be fulfilled, which had not been fulfilled in their age, and have been fulfilled in ours-are, in some instances, so conflicting, and so inconsistent with each other and with truth, that any one who would here exchange the Exposition of Time for the Exposition of the Fathers, would entangle himself in a labyrinth of doubt, and would betray a lack of judgment, and would do much to invalidate the authority of the Fathers in matters of doctrine, where, confessedly, they are of great weight.

Yet we must not forget there is much of the expository teaching of the primitive Christian Church treasured up in the Commentaries of the earlier Interpreters; and this assuredly is of great value. And it is certain that the tone of these earlier Expositors is of a reverent and elevated character; one suited to the high dignity of the subject; one hallowing and spiritualizing the thoughts; one produced by careful study of the Apocalypse and of the figurative language of Hebrew Poetry; one suggestive of true Interpretations, and raising the mind to a serene atmosphere and heavenly altitude, and not depressing it into lower and cloudier regions, which would have been spurned by the Divine Evangelist, whose spiritual flights are well typified by those of the soaring Eagle, which gazes on the sun.

4. To speak now of the Plan of the Apocalypse. First, then, let me declare my conviction that the

Apocalypse is not a progressive prophecy, flowing in a continuous stream of historical sequence, as has generally been supposed in modern times.

The design of the writer appears to be this. He traces a rapid prophetical sketch, which carries him from his own age to the eve of the consummation of all things. Hastening onward to the conclusion, he slightly touches, or wholly omits', many things which will afterwards engage his attention. He then returns to the point from which he had first started; he expands what he had before contracted; he fills up what he had drawn in outline; he treats the same period in a new relation; he turns aside from the main track into digressions and episodes; he reverts from these by-ways into the high road, and again moves onward: and in this manner he arrives at the same point as that which he had reached in his first journey. And thus, at several times proceeding from the same initial point, he travels downward, again and again, in paths more or less devious or winding, and in roads of a different kind: some presenting a view of suffering; some of judgment;

1 St. John, by his practice, has given weight to Horace's precept

concerning true poetical order, (Ars Poet. 44,)—

Ordinis hæc virtus erit et venus, aut ego fallor;

Ut jam nunc dicat, jam nunc debentia dici

Pleraque differat, et præsens in tempus omittat.

:

Bossuet well says, on Rev. vii. C'est une chose ordinaire dans l'Apocalypse, de montrer premièrement les choses en général et plus confusément comme de loin, pour ensuite les déclarer par ordre et dans un plus grand détail.

some displaying a prospect of the History of the WORD of God; some of the CHURCH of God, both visible and invisible; some opening, as it were, a wide panorama of afflictions under the tyrannous sway of a proud and prosperous Apostasy: others exhibiting the downfall, first, of the Seat of Government, then of this Mysterious Empire; and the final subjection of all terrestrial and infernal Powers to the dominion of Christ.

Let it not, however, be imagined, that because the Apocalypse is not composed on the plan of a regular History, its several parts are not closely connected together. A beautiful harmony pervades the whole. Its transitions may at first seem to be abrupt; but the fact is, they are all natural and easy. Every portion (as I shall endeavour to show) is joined to the rest with exquisite grace and consummate skill.

5. To sum up all. The Author having been brought, in the manner we have described, by several tracks to the same glorious catastrophe, reascends once for all, in the TWENTIETH CHAPTER, and gives in one glance a brief Summary of what had been done by Christ for His Church, from His Incarnation to the end. He shows that Christ came from heaven in order to bind Satan; that He did bind him, and gave men power to overcome him; that He made them partners of His victory, and inheritors of His glory. And thus the Inspired Writer obviates any objections which might otherwise have been raised from the calamities which he himself had revealed in

the Apocalypse. He vindicates Christ, and shows that all the sufferings of the world are due to its own wickedness; that after repeated warnings they are sent by God as chastisements for sin, and as calls to repentance'.

Thus, for example, he teaches, that the Decian and Diocletian persecutions had been permitted by God to try the faith and to correct the worldliness of the Church; that the incursions of Goths and Vandals into Europe and Africa were instruments in His hands for punishing heresies and schisms; that Heresies themselves were chastisements for sin; that the Mahometan woe was a scourge for idolatry. Thus he justifies the ways of God to man. He also shows that nothing can harm those who are sealed with the seal of God; for they are united for ever with Christ; they are enthroned in heaven with Him. And having thus given the Christian moral of the whole Apocalypse, he then, at length, takes a step which he had not taken before. He crosses the gulf which separates Time from Eternity. He sees the Throne set and the Books opened. He displays the Last Judgment. He mounts from the Earthly Church to the Heavenly City. He unfolds the gates of the New Jerusalem. And thus he exhibits the immensity of God's love; and the great

1 More is said on this subject in the two Lectures "on the Doctrine of a Millennium."

2 In the eleventh verse of the twentieth chapter.

ness of His Power; and the terrors of His Justice; and awakens the fears, and excites the courage, and stimulates the hopes, and invigorates the faith of Christians in every age with a view of eternal woe and of eternal joy.

Such is the Plan of the Apocalypse'.

In illustration of this view, you might be reminded that the same mode of treating a similar subject is pursued by the ancient Hebrew Prophets, whose footsteps St. John follows very closely; especially by Daniel', who hastens to the end of his prophecy, and then returns to exhibit its several parts in wider expansion and minuter detail. But we proceed; and, in order to test this opinion concerning the Apocalypse, let me invite you to accompany me in brief analysis of this sublime Book.

This view of this Book is confirmed by the authority of the Ancient Church. The earliest Interpreter of the Apocalypse, Victorinus in Apoc. vii. 2, writes thus clearly on this point. Non aspiciendus est ordo dictorum, quoniam sæpe Spiritus Sanctus ubi ad novissimi temporis finem percurrerit, rursus ad eadem tempora redit, et supplet ea quæ minus dixit. Nec requirendus est Ordo in Apocalypsi, sed intellectus sequendus est eorum quæ prophetata sunt. So Primasius, ad Apoc. in fine, says, In tubis gratâ repetitione suo more describit.

2 Lightfoot, ad cap. xii. "As Daniel, in chap. ii. gives a general view of his own times to the coming of Christ, in the four Monarchies, and then handles the very same thing again in another scheme (chap. vii.), and then something plainer, and then doth explain at large, and more particularly, some of the most material things that he had touched in those generals," so St. John in the Apocalypse.

3 See Daniel, chap. vii. 9-28.