thunders uttered their own voices. And when the seven thunders uttered their own voices, I was about to write. And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Seal up the things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not. And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the land lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created the heaven and the things that therein are, and the sea and the things which are therein, that the time shall not yet be: but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, whensoever he may be about to sound, then the mystery of God shall be finished according to the glad tidings that he hath declared to his servants the prophets. And the voice which I heard from heaven spake to me again, and said, Go, take the little book which has been opened, in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the land. And I went unto the angel and said unto him, Give me the little book! And he saith unto me, Take it and eat it up, and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey. And I took the little book out of the angel's hand and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey; but when I had eaten it, my belly was bitter. And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and languages, and kings."-Apoc. x. 1—11.

As Mr Elliott's commentary on this passage occupies not fewer than 147 pages of his work, it is obvious that we cannot do more than give a very brief account of his opinions. According to him, the subject is "the Reformation." In the covenantangel who descends upon the earth he recognizes Christ; and in order to explain the accessories of the vision, he carries us to Rome at the time of the inauguration of Pope Leo the Tenth, and proves from pictures and medals that he blasphemously assumed all the attributes of the Saviour recorded in this vision. He was exhibited to Christendom as the Lion of the tribe of Judah; the glory of the sun and of the circumambient rainbow were given to him; and he was represented with one foot on the sea and the other on the land. And it was, according to our author, just at the point of time when Antichrist had thus openly assumed the character and functions of the Redeemer, that Luther, by his famous theses against indulgences, asserted, in opposition to this usurpation, the glory of Christ as sole Mediator and King. Thus the first part of the prophecy was fulfilled, and Christ, through the Reformer, did utter his own voice as the true Lion of the tribe of Judah. The seven thunders which immediately succeeded are, according to Mr Elliott, the voice of the Pope speaking in his decrees or bulls. This view he supports by the consideration that they were not to be written, a declaration equivalent in his opinion to an assertion that they were false, and an imposture; by the farther consideration that the thunders are said to utter their own voices; and lastly, by

the allusion in the number seven to the seven-hilled city from which they issued. The angel's oath and declaration "that the time shall not be yet," (for so he renders the words,) he considers to have found its accomplishment in the conviction strongly impressed upon the Reformers of that day of the approaching termination of the reign of Antichrist, which it was necessary to correct. The little book he regards as the New Testament, distinguished from the whole Bible, the special manual of the gospel minister, and the symbol of his office put into his hands at ordination. The action of the apostle in eating it, and the accompanying declaration that he should prophesy or preach again before many nations, are regarded as symbolizing the revival of gospel preaching by the Reformers, notwithstanding the official annulment of their orders by the Pope.

We cannot refuse to acknowledge the extreme ingenuity of this interpretation-an ingenuity even more apparent in the lengthened detail of our author than in our brief summary; and yet we are persuaded that the whole fabric is baseless. The symbols with which the angel appears invested are by Mr Elliott applied first to Antichrist, and not to the Redeemer. Thus in the running title we have "Epoch of Antichrist's triumph-Antichrist's face as the sun-Antichrist's feet on land and seaAntichrist's cry as a lion roaring." We cannot, however, persuade ourselves that the choice of the peculiar attributes of Christ emblematically presented in this vision was determined by the fact that the Pope was to usurp them immediately before the Reformation. We do not believe that because Leo X. was to be depicted as the "Lion of the tribe of Judah," therefore the Saviour is in this vision held forth as the true Lion; or that because, in another painting, that Pope is represented with one foot on the land and another on the sea, therefore Christ is represented as assuming this attitude, and challenging the sovereignty as his own. Indeed it appears to us sufficiently plain that the accidental circumstance of the name of the Pope being Leo, led his supporters to apply to him those passages of Scripture where a lion is mentioned; and as one of the most remarkable of these is the very chapter under consideration, it was natural that the other attributes of the angel should be transferred to "Christ's vicar upon earth." The application rose out of the prophecy, instead of the prophecy having been framed to meet the blasphemous assumption. Nor can we see much force in our author's arguments for understanding the seven thunders to be emblems of the papal bulls. He makes a great deal more of the language of the original than we think it can legitimately bear. The phrase ras aurav pwvas (their own voices,) is not so unusual

as to merit the designation of "a most singular definition." Professor Stuart, whose judgment on a question of this kind may be safely received, has discovered nothing remarkable in the language; at least he makes not the very slightest remark upon it. In fact aura is perfectly identical with the contracted form άur, and the phrase, therefore, is exactly equivalent, or rather identical with one which is used of Peter in Acts ii. 14, and of Paul in Acts xxii. 22, ingav ny pwvny άutou, which, were we to follow Mr Elliott's rule, we should translate "lifted up his own voice," and seek a reason why his voice should be so emphatically called "his own." The argument from this source, then, is of very little consequence in determining what the thunders were. As to the other argument, from the use of the article, “the seven thunders," passing over the fact that some manuscripts want the ȧ altogether, we are not disposed to put much confidence in any deduction from the circumstance of its insertion, because exactly similar instances occur in chap. i. 4, "the seven spirits before the throne," and especially in chap. viii. 2, "I saw the seven angels," in neither of which cases can the peculiarity be explained by the supposition that the spirits or angels were already familiar to the apostle; for they had not been previously mentioned in the course of the vision. Nor can the fact that the thunders were not to be written be relied upon as proving that they were false; for another reason may be given for this injunction, which we shall notice by and by. Our last objection to this interpretation of the chapter is, that so very solemn a transaction as an oath by the Redeemer, "that the time shall not be yet," seems not to be adequately interpreted by a certain impression or conviction, however strong or general, of the approaching fall of Antichrist. Nor have we yet seen sufficient reasons to induce us to believe that the little open book is the New Testament—an interpretation which cannot be supported by any other passage of prophetic Scripture. Besides all these objections derived from the passage itself, there are others arising from the connection between it and the remainder of the prophecy, which seem to us as insuperable as any of those we have yet mentioned.

