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His glory by putting the faith of his chosen people to the test, in their reception of his promises. To evidence his own power, and to try the faith of the children of Israel, on their leaving Egypt, the Lord caused Moses lead them off the proper route, and to encamp by the sea. In this situation, while entangled by the wilderness, and seeming to have no choice left, but either to perish in the yawning deep or await a no less certain destruction by the hand of their infuriated pursuers, they cried to Heaven for help. But the Lord said unto Moses, "Wherefore criest thou unto me? Speak unto the children of Israel that they GO FORward." This was indeed a trial of their faith. Speak unto them that they go forward, while rolling billows seemed to threaten certain and immediate destruction! But, "by faith, they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land, which the Egyptians essaying to do were drowned." To the primitive disciples the injunction of our Saviour relative to their escape from Jerusalem must have appeared no less mysterious: "And when ye shall see Jerusalem COMPASSED with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. Then let them which are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto, for these be the days of vengeance that all things which are written may be fulfilled." Luke xxi. 21, 22. To the disciples it must have appeared a singular advice, that they should make their escape when they saw Jerusalem compassed with armies, rather than at an earlier period. Without faith in the veracity and faithfulness of Him the display of whose omniscience they had often witnessed, and in whose wisdom and goodness they could fully confide, they might have questioned the meaning of the injunction, and refused to avail themselves of the promised deliverance. But the event not only justified the trust reposed, but afforded a glorious display of the Saviour's divinity. The unexpected, and as it appears unnecessary withdrawal of the Roman army, for a short time, afforded the disciples an opportunity of escaping to Pella. In like manner, the full import of the distinct

promise of new heavens and a new earth, as recorded by Isaiah, and referred to by Peter, we may not be able yet to perceive, but that they form a blessed preparative, for the Millennial glory, we cannot doubt. That this world will during that dispensation still be the abode of men in the flesh is expressly foretold. And although it will be a period of unprecedented holiness and happiness, neither sin nor death will be wholly excluded: The child shall die an hundred years old, and the sinner being an hundred years shall be accursed."

SECTION XXIII.

THE NEW JERUSALEM.

Or the employments of the redeemed while reigning with Christ on earth, and of the nature of their intercourse with mortal men, the Scriptures afford us little information. Repeated allusions are, however, made to the place of their residence. Of this the apostle John was specially favoured with a glorious vision, the account of which is recorded Rev. xxi. xxii. As the new Jerusalem is to be on the new earth, and under the new heavens, that part of the vision which relates to it is introduced to the apostle by a view of these: "And I saw," says he, (Rev. xxi. 1,) "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away: and there was no more [symbolical] sea. And I John saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God ouT or heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband." This celestial city is designed as the residence of Christ and the redeemed, and comes down out of heaven, where it is previously "prepared" for this purpose. "And I heard," continues the apostle, "a great voice out of heaven, saying, 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." ver. 3. This, we apprehend, is that Second city

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seen in vision by Ezekiel, in the Holy Oblation offered to the Lord, in the new division of the Holy Land. He calls it "the Most Holy place," and more frequently "THE CITY." There are many coincidences in the account given of it by John with that given by Ezekiel. Of the names of its gates the prophet says, "And the gates of THE CITY shall be after the names of the tribes of Israel;" and he particularizes the respective situations of the different gates by name. (Ezek. xlviii. 31— 34.) The New Jerusalem as seen by the apostle has also twelve gates, "and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Isreel." (Rev. xxi. 12.) The arrangement of these gates is also precisely the same with that given by Ezekiel: "on the east, 3 gates; on the north, 3 gates; on the south, 3 gates; and on the west, 3 gates." ver. 13. This City has an attendance enjoyed by no other; for "they that serve the City shall serve it out of all the tribes of Israel;" and a portion of the Holy Oblation is allotted for their maintenance. Ezek. xlviii. 18, 19. Of the New River, to which we formerly referred, (p. 99,) Ezekiel says, "upon the bank thereof, on this side and on that side, shall grow all trees for meat, whose leaf shall not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed; it shall bring forth new fruit according to his months, because their waters they issued from the Sanctuary. And the fruit thereof shall be for meat, and the leaf thereof for medicine.” Ezek. xlvii. 12, So John also narrates of the New Jerusalem, that "in the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river was there the tree of life [not one tree, merely, since it grew on either side of the river,' but trees of one species,] which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations." Rev. xxii. 2. How striking is the coincidence!

That the apostle might have a full view of the wonderful City, there came unto him an angel who carried him away" in the Spirit, to a great and high mountain, and showed" him "that great city the holy Jerusalem descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of

measurement.

God; and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal; and had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates." ver. 10-12. A similar coincidence exists in their different accounts of the measurements of the City they severally describe. In all the works we have seen which treat on this point a great discrepancy is indeed supposed to exist between the statement of the prophet and that of the apostle. But this mistake has arisen from an oversight of the fact, that while the one states the circumference, the other informs us of the square Ezekiel says, "It was. round about, eighteen thousand measures" of the angel's reed, which was in length "six great cubits," of 22 inches each. Being a square, each "side" was "four thousand and five hundred measures" of the reed. Ezek. xlviii. 32. But John does not specify its length or breadth, but having mentioned that it is square, he gives the measurement accordingly; " And the City lieth four-square, and the length is as large as the breadth. And he [the angel] measured the City with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs. The length, and the breadth, and the height of it are equal." Rev. xxi. 16, 17. It was not the length, or breadth, or height, which the angel measured. These indeed he declares to be "equal;" but the "twelve thousand furlongs," instead of being the dimensions of each or any of its sides, as is commonly supposed, are the measurement of "the City""four square." We consider this, therefore, as neither the length nor the breadth, but as the measurement of the area of the City; and reckoning by the Jewish furlong of 2663 cubits, as stated by Maimonides, on extracting the square of the measurement of the circumference of THE CITY given by Ezekiel, we obtain a view by which the statements of the prophet and apostle are found to correspond very very nearly,and which would probably correspond exactly if Maimonides's standard were perfectly accurate, thus confirming their view of their identity. This glorious City shall be inhabited by the saints of God. "He that overcometh shall inherit these things, [marg.] and

I will be his God, and he shall be my son,” ver. 7 ; and all are excluded from the City whose names are not written in the Lamb's book of life. To this Tabernacle, as distinct from the Sanctuary, Ezekiel appears to refer in a preceding chapter: "My servant THE BELOVED shall be their Prince for ever. Moreover, I will make a covenant of peace with them; (it shall be an everlasting covenant with them;) and will place them, and multiply them, and will set my Sanctuary in the midst of them evermore. My Tabernacle ALSO shall be with them; yea I will be their God and they shall be my people." Ezek. xxxvii. 25—27. To this City the apostle Peter appears also to refer as the "inheritance" of the saints "reserved in heaven” till the period when it shall be revealed: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which, according to his abundant mercy, hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, (reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation,) ready to be revealed in the last time." 1 Pet. i. 4. And it is the promise of the Saviour to him that overcometh, "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." Rev. iii. 12. Of this City it is said, "and the nations of them that are saved, [from the destruction which shall overtake the ungodly at the coming of the Lord] shall walk in the light of it; and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it....and they shall bring the glory and ho nour of the nations into it." Rev. xxi. 24-26.

"Behold the measure of the promise fill'd,
See Salem built, the labour of a God!
Bright as a sun the sacred city shines;
All kingdoms and all princes of the earth
Flock to that light; the glory of all lands
Flows into her; unbounded is her joy,
And endless her increase."

Cowper's Task,

Much confusion has resulted from applying to the in

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