[561] Trench, _Synonyms_, second series, p. 39.
[562] Comp. pp. 227, 357.
[563] Chap. iv. 3.
[564] Matt. v. 14.
[565] Ps. xxxi. 21; Isa. xxvi. 1.
[566] Ps. xci. 11.
[567] Comp. Ezek. xlviii. 31.
[568] Comp. Ezek. xl. 2, 3.
[569] Chap. xxi. 9.
[570] Ezek. xl. 1, 2.
[571] Ezek. xliii. 2.
[572] Ezek. xliv. 1-3.
[573] _The Apocalypse_, p. 438.
[574] Rom. i. 7; 1 Cor. i. 2; Col. i. 2.
[575] Col. i. 27; 1 Cor. i. 30; Phil. iii. 9.
[576] Eph. v. 25-27.
[577] Eph. i. 3.
[578] Phil. iii. 20.
[579] Heb. xii. 22, 23.
[580] John xiv. 20.
[581] John xvii. 22.
[582] 1 Pet. i. 8.
[583] Comp. Foxley, _Hulsean Lectures_, Lect. i.
[584] Commentary in _Clark's Foreign Theological Library_, _in loc._
REV. xxii. 6-21.
The visions of the Seer have closed, and closed with a picture of the final and complete triumph of the Church over all her enemies. No more glorious representation of what her Lord has done for her could be set before us than that contained in the description of the new Jerusalem. Nothing further can be said when we know that in the garden of Paradise Restored into which she is introduced, in the Holy of holies of the Divine Tabernacle planted in the world, she shall eat of the fruit of the tree of life, drink of the water of life, and reign for ever and ever. Surely as these visions passed before the eye of St. John in the lonely isle of Patmos he would be gladdened with the light of heaven, and would need no more to strengthen him in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ. Was it not too much? The Epilogue of the book assures us that it was not; and that, although the natural eye of man had not seen, nor his ear heard, nor his heart conceived the things that had been spoken of, they had been revealed by the Spirit of God Himself, not one word of whose promises would fail.
And he said unto me, These words are faithful and true: and the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, sent His angel to show unto His servants the things which must shortly come to pass. And, behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the words of the prophecy of this book.
And I John am he that heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which showed me these things. And he saith unto me, See thou do it not: I am a fellow-servant with thee, and with thy brethren the prophets, and with them which keep the words of this book: worship God (xxii. 6-9).
Attention has been already called in this commentary both to that characteristic of St. John's style as a writer which leads him, at a longer or a shorter interval, to the point from which he started, and to the fact that light is thus frequently thrown on the interpretation of what he says.[585] Every illustration of such a point is therefore not only interesting, but important; and in the words before us it is illustrated with more than ordinary clearness.
The person introduced with the words _He said unto me_ is not indeed named, but there can be little doubt that he is the angel spoken of in the Prologue as sent to "signify" the revelation that was to follow.[586]
Again, when the Seer is overwhelmed with what he has seen, and may be said to have almost feared that it was too wonderful for belief, the angel assures him that it was all _faithful and true_. A similar declaration had been made at chap. xix. 9 by the voice which there "came forth from the throne,"[587] and likewise at chap. xxi. 5 by Him "that sitteth on the throne." The angel therefore who now speaks, like the angel of the Prologue, has the authority of this Divine Being for what he says. It is true that in the following words, which seem to come from the same speaker, the angel must thus be understood to refer to himself in the third person, and not, as we might have expected, in the first,--_The Lord sent His angel_, not The Lord sent me. But, to say nothing of the fact that such a method of address is met with in the prophetic style of the Old Testament, it appears to be characteristic of St. John in other passages of his writings. More particularly we mark it in the narrative in the fourth Gospel of the death of Jesus on the Cross: "And he that hath seen hath borne witness, and his witness is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye may believe."[588]