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1. THE BRIDEGROOM, and, coupled with Him, THOSE THAT COME WITH HIM. These are "6 the saints," which are to possess the kingdom (Dan. vii. 22, 27); which are to "judge the world" (1 Cor. vi. 2); "the Church," composed of perfected saints (Eph. iv. 12), "builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit," and thus forming the mystical" Body of Christ" in resurrection glory, "the fulness of Him that filleth all in all." (Eph. ii. 22, i. 23.) These are not guests; they sit in heavenly places with Christ Jesus, and share His honours and His throne.

2. THE BRIDE, the nation of Israel in the flesh, concentrated at this juncture in Jerusalem, the Holy City, the City of the Great King, brought by trial and severe discipline to sincere repentance and submission; made willing; cleansed; sprinkled with clean water; filled with a new spirit; renewed in righteousness; clothed in fine linen, which is the righteousness of the saints-the same glory that shines so resplendently on and in them, though differing as we may suppose the resurrection saints of both Old and New Testament dispensations will differ from holy saints still in the flesh; but it is the same righteousness, and the Bride is enveloped with it as with a robe (Isa. Ixi. 1).

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets will be there (Luke xiii. 28), not as connected with Israel, the Bride, for they will have pat on immortality by the power of Christ's resurrection (Phil. iii. 10), and so will be members of His body; neither guests nor attendants. So also David; but of him it is specially prophesied that, while the twelve tribes will be judged by the apostles sitting on twelve thrones, he shall be Prince of the whole united nation for ever. (Isaiah lv. 3, 4; Jer. xxx. 9; Ezek. xxxiv. 23, 24; xxxvii. 24, 25; Hosea iii. 5.) No doubt he will be King of Israel in the same sense in which the saints (forming the body of Christ) will be kings of other parts of Christ's universal empire, having dominion over five or ten, or any other number of cities, according to His appointment. David's government, however, is already chosen for him; and with respect to Abraham, to whom the unconditional promise of possession of the Holy Land for ever remains unfulfilled to this day, and he himself never had any inheritance in it (Acts vii. 5), he will have the promise fulfilled in his own person, and along with his seed shall possess the land for ever, in the exact terms of the promise. (Gen. xii. 7; xiii. 15; xv. 3, 18; xvii. 8; xxvi. 3.)

The presence of the Bridegroom and the Bride is necessary to constitute the marriage supper; all others are there by gracious privilege. Among these are

3. THE CALLED. These must necessarily be distinct from the Bride and Bridegroom, and we may therefore look for them among the remnants "left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem" to battle (Zech. xiv. 16). These, no doubt, will be living in their own countries in different states of preparedness or otherwise for the Advent of the King-Messiah, and thus it may readily be conceived that some may be eligible to be guests at the Feast. At all events, it is not improbable that those nations especially who are instrumental in restoring Israel, bringing her sons from far in their arms, and carrying her daughters upon their shoulders;-who bring all the brethren of Israel "for an offering unto the Lord out of all nations, upon horses, and in chariots,

and in litters, and upon swift beasts, to my holy mountain Jerusalem,” -shall have some share in the glory and joy that shall attend "the Marriage of the Lamb," when will take place the formal re-constitution of the Jewish nation and polity. In this work of restoration, Isaiah informs us that "the ships of Tarshish shall be first" (Isa. lx. 9); David, that "the kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents; the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts" (Psa. Ixxii. 10), and that "the daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift." (Psa. lxv. 12.) These various phrases appear to prove that representative ambassadors from various nations then in the flesh, may be appropriately assigned such a position as that of guests at the marriage supper. "For they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God." (Luke xiii. 29.)

