Of THE "^ 'II7BIISITT1 '^-7^2^^ THE SEALS OPENED OR, THH APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED. BY ENOCH POND, D.D., PKOFESSOK IN THE THEOLOGICAL bEMINABY, BANGOE. Of TBTB ^ [TJIIVBESIT PORTLAND: HOYT, POGG, AND BEEED. MDCCCLXXI. ■^^^^^1 ^-p/ t^ Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871, "by HOTT, FOGG, AND BREED, ia the ofQce of the Librarian of Congress at "Washingtoiu ^ Of THB EE'PlCE. I HAVE long wished to come to a clear and right understanding of the Apocalypse. It has been a subject of thought and inquiry with me almost from childhood. Years ago, I flattered myself that I might interpret the first five chapters and the last three ; but all between the sixth chapter and the tAventieth seemed dark and mysterious. In the midst of unexplained visions and symbols I was confounded, and could see nothing clearly ; and it seemed strange to me, that a book so sublime and beautiful, so well attested as a revelation from God, and in regard to which a special blessing has been pronounced upon him who reads and understands it, should have been left in so much darkness. When the Jesuit and German method of inter- preting the book had been published in America, and especially after it had been endorsed substan- tially by Professor Moses Stuart, I gave the subject a new and earnest attention. But for reasons which will appear in the following pages, I could not adopt the theory proposed. If seemed to me to be based upon a false assumption as to the date of iv PREFACE. the Apocalypse, and instead of shedding hght upon the previous darkness, it the rather increased it. One thing which deterred me, and I presume has deterred others, from a careful study of the Apocalypse, was a supposed diversity of opinion among standard English and American commenta- tors in regard to it. We were told that our best expositors differed endlessly respecting it, that no two of them were agreed, and that it was impos- sible to obtain satisfaction, or to find the truth. But, on examination, I am satisfied that this diver- sity has been much exaggerated. Erratic minds, to be sure, have wandered variously ; but among better men, if there has not been an entire^ there has yet been a substantial agreement. The two writers who, beyond others, have served to direct public opinion on the subject in America and in England, are Mr Lowman^ and Bishop Newton. Following them, on substantially the same plan of interpretation, are Doddrige, Scott, Andrew Fuller, and (better than all), the lamented Albert Barnes. Though not adopting the interpretations of the latter on all points, I feel bound to say, that I have been more assisted by the study of liis Notes than by any other author. The view which he takes, and which I have been ' More than fifty years ago, Dr Emmons said to mc : ' Lowman's "Paraphrase and Notes on tlie Revelation" is the best book on the subject that has ever been written.' PREFACE V led to take, is not new. Avoiding the theories of Rationalists and Roman Catholics on the one hand, and of the Adventists on the other, the plan of in- terpretation which we have pursued is the same which has been held by the great body of evange- lical ministers and Christians in America and in England for the last hundred years. And, in my opinion, the time has come, when this view should be more openly and formally adopted in our Churches than it ever has been. Why should not the Apo- calypse be studied in our Sabbath schools and Bible classes, as well as the other books of the New Testa- ment ? It seems to me that public opinion has be- come sufficiently settled in regard to the explana- tion of it, to admit of its being made a formal study; and helps for the understanding of it can be easily^ furnished. A single consideration is sufficient to show that the symbols of the Apocalypse are not of so difficult interpretation as some have supposed, and that the right interpretation has been adopted. The apostle John, under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, pub- lished, some eighteen hundred years ago, a prophetic delineation of the Decline and Fall of the Roman em- pire. In the last century, Edward Gibbon published a learned history of its Decline and Fall, and surely no one will impute to Gibbon a design of recording the fulfilment of the Apocalypse. And yet Mr Barnes vi PREFACE. tells Tis : * To mj surprise, I found in Gibbon a re- corded series of events, wliicli seemed to me to correspond, to a great extent, witli the series of symbols found in the Apocalypse.' ^ In other places, ]\Ir Barnes speaks of Gibbon's history as liis prin- cipal help in explaining the Seals and the Trumpets. To this statement I desire to add my own attesta- tion; I have carefully read Mr Gibbon's history, having the symbols of the Apocalypse particularly in view, and I can truly say, that the many obvious coincidences surprised me. It has been objected to the Apocalypse — more especially to the prophetic parts of it — that it is without plan or method. But this is not true. It has a method which — excepting here and there an episode — and its triumphant songs — is strictly pursued. The prophetical part of the Apocalypse — that relating to ' the things which shall be hereafter' — is divided into two parts. The first train of predictions terminates at the Millennium. The Seven Seals, including the Trum- pets, run on to this stage ; for when the seventh angel sounded, there were great voices in heaven, saying, ' The kingdoms of this world have become the king- doms of our Lord, and of His Christ, and He shall reign for ever and ever.' But, as the latter part of ^ See Albert Bai-nes' Preface. PREFACE. vii this long period is but dimly indicated by the Seals and Trumpets, it is further exhibited in successive symbols and visions, in order to make the view more complete. These commence — perhaps not all at once — with the rise of the Papal power, and extend onward to the Millennium through the 1260 years. The first two of these symbols are the treading of the holy city, the Church, under foot by the Gen- tiles, for forty and two months, and the prophesy- ing of the two witnesses in sackcloth for the same period (Rev. xi. 2, 3). The third is that of the woman fleeing into the wilderness, to be nourished and protected there for the same period (Rev. xii.) And the fourth is that of the two beasts which were to continue their ravages for the same time (Rev. xiii. 5). These all spread over the same period, and terminate in the great conflict imme- diately preceding the Millennium. And, as though these had not depicted events with sufiicient fulness and clearness, they are sup- plemented by several other symbols and visions. There is the vision of the great harlot riding on the Roman beast, and of the seven angels pouring out their vials — the seven last plagues ; of the terrific fall of the mystical Babylon; and of the closing victory oi the Son of God (Rev. xvi.— xix.) The second train of apocalyptic predictions includes the Millennium; the defection following it; viii PREFACE. the overtlirow of Gog and Magog, together with all God's enemies ; the resurrection and general judgment ; the final state of the wicked in the lake of fire ; and the endless glories of the Church in heaven. It will be seen that here is plan and method. The more complicated part of it is the 1260 years preceding the Millennium, where several visions are recorded, not following each other chronolo- gically, but spreading over the same period, for the purpose of a more full delineation. But all this will be more fully explained as we pass along. It has been no part of my object to write a critical commentary on the Apocalypse, or a learned, elaborate exposition of it. I have designed rather to enlarge and open the book, to show briefly the import and application of its symbols ; to point out its fulfilment in the past history of the Church and of her enemies; and, as an encouragement to effort, to present her glorious future. My design, in short, has been so to present this last book of the Bible, that it may be read and understood by Cliristians generally, feeling sure that they will find it, like all other Scripture, to be * profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteous- ness.' Theological Seminary, Bangor, Me., May 6, 1871. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Page The Apocalypse; "When ^yritten, and by Whom? . . 1 CHAPTER II. Review of Professor Staart on the Apocalypse : with Occa- sional References to the Commentary of Professor Cowles, ....... 17 CHAPTER III. The First Three Chapters Considered. Revelation, chaps. i., ii., iii., . ..... 30 CHAPTER IV. Introduction to the Prophetical Portion. Revelation, chaps. iv., v., . . . . . . .37 CHAPTER V. The Opening of the Seals. Revelation, chap, vi., . . 52 CHAPTER VI. I'he First Four Trumpets. Revelation, chaps, vii., viii., . 78 X CONTENTS. CHAPTER YII. Page The Fifth and Sixth Trumpets. Revelation, chap, ix., 95 CHAPTER VIII. Christ appears as a Mighty Angel : the End not Yet. Revela- tion, chap. X., . ... . . . 109 CHAPTER IX. The Testimony of the AVitnesses — the Seventh Tmmpet. Revelation, chap, xi., . . . . .115 CHAPTER X. The Mystical Woman and her Seed. Revelation, chap, xii., 125 CHAPTER XI. Rise and Description of the Papal Beasts. Revelation, chap. ^1x1 • •• • • • • • m xi} X. CHAPTER XII. Daniel's Vision of the Four Beasts. Daniel chap, vii., » 142 CHAPTER XIII. Sundry Visions— Preparation for the Seven Last Plagues. Revelation, chaps, xiv., xv., . . . .150 CHAPTER XIV. The Pouring out of the Seven Vials. Revelation, chap, xvi., 158 CONTENTS. XL CHAPTER XV. Page God's Judgment upon the Great Whore. Revelation, chap. xvii., ....... 172 CHAPTER XYI. The Fall of the Mystical Babylon. Great Lamentation on Earth, and great Rejoicing in Heaven, on account of it. Revelation, chap, xviii., . . . ,179 CHAPTER XYII. Rejoicings in Heaven over the Fall of Babylon. Revelation, chap, xix., . . . . . , 183 CHAPTER XVIII. The Millennium. The general Resurrection and Judgment ; and the final Destruction of the Wicked. Revelation, chap. XX., ...... 192 CHAPTER XIX. Glorious Destination of the Righteous — Symbolical Repre- sentation of the Church in Heaven — Conclusion. Revelation, chaps, xxi., xxii., .... 202 CHAPTER XX. The Songs of the Apocalypse, . . • .212 CHAPTER XXI. The Lessons of the Apocalypse, . . , . • 222 APPENDIX. Ezekiel's Vision, . . . * . . . 233 THE APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED. CHAPTER I. THE APOCALYPSE ; WHEN WRITTEN, AND BY WHOM. lyrO one of our sacred books has excited so many -L 1 questions, and led to such diverse interpreta- tions, as the Apocalypse. It is not my purpose to notice all of these, or any considerable part of them, but I shall content myself with showing what I conceive to be its true history, design, and interpretation. I begin with inquiring as to the autlwr of the book, and the date of it. The Apocalypse is repeatedly said to have been written by John. It commences with a declaration to this effect ; * And He sent and signified it, by His angel, to His servant Jolin^ Also : ' John to the seven Churches of Asia.' — 'I Jolm^ saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven.' A 2 THE APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED: But what John was this? Was it John the beloved disciple and apostle, or some other man? Papias speaks of a presbyter of the name of John, who lived in Asia Minor in the latter part of the first century ; and by some critics, the Apocalypse has been ascribed to him. But of this John we know little or nothing except the name ; and the supposition that he wrote the Apocalypse is a mere conjecture, got up two hundred years after his death, by those who wished to destroy the canoni- cal authority of the book. We dismiss the sugges- tion, therefore, as not worthy of serious considera- tion, and adopt heartily the commonly received opinion, that the author of this wonderful book was no other than the apostle John. In proof of this, we cite, first, the circumstances of the writer, as detailed by himself. He says (chap. i. 9), ' I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.' In other words, the writer, whoever he may have been, was, at the time, suffering perse- cution for the truth's sake, and was in banishment on the isle of Patmos. But, according to the united testimony of the early fathers, the apostle John, in a time of severe persecution, was banished to the isle of Patmos. I hardly need quote their WHEN WRITTEN, AND BY WHOM. 3 language on tliis point. Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Origen, Victoriniis, Eusebius, Epiplianius, Sulpicius Severns, Jerome, and a great many others,^ tell us (to use the very words of Origen), 'that a Roman emperor banished the apostle John into the isle of Patmos, for the testimony which he bore to the word of truth.' This shows that it was John the apostle, and not another, who wrote the book under consideration. And to this fact, we have the direct testimony of many of the early fathers. Justin Martyr, who flourished from forty to sixty years after the death of John, says, ' A certain man, John by name, who was one of the apostles of Christ, prophesied,' etc."^ Melito, bishop of Sardis, a contemporary of Justin, wrote a book concerning ' the Apocalypse of John.'^ Apollonius, a distinguished writer of Asia Minor, in a book against the Montanists, appeals, in like manner, to ' the Apocalypse of John.' ^ Irenseus, in his work against Heresies (book 4, chapter xx.), speaks repeatedly of John — the same who wrote the gospel — as the author of the Apocalypse. Clement of Alexandria, speaking of the righteous man, says, ' He shall sit among the twenty-four thrones, judg- ing the people, as John saith in the Apocalypse.' ^ * See Larclner's Credibility, vol. v. pp. 414-416. ^ Dialogue with Trypho, chap. 80, 81. 3 In Euseb. Ecc. Hist. iv. 24 and 28, v. 18. * Strom, iv. 4. 4 THE APOCAL YPSE EXPLA IN ED : Tertullian, the first of the Latin fathers, speaks often of the Apocalypse as the work of the apostle John. In his book against Marcion, referring to Kev. i. 16, he says, that 'the apostle John, in the Apocalypse, describes the sword proceeding from the mouth of God.' Hippolytus, bishop of Ostia, testifies abundantly to the Johannean origin of the Apocalypse. In his book, * De Antichrist o,' section 9, he says, ' Blessed John, apostle and disciple of the Lord, tell me what thou didst see and hear respecting Babylon?' and then he quotes Revelation, chapters xvii. and xviii., as the testimony of the apostle. Origen, the most learned of the early fathers, who was born only seventy-eight years after the death of John, speaks continually of this apostle as the author of the Apocalypse. I hardly need quote passages. In his commentary on Matthew, he says, ' John has left us one gospel. He also wrote the Apocalypse.' Again, he quotes what *John, the son of Zebedee, says in the Apocalypse.' But if the Apocalypse was so generally regarded, in the first ages of the Church, as the work of John, and of canonical authority, how came it to be, after a time, disputed? What could have led some of the fathers of the third and fourth centuries, as Dionysius, and Nepos of Alexandria, and Caius of Rome, and even Eusebius, the historian, to enter- WHEN WRITTEN, AND BY WHOM. r tain doubts respecting it ? To this I answer : These doubts were entertained, not at all on historical >? grounds, but for reasons purely doctrinal. The ""^ historical proof of the apostolical and canonical ^ authority of the Apocalypse was ample ; but the \^ millenarians laid hold of a passage in the 20th chapter — that which speaks of the binding of Satan for a thousand years — and urged it in proof of their peculiar sentiments. And the fathers above men- tioned thought that, perhaps, the best way to be rid of the troublesome passage was to discard the book which contained it. Thus Luther reasoned, for a time, in regard to the Epistle of James, be- cause he did not know how to interpret it ; he was, at the first, inclined to reject it. After the revolution under Constantine, the ^ Millenarianism of the primitive times fell into disrepute. And from that period, the authority of the Apocalypse was fully restored, and, with few exceptions, has been maintained to our own times. During the last century, the critics of Germany have assailed the Apocalypse, denying, in the most positive terms, that it can have been written by the apostle John. Thus De Wette says: * Nothing stands so firm as that the apostle John — if he be the writer of the Gospel, and the first Epistle — did not write the Apocalypse ;' and Ewald says : ' That 6 THE APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED: the Apocalypse was not written by the same hand which wrote the Gospel and the Epistle, is clear as the light of the sun.' The principal objection to the Johannean origin of the Apocalypse grows out of its style — its peculiar words and phrases ; an argu- ment by which this class of critics have shown themselves able to prove or disprove almost any- thing ; by which they have proved that Moses did not write the Pentateuch, nor Daniel his prophecies, nor the Evangelists the Gospels which bear their names ; by which they have proved that Homer did not write his poems, nor Plato his dialogues, nor Cicero but a part of his orations. The style of the Apocalypse is not more different from that of the other writings of John, than is the subject, the method, the object of the composition. How is it possible, in writing such a book as that before us, — made up, in great part, of visions, types, and symbolic representations, — that the style should not differ from that of a plain historic naiTative, or a famihar loving epistle ? Any competent critic would decide before hand that there must be peculiar expressions, and a wide diversity of style. And yet there are found many charactenstic re- semblances. Professor Stuart has drawn out a long list of these, filling several pages of his learned commentary, showing that many of the favourite WHEN WRITTEN AND BY WHOM. 7 expressions of John, occnmng in his Gospels and Epistles, are also found in the Apocalypse.-^ But if John wrote the Apocalypse, ivlien did he luiite it ? And what is the proper date of the book ? That John saw his visions while a persecuted exile on the isle of Patmos, he has himself declared. He either wrote them while on the island, or shortly after his return. But when was John banished to the isle of Patmos? Under which of the emperors did his exile occur ? On this question, modern interpreters are divided, some supposing that he was exiled in the persecu- tion under Nero about the year QQ ; while others insist that he was banished by Domitianas late as the year 96. If the former of these suppositions is correct, then John was banished and saw his visions previous to the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus. And those who adopt this view insist that the greater part of the Revelation, all between the 4th and 20th chapters, relates to the approaching destruction of Jerusalem, and the death of Nero ; or, at farthest, to the fall of the Pagan Eoman empire. This scheme of interpretation was first invented by the Jesuits,^ wdth a view to rescue Popery from * See Stuart's Comment, on the Apocalypse, vol. i. p. 406. ^ By Alcazar, a Spanish Jesuit, who flourished near the com- mencement of the seventeenth century. 