Harenberg have applied a very confiderable fund of Jewish literature to the explanation of the Apocalypse : the former in his edition of the Greek Teftament, the latter ftill more amply in his Expofition of the Revelation of St. John, published at Brunfwick in 1759, a work, in which the quoted paffages, and the tranflations given of those paffages, betray however a few inftances of partiality for the author's fyftem. But Wetstein and Harenberg have not fet the fashion to others: on the contrary, the latter, if I am not mistaken, is very little read. As to moft other commentators and tranflators of the Apocalypfe, it must be confeffed that they have been frequently guilty of almoft inconceivable abfurdities: nor do I except even thofe, who, fetting afide all prophetical explanations, have confined themfelves to literal and grammatical interpretation. But whoever fails in the grammatical interpretation of a book will hardly fucceed in difcovering the author's meaning'. A fecond qualification, which an interpreter of the Apocalypfe ought to poffefs, is a taste for poetry and painting; for in the Apocalypfe, notwithstanding its uncouth Greek, we meet with very fine defcription. But when a vifion is well reprefented, the rules of poetry and painting are usually obferved, and confequently fome knowledge of these arts is requifite, in order to underftand the representation. Thus, if a painter defigned to represent a dream, occafioned by the particular interpofition of Divine Providence, he would paint an angel standing by the bed of the person who had the dream: and this he might do, without intending to fignify, as y To mention only one inftance of false translation. Each of the twelve gates of the New Jerufalem confifted (according to the common tranflation) of one peari. Now a pearl, whether we confider the rotundity of its figure, or the foftnefs of its mafs, is very ill qualified to become the gate of a city, even if that city exifts only in poetical description. The word ufed in the Greek is agyagirns, and this ought to be rendered precious ftone,' for this is the meaning afcribed to the word in Chaldee, in which language it was adopted and written A gate built of precious ftones presents an image both of ftrength, and of magnificence. Magyagirns is ufed perhaps in the fame fenfe, Matth. xiii. 45, 46. 1 a dogmatical truth, that an angel in a bodily fhape really defcended to that perfon, and infpired the dream. In like manner the angels, which act fo confiderable a part in the Apocalypfe, may be confidered as poetical imagery, unless we fuppofe that its author intended to convert into articles of faith the fabulous notion of the Jews, that every land and every element had its peculiar angel. This is only one inftance out of many, which might be alleged. But among the commentators on the Apocalypfe, where fhall we find one, who had a proper tafte for the explanation of poetical reprefentation? It is true, that Peterfen poffeffed a poetical genius; but then he was a poet, who did not understand the rules of the art, and interpreted the Apocalypfe much more literally, than he himself ever wrote. When an ancient poet fays, • Euphrates ibat jam mollior undis,' or a modern poet, At thy approach, the Rhine withdrew it's waves, no one would take this paffage in a ftrict and literal sense: but Petersen always understood Apoc. xvi. 12. as fignifying that the waters of the Euphrates were really and literally dried up. The first time I heard of this literal explanation was, when I was a boy at Halle, and happened to be one day in company with Petersen: but even at that time, though I had no very clear and diftinct notions on the subject, the drying up of the Euphrates, that the kings of the Eaft might pass it, ap. peared to me to be at least an unneceffary miracle. The third and most important requifite is a complete knowledge of hiftory, efpecially the hiftory of Afia. A general knowledge of hiftory is by no means fufficient; it must be a knowledge, which defcends to the most minute particulars; for a prophecy, in which neither perfon nor place is named, we can understand only by knowing the diftinguishing circumstances of those events to which it relates. Great events, fuch as battles, palitical litical revolutions, religious perfecutions, when examined only at large, are for the moft part fo fimilar to each other, that, without names and dates, it is difficult to diftinguish them. At least there is hardly any great event, to which there is not fomething in hiftory which bears resemblance, and with which, therefore, it might poffibly be confounded, when all diftinctions of geography and chronology are fet afide, unless we know the more minute circumftances, which diftinguifh the one from the other. Two battles fought by the French, the one in 1513, the other in 1757, have a great refemblance to each other, though in importance they were very unlike. Suppofe, then, that these two battles were reprefented in painting, and that fome ages hence, when the prefent military