We see, then, in every view, how reasonable, how expedient, how divine, the symbolic style is, in such writings as the prophetic. So that if any be disposed, in our days, to take up the complaint of the text, and to up-braid the prophets by asking, Do they not speak Parables? We may now take courage to answer, Yes: but parables, which, as dark as they are accounted to be, may be well understood; and, what is more, parables, which are so expressed, as to carry an evidence in themselves that they are what they assume to be, of divine inspiration.
SERMON X.
THE STYLE AND METHOD OF THE APOCALYPSE.
Ezekiel xx. 49.
—They say of me, Doth he not speak Parables?
All the prophecies of the Old and New Testament are written in parables; that is, in highly figurative terms; which yet, on examination, have appeared to be explicable on certain fixed and rational grounds of criticism.
So far, therefore, as any prejudice may have been entertained against the prophecies concerning Antichrist, as if the language of them were too abstruse or fanciful to be understood, enough hath been already said to shew, that it is not well founded.
It must, however, be confessed, that the book of Revelations[163], which contains the most, and the chief prophecies on the subject of Antichrist, is of a deeper and more mysterious contrivance, than any other of the prophetic writings. Whence, our next step, in this inquiry, must be, To trace the CAUSES of that peculiar obscurity; and to suggest, as we go along, the MEANS, by which it hath been, or may be, removed.
The causes, are to be sought in the STYLE, and the METHOD, of that book. I say nothing of the subject; for, though the things predicted may darken a prophecy, unfulfilled, the event will shew what they are; and it is not necessary, that we should anxiously inquire into the meaning of a prophecy, till it be accomplished.
I. First, then, the STYLE of the Revelations (for I mean not to consider it, with regard to the Greek tongue, in which it is composed, or, to the Hebrew idiom, with which it is coloured) The style, I say, being symbolical, like that of the other prophecies, must, in general, be explained on the same principles, that is, must be equally intelligible, in both. Yet, if we attend nicely to the style of this prophecy, some difference will be found, in the choice of the symbols, and in the continuity of the symbolic form.
1. To explain my meaning, on the first article, I must observe, That, though the prophetic style abounds in hieroglyphic symbols, properly so called, yet the Israelites, when they adopted that style, did not confine themselves to the old Egyptian stock of symbols; but, working on the same ground of analogy, superadded many others, which their own circumstances and observations suggested to them. Their divine ritual, their civil customs, their marvellous history, and even the face and aspect of their country, afforded infinite materials for the construction of fresh symbols: and these, when they came into common use, their prophets freely and largely employed. Thus, incense, from the religious use of it in the Mosaical service, denotes prayer, or mental adoration[164]—to tread a wine-press, from their custom of pressing grapes, signifies destruction, attended with great slaughter[165]—to give water in the wilderness, in allusion to the miraculous supply of that element, during the passage of the Israelites through the wilderness to the holy land, is the emblem of unexpected relief in distress[166];—and, to mention no more, a forest, such as Lebanon, abounding in lofty cedars, represents a great city, with its flourishing ranks of inhabitants[167]; just as, a mountain, from the situation of the Jewish temple on mount Moria, is made to stand for the Christian Church[168].
Now, though the symbols of this class be occasionally dispersed through the old prophets, yet they are more frequent, and much thicker sown, in the Revelations: so that to a reader, not well versed in the Jewish story and customs, this difference may add something to the obscurity of the book.