LONDON
LONDON:
GILBERT & RIVINGTON, PRINTERS,
ST. JOHN’S SQUARE.
“Blessed is he that readeth, (or interpreteth) and they that
hear, (or listen to him that interpreteth) the words of this Prophecy, and keep
those things which are written therein, for the time is at hand.”—
That is, the time is even now come, when those things have begun to be fulfilled, and they will be fulfilled more and more from day to day.
or,
The synchronism and order of the Apocalyptical Prophecies, according to the things transacted, on no hypothetical interpretation, nor preconjecture about the events; but firmly demonstrated from the very characters of the visions themselves, purposely inserted by the Holy Spirit, and offered to examination according to a self-evident scheme: so that it may prove, as it were, a Thesean clew to those who are involved in this sacred labyrinth, and a Lydian stone to discover the true, and to refute every erroneous interpretation.
1. I CALL a synchronism of the prophecies a concurrence of events predicted therein within the same time; which may be called a contemporary or coetaneous period; for prophecies of contemporary things synchronize.
2. The order of the seals and of the trumpets included under them, is certain and indubitable; namely, that which the number points out from I. to VII. When the rest of the prophecies are compared with one another, and then with the seals by synchronism, the order of the whole Apocalypse will be manifest; and this, with God’s assistance, we now proceed to exhibit.
O thou that sittest on the throne, and thou, O Lamb, the root
and the offspring
Of the Woman driven into the Wilderness.
Of the Seven-Headed Beast restored.
Of the Outer Court trodden down by the Gentiles.
Of the Witnesses on Earth prophesying in Sackcloth.
IT is from hence that I begin, and my first synchronism shall be
that of the remarkable quaternion
The truth of this synchronism is almost evident of itself, and
seems capable of being confirmed, as it generally is, by the very equality of the
periods; for a time, times, and half a time, i. e. three years and a half
(as appears from the collation of the
But because it does not necessarily follow, (though in visions presented at the same time it is extremely probable) that equal times are also synchronic, since equality does not prevent some things being prior, and some subsequent to others, the character of equality will not be adapted to compel reluctant assent; I will search, therefore, for characters elsewhere, from which I may put an end to the matter by clear and irrefragable demonstration.
Of the Beast and the Woman.
The times of the beast and of the woman residing in the wilderness,
begin from one and the same point; namely, from the red dragon’s being conquered,
and cast out on the earth. As therefore they are equal, they must of necessity run
together through the whole period, and at length complete their course together.
That the times of each commence from the same point or terminus, is evident from
the 12th chapter; since as soon as the dragon is cast out by Michael, the woman
flies from his face into the wilderness, and the dragon being angry, that he had
in vain attempted to overwhelm her, as she was departing thither, went to make war
on the remnant of her seed, with those whom she was about to bring forth in the
wilderness
Of the Beast and the Prophecy of the Witnesses.
The times of the beast and of the prophecy of the witnesses being also equal, finish together at the end of the sixth trumpet. It is manifest that they began together, and were contemporary through the whole intervening space.
Now that the times of the beast, and of the witnesses of God
prophesying in sackcloth
Of the Witnesses and Court (or Holy City) occupied by the Gentiles.
It is plain that the times of the witnesses and of the court
(or Holy City) occupied by the Gentiles,
This synchronism is not wont to be called in question by any one that I know or recollect.
Of the Witnesses, Court, Beast, and Woman.
If the treading down of the court and Holy City be contemporary with the prophecy of the witnesses, it will be contemporary likewise with the beast with whom the witnesses contemporize, and therefore with the woman in the wilderness also, with whom the beast contemporizes. So that the woman in the wilderness, the dominion of the beast, the conculcation of the Holy City, and the prophecy of the witnesses, all synchronize with one another.
SYNCHRONISM II.
Of the Two-Horned Beast (who is also the False Prophet), with the Ten-Horned Beast (who is likewise called the Image of the Beast).
The two-horned beast is the founder, or re-establisher of the
seven-headed beast, crowned with a diadem of ten horns, which, in fact, after his
deadly wound, he restored to the image of his former state, to the great detriment
of the saints, and who became possessed of power for forty-two months. Having done
which, he exercises all his power before him, and shows forth, or performs, great
wonders in his sight. But at length, this same two-horned beast (which John otherwise
calls the false prophet), together with the other beast, in whose sight he wrought
miracles, are taken as inseparable companions, and are both cast alive into the
lake of fire burning with brimstone. Since, therefore, the ten-horned beast (for
so I may be permitted to call the seven-headed beast when reinstated, for the sake
of perspicuity), and the two-horned false prophet are not separated from each other
either in their origin or destruction; but the one administers the power of the other, ενωπιον αυτου; that is, in his presence; who does not perceive that they are necessarily
contemporary through
APPENDIX.