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4. There are also, attending the Bride, "THE VIRGINS HER COMPANIONS that follow her;" and the King-Bridegroom has "KINGS' DAUGHTERS among his "honourable women when upon his right hand stands "the Queen in gold of Ophir." These phrases are found in the Forty-fifth Psalm, which has been called the nuptial song of the Messiah. As to what is meant by "virgins" and "kings' daughters," there may be varying opinions and views. We know that the Bride is Jerusalem, as the metropolitan city and representative of Israel the nation, and that in Bible symbolism the cities are all women. Is it incongruous to conclude that when Jerusalem shall attain to the honour and dignity of the Lamb's wife, there will be other cities ready to forward her interests and contribute to her glory? In particular, there are special promises that, in the day when the Lord's covenant with Jerusalem shall be established, she shall receive her elder and her younger sisters, Sodom and her daughters, and Samaria and her daughters, and they shall be given unto Jerusalem for daughters. (Ezek. xvi. 58, 60, 61.) Promises of restoration and blessing are also given respecting other cities and peoples. Even of two of the greatest ancient enemies of Israel the Lord in that day will say, "Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance." When Zion arises in brightness and glory, the Gentiles shall come to her light, and kings to the brightness of her rising. The varying produce and wealth of Midian, Ephah, and Sheba, of Kedar and Nebaioth, of Tarshish, of Lebanon, and of all kingdoms and nations, shall be poured at her feet. (Isa. lx. 3, 6, 7, 11, 12, 13; lxii. 2, &c.) From among these various cities, kingdoms, and nations, and many not named, it is possible the virgin companions of the Bride, and the Kings' daughters who attend upon her in the presence of the Bridegroom may be selected, and be by delegation or representation present at the feast. Here also place may probably be found for the "chaste virgin" of 2 Cor. xi. 2, whom the Apostle Paul desired to present to Christ. It was to Corinthians he was writing when he expressed this desire, and it does not appear that he intended it at the moment to apply to any others than the Church at Corinth. A more extended signification is sometimes given to it; but not by Paul himself, as the context clearly proves.

It is well known that the people of the East speak of cities metaphorically as females, as mothers of their inhabitants, and wives of their kings.-See Jahn's Archæologia Biblica, sect. 41,

With respect to 2 Cor. xi. 2, it may be remarked that the believers of the primitive churches lived in the constant expectation of the reappearance of our Lord upon the earth; the apostles encouraged the hope, and gave no reason for supposing that any lengthened period would elapse, though there would come the apostasy first, and the revelation of the man of sin, whom the Lord would destroy at his coming. Though they themselves might be honoured with martyrdom for Christ's sake before that day, yet the churches they were instrumental in planting might exist at the period of the second advent, and thus be ready fo presentation to the King-Bridegroom. Paul invariably directed the attention of the churches to which he wrote to the appearing of the Lord Jesus as furnishing a powerfully influential motive for the performance of every Christian duty in order to a participation in the glory and triumph of his kingdom. He also expected his own happiness and joy to be increased in the day of Christ in proportion as he should be able to present to his Lord the churches amongst which he had laboured, prepared for his coming, spotless and unblamable. In order to this he laboured abundantly for their purification and perfection, striving himself also to "attain unto the resurrection of the dead," that when Christ should appear he might also appear with him in glory, and himself present the existing churches as "chaste virgins" unto Christ. This appears to account sufficiently for the application of the term "virgin' to the Corinthians in the present instance.

There are two other ideas inferentially contained in the passage under consideration,-first, that Paul anticipated and earnestly desired the conversion of the whole city of Corinth to the faith of Jesus, that by the proper symbol of a virgin, chaste and pure, without spot or blemish, it might be presented to him at his coming: and secondly, that while Israel is represented as the first among nations, and Jerusalem as the "married wife" of the Lord, the eastern custom, by which kings and potentates were permitted a plurality of wives, one being the chief, admitted of the use of the figure of an espousal to Christ in the case of Corinth, and thus strongly shadowed forth the nature of that covenant by which the Corinthian believers had given themselves to the Lord :-"I have espoused you to one husband, that I might present yon as a chaste virgin to Christ," the language appearing to allow of a plurality of spouses, though there is but "one husband." These two ideas are properly contained in the conception of a city wholly christianised and prepared for the coming of the Lord, as we are justified in supposing Paul desired should be the condition of the city of Corinth.

Thus "the wedding is furnished with guests." "Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the Lord of hosts shall reign in Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously. . . . And in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined. And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth. . . . And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and

he will save us; this is the LORD; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation." (Isa. xxiv. 23, xxv. 6-9.)

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"And it shall be at that day, saith the Lord (unto Israel and Judah united, Hosea i. 11), that thou shalt call me, My Husband; will betroth thee unto me for ever." (Hosea ii. 16, 19.)

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If the things contained in this paper are " according to the Scriptures," -which have been most diligently searched and compared in order to elicit a clear and distinct synopsis of the truth respecting them,-the conclusion seems to be inevitable that the doctrine of the Church's brideship is only one part of that spiritual sorcery by which the nations of Christendom have been bewitched, bedazzled, and befooled by the harlot of the seven hills. For herself and the church called after her, she has usurped all the characteristics and claimed all the promised blessings and glories of Israel; and even those churches which have broken away from her communion because of her spiritual fornication and corruption, have carried with them this figment of her doctrine, to which they cling with a pertinaceous self-complacency little in keeping with a sincere and honest desire to see Israel restored to her land and her Messiah. By Divine authority, Rome has justly received the name of the Great Whore, and the Mother of Harlots, to distinguish her from the true Bride; and it is well to be cautious of receiving any doctrine that comes from her until it be clearly proved by Holy Scripture independently of her instructions and assumptions. G. B. C.

