# The Last Judgement and Second Coming of the Lord Illustrated/Chapter 2

CHAPTER II.
OF SEVERAL DIVINE MANIFESTATIONS AND JUDGMENTS, RECORDED IN THE OLD TESTAMENT; WITH THEIR CAUSES AND RESULTS.
​To have a fair understanding of those predictions which treat of the last judgment and the second coming of the Lord, it will be of great service to observe that, before those events, several other Divine manifestations and judgments are related. Plain indications of their causes and results are also recorded. If we are enabled to comprehend the principles involved in those remarkable histories, we shall be prepared to see, with greater certainty, the true nature of those phenomena which are spoken of as belonging to the second advent.
When we read of the coming of Him who is "omnipresent," it may seem evident that the idea of His local coming demands a particular consideration. He who is everywhere present, and who from eternity knoweth all things, cannot be said to come in any ordinary acceptation of the word; and yet there can be no doubt that there are intelligible senses in which He has come, and will come. How plain is it that His coming to the regenerate, that is, to those who are ready to open the door when He knocks, has reference to their elevation and perception, rather than to His descent and arrival. If the Lord may be said to depart from those who are wicked and depraved, surely He may be said to come to those who are sufficiently wise to recognise His presence. In such a case He may, with great propriety, be said to come to us, when in reality it is we who go to Him! It is our movement upward which induces the appearance of His descent. As those graces are received which tend to assimilate us to the Divine character, it is plain that we are rising; and that the Lord, who is always present, is not descending, but unfolding and revealing Himself, more and more, to our interior consciousness. It must have been some such fact as this to which the Lord referred, when He said, "If a man love ​me, he will keep my words; and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.""
But there have been times in the spiritual history of mankind when no such elevated life has been prevalent among them; and when, consequently, no such unfoldings of the Divine presence could have been experienced. In those cases another mode of understanding the Divine economy has to be sought for, and that too, without disturbing the fact that He is ever present. And this will be found in the circumstance that He has been pleased to assume mediums by which to appear locally to individuals and communities of men. That He has so appeared upon several occasions is plainly stated in the Word. It was in some such way as this, that He came to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: to Moses, Joshua, Gideon, Manoah, and to several others. In all those cases of the Divine coming, we find that at those times there prevailed among mankind some conditions of religious faith and character which were unfavourable to the acceptance of the Divine teaching; and, also, that those manifestations were always followed by some improved circumstances in the life and proceedings of the people concerned. When the sons of Israel became dissatisfied with their position in the wilderness, and, by murmuring against Moses, displayed a defection in their faith, it was said, "The Lord will come down in the sight of all the people upon Mount Sinai;" and the result was a disposition more favourable to the Divine influences. When, subsequently, they fell away from the advantages thus induced, we read that "Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel saw the God of Israel;" as also, did "the nobles." ​This sight clearly implies a Divine coming; and the consequence was the evolution of a state better adapted for the acceptance of those teachings which referred to the love and worship of the Lord; hence laws upon those important subjects were immediately revealed.
All the Divine manifestations which are recorded involve those principles, and display such facts. They belong to that wisdom and mercy which the Lord is perpetually endeavouring to confer upon mankind. Wheresoever the Lord's presence is recognised, there something of those blessings must be experienced. He must have come, in some way, to every individual, in every age, who has been regenerated; they have been born of His Spirit, and by such coming, they must have been delivered from some impurities in their nature, and gifted with some graces by which to indicate His presence; and thus a kind of judgment must have been experienced,—for what else can be the Divine judgment but the removal of what is evil and the provision for the safety of what is good.
