at that time. They had but little power in themselves, yet were they ordained of God to effect great things : and God engaged through them to impart unto the people such supplies of wisdom and strength, as should enable the whole nation to shine with their former splendour. However weak therefore they were in themselves, they must not despair ; for " every mountain should, before Zerubbabel, become a plain.
The mystical import must be more minutely explained. It must never be forgotten that that whole dispensation was typical. The return of the Jews from Babylon, and the re- storation of their civil and ecclesiastical polity, were typical of the deliverance of sinners from their spiritual bondage, and the establishment of the Redeemer's kingdom in the world. Bearing this in mind, we shall see how this vision illustrates the purposes of God, in relation to the Church of Christ. The lamps are emblems of his Church, which shines as a light in a dark world. The pipes are the ordinances of religion, by means of which continual supplies of oil are imparted to them, that their light may never be extinguished. The bowl is the Gospel, which abounds with blessings for all, according to their several necessities. The oil is the Holy Spirit, by whom alone the light that has been set up can be kept alive. And the two olive-trees, from whence that oil spontaneously flows into the bowl, are the kingly and priestly offices of Christ, who, like Zerubbabel and Joshua, is appointed of God to establish Jeru- salem, and to build the spiritual temple of the Lord. He is exalted to the right hand of God, and " stands by the Lord of the whole earth," that he may carry on every thing in confor- mity with the Divine will, and accomplish, in due season, the work that has been committed to him. He himself, as the Messiah, the Christ, is the Anointed of the Lord ; (the words Messiah and Christ both mean Anointed;) and from him flows " the unction of the Holy One," by which all spiritual light and life are communicated to the Church0.]
The proof of these several points will be more advantageously adduced under the next head of our discourse, in which we propose to point out the proper improvement of the vision, or,
II. The instruction to be derived from it —
To ascertain this, we must bear in mind the scope of the vision : for, if we forget that, the whole inter- pretation of it may be thought fanciful : but, if we duly regard that, the whole instruction derived from
c 1 John ii. 20—27.