Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

lixity, which is repugnant to the genius of prophecy : on the other hand, to have given an account of them altogether general, and equally applicable to them all, would have proved a method, in a confiderable degree, vague and unfatisfactory. The middle courfe then, which the prophet is thought to have followed, and` which will be admitted to have been a very natural one, was to point out the events happening in one of the Ten Countries, as containing a specimen of the fufferings, which the witneffes were to endure in Europe in general, and of the fubfequent changes in their favour, which were afterwards to enfue. Conformably to this, we find, in the account of the witneffes, that feparate mention is made of THE Street of the Great City, as in v. 8, 1and again in v. 13 THE TENTH PART of the City is particularized; and thus it appears abfolutely neceffary to interpret this part at least of the description of the witnesses, as having a particular reference to fome one of the European nations. The queftion then is reduced to this. To which of them are the predictions in ch. xi. capable of being best applied? And on this point, after fufficient inquiry, it will not perhaps be found difficult to decide; and especially if it can be proved, that they admirably fuit the events which have happened in one country of Europe, whilft, on the very face of the prophecy, they correspond not at all to what has taken place in any other.

The account of the witneffes reaches from v. 3 to v. 14; and on each of these verses some obfervations will be offered. In v. 7 it is faid, that whilst they fhall perform their teftimony, the Beast that afcendeth out of the

12

bottom

12 In our English verfion it is falfely rendered, when they shall have finished their teftimony. Hear the learned Daubuz, * Και όταν τελέσωσι

bottomlefs pit, that is to fay, the Ten-horned Beaft fhall make war against them, and fhall overcome them, and kill them. 'This,' fays Daubuz, is fuch a Death, as be' comes a political or collective body:' and the meaning appears to be this: during the period of the 1260 years, whilst antichristian ufurpation is particularly prevalent, and whilft the witneffes are employed in oppofing it, the Horns of the Secular Beast, and especially the Gallic Horn, fhall overcome them, and they fhall become politically defunct, being deprived of their liberties, both civil and religious. In agreement with this explication we find in fact, that it was not till many centuries after the commencement of the 1260 years, that monarchical defpotifm was completely established in France and in most other countries of Europe. But the arguments intended to prove, that the Death of the witneffes is political, and that they bear teftimony against Civil as well as Spiritual Tyranny, are reserved for the ixth chapter.

These two great claffes of witneffes were not, however, always to remain in a perfecuted ftate. They were not always to continue politically dead. It is predicted 13, that there would be A GREAT EARTHQUAKE, and that this would happen in THE TENTH PART OF THE CITY 13. Now Great Earthquakes,'

in v.

την μαρίυριαν αυτων. And whilft they fhall perform their teftimony. This is the right meaning of these words, as Grotius, More, and others, eyen 'Mede himself, own it. For the word Tλew may fignify the doing of any thing in order to its perfection, as well as the actual finishing it. So EITEλEW in Hebr. ix. 6, fignifies fimply to accomplish, without any res'pect to the end, any more than to the whole service; and the particle orav, whilft, fuits exactly with this fense: Mat. v. 11.'

[ocr errors]

13 By this prediction the friends of the Roman hierarchy have long been embarraffed. Philip Pareus, fpeaking of it, fays, 'Ribera, from his un' willingness to explain this paffage, prudently paffed over it.' Pareii Opera, 1628, in loc. Ribera was a learned jefuit, who died in the 16th century, and compofed a confiderable commentary on the apocalypse.

in the language of prophecy, fays Sir I. Newton, are put ⚫ for the Shaking of Kingdoms, fo as to diftract or over'throw them14.' Indeed fince the Earth, as he obferves in the preceding page, fignifies the Mafs of the People, an Earthquake is a very apt and natural fymbol of an Infurrection of the people and a Revolution of govern. ment. But this symbol is fufficiently important to authorize a fresh elucidation of it in a future chapter.

The expreffion, the Beast, that afcendeth out of the bottomlefs pit, it is probable, may not have appeared very intelligible to the reader. The fact is, that when St. John fays in ch. xiii. that, in the prophetic vifion, he Jaw a Beaft rife up out of the fea, having Ten Horns, he employs an expreffion of exactly fimilar import. Accordingly Daubuz, when he comes to this paffage in ch. xiii. fays, this is the Beast, which is before in ch. xi. 7, faid to afcend out of the bottomlefs gulph, and to make war with the witnesses 15;' and he observes that abuσoos, tranflated in the common verfion, bottomlefs pit, figni'fies the fame as aλacoa, the fea! Now the fymbolic import

[ocr errors]

14 P. 17.

[ocr errors]

6

15 To the fame purpose speaks bp. Newton (on ch. xiii, v. 1)., "He was faid before (xi, 7) to ascend εx TMns abvoσs, out of the abyss or bot. tomlefs pit; but here he is faid to afcend en rns Jahaσons, out of the fea, * so that the fea and abyfs or bottomless pit are in these paffages the fame.'