All that is written in the Word concerning the Lord's coming is accompanied by some intimations of a judgment. Where no evil is loved, the Lord is recognised to be present; and He is perceived as coming when any evil love is felt to be receding. Such recession is always attended with pain and shame, fear and remorse; and is not this a judgment? Such coming and judgment are particularly treated of in the Word, when evils had reached their height. All evil has its boundaries, beyond which it is not permitted to pass; and when it has arrived at those limits, it surrounds its subjects with restraint, and inflicts a punishment upon them. This punishment is called a judgment, and it necessarily continues until the evil is removed. It appears to the evil doer, so long as he does it with impunity, that ​the Lord does not see, and it is only when the punishment breaks in upon him that he begins to discover that his criminality is known; and it is in reference to cases of this sort that the Lord is sometimes said to come to Judgment. It is written of Him that He is "on high," and "the Highest,"—not that those terms have reference to space, for they properly mean that He is exalted and inmost; and it is because all unfavourable judgments are experienced in conditions of life which are low and depraved, that He is said to descend, to come. Hence, in treating of the punishment which overtakes the wicked, it is said, "Bow Thy heavens, O Lord, and come down: touch the mountains, and they shall smoke. Cast forth lightning, and scatter them: shoot out Thine arrows, and destroy them." "The Lord of hosts (shall) come down to fight for mount Zion, and for the hill thereof." "Behold, the Lord cometh forth out of His place, and will come down, and tread upon the high places of the earth."
But, from these general principles, we will pass on to the consideration of some particular instances of Divine judgments, and the Divine coming which each involves.
In the Bible, the religious history of the human race is arranged into four general epochs: from Adam to Noah; from Noah to Abraham; from Abraham to the establishment of Christianity; and from thence to the period when the Lord fulfils His promise to come again. In all these epochs there has existed a religious dispensation in the world. Each was a Divine institution, and it stood in a similar relation to the people who lived under it that Christianity does to us; and in each case the teachings vouchsafed to it were of similar authority. They may be de​scribed as Churches, and may be respectively called the most ancient, the ancient, the Israelitish, and the Christian. The genius of the first was that which gave pre-eminence to love; the second assigned superiority to faith; the third gave it to obedience. The genius of true Christianity embraces all those virtues, assigns to each its proper place, and looks to their united action as necessary for salvation, salvation being deliverance from evil. It is well known that the three first of these dispensations, after having gradually risen into eminence, successively declined and fell; they had not only their morning and noon, but their evening and night. The decline and fall—the evening and night—of those Churches resulted from the people corrupting the religious truth, and neglecting the spiritual duties, with which they were entrusted. And when, in each, those enormities had attained their height, the Divine is represented to have executed a judgment; He is described to have come; and their end is recorded to have been the result.
To understand this clearly, it may be useful to mention here something concerning those influences from the spiritual world which conduced to those events, but to be treated of more fully in another place. That there is such a world, is shown in the Scriptures and admitted by the learned: its existence is necessary for the reception of the souls of men when their bodies die. As the evils in the above Churches were respectively increasing, men were dying, and consequently they were passing, with all the corruptions they had loved, into the world of spirits. That is the first common receptacle of all who die; and every one takes with him the mind and all the affections by which he may have been distinguished in the world. He then begins to live as consciously in his "spiritual body" as he had previously ​done in his "natural body." Man is man by virtue of his soul. It is for the sake of the souls of men that the Lord comes, and it is upon the souls of men that He executes His judgment: it is the soul which is immortal, and, therefore, this only can be the subject of a result that is eternal. The world of spirits then must have been the scene of several Divine manifestations; and the souls of men which are collected there must, in each case, have been the subject of a judgment. But, whenever a judgment has been effected there, its consequences, sooner or later, have always been indicated in the affairs of men: first, in the experience by them of some natural calamities; and, secondly, in the display of some general munificence. The reason is, because the former were intended to reveal to us the separations of the wicked from the good, and their condemnation; and the latter, to show us the safety and elevation of the faithful. Whatsoever transpires among men in the natural world must, more or less directly, have sprung from some corresponding causes in the spiritual. The recognition of these principles is necessary to a right comprehension of the phenomena which marked particular epochs in the history of the three Churches to which we have referred.
Although the planting of those Churches, and their decline, fall, and final judgment, are very apparent in the histories that are given; yet it is evident that the language in which those facts are described is symbolic. It is hardly possible that an intelligent reader of the early portions of revelation can have overlooked this fact. It stands out with a prominence which modern learning has spoken of with great force. The histories, indeed, are sufficiently plain to enable us to see when some fearful calamity of the Divine permission, or some favourable ​activity of the Divine Providence, is intended; nevertheless, the terms in which those events are related are eminently figurative; and they are so for the purpose of pointing to the existence of some more interior life, some more spiritual phenomena, which operated in the production of such natural results. Ideas of spiritual things can only be suggested to us by means of metaphorical teaching. Still this teaching, when employed by the Divine Instructor, as it is in the Scriptures, is clear and systematic, because founded on the principle which recognises the mutual relation subsisting between natural and spiritual things.
