come a falling away first ”—Ἐὰν μὴ ἔλθη ἡ ἀποκατασία TρÔTOV, the falling away-the well-known apostacy respecting which the Lord had forewarned his Church.

"And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another, and many false prophets shall rise and shall deceive many, and because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold."-Matt. xxiv. 10, 11, 12.

"Now the brother shall betray the brother to death, and the father the son; and children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death, and ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake, but he that shall endure unto the end the same shall be saved."-Mark, xiii. 12, 13.

It is no wonder that the later epistles of the New Testament should abound with premonitory warnings and exhortations to courage and perseverance under the coming sorrows, and that the Christian converts should be admonished "not to think it strange concerning the fiery trial which was to try them, as though some strange thing happened to them."-1 Peter, iv. 12.

6. To this it may be added, that reference appears to be made to the Revelation in the Epistles of St. Peter, St. Paul, and St. James.1 It is supposed that allusion is made to the

"The Apocalypse seems to be alluded to in the Epistles of Peter and that to the Hebrews, and therefore to have been written before them. Such allusions in the Epistle to the Hebrews I take to be the discourses concerning the high priest in the heavenly tabernacle, who is both priest and king, as was Melchizedec; and those concerning the Word of God, with the sharp twoedged sword; the Sabbatismos, or millennial rest; the earth, whose end is to be burnt, suppose by the lake of fire; the judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries; the heavenly city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God; the cloud of witnesses; Mount Sion; Heavenly Jerusalem; general assembly; spirits of just men made perfect — namely, by the resurrection; and the shaking of heaven and earth and removing them, that the new heaven, new earth, and new kingdom, which cannot be shaken, may remain. In the first of Peter occur these — The Revelation of Jesus Christ,' twice or thrice repeated: the blood of Christ, as of a lamb fore-ordained before the foundation of the world;' the spiritual building in Heaven;' 'an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in Heaven for us, who are kept unto the salvation ready to be revealed in the last time;' the royal priesthood;' the holy priesthood;' the judgment beginning at the house of God;' and 'the Church at Babylon.' These are, indeed, obscurer allusions; but the second Epistle, from the 19th verse of first chapter to the end, seems to be a con

Apocalypse, 2 Peter i. 19., where it is said :-"We have also a more sure word of prophecy, whereunto ye do well that ye take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn and the day-star arise in your hearts." It is singular that St. Peter is speaking of the second advent, "the power and coming," Súvaμiv каì пароovσíav, of the Lord Jesus, and he says that not only were they, Peter, James, and John, eyewitnesses of the glory which he displayed on Tabor, but that they had a “more sure word" of prophetic development of His

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tinued commentary upon the Apocalypse. There, in writing to the Churches in Asia, to whom John was commanded to send this prophecy, he tells them they have a more sure word of prophecy,' to be heeded by them as a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day-star arise in their hearts ;'. . . . and then, in the second, he proceeds to describe, out of this sure word of prophecy, how there should arise in the Church false prophets or false teachers, expressed collectively in the Apocalypse by the name of the false prophet, who should bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them,' which is the character of Antichrist: and many,' saith he, shall follow their lusts;' they that dwell on the earth shall be deceived by the false prophet, and be made drunk with the wine of the whore's fornication, by reason of whom, the way of truth shall be blasphemed;' for the beast is full of blasphemy; and through covetousness shall they, with feigned words, make merchandise of you;' for these are the merchants of the earth, who trade with the great whore, and their merchandise is all things of price, with the bodies and souls of men; whose judgment lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not." 'These, as natural brute beasts,' the ten-horned beast, and two-horned beast, or false prophet 'made to be taken and destroyed,' — in the lake of fire, blaspheme the things they understand not;' they count it pleasure to riot in the day-time, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you, having eyes full of adulteries;' for the kingdoms of the beast live deliciously with the great whore, and the nations are made drunk with the wine of her fornication. They are gone astray, following the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness.' "These are,' not fountains of living water, but wells without water;' not such clouds of saints as the two witnesses ascend in, but clouds that are carried with a tempest,' &c. Thus doth the author of this Epistle spend all the second chapter in describing the qualities of the Apocalyptic beasts and false prophet; and then, in the third, he goes on to describe their destruction more fully, and the future kingdom. He saith, that because the coming of Christ should be long deferred, they should scoff, saying, 'Where is the promise of his coming?' Then he describes the sudden coming of the day of the Lord upon them, as a thief in the night,' which is the Apocalyptic phrase; and the millennium, or thousand years, which are with God but as a day; the passing away of the old heavens and earth, by a conflagration in the lake of fire; and our looking for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.' - - Sir I. Newton.

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powerful coming, and that this was to be their guide "until the day dawned and the day-star, pwopópos (used of the first resurrection, Rev. ii. 28.) arose in their hearts." It is true this may refer to the prophetic declarations of our Lord in the Gospels, but it applies more closely to "the revelation," 'ATTOкáλvis, of Jesus Christ made known unto John.

