tures was the habitual object of Heathen persecution. Thus, as persecution grew, the records were diminished. And again, on that sudden accession to power, under which the doctrines of Christianity were so rapidly corrupted, the whole body of the Scriptures fell year by year more into neglect. Worldly pursuits and childish and inextricable disputations led the way to the ages of ignorance. The Apocalypse, unintelligible to the time, was gradually neglected, was sometimes dropped out of the canonical lists, sometimes even declared apocryphal, and probably often totally forgotten or unknown.

Eusebius, in his settlement of the sacred canon, by his lists of

The Quoroyovμuevo-or universally acknowledged:The Artisyouevo-or acknowledged by some, and objected to by others:

The Nooo or spurious books:

Places the Apocalypse in the first and the thirdadding the words, "if it should so appear" (ε pasin); thus stating that the opinions of his day varied in a strong degree; but that none of them fixed it in his fourth class the works of heretics. The meaning of Nooo is scarcely more than the doubt of its having been written by the Apostle. Yet those questions can be to us but learned trifling. The only test of a prophecy is the fulfilment. If its prediction be found true, we can ask for no higher authority. Yet the Apocalypse is deficient in nothing of even the customary human evidence. There is the plainest proof that it existed in the first ages;-that it was received as the work of the Apostle;-and that it was received in the sense in which we now receive it, of a declaration of the sufferings and rewards of the Christian Church. Than this, what more can be asked? Or what injury can be done to this clear testimony by the doubts of corrupt or ignorant contro

versialists,* of furious sectaries, or of perplexed and wilful perverters of all Christianity, then going down. into the night, which, from the sixth century, covered alike the literature, the freedom, and the religion of the European nations?

ARRANGEMENT OF THE INTERPRETATION.

The purpose of the Jewish prophecies was twofold; the declaration of the Messiah, and the denunciation of the national crimes. The purpose of the Apocalypse is one; a Warning, to the Apostolic Church against going over to idolatry in the pagan persecutions; and to the Church in all succeeding times against being seduced or terrified by the blandishments or persecutions of Popery. In its form, and its symbols, it bears a remarkable similitude to some portions of the book of Daniel; but altogether exceeds it in directness of application, and copiousness and clearness of circumstance. Daniel was worthy of the brightest period of Jewish inspiration. The Apocalypse is worthy of the comprehensiveness, the majesty, and the splendour of Christianity. They both differ remarkably from the other prophecies, in their frequent use of dates, the only mode by which prophecies of remote events can be substantiated:" for they were both intended to reach to the remotest times.

They both have the scarcely inferior value of showing, that in all the complication of the history of mankind, there is a Divine plan, carried on unceasingly, counteracting human evil without infringing on human will, and finally producing the most comprehensive and elevated happiness and honour to the creation.

But there is another value of prophecy, which has been seldom observed-its value as an independent

evidence of Christianity. All historic evidence must have an alloy of uncertainty; it must depend largely on documents, in themselves often uncertain, sometimes strongly disputed, and at best liable to human. error. But he who has fairly satisfied his understanding by facts that a prophecy is true, is master of a conviction immediate and irresistible. On this, personal experience must give the answer. Educated a Protestant, led by early inclination to the Church, and, of course, long conversant with the received evidences of Christianity; I yet should say, if I might be allowed to allude to individual impressions, that of all evidences, the most entire and intense is that which is to be felt in the study of this great prediction. Let prophecy be but proved-the conclusion is instinctive; it must have come from God; the religion which it vindicates, the doctrines which it contains, must have come from God. The Christian world would justly lament the loss of a single line of those glorious records of its origin, the historic books of the New Testament; but if by some fatality they could perish, all their doctrines might be recovered from the burning characters of the Apocalypse, truth without a touch of mortality, the direct transmission, the living language of the Spirit of God.

In stating the arrangement of this prophecy, I shall no more than allude to those which are to be found in the commentators, the present arrangement, the interpretation, and the general system will be found widely different from those of all my predecessors. So far as can depend on original inquiry, the entire is original. The notes are already acknowledged. In the multitude of writers on this subject, it is perfectly possible that some points may have been anticipated of which I am not conscious. But, at least, with the principal writers of late years, who may be presumed to have ascertained the most important of those points,

the present work will be found remarkably at vari

ance.

For instance; the seals, trumpets, and vials, are usually conceived to be successive, and contained in each other. The present order makes them nearly contemporaneous. The Greek Church and empire; the Mahometan invasion; and the late extinction of the Germanic empire; are usually presumed to be among the principal subjects of the Apocalypse. The present interpretation excludes them all. It further differs from its predecessors in the whole explanation of the trumpets and vials; in the solution of the number 666; in that of the very remarkable chapter, "The Vision of the Locusts;" and, as may be supposed from such essential discrepancies, in the general conception of the prophecy.

Yet, it would only embarrass the reader to find the interpretation pausing to fight its way through this variety of opinions, however untenable; all remarks on them are therefore postponed to the final part of the volume. The work proceeds as if the Apocalypse were now given for the first time; and the reader is left to form his judgment of the elucidation on its own grounds.

By following the course of the chapters, the history of the Church is necessarily given in fragments; but a connected sketch of the history is subjoined. An Appendix examines the theories of former commentators, replies to arguments, &c.

END OF THE INTRODUCTION.

INTERPRETATION

OF

THE APOCALYPSE.

THE first three chapters must be rapidly passed over. They consist chiefly of precepts, made necessary by the approach of that long course of suffering by which the Church was to be tried, from the time of the Apostle to the imperial acknowledgment of Christianity. They are scarcely prophetic; and their interpretation limits itself to a few verbal remarks.

THE REVELATION OF ST. JOHN THE DIVINE.

CHAPTER I.

Verse 1. The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John:

2. Who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw.

3. Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.