PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION.

IN sending out a Third Edition of this Work, I would begin by giving glory to God for the many testimonies I have had of his having vouchsafed to bless the former editions, and especially the second, to the spiritual good of his Church. Since that edition went forth, I have had full time to reconsider the leading principles of the Work, and having been called upon to defend them against various opponents, I have found myself more and more established in the belief of their truth. I shall now, therefore, place before the reader, as a suitable introduction to the present edition, some general arguments in confirmation of my system of interpretation.

We learn, from the title of the book, that the purpose for which it was given was, to shew the servants of God the things which must shortly come to pass; it is therefore to be anticipated, that we shall find in it a comprehensive summary of the great events and revolutions connected with the fortunes of the Church of God, from the ascension of our Lord, till his advent in glory, analogous to that which was given to the Jewish Church, in the concluding prophecy of Daniel.

This summary may be expected to contain some account of the internal condition of the Church, and its changes of character, during the intervening ages; and of its political history, or its history in connexion with the kingdoms of this world, exhibiting it in its early struggles against Paganism enthroned in the high places of the Roman earth-in its victory over this

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enemy-in its subsequent alliance with the kingdoms of this world; its deep degeneracy and abject prostration under these powers, and yet its domination over them;* its partial revival at the era of the Reformation; and its final redemption.

In this prophetic compendium of events, we shall also be prepared to find some mention of the rise of the Mahommedan imposture, and the power of the Saracens, and of the overthrow of the Eastern empire by the Ottomans, as well as the destruction of that power, preparatory to the restoration of the scattered tribes of Israel.

For the same reason, that it is impossible to conceive that any of the above events should be left out in any human or uninspired outline of the history of the last eighteen centuries, it is difficult to imagine, or believe, that they should be omitted in an inspired and prophetic summary of that history. It seems, therefore, an insuperable objection to any scheme of interpretation, if it be found to omit all mention of any one, or more, of these great leading and distinguishing events in the history of the Church, or any of the great revolutions of the fourth monarchy of Daniel, in connexion with the Church.

There have been, properly speaking, only three such revolutions in the Roman Empire of the West, from the ascension of our Lord to the present period. The first was that in the age of Constantine, whereby the religion of the State was changed from Paganism to Christianity. The second was at the period of the Reformation, and it shook Europe to its foundations. The third is the Revolution which began in France in the year 1789, and having, by its first vibrations, overthrown the monarchy of the Bourbons in the year 1792, has, from that period to the present, continued to agitate Europe. Now, I do not say that he who sits down to explain the Apocalypse, is to be beforehand determined to find these three Revolutions in that prophecy; but I do affirm, that if a commentator have discovered the true arrangement of the book, each of these three main Revolutions will naturally, and without violence, come in, and fit itself, as it were, to its proper place. The same observation will hold good with respect to the various other events alreadymentioned.

Rev. xvii. 3. The HARLOT rides on the BEAST.

Keeping these remarks in view, I go on to observe, that it appears to me evident that the great test of a right system of Apocalyptic arrangement is the interpretation of the war of the Beast with the Witnesses, their death, resurrection, and ascension. There is a double note of the chronology of these events; 1st. It is said that at the same hour, or Apocalyptic season, there was a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell.* 2dly. It is immediately afterwards added, that the second wo is past, and the third wo cometh quickly.

It follows, therefore, that the events in the Church which fulfil the prophecy of the death and resurrection of the Witnesses, must correspond with this double note of time; i. e. they must be cotemporaneous with a great Revolution, in which one conspicuous European kingdom falls from the Papal dominion; and this, again, must be followed by the passing away of the second wo. Moreover, the earthquake in which the tenth part of the city falls, cannot be the first of the three Revolutions above-mentioned, viz., that in the reign of Constantine, since that Revolution manifestly precedes the sackcloth prophesying of the Witnesses, and the commencement of the 1260 days. Neither can this earthquake be the last of the three Revolutions above-mentioned, for that Revolution overthrows the whole city, and not a tenth part of it. It only remains, therefore, that the earthquake in which a tenth part of the city falls, is that of the Reformation, the last shock of which took place at the expulsion of the Stuarts from the throne of England, in the year 1688.

