must be identical. In that of John, there shall be no more death. Then the death spoken of in Isaiah lxv. 19 must be here, in this mortal state; and there, those who die here in youngest infancy, shall be a hundred years old, or shall be without age.

The following extract from the works of Ben Ezra is so important, and sets the matter in so clear a light, I will give it in full:

"For, behold, I create new heavens, and a new earth and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. But be you glad and rejoice forever (or in seculum seculi, for the age of the age, as Pagnini and Vacablo read it) in that which I create; for behold I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy; and I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying. There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days; for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed. And they shall build houses, and inhabit them, and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them, (or as Pagnini, after the SEVENTY, more clearly hath it, non egredictur inde ultra ad sepulchrum infans dicrum, sive immaturus et senex, qua non impleverit tempus suum, erit enim adolescens centum annorum, &c., i. e., THERE SHALL NOT BE ANY MORE CARRIED OUT FROM THENCE TO BURIAL AN INFANT OF DAYS, OR A YOUTH, OR AN OLD MAN WHO HATH NOT FILLED HIS TIME; FOR THE MAN OF A HUNDRED YEARS SHALL BE A YOUTH, &c.) They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat; for as the days of a tree, are the

days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; (or, according to the SEVENTY, neque filios generabunt in maledic. tionem; i. e., nor shall they beget children for a curse:) for they are the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and their offspring with them. And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock; and dust shall be the serpent's meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord. Isa. lxv. 17-25."

WHO IS THE BRIDE, THE LAMB'S WIFE?

John answers, Rev. xxi. 9, 10: "Come hither and I will show thee the bride, the Lamb's wife." "And he showed me that great city, THE HOLY JERUSALEM, descending out of heaven from God." Did the angel fulfil his promise? If so, the holy city is the bride.

"For

This view is confirmed by Isaiah, liv. 5, where he addresses the New Jerusalem, and says: thy maker is thy husband; the Lord of hosts is his name: and thy Redeemer, the holy One of Israel; the God of the whole earth shall he be called." That this is the heavenly Jerusalem is clear from Gal. iv. 26, 27: "But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not for the desolate hath many more chil

dren than she which hath a husband." Paul has here expressly applied the 54th of Isaiah to the Jerusalem which is above, and is the mother of the saints, the children of promise. The multitude, therefore, which are to flock to Jerusalem as her children, are the redeemed saints. Jerusalem is now a widow, but will then remember the reproach of her widowhood no more. She is forsaken of God for a sinall moment, but will be gathered with great mercies, and her stones be laid with fair colors.

The children of the bride chamber are the saints of God. They are the children of God, " begotten of him again to a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and which fadeth not away," and which is "ready to be revealed in the last times." To that inheritance we are now begotten by the spirit of Christ, by which he was raised from the dead, and shall be born to it as soon as he, who is our life, appears.

Isa. lxvi. 7, 8: Before she travailed she brought forth" Jesus Christ, the first fruits from the dead, and the sure pledge of the resurrection of all the saints. Who hath heard such a thing? A man-child, a child of the resurrection, brought forth before the pain of Zion came! But what is that to what will be? "Shall the earth be made to bring forth in a day? Or shall a nation be born at once?" The implied answer is, No. "Yet," says the prophet, although this cannot be, as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children." In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump. It is certain as it is that

Christ is raised from the dead to die no more. All these shall be the children of the New Jerusalem, and will inherit it forever.

The saints raised-the wicked destroyed-the earth burned and renovated—the New Jerusalem brought from heaven-the marriage of the Lamb in the New Jerusalem will be celebrated. "For

as a young man marrieth a virgin, so shall thy God marry thee."

In reading the prophecies, it is important to understand Jerusalem and Zion, literally; and to understand her widowhood, mourning, desolation, condemnation and punishment, as her present oppressed and desolate condition, as the fruit of the sins which have been committed in her; her gathering, being built, multiplying and gathering her children, as being the glory of the New Jerusalem with the resurrection saints.

That the New Jerusalem comes before the millennium, is clear, from the fact that she is addressed, (Isa. liv. 15,) and told of the gathering of her enemies against her. "Behold, all they gather themselves together against thee, but not by me." That is, I will not be the agent who will gather this innumerable multitude against thee, but some other agent will. The devil, according to Rev. xx., is the agent. "Whosoever shall gather together against thee, shall fall for thy sake." Here is the same gathering of the enemies of Jerusalem described in Rev. xx. 7-10. And the same defeat attends them in each instance. Destruction from the Almighty overwhelms them.