We should keep distinctly before our minds the place which Adam held on the earth, from God up to the mention of Abel. Adam and his wife bore on the earth a most remarkable testimony. There they were inwardly and severally conscious of their fall, but " clothed of God 1 " There is a wondrous and beautiful significance in the survey of our first parents, filling their appointed sphere in this wide earth in garments of skins made of God for them. We revere them as we realize the hand which clothed them, while we are solemnly reminded that no other band but God's could in any degree repair the disaster that had befallen them. They moved and lived as distinguished witnesses of God. No eye could light on them, but it must be occupied with the work of God for them, with which they were invested. How fully and touchingly it set forth the great standing and position to which He would eventually exalt man in Christ and by Christ! Let men or angels look at me a Christian according to the purpose of God, and their eye, as it surveys me, must be engaged with the beauty and being of Christ, by which I am and in whom I am. I am in Him who is of God to me wisdom and righteousness, sanctification and redemption. I cannot but regard it as a most attractive and impressive sight to see Adam and Eve, in the ordinary ways of this life, consciously and manifestly clothed of God; and thus in themselves testifying on the earth of the great purpose of God in His love toward man. If this testimony had been perpetuated, what could have been more significant? And possibly it is in connection with that, according to the law of the offerings, the priest who offered the burnt-offering had the skin for his part. He was entitled to that part with which God first clothed man, indicating that he could appropriate personally the sweetness and value of the burnt-offering, which is Christ Himself.
But in process of time (or literally in " the end of days") Cain comes forth with his offering to God, thus superseding the testimony which up to this was supported by his parents. Let us note here, ere we proceed, that when the failure of one phase of testimony is consummated, and the attempt to supersede it is perpetrated as a consequence of the laxity in which the former was held then a new phase is introduced; not a revival of the old, but one which declares the truth of God's purpose apart from, and yet in keeping with, the intention couched in the old. Cain essays (and I assume it was the result of his education) to restore man in his relations with God, a very laudable desire if undertaken under the mind of Him who claimed every consideration on the part of man, who had been the offender. If I am a grievous offender against one who has every claim on me, I am bound to seek the reparation he requires, and not assume for myself what should be an adequate set off. But this latter is just what Cain did. He overlooks both the magnitude of man's offense, and the immensity of the claims which God had on man. He judges and determines with himself what he considers will be sufficient to repair the breach which is acknowledged as existing between them. Cain, I repeat, instead of being impressed with the fact that God must clothe man, and that thus alone could lie stand, screened and separated from the exposure of his fall, that his position was of such a nature that God alone could act in it, and therefore that man could not in anywise meet him as things then were; that is, simply as man in his own life and strength, for it was under judgment, and therefore positively in itself impotent to effect relief or even reprieve. Yet Cain assumes, and brings according to his own mind of the fruits of the earth an offering unto the Lord. By toil and industry, at personal cost, he succeeded in obtaining fruits from the earth which is now cursed. The very toil he endured in trying to counteract the curse, and extract from the earth fruits that would indicate that the effects of the curse had been mastered and annulled, had a voice to every one with a conscience.
Let us walk beside Cain for a moment, and catch up the idea under which he acted. Here was a man, the first-born of fallen Adam, conceiving in his own mind without co-operation or subsidy from others the idea of placing the earth and himself with it in acceptable relations with God. What an amazing scope of purpose is thus in its first and simplest form propounded! A man to conceive and attempt to set aside God's curse on the earth with the intent of placing himself and it in acceptable relations with God I View it from any side one may there is a boldness of design in it which lends an interest to it independently of the beneficent results it sought to effectuate. Cain, in his purpose and aim, gives to us in a very distinguished way the highest and best aim of the natural man. If it were but right how amiable and fine would Cain's action appear to us! He was evidently sensible of God's claim to a certain degree; he must have experienced painfully the distance in which man on the earth stood in relation to God. In a word, he was the first, and at this stage of his course, I doubt not, the brightest example of natural religion (eventually the Antichrist), he could set matters to rights; he did not deny the state of things, but not understanding anything morally of the distance between man and God, he attempts by individual toil to surmount and countervail the consequences of the penalty under which man lay, and not the penalty itself. In his act Cain embodies and exhibits the largest and fullest development of man's attempt in any age to place the earth and man in it, in such acceptability with God, that man would be owned of God as having effected such a desirable end; and hence, when the Spirit of God would delineate the characteristics of the great enemies of the Church in the latter days, He says, " They ran in the way of Cain." The scope and purpose of the apostasy in the latter days will be only on a par with that of the first human religionist. Whether as to its course and manner of action, or as to the moral feeling towards the people of God; respecting the one Jude warns us, and for the other John prepares us.