On the alternate Use of the Names of the Beast and False Prophet; as also of the Beast and Image of the Beast.
The title of the synchronism reminds us of both. And first, Iræneus
has observed, that,
And that what I have said is the right interpretation of the
image of the beast, the first proof I would bring is, that it is said,
Of the great Harlot, or Mystic Babylon, with the same Seven-headed and Ten-horned Beast.
1. The time of the beast is the time of the wilderness. (Syn. i. s. 1.) Now, the harlot is seen by John in the wilderness; but this description is not of much force.
2. The ten-horned beast carries the harlot or adulteress, and the harlot sits on the beast: therefore, both exist at one and the same time.
3. The ten horns of the beast (which, in truth, spring from its highest and
last head,) and under whose dominion alone the harlot manages the beast, and
the beast carries the harlot, (the times of the other heads having been previously
completed after it revived as from a deadly wound); these ten horns, I say, “are ten kings
Of the Hundred and Forty-four Thousand Sealed, who were Virgins, with the Babylonian Harlot and the Beast.
1. In the first place, they are called virgins, and are praised
on that account, because they had not defiled themselves with meretricious embraces.
They coincide, therefore, with the meretricious times of the Babylonian harlot,
2. Out of this virgin choir proceed those who denounce the ruin of Babylon, and who deter men from all communion with the beast, his image, and mark. Therefore, the virgin assembly is contemporary with Babylon and the beast.
3. These, lastly, are those that are called the chosen and faithful attendants on the Lamb, accompanied by whom, he wages war with the kings, or horns, of the Babylonian beast, and who, under his auspices, (as King of kings and Lord of lords,) will at length obtain the victory. For those words, relative to the Lord of lords and King of kings, ought, I think, to be read in a parenthesis, where the angel says, “These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them, (for he is Lord of lords and King of kings,) and they who are with him, are called, and chosen, and faithful;” that is, the Lamb, and those who are with him, called, and elect, and faithful, shall overcome the Babylonish kings.
4. But these observations are not sufficient for the firm establishment of
a complete contemporary agreement; for all these things may be consistent with
partial contemporation. I therefore proceed, in the following manner, to demonstrate
that the
5. Moreover, with respect to the close of the contemporary period,
that may be proved from
A Corollary of the General Synchronism of all the circumstances previously enumerated.
It follows that the revived, or ten-horned beast is contemporary with the woman in the wilderness, with the conculcation of the Holy City, and with the lamentation of the witnesses, during the same period, Synch. I. The two-horned beast with the ten-horned beast, Synch. II. The harlot with both, Synch. III. The virgin company of those who are sealed with the harlot and the beast, Synch. IV. Therefore all synchronize with each other.
Of the Measure of the Interior Court by the Reed of God, with the Snares of the Seven-headed Dragon, and his Battle with Michael concerning the Birth of the Child.
These are the nearest antecedents of contemporary events; the battle of the dragon and the birth of the child, with the habitation of the woman in the wilderness, and the rise of the ten-horned beast. The interior court, (for what is said of the temple of God, of the altar of incense, and of the priests worshipping there according to custom, is a periphrasis of this expression,) to the exterior court, or that of the people, where the nations are represented to have been unjustly and unlawfully housed as in a stable.
To prove this: In the first place, both the delivery of the
woman, and the battle of the dragon with Michael, impinge on the same termination,
viz. the flight of the woman into the wilderness, which is said to have followed
next to the act of both: For the woman, as soon as she had brought forth a son,
“fled into the wilderness,” there to be nourished for 1260 days. In like manner,
when the dragon was cast out, the woman “fled into the wilderness, there to be
nourished from the face of the serpent, for a
And thus far the matter is plain and obvious; but of the antecedence of the interior to the outer court, (which alone remains to the completion of the synchronism,) the mode of proof is a little more difficult, because the subject has long been otherwise understood, and is therefore impeded by prejudices.