The Adamic, or most ancient Church, during the process of its decay, experienced several Divine judgments, and the consequent manifestations of the Lord. Such also was the case with the succeeding dispensations, so far as they persisted in the evils by which they at last perished. Their end was effected by a last judgment. The phrase last judgment obviously implies that others had occurred before, but it does not necessarily mean that there will be no more; it simply means that it is the last of a series of Divine visitations, by which a corrupted dispensation is brought to its end.
We will endeavour to illustrate these points by noticing some of the particular judgments that overtook the three Churches adverted to; but more especially those which constituted the last with each.
When the most ancient Church was formed, it is written that the Lord God took those whom He called Adam, and placed them in the Garden of Eden to dress and to keep ​it. He also gave them commandments to obey, and taught them the consequences of disobedience. In those facts may be seen the real elements of a Church. At that time they were in the noon-tide of religious intelligence and love. When the Divine teachings were disobeyed the people fell; and then God mercifully condescended to revisit the garden He had planted. "They heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day." By "the cool of the day" is revealed the declination of their love. But this visitation included three things, namely, Coming, Judgment, and Mercy; Coming, because His voice was heard; Judgment, in condemning the evil that had been done; and Mercy, in providing for the safety of the good which remained. The coming is evident; the judgment is taught us by the curse which was pronounced upon the ground, by the multiplication of the sorrows of the woman, by the increase of the labours of the man, and by the expulsion of both from Eden; the mercy is plain from the circumstance that cherubim and a flaming sword were placed at the east of the garden to keep the way of the tree of life. Whatever may be the precise meaning of these statements in reference to the natural world, it seems plain that their direct pointing is to some circumstance belonging to the inner spiritual life of the people. That was the seat of the transgression, and that it was for which the Lord desired to keep open the way of life.
But, in the process of time, the advantages thus provided were neglected and turned aside; for we read that Cain rose up and slew his brother Abel. And then the Lord was pleased to come again, to display His judgment and manifest His mercy. In reference to the judgment "the Lord said unto Cain," "Now art thou cursed from the earth, which ​hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood;" and to indicate the mercy it was declared, "Whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him seven-fold. And the Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him." Surely there must have been the influence of some spiritual causes acting behind these outer events, and conducing to their existence.
To prevent this fact from being overlooked, we find it strongly marked at a subsequent stage of this declining Church. It is written, "that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose." Whatever may be the natural significance of this narrative, it is plain that its general scope is to describe some spiritual atrocity. It is spoken of as a great wickedness, and referred to as a proof that every imagination of man's heart was evil continually. Indeed it was the proximate cause of that Divine coming and last judgment, by means of which the Adamic dispensation collapsed and terminated. For the Lord said concerning it, "I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; for the earth was corrupt before God: the earth was filled with violence; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth!" It is easy to see that this is a state of things which could only have been brought about by some direful influence proceeding from the spiritual world, and pressing upon the minds of men for the purpose of seducing them to evil. And how could such a disastrous circumstance be remedied, but by the total removal of its cause? This cause we believe to have been the activity of wicked spirits who had passed from the natural into the spiritual world. And how could this activity be ​removed, but by the execution of a judgment which should consign those wicked spirits to their final abodes, and thus clear the way: for the descent from heaven of a brighter light, and a purer love? That these things were accomplished is plainly revealed, first, by the catastrophe of the flood, and secondly, by the establishment of another Church. Doubtless, the flood was the last judgment upon the Adamic dispensation; and it seems quite clear that the new Church which immediately followed was attended with some new conditions of spiritual life.
