humanity, as "the first and the last," who died for the sins, and was
raised again for the justification of his people. (Rom. iv. 25.) He is
"alive for evermore,"--become "the first fruits of them that slept." (1
Cor. xv. 20.) He "dieth no more. Death hath no more dominion over him."
(Rom. vi. 9.) And so complete is his victory over the king of terrors,
the last enemy of the believer, that he hath "the keys of hell and of
death." He has the "key of the bottomless pit," (xx. 1;) having
triumphed over principalities and powers, making a show of them openly.
(Col. ii. 15.) Whether Christ used the word, "amen," to ratify the truth
of his immortality; or whether this is an expression by John of his
joyful acquiescence in that truth, is not material: we know on
satisfactory evidence, that our Lord is a prophet and king, as well as a
priest, "after the power of an endless life." (Heb. vii. 16; Rom. xiv.
9.)

John is next commanded to write,--_First_, "the things which he had
seen;" that is, the description of the foregoing vision:--_Second_, "the
things which are;" that is, the actual condition of the church, as
delineated in the diverse characters of the seven churches addressed, as
in the next two chapters:--_Third_, "the things which shall be
hereafter:" that is, the prophetical part of the book, from the
beginning of the fourth chapter to the close, as containing the
prospective history of the church and of the nations, as she was to be
affected by them, or they by her, till the consummation of all things.
This is the division of the book made by the divine Author himself, and
it is a natural and intelligible one. All attempts of learned and pious
men by other divisions to render this mysterious part of the Bible more
clear to the unlearned reader, tend only to display the ingenuity of the
writers,--not to say their temerity, while they "darken counsel by words
without knowledge." Such artificial divisions are as unfounded, in the