The inner court, in consequence of the structure of the temple,
precedes the outer court in situation and order, as being nearest to the throne
of God, or τῷ Ναῷ, the head of the whole
Now that there is an indication of different times relative to
the courts, and consequently that the indication of the interior court is more ancient,
and prior to the other, I thus farther demonstrate. Because this vision of the measurement
of the court of the temple and altar, or of the inner court, is the beginning of
a repeated prophecy, which, indeed, (as will soon be more fully shown,) rehearses
from the beginning, and as it were above, the times of the prophecy of the seals,
whose commencement no one can have doubted, must be sought for from that epoch of
the apocalyptical period. “You must prophesy” (says he) “again,” (thus he explains
the symbol of the eaten book) “before many people, and nations, and tongues, and
kings.” “Πάλιν,” that is, in a renewed
order of the times of which he had before prophesied. But he begins from the
measurement of the temple and altar of incense, and of those who worshipped
there. If, then, the vision concerning the delivery
Now, these three events—the habitation of the woman in the wilderness,
the ten-horned beast, and the outer court trodden down by the Gentiles, appear to
be contemporary from the first synchronism: therefore the times of the inner court
measured, and the delivery of the woman, together with the wiles of the dragon,
and the battle with Michael, being the nearest
Of the Seven Phials; with the Beast and Babylon declining to their Fall.
The effusion of the phials brings ruin and destruction on the
beast, as is manifest from the text. For the conquerors of the beast sing the
song of Moses, ἐπινίκιον or the song of victory.
PART II.
I have completed the First Part in Seven Synchronisms: The other
Part, that of the Seals, follows, in which I will demonstrate the connexion of all
the prophecies which have been hitherto recited; and if there are any besides,
of those likewise with the seals, in as many other synchronisms: Whence it will
plainly appear, (and it may be adduced as a matter very worthy of observation, and,
unless I am deceived, of no small consequence in the subsequent interpretation,)
that the whole Apocalypse, from the fourth chapter, (for I introduce nothing now
about the seven churches,) is divided into two principal prophecies, of which each
commences from the same epoch, and, as it were, from one barrier, and ends at the
same goal. The first is that of the seals, and in them of the trumpets, for the
seventh seal is the seal of the trumpets, which I take every where for granted,
from the grammatical sense of the context. For it is not to be supposed that the
order of sense is preserved in all the other seals, but is unsuitable to the seventh
alone, as what is submitted to view on the opening of a seal, that is, τὸ πρᾶγμα, the subject of the seal. Now, the vision of the seven
Moreover, it will not perhaps be unworthy of the reader’s attention, that at the beginning of each of those visions, as well of the first of all the visions, that of the seven churches, as of three entire prophecies, the commencement is proclaimed by “the voice, as it were, of a trumpet talking with St. John;” as if the Holy Spirit meant to distinguish them by this mark from other prophecies, which are parts of these principal ones, in which you will see nothing of a similar nature.
Now, these are the beginnings of the prophecies to which I allude.
Of the vision of the seven churches, in these words: “I was in the spirit on the
Lord’s day, and I heard a great voice behind me, as of a trumpet, saying,” &c.
Thus far is prefatory, and, as I hope, not foreign from the subject of which we are treating. The Synchronisms now follow.
Of the Seventh Seal, which relates to the first Six Trumpets; with the Ten-horned and Two-horned Beast, and other contemporary matters.
And first, the beginning of the beast is contemporary with the beginning of the seventh seal, which is that of the trumpets.
Since the assembly of those who were scaled, as the antithesis
or opposite of the reign of the beast, synchronizes rightly and exactly with the
beast; and since the same assembly begins with the opening of the seventh seal,
or that of the
Now, it has been already shown by Synch. IV. Part I. that the assembly of the sealed must be altogether and exactly contemporary with the beast. That the same assembly begins with the seventh seal, is plain from the seventh chapter, where the act of sealing immediately follows the sixth seal; since, as soon as the vision of the sixth seal is finished, and when the seventh, which is that of the trumpets, is just about to open, attention is paid to the elect servants of God by the impression of a seal, that they might not be destroyed by the storm of calamities which was brooding over the earthly globe.