That new Church was begun with Noah: he found grace in the eyes of the Lord, and was a just man, perfect in his generation, and walked before God. "And God spake unto Noah and to his sons with him, saying, And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you." This dispensation so auspiciously begun did not long remain in its integrity. The history of its decay draws attention to several lapses which marked the process of its fall. Soon after its establishment we read that Noah drank wine, was drunken, and uncovered in his tent, Canaan was cursed, and his father died. Thus, after successive offences against the Divine law, the unity of the Church was broken and divisions followed. And then the people proposed to build a city and a tower, whose top should reach unto heaven, to make a name, lest they should be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth This circumstance reveals to us the profane conduct which the love of the world had induced among them. God was practically forgotten in consequence of the eminent selfishness which prevailed among them; and, therefore, "the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the ​children of men builded," and He said, "now nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined to do." "So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth." In this remarkable history it is expressly said that "the Lord came down." This, however, does not mean a personal manifestation in the natural world, but an open indication of His influential presence. The perversity of men had reached a dangerous height, and the Lord came down, by a special providence to stay its progress. The events that followed plainly reveal the execution of a judgment, primarily upon those spirits in the spiritual world who had induced those delusions and urged on the enormities which were committed, and finally displayed itself among men by scattering them abroad. This may be evident from the check which they received; "they left off to build the city." The spiritual causes which had led to this result were dispersed, and their powers diminished; and so those wicked and insane proceedings of mankind were stayed. The effect ceased when the causes were arrested: and this brought the Noetic dispensation, as such, to a close. It broke up the unity of men in the prosecution of unholy courses, and scattered abroad, in many rude forms, some of those spiritual truths which had been known and cherished in purer times. It was upon the remains of the information thus conveyed that most of the religions of the East were subsequently founded. Although it does not appear that the Noetic dispensation was terminated by any gencral or final judgment, like its predecessor; yet, after the dispersion, we find that some branches of it became too atrocious for preservation. These, therefore, became the subject of particular judgments, by which they were thoroughly destroyed. The cases of ​Sodom and Gomorrah are plain revelations of this fact. Surely the catastrophe which befel those cities may be taken as an outer revelation that an inner judgment had swept off, to their final destiny, those abandoned spirits by whom such wickedness had been induced. The presence of the angels just before this occurrence proves that there was a special Divine coming in connection with it: and the circumstance of that presence being known to the men of the city shows that they were made aware of their connection with influences from the spiritual world. And who will say that even wicked spirits cannot convey such information for evil purposes to wicked men? Who will say that the destruction of the cities did not reveal the condemnation of such spirits? How marvellous was this coming: how terrible this judgment!
The dispersion of the Noetic Church was followed by preparations for the commencing and establishing of another. It seems essential to the merciful designs of the Divine providence that a Church, in which the Lord would be acknowledged, should always exist: it is the orderly channel through which the blessings of His kingdom can descend to men. That which succeeded the Noetic Church was the Israelitish. This had its beginning in the time of Abram. The call of that patriarch was by a Divine coming; the Lord said unto him, "Get thee out of thy country," and "I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing." By this Divine coming, a covenant was established with Abram; and it is well known that the Israelitish dispensation was formed among the descendants of his grandson, Jacob. This dispensation came into special prominence as the representative of a Church during the sojourn of the ​people in the wilderness. It was then that the laws peculiar to its character were revealed; and from that time, down to the commencement of Christianity, the historical and prophetic revelations of the Word are mainly occupied with the affairs of this dispensation. It was an economy purely representative; as may be evident from the singularity of its laws and the peculiarity of its ceremonies. In these were represented all the excellencies of the two predecessors which had passed away: they also shadowed forth all the benignity and intelligence which are to be developed within the pale of genuine Christianity. In these remarkable features of that institution, we are enabled clearly to account for the extraordinary fact that retribution and blessing directly followed the disobedience and the fidelity of the people. It must necessarily be so in regard to our spiritual condition; but the people of the Israelitish dispensation,—because it was representative,—were also to experience the operations of this law during their lifetime in the world. Whenever they disobeyed the Divine commands, some natural calamity befel them; whenever they were dutiful and compliant, some natural blessings were sure to follow. Nor was this the case only with the people, viewed in their general character as the representatives of a Church: the same law was similarly active among individuals who sustained any position of religious importance in those extraordinary times. The judge who did injustice, the king who ruled wickedly, the priest who administered the law unfaithfully, were all the subjects of special visitation and judgment: whereas those who did what was wise, equitable, and true, became the subjects of encouragement and reward. These results in the natural world—which passed away from that people when ​their dispensation terminated—clearly show the representative character of that institution; and reveal to us through that medium how near the Divine Being is to us, with His judgements and His blessings.
