eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.

15. "And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.

16. "And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.

17. "And the dragon was wrath with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ."

The last chapter introduced for the first time into the apocalypse a reference to the condition of the Jews, for the purpose of apprising the prophet, and through him the christian world, that the triumphant establishment of the purified church should commence at the time when, according to the prediction recorded by Daniel, the holy people should cease to be scattered-which time is to be the termination of a memorable period of 1260 years, during which the two divine revelations are represented simply as GOD'S concurrent and persecuted witnesses.- In this (xii.) chapter they are represented in their relation to each other of parent and child.

1. "And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars."

The wonderful woman is the hebrew nation, distinguished from all the other nations of the earth by her history being, from the calling of Abraham to the

present hour, one continued series of miracles; she is a wonder in heaven, because her wonderful history is a manifestation of God's government of the world. Unlike the mighty angel of the corrupted latin church, who was clothed with a cloud, she is clothed with the sun, because by the light of her history all the wonders of God's creation and government of the world are shewn to his creatures.

Before I proceed farther in the interpretation of this chapter I must call the reader's attention to the fact, that the hebrew nation or jewish people, and the mosaic church are one and the same. In truth, the name of Jew is, strictly speaking, an ecclesiastical, and not a territorial appellation. A descendant of Abraham, observing the mosaic covenant is, wherever born, a Jew, and he ceases to be one, though born in Jerusalem, by embracing any other faith. I will, therefore, through the remainder of this chapter, use the terms, judaism, and mosaic church, indifferently.

The twelve stars, composing one crown on the woman's head, are the twelve tribes, united in one people.

Each of the twelve tribes was located in a separate district of Judea. This distribution was indispensably necessary for one of the objects of their great legislator-that of keeping the tribes genealogically distinct. But it had a manifest tendency to convert, in process of time, all the tribes into separate and, consequently, reciprocally hostile states. To guard against such a calamitous result, and also to prevent the tribes inhabiting the frontier districts from intermingling with, and merging in, the circumjacent

kingdoms were among the purposes for which the great national festivals were instituted. Those solemnities could be celebrated only in the common metropolis of the nation, where they periodically congregated three times every year all the male adults among the descendants of Jacob. But those festivals were not only the wisest and most efficient of civil institutions—they were also the principal religious solemnities of the mosaic church, the ceremonial of which could be duly performed only in the temple of Jerusalem, and by a particular (the levitical) tribe. The festivals were thus not only the connecting links that held all the tribes together in the unity of a people separated from the rest of mankind, but they operated also as a perpetual registry of the divine covenant with Abraham and his seed for ever. word—the entire polity, civil and religious, of the holy people resided in the national festivals, of which the religious character and efficacy depended on their being observed precisely at the periods appointed by the divine command. With reference to the time appointed for the celebration of the passover, the periods of all the other festivals regulated. The period of the passover, like that of the christian easter, was and is regulated by the moon:

were

In a

'From the moon is the sign of feasts.'-Ecclus. xliii. 7. The moon is therefore under the feet of the woman she stands upon it- it is the foundation of her whole existence.

Accordingly the observation and public proclamation of the lunar phenomena were among the principal duties of the supreme national council: The

6

great Sanhedrim was as an almanack to all the nation, to give them notice of the new moons, by which they might fix their monthly feasts, and know when to celebrate their solemnities.'

It

Lightfoot's Temple Service, ch. ii. may be superfluous to add that all the chronology, sacred and profane, of the ancient Jews was founded on the lunar phenomena alone——it took no notice of the apparent movements of the sun :

"Leur ancienne forme d'année étoit fort grossiére : elle n'étoit fondée sur aucune règle, ni sur aucun calcul astronomique; c'étoit seulement un certain nombre de mois lunaires, dont la vue seule réglait la longueur quand ils voyaient la nouvelle lune ils comptaient un nouveau mois."

L'art de véréfiér les dates.

2. “And she, being with child, cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered."

These few words bring us through the entire history of the Jews to the era of christianity, the blessed founder of which was, in the fulness of time, born of the seed of Abraham. The mosaic church was, from the moment of its institution, pregnant with the second

covenant.

3. "And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads."

At the birth of Christ the great temporal instrument of God's government of the world was the roman empire, typified by the last of the four mystic beasts beheld by Daniel.

"After this I saw in the night-visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns."—(Dan. vii. 7.)

This nondescript monster, diverse from the three preceding beasts, which were well known animals, is the great red dragon, exhibited to Saint John, with seven heads and ten horns, and constituting a compendious symbol of the roman empire, pagan and papal. The seven heads (of which I shall presently have occasion to speak more fully) represent the seven forms of government which have successively ruled the empire in the several stages of its history: the ten horns signify the ten barbarian kingdoms that arose out of the ruins of the latin empire, and, becoming subject to the spiritual authority of the latin church, composed the papal empire. The great dragon is red, because that was the colour of the robes worn by the consuls and emperors, and, I believe, by all the other successive heads of pagan Rome.

The birth of Christ having occurred in the pagan empire, about five hundred years before the barbarian kingdoms came into existence, the seven temporal heads of the dragon are yet in possession of their crowns the ten horns are crownless.

4. “And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born."

The tail of an animal issuing from its body, and