drefs, modern tactics, and plans of attack, which to us would eafily diftinguish the one engagement from the other, the two paintings fhould be put into the hands of a perfon unacquainted with thefe particulars, he would be at a lofs to determine which of the two paintings reprefented the one, and which the other engagement. And every one, who has vifited galleries of hiftorical paintings, knows how difficult it is, without a very particular knowledge of hiftory, to pass through the gallery, without being at a lofs in discovering the meaning of the subjects. But the commentators on the Apocalypfe are so far from having poffeffed a complete knowledge of hiftory, that the greatest part of them have displayed only a moderate share of it. Vitringa, perhaps, will here likewife be mentioned as an exception; but among the commentators on the Apocalypfe, we can reckon only one Vitringa, and even Vitringa's hiftorical knowledge was not fufficiently extenfive. The ancient hiftory before the birth of Chrift is foreign to our prefent purpose; and the hiftory of the feventeen laft centuries was understood by Vitringa, in its full extent, only fo far as it relates to Europe. But we cannot expect that prophecies, addreffed to feven communities in Afia Minor, fhould be fulfilled only in Europe, or in the Latin church. church. Chriftianity flourished under the Eaftern, as well as under the Western Emperors: it was propagated likewise in Arabia, in Perfia, in the great Tartary from the Caspian Sea to the borders of China, and even in China itself. Afia has been the feat of the moft important revolutions, with which the hiftory of Chrif tianity is closely connected. In Afia was founded the religion of Mohammed; and out of Afia emerged the Saracens, the Turks, and the Tartars. Whoever, therefore, is not acquainted with the Conftantinopolitan and Afiatic hiftories of these nations, is by no means qualified to become an interpreter of the Apocalypfe. But among all, who have ventured to interpret it, not one can boast of this thorough acquaintance; and the principal reason is, that the beft accounts of the Saracens, the Turks, and the Tartars, are contained in Syriac and Arabic authors, which very few historians can read in the original, and of which we have either no tranflations at all, or not fuch as an historian can appeal to, as to an original document. Further, as moft men are acquainted with the hiftory of their own country, and this hiftory always appears of fo much the more importance, in proportion as we know the lefs of the hiftory of other countries, the interpreters of the Apocalypfe have fought at home for the completion of its prophecies: and as prophetical descriptions, without either names or dates, are applicable to various events, each interpreter has found, in a great part of the Apocalypfe, the hiftory of his own country. And when we confider that the paffion for this mode of interpretation has been variously modified, fometimes by religious zeal and a fpirit of perfecution, at other times by z It must be admitted however, that even they who were better acquainted with the Conftantinopolitan and Arabic hiftories than we are, did not meet with better fuccefs. For Barhebræus, the most celebrated hiftorian of the Eaft, who lived in the reign of the great Tartarian conqueror Hulac, and was himself a witnefs of very important revolutions, doubted of the divinity of the Apocalypfe. Confequently he did not perceive any correspondence between the prophecies of the Apocalypfe and the Afiatic history. by a sense of oppreffion and enmity to the ruling church, we need not wonder that the commentaries on the Apocalypse have affumed fuch various fhapes, that what is affirmed as indifputably true in the one, is as flatly contradicted in the other. SECT. VII. Further remarks on the different expofitions of the Apocalypfe. THE the various expofitions, which have been given of the Apocalypfe: but this I will affirm in general terms, that of all the commentaries on it, which I have hitherto feen, not one has given me fatisfaction. I confefs likewife, that out of all the commentaries put together, I am unable to make one, which is better. HE compafs of the prefent work does not permit Thus much, however, I perceive, that if the Apocalypfe is a divine book, the beginning of its prophecies must relate to the destruction of Jerufalem: and that it may relate to that event, provided the work was written before the Jewish war. In this cafe the fixth chapter may be explained as a prophecy, both of the kingdom of the Meffiah (ver. 2.), and of the deftruction of Jerufalem itself: but then the fecond, third, and fourth feals cannot denote events, which followed each other, but events, which happened at the fame time, each of which is feparately reprefented, in order to make out the myftical number feven. The seventh feal may relate to the deliverance of the faithful among the Jews, who fled to Pella and ch. viii. 1. may denote the confequent fecurity, which the church enjoyed in that city. On the |