Imatges de pàgina
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worship, and attention to the institutions and ordinances of the Gospel.

5th. The government, described by "the beast arising out of the bottomless pit," which will ascertain the approach of the total destruction of the man of sin, or the apostatical little horn, after which the reign of antichrist (being the end of the 1260 years, when the witnesses will be about to finish their testimony) must take place.

6th. The present appearance of things, both civil and religious in the Roman empire, or the ten kingdoms into which it was divided, and particularly in the Dekaton, or tenth part of it, which was to fall, compared with those foretold by these prophecies as to happen about this period or time of the end.

7th. The present age of the world as to its duration, and the general ideas of the ancients, both Jews and Gentiles, as to the traditions received from the Patriarchs, relative to its existence for 6000 years, and then to undergo a favourable revolution.

8th. Draw the proper conclusions from this important inquiry.

THE TIME OF ST. JOHN'S RECEIVING THE

REVELATION, OR VISIONS,

WHICH HE HATH RECORDED AS DELIVERED TO AND SEEN BY HIM, IN THE ISLAND OF PATMOS.

OUR first inquiry then is "the time of St. John's receiving the revelation or visions, which he hath recorded as delivered to and seen by him, in the island of Patmos."

St. John, the beloved disciple of our Lord and Saviour, who had received so many tokens of peculiar respect and affection from his master, in the days of his flesh, was undoubtedly the favoured messenger, by whom our now glorified Redeemer, encouraged and supported his numerous followers, by an express revelation of the future states of his church, for more than seventeen hundred years; and will continue so to do until his second coming in glory, according to his repeated promises while yet with them.*

"This dogma of the 1000 years reign, was the general opinion of all orthodox Christians, in the age immediately following the Apostles, if Justin Martyr saith true, and none known to deny it but heretics, who denied the resurrection, and held that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, was not the father of our Lord Jesus Christ. This was the reason why Irenæus maintained it in his book," against all Heresies,” and Tertullian against the Mar

cionites."

Eusebuis (not the author of the Ecclesiastical history) who found out one Gaius, to father it upon Cerinthus, deserves no credit-He was a party, and one of those who did his best to unde

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That John, the beloved disciple, was the author of this book, it is believed all real Christians, do now acknowledge. Papias, who flourished in the time of St. John, and was one of his auditors, as well as a companion of Polycarp, also one of John's disciples, says "if at any time, I met with any one that had conversed with the elders, I made a diligent inquiry after their sayings; what Andrew or what Peter said, or what Philip, or Thomas, or James, or John, or Matthew, or any of the Lord's disciples, were wont to say"-and Eusebuis, of Nicomedia, who cites this passage, not understanding the design of the revelations, observes, "moreover this same writer (meaning Papias) has set down some other things, which came to him barely by word of mouth, to wit, certain strange parables of our Saviour's and sermons of his :and some other more fabulous relations, among which says, there shall be a thousand years after the resurrection from the dead, wherein the kingdom of Christ shall be corporally set up here on earth."

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Justin Martyr, as early as the year 140, and but about forty-one or two years after the return of St. John from his banishment, bears testimony to this important fact in the following words: "And a man from amongst us, by name John, one of the apostles of Christ, in the reve lation made to him, has prophesied, that the believers in our Christ shall live a thousand years in Jerusalem, and after that shall be the general, and in a word, the eternal

the authority of the Apocalypse. Nor did any know of any such Gaius, but from his relation; and if there were any such, he should seem to be one of the heretics, called Alogi, who denied both St. John's Gospel and Apocalypse, as is testified in Epiphanius; and their time jumps with the age which Eusebius assigns to Gaius. Mede's Works, fol. edit. 602.

resurrection and judgment of all men together." And after him, Irenæus, bishop of Lyons, about the year 178, and who came in succession to the apostles, being scholar to Papias, before mentioned bishop of Hierapolis, who had conversed with the apostles and their followers, as indeed Irenæus himself did with Polycarp, the companion of St. John, as may be learned from his epistle to Florinius, where he says "I am able to tell even the place where the blessed Polycarp sat and discoursed: also, his goings out and comings in; his manner of life; the shape of his body; the discourses he made to the populace; the familiar converse which he said he had with John, and with the rest, who had seen the Lord.”— This Irenæus in his 5th book, concerning the revelation of St. John and the number of Antichrist's name, says, "these things being thus, and this number being extant in all accurate and ancient copies, and those very persons who saw John face to face, attesting the truth of these things, we will not therefore run the hazard of affirming any thing too positively, concerning the name of Antichrist; for if his name was to have been openly declared in this age, it would have been expressed by him who saw the revelation-for it was not seen long since, but almost in our age, about the end of Domitian's reign."

Eusebius Pamphilius, who wrote about the year 300, speaks "of the exact and ancient copies of the book of the Revelation, confirmed likewise by the agreeing testimony of those who had seen John himself." To these should have been added the conclusive testimony of Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, also a disciple of the apostle John; Clemens of Alexandria, the bishop of Rome, and Tertullian, all of the second century.*

* Vide 2d Mosheim, 230.

This fact was never disputed, till Dyonisius, bishop of Alexandria, about the year 250, called its author in question, though not its authority, for even he, acknowledged it to have been written by some person divinely inspired.*

St. John was son to Salome, sister of our Lord according to the flesh, being a daughter of Joseph by a former wife, and lived the longest of all the disciples and apostles of Jesus Christ, and is supposed to be the only one of them who died a natural death. He was particularly honoured by his divine master, when he committed his mother to his (John's) special care, even in the last moments of his life, while hanging on the cross, whereby a powerful example of filial piety and affection was given

* Mr. Mede says of the Revelation of St. John," that it has more human, not to speak of divine authority, than any other book of the New Testament besides, even from the time it was revealed." And Sir Isaac Newton says, "I do not find any other book of the New Testament, so strongly attested, or commented upon, as early as this."

Melito, bishop of Sardis, one of the seven churches of Asia, to whom St. John directed the Apocalypse, and who flourished next after Justin Martyr, who lived 50 years after St. John, wrote a commentary on this book.

Irenæus, cotemporary with Melito, did the same.

And Andrew, bishop of Cæsarea, wrote on it also, and says, "I need not enlarge in proving the inspiration of this book, since so many ancients have born testimony to its authority."

But the writer of the Revelation himself has fully declared who he was, when he says, "the Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him-and he sent and signified it by his angel to his servant John, who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw; that is, who wrote the Gospel, or history of our Lord's life and actions while in the flesh.

Vid. 1st ch. John's Epistle.

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