-verse 9. xal oтav dusous. And when they shall give glory, in connexion with the elders; and chap. v. 10. BasiλEÚsoμev, we shall reign on earth. In reference to these elders, the Jewish church had established twenty-four courses of priests, 1 Chron. xxiv. 1. 4. 18. Luke i. 5. who served by turns in the temple at Jerusalem-and twenty-four Levites, as deputies of the twelve tribes, who attended the service of the temple as their representatives, and transacted the business of their tribes at court, in the Sanhedrim, and with the priests. They are clothed in white raiment, from the custom of clothing those, who were admitted on account of their genealogies and perfection of body, to the court of the priests. In the original, their seats are also called thrones, and these, as well as their crowns of gold, and the circumstance of their sitting on these thrones, indicate their present appointment, and future royal priesthood in the kingdom of Christ on earth, They are particular saints, who have proved themselves worthy of this station, Isa. xxiv. 23. Hebrews xi. 2. at the head of their brethren. O ye combatants under the banners of Jesus! behold the glorious reward of faithfulness. in trying seasons, and rise to follow their footsteps; the recompense is infinitely superior to the toil of the undertaking.

Verse 5. Lightnings, thunderings and voices. Light nings refer to the sight, thunderings to sensibility, and voices to the sense of hearing. The allusion is evidently to the Old Testament dispensation, and the manner in which God revealed himself in giving the law on Mount Sinai. Lightning may allude to the discovery, which the Lord made to the Israelites of his own nature and character, in promulgating the moral law as the fundamental principle of his moral government over the world. Thunderings may refer to his promises and threatenings, blessings and curses, by which he excited the sensibility to the performance of his will. And the prophecies of the prophets are often

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called the voices of the prophets, Acts xiii. 27. John the Baptist calls himself the voice of one in the wilderness. John i. 23. Ps. ciii. 20. xxix. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

Seven lamps of burning fire. The Holy Ghost, in allusion to the seven lamps in the tabernacle and temple. Seven is the number of fullness and perfection, in which he is always present in the Church, and communicates his illuminating, quickening and refreshing influence through his word and ordinances in all ages. This sevenfold communication is specified, Isaiah xi. 2. See chap. i. 4. iii. 1. Verse 6. Before the throne was a sea of glass, like unto crystal. We are apt to conceive the theatre of this vision on too contracted a scale, which upon mature consideration of all the different objects, must have been very wide and extensive. St. John beheld a spacious throne with a very broad pedestal, on which the four living beings formed a full circle with the throne, and before it an extensive pavement, broad and deep like a sea of crystal, above which stood the seven flames of fire. Around this sea of glass, the twenty-four elders formed a second circle with the throne of God, and at a proper distance behind the elders, millions of angels surrounded the whole. Chap. v. 11.

In order to understand the spiritual meaning of this sea, it is necessary to attend to the following remarks on the original. The learned Doctor S. R. Doederline says: It is customary with the Hebrews, to call a large plain a sea. And the original ὑαλίνος, from ύαλος, not only signifies glass, but the ancients also very frequently translate it electrum; which according to Theophrastus, is a collective mass of all the different precious metals, in a most refined and purified state. Chap. xxi. 18, it is said, that the city of New Jerusalem was built of pure gold, like purified electrum; and verse 21. that not the street, as we read in our common version, but xal y πλατε the market-place and centre of the city of God, immediately before the throne of God and the Lamb, was of pure gold, like transparent elec

