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Verse 2. John, the highly favoured and beloved disciple, had already in his gospel borne testimony to the divine nature of him whose name is called "the Word of God;" and now, both at the commencement and termination of the Apocalypse, he "bare record" of his personal revelation as the same divine Word. This apostle formed, as it were, a connecting link between two dispensations. He had witnessed the fulfilment of the predictions of our Lord concerning his first act of vengeance in the destruction of Jerusa lem, and the total abolition of the Jewish economy; and was thus enabled to realize, what he was now called upon to testify to others, viz. that he would be equally faithful to his word, in coming hereafter in power to the destruction of the apostate Gentile church and nations. He testified also to his final manifestation, when, seated on the great white throne of his glory, he shall judge both men and angels.

Thus did he bear record" of the testimony of Jesus Christ.”

He bare record also of “ all things that he saw" in vision relating to the apostasy of the Gentile Church, its persecution of the true Church, the preservation of the latter through the special protection of God, and of the judgements to be inflicted upon all its successive persecutors.

Verse 3. In the blessing here pronounced upon him that readeth and they that hear the words of this prophecy, we have a recognition of its being designed to be the subject of social converse and instruction ; in the same manner as Israel was directed to write the precepts of the law delivered by Moses on the door posts of their houses, to bind them as frontlets between their eyes, and to make them the subject of their daily discourse. This precept, the Pharisees, though spiritually blind,

endeavoured to fulfil to the letter; but so little have the words of St. John, addressed to the spiritual Church of Christ, been noted, that this book-distinguished from all other Scripture by the blessings with which it is introduced, and the awful sanctions with which it closesis generally more neglected as a source of divine instruction than any other, and in reference to public or social worship, it is hardly too much to say that it is altogether proscribed.

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They are pronounced blessed however, who do read and hear it, and keep those things which are written therein; because "the time" of Christ's coming "is at hand," tendency then is obviously to keep us detached from the world, waiting for the glorious appearing of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. And then, no wonder that such great advantages are said to accompany perusal for those who thus confess, that they are strangers and pilgrims on the earth, are entitled to all the privileges of time and eternity, and

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God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he hath prepared for them a city," even "the new Jerusalem that cometh down from God out of heaven. Blessed then is "he that keepeth the things which are written therein" treasured up in his mind, as promises which intimately concern himself. Blessed indeed is every one, that thus believes; for there shall be a performance of those things that are here told him from the Lord. And if, in the days of the Apostles, the realizing power of faith, the evidence of things not seen as yet, caused the time of these events to appear, as if already hand;" how ought not our faith to be invigorated, and our expectations enlivened by the consideration, that the day of the deliverance of the Church is now so much nearer, as

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shewn by the fulfilment of a regular series of predictions, some of which our own eyes have witnessed, relative to previous and preparatory

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Verse 4. As most of the apostolic epistles, and those of St. John himself, though addressed to single churches, and even to individuals,— were providentially preserved to be to the end of time the sources of spiritual light, and the means of grace to the universal church; so the Apocalypse, though designed for the Church at large, is addressed immediately by St. John to the seven churches which were in proconsular Asia, over which he is considered to have exercised a particular jurisdiction: and the preference thus given (as elsewhere in the Apocalypse) to the Eastern Church above the Western, has reference probably to the fact, that it is hereafter to be the seat of the millennial church.

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That the universal Church however is addressed through them, is indicated by their number " seven,’ which denotes completeness and universality, like a square or cube, or any complete number; being, (as will be recognised by arithmeticians, and as is confirmed by the three portions, into which the seven seals and the seven trumpets are found to be respectively divided) the sum of the most simple series of geometrical progression 1, 2, 4, limited to three terms. On these churches, as representing the whole church, St. John bestows his benediction, wishing them " grace and peace" from God the Father, here described in his self-existent and eternal Godhead, as the great "I AM," he "which is and which was and which is to come;" and from the Holy Spirit, whose office it is to illuminate the universal church, and who

is therefore in this and a subsequent passage spoken of, as "the seven spirits which are before his throne" and who are sent forth into all the earth," or into all the churches of the earth.

