IT

ought to be no prejudice to the credit and authority of this book that

it has been rejected by men of corrupt minds, such as Cerdon and

Marcion, and doubted of by men of a better character; for this has been

the lot of other parts of holy writ, and of the divine Author of the

scripture himself. The image and superscription of this book are truly

sacred and divine, and the matter of it agreeable with other

prophetical books, particularly Ezekiel and Daniel; the church of God

has generally received it, and found good counsel and great comfort in

it. From the beginning, the church of God has been blessed with

prophecy. That glorious prediction of breaking the serpent’s head was

the stay and support of the patriarchal age; and the many prophecies

there were concerning the Messiah to come were the gospel of the Old

Testament. Christ himself prophesied of the destruction of Jerusalem;

and, about the time in which that was accomplished, he entrusted the

apostle John with this book of revelation, to deliver it to the church

as a prediction of the most important events that should happen to it

to the end of time, for the support of the faith of his people and the

direction of their hope. It is called the Revelation, because

God therein discovers those things which could never have been sifted

out by the reasonings of human understanding, those deep things of God

which no man knows, but the Spirit of God, and those to whom he reveals

them.