We can easily form to ourselves a correct idea of the outward form of the symbol resorted to in these words. The same symbol is used by the prophet Ezekiel, and in circumstances in some respects precisely analogous to those of the Seer. Ezekiel had just beheld his first vision of the cherubim. "And when I looked," he says, "behold, an hand was put forth unto me; and, lo, a roll of a book was therein; and He spread it before me; and it was written within and without."[107] In both cases it is not a "book," but a _roll_, like the sacred rolls of the synagogue, that is presented to the prophet's eye, the difference being that in the Apocalypse we read of the roll being _close sealed with seven seals_. This addition is due to the higher, more sublime, and more momentous nature of the mysteries contained in it. That it is _written within and on the back_, so that there is no space for further writing, shows that it contains the whole counsel of God with regard to the subject of which it treats. It is the word of Him who is the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last; and the seven seals are so fastened to the roll that one of them may be broken at a time, and no more of the contents disclosed than belonged to that particular seal. What also the contents of the roll are we learn from the contents of the seals as they are successively disclosed in the following chapters. As yet the Seer does not know them. He knows only that they are of the deepest interest and importance; and he looks anxiously around to see if any one can be found who may break the seals and unfold their mysteries. No such person can be discovered either _in heaven_, _or on the earth_, _or under the earth_. No one will even dare to look upon the roll; and the sorrow of the Seer was so deepened by this circumstance that he _wept much_.