The Prophecy being finished, _John_ is inspired anew by the eaten book, and begins the Interpretation thereof with these words, _And the Temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his Temple the Ark of the Testament_. By the Ark, we may know that this was the first Temple; for the second Temple had no Ark. _And there were lightnings, and voices, and thundrings, and an earthquake, and great hail_. These answer to the wars in the _Roman_ Empire, during the reign of the four horsemen, who appeared upon opening the first four seals. _And there appeared a great wonder in heaven, a woman clothed with the Sun_. In the Prophecy, the affairs of the Church begin to be considered at the opening of the fifth seal; and in the Interpretation, they begin at the same time with the vision of the Church in the form of a woman in heaven: there she is persecuted, and here she is pained in travail. The Interpretation proceeds down first to the sealing of the servants of God, and marking the rest with the mark of the Beast; and then to the day of judgment, represented by a harvest and vintage. Then it returns back to the times of opening the seventh seal, and interprets the Prophecy of the seven trumpets by the pouring out of seven vials of wrath. The Angels who pour them out, come out of the _Temple of the Tabernacle_; that is, out of the second Temple, for the Tabernacle had no outward court. Then it returns back again to the times of measuring the Temple and Altar, and of the _Gentiles_ worshiping in the outward court, and of the Beast killing the witnesses in the streets of the great city; and interprets these things by the vision of _a woman sitting on the Beast, drunken with the blood of the Saints_; and proceeds in the interpretation downwards to the fall of the great city and the day of judgment. The whole Prophecy of the book, represented by the book of the Law, is therefore repeated, and interpreted in the visions which follow those of sounding the seventh trumpet, and begin with that of the Temple of God opened in heaven. Only the things, which the seven thunders uttered, were not written down, and therefore not interpreted. Notes to Chap. II. [1] Isa. vi. [2] Apoc. v. [3] Apoc. vii [4] Buxtorf in Synogoga Judaica, c. 18, 21. [5] Ezek. ix. * * * * * CHAP. III. _Of the relation which the Prophecy of _John_ hath to those of _Daniel_; and of the Subject of the Prophecy_.