THE SCHEME OF THE APOCALYPSE. [363] The siege of Jericho by Joshua contains a concentrated or bird's-eye view, or ype, of the history developed in the Revelation. The sealing of the 144,000 is supposed to take place during the whole progress of the dispensation, and the character of successive periods of the church to be typified by the tribes successively named. VISION OF THE CHURCHES, CHAPTERS I. II. III. GENERAL INTRODUCTION, CHAPTER IV. 18. Paganism thrown, 323. Eagle's wings given to the woman, v. 14, 395. Protection of the two empires. Flood from mouth of Dragon, v. 15, 16. Commence- Deluge of Arian ment of nations. Commencement of 1260 days. Woe Trumpets 1260 phesying. Rise of Beast from days. Trumpet V. ix. 1 to 12.608. Saracen Woe. Trumpet VI. ix. 13 to 21, 1063. Turkish Woe. Remnant repent not. Revived pro Christ the Prophet, x. 1 to 4. Delay no longer. Prophet rises. Earthquake Temple measured. warn ing. Trumpet vii. xi. 15 to 19. phesying. Resurrec tion and sion, v. the sea, xiii. 1 to 10, 476. Civil Apostacy of the West. Rise of Beast from the earth, xiii. 11 to 18, 774. Ecclesiastical Empire of the West. Sealed ones with the Lamb, xiv. 1 to 5. First Angel mes sage, v. 6, 7. Second Angel message, v. 8. Third Angel mes sage, v. 9 to 11. Fourth and Fifth Angels, 14 to 16. The harvest of mercy. Sixth and Seventh Angels, 17 to 20. Vintage of Wrath. 1 The Apocalypse is a prophecy of 2 It is a prophecy reaching to the 9 The Judgment, Rev. xix., is the 10 11 The vision, Rev. xix., describes The Apocalypse, chap. iv-xix. is Babylon in the Apocalypse denotes the Babylonian, Medo-Persian, 15 The vision of chap. iv. v. dates 7 The coming of the Son of Man, 8 The kingdom of the Son of Man, 17 from the Ascension of our Lord. 18 II-STRUCTURE. 19 The Apocalypse is composed, chap. i. 19, of the things seen, chap. i., the things then present, chap. ii. iii., and the things to be hereafter. chap. iv-xxii. The 20 The last of these alone are direct prophecy, and were signified to the apostle in visions by an angel, ch. i. 1; iv. 1; xxii. 8, 9. 21 The angelic visions are seven. The seals, ch. v-vii. trumpets, viii-ix. The woman and her seed,__xii-xiv. The vials, xv. xvi. The fall of Babylon, xvii. 1; xix. 9. The judgment, xix. 10; xxi. 8. The heavenly Jerusalem, xxi. 9; xxii. 7. 22 The prophecy is successive from ch. xviii. to the close. 23 The ordinals in each sevenfold series are strictly successive in 27 The vision, x. xi. 15, falls entirely within the sixth trumpet. 28 The three first visions close with the time of the last vial or after. The time, times, and half a time, the 42 months, and 1260 days are The time, times, and half of the same interval. Daniel, and the Revelation are the same period. 29 They date from the opening of the 48 A prophetic day is a natural year. prophecy, and are parallel. 30 The vials commence with the time of the seventh trumpet. 31 The sealing is successive, and reaches through the trumpets to the last. 32 The siege of Jericho is a divine type, and a full key to the struc ture. III-PARTICULAR APPLICA TION. 33 The third woe is the open judgment of God's enemies, Babylon, the Beast, the False Prophet, and the Dragon, ch. xviii-xx. 34 The two first woes are the Saracens and the Turks. 49 The three-and-a-half times are the half of seven times, the whole season of Gentile power, and the same with the latter times of St. Paul. 50 A time denotes 360 years, and χρονος is equivalent to καιρος. V.-DETAIL OF APPLICATION. The following result simply from the combination of the above. 51 52 The 4 first trumpets contain the judgments that fell on the Roman empire from the 1st century to the rise of the Saracens. The third part denotes uniformly the third or eastern empire, the fourth part, the fourth or western empire. The first trumpet relates to the Gothic eruptions before Constantine. The second trumpet relates to the fall of the Latin emperorship of Rome. 55 The third trumpet relates to the 58 The re-prophesying, and the re- refer to the reformation. 59 The ascension of the witnesses relates to the era of missions. 67 68 69 70 The sixth vial is now accomplishing in Turkey and Christendom. The seventh vial is near at hand. The mystery of GOD will be accomplished within a time, or 360 years from the time of the reformation. The seven epistles typically describe seven successive estates of the spiritual church from the first to the second advent. VI.-PARTICULAR TIMES. 60 The attendant earthquake is the 71 The time, times, and half, and first shock of the French Revo lution. 