lar digreffions are indeed to be met with in every complete hiftory of different and complicated circumftances. The little book was, however, open, that the prophet might read it, and make its contents the fubject of his prefent vifion.

The angel, having proceeded fo far, "fet his " right foot upon the fea, and his left foot upon the "earth;" with a design, no doubt, to fignify to the prophet, the general nature, and vast extent, of the important events to be revealed, on his reading the little book, which were to come to pass upon "the fea" as well as upon the land; in other words, that the diffenfions and wars which were to enfue, fhould be waged between the most powerful maritime and continental ftates upon "the earth." Here the prophet begins already to unfold his vifion, and to allude to the wonderful events of the present times: the present wars having been waged by a greater number of states both by fea and land, than have ever been waged, within the fame space of time, fince the world began. They have been carried on by powers, which are properly maritime, fuch as Great Britain, Holland, France, Ruffia, Spain, Sardinia, Naples, Malta, Turkey, and the United States. So many ftates, maritime as well as continental, have never before been engaged in war, at the fame time; and no event ever yet foretold, has been more completely fulfilled.

Ver. 3.-The angel then " cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth; and when he had “cried, seven thunders uttered their voices." The loudnefs of the voice is, I humbly apprehend, intended to denote the great extent and lamentable effects of the judgments, with which God, in his juft difpleafure, would be pleased to vifit the fallen and difobedient part of the church for the lion never" roareth,"

but when bent upon deftruction; and he then "roareth" with a louder voice than any other beast of the foreft. Thefe figurative expreffions are then intended to make known to the church, both the depreffion which the western part of it should fuffer, by the arts, frauds, and force of the Papal apoftacy, and the powers of atheism defcribed in the next chapter, which were to be the inftruments of the divine difpleature, in correcting and reclaiming it. At the fame time, it is eafy to be perceived, by an attentive reader of this prophetic hiftory, that whenever the Spirit of truth denounces a judgment of God upon the church, it is always attended by an affurance of her final victory and exaltation over all her enemies. So here, as foon as the angel had denounced the vifitations of Heaven upon the church, "the feven thunders uttered their voices," to comfort her in this manner, by reminding her of the final and happy iffue of all her long and distressful captivity; and of the far more dreadful and lafting judgments, which were to be poured out of the

feven vials of the wrath of God," preparatory to her eternal redemption, through the merits of her immaculate founder, the Son of God, upon the whole antichriftian and ungodly world, for ever and ever †.

Ver. 4." And when the feven thunders had ut"tered their voices," and thereby comforted the church, the prophet, loft in rapture, was "about to "write" the hiftory of the feven thunders, or the

feven laft plagues of the wrath of God," upon the enemies of the church; but was immediately corrected by " a voice from heaven, and commanded "to write them not:" not at that time, nor to infort them in his prefent vifion; but "to feal them

* Rer. xi. 2. 7.

+ Rev. xvi. throughout.

up," or retain them in his memory, and record them afterwards, in the due order of events, as a packet or Will is sealed up, not to be opened till the appointed time. And accordingly we read that the prophet did fo.

Ver. 5, 6, 7.-That the " feven thunders" refer to the dreadful judgments of the feven vials of the wrath of God, feems evident, from the tenor of these three verfes for we find that the angel, either to regain the attention of the prophet, or to give farther light refpecting the "feven thunders,"" fwears," in the most awful manner, that "the time (of the feven thunders) "fhall not be yet;" meaning, not until after the events of the prefent vifion fhould have come to pafs: but that, in the " days "of the voice of the feventh angel," alluding to the angel of the " last trump of God," when he fhall begin to found, then the mystery of God, as he hath declared by his fervants the prophets, "fhall be finished;" that is, the "mystery of God,” in the creation and redemption of man, fhall no longer remain a myftery; his power, his wifdom, and his righteoufnefs, fhall be difplayed, and made perfectly manifeft and glorious to all his intellectual creatures; to devils, as well as to men.

+

Ver. 8, 9, 10.-The angel, having thus finifhed his explanation of the feven thunders," the voice "from heaven" (Jefus Chrift) fpeaks to the prophet again; recalls his attention to the fubject of the prefent vifion; and orders him to "go and take the "little book, which is open, in the hand of the "angel, which ftandeth upon the fea, and upon the "earth." "And he went to the angel, and faid "unto him, Give me the little book." "And he said,

"Take it, and eat it up and it fhall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth as sweet as honey." And he took the little book, and did "eat eat it up; and it was in his mouth as sweet as honey; "and as foon as he had eaten it, his belly was bitter." As if the voice from heaven had faid in all this, Go to the angel, and take the little book, and it 'fhall reveal many important and terrible events, which must come to pafs hereafter, both upon the Tea and land, in certain conflicts and wars among many maritime and inland kings, princes, and ftates. Confider this "little book" well; for, upon a firft and curfory perufal of it, it fhall give you great joy; but upon a more mature confideration and digeftion of all its contents, it shall grievously afflict you.'

Accordingly, in the very next chapter, we fhall find caufes both of joy and forrow to the prophet, and the church of Chrifi: for upon only a flight perufal of the first part of that chapter, the great prominent feature, which ftrikes the mind, is the folemn affurance afforded, that God "will give power to "his two witneffes" to repel the attacks of their enemies; and to "fmite them with all manner of "plagues, as they will." But upon a clofer examination, it will appear, that the true church of Chrift fhall be "trodden under foot, forty and two "months," by the two Gentile apoftacies, that the two witneffes fhall prophefy in fackcloth one "thousand two hundred and threefcore days§,"

"

* Rev. xi. 4, 5, 6. Ibid. 3.

Thefe forty and two months," during which the church was to be trodden under foot, and the 1260 days of the prophecy in fackcloth of the two witneffes, are agreed, by all Proteftant commentators, to allude to the period of 1260 years, in which the church fhould be depreffed by Papal darkness, and apostacy,

Rev. xi. 2.

SAT

Ibid, 3

or the long period of 1260 years; and that, in the latter end of that period, a new and more dangerous enemy fhall afcend from" the bottomlefs pit," and fhall kill the two witneffes of God," when they hall have nearly finished their teftimony*."

Ver. 10. To take off all furprise from the mind of the prophet, at his not being permitted to treat of the feven thunders" in this vifion, and to give him a general view of his future fubject, he is informed, in this verfe, that he " muft prophefy again " before (concerning) many people, and nations, "and tongues, and kings :" meaning that, after he has foretold the events of the "little book," he muft again return to the general hiftory of the church, which fhould be unfolded to him out of the "great "book, written within, and on the backfide." This conftruction is clearly fupported by the fubfequent part of the Revelation. For we fhall there find, that having, in the courfe of his digreffion, written the hiftory of the Western part of the Church †, he defcribes it as again united; refumes his principal fubject in chap, xiv.; thence he continues it down to the end; and treats of the seven thunders, under the "feven vials of the wrath of God," to be poured out upon all the ungodly oppofers and enemies to the true church of Chrift; their extreme difcomfiture, and terrible deftruction. Such is the awful preparation to the first refurrection of the juft, at the coming of Chrift to reign upon earth; the binding of Satan during that reign; the fecond refurrection; the final judgment, and THE CONSUMMATION OF