Synchronal thereto reacheth to the end of the World and consequently the Sealed Book-Prophecy reacheth thither also which is the thing that was to be demonstrated And it suits mighty well with the last Thunder reaching to the end of the World which falls in with the Conflagration or Lake of Fire and with the Exit of the Laodicean interval so called in allusion to Ptolemy's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Laodicea combusta Wherefore the distribution of the main of the Apocalypse into those three Prophecies which from the beginning of the Church reach unto the end of the World viz. the Epistolar Prophecy the Sealed Book-Prophecy and the Opened Book-Prophecy and the Introductory Visions belonging to each of them being thus demonstrably true I do again pronounce as at first whoever goes about to interpret the Apocalypse repugnantly to this grand Principle he must necessarily run himself into the Briars and fall into such Labyrinths as he will never be able handsomly to get out of CHAP. XXII A Mechanical frame of the Seven-sealed Book so contrived as is requisite for no more Writing than what belongs to the present Seal to be seen at once The different Opinions of Interpreters what this Book signifies The mistake of the Ancients in conceiving it to be the Bible What this Book really is the Symbol of That this Book its being said to be written within and without denotes a twofold sense that of the Symbolical Letter and that of the inward Prophetical meaning of those Symbols Arguments to prove this to be the right sense of being writ within and without Ezekiel 's Roll writ within and without compared with this Seven-sealed Book of the Apocalypse Three useful Consectaries deduced therefrom IT is a matter of no slight moment to understand clearly and assuredly what is the right meaning of the Book in the right hand of him that sits upon the Throne Apoc. 5. its being said to be writ within and without to be Liber Opisthographus In order to which we are first to take notice what was the fashion of the Books of the Ancients viz. that they were one Membrane some longer some shorter rolled upon a round stick or some stiff thing as we sometimes do Maps Which makes me conceive that this Book with seven Seals consisted of at least twice seven such Membranes Parchments or Papers fastned together so at one end that it might be stiff enough to have all those leaves of paper rolled about it And I say there must be at least twice seven that no more Writing may be seen than what belongs to each Seal in their order by opening Therefore there is to be a leaf of paper with a Label at it to cover the leaf that has the Vision of the first Seal and then another leaf with a Label at it to cover the leaf of the Vision of the second Seal and so a Label-leaf before the Vision-leaf till you come to the Number of seven in each that no more of the Writing may be seen at a time than what belongs to each present Seal saving in the last where you breaking open the Seal that belongs to the seventh Label not only the Vision of the seventh Seal is discoverable which are the seven Trumpets and the seven Thunders but all the Visions of the Opened Book-Prophecy So that there must be as many leaves without Labels placed after the seventh Label-leaf as will serve to contain all the Visions of the seven Trumpets and also all the Opened Book-Prophecy Which must be some number of leaves though writ within and without 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 within and on the back-side as the foregoing Vision-leaves are conceived to be that is written on the concave and convex side of this Roll of leaves And thus in the breaking open the Seals the convex side of the Vision-leaf will occur first in every unsealing This I conceive is the most probable Mechanical frame of this Book written within and without and sealed with seven Seals But what this Book is a Symbol of there is a wide difference amongst Expositors The generality of the Ancients as A Lapide has noted take it to be the Bible and that which is writ without to be the Old Testament and that within the New the Old Testament being as it were the Velamentum or Covering of the New Or that which is writ without to be the literal sense that within the Spiritual or Mystical But this general Conceit of the Ancients is but a general Mistake because this Book was sealed up till the Apocalypse was communicated to S. John which was at the end of Domitian's Reign and therefore would imply that the Old and New Testament or Gospel were a sealed Book not to be understood till then Which yet certainly the Apostles understood and taught the people rightly to understand it so that it was no sealed Book to them But that this sealed Book is a Book that contains all the Prophetick Visions set down after the opening of it in the Apocalypse is so exceeding plain that it would amaze a man how it should come into the thoughts of so many of the Ancients that this Book with seven Seals should be the entire Bible whenas it is not so much as the entire Apocalypse but contains only the sealed Book and the Opened Book-Prophecies but that the being written within and without intimates a literal and mystical sense of the Book how near they come to the Truth therein we shall observe in the main Point we drive at In the mean time I cannot but approve of Cornelius A