THE work of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the life which He lived when on earth, though carefully distinguished in the scriptures from the death which He died on the cross, should never be separated from it, or we shall miss that grand whole, which embraced His incarnation, and found its accomplishment in His crucifixion. Nevertheless, this mighty whole has its parts, and it is encouraging for us to know that the Holy Ghost has employed apostles and prophets to give out the particular aspect or relation of the Christ of God with which each was entrusted.
The history of the world and the ways of God with mankind are plainly enough recorded, and perhaps sufficiently understood, to lead any careful reader of the Old Testament to discover that the Creator was, as a consequence of Adam's sin, restricted to a general but providential care of His creatures,-and that all men being sinners, and the world itself filled with violence as the result of sin, the waters of the deluge closed up that state of things, by the righteous judgment of God, and the destruction of all flesh. What else could follow, when man was corrupting his way upon the earth by the activity of a fallen nature, and when God, supreme in His own goodness, was lavishing every outward gift providentially upon His creatures. Man had the more to corrupt, by the very liberality of his Creator, who put all into his hands-till it repented God that He had made man upon the earth! Sovereign grace preserves Noah; and the ark, floating upon the waters of death, shows how in judgment God remembers mercy.
It is at this very point, that a great difference is established in the further relations of God and mankind; for if Adam's blessing was based on his personal responsibility in obedience, and lost,-God will pass Noah through death and judgment to bring him forth upon a new earth, with covenanted blessings secured by the bow in the cloud. In Adam's world, man was a driven out creature,-in Noah's new world, man is reprieved, and an heir of covenanted blessings, on the ground of the altar and its sweet savor.
The confederacy of the nations in combined will and action at Babel, led to the confusion of tongues by the righteous judgment of God, and to the consequent scattering of the people over the face of the earth. This state of things in punishment leads to the calling out of Abram from his country and his father's house into a land that God would show him; and makes him righteous by faith, and the head of this new family,- the father of us all. These new principles of action, thus introduced and established, get their width in the people called out of Egypt by Moses, and finally "brought in, and planted in the mountain of Thine inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which Thou hast made for Thee to dwell in; the sanctuary, O Lord which Thy hands have established " under Joshua as captain-and under Solomon as the typical king. How cheering, as one takes a place in Jerusalem, and reads, in those chronicles of Jehovah's faithfulness to His promises, the people's prosperity and peace, under their king, or takes a place in the temple, to witness the nation's worship and allegiance to the God of Israel and God of the whole earth, under the anointed priesthood of Aaron and his sons! What a point of glory is reached by the king who sits, on the throne under this theocracy of Israel,-and what a point of holiness is maintained in the temple, so that the covenanted relations of Jehovah and the people promise fair! Alas, who that has learned the fall in Eden does not tremble to see the advancing steps of Noah, Abram and the patriarchs,-then of Israel under Moses and Aaron, or under David and Solomon. What splendid and weighty endowments,—but depending upon the fulfillment of added responsibilities. For though all these blessings are finally covenanted and sure, yet were they necessarily conditional upon obedience from a people under the government of Jehovah. It cannot be too plainly seen that Christ, the true seed has secured, by His own death and resurrection, all these forfeited blessings for the " heirs of promise," as well as by redemption secured the people being brought under the new covenant; and thus fitted for their enjoyment in perpetuity, to be made true in application, at His second coming! Most of the Lord's people see and acknowledge this, though many have not as yet discovered the immense charm which the righteous and personal title of Christ sheds upon all the future ways of God with His earthly people. For instance, must God, in absolute, sovereign power, accomplish His own promises, as due to His own faithfulness,-and must He in this way too, make good all His covenanted blessings,-or is there a Christ, who has come in, as a man, and a true Israelite, and on account of whose intrinsic excellence, and perfect obedience from first to last, this new consideration springs up, as to what is due to this Son of man, in righteous—reward from God? What a new question is this for settlement! and with what joy is every eye turned upon such an answer as His ascension to the right hand of God supplies.
