pression. "Cursed be the deceiver," it is said, Mal. i. 14, "which hath in his flock a male, and voweth and sacrificeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing;" that is, who has in his flock a male, but withholds it as an offering. The paschal lamb was to be a male; so also the burnt-offering, Lev. i. 3, 10, and the sin-offering, Lev. iv. 23, and xxii. 9. Christ personally is the male of the flock-the primary fulfilment of the paschal and Levitical type, as well as of that afforded by the firstling of the flock, of the martyred Abel ; the righteousness of Christ, the body of his merits, his moral perfection, offered in behalf of the sinner, being the same male of the flock in a spiritual sense as the Apocalyse is spiritually an unveiling of Christ. We consider this male child a representation of the element of divine righteousness, provided by God's plan of salvation to be imputed to the sinner, that he may thereby be justified from all, from which he could not be justified by the law of Moses, (Acts xiii. 39;) the same righteousness or body of merit which under one figure constitutes the means of justification, being under another figure represented as the only acceptable sacrifice of propitiation-the male of the flock. This provision, figuratively speaking, is brought forth in the midst of the requisitions of the law, exposed to the peril, if insufficient, of being swallowed up by the legal accuser. Corresponding with this, the exhibition of the same truth, if the principle be insufficient, is exposed to being swallowed up by the exhibition of the requisitions of the law.

As to the matter of fact, the sufficiency of this sacrifice is too well established in the divine mind to be a subject of doubt or apprehension; it is only the manifestation of this mystery which can be said to appear in peril at one time, and perfectly secure at another. We may suppose, therefore, this picture to represent the manifestation of the fact, rather than the fact itself; as if we were to suppose the woman in heaven an equivalent for the gospel rightly understood. Thus understood, the true provision for the redemption of the sinner (the righteousness of God by imputation) is unfolded. The adversaries of this doctrine stand ready to show, or to prove its insufficiency, or to devour it, contending that it is not equal to meeting the requisitions of the law.

§ 276. Who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron.'-This rod of iron must be the same as that to be given to him that overcometh, Rev. ii. 27, and the same as that to be employed by the Word of God, Rev. xix. 15. It must be the rod spoken of Ps. ii. 9; and the ruler and nations, or Gentiles, must be those referred to in all these passages, as well as in Acts iv. 25-27. There cannot be two several rulers over all nations, neither can there be two or more parcels of these nations to be ruled over by different sovereigns. The man-child must be, therefore, a representation either of Christ himself, or of that principle of divine righteousness imputable to the disciple, which is personified and manifested in Christ; which in a spiritual

sense rules or predominates, and in the final development of truth is to be exhibited as ruling or predominating, in the most despotic manner, over every other power or principle having any relation to the work of man's salvation. In the heavenly exhibition with which the apostle is favoured, this principle is seen to be brought forth by the economy of grace—that plan of reconciliation or vision of peace, elsewhere spoken of as the holy, heavenly, or new Jerusalem.

This principle, thus brought forth, is that which the legal adversary, the element of vindictive wrath, would destroy, armed as he is with the powers of the law, represented by the ten horns or commandments of the decalogue; these horns being directed in their action by seven legal principles, assuming to be sovereign, each as heads of the serpent carrying with them the sting of death, and all of them alike opposed to the divine purpose of salvation by grace. Or, if we prefer contemplating the number seven as a figure of totality, these seven heads represent all the adverse principles of the character ascribed to the accuser; all of them constituting the one head, with its mortal sting, eventually to be manifested as crushed by the fruit of the woman. The accusing spirit is opposed to permitting the existence of a righteousness without the law-Rom. iii. 21-an element of salvation which nevertheless is to manifest its pre-eminence over all others.

