speak from Him. The Seven Thunders are the Voice of God*.

In the present Vision, St. John is commandednot to write the same things as the Seven-but to seal what they had written. And this he did in fact. St. John, both as an Evangelist and Apostle, refrains from repeating what his predecessors had said. He had another office, that of supplying what they omitted, and of sealing what they wrote†.

The expression to seal, in Scripture language, signifies to make an end of, to fulfil, to complete, to secure, to appropriate, and to declare an appropriation, to avouch, to confirm. Thus, twice in the same verse of the Prophet Daniel ‡-Seventy weeks are appointed to seal up sins, and to seal up prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. The Jews sealed the stone of the sepulchre to make it sure §. Him God the Father has sealed, says Christ of Himself ||: He that receiveth His testimony has set to his seal that God is true **. The Saints in the Apocalypse are said to be sealed tt with the seal of God on their foreheads ++.

The Prophet Malachi, the last writer of the Old

* Haymo ad loc. Clamavit Leo primus, deinde Tonitrua locuta sunt: id est, prius prædicavit Christus, deinde Apostoli.

† "Lectures on the Canon," Lect. XI. p. 285.

See Lowth, Daniel ix. 24.

§ Matt. xxvii. 66. See also Rev. xx. 3. || John vi. 27.

†† Cf. Ezek. ix. 4. Hagg. ii. 23.

** John iii. 33.

++

‡‡ Rev. vii. 3.

Testament, is called by the Jews its Seal.

And

St. John is the Seal of the New*. His Gospel is the Seal of the Evangelical, his Apocalypse is the Seal of the Apostolical, Canon. Hence the concluding words of his Gospel, and of his Apocalypse, have one and the same final and valedictory † character. This act of sealing is here represented as done by divine command: I heard a Voice from Heaven, saying to me, (says St. John,) Seal what the Seven Thunders have spoken. Therefore, by these words, Almighty God sets His own Seal to the New Testament by the hand of St. John: He says to St. John, Bind up the Testimony; Seal the Law among My Disciples: and what we receive from St. John, we receive from GOD. This is a most important result.

To proceed. St. John is commanded to take and eat the Roll.

What does this signify?

It means, that he must make it his own, and incorporate it. Just as St. Peter is commanded to arise, kill, and eat the animals, which he had regarded as unclean §, let down in a vessel from Heaven, and thus to incorporate those symbols of Gentilism with himself the Apostle of the Jews, and to declare their union

*See above, p. 111.

See John xx. 30, 31. xxi. 24, 25. Rev. xxii. 17-21. Cf. Lampe, Proleg. in Joan. i. v. §§ xiii. xiv.

† Isa. viii. 16, LXX. τότε φανεροὶ ἔσονται οἱ σφραγιζόμενοι τὸν Νόμον.

§ Acts x. 13-15.

in Christ, so St. John must take and eat the book. This he did, by publicly adopting and authenticating what had been written by the preceding Apostles and Evangelists, and by adding his own Gospel, Epistles, and Apocalypse, to give full stature and complete organization to the sacred body of Apostolic and Evangelical Teaching *.

This Book is represented as sweet in his mouth as honey: for, as the Psalmist says, O how sweet are Thy Words unto my throat! yea, sweeter than honey unto my mouth! But it embitters his belly. The word rendered belly is koλía ‡, that is, the natural man. The preaching of God's Word to a thankless world will bring sorrow with it to the natural man. As Ezekiel says in the parallel passage to that now before usthey to whom the message is to be delivered are a rebellious house; or, as the Septuagint thrice repeats the expression, an embittering house §: and St. John himself explains this phrase, in the beginning of the Apocalypse, by showing that the preaching of the

* See "Lectures on the Canon," Lect. VI. and Lampe ad Joann. i. p. 80: Apparet Joannem præcedentia Evangelia inspexisse, et ab iis quæ jam perscripta in illis essent studiosè abstinuisse.

Psalm cxix. 103.

Koiλía, as opposed in Scripture to the Spirit. See Rom. xvi. 18. 1 Cor. vi. 13. Phil. iii. 19.-Aquinas well says, ad loc. Amaricabit ventrem tuum, id est, carnem infirmam; molliorem partem corporis. See Jerem. iv. 18, 19, ʼn kakia σoũ wiкpá . . . . τὴν κοιλίαν, τὴν κοιλίαν μοῦ ἀλγῶ.

§ οἶκος παραπικραίνων, Ezek. iii. 9. 26, 27.

Word was the cause of bitterness to himself. I John, (he says,) who am also your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos (an exile and a prisoner), for the Word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. Thus the Gospel of Christ was made bitter to his flesh and blood.

This interpretation of the meaning of the opened Book, and of the Seven Thunders, is confirmed by what follows; and this Vision serves, when so explained, as an introduction to St. John's Prophetic History of Holy Scripture.

We are now also enabled to perceive the connexion of this Vision with the preceding one-the loosing of the four Angels. That event prefigures the triumphs of the Gospel. It naturally introduces the History of the Gospel, represented by the Open Book: and we shall now see that this Vision, in its turn, naturally leads to what follows. Thus these Visions serve to show that the Apocalypse is composed with systematic exactness, and that a beautiful harmony pervades the whole.

Let us see how this appears. The next Vision is thus described: A measuring REED*, like unto a Rod†, is placed in St. John's hand; and he is commanded to measure with it the sanctuary of God, and the altar, and those who worship there. He must not measure the outer court, but omit it; for it is given to the Gentiles,

* κάλαμος, cap. xi. 1.

+ ῥάβδος.

Η ναός.

who (it is added) will tread the holy city for forty-two months. And I will give power to my Two Witnesses, (it is said,) and they shall prophesy (that is, preach) one thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth. And then it is added: These are the Two Olive Trees, and the Two Candlesticks which stand before the God of the Earth.

We have spoken of this Vision on a former occasion t. Our present purpose is to present a synoptical view of the Apocalypse; and therefore, referring to what has been said before, for the grounds of our Interpretation, we proceed to state briefly the Exposition.

The REED-the Hebrew Koneh, a reed, whence the word Canon is derived-is an emblem of the Canon-or Rule-of Holy Scripture, completed and sealed by St. John. This Reed is said to be like unto a ROD; the Rod of iron frequently mentioned in the Apocalypse ‡. That is, Scripture, though it measures as a Reed, yet is not frail and quivering

*Not tread under foot, as in the Authorized Version, but walk in; that is, be members of the Visible Church. The phrase is from the LXX Version of Isaiah i. 12, тiç ¿¿εhrηoε Tuvтa ἐκ τῶν χειρῶν ὑμῶν, πατεῖν τὴν αὐλὴν Μοῦ; cf. Luke xxi. 24, where 'Iɛpovraλnμ has a spiritual, as well as a literal sense, and signifies that the Church will be a mixed company," a floor covered with chaff and wheat, till the time of the final winnowing; a field, in which are wheat and tares, till the Harvest. † See above, Lecture III. p. 124.

Chap. ii. 27. xii. 5. xix. 15.

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