to conclude the bolder, that the : Mr. Bedford, in settling the different ages of the world, proposes this method : First, says he, I suppose, that at the end of two thousand years Noah died, who was the father of the new world, and was immediately succeeded by the birth of Abraham, the father of the faithful. Secondly, that the six days of labour may represent a state of labour and trouble to the church of God, for six thousand years; and as the first three thousand years did end in the perfecting of the material legal temple built by Solomon; so the other three thousand years will end in the perfecting of the spiritual evangelical temple, of which Jesus Christ is the chief corner stone. Or thus, two thousand years before the birth of him, to whom the promise of the Messias was given; two thousand years before the birth of the Messias, in whom the promises were fulfilled; and under him two thousand years of labour and trouble, answering to the six days of the v Vol. I. p. 385, 386. week; and one thousand years of peace and rest, answering to the seventh day, or sabbath.""w IV. [Another and somewhat imaginative head follows, in which the Author endeavours to trace a correspondence in the events of these six periods of the world with the respective works of the six first days of creation. The following is a sum of it. First day, the creation of light: first period the breaking out of light to the church in that promise to the woman, Gen. III. 15. Second day, the waters divided by a firmament: second period, the calling out and separating the family of Abraham from the people, of which waters are a type; the first period being a chaos in which all families good and bad were blended together.* Third day, the separation of the waters completed, and the creation of plants: the Jewish nation gathered together by Moses, and claimed by the Lord as a peculiar people. The dry land he now takes to be an emblem of the Jewish church, in contradistinction to the waters, or Gentiles, which are drawn off; and the earth thus appearing brings forth grass, and herb, and tree, yielding seed and fruit, which is further typical of the fruitfulness of the church. "It appearing from hence, (says the Author) that the works of the third day, in their typical reference, give us a view of the w Scripture Chronolog. B. 2. c. 6 * On this period the Author has the following remarks: "It must be observed, that as the work of this second day was imperfect, so the division answering to it was likewise partial: though God began a separation in Abraham and his family, it was not completed till his descendants became a great people, and were the only national church in the world. And therefore it is very remarkable, that there is no benediction annexed to the second day; the reason of which is, because God had not yet finished his work. However, forasmuch as God designed Abraham and the families of the patriarchs (inconsiderable as they are for number,) an eminent figure in the history of the church, he was pleased to take a whole day in making the expansion and separating the waters above the firmament from those below it. This I hope will, in some measure, satisfy those who have been ready to wonder that this day was employed to no other purposes." but short, will come down with great fury (Rev. x11. 12) and stir up his instruments to the utmost; and then we shall see what monsters of iniquity-what blood thirsty creatures they are." He thinks that this will probably be effected by a junction of the Mahometan power with the Roman Catholic; and that this is typified by the frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, beast, and false prophet." Certain it is (he continues) that the latter days, or days immediately preceding the deliverance of the church from all her avowed enemies, will be a time of great tribulation, such as was since there was a nation.' (Dan. XII. 1.) If the Papacy in the West will make considerable efforts to preserve that life which remains in some of its branches, after the body of the beast is destroyed; (Dan. vII. church as perfectly separated from the world, and completely beautiful in her state; it is no wonder to find two benedictions accompany this day, viz. that those words," and God saw that it was good," should be repeated twice, once on the complete separation of the waters, and once on the clothing the earth with herbage and fruit." Fourth day, God made two great lights, and the stars also; corresponding with the appearing of "the Sun of right eousness," Christ Jesus, the Church as the moon, and his ministers and followers as stars. Fifth day, " And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven." (Gen. 1. 20.) The coming into existence of the fish and the fowl, he compares to the springing up of the whole Anti-_11, 12)—I mean, if, after A REVOchristian hierarchy; because as the waters brought forth the fowl, the papal beast rose out of the sea; (Rev. XIII. 1) and Satan is the prince of the power of the air. (Ephes 11. 2.) 