this world. But excepting this literal annun ciation of the general judgment, and the everdium; there does not appear to be one passage in the whole book capable of a literal interpretation. (See page 366, note 269.)

In recurring to the New Jerusalem, after he had naturally ended his subject, this writer only proceeds in his former accustomed manner, which is not without its advantages in a figurative history. And in regard to his d welling so much longer upon this particular than he has done upon many of the interesting visions he had introduced before, St. John was guided by the holy Spirit so to distinguish the great importance of the subject, even in a general view, and to all mankind, but more particularly to his own nation. To the people of Israel, in all former prophecy, the highest honors and most conspicuous station in the millennium is assigned. For their sakes the local seat of government and of the religious establishment is fixed in the NEW JERUSALEM, and it will, in great probability, be actually rebuilt upon the same foundations which were occupied by the ancient city, as the Jews 3 2

VOL. III.

are to be really restored to the land where their fathers dwelt, and to cultivate the fields which have long lain barren and desolate. (354)

(354) Ezek. xxviii. 25, 26. xxxvii. 25. Jer. xii. 14, 15.See the opinion of the authors of Univer. Hist. Mod. vol. xiii. p. 478, &c. on this subject.

SECTION LVIII.

The frequent references to the prophets, a sufficient guide to the sense in which St. John would be understood-Union of the Jewish and Christian churches.-The Jewish idea of a restoration of the temple discountenanced. - No night, or an end here to superstition and bigotry of the Jews and Papists.-Great augmentation of spiritual light. -The recurrence of paradisaical emblems, denote the innocence and simplicity of this age,—but refer to an ordinary and not a resu rectionary state of mankind.-The removal of the curse at this time an idea truly appropriate to the Jews.

WHEN

HEN we enter into the holy city, under the conduct of our inspired guide, one cannot help being struck with amazement, at the richness of the materials, the proportions of the buildings, and the general singularity of the whole structure. The walls are of jasper, and the very foundations of them garnished

with the most valuable precious stones, the body of the city itself being pure gold, and the pavement of the street of the same. The allegory here may seem sufficiently obvious, particularly as the number twelve appears so conspicuous, the twelve gates being inscribed with the names of the twelve tribes of Israel, a manifest indication at the very outsetting of our tour, that the whole refers entirely to the restoration and re-settlement of the Jews, of which the prophets have not spoken such magnificent things in vain. And no good Christian will think that too much cost and pains has been bestowed upon the foundations, also twelve in number, when he recollects that the church is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone.The prophet Isaiah, long before St. John's time, has given much such another description of the restored metropolis of the Jews in the last days, and has applied it to them in so particular a manner, that to dispute the appli cation would be to render all prophecy (according to the wishes of the sceptic) equivocal, and capable of any meaning except a rational

one.

"O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted; behold I will lay thy stones with fair colours, and lay thy FOUN DATIONS with SAPPHIRES. And I will make thy windows of AGATES, and thy gates of CARBUNCLES, and all thy borders of PLEASANT STONES. And all thy children shall be TAUGHT OF THE LORD, and great shall be the PEACE of thy children." (Isai. liv. 11. See also chap. li. from ver. 8, to the end.)

Every thing we contemplate here, undeni ably convinces us that this is an allegorical, and not a real city, and that the meaning of it is the exaltation of the church and kingdom of Christ to its predicted glory; but with so close and very particular a reference to the long afflicted Jews, now to be comforted, and literally restored, that the re-establishment of Jerusalem must necessarily be supposed a principal part of this and all similar prophecies. The prophetic declarations to this effect are so numerous, and so very express, that if we are mistaken here, words can have no certain meaning.