quering and to conquer in Ch. vi. 2.) returning as victor, bearing many crowns, who is called FAITHFUL AND TRUE, who has "eyes as a flame of fire," v. 12., "and his name is called (v. 13., ¿ "AOгo, the LOGOS) the WORD OF GOD." We have seen already that he "whose eyes are as a flame of fire," Ch. i. 14., is, JESUS CHRIST, whom John saw in the likeness of a son of man, i. e. in human nature, and who said to John "I am THE FIRST AND THE LAST, and the Living I became dead, but behold living I am to Eternity," the same who, in Ch. iv. 8., is called Kú-. ριος ὁ Θεὸς, JEHOVAH THE OMNIPOTENT, and to whom are ascribed "the glory and honor and power,”—" because," say the worshippers, "thou hast created all things, and as they were made, so also, they exist by thy will," Ch. iv. 11.— Now what does John say in his Gospel?" In

one;

the beginning was the WORD, [¿ 4OFOX] and the "WORD was with GOD, and GOD was the WORD "....all things were made by him, and without him "was not any thing made that was made.....and the "WORD was made flesh [appeared in human na"ture] and dwelt among us." But not to detain the reader, with this torrent of evidence before us,-how much ought we to commiserate the blindness of those who persist in denying the Divinity of JESUS CHRIST, and, in derogation of his high characters, continue to call him "a

mere man”—“ nothing but a man”—“simple human nature?" Either the Apocalypse speaks falsely, or they are in error! Some of them indeed may be inclined to give up the book entirely, to deny its divine authority; but if they have dispassionately attended to what has been advanced in these dissertations, they will have perceived that they must be prepared, if they insist on this, to go a great deal farther; for in the Epistles of the New Testament the divine authority of this book is acknowledged, by the quotations made from it by their respective writers, as has been shown (Dissert. II.), and, consequently the Epistles must also be given up!

Before closing this dissertation I beg to repeat that, respecting the fundamental doctrine of Christianity, established by this enquiry, I cannot but ascribe the darkness that has been imputed to the Apocalypse, on this point, principally to the wrong interpretation put on the 1st verse of the fifth chapter,-an interpretation entirely contrary to the usage of the Greek language, when the Preposition in governs an Accusative, and by which misinterpretation the strong, but common, Hebraism for power was taken, in its literal sense, for the right hand of a person. This misconception led to the interpolation of To Bißaior (the book) in verse 7.; and having thus made the text to speak of two per

sons where the Writer had but one in his mind, it is no wonder that bold critics should in other places, which presented a glaring contradiction to this, have ventured to expunge words from the text. To this cause I cannot avoid ascribing the various readings presented by the MSS. in Ch. i. verses 8. and 11.; the words apxy xai réños, "the Beginning and the End," in the former, and 'Εγώ εἰμι τὸ Α καὶ τὸ Ω, ὁ πρῶτος καὶ 08 ὁ ἔσχατος, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last" in the latter verse, being absent from many MSS. I have no doubt that these words are a genuine part of the text. The exclusion however must have been effected very early, for the majority of the manuscripts which omit them in the one verse, are the same that exclude them in the other; which shows that they must have had the same early mutilated prototype. The only thing that surprizes me is, that the words," I am the Alpha and the Omega,” in v. 8. should, in every known Codex, have escaped the pruning hook of bold emendators. But in this verse it is possible the critic might think the speaker different from him who speaks in verse 11, though, as we have seen, the speaker is the same in both. Whatever led to the exclusion, the record has been watched over by its divine author in such a manner that the general doctrines of the Apocalypse have been pre

served entire, and no way impaired. This, as has been shown, is so truly the fact, that the evidence stands complete, without the aid of the words excluded from these verses being required, even to strengthen it. What motive could any one have to interpolate these verses? It is impossible to assign one. Will it be said, that, possibly, he did it to establish, or assist in maintaining, a certain doctrine? This we have seen was not necessary, for the doctrine alluded to pervades the record, and is fully established without the help of the disputed words. But, on the other hand, it is easy to see a motive which might operate to cause a mutilation of these verses. I hope I shall not be understood as insinuating that these texts were wilfully corrupted, to serve a purpose; for the person who first altered them might have been very honest (however imprudent), and might have expunged the words on the idea that he was correcting an error of some former transcriber, in the copy before him. But freedoms have been used with the text, for the original autograph of the seven copies furnished to the seven churches, could not differ, but the MSS. now in existence do differ; and this difference I ascribe to the cause already assigned,—an idea that, in Ch. v. THE SITTING ONE on the throne, and THE LAMB in the midst of the throne, were distinct persons; for he

must be a careless reader indeed who cannot see that THE LAMB is JESUS CHRIST, and that he is the speaker in Ch. i. 11., and if the first clause of this verse were left in, he would at once have been declared to be the person also that speaks in the 8th verse of the same chapter, and who is the Sitting one of Ch. iv. 8, 9.-making JESUS CHRIST, who is THE LAMB, to be also THE KATHEMENOS, contrary to the idea before taken up, that the Lamb of Ch. v, who is JESUS CHRIST, was there represented as a different person from THE KATHEMENOS. The scribe therefore who first presumed to expunge the disputed words in the 8th and 11th verses of Cb. i. (for I cannot but attribute the difference, in these instances, to exclusion rather than interpolation), might be strongly persuaded, that he was restoring the text to its primitive purity, But however this may be, respecting these pas sages, the fact established by a close examination of the structure and language of the Apo calypse will never be overturned; that our Lord, JESUS CHRIST, the ROOT OF DAVID, THE LAMB in the midst of the throne, is, JEHOVAH ELOHIM SABAOTH, THE LORD GOD OF HOSTS: to him be eternal power and glory. Amen.

FINIS.