The rod of iron in the hand of a ruler we suppose to occupy the place of a sceptre in the hand of a sovereign: the token of royalty, or of supreme power. The principle of perfect sovereignty is that by which the element of divine righteousness has power to control all other principles; as if the question were asked, How can the sinner be saved through the imputation of God's righteousness? The answer is, because God is a sovereign. He has a right to give, and to give freely to whom he pleases. This principle, therefore, may be said to rule all others with an iron sway; at the same time the power of this exercise of divine righteousness in saving the sinner manifests the sovereignty of God; and thus the rod of iron in the hand of the Saviour is in fact the sceptre in the hand of the ruler; as it is said, Heb. viii. 1, A sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom.

And her child was caught up unto God,' &c.-or rather, according to our edition of the Greek, was conveyed away to God, and to his throne. The word up is gratuitously introduced here; the original implies nothing either up or down. The scene is laid in heaven-the woman brings forth in heaven-even the dragon is seen there, although afterwards cast down to earth. The representation is that of things occurring in the divine councils. The element of righteousness imputable to the believer is identified with the Deity himself; it is God's righteousness-the righteousness of Jehovah; and thus seen, it is manifestly protected from the power of the legal adversary. All the powers of accusation and condemnation cannot

prevail against it—a peculiarity not to be asserted of the righteousness of any created being.

'And to his throne.'-This imputable righteousness is manifested, in this heavenly exhibition, not only to be the righteousness of God, but its imputability also is identic with the attribute of divine sovereignty. God is a sovereign in the strictest sense of the term-his righteousness is his own, and he has therefore a right to give it-to impute it freely to whom he pleases. Who then shall "imagine a vain thing?" The elements of self-righteousness and self-justification, of legal accusation, and of the powers of condemnation, may, as we might say, take counsel together against this overcoming principle; but "he that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh; Jehovah shall hold them in derision." He has declared the decree: the principle of salvation by grace through the imputed righteousness of Christ is safe in the bosom of the Deity and in the midst of the attribute of his sovereignty, and to this principle eventually all others must be manifested to succumb, Ps. ii. 1-9.

V. 6. And the woman fled into the wil

derness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred (and) threescore days.

Καὶ ἡ γυνὴ ἔφυγεν εἰς τὴν ἔρημον, ὅπου ἔχει ἐκεῖ τόπον ἡτοιμασμένον ἀπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ, ἵνα ἐκεῖ τρέφωσιν αὐτὴν ἡμέρας χιλίας διακοσίας ἑξήκοντα.

277. And the woman fled into the wilderness.'-The power of the adversary is not sufficient to destroy the element of justification brought forth by the economy of grace; but it is permitted for a time to prevail so far as to bring the revelation of this economy into a position of misconstruction-obliging the woman to fly out of heaven into the wilderness. An operation figuratively parallel to that of dragging the one-third of the stars from heaven to earth.

A woman in the wilderness is equivalent to a desolate woman, having neither husband nor legitimate offspring. The woman is thus seen by the apostle to be in one position, while the man-child is seen to be in another. So there may be those possessed of sufficient spiritual understanding to perceive that the child Jesus is identic with the Father, who nevertheless do not discern the true character of the economy of grace, or perceive how it is that this child, or that which it represents, is the offspring of that economy. The apostle sees both-he has seen the woman bringing forth, and he sees the child preserved; there is no misapprehension in his vision ; but he sees the woman in the wilderness as she is destined to appear for а certain period to the eyes of others. Wherever the divine counsels, in this particular, are spiritually discerned, there the woman appears as having brought forth, and her child as being identified with God and his throne. Wherever, on the contrary, there is a prevalence of literal interpretation and legal misconstruction, there the economy of grace is in a desolate posi

tion, as incapable of bearing any fruit. So the heavens are said to be opened when Christ is perceived in his proper mediatorial as well as divine character; while they are said to be shut, and the rain even is said not to moisten, where there is no just perception of the efficacy of his vicarious sacrifice.

