fore sealed in the day of expiation, we may conceive that this sealing is synchronical to the visions, which appear upon opening the seventh seal; and that when the Lamb had opened six of the seals, and seen the visions relating to the inside of the sixth, he looked on the backside of the seventh leaf, and then saw the four angels holding the four winds of heaven, and another angel ascending from the east with the seal of God. Conceive also, that the angels which held the four winds were the first four of the seven an268 gels, who upon opening the seventh seal were seen standing before God; and that, upon their holding the winds, there was silence in heaven for half an hour; and that while the servants of God were sealing, the angel with the golden censer offered their prayers with incense upon the golden altar, and read the Law: and that so soon as they were sealed the winds hurt the earth at the sounding of the first trumpet, and the sea at the sounding of the second; these winds signifying the wars, to which the first four trumpets sounded. For as the first four seals are distinguished from the three last by the appearance of four horsemen towards the four winds of heaven; so the wars of the first four trumpets are distinguished from those of the three last, the one being represented by four winds, and the other by three great woes.

In one of Ezekiel's visions, when the Babylonian captivity was at hand, six men appeared with slaughter weapons; and a seventh, who appeared among them clothed in white linen and a writer's inkhorn by his side, is commanded to go through the midst of Jerusalem, and to set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and cry for all

the abominations done in the midst thereof: and then the six men, like the angels of the first six trumpets, are commanded to slay those men 269 who are not marked.g Conceive therefore, that the 144,000 are sealed to preserve them from the plagues of the first six trumpets; and that at length, by the preaching of the everlasting Gospel, they grow into a great multitude which no

man could number, of all nations, ' and kindreds, and peoples, and tongues:" and at the sounding of the seventh trumpet come out of "the great tribulation with palms in their hands: the kingdoms of this "world" by the war, to which the trumpet sounds, becoming the kingdoms of God and his Christ. For the solemnity of the great Hosannah was kept by the Jews upon the seventh or last day of the feast of tabernacles; the Jews upon that day carrying palms in their hands, and crying Hosannah.

CHAPTER X. After six of the angels, answering to the six men with slaughter weapons, had sounded their trumpets, the Lamb, in the form of a mighty angel, came down from heaven clothed • with a cloud, and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire," the shape in which Christ appeared in the beginning of this prophecy; and he had in his · hand a little book open,” the book which he had newly opened; for he received but one book from him that sitteth upon the throne, and he alone was worthy to open and look on this book. "And he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot 270 on the earth and cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth." It was the custom for the High Priest on the day of expiation, to stand in

an elevated place in the people's court, at the eastern gate of the priests' court, and read the Law to the people, while the heifer and goat, which was the Lord's lot, were burning without the temple. We may therefore suppose him standing in such a manner, that his right foot might appear to John, as it were standing on the sea of glass, and his left foot on the ground of the house; and yet he cried with a loud voice on reading the Law on the day of expiation. And when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their ' voices." Thunders are the voice of a cloud, and a cloud signifies a multitude; and this multitude may be the Levites who sang with thundering voices, and played with musical instruments at the great sacrifices, on the seven days of the feast of Tabernacles: at which times the trumpets also sounded. For the trumpets sounded, and the Levites sang alternately, three times at every sacrifice. The prophecy therefore of the seven thunders is nothing else, than a repetition of the prophecy of the seven trumpets in another form. "And the angel, 'which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth, lifted up his ' hand to heaven, and sware by him 'that liveth for ever and ever, that [after the seven thunders] there should be time no longer; but in the days of the voice of the seventh 'angel, when he shall begin to 'sound, the mystery of God should 'be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets." The voices of the thunders therefore last to the end of this world, and so do those of the trumpets. "And the voice which I heard from heaven, (saith John) spake unto me again and said, Go and take the little

sweet as honey, and as soon as I ' had eaten it, my belly was bitter. And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, ' and kings." This is an introduction to a new prophecy, to a repetition of the prophecy of the whole book; and alludes to Ezekiel's eating a roll or book spread open before him, and written within and without, full of lamentations and mourning and woe; but sweet in his mouth. Eating and drinking signify acquiring and professing; and eating the book means becoming inspired with the prophecy contained in it. It implies being inspired in a vigorous and extraordinary manner with the prophecy of the whole book, and therefore signifies a lively repetition of the whole prophecy by way of interpretation ; and it begins not till the first prophecy, that of the seals and trum- 272 pets, is ended. It was sweet in John's mouth, and therefore begins not with the bitter prophecy of the Babylonian captivity, and the Gentiles being in the outward court of the temple, and treading the holy city under foot; and the prophesying of the two witnesses in sackcloth, and their smiting the earth with all plagues, and being killed by the beast: but so soon as the prophecy of the trumpets is ended, it begins with the sweet prophecy of the glorious woman in heaven, and the victory of Michael over the dragon; and after that it is bitter in John's belly, by a large description of the times of the great apostacy.

