"The more extraordinary appear any supposed faculties of the inspirati and others of the present day, the more needful is it for every child of God to live in self-recollection, self-possession, and deep humility; to be continually fulfilling the law of Christ; to be adhering closely to his word; to be trusting in that word to the very letter.

"God has often given a promise for his believing people to feed upon, and yet interposed many circumstances apparently quite adverse to its fulfilment; the fulfilment has nevertheless been brought to pass; it has arrived suddenly, and when least expected. The case is similar just now, with regard to the coming of Christ; and our business is to go on, living upon the promise of his coming. Upon our so doing depends the exercise of every christian virtue."

CHAPTER IX.

A BRIEF REVIEW OF ALL PRECEDING APOCALYPTICAL INTERPRETATION, WITH REFERENCE TO THAT OF Bengel.

WE have already mentioned, that Bengel, in the conclusion to his "Exposition of the Apocalypse,"* gave "some account" of its earlier interpretations; in which he showed the views and expectations which had been formed and entertained from age to age by persons in general, and by pious persons in particular, with especial reference to "The Revelation or Manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ." Of this "account" we shall here furnish an abridgment; and then shall add, not indeed an account of all the interpretations which have appeared since Bengel's time, or even which have more or less adopted his as their model; for this would be too extensive; but only a concise statement of the principal continuations and additional developments of that system which he was the first to set forth. He observes, that "All the prophecies, even of the Old Testament, had Christ for their chief object; and contained some points of reference to events more remote than that of his first coming. Accordingly many scriptures were fulfilled by his appearing in our flesh, as our Lord himself repeatedly intimated, Luke xxiv. 47; but after he had advanced his disciples so far as to know and own him to be the promised Messiah, he led them on from this fundamental knowledge, to the prospect of things which he would hereafter bring to pass for the salvation of the world. Thus he foretold not only his sufferings, crucifixion, death, resurrection and ascension, but likewise his yet future coming again. In the last days of his ministry, just before his passion, he referred them to the scriptures of 'Daniel the prophet;' and, announcing the destruction of Jerusalem and of its temple, he expressly predicted, that this would happen before the passing away of that generation; but that the end of the world would not be yet. He also intimated to John, that that disciple should tarry till He, the Christ, should come. Now because the Christians of Thessalonica, and others, expected

* Part IV.

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that the Lord's second coming would take place before the destruction of Jerusalem, St. Paul, in his second epistle to them, predicted a previous great apostasy, and the disclosure of the man of sin,' as events which would precede that second coming; as events also which themselves would not come to pass, till he who letteth,' i. e. obstructeth the standing up of Antichrist, should be taken out of the way.' Thus was the end' announced to be much more remote than many at that time had supposed. As for the destruction of Jerusalem, it did take place before the passing away of that generation to which Christ foretold it. John also survived all the other apostles, and, till near the close of the first century, waited for the fulfilment of that special promise which Christ had given to him. And how was it at length fulfilled? He received from Christ a peculiar revelation and manifestation of him as the king, Messiah, and of the glory of the kingdom; all which he has particularly described in the Apocalypse. But even by this revelation, the end' itself was shown to be distant at least a thousand years beyond St. John's time; likewise by the same revelation it appeared that there were now three future objects to be looked for; namely, 1. Antichrist. 2. The blessed millennium; and lastly, the end of the world. The first of these, viz. the coming of Antichrist, had been supposed to mean only the collective persecutions which the church endured under the Roman emperors, from Nero to Gallienus; and the persecuted Christians consoled themselves under their severe sufferings, in the hope that the second of these objects, the blessed millennium, would speedily arrive. But the longer this hope continued to be deferred, the more did the doctrine concerning it become mixed with Jewish fables; and this at length brought it into suspicion and contempt. When Christianity, in the age of Constantine,* was made the religion of the empire, a notion began to be entertained that the millennium must have already commenced; men dated its commencement from Christ's nativity or crucifixion; and dismissing the opinion that Antichrist had come, they regarded this event as still future, and expected the appearance of Antichrist to take place at the termination of their own imaginary millennium. Mistaken as this notion was, it became by and by subsidiary to the important discovery, that the secular papal power which arose in the eleventh century, was very intimately related to

* A. D. 323.

