Son of Man in the Father's glory shall abide on this earth, doth either not understand or disbelieve the transfiguration. We may not, therefore, wonder that the throne of God should have around it the glory of the rainbow, which is his own symbol, as we have seen, for expressing the glory of the redeemed earth.

This conclusion which we have arrived at, concerning the symbolical import of the rainbow, we can confirm and put beyond a doubt from this book itself; in the xth chap. of which, a mighty Angel, whom we assuredly know to be Christ, as well from his action, which is to take possession of the earth, as by the identity of his symbolical appearance with that of the vision of the first chapter, which we have already explained ("His face was at it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire"). This Angel is described as coming down from heaven, clothed with a cloud, and a rainbow upon his head. The cloud is the cloud of his Father's glory, which covered him on the transfiguration, and at his appearance to Saul of Tarsus, and with which he himself doth promise that he shall come arrayed (Luke xxi. 27); and, as hath been said, it is the same cloud in which his Father ever has shewn the face of his glory, and made the word of his power to be heard, since the day he shewed himself to Moses in the burning bush by the back of Horeb; wherein dwelt the Angel of the Covenant, the glorious Messiah, the Christ in his assuined form of risen God-man, which at the resurrection he attained unto in real created substance. In this cloud clothed, he descendeth from heaven to earth, in order to take possession. of his own redeemed terraqueous globe; and in sign thereof he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth, and roareth like a lion against his enemies, and with the sevenfold thunder of the seventh vial discomfiteth them. Such is the action. It is the act of taking possession of this terraqueous globe. Now behold the rainbow is upon his head, where kings do set their crowns. He surrounds his head with the glory of the rainbow; to signify, that the jewel of his crown is the redeemed earth. Like a king coming to do battle for his kingdom, which an usurper hath long oppressed, he puts upon his head the symbol of the right which he is come to reclaim, and does battle as a crowned king. This is very

beautiful and very grand and oh, ye sceptical unbelieving men! though ye be called Christians and ministers of the Gospel, not less sceptical and unbelieving of this book than the scoffing infidel; I tell you that it is a better thing to see deep into these doctrines which are thus symbolically set forth, than to admire from a distance these visions as splendid works of fancy, or unintelligible hieroglyphics intended to confound the eyesight of the mind, and for ever defy, and for ever defeat, every effort of human reason, enlightened by the Holy Ghost, to unravel them. I tell ye, oh ye sentimental idlers! that these are not venerable gewgaws, to be stared at and wondered at, but that they are as truly intelligible symbols for revealing deep and eternal truths of God, as is the sacrament of baptism or the sacrament of the supper. Idle no more, ye idlers, lest the Lord scourge and whip you to the work of interpreting his word.

There is yet another circumstance noted in the text concerning the rainbow round about the throne, that it was in sight like unto an emerald; or, to preserve the same translation which is adopted at the beginning of the verse, "to look upon like an emerald." Now this addition doth not take away the reality of its being a rainbow, which it is expressly said to have been; not the appearance of a rainbow, but a rainbow; and though we never see a rainbow of the pure and unmixed greenness of the emerald, we are not therefore to say this was only something like a rainbow, but essentially not a rainbow, which by its constitution has indeed the green colour, along with the other six, but never hath, nor can have, the green colour alone. The answer to such a way of reasoning is, God calleth it a rainbow, and therefore a rainbow it is, and that of which the rainbow was a symbol it signifies. But in this, as in other symbols, in order to make the symbol express more, an addition is put upon it, which in nature never occurreth; and this, we have already seen in those symbols we have explained, and in all those which we have to explain, we shall see it to be the law of symbolical writing. Any one looking upon the sphynx, where the lion's body is united to the virgin's bust, to denote, as is believed, that the rising of the Nile took place while the sun was in the signs of the lion and the virgin, doth see

an instance of this. Every figure in the model of the mausoleum, or tomb, exhibited by Belzoni in this country, was an example of it, where the bodies of men were seen with the heads of hawks. And wherefore then, it may

be said, is the colour of greenness in this rainbow made so much to prevail? Nay, but let any plain man answer this question, To what part of creation does the colour of greenness belong? Is it to the sun, moon, or stars; is it to the hues of the heavens seen so brilliant at the rising or setting of the sun? No: it is in the earth that this colour alone exists, and in the sea, under peculiar circumstances; as certain also of our poets have said,

Farewell, thou fair day, green earth, and ye skies
Now bright with the gay setting sun.

