Apocalyptic prophecy; even up to the end of the last century, and time now present.

But in this I anticipate, and must return back to Luther's history and times, whence I started. After what has been said in illustration of it, the Apocalyptic passage itself need but I think to be repeated, in order in the best way to bring back our thoughts to the crisis when first it began to have fulfilment in the impression stamped on the minds of the early German Reformers, with respect to the Papal Antichrist's destined time of empire, as being then not at its commencement, not about its middle epoch, (the latter especially a case quite supposable,) but already far advanced towards its ending; and so to prepare us for the continuation in the next Chapter of the history of Luther and the Reformation. "And the Angel, which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the land, lifted up his hand to heaven; and sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created the heaven and the things that therein are, and the earth and the things that therein are, and the sea and the things that are therein, that the time shall not yet be; but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, (whensoever he may be about to sound,) then the mystery of God shall be ended; according to the glad tidings that He hath declared to his servants the prophets."

CHAPTER VI.

THE PROGRESS AND ECCLESIASTICAL ESTABLISHMENT OF THE REFORMATION.

"AND the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and said; "Go, take the little book which has been opened, in the hand of the Angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the land. And I went unto the Angel, and said to Him, Give me the little book! And

He saith unto me, Take, and eat it up: and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey. And I took the little book out of the Angel's hand, and ate it up and it was in my mouth sweet as honey; but when I had eaten it, my belly was bitter. And He said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and languages, and kings.

"And there was given me a reed like unto a rod. And the Angel stood, saying, Rise and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and those that worship at it. But the court that is without the temple, cast out, and measure it not, for it has been given to the Gentiles."Apoc. x. 8-xi. 2.1

What have we here but a prefiguration of the two next great steps of advance in the Reformation:-first, the special commissioning by Christ of faithful, spiritually-prepared ministers of the Reformation, to preach his gospel in various countries and languages ;-next, the constitution and definition of evangelical and reformed churches, to the exclusion, as heathen-like and apostate, of the Church of Rome ?-Let us consider the two separately.

§ 1.-COMMISSIONING

BY CHRIST OF THE GOSPELPREACHERS OF THE REFORMATION.

"And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, &c. . . And He said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and languages, and kings."-Apoc. x. 8-11.

The points to be noted in this passage are the Spirit's direction to St. John to take the little book from the Angel; the Angel's giving it him, together with the

1 The division of chapters here ought evidently not to have been made. The conference, begun in the xth between St. John and the Angel, is continued in the xith. 2 See the completed quotation at the head of the Chapter above.

charge to eat, and prove both its sweetness and its bitterness;—then, after St. John's so eating and proving it, his solemnly commissioning him to the resumption of the work of his ambassador and preacher of his gospel; "Thou must prophesy again, before many peoples, and nations, and languages, and kings."

I have paraphrased the word prophesy in the last clause of the quotation, as signifying the fulfilment of the work of Christ's ambassador and gospel-preacher. And it may perhaps be well,-considering the restricted signification of predicting future events that is now in common parlance almost alone attached to it, and the exposition also by many modern commentators, as if, "Thou must prophesy again," meant, "Thou must predict again," or, " begin a new series of predictions,”— to shew the reader that this both accords with the original and more proper sense of the word, as used in Scripture, and is moreover that which the context itself determines to be the sense here intended.

Пponтeuw, then, is the Septuagint rendering of the Hebrew the Niphal of N, to bring forth, show, announce and to the first meaning affixed by Gesenius is "to speak as God's ambassador," whatever the subject. Thus it included not the prediction of future events only; but the general predication of God's mind and will, the explanation of his mysteries, the pleading of his cause; and, in this, the exhorting, instructing, reproving, warning, and expostulating with a rebellious people. The particular and restricted meaning of predicting future events came to be attached to the word simply as being one of the frequent functions of the prophetic office: just in the same way as that of other of the prophetic functions was attached to

He very appropriately cites Exod. vii. 1, by way of illustration; in which Aaron's official relation to Moses is thus stated, "Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet:"-a passage well explained by another preceding it, Exod. iv. 16; "He (Aaron) shall be thy spokesman to the people; and he shall be thy mouth; and thou shalt be to him as Elohim."

Passages such as that of Ezra vi. 14, will readily occur to the reader; “They prospered through the prophesying of Haggai :" i.e. through the time of Haggai's bearing the prophetic commission.

it, though less frequently, also.'-So much as to the Hebrew original,-and its Septuagint version, in the Old Testament. Nor is the use of the word popnτeuw in the New Testament much different. For example, in Matt. vii. 22 the question, "Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name?" means evidently, "Have we not preached as thy ambassadors ?" Similarly in that "Whoso passage from the xth of the same Evangelist, receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward," we cannot doubt but that each faithful ambassador of Christ, and preacher of his Gospel, is intended, whether endowed with the predictive faculty or not.2 To which let me add, that the term was specially applied in the Apostolic times to the function of expounding the written Scriptures, and exhorting from them, in the Christian churches: 3 a function then assisted by a more plenary inspiration of God's Spirit; yet, otherwise, very much the prototype of the same prophetic function, as subsequently fulfilled in the Church by every faithful gospel-minister.