So Cor. xv. 52. :-"Behold I shew you a mystery,—we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump." We turn to the Apocalypse, and find that the sounding of the seventh and last trump is 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." - Rev. xi. 18. Six trumpets had already been sounded, but not till the sounding of the seventh and last is the mystery of God finished, -the mystery spoken of by St. Paul: "Behold I shew you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump." How did St. Paul know this should take place at the last trump, except from the Apocalypse, for it is no where else revealed in Scripture. So St. James speaks of "the crown of life which the Lord hath promised to them that love Him." (James, i. 12.) And as this is not mentioned by our Lord in the Gospels, it is by no means improbable but that St. James learnt this from the Apocalypse, (Rev. ii. 10.).

This reference to the Apocalypse in the Epistles, like the evidence afforded to the existence of the true Apocalypse by the false Apocalypses1 ascribed to Peter, Paul, Cerinthus, and others, not only confirms the position of the early date, but shows that it was highly prized in those last and perilous times, and that as

1 "The Neronic date is confirmed also by the many false Apocalypses, as those of Peter, Paul, Thomas, Stephen, Elias, and Cerinthus, written in imitation of the true one. For, as the many false Gospels, false Acts, and false Epistles, were occasioned by the true ones, and the writing many false Apocalypses, and ascribing them to Apostles and Prophets, argues that there was a true Apostolic one in great request with the first Christians,—so this true one may well be supposed to have been written early, that there may be room in the Apostolic age for the writing of so many false ones afterwards, and fastening them upon Peter, Paul, Thomas, and others, who were dead before John.".

a prophetic vision of coming events, it answered those purposes of warning and encouragement which it was intended to serve. There cannot be the slightest doubt but that the warnings of the Apocalypse were perfectly intelligible to the Jewish Christians of those days. They could not fail to understand that its woes were about to descend upon that particular people, and princes, and city, so unmistakeably distinguished from the people, princes, and cities of the Gentiles. They could have had no misgivings as to who were meant by "they that dwell on the earth," "the kings of the earth," "the merchants of the earth," and "the city which reigneth over the kings of the earth." If we add to this the extraordinary fact that the prophecies of our Lord relative to the destruction of Jerusalem are not recorded by St. John in his Gospel, although he was one of those four who asked him privately "Tell us when shall these things be," which can be best accounted for by the circumstance of a special Revelation having rendered such a detail unnecessary, the abundant Hebraisms of the Apocalypse proving that the writer had only lately come out of Judæa, the continual mention of a city, defined as "the holy city," "the beloved city," which can only mean Jerusalem,-the desolation of this city so graphically foretold, which corresponds with the desolation of no other city so completely as Jerusalem,—and, not least of all, the utter impossibility of any intelligible system of interpretation being found (as the history of the exegesis of this Book abundantly testifies), except that which proceeds upon the principle of the Neronic date, this combined, will, it is hoped, form so strong a phalanx of internal evidence respecting the question of the date, as to leave no reasonable doubt but that the Apocalypse was written previous to the destruction of Jerusalem.

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To recapitulate this evidence. It appears certain that the book was written before Christ came to destroy Jerusalem that it was written only just before that event took place, for the Saviour continually repeats the expression, "Behold I come quickly;" that it is a description of calamities which either have fallen, or are yet to fall, upon a particular people and city, and those the people and city of the Jews; that it was written before the dispersion of the Jewish people, for 144,000 are sealed from the twelve tribes; before the destruction of the Temple,

for John is commanded to measure the Temple; before the desolation of the city, for the bodies of the two witnesses lie in the Tarcía, the Broad Street of the city "where our Lord was crucified;" that it was written during the reign of the sixth Roman emperor Nero, and under circumstances of unwonted and terrible persecution, such as characterised Nero's reign. If you add to this, the interpretation about to be laid before you, in which every symbol of the Apocalypse finds an explanation more or less clear, not roaming over thousands of years, but confined and narrowed down to the three years and a half of the Jewish war, I trust you will be disposed to acknowledge that I have not rashly adopted the theory of the Neronic date, and that instead of seeking in the Apocalypse a history of the world and of the Church, from the commencement of Christianity down to the end of time, I have sufficient reason for preferring to regard the book in the light in which it is presented to us by the unerring Spirit of God.

"The revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave unto him to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass.”—Rev. i. 1.

"The Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to shew unto his servants the things which must shortly be done." Rev. xxii. 6.

"Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand."-Rev. xxii. 10.

"I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify these things unto you in the churches."-Rev. xxii. 16.

"He which testifieth these things, saith, surely I come quickly."-Rev. xxii. 20.

"Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep the things which are written therein, for the time is at hand."-Rev. i. 3.

And here at the very outset I would call attention to the fact recorded in the Apocalypse itself, that the book opens with a declaration that it is the revelation of events "which must shortly come to pass," and closes with the most clear and positive statements to the same effect.

I desire this point may be kept in mind. If the explanation offered be not one and continuous, if the prophecy cannot be