66 never LUTION IN FRANCE* (which I take for the body of the Papal beast,) the other kingdoms in the papal interest will not give up without the hazard of a war, (though it must in the issue fall heaviest on themselves;) no more, we may be sure, I will the Turk suffer the land of Canaan to be taken from him and quietly possessed by the Jews; &c." Sixth day, the creation of insects, creeping things, four footed beasts. The creeping things, in which he specially mentions serpents, and the quadrupeds, comprehending in them lions, leopards, bears, &c. he considers as farther representing the antichristian faction; but that faction in its consummation of wickedness. For the church (he says) has not yet felt the utmost of their violence. There is still more behind to fear from them. It is true we cannot at present pretend to describe in what particular instances she has to suffer; but this we know, that when things begin to draw to a crisis, the devil, because his time is *This was published in 1734, more than half a century before the breaking out of the French revolution; but his view seems borrowed from Jurieu, to whom he acknowledges himself in some things indebted.-ED. The creation of Adam in the latter part of this day he takes to be emblematical of judgment being given to the saints, and the beasts being now brought into subjection to the second Adam, as they were in the first instance to the first Adam. And the creation of the woman and her union with the man, is a type of the marriage of Christ with his church at that period, who is the bride and for them "there remaineth a sabbath of glory and peace ;viz. the seventh millennium."] 119 66 Original Essays. INTERPRETATION OF THE APOCALYPSE. CHAPTER II. CONTINUED. The Church in Pergamos. Verse 12. It has been before observed that the characteristics of Christ, with which the two forgoing epistles were introduced, may be considered as having the precedence given to them on account of their peculiar suitability to the suffering state in which the Churches were placed at the time the Apocalypse was written. In the next epistle, addressed to the Church in Pergamos, our Lord appears to reveal himself in his most important character, or in reference to his essential and divine nature, as the personal WORD OF GOD.' It thus commences: "To the Angel of the Church of Pergamos write; These things saith he which hath the sharp sword 'with two edges;" which descrip. tion refers to Chap. 1. 16: where it is said, "Out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword;" and it is under this title of the Word of God, (compared by the Apostle Paul to a sharp two-edged sword,) that St. John describes him, when he lays the foundation of the gospel of our salvation, by asserting his divine nature; 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with 'God, and the Word was God. All things were made by him; and ' without him was not any thing 'made that was made;" this name implying, that as it is by our words alone that we can make ourselves known to others, so it is the peculiar office of the second person in the Trinity, to make known the things of God. The symbol therefore describes " Christ, the power of 46 God, and the wisdom of God," as the revealer of his will or law; one jot or one tittle of which shall in no wise pass away till all be fulfilled. It is of the same word of God" or "personal wisdom" that, according to the opinion of our most esteemed divines, it is said, "The Lord pos'sessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was.- -When he prepared the heavens I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth, 6 then I was by him,-rejoicing ⚫ always before him, and my delights were with the sons of men.” (Prov. VIII. 22-31.) This Word is the salvation of his people, but the condemnation of his enemies: a savour of life unto life, and of death unto death; like the cloudy pillar which conducted the Israelites, and was a guiding light to them, but terrific darkness to the Egyptians. Christ as the Word of God is the life of the world, for the words that he speaks, they are spirit, and they are life. This charac ter of the Word of God, as being the word of life, was more particularly manifested at his first coming, which was to save and not to condemn; but at his second coming, when he shall be revealed from heaven in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and obey not the gospel, he will be revealed as the Word of God in its condemning power, and in the manifestation of his righteous law, which demands the destruction of transgressors; for then out of the mouth of him “whose name is called the Word of God," it is said, "shall go forth" a sharp two-edged sword, with which he shall smite the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, and tread the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God." (Rev. xix. 13-15.) In the body of this epistle, after the usual declaration, that Christ knows their works, this church is commended for having valiantly maintained his testimony, holding fast his name and not denying his faith, though dwelling in the midst of a city, which having been the capital of an ancient kingdom of Asia, and the seat of the kings of the line of Attalus, was celebrated for its literature and its libertinism, its philosophy, and its magnificence; and might therefore be considered as one of the principal seats of Satan, a term we find in Chap. XIII. 2 applied to pagan Rome, as the metropolis of the whole empire and the chief seat of its idolatry. Particular reference is also made to their constancy, as manifested in those days, wherein Antipas (probabably their pastor) as a faithful martyr of Christ, was