8 THE APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED: the blasting visions and denunciations of the Apo- calypse. It was earnestly adopted by the Ration- alists of Germany. It has since found favour with a class of interpreters in England and this country, among whom we are sorry to include the late Pro- fessor Stuart of Andover, and Professor Cowles of Oberlin. I shall go into a brief examination of this scheme of interpretation in my next chapter. At present we have merely to do with the date of the Apocalypse, or the time when it was written. It has been thought to favour the early date of the Apocalypse, and the interpretation growing out of it, that the things therein predicted were to be fulfilled quickly : ' The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto Him, to show unto His ser- vants things that must shortly come to pass' (Rev. i. 1.) But it is admitted by all, that, among the things predicted in this book, are, the resurrection, the general judgment, and the final state of the righteous and the wicked, and of these things it is said repeatedly in the closing chapter, that they ' must shortly be done : ' — * The time is at hand.' — ' Be- hold I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be' (Rev. xxii. 6, 10, 12). How, then, is this phraseology to be under- stood ? How was it understood by the author of the book and by the Spirit who indited it ? Not, WHEN WRITTEN, AND BY WHOM. 9 surely, according to our estimation of time, but rather as God estimates it, to whom ' one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day/ It is assumed by some writers, that the coming of Christ, spoken of in Rev. i. 7, is His coming to destroy Jerusalem, because of the intimation, that some who were actually concerned in His crucifixion would be present : ' Every eye shall see Him, and the2/ also which pierced Him.^ But, in the sense in which the murderous Jews pierced the Saviour, we all have pierced Him by our sins. He was literally pierced by only one man, and he a Roman soldier (John xix. 34). In the same sentence with that above quoted, it is said, that ' all the kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him' (Rev. i. 7). Were *all the kindreds of the earth' present, with their wailings and lamentations, when Jerusalem was destroyed? or, is this scene reserved to the final coming of Christ to judge the world ? It is further urged, that the Apocalypse must have been written as early as the time of Nero, since only seven Churches are mentioned in it, which, probably, was the whole number at that time existing in Asia Minor. But it would be easy to show that there Avere many Churches in Asia Minor before the deaths of Peter and Paul. In addition to those addressed in the Apocalypse, there 10 THE APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED: were Churclies certainly in Iconium, in Lystra, in Derbe, in the Pisidian Antioch, in Hierapolis, in Pontus, in Cappadocia, in Bythinia, in Cilicia, in Galatia, in Colosse, and probably in many other places. Why messages were sent to only seven of these Churches, I pretend not to say. Perhaps these were the only ones with which John was particularly acquainted; or the number, seven, may have been taken, because it was a favourite perfect number among the Jews. On the whole, we find nothing, in the Apoca- lypse or out of it, which should lead us to think that it was written during the persecution under Nero, and that the most of it relates to his death and to the destruction of Jerusalem, or to the fall of Pagan Rome. We adopt the other supposition ; that it was written during the persecution under Domitian, near the close of the first century, and that it takes a much wider range of signification than that referred to. It does not appear that John could have become domiciliated among the Churches of Asia Elinor initil near the close of the Neronian persecution. These Churches had been chiefly planted by Paul, and were under his particular care and inspection. He often visited them while he had his liberty ; and after his confinement, he frequently wrote letters to, and kept up a constant communication with WHEN WRITTEN AND BY WHOM. 11 them ; yet, in none of bis letters, even to the last, do we find any mention of John, or any refer- ence to him as residing in that quarter. Accord- ingly, Professor Schaff says : ' It was probably the martyrdom of the apostle to the Gentiles, and the attendant dangers and distractions, that led John to take this important step, and build his structure on the foundation laid by Paul.'^ Neander also says : ' After the martyrdom of Paul, it is probable that John was called upon by the better part of the Churches to transfer the seat of his activity to this quarter.' ^ Nero put an end to his life, and the persecution ceased in the year 68. Some two or three years after the death of Paul, John would hardly have removed to Asia Minor during the violence of this persecution j and he must have resided there some considerable time before he had become intimately acquainted with the Churches, and acquired such an influence and authority, as would justify him in directing such messages to them as we find in the Revelation. The probability therefore is, that John was not in Asia Minor, or, if there, was not in circumstances to present them with such a book as that before us, until long after Nero was dead, and his bitter persecution of the Christians had ceased. ' ITist. of Apostolic Churches, p. 399. ^ Planting and training the Apostolic Churches, p. 219. 12 THE APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED: A variety of e^ddence, drawn from the Apocalypse itself, goes to assure us that it could not have been written until near the close of the first century. It was not till this time that the first day of the week began to be called ' the Lord's day,' yet it was on 'the Lord's day' that John was in the Spirit, and saAV the opening vision of the Apocalypse (Rev. i. 10). It was not till near the close of the first century that there was a presiding elder, an angel, in each of the Churches. • Previous to this the elders of a Church were always classed together, but each of the seven Churches of Asia seems to have had a presiding officer, or elder, when the Apocalypse was written. The Gnostic errors had begun to show them- selves in the time of Paul, but they had not been matured and organised under heresiarchs before the close of the first century ; yet we hear of the Nicolaitanes, a sect of Gnostics, in two of the messages to the Churches of Asia (Rev. ii. 6, 15). Near the close of the first century, and not earlier, the Gnostic leaders commenced the work of mutilating the sacred books of the Christians. It was this practice, probably, which led to the closing denunciations of the Apocalypse : * If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book : and if any man shall take away from the words of WHEN WRITTEN, AND BY WHOM. 13 the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things that are written in this book.' There had been no occasion for language such as this until near the close of the first century. It is obvious that the seven Churches of Asia were in a very different condition, when the Apo- calypse was written, from what they were in the time of Nero and of Paul. The Church at Ephesus had ' lost its first love.' The Church at Smyrna had those in its communion who belonged to ' the synagogue of Satan.' The Church at Pergamos harboured not only the Nicolaitanes, but those who held ' the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling-block before the children of Israel.' The Church at Thyatira suffered ' the woman Jezebel ' to teach, to seduce its members to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed to idols. The Church at Sardis had only ' a few names ' left which had not defiled their garments ; while the members of the Church at Laodicea had become so lukewarm and offensive to Christ, that He was ready to ' spue them out of His mouth.' In short, these Churches had all of them de- clined — sadly declined, from what they were when Paul wrote his Epistles to some of them ; and time must he allowed — a considerable time, in which to account for their defections. If we suppose the 14 THE APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED: Apocalypse written during the persecution under Nero, — only a few years subsequent to the writing of Paul's Epistles, — the requisite time is not furnished. But if the book was written thirty years later, in the persecution under Domitian, the declension can be accounted for, at least on the score of time. The testimony of the Fathers on the point before us is just what, in view of the facts above detailed, we might expect. With few exceptions, it is unani- mous in ascribing the exile of John, and the writing of the Apocalypse, to the time of Domitian. We commence with Irenseus, bishop of Lyons, in Gaul. He had been a disciple of Polycarp, who was a dis- ciple of the apostle John. He must have been familiarly acquainted with the circumstances of John's banishment, with the time of it, and the person by whom it had been decreed. He could not have been mistaken on these points, nor is there any mistake or ambiguity in his testimony. ' The Apocalypse,' he tells us, was seen not long ago^ but almost in our own generation^ near the end of the reign of Domitian!^ This testimony has never been set aside, and never can be. It is enough of itself, considering the circumstances, to decide the ques- tion before us. But this testimony does not stand alone. It is concurred in by nearly all the more distinguished ^ Contra Haeres, v. 20. WHEN WRITTEN, AND BY WHOM. 15 Fathers. Victorinus says repeatedly, that John was banished by Domitian, and m his time saw the Revelation. Hippolytus speaks of John as having been exiled to Patmos under Domitian, where he saw the Apocalypse.^ Eusebius, speaking of the persecution, says : ' In this persecution, John the apostle and evangelist, being still alive, was ba- nished into the isle of Patmos.'^ Jerome, in his book of illustrious men, says : * Domitian, in the fourteenth year of his reign, raised the next perse- cution after Nero, when John was banished to the isle of Patmos, where he wrote the Revelation.' In another work, he says : ' John was a prophet. He saw the Revelation in the isle of Patmos, where he was banished by Domitian.'^ Sulpicius Severus says, that * John, the apostle and evangelist, was banished by Domitian to the isle of Patmos, where he had visions, and where he wrote the Revela- tion.' * It would be needless to multiply quotations like these, and pursue them to a later period. It has been said that these testimonies are of little value, since they are all based one upon another, and ultimately upon that of Irenaeus. But this is not true ; at least, no one has any right or reason to affirm that it is true. They go to show what was » Works, p. 90. 3 ^Yorks, vol. vi. p. 446. ^ Ecc. Hist. Lib. 3, cap. 18. "* \yorks, vol. iv. chap. 120. 16 THE APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED: the settled conviction of the Cliurch on the point before ns, from the second century to the sixth, — the very time when the question could best be settled ; and, in the judgment then formed, and so unanimously expressed, it becomes us of the nine- teenth century to acquiesce. It cannot be reversed but upon vastly weightier reasons than any that have yet been urged. It will be seen that the question here discussed has a vital bearing on the interpretation of the Apocalypse. If this book was written near the close of the first century, almost thirty years after the death of Nero and the fall of Jerusalem, then it is vain to look for its fulfilment in either of these events. There is not the slightest allusion to either of them, from one end of the book to the other. But as many persons at this day, — following Professor Stuart and the Germans, — are inclined to adopt their scheme of interpretation, it may be well to examine it more particularly. REVIEWS EXAMINED. 17 CHAPTER 11. REVIEW OF PROFESSOR STUART ON THE APOCALYPSE : WITH OCCASIONAL REFERENCES TO THE COMMENTARY OF PROFESSOR COWLES. AMONG my ministerial friends who have passed away, no one stood higher than the late Pro- fessor Moses Stuart of Andover. I loved and honoured him while he lived, and venerate his memory now that he is gone. He was the father of biblical learning in this country. He did more to promote a knowledge of the original Scriptures, espe- cially those of the Old Testament, than any other individual. On most of his exegetical writings I set a high value, and it is with pain that I feel con- strained to differ from him in regard to any of them. But his learned, laboured, exhaustive work on the Apocalypse I consider the least valuable of his Com- mentaries. The plan of this Commentary, borrowed mostly from the Germans, is founded on a false assumption ; and this fact vitiates, confuses, and half spoils the whole. Professor Stuart assumes that the Apocalypse w^as written about the year 68, just before the 18 THE APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED: death of Nero, and two years previous to the de- struction of Jerusalem by Titus. In the Apocalypse, we have set before us, he says, three distinct catastrophes : 1. The fall of Jerusalem, in chapters vi.-xi. 2. The fall of Nero, and ultimately of Pagan Rome, in chapters xii.— xix. 3. The overthrow of Gog and Magog, after the close of the millennium. There is no reference to Papal Rome anywhere. The prophetic symbols, from the beginning of the sixth chapter to the close of the eleventh, all relate to the destruction of Jerusalem. Those from the twelfth to the nineteenth, to the fall of Nero and of Pagan Rome. The piincipal reasons assigned for referring all the debatable parts of tlie Apocalypse to the for- mer two of these catastrophes, are the following : — 1. On any other supposition, the symbols of the Apocalypse would not have been understood by those to whom the book was addressed, nor even by John himself. This consideration seems to have had great weight in the mind of Professor Stuart, and also of Professor Cowles, as both writers refer to it often, and in various connections. Let us then in- quire, for a moment, how much it is likely that John understood of the Apocalypse at the time when he was receiving and writing it. REVIEWS EXAMINED. 19 John knew what he saw in vision — the symbols, pictures, and images that were presented. He knew what he heard said and sung among the celestials. He knew enough, to record what he had seen and heard in plain intelligible language. But did he know to what particular events the symbols which he employed — the horsemen, the locusts, the beasts, the trumpets, the vials, etc., referred — what they were designed to represent, so that he could have written out a clear and full explication of them ? I doubt it. It is not at all likely that he had such an understanding as this of what he was writing. Nor was such knowledge on his part at all necessary to accomplish his object in preparing the work, or the object of the Spirit in enabling him to prepare it. This was, to comfort the afflicted persecuted people of God with the assurance, that all heaven was in sympathy with them in their trials, and that they were sure to end in victory and peace. Such was the immediate object of the Apocalypse ; and this could be as well answered without a particular understanding of the significance of each of the symbols, as with it. It is in this way that the book has been a light and a comfort to the Church in all succeeding ages. Christians have not known — in general they have not pretended to know, the particular significance 20 THE APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED: of tlie symbols. Yet tliey have derived mucli in- struction and comfort from the book. Indeed, the knowledge of the ancient prophets, in predicting the Messiah and the way of salvation through Him, did not extend much farther than has been here represented ; for we are told that they searched diligently * what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the suiFerings of Christ, and the glory that should follow ' (1 Pet. i. 11). And, so far as John understood his writings, I suppose the Churches to which they were addressed understood them, and no further. They knew what John had written, what things he had described, and the meaning of his words. But did their know- ledge extend much beyond this? I think not. Further knowledge was not necessary to their en- couragement and comfort; and judging from the specimens which we have of the explications and comments of the early Christians, we cannot give them much credit for their knowledge of the Apo- calypse. They early began to allegorize it after the fashion of the times. They appealed to it in support of their millenarian views, which had begun to prevail before the Apocalypse was written. And of all the wild vagaries that have ever been written on this book, some of their in- terpretations were the wildest. Take, for ex- REVIEWS EXAMINED. 21 ample, the comments of Hippolytiis on Rev. xii. ' The woman is the Church ; the sun which encom- passes her means the Word of God ; the moon under her feet indicates that her splendour is celestial. The crown of twelve stars indicates the twelve apostles ; the woes of parturiency show that the Church at all times is bringing forth the Word of God, which suffers persecution by the world. By the two eagles' wings given to the woman, in order to aid her flight, we are to under- stand belief in Christ, who, on the cross, spread out His two hands like wings for a protection to His followers.' This will do as a specimen of patristic interpretation. 2. Professor Stuart, and others who follow him, endeavour to support their theory by certain repre- sentations of the Apocalypse, which, — though in the midst of symbols, and themselves manifestly sym- bolical, — it is insisted must be understood literally. Thus, because the 144,000 sealed ones in Rev. vii. are said to be taken from the twelve tribes of Israel, it is thought that they include none but believing Jews, — the same that took warning and fled from Jerusalem when the city was destroyed. But do not these interpreters know that the whole Christian Church is called in Scripture 'the Israel of God,' though a vast majority of its members are not, and, since the first century, never have been I'i, THE APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED converted Jews? As well miglit it be inferred, since the names of ' the twelve tribes of Israel ' are inscribed over the gates of the celestial city, chap- ter xxi. 12, that none bnt converted Jews can ever pass through them into heaven. If the passage before us is to be understood literally, then, not only were 144,000 converted Jews sealed, but 12,000 were sealed from each of the twelve tribes. Now, does any one believe such a statement as this? Professor Stuart did not believe it.^ Clearly the passage is to be understood, not literally, but symbolically ; and thus understood, it is easy of interpretation. In Rev. xi. 1, 2, John s?Cys, that there was given him a reed, and he was commanded to rise and mea- sure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein. * But the court that is without the temple leave out, and measure it not ; for it is given unto the Gentiles. And the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.' From this, it is confidently affirmed, that the temple at Jeru- salem was standing when the passage was written. The whole question resolves itself into this : Is this passage to be understood literally, or symboli- cally ? If literally, then John, on the isle of Patmos, in the ^gean sea, was commanded to take a mea- suring-rod and hie away to the literal Jerusalem, ^ See Commentaiy, vol. ii. p. 173. REVIEWS EXAMINED. 23 and measure the temple, and the altar, and them that worship therein ! And now, I ask, Who be- lieves this ? Who can believe it ? But this is not all. In measuring the temple and the altar, John was to leave out the court of the temple, and not measure it ; for this was given to the Gentiles to be trodden under foot. According to this, interpreted literally, the Romans were not to destroy the temple itself, but only the court ; whereas it is certain that they did destroy the entire temple, court and all, leaving not one stone upon another. What then are we to say of the representation in Rev. xi. 1, 2 ? Is it to be understood literally or symbolically? Literally, it cannot be understood. So says Professor Stuart himself.