holies, "where Christ is entered, now to appear in the presence of God for us" (Heb. ix. 24); where he as our High Priest ever liveth to make intercession for us (Heb. vii. 25). The daily prayers of saints are offered, too, upon the golden altar before the throne, Rev. viii. 3, 4: "Let my prayer come before thee as incense, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice" (Psal. cxli. 2). But, retaining thus every thing within the tabernacle, every thing without it is done away in Christ. No more brazen altar; for Christ "by one offering hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified" (Heb. x. 14): No more laver of purification; for he "hath washed us from our sins in his own blood" (Rev. i. 5): No more barrier of separation: "there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus" (Gal. iii. 28). This Apostolic Christian church retains in itself the spirit of prophesying till the Gentile period of forty-two months begins; when it is transferred to Christ's "two witnesses; and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days clothed in sackcloth " (xi. 3). These forty-two months, and twelve hundred and sixty days, denote the same period of time, reckoning thirty days to a month; but it is called months when applied to the Papacy-referring to the moon, her waxing and waning, her shining by night, &c. ;-while the same period is reckoned by days when applied to the church and its true witnesses-referring to the sun, which rules the day. These two witnesses are the Old and New Testaments; and they prophesy of the two offices of Christ, as King and as Priest. They are said to be clothed in sackcloth, because during the Papal period they were not allowed to appear in their own becoming dress of the original Hebrew and Greek, but every one was obliged to receive them in the degrading sackcloth of the Latin Vulgate, "These are the two olive-trees, and the two candlesticks, standing before the God of the earth" (xi. 4). In Zech. iv. there are two olive-trees, but only one candlestick. For the difference there is this reason: that in the time of Zechariah's vision there was but one book and one church, to testify of Christ the King and Christ the Priest; but during the Gentile period there were two books, and two classes of men who interpreted them and it is remarkable, that the Jews have always strenuously maintained, from the Hebrew Scriptures, the kingly office of Messiah, overlooking his priestly office; while the Christians have, from the New Testament, chiefly insisted upon his priestly office, not giving sufficient importance to the kingly: therefore, for the full testimony to Christ we need both books and both classes of witnesses. The "fire proceeding out of their mouth and devouring their enemies," intimates that they contain within themselves their own sanction: and the same figure is

:

used Jer. i. 10: "See, I have set thee this day over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant; and, v. 14, "Behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them." When they have finished their testimony-i. e. at the expiration of the twelve hundred and sixty days-"the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and overcome them, and kill them" (xi. 7). This is that spirit of infidelity which, gaining the upper hand in France May 1793, abolished public worship; declared the Scriptures to be a fable; treated them with the utmost contempt; changed weeks for decades; substituted the year of the republic for the Christian era; and did, as far as the influence of infidelity extended, overcome and kill these two witnesses, by suppressing their prophesying, in which alone their life and power consisted. The place where this is perpetrated, is "the street of the great city, spiritually called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified" (ver. 8); "the tenth part of the city" (ver. 13). The great city is Babylon; the tenth part is one of its ten kingdoms: Sodom symbolizes gross vice and sensuality; Egypt denotes science; and the crucifixion of our Lord, reckless unsparing persecution of the truth: and all these characters well agree with France. But the joy on the suppression of these two witnesses is not confined to France alone, for the infidels of other countries send their congratulations: "They that dwell on the earth shall rejoice over them and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwell on the earth" (ver. 10). But their joy is of short continuance; for (11) "after three days and an half the Spirit of life from God entered into them." These witnesses recovered their energy in that very place where they had been most completely suppressed; and this revival was exactly three years and an half after their suppression: from which time till the present they have been receiving more and more honour, being translated into almost every known tongue, and spread abroad into all lands, wide as the winds of heaven. The prophesying of the two witnesses here ends gloriously, and it is taken up, in ch. xiv., by the angel "having the everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation and kindred and tongue and people." The earthquake" which follows in the text, I believe to have accompanied the slaughter of the witnesses, and not to be after their revival: and the seven thousand men, or names of men," who are slain, I think denote a large number of the chief men in church and state, who fell in the French Revolution: and "the remnant who are affrighted, and give glory to God," I think to be a remnant of these influential classes. At the time of this earth

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quake it is declared "The second woe is past; and, behold, the third woe cometh quickly" (ver. 14). The second woe is the sixth, or Turkish, trumpet; and it is thus intimated that the Eastern empire is again about to be brought into contact with the church. Accordingly, in 1798 the French expedition to Egypt, and the English expedition which followed, powerfully impressed the Orientals with the superiority of European warfare, and proportionally lowered the Mussulman name, once so formidable. The revolt of Ali Pacha further demonstrated the weakness of the Turk, in the treachery to which he had recourse to supply the want of power. These things, combined with their intercourse with Europeans, led to the Greek insurrection; which in its results has led to the guarantee of Greek independence by the European powers, to the war between Russia and Turkey, and to the demonstration which it has afforded that the water of the great river Euphrates is dried up (xvi. 12). All this succession of events occurs between "the second woe, and the third woe, which cometh quickly.' The third woe is the seventh trumpet (xi. 15), which finishes the mystery of God (x. 7); but before it becomes a woe the servants of God are delivered from the evil to come-just as the sealed ones were protected from the effects of the earthquake of the sixth seal (vii.)— for immediately on its sounding it is proclaimed that "the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ," and that "the time is come to give reward to his servants the prophets, and to the saints, and to them that fear thy name, both small and great ;" and to these the temple of God was opened in heaven, as an ark of refuge from the coming storm. This storm is the last earthquake: "There were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and a great hail."

