and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they lypse. There probably existed some with__him a thousand years;" xx. reason in the revelator's mind why 6. By analogy, then, the Christian he selected the number twenty-four. priests might be divided into twentyThere are two reasons which may be four courses; and each course havassigned; and they present them- ing one representative in the court selves to our mind with a force so of heaven, would make the twentynearly equal, that it is difficult to four elders. Whether one of these state which has the most power. We reasons, or both of them, operated on will proceed to name them. 1st. There the mind of the revelator; and if only were twelve apostles in the Christian one, which of the two, we must leave church. The Jewish and Christian for the reader to determine. These religion were both divinely appointed elders perform no offices in the drama institutions; and it is possible, there- of the Apocalypse which are inconfore, that the revelator desired to rep-sistent with their characters as represent them both, by their elders, in the court of heaven. One elder for each of the twelve tribes, and one to answer to each of the twelve apostles, (who were regarded as the heads of the tribes of spiritual Israel, Matt. xix. 28,) would make up the number twenty-four. With this view, the court of heaven is composed, under the Father, of an equal number of representatives from both the Jewish and Christian institutions. The twelve Jewish tribes are sometimes used spiritually for the Jews converted to the Christian religion. See James i. 1, and Rev. vii. The other reason to which we have referred, which perhaps induced the revelator to use the number twenty-four, is this: Under the reign of David the Jewish priests were divided into twenty-four orders, courses, or classes, as will be perceived by examining Numb. xxiv. The Christian believers, those who had entered Christ's spiritual kingdom, who had come to Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, were reckoned as kings and priests in God's sight. "Ye are a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices;" 1 Pet. ii. 5. "Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people ;" 9. The Christians confessed that they had been made "kings and priests unto God;" Rev. i. 6; v. 10. "They shall be priests ́of God and of Christ, and shall reign resentatives of the church, or of the had on their heads crowns of gold. 5 And out of the throne proceeded lightnings, and thunder sticks, sea of glass, the ark of the which sat as many elders, clothed in white, having on their heads crowns of gold. No one can suppose this description to be a reality; it is purely imaginative. We think the words of Dr. Doddridge are worthy of great attention: "We are not to imagine that the person sitting on the throne, or the four animals, or the four-and-author says again,—“The revelator twenty elders, were real beings ex- seeth Christ enthroned in the middle isting in nature; though they repre- of his church, in the same prophetic sented in a figurative manner things and visionary emblem that Ezekiel that did really exist. — And though it had seen; Ezek. i. and x.; and this is possible that aerial scenes might, by is a commentary and fulfilling of that divine or angelic power, have been scene that Daniel speaketh of; vii. formed, I think it much more proba- 9, 10, 22. In Ezekiel the Lord, ble that all that passed was purely in when Jerusalem was to be destroyed, the imagination of St. John. This and the glory of the Lord that used to will keep us, in our interpretation, be there, and the people, were to flit clear of a thousand difficulties, not to into another land, appeareth so ensay absurdities, which would follow throned as sitting in judgment and from a contrary supposition : namely, flitting away by degrees to another that there is in heaven an animal in place, as compare Ezek. i. and x. well the form of a lamb to represent Christ; together. So Christ here, when the and that there are such living crea- destruction of Jerusalem was near at tures as are here described, and that hand, and his glory and presence God himself appears in a human [were about] to remove from that naform, &c. And this observation I make tion, now given up to unbelief and once for all, desiring it may be re- obduration, to reside among the Genmembered, and applied as occasions tiles, he is seated upon his throne, present." -(See his Expos. on the as judge and king, with glorious atplace.) Such was Doddridge's opin- tendance, to judge that nation for ion, and we have no doubt of its cor- their sins and unbelief, and stating rectness. The great truths of proph- the affair of his church, whither his ecy made known to John were doubt- glory was now removing." - (Harless divine communications to him; mony of the New Testament.) We exbut the imagery is to be understood plain the figures in this chapter on the as imagery merely. We have al- same principle on which we explain ready shown what suggested these similar imagery in the 24th and 25th metaphors to the mind of the revela- chapters of Matthew. The appeartor. He, doubtless, obtained them ance of God's dwelling-place is drawn from the Old Testament. It is a from that of the camp of Israel. common metaphor of the Old Testa- The tabernacle was in the middle ment writers to represent God as sit- there; so is the throne here. 2. ting on a throne, all glorious in ap- There, the four squadrons of the pearance. The scene of John's vis- camp of Levi next the tabernacle; ion, says Lightfoot, "is according to so here, the four living creatures. the scheme of the temple, and the There, the whole camp of Israel; so divine glory there. And hence you here, twenty-four elders, representahave mention of the altar, candle- tives of the whole church, built from 1. 