Lapide's Verdict in the Case who says Liber hic non est aliud quà m Divinae Providentiae consilium praefinitio c. This Book is nothing else but the Counsel and Determination of Divine Providence whereby God has purposed with himself either to permit or effect things in the World wherein his Church is concerned in such a way as is prefigured in this Book of Prophecies Which is to the same sense that the Answerer to S. E. has declared touching the Prophecy of the Scripture of Truth that it is what is decreed and recorded in the Divine Mind The standing Intellect of God in which are described all the Laws and Decrees of his Providence is that Writing or Book of God which is so often mentioned in the Bible as Exod. 32. Psal 56. and 139. And this Book represented to John sealed and unsealed is but a Symbol of part of this Book or Writing as I may so speak And to the Scripture of Truth in Daniel as well as to the Roll in Ezekiel in all likelihood may this Apocalyptick sealed and unsealed Book allude And now to come more near to the main Point in hand though I have given such a Mechanical account of this sealed Book written within and without yet I am still utterly of the mind of the Answerer to S. E. his Remarks Apoc. Chap. 5. that it is a childish thing to think that
the Book seen by John was written with all those words contained in that part of the Apocalypse but it was a Symbol of the Compages of those Prophetical Representations and of the inward meaning of them contained in the Mind of Christ and the holy Angel sent to John And that as the Book in general was a Symbol of the figurative Representations and the inward meaning of them in the mind of the Angel or of the inward Prophetical sense of them so the being writ within and without distinctly signifies the latter the external Representations or Symbols of the Prophecies and the being writ within the real Prophetick sense of those Figures That this is the necessary sense of this Book 's being writ within and without may appear from hence because there is no evasion from it but supposing the Visions and Prophecies so large that the inside or concave side of this Roll of papers would not contain them to denote the exuberancy or fulness of this Spirit of Prophecy as that of Poetry Scriptus in tergo necdum finitus Orestes This is the general account of Interpreters which is a very lank empty and an useless account But this intimation of those two senses I have noted is useful and weighty the wildness and vanity of those Interpreters being discovered thereby that confound the Symbolical sense with the real or Prophetical as R. H. has done See my Epilogue to my Exposition of the Apocalypse Sect. 10. And there are those so weak as to give credit to his Expositions Whence we see how needful it was to give this intimation for this twofold sense of this Book and worthy the Spirit of Prophecy so to do But that this being writ within and without is not said in regard of the exuberancy of the matter or scantness in the concave sides of the Vision-papers to contain it all may appear from that necessary Mechanical account I have given of this seven-sealed Roll if any Mechanical account is to be lookt after For the largest of the Visions of the first six Seals are so little that they cannot well be conceived to fill so much as one side viz. the Concave of each Vision-paper Wherefore how can the exuberancy of the matter cause them to be writ as well on the convex side as concave or what account can there be of making use of both sides so needlesly but that it may be said to be writ within and without as a Symbol of a twofold sense belonging to these Prophecies that of the Cortex or Letter and that of the things prefigured And as the Cortical or literal sense is first and most obvious so according to our Mechanical frame of this Seven-sealed Book the Convex or outward side of the Vision-leaf upon opening each Seal offers it self first to the eye of the Beholder the Concave is underneath not to be seen but by the turning up of the Vision-leaf and so reading downwards But if John's declaring the Book sealed with seven Seals was written within and without before any of the Seals were opened insinuate that there was really no such Mechanical frame of this seven-sealed Roll within as we have described then it is a plain indication to any one of an ordinary sagacity that this is said merely to intimate those two senses of the Visions the external Cortical sense which is so contrived as if it were a complete thing of it self and the real Prophetical sense that lies hid under this Symbolical Cortex Nor does it seem likely that John at the opening each Seal saw in the Book those Visions mentioned at each Seal opening but they were represented to him as other Visions were and that he saw them no more in the Book at the opening of the Seals than he read the Opened Book when it was given him before he ate it but the opening of the Seals by the Lamb and the Angel giving him the Book unsealed to eat are only to signifie that both those Prophecies of the Sealed Book and Opened Book are the Revelation of Jesus Christ to his Servant John as you heard in the foregoing Chapter But if it may be thought that when John received the Opened Book he might then observe that there were things written on the convex sides and concave sides of what I called the Vision-leaves