the sixth, in the period of the seventh, there are seven which utter their voices, signifying, that parallel with each of the vials is a great voice to which the sound of the trumpet is likened, Rev. i. 10. But as the seven vials together do but compose the seventh seal, so the seven thunder voices uttered contemporaneously therewith do together compose the seventh trumpet, which may not be said to have completely sounded until the seven vials with their several thunders are completed. This Divine formality being concluded, the beast and the false prophet are cast into the lake of fire, the kings of the earth, their captains, and their armies are slain, the devil is cast out into the bottomless pit, and the whole earth, being dispossessed of those who corrupted it, Christ and his people take possession of it, and govern it in righteousness. I question whether in the whole Scripture there can be found a more perfect correspondence between the type and the antitype than there is between the action of Joshua for the taking of Jericho, and the action of our Joshua for the taking possession of the inheritance of the earth; and as there can be no doubt that as the man of war armed against his enemies, he gave his instructions to Joshua, there is a very strong collateral argument that we are right in our interpretation of the seven-sealed book, with all which it draws along with it, as being the book of the New Testament, which conveys to Christ possession of the whole earth, and of his action as being the action of delivering the same out of the hands of its fraudulent and unjust possessors. If I err not, this parallel, when it shall have been reflected upon, will come to appear as complete, for the interpretation of all in the New Testament which concerns the redemption of the inheritance, as that of the Paschal Lamb is justly felt to be for the interpretation of all which concerns the redemption of the captive from the house of his bondage, which is this carnal body and the corruption of the grave. The conclusion of the matter therefore is, that Christ acts throughout this book in that character in which he is announced, as the Lion of the tribe of Judah, as the strong and mighty God of Jacob, the Root of David, in right of whom David held dominion, and whose higher dominion David's kingdom shadowed forth. In this character he takes the book and prevails to open its seals;

and in this character he must be understood to act in the opening of them; and in this character he presents himself coming forth out of heaven riding on the white horse of victory and triumph, overturning all his enemies, and taking possession of the throne of his kingdom.

There are two other events recorded in the Old Testament, which seem to me likewise to bear upon the "redemption of the purchased inheritance." The former is the violence with which king Ahab, through the instigation of his queen Jezebel, did wrest from Naboth his vineyard wherefore both of them came to their end on that spot, in a way which is evidently alluded to (Rev. xvii. 16) in the description of the harlot's end. But this properly belongs to the head of the usurpers of the inheritance, and will be better treated of in that place. The latter is that very purchase which Jeremiah made of his uncle Hanameel, which, whether you regard the manner of its introduction by the revelation of the Lord, and not by simple narratives of the event, or the time at which it took place, when the city was besieged and about to become the prey of Babylon, or the prayer which is introduced into the midst of the narrative, or the very remarkable reference made to it by the Evangelist Matthew (xxvii. 9), will be seen to contain a typical reference to that inheritance, which Christ purchased with his blood. But into this I enter not at present, lest I should be led away further from the regular course of our subject, than is convenient in the introduction to our present Lecture.

We had arrived, in our former Lecture, at that point of the representation where the whole might of heaven and earth and hell having been nonplussed by the proclamation of the strong angel, for some one to come and open the book, and John cast into the deepest grief and bitterest lamentation that there was no one able to redeem the inheritance, one of the elders comforted his grief with the information that He who is the Lion of the tribe of Judah and the Root of David "hath prevailed to open the book and to loose the seals thereof." At this point, John saw the glorious Personage who had been announced not as "having prevailed," but as "prevailing" to open the book, advancing to the fearful work from which every creature

shrunk dismayed. But he advanceth not as the Lion of the tribe of Judah in the pride of strength, nor in the royal dignity of David's Lord, but " as a Lamb that had been slain." Why this change of style? Why this mixture of symbols? In order to express still more and more of the truth in order to catch up another of the symbols of revelation, and infix it in the person of Christ; in order to claim another of the ancient honours which were prepared for him before the world was, and prophesied of in the old dispensation. But because this new style is introduced we are not to suppose that the former has been abandoned: it retains the place, and continues to serve the same end for which it was introduced: the end, to wit, of declaring in what strength and in what right it is that he opens every seal, and bringeth the stroke of vengeance upon the evildoers, until at length he dispossess them all; and then when the heavens open wide (chap. xix), he is revealed as the Captain of the Lord's host, as the Captain of salvation, with all those whom he hath saved. Every symbol which is put upon him abideth on him, to represent that attribute of his many-sided person for which it was introduced. He continues the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the mighty God of Jacob; he also continues the Root of David, all the while that he is represented to us as the harmless Lamb that was slain.

