our Lord declared to be fulfilled. The following is the new interpretation of 16 ANDREAS. By the book we understand the ' omniscient memory of God, in which according to holy David all are written, and also the abyss of the Divine judgments. The things written within 'the book are in consequence of the Spirit not easy 'to be apprehended, but difficult to be discovered: but the things without are in consequence of the ' letter more easy to be understood. The seven seals also indicate, as I imagine, either the secrecy of * the book, which is perfect and unknown to all, or 'the dispensation of Him who penetrates the depths of the Divine Spirit: which no created being is able to unloose.' Nevertheless, in his exposition of the words: No man in heaven, nor in earth, nor under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon: this author follows the general stream of commentators, and refers the whole to the first advent of Christ. 6 26 But by the words: No man was able to open 'the book; it is shewn that neither Angels nor men 'still living in the flesh, nor those who have put off their mortal body, can attain to a perfect knowledge of the judgments of God, but only the Lamb of 1 · Βιβλίον, τὴν πάνσοφον τοῦ Θεοῦ μνήμην νοοῦμεν· ἐν ᾗ πάντες κατὰ τὸν θεῖον Δαυὶδ γράφονται καὶ τῶν θείων κριμάτων τὸν ἄβυσσον. ταύτης δὲ τὰ μὲν ἔσω δια τὸ πνεῦμα εὔληπτα οὐκ εἰσὶν, ἀλλὰ δυστέκμαρτα τὰ δὲ ἔξω διὰ τὸ γράμμα εὐληπτότερα. τας δὲ ἑπτὰ σφραγῖδας, ἢ τὴν τελείαν τῆς βίβλου ἀσφάλειαν καὶ πᾶσιν ἄγνωστον δηλοῦν φημί, ἢ τὰς οί κονομίας τοῦ ἐρευνῶντος τὰ βάθη τοῦ θείου πνεύματος ἃς λῦσαι πάσας οὐδεμία κτιστὴ φύσις δύ ναται. 2 Διὰ δὲ τοῦ, Οὐδεὶς ηδύνατο ἀνοίξαι τὸ βιβλίον, δηλοῦται μήτε ἀγγέλους μήτε ἀνθρώπους τοὺς ἐν σαρκὶ ὄντας μήτε τοὺς ἐκ σαρκὸς αποδεδημηκότας αγίους, τὴν ἀκριβῆ τῶν θείων κριμάτων κατειληφέναι γνῶσιν, πλὴν τοῦ ἀμνοῦ τοῦ 6 'God himself: who by his advent opened the secret mysteries of the things which had long before been 'foretold concerning himself.' 6 4 book? ARETHAS makes no allusion to the opening of the Old Testament, but adheres solely to the new interpretation of Andreas, that the book means the book of God's remembrance. 1. But what is the The omniscient and incomprehensible memory of God: which both the Prophet David and • Moses have declared. The former in that passage: • In thy book all shall be written : (Ps. cxix. 16.) the latter, in that text: Blot me, I pray thee, out of 6 thy book which Thou hast written. (Exod. xxxii. 32.) That it was written within and without and guarded 'with seven seals:- within are written those from ' among the Jews, inasmuch as they by the guidance of the law became pious; without, in the inferior 6 6 6 6 6 part, those from among the Gentiles. Moreover, • the seven seals, distinguished by this number seven, and marking out the changes and successions of 'time according to this mortal world, what else do they present to our understanding, but that no one, except God alone, can perfectly know what will happen in the life of every one of us?' 6 Θεοῦ, τοῦ τῶν προφητευθέντων περὶ αὐτοῦ ἔκπαλαι διὰ τῆς παρουσίας αὐτοῦ τὴν ἀσφάλειαν λύ σαντος. 1 Τί δὲ τὸ βιβλίον; ἡ πάνσοφος τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ ἀνεπίληπτος μνήμη· ἣν καὶ ὁ προφήτης Δαυίδ καὶ Μωϋσῆς παρεδήλου· ὁ μὲν, διὰ τοῦ, ἐπὶ τὸ βιβλίον σου πάντες γραφήσονται· ὁ δὲ, διὰ τοῦ, καμὲ ἐξάλειψον ἐκ τῆς βίβλου ἧς ἔγραψας. τὸ δὲ ἔσωθεν γεγράφθαι καὶ ἔξωθεν, καὶ σφραγίσι κατησφα λίσθαι ἑπτὰ· τὸ ἔσωθεν μὲν, οἱ ἐξ Ἱερουσαλὴμ ἂν εἴησαν γεγραμμέ νοι, ὡς θεοσεβεῖς τῇ ὁδηγίᾳ τοῦ νόμου, τὸ ἔξωθεν δὲ καὶ τῇ χείρονι μοιρᾳ, οἱ ἐξ ἐθνῶν. αἱ δὲ ἑπτὰ σφραγίδες, τῷ ἑπτὰ ἀριθμῷ τό ἐπίσημον ἔχουσαι, τὰς κατὰ τὸν θνητὸν τοῦτον κόσμον τῶν ἡμερῶν μεταβολάς τε καὶ διαδοχὰς σημαί νουσαι, τί ἄν ἄλλο συνιέναι παρέ χοιεν, ἢ τὸ μηδένα πλὴν μόνον Θεοῦ τὰ κατὰ τὴν διέξοδον τοῦ βίου ἑκάστον ἡμῶν ἐξακριβοῦν ἔχειν, εἰδέναι; 2. Latin Writers. Among the Latin Fathers the author has been able to discover only one, who gives an interpretation of the sealed book different from those adduced in the preceding sections. And he, like the most ancient commentator Victorinus, seems to refer the vision to the second coming of Christ to judge the world. 