaged 
 awfully as it coursed its way over than continent, then threw 
 itself upon Europe. The people of Europe trembled and 
 bowed before the dreadful scourge, and thousands were its 
 victims. It left Europe, and, riding upon the winds, it crossed 
 the Atlantic Ocean, and smote the cities and smaller towns 
 of America ; not all at once, but one after another, observ- 
 ing generally, as a rule, not to attack two cities at the same 
 time. This was one of the extraordinary peculiarities of the 
 cholera when it first appeared in this country. Its second 
 visitation was not marked so strictly by the observance of 
 this rule. But it still walks in darkness — still maintains its 
 mysterious and inscrutable character; shakes its fearful rod, 
 first over one nation, then over another; throws one city into 
 grief, and then appears in another, in quite a different part 
 of the country. But when the day of judgment is come — 
 when the voice out of the throne, it is done, shall be heard, 
 then this rod of God's anger will be laid upon the whole 
 earth at once — will be as universal as the air, and, like the 
 great hail, it will fill the earth at one time with an exceeding 
 great plague. 
 
 VOL. II. — 4* 
 
82 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 Such, no doubt, was tlie manner in which the flood ap- 
 proached. Men were duly notified of it. Noah was warning 
 the people and building the ark one hundred and twenty years. 
 During this time, we may suppose that the earth gave fre- 
 quent signs of the approach of that event : but when these 
 subsided, the fears of the people subsided too. But the time 
 came at last, of which Noah had warned them, and a univer- 
 sal deluge engulphed the earth. 
 
 The seals discontinue their developments by the half hour^a 
 silence in heaven, when the gospel-day closes. The trumpets 
 extend their announcement of great changes in the religious 
 and civil government of the world, and conclude with the 
 opening of the temple of God in heaven, in which was seen 
 the ark of his testament, signifying that the laiv of God will 
 then become the great governing principle amongst the king- 
 doms of the earth. The changes which will produce this 
 wonderful revolution in the kingdoms of this world are ex- 
 pressed in the language of the concluding verse of the 
 eleventh chapter : And there were lightnings, and voices, and 
 thundering, and an earthquake, and great hail. 
 
 The vials close the Revelations, or the Divine Dispensa- 
 tions, in the form of judgments ; with the universal effects 
 of those judgments, exhibited under the metaphor of great 
 hail, corresponding with the closing scene of the trumpets. 
 
 Ilaving brought all these revelations down to their close, 
 the propliet now goes back, to exhibit and explain other 
 things which had passed under his eye in the great drama of 
 revelation. 
 
 The first subject which he takes up for exhibition is the 
 corrupt connection of the Church with the kingdoms of this 
 world ; showing the great authority she had exercised over 
 them, and the moral effects produced upon each other by this 
 connection. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 THE WOMAN SITTING UPON THE SCARLET-COLORED BEAST. 
 
 1. And there came one of seven angels which had the seven 
 vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, come hither ; I will 
 shew unto you the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon 
 many waters ; 
 
 2. With whom the kings of the earth have committed forni- 
 cation, and the inhabitants of the earth have hccn made drunk 
 with the tvine of her fornication. 
 
 3. So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness : 
 and I saw a woman sit iipon a scarlet-colored least, full of 
 names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. 
 
 4. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color, 
 decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls, having a 
 golden cup in her hand, full of abominations and filthiness oj 
 her fornications. 
 
 5. And upon her forehead was a name written. Mystery, 
 Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and abominations 
 of the earth. 
 
 6. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, 
 and with the blood of the martyrs of Je^us : and when I saw 
 her, I wondered with great admiration. 
 
 One of the seven angels which had the seven vials, became 
 the instructor of the prophet in this vision. Come, follow me, I 
 will show you, or make you acquainted, with the moral cha- 
 racter of this corrupt woman that sitteth upon many waters : 
 that is, she exercises a controlling power and authority over 
 
84 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues. (See the 
 fifteenth verse). 
 
 The kings of the earth first corrupted the church. She 
 was led into a spirit of worldly ambition by the flattery and 
 gifts bestowed by kingly power, until she at length claimed 
 the right of exercising power over thrones and dominions I 
 The spirit and principles of Christianity were prostituted to 
 the lust of power and worldly aggrandizement. 
 
 This corrupt influence had the natural effect of demorali- 
 zing the people. All sense of spirituality, and even morahty 
 was lost, and they became like people in a state of intoxica- 
 tion — bewildered, stupid, and incapable of distinguishing one 
 thing from another : thus, the angel says : the inhabitants of 
 the earth have been made drunk by the ivine of her fornications. 
 Nothing but the stupor of a moral intoxication could have 
 induced the people to buy as greedily as they did, the Pope's 
 indulgences ; and to yield themselves the easy dupes of the 
 pious frauds and impositions practiced upon them in that 
 day of ignorance, by their spiritual teachers. 
 
 The prophet was carried away in the spirit into the wil- 
 derness ; where he saw a woman sit upon a scarlet-colored 
 beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and 
 ten horns. 
 
 This beast is the German Empire upholding the authority 
 of the Papal Church. The wilderness is the place where 
 this woman is seen. The reader will recollect that the 
 woman, of a very different character from this one, which 
 the prophet described, clothed with the sun and having the 
 moon under her feet, was in the wilderness, also ; she fled 
 into the wilderness for protection. The wilderness in both 
 cases is civil government. The woman on the scarlet-colored 
 beast, rides upon it, impels and controls it, for the purpose 
 of destroying the saints ; while the first woman fled to the 
 wilderness, that is, took shelter under the authority of civil 
 power for safety, not to use it as the means of violence and 
 persecution. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 85 
 
 The time of tins vision is ascertained by the description 
 of the beast. The seven heads and ten horns have been 
 described in the thirteenth chapter, and they are the seven 
 electorates by whom the German emperors were elected ; 
 and the ten horns are those powers or sovereignties that 
 composed the empire. It is further said of this beast that 
 it was full of names of blasphemy. These were the acts and 
 decrees of the different diets and councils, and titles used by 
 the emperors, particularly Charles V., in his struggle against 
 the Reformation. All the peculiarities of this beast distin- 
 guish the German empire during that period, and after it. 
 
 The woman is represented as sitting upon the beast. The 
 Church was upheld by this empire — the great sword of civil 
 power, in opposing the Reformation, was employed under the 
 direction of the woman. The scarlet color of the beast ex- 
 presses its resemblance in its power and temper to the old 
 dragon empire of Rome. And the woman was arrayed in 
 colors which liken her to the imperial authority of Rome in 
 its ferocious persecution of the Christians. 
 
 Besides the purple and scarlet colors in which the woman 
 was arrayed, the prophet says she was decked with gold, and- 
 precious stones, and pearls. These are ornaments usually worn 
 for the purpose of striking the eye of the beholder, and ex- 
 citing wonder and admiration; they are no part of the cloth- 
 ing ; they are not worn for comfort, but to produce an effect 
 upon those who look upon them. In this view these orna- 
 ments in which the woman was decked most singularly ac- 
 cord with the worship of the church she represents. It is all 
 outward show, and frequently very gay and pompous, calcu- 
 lated to strike the senses, and through them to affect the 
 mind. 
 
 The gorgeous cathedrals and sumptuous churches, decked 
 with costly and glowing drapery, and pictures, with vessels 
 and ornaments of gold and silver, and the imposing ceremo- 
 nials of their worship, are all designed to strike the outward 
 sense, and raise the admiration of men, but do not produce 
 
86 THE ArOCALYI\SE UNVEILED. 
 
 any moral eflfect, or impart any spiritual comfort. If, as 
 some suppose, these costly ornaments express the wealth of 
 the Church of Rome, they are well adapted to that purpose 
 also. 
 
 The riches which were accumulated by the sale of indul- 
 gences only, about the time the Reformation commenced, 
 were almost incalculable ; but besides this, the kingdoms of 
 all Christendom were laid under contribution to the coffers of 
 the church. 
 
 The woman had in her hand a golden cup, full of abomina- 
 tions and fill hiness of her fornication. 
 
 This golden cup fitly represents Christianity in its outward 
 institution. Its legitimate contents are the purifying opera- 
 tions of the Holy Spirit — the grace which strengthens the 
 hope and faith of men, and generally all the blessings of the 
 gospel of Christ. 
 
 This cup in the hand of the woman represents her as pro- 
 fessing the Christian religion — claiming to be the Christian 
 Church. But instead of the blessings of the gospel which we 
 look for in the Christian cup, this cup in the woman's hand 
 was filled with the abominations and filthiness of her fornica- 
 tion — that is, under the name and profession of a Christian 
 Cliurch, her doctrines and teachings have a demoralizing 
 eflfect ; the inhabitants of the earth are made drunk by the 
 wine with which she has filled this cup ; they are brought 
 under a moral stupor and intoxication. 
 
 The religion of Europe before the Reformation, as well as 
 since that time, in those countries which have rejected its 
 light, fully corroborates what is here said of the effects of the 
 contents of this woman's cup. 
 
 Very decided tokens of the woman's character are given in 
 what tlie prophet saw written upon her forehead : And upon 
 her forehead was a name written, Mystery, Babylon the Great , 
 the Mother of harlots, and abominations of the earth. 
 
 Tiiese give the character of this woman in the age referred 
 to by the prophet, when she sat upon the scarlet-colored 
 
CHAPTER XVII. Bt 
 
 beast ; and, taken all together, they are called a name which 
 signifies her history, which comprises these various character- 
 istics. The first trait named is " Mystery !" 
 
 When we revert to the early purity and self-denying spirit 
 of the church, and especially to the patience, fortitude, and 
 resignation, with which she endured the violent persecution 
 of Pagan Rome, giving up her lifo rather than part with her 
 faith in Christ, and now behold her inflicting the same tor- 
 tures and death upon those who profess the same faith, the 
 term mystery is distinctly applicable. It is, indeed, most 
 mysterious, that a church which once willingly suffered death 
 for her religion, should now punish with death the people 
 who profess the same religion, while she at the same time 
 claims to be the Church of Christ on earth — the oldest and 
 the only true apostolic church. Beyond a doubt, she is a 
 mystery. 
 
 The next title is, Babylon the Great, by which she is dis- 
 tinguished for all those acts of ferocious persecution that are 
 so fearfully conspicuous in her history. The blood of the 
 Waldenses and Albigenses, the fires of Sraithfield, the tor- 
 tures of the inquisition, the purposes of the Spanish Armada, 
 the slaughter of the Saint Bartholomew, the cruelties inflicted 
 upon the Huguenots — all these, with her whole system of cruel 
 and vexatious opposition and hindrance to the progress of 
 the Protestant religion, liken her to great Babylon, that 
 ferocious power of old, which destroyed the people of God un- 
 der the Jewish dispensation, and whose memories of despotic 
 oppression remain, and give name and distinction to the 
 acts of cruelty and blood perpetrated upon Christians by a 
 Christian Church. 
 
 The last title is, the Mother of harlots and abominations of 
 the earth. Amongst this progeny of the woman may be seen 
 the secret and open infidelity and atheism with wliich Eu- 
 rope, and particularly France, has been corrupted. The 
 desecration and total disregard of the Sabbath, and the train 
 of vices and immoralities to which the contempt of that sa- 
 
88 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 cred institution leads, are the prevailing habits of the people 
 in all countries which lie under the dominion of this woman. 
 Corrupt morals, vitiated religious tastes, debauchery and 
 bhisphemy, are the common and tolerated iiidulgences of this 
 mother of abominations, and illustrate the forcible figure used 
 by the prophet, the. inhahitants of the earth have been made 
 drwnk with the wine of her fornication. 
 
 It is strange that Protestant divines should claim descent 
 from this woman. If any such connection does exist, it would 
 be more discreet to conceal it than to boast of it. 
 
 The prophet closes his description with saying : And I saw 
 the icoman drunken with the Mood of the saints and with the 
 blood of the martyrs of Jesus ; and when I saw her I wondered 
 with great admiration. 
 
 In this remarkable picture the prophet describes a particu- 
 lar period in the civil and ecclesiastical history of Europe. I 
 shall now proceed to show when that period existed. 
 
 We cannot go further back for its origin than the four- 
 teenth century. It was in 1356 when the empire assumed the 
 peculiar form of the seven-headed beast. It was then that the 
 number of electors was fixed by the " Golden Bull," at seven. 
 
 These electors, by their vote, conferred the empire — their 
 voice elected the emperor. The ten horns, or the ten sovereign- 
 ties, existed as so many portions of the empire long before 
 the institution of the seven electorates. This was the politi- 
 cal constitution of the German empire in the time of the 
 Reformation. 
 
 We will now look at the ecclesiastical history of these 
 times, as referred to in the character of the woman who was 
 seated on the scarlet-colored beast, or the Papal Church 
 acting upon and directing the powers of the empire. 
 
 The persecutions with which the dragon attempted to de- 
 stroy the first symptoms of the Ileformation, as heard in the 
 cry of tlic souls the prophet saw under tiie altar, when the 
 fifth seal was opened, began at an earlier date. The sword of 
 persecution in France had slain these earliest reformers, and 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 89 
 
 the Inquisition followed to gather up all that had escaped 
 the sword. Its profoundly secret movements — its thousand 
 spies and informers, made it almost impossible for any one 
 to speak a word against the errors and corruptions of the 
 llomish Church without being brought under its tortures. 
 
 But when the Keformation proper, lifted up its voice in 
 Germany, then the fury of the woman was seen, in the efforts 
 of cruelty which she was constantly making to extinguish its 
 light and arrest its progress. 
 
 In view of the general character of the persecutions 
 against Protestants by Popery, the prophet says : And I saw 
 the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the 
 martyrs of Jesus. 
 
 The prophet, I think, is referring, when he speaks of the 
 w^oman being drunk, to the suicidal madness and stupidity 
 with which this persecution was conducted. Men who 
 attempt to commit any acts of violence against others, while 
 in a state of drunkenness, often inflict greater injury upon 
 themselves than upon those they assail. In their senseless 
 fury, they do themselves greater injury than those they de- 
 siiirn to harm. Let us take France as an illustration. Xo 
 part of the population of France was more orderly, peaceable 
 and useful to the nation, than the Albigenses and the Wal- 
 denses, and yet, these were the very people who, by the di- 
 rection of the woman, were hunted down and destroyed like 
 wild beasts. The massacre of the St. Bartholomew swept off 
 thousands of the most patriotic, noble and distinguished of 
 her citizens — the very chivalry of the country ; and, finally, 
 the banishment of the Huguenots, under Louis XIV., de- 
 prived his kingdom of the most ingenious, industrious and 
 orderly portion of his subjects, who, carrying with them their 
 invaluable skill and industry into other countries, became the 
 means of raising up rival interests to France, who, previous 
 to this act of perfidy and cruelty, had enjoyed the exclusive 
 benefit of their skill and industry in the particular kind of 
 manufactures in which they excelled, as well as the example 
 
90 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 of their upright and religious deportment. But, they were 
 Protestants ! and were, therefore, proper subjects for the 
 persecuting and destroying policy of the woman, no matter 
 at what costs to the national interests. Such acts of folly 
 and madness are resembled by the prophet to the effects of 
 drunkenness. 
 
 The authority of the Church of Rome was upheld in Eu- 
 rope chiefly by the military power of the German empire; and 
 many of the desolating wars in which the empire was fre- 
 quently engaged, were for the maintenance of her power 
 over those kingdoms and countries which had partially or 
 entirely embraced the Protestant cause. Although the em- 
 pire was the strong arm of her defence, and the principal 
 seat of her strength, there were separate kingdoms which 
 gave her the support of the sword. Amongst these, France 
 was conspicuous ; and whenever the strife was exclusively 
 for the defence of Popery, "The Great Sword," which was 
 consecrated to that service, in the coronation oath of Char- 
 lemagne, was wielded with tremendous destruction. 
 
 France never used the sword in vindication of the Pro- 
 testant religion. It is true that she joined Sweden in the 
 war between the empire and Gustavus Adolphus, when he 
 took the field to defend the rights of Protestants in Ger- 
 many. But Richelieu avowed his motive to be, not the aid 
 of the Protestants, but by incidentally aiding their side of 
 the struggle, he might be able to effect a higher object, 
 which was to humble the house of Austria. 
 
 The complete body and form of this vision we may con- 
 sider as having had a full development in that period of Eu- 
 ropean history which began with the reign of Charles V. of 
 Germany, and ended when Buonaparte exploded the German 
 empire, and used its materials in the construction of the 
 French emj)ire ; which, for military power and splendor, 
 (•oinl)ined witli imperial grandeur and magnificence, never 
 had an equal in the world 1 
 
 But the woman did not sit upon this beast. Napoleon 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 91 
 
 never employed his sword in propagating or ujiholding eccle- 
 siastical power. He had no religious wars. The thunder of 
 the Vatican, which shook the thrones of Europe, was struck 
 dumb in his presence, and Popery, in its political form, 
 shared the same fate that was experienced by the other 
 powers, from his bold and triumphant strides over continental 
 Europe. 
 
 In concluding this vision of the w^oman, the prophet says : 
 And when I saw her I wondered with great admiration. And 
 well he might wonder and be astonished, when he recollected 
 what this woman was in her infancy. He well remembered 
 the zeal of Paul, and Peter, and James, and many others 
 with w^hom he was associated in the holy labor of building 
 up the church upon the true gospel foundation. He called 
 to mind her vigorous growth, her piety and godly bearing 
 before men ; how she rebuked the worldly-minded, and in- 
 structed and comforted all who came to her light. When he 
 reverted to the holy exhortations and affectionate counsels 
 which he addressed to her in her youthful state — 71% little chil- 
 dren, these things write I unto you, that yc sin not ; and in her more 
 advanced age, when she became the mother of children in the 
 various parts of the Roman Empire, he addressed her, in the 
 language of his Second Epistle, the elder unto the elect lady 
 and her children, whom I love in the truth, — when all those 
 scenes of the early purity and loveliness of the woman came 
 fresh upon his mind, and he contrasted them with her condi- 
 tion now presented to him by the angel — when, instead of 
 the chaste and lovely elect lady whom he loved in the truth, 
 he now beheld her a fallen, profligate woman, absorlied in 
 worldly aggrandizement, and shedding the blood of the saints 
 and martyrs of Jesus, he might well be overwhelmed with 
 astonishment and wonder. 
 
 The angel next proceeds to give explanations on the politi- 
 cal character of the governments of Europe as they were 
 connected with the history of the woman in executing her 
 
92 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 vengeance upon her opposers, and finally in overthrowing the 
 woman herself. 
 
 lie first refers to the political change which had passed 
 upon the beast that the prophet saw arise out of the sea. The 
 historical sketch which the angel gives reaches from the days 
 of Charlemagne, when he established his great empire over 
 Europe, down to the overthrow of the Napoleon dynasty in 
 1816. 
 
 I shall notice this sketch very briefly, as much of it as has 
 been referred to in the remarks upon previous chapters. 
 
 The principal object of these explanations seems to be to 
 fix in the minds of men the truthfulness of these prophecies, 
 and thereby establish the authenticity of the Christian Scrip- 
 tures ; for in this Book of Revelation we are told that pro- 
 phecy is, in all ages of the church, to be regarded as t/ie testi- 
 mony of Jesus. 
 
 7. And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel 1 
 I trill fell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that 
 carricth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns. 
 
 8. The beast that thou sawest was, and is not ; and shall as- 
 cerid out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition : and they 
 that dwell on the earth shall wonder (whose names were not writ- 
 ten in the book of life from the foundation of the world) when 
 they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is. 
 
 9. And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads 
 are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth. 
 
 10. And there are seven kings : five are fallen, and one is, and 
 the other is not yet come ; and ivhen he cometh, he must continue 
 a short space. 
 
 11. And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, 
 and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition. 
 
 12. And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which 
 have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings 
 one hour with the beast. 
 
 13. These have one. mind, and shall give their power and 
 strength unto the beast. 
 
CHAPTER XYir. 93 
 
 14. These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall 
 overcome them : for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings ; 
 and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful. 
 
 15. And he said unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where 
 the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and 
 tongues. 
 
 16. And the ten horns ichich thou sawest upon the beast, these 
 shall hate the whore, and shall 'make her desolate and naked, and 
 shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. 
 
 It. For God hath put in their hearts to fulfill his will, and 
 to agree, and give their kingdoms unto the beast, until the ivords 
 of God shall be fulfilled. 
 
 18. And the icoman which thou sawest is that great city, 
 which reigneth over the kings of the earth. 
 
 The first thing the angel tells the prophet, by way of ex- 
 planation, is, that the beast which he saw was, and is not ; 
 does not noiv exist in the political character which it bore 
 when he saw it rise out of the sea. But it will appear again 
 in that same character, and it shall ascend out of the bottom- 
 less pit. Here is the past, the present, and the future. The 
 vision of the woman seated upon the scarlet-colored beast, 
 we learn from this explanation, referred to a period subse- 
 quent to the reign of the French monarchs over the empire 
 which Charlemagne had established, and precedent to the 
 French Revolution — the bottomless pit, out of which the 
 power arose that restored the beast to his first political char- 
 acter, and put him again under French sovereignty. This is 
 simply a fact in the political history of Europe, having no 
 immediate connection with the church. The empire is con- 
 sidered to have taken its decided Germanic character under 
 Otho the Great in the tenth century, having been previously 
 governed by a French monarch, Charlemagne and his descen- 
 dants. The beast loas a great French monarchy, until it 
 passed to the Germans, then the period existed when the an- 
 gel says, it is not ; and, referring to a time future to the 
 vision then before them, he says it shall be again, and shall 
 
94 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 ascend out of tlie bottomless pit ; so that the German Em- 
 pire was tlie searlet-eolored beast upon which the woman sat, 
 and came in between the first and the last stage of the beast 
 first seen. True, the angel says— and they that dwell on the 
 earth shall wonder, when they behold the beast that was, and is 
 not, and yet is! It would be an egregious error to suppose 
 that the angel meant to say, that the beast was, and was not, 
 did, and did not exist at the same time. In every way and 
 in every sense this would be an utter impossibility. What he 
 means to say is, that they who shall dwell upon the earth 
 when the beast will be again, after he has ascended out of the 
 bottomless pit, will wonder and be astonished at what he will 
 do. 
 
 This second appearance of the beast, or, it may be said, 
 the restoration of the old Charlemagnic Empire, was the 
 French Empire, whose grandeur was created by, and whose 
 power and spirit were the inspirations of, the genius of Napo- 
 leon. 
 
 It can hardly be necessary to say of an historic event of 
 such recent occurrence, that the wonderful achievements ho 
 accomplished in his military triumphs, and the great changes 
 he produced, with electrical celerity, in the politics and gov- 
 ernments of E]urope, struck the world with amazement and 
 awe, and shook Europe, particularly, with a consternation 
 that it had never felt before. 
 
 This consternation is the feeling alluded to by the angel, 
 when he says : And they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, 
 when they behold the beast, that was, and is not, and yet is, 
 again at the head of the most formidable empire the world 
 ever saw. 
 
 But this wonder and consternation, the text says, agitated 
 those whose names were not written in the book of life from 
 the foundation of the world. To such, these scenes were 
 especially alarming. 
 
 13y the term, foundation of the world, the angel means the 
 introduction of the Christian dispensation — the foundation of 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 95 
 
 the gospel economy ! The book of Hfe metaphorically signi- 
 fies the whole body of the Christian doctrine as taught by 
 Christ and his apostles, and having the name written in this 
 book implies an adherance to the doctrines of the gospel of 
 the grace of God. And by those wliose names are not writ- 
 ten in this book of life, are meant the false systems of reli- 
 gion ; a corrupted Christianity, which is of man's own devising, 
 and which he adheres to in opposition to the pure system of 
 Christianity as taught in the word of God. Was not this 
 the religion of Europe, when the beast made his second 
 appearing ? 
 
 These are they who are represented as being struck with 
 wonder, or are seized with fear and dread, when they behold 
 the overthrow and destruction of the old despotic govern- 
 ments. The religious despotism of Europe trembled when 
 it beheld the thrones of despotic power, with which it had 
 been leagued for centuries, falling before the arms of Eu- 
 rope's conqueror. When it saw the whole Germanic empire 
 — the scarlet-colored beast, on which the woman sat in gor- 
 geous array and in supreme authority, prostrated and broken 
 up ; — and still more, when it beheld the patrimony of St. 
 Peter snatched from the hands of pontifical rule, and the 
 Pope himself a captive and prisoner — in the presence of 
 such scenes, the woman must have shuddered with a wonder 
 more pregnant with agony, than the common meaning ascribed 
 to that word, conveys. 
 
 All Europe wondered at the daring exploits of Buonaparte; 
 the world stood amazed at the rapidity with which he un- 
 crowned and humbled the sovereigns of the neighl)oring king- 
 doms. This surprise was- a feeling common to all, and shows 
 that the angel means a stronger and deeper feeling of aston- 
 ishment that is implied by the common use of the word, won- 
 der ; for, he says, that only those were eff'ected with this 
 feeling, whose names were not written in the book of life 
 from the foundation of the world— evidently meaning that 
 system of corrupt religion, whose authority and existence 
 
96 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 depended chiefly upon the stability of those very powers 
 which were near falling by the sword of Napoleon. 
 
 Seeing the bulwarks of despotism giving way upon every 
 hand, Popery might well apprehend that such a general 
 rupture and explosion, would be followed by similar effects 
 upon its own ecclesiastical tyranny ; and that Europe would 
 be thrown open to the free exercise of religious opinion and 
 religious liberty ! This apprehension has been realized to a 
 very great extent, and is distinctly pointed to and illustrated 
 by the angel seen by the prophet, j^yi??^ in the midst of heaven, 
 ha ving the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on 
 the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and 
 people. (Fourteenth chapter.) 
 
 I have only one more point to remark upon in relation to 
 the beast that was, and is not, and yet is. 
 
 In several instances in the progress of this work, we have 
 had occasion to notice the remarkable coincidence between the 
 prophecy and the events to which it referred ; and have been 
 astonished at hearing the announcement of the prophet 
 echoed by the voice of history. Such an instance occurs in 
 the present case. 
 
 Buonaparte published a decree in May, 1808, setting forth 
 his reasons for wresting the ecclesiastical states out of the 
 hands of the Pope. In that decree he refers to Charlemagne 
 in this language: "Whereas, the donation of Charlemagne, 
 our illustrious predecessor," &c. Here is a most remarkable 
 historical fact, going to show that the French empire, created 
 by jNapoleon, was the second state of the beast ; or the re- 
 storation of the empire of Charlemagne, which had been 
 absorljed by the Germanic empire, and then loas not ; it had 
 lost its first peculiarity, its imperial French head ; but now is 
 restored to its original Frenmh sovereignty ! and yet is ; or 
 exists again. 
 
 When Buonaparte speaks of Charlemagne as his illustri- 
 ous predecessor, we are led to ask : where are all those Ger- 
 man emperors, whose renown extended from Otho the Great, 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 97 
 
 of the tenth century, down to Francis II., in whose reign 
 the empire was broken up in 189G ? Buonaparte pays no 
 attention to them, he does not notice one of them : and, as 
 if they were quite unknown to him, he looks over their heads 
 away back to the centuries, when the sovereignty of the em- 
 pire was in tlie French nation, and says : " Charlemagne, 
 '' my illustrious predecessor ! " 
 
 This is but one of the numerous instances in w^hich the 
 history of Napoleon responds, with surprising precision, to 
 the announcements of prophecy. 
 
 Having disposed of the beast that the prophet first saw, 
 whose history is condensed in the small compass of the eighth 
 verse, the angel now resumes the history of the woman, 
 and the beast that carried her ; this is the empire under its 
 Germanic head that he now speaks of, leaving out the eighth 
 verse, wdiich has reference exclusively to the beast in its first 
 and second appearance under its French head. The words 
 of the angel are these : / will tdl tJiee. the mystery of the wo- 
 man a7id of the beast that carrieth her, which hath seven heads 
 and ten horns. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which 
 the woman sitteth. 
 
 This saying of the angel has given rise to the opinion that 
 the woman spoken of was the City of Rome, and that the 
 seven hills upon which Kome was originally built, are referred 
 to under the name of mountains. 
 
 Without entering into any argument to show the utter 
 improbability that such was the meaning of the angel, I shall 
 just say that the Apocalypse has nothing to do with cities, as 
 mere habitations of men ; its aims are of a higher and much 
 more important kind. It treats of the great principles of 
 nations ; and points them out by their acts, and the moral 
 and political effects which those acts produce upon the world. 
 Such a purpose would be greatly departed from, if it were to 
 stoop so low as to occupy itself with the mounds of earth 
 upon which some city was accidentally built. 
 
 Another opinion is expressed by a learned commentator, 
 
 VOL. II. — 5 
 
9g THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 Doctor Adam Clarke, with much greater show of probability, 
 but still not more correct than the former. The Doctor, 
 after an elaborate argument, comes to the conclusion that 
 the seven mountains, are the seven electorates of the empire, 
 and as the high dignity of electing the emperor rested upon 
 them, he considers mountains as being a most appropriate 
 metaphorical description of those electorates. His argument, 
 however, tangles itself, and throws his whole theory into 
 confusion. 
 
 In correcting the Doctor's opinion, it is proper to remark 
 that, in no instance is it said the woman sat upon the heads 
 of the beast. Slie is uniformly represented as sitting ujpon 
 the beast, not upon its heads. But does not the angel say, 
 that the seven heads are seven mountains, uponwkich the woman 
 siltdh ? Whatever the angel says, is true ; but do we take 
 his meaning correctly when we interpret him in such a way 
 as to involve an utter impossibility ? Can the subjects 
 alluded to by the angel, upon any correct principles of figur- 
 ative or metaphorical speech, be the heads of the beast, and 
 at tlie same time be mountains too ? The heads of the beast 
 are of themselves a figurative representation of certain poli- 
 tical powers ; and it would be a singular and most awkward 
 sort of communication to employ an object in a figurative 
 Avay, and then take up a second object and use it figuratively 
 to illustrate the first figure or metaphor. Such a compound 
 mode of metaphorizing would be a departure from the digni- 
 ty and style of the proplietic writings. These mountains 
 must have some other reference — they must designate some 
 other power connected with the interests of the woman. 
 
 The woman sitting upon the beast expresses the great 
 power the church exercised over the empire ; but when she 
 sits upon the seven mountains, she is then represented in her 
 ecclesiastical cliaracter, only, and not interfering at all with 
 the j)oUtical powers of the kingdoms of the earth. 
 
 It should be borne in mind, that the angel is now describ- 
 ing Ijoth the woman, which represents the church, and the 
 
CHAPTER XVIT. 99 
 
 beast which represents the empire ; and the first subject of 
 explanation is the remarkable coincidence, or resemblance 
 between the two, in the peculiar mode of appointinjz: their 
 respective heads. It is not necessary to reiterate the manner 
 of electing the imperial head of the empire — this was done by 
 the electoral college, or the seven heads of the beast. And 
 when the angel says the seven heads are seven mountains on 
 which the woman sitteth, he means to inform us that, cor- 
 responding with this depository of the power to select the 
 imperial bead of the empire, there is, in the ecclesiastical 
 constitution of the church, a similar power, precisely the same 
 in number, and invested with the high prerogative of select- 
 ing and nominating the supreme head of the church. 
 
 "Mountains are the standing metaphor of those interests 
 which belong exclusively to the church, when she is treated 
 of in her abstract character ; and they are rarely employed 
 in relation to anything else, except where they are used to 
 heighten the grandeur and increase the sublimity of those 
 scenes in prophetic description, which shake the earth with 
 storms of divine wrath. The institutions alluded to by the 
 seven mountains are described by Gibbon. I will just give 
 his own account of them and then proceed to remark upon 
 the peculiar phraseology of the angel, when he compares the 
 mountains with the seven heads. 
 
 " In the Christian aristocracy," says Gibbon, " the princi- 
 " pal members of the clergy still formed a senate to assist 
 " the administration, and to supply the vacancy of the 
 " bishop. Rome was divided into twenty-eight parishes, 
 " and each parish was governed by a cardinal-priest or presby- 
 " ter. Their number was enlarged by the association of 
 " tlie seven deacons of the most consideral)le hosi)itals — 
 " the seven Palatine Judges of the Lateran, and some dig- 
 " nitaries of the church. The ecclesiastical senate was 
 " dh-ected hy the seven Cardinal Bishops of the Boman province. 
 " Their respective dioceses were : Ostia, Porto, Yelitra3, 
 " Tuscalum, Brseneste, Tibur, and the Sabines. On the 
 
100 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 " deatli of the Pope, these bishops recommended a successor to 
 " the suffrage of the College of Cardinals.^'' 
 
 These seven dioceses were the seven mountains spoken of 
 bv the anu'cl. The woman sat on these, inasmuch as each 
 successive head of the church was originated by them, and 
 they rescmhled, in this respect, the seven heads of the beast — 
 the seven electorates, whose voice gave the imperial head to 
 the empire. 
 
 The angel says the seven heads are seven mountains, on 
 which the woman sitteth ; but, as before remarked, these 
 could not be both heads and mountains at the same time. 
 AVe are, therefore, under the necessity of supposing that the 
 angel is making a comparison, and means that the seven heads 
 of the beast resemble the seven mountains ; or, to speak 
 without the use of the figure, the seven electors who appoint 
 the emperor correspond with the seven bishops by whom the 
 Pope is nominated to the ecclesiastical senate. 
 
 The saying of the angel, that the seven heads are seven 
 mountains, is the constant mode used by scripture-writers 
 when they speak of the resemblance of one thing to another. 
 The Scriptures do not say of a thing that it resembles or re- 
 presents another thing ; but its language is almost uniformly 
 of a positive character : thus, I am the vine, ye are the 
 branches ; I am the Shepherd, ye are the sheep. 
 
 The explanation given by Joseph of Pharaoh's dream, is a 
 striking instance of this peculiar manner of speaking. And 
 Joseph said unto Pharaoh, the seven good kine are seven years ; 
 and the seven good ears are seven years. And the seven thin and 
 ill-favored kine that came up after them are seven years ; and the 
 seven empty ears, Hasted with the east wind, shall be seven years 
 of famine. 
 
 These examples are sufficient to show that the angel, in 
 this instance of the heads and the mountains, was instituting 
 a com|)arison ])etween the two, merely as a remarkable coin- 
 cidence in the manner of appointing the respective heads of 
 the two greatest powers of Europe in that day, the emperor 
 
CHAPTER XVri. 101 
 
 iind tlie Pope ; and thus, also, the surprising exactness witli 
 v.hicli prophecy delineates the events of the world a thousand 
 years and more before they transpire. 
 
 The angel next proceeds to explain the political character 
 of the beast. Beginning at the tenth verse, he says. And 
 there are seven liwgs. 
 
 That the angel is not speaking of individual sovereigns is 
 quite obvious, for it is impossible that this empire could have 
 been ruled by seven monarchs at one time ; and it is quite as 
 certain that the explanation would have no meaning in it if 
 we attempt to apply it to the number of emperors who had 
 reigned previous to the period of the vision ; for the number 
 is far greater than that named by the angel. 
 
 The meaning of the angel can be nothing else than this : 
 that within the German Empire were comprised seven prin- 
 cipal kingdoms or powers, all ambitious of the honor of fur- 
 nishing the imperial head of the empire. These were, proba- 
 bly, France, Spain, Austria, Hungary, Bohemia, Poland, 
 and Prussia. Although Austria and Prussia were later 
 than the others in assuming the full form of kingdoms, 
 nevertheless they were, in their earlier state of dukedoms, 
 in a position to contend Avith the other kingdoms for the 
 honor of furnishing the imperial head, just as much as they 
 were when at a subsequent period they enlarged their 
 political power, and took the title of kingdoms. The 
 angel is predicting the history of the empire as well as 
 describing its political character, and he announces that this 
 struggle for the imperial honor will end in the triumph of ove 
 of those kingdoms over all the rest in fixing the succession of 
 the emperors within itself. This prediction was literally ful- 
 filled by the imperial dignity becoming hereditary in the 
 House of Austria. Frederick III. of Austria was elected 
 emperor in 1439 ; and since that period, says the historian, 
 the imperial dignity has been hereditary in the House of Aus- 
 tria. 
 
 Of these seven kings, the angel says five are fallen ; and 
 
102 TIIF: ATOCALYrSE UNVEILED. 
 
 one is, and the other is not yet come. The five kingdoms re- 
 presented as fallen, were fallen only so far as the right to 
 furnish the head of the empire is concerned. They never after 
 tliat period furnished the imperial head of the empire ; that 
 honor was enjoyed entirely by the House of Hapsburgh or 
 Austria. And it was this kingdom of Austria the angel re- 
 fers to when he says, and one is — that is, one of the seven. 
 The sixth now exercises imperial authority, and will continue 
 to do so — the first five having fallen — until the other, the 
 seventh, shall come. This seventh king was France ; and it 
 is said, when he cometh he must continue a short space. But 
 what he did is stated in the eleventh verse : And the least 
 that icas, and is 7iot, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, 
 and goeth into perdition. 
 
 This is France in the character of the beast, referred to in 
 the eighth verse, Avhere it is said he should ascend out of the 
 bottomless pit, and go into perdition. 
 
 The bottomless pit infallibly connects France with the 
 power spoken of. It was from the pit of her revolution — 
 from that abyss of blood and anarchy, that the beast made 
 his second appearance as an eighth power. 
 
 This two-fold numerical feature of the last kingdom is very 
 remarkable, and adds another surprising instance of the pre- 
 cision with wliicii the finger of prophecy points to the most 
 minute events in the history of the world's future. 
 
 The explanation of the seventh king, which also became 
 an eighth power, is this : France, that is, the old French na- 
 tion, was one of the seven kings or kingdoms. She was not 
 amongst the five kings who had fallen, but was the last one 
 which Iiad not then come. 
 
 After her revolution this seventh power assumed imperial 
 dominion, entirely absorbing the whole Germanic empire, 
 and establishing a new and far more splendid and powerful 
 one ui)on its ruins. This was a new form of power, coming 
 out of the old French kingdom ; it was the seventh kingdom, 
 rising into imperial grandeur and magnificence ; in which it 
 
CHAPTER XYII. 103 
 
 so far surpassed the old kingdom of France, that it was dis- 
 tinguished by the angel with a se})arate and distinct numer- 
 ical feature above and beyond all others. It was of the seven, 
 but became an eighth power ; it was the old kingdom of 
 France, rising to an empire of splendor and renown. 
 
 The angel says, of this eighth power : A.nd when he comelh 
 he must continue a short space. How true are all the sayings 
 of this wonderful prophecy I 
 
 When Buonaparte had established himself, and restored 
 the nation to order, after the storm of the revolution, he saw 
 the German empire in the hands of Francis II. of the house 
 of Austria. In 1806 he took it out of the hands of the 
 Austrian ; corrected its awkward deformities, and blending 
 it with the other kingdoms of Europe, he raised, before the 
 gaze of the astonished world, the French empire, unrivalled 
 in power, and unequalled in grandeur. 
 
 From whatever point the eye of the politician looked upon 
 this great empire, he saw in it invincible power, and unlim- 
 ited duration. But the voice of prophecy had declared, 
 seventeen centuries before this empire existed, that it should 
 continue but a short space ; and, in less than ten years from 
 the period of its origin, this vast creation of human genius — 
 the greatest combination of civil and military power the 
 world ever saw, was conquered and taken to pieces, and the 
 kingdoms and powers which formed its majestic structure, 
 again resumed their separate national identity and existence. 
 As if to show the nations of the earth that their mightiest 
 monarchies are but chaff when God blows upon them, this 
 formidable empire sunk and disappeared from the gaze of 
 the world, as entirely as its great head did, when he was ban- 
 ished to the lonely island of St. Helena. 
 
 Thus the empire which arose with Charlemagne, and con- 
 tinued to over-ride Europe under its German form, until, sud- 
 denly as it were, in the beginning of the nineteenth century, 
 it burst upon the world again with astonishing magnili- 
 cence, under the authority of France, the same nation that 
 
104 THE APOCALYPSE UNYEILED. 
 
 originated it a thousand years before, now comes to an 
 irreparable end ; as the angel says — goes into perdition — 
 meets its final overthrow. There has been no such empire 
 in Europe — no such formidable array of military power, as 
 this French empire, since its overthrow ; nor will there ever 
 be again, while the truth of Christian prophecy remains — 
 which consigned this empire to perdition. 
 
 The angel continues his explanations. In the 12th verse, 
 be says : And the ten horns ichich thou saicesf are ten kings, 
 which have no kingdom as yet ; hut receive power as kings one 
 hour icith the least. 
 
 This part of the explanation takes us back to the early 
 days of the scarlet-colored beast, when all the kingdoms of 
 Europe were pretty much under the dominion of the woman 
 who sat upon the beast. These ten horns were so many 
 sovereignties not under the same relation to the empire 
 as the seven heads were ; they received power as kings one 
 hour with the beast ; that is, they exercised a power inde- 
 pendent of the emperor — moved in a circle exclusively their 
 own ; but still, as tlie 13th verse says : these have one mind ; 
 and shall give their power and strength unto the beast. 14th 
 verse : these shall make tear with the Lamb and the Lamb shall 
 overcome them, ^-c. This explains what is meant by having 
 one mind, and giving their power and strength unto the beast 
 — they united their power with the imperial power in oppos- 
 ing the Reformation — in making war with the Lamb. 
 
 But in the progress of the Reformation, these powers, or 
 horns, became converted from the Romish to the Protestant 
 religion, and, as the angel says, in the 16th verse, they turned 
 their hostility against the woman ; tliey are represented in 
 the strong figurative language of the prophecy, as hating 
 the woman and making her desolate and naked, and as eating 
 her flesh, and burning her with fire ; expressions which 
 imi)ly a strong and unwavering purpose to subdue and 
 annihilate the object or thing which has produced the 
 hostility. The costly and magnificent drapery with which 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 105 
 
 the woman is adorned will be torn off; her supporters 
 and admirers will forsake her ; she will be left desolate and 
 naked ; tlie powers that have n[)held her will turn from her, 
 and she will thus be reduced to a condition of heli)les3 
 wretchedness. Eating her flesh, is that figurative expression 
 of a dead carcase thrown out for the fowls of the air to 
 feed upon ; a thing not only worthless, as having no vitality 
 in it, but also disgusting and offensive : a dead carcase given 
 to birds and beasts of prey. 
 
 Burning her with fire signifies the particular means by 
 which this desolation of the woman will be chiefly brought 
 about — wars and revolutions. Her strong fortresses of politi- 
 cal power will be fired ; the despotic governments of Europe 
 that constitute her defence will ))e overthrown by the progress 
 of enlightened and liberal principles. Every fresh revolution, 
 having for its object the rights and liberties of the people, 
 will serve to burn away the props which uphold ecclesiastical 
 as well as civil despotism. 
 
 These reverses began sensibly to shake the dominion of the 
 woman, even in the reign of Charles Y. During his reign, 
 half of Germany, as well as much of the population of the 
 countries on the continent, together with England and Scot- 
 land, began to assail the errors and expose the corruptions 
 of the Church of Rome. The powerful arguments and ap- 
 peals of the reformers uncovered the deformities of the wo- 
 man, and exposed her nakedness to the world. The French 
 Revolution and its subsequent events carried the assaults upon 
 her still further, and began to eat her flesh ; while the pre- 
 sent age is ever and anon, by the outburst of revolutionary 
 struggles, giving signs of the burning which is finally to con- 
 sume the whole system by the overthrow of all despotic gov- 
 ernments. The aim and ultimate purpose of Christianity, in 
 what it is to accomplish even in the present world, demands 
 the entire freedom of the human mind. Every shackle, 
 whether civil or religious, that binds down the mind of man to 
 
 VOL. II. — 5* 
 
106 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 a state below its proper destiny, will inevitably be torn 
 away. 
 
 There are two explanations made by the angel yet to be 
 noticed. 
 
 In the first verse of this chapter he calls the attention of 
 the prophet to the woman sitting upon many waters ; and in 
 the fifteenth verse he informs him that these waters represent 
 peoples and multitudes, and nations and tongues. And 
 finally, in the concluding verse of the chapter, the angel de- 
 clares that the woman is that great city which reigneth over 
 the kings of the earth. No one can be at a loss to know what 
 church is here meant. The city and the woman are mere 
 symbols, the thing meant is a church. And the church that 
 has reigned over the kings of the earth, and extended her 
 power over peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues, 
 is the woman of the seventeenth chapter of the Apocalypse. 
 
 The c>})lauations of the angel close with this chapter, and 
 the prophet resumes the narrative of his visions. 
 
 In the succeeding chapter we shall be entertained with a 
 very vivid picture of the actual effects, which were foretold 
 by the angel, as the consequence of the converson of the ten 
 horns. In short, we shall see the wonderful changes which 
 have taken place in the civil and religious world since the in- 
 fluence of the Reformation has pervaded Europe, down to 
 the present time, and what yet remains to be accomplished 
 in its future history. 
 
CHAPTER XYIIL 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF THE ART OF PRINTING, AND THE DOWNFALL OF 
 BABYLON. 
 
 The preceding chapter presents a striking picture of the 
 control which the church exercised over the kingdoms of Eu- 
 rope at the commencement of the Reformation, and the per- 
 secutions and bloodshed that tried the faith and destroyed 
 the lives of multitudes of those who had renounced her doc- 
 trines, after the light of that event had imparted the true 
 knowledge of Christianity. 
 
 This power of the church grew out of the practice of the 
 emperors — first the French, and afterwards the German — of 
 receiving their crowns from the Pope. 
 
 This was at first a mere ceremony, condescended to as 
 complimentary of the Pope ; but the practice, by usage, at 
 length acquired the force of law, and the kings and emperors 
 who did not acknowledge the paramount authority of the 
 Pope, were made to hear and to feel the thunders of the 
 Vatican. 
 
 When kings bowed before this authority, what else could 
 their subjects do but render like homage to it, and honestly 
 believe, too, that all power, whether of a heavenly or earthly 
 nature, must be in the hands of the Pope. 
 
 This was the moral night of the world, and so it would 
 have remained, waxing darker and darker to this day, if its 
 gloom had not been penetrated by the light of the Reforma- 
 tion and the poweiM)f the press. 
 
 The preaching alone of Luther and Zuinglius and their 
 fellow-laborers, would have effected l)ut little in the way of pull- 
 
108 TTIE APOCALYPSE UNYEILED. 
 
 ing down the tlirones of error and superstition, if their efforts 
 liad not been assisted by the art of printing. The press be- 
 came the great engine of spreading light amongst the people. 
 
 Tile discovery of the art of printing preceded the rise of 
 the Reformation, as it was proper it should do. Before it 
 could be fully prepared for the great work it had to do, it 
 had to undergo many changes and improvements ; it had to 
 construct its presses, prepare and perfect its types, and ac- 
 quire a facility in using them, so as to secure despatch and 
 accuracy. The labor of improving this wonderful engine of 
 si)reading knowledge was going on for nearly half a century 
 before the Reformation took the stand which required its ac- 
 tive assistance. 
 
 Luther had only disturbed the slumbers of the Witten- 
 bcrgers, to whom he first denounced the errors of his own 
 church, and preached a better gospel than Rome promul- 
 gated. But the time soon after arrived when the long and 
 deep sleep of the world was to be broken. The voice of the 
 gospel was heard, in the language of one of old, crying to the 
 people, awake thou that steepest, and Christ shall give thee light. 
 The doctrines of the Reformation were spread amongst the 
 people, by means of printing, to an extent that they never 
 could have been without its co-operation. These two instru- 
 mentalities of publishing to the world the true religion, in 
 their harmonious action have produced the great light re- 
 ferred to in the text : A^id the earth was lightened with his 
 glory. 
 
 This glory comprehends more than spreading a pure Chris- 
 tianity, although this is its greatest excellency. But the arts 
 and sciences also have risen to a perfection and permanency 
 which they probably never would have attained without the 
 power of this angel. The fact is plain before the eyes of the 
 world, tliat the arts and sciences, as well as government, and 
 whatever tends to improve the condition of man and propiote 
 liis happiness, are in a state of improvement and perfection 
 in those countries where a free press and a free religion ex- 
 
CHAPTER XYIII. 109 
 
 ist, to -a degree greatly in advance of those countries where 
 the freedom of both is restrained. 
 
 These typos, small and insignificant as they appear to be, 
 are the most powerful agents in the world in overthrowing 
 kingdoms and empires. They are more dreaded by the des- 
 pots of the earth than gunpowder and cannon-balls ever 
 were. 
 
 The angel, described by the prophet in this chapter, is the 
 art of 'printing, in the full, free, and unrestrained exercise of 
 its powers. 
 
 1. And after these things I saw another angel come down 
 from heaven, having great power ; and the earth was lightened 
 with his glory. 
 
 2. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon 
 the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of de- 
 vils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every un- 
 cJeaii and foul bird. 
 
 3. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her 
 fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornica- 
 tion ivith her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich 
 through the abundance of her delicacies. 
 
 We are not to suppose that the prophet confined himself 
 to the order of events, as they occurred at successive periods 
 of time, when he says : And after these things I saw another 
 angel, S^-c, as if that which he now speaks of had not existed 
 until all the events previously noticed had transpired. 
 
 When he says, after these things, he means after these reve- 
 lations there was another revelation made to me, in which I 
 saw another angel come down from heaven. lie could not 
 tell everything at once, even if we suppose that the world's 
 whole future had been thrown open to his view^ at one time. 
 He has just finished, or rather the angel has just concluded 
 his explanation of the great civil and ecclesiastical power of 
 Europe in combination, and traced them down to their over- 
 throw and extinction ; and he now^ gives us, in the vision of 
 this chapter, the agencies which have been chiefly instrumen- 
 
110 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 tal in producing their overthrow, which was the angel that 
 he now speaks of. 
 
 The Apocalypse, now freed from the particular line, or 
 succession of events, which had previously controlled its vis- 
 ions, opens to the view of the prophet in a promiscuous way, 
 several important events which have aided in producing the 
 great changes in civil and religious governments, noticed in 
 the preceding chapter. 
 
 The angel cannot be said to symbolize the Reformation ; 
 for the Reformation was nothing more than the revival or 
 reapi^earance of what had been well-known to the world 
 long before. 
 
 Christianity was no stranger to the world ; it had lived 
 and prevailed almost fifteen hundred years before this angel 
 made his appearance. It had survived the destruction of 
 the nation that gave it birth, and afterwards conquered the 
 Roman empire in its religion, the very power which had de- 
 stroyed the nation from which Christianity sprung. 
 
 But the art of printing was a new thing in the world. It 
 had never been known to men before the fifteenth century. 
 It came just at the time its services were needed. It came 
 just when Christianity recommenced its great struggle with 
 the powers of the world, and the darkness that covered the 
 minds of the people. This was the torch which Christianity 
 seized, and by its light illumined the dark places of the earth; 
 and, to use a figure familiar to us all in the present day — the 
 art of printing is the great steam-engine upon which Christi- 
 anity over-rides and prostrates the institutions of superstition 
 and despotism. 
 
 And the earth was lightened with his glory. The power of 
 printing has forced the light of civilization, and improved 
 man's political and religious condition, even to the ends of 
 the earth. 
 
 The proper liberty of man does not depend so nmch upon 
 any j)articular form of government, as upon the principles of 
 liis government. Safe and permanent liberty is based upon 
 
CHAPTER XYIII. m 
 
 the revealed word of God ; and whatever nation takes this 
 for the model of its government, and conforms its laws with 
 this revealed will, cannot fail to enjoy that liberty which is 
 most consistent with the happiness of man. Tliis truth is 
 laid down amongst those axioms by which our Savior de- 
 scribes the true liberty of man : If the Son shall make 
 you free, ye shall be free indeed. This, like most of the great 
 principles of the moral government of God, is alike applica- 
 ble to nations and individuals. 
 
 This angel introduces the era of a great conflict — the 
 powers of truth with the powers of error. Christendom was 
 then under the dominion of a false and superstitious religion. 
 Man was under the worst kind of bondage. His mind was 
 imprisoned by a religious system which opposed light, and 
 maintained itself by cruelty instead of revelation. 
 
 The angel introduces an antagonistic power — the power of 
 enlightening men. Between these powers there was of neces- 
 sity a desperate struggle. The result of this struggle is an- 
 nounced at the same time that the cause of it is announced, 
 which, by its gradual operation, is to produce this result — 
 Babylon the great is fallen, fallen ! This great world-wide 
 system of religious oppression is termed Babylon the great, 
 which connects it with the woman of the seventeenth chap- 
 ter, that being one of the distinguishing titles written upon 
 her forehead. This name is derived from the stern and un- 
 relenting dominion over the minds of men, which was the 
 peculiar characteristic of the church of that day ; a shivery 
 infinitely more cruel and debasing than the bondage of tiie 
 body. 
 
 The angel cries with a loiid voice, signifying the vast con- 
 sequences of its triumph — Babylon is fallen; and, as if to 
 make the declaration more emphatic, he repeats — is fallen! 
 
 The blows which Luther, and Zuinglius, and their co- 
 workers in the Reformation, dealt to this gigantic power, 
 and which have been followed up with increasing force and 
 frequency by the power and light of this angel, have caused 
 
112 THE ArOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 it to totter and yield, until this very Babylon, which for 
 merly uttered its voice, and the thrones of P^urope trem- 
 bled, now requires the bayonets of Austria and France to 
 protect its trembling- shadow of power, and to uphold its 
 dying authority, even in Rome itself.* 
 
 The prophet announces this downfall of Babylon as the 
 grand climax of the glory of this angel. But he now pro- 
 ceeds to things more particular : And is become the habitation 
 of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, aiid a cage for every 
 unclean and hatefid bird. 
 
 The meaning of this description of her moral character, is 
 not that she has become thus corrupt and vicious, since this 
 angel came into the world, but that these traits and peculi- 
 arities were only noio made manifest, by the light of the 
 angel. The true character of this spiritual Babylon, now 
 comes to be known throughout the world, by the spreading 
 of the knowledge of gospel truth, by means of the art of 
 printing ; and, for the want of this facility, she had kept 
 her dark depravity concealed from the knowledge of man- 
 kind in all previous ages. 
 
 This much the prophet says, in the 3d verse : for all na- 
 tions, not having the means of fully understanding the cor- 
 ruptions and abominations of the church, have drunk of the 
 icine of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have com- 
 mitted fornication icith her, and the merchants of the earth are 
 waxed sick through the abundance of her delicacies. 
 
 The people were stupified and l)esotted by the vicious 
 teachings of their spiritual guides ; the system infected its 
 votaries with all the depravity peculiar to itself, and the po- 
 litical powers of the earth rendered a blind and inftituated 
 ol)edience to the authority of the Pope. 
 
 The mercliants of the earth, in the twenty-fifth verse, are 
 styled the great men of the earth. This greatness is not po- 
 litical or civil ; neither does it arise from that importance 
 
 * 1851. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 113 
 
 Aviiicli 8ne(xss in trade gives to men ; ])ut it signifies the prc- 
 eiuiiient rank and honor, above all other men, which was 
 conferred upon all who exercised the least figment of antliority 
 in the great Babylonish system. Priests, bisliops, cardinals, 
 and Popes, received the humblest submission and most servile 
 adulation of the people. In this way, the property and the 
 bodies and souls of deluded votaries were at the command of 
 these great men of the earth. They are called merchants figu- 
 ratively, because they traded in the spiritual treasures of the 
 church. They sold indulgences, sold deliverance from purga- 
 tory, and sold heaven itself. It is not surprising that these 
 merchants became rich men as well as great men. Their 
 merchandize became very desirable in the eyes of the people, 
 and no price could be too exorbitant for such inestimable 
 treasures. 
 