It was when this terrible and consummate purpose of man was being enacted, that Abel, the younger son of Adam, and therefore without natural title, propounds and sets forth, as taught of God, the only right and true ground on which man can ever attain to true and happy relations with God; and that, on that ground, he is sure to be in those desired relations. Abel is the witness raised up, not only to vindicate the truth of God in opposition to Cain's assertive attempts, but also to set forth to man the simple and blessed way in which God accepts the sinner. Abel acts in strict reference to the moral relations between man and God. God in His righteousness engages his soul, and man as a sinner under penalty, because of sin, is before him. He, therefore, brought of the firstlings of the flock and the fat thereof, expressing thereby the two chief points of that great sacrifice which should be henceforth offered to God by His own Son, namely, a life not chargeable-offered up vicariously-and the excellency which the fat represented, obtained through death. By this offering Abel sets forth what was due to God and incumbent on man. He was thus a true witness. He rebuked the presumption of Cain, and, at the same time, became the channel of announcing the terms on which God would resume happy relations with man; nay, accept him. " God had respect to Abel and to his offering, but to Cain and his offering be had not respect." "By the which," says the apostle, " he obtained witness that he was righteous," for he had apprehended the righteousness of God. The testimony is beautiful and distinct.
In " the end of days." I conclude when Adam was 129 years old, Cain presumtuously attempted to represent on earth what practically disavowed and superseded the testimony which, as clothed of God, his parents presented. Cain, as the first-born, had natural title to maintain the truth of God, as His witness on earth; be failed, because he overlooked the moral distance between God and man, and therefore did not comprehend what God in His righteousness required. He had no just apprehension of God morally; whereas, Abel, apprehending the righteousness of God and his own sin, offers with strict reference thereto, and is accepted. The mind of God is met, and as is always the case the moment it is, blessed be His name! He declares His acceptance of the sinner. How God signified His acceptance of Abel and his offering I cannot say, but that it was manifest enough is very plain: possibly by fire coming down from heaven; for Cain had palpable evidence of the different reception that Abel's offering met with in contrast to his own. Morally now there is the same difference only more controlling and influential. The Cains perceive easily enough that the Abels have an acceptance with which they are in no way favored, and on this account they hate and would extirpate them. " Wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous." Abel not only fully and distinctly set forth on earth the only true and perfect way of ensuring acceptance with God-vindicating God in nature, and His ways toward man and the earth, but he seals his testimony with his blood. He dies by the hand of his brother because of his acceptance with God. This was the fruit of acting righteously; for I do not act righteously unless I act according to the mind of God, and in keeping with His nature and will. How fine the testimony! May the heart travel in company with Abel, and may it covet to maintain this testimony in the most unequivocal manner though the consequences be nothing short of death; and death, too, at the hands of a brother who had assumed to repair everything.
Abel, the first martyr on earth, closes his history here in death at the hand of him against whom he witnessed for God as to the true manner of approach to God, and of acceptance as the fruit of it. If we could with any accuracy survey the scene and the testimony, and the different motives and ideas which produced such diverse actings in these two men, in the opening of the world's history, how impressive and grand it would become to us the more we dwelt on it, as a display of human religion against divine! Man does not, as a rule, deny altogether the claim of God, but he overlooks the moral side of it, and seeks to commend and render all acceptable by IMPROVEMENT. The Cains do not deny that there is need for improvement, but they rest everything on improvement. Abel, on the contrary, announces that all blessing to man comes from God through the intervention of one entirely outside himself, and therefore he is accepted; and because thus manifestly accepted of God, he is pursued with relentless hate, a hate that taketh away the life of the owner-the hatred of a murderer. The highest human religionists are, in reality, God's bitterest opponents; and in proportion as human religion is held to, so is their opposition to the divine. Abel heads the cloud of witnesses or martyrs. (The word is the same for both in Greek). He had obtained witness that he was righteous, hence he fell by the hand of his brother. What a commentary on man's goodness! and the earth which drank in his blood must answer for it. The fact of his death has a voice to man, and therefore though dead yet speaketh. Hence the Lord pronounces that, of the Jews-the earthly people rejecting Him-all the righteous blood shed upon the earth should be required: " from the blood of righteous Abel," &c. It called for judgment, and the world is oppressed with this additional judgment. Hence it is said of the blood of Jesus that it " speaketh better things than that of Abel;" for it on the contrary speaks of forgiveness.
