And into this state of final misery and destruction, are Satan and his angels now cast; though not at the commencement of the everlasting reign, at the time the beast and false prophet were; but at that epoch, which in prophetic language, is dated a thousand years after the first resurrection, when the saints of the Most High, together with their Lord, were put in possession of the eternal kingdom.

SECTION THE SEVENTEENTH.

THE FINAL JUDGMENT OF ALL THAT ARE IN THEIR GRAVES.

The "great white throne,” the throne of Messiah—It had been, from the period of Satan's confinement, erected on Mount Zion-Here "God, the judge of all," will pronounce his final sentence on the dead, small and great-Not a judgment of "quick and dead," but of the dead only-A judgment according to works-The book of life produced in this last judgment.

REV. xx. 2. "And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them."

Whatever be the time to which this vision refers, the circumstance that the Judge upon this throne is visible, were enough to prove that it is the throne, not of the Father, "who dwelleth in the light, which no one can approach unto, whom no man hath seen or can see;" but of the Son, the "image of the invisible God."

Besides, "the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son;" "hath given him authority to execute judgment," "because he is the Son of man." "Marvel not at this, for

the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil to the resurrection of damnation."* So St. Paul speaks: God "now commandeth all men every where to repent; because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness, by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead."+

This "great white throne," therefore, can be no other than the throne of the Incarnate God, our Lord Jesus Christ; not his Father's throne, to sit down with whom thereon, having overcome, he left the world; and in respect of which, he again leaves the Father, and cometh into the world,-" Delivers up the kingdom to God, even the Father," and "the Son also himself becomes subject unto him that did put all things under him, that God may be all in all.” That throne, or seat of power, where the Christ now sitteth at the right hand of God, centre, as it were, of Divine energizings-which, in truth, is everywhere is not contained within the limits of creation, nor within the relations of time and place. All that touches the power of absolute Deity, and its operations, is eternal, immense, unsearchable!

But we read of another throne, the seat of power and dominion of the Incarnate Son, "Lord of all," and "King of glory," "the Son of the Father," "the

only-begotten," brought a first time and a second time "into the world;" at the first, made man, conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary; at the second time, with regard to this visible world,-for angels have already seen and worshipped, to come in the clouds of heaven, to sit upon the throne of his glory, to judge and govern the world in righteousness, in his capacity of Son of man; to have all things put under him, all things so entirely, that the Invisible Deity as it subsists in the Indivisible Trinity, and in the Person of the Father unaffected by the arrangements of the manifestation of Deity to created beings, is the only one exception. For, as that Deity is subsistent in the person of the Holy Ghost, there is a personal arranging under the Son, "God has sent me and his Spirit." In the government of the God-man, the Holy Ghost, as the anointing Spirit of Jesus, is as "the seven eyes" of the Lamb,-" the seven lamps burning before his throne,"—his perfection of vision, his perfection of manifesting light. For still we are to remember, that the Incarnate God does, personally, ever restrain himself within the limits of the created nature, which he has condescended to assume. But, for this condescension, in his capacity of Son of man, God has highly exalted him, "and given him a name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

* Philippians, ii. 9, &c.

It is the throne of this exalted Son of man, that we here contemplate, and to shew the greatness of that name, which is above every name that is named, not only in this world, but in the world to come, "Heaven and earth," are described in the vision, as "fleeing away," or as "having fled away, before the face of him that sat on the throne," having so fled away that "no place was found for them."

This "great white throne," therefore, is certainly the royal seat of the Son of man, the throne of "the Lord's anointed." This vision, however, shews not its first erection; but only the last scene of vindictive justice, which is executed before it : "Ever since the world began has thy seat been prepared, thou art from everlasting!" in his predestined character, as the Lord Christ elect, he made and governed the world. The actual erection of this throne in the visible world, was, as the language of prophecy always represents, when-having in the character of Lord of hosts, destroyed the earthly enemies of his people, and trodden the wine-press of the wrath of Almighty God—he made the holy hill of Zion his dwelling-place for ever.

The visible kingdom of the Son of man over the earth commences when the fourth empire is destroyed; for then, as to all power, and might, and dominion,

'The iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold," were "broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing-floor, and the wind carried them away, that no place could be found for them and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth."-Dan. ii. 45.

: