the character of the promised Saviour of the world, in the form of that nature, which he would afterwards assume, appears in both instances to strengthen him. And Daniel addresses him in those remarkable words, "How can the servant of this my Lord talk with this my Lord?" acknowledging that he wanted strength from his Lord and Master, to talk with this Lord the Angel.

Should these observations be thought conclusive, we must still conceive that the angel employed on this occasion was one of the archangels of God, and that he was more particularly the representative of Jesus Christ, that angel employed by him, as he declares in the beginning and close of the Revelation', to signify and testify the prophetic tidings to his servant John. "And he had in his hand Bißλapidov, a little book open." This is therefore distinguished from the Bißλiov, the book with seven seals, as being smaller, and being open; it refers consequently to a prophetic revelation which is distinct from the greater prophecy, and yet interwoven with it, and has always been considered as alluding to the fates of the Church of Christ, while the sealed book refers to the state of the empire with which that Church was connected. The angel

Rev. i. 1. xxii. 16.

"sets his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot upon the earth," to show the extent of his commission, and when he had cried aloud, seven thunders uttered their voices."

When John was about to write, he was commanded to seal up those things which the thunders had uttered, and not to write them. It may therefore be thought useless, if not irreverent, to conjecture what they meant. But though they were intended to be concealed from general inquiry, the terms in which Daniel is addressed on a similar occasion, leave room to suppose that the sealing of prophetic words till the time of the end, will not in all cases preclude the "wise from understanding" the Divine intention, particularly when that end is approaching. "Go thy way, Daniel; for the words are closed and sealed up till the time of the end. Many shall be purified and made white, and tried, and the wicked shall do wickedly; and none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand."

Vitringa conjectures that the seven thunders may refer to the seven Crusades, vainly undertaken for the recovery of the Holy City; and the former prophecy having brought the reader to the second woe, the power of the Turks, and the overthrow of the eastern empire, it may not be thought improbable that the attempts of the western Christians to rescue Jerusalem from the

dominion of the infidels, should be noticed to the Apostle, but as these attempts were not to succeed, they were ordered not to be recorded. Be this as it may, I trust there is no improper intrusion into the counsels of the Most High in this humble conjecture of the meaning of the seven thunders.

"And the angel lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by Him that liveth for ever and ever," &c." that there should be time no longer;" or "that the time should not be yet;” implying in the former sense, that the time, beyond which nothing should extend, was the conclusion of the time of the fourth monarchy, i. e. the period of "time and times, and half a time," predicted to Daniel and St. John; or in the latter sense, the time was not yet arrived for the redemption of the people of God, "but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets."

To Daniel in particular was it declared (vii. 26.) that after "the time, and times, and half a time, or the dividing of time, the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, (that of the beast) to consume and to destroy it unto the end."" And the kingdom, and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom shall be given to

the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom," &c. And again, chap. xii. the angel swears to Daniel that it shall be for a time, and times, and a half, and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished." And it is hereafter declared, at the sounding of the trumpet of the seventh angel, to which the oath refers, that "there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of the Lord, and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever." Of the identity of the two prophecies, and of the glorious consummation which they anticipate, there can be no doubt.

Thus, though the sounding of the seventh trumpet be delayed for a while, the oath of the angel is introduced to direct our attention to it, as the final issue of the whole series of prophecies, including that of the little book, which is now superadded to the visions of the Son of man, with the seven stars, and the seven candlesticks, of the glorious court of heaven, of the twenty-four elders, of the book with seven seals opened by the Lamb, and of the trumpets ushered in, as they are upon the removal of the seventh seal. And this assurance is given as a consolation to Christians; and though the little book describes the calamities of the western Church,

yet they shall all have a termination under the seventh trumpet.

And now is St. John directed by a voice from heaven, to go, and take the little book which is open in the angel's hand, &c.

"And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up, and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth as sweet as honey."

"And I took the little book out of the angel's hand, and ate it; and it was in my mouth as sweet as honey; and as soon as I had eaten it my belly was bitter."

"And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings."

The inference to be drawn from this metaphorical transaction seems to be, that the knowledge of future events was at first pleasant, but when thoroughly digested, it filled the heart with The image is taken from the third chapter of Ezekiel, though nothing is expressly said there of the bitterness of the roll.

sorrow.

But the contents of this book were not to be concealed like the seven thunders. They were to be published as a new prophecy before many nations and kings. And the words-" Thou shalt prophesy again"-seem to imply that the