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nishes the most convincing evidence of the truth of the religion which he was commissioned to teach.

Thus is it calculated to maintain in the world a reverence both for the Deity and for the Gospel.

III. Notwithstanding the true meaning of the far greater part of it, during the persecutions of Severus, Decius, and Dioclesian, was not to be penetrated at all, and those who then perused it were incapable of explaining any passages in it with precission; this prophecy nevertheless served to animate the hope, and to fortify the constancy, of the primitive Christians; since a very imperfect acquaintance with it was sufficient to shew, that it predicted the overthrow of the Roman empire, as well as the perpetuity of the Christian religion. It should also be remembered, that every aid, every encouragement, was of signal importance, at a time when the inventive malice of their enemies presented to their view death in its most frightful and diversified forms; at a time when an infant religion had to struggle with the pride of philosophy and the prejudice of the vulgar, with the multiplied arts of the priesthood and the formidable power of the state*,

IV. Since the denunciation against the church of Rome, included under the figure of Babylon, as antichristian and idolatrous, is one of the clearest and most prominent parts of this sacred prophecy, and since it expressly commands men to separate from her; it encouraged the authors of the Protestant reformation to commence and to prosecute those important changes, which they might otherwise perhaps have been intimidated from attempting, or might have attempted without success. Not to mention the virulence of that external opposition, under the weight of which they were sometimes on the point of being crushed, a separation from the visible head of the church, under the dreaded appelation of SCHISM, was represented as the most inexpiable of crimes; and such were the prejudices of the times, that it was almost universally admitted to be criminal, and the

4 See bishop Newton, vol. III. p. 325,

most undaunted of the reformers, even Luther himself, shrunk from the charge. But an examination of the Apocalypse enabled them to repel it, and furnished them with the most powerful weapons, for conducting an attack against the see of Rome with vigor and success. On every

side, indeed, they loudly appealed to the predictions of the Christian prophet, as authorising their conduct; multitudes acknowleged the validity of their appeal; and bp. Hurd hesitates not to assert, that 'on this popular ground, chiefly, the Protestant cause, in those early times, was upheld ".' If then the Protestant reformation was chiefly, or only in a great degree, supported by arguments drawn from the Apocalypse (which at that period became an object of general investigation, in how high a degree are we indebted to that prophetic part of the New Testament; for to this revolution, imperfect as it was, we unquestionably owe, not only the promotion of civil as well as religious liberty: not only the knowlege of scripture and of genuine Christianity; not only the spread of light and science; but to this great event are justly to be attributed a considerable portion of the virtue, the liberality, and the civilization, which prevail in the European world!

But it is a future period, which is destined to bear the amplest testimony to the usefulness of the Apocalypse. 'Other proofs,' says the bishop of Worcester, are supposed to be, and, in some degree, perhaps, are weakened by a length of time. But this from prophecy, as if to make amends for their defects, hath the peculiar privilege of strengthening by age itself?.' May it not then be expected, that the progress of events, and the successive labors of commentators, will hereafter throw so strong a light upon the predictions of St. John, as to produce a change in the minds of men, and, by materially influencing their conduct, to accelerate the accomplishment of those happy events, the prospect of which at present appears confused and indistinct.

5 See Hurd, vol. II. p. 46-51.
7 Hurd, vol. II. p. 203.

6 Vol. II. p. 48.

'This prophecy,' Bengelius beautifully observes, 'is like a cloud richly full of fructifying rain which spreads over a large extent of land, which sheds some part of its waters on every ground in its turn by specks or spots. What belongs to each particular time, the believers of that age may turn to their advantage in a special manner 3.'

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Containing, as it does, the mysteries of divine providence, the destiny of the Roman empire, the rise and fall of the kingdom of Antichrist, and the subsequent universality of the religion of Jesus, none,' says an ingenious expositor of the book of Revelation, ought to be discou-. raged from studying it by the darkness wherewith it is enveloped. That its predictions are veiled under a profusion of imagery, there need indeed be no hesitation in admitting 10. But it is not for a creature like man, limited as he is in duration and in intellect, to point out all or the principal, reasons, which determined the divine mind to invest these predictions with a degree of darkness. Objections of this kind against the prophecies, says bp. Hurd, are addressed not only to the ignorance, as we say, of the disputant, but to an ignorance clearly invincible by all the powers of human reason".' Some of the supposed causes of this obscurity may, however, be investigated, provided they are investigated with modesty.

