and his deceiving the nations in the four quarters of the earth; of Gog and Magog; Satan's gathering of them together in battle array, a mighty hoft, against Chrift and his kingdom; the miraculous deftruction, and final condemnation of him and his hoft ; the Laft refurrection, and final judgment, with Chrifi's victory over death and hell. Chapter XXI. includes the deftruction of the old, and the creation of the new heavens and new earth; and a description of the new Jerufalem in it. Chapter XXII. concludes the Revelation, with the fuperlative and ineffable bleffedness of the righteous in the new Jerufalem. I have thus laid before the reader a brief view of the contents of the Apocalypfe. I have shown, that all the events foretold under the feven feals and fix firft trumpets, have come to pass, in the order they were foretold; that they bring down the predictions, with their respective completions, to the prefent times ;and that no prophetic event remains to be fulfilled, fave thofe of the laft and third woe-trumpet, or of the feven vials of the wrath of God. And I have anticipated a few curfory hints respecting the contents of thofe vials. I have done this, as I conceived it would not only give the reader a general idea of the grand and awful subject, but enable him the better to examine into the probability of the explanation, and application of the figurative reprefentations of the events, contained in the following Commentary. CHAP. CHAP. X. AND I faw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud, and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the fun, and his feet as pillars of fire. 2 And he had in his hand a little book open and he fet his right foot upon the fea, and his left foot on the earth, 3 And cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth: and when he had cried, feven thunders uttered their voices. 4 And when the feven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write: and I heard a voice from heaven faying unto me, Seal up thofe things which the feven thunders uttered, and write them not. 5 And the angel which I faw ftand upon the fea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven, 6 And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the fea, and the things which are therein, that the time fhould not be yet. But in the days of the voice of the feventh angel, when he fhall begin to found, the mystery of God fhall be finifhed, as he hath declared to his fervants the prophets. 8 And the voice which I heard from heaven fpake unto me again, and faid, Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which ftandeth upon the fea and upon the earth. 9 And I went unto the angel, and faid unto him, Give me the little book. And he faid unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it fhall make thy belly bitter, but it fhall be in thy mouth. fweet as honey. 10 And I took the little book out of the angel's hand, and ate it up; and it was in my month fweet as honey : and as foon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter. II And he faid unto me, Thou must prophefy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings. CHAP. CHAP. I. Introduction to the Prophetic Hiftory of the WESTERN CHURCH, and of the Beast of the bottomless Pit." 66 Verse 1. I HAVE faid before, that the contents of the feven feals were to be revealed to the prophet by Chrift himfelf*; and thofe of the feven trumpets by "angels," fent to foretel the events of the great book, containing the hiftory of the church in general; and he now informs us, that he faw" another mighty "angel," the meffenger of the God of Truth. It was another meffenger, to unfold a fpecial matter, not contained in "this great book," namely, the particular hiftory of the Western Church, contained in a little book, as will, I truft, appear more fully in the following comment on this chapter. This angel is here reprefented as clothed with a cloud, the emblem of affliction and diftrefs. In this fenfe, the word is elfewhere ufed in Scripture: "Let a cloud dwell upon it; let the blackness of "the day terrify it." "How hath the Lord covered "the daughter of Zion, with a cloud in his anger!" And it is here made ufe of to denote, that the dreadful incurfions of the Goths, and other barbarous nations; and the Mohamedan apoftacy, eftablished in the Saracen and Ottoman empires in the Eaft, and which the angel had before predicted, were not to be all the tribulations, which the church muft fuffer, *Rev. vi. 1.3. 5. 7. 9.12. Ibid. vij. 2. 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. 12.—ix. 1, 13. T in the courfe of her reformation; fhe fhould farther be oppreffed by the Papal apoftacy, and French atheifm. But left this great accumulation of diftrefs fhould defroy her truft and faith in the divine promifes, the angel is reprefented as having a "rainbow "upon his head." A rainbow is the well-known divine fymbol of faith and hope, the infallible token by which God eftablifhed his covenant with Noah, that the earth fhould not again be deftroyed by a flood. This token appears upon the head of the angel, that is, upon the most confpicuous, exalted, and noble part of the body, to comfort and fupport the church with the affurance, that the God of power and of truth will fulfil his promises made through his fervants the prophets," and his bleffed Son; and, in the end, exalt her to a state of everlasting peace, happiness, and immortality. To fhow that all the promises of God in Chrift are Yea and Amen, "the face of the angel is, as it the fun;" the moft luminous, invari-* able, and fixed of all natural bodies, and therefore a beautiful hieroglyphic to represent the infinite wit dom, light, and unalterable truth of the God of heaven and moreover, to declare to the prophet, and to the whole world through him, that the events which thould be revealed to him, would infallibly! come to pass. "were, But the most awful part of this fignificant and comprehenfive defcription is yet to come; "the "feet of the angel were as PILLARS of FIRE." A pillar, or monument, is ufually erected to perpetuate the remembrance of fome great event. It is thus uted in Genefis, Samuel, &c. § and fire, the most powerful and deftructive of all the elements, is often, * Gen. ix. 11. 2 Cor. i. 20. + Rev. xi. 12. § Gen. xxxv. 18. 20. 2 Sam. xviii. 18. in Scripture, a fymbol of the displeasure and wrath of God * What then are we to underftand by the feet of the angel being like pillars of fire? but that the events, which he was commiffioned to fore tel, fhould be fo dreadful as to remain, for ever, the memorials of the awful and terrible judgments of the wrath of a righteous and long-forbearing God, upon thofe obftinate and unrepenting finners; who, perverting the right ufe of their reason, re-, jecting the admonitions and remorfe of their confciences, and refufing to be governed by the light and inftructions of his REVEALED WORD, through his bleffed Son," fhall live without him in the world", and not only deny, but endeavour to prevail on the reft of mankind to believe, that THERE IS NO GOD! 66 Ver. 3. The Spirit of truth, having thus intimated to the prophet the nature of his fubject, by the mere appearance of the angel, proceeds, to inftruct him by words and actions; for he informs us, that he had "in his hand a LITTLE BOOK Open.”+, It was a litle book, when compared with the great; book, “written within, and on the back fide, fealed with feven feals:" for this great book contained the hiftory of the church at large, in her entire and unbroken state, to the end of time; but the little book, however commentators may have differed re-, fpecting it, is nothing more than a history of the WESTERN CHURCH; a fmall branch of the church in general, to be broken off from it.in the feventh cen tury, but again in time to be united with it. This little book, or digreffive hiftory, omitted in the great book, is to be found in the three next chapters. Simi *Deut, iv, 24. Nah. i. 6. Heb. xii. 29b Rev. xvi. Rev. v. i. The fame figure of a roll or book is ufed by Ezekiel, xi. 9, 1o. containing the revelation of the vifitations, of God upon the Jews. lar |