 As the Reformation progressed and the light of the true 
 religion spread, better views of Christian duty, and a higher 
 sense of religious propriety, would necessarily obtain amongst 
 men. Almost the first conviction they would experience un- 
 der this superior light would be the danger of continuing a 
 connection with a church that now disclosed such a state of 
 gross immorality as that described in the second verse. Not 
 only must men renounce the false teachings of their former 
 religion, but they must forsake all connection with it. They 
 must not remain where they were, for evil communications 
 corrupt good manners, in a religious as well as in a social 
 state. 
 
 Luther had no intention of separating from the Church of 
 Kome when he first assailed its errors. His object went no 
 further than to correct its errors and reform its doctrines. 
 But this temporising policy would not answer. The old sys- 
 tem was too rotten in all its parts to adtnit of being snccess- 
 fuUy repaired. It could not be patched into strength and 
 usefulness ; it must be abandoned and left to the fate de- 
 nounced against it in the eighth verse, to he utterly burned 
 with fire. 
 
114 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 The religion of the Reformation could not associate with 
 the old system of superstition and corruption ; it required a 
 new system adapted to its purer doctrines and its more holy 
 faith. This is expressed by the voice which the prophet 
 heard in the fourth verse : 
 
 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 
 yc receive not of her plagues : 
 
 5. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath re- 
 membered her iniquities. 
 
 The establishment of the Protestant Church as distinct 
 from the Church of Rome, illustrates this voice and conforms 
 to its requirements. The doctrines and faith of the Protes- 
 tant religion are embodied in this church, and are placed be- 
 fore the world in striking contrast to popery, that all may see 
 the difference. In the one, the world beholds the light and 
 power of gospel truth, while in the other it sees nothing but 
 lifeless ceremonies and blinding superstition. The open and 
 daring impieties of that church, it is said, have reached unto 
 heaven — have towered to such a height and spread to such 
 an extent that all the world may see them ; all people who 
 sincerely desire to know the truth as Christ and his apostles 
 have proclaimed it, will be no longer in any danger of being 
 led astray by the false lights of a corrupt religion. 
 
 The true gospel church being now fully established, and its 
 doctrines generally promulgated by means of the art of print- 
 ing, the line of distinction is clearly drawn between a true 
 and a false Christianity, and the remaining portion of the 
 chapter now under consideration is employed in setting forth 
 the various circumstances which attend the gradual decline 
 and final suppression of the authority, and even the name, of 
 the " Ajiostolic Church." 
 
 6. Beward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her 
 double, according to her loorks : in the cup which she hath filled , 
 Jill to her double. 
 
 7. How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, 
 
CHAPTER XYIII. 115 
 
 so much torment and sorroio give her : for she snith in her hearty 
 I sit a queen, and am no iridow, and shall see no sorrow. 
 
 8. Therefore shall her plagues come in 07ie day, death, and 
 mourning, and famine ; and she shall he utterly burned icith 
 fire : for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her. 
 
 It is manifest from these three verses that alhision is had to 
 period of time when Protestantism is greatly in the ascend- 
 ant, and when she has it in her power to deal as she pleases 
 with the rival religion — her old adversary, who, when in 
 power, practiced upon Protestantism the greatest wrongs 
 and cruelties. 
 
 But we must not suppose that anything revengeful or vin- 
 dictive is inculcated by what seems to be a command to re- 
 taliate upon her the inhumanity of her own former course of 
 treatment towards Protestantism. I rather consider the 
 meaning of these verses to be, that as the political powers 
 that once executed the bigoted and persecuting decrees of 
 popery against Protestantism, cruelly oppressing it, and de- 
 nying it those political advantages which were enjoyed by the 
 subjects of popery, have become converted to the new reli- 
 gion, and, with their religious conversion, their political 
 measures undergo a great change, and, instead of exalting 
 popery, they now depress it ; deny it those privileges which 
 are accorded to Protestantism, and allow it a very restricted 
 participation, if any at all, in the measures of the govern- 
 ment, not admitting it to the councils of the nation ; in 
 short, denying it the exercise of any of those public functions 
 appertaining to the ministration of government. 
 
 Such a course of treatment as this must be humiliating to 
 Popery in the last degree, and torture its pride beyond en- 
 durance : Becatise she hath glorified, herself and lived deliciously, 
 saying in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall 
 see no sorrow. To fall from such a state of exalted pride and 
 eminence, to one of obscurity and contempt, would be indeed 
 doubling to her the cup of shame and oppression, which she 
 filled for Protestantism, in the days of her power and pride. 
 
1 1 6 THE APOCALYPSE UNYEILED. 
 
 The torment and sorrow of such a fall, grow out of the fact 
 tiiat this apostate religion has ever boasted of its supremacy 
 over all earthly powers, sitting upon the scarlet-colored beast 
 and using the great sword of civil power in maintaining its 
 authority over the world. 
 
 As Protestantism was gradual in its rise and progress in 
 the earth. Popery is, likewise, gradual in its decline. Very 
 few great changes in the world's history have been sudden. 
 Providence moves by deliberate steps. 
 
 The declaration that her plagues shall come in one day, 
 (8th verse,) by no means signifies that Babylon is to fall 
 suddenly, but that she will experience the effects of death, 
 and mourning and famine in one day ; that is, three different 
 causes of her declension will operate at the same time, to 
 produce that result. 
 
 The death, may refer to the loss of her temporal power. 
 Not only does she no longer reign over the kings of the earth, 
 but she is unaljle to keep up her authority at home without 
 the sword of foreign powers. 
 
 Mourning would naturally follow the loss of her great 
 authority, which she once exercised over the kings of the 
 eartii, and famine represents the loss of that ailment of her 
 existence, which she once derived in great abundance by the 
 sale of her spiritual merchandise ; but which trade also 
 ceases, as we shall })resently see, at the same time that she 
 is feeling the severe pressure of other plagues ; and, that the 
 destruction may be complete and entire it is added : And she 
 shall he utterly burned with fire ! for strong is the Lord God 
 vho Judgcfh her. The correspondence between this 8th verse 
 and the 16th verse of the preceding chapter, is striking. In 
 the latter it is said, that the ten kings shall make her deso- 
 late and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and shall burn her 
 with fire ; in the 8th verse, it is said : She shall be utterly 
 burned with fire, for strong is the Lord God ivho judgeth her. 
 Every event, therefore, which tends to destroy this Babylon, 
 
cuAPTKR xvirr. 117 
 
 and banish it from Cliristondom, wc may Ijc assured is under 
 the direction of the Providence of God. 
 
 Commentators generally agree in the opinion, that this 
 bui-ning with fire refers to the City of Rome ; and they un- 
 derstand it literally. But, with all deference to their 
 acknowledged wisdom, I must say, I cannot perceive how a 
 false religion is to be overthrown by burning down one city, 
 or a hundred cities. If Rome were burnt dowr., Rome could 
 and would be built up again ; and what would be gained in 
 the way of destroying Popery ? Just nothing at all. 
 
 This burning with fire is a figurative mode of speech, which 
 implies total destruction : as whatever substances fire acts 
 upon are entirely destroyed by it. We shall see the progress 
 of these plagues, and of this burnhig, in the subseqent verses 
 of this chapter. 
 
 9. And the kings of the earth, uho have committed foniimtion 
 and lived ddiciously with her, shall betvnit her, and lament foi' 
 her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning. 
 
 10. Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, 
 Alas ! alas ! that great city Babylon, that mighty city ! for in 
 one hour is thy judgment come. 
 
 These verses instruct us that some of the powers of Europe 
 will tenaciously adhere to the interests of Popery through 
 all its plagues and torments ; and when they can no longer 
 defend her, or effectually assist her cause, they will bewail 
 her misfortunes, and lament over her fall. 
 
 This is altogether a political scene. It is not a religious 
 grief that affects those kings ; their sorrow is selfish and 
 political. 
 
 While the kingdoms and governments of the earth, that 
 are in the Protestant interest, are, by the influence of their 
 enlightened and liberal principles, curtailing the power of 
 Popery — extending the area of freedom — the kingdoms which 
 uphold the dominion of Rome, are exerting themselves to 
 defend and maintain her authority. 
 
 We have seen a recent instance of this in the effort of 
 
J 18 THE APOCALYPSE UNYEILED. 
 
 Rome to throw off the yoke of oppression. The armies of 
 Austria were immediately marched to the support of the 
 Pope, and France, too, with a view to her future policy, 
 threw her legions into Rome, for the same purpose. The 
 political world stood amazed at the course taken by France 
 on that occasion, but now, since the coup d^etat of Louis 
 Napoleon, the whole matter is understood. He never meant 
 to relinquish his rule over the French nation. He cared not 
 by what title he reigned, republican president, or emperor, 
 were both the same to him. When he could no longer rule 
 as President of France, he resolved to be Emperor. And 
 he knew, and so did Austria, that the abject submission of 
 the subjects of the Pope, to his commands, in all countries, 
 was a better guaranty of the preservation of their thrones 
 than the mandates or the sword of the Emperor. 
 
 When the power of the king failed to subdue his refrac- 
 tory subjects, the dreaded anathema of the Pope was all- 
 sufficient for that purpose. Austria, as she is the most des- 
 potic, so she is the most reliable support of Popery now in 
 Europe. But her power must at length fail, and the mu- 
 tual support of each other will cease ; then will the great 
 city begin rapidly to fall, and the crash of her ruin will be 
 heard throughout the nations, and the smoke of her burning 
 will ascend before the eyes of all the world. In this crisis 
 of her calamity, the kings of the earth who have been in 
 league with her, are represented as standing afar off for the 
 fear of her torment, saying, alas, alas! &c. 
 
 Standing afar off, signifies that they were unable to render 
 her any aid ; and they were afraid or alarmed at her tor- 
 ment. They beheld the chief support of their thrones sink- 
 ing under the progress of liberal and enlightened Christianity, 
 and they dreaded the effects which this state of things would 
 produce upon their own subjects. 
 
 The authority of the church kept their subjects in submis- 
 mission more effectually than the sword did, and when they 
 beheld this authority sinking, these kings stood afar off and 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 119 
 
 cried — Alas, alas! that great city Babylon, that mighty city ! 
 for in an hour is thy judgment come. 
 
 The greatness of tins city consisted in tliis, that she reigned 
 over the kings of the earth. She removeth the king from 
 his throne at one time, and at another she dissolved the 
 allegiance of the subjects to their king 
 
 How manifest are the operations of cause and effect, 
 and how clearly marked is the hand of retributive Pro- 
 vidence in this picture of Babylon's downfall. 
 
 This Apocalyptic woman, or, in other words, the original 
 Apostolic Church, lured by the lust of power, abandoned 
 the purity of her primitive character, and threw herself 
 into the arms of the kings of the earth. Filled with pride 
 and ambition from this anti-christian connection, she assumed 
 to be the mistress of the kingdoms of the earth ; she put 
 up and put down whom she would. But the hour of her 
 judgment is come, and she falls, and her fall brings down 
 those kings who courted her favors, and reveled in her 
 pleasures. 
 
 So far the prophet has been pointing to the political 
 effects produced by the fall of this great Babylon ; he now 
 discloses its consequences upon the church itself. 
 
 11. And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over 
 her; for iw man buyeth their merchandize any more: 
 
 12. The merchandize of gold, and silver, and precious stones, 
 and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, 
 and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all 
 manner vessels of precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and 
 marble. 
 
 13. And cinnamon, and odors, and ointments, and franJdn- 
 cense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, 
 and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of 
 men. 
 
 14. And the fruits that thy soul lusted after are. departed 
 from thee, and thou, shall find them no more at all. 
 
 15. The merchants of these things, which were mnde rich by 
 
120 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 her, shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment, weeping and 
 'Wailing, 
 
 16. A7id saying, Alas, alas ! that great city, that was clothed 
 in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and 
 precious stones, and pearls ! 
 
 17. For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And 
 every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and 
 as many as trade by sea, stood afar off, 
 
 18. And cried, when they saw the smoke of her burning, say- 
 ing. What city is like unto this great city ! 
 
 19. And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and 
 wailing, saying, Alas, alas ! that great city wherein were made 
 rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness ! for 
 in one hour is she made desolate. 
 
 Mourning and weeping over the fall of the great city by 
 the merchants of the earth, signify the privations and the 
 poverty which are consequent upon the loss of their trade, 
 for no man buyeth their merchandise any more. 
 
 These merchants have already been described : they are all 
 those who trade in the spiritual advantages of the church, 
 and who live in ease and luxury upon the superstition of her 
 credulous devotees. 
 
 The sale of indulgences, absolution, bones, beads, and 
 scraps of old garments — in short, everything that has been 
 made sacred by the touch or the blessing of the priest, have 
 contributed to enhance the luxury of the sacred order. 
 
 But, Ijesides these, the deliverence from the pains of pur- 
 gatory is another source of immense wealth to the church. 
 AYliat a vivid description of this trade is given in the eleventh 
 and twelfth verses — figuratively, to be sure, but embracing 
 everything that can gratify the appetite of the mind, the de- 
 sire of the heart, and the lust of the affections, of man's fallen 
 and corrupt nature I 
 
 The desire of wealth for the purpose of ostentatious dis- 
 play, or for the gratification of the low and sordid love of 
 riches, was met by the license of the indulgence, which 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 121 
 
 authorized all and every means necessary to the attainment 
 of the thing desired. Whoever purchased an indulgence of the 
 proper grade, as sold by Tetzel and others, giving a suitable 
 price for it, was fully armed with authority to possess himself 
 of riches by any means. In proof of this, this merchant, Tetzel, 
 was himself wa3daid and robbed of the treasure which he had 
 accumulated by the sale of indulgences, by the authority of 
 one of the indulgences which he had sold ! 
 
 The next list of articles which might be purchased from 
 these merchants, imply the gratification of men's tastes for 
 all that is refined or elegant — the most luxurious enjoyments 
 of pomp and pleasure. These are expressed by the costly 
 purple, and silk, and scarlet, and those substances capable of 
 high polish, which are very ornamental. 
 
 Odoriferous woods, and ointments, and rich perfumes, with 
 wine, and oil, and fine flour, are expressive of tlie high de- 
 gree of pride and luxury which was enjoyed by the trafiic with 
 these merchants. The trade descends even. to the coarser 
 articles of human subsistence, wheat, beasts, and sheep. Ev€u 
 these inferior enjoyments came under the laws of the mer- 
 chants, and in some way were taxed, or made conducive to 
 the gains of the church. The list concludes with horses and 
 chariots, and slaves, and souls of men. This last description 
 of things that were sold by these merchants of tlie earth, 
 probably have reference to wars and conquests of whole coun- 
 tries, and the enslaving of their inhabitants. The horse and 
 the chariot are proper emblems of ancient warfare, and 
 slavery became the condition of the captives in those olden 
 times. 
 
 The crusades were commenced and carried on by autliority 
 of these merchants, and heathen countries were conferred by 
 the Pope upon their conquerors. 
 
 The souls of men, can have no other meaning, in connec- 
 tion with this particular exercise of the power of these mer- 
 chants, than the natural life of men ! Even the lives of men 
 were subjects of their trade ; and to what a horrible extent 
 
 VOL. II. — 6 
 
122 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 this part of their trade was carried, may be seen by any who 
 will follow the blood-stained track of the Inquisition ! 
 
 But the progress of the Reformation, with its increasing 
 light and gospel religion, is to put an end to this merchan- 
 dizing. And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn 
 over her ; for no man hiiyeth their merchandise any more! like 
 the kings, they stand afar off, for the fear of her torment, 
 making dolorous lamentations, weeping and wailing, saying — 
 alas, alas ! that great city, that was clothed in fine linen, 
 and purple and scarlet, and decked with gold and precious 
 stones, and pearls I This description of the great city is 
 identical with the woman that sat upon the scarlet-colored 
 beast. They are both synii)ols, and both refer to the Church 
 of Rome. 
 
 This chapter, or that part of it now under consideration, 
 furnishes a striking illustration of him that sat upon the 
 black horse, with the balances in his hand, showing off the 
 church in her avaricious spirit of merchandising. And it 
 likewise fulfills the prediction of St. Paul, when he warned 
 the church that she would apostatize, and that her leaders 
 would convert her into a great bazaar — would make merchan- 
 dise out of her. 
 
 But, in proper time, by the unerring hand of Providence, 
 these great riches will be brought to naught. Yerse 17 : — 
 And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, 
 and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off, and gave similar 
 signs of grief saying, Alas, alas! that great city, wherein were 
 made rich all that had ships in the sea, by reason of her costli- 
 ness ; for in one hour is she made desolate. 
 
 Neither ships, nor the sea, literally, are intended, but are 
 used here figuratively, to signify the great extent of this 
 city, or the universality of this religion, which, like the sea, 
 extends to all the continents, and embraces all the islands. 
 Ships and sailors are used to complete the figure, and they 
 imply the established agencies and ecclesiastic orders in dis- 
 tant and different countries, by which the whole, wide-ex- 
 
CHAPTER XVIIL . X23 
 
 tended system is bound together in one church, under one 
 supreme head — the Pope. 
 
 But, notwithstanding the great extent of this great city, 
 in one hour she is made desolate I meaning not in one coun- 
 try, only, but everywhere throughout her vast dominion, she 
 will fall and become desolate. 
 
 A most vivid picture of the desolate condition of the city 
 is presented to us in the remaining verses of the chapter : 
 
 20. Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and 
 jprophets ; for God hath avenged you on her. 
 
 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 he throion dow7i, and shall he found no more 
 at all. 
 
 22. And the voice of harpers, and ihusicians, and of pipers, 
 and trumpeters, shall he heard no more at all in thee ; and no 
 craftsman, of whatsoever craft he he, shall he found any more in 
 thee; and the sound of a millstone shall he heard no more at all 
 in thee: 
 
 23. And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in 
 thee ; and the voice of the bridegroom and the bride shall he heard 
 no more at all in thee : for thy merchants were the great nien of 
 the earth ; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived. 
 
 24. And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of 
 saints, and of all that was slahi upon the earth. 
 
 The fall of this city becomes the subject of rejoicing to all 
 the righteous. Rejoice over her, thou heaven. The whole 
 church, embracing the doctrines of the gospel of Christ ; 
 and ye holy apostles and prophets ; none of whom can possi- 
 bly be alive at the time here alluded to. The meaning, 
 therefore, is: the doctrines of the Christian religion as taught 
 by the apostles and prophets, is now triumphant, and have 
 put down the old corrupt system of Christianity, by which 
 the world has for so many ages been kept in darkness and 
 error: For God hath avenged you on her ; he has crowned 
 the labors and sufferings of his faithful servants with a com- 
 
124 THE APOCALYPSE UXYEILED. 
 
 plete triumph — the triumph of truth over error — of a pure 
 cvang-elicul religion, over the rehgion of superstition and 
 idolatry. 
 
 And, as if to banish from the minds of men, all idea that 
 this false system of Christianity will ever recover its power 
 and influence in the earth ; a mighty angel is represented as 
 casting a great millstone into the sea, and saying. Thus with 
 great riolence shall that great city, Babylon, be thrown doivn, 
 and shall be found no more at all. 
 
 The entire system of this Babylonish religion will become 
 as completely lost from the notice and respect of men, as a 
 mill-stone is lost from the sight when it is cast into the sea. 
 
 No pen of mere human genius has ever sketched such a 
 picture of the loneliness, the solitude, and the death-like si- 
 lence of a desolate city, as that which is given by the pen of 
 inspiration in the twenty-second and twenty-third verses of this 
 chapter. Xo comment upon them, no efifort of genius or 
 fancy to heigliten or improve their effect, could do anything 
 but ofi'end their chaste and striking simplicity, and impair 
 the awe and solemnity with which they inspire us. 
 
 The cause of this desolation is given by the prophet in 
 these words : For by thy sorceries were all nations deceived. 
 
 It is a fearful thing for either individuals or a church to 
 practice deception, for desolation is the infallible consequence 
 of such measures. 
 
 The concluding verse of the chapter says : And in her was 
 found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were 
 slain upon the earth. A horrible disclosure this is, truly, to 
 be made by the history of a church. It is the counterpart 
 to the description of the woman in the sixth verse of the seven- 
 teenth chapter : And I saw the woman drmihen with the blood 
 of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. 
 
 And this is the church through which the right to admin- 
 ister gospel ordinances must come, say some Protestant di- 
 vines. 
 
 This chapter might be summarily explained by referring to 
 
CHAPTER XVm. 125 
 
 tlie avarice, the luxury and deliaucliery, the gluttony, vio- 
 lence, rapine, and bloodshed, which distinguished the nations 
 under the universal rule of this woman previous to the Refor- 
 mation, and since its influence began to heal the moral dis- 
 eases of those nations. 
 
 This great moral distemper was not checked, but rather 
 increased, by the system of compensation for crime, and the 
 open justification of it, which was secured by the authority 
 of an " indulgence." These are some of the first fruits which 
 a false religion must always bring upon men. 
 
 When the teachings of a church fall in with and tolerate 
 the native corruptions of the human heart, there is no room 
 for the growth of any virtuous principle. The prophet points 
 out the apostasy of the church, most distinctly, in this chap- 
 ter, and we must rely upon history for an explanation of his 
 meaning. 
 
 The history of the inquisition is directly in point as one 
 branch of the explanation. The scenes in Germany and 
 Switzerland which the Reformation gave birth to, the torrents 
 of blood shed by France and Spain all over Europe, in their 
 efforts to extinguish the light of Protestantism, bear ample 
 testimony to the truth of prophecy, and show the controlling 
 authority with which the woman reigned over the kings of 
 the earth. 
 
 A spirit the most revengeful and diabolical often betrayed 
 itself in efforts to destroy Protestantism. Such instances 
 were most conspicuous where no kingly power was cmi>loyed, 
 but when the dominant religion of the day sought to carry 
 out its own suggestions. 
 
 Amongst all such instances there was none that equalled, 
 in cool, deliberate nnilice, in its most diabolical form, the gun- 
 powder plot. The placing of those " thirty-six l)arrels of gun- 
 " powder under the parliament-house of England, with trains 
 " and matches all prepared, to blow up the king and his par- 
 "liament," was a scheme of wickedness which coukl have ori- 
 ginated only in the mind of a demon. Even to this distant 
 
126 THE ArOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 day, the thought of such a horrible act of murderous bigotry 
 as was well nigh being perpetrated makes the mind shudder, 
 while it shows an extraordinary instance of the superintend- 
 ing care of Providence over the nation appointed to be the 
 guardian-angel of the Protestant religion. 
 
 This gunpowder plot and other exhibitions of cruelty and 
 bloody persecution, done in the name of religion, in past 
 ages, are referred to for no other purpose than to show how 
 truly the mirror of prophecy reflected events which would oc- 
 cur in the lapse of many centuries. The religion that gave its 
 sanction to such deeds of horror was the religion of a dark 
 age. It had its origin in worldly ambition, and its grow^th 
 was in the soil of ignorance and superstition. Such were its 
 necessary tendencies and its peculiarities. A morose and 
 malignant temper was engendered by the solitude and se- 
 clusion of the cloister. The monkish cell was no place for 
 the exercise of those noble and generous sympathies w'hich 
 belong to the Christian religion. Its field of action is the 
 wide world, and the objects of its heavenly charities are the 
 erring and wandering children of earth. 
 
 When the light of the Reformation appeared, popery put 
 in motion every engine of its power to extinguish it. 
 
 The recovery and improvement of the human mind, after 
 it has been for a long time habituated to darkness and error, 
 and to raise it to the high and enlightened state of which it is 
 ca})al)le, is the work of time and labor. This is strikingly 
 illustrated, as a national example, in the history of the 
 Israelites after their removal from Egypt. 
 
 The moral and mental degradation produced by their long 
 servitude and ])ondage in that country, is manifested in the 
 liistory of their forty years' journeying in the wilderness. 
 
 The constant presence of the pillar of cloud by day, and 
 of lire Ijy night, admonishing them of the unceasing care and 
 j)rovidence of God over them ; and then the sublime miracle 
 of tlie open road, stretching out before them upon the bed 
 of the Red Sea, by which they crossed over and escaped from 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 127 
 
 their pursuing enemy, and saw that enemy ovcrwhehned and 
 destroyed by the same waters that had been walled up on 
 either hand to give them a safe passage over ; and then the 
 fall of the manna to satisfy their hunger, and the fountain of 
 pure water, gushing from the rock, to quencli their thirst. 
 These amazing miracles failed to make any enduring imi)res- 
 sion upon their minds — they were lost upon their darkened 
 and degraded moral sensibilities. Their cowardly murmuring 
 at every occurrence of n%w difficulties, their insolent re- 
 proaches cast upon their leaders wheu they felt themselves 
 safe from danger, and their servile and cowering fears when 
 they saw it approaching ; their incessant murmurings, dissat- 
 isfaction, and despondency, with their constant reference to 
 the flesh-pots of Egypt, and the desire to return to that land, 
 show that they were a degraded, heartless, and ignorant peo- 
 ple ; just what the cruelty and oppression of their former 
 bondage was calculated to make them. 
 
 The superstition and servile fear produced by a false and 
 tyrannical religion, will bring the mind into a similar state 
 of imbecility and slavish drudgery, and must be, therefore, a 
 hindrance to the designs of God — an enemy to his merciful 
 purpose of raising man to the high moral and intellectual 
 state for which He created him. 
 
 Protestantism, for a long time after she had cast off the 
 bondage of Popish Babylon, gave occasional intimations of 
 the principles of that religion. It was not easy to divest the 
 mind entirely of those influences and errors which had for 
 centuries kept the people buried in darkness. 
 
 To say nothing of the defects of Luther's theology, tinged 
 with the absurdity of Popish teachings ; or, of the wild, 
 fanatical lengths to which certain societies in Germany suf- 
 fered themselves to be carried in their new religious liberty ; 
 we find instances in the history of English Protestantism, 
 and likewise in Switzerland, where the old dragon of perse- 
 cution was allowed to gratify his peculiar taste for blood, in 
 
128 THE APOCALYPSE UNYEILED. 
 
 a manner most revolting and painful to the feelings of the 
 present enlightened state of the Protestant Church. 
 
 But that day of religious persecution is gone, never to 
 return again. Babylon the great is fallen — is fallen ! and 
 now let us hasten to join the swelling chorus of the great 
 multitude in the next chapter, as they shout the triumphs of 
 Protestantism, and religious freedom to all nations. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 THE TRIUMPH OF THE GOSPEL CHURCH. 
 
 The scenes of this chapter are such, as it might be expected 
 would succeed the subversion of the greatest spiritual des- 
 potism of the earth. A mighty power has fallen, which was 
 adverse to the happiness of man and the glory of God ; and 
 these scenes of triumph and rejoicing are the universal shout 
 of exultation over the fallen power of this great adversary. 
 
 1. And after these things I heard a great voice of much peo- 
 ple in heaven, saying, Alleluia ; salvation, and glory, and honor, 
 and power, unto the Lord our God ; 
 
 2. For true and righteous are his judgments ; for he hath 
 judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth ivith her 
 fornication, and hath avenged the Hood of his servants at her 
 hand. 
 
 3. And again they said. Alleluia. And her smoke rose up 
 for ever and ever. 
 
 4. And the four and twenty elders, and the four leasts, fell 
 down and worshiped God that sat on the throne, saying, Amen, 
 Alleluia. 
 
 5. And a voice came out of the throne, saying, Praise our 
 God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear him, both small and 
 
 great. 
 
 6. And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and 
 as the voice of many waters^ and as the voice of mighty thundcr- 
 ings, saying. Alleluia : for the Lord God omnipotent reignefh. 
 
 7. Let us he glad and rejoice, and give honor to him : for the 
 marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself 
 ready. 
 
 VOL. II. — 6* 
 
130 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 8. And to her was granted that she should he arrayed in fine, 
 linen, dean and white : for the fine linen is the righteotcsness of 
 saints. 
 
 9. And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are 
 called unto the marriage-supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto 
 me, These are the true sayings of God. 
 
 The prophet heard the voice of much people in heaven ! 
 meaning the general acclamation of praise and thanksgiving 
 of the Church of God. The true church is constantly refer- 
 red to in these prophecies, when connected with acts of wor- 
 ship, or giving glory to God. This great voice ascribes the 
 overthrow of the great corrupter of the earth, to the judg- 
 ments of God — for he hath judged the great whore which did 
 corrupt the earth ivith her fornication. 
 
 Superstition and its natural effect, idolatry, had been by 
 this fallen church palmed upon the people for the religion of 
 Christ — for hy thy sorceries were all nations deceived. 
 
 And the alleluia of their rejoicing was reiterated, and her 
 smoke rose up for ever and ever. 
 
 This implies a perpetually-recurring memorial of the final 
 overthrow of this church of sorcery and deception. This 
 memorial will, probably, be some periodical celebration which 
 Protestant Christians all over the world will institute for the 
 purpose of rendering simultaneous and universal thanks for 
 the deliverance of the church from the power and delusion 
 of the antichristian Romish hierarchy. This idea seems to 
 be favored Ijy the fourth verse. The four-and-twenty elders 
 and the four beasts, the representatives of the four grand di- 
 visions of the earth, unite in one solemn act of worship to 
 God, saying, amen — an approving response of the whole 
 church to the judgments by which great Babylon has l)eeu 
 overthrown, adding, alleluia ! — an ascription of praise to 
 God for the happy effects of his judgments. 
 
 The institution of some such festival as is intimated above, 
 occurring at stated periods, like those did amongst the old 
 Jewish Cliurch, seems probable also from the language of the 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 131 
 
 fifth, sixth, and seventh verses. A voice is heard from the 
 throne, saying, Praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye that 
 fear him, hath small and great — meaning that all ranks and 
 condition of men should be embraced in the great jubilee. 
 This voice from the throne may be regarded as such a jul)i- 
 listic occasion, and the sixth verse expresses the united praise 
 of earth in the celebration of it. 
 
 The prophet seems to find some difficulty in selecting some- 
 thing by wliich he may adequately express the grandeur of 
 the universa'l shout of praise which will go up from the jubilee. 
 He says : / heard the voice of a great multitude. But, as if 
 that did not reach it, he immediately adds, and as the voice of 
 many waters. But still the comparison falls short of the re- 
 ality. Not even the ceaseless roar of earth's mighty cata- 
 racts can give an adequate idea of it. He then refers to the 
 deafening thunders as they burst and reverberate over the 
 earth, shaking its very foundations, and says such will be 
 the shout of that universal jubilee, when the people of God, 
 in all the earth, shall lift up their voice, saying, Alleluia : for 
 the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Let us he glad and rejoice, 
 and give honor to him : for the marriage of the Lamb is come, 
 and his wife hath made herself ready. This is the Church of 
 Christ; and how simple and beautiful is the description of 
 her appearance, arrayed i7i fine linen, clean and white! Con- 
 trast this dress with that in which the woman is seen, seated 
 on the scarlet-colored beast, (chap. xvii. verse 4,) and we 
 shall readily perceive the difference between the Church of 
 Christ and the church of this world. 
 
 9. And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which arc 
 called unto the marriages upper of the Lamb. And he saith 
 unto me, These are the tnue sayings of God. 
 
 10. And I fell at his feet to worship him. Ami he said unto 
 me. See thoio do it not : I am thy fellow-servant, and of thy bre- 
 thren that have the testimony of Jesus : worship God ; fur the 
 testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. 
 
 Who are they that are called to tlio marriage-supper of the 
 
132 THE APOCALYPSE UXVEILED. 
 
 Lamb ? All who have renounced the faith and communion 
 of the great corrupter of religion, who have embraced the 
 doctrines of the gosj^el church, and have no fellowship with 
 the spiritual Babylon. To all such proclaim that they are 
 blessed ; encourage them not to cast away the hope because 
 of any present difficulties, but confide in the promises of God, 
 for they cannot fail ; for these are the true sayings of God. 
 This glorious union between Christ and his church on the 
 earth, here spoken of under the similitude of a marriage, will 
 truly and certainly come to pass. 
 
 The happy period is gradually approaching. As the errors 
 and superstition of false religion fall and disappear, the 
 truth and purity of the religion of Christ rise higher, and ex- 
 tend their influence and power over the kingdoms of the 
 world. In this way the Lamb's wife is making herself ready 
 for the joyful event of her marriage. 
 
 Astonished at these divine revelations, the prophet very 
 naturally felt inclined to pay divine honors to his illustrious 
 instructor, and fell at his feet to worship him ; and beyond a 
 doubt, if there ever was an occasion when a man might be 
 excused for worshiping any other being than his Creator, 
 this was such an occasion. But the proposed worship was 
 instantly forbidden — see thou do it not : worship God. 
 
 The apostate church, whose fall, under the name of Baby- 
 lon the Great, is exulted over in this chapter, commenced 
 her separate and distinct history in the worship of images. 
 It was this idolatry that caused the revolt of Gregory I., and 
 erected the Western Church into an independent hierarchy. 
 
 The words of the heavenly admonitor to the prophet are a 
 stern rebuke to this idolatry. Worship God ; not an image 
 nor a saint, not the Virgin, nor the most exalted angel, but 
 worship God. This is the great law of true Christian wor- 
 sliip, and any departure from it in the least degree, in spirit 
 or in form, is idolatry. See thou do it not ; for I am thy fel- 
 low-servant, and of thy hrethren that have the testimony of Jesus. 
 Is it possible this illustrious personage, who could point out 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 133 
 
 and explain to the prophet the scenes of his vision; was he 
 once a child of earth, a suffering mortal, nn heir of dcatli ? 
 Yea, verily ; and no less a change than this will pass upon 
 all thoee whose resurrection bodies shall be made like unto 
 the glorious body of their Lord and Saviour. 
 
 This is one of the glories to which Christianity points its 
 subjects in the future world, as amongst the happy results of 
 their warfare on earth. What matters it then if trials, 
 afflictions and poverty be the Christian's lot on earth : 
 
 " If, Lord, thou count him meet, 
 With that enraptured host to appear 
 And worship at thy feet." 
 
 11. And I saw heaven opened, and hehold a white horse ; and 
 he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True; and in 
 righteousness he doth judge and make war. 
 
 12. His eyes were as a Jlame of fire, and on his head were 
 many crowns ; and he had a name written, that no man knew 
 hut he himself : 
 
 13. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood : and 
 his name is called The Word of God. 
 
 14. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon 
 white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. 
 
 15. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that loith it 
 he should smite the nations : and he shall rule them with a rod 
 of iron : and he treadeth the wine-press of the fierceness and 
 wrath of Almighty God. 
 
 16. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name 
 written. King of Kings and Lord of Lords. 
 
 The 11th verse commences a description of what may be 
 regarded as a triumphal procession of the Church of Christ, 
 after the overthrow of her adversary, the great Baljylonian 
 power. In a former chapter, the prophet in one of his 
 visions, speaks of the temple being opened in heaven. That 
 is, the gospel church had prevailed so far as to be established 
 in Christendom, and the exercise of Protestant worship was 
 
134 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 guaranteed to the people generally ; but still the old dragon 
 retained considerable power, and in many parts of Europe 
 under his influence, the exercise of this religious liberty was 
 not allowed — the great temple of Protestant worship was 
 opened in heaven, but not all over heaven. But, now the 
 prophet sees all heaven opened — all lands — all people now 
 worship God under their own vine and fig tree, and there is 
 none to prevent or disturb them ; no bulls of excommunica- 
 tion — no anathemas of the Pope can now make them afraid. 
 
 The idea is that of a great Chamji de Mars, suddenly 
 rising and spreading itself out to a vast extent before the 
 eyes of the prophet, and upon its boundless surface he beheld 
 this grand procession. 
 
 The chief and most distinguished personage in the scene is 
 the victorious head and leader, upon a white horse. His 
 powers and qualities are named : he is called faithful and 
 true, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. How 
 very different are the purposes of his war from those of the 
 kings of the earth ? His judgments are for the establish- 
 ment of righteousness and truth in the earth ; his warfare is 
 not against men, but against their errors. 
 
 His eyes were as a flame of fire — denoting Omniscience ! 
 and on his head were many crowns ; a figure of speech, ex- 
 pressive of the conquests made by the gospel in reclaiming 
 the kingdoms of the earth from the dominion of the false 
 religion, and bringing them into subjection to the righteous 
 government of Christ. This being done by the conquests of 
 the gospel, he is represented wearing them as the trophies of 
 his grace. 
 
 The next peculiarity in the character of this august per- 
 sonage demands the most serious attention : And he had a 
 name written that no man knew hut himself. This name was 
 written, that is, it was published, proclaimed — was as fully 
 declared and reiterated in as great a variety of forms, and 
 nndcT as great a variety of symbols and emblems as any 
 otlier attribute of his character, and yet, no man knew this 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 135 
 
 7iame — no man could comprehend it. Why could no man 
 know it but himself? because divinity alone can cninjprehcnd 
 divinity. Christ alone can comprehend and understand his 
 own mysterious and profound divinity. The character of our 
 Savior in his divine nature is declared in this text ; but it is 
 also written elsewhere. It was written and proclaimed by 
 the Jewish prophets, and most conspicuously Ijy Isaiah, (ix. 
 chap. : verse 6,) where he refers to Christ in his two-fold 
 character — his humanity and his divinity : For unto us a 
 child is horn ; unto us a son is given, and the government shall 
 he upon his shoulders ; and his name shall he called Wonderfxd ! 
 Counsellor ! The Mighty God ! The Everlasting Father ! the 
 Prince of Peace! Thus was this name written in the Jewish 
 Church. To the Christian Church Christ himself declares 
 his name to the same effect : He that hath seen me, hath seen 
 the Father. I am in the Father and the Father in me. I and 
 my Father are one. This same prophet, who is now descrili- 
 ing this triumphant scene of the gospel church, published 
 this name to the church thus : In the beginning was the IVord, 
 and the Word was with God ; and the Word was God ! All 
 things were made hy Him, atid without Him was not anything 
 made that was made. It is only necessary to add, that the 
 word name is to be taken in a sense signifying nature — attri- 
 butes : the sense in which the Psalmist uses it when he cele- 
 brates the majesty and glory of God, as seen in his works, 
 he exclaims : O Lord, our God, how excellent is thy name in 
 all the earth, viii. Psalm. 
 
 In no instance where this mysterious name is written, is there 
 any attempt made to explain it ; for the reason that no man 
 can know it : that is, it cannot be understood by human 
 reason. The manhood, or human jiature of Christ is compat- 
 ible with man's comprehension, but his divinity is not ; no 
 man can know it. 
 
 This name is not written for the jmrposc of reasoning men 
 into an understanding of the divinity of Christ, for lie, who 
 made us, knew that the mightiest powers of the human intel- 
 
136 THE APOCALYPSE UNYEILED. 
 
 lect must ever fail to comprehend it. It is presented to man 
 as a subject of faith, and not a subject to which his under- 
 standing is adapted. 
 
 The prophet proceeds with his description : And he was 
 clothed u-ith a vesture dipped in blood, and his name is called the 
 Word of God — corresponding with the title given him by St. 
 John. The whole sacrificial atonement of Christ is embraced 
 in this verse, and the merit and efficacy of that atonement 
 are avouched in the latter clause of the verse : And his name 
 is called the Word of God. 
 
 The armies which were in heaven, and are represented as 
 following their great leader upon white horses, signify the 
 multitude of believers who have been redeemed by faith in 
 the atonement of Christ. They follow him in purity and holi- 
 ness of life, represented by the fine linen, white and clean, in 
 which they are clothed. This following Christ does not refer 
 merely to the personal and individual life of God's people, 
 preserving themselves from the spirit and wickedness of the 
 world ; but it has a higher meaning. It points to the har- 
 monious eff'ort of the saints to spread the knowledge of God, 
 and extend his righteous government amongst men. Those 
 efiTorts have achieved wonders in extending the borders of the 
 Redeemer's kingdom, since the four angels were charged to 
 keep the peace of the world while the angel of the gospel 
 sealed the people of God. The wonderful facility which the 
 art of printing has furnished for spreading gospel truth is fami- 
 liar to all ; and the various and efficient means which Pro- 
 testant Christians are diligently employing are rapidly hasten- 
 ing the fall of Babylon the Great. The white horse is the 
 common and familiar emblem of triumph. 
 
 The sharp sword which goeth out of his mouth, none can 
 fail to understand, is the gospel of the grace of God. It is 
 the familiar emblem of the gospel ; and smiting the nations 
 with this sword im])lies the faithful preaching of this gospel, 
 and enforcing its doctrines upon the people of all lands. 
 
 The present is pre-eminently the age of this vision. The pro- 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 131 
 
 digious efforts of the Protestant churches, and the success 
 which has attended them in converting the people from their 
 darkness and errors, and forcing a way for the light of the 
 gospel into those countries which have ever been buried in 
 the darkness of pagan idolatry, are well represented l)y the 
 grand and triumphant procession of the armies which were in 
 heaven following him who is Faithful and True, and who doth 
 make war, and judge in righteous7iess. 
 
 And he shall rule them with a rod of iron. The law of God 
 must become the law of all nations : that is the simple mean- 
 ing of this verse. No compromising with false systems of re- 
 ligion — the world has had enough of this ; and the nation 
 that will not receive Christ and his religion must be prepared 
 to meet the righteous indignation of Heaven, denounced 
 against all who adhere to a false religion. 
 
 And he treadeth the wine-press of the fierceness and wrath of 
 Ahiighty God. Christ becomes the executioner of the divine 
 judgments upon the guilty nations that will not forsake their 
 false and superstitious systems of rehgion. To such nations 
 the warning is given that the execution of God's anger is 
 committed to him, whose power is seen in his titles of pre- 
 eminent majesty and might — King of lings and Lord of lords. 
 These titles, in a political sense, would be understood as con- 
 veying the idea of an all-powerful monarch, capable by his 
 vast powers of prostrating all other kingdoms — in short, that 
 all other sovereigns rule by his permission. They are, there- 
 fore, an appropriate emblem of the great moral power which 
 Christ possesses of inflicting the judgments of the Almighty 
 upon the nations who reject his truth. Christ says the same 
 thing himself in the fifth chapter of John, twenty-second 
 verse : For the Father judgeth no man, but huth committed all 
 judgment unto the Son, (twenty-seventh verse,) and luith given 
 him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of 
 Man. 
 
 All the powers necessary to carry out the great Christian 
 dispensation, whether it calls for the exercise of mercy or 
 
138 THE APOCALYPSE UNYEILED. 
 
 judgment, arc committed to Christ. And it is in the execu- 
 tion of the judgments of the last day that he is represented 
 as treading the wine-press of the wrath of God. 
 
 But what a scene of grandeur does this great Christian 
 pageant present ! Look at it, spreading itself out, and ex- 
 tending its vast length and breadth as it moves on through 
 the world ! Behold it covering the immense plain, then as- 
 cending the lofty mountains, and, passing over, descending 
 again, and filling the great valleys which spread out from 
 mountain to mountain, and extend to the ends of the earth ! 
 See the kingdoms of the world bowing before it, while the 
 hovels of the poor are made joyful by its blessings I Earth 
 sends up her loud hosannas in honor of it, while the temples 
 of idolatry fall before it, and the votaries of a delusive reli- 
 gion forsake the altars of their superstition. 
 
 This is the progress of the gospel through the world, and 
 it brings us to the next scene in the visions of the prophet, 
 which is the supper of the great God, given to all the fowls 
 that fly in the midst of heaven. 
 
 THE GREAT SUPPER. 
 
 17. A'nd I saw an angel standing in the sun; and Ae cried 
 uith a loud voice, saying to all the foicls that fly in the midst of 
 heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of 
 the great God ; 
 
 18. That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of ca'p- 
 tains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of 
 the?n that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, hothfree and hand, 
 both small and great. 
 
 19. And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, avi their 
 armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on 
 the horse, aiul against his army. 
 
 " 20. And the beast was taken, and icith him the false prophet 
 that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them 
 that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshiped 
 
CHAPTER XTX. 139 
 
 his image. These both urre cast alive into a lale of fire hnrn- 
 ing with hrimstaiie. 
 
 21. And the remnant were slain icilh the sword of him that 
 sat upon the horse, lohich suwrdproceedeth out of his mouth : and 
 all the fowls icere filled with their flesh. 
 
 The supper is designed to express, figuratively, three things. 
 It shows, in the first pUioe, the elose of the day, tliat l)eing 
 the meal always taken after the toil and labor of the day 
 have ended. This supper is given at the end of the gospel- 
 day. It expresses, in the second place, the final and com- 
 plete overthrow of all systems and powers which are opposed 
 to the universal government of Christ, comprehended under 
 the title of the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their 
 a^rmies, the false prophet that had delivered them by miracles, 
 and all the worshipers of the beast and false prophet. All 
 are rei)resented as being conquered, and left upon the field to 
 be devoured by the fowls of heaven. 
 
 In this picture the idea of total overthrow and abandon- 
 ment is complete. This will be the end of the judgment day, 
 when all that remains opposed to the authority of Christ will 
 be like the garbage which is thrown out to feed the birds 
 that prey upon such matter. 
 
 The third point of reference in this figure is its allusion to 
 certain means which will precede and indicate the approach 
 of this great supper. • 
 
 These means I consider as referred to by the angel stand- 
 ing in the sun, and crying to all the fowls of lieaven to pre- 
 pare themselves for the supper of the great God. 
 
 Our Savior's conversation at different times respecting the 
 signs and wonders which would precede the end of the gospel 
 day, afford much instruction ; and what he spoke in a mere 
 literal way the prophet addresses to us allegorically. 
 
 It is enjoined upon Christians to watch for the occurrence 
 of those signs to which Christ and his apostles have referred 
 them. 
 
140 THE APOCALYPSE UXVEILED. 
 
 There are events constantly arising npon the surface of the 
 world's history, which outwardly, and, to superficial observ- 
 ers, wear nothing but a political aspect, when, at the same 
 time, they may be intimately connected with the interests of 
 Christianity. Some of those occurrences which have struck 
 me as being of this character, I will refer to. 
 
 Upon all hands it will be admitted that England has ex- 
 ceeded all other nations in spreading the knowledge of the 
 gospel. Her convenient position, her wide, extended com- 
 merce, her immense wealth, and her practical acquaintance 
 with the doctrines of the Bible, have eminsntly qualified her 
 to take the lead in enlightening the nations around her, and 
 also to carry the light of the gospel to distant countries. 
 
 The angel that called the fowls of heaven to this great sup- 
 per is represented as standing in the sun. The meaning of 
 this is, that we may expect to see, in the country referred to 
 under the symbol of the sun, some unusual and very extra- 
 ordinary occurrences — not such as the ordinary means of 
 proclaiming the gospel, but which will tend powerfully to 
 bring about the overthrow of the beast, the false prophet, 
 and the kings of the earth, associated with them in the man- 
 ner described in the twentieth verse. That overthrow will 
 be both jpolifical and religious — kings and their armies signi- 
 fying the former, and the beast and the false prophet the 
 latter. 
 
 The occurrences which I consider as represented, particu- 
 larly V)y the angel crying to the fowls of heaven to gather 
 themselves to the great supper, will exert a great influence 
 upon both of the above-named interests. 
 
 The combined effort of the different Protestant nations to 
 bring about great nioral and political changes in the earth, 
 must exert a powerful influence favorable to that object. 
 Even small associations in limited communities, often produce 
 the most salutary effects upon the moral and social habits of 
 the peo})le amongst whom they exist ; how much greater 
 results should we look for from the harmonious and united 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 141 
 
 labor of Christian nations gathered together from different 
 parts of the earth, by their representatives, for the promo- 
 tion of tlicse ol)jects. 
 
 We must bear in mind that the last three verses of the 
 chapter express the events which give the supi)er its state of 
 complete preparation. These are the taking of the beast 
 and the false prophet, and casting them into the lake — burn- 
 ing with fire and brimstone, and killing the remnant, or tlie 
 kings of the earth with the sword. But these events are to 
 be brought about l)y means, which are chiefly the s})read of 
 the gospel, and whatever is calculated to open the way for it. 
 
 Such means are those now under consideration. They 
 give to the present age its peculiar adaptation to produce 
 the signs referred to in the above-mentioned verses. 
 
 The " World's Peace Convention," held in England, with 
 whose zealous people the idea originated,' some four or five 
 years ago, was something novel as a means of impressing 
 Christianity upon the world. The proposal to hold such a 
 convention was promptly responded to by the churches of 
 this and other Protestant countries. 
 
 It is true that the convention, so far as outward appear- 
 ances indicated its effects, did not produce any very striking 
 results. Indeed the enemies of religion considered it an 
 abortion, and exulted in its failure. But this is not the way 
 to judge of the success of great moral revolutions. 
 
 Providence often moves in the accomplishment of great 
 results, with very slow steps ; and the means which in tlie 
 end prove most effectual, are often in the beginning the least 
 
 pi 
 
 omismg. 
 
 This Peace Convention was one of the means 
 
 which, in the aggregate, constituted this angel, and very 
 likely it did all that it was necessary at that time should be 
 done. It sowed the seed — it put the mind of the cliurch in 
 a train of thinking which was quite new to it. The old 
 notion, too much entertained by men, that, because some 
 Christians were not of their nation, they were not brethren, 
 began to be discarded. This was one evidence of the growth of 
 
142 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 the seed and of the good fruit it was destined to produce. It 
 is still germinating and sending its roots deeper into the affec- 
 tions of Christians in various lands, producing a more generous 
 and universal sentiment of good-will. But what do we now see, 
 as another development of means auxiliary to the rapid ex- 
 tension of Christianity ? at this very time* England is hold- 
 ing, in her great metropolis, a grand exhibition of human 
 skill in the improvements in the mechanical arts, by the dif- 
 ferent nations of the world. She has opened a great field 
 for noble rivalship in useful and ornamental works of art and 
 genius. Will not this exert a great influence in banishing 
 national antipathies, and removing prejudices, which owe 
 their existence to nothing but ignorance of the mutual rela- 
 tions of men to each other ? 
 
 When these honest men from different nations laid down 
 their works of art and genius side by side, then looked each 
 other in the face and grasped each other's hands with greet- 
 ings of friendship, was not a new chord of feeling touched, 
 and a nobler sentiment of fraternal sympathy awakened than 
 ever had stirred in their hearts before ? How the old an- 
 tagonism of national and social prejudice must have melted 
 down under the warm inspirations of that great Christian 
 sentiment of universal brotherhood — Feace on earth and good 
 will to all men. This was the great moral principle which 
 arose out of this exhibition, and which diffused itself through- 
 out the Crystal Palace, and went with the people when they 
 separated and returned to their distant homes. 
 
 I very much doubt if this " World's Fair" would ever have 
 been heard of if the "World's Peace Convention" had not 
 been held previously. It is in this way that the great and 
 wonderful plans of divine goodness are accomplished. One 
 step leads on to another ; one event gives rise to another, 
 until the actors in the drama become amazed themselves at 
 the wonderful results which have arisen so unexpectedly from 
 
 * 1851. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 143 
 
 circumstances, which in their beginning never contempleted 
 such results. 
 
 There was one striking circumstance connected with this 
 world's exhibition worthy of particular notice, and which 
 gives it a character suitable to the signs of the times. I 
 allude to the solemn, religious service with which it was 
 opened. When all things were arranged and ready for in- 
 spection, a solemn pause held the vast throng in deepest 
 silence. The first act was to acknowledge the God of 
 heaven as the common Father of all nations, without 
 whose blessing the ingenuity and labor of man profiteth 
 nothing. 
 
 England, in the person of her queen, reverently bowed be- 
 fore the Lord, and all the people bowed, while the Primate 
 of England offered to the Most High the homage of assem- 
 bled nations. Then the voice of the multitude broke forth, 
 like the sound of many waters, and, mingling with the rich 
 and solemn tones of great organs and other musical instru- 
 ments, filled the Crystal Palace with hosaunas to the God of 
 all the earth. 
 
 Was not this a scene worthy of being held up in the midst 
 of the greatest Protestant nation of the world, as a sign of 
 the speedy overthrow of all the powers that opposed the pro- 
 gress of Christianity ? What could be better calculated than 
 this " Industrial Exhibition," conducted as it was, to unite 
 different nations in one common feeling of brotherhood and 
 Christian sympathy ? 
 
 Let the Crystal Palace stand ; let it remain to commemo- 
 rate the epoch when the angel stood in the sun, and cried to 
 all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven to gather or pre- 
 pare themselves for the supper of the Great God. 
 
 In another view of the subject this exiiibition possesses au 
 important character. It shows the absurdity of supposing 
 that it was ever uitended by the Author of Cliri.stianity that 
 it should creep through the world in solitude and silence. 
 The arts and sciences are her proper companions. In her 
 
144 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 company they develop their growth and attain their greatest 
 perfection with the most wonderful celerity. 
 
 To impose upon the Christian religion the solitude of the 
 cloister, or to shut it up behind bars and bolts, and exclude 
 it from the sympathies and enjoyments of social life, is mere 
 superstition, and ignorantly aims to effect by a voluntary 
 cruelty that which the grace of God alone can do. Where 
 do we find the birth-place of great discoveries and improve- 
 ments in the arts and sciences ? Where did that wonder 
 spring from which holds its mastery over the storms of the 
 ocean, and walks in triumph over its billows ? — and the still 
 greater wonder, the magnetic telegraph, whence did it arise ? 
 These, with a thousand other discoveries and improvements 
 in the mechanic arts, which follow each other in such rapid 
 succession as to keep the world in perpetual astonishment, 
 all owe their origin to those people where the Protestant reli- 
 gion invites the freest inquiry into her principles, and pro- 
 claims civil and religious liberty as the birthright of all men. 
 
 We now return to the vision. After the angel had an- 
 nounced the coming supper, and had invited all the fowls of 
 heaven to gather themselves together to be prepared for it, 
 the prophet gives us notice of the great events which will 
 immediately precede it. They are embraced in the last three 
 verses of the chapter, (19, 20, and 21,) and referred to as 
 the signs of the last days of the gospel dispensation. 
 
 This combination of the beast and false prophet with the 
 kings of the earth will, doubtless, be of a political character, 
 and the object will be two-fold — first, to destroy the Protes- 
 tant religion, and secondly, to check the progress of civil 
 liberty. 
 
 I think it quite certain that the beast alluded to is the two- 
 horned beast which came up out of the earth, (chapter xiii. 
 vers'i 11.) The remarks on that chapter will show why the 
 term least, in that instance, is applied to an ecclesiastical 
 power. 
 
 The temporal power of the Pope, though very much limited 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 145 
 
 and reduced to what it formerly was, is still ncknowlodijed ia 
 Europe. He holds with other crowned heads the relation of 
 a temporal prince as well as that of Roman Pontifif. His em- 
 bassadors are received and honored at their courts, as their 
 embassadors are received at the Court of Rome. Political 
 and secular affairs are negotiated between Rome and other 
 governments of Europe just as they are between other king- 
 doms. The term least, therefore, is applicable to Rome, as 
 she still holds the relation of a political power with the other 
 governments of Europe. 
 
