the Church knows them, as admitted into heaven; and explains their manifestations when they shew themselves on earth.
This forms no part; properly, of the seals, then; but comes in, under the Church’s proper knowledge, by the Holy Ghost, and His revelations of what passes in heaven; not in mere communion, as taking of the things of Christ; but in revelation, as shewing what is connected with the manifestation of His glory. It is all based (come what will) on the immutability of the ark of the covenant where the Church rested for her hopes. It was the ark of the covenant of God and the temple of God.
This being fixed, the ways and purposes of Providence were then discovered. There appeared a great[1] sign in heaven. As the woman was for the man, so was the man by the woman; and here things were revealed, not in ultimate results (that is the knowledge of the Church, always, in communion, whether as to Christ’s glory as man, or God all in all), but as administered by the way, and, therefore, the man is by the woman here; so. in other types of Scripture. Hence, though we see her in the glory of God’s mind, at first, we soon see her in various circumstances and exigencies, to
- ↑ Another sign begins chap. xv.