By this addition to the symbol of the rainbow, we conceive, therefore, that every possibility of misinterpretation is removed; and that it is put beyond a doubt that the eternal redeemed earth is that which in the symbol here encompasseth and containeth, and in the reality shall hereafter encompass and contain the throne of God. And what then doth this complete symbol convey? It conveyeth this, that the throne of the heavens, the eternal throne of God, which ruleth over all, which is the place, the proper seat of creation's Sovereign Lord, and absolute Monarch, was seen by John the seer, filled by a risen and glorified man, in risen and glorified flesh, even the Son of Man, whom the Father hath glorified with his own glory, Jesus our Elder Brother; who heretofore travailed amongst us in much sorrow, the same who was made of a woman, made under the Law, born in a stable and laid in a manger; who had not all his life long where to lay his head, and ended his sorrowful and persecuted life like a common malefactor upon the accursed tree; this, even this one, brought into the condition of a worm and no man, is now seated upon that throne which ruleth over powers, and principali ties, and dominions, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but in that which is to come: and being there enthroned Lord of all, that which he is embodied withal is flesh, not indeed flesh in that state of flesh and blood in which he formerly appeared, and which cannot inherit the kingdom of God, but flesh in that changed state into which it is brought by the resurrection from

the dead. "It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption; it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body." There he sits on the throne of his Father's glory encompassed with our nature, the Son of Man, the Redeemer of man, and bearing about with him, the redeemed substance of man. Oh what a work is resurrection, whereof creation is but the manger-cradle, and the stable birth-place! Oh how great a work is resurrection! more excellent than creation which was so good; and the morn of the resurrection more glorious than the creation morn, when the morning stars sang together, and the angels of God shouted for joy. He is there seated in the height of heaven, clothed with, united to, one of person with, having in himself, redeemed glorified manhood; but the earth he hath not yet redeemed, which lies still in the evil one. But in token and assurance to the seer and to all, who from the seer should receive the report of what he saw, he hath the symbol of the earth redeemed, the symbol of the earth indestructable, nearest to, and around his throne, even the sign of the covenant of Noah. And in the xth chapter we see him coming in the same glory to take possession of it. And so much have we to say with respect to the throne, and him that sat on it, and the glory that was around it. It is redeemed manhood in the person of the Son of God, exalted to the eternal throne of God, and not ashamed to insphere himself with the symbolical glory of the redeemed earth.

We now come to the subordinate personages in this glorious vision of the court of heaven, who are exhibited to us under the threefold aspect of elders, living creatures or beasts, and angels; of whom the elders and living creatures do act in concert, and worship in concert, and in concert sing the same song of redemption, together declaring their common obligations unto the Lamb that was slain. "Thou hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth" (Rev. v. 9, 10). These words being looked at without any exposition whatever, do

broadly declare that those who use them are redeemed men, men redeemed and elected from the kindreds and nations of the earth; that they are the church of whom, and for whom, John declareth in his prelude to the book, that they were made kings and priests unto God; and lastly, these words declare that the seat of their royal priesthood is to be upon the earth; where, accordingly (chap. xx. 6), we find them enthroned, after the present kings and judges had been removed in the wrath of God. Why the church in glory should thus be represented under the two-fold symbol of twenty-four enthroned elders, and four living creatures, will come to be unfolded in its proper place. Here then we have, besides the throne of heaven's King, a representation of the redeemed church, and besides them there are no other beings except the numerous host of angels (chap. v. 11) who encircle and guard in the court and council of God: being like, nay, being truly, the ministering spirits ever ready to go forth and minister to them which shall be heirs of salvation. These angels, be it also observed, take no part whatever in the momentous action of obtaining the sealed book out of the hand of the King of heaven; but merely bring in the offering of their sevenfold adoration to the Lamb, when he hath accomplished that glorious deed. They are witnesses of the mighty act, and bear their part in celebrating the glory of it; as doth also every creature which is on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea: but interest and part either in the action itself, or in the consequences of it have they none. They are, as it were, the ring of the subject people, who, in the Saxon times, might surround the king and his wittenagemot, or council of wise men, assembled on some moats of judgment, such as there be many still visible in this our native land; or they are as the guards and messengers which surround the council of our king, ready harnessed to go forth and execute the things which shall be decided on. Such is a general notion of the personages in the scene and act whereof we have already described the Head and Principal, the great Author of power and authority, the one worshipped, being even God the Father, shining forth in the Son of Man, or rather the Son of Man clothed with the glory of the Father; and to