but merely that the woman, in consequence of the dragon's violence, fled into the wilderness, where she continued 1260 days: that, during her sojourn there, a war took place between Michael and the dragon; the result of which was, that the dragon was cast out of heaven : and that afterwards, still during her sojourn there which the prophet carefully mentions a second time, the dragon vomited a great flood out of his mouth against her, in order that she might be completely carried away by it. In all this, I can perceive nothing like the slightest intimation of any prolepsis, but rather the very reverse: I can only discover a plain account of the woman's persecution during 1260 days: an account, which exactly tallies with the general subject of the little book; with the 1260 days prophesying of the witnesses in the preceding chapter, and with the 42 months tyranny of the beast in the succeeding chapter. Hence I conclude, that this middle chapter of the little book treats of the same period, that its first and two last chapters treat of-In the fifth place, the scene of the warfare between the woman and the dragon is laid, at least the beginning of it is laid, in heaven, or the Church general. The dragon, the persecutor, was a sign in heaven, no less than the woman, the persecuted. Whence it will undeniably follow, that the seven-headed and ten-horned dragon, must have stirred up this persecution against the woman through the instrumentality, not of a pagan, but of a nominally Christ ian, power. Heaven indeed is the symbol either of temporal or spiritual polity:* little doubt however can be entertained in which sense it is to be taken in the present instance, when we note that both the woman and the dragon were equally signs in this heaven. Where the woman was, there was the dragon also. But, in the days of Paganism, imperial Rome alone occupied the temporal heaven: the Church was utterly excluded from it. The heaven therefore cannot be the temporal heaven. But, if it be not the temporal heaven, it must be the spiritual heaven, or the Church. And, if it be the spiritual heaven, or the Church; then the prophecy can have no relation

* See the preceding chapter upon symbolical language.

to the persecutions of pagan Rome: for the empire, as pagan, never was in the spiritual heaven; and consequently cannot be the dragon, which the prophet declares to have been in the self-same heaven with the woman. In no sense therefore, either temporal or spiritual, can the dragon, upon Bp. Newton's interpretation, be placed in heaven at the same time that the woman was there.*

→ The interpretation, which Mr. Mede and Mr. Whitaker give of this prophecy, is nearly the same as that of Bp. Newton. The point in which they vary from each other is the man-child.

An exposition, essentially differing from that of all these writers has been offered by Mr. Bicheno. He supposes the dragon to be the Roman empire from its first rise down to the moment of its present existence in the German empire. While it was pagan, it was only a great red dragon: but, when it was converted to Christianity, and thus got into the Church, it acquired the additional character of Satan or the serpent. Michael and bis angels are the Goths and other northern nations. The beaven, out of which they cast the dragon, is Italy: the earth, into which he is cast, is the empire without the limits of Italy, or the Roman provinces. After he has been thus ejected from beaven or Italy, he makes his appearance first in France when Charlemagne became Emperor of the Romans, and afterwards in Germany where he has ever since continued. The wilderness, into which the woman flees, symbolizes Bohemia, Silesia, and Moravia: and the war of the dragon against the woman denotes the persecution of the protestants in those parts by the Emperors of Germany. The seven beads and ten borns of the dragon are the same as the seven beads and ten borns of the beast; which represents the ecclesiastical tyranny of the Pope. The dragon at the close of the Apocalypse is still the German empire. The beast, or the Papacy, will be first overthrown; at which period the dragon will only be bound, or have his power so weakened as to be incapable of any immediate exertions: but, at the end of the thousand years, which are no more than a thousand natural weeks, he will be let loose again. That is to say," after nineteen natural years and a quarter," for to this short period of time Mr. Bicheno reduces the thousand years, "the imperial monarchy will again exert its power, form extensive alliances, and make one grand effort against the Church of God, the liberties of the regenerated nations, and particularly against the Jews, to prevent the re-establishment of their commonwealth :" but this effort will end only in the destruction of them that make it, for God will magnify himself in their everlasting overthrow. (Signs of the times, Part I. p. 14, 15. Part III. p. 129, 130. The destiny of the German empire passim.)

