the case that it may be doubted whether it contains a single figure not drawn from the Old Testament, or a single complete sentence not more or less built up of materials brought from the same source. . . . It is a perfect mosaic of passages from the Old Testament, at one time quoted verbally, at an- other referred to by distinct allusion; now taken from one scene in Jewish history, and now again from two or three to- gether.” Thus the heresy of the Nicolaitanes is the heresy of Balaam (ii. 14): the evil in the Church of Thyatira is personi- fied in Jezebel (ii. 20): the angelic captain in the war against the dragon is the Michael of Daniel (xii. 7): Jerusalem, Mount Zion, Babylon, the Euphrates, Sodom, and Egypt are symbols of the holy bliss of the saints, of the transgressors against God, and of the judgment of the wicked (xxi. 2; xiv. 1; xvi. 19; ix. 14; xi. 8). The battle of Har-Magedon carries us back to the great slaughters in the plain of Megiddo (Judges v. 19; Ps. Ixxxill, 9; 2 Kings xxiii. 29). The promises to the churches are given under the figure of the tree of life, the hidden manna, the white stone, the iron sceptre, the pillar in the tem- ple of God (ii. 7, 17, 27, 28; iii. 5,12, 20). Heaven is de- scribed under the image of the tabernacle in the wilderness (xi. 1,19; vi. 9; vill. 3; iv. 6). The plagues of ch. viii. are the plagues of Egypt: the crossing of the Red Sea and the destruc- tion of Korah are blended in the representation of the deliver- ance of God’s people (xii. 15, 16). Of the Prophets, Haggai contributes the earthquake of ch. vi., and Joel the sun changed into the blackness of sackcloth and the moon into blood : Isaiah the falling stars, the fig-tree casting her untimely fruit, and the heavens departing as a scroll: Ezekiel the scorpions of ch. ix., the description of the New Jerusalem in ch. xxi. the roll in ch. v., and the little book in ch. x.: Zechariah the opening of the seals in ch. vi. and the olive trees in ch. xi. The vision of the glorified Redeemer (i. 12-20) is combined from Exodus, Zechariah, Daniel, Ezekiel, Isaiah, and the Psalms.
Along with these coincidences there are certain contrasts, notably as respects the doctrine of Christ’s coming, which, in the Gospel and Epistles lies in the background, while it is the main theme of the Apocalypse. The Apocalypse treats the