After the death of Abel there does not arise any new order of testimony for 200 years; and then we find it in the person of Enoch; but during that interval, as we gather from Gen. 4:2626And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of the Lord. (Genesis 4:26), there was a faithful company who called on the Lord, or " by the name of the Lord." Growing evil compelled the faithful openly to seek the Lord and to manifest unequivocally where their hope lay. Doubtless the voice from Abel's death was not unheeded by those who feared God. To Adam and Eve is given another son after the death of Abel, and he is called Seth, in faith that God had "appointed them another seed;" so that both Cain and Abel are omitted from Adam's line: Abel because he had passed away in death, and Cain because he had forfeited his place in Adam's family-in the human family owned of God. At an interval of little more than 100 years, about the time of the birth of Seth's son Enos, men began to call on the name of the Lord; or, as the LXX. give it, " This man hoped to call on the name of the Lord." " This man" I should suppose to be Seth, and this rendering shows us how the passage was understood when the Greek translation was made (B. c. 273).
In studying the history of testimony we must be prepared to find long intervals between very distinguished witnesses, who were raised up specially to maintain the truth of God against increasing evil and assumption on the part of man, because God's principle has ever been, " when the enemy cometh in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord raiseth up a standard against it." An interval is allowed in order to prove the effects on man of any remarkable testimony, and then another phase is presented, though the former testimony is by no means superseded. Nearly 200 years have elapsed before Enoch, the seventh from Adam, is born, and he occupies the place of God's witness for 300 years. He " walked with God" for 300 years, " and he was not, for God took him." He was known as a prophet, warning of coming judgments, and in the spirit of john• in the Apocalypse, testified of the judgments coming on men, because of their growing ungodliness. From God's side he viewed the state of things on earth, and as Abel had testified how approach to God was to be obtained and acceptance known, so Enoch ix acceptance (the word " walked" is synonimous with " well-pleasing"—see Heb. 11) with God looks on the earth, and proclaims through His Spirit, in which he is himself in fellowship, what must befall man on earth, because of his departure from God. Looking from God's side and knowing in himself what was compatible with God in His holiness and truth, he saw clearly that nothing less than terrible judgment could vindicate it, even what is fully depicted in Rev. 19 His was a glorious testimony. He walked with God for 300 years and proclaimed to men the judgment which, as worthy of God, should await them. With God and for God on the earth, he passes away from it as one beyond the power of death. His testimony is sealed by the announcement, now through his translation made for the first time, even that the heavens are opened to man, that he is to have a place, an inheritance there, even as Adam in his first estate had on the earth. The seventh generation from Adam is chosen to announce the glad tidings that God will deliver from death; yea that light and incorruptibility have come even now. The supremacy of grace over the penalty of man is declared. if Abel had died at the hands of his brother because he was accepted of God, Enoch is enabled through the same grace to show himself victorious over death, as Stephen did in principle, and he " is not, for God took him." What instruction and interest does his testimony in every way convey to us!
Enoch's son, whom he named Methusalah, lived to the very year of the flood. Methuselah's son Lamech lived to within five years of it. None from
Seth down died before the translation of Enoch. We may conceive the effect that this increased light must have had on this living chain. The story of Abel was part of the history of each on earth, but the translation of Enoch presented a new and wondrous consummation to all their hopes and desires. What a revelation it must have been to those who must have felt the judgment on man, now the more aggravated since the unnatural death of Abel. Adam is now dead, but all his posterity in God's line do not pass away until after the translation. Even Adam lived to within fifty-seven years of it. What a day it was I And what strange joy it must have diffused among the godly, and what full and gracious unfoldings of His mercy for God to vouchsafe at that early day!
482 years elapsed between the translation of Enoch and the deluge. Methusalah, the son of Enoch, lives to the year of it, and Lamech, the son of Methusalah, is the father of Noah, whom he thus named in prophetic faith, which reached on to a time beyond that of which even Enoch had foretold, even the days when the earth, now cursed, should again be blessed by the Lord, and when the heavens should rule. " This same," he says (i.e., Noah, which signifies rest), " shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed." He had found nothing but toil here, and he does not, like Cain, attempt to improve the earth. He had no hope from it in its then condition, having seen the growing misery of all around him. But he had also seen the translation, the victory of God's witness not only over the earth, but over the penalty of death. He had, doubtless, hearkened to the prophetic warning of Enoch as to the coming judgments, and he is allowed to discern in the distance a happier scene beyond those judgments; a time of rest even for the cursed earth. In token of this he names his son Noah; he who was to pass through the deluge unscathed and be blessed anew in a purged earth; even as it will be with those whom Noah typified, in the days of millennial rest which will succeed the judgments which Enoch had foretold, and which that of Lamech and Noah's day had foreshadowed. Lamech did not die till within five years of the flood, and when the ark must have been well nigh completed, having, perhaps, assisted in its construction. His age is significant being 777 years; the number seven being, as we know, that used in Scripture to denote perfection; and the three sevens stand out in contrast to the three sixes (666) given in Rev. 13, as the number of the Beast-the " Man of Sin."