 From the relation given by the prophet of the circum- 
 stances and the result of this war, we must infer that it is 
 the last effort that will be made against the Protestant reli- 
 gion ; and therefore it can have no reference to the measures 
 that were employed for the same purpose by the woman, 
 while she sat upon the scarlet-colored beast with seven heads 
 and ten horns. Indeed the manner of this opposition is 
 altogether different from that. 
 
 In the present instance, the beast, that is, Popery, in its 
 temporal power, is represented as coalesceing — forming a 
 league with the kings of the earth. The woman is not now 
 sitting upon a great beast and overriding every opposing 
 power ; or, to speak literally, the Church of Rome no longer 
 commands the military force of a great empire to crush the 
 growing power of the Reformation. 
 
 The Reformation has fixed the Protestant religion upon a 
 throne which leaves it nothing to fear from violence and 
 tyranny. This throne is the enlightened judgment and the 
 firm attachment of the people. Other measures must now 
 be devised — other weapons must be employed in the great 
 conflict with the white horse army. Hence the beast and 
 the kings of the earth enter into a league, and devise a 
 system of political measures, with the plausible pretext of 
 national regulations, necessary to protect the order and peace 
 of their own governments, and hope by such means to accom- 
 plish that which they despair of effecting by tlie sword. 
 
 VOL. II. — 7 
 
146 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 Protestantism has grown too mighty, and has spread itself 
 too extensively, to be assailed now by the Inquisition, the 
 rack, and the fire, which were the old-fashioned means of 
 dealing with it. 
 
 The description the prophet gives of this league is exceed- 
 ingly ])rief. He simply says, in the 19th verse : / saw the 
 beast and the kings of the earth and their armies, gathered 
 tosether to moke war aminst him that sat on the horse and 
 against his army. 
 
 We should suppose from this formidable power, that some- 
 thing of great consequence would be effected ; and we anx- 
 iously inquire, what did the beast and the kings of the earth 
 do ? The prophet says nothing at all of what they did, 
 and his silence implies clearly that they effected nothing ; 
 which amounts in fact to saying, that it is no longer in the 
 power of man to arrest the progress of the Protestant reli- 
 gion amongst the kingdoms of the world. 
 
 The sequel of this great preparation by the beast and the 
 kings of the earth is, that they were all taken. Like an 
 army which proudly enters the field of battle fully equipped 
 for the fight, but on seeing the overpowing force of the 
 enemy it surrenders, lays down its arms, and becomes prisoners 
 of war. 
 
 But let us inquire what measures these powers will be 
 likely to adopt in their last efforts to arrest the march of 
 Protestantism. What I shall say upon this point is merely 
 conjectural, as it relates to events yet future ; fifty years 
 hence may make it history. 
 
 It is saying nothing more of the Romish Church than is 
 admitted on all hands to be true — that she is the ever-watch- 
 ful adversary of the Protestant religion, and that her own 
 powers, as well as all the other powers that she can draw 
 into her service, have ever been, and will continue to be, 
 enii)loyed in efforts to destroy it, 
 
 France, as she was the first, in the coronation oath of 
 Charlemagne, to give the great sword to the support of Po- 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 147 
 
 pery, so she will be the last to refuse her aid in the dcfeiifo of 
 that religion. Not that France cares a fig about the religion 
 of Rome, any more than she cares about the Protestant reli- 
 gion ; but from the long habit of using the great sword for 
 the interests of Popery, she could not be quite contented to 
 see that religion in difliculties without espousing its cause. 
 Besides, there seems to be something just suited to the gal- 
 lantry and the prestige of the French nation, to be for^ in- 
 stead of against the mistress of the world ! — the woman, 
 whose golden cup contains so much that is exactly adapted 
 to the infidel and lascivious tastes of that nation. 
 
 France, we may readily suppose, will be in the lead in the 
 combined army of the beast and the kings of the earth. Her er- 
 ratic and accommodating genius will suggest suitable measures 
 and plans of operation. She may propose to the kings in 
 league with her the creation of a great infidel empire, or such 
 an atheistical power as will accord with the sentiments of 
 her first revolutionary convention, and establish such regula- 
 tions as will render it impossible for the subjects of Protest- 
 ant nations to live in any of the kingdoms embraced by that 
 empire, as Louis XIY. did with respect to his own Protest- 
 ant subjects, the Huguenots. 
 
 Publications of a religious character, intended to expose 
 the errors of the Romish Church, and show the consistency 
 and truth of the Protestant religion, will be excluded from 
 this empire, as the Protestant Bible now is from Rome and 
 other parts of Italy. Even commercial intercourse with 
 Protestant nations may become difiicult, if it does not entirely 
 cease, under the rigorous exactions of the infidel empire. 
 Measures which, of themselves, are not ostensibly aimed 
 against the progress of Protestantism, will, nevertheless, 
 bring about others more distinctly marked with that pecu- 
 liarity. 
 
 Austria will be a conspicuous power in this league. From 
 Austria no one would expect to see any measures either of a 
 liberal or intelligent policy. Her bigotry, ignorance, and 
 
148 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 cruelty, make her a proper tool for the purposes of Rome. 
 Then there is Spain and Portugal, too, once as mu(;h distin- 
 guished for the terror and agonies of the inquisition, the spe- 
 cial instrnnicnt of their persecution of Christianity, as they 
 are now for the hnbecility and poverty of their superannuated 
 governments. These kingdoms, with the dregs of their fee- 
 ble nationality, will readily bring the little remaining power 
 they may have to aid the means of checking Protestantism. 
 Besides these, there are other powers of inferior rank and 
 extent of dominion, scattered amongst the greater kingdoms 
 of Europe, which will unite in the same effort. 
 
 lluj^sia has no particular religious affinities with the rest of 
 Europe. On that subject she stands up in her own mountain 
 strength, isolated and indifferent. She fights no battles either 
 for or against religion of any name. The whole scope of her 
 l)olicy is to keep up a balance of power which will best secure 
 her own political aggrandizement. 
 
 Protestantism has nothing to apprehend from Russia. She 
 backs up the great northern wilds of Europe, and is reserved 
 for some great work in the purpose of Divine Providence, 
 which, for the present, does not lie within the reach of politi- 
 cal forecast to discover. But I will venture, however, a con- 
 jecture, and that is, that Russia will be the principal, if not 
 the only power, that will break open the highway for the re- 
 turn of the Jews. When she crosses the Balkan Mountains 
 again, the great Euphrates will be dried up, and the way of 
 the kings of the East (the Jews) will be prepared. 
 
 The i)rogress of political light must necessarily be very 
 slow in Russia. Her subjects are scattered over almost in- 
 terminable plains and inaccessable wulds. No system for im- 
 proving their condition can operate otherwise than very slowly. 
 But Russia has her statesmen and her merchants, who have 
 free intercourse with the courts and commerce of Europe, and 
 they compare very favorably with men of the same rank and 
 pursuit in the most refined nations. And there seems to be 
 no reason to doubt, that as fast as the circumstances and 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 149 
 
 condition of her people can be made subject to measures of 
 general improvement, such measures will be promi>tly pro- 
 vided. It is quite certain that no monarch in Europe takes 
 more interest in the great improvements of the age, or piiys 
 with more profuse liberality to secure the benefits of them to 
 his own people, than the Emperor Nicholas does. 
 
 But this is a digression. Let us now return to the beast and 
 the kings of the earth who are associated with him. I have 
 said that this supposed league will not attempt to accomplish 
 its work by the sword. Any direct attempt to suppress re- 
 ligious freedom in this way, would meet with no favor from 
 public sentiment in the enlightened day to which this vision 
 points. 
 
 But whatever the means may be, they will, doubtless, ori- 
 ginate with the beast. The secret springs wliich will put 
 them in motion will be found in Rome — that lofty eminence 
 of a false religion, from whose watch-towers the Uttle horn 
 full of eyes, described by Daniel, is unceasingly employed in. 
 watcliing the religious movements of all Protestant countries, 
 and in adapting her counteracting policy to meet and defeat 
 every effort that may promise to enlighten tlie Christian 
 world and advance the interests of civil and religious liberty. 
 
 But the end of all those measures is a total defeat of tlieir 
 authors and the overthrow of their power. This is stated in 
 t]je twentieth verse with respect to the beast and the false 
 prophet. These were taken, and were both cast, alive, into 
 a lake of fire burning with brimstone. 
 
 The beast, I repeat, is popery in its temporal dominion — 
 its distiniit political existence amongst the kingdoms of tlie 
 earth. Tliis dominion will be taken away, and the papal 
 government, as a distinct political power in Eurojje, will 
 cease to be. 
 
 Tliis temporal power of the Pope has ever been tlie bul- 
 wark of his religious power ; and when the first falls, or is 
 taken, as the text says, the latter, or his spiritual power, will 
 be deprived of its principal source of vitality. 
 
150 THE APOCALYPSE UXYEILED. 
 
 But still there is one great auxiliary wliicli has po^vtTfully 
 sustained the authority of ttte Pope throughout the world — 
 namely, the false prophet, that wrought miracles, Ijy wliich 
 he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast 
 and them that worshiped his image. By those miracles the 
 false prophet had greatly contributed to keep up the delu- 
 sions of popery, both in its political and religious character. 
 And popery, as a religious system, might still retain a con- 
 siderable amount of influence and authority, even after the 
 loss of its temporal power, provided it could continue to re- 
 ceive the support of the false prophet. But the false prophet 
 is taken, too, as well as the beast ; so that nothing remains 
 to popery but its simple ecclesiastic form. 
 
 I have explained before what I suppose to be meant by 
 the false prophet. I suppose this allusion to be to the pow- 
 erful and influential society of Jesuits. 
 
 Their superior learning, and familiar acquaintance with 
 those higher branches of science, but little understood, even 
 by men of noble birth and high political standing, in the 
 early days of the Reformation ; combined with their devotion 
 to the Romish Church, placed the education and training of 
 the youthful mind almost exclusively under their guidance. 
 Besides this, they were generally about the courts of kings, 
 and on every suitable occasion, they would make such dis- 
 plays of their superior learning and knowledge as to astonish 
 both the court and the people. Nothing more, I apprehend, 
 is meant by working miracles, than the amazement and 
 wonder produced by these exhibitions of their superior 
 learning, which gave them great influence over people of 
 every rank and condition. 
 
 These men, like Jannes and Jambres, who withstood Moses 
 and Aaron in Egypt, deceiving the people of that day by their 
 pretended miracles, have withstood the Protestant religion 
 by the same means, although it came, like Moses and Aaron, 
 to deliver the people from the bondage of an idolatrous 
 religion. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 151 
 
 Both the least and the false prophet were cast alive into a 
 lake of fire burning with brimstone. 
 
 This singular expression — being cast alive into tliis hike, 
 can only signify that tlieir religion was an inciirahle evil ! so 
 utterly opposed and callous to all the gospel remedies as to 
 be beyond the reach of recovery, and they were, therefore, 
 hopelessly doomed to destruction. 
 
 The case of the beast and the false prophet has a remark- 
 able parallel In the history of the three men who raised 
 rebellion in the Israelitish camp : Korah, Dathan and Abi- 
 ram. These men would not be subdued and reformed, by 
 either the mild means, or the threatened judgments of hea- 
 ven, addressed to them by Moses, but perversely persisted 
 in their opposition to the divinely-appointed regulations, 
 until the earth opened her mouth, and they, with their guilty 
 adherents, went down alive into the pit. 
 
 The lake of fire and brimstone is figuratively used to 
 signify a state or condition of agony — indescribable torment. 
 We find it in common use with our Lord and his apostles, 
 w^hen they would convey the idea of extreme wretchedness. 
 
 The beast and false prophet are represented as being 
 thrown into such a state alive! living or existing in such 
 a condition of agony, as is expressed in a previous chap- 
 ter, by gnawing the tongue with anguish. This state has 
 no reference to corporeal or physical suiTerings. 
 
 The inquiry is natural : what will produce this state of 
 anguish ? I answer, the chagrin and mortification of their 
 overthrow. The beast that once lorded it over the kings of 
 the earth, is now degraded, cast down, and stript of his 
 power and influence ; and, in short, has become a by-word 
 and reproach amongst the nations. The great merchants of 
 the earth we have seen in the preceding chapter, were thrown 
 into the greatest grief because no man Ijuyeth their mer- 
 chandise any more. The whole system of popish religion 
 becomes worthless in the eyes of men, and is looked upon 
 with scorn and derision. The laborious husbandman will not 
 
152 TTTE APOCALTPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 then be compelled to pay the priest for the privilege of drink- 
 ing the milk and eating the butter which he gets from his 
 own kiue ; — nor will the people from the four quarters of the 
 earth depend upon the sanction of one man in Rome to be 
 allowed to use a little fat in preparing their daily meals. 
 Such things are now regarded, most conscientiously, as sacred 
 duties, by the great mass of the Romish Church, and they, 
 no doubt, act from principle. But when the beast is taken, 
 these absurdities will be so obvious, that, instead of being 
 venerated as religious obligations, the people will be aston- 
 ished that men could ever have been so blinded as to connect 
 them at all with matters of religion. 
 
 The intmiate connection subsisting between the beast and 
 the false prophet will make their fate identical. The great 
 influence which the Jesuits have had with the governments 
 of the earth, will be lost, they will be discarded by the kings, 
 and driven from country to country, and only allowed to 
 dwell anywhere, under the most stringent laws, imposed upon 
 them to prevent the propagation of their principles. This 
 has been precisely the treatment they have received from 
 several of the governments in Europe, to guard against what 
 was supposed the dangerous consequences of their peculiar 
 politico-religious principles. 
 
 Such a reverse as this in the affairs of that learned body 
 would necessarily inflict the keenest anguish upon their minds. 
 And all this is done by the progress of the gospel — it has 
 thrown these two opposing powers into this lake, which 
 will give their future existence the mortification of being dis- 
 carded and despised. This is the fire and brimstone with 
 which that lake burns. 
 
 The sixteenth chapter contains the scenes of this vision, in 
 part, under the sixth vial. There, this effort to resist the 
 power of the Protestant religion, is said to have been pro- 
 duced by unclean spirits which came out of the mouth of the 
 beast, and out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 153 
 
 mouth of the false prophet. But the result is given in the 
 nineteenth chapter. 
 
 But the remnant — that is, the kings of the earth who had 
 been led into this alliance, by those three-fold influences, with 
 the beast and the false prophet, were slain with the sword of 
 him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of 
 his mouth — meaning the gospel now preached amongst the 
 nations generally. 
 
 Those kings, or rather the people over whom they rule, 
 will imbibe the light and influence of the gospel to such an 
 extent, that, if the kings themselves do not embrace it, yet 
 they will find it necessary to pause in their opposition to it, 
 and to grant to their subjects the fullest enjoyment of reli- 
 gious liberty. 
 
 In this manner they will be slain with the gospel sword, 
 their opposition will be neutralized, and they will dissever 
 their alliance with the beast and false prophet. This will 
 fully prepare the great supper, and all the fowls will be filled 
 with their flesh. 
 
 Protestantism, in Europe, has battled with the powers of 
 religious and civil despotism for the last half century with 
 constantly-increasing success ; while the United States of 
 America also entered the field, wielding, with wonderful 
 efifect, the weapon of her prosperous and happy repubUcan 
 government, and the right, secured to all, of a free and unre- 
 strained enjoyment of religious opinions and worship. 
 
 The influence of this country has been felt in Europe most 
 sensibly, and one of the effects of it is strikingly exhibited in 
 the emigration, which is every year pouring vast multitudes 
 upon our shores from all the countries of Europe. 
 
 In this way millions will be brought under the benignant 
 influence of the gospel who were denied the liberty of hearing 
 its voice of mercy in their own land, and their children will 
 grow up in the midst of light which their fathers never saw. 
 
 But the events which strike most directly at the power of 
 
 VOL. II. — 7* 
 
154 THE APOCALYPSE UNYEILED. 
 
 the beast and the false prophet on this continent, have 
 transpired within a few years only. 
 
 In order to a proper idea of the extent of that power, we 
 must look at the religious condition of all South America, 
 from Mexico to Cape Horn. 
 
 Leaving their despotic, distracted, and self-devouring po- 
 litical governments out of the question, what is their reli- 
 gious state but a vast mass of putrid morality, constantly 
 sending up an insufferable stench, as offensive to the purity 
 of Heaven as it is debasing to the character of man. 
 
 Every candid man, no matter of what religion, who has 
 paid the least attention to the religious state of South 
 America, must admit that this picture of it is not too strongly 
 colored. A late traveler in that country (Stephens) gives 
 in his book, without intending to write the history of its reli- 
 gion, a picture no less dark and disgusting. 
 
 The padr-.'s, who rule the uncultivated and ignorant popu- 
 lation, are utterly incapable of elevating the moral character 
 of the people, because they are themselves ignorant of the 
 religion which alone can exalt and improve the corrupt na- 
 ture of man. 
 
 Walled in, as the people of South America are, by super- 
 stition, bigotry, and despotism, and ready at any time to use 
 violent measures towards those who dare to oppose their re- 
 ligion, what possible chance would there be of ever reaching 
 them by means of religious efforts ? Missionaries would not 
 be allowed to exist amongst them. A mightier power, spring- 
 ing out of the combined influence of civil government with 
 religious effort, is necessary to meet the moral state of society 
 as it exists in South America. 
 
 Without regarding at all the motives which influenced 
 politicians in bringing about events that have changed the 
 relations of the United States and Mexico so materially, it 
 does seem quite providential that Texas was wrested from 
 the power of Mexico. 
 
 Texas was not seized upon and torn from the dominion of 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 155 
 
 Mexico, by the government of the United States. There 
 was no crusade got up for the conquest of Mexican territory. 
 It was rather the work of private, or individual enterprise. 
 But so it was, Texas was cut off from amongst the ill- 
 governed and impoverished provinces of Mexico, and subse- 
 quently became a free Protestant state, and is now giving 
 the strongest evidence in her prosperity and rising greatness, 
 in the physical and moral improvement that always follows 
 the introduction of that religion into a country which had 
 before been under the benighted and thriftless dominion of 
 the beast and the false prophet. 
 
 The annexation of Texas led to the war with Mexico ; and 
 this resulted in throwing open the South American con- 
 tinent to the spread of the Protestant religion, from the 
 Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean. 
 
 The territory of the United States, stretching through tlie 
 very heart of this, little better than pagan country, will in- 
 troduce such impr )vements in arts and agriculture, as well as 
 in government and religion, as will change the whole face of 
 the country, and will greatly improve the civil and social 
 condition of the people. 
 
 But, in the eye of Christianity, the most important results 
 of these political changes, is seen in the acquisition of a 
 great central position for missionary operations. 
 
 San Francisco is this position ; while its inland trade will 
 reach over all Mexico and its neighboring provinces, its vast 
 commerce is destined to traverse the whole Pacific, and open 
 a way to the benighted nations of Asia. The Christian plii- 
 lanthropist looks to California as the seat of a great mission- 
 ary temple, whose base will cover all the newly-acquired 
 country, and from its lofty towers will blaze the beacon 
 lights of the Protestant religion, shining over all South 
 America, and the islands of the Pacific, and reaching the 
 distant shores of Asia, it will illumine the idolatrous regions 
 of that benighted continent. 
 
 The people have gone to work as though they understood 
 
156 THE APOCALYPSE UN VEILED. 
 
 all about the great result whicli is to be achieved. They dig 
 gold and build cljurches ; they enlarge the sphere of civil 
 government, and spread the light of the Protestant religion. 
 And, by means of tracts and Bibles, and preaching the word, 
 San Francisco will soon resemble Jerusalem of old, where 
 every one, no matter what country he came from, or what 
 language he spoke, heard, in his own tongue, the wonder- 
 ful works of God. 
 
 The art of printjng speaks in all languages ; it talks with 
 all people in their own tongue, and may be said to effect by 
 its own simple forms, all that was effected by the miraculous 
 gift of tongues in the hearing of the people of all nations in 
 Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. This is the angel we 
 have already been introduced to by the prophet, of whom he 
 tells us, the earth was lightened with his glory. 
 
 THE DAY OF JUDGMENT. 
 
 The gospel day is adapted to man in his pupilage — it is 
 suited to the weakness of his moral perceptions. The Jewish 
 economy was but a system of types and shadows ; and when 
 that had served its foreshadowing purpose and fell to pieces, 
 men were brought under the Christian economy, the school 
 of Christ, in which they were to learn, and become practically 
 acquainted with those truths of divine revelation, which were 
 only referred to under the Jewish economy by misty types 
 and shadows. 
 
 As learners in this school, and possessing but very little 
 moral capacity and perception, much forbearance, much ten- 
 derness and indulgence were necessary. But this treatment 
 would be as much out of place with men when they have ac- 
 (|uired a strength and maturity in their moral powers, as 
 harshness and severity would have been in the incipient 
 stage of their instruction. 
 
 The day of judgment will be no less a part of the divine 
 government over men upon earth, than the day of gospel 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 157 
 
 grace is. In each the divine economy is employed in perfect 
 ing the jndg-ment-day purposes of God towards man. Tlie 
 two periods, however, ditl'er widely in the mode of adminis- 
 tering the divine government. 
 
 The gospel day is the exhibition of grace, almost without 
 limit. The language of St. Paul (Rom. iii.) is: Being justi- 
 fied freely by his grace, through the rede?)iption thai is in Jesus 
 Christ, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation, through 
 faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission 
 of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God ; therefore 
 we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of 
 the law. 
 
 Now hear what our Savior says, (Matthew xii.): But I 
 say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak they shall 
 give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words 
 thou shall be justified, and by thy loords thou shall be condemned. 
 By the deeds of the law men will then be justified. 
 
 Evidently, here are two dispensations, widely different in 
 their manner of dealing with men. The first superabounds 
 in mercy and grace, wdiile the second requires of man the 
 most rigid accountability for his every act, and makes his ac- 
 ceptance with God to depend upon a strict conformity of his 
 whole life to the rigid requirements of the law of God. 
 
 These tw^o principles in the divine government, diffcriug so 
 widely in their application to men, can never be reconciled 
 but upon the ground of two different dispensations ; and this 
 I understand our Lord to mean : It is in the day of judg- 
 ment that men shall give accomit for every idle word they shall 
 then speak. 
 
 The sayings of our Lord and his apostles on the subject of 
 the judgment day, are innumerable, and there is also fre- 
 quent reference to it in the old testament prophets. I shall 
 present only a few of these sayings, with a view to establish 
 the general character of that day. But, in the first place, 
 let us look at those texts that refer to the close of the gospel 
 day. 
 
158 THE ArOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 The broad and unequivocal declaration of Christ to that 
 effect has been already quoted ; it i^ this : And this gospel of 
 the kingdom shall he preached in alt the world for a witness 
 unto all nations, and then shall the end come. The end refer- 
 red to is the end of the gospel, the cessation of gospel means 
 as they are now known and experienced ; these will be no 
 longer experienced when that end comes. 
 
 The parable of the ten virgins shows the end of the gospel 
 day. While the foolish virgins went to replenish their vessels 
 with oil, the bridegroom came, and they that were ready 
 went in with him to the marriage — and the door was shut. 
 Agreeing with this parable is that saying of our Lord, on 
 another occasion : When the master of the house has risen up 
 and hath shut to the door. Thus showing that there will be 
 an end of the gospel dispensation during the present life, and 
 that the dispensation which will follow it, will present no 
 such abounding mercy and grace as that which distinguishes 
 the gosi)el day. 
 
 This view is further confirmed in what Christ said in refer- 
 ence to the judgment period : In that day ye shall desire to 
 see one of the days of the Son of Man, but ye shall not see it. 
 The days of the Son of Man it is well understood signify the 
 gospel days. 
 
 The revelation that God has made to man, teaches him, 
 that after the present dispensation closes, the judgment day 
 commences, and that man's existence in this world will be 
 continued throughout that day, as it is now, without any 
 oiher change than that which will be produced by the 
 diU'creuce in the mode of divine government, as above 
 stated. 
 
 This judgment day will probably be of shorter duration 
 than the gospel day. It will be employed in removing and 
 clearing away all that is corrupt, and which unfits man for 
 the kingdom of God ; that great and ultimate end of all the 
 disj)C'isations of the divine government over man. 
 
 We cannot fail to see that this will be the design of the 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 159 
 
 rigid and severe govenimeut of that period, if we pay atten- 
 tion to the sayings of Christ in relation to it. 
 
 The great portion of mankind which will be found enemies 
 to God when that day comes, and the tares which have 
 grown up with tlie wheat, will then be separated and dis- 
 posed of by other means than those now employed in the 
 gospel dispensation. The present means are of a merciful 
 and forbearing nature ; they beseech men to become recon- 
 ciled to God, and be saved ; but they have not succeeded in 
 reclaiming mankind entirely, nor in preventing the growth of 
 pernicious errors even amongst churches, organized expressly 
 to aid in evangelizing the world. 
 
 Christ's kingdom will then be no longer the kingdom of 
 grace, dispensing its requirements under the mild, persuasive 
 mercy of the gospel, but it will be changed into a kingdom of 
 stern law, in which judgment is executed rigorously upon na- 
 tions and individuals, when the secrets of all hearts are made 
 known, and the hidden things of dishonesty will be brought 
 to light. These texts are intended to show that such will be 
 the close and searching scrutiny of the divine government into 
 every man's character, that it will be impossible for men, by 
 any means of deceit or hypocrisy, to elude the decisions or 
 judgments of that day, which will make every man known, 
 even in his private works ; for the searching fire of the judg- 
 ments of that day will reveal his true character. 
 
 The effect of this judgment will distinguish the wicked from 
 the good, and exalt the nations that walk in the law of the 
 Lord, or who had received and embraced the gospel of Christ, 
 to dignity and honor, whilst those who had rejected it will be 
 marked in some conspicuous manner by the displeasure of the 
 Judge ; so that it will be manifest to all the world who are 
 the righteous and who are the wicked amongst those nations. 
 
 The Christianity of the gospel day, in its ditlerent denomi- 
 national forms, abounds with tares, all of which are to be re- 
 moved. Christianity itself did not produce these tares ; tlu^y 
 were mingled with the good seed, our Savior says, by an 
 
160 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 enemy, and whilst men slept. These tares grew up, it is wor 
 thy of remark, during the gosj)d dispensation, and it is obvi- 
 ous that it requires other means — a different administration 
 of the divine government — to rid the Christian field of 
 them. 
 
 The parable on the subject of tares (xiii. chap, of Mat- 
 thew) shows conclusively that there are errors which have 
 become so intertwined with Christianity, that the means ne- 
 cessary to their removal cannot be employed in the present 
 day without producing an injurious eifect upon Christianity 
 itself. Therefore, Christ said, let both grow together until 
 the end of the world, the end of the gospel economy, lest if 
 ye now attempt to gather up the tares, ye root up also the 
 wheat with them. 
 
 We see from this, that this end spoken of is that time when 
 the gospel, in its present aspect, will no longer be preached 
 amongst the nations, and the judgment day, or age, will com- 
 mence ; during which day, the means necessary effectually to 
 remove the tares will take the place of the gospel. 
 
 In explaining this parable our Lord says : As, therefore, 
 the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it he in the 
 end of the world. The Son of Man shall send forth his angels, 
 [means properly adapted to the work,] and th^y shall gather 
 out of his Idngdom all things that offend and them which do in- 
 iquity. 
 
 Tiie parable of the net which was cast into the sea has re- 
 ference to the same thing. This net gathered of every kind, 
 and, when full, they drew it to the shore, and sat down and 
 gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away. The 
 gospel net has gathered up a great variety of Christian sys- 
 tems, good and bad, which can only be purged and brought 
 to the purity of the Christian standard by the process through 
 which they will be carried in the judgment day. 
 
 Nothing is said which more fully explains the mode of the 
 divine government in the judgment day than what Christ 
 says : The Son of Man shall send forth his angels, and they 
 
CHAPTER XTX Id 
 
 shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend and them 
 which do iiiiquity. 
 
 The proper means employed to effect any particular end in 
 carrying on the government of God over men are denomi- 
 nated angels, and the means here referred to are probably 
 the prompt enforcement of the penalties of the divine law 
 upon all transgressions, not at some indefinitely-remote pe- 
 riod, but simultaneously with the act of transgression, Uke 
 the Adamic law — in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely 
 die. 
 
 Men, in the present dispensation, sin with apparent impu- 
 nity ; they are careless, and regard the threatenings of God's 
 word with indifference. The punishment for disobedience is 
 far off, in their thoughts, and because sentence against an evil 
 work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of 
 men is fully set in them to do evil.* 
 
 But suppose every act of wickedness should receive its just 
 punishment at the time of its perpetration, would not men be 
 afraid to trifle with God's law as they now do ? And would 
 not all things that offend against purity and holiness be 
 speedily laid aside ? This, I suppose, will be the mode of 
 separating the tares from amongst the wlujat, and removing 
 all thhigs that offend out of the kingdom of Christ in tiie 
 judgment day. 
 
 St. Paul, in his discourse before the learned Athenians, 
 speaks of this day and its peculiar government in terms which 
 plainly show that it is connected with man's earthly existence- 
 Because (says the apostle) he hath appointed a day in which he 
 will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath 
 ordained ; whereof he hath given assurance, unto all men in that 
 he hath raised him from the dead. 
 
 Judging the world in righteousness, is synonymous with 
 governing the world in righteousness. Judging Israel, was 
 the common phrase used to express the act of governing 
 
 * Ecclesiastes, viii. cliap. 11 verse. 
 
162 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 IsraL4 in the time of the judges. The word judged, is fre- 
 quently used in this sense, as well as in the sense implying de- 
 fense, protection, and maintaining the rights of the oppressed. 
 Indeed there is hardly any word in Scripture which has a 
 greater variety of significations in its use than the word judg- 
 ment. 
 
 Tliis governing the world in righteousness by Christ Jesus, 
 will bring out in grand relief before the whole intelligent cre- 
 ation, the glorious designs of the Creator in connecting this 
 earth, and man as its lord and inhabitant, with his vast uni- 
 verse. 
 
 What just conception can be entertained of the design of 
 God in creating this world, from what we see in its present 
 and past government by men ? We behold little else than 
 ambition, oppression, injustice, selfishness, and cruelty — per- 
 sonal aggrandizement, sought at the expense of truth and 
 virtue. None can suppose that it was for such ends as these 
 that God created this world and placed man over it. But 
 when it comes to be governed in righteousness by Christ, 
 whom God has appointed for that purpose, then men will see 
 and better understand the great designs of the Creator. 
 They will then, with admiring angels, exult in beholding the 
 harmony, the beauty, and the glory, which will continually 
 shine forth from the grandeur and magnificence of the uni- 
 verse which God has created. Nothing will occur to mar 
 the physical beauty, the moral grandeur, and the peace and 
 purity of the world, in the day of that righteous government. 
 But, before that happy day arrives, the judgment day has to 
 do its work of preparation for it. Let us attend to some of 
 the sayings of the apostles relative to the judgment dispensa- 
 tion. 
 
 From what both Christ and his apostles have said respect- 
 ing that day, it is quite clear that it will be a period in which 
 the religious principles of Christians will experience the se- 
 verest trial ; for all things that offend against the perfect 
 law of the Lord, every obliquity will be visited upon men, 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 163 
 
 while all who openly and presumptuously do iniquity will be 
 taken out of Christ's kingdom. 
 
 St. Peter dwells upon this, with particular emphasis, in the 
 fourth chapter of his First Epistle, in wliich, after much ex- 
 hortation, in a general way, he says : But the end of all things 
 is at hand ; he ye therefore sober and watch unto 'prayer. Peter 
 had learned from the teachings of his Divine Master that the 
 gospel day would have an end, and that it would be succeeded 
 by a period of severe trial to Christians and all the world. 
 He adds, after the warning given of this great change in the 
 moral government of the world : Beloved, think it not strange 
 concerning the fiery trial lohich is to try you, as though some 
 strange thing had happened to you. For the time is come [the 
 rendering would have been more consistent if the translators 
 had given the reading, is to, or will come] that judgment 
 must begin at the house of God ; and if it begin at us, [mean- 
 ing the Church of God,] ivhat ivill the end be of them that obey 
 not the gospel of God ? 
 
 If any one supposes that St. Peter was speaking of the 
 terrible persecutions which fell upon the Christians in Pagan 
 Rome, let them explain, if they can, where and how, the 
 same power that brought these fiery trials upon Christians, 
 afterwards punished with equal or greater severity, them that 
 obeyed not the gospel of God. 
 
 That it would be more consistent to read the text : For 
 the time icill come, or is to come; is very apparent, from the 
 previous part of the chaptex, in which the apostle speaks of 
 this day of fiery trial as prospective — yet to come ; and })ar- 
 ticularly the 1st chap. : 7 verse. The end of all things is 
 announced, then follows these fiery trials. Wiien St. Peter 
 speaks of these judgments beginning at us ; as though he 
 was to be a subject of them himself, it is evident he means 
 the Church of God, by the term us. St. Peter has been 
 dead these seventeen hundred years and more, but the end 
 of all things, which he spoke of, is not come yet! 
 
 St. Paul is speaking of the same time when he refers to 
 
164 THE APOCALYPSK UNVKILED. 
 
 the trials to which that day will subject every man's work. 
 (I Corinthians, 11 chap. 13 versej: Everyman's work shall 
 he made manifest, for the day shall declare it, because it shall 
 he revealed hy fire, and the fire shall try every man's work of 
 what sort it is. St. Paul speaks of all this as something 
 future. This day of St. Paul, which is to try every man's 
 work by fire, is the same day referred to by St. Peter, as a 
 time of fiery trial, and they both mean the judgment dispen- 
 sation which is to follow the gospel dispensation. 
 
 Let us now proceed to notice objections, which I am sure 
 will be made to this theory of the judgment day — objections 
 which bring with them the force of long-established opinions 
 amongst good men, as well as the authority and weight of 
 great names. 
 
 It will be objected to this mode of explaining tlie day of 
 judgment, " That it deprives that day of the awful pomp and 
 " grandeur with which the commonly-received opinion of 
 " Christians has always invested it — that it does away with 
 " the assembled millions of earth's inhabitants, from Adam 
 " down to the last-ljovn amongst men, all of whom we sup- 
 " posed would stand before the bar of God, in solemn silence, 
 " to receive the sentence of approval or condemnation of the 
 " Omniscient Judge." 
 
 This is the po})uhir 0})inion on this sul)ject, and poets have 
 embellished it with their various fancies ; giving it as many 
 features and forms as their difi'erent tastes might suggest. 
 
 But I do not regard poetry as of any authority on a sub- 
 ject like this. The attributes of God and the revelation He 
 has given to man, of the purposes and mode of his govern- 
 ment, are a safer guide. 
 
 The common opinion of the day of judgment looks to it as 
 the period when sentence will be pronounced upon all men, 
 botli saint and sinner, which is to introduce the former into 
 the felicities of heaven, and consign the latter into the tor- 
 ments of hell! 
 
 But I doubt whether any experimental Christian, who 
 
CHArTER XIX. 1G5 
 
 lives iu the enjoyment of the consciousness of God's favor, 
 and whose hopes of future happiness are supjjorted by a 
 gospel faith, ever entertains this opinion as a religious con- 
 viction, of the scene through which he shall pass after death. 
 What is the hope of such a Christian ? What his firm 
 belief ? Why, that the death of the body releases him from 
 the sorrows of this life, and lets him into the joys of his Lord. 
 His last words, as he sinks in death, are, not that he is going 
 to Q, judgment bar, but that he is going to the joys of heaven! 
 and his happiness, at tliat moment of his departure from the 
 world, is often expressed by those words, as they fall from 
 his dying lips — 
 
 " Angels beckon me away, 
 And Jesus bids me come ! " 
 
 The question is in place : in view of the common opinion 
 of the judgment, will the righteous who have departed this 
 life, in all ages since the days of Adam, and have gone to 
 their rest in heaven, have their state of happiness interrupted 
 and be called away from the society of God and angels, to 
 stand before a judgment bar, to await the sentence of the 
 Judge, which is to entitle them to eternal life ? Can such a 
 view of the judgment be consistent with the justice and 
 omniscience of God ? 
 
 And of the wicked, it may also be inquired : will their 
 state of punishment be suspended while they are brought* 
 before the same bar with the righteous, to receive the sentence 
 which is to doom them to everlasting woe ? What mind, 
 enlightened by the Cliristian Scriptures, can seriously enter- 
 tain opinions such as these ? ascribing to the infinitely holy 
 and all-wise God, a procedure in his government, which 
 would discredit the imperfect wisdom of frail men I 
 
 But to escape from the inconsistency of such a plan of the 
 judgment day, some tell us that the righteous and the wicked 
 do not enter upon their respective states of felicity and woe 
 when they die ; but they occupy some intermediate place in 
 the universe, neither of happiness or woe, where they await 
 
166 THE APOCALYrSE UNVEILED. 
 
 the sentence of the final judgment ! It is unecessary to say 
 anytliing more in answer to this opinion than to refer it to 
 the paraljle of Lazarus and the rich man. In the presence 
 of that parable, uttered by our Lord himself, it stands 
 rebuked and reprobated. 
 
 But, it will be asked, as this view of the judgment day 
 limits its proceedings to the people and nations who live in 
 that time ; how is it to be reconciled to the following texts 
 in the writings of St. Paul : For we shall all stand before the 
 judgment seat of Christ. So then every one of us shall give 
 account of himself to God. Kom. xiv. For we must all appear 
 before the judgment seat of Christ, that every one may receive 
 the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, 
 whether it be good or bad. 2 Cor., 5 chap. 
 
 From these, and other texts of a similar character, the 
 common opinion has arisen of a future judgment of all the 
 human family at one time, particularly the text which says : 
 It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment. 
 It might be a sufficient refutation of the inference drawn 
 from these texts, to urge, that Christ speaks of no other 
 judgment than that which gathers the nations of the earth 
 before him at his appearing. But I think the sayings of St. 
 Paul are susceptible of an explanation which will reconcile 
 them with this opinion of the judgment ; or, at least will 
 show that they do not contradict it. 
 
 In referring all these scriptures which seem to imply the 
 act of judgment, or the conferring rewards and punishments, 
 to some period after death, in another world, the gospel sys- 
 tem appears to be quite forgotten ; or, at least to be re- 
 garded as presenting no present rewards or punishments ; 
 that God does not either reward or punish men in this life. 
 Now, no one can look into the history of the Jewish nation, 
 without being forcibly struck with the frequent exhibitions 
 of divine judgment u})on that people, when their iniquities pro- 
 voked the displeasure of the Almighty. 
 
 I will visit the iniquities of the fathers upon the children to 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 16t 
 
 the third and fourth generation of them thai hate me, is an 
 established principle of divine government over man, and it 
 is not likely that the punishments here spoken of are to be 
 looked for in the next world. Indeed the whole economy of 
 the old testament scriptures stands upon the ground of pun- 
 ishment for transgression in the present world, and treats of 
 the judgments of God as designed to prevent the transgres- 
 sions of men : When thy judgments are in the earth the inhab- 
 itants of the world will learn righteousness, was the doctrine 
 taught by Isaiah. And can the Christian system be less 
 perfect in its adaptation to the ends of divine government 
 than the Jewish system was ? It is true that the Christian 
 code breathes mercy, long-suffering, much forbearance with 
 the ungodly ; but still, it would be greatly misconceiving it, 
 to suppose that it proposes no present punishments for the 
 obstinate and persevering violation of its laws. 
 
 The gospel system, or, as it is likewise called, the kingdom 
 of heaven, has its laws; and it administers rewards and pun- 
 ishments, in a modified sense, suited to its forbearing spirit ; 
 while it at the same time points to a higher and and more 
 glorious state of the righteous, and a deeper condemnation 
 of the ungodly in the next life. 
 
 In order to a proper understanding of the apostle's mean- 
 ing in the texts before us, we must take a comprehensive 
 view of the gospel system in its operations and designs. 
 
 The gospel economy is a spiritual kingdom or moral gov- 
 ernment over mankind, having all the laws necessary to its 
 object, and enforcing them by the application of such rewards 
 and punishments in the present life as are suited to its great 
 end, which is to train men for a higher and purer state of in- 
 tellectual and moral existence hereafter. 
 
 The laws of this kingdom, which are its doctrines and 
 teachings, have been settled and established by Christ, who 
 is the head of it. All rules of duty, as subjects of civil as 
 well as religious government, are there laid down, and it is 
 to the laws of this kingdom that Christians are to refer all 
 
168 THE APOCALYrSE UNVEILED. 
 
 questions of right or wrong, and they must conform to the de- 
 cisions of those laws, or suffer the punishment connected with 
 their neglect. 
 
 In this sense, I consider the gospel system to be the judg- 
 merit seat of Christ, or the bar of Christ, referred to by the 
 apostles, before which we, as Christians, must all stand or 
 appear. 
 
 Our faith and practice must be subjected to the judgments 
 or decisions of this bar, and we are either justified by them 
 or we are condemned. 
 
 How singular it would appear if the gospel system, designed 
 to discipline men, should present no considerations of a 
 chastening nature, which all admit to be necessary to man in 
 his present state. Whom he loveth he chastcneth, and scourgcih 
 every son whom he recciveth. Now, this chastening must be 
 necessary for the things done in the body — that is, done in the 
 present time. I consider these texts, in the Epistle to the 
 Romans and the 2 Cor., as referring to the exercise of the 
 divine government, through and by the gospel as an instru- 
 mentality. Its laws are in constant course of administration, 
 in rewarding the faithful follower of his Lord, and in visiting 
 with God's displeasure the unrighteous, in such ways as are 
 suited to the hfe of man in this present world. The language 
 of the apostle, I think, is quite in favor of this view of his 
 texts, where he speaks of the bar and the judgment seat of 
 Christ. 
 
 Christians, in that early day of the gospel, frequently fell 
 into sliarp controversies about non-essentials. The old Jew- 
 ish canon, for a long time, worked itself into the Christian 
 Church, and gave much trouble respecting the use of meats 
 and the oljservance of days. The apostle, in order to quiet 
 these dissensions, and to impress upon Christians that their 
 duties were not to be learned from Jewish rites and ceremo- 
 nies, but from the law of Christ, says to them : But why dost 
 thou judge thy brother ? or why dost thou set at nought thy bro- 
 ther ? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 1G9 
 
 As if he had said the right or the wrong in all inattors of duty 
 must be decided with us Christians by the law which Christ 
 has given us. It is not to one another, nor to the law of Jew- 
 ish ceremonies, that we are accountable, but to the law of 
 Christ. Let us not, therefore, judge one another any more. 
 The law of Christ, as it is taught us in his gosj>eI, is the 
 standard of our faith and duty. Before that we must all lie 
 judged, and by its decisions our opinions and our acts 
 must stand or fall. This, I believe, is what the apostle means 
 by appearing before the judgment bar of Christ. And, as if 
 further to impress Christians with the truth, that they are 
 constantly under the approval or condemnation of the judg- 
 ment of this bar, the apostle says : The Word of God is a dis- 
 cerner of the thoughts and intents of the hearts : neither is there 
 any creature that is not manifest in his sight ; hut all things are 
 naked and opened to the eyes of him with whom we have to do. 
 This is a judgment bar, before which the very thoughts and 
 intents of the heart are constantly judged, and are either ap- 
 proved or condemned according as they are good or evil. Be- 
 fore this judgment seat of Christ we all do now appear, and 
 by its righteous decisions we are acquitted or condemned. 
 No doubt that in this life the disciplinary judgments of heaven 
 are employed in restraining and correcting Christians as well 
 as the ungodly. 
 
 But the 9th chapter, 27th verse of the Epistle to the 
 Hebrews, is regarded as being conclusive on this subject, and 
 places a judgment of all men at one time, in a future state, 
 beyond doubt. 
 
 The text reads : And as it is appointed unto men once to 
 die, (but after that judgment,) so Christ icas once offered to 
 bear the sins of many," <^c. 
 
 I think the apostle is here speaking of the judgment day 
 in no other sense than that in which I have explained it. 
 Let us attend to his words, in connection with the subject on 
 which he is treating. 
 
 The subject of that chapter is the redemption which Christ 
 
 VOL. II. — 8 
 
170 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 accomplished for the human family, and the likeness which 
 he assumed to man, in his fallen state. He took upon him 
 the iniquities of us all ; he took even the nature of man, sin 
 only excepted, and became obedient unto death. In short 
 he associated himself with man in his mortal condition, and 
 died as man dies. It is appointed, or decreed, that man 
 shall once die, and that the redemption may reach to the 
 full extent of man's forfeit, Christ also died once — he became 
 obedient to that law which required the life of man, in order 
 to release man from the dominion of death, that the whole 
 man, as a being of intellectual, moral and physical powers, 
 might be recovered from the fall, and be reinstated in his 
 original perfection and immortality. 
 
 But we do not yet see this redemption in its complete 
 eifects ; for man is still a subject of death, although his 
 moral powers are renovated, and his spiritual nature is sanc- 
 tified by grace. 
 
 The second branch of redemption, that is, the redemption 
 of the body, is yet to come ; and that explains the latter 
 clause of the 28th verse of the chapter ; And unto them thaf. 
 look for him shall he appear the second time, without sin, unto 
 salvation — full and complete salvation. He will not appear 
 the second* time to make any future atonement for sin, but 
 to carry out and perfect the redemption made by the offering 
 of himself once for the sins of the world. 
 
 Speaking of the future glory of the people of God, in the 
 8th chapter of Romans, the apostle says : For I reckon that 
 the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared 
 with the glory that shall be revealed in us. For we know that 
 the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until 
 now ; and, Twt only they, but ourselves, also, which have the first 
 fruits of the Spirit ; even we ourselves groan within ourselves, 
 waiting for the adoption, to wit : the redemption of ou,r body. 
 This will perfect in man the salvation by the atonement of 
 Clirist, who will, at his second coming, change our vile body, 
 that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body ; this is the 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 1 7 ] 
 
 redemption of the body — tliat is, the ph3^si('iil nature of man 
 will then be no longer subject to death — lie will )jc an im- 
 mortal being. 
 
 The judgment day, or dispensation, is a subject not in 
 cidentally noticed by the sacred writers, but has as great 
 prominence given to it by them as the present or gospel dis- 
 pensation has ; and the apostle refers to it in these words : 
 hut after this the judgment. This sentence seems to l)e abrupt 
 and without any previous connection with the i)revious train 
 of reasoning, unless we understand it as referring to the time 
 when the salvation of man shall be completed in the redemp- 
 tion of the body — then we shall see its application. The 
 sentence is evidently introduced as a parenthesis, as we shall 
 see by reading the argument of the apostle witJiout it, from 
 the 26th verse : But now, once in the end of the icorld hath he 
 appeared to jpwt away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And as it 
 is appointed unto men once to die — so Christ was once offered to 
 hear the sins of many ; a7id uiito them that look for him shall 
 he appeayr the second time without sin unto salvation. 
 
 The apostle's argument is made more distinct without the 
 sentence : hut after this the judgment. For what j)uri)0se 
 then did he introduce this sentence ? for the sole purpose, as 
 I suppose, of notifying the Christian world, that this redemiv 
 tion of the physical man from the power of death, by the 
 second coming of Christ, would not take place immediately 
 at the end of the gospel dispensation ; for after this disj)eu- 
 satiou, comes the judgment d\si>2n?,iit\o\\. This is to intervene 
 between the end of the gospel day and the second appearing 
 of Christ. How important that judgment day is in the plans 
 of divine government, will ajjpear from our Lord's words, 
 when he tells us : In that day, all that offends, and them that 
 do iniquity, shall be taken out of his kingdom, all the tares that 
 could not be separated from the growing wheat in the gospel 
 day, will be gathered and burned. This is the judgment which 
 will precede the second ai)pearingof Christ, and it will i>rei)are 
 the church for this appearing, as the bride is prepared for 
 
172 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED, 
 
 tlie bridegroom. This, I believe to be the true meaning of 
 tlie apostle, by the sentence — hut after this the judgment, or 
 jiulgment day. 
 
 Of the moral government of God over men in that day, I think 
 the apostle is speaking in the tenth chap. Hebrews, 26 and 27 
 verses : For if we sin willfully after we have received the know- 
 ledge of the truth, there remaiiieth no more sacrifice, for sins, hut 
 a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, 
 which shall devour the adversaries. 
 
 None can believe that the apostle intended to apply these 
 words to the gospel dispensation. They are directly opposite 
 to what he has said of that dispensation in all of his Epistles 
 wherein he speaks of it. 
 
 In order to show that the apostle treats of two dispensa- 
 tions in the present state of man's existence, it is only neces- 
 sary to refer to what he says of the present dispensation, and 
 contrast it with the above passage. 
 
 In his Epistles to the Romans (v. chap.) he uses this lan- 
 guage : And not as it was hy one that sinned, so is the gift. 
 For the judgment was hy one to condemnation, hut the free gift 
 is of many offences unto justification. By one act of sin con- 
 demnation came upon all ; but, under the free gift of grace 
 and the abounding mercy of the gospel dispensation, pardon 
 is extended to 7}iany offences. So says our Lord, when incul- 
 cating a spirit of forgiveness upon his disciples. Being asked 
 by one. Lord, how oft shall my hrother sin and I forgive him ; 
 until seven times ? Our Lord replied : / say unto you, not seven 
 times, hut seventy times seven, if he repent, thou shall forgive 
 him. 
 
 This is the mercy breathed upon man by the gospel dispen- 
 sation. It follows him even after he has turned away from 
 the truth, and it entreats and beseeches him to turn again 
 and receive the free gift of pardon. Very diflferent from 
 this is the dispensation referred to by the apostle, when he 
 says : For if ive sin willfully after that we have received the 
 knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 173 
 
 One act of trans2^rossion ends the man's probation in that day, 
 and when he falls from the truth, he ftilLs under the jud<z:ment 
 which devours the adversary. This is the day of judgineni, 
 and in this way it will differ from the gosi)el day. 
 
 But it will be asked, if the apostle addressed these truths 
 to the Hebrews of his own time, how can they be understood 
 as referring to some future state of man's prol)ation ? 
 
 The apostles, as well as the prophets, wrote un<ler divine 
 inspiration, and they frequently utter sayings which have no 
 application to the times in which they lived, although they 
 were addressed to cotemporaries. If the writings of the 
 apostles had reference only to their own times, every subse- 
 quent change in the condition of the political and social rela- 
 tions of men, and every new development of the purposes of 
 Providence, would require a new revelation to direct Chris- 
 tians in their course of duty. 
 
 These Scriptures, which now point out the way of life to 
 men, will also warn and instruct men on the judgment dis- 
 pensation ; and this one text from the Hebrews is one in- 
 stance of a great many in which the words of the apostle 
 must be referred to another dispensation. The recognition of 
 the day of judgment as another dispensation over man in the 
 present world, difiTering from the gospel dispensation in respect 
 to its laws and penalties, will make many of the sayings of 
 our Lord, and his apostles and the pro}ihets, plain, and easy 
 to be understood, which, without such recognition, must ever 
 remain obscure and unintelligible. 
 
 It is obvious from the whole tenor of Scripture that two 
 different dispensations of divine government belong to the 
 present state of man's earthly existence — the present, which 
 is the gospel dispensation, in whicli grac£ reigns, and mercy 
 abounds and extends its pardoning power to many offences ; 
 and the future, or the judgment dispensation, in which the 
 law of God demands n perfect obedience, on pain of the judg- 
 ment and fiery indignation which will be visited upon every 
 transgression. In the present state the principle of tlie di- 
 
lU THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 vine government is adapted to the feebleness of man's moral 
 powers, and its requirement is, helieve and thou shalt be saved; 
 but the next state will be no less adapted to his stronger 
 moral powers and its requirements then will be, do lids, and 
 live. 
 
 Amongst the many references to the future dispensation 
 there is a remarkable one by our Lord, in speaking of the 
 sin against the Holy Ghost. He says, it hath no forgiveness, 
 neither in this world, neither in the world to come. A distinct 
 reference is here made to a future dispensation ; for what 
 can be the meaning of the word world, in relation to this sub- 
 ject, but a dispensation of divine law under one modification 
 or another. 
 
 This declaration of our Lord furnishes the only instance in 
 which the present dispensation resembles that one which is 
 to succeed it. This sin alone, in the present dispensation, hath 
 no forgiveness ; but in the next dispensation, or the judgment 
 da}^, no willful transgression hath forgiveness : there will be 
 no sin-offering for repeated transgression. 
 
 Christ compares this day to the night, in which none can 
 work; and by the prophets it is spoken of as the day that shall 
 burn as an oven, when the wicked shall be consumed as stub- 
 ble ; and by the apostles it is called the day of judgment and 
 perdition of ungodly men. But it will, nevertheless, be a day 
 of probation, of moral trial ; and men who are saved in that 
 dispensation will be saved by the atonement of Christ, just 
 as they are now saved. But the means of grace, the spiritual 
 helps, and, above all, the reclaiming mercy which now follows 
 the apostate from God and his law, will not be known in that 
 day. The judgment day will be, in comparison with the gos- 
 pel day, what the night is to the day. Men who walk in the 
 night have to use great caution to avoid making a false step, 
 which might involve them in danger ; so in that day which 
 if ('on]i)ared to the night, one false step, one act of willful 
 aposta.sy from the truth, will ruin the man's moral condition 
 forever. The fiery trials and the burning as an oven arc 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 175 
 
 figures of speech intended to show the rigid conditions which 
 will then be imposed upon men in working out their salvation; 
 for it will then be with fear and trembling, ))ecause of the 
 consuming judgments of God which will fall upon transgress- 
 ors. God will then become, to all who are out of Christ, a 
 consuming fire. Is this text applicable to the divine govern- 
 ment in the gospel day, when his Spirit strives with man, and 
 God waits to be gracious unto all the sons of men, even unto 
 them who are out of Christ, and are far off l)y wicked works ? 
 The perdition of ungodly men is also a -descriptive trait of 
 that day. I understand this to mean that this judgment day 
 will close the scheme of redemption — the whole probationary 
 system will end with it. The perdition of ungodly men, sig- 
 nifies their final state, and the future government of God be- 
 yond that state will have no ungodly subjects, but will be a 
 government over the righteous only. It will be the new hea- 
 ven and the new earth, wherein dwcllcth righteousness alone, 
 where the wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at 
 rest. But this is going ahead of the su))ject. Something 
 more remains to be said about the judgment period. This is 
 the day which Christ says will come upon the world as a 
 thief cometh in the night. And as a snare shall it come on all 
 them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. 
 
 The world will pass from the day of gospel grace to the 
 judgment day, as the natural day gradually declines into 
 night, and so imperceptibly that men will hardly be conscious 
 of the change until the daring acts of wickedness, and the in- 
 creased frequency of the divine judgments in punishing the 
 ungodly, will make them sensible of the change which has 
 come over the moral condition of the world. Then they will 
 discover that the gospel door, which had stood wide open to 
 men, calling and inviting by all the means of the gospel sys- 
 tem, is now shut. Then, in the words of our Lord, thcii will 
 hesrin to stand without, and to knock at the dour, ^-c. They will 
 then anxiously desire those means which they once rejected 
 and despised. They will long to see one of the days of the 
 
ne THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 Son of Man, but shall not see it. Those means and those 
 days do not belong to the judgment state. 
 