and from hence pronounce in the beginning that this Seven-sealed Book was writ within and without according to some such Mechanick way as I have described then our former reasoning will take place and so every way we may be assured that this is the right meaning of the Book in the hand of him that sate on the Throne its being said to be writ within and without that thereby is intimated an external Literal sense and internal Mystical sense of which the other is but an Hieroglyphick Type or Figure And this being so plain and assured in this Apocalyptick Seven-sealed Book or Roll that to be writ within and without signifies an external or literal sense and a sense internal and mystical And we finding in Ezekiel a Roll so described Chap. 2.9 And when I looked behold an hand was sent unto me and lo a Roll of a Book therein And he spread it before me and it was written within and without which answers with strange exactness to this of the Apocalypse and still more full if you read the following Chapter where he is bid to eat this Roll and does so accordingly and declares it was in his mouth as sweet as Honey As if what we find Apoc. Chap. 10. v. 9 10. were transcribed out of Ezekiel And as this happened to John after the sight of the Angel with a Rainbow viz. Christ or the God of Israel so this happened to Ezekiel immediately after he had seen the appearance of the glory of the Lord which was as the appearance of the Bow which is in the Cloud in the Day of Rain which is a further confirmation that it is the God of Israel that is signified by this Note of the Rainbow in both places Wherefore I say this being so plain that to be writ within and without bears such a sense in this place of the Apocalypse viz. an exteriour and interiour meaning of the Visions or Prophecies and this of the Roll in Ezekiel being so exactly parallel thereto and set at the beginning of his Prophecies after the Introductory Vision how can we avoid concluding that the Prophecies of Ezekiel the main of them are parts of the Roll written within and without and have an interiour sense as well as an exteriour And so those Visions or Prophecies that in their first or exteriour sense may seem only to concern Jerusalem suppose and Samaria Edom and Mount Seir the Prince of Tyre and Pharaoh King of Egypt the Army of Gog the Jewish City and Temple and the like may in their interiour sense concern the state of the Christian Church or of its Enemies and prove Types of their condition
I shall first set down the Opinion of those Papers orderly one after another and then give my own Judgment 1. I affirm says the Author of those Papers that by opening this Book of Prophecies is meant explaining it and making it intelligible to those that read it For the truth of this Proposition I appeal to the constant and unquestionable use of that Phrase of opening a sealed Prophecy where-ever it is used throughout the Scripture there being no one instance that I know of to the contrary But where sealing signifies concealing the sense of a Mystery and opening signifies explaining it there are many As Dan. 9.24 Seal up the Vision and 12.4 Seal the Book even to the time of the end Where also the Phrase is made parallel to shutting up the words of it viz. that they might not be understood till the time of the end Also Isai 29.11 mention is made of a sealed Book viz. a Book which no man could understand Also that Opening signifies Explaining is manifest from Luke 24 32. where Christ is said to have opened the Scriptures And Acts 17.3 S. Paul is said to have opened and alledged viz. out of the Prophecies of the Scripture that Christ must needs have suffered Whence it cannot be doubted as to me it seems but that by opening the sealed Book or Mystery is meant explaining it Answ This makes a pretty confident show and may impose upon the heedless But the wary will easily perceive that unless he could prove that the word Opening simply in it self signified Explaining and sealing hiding the sense of a Writing by mystical Aenigms the Argument proves nothing That obvious Phrase of opening a Bible and opening a Text shows plainly the word Opening has its determinate sense from the thing it is spoken of To open the Bible is to unclaspe it and so open the Book that we may come at the Text. To open the Text is to explain the sense of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies to explain Mysteries or to open Mysteries sometimes but Luke 4.17 it signifies only to open the Book where the Mysteries lye viz. the Book of Esay the Prophet which past into the hand of Christ he is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to open the Book and to find the place c. It is one thing therefore to open a sealed Book where the Prophecy is and another to open a sealed Prophecy The Book may be first opened to come at the Prophecy Which is plainly the case here of the seven-sealed Book But to make the opening the Book and loosing the Seals to be the explaining the Prophecies of this Book Chap. 5.2 is a plain contradiction to the very Text Chap. 6. where the opening the first six Seals is the exhibiting to John so many particular Prophetical Visions of things to come not the explaining those Visions And so the opening the seventh Seal is the exhibiting the Visions of the seven Trumpets c. Chap. 8. and not the explaining of them So that I wonder