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of the woman and the dragon. The woman is, as all writers agree, the true spiritual church of Christ, "the Jerusalem which is above, the mother of us "all." The church is very often in Scripture represented to us under the figure of a woman, the spouse of Christ. This woman is clothed with the sun," to denote that her spiritual nakedness is only "clothed by the righteousness of Christ."+ She stands on the moon, to denote her sublime elevation above all sublunary objects. She has a crown of twelve stars, in reference to the twelve apostles of the Lamb, who are her brightest ornaments. The woman's being with child, and travailing in birth, and paining to be delivered, describe to us, in language suited to the analogy of the symbols, the struggles of the church, in her first and purest age, for the conversion of the Gentiles, and the persecutions she then underwent. My little children,” says St. Paul to the Galatians, "of whom I travail "in birth again until Christ be formed in you."+ Some interpreters, and among them the respectable and learned Archdeacon Woodhouse, understand the birth of the man-child brought forth by the woman, to denote the actual nativity of our Lord: but this interpretation is founded upon a very undue mixture of literal with symbolical language; and besides, as Mr. Faber excellently remarks, it is incongruous with the universal phraseology of scripture, for our Lord is invariably represented as the husband, never as the son of his church.

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The woman being a mystical or allegorical personage, we must conceive in like manner of her * Gal. iv. 26. + Faber's Dissert. in loco. Gal. iv. 19.

man-child; and this shows, that the interpretation of Bishop Newton, who by the man-child understands Constantine the Great, cannot be supported. Mede rightly conceives that the mystic Christ, or Christ formed in his members, is here to be understood; and Mr. Faber remarks, that there is a passage in Isaiah, which is almost exactly parallel to the present prediction, and which consequently may teach us how we ought to understand it. Speaking of the mystic daughter of Zion, and foretelling the restoration of the Jews, and their final establishment as a nation, Isaiah says: " Before "she travailed, she brought forth before her pain 66 came, she was delivered of a man-child. Who "hath heard such a thing? Who hath seen such

things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in "one day, or shall a nation be born at once? For "as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her "children."+

As the above passage of Isaiah refers, in the opinion of almost all the commentators, to the future calling and conversion of the Jews, we may justly conclude, by an argument founded on analogy, that the parallel passage in the Apocalypse, relates to the conversion of the Gentiles in the Roman empire; and though I am not sure that I can go along with Mr. Faber in all his remarks on this subject, I agree with him in the main, in thinking that the prophecy

* Id est, peperit Christum mysticum, seu Christum in membris suis formatum, non Mariæ sed ecclesiæ filium.

In confirmation of Mede's idea may be quoted St. Paul's language respecting this very woman: "Jerusalem which is above is the "mother of us all," Gal. iv, 26.

+ Isai. lxvi. 7, 8.

received its accomplishment when the empire became completely Christian in profession, by the final abolition of paganism. But I cannot admit that the man-child signifies the Roman community, as professing Christianity. This profession, in the great body of those who took on them the name of Christ, was not of a nature sufficiently pure or elevated, to admit of the body of the nominal converts being described under a symbol denoting their being the genuine offspring of the woman. I should rather say, that the man-child was a symbol of the whole body of true converts within the Roman empire, when that empire finally took upon itself the profession of Christianity. The birth of the child represents the origin, and infantine state of that Christian community, which on its reaching maturity is to possess the empire of the world. Of this manchild it is accordingly said, that he should rule all nations with a rod of iron, in reference to the future power which the saints are to possess over the nations, on the establishment of the kingdom of God: "when the kingdom, and dominion and

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greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, "shall be given to the people of the saints of the "Most High."* The man-child, it is further said, was caught up unto God and his throne; by which we are probably to understand the complete safety and protection vouchsafed to the church of Christ in every age. "Lo I am with you alway, even to "the end of the world." Perhaps however this part of the allegory may rather be designed to signify, that the glorious dispensation of the reign of

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the saints, was not yet to be discovered to the world, but was to remain concealed, in the purposes of the Most High, until the destined period for the manifestation of the sons of God.* Then this man-child, or the Christian community of the saints, shall appear armed with irresistible power, even the strength of the Son of God himself, to rule the nations, and break them in pieces as a potter's vessel.

To the whole of this interpretation it may indeed be objected, that it makes both the woman and her child signify one and the same thing, namely, the Church of Christ. The answer to this is, that in allegory, it is not uncommon for the same object in different capacities, to be represented by distinct types. Thus the animal slain for sin was a symbol of the Saviour dying for our sins, while the priest who offered the sacrifice was a type of our Saviour risen from the dead, and pleading our cause before the throne of God. In like manner, in the allegory before us, the woman seems a symbol of the church in its spiritual character, and its struggles for the conversion of a lost world, while the man-child is a type of the Christian community, considered in its civil or political capacity, as destined hereafter to rule, the world. The saints in heaven have this double character or office, they are kings and priests.‡

*Rom. viii. 19. For this idea I am indebted to the reviewer of my work, in the Edinburgh Christian Instructor.

+ Dan. vii. 22.

Rev. v. 10.-Vitringa's interpretation of this passage, is very analogous to the one I have adopted. He supposes that the woman, the church, was in pain, and travailed to be delivered of Christ himself, considered as the Governor and Ruler of nations.

The dragon who stood before the woman, is expressly declared to be the Devil. He has seven heads and ten horns, which are the well known emblems of the Roman beast, or fourth kingdom of Daniel, as will be seen afterwards; and Satan is here represented with these emblems, because he acted through the instrumentality of the Roman empire in all his attacks upon the woman and her offspring, and is here considered as seated or enthroned in that empire.* He has seven crowns on his heads, to signify perhaps, that from the beginning to the end of the Roman empire, all its honour and authority are in effect his.

He drew with his tail the third part of the stars of heaven, and cast them to the earth. The tail is the seat of the poison of many venomous animals, and perhaps for that reason it is made, as we have seen already, the emblem or symbol of false prophecies or doctrines. The above action of the dragon seems therefore to signify the extensive influence of his false doctrines in causing the bishops and pastors of the Roman empire to apostatize from the purity of the apostolical faith. It is however inserted here by way of prolepsis, as its accomplishment belongs to a later period.

The dragon stood before the woman, to devour her man-child as soon as it was born; or, in other

* Perquem hic intelligendus est diabolus qualem se ostentaret in Romano populo et imperio. Vitringa in loco.

+ Page 85, 86.

‡ Vide Faber, in loco; from whom this explanation is borrowed. Vitringa supposes that this figure denotes the extensive apostasy among the bishops and pastors of the church, which was occasioned by the great persecution in the reign of Diocletian,

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