tectural adventurers effect so happy a collocation of the scattered parts, as to produce a perfect and well proportioned building, or should he dispose of but a proportion, provided it were a considerable one, of those parts with the same favourable re.sult, leaving that allowance for the completion of the edifice which the remaining unemployed materials ap. peared to demand, in such a case we should make no hesitation that the original or archetype was now rea lized. So, when a series of suitable events are brought to their corresponding places in the predictions of the Apocalypse, according to the order and proportious defined in that book, and by simple and justifiable principles of interpretation, this circumstance will carry with it its own, and irresistible evidence, that the genuine interpretation of the prophecy is discovered; and the evidence will be no less striking, that such a succession and combination of extraordinary events could only he foreknown and foretold by the omniscient, and that therefore the book which contains the pre'diction of them, and the religion which that book supports, are from him. A measure of this evidence will be attained in proportion to its approach to the perfection here described this measure, in its nearer approaches, will doubtless be very considerable.

It is an observation applicable to all fulfilled prophecy, and particu arly to the system of prophecies in the Revelation, supposing it fulfilled, that both the predicting documents and the historical information necessary to ascertain their fulfilment, are entirely dependent upon the course of divine providence in preserving both the one and the other; and that, consequent ly, to the simple evidence arising from the accomplishment of a prediction, is to be added that which results from the evident care of the Supreme Governor of the word, that the first shall be made manifest and effectual. As our present review

will be rather extended, we must resist the temptation of adding some other observations on the fruit ful and important subject of pro phecy.

We now therefore proceed to the work before us. The introduction, with which it commences, gives a prepossessing view of the motives which induced the author to undertake it, and of the principles upon which it is executed. Mr. Woodhouse, it appears, after having proceeded through the other books of the Old and New Testament, in a course of critical study, came at length to the Apocalypse, from the more elaborate investigation of which he was, for the present, de terred, by information of the various and discordant interpretations given of its contents. In order, however, to secure his impartiality, when his increasing qualifications should give him more encouragement in the attempt, he resolved to avoid the perusal of every book or treatise pro fessing to explain the prophecies in question. He makes an exception, however, to Bishop Hurd's Sermons on Prophecy, p. xi. We cannot say, that we altogether approve this procedure. It does indeed secure impartiality, in the limited sense which implies the influence of the opinions of others upon our own; but on the present subject it is as likely to secure a discordancy with every preceding exposition. If every commentator should proceed upon this plan, very little progress can be expected to be made in the elucidation of the Revelation, as each individual deprives himself of the advantage to be derived from the successes of his predecessors, and puts himself in the condition of the very first interpreters. It may be said, that these writers, as Mr. Woodhouse has done, will peruse the best works upon the subject, when their own opinion has been formed; but who is such a stranger to the common principles of our nature, as to suppose, that after a person has, with much study, brought himself to

any particular determination on an intricate question, he should feel his mind open to the due influence of posterior arguments, and those the arguments of others?

We commend much the plan of Mr. Woodhouse in stating the principles by which he intends to regulate his interpretation of the book which he undertakes to explain, both because certain principles are peculiarly necessary in even the attempt to unravel such a book as the Revelation, and unless these are well established, in the expositor's mind at least, he will be in continual danger of inconsistency and selfcontradiction; and because it is assisting as well as satisfactory to the reader to know beforehand, in some degree, what he has to expect in his progress through the work. The following are the principles upon which Mr. Woodhouse professes to ground his investigation. 1. To admit no other than a scriptural interpretation of the language, symbols, and predictions of the Apocalypse. 2. To look for the accomplishment of this book only, or principally, in the fates and fortunes of the Christian Church. 3. To understand the Church in a spiritual sense. 4. Not to attempt the particular explanation of those prophecies which remain yet to be fulfilled. See pp. xii.-xviii. But in proportion to the utility of such principles is the hazard and it is seldom, that a writer can select and qualify the general rules, to the guidance of which he surrenders himself, with such judgment and accuracy, as, in his application of them to various and obscure particulars, not to sacrifice consistency either with himself or with truth. The first of our author's principles is doubtless both good and necessary we question, however, whether the term scriptural be in all cases sufficient to exclude ambiguity. The second principle seems to be carried much too far, and to have had an unfavourable influence upon many parts of the succeeding exposition. The Revelation, we con

ceive, was not principally intended as a prophetic history of the Church of Christ, although this be in a great measure.coincident with its main design, but as a series of predictions relative to the great revolutions of that part of the world which should be the theatre of Christianity, or most nearly connected with it, and which, by its obvious fulfilment, should bear the most decisive testimony to the divinity, both of its own original, and of the cause for which it is a witness. Mr. Woodhouse professes to be guided by the usage of Scripture in his adoption of this principle; but surely the example of the book of Daniel, the most parallel instance, might have taught him, that the civil revolutions of empires connected with the Church, although the revolutions themselves, singly considered, have little discernible of such connection, form the most prominent features of that part of the prophetic writings. Considering the book under consi deration as designed rather to furnish evidence of peculiar force at some particular period, than information of the progressive history of the Church, we conceive that civil events of the description abovementioned are selected with great propriety as a part, and a conspicuous part, of its subject. It is highly conducive to the effect of this evidence, that the events accomplishing the predictions, should be recorded, not only by friends, but by persons indifferent or hostile, to the cause which those predictions subserve; that their public interest and notoriety should (providence so permitting) secure them from oblivion; and that, by their consisting of the main revolutions of human affairs, they should convey a recognition of the divine supremacy and superintendence over the concerns of the world. It is evidently under the influence of the principle, which we are here endeavouring to expand into what appear to us more reasonable limits, and which probably the author at first adopted rather

inadvertently, that his interpretation of the very first predictions of the Apocalypse, those contained in the seals, is perfectly different from that of any preceding expositor of note. And possibly it may be owing to an influence which we have already alluded to, that the writer, as soon as he perceived the disagreement, instead of relinquishing or qualifying the principle which led him to his peculiar interpretation, has laboured to fortify it by additional arguments. See pp. 158, &c. It will easily be seen, that the objections which we have made to the second principle apply in some degree to the third: the fourth is unexceptionable.

