INTRODUCTION

TO THE

PROPHECY OF THE FUTURE:

APOC. I-V.

CHAPTER I.

ST. JOHN IN PATMOS.

It was in the year of Christ, as we have seen, 96, or of Rome 849, that St. John had the visions of the Apocalypse revealed to him. The two eras in which I mark the date,―eras perhaps the most famous in history,— suggest the kingdoms between which from thenceforward was to lie the visible contest for the supremacy of the world. Of the first, the then living ruler and head was the Emperor Domitian, the last of the twelve Cæsars, engaged at the time spoken of in the bitter persecution of the Christians in his empire: of the second, the most eminent member and director (for Head it knew none but the LORD JESUS) was the last and only survivor of Christ's twelve apostles,' himself a sufferer in the persecution, St. John.

"I John, your brother and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience (or rather patient expectation2) of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God and for the testimony of

1 Such is the received tradition of the Church, handed down in ecclesiastical history: though of the times, as well as manner, of the deaths of several others of the apostles, precise accounts are wanting.

2 Εν τῃ ὑπομονῃ Ιησου Χριστου. Apoc. i. 9.

Jesus," such is the account St. John now gave of himself. He had been banished from his brethren and friends in proconsular Asia,' to the barren isle of Patmos, simply for bearing witness to Jesus as the Christ and Saviour of the world and probably,—if we may form a conjecture from what was common among the Romans in the cases of such punishment, and from the strength too of the phrase "tribulation," used by the Apostle to designate his own experience of it, was condemned to penal labour in the mines or quarries,3 or perhaps to incarceration in some dungeon of the island. He was now far advanced in life, much beyond the threescore years and ten that have been noted as the measure of the age of man and at ninety, or nearly ninety years,

:

1 Proconsular Asia, of which Ephesus was the capital, must be distinguished from Asia Minor, as well as from the vaster continent of Asia. It appears that the word Asia was used by the Romans in four senses: 1st. for the whole Asiatic continent, as opposed to Europe and Africa; 2nd, for Asia Minor in its largest extent, including Cilicia and other districts beyond the Taurus; 3rd, for the same in its smaller extent, embracing only the provinces within the Taurus; 4th, for Lydian Asia, or, as it was also called towards the end of the first century, Proconsular Asia, extending along the coast from Pergamos down to Caria, and inland to the Phrygian frontier, or a little beyond it.—It is in this last sense that the word is used, Acts xvi. 6, &c.,-a passage which has been most appositely cited in illustration; "When they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia, after they were come to Mysia they assayed to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit suffered them not and they, passing by Mysia, came down to Troas."-See the Diatribe of the learned Archbishop Usher on the subject; referred to by Vitringa on Apoc. i. 4.

Perhaps the little maritime district on the Cayster near Ephesus had first the name Asia, (as Homer uses the word, Ασιφ εν λειμωνι, Καστριου αμφι ρέεθρα,) and it may thence have extended to a larger and larger signification.

2 His being there as one banished, and in exile, is almost implied in what St. John says of his being the fellow-partaker with the Asiatic Churches in affliction, &c; and it is stated by many of the ancients. So Ignatius to the Tarsenses, Iwavvηs equyadeveto ev Патμ-an epistle very ancient, doubtless, if not of Ignatius' own writing and so too almost all the other early fathers cited in the Essay preceding. Dr. Tilloch stands quite alone in his strange idea (pp. 12, 15, 16,) of St. John having voluntarily gone to Patmos (itself an almost barren island!) merely to preach the Gospel.

Daubuz (ad loc.) observes from Grotius; "By the Roman laws this was the punishment of seditious persons; among which were reckoned those who broached and published new superstitions."-And, as it appears from Dion Cassius, (1. lxvii. 14) that many who suffered under Domitian suffered under the conjoint charge of atheism and Jewish manners, (εγκλημα αθεότητος and Ιουδαίων non,)—a charge, as Neander observes (Vol. i. p. 91), clearly pointing out Christians, it is evident that this punishment among others would naturally be adjudged to them.

