fore the events, whatever they may be, which those facts adumbrate, moft certainly

cannot.

Secondly, It appears what the true, or chronological order of the Vifions, is; namely, that, which the nature and connexion of the things tranfacted in them, points out and declares. So that, if the real time of any one Vision can be fhewn, the relative time of the reft may be easily fettled. For (to quote Mr. Mede's own words) fuch Visions as contemporate with that already afcertained, are of course to be applied to the fame times; while fuch 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 fubfequent tranfaltions [s].

[] Siquidem, quæ ifti tuo Vaticinio jam, ut dixi, cognito, cætera contemporaverint Vaticinia, iifdem cul dubio temporibus funt applicanda; quæ autem præ cedunt, non nifi de præcedaneis; quæ fuccedunt, pari. ter de fuccedaneis eventibus funt interpretanda. Clavis Apocal. Works, p. 432.

VOL. II.

K

By

By this means, the whole plan or method of the Apocalypse will be laid down. The feveral fynchronical prophecies will thus fall in their proper places: and there will be no doubt of the relative fituation, which each holds in the general fyftem.

Thirdly, as we now fee the true order of the prophecies (though for the wisest reafons, no doubt, the order, in which they are delivered, be fometimes different) so it is to be obferved, that the knowledge of this order is a great restraint on the fancy of an expofitor; who is not now at liberty to apply the prophecies to events of any time, to which they appear to fuit, but to events only falling within that time, to which they belong in the course of this pre-determined method. And if to this restriction, which of itself is confiderable, we add another, which arifes from the neceffity of applying, not one, but many prophecies (which are, thus, fhewn to fynchronize with each other) to the fame time, we can hardly conceive how an interpre

- tation

*

tation fhould keep clear of these impediments, and make its way through so many interfering checks, unless it be the true one. Juft as when a Lock (to take the author's allufion) is compofed of many, and intricate wards, the Key, that turns eafily within them, and opens the Lock, can only be that which properly belongs to it.

After all, it may be difficult, I know, to convey a diftinct idea of the uses, to which this fynchronal method ferves, to those who have not read, and even studied, Mr. Mede's work. But the fum of the matter is this, That the order of the events and of the Vifions is not the fame-that the true order of the events, is to be fought in certain characters, not fancied at pleasure, but inferted, in the Visions themselves

and, laftly, that the whole book of the Revelations being thus refolvable into a particular determinate order, in which the feveral fets of fynchronal prophecies regularly fucceed to each other, no expofition of this book can be admitted, that K 2 does

does not refer every fingle prophecy to its true place in the fyftem, and provide at the fame time that no violence be done to any other prophecies, which fynchronize with it.

And thus much concerning the TRUE ORDER of the Apocalypfe; deduced, you fee, from no precarious hypothetic reasonings, but from notes and characters, inclofed in that book; that is, from intrinfic arguments, which have their evidence in themselves, and conclude alike on every fuppofition.

If we would know more diftinctly what the EXTERIOR FORM of it is; and how it comes to differ fo widely from the plan of a chronological arrangement; here, too, our fagacious expositor will give us fatiffaction. For, in bringing together and comparing his fynchronisms, he found (what had escaped the attention of all others) that the main body of the prophecy is made up of Two [t] great parts; which are, alfo, [r] From chiv. to the end of eh. ix: And from ch. x. to the end.

fynchro

1

fynchronical; fo that, fetting out from the fame goal, and measuring the fame space, they both concur in the fame end: but with this difference, that the former divifion more immediately regards the affairs of the Empire; the latter, those of the Church.

Still, this is not all. Our attentive and penetrating commentator further difcovered, That the two great component parts of this prophecy, though diftinct, are very artificially connected, and fhewn to harmo nize throughout with each other, by making the fame concluding event [u], once told, the catastrophe of both. For the former part is purpofely, and with exprefs warning given [w], left unfinished, till a fummary deduction of the latter part down to the fame point of time [x], (by way of prelude to the more extended vifions of this laft part, which follow to the end of the book, and to fignify, that both

[z] The founding of the seventh trumpet,

parts

[w] Ch. x. 7.

[r] Cho xi. 15.