t readeth, and they that hear
the words of this Prophecy, and keep the things which are written therein._
This animated the first _Christians_ to study it so much, till the
difficulty made them remit, and comment more upon the other books of the
New Testament. This was the state of the _Apocalypse_, till the thousand
years being misunderstood, brought a prejudice against it: and _Dionysius_
of _Alexandria_, noting how it abounded with barbarisms, that is with
_Hebraisms_, promoted that prejudice so far, as to cause many _Greeks_ in
the fourth century to doubt of the book. But whilst the _Latins_, and a
great part of the _Greeks_, always retained the _Apocalypse_, and the rest
doubted only out of prejudice, it makes nothing against its authority.

This Prophecy is called _the Revelation_, with respect to _the scripture of
truth_, which _Daniel_ [41] was commanded to _shut up and seal, till the
time of the end_. _Daniel_ sealed it _until the time of the end_; and until
that time comes, the Lamb is opening the seals: and afterwards the two
Witnesses prophesy out of it a long time in sack-cloth, before they ascend
up to heaven in a cloud. All which is as much as to say, that these
Prophecies of _Daniel_ and _John_ should not be understood till the time of
the end: but then some should prophesy out of them in an afflicted and
mournful state for a long time, and that but darkly, so as to convert but
few. But in the very end, the Prophecy should be so far interpreted as to
convince many. _Then_, saith _Daniel, many shall run to and fro, and
knowledge shall be encreased_. For the Gospel must be preached in all
nations before the great tribulation, and end of the world. The
palm-bearing multitude, which come out of this great tribulation, cannot be
innumerable out of all nations, unless they be made so by the preaching of
the Gospel before it comes. There must be a stone cut out of a mountain
without hands, before it can fall upon the toes of the Image, and become a
great mountain and fill the earth. An Angel must fly thro' the midst of
heaven with the everlasting Gospel to preach to all nations, before
_Babylon_ falls, and the Son of man reaps his harvest. The two Prophets
must ascend up to heaven in a cloud, before the kingdoms of this world
become the kingdoms of _Christ_. 'Tis therefore a part of this Prophecy,
that it should not be understood before the last age of the world; and
therefore it makes for the credit of the Proph