communion of its two parts concerning its great Head, the Redeemer of man's soul, from the power of the flesh; of man's body, from the power of death; and of the world, man's inheritance, from the power of the devil.

THE LION OF THE TRIBE OF JUDAH.

Now, as concerneth the two names here given to Him who is worthy, or rather who hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof, we must take ourselves to task, and shew wherefore, out of the many names by which he is designated in the Holy Scriptures, these two should be specially chosen, as best fitted to represent the character in which he comes before us, as the only one within creation who is able to look upon and open the seven-sealed book. For, as hath oft been said, nothing, no, not a word in this revelation of Jesus Christ, is introduced at random; but laboureth, in its place, to tell out the burdensome and most weighty truth, which it containeth. First, then, let us discourse a little of the name," the Lion of the tribe of Judah," and of its appropriateness in this place. The origin of this name is beyond doubt to be found in those fates or destinies of the tribes, pronounced over them by their father Jacob, before his death; where, of Judah it it is said, Gen. xlix. 9, “Judah is a lion's whelp: from the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up?" From this prophecy, no doubt, the lion came to be the standard of the tribe of Judah. Wherefore this emblem should be applied to Messiah, of all the children of Judah, is likewise manifest from the verse next following, in which he is mentioned as the Gatherer of the people; the Root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign to the people (Isa. xi. 10). This expression, which I have just quoted from Isaiah, I may observe by the way, contains in it the substance of both designations in the text; the Lion of the tribe of Judah being the ensign, and the Root of Jesse being the same with the Root of David. In the passage from the fates of the tribes, he is designated not only the Lion of the tribe of Judah, but the Lawgiver, the Sceptre-bearer, the Shiloh, and the Standard or ensign; and one action of his is described, which is the action of treading the wine-press, and staining

his garments with the blood of grapes ;-an action which we know, from considering Isaiah lxiii. 2, and Rev. xix. 13, is the action of treading down the oppressors of his inheritance and taking possession of it for himself and his people. The passage in Isaiah being taken in connection with the context, is the preparation for bringing his chosen people into the promised land, and making Jerusalem a praise in the earth: which he doth by the slaughter of Edom, the oppressor of his people; that is, by the judgment of the Gentile apostate nations,—for a vineyard is the symbol of the church, and a vineyard destroyed by judgment is the symbol of an apostate church subverted for ever. The corresponding passage in the Book of Revelations maketh this still more manifest; for there the beads and the kings of the earth are congregated against him, and by him destroyed, to make way for him and his sanctified ones to reign over the earth. This expression, therefore, "the Lion of the tribe of Judah," being looked at in the origin of it, is connected with the dispossession of the usurpers from the inheritance by strength of hand, and fury poured out; and this will be most strikingly confirmed as we proceed to shew the application of this name in other parts of Scripture. In the xxxist chapter of Isaiah, where the subject is the destruction of the Assyrian; who, all throughout that prophet, doth personate, both by his character and his catastrophe, the last great oppressor of Israel; it is thus written to the children of Israel, whom the Lord commandeth not to trust in others, but in him only: "Like as the lion and the young lion roaring on his prey, when a multitude of shepherds is called forth against him, he will not be afraid of their voice, nor abase himself for the noise of them so shall the Lord of hosts come down to fight for mount Zion, and for the hill thereof. As birds flying, so will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem: defending also he will deliver it, and passing over he will preserve it" (vers. 4, 5). Here the Lord as the lion appeareth for the deliverance of his inheritance against the many shepherds. or kings who would fain retain their dominion over it. He comes down from his place of rest; and the end for which he comes is to deliver Jerusalem, when all help of man hath failed; when she is compassed about with armies,

and can be approached only as a bird flyeth. This the beleaguered and distressed condition of Jerusalem, and the Lord's coming down to deliver her, derives much illustration from Zechariah xiv. 3, and Ezekiel xxxviii. 19, &c.; where his people restored to their land by some combinations of events are "overturned, overturned, overturned, till He comes whose right it is," and the Lord gives it unto him. And behold, in this great act of claiming and delivering his inheritance, he taketh to himself the name of the Lion and the young Lion of Israel; in which day, be it observed further, that idolatries for ever cease in Israel, and the oppressing Assyrian for ever perisheth (Isa. xxxi).

