But it is from beginning to end an innovation. Instead of being an echo of prior expositions, it is wholly original. Instead of being a version of the conjectures and fancies of others, without settled and uniform principles of exposition, it differs from them very much as astronomy differs from astrology. It is based upon axioms and rules which are well defined, and of certain and universal application to the subjects to which they relate. It lays down what no prior exposition ever attempted, “The Laws of Symbolic Representation;” and by a rigid and consistent adherence to those laws, as by a process of inductive demonstration, brings out intelligibly to the reader the meaning of the successive symbols: in each instance illustrating and confirming the exposition by references to history, and contrasting it with the views advanced by preceding writers. These laws of symbolic representation are neither less evidently founded in the nature of that mode of revelation, nor less essential as a clew to its meaning, than are the common rules of grammar in relation to ordinary literal language; and they are accordingly sanctioned, and their reality and truthfulness are demonstrated by numerous references to inspired expositions of prophetic symbols.
A revelation by symbol is not a statement or description in words of what is foreshown, but a representative exhibition in a visible form; as for example of a living agent, with certain known natural characteristics, and certain official insignia or other accompaniments, between which agent, so depicted in its appropriate attitude and sphere of action, and the agent or class of agents of a different nature and sphere of action which is represented and foreshown, there are such resemblances and analogies as to render the first an expressive and fitting representative of the other. Thus the beast described Rev. xiii. as emerging from the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the names of blasphemy; his body being like a leopard, his feet like those of a bear, and his mouth as that of a lion; is described chap. xvii. as representing by its seven heads, seven kings, dynasties, or forms of executive power in the Roman Empire prior to its division; and by its ten horns ten kings which as yet had received no kingdom; the ten kings, namely, between whom the western empire was to be divided, and who, with the relentless ferocity of lions, bears and leopards, were by persecution and otherwise to make war with the Lamb. So in the vision of Daniel, chap. viii., the ram with two horns is declared to represent the Kings of Media and Persia; and the goat with one horn, the King of Grecia.
These examples illustrate the laws of symbolic representation with reference to one class of symbols; and with respect to those symbols of which there is no inspired explanation, the expositor, under the control and guidance of those laws, is liable to no mistake, unless it be in his inadequate discernment of analogies and erroneous selection of agents, events, or other phenomena, instead of those intended to be foreshown, and in which congruity with the characteristics and adjuncts of the symbol, harmony with other Scriptures and predictions, and correspondence with historical events and testimonies are confidently to be expected.
If the reader can imagine any thing of the awe and wonder which overwhelmed the apostle in his visions, when, in his station on the apocalyptic earth or in the heavenly sanctuary, he beheld the glorified Person of his Lord in the effulgence of his Deity, seated on a throne, from which, as at Sinai, proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices, and around which were exhibited the representative and triumphant witnesses and trophies of his redemptive work; and beheld that Person symbolizing himself in his aspect and relations as incarnate, “a Lamb, standing as slain;” and saw, as on the revolving canvas of a panorama, when the seals were opened, the symbolic forms emerging into view one after another, each by its representative character revealing, as in cipher, the agents and events of its future appropriate and peculiar department; and witnessed the phenomena of revolutions, tempests, earthquakes, darkness, fire and blood, foreshown under the sounding of the trumpets; and successively the slaughter and resurrection of the witnesses, the war of Michael and the Dragon, the emergence of the ten-horned wild beast, the rise and career of the two-horned wild beast and false prophet, the harvest and vintage of the earth, the pouring out upon the earth of the plagues of the seven vials of the wrath of God, the fall and destruction of great Babylon, and the ensuing scenes of wonder and glory, retribution and judgment, thanksgiving and triumph, he may in some degree conceive the effect of converting the enigmatical portraitures of this panorama into intelligible literal language, assigning each to its relative and historical position, and reflecting on the version the light of earlier revelations, that of ecclesiastical and secular history, and in a large degree, in respect to the past, that of unmistakable events.
It is in respect to the result, as compared with that of preceding efforts, like Daniel’s interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, compared with the fruitless endeavors of the magicians, astrologers, and Chaldeans of Babylon; or like the finally successful effort to read the hieroglyphics of Egypt, compared with the fruitless attempts, bewildering theories, and abortive labors of preceding ages.
