In the close of the book the Son of God, the Divine Revealer, repeats the solemn assurance, “Behold, I come quickly." He personates the Spirit and the bride; or He ceases, for a moment, to be the speaker, and in the pause, the Spirit and the bride, and all that love His appearing and wait with longing desire for the advent of the Lord, take up His oft repeated word, COME, and echo it back to His throne. First the Holy Spirit speaks, and says to the Root and the Offspring of David, and the Bright and Morning Star, Come. The bride, the ransomed Church, purified by her trials, now ready for her espousals, speaks out with the Spirit dwelling in her, "Come, my Lord; make haste, my Beloved." And while she is yet speaking the opening gates of heaven shall reveal her Fair One, the heavenly Lamb, coming with ten thousand of His saints. Everything, from beginning to end, seems to be in rapid motion, and hastens and urges on to this triumphant goal. One seal is broken after another; there is a sound of trumpets, a pouring out of vials, swift messengers are flying through the air. At one time the image is that of a throne in heaven, supported by living creatures, one of them having the wings of an eagle, and lightnings and thunderings and voices proceeded out of it; at another, it is that of a conqueror on His snow-white steed, or a glittering two-edged sword. But there is one voice in all its epistles, seals, trumpets, vials, plagues, and visions of glory and joy, THE LORD COMETH. That voice has been sounding along the ages for more than eighteen hundred years; and He has come again and again to the overthrow of one enemy after another, Jew and pagan, priest and emperor; and still it sounds, and still He is coming to the overthrow of superstition, idolatry, and bigotry, wherever found, in whatever form practised, and by whatever sacred names baptized. Scripture would lead us to be always expecting Christ; and there has always been something present in the world to warrant the expectation. While some who have thought they saw symptoms of His coming to judgment, or of His millennial reign, have been disappointed; others, who have desired His spiritual presence, and have interpreted the providential events of their own times by the light of Divine truth, have felt that their prayers for His advent were not unanswered. Nor will they, who wait for His coming now, to make the desert rejoice and blossom as the rose, look in vain. "Signs of the white horses' are even now appearing; bright signals herald His approach. The Spirit and the bride still supplicate; the bride, the ransomed Church, as with uplifted hands and outstretched neck, cries, "Come, oh hasten Thy coming." Then let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that

1 Parochial Sermons, by John Henry Newman, D.D.

is athirst come, hasten to meet the Coming One. "And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." "Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus."

That the Apocalypse was written in accordance with this general design, and at this period of the apostle's history, will more fully appear from the book itself.

N

CHAPTER X.

ANALYSIS OF THE APOCALYPSE, WITH BRIEF

EXPLANATORY NOTES.

SEVEN

1. BY WHOM AND TO WHOM THE REVELATION WAS MADE.-THE TITLE.-THE DEDICATION. THE REVEALER SPEAKS.-II. EPISTLES ΤΟ THE CHURCHES.-TO EPHESUS.-TO SMYRNA.—PERGAMOS.-THYATIRA.-SARDIS. -PHILADELPHIA.-LAODICEA.-III. SUBLIME VISIONS, INTRODUCTORY.— THRONE IN HEAVEN.-LAMB IN THE MIDST OF THE THRONE.-HONOUR PAID TO THE LAMB. IV. OVERTHROW OF THE JEWISH PERSECUTING POWER.FIRST FIVE SEALS, SIGNS OF THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM. THE SIXTH SEAL.-SEVENTH SEAL.-SEVEN ANGELS PREPARE TO SOUND.-FIRST FOUR TRUMPETS.-FIRST TRUMPET, PAGAN POWER OF ROME APPEARS.-SECOND TRUMPET, DESTRUCTION OF NATIONS, OR THEIR ABSORPTION INTO THE EMPIRE. THIRD TRUMPET, JULIUS CÆSAR, FOUNDER OF THE EMPIRE.— FOURTH TRUMPET, EMPIRE ESTABLISHED UNDER AUGUSTUS.-FIFTH TRUMPET, FIRST WOE, OR NERO AND THE RAVAGES OF THE JEWISH WAR.-SIXTH TRUMPET, SECOND WOE, OR SIEGE AND DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM UNDER TITUS.-V. OVERTHROW OF THE PAGAN PERSECUTING POWER. THE SEVENTH TRUMPET BEGINS TO SOUND.-COMPENDIUM OF THE LITTLE BOOK.-PAGAN ROME PERSECUTING THE CHURCH.-SPIRITUAL AGENTS IN THE CONFLICT, AND ANTICIPATED VICTORY.—PERSECUTIONS CONTINUED. THE IMPERIAL MAGISTRACY OF ROME THE AGENCY.-VI. CORRUPTIONS, TEMPORAL POWER, ETC., OF NOMINALLY CHRISTIAN CHURCH.-SYMBOL, DOMINION AND NAME OF NEW PERSECUTING POWER.-GLOOMY PICTURE RELIEVED BY VISION.-JUDGMENT ON THE PAPACY. THE SEVEN VIALS OR PLAGUES.-FIRST VIAL, PRIESTCRAFT AND DEGENERACY OF THE CLERGY.-THE SECOND AND THIRD, MOHAMMEDAN POWER IN THE SEVENTH AND OTTOMAN IN THIRTEENTH CENTURY.-FOURTH VIAL, THE INQUISITION.-FIFTH, REFORMATION.—THE SIXTH VIAL, FRENCH REVOLUTION. THE SEVENTH VIAL, SYMBOLS OF DESTRUCTION. SEVENTH VIAL CONTINUED, WOMAN ON A SCARLET COLOURED BEAST.-FALL OF SPIRITUAL BABYLON.-LAMENTATIONS OVER HER FALL. -REJOICINGS IN HEAVEN.-FINAL CONFLICT AND VICTORY.-VII. MILLENNIUM.-FINAL DESTRUCTION OF SATAN'S POWER.-RESURRECTION AND LAST JUDGMENT.-PRELUDE TO DESCRIPTION OF NEW JERUSALEM.-THE CITY DESCRIBED.-DESCRIBED IN RESPECT ΤΟ IT'S MORE SPIRITUAL

ELEMENTS.-THE EPILOGUE.