The objections, which I have made to Bp. Newton's scheme, might in themselves be sufficient to confute this singular exposition of Mr. Bicheno: nevertheless I shall add a few remarks on those parts of it wherein he differs from the Bishop—In his notion, that beaven means Italy, and the earth the provinces of the Roman empire, to say nothing of his not having a shadow of authority for making such an assertion, he is totally inconsistent even with himself. The great star that falls from beaven under the third trumpet he elsewhere supposes to be Attila. If heaven denote Italy, how did Attila fall out of it? So, in the present prophecy, the woman is said to have been in the same beaven with the dragon. At what period was the Church exclusively confined to Italy? Again: the whole earth is said to worship the ten-borned beast, which according to Mr. Bicheno is the Papacy. Did the provinces of the Roman empire alone venerate the Pope? Was his authority totally disregarded in beaven or Italy?— But the seven beads of the dragon are the same as the sever beads of the beast; and the last bead of the beast Mr. Bicheno supposes to be the Papacy. If then the existing bead of the dragon be the Papacy, how can the dragon in his present state be the Em peror of Germany? Is the Pope the head of the German empire ?-The thousand years bowever are only nineteen natural years and a quarter. Who, that has paid the least

The fact is, this second chapter of the little book, like its fellows preceding and succeeding, relates solely and exclusively to the events of the 1260 years.

attention to prophecy, will tolerate an assertion, which violates every principle of prophetic computation ?--But the unfortunate Emperor of Germany, after he has been bound nineteen years and a quarter, is at length to perish fighting against the regenerated nations of Europe; that is to say, regenerated according to the maxims of French democracy, against which Mr. Bicheno is very indignant that any one should presume to raise his hand. I ask, Where is he to find any of those regenerated nations? France, Holland, Switzerland, and the quondam Cis-Alpine republic, have been most effectually re-regenerated by Buonapartè: and the man, who asserts that in the disastrous campaign of 1805 Austria was embarked in a crusade against liberty, must possess a most astonishing obliquity of intellect. I mean not to say, that Mr. Bicheno makes such an assertion, for all his writings were published before that period. I only conjecture, from the peculiar manner in which his Destiny of the German empire was lately re-advertised, that he supposes the dragon to have been bound by the fatal battle of Austerlitz- Mr. Bicheno somewhat triumphantly asks, Where is the dragon elsewhere used as a symbol of the devil? Now, even if it were not, it would be amply sufficient, so far as the present prophecy is concerned, to reply, that St. John tells us, no less than seven times, that the dragon is Satan or the devil; and therefore that I conclude him to be the devil. But Mr. Bicheno must surely either have overlooked the third Chapter of Genesis; or must have been ignorant, that the dragon of the ancients was not the poetical monster of the middle ages, but simply a large serpent. What St. John beheld, was a great red snake with seven beads and ten borns; not a creature with four legs and two wings like the fabulous griffin, as the licence of painters is wont ridiculously to represent the apocalyptic dragon-This leads me to notice the odd idea, that the Roman empire while pagan was only the dragon; but that, when it was converted to Christianity, it became the serpent and the devil. Canstantine was certainly not a pattern of primitive piety, and the Church in his days was by no means so pure as it had been: yet I really cannot digest the assertion, that the empire by embracing even a debased Christianity changed from bad to worse.

Mr. Lowman does not attempt to give a regular explanation of the prophecy relative to the dragon and the woman; but he very judiciously confines it to the period of 1260 days, and supposes it exactly to synchronize with the preceding vision of the witnesses, and the succeeding vision of the trvo beasts. "The seven beads and ten borns," says he, "is a description so exactly agreeable to the description of the beast, that it may, I think, be justly understood as a limitation of the opposition here meant to the times of the beast, or to that time when the Roman power was represented by ten borns, as well as by seven beads and crowns; or not before ten kingdoms were erected by the nations which broke in upon the Roman empire, and divided it into many independent governments-The representation of the wild beasts in this vision (Chap. xiii.) refers to the same times with the two former visions of the witnesses prophesying in sackcloth, and the woman flying into the wilderness." Lowman's Paraphrase in loc.

On the whole, I think it abundantly evident, that the times previous to the commencement of the 1260 days are necessarily excluded; and consequently that the prophecy can have no relation to the age of Constantine.

All the four chapters of the little book must, in point of chronology, run either successive, or parallel, to each other. Three of these chapters, namely, the first, the third, and the fourth, (Rev. xi. xiii. xiv.) Bp. Newton himself supposes to run parallel to each other, all of them equally relating to the events of the 1260 years: yet, with singular inconsistency, he conceives the second of the chapters chronologically to precede the third; and consequently, since the third treats of the same era as the first and fourth, the second must, according to his scheme, precede the first and fourth, no less than the third. Such a mode of interpretation completely destroys the beautiful simplicity, with which the little book is arranged. All its chapters, as I have

Heaven is the Church general; the same as the holy city, mentioned in the last chapter. The woman is the spiritual church, consisting of true believers; the same as the temple, and the two witnesses. And the part of heaven, occupied by the dragon, is the nominal church of the Apostacy; the same as the outer court trodden under foot by the Gentiles, and as the great scarlet whore, hereafter mentioned by the Apostle as riding triumphantly upon the ten-horned beast.