-^ But symboli- cally understood, the interpretation is easy. The temple and the holy city signify the Church of God, which was to be persecuted and trodden down of the wicked for a given time, but ultimately was to be delivered, and to triumph. It is further said, that the two witnesses spoken of in this chapter, must have been slain in the literal Jerusalem, because their dead bodies are said to ' lie in the street of the great city, which spirit- ually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.' Upon this, I have only to ask, Are Sodom and Egypt to be understood literally? ^ Vol. ii. p. 213. 24 TEE APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED: And if not, why is Jerusalem to be taken literally? And if the whole passage is to be understood sym- bolically, as it certainly must be, then it furnishes no more evidence that the literal Jerusalem was standing when John wrote the Apocalypse, than that the literal Sodom was. 3. Professor Stuart claims credit for his theory of the Apocalypse, on account of the absurd expli- cations which have been given on the commonly received theory. 'Men have regarded the Apoca- lypse as a prophetic syllabus of all civil and eccle- siastical history, from the author s time to the end of the world.' We admit that a great many absurd and foolish things have been said by commentators, though we doubt whether any have gone so far as Pro- fessor Stuart represents, making the Apocalypse a syllabus of all civil and ecclesiastical history. But have there not been as absurd explications by Ger- mans and Roman Catholics, who in general adopt the theory of Professor Stuart ? It would be easy to show as much as this, without looking beyond the pages of Stuart's Commentary. Professors Stuart and Cowles think to avoid such absurdities, by saying that most of the symbols which John employs have no particular significance. They are the mere dress and furniture of the poem. The seals and the trumpets mean nothing, except REVIEWS EXAMINED. 25 that Jerusalem was to be destroyed, as besieged cities commonly are, by the sword, the famine, and pestilence. In a few instances, however, these men venture upon the interpretation of symbols ; and, we doubt, whether explications more absurd were ever uttered. As before remarked. Professor Stuart makes the beast, whose head was wounded to death, and after- wards healed, to be Nero ; because some of the old heathen soothsayers had a groundless prediction, that when Nero died he would be restored to life. And Professor Ccwles interprets the seventh trum- pet, — on the sounding of which ' great voices were heard in heaven saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ,' — as denoting the destruction of Jerusalem ! ! ' The seventh angel's trump involves this ; nothing less, nothing more,' p. 138. His only reason for this interpretation is, thai his theory demands it. Jerusalem must be destroyed just at this point, and the seventh trumpet must denote it. My objections to Professor Stuart's scheme of interpretation — and that of Professor Cowles is much the same — are, in brief, as follows : — 1. He represents his first catastrophe — the de- struction of Jerusalem — as being described in Rev. chapter xi. ; whereas, in truth, there is no catas- trophe there. Let any reader look over the chapter, D 26 THE APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED: and see if he can find it. There is first the measur- ing of the mystical temple, signifying the Chm'ch, and a leaving out of the court, which is given to the Gentiles, who are to tread down the holy city — another symbol of God's living Church — forty and two months. Then follows the testimony of the witnesses in sack-cloth, their death, and their re- surrection. This resurrection probably took place at the time of the reformation from Popery, when there were mighty changes in the Roman earth — all prefigured by an earthquake, and the fall of the tenth part of the city — the Popish hierarchy. That the city here spoken of, a tenth part of which fell, cannot be the literal Jerusalem, is evident from the fact, that Jerusalem was totally destroyed by the Romans shortly after the earthquake of the Refor- mation. Tlie seventh trumpet sounds, and the mil- lennial period is announced. Such is a brief an- alysis of this chapter ; and where in it are we to look for any such great catastrophe as the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans ? I cannot find it ; nor do I believe any sober interpreter can. 2. But if there be such a catastrophe here as Professor Stuart represents, it ought to be called the second, and not the first. The second catas- trophe, pertaining to Nero, is in the 19th chapter. But Nero was slain at least two years before Jeru- salem was destroyed, — in which time there reigned REVIEWS EXAMINED. 27 no less than four emperors. Nero is supposed to have died in the year 68 ; but Jerusalem was de- stroyed, under Vespasian, in the year 70. Why then, we ask, was the first catastrophe made the second, and the second the first ? Why were not these events predicted, if predicted at all, in the order of time ? 3. The symbols of destruction in the Revelation, which Professor Stuart refers to Jerusalem, are said by the writer to apply to the ichole earth — that is, the Roman earth. Thus, power was given to him that sat on the red horse to take peace from tlie earth. And power was given unto him on the pale horse ' over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with the sword, and with hunger, and with the beasts of the earth' (chap. vi. 4, 8). And when the first trumpet sounded, there followed hail and fire, mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth (chap. viii. 7). In Asia Minor, in the last half of the first century, the term earth could never have been understood as referring to the little and remote province of Judea. It must have meant the Roman empire. 4. Those who were smitten by the blast of the sixth trumpet, — some of whom were slain, and some spared, — could not have been Jews ; since they are expressly said to have been idolaters. ' The rest of the men that were not killed by these 28 THE APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED: plagues yet repented not of the works of their hcands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which can neither hear, nor see, nor walk ' (chap. ix. 20). How is it possible to apply this passage to the Jews, who were not idolaters?' 5. In the same chapter (ix.), the number of horsemen drawn together to the battle, and drawn from the East — the region of the Euphrates — is two hundred thousand thousand. Was an}^ such army, or any thing like it, or any army at all, drawn from the region of the Euphrates to fight against Jerusalem at the time of its overthrow. Let those who have read the history decide. 6. The woman described iu chapter xii., Pro- fessors Stuart and Cowles both take to be the virgin Mary, giving birth to the Saviour of the world, and then fleeing to her hiding-place in Egypt ; thus looking backward a period of seventy years, and not forward, as a prophet should do, into the future. And why should this little scrap of his- tory — if it be history — be thrown in here, in con- nection with the destruction of Jerusalem ? 7. This scheme of interpretation makes a long stride from the fall of Nero in the first century, or of Pagan Rome in the time of Constantine, to the incoming of the millennium. Of all the intervening space, — so full of incident and of interest to the REVIEWS EXAMINED. 29 Cliurch of God, — the writer of the Apocalypse is thought to take not the sHghtest notice. On any theory of interpretation, would not this be regarded as a strange fact, and a strong objection ? 8. But my principal objection to Professor Stuart's interpretation of the Apocalypse is, that he has fixed upon a wrong time for the writing of the book, and this vitiates and nullifies all his reason- ings on the subject. We have shown, we think conclusively, that this book was written, not during the persecution under Nero, but thirty years later, in the time of Domitian — long after Nero was dead and Jerusalem destroyed. And this changes the whole aspect and import of the book. Instead of being filled up with symbols and predic- tions in regard to these two events, there is not the slightest reference to either of them, as I have before remarked, in all that the Apostle has written. 30 THE APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED: CHAPTER III. THE FIRST THREE CHiVPTERS COXSn)ERED. REVELATION, CHAPS I., n., III. PATMOS, the place of Jolm's baiiisliment, is a desolate island in the iEgean sea, lying be- tween Icaria and the promontory of Miletus. It is some six or eight miles in length, but its average breadth is scarcely more than one mile. It has no trees or rivers, and very little land that is capable of cultivation. Owing to its isolated and desolate character, it was frequently used by the Romans as a place of banishment for criminals. During his exile on this dreaiy spot, the vener- able Apostle was not entirely deserted. In the absence of earthly friends and comforts, he seems to have enjoyed the most precious communion with Christ, and the most glorious manifestations or visions of His presence. We have a glowing ac- count of one of these visions, — perliaps the first of them, — in the first chapter of the Revelation. It occurred, like the Pentecost, on the first day of the w^eek — ' the Lord's day,' thus putting a new honom- upon what was to be the Sabbath of the Christian dispensation. 'I was in the Spirit on the Lord's REVELATION, CHAPS. /., //., III. 31 day, and I heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last : and. What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven Churches which are in Asia . . . And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And, being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks ; and in the midst of the seven candle- sticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow ; and his eyes wxre as a flame of fire ; and his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace ; and his voice as the sound of many waters. And he had in his right hand seven stars ; and out his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword ; and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.' Such was the appearance of the glorified Son of God, manifesting himself to His suffering disciple on this memorable occasion. After the first surprise of His appearance had passed away, Christ proceeds to give to John His commission to ivrite the book of Revelation, the very book on which we are commenting. And in the commission itself, a threefold division of the book is indicated. 'Write,' says He, ''the things which thou hast seen ; and the things which are, and the things ivhich shall he hereafter.^ ^ P^"* Of THK /^ M out ^ V • 32 THE APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED: According to the division here indicated, the first part of tlie book is comprised in the first chap- ter. For here is the record which John made of the resplendent and glorious vision which he had witnessed. I have no occasion to remark par- ticularly on this part of the book. The second part of the book, — ' the things whicli ar^,' — ^is comprised in the second and third chapters. Here we have the messages of instruction and warning wliich were to be sent to the seven Churches in Asia. This part of the book is not prophetical at all. It is simply a record of the things which are. My plan does not require me to go into a par- ticular explanation of this second part of the book. And yet, considering the interest and importance of these messages of love — addressed primarily to the Churches of Asia, but recorded for the benefit of all the Cliurches, — I cannot consent to pass from them without a few general remarks. 1. Though intended for the Churches to which they were addressed, they are all directed to the angels of these Churches. By these angels of the Churches, we are to understand, I think, their prin- cipal pastors. In all the large Churches planted by the apostles, there were, at the first, several pres- byters or elders. Such were the elders of the Church at Jerusalem, and of the Church at Ephesus. REVELATION, CHAPS. /., //., ///. 33 When these elders met together for business or devotion, they would need some one to be their moderator or president. By the close of the first century, the presiding elder had come to be re- garded as a standing officer, and in process of time appropriated to himself the name of bishop. It was in this way that the distinction between bishop and presbyter crept into the Church, — a distinction en- tirely unknown in the days of the apostles. These presiding elders were, I suppose, the angels of the Churches in Asia, to whom the messages of the Saviour were primarily directed. 2. These messages were all prefaced by men- tioning some of the appearances, doings, or attri- butes of the glorified Saviour — those which, in the first chapter, had been ascribed to Him. Thus, in the epistle to the Church at Ephesus, He is said to hold ' the stars in His right hand,' and to walk ' in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks;' in the epistle to the Church at Smyrna, He is 'the first and the last, which was dead and is alive ; ' in the epistle to the Church at Pergamos, He 'hath the sharp sword with two edges;' in the epistle to the Church at Thyatira, He ' hath his eyes like a flame of fire, and his feet like fine brass;' in the epistle to the Church at Sardis, He ' hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars;' in the epistle to the Church at Philadelphia, He is ' He that is holy, He 34: THE APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED: tliat is true, He that hath the key of David, He that openeth, and no man shutteth, and shutteth, and no man openeth ; ' in the epistle to the Church at Lao- dicea, He ' is the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God.'^ These several prefaces are all adapted to arrest attention, and make an impression ; and it may be that each was selected with special reference to the state of the particular Church. 3. These introductions are followed, in every instance, with the startling announcement, ^ I know thy works.'' Yes ! whether faithful or unfaithful, warm or lukewarm, heretical or otherwise, true or false, your case is all open to Him with whom you have to do : ^ I know thy works J 4. These epistles are messages of mingled com- mendation and reproof, in bestowing which the speaker is eminently pungent, direct, and faithful, — ^like one speaking with authority from heaven. In the Churches at Sardis and Laodicea, the Saviour finds little or nothing to commend ; in the Churches at Smyrna and Philadelphia, He finds little to re- prove ; while, in the remaining three, there are some things to be commended, and others to be censured. 5. In administering reproof, these epistles are ^ ApxTj, the head, the governor of tlie creation, the prime efficient of it. REVELATION, CHAPS. /., i/., HI. 35 patterns of heavenly wisdom, tenderness, and fidelity, which, cannot be too closely studied and imitated by all who are called to the discharge of this painful duty. Take, for example, the Church at Ephesus. The Saviour commences by praising this Church; and He continues His commendations as though He could never stop, 'I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them that are evil, and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars; and hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted.* Having said as much as this, the speaker can now proceed and say anything. He cannot possibly give offence by anything which will be likely to follow. 'Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.' When will reprovers and reformers learn to deal with delinquents after this manner? How much reproof is worse than wasted, by the in- dulgence of a different spirit, and by pursuing a difierent course ? 6. These epistles are filled up with earnest ex- hortations to repentance and reformation, with the richest promises in case of amendment, and with the most terrific denimciations upon those who persist in evil. '■ Eemember, therefore, from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works.' ' Re- 36 THE APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED: pent, or else I will come unto thee qiilcldy, and will figlit against tliee with the sword of my mouth.* * Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die.' ' To him that over- cometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in His throne.* 7. Considering the Author of these warnings, exhortations, and promises, and the circumstances under which they were uttered, we are not sur- prised to hear each message close with the declara- tion : * He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith imto the Chiu'ches.