Antichrist. Some indeed publicly asserted at the very beginning of this century, that the time was near, when 'the man of sin,' the personal Antichrist, would manifest himself. This was taught in the churches of France, and first at Paris; and was believed by very many throughout Christendom. The number 666 was found to express in numeral letters the name of Benedict IX.; A. D. 1032-45. All this, however, was at most but a prelude to things yet future. But when Gregory VII. advanced the claims of papal domination to the utmost, the generality of honest, upright, and simple-hearted writers, (says Aventinus,) asserted, that the reign of Antichrist had now commenced; still many correctly expected something worse than the worldly papacy. But after the periods reckoned upon had elapsed, without any thing decisive appearing, the 1260 days were thought by some to intimate so many natural years that were to precede the days of Antichrist, and a subsequent commencement of flourishing times to the true church; an interpretation which, however, was condemned at the Council of Arles, A. D. 1260. Others abode by the opinion, that the tribulation under Antichrist had commenced, and they looked for its termination to take place after the 31 times of the Woman; that is, after 350 years, by their reckoning. With this opinion the Waldenses, as also the followers of Wicliff and of Huss, consoled themselves; expecting their own deliverance to take place by the year 1383, and afterwards by A. D. 1420. Though even the latter period was too early, it coincided with the dawn of the Reformation. Of a different opinion was Pope Innocentius III. He said THAT THE NUMBER 666 denoted 666 NATURAL YEARS: but he interpreted them of the period of Mohammedism; against which, as hereby conceiving it to be near its end, he stirred up a crusade, A. D. 1213. Thus through interpretations devised in favour of the papacy, the doctrine of the millennium became gradually involved in very great obscurity, which, however, was in some degree irradiated by the partial light of the Reformation. For Luther, having also perceived that the number 666 certainly denoted so many years, interpreted it as referring not to the Mohammedan or Turkish, but to the papal power. He believed also with many, that the duration of the world, from its commencement, would be only 6000 years; and hence considered its end so near, that he could see no space for any future millennium. Therefore he regarded the millennium as having begun with the New Testament dispensation, and as having terminated with the reign of Gregory VII.; from which

period he dated the commencement of the 666 years. Thus we see he was aware of the following nine important particulars; important, because they all contribute to a right interpretation of the Apocalypse: 1. That the first Woe is great; the second, greater; the third, the greatest. 2. That the second Woe commenced in the seventh century, with the Saracens. 3. That the third Woe is the papal power. 4. That this commenced with Gregory VII.; and that it, 5. lasts 666 years. 6. That the third Woe, and the seven vials, are contained under the seventh trumpet. 7. That the expiration of the third Woe is synchronical with the seven vials. 8. That the thousand years are natural years. 9. That the thousand years cannot be synchronical with the period of the Beast. If we add to these, 10. Another particular declared in the writings of Franciscus Lambert, a friend of Luther's, that the thousand years must be subsequent to the period of the Beast, then we have the whole ground for a right interpretation. But this particular was not much regarded at the time; for most believed that hereby the end of the world was made to be too distant; moreover, the frantic Chiliasm of the Anabaptists served to give millennarianism the appearance of a heresy in the eyes of the whole protestant church, and to introduce the most strange and contradictory interpretations of the Apocalypse.

"Spener was the first who renewed the look-out for better times to the church of Christ militant here upon earth. He maintained the hope of these better times, and defended it with great seriousness, firmness, and assurance, to the day of his death; but he refrained from all particular determination of the prophetic periods. A path, however, was thus again opened for the coming forth of the truth upon the subject; and it did come forth, and continued to gain strength, and to press forward. From that time, expositors separated into distinct classes. Some, looking solely for the predicted events, left the periods altogether unconsidered; or, fastening upon detached passages of the Apocalypse, applied them arbitrarily to events with which they fancied them to accord: while both parties, leaving unexplained the more important portions of the prophecy, more easily incurred very material errors. Others, though they endeavoured to ascertain the prophetic periods, failed, by taking it for granted that these are to be all computed by vulgar reckoning; and thus, in a very forced manner, inlaid the whole distance between St. John's time and that of Antichrist, with their