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That the Holy Spirit is usually mentioned the third in order of the divine persons of the Trinity, may be supposed to have reference to the order in which they have been manifested to man;-God the Father as our Creator, God the Son as our Redeemer, and God the Holy Ghost as our Sanctifier. So the Jewish dispensation may be considered, as that in which God the Father was chiefly known as their king and lawgiver ;-the Gentile dispensation as that in which God the Son was chiefly revealed in his humiliation, as the redeemer of his Church ;—and the Millennial dispensation, as that in which the Holy Spirit will be manifested in all his powerful operations upon the hearts of both Jew and Gentile.

That in the present instance this order is altered, proves the essential equality of the three persons in the Godhead, and appears to have reference to the lengthened doxology which immediately follows upon the mention of the name of Christ, with whose name the benediction now closes.

Verses 5, 6. "And from Jesus Christ, who is (alone) the faithful witness" to man of those heavenly things which he hath heard and seen with his Father, and who having suffered for our sins became "the first begotten of the dead;" for St. Paul informs us that Christ, is become the "first fruits" of them that slepti; and that "if the spirit of

him that raised up Christ from the ' dead dwell in us, he that raised up 'Christ from the dead shall also quicken our mortal bodies by his

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i1 Cor. xv. 23.

spirit that dwelleth in us."k He is also become "the prince of the kings of the earth;" all power being given unto him in heaven and in earth to subdue all the adversaries of the Church,-whether they be spiritual powers or the princes of this world, who were gathered together against the holy child Jesus, when he came in a state of humiliation, and will again be gathered together against him to their own destruction at the great day of Armageddon, when he shall be manifested in all his glory and power as "king of kings and lord of lords" or "prince of the kings of the earth."

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St. John, like St. Paul in his Epistles, upon the mention of the name of Christ, and of the various relations in which he stands towards his Church, is unable, as it were, to restrain his feelings; but interrupting the thread of his discourse, breaks forth into the following doxologyUnto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood, ' and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever, Amen”—thus opening fully to the Church the doctrines of the gospel and shewing the source of all our blessings to be laid in the eternal love of Christ and the sum of all our blessings in the fact of our being washed from our sins, and looked upon by God as guiltless although we be guilty and as well pleasing in his sight although there be only one of whom God hath ever said, in him "" I am well pleased," since first the creation, once pronounced to be good, was marred by sin.

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hope to a condemned world; the imaginations of the thoughts of whose hearts are only evil continually!which "majestic in its own simplicity" unites into one glorious system all the attributes and perfections of God, and insures personal holiness as far as any doctrine can do for surely nothing can have a more powerful efficacy to lead us to reflect in our own persons, in some degree, however faint, the graces which shone in the human nature of Christ, than to believe that the reality of them, and the benefit derived from them, is through the grace of God really imputed to us; in like manner as the adjacent cloud reflects in some cases a second faint image of the glories of the bow of the covenant.

In the appellation here given to the church on earth of "kings and priests," we have the first interesting exhibition of that entire union, which is shewn throughout the Apocalypse to exist, between the church in heaven, the church on earth, and Christ the head of both. For as he is himself king, priest and prophet, so we have seen that the same three offices are exercised by the Church in heaven; and now in like manner the two first are here directly ascribed to the Church on earth; while the third, or the prophetical, is also implied, in that the book was communicated to St. John, a member of the Church on earth, that in the exercise of this office he might impart it to others.

The characters of king and priest, and that also of prophet, have indeed been united in the Church in all ages: as in Melchizedek king of Salem and priest of the most high God, who prophetically blessed Abraham; and in Abraham himself, the father of the faithful, whose regal character was manifested in his k Rom, VIII. 11.

O wisdom! far above that of this world, which revelation alone could have disclosed" that we should be saved by a righteousness not our own;"-O truth! which, like the rainbow, holds out the only ray of

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victory over the five kings who were given "as the dust to his sword and as the driven stubble to his bow," when God gave the nations before him and made him rule over kings." We further witness the exercise of the priestly office in his intercession for Sodom, as also in the figurative sacrifice of Isaac on mount Moriah; and of his prophetical office as the teacher of the Church, when God communicated to him the great promise of the future coming of the Messiah, saying, "in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed;" as well as when he declared that he would not hide from him that thing which he was about to do in the destruction of the wicked;-not only because he was according to promise to become a mighty nation, but because he knew, that, as instructor of the Church, he would "command his children and his household after him, that they should keep the way of the Lord, 'to do justice and judgment."