CHAPTER XI. "And the angel 'stood, [upon the earth and sea,] saying, Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar, and them that worship therein," that is, their courts with the buildings thereon, viz. the square court of the

temple called the separate place, and the square court of the altar called the priests' court, and the court of them that worship in the temple called the new court: but the [great] court which is without the 'temple, leave out, and measure it not, for it is given to the Gentiles, and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months." This measuring has reference to Ezekiel's measuring the temple of Solomon: there the whole temple, 273 including the outward court, was measured, to signify that it should be rebuilt in the latter days. Here the courts of the temple and altar, and they who worship therein, are only measured, to signify the building of a second temple, for those that are sealed out of all the twelve tribes of Israel, and who worship in the inward court of sincerity and truth : but John is commanded to leave out the outward court, or outward form of religion and church-government, because it is given to the Babylonian Gentiles. For the glorious woman in heaven, the remnant of whose seed kept the commandments of God, and had the testimony of Jesus, continued the same woman in outward form after her flight into the wilderness; whereby she quitted her former sincerity and piety, and became the great whore. She lost her chastity, but kept her outward form and shape. And while the Gentiles tread the holy city under foot, and worship in the outward court, the two witnesses, represented perhaps by the two feet of the angel standing on the sea and earth, prophesied against them, and had power, like Elijah and Moses, "to consume • their enemies with fire proceeding 'out of their mouth, and to shut heaven that it rain not in the days of their prophecy, and to turn the waters into blood, and to smite 'the earth with all plagues as often

'as they will," that is, with the plagues of the trumpets and vials of 274 wrath; and at length they are slain, rise again from the dead, and ascend up to heaven in a cloud; and then the seventh trumpet sounds to the day of judgement.

The prophecy being finished, John is inspired anew by the eaten book, and begins the interpretation thereof with these words: "And the temple ' of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark ' of the testament. By the ark, we may know that this was the first temple; for the second temple had no ark. "And there were light'nings, and voices, and thunderings, ' and an earthquake, and great hail.” These answer to the wars in the Roman empire, during the reign of the four horsemen, who appeared upon opening the first four seals.

"And there appeared a great won'der in heaven, a woman clothed 'with the sun." In the prophecy, the affairs of the church begin to be considered at the opening of the fifth seal; and in the interpretation, they begin at the same time with the vision of the Church in the form of a woman in heaven: there she is persecuted, and here she is pained in travail. The interpretation proceeds down first to the sealing of the servants of God, and marking the rest with the mark of the beast; and then to the day of judgement, represented by a harvest and vintage. Then it returns back to the times of opening the seventh seal, and in- 275 terprets the prophecy of the seven trumpets by the pouring out of seven vials of wrath. The angels who pour them out, come out of the temple of the tabernacle; that is, out of the second temple, for the tabernacle had no outward court. Then it returns back again to the times of measuring the temple and altar, and of the Gentiles worship

ing in the outward court, and of the beast killing the witnesses in the streets of the great city; and interprets these things by the vision of a woman sitting on the beast, drunken with the blood of the saints; and proceeds in the interpretation downwards to the fall of the great city and the day of judgement.

The whole prophecy of the book, represented by the book of the Law, is therefore repeated, and interpreted in the visions which follow those of sounding the seventh trumpet, and begin with that of the temple of God opened in heaven. Only the things, which the seven thunders uttered, were not written down, and therefore not interpreted.

CHAPTER III.