Every Christian will admit that the iniquity of men, whether individually or collectively, is excited and intensified by infernal agency. "Your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour." And, on the other hand, it is equally certain that all man's fidelity and love are influenced and exalted through angelic administration. Angels are "all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation." It is, therefore, most certain that men are, as to their spirits, in connection with the world of spirits; and it is well known that infestations thence, from evil spirits, are diffcult to conquer, painful to endure, and dangerous in the consequences at which they aim. When, therefore, a collection of such spirits begin to influence a community of merely natural men, how perilous is their spiritual position!
That infestations of this sort were experienced during several epochs of the Israelitish Church is very evident. The dark spots which so frequently disfigure its history plainly indicate the activity of some malignant influence upon the people; while the brighter periods of their history clearly show that such influences must, in some measure, have been arrested and removed. How was this accomplished? By what means were such restraints effected? ​By what power was the malignity removed? As Christians, we must acknowledge that the primary causes for these results were Divine interposition in the way of coming and judgment. All corrupting influences must have proceeded from wicked spirits, who, at some time, had lived as men among the people of the Church that they infested; they retained in their lives evils similar to those indulged in by their successors in the world; and from this spiritual similitude they were capable of exciting those successors into acts of apostasy and rebellion. Those spirits, like a cloud before the sun, intercepted the light which is afforded by angelic ministration; and therefore it became necessary, for the welfare of men, to remove them from the position they had usurped, in order that the blessings of heaven might be communicated. Several events of this kind took place during the history of the Israelitish Church; and therefore the Lord must have come, at least in some peculiar way, and at the same time have performed a judgment to administer relief.
We will endeavour to illustrate these considerations by referring to some particular instances. It may, however, be proper to observe that the histories we are about to cite are commonly understood to have no other reference than to the apostate members of the Church in the world. This is the natural result of not perceiving that such histories, because they are the Word of God, must be the vehicles of revelation; and, consequently, that there is within the literal narratives the record of some spiritual transactions which the Supreme Being intended us to know. Thus, our illus​trations will appear more evident in the revelation than in the vehicle. Revelation proper consists in the disclosure of those spiritual things which lie behind the letter. The letter is but the outer history of some of the activities of the inner lives of men, and consequently of their association with the spiritual world. Man, being essentially spiritual in his nature, cannot be separated from that world; he is intimately connected with some one or other of its departments, by means of that spiritual character which he has formed, and the immortality with which he is endowed.
It is written of the people of Israel, that they became idolatrous in the wilderness; they made a golden calf, and said of it, "These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt." Surely the perpetration of this religious enormity, in the face of the wonderful miracles they had so recently witnessed, and the merciful deliverances they had experienced, must have been induced by some benighting influences operating upon them from the spiritual world, and with which they had become associated during their residence in Egypt. Doubtless they carried with them a leaning towards the idols of the country which they had inhabited so long; and this was the mental plane through which the spirits of deceased idolaters could assail them. The people yielded to those assailants and sinned a great sin, so that there fell that day about three thousand men. This terrible visitation in the natural world reveals the execution of a judgment upon those spirits in the spiritual world, by which the actors in this enormity were impelled. For it is to be observed that soon afterwards a more favourable disposition to fidelity sprung up, and spread itself among the people; thus showing that some obstacles to this blessing had been removed, ​and that an improved influence was at work; that a dark cloud had been dispersed, and that a gleam of spiritual sunshine had burst in upon the people. For it was then said, "I will send an angel before thee; and I will drive out the Canaanites" and the other idolatrous nations of the land; thus strongly assuring us that some spiritual phenomena lay behind those natural occurrences. Why else is an angel introduced into the scene, and represented as a necessity for the future guidance and safety of the nation?
