remarkable period during which the tabernacle remained at Gibeah, though the ark had been carried up to Zion and placed in a tabernacle which David pitched there (2 Sam. vi.; 1 Kings iii. 4; 2 Chron. i. 3). This separation of the ark from the tabernacle (the ark being on Mount Zion, the tabernacle at Gibeah), exactly represents the "tabernacle of witness" (Rev. xv. 8), which I had formerly been led by other considerations to interpret precisely in the same manner. But we ought also to find something corresponding to the ark separated from the tabernacle, and synchronizing with xv. 8. This I find in xiv. 1, where a Lamb stands on Mount Zion with the 144,000 sealed ones. In v. 6 a Lamb stands in the midst of the throne, which corresponds with the mercy-seat over the ark. Now the Lamb standing on Mount Zion seems to allude to the transference of the ark to the city of David; thus indicated to avoid the ambiguity which might have been occasioned by the express mention of the ark here, since it had been already named, xi. 19, to mark the Temple-of-Solomon period, answering to the final æra of Ezekiel (xl. &c.) As the ark was brought up by David, and kept in a temporary tabernacle till Solomon's temple was built; so these first-fruits unto God and to the Lamb are represented on the hill of David ("Ye are come to Mount Zion," Heb. xii. 22), waiting for that heavenly Jerusalem of which "the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple" (xxi. 22). No palms are mentioned; for the Feast of Tabernacles, at which palms were borne, is not yet come; but they form the precursors and van of the innumerable multitude having palms" (vii. 9), who shall join them in that Feast of Ingatherings at the year's end.

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There were two offerings of first-fruits-one at the Passover, the other at Pentecost. When I last turned my attention to this part of the subject, I hesitated which to apply in xiv. 4. Further consideration leads me to take the first, or that of the Passover. Two points of time are to be here noted, to either of which the term "first-fruits" may apply: first, the eve of the Passover, when the first-fruits were gathered to be laid up in the temple: second, the morning after the Passover, when they were brought forth, and when harvest was allowed to be reaped. To both these Christ's passion and resurrection wonderfully accord. They crossed Cedron after sun-set, to take the sheaf for first-fruits; and at the same time, and near the same place, Christ was apprehended. They brought out the sheaf early on the morning after Passover; and then Christ rose from the dead. Christ hath already become firstfruits in both respects. We are such only in the first sense; but "if we are baptized into the likeness of his death, we shall be also into the likeness of his resurrection." Christ, in xiv. 14, sits

on a white cloud, in his character of "first-fruits of them that slept:" an angel from the temple (xiv. 15; xi. 19), personating the priest who brings out the first-fruits, proclaims the permission to reap; and then the partakers of Christ's sufferings share his glory" Christ the first-fruits....they that are his at his coming." The first-fruits of his people I therefore believe to be gathered into the garner at this time of reaping; and it is for this privilege that I think we are instructed to watch and pray, Luke xxi. 36: "Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.' But I wish clearly to be understood as limiting this privilege to the "sealed," thus removed from the "great tribulation.' There will still be elect ones left on the earth, "for whose sake the days shall be shortened" (Matt. xxiv. 22): these shall be gathered, partly during this great tribulation, and wholly at Christ's personal coming to destroy his enemies and set up his Millennial kingdom, of which the Feast of Tabernacles is the type. In this way do I understand the countless multitude (vii. 9) having palms in their hands: to the 144,000, palms are not assigned, and I therefore think that they are removed at an earlier period than the Feast of Tabernacles.-Christ being represented in his character of a Lamb, is another proof that the church is still suffering, or the bride preparing. Up to the period of the marriage supper he is seen as a Lamb: they "follow him whithersoever he goeth" (i.e. take up their cross daily): these have "their names written in the Lamb's book of life" (xxi. 27); they are the" called and chosen and faithful" (xvii. 14), who attend the Lamb to his final conflict, when he shall assume his character of King of kings and Lord of lords (xvii. 14; xix. 16).