* May each one of us regard this solemn declara- tion as addressed particularly to ourselves. God has given us not only ears to hear, but means and advantages for understanding and improvement. Let us then hear these words of the Spirit to the Churches, and heed and obey them, that we may be heirs of the precious promises contained in them, and be prepared for the blessings which Christ has in store for all His people. REVELATION, CHAPTERS IV., V. 37 CHAPTER IV. INTRODUCTION TO TIIE PROPHETICAL PORTION. REVELATION CHAPS. IV'., V. IN my last chapter, I reviewed the first three chap- ters of the Revelation, containing an account of the writer's first vision on Patmos, — a vision of the glorified Son of God ; together with His mes- sages to the seven Churches of Asia. In the com- mission to John to write this book, I have said that a threefold division of it was indicated by the Sa- viour. John was to write the things which he had seen, the things which are, and those which shall he hereafter. The two first of these divisions are in- cluded in the chapters already considered. The third part of the book — the prophetical part — com- mences properly Avith the sixth chapter. The fourth and fifth chapters — in w^hich is presented a bright vision of heaven — may be regarded as introductory to the third or prophetical part. To these two chapters I shall now call attention. In the commencement of the fourth chapter, John tells us that he ' looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven : and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me ; 38 THE APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED: which said, Come up hither, and I will show the things which must be hereafter. And immediately I was in the Spirit ; and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne. And His appearance was like to that of a jasper, or a sardine stone ; and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald.' The personage whom John saw sitting on the throne was, undoubtedly, the eternal Father, — the grand executive head of the Divine administration, — whose office-work it is to guard the honours of the eternal throne. The rainbow round about the throne was a bow of promise, indicating that the throne of the Eternal is One, not only of judgment, but of grace. John ' saw seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God.' This I understand to be a symbolic representation of the Holy Spirit. The Hebrews regarded seven as a perfect number. Hence the seven lamps, or seven spirits, denote God's Holy Spirit. John also saw * round about the throne four and twenty seats, and upon the seats four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment, and having on their heads crowns of gold.' He saw, also, four living creatures — improperly translated in our Bibles * beasts ' — ' full of eyes before and behind ' (chap. iv. 4-9). It is generally understood that the four and UEVELATION, CHAPTERS IV., V. 39 twenty elders are representatives of the redeemed Church in heaven. But ' the living creatures,' who are they, and what do they represent? In ap- pearance, they are like ' the living creatures ' which Ezekiel and Isaiah saw in the commencement of their prophetic visions, and w^hich are called cheru- bim and seraphim. I have no doubt that •' the living creatures ' of the Apocalypse may properly be called cherubim. But what are cherubim? We have fre- quent mention of them and their doings in the Old Testament. Thus, when our first parents were ex- pelled from the garden of Eden, there were * placed, on the east of it, cherubim and a flaming sword, which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life' (Gen. iii. 24). The cherubim that Eze- kiel saw are represented as bearing up the throne of God, and as constituting, by their wings and wheels, the chariot of His glory (Ezek. i. 2Q ; x. 1). It is said of the God of Israel, in the eighteenth Psalm : ' He rode upon a cherub, and did fly ; he did fly upon the wings of the wind.' Of the symbolical import of the cherubim, various opinions have been entertained. By Mr Hutchinson and his followers, they were regarded as emblematical of the Trinity. But this idea is too absurd to require consideration. The God of Israel is always represented as distinct from the cherubim. He is served and worshipped by them. 40 THE APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED: He dwelt * between tlie clierubim/ and could not liave been represented by these symbols. Some have tliouglit that the cherubim were symbolical representations oi\\\Q powers and processes of nature, — those through w^hich God is carrying into effect His providential designs. But I cannot be of this opinion. They are not personifications, but personal beings. Personal offices and acts are ascribed to them. They unite wdth other personal beings in singing praises to God and the Lamb (See Isa. vi. 3; Kev. v. 8-11). And not only are they personal beings, but heavenly beings. Then* home is in heaven. Their work and Avorship are near the eternal throne. Are they, then, a distinct class of heavenly beings ; or are they a superior order of existing classes — ^lioly angels and redeemed souls ? I in- cline to the latter opinion. We know of but two distinct classes of heavenly beings, — angels and glorified men. Yet among these, we read of differ- ent orders, — some higher and some lower ; some near the throne, and others at a greater distance from it. There are ' ^principalities and powers in heavenly places.' There are angels and archangels, cherubim and seraphim. And of those who have gone from earth to heaven, some are farther ad- vanced than others ; since every one is to be re- warded according to his works. REVELATION, CHAPTERS IV., V. 41 The cherubim and seraphim, I think, are among the highest order of celestial beings — perhaps the very highest — who stand nearest the Eternal, and are specially the servants of His throne. All the holy angels are, indeed, the servants of God. They fly on His errands of mercy and of judgment. They ' do His commandments, hearken- ing unto the voice of His word.' Yet some may be more specially so than others, standing nearer to God, and engaged more directly in His service ; and this, as it seems to me, is true of the cherubim. They are emphatically the servants of God\s throne. And this agrees with all that we hear of them in the Scriptures. In the Jewish tabernacle and temple, where were figures of cherubim, their place was close by the glorious Shekinah — the visible manifestation of the presence of the Most High. And when Isaiah ' saw the Lord sitting upon His throne, high and lifted up, above it stood the sera- phim, crying one to another. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts.' The cherubim which Ezekiel saw were in a still more obvious attitude of service. As I just now said, they are represented as bearing up the throne of God, and as constituting the chariot of His glory. The Psalmist represents the Almighty as riding upon a cherub — ' On church and on cherubim. Full royally He rode.' F 42 THE APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED: In the Revelation, too, tlie living creatures, the cherubim, are represented as having their places ' in the midst of the throne^ and round about it.' That this place of honour is occupied, and has been from the beginning, by a superior order of angels, is indubitable. But is it occupied by the angels only ? Or do a portion of the ransomed ones share with them in this service and honour ? But for a single passage, — and that one in the chapters we are considering, — we might feel con- strained to answer this question in the negative. In the vision before us, ' the living creatures,' the cherubim, who are * in the midst of the throne, and round about,' unite with the four and twenty elders in singing the new song of redeeming mercy (chap, iv. 10, 11). And when the Lamb had taken the book out of the hands of Him that sat upon the throne, ' the four li^dng creatures, and the four and twenty elders, fell down before the Lamb, . . . and they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof; for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation ' (chap. v. 9). There is no evading the force of this passage. The living creatures, the cherubim, do here unite with the other representatives of the ransomed Church, in singing the song of redeeming mercy — REVELATION, CHAPTERS IV., V. 43 a song which none can ever learn but those who have been redeemed from among men. (See Rev. xiv. 3.) This passage, therefore, which has long been a puzzle to commentators, and which many have tried to explain away, I regard as a glorious revelation. It assures us of the high honour which is put upon the saints, or upon a portion of them, in the heavenly world. Our Saviour tells us that * they shall be as the angels,' and ^ equal to the angels ; ' but we are here informed that they are to be numbered with cherubim and seraphim, — among the highest order of celestial spirits, who stand nearest the Eternal, and are em]Dhatically the ser- vants of His throne. The faces and forms of these cherubim have commonly been considered, — and, I think, justly, — as indicative of their characters, their properties, their powers. The first was like a lion, to indicate their courage and power; the second was like a calf, or young ox, to indicate their patience of labour ; the third had the face of a man, to indicate their intelligence ; and the fourth was like a flying eagle, to indicate the rapidity of their motions in accomplishing the service of God. They were also furnished with wings, and ' were full of eyes before and behind, — still further to indicate the properties we have ascribed to them. But without dwelling longer on the living crea- 44 THE APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED: tures, the cherubim, let us proceed to the re- mainmg parts of the vision under consideration. John saw ' in the right hand of Him that sat upon the throne a book written witliin and on the back side, sealed with seven seals.' And he saw ' a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof? And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon' (chap. v. 1—3). This book which John saw was not enclosed in covers, like our books. It was a great roll of parch- ment, closely rolled up, and sealed with seven seals ; so that when one seal was broken, it could be un- rolled a certain way, to disclose what was behind it; and when another seal was broken, it could be un- rolled fiirther, to disclose more. This was the book of prophecy — the book of God's inscrutable pur- poses — into which no created being in heaven, or on earth, or anywhere else, was able to look. And John says, * I wept much, because no one was found able to open the book, neither to look thereon. And one of the elders said unto me. Weep not ; for, behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, and the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof (chap. v. 4,5). Here the Lord Jesus Christ, 'the lion of the REVELATION, CHAPTERS IF., V. 45 tribe of Juclah, and the root of David/ is first brought upon the heavenly scene. He comes for- ward in appearance as a lamb that had been slain, and takes the book out of the hands of Him that sat upon the throne. He breaks the stubborn seals, unrols the mystic scroll, and shows the prophetic symbols that are concealed behind it (chap. v» 6, 7). We have here, I must say in passing, one of the most conclusive proofs in the Bible of the proper divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ. No created being in heaven, or on earth, or anywhere else, could break one of these seals, or disclose what was concealed under it. In other words, no created being in the universe can look out into the distant, contingent future, and tell us what shall be here- after. But Christ can do this infallibly ; thus prov- ing His claim to a proper divinity. And when the Lamb had taken the book, ' the four living creatures, and the four and twenty elders fell down before Him, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours,' or in- cense, • which are the prayers of saints,' — or which represent the prayers of saints. * And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof, for Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us unto God by Thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation, and hast made us kings and priests unto 46 THE APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED: God, and we shall reign upon the earth ' (chap. v. 8-10). This song, as I said before, was sung by the representatives of the redeemed Church in heaven. It could be sung by no one else. The great choir of angels stood silently by, while this part of the heavenly service was performed. But when the new song had been sung by the Tansomed ones, a grand chorus was introduced, in which saints and angels — the entire host of heaven — could all unite. 'I beheld,* says John, 'and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne, and the living creatures and the elders, and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, saying, with XI loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and Avisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and gloiy, and power be unto Him that sitteth on the throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever. And the four living creatm^es said. Amen. And the four and twenty elders fell down and wor- shipped Him that liveth for ever and ever ' (chap. V. 11-14). We here see with what intense fervour and de- REVELATION, CHAPTERS IV., V. 47 Yotion the Lamb, tlie Lord Jesus Christ, is wor- shipped in heaven. Would heavenly beings offer such worship — the same that is offered to Him upon the throne — to any other than a Divine person- age ? Would they be guilty of the idolatry of wor- shipping, after this manner, a creature like them- selves ? Before dismissing these two chapters (iv.— v.), and entering on the prophetical part of the Eevela- tion, it may be well to notice a few passages more particularly — 1. What are we to understand by 'the sea of glass, like unto crystal,' which John saw before the throne? (chap. iv. 6). Most commentators have sup- posed a reference here to 'the molten sea' which Solomon placed in the temple, intended for ablutions and purifications, which 'was ten cubits from one brim to the other.' But I doubt the fact of such a reference. The scenery in this vision is not that of the Jewish temple, but rather that of heaven itself, where was the throne of God, and the living crea- tures with the elders, and the countless myriads of angelic worshippers. I think that what seemed to the eye of the Apostle like a sea of polished crystal, w^as rather the pavement round about the throne, where the worshippers presented themselves. And this accords with another vision in this wonder- ful book, chap, xv., ' I saw as it were a sea of glass 48 THE APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED: mingled -witli fire ; and tliey that have gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of ghiss, with the harps of God.' They do not bathe in the sea, or wash or purify themselves in it. They need no ablutions in heaven. But they stand upon it, as upon a polished and glittering pavement. 2. Why is the song of redeeming mercy, sung by the living creatures and the elders, here called a new song ? (chap. v. 9). Because, in the first place, it is comparatively a new song in heaven. It has not been sung there always, nor for a very long period. Heaven had been inhabited by holy, happy crea- tures long ages before the new song had ever been chanted in those blessed regions. Bright angels, of different orders, had lifted up their hearts and voices in praise to their Almighty Creator, saying, ' Thou art worthy, Lord, to receive glory and honour, for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are, and they were created.' But they had never sung the new song of redeem- ing mercy. They had no idea of such a song, and no conception that it ever could or would be offered up. The new song was sung on earth, before it was heard in heaven. It was not till redeemed souls had been gathered from the earth, and re- ceived up to heaven — that the living creatures REVELATION, CHAPTERS IV.-V. 49 and the elders began to worship the Lamb, saying, ' Thou art worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof, for Thou wast slain, and hast re- deemed us unto God by Thy blood, out of every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people.' But this song may also be called new, on ac- count of its surpassing interest. It is of such a nature that it will always be new. It can never grow old ; or (which is the same) become uninteresting. Ke- deeming love is of all subjects the most interesting in heaven. Of course, redeemed souls can never lose their interest in it ; while the angels are scarcely less engrossed in it than they. ' Into which things the angels desire to look.' Creative power, and sovereign wisdom, and preserving goodness, may lose, at length, something of their freshness and in- terest ; but not so redeeming grace. This subject will always be new ; for the riches of Christ are unsearcliahle ; and the love displayed in redemption passeth hwwledge ; and the celebration of it in the songs of the blessed will never cease. 3. Near the close of the new song, the ransomed ones are represented as saying: 'Thou hast made us unto our God kings and priests, and ive shall reign upon the earth' (chap. v. 10). What does this imply? Are the redeemed in heaven to come back to earth, and literally reign here with Christ ? We think not. The whole scene presented in this vision is symboli- G 50 THE APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED: cal. The living creatures and the elders symbolize the redeemed Church. Their song implies, not that they are literally to descend to earth, and have crowns and kingdoms here, but that God's Church is yet to reign upon the earth. It is to predominate over all other interests. In the v^ords of Daniel, * The kingdom, and dominion, and greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High ' (Daniel vii. 27). 4. The grand chorus, in which all heaven unites, is represented as closing thus : ' And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying. Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth on the throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever' (chap. V. 13). This language has often been quoted, as prov- ing the doctrine of universal restoration. * However long the reign ot sin may be, the time will come when every creature that is in heaven, or on earth, or under the earth, or anywhere else, will be brought to Christ, and unite in singing praises to God and the Lamb for ever.' It is a sufficient refutation of this conceit to remember, that the language here used is not prophecy. It does not belong to the pro- phetical part of the Revelation. That commences. REVELATION, CHAPTERS IV.-V, 51 as I have said, with the opening of the sixth chap- ter. John is not predicting here a universal resto- ration to be accomphshed far down in the cycles of time, but he is recording what he actually saw and heard at the time of the vision. And what did he see and hear ? He heard every creature that was then in heaven — ^holy angels and the spirits of holy men — some of whose bodies were still mouldering on the earth, or under the earth, or in the sea — he heard them all singing with a loud voice, 'Blessings and honour, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth on the throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever.' This is all the Universalism that this passage teaches ; and it is, you see, no Universalism at all. All heaven was then occupied, and for ever will be, in singing songs of praise to God and the Lamb; while the beast and the false prophet are left to bite and gnaw their tongues for pain, and blaspheme the God of heaven, and still not repent of their evil deeds. 52 THE APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED: CHAPTER Y. THE OPEXIXG OF THE SE-VLS. EEVELATION, CHAP. VI. WE now come to the third, the prophetical part of the Revelation — tliat relating to * the things which shall be hereafter.' In fixing the date of this book, we excluded a scheme of interpretation which refers most of these prophecies to the death of Nero, and the destruction of Jerusalem. They refer, undoubtedly, to leading- events in the history of God's Church, from the time when they were written, to the end of the world. Not that they furnish a syllabus, in minute detail, of the civil and ecclesiastical history of the world ; nor is it likely that, in intei-preting this book, we are to follow throughout a chronological order. Still there is certainly some regard paid to chro- nology, for the book commences with the early conquests of the Gospel, and ends with its final triumph in this world, and its glorious consumma- tion in heaven. But we are not to look for regular chronological sequences from chapter to chapter, nor anything like it. The visions and revelations are mostly scenic, and great occurrences are repre- IIEVELATION, CHAPTER VI. 53 sented frequently in successive scenes, tliat a more full and complete view of tliem may be exhibited. Tlie course of the Gospel througli the ages, as set forth in these visions, is one, not of quiet pre- valence, but rather of long and terrible conflict. Earth and hell are arrayed against it, and the con- test is protracted and dreadful. The Church is re- presented as struggling against its mortal enemies — the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet — and is sometimes, apparently, on the verge of destruc- tion. All the way, however, it is sustained by the ministry of angels, and by frequent manifestations of the Son of God ; and in the end, the conflict comes out gloriously. The mystic Babylon is ' with violence thrown down, and shall be found no more at all.' ' The great whore, wliich did corrupt the earth with her fornications,' is brought to judgment, and is condemned. The beasts, which had so long- ravaged the Church, are destroyed. The dragon, * that old serpent, which is the devil and Satan,' is caught and imprisoned, to come out no more for a long period. A song of triumph goes up from all the host of heaven, saying, ' Alleluia ! Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, be unto the Lord our God ; for true and righteous are His judgments !' Such is, in brief, the plan of the Apocalypse ; and the object of it — of Christ in revealing it, and of John in writing it — is very obvious. It was to 54 THE APOCALYPSE EXPLAiyED: instruct and warn tlie people of God. It was to strengthen and comfort tliem during their long conflict with earth and hell, setting before them its glorious termination, and the certainty of their final security and triumph. And who can tell how much the suffering children of God have been sup- ported and comforted in view of these things? Confined in dark dungeons, and tortured in every form that a hellish ingenuity could invent ; chained to the bm-ning pile, or torn by savage beasts, or thrown fi:om the tops of rocks, or drowned in the sea ; who can tell how much they have been com- forted by reflecting on the glowing visions of this wonderful book ? It was here that they gathered arms for the deadly fight, and strength to triumph over their last enemy. The revelations of the Apocalypse are imparted chiefly by means of symhols. And what are sym- bols ? They are not the same as types, or figm-es of speech; but are rather the setting forth of moral ideas by pictm-es or natural objects. Thus, a cncle is a symbol of eternity, having neither beginning nor end; an eye is a symbol of wisdom; a lion of courage ; a lamb of meekness and gentleness ; and a dove of innocence. Not a few of the symbols employed in the Revelation are interpreted either by the speaker or writer. Thus it is said in the first chapter: 'The seven stars are the angels of REVELATION, CHAPTER VL 55 the seven Clmrches, and the seven candlesticks are the seven Churches.' And in the seventeenth chapter : ' The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sitteth;' and 'the ten horns are ten kings,' or kingdoms. So, in Daniel, ' The ram which thou sawest, having two horns, are the kings of Media and Persia ; and the rough he-goat is the king of Grecia' (Dan. viii. 20.) And where the symbol is not explained, it is not usually of difficult interpretation. The nature of it will suggest its import, with at least sufficient clearness to answer the purpose of the writer. The design of prophecy does not require that there should be an explicit statement of what is to take place, with a detail of names, dates, and circumstances ; but only such a statement as will show that some future event was intended, and will so far indicate or describe the event, that when it comes to pass, it may be seen that it really was the event referred to. It is no part of the object of the prophetic Scriptures to enable interpreters to prophesy, but rather to con- firm their faith, and that of the whole Church, when the event shall actually have occurred. And this may be done by appropriate symbols, as well as in any other way. It should be added, however, that peculiar care is necessary in the interpretation of symbols, lest the imagination get the better of sober judgment, 66 THE APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED: and men retail, — as they often have done, — their own fancies in place of the truth of God. But without further introduction, let us attempt the interpretation of some of the symbols in the chapter before us. 'And I saw, when the Lamb opened one of the seals ; and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four living creatures saying, Come and see. And I saw, and behold a white horse ; and he that sat on him had a bow ; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer ' (Rev. vi. 1, 2). The symbol here employed — a man, a conqueror, on a white horse — is interpreted in another part of the Revelation, * I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse ; and He that sat on him was called Faithful and True ; and in righteousness He doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns ; . . . and He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and His name is called the Word (Logos) of God,' Rev. xix. 11—13. The symbol is the same as that in the chapter before us, — a triumphant conqueror on a white horse ; and here we have His name in full — the Logos of God — the Lord Jesus Christ. It is Christ, therefore, who is here presented as 'going forth from conquering to conquer.* The event predicted is, undoubtedly, the rapid REVELATION, CHAPTER VI. 57 triumphs of the Gospel in the second and third centuries, immediately following the opening of the First Seal. In the first century, the Gospel spread into remote and distant places in every direction ; still, it did not reach the people generally. *It touched and glanced on every land,' but the inter- stices were not filled up ; many places were left in darkness. In the next two centuries, this destitu- tion was in a great measure remedied. The religion of Christ not only spread into regions before un- occupied, but it more deeply penetrated countries where it had ah^eady found its way. From the remotest east to the remotest west, and from the northern extremities of the Roman empire, and be- yond them, far down into Ethiopia and Africa, we shall scarcely find a country in which the religion of Christ was not professed — Persia, Hither India, Mesopotamia, Armenia, Arabia, Asia Minor, Greece, Italy, Germany, Spain, Gaul, Britain, Egypt, and Northern Africa. Some of these countries were spread over with Churches and full of Christians ; while in others, missionaries, private individuals, merchants, travellers, and in some instances cap- tives, and even captive females, were busily at w^ork, telling the story of a Saviour's death, and endeavouring to lead poor, blinded, groping, ruined sinners, into the way of life. It was impossible that Christianity, thus recommended and enforced, should II 58 THE APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED: not prevail ; and it did prevail. It tnumplied over existing idolatries and superstitions, and soon reached a prodigious diffusion. It was this fact which emboldened Tertullian to say, in his Apology : ' We are a people of yester- day ; and yet we have filled every place belonging to you, — your cities, islands, castles, towns, assem- blies, your very camp, your tribes, your companies, the palace, the forum, and the senate, leaving you nothing but your temples. You can count your armies, but our numbers, in some single provinces, are greater than they.' Justin Martyr uses a similar language : ' There is no people, Greek or barbarian, or of any other race, by whatsoever appellation or manners they may be distinguished, however ignorant of arts or agriculture, whether they dwell in tents, or wander about in covered waggons, among whom prayers and thanksgivings are not offered in the name of the crucified Jesus, to the Father and Creator of all things.' We have evidence that these statements are not exaggerations, from events which took place in the times of which we speak. During the reign of Trajan, the younger Pliny was governor of Bythinia ; and so great was the number of Christians brought before him for trial and punishment, that he knew not what to do with them, and wrote to the em- REVELATION, CHAPTER VI. 59 peror for advice. He had put many to death, on a profession of their faith ; but the more accusers were encouraged, the more the victims were multi- pHed, until the numbers brought up for trial quite appalled him. To his request for instructions, the emperor replied : ' The Christians must not be sought after, nor must anonymous accusers be re- ceived. If any confess themselves to be Christians, and persist in it, let them be punished ; but if any renounce their profession, and evince their sincerity by offering supplication to our gods, let them be pardoned.' The same thing was acted over in the time of Adrian, when the proconsul of Asia wrote to him for advice. The priests stirred up the people at the public shows and games, to demand, with united voice, the destruction of the Christians ; and these public clamours could not be safely disregarded. Whereupon the proconsul wrote to Adrian, that it seemed to him inhuman and unjust to immolate such multitudes of men and women, who had been convicted of no crime, just to gratify a furious mob. To this the emperor replied, as Trajan had done before him : ' The Christians shall not be disturbed without cause, nor shall sycophants be encouraged in their odious practices. If accusers will appear openly, and make charges against them, so as to give them an opportunity of answering for them- 60 THE APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED: selves, let them proceed in tliat manner, but not by rude demands and popular clamours.' Facts such as these are more convincing than any private testimony as to the multitude of Chris- tians at this time in the Roman provinces, and as to the general diffusion and triumph of the Gospel. They show that the great Redeemer had been ri ding- forth from conquering to conquer, and had thus fully accomplished the prophetic import of the first seal which He had opened. We come, then, to the Second Seal. * And when He had opened the second seal, I heard the second living creatm-e say, Come and see. And there went out another horse that was red; and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword ' (Rev. vi. 3, 4). The symbol here presented is obviously one of destruction by war. The horse is blood-red, and to him who sat on it was power given to take peace from the earth. A great sword was put into his hand, and those who before had been united in per- secuting the people of God, were now to Idll and destroy one another. Such is the symbol : and we iind its fulfilment near at hand. The reigns of Trajan and Adrian "were both signalised by a mutual and terrible REVELATION, CHAPTER VI . 61 destruction of Jews and Eomans — the first and greatest enemies of the Christians. Near the end of the reign of Trajan, the Jews in Egypt and Cyprus rebelled against the Koman government, and are reported to have put to death, with every mark of cruelty, four hundred and sixty thousand of their enemies. The Jews were speedily subdued by the Romans, and vast multitudes of them were slain. Eusebius, speaking of the rebellion, says : * While the doctrine and Church of our Lord daily increased, the calamities of the Jews were aggra- vated by new miseries.'-^ Shortly after this, in the reign of Adrian, the Jews were led into a new rebellion by one who pretended to be the Messiah. He was called Bar- chochebas, or Son of the Star ; because he pretended to be the star foretold by Balaam (Num. xxiv. 17). The whole Jewish nation rose in arms against the Roman government, and murdered all who fell into their hands. But the rebellion, as before, was put down, and a terrible retribution was visited upon the Jews. They lost a thousand cities and for- tresses, and 580,000 of their people perished. Adrian destroyed Jerusalem a second time, and built a new city in place of it, into which no Jew was permitted to enter. Thus the original persecutors of the Christians, ^ Ecc. Hist., Book iv. chap. 2. 62 THE APOCAL YPSE EXPLAINED : according to the prediction, ' killed and destroyed one another.^ The Romans, by their idolatries and cruelties, provoked the Jewish nation to rebellion ; and, by following a false Messiah instead of the true, the Jews were brought to desolation. Thus, obviously and almost literally, were the indications of the second seal accomplished. The Thu:d Seal. *And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny ; and see thou hurt not the oil and the w^ine * (Rev. vi. 5, 6). The measure here spoken of was a chocnix^ — an Attic measm-e, about equal to our quart. The penny was a denarius — the price of a day's labour — worth nearly fourteen cents. According to this, a day's labour would purchase only a quart of wheat, or three quarts of barley, indicating a great scarcity of bread. The injunction, too, to take care of the oil and the wine, the olives and vineyards, indicates a coming scarcity of these productions. In short, the entire symbol, — the black horse, the price of pro- visions, the man with his balances to weigh them REVELATION, CHAPTER, VI. 63 out, — all wear a sombre aspect, and indicate a dis- tressing scarcity of tlie necessaries of life. Such is the symbol here presented ; and when we look into tlie Eoman history, we find it sig- nally accomplished. A distressing scarcity pre- vailed in Italy and Kome during the reigns of the Antonines and their successors, to the time of Severus, — a period of nearly fifty years. Ter- tuUian, who lived in these times, speaks of deluging rains and ruined harvests, bringing the utmost dis- tress upon the people ; which things he interprets as judgments upon them for persecuting the Chris- tians. In the reign of Antonmus Pius, Aurelius Victor says, that there was such a scarcity of provisions at Kome as to cause a tumult, in which the people were ready to stone the emperor. Julius Capito- linus speaks of the same thing, and adds : ' The emperor Avas fain to supply the scarcity of corn, wine, and oil, out of his own treasury.' In the reign of his successor, Marcus Antoninus, we have a like account of scarcity, amounting almost to famine. Mr Echard^ tells of the rise of the river Tiber, till it amounted to an ininidation, overwhelm- ing a considerable part of Kome. The flood bore along with it a multitude of people and of cattle, desolated the country, and caused a famine. This ^ Roman History. 64 THE APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED: disaster was followed by eartliqiiakes, the burning of cities, and an infinite number of ravenous insects, which darkened the air, and wasted what the floods had left. In the next reign — that of Comraodus — Dio tells us that ' there was such a scarcity of provi- sions, that the people rose and killed Oleander, the emperor's favouiite.' This scarcity continued and increased during the wars and revolutions which followed, until the time of Severus. He made it one great object of his reign to remedy this stand- ing evil, and provide against it in the future. This protracted scarcity, of more than fifty years, was a striking fulfilment of the I'evclations of the third seal. The Fourth Seal. *And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say. Come and see. And I looked, and behold a pale horse ; and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him : and power was given imto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth ' (Rev. vi. 7, 8). The import of tliis frightful symbol can hardly be mistaken. Here was a * pale horse,' Avith the image of Death seated upon him. Pale is a usual epithet of death — palUdam mortem, say the poets. IlEVELATION, CHAPTER VI. 65 And Hell (hades) followed witli it. Hades, in the Bible, signifies either the grave, or the place of future punishment of the wicked. It is never used in the Scriptures to signify the abode of the holy dead. It is the wicked, not the righteous, who are to be turned into sheol (Jiades) (Ps. ix. 17). ' And power was given unto them (death and hades) over the fourth part of the earth' — the Roman earth — *to kill with the sword, with hunger, and with death,' i.e.^ with pestilence, which is often used in Scripture as the synonym of death — ' and with the beasts of the earth.' In the Hebrew prophets these are styled God's sore judgments. ' For thus saith the Lord ; How much more when I send my four sar^e judgments upon Jerusalem, the sword, and the famine, and the noisome beast, and the pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast?' (Ezek. xiv. 21). The whole representation here is one of destruction and death, coming, not merely (as in the preceding- seals) by famine and war, but also by pestilence, and the beasts of the earth. We shall see how the prediction was fulfilled. Septimius Severus was on the throne at the com- mencement of the third century, and reigned till the year 211. During the next sixty years, the empire was in continual revolution and convulsion. There were not less than sixty aspirants to the throne, and more than twenty actually mounted it, — several I 66 THE APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED: of whom, as Caracalla, Macriniis, Heliogabalus, and Maximin, were among the vilest of mankind. These intestine divisions gave courage to the enemies of Kome, particularly to the Persians and the northern barbarians, for it was at this period that we first hear of the Goths, as breaking into the dominions of Rome. Valerian too, a persecutor of the Christians, was taken prisoner by Sapor, king of Persia, and treated by him with great cruelty till his death. Scarcity of provisions and famine, the usual effect of wars, and more especially civil wars, prevailed to an alarming extent. These things are mentioned by Dionysius of Alexandria, and by Cyprian, bishop of Carthage. ' After these things,' says Dionysius, speaking of the Decian persecution, * wars and fa- mine came upon us.' Cyprian, in his * Apology for the Christians,' takes notice of the perpetual wars and famines of these times. These things were charged, as usual, upon the Cluistians. * The gods are angry,' cried the priests, ' because their altars are forsaken ; therefore has this distress come upon us.' Cyprian insists, on the contrary, that these great calamities, which had been before predicted, came upon the world, not because the Christians rejected the idolatrous Roman worship, but because the Romans rejected the worship of the true God, and persecuted His people. The pecuHar judgment indicated m the predic- REVELATION, CHAPTER VI . 67 tion before US, \q pestilence, — the "usual concomitant of famine and war. And this is specially mentioned by ancient historians. * In the reigns of Gallus and Yolusian,' says Zonoras, '• a plague infested the pro- vinces. Beginning in Ethiopia, it spread itself through the whole east and west, destroyed the inhabitants of many cities, and continued for fifteen years.' Zosimus takes notice of the same calamity. * While war raged in every part, a pestilence spread through the towns and villages, destroying the remnant of mankind. So great a destruction had never before happened.' Eutropius also says, ' that the reigns of Gallus and Volusian were only me- morable for pestilence and grievous distempers.' Of this unparallelled pestilence, Gibbon gives the following account: 'Famine is almost always fol- lowed by epidemical diseases, the effect of scanty and unwholesome food. Other causes must, how- ever, have contributed to the furious plague which, from the year 250 to the year 265, raged without in- terruption in every province, every city, and almost every family in the Roman empire. During a part of this time five thousand persons died daily at Rome ; and many towns that had escaped the hands of the barbarians were entirely depopulated.' -^ Of the ravages of wild beasts during this melan- choly period particular mention is made by Arno- * DecKne and Fall, vol. i. p. 150. 68 THE APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED: bius. Within a year after tlie death of Galliennff, they made their appearance in many provinces, and, like other evils, were charged npon the Christians, because they had roused the anger of the gods. Arnobius defends the Christians against this charge, by showing that ravenous beasts had prevailed in the previous ages, long before the date of Christianity.