or Deity, and to the Lamb as the humanity taken into everlasting unity with it. For it is not said, "the thrones of God and the Lamb," but the Throne! Now, since there cannot be two supreme thrones in heaven, so there cannot be two persons or beings who rule there. If then, God and the Lamb occupy but one throne, and that throne be the seat of supreme dominion, as it must be, it is at once evident that God and the Lamb signify the same Divine Being; a being indivisibly one, for "The Lord our God is one Lord"—though spoken of with reference to two distinctions of His nature, the divinity and the humanity, which make one in the Lord Jesus Christ, as the soul and body make one individual man. The Lamb is said to be "slain," because the humanity was purified, and united to the Godhead, or Divine nature, by trials and temptation combats, and especially by the passion of the cross; and it is said to be slain for us, because the purification and sanctification of the humanity, and its union with the Divinity, by the influences of goodness and truth, called the Holy Spirit, proceeding from the Father and the Son, descend through heaven upon man. The Lamb is said to be in the midst of the throne, to indicate, by the Divine humanity, the possession of full and supreme power; because when that humanity was fully united to the Deity, and made one with it, it became the medium by which the Divine power was manifested, and by which it operates throughout the universe. To this union of the humanity with the Divine nature, and the effects thence resulting to man, the frequent sacrifices of the lamb under the Mosaic economy had special reference.
