Rev. xiv. 1 — 5. And I looked, and lo, a Lamb stood on the Mount Sion, and with him an hundred and forty and four thousand, having his Father's name written in their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder : and I heard the^ voice of harpers harping with their harps : and they sung as it iveie a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders : and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand which ivere redeemed from the earth. These are they which were not defied with women ; ■ for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the first fruits unto God and the Lamb And in
370 nEVELATION', XIV. 1—5. [1211*
their mouth iv as found no guile : for they are uithout fault before the throne of God.
A CONSIDERABLE partof theBook of Revelation is yet involved in impenetrable obscurity; though we doubt not but that, when the predictions contained in it shall have been fulfilled, the whole will appear as lucid and intelligible as any other prophecies which have been already accomplished. There are parts however which may be understood by every reader ; and which are particularly interesting, on account ot the sublime views which they unfold to us ot the heavenly state. Indeed in the whole ot the Inspired Volume there will not be found such bright displays of heaven as in this closing part of the sacred Canon. The veil seems on many occasions to be drawn aside, as it were, and we are admitted to see and hear all that is taking place in the regions of bliss. Ihe pas- sage before us is of this kind. The Apos le himself was, as it were, caught up into the third heavens, where he saw his adorable Lord and Saviour m the midst of all his redeemed people, and heard the songs with which they proclaimed his praise. His record concerning it will lead me to set before you, I. The blessedness of heaven — ' There the Lord Jesus Christ dwells in the midst of his redeemed people—
[Heaven doubdess was the place now opened in vision to the Apostle's view : it was " Mount Sion, the city of the liv- ing God, the heavenly Jerusalem V _ . There the Lord Jesus Christ dwells, still retaining m his person all diose marks which his murderous enemies inflicted on his sacred body, when he oftered himself a sacrifice for the sins of a ruined world. He was the Lamb slam from the foundation of the world; and in that sublime character does he vet appear, though seated on his heavenly throne : for in that character he is most glorified in himself, and most en- deared to his redeemed people. ^ rr^i^
Around him stand die myriads of his redeemed. They aie called " an hundred and forty and four thousand, every tribe of Israel having twelve thousand of its members ' sealed m their foreheads" as God's peculiar property^ and *' having the Father's name engraven there" as an evidence of their relation
• Heb. xii. 22. '' Rev. vii. 4.