Our author observes, p. xix. that it might have operated more favourable to the credit of his sagacity, had he published only selections from his work, of those parts in which he might appear to have been most successful. We perfectly agree with the writer in this sentiment. It is comparatively easy to give to interpretations of detached parts of the Apocalypse an appearance of truth which would totally vanish, were they considered in connection with the general frame of the book, We will not say, that the only fair method, but we must say, that by much the fairest method, of interpreting the prophecies of the Revelation, is to compose a continued comment upon the book. The reader then feels, that he is, in some degree, put in a condition to judge for himself; the consequence at any rate is, either a readier detection of error, or a more perfect conviction, if the interpretation be satisfactory. We admire the spirit of the following passage:

"Truth, in this important research, is, I hope, as it ought to be, my principal

concern; and I shall rejoice to see these

sacred prophecies truly interpreted, though the correction of my mistakes should lay the foundation of so desirable a superstruc

ture." p. xx.

We are tempted to transcribe what immediately follows, not only CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 56.

Mr. Woodhouse has certainly, as far as the present work furnishes us with the means of deciding, no cause for self-reproach on this head. But we fear that his very innocence may expose him to that of certain persons, who, when they find Calvin, with the other reformers, men tioned as re-producing the Gospel of Christ to the world, (p. 300), that Calvin, against whose impious dogmas the thunders of so many pulpits and presses are hurled, will perhaps, in reward of the candour of the author, and in evidence of their own, denounce him as a Calvinist. It may not, however, be altogether irrelevant to observe, however little the observation may apply in the present instance, that a general spirit of candour, and a conduct generally candid, are con sistent with partial exceptions of a very flagrant description, particu larly where real religion is concerned; and that many, who can bear the most direct opposition of speculative sentiments from others with a spirit which would deserve high commendation, if it could always be supposed to require any considerable sacrifice in the exercise, are known to bear a hostility to the cause of vital Christianity, which nourishes itself by all the misrepresentations of cultivated ignorance, known falsehood, and puerile prejudice, and employs for its weapons the most palpable, unscho larlike, and unchristian calumnies. The most vulgar and illiberal terms of abuse are not disdained; and a person, whose sole fault is his being

4 D

a real Christian, is denounced and anathematized as a methodist, with exactly the same spirit and justice as the Turk honours him with the appellation of a dog. This is a quoad hoc bigotry which demands the assistance of some largelov vuxns as urgently as other maladies of a similar, but less moral description, require their appropriate treat

ment.

Mr. Woodhouse afterwards proceeds to give some account of his new translation, a measure necessary upon the plan of study which he adopted. This translation was first formed, without any reference to the common one, and taken from the text of Griesbach's edition of 1777. It was then compared with the common one, and altered where the author deemed an alteration proper. The three texts here mentioned are presented, in the progress of the work, in three parallel columns.

The dissertation on the authenticity and divine inspiration of the Apocalypse then follows, which, as we observed before, and as the author informs us, is only a reimpression, with some corrections and additions, of the letters published by him on the same subject, without a name, in the year 1802. We have therefore only to refer to our opinion of the original performance, which continues unaltered. The principal addition is that of a postscript in which the author successfully combats the scepticism of Dr. Less respecting the Revelation. In contemplating the treatment which such men as Michaelis and Less have given to this sacred book, the reflection has struck us, that it might a priori be inferred that a mere critic would be a very insufficient expositor or judge of such records as it would please God to give of a religion which was to restore a fallen creature to acceptance, holiness, and happiness; and that such difficulties would purposely be left in them, as not only to fail in giving satisfaction, but even to convey a repulse, to those who should study

them with no higher aims than to add to the store of their speculative knowledge; not to say, that there is an obtuseness, almost national, and perhaps naturally connected with extreme labour, but certainly very incongruous with the distinguishing excellence of a critic, which cleaves to many of the disquisitions of the extensively learned Michaelis, and which would expose him to the corrections of an annotator much less sagacious than the one whom he has found in this country *.

Having been detained a sufficient time in the court, we now enter into the temple, gladly availing our selves of the assistance of our present guide to point out, and explain, its mysteries.

Our author has given a very good reason for a more extended consi deration of the first three chapters of the Apocalypse, than is usual with the commentators on that book, by observing that "they are replete with the same figurative language and symbols which pervade the whole book," p. 4. We cannot stop to criticise the commentary upon the first five chapters, which are distinct from the prophetic, and therefore most difficult, part of the book. But, as far as our recollection is correct, we have but few deductions to make from its evident me rits. At the vith chapter the prophecies, and the contests of inter preters, begin. Our author has the misfortune to increase, instead of reconciling, the differences. A book is presented to the sight of the prophet in his vision with seven seals. This book is considered as a roll by Mr. Woodhouse, and he supposes the seals to be so placed as to admit the opening of successive por tions of the roll. By others it is thought evident, that it was not a

*We take this opportunity of cor recting the curious misnomer, not noticed stein, which occurs twice in the viith Sect. in the list of Errata, of Webster for Wetof Michaelis's ch. on the Apocalypse; for Wetstein's interpretation of the Revela tion is evidently there described.