Jerusalem above it.' This, which in no way interferes with its literality, may be a true view of the subject, and that there is nothing impossible or absurd in it seems to be proved by the case already referred to of Saturn's rings, which may again be appealed to in illustration of the subject. These rings do not rest on the body of the planet, but are over it, or rather separated from it2, by, however, an immense space. But if the New Jerusalem be over the earth and not on it, how can "the kings of the earth bring their glory and honour into it"? which we are told they will do. (Rev. xxi. 24.) This, I confess, seems to me an insuperable objection to this view. But it must also be remarked, that it is not Thus, the Rev. Capel Molyneux, in this very able work, "Israel's Future," expresses his belief, "That over this earth, and in connection with Jerusalem and its temple, will be the New Jerusalem or heavenly city, in which Incarnate Deity, Jesus Christ the Lord, will together with His risen and glorified saints-the Bride-dwell; that this will be the court of the Great King, and from thence, by the agency of His saints and His own personal visitation, the administration of His government over the earth will be carried on; that the nations of the earth will walk in the light of that heavenly city, and the kings of the earth will bring their honour and glory unto it."-Lecture vii. 2 It is, however, the opinion of our first authorities on the subject, e. g. M. Otto Struve and Mr. Bond, that the inner ring is rapidly approaching the body of the planet, and that "we may expect sooner or later, perhaps in some dozen of years, to see the rings united with the body of the planet." See Sir D. Brewster's "Life of Sir Isaac Newton," (1855) vol. i. ch. xiii. pp. 370, 371. one that has been arrived at by any inductive process, or analysis of Scripture, for not a single text, that I am aware of, is ever quoted as suggesting it, but it is simply an hypothesis which has been framed to meet certain difficulties and to answer certain requirements. if this be the case, but little confidence can be placed in it. The history of all attempts of the kind proves but too clearly that they are almost always failures. It was doubtless under a conviction that this was the case, as also that the process itself is unphilosophic, as he himself has shown, that the illustrious Newton said "Hypotheses non fingo." 1 It should be remembered, however, that, On the other hand, it must be admitted that many points, which otherwise seem most difficult of solution, are fairly met by this hypothesis. The perpetual fulfilment, for instance, of promises which are 1 "Principia." ." Scholium Generale. See also the extract from his Book on Opticks, given in APPENDIX A. It must be remembered that there are two kinds of hypothesis,-the one derived from experiment, or from particulars of some kind, according to the nature of the subject, and suggested, either in whole or in part, by them; the other, without any previous process of this kind, framed solely in order to meet and explain certain difficulties, which require solution. The former, which may be as rightly termed theory, is the great end of all philosophy; the other is inadmissible in our search for truth. 66 Quicquid enim ex phænomenis non deducitur, hypothesis vocanda est; et hypotheses seu metaphysicæ, seu physicæ, seu qualitatum occultarum, seu mechanicæ, in philosophia experimentali locum non habent."-Ibid. made to the literal Israel, especially in reference to the city which they shall hereafter inhabit, and their separation from the other nations of the earth, may, according to this view, be accomplished without interfering with other promises which at present it seems difficult to reconcile with them. But it is highly necessary, in reference to all such points as these, to remember the break in the continuity of events that must necessarily be introduced by the final conflagration, and the bringing in of "the new heavens and the new earth," whenever that will take place. |