3 So Victorinus, quoted p. 39, Note -And after him Primasius, quoted p 40, Note 4.

privation and penal labour, like this, must needs have been peculiarly painful. But the spirit of the man had that within it which might well sustain his infirmity; the peace, hopes, and joys of the Gospel :-joy at suffering for Christ; joy in communion with him, through that Holy Spirit whose light no dungeon could exclude; joy in looking for a speedy re-union with Him, and the triumphant establishment, soon it might be or somewhat later, of his kingdom in glory.

How peculiar, how different from those of the few rude inhabitants, and perhaps ruder governor of the island around him,' were the thoughts and feelings, recollections and anticipations, joys and sorrows, that filled the mind of the aged saint! In part and measure it is not difficult for us to picture them to ourselves. For besides certain historical notices of his life, we have the expression of his mind in his own writings still extant, -his Gospel, his Epistles, his Apocalypse. Nor, I think, can we better prepare ourselves for an intelligent and profitable consideration of the extraordinary prefigurative visions just at this time accorded to him, than by endeavouring, though but partially and briefly, to picture these his thoughts and feelings to ourselves: and this as they embraced within their scope, alike the past, the present, and the future.

1. The past. It was now above sixty years since the ascension of his blessed Lord. Surely that was an event and scene that could never fade from the beloved disciple's recollection :-then, when He led them out as far as Bethany on the mount of Olives, and there for the last time blessed them, and as He blessed them was parted from them, till a cloud received him out of their sight. It was then that two Angels, robed in heavenly white, stood by them; and said, "Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye so gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus shall

1 Daubuz on Apoc i. 10, says, "It is likely that St. John was exiled into the island of Patmos, because there were as yet no Christians therein."

2 Luke xxiv. 50.

2

come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven."' These were heart-cheering words, never to be forgotten; -words indeed that were but the repetition of many to the same effect that Jesus Himself had before spoken to them. At first the idea, the joyful idea, in their minds was, that the promise of his coming would very speedily be fulfilled; and, long before the generation then living had wholly passed away, this dearest wish of their hearts have its accomplishment.3 But the years that had since passed, (above sixty years we have seen,) had already shown some error in their expectations on that point: yet only so as, by unfolding the fulfilment of other of Christ's predictions, that needs must come first in order of time, to confirm, and render yet more certain, their assurance of the fulfilment of this best promise in its due course also.

Thus, in regard to Jerusalem, when they witnessed the Lord's ascension, that "holy city" was yet standing. As they returned from Mount Olivet, the hum of busy life rose from its thronging population: and with its towers and pinnacles, its forts and palaces, and its temple the mightiest and most splendid of all its mighty buildings, Mount Zion seemed still, as in the olden time, the queen amidst the hills that surrounded it. But Christ

1 Acts i. 10, 11.

2 It will be found interesting to note these predictions in the order of time, and with regard to the occasions on which they were given: e. g. Matt. xvi. 27, xix. 28, xxiv. 30, xxv. 31, Mark viii. 38, Luke xvii. 24, John xiv. 3, &c. &c. It will thus appear, 1st, that it was not till after the lapse of a certain time from the calling of his disciples, that He opened to them the subject of his second coming in glory 2nd, that it was not until he had mentioned to them the sufferings and humiliation that He would have to undergo and indeed that it was generally in direct connexion with pre-intimations on the subject of his sufferings, or on that of their own coming trials and sorrows.

3 His saying (Matt. xxiv. 34) "This generation (ʼn yevea auтn) shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled," was not one that the disciples could overlook; understanding Christ's coming, verse 30, as they doubtless did, of his second coming in glory. On which passage (supposing the word a&rŋ read, as we read it, with the aspirate) the question would arise with them, Is the word generation to be taken in its chronological sense of thirty or thirty-three years? Or was the term intended by the expression to be measured by the longevity of all then alive, so as only to end with the death of the longest liver; and thus to extend to some ninety or a hundred years, from the time when the prediction was spoken? -Compare too, on this expectation of the disciples, 1 Thess. iv. 17, Heb. x. 37, James v. 8, &c. 4 Matt. xxvii. 53.