it should ever against so palpable an intimation to the contrary enter into any mans mind that the opening the Book and loosing the Seals should be understood of explaining the Prophecies and not of a power of coming at the Prophecies themselves set out in Aenigmatical Visions and to be afterwards explained by the Servants of Christ and the meaning of the Aenigmata discovered But to make this latter to be understood as a Completion of this Vision of the opening of the Seals is a plain repugnancy to the Visions Interpretation of it self The Completion of this part of the Vision of opening the Seals is our having these Apocalyptick Visions in our hands and under our eyes no other Completion is to be dreamt of 2. Touching the second Question the abovesaid Papers declare thus That by him that sitteth on the Throne with the Book in his right hand is not meant God himself but rather some Man of highest Authority sitting in the Throne of God and representing him there A reverend and learned Doctor phansies him to be the Bishop of Jerusalem the Author of the Papers to be some earthly King Answ But this to me seems point-blank against the Text nor has Grotius himself the confidence to interpret it of any other than of God Almighty by reason of that Hymn I suppose or Doxology v. 8. Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come This Hymn is sung to him that sits on the Throne the Eternal who is said to live for ever and ever v. 9. Now as this is but one single visionary Hymn so no man can have any just ground to imagine any more than one visionary Person on the Throne there is not the least show or shadow in the Vision of any more Whence comparing this Hymn with that single Person it must of necessity be God Almighty himself no earthly Potentate Representative of Him Nor is the Hymn fit to be sung to a Representative though of God sitting on the Throne For if to Him he is the Object of this Doxology and the Text says expresly it is to him that sits on the Throne And therefore it must be to God himself that sits on the Throne unless we will make this a visionary Scene of palpable Idolatry which I take to be a gross absurdity Besides that as for earthly Potentates Kings or Monarchs they are most lively described in the twenty four crowned Elders like so many Millennial Davids playing on their Harps before God The Rain-bow also plainly intimates it as in Ezekiel to be the Representation of the glory of the God of Israel So that I find no congruity or probability in this Opinion 3. Now for the third Question the words of the Paper are these I affirm saith he that the fourth and fifth Chapters of the Revelation are a description of a Church or a Company of faithful people on Earth adding This is so evident that I know of no man that denies it This therefore he takes for granted without any further proof Answ Here I refer the Reader to what I have wrote in the twenty first Chapter of this Book touching this Introductory Vision to the sealed Book-Prophecy Where though it be an Introductory Vision and a Symbol of the spiritual Kingdom of God in Heaven yet I acknowledge that it is in some things so attemperated that it is significative also of the State of the Church on Earth as that suppose of the Millennium And that the Church on Earth is some way and in some things concerned in this Vision is plainly intimated Chap. 5. v. 10. And hast made us Kings and Priests and we shall reign on the Earth But this will not serve the end of these Papers 4. And lastly for the fourth Question By the Lamb slain according to those Papers some good King or other some mystical Christ as Mr. Mede calls Constantine upon Rev. 12.5 is to be understood who after his
the seven Seals which take in also the seven Trumpets must be after the Reformation when no less than a dozen Visions the first six Seals and the first six Trumpets are before Which plainly shows that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cannot signifie so as the Objector would have it but that it denotes only the Order of Time in seeing these Visions not the Order of Events 4. Fourthly Whenas that Vision of the seven Churches which commences from the beginning of the Church is ushered in with a great voice as of a Trumpet and a like voice here as of a Trumpet speaks to S. John again would not this alarm or awaken any heedful Reader 's animadversion and invite him to conceive that surely here begins or is beginning a new Prophecy ab ovo or from the same Epocha as before especially considering what is noted in the second place that there is here in this following Prophecy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the passing out of an Epistolar Prophecy to another of an huge different contexture 5. But fifthly and lastly Considering that general Preface to this whole Book of Prophecies set down stilo tenui in a simple plain stile Chap. 1.1 That it is the Revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave him of things to come to pass and imparted by an Angel to John And that the things to come to pass are most magnificently set out in Prophetick Figures and Symbols as also Jesus Christ the Revealer of them in this first Vision of the seven Churches Which glorious Representation of him in his Sacerdotal Habit amidst the seven golden Candlesticks is a Vision introductory to the Epistolar Prophecy and Christ made