 The reader will not fail to observe the frequent repetition 
 of terms, in treating on this subject of the judgment. I am 
 very sensible of it myself, but so desirous am I to make my- 
 self distinctly understood, and to divest my views of all am- 
 biguity, that I would rather incur the censure of tautology, 
 than that the plainest reader should not plainly comprehend 
 my meaning. And, at the risk of being tedious, I must ask 
 the reader's indulgence and attention to a few further remarks 
 upon the subject. 
 
 The novelty of this view of the judgment day will very 
 likely give rise to the -following inquiry — '" If the gospel is a 
 " perfect system of salvation to men, why should it be changed 
 " for another system having the same end in view ? Does God 
 " change ? Will he lay aside his tender mercies and be- 
 " come austere and vindictive in his government over man ? 
 "Why not continue the gospel plan with all its mercy and 
 " grace ? " 
 
 The answer to all this is : when the judgment day comes, 
 man will have arrived, in the progress of his nature, to a 
 condition of moral power and strength, far beyond that which 
 he was in when the gospel system was introduced. And this 
 improvement of his moral and intellectual condition is owing 
 to the influence of the gospel. Light has been disseminated, 
 and moral culture has brought out his own intellectual and 
 moral powers. His restless spirit and ever-expanding in- 
 tellect have produced in man a feeling of independence of 
 all other power. 
 
 Both St. Paul and St. Peter give strongly-colored pictures 
 of men under this spirit of moral and intellectual independ- 
 ence, in the last days. Men either become subjects of the 
 saving power of God, or they reject it, and become, as the 
 apostles described them : Covetous, boasters, proud, blasphem- 
 ers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, tvithout natural 
 affection, truce-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, de- 
 
CHAPTER XIX. I'jY 
 
 spisers of those that are good, lovers of pleasure mnrpJhan lovers 
 of God. 2 Timothy, 3 chap. 
 
 St. Peter, also speaking of man in the last days, says : 
 Knoicing this first, that there shall come in the last days, safj'rrs, 
 walking after their own lusts, and saying : Where is the pro- 
 mise of his coming 1 for since the fathers fell asleep, all things 
 continue as they were from the beginning. Chap. 3. 
 
 From these texts it appears quite manifest, that a very 
 great change will take place in men in the last days of the 
 Christian dispensation ; they will despise and dispute the 
 word of God. 
 
 The whole moral structure of society having undergone 
 such a change as this, the necessity of a change in the divine 
 government to meet it, is too palpable either to be questioned 
 or to be misunderstood. The change is not in God — but in 
 man ; and God, in his infinite wisdom, has appointed a dis- 
 pensation adapted to the change in human society, called the 
 day of judgment. The law, and its penalties, in place of the 
 gospel and its grace, will then be the measure of the divine gov- 
 ernment over men ; and it argues quite as much concern for 
 man's happiness, to place him under the laic, when his moral 
 condition calls for that form of government, as it did to place 
 him under the gospel when his feebler state required that 
 peculiar dispensation of grace. Under the stricter dispensa- 
 tion of law, the tares which had grown up in the gosju'l tidd 
 will all be gathered and burned, and all things tiiat otlend 
 will be taken out of Christ's kingdom. 
 
 Whatever may be the severe and searching effects of this 
 day upon the ungodly, it will be a time of joy and felicity 
 with the righteous. The apostle teaches, that the state of 
 the righteous in that judgment dispensation, will be better 
 tlian it is in the gospel dispensation ; for their distinction 
 then will be unto glory and honor; and Christianity, in the 
 life of its subjects, will be purer, as that day will sei)arate 
 from it the tares— the false doctrines, and all mixture of 
 error in faith and practice, which now abound to the great 
 
 VOL. II.— 8* 
 
178 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 injury of the truth, and the disquiet of the meek and 
 godly. 
 
 But it will be further asked, do not these views of the judg- 
 day overthrow the scripture doctrine on that subject, and 
 leave all men, both the righteous and the wicked, without any 
 future judgment at all ? 
 
 I answer, they may overthrow the prevailing opinion of 
 men as to what the scripture doctrine is respecting the judg- 
 ment, but I humbly hope they do not oppose the doctrine 
 taught by our Lord and his apostles. 
 
 As to a future judgment of mankind after death, in the 
 way pointed out by the common opinion, it seems to me that 
 enough has been said already. I will just add, however, one 
 argument, which may serve to strengthen what I have before 
 said on this point : If God is exercising a moral government 
 over man, which now takes cognizance of all his acts, and 
 even the secret purposes of his heart, and that under this 
 government all men are now either approved or condemned 
 before God, what end of the divine government is to be at- 
 tained by renewing the judgment upon man's conduct in 
 this life after he has gone into another state of existence ? 
 " To justify the ways of God to man," some will answer, who 
 have drawn their belief in a future judgment more from the 
 sayings of poets than from the Word of God, " that the as- 
 sembled world may at one time see, by one act, the justness 
 and righteousness of God in consigning one portion of man- 
 kind to everlasting woe, and exalting the other portion to 
 life eternal." 
 
 This is the only ground upon which the belief of a future judg- 
 ment stands as to the necessity for such a procedure ; for no 
 one will venture the assertion that the Almighty does not 
 know as i)ei'fectly the merit and demerit of every man, at the 
 time of his death, as it could be known by the forms and in- 
 vestigations of a judgment appointed for that purpose. If 
 the judgment is a proceeding to justify the ways of God in the 
 linaV disposition which he will make of all men, then it as- 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 1>J9 
 
 sumes the character of a judgment to try the proceedingR of 
 the Ahiiighty in his dealings with men. Is any Christian 
 willing to hold his opinion of a future judgment under such a 
 view of it as this ? I hope not. 
 
 The great fundamental doctrine of the Bible is, that nmn, 
 in his fallen state, is under sentence of condemnation already. 
 In the sense in which the day of judgment is regarded, being 
 that of a grand assize, man is condemned already. He is 
 now under sentence of judgment, according to what St. Paul 
 declares, in Rom. v. chap. 18 verse : Therefore by the offence 
 of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation. This bcn- 
 tence comprehends all men of every grade and condition in 
 life. It is not spoken of as a condemnation which is to come 
 upon man by a judgment after death, but as his actual pre- 
 sent state, from which, if he fails to escape in this life, there 
 is no hope or means of escape after death, as there is no work, 
 nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, ichifher thou 
 goest. 
 
 This life is the only time in which man has op|)ortunity 
 to avail himself of the means of setting aside this judgment 
 and relieving himself from its condemnation. These means 
 are stated in the latter part of the verse above referred to : 
 Even so by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all 
 men unto justification of life. This is the atonement made by 
 Christ for the sins of the world. By fearing God and work- 
 ing righteousness, the man sets aside the judgment, and re- 
 lieves himself from its condemnation, as the apostle fully de- 
 clares in these words : There is therefore now no condemnation 
 to them that are in Christ Jesus. Those who receive the grace 
 of God, and by an upright and holy life serve God, become 
 partakers of the atonement, and have cancelled the judgment, 
 and have passed from death unto life. 
 
 Now, as it is in this life that man is under judgment of 
 condemnation, and as it is in this life only that he may set 
 aside that judgment, and relieve himself from its condemna- 
 tion, how say some, that the sentence of condenmation is to be 
 
180 THE APOCALYPSE UNYEILED. 
 
 passed upon men in a day of judgment after death ? If this 
 is already done in this life, does it seem rational or consistent 
 with the divine wisdom that there should be a day of judg- 
 ment, such as is commonly supposed, after death ? 
 
 Can it be objected to these views of the judgment day that 
 they are likely to relax the diligence of men by removing the 
 motive to a religious life, which the apprehension of a future 
 judgment is supposed to inspire ? So far from this being their 
 effect, it seems to me that such views are rather calculated to 
 increase the anxiety of men respecting their present state. 
 Instead of pointing them to a judgment day beyond the pre- 
 sent life as the period when they must give an account for 
 all their doings in the presence of assembled worlds, if they 
 were assured that the judgment of God is now upon them, and 
 that at any hour this judgment may be executed by the hand 
 of death, cutting them off forever from the possibility of sal- 
 vation, all the interests of a man's future state would crowd 
 themselves upon him in the jpresent moment, and all the ap- 
 prehensions that a future judgment are calculated to awaken 
 would oppress his mind with an abiding present dread of the 
 execution of a judgment which he knows is now standing 
 against him in the book of the wrath of God against all un- 
 righteousness of men. 
 
 The long space of time which men place between them- 
 selves and the day of judgment, as they consider it, is just 
 the season which they determine to employ in seeking their 
 own sinful pleasures. It is time enough yet, the day of 
 judgment is a great way off I and, because they consider it 
 so, and that there will be no judgment upon them until that 
 day comes, their hearts are set within them to do evil. But 
 if, in place of thus putting off the judgments of God to 
 another world, and giving themselves no concern about them 
 in the present life, men were convinced that they are now 
 actually under the very sentence of condemnation which that 
 imagined future judgment is expected to denounce against 
 tliem, and that nothing but the brittle thread, upon which 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 181 
 
 life is Piispcndcd, and the fleeting breath in their nostrils, 
 separates them from the fearful consequenees of that judu^- 
 ment ? Would they not be actuated ))y very different mo- 
 tives, and be led to greater diligence in seeking for and 
 employing those means by which they may set aside the 
 judgment that is now against them, and escape from its 
 condemnation ? 
 
 It is not supposed by those who hold the popular view of 
 the judgment day, that the least variation is to be made in 
 the moral character of any man that ever lived, by the pro- 
 ceeding of that judgment. Whatever the moral character of 
 the man might have been in this life, that is precisely the 
 character in which they say he is to stand before the bar of 
 judgment. 
 
 Well, if there is no possibility of a change in the moral 
 condition of men at that tribunal — and Christ has already 
 distinctly announced what shall be the future destiny of all 
 men according to their moral character in this world — the 
 question is irresistible : what end will be accomplished by 
 the forms and proceedings of such a judgment ? 
 
 Having now given my views, as I honestly entertain them, 
 respecting the day of judgment, I must say that the popular 
 opinion of the church, as it is commonly expressed on that 
 subject, is not warranted either by scripture or reason. 
 
 This judgment day, or dispensation, is the great and nota- 
 ble day of the Lord, so frequently spoken of by the Jewish 
 prophets, and by Christ and his apostles. It is the day in 
 which the floor of the Christian Church will be thoroughly 
 purged, and the wheat will be gathered into the granary, 
 but the chaff will be burnt up with unquenchable fire. 
 
 In short, it is the seventh trumpet age ; when the dwellers 
 upon the earth will realize all the fearful predictions of that 
 day, which are uttered in the pathetic strains of Jeremiah, 
 and glow in the burning visions of Isaiah, and are reflected 
 from the lofty mirror of Ezekiel ; or flow through the pro- 
 
182 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 phetic strains of Judah's royal bard. All these will have 
 their fulfillment in that great day of the Lord. 
 
 Christ, in the calm and holy dignity of his manner of speak- 
 ing, warns the church of the approach of that day — his apos- 
 tles urge to diligence and holy living, in view of its terrors ' 
 and judgments — to its fearful and trying dispensations, which 
 will overwhelm the ungodly murmurers, mockers, and scoffers 
 of that time ; while St. Peter, in order to give an idea of 
 the tremendous effects of the divine wrath, as it will be re- 
 vealed from heaven in that day, represents the heavens and 
 the earth as in a state of conflagration. And, our beloved 
 prophet, with whom w^e have sojourned, beholding his won- 
 derful visions, and listening to his prophetic voice, proclaim- 
 ing the events of almost two thousand years ; now from the 
 solitude of his banishment in Patmos, lifts up the wine-press, 
 trodden by the angel of God, until the blood came out, even 
 to the horse bridles, and cries : This is the day of God 
 Almighty^ s wrath. 
 
 This is St. Peter's day of fiery trial, which will try every 
 man's works. It is also the day which Malachi speaks of, 
 that shall hum as an oven. It is the day of judgment and 
 perdition of ungodly men. It will have its place in this world 
 as the gospel day now has ; it will have to do with the peo- 
 ple wlio will then live in the earth, and with no others. 
 
 The necessity for just such a day of fiery trial — of the ex- 
 ercise- of inexorable law ; in short, such a day as the wine- 
 j)rcss indicates, is made fully to appear from the character of 
 the people of that day. 
 
 Men have read the Bible to very little purpose, if they 
 have failed to discover that it speaks in the strongest terms 
 of the bold daring and presumptuous wickedness of the men of 
 the last days, or latter times of the world's history. It is not 
 referring either to those degraded vices which are commonly 
 the offspring of brutish ignorance, but it speaks of the wick- 
 edness of that day as something that assumes a position of 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 183 
 
 defiance of God! and impiously contradicts his word! In 
 short, giving the lie to the whole of divine revelation. 
 
 The first five verses of St. Paul's second E})istle to Timo- 
 thy, describes the last days thus : This knoiv, that in the last 
 days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their 
 own selves ; covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to 
 parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce- 
 breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce; despisers of those 
 that are good. Traitors, heady, high-minded — lovers of plea- 
 sure more than lovers of God ; having a form of godliness, but 
 denying the power thereof. 
 
 St. Peter speaks of the state of morals generally, in the 
 same days, in the last chapter of his Second Epistle : Know- 
 ing this first, that there shall come in the last days, scoffers, walk- 
 ing after their own lusts; and saying, Where is the promise of 
 his coming 1 for, since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue 
 as they were from the beginning of the creation. This is the 
 statement which St. Peter makes of the scoffing infidels of 
 the last days, who will deny that there had been, at any time, 
 any such manifestations of divine wrath upon the earth as is 
 threatened in the judgment day. Willingly, or choosing to 
 be, ignorant of the deluge by which the world that was, being 
 overflowed, perished. 
 
 Nothing can be conceived of, more depraved and desperate 
 than this exhibition of human society in the last days. Civil 
 and religious, as well as social ol)ligations, are everywhere 
 trampled upon, and scarcely anything is seen but the most 
 alarming tumult and disorder. With mobish' violence, the 
 barriers which have been raised for the peace and safety of 
 society, are torn down ; the restraints of civil law are wan- 
 tonly outraged — the ties which bind society in mutual confi- 
 dence and good-will are severed, and tram})led upon by vul- 
 gar violence. The force of law is destroyed by evil exam- 
 ple and gross immorality — violence, tunmlt, and murder, 
 everywhere alarm and distract society, and threaten tiic 
 overthrow of all order and government. 
 
184 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 In such a state of things, we shall look in vain for any 
 reverence of God or respect for his religion ; scorn and con- 
 tempt for both become general ! The Sabbath and all sacred 
 institutions are scoffed at and shockingly desecrated, and 
 even the youth vie with men of riper years in grossly pro- 
 faning the name of God I 
 
 Such is the picture which the apostles have drawn of the 
 moral condition of the world in the last days. Not of the 
 hordes of barbarous men who never heard of God nor Chris- 
 tianity ; nor of the Heathen, whose religious light is very 
 limited and doubtful ; but they speak of men who enjoy the 
 blessings of the gospel — whose cup of divine mercy, as the 
 Psalmist says : runneth over, and amongst whom the paths of 
 the Lord drop fatness. 
 
 If these fearful instances of moral depravity were not 
 something extraordinary — something beyond what had been 
 common in the world — why should the inspired writers dwell 
 upon them with so much emphasis ? They do present a moral 
 condition of mankind requiring a different mode of treatment 
 from that which the gospel pursues. The day of judgment, 
 with its wine-press severity, is required to meet the evils of 
 those last days. The voice of mercy, calling through the 
 gospel, will not reach the men of these last times ; the voice 
 of God's judgments alone can make any impression upon 
 them. How necessary is it then that there should be such a 
 dispensation as the day of judgment. 
 
 These outward signs of abounding iniquity will be accom- 
 panied, too, as our Savior has informed us, with marks of de- 
 clension in the church ; because this flood of iniquity over- 
 spreads the earth, the love of many will wax cold. To limit 
 this sign to a comparatively few individual cases of the apos- 
 tasy of men from the religion which they once possessed, 
 would be doing the text great injustice. I understand it to 
 mean, that churches, to a considerable extent, will betray a 
 lukewarm state, and in many instances total apostasy. The 
 earnest zeal in their membership and ministry will be sensibly 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 185 
 
 abated, and instead of the pungent and powerful appeals 
 which were once urged with so much success from the pulpit, 
 little else will then be heard beside cold and chaffy disserta- 
 tions, or loose and desultory declamation, designed more to 
 gain applause than to save souls. 
 
 It will be very apparent that the ministration of the word 
 fails to produce upon the community those so])ering and sav- 
 ing effects which once attended its preaching ; so that as 
 this night comes on, the light and life of the gospel day de- 
 cline, even in the ministration of the word. 
 
 The Church is admonished that her faith and works will 
 be put to a severe test by the fire which will try every man's 
 works. In this w^ay the wheat will be separated from the 
 chaff, and all things that offend will be taken out of Christ's 
 kingdom. 
 
 The manner in which this day will come upon the world is 
 spoken of by our Lord, and refers to signs which will give 
 indubitable evidence of its nigh a})proach. But I need not 
 repeat those sayings, they are within the reach of all who 
 read the Bible. But there is one passage in the writings of 
 St. Paul, however, that is so appropriate that I will intro- 
 duce it. In his first Epistle to the Thessalonians, (v. chap.,) 
 the venerable apostle says : But of these times and seasons, 
 brethren, ye have no need that I icrite unto you ; for yourselves 
 know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in 
 the night. For when they [that is, the ungodly world] shall 
 say, 'peace and safety, then sudden dest?'uction cometh upon them, 
 and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, 
 that that day should overtake you as a thief : ye are all children 
 of light, and the children of the day ; we are not of the night nor 
 of darkness. 
 
 Instead of the " midnight pomp and splendor" which poetry 
 has given to the advent of this day of the Lord, the apostle 
 tells us it will come as a thief in the night. The (luict and 
 stealthy steps of the thief are not heard ; he creeps cautiously 
 
18B THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 and sileutly in his approaches, and we are not aware of Ks 
 presence until we find him in possession of the house. So 
 will the coming of the day of the Lord be to all who are not 
 children of the light. 
 
 To the watchful and humble Christian who looks carefully 
 upon the face of the moral world and watches the signs of 
 the times, the approach of that day will be discernible. 
 Others may see the same things that he sees, but they offer 
 no suggestion to their worldly wisdom beyond what they call 
 the common course of things — the ordinary events and 
 changes which belong to the world. 
 
 But the Christian looks higher, and he discovers, by those 
 spiritual perceptions which the Word of God has taught him, 
 distinct and unequivocal tokens of some great moral revolu- 
 tion in the dispenstion of God's government in the church 
 and the world. 
 
 This is in conformity with what our Lord says to the 
 righteous who will witness the severe trials of the judgment 
 day. And take heed to yourselves lest at any time your hearts 
 he overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of 
 this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a 
 snare shall it come upon all them that dwell on the face of the 
 whole earth. Watch ye, therefore, and pray always, that ye may 
 be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to 
 pass, [viz., the fiery judgments of that day,] and to stand be- 
 fore the Son of Man. 
 
 This refers to no scene that was to transpire in the land of 
 Judea by the Roman sword, but to one that is yet in the un- 
 seen future, which, when it comes, will bring with it a fear- 
 fulness and a failing of the stoutest hearts — a distress and 
 perplexity of nations that will resemble the sea and its waves 
 roaring, and will reach and shake all nations that dwell upon the 
 face of tlie whole earth. But while all else is struck with dread 
 and trepidation in the presence of the scenes of that day, the 
 people of God will lift up their heads and rejoice ; for the 
 
CHAPTER XTX, lg7 
 
 time of their deliverance from all earthly sorrows and afflic- 
 tions has come, and they stand before their Lord, in that day 
 of burning trial, without fear and without reproach. 
 
 This seventh trumpet is called the trump of God, l)y way 
 of distinction, as the events which will transpire in the day 
 which it aimounces, will be manifestly under the appointment 
 and direction of God himself. The temple will be filled with 
 smoke, and no man will enter into the temple until the seven 
 plagues are fulfilled. 
 
 No man, no human power, will originate or control the 
 judgments of that day ; they will proceed from God, and will 
 manifest his glory and power in a manner that will confound 
 all human wisdom and overthrow all human power. This 
 power and glory fill the temple, and exclude all inferior agen- 
 cies. Here is the half-hour's silence of the seventh seal — the 
 cloud now rests upon the Christian tabernacle, and God is 
 heard speaking to his people, saying, Stand still, and know 
 that I am God ; I will he exalted in all the earth. These judg- 
 ments of the seven vials will convince men that God has taken 
 to himself his great power, and will now hold man to a strict 
 account for his every act and word. 
 
 Christians who now pray and labor for the salvation of 
 their fellow-men, will have nothing of this kind to do in this 
 great day of the Lord. Their appropriate emj)loyment then 
 will be, as they are represented in the fifteenth chapter, 
 standing upon the sea of glass, with the harps of God, sing- 
 ing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of 
 the Lamb — reviewing and celebrating, in songs of triumph, 
 the great and marvellous works of God in the Mosaic and 
 the Christian dispensations, and concluding by saying, /c^/- «// 
 nations shall come and worship before thee, for thy judgments 
 are [now] made manifest. These judgments will do all that 
 the gospel and the prayers of God's peoi)le had failed to do. 
 
 The wine-press and the sea of glass mingled with fire are 
 the prominent sulyects -which distinguish the day of judg- 
 ment. The seven vials of that day represent seven periods, 
 
188 THE APOCALYPSE UNYEILED. 
 
 in each of which there will appear some new form of judg- 
 ment differing from that which preceded it. The whole will 
 close with the great hail, which is represented as falling out 
 of heaven upon men — the last and most universal, as well as 
 the most appalling, of all the judgments of that great day of 
 God Almighty's wrath. 
 
 That this judgment dispensation will bring men generally 
 to submit themselves to God cannot be doubted. When thy 
 judgments are in the earth the inhabitants of the world will learn 
 righteousness, is a truth too well understood in the experience 
 of men to admit of any doubt. And as this period is called 
 the day of judgment, for the very reason that the judgments 
 of the Almighty will then be abroad in the earth, in a man- 
 ner not known in any previous age of the world since the 
 flood, the cpnclusion is unavoidable that men will then more 
 generally fear, and repent, and learn righteousness. 
 
 But this judgment dispensation will come to an end ; its 
 purposes will be fulfilled when the seven vials are exhausted. 
 
 The final result of the judgments of this day is presented 
 to us in the vision which opens the next chapter. The whole 
 purpose of this day will be to exalt righteousness by the 
 prompt and rigid punishment of iniquity. The boldness of 
 the transgressor will quail before the terrors of the Lord, and 
 the strongholds of wickedness totter and fall. The wicked- 
 ness of the wicked in this way will come to an end, and the 
 kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of God and 
 of Clirist. 
 
 Civil governments will then be chiefly directed to the pur- 
 j)ose of rooting out and destroying those vices which destroy 
 the happiness of men and the peace of the earth. Most of 
 the great evils which now give rise to or encourage the tu- 
 mult, disorder, and crime, that destroy the peace of society, 
 maintain their existence by clinging to the garments of civil 
 government. But when these governments are brought un- 
 der a right action, and give their force to the maintenance of 
 virtuous principles, there will be no parleying with vice. The 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 189 
 
 moral pestilence which avaricious and ungodly men, in pur- 
 suit of gain, now inflict upon society, will not then be left to 
 the feeble resistance of moral suasion, as they now urge it 
 should be. This is the plea of those whose occcupation mul- 
 tiplies and spreads the curse of drunkenness, with all its horrid 
 train of fearful and destructive evils upon the land. " Leave 
 " it," they say, " to the force of moral suasion to correct the 
 habits of man," while at the same time they seek and o))tain 
 the sanction of laiv for the support and protection of their 
 traffic, which furnishes the aliment of existence to those 
 habits. This will not be the case when government directs 
 its laws to the maintenance of virtue and religion. The great 
 sources of crime wherever they may lie, or however respect- 
 able they may now claim to be, will then be laid hold on, and 
 the great chain of inexorable law and stern authority will be 
 put around them, and they will find their appropriate place 
 in the bottomless pit. 
 
 This sunmiary and decisive method of dealing with the 
 great parent vices which now defy or elude the power of the 
 law, will characterise the exercise of the civil power in the 
 judgment day ; and we have an illustration of the manner of 
 its proceeding in the opening scene of the next chapter. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 SATAN BOUND AND CAST INTO THE BOTTOMLESS PIT. 
 
 1. And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the 
 key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. 
 
 2. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is 
 the Devil, and Satan, and hound him a thousand years, 
 
 3. And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and 
 set a seM upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more^ 
 till the thousand years should be fulfilled : and after that he 
 must be loosed a little season. 
 
 This vision represents the proceeding of the judgment day. 
 It shows the exercise of unrelenting authority, enforcing law 
 against all workers of evil. Its operations will allow of no 
 indulgence to vice — the great chain is expressive of its inex- 
 orable nature. 
 
 This angel is represented as descending from heaven, as 
 are all those angels whose work promotes righteousness. It 
 follows the gospel dispensation, and deals with men and their 
 crimes in the most summary manner. It lays hold on the 
 dragon, that old serpent, &c. There will be no parleying 
 with crime in that day ; no mild moral suasion — beseechJDg 
 men to desist from their vicious practices. The workers of 
 iniquity will be laid hold on, and will be dealt with promptly 
 and vigorously by the law. 
 
 We have seen, in the preceding chapter, the overthrow of 
 the institutions opposed to the doctrines and spirit of Christi- 
 anity ; and we have seen, to a considerable extent, the con- 
 version of the kingdoms of this world by the power of the 
 
CHAPTER XX. 191 
 
 gospel, under the similitude of bciuf]^ slaiu l)y tlie sword of 
 him that sat upon the horse. ]>ut still the great multitude 
 of men upon the earth join hand-in-hand in serving the cause 
 of Satan, although their ungodly systems have been over- 
 thrown and rendered no longer either influential or 
 respectable. 
 
 Civil governments will then become, in the strongest sense 
 of the term, Christian governments. The kingdoms of this 
 world will then become the kingdoms of God and of Christ. 
 In whatever form these earthly powers will then exist, their 
 great aim will be the suppression of crime and the nuiiuten- 
 ance of virtue. Their law^s will all tend to that end, and by 
 prompt and ample punishments, they will bind down the per- 
 petrators of wickedness — men will not then roam at large 
 paying no regard to the laws of God or man. But then, as 
 well as now, there will be many acts of transgression perpe- 
 trated so secretly, and in various ways, that human law can- 
 not reach ; all such will then be visited by the direct visita- 
 tion of God, in a way not now understood ; probably by the 
 vial poured out into the air ; and the hail, or judgments, of 
 that time will be exceeding great. 
 
 When the arm of human authority is uplifted to strike 
 down the crimes of men, and the invisilile rod of the Al- 
 mighty is employed in punishing the secret transgressor, men 
 will be afraid, and the power and influence of the devil, lead- 
 ing and instigating them to acts of wickedness, will l)e bound 
 with the great chain, and this great spirit of evil will be 
 cast into the bottomless -pit and shut up. The devil will find 
 no agents in that day, w^hen the wrath of God will be thus 
 revealed against all unrighteousness, who will undertake to 
 support his cause ? lie will then be compelled to cease his 
 work of deceiving and destroying the nations. 
 
 How long this process of binding the devil will continue 
 we are not told, but it will be the peculiar work of the day 
 of judgment, and will end in the banishment of all -wicked- 
 ness from the earth. All tares will be gathered up, and all 
 
192 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 tliat offends against the purity and righteousness of God's 
 law will be taken out of the kingdom of Christ, and nothing 
 will be left to disturb the peace, or mar the happiness of 
 men, when the dragon, the old serpent, which is the devil, 
 and satan, is bound with the great chain and shut up in the 
 bottomless pit. 
 
 These different appellations given to the great spirit of 
 evil, comprehend the various operations of his power over 
 men. At one time he throws whole nations into the horrors 
 of sanguinary war ; at another time he shakes the kingdoms 
 of earth by fearful rebellion and anarchy ; and on other 
 occasions he has shaken churches and broken the ties of 
 Christian brotherhood, by discord and schisms. Then again 
 he directs the sword of persecution in the hands of civil 
 power, to the destruction of whole religious communities. 
 
 Under another form, he employs his subtilty in alluring 
 and tempting men to vice in a thousand different forms, by 
 which the peace and harmony of societies and communities 
 are converted into strife and hatred. But the vision repre- 
 sents all this as now brought to an end by the angel taking 
 hold on the grand instigator of them, and binding him with 
 the great chain, and casting him into the bottomless pit, and 
 shutting him up. 
 
 This closes the judgment dispensation ; and this is the 
 happy result which the fiery ordeal of that day will bring 
 about. In short, this closes the probationary state of man 
 on the earth. The power of evil is destroyed — peace and 
 order have succeeded to the discord and strife which formerly 
 reigned, and the righteous are now for ever freed from the 
 presence and influence of evil, and placed beyond the reach 
 of sin and temptation. 
 
 In the nervous language of the text : Laying hold of the 
 dragon, that old serpent, binding him with the great chain, 
 and shutting him up in the bottomless pit, so that he can no 
 longer deceive the nations ; strikingly illustrate the proceed- 
 ing and final result of the judgment day. 
 
CII AFTER XX. 
 
 193 
 
 But tlic moral and intellectual jjowcrs of man do not find 
 their limit with the close of this trying- dispensation. Tiie 
 ending of this day opens the way for a higher and nol)ler 
 exercise of his powers, in a state where man will be freed 
 from all that obstructs and defeats his higher progress in the 
 present life ; the circle of this life has been tilled up, and a 
 higher and wider circle will be thrown oi)en for the greater 
 development of his immortal powers. But more of this in 
 its proper place. 
 
 So long as man retained his original rectitude, the ten- 
 dency of his whole nature was to God. But, after he fell 
 from that state and became involved in transgression, his 
 moral gravitation was changed, and he fell off from God. 
 To recover man from this great apostasy, has ever been the 
 design of the various dispensations through which he has 
 passed, and is still passing, each succeeding dispensation 
 raising him higher, and showing him more of God, and of 
 himself too, than the preceding one did. 
 
 Leaving the patriarchal times, which may be called the 
 starlight age of revelation, we next ascend to the Mosaic 
 dispensation, in which the religion that taught men the know- 
 ledge and the worship of the true God, first became embodied 
 in the form of divine institutions, and God was better known 
 in this dispensation than he was in the patriarchal age. His 
 purity and holiness were represented by the washings and 
 purifications of the ceremonial services, and his justice was 
 heard in the denunciation of his law, while his glory and 
 majesty were seen in the sublime and awful spectacle of 
 the mount that burned with fire. So terribly sublime was 
 that representation of the august presence of God, that 
 Moses, while he looked upon it, said — I exceedingly fear and 
 quake. 
 
 Passing from this dispensation of mingled terror and hope, 
 we next behold God made manifest in the flesh. Christ, re- 
 flecting the glory and attributes of the Father, and pouring 
 upon the world, in the grace and mercy of his mission, the 
 
 VOL. II. — 9 
 
194 'J'LIK APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 Christian day — a day in which the light of the knowledge of 
 the glory of God revealed itself in the face of Jesus Christ. 
 
 This, we are told, is the last dispensation of a probationary 
 character, and it will close with the judgment day, as already 
 described. It will leave man in the highest state to which 
 moral and intellectual nature can be carried in his present 
 life. But the developments of his moral and intellectual 
 powers do not stop or end with the close of this dispensation; 
 he will only then begin to lire. Taking leave of all that is 
 connected with sorrow, affliction, and death, changing his 
 mortality for a state of immortality, and his,.present vile body 
 for a body like unto Christ's glorious body, he will take his 
 place in the new world, where his redeemed and regenerated 
 nature will ever rise and expand, unclogged by the mortality 
 that now depresses him, and untempted and unassailed by 
 evils that now ensnare and embitter his sorrowful life. 
 
 This is the state to which Christ refers in those words he 
 will address to his faithful servants : Cojne, ye blessed of my 
 Father, inherit the kingdom jprejpared for you from the founda- 
 tion of the world. 
 
 This is the glorious climax of existence to which the right- 
 eous are pressing, and where they will be forever distinguished 
 amongst the higher orders of God's intelligent creation. 
 
 This future state of man's glorious being is the subject of 
 the next symbolical representation in this chapter. 
 
 But before we proceed further in the subject, I must meet 
 some objections, growing out of the common belief that the 
 world is to be destroyed by fire, either before or at the judg- 
 ment day. The texts of Scripture chiefly relied upon to sup- 
 port this opinion are the following : Ilenven and earth shall 
 jpass away, but my word shall not pass away. And to you who 
 are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus Christ shall be 
 revealed from heaven, with his mighty angels, in Jiaming fire 
 taking vengeance on them that knotv not God, and thai obey not 
 the gospel of our Lord .Tesus Christ. * * * When he shall 
 come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them 
 
CIIAPTKR XX. 
 
 1 <»ri 
 
 that hdierc in that day. (2 Tliess.) St. Peter uses ljiii,i,niii,i,M' 
 still stronger in his Second Ei)lstle. lie says : The heavens 
 and the earth lohich are noir, by the same word, are kept in store, 
 reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition 
 of ungodly men. 
 
 There is nothing in the words of Christ inii)lying tliat the 
 world is to be destroyed by fire. All that can be inferred 
 from his words is, that the visible creation is subject to mu- 
 tation, and shall pass away, or be so changed in its constitu- 
 tion and properties as to become a new heavens and new 
 earth ; but his word is not subject to these mutations, and 
 shall not pass away. 
 
 The only instance in which he speaks of fire in connection 
 with the day of judgment, is when the tares are gathered and 
 bound in bundles to be burned. But, from what has l)eeii 
 already said of the tares, we know that they are meta})hori- 
 cally spoken of, and, beyond a doubt, the fire which is to 
 burn them can be regarded only in the same light. Christ 
 said on another occasion, / came to send fire on the earth, 
 clearly using the term fire in a figurative sense. 
 
 St. Paul, when he speaks of Christ coming in flaming fire, 
 has no reference to material fire, but to the judgments which 
 will then banish the ungodly from the presence of God, and 
 the glory of his power. He makes fre({uent use of the term 
 fire in connection with the trials, or tests, to which the works 
 of all men will be subjected in that day ; and he says in iiis 
 Epistle to the Hebrews : our God is a consuming fire. The 
 tongue is afire, as St. James expresses it, meaning of course 
 nothing more than to express the mischievous effects of the 
 improper use of that member. These texts, as well as a great 
 many others that might ))e adduced, serve to show that the 
 scriptural use of the term fire, does not always imply material 
 fire. 
 
 But the language of St. Peter is so strong and direct, that 
 we can hardly suppose he could have intended anything else, 
 than that the great change which all scripture concurs iu 
 
196 THE ArOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 saying will pass upon this world, would be attended with fire 
 in some form or other. But even his strong language does 
 not justify the belief that an entire destruction of this earth 
 by fire is intended. St. Peter's language is highly figurative 
 as was the custom with the Jewish writers ; and we shall do 
 neither him nor his subject any injustice by restricting his 
 terms to a meaning which will be consistent with other scrip- 
 ture upon this point. 
 
 That this earth is destined to undergo a wonderful change, 
 no believer in divine revelation will question. The heavens 
 and the earth that now are, will by this change become con- 
 verted into the new heavens and the new earth ; not to be 
 destroyed, ])ut will be physically regenerated. All the evils 
 that came upon the world by man's transgression, will be 
 removed. St. Peter calls it the restitution of all things ; 
 Christ calls it the regeneration ; and how appropriate this 
 term is, will appear, when we consider that all the elements 
 which gave this world its primeval glory and perfection are 
 still in it, but in a state so discordant and chaotic that they 
 cannot be developed. The regeneration, or restitution of all 
 things will purify and harmonise those elements. 
 
 The physical regeneration of the earth is referred to by 
 Christ, in Matt. xix. : Verily I say unto you, that ye which 
 have followed me, in the regeneration, when the Son of Man 
 shall sit in the throne of his glory ; ye also shall sit ujpon twelve 
 thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. This regeneration 
 will take place when Christ shall sit on the throne of his 
 glory ; and agrees with the restitution spoken of by St. 
 Peter, in his sermon in Jerusalem, (Acts, iii. chap.: 21 verse) 
 Whom the heaven must receive until the times of the restitution 
 of all things, which God hath spoken of by the mouth of all his 
 holy prophets since the world began. 
 
 The subject of this regeneration of the physical world is 
 interwoven with all the writings of the prophets, and is the 
 theme of some of the sublimest odes of David. 
 
 The question is not whether such a change is to take 
 
CHAPTER XX. 197 
 
 place, but whetlicr this earth is to be destroyed l)y fire, ac- 
 cordin-^ to the general belief of men. Tlie destruction of the 
 world by the flood is not produced by St. Peter as a parallel 
 case ; but he points to that event to refute the argument of 
 scoffers, who will arise and contradict the wordof God,snying: 
 Where is the evidence, or what circumstances shar that the pro- 
 mise or prediction of ChrisVs coming again vi/l ever be verifcd, 
 seeing that all things remain as they were from the beginning of 
 the creation 1 St. Peter says they are willingly ignorant of the 
 fact that the world had once been overflowed by water and 
 perished. He adduces the overflowing and i)erishing of the 
 v\'orld by the flood as a refutation of their argument : that 
 all things remain as they icere from the beginning ; on which 
 hypothesis they build their infidelity, and aver that no such 
 change in the world as prophecy declares, will ever occur. 
 
 But the language of St. Peter is : T'he heavens and the 
 earth which are now, by the same word, arc kept in store, re- 
 served to fire, against the day of judgment and perdition of 
 ungodly men. 
 
 From this saying has arisen the opinion, that God holds 
 the present world in a state of preservation, until the time 
 fixed in his own purpose shall arrive, when he will utterly 
 destroy it by fire 1 just as a condemned criminal is held in 
 chains until the period when he is to die, when he is brought 
 out and publicly executed. 
 
 I draw a very diff'erent conclusion from these words of St. 
 Peter, whose style is frequently marked by that bold and 
 ardent language so characteristic of himself. lie was ad- 
 dressing an argument to the scoffers referred to, in support 
 of the superintending providence of God over this world ; 
 as if he had said : 27u5 world is not left to move at random, 
 through space, and may or may not fall into ruin again as 
 when it perished by the food ; but it is reserved, sacrerlly guarded 
 and protected, by the same word, or power, which in the begin- 
 ning created it, until the appointed time, when it shall be restored 
 to its original perfection and beauty. 
 
198 TTTE APOCALYPSE UXVKTLED. 
 
 These scoffers might answer the apostle, and urge, that if 
 the waters which filled the interior portion vf the earth were 
 all brought npon the surface, to produce the flood, the gases 
 which would be generated within, producing raging fires in 
 the bowels of the earth, would have consumed it long ago. 
 The apostle meets this argument by saying, that the i:)Ower 
 which created the heavens and the earth, is employed in 
 keeping it from perishing by internal fires. And he also 
 controls the electrical fires of the heavens, so that they are 
 not permitted to destroy those laws necessary to the pre- 
 servation of both the heavens and the earth. 
 
 The various phenomena of fire so frequently seen in and 
 around the earth, may well suggest the idea that the heavens 
 and the earth are in danger of a fiery dissolution. The blaz- 
 ing lightnings, which threaten to consume the whole heavens, 
 and the devouring volcano through which the earth disgorges 
 its fiery plethora, are so many signs of the presence of accu- 
 mulated fires, for which the word or power that has the 
 heavens and the earth in reservation has provided means of 
 escape ; otherwise the heavens and the earth might, indeed, 
 fall a prey to devouring fires. 
 
 To keep up the great chain of cause and effect, we must 
 bear in mind that it was the introduction of sin which pro- 
 duced the flood, and the flood has so changed the heavens 
 and the earth as to expose them to destruction by fire ; and 
 it is the constant exercise of the divine power only which 
 prevents such a catastro})he. 
 
 Now, the question is, for what purpose are the heavens 
 and the earth reserved ? That they may be burnt up, wholly 
 destroyed l)y fire, in the day of judgment and perdition of 
 ungodly men ? A literal interpretation of St. Peter's lan- 
 guage would justify such a conclusion. But is this his mean- 
 ing ? Does he not tell us, himself, of the restitution of all 
 things ? lie does not speak of a new creation, but of a res- 
 titution — that is, recovering ; bringing back to what it was 
 before, something that had been taken away — had gone 
 
CHAPTER XX. 199 
 
 nstrn}' from its orig-iiial purpose* and nj)})roprialecl tiso. St. 
 Peter speaks of the heavens and tlie eartli in conneetion with 
 such a restitution, and for tliat S})eeial design they are hq>f in. 
 store — preserved from destruction hy fire — until tiie apjiointed 
 time of their regeneration, or tlie restitution of all thin;rs, 
 which is the day or period of the judgment and perdition of 
 ungodly men. 
 
 St. Peter gives us a very short description of the grandeur 
 of that scene while the heavens and the earth are passing 
 through the change, which will leave them a suitable abode 
 for the righteous. In the tenth verse of the third cha})ter of 
 his Second Epistle, he says : But the day of the Lord icill 
 come as a thief in the night ; in the which the heavens shall pass 
 away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent 
 heat; the earth also, and the works that are therein, shall he 
 burned up. And in the twelfth verse he continues the repre- 
 sentation in these w^ords : Looking for and hasting unto the 
 coming of the day of God, icherein the heavens, being on fire, 
 shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. 
 
 This will be the passing away of the heavens and the earth 
 from their present state to the new heavens and new earth. 
 All the elements which constitute their present organization 
 will be changed. The heavens, or the surrounding atmos- 
 phere, as the term here means, will probably undergo rapid 
 alterations, and produce astounding explosions, while the 
 various elements are apparently contending for the dominion 
 of the skies. 
 
 The exhibitions of electrical fires in the thunder-storms 
 which are witnessed in our summer mouths, although some- 
 times sufficiently appalling to make the stoutest heart quake, 
 are but a trifle in comparison to i\\Q great noise with which 
 the heavens shall pass away. 
 
 While this change is going on in the heavens, like changes 
 will be seen in the earth. Those fiery outbreaks which now 
 pour their lava from the mountain crater, will not then be 
 sufficient to relieve the earth from the effects of internal fires 
 
200 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 urging their way to the surface. Where one volcano is now 
 seen, many hundreds will probably tlien burst from the bowels 
 of the groaning earth, and, minglhig with the fires that will 
 seem to fill the heavens, and adding the thunders of a thou- 
 sand craters to the deafening explosions of the burning 
 heavens, will fully realize the great noise St. Peter speaks of, 
 and will justify the bold and figurative language he employs 
 when he says : The heavens, being on fire, shall he dissolved, 
 * "^ "^ the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also, 
 and the works that are therein, shall he burned up. 
 
 All this is to be accomplished on this earth and in the sur- 
 rounding heavens. How will it be done ? — and why has it 
 not occurred long ago ? some will ask, since it appears 
 that the heavens and the earth contain within themselves, in 
 their present organization, the elements of this convulsion ? 
 
 How it will be done, by what change those elements will 
 be thrown into such fiery disorder, we are not told. But we 
 are told most explicitly why this event has not occurred be- 
 fore now. St. Peter tells us that the heavens and the earth 
 that are now, are by the word, or power of God, reserved, or 
 preserved — kept in store — in their present state, until the 
 judgment day, when they will be regenerated, purified, and 
 restored to the origiiuil heavens and earth. This is plain 
 enough, surely. The heavens, and the earth on which we 
 live, and in which we breathe, are full of the elements of de- 
 struction ; but these are restrained, kept back, and hindered 
 from devastating the earth, by the power of God, in whom 
 we live, and move, and have our being, also. 
 
 The use that St. Peter makes of these awfully sublime 
 scenes, is to urge the church to be prepared for them, by 
 leading a life of holy conversation and godliness. Looking 
 for, he adds, and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, 
 or judgment day, in which those scenes are to transpire. 
 
 Notwithstanding the terror with which they must strike 
 the world of mankind generally, the apostle speaks to Chris- 
 tians rather exultingly, and tells them not only to look for — 
 
CHAPTER XX. 201 
 
 that is, desire them — but he adds tliat they slionhl be haslivg 
 unto tlie coming- of this day of God, Hke men who arc 
 anxiously pressing on and impatiently urging tlicir way to 
 meet some approaching event intimately connected with their 
 future happiness. This was St. Peter's religion, and no one 
 will object to it in view of these things which he had just 
 described ; and such is the religion that every man may pos- 
 sess if he has the same faith and earnestness tliat St. Peter 
 bad. 
 
 The opinion that the destruction of tlie i)resent earth and 
 heavens by fire is to be an entire destruction, leaving nothing 
 of their present substance, involves the destruction also of all 
 beings, all creatures in the animal as well as the vegetable 
 kingdom. All existences, rational and irrational, that are 
 connected with the present earth and heavens, must be ne- 
 cessarily involved in this universal destruction. 
 
 But does this comport with the sayings of our Savior, 
 wherein he points his followers to the happiness they will be 
 called to in the kingdom prepared for them from the founda- 
 tion of the world ? — when he shall appear in his glory, and 
 all the holy angels with him, and shall sit upon the throne of 
 his glory, then shall his people who have followed him sit also 
 upon thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And I ap- 
 jpoint 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.) 
 Nobody will insist that such language as this is applicable to 
 the present state of man, nor yet can it be understood at all 
 without regarding it as referring to an earthly existence some- 
 how analogous to the present — that is, a material earth and 
 heavens. 
 
 The prophet, in the revelation, explains it so by the song 
 which he heard sung by the great multitude of the redeemed, 
 exulting in the glorious results of the atonement by Christ. 
 For thou wert slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, 
 out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation, and 
 
 VOL II. — 9* 
 
202 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 hast made us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign 
 on the earth — (Rev. v. chap.) 
 
 Tills is conclusive as to the theater of man's future glory 
 and happiness — it is this earth ; not, it is true, just as it is 
 now, but in its renovated, restored state, freed from all the 
 physical evils brought upon it by sin. It will be the new 
 heavens and the new earth by comparison. The whole consti- 
 tution of the present earth and heavens will be converted, so 
 that all the elements which compose them will unite and 
 blend in harmony, and all tend to the perpetuity and happi- 
 ness of man. This was the state of the heavens and the 
 earth when they were first created and pronounced by their 
 Creator very good — so good that God met with and conversed 
 with man, the new sovereign of this lower creation, in his 
 paradisiacal dominion, and angels joined the holy fellowship iu 
 Eden. When the heavens and the earth are restored to this 
 state, when man himself is changed, and his present vile body 
 is fashioned like unto the glorious body of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, when he walks forth in purity and in fellowship with 
 Christ and angels, conscious of immortality, and that grief, 
 nor pain, nor death, can ever again reach his glorified state, 
 will not that be heaven ? It will be immortality and eternal 
 life, at least. 
 
 Having said so much of the restoration of the heavens and 
 the earth to their original state of purity and grandeur ; it 
 will not, I hope, be out of place to indulge in some general 
 reflections upon the moral, the intellectual, and physical cha- 
 racter of the great progenitors of man, who had their origin, 
 and spent their long lives, of many hundred years, in the 
 first earth and heaven. 
 
 Man, in the morning of his being, and in the familiar con- 
 verse he enjoyed with his Maker, must have been fully ap- 
 prised of the high dignity of his nature ; that his moral 
 nature was cast in the very mould of the Deity himself, and 
 that in his intellectual powers he stood next to the angels of 
 God. He must have been familiar with the purpose and end 
 
CHAPTER XX. 203 
 
 for wliieli lie was created, and with tlie wliole economy of 
 God in creating and governing this visiljle universe. His 
 vast and comprehensive intelligence, at once emliraced the 
 knowledge of all that was present, and ojjened to liis view 
 the higher glory and profounder knowledge to which his con- 
 stantly progressive nature destined him, if he maintained his 
 rectitude and obedience to the government which God liad 
 appointed for him. 
 
 Nothing that could strengthen his fidelity and fortify his 
 virtue, was withheld from his knowledge. The kingdom of 
 God, which our Savior says was prepared from the foundation 
 of the world, that is, this higher and more glorious state, 
 was appointed for man after his paradisiacal probation should 
 end. This kingdom was presented to Adam, uot so much as 
 a reward for his obedience in the station he then occupied, 
 as a revelation of the future glory to which his nature was 
 destined. To this kingdom his aspirations were directed, 
 while a consciousness of the high dignity of his nature was 
 relied upon to keep him in a course of due obedience to the 
 government of his Creator. True, he was admonished, that 
 a default of obedience to the divine government, would in- 
 volve a forfeiture of this great and glorious destiny. The 
 principal design of this admonition, was, probably, to warn 
 liim of the existence of the Devil, and put him on his guard 
 against those seductive and dangerous stratagems which that 
 enemy would employ to effect his overthrow. Alas ! the 
 Devil proved successful, and man fell! Then began the great 
 struggle which has ever since been maintained between 
 heaven and hell, for and against the recovery and restoration 
 of man to his original state of holiness and hapj^'ness. 
 
 This struggle will end in the full triunii)h of Christianity, 
 and the restoration of all things in the natural world to 
 their primeval perfection, and man himself to even a higher 
 state of glory than that from which he fell. 
 
 Man's whole moral constitution was perverted and cor- 
 rupted by transgression ; and, as I have ])efore remarked, his 
 
204 THE APOCALYFSE UNVEILED. 
 
 moral gravitation became changed, and he fell ofif from God. 
 His posterity could be no otherwise than like himself, morally 
 corrupt. 
 
 The very brief account given in the Bible of this great 
 apostasy, does not inform us that either the intellectual or 
 physical powers of man were seriously impaired by the fall. 
 And, as his posterity inherited from Adam his corrupt moral 
 qualities, so his great intellectual, as well as his physical 
 powers, must have descended in like manner. 
 
 Adam's knowledge of all things connected with the crea- 
 tion, at the head of which he stood, and of which he was, in 
 a subordinate sense the governor, must have been of an order 
 far above anything known to any other man since the flood. 
 It was in respect to his intelligence that he stood next to the 
 angels, being only a little lower than they. This opinion of 
 his vast intelligence is not a mere conjecture. The history 
 given of the early development of his mental powers corro- 
 borates it. (Gen. ii. chap. : 19, 20 verses) : And out of the 
 ground the Lord God formed every least of the field and every 
 fowl of the air, and hr ought them unto Adam to see lohat he 
 would call them ; and whatever Adam called every living crea- 
 ture, that was the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all 
 cattle, and to the fowls of the air and to every beast of the field. 
 
 It would not be a just apprehension of the design of this 
 part of revelation to suppose that it was merely intended to 
 show that Adam called the different beasts of the field and 
 the fowl of the air by some name, only to distinguish one 
 from another. It should be regarded as a matter of much 
 higher consequence. 
 
 Probably this was the first great subject which God pre- 
 sented to Adam for the exercise of his intelligence, to see, the 
 text says, what he would call them — that is, that he might, 
 by the exercise of his reasoning powers, discover the peculiar 
 properties of the different beasts and fowls, and give to each 
 that name which would best express those properties. 
 
 This trial of Adam's intellectual powers was not made be- 
 
CHAPTER XX. 205 
 
 cause God did not know what he was capable of. He knew 
 what was in man ; })ut it was made in ordor tliut tlie man 
 mij2,'lit himself know the wonderful i)Owers which he possessed. 
 This he could never have known but by the exercise of those 
 powers ; and without a consciousness of his high intellectual 
 nature, he never could have enjoyed that felicity for whieh he 
 was created. Man that is in honor and under standdh [or 
 knoweth] it not, is like the beasts that perish. 
 
 This is true of men in all ages of the world ; their intellec- 
 tual powers are not known to themselves or to others until, 
 as the common phrase is, circumstances call them out. 
 
 This trial of Adam's mental powers must have impressed 
 him with more exalted views of the intellectual greatness of 
 his nature than he would ever have entertained without it. 
 And so long as his moral nature maintained its integrity, his 
 intellectual powers acted in perfect harmony with the high 
 purposes of his creation, and man was necessarily a happy 
 being. But the great moral principle of his nature was sub- 
 verted by the transgression, and his no1)le intellectual powers 
 became not destroyed nor impaired, but perverted, lie ob- 
 liqued from the original rectitude of his nature, and all his 
 vast powers, moral, intellectual, and physical, went off iu 
 wild disorder. 
 
 Such was Adam when he begat children in his own image 
 and likeness. 
 
 His immediate descendants must have received the nature 
 of their parent, and the whole antediluvian race are spoken 
 of as giants — as men of renown — (Gen. vi. 4.) 
 
 These terms, as used by us, have no meaning which even 
 approaches to what they imply in respect to the Antedihivians. 
 
 Their vast intelligence may be imperfectly imagined from 
 the wonderful attainments which have l)een made by some 
 men within the short space of man's present life, oppressed as 
 it is with sorrow, sickness, and haunted by the constant ap- 
 prehension of death. The Antediluvians knew no such ob- 
 
206 THE ArOCALYPSE UXVEILED. 
 
 staclcs to the expansion of tlieir intellectual powers ; they 
 knew nothing of sickness ; disease never fastened upon their 
 bodies, and wasted, by pain and agony, both their mental, and 
 physical energies, and death they probably never thought of. 
 Seven, eight, nine hundred years of vigorous, unimpaired 
 health, must have shut out from their thoughts all calcula- 
 tions about dying. 
 
 Can any adequate conception be formed by the loftiest intel- 
 lect of the present world, of the vast accumulation of knowledge, 
 the prodigious sweep of intellectual effort, made by the gi- 
 gantic minds of those men of renown, whose studies and pur- 
 suits in all the channels of knowledge went on, rising higher 
 and spreading wider for seven, eight, or even nine hundred 
 years ? Who can fathom the depth or imagine the height 
 to which their wondrous knowledge extended ? Everything 
 in nature must have contributed to the enjoyments of those 
 people. The gratification of their senses was probably upon 
 a scale no less various and grand than their intellectual de- 
 lights. 
 
 The fondness for the beautiful and the sublime which 
 clings to man in his present poor, brief existence, is a relic 
 derived from antediluvian ancestry. And we may shadow in 
 our fancy, from the pleasure which this feeling now imparts, 
 wliat must have been the provision made for the gratification 
 of a similar desire in them. 
 
 How prolific and various must have been the productions 
 of the earth in rich and delicious fruits, springing sponta- 
 neously from its bosom, and how enchanting to the eye must 
 have been the infinite variety of verdure and flowers, spread- 
 ing their ever-blooming glories before man, and filling the 
 air with indescribable sweetness, while above and around 
 him was spread an atmosi)here, so equable, so balmy, and so 
 heaven-like, that angels enjoyed its delights in companion- 
 ship with man before he fell. If only these, the greatness of 
 man in his physical and intellectual powers, and the beauty 
 
CHAPTER XX. 207 
 
 and grandeur of nature, had been lost by the fall, would it 
 not have been a deplorable loss indeed ? 
 
 Some great men of the present day have greatly miscon- 
 ceived the character of the antediluvian life, and have said 
 that — " they did not envy them their great longevity — they 
 " had no desire to live to the Methusalan age, dragging out a 
 " protracted existence of consumption, rheumatism and gout, 
 *' and all the fearful host of disorders which now prey ujion 
 " and waste away human life." 
 
