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@Re1:1
The book of Revelation of St. John the Divine
Notes from "The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge" (not
necessarily
the opinions of the person typing in the data to
computer database.)
The obscurity of this prophecy, which has been urged against
its
genuineness, necessarily results from the highly figurative and
symbolical language in which it is delivered, and is, in fact,
a strong
internal proof of its authenticity and divine origin. 'For it
is a
part of this prophecy' as Sir Isaac Newton justly remarks,
'that it
should not be understood before the last age of the world; and
therefore it makes for the credit of the prophecy that it is
not yet
understood. The folly of interpreters has been to foretell
times and
things by this prophecy, as if God designed to make them
prophets. By
this rashness they have not only exposed themselves, but
brought the
prophecy also into contempt. The design of God was much
otherwise. He
gave this, and the prophecies of the Old Testament, not to
gratify
men's curiosities by enabling them to foreknow things, but that,
after
that they were fulfilled, they might be interpreted by the
event; and
his own prudence, not the interpreter's, be then manifested
thereby to
the world. For the event of things, predicted many ages before,
will
then be a convincing argument that the world is governed by
Providence.
For, as the few and obscure prophecies concerning Christ's
first coming
were for setting up the Christian religion, which all nations
have
since corrupted, so the many and clear prophecies concerning
the things
to be done at Christ's second coming, are not only for
predicting, but
also for effecting a recovery and re-establishment of the long-
lost
truth, and setting up a kingdom wherein dwells righteousness.
The
event will prove the Apocolypse; and this prophecy, thus proved
and
understood, will open the old prophets; and all together will
make known
the true religion, and establish it. There is already so much
of the
prophecy fulfilled, that as many as will take pains in this
study may
see sufficient instances of God's promise; but then, the signal
revolutions predicted by all the holy prophets, will at once
both turn
men's eyes upon considering the predictions, and plainly
interpret them.
Till then we must content ourselves with interpreting what hath
already
been fulfilled.' And, as Mr. Weston observes, 'if we were in
possession of a complete and particularly history of Asia, not
only of
great events, without person or place, names or dates, but of
the
exactest biography, geography, topography, and chronology, we
might,
perhaps, still be able to explain and appropriate more
circumstances
recorded in the Revelation, under the emperors of the East and
the
West, and in Arabia, Persia, Tartary, and Asia, the seat of the
most
important revolutions with which the history of Christianity
has ever
been interwoven and closely connected.' History is the great
interpreter of prophecy. 'Prophecy is, as I may say.' observes
Bp
Newton, 'history anticipated and tracted; history is prophecy
accomplished and dilated; and the prophecies of Scripture
contain the
fate of the most considerable nations, and the substance of the
most
memorable transactions in the world, from the earliest to the
latest
times. Daniel and St. John, with regard to those latter times,
are
more copius and particular than the other prophets. They
exhibit a
series and succession of the most important events from the
first of
the four great empires to the consummation of all things. Their
prophecies may really be said to be a summary of the history of
the
world; and the history of the world is the best comment upon
their
prophecies....and the more you know of ancient and modern times,
and
the farther you search into the truth of history, the more you
will be
satisfied of the truth of prophecy.' The Revelation was
designed to
supply the place of that continued succession of prophets,
which
demonstrated the continued providence of God to the patriarchal
and
Jewish churches. 'The majority of commentators on the
Apocolypse,' says
Mr. Townsend, 'generally acted on these principles of
interpretation.
They discover in this Book certain predictions of events which
were
fulfilled soon after they were announced; they trace in the
history of
later years various coincidences, which so fully agree with the
various
parts of the Apocolypse, that they are justly entitled to
consider them
as the fulfillment of its prophecies; and, by thus tracing the
one God
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