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What are on the earth we all know; and their inability to redeem we all witness, in the sinfulness, and mortality, and corruption of every creature which hath lived on earth, save only the Lamb, the Lion of the tribe of Judah. This our inability to redeem is beautifully set forth in the fortyninth Psalm, where the emptiness and vanity of riches are exposed in these expressive terms: " They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches; none of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him ; (for the redemption of their soul is precious, and it ceaseth for ever;) that he should still live for ever, and not see corruption." And the nature of the bondage, and of the redemption, is thus described: "Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them; and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning; and their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling. But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave: for he shall receive me.” This shews that redemption is the bringing up again. of the body from the grave, and the soul from hades; and the uniting of them in that state of dominion to which God destined, and with which he invested, them at first. Redemption is not merely the deliverance of the soul from sin, as they often preach; which, though the beginning and cause, is not the whole of our bondage. If I could, or rather I should say, if I did, through the Holy Spirit, resist all sin during my life, I am not thereby redeemed. I must be raised from the dead: I must be restored to my inheritance, and my inheritance restored to me. Then am I redeemed. This the Psalmist, in the Psalm already referred to, mocks rich men for continually attempting, by calling their possessions by their names, and supposing that they should continue for ever. This he blesseth God for performing unto him, and unto all the upright; and this, which in that Psalm is so beautifully expressed, is the true scriptural idea of redemption. Wherefore it is said in the viii th chapter of the Romans, "We, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, wait for the redemption of the body:" and, in the ist chapter of the Ephesians, we are said likewise to "wait for the redemption of the inheritance.” That to redeem himself, is man's great effort under the sun, every thing proclaims. All human labour is an honest,

but ineffectual, attempt at redemption. The moralist labours to redeem the soul, and all education of youth, is to the same effect: to preserve the body from disease, and as long as possible from death, is a chief part of the labour of every man under the sun: to reclaim the earth from its barrenness, to tame the living creatures, and to drag forth from the mines their hidden treasures; and by every means to repossess the world, is another chief part of man's occupation: to beautify the person, to cleanse its defilement, and prevent its corruption; to obtain power, and to exercise dominion; and, by justice and equity, to repress wickedness; by chastisement, and imprisonment, and death, to prevent crimes ;-these are the aspirations of man, his endeavours after that estate of immortal supremacy which he held over the innocent world in the day of his creation. Thus God preserveth, in the natural workings of our fallen nature and this fallen world, a continual testimony to that which we have been, and to that which we are yet to be; and the Gospel of redemption by Jesus Christ is no more than the presentation unto faith and hope of that perfect and complete blessedness, which, by fits and starts, and partial undertakings, mankind are, without any exception, struggling to obtain. We, on the earth, do ever confess our desire after redemption; and we do ever betray our inability to redeem ourselves.

With respect to the things under the earth, I know not well what to say; for of them we seem to have little information in the Scriptures. Our Lord is declared by St. Paul to have first descended into the lower parts of the earth, before he ascended into the heavens; and in the lxiiid Psalm, it is said of the enemies of our King,who seek his life to destroy it, that they shall go into the lower parts of the earth. I quote this last passage, not as though it had any mystical or symbolical meaning, but because it gives us the key to a symbol continually occurring in the Scriptures, leviathan, the great dragon in the waters,and connecteth that symbol, whatever it be, with the subject before us. Man's dominion was originally over the fish of the sea, as well as the beasts of the earth, and the fowls of heaven; and therefore the Redeemer must operate in each of these three spheres: and as God will not suffer himself to be considered as the oppressor, who is

truly only the Benefactor, he opens, or rather keeps open, the power of redemption, and issues the challenge to redeem unto these three provinces of the oppressed world. But it may be questioned, Who are these under the earth to be thus addressed? The answer to which is twofold: First, that if they were only dumb unintelligent creatures, God, their Creator, would not demean himself in addressing it to them: nay, it is of the propriety of the vision, that to them it should be addressed, forasmuch as after the angels have acknowledged the achievements of the Lamb, every creature in heaven and on earth, and under the earth, do likewise present their homage; and this is consistent with the whole of Scripture, as may be seen in the xcvith and xcviith Psalms, and in that sublime Canticle, the exlixth Psalm. God doth not think so meanly of his lower creatures and the earth as our religionists do.