 But it is a mistake to suppose the antediluvians knew any- 
 thing about disease, chronic or acute. Their very longevity 
 shows they were not subjects of disease. There was nothing 
 in the climate — nothing in tlie productions of the earth, cal- 
 culated to produce disease. Accident or violence, or the 
 sudden breaking down of the human organization from long 
 use, must have been the only cause of death amongst the 
 antediluvians. 
 
 We can come to no other conclusion, if we consider that 
 man was made to ])e immortal — not designed to be the sub- 
 ject of death ; and the earth, upon which man was to live, 
 and the heavens which was to surround him, must have been 
 made in conformity with this purpose of his Creator. If any 
 element of disease, dangerous to the life or health of man, 
 had been allowed in the creation of his dwelling place, it 
 would have involved a contradiction between the purpose 
 and the works of the Creator. 
 
 If man had continued in his innocency, no violence could 
 have arisen to destroy him ; nor is it probable that any acci- 
 dent would ever have occurred to his injury ; and it is evi- 
 dent that the natural waste of his bodily powers was guarded 
 against by what the Bible calls the tree of life ; wiiicli, nnin 
 being removed from after the transgression, so that he couKl 
 not reach forth his hand and take it and live fur ever ; he was 
 left without the recuperative effects of this provision fur his 
 immortality, and he died by the wearing out of his bodily 
 powers, after sustaining their action for many hunch-ed years. 
 
208 THE APOCALYPSE UNYEILED. 
 
 The duration of man's life was not sensibly diminished until 
 after the flood, showing, that disease, in its various forms, 
 only then began to prey upon the human constitution. 
 
 Noah was six hundred years old in the time of the flood, 
 and he survived that universal desolation three hundred and 
 fifty years. But his sons, and their children, showed the 
 deadly efi'ects of the new state of the earth and atmosphere 
 which followed the flood. Shem lived five hundred years 
 after the flood, cotemporaneously with his father Noah, three 
 hundred and fifty years of that time, from whom he and others 
 of his day must have received a very particular account of 
 the antediluvian world. The posterity of Shem, for three 
 generations, reached less than half the age of Noah, and the 
 three generations succeeding these, experienced a similar 
 abreviation in their ages, reaching not much over two hun- 
 dred years ; and in the next three generations the life of 
 man settled down to the appointed limit of three-score years 
 and ten ; with many exceptions, however, for the old antedi- 
 luvian constitution held on to some of Noah's descendants 
 with much greater tenacity than it did to others. But the 
 average length of postdiluvian life with man is three-score 
 years and ten, against ten and twelve times that many years 
 as the extent of his antediluvian age. 
 
 Upon what ground is this mighty abbreviation of man's 
 life to be accounted for, if not upon the ground of a radical 
 change in the atmosphere in which he lives, and in the pro- 
 perties of the food which the earth now yields him ? And, 
 as no such abbreviation was known until after the flood, the 
 conclusion is unavoidable that the flood let loose upon the 
 world a great amount of natural and social evils, growing 
 out of the curse, which was not experienced by men before 
 that event. 
 
 There is another fact which appears in the examination oi 
 this difference in tlie period of men's lives, before and since 
 the flood, quite important to be noticed. It is this : Noah, 
 the connecting link between the old and the new world, 
 
CHAPTER XX. 209 
 
 lived almost sixty years in Abraham's time ; that is, A lira- 
 ham was sixty years old when Noah died, and Shem, tho 
 glory of Noah's family, who also lived a hundred years the 
 other side of the flood, was cotemporary with Ahrahani, and 
 aetually survived him some thirty or forty years! Now, 
 when the old and the new world are connected in the })er- 
 sons of such men as Noah, Shem, and Abraham, we have 
 no cause to question the certainty of the accounts we have 
 of the antediluvian world, and of the flood which destroyed 
 it. 
 
 I have said already, that the regeneration spoken of by 
 our Savior, and the restitution of all things referred to by 
 St. Peter, point to the recovery of the world to its jtrimeval 
 glory ; and man will be the happy dweller in that world 
 again ; not as he was before, in a state of probation, but in 
 the possession of immortality and eternal life ; again the 
 companion of angels ; nay, more than that, something that 
 Adam never enjoyed — the presence of Christ, in his glorious 
 kingdom, by whom this great redemption was achieved. All 
 the glories of the first heaven will be restored, with the ad- 
 dition of a purity and holiness in the whole nature of man, 
 from which he can never fall. 
 
 The flood was the effect of the curse for man's transgres- 
 sion ; the change of the heavens and the earth, even though 
 it be by fire, will ])e the effect of the redemption by the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, and will accomplish all that is promised in 
 relation to the new heavens and new earth. 
 
 But before we look into this kingdom, let us employ some 
 reflections upon the immediate causes which produced the 
 flood. 
 
 THE DESTRUCTION OF THE WORLD BY THE DELUGE. 
 
 This event is given to us historically, and may with piv- 
 priety occupy, in its investigation, the rational powers of 
 man. 
 
210 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 No one can contemplate that event and its awful conse- 
 quences without feeling a desire to look into the causes which 
 ojjerated in producing it. 
 
 The sin or transgression of man, and the curse of God 
 which followed it, were undoubtedly the primary causes of 
 the flood. 
 
 To suppose that the Almighty, after pronouncing the 
 works of the six days' creation perfect and good, would de- 
 stroy the earth without some cause which, to his infinite wis- 
 dom, was constraining, would be to impute to the Creator a 
 fickleness discreditable even to man. 
 
 The transgression of man brought the curse of God upon 
 the earth as well as upon the violator of the divine law. The 
 whole material universe, it is probable, felt the shock of the 
 Almighty's displeasure, and the changes which were ulti- 
 mately to produce the disruption of the earth then began to 
 operate. 
 
 All the physical effects of the curse were to be brought 
 about by the operation of physical causes — the first impulse 
 or tendency that way being given by God himself, whose 
 mysterious power could as easily change as it could establish 
 the laws of the universe. 
 
 We are distinctly informed in the history of the transac- 
 tions in paradise which took place upon the fall of man, what 
 change was made in the economy God had appointed for the 
 perj^etuity of man's life. Having incurred the sentence of 
 the law, which denounced death as the penalty of transgres- 
 sion, any further access to the tree of lite was denied him, 
 and his immortality then ceased. But death did not put an 
 end to Adam's days for many hundred years after the act 
 which doomed him to die. But the change in the laws of the 
 universe, which was to result in the flood, is not made known 
 to us. Such a change was made, we must suppose, or there 
 could have been no flood, since God did not create the heav- 
 ens and the earth merely to destroy them. Gen. vii. 6, 7 : 
 And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the ear Hi, 
 
CTTAPTKn XX. 211 
 
 and if gricrcfl him. al hn^ heart. And Ihe Lord said, T icill dr- 
 stroy man, ichom I hare created, from the face of the earth : both 
 man and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air ; 
 for it repcnteth me that I have made them. 
 
 The means of effecting this dcstraction of his works were 
 the waters of the flood. 
 
 The long period of nearly two tliousand years which tran- 
 spired from the creation until the Hood, does not opera U- at 
 all against these views. 
 
 Events which are of God's appointment, involving changes 
 in the nature or the relation of the laws which he has estab- 
 lished, are not often precipitated. The progress of his provi- 
 dential designs are for the most part slow, but their results 
 are, nevertheless, as certain as if they were instantaneous. 
 Hence, St. Peter says : One day is, ivith the Lord, as a thousand 
 years. Xor is this delay, in the execution of his word, .s7c/r/.- 
 ness, as some men count slackness. 
 
 The whole history of the antediluvian world is compressed 
 in a very brief space, giving simple facts only which seem to 
 be intended for future amplification by observing natural 
 causes and effects in the phenomena of the postdeluvian 
 world. One of those facts relating to the natural philosophy 
 of the old world, states that the Lord God had not caused it 
 to rain upon the earth ; but there went up a mist from the earth 
 and watered the whole face of the ground. — (Gen. ii. 5, 6.) 
 
 That this was not a mere local circumstance, applicable 
 only to the spot where man first had his being, is obvious 
 from the fourth verse of the chapter, which introduces the gene- 
 rations of the heavens and the earth when they were created. 
 This sentence comprehends the earth and the surrounding 
 atmosphere after their creation, and acting under those laws 
 which the Creator had imi)ressed ui)on them. 
 
 If then there was no rain, but as a sul)stitute for it, the 
 exhalations that constantly arose througli the day, and de- 
 scended in sufficient quantities through the night to water 
 the ground, it follows as an unavoidable inference, that the 
 
212 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 earth could not have held the same position in relation to 
 the sun, l)efore tlie flood, as it now holds. 
 
 The position of the earth must then have been such as to 
 produce a summer-like temperature over its whole surface, 
 from the equator to the poles. Instead of the present 
 oblique position of the earth, varying its poles 23 1 degrees 
 from the horizon, its poles must then have been level with 
 the horizon, and the day and night always equal. 
 
 In this position of the earth, the sun, by its uniform 
 action upon its surface, must have raised an inconceivable 
 amount of vapor ; an aeriform sea must have surrounded 
 the globe on all sides. As the earth, in its diurnal revolu- 
 tions, gradually withdrew its surface from the sun, giving it 
 to the cooling shades of evening ; the dews then descended, 
 first gentle, but as night came on their quantity was gre-atly 
 increased, until they became the mist that watered the 
 ground, Sol sped his fiery chariot through the day, disse- 
 minating heat, then evening came, and from the fountains of 
 the air, pouring copious dew, watered the thirsty earth. 
 
 There could have been no such alternation of seasons at 
 that time as those that make up our year. Summer and 
 winter did not then divide the year. These opposite seasons 
 are not mentioned in the Bible until after the flood, for the 
 reason, I presume, that no such changes in the seasons were 
 known l)efore the flood. 
 
 The flood must have been the consequence of a change in 
 the position of the earth. But how this change was brought 
 al)Out we have no certain information. We know, however, 
 that even since the flood, the poles of the earth have varied 
 237 degrees from a level with the horizon — that we have had 
 winter and summer, with all the variations and fluctuations 
 that now make the climate of the greater portion of our 
 earth harassing and dangerous to human health ; often 
 blighting the fruits of the earth, and casting down the hopes 
 of the husbandman. 
 
 This uncertainty of climate does not prevail in the tropical 
 
CHAPTER XX. 213 
 
 latitudes it is true ; but tlicro too, the efTeets of tlie ^^eiicnil 
 derangement of the physical world are seen and felt in a still 
 more fearful form. There the wild tornado swe('i)s over the 
 earth and marks its track with wide-spread ruin and devas- 
 tation, and whole cities are sometimes suddenly engulfed by 
 the terrific earthquake. 
 
 There is no part of the earth where some sign of the curse 
 docs not appear, and there is no part of it which now bears 
 the impress of its antediluvian paradise. 
 
 A sudden change of the earth's poles, from a horizontal 
 to their present oblique position, was adequate to the pro- 
 duction of the flood. Such a change must have produced at 
 once, over half the earth, the temperatnre known to us as 
 winter ; and the effect would be to convert, suddenly, the 
 whole aeriform sea, hanging over that part of the earth, 
 into water, and precipitate it upon the earth. At the same 
 time, and by the same change in the earth's position, its in- 
 ternal waters probably were forced out of their cavernous 
 depths, and bursting forth, they mingled with the mighty 
 floods descending from the upper regions and drowned the 
 earth. 
 
 The account the Bible gives of the deluge is particular in 
 stating the two sources whence the waters came ; it says — 
 The windows of heaven were opened, and the fountains of the 
 great deep were broken up. The waters came from above the 
 earth and out of the earth. Whereby the world that then was, 
 being overflowed with water, perished. 
 
 This was the flood ; and this was the culminating point of 
 the curse upon the natural world for the sin of man. Here 
 was the grand outbreak of the divine wrath which, almost 
 two thousand years before, had cursed the eartli lor the 
 transgression of Adam. 
 
 It does not appear that the antediluvians lai)orcd under 
 any particular mark of the divine displeasure, except that 
 they died, after a life of many hundred years. But their 
 life abounded so with all the enjoyments peculiar to their 
 
214 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 state, that tbey probably entertained no idea that they were 
 under the malediction of Heaven, nor did they apprehend 
 any such event as the flood. 
 
 Their wickedness is spoken of as not only presumptuous, 
 but extremely aggravating. Noah could tell the generations 
 this side of the flood, all about the conduct and character of 
 the people amongst whom he had spent nearly six hundred 
 years of his life. They, no doubt, jeered him — scoffed at and 
 ridiculed him, and treated his preparation of the ark with 
 infidel scorn, while he preached to them and warned them 
 of impending ruin. 
 
 Speaking of these people, our Savior refers to their being 
 absorbed in pleasures, and wholly sensual in their delights. 
 He says : For as in the days that were hcfore thejlood, they 
 were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, 
 until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and hieio not un- 
 til the Jiood came and took them all away. They believed 
 nothing about the flood, and treated the warnings of Noah 
 with the same sort of contempt that most men of this world 
 now treat the warnings of God's Word. But the flood did 
 come, and took them all away — a very short but awfully com- 
 prehensive announcement of the end of the antediluvian race. 
 
 And just so it will be at the end of the present earth and 
 heavens. Upon the authority of our Savior, in connection 
 with the above texts, he says ; So shall also the coming of 
 the Son of Man be. 
 
 When we consider that it was the act of man that brought 
 the flood upon the old world, some idea may be formed of his 
 importance and consequence in the universe of God. But 
 still higher will our conceptions of his dignity and worth 
 be raised, when we consider the sublime scene of the atone- 
 ment, when the Divinity of Heaven took upon it the mortality 
 of man, and gave assurance of man's restoration to the favor 
 of his Creator, and the enjoyment of that immortality and eter- 
 nal life in the kingdom of God for which he was originally 
 created. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 215 
 
 111 support of the opinion th:it rain did not I'all in the antc- 
 diluxiau world, 1 will present an argument drawn IVoni the 
 covenant wliieli God made with Xoali after the Hood. 
 
 In ahnost every instance where God entered into covenant 
 with man, he provided sometliing as a token wliich shouUl 
 sustam the faith of the man with whom he covenanted in tlie 
 trials of after life, that whenever he looked upon the token, 
 or reverted to it in his mind, he would l)e reassured of the 
 faithfulness of God in the performance of his i)romise. These 
 covenant tokens were sometimes supernatural, and at other 
 times they were the effects of natural laws ; but, because 
 those natural laws had never operated before under such cir- 
 cumstances, their effects, when they did occur, had all the 
 force of a supernatural occurrence, the novelty of their ap- 
 pearance being regarded as miraculous, until their frequency 
 made men familiar with them. 
 
 I will refer to some of these covenant tokens as the best 
 mode of illustrating my meaning. 
 
 In the covenant made with Abraham, recorded in the 
 fifteenth chapter of Genesis, there God made promises to his 
 servant which, in the eye of human reason, were impossible 
 of fulfillment. Whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it ? 
 God had not only told him that his seed should be as the 
 stars of heaven for multitude, but likewise that his j)Osterity 
 should inherit the land or the countries which then spread 
 out before him, stretching away from the rivers to the sea, 
 variegated wuth lofty mountains and fertile valleys, and filled 
 with powerful and warlike nations. To assure Aljraham of 
 the fulfillment of this promise, God a])pointed a very remark- 
 aljle token. Take me an heifer of three years old, and a she 
 goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, ami a tur- 
 tle-dove, and a, young 'pigeon. AH these animals, the })igeon 
 and dove excepted, were divided into two e(pial i)arts, and 
 laid, each piece opposite to its fellow, with a space between. 
 In the darkness of the night, God caused a smoking furnace 
 and a burning lamp to pass through the space between the 
 
216 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 pieces of the slain beasts. This was the token, the particular 
 thing that was to keep up a vigorous remembrance of this 
 covenant in the mind of Abraham and his posterity. The 
 token itself was supernatural, and was not designed to be 
 repeated. 
 
 The whole scene of this wonderful transaction is full of in- 
 struction. The smoking furnace represented the affliction 
 which Abraham's posterity were to suffer while in bondage 
 in a strange land. The sacrifice and use made of the beasts 
 implied that the religion of his descendants would be typical, 
 expressed by animal sacrifice, and the burning lamp showed 
 the blessing that all nations were to experience through the 
 seed of Abraham. The lamp was a beautiful prefiguration 
 of the gospel which was to lighten the Gentiles, and give the 
 knowledge of the true God to all people. 
 
 The early history of Moses affords some examples of re- 
 markable tokens given to strengthen his faith in the promise 
 of God. 
 
 Moses was deputed by the Almighty to negotiate for the 
 release of the Israelites from their bondage in Egypt. He 
 was well acquainted with the difficulty and danger that must 
 attend such an embassy, and he earnestly desired to decline 
 the appointment. 
 
 But, he was made fully sensible of the greatness of the 
 power that would go with him, by the tokens which were 
 exhibited for his encouragement. 
 
 Moses had presented to him — first, the bush, enveloped in 
 fire, and yet was not at all consumed ; then the staff that 
 was in his hand, when he threw it upon the ground, became a 
 hideous serpent, so terrible that he fled from the face of it. 
 Bat when, in obedience to the command of God, he returned 
 and took hold of its tail, suddenly it became the staff again. 
 Tlien his hand was smitten with leprosy, but when he thrust 
 it into his bosom and withdrew it thence again, it was as 
 healthy and perfect as his other hand. These tokens decided 
 
CHAPTER XX. 217 
 
 his purpose, and lie went Imldly into tiie presence of Pluiruoli 
 and demanded the liberation of the Ilehrcws. 
 
 Gideon's faitli and fortitude were likewise established in 
 time of great fear and danger, by the presentation of sensi- 
 ble objects, which could be no otherwise accounted for but 
 by the miraculous exercise of divine power. An irruiition 
 was made into the country of the Israelites, by the Midian- 
 ites and the Amalekites, and other nations, threatening the 
 destruction of the land and captivity of the ])eo[)le. God 
 moved Gideon to prepare an army to meet the multitude 
 that had invaded the land, and promised to give him victory. 
 But Gideon did not feel quite satisfied with the j)romise of 
 success ; he desired a token — something that was visible, to 
 confirm his faith. The manner of this sensil)le token was 
 proposed by Gideon himself. A fleece of w^ool was placed iu 
 the open air, and the token of his success was to consist in 
 its being saturated with dew while the ground remained dry. 
 And it was even so. In the morning, he wrung from the 
 fleece of w^ool a bowl full of w'ater while the ground remained 
 entirely dry. In order to make assurance doubly sure, Gideon 
 solicited that he might once more be favored with a sensible 
 evidence that he was under the guidance and protection of 
 God ; and he proposed that, on the next night, the fleece 
 might remain dry, and the ground should be w^et with dew, 
 just reversing the manifestation of miraculous interposition. 
 It was granted, and the result was according to his own 
 proposition ; the ground all around was wet with dew, but 
 the fleece was perfectly dry. 
 
 Gideon now w^as satisfied as to the result, and he was 
 ready, and actually did, with no more than three hundred men, 
 fall upon, discomfit, and put to route, an army, wliich for 
 multitude could hardly be numbered. Judges, 6 chaj). 
 
 In all these instances, it was evident that the token was 
 something that had never l)een known l)efore ; something 
 singular — strange, and calculated to make lasting impressions 
 upon the mind. Nothing of an ordinary occurrence— nothing 
 
 VOL. II. — 10 
 
218 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 that had been common in these countries would have an- 
 swered the purpose that these tokens were designed to effect. 
 Abraham did not feel assured of the honor and prosperity of 
 his posterity until he saw the miraculous token of the lamp 
 and the smoking furnace. 
 
 Moses it is not likely would have ventured himself in the 
 presence of so haughty and despotic a monarch as Pharaoh, 
 if he had not witnessed the tokens presented to him at Mount 
 Horeb. Nor would Gideon have assailed the camp of the 
 combined nations of the east with only three hundred men, 
 if he had not been endowed with supernatural courage by 
 witnessing the miracle of the fleece of wool and the dew. 
 
 But let us now return to the case of Noah. No one can 
 fully appreciate the lonely and mournful state of Noah's 
 mind after he left the ark. When he entered it, he left be- 
 hind him a world filled with a great and joyous popula- 
 lation ; abounding in sources of intellectual and social plea-" 
 sures. The face of the earth itself, covered with the end- 
 less varieties of its rich and beautiful productions, and all 
 nature smiling in the balmy and salubrious airs of a pure 
 and stormless sky. 
 
 But when he stepped out of the ark after the flood had 
 subsided, what must have been the sorrow and despondency 
 of his mind, as he looked upon the earth and saw no signs 
 of life — no living being, except those he had with him in the 
 ark. 
 
 And when he looked to the heavens he saw the storm- 
 clouds driven over its face by tempestuous winds, and the 
 sun buried in their darkness. The joyous companies of con- 
 stcHations which once glittered and danced in the great vault 
 of tlic night-sky, had become pale, cold, and sickly, glimmer- 
 ing only with a feeble light, just enough to show that they 
 had survived the universal ruin, but with the loss of that 
 brilliancy which once gave the heavens their nightly splen- 
 dor. 
 
 Then, turning his eyes to the earth, he beheld its once fair 
 
CHAPTER XX. 210 
 
 and beautiful surface torn, broken, and riven iiito fcnrfid 
 chasms. Sjjlendid cities, thronged with a gay and active 
 population, and adorned with works of art and elegance, and 
 vast regions, that once gave their varied and rich produc- 
 tions to men, and boundless forests, inhaling the noon-tide 
 heat, and sending forth from their deejjly-shaded recesses a 
 cool, invigorating air in return, were all gone ; and where 
 these once stood, mighty seas now rolled their restless billows. 
 Turbid rivers were seen swelling and rushing onward through 
 valleys which the flood had scooped out. Mountains were 
 piled on mountains, over whose rugged cliffs torrents were 
 leaping and plunging headlong, from precipice to precipice, 
 in the wild uproar of a thousand cataracts. 
 
 What must have been the dread and apprehension of 
 Noah as he beheld this scene of destruction, and how horror- 
 struck he must have been whenever he saw the clouds gather- 
 ing in the heavens, and heard the thunders of the coming 
 storm ! He could feel nothing less than an excruciating 
 dread of another deluge. 
 
 Such would have been the life of terror that he and his 
 posterity would have spent upon earth — trembling with alarm 
 at every cloud that appeared in the heavens. 
 
 But God mercifully relieved Noah and his posterity from 
 such fears, by assuring him that the earth should be no more 
 destroyed by a flood. This assurance was given in the form 
 of a covenant, and the rainbow was the token connected with 
 this covenant. 
 
 We read the covenant in the tenth chapter of Genesis. 
 The purpose of the covenant and the bow are stated thus : 
 And I loill establish my covcnaiit icith you ; neither shall all 
 flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood ; neither shall 
 there any more be a flood to destroy the earth. And God said, 
 This is the token of the covenant ivhich I make between me and 
 you, and every living creature that is with you, for succeeding 
 generations : I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a 
 
220 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 tol-en of a covenant hetween me and the earth. — (11, 12, 13 
 verses.) 
 
 This bow was the visible sign on which Noah was to rest 
 his trust and confidence in the covenant promise that the 
 earth should no more be destroyed by a flood. Would it, 
 then, have answered the purpose of such a token if Noah had 
 ever seen it before ? If this gorgeous arch had ever spanned 
 the antediluvian heavens, would it have been any more than 
 tantalizing his fears to direct his attention to that, and tell 
 him to rest his confidence upon that bow, that there would 
 be no more flood upon the earth ? His answer would have 
 been, " I saw that bow in the former sky, but, nevertheless, 
 " the earth was destroyed by a flood." 
 
 If Noah had ever seen a rainbow, or anybody else had 
 ever seen one before the flood, it would have been utterly 
 useless to offer him that as a relief from his dread of another 
 flood. It was just because no such thing had ever been seen 
 or heard of in the antediluvian sky, that it was selected by 
 God as the token which should free the mind of Noah and his 
 posterity from all apprehension of a recurrence of the de- 
 luge. 
 
 The rainbow is tlie effect of rain. It is nothing super- 
 natural ; but as it was to Noah something entirely new upon 
 thp face of nature, its effect upon his mind was the same as If 
 it had been sui)ernatural. 
 
 The use which God was pleased to make of the rainbow 
 when one was first produced, is a conclusive argument in sup- 
 port of the opinion that rain, as we are now familiar with it, 
 wns not known in the antediluvian age. And if rain was 
 unknown then, and is very common now, how is this differ- 
 ence in the two climates to be accounted for upon any other 
 principle than a change in the position of the earth ? A 
 mist or copious dews supplied the place of rain before the 
 flood, when all things in nature were harmonious, under the 
 order and arrangement which God had pronounced to be 
 very good. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 221 
 
 Tliis brincTS us back to tlie i)oiut from wliidi we started in 
 tins digression. We see that sin has defaced the whole 
 world — swept off the population of the old world, and thrown 
 the earth out of its place, thereby introducing diseases and 
 a thousand physical evils which did not Ijclong to this earth 
 in its primeval state. 
 
 But in the great physical regeneration referred to by our 
 Savior, and the restitution of all things, as St. Peter styles 
 it, speaking of the same event, all those evils are to be reme- 
 died, and the present heavens and earth are to remolded and 
 renovated, and converted into the new heavens and the new 
 earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness only. 
 
 THE MILLENNIUM. 
 
 The banishment of Satanic influence from the earth will 
 bring about a new state of things never known l)efore since 
 the fall of man. In a moral sense, this itself would consti- 
 tute a new heavens and a new earth. Old things will then 
 be done away, and all things will become new. 
 
 This introduces the thousand years' reign of Christ, and is 
 usually denominated the kingdom of God, by Christ and his 
 apostles. It is that state our Savior referred to in the 
 prayer which he taught his disciples, and through them, the 
 whole church — Thy Idngdom come — thy will he done on earth 
 as it is in heaven. Whenever the Christian utters the Lord's 
 prayer, he prays for the coming of the Millennium — for the 
 thousand years' reign of Christ— for the appearing of the 
 kingdom of God! 
 
 What do w^e understand l)y a kingdom, l»ut where the ruh; 
 and autliority of the king are submitted to and obeyed ? 
 But this is not the case in the present gospel economy. By 
 far the greater part of the world, even in Christendom, is 
 opposed to the authority and law of God, and totally disre- 
 gard his word. We cannot, with proi)riety, call the present 
 state of Christianity the kingdom of God. But there aro 
 
222 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 many Christians, perhaps the great majority of them, who 
 never look ])eyond tlie present gospel eeonomy for the king- 
 dom of God ; snpposing that the meaning of Christ went no 
 further than the gospel dispensation, although he tells us 
 plainly that the gospel is the announcement of this kingdom. 
 It calls to all the world and proclaims the coming of this 
 kingdom — it is called the gospel of the kingdom. Therefore, 
 we are to look beyond the gospel for the kingdom of God. 
 
 But I need not have quoted these Scriptures in support of 
 this position ; one declaration of our Savior is fully sufficient 
 to establish it — My Jciiigdom is not of this world. Now whe- 
 ther we understand this world to mean the present mundane 
 system, or the Christian dispensation, in either case the words 
 of our Savior are of equal force. My kingdom is not of this 
 world; and men will understand when they pray — Thy king- 
 dom come, that they are praying for that which is yet to come, 
 a higher and more glorious state of the divine government, 
 than any that has ever appeared before. I will repeat what 
 I have said before, that the Millennium, or thousand years' 
 reign of Christ with his saints, is this kingdom of God. 
 
 The question which divides the church is, whether this 
 reign of Christ will be by his Spirit, or by his personal pre- 
 sence. This question will be discussed in the further progress 
 of the su))ject. It is time now to hear the prophet where he 
 announces the introduction of the kingdom. This will be 
 seen in the first clause of the fourth verse of the chapter. 
 
 4. And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judg- 
 ment was given unto them. 
 
 Of wliom does the prophet speak when he says, they sat 
 upon them ? that is, upon the thrones. Undoubtedly he 
 is referring to those he saw and described in the eleventh, 
 twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth verses of the preceding 
 chapter— the armies in heaven, following Christ, their Lord, 
 This great retinue represents the triumph of the gospel, and 
 the binding and imprisonment of Satan is the result of this 
 triumph. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 223 
 
 Following these events, and in its proper order, the pro- 
 phet now sliows us, in that part of the fourth verse quoted, 
 the opening of the millennium state — the kingdom of God. 
 The terms, thrones and judgment, employed by the prophet, 
 are not to be taken in the restricted sense known to us. 
 They are used figuratively, to convey the idea of powers, 
 dominions and governments ; such, probably, as St. Paul 
 referred to when speaking of what he saw and heard in the 
 third heavens. He says to this effect : It hath not entered 
 into the heart of man, nor hath his eye seen or his ear heard, the 
 things which are appointed for man in that kingdom. The 
 glory and dominion of that state are beyond the highest con- 
 ception of the human mind, and can only be known by divine 
 revelation, as they were made known to St. Paul. 
 
 We will now look at some of the many passages of Scrip- 
 ture which refer to this kingdom. Passing by what the rest 
 of the Jewish prophets have said about it, I shall only pre- 
 sent the vivid picture of it as given by that most extraor- 
 dinary man, Daniel. 
 
 Daniel occupies, amongst his compeers in the Mosaic econ- 
 omy, the same position which St. John in the Apocalypse 
 occupies amongst his brethren, the Apostles of the Christian 
 Church. 
 
 In the explanation of Nebuchadnezzar's dream, Daniel 
 sketched with wonderful precision the prominent features of 
 all the great kingdoms that would rise, or that then existed 
 in the earth, down to the dismemberment of the Roman Em- 
 pire ; and he speaks of the kingdoms that would arise out of 
 the ruins of that vast monarchy, and says : In the daijs of 
 these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom ichich shall 
 never be destroyed ; and the kingdom shall not be left to other 
 people, but it shall break in pieces, and consume all other king- 
 doms, and it shall stand forever. He is more particular in his 
 description of this kingdom in the seventh chapter. I shall 
 quote only the twenty-seventh verse of that chapter, as being 
 sufficient for my present purpose : And the kingdom and do- 
 
224 TlIK APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 minion, and the grmtmess of the kingdom under the whole heaven, 
 shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose 
 kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall 
 serve and ohey him. 
 
 There are two things to be noticed in this description of a 
 kingdom ; tlie first is, that it was set up by the God of 
 heaven, in the days of those khigs, or kingdoms, which w^ould 
 arise out of tlie ruins of the Roman Empire. In the time 
 when these kingdoms were established, and in the exercise of 
 separate and independent sovereignty as kingdoms of the 
 earth, not as hordes of barbarians occupying different portions 
 of the earth. 
 
 These powers were not known in their character of king- 
 doms, referred to by Daniel for more than six hundred years 
 after Christ had set up the kingdom of grace, or had opened 
 the gospel economy amongst men. It is clear, then, that the 
 kingdom of grace established by Jesus Christ while he was 
 upon the earth, cannot be the kingdom of God spoken of by 
 the prophet, which will be set up in the time or in the exist- 
 ence of the kingdoms that grew up out of the ruins of the 
 Roman Empire, since these kingdoms, in the proper sense of 
 the term, had no existence for several centuries after the days 
 when Christ was upon the earth. 
 
 The next point to be noticed is tlmt this kingdom will be 
 set up in the earth, as it ivill break to pieces, and consume all 
 other kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. It shall never be 
 destroyed. It will not be subject to those revolutions which 
 change the present kingdoms of this world ; therefore this 
 kingdom shall not be left to other people; it will be set up by 
 the God of Heaven, and its dominion and greatness shall be 
 given to the saints of the Most High, lohose kingdom is an 
 everlasting kingdom. 
 
 The words of our Savior are very clear in their application 
 to this kingdom, both as to its appointment and his govern- 
 ment over it. 
 
 Verily I say unto you, that ye which have followed me in the 
 
CHAPTER XX. 225 
 
 regemration, ivhen the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of his 
 glory, ye also shall sit upon tivelves thrones, pidging the twelve 
 tribes of Israel. (Matt. xix. 28.) The same promise is repeated, 
 with more fullness, in the twenty-second chapter of Luke : Ye 
 are they which have continued ivith me in my temptations, and lap- 
 point unto yow 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 t riles of Israel. 
 
 This language is so identical with that used by the prophet 
 in the Apocalypse, that we see at once who those are he saw 
 sit upon thrones. 
 
 The government of this kingdom which God will set up is 
 given to Christ — as my Father hath appointed unto me. The 
 supreme authority and power in this kingdom are with Christ; 
 he is at its head, and his followers are appointed by him in 
 the exercise of those functions necessary to the administration 
 of that kingdom. 
 
 That ye may eat and drink at my table. This is a figurative 
 expression, which denotes intimate fellowship and honorable 
 distinction. It refers to the custom of kings when they would 
 confer great honor upon their subjects by admitting them to 
 eat at the king's table and in his presence. All the honor of 
 such an occasion arises from the presence of the king. 
 
 This text is conclusive as to the personal reign of Christ 
 with his saints in that kingdom. The language which assures 
 us of the personal presence of the saints in this millennium 
 kingdom, is as clear as to the personal presence and reign of 
 Christ at the same time. And by what mode of fair inter- 
 pretation can we make the presence of the saints a personal, 
 individual, tangible presence, and explain the same language 
 when it applies to Christ as meaning only a spiritual presence 
 with his saints ? 
 
 If Christ will not appear personally in that kingdom, we 
 have no authority for supposing that his saints will, and 
 the whole of revelation on that subject becomes an unmean- 
 ing fancy. 
 
 VOL. II. — 10* 
 
226 THE APOCALYPSE UNYEILED. 
 
 The eating: and drinking at his table implies the existence 
 of a free, unrestrained intercourse and fellowship between 
 Christ and his people in his kingdom. 
 
 In what respect would the thousand years' reign of Christ 
 differ from his reign in the gospel dispensation, if the tormer 
 is to be a spiritual and not a personal reign ? This present 
 gospel economy is the reign of Christ, by his Spirit, in the 
 hearts of his people. But we must divest scripture language 
 of all sense and meaning, if the thousand years' kingdom is 
 not to be something that will greatly differ from the gospel 
 dispensation. 
 
 The presence of Christ with his few followers in the 
 beginning of Christianity, was not designed to be perman- 
 ent. Indeed the history of his life shows us that the suc- 
 cess of the gospel in the w^orld, required that his personal 
 presence should not be continued on earth. 
 
 He said himself: Nevertheless^ I tell you the truth, it is 
 eiyedlent for you, that I go away ; hut I icill send the Com- 
 forter to you. The Comforter, which is the Holy Spirit, sup- 
 plies the place of Christ's personal presence with his people ; 
 since all the instruction, comfort and encouragement w^hich 
 the personal presence of the Savior could impart to men in the 
 present life, are received by his church from the presence and 
 in-dwelling of the Holy Spirit. That power w^iich is mighty 
 in pulling down the strongholds of Satan and reproving 
 wickedness in high places, but is nevertheless invisible to the 
 eye, and not to be reached by the jealous and excited powers 
 of earthly kings. If there was a personal embodiment of 
 this power, those kings would lose no opportunity of laying 
 violent hands upon whomsoever would avow himself the 
 author of a religion that so boldly rebuked their wickedness, 
 as Ahab sought to lay hands on Elijah, for a similar reason. 
 It was, therefore, necessary for the Church — necessary to the 
 ])rogress of Christianity, that Christ should go away. He 
 hud given, in his miracles and his death, and resurrection, as 
 strong i)roof as could be given of the divinity of his religion. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 221 
 
 A lifetime of miracles in addition, would have added notliinK 
 
 as evidence, to the truth of his gospel, but would have only 
 excited and chafed the pride and passions of the wicked 
 rulers of this world. Even his feeble and obscure disciples 
 became objects of hate and vengeance to the haters of the 
 new religion ; and his apostles, whose motto ever was, to 
 obey God rather than men, were made to dwell in jails and 
 dungeons, wear the chains of cruel and despotic power, and 
 then suffer the horrors of the martyr's death. 
 
 Such would have been the conflicts with ungodly power, 
 that Christ would have been continually exposed to by main- 
 taining his personal presence with the church in the world. 
 He must either have yielded his life, as he did to the first 
 blow of his enemies, or have destroyed their lives by his 
 almighty power ; which would have given to the gospel an 
 aspect utterly incompatible with the forbearing mercy and 
 good-will to man, which is its true character. 
 
 The hearts of his disciples were oppressed with sorrow on 
 learning that he should leave them ; but, besides consoling 
 them with assurances of the Comforter, whom he would send 
 to take his place in the church, he also addressed these words 
 of consolation and tenderness to them : Let not your heart 
 be troubled ; ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Fa- 
 therms house are many mansions; if it were not so I uwidd have 
 told you. I go to jprepare a place for you. And if I go and 
 prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto 
 myself, that where I am there ye may be also, John 14 chap. : 
 1, 2, 3 verses. 
 
 This is the saying which assures us of our restored fellow- 
 ship with Christ, and that we shall be like him — for we shall 
 see him as he is. Tliese are the words of Christ himself ! 
 can we have higher autliority ? This is the great tap-root 
 of that tree of hope from whose ever-fruitful branches, tlie 
 humble follower of liis Lord gathers daily fruit, strengthen- 
 ing his faith and confirming his hope, that where his Lord 
 is there he shall ])e also. 
 
228 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 And whouevor the reader of these pages looks into his 
 Bil)h', and reads tlie confident dedarations of the apostles : 
 Wi shall sec /urn as he is. Our rile body shall be fashioned 
 like unto his glorious body. When he who is our life shall 
 app'ar, then tee also shall appear ivith him in glory. Now we 
 beseech you brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 and by our gathering together unto him ; and many other such 
 passages ; let him know that they all spring out of that 
 word of comfort which our Savior dropped into the hearts 
 of his sorrowing disciples — / will come again and receive you 
 unto myself, that where I am there ye may be also ! 
 
 The doctrine of the personal reign of Christ on the earth 
 in the thousand years, was familiar in the early period of the 
 church. It must have been so, if we take the testimony of 
 Scripture. This doctrine was announced by the two men in 
 white apparel ; angels they were undoubtedly, under the 
 garb of men, at the very time that Christ left the world and 
 ascended to his Father. (Acts, 1 chap.: 9, 10 and 11 verses.) 
 And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was 
 taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight. And 
 while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, be- 
 hold, two men stood by them in white apparel ; which also said, 
 " ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven ? this 
 same Jesus, ichich is taken up from you into heaven, shall so 
 come in like manner as you have seen him go into heaven. 
 
 St. Paul, in the grand and forcible manner usual with him, 
 ottered a declaration to the same effect. 1 Thess. 4 chap.: 
 IG, IT: For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a 
 shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, 
 and the dead in Christ shall arise first. 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. 
 
 It should not surprise us that this comforting doctrine was 
 lost from the churcli, when we consider the deep apostasy, the 
 great falling away which this same apostle predicted would 
 
CHAPTER XX. 229 
 
 happen to the church. It commenced, as we have seen, in 
 the fifth century, and continued to grow deeper and darker 
 until the beginning of the sixteenth century. Not only was 
 this doctrine swept away in this flood of apostasy, but almost 
 every other doctrine taught l)y the word of God was super- 
 seded by idle traditions and the teachings of men of corrupt 
 minds. 
 
 The Reformation has restored much of the fine gold of gos- 
 pel doctrine which the church had lost by her apostasy ; and 
 as this light continues to shine brighter and spread more ex- 
 tensively over the earth, men will see in its doctrines every- 
 thing that is calculated to elevate man, and bring him into a 
 happy state of union and fellowship with Christ. 
 
 It-will be objected by some, who will say that the kingdom of 
 God cannot apply to the thousand years' reign of Christ, be- 
 cause he said to his disciples the kingdom of God is within 
 you. True, the principles of the kingdom of God are in every 
 regenerated man, but in an embryo state. They are sown in 
 his moral nature, and in their operation they fit the man for 
 the kingdom of God ; and when he enters the state with 
 which these principles connect him, in that congenial clime 
 they will then have their fuller expansion, and will unite him 
 with his Lord when he shall appear in his glory. 
 
 If we carry with us in our contemplations of the thousand 
 years' reign what the people of God are in this dispensation, 
 afflicted, tempted, distressed, and persecuted, and what Christ 
 was in his short sojourn upon earth — buflfetted, despised, a 
 man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief — and what the 
 governments of the earth were — cruel, oppressive, and perse- 
 cuting — we shall find great difficulty in bringing our minds 
 to comprehend how the thousand years of the reign of Christ, 
 with his saints, upon earth can be possible. But the apostle 
 says, in reference to that state. It doth not yet appear ichat we 
 shall he. As if he said, the things in the present dispensation 
 are so infinitely below that glorious state, that not even a 
 remote comparison can be formed from them of what we shall 
 
230 THE APOCALYPSE UXVP:rLED. 
 
 bo. Only one Unn^ is certain, and tliat is, we shall be like 
 him, for we shall see him as he is. 
 
 I have thus far attempted to establish the doctrine of the 
 personal reign of Christ in the millennium state. But all has 
 not been said on that point that might be adduced. Further 
 observations on diflerent characteristics of the thousand years' 
 reign, will add, incidentally, other arguments in favor of it. 
 
 All Christians admit that where Christ is, there his follow- 
 ers will be. But they say, that is in heaven — after the 
 heavens and earth are burned up, and the day of judgment 
 has pronounced a final sentence upon every individual of 
 Adam's race. 
 
 Enough has been already said upon the day of judgment. 
 I have shown it to be a dispensation of the law — the day or 
 period of time alluded to by the apostle in his first Epistle to 
 Timothy, chapter 4:14, 15 : That thou keep this conwiandment 
 without spot, unrebukeable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ : which in his times he shall show, ivho is the blessed and 
 only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords. This ex- 
 ercise of Christ's power and display of his majesty, in subdu- 
 ing the powers and dominion of earth to his will, precedes the 
 millennium state, as I have shown. But the earth is not 
 burned uj), for the thousand years' reign is upon the earth; 
 and it will surprise many of my readers when I say, that this 
 thousand years'' state is heaven, and they will be still more 
 amazed at being told that we dwell in a heaven now. 
 
 To make this quite clear, it is only necessary that we should 
 entertain a proper apprehension of the meaning of the term 
 heaven. The term has two general significations, the one 
 moral or spiritual, and the other material. Whom have I in 
 heaven but thee ? says the Psalmist. The heaven is my throne — 
 Isa. 66 : 1. Whom the heaven must receive until the times of 
 the restitution of all things — Acts 3:21. For we know if our 
 earthly house of this tabernacle ivere dissolved, ice have a build- 
 ing of God, an house, not made with hands, eternal in the. 
 heavens, [or the eternal heavens] — 2 Cor. 5:1. 
 
, CHAPTER XX. 231 
 
 In all these instances, the terra heaven, or heavens, has a 
 spiritual signification ; and in the following texts, a material 
 signification must be supposed : Job, 15 chap. : 15 : Yea, 
 the heavens are not clean in his sight. Psalms 19 : 1 : The 
 heavens declare the glory of God. . Isa. 55 chap. : 9 : For as 
 the heavens are higher than the earth. 
 
 But the point I wish to establish is this, that every dis- 
 pensation which embodies in it an appointed system of means 
 for the exercise of the moral government of God over man, 
 is properly designated by the term heaven, or heavenly. And 
 where such a heaven is established, there is the throne of 
 God, as he says in Isaiah : The heaven is my throne — mean- 
 ing that God's government is exercised there — throne im- 
 plies government. 
 
 In the Epistle to the Ephesians, the apostle expresses the 
 work of grace wrought in us by Christ Jesus, as putting us 
 in heavenly places ; chap. 1:3: Blessed he the God and 
 Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all 
 spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Chap. 11 : 4, 
 5, 6 : But God who is rich in mercy, for his great love where- 
 with he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened 
 us together with Christ; and hath raisei us up together 
 and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. 
 Chap. 3 : 10 : To the intent that now, unto the princi- 
 palities and powers in heavenly places, might be known by 
 the church, the manifold wisdom of God. The meaning of 
 the apostle in this text is, that the secular powers — the gov- 
 ernments of this world, which exist together with the insti- 
 tutions of Christianity, may be made sensible of the wisdom 
 and mercy of God in the salvation of men, by, or through 
 the church — the holy life and conversation of her meml)ers. 
 
 Thus is the present dispensation styled heaven ; and in 
 the Psalms, and other writings of the proi)hets and good 
 men of the Jewish dispensation, the same term of designa- 
 tion is applied to that economy. 
 
 But the thousand years of Christ's reign with his saints 
 
232 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 \^ill be heaven, in an infinitely higher degree than either the 
 Jewish or the Christian dispensation. 
 
 Having readied this state in the Apocalyptic disclosures, 
 I shall make it the subject of more particular remark. 
 
 I have kept before the reader, the great subject of pro- 
 gression, in the divine government of God over the world ; 
 and the constantly progressive powers of man's moral and 
 intellectual nature ; these are the causes of the successive 
 and more elevated dispensations through which the world is 
 passing. These progressive changes in the moral and intel- 
 lectual world do not strike the common observation of men, 
 as sudden and unexpected events do. They are best known 
 by the grand results which they produce in the great and 
 beneficial changes derived by society from these results. 
 
 The great improvements in the arts, and new discoveries 
 in science, have produced the steamships, the railroads, and 
 the magnetic telegraph. Probably, very few men knew to 
 what extent the improvements and discoveries in the arts 
 and sciences had extended, until these wonderful results pro- 
 claimed it. And just so it is in the moral progression of 
 the world. Mankind, generally, have no distinct perception 
 of the extent to which this has reached, by what they see 
 around them ; nor will they know, until the great results 
 wliich are to arise from this progression shall proclaim it. 
 Tlje light and influence of the divine government over the 
 world must Kliine brighter and Irighter to the ^perfect day, 
 tlien the whole world will become lighted with the moral glory 
 of the kingdom of God, as the sky is lightened by the 
 lightnings that sliine out of the east even to the west, fill- 
 ing the whole heavens with its brightness. Tlie infinite 
 creations and dominions of tlie Almiglity, are a subject too 
 vast for tlie grasp of man's intellect in his present state. He 
 is not able to comprehend, by the strongest effort of his 
 mental jiowers, even the world that he lives in, which is but 
 a speck in the boundless dominions of God. 
 
 1 am far from supposing the sovereignty and benignity of 
 
CHAPTER XX. 233 
 
 the Almighty found their full exercise in the creation of this 
 world, and in recovering it after it fell from its allegiance to 
 him. 
 
 The revolt of man from the government of his Creator, 
 no doubt led to events in the divine economy which would 
 never have occurred if this revolt had not taken place. 
 
 The intercourse and communication which Christ had with 
 his disciples and the people, during his sojourn upon the 
 earth, reveal to us the fact of his pre-existence before he 
 came into this world ; and even before the creation of this 
 world. The glory which he had with the Father before the 
 world was, he spoke of while he was yet with his disciples, 
 and it is not presumptuous in man to suppose, that this glory 
 consisted in the exercise of divine sovereignty in the govern- 
 ment of those many mansions, which he informed his disci- 
 ples were in his Father's house. 
 
 Those mansions are but imperfectly thought of, if they are 
 regarded as mere convenient places of abode for the righte- 
 ous who once dwelt upon earth. The idea intended by our 
 Savior no doubt was, that they were thrones, dominions and 
 powers of inconceivable grandeur and glory, to a finite mind, 
 with which his sovereignty had been connected before he 
 came into this world, and which he had left for a short season 
 to execute the embassy of mercy to fallen man. Having 
 completed this work of divine compassion he left the world 
 again, substituting for his personal presence with his church, 
 the presence of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 The apostle speaking of Christ's coming into the world 
 employs language not only in harmony with these views, but 
 represents his appearance amongst men as a temporary sus- 
 pension of the dominion which he exercised- over the higher 
 order of intellegences before the world was : For your sakes 
 he was manifested in these last times. He who was rich, for 
 your sakes became poor. 
 
 Christ laid aside the glory of his power and dominion 
 which he had with the Father, and clothed himself in the 
 
234 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 habiliments of humanity. The riches of unspeakable majesty 
 were dispensed with, and the loneliness and poverty of man 
 were assumed in their place. He came amongst men as a 
 man — partook, with them who followed him, of their scanty 
 fare — journeyed with them by day and rested with them by 
 night ; and while he mingled his tears with theirs in the 
 scenes of this world's sorrows, he would talk to them in 
 words that made their hearts burn with joy. 
 
 In this way the mercy and counsel of Heaven were brought 
 to bear upon this revolted portion of God's creatures. 
 
 But with this appearance of meanness and poverty in the 
 man Christ Jesus, there were occasionally such outbreaks of 
 the divinity that was concealed under this outward appear- 
 ance of frail humanity that electrified his disciples, and caused 
 tliem to exclaim with amazement, what manner of man is 
 til is 1 
 
 Christ merely referred to those mansions, in conversation 
 with his disciples, as a suggestion, which their deeper expe- 
 rience and knowledge in the things of God, in subsequent life, 
 might dwell upon. It is evident he did not enter into any 
 particular explanation of them ; these were, probably, among 
 the many things he had to say to them which-they could not 
 hear at that time, their moral vision being too feeble to bear 
 the strong light of such revelations. 
 
 But he distinctly informed them that he was going away 
 in order to prepare a place or mansion for them. And if I 
 go and prepare a place for you, I will return and receive you to 
 myself, that where I am there ye may be also. 
 
 He refers to this gathering of his people with him in al- 
 most the same language, in the three evangelists : And he 
 took the cup and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, 
 Drink ye all of it. But I say unto you, I will not drink hence- 
 forth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it 
 fieto with you in my Fathcr^s kingdom — Matthew and Mark. 
 Luke gives the same account, witli some slight variation, 
 (chap. 22) : Ami when the hour was come he sat doicn, and 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 ^35 
 
 the hcrelvc. apostles with him. And he said unto them, xcith desire 
 I have desired to eat this passover ivith you before I suffer. For 
 I say unto yon, I will not any more eat thereof until it he fid- 
 filled in the kingdom of God. And he took the cup and gave 
 thanks, and said, Take this and divide it among yourselves. For 
 T say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until 
 the kingdom 'of God shall come. 
 
 Eating and drinking bread and wine, literally, cannot be 
 intended by our Savior in these words ; but the effects of the 
 atonement are referred to, and the bread and wine are here 
 used as the symbols of the atonement. 
 
 The effects of the atonement are righteousness, and joy, and 
 peace, in the Holy Ghost ; and the apostle says the kingdom 
 of God consists in these, not in meats and drinks. 
 
 If the texts previously quoted to prove the personal reign 
 of Christ with his saints in this kingdom are not considered 
 sufficient for that purpose, surely these words of our Lord are. 
 If there will be no personal presence of the Savior with his 
 disciples, when in that kingdom they enjoy the full fruits or 
 effects of the atonement, then there could have been no such 
 presence when he administered the last solemn supper, with 
 the assurance that he would resume it with them in the king- 
 dom of God. 
 
 But the difficulty does not lie in believing that the people 
 of God will enjoy the personal presence of their Savior when 
 they enter into the kingdom of God : this is promised as the 
 reward of the righteous. The difficulty is in reconciling their 
 minds to the belief that the thousand years' reign is this 
 kingdom. They cannot make that kingdom, which it is here 
 contended is to be on earth, consistent with tlieir views of the 
 infinitely glorious heavens — the very abode of the great God 
 himself — where they have ever supposed the saints are to look 
 for their future home. 
 
 This difficulty, however, will disappear, if we pay attention 
 to what the Bible teaches on this subject. 
 
 Daniel speaks of this kingdom of God as being set up in 
 
236 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 tlio days of tlio kingdoms which arose out of the dismember- 
 ment of the Roman Empire. And he fmlher says : The 
 saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the 
 kingdom forever, even forever and ever. 
 
 Others of the Jewish prophets as well as Daniel spoke of 
 the kingdom of God that should come ; and the belief and 
 expectation of the people that such a kingdom was to appear 
 in the earth, was so well settled, that when it was spoken of 
 by our Savior and his apostles no explanations were ever 
 made in relation to it. Indeed none were necessary, for it was 
 the invariable custom of the Jews to imbue the minds of their 
 children with a knowledge of their scriptures ; so that the 
 whole nation was educated in their doctrines and in their 
 moral teacliings. An instance of this national sentiment, that 
 the kingdom of God was to appear, is mentioned in the his- 
 tory of Joseph of Arimathea, who was an honorable counsel- 
 lor, and who went boldly unto Pilate and craved the body 
 of Jesus, that lie might place it in his own tomb. It is said 
 of this man that he also waited for the kingdom of God. His 
 knowledge of this kingdom was not derived from the teach- 
 ings of Clirist, for Joseph was a Jew, one of the Sanhedrin : 
 his knowledge of this kingdom was derived from the Jewish 
 prophets. Tlie first preaching of Christ was to announce the 
 coming of this kingdom. Mark, cliap. 1 : 15, 16 : Now, after 
 that .John was •put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching 
 the gospel of the kingdom of God. The word gospel, means 
 glad tidings. There was no written gospel then as there is 
 now ill the New Testament Scriptures ; and the meaning of 
 the text is, Christ preached, or proclaimed the glad tidings of 
 tlie coming kingdom of God. When he retired into a desert 
 place, the people followed him, and he spoke unto them of the king- 
 dom of God. His instructions to his first preachers were, to 
 heal the sick, and say unto the peo[)le, the kingdom of God is 
 come nigh unto you. 
 
 Tlie whole church was instructed by our Savior, in the 
 prayer which he taught his disciples : to pray for the coming 
 
CHAPTER XX. 237 
 
 of the kingdom of, God— 7% kingdom come Tlie idea 
 amongst Christians, that the gospel system is this kingdom 
 of God, spoken of by our Savior so frequently, and that the 
 miraculous effusion of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pente- 
 cost, was the opening and setting up of that kingdom, is 
 entirely erroneous. The gospel system, as it is called, is 
 designed to qualify man for that kingdom ; it teaches us 
 what we are to do to enter into that kingdom, and holds up 
 the lamp of life to direct our steps througli this world, to 
 that more glorious state of man's existence on the earth. 
 This has been the whole scope and design of Christianity, 
 and will be until the end of the gospel day comes, when its 
 eiforts will cease, and those who have followed its light and 
 have been saved by its teachings, will take their place in 
 the kingdom of God. 
 
 We frequently meet with such sayings as these, in the 
 words of our Savior : The Hngdom of God is at hand — The 
 kingdom of God is come nigh itnto you — Thou art not far from 
 the kingdom of God. He refers in the first two sayings, to 
 the order of God's dispensations, and not to any particular 
 limit or period of time. The kingdom of God is at hand, or 
 has come nigh unto you, because it will succeed and be next 
 in order to the Christian dispensation, which has now com- 
 menced ; and he said to one : Thou art not far from the 
 kingdom of God ; he referred to those principles of faith and 
 righteousness which he saw growing in the heart of that 
 individual, and which would result in qualifying him for a 
 place in that kingdom. 
 