Lamech is properly the last before the flood and outlived all his forefathers except his father Methusalah, who, as living up to the last year, indicates, I should suppose, that the line of testimony should be unbroken to the last, and thus brings us in the year of the world to the flood, which I shall reserve for the next chapter.
THE CHURCH AT PHILADELPHIA.
"And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write, These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth, and shutteth, and no man openeth; I know thy works: behold I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name. Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie: behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee. Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. Behold, I come quickly, hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches."-Rev. 3:7-137And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth; 8I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name. 9Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee. 10Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. 11Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. 12Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name. 13He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. (Revelation 3:7‑13).
How careful we should be in using the knowledge we gain at the hands of others, for there is danger of our using it, in ministry, as our own, in satisfying the desires of our minds! flow different is this from the thought of the apostle in speaking to Timothy: " Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee." (1 Tim. 4:1616Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee. (1 Timothy 4:16).) All that Timothy taught was to revert back on his own heart, and to be found in his own path. The delight felt by ingenuous minds of spiritual intelligence has been great at all that has been opened of the Scriptures in the past years; but the minds of teachers may be surely inclined, though taught of the Spirit, rather to multiply the setting forth the bright things which have been opened successively to their view than to regard the need of the conscience which the love of Christ was there to sustain. There is no book that has not received an enlargement, and its page a life that it never had before: at least it has not been recorded. Among others the Apocalypse presents difficulties more profound than most; but the portion from which our quotation is taken bears a simpler form, and one that is easier to illustrate from other parts of Scripture, but yet unexhausted.
In many respects the "Seven lectures on the seven churches, delivered in Davies Street," have supplied more than would content most readers; but Scripture knows no bounds in its teaching by the Spirit to the conscience, where there is a spiritual capacity to receive it.
It would be unnecessary to go far through the addresses to the churches in chapters ii., iii.; but there are two points I would observe upon: first, the sequence to be found in the addresses themselves, besides as one after another; and, secondly, the ground of the decadence of the assemblies; and then, God willing, how they apply to this particular church.
The first point I would suggest to the meditation of brethren, is whether there does not appear a succession in the state of each, as we have generally received a succession one to another. They all begin, up to Sardis, with a good and faithful state. Nor can we wonder at Thyatira receiving its meed of praise, so high and full, if we look at the corruption of Rome so faithfully delineated. What more excellent was there than her commencement, thirty of her bishops being martyrs in succession?
Sardis (to which Laodicea would have been a natural sequel, and succeeding the abuses of Thyatira,) came under correction of outward evil by the introduction of a controlling power, which was not of God and which left but little of Himself. She received another lord than Christ. She was to strengthen the things that remained. The power of worldly interference in Protestantism was now completely established in its rule in the Church, though it began with an emperor becoming a Christian. The faith that the Church should be removed, and that Christ was to come and rule the earth with His saints, had left the earth: truths which, by mercy, have been so widely restored. The failure of the recognition of the kingdom of God as to come, and to be established in the personal advent of the Lord, now bore its full fruit; and the Church, instead of being an exception to the world and the witness of the hopes of the saints, served only the order of the world as far as it might: but surely it took the sword, in principle, to perish by it. The fearful consistency of Rome in claiming power over all things, being but thus the source of the deepest religious corruption. The Church waiting in hope of the kingdom of God as the reward of her confession and path, and desirous of being with Christ, was kept free of the world, as well as of the value put on possession of it. While this faith continued, the impetus of the first works of the assembly at Ephesus continued. But they gradually failed in the works of faith as towards the Lord of glory, and in their affections towards Himself; and thus the separation that the standing of faith marked grew fainter, and the hope that belonged to it; and so the LOVE waned. It is not absolutely said that the works were His; but the divine love was, and the works began to take the character of christian beneficence. The love that looked on all those about them as heavenly strangers with themselves-and what they possessed not their own, and the mammon of unrighteousness making friends for the unseen country-was beginning to fail. The kingdom in which they were to rule and the hope of Christ, were ceasing from their spiritual vision; whose glory was the glory of the desolate of the earth, till He came. They referred their assigned duties less and less to the Lord, who should reward them in that day, because they served Him in them. The offering was less acceptable, and less accounted of, and the reward of the inheritance diminished, as He was less in view in them. All these defects continued to increase, and all that should have characterized the confession of saints continued to decline. In Smyrna there was some boast of either extension or of its embracing the great of the earth. It was to be tried therefore by fire. In Pergamos the evil becomes permanent. The Holy Ghost could not witness amidst such a state, and the felt deficiency was sought to be met by superstition (completed in Thyatira) and the filthy lucre of a Balaam spirit to establish its power. There was one sign of early declension which, I believe led to this, which is mentioned in the reprobation of the Nicolaitanes.