Another case is presented in the rebellion of Korah. Who cannot see that he, with Dathan, Abiram, and two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, and men of renown, could only have been blinded as to the real authority of Moses, induced to defy his government, and seek pre-eminence for themselves, by the wicked influence of some abandoned spirits, who were endeavouring to destroy the progress of truth among those who were in the process of accepting it in the world? It seems almost impossible to read, with intelligence and care, the narrative which details the facts, without perceiving that a Divine coming to judgement is described,—a judgment not merely upon the rebels in the world, but also upon those spirits whose seducing influences had conduced to the infamous revolt. The presence and revelations of the Lord upon the occasion; the separation of the loyal from those who were conducting the insurrection; their earnest confession that God was "the God of the spirits of all flesh;" the direction of Moses, that they should depart from the tents of those wicked men, lest they should be consumed in their sins, are all indications of some pecular and special providence of the Lord being in a state of un​usual activity; while the awful circumstance of the ground cleaving asunder beneath the rebels, and swallowing up Korah and his band, and all that pertained to them, and their going down alive into the pit, and the earth closing upon them, were awful evidences that a spiritual catastrophe lay behind those natural occurrences; in other words, that a special judgment had also been executed in the spiritual world upon those evil spirits, who, in the lust of dominion, had stirred up a conspiracy so defiant of heavenly law. But even this disaster did not entirely stay the jealousy of the people; it arrested some of the most malignant causes, and put an end to their particular results. But other causes of discontent remained, and required to be dealt with: these causes were not simply in the facts of the case, but in the minds of the people and their spiritual associates. Instead of being warned by the calamity they had witnessed, they took occasion from it to murmur against Moses and Aaron, saying, "Ye have killed the people of the Lord;" and the result was that wrath went out from the Lord, and the plague began. The wrath of the Lord was an appearance caused by the evil condition of the people: to the wicked His visitations appear like anger, although that is really no attribute of the Divine character. The wicked determination of some to pursue a rebellious course still remained, and this invoked a malignant influence from the spiritual world, which resulted in the plague. These things were not written merely for the sake of their literal history. The narrative was also intended to reveal to us that some malignant spirits were still at work upon the people, that the preceding judgment had not restrained them, and therefore they also had to become the subjects of a disastrous visitation, in order ​to secure the discipline of the camp. And the terror of its execution is announced by the death of fourteen thousand and seven hundred, besides those that had died about the matter of Korah. Such revelations belong to, and are parts of, a purely representative economy,—representative, not merely in the affairs of its religious ceremonial, but also in all the transactions selected for the purpose of sustaining it—in the calamities which the people endured, as well as in the advantages which they enjoyed. The order which succeeded those judgments shows that a new and an improved influence from the Lord's kingdom was brought to bear upon the people.
The trespass of Achan affords another instance of those particular judgments—and every judgment implies a Divine coming—which occurred during the historical periods of the Jewish nation. Jericho, before it was taken, was devoted to destruction; all its combustible contents were to be consumed, but its metals were to be consecrated to the Lord. The people were strictly charged to keep themselves from the accursed thing, lest they should bring a curse upon the camp. The city was taken; but Achan disobeyed the instructions which had been given: he took a Babylonish garment, together with some silver and gold, and hid them in his tent. In this guilt a curse was brought upon the camp, and all the people were involved in it; for we read that the children of Israel committed a trespass in the accursed thing. This is said, doubtless, to inform us that although the actual guilt was perpetrated by one party only, still the whole camp were more or less infected with a similar cupidity. They must have interiorly desired to posscss some of the spoils, though they did not externally venture upon the transgression. ​How else could they have been involved in the crime? How else could they have deserved the punishment? What but a hankering after the accursed thing, and a sense of this guilt, could have induced the pusillanimity with which, immediately after the conquest of the city, they fled from before the men of Ai, and through which Joshua first became aware of the people's trespass? In this transgression they must have been infested by a band of selfish, faithless spirits, whose judgment and condemnation are revealed to us by the violent deaths of Achan and his household. The advantages which followed this catastrophe were greater freedom and ability among the people to receive and perceive the Divine direction; and these, being good gifts, must have come down to them from the Father of lights.
