INTRODUCTION.

THERE are a few desultory remarks interspersed in the body of the present volume upon the construction of symbolical and other prophecies, which, had it been contemplated that the work would have ever required an introduction, should certainly have been reserved for the present occasion; and thus much, which may now appear as unnecessary digression and only calculated to interrupt the thread of the argument, might have been avoided.

It is because the interpreters of prophecy have generally taken such an exclusive and contracted view of divine wisdom, as displayed in the prophetic method, that so much apparent discrepancy exists between one commentator and another. This error does not so much arise from the tenacity with which one set of opinions may be maintained as in the rejection of others. The truth of this observation receives illustration from the controversy which at present exists in the Church, between those who advocate the literalday system on the one hand, and those who maintain the year-day system on the other. Each party

contends for their own peculiar opinions, as though their stability rested, not so much upon the strength of any arguments that may be adduced in their support, but upon the demolition of another system which is supposed to be antagonistic to their own theory, but which, in fact, so far from opposing, if properly understood, would be found to strengthen and establish. This truth will become more evident as we proceed further with our subject, by which it will appear that one series of fulfilments forms a base upon which future interpretations may safely rest; so that a clear elucidation of the future depends in a great degree upon an intelligent apprehension of the past and thus the true interpretation of the unfulfilled prophecies is made dependent upon those which have already been accomplished. may be regarded as an axiom in the interpretation of prophecy, and flows from the germinating as well as developing principle which, of necessity, exists in all the purposes of God; for the purpose of God is one, and its manifestation or revelation to us assumes different phases or phenomena, varying according to the condition of mankind at the time of their manifestation. The design of God in the redemption of the world was as complete from all eternity as when Christ died upon the cross, though its manifestation to

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the outward creation was not till then, and though its progress to a consummation, for nearly six thousand years, may have appeared to us so slow; and it is upon this principle, of the progressive development of the purposes of God, that one series of fulfilments of a symbolical prophecy should be regarded only as introductory to the comprehension of others. The manifestation of the mystery, therefore, of the papal oppression of the Church ought to furnish an interpreter with true criteria, by which he may be enabled to unfold that of his infidel successor, so that the former becomes the prototype of the latter; and there can be little doubt that the series of symbolical prophecies which describe the actions of the one career will also be found with equal exactness to depict those of the other. This principle is most important when applied to the interpretation of the Apocalypse; and, though at first it may appear to confuse and to involve complication, yet it will ultimately be found to act, not only as a corrective to any interpretations of the future, but at the same time possessing a power of elucidation as well as confirmation which an isolated and unsupported theory could not possibly contain. Thus, the entire succession of symbolical prophecies as represented by the Seals, Trumpets, Vials, &c., which have undergone one

order of fulfilments when applied to the papacy, shall have to undergo another series having respect to the infidel period, alike in kind, though intenser in degree.

Before closing these few remarks upon the structure of the Apocalypse, it may be as well to observe that the selection of the symbols themselves, being almost invariably taken from the Jewish ceremonial law, precludes the supposition that the Jews as a nation form any object of the prophecy itself; for, independent of the indisputable fact that their canon of Scripture was complete and closed with the prophet Malachi, it would be wholly inconsistent with the character of symbolic language to imagine that either they as a nation, or their religious ceremonies, can be at one and the same time the symbol and the thing symbolized. There appears to be only one instance in the Apocalypse wherein the future condition of the Jews is alluded to; and as that represents the raised Jewish saints in the eternal age, and describes their standing and condition when the heavenly things are established upon the earth, it forms no exception to the general rule, though they are emblematized by men standing in a Jewish ordinance; because the scene represents the court of heaven, in which they have a couspicuous place; but beyond the

condition of time, with which alone prophecy has to do.

This is a very important point to establish, inasmuch as an interpreter is almost as much assisted in his task, by ascertaining what a symbolical prophecy does not contain as what it does: or, in other words, he will be able more accurately to determine what the symbols do signify, by clearly defining what they do not.

The circumstance of God's revealing to the Church more definitely the manner of the accomplishment of the prophecies on the eve of their fulfilment ought not to occasion any surprise -it would be strange if the facts were reversed. From the moment when the hope of the Lord's return to this earth was given by the two men in white apparel to the wondering disciples who gazed upon Him as He ascended from the Mount of Olives, it was manifestly the purpose of God to conceal from the Church the time of the second advent of His Son, by retaining in His own hand the times and the seasons; but whilst this uncertainty as to the time was needful to sustain the Church's hope through her dreary pilgrimage, by withholding from her any positive assurance that it might not happen at any period in her history, it does not follow that such knowledge should be withheld immediately preceding its ac