the faithful witness, and the first-begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Behold he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all the kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen. Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty'." And when the Apostle, overwhelmed with the surpassing majesty of this glorified vision of his Redeemer, fell down at his feet as dead,-what can be more affecting, or more agreeable to our best ideas of the tenderness and compassion of our omnipotent Saviour, than the manner in which he came to the support of his fainting servant, when he laid his right hand upon him, saying unto him, "Fear not; I am the First and the Last: I am he that liveth and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death"." Again, when in promising his rewards to the righteous, he declares, that "to him that overcometh he will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God3;" that to him, who is "faithful unto death, he will give a crown of life;" that he sends his judgments upon the churches, "that they may know that it is He, which searcheth the reins and hearts; and will give to every one according to his works";" that "to him that over 1 Chap. i. 4-8. 2 Ib. ver. 17, 18. 5 Ib. 23. 3 Chap. ii. 7. cometh he will grant to sit with him in his throne, even as he also overcame, and is set down with the Father in his throne;"-what adequate ideas can we form of the majesty of him, who thus to the most sublime attributes of divinity, and to names and titles which can be applied to God alone, adds the possession of almighty power, and the dominion of the invisible world; or of the importance of that revelation, of which this glorious Being appears as the great Author and Messenger to man! "The 4. Lastly, this part of the prophecy is important, as shewing the origin of those various errors which make so melancholy and prominent a figure in the subsequent history of the Church; and will afford a valuable key to some of the subsequent prophecies which are contained in this book. mystery of iniquity" had already begun "to work";" and the seeds were sown, even at this early period, of many of the most dangerous heresies, of which the fruit was afterwards seen in the greatest and most prominent corruptions of the Christian faith: and the fulfilment of the divine prophecies with respect to these churches is to us, as it was to them, an earnest of that more glorious fulfilment of the sacred oracles of God, which foretell the downfall of those great corruptions, which still disfigure the purity of Christ's Church and obstruct its blessed influence in the world; but which, we have the assurance of prophecy itself, "the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and destroy with the brightness of his coming." It is unnecessary, and it would be beside our purpose, to notice all the different opinions which 6 Chap. iii. 21. 7 2 Thess. ii. 7. 8 2 Thess. ii. 8. have been maintained by different commentators, with respect to the object and tendency of these epistles to the seven churches. The opinion, which is maintained by all the most learned commentators; which was espoused by the ancient expositors; and has been adopted by their most eminent successors in later ages, by Grotius, Hammond, Daubuz, Bengel, Bishop Newton, &c. is,—that they are addressed to the Asiatic churches in particular; and through them to the universal Christian church in all times and places'. But respect for the venerated names of Henry More and Vitringa2, requires us to notice an opinion which has been taken up by these learned writers; who have imagined that they have discovered a deeper prophetical mystery in these addresses, viz. that in them is foreshewn and delineated the future state of the Church, from the time of the Apostles to the end of the world, divided into seven successive and similar periods. But, as Dean Woodhouse has justly observed, "if we attempt to apply, in regular order, the description of the seven particular churches to seven successive periods of the universal church, we shall encounter insuperable difficulties." There is no difficulty in the plain and obvious interpretation which has been affixed by the majority of commentators to these chapters of the Apocalypse. The object of them is very evident: and the effect, which must have been produced by them on these different churches, must have been very striking, when we consider, that, at this distance of time, we must be ignorant of many things, for instance, the tribu 1 Dean Woodhouse, Annotations on chap. ii. 1. More. Works. Vitringa in Apoc. p. 48. 3 Woodhouse. Ib. lation, which, it is foretold in chap. ii. 10, should happen to the Church of Smyrna, and the circumstances relating to the persecutions against the church of Pergamos (chap. ii. 13), in which the martyr Antipas was slain,-events of which we have no certain historical information in the present day, but which must have arrested in a very powerful manner the immediate attention of the Christians of that time; and not only have created an especial reverence for this prophecy at that early period, but also, in some of these churches, led to a reformation of life and doctrine, which, we know, endured to a very late period. The object of them also, considered with reference to Christian churches in future ages, is very evident;-to warn them of the great danger of unfaithfulness in the sacred trust which is committed to their charge; and that, if they fail in their duty, as the great lights in the Christian world, they must be prepared to expect the same judgment which was inflicted on these churches, that "their candlestick will be removed out of its place1." PART II. COMPREHENDING, UNDER THE SIX FIRST SEALS, A SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH TO THE GREAT CONSUMMATION OF ALL THINGS. SECT. I. Representation of the Divine Glory in Heaven. HAVING considered the Epistles, which were addressed by the great Head of the Church to the seven Churches of Asia, we next proceed to that portion of the Apocalypse which contains a pro 4 Chap. ii. 5. 1 phetical view of the fates and fortunes of the Christian Church to the great consummation of all things. The first part of this vision relates to the appearance, which was vouchsafed to St John, of the Divine glory in heaven. CHAP. IV. "AFTER this I 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; which said, Come up hither, 2 and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter. And immediately I was in the Spirit: and, behold, a throne was 3 set in heaven, and one sat on the throne. And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an 4 emerald. And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns 5 of gold. And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God. 6 And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, 7 were four beasts full of eyes before and behind. And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast 8 was like a flying eagle. And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, 9 Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come. And when those beasts give glory and honour and thanks to him 10 that sat on the throne, who liveth for ever and ever, The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and 11 cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created." 1. It is remarked by Vitringa, that there is a resemblance between the vision which was here vouchsafed to St John, and those which were vouchsafed to former Prophets, to Moses, to Isaiah, to Ezekiel, and to Daniel'. "But," as Dean Woodhouse obExod. xxiv. 9, 10; Isai. vi. 1, 2; Ezek. i. 1-26; Dan. vii. 9. Vitringa, p. 170. |