3. ings, and voices. And there are the seven Spirits of God. twelve tribes and twelve apostles; or God; that is, they represented the reference may be made to the twenty-seven spirits of God. This descripfour courses of priests. tion is taken from Ezek. i. 13. "As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, and like the appearance of lamps: it went up and down among the living creatures; and the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning." We have shown under former passages what is meant by the seven spirits of God. Earthly monarchs, who maintained the most magnificence, had seven spirits, or confidential ministers, dwelling near their persons. They were the means of access which the subjects had, in the most of cases, with their sovereign. They, therefore, were called his spirits; and because they were watchful to see all that was done and report to their master, they were sometimes represented, as in Rev. v. 6, by seven eyes going out into all the earth, meaning thereby, far-seeing eyes. See Ezra vii. 4; Esther i. 10, 14; Jer. iii. 25; 1 Esdras viii. 11; Tobit xii. 15. See particularly our notes on. Rev. i. 4 and iii. 1. The seven spirits of God were represented by seven lamps, as the seven stars (like lamps) represented the angels of the seven churches, and the seven candlesticks represented the seven churches themselves; Rev. i. 20. Having described the throne and Him that sat on it, so far as appearances were made to mortal eyes, and also the court of heaven, the revelator proceeds, in the next place, to show what was in front of the throne. 5. And out of the throne. This description is given to correspond with the ancient notions of the Jews in regard to the signs that attended the presence of Jehovah. The scene is drawn as if there were some powerful being present, invisible to the outward eye, but who made his presence known by the lightnings, thunderings and voices. Whether there was anything in the temple service answering to this, we would not say with certainty; we feel more confidence that the revelator drew the metaphor from the account given by Moses of the presence of God upon the mount. "And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled. And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God; and they stood at the nether part of the mount. And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly. And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice;" Exod. xix. 16—19. This shows that the ancient Jews did not describe God as a being they could see; but his presence was denoted in the manner here pointed out. ¶ Seven lamps of fire. These answered to the golden candlestick with seven lamps, which was before the most holy place in the tabernacle. The seven lamps of fire (i. e. lighted or burning lamps) are said to be the seven spirits of And crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the transparent, that the figures of per- have animal life, as well as beasts. sons were reflected from it as if it The word beast not only degrades were water. The floor, or pavement the signification, but the animals before the tabernacle, on which the here mentioned have parts and appeople stood to worship God, was pearances which beasts have not, and composed of plates or slabs, highly are represented as in the highest polished. It looked like glass, and sense rational." The revelator seems when persons stood upon it, their to have copied from Ezekiel in this images were so clearly reflected, that description. To describe the apthey seemed almost to be standing proach of Jehovah, the prophet said, on the open sea. Hence, we read, "The heavens were opened, and I Rev. xv. 2, "And I saw as it were a saw visions of God;" chap. i. 1. sea of glass mingled with fire; and "And I looked, and behold a whirlthem that had gotten the victory over wind came out of the north, a great the beast, and over his image, and cloud, and a fire infolding itself, and over his mark, and over the number a brightness was about it, and out of of his name, stand on the sea of the midst thereof as the color of glass, having the harps of God." amber, out of the midst of the fire. They stand on the sea of glass, for Also out of the midst thereof came so the pavement seemed to be; and the likeness of four living creatures. they had the harps of God, because And this was their appearance; they they came there to praise him; it had the likeness of a man. was the place on which the people every one had four faces, and every stood when they assembled to sing in one had four wings. And their feet chorus the sacred songs of the temple. were straight feet; and the sole of ¶ In the midst of the throne. - The their feet was like the sole of a calf's beings referred to had a very near foot; and they sparkled like the color approach to the throne; they were of burnished brass. And they had nearer to it than were the four-and- the hands of a man under