throne as to it, the conflict by which he is cast out of the heavens of rule, and his conduct upon earth when cast down there, was quite the suitable introduction to the history of the manner and development of it in human instrumentality; that the Church might know, not merely its history, outside in the earth, but the meaning and truth of it in its elementary and radical causes and facts in Satan’s position, power, and actings, relative to God’s purposes. It relates to the question of ruling the nations, i.e. to Christ, as ruling, as he will, with the saints, the nations; and shews the relative position of the parties (while the man- child is caught up to God and his throne, or not actually in the scene), first in heaven ; and therefore the evil ceasing, when cast out, to affect the saints of the heavenlies, brought in this[errata 1][1] by the by, when
- ↑ This passage is a remarkable one as regards the crisis; for the joy is properly in heaven. The Church, properly speaking, is not in question. A voice, accordingly, is heard in heaven; but it clearly expresses the mind of God in the Church above; for it says “the accuser of our brethren,” and has the prospect of the kingdom as now come. It is as a gleaming out of the Church's joy in heaven, before the saints are manifested with Christ, on the cessation of the sufferings of those left on earth, and the clearing of the heavenlies. The period, according to the statement then made, would coincide with the death and going up of the two witnesses. The voice of heaven, the Church, is here