But, before we follow this risen Son of man into places where man never was before,-what shall be said or done as respects the many places and relations in which typical men had been once set-and failed? Will this same Jesus charge Himself with the defects and disgraces of the people, as well as finally with their sins, and so personally stand in these positions towards God as not merely to regain them, but, because of what He is, bring a higher character and luster into them all than they could have had in any other way? In this way God is vindicated by this Son of man, in every relation in which God had been outraged: by these means, the ways of Jehovah with Israel are re-established, for He goes over the whole path in perfectness with the remnant at John's baptism. The devil is also defeated by the temptations in the wilderness;-and man, in the person of Christ, is master of the whole position, in righteous title through obedience! What a triumph (not got by death and resurrection-but) by those three and thirty years, which measured what else was immeasurable. Besides the recovery of lost positions for man and for Israel, and securing these in His own person for the latter day glory, and for the people that shall then be born, the Lord will only now take them up with His people, in a manner suited morally to their state, and the condition, through their own failure and sin, of everything around them. For example, "Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses;" and again, "the Son of man hath not where to lay His head." Besides these positions, and others, into which man lapsed by transgression and punishment, but into which the perfectness of Christ brought Him, as recognizing all such penalties, not as due to Himself, but as righteously fallen on the sinful race in whose behalf He came-what a relief to our souls is it to see this last Adam gathering all these sufferings around Himself, and making them the very stepping-stones by which He will reach the place where as a man, in such a world as this, He can suit Himself to the holiness of God! He is not yet putting aside the causes or these sufferings and sorrows,-this He will do at the Cross: but He will go down into their consequences, so that in all their afflictions He may be (not separate from them) as the afflicted one; and, being there in righteousness as the only position into which correspondence with the mind and ways of God towards men could place Him, He will cry out of those depths, or suffer being tempted in those depths. God can now change the whole course of His government, and open the heavens to this "fulfiller of all righteousness,"—or send the Spirit like a dove to rest upon Him, or send angels to strengthen Him, or make His own voice to be heard (as it rolls around the length -and breadth of the whole world), " This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." What a moral victory is won in these very depths of man's disgrace, and of God's dishonor! and with what astonishment and fright does the devil cast his eye upon this second man, triumphant in the very circumstances which, alas! had only, hitherto, been the proofs of man's defeat, and of Satan's strongest holds! This Son of man will win, by such weapons as these, more than Adam ever had to lose, and far more than the beloved nation even when at her brightest, could ever forfeit. But He will win it all for Himself in righteous (though suffering) title first, with His people, till, in making atonement for their sins, He will glorify God yet further by laying down His life, and by shedding His own blood for the remission of His people's transgressions, and even exhaust the judgment of God, by suffering " the just for the unjust." What a history is this! and how brightly does it shine, in its pathway of light, across this dark world-with its closed gates, and flaming sword, and the waters of a flood,—or, in later times, with a nation judicially blinded, and with a veil upon their hearts. Who can dispute the fact, that the Messiah has for Himself (and, as one of the people, for them too) made a claim upon Jehovah to come out from the strange place of lightnings and thunderings, into which He had withdrawn Himself-as the voice from the excellent glory on the mount of transfiguration shows us, and to come out to bestow " majesty and glory " upon this beloved Son, in that hour when " His face did shine as the sun, and His raiment was white as the light." What a change passes upon this Son of Man in the heights, -corresponding to His jealousy for the holiness of God in those depths out of which He rose for this bright moment of intercourse with the heavens about "the decease which He should accomplish at Jerusalem." But He must descend into those very depths again and deeper and rougher ones still, so that " all thy waves and thy billows'.' should pass over Him, and He from the bottom of that pit, cry, "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me." A scene such as this is for the loving heart of a disciple, much more than for the pen of a writer. The soul would find its relief in being melted, in its measure, where His soul was melted like wax; and the heart would feel how becoming is a broken heart, where He broke His. Precious Jesus, what we owe thee! Man is recovered and saved; yea, redeemed by blood, risen with Christ, in eternal life, and sealed by God through the Spirit as an heir of glory, and a child of the Father's love. God has known ONE, upon this earth, who accepted the place of man's dishonor and defeat, that He might justify God in all His ways with men,-and then (surpassing, in virtue of His own perfectness all that Creation had ever witnessed in what the Creator gave) found a new title for Himself, and for His Church, upon His own righteous sufferings, so that not only He should get a new answer by ascension to the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens, but leave His own people His own pattern for their present conformity: "for me to live is Christ." But for these new ways between this Son of man and God, how could the Apostle say, " that I may know Him, and the power of: His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death; if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. These are, now, the footsteps of His chosen ones, and it is upon this moral elevation that they assert their true dignity, "the sons of God without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life, etc." Who made such a position as this, for others, but. He who won it for Himself, as "He glorified God upon the earth." May we not say, further, it is