slain before their eyes; and then reference is again made to Pergamos being peculiarly the dwelling place of Satan; shewing that Christ estimates the value of our testimony in his cause, in proportion to the difficulties of our situation. Verses 14, 15. Christ had however a few things for which to reprehend them for they had, it would ap. pear, suffered in some degree from their close contact with the Pagans; and there were amongst them those who seduced the people of God to become partakers in idolatrous and licentious rites, eating things offered unto idols, and committing fornica Verse 16. Being thus found guilty, in this matter of contamination from the gentiles by whom they were surrounded, (from which fault the Ephesian Church had kept themselves clean,) our Lord calls upon them to repent; and declares, with reference to the character under which he reveals himself to this particular Church, as the word of God," that otherwise, having taken part with his enemies, they shall be treated like them; and that " coming upon them quickly," and unexpectedly, as hereafter upon the world at large, he would fight against them with the sword of his mouth. Here it may well become us, as a protestant nation, to ask ourselves— What can such as we expect, favored as we have been above all the other nations of the earth, if we continue to amalgamate ourselves with the Papacy which Christ " hates," and which—in reference to the scripture names given to the heathen idols, the abomination of the Ammonites, and the abomination of the Moabites, &c.—is called in Dan. xi. 31, and x11. 11, "the abomination that maketh desolation;" and in a subsequent part of this revelation it is called, "the Mother of harlots, and abominations of the earth." Her followers are also in Rev. XI. 2, represented as the idolatrous "Gentiles" of the present day; who amongst their other grievous errors are justly chargeable with this, that whenever circumstances have re commended such a policy, they have always been ready, like the offenders of the Church of Pergamos, to found their superstitious and worldly practices upon the former rites of Paganism. What indeed can be looked for by us but that we shall be made partakers of their punishment, upon whose account it is declared that the whole Roman empire is already devoted to destruction? Dan. vII. 11. Verse 17. In the promise made by the Spirit to those who should overcome, that it should be given to them to eat of the hidden manna, reference is made to the saving and sustaining power of the Word of God, agreeably to Christ's own declaration, "that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God;" and " that he is that living bread which came down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world; whereof whosoever eateth shall not die." Of this the manna, the support of the ancient Church in their passage through the wilderness, was but a figure. The epithet "hidden" may be supposed to have reference to that pot of manna which was by the express direction of God hidden, or laid up, by Aaron in the ark, (in itself a type of Christ,) and was thus kept in the holy of holies, the place of the immediate presence of God, and a type of the heavenly state. And as Christ, when he offered himself as the life of the world, said, "he that eateth me shall live by me;" so when he holds it forth as a reward to the suffering saints of the church of Pergamos, that in a future and eternal world they should eat of this hidden manna,-being himself the Word of God, that incorruptible manna, that true bread from heaven,-he promises to give himself for ever to them as the R source of their spiritual life; of which reward the faithful of the church of Ephesus received a like assurance under the equivalent figure of their eating of the tree of life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God. The farther promise of a white stone has reference to the method employed in the Areopagus, the great judicial tribunal of the Athenians, of deciding on the acquittal or condemnation of an individual by collecting the votes of the judges in an urn appointed for that purpose; the white stone denoting the acquittal, and the black stone the condemnation of the accused; and it implies that the Church, having washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb-and having thus been enabled, while living, to adopt the triumphant language of the Apostle : "Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect, it is God that justifieth, who is he that condemneth ?"-shall in eternity be acquitted from any charge of guilt that Satan may bring against them. Agreeably to this animating assurance we find, that the martyred saints of the Church of Pergamos (who are here promised such acquittal,) and those of the Church of Thyatira, (to whom it is expressly promised that they shall rule the nations with a rod of iron,) together with all those of the other Churches who had suffered during the period of pagan persecution, are thus represented in Rev. XII, when their warfare had been accomplished, as successfully repelling the accusations brought against them by Satan in the court of heaven. "And the Dragon," it is said, "that old serpent, called the devil and satan, that deceiveth the 'the whole world, stood before the woman that was ready to be delivered," (viz. before the Church of |