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There is,' as Mr. Lowman observes, a wise reason, why the persons and events described in this prophecy should remain with some uncertainty as to a particular application 2. Otherwise princes might adopt measures, as the Roman emperors for instance might have done, to obstruct the accomplishment of events injurious to them; and might unseasonably interpose to destroy those, whom

8 P. 124.

9 Pref. to the translation of an anonymous French work, entitled, A New System of the Apocalypse.

10 And what follows from this being admitted? Not, says Vitringa, that it should be thrown aside unread, but that it should be studied with augmented diligence.

Praf.

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Heaven has raised up for the execution of its purposes. By Jurieu obscurity of prophecy is in a similar manner accounted for13. If God,' says a divine of Scotland, ' had revealed the future various revolutions of the church in a perspicuous manner, then human liberty, or the freedom of the will, would have been greatly limited; so that there could not have been such a proper trial of the worth of human actions as in the present case 1.' But by throwing some part of the predicted event into shade' (to use the language of bp. Hurd) 'the moral faculties of the agents have their proper play, and the guilt of an intended opposition to the will of Heaven is avoided "." Besides, to have rendered the light of prophecy so strong, as to have compelled our assent, would have superseded that diligence of inquiry which is required of us, and would have ill accorded with the state in which the Deity has thought fit to place us; a state of discipline and of difficulty, intended by exercising our virtue, to heighten and confirm it, and to prepare us for entering upon a subsequent stage of exis

tence.

Had the purpose of prophecy been to shew merely that a predicted event was foreseen, then the end had been best answered by throwing all possible evidence into the completion. But its concern being to shew this to such only as should be disposed to admit a reasonable degree of evidence, it was not necessary, or rather it was plainly not fit, that the completion should be seen in that strong and irresistible light ".'

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The prophetic writings are so constructed, as to be not obvious or obtrusive on the inattentive; but to excite and reward the diligence of honest and religious inquiry. Perhaps, too, they are purposely adapted to explore our candor and probity, by the difficulties which occur in them,

13 See Suppl. to his introd. and vol. II. p. 39.

14 An Ess. on some Important Passages of the Rev. by Lauchlan Taylor, A. M. Edinburgh, 1770.

15 Vol. I. p. 55.

16 Hurd, vol. I. p. 84

which give offence to superficial and irreligious minds; not adverting to that judicious principle, that he, who believes the scripture to have proceeded from him who is the author of nature, may well expect to find the same sort of difficulties in it, which are found in the constitution of nature. And he who denies the scripture to have been from God upon account of these difficulties, may, for the very same reason, deny the world to have been formed by him "."

But symbolical language, the prime source of prophetic obscurity, was used, not only because a degree of obscurity was expedient, but because it was a mode of communicating ideas, particularly prevalent among mankind, and gen. erally approved. This was especially the case in Judea and the East, and at the time when the Hebrew prophecies were promulgated, the model upon which the Apocalypse was formed. What, asks bishop Hurd, was more natural,' than that a style of expression' which was employed in the theology of the Eastern world, in its poetry, its philosophy, and all the sublimer forms of composition; what wonder, I say, that this customary, this authorised, this admired strain of language, should be that in which the sacred writers conveyed their highest and most important revelations to mankind 18 ?"

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Symbolic figures,' says Vitringa, ‘if they are constructed with judgment and felicity of adaptation, as truly those of the Apocalypse are most beautiful, keep the mind of the reader in suspense, and serve as a stimulant to his attention and curiosity 1.'

Besides, those are fundamentally mistaken, who apprehend, that the symbols of the prophets are not only difficult to be understood, but that they are altogether vague and indeterminate. On the contrary, as bp. Hurd observes, the symbolic language is reducible to rule, and is constructed on such principles as make it the subject of just criticism and rational interpretation 20.❞

17 Apthorp. vol. I. p. 54.
19 In Apoc. p. 228.

18 Vol. II. p. 87.

20 Vol. II. p. 90.

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