"

1 So in Ezek. xxxvii. 4 of preaching to people; Again He said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord!"-In verse 9, it is used of prayer for God's grace on the Jewish people; "He said unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, Son of man, and say, Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live." Similar to which is the use of the word in the account of Baal's prophets in 1 Kings xviii. 29; "And when the mid-day was passed, and they prophesied (i. e. called on Baal) until the time of the offering of the evening-sacrifice, there was neither voice, nor any to answer, nor any that regarded."-Yet again in 1 Chron. xxv. 1, we read of David separating persons "to the service of the sons of Asaph, who should prophesy with harps and psalteries and cymbals ;" i. e. lead the devotions of the people in holy psalmody. To which I may add from the New Testament, Matt. xxvi. 68; "Prophesy who smote thee."

2 It must be remembered that all preaching of Christ's Gospel necessarily involves the enunciation of God's predictions as to the great issues of futurity.

31 Cor. xiv. 3; "But he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort." Compare, in the same Epistle, chap. xiii. 2; "Though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge:" also Rom. xii. 6; "Or whether (they have the gift of) prophecy, let the prophesying be according to the proportion (or analogy) of the faith :" and Acts xv. 32; "Judas and Silas, themselves being prophets, exhorted the brethren with many words, and confirmed them." See also 1 Cor. xi. 4.-In Bishop Taylor's "Liberty of Prophesying," the same sense attaches to the word. In this sense, as we shall presently see, the earliest Apocalyptic Expositors took the word. And so in the middle age, as Foxe tells us, (on Apoc. x. 10,) Thomas Aquinas. 'Prophetare inquit Thomas, pro prædicare accipitur."-So again, passing from Papal Doctors, the Reformers also. Thus, not to cite individual expositors, the Helvetic Confession: "Prophetæ præscii futurorum vates erant; sed et Scripturas interpretabantur; quales etiam hodiè inveniuntur."

Thus from the general Scripture use of the word it appears that it is, in the present instance, open to us to construe it in the sense of preaching the Gospel, as Christ's ambassador, just as much as in that of predicting future events. From which if we turn to consider the Apocalyptic context, it will be evident, I think, that the former can alone be the true meaning. For, first, this is the undoubted sense of the word as used by the Angel in his account of the Witnesses, just but a verse or two after that we were considering; "I will give power to my two Witnesses, and they shall prophesy 1260 days in sackcloth." Who would construe it there to signify, They shall enunciate predictions for 1260 days?" Further, it is this sense which alone agrees with the symbolic act noted as the preparative to St. John's receiving the commission, "Thou must prophesy again ;"-I mean his receiving and eating the little Book in the Angel's hand. For the little Book is evidently the substance and manual of that which he was to prophesy. And as, in the precisely parallel case of Ezekiel, the book given to be eaten by him was not the mere predictive part of God's message entrusted to his charge, but the whole

1 xi. 3. In fact in this passage the witnessing for Christ, and the prophesying as his prophets, seem used almost as convertible terms. And so elsewhere also. For example in xix. 10; "I am thy fellow-servant, and that of thy brethren that keep up the witness for Jesus: for the witnessing for Jesus is the spirit of the prophesying :” το πνεύμα της προφητείας.

2 Ezekiel's case is thus described; Ez. ii. 3, 7, &c. "He said unto me, Son of man, I send thee to the children of Israel: and thou shalt speak my words unto them, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear. But thou, Son of man, hear what I say unto thee! (Be not rebellious like that rebellious house!) Open thy mouth, and eat that I give thee! And when I looked, behold a hand was sent unto me and lo! a roll of a book was therein. . . . . And He said unto me, Cause thy belly to eat, and fill thy bowels with this roll that I give thee. Then did I eat; and it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness." After which it follows in iii. 10; "Son of man, all my words that I shall speak unto thee receive in thine heart, and hear with thine ears!" and in verse 14; So the Spirit lifted me up, and I went in bitterness, in the heat of my spirit."

To which let me add two other and not dissimilar cases.-1st. that of Jeremiah. Of him we thus read, Jer. xv. 16: “Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart: for I am called by thy name, O Lord of Hosts!" i.e. called thy prophet. After which follows: "I sat alone because of thy hand, for thou hast filled me with indignation." He too had, in the delivery of God's word, to taste the bitterness as well as the sweetness."-2ndly the case of THE PROPHET Kaт' eέoxηy; whose preparation for the prophetic work assigned Him is thus described by Himself, "My meat is to do the will of my Heavenly Father, and to accomplish his work." John iv. 34.