demons, and the hold of every foul spirit; and the cage" or haunt "of every unclean and hateful bird."* No sound of a rejoicing-no sound of an inhabiting or busy multitude, is "heard any more at all in her."t 66 These oracles sufficiently shew us, how the great day will burst upon the armies invading Palestine, and upon the immediate country of the potentate that sent them forth. In what manner other countries will be affected, we are not so expressly told. Some expressions of scripture, however, are very general and universal: yet we are all aware that earth," or "world," has sometimes a restricted meaning, and is to be referred to those countries and nations with which the Church and people of God are at any time concerned, or among whom they are mingled. But even this, if we have respect either to the dispersion of Israel, or to the propagation of the gospel, is of very wide extent. The language is very strong: (Isaiah xxiv.) " 'Behold, Jehovah emptieth the earth, and rinseth it out; And he turneth it upside down, and poureth out its inhabitants !" " The earth shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled! For Jehovah has pronounced this word: Drooping, fading is the earth! Languishing, fading is the earth! The exalted people of the earth have languished, Chap. xviii. 2. + Ver. 22, &c. Or "that people of the earth most eminent." For they have transgressed the law, annulled the decree, Have broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore a curse has consumed the earth, And its inhabitants have suffered the punishment of their guilt. Therefore the inhabitants of the earth have been burned, And what is left of man is little. Surely the fastenings of the lofty sky are unloosed, The earth is much broken, The earth is scattered to pieces! The earth rocketh to and fro, The earth staggereth like a drunkard, And its iniquity lieth heavy upon it, Lastly, Malachi iv. 1, &c. For behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as a furnace, And all the proud, and every one that doeth iniquity, shall be stubble; And the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith Jehovah Sabaoth, So that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. And there shall shine forth on you who fear my name, And ye shall go forth, and range at large, as calves from the stall, And ye shall trample on the wicked, for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet, In the day when I do this, saith Jehovah Sabaoth." It has been said, indeed, by commentators on the prophetical language, of such passages as these, where the sun, and moon, and stars, and the prominent features of the earth, are represented as undergoing such great and important changes, as if the whole present fabric of nature might seem from the description to be dissolved and altered, that this is to be understood symbolically. "This language," says Sir Isaac Newton, "is taken from the analogy between the world natural, and an empire or kingdom considered as a world politic." "The heavens and the things therein signify thrones and dignities," "the earth the inferior people." "Great earthquakes, and the shaking of heaven and earth for the shaking of kingdoms, so as to distract or overthrow them;" "the creating a new heaven and earth, and the passing away of an old one;" "for the rise and ruin of the body politic signified thereby." The sun is put for "kings," or "kingdoms," "the moon for the people, the stars for subordinate princes and great men; or in other circumstances for bishops, and rulers of the people of God." And we must acknowledge, that this symbolical or allegorical language, is sometimes employed in prophecy, for the revolutions in the affairs of men, as above described; but I suspect it will be found, with very few exceptions indeed, that on the occasions where it is so used, the revolution referred to, the convulsions of society, and the fall and rise of potentates, immediately predicted, are designedly blazoned by this language in prophecy, that they may stand for types of the last grand K catastrophe, when the day of the Lord doth actually come: and then that which in the type is only symbolical, will be found in the antitype to be in some sort a reality,-that both "bodies celestial" and "bodies terrestrial," will undergo great and important changes in that great day, when "the high ones on high," as well as "the kings of the earth upon the earth," shall be judged. It is very certain that many passages, written in this style of language, cannot be understood of mere political changes in the kingdoms of men: certainly not that in St. Peter, where all the elements are dissolved, and a new heaven and a new earth brought forth according to promise. And, therefore, the language of the original promise of "a new heaven and a new earth," as it stands in the ancient prophets, cannot be merely typical or allegorical; nor in Isaiah li. 6. "Lift up thine eyes unto the heavens, And look upon the earth beneath; For the heavens shall be dissolved like a mist, And the earth shall decay like a garment; And so shall its inhabitants perish : But my salvation shall be for ever, And my vindication shall not be changed.' The close of the hundred and second psalm is a similar passage; there addressed: "the Son of God and of man" is "Thy years are for all generations! Of old thou didst lay the foundations of the earth, And the heavens are the work of thy hands: They shall perish, but thou remainest; Ah, all these become old, like a garment, Thou changest them as a vesture. They are changed, but thou art the same, The children of thy servants remain, And their seed is established in thy presence." It is clear, I conceive, that in these passages, the literal heavens as now garnished, and the carpet of the earth as now spread out, are designated : although, therefore, the sun, and moon, and stars, may sometimes seem to be used as symbols in prophetic language,—and, if we have respect only to the inchoate fulfilment of the prediction, to stand for potentates and the leaders of mankind, whose destruction is denoted by their darkening or by their fall,--yet, we are not warranted to interpret as merely allegorical, those denunciations of important changes in the heavenly bodies, and in the structure of the terraqueous globe, which ever accompany in scripture the prediction of the day of the Lord's appearing. According to the plain language of holy writ, however difficult to the imagination of man, the descriptions must be literally understood: (Mat. xxiv. 29. Compare Joel ii. 10. iii. 15. Mark xiii. 24, &c.) "Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man," &c. |