the serpent was the only characteristic in the mind of the Holy Spirit, and therefore that the serpent considered in that point of view was a fit type of the divine Wisdom, the eternal Logos. On the other hand, when the tempter appears under the form of a serpent, and when St. John styles the devil that old serpent, we are in as little danger of supposing that Christ is meant; we immediately see, that the bad qualities of the serpent were alone in the contemplation of the writer; his perverted wisdom or his cunning whereby he deceiveth the whole world, the deadly malignity of his poison, and the subtilty with which he attacks his unsuspecting prey. In a similar manner, when Christ is styled the lion of the tribe of Judah; the courage, the strength, the activity, the generosity, of that animal are solely considered. And, when the devil is described as a roaring and a ramping lion going about in search of whom he may devour; the ferocity of the lion, his rapacity, his mode of lying in wait for his prey, the suddenness with which he springs upon it, the wonderful strength with which he holds it in his gripe, his prowling about in darkness, are as evidently his only properties which engage the attention of the writer *. This being the

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"As clean and unclean animals are not rçalities of good "and evil, but only figures; nothing hinders, but that, like "other figures, they should signify differently, when under some different acceptation: as the same object, according to every new direction of the light that falls upon it, will project a different shadow.

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the case, Tyre may be used as a type either of a great commercial nation of faithful worshippers, or of a great superstitious empire which drives an iniquitous traffic in indulgencies, pardons, relics, and such like trumpery; just as the writer considers the vast commerce of ancient Tyre literally or mystically. In what light he does consider it in any particular instance, we must be taught by the

context.

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"My meaning will be best explained by some examples "borrowed from the style of the Holy Scripture. Water, as a medium of purification, is a fit image of the Spirit of rege neration in baptism, which washes away sin: but, in its capacity of overflowing bodies with its waves, it becomes a "figure of affliction, destruction, and even death itself. The same water, which bore up the ark of Noah in safety, and "exhibited a pattern of the salvation of the Christian church, "destroyed the world of the ungodly. The light of the sun is "beneficial to the whole creation, and is emblematic of that "divine light of life, which enlightens every man that cometh "into the world; but the parching heat of its rays is used in "the parables of Christ to express the fiery trial of persecution "and tribulation for the truth's sake.

With the same variety of allusion, and without any danger "of impropriety or confusion in the language of Scripture, "the lion, considered as a hungry and blood-thirsty beast of "prey, is an image of the devil, who as a roaring lion walketh "about seeking whom he may devour. But, in regard to his

strength, power, generosity, and the majesty of his countenance, he is highly expressive of the regal character, and is "therefore assumed to denote the power and majesty of Christ 56 himself, the lion of the tribe of Judah." Jones's Works, vol. iii. p. 108,

The

The context then in the present instance teaches us, that Ezekiel, in the description of his antitypical Tyre, does not mean literal, but mystical, commerce; because the antitypical Tyre is some one of God's enemies who perish at the close of the 1260 years, and not one of those enemies holds the rank in the modern commercial world, that Tyre did in the ancient; they all being continental powers, and some state decidedly in opposition to them being the great maritime power of the day, and consequently (if literal commerce be considered) in that point of view being the antitype of Tyre likewise.

But one prophecy, relative to any given period, will always be best explained by other parallel prophecies relative to the same period. Do we find then, that any one of the powers, destined to fall at the close of the 1260 years and at the era of the restoration of the Jews, is elsewhere described under the same imagery that Ezekiel uses to depict the antitypical Tyre? If we do, the union of chronological coincidence and symbolical imagery will afford us as much certainty as perhaps can be attained in these matters, that the antitypical Tyre is intended for the power thus perishing at the same era and thus similarly described.

Now it is remarkable, that St. John, as if to teach us the right interpretation of this typical prediction of Ezekiel, purposely uses the very same imagery to represent the downfall of the papal Babylon-1. If Tyre be exhibited as a great trading

city in Ezekiel; so is Babylon in the Apocalypse2. If the merchandise of Tyre be gold, silver, iron, all precious stones, purple, broidered work, fine linen, ivory, ebony, vessels of brass, the chief of all spices, cassia, calamus, honey, oil, balm, wheat, wine, wool, lambs, rams, goats, horses, mules, precious clothes for chariots, horsemen, and the souls of men; so is the merchandise of Babylon gold, and silver, and precious stones, and pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner of vessels of ivory, and all manner of vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble, and cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fiue flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men-3. If the wares of Tyre filled many people, and enriched the kings of the earth; so the kings of the earth, those great ones who were the merchants of Babylon, waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies-4. If they of Persia, and of Lud, and of Phut, enrolled themselves in the armies of Tyre, and became her men of war; so the ten Roman horns gave for a season their strength and power to Babylon, and contributed all their force to uphold the empire of the beast-5. If Tyre proudly sit at the entrance of the sea, and her prince in the midst of the seas; so Babylon is the great whore, that sitteth upon many waters-6. If all the mer

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chants and mariners of Tyre bewail her fall, saying, IVhat city is like Tyre, like the destroyed in the midst of the sea? so all the merchants and shipmasters of Babylon exclaim, weeping and wailing, What city is like unto this great city 97. If the kings are sore afraid on account of the overthrow of Tyre; so the kings of the earth, when they see the smoke of Babylon, stand afar off for fear of her torment, saying, Alas, Alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city, for in one hour is thy judgment come !-8. If Tyre is to become a terror, and never to be any more; so Babylon is to be violently thrown down, and to be found no more at all-9. Lastly, as Ezekiel, by connecting the fall of the antitypical Tyre with the restoration of the Jews, plainly shews us, that he cannot mean the literal Tyre; and yet leaves it uncertain whether we are to understand her commerce literally or mystically: so St. John, while he effectually precludes the possibility of our mistaking the antitypical Babylon for the literal Babylon, chooses this city rather than Tyre, as a type of the power which he is describing, in order to shew us, that no common trade is intended, but some mystic trade for which the power in question was notorious; Babylon never having been, like Tyre, a commercial city, in the literal sense of the words.

Thus we see, that a power, destined to perish at the close of the 1260 years, and consequently at the era of the restoration of the Jews, is represented

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