ment of its parts which has escaped the generality of interpreters-namely, in the introduction of a chorus or song of triumph seven times, indicating seven distinct visions or acts; the divisions being the following:-iv. 8-11; v. 8-14; vii. 9-13; xi. 15-19; xii. 10-13; xv. 3-5; xix. 1-8; in each of which places the triumphant song is introduced.

It has been the aim of Mr. Hoare, in this volume, rather to afford facilities to all for studying and understanding the Apocalypse themselves than to advocate any of the systems which have already appeared, or to propose one of his own devising. He thinks that, with the exception of those who regard the events as past and those who regard them as entirely future-and whom it would be mere waste of time to notice-all interpreters have many points of agreement; and this agreement will become closer and closer as more of the prophecy becomes fulfilled in the course of events.

"Later generations may perceive the application of prophecies necessarily hidden from those of earlier times; and, indeed, it seems purposely intended that, before the fulfilment, there should be much obscurity as to particular points, while the general design was clear and satisfactory" (Introduction).

The general principles on which it is presumed that all sound interpreters of the present time agree are, first, that the Revelation is a prophecy extending over a very considerable range of time; secondly, that, as such, it is conducted on a principle of progressive development, and comprehends a series or continued succession of events in the Church's history; thirdly, that, while occasional interruptions by way of ode, episode, &c., confessedly occur, they are not of a nature to prevent the general principle from being, on the whole, maintained throughout. And when, to this view of the arrangement or general economy of the book, we add the consideration of its theme or object, we find on this point also the same kind of agreement among the different interpreters, all considering it to be the development and final consummation of the kingdom of Christ till his coming again to judge the world, and to crown his Church with eternal glory. With so much that all are agreed on, it seems mere perverseness to speak only of the minor differences among interpreters, and on this account to decry the study of the Revelation altogether as a sealed book, or to resort to something new by way of interpretation.

But, as we have on many former occasions observed, events are now continually springing forth of so marked and striking

a character as to shed a clearer light than before upon the prophecies which belong to the Christian Church: upon the Apocalypse in the first place, and then upon all those Old Testament prophecies which are glanced at by St. John, or have furnished him with the imagery, or symbolical language, which enters so largely into the composition of this last book of Scripture; and which, being the last, we have for ourselves regarded as bringing into a focus of stronger light all the scattered rays pervading the whole sacred volume which bear upon our times-times which we verily believe to be the last days.

Among the ancient prophets Daniel is called "greatly beloved" (ix. 23); and he was more highly favoured than any other who lived before the coming of Christ, in being shown that a long time would elapse before the first coming of Messiah, and that there would be a still longer interval between this, his first coming, to make an end of sin by the sacrifice of himself, and his second coming to establish that kingdom which shall never be removed, and to give the dominion to the saints of the Most High; and Daniel was also 'shown that this intervening time would be a time of great affliction to his people. The character of John, the Christian prophet, is very similar: he was the beloved disciple; and to him, in like manner, was revealed the various trials and tribulations awaiting the Church during the time of the Lord's absence—that is, until his second coming as beheld by Daniel in the seventh chapter of his visions. St. John adopts in the Apocalypse the very symbols and numbers of Daniel, as we might naturally expect, seeing that both prophecies treat of the same time. But this way of regarding it is not strong enough; for both were beholding visions of God, and, therefore, GOD was using the same symbols and the same numbers, on both occasions, to teach the same lessons concerning the same times.

We know of no commentator on the Apocalypse who has better apprehended the connection between this book and the prophecies of Daniel than Mr. Frere, whose last pamphlet upon the subject we have placed at the head of our remarks; and as he has been very long prosecuting the enquiry, with the view of confirming or modifying his first impressions by the subsequent events, we have before us the deliberate convictions of thirty-five years, employed in comparing the announcements of prophecy with their fulfilment in passing events: for Mr. Frere tells us that he began his studies of this subject in 1813, and has become more and more convinced of the truths which he then embraced, as each succeeding year

has brought with it new and astonishing deeds confirmatory of his former expectations, and of the general principles by which those prophecies were brought to bear upon the passing events of modern times-making occurrences, which all see to be momentous, infinitely so.

Mr. Frere is among those who have insisted upon understanding the two earthquakes (Rev. vi. 12; xi. 13, 19) as significant of two revolutions, both to begin in France; first a preparation for, or a type and warning of, the second--the former as having taken place in 1793-the latter as about to take place in 1847, or before the end of March, 1848. The event has confirmed these expectations so far as time is the element; but there were other elements as to the agents to be employed and the manner in which it should be brought about; and, in these respects, the course of events has rendered certain changes or modifications of those former expectations necessary for, after the fall of Napoleon, Mr. Frere expected that the King of Rome would fulfil that part in the prophetic drama which was assigned to the successor of Napoleon; but when the son also died it became necessary to look out for another, of the same house or dynasty, to accomplish those prophecies yet remaining to be fulfilled.

