Page images
PDF
EPUB

Apocalypse would scarcely accord with that general harmony of design, and that dependency of one part upon another, by which it is shewn to be distinguished. Indeed no mode of interpreting the prophecies can be admitted to be the true one, should it appear, (to use the words of bp. Hurd) that, when interpreted, they had no determinate scheme in view, and had, for their object, only detached and unconnected events".'

This will at least appear, that a Revolution in France, long before there was any probability of such an event, was supposed to be clearly pointed out in the xith ch. of St. John; and that this opinion,' whatever foundation it may, or may not have, in the prophecies, is not a conceit of yesterday, which sprung out of recent prejudices and novel interpretations.'

The close of the sentence is the language of bp. Hurd, on applying to the Roman pontiff the predictions of Antichrist. Happy in rendering the labors of the prelates subservient to the cause of liberty, I shall cite another passage from another prelate, who was also bishop of Litchfield. 'One way of knowing whether the interpretation of a prophecy be true, is to learn the time when that interpretation was made. For if it particularly and expressly declared the event that was supposed to be imported in the prophecy, before the event happened, or could possibly be foreseen by human sagacity and penetration, the truth of the interpretation is justified by the success?.'

To the consideration of the xith ch. a large space will be allotted, on account of its importance, and because the persons who have hitherto bestowed much attention on it, since the overthrow of Gallic despotism, are I apprehend extremely few. The prophetic narrative of the witnesses in this chapter is, as Daubuz expresses himself, a great Episode or Parenthesis.' This will be apparent, if we at

[blocks in formation]

9 Bp. Chandler's Def. of Chr. from the Prophecies, 1728, p. 349. VOL. I.

'K

[ocr errors]

tend to its situation in the Apocalypse, placed as it is after the description of the sixth trumpet, and immediately followed by the account of the seventh. That' we are now living under the sixth trumpet,' and that the greater part of this prophecy relating to the witnesses remains yet to be fulfilled,' is remarked by bp. Newton; and doubtless, in his time, these observations were perfectly true.

In different parts of the Apocalypse, the European part of the Western Roman empire, and the great body of spu rious Christians who inhabit it, are represented under the emblem of a Great City; and that part of the inhabitants of this symbolic city, who bear testimony against the corruptions of religion and of government, are denominated witnesses. I accordingly admit, that the prophetic narrative of them in ch. xi. may reasonably be thought to have a reference to those persons in general, who bear witness in Europe, during the famous period of 1260 years, against the antichristian usurpations of princes and of priests: and this is principally collected from v. 2. where it is said, the Holy City shall the Gentiles tread under foot forty and two months. Now the Holy City, says Vitringa, signifies the Monarchies and Republics that profess Christianity; and this he observes is the general opinion of Protestants. With respect to the word translated Gentiles, this eminent commentator remarks, that, in the book of Revelation, it constantly signifies the corrupt part of mankind, though they may indeed be professedly Christians".

As St. John's symbol of the antichristian governments, which are seated in the European part of the Western Roman empire, is a Beast having Ten Horns; in like manner, when he here employs an emblem of a very different kind, the same number he still keeps in view. The Great City is considered in the prophecy as divided into Ten Great Portions, or Ten Principal Streets. To have described the witnesses, who appeared in each of them, would have been attended with a degree of prolixity, which

[blocks in formation]

Con

is repugnant to the genius of prophecy on the other hand, to have given an account of them altogether general, and equally applicable to them all, would have proved a method, in a considerable degree vague and unsatisfactory. The middle course then, which the prophet is thought to have followed, and which will be admitted to have been a very natural one, was to point out the events happening in one of the Ten Countries, as containing a specimen of the sufferings, which the witnesses were to endure in Europe in general, and of the subsequent changes in their favor, which were afterwards to ensue. formably to this, we find, in the account of the witnesses, that separate mention is made of THE Street of the Great City, as in v. 8, and again in v. 13, THE TENTH PART of the City is particularised; and thus it appears absolutely necessary to interpret this part at least of the description of the witnesses, as having a particular reference to some one of the European nations. The question then is reduced to this. To which of them are the predictions in ch. xi. capable of being best applied? And on this point, after sufficient inquiry, it will not perhaps be found difficult to decide; and especially if it can be proved, that they admirably suit the events which have happened in one country of Europe, whilst, on the very face of the prophecy, they correspond not at all to what has taken place in any other.