THE LAMB.

Before entering upon the interpretation of this symbol, I would first examine into the condition as to place, which is expressed by these words: "in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain." In somewhat similar language it had been said of the four living creatures, that they were “in the midst of the throne, and in circle of the throne;" which I interpreted as signifying that they were seen every where, from centre to circumference of the throne, occupying the bounds with a kind of omnipresence, the life of it, the being of it: from which permanent motion I think they have the name of "living ones," or living things;" so, to compare great things with small, when with the microscope one examines the inward constitution of things they seem all full of living creatures in a continual state of restless motion, I understand the throne to have

seemed to the seer instinct with the animation of these four living ones. If this be the right interpretation which was suggested to my mind by the corresponding passage in Ezekiel (i. 13, 14), it will yield for the interpretation of the Lamb's condition, in respect of place, something of this kind: That he was the soul of that animated throne, its heart, its life, and so also of the elders which sat around, answering to that appearance of lamps of fire which, according to Ezekiel, went up and down among the living creatures; and the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning. The Lamb being represented in the midst of the throne and the living creatures, doth signify that he was the informing soul and central life of that system of being; and his being represented in the midst of the four-and-twenty elders, doth signify that he is also their centre and support. It is remarkable that the expression "in the midst" should be twice repeated, as if there were two systems and spheres of being represented by these two symbols, the church subsisting in a double form, of both which the Lamb is the support. It is not, however, repeated both before the throne and the living creatures, because these are two symbols for one and the same thing; as the New Jerusalem and the bride of the Lamb,-the temple and the living stones. Perhaps I may be bringing more out of this circumstance of place than the Holy Spirit intendeth: if I err, it is the desire to do honour to the Lamb; and yet, without any consciousness of overstraining the matter, I think it is conveyed to us by putting the Lamb in this position, that he is the life of the church, every where present in all the members, the one Spirit which unites all and animates all to the one great object of worshipping and serving God. It is hard of comprehension: it were a sore task for a painter to represent it; and I confess it is rather the idea conveyed by the symbol than the form of the symbol itself that I seek after; and because Christ hath the middle place of these two symbols, I simply conclude that he is the heart and soul, the centre and support, of their several actions. When he comes forth from this his resident place and central function, to do the act of taking and opening the book, we are not to suppose that he hath ceased from the former office and function, but that he superinduceth thereupon the

As he was repre

new office for which he comes forth. sented in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, which are the churches on earth, so is he here represented in the midst of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, which are the church in heaven. But now ariseth the greater question, Why as the life and soul, the centre and support, of the church in heaven, is he represented in the form of a Lamb as it had been slain. The adjunct "as it had been slain," does not mean to imply that the Lamb was as if it had been slain, but not verily slain; in the likeness but not in the verity of a slaughtered Lamb; for in the song of the redeemed church, they sing "Thou wast slain;" and in the song of the angels, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain." The meaning of the adjunct as it had been slain " is, that the Lamb which John saw bore about it the sure and evident marks of a slaughtered Lamb, wounded with death- wounds, bloodless, yet living still: not only stained with blood, but having shed out its lifestream, and yet possessing life; dead, and yet alive. Now what is signified by his taking this symbol upon the occasion of opening the book, and continuing to use it through all the Apocalypse? This is a great inquiry, to which we now gird ourselves in the strength of the Most High.

This very book in various places gives us insight into the high original, and deep meaning of this name of Christ; as for example, in chapter xiii. 8, where he is declared to have had this character of the Lamb slain, yea, to have been the "Lamb slain from the foundation of the world:" by which language can be signified nothing less, than that it was a part of the Divine purpose that Christ should be the Lamb slain, in the foreview of which he created the world; or as it is still more expressly written in the first chapter of the Colossians, that in this assumed form of the Lamb slain and living still, of the risen God-man,-assumed I say, but not realized,—he did create all things; for even as Jesus, he is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. But as death could not come without sin, of which it is the first-fruit, it is evident that God's purpose, with respect to the incarnation, death, resurrection, and glory of his Son, was laid in the prospect of a fallen and not of an unfallen creation. And to this agree all the Scriptures, which make hardly any allusion to the unfallen state of creation, but continu