considered as themselves symbolical; thus, in the description of a Star falling from heaven to earth, heaven and earth must be understood according to their literal meaning, and the Falling Star be taken only as symbolical; a commentator not attending to this principle of interpretation, would be forced to give various significations to the symbolical Heaven and Earth, or other objects, and thus destroy the simplicity and precision of the prophetic symbols.

Again it is to be observed, that the symbols, though all of them substantives, may be used as adjectives, and be attached to another symbol, and then, retaining their original meaning, they express some quality or property in the principal symbol to which they are appendages: thus, where a Woman is represented in Rev. chap. xii. as clothed with the Sun, having the Moon under her feet, and a crown of twelve Stars upon her head; the symbolical Woman only is the noun substantive; the Sun, the Moon, and the Stars, are used as adjectives, expressing qualities and properties belonging to her. Respecting these adjectives, as well as others in similar instances, nothing further is narrated in the course of the prophecy, they being appendages to the noun substantive, which alone is intended to be represented as actually existing in its place. It is, I think, for

want of sufficiently understanding or adverting to this use of the symbols, that commentators, with the exception of Mr. Faber, seeing the Church already represented by the Woman herself, and fearing, I conceive, to represent the same object, namely, the Church, in two places at once, have given various and unsatisfactory. interpretations of the symbolical Moon; which, as connected with the spiritual Sun and Stars, undoubtedly typifies the Church; and this interpretation is confirmed by the consideration, that in the Apocalypse, what a symbolical object stands upon, appears intended typically to describe what it actually is*.

Again it is to be observed, that we must distinguish, in the Revelation of Saint John, between that which makes a part of the machinery of the prophecy, and that which belongs to the prophecy itself: Commentators, from not adverting to this distinction, have interpreted the silence of half an hour, which immediately precedes the sounding of the seven Trumpets, as

*So in Rev. xv. 2. The Israelitish Nation, or Protestant British Nation (spoken of before in chap. vii. ver. 3—8. and in chap. xiv. ver. 1, 2), is represented as standing during the 30 years of trouble and discord upon a Sea of Glass, where the Sea of Glass (or the population in a tranquil state, not liable to be agitated by the spirit of violence and discord) is the same in import as the protestant British Nation which stands upon it,

if it were symbolical, whereas, it is only part of the machinery, or a pause in the representation: this error has led, among the older writers, to the universal mistake which has been made by them in the arrangement of the whole series of Seals and Trumpets.

The Heavens have likewise been considered as symbolical, and interpreted as such, where they only mean the scene in which the representation appears.

There is also a distinction, which it may be useful to point out, between symbolical description and symbolical narrative; for, in the former, every thing should be deemed inconsistent and inadmissible but what the Apostle could actually have seen, while the latter is only to be considered as narrative in figurative language, and is introduced sometimes, in addition to symbolical description, to relate some particulars that could not be shewn in the representation.

Thus, when it is said that the Two Witnesses who prophesy for 1260 years who are then killed, and who then rise again, "are the Two "Candlesticks, and the Two Olive Trees;" the latter sentences of course do not belong to sym bolical description, but to narration in figurative language, and imply (in simple language)

H

that the Two Witnesses are the two great sources of spiritual light and grace.

Again, when it is said that the beast out of the Bottomless Pit is the eighth head of the beast, the passage is not descriptive, for the beast, as seen by the Apostle, had only seven heads. It must therefore be considered only as narrative in figurative language, implying that the Beast that rises out of the bottomless pit would be the eighth Ruler of the Roman empire.

Other instances of symbolical narrative, as distinguished from description, occur where the Woman, sitting on the seven-headed beast, is said to be the Great City, or the Papacy; and again, where the Holy City is said to come down as a bride prepared for her husband.

Remarks upon

the Interpretations of the Symbols given by former Commentators.

As the meanings given to many of the symbols in the foregoing Dictionary differ from those given in the Work of Mr. Faber (who has, I believe, treated this part of the subject of prophecy more regularly than other writers), I shall consider a few of those differences,

which appear to be of most importance, as being connected with that general plan and arrangement of the Apocalypse, which, in the former part of this chapter, I have attempted to establish.

The most important symbol, in this point of view, is that of THE THIRD PART OF THE EARTH, which is here considered as the symbol of the Eastern Roman empire, but is supposed by Mr. Faber, and other commentators, to represent the whole Roman empire, both Western and Eastern, and therefore to have the same signification as is also given by them to the symbol of the whole EARTH; but the inconsistency of thus making the third part equivalent to the whole is so evident, that it becomes necessary to explain how an interpretation of this kind could ever have been generally received. It undoubtedly owes its origin to an erroneous location of the Seals and Trumpets, by which the Seals were made to precede the Trumpets instead of running parallel with them; for the Seals being thus made alone to refer to the first periods of the Roman empire, and the Trumpets alone to its latter periods, had the Trumpets, which speak of the Third Part of every thing-as the Third Part of the Sun, the Third Part of the Moon, the Third Part of the Stars, the Third Part of the Sea,