CHAPTER I. HE Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his ser

vants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John :

CHAPTER I.

The Revelation. — This book is called the Revelation of Jesus Christ for two reasons ; 1st, it was a revelation “which God gave unto him;” and, 2nd, it was a revelation which he made to his servant John. The word revelation here should be taken in its usual and obvious sense, as a manifestation of a thing which was before hidden or secret. The truths of the book were communicated from God to the mind of his Son Jesus Christ, and from the mind of Jesus Christ to that of John. Of the manner of the revelation it is not necessary that we speak; the fact is plainly established by the text. For other instances of the occurrence of this word, see Rom. ii. 5; viii. 19; xvi. 25; Gal. i. 12; and from the last verse quoted it will be perceived, that Paul also received the gospel which he preached “by the revelation of Jesus Christ.” In profession, at least, the Epistles of Paul and the Apocalypse stand on the same ground, as it respects the authority from which they were derived. T Shortly come to pass. — This is a very important point. It is stated at the very commencement of the Revelation, and is worthy of peculiar attention. One would conclude that all the matters contained in the book were to be sulfilled at no

distant day. This, however, is not to be understood as if everything mentioned in the book were future; for it will be seen by i. 19, that some things had passed, and some were then present. It could be said only of those which were future, that they were “shortly to come to pass.” The fact, that the events foretold by the revelator were near, was asserted by him again and again; see i. 3. So much for the commencement of the work. At the conclusion, the nearness of the events is again repeatedly declared; xxii. 7, 12, 20. In fact, we have almost the very words at the conclusion which we have at the beginning – “The Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to shew unto his servants the things which must shortly be done;” xxii. 6, compared with i. 1. The remarks of the very learned Dr. Hammond are so valuable on this point, that we shall present them at Some length: — “Having gone through all the other parts of the New Testament, I came to this last of the Apocalypse, as to a rock that many had miscarried and split upon, with a full resolution not to venture on the expounding of one word in it, but only to perform one office to it, common to the rest, the review of the translation. But it pleased God otherwise to dispose of it; for before 2 Who bare record of the word of God, and of the testi

mony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw.

I had read (o that design of translating on {! to the end of the first verse of the book, these words, n:hich must come to pass presently, had such an impression on my mind, offering themselves as a key to the whole prophecie, (in like manner as, this generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled — Matt. 24, 34,have demonstrated infallibly to what coming of Christ that whole chapter did belong,) that I could not resist the force of them, but attempted presently a general survey of the whole book, to see whether those words might not probably be extended to all the prophecies of it, and have a literal truth in them, viz., that the things foretold and represented in the ensuing visions Were #. speedily to come to pass, one after another, after the writing of them. But before I could prudently pass this judgment, which was to be founded in understanding the subjectmatter of all the visions, some other evidences I met with, concurring with this, and giving me abundant grounds of confidence of this one thing, that although I should not be able to understand one period of all these visions, yet I must be obliged to think that they belonged to those times that were then immediately ensuing, and that they had accordingly their completion; and, consequently, that they that pretended to find in those visions the predictions of events in these later ages, and those so nicely defined as to belong to particular acts and persons in this and some other kingdoms, Š. far narrower circuit, also, than that which reasonably was to be assigned to that one Christian prophecie for the universal church of Christ,) had much mistaken the drift of it. The arguments that induced this conclusion were these : First, that this was again immediately inculcated, v. 3, for the time is nigh, and that rendered as a proof that these seven churches, to whom the prophecie

was written, were concerned to observe and consider the contents of it. Blessed is he that reads, and he that hears, &c., (saith Arethas, that so hears as to practise,) for the time, or season, the point of time, is near at hand. Secondly, that as here in the front, so c. xxii. 6, at the close, or shutting up of all these visions, and of St. John's Epistle to the seven churches, which contained them, 't is there again added, that God hath sent his angel to shen to his servants the things that must be speedily, or suddenly; and immediately upon the back of that are set the words of Christ, the author of this prophecie, Behold I come quickly, not in the notion of his final coming to judgment, (which hath been the cause of a great deal of mistake—see note on Matt. xxiv. 6,) but of his coming to destroy his enemies, the Jews, &c.; and then, Blessed is# that observes, or keeps, the hecies of this book, parallel #. §. been said at .*. ginning, c. i. 3. Thirdly, that, xxii. 10, the command is given to John, not to seal the prophecies of the book, which that it signifies that they were of present use to those times, and therefore to be kept open, and not to be laid up as things that posterity was only or principally concerned in, appears by that reason rendered of it, because the time is nigh, the same which had here at the beginning been given, as the reason that he that considered the prophecies was blessed in so doing.”— (Intro. to Apoc.) The remarks of Professor Stuart on this point are certainly worthy of very serious consideration, coming, as they do, not only from a gentleman of very great learning, but from one whose preconceived opinions would have led him to take different ground, had he regarded it as being tenable. “In Rev. i. 1, the writer says, that God gave to Christ the revelation, in order to show his servants what should take place speedily,