26 PAULUS OROSIUS. In a treatise on the freedom of the will, this author makes a concise reference to the sealed book in the following terms: What, I ask, is that book, which no man was worthy to 'take from the right hand of Him that liveth for ' ever?...I conceive, the book of Judgment. For 'the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed • all judgment unto the Son.' (John v. 22.) Reviewing now all the evidence which has been adduced in support of our First Proposition, it appears; that until the sixth century of Christianity, the idea that the sealed book in the Apocalypse is the Old Testament, was maintained without doubt or hesitation by the whole Christian world :-that about that time a different interpretation was proposed by one Greek commentator, and subsequently adopted by another:-and that from thenceforth no mention is made of the subject by any writer of that Church: -that among the Latins, with one solitary exception, -and that exception favourable rather than otherwise to our views,-this interpretation of the symbol, 2 Quis, rogo, iste liber est, quem de manu viventis in saecula nullus fuit dignus accipere?....Ut credo, judicii. Pater enim non judicat quenquam, sed omne judicium Filio dedit. Bibliotheca Max. Patrum. Tom. VI. p. 452. D. or some one very nearly connected with it and obviously derived from it, may be traced through an unbroken series of writers till the commencement of the fourteenth century. PROPOSITION II. THAT THE BOOK BECAME SEALED AT THE DESTRUCTION OF FROM the extracts already given from the writings of the Fathers, it is evident, that though they understood the sealed book to be the Old Testament, they very soon began to form erroneous ideas of the meaning of this word 'sealed.' The author conceives the true meaning to be this:-that the authentic copy of the book was withdrawn from the world at the destruction of Jerusalem, and sealed up' under the custody of Rome. The Fathers adopted a more metaphorical interpretation: they imagined not that the book itself, but that its sense or meaning was sealed up under the obscurity of types and prophecies; and that, the true signification of its institutions and predictions having become known by their accomplishment, the book was from that time to be regarded as unsealed. Such being their view of the subject, it is not to be expected that their writings will afford many allusions to the true sense of the symbol. The author has, however, discovered two passages relating to this point in the commentaries of Pseudo-Ambrose and Rupertus, to which the attention of the reader is now about to be directed. Before we produce their testimony, however, to this point, it will be necessary to make a few remarks on the system which these writers have adopted in their exposition of the Apocalypse ;-the moral or mystical interpretation. In a former part of this Essay1 we have extracted the account given by Aureolus of the analysis of the Apocalypse, which was generally adopted previously to his own times. We there found that, exclusive of the first vision, which relates to the seven Churches of Asia, this book was supposed to consist of six visions, which, this author adds, may be understood in either a mystical or an historical sense. The latter mode of interpretation was then explained: but the former, postponed to a future period. Our reason for thus proceeding was this:-The mystical interpretation is founded on that explanation of the unsealing of the book, which refers it to the opening of the mysteries of the Old Testament. Consequently this system could not have been understood, while the reader was unacquainted with that exposition of the fundamental symbol. Now, however, this scheme of interpretation will be readily and perfectly comprehended. It must be observed, also, that though Aureolus has explained but one mystical interpretation, there were in reality two systems, which must be classed under this head; that which he has described, and that which is peculiar to Pseudo-Ambrose. 6 26 AUREOLUS. According to their moral or mys'tical interpretation, the above mentioned six visions are thus distinguished. The first, that of the seven * seals is referred to the unsealing of all the mysteries, which lay hid in the Old Testament concerning 1 See Part I. Chap. III. §. 1. 2 Secundum sensum vero moralem et mysticum praedictae sex visiones sic distinguuntur. Prima namque de septenario sigillorum refertur ad reserationem mysteriorum universorum, quae in veteri testamento latebant de Christo: |