And this, we may add, is one of the many reasons why we cannot accept the interpretation of the 1000 years reign-which yet has so much to recommend it, and is advocated with so much ability and modesty in the present volumes-which identifies it with the hidden, spiritual reign of CHRIST and His Saints in the Heavenly places, during the period intervening between the first and second Advents. Surely the broad announcement that 1000 years at least had yet to elapse before our LORD's second Appearing seems altogether inconsistent with the uniform language of the rest of the New Testament, and the reiterated warnings, "The LORD is at hand:" "Behold, I come quickly." But we shall refer to this again.

With regard to our Author's explanation of the successive sequences of Seals, Trumpets, Vials, we believe he is right in regarding their main fulfilment as still future; but not so as excluding all partial, precursive, and lesser accomplishments. His lectures on these do not offer much material for special notice their only fault is, the somewhat superficial mode in which they deal with their very difficult subject-matter.

The series of sermons on the allegory of the Woman and the Beasts we take to be the most valuable and successful part of the work. Mr. Galton adopts, though with independent exercise of judgment, the general line of interpretation advocated, on one or two occasions, in these pages, maintained by Mr. Isaac Williams, Professor Auberlen, and other eminent writers-which regards the Mystical Babylon as a representation of corrupt Christendom.

"The Harlot," he writes, "represents nothing short of the whole of the visible Church at the time of the end; with the exception of a small remnant prefigured by the suffering Church of Smyrna, and the loving Church of Philadelphia."

In connection with this sad subject we will quote a passage as at once affording a specimen of our Author's style, and also well demanding our anxious attention. He is referring to that awful feature in the Apostle's description of the Harlot-her being "drunken with the Blood of God's saints."

"If the view given by some, that this Woman represents heathenism, were correct, the Apostle would not have marvelled when he saw her drunken with the blood of the saints and martyrs of CHRIST.' But if this Woman be a symbolical representation of the whole Church of the last days, the Apostle might indeed be surprised to behold her, who once seemed the Spouse of CHRIST, drunken with the blood of His children. There is a passage, which, after every successive perusal, impresses the mind with a deeper conviction of its amazing awfulness, in S. Luke xii. Our LORD had been speaking of the necessity of watchfulness, because He would come at an hour when men would not expect Him: and when Peter said unto Him, LORD, speakest Thou this pa

rable unto us, or even unto all? the LORD said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward whom his lord shall make ruler over his household. . . But and if that servant say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming, and shall begin to beat the menservants and maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken, the lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and will cut him in sunder,' &c.

"Now if we look at these words, it appears that our LORD designed to intimate, that the Church, at first faithful and wise, as a steward fully conscious that he must give an account of his stewardship, would ultimately pass into the condition of one who would disregard his master's commands, and 'begin to beat the menservants and maidens, and to eat, and drink, and to be drunken.' For evidently there is no change of person when our LORD is describing this awful transition from one state to another. So that what S. John says in the address to the Seven Churches, comes out with fearful distinctness. In the seven Churches we saw that five were corrupt: only the suffering Church of Smyrna, and the loving Church of Philadelphia were faithful, and had promises without threatenings. All the rest exhibited, in some particular form, alienation from the living GOD. And to these were addressed the following denunciations. . . . . 'I will fight against thee with the sword of My mouth.'. . . . 'I will spue thee out of My mouth.' What awful words! S. John then naturally marvels. It is the only passage in the whole book where it is said that he did marvel.” Vol. ii. pp. 94-96.1

With regard to the symbol of the Beast, Mr. Galton adopts, what we conceive to be the true interpretation, which sees in it a combined "exhibition of the powers of the world, put forth in opposition to CHRIST; beginning with the earliest times." "If," he continues, "we believe that the Number 7 in Scripture is a keynote, implying perfection, the expression, 7 heads, must be interpreted as representing all the dominions which the world has ever seen." (Vol. i. p. 500.)

As this first Beast symbolised the Power of the world, so does the second, the Wisdom of the world: this latter exhibiting the same diabolic counter-relation and antagonism to the Blessed Spirit, as the former to the Incarnate SON.2

The Image of the Beast he regards (correctly, as we believe; and as we have heretofore maintained in these pages3) as symbolising the Personal Antichrist.

The Beast's deadly wound, he holds to have been the deathstroke inflicted on the world and its Prince on Calvary.