these moral victories below, which give to the heavens their jubilees. Who was it that said: "Get thee hence, Satan," and when was it, and where? "Angels must come and minister to Him" the emptied one, the humbled one, this obedient servant-this fasting, hungered, and tempted son of man. "Then the devil leaveth Him." What triumphs are these, in the living ways of Christ, previous to the final overthrow and destruction of Satan's power in the grave, by His own death. How all is changed between the heavens, and the earth; and the power of hell-the devil is defeated; the Son of man is the victor everywhere, and God is glorified. "Sing, O heavens, and be joyful, O earth, and break forth into singing, O mountains." "Yea, let the very trees of the fields clap their hands," as it befits them. But will the Lord Jesus win these triumphs for Himself alone, and stand solitary in the midst of all this glory? No. For He will say, " except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die it abideth alone, but if it die it bringeth forth much fruit" that by means of His death and resurrection, we, and His people, may hold the respective places now, and in the millennial age, which He secured for Himself. The " Son of man," upon the earth, having been thus led of the Spirit, and tempted by the devil, and tested and proved by God, in every place and relation on behalf of man and Israel, He will close up all that He was in life, by going into the strongholds of the enemy's power; " that by means of death he might overcome him that had the power of death, that is, "the devil," and so possess Himself of the keys of death and of Hades! That prophetic word too, " Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of Hosts," having found its full accomplishment in the atoning sufferings of Christ on the cross, and judgment having done its strange work upon Him, as the victim, the cup of wrath having been drunk to its very dregs by our Substitute,-and everything done, that as our Surety He undertook to do -He will at last say, " It is finished," and give up the ghost! Nothing, no nothing remains of this kind for Jesus to do below. He has made Himself known amongst us, as the One " who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself; and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." This One has said upon the earth, " have glorified thee, I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do." The fulfiller " of all righteousness " in His life; -the taker-away of the sin of the world the justifier of God by suffering the consequences of His righteous government on the earth, and making a path, through them all, for Himself;-the vindicator of God, as regards all the inflictions and penalties and wrath itself, by bearing these in His own body on the tree, where He put away sin by (the sacrifice of Himself...... What can God now do as the suited answer to obedience and sufferings such as these? What will He do, but rend the veil that hid Him, from the top to the bottom. If care for the glory of God led Jesus to death, God will introduce the new power of resurrection, and give Him the new title of "first born from the dead." Will He lay Himself in the sepulcher with its guard of soldiers? It shall only be to declare "the snare of the fowler is broken." He has indeed finished the work, and completed all "by binding the strong man, and taking away the armor wherein he trusted and spoiling his goods."
Hitherto we have been tracing the steps and paths of "Him that descended" into the wreck and ruins of this world and its occupants, since the fall. But what becomes of the paradisiacal symbols in that brief day, when the man and the woman were first created;-when the Lord God brought her to Adam, because " He said It is not good that man should be alone,"-the hour when this last and only void was filled up, where all else was good? Will this first, and perfect type, this "great mystery" be out of reach, And will it be the abiding and everlasting witness, that there was once a purpose in the mind of God, brought out in the annals of time too, and set up in this Adam and Eve in the garden, before the fall, in figure, which is lost and gone forever? What a question! and will the perfect one, the second man, the Son of God on earth, give an answer to this, as He has to every other question? Yes, He will, for, in the depths of His solitudes, He will say "I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straitened till it be accomplished." The very thought of "abiding alone" is repugnant to Him; and He will take up in anticipation His own deep sleep, and speak of "falling into the ground, like a corn of wheat, and dying," that He may bring forth His fruit in His season, and get His Eve, His Bride; that so in the coming day of His joy, He may " present the Church to Himself, a glorious Church, without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing." But first He will go into this sleep, His own deep sleep of death, that God may go into the new place of "the quickener of the dead," and call the heavens and the earth to behold another power introduced into the scene of ruin and wrath around—" the power which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places and gave Him to be the head over all things to the church which is His body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all." Another sphere is required for this antitypical mystery, when Christ and the Church are to be displayed, and it is our turn now to learn, that He, the Son of man, who has won every blessing that the future day of His glory will make good in manifestation upon the earth, has also won new trophies and new relations for God and for Christ and for the Church Which the heavens must open to receive, and which the heaven of heavens are alone worthy to display. Through what Christ has done in death, and because of who and what He is and deserves, another wisdom (the hidden wisdom) and another power, (which raised up Christ from the dead) will settle such new demands as these: and this " Son of God with power, according, to the Spirit of holiness," will make the opportunity for the bringing out of all the hidden mysteries of God, as He passes triumphantly by ascension title, into all His new glories, with His redeemed ones, throughout the everlasting ages! Thus will the Lord Jesus Christ open a new volume with its ever-increasing perfections; by which will be displayed, in the risen populations above, the present meaning of that scripture, " for it became Him for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings." In prospect of this result