 Whenever the Lord speaks of taking possession of his 
 kingdom, he invariably speaks of himself as co?}iing for that 
 purpose, not that his people are going to that kingdom, but 
 that he is coming again, to receive them to himself. When 
 the Son of Man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels 
 with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory. 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 
 
238 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 sit nn thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. By virtue 
 of the heirship spoken of by the apostle — heirs of God and 
 joint heirs with Christ, the saints of the Most High will pos- 
 sess the kingdom and reign conjointly with Christ. This is 
 the opening of the glorious kingdom of God, given to us in 
 the words of our Savior himself ; and the prophet, in the 
 Apocalypse, reflects the same scene from his prophetic mirror, 
 with the grandeur of majesty itself: And I saw thrones and 
 they sat upon them, and jiidgment was given unto them * * * 
 and they lived and reigned with Christ Oj thousand years. 
 This is the great company of the redeemed, which the pro- 
 phet saw and heard, in the fifth chapter and tenth verse, as 
 the grand chorus rolled out from their innumerable harps 
 and trumpet songs — Thou hast redeemed us to God by thy 
 blood, out of every kindred and tongue, and people and nation ; 
 and hast made us unto God, kings and priests : and we shall 
 reign on the earth. 
 
 The design of the Creator in bringing this world into ex- 
 istence was, that his glory might be manifested by an order 
 of intelligent beings, only a little lower than the angels. 
 Docs not Christ say this in the language which he will 
 address to the righteous when he shall sit upon the 
 throne of his glory? — Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit 
 the kingdom prepared for you from (or at) the foundation of 
 the world. The world was founded, and the magnificent 
 drapery of the visible creation was hung around it, to be 
 the abode of beings created in the image and likeness of 
 God. 
 
 This is the same earth that Adam dwelt upon, in the purity 
 and simplicity of his paradisiacal state ; the same earth that 
 the antediluvians inhabited for seventeen hundred years, 
 amongst whom Enoch walked with God three hundred years. 
 It is the same earth that was drowned by the flood ; the 
 same earth that the Son of God came from heaven, and 
 dwelt u[)on in humble companionship with men — the same 
 earth in which he attested his power and Godhead by mira- 
 
CHAPTER XX. 239 
 
 cles, then yielding up his life on the cross, and rising again 
 from the dead and living and conversing with man as he had 
 done before his crucifixion ; then, in their presence, ascend- 
 ing up into heaven out of their sight ! and it is the same 
 earth on which he will appear again the second time, in glory, 
 when the kingdom of God will come, and his people will be 
 forever with their Lord. And I will say further, that there 
 is no revelation made to us in the word of God, of man's 
 future happiness, that is not limited to this world — this ma- 
 terial universe. I do not say that man's eternity of bliss is 
 to be enjoyed in this world alone, but I say that the revela- 
 tions of the Bible in respect to this future happiness, does 
 not reach beyond this world. Future revelations will be 
 made to him on this subject, as the enlargement of his spir- 
 itual capacities will enable him to comprehend them. 
 
 Having, as I think, clearly established the connection be- 
 tween the thousand years' reign of Christ with his saints, 
 and the kingdom of God, showing them to be one and the 
 same, and that this earth will be the theater of that glori- 
 fied state of the saints — I now proceed to show, more at 
 large, what we learn from Scripture, to be the purpose of 
 that kingdom, and what will be the physical or sensible 
 appearance with which it will come. 
 
 The present gospel dispensation is not calculated to effect 
 the full attainment of man in the great spiritual perfection 
 for which he was created. It answers the end of its appoint- 
 ment in teaching the way to this perfection, and providing 
 the means and helps to put man forward in that way. 
 
 Clogged as the soul of man is with the cumbrous weight of 
 mortality, with temptations and allurements of the senses, the 
 pain and agony of disease, and the ties and sympathies which 
 bind him to earthly interests, it is impossible for him in such 
 a state to attain the maturity of those powers and principles 
 of his nature which are to give him his rank next to angelic 
 beings in the order of the divine government. He must oc- 
 cupy another position, where he will be freed from such em- 
 
240 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 barrassments, and where every circumstance and influence 
 that will surround and affect him, will promote his purity and 
 expand his immortal nature. 
 
 The apostle, in the thirteenth chapter, 1 Cor., argues to 
 this same point. He there contrasts the two states, and sets 
 forth in strong colors the superior advantages of the next 
 state over the present one, in perfecting the moral and spiri- 
 tual nature of man. 
 
 He begins this contrast at the eighth verse, and states that 
 all our worldly attainments will fail and vanish away. And 
 to give a distinct idea of the imperfection of all that man can 
 acquire in the present life, he says : We knoic in jpart only ; 
 ICC see through a glass darkly, and of course can have but an 
 imperfect view of things ; using objects of sense to illustrate 
 spiritual things ; and those objects of sense, seen through a 
 darkened or discolored glass, give us a very imperfect idea of 
 their true form and proportions, so spiritual subjects are but 
 partially understood even by the most enlightened under- 
 standings. But this will not be the case in the next world, 
 or the next state of man's existence. There we shall see eye 
 to eye, and ice shall know even as we are known. 
 
 The apostle further illustrates the superior condition of 
 man in that world by the natural growth and expansion of 
 the human mind in this present life. He says : When I urns 
 a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought 
 as a child ; hut uhen I became a man, I put away childish 
 things. His argument is this, that in the next state in the 
 next world man will be as much superior in moral and intel- 
 lectual greatness to what he is now, as manhood here, in the 
 richness and maturity of its intellectual powers, is superior to 
 the condition of childhood. 
 
 In the present state we know in part, we prophecy in part, 
 because, from the nature of things and the constitution of 
 man, everything is imi)erfect. But when that state which is 
 jicrfect shall come, then that which is in part, or imperfect, 
 will be done away, and man will enter into that state of being 
 
CHAPTER XX. 241 
 
 where his moral and spiritual powers will meet with no ob- 
 struction to their development, and his physical nature will be 
 in harmony with the glorified body of his Lord. 
 
 The apostle, in these illustrations, is reasoning upon the con- 
 tinuous being of man, and shows what he is in tliis world, and 
 what the same man will be in the next world ; and from his 
 reasoning we must conclude that the moral and spiritual per- 
 fection of man's nature is not to be looked for in the present 
 world. In his Epistle to the Philipi)ians, (chap. 3,) the 
 apostle gives his own experience on this subject, and most 
 distinctly says 'that he had not attained to this perfection, 
 and clearly intimates that he does not expect it here. He 
 says : This one thing I do, forgetting those things ichich are 
 behind — not looking for the full development of my moral and 
 spiritual nature in the present dispensation, and reaching forth 
 unto those things which are before — / jpress toward the mark 
 for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. His 
 whole soul seems to be engaged in urging itself onward to 
 that state where his perfected nature will ever enjoy the glo- 
 ries of the high calling which God has given to all men iu 
 Christ Jesus. 
 
 The vehement desire — the earnest pressing forward to the 
 things before, or in the future state, expressed by the apos- 
 tle, were very appropriate to him ; for St. Paul was the 
 only man, perhaps, who was ever favored with so full a vision 
 of that state, and permitted to return to earth again. I 
 shall merely give the apostle's own account of that vision 
 now, but will make further use of it hereafter. In the 12th 
 chap., 2 Cor., he says — I knew a man in Christ above fourteen 
 years ago, (lohether in the body, I cannot tell ; or whether out 
 of the body I cannot tell : God knoweth,) such a one caught up 
 to the third heavens. And I knew such a man (whether in the 
 body or out of the body, I ca7inot tell : God knoweth.) How 
 that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable 
 words, which it is not lawful for a man to fitter. 
 
 No one doubts that St. Paul was the man here spoken of. 
 
 VOL. II. — 11 -^* 
 
242 THE APOCALYrSE UNVEILED. 
 
 He gives a sufficient reason for not proclaiming himself as 
 the man who was caught up to the third heavens, and the 
 things he heard and saw there. He says it was not lawful 
 for a man to utter what was heard there, meaning the whole 
 vision, or the revelation thus made to him. It would have 
 been very unsafe for the apostle to have repeated what 
 he saw and heard in the third heaven ; for his countrymen, 
 the Jews, were still burning with indigaation against Christ, 
 whom they had recently crucified, and if St. Paul had told 
 them that he had seen Him they had put to death on the 
 cross, enthroned in glory, they would have put him to death 
 likewise. The apostle's ministry would have been at an end 
 with the Jews if he had uttered what he saw ; it was there- 
 fore expedient that he should be cautious in speaking in his 
 public ministry of the things that had been revealed to him. 
 The sim])le story he told of his miraculous conversion, ex- 
 cited their passions, and they cried out — Jlway with such a 
 fdlow, it is not Jit that he should live. 
 
 Throughout St. Paul's writings, when he speaks of the 
 next world, he speaks with the directness and familiarity of 
 its glory and perfection, that we should expect from one who 
 had seen it all. He tells us of the spirits of the just made 
 perfect there ; and of the glorious body of the Lord Christ, 
 and that flesh and blood, or man in his present nature, can- 
 not inherit or exist in that kingdom ; and many other things 
 he says of the next state of man's being, which w^e do not 
 find in the writings of the other apostles. 
 
 St. Peter refers to those bold and lofty descriptions of his 
 brother apostle, expressing his admiration of the wisdom of 
 Paul's writings, especially of the profound knowledge he 
 evinced in all those things that St. Peter had just spoken of 
 in the five or six preceding verses of the chapter, and says, 
 there are some things in Paul's Epistles hard to be understood. 
 Because, they refer to those scenes which were revealed to 
 the apostle in the third heaven — subjects that no human 
 mind could ever have discovered. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 243 
 
 But the glories of the next state of man's l)ein_ti:, to;i:ptlier 
 with some idea of the order and j:^overnment wiiicii will clia- 
 racterize it, were to be a part of the gospel teaching — the 
 church was to be indoctrinated in the nature and design of 
 the third heavens, or the kingdom of God, so far as it could 
 be made known to man in his present state. It was there- 
 fore proper, that the apostles should receive those mysterious 
 revelations, that they might use them in instructing the 
 church. 
 
 St. Paul designates his vision both by the third heaven 
 and paradise, corroborating what I have said respecting the 
 regeneration of the earth and the restitution of all things, 
 when the world would be restored to what it was when it 
 came from the hand of the Creator, who pronounced it — 
 very good! It was there — Paradise ! And the thousand 
 years' reign will be also the third heaven. The Jewish econ- 
 omy was the first heaven — the Christian dispensation is the 
 second heaven — and the kingdom of God, or the thousand 
 years' reign of Christ, will be the third heaven. This third 
 heaven St. Paul was made acquainted with by the vision he 
 speaks of. 
 
 His was not the only revelation made to man of the future 
 glory of the saints, but, it was probably the most comprehen- 
 sive and particular. The glories of the next world were very 
 partially revealed to Peter and James, and John, long before 
 the vision of St. Paul. 
 
 This great apostle says, he was as one born out of due 
 time. The other apostles had lived in familiar intercourse 
 with the Lord — had been taught the purpose of his mission 
 and the doctrines of salvation from his own mouth ; and had 
 received, while the Savior dwelt amongst them, a revelation 
 of the kingdom of God. But, although St. Paul had not 
 enjoyed any of those early advantages which fell to the lot of 
 bis brethren, he tells us that deficiency was fully made up to 
 him by revelation. He had also seen Christ, who mercifully 
 arrested him and spoke peace to him, while on his way to 
 
244 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 persecute the saints at Damascus ; aud then he was also 
 made personally acquainted with the kingdom of God, by tlie 
 unspeakable grandeur of his exaltation and vision, in the 
 third heaven. 
 
 The revelation made to the three disciples above-named, 
 of the outward glory of the kingdom of God, is recorded by 
 Matthew, in these words : For the Son of Man shall come in 
 the glory of his Father, with his angels, and then he shall re- 
 ivard every man according to his icorks. Verily, I say unto 
 you, there he some standing here which shall not taste of death 
 till they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom. 
 
 The evangelist immediately proceeds to show how this say- 
 ing was fulfilled : 
 
 1. And after six days, Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John, 
 (his brother,) and bringeth them up into a high mountain 
 apart, 
 
 2. And was transfigured before them : and his face did shine 
 as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light. 
 
 3. And behold there appeared unto them Moses, and Elias 
 talking with him. 
 
 4. Then answered Peter, and said unto Jesus, Lord, it is 
 good for us to be here : if thou wilt, let us make here three, 
 tabernacles : one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias. 
 
 5. Wliile he yet spake, behold a bright cloud overshadowed 
 them, and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my 
 beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased ; hear ye him. 
 
 6. And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their face, 
 and were sore afraid. 
 
 The first impressions made upon the mind of the disciples 
 by the commencement of this manifestation were impressions 
 of joy. But as the representation increased in its glory, and 
 they beheld the face of their Lord kindling into the bright- 
 ness of the sun, and his raiment growing into a fabric of 
 pure light, then, looking \\\) and around, they saw the whole 
 mountain canopied by a cloud, with the very brightness of 
 heaven in it ; and while it filled everything about them with 
 
CHAPTER XX. 245 
 
 its unearthly efFulgence, a voice, as unfamiliar to human cars 
 as the cloud was to human eyes, announced, in tones of thun- 
 der, this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased : hear 
 ye him, their joy was converted into dread, and, no longer 
 able to look upon a scene of such overwhelming magnificence 
 and grandeur, they fell upon Jiheir faces, amazed and con- 
 founded. 
 
 St. Peter makes use of this august scene, to confirm his 
 words respecting the coming kingdom of God in his second 
 Epistle: For we have not followed cunningly-devised fables, when 
 we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, but were eye-witnesses of his Majesty ^ * * * 
 when we were with him in the holy mount. 
 
 This was but a miniature representation of the outward or 
 sensible appearance of the kingdom of God, restricted and 
 adapted to mortal eyes ; and yet mortal eyes could not en- 
 dure the sight. If even this small glimpse of the glory which 
 will fill and distinguish the kingdom of God could not lie 
 looked upon by mortal eyes, well might St. Paul say, flesh 
 and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. 
 
 In order to dwell in that kingdom, we must have a physi- 
 cal organization adapted to its glories : we must have bodies 
 of very different powers and capabilities from those we now 
 possess. The image of the earthly cannot be borne there ; 
 we must bear the image of the Lord from heaven ; yea, we 
 must be like unto his glorious body. This is the resurrection 
 body. 
 
 The next inquiry connected with this subject is, who will 
 dwell in this kingdom of God, and with what body will they 
 come ? This leads to some reflections upon the resurrection, 
 which will occupy a separate chapter. 
 
 THE FIRST RESURRECTION ; OR, RESURRECTION OP THE JUST. 
 
 From what I have said on the subject of the millennium, 
 it will appear that the resurrection is the epoch in man's 
 
246 THE APOCALYPSE UX VEILED. 
 
 existence which introduces it. It cannot be supposed, that 
 so great an event in the being of man, as his Resurrection, 
 or his new life, would have been left out of the visions of the 
 Apocalypse. The glorified state of man's existence, after 
 his present mortal life, is evidently intended to be represented 
 in the fourtli verse of the twentieth chapter. Christ and 
 his apostles have said much on this subject, and held it up 
 as a fundamental doctrine of the Christian religion ; and the 
 Apocalypse, as I have before remarked, seems to be a pic- 
 torial, or scenic, representation of what they taught. 
 
 4. And I saw thrones, and they sat iijponthem, and judgment 
 was given unto them. And I saw the souls of them that were 
 hchcadcd for the witness of Jesus and for the word of God, and 
 which had not worshiped the beast, neither his image, neither had 
 received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands, and 
 they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. 
 
 The prophet by this description of those he saw living and 
 reigning with Christ, does not refer to the martyrs only ; 
 this worship of the beast and his image, and bearing the 
 mark of the false religion which they represent, draws the 
 line of distinction between the godly and the ungodly. And 
 to the righteous only, does the prophet's description apply. 
 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection. 
 
 If it is contended that this is merely an allegorical resurrec- 
 tion, and means nothing more than the ultimate triumph of 
 Christianity over the errors and superstition of all false reli- 
 gion — what will be said of the second resurrection which 
 takes place at the end of the thousand years ? That must 
 be allegorical too ; and, if both are so, there would be no 
 resurrection at all. And if the first-described resurrection 
 is alh"g<jrical, and the last one literal, then there would be a 
 resurrection of the ungodly only — and no resurrection of the 
 just ! But what does Christ say, and his apostles, on this 
 subject? All they say is summed up by the prophet in this 
 sliort sentence of the sixth verse : Blessed a7id holy is he that 
 Juitli part in the first resurrection — that is, the just — the righ- 
 
CHAPTER XX, 247 
 
 teous — the children of tlie kingdom only are the subjects of 
 this first resurrection. And, to make the distinction more 
 emphatic, the prophet says, in the fifth verse : But the rest 
 of the dead lived not again, until the thousand years were 
 finished. 
 
 Christian doctrine, as well as the history of earthly gov- 
 ernments, are represented in the Apocalypse in symbols, 
 figures and metapliors, when they can be represented in that 
 way. But, can we conceive of any figure or metaphor, that 
 could adequately present the resurrection to our view ? There 
 was but one way in which the resurrection could be seen, 
 and that was in the simple facts as given by the prophet : — 
 Once I saw the people of God 'persecuted and cruelly tormented 
 by men, their navies cast out as evil, and themselves banished 
 from their country and kindred, and beheaded [a general term 
 for martyrdom] for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. 
 But now I behold litem in the kingdom of God, living and 
 reigning ivith Christ a thousand years. This the only repre- 
 sentation the prophet could give of the resurrection — this is 
 all that he could say about it. And while he gazed upon 
 this scene of the future and glorious life of the righteous — 
 looking out upon it from the solitude and banishment he was 
 then suffering for the testimony he had borne to the truth 
 of Christianity, what transports of joy must he have experi- 
 enced under the assurance that he would have his portion 
 amongst them ? — that the solitude of Patmos would be ex- 
 changed for the unspeakable glories of the kingdom of God — 
 the thousand years' reign with Christ and his saints. 
 
 As this vision represents a subject of greater interest to 
 the church than any other that has yet been under our notice, 
 I wish to enter upon its discussion understandingly. And, 
 the first point to be settled is : what is meant by the resur- 
 rection ? 
 
 This question to the generality of Christians may seem to 
 be a very singular one, and they at once answer it by saying : 
 " Why, does not everybody know that the resurrection 
 
248 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 " means the rising again of the bodies of all the dead at the 
 "day of judgment, according to the words of the Lord? 
 " All that are in their graves shall hear the voice of the Son of 
 " Mnn and shall come forth 1 " 
 
 This is the popular opinion of the resurrection, and it is 
 precisely the opinion tliat was entertained of it by the Jews, 
 as far as tliey Ijclieved in the resurrection at all, and it has 
 come down with the current of Christian belief with such 
 force that it will require a strong effort to stem the current, 
 and overcome its effects upon our judgment and our faith. 
 
 That the Jews and early converts to Christianity held 
 opinions on this subject not entirely free from error, we must 
 infer from the words addressed by our Savior to Martha, on 
 the occasion of her brother's death ; as well as from the 
 elaborate and philosophical argument in which St. Paul vin- 
 dicates the true view of that subject, in his epistle to the 
 Corinthian Church. 
 
 When Christ assured Martha that her brother should rise 
 again, she replied, according to the Jewish belief respecting 
 the resurrection : I know that he shall rise again in the resur 
 rection at the last day. Jesus answered her and said : I am- 
 the resurrection and the life. 
 
 Now, if Martha's belief had expressed all that was em- 
 braced in a proper view of the resurrection, what necessity 
 was there for these words of our Savior ? He evidently intended 
 to give the mind of his infant church a new direction and a 
 new impulse, and to prepare it for the fuller instruction that 
 would be given in the apostolic days on that subject. 
 
 To answer the preliminary question above stated, I will 
 say, that the resurrection is simply a change in the mode of 
 man's existence. And I hold that the present body of man, 
 which dies and goes to corruption, will never be reanimated ; 
 it will never perform the functions of life again. It has 
 served its purpose in carrying the man through his mortal 
 state ; l)ut as it has no adaptation suitable to the immortal 
 state — that state which flesh and blood cannot inherit or 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 249 
 
 dwell in— it is laid aside, or exchanged for a new body fash- 
 ioned like nnto Christ's i^-lorious body. 
 
 This probably explains the sense of Christ's words to 
 Martha : he is the model or standard of the resurrection or- 
 der of existence, according to the illnstration which he gave 
 to the three disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration. 
 
 But the very brief account which our Lord gave to the 
 Sadducees of the resurrection state, shows it to be a state of 
 existence so different from the present, that all idea of the 
 present body must be utterly excluded from that state. We 
 will hear our Savior's words about it. The Sadducees denied 
 the resurrection in any form whatever, and they attempted to 
 refute this doctrine of the Christian faith by adducing the 
 case of the woman who had been the wife of seven husbands, 
 saying to Christ, Whose wife will she be of the seven in the re- 
 surrection ? 
 
 The reply of the Savior was : Ye do err, not knowing the 
 Scriptures nor the poicer of God ; for in the resurrection they 
 neither marry nor are given in marriage, hut are as the angels 
 of God in heaven. 
 
 In this exposition of the ignorance of this unbelieving sect, 
 we learn that the next state of man's being will bring him 
 into a resemblance to angelic beings. His moral likeness to 
 them will be in their angelic purity, and in their superior hi- 
 tellectual powers, while the physical organization of the re- 
 surrection man will be like unto the glorious body of his 
 Lord. Of course, the passions, the appetites and desires of 
 the present body, will make no part of the resurrection life, 
 nor can this body in any way serve the superior interests of 
 that life. 
 
 The apostle, in his Epistle to the Corinthians, in the fif- 
 teenth chapter, lays this down as an indisputable principle, 
 that the corruptible body which the man now wears is not 
 the body that he will appear in in his resurrection state. This 
 is his position, and he argues at length in that chapter to 
 establish it. 
 
 TOL. II. — 11* 
 
250 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 It is very evident that he is contending against some erro- 
 neous views on the subject of the resurrection entertained by 
 Christians ; and from the direction which the course of his 
 argument takes, we see very clearly that the error consisted 
 in supposing that this present body is to identify the man iu 
 his resurrection state just as it does in the present life. 
 
 I need not reiterate the fifteenth chapter of the first Cor- 
 inthians — it is easy to refer to it. I will only take such 
 points of the apostle's argument as apply directly to the ques- 
 tion before us. 
 
 A part of the chapter is employed in refuting the Saddu- 
 cees who, no doubt, followed up the church in different 
 places with their old heresy on this subject ; but he after- 
 wards refers to those wiio, admitting the resurrection, could 
 not conceive how man, who lived in a mortal body here, could 
 ever live in any other body than the present one, even in the 
 next world. To remove such doubts and difiiculties from 
 men honestly inquiring after truth, the apostle's argument is 
 in point. 
 
 The cherished idea that the resurrection will restore those 
 mutual ties and friendships which now make the society of 
 this world delightful to us, but which wdll be severed by 
 death, is probably the greatest difiiculty w^e have in giving 
 up these present bodies, in which we have known and loved 
 our earthly friends, for bodies of wiiich w^e are not able to 
 form any conception. The impression which such a change 
 makes upon us is, that with these new bodies we should be 
 estranged from one another, and the ten thousand incidents 
 of the ha])py hours of life in this world would be lost, and 
 with them nmch of the happiness of the resurrection state 
 ■would be lost. 
 
 No doubt, the happiness of heaven, with a great many very 
 good Christians, has Ijeen too much mixed up with scenes and 
 occurrences of the present life — too much earth has been car- 
 ried to heaven in our thoughts to be used in making up its 
 felicities. But let these pass with one remark : it will be 
 
CHAPTER XX. 251 
 
 impossible to lesson our ha})i)iiiess by any oxcliiinge we may 
 make of eartlily tiling's for those that are heavenly. 
 
 The second branch of the apostle's argument is addressed 
 to those who hold the opinion that the present body would 
 rise again ; and their difficulty in believing in any other resur- 
 rection is expressed in the question they ask. Their question 
 may be paraphrazed thus : " If the present body is not raised 
 " again, how are the dead raised up, and with what body do 
 ** they come ?" 
 
 The apostle meets the inquiry with an expression which, in 
 our language, would hardly be civil, and certainly not courte- 
 ous. But this polished and refined embassador of Christ 
 meant nothing offensive in the use of the term fool. Thoiu 
 fool, (he said, but the understood meaning of the word, when 
 he spoke it, was simply the want of an understanding,) thou 
 dost not understand this subject. I will illustrate it by things 
 natural and familiar. Then he goes on to show the process 
 of vegetation — the gay and fragrant flowers we so much ad- 
 mire, the rich and luxurious fields that wave their golden har- 
 vests and bless the husbandman with an abundant reward for 
 his toil. None of these, he says, are the body thou sowed. 
 That body, or seed which thou sowest dies and goes to cor- 
 ruption ; but that which thou seest is a body that God 
 giveth it : the beauty, variety, and excellence, which rise 
 from the small seed cast into the earth, while it shows the 
 miraculous power of God, who gives it this body, is at the 
 «;ame time a fit illustration of the superior excellence and glory 
 of the resurrection body over the decaying and corrupt body 
 of man's mortality. 
 
 The apostle then proceeds, by a series of antitheses, to 
 show that the resurrection body is not tliat body in which 
 the saints shall appear in the kingdom of God. 
 
 The term raised, as used by the apostle, has a wrong appli- 
 cation given to it by literal resurrectionists. They hold thai 
 this new body must come out of the grave, because the apos- 
 tle says, it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. 
 
252 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 &:c, ; and they conclude that, of necessity, the same body 
 that was sown must be the body that is raised, with some 
 slight changes or modifications. But this is entirely opposed 
 to the illustration he has given from the process of vegeta- 
 tion. The seed, he says, that was cast in the earth, died, 
 was decomposed, and resolved into separate elements, and 
 was no longer a seed or body. It did not come up above 
 ground again, and then undergo the changes and modifications 
 which produced the splendid flower or the nutritious wheat, 
 &c., with all the rich variety of forms and colors with which 
 they are adorned. 
 
 The apostle gives a rapid sketch of the difference between 
 the two bodies : It is sown in corru/ption, it is raised in incor- 
 ruption ; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory ; it is sown 
 in weakness, it is raised in porcer ; it is sown a natural body, if 
 is raised a spiritual body. 
 
 The terms sown and raised are to be regarded as terms of 
 accommodation adapted to our present views and feelings re- 
 lative to the death of the body. 
 
 But if we clothe the true meaning of the apostle in terms 
 appropriate, his language would be : *' The body of man dies 
 " and goes to corruption ; but the same conscious, intelligent 
 " being, shall appear in glory with Christ in an incorruptible 
 " body. His body, in this life, is dishonored by loathsome 
 " disease, becomes offensive and disgusting to his best friends 
 " so soon as^death fastens upon it ; but in the next world he 
 " will appear in a glorious body, never to be touched by dis- 
 " ease or death. It is here a feeble body, its strength last- 
 " ing but a few days, and his childhood and old age mere 
 " weakness — a mere natural body, and as such, subject to 
 " the wastes and decays common to natural things ; but 
 " when he a})pears in his next state, to reign with Christ a 
 " thousand years, he will have a spiritual body, and will be 
 " as the angels ; he will live in undying vigor, and flourish 
 " in immortal youth." 
 
 Such is the difference between the body in which we now 
 
CHAPTER XX. 253 
 
 dwell and that we are to have in the day of Christ's appear 
 ing. 
 
 Looking at the two states as the apostle has contrasted 
 them to our view, we lament the idle fictions with which 
 poetry has distorted the sublime and giorious scenes of tlie 
 resurrection. 
 
 A certain poet has entertained his readers with a flight of 
 different members of the human body, whirling through the 
 air, or dragging themselves over battle-fields, looking for their 
 fellow-members — the head looking for the body, the body 
 looking for its limbs, and the limbs looking for each other. 
 How shockingly have men trifled with the word of God, and 
 clothed revelation and Christianity with an attire the most 
 absurd and ridiculous ! 
 
 There are yet some other views of the resurrection given 
 by the apostle in this wonderful chapter to the Corinthian 
 Church, which I -will just add by way of completing the ar- 
 gument. 
 
 He says : There is a natural body ami there is a spiritual 
 tody. Adam illustrates the natural body and Christ the 
 spiritual. The first man Adam was made a living soul, the last 
 Adam was made a quickening spirit. He then gives the order 
 in which the two stand : Howheit that was 'not first which is 
 spiritual, hut that which is natural ; and afterward that which 
 is spiritual. He is now showing the two states of man's ex- 
 istence on the earth. The first man is of the earth, earthy — 
 that is, Adam, from whom we derive our present mortal body. 
 The second man is the Lord from heaven — that is Christ, who 
 came down from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also 
 that are earthy ; and as is the heavenly, such are [or will be] 
 they also that are heavenly. Now the conclusion — And as we 
 have borne the image of the earthy [in our present state of 
 mortality] we shall also bear the image of the heavenly; in our 
 next state. And he concludes the whole with this declara- 
 tion : JVow this I say bretliren — that fiesh and blood mnnot 
 inherit the kingdom of God. This corruptible matter of which 
 
254 THE APOCALYPSE UXVEILED. 
 
 our present bodies are composed — oiir earthy nature, never 
 can be conformed to the image of the Lord from heaven. 
 We shall leave these in the dust of the earth whence they 
 came, and enter the kingdom of God with bodies spiritual, 
 powerful, glorious and immortal, like unto the glorious body 
 of the Lord from heaven. 
 
 I have said that the resurrection is a change in the mode 
 of man's existence, and death is not necessary to this change. 
 Tiie resurrection state will be entered by multitudes who had 
 not known death. This is established by another disclosure 
 which the apostle makes to the whole church — Behold, he 
 says, / show you a mystery! We shall not all sleep. All 
 Christians wull not have died, and be sleeping in their graves 
 when this appearing of Christ shall take place. But we shall 
 all be changed ! in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the 
 last trump ; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall he 
 raised [or appear] incorruptible, and ice shall be changed — 
 shall be brought into the same incorruptible state without 
 passing through death. For this corruptible — [those that 
 are dead] must put on incorruption, and this mortal [the living] 
 must put on immortality. This change conforms us to the like- 
 ness of the glorious body of the Lord from heaven; and this is 
 the resurrection. Job does not contradict the views I have 
 expressed on this subject, when he says — In my flesh I shall 
 see God — if his meaning is properly taken. Job, 19th chap. 
 
 Job was an instance of that light, which through succes- 
 sive ages of the world has now and then flashed* upon the 
 darkness of its moral night, arresting the low and sensual 
 current of men's thoughts, and giving them a heavenly direc- 
 tion. He lived in a day of small revelation, and of imper- 
 fect views of the providential dealings of God with men. The 
 well-meant, but inai)plicable counsel of his three friends shows 
 this to have been the true state of religious knowledge, even 
 amongst the l)est of his cotemporaries. 
 
 The history of Job is a volume of instruction. There is a 
 moral grandeur in it which distinguishes him amongst the 
 
CHAPTER XX. 255 
 
 men of that far-off day. We sec liim tlirown Riifldciily from 
 the higliest state of wordly prospi^rity into abject poverty ; 
 his health gone and his body wasted and sliattered l)y con- 
 suming and tormenting disease. Tlie ease and splendor which 
 attended oriental wealth, were exchanged for the gri(!f and 
 destitution implied by sitting in tlie ashes. And, in place of 
 the affection and sympathy which usually consecrate the 
 couch of the sick husband ; and, instead of the tear of sorrow, 
 which in silent eloquence responds to the groan of the sufferer, 
 he hears the rough tones of impatience and peevishness from 
 her who had been the glory of his house and the light of his 
 heart — Curse God and die.! 
 
 His three friends, in their religious zeal, wholly mistaking 
 his case, harass his righteous soul by pressing upon him in- 
 applicable truths. With inimitable patience he hears their 
 lectures, and modestly points out their error. But they are 
 not convinced that their wisdom is at fault, and redoubling 
 their efforts, they urge guilt upon the patient sufferer — with 
 the intimation that he was a dissembler ; and, although he 
 had concealed his crimes from man, yet he could not deceive 
 God, whose judgments had arrested him for them. 
 
 Stung by these cruel insinuations, and despairing of con- 
 vincing them that they were ignorant of his moral condition; 
 his righteous soul, swelling with pious indignation at the un- 
 kind treatment of his friends, and forgetting the pains of his 
 body in the keener pains of his wounded spirit, he exclaims : 
 You treat me cmelly, you falsely impeach my integrity; hut I 
 know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the 
 latter day upon this earth. And though after my skin, worms 
 destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God. 
 
 In this expression, uttered by Job, under circumstances 
 of extraordinary trial, we see his entire behef in the future 
 state ; and that in the day when there will be no mistake 
 about character, he will stand justified before his Redeemer. 
 Although this body will become the food of worms, and 
 will pass into corruption, yet with my present consciousness 
 
256 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 of what I am, 7 shall see God ! That was knowing enough 
 and savini? enougli for the occasion. 
 
 No revelation had been made before the days of the apos- 
 tles, as to the body in which the saints will appear in glory. 
 Job, not having any special revelation on this subject, as the 
 apostles had, long after his day, employed such language in 
 expressing his faith in a future life as was consistent with 
 the imperfect views of his time. 
 
 Jol) had just uttered the decree of nature's law, as applic- 
 able to all flesh — Dust thou art and unto dust shall thou re- 
 turn — the worm and corruption shall consume this body ; 
 yet, he says : in my flesh I shall see God. Reason and 
 revelation both suggest the meaning of Job to be — yet in a 
 suitable body ; with a full consciousness of my individual 
 nature and being, I shall see God. 
 
 As before said, it was not revealed in the days of Job 
 what body the saints should wear in the resurrection state. 
 That was reserved for the light of the gospel day. Life 
 and immortality are brought to light by the gospel. What 
 was darkly, or but dimly seen on this subject in former 
 times, is now made luminous. Hence we do not hear the 
 apostles in their day speaking as Job did, in vague and 
 uncertain terms, as to what the body of the saints will be 
 in the resurrection ; they boldly declare the truths of a later 
 revelation — Flesh and blood [or this mortal body] ca7inot 
 inherit the hingdom of God. We shall be lihe him, for we shall 
 see him as he is. He shall change our vile body that it may be 
 fashioned like unto his glorious body. Our vile body shall be 
 exchanged for a glorious body like unto his. 
 
 The resurrection of the dead, is the common scripture 
 phrase ; l)ut the resurrection of the body, is a term not used 
 by our Lord or his apostles. The apostle, in the argument 
 addressed to the Corinthian Church, speaking of the resur- 
 rection, does once use the word body; but he qualifies it 
 by saying, it is a spiritual body — It is sown a natural body, 
 it is raised a spiritual body. 
 
CHAPTKR XX. 257 
 
 The sense in which the apostle should he understood in this 
 argument is, that he is speaking of mankind as an order of 
 boiiigs, existing in a mortal l)ody, ada})tod to its present state; 
 and that this body is constantly falling to the earth by death, 
 as the seed is sown broadcast upon the ground. Thus, he 
 says : it is sown in corruption — it is sown in dishonor — it is 
 sown in weakness — it is sown a natural body. These are 
 the characteristics of the being in his present mortal state, 
 but when he appears in his immortal state, the body he will 
 then wear will be incorruptible — glorious, powerful, and 
 spiritual. It will not be the present body, reconstructed and 
 remodelled ; it will not be the material of the present body 
 converted into spirit ; but it will be a new creation, as dif- 
 ferent from this body as the Lord from heaven differs from 
 the first man who was of the earth, earthy. As God giveth 
 to the seed a body of beauty and richness, and fragrance, 
 that made no part in the seed that was cast into the earth, so 
 will he give to man in his resurrection state, a body — incor- 
 ruptible, spiritual and glorious. 
 
 It will be objected to this view, that it does not harmonise 
 with the words of our Savior, speaking of the resurrection 
 in St. John, 5 chap. : 28 : Marvel not at fJtis, for the hour is 
 coviiiig in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his 
 voice, and shall come forth. But if we limit this coming forth 
 of the dead to those who are in the graves, how many mil- 
 lions of human beings will not come forth ? because they 
 never were in graves ! Millions that have been destroyed 
 by fire, or by water, or devoured by beasts and birds of prey, 
 must be overlooked, if only those in the graves are to hear 
 this voice and come forth. 
 
 There is no way of avoiding this difficulty, if we insist upon 
 a rigid literal construction of the words of our Savior. It 
 is evident that we are to understand the grave to mean all 
 who are under death, no matter how they ended their mortal 
 existence ; whether they were borne to the tomb in funeral 
 pomp, or perished in the solitary wilderness — their spirits 
 
258 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 live ; and at the appointed time, when that mighty voice 
 will call this earth into its new state, shall be heard, these 
 will come forth in their resurrection bodies, incorruptible and 
 inmiortal. 
 
 The millennial reign of Christ, I have said, will give to 
 man a perfection which he cannot reach in his mortal state. 
 It is in that kingdom of God that the spirits of the just will 
 be mode perfect. Perfection is frequently spoken of in con- 
 nection with the present life of man ; but we must under- 
 stand the term when so used, as implying a perfection only 
 in the man's aims, desires and purposes to glorify God. Here 
 is an instance : Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus 
 minded. The apostle, in a few verses preceding, says : Not 
 as though I had already attained, either ivere already perfect. 
 Here are two kinds of perfection — one belonging to the man 
 in his present state and the other only to be attained in the 
 possession of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ 
 Jesus. This high calling is the grand end of the Christian's 
 calling — that is, eternal life in the kingdom of God. 
 
 Only the righteous will be the subjects of the first resur- 
 rection. This is manifest from what has been said of the 
 kingdom of God. The prophet says : This is the first resur- 
 rection ; blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first 
 resurrection. 
 
 This is fully taught by Christ and his apostles in numerous 
 texts of the Christian Scriptures, only a few of which I shall 
 adduce. 
 
 In Luke, 20th chap. : 35, 36 verses, are these words of 
 our Lord, spoken to the Sadducees : The children of this 
 world marry, and are given in marriagQ. But they which shall 
 be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection 
 from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage. 
 Neither can they die any more, for they are equal unto the an- 
 gels and are the children of God, being the children of the 
 resurrection. 
 
 1st Corinth. 15th chap, : 22, 23 : For as in Adam ail die, 
 
CHAPTER XX. 259 
 
 even so in Christ shall all he made alive. But every man in his 
 own order ; Christ the first fruits, aftcncards, they that are 
 Chrisfs at his coming. 
 
 Luke 14 : 14 : But when thou makest a feast^call the jmor, 
 the maimed, the lame, the blind, and than shall he blessed, for 
 they cannot recompense thee, for thou shall be recompensed at the 
 resurrection of the just. 
 
 1st Tliess. 4 : 14 : For if we believe that Jesus died and 
 rose again, even so, them also which sleep in Jesus will God 
 bring with him. * * * pgy ^^g Lord himself shall de- 
 scend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, 
 and with the trump of God ; and the dead in Christ shall rise 
 first. 
 
 The first text, beyond any possibility of doubt, limits the 
 resurrection to the children of God — those who will' be ac- 
 counted worthy of that world, by their faith and holy lives 
 in this world. If the ungodly were partakers of this first 
 resurrection, there would be no meaning in calling the righte- 
 ous the children of the resurrection, as the ungodly would be 
 equally with them, the children of the resurrection. Again, 
 our Lord calls it the resurrection of the just, manifestly dis- 
 tinguishing it from the resurrection of the unjust, which, we 
 are told by the prophet will not take place until the end of 
 the thousand years. 
 
 Following their Lord, the apostles also preserve the dis- 
 tinction which will mark the first resurrection — the com- 
 mencement of the millennium age ; and speak of it as the 
 resurrection of the righteous only, St. Paul speaks of the 
 order in which the resurrection will proceed. Christ had 
 risen before the apostle wrote this epistle. Christ, he says, 
 the first fruits. The next in the order of the resurrection 
 will be those, who are Chrisfs, at his coming, according to 
 the saying of the apostle to the Colossians : For ye are dead, 
 and your life is hid with Christ in God. JVhen Christ who 
 is our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in 
 glory. 
 
260 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 How shall these texts be reconciled with the opinion, that 
 all the dead are to rise at the coming of Christ ? Such 
 an opinion must ever clash with the instructions that are 
 given by our Lord and his apostles on that subject. But 
 with some, the difficulty is overcome by supposing that Christ 
 will bestow distinction and glory upon his servants, by giving 
 them a priority in the resurrection ; and they support this 
 opinion by the words of St. Paul : The dead in Christ shall 
 rise first ; and then will follow, immediately, they say, the 
 resurrection of all the remaining dead. 
 
 But they mistake the meaning of the apostle in this ex- 
 pression : T/ie dead in Christ shall rise first — the text will 
 best interpret his meaning. 1st Thess. 4th chap. The apos- 
 tle is describing in this chapter, the grandeur of the scene, 
 when Christ shall appear and receive to his presence and to 
 a participation in his glory, all who had been washed in his 
 atoning blood ; those who then will be dwellers on earth 
 as well as those who had died in the faith from the beginning 
 of the gospel day. He says : For the Lord himself shall de- 
 scend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, 
 and with the trump of God. This sets forth the august ma- 
 jesty with which the Lord will make his second appearance 
 on the earth. He adds, at the end of this description — the 
 dead in Christ shall rise first. He had said in the fifteenth 
 verse : For this we say unto you by the ivord of the Lord, that 
 v:e which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall 
 not prevent them which are asleep. But those who had de- 
 parted this life before the coming of Christ — the dead in 
 Christ ; shall rise first — then we which remain in life, and 
 are in the body at the time of this glorious appearing, shall 
 be changed, and shall be caught up together icith them, in 
 the clouds to meet the Lord in the air ; and so shall tve ever 
 be with the Lord. 
 
 In Dr. Adam Clarke's note on this text, he rays, the word 
 which is translated prevent literally signifies to go before. The 
 plain meaning of the apostle is : that those Christians who 
 
CHAPTER XX. 2C1 
 
 will be living on the earth when Christ sliall appear tlie 
 second time, will not enter into the joys of our Lord l)efore 
 those who were asleep, or dead — but that these shall rise 
 first, or reappear, and then all will ascend to meet the Lord 
 in the air. 
 
 When the apostle says, We, which arc alive, and remain 
 unto the coming of the Lord, he evidently did not mean him- 
 self individually, for he has been dead more than seventeen 
 hundred years, and the coming of the Lord referred to by 
 him has not transpired yet. It was a common mode of ex- 
 pression with the apostles ; for although they wrote their 
 epistles to particular churches, much of what they said is ap- 
 plicable to other times, and to Christians, in their individual 
 and social state, in ages to come. But on the sul)ject of this 
 distinct and separate resurrection of the righteous, it will be 
 asked by some, does not Scripture declare that there is to be 
 a resurrection of the just and the unjust ? Undoubtedly it 
 does ; but we are not told that the resurrection of these two 
 opposite characters is to take place at the same time. Tliis 
 is nowhere intimated, either by our Lord or any one of his 
 apostles ; but to the contrary, the resurrection of the inijust 
 is placed, in the Revelation, at the end of the thousand years' 
 reign of Christ with his saints. Why this great space should 
 separate the resurrection of the just and the unjust, proba- 
 bly will only be understood by those who will have a part in 
 the first resurrection. 
 
 If, as has been said, we are now living in a state of heaven 
 and earth, which l^ears some resemblance to the next, or new 
 heaven ai;d earth, in what will the difi'erence between the 
 two states consist ? 
 
 This is a question which it would be great presumption in 
 me to attempt fully to answer ; and in the feeble attempt I 
 shall make to institute a comparison between the two, I feel 
 an awe and reverence, such as that which must have aftected 
 Moses when God spoke to him out of the burning bush : Fut 
 
262 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 of thv shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest 
 is holy ground. 
 
 In the first place I would say, that the earth will be, in its 
 renovated state, as different from its present condition as its 
 present condition is from its first creation, icheii all the morn- 
 intr stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy ; 
 when all creation shone in universal perfection. Whatever 
 the fall of man has introduced, as a consequence of sin, into 
 the present earth, will be wholly unknown to the dwellers in 
 the earth. In a word, and that must suffice on the subject of 
 the physical order of the earth, everything that will be in 
 that earth will minister to the happiness of man. 
 
 Man will still be man in that state, having the same iden- 
 tity of being and self-consciousness that he possesses in the 
 present life. But his bodily organization is to be wholly dif- 
 ferent. In this respect he will be equal to the angels, and 
 be like his Lord. This resemblance between the powers of 
 the body of man in that state and the powers of the body of 
 Christ, is seen in the ascension of our Lord when he left this 
 earth, and the ascension of all in the first resurrection, when 
 the whole church of the redeem^ed shall be caught up toge- 
 ther in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. 
 
 His appetites are now earthly and sensual, and he is de- 
 pendent for their gratification upon the very imperfect and 
 often much disordered state of his bodily senses ; but in the 
 new earth his appetites will be refined and spiritualized, and 
 his bodily senses will have a corresponding improvement, and 
 will constantly minister to his pure and lofty pleasures. He 
 will not then be dependent upon those senses which now form 
 the imperfect channels of intercourse between his spirit and 
 the world around him; he will not then realize things through 
 these dark glasses. The spiritual body will have spiritual 
 senses adapted to the free and unembarrassed action of the 
 soul in the constant and ever-renewing developments of its 
 immortal energies. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 263 
 
 Thus far we arc carried in our views by the instruction of 
 holy men of God, who have spoken for our edification as they 
 were moved by the Holy Ghost. 
 
 But the question suggests itself to the mind of every one 
 whose hope is full of the pros})ect of that immortal state, 
 what will be the employments and enjoyments of that glorious 
 state ? When that question is asked I am silent; and turn- 
 ing to the venerable apostle who has been taken into that 
 third heaven, I ask him to answer it. Hear his answer : 
 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. Here the feeble effort to contrast the future with 
 the present state must cease, and I drop the subject, with this 
 one delightful reflection, however : there we shall meet with 
 Christ again, not as he was when upon this earth, but in all 
 the fullness of his glory, and we shall be forever witli him. 
 
 Christ has directed the hope and the heart of his church 
 to that glorious mansion as the place where he will receive 
 his people to himself, and where he will celebrate with them 
 the triumphs and glories of the church, redeemed and saved 
 by his atoning blood. / will drink it anew with you in my 
 Father^ kingdom. 
 
 The employment of men here is in securing those things 
 that minister to the necessities and pleasures of sense; but 
 in the next world the spiritual and intellectual cultivation of 
 his regenerated nature will open to him exhaustless and in- 
 finitely varied sources of happiness. 
 
 In the last familiar conversation that our Savior held with 
 his disciples before his crucifixion, (John xvi.,) there is this 
 remarkable saying amongst others : These things have I spoken 
 to you in proverbs, [or parables,] hut the time cometh when I 
 shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I will show you 
 plainly of the Father — (verse 25.) 
 
 There is a world of meaning in these words. " I teach you 
 " the gospel in parables, because your limited capacities re- 
 " quired the aid of such sensible and familiar objects to enable 
 
2(54 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 " you to comprehend my spiritual meaning. But tlie time will 
 " come, when I shall see you again, when I will come again to 
 " receive you to myself in the kingdom of God. Then your 
 " spiritual cultivation will not be interrupted by the clogs of 
 " mortality, and the dim lights of your present bodily senses ; 
 " you will not then require the use of parables to give you an 
 " understanding of ray words ; your spiritual perceptions in 
 " that kingdom will readily comprehend the great lessons 
 " that I will teach you, when I shall shew you plainly of the 
 " Father:' 
 
 " The eternity of God ! the glory and harmony of his 
 " divine attributes — the endless variety and infinite extent of 
 " the thrones, powers, and dominions, which give grandeur 
 " to the boundless universe he has created ; and the laws 
 " that govern and harmonize the whole will be the subjects 
 " that will employ and give felicity to your redeemed and 
 *' glorified nature for ever." 
 
 The thousand years' reign of Christ with his saints upon 
 the earth, is clearly a preparation state, just as the present 
 Christian dispensation is a preparatory state for that reign. 
 I have said before that man does not attain his perfection 
 under the gospel dispensation ; he only acquires a prepara- 
 tion for the higher school of divine instruction. Our moral 
 and spiritual training in the present life must necessarily be 
 very imperfect, because its government and discipline, as 
 well as its doctrines, have to struggle with the prejudice, the 
 bigotry, and the ignorance of men. This is seen, more or 
 less in the dififerent creeds and services of different churches, 
 and these frailties attach to every denominational system, no 
 matter how sincere and upright the aims of the institution 
 raay be. 
 
 The question will be asked : If the righteous dead are 
 gone to their reward, what will they have to do with this 
 future state of spiritual training? Tiiis question is answered 
 by saying, that men do not step out of this state of error and 
 ignorance, at death, into that state of perfection and glory 
 
CHAPTER XX. 265 
 
 which they are ulthiiately to occu})y ; l)ut tlicy enter upon 
 just such a state of ha})piiiess as accords with the dispensa- 
 tion under which they lived and the spiritual attainments 
 made by them under that dispensation. 
 
 Abraham's bosom expressed, figuratively, the state to 
 wiiich the Jews referred as the soul's rest. The society of 
 Abraham after death, was the highest reward to which they 
 aspired. Bat the Christian economy points its sul)jects to 
 the presence and companionship of Christ in the next world. 
 The earlier and darker dispensations had still lower views of 
 the happiness and glory of the future state than those enter- 
 tained by the Jews, and they were consequently qualified 
 only for an inferior station in the world of spirits. 
 
 Does not the apostle express similar views when he is dis- 
 coursing of the resurrection, in 1st Cor. 15 : 41 : He says — 
 There is one glory of the sun — that is the Christian dispensation ; 
 another glory of the moon — the Jewish dispensation ; and 
 another glory of the stars — the days of the Abraham, and 
 Isaac and Jacob dispensation ; now he tells us the use he 
 designs to make of these comparisons — For as one star dif- 
 fer eth from another star in glory, so also is the resurrection of 
 the dead. Those who have lived righteous before God in 
 their different dispensations, have passed into a state of rest, 
 differing in degrees of happiness and glory, according to their 
 different dispensations. 
 
 It cannot be supposed that the man who has lived in the 
 midst of heathen idolatry, or the superstition of false systems 
 of religion, although he did fear God and work righteousness, 
 according to the light he had, and was accepted of God, can 
 stand in the resurrection upon an equal footing with the man 
 who had lived and served God in the gospel dispensation. 
 There will be as great a difference in the moral, spiritual, 
 and intellectual character of the two, as there is between 
 the light of the stars and the light of the sun ! 
 
 The millennium state will be a dispensation entirely free 
 from the errors and ignorance of even the present dispensa- 
 
 VOL. II. — 12 
 
266 THK APOCALYPSE UX VEILED. 
 
 tion. It ^Yill not be a dispensation connected with a jproha- 
 tion; man can never fall from that state ; there his happi- 
 ness is his improvement — and his improvement is his happi- 
 ness. Unlike the present state, in which we see everything 
 in doubt and darkness, and are often unable to determine 
 whether what we are learning is good or evil : we shall there 
 learn nothing but pure heavenly wisdom ; we shall drink it 
 fresh from the fountain of eternal truth, and not from the 
 xlistant streams as we do now, too often made turbid and 
 loathsome by the bigotry, the ignorance and superstition of 
 different and jarring Christian systems as they now exist. 
 
 Those discordant opinions whi€h different denominations 
 now hold, and urge with impetuous zeal, producing strife and 
 animosity, will not be heard in the millennium state. There, 
 the apostle says, we shall see eye to eye, and shall know 
 even as we are known, ^o clashing views will ever arise to 
 disturb the harmony of that state, nor will guile or dissimu- 
 lation ever stain the purity, or deceive the confiding spirits 
 that will dwell there. 
 
 The great teacher will be Christ himself, and the great 
 subject to be taught, he has told us, will be the power, the 
 majesty, and eternity of God. I will shoio you plainly of the 
 Father. 
 
 The effects which the teaching and cultivation of the mil- 
 lennial state will have upon the spirits of the redeemed, are 
 referred to in these words of St. Paul, (2 Cor. 3 : 18) : But we 
 all with open face beholding, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, 
 are changed into the same image, froin glory to glory, as by the 
 Spirit of the Lord. This is not the clouded or dark glass 
 through which we see things in this dispensation, but it is a 
 great and pure mirror, from which is reflected the deep things 
 of Cod ; and while we look into the boundless regions of 
 spiritual life and glory which seem to lie behind it, we re- 
 ceive in our spirits, by its reflex power, the very objects upon 
 which we gaze, and l)ecome changed, in the same hnage, from 
 glory to glory — a constantly-increasing glory and h^ji^-uess. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 2G7 
 
 All this is necessary to prepare man for tlie niisprakable 
 grandenr of the revehition whicli is to be made after the 
 thousand years of Christ's reign shall have ended. But of 
 this I shall say nothing more. There is another subject of 
 great interest to which the proi)het makes no i)articular allu- 
 sion in this vision, viz. : the conversion or spiritual recovery 
 of the Jews. 
 
 The i)rophet gives merely a general view of the outward 
 appearance of the kingdom of God. lie does not speak of 
 the particular employment of those who will reign with Clirist 
 a thousand years in that kingdom. 
 
 This lack of information, however, is fully supplied l)y 
 Christ himself, (Matt. 19 : 28): Verily I say unto you, that 
 ye ivhich have folloiced me in the regeneration, ichen the Son of 
 Man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye shall sit upon twclre 
 thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. Luke 22 : 30 : 
 A.7id I appoint unto you a kingdo7n, 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 tivelve tribes of Israel. 
 
 From these scriptures it is very evident that the s})iritual 
 recovery of the Jews will form a part, at least, of the eni})k)y- 
 ment of those who will have part in the first resurrection, of 
 whom the prophet says no more than what is contained in 
 part of the fourth verse of this twentieth chapter : And I 
 saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given 
 unto them. 
 
 I will now speak of this subject more at large. 
 
 CONVERSIOX OF THE JEWS. 
 
 Amongst all people and nations where the gospel has been 
 preached conversions to its doctrines have been more or less 
 numerous ; religious services have been appointed and 
 churches raised up to teach and preach the Ciiristian reli- 
 gion. 
 
 The Jews are an exception to this remark. Amongst thciu 
 
268 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 Christianity lias found no favor to this day. The gospel has 
 failed to make any impression upon the Jews generally, and 
 Individual conversions to its doctrines are extremely rare. 
 
 Those few men wiio followed Christ in his day, embraced 
 his cause rather as something new, than from any conviction 
 of its truth or divine authenticity. There is not any case of 
 conviction for sin and repentance toward God in the history 
 of these early followers of Christ. They neither understood 
 his divine mission, nor had they the least apprehension of the 
 spiritual regeneration which his religion was to produce in 
 the heart of man. 
 
 But their eyes were gradually opened, and they began to 
 perceive, after the crucifixion of Christ, the spirituality of his 
 religion. 
 
 The powerful effusion of the Holy Spirit in the day of pen- 
 tecost, may be taken as the true commencement of the Chris- 
 tian era ; when men first began to discover the application 
 of its doctrines, and first felt the saving power of its Spirit. 
 
 But the gospel, preached as it w^as by the apostles, and 
 attended with miracles, did not produce conversion amongst 
 the Jews to any great extent. The force and stubbornness 
 of their national prejudices, which stood directly in the way 
 of the spirit and design of the gospel, is well illustrated by 
 the case of St. Peter, whose bigotry and monopolizing spirit 
 excluded all other people from any participation in the bene- 
 fits which Christianity proposed to mankind. 
 
