the literal mode has been often carried too far, and has produced low and unworthy notions concerning this glorious Book. It seems to have been forgotten that the Apocalypse is a divine Poem. Through the abuse of the literal method of interpretation, the spiritual uses of the Apocalypse have often been in danger of being lost. You will not, therefore, fail, I trust, to consult the Ancient Expositors. In them, it is true, you may find much which will require the exercise of a sober judgment; and the Modern enjoy some advantages which they did not possess. But I cannot doubt that there is much of the expository teaching of the primitive Christian Church treasured up in the Commentaries of the earlier Interpreters; and this assuredly is of great value. And it is certain that the tone of these earlier Expositors is of a reverent and elevated character; one suited to the high dignity of the subject; one hallowing and spiritualizing the thoughts; one produced by careful study of the Apocalypse and of the figurative language of Hebrew Poetry; one suggestive of true Interpretations; one which raises the mind to a serene atmosphere and heavenly altitude, and not depressing it into lower and cloudier regions, which would have been spurned by the Divine Evangelist, whose spiritual flights are well typified by those of the soaring Eagle, which gazes on the sun. To speak now of the Plan of the Apocalypse. First, then, let me declare my conviction that the Apocalypse is not a progressive prophecy, flowing in a continuous stream of historical sequence. The design of the writer appears to me to be this. He traces a rapid prophetical sketch, which carries him from his own age to the eve of the consummation of all things. Hastening onward to the conclusion, he slightly touches, or wholly omits *, many things which will afterwards engage his attention. He then returns to the point from which he had started; he expands what he had before contracted; he fills up what he had drawn in outline; he treats the same period in a new relation; he turns aside from the main track into digressions and episodes; he reverts from these by-ways into the high road, and again moves onward: and in this manner he arrives at the same point as that which he had reached in his first journey; and thus, at several times proceeding from the same initial point, he travels downward, not in parallel lines, but in paths more or less devious or winding, and in roads of a different kind: some presenting a view of suffering ; some of judgment; some displaying a prospect of St. John, by his practice, has given weight to Horace's precept concerning true poetical order, (Ars Poet. 44,)— Ordinis hæc virtus erit et venus, aut ego fallor; Bossuet well says, on Rev. vii. : C'est une chose ordinaire dans l'Apocalypse, de montrer premièrement les choses en général et plus confusément comme de loin, pour ensuite les déclarer par ordre et dans un plus grand détail. the History of the WORD of God; some of the CHURCH of God, both visible and invisible; some opening, as it were, a wide panorama of afflictions under the tyrannous sway of a proud and prosperous Apostasy others exhibiting the downfall of this mysterious Empire, and of all its adherents; and the final subjection of all terrestrial and infernal Powers to the dominion of Christ. Let it not, however, be imagined, that because the Apocalypse is not composed on the plan of a regular History, its several parts are not closely connected together. A beautiful harmony pervades the whole. Its transitions may at first seem to be abrupt; but the fact is, they are all natural and easy. Every portion is joined to the rest with exquisite grace and consummate skill. But to return. The Author having been brought, in the manner we have described, by several tracks to the same glorious catastrophe, re-ascends once for all, in the Twentieth Chapter, and gives in one glance a brief Summary of what had been done by Christ for His Church, even from His Incarnation to the end. He shows that Christ came from heaven in order to bind Satan; that He did bind him, and gave men power to overcome him; that He made them partners of His victory, and inheritors of His glory. And thus the inspired writer obviates any objections which might otherwise have been raised from the calamities which he himself had revealed in the Apocalypse. He vindicates Christ, and shows that all the sufferings of the world are due to its own wick edness; that after repeated warnings they are sent by God as chastisements for sin, and as calls to repentance *. For example, he teaches us that the Decian and Diocletian persecutions were permitted by God to try the faith and to correct the worldliness of the Church; that the incursions of Goths and Vandals into Europe and Africa were instruments in His hands for punishing heresies and schisms; that Heresies themselves were chastisements for sin; that the Mahometan woe was a scourge for idolatry. Thus he justifies the ways of God to man. He also shows that nothing can harm those who are sealed with the seal of God; for they are united for ever with Christ; they are enthroned in heaven with Him. And having thus given the Christian moral of the whole Apocalypse, he then, at length, takes a step which he had not taken before. He crosses the gulf which separates Time from Eternity. He displays the last Judgment. He mounts from the Earthly Church to the Heavenly City. He unfolds the glories of the New Jerusalem. And thus he exhibits the immensity of God's love; and excites the courage and invigorates the faith of Christians in every age with a view of eternal joy. Such, I apprehend, is the Plan of the Apocalypse t. * See more on this subject above, Lecture I. p. 28. This view of this Book is confirmed by the testimony of the Ancient Church. The earliest Interpreter of the Apocalypse In illustration of this view, I might remind you that the same mode of treating a similar subject is pursued by the ancient Hebrew Prophets, whose footsteps St. John follows very closely; for example, by Daniel *, who hastens to the end of his prophecy, and then returns to exhibit it in wider expansion and minuter detail †. But I proceed; and, in order to test this opinion concerning the Apocalypse, I would invite you to accompany me in brief analysis of this sublime Book. On the present occasion, we shall begin at its opening; and speak of the SEVEN EPISTLES and SEVEN SEALS. At the very commencement of the Revelation, the writer anticipates the end. Behold, He cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see Him; and they writes thus clearly on this point. Victorinus in Apoc. vii. 2. Non aspiciendus est ordo dictorum: quoniam sæpe Spiritus Sanctus ubi ad novissimi temporis finem percurrerit, rursus ad eadem tempora redit, et supplet ea quæ minus dixit. Nec requirendus est Ordo in Apocalypsi, sed intellectus sequendus est eorum quæ prophetata sunt.-So Primasius, ad Apoc. in fine, says, In tubis gratâ repetitione suo more describit. * Lightfoot, ad cap. xii. "As Daniel, in chap. ii., gives a general view of his own times to the coming of Christ, in the four Monarchies, and then handles the very same thing again in another scheme, and then something plainer, and then doth explain at large, and more particularly, some of the most material things that he had touched in those generals," so St. John in the Apocalypse. + See Daniel, chap. vii. 9-28. |