in glory, Jesus had said, when His hour was come to depart out of this world unto the Father, " I go to prepare 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." The Father's House, and its many many mansions, shall ere long receive its "many sons." And in that day, when the Father has His many sons, God will take care that the Son shall have His "many brethren," according to that word " for whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that he might be the first-born among many brethren." Moreover if this " salvation " (when inquired and searched into by prophets, who prophesied of the grace that should come,-or, in later times, when reported to us by the Holy Ghost sent down), was a "thing which the angels desired to look into,"-what shall be said as to these new lessons, now that the grace which has come, is about to get all its fulfillments in the glory? What must the Bride, the Lamb's wife, be in the light of the coming nuptial day? What must be their instructions and attainments in the things which are ours, when we are taught that one object of God is "to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church, the manifold wisdom of God!" These sons of God had shouted for joy when Creation's work was done; but since then they have viewed our "great mystery of Godliness, God was manifest in flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of Angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory." Redemption by the blood of the Cross, flowing from Him who hung there, and resurrection from the dead, and the ascended glorified One in the heavens,-are their new objects. Angels ministered to Him once on earth; two angels in white were at His sepulcher; angels attended on Him, as He went up in the clouds; and, in the coming morning of His reintroduction, " when God brings again His first begotten into the world," He will say, " Let all the angels of God worship Him." How truly are we brought, and how well can we perceive why Jesus must say, No man knoweth who the Son is, but the Father, and who the Father is but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him": and he turned and said privately," Blessed are the eyes which see the things which ye see."
Nevertheless He will leave behind Him like the Sinaitic inscriptions which marked the journeyings of His ancient people, the proofs and witnesses of the out-of-sight path which He made for Himself, as we are led to the manger,-the carpenter,-Egypt,-Jordan,-the opened heavens,-the descending dove,-the voice of God,-the wilderness and Satan -the last supper,-the Sanhedrim,-the Judgment Hall,-Gethsemane, and Calvary,-the crown of thorns, -the soldier's spear,-His cross,-His death,-the sepulcher (that womb of sorrows and suffering which gave birth to " the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead "); the man the Word made flesh (who cleared the world of all that stood in the way of God's glory, and of universal blessing) is now, by ascension title, at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens, "crowned with glory and honor and set over all the works" of God's hands. What new places and relations with a Father's delight open out for this Son of his love, in the bright future which He has made for Him!
Man being no longer under judgment (through the efficacious work of Him who bore it on the Cross), and God having now got man for Himself in resurrection, and that same man, too, who is the righteous and appointed heir of all things,-He, in whom all the covenants and promises are made yea and amen, and who has won, for Himself and His people, the necessary and suited positions and spheres for their accomplishment in glory on this earth and in the heavens-what will God invest Him with, as due to such an One, but all " honor, power, wisdom, riches, and strength and glory and blessing." If the garden of Eden showed us the man who had forfeited everything, the earth and the heavens are to manifest in glory the second man, who is worthy to receive all the Father has, and has given Him. Besides this, " God has given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man." Daniel by the spirit of prophecy had long before said, " I saw in the night visions, and behold one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days and they brought him near before him, and there was given unto him dominion and glory, and a kingdom, that all people and nations and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed." An evangelist will tell us, that the humbled Son of man who stood alone in the earth, as the master of the entire position by life and death, and who is now in the ascendant at the right hand of God, is soon coming again; and, that " when this 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 before him shall be gathered all nations, etc." An apostle will confirm this great fact in result, as he says, " Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule, and all authority, and power; for lie must reign, till lie hath put all enemies under his feet." (1 Cor. 15:21-2821For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. 22For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. 23But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming. 24Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. 25For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. 26The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. 27For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him. 28And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all. (1 Corinthians 15:21‑28)) " For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the first- fruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming. Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith, all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him. And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all." The Apocalyptic writer will tell us, " I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he cloth judge and make war and he bath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written; King of kings and Lord of lords." "All power is given unto me (Jesus said) in the earth and in the heavens "-the proof (not merely of the Son of man's righteous title to power and glory everlastingly, but) that "the. Father loveth the Son, and showeth him all things that himself doeth." Yea, God himself will tell us not only of the place this Son of man had in the eternal counsels of the Father, but that be is glorified by making room in all the further displays of His wisdom and grace and glorious power by leading this Son, the second man, to the very highest place in heaven: " above all principalities," and making Him the unchanging center of all accomplished blessing,-" that, in the dispensation of the fullness of times, he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in him," etc. What a relief to the aching heart, which has learned its humiliating lessons with the man who fell, to see where Man is, in the Person of the Son, in this new creation of God,-the risen, the ascended, and the exalted One. The might of that arm which rolled back the stone from the door of the sepulcher and began the celebration of its acts and deeds in Him who lay there in the silence and majesty of death, by raising Him from the dead, will presently " bring again his first begotten into the world,' which once cast Him out, to begin there, afresh (not the triumphant career of the man, great and supreme in His weakness and humiliation, but) the pathway of the mighty One, whose name shall be celebrated evermore as the " Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace;-of the increase of whose government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom to order it, and establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth and forever." This authority to set in order, and to establish everything great and small,-and to put aside, in righteous retribution, all his enemies-gets a yet further extension in John's gospel: " Marvel not at this, for the hour is coming in which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice and come forth; they that have done good unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation:"—and all " authority to execute judgment (founded moreover on the title) because he is the Son of man," is His. As one with Him, and His associates in these very scenes, we are reminded (by the apostle to the Gentiles) "Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? And if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life!" The poor man who once cried out of the depths, and "was heard in that he feared "—the, one who knew no sin, when made in the likeness of sinful flesh," and bore the judgment of our sins in His own body on the tree-He who once bowed His head and gave up the ghost-is now in the ascendant, and has all judgment committed to Him, " that all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father." And execute this judgment He will, as the Son of man on the throne of His glory-as the Messiah-King when He brings His majesty and power into connection with the throne of David; or when the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever. The Lord Himself says, in anticipation of His day of renown, "now is the judgment of this world, now shall the prince of this world be cast out." And to the very last will He affirm " the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me." How supreme is our Jesus, in these noiseless victories, as He thus gives them out to us -and as He bids us be of good cheer in an overcome world; and not to let our hearts know either trouble or fear, through the conscious peace which He leaves us, till He comes in power " to judge and to make war"; for all His enemies shall lick the dust!
The first Adam's transgression threw Satan into prominence and strength, and obliged God to retire into the heaven of heavens, or else maintain His righteousness in judgment by destruction. The second Man (come to do the Father's will, in the body prepared for Him) has set up a claim before God to come forward, and (by righteous judgment) take this perfect One, out from the death into which His devoted obedience carried Him, and put Him into position, place, power and glory! " Behold I make all things new," is the only, and fitting reply from the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, as He introduces the man of the new heavens and the new earth, into their length and breadth, and instals Him as the beginning of the new creation of God I We may well ask in the midst of such gains and triumphs as these, is there a power that can not merely grapple with Satan and overcome Him-but is there authority likewise to put aside the great enemy " the Wicked One " himself? With what gladness to our hearts (afraid because of the past) is the assurance from the risen One, " and I saw an angel come down from heaven having the key of the bottomless pit, and a great chain in his hand, and he laid hold on the dragon, that old Serpent, which is the devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him' etc." How freely can one breathe now, as we see the Son of man exalted into the highest place-the center of all prophesied, promised, covenanted, and purposed blessing for the glory of God with His redeemed,-the families in the heavens and on the earth in their Goshens, by undisputed right, and in undisturbed possession, and Satan—nowhere! or, if memory, bestows a thought on the past, as regards that old serpent, only to be assured by the key, and the chain, and the bottomless pit, and the seal, that the stronger than he, who once took away his armor, wherein he trusted, has now shut him up, and shut him out, " that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years should be fulfilled," and that when loosed for a little season "out of his prison," only to earn a heavier punishment, by being driven to his own place. "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, forever and ever." The liar, from the beginning, is gone! the great enemy of God and man is judged and cast out! Man, in the person of our Jesus, has glorified God upon the earth, and finished that work, in life and death, which was given Him to do; and God-thus liberated from His place of righteous judgment against sin by the waters of a flood, and by melting elements through fervent heat-is set free to raise, and exalt, and glorify, and crown the man whom He made strong for Himself, and to re-introduce man from the heavens, into the whole scene of previous defeat and disgrace and destruction below, till every creature's heart and voice shall give expression to their new-bought joy in ascribing salvation and honor and glory and blessing unto Him that sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb forever. What a day for our God-and what a day for our Lord I how truly will He take the place of His typical Solomon in times of shadows and figures, when He said, " the Lord hath said that He would dwell in the thick darkness; but I have built an house of habitation for thee, and a place for thy dwelling forever!"
" 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," so God rested from all His works on the seventh day.
B.