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have an instance in the account of the pouring out of the seven vials of wrath, containing the seven last plagues, (Rev. xv. xvI.) which belonging equally to the histories of each branch of the empire and to that of the church, (for these judgments affect at once the whole three,) is, in order to prevent that threefold repetition of its events which must otherwise have been made, thus treated; being placed as a supplement at the end of the last, or the church history, and referred to from chap. vi. 17; x. 2, 3; and x1. 15-19, the three places in each separate history into which it is to be chronologically introduced. We shall find also that prophetic intimations (which need not however be pointed out otherwise than as they shall occur in the course of our interpretation) are given, when each of the distinct histories of the Apocalypse are brought to a conclusion, as clear and unquestionable as if it were verbally written-'Here ends such and such a history.' In the same manner, and with the same precautions taken to prevent chronological error in the interpretation, there are also two instances in the course of the book (where the various characters of the events to be narrated render it necessary,) of the same period being twice gone over in the same history; and one of what might rather be called an overlapping of the parts of it; as when, in order to avoid interrupting the thread of any distinct narrative, (here that of the two witnesses) it is first brought to a conclusion, and then a return back for a short period is made to take up again and pursue the general course of the history; and as it would be in any other writing, so also in this prophecy, all chronological error is guarded against by an intimation being given of the fact

of such a return. It will therefore be

seen that these instances instead of constituting breaches of the chronological principle, only serve to shew the exceeding care with which it is maintained throughout the

whole book.

There is one remarkable feature also in which the Apocalypse agrees with the other historical prophecies; viz. in having its visions concluded by an interpretation or explanation of farther particulars given by an attendant angel. This is the case with the visions of Zechariah, each of which is explained by an angel, who is represented as talking with him: see chap. 1. 9—17 and 19-21; II. 3, &c.; Iv. 4, &c.; v. 5, &c. ; VI. 4-8. But it is still more apparent in the visions of Daniel, in which, as in other cases, it is given to the person who sees the vision by him who is appointed to execute the prophetic office of teacher: that of the vision of the Great Image, seen by Nebuchadnezzar, commencing with these words, spoken by Daniel himself, (chap. 11. 36,) "This is the dream, and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king."

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That of the vision of the Four Beasts seen by Daniel commencing thus (chap. vir. 15, 16) "I Daniel was grieved in my spirit, and the visions of my head troubled me, I came near unto one of them" (one of the angels) who stood by, and ' asked him the truth of all this; so he told me, and made me know

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the interpretation of the things.' That of the vision of the ram and the he-goat being as follows: (chap. VIII. 15) And it came to pass, ' when I, even I Daniel, had seen 'the vision and sought for the meaning, then behold there stood before

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⚫ manifested himself to Daniel) which called and said, Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision.' -And lastly, the brief explanation of farther particulars of " that which is noted in the Scripture of truth" commencing with these words, (Dan. XII. 8) "And I heard, but I understood not. Then said I," (to the angel who was sent to shew him the vision, as related in Dan. x. 11-21,) my Lord what shall be the end of these things ?"

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selves,* and the three explanatory histories conclude the book,† occurring in the same relative order of succession as the three main histories to which they respectively belong.

Having thus given a view of the general features and character of this book of historical prophecy, and shewn how it agrees with the precedent of all other histories, and all other historical prophecies, I proceed at once, without farther observation, with the object which I endeavour to keep continually in view; viz. that of giving a plain, popular, and straight-forward interpretation of the volume, and first of that portion of it which contains—

THE HISTORY OF THE WESTERN
ROMAN EMPIRE,

consisting of Rev. IV. to vII, (xv.
xvI.) and XVII. to XIX. 10, commu-
nicated by the voices of the Cheru-
bim "as the noise of thunder."