The other answer is derived from the consideration of the texts above, together with the symbol of leviathan in the waters. When we look to the conclusion of this book, we find that one portion of men come out of heaven along with Christ to reign upon the earth (xix., xx.); we find a second part of men render their govern ment upon the earth, who are at length led astray by Satan, and consumed with fire from heaven: and we find a third part of men, who come up to judgment from the sea and from death, and from hades (xx. 13). Now this last class of men, who arise to be judged according to their works, and of whom every one is condemned who is not found written in the book of life, are those who I understand to be addressed in the text, as under the earth; not all the dead, but as many of them as are not with Christ in the heavenly state, who are not elected to be to the honour of the bride, to the office of kings, but have to stand their trial at the last judgment, and these to be judged according to their works. These being regarded. as still in existence, though separate spirits; as truly so indeed as the spirits of the saints in glory, are called on to redeem themselves if they can: but the depth said, It is not in me; the sea said, It is not in me. As holding these in thraldrom leviathan and the dragon are continually set forth in Scripture; a figure beyond any doubt taken from Pharoah king of Egypt (compare Ps. lxxiv. 13,

with Ezekiel xxix. 3), who held the children of Israel in base bondage, and would have prevented them from going free. This leviathan, this form of infernal bondage, is destroyed by the Lord in the same day or period wherein he judgeth the earth for its iniquity, and receiveth his people unto himself. Isaiah xxvi. 20, contains the exaltation of his church; the next verse contains the redemption of the earth; and the verse following contains the destruction of leviathan in the sea: which leviathan, Job, after describing him by the similitude of a great fish (for the type of Pharoah was not yet in being), doth denominate king over all the children of pride. As to the localities expressed by the words, "in heaven, in earth, and under the earth,” I think that it is thus written after the common notion of men, which regards the earth as a level plain, with one part of creation above it, bright and glorious ; and another part of creation below it, dark and dismal. But as we do not therefore suppose heaven the dwellingplace of Christ and the saints to be over our heads, so do we not suppose that the dwelling-place of the souls in hades is under our feet : as by heaven we understand the invisible abode of those who there abide, so by the expression, "under the earth," we understand no more than the inferior place, likewise invisible, in which the others abide; between which two places there is an impassable gulf. It is not necessary, I think, to conclude with some of the fathers, that because it is said under the earth, and lower parts of the earth, we must understand the place of those who are not in heaven, within the bounds of this habitable world: it is sufficient, I conceive, that as the one denotes superiority of condition in every respect to this earth, so the other denotes inferiority of condition. Be it observed, that in what I have said, I make no reference whatever to the place of punishment, which hath for its name, "the lake of fire :" concerning which nothing is said in the passage before us. To all these regions then of heaven, and earth, and under the earth, the challenge to redeem, the challenge to possess themselves of the book, and to open it, is made from the throne of heaven by the mouth of a strong angel, that with his mighty and loud voice, its notes might be sent circling to creation's extremest bounds; but they turned away from it in despair;

these horrible seals it passed their might to open. This sublime silence represented the helplessness into which creation had fallen; and, if helpless in itself, whence could its help come but from somewhere out of creation? and what is there out of creation but the Creator himself? This sublime challenge proceeded not from the desire to nonplus creation; it is no idle demonstration of the creature's helplessness, or the Creator's triumph over it; but is the demonstration of the Creator's desire to see, and purpose to have it redeemed, and likewise of his intention and his purpose, that this redemption should from creation itself proceed. Be it remembered, be it sacredly borne in mind, that there is nothing done by God for appearance, but that every thing hath in it either the reality of a fact that hath been done, or hath to be done. That the challenge should go forth to creation proves, that from creation the redemption was to proceed. That the challenge should not be accepted by creation proves, that from creation alone it could not proceed. And these two inferences joined together shew, that the Creator and creature must combine together, in order to produce the redemption.

THE SEER'S DISTRESS.

We have already observed, in the course of this lecture, that the words and actions given unto the several persons of this wonderful revelation, are to be looked upon, not so much with respect to the persons themselves, as to the part which is appointed to each in the economy of the whole piece. By this device, which is the law of every mystery, the words uttered by the various mystical personages, do mightily help to the understanding of the matters intended to be revealed. The sense of hearing lends its aid to the sense of seeing, in extricating the matter enigmatically set forth. Of this which we shall find to be a constant rule, we have a beautiful instance in the verse which comes next to be interpreted." And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon.' What now, I would ask, was there to occasion this deep distress of the seer; and wherefore should the mention of the same be introduced amongst the parts of so sublime and awful a vision ? Was it

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