270

LECTURE XI.

REV. xiii. 5.

“And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.”

WHEN Prophecy is recognised as the means appointed for forming and confirming our faith; the wisdom of committing the record of it, on the one hand, and of consigning the proof of it, on the other, to Churches, as opposed in principle as the Jewish and Christian, will be readily acknowledged. The objection was thus at an end, that the coincidence, on which the verification of the prediction depends, could be the effect of collusion. The enmity existing between those, who were on the one side the witnesses and keepers of the sacred oracles, and were on the other the objects and instruments of their accomplishment, removes all suspicion, that the document could have been accommodated to the event by fraud or sophistry. Its authenticity

and integrity proving thus unimpeachable, the only question which remained for decision would then arise, on the reality of the facts intimated in the prediction, or their identity with the events which were foreshewn.

They who affect to be moved, by the force of an objection with which we are frequently pressed, on the declining authority of a document that has undergone frequent transcription, will duly appreciate the value of this argument, which, it will not be reasonably denied, is adequate to its removal. By the enmity, with which two parties, opposed like the Jewish and Christian communities, were influenced towards each other; the supposition is reduced to an absurdity, that, to serve the sinister purposes of either, the prophecy could have been sophisticated, in the course of its transmission. This reasoning might be extended, to establish the authenticity of the document; the integrity of which appears thus capable of vindication. In the certainty of its accomplishment, which is matter equally susceptible of proof, the impossibility is not less clearly implied, that it could have been originally fabricated. To suppose the contrary would be to confound the boundary between chance and certainty; or ascribe to human foresight a knowledge of future and contingent events, which was contradicted by human experience.

It was ordained, with great fitness and wisdom, that the prophecies which demonstrated the advent of the Messiah should be composed and preserved by the Hebrews. But on the rejection of the divine person in whom they were fulfilled, it was not less wisely and fitly determined, that the future destiny of the Church, which he founded, should be revealed through those who received him, and embraced his religion.

This province was consigned to St. John who was not less distinguished with the exalted title of "the beloved apostle," than Daniel with that of "the beloved prophet." Among the followers of our Lord, of whom primitive tradition preserves an account, not one appears, of whom so much is known, or around whose character it has shed a light so engaging and interesting. He was chosen to the apostolate from the humblest walks in life, having been the son of Zebedee, a Galilean fisherman. Though he had a brother, named James, joined with him in the ministry, it appears that he particularly attached himself to Peter. What distinguishes him, however, not only above these apostles, but the whole sacred college, was the partiality of his divine master; who not only admitted him to be his companion in the more extraordinary events of his ministry, but bestowed on him signal marks of his affection. To this distinction he owed the privilege of obtain

ing a place among the few, who were chosen to witness the transfiguration on the mount, and the passion in the garden. At the last supper, he was admitted by him to that familiarity, that he occupied the seat nearest him, and was allowed to repose his head upon his bosom. In his Lord's last moments, when deserted by his disciples, his solicitude attracted him to the sad spectacle of the crucifixion: where he received his dying injunctions respecting his disconsolate mother, and witnessed the last cruel indignity which was .offered to his person.

It appears from historical record, that he fixed his abode at Ephesus, where he assumed the government of the seven churches of Asia, until his banishment into the island of Patmos. While the part was committed to the other evangelists to record the ministry of Christ, as the Son of Man; for him the more exalted province was reserved to disclose his nature, as the Son of God; and to record the office of the Spirit of Truth and Holiness, who would descend at his intercession, and to whose special providence he committed the guidance of his Church, until his second advent in glory.

During his banishment in Patmos, he received the revelation, from whence the text is extracted when he had arrived at a period of life not less advanced than Daniel was formerly observed to have attained, in delivering a similar

T

prediction. In the vision which he obtained of the divine glory, the destinies of the Church were unfolded, in the form of a sacred drama, the shifting scenes and successive characters of which passed in review before him. As his predictions and those of his inspired predecessor extend to the consummation of all things; it necessarily follows, from their describing the leading events of which the earth was destined to be the theatre ; that they should coincide in selecting the more prominent objects. Such in an eminent degree, is the prediction contained in the text; in which a period common to Daniel and St. John is not only defined, but in nearly identical terms.

That the subject of the Christian prophet, in the text, is identical with that of the Jewish, as illustrated on a former occasion, is allowed by the concurrent voice of commentators and expositors. From a collation of several parallel passages of "the Apocalypse," it has been justly inferred, that the period expressed in the text, is equivalent to that of "a time, times and a half," as computed by Daniel. The latter period was formerly shewn to amount, in the literal sense, to three years and a half; and is variously expressed by St. John under the term of "forty and two months" and "a thousand two hundred and threescore days." On apply

*

*Dan. xii. 7. + Rev. xi. 2. xiii. 5. ‡ Ibid. xi. 3. xii. 6.