Here is a plain allusion to the Jewish tabernacle or temple, in which was the holy place, and the holy of holies; into the latter the high priest only entered. There were kept in the ark the two tables of God's law, often called the testimonies of God. From this tabernacle of the testimony proceeded God's oracles, there God gave answers from the mercy-seat, and therefore in the Book of Kings it is called the oracle. The sense some put upon this is: That God here showed unto his prophet the liberty that should be, after the downfal of antichrist, to preach the gospel. But in this sense it must be an anticipation of what orderly should have come in after the pouring out of the vials: I had rather understand it of God's being now about to give out an answer to his people's prayers for a deliverance from the tyranny of antichrist; as the place called the oracle in the Jewish temple was opened when the high priest had been inquiring of God, to give an account of the answer he had.

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