Now, the four angels who presided over the four quarters of the
world, were just ready to let loose the winds (which they had hitherto restrained),
at the sound of the trumpets. Attention must likewise be paid to the sound of the
fifth trumpet,
Now it has just been demonstrated, Part I. Synch. I. s. 3. that
the forty-two months of the beast, in the same manner as the 1260 days of the mourning
of the witnesses, contemporary with them, must finish at the close of the sixth
trumpet, as it is shown from the
Moreover, lest a scruple should occur to any one, that those
things which are related in the text, of the consternation of the beast, of the
ruin of the city, and of the slaughter of men occasioned by the earthquake, by no
means appear as if they ought to be understood of the total abolition of the beast; I say that this is not requisite for that synchronism of which we have been treating;
but that they should be
And so it will be manifest, that by this cardinal synchronism well established, the rest may be easily deduced from it and connected with the seals.
Of the contemporary term of the Interior Court, and the Battle between the Dragon and Michael concerning the Man Child, with the first Six Seals.
Because they are the events next antecedent to the contemporary
ones which succeed them; for the six first seals are the nearest antecedents
Of the Phials with the Sixth Trumpet.
The seven phials of the last wrath of God, since they are so
many gradations of the ruin and fall of the beast, must necessarily begin from the
commencement of this ruin and fall. But the kingdom of the beast, while the sixth
trumpet was yet sounding, had so far begun to be undermined, and had proceeded to
such an extent of ruin, that at the end of the same trumpet the power which was
given it to exercise dominion, and to overcome the saints for forty-two months,
was finished. But the beast could not have fallen to such a state of ruin and fatal
calamity before the fifth phial at least was poured out, for then it appears at
length that his seat was shaken, and his kingdom darkened. Therefore five, at least,
of the phials are poured
Of the Thousand Years in which the Dragon or Satan is bound, with the Seventh Trumpet, or the Interval from the Destruction of the Beast.
That this account of the binding of Satan may be better understood, it must be premised for a demonstration that it is said in the text, Satan was not only cast into the abyss, but shut up there, and that the angel set a seal upon him, that he might no longer seduce the nations until the 1000 years were completed. For it was the custom of the Hebrews and neighbouring nations, when they wished to have a door firmly secured and barred up, to affix a seal to it.
Thus king Darius sealed with his signet and the signet of his
nobles, the stone which was placed over the den of lions into which Daniel was cast.
In the story in the Apocrypha, the servants of Daniel shut the doors of the Temple
You will find none of these things in the 12th. On the other
hand, of what alone is narrated in the 12th chapter of the casting down the dragon
Argument 1.—Under the first six seals the dragon, or Satan,
was free and at large, and also under the first six trumpets of the seventh seal.
It follows, therefore, that the 1000 years for which Satan is bound, are brought
within the seventh trumpet. That Satan or the dragon was not bound while the first
six seals were yet running their course, is plain from this circumstance,
that in all that interval, as a red dragon with his seven heads and crowns, he was
contending with Michael about the offspring of the woman, as was just now demonstrated.
But neither did this take place under the first six trumpets of the following seal; for this is the period of the woman in the wilderness, and of the domination of
the ten-horned beast, as appears from Synch. I. of this Part. In truth,
So the thousand years of Satan’s bondage, in order that he might no longer deceive the nations, cannot be placed under the first six seals, nor under the first six trumpets. They must consequently be referred to the seventh trumpet.
Argument 2.—Afterwards, when the thousand years are finished,
and Satan, having been loosed from his prison for a short time, had excited new
commotions, the rabble of deceived nations which he had collected having been consumed
by fire sent down from heaven, he himself being taken
Nor let any shrewd person say, by way of evasion, that there
is no difference between this war of the
Since the war then in which the beast and the false prophet,
when captured, are cast into a lake of fire, is different from the last, to which
Satan, who was to be finally cast into the same lake, had excited the nations immediately
after his liberation, it must have been waged either within the thousand years,
or before they began. But within the thousand years it could not be waged, because
so long Satan is said to have been shut up in the abyss, that he might not deceive
the nations any longer until the thousand years were completed;
Argument 3.—Lastly, since, during the thousand years in which Satan is detained in custody, Christ may be said to have reigned with his followers over that august and magnificent kingdom, therefore, by the same arguments and marks by which the synchronism of the one is established, that of the other will be confirmed. That this august kingdom of Christ then begins with the seventh trumpet, or from the destruction of the beast, it is now our business to show.
Of the Thousand Years of the august Kingdom of Christ, and of the Seventh Trumpet, or the Interval from the Destruction of the Beast.