276 Of the relation which the Prophecy of John hath to those of Daniel; and the subject of the Prophecy.

The whole scene of sacred prophecy is composed of three principal parts: the regions beyond Euphrates, represented by the two first beasts of Daniel; the empire of the Greeks on this side of Euphrates, represented by the leopard and by the he-goat; and the empire of the Latins on this side of Greece, represented by the beast with ten horns. And to these three parts, the phrases of the third part of the earth, sea, rivers, trees, ships, star, sun, and moon, relate. I place the body of the fourth beast on this side of Greece, because the three first of the four beasts had their lives prolonged after their dominion was taken away, and therefore belong not to the body of the fourth: he only stamped them with his feet.

By the earth, the Jews understood the great continent of all Asia and

D

Africa, to which they had access by land: and by the “isles of the sea, they understood the places to which 277 they sailed by sea, particularly all Europe: and hence, in this prophecy, the earth and sea are put for the nations of the Greek and Latin empires.

The third and fourth beast of Daniel are the same with the dragon and ten horned beasts of John, but with this difference: John puts the dragon for the whole Roman empire while it continued entire, because it was entire when that prophecy was given; and the beast he considers not till the empire became divided: and then he puts the dragon for the empire of the Greeks, and the beast for the empire of the Latins. Hence it is, that the dragon and beasts have common heads and common horns : but the dragon hath crowns only upon his heads, and the beast only upon his horns; because the beast and his horns reigned not before they were divided from the dragon : and when the dragon gave the beast his throne, the ten horns received power as kings, the same hour with the beast. The heads are seven successive kings: four of them were the four horsemen, which appeared at the opening of the first four seals. In the latter end of the sixth head, (or seal,) considered as present in the visions, it is said, "five [of the seven kings] are fallen, and one is, and another is not yet come; and the beast that was and is 'not (being wounded to death with 278 a sword,) even he is the eighth, and is of the seven :" he was therefore a collateral part of the seventh. The horns are the same with those of Daniel's fourth beast, described above.

The four horsemen which appear at the opening of the first four seals, have been well explained by Mr. Mede; excepting that I had rather

:

continue the third to the end of the reign of the three Gordians and Philip the Arabian, (those being kings from the south,) and begin the fourth with the reign of Decius, and continue it until the reign of Dioclesian. For the fourth horseman “sat upon a pale horse, and his name was death: and hell followed with him; and power was 'given them to kill unto the fourth part of the earth, with the sword, and with famine, and with the 'plague, and with the beasts of the ' earth,"* or armies of invaders and rebels and as such were the times during all this interval. Hitherto the Roman empire continued in an undivided monarchical form, except rebellions; and such it is represented by the four horsemen : but Dioclesian divided it between himself and Maximianus, A. D. 285; and it continued in that divided state, till the victory of Constantine over Licinius, A. D. 323, which put an end to the heathen persecutions set on foot by Dioclesian and Maximianus, and is described at the open279 ing of the fifth seal. But this division of the empire was imperfect, the whole being still under one and the same Senate. The same victory of Constantine over Licinius, a heathen persecutor, began the fall of the heathen empire, described at the opening of the sixth seal: and the visions of this seal continue till after the reign of Julian the apostate, he being a heathen emperor, and reigning over the whole Roman empire.

CHAPTER Xii. The affairs of the church begin to be considered at the opening of the fifth seal, as was said above. Then she is represented as a woman in the temple of heaven, clothed with the sun of righteous

a

ness, and the moon of Jewish ceremonies under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars relating to the twelve apostles and to the twelve tribes of Israel. When she fled from the temple into the wilderness, she left in the wilderness ' remnant of her seed, who kept the 'commandments of God, and had 'the testimony of Jesus Christ;" and therefore before her flight she represented the true primitive church of God; though, like Aholah and Aholibah, she afterwards degenerated. In Dioclesian's persecution "she cried, travailing in birth, and paining to be delivered." And in the end of that persecution, by the victory of Constantine over Maxentius, A. d. 312, she brought forth a man-child, [such a child as] was to rule all nations with a rod of 280 iron," —a christian empire. And her child," by the victory of Constantine over Licinius, A. D. 323,

was caught up unto God and to his throne." And the woman, by the division of the Roman empire into the Greek and Latin empires, fled from the first temple into the wilderness, or spiritually barren empire of the Latins; where she is found afterwards sitting upon the beast and upon the seven mountains; and is called “ the great city which reigneth over the kings of the earth:" that is, over the ten kings who give their kingdom to her beast. But before her flight "there was war in heaven between Michael and the dragon," the christian and the heathen religions: "and the dragon, 'that old serpent, called the devil

as in other instances,