Prophesying in the church being carried on to its close in xi. we receive a history of the church itself in Chap. XII. This is one of the most important chapters in the book, and requires the most careful attention. To obtain any clear understanding of it, we must accurately observe the scene where the vision begins, and the subsequent changes of place; we must also exactly note the several marks of time which are given, and combine them with the corresponding parts of the vision which have not time inserted; that we may thus bring out of the vision a regular history of the church, having the essential characteristics of both time and place. The scene is first laid in heaven: "There appeared a great sign in heaven" (ver. 1); and "there appeared another sign in heaven" (ver. 3); "and the dragon stood before the woman.....to devour her child as soon as it was born" (ver. 4). The contest, therefore, begins in heaven, or the invisible; where also the hardest conflict of the church is said to

take place Eph. vi. 11: "Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil: for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high [heavenly, marg.] places." But after a time" there was war in heaven" (ver. 7), which issues in "the dragon and his angels being cast out into the earth" (ver. 9); and then the scene of conflict changes to the earth, where the dragon persecutes the woman (ver. 13); where also the woman is helped by the earth against the dragon, who makes war with the remnant of her seed (ver. 17). The time of this vision is after Pentecost, because not till then was the church fully constituted; and the conflict here begins after the time of Constantine, who divided the empire into three parts, and to which allusion is made in "the third part of the stars of heaven whom the dragon drew down to the earth with his tail" (ver. 4). But it is before the Papal period of 1260 days that the man-child is brought forth (ver. 5); for immediately after his birth she flies into the wilderness; and it is after this birth that the dragon was cast into the earth, and persecuted the woman that had brought forth the man-child (ver. 13).

the

With these marks of time and place in our memory, let us go to interpretation. The woman (xii. 1) represents the true church, she is "clothed with the sun;" Christ, the Sun of Righteousness: ("As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ," Gal. iii. 27); and it signifies that whenever the church is seen, and from whatever quarter, she manifests Christ: he is her adorning; her bridal raiment comes from him. "The moon is under her feet;" she is founded upon the Jewish church : reflecting the light of the Sun; shining by night, before the Sun arises. 66 And upon her head a crown of twelve stars; twelve Apostles. ("The stars are the angels of the churches," i. 20). "And she, being with child, cried, travailing in birth and pained to be delivered" (ver. 2). This figure is often used in Scripture, not only of the church, but of the "whole creation, which groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now; and not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of the body" (Rom. viii. 22, 23). By this "hope we are saved," and "do with patience wait for it" (Rom.viii. 25); and to such the promise is given, Hold fast till I come: and he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations; and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers, even as I received of my Father: and I will give him the morning star" (ii. 25, 28). This patient hope of the church is by our Lord

illustrated by the same figure, John xvi. 21: “A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come; but as soon as she is delivered of the child she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world. And ye now therefore have sorrow but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you." This "lively hope" of "an inheritance ready to be revealed in the last time, at the appearing of Jesus Christ" (1 Pet. i. 3-5,7), was constantly entertained by the early Christian church, and its accomplishment earnestly longed for down to the time of the Papacy; and did greatly prepare for and facilitate the antichristian usurpation of Christ's future dignity, and the blessings it shall bring upon the church, which the Pope arrogated to himself. The travail state of the church I extend over the first four centuries. The child can be none other but Christ himself*, for none but he can be said to have been caught up unto God, and to his throne." While the church continued to hope for this glorious Deliverer, the dragon, or Roman empire, stood on the watch, like Herod, to destroy him but for the 1260 days she is represented as bereft of this hope, as fleeing into the wilderness; and not as then persecuted by the dragon, but as blasphemed by that beast (xiii. 6), to whom "the dragon gave his power and his seat and great authority" (xiii. 2). This wilderness period of 1260 years, alludes to the wanderings of the children of Israel; the tabernacle shifting from place to place being the type of the church, xiii. 6. And as the murmurings and disbelief of the children of Israel occasioned their forty years' wandering, so the faithlessness of the Christian church brought about her longer wandering and severer affliction.

The "war in heaven" is next described (ver. 7): which has frequently been interpreted as past, from the expression of our Lord, Luke x. 18, "I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven." But this relates to an entirely different thing-i. e. the subjugation of devils to the name of Christ- -nor was there at that time an occasion for crying "Woe to the inhabiters of the earth" (xii. 12), for

*"Man child" (xii. 5) is, in the original, vov appeva, manly son; an expression which occurs no where else in Scripture. In ver. 13 it is appeva, but in every other place in this chapter "child" TEXVOV-a very general word, of which the nearest translation is offspring. This change of expression demonstrates the change of idea, and led me to the interpretation I have given.

†The Jewish church is often represented in the same state: as Micah iv. 9, 10,13; "Now why dost thou cry aloud? Is there no king in thee? is thy counsellor perished? for pangs have taken thee as a woman in travail. Be in pain, and labour to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail: for now shalt thou go forth out of the city, and thou shalt dwell in the field, and thou shalt go even to Babylon; there shalt thou be delivered."...." Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion; for I will make thine horn iron, and thy hoofs brass," &c. the hope being realized at Babylon's destruction.