That extraordinary and august kingdom of Christ, repeatedly mentioned
in the Apocalypse, and of whose approach the chorus of animated beings and elders
rejoicing together, are wont to sing hymns and doxologies to God, every
2. The same likewise farther appears from the paean of the elders
and living creatures, which
3. But most clearly of all does it appear, from
This is that consummation of the mystery of God, proclaimed by
the prophets, which, at the sounding of the seventh trumpet, the angel had before
predicted should come to pass; when neither the months of the beast, nor the days
of the witnesses in mourning, nor any part of the period of “a time, and times,
and half a time,” should remain to be completed, precisely according
Whoever desires a farther confirmation, let him apply the characters of the foregoing synchronism to the present; for they afford, as I have said, mutual corroboration to each other.
Of the New Jerusalem, the Spouse of the Lamb, with the Seventh Trumpet, or the Period from the Destruction of the Beast.
The marriage of the Lamb, and the august kingdom of the Lord
God Omnipotent, both begin from the fall of Babylon, from whence the seventh trumpet
begins. This appears from the hymn of the elders and living creatures, which are
quoted in the former synchronism,
2. New Jerusalem is the beloved city; but that beloved city, as soon as the
thousand years are finished, is said to be compassed out by the. last forces
of Satan, then set at liberty.
3. As soon as the seventh phial has been poured out, “a great voice
proceeded from the Throne, saying, Γέγονε, It is done,
4. One of the angels of the phials,
Of the Palm-bearing Multitude of Persons innumerable, rejoicing in triumph, out of all nations, and kindreds, and peoples, and tongues; with the Seventh Trumpet, or Period after the Destruction of the Beast.
I. The palm-bearing multitude immediately succeeds the company
of a hundred and forty-four thousand sealed; but that company which
The palm-bearing multitude are citizens of the new Jerusalem; for of both it is said, “that they shall not hunger any more, nor thirst any more; that the Lamb shall feed them, and lead them to living fountains of waters; and that God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.”
Now, the new Jerusalem is contemporary with the seventh trumpet, and therefore the palm-bearing multitude is so likewise.
The epoch of the Apocalypse, as far as it is a prophecy of the
future, whether you are inclined to consider it as commencing from the beginning
of Christianity, or from the ruin of the Jewish polity and church, or from the moment
of time in which the revelation was made to St. John, or in whatever way it may
be understood, (for I will not act as an interpreter, when I recollect
The universal resurrection of the dead, and the last judgment
with Gehenna follow the thousand years of the kingdom and the condemnation of Satan,
Paradise follows the description of New Jerusalem, through which runs a river like Eden, winds about here and there, having in the midst
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be extracted, compared, and demonstrated, with the supposition and assistance of any given interpretation.
2. Then, besides, as it is the custom in historical works, that many different transactions which took place together and at the same time, with many other transactions, cannot, notwithstanding, be related together, but separately and in succession; so likewise it is usual, in the case of those prophecies and visions of things performed, (but displayed in the most commodious and wisest order,) that they would be altogether in the wrong who would proceed to interpret the Apocalypse in such a manner, as if the events succeeded each other always in the same order and series as the visions.
3. By successfully examining the meaning of the Apocalyptical visions,
the series and connexion in the chief of them among each other, according to
the events, being investigated by remarkable characters and marks, and demonstrated
by internal arguments, is to be constituted as the basis and foundation of all
solid and legitimate interpretation. For the order itself is to be confirmed,
not according to the will of the interpreter, (as we see unadvisedly done by
many,) on account of some congruity of the interpretation, but every interpretation
is to be tried by the characters of the synchronisms,
5. Now, O Reader, such an Apocalyptical Key, or Compass, (if
you prefer calling it so,) according to the measure of intelligence with which a
good and beneficent God has favoured
6. And lest you should be inclined to doubt whether there is
any one of all the visions in the Apocalypse to be found on which you can safely
fix your foot, in the manner I have pointed out, and from thence, as from some station
or watch-tower, measure the rest of the Apocalypse, lo! on this very point a discovery
has been made by the Holy Spirit, in that illustrious vision of the great harlot; in truth, the only one of all
What would you wish for more? Here then, having invoked the Father of Lights, enter; and having entered, apply the key to unlock the remainder. Make a trial; and when you have tried, you will confess that this prophecy is most admirable, and that when the subject is thoroughly investigated, there is none of the Old Testament, not even that of Daniel, (so it becomes the Gospel,) which can be compared with it for certainty, either in the singular contrivance of its manifestation, or in the mode and manner of discovering its interpretation.