^ In the prediction before us, power was given to these several plagues over the fourth part of the Roman earth. Whether they actually prevailed to this extent, it is impossible to say. Mr Gibbon makes the proportion of those destroyed much greater than this. He goes into a calculation to show that, by the calamities which have been men- tioned, not less than half of the inhabitants of the vast empii'o of Rome perished, — enough surely to answer to the symbol of * Death upon the Pale Horse.' The Fifth Seal. * And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held : and they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And white robes were given unto every * Disp. Adv. Gentes Libri, i. p. 5. REVELATION, CHAPTER VI. 6> one of them ; and it was said unto tliem, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow- servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled' (Rev. vi. 9-11). There is some change of scene presented in this symbol. Previously there had been a throne, and He that sat upon it, surrounded by the elders and the living creatures. But now there is a vision of the temple in heaven, with its altars and other appur- tenances. And this change may account for it, that John no longer hears a voice from the living crea- tures, inviting him to come and see. At the foot of one of the altars^ — the place of prayer — John saw the souls of the meirtyrs, ' who had been slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held ; ' and they were engaged in supplication : * How long, Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth ? ' This does not imply that the martyrs in heaven have any malice towards their former persecutors ; but they implore that the terrible scenes of tor- ture and slaughter on the earth may cease, and that God would magnify His glorious justice, in > There were two altars in the temple, — the altar of burnt offerings, where was presented the morning and evening sacrifice ; and the altar of incense. It is likely that the altar of incense is here referred to. 70 THE APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED: visiting upon the infamous destroyers of His people that pnnisliment which they deserve. They implore that this may be done speedily. The an- swer to their prayer is, that they must forbear a little season. Others are waitmg for the crown of martyrdom, and their destinies must be fulfilled. Meanwhile, the suppliants are invested with pecu- liar honours. White robes are given to every one of them ; denoting that they are in the number of those *w^ho have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.' The import of tliis instructive symbol cannot be mistaken. It refers to the persecutions of the third and fourth centuries, and more especially to the last and most temble of them — that under Diocletian. At the commencement of the fourth century, the vast empire of Rome w^as governed by four rulers, viz., Diocletian and Maximian, with the title of Augustus ; and Galerius and Constantius, with the title of Caesar. The state of the Church was peace- ful and happy. Christians were regarded 'svith favour, and admitted to the most important civil offices ; spacious buildings were erected for public worship, to which the people resorted wdthout fear ; and they had little more to hope for, unless it were that one or more of the emperors should embrace their religion. Under these circumstances, the REVELATION, CHAPTER VI. 71 pagan priests and populace began to be alarmed, lest the power wbicli they had so long wielded should pass out of their hands. They first began to work upon the fears and prejudices of Diocletian, — who was an old man, and whom they knew to be both timid and credulous, — to induce him to persecute the Christians. But failing here, they next tried their arts upon Galerius, who was son-in- law to Diocletian ; and with him they were more successful. He, being a cruel and fanatical pagan, persuaded Diocletian to publish an edict, requiring that the temples of the Christians should be demo- lished, their sacred books burned, and they deprived of all civil rights and honours. This decree did not aim directly at the lives of the Christians ; and yet many, because they refused to give up their sacred books, were put to death. Not long after the publication of this first edict, there were two conflagrations in the palace at Nicomedia, which were charged upon the Christians, and many of them were, by an imperial edict, put to the torture, with a view to extort confessions. Nearly at the same time there were insurrections in Armenia and Syria, which provoked the emperor to pass a third edict, committing all Christian bishops and ministers to prison, that, by tortures and punish- ments they might be compelled to offer sacrifice to the gods. In consequence of this order, the prisons. 72 THE APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED: destined for the vilest criminals, were soon filled with bishops, presbyters, deacons, and other Church officers, many of whom were put to death, while others were exiled, or banished to the mines. But the malice of Galerius was not yet satisfied. In the following year he induced Diocletian to pass his fourth and final edict, compelling all Christians to offer sacrifice to the gods under penalty of death. The malice of the persecutors could go no fur- ther, and the condition of the Church, more espe- cially in the eastern provinces, seemed to be hopeless. And what rendered it more so was, that Galerius, just at this time, succeeded in deposing Diocletian and Maximian, and thus became sole emperor of the East. His avowed purpose was to put an end to the Cliristian religion ; and he set himself about it with the ferocity and ingenuity of a fiend. It was not death which the Christians di'eaded so much as the various and terrible tortures by which it was preceded. ]\Ir Gibbon says : * It would be easy to fill many pages with disgustful accounts of racks and scoui'ges, of iron hooks and red-hot beds, and of other torments, which fire and steel, and savage beasts, and more savage men, could inflict on the human body.' Milner says : ' The prisons were full, and unheard of tortures were invented. Some were split down by axes; some were mutilated and cut in pieces ; some had REVELATION, CHAPTER VI. 73 molten lead poured into tlieir bodies ; some were sawn asunder ; while others were suspended, with the head downward, over a slow fire, till they were suffocated and consumed.' I might pursue these hideous details to almost any length, but I need not. No wonder the souls of the martyrs, under the heavenly altar, were constrained to cry out, 'How long?' and to in- voke the seemingly tardy justice of the Almighty to put a stop to such abominable deeds. Thus terribly were the portents of the fifth seal accom- plished. The Sixth Seal. 'And I beheld when He had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake ; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood ; and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig-tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bond- man, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains ; and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from K 74 THE APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED: the wrath of the Lamb : for the great day of His wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand?' (Rev. vi. 12-17). The events here described were all seen in pano- ramic vision. They were pictured on that roll of a book which the Lamb took out of the hand of Him that sat upon the throne, and were exhibited, as they could be, upon the breaking of the sixth seal. They are all of them symbolical ; nor are the sym- bols of difficult interpretation. The earthquake denotes a great shaking of the religious and politi- cal earth — a mighty change — a stupendous revolu- tion. The darkening of the sun and moon, and the falling of the stars, set forth the overturning of thrones, and the dowTifall of rulers and dignitaries. The departure of the visible heavens, like the rolling up of a scroll of parchment, and the moving of the mountains and islands out of their places, are all a part of the same mighty change. The luminaries which had before studded the political heavens are no longer there. They are rolled together, and put out of sight, and potentates and poAvers, which had seemed like the fastnesses of the earth, have passed away. The phraseology here used may seem strange to modern ears, but it is in strict accordance with the pro- phetic language of the Old Testament. Thus Isaiah, predicting the downfall of idolatrous kingdoms, REVELATION, CHAPTER VL 75 says : * The stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light : the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine. And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their ini- quity ' (Isa. xiii. 10). * The host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll : and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth from off the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig-tree ' (Isa. xxxiv. 4). Our Saviour uses similar language in predicting the destruction of Jerusalem : ' The sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken' (Matt. xxiv. 29). The concluding verses under the sixth seal set forth the terror and affright which the revolution thus predicted shall occasion. The great ones of the earth, with all its guilty inhabitants, shall flee and hide themselves in the dens, and in the rocks of the mountains, and shall say to the mountains, ' Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him who sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.' The mighty revolution here symbolically por- trayed is, without doubt, the revolution under Con- stantino, which took place immediately upon the close of the Diocletian persecution. Upon the death EaiTYIi 76 THE APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED: of Constantius Chlorus, who, -with the title of Caesar, governed the western provinces of the em- pire, and who, though a pagan, had not participat- ed in the recent persecutions, his son Constantino was, by the army, proclaimed his successor. He had several colleagues and rivals, all of whom sought his life ;. but, one after another, they were taken out of the way. Maxentius and Licinius he vanquished in battle ; Maximin committed suicide ; wlnle Galerius, the chief instigator of the late per- secution, was smitten with an incurable disease, attended by such insupportable torments, that he often attempted to destroy himself, but was pre- vented. Thus the political sun and moon of Rome were darkened, and the stars fell to the earth. Constantine became sole emperor of Rome in the year 323. Previous to this, he had become a de- cided believer in the Cliristian religion. He soon effected an entire revolution in the civil and religious state of the empire. In place of the Roman eagle, he carried before his armies a representation of the cross. He removed the seat of empire from Rome to Constantinople, and adopted a new form of go- vernment, putting the administration of it into the hands of four principal officers, called Praetoiian Prefects. The great lights of the heathen world — the powers civil and religious — were all eclipsed and obscured ; heathen augurs and soothsayers were REVELATION, CHAPTERS VIL, VIIL 77 suppressed ; heathen priests and magistrates were removed; heathen temples were demoHshed, and their revenues appropriated to better uses. In short, a new rehgion was estabhshed, and a new order of things arose in the world's history. Paganism was effectually overthrown, its votaries, with their idols, were cast to the moles and the bats ; and, after lin- gering for a little time, it passed finally away. Here, surely, was change enough accomplished to be indicated by the sublime and awful imagery of the sixth seal. 78 THE APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED: CHAPTER YL THE FIRST FOUR TRUMPETS. EEVELATION, CHAPS. VII., VHI. * A ND after these things I saw four angels -LA. standing on the four corners of the earth, holding tjie four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor any tree. And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God : ^nd he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, saying. Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. And I heard the number of them which were sealed: an hundred and forty-four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel ' — (i.e., twelve thousand from each of the twelve tribes) (Rev. vii. 1-8). The seventh chapter of the Revelation may be regarded as an appropriate conclusion of the events predicted under the sixth seal. ' After these things ' (i.e., the revolution which has been described), John sees four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of heaven, that, PcEVELATION, CHAPTERS VIL, VIII. 79 for a time, they should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. Winds, in the language of the prophets, are the appropriate sym- bols of commotions and wars. Thus Jeremiah, speaking of the overthrow of the Persians, says: ' And upon Elam will I bring the four winds from the four quarters of heaven, and will scatter them toward all those winds; and there shall be no nation whither the outcasts of Elam shall not come' (Jer. xlix. 36). The restraining of the four whids, therefore, indicates, that commotions and wars should be temporarily restrained in the Koman earth, and that the revolution before pre- dicted should be followed by a season of peace. And so, in fact, it was. When Constantino had triumphed over all his enemies, and become firmly seated on his throne, there was a season of unusual tranquillity. There were few or no wars or civil commotions to the end of his reign. On this subject Eusebius speaks earnestly and par- ticularly, applying the language of the Psalmist to his own times : * Come hither, and behold the works of the Lord, what wonders He hath wrought in the earth. He maketh wars to cease unto the ends of the earth ; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear asunder ; he burneth the chariot in the fire.'^ Lactantius also tells us, in » Ps. xlvi. 8, 9, according to the Septiiagint. 80 THE APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED: tlie same triumpliant strain, that * tranquillity being restored throughout the earth, the Church, which was lately ruined, riseth again. Now, after the agitations of so great a tempest, a calm air and the desired light became resplendent. Now hath God relieved the afflicted, and wiped away the tears of the sorrowful.' These are testimonies of contem- porary Christian writers. Some medals of Constan- tino are still preserved, with the head of the emperor on one side, and this inscription on the other, — Beata TRANQUILLITAS — Blessed tranquillity. It was during this time of tranquillity that the servants of God were to be sealed in their foreheads, — an allusion to the ancient custom of marking- servants in their foreheads, to show who they were, and to whom they belonged. We are not to understand that any visible mark was at this time put upon the foreheads of Chris- tians. But God goes forth, by His providence and grace, to search out His people, and sanctify and seal them for himself. The plu'aseology implies that a selection is to be made. All are not sealed who bear the Christian name, and are able to make a fair show in the flesh ; but God seeks out His own, and puts a mark upon them, that henceforth He may know, and the world may know, to whom they belong. They bear unmistakably ' the spot of His children.' REVELATION, CHAPTERS VIL, VIII. 81 This sealing process was exceedingly appro- priate in the times of which we speak. Christianity was undergoing a new trial. It had borne the brunt of severe and protracted persecution. Can it bear as well the trial of great prosperity ? Chris- tianity was now the religion of the court and the state. It was exceedingly popular ; and multitudes were eager to make a profession of it. Thousands and thousands crowded into the Churches, and soli- cited baptism. It is said that twelve thousand men were baptized at Kome in a single year, besides a proportionate number of women and children. Nor were the guardians of the Churches as par- ticular as they should have been in looking into the character of those who were admitted. The consequence was, that the Churches were rapidly filling up with mere worldly members, — ambitious, selfish, ostentatious, proud, — who sought its fellow- ship only that they might secure their worldly ends. Such were the characters, in many instances, of the bishops and ministers. It is obvious, therefore, that the Church needed a sifting. A messenger of mercy must pass through it, and separate, so far as possible, the precious from the vile. He must search out and seal those who belong to Christ. He must prepare the wheat for the heavenly garner, and leave the chaff to the winds. In no other way can the Church of God be prepared for those ages of darkness and L 82 THE APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED: conflict througli which it has yet to pass, and for those triumphs and glories which await it in the dis- tant future, on earth and in heaven. The seaHng process was of the fii'st importance at this very time. And John tells us the number that were sealed, — a small number, it would seem, in comparison with the whole — a definite number, in place of an indefinite. There were sealed a hun- dred and forty-four thousand out of the several tribes of Israel. The word Israel is here used, as it often is in the Scriptures, in a symbolical sense. It stands for the Church in general — the whole Israel of God. This, whether made up of Jews or Gentiles, is the Israel here spoken of, from among whom the sealed ■ones are selected and taken. Wlien the sealing process was over, a new vision presented itself to the view of the apostle : ' I be- held, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands ; and cried with a loud voice, saying. Salva- tion to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb' (Rev. vii. 9, 10). This part of the service belonged exclusively to the ransomed ones — those who had been re- deemed from the earth. These, as being more REVELATION, CHAPTERS VIL, VIIL 83 particularly interested, were permitted to lead off in the heavenly anthem. But when their part was performed, ^ all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four living creatures, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God, saying, Amen : Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen ' (Rev. vii. 11, 12). The vision was a heavenly one, and this is one of those songs of triumph, — of which there are several in the book of Revelation, — which are sung by the heavenly choirs, in view of the vic- tories of Christ's cause upon the earth ; thus show- ing the sympathy of heaven with earth, and the deep interest which is felt above in all that concerns the militant Church below. Among the crowd of ransomed worshippers about the throne, John saw some w^hose robes were very white, and who seemed to be invested with peculiar honours ; and he was anxious to know who these were, and whence they came. And one of the elders answered and said, ' These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb ' (Rev. vii. 14). The reference here is, with- out doubt, primarily, to the martyrs who had come out of the late persecution ; but, ultimately, to all 84 . THE APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED: those who are called to great sufferings in the cause of Christ, who bear them meekly, and triumph over them. To all such, the closing- words of comfort and promise may be regarded as addressed: 'They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more ; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters : and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes' (Rev. vii. 16, 17). The way is now prepared for the opening of the Seventh Seal, the revelations of which are of great extent, including the seven succeeding trumpets, and reaching down to the millennium. * And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour. And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trum- pets. And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer ; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the m- cense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand. And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fii-e of the altar, and cast it into the earth : and there REVELATION, CHAPTERS VIL, VIIl. 85 were voices, and tliunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake' (Rev. viii. 1—5). Upon the opening of the seal, seven angels are seen standing before the throne, to whom are given seven trumpets, — the signals of alarm and war. But before going forth on this mission of blood, there is a half hour's silence in heaven, and a season of devout worship, the imagery of which is taken from the Jewish temple. In performing the service of the temple, one of the priests entered daily into the holy place, and, with his censer filled with coals from the altar of burnt-offering, approached the altar of incense, and burned incense before the Lord. The incense was a symbol of prayer ; and, while it was burning, the people were silently offering up their prayers. They ' were praying without at the time of incense.' Thus Zechariah w^as employed when Gabriel appeared to him, and promised him a son (Luke i. 9, 10). A similar service seemed now to be performing in heaven. An ' angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer ; and much incense given unto him, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.' While this service was in progress, there was, of course, silence in heaven for the space of half an hour. Perhaps this scene was designed to denote that great evils were impending, and that 86 THE APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED: earth and heaven should unite then: suppHcatlons, that they might, if possible, be averted or mitigated. But the intercessions offered do not prevail. The causes of the coming inflictions lie too deep to be removed by prayer. And so the interceding angel casts his censer to the earth, and ' there are voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake,' — indicating new commotions and great calamities to be speedily inflicted. 