(as recorded in the twenty-fourth of Matthew) that the sun should be darkened, and the moon should not give her light, &c. &c., and that then should appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven, – the next particular to which he adverted is the gathering together of his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. And it is remarkable that the revelator, after having described the changes in the sun, moon, and stars, (evidently copying our Lord's metaphors,) proceeded in the next place to describe the sealing of God's elect; and the four winds are commanded to be still, and to blow not on the earth, until the process of sealing was fully completed. There is such an agreement here between our Lord and his servant who wrote the Apocalypse, that we cannot resist the conviction that they were both speaking of the Same event. 5. The time of writing the Apocalypse, as certain writers have supposed, can be determined with a considerable degree of certainty, by the references to the Roman emperors which we find therein. In describing the judgment of Rome, the seven-hilled city, the revelator says: “There are seven kings; five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come ; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space. And the beast that was, and is not, he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition;” xvii. 10, 11. Rome was represented by the harlot, who sat on the beast; and the beast represented the empire. This we shall take for granted in this place; and refer the reader to the commentary on that passage. During the revelator's lifetime, there was no city but Rome that could be thought to correspond to his description in the seventeenth chapter. “Besides, (says Prof. Stuart,) in ver, 9, the seven heads of the beast are said to symbolize ‘the seven hills on which the woman sitteth,' i.e., the seven hills on which Rome was built, the Septicollis Roma of the Latin writers. There is no room for mistake here ; and as little room, it seems to me, is there for mistake in another part

of the same explanatory chapters, viz., ver, 10. Here it is said that the seven heads of the beast also symbolize seven kings, viz., of Rome. The writer proceeds : “Five are fallen; one is ; the other has not yet comé, but when he shall come, he will remain but for a short time.' That the Roman emperors were usually styled Bagulets by the Greeks, needs no proof. That the line or succession of emperors is here meant, and not the primitive kings of Rome, is certain from the connection of the five with the one who is, and the one who is to come. We have only to reckon, then, the succession of emperors, and we must arrive with certainty at the reign under which the Apocalypse was written. If we begin with Julius Caesar, it stands thus: Caesar, Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius; these make up the five who had fallen. Of course the Apocalypse was written during the reign of Nero, who is the sixth. [And this, it will be remembered, is the fact which is asserted on the title-page of the Syriac version of the Apocalypse.] If, with some critics, we commence with Augustus, then the Apocalypse was written during the short reign of Galba, who succeeded Nero.” In counting the Roman emperors, only an occasional beginning with Augustus can be shown in classic authors. The almost universal usage is against it. The probability on other grounds is against beginning with Augustus. Every part of the Apocalypse shows that persecution was raging and instant when the book was written. But this could not be true, at most, but a few days after Nero's death, for the persecution was not continued under his successor. Besides, when the writer adverts to the shortness of time in which the seventh king would reign, (which fits Galba especially, as he reigned but seven months,) why, in case he wrote during the reign of Galba, should he overlook the shortness of his reign, and advert in this respect merely to the succeeding reign of Otho There is, moreover, a plain reference, in Rev. xiii. 10, to the future death of Nero, as well as to his then present cruelties. “He that leadeth

God, fell upon their faces and worshipped God, saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come ; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned ;” xi. 14—17. Is it not reasonable to suppose, that the revelator spoke of the same event to which our Lord referred? The kingdom of God came with power, when the kingdoms of this world became the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ.

Are we not justified, then, in the conclusion that the Apocalypse

was written previously to the destruction of Jerusalem Turn we to another fact. Jesus promised his disciples that

“In the regeneration, when the Son of man should sit on the

throne of his glory, they also should sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel;” Matt. xix. 28. This meta

phor of reigning with Christ is of frequent occurrence in the

New Testament. “It is a faithful saying, For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him; if we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us;” 2 Tim. ii. 11, 12. Now, as to the point of Christians reigning with their Master, the revelator treats of it frequently. They reigned when he reigned ; they came to power when he came to power. Jesus told them, when they saw the signs of his coming, to lift up their heads, for their redemption then would be nigh. What does the revelator say about this matter of reigning with Christ “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne;” iii. 21. Hence the early Christians were said to be made “kings and priests unto God;" Rev. i. 6; and when they sung the new song, they said, “Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth;” v. 9, 10. The Gospel reign began in its full power at the destruction of Jerusalem; and the reference which we find in the Apocalypse to

Christians being exalted to reign with Christ, as a future event, proves that the destruction of Jerusalem was future when the book was written. But we pass from this topic. There is another subject, bearing a close relation, which it will be proper to introduce here. Our Lord repeatedly stated, that, at the time of his coming, he should judge the nations of the earth. The time of his coming was preeminently a time of judgment. He foretold, that when the Son of man should come in his glory, he should sit upon the throne of his glory, and before him should be assembled all nations, and he should render to every man according to his works; Matt. xxv. 31, and xvi. 27, 28. Because the event was very near when St. James wrote, he said, “Behold the Judge standeth before the door;” v. 9. St. Paul said, that Jesus should “judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and kingdom ;” 2 Tim. iv. 1; and St. Peter said, that men must give account to him “that is ready to judge the quick and the dead;” 1 Pet. iv. 5. There will be no dispute, then, that the judgment of the nations was to take place at the time of the coming of the Son of man at the destruction of Jerusalem. Now, it is very plainly to be seen, that the revelator spoke of the same judgment as transpiring in the course of the events that he described. At the sounding of the seventh angel, (as we have shown,) it was announced, “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever;” and to this it is added, “And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great, and shouldest destroy them that destroy the earth.” And then, as though the old temple were destroyed simultaneously with this judgment, the revelator adds, in the next words, “And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament;” i. e., the spiritual temple of the Gospel was to be opened in place of the temple on Mount Zion, which was about to pass away; Rev. xi. 18. Now, as the revelator foretold this great judgment as about to take place in connection with the establishment of the kingdom of God, is not this an additional proof that the Apocalypse was written previously to the destruction of Jerusalem ż 4. We approach now another class of evidences, which may perhaps be regarded as a little more direct; and yet they do not possess to our mind any greater force than those which we have already submitted. THE JEws are spoken of in the Apocalypse in such a manner as would lead us to conclude that the book was written before the destruction of their city. “Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him ;” i. 7. Here is a manifest reference to the Jews among whom, and at whose instigation, the Lord Jesus was crucified. They were involved, according to this passage, in the judgment described by the revelator, and which was then shortly to transpire. Could the revelator have said this, had not the Apocalypse been written before the destruction of Jerusalem But again : In the seventh chapter of the Apocalypse, the twelve tribes are spoken of as still being in existence; and for the purpose of representing the Jews who had been converted to Christianity, and received the acknowledgment of God that they were his, the revelator describes twelve thousand persons as being selected from each tribe, who received the seal of God in their foreheads, that they might not be hurt in the approaching calamities. The threatened judgment seems to have been delayed, that all possible preparation for the security of the Christians, amid the coming dangers, might be made, – a circumstance which the revelator describes in his own style: “And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the