I. The occasion of it —
This is particularly adverted to in our text — •
[There was " in the hand of him who sat upon the throne a book written both within and without, and sealed with seven seals." To conceive of this book aright, we must bear in mind, that it was a volume, rolled up, and consisting of seven parts, each rolled within another, and having a distinct seal alfixed to it, so tliat the contents of one only could be known at a time, the opening of the first making a way for the second, and th.e second for the third, and so on in succession through- out the whole "*. But to open the book, and loose tlie seals thereof, was beyond the power of any created being : there was " not one found worthy of this honour in heaven, or in earth, or under the earths" On this account, the Apostle tells us, " he wept much." He had no doubt but the con- tents of that book were of infinite importance to the Church and to the world, because it contained a record of God's secret purposes respecting both the one and the other to the end of time; and, it was not from the disappointment of an idle curiosity that he wept, but from an apprehension that God would be less glorified by the concealment of his purposes than by a revelation of them to his Church.
To his great joy, however, One was found, who was "wor- thy to open this book," even the Lord Jesus Christ, who was here characterized as " The Lion of the tribe of Judah, and as the Root of David." Under the former character, the Messiah had been revealed to Jacob*" ; and under the latter, to David, as David's Lord ^ But it was under a new character that he prevailed to open the book, even as " a Lamb that had been slain," even as that Lamb of God, that having offered himself a sacrifice for the sins of men, yet bears upon his person the marks of all the cruelties and indignities that he suffered upon the cross. Yet, though bearing these marks of his humilia- tion, he is represented as " having seven horns, and seven eyes," even all perfection of power and of wisdom also, of which there is none in the whole universe, that does not ema- nate from him : for from him proceeds the Holy Spirit, in all his diversified influences and operations, " to the utmost ends of the earth ^"
This glorious Person " went to him that sat upon the throne ; and took the book out of his hand," in order to loose the seal* thereof, and to open its contents : And immediately the living creatures and the Elders burst forth into the song of praise. What occasion tliis circumstance afforded them for their song,
will
•• ver. 1, with Ch. vi, 1 — 12. & viii, 1.
' ver. 2, 3. ^ Gen. xlix. 9, 10.
• See Isai. xi. 10. &: Vs. ex. 1. ' The text.