plication having been made of the Fifth Trumpet to the Saracenic invasion. He will doubtless find it to be infinitesimally small. But this is a mere portion of the proof by which the application of the Fifth Trumpet to the Saracenic invasion is fortified. The event to which this trumpet is applied, must also be succeeded by a series of seven events, happening in regular order and procession, corresponding to the descriptions under the Seven Vials, which events must be such as are congregated within a comparatively short space of time; for these vials are the Seven Last Plagues, a circumstance which, as it restricts the application, increases in a corresponding ratio the demonstrative power which the parallelism between the imagery and the events affords. But the first of these Vials must be shown to have had its fulfilment in an event, which happened coincidently with the termination of a period proved to have had its commencement 1260 years previously. This is a most exacting test. The first Vial must not only be the first of seven judgments following in quick succession, but it must happen precisely 1260 years distant from a certain well-marked event, which must fulfil the test of being the opening of the 1260 years; and which event is the establishment of that temporal dominion which, as has been seen above, is in combination with the spiritual power symbolized by the Harlot. But this is but a portion, and only a small portion of the proof which fixes the true application of the Fifth Trumpet, for we have not yet entered the great current of demonstration which is running

in the body of the prophecy, and which is derived from the minute descriptions rendered in it of the dominions it contains, and of the events predicted in it in connection with the history of these dominions. With all of these, with the whole prophecy, in fact, the Fifth Trumpet must stand in connection, and in undisturbed harmony and correspondence.

Take any Trumpet it must stand the same test, or any Vial, or any symbol whatever in the book, they must all stand the same test. Will any one venture to say, or can any one with justice maintain, that a symbol which has passed through an ordeal such as this, is not rightly applied, or that the application of it is not a demonstration of the highest rank and order. This demonstrative power rests first in the fixity of the sense of the symbols; and secondly, in the fact that this being clear and definite, the application of a single symbol involves in its train the application of all the symbols in the book.

It might be considered sufficient, and it has long been held such, to show that the imagery of the Fifth Trumpet responds to the Saracenic invasion, or that the symbolical picture under the Fourth Vial answers to the devastating power of the French Empire when its destinies were wielded by Napoleon I. But this strict correspondence of the symbolical imagery with the event is, as we see, but a very small part indeed of the real demonstrative evidence, if, in some cases, it can be called such. The symbolical representation made must not only stand in exact correspondence with the application given to it, but the symbolical

imagery of the whole book must be in harmony with the particular application. This results from that efficient manner in which all the parts of the prophecy are dove-tailed and welded into each other, in virtue of its unity of purpose and design. It is thus quite impossible to prove the application of any single symbol, without bringing the whole imagery of the book, charged with the utmost weight of demonstrative power, to sustain the proof of it. What a marvellous instance of the divine wisdom is here exhibited? A prophecy is delivered, wrapt in all the secrets of enigma, dark, dubious, uncertain of meaning at the first, but which, in the end, when ages have elapsed, and, after its fulfilment is accomplished, stands forth clad in an angelic vesture of demonstration, before which the distinctness of literal language must hide its head abashed. She, although made too the handmaid of the Deity, belongs to the race of mortals; this one is of purely celestial birth. She speaksand speaks demonstrations. These may be rivalled, not surpassed by that other "daughter of the skies" that at midnight chases the stars in their courses and writes down in algebraic signs the secrets of the heavens. The one sweeps the boundless fields of air; the other the vast abyss of the future. Both use secret signs; and both demonstrate.

5*

CHAPTER VII.

THE FIRST STEP TO UNDERSTAND A PROPHETIC ALLEGORY IS TO UNDERSTAND THE FIRST REPRESENTATION.

HAVING thus, as we conceive, sufficiently considered the dark side of the allegory, and having only indicated one principle of light, let us now turn to the process which must be employed to illuminate the opacity which it has, and to bring out its clear, bright, and lustrous side, for it has this, too.

To understand the second or real sense of an allegory, it is absolutely necessary to understand the first representation. This is the foundation of the second or real sense. If we do not understand the first sense, it is certain we shall never understand the second.

To understand the first or immediate representation of an allegory delivered in words, two things are requisite. It is necessary

1st. To understand the words; and

2d. To understand the subject which these words bring before the mind in their literal acceptation, which is the first sense.

In respect to the Revelation, the words are Greek, and of these we have, in the common version, a trans

lation, which is, to all important purposes, correct and faithful, with the two following exceptions.

The first is the mistranslation of τα τεσσαρα ζωα, which is mistranslated in the common version by "The Four Beasts." The rendering here ought to be The four living creatures, as is universally admitted. This translation brings before the mind a proper conception of what is meant, and associates the symbol with the living creatures of Ezekiel, and also with the cherubim elsewhere mentioned.

The second mistranslation is that of the Greek word aẞvooos, which is improperly rendered in the common version "bottomless pit." This ought to be the abyss of the sea. The bottomless pit is calculated to convey to the mind an erroneous idea of the meaning, and to associate it with the pit of hell, with which the word in the original has no community whatever. It imports the abyss, and is the etymon of our English word. It is employed in the book as a synonym. For Saλaooa, another word, which, in the original, signifies simply the sea, that the two expressions are in the original text perfectly synonymous, is evident from the circumstance alone that the Ten-horned Beast, which is said to have arisen out of "the sea," Rev. xiii. 1, is afterwards called, Rev. xvii. 9, the beast that shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, i. e. the abyss. The "sea" or the "abyss of the sea" would be a correct rendering in the latter case.

But, in the second place, besides understanding the words, we must also understand what the repre