Lastly, I will intreat of you, O Reader, who may meet with this
work, that if you shall perceive any thing perchance to have been revealed to me,
while an attentive observer, which may be of service to yourself or others, in the
understanding of these mysteries, you would refer it wholly to the mercy of God,
bestowed upon me; to whom I likewise shall never cease to return my grateful thanks
for the slenderest raylet of His wisdom; but whatever may be erroneous, that I
beseech you to impute to myself alone, a man of very little ability, and
Blessing, and honour, and glory be unto Him that sitteth on the Throne, and to the Lamb, for ever and ever!
THE FIRST PART
Of the Apocalyptical Commentaries, according to the Rule of the Apocalyptical Key, on the First Prophecy which is contained in the Seals and Trumpets; with an Introduction concerning the Scene of the Apocalypse.
As it is my design to investigate the meaning of the Apocalyptical
visions, it is requisite for me to treat, in the first place, of that celestial
theatre to which John was called, in order to behold them, exhibited as on a
stage, and afterwards
O Christ! the Wisdom of God! to whom “the Revelation was given by the Father, to show unto us his servants things which must come to pass,” illuminate my mind with Thy bright beams, cleanse me from impurity by Thy blood. Grant me, with Thy assistance, and with the Spirit for my guide, to investigate these abstruse mysteries, and to explain them to others!
I give the name of Apocalyptical theatre to that august session
of God and the Church, described in the fourth chapter, and exactly conformable
to the type of the ancient encampment of Israel in the desert, which will be fully
manifest on comparing the disposition of one with the other. Thus, in the midst
of the camp of Israel, was placed the tabernacle. The Levites were stationed nearest
the camp; and after the Levites, to the four quarters of the world, the rest of
the assembly of Israel, marshalled under four standards, three tribes being disposed
under one standard, and receiving its name from the first tribe of its cohort. Each
standard exhibited a signal, which, though Moses only mentions in a general manner,
and does not always express what figure was inscribed on each standard, yet the
Hebrews, from the ancient traditions of their
On the east was the standard of Judah, with his associate tribes, under the sign of a Lion.
On the west the standard of Ephraim, under the sign of an Ox.
On the south that of Reuben, under the sign of a Man.
On the north that of Dan, under the sign of an Eagle.
Aben Ezra observes on
If any one should be very curious to inquire on what account
the figures of these animals were selected for this purpose, besides what may be
deduced, not improperly, from the blessing of Judah and Ephraim, the writers on
the Talmud
Nor would it be very difficult to collect, from the position
of Ezekiel, and the cherubim in that vision, with respect to each other, to which
quarter of the world each face of the cherubim was directed: For when Ezekiel,
with his countenance turned to the north, saw the cherubim, as it were, coming forth
to meet him, undoubtedly that which then appeared before him was the anterior and
direct face of the cherubim, namely, that of a man, and consequently the face of
the man looked towards the south: Whence it follows, that what is said to have
been on the right hand of Ezekiel, the face of the lion, looked
And the same reason induces us to believe that those cherubim
which overshadowed the ark of God, in the recess of the temple, were of a similar,
that is, of a quadriform face, especially, since it may be proved, that this was
the fact with regard to those which were engraven on the walls of the temple; because
in the same prophet,
We have seen the Israelitish encampment of God: Now let us see
how the Apocalyptic Assembly conforms to it in every respect.
Do not these particulars answer exactly to each other? First,
as to the tabernacle: That the throne here placed in the midst, on which
I know not, however, whether we may not be allowed to conjecture
that an allusion is here made to that more ancient laver of the Mosaic tabernacle,
since that also is reported to have been constructed of looking-glass, of I know
not what substance; viz. of the looking-glasses of the women assembling at the
door of the tabernacle. But you may see the temple remarkably described under the
title of the throne of God.
And that it was a throne of this kind, which John saw placed
in the midst of the elders and
Moreover, in this throne or temple, lest any doubt should remain,
the place of God’s seat, (or, as the Greek interpreters speak of the throne
2. Four-and-twenty elders, in the next place,
3. At a proper distance behind the elders, where lines drawn
through the middle of the throne bisect its sides on every part of the circumference,
towards the four cardinal points of heaven, four living creatures were seen; the
first in the figure of a lion, the second of an ox, (for μόσχος is an ox with the
Hellenists,) the third in the likeness of a man, the fourth of a flying eagle, representing
doubtless the Christian churches towards the four parts of the world, and answering
to the four Israelitish camps, which bore standards of the same animals. For what
is called in the Apocalyptic text, a little obscurely, “in the midst of the throne,
and round about the throne,” may be explained by the figure ἓν διὰ δυοῖν;
i. e.
one through two; familiar to the Hebrews, as if it had been said, in the midst
of the circuit or circumference of
Moreover, those animals are described as “full of eyes
before and behind,” having six wings around them, and those full of eyes within.
