locum usurpaverit, nulla se ignoratione defendat, sitque plane sacrilegii reus, qui divina præcepta neglexerit. Dat. xii. Kal. Jun. Mediolani. Richomene et Clearcho VV. CC. Coss. On the consecrating and crowning of an emperor, the form of words, which is represented in the Apocalypse, as addressed by the whole creation and angels to the Supreme Being and the Lamb, was prostituted by the patriarch and the people, very often to the weakest and vilest of men. On the anointing of the head of the Emperor with the sacred ointment in the form of a cross, the Patriarch exclaimed with an elevated voice, Holy; those standing on the platform repeated it three times, and were followed by the people in the same manner. Ou his coronation, the Emperor was pronounced to be, Worthy, by the Patriarch, and the cere mony of repeating the word Worthy, three times, attended the solemnization of this act, in the same manner as the repetition of the word Holy did that of the former. Rev. iv. 8; v. 12. Selden Titles of Honour, p. 191. The most humble postures, which devotion has offered to God, were observed in the presence of the Emperors. "The mode of adoration of falling prostrate on the ground, and kissing the feet of the Emperor was borrowed by Diocletian from Persian servitude; but it was continued and aggravated till the last age of the Greek monarchy." See Gibb. 111. xvii. n. n. 74; x. liii. n. n. 49. Of the French successors of the Greek Emperors, Louis XIV. was so blind as to arrogate divine honors to himself; and Buonaparte aimed at being styled His Providence.

4. Blaspheme the tabernacle of God. Rev. xiii. 6. The Greek Emperor, besides blaspheming the name of God by usurping that title, blasphemed his tabernacle,

by affixing the name of heaven to the pavilion under which he sat, calling it oùpavloкov, a little heaven.

Selden.

5. Blaspheme those that dwell in heaven. Rev. xiii. 6. After assuming the titles and attributes of God, receiving. the devotion paid to him, and affixing the name of heaven to their canopy, it only remained for the Greek emperors. to call their ministers and government, a divine hierarchy, which they accordingly did, and thus could blaspheme no more. Gibb. III. xvii. n n. 74. Of the French Henry III. 1579, established an order of knighthood called the Order of the Holy Ghost, of which the order of St. Michael is a necessary preparative.

6. To speak great words in opposition to the Most High. Dan. vii. 25. The Bishop of Rome has been styled, Our Lord God the Pope, Another God upon earth, King of kings, and Lord of lords, Our most Holy Lord, the victorious God and man in his see of Rome, God the best and greatest, Vice-God, The Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world, The Most Holy who carrieth the Most Holy. Faber's Sacred Calendar of Prophecy. Vol. II. p. 93. The peculiar designation of Pope or Father, which the Bishop of Rome assumes, is contrary to the express injunction of our Lord, who forbids us to call any man Father upon earth in the sense in which it is applied to the Bishop of Rome. Matth. xxiii. 9. Moreover, it is the proper designation of our Lord himself, who, according to Is. ix. 6, is the Mighty God, the Perpetual Pope, or Patriarch, and Prince of Peace. The original is My Father, a title of respect, like Rabbi, My Master. 2 Kings ii. 12; vi. 21; xiii. 14. Judg. xvii. 10. David is called Patriarch by St. Peter, Acts, ii. 29; and thus our Lord is perpetual "Pater atque Princeps." Hor.

BLOOD.-Slaughter and mortality.

xvi. 3.

Rev. viii. 8;

Book.1. The sealed book written within and on the backside. This book has been thought to be "the Revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass,' plausibly enough; but our Lord's omniscience seems to have been inherent in him, before he took the book out of the hands of his Father, by the seven eyes which he is represented as possessing. The delivery of a mere prophecy seems quite unworthy of the solemnity of circumstance, which attends the surrender of the book into the Son's hands. I am therefore inclined to believe, with the angels round about the throne and the four living creatures and the elders, that the Lamb's worthiness in taking the book, consisted in his being "worthy to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and praise," in other words, to take the whole administration of the world and the credit of it into his own hands, which in this case would be the Christian dispensation, which is the end to which all God's providence tends. I am confirmed in this belief, from the analogy that subsists between a sealed book, and the Christian dispensation, which is represented in Scripture as a mystery, till it was revealed and put into execution by our Lord (Eph. i. 9, 10; iii. 4, 5, 6, 8, 9; Rom. xvi. 25, 26; Col. i. 26; 1 Tim. iii. 16; 2 Tim. i. 9, 10.), who first "opened the understanding of his disciples, that they might understand the Scriptures." (Luke xxiv. 45.). I imagine therefore that the opening of the seven seals of the book, means the seven stages of the progress of the promulgation of the Christian dispensation, till it has gained a footing in the world on the overthrow of

Paganism; and I conjecture from the dramatic nature of the symbols attending the opening of the seals, that they cannot be pictures, which form the contents of the book, but that they signify events which attend the seven successive stages of the progress of the Christian dispensation, which itself forms the contents, i. e. object in view of Christ's undertaking. We therefore will join in the chorus with every creature, etc. and say, "The praise, and the honour, and the glory, and the power, be unto him that sitteth on the throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever,"

2. The little opened book, as it should be translated, is, no doubt, the same as the book, which the little Lamb, as the original is (Rev. v. 6), who held it, opened. This book, which is the Christian dispensation, was lost sight of, when the church became incorporated with the state, and became a kingdom of this world; but when our Lord visited his Church by the Reformation, he brought it again to view, and has been since promulgating it through the Reformers, by the seven thunders or seven stages of its fearless and powerful republication, aided by seven vials full of plagues; which are not yet all of them poured out, because the Father and Son denying heresy of antichrist, or mystery written on Babylon's forehead, and the alliance of Church and State, still exist. It may be called a little book, as a diminutive noun is expressive of affection, being dear in value, and the pearl of precious price; or as made capable of digestion; or as free from burdensome superstitions. Rev. x.

3. The Books. The fictitious register which God is represented as keeping of men's thoughts, words, and actions, to be judged at the last day. Rev. xx. 12.

4. The Book of Life. The fictitious register of the

saved, which God is said to have formed before the creation. Dan. xii. 1; Rev. xx. 12.

BOTTOMLESS PIT.-See ABYSS.

Bow.-Victory. Rev. vi. 2. He that sat on him had a bow. The rapid progress of the gospel.

BRASS.-Strength. Symbolical of the kingdom of Alexander, or the Greeks,who are represented by Homer as brazen breast-plated. Dan. ii. 39.

BRIDE.-It appears from Rev. xxi. 9, 10, that the Bride is the New Jerusalem, from Heb. xii. 22, 23, “the general assembly and church of the first-born," from Is. lxv. 17, 18, the new heavens and new earth, and these new heavens and new earth, according to 2 Pet. iii. 10-13, are created at the personal advent of our Lord. I do not know then, how the conclusion can be avoided, that our Lord personally appears at the overthrow of Babylon, prior to the Millennium. For if the bride, i. e. the New Jerusalem, i. e. the Church of Christ i. e. the new heavens and earth, be ready by that period, as it is said at Rev. xix. 7, they will be; then it is plain that Christ must leave his Father in heaven, to be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh, according to Eph. v. 31, 32, at that period: in other words, the members of the Church shall be priests unto God and to Christ, and they shall reign with him a thousand years (Rev. xx. 6). For what! Will the marriage solemnity be performed twice between Christ and his Church, once before the Millennium, and once after it? Rev. xix. 7; xx. 9: xxi. 2, 9, 10. Will the bride be ready before the Millennium, and yet not ready, the number of the Saints