16 By abuσoos having been tranflated bottomless pit, a false idea is almost neceffarily communicated to the mind of the reader; and in confirmation of what Daubuz has faid, I observe with H. Stephens, that it is properly an adjective, and I accordingly apprehend, that Jaλaσơns may be regarded as being here understood and TMs abvoσs as agreeing with it. Thus Æfchylus has an expreffion, exactly fimilar to that of St. John, only that it is not elliptical; avoσov mɛλayos, the immenfe or bottomlefs fea. Indeed when a vagos is regarded as a fubftantive, its fignification in fcripture, as Suidas and Theodoret obferve, is a great mass of waters; a sense annexed to the word by the most approved lexicographers, by Hefychius, Conftan

import of fea has been explained in a preceding

chapter 17.

tine, and Suicerus.

[ocr errors]

Though this point would not have been dwelt upon at all, had it not been controverted; yet, as feveral important confequences have been founded on a different interpretation, I will farther try the patience of the reader by two fhort references to doctors Lancaster and More. The former says, in If. xliv. 27, what in the lxx. is abyss is in the Hebrew, Deep, that is, the great fea;' and the latter, in correspondence with this remarks, that avoaos, in Rev. xi. 7. might, very properly, have been tranflated the fea. Myft. of Godliness, p. 178. Mr. Wakefield tranflates it the bottomlefs deep.

17 To prove that alvoσos, as well as Jaλaσon, fignifies in the symbolic language multitudes in motion and diforder, ch. vii. v. 4, of the prophet Amos may be appealed to, where (I am speaking of the Septuagint) abuʊoos is employed as an emblem of the Jewish nation in a state of con

fufion.

CHAPTER VIII.

EXTRACTS FROM COMMENTATORS, WHO HAVE THOUGHT

[ocr errors]

A REVOLUTION IN FRANCE TO BE PREDICTED BY ST.

JOHN.

THE

HE object which I have now in view, is to fhew. what commentators have applied to France, the prediction of the figurative Earthquake, occurring in ch. xi. though, in their time, to human difcernment there was not the remoteft probability of an Infurrection and a Revolution in that kingdom: and I am alfo to give a detail of their arguments.

The expectation of A REVOLUTION IN FRANCE, Dr. Gill derived from this paffage; but he fhall not here be cited; because incidental mention will be made of his

[ocr errors]

6

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

fentiments on this fubject in the chapter next fucceeding. If this figurative Earthquake' be regarded as affecting the Tenth Part of the Roman Catholic countries, Mr. WAPLE fays, the kingdom of France may moft peculiarly be denoted; which was the Tenth Part of the City that is, the last of those Ten Kingdoms, which • arose out of the ruins of the Roman empire, and gave B their power to the Beaft; as may be seen in the catalogue of them, given by the judicious and learned author of the book De Excidio Antichrifti. After obferving that this prophecy has been applied to the kingdom of France,' Mr. LoWMAN declares, that it may 'be understood very properly of some confiderable part of the Empire,' meaning the papal, and that it may fignify the downfal of fome confiderable fupporters of the Beast's perfecuting power.' That it most probably referred to France was the opinion of a divine of Scotland, Mr. LAUCHLAN TAYLOR'; an opinion which was also approved by another Scotch minifter of the name of WILLISON, who thus expreffes himself. Before Antichrift's Fall one of the Ten Kingdoms, ⚫ which fupported the Beast, shall undergo A MARVELLOUS REVOLUTION, Rev. xi. 13. • The fame hour 'there was a Great Earthquake, and the Tenth Part of the City fell. By which Tenth Part is to be underftood one of the Ten Kingdoms into which the Great City, Romifh Babylon, was divided. This MANY take to be the Kingdom of FRANCE, it being the Tenth and laft of the Kingdoms as to the time of its rife, and that which gave Rome the denomination of the Beast

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

"

[ocr errors]

4

* By the Great Earthquake here mentioned, ' we understand,' says DUR

[ocr errors]

HAM, the great commotions which usually accompany REFORMATIÓN, whereby kingdoms are put in an uproar.'

* See his Eff. on Some Important Parts of the Rev. p. 142. It was printed as late as 1770.

' with.

« AnteriorContinuar »