So many eyes denote a multitude of very well-sighted persons, and full of the knowledge
of the mysteries of God, of which kind there are many in the animals, that is, in
the churches which the animals represent. The wings denote agility and alacrity
in executing the commands of God. Wings with eyes denote zeal combined with knowledge
and faith. Lastly, six wings around
And therefore (that I may at length come to a conclusion) I think I have clearly shown, that the throne in this august session answers to the tabernacle or temple; the elders answer to the Levites; the four animals to the four Israelitish camps; that is, that the whole assemblage is the image of that ancient castrametation in the wilderness. Which subject has indeed been more diffusively treated of by me, because I have observed that the reason of many types in the Apocalypse depends chiefly on the knowledge of this, which I doubt not but every one who has thoroughly investigated the matter, will perceive as well as myself.
The theatre being thus prepared, He who sat on the throne stretches forth a book in his right hand, written upon, both in the inside and the out, and fastened with seven seals, and an angel at the same time coming forth on the scene, proclaims, with a loud voice, that if to any one were given the power of opening it, so that the things which were written therein might be seen and read, he should take it into his hands and apply himself to the task; and in so doing, would perform an office very acceptable to all who were ardent in the study of mysteries.
And the book was in truth most worthy of the effort; in the unsealing of which, any one would exert all the powers of his understanding and industry, inasmuch as the volume was predictive of the counsels of God, in which was interwoven the series and order of events, to be transacted up to the second and glorious advent of Christ.
For, of this nature evidently appears to be the double prophecy of the future, which the volume contained. Which is the reason, unless I am mistaken, why John, when he was preparing to expound the visions, prefixed to the beginning of his history the descriptive outline of his glorious advent, as the boundary of the Apocalyptic course. “Behold (says he) he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him, and they also that pierced him, and all the tribes of the earth shall lament because of him.” As much as to say, this is the scope, this the boundary of the visions which I shall relate.
But when “no one of those who were in heaven, or in the earth,
or under the earth, was able to unseal the book,” and the object seemed to be given
up for lost, so that John, overcome with grief, burst into tears, lo, “a Lamb in
appearance, as if it had been slain,” that is, bearing the marks and wounds of one
that had undergone death, arose in the midst of the elders and animated beings,
and took the book, for the purpose
At the sight of this a chorus of the animated beings and elders, together with the surrounding angels, and all the creatures in the universe, filled with gratitude, immediately sing a hymn to the Lamb and to the Father. On which subject I desire only to remark at present, that they manifestly refer the power of unsealing the book as obtained by the merit of the passion of the Lamb. “Worthy art thou (they say) to open the book and its seals, for thou wert slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation.” By which, perhaps, light may be thrown on that saying of our Saviour before he had suffered and been glorified: “But of that day and hour (alluding to his second coming, whether it would be sooner or later) knoweth no one, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only;” because the Apocalypse was not yet given to Christ by the Father, nor the order of events relating to his advent yet made known. I assert nothing rashly; let the reader weigh the matter with himself.
While the Lamb is thus unsealing the book at each of the seals,
particular images of future things are exhibited, of which the system runs through
the whole Apocalyptical course, and
Of the two Apocalyptical Prophecies.
The first prophecy, that of the seals, comprehends the fates of the empire: The other, that of the little book, the fates of the Church, or of the Christian Religion, until at length both shall coalesce in the reign of the Church triumphant, “when the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of the Lord and his Christ.” For as Daniel in the Old Testament, according to the succession of empires, both presignified the coming of Christ, and explained in order the fates of the Jewish Church; so is the Apocalypse to be understood as measuring out the Christian system by the proceedings of the Roman empire, which was still remaining after Christ. Nor does the event contradict this supposition. The interpretation of the first prophecy thus proceeds upon this general hypothesis.
Of the first Prophecy, which is that of the Seals; and in the first place, of the events signified by the six first Seals.
The scope of the seven seals in general is this, that the periods of time, as
it continues to flow,
We will treat of the former period, as the order requires, in the first place.