THE

NON-NATURAL INTERPRETATIONS OF

THE WORD.

THE meaning of Holy Writ has been much obscured, and its force weakened, by non-natural interpretations. It seems as if interpreters had assumed, because "the spiritual" is higher than "the natural," that to be non-natural in thought is to be heavenly-minded. But the natural is of God as truly as the spiritual; the difference between them being not opposition, but gradation. The aim of a spiritual mind is not to run counter to nature, but to rise above it. Sin and error are unnatural. So in the use of the Holy Scriptures non-natural interpretations do not lead us into a more spiritual stage of thought, but into unreal theories. Spiritual truth is to be reached through the natural meaning of the words, not by means of turning the natural upside down. There are some of the most precious testimonies of God which have been long obscured by nonnatural interpretations; and under the conviction that it will be a service to the cause of Truth, and to the spiritual advancement of those who read the Word, to contribute to the setting aside of these fictitious renderings, I will endeavour to show, in a few instances, how much is to be gained by returning to a natural interpretation. It is not for a "literal opposed to a "metaphorical" interpretation that I contend, but for "natural" as opposed to "non-natural." The metaphorical is often the most natural meaning.

as

I. That noble Christian confession (Heb. xiii. 8), "Jesus Christ, the

same yesterday, to-day, and for ever," has been thus misinterpreted. Some habitually use the words, "yesterday, to-day, and for ever,' they were appropriate to declare the eternity of Jehovah, equivalent to the sacred phrase, "from everlasting to everlasting." What could be more unnatural than to make "yesterday" stand for a past of infinite duration? "Yesterday" literally designates a period of twenty-four hours; and, figuratively, a short time. There is nothing forced or nonnatural in using "yesterday" for a thousand years, as in Ps. xc. 4, because a thousand years is a very short time compared to the past eternity of the Divine Being. Matthew Henry well remarks on this expression:-"A thousand years are nothing to God's eternity: they are less than a day, than an hour, to a thousand years. Betwixt a minute and a million of years there is some proportion; but betwixt time and eternity there is none." Yesterday always means a short time, and "short" being a term of comparison, yesterday may designate a few thousand years in comparison with millions of ages, or with infinite duration. In Gen. xxxi. 2, it is said (in the Hebrew) that the face of Laban was not towards Jacob "as yesterday and the day before;" that is, some months or years ago. The meaning of "yesterday" expands according to the requirements of the subject; but it always marks a time comparatively short.

Let this natural meaning of the word be adhered to in the proposition, "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever," and this blessed truth shines forth to our everlasting consolation: that, though the Son of God, who is from everlasting, became but "yesterday" the Christ, the Anointed Son of Man and Saviour of the world, he is “today and for ever" the same Anointed One. The word Jehovah is in the name Jesus, which is to us a memorial of his Godhead. But the word "Christ" is only applicable to him as "made flesh," and having the form of man. God is the Anointer: from him all sacred anointing comes. It would be an abuse of words to speak of God as "Anointed." So that, whenever the word "Christ" (Anointed) is applied to the Son of God, it recalls the fact that he has become "the Son of Man." He is not from everlasting the Christ. He is from everlasting God. And, having but "yesterday" taken on himself human nature, he will never cast off that nature. The contrast between "yesterday" and "for ever may well fill us with joy unspeakable. Two thousand years ago-but as on the eve of yesterday-there was no "man" who had by inheritance a right to sit on the throne of the Eternal Father. Now, and for ever henceforward, there is One in whom our nature is glorified, whose rightful place is on that throne. When the word "yesterday" is used in the non-natural sense, this verse may indeed remind the Christian of a great truth, that the Son of God is from everlasting to everlasting; but it does not bring before us the mind of the writer, the mind of the Spirit who inspired him,-that he who but "yesterday" became the Son of Man, continues for ever the glorified Son of Adam, and Kinsman of the human race.

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II. Of the same character as the unwarranted expansion of the word "yesterday" into an infinite duration, is the use made by some theologians of the words "this day," in Psalm ii. 7: "This day have I begotten thee." The apostle Paul informs us in Acts xiii. 83, that "this day,"

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