THE REVELATION OF ST. JOHN THE DIVINE.

1. BY WHOM AND TO WHOM THE REVELATION WAS MADE. CHAP. I.

1.]

1

The Title and Introduction.

[Ver. 1-3.

THE Revelation1 of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto Him, to show unto His servants things which must shortly3 come to pass; and He sent and signified it by His angel unto His ser2 vant John: who bare record of the word of God," and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw. 3 Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time' is at hand.

4

The Dedication, with an Anthem to the Divine Revealer.

[Ver. 4-7.

John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be

1 ΑΠΟΚΑΛΥΨΙΣ ΙΗΣΟΥ ΧΡΙΣΤΟΥ, THE REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST, means both that the revelation is from Him, or He is the Discloser of it, and is of Him, or that He is the subject of it. 'Amoкáλuis means, in the LXX. and the N. T., a discovery of things hidden, as in 1 Sam. xx. 30, Rom. xvi. 25, 2 Cor. xii. 1, Eph. iii. 3,- -or the manifestation of a person, as of Christ, Luke ii. 32, 1 Cor. i. 7, etc. Wiclif, in his translation, A.D. 1380, used the word "Apocalips."

2 That it was given to Jesus Christ accords, doctrinally, with the teaching found in the Gospel written by John: John v. 19, 20; vii. 16; viii. 28; xvi. 15, etc. Cf. 1 Cor. xv. 24-28.

3 'Ev Táxel, in swiftness, or in a very short time. This is repeated very often, e.g. chap. ii. 5 and 16, "I come quickly," raxù; iii. 11; xi. 14; xxii. 7, 12, 20. A large part of the book was to be speedily fulfilled. At every period to which the prophecy relates, the "shortly" and "I come quickly " have a peculiar significance.

4 The order is, God gave it to Christ; Christ sent an angel to communicate it to John; and John delivered it to the churches.

5 There can be no allusion to the other writings of this apostle, the Gospel and Epistles, which were written subsequently to the Apocalypse. Even Hengstenberg, who holds that the Gospel and Epistles have priority of date, expresses surprise that the reference to these writings should still have its defenders.

6 The reference plainly is to the public reading and hearing,-the singular, he, pointing to the reader, and the plural, they, to the company listening, in an age anterior to the printing of books.

7 ́0 yàp kaipòs èyyús, another expression pointing to the immediate future. Some of the events were so near that, even while St. John was writing, they might be said to be commencing. And, in every generation, the time of some of the events of this wonderful book has been at hand.

8 The writer does not style himself an apostle. It was not necessary. He was about to address them rather as a prophet; and those whom he addressed would know that none other but the apostle of this name would or could address them in the manner he does in this book. The entire book is inscribed to the

unto you, and peace,' from Him which is, and which was, and which is to come ;" and from the seven spirits which are before 5 His throne; and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness,* and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from 6 our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father; to Him be glory and dominion 7 for ever and ever. Amen. Behold, He cometh with clouds ;" and every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him. Even so, Amen.

The Revealer speaks. John's First Vision that of the Revealer. [Ver. 8-20.

8

I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the

seven churches. The reason why he addresses no more than seven churches is found in the fact that at this early period in the apostolic history these were all that existed in the region designated. Colossæ had been destroyed by an earthquake not long after the church there had been addressed by Paul in his Epistle. This according to Pliny, Hist. Nat., v. 41, took place in the ninth year of Nero.

1 Xápis vμîv kaì eipývŋ, a form of salutation which was a very favourite one with the apostles. Rom. i. 7; 1 Cor. i. 3; 2 Cor. i. 2; 1 Pet. i. 2; 2 Pet. i. 2.

2 « From Him,” etc., ἀπὸ ὁ ὢν καὶ ὁ ἦν καὶ ὁ ἐρχόμενος is one of the more striking instances in this book in which there is a manifest departure from the ordinary Greek construction. It is simply a translation of that great and awful name, Jehovah (which is indeclinable, and admits of no variation), into the heathen language in which John was writing.

3 The Holy Spirit, according to the ancient interpretation (see Poole's Synopsis) is undoubtedly designated by this expression. The reference is to His divers operations, or manifold manifestations (1 Cor. xii. 4–7), in all which He is "one and the selfsame spirit." The number seven is frequently used symbolically in this book. In oriental usage it is the number of completeness; Philo styles it reλeopópos, the completing number.

* In the original we have here another of those apparent solecisms, ò μáρTUS, K.T.X., instead of Toû μáprupos, K.T.λ. In chap. iii. 14 these titles are made equivalent to the indeclinable Hebrew Amen, used as a name of Deity, hence no oblique cases are recognised.

5 The opening strains of a sublime anthem.

The original has kingdom instead of kings, and is sustained by the Sinaitic and Alexandrine MSS.; but the idea of the Textus Receptus may be retained, as it is a kingdom in which the subjects share the reign.

7 The anthem concludes in these exalted strains. It is as if the last great day had dawned on the vision of the inspired seer, and he saw the clouds which Christ will then make His chariot, rolling beneath his feet.

8 To the anthem there seemed to come a response as from heaven itself. The narrative in its onward flow is arrested, and without any intimation of change in