Now, the only events in the history of the Church which correspond with this double notation of time, and which answer also in character to the death and resurrection of the Witnesses, are the religious wars which took place in Germany in the reign of Charles V., ending first in the dissolution of the Smalcaldic league, and the suppression of the Protestant faith; and secondly, in the signal humiliation of the Emperor Charles V., and the triumphant resuscitation of the Protestant Churches at the peace of Passau. These events were cotemporaneous with the great earthquake of the Reformation, which continued to con

*Chap. xi. 13.

vulse Europe for about a century and a half afterwards. The last shock of this earthquake was also followed, at an interval of only eleven years, by the peace of Carlowitz, which crippled the Ottoman power, so that since then it has ceased to be a wo to Christendom.

In confirmation of this reasoning, it is observable, that all those writers who place the death and resurrection of the Witnesses at a later period than the above, either at the Edict of the Duke of Savoy for the eradication of the Waldenses in 1686, or at a period yet future, are compelled also to exclude all mention of the Reformation, both in its ecclesiastical and political results, from the Apocalyptic prophecies; and they thus suppose that the book which was to reveal to the servants of God the things which shall shortly come to pass, omits altogether, as unworthy of notice, that stupendous event which shook the Papal throne, opened the prisonhouse of the human mind, and convulsed the whole of Europe for more than two centuries—an event which even secular writers place amongst the most conspicuous in the history of the world. Those persons who suppose that the death and resurrection of the Witnesses are to be at a period yet future, add to the above absurdity a second, since they are compelled to affirm that the Turkish power, now in the very agonies of dissolution, is even yet a wo to Christendom.

Upon the above general grounds of argument, I rest with perfect confidence the truth of the system of interpretation adopted in this volume; and I now proceed, in the next place, in confirmation of the foregoing reasoning, to place before the reader an analysis of the whole book, in harmony with this scheme.

There is a beautiful harmony in the works of God, and a

* Mr. Faber, in his Sacred Calendar, does indeed admit into the series of Apocalyptic events, that which forms the concluding shock of the great earthquake of Rev. xi. 13, viz., the English Revolution of 1688. But it were as consistent with historical verity to exclude from the narrative of the plagues of Egypt all the former nine plagues, and to mention only the tenth, as it is to limit the great Revolution or commotion, Zurpes, of the Reformation, to that part of the city which fell. There is a narrowness of vision in such limitations of events to suit particular hypotheses, which is quite opposed to the comprehensiveness of the prophetic word, as well as the philosophy of history.

close analogy between his great book of Nature and his book of Revelation.

It is the office of REASON, when rightly improved, to interpret the book of nature, by the process called INDUCTION. Newton thus discovered that the principle of gravitation explains all the phenomena of the astronomical movements of the material universe.

It is the office of WISDOM, which is the special gift of God to those who diligently seek it, to interpret, by the like process of SCRIPTURAL INDUCTION, the book of Revelation, using the word in the largest sense, as signifying the whole of revealed truth, and not the Apocalypse only. In doing this, it is especially necessary to take for our guides the same universal axioms which conduct us to the right interpretation of the book of nature.

One of these axioms is, not without necessity to multiply first causes and principles, so that if one principle be sufficient to account for any given number of Scriptural phenomena, we are not at liberty, without the direct and express authority of the Scriptures to introduce a second.

Applying this argument to the elucidation of the Apocalypse, I find that one principle is sufficient to explain the whole structure of this mysterious book: this principle is, that the whole Apocalypse, from chap. vi. 1, to the end, is included in the book, BICOV, with seven seals.

Still, however, we are not at liberty to assume this principle without proof. I proceed, therefore, to show, that it is established by incontrovertible evidence.

We are told, in the opening clause of the book itself, that it is the Apocalypse of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to show to his servants things which must shortly come to pass. If, then, we can discover any one, and not more than one book, which was given to Jesus Christ by the Father, we may be assured that this book is the Apocalypse of Jesus Christ.

But we learn in chap. v. 1, that John saw a book sealed with seven seals in the right hand of Him that sitteth on the throne, and no creature in heaven, or in earth, was found worthy to take and to open it. Afterwards it is announced, that the Lamb