habitable world as a scene, nor a judgment of the quick. The dead small and great stand before God, and they are judged out of the books, according to their works. We have therewith a general statement of the portion of those not written in the book of life. Whatever differences there may have been in measure, they were all cast into the lake of fire. This was not a place now, merely prepared for the devil and his angels. The devil was there. The false prophet and beast had been there long before: now, all those who were not written in the book of life.
There was now not merely an economic change. The great white throne had no reference to any dispensation, but to the dead. There was an actual physical change, a new heavens and a new earth, and no more sea. And here John sees a new object, new Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven. This general fact, I conceive, is presented here, to give the object. Its bearings are taken up apart, and first the historical progress or result is stated: and we find the tabernacle of God, not the throne or heavenly dwelling of God and the Lamb; but God all in all,—the tabernacle of God with men. The race, man, now are blessed with God’s presence, and grace had provided a way in the which