The interpretations, or rather, (as they in fact are,) the explanations of farther particulars relating to the two great prophetic subjects of the civil and ecclesiastical histories of the Roman empire,- -are no less decidedly marked in the Apocalypse than in these prophecies of Daniel; the first of them commencing at Rev. xvII. 1, with the following words, " And there came one of the seven angels, which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying < unto me, Come hither, I will shew ' unto thee, &c." And the second commencing at Rev. xxI. 9 with a repetition of the same words. The construction of the visions of Daniel and those of the Apocalypse differ only in this respect, that intervals of many years occurring between the several dates when the former were seen, each is naturally and of course followed immediately by its own interpretation; whereas the three distinct prophetic histories of the Apocalypse, making together but one complete revelation, and being all seen during the same Lord's day," and with a short interval of time only occurring between them, termed in chap. VIII. 1, “about the space of half an hour," the three main histories come first by them*1st. Rev. IV to vII.-2ndly, Rev. viii to x. 7.-3rdly. Rev. x. 8, to XIV.; together with the common supplement of Rev. XV. XVI.

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Of the portion of the prophecy above specified chapters IV. and v. constitute what is usually found at the commencement of other works, -a preface, respecting which, considering that the history of the eastern empire, that also of the Church, and the common supplement of Rev. XVI. are each preceded by a partial one, (as is customary at the commencement of any separate division or chapter of a book in order to state its contents,) it becomes necessary to enquire in the first place, whether this is a preface solely belonging to the history of the western branch of the empire, or may be considered to belong to both branches of the empire taken together as distinguished from the church history, or is not rather, on the other hand, a common and general preface to

1st. Rev. XVII to XIX. 10.-2ndly. Rev. xix. 11, to xxI. 8.-3rdly. Rev. xxi. 9, to XXII.

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the whole three histories which unitedly constitute the things which must be hereafter." Upon which question I observe, that as all these things taken together form one of the three parts into which the Apocalypse is primarily divided at chap. 1. 19, it is most natural to consider the preface, by which this new portion of the prophecies is introduced, as referring to the whole of it. Again, we have to consider that the seven sealed book (the delivery of which into the hand of Christ, that it might be opened by him, forms the subject of this preface,) refers to the totality of future time, considered as divided into seven successive periods, commencing from that of the first seal; it is most natural therefore, as it is most in accordance with the sublimity of the description of this act, to consider it as containing also the totality of those events of time which are about to be revealed; and this becomes indubitable when we consider, lastly, that there is no other act of revelation than the opening of its seven seals, mentioned in the whole book. The voices of the Cherubim as the noise of thunder,-the voices of the seven angels which stand before God, as the sound of a trumpet, which are successively heard by St. John,—and the act of his eating the little open book, which he is directed by the angel who shews him the vision to take out of the hand of our Lord,-being only so many various means by which the revelations thus opened by the sole power of "the Lion of the tribe of Judah," or of the Lamb that had been slain," are farther communicated by the church in heaven to the prophet John, that he may be qualified to impart them in like manner to his brethren of the church on earth. It will be manifest therefore from these observations, that I consider the

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The true description of the acts of revelation and communication I consider to be, that by the opening of the several seals or prophetic periods of time the events of them were revealed to the church in heaven equally as they affected either branch of the Roman empire; but after having been so simultaneously revealed, according to the manner in which all general and complicated histories are narrated by their authors, the events relating to its western branch are first communicated to the Apostle by the Cherubim or glorified spirits of the church in heaven with voices resembling "the noise of thunder;" and then the same seven periods of revelation are again travelled over, and the events that had been revealed as to occur during each of them in its eastern branch are communicated in a distinct series by the seven angels who stand before God, (which is but another designation of the church in heaven,) with voices resembling the sound of a trumpet; which view, when we come to their minute examination, we shall find confirmed by the fact, that the events of the first seal and trumpet terminate before those of the second seal and trumpet commence; and these again before those of the third seal and trumpet commence, and so with the rest. The events relating to the church were also opened and revealed by Christ in the act of opening the events of the seven periods or totality of time; on which account

we find them presented to the Apostle in the form of a little open book the reason they are not equally communicated to him in the form of a division into seven periods being, that the times of the church are universally derived, not, like the regal times and periods, from the essential perfection of numbers, but from the natural year, and its division into months and days.

