derstanding and believing Mofes, fhall believe in Jefus of whom Mofes teftified, when God fhall bring in his antient people the Jews with the fullness of the Gentiles, and when the Jews, seeing Chrift and his kingdom triumphant over the Roman empire and all the kingdoms of the earth, shall heartily embrace him, not as a temporal but as a fpiritual king, whose kingdom is not of this world.

Verfe 5th.-And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings, and voices: and there were feven lamps of fire, burning before the throne, which are the feven fpirits of God.

Thunderings and lightnings proceeding out of the throne, fignify, that this book shall fortell many awful judgements, which fhall come upon the world; and, that who or whatever fhall be the immediate inftruments of inflicting thefe, they fhall all happen in the time and manner fixed by God the fupreme Governor of the world. And the voices fignify, that the intention of thefe is to give neceffary and seasonable warning and directions to the church of Chrift, and to the world at large. That both shall be done fhall appear as we proceed. We are told that the feven lamps of fire, burning on the front of the throne, fignify the feven fpirits of God; that is the Holy Spirit of God, as

hath

hath been fhewn at confiderable length in the commentary on chap. i. 4.

The symbol of feven lamps of fire burning, fignifies the illuminating and purifying influences of the Holy Spirit. For the lamp gives light, and fire purifies by melting away the drofs. These influences fhall extend to, and are fufficient for all, the feven ages of the world.

Verse 6th. And before the throne there was a fea of glass, like unto cryftal; and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beafts full of eyes before and behind.

In the fame fituation with the feven lamps, even on the front of the throne, was a fea of glass, like unto cryftal. This fymbol is taken from the molten sea, a large veffel of thirty cubits in circumference, and five in depth; placed in the temple at Jerufalem, and filled with pure water. The facrifices which were to be offered as burnt offerings, were washed in water drawn from this fea into ten lavers on the fide of it; and the priests, before offering them, were to wash themselves in the molten fea, 1 Kings vii. 23, 39. 2 Chron. iv. 6. The defign therefore of the molten fea was to purify the facrifice, and the priest who offered it. It was a fymbolical reprefentation

VOL. I.

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fentation of the purifying influences of the blood of Chrift, without which neither the facrifice nor the priest could have been of any avail to the purifying of the confcience, or averting the wrath of God. Hence, the fea of glafs fignifies Chrift, by whofe blood every Christian is purified. Chriftians are ftiled priests unto God in this book, and other parts of facred fcripture. Chrift is the fea in which these priests must wash, before they can offer unto God, in an acceptable manner, the facrifice of prayer and praise. This fea of glass is mentioned again in chap. xv. 2. in which paffage it is evident, and fhall appear in the commentary, that it fignifies Christ as the mediator between God and man.

This fea of glafs, like the spirit of God, is on the front of the throne. By this fituation, it is fignified, that Chrift is a divine perfon as well as the Holy Spirit, and that he proceeds from the Father. The word in the original, which in both cafes is tranflated "before the throne" is ráor, which fignifies the face or countenance. The pure Deity is invifible by the bodily eye of man, and his counsels cannot be discovered by any created being. the Holy Spirit reveals fo many of his counfels as are fit for us to know, and the Son of God in the flesh displayed in a vifible manner many of the natural and moral-pèrfections of God. Thus they have, as it were, made his face vifible to men, 1 Cor. ii. 9,-16. John i. 14, and 18.

But

In the space between the throne, and that circle around it, in which the twenty-four elders fat on twenty-four feats, John faw four beafts, full of eyes before and behind. The faces of these beafts looked to the throne, and their backs to the elders.

Our tranflation throws great obfcurity over this paffage, by tranflating the Greek word (wx, beasts. It fignifies living creatures. It is entirely different and diftinct from Onpov, which is rightly tranflated beast, chap. xi. 7. where it is said, “the beast "that afcended out of the bottomlefs pit". Ongior fignifies a ravenous beast of prey. What it fignifies in the fymbolical language, fhall be fhewn in the commentary on that verfe, and how exactly that fignification correfponds to the original one of a beast of prey. The beafts (living creatures) fpoken of in this verfe, are mentioned no less than nineteen times in the following paffages of this book, ch. iv. 6, 7, 9. ch. v. 6, 8, 11, 14. ch. vi. 1, 3, 5, 7. ch. vii. 11. ch. xiv. 3. ch. xv. 7. and ch. xix. 4. and in every one of them the word (wx is ufed. Mention is made of the beaft, (the beaft of prey) which is mentioned in chap. xi. 7. no less than eleven times in the' following paffages of this book, chap. xi. 7. chap. xiii. 1, 11. chap. xv. 2. chap. xvi. 13. chap. xvii. 8, 11, 12, 13. chap. xix. 19. and chap. xx. 10. in every one of which the word Ingrov is used. The diftinction between these words in the original is perfectly evident to every perfon ac

quainted with the Greek language. The fame diftinction ought to be preferved in every translation of them. We cannot fuppofe, that the unerring Spirit of God had not a fufficient reafon for preferving the diftinction between them, as we fee he hath done in every paffage, without a single exception, in which they are used in this book, though they are used in it no fewer than thirty times.

Thefe four living creatures, for this term I fhall henceforth use instead of the four beafts, are fymbols of the gospel minifiry in four fucceffive periods, diftinctly marked by the beautiful hieroglyphic of these four living creatures, which is drawn in the following verfe. By the gofpel miniftry is not meant the individuals who in thefe periods bear the name of minifters of the gofpel; but the collective body, which is made up of all thofe particular minifters of the gofpel whom Chrift knows to be his fervants, and will undoubtedly approve of at laft as fuch. Such minifters of the gofpel, are with great propriety denominated "living crea"tures," because they are fpiritually alive; and

eir office, as inftruments in the hand of God, is to excite and strengthen the spiritual life in Chriftians.

That these four living creatures fignify the gofpel miniftry, is evident from the ftation in which they are placed, and the part which they are reprefented as acting in this vifion. They ftand in

the