In connection with the tabernacle we may consider the great festivals alluded to in the Apocalypse. Of these I find but two (except the mere offering of first-fruits) distinctly and indubitably referred to,-the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles. From the contexts, too, in which these allusions stand, I consider them as indicating states, rather than times; and therefore belonging to interpretation, rather than structure. But in the structure they answer one important purpose, by obliging us to put the passages in which the allusions occur into the same order of sequence as the festivals. For instance: if the opening of the temple (xi. 19) be the Day of Atonement, 10th Tisri, (as I think it is); and if, as some maintain, xv. 8 be Solomon's dedication, 15th Tisri, (which I think it is not); then, if any of the vials are poured out, we are past 15th Tisri, on which they began to be poured; past therefore the 10th, or Day of Atonement: consequently the seventh trumpet (xi. 15) must have already sounded, and the

kingdoms of this world have for more than thirty years been "the kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ!" Or, if this be thought incredible, and the synchronism of xi. 19 and xv. 8 be still maintained, then the Day of Atonement is not yet past, and not one of the vials yet poured out! The Day of Atonement has a two-fold character; according as we consider, first, the sacrifice; second, the parties reconciled thereby. In the first aspect, it was a day of the greatest humiliation and sorrow; in the second, of complete joy and peace. Christ hath passed through both stages in his own person; but his people are still expecting the second, which they shall enter upon when the temple is opened (xi. 19). The Day of Atonement might be considered as the High Priest's own day. He on this day performed, as far as possible, all the offices of the Priesthood; the ordinary, of the inferior priests, as well as those peculiar to himself. The day, also, concentrated in itself the solemnities of every holy day it was considered a Sabbath, a festival, and a fast, requiring the rites belonging to each: it began with every demonstration of sorrow and humiliation, and finished with ushering in the Jubilee. Now, in transferring the typical ordinances of the day to our High Priest, they must of necessity be expanded to be co-extensive with his work: the Day of Atonement must be enlarged to our whole day of grace, our day of salvation. For, "Christ being come an high priest of good things to come (Heb. ix. 11), hath by his own blood " entered in once into the holy place....heaven itself" (24); "once offered to bear the sins of many: and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time, without sin, unto salvation" (28). "Which hope we have, an anchor of the soul....within the veil; whither the Forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec." (Heb. vi. 19, 20; Psalm cx.) Thus we see that Christ's day of atonement is the whole period between his death upon the cross, when he became the sacrifice which as High Priest he presented on his ascension to God the Father (Heb. ix. 12, 24), and his second advent, when unto them that look for him he shall appear without sin, unto salvation. But between the first and last act of this day there were some observances, typical of ourselves and our times, to which I think there are allusions in the Apocalypse. One of these allusions is in viii. 4, and appears to refer to the incense carried into the holy of holies after the slaying of the victims; and the smoke seems to me the same which fills the temple during the vials (xv.8); while the fire cast into the earth (viii. 5) agrees with the time of the angel having power over fire (xiv. 18); being the burning of Babylon (xviii. 8, 18; xvi. 19), before the great day of Armageddon, or treading the wine-press. And this I refer, in the type, to the

high priest's fourth entrance within the veil, when he brought out the censer, and cast its remaining coals beneath the altar of burnt offering (vi.9); with which final entrance I connect xi. 19, the ark for the church, before the baptism of fire. On the evening of the Day of Atonement the Jubilee began (the restitution of the alienated inheritance); which fixes the place of the above by another clasp; for the church is imprisoned in Babylon, whose gates of brass and bars of iron must be broken by another Cyrus, before the captives can return to Zion, or the true Jubilee begin. After this we have only to look for the antitype to the Feast of Tabernacles or Ingatherings, at the year's end, which begins the Millennial reign.

