all their acts, and all God's acts, must have been symbolic; and thence the great acts by which the revelation was made must have been symbols of similar acts, and of the same revelation through them in the church on earth. But no such revelation was made to the church on earth in the fourth, fifth, sixth, and following centuries. His assumption, therefore, that the alleged temple in heaven was a symbol of the church on earth, is wholly mistaken.

Mr. Gascoyne construes the other objects of the visions. of the fourth and fifth chapters on this theory, and maintains that the fact that some of them had no exact counterpart in the Hebrew temple-service, is a proof that the church which he holds they represent had, in a proportional measure, apostatized to a false worship.

"As I proceed I shall show that it (this holy place' and its service) did not exactly resemble the Jewish economy, but deviated from the pure model of Moses and the apostles, in order to describe the visible church at a period when it had already undergone changes of an apostate character. As the services of the temple exactly described the worship of a people in union with God-for it was his own method of pardon, renewal, and friendship-in order to represent false ideas of union with God on earth it will only be necessary to mutilate the temple service, or introduce novelties which will correctly. set forth the prevailing errors. In this manner Ezekiel described the Jews' idolatry, viii. 5–18. . . . . Now the Apocalypse contains a like description of the church during the fourth century. Such innovations and changes are introduced into the templeservice as most forcibly set forth the doctrinal errors of that period.

"I shall endeavor to prove that no part of the scene which St. John beheld will apply to heaven proper, but that it describes the visible' church immediately preceding its persecution by Diocletian; and that the next chapter begins with that persecution, and ends with the firm establishment of Christianity throughout the Roman empire by Constantine."-P. 20.

He accordingly proceeds to interpret the twenty-four elders on that theory;-affirming, on the one hand, that there are no such priests and kings in heaven as they are declared to be; and on the other, that they are symbols of

ministers who wickedly usurp kingly and priestly authority in the church on earth.

"And round about the throne were four-and-twenty seats; and upon the seats I saw four-and-twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment, and they had on their heads crowns of gold."

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Why should this be regarded," he asks, “as a disclosure of the heavenly world? . . . Are the redeemed, which these call themselves in their separate state above, clothed in white robes of an official priesthood, and crowned as kings? Can this be proved, or even imagined? And yet here, if we have a description of heaven proper, departed saints hold such offices, when, in reality, there is no official priest or king, either in heaven or upon earth, except Jesus Christ."

He thus, first, directly denies that the saints, or any of the saints who have passed to heaven, are kings and priests there, or are clad in robes and invested with crowns. It is, however, a mere denial. He alleges no proof of it; and it is in direct contravention of the chant of the elders and living creatures, who sang that the Lamb who had redeemed them had made them kings and priests unto God, and that they should-at a future time-reign on the earth. Mr. Gascoyne steps out of the sphere of an interpreter, and assumes that of revealer, when in the face of this express representation he asserts, that the redeemed in heaven are ,not assigned to such offices.

He is equally without authority and presumptuous in affirming that the elders are symbols of usurping priests on earth. He says

“If, then, there be now no official kingship or priesthood either in heaven or upon earth, except Christ's, we have evidently here an innovation. These persons, moreover, are not private individuals, and therefore cannot denote Christians generally, but hold public offices in the church, being described by the twenty-four courses of the Jewish priesthood. They are also crowned, or make pretensions to irresponsible authority; another proof of an innovation in the visible church. As elders, too, referring to chiefs of the synagogue, still symbolizing Jewish worship, they are restricted to earth, and are symbols of the

Christian ministry. We have here therefore an official royal priesthood. It is, moreover, the high priesthood; for the veil being removed, the twenty-four elders are constantly in the divine presence, as the Jewish high priest was when he entered within the veil. As, then, there are no such offices as these, either in heaven or upon earth, they describe innovations which evince that the decline of the last scene has its parallel here. And as the temple-service thus altered after the pattern in Ezekiel, would denote unathorized innovations,-standing as they do here for the Christian church, they will admit of no other interpretation."-P. 22.