 To clear the mind of Peter from those selfish principles, it 
 required the vision of the great sheet let down from heaven, 
 containing all manner of four-footed beasts and creeping 
 tilings, even after he had preached the gospel for several 
 years. And Saul of Tarsus was converted from his fanati- 
 cism and hatred of Christianity in a miraculous manner, and 
 not by the preaching of the gospel. If we look at the result 
 of missionary efforts, we shall find that in every Gentile soil 
 where the gospel seed has been sown, it has taken root, and 
 sprung up, and brought forth fruit, in some countries thirty 
 
CHAPTER XX. 2G:) 
 
 fold, ill some sixty, and in others a liuiidred fold, lint wltcu 
 the missionary goes to the Jews, he casts his seed ui)on the 
 rocks, where there is no soil ; it takes no root, and the con- 
 sequence is there is no fruit produced. 
 
 The conclusion, which seems unavoidable, at least to my 
 mind, is, that the gospel dispensation will not efl'ect the sal- 
 vation of the Jews. They have cast it from them, and by 
 tlie act of crucifying Christ, they have renounced all faitii 
 and trust in him as the Savior of man. 
 
 Their own countrymen, Paul and Barnabas, after laboring 
 zealously and suffering severe persecution, in trying to draw 
 them to Christ, at length gave them up, and said : It was 
 necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken 
 unto you; hut seeing ye pnt it from yon, and judge yourselves 
 unworthy of everlasting life, lo ! we turn to the Gentiles. Our 
 Savior, in his last warning, which he addressed to the Jews, 
 setting forth the consequences of his rejection as their ^les- 
 siah, uses this language : Behold ! your house is left unto you 
 desolate. For I say unto you ye shall not see me henceforth, 
 till the time come when ye shall say, Blessed is he that comet h in 
 the name of the Lord. This desolation has l)een distinctly 
 marked upon the Jewish history ever since the destruction of 
 their city and government by the Romans. 
 
 The Jews were the chosen people of God, and were jealous 
 in all things pertaining to the honor of God and his wor- 
 ship. They enjoyed advantages which no other people did, 
 because unto them were committed the oracles of God. They 
 were jealous of his glory and prom})t in resenting any indig- 
 nity of!ered to his name or his worship. 
 
 Their indignation was provoked at any atteni})t made to 
 lessen the glory of divine majesty. Their religion held to 
 the one true God and excluded all others — Hear, O Israel! 
 the Lord thy God is one Lord, was the proclamation of their 
 national faith, in opposition to the religion of the heathen, 
 which had gods many and lords many. Any })retension to 
 equality with God, or to any closer relationship to him thau 
 
270 THE APOCALYrSK UXVEILED. 
 
 they L-liiinicd to enjoy in virtue of tlie Al)ralian)Ic covenant, 
 "vvas deemed by them, i)resumptuoiis and blasphemous. It 
 was precisely ou this ground tliat they rejected Christ. He 
 aune to his own and his own received him not. 
 
 The nation was in expectation of the Messiah. Their own 
 pro])hets had predicted, in glowing language, his appearance, 
 and their countrymen believed implicitly all that their pro- 
 phets said, as they understood them. But, when the pro- 
 phets spoke of the moral sublimity of his kingdom, and the 
 comprehensive designs of his mercy in subduing all nations 
 to his authority ; the Jews mistook their meaning, and gave 
 a temporal application to their words. They expected a 
 worldly prince, who should restore the kingdom of David, 
 and extend his dominion over the earth. They looked for 
 all the regal pomp and splendor which distinguished the 
 throne of Solomon. They expected when their Messiah 
 should come that his advent would be announced to the 
 throne of the Caesars, with great pomp and ceremony. 
 
 But, instead of all this, they were told that their Messiah 
 had come ; tliat he had his birth in the town of Bethlehem, 
 and not even in the respectable state which that small town 
 miglit Ije able to afford ; but he was born in a manger, and 
 the only announcement made of his birth was made to a few 
 poor shepherds as they watched their flocks at night — per- 
 hajjs, amongst the poorest people of that country, as their 
 occupation would imply. 
 
 All this appearance of poverty in the condition of the 
 !Mcssiali, was so different from the lofty expectations which 
 the Jews had entertained of the glory of his appearance, 
 that they were mortified and confounded, no less than they 
 were chagrined and indignant at the pretensions of so hum- 
 ble a personage to the high claims of Messiahship. It was 
 in vain that an appeal was made to his miracles and his works 
 of mercy, in sup}»ort of his claims, and in vain was it urged 
 that no nuiu could do such works unless God was with him. 
 Tlie Jews were callous to all such evidence, and in the 
 
CHAPTER XX. 271 
 
 nrgoncy of their au^ov tliey aeiioanced Christ as an impostor, 
 and charged collusion with the devil in the performance of 
 his miracles. Every fresli evidence he gave of works of 
 mercy or of miracles, in support of his Messiahshij), only 
 served to exasperate them the more ; until finally they re- 
 solved upon his death. Crucify him I crucify him ! became 
 the cry of the nation. 
 
 This was not an ebullition of feeling by the vulgar mol) 
 only, but it was seen in men of station and authority. The 
 most learned in literature and in the law, comprehending the 
 wdiole JcAvish theology, were prominent in their general op- 
 position to Christ and in procuring his death. 
 
 Take, for instance, the imbittered zeal of Saul of Tarsus, 
 against all who professed the religion of Christ, and we liave 
 a true exhibition of the hostility of the nation towards Chris- 
 tianity. 
 
 With feelings of such implacable enmity against the author 
 of the gospel system, is it reasonable to suppose that the 
 Jews could be converted by the gospel ? The same animosity 
 that inflamed the mind of Saul of Tarsus, and the high 
 priests, and the Sanhedrim, against Christ and his disciples, 
 is taught to the youthful mind of their posterity. Every 
 Jew, most conscientiously instructs his child in the Jew's 
 religion ; and, at the same time inculcates prejudice and 
 animosity against' the Christian religion. Here is a double 
 barrier raised against the influence of the gospel in the mind 
 of every Israelite, which the gospel in its ordinary operation, 
 as the means of salvation, cannot overcome. 
 
 I do not say the Jew may not be converted miraculously, 
 as Saul of Tarsus was ; but such conversions would not be 
 the effect of the gospel, any more than his conversion was. 
 
 The conclusion, therefore, seems inevitable, that the Jews, 
 speaking of them as a peoi)le, cannot be converted by the 
 gospel. There must be some other means of reaching tlieir 
 hearts than those now known, or their case is a hopeless one. 
 
 Just at this point the Apostle Paul comes uj) — he who 
 
212 THE ArOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 was aforetime the very Saul of Tarsus — who thought, verily, 
 he was doing God service when he was persecuting unto 
 death the disciples of Jesus of Nazareth. 
 
 We see him in the ninth chapter of Romans deeply affected 
 at the almost hopeless state of his brethren, the Jews, as 
 he contemplates the unimpressible obduracy of their minds, 
 and we hear him give vent to his grief in this language : I 
 say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also hearing me 
 witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness and con- 
 tinual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were 
 accursed from Christ for my brethren, my Icinsmen according to 
 the flesh. Again we hear him in the same sorrowful strain in 
 the tenth chapter, pouring out his soul in holy sympathy for 
 his kinsmen : Brethren, my hearfs desire and prayer to God for 
 Israel is, that they might he saved ; for I hear them record that 
 they have a zeal of God, hut not according to knowledge ; for 
 they, heing ignorant of God's righteousness, and going ahout to 
 establish their oion righteousness, have not submitted themselves 
 to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law 
 for righteousness to every one that believeth. This is the point 
 at which his countrymen failed ; they would not receive the 
 man Christ, coming in the form of a servant, as the end of 
 the law, and they rejected him. 
 
 In these expressions of the apostle, he is deploring, the un- 
 happy state of his countrymen to the Gentile converts of his 
 own day, as well as the Gentile Churches that should after- 
 worrds be raised up by the preaching of the gospel. 
 
 He well knew the effect which must be produced upon the 
 mind of Christians in all future time by the act of his country- 
 men in crucifying the Author of the gospel. He knew that 
 it would l)e looked upon in no other light than a cruel and 
 barbarous transaction, and that it would subject the Jews to 
 severe treatment at the hands of Chrit^tian nations, as a sort 
 of retaliation. I need not say how fully the apostle's appre- 
 hensions have been realized in the outrages, injustice, and 
 cruelties, wliich liave been heaped upon the Jews in Chris- 
 
CHAPTER XX. 273 
 
 tian countries. How tlioy have lieeii (leiiicd tlie }»olitical and 
 social rights enjoyed by all other men, separated and set 
 apart as objects of scorn and hatred, their property seized 
 and taken from their possession at the will and caprice of tlie 
 powers under which they happened to live, by people, too, 
 whose lives, for virtue and morality, bore no comparison with 
 the lives of the Jews. 
 
 The apostle labors to mitigate the severity witli which he 
 foresaw the cruel act of his countrymen would l3e visited, upon 
 the ground that blindness, m part, had happened to them, and 
 in that blindness they had mistaken the purposes of God in 
 showing his righteousness to mankind, and went aljout estab- 
 lishing their own views of what was consistent with his glory 
 and his righteousness. He urges that they were zealous of 
 God, but their zeal was not tempered with knowledge, and 
 finally admits that they had fallen. 
 
 But with great tenderness of feeling for his countrymen, he 
 urges the Gentile world to regard them rather with sorrow 
 and compassion than with anger, especially as their fall had 
 not injuriously affected the spiritual interests of the Gentile 
 world, but had rather strengthened them. 
 
 The apostle claims the right to speak freely on this sul)j('ct 
 to the Gentiles, inasmuch as he says : lam the apostle of the 
 Gentiles ; I magnify mine office ; while I imjilore you to exer- 
 cise toward my countrymen a forgiving si)irit, a generous 
 Christian sympathy. And he urges this further consideration 
 upon them : These natural branches were broken off from 
 the good olive tree, and are scattered over the earth like 
 dead branches which men gather and Ijurn, because of unbe- 
 lief ; and thou hast been grafTed into the good olive tree ))y 
 faith : take heed lest thou also, through unbelief, fall, and so 
 be broken off as they are. Be not high-mindefl, hut fear. 
 
 After lamenting the sad state of his kinsmen, and frankly 
 acknowledging their fall from the favor and kindness of God, 
 he changes the view of their case, and as if hope had just 
 shed a ray of light over their condition, he exclaims — / say 
 
 VOL. II.— 12* 
 
274 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 then, hath God cast away his people ? God forbid ! For I 
 aha am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of 
 Jhnjaviin. God hath not cast away his peojde which he fore- 
 knew, or I should not stand as I do now in his favor. And 
 they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be graffed into 
 their own olive tree again, and so all Israel shall be saved ; as 
 it is written, there shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and 
 shall turn awiay ungodliness from Jacob. For this is my cov- 
 enant with them when I shall take away their sins, llth chap. 
 Romans. 
 
 In this epistle, addressed to the Romans, was an appeal 
 to all the Gentile world, since the Roman power extended 
 over the civilized world at that time — all were Romans. 
 Nor was the epistle designed to be limited to his day. He 
 spoke to the Gentile Churches which would be raised up by 
 the preaching of the gospel in all future time. 
 
 In much of this greatest of all his epistles, he labors to 
 present the unhappy state of his kinsmen, the Jews, in such 
 a light as to conciUate the Gentile Church, and soften the 
 predudices which he saw must arise against the Jews on 
 account of the tragical scenes of Calvary. 
 
 His whole argument is prospective, and it is evident that 
 the spiritual recovery of Israel is to come at some future 
 period. When will that be ? He tells us that the blindness 
 v/hicli hath happened to Israel in part, and owing to which 
 they have stumbled, will remain until the fuPness of the Gen- 
 tiles be come. That is, the vail which is upon their minds 
 will remain until the time appointed for salvation to the Gen- 
 tiles is fulfilled — until the gospel dispensation comes to an 
 end. The gospel of this kingdom shall be preached in all the 
 world for a witness to all people ; and then shall the end come. 
 This end fulfills, or completes the time, or season of gospel 
 mercy to the Gentiles. 
 
 Tiie apostle does not say that the Jews will be any better 
 reconciled to the gospel as the means of salvation, when its 
 day closes with the Gentiles ; but he says their salvation 
 
CHAPTER XX. 275 
 
 will be brouo-lit about by otlu^r means. There shall come cvt 
 of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from 
 Jacob. Tlicy will not be driven by cahunities, nor forced by 
 the apprehension of divine vengeance, to embrace that gos- 
 pel, which their ardently-elierished reli<!:ion and their nncon- 
 qncrable educational jH-ejudices will not allow them honestly 
 and in good faith to receive. They rejected Christ because 
 they believed he was an impostor, assuming a character of 
 divinity, and a relationship to the Deity, which their zeal for 
 the glory and honor of the most high God, would not allow 
 any inferior being to assume. They would not submit to 
 hear one whom they supposed to be a mere man, claiming 
 equal honors with the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and 
 of Jacob — the God of their fathers, and their God. For a 
 good work we stone thee not, hut for hlasjphemy ; and that thou, 
 heing Oj man, makest thyself God* Here was the ground of 
 the prejudice which the Jews entertained against Christ. 
 He being, as they supposed, an obscure man, claimed 
 equality with God. 
 
 Is it not consistent with the mercy and justice of the Most 
 High, that, since his ancient people fell into darkness, and 
 stumbled from an ardent, though blind zeal for his glory, 
 that some other way should be provided for their recovery 
 than that which they, on that account, are unaljle to receive ? 
 Has he on this account cast away his people ? Nay, verily : 
 but there shall ''ome out of Zion tfie Deliverer, and shall tnrn 
 away ungodliness from Jacob. 
 
 "jlie gospel dispensation then, as we Gentiles now have it, 
 proljably is not the way by which the Jews are to be brought 
 into the possession of their covenanted spiritual blessings ; 
 their day is not yet come. Their deliverer, or deliverance, 
 will come out of Zion. It will l)e asked, does not the scrij)- 
 ture say, that " there is none other name under heaven given 
 
 ■-n imption, and told them he 
 
 assumed to . 
 
276 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 " among men, whereby we must be saved but by the name 
 " of Jesus Clirist ? " True, this was the declaration of St. 
 Peter, wliich he boldly made before the high priests, when 
 they questioned him as to what power, or by what name he 
 had made the lame man to walk. But this does not say 
 that this name is limited in its saving power to the gospel 
 day — that it cannot be effectual in the salvation of the Jews 
 after it has ceased as a means to the Gentiles, when their 
 fullness has come. 
 
 And this is precisely what I understand the apostle to 
 mean — this all-powerful name did not avail for the salvation 
 of the Jews, while it was adapted to the Gentiles ; but out 
 of Zion, hereafter, it will come to them as a mighty deliverer. 
 It now remains to inquire what is meant by Zion ? What is 
 it ? — where is it ? — and when is it ? 
 
 This Zion, of which the apostle speaks in Heb. xii., is the 
 antitype of old Mount Sinai, where God revealed himself in 
 such terrific grandeur to his Israelitish Church in the wilder- 
 ness. The history of that scene is found in the nineteenth 
 chapter of Exodus. I need not repeat it. The grandeur of 
 it was overwhelming ; and so awfully sacred was the whole 
 mountain, by reason of the Divine presence, that neither 
 man nor beast was allowed to touch it, under pain of being 
 stoned to death or thrust through with a dart. , And in 
 view of the awful symbols of the Divine presence which 
 covered and shook the mountain, Moses himself said, / exceed- 
 ingly fear and quake. 
 
 The apostle says, in his Epistle to the Hebrews, when he 
 points the Christian Church to the glorious manifestation of 
 Christ, which will take place when his people shall be called 
 to behold his glory at his second coming, Ye are not come, 
 or will not come, to those scenes of terror, such as were wit- 
 nessed on Mount Sinai, but ye are come unto Mount Zion, and 
 unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an 
 innuTmrahle company of angels ; to the general assembly and 
 church of the first-born, [first resurrection,] which are written 
 
CHAPTER XX. 271 
 
 in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of 
 just men made 'perfect ; and to Jesus, the Mediator of the new 
 covenant, and to the blood of sprinlding, that speaketh letter 
 things tJian the hlood of A hcl. 
 
 This state can be no other than that on wliieli llic people of 
 God are to enter at the close of the gospel dispensation — the 
 resurrection state — the thousand years' reign of Christ. I 
 have dwelt so much upon this state already, that I have 
 nothing further to say about it just now, only to exhibit it as 
 the Mount Zion, out of which the deliverer is to come who 
 will turn away ungodliness from Jacob. 
 
 The state of the Gentile world before and at the advgnt of 
 the Savior, was unquestionably a state of the deepest moral 
 degradation. Their social, civil, and religious habits, were 
 deeply tainted with gross corruption. A vivid picture of this 
 universal depravity of Gentile manners, is given by the ai)0s- 
 tle in the first chapter of his Epistle to the Romans. 
 
 The Jews, as a nation, abhorred the Gentiles as a profli- 
 gate, corrupt, and debased race of people, utterly unworthy 
 of any confidence or respect, and only fit to be regarded as 
 " dogs" — the term which they always used when speaking of 
 them. 
 
 But these people were objects of God's mercy and of the 
 atonement of Christ. He came into the world in a way 
 adapted to their state. He took upon him the form of a ser- 
 vant. His birth had nothing connected with it but meanness 
 of circumstance ; and the poverty of his manhood was ex- 
 pressed by himself in these words : The foxes have holes, and 
 the fowls of the air have nests, hut the Son of Man hath not 
 where to lay his head. 
 
 This appearance of poverty and great inferiority in the 
 condition of Christ, was, no dou])t, necessary in the i)uri)Oses 
 of his mission, and gave him easier access to the Gentile 
 world, who must have felt themselves, in all matters of divine 
 knowledge and religious attainments, inlinitely IjcIow the 
 Jews. They would the more readily receive the instructions 
 
278 THE ArOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 and yield to the doctrines of one, whose life was so meek and 
 lowly as to be despised by the Jewish nation, as they were 
 themselves. 
 
 But, in the eye of the Jew, all this appearance of poverty 
 and willingness to receive Gentiles, and to think as much of 
 them as of the Jews, was the stumbling point. Here they 
 fell into that darkness from which they have not yet reco- 
 vered. 
 
 Tile Jew was extravagant in self-esteem. His religious 
 pride disdained any association with Gentile degradation ; 
 and even an accidental touch or contact with a Gentile, was 
 held to be a pollution which required a resort to ceremonial 
 washings to be cleansed from. These lofty views of their reli- 
 gious superiority arose from their election or adoption as the 
 people of God ; and they were proud to trace, from Abraham 
 down to the times we speak of, a line of illustrious ancestors, 
 honored of God more than any other people on the earth. 
 
 Imi)ressed with these sentiments, it was natural that they 
 should look with disdain upon any body or upon any system 
 that proposed to bring the corrupt and degraded Gentiles 
 into a participation of the glory to which they laid exclusive 
 claims as the only people of God. 
 
 If, instead of the humble condition, the servant-like form, 
 in which Christ came .into the world, he had appeared with 
 an angelic retinue and glorious pomp, the Jews would have 
 liailed him as their Messiah, and received him with divine 
 honors. 
 
 Tlio scanid cominfi; of Christ will be just such an appearing. 
 There will l)e nothing of the poverty and humiliation at 
 wliich the Jews were mortified and disa])i)ointed in his first 
 advent. 
 
 He speaks of his second appearing in glory in the 25th 
 chapter of Matthew : Wlien the Son of Man shall come in his 
 glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon 
 the throne of his glory. And in the first chapter of the Ke- 
 vclation the same event is announced, thus : Behold! he 
 
CHAPTER XX. 279 
 
 Cometh loith clouds and every eye shall see hi?n, nvd tlm/ ah) 
 which pierced him, and all kindreds of the earlh shall vdU 
 because of him. 
 
 Steadfast iu their Ix'lief in the })ropliecies of their own 
 scriptures, as they have always construed them, the Jews are 
 still looking for a glorious appearing of their Messiah. They 
 have never ceased to entertain the expectation that their 
 Messiah will come in majesty and great power, and his se- 
 cond advent will meet their highest conceptions of such an 
 appearing. The Jews are specially alluded to in the last of 
 the above texts : and they also that pierced him shall see him. 
 And Dr. Adam Clarke, as well as Dr. Benson, renders the 
 text — all Hudreds of the earth — all the tribes of the laud. 
 Thus identifying the Jews in every state of their former 
 condition of civil and religious polity, as those who shall look 
 upon him and wail because of him. 
 
 From this wailing, the belief has arisen with many, that 
 the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, will be the signal 
 of distress and calamity to the Jews, beyond that which will 
 be inflicted upon any other people. But there is no authority 
 in scripture for any such opinion. On the contrary, all 
 that we read on that subject is decidedly of a gracious and 
 merciful character in God's dealing with his ancient people. 
 
 Their kinsman, the great apostle, St. Paul, while he most 
 eloquently pleads their cause before the Gentile world, at the 
 same time shows that God hath not cast away his j)eopIe 
 which he foreknew ; and that out of the very event to which 
 this ill-founded opinion looks for the total destruction of the 
 Jews, will arise the Deliverer that shall turn away ungodli- 
 ness from Jacob ! True, he admits they are branches broken 
 off from the olive tree, and seem for the present to be cast 
 away; but this, he says, is the reconciling of the (Gentile) 
 world, and when they are received again, what will it lie but 
 life from the dead 1 
 
 Their present casting away is temporary and will continue 
 no longer than the gospel dispensation continues. They 
 
280 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 made it necessary themselves. Their obstinate unbelief — 
 their stubborn prejudice against Christianity, blocked up the 
 way of the gospel, and in every way hindered and defeated 
 its effects and influence upon the Gentile nations. These 
 branches which could not be trained to a proper growth, 
 and only prevented the growth of other branches, giving 
 greater promise of fruitfulness, had to be broken off ; but 
 when the day of the Gentile dispensation — the gospel day — 
 comes to an end : has had its fullness — then the Jewish 
 branches will be graffed on again. Whose heart does not 
 catch the enthusiasm of the apostle when he exclaims : Nay 
 verily, God hath not cast away his people whom he foreknew. 
 
 The words of Christ are to the same effect — Ye shall see 
 me no more till the time come ichen ye shall say, Blessed is he that 
 Cometh in the name of the Lord. When will that be ? at his 
 second appearing ; when every eye shall see him, and they 
 also ickich pierced him, shall look upon him ! 
 
 The wailing spoken of in the text is not a wailing of ter- 
 ror, but of grief — sorrow — compunction ! When they behold 
 Christ in the glory of the Father, and all the holy angels 
 with him, and recognise him to be the very Christ whom 
 they rejected and crucified, their grief will be extreme, and 
 they will give utterence to it in lamentation and wailing. 
 When they look upon the majesty and glory that will then 
 distinguish their Messiah, and call to remembrance the scenes 
 of Calvary, and almost the last words he uttered from the 
 cross — Father, forgive them ; they know not what they do ; a 
 wail of penitential sorrow will break from all Israel that will 
 echo mournfully over the whole earth. 
 
 Becoming assured that he who left the world with such 
 feelings of compassion for those who crucified him, had re- 
 turned to earth again with feelings no less merciful and kind, 
 their wailing will end in the joyful exclamation — Blessed is 
 he th/it comet h in the name of the Lord. 
 
 That the Jews are to have a dispensation peculiarly their 
 own, when Christ shall appear again on the earth, seems 
 
CHAPTER XX. . 281 
 
 to be well-cstablislied by what lie said to his disciples: (Matt. 
 19 : 28 : And Jesus said unto Limn, verily, verily, I say unto 
 you, that ye ichich have followed me, in their generation when the 
 Son of Man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall 
 sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 
 
 These great subjects of the next life, or the next world, 
 as far as the disciples were able to bear such revelation, 
 were, no doubt, often spoken of by the Savior to his 
 disciples, when they were apart from the multitude, and in 
 his different conversations relative to the same subject, he 
 would very naturally present it in different language. The 
 above quotation gives his words as they were impressed upon 
 the mind of St. Matthew ; and St. Luke, in recording his 
 conversation on the same subject, gives it in the language 
 which most impressed his mind — (Luke, chap. 22 : 29, 30: 
 And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath ap- 
 pointed unto me; that ye may eat and drink at my table in my 
 kingdom, aiid sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Is- 
 rael. 
 
 Here is the testimony of our Lord himsulf, in relation 
 both to the Jews and Christians in his kingdom. The Chris- 
 tians are to occupy stations of preeminence, implied by sit- 
 ting on thrones ; the reason implied by this is given by 
 Christ : they had followed him in tlie trying scenes of the 
 gospel dispensation ; suffering the persecutions and trials of 
 an ungodly world, for their faith and obedience to the word 
 of God. They are also invested with the honor of judging 
 the twelve tribes of Israel. The words, judging and judg- 
 ment, I have before remarked, have a variety of meaning, 
 and in the use here made of the term judgment, we must 
 understand it to signify instruction, guiding ; the full admin- 
 istration of laws to effect great moral })urposes. 
 
 That the Jews will need all this when they enter ujion 
 their peculiar dispensation is very obvious, since they have 
 kept themselves excluded from everything respecting Christ, 
 and the great ends of Christianity ; they will be greatly be- 
 
282 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. ^ 
 
 low the rank wliicli enlightened Christians will occupy in 
 l)oint of knowledge in that kingdom. 
 
 The righteous, our Savior says, shall shine forth as the sun 
 in the kingdom of their Father. These are the people who 
 have followed him in the temptations and tribulations of the 
 gospel dispensation. Their minds of course will be more 
 fully imbued with divine knowledge, and their spirits will be 
 in a higher state of perfection, than any people that have 
 not had the light and the instruction of the gospel ; the 
 very trials and persecutions they have had to contend with 
 in their earth's pilgrimage, have tended to confirm and ele- 
 vate their spirits in righteousness, and to deepen and perfect 
 their experience in that wisdom which is to give them such 
 great distinction in the kingdom of God. 
 
 All others who will enter that kingdom, without having 
 had the light of the gospel dispensation, are compared to 
 stars of dififerent magnitude and brightness : as one star dif- 
 fereth from another star in glory, so will those saved out of 
 different lands and nations, where the light of the gospel 
 never shone ; they will appear in various degrees of know- 
 ledge and purity, according to the light and means they had. 
 Surely no Christian will be offended at this view^, which ad- 
 mits into the kingdom of God, those who never heard of 
 Jesus Christ ! Peter was cured of that bigotry which cir- 
 cumscribed and restricted the mercy of God to his own na- 
 tion, by the great sheet which he saw let down from heaven, 
 full of all manner of four-footed beasts and creeping things, 
 and what he saw in the house of Cornelius. As Peter jour- 
 neyed from Joppa, with the messengers Cornelius had sent to 
 invite him into his house, he wondered much what the vision 
 he had seen signified. He though intently upon it but conkl 
 liiid no clue to its meaning, until he arrived at the house of 
 the centurion, where he found a company assembled, tlie 
 neighbors, kinsmen, and friends of this good heathen, who 
 were invit(;d by him no doubt, to be present on this singukir 
 occasion. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 283 
 
 Peter entered, and the good centurion nn-t liiin ; and, 
 supposing from the manner in wliich he liad Ix-en directed to 
 send for Peter, tliat he must l)e some superhuman being, fell 
 down at his feet to worsliip liim. Peter quickly told him to 
 stand up, saying, that he was nothing more than a man him- 
 self. Entering into the house with the centurion, and li tid- 
 ing many people assembled, he asked for what purpose they 
 had sent for him ? Cornelius immediately proceeded to recite 
 that simple and beautiful story of what had transpired in his 
 house four days before. Four days ago, I was fasting until 
 this hour ; and at the ninth hour I praycl in my house ; and, 
 lehold, a man stood before me in bright clothing, and said, Cor- 
 nelius, thy -prayer is heard and thine alms are had in remem- 
 brance in the sight of God. Send therefore to Joppa, and call 
 hither Simon, whose surname is Peter; he is lodged in the house 
 of one Simon, a tanner, by the sea side, who, when he comcth 
 shall speak unto thee. Immediately, therefore, I sent unto thee, 
 and thou hast well done that thou art come. Now, therefore, are 
 we all here present before God to hear all things that are com- 
 manded thee of God. 
 
 Peter stood listening and looking at Cornelius, with great 
 surprise no doubt, whilst the pious heathen rehearsed the cir- 
 cumstances which led him' to send men to Joi)pa to invite the 
 apostle down to Cesarea. 
 
 And we must suppose, while Peter was listening to the ac- 
 count the centurion was giving of the manner of God's mani- 
 festations to him, his Jewish prejudices began to yield and 
 melt down under the recital, and that tears of brotherly sym- 
 pathy fell from his eyes as he gazed upon that humble and 
 godly Gentile, whom he had been taught, as a Jew, to regard 
 in no better light than a " dog." 
 
 Tiiis scene produced an entire revolution in Peter's mind 
 in respect to the peoi)le of Gentile lands. We may imagine 
 him speaking to the company, after Cornelius was done speak- 
 ing to him, thus : " You all know that we Jews consider it 
 " unlawful to keep company with peoi)le of another nation ; 
 
284 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 " tliat we liold ourselves above all the rest of the world, and 
 "chiiin to have the exclusive right to whatever favors God 
 " may please to bestow upon men. But I am done with all 
 " such bigotry and exclusiveness now. What I have seen 
 " and heard to-day in the house of this Gentile, satisfies me 
 " that I have been in a great error on that subject. And 
 " now, of a truth, I perceive that God is no respecter of per- 
 " sons, but in every nation he ilvAi feareth him and uwrketh 
 " righteousness is accepted with him. 
 
 Tliis is the point at which I aimed in bringing before the 
 reader this most interesting meeting between the zealous ser- 
 vant of God under the Christian dispensation, and the no less 
 pious and humble servant of God in a heathen land, who had 
 never heard the gospel. 
 
 Upon this broad and comprehensive principle of God's 
 mercy to men of all nations who fear him and Avork righteous- 
 ness, the conclusion is unavoidable that there will be many 
 such stars in the kingdom of God, out of many heathen coun- 
 tries, who, like Cornelius, feared God, fasted and prayed 
 fervently, and whose piety was as deep and as sincere as any 
 found amongst Christians. These will shine as the stars, but 
 will be as far below the distinguished positions which will be 
 occupied by Christians, as the stars in their light a:'e inferi<5r 
 to the sun. 
 
 A further confirmation of this view of those who will be 
 admitted to that kingdom, is given in the words of our Savior, 
 who said, on a certain occasion, to those who live in the gos- 
 pel dispensation — for these words of his were intended to ap- 
 ply to the whole period of that dispensation — There shall he 
 weeping and gnashing of teeth when ye shall see Abraham, and 
 Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, 
 and ye yourselves thrust out. Not intending to limit liis mean- 
 ing to These patriarchs and prophets in the kingdom of God, 
 ])ut extending it to the multitudes who feared God and 
 wrought righteousness in the com})aratively dark disi)ensa- 
 tions, at the head of which these distinguished worthies 
 
CHAPTER XX. 285 
 
 stood; these will enter into that kingdom, while the p:re:it 
 majority of those that have lived in the superior light of the 
 gospel dispensation will be cast out or rejected. 
 
 But those who come into the kingdom of God from heathen 
 lands will lack the superior light and wisdom wliich Cliris- 
 tians will bring with them from the Christian dispensation, 
 and will shine only as the stars of an inferior and darker dis- 
 pensation. 
 
 It can hardly be necessary to say that the terms, shine, 
 light, and brightness, as applied to the subjects of that king- 
 dom, are to be understood as having a' moral or spiritual 
 meaning, and refer to intellectual and spiritual degrees of 
 perfection. 
 
 The rank which the Christian will occupy will be far above 
 the rest. Ye shall sit upon thrones, judging the twelve tribes of 
 Israel. They will administer the government of this new 
 kingdom under the supreme authority of Christ himself. 
 
 Judging the twelve tribes of Israel refers to imi)arting light 
 and instruction to the Jewish nation, to enable them to ap- 
 preciate and enjoy the blessings of that kingdom. The 
 twelve tribes of Israel is a comprehensive term, as used here, 
 and probably signifies all who had devoutly worshiped and 
 feared God according to the light they received from the Mo- 
 saic economy. The Jewish Church will then stand next to 
 the Christian Church in point of spiritual attainments and the 
 knowledge of God. And as Christianity will then judge or 
 instruct all Israel, so likewise will it govern, judge, or teach 
 all that are saved out of heathen lands, these being as far be- 
 low the rank or position which Israel will occupy as Chris- 
 tianity will be above it. These smaller stars are compre- 
 hended in the greater stars. 
 
 Peter, the Christian teacher in the house of Cornelius, in- 
 structing the huml^le heathen who had assembled there, and 
 directing their minds to the higher principles of the divine 
 economy as it is revealed through Jesus Christ, is somewhat 
 of an illustration of what will be Xhe judgment which the saints 
 
286 THE APOCALYPSE UNYEILED. 
 
 will -exercise over the twelve tribes of Israel : it will be in- 
 structive, elevatiiic:, and purifying to the mind. This must 
 be the only kind of judgment that will be known in the king- 
 dom of God. 
 
 These will be regarded as hard sayings by those whose 
 opinions of the future state or the next world, are little else 
 than undefined and indistinct notions of a heaven of happiness 
 somewhere or other for the righteous, and a hell of punish- 
 ment somewhere else for the wicked. Any idea of moral 
 government, such as has been suggested, existing on this earth 
 after what the scripture calls the end of the world, is revolt- 
 ing to these notions of man's hereafter. 
 
 The whole world arranged at a judgment bar to hear the 
 sentence which is to fix their eternal state — the burning up 
 of the world, the shouts of the saved, and the groans of the 
 lost, make up their entire views of the future state. That 
 happiness will be the condition of the righteous in the next 
 life, and wretchedness the condition of the wicked, are truths 
 which it does not become men to trifle with. And that these 
 opposite states are connected with the administration of laws, 
 and arise from the necessity of divine government, is too ap- 
 parent to be matter of doubt. 
 
 I have said that the thousand years' reign of Christ with 
 his saints on the earth and the kingdom of God, are one and 
 the same state. 
 
 The government of the saints in the thousand years' reign 
 will have the same object as the government of the church 
 l)y the gospel has, the improvement of man's moral and in- 
 tellectual nature being the design of both. 
 
 But the government in the thousand years will vary from 
 the present economy of the divine government over the world, 
 as it will then a])ply only to man in his immortal state. 
 
 Man, in the present body, is possessed of evil tempers and 
 vicious principles that are ever hurrying him into hurtful and 
 wicked excesses. He is exposed to the temptation of the 
 devil as well as to the allurements of the world that lieth in 
 
CIIArXER XX. OS "7 
 
 tlie wicked one. Besides tliis, the wicked are now in autliorily, 
 and tlicy often exercise their power for the maintenance of 
 vice, and in direct 0])position to godhness. All these m. al 
 forces and powers have to be met in the present w(jrld l.y 
 those laws of God's njipointment having suita))le penalties 
 denomiced against all iniqnity. 
 
 But in the kingdom of God, or the thousand years' reign 
 of Christ, there will be none of this. There will be no temi)t- 
 ing devil — no corrupt principles or unholy affections, re([uir- 
 ing such laws to check or punish them. Man's whole nature 
 then will tend to God and righteousness, as if by the force 
 of gravitation. 
 
 But his spiritual and moral powers will then require aid in 
 their development as they do now. Man does not pass out 
 of the present world with all the imperfections of his mortal 
 associations here, and enter into his next state in all the per- 
 fections of which his spirit is capable. Nor will he be forced 
 into that happiness, which can be attained only in the next 
 world, by some superior power which he will neither under- 
 stand nor be able to resist ; but he will enjoy the happiness 
 by the exercise of his faculties under the guidance and in- 
 struction peculiar to that state. His felicity will be enhanced 
 by the new discoveries he will be ever making in the i)rofound 
 mysteries of eternity ; and as he progresses in the wonders 
 of that life, the powers and capacities of his spiritual nature 
 will ever be expanding with new capabilities of hajipiness. 
 The whole government of that state will tend to stimulate 
 and direct the subjects of that kingdom in their endless pro- 
 gression towards God. 
 
 We have made a wide digression since we left the prophet. 
 We must now rejoin his company, and listen again to his 
 symbolical expositions. 
 
 We left him where he brought us in view of the kingdom 
 of God — the reign of Christ with his saints for a thousand 
 years. What he saw in that kingdom, and wliat transpired 
 at the end of the thousand years, he narrates in the conclud- 
 
288 THE APOCALYPSE UNYEILED. 
 
 iiig portion of this vision, all of which relates to scenes that 
 transpire on earth. 
 
 7. And ichen the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be 
 loosed out of his prison, 
 
 8. And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the 
 four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them to- 
 gether to battle ; the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. 
 
 9. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and com- 
 passed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city : and 
 fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. 
 
 10. 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. 
 
 11. And I saiv a great white throne, and him that sat on it, 
 from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away ; and there 
 was found noplace for them. 
 
 12. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God ; 
 and the boohs loere opened ; and another book was opened, which 
 is the book of life : and the dead loere judged out of those things 
 which were written in the books, according to their works. 
 
 13. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it ; and death 
 and hell delivered up the dead which were in them : and they 
 were judged every man according to their works. 
 
 14. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This 
 is the second death. 
 
 15. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life 
 was cast into the lake of fire. 
 
 The~ first circumstance which arrests our attention is, that 
 at the end of the thousand years Satan is loosed out of his 
 l)rison, and goes out to deceive the nations that 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 com- 
 passed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city, 
 and lire came down from God out of heaven and destroyed 
 them. 
 
CIIAPTKR XX. 289 
 
 Tliis feature of the vision is inteiide.l to sl-ow tlint Satan 
 will continue to possess, even in that era of the new heaven 
 and the new earth, the same incorrigible animosity and hos- 
 tility to God and his government that he has ever manifested 
 since he wast cast out of heaven ; and after being restrained 
 or imi)risoned a thousand years, he comes forth again with 
 his hellish and unsubdued vindictiveness to nmke another 
 effort against the dominion of the Almighty in the new 
 world. The prophet represents him as leading uj) an embat- 
 tled host, whose numl)ers admit of no comi)utation. T/mi 
 are as the sand of the sea, and are gathered from the four (piar- 
 ters of the earth. 
 
 The question will arise, ''Where will Satan gather this 
 " countless multitude in the millennium state of the world ?" 
 
 If the prophet meant literally an organized army, it would 
 be very easy to show where he might muster them. It would 
 only be necessary to advert to the great multitude whose 
 position will be on the left hand, and who will be ])anished 
 into outer darkness by the sentence of Christ when he shall 
 come in his glory, and call all nations before him. But, if 
 tKe earth and all that is in it is literally to be burned up, and 
 the righteous only will escape the destruction of that confla- 
 gration, by being taken up above the " fiery void ; " then, 
 indeed, it would be difficult to answer the question, and say 
 where this gathering of Gog and Magog will be made. 
 
 After those who are Christ's at his coming, have been 
 separated from the countless millions of earth's poi)ulation, 
 there will remain enough to meet the description the prophet 
 gives of the army gathered from the four (juarters of the 
 earth, and which went up covering the breadth of the earth, 
 in firm plmlanx, surrounding the camp and the Ijcloved city 
 of the saints. 
 
 These powers are represented as being deluded or deceived 
 by Satan, and drawn by him into this d<'S})erate enterprise 
 against the dominion of Christ, in this new foru), in which he 
 reigns over his sahits in the kingdom of God. The result is 
 
 VOL. II. — 13 
 
290 THE APOCALYFSE UX VEILED. 
 
 tliat this wliolc combination of powers is suddenly destroyed 
 by fire which came down from God out of heaven. 
 
 The saints are not represented as being at all disturbed, 
 or alarmed at such a mighty foe. They quietly dwell in their 
 beloved city and are at peace in their camp. They make no 
 preparations to meet their assailants and repel the assault, 
 for the glory of the Lord is their defense, and they are safe 
 under the shields of Omnipotence. 
 
 We liave only to substitute moral agencies for this great 
 embattled host, and we shall approach nearer to the true 
 meaning of the prophet. It cannot be supposed that a car- 
 nal conflict with the saints is meant, after they had dwelt a 
 thousand years in their glorified state. But we may suppose, 
 that under the deceivings of Satan, new and delusive systems 
 ,of a religious kind, may be organized in opposition to the 
 kingdom of the saints. New doctrines may be inculcated in 
 opposition to Christ's government, to which all the rejected 
 nations dwelling in outer darkness will readily give their 
 assent and zealous cooperation, in the vain hope that they 
 may overthrow the glorious kingdom, the presence of which 
 serves constantly to augment their wretchedness. 
 
 It may well be supposed that Satau would devise some 
 such scheme for the purpose of directing and drawing off the 
 saints from their allegiance to Christ in his kingdom. His 
 success in heaven in a similar effort with his associate angels, 
 and again in the garden of Eden, will embolden him in this 
 new ellbrt to overthrow the kingdom of Christ ; and the na- 
 tions which have been doomed to outer darkness, devoid of 
 happiness, and in utter despair of ever being raised to a bet- 
 ter state, will zealously cooperate in any organization that 
 promises to lessen their misery, by employing their powers 
 even in doing evil. 
 
 But this effort of Satan and his allies against the govern- 
 ment of Christ will avail nothing. The high intelligence 
 and unimpeachable character of the saints in that kingdom, 
 cannot l)e effected by the profoundest arts of Satan's deceiv- 
 
CHAPTER XX. 201 
 
 ings. And this last effort of tlio uncliinio-caUle adversary of 
 God and man is defeated, and the whole eonihination is over- 
 wlielnied in a deluge of fire, falling upon them from (iotl, out 
 of heaven, and devouring them. This strong figurative lan- 
 guage conveys, in the most forcible manner, the utter imjjos- 
 sibility that any scheme of Satan, to introduce error or sin 
 into the future state, or the next world, as he has done into 
 this, can ever succeed. 
 
 The Devil and his angels must have an eternal existence. 
 They have been ever since their fall from heaven, the anta- 
 gonistic powers of God ; and they have been actively and 
 incessantly employed in promoting rebellion against his 
 government. In this they have been too successful, in draw- 
 ing man away from his allegiance to his Creator. The Devil 
 is represented as going about like a roaring lion, seeking 
 whom he may devour, and he has enjoyed a malignant satis- 
 faction at every fresh instance of success. 
 
 It seems to be a principle of the moral government of God 
 over the world, that a certain degree of liberty should bo 
 allowed to those evil spirits ; but they are reserved in chdins, 
 unto judgment, or the period of their final judgment. They 
 had been appointed to this final punishment as their eternal 
 state ; but, until the time of the execiUiun of this sentence 
 arrives, they are somewhat at large, and at times appear to 
 exercise a fearful extent of jjower. Nevertheless, they are 
 under chains, or in chains, by Omnipotent ]>ower, and cannot, 
 in their malignant efforts, exceed the length of their chains ; 
 they cannot go beyond the bounds which the divine govern- 
 ment has prescribed, and it is well for this world that they 
 cannot. 
 
 But we are now approaching a new form of the divine 
 government, which is to be introduced at the end of the 
 thousand years. This dispensation of the government of 
 the Almighty, differs from all others that have preceded it 
 since the creation of man, and any exercise of Satanic power 
 anywhere, or to any extent, within the bounds of this do- 
 
202 THE APOCALYrSE UNVEILED. 
 
 million, will not be tolerated. Xo power or influence adverse 
 to God and his government, can be exercised or exist, when 
 this new mode of the divine administration commences — ■ 
 hence the closing event of the thousand years is the casting 
 of the Devil 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. Thus the power of Satan to interfere with 
 the purposes of God in his government over the universe, will 
 cease for ever in the unmitigated punishment implied by fire 
 and brimstone ; terms which, more than any other that could 
 be employed, convey the idea of intolerable anguish. 
 
 The scriptures nowhere give us a more distinct account of 
 the duration of the millennium state than that which is ex- 
 pressed by the term, a thousand years, which w^e may regard 
 as a definite period used only to express an indefinite period 
 of tiine. Its actual duration is alone within the knowledge 
 of Him with whom a thousand years are as one day, and one 
 day as a thousand years. It is of no consequence to us to 
 know what Avill be its duration ; but what will be done in 
 that state, and what will succeed it, are subjects of revela- 
 tion, and as such, are proper for man's meditation and in- 
 quiry. 
 
 In considering this part of the divine economy, we must 
 first attend to what Christ himself says about it,, and then 
 hear what liis apostles say. 
 
 In the fifth chapter of John's gospel, verses 21, 22, Christ 
 distinctly announces that he is at the head of the divine gov- 
 ernment over man, in these w^ords : For as the Father raiseth 
 up the dead and quickeneth them, e\:en so the Son quickeneth 
 whom he will. For the Father judgeth no man, but hath com- 
 mitted all judgment unto the Son. 
 
 An e(iuality of divine power with the Father, as manifested 
 in raising the dead, is asserted in these words ; and in ad- 
 ministering the kingdom of God over men, Christ declares him- 
 self supreme, l)ecause all judgment hath by the Father been 
 cuniniitted to him. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 21)3 
 
 These fuiiduineutiil principles of the divine govcrnn»eat 
 rnust refer to the thousand years' rei,i?n, since the resurrec- 
 tion, or the renewed state of man's life, takes jihice at tlic 
 coniniencement of that state ; and it is further and enii»hati- 
 cally declared to be the reign of Christ. The gospel of St. 
 John abounds in sayings which can oidy Ijc understood l)y re- 
 ferring them to that period when the full glory and nuijesty 
 of Christ will be manifested in the kingdom where all judg- 
 ment will be committed unto the Son. 
 
 We learn something more particular respecting the pecu- 
 liar nature and design of the reign of Christ during the thou- 
 sand years, from the sayings of St. Paul in the fifteenth chai)- 
 ter of the 1st Cor., the 24th to the 28th verse, inclusive. It 
 is quite clear that the apostle, iu these verses, is not speaking 
 of the gospel dispensation. 
 
 The resurrection of Christ is first asserted, then the resur- 
 rection of them who had fallen asleep in Christ. Christ re- 
 turns to life on the third day after his crucifixion, as the first 
 fruits of them that slept, or as the earnest or pledge of the 
 renewed existence of all that are his when he shall come 
 again. 
 
 But every man in his own order, says the apostle. Christ 
 the first fruits, afterwards they that are Christ's at his coming. 
 This introduces the millennium, or the thousand years' king- 
 dom — the reign of Christ with his saints on the earth. But 
 this kingdom, like the gospel kingdom, also has its limit— it 
 comes to nn end. 
 
 The end of this millennium kingdom will come wlicn the 
 reign of Christ shall have accorapHshed all that was to be 
 done in the thousand years, having put down all rule, and all 
 autliority, and all power. For he must reign until he has put 
 oil enemies under his feet. No one properly attentive to the 
 scripture account of the close of the gospel dispensation, will 
 midertake to say that all this will be done under that dispen- 
 sation. The close of the gospel dny, as Christ himself repre- 
 sents it, does not show that all enemies have bceu conquered 
 
94 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 and Ijrouglit under his authority by tlie gospel. But he speaks 
 of nations who were his enemies, who would not have him to 
 reign over them, by his Spirit, in the gospel day. These are 
 banished into outer darkness, never again to be brought un- 
 der Christ's reign, neither as probationers, or the subjects of 
 the happy government of Christ. 
 
 But the true meaning of the apostle probably is this, that 
 the reign of Christ will continue until all the subjects of the 
 millennial reign are In'ought into the perfect knowledge of 
 God, as he is manifested in and through the Lord Jesus 
 Christ. The Jews are enemies in this sense, and will be 
 brought to God in this new dispensation. 
 
 I have already spoken of the almost infinitely varied char- 
 acter of the great multitude which will make up that millen- 
 nium kingdom. The prophet labors to convey some idea of 
 that vast multitude as he saw them. He says : Aoid the mim- 
 bcr of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands 
 of thousands. And the grand acclamation of this countless 
 multitude was, as he heard it : Thou hast redeemed us to God 
 by thy Mood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and 
 nation. — Rev. chop. 5. 
 
 What a vast variety of intelligence and moral action must 
 such a nmltitude as this present ; gathered, as they will be, 
 from amongst all the nations, tongues and i)eople of the earth. 
 While some who have lived in the light of the gospel dispen- 
 sation show their superior advantages by their exalted views 
 of God and his government, there are vast numbers whose 
 moral perceptions of the same subject, and their crude and 
 ini})('rfect attainments in religion, scarcely amount to any- 
 thing more than the lowest grade of intellectual life — like 
 tlie feeble light of distant and scarcely perceptible stars. 
 But all having, with humble and upright purpose, feared 
 God and wrought righteousness, according to the best light 
 they had, are brought into that kingdom where the spirits 
 of the just inU be made perfect. 
 
 Over all this mass of mind, imperfect and deformed by ig- 
 
CHAPTER XX. 295 
 
 norance and error, as imicli of it will !>(>, from the want of 
 better light, Christ will reign ; and administer, through his 
 saints of superior rank and intelligence, the instruetion in 
 righteousness, and the spiritual influenees which will finally 
 expel its darkness and imbue it with the light and knowledge 
 of God and the true glory of man. 
 
 All error and ignorance may properly be considered as tlie 
 enemies of God. Almost all the rule, and authority, and 
 power, by which the religion of Christ is obstructed and 
 opposed amongst men in the world, have their origin in ignor- 
 ance of God, and in erroneous views of his government. But 
 we frequently see much ignorance blended with great sincerity 
 of heart, and very erroneous views of religion dwelling in 
 minds anxiously desirous to be always acceptable to God. 
 In this life such individuals will probably remain very super- 
 ficial in their knowledge of God, and very shallow in their 
 experience of those manifestations which he is often pleased 
 to make to his people. 
 
 But, in the Millennium kingdom all darkness of whatever 
 kind will be removed from the mind, by the pure and right- 
 eous government which there will ever l)e instructing and ex- 
 panding the moral and intellectual powers of man ; and 
 where nothing vicious or sinful can ever arise to obstruct or 
 counteract its happy influence. The reign of Christ will put 
 all such enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall U- 
 destroyed is death ! This rather confirms what has been said 
 relative to the meaning of the term, enemies. Death cannot 
 be said to be an active opposing power, either of the govern- 
 ment of God or his attributes. God appointed death — It is 
 appointed once for man to die. Death is an enemy only to 
 man ; he is represented as the great destroyer of the human 
 race. This power of destroying life will cease — will not ])c 
 known in the millennium reign — neither can they die any more, 
 is given by Christ as one of the peculiarities of those who 
 dwell in that kingdom. But still death is not destroyed ; 
 he holds his dark dominion over the millions of the human 
 
296 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 race tliat nave died from Adam down to the period when 
 the thousand years' reign will commence. All these must be 
 released — must come into life again ; then shall come to pass 
 the saying lliat is written — Death is swalloiced up in victory ! 
 referring to Isaiah, chap. 25 : 8. 
 
 This final overthrow of death's dominion will take place at 
 the end of the thousand years, when " the rest of the dead 
 shall rise, and who did not rise to meet Christ at his second 
 appearing in glory. This overthrow of the last enemy will 
 close the millennium reign — the last enemy that shall he de- 
 stroyed is death ! When this enemy is destroyed, and " Christ 
 has put all things under his feet, then will he deliver up the 
 kingdom to God, even the Father. And when all things shall he 
 suhdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself he suhjed unto 
 him that put all things under him, that God may he all in all. 
 
 This introduces the glory and majesty of the highest state 
 of man's future existence, as it is revealed to him by God. 
 All the blessed who were received into the kingdom of the 
 thousand years, under the reign of Christ, will be prepared 
 for this higher state of glory, when the kingdom will be de- 
 livered up to God, even the Father. 
 
 The greatest efforts of the imagination must fall infinitely 
 short of a full apprehension of the glory of man's existence 
 in that state. Nothing in the heavens and the earth in the 
 millennial state, will afford any comparison with it. These 
 fled away and no [)lace was found for them, says the prophet. 
 The great white throne is emblematic of the grandeur and 
 purity of the government of the great God, over all and 
 every part of the universe to which he has given existence 
 by his own omnipotence. 
 
 This rejiresentation does not instruct us that the divine 
 government has assumed a higher and holier character than 
 that which distinguished it before and since the creation of 
 the world. God is unchangeable in his perfection and attri- 
 butes. But it teaches us that man has reached that exalted 
 state of purity and holiness in his nature, which fits him for, 
 
CHAPTER XX. 297 
 
 and elevates him to, tliis liiglier approacli to God, iunl more 
 familiar acquaiutaiice witli tlie unspoakabhi glorii-s of iiis 
 dominion. 
 
 In all ages of the world God has had comnmnications with 
 man ; and, in order that those communications might be 
 adapted to man's very imperfect moral and spiritual percci)- 
 tions, he has ever employed some medium, as a re^jrcsentation 
 of himself, that man might look ui)on and converse witii him 
 without dread. The angel of Ids 'presence, was the general 
 designation of those representations. 
 
 Such were the three men which appeared to Abraham, 
 and partook of his hospitalties under the oak of Mamre. 
 Jacob held communication with God under similar appear- 
 ances, particularly at the memorable struggle by the brook 
 Jabbok. 
 
 God spoke to Moses out of the burning l)ush, and tlie 
 journey of the Israelites was frequently marked by such a[)- 
 pearauces. The cloud by day and the pillar of fire by uiglit 
 were constant emblems of the divine presence. 
 
 The ark of the Lord became the standing symbol of Jeho- 
 vah's presence in the Israelitish camp, and continued to be 
 so with the tribes after they had entered into and possessed 
 the land of Canaan. 
 
 Such also was the angel of the Lord wliich ai)poared to 
 Joshua, in the form of a man of war, under the walls of 
 Jericho. 
 
 In all those manifestations of tlie divine })resenre there is 
 a perfect adaptation of the syml)ol or medium of comnumica- 
 tion to the time and circumstances of tlie people to whom 
 God speaks ; and in none is such a iitness more clearly and 
 remarkably visible than in this appearance to the captain V)f 
 the hosts of Israel. Joshua had just led the people over 
 Jordan, and, with sword in hand, proclaimed his purpose of 
 conquering the country of the Canaanites. 
 
 He drew up his forces before the strong walls of Jericho, 
 perhaps with some doubts whether he would be able to carry 
 
 VOL. II. — 13* 
 
298 THE A.POCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 a city so strongly fortified. Just then there appeared before 
 him a man of warlike appearance, precisely such as Joshua 
 •was himself. Joshua soon learned that this was not a mere 
 man, but the angel of the Lord, come to give him encourage- 
 ment and counsel in the arduous enterprise he had under- 
 taken. 
 
 Passing over the Jewish economy, in which the prophets 
 of the Most High stood between God and his people as the 
 channel of intercourse, let us come to the Christian dispensa- 
 tion. 
 
 And who is it that represents God in this dispensation ? 
 It is Jesus Christ, in his mysterious character of the God- 
 man — God manifested in the flesh — Deity veiled in hu- 
 manity. He took upon himself the form of a servant, and 
 humbled himself to the condition of mortal man, that men 
 might, through him, speak to God, and hear God speaking 
 with them. 
 
 Christ makes the way of access to God the Father practi- 
 cable and easy to sinful man, who never could approach him 
 with entire confidence without such a medium or mediator. 
 
 Christ will continue in this same relation to men even in 
 the glorified state of his thousand years' reign ; for, as I 
 have before remarked, men carry with them out of this world 
 the same moral and spiritual character which they bore in 
 this life, and there must be the same infinite distance between 
 them and an infinitely holy God when they enter the millennium 
 state as there was when they left the body. I do not mean that 
 this distance between God and his people is a distance pro- 
 duced ))y sin in the man when he died ; but it arises from the 
 feebleness of his moral powers and his spiritual ignorance 
 even in the highest state to which he can attain by grace in 
 this life. All that men will know of God the Father in the 
 thousand years' reign of Christ, will be through Christ, as 
 the medium of communication. Although man's moral powers 
 will ever be expanding, and his conceptions of the divine 
 character will rise higher and higher, yet until he attains the 
 
CIlAl'TKR X^. 01) I) 
 
 perfection to which it is the express purpose of tlifit reif:cn of 
 Christ to raise him, lie will see God only throu^rh the Lord 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 But man will, in the proii-ross which his moral and spiritual 
 nature is to make in the millennium state, ultimately reach 
 that perfection, and possess such a glorious expansion of pow- 
 ers adapted to that world, as will place him upon an ccjuidily 
 with the glorilied nature of Christ himself. 
 
 This I take to be the meaning of the apostle when lie says: 
 And us we have home the image of the earthly, we shall also hear 
 the image of the heavenly. We have borne in our body, or 
 earthly life, a resemblance to Christ in his humiliation, so we 
 shall bear his glorious state — we shall resemble him in his 
 highest state of moral and spiritual perfection. 
 
 Thus man will be raised from his fallen and corrupt nature; 
 ])eginning with the work of grace wrought a\ him here and 
 ju'ogressing through the millennium state; he will be changed 
 into the image of Christ, from one degree of glory unto 
 another, as by the Spirit of God, until he reaches that 
 equality with Christ, expressed by the saying of the apostle, 
 when he speaks of what we shall be — Heirs of God, and joint 
 heirs with Christ. This expresses the idea of the same rela- 
 tionship, which Christ as a Son, holds to God the Father ; 
 and an equal participation in the glory and power which he 
 will receive from God in virtue of that relationship. No 
 intervening veil, or medium between God and man will then 
 be necessary. Man will then see and know God as Christ 
 sees and knows him. 
 
 This exaltation of man in the high degree of perfection to 
 which his nature will be raised, brings us to the end of the 
 thousand years' reign. All its purposes will then have been 
 accomplished, when, as the apostle says, Christ has put all 
 enemies under his feet : And when all things shall he suhdned 
 unto him., then shall the Son himself be subject unto him that 
 put all things under him; that God may he all in all. 1 Vov. 
 15 : 28. 
 
300 '-i^HE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 Having put all things under liim, Christ now delivers up 
 the kingdom to God, even the Father. The redeemed of 
 mankind, who have been saved by Christ, are now brought 
 into the same rehitionship to God which Christ himself holds. 
 Tlie purposes of his mediatorial appointment having all been 
 accomplished, that office ceases, and henceforth the divine 
 government is to be administered by God himself. This is 
 illustrated by the great white throne, and him that sat upon it. 
 The proi)het could find no better description of the supe- 
 riority and glory of this government over all that had pre- 
 ceded it, than that which he gives in the expression — From 
 whose face the heavens and the earth Jled away, and there teas 
 found no 'place for them. A figure of speech, which implies, 
 that man will then be raised to an order of divine govern- 
 ment, the glory and grandeur of which, has no parallel in 
 any state that he ever experienced before. From its presence, 
 all former things disappeared and fled away. 
 
 The expression — Great tchite throne, and him that sat on it, 
 from whose face the heavens and the earth fed away, appear to 
 be terms so simple and plain, that we are ready to conclude 
 nothing very remarkable is intended. But we must not 
 judge the style of the prophet as we would the style of com- 
 mon men in their writings. When the prophet speaks of the 
 great subjects of his vision, just in proportion as they rise 
 and swell in grandeur and magnificence, in the same propor- 
 tion does his language assume the most simj^le form. 
 
 It is said, in the fifth verse of this chapter : But the rest 
 of the dead lived not a gai7i until the thousand years were fin- 
 ished. That event now transpires, and the prophet, when the 
 great white throne appears, says : I saw the dead, small and 
 great, stand before God, and the looks were opened ; and another 
 hook was opened, which is the look of life ; and tJie dead were 
 judged out of those things lohich were written in the looks 
 according to their ivorks. 
 
 Opening books, and names written in books, are usual 
 terms connected with the government of God over the worl J, 
 
CIIAPTKR XX 301 
 
 and the exercise of his juf]<rmcnfs upon the wicked. They 
 are to be regarded, of course, as ri<:;urativc, and intended to 
 convey the idea of God's Omniscience! that he knows as 
 perfectly all the acts of men as if they were written in a 
 book. Our courts of law would be very imi)erfect if the 
 business upon which they acted was not recorded in the 
 books ; much would be forgotten, and the api>lieation of the 
 laws would often be erroneous and unjust. I>ut, being matter 
 of record, all proceedings based upon what is written in the 
 books, every one is satisfied that the judgment or sentence 
 of the courts, is just and right. 
 
 The divine government, when the great white throne ap- 
 pears, will not admit of the existence of any power hostile to 
 its purity or its laws. Hence a final disposition will then be 
 made of all the ungodly part of mankind, as well as all the spi- 
 ritual powers combined against God. These are distinguished 
 by the terms — death and hell. These, with all who were not 
 found written in the book of life, were cast into the lake of fire. 
 
 The term judged, evidently means in this transaction — 
 punished : consigned to everlasting woe, as is usual in speak- 
 ing of the state of final punishment, by the term — lake of 
 fire. This is the second death. 
 
 It was said of all those who had a part in the first resur- 
 restion — on such the second death hath no 'power. These are 
 they who are written in that book of life spoken of by the 
 prophet. In the twelfth verse, he says : and the hooks were 
 opened. These refer to the mighty throng, which now, after 
 the thousand years, live again, and to the si)irits denomiinitcd 
 death and hell. But there was another book, distinguished 
 from these already named, and by way of eminence, called 
 the hook of life. This is the record of all who reigned with 
 Christ in his thousand years' reign. These were not subjects 
 of the judgment; but whosoever was not found written in 
 this book of Hfe was cast into the fire. 
 
 And death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them. 
 This precisely meets the impious declaration of French A the- 
 
302 I'HE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 ism, uttered by her priestliood when the smoke of the bottom- 
 less pit broke out, darkening the sun and the air. — (chap. 9 : 
 verse 2.) Tlie wild uproar of religious and civil anarchy 
 which distinguislied the French Revolution, assailed the 
 throne of God, and threatened the subversion of all civil gov- 
 ernment. 
 
 " Death is an eternal sleep," became the popular sentiment 
 with the French nation, under the intoxication produced by 
 the wine of abominations^ with which the woman drugged 
 the inhabitants of the earth. 
 
 Tlie moral delirium produced by the corruptions of the 
 Romish Church reacted with terrible effect. The church fell 
 with the civil government, and merged her corruptions in the 
 ferocious principles of the revolution. 
 
 This combination of civil and religious anarchy was death 
 to religion and morality. But death shall deliver up the 
 dead that are in it when the great white throne appears. 
 
 And hell, too, shall deliver up the dead which are in it. 
 Hell signifies opposition to the government of God ; hence 
 the promise of Christ to his church — The 'powers of hell shall 
 not prevail against thee. 
 
 All this death and hell shall deliver up their powers, their 
 influence, and shall l)e cast into the lake of fire — shall be ban- 
 ished forever from the dominion of Him that sits upon the 
 great white throne. 
 
 There is another delivery of the dead mentioned by the 
 propliet, and that is from the sea. And the sea gave up the 
 dead that were in it. The sea has no sort of relation to denth 
 and hell as enemies to God and his government. But it 
 seems to be referred to for the purpose of meeting the parti- 
 cular effect produced upon the mind by the loss of friends on 
 tlie sea. 
 
 When our friends die with us, and we follow them to tlie 
 toml), and see them deposited in the calm and peaceful shades 
 of the cemetery, our affections may hover over their tomb, 
 and consecrate the spot where they repose with such em- 
 
CHAPTER XX. 303 
 
 blems as best suit the cliorisluHl renicnibranco of tlicir love 
 and virtues. But when a friend is connnitted to tlie l)o.soiii 
 of the ocean, we know not wiiere lie lies ; we feel that he is 
 lost indeed. In vain we look for the place of his repose — in 
 vain we follow the course of the ship from whose deck he was 
 consigned to the deep, and ask, is he here ? or is he there ? 
 The sorrowing heart hears no response but the hurling tem- 
 pest and the surging billows. 
 
 The ocean gives no account to man of the dead that have 
 descended into its depths. But, oh I thou oblivious sea, al- 
 though man cannot search, God's all-seeing eye looks through 
 thy abyss ; and when his voice shall call the rest of the dead 
 to life again, its thunders shall echo through thy profoundest 
 caverns, and the sea shall give up the dead that are in it. 
 
 We Jiave been conducted by a succession of visions, un- 
 folded to the view of the prophet, to the utmost limits to which 
 revelation points in the future history of man's exaltation 
 and glory. 
 
 The two closing chapters of the Apocalypse are chiefly 
 employed in giving symbolical descriptions of the perfect and 
 happy state of the righteous in heaven. In doing this, the 
 prophet combines beauty, riches, and grandeur, to an extent 
 almost overwhelming. The appetite for these things is insa- 
 tiable in man, and for this reason they arc ai)i)ropriate, as 
 sensible objects, to impart to our minds the highest concep- 
 tion which we are now capable of entertaining of the infinite 
 pleasures of the heavenly state. No man can form any idea 
 of happiness in the abstract. He cannot think of it without 
 forming in his mind the image of some sensible object calcu- 
 lated to impart happiness. 
 
 When Christ spoke to the people of the operation of the 
 Spirit and the joys of the Holy Ghost, he always employed 
 sensible objects to illustrate his subject. If he had not done 
 so, the people could not have comprehended his meaning. 
 And so with the prophet. After bringing us- to the appear- 
 ing of the great white throne and him that sat on it, from 
 
304 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 whoso face the earth and the heaven fled away, if he had left 
 us there without any description of that state, we should 
 have been bewildered rather than instructed. But he pro- 
 ceeds in the two closing chapters of his vision to illustrate 
 that state, when man will enjoy the fruition of the glory 
 which will be his inheritance as an heir of God and joint heir 
 with Christ. 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 THE HOLY CITY, OR HEAVEXLY JERUSAI,KM. 
 
 1. And I saw a neio heaven and a new earth : for the first 
 heaven and the first earth were passed away ; and there was no 
 more sea. 
 
 2. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down 
 from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her 
 husband. 
 
 3. And I heard a great voice out of heaven, saying, Behold, 
 the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, 
 and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, 
 and be their God. 
 
 4. And God shall wipe away all fears from their eyes ; and 
 there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither 
 shall there be any more pain: for the former things are pat.sed 
 away. 
 
 5. And he that sat upon the throne said. Behold, I make all 
 things nevK And he said unto me, Write : for these words are 
 true and faithful. 
 
 6. And he said unto me. It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, 
 the beginning and the end: Twill give unto him that is athirst 
 of the fountain of the water of life freely. 
 
 1. lie that over Cometh shall inherit all things ; and I will be 
 his God, and he shall be my son. 
 
 8. But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and 
 murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and 
 all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burnclh with 
 fire and brimstone : which is the second death. 
 
306 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 The first delineation tlic prophet gives of the scenes 
 ^vhieh we are now entering upon are physical, relating to the 
 heaven, the earth, and the sea. He had said in the preceding 
 chapter, in his description of the appearance of the great 
 white throne, from the face of himself that sat upon it, the 
 heaven and the earth fed away, and there was no place found 
 for them. 
 
 The present act in the great prophetic drama opens with 
 a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and tlie first 
 earth were passed away, reaffirming what he had said on that 
 sul)ject in the preceding chapter. The new heaven and new 
 earth now spoken of is, probably, something far beyond that 
 change referred to by St. Peter, where he says : Nevertheless, 
 we look for new heavens and new earth, wherevri dwelleth righteous- 
 ness. Tliis simple fact, that righteousness will be predomi- 
 nant, seems to be the chief distinction in St. Peter's new 
 heaven and new earth. Tn the kingdom referred to by St. 
 Peter, Christ sat upon the throne and reigned a thousand 
 years. But when that state ends, and Christ delivers up the 
 Hngdom to God, even the Father, then the heaven and the 
 earth fled away, and all things were m.ade new l)y him that 
 sat upon the great white throne. 
 
 Tliere is a remarkable gradation in the divine government, 
 showing three distinct stages. There is first, the government 
 under the gospel dispensation, by the ministration of the Holy 
 Spirit ; secondly, the reign of Christ in the thousand years ; 
 and thirdly, the great white throne, when the kingdom will 
 be delivered up to God the Father. 
 
 In these sublime visions of the prophet, we may well sup- 
 pose that he would employ symbolical language on many sub- 
 jects, for there are many of his visions which he could not 
 adai)t to our feeble ai)prehension without such language. 
 
 1 have already said, that the expression, from whose face 
 the heaven and the earth fed aicay, implied no more than that 
 a great change had taken place in the constitution and laws 
 of the material universe, rendering them so much more glori- 
 
CHAPTER XXI 307 
 
 ous than their former state was, that tlu' precodiii.u- licaveii 
 and eartli woukl be quite forgotten. But still the earth ex- 
 ists, and will continue to exist and be the theater of man's 
 glorious existence, even in the highest state of his perfec- 
 tion, as far as it is revealed to us in the volume of iiir^pira- 
 tion. 
 
 There is no annihilation of this earth, either by water or by 
 fire. There are great changes through which the earth and 
 its immediate heavens will pass, we must sup})Ose from the 
 repeated declarations of scripture ; but all these changes will 
 tend to purify it, and increase and perfect its beauty and 
 grandeur. 
 
 In the new earth, of wiiich the prophet is now si)eaking, 
 there was no more sen. Some writers have regarded this as a 
 figurative expression, simply designed to convey the idea that 
 all discord and commotion will cease in that world, as the 
 sea is emblematical of turmoil and confusion. 
 
 But the prophet certainly means a literal heaven and 
 earth ; and as he speaks of the sea in connection with these, 
 I am constrained to receive what he says of the sea as literal 
 also. 
 
 Those mighty oceans which now produce the great geo- 
 graphical distinctions of the earth, and keep nations estranged 
 from each other, and acting as barriers against the ])ractical 
 exercise of those sympathies of man's nature, which seem 
 designed by the Creator to bind the whole earth in one close 
 and common brotherhood of affection, will no longer exist. 
 The elements which in their chemical combination now com- 
 pose these great seas, will become dissolved, and, under new 
 combinations, will enter into different formations, more con- 
 genial with that state of man's existence. 
 
 The next object in the vision is announced by the prophet 
 with remarkal)le emphasis : And I John saw the hohj dtij, new 
 Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as 
 a bride adorned for her husband. This represents the church 
 when the spirits of all the just are made perfect iu the thou- 
 
308 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 sand years' rci!2:ii of Clirist, and the kingdom is prepared to 
 be delivered up to God the Fatlier. 
 
 Tiio description of this city is not entered upon imme- 
 diately, but is deferred until he gets through with his gene- 
 ral descrii)tion of what he saw and heard of the state of the 
 blessed in that new earth. 
 
 lie. heard a great voice out of heaven — that is, one universal 
 expression of peace and joy proclaimed that the tabernacle 
 of God is with men ; and he dwells with them in such fami- 
 liar and intimate intercourse, that the consciousness of their 
 own being is not stronger than the consciousness that God 
 dwells with them and is their God. 
 
 And God shall ivijpe away all tears from their eyes; and 
 there shall he no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither 
 shall there he any more pain. 
 
 It is impossible for mortal man fully to conceive of such a 
 state of existence as these expressions imply. A man counts 
 himself hap})y in this life if one day passes without the occur- 
 rence of some event that wrings his heart with anguish, or 
 draws the tear of sorrow from his eyes. But these days of 
 sorrow belong to the present times — to flesh and blood. They 
 will all pass awaj, the great voice said, for the former things 
 arc passed away. Not a vestige of the grief and sorrow 
 known to the former earth will be known in this. 
 
 And he tliat sat upon the throne said : Behold 1 ma Ice all 
 all things new — suitable to the perfection and glory of that 
 state to which man's nature will then be raised. The prophet, 
 aniiized at the grandeur and magnificence of everything he 
 beheld, was, prol)ably, too much lost in wonder and astonish- 
 ment, to think about wTiting down what he saw. But he is 
 commanded to write them. Let the whole church hear them! 
 Spread them out Ijcfore the eyes of the surviving people of 
 God, who are struggling against the powers of darkness, 
 and the corruptions of earth ; that they may be inspired with 
 a sacred ardor, and emboldened with a holy courage, wiiile 
 they look upon the blissful result of their contest. Write! 
 
CHAPTKR XXL 309 
 
 and assure my saints in the eartli tliat these words [or these 
 things] arc true and faithful. They are no fiction — none of 
 those delusive phantoms which the world holds out as linj)})!- 
 ness, which only deceive and disappoint men. 
 
 6. And he said unto me, It is dune! The volume of llevcla- 
 tion is completed ; there is nothing beyond this state in man's 
 future glory that could be brought within his comi)rehension, 
 even by any possibility of syml)olical ilhistration. All 
 emanations from the eternal world cease with the vision of 
 the heavenly Jerusalem. All that man can know, until he 
 reaches that glorious state, is now made known to him — the 
 work of revelation is done ! I am Alpha and Omega. I was 
 before all things. I spake and worlds came into existence. I 
 commanded and they stood fast. I am the same now at the end 
 of all things ; [and by the same Almighty power] / now 
 make all things neu\ 
 
 I will give 2m to him that is a thirst, of the fountain of the 
 water of life— freely. A beautiful figure of speech — expres- 
 sive of the fullness and uninterruptible state of the bliss, 
 which is reserved for the righteous in the presence of God. 
 
 Here, from the very nature of man's existence — his indis- 
 pensible relation to the things of this world, he can, at most, 
 catch only a hasty draught from the secret stream which 
 meanders its way for him into this world from the great 
 fountain ^bove. Crowded and urged on by duties and trials, 
 by cares and anxieties, he can only sip as he goes ; but in 
 that heavenly Jerusalem, he will calmly sit and drink from 
 the fountain of heavenly io\^— freely — abundantly! 
 
 He that overcometh shall inherit all things. Tiiere is a 
 striking harmony between the sayings of our Lord in his 
 sermon on the mount and these words of the great voice 
 heard by the i^rophQi— Blessed are the pure in heart for they 
 shall see God— our Savior said. The words of the great voice 
 are the echo of this say mg;— Behold the tabernacle of God is 
 with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall he his 
 people. Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth— 
 
310 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 are the words of Christ. The great voice responds — He 
 that overcometh shall inherit all things. 
 
 We sometimes hear ministers of the gospel announce this 
 saying of Christ — Tlie meek shall inherit the earth, as a text 
 for their discourse, and twist and torture scripture, and turn 
 it and common sense too, almost upside down, to show that 
 the meek do really inherit the earth now ! While many, per- 
 haps, who listen to their perversion of the text, are at the 
 very time destitute of food convenient for their bodily wants, 
 and the necessary raiment to clothe themselves with, or the 
 most common shelter to protect them from the blasts of the 
 wintry storm. To such people, having no better teachers, 
 the gospel must ever remain an inexplicable mystery. 
 
 Besides, the notorious fact, that many of the meek, the 
 most Immble of God's people in this world, are in the most 
 necessitous circumstances, suffering hunger and almost naked- 
 ness. The words of Christ are not — blessed are the meek 
 for they do inherit the earth ; but he said they shall inherit 
 the earth. 
 
 This and many other like declarations of our Lord, cau 
 have no fulfillment in this present earth ; it is in the new 
 earth, and in the heavenly Jerusalem where all these pros- 
 pective possessions are realized. 
 
 Now let us go with the prophet, and behold the glorious 
 city — the heavenly Jerusalem — the symbol of the future 
 possession of the saints. 
 
 I shall not disturb the scene of glory now about to spread 
 out Ijefore us by dwelling upon the op})osite picture of the 
 eighth verse : Let him whose conscience tells him, Thow art 
 the man! take timely warning and seriously ponder the 
 solemn declarations of that verse. 
 
 9. And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had 
 the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with 
 me, saying. Come hither, I will shoio you the bride, the LamVs 
 wife. 
 
 10. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and 
 
CIIAPTKR XXL 311 
 
 high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the. liohj Jrni.m- 
 le?fi, descending out of heaven from God, 
 
 11. Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto 
 a stone most precious, even like a jasper-stove, clear as crystal : 
 
 12. And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, 
 and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which 
 are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel. 
 
 13. On the east, three gates ; on the north, three gates; on 
 the south, three gates ; and on the west, three gates. 
 
 14. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in 
 them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. 
 
 15. And he that talked icith me had a golden reed to measure 
 the city, and the gates thereof, and. the wall thereof. 
 
 16. And the city lieth four-square, and the length is as large 
 as the breadth. And he measured the city icith the reed, twelve 
 thousand furlongs ; the length, and the breadth, and the height 
 of it are equal. 
 
 IT. And he measured the wall thereof, an hundred and forty 
 and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of 
 the angel. 
 
 18. And the building of the ivall of it was of jasper : and 
 the city was pure gold, like unto dear glass. 
 
 19. And the foundations of the ivall of the city were garnished 
 with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was 
 jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the 
 fourth, an emerald : 
 
 20. The fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius ; the seventh, 
 chrysolite ; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz ; the tenth, a 
 chrysoprasus ; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an ame- 
 thyst. 
 
 21. And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; every several 
 gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, 
 as it ivere transparent glass. 
 
 22. And I saw no temple therein : for the Lord God Almighty 
 and the Lamb are the temple of it. 
 
 23. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of tfic moon, 
 
312 THE APOCALYPSE UX VEILED. 
 
 to shine in it ; for the glory of God did lighten it, and the 
 Lomh is rhc light thereof. 
 
 24. 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 honor into it. 
 
 25. And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day ; for 
 there shall be no night there. 
 
 26. And they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations 
 into it. 
 
 27. And there shall in no ivise enter into it anything that 
 dcfdeth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh alie; 
 but they ichich are written in the Lamb's book of life. 
 
 In the ninth verse, the prophet tells us that one of the 
 seven angels who poured the vials of wrath upon the former 
 earth, now becomes the expounder of the scenes in the new 
 earth. 
 
 He carried me aicay in the spirit to a great and high moun- 
 tain. The prophet guards us against falling into the error 
 of giving a literal sense to those magnificent scenes he is about 
 to describe, by the remark, he carried me away in the spirit. 
 We are, therefore, to understand what follows in a spiritual 
 sense. 
 
 And he showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem., descend- 
 ing out of heaven from God. I will just remark here, as ap- 
 propriate to what I have said on a previous occasion, that 
 these cities, frequently spoken of in the Apocalypse, are of 
 various signification. 
 
 In the eleventh chapter it is said, as the effect of the great 
 earthquake, that a tenth part of the city fell. And in the 
 sixteenth chapter it is said : And the great city was divided 
 into three parts, and the cities of the nations fd I, as a conse- 
 quence also of what is called a great earthquake. And 
 again in the eighteenth chapter, in describing the desolations 
 of Inibylon, the jx'ople are represented as bewailing her 
 overthrow, saying, Alas! alas! that great city, Babylon, that 
 mighty city, for in one hour is thy judgment come. 
 
CliAlTKR X\I. ;jj;i 
 
 So that we are to infer the true cliaractcr of the city 
 spolven of by the qualifying circumstauces coiinected witli its 
 history, or the description given uf it. 
 
 The city now under description has its distinctive cliaractcr 
 in these peculiarities. It is the holy Jerusalem, f/esrendimr out 
 of heaven from God, having the glory of God, kc. 
 
 A more minute description of the city, and its walls and 
 interior arrangements, occupy the remaining portion of this 
 twenty-first cha})ter. 
 
 This account which the prophet gives of the city, beginning 
 at the tenth verse and ending with the chapter, is a descrij)- 
 tion so graphic that any remark upon it would seem to bo 
 superfluous. But still its riches and si)lcndor invite, at least, 
 an expression of the pleasure with which the contemplation 
 of it must inspire every mind. 
 
 The whole city, as the prophet saw it, was covered with 
 and reflected a light of unspeakable purity and brightness — 
 a light undimmed by shadow, ajid before which the sun was 
 rayless, and the night was lost in its effulgence. Tlie wall 
 surrounding the city was great and high, having twelve gates, 
 and twelve angels occupying their positions at those gates. 
 Knowing that angels and archangels once fell from heaven 
 and lost their happiness forever, this great and high wall, 
 guarded at its gates by heavenly sentinels, is the representa- 
 tion of the perpetuity of the bliss of those who dwell in the 
 city, and the security against the introduction of any enemy 
 to its peace. No such fall as that of the angels will ever be 
 possible amongst the redeemed in heaven. 
 
 This city is altogether symbolical, and each of its diffcr'Mit 
 features has a separate and distinct signification. Its walls 
 bear, in their structure, the names of the twelve apostles re- 
 presenting the Christian Church. The twelve gates have in- 
 scribed on them the names of the twelve tribes of the chil- 
 dren of Israel, and signify the Jewish Church, both now 
 united, and forming the heavenly Jerusalem. Properly speak- 
 ing, it cannot be said there are gates in a wall until the wall 
 
 VOL. II. — 14 
 
314 THE AFOCALYrSE UNVEILED. 
 
 has been completed, and afterward the gates are set up. 
 Tliis figure accords with the opinion suggested in a previous 
 chapter, that the Jews who renounce the Cliristian economy 
 will, after that dispensation has been completed, enter into 
 life through the recognition of its fundamental doctrine, viz.: 
 that Christ is the Messiah, and that salvation to man is 
 through his atonement. 
 
 The number of the gates, being three, in each angle of 
 the wall, may represent the three dispensations, in all which 
 the children of Abraham have been distinguished — the Pa- 
 triarchal, the Mosaic, and the Christian dispensation. In the 
 two former, they alone were the depositories of the knowledge 
 of the true God ; and in the latter, their zeal for God was 
 none the less ; but it was not according to knowledge, as 
 St. Paul says. It was not consistent with God's plan, and 
 they, in opposing the Christian economy, stumbled. Out of 
 these three dispensations, the tribes of the children of Israel 
 have access to the heavenly Jerusalem through the gates of 
 the wall of the city. 
 
 It is well known that the Jews are scattered abroad even 
 to the four quarters of the earth. They mingled with all na- 
 tions, and are the oppressed and down-trodden in all lands ; 
 but from all quarters of the earth they will come to the great 
 city, the holy Jerusalem. This idea is expressed by three 
 gates on the north, three on the south, and an equal number 
 on the west and on the east, opening out to the four quar- 
 ters of the earth. 
 
 The measurement of the city by the angel shows the 
 equality of its dimensions, the length, and breadth, and hight, 
 being the same, and it lieth four square. This can hardly 
 be supposed to imply anything else than equality amongst 
 the subjects of that heavenly world. None of those distinc- 
 tions known to earth, which too pften exalt vice and depress 
 virtue, will obtain there. The only distinction there will be 
 acquired by the development of man's intellectual powers, in 
 wliich all will engage without restraint or disability arising 
 
CIIAPTKll XXI. 315 
 
 from any law of that government favoring one more and :in- 
 other less. 
 
 The city lidh four square, im})lies tliat in all its nppoint- 
 ments, in its whole economy, there is universal harmony and 
 perfection. 
 
 It may sound very strange to the ears of some to talk of 
 law and government in heaven. But they should know that 
 man, in his heavenly state, will be as urich a subject of law 
 under the divine government as he is here on earth. His 
 future happiness there, no less than h^re, requires that he 
 should be a subject of law. Without it, the heavenly state 
 would become monotonous, if not chactic. Government and 
 law are necessary to keep him reminded of his right to the 
 tree of life, and to assure him of the perpetuity of his felicity. 
 
 But I do not speak of law in heaven in the sense of a pro- 
 bation. It will not address itself to man's fears as it does 
 now, for there will be no principle of fear in the heavenly 
 world. The government there will ever present to man new 
 and increasing sources of felicity, stimulating him to renewed 
 developments of his high spiritual powers in order to the at- 
 tainment of them. 
 
 Loose and incoherent notions of the heavenly state are ex- 
 tensively entertained even by very good Christians, and when 
 expressed they show a lamentable deficiency in their knowl- 
 edge of that improvement and dignity, both in tlie moral 
 and intellectual man, which religion is designed to produce 
 even in the present life. 
 
 The idea of the heavenly state, with many, goes no farther 
 than supposing it to be some undcfinable locality somewhere 
 in the skies, where God will be seen, where near and dear 
 friends, the former partners of the joys and the sorrows of an 
 earthly existence, will meet together again, never more to 
 part, and where a tumultuous kind of rejoicing will be their 
 unceasing employment. 
 
 The scriptures impress upon us, in a variety of modes, the 
 purposes of man's creation, his duty and his destiny ; and 
 
316 TUE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 they distinctly teach us this fact, that the present life is but 
 the infant state of our being : here we take the first feeble 
 steps towards the dignity and glory of our immortal state. 
 
 The purposes of the Christian religion are but poorly un- 
 derstood by those who look to it only as something which is 
 to produce occasional impulses of joy— something to make 
 men feel happy for a season, while they remain contented 
 without those constant developments of increasing moral ex- 
 cellence and vigorous growth of virtuous principles, which 
 are the proper fruits of religion, and the true elements of the 
 Christian's happiness in this life. Opposed to the transitory 
 and fitful seasons of joy which distinguish the religious expe- 
 rience of some, and which the scriptures characterize by the 
 evanescent state of the morning cloud and early dew, we have 
 the solemn injunction of divine inspiration, commanding us to 
 grow in grace and the knowledge of our Loi'd and Savior Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 What is growth but progression, and this progression will 
 be the endless development of man's glorified nature in heaven, 
 and from the continued enlargement and active employment 
 of his moral powers all his happiness there will arise. 
 
 But let us now return and take a further view of the glori- 
 ous city. 
 
 If we take the word foundations to signify what we mean 
 by it in its application to buildings, we shall bury all the 
 beauty and richness of the great wall of this city under 
 ground ; but this was not the intention or meaning of the 
 projjhct in the description he gives of it. 
 
 The wall was built of precious stones or gems, twelve dif- 
 ferent kinds, corresponding with the twelve apostles, so dis- 
 posed that each stratum of stone was a foundation for an- 
 other stratum of a different kind. The first layer or stratum 
 whi(;h appeared in the wall was the jasper, and when this was 
 laid on it became the foundation for a stratum of a different 
 stone, which was the sapphire ; upon this again was laid the 
 chalcedony, and the fourth belt or stratum was the emerald, 
 
CHAPrKR xxr. 317 
 
 and so on until the wall was conii)lcto(l, Ix-inir imilt of twelve 
 different strata of precious stones, each dilleriu^^ from the 
 rest in color and quality, and each stratum or l)elt of tlic 
 width of twelve cubits. Tlien tlie gates of the wall,— r//r/t 
 several gate was of 07ie pearl, — mingling their soft, transparent 
 light with the brilliant richness of the wall. And to these 
 we must add the palaces of gokl which composed the city ; 
 for the city was of pure gold like unto glass ; and its street, 
 wJiich was also gold. AVlien the light which shone upon tlic 
 city, and its walls and gates, was reflected on all sides like a sea 
 of endlessly variegated lire, it must have i)roduccd a scene of 
 gorgeous magnificence and grandeur, such as no mortal eye 
 could look upon, and that no mortal mind can adequately 
 conceive of. 
 
 The prophet proceeds with his description of the city, and 
 says, (verse 22): And I saiv no temple therein. Tiiis nnist do 
 away with all idea that tliis city is a representation of the 
 church in her militant state. 
 
 The religious services of the Jewish temple, as well as 
 those of the Christian Church or temple, were designed to in- 
 struct men in the knowledge of God and his law. These 
 temples are necessary in the present life, in man's probation- 
 ary state. 
 
 But in the heavenly state, where man will dwell with God, 
 and l)ehold with open face the glory of God, there will be no 
 need of temples. There will then be no necessity either f' 
 the typical moonlight dispensation of the Jews, nor the su 
 light Christian dispensation ; for the Lord God Almightii and 
 the Lamb are the temple of it, and shed the light of divine 
 knowledge upon the ever-expanding powers of the souls of 
 the redeemed. 
 
 Now, for the first time, the projjhet speaks of the inhabit- 
 ants of the city, (verse 24.) He groups them all together in 
 one general term, and says : And the nations of them that are 
 saved shall walk in t he Ugh t of it . Those nations to whom 
 Christ said, when he gathered all the nations before him at 
 
318 TnE ArOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 his second appearing, Come, ye blessed of my Father, enter into 
 the hingdom jpreparcd for you from the foundation of the world. 
 
 Amongst the nations of the earth there are some renowned 
 for the majesty and grandeur of their kingdoms. But what- 
 ever is great, or grand, or glorious, in the kingdoms of the 
 present earth, will be lost and forgotten in the inconceivably 
 greater glory and majesty of the government of that city. 
 
 Wc have no reason to suppose otherwise than that the 
 hosts of heaven are under some such appointment and gov- 
 ernment as belongs to kingdoms in this present world. " Or- 
 der is heaven's first law," and this order presupposes govern- 
 ment under the glory of God and the Lamb, which lightens the 
 city, imparts knowledge and wisdom to its spiritual inhabit- 
 ants. 
 
 The gates of the city are not shut by day, [consequently 
 they are ever open,] for there shall be 710 night there. The 
 constantly-open gates of the city signify the peace and secu- 
 rity which ever reign there, admitting of no apprehension or 
 fear of disquietude from without. 
 
 The last verse of the twenty-first chapter states what shall 
 not enter into the city : Nothing that defileth, or worketh 
 abomination, or maketh a lie. 
 
 An evil principle can only be known by its practical opera- 
 tion; and the prophet, in sliowing what shall be excluded 
 from that city, instead of saying, all moral defilement, and 
 abomination, and lying, shall be excluded, shows that the 
 most remote principle which could produce such evils will 
 never exist tliere. 
 
 The thoughts of the heart, instead of being evil, as now, 
 will ever remain holy, pure, and in perfect harmony with the 
 divine will. 
 
CHAPTER XXIL 
 
 The description of the city is continued in the first five 
 verses of the chapter. 
 
 1. And he showed im a pure river of waUr of life, char as 
 crystal, proceedhig out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. 
 
 2. In the midst of the street of it, and cui either side of the 
 river, was tJiere the tree of life, which hare twelve manner of 
 fruits, and yielded ker fruit every month : awl tJie haves (f the 
 tree were for the healing of the nations. 
 
 3. And there shaU he no more curse: but the throne of God 
 and of the Lamb shall be in it ; and his servants shall serve 
 him : 
 
 4. And they shall see his fa^ ; aQid his name shall be in their 
 foreheads. 
 
 5. And there shall be no night there ; and they need no can- 
 dle, neither light of the sun ; for tlie Lord God givelh them 
 light : and they shall reign forever and ever. 
 
 Tliispart of the prophet's description has reference to wliat 
 we wouhl call the pleasures of taste, such as gratify tlie appe- 
 tite, while his preceding description was for the gratification 
 of the eye. 
 
 The river of the water of life, rci)resented as flowing througli 
 the street of the city, is a figure, tlie force and ])eauty of 
 which can be appreciated only by the inhal)itants of those 
 climes where water is difiicnlt to obtain, and wliere the earth 
 is always parched and thirsty. 
 
320 THE AFOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 The river implies an abundance of all that is refreshing. 
 Thy peace shall flow as a river, is one of David's poetic repre- 
 sentations of the rich blessings enjoyed by the church. 
 
 The picture of the rich abnndance and peace of that glori- 
 ous state is completed by the river, clear as crystal, flowing 
 through the street of the city, and the tree of life shading its 
 entire banks on either side, and yielding its fruits constantly 
 and in great variety — bearing twelve manner of fruits. Twelve 
 is named as its variety ; but that number, as it comprehends 
 the whole Jewish Church from the twelve tribes, and the 
 whole Christian Church from the twelve apostles, signifies 
 that the joys and pleasures of that state will be suited to the 
 infinite variety of mind which will be filled with its happi- 
 ness. 
 
 The next peculiarity of this tree is the remarkable sana- 
 tive qualities of its leaves. And the leaves of the tree were for 
 the healing of the nations. 
 
 This has led some to suppose that the city was the symbol 
 of the church in her present state, as in the future state there 
 will be no disorders to be healed. 
 
 But I think a better view, and one more consistent, may 
 be taken of the meaning of this reference to the extraordi- 
 nary virtues of the leaves of the tree. 
 
 The prophet says the Icai-es of the tree ^cere, not are, for 
 the healing of the nations, as if the tree had been formerly 
 known only as a /c^//-bearing tree. Is not the tree in its leaf- 
 bearing state emblematic of Christianity in the present state 
 of the world ? In this world the doctrines of the Christian 
 religion, wherever they are faithfully preached amongst the 
 nations, exert a wonderful influence in establishing peace and 
 good-will amongst them. Even the forms of Christianity, 
 its worship and its morality, are but its leaves. But these 
 liave had a most happy effect in mitigating the cruelty and 
 the injustice which oppressed the nations, and in healing the 
 disorders consequent upon sin and ignorance. What nation 
 has the gospel reached that has not been healed of much of 
 
CIIAPTKR XXir. 321 
 
 its civil and moral disorders tliroimli its iiidiicncc ? In tlio 
 present world we see but little more than these leaves of tiie 
 tree of Christianity ; l)ut in the next world its delieious 
 fruits, its u-lorious results, will ai)i)ear. There we shall he- 
 hold and forever enjoy its fruition on the banks of the river 
 of life. There will be no more disorders there to be healed, 
 for there shall he no more curse in that world. 
 
 But Christ settles this question as to whether this eity, and 
 its river, and its tree of life, are intended to represent the 
 church in this world, when he says to his servant John, in 
 the eleventh chapter and seventh verse of the Revelation, 
 To him that orercometh ivill I give to cat of the tree of life, 
 which is in the midst of the faradise of God. 
 
 In the fifth verse there is a repetition of what was said in 
 the twenty-third verse of the precedin^u; ehai)ter, to the efi'ect, 
 that the glory and hai)i)iness of that heavenly city will not 
 be dependent upon any instrumentality or secondary causes, 
 great or small ; neither the light of the sun, the highest or- 
 der of Christian institutions in this world, nor the light of a 
 candle, the feeblest and least enlightened systems of religion, 
 will be known or needed there, for the Lord God givcth them 
 light. They will draw directly from the fountain of infinite 
 knowledge those supplies which' will ever fill and enlarge their 
 capabilities of happiness ; and they shall reign in the enjoy- 
 ment of this light forever and ever. 
 
 This completes the description of the glorious city. And 
 wlfflt a description it is ! — what a picture of unspeakable 
 beauty and grandeur ! Everything which imagination can 
 suggest or the heart of man can desire to perfect his bliss is 
 seen in this city. Riches, beauty, and magnificence, fill the 
 whole range of his vision ; and whatever can be conceived 
 of, calculated to afford the highest enjoyment to the taste, is 
 presented in the waters of its river and tlie fruits of its trees. 
 
 Some have imagined that such will be in reality the habi- 
 tation of the saints in their future state, that they will dwell, 
 literally, in such a city as is here described. Rut it is obvi- 
 
 voL. II. — 14* 
 
322 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 ous that this is a mere representation of sensible objects, in- 
 tended to produce a moral effect. 
 
 In our ]n'esent life we are dependent so much upon our 
 bodily senses, that we can hardly appreciate spiritual things 
 unless they are presented to us through or by sensible ob- 
 jects. This was the manner of Christ's teaching while he 
 was upon earth. He employed the occupations and pursuits, 
 and the objects most desirable amongst men, to illustrate the 
 doctrines and blessings of the gospel. 
 
 Pursuing the same method, his holy prophet illustrates the 
 end, the consummation of Christianity by the glories of this 
 heavenly city. 
 
 It is but right and altogether reasonable that we should 
 judge of those systems devised by human wisdom by their re- 
 sults. And as by their fruits Christians are to be known 
 amongst men, so by the fruit of Christianity, what it will ulti- 
 mately work out, should it be judged. 
 
 Does Christianity present nothing to the worldly seekers 
 of pleasure but a dull and joyless system of sacrifice and self- 
 denial ? Look at her end in that city just described. Is 
 there any delight which the mind of man can enjoy that is 
 not provided there ? 
 
 Here, Christianity is often seen in dark and trying circum- 
 stances. But look at her in the light and glory which give 
 perpetual day and joy in that city. Here she is seen in 
 hunger and thirst. But behold that ever-flowing river of the 
 waters of life, and the tree of life, with its inexhaustible ^o- 
 ductions of fruit ! She is seen here in sickness and pain, but 
 there sorrow and sighing flee away, and health ever blooms 
 on the cheek of immortality, and death never enters there. 
 Here she is seen in distress and poverty, in lonely hovels, in 
 damp, chilling cellars, or crowded and feverish garrets ; like 
 her Author, not having a place of her own where to repose 
 her aching head. But look at her in that city, dwelling in 
 palaces of gold, surrounded by walls whose masonry is of 
 
ClIAPTKU XXI 1. 323 
 
 brightest gems, and its gates of })earl, and the street of th(3 
 city of pure gold, transparent as ghiss. 
 
 On earth, Christianity is proverbial (or her want of worldly 
 glory; and the scorn and contempt of the great, and the ridi- 
 cule of the ignorant, are more connnonly her portion. Ibit 
 the glory and honor of the nations and the crowns of eartidy 
 royalty are laid at her feet in that city. 
 
 These are the contrasts which it is the purpose of this city 
 of grandeur and magnificence to jn-esent to the earthly state 
 of Christianity; and by the contrast of these sensible objects, 
 we are taught that the felicity of the righteous in the next 
 world will surpass all the happiness which earth can produce, 
 as far as the magnificence and glory of this city surpass the frail 
 and perishing structures of man's pride and boast in this 
 world. 
 
 The remaining portion of the chapter is not descriptive, 
 but it contains matter suggestive of duties which it is im- 
 portant to Christians gravely to consider. 
 
 6, And he said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true : 
 and the Lord God of the holy jprojphets sent his angel to show 
 unto his servants the things which must shortly be done. 
 
 I. Behold, I come quickly : blessed is he that keepelh the say- 
 ings of the 'pro'phecy of this book. 
 
 8. And I John saw these things, and heard them. And when 
 1 had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of 
 the angel ichich showed me these things. 
 
 9. llien saith he iinto me. See thou do it not : for I am thy 
 felloic-servant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them 
 which keep the sayings of this book : worshii' God. 
 
 10. And he saith unto me. Seal not the sayings of the prophecy 
 of this book ; for the time is at hand. 
 
 II. He that is unjust, let him be unjust still : and he which 
 isflthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, Id him 
 be righteous still : and he that is holy, let him be holy still. 
 
 12. And, behold, I come quickly ; and my reward is with me, 
 to give every man according as his work shall be. 
 
324 THE AFOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 The truth of all that the prophet has seen and heard was 
 confirmed to him by the angel, who said, by the appointment 
 of the Lord God of the holy prophets, I am sent to reveal to 
 you, and through you to all his servants, the things which 
 must shortly be done. 
 
 Behold I come quickly, is an expression of frequent recur- 
 rence in this book, and implies not only that the events pre- 
 dicted will transpire in a way that will appear like a sudden oc- 
 currence, but it means also that these things will certainly 
 occur. 
 
 Blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this 
 look. Some men have very little patience with any one who 
 speaks of the Book of Revelation as a book to be read, 
 and they deem it almost presumptuous to think of compre- 
 hending its meaning. But a blessing is here pronounced upon 
 those who keep the sayings of this book. To be kept they 
 must be understood, and none will be so weak as to pretend 
 to understand them without reading them. 
 
 St. John affirms the truth of all that the book contains 
 upon the evidence of his own senses. I John saw and heard 
 these things. And he gives evidence of the effect they had 
 upon him when he heard and saw them. He was so over- 
 whelmed with the majesty of the scene, and the dignity and 
 glory of the personage who pointed them out to him, that he 
 concluded the interpreter must be a divine being, and as 
 such, entitled to be worshiped. From this impression made 
 upon the mind of the prophet, we can form some idea, very 
 limited, however, of the glory of man's appearance and the 
 greatness of his wisdom in his future state of happiness. It 
 was such in the case of this angel, that even St. John fell at 
 liis feet to worship him. Yet this angel had been a dweller 
 upon this earth. See thou do it not: for lam thy fellow- 
 servant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which 
 keep the sayings of this book : worship God. 
 
 The angel instructed him not to seal — that is, not to con- 
 ceal or keep secret the things he had seen and heard, but 
 
CHAPTER XX rr. 325 
 
 to give them publicity, for the time is at hand. A practical 
 illustration of these things was about to commciu'c in the 
 trials and sufferings of the seven Asiatic Churches, and would 
 continue until the whole drama of the Apocaly})se should be 
 wound up, in the full fruition of Christianity, in this glorious 
 city, the heavenly Jerusalem. TJie time is at kaTid — the short 
 period of the Christian disj)ensation oidy intervening — when 
 he that is unjust and filthy will ever remain in that condition 
 without hope or means of recovery, and when they that are 
 righteous and holy will ever remain in that state, without the 
 possibility of falling from their state of moral perfection. 
 
 This is an allusion to that period which was fre(iu('ntly 
 spoken of by our Lord and the apostles, and symbolically 
 adverted to in the Book of Revelation, when the close of the 
 gospel day would leave those who had rejected its counsels 
 and its blessings in the darkness of moral night, and raise 
 the righteous to life eternal. No change in the moral condi- 
 tion of either can ever occur after that period. They that 
 are holy will ever remain holy, and they that are currupt will 
 ever remain in the consequences of their moral defdement. 
 
 The twelfth verse reiterates the warning so frequently 
 given : And, behold, I come quickly ; and my reward is with 
 me, to give to every man according as his work shall be. 
 
 13. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the 
 first and the last. 
 
 14. Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may 
 have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates 
 into the city. 
 
 15. For without are dogs, ami sorcerers, and whoremongers, 
 and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever lovcth and maketh 
 a lie. 
 
 16. I .Tesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these 
 things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of 
 David, and the bright and morning star. 
 
 n. And the Spirit and the bride say. Come. And let him 
 
326 THE APOCALYrSE UNVEILED. 
 
 that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And 
 whosoever trill, let him take the water of life freely. 
 
 18. For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the 
 prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, 
 
 God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this 
 book : 
 
 19. And if any man shall take away from the words of the 
 book of this prophecy, God shall take awsay his part out of the 
 book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which 
 are loritten in this book. 
 
 20. He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come 
 quickly : Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. 
 
 21. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. 
 Amen. 
 
 This portion of the chapter, from the thirteenth verse to 
 its close, may be considered, generally, in the light of a pro- 
 clamation by Christ himself, confirming the truth of all that 
 had been stated by his angel, who was St, John himself, the 
 term angel signifying those means or individuals employed by 
 God to instruct his church and warn his enemies. 
 
 Christ first proclaims his own eternity in the same words 
 he employed when he first appeared to St. John, (chap. 1, 
 verse 8): lam Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, 
 the first and the last. Then he proclaims the two states in 
 the next world, the one within the city, and the other without 
 it. Blessed are they that do his commandments ; such only enter 
 into the city, while the vicious of every grade of crime are 
 without in outer darkness. 
 
 All doubt of the divine authenticity of the Book of the 
 Revelations must be removed by the next announcement of 
 the proclamation, (verse 16): I Jesus have sent mine angel to 
 testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and 
 the oJJ'spring of David, and the bright and morning star. 
 
 The mysterious union of the Godhead and manhood is de- 
 clared in these remarkable words : I am the root — the power 
 from which David derived his being. I gave him his exist- 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 327 
 
 ence, and yet I am his offsprino:. My Immnii nature, iny 
 earthly form and muld, I dcrivod by natural descent from liiu). 
 
 The doctrine of this mysterious union is further eonlirmed 
 by comi)aring tlie sixth with the sixteenth verse. 
 
 In the former it is said : And the Lord God of the holy 
 prophets sent his angel to show unto his servants the things uhic/i 
 must shortly be done. 
 
 In the hitter it is said: I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify 
 unto you these things in the churches. If words have any mean- 
 ing at all, what other conclusion can a rational mind come 
 to, but that the same power or person is referred to in both 
 verses as sending the angel to testify these things to his ser- 
 vants, or, what is the same thing, to testify these things in 
 the churches ? 
 
 Then follows the freeness and the fullness of the gos})el of 
 the grace of God, expressed in the universal invitation given 
 to all to participate in its blessings. And the Spirit and the 
 bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. Who 
 shall come ? Him that is athirst ? Nay. Whosoever will, let 
 him take of the water of life freely. Who says man must buy 
 his salvation from the church — must })ay a price, an admis- 
 sion fee, for his entrance into heaven ? Hear the next part 
 of the proclamation : For I testify unto every man that hear- 
 eth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add 
 unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues thvt are 
 written in this book : And if any man sluill take away from the 
 words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part 
 out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the 
 things which are written in this book. 
 
 How is this adding to or taking from the things written in 
 the book done ? It is done by those systems of faith and 
 doctrine, set up by men, which conflict with the sayings of this 
 book — teaching for Christian doctrine that which tiie word 
 of God does not sanction. 
 
 Whoever teaches any other worship than that declared in 
 this book — worship G'rr/— whether it be the worship of ungels, 
 
328 THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. 
 
 or saints, or images, adds to the things written in this book. 
 Whoever imposes exactions upon men as the price of salva- 
 tion, in any form, likewise adds to the things written in this 
 book, and gives the lie to God's mercy. Whoever denies the 
 salvation of God to any portion of mankind, under the pre- 
 text of decrees and councils from all eternity, do most awfully 
 take from the sayings of this book, uttered in the seventeenth 
 verse of this chapter : Whosoever will, let him take the water 
 of life freely. 
 
 Whoever assumes the exclusive right to administer the 
 gospel ordinances, under their peculiar forms, denying to all 
 others the right of calling men to the water of life, take from 
 the things written in this book, and violate Christ's pro- 
 clamation in the seventeenth verse : The spirit and the bride 
 say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. 
 
 And whoever or whatever church substitutes the mere 
 forms and ceremonies of worship for that devotion in which 
 man is to consecrate his heart, soul, and mind, to God, takes 
 from the words of the book, and forfeits the things which are 
 written in this hook for the consolation of them that worship 
 God in spirit and in truth. 
 
 Whoever denies the divinity of Christ, and teaches that he 
 is not the root of David, nor the bright and morning star — 
 that he is no more than the offspring of David — that the 
 spirit and light of the gospel, dispelling the darkness of the 
 natural mind, do not proceed from him, such take Irom the 
 words written in this book, unhinge the whole gospel plan of 
 salvation, and do away with the only available sacrifice for 
 the sin of the world. The denunciation against all such is: God 
 shall take away his part otit of the book of life, and out of the 
 holy city, and from the things which are written in this book. 
 
 The proclamation concludes with the words : He which tes- 
 tifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. To which the 
 prophet adds, Aincri. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. 
 
 It was very natural that such an ejaculation should have 
 been uttered by the prophet on its being announced to him 
 
CTTAPTER XXIT. 309 
 
 that the time would quickly come whrn all (lioso Rnl)liiiie 
 scenes he had wituos.sod would have tlicir spiritual fullill 
 ment. 
 
 Rut even this jjrayer is prophetic : it is a fervent, short, 
 and com}3rehensive prophecy. It is prophetic of what will 
 become, ultimately, the sentiment of the whole chunh. 
 
 In the present day, and ever since the introduction of 
 Christianity, the prayers and labors of the church have been 
 directed to the conversion of sinners. For this her ministers 
 have labored and suffered, and her members have prayed. 
 Missionary societies, Bible and tract societies, have been ap- 
 pohited, and the church has thrown herself into every form 
 of toil and patient labor w hich afforded any hope of saving 
 men. The one great sentiment has been, and yet is, to press 
 upon men the salvation of God. 
 
 But this is to have an end. The harvest will pass, and 
 the summer of the gospel will end. 
 
 The world will become gospel-hardened, and the wicked- 
 ness of men will wax bolder and become daring, defying 
 God, and scorning the counsel of good men. As the gosju-l 
 day declines, 'perilous times shall come, as St. Peter says, speak- 
 ing of those times of abounding wickedness, when men will 
 tram})le down all moral restraints, and the civil law itself 
 will attempt in vain to curb the tumult and rage of ungodli- 
 ness. When the signs of the times throughout the world 
 will give no hope of any further extension of the gospel, then 
 those labors and prayers, with all the means which Christian 
 philanthropy has emi)loyed to save men, will cease, and the 
 heart of the church will turn itself away from a world given 
 up to crime and violence, and will look for the coming of 
 Christ with fervent and impatient desire. Then will this 
 short prayer of the [a-ophet l)reak from the heart of the whole 
 church throughout the world : " Amkx. Comk, Lord 
 "Jesus." 
 
ERRATA OF VOL. H. 
 
 Pa^e 12, Ime 11, for ministers read ministry. 
 
 u OQ uu r^'t"^'' Christian read Christian reli-ion. 
 u no' "f /.'«%Aom botlomjor primitive r<?ar/ punitive. 
 u ^n' ; ''"^^i!'^^" ^>'>ttomjor primitive read punitive. 
 ^^ 40, line 9, for an^el rear/ anj^els. 
 ^j '^^ 3,/o/- efforts read effects. 
 
 ^^' ?^f 'lo/^i ?,"/ «^t^e Ottoman Empire" should be inserted the S(h, 
 u ro / ' ?' ^^'* '^"'^ ^2'^^ ^'^'■^'''« ^fi^^ chapter. 
 ^ o2^ line 6, for traders read travelers. 
 
 ii 5n' 1-^ ^^>l<^f/om bottom Jor declaration read declamation. 
 ^^ outline 1, /or already rmr/ clearly. 
 u '^i' u ^^•'f'^^ form in read from. 
 ,. "7^' „ 16, for effective read afflictive. 
 II 80, « 13,/or fall rm^ feel. 
 ' 87 " 21, for memories read memorial. 
 ^^ 93, last line, for them read him. 
 
 96, line, for near 7-ead now. 
 ;| 97, II 1, for 1S96 read 1806. 
 u 1 ??' ci 2^'/°^ communication ?-ea^/ explanation. 
 I' io ' it '^'■^^'* removeth rm/f removed. 
 j^ 139, 14,/or delivered read deceived. 
 
 ^^ 169, ' 30, for after that rcat/ alter this the 
 ^^ 173, ' 18,/or on read in. 
 
 212, " 29,/o;- even since read ever since. 
 ., 212, II 30, for 2-37 degrees rm^ 23^ degrees. 
 
 251, 31, for resurrection read natural. 
 
 ^^ 262, II 10, for the earth read that earth. 
 « Qnl' u 2'-^ ^Y^^ generation read the regeneration, 
 u o u '-''"" 'purling read howling. 
 
 306, ' 5,/or hi mselfreac? him 
 
 Note.— There are some other errors, of little consequence, which wUl 
 also be corrected in the next edition.