I write in a book, and fend it unto the feven churches which are in Afia; unto Ephefus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.

12 And I turned to fee the voice that fpake with me. And being turned, I faw feven golden candlesticks;

13 And in the midst of the seven candlefticks, one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle.

14 His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as fnow; and his eyes' were as a flame of fire;

15 And his feet like unto fine brafs, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the found of many waters.

16. And he had in his right hand seven ftars and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged fword: and his countenance was as the fun fhineth in his ftrength.

17 And when I faw him, I fell at his feet as dead and he laid his right hand upon me, faying unto me, Fear not; I am the firft and the last:

1

18 I am he that liveth, and was dead; and behold I am alive for ever more,

Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.

19 Write the things which thou haft feen, and the things which are, and the things which fhall be hereafter.

20 The mystery of the feven stars which thou faweft in my right hand, and the feven golden candlefticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the feven candlesticks which thou faweft, are thesfeven churches.

He then (ver. 9-20.) mentions the place, where the Revelation was given, and defcribes the manner and circumftances of the firft vifion. The place, where the Revelation was given, was Patmos a defolate iland in the Archipelago, whither he was banished for the confeffion of the gofpel. This happened in the reign of Nero more probably than in that of Domitian. It is indeed the more general opinion, that the Apocalyps was written in Domitian's reign; and this opinion is founded upon the

(9) Iren. adverf. Hæres. Lib. 5. Cap. 30. p. 449. Edit. Grabe.

(1) Eufebii Chron. Lib. 1. Edit. Scalig. p. 80. Gr. p. 44. Lat. Vide etiam p. 164. Libri

pofterioris,

the (9) teftimony of Irenæus, who was the difciple of Polycarp, who had been the difciple of St. John. This authority is great, and is made ftill greater, as it is confirmed by (1) Eufebius in his Chronicle and in his Ecclefiaftical Hiftory. But Eufebius a little afterwards in the (2) fame hiftory recites a memorable ftory "out of Clemens Alexandrinus; that St. John, after he returned from Patmos, committed a hopeful young man to the care of a certain bishop; that the 'bishop received him into his houfe, educated, inftructed, and at length baptized him; that the bifhop afterwards 'remitting of his care and ftrictness, the young man was corrupted by idle and diffolute companions, reveled with them, robbed with them, and forming them into a gang of high-way men was made their captain, and became the terror of all the country; that after fome time St. John coming upon other occafions to revifit the fame bifhop, inquired after the young man, and was informed that he was not to be found in the church, but in fuch a mountain with his fellow robbers; that St. John called for a horse, and rode immediately to the place; that when the

young man faw him, he fled away from him; that St. John forgetting his age pursued eagerly after him, recalled him, and reftored him to the church. Now all these transactions muft neceffarily take up fome years; and may feem credible if St. John was banished by Nero, but are altogether impoffible if he was banished by Domitian; for he furvived Domitian but a very few years, and he was then near 100 years old, and so very weak and infirm, that he (3) was with great difficulty carried to church, and could hardly speak a few words to the people, and much less ride brifkly after a young robber. Epiphanius (4) afferts, that he was banished into Patmos, and wrote the Apocalyps there, in the reign of Claudius: but poffibly he might mistake Claudius for his fucceffor Nero. The churches of Syria have thus (5) infcribed their verfion, The Revelation made to John the

Evangelift by God in the iland Patmos, into which he was banifhed by Nero the Cæfar." The ancient commentators (6) Andreas and Arethas affirm, that it was understood to be written

(3) Hieron. in Epift, ad Galat. Cap. 6. Tom. 4. Part. Prior. Col. 314. Edit. Benedict.

(4) Epiphan. adverf. Hæres. Lib. 1. Tom. 2. Se&t. 12.

p. 434. Sect. 33. p. 456. Edit. Petav.

(5) Revelatio quæ facta eft Joanni evangeliftæ a Deo in Patmo infula, in quam injectus fuit a Nerone Cæfare.

(6) Andreas

written before the deftruction of Jerufalem. So many fpurious Apocalypfes, written by Cerinthus and others in early times, demonftrate evidently that the Apocalyps of St. John, in imitation whereof they were written, was ftill earlier, and was held in high eftimation among Chriftians. But what is to me an unanfwerable argument, the ftile itself, fo full of Hebraisms, and as I may fay fo full of barbarisms and even folecifms, as fome (7) even of the ancients have obferved, manifeftly evinces, that the author was but lately come out of Judea, was little accustomed to write in Greek, and had not yet attained to that greater purity of file, which appears in his Gofpel and Epiftles. Sir Ifaac Newton hath farther (8) fhown, that in the Epiftles of St. Peter, and in St. Paul's Epiftle to the Hebrews, there are feveral allufions to this book of the Apocalyps; and St. Peter and St. Paul, all the ancients agree, fuffered martyrdom in the end of Nero's reign. It may indeed be retorted, that St. John might borrow from St. Peter and St. Paul, as well as St. Peter and

(6) Andreas in Apoc. VI. 16. Arethas in Apoc. XVIII. 19. (7) διαλεκτον μεντοι και γλώσσαν un ang bus ( AUTH BETW, αλλ' ιδιωμασι μεν βαρβαρικοις χρωμε νον και π8 και σολοικίζοντα. Verum dictionem ejus non admodum VOL. III.

St:

Græcam animadverto, fed barbarifmis atque interdum folœcifmis inquinatam. Dionyfius Alex. apud. Eufeb. Hift. Ec clef. Lib. 7. Cap. 25.

(8) Sir If.Newton's Obf. upon the Apoc. Chap. 1. p. 239--246. C (9) In