With these preliminaries, and expressing my obligation to the Doctor's
labors, to whose system of interpretation as well as to most of his
details, I cheerfully give my approbation in preference to all other
expositors whose works it has been in my power to consult; it is
proposed briefly to review some of his expositions and sentiments, from
which I crave liberty to dissent. "It is not the interest of any man to
be in error."
In his interpretation of the seals and trumpets of the Apocalypse, Dr.
M'Leod has unquestionably corrected many misapprehensions of his learned
predecessors, especially Bishop Newton and Mr. Faber: and it is perhaps
to be regretted that he did not favor the public with his view of the
vials also, a work which he seems to have had in contemplation when the
"Lectures" were published. The three last named interpreters did
certainly improve upon the expositions of all who went before them in
this field of investigation; and in most cases of disagreement the
Doctor excelled in accuracy the other two, as will readily appear on
careful examination.
In attempting to ascertain the import of the mystic "witnesses," as of
the Antichrist, expositors widely differ. Bishop Newton says
positively,--"The witnesses cannot be ... any two churches." Mr. Faber
is equally peremptory, that they "must be two churches," and he attempts
to sustain his position by many citations of Scripture, and by much
plausible argumentation. The Bishop is substantially correct in saying,
"They are a succession of men, and a succession of churches." Mr. Faber
is also correct in the main when he says,--"The two witnesses signify
the spiritual members of the catholic church:" but his notion of _two
churches_, the "Old and New Testament churches," betrays his imperfect
conception of the _essential unity_ of the church of God. Both he and
the Bishop overlook too often the important fact that civil magistracy
is a divine ordinance, which, as corrupted, constitutes the first beast
of the Apocalypse, and the most prominent feature of the great
Antichrist.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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