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In like manner the same three characters must be sustained by all genuine children of Abraham. As princes it is their privilege, even while yet in a state of humiliation, through their prayers to have power with God and with men, and to prevail,-as Jacob did against Esau, or as Elijah, whom God set like Jeremiah and the rest of the prophets 66 over na. 'tions and over the kingdoms, to 'root out and to pull down, to build and to plant;" and who though a man subject to like passions as we are, prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and it rained not on the earth by the space of three ' years and six months." As priests they must make intercession in the name of Christ for blessings upon the church and upon the world. And as prophets, they must bear witness for God, as lights in a dark place, and be the means of giving

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moral fertility to the earth. honor (if they did but exercise their privileges) have all the saints."

The elders, in their regal office, are described in chap. iv. as casting down their crowns before the throne of Christ; and the cherubim, in their priestly office, ascribe holiness to Him from whom they derive it: and here St. John, as the representative of the church on earth, having in like manner enumerated their privileges of kings and priests, renders back all the honor to Christ from whom they receive it, ascribing to him, as the sole author of all their salvation and hopes, “glory and dominion for ever and ever and ratifies this grateful ascription of praise by his solemn “ Amen.”

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Verse 7. The prophet next anticipates the final event to which the ensuing series of prophecy is designed to conduct us, or the glorious manifestation of Christ,-proclaiming, as if viewing the end from the beginning," Behold he cometh with clouds and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him, and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him ;" which words will receive their first fulfilment at the battle of Armageddon, when he will come attended by the church in heaven, and rule their enemies with a rod of iron, according to the promise made to the faithful martyrs of Thyatira. The event is described by Daniel in similar terms, "I saw one like the Son of Man coming in the I clouds of heaven."

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mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son." And it may be observed, that this revelation, being addressed to Gentile believers, and relating to that period during which the Jews are excluded from the visible church, the only reference made to that nation is in this prefatory passage.

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The description also of the state of the world, as wailing because of him," agrees with its infidel state of universal opposition to Christ at the time of the premillennial advent: to which period I therefore primarily refer it. I cannot however exclude entirely from this passage, or from any similar declaration of the coming of Christ in power, all reference to the final consummation and advent of the last day;" when, in the words of our Lord, all that are in 'their graves shall hear his voice and

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shall come forth, they that have 'done good to the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil 'unto the resurrection of damna'nation;" it appearing to me that in the word of prophecy these several acts of the coming of Christ in power are always more or less blended together in one view. The prophet declares his acquiescence in this manifestation of the righteous judgment of God and final vindication of his own cause and that of his Church in these words, expressive of his earnest desire for his appearing-" Even so, Amen."

Verse 8. In confirmation of these words of his prophet, and as an assurance that they shall be fulfilled, Christ himself next speaks in his own person saying, "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is and which was and which is to come, the Almighty." Christ, in whose eternal purpose, as being one with the Father, the whole scheme of redemption originated,-who sees the end from

the beginning, and by whose power it will be completely effected,—here gives his sanction to the words of the Apostle; as at the end of the last prophecy of Daniel, and as at the end also of the prophecy of the trumpet history, he is introduced as confirming them by an oath.

The designation here assumed by Christ, as he " which is and which was and which is to come,"—being the same as in a preceding verse, designates God the Father, as distinguished from God the Son and God the Holy Ghost; and proves, not only the unity of Christ with God the Father, but shews also that the revelation of the whole Trinity, as engaged in the covenant of grace and in the work of man's redemption, is here made in the person of Christ. In his regal office, he is the revelation of God the Father as King and Creator.-In his priestly character, he is the revelation of God the Word as our propitiatory sacrifice and Redeemer.-In his prophetical character, he is the revelation of God the Holy Spirit, as the teacher and sanctifier of his Church. This doctrine of the Trinity and of the several offices held by each of the divine persons was evidently taught in the legal dispensation by the three principal feasts of the Jews.-The passover was held in honor of the manifestation of the second person of the Trinity in the flesh, and of his sacrifice for us; and in confirmation of this view we know that it was on the day of the Jewish institution that Christ our passover was sacrificed for us. The feast of Pentecost, or first fruits, was instituted in honor of the manifestation of the third person of the Trinity, as the teacher and sanctifier of the Church; and in confirmation of this we find that it was on the day of this Jewish institution that the Holy Ghost was given, and that spiritual

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