'And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound ' (Rev. viii. 6). The First Trumpet. 'The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the thu'd part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up* (Rev. viii. 7). I agree with those interpreters who regard the blast of the first four of these trumpets as indicating the calamities, which fell upon the western Roman empire, and resulted in its overthrow in the latter part of the fifth century. History marks four of these incursions — the sweeping of the fiery storm — which followed each other in rapid succession, and which left behind them naught of that mighty power which had so long ruled at Rome, except the name. The symbols employed under the first trumpet, — REVELATION, CHAPTERS VIL, VIII. 87 * hail and fire mingled with blood,' — indicate a great and sweeping destruction, which seems to have been fulfilled in the invasion of Alaric, king of the Goths, in the year 410. Alaric had been employed under Theodosius, and in his armies had acquired a knowledge of the art of war. Upon the death of Theodosius, he was disappointed in not being raised to the head of the Roman armies, and so he revolted, and became a leader of the Goths. He first invaded and con- quered Greece, destroying the males who were of an age to bear arms, and driving away the females, with the spoil and cattle of the flaming villages. He next determined to enter Italy ; and to plant, if possible, the Gothic standard on the walls of Rome. He was checked in his first attempt by the army of Stilicho ; but he soon returned, swept over the country, and more than once besieged and pillaged the imperial city. The sufierings at Rome in these sieges were beyond description. In repeated in- stances, mothers were compelled to cook and eat their own children. Meanwhile, the imbecile em- peror Honorius and his court had concealed them- selves in the fastnesses of Ravenna. From Italy, Alaric proceeded to invade the cities and fertile provinces of Gaul. The flourishing city of Metz Avas surprised and destroyed, and many thousands of Christians were massacred in the 88 THE APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED : cliiircli. Worms was taken after a long and ob- stinate siege. Strasburg, Spires, Rheims, Tournay, Arras, and Amiens, experienced the cruel oppression of the Gotliic yoke ; and the flames of war spread from the banks of the Rhine over the greatest part of the seventeen provinces of Gaul. That rich and extensive country, from the ocean to the Pyrenees and the Alps, was delivered to the barbarians, who drove before them, in a promiscuous croAvd, the people of all classes, with the spoils of their houses, their fields, and their altars. It would be unsafe to say that precisely a third part of the western Roman empire was over-run and pillaged by Alaric ; but enough of it fell under his destroying hand to justify the prophetical indica- tions of the first trumpet. The Second Trumpet. * And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea : and the third part of the sea became blood ; and the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died ; and the third part of the ships were destroyed ' (Rev. viii. 8, 9). The symbols here indicate some great and angry power, like a burning mountain, precipitated upon the maritime parts of the Roman empire, by which its cities would be wasted and its commerce de- stroyed. If we were correct in our interpretation REVELATION, CHAPTERS VIL, VIII. 89 of tlie previous trumpet, this must refer to Genseric and his ruthless Vandals. This invasion followed quick upon that of Alaric, commencing about the year 428, and continuing for the next forty years. The Goths and Vandals are usually mentioned together, and they seem to have been originally one people. They invaded the Roman empire to- gether in the time of Theodosius. At a later period, the Vandals, under Genseric, passed through the whole of what is now France and Spain, and crossed over into Africa. They conquered Carthage, esta- blished an independent government, and thence through a long period ravaged the neighbouring coasts and islands, destroyed the ships and com- merce of the Romans, and in this way hastened the downfall of the empire. The ambition of Genseric was without scruple and without , bounds. In a little time, all the fruitful provinces lying between Tangier and Tripoli were overwhelmed. Where these marauders encountered resistance, they seldom gave quarter, and the death of their warriors was expiated by the ruin of the cities under whose walls they fell. The result of this invasion was the con- quest of all Northern Africa, and the establishment of a power which waged perpetual war with Rome. Genseric now resolved to establish a naval power ; and to resolve and to execute were with him almost the same. His fleets soon claimed the M 90 THE APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED: empire of tlie Mediterranean, and his conquests pro- voked the sluggish emperor to oppose him. He, too, prepared a fleet ; but at the first onset it fell into the hands of the Vandals, and they soon cast anchor at the mouth of the Tiber. Great Kome could offer no efiectual resistance. The city was taken and given up to pillage and slaughter for fourteen successive days and nights. Genseric continued his naval depredations to an advanced period of life. He repeatedly visited the coasts of Spain, Liguria, Tuscany, Campania, Apulia, Calabria, Dalmatia, Venice, Epirus, Sicily, and Greece, spreading terror and desolation from the pillars of Hercules to the Nile. As these freebooters were more desirous of spoil than of glory, they sel- dom attacked fortified cities, or engaged regular troops in the open field, but ravaged defenceless coasts and islands, carrying dismay and desolation wherever they appeared. How far this description agrees with the symbols in the passage before us, — * a great mountain burn- ing with fire cast into the sea,' by which a third part of the ships and the creatures in the sea were de- stroyed, I must leave to my readers to judge. If the career of Genseric and liis Vandals were to be portrayed at all by symbols, I can hardly think of any symbols more appropriate than those presented under the second trumpet. REVELATION, CHAPTERS VIZ., VIII. 91 The Third Trumpet. * And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters ; and the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood ; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter ' (Rev. viii. 10, 11). A star, in the language of the prophets, denotes some illustrious, distinguished personage, — some- times a religious teacher, but more frequently a monarch, or some remarkable civil or military leader. Thus the fallen king of Babylon is called Lucifer, or the morning star. ' How art thou fallen from heaven, Lucifer, son of the morning ! how art thou cast down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!' (Isa. xiv. 12). The star fallmg from heaven, or the blazing meteor gleaming through the sky, in the passage before us, may well denote some great military chieftain ; and the result of his fall, turning every thing he touches into wormwood, shows him to be a most bitter enemy. Following the train of thought which has been pursued thus far, considering the blasts of these trumpets as pre-figuring the personages and events which prepared the way for the downfall of the western Roman empire, we cannot be mistaken in 92 THE APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED: supposing Attila, the leader of the terrible bands of Huns (who styled himself, and was styled by others, the 'Scourge of God'), as designated by the falling star. After Alaric and Genseric, Attila occupies the next place among the destroyers of ancient Rome. It is true, indeed, that he was contemporary with Genseric, and died before him ; but he commenced his ravages at a later period, and on this account may be regarded as coming after him. He came suddenly from the East, like a flaming meteor, gathering up in his progress an army of Huns, and pouring them down upon the more defenceless parts of the Roman empire. The portions of the empire most affected by the ravages of the Huns were precisely those designated by the blast of the third trumpet, viz. : ' the rivers and fountains of waters.' His depredations were chiefly confined to the sides of the Alps, those places whence the rivers flow down into Italy. Attila was defeated in the battle of Clialons ; but he soon recovered his vigour, collected his forces, and was prepared for another descent upon Italy. He destroyed Aquileia, and in his march from thence, the cities of Altinum, Concordia, and Padua, were reduced to ashes. He next spread himself over the fertile plains of Lombardy, — a land of rivers and streams, divided by the Po, and lying between the IIEVELATION, CHAPTERS VIL, VIII. 93 Alps and Apennines. It was a saying worthy of the ferocious pride of Attila, that ' the grass never grew where his horse had trod.' At least a third part of the empire was invaded and desolated in his savage marches ; and the result of his invasion was as dis- astrous as if a bitter star had fallen into all the rivers and foimtains, and turned them into gall and wormwood. The Fourth Trumpet. * And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night like- wise ' (Rev. viii. 12). At the sounding of the fourth trumpet, the great lights of the Roman empire were eclipsed and darkened, so that they shone not clearly, and but for a part of the time. Genseric and Attila left the ■empire in a weak, impoverished, and desperate con- dition. It struggled on, however, through eight short and turbulent reigns, for the space of about twenty years, when it came to an end in the year 476. The last reigning emperor was Momyllus, — contemptuously called Augustulus, or the little Augustus. This change was effected by Odoacer, £1 Gothic chieftain, who, coming to Rome with, an army, stripped Momyllus of his imperial robes, put 94 THE APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED an end to his dominion, and caused himself to be proclaimed king of Italy. He did not, however, change entirely the ancient form of government. If the sun was eclipsed, some of the lesser lights were allowed to remain. He still permitted the Eomans to have their senate, their consuls, and other magistrates, and public aifairs were trans- acted much as they had been in former days. Odoacer reigned sixteen years, when his king- dom was overthrown by Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths. The government was in his hands and in those of his successors, for the next sixty years. REVELATION, CHABTER IX. 95 CHAPTER VII. THE FIFTH AND SIXTH TRUMPETS. REVELATION, CHAP. IX. I HAVE thus endeavoured to give the import of the four first trumpets, embracing the four suc- cessive blows which were struck upon western Rome by Alaric, Genseric, Attila, and Odoacer, until the empire fell to rise no more. And now there is a pause between the sound- ing of the fourth trumpet and the fifth ; a note of solemn, awful warning is heard from the heavens : * And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabitants of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound!' (Rev. viii. 13). The woe is repeated three times to show the certainty and intensity of it, and to call attention to what remains of this magnificent prophecy. The Fifth Trumpet. * And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth : and to him was 96 THE APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED: given the key of tlie bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit ; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace ; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth : and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree ; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads. And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months ; and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man. And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it ; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them. And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men. And they had hair as the hau' of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions. And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron ; and the sound of their wiugs was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle. And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails ; and their power was to hurt men five months. And REVELATION, CHAPTER IX. 97 tliey had a king over tliem, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon' (Rev. ix. 1—11). I have said already that the four first trumpets foreshow the events whicli led to the downfall of the western Roman empire, which took place in the year 476. I agree with the most distinguished Protestant commentators, that the fifth and sixth trumpets relate to the Eastern empire, and to events which resulted in its overthrow. The star which John saw fall from heaven on the sounding of the fifth trumpet denotes, as usual, a leader, — it may be a distinguished teacher, or a military chieftain, or both. It represents, in this case, I cannot doubt, Mohammed. He has the key of the bottomless pit, and opens it, and from it issues a smoke which darkens the whole atmosphere. With the smoke, there came forth also a prodigious army of locusts. A full description of the locusts is given, which shows that they were not literal locusts, but represent a mighty army — Mohammed's army of Saracen w^arriors. The fact that locusts were the selected symbols here, shows that the prophecy has an oriental application. Locusts are the periodical scourges of the east. This army is commissioned, not to hurt the earth, or any green thing, but only the men that N 98 THE APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED: have not tlie seal of God on tlieir forelieads; re- ferring back to the sealing spoken of in the seventh chapter. In other words, their commission is against, not God's sealed, sanctified ones, bnt the wicked of the earth — idolaters, blasphemers, and apostate Christians. Nor were they to aim at destroying the lives even of these, but were to torment them for the space of five months. But what are we to understand by these five months ? Are they literal months, or do they de- note a much longer period? It is insisted by some interpreters that they must be literal months, since the ravages of locusts are usually limited to the five warmest months of the year. But then these are not literal locusts — from the very description they cannot be — and hence the impropriety of limiting their ravages and torments to the short period of five literal months. It is msisted by another class of interpreters that, in prophetic language, a day often stands for a year; and if so interpreted in this place, the ravages of the army denoted by the locusts would continue a hundred and fifty years. With regard to this question of time, I remark that, in prophetic language, a day is often — not al- ways — reckoned for a year. So it has been in other ages ; so it may be here. Thus when it was pre- dicted of the Israelites that they should wander in REVELATION, CHAPTER IX. 99 the wilderness forty years, it was added : 'After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, eacJi day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even/or^^ years'' (Numb. xiv. 34). So the prophet Ezekiel, when predicting the siege and capture of Jerusalem, was directed to 'lie on his right side, and bear the iniquity of the house of Judali forty days ; I have appointed thee each day for a year ' (Ezek. iv. 6). In the prophecy of Daniel, this mode of pro- phetic expression is unquestionably resorted to : * Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people, and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make recon- ciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and pro- phecy, and to anoint the Most Holy ' (Dan. ix. 24). This prediction refers, undoubtedly, to the Messiah, and to the time when He should appear to make expiation for sin. The commencement of the seventy weeks is fixed by Daniel himself, or rather by the revealing angel. It was ' from the going forth of the decree to restore and to build Jerusa- lem' (Dan. ix. 25). The decree to restore and to build Jerusalem was given to Nehemiah, by Ar- taxerxes Longimanus, in the twentieth year of his reign (Neh. ii. 1). And from this time to the death of Christ, according to the best chronologists, is 100 THE APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED: four hundred and ninety years — seventy weeks, counting a day for a year. It is objected to this interpretation, that what our translators render * seventy weeks,' is in the original of Daniel * seventy seven,' which may mean seventy sevens of years^ that is, four hundred and ninety years; thus bringing us to the same result, without supposing a day to stand for a year. The only question here is; did Daniel, or the revealing angel, intend, by the seventy sevens, sevens of dmjs^ or sevens of years ? We think he must have intended sevens of days, since, from the creation, time had been divided into weeks of seven days ; so that a seven or sevens would naturally be understood to mean seven days, whether the word days was expressed or not. x\nd critics have no reason or authority for changing the meaning into sevens of years, more than for changing it into sevens of months, or sevens of hours. A seven is naturally understood to be a hebdomad, a week o seven days. And so the word always has been understood and translated.^ The proper transla- tion of the passage before us is, therefore, that con- tained in our Bible : ' Seventy weeks are determined ^ See not only the passaj^es in Dan. ix. 24-2G, but also in Dan. X. 2, 3 ; Ex. xxiv. 22 ; Numb, xxviii. 