'Where she hath a place,' &c.-It may seem strange that the woman should flee from heaven into the wilderness for safety ;-but the reason is given she had there a place prepared for her of God; as the direction was given to Joseph, Matt. ii. 13, "Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word;" the reason of which is afterwards given, "that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my Son." So the woman fled into the wilderness, that another prophecy might be fulfilled, Is. xxxv. 1: "The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose." And when the term of seclusion is accomplished another prophetic allusion is explained, Cant. iii. 6, "Who is this that cometh out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense?" and viii. 5, "Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved?" In accordance with the same divine arrangement, the voice was heard from the wilderness, (Matt. iii. 1,) "Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight." The word of revelation, taken in a literal sense, may be said to be a wilderness, or, to the eye of the disciple seen only through the medium of a literal and legal misconstruction, it may present the picture of a wilderness; but the glad tidings of redemption are still there, although but dimly perceived, and there they are preserved, to be brought forth when by a development of their true sense the whole scene is changed; the same word of revelation, spiritually understood, becoming a paradise, or presenting the view of a paradise.

It is true that the mother of harlots, Rev. xvii. 3, is also seen in the wilderness, but otherwise the two females have nothing in common with each other. The wilderness is a state of seclusion and of humiliation to one, while the other in the wilderness is in her glory; one may be supposed to mourn her state of desolation, while the other glories in her shame, and rejoices in the power afforded by the peculiarities of her position.

§ 278. That they should feed her there twelve hundred and sixty days,'-or, that she should be nourished there. The economy of redemption is preserved in the letter of revelation until the arrival of the precise contingency when it is to be spiritually understood. No account is given in the Apocalypse of this woman being brought out of the wilderness; but that she is so eventually, may be safely inferred from the designation of a term during which she is thus to sojourn there; this term, however figurative,

pointing out an end to the process in contemplation: as, to say that such a limitation of her sojourn in the wilderness was the purpose of God, is equal to declaring the result; for his designs cannot change, or be defeated. The figure employed for illustrating this or any other truth may be dropped and another substituted for it; as we suppose the economy of grace, represented by the mother of the man-child here, to be afterwards represented by the bride or Lamb's wife; the two parts of the vision being not successive but collateral the one representing a mystery as it appears in heaven-in the divine counsels-while the other represents the same mystery as it will appear when being developed on earth; in accordance. with a rule of exegesis we have elsewhere adverted to, that several figures may be employed to illustrate the same truth without confusion; although one figure cannot represent several truths without involving perplexity.

The period of this woman's sojourn in the wilderness, it will be perceived, corresponds with that of the treading of the holy city under foot, and with the prophesying of the witnesses in sackcloth; and if reduced to what we have supposed to be the common sign of three and a half, it will correspond also with the term for the continuance of the dead bodies of the witnesses in the streets of the great city; showing a parallelism between these several illustrations, time in a literal sense not being otherwise a subject of consideration. This scale of parallelism serves to remind us that the several effects illustrated proceed 'from a common interchangeable causethe woman is in the wilderness, because the holy city and the outer court of the temple are in possession of the Gentiles, which is also the cause of the prophesying of the witnesses, and of the state of the dead bodies in the great city, and so vice versa. The evil in all these cases arising from the same literal application and misconstruction of the word of revelation.*

* We have already enlarged sufficiently upon the reasons for not considering these twelve hundred and sixty days literally a portion of time, and have noted the difficulty arising from the want of an epoch whence to calculate such a time. By way of making this difficulty more evident, however, we may ask, When did the woman bring forth her man-child? when was that child taken to God, and to his throne? when did the dragon try to devour it, and when did he begin to persecute the woman? If we seek for an answer to these questions in the political and ecclesiastical history of the world, we find nothing to afford us light, unless we go back to the time when the child Jesus was literally born, and calculate the twelve hundred and sixty days from that time; in which case the seclusion of the woman must have terminated more than five hundred years ago. If we seek for an answer in the promulgation of the gospel, we are obliged also to go back to the first preaching of it by the apostles ; and if we accept the spiritual interpretation here proposed, and ask, when it was that the economy of grace first brought forth the element of imputed righteousness, we might as reasonably ask when it was that God first found a ransom for the transgressor; when it was that he brought his first begotten into the world, saying, Let all the angels of God worship him; or when it was that it was first said to the Son,