these are scenes on earth, not in heaven. The temple of God represents the Christian church; and heaven is the civil government. The temple being open, as if for free access, signifies, that the privileges of the church will be accessible to all,-a free toleration will be allowed by the civil authorities;-all will enjoy religious liberty.

As a consequence of opening the temple, the ark of the covenant was seen. This is another evidence, that it is not the celestial heaven which is meant, for there is no temple with its ark there. The whole reference is to the church on earth, and the figures are drawn from the temple at Jerusalem. The ark stood in the inner apartment called the holy of holies; its top or lid was the mercy-seat, over which two cherubim spread their wings; and between these was a supernatural light, which was a symbol of the divine presence. Now, the opening of the temple, or withdrawing of the partition curtain, would give a full view of the ark and the divine glory above it. This may signify, that at the period intended, God will give a manifestation of himself to mankind more full than he has ever done before. That period, as I think, is that of the new heaven and new earth described in the twenty-first chapter, which follows the thousand years, and the destruction or conversion of the enemies of the church. It is there declared, that the tabernacle of God will be with men, and he will dwell with them,—that they will be his people, and that he will be with them and be their God.' Also, that 'the throne of God and the Lamb will be with them, and they will see his face.' That will be the period in which the church will attain to her highest earthly perfection.

Preparatory to this happy state of things, there will be great commotions, wars, overturnings, and signal judgments, symbolized by lightnings, voices, thunderings, an earthquake, and great hail. Ch. 8: 5. Isa. 28: 17, where hail

is the emblem of special judgments and calamities. These also, if I mistake not, are described in the twentieth chapter, from the eleventh to the fifteenth verses. Before that most perfect moral and political state of the world, fitly distinguished as the new heaven and earth, there will be vigorous opposition to the controlling influence of pure religion, and there will be signal displays of God's kindness to his people, and of his displeasure against his enemies, figuratively represented by the appearance of a great shining throne.

Thus, as I have already remarked, John extends his prophetic description of the destruction of the eastern or Mahometan antichrist to the millennium, and then glances at the great events pertaining to the church far onward beyond that era of religious prosperity, even into that distant future period which Daniel says, is forever and ever.

Scott remarks, that this nineteenth verse 'introduces a new subject, and should have been placed at the beginning of the next chapter." So far is this from being the fact, it is carrying out the series of events in the particular line which the apostle was tracing to the grand consummation He follows up the overthrow of the Mahometan enemies of the Christian church with the far distant eradication from the world of all its enemies, and the full and permanent establishment of its peace and supremacy. In the subsequent chapters he takes up the Roman antichrist, traces its progress, depicts its overthrow, and carries the view onward through the millennium to the grand consummation in the new heaven and new earth.

CHAPTER XII.

The Triumph of Christianity over its Heathen Opposers in the Western Empire.-The Invasion of the Northern Barbarians.

THE writer having traced the progress of the Mahometan Antichrist onward to the sounding of the seventh trumpet, when the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our Lord, commences the prediction of a series of events relating to the western or Roman Antichrist. That he might give a connected view of that great apostasy, he reverts to the time when the scepter of government was wrested from pagan, and held by Christian emperors. In this and the succeeding chapters, he foreshows the casting down of paganism from its long continued supremacy, the rise of the papal hierarchy,-its progress to almost universal dominion,-its obscuration of the glory of the church,-its bloody persecutions, and its various fortunes to its final subversion, just previous to the millennium. By adopting the interpretation we have given of the preceding chapter, and observing the order of the visions now suggested, much confusion and perplexity is avoided, and the whole is seen to be consistent and harmonious.

1. And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.—A great sign or presage was seen in heaven, (this being the literal reading;)-a presage of an important era of the church. Heaven, in this place, as in most others in this book, signifies the gov

ernment or ruling authority of the empire. This will be evident when it is ascertained what is meant by the woman and her son. A woman is the well-known emblem of the church. Being clothed with the sun signifies, that at the period designated, the church will be invested with authority to rule, that she will shine forth from the heights of civil power, dispelling the darkness of heathenism, and that to her will be given a bright day of prosperity.

The Jews reckoned time, regulated their festivals, and determined particular seasons for religious purposes by the phases of the moon; and so, it is sometimes taken as the symbol of their ecclesiastical economy. In this respect the moon being under the feet of the woman, would indicate that that economy had been made subservient to her advancement to a more elevated state;-that she had risen above it, and was enjoying a brighter dispensation.

But, inasmuch as it was the general practice, even in the most enlightened nations, to worship the moon and to offer human and various other sacrifices to it, I prefer to regard this symbol, as signifying the triumph of the church over heathenism and idolatry. The Syrians worshiped the moon under the name of Astarte and Urania,-the Arabians, as Alilat,-the Egyptians as Isis,-the Greeks as Diana, Venus, &c., and even the Hebrews fell into this universal idolatry, and paid adoration to the moon as the queen of heaven, and the goddess of the groves. To be under the feet implies a state of subjection and degradation. At the period intended, the church, having risen to authority and supremacy in the empire, would put down paganism from its high places, and subject it to her control.

This interpretation is strengthened by the symbolic fact, that upon the head of the woman was a crown of twelve stars. A crown is always the emblem of regal authority. The twelve stars symbolize the twelve apostles. In

the first chapter the seven stars are declared to be the angels, i.e. ministers of the churches. The idea, then, is, that the church will possess regal authority in the empire, by means of the truths 'promulgated to the world by the twelve apostles to whom Christ committed the great work of teaching the nations. The effect would be the dejection and suppression of paganism. And thus it was, as the sequel will show.

2. And she, being with child, cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.-The time of her parturition being near, she was in great distress; showing that God was about to give her a deliverer, and that this would be preceded and attended with great trials. History shows, that this was precisely the state of affairs from the death of Constantius to the entire triumph of Christianity over its heathen enemies under the reign of Constantine, his son. See explanation of the fourth verse.

3. And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.-Another sign or presage was exhibited in the symbolic heaven,-the government, to which attention is particularly directed. This was a great red dragon with seven crown-bearing heads, and ten horns. This hideous monster, resembling the fabulous hydra of the ancients, is a fit emblem of paganism in the Roman empire. A writer assigns as the reason for adopting "the dragon as the emblem of the empire in this case, that the dragon was the principal standard of the Romans next to the eagle in the second, third, fourth, and fifth centuries of the Christian era. Of this we have abundant evidence in the writings both of heathens and Christians." Thus Daniel represents the Grecian kingdom by a he goat,