The woman is represented, as being clothed with the Sun; to denote that her spiritual nakedness is only clothed by the righteousness of Christ as standing upon the Moon, which, like herself, is a symbol of the Church; to mark, that she shines only with a borrowed light, being naturally a dark opaque body:* and as wearing a crown of twelve stars; to shew, that, as the Church is a "crown of rejoicing" to the Apostles, so the Apostles are the brightest crown of the Church.

The dragon, as the Apostle himself teacheth us, is "that old serpent, called the devil and satan." He is here represented with seven heads and ten horns, to shew us by whose visible agency he should persecute the woman; namely by that of the seven-headed and tenhorned beast mentioned in the next chapter: and he is

just observed, must be either successive or parallel to each other. This being the case, if Bp. Newton makes the third chapter succeed the second, he ought likewise to make the second succeed the first, and the fourth the third: instead of which he selects one of the middle chapters of the book, and makes it precede all the others, which he supposes to run parallel to each other. This he does in direct opposition, both to the plain language, and the plain tenor, of the little book. Its three first chapters respectively declare, that they treat of the events of the 1260 years: (Rev. xi. 2, 3. xii. 6, 14. xiii. 5.) hence it is evident, that they must be parallel, not successive, to each other. As for the last chapter, (Rev. xiv.) though no such declaration is explicitly made respecting it, yet its contents, as Bp. Newton rightly observes, sufficiently shew, that " it delineates, by way of opposition, the state of the true Church during the same period, its struggles and contests with the beast, and the judgments of God upon its enemies." On the whole, I think it abundantly evident, that all the four chapters of the little book run parallel to each other: consequently the second of them can have no connection with the age of Constantine.

* Bp. Newton supposes the moon here to mean the Jewish new moons and festivals as well as all sublunary things: but I cannot find, that this interpretation at all tallies with the general analogy of symbolical language. When the Sun means a temporal sovereign; the Moon, as Sir Isaac Newton very justly observes, and as I have stated in my chapter upon symbols, is "put for the body of the common people, considered as the king's wife when the Sun is Christ; the Moon will, in a similar manner, signify his mysti

cal wife the Church.

+1 Thess. ii. 19.

said to be in heaven, because the empire, which he used as his tool, made profession of Christianity; and therefore constituted part, although an apostate part, of the visible Church general.*

As he is described with seven heads and ten horns in allusion to the first apocalyptic beast, or the Papal Roman empire: so he is said likewise to have a tail in reference to the corrupt superstition so successfully taught by the second apocalyptic beast, or, as he is elsewhere styled, the false prophet. With this tail he draws the third part of the stars of heaven, and casts them down to the earth in other words, he causes those Christian bishops, whose sees lay in the Roman Empire,† to apostatize from the purity of the apostolic faith. The appointed time, during which he is permitted to reign, is the 1260 years of the great Apostacy: hence the woman is said to flee from his face, during precisely that period, into the wilderness, as Elijah heretofore did from the face of Ahab and there, in the midst of the spiritual barrenness which spreads far and wide around her, she is fed with the heavenly manna of the word in her prepared place; as Elijah was, in the waste and howling desert, by the ravens.

Thus far the prophecy is sufficiently easy of interpretation, but the character of the man-child is attended with wonderful difficulties. That he must be Christ in some sense, is manifest, as Mr. Mede very justly observes but the matter is, how we are to interpret his character, so as to make it accord with the general tenor of the prediction. It seems at once extremely harsh, and altogether incongruous with the universal phraseology of Scripture, to suppose that the absolutely literal

It is observable, that our reformers never thought of unchurching the church of Rome; though they freely declared it to have " erred, not only in living and manner of ceremonies, but also in matters of faith." Hence, while they rejected its abominations, they did not scruple to derive from it their line of episcopal and sacerdotal ordination; well knowing, that boliness of office is a perfectly distinct thing from boliness of character, and that the consecration of a Judas was no less valid

than that of a Paul or a Peter.

We have already seen, that the Roman Empire is frequently represented in the Revelation as being a third part of the symbolical Universe.

"Cum verba sint Christi periphrasis, necesse est ut iisdem Christus aliquis designetur." Comment. Apoc. in loc.