There may be some unwillingness to admit these views of the case; but how can they be resisted? If it be true that the vices and virtues of mankind are urged into existence by some unseen or spiritual influences, the whole matter is established. For in that case no judgment can befal the wickedness of mankind without bringing into condemnation its spiritual cause; nor can any blessing be wisely enjoyed among them that is not attributable to a heavenly source. The occurrences adverted to cannot be said to be a revelation, if they reveal nothing but the litera history; they cannot be said to be representative, if they represent nothing but what is apparent in the letter. We feel assured that there were judgments transpiring in the spiritual world, of which those natural calamities were the revelations; and, in those facts, we have kept before us that great and true principle which recognises the intimate connection which subsists between the outer and imner histories of the human race, so far as they are presented in the Word of God.
​We will, however, advert to another case, which to some may be a plainer illustration of the argument before us. It specially refers to the spiritual things of the Church, in which the worship of the Lord is pre-eminently concerned. There can be no reasonable doubt among those who believe the Scriptures, that lying spirits must have been the primary source of all Israel's idolatry. Now Ahab is recorded to have encouraged this enormity in his kingdom, and to have fastened it with a strong hand upon the observance of his people. Ahab had prophets in whom he trusted; but they were false, and they deceived him; and we are expressly told that the source of their deceptions was from spirits in the spiritual world. In the matter of persuading Ahab to go up to the battle of Ramoth-Gilead, it is written that a spirit stood before the Lord, and said, "I will persuade him; I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets." By this means the king was led up to the battle, in defiance of a Divine warning; and he was slain, and his army discomfited. Here it is expressly stated that a lying spirit lay behind and assisted the historical occurrence. This being so in reference to the circumstances which contributed to Ahab's death, is it not reasonable to conclude that a similar influence must have induced the idolatry which he encouraged by his life? And, finally, it seems clear that this transaction in the natural world was the revelation of a particular judgment in the spiritual world; for we find that immediately afterwards, the people came into an improved and more acceptable condition. But none of those favourable changes were lasting; all the Divine interpositions to keep that nation within the boundaries of faith and obedience failed; and so, in the fulness of time, the dispensation intrusted to their care came to an end.
​Idolatry was the besetting sin of the Israelitish nation: this is the reason why they were so strongly forbidden to make to themselves any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or earth beneath, or that, is in the water under the earth. They were a community of naturally minded men, to whom, therefore, life and immortality were but imperfectly revealed; these were brought to light by the gospel. They were not disposed to appreciate interior truths, and hence it is that so little is said about spiritual things in the letter of their history: those things, however, are contained within the letter and imaged forth thereby. Idolatry prevailed for many ages in various portions of the world long before the Israelites were selected to become a representative people. The inhabitants of those countries had, by natural death, furnished the world of spirits with a multitude of idolatrous spirits; and these would find a plane for action in the Israelitish mind, for they were idolaters in origin and at heart; and this had ​been fostered in Egypt by the heathenism which surrounded them during their residence in that country. This was the secret cause of those frequent lapses into that enormity, and of the calamities which followed its indulgence. Whenever they fell into its open practice, the spirits triumphed; whenever they suffered the consequence of their infidelity, the spirits, as well as themselves, were experiencing a judgment; and whenever they were brought into a better state and greater freedom, it is plain that the power of such spirits had been arrested, and that some superior influences had been mercifully provided. The frequency and prominence of those principles in the Scripture history of the Jewish people are very remarkable, and cannot fail, when they are suggested, to strike the attention of the pious and the thoughtful. Many judgments are recorded, and all of them imply a coming of the Divine, for the purpose of their execution: about these general facts there cannot be any dispute; we therefore will not in this place add to our illustrations. Enough has been said at this early stage of our discussion to direct attention to the idea that the judgments of the Lord are effected by His coming, and that those events primarily occur among spirits in the world of spirits, which is the first common receptacle for all who die. The time for such judgments and coming is when evils of life and false doctrmes have become enormous, and thereby obstruct the orderly working of a beneficent Providence in the affairs of men; and the results of those phenomena will, sooner or later, become manifest
​in the natural world, and especially among those with whom the Lord's Church professedly exists.