In the 5 fallen heads, he sees the old Monarchies of the world which preceded the Apostle's time ;4 in the then existing head, the

1 We have been compelled slightly to compress this extract for want of space.

2 Vid. Ecclesiastic, Vol. XIX. (June, 1857) pp. 282-285.

3 Ibid. Vol. XX. (October, 1858) pp. 437-440.

4 Without seeing our way clearly to the answer of the question, we would yet ask, Does the Apostle's own time come here into consideration at all? Does not the

regnant power of Rome; in the head yet to arise and "continue a short space," the future kingdom of Antichrist.

On the expression, " He is an eighth," the lecturer does not appear to us very intelligible. In fact to explain such an enigma in a sermon, is obviously no easy task: to say nothing of the difficulty of explaining it at all.

Does not the following seem the true solution of the Mystery? It would appear that the 7th, or Antichristian, head or kingdom passes through two distinct phases. When it first emerges―i.e. when the powers of the world throw off their Christian character (as there are but too evident signs of their becoming gradually less unprepared to do), and avow open antagonism to CHRIST and His Church, when the deadly wound is healed, and the Beast, energised anew from the abyss, rises to life again—when AntiChristianity becomes the religion of the civilised world;—in all this we see the first development and manifestation of the yet future 7th head, which is to "continue a short space.

This head differs from its predecessors in being 10-horned, 10-crowned. The old monarchial forms of the World Power have passed away and now follows a divided sovereignty—a joint reign of many co-existing kingdoms. Though not acting in concert in other matters, in one cause they shall all unite, and the Herods and Pilates become friends: "The kings of the earth and the rulers shall take counsel together against the Lord and against His Christ." In this unholy object they shall all "have one mind "— to uproot the Christian name, and establish the worship of the Prince of the world. It is now that Babylon is overthrown. For "five are fallen, one is," refer to the ideal time represented in the vision, when the Harlot has reached that particular stage in downward and GoD-renouncing career in which S. John here pictures her, when her "sins have reached to Heaven," when, in the full bloom of carnal security, she is saying, 'Peace and safety,' and when just on the very eve of destruction? We strongly suspect this to be the case.

We see the exact state of the world's history at this period, indicated by the following marks.

In the first place: we find that the 7th, or Antichristian head, has not arisen. This is evident, not only from the words of the Angel, but also from the fact that, at this crisis, and so long as the woman is quietly seated on the Beast, enjoying the 'friendship of the world,' the 10 horns are not crowned. As soon as the new power emanates from the Abyss, and the horns receive their crowns, they at once dispossess, mutilate, tear, and burn the Harlot.

Hence it is evident that chap. xiii. represents a time posterior to chap. xvii. For in the former chapter, the horns are crowned, the false Prophet has succeeded to the Harlot, and the Anti-Christianity of the resuscitated Beast taken the place of the pseudo-Christianity of the wounded Beast.

But another mark also shows the time. It is a period in which two apparently contradictory conditions can be satisfied.

1. The Beast" is not ;" and yet

2. Notwithstanding his non-existence, his sixth head "is."

And therefore it is evident that it is the wounded head, the head during which the whole Beast received a death-stroke and became non-existent, the "caput mortuum," that "is ;" and that the period of the vision, therefore, as we have stated, is shortly anterior to the Beast's Anti-Christian revival in its 7th phase.

we must remember, it is not Antichrist himself, it is the "Horns" which "hate the whore and make her desolate"-the various apostate powers of the world-GoD's ministers of vengeance upon His faithless, infatuated Church; who, having put her trust in the strength of Pharaoh, finds the strength of Pharaoh her ruin."

It appears to be out of the turbulent billows of anarchy, confusion, lawlessness which succeed the fall of Babylon, that the dread Autocracy of the Personal Antichrist arises. GOD's faithful servants have not perished with Babylon. Warned by a supernatural voice they have "come out of her :" they have been constrained to sever themselves from her, lest sharing in her impieties, they should participate in her doom. Their secession, and the consequent departure of the Divine Restrainer, the SPIRIT of Life, renders her destruction not only possible, but inevitable. Thus they survive her fall for a higher honour awaits them, viz., to witness and suffer during the awful times of Antichrist himself. "The Beast shall overcome them." "He shall wear out the Saints of the Most High; and they shall be given into his hand."