26 ; Deut. xvi. 9-lG ; 2 Chron. viii. 13 ; Jer. v. 24 ; Ezck. xlv. 21, etc. REVELATION, CHAPTER JX. 101 iipon tliy people, and upon the holy city,' that is, seventy times seven days — four hundred and ninety days ; and the fulfilment of the prophecy shows that each of these days must stand for a year. There are other passages in Daniel in which the same mode of reckoning occurs, to which I shall refer in another connection. Instances of it also occur in the Eevelation. It is said to the Church in Smyrna : ' The devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried ; and ye shall have tribulation ten days' (Rev. ii. 10). No one can suppose that the persecution here referred to Avould be limited to ten literal days. The reference is, undoubtedly, to the Diocletian persecution, which lasted ten years. There are other instances in the Revelation in which the same notation of prophetic time is em- ployed, particularly those in which * the holy city is to be trodden under foot forty and two months ; ' and the two witnesses are to 'prophesy a thousand and two hundred and three score days;' and the mystical woman is to be nourished in the wdlder- ness ' for a time and times and half a time ; ' and in which ' power was given unto the beast to continue forty and two months.^ These notes of time, as I shall show, all refer to the same period, twelve ^ See Rev. ii. 2, 3, and xii. 14, and xiii. 5. 102 THE APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED: hundred and sixty days, and stand for twelve hun- red and sixty years, a day being reckoned for a year.^ If it be inquired, how we are to determine, in any given case, whether the days are to be imder- 8tood Hterally, or otherwise, I answer, we are to be guided chiefly, as in other cases, by the connection and the sense. Thus, when it is said in Jeremiah : * These nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years,' the connection shows that literal years are intended. But when Daniel predicts, in a passage already considered, the death of the Messiah at the end of seventy weeks, both the connection and the fulfilment show that a much longer period is indicated. * Professor Cowles denounces ' this day-for-a-year theory as utterly l)aseless and false, and of course mischievous and delusive ; ' and yet, strange to say, he does not himself interpret the notation of time in the Apocalypse literally, but prolongs them indefinitely, or as much as !ie has occasion. Thus, it is said expressly of the two witnesses, that they prophesied twelve hundred and sixty days. But Professor Cowles cays, ' It matters not how long the two witnesses did actually testify to the Jews before the fall of their city,' p. 127. They must have testified, according to his theory, at least forty years, for he reckons John the Baptist to be the first of them, p, 132. So the mystical ^voman is protected in the wilderness ' for a time, times, and half a time,' or three years and a half. But according to Professor Cowles, ' We have no occasion to inquire for the same historic duration of cither the Church's protection or of her persecution. God kept her in the wilderness as long as the occasion demanded^'' p. 147. So the forty and two months of the beast's continuance indicates, according to Professor Cowles, ' an indefinite period of calamity,' p. 155. And particularity, and extending through the three fol- lowing chapters. The temple being prepared, the God of Israel returns to take up His abode in it. ' The glory of APPENDIX. 235 the Lord came into the house by the way of the gate whose prospect is toward the east. So the spirit took me up, and brought me into the inner court ; and, behold, the glory of the Lord filled the house ' (Ezek. xliii. 4, 5). Next the altar is measured, and its ordinances of worship are described. The services of the priests and Levites also are appointed (Ezek. xliv.). The Land of Promise, as described by Ezekiel, is very different from that in which Israel had before dwelt. It is in shape a quadrangle or parallelo- gram, about a hundred miles in length from north to south, and fifty in breadth from east to west. Nearly half of the central portion of it, where stand the city and the temple, is reserved for the priests and Levites, and for other public uses. The remaining portions of it, on the northern and southern extremities, are set apart, severally, for the twelve tribes of Israel, each tribe having a narrow strip running entirely across the territory from east to west. From the foundation of the temple, on the east side, Ezekiel saw water issuing forth in small quantity. But as he traced it, the stream con- stantly increased, until it became a river which he could not cross. It ran along in a south-easterly direction — its banks being crowned with fruitful trees — until it emptied its waters into the Dead 236 APPENDIX. Sea, which (strange to tell) was at once cleansed from its nauseous, deadly qualities, and became fruitful in all kinds of fish. The imagery here, as in the city which John describes in the last two chapters of the Revelation, is borrowed from the terrestrial paradise — the garden of Eden. In each of the three there is a river, the banks of which are crowned ^vith life-giving, health-restoring, trees. The city of Ezekiel is also, in some respects, like that of John. It lay four square, having three gates on each side — twelve in all — which bore the names of the twelve tribes of Israel; it was a splen- did city, and it had a glorious name — Jehovah Shammah — the Lord is there. Without going further into a description of tho renovated Palestine, the city and temple of Ezekiel, let us pause and inquire, What do these things mean ? What is their import and interpretation ? One thing is certain, these predictions of Ezekiel have not yet been fulfilled. The twelve tribes of Israel have not been converted and restored to their own land. This land has not been divided in the manner set forth by the prophet ; nor has such a city and temple as he describes been built. Jeru- salem and the temple were rebuilt after the return of a portion of the Jews from Babylon, but not in the style foretold by Ezekiel, nor anything ap- proaching it. APPENDIX. 237 Another question arises : Will these predictions ever have a literal fulfilment? Was such the in- tention of the Spirit who indited them ? The de- scriptions throughout look like a literal fulfilment. They are so minute and particular, as almost to force upon one the idea of such a fulfilment. But will it ever be realised? It must be borne in mind, that if we insist upon a literal fulfilment, we must carry it honestly through. If any part of the prediction is to be taken literally, all must be. The question returns then : Are we to suppose that this prediction of Ezekiel ever will be literally fulfilled ? I think not. The supposition is inadmissible, if not impossible. It can never be. Who believes that the Holy Land, now somewhat irregularly shaped, is ever to be transformed into a quadrangle such as has been described ; and that the twelve tribes of Israel — each a distinct community — are to be re- covered and settled there ? Or, if they should be, who believes that they would be willing to give up nearly half of their small territory to the priests and Levites, and other officials, reserving to them- selves only twelve narrow strips, running across the country from east to west ? Nor is this the worst of it : How long could the twelve tribes of Israel live on these narrow strips, embracing at the farthest not more than three thousand square 238 APPENDIX. miles — a tenth part as much as the state of Mame ? Who can beUeve that a temple, such as Ezekiel describes, is yet to be built in Palestine, and that the entire Mosaic ritual, with its feasts and fasts, its bloody sacrifices and offerings, is to be estab- lished there, and that too for converted Christian men, when the apostles assure us that Judaism, as such, is dead, and that the ritual of Moses has vanished away ? Who believes that a stream of water, small at first, but miraculously increased as it passes along, until it becomes a mighty river, is to issue from the foundations of this new temple, and pour its waters into the Dead Sea, removing at once the nauseous deadly qualities of the sea, and filling it with fish and other living creatures. If Ezekiel's vision is to be accepted literally, then all these things are to come to pass ; and yet who believes them ? Who can believe them ? The question returns then. What is the import of Ezekiel's vision, and of the chapters on which we have remarked? How are they to be under- stood? And what were they designed to teach? We answer : They are to be understood, not literally, but, like the Apocalypse, symbolically; and thus interpreted, they are fall of rich and glorious meaning. Thus the resurrection of the dry bones is a symbol, teaching the future con- version of the Jews, and perhaps of the Gentiles APPENDIX. 239 also, to Christ. The assault of Gog and Magog portends the great conflict which is to usher in the millennium. The city with its surroundings, and the temple with its services, set forth the glory of the millennial Church, and the purity of its worship. The stream issuing from the temple, and pouring into the Dead Sea to heal its waters and fill it with life, is a beautiful symbol of the healing influences of the sanctuary of God. If this world of death is ever to be recovered to Christ, it must be by an influence such as this. Such, as it seems to me, are some of the teachings of Ezekiel's vision, — more rich and glorious infinitely, than any literal inter- pretation can be. And if it be inquired further, why the symbolical method of teaching was here adopted — why, if the Divine Spirit wished to inculcate lessons such as these. He did not do it in plain, literal, didactic terms ? I have only to answer, that Ezekiel was a Jew and a priest, and those to be instructed and comforted by. him were Jews. All their ideas of religion were associated with a temple service — with the official work of the priests, and the sacrifices and offerings of the temple. Hence, the promise of great spiritual blessings — a great and future re- vival of religion — must be made to them in con- nection with a new city and temple. It could be made intelligibly in no other way. The pious 240 APPENDIX. in Israel were encouraged and comforted by the vision of Ezekiel, as they could not have been if the prediction had been given in more Hteral terms. It is for lis, who have the brighter hght and more spiritual teachings of the Gospel, to look through the shadows to the substance — to study these venerable s}Tnbols, and gather from them the lich and glonous instructions which they were in- tended to impart. fuHlVBRSIT?^ TQE END. HOYT, FOGG AND BREED, No. 92 MIDDLE STREET, PORTLAND, Pvhlish the following valuable works : These for Those: Our Indebtedness to Missions. By Kev. William "Warren, D.D., Dist. Sec. of American Board. Cloth, 12mo. 420 pages, . . . Dol. 1.50 Helps at the Mercy Seat. Prayers from the Scriptures, Old Divines, and the Poets. Cloth extra, square 24:mo, gilt and red edges. 272 pages, . 1.50 The Carpenters' and Builders' Guide. Being a Hand-book for Workmen. Also, a Manual of Re- ference for Contractors and Builders. By W. P. Plummer. 8vo. 72 pages, with plates. Price, half bound, . . 1.00 Maine State Year-Book and Annual Register For 1871. 16mo. 300 pages. Paper, 50 cents. With coloured town and R. R. Map, 13 by 16 inches, 90 cents. Cloth, with Map, ...... 1.25 How Bennie Did It. By Matthew Merchant. Cloth, IGmo. 440 pages. Illustrated, . . . . . . . 1 50 Twelve Years with the Children. By Rev. William Warren, D.D , Dist Sec. of American Board, Cloth, 16mo. 324 pages. Second edition. Illustrated, 1.25 Aunt Margery's Maxims. Work— Watch— Wait By Sophia Tandy. Cloth, 16mo. 112 pages. Illustrated, ..... .70 Lindsay Lee and His Friends. A Story for the Times. Cloth, 16mo. 112 pages. Illustrated, .70 Mary Brunton and Her One Talent. By E. A. D. R. Cloth, IGmo. 112 pages. Illustrated, . .70 The Cottagers of Glencarran. By LetitiaM'Clintock. Cloth, 16mo. 112 pages. Illustrated. .70 Published by Hoyf, Fogg and Breed. I. Frank and Willie Series. Four Volumes, 24mo. 96 pages each. Illustrated, .Dol.1.80 1. Cockerill the Conjurer, or the Brave Boy of JTaTTieln. 2. Jottings from the Diary of the Sun. 3. Frank Fielding, or Debts and Difficulties. 4. Witless Willie, or the Idiot Boy. II. Children's Hour Series. Six Volumes. 24mo. 9G pages each. Illustrated, . 2.40 1. Mary Mansfield, or, No Time to be Christian. 2. Gottfried of the Iron Hand. 3. Arthur Fortescue. or the Scliool Boy Hero. 4. The Story of a Red Velvet Bible. 5. Eichard Blake and His Little Green Bible. 6. Tales for the Children's Hour. III. The Treasure Series. Six Volumes. 24mo. 96 pages each. Illustrated, . . 2.40 1. Sangreal, or the Hidden Treasure. 2. Alice Lowther, or Grandni<)th«^r*8 Story about her Little Bed Bible. 3. Nothing to Do, or the Influence of a Life. 4. Alfred and the Little Dove. 6. Henry Morgan, or the Sower and the Seed. 6. The Little Captain, a tale of the Sea. EARTH'S COMMENTARY, AN EXPOSITOKY AND FRACTICAL COMMENTAIIY ON THE BOOKS OF SCRIPTURE, AERANGED IN CHHONOLOGICAL OEDEE. Translated from the German work edited by the late Dr C. G. Bartk, Cuh/r, Wiertt-mhrfj. First American ^rom. the xecfmd English Edition. Im- Ijerial octavo. V)W) pp. Cloth, o dols.; sheep, C dols. SOLD BY SUBSCRIPTION. The object of this work is twofold: first, to facilitate the study of the Iluly Scriptures, by arranging them in stricthj chronological order, so that the sacred narrative may form one continuous and connected histoiy, from Genesis to Eevelntion; and, secondly, to elucidate the Sacred Text by expository annotations, and at the same time to furnish arguments against the pernicious effects of modem rationalism. The spirit of the work is that of implicit faith in the Divine Inspiration of the Bible. It is believed the book will commend itself at once to the notice of clergy- men and others, whose duty it is to explain and apply the lessons of divine truth ; and, indeed, that it wUI prove a valuable help to all students of God's Holy Word. Published by Hoyt, Fogg and Breed. From Rev. E. B. Webb, D.D., Pastor, Shawmut Church, Boston, The chief peculiarity of this work is that it follows the veritable order of history, — the grand procession of recorded events. Provided only that the text is not tampered with, no variation or arrangement of the sacred books can destroy their divine authority. Whatever their order, they constitute still the Word of God. But could they be arranged just as they came into existence, — book following book, and psalm following the event that called it forth, and prophecy set in the course of the events with which it was connected, — we should have the most natural arrangement possible, — continuous sacred history in the original order. Just this is attempted in this Commentaiy. The arrangement is similar to that of Townsend; the commentary is much more. The arrangement itself is a commentary, just as the arrangement of Webster's speeches in connection with the questions and causes and events which produced them would be the best commentary upon them. The 4'2d Fsalm, for instance, is a precious piece of devotional reading, as it stands among the other Psalms. ' As the heart panteth after the water-brooks,' etc. But inserted in its chronological connections, and read in the hght of historical events, it is impressive and striking, as well as devotional. So the prophets, instead of being gathered together in one part of the Bible by themselves, are introduced into the reigns, and among the events where they actually appeared. And thus history and prophecy are made mutually to explain and authenticate each other. And so the events and scenes of Scripture are made to move again in a grand panoramic review before the mind's eye. To a multitude of persons who have been familiar only with the common version of King James, and the ordinary commentaries upon it, this will be a most welcome, suggestive, and instructive commentary. Widely known in England, I shall be happy to see it known in America also. From Rev. J. J. Carruthers, D.D., Pastor Second Cong. Church, Portland. This work — admirably translated from the German — is the result of mar- vellous industry and extensive erudition, applied to the elucidation of the Holy Scriptures. Its main peculiarity lies in the arrangement of the sacred books. The author follows the recognised chronological order of their respective dates, the book of Job, for example, following immediately after that of Genesis, and the Psalms of David being severally allocated to that portion of individual and national history to which they respectively belong. The prophetic portions of the Old Testament are, in like manner, interwoven with the histories, so as to indicate the precise period of their composition, and the original purpose of their divine inspiration. Pursuing the same general plan, the author harmonizes the four Gospel narrations, and interweaves with the Acts of the Apostles the epistles successively addressed to the churches of the saints. The whole is divided into convenient sections, and every part of each section commented on so clearly, as to convey a distinct impression of its meaning, its proper application, and its practical utility. It is a work of prodigious labour, but labour obviously expended con amove by the distinguished author. There is a delightful glow of devotional power per- vading his explanatory and practical remarks, and rendering his work a valuable companion to the private Christian in his closet as well as to the professional scholar in his study. I have no hesitation, therefore, in commending it to all who can afford to buy it, and are willing to procure, at a comparatively small expense, an effective auxiliary to the profitable perusal of the Word of God. Published by Hoyt, Fogg and Breed. From Rev. Samuel H. Merrill, Agent American Bible Society, Portland. This Commentary, first introduced to the English public a few years since, is, both in design and in execution, a work of sterling value. Its design is to give to those who have not the advantage of an acquaintance with the original languages, a clear and comprehensive knowledge of the Word of God. In the prosecution of this design, the results of profound learning are given, but not the processes by which those results are reached. It has several striking peculiarities, amongst which is this, that throughout, in the doctrinal, no less than in the prophetical, devotional, and hisforiccU books, the order of history is strictly observed. As the book of Job belongs to the patriarchal period, it is here introduced immediately after Genesis. So the more memorable of the psalms are each introduced accord- ing to the time of its composition, and in connection with the events which called it forth. This arrangement itself deepens the interest of the reader in the text, and greatly helps to elucidate its meaning. < Unlike too many works of the German school of theology, this takes for granted the full inspiration of the Bible, and its single object is to bring out its true meaning, and impress it upon the heart. ' JIultum in Parvo" is its motto. This work, uniting the excellences of Doddridge, of Campbell, of Townsend, and of others whose valuable expositions have long been familiar to the Christian public, and breathing throughout a spirit of earnest devotion, meets a want which has long been felt. As a help to a clear understanding of the Divine oracles, if the choice were between this and all others, we should give the preference to this. Agents for Maine for the Sale of SONGS FOR THE SANCTUARY, Which is uuiversally pronounced to be the BEST CHTTRCH HYMN AND TTINE BOOK IN THE MARKET. Terms for Introduction : Hymns and Tunes, 8vo, cloth, ..... Dol. 1.60 Hymns, 18mo, ....... 1.00 Special Editions for Congregational and Baptist Societies. Messrs II., F. & B. also publish a number of STINDAT SCHOOL CONCEBT EXERCISES, CLASS BOOKS, ALL KINDS OF School Record Cards, Certificates, Rank Books, Diplomas, Blanks and Books /or Town Officers' use, etc., etc. HOYT, FOGG AND BREED, 9 2 MIDDLE STREET, PORTLAND. 26e»82