CHAPTER IV. On the Ancient Interpretation of the Sealed Book PROPOSITION I. That the Sealed Book is the Old Testament PAGK Section 3. The Interpretation of the Fifth Chapter...... Section 4. The Interpretation of the Fourth Chapter....... 131 INTRODUCTION. THE Interpretation of the Sealed Book in the Apocalypse, which is proposed in the following pages, occurred to the Writer several years ago, while studying the twenty-ninth chapter of the prophecy of Isaiah. But, though since that time the subject has frequently occupied his thoughts, it is not till a comparatively recent period, that he has found leisure and opportunity to pursue the different points of inquiry to which this suggestion gave rise, to such an extent, as would warrant his appearing before the public as the propounder of a new principle of interpretation, to be applied to the most abstruse portion of God's revealed Word. He endeavoured, however, from time to time, to collect the opinions of the most approved writers on the Apocalypse respecting the meaning of the Sealed Book; and began to turn his attention towards the views entertained on this subject by the early Fathers of the Christian Church. And greatly was he surprised and gratified by the discovery, that their interpretations of this fundamental symbol were essentially different from those of more modern commentators, and approached much more nearly to the meaning which he himself attached to it. At this period an observation of Michaelis, which he casually met with, led him to institute a more systematic inquiry into the several changes which the Interpretation of the Apocalypse, and especially that of the Sealed Book, had undergone from the earliest ages of Christianity. It would really be worth while,' observes this author, 'to write a particular history of the expositions of the Apocalypse, and to shew in 'what manner the most ancient interpretation of it was gradually forsaken, in what manner the modern 'interpretation of it took its rise among Protestants, and how this interpretation has spread into so many 'different branches. The Author immediately determined to proceed according to this suggestion:-not indeed to enter upon so extensive a field as was here opened to him, and become the historian of the interpretations of the whole Apocalypse; but to examine minutely the expositions of its primary symbol, the Sealed Book, in regular chronological order. In carrying this idea into effect, the first object of the Author was to obtain as full and correct a catalogue as possible of those writers, both in the Greek and Latin Churches, who have either left commentaries on the Apocalypse, or incidentally alluded to the Sealed Book in other parts of their writings; and then to trace the original interpretation of this symbol, and all the secondary interpretations which grew out of it, until they were entirely supplanted by the expositions of more recent commentators. This research has put the Author in possession of some interesting information respecting 1 Marsh's Michaelis. Chap. xxxIII. Sect. viii, Vol. vi. p. 515. |