But let us, on the other hand, attempt to found an interpretation upon a comparison between this and another vision of the Apocalypse, and ascertain whether this clue will not lead us out of the labyrinth. The leading idea is evidently the book which is given to John with the injunction to eat it. All the other particulars are only accessories, not without their important meaning, as we shall see, but still entirely subordinate to the book. Now, as there is in the very opening of these visions, a book with seven seals presented to us as a very chief part of the framework of the whole prophecy, our first hypothesis ought to be, that there may

be some relation between the one book and the other; nor are we warranted in seeking another till this one has proved entirely unsatisfactory. Mede perceived such a relation, but he erred in working it out, supposing that the Lamb's book contained half the prophecy-the secular fortunes of Christendom, while the angel's book contained the fortunes of the church. And this error has led to the abandonment of the idea altogether by later commentators, and by Mr Elliott among the rest. But what if the one book should be a part of the other? The first had seven seals, and as each seal was opened, part of the volume was unrolled and its contents displayed, until we come to the seventh, and upon its being opened, we read that there was a silence in heaven, but the contents of the last portion are not in that place revealed. When, therefore, Christ descends, holding in his hand a little book, what can be a more natural conclusion than that we are about to hear the contents of that part of the volume contained under the seventh seal? It is a little book, for the first six seals have been unrolled and removed. It is opened (not open, awyvo), for we have already been told that the seventh seal had been broken. And with this view of its character we shall find that the remainder of this vision exactly corresponds. In order to explain this agreement, we must go back a little to consider the nature of the seven-sealed book. It was one which none could open except the Redeemer himself. When he comes to take it he is introduced to us as the "Lion of the tribe of Judah and the Root of David." And when he takes it, the whole company of the redeemed burst into a song of praise, the grand conclusion of which is, "We shall reign on the earth." From this we gather two things; first, that the opening of the book belongs to Christ in his character of King, for this is implied in the titles of "Lion of the tribe of Judah and Root of David;" secondly, that the opening of the seven seals must end in the establishment of Christ's kingdom, for it is only then that the anticipations of the redeemed can be fulfilled in their "reigning on the earth." But if the history of this book ends with the silence after the opening of the seventh seal, these anticipations are disappointed, for the Redeemer's kingdom is not then revealed. Mr Elliott, indeed, would include the seven trumpets under the seventh seal, and thus obviate the difficulty, but we are unable to acquiesce in this arrangement, for reasons which we have already given, when in our former article we attempted to prove that the sixth seal brings us down to the day of wrath which precedes Christ's second coming. If, then, from the opening of the sealed book, we turn to the vision of the tenth chapter, we shall be able to perceive the exact harmony which exists between it, on the one hand, if regarded as the expansion of the seventh seal, and

the six seals that went before, on the other. For here, too, as in the taking of the sealed book, Christ is revealed as the King, and moreover, just as we might expect, as the king, now at last, on the opening of the seventh seal, taking to himself the kingdom. He comes as a mighty angel. Around his head is the "rainbow," the covenant sign of the perpetuity of the earth. He "sets his right foot on the sea, and his left foot on the earth," thereby taking possession of his dominions: and that we may not forget that it is the Lion of the tribe of Judah who comes to take vengeance at last upon his enemies, he "cries with a loud voice as when a lion roareth." The manner of his oath, too, has its significancy. He swears by him that created that "heaven, and earth, and sea," which has been given to him as his inheritance and possession: and the matter of the oath is, that "time shall be no more," that is, "that there shall be no more delay," for so, with Professor Stuart, we understand the passage.

Moreover, this view exactly accords with the interpretation which we have already given in our former article of the earlier seals. The sixth seal we explained as denoting a convulsion of the framework of society, the immediate harbinger of the great and terrible day of the wrath of the Lamb. And the seventh, if the little book be indeed the contents of that seal, brings before us that very day of wrath, when Jehovah "shall roar like a lion, and the children shall tremble from the west," Hosea xi. 10. Thus, then, one of the principles which we laid down at the outset of this article is carried out, and the series of seals is made to terminate only in the consummation of all things.

But if, when the seventh seal is fulfilled, "there is to be no more delay," what means the reference to the last trumpet? How can it be true that there shall be no more delay, and yet that it is only when the seventh angel sounds that the mystery of God is finished? Both are true, and this coincidence serves strongly to confirm our interpretation. For the last trumpet is contemporaneous with this very vision, as we shall see by and by, and introduces the establishment of Christ's kingdom. The little book contains the history of his last action which shall issue in this event. The apostle is told to eat it, that is, according to the language of prophecy, to master its contents; and because the same events are declared under different symbols in a future portion of the Apocalypse, and would require for their promulgation a full acquaintance, on the part of the apostle, with the contents of the little book, there follows, immediately on his eating it, the warning, "Thou must prophesy again:" while the universal interest of the theme is intimated by the announcement, that it should be before "many peoples, and