With the rise of the personal Antichrist to power, ensues the second stage of the career of the 7th head. "Among the 10 horns" of that head," says Daniel,-i. e., among the 10 apostate kingdoms which together constitute the 7th phase of the world power-"there shall arise a little horn," which shall uproot 3 of the horns-thereby becoming "an eighth." Thus, then, though this little horn is identified with the seventh head-inasmuch as he belongs to that head, and springs from it; and his career is but the continued evolution of that head; and the entire interest of

1 On this subject-the future spoliation of the secularised Church by the WorldPower, to whom she has given her heart and confidence, and whom she has hitherto found her faithful supporter and ally; and on the present indications of such an issue, we cannot forbear quoting the following characteristic passage from our author:

“Because Christendom has forgotten her great dignity, because Christendom has been sporting with flesh, it is first to be made desolate by those with whom it has been seen to be conversant, to be stripped naked, and burnt with devouring fire. 'Surely one seems to find some intimation of a state like this already exhibited : for what is the world doing for God's professing Church?

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:

"Why the world is preparing to make her as desolate as the world can make her the world is preparing to strip her as naked as it can. The world envies the riches which the Church was led once to covet, and which she contrived to get from the world: the world is envying the Church those high places in which the world has helped to place her ;-and is it not now the desire of the world to pull down that which it took centuries to build up? It took centuries to place the Church in the position which enabled her to claim a great portion of this earth's dominions as her own. It took a long time to make her bishops vie with princes and nobles, decked in fine linen, purple and scarlet, gold, silver, and precious stones, having ample possessions, lands, and costly equipages, with the power to gratify the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life,' things which speak not of CHRIST, but of Antichrist. It required centuries for this. But it will require but a little time comparatively to make those who have coveted these things desolate and to strip them naked. Thus the world will be found eating the flesh of the Church. It is torturing her now, and it is preparing to eat her.”—(Vol. II. pp. 122, 123.)

that head finally settles in him-still he is something more: he is something beyond the 7. For he ultimately merges into a very embodiment, epitome, reproduction, recapitulation of the whole godless power of the world-the entire Beast.

And hence the Number 8, or symbol of Resurrection, attaches to him; not only because he becomes the 8th horn on the 7th head (this is but an outward visible expression of a deeper inward mystery); not only because, in counting the heads of the Beast, though belonging to the 7th, he is yet something beyond the 7th ; not only, because in him is fulfilled our LORD's parable of the dispossessed Spirit, who, having been cast out of the world, ultimately gains re-possession, "with 7 other spirits more wicked than himself," and thus re-enters his old tenement as "an eighth ;"—all this is included; but chiefly because he is the very embodiment of diabolic and bestial Resurrection. He is the full Satanic realization of that mystery whereof the Number 8 is the recognised numerical signature. In his miraculous resuscitation we see the Devil's counterfeit of the central Mystery of the Christian Religion. Faith in CHRIST Who died and rose again, will be superseded by a blind infatuated belief in the Beast who died and rose again, and who by his rising to life has extirpated Christianity (" he shall make war against" the witnesses, "and overcome them,") and proved it to be a failure and a fable, and unworthy the credence of intelligent men. And GoD shall send a strong delusion, and men shall believe the Lie; and "great shall be the multitude of the preachers" of this New Gospel from Hell.

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We repeat, then, that although this Octave Head is really and truly one of the seven "heads of the old world-historical Beast, -being the seventh head in its last and most intensified form; still it is none other than the whole "Beast, which was, and is not, and shall appear," "with 7 heads and 10 horns," all reproduced, all revived and epitomized. It is the entire monster, in the full bloom of its power, wisdom, malignity, impiety; recapitulating, in the compressed period of three and a half years, and in the person of one Human Organ-the Image of the Beast-the whole dark "Mystery of Iniquity" slowly and progressively evolved in former ages, "at sundry times and in divers manners," from the very beginning-in order that, in this its one final and concentrated form, it may be eternally judged.

We were anxious to add a few words on other portions of the present interesting "Notes ;" and especially on Mr. Galton's interpretation of that which he characterizes as "confessedly the most difficult part of this wonderful Book," the mysterious vision of the binding and incarceration of Satan, and the 1000 years reign, in chapter xx. We must reserve the subject, however, till our next Number.