The account of the witnesses reaches from v. 3 to v. 14; and on each of these verses some observations will be offered. In v. 7 it is said, that whilst they shall perform12

12 In our English version it is falsely rendered, when they shall have finished their testimony. Hear the learned Daubuz. 6 Και όταν τελέσωσι την μαρτυρίαν αυτων. And whilst they shall perform their testimony. This is the right meaning of these words, as Grotius, More, and others, even Mede himself; own it. For the word Teλ may signify the doing of any thing in order to its perfection, as well as the actual finishing it. So EITENEW in Hebr. ix. 6, signifies simply to accomplish, without any respect to the end, any more than to the whole service: and the particle orav, whilst, suits exactly with this sense: Mat. v. 11.'

their testimony, the Beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit, that is to say, the Ten-horned Beast shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them. 'This,' says Daubuz, is such a Death, as becomes a political or collective body:' and the meaning appears to be this during the period of the 1260 years, whilst antichristian usurpation is particularly prevalent, and whilst the witnesses are employed in opposing it, the Horns of the Secular Beast, and especially the Gallic Horn, shall overcome them, and they shall become politically defunct, being deprived of their liberties, both civil and religious. In agreement with this explication we find in fact, that it was not till many centuries after the commencement of the 1260 years, that monarchical despotism was completely established in France and in most other countries of EuBut the arguments intended to prove, that the Death of the witnesses is political, and that they bear testimony against Civil as well as Spiritual Tyranny, are reserved for the ixth chapter.

rope.

[ocr errors]

These two great classes of witnesses were not, however, always to remain in a persecuted state. They were not always to continue politically dead. It is predicted in v. 13, that there would be A GREAT EARTHQUAKE, and that this would happen in THE TENTH PART OF THE CITY'3. Now Great Earthquakes,' in the language of prophecy, says Sir I. Newton, are put for the Shaking of Kingdoms, so as to distract or overthrow them'.' Indeed since the Earth, as he observes in the preceding page, signifies the Mass of the People, an Earthquake is a very apt and natural symbol of an Insurrection of the people and a Revolution of government. But this symbol is sufficiently important to authorise a fresh elucidation of it in a future chapter.

13 By this prediction the friends of the Roman hierarchy have long been embarrassed. Philip Pareus, speaking of it, says, 'Ribera, from his unwillingness to explain this passage, prudently passed over it.' Pareii Opera, 1628, in loc. Ribera was a learned Jesuit, who died in the 16th century, and composed a considerable commentary on the Apocalypse. 14 P. 17.

The expression, the Beast, that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit, it is probable, may not have appeared very intelligible to the reader. The fact is, that when St. John says in ch. xiii. that, in the prophetic vision, he saw a Beast rise up out of the sea, having Ten Horns, he employs an expression of exactly similar import. Accordingly Daubuz, when he comes to this passage in ch. xiii. says, 'this is the Beast, which is before in ch. xi. 7, said to ascend out of the bottomless gulph, and to make war, with the witnesses';' and he observes that abuccos, translated in the common version, bottomless pit, signifies the same as Faraon, the sea. Now the symbolic import of sea has been explained in a preceding chapter1.

15 To the same purpose speaks bp. Newton (on ch. xiii. v. 1). He was said before (xi. 7) to ascend ɛx TMns alvors out of the abyss or bottomless pit; but here he is said to ascend ɛx tys Daλacons out of the sea, so that the sea and abyss or bottomless pit are in these passages the same.'

16 By abuccos having been translated bottomless pit, a false idea is almost necessarily communicated to the mind of the reader; and in confirmation of what Daubuz has said, I observe with H. Stephens, that it is properly an adjective, and I accordingly apprehend, that Jaxons may be regarded as being here understood and rus abvrry as agreeing with it. Thus Æschylus has an expression exactly similar to that of St. John, only that it is not elliptical; abuccov meλayos, the immense or bottomless sea. Indeed when abucros is regarded as a substantive, its signification in scripture, as Suidas and Theodoret observe, is a great mass of waters; a sense annexed to the word by the most approved lexicographers, by Hesychius, Constantine, and Suicerus. Though this point would not have been dwelt upon at all, had it not been controverted; yet, as several important consequences have been founded on a different interpretation, I will farther try the patience of the reader by two short references to doctors Lancaster and More. The former says, ' in Is. xliv. 27. what in the lxx. is abyss is in the Hebrew Deep, that is, the great sea;' and the latter, in correspondence with this remarks, that aboσos, in Rev. xi. 7, might, very properly have been translated the sea. Myst. of Godliness, p. 178. Mr. Wakefield translates it the bottomless deep.

17 To prove that aburros, as well as Jaλacon, signifies in the symbolic language multitudes in motion and disorder, ch. vii. v. 4, of the prophet Amos may be appealed to, where (I am speaking of the Septuagint) alvaros is employed as an emblem of the Jewish nation in a state of confusion,

« PreviousContinue »