The next passage of the holy Prophets which I take for confirmation of the doctrine, that this name is proper unto Christ as the Redeemer of the inheritance, is derived from two chapters of Jeremiah; in which it occurs in exactly the same words, first in the destruction of Edom, chap. xlix. 29,—and next in the destruction of Babylon, chap. li. 44. The reason of this repetition is, that Edom and Babylon are the types of the same Antichristian confederacy; the former of the apostate church, the latter of the oppressing and imprisoning kingdom. The passage is as follows; upon which as I proceed I shall give a brief commentary: "Behold he shall come up like a lion from the swellings of Jordan unto the habitation of the strong." The person here likened unto the lion, if we observe the context of the xlixth chapter, is, beyond doubt, Jehovah himself, who hath threatened (ver. 16) to bring down the soaring pride of Edom, and (ver. 17) to put to flight every man therein abiding. And now (ver. 19) he does the work which he had threatened: he does it in the person of his elected one; of him "who is like me, the Shepherd that will stand before me.” If, again, we take it from chap. Ix., the person who comes up like a lion from the swellings of Jordan, to destroy the habitation of the strong ones, is clearly the Redeemer, the strong Redeemer, the Lord of hosts, who pleadeth the cause of Judah against Babylon, described in verses 33 and 34: "He comes with a mighty people from the north, a great nation and many kings that are raised up from the coasts of the earth (ver. 41); that is, as I conceive, the tribes of Israel, his battle-axe and weapons of war described in the following

chapter, vers. 19-25. He, then, Jehovah of hosts, He, the Redeemer of Israel, comes up from the swellings of Jordan; that is, in the time of harvest, when Jordan overfloweth all his banks (Josh. iii. 15); and when the lions that infest the thickets of Jordan's banks are forced for safety and for food, with ravenous haste, upon the shepherds and their flocks; then and thus comes he up to the habitation of the strong, which in the xlix th chapter is Bozrah, where the Edomite made his nest like an eagle in the rock, as it is written also in Psal. cviii. 10: "Who will bring me into the strong city, who will lead me into Edom ?" In the chapter above, Babylon is spoken of in the context as the hammer of the whole earth, unto the habitation of the strong ones, the Redeemer cometh up, as a lion to destroy her; and straightway she is deserted: they flee away from her; and now God asks for a chosen one, to appoint over her, and who this chosen one is, we have written in the xliid chapter of Isaiah, ver. 1: He also who is like God, he also who is that Shepherd of Israel, who in that day shall stand before God. Compare now this passage with Micah ii. 12, 13, v. 4, to the end; with Hosea xi. 10: and it will be manifest how true are the interpretations given above, concerning the Lion of the tribe of Judah. To perceive likewise how constantly this warning of the lion is connected with the deliverance of the inheritance and the destruction of the oppressors or false shepherds, examine Jeremiah xxv. 30,-which prophesies of evil to all nations in the day that Jehovah roareth from on high, and uttereth his voice from his holy habitation, and mightily roareth upon his habitation, and giveth a shout as they that tread the grape against all the inhabitants of the earth,thus concludeth: "He hath forsaken his covert as the lion." Consult also Joel iii. 16; Isaiah xlii. 13; Zechariah ii. 13. The idea is, that for a season the lion of Judah's tribe should couch himself to rest in his covert, even as he hath done since his removal from amongst us; and at length by the provocation of the idol shepherds destroying his habitation, his dam and his cubs upon whom his eye ever resteth, he should at length rouse himself in madness, and roar against his enemies, and with the roaring of his mouth scatter them; and with the tearing of his teeth destroy them; and with the treading of his feet trample them

down. This expression of God's roaring, or lifting up his voice, is a key-word in the Prophecies, which always bath respect unto the time, when from silent forbearing God. changeth his purpose, and cometh to revenge. I say, to all students of prophecy, that this act of scattering his enemies from Jerusalem and the inheritance of his people in the day of his fierce anger, in the day of vengeance and recompences for the controversy of Zion, is the mighty act by which he achieveth for himself his name of Strength, the Lion of Judah's tribe.

These conclusions, derived from the prophets of the old dispensation, are all confirmed and made ours by a passage in this book, wherein Christ, coming from heaven, clothed with the cloud of his Father's glory, and crowned with a rainbow, the symbol of the redeemed earth, doth "set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth, and cry with a loud voice as when a lion roareth; and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices." This action speaks itself to be the act of taking possession of the inheritance of the terraqueous globe: it occurs at the conclusion of the sixth trumpet, and immediately before the blast of the seventh, when the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. The end of this appearance is to postpone for a while the conclusion of the mystery; to declare that the time should not be yet (as the last clause of the sixth verse should be translated), but at the sounding of the seventh trumpet; being, as hath been observed already, parallel with the last chapter of Daniel, where after the time, times, and a half, are given, a further period is likewise given; so here, at the time of the ending of the sixth trumpet, which is parallel with the ending of the sixth seal, there is an act of postponement, during which the seven thunders utter their voices. These seven thunders are the same with the seven vials, which consummate the wrath of God, and dispossess the usurpers of the inheritance Christ comes at the time appointed in the prophecy of Daniel, when the time, times, and half a time, are concluded, and gives a further revelation, to the effect that the last blast is not yet to be blown, but shall be in the day of the seventh angel. The roaring of the lion, therefore, is the season during which Christ acts, to the