From Book: A New Literal Translation From the Original Greek of All the Apostolical Epistles, Essay VIII,
"Concerning The Right Interpretation of the Writings in which the Revelations of God are Contained", p. 702, 1841.

The beasts of the field had shadow under it, and the fowls of the air dwelt in the boughs thereof.' — In the same dream, the punishment which God was to inflict on that proud prince for his impiety and other sins, was allegorically represented by the hewing down of that great tree, the cutting off of its branches, the driving away of the beasts from under it, and of the fowls from its branches, On this symbol our Lord formed his parable of the grain of mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his field, whereby he allegorically represented the wide spreading of the kingdom of heaven, or gospel dispensation, and its beneficial influence on the happiness of mankind : Matt, xiii. 32, ' Which indeed is the least of all seeds, but when it is grown it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree ; so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof.'

Of the allegorical dream formed on an arbitrary symbol, we have an example in the great and terrible image which stood before Nebuchadnezzar in his dream, recorded Dan. ii. 31, and which, by the different materials of which it was composed, represented the four great empires which were to rule the nations of the earth in succession.

The head of this image, which was of fine gold, signified the Babylonian empire; its breast and its arms of silver, signified the Medo-Persian empire; its belly and its thighs of brass, the Grecian empire; and its legs of iron, and its feet part of iron and part of clay, the Roman empire in its different states. And whereas this great image was broken in pieces by a stone, which was cut out of a mountain without hands, and which afterwards became itself a great mountain and filled the whole earth, that accident signified the utter destruction of these idolatrous kingdoms, to make way for a kingdom which the God of heaven was to set up, and which was never to be destroyed. The order in which these four empires were to arise, and the peculiar qualities by which they were to be distinguished, were shewed to Daniel himself, chap. vii. 2, in an allegorical vision, formed on the arbitrary symbols of four beasts which arose out of the great sea, after it was violently agitated by storms, and whose forms and qualities were different from any beasts known to exist. See an interpretation of that vision in my Truth of the Gospel History, p. 219.

The living creatures which Ezekiel saw in his vision, chap. i, were still more monstrous, and unlike anything in nature, than the beasts in Daniel's vision. Each of them had four faces, namely, the face of a man, of a lion, of an ox, and of an eagle. Their feet were straight with soles, like those of calves' feet. They had the hands of a man under their wings, and their appearance was that of burning coals of fire from which went flashes of lightning. They were accompanied with wheels of the colour of beryl. Each wheel had a wheel within it, and their rings were so high that they were dreadful, and had eyes round about; and when the living creatures went, the wheels went; for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels. The likeness of the firmament, which was stretched over the heads of the living creatures, was as the colour of chrystal. And above the firmament was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone ; and upon the throne, the likeness of the appearance of a man above upon it. His loins downward had the appearance of fire, like the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain.

This allegorical vision not being accompanied with an interpretation, its meaning cannot be determined with any certainty. Only, as the prophet in the conclusion of his account of it says, ver. 18, ' This was the appearance of the likeness of tie glory of the Lord ;' and insinuates, that the things spoken to him, which are mentioned in the following chapters, proceeded from this appearance, it may perhaps be conjectured, that the vision was an enigmatical representation of the attributes of the Deity exerted in the government of the world ; and that that representation was formed by the union of a number of symbols, whose meaning those who understood the ancient picture-writing knew, but which we, whose knowledge of that sort of writing is extremely imperfect, cannot pretend to explain.

It remains to observe, that in foretelling future events, especially those which were of an extensive nature, and at a great distance in point of time, the Spirit of God thought proper to make use of allegorical dreams and visions, rather than of plain verbal descriptions, for the following reasons : — 1. These dreams and visions, whether formed on known or on arbitrary symbols, were naturally so dark, even when accompanied with an interpretation, as not to be distinctly understood till they were explained by their fulfilment. This darkness I think was necessary to prevent unbelievers from pretending that the prophecy, by exciting persons to do the things foretold, occasioned its own accomplishment. — 2. The images of which these allegorical dreams and visions were composed, being all objects of eight, they made a much more lively and forcible impression on the minds of the prophets, than it was possible to do by words ; consequently, they could be more distinctly remembered, and more accurately related to others, than if the qualities and actions of the persons represented by the symbols in the dream or vision, had been expressed in a verbal description. — 3. The facility with which the representations in an allegorical dream or vision could be remembered, and the precision with which they could be related in all their circumstances, rendered the transmission of them to posterity as matters of fact easy. And although the meaning of these dreams and visions was not understood by those to whom they were related, yet being of such a nature as to make a strong impression on all to whom they were related, when they came to be explained by their accomplishment, the inspiration of the prophet who had the dream or vision was rendered undeniable, and the sovereignty of God in the government of the world was raised beyond all possibility of doubt.


To render speech forcible and affecting, mankind, in all ages and countries, have been in use to accompany their words with such gestures and actions as indicated the sentiments and feelings of their mind. This was the custom more especially in the first ages of the world, when the primitive languages were not sufficiently copious, and men's passions were under little restraint. Hence the eastern nations, whose imaginations were warm, and whose tempers were lively, early delighted in this method of communicating their sentiments and feelings ; and even after their language became so copious as not to need that extrinsic aid, they still continued to express their sentiments in the same way. Nay, all savage nations at this day express their strongest feelings by accompanying their words with significant actions, which shews that the custom is founded in nature. — The scriptures furnish many instances of this custom. For example, to render promissory oaths more solemn binding, the person who sware the oath put his hand under the thigh of him to whom he sware. Gen. xxiv. 2, 'Abraham said unto his eldest servant of his house, — Put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh; 3, And I will make thee swear by the Lord the God of heaven, and the God of the earth, that thou will not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the Canaanites.'

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