Being now therefore enabled to define the subject of our present investigation, as contained in chapters Iv and v, to be a general preface to the whole of the subsequent revelation called "the things which must be hereafter," or which shall follow upon the termination of the pagan persecutions of the primitive church, we are prepared to endeavour to interpret the symbolical language in which it is written; upon which subject it will be necessary however that I should previously remark, and in connexion with the observation I have already made, that for the arrangement of this book we must look to the precedent of other histories, that a similar rule here applies, and that we must also look for the interpretation of its symbols to the figures used in other books of Scripture, or in other historical and poetical writings symbolical language being most properly defined, as highly figurative and poetical language; so that when the same events which are described in the Apocalypse are found narrated in the works of a poetical writer of history, (and we might mention as a suitable instance the life of Napoleon by Walter Scott,) the probability is that they will be found also described under the same symbols, or as they may be termed with equal propriety, the same poetical images. The supposed difficulty of interpreting the symbols of the Apocalypse will thus

be seen to be rather imaginary than real; and one for instance frequently adverted to, viz. that of deciding whether a symbolical expression is to be interpreted literally or figuratively, must be, to say the least, vastly exaggerated: for though such a case may certainly be supposed, it can hardly be expected to occur in actual experience, that in reading either past or future history the context of any particular expression shall not enable us to decide in which of these two senses it is intended to be understood. With these two rules therefore set before us as to the simplicity of the principles according to which we are to arrange the matter of this prophecy, and also to interpret its symbols, we proceed to consider first

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Chap. iv. v. 1. The apostle tells us, that, after having received and recorded the communications addressed by Christ to the seven Churches in Asia, he looked, and behold a door was opened in heaven. This, like the opening of a seal, was itself an act of revelation: for being in the spirit, as before stated in chap. 1. 10, and receiving now fresh accessions of spiritual influence, heavenly things were at once laid open to his view, as to St. Stephen in his last favoured moments, when he said, "Behold I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God." He then heard, as the first of the many voices which afterwards met his ear, the voice of the angel, or glorified spirit, a member of the church in heaven, by whom Christ sent and signified to him these visions, 66 as it were the voice of a trumpet talking with him, saying, come up hither, and I

will shew thee things which must be hereafter; which description of the angels talking with him and instructing him, is used in Dan. x. 7, and frequently (as already noted) in Zechariah, where it occurs both at the commencement of a vision, and also at that of its explanation; (see chap. Iv. 1 and 5) and which occurring here in the former connexion, is again met with in the latter at chap. XVII. 1, and xxI. 9 and 15.

Verse 2. The Apostle was immediately in the Spirit; and the former vision having been witnessed upon earth, (for he turned round and be held it, upon his attention being arrested by the voice of Christ, as the great voice of a trumpet heard behind him,) the scene is now changed, and he is, in effect at least, caught up into heaven, that he might thus obtain a view of what was about to be revealed;—perhaps not bodily, like Philip when he was removed by the Spirit from one place to another, but rather like St. Paul, when whether he was in the body or out of the body he knew not. There was however this difference between the two cases; that, whereas St. Paul, in order that he might be strengthened and prepared for those extraordinary trials he was personally to undergo for Christ's sake, heard words and received spiritual communications which it was not lawful, or rather possible, for him to impart to others; St. John was so favoured expressly that he might strengthen the church at large to bear all their trials by communicating what he there received, and might

testify of all things that he saw;" which he begins to do in the following words, Behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne. It will suffice to consider the heavens here spoken of, as being only the scene of the spiritual communications St. John received; where

the first vision he beheld was that of Christ seated upon a throne, surrounded immediately by spiritual beings, whose peculiar characters we shall presently consider, and more remotely, by an innumerable company of angels. The representation here given of the throne of God, which is referred to again from Rev. xı. 15—19 and xiv. 3, corresponds to that of Isa. vI. and Ezek. I. and x. of which the former is declared, John x11. 41, to have been a vision of the glory of Christ; which we cannot but consider as having been in like manner manifested between the Cherubim in the holy of holies of the tabernacle and the temple; and which is particularly shewn to be the subject of the vision before us by the rainbow which is seen round about the throne, this being afterwards seen around the head of Christ. (Chap. x. 1.) Nevertheless, as our Lord said of himself, even in his state of humiliation, that he who had seen him had seen the Father, this cannot be less true in reference to this vision of his glory; which we shall rightly understand therefore to be an entire revelation of the divine glory of the Trinity,-Father, Son, and Spirit,-as manifested in Christ, who, seated on his mediatorial throne, in his regal character, is there, as the Creator and Governor of the world, the manifestation of God the Father; whence this throne is called in another place equally "the throne of God and of the Lamb.” (Rev. XXII. 1.)

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