Had this work been published at some transition-period, when the human mind was freeing itself from erroneous and long-cherished opinions; at the revival of learning in Europe, when there were Luthers and Calvins to welcome it; or in England, when there were Latimers and Ridleys, Boyles and Newtons, or Owens and Howes; or in this country at the period of Edwards, it would have superseded and prevented the expositions to which it is opposed, or else it would have been answered in the same way as were the doctrines of Galileo. Such men under their circumstances would not have been content to say, as many at present seem to be: “Though we consider the Apocalypse a part of the inspired Word of God, and though it evidently relates to the future of the Church, the conduct of the redeemed and the destruction of their enemies, and above all to the crowning, ultimate and eternal manifestation of the Person, prerogatives, supremacy, prophetical and sacerdotal works, and regal majesty, glory, triumph and reign of Jesus Christ; yet we neither understand it, nor believe it will be understood in advance of its issues; and therefore are not disposed to examine anything new upon the subject.”
But the transition now going on is not against, but in favor of ancient and erroneous opinions. It is retrograde towards Pelagianism, Pantheism, Neology, Romanism, and among the best, to the omnivorous infection of infidel Germanism. The partisans of these errors desire no lights but such as are reflected from the satellites of their respective systems. In those exclusive and dubious lights, each is secure alike against the arguments and examples of every other. They can controvert the doctrines of Scripture and those of each other upon all disputed points, without the slightest danger of extorting concessions or producing conviction; for no two of them see the same thing by the same light. All hope and expectation of defeating or silencing any party by the arguments or Scripture citations or interpretations of another, or of dislodging cherished and fixed opinions by any means short of a universal deluge, or an annihilation like that of the Egyptians by the Red Sea, or that of Sodom and Gomorrha by fire, is given up. And so long as they nominally agree in respect to certain future issues, towards which they think the onward course of things in the physical, intellectual, scientific, mechanical, social and religious world is wafting them, their theories and their relative positions will allow them fearlessly to float down with the current, without having in advance even the light of a moon. There is a Millennium in prospect; a vast, undefinable Mediterranean of something better than the present, into which all the turbid streams of humanity are tending, and towards which the preaching of the gospel to all nations is but a tributary.
The aspect of things, accordingly, is much like that in the days of Noah, while the ark was preparing; as if Satan were already bound, and no deluge of wrath or terrors of retribution were impending; and as if with science and art, ancient relics and now inventions, gold mines and traffic, steam and electricity, as pioneers, the Ethiopian were about to change his skin, and the leopard his spots, the wolf to lie down with the lamb, and the lion to eat straw like the ox. The more startling the events of Providence, the shattering of political fabrics, the excision and restoration of dynasties, the revival of Popish arrogations and intolerance, the pitched battle of despotism against liberty, the more sure they are to be construed as immediate signals of the universal prevalence and triumph of human hopes. The purple and scarlet robes of the Babylonish Sorceress are seemingly changed to vestal whiteness, as gazed at through the spectrum of discolored glass, or seen in the sepulchral, bewildering, superstitious twilight of Baalistic tapers; while the murmurings of unearthly music, the chantings and mutterings of unintelligible words, and the spell of imputed and pretended mysteries, subdue the victim to whatever the spiritual operator may prescribe or denounce. The nations in the four quarters of the globe seem to many to be about to renounce their idolatries, and to be released without a struggle on the part of Satan, who has held them in bondage hitherto, and to be arranging to assume white robes and take their stations on the glass-like expanse before the throne. The partisans of such views neither realize nor believe that there is any thing to the contrary revealed in Scripture; or if there is, it is so concealed in symbol and figure as to preclude its being understood till all is over. And accordingly, like the Pharisees of old, who scrupulously paid tithes of mint and all manner of herbs, and omitted the weightier matters of practical righteousness, faith, and the love of God, they resolve religion into outward action, the love of God into eclectic sympathy with his creatures, and faith into their theory of particular duties.
Formerly, in religious controversy, there was something positive on one side, against which an opposing negative was asserted. In the great controversy recorded in the Bible, the supremacy of Jehovah and the authority of his Word were explicitly and constantly affirmed by one party, and as directly and perseveringly denied by the other; and the two parties were therefore broadly and unmistakably distinguished. But at present the case is widely different. No active partisan, theological or scientific, now denies the existence of a Supreme Being, or professes to disbelieve the Scriptures. All claim to be believers in God and in the Bible. What they differ about is as to what kind of Being that is whom they call God; whether personality is one of his attributes, and what works and purposes are to be ascribed to him: and as to what the Scriptures teach, how they are to be understood; whether they are inspired or not; whether they are all typical, or what portion or whether the whole of them is in some way figurative; whether miracles were ever wrought; whether the Mosaic account of the creation is to be understood literally, and the like. And if there is at this moment, in the compass of the world, or in the Protestant portion of it, one comprehensive error, conspicuous above all others, it is that of inadequate, partial, defective apprehensions, recognitions, and acknowledgments of what the Scriptures reveal concerning the Person, prerogatives, offices, works, dominion, triumph and glory of the Messiah, and concerning his yet unended conflict with the Arch-apostate.