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This chapter commences, like the last, with the words, And after these things- -which here also signify immediate sequence :- -that is, the vision exhibited in this chapter immediately follows the vision described in the preceding chapter: no perceptible interval of time interrupts the series of events predicted by the one and by the other.

The visions, relating to the period of 1260 years, and contained in the little book in the hand of the mighty angel of the latin church, concluded with the eighteenth chapter.- That pause in the apocalyptic history, which was typified by silence in heaven for about half an hour being terminated, the prophecy now proceeds to the end of the apocalypse with the symbols pertaining to the SEVENTH SEAL.

As all those symbols typify events yet future (for the 1260 years have not yet expired), an interpretation of them is not within the limits of the task which I have ventured to undertake. I will, therefore, not attempt to explain more of the remainder of the apocalypse than some of the contents of the 11th, 12th, and 13th verses of this chapter. And I make the attempt to explain them only because they are either repetitions or parallels of preceding symbols.

11. "And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.

12. "His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself.

13. "And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood : and his name is called The Word of God."

The opening of heaven signifies a great and plain manifestation of the direct agency of the Divine Power.

At the opening of the first seal there appeared a rider on a white horse, having a crown on his head, and a bow in his hand, and he went forth conquering and to conquer. That rider now reappears among the symbols of the seventh seal after the completion of his conquests--the christian church, no longer militant, is now triumphant over paganism, popery, and mahometism—in token whereof the victorious rider appears without his now needless bow, and instead of one crown, the symbol of his authority over the roman empire which followed the thunder of the emperor Constantine's edict, he hath on his head many crowns to testify that his dominion, no longer confined to the roman empire, has expanded over many nations beyond its limits.

-these symbols

His eyes were as a flame of fireare not found in the rider of the white horse of the first seal, the type of the christian church militant when established by Constantine, but they are found in the vision (i. 14.) representing the personal appearance of our Saviour to Saint John. The reappearance, in the triumphant rider, of those remarkable personal symbols seems to import that the triumph of the church will be finally effected, even as its foundation was laid, by its blessed author in

person-its 'alpha and omega-the first and the last.'

He is clothed with a vesture dipped in blood.

That symbol may signify that the next advent of our Lord will be at the time of promised vengeance on the persecutors and oppressors of his elect-the mystic vintage when blood comes out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles' (xiv. 20).

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That interpretation may serve to elucidate a coherence, not immediately apparent, in the very remarkable words of Christ in Saint Luke, xviii.

7. “And shall not GOD avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them?

8. "I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?"

For an answer to that question ample materials are provided in various concurrent symbols in the apocalypse of corrupt faith the Son of man will find a prodigious abundance--of a correctly sound and pure faith he will find but very little.

The triumphant rider hath a name written—that name no man knows but he himself-it is called THE WORD OF GOD.

At the approaching advent of our blessed Lord he will find christendom covered with a thick cloud of spurious theology,- of which the necessary consequence is that his office and doctrines written in the holy scriptures are almost universally misunderstood: no man is able to obtain a correct knowledge of the scriptures wherein his name is written, because they

are in the ark of the testament,' which is in the

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temple-and that is filled with smoke, and no man is able to enter into it.'

But, reader! the time is at hand when the temple of GOD will be opened- -the smoke be expelled from -light be let into it--the ark of the testament -the scriptures be rightly interpreted

it

be seen

and the name that is written therein- -even THE WORD OF GOD- -be understood and known.

THE END.

Charles Whittingham, Tooks Court, Chancery Lane.

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