All the cases which have been cited, because upon the one hand they were attended by the removal of certain evil influences from the world, and upon the other the revival of some religious sentiment for the benefit of the people, contributed to prolong the existence of the Jewish dispensation among those who accepted it. But notwithstanding those efforts of the Lord to maintain for Himself and His Word some sensible recognition among that community, we find that they went on from bad to worse. In defiance of checks and hindrances, each generation sunk lower and lower in the seale of religious intelligence. The revelations of God were supplanted by the traditions of impostors: hypocrisy grew into an institution; the eyes of the people were blinded so that they could not understand, and their hearts were hardened so that they could not believe. And who can seriously contemplate that period, as it is presented in the gospels, and not perceive that an infernal influence had set in upon the minds of men; and, consequently, that a time had arrived for the special coming of the Lord to execute a last judgment upon the Jewish Church? for by that coming and judgment that dispensation was brought to its end, and the establishment of Christianity began.
But this brings us to another phase of our subject. The principles involved in what has been said will be more fully defined and more amply illustrated in future chapters of this work.
* ↑ John xiv. 23.
* ↑ Exod. xix. 11.
* ↑ Exod. xxiv. 9-11.
* ↑ Ps. cxliv. 5, 6.
* ↑ Isa. xxxi. 4.
* ↑ Mic. i. 3.
* ↑ John xiv. 3.
* ↑ "Male and female created He them, and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created" (Gen. v. 2). Adam was not simply the name of the individual man, but the general name for the race.
* ↑ Gen. iii. 8.
* ↑ Gen. iii. 14-24.
* ↑ Gen. iv. 11-15.
* ↑ Gen. vi. 2.
* ↑ Gen. vi. 7, 11, 12.
* ↑ Gen. ix. 8, 9.
* ↑ Gen. ix. 21, 25, 29; chap. x.
* ↑ Gen. xi. 4.
* ↑ Gen. xi. 5, 6, 8.
* ↑ Gen. xix. 1.
* ↑ Gen. xii. 1, 2.
* ↑ Gen. xvii. 4.
* ↑ Deut. xi.
* ↑ 1 Pet. v. 8.
* ↑ Heb. i. 14.
* ↑ "When evil begins to prevail, and the equilibrium to incline on the side of evils, it is thence plainly perceptible that the last time is at hand, and that the equilibrium is about to be restored, by the rejection of those who are within the Church (but have perverted its principles), and the reception of those who are without who are disposed to love and obey its teachings."—Arcana Cælestia, 2122.
* ↑ "It should at least be acknowledged now by speculative Christians, that there may be a truth in Scripture behind and beyond its letter, beyond even the thought of those who composed it."—Westminster Review, April, 1859, pp. 570.
* ↑ Exod. xxxii. 4.
* ↑ Exod. xxxii. 31.
* ↑ Exod. xxxii. 28.
* ↑ Exod. xxxiii. 2.
* ↑ Num. xvi. 2.
* ↑ Num. xvi. throughout.
* ↑ Num. xvi. 41.
* ↑ Num. xvi. 46.
* ↑ Num. xvi. 49.
* ↑ Josh. vii. throughout.
* ↑ 1 Kings xxii. 21.
* ↑ Exod. xx. 4.
* ↑ Of Abraham, their progenitor, it is written, that "Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor: and they served other gods." (Josh, xxiv. 2; see also verses 14, 15). It is also expressly declared of Abraham, that Jehovah was not known to him, and that he worshipped the god Schaddai (Exod. vi. 3); and thus that in his youth he was, like other Gentiles, an idolater; and that even after he had been called by the Lord, he did not at once reject from his mind the god Schaddai. The principle of idolatry seems to have had a place in the mind of the Israelitish nation from their origin; and it is very plain, both from the historical and prophetical portions of the word, that they were prone to the worship of idols; and it was because of this that it was so severely condemned among them, and also because its tendency was to destroy the representatives of the Church instituted among them. It was because in heart they remained in the idolatry of Egypt, that, notwithstanding the miracles by which they had been delivered from that country, they made a golden calf, and said of it, "These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt" (Exod. xxxii. 4). The calf was among the idols of Egypt; hence Egypt is said to be a very fair heifer, and a beautiful calf (Jer. xlvi. 20, 21).