"After thee

Thou art this head of gold." shall arise another kingdom (the breast and arms of silver) inferior to thee;" (Medo Persian;) "and another third kingdom of brass, that shall bear rule over ALL THE EARTH." This was the Macedonian kingdom, under Alexander the Great and his successors. Here is the same universality again declared as in the Chaldean kingdom.

"The fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise." This fourth kingdom is the Roman empire, and was to succeed to the same great government of the world which its predecessors had enjoyed. And to gain that empire, it was to break in pieces and bruise all the former kingdoms. The latter part of the kingdom, shadowed forth by the feet and toes which were to be of iron and clay, was to be of a divided character, partly strong and partly broken. But even in this divided and weakened state, it was to be the great leading government still.

In its last extremity, while its feet were in existence, a stone, cut out without hands from the mountain, was to smite the image on his feet, that were of iron and clay, and grind them to powder; iron, clay, brass, silver and gold together, like the small dust of the summer threshing-floors, and the wind carry them away, and no place be found for them.

The image is to be annihilated before the stone and wind; for that which has no place cannot exist. To exist, a thing must have place. Hence, that which has no place cannot exist. The governments of this globe, all of them being in

cluded in and shadowed forth by the image, will be annihilated by the fall of the stone, and leave the earth vacant or destitute of government, unless some other is provided to fill its place. The reign of these four monarchies is called by the Saviour, (Luke xxi. 24,) "the times of the Gentiles ;" and by Paul, (Romans xi. 25,) "until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in."

This image is to be destroyed, it should be observed, not by the rolling of the stone until it grinds it to powder, increasing its own size as the image decreases; or in other words, rolling up Anti-Christ, the image, into Christ, the stone, until it becomes a great mountain and fills the whole earth; but by dashing in pieces the image, sweeping it all away; and then, by a sudden expansion, filling the earth. This process of demolishing the image and enlarging the stone, is thus explained in the 44th verse: "In the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever." But if it dashes them in pieces and annihilates the Gentile kingdoms, and fills the earth which they now fill, then the two cannot be contemporaneous, but must succeed each other; the last of them to endure eternally. In examining the nature of this kingdom I shall notice

IV. THE PERSON AND CHARACTER OF THE KING.

1. The person of the king. We learn this from Rev. xi. 15: "There were great voices in heaven, saying, the kingdoms of this world are become

the kingdoms of our LORD AND HIS CHRIST, and he shall reign forever and ever." The event here

described is the sounding of the seventh and last trumpet. The kingdoms of this world are the great image of the king of Babylon, to be broken by the stone, and make way for the kingdom of God. The king, then, is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the stone, and "on whomsoever He shall fall, he will grind them to powder." Matt. xxi. 44.

est.

2. The character of the king. "And he shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the High"The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee; therefore that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." Luke i. 32, 35. The great king is here called the Son of God, and the reason why he is so called is distinctly stated. He is the only begotten Son of God. That holy thing or creature which was born of Mary, is the Son of God. This can only refer to the humanity of Jesus Christ, not to his uncreated, eternal nature. He was also the Son of David, because the son of Mary, a daughter of David's line. Through Mary, his mother, of the race of Adam, he partook of Adam's blood or life, (for his blood is his life,) yet without the contamination of Adam's nature, because brought into being by the immediate "power of The Highest." Thus, he was at once in his human nature, both the Son of God and the Son of man. Dr. A. Clarke on the sonship of Christ.)

(See

As the Son of God, the only begotten of the Father, he is also possessed of a self-existent living principle, distinct from the blood of Adam. 46 The dead shall hear the voice of the Son of

God, and they that hear shall live. For as the FATHER hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself." John v. 25, 26. That self-living principle was, not blood, such as quickens Adam's race, but a quickening spirit, essential to the very being of Christ's humanity, derived from the Father; but supplying the same place as the blood of Adam, and producing the same effect on its possessor. 'The natures were blended in one, and yet distinct. "The last Adam a quickening spirit." In this mysterious being "dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." The Word or Logos which was in the beginning with God, and was God, dwelt in the Son of God, the man Christ Jesus. So that, although he is the "child born," and the "Son given," yet he is "the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, and the Prince of Peace." "Such a high-priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled and separate from sinners; made higher than the heavens." "The children being partakers of flesh and blood, himself also took PART of the same." It was not altogether FLESH and BLOOD, but spirit, a self-living spirit, which he possessed, as a part of his humanity; "that through death he might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to bondage." If Christ had been entirely dependent on his self-living spirit for life, and had been only the Son of God, he could not have died; because that spirit is undying and immortal. But without the shedding of blood there could be no remission of sins, no resurrection. The penalty of the divine law was DEATH. It was abso

lute and irrevocable in its nature. One sinned, and by that one sin death entered into the world, and is passed upon all men. Adam, becoming mortal by sin, could not transmit to his posterity what he did not possess, immortality in the body. They, partaking of and living by his blood, must be subject to the same fate, death: cessation of life by the action of Adam's blood. There being no provision in the law by which this penalty could be commuted, the culprit must remain forever in death, unless some atonement could be made. Such an atonement Christ made when "he bore our sins in his own body on the tree, and tasted death for every man."

"But," it may be objected, "you said that the penalty of the law was an interminable death; and if so, how could the death of Christ for only three days, atone for such a sin and redeem the sinner from the penalty?"

The answer is, Jesus Christ laid down his life derived from Adam, eternally. When he arose from the grave, he was quickened, not by the blood of Adam, but by the spirit, that self-existent principle derived from the Father, by which he had life in himself. "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but quickened by the spirit." 1 Pet. iii. 18.

Being the Son of man, and partaking of the blood of Adam, he laid down that blood or life forever. But being also the Son of God, and possessed of that quickening spirit, he rose triumphant from the grave, spiritual; and because spiritual, immortal. His resurrection body, al