to dictate those Epistles to John thereby to insinuate what is said in more meagre terms that this Epistolar Prophecy is the Revelation of Jesus Christ to his Servant John I say he that considers this and after the finishing the Prophecy lights upon another glorious Vision Chap. 4. and 5. which is most easily and naturally expounded to the same sense that the Introductory Vision of the Epistolar Prophecy is and something more full viz. That the slain Lamb Jesus Christ receives from the Sitter on the Throne God the Father the sealed Book of Prophecies with power of opening the Seals and exhibiting orderly the Prophetick Visions to his Servant John for it is the Lamb that opens the Seals all along what is this but a more magnificent expression of what is Chap. 1.1 said in more exile phrase The Revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave him of things to come to pass imparted by these Angelical impressions to his Servant John and what can be concluded therefrom but that this Vision Chap. 4. and 5. is as well as that before the Epistolar Prophecy an Introductory Vision viz. to the Prophecy of the sealed Book and therefore can be no continuation to the Epistolar Prophecy notwithstanding those words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This any unprejudiced Eye may easily discern to be the Truth But that the glory of the Spiritual or Angelical Kingdom of the God of Israel there represented is also prefigurative of the blessed Millennial state which it was when it was first seen on the Mount this does not at all clash with its Introductory usefulness and the signification it has even now specified So that though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should signifie so as the Objector would have it in all other places of the Apocalypse yet there are most manifest and weighty Reasons why it should not so signifie here And thus I hope the first Argument is fully satisfied I shall be briefer in those that follow 2. To the second I answer Where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does not serve to shew the order of the Events of the Visions as well as of the Visions themselves whose order of being seen is sufficiently indicated by their order of place in the Narration yet it may serve instead of a form of Transition such as is used by Historians Orators and Philosophers and indeed all Writers though the order of the things they speak of would be discerned without these Transitions by their mere speaking of them one after another as they first propounded them to be spoken of And why should the stile of the Apocalypse be more pinching and hide-bound than any other that it cannot afford so much as two words that make but up four Syllables for a brief Transition from one Prophetick Vision of large extent to another of equal extent and of quite different kind For the full sense of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. is this Thus far for the Epistolar Vision after this I looked up and behold c. Which therefore is a very brief Transition from the Epistolar Prophecy to the Prophecy of the sealed Book and its Introductory Vision And therefore though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does not here serve to show the order of Events yet it is not true that it serves to no use at all it serving so manifestly for a Transition 3. To the third I say In these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is merely an Adverb of Time and signifies as Beza and our English Translation has it Posthac and Hereafter Things that must be in time to come which is the general sense of Expositors not things that are to succeed the Event of the Vision of Laodicea or the Time of the beginning of the Reformation as the Objector would have it For here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being set in the front or proposed in general it implies that all the Visions that follow must be of things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The sense of which words if it were after the Event of the Vision of Laodicea that is after the beginning of the Reformation according to the Objector's surmise the Assertion would be grosly and repeatedly false For there are above twenty Visions that follow this general proposed Title 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whose fulfilling was before the Reformation So evident is it from hence that Beza and our English Translation is in the right and that the general sense of Expositors is sound in this matter But indeed viewing slightly the outward Cortex of the Visions and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying as well after these things as hereafter and there being the Vision of Laodicea immediately precedent which they seem to respect one may if he be not heedful phansie unawares that the affairs of the Vision of Laodicea are the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after which the affairs of the succeeding Prophecy are to be But this show in the Cortex is but an artificial Blind that which I call Lemmatosynechia intended as several other Artifices for the Concealment of the sense of the Apocalypse which is as seriously aimed at in the frame thereof as the certainty of Revealment And the Objector's mind seems to be caught and entangled in this snare 4. To the fourth I answer That Christ tells Philadelphia in his