his understanding, in no common degree, strong and capacious.

With these qualities of the head and heart, he came to the study of the prophecies, and especially of the Revelations: But, with so little bigotry for the scheme of interpretation concerning Antichrist, that, as he tells us himself, he had even conceived some prejudice against it :* And, what is stranger still in a man of his inventive genius, with so little enthusiasm in his temper for any scheme of interpretation whatsoever, that, when he had made his great discovery, he was in no haste to publish it to the world;† and, when at length he did this, he was still less in haste to apply it, that is, to shew its important use in explaining the apocalyptic visions. Cool, deliberate, and severe, in forming his judgments, he was so far from being obsequious to the fancies of other men, that he was determined only, by the last degree of evidence, to acquiesce in any conclusions of his own.

* "As for me, I am conscious of my weakness and unworthiness; being, when these kind of thoughts first possessed me, looking another way with a prejudice incompatible to this." General Pref. to Mede's Works, p. 20, from a MS. Letter.

† He printed only a few copies of his Clavis Apocalyptica in 1627, at his own expense, and for the use of his friends. Pref. to his Commentary.

+ His Commentary, on the principles of his Clavis, did not appear till 1632.

"I am by nature cunctabundus in all things, but in this [his exposition] let no man blame me, if I take more pause than ordinary.”

In short, with no vanity to indulge, (for he was superior to this last infirmity of ingenious men)*— with no interest in view (for the interest of churchmen lay at that time, as he well understood, in a different quarter)t-with no spleen to gratify (for

MS. Letter in Gen. Pref. p. 22. And again, in a Letter of reply ad animadversiones Ludovici de Dieu, “Eo ingenio sum (delicatulo, an moroso) ut nisi ubi interpretatio commode et absque salebris eat, nunquam mihi satisfacere soleam." WORKS, p. 569. Yet of this sage man, could the bishop of Meaux allow himself to speak thus negligently—Il s'est rendu de nos jours celebre en Angleterre PAR SES DOCTES REVERIES sur l'Apocalypse. Hist. des Var. l. xiii. p. 257. But M. de Meaux knew what he did, when he affected this contempt of Joseph Mede. He was then at liberty to turn himself from the ablest advocate of the Protestant cause, to the weakest ; 1 mean, M. Jurieu, whose indiscretions afforded, indeed, ample scope for the raillery of this lively prelate. Mr. Mede was not a man to be confuted in this way, and still less by a fanciful and ill-supported Exposition of the Apocalypse.

As appears from his backwardness to publish his discoveries, and from his unconcern about the reception of them. But see his Letter to Mr. Hartlib, Ep. 96, p. 881; and compare with his answer to Dr. Twisse, Ep. 51. p. 811. See also Ep. 98, to Mr. Hartlib, Aug. 6, 1638, not long before his death, in which are these words:

"I have not been very obtrusive unto men, to acquaint them with my notions and conceits-for some of them that are but lately known have lain by me above these twenty years." P. 883.

The point of the pope's being Antichrist, as a dead fly, marred the savour of THAT OINTMENT-meaning the merit he had of being known to entertain some opinions, then much cherished by the rul ing clergy. Ep. 56, p. 818. He says afterwards of himself, in the

even neglect and solitude could not engender this unmanly vice in him)*—with no oblique purposes,

I

say, which so often misled the pens of other writers, but with the single, unmixed love of truth, he dedicated his great talents to the study of the prophetic scriptures, and was able to unfold, in the MANNER I am now to represent to you, this mysterious prophecy of the Revelations.

He had observed, that the miscarriage of former interpreters had been owing, chiefly, to a vain desire of finding their own sense in this prophecy, rather than the sense of the prophet. Laying aside, then, all hypotheses whatsoever, he sate down to the book itself, and resolved to know nothing more of it, than what the frame and texture of its composition might clearly reveal to him. He consid

same Letter-I thank God, I never made any thing hitherto the caster of my resolution, but reason and evidence, on what side soever the advantage or disadvantage fell.

* His friends speak much of his cheerful disposition. But I draw this conclusion from the tenour of his life and writings; and, above all, from that famous declaration which he made in confidence to a friend, that, if he might but obtain a donative sine cura, of so much value as, together with his fellowship [of Christ's College in Cambridge,] should enable him to keep a horse, for his recreation, he would set up his staff for this world. App. to his Life, p. 40.-The simplicity of this declaration, makes one confident of its truth.And a man of so moderate desires, was in no danger of having his temper soured by disappointments.

ered the whole, as a naked recital of facts, literally expressed; and not as a prophetic scheme, mystically represented. In this way of inquiry, he discerned, that several parts of the history, whatever their secret and involved meaning might be, were homogeneous, and contemporary; that is, they related to the same subject, and were comprised within the same period; and this, though they were not connected in the order of the narration, but lay dispersed in different quarters of it. These several sets of historical passages (or, of visions, to speak in the language of the book itself) he carefully analyzed and compared; shewed, from circumstances, not imagined, but found, in the history, their mutual relation and correspondency; and established his conclusions, as he went along, not in a loose way of popular conjecture, but in the strictest forms of geometric reasoning. The coincident histories, thus classed and scrutinized, he distinguished by the name of SYNCHRONISMS; and gave them to the learned world, in this severe scientific form, without further comment or illustration, under the title of CLAVIS APOCALYPTICA, or A KEY TO THE REVELATIONS.

In considering this discovery, which did so much honour to the profound genius and accurate investigation of its author, one clearly perceives how it serves to the end proposed.

First, it appears that the order of the visions is not that of the events; in other words, that the prophecy is not to be so explained, as if the events, predicted in it, followed each other in the same train as the visions. For the facts, which constitute the scheme or fable of the prophecy, literally and historically considered, do not succeed to each other in that train; therefore the events, whatever they may be, which those facts adumbrate, most certainly cannot.

Secondly, It appears what the true, or chronological order of the visions, is; namely, that, which the nature and connexion of the things transacted in them, points out and declares. So that, if the real time of any one vision can be shewn, the relative time of the rest may be easily settled. For (to quote Mr. Mede's own words) such visions as contemporate with that already ascertained, are of course to be applied to the same times; while such as, in the order of the story, precede that vision, are to be referred to preceding events, and those, which follow it, are in like manner to be explained of subsequent transactions.*

Siquidem, quæ isti tuo Vaticinio jam, ut dixi, cognito, cætera contemporaverint Vaticinia, iisdem procul dubio temporibus sunt applicanda; quæ autem præcedunt, non nisi de precedaneis; quæ succedunt, pariter desuccedaneis eventibus sunt interpretenda.

Clavis Apocal, Works, p. 432.