COMMENTARY ON THE REVELATION ОР ST. JOHN, THE DIVINE. BY THOMAS WHITTEMORE. BOSTON: UNIVERSALIST PUBLISHING HOUSE, BS •W4 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1848, by THOMAS WHITTEMORE, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. STEREOTYPED BY GEORGE A. CURTIS; NEW ENGLAND TYPE AND STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY. PREFACE. THE Apocalypse has generally been regarded as a very dark and difficult book. This opinion has been so prevalent that it has been thought a mark of wisdom not to attempt to explain it. One author says, "Calvin was wise, because he wrote not on the Apocalypse." That the work is more difficult for us to understand than it was for those to whom it was originally addressed, we have no doubt. It was to them probably a work of deep interest, of profitable contemplation, and a source of high hope. They had means of understanding it which we do not, and cannot, have. But because we have not all their advantages, shall we not attempt to understand it at all? What made the book so dark to Calvin, Graserus, Whitby, and others? Perhaps they looked at it under peculiar disadvantages. For our part, we are willing to confess, that if a man believes the Apocalypse was not written until after the destruction of Jerusalem, and if he believes in the common notions concerning the day of God's wrath, the judgment of the dead, the great dragon, the bottomless pit, &c., &c., he cannot understand the book. He will be continually hampered by his pre-conceived system; and, in harmony with such a system, no probable interpretation can be given. Although Professor Stuart has produced an excellent work upon the |