their wings twenty elders. The cherubim seemed on their four sides; and they four to be in the midst of the ark. "For had their faces and their wings. the cherubims spread forth their two Their wings were joined one to anwings over the place of the ark, and other; they turned not when they the cherubims covered the ark and went; they went every one straight the staves thereof above;" 1 Kings forward. As for the likeness of their viii. 7; 2 Chron. v. 8; Heb. ix. 5. faces, they four had the face of a From this near relation which the man and the face of a lion, on the cherubim held to the throne, came the right side: and they four had the idea of the revelator. ¶ Four beasts, face of an ox on the left side; they or rather four living creatures. The four also had the face of an eagle. four beasts were hieroglyphical rep-Thus were their faces; and their resentations, though the word beasts wings were stretched upward; two seems to be an unfortunate transla-wings of every one were joined one tion; for they certainly are described to another, and two covered their as intelligent beings, "saying, Holy, bodies. And they went every one holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which straight forward; whither the Spirit was, and is, and is to come." "It was to go, they went; and they turnwas a most unhappy mistake in oured not when they went. As for the translators, (says Dr. Doddridge,) to likeness of the living creatures, render the word zoa, beasts; it cer- their appearance was like burning tainly signifies any other kind of coals of fire, and like the appearance animals, that is, of creatures which of lamps it went up and down throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind. idea which men have of an angel, is that of a being of extraordinary intelligence, having the power of passing from world to world, especially from heaven to earth, and from earth to heaven. How, then, is the angel described hieroglyphically? Answer: As a being that we have never seen - a human being with wings. So in the description of Ezekiel, his aim being to describe powers all of which were not found in the same creature, he was obliged to conjoin different creatures; and in this way he produced his anomalous animals. But it is not to the form of the animals we are to look, but to the qualities which he represented by them; and these qualities were such as he supposed God to possess. In the first the Deity. He came in a whirlwind [a sign of great power]; he rode on a brilliant cloud, in the centre of which was a flame, whose effulgence shined out like amber. Out of this cloud came the likeness of four creatures, to represent the powers or attributes of God. And this was their appearance: they had the likeness of a man. Pre among the living creatures; and the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning. And the living creatures ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning;" 4-14. On this long description we shall offer a few remarks. The Egyptians, from the earliest antiquity, were in the habit of writing, especially on sacred subjects, in hieroglyphics. In truth, sacred writing is what the word signifies etymologically. The people of Egypt had exercised a great influence over the Jews, especially in consequence of the long bondage which they had suffered there. It was there, perhaps, that the latter improved in the art of this kind of writing-expressing ideas by images. In the passage just quoted from Ezekiel, we have place he described the approach of a sample of the hieroglyphical style. And at what did the prophet aim? | Answer: To give a description of the unseen Deity. He had said, (ver. 1,) "I saw visions of God;" i. e., emblems and symbols of the divine majesty. His object was to describe, by emblems, the attributes of God. The Jews never professed to see God. He was, in their estimation, a spir-eminently, then, the prophet desired itual being; but still he was actually a being, possessing all the attributes of the most perfect intelligence. In the prophet's attempt to give a hieroglyphical representation, he sought for the most wonderful powers possessed by any creatures; and these powers he represents by the images of the creatures themselves, as is always done in hieroglyphics. Some of these powers he found in one kind of a creature, and some in another; and in bringing them together, they form an anomalous animal, such as never existed, and probably never will exist. When we are studying hieroglyphics, therefore, we are not to think so much of the outward appearance of the symbol, be it ever so anomalous, as of the qualities intended to be represented by it. The to give the idea of intelligence. Every one had four faces, and every one had four wings. There never was in reality such a creature; but let us see what it represented. By four faces they saw in every direction, showing the simultaneous vision which God has of all parts of the universe. Man, the noblest of all God's lower works, can see but one way at a time; but God can see all things, and in all directions, at a glance. So much for the four faces. By their wings they could fly, — they could pass from place to place through the air. Their feet were straight; they went every one straight forward; ver. 12. They were brilliant, sparkled like burnished brass, like the feet of the Son of man, mentioned Rev. i. 15. They had the |