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metaphoric terms. Were this not so, the whole passage would be ridiculous. Six parties are embraced in the text. First, the serpent and the woman are placed antithetic to each other; secondly, the seed of the serpent, and seed of the woman, are also counterparts of each other; third, HE and the serpent's HEAD are also placed in antagonism to each other.

Between each of these antithetic pairs, direct hostility was to rage, and it is evident that the serpent, his head, and his seed, are all confederate; and that the woman, her seed, and HE, the Messiah, are also confederates. It is evident, also, that the head of the serpent controlled the powers represented by the serpent and his seed, and that HE, who stood opposed to the serpent's head, held also a similar supreme control over the powers represented by the woman and her seed. It will be granted, without any argument on our part, that the head of the serpent represented the great enemy of God, and seducer of man, called, in the New Testament, the Prince of the power of the air, and the Devil, and Satan. It will also be granted, that He who was antithetic to Satan, was the second person of the Trinity, also called Immanuel, or Messiah. The serpent represents the false religion introduced by the Devil, and his seed represents the false system of civil government growing out of it. The woman represents the true religion introduced by Jehovah, and her seed represents the true system of civil government growing out of it. Our reasons for these positions are many, but chiefly the following:

First. The terms, "serpent and his seed," and "woman and her seed," can not be understood literally. For this would make the serpent to be a generator of snakes, and bring Eve into a war with the serpent personally, and then her children and snakes would have a perpetual war, till Messiah should crush the head of the Father of Snakes. Such a view of the text would be the quintessence of absurdity. Again, the literal serpent who seduced Eve died long ago, but the text represents the serpent of which God spoke as existing at the final victory of Messiah.

Second. - As the head of the serpent was symbolic of something besides the symbolic serpent, this serpent differs from the Devil literally, and yet is called such from its paternal name, it being the creation of the real seducer of man. Now, as false religion is the first great scheme of the Devil, the serpent being next to its head is properly represented by it. And as the "seed" of the serpent is something different from the serpent itself, it must represent the civil polity generated from a false religion. No two things in the whole history of the world can be found to coincide with the serpent and his seed, but false religion, and false civil polity. Again, as the woman and her seed are antithetic counterparts of the serpent and his seed, they must coincide with the true church of God, and the true system of government arising from it. The utter impossibility of any other things being found to coincide with the woman and her seed, than those here stated, in consistency with the whole text, inevitably fastens the symbolic meaning of the text to them.

Third. That the woman and her seed, and the serpent and his seed, severally represent the two departments of false and true government, is further evident from the consideration of the nature of all moral government. That man possesses a dual nature, a spiritual and a social, is a fact of which all are conscious. A sense of Deity exists naturally in all minds, and this becomes the basis of all religion. This sense does not necessarily imply a knowledge of the true God, but it leads all men to feel that themselves, and the world, are controlled by a superior power or powers. In enlightened countries it leads to the worship and acknowledgment of Jehovah, and in barbarous countries it is the source of endless superstition, a general belief in ghosts, witches, and inferior spirits, which men believe control them and their interests. The dual law of love supreme to God, and equal love of neighbors, called the great law of God, is conformed to these constitutional principles of all moral agents. This is the constitutional law of the universe, and the Decalogue based upon it is but the constitutional law of a single province of God's empire, as is our world. The great universal empire of God is therefore of a dual nature, and had not man sinned, this dual government would have prevailed in perfection in this world. In re-establishing the fallen empire of God on earth, these two departments would of course receive attention, and their existence, prophetically, would be recognized, and an elementary existence would necessarily be seen. The kingdom of Satan would also conform to the great dual nature of man, and antagonism to God's dual law, and would be manifested therefore in the dual form of Church and State, or spiritual and social government.

Fourth. The Scriptures, from the beginning to the end, recognize the duality of God's kingdom, in its elementary stages, and prophetically in its triumphs; and also the duality of Satan's kingdom in the world. We will first trace those which coincide with the woman and her seed. These are seen in the persons of Shem and Japhet, one of whom was to give spiritual law, and the other to sway the political scepter of the world, under Christ. Next we see it in Sarah and Isaac; next in Moses and Aaron; next in the typical church of the Hebrews, and the civil government arising from it; next in Jachin and Boaz, the two typical pillars of Solomon's temple.

The prophets we find speaking of "the Lord's house, and the mountain of the Lord's house;" "Judah and Jerusalem;" "Judah and Ephraim;" Judah and Israel;" "Ariel," or "the double city, or two lions of God;" "the mountain and stone cut out of the mountain;" the Ancient of Days and his chariot throne; "the saints and people of the saints;" "the two olive branches;" " two candlesticks," or " two anointed ones," Joshua and Zerobabel; and the white horse and his rider receiving a crown; the temple and the altar; the holy city, or double city; the two witnesses, the two candlesticks, the two olive trees; the woman with twelve stars, and the sun and moon which clothed her, and her man child; "salvation and strength;" "the kingdom of our God, and power of his Christ;" "the Lamb and his company;" the company on the sea of glass; the man with a sickle on a white cloud; the man with many diadems on the white horse; the seven candlesticks and seven stars; the Lamb with seven horns and seven eyes; the four beasts and twenty-four wings; the twenty-four elders and twenty-four seats; the seven lamps and the sea of glass; and finally, the throne, covered with a rainbow, and him that sat upon the throne. Many other instances besides these might be quoted, but these suffice to show the fact we speak of. Next, the serpent and his seed have their coincidence in Ham and Canaan, Hagar and Ishmael, or the bondwoman and her son; the iron and clay of the great monarchy image; the ten horns and little horn of the fourth beast of Daniel; the willful king and the strange god; the seven-headed dragon and seven-headed beast; the great whore upon many waters; the Harlot Babylon upon the seven-headed beast from the pit; the beast from the pit and the old serpent; the false prophet and the image of the beast with the wounded head.

This double form of empire is seen wherever we look into political prophecy in the Bible, and this universality of its reference to church and state, shows that the woman and her seed and the serpent and his seed were antithetic symbols of religion and civil polity. As the serpent and his seed are antipodes of the woman and her seed, so Ham and Canaan are antipodes of Shem and Japhet; and the iron and clay are antipodes of the stone cut out of the mountain and the mountain itself; and the ten horns and little horn of the beast are antipodes of the Ancient of Days and his throne, or the saints and people of the saints; Hagar and Ishmael are antipodes of Sarah and Isaac ; the dragon and beast with a wounded head are antipodes of the woman and her twelve stars; the spiritual and civil Gentiles are antipodes of the Holy City; and the beast and harlot are antipodes of the two witnesses.

Fifth. A perpetual enmity has existed between true and false religion and between true and false civil government from the fall of man; and no such enmity has

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