"The prophecies of Daniel relating to Antichrist in his first manifestation, as seventh head of the western Roman empire, were fulfilled in the person of Napoleon Buonaparte. Those relating to Antichrist in his second manifestation, as eighth head of the empire (including an enigma yet unexplained), are, I conceive, now about to be fulfilled" (46). "The supposition originally entertained, that the seventh vial would be included (together with the preceding six vials) in the thirty years of Daniel, ending A.D. 1822-3, led (with other reasons) to the almost necessary conclusion that what is to be performed by the Antichrist of the last days, as the eighth and last head of the empire (Dan. xi. 40-45), would be fulfilled personally by Napoleon Buonaparte (who had already fulfilled, in the years 1796 to 1812, all the foregoing part of the prophecy, Dan. xi. 21-39). The lapse of time has corrected these erroneous suppositions; the literal interpretation of all the prophecies that relate to the infidel Antichrist, in his last manifestation as sovereign of Rome, and eighth head of the empire remains however unaltered; to which, as given in my former work, and now about to be fulfilled (the revolution of the seventh vial having unquestionably commenced), I beg to refer the reader" (p. 8.)

Mr. Frere has also found it necessary to alter his views, concerning the restoration of the Jews, by the course of events: for having regarded the declarations in the last chapters of Daniel as referring to events which would happen in consecutive order, he supposed that the restoration of the Jews, which

predicted in the early part of the twelfth chapter, would take place before the expiration of the 1290 years mentioned in the latter part of the same chapter-consequently before the year 1823-assuming that the 1260 and 1290 years may have had the same commencement; but Mr. Frere, now finding that the whole period up to the present time has been occupied in works preparatory to the pouring out of the seventh vial, thinks that this vial itself (terminating with the restoration of the Jews) must be the subject of the following period of twenty years, from 1847 to 1867--now commencing and immediately preceding the Millennium (p. 12); and he, therefore, holds that the last chapter of Daniel consists of two distinct parts:

Let me

"First, the main prophecy terminating at xii. 7, with the announcement of the restoration of the Jews; secondly, the explanation thereof by the attendant angel, who is commissioned to show it to the prophet, contained in chap. xii. 8, to the end; these two distinct portions being of course parallel to each other in point of time" (p. 10). hope (says Mr. Frere) that the cursory reader of prophecy will pass over with indulgence the foregoing demonstration of prophetic truth, and be satisfied for himself with being thus put in possession of such an important result; and will at the same time forgive me when I confess that the existence of the difficulties in the prophetic text, which I have felt myself now called upon to explain, together with the way in which they have been opened by the progress of time alone, are to me among the most interesting circumstances connected with the study of prophecy, and are, indeed, intensely so" (18).

We know somewhat of the pleasure resulting from a triumph over difficulties of this kind, and of the intense delight which accompanies such discoveries of our own mistakes and such vindication of the word of God: it not only demonstrates that the former declarations and their present fulfilment are by the same God in whose hand are all things; but it gives us the assurance that all the other portions of his word shall have as literal an accomplishment, and that not only in things that are visible and temporal but in those that are spiritual and eternal. But we must also add that we do not go all lengths with Mr. Frere in his application of prophecy; for we think that he is often too minute, and runs also into the common mistake of exaggerating the importance of those things with which we ourselves are immediately conversant, blinding us to the really superior claims of things at a distance from us. We have no doubt that much good has been done by the Bible Society and other associations of this description; yet, to represent these reformation societies and evangelical alliances as fulfilling the things which were sig

nified by the prophetic acts of the angels in the Apocalypse is almost ludicrous. The angel who seals the servants of God in the seventh chapter must, we think, have reference to an act done towards the servants of God in all parts of Christendom, and may not be limited to so narrow a sphere as a few believers in Great Britain; for the correlative of the people of Israel is the one Church of the baptized throughout all Christendom. And still less can we allow the angels of the fourteenth chapter to be thus limited, since the very call to come out of Babylon indicates that the cry reaches every part of Christendom; and the blessing on the dead is on all who die in the Lord in all lands.

We also think that Mr. Frere makes too much of Esdras. It is an apocryphal book: we refuse to receive it as prophetic, because it has not been admitted into the canon: it is a private book, and whatsoever value Mr. Frere attaches to it is only his private opinion: it cannot be received as of ecclesiastical authority or as the word of God. Again: we think that Mr. Frere is wrong in pertinaciously adhering to the number 2400 in the eighth chapter of Daniel, after Mr. Cunninghame had clearly shown that it was a misprint, and is not contained in the Vatican manuscript, nor in any other known manuscript whatsoever; and especially as the true reading of 2300, when rightly interpreted, expires in the same year,

1847.

We ourselves have arrived at general results similar to those of Mr. Frere, although we have been led by a different road. We began with the Old Testament, and the book of Isaiah, and the minor prophets, before entering on a comparison between Daniel and the Apocalypse; but the results are the same: for, as we have already said in speaking of the prophet Joel, they all terminate in a great act of judgment upon the heathen, the place being named Jehoshaphat, or the judgment of Jehovah, on this account; which act is accompanied by the restoration of the Jews to the land promised to their fathers; but the place of judgment is in the Apocalypse called (Rev. xvi. 16) Armageddon, which means the valley of decision. This, therefore, is the turning point both in the Jewish and the Christian history: the casting away of the Jews was the reconciling of the world (Rom. xi. 15)—the receiving of them shall be life from the dead: blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in; but there shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob (verse 26).

The preparation for this act of judgment goes on during