I see no ground for the common view of it. Could such have commenced in Ephesus? Hardly possible. But it has far more consistency with the state of the Church in considering it as the growth and claim of ministerial distinction, putting aside the place Paul saw himself in to the Church of God in 1 Cor. 3:20-2320And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain. 21Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; 22Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; 23And ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's. (1 Corinthians 3:20‑23). " The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain. Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; and ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's." It continued and found its way into the practice marked as the sin of Balsam. Thus the authority of Christ as Lord and the power of discipline were lost. God's assembly in, and yet out of the world, became corrupt; and how should not the calling of the Church become obscured and the heavenly calling despised?
We need not extend these observations for the purpose of drawing the attention of believers to Philadelphia.
Its first characteristic at the Lord's hand, is that He had set before her an open door. It is not the praise of the churches before Sardis, however they had fallen; but the opportunity God had given her-of what?-of return, of taking up again that which was lost in past ages. It is the last opportunity of recovery-nor is it called repentance. It is not given to Laodicea. Why is there room for the hope that such an opportunity puts before them? Because of previous grace. " Thou hast kept my WORD and not denied my NAME." The order is that of God. Keep my word-disciples indeed-knowledge of the truth again; knowing God's will-doing it-acquaintance with God. So here an open door is granted. Now, therefore, enter upon the charge my grace has given you in these last days, before the state of Sardis, closing in Laodicea, has earned final rejection of the testimony of the Church to Christ.
It is quite a mistake, that the open door is to the gospel. It is an open door to a return from a lost condition and confession. it is such an open door with His word and name, that makes such as to whom it is given to gain the place of pillars in the house of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
How sad is it to see on one side the apprehension of the exalted nature of the Church put aside the faith of the heavenly calling as a path on earth; and on the other, believers refusing to gather in the oneness which they may call a party, and deny as a practice, to secure the blessing.
Now, accepting Philadelphia as representing much we see and rejoice in at present, what a deep instruction it should carry to those " who seem to be pillars," and a warning to those who would call the acknowledgment of the appointment of the Holy Ghost as the unity of the body and the duty of acting on it, sectarian The neglect of this, coming on the failure of looking to the coming of the Lord as inchrinz all things. has been the source of declension and every difficulty. Even error would not cause mischief (for this works security against it) so dissolving to the Church of God as that. What, then, is said? " Hold fast that which thou hast: let no man take thy crown." The fruit of the mistake of those who gainsay their faith, however painful the sense of the stumbling-blocks around them, is not to weaken the hands of those to whom the Lord has committed, serving the saints in guarding them against these things. We are in face of the synagogue of Satan; that is, a return to beggarly elements as well. But if we would pass on through the open door it is in confidence of the wonderful grace of the opportunity given to those that hold fast the Word and Name of the Lord. It is this keeps it open in his hand; and what grace is there that does not humble and prepare the heart for service!
The stamp of rejection of the world which is on the heart of faith, and Christ coming to take possession with His saints, works strength to the Church, having her place above and knowing the mystery. These, thus taking up the desire of what is set before them, accept as no boon any veiling of the holiness of God in love. It is the want of affection to it that claims on the ground of the joy of grace (alas! we find often how the flesh can take up the best things), a latitudinarianism in principles, which has not learned the love of brethren after 1 John 5:22By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. (1 John 5:2): " By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments." What is pleaded for by this latitudinarianism is not merely the reception of a believer simple and of very small knowledge.
The due acknowledgment of the Lordship of Christ in its various aspects is surely to enter on the way of " overcoming," through the open door. The firmness of the PM Lilt in this evil world will never be found without the faith of it in its revealed extent. Holy shall we enjoy the presence of the Holy Ghost unless Christ's exaltation is held in wonder and humility, and His steps ours? Nor should we forget the gracious encouragement as to being saved from the judgments, or " those things coming on the earth," yet worthy of the shelter and to stand at last among the attendants of the Son of man.