On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
4 . The counsel of Jesus to this church is to buy , or acquire of him , gold purified by fire * or faith , ( 1 Peter i , 7 ») mid an eyesalve , that the e > es of their mind may see thiugs in a healthy manner , and white raiment * or righteousness ; i . e > dropping the figures ,
that they may see through all ages past , man has lived a life of virtue , to be a son of God , a first-born of heaven , by not living upon the things of time and sense , but by liviug in confident expectation of receiving the Divine promises * Thev , seeing this ,
would look forward with holy expectation for the coming of Jesus , to be personally united to his church : this alone could lead them into every proper feeling and righteous obedience that would fit them to sup with Jesus , and Jesus with them , at that
marriage supper which was so at the door of that age , that , as this Laodicean state ceases , that of the marriage of the Lamb will commence . Turning to the political state of the world that is to be during this Laodicean Church , it will be found so
mutually in unison , that every-reflecting mind will say that such a political state must necessarily be productive of such ecclesiastical consequences . Chap . xx . 1—3 . An angel , or messenger , comes from the throne of political power , having the key of human
authority over the abyss , or congregated nations , and he Jaid hold of the dragon , that old serpent who is the devil ( the accuser ) and Satan ^ ( t he adversary , ) and he bound him one thousand years . The dreadful battle
of Armageddon closed the last political state , in which the Dragonic , or German Rome ' s army , with all its leaders , perish , and this binding of the dragon is the consequence ; the conquest of the Germanic Roman
empire , and all its political accusing manners adverse to the spirit of Christianity are restrained for a thousand years ; so that during that period , throughout the world , the dramm , the
emblem of idolatry , the serpent * the emblem of policy * the devil , the emblem of human desires , and Satan , the emblem of every thing adverse to human happiness , these shall have no dominion over man . But the same
human propensities , though restrained , will remain , and be permitted , at the # itd of the thousand year * , to net upon
Untitled Article
human society , and , for a short time , to deceive the nations . Vers . 4—6 . In vi . 9 , the prophet saw , at the opening of the fifth seal , under the altar , the lives of them who are slain for the word of God ; at the 11 th verse they are commanded to
rest until their fellow-servants and their brethren * who , like them , shoidd be hilled , should be completed . In these verses , the prophet views these latter , who had been destroyed under the empire of the beast , united with those killed under the dragon , and exalted to thrones , not realh , but
figuratively : as the blood of Abel from the ground cried out for vengeance on the murderer , so the principles of divine truth , for which the martyrs of Jesus died under the empires of the dragon and of the beast , are now exalted to dominion , and this is their first resurrection . In the doctrines
of Jesus which they taught , and which , with Jesus , they had died to maintain , these doctrines or principles now have the full government of mankind . Vers . 7—10 , describe the end of the thousand years , that at their close the restraint of human laws will be
relaxed , and that pride and the lust of dominion will be permitted to lead the greatest part of mankind to unite and i ^ o in array against Jerusalem ,
and the camp of the saints , when they shall be wholly destroyed by fire from heaven , and with them all human political power and all false instruction shall end for ever . This
last tremendous act being the closing period of all human existence , it necessarily follows that every anibitioua desire , as well as every adverse disposition of man to divine truth , must also cease for ever to exist , as these passions can only belong to a state of flesh and blood .
Vers . 11—16 . The prophet having closed the miilenial age , and Laodicean Church state , here introduces the throne of judgment . Before his presence who sat upon it , heaven ana earth , or all human and ecclesiastical polity flee away , whilst the dead , small and great , stand at the bar of God , before Jesus the Judge , ( John v . 22-, Acts xvii . SI , ) to be judged by their actions ; and the conclusion of this awful scene is , that death and the grave , with all whose names * re
Untitled Article
078 On the Contents ofthe Book of Revelation . No . V
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1819, page 678, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1778/page/26/
-