earth should rejoice;[1] because all these blessings are within the external of the Church of which the earth is significant. So that whatever is said about the heavens and the earth is really said about the Church as to its life and character. We read that "the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll;"[2] that the Lord will shake the heavens;[3] that the heavens shall be clothed with blackness;[4] also, that the earth feared; the earth trembled;[5] that "the foundations of the earth do shake, the earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly. The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage."[6] But every thinker knows that these things are not said of the natural world around us; and how easy is it to see that their true reference is to the agitations and dangers which occur within the pale of a declining Church. When, therefore, we read in the Word of the heavens and the earth passing away, the meaning is that the spiritual life and natural obedience of the Church are about to perish; consequently, those passages which speak of the creation of a new heaven and a new earth must mean the establishment of a new Church.
We will, however, proceed to ilustrate these conclusions by referring to some special occurrences. It is written in an early chapter of Genesis, that "God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." And He said, "The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold I will destroy them with the earth.[7]