I do not intend in this paper to enter minutely upon the interpretation of the Apocalypse, but hope to undertake it in some future Number. My present endeavour is to fortify and confirm the structure of the book.as laid down by Mr. Frere and Mr. Irving, by considerations drawn from the seasons of the year, and the tabernacle and its ordinances which course of typical events being perfectly applicable to the order they have laid down, and wholly independent of those arguments by which they established the structure of the Apocalypse, gives to their system a confirmation than which I cannot imagine any thing more complete. But, before concluding this paper, I would make a few observations on the four" beasts," or living creatures (iv. 6); since, although the explanation of their forms and offices may seem to belong more properly to interpretation, they do notwithstanding give considerable additional information on the structure, and so prepare the way for minute interpretation. These most important, most difficult, and most disputed emblems, will be best understood by comparing them with the cherubim of Ezekiel, to which they have so much general resemblance. Both the etymology and form of the cherub have been greatly disputed, but an examination of the passages in which the cherubim are mentioned will leave scarcely any uncertainty respecting them. The first mention of them is Gen. iii. 24, where they guard the way of the tree of life: here, covering from profane approach is the idea; there is no description of the form. The next time they are mentioned is in Exod. xxv. 18, where they cover the mercy-seat, each having one face and two wings: this also seems to convey the same idea, that the mercy-seat is guarded from profane approach, as the tree of life was after Adam's fall. The curtains of the tabernacle were also embroidered with cherubim of the same form (Ex. xxvi. 1). In the temple of Solomon they continued the same; but two of larger size were placed in the sanctuary, under which the ark and its cherubim were deposited at the dedication (2 Chr. v. 7). The seraphim, in Isa. vi., are represented with six wings; and not, like

the cherubim, guarding the tree of life or covering the sanctuary from unhallowed approach, but in the higher office of giving glory to God. The last and most diversified of their appearances in the Old Testament is Ezek. i. 10: so diversified that the prophet did not at first recognise them, calling them first "living creatures;" and it is not till x. 20 that he knew that they were cherubim. These "living creatures" have the general likeness of a man (i. 5); but they have each four faces, each four wings, and their feet like the feet of a calf: and they also stand beneath the firmament which supports the throne (i. 22, 26); and bear the glory of the Lord, when it leaves the holy of holies (x. 4), when it quits the temple (19), and when it departs from the earth (xi. 23). Now when Moses saw the glory of God in the mount, the paved work of sapphire was beneath his feet (Exod. xxiv. 10); and it was there he saw the pattern of the heavenly things after which he framed the tabernacle (Exod. xxv. 40; Heb. viii. 5; ix. 23). Therefore, the cherubim, being beneath the firmament in Ezekiel, must in his visions relate to earthly things, or the church on earth: their four faces represent the fourfold aspect of the church. Their four wings denote that two for removal are added to the two for covering; their calves' feet symbolize ploughing, sowing, and threshing, in the East performed by the feet of oxen; and they not only cover and guard the sanctuary, but transport it from place to place. All these ideas I wish to carry into the Apocalypse, and apply these to the four living creatures and their offices. When they are first introduced (iv. 8), it is in their final character; when, like the seraphim in Isa. vi.," they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come: but when they invite the Apostle to the opening of the first four seals it is in the lower character of guarding the mysteries of God, and indicating a change in the aspect of the church, and a corresponding change in political affairs; as is also the case xv. 7. So that chap. iv. can only be regarded as a foreshewing of the final state of glory: for from this time the ascription of praise by the living creatures is incessant, and is not begun in v. 14, where they only answer Amen; nor in the seals, vi. 1-7, where they say, "Come and see; nor in the vials, xv. 7, which one of the living creatures delivers to the angels. In Ezekiel the four faces are united in each of the cherubim, because all the several aspects of the church were exhibited in the same body of people, the nation of Israel: in the Apocalypse they have four separate forms, shewing that there the several aspects of the church would be exhibited in different bodies of people, and different nations. When first enumerated, Ezek. i. 10, their faces are put in this order,-a man, a lion, an ox, an eagle; but in x. 14