trum. This translation is also evidently correct from both passages. For why are the words clear and transparent added, if glass is to be understood, which is clear and transparent of itself? Why should its clearness be described in the text before us by crystal, when glass itself is a clear body? See Exod. xxiv. 10. There is, however, a difference between this sea, and the matter of which New Jerusalem is built; for here the sea itself is electrum, but in New Jerusalem, the gold is only compared to it. In allusion to this sea, of which Moses must have had a sight in the Mount, Exod. xxv. 40. Heb. viii. 5. Solomon overlaid the floor of the temple with gold. 1 Kings vi. 30. This extensive plain or pavement, wide and deep, before the throne, denotes the aggregate of all revelation from God to men in all ages; which is compared to the sea, because of the deep things of God, and the profound mysteries, and fulness of grace and mercy; clear, like crystal, because of the purity, perspicuity and evidence of the heavenly truths contained in it; a solid mass of precious metals, to denote the different value of these truths, and the firmness, durability, union and connexion of the whole. This transparent massy plain formed a circuit before the throne, so that the throne partly rested on this stable foundation, the rainbow reflected his seven colours in it, and the seven lamps their flames of fire-the Lamb stood on it, right in the midst between the elders and the living creatures-the Mediator between God and man, whose image the Church had long beheld in this revelation, as in a mirror. This is the mirror of eternity, in which we may behold God and our everlasting home. What a folly in Deists, to attempt removing such a mass, of which they neither know the depth, the value, nor consequence !-to attempt to disfigure the workmanship of Him, from whose throne proceed lightnings and thunder!

Four beasts full of eyes before and behind. This is a bad translation, which by no means conveys the proper sense

of the origina'. The Greek word is not Inglov, beast, but Zwov, from Law, (from which word the Grecians call God (ε~;) and should be rendered a living Being, or a Being full of lives. Upon the subject of these Beings of life, expositors have collected a variety of opinions, which it would be useless to repeat. I will therefore place the mind of my reader at once into that circuit of ideas, in which he may view this elucidation to advantage.

The Revelation treats every subject of its contents on a general scale, and each particular part in a continued relation to the whole design, and final aim of heaven. This therefore, is in a peculiar sense the Book, in which we may expect to meet with grand and comprehensive thoughts. The Church of God on earth is here represented as a divine institution and system of education, in which chosen nations are gradually instructed, and trained up, to be a ferment in the whole mass of mankind for eternal purposes. This extensive institution has different departments, in which those qualified, have been advanced from one course of heavenly lessons of knowledge and discipline to another. In each of these departments the Lord has gradually discovered himself, and the sublime objects of the intellectual world, according to the sense the chosen people of God felt of their own wants; by which they were also fitted for the reception of such discoveries, and induced to ask, and search for such knowledge, as necessary.to their happiness. There are four such Church-states, or departments in the general Church of God on carth, of which these Beings of lives, in the text before us, are the emblematical representatives. These are the following:

I. The Patriarchal Church economy, during the time of promise, before Moses, which is here represented by that Being of life like a lion. This figure expresses the distinguishing characteristics of the whole body of the Church during that time; which are boldness of faith in the promises of God; courage in the service of the Lord, strength

against the enemy, natural liberty, not yet incumbered by a load of precepts for Church discipline. The lessons which they were taught, participated of the same characteristics. They learned to know God from his works-his natural and moral government over the world, from the ways of Providence hopes of the recovery of mankind from moral ruin, by the promised Seed of the woman.

II. The Mosaic economy, which is here represented by that Being of life like a calf or ox. This figure has been a hieroglyphic of great import, from ancient times. The Egyptians made their God Apis after it, to whom they paid divine honours in a living ox; and the Hindoos still worship these beasts as divinities. The distinguishing characteristic of this figure is indefatigable laboriousness, under the yoke, for the general good of man. This character is very applicable to the Old Testament institution. We all know the round of ceremonies under the law, that heavy load of precepts and discipline in the Jewish church, and the general laboriousness of this people in bearing so heavy a yoke to this day. But as the ox also served for a sacrifice, so this institution was acceptable to the Lord, and induced many, to devote themselves entirely to God and his service during many centuries. The principal lessons taught in this department were an enlarged and authoritative republication of natural religion as known before, with a more immediately introductory dispensation of Providence, carried on by the Messiah for the recovery and salvation of the human family, by rendering satisfaction to the righteous Governor of the world.

III. The Christian economy, which is represented by that Being of life with the face of a man. This figure indicates, that every part of this dispensation requires, and bespeaks the use of reason and experience; that its religion are lessons of real knowledge, and the worship rational; that the arrangement of the whole economy bespeaks humanity and mercy, and the administration of it wisdom and