the fire is anticipated, as by the day-star while it is yet night. If we give heed to those prophecies, we shall enjoy this forego. ing light in our hearts, and so this day-star will arise; then our faith in these prophecies will be the evidence of that glorious Sun that is now not seen, and will render his light that is hoped for in some measure present in this dark world, and in our dark hearts. We shall in a measure have the joy of the morning of Christ's coming beforehand; we shall have a light in our hearts that will be an earnest, and forerunner of the glorious light of that day, as the dawning of the day before sun rise.

This world is a dark place without Christ, and therefore is dark till he comes, and until his kingdom of glory is set up. It appeared to be so now, especially in the circumstances of the Christians that the apostle now writes to, a world of heresies, grand delusions, and dreadful wickedness. They were in a dark place; they were not only surrounded with heathens, and subject to persecution, as appears by Peter's first Epistle, that was written to the same Christians, as is evident by chap. iii. 1; but were in the midst of vile heretics and apostasies, as has been said already, and Christ delayed his coming, and they had many temptations to deny the present truth, and lose their hopes of the sun's rising. When a man is in a dark place, and is in danger of stumbling and falling and being lost, and has a light held forth to him, to guide him in, it behooves him to take heed to it, and keep his eye upon it, lest he get out of the way and fall into mischief.

[484] 1 John ii. 18. "Little children, it is the last time; and as ye have heard that Antichrist shall come, even now there are many Antichrists, whereby we know it is the last time." It is not reasonable to think that the apostle supposed, that this time was the latter part of the space that should be from Christ's ascension to his second coming to the general judgment. For it is evident by what he here says, that he knew that the Great Antichrist should come before that. And if he supposed that this great Antichrist now appeared, it is not likely that he would have expressed himself as he does, even now are there many Antichrists. He would rather have said, "Even now Antichrist is come;" and would have decyphered him, and pointed him forth. We must therefore understand the apostle thus: "It is now long since the apostles foretold the coming of Antichrist, of which they told you in the first age of the Christian church, which reached from Christ's asceusion to the destruction of Jerusa

lem; and now, since Jerusalem's destruction, has commenced the last state of things, the last age of the world, which is to continue from the destruction of Jerusalem, and the perfect abolishing of the Old Testament Dispensation to the end of the world, which the apostles had been wont to call the latter days, and last times; during which last age they foretold that Antichrist should appear, 2 Thess. ii. 3, &c. 1 Tim. iv. 1, &c. 2 Tim. iii. 1, &c.; and now the spirit of Antichrist doth very visibly appear; and there are many apostates and corrupters, that we may look upon as the forerunners of Antichrist, and are therefore an evidence that we are now come to that last age in which it has been foretold that Antichrist should arise; which should make you behave yourselves more circumspectly, for the apostles often told you that those last times wherein Antichrist should appear would be perilous times."

[287] John iii. 9. "Whosoever is born of God, doth not commit sin," i. e. he does not relapse, or fall away from righteousness into sin again ; [“for his seed remaineth in him,”] i. e. the seed of which he is born of God, the same seed by which he is begotten of God remaineth in him, and therefore he does not fall away to a state and trade of sin again, out of which he was begotten, and born by that seed.

[104] Jude, verse 9. "He disputed about the body of Moses." The thing referred to is that mentioned Zechariah iii. 2. The church of the Jews is called the body of Moses, as the Christian church is called the body of Christ. Moses was herein a type of Christ.

[188] Jude, 14, 15 verses. "Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment," &c. It is probable that this prophecy of Enoch had the more direct respect to the destruction of the ungodly of the old world by the flood. Those sinners of whom Jude speaks were like them, and their destruction should be like theirs. 2 Peter ii. 5. It looks very probable that God would reveal his designs to Enoch, of overthrowing the world, seeing that he was so intimately conversant with him, and the world was so much corrupted in his days; which was probably one reason why God took him out of the world, he would not suffer one so dear to him to live in the midst of such a wicked, abominable crew, to have his soul continually vexed by them. Enoch's son Methuselah lived till the very year that the flood came; and, if so, it is exceedingly probable that God would reveal something to him of his intended destruction of them.

This prophecy is applied to those heretics and their destruction, very much after the same manner as many prophecies of the Old Testament are applied in the New to other things, than what they most directly signified. Many of the prophecies of scripture are applicable to many things; as Christ's prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem, is applicable to the destruction of heathenism in the Roman empire, and to the end of the world: the All-knowing Spirit has an eye to many things in what he saith. Where the apostle says, "Enoch prophesied of those," he may be understood to mean of those that were of this sort, i. e. of this lascivious kind of persons.

[200] That Enoch prophesied of the flood, is yet more probable from the name that he gave his son, Methuselah, for the first part of it Methu, signifies he is dead, and shelah signifies sending; so that what is implied in the name seems to be when he is dead, God shall send; and probably there is a prophecy couched in it, that when Methuselah was dead God should send that great catastrophe that Enoch had foretold which came to pass accordingly, for the flood came that very year that Methuselah died.