1260 days of Revelation are the same period. 61 The four first Seals relate to four 72 The 42 months have a date rather steps of imperial change, and four states of the visible church; Apostolic, Nicene Orthodox, Su- 73 perstitious, and Papal, the last in the climax of corruption. 62 The fifth seal relates to the height of Papal power before the reformation, and a time povos inter- 74 venes before the sixth, while from the time of the oath, ch. x. 7, a time does not intervene. 63 The sixth seal describes the French revolution. 64 The holding of the winds, ch. vii. 1, is the same with the silence of half a season, and answers to the time since the general peace. 75 76 77 65 The harvest and vintage are future and near at hand. later, like the two dates of the 70 years captivity. The 1290 and 1335 days of Dan. both commence with the 1260 days of Revelation, or time, times, and a half, of both prophecies. The 7 times of the Gentiles begin with the subjection of Israel under Shalmanezar. The three and a half times begin with Justinian's eternal code, A. D. 532-3. The 42 months close nearly with the 1335 days. The 42 months begin A. D. 604 or A. D. 607-8, with the reunion of the ten kingdoms or the public establishment of idolatry. The 1335 days end in A. D. 1867—8. II. SCRIPTURE CHRONOLOGY. [367] The six days of creation, have, from early ages, been supposed to be typical of the history of the world for 6000 years. The Jews, the Christian Fathers, and later writers might be enumerated at considerable length, who have concurred in this view, and some scriptural evidence bearing this tendency might be adduced. But without dwelling upon this view, or urging its importance, the following table (which was prepared at the author's request by the friend mentioned in the preface) may be very useful in helping the memory to retain dates of great events, from its coming under that simple arrangement of six evenings and six mornings with corresponding remarkable æras in the history of the world. It will tend also to furnish a key to prophecy by connecting the events with the prediction, and a key to history, by shewing the scriptural character of those events. Most affecting is the fact that nearly six thousand years of God's revealed mercy have passed by, and eighteen centuries of its last and highest form, in the gospel of Christ; and twothirds of mankind, perhaps three-fourths, are still almost strangers to its very sound. Even in those countries where it is outwardly received, that gospel once so mighty, seems as though it had lost its glory and power; and on every side the truth is forgotten that men are prisoners under a sentence of death, and a proclamation of mercy has been brought by God's own eternal Son to a perishing world. In the midst of this darkness, the light of prophecy cheers our paths, and its chronological statements are especially designed for our meditation and our comfort, and they lead us to the conviction that a far happier state of things is rapidly approaching. The works of creation are doubtless designed, as we see manifested through the scriptures, to be visible and sensible pictures of the deeper and more important works of grace, that by the outward senses we may be led to the full knowledge of spiritual objects. The lights in the firmament were fixed there to be for [368] signs and for seasons, as well as for days and for years. But at present our insight into these things is very feeble, limited, and indistinct, and we may mistake even the appearances of things, and count that which is still darkness to be as the dawn. How different a light will the day of tribulation bring into our fallen world! open and actual judgments inflicted by the immediate hand of God upon his enemies, and his manifested deliverance of his people, and their visible glory will fully shew the real character of all things, and the supreme excellence of righteousness and grace. Of that day it is predicted, Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the Lord bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound. Isa. Xxx. 26. What wisdom, forbearance, loving-kindness, righteousness, and holiness, constantly at work in the last 6000 years, but yet hidden from us, will the day of the revelation of the righteous judgment of God openly display to all intelligent beings! The chronological table, before our Lord's coming, is founded on the Hebrew as settled by Usher, while considerable use has been made of that truly valuable work, Clinton's Fasti Hellenici. The author, though he has considered what has |