All this also is wholly without proof, and a mere inference from the false assumption that the alleged temple in heaven, was a symbol of the church on earth. The idolatry of the ancients of Israel, Ezekiel viii., to which he refers, presents no parallel nor resemblance to the elders in the divine presence. For they did not offer their idolatrous worship in the temple-but in a chamber attached to the wall of one of the courts, or areas exterior to it; nor did they offer that homage to Jehovah, but to the images of their false deities delineated on the walls of the chamberwhile they expressly said, "Jehovah seeth us not, Jehovah hath forsaken the earth." The elders of the Apocalypse, on the other hand, were in the immediate presence of Jehovah revealing himself in his glory, and addressed their homage directly to him; and they were accepted by the Most High, moreover, while the idolaters mentioned in Ezekiel, and their worship, were denounced by him. Instead of a parallel, therefore, they present the greatest possible contrast to each other.

He is equally mistaken in regarding the white robes in which the elders were clad as proofs that they were not redeemed persons in heaven. "Are the redeemed," he asks, "in the separate state above, clothed in white robes? Can this be proved or imagined?" Yet it is expressly declared by the white-robed elders in their worship, chap. v. 9, that the Lamb had redeemed them unto God; and it is explicitly stated, chap. vi. 9, 10, that the souls of those that had been slain because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they held, received each a white robe, which they were to wear during the period that was

to intervene ere God would avenge them by destroying their persecutors and raising them from the dead. It is clear, therefore, however improbable it may seem to Mr. Gascoyne, that white robes were worn in the visions by the souls of the redeemed, and are represented as worn by them through their intermediate existence.

But the white robes of the elders not only are no mark that they were not redeemed persons who had passed from this life; they are direct and absolute proofs that they were such. For fine linen, clean and white, we are taught, chap. xix. 8, is the righteousness of the saints; that is, the symbol of their justification before God. That was the import, accordingly, of the gift of white robes to the souls of the martyrs, under the fifth seal; of the gift of white linen to the bride, the Lamb's wife, who is the representative of the saints at their resurrection and elevation to the stations of kings and priests in Christ's kingdom; and of its being worn by the armies of heaven-who are the risen and glorified saints at their descent with him from heaven when he comes to destroy the powers denoted by the wild beast, and the associate kings and armies. The white robes in which the elders were clad, are proofs therefore that they were persons who had been redeemed from the earth, and become residents in heaven; inasmuch as none receive justification before God until they have passed from this life into his presence. Judgment is only after death. The award according to the deeds done in the body, is rendered, only after those deeds are ended. As the white robes of the elders are thus proofs that they had passed from this earth, and that their redemption from sin was completed, they are proofs also that the crowns with which they were invested were conferred by God as symbols of honors and stations to which he had exalted them, and that the homage they uttered was holy and acceptable to him. To suppose that their crowns were usurped, is to suppose that they were in revolt from God, and to suppose that their homage was idolatrous, is to suppose that they were still perpetrators of the most gross and impious sins; which is in contradiction to their justification as fully redeemed from sin and confirmed in perfect holiness."

And as the elders were thus redeemed and justified per

sons in heaven, it is equally certain that they are not symbols of sinners and apostate men on the earth; for they bear no analogy to such. Perfectly holy beings cannot symbolize unholy ones, nor obedience rebellion. Instead of analogues, they are unlikes; instead of correlatives, they are contraries. As the elders were redeemed and perfectly holy, those whom they represented must be of the same character. Mr. Gascoyne thus not only fails in his construction throughout, but the considerations by which he attempts to sustain it, are proofs of its error.

And finally, the utter error and monstrosity of his interpretation are seen from the fact that the supposition that the worshippers in the vision were, as he contends, apostates, and their worship an idolatry, implies that God to whom they addressed their worship was not the true but a false deity. For their homage was addressed exclusively to him, and contemplated him as Jehovah, possessing the perfections and rights, and filling the station of the self-existing and only deity, the creator and ruler of the universe. If that worship was false and idolatrous, an ascription of attributes, prerogatives, and acts that do not belong to Jehovah, then indubitably he is not the self-existent and allperfect, the creator and ruler of all, and the redeemer of men. Such is the revolting issue to which his theory leads.

His construction of the living creatures is at an equal distance from truth.

"And in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts (living creatures) full of eyes before and behind. And the first beast was like a lion; and the second beast like a calf; and the third beast had a face as a man; and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle. And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within. And they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, whieh was, and is, and is to come."

These he holds are symbols of "the civil authorities" of the empire.

"Who are they? They cannot be less exalted than the ministry, being nearer to the throne of God, and in a certain.