[357] "And Enoch also, the seventh year from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints." It is observable that Enoch, the first of all the prophets, prophesied of the last event that is the subject of prophecy; and that event which is the greatest subject of the prophecies of scripture, and in which the most of the prophecies of scripture terminate. Though this is not the most wonderful event that is the subject of prophecy, for that was the death of Christ; yet this is the greatest event that is the fruit of that event. In this is completed the end of Christ's death; and this last coming of Christ, together with what is accomplished by it, is in many respects the greatest of all events; and it is so in this respect, that it is what all that God has made, and all that Christ has done and suffered, and all the events of providence from the beginning of the world, and all that he has foretold, ultimately terminate in. Therefore, with this does scripture prophecy both begin and end; it begins in Enoch's prophecy, which is the first prophecy we have an account of in scripture; and it ends with this in the last words of the last of the prophets, even John, in the conclusion of the Revelations.

[270] Revelations iv. 3. "And there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald." The rainbow

we know was appointed of God as a token of his gracious covenant with mankind. God is encompassed with a rainbow, which signifies that as he sits and reigns, and manifests himself in his church, he appears as encompassed with mercy. As of old, the throne of God in the Holy of holies, where God manifested himself in the church of Israel, was called the mercy-seat, so here there is a rainbow, the sign of God's gracious covenant, round about the throne that he sits on. This rainbow was in sight like unto an emerald, which is a precious stone of an exceedingly lovely green colour; so green, that this colour appears in nothing else so lively and lovely. This colour is a most fit emblem of divine grace; it is a very lively colour; not so dull as blue or purple, and yet most easy to the sight, more easy than the more fiery colours of yellow and red. It is the colour of the grass, herbs, and trees, and all the growth of the earth, and therefore fitly denotes life, flourishing, prosperity, and happiness, which are often in scripture compared to the green, flourishing growth of the earth. As the benign influence of the sun on the face of the earth is shown by this colour above all others, so is the grace and benign influence, and communication of God fitly represented by this colour. This colour is the colour of joy and gladness. The fields are said to shout for joy, and also to sing, by their appearing in a cheerful green, as the colour red is made use of to signify God's revenging justice, in Zech. i. 8, and elsewhere; so is green the emblem of divine grace, as Dr. Doddridge observes, this does not imply that the " rainbow had no other colour, but that the proportion of green was greater than ordinary.

[109] Rev. iii. 4. "They shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy:" that is, they are fit, as we often use the word.

[271] The Moon is a type of the Revelation God made, and of the Ordinances he instituted under the Old Testament, or the Old Testament constitution, and administration, and is so used, Rev. xii. 1; vid. Notes in loc.; and it is made use of in scripture also as a type of the Church; it is so in the festival of the new moon; vid. Notes on Numb. x. 10. The Church, under the Old Testament, in the institution of that festival, must be supposed to be represented under the type of the Moon before its conjunction with the Sun, i. e. Christ, the Sun from whom the Church borrows her light. The gospel light granted to the Old Testament church in its different successive ages, was very much like the light of the moon in the several parts of the revolution it performs, which ends in its conjunction with the sun. The first calling of Abraham, the father of the nation and founder

of their church, as separated from the rest of the world by God's revealing, and establishing, and sealing his covenant to him, and his seed, and bestowing the privileges of it upon them; and also the first institution of the administration of the old church of Israel by Moses; may each of them be looked upon as the beginning of the moon's course in this revolution, wherein it sets out in the beginning of its month for a conjunction with Christ, its sun, at the conclusion of it. Christ's coming, and so mercifully and remarkably appearing to Abraham from time to time, as his friend, and sometimes in the form of a man, as if incarnate, eating and drinking with him, and doing such great things for him, aud by him; and particularly his entering into covenant with him, as the father and founder of this church; may be looked upon as this moon's first conjunction with the sun, or with Christ, from whence in her revolution she set out for the other conjunction at Christ's coming by his incarnation and resurrection. Abraham was not only the natural, but in some sense the spiritual father of the church, (as he is called in the New Testament the father of believers,) and therein is a type of Christ, and was in some respect a father instead of Christ, till Christ came. After this, that nation and church at first was very small and weak, but they gradually grew greater, and more and more flourishing, till Solomou's time, which was about the middle of the space between Abraham and Christ, or the middle of the revolution from one conjunction to another; and then it was full moon. Then both the nation and church were in their greatest glory; but from that time they were gradually diminished and dwindled, first by the nation's dividing into two kingdoms, and then by the captivity of the ten tribes, and then by the captivity of the kingdom of Judah, and then after that by various calamities they suffered after the captivity, under the Persian, Grecian, and Roman monarchies; until at last the sceptre departed from Judah, and they were put under a Roman governor, and their light was as it were put out; as the moon, when she is just come to her conjunction with the sun.

But as the calling of Abraham, the father of the church and nation, may be looked upon as the beginning of the revolution with respect to the being and prosperity of the nation or church itself, so Christ's revealing himself to that people by Moses, the teacher of the church, and the father of the prophets, by whom the administration they were under was first instituted, and who gave the first written revelation to it, may be looked upon as the beginning of the revolution with respect to the light that church had by prophecy and revelation by God's word, as written in the Old Testament; which Old Testament revelation is, as has been already observed, compared in scripture to the reflected light of