The six first seals then, in their sixfold character of events,
(not much unlike those which our Saviour had prescribed for pointing out the time
of the ruin of Jerusalem,) distinguish so many periods of the Roman empire, while
it was yet subsisting and flourishing, until, at length, in the sixth, Christ should
utterly demolish the power of idols and heathen deities in that part of the globe.
Now I call characters the very signal events of the Roman empire, by which occurrences,
as in a symbol, the periods may be
It is here likewise to be observed, that since the characters
of the occurrences, of which I have spoken, scarce ever or rarely pervade the whole
period of the seal, and consequently may not be sufficient of themselves to circumscribe
these periods within a certain beginning and end; therefore, in the four first
seals, the Holy Spirit (where that may be most necessary, as well for the cause
above mentioned as on account of the inequality of the periods) has had recourse
to the four animated beings for that purpose, each of which might indicate the epoch
of the seal according to his point of the compass. How this is done we shall presently
see. It is sufficient at present to have given a hint of it.
Of the First Seal.
The first occurrence of the Roman empire, and that a most illustrious one, is the commencement of the victory of Christ, by which the Roman gods began to be vanquished, and their worshippers to be transfixed with the arrows of the Gospel, to fail on every side, and to submit their necks to Christ the conqueror. “He went out (says he) conquering, and to conquer;” that is, he hath not yet completely conquered, but laid the foundations of victory, to he hereafter more and more fulfilled.
The index of the first seal is the first animal in the likeness
of a lion, in station towards the East, and it shows that the rider, viz. the emperor,
is to go forth from that quarter of the compass, from the mounting of whom on his
horse for the purpose of riding,—that is, from the beginning of his government,—the
period of the first seal was to commence, namely, from the glorious exaltation of
our Lord Jesus Christ, under the guidance and auspices of which emperor from the
East, this battle is waged, and this victory obtained. The beginning of the following
seals is pointed out by the Roman emperors; but where the act of Christ is described,
he is accounted as the sole emperor Here I must hesitate in agreeing with our learned author. After
declaring, as he had just before done, that the seals related to the events connected with the Roman empire, he surely
departs from his interpretation when he represents the object of the first seal
as descriptive of Christ. Does not this destroy the consistency of the explanation? May it not refer to Vespasian or Titus? the former of whom was proclaimed emperor
of Judea, and under whose auspices, Jerusalem was taken and destroyed, and the Jewish
nation subdued. Tacitus, in recounting the general persuasion that had gone
forth that the East should prevail, considers the prediction verified in Vespasian
and Titus. The first illustrious rider was doubtless the conqueror of the Jews.—R.
B. C. This was the opinion of our author at a later period, (V. p.
918.) and it has been the general exposition of subsequent commentators.
Now indeed, when this seal had run its course, the oracles of the gods, through the whole Roman world, became mute, and John, the last of the twelve apostles of Christ, having received the wages of his warfare, departed from this life, to receive an undecaying crown in the heavens, together with his brethren and co-apostles, ibr a conduct bravely and happily performed.
That riding on horseback is a symbol of power, and of those who
hold the reins of government, may be seen even from the interpretation of the Greek
translators,
Of the Second Seal.
The second memorable event of the Roman empire, the picture of
the second seal, is slaughter and intestine butchery; to which there was scarcely
any similar in the whole Roman history. “And it was given,” says he, “to him who
sat on the horse to take away peace from the earth, and that men should massacre
one another;” which last part of the sentence confirms the explanation of the former: For in what sense should the words be taken,
“It was given to him that men should
kill one another,” unless it were given, or came to pass, that while he sat thereon,
men should fiercely contend in mutual slaughters and butcheries? The index of this
seal is the second animal, in the figure of an ox, situated to the west, and which
bids them in the vision look towards himself: He thereby informs us, that this seal
begins when Trajan, the Spaniard, had taken the reins of government, an emperor
from the west. Dion says, Trajan, a Spaniard, was not an Italian, not belonging
to Italy: Before him, no one of any other nation
Beginning, then, from this emperor, let us seek for that memorable event of mutual slaughter. This took place when Trajan and his successor, Hadrian, held the ensigns of imperial sway, among the Gentiles and Jews who then dwelt together throughout the Roman world. What was done under Trajan, take not in my words, but in the joint expressions of Dion and Orosius. “The Jews,” says Orosius, “were inflamed with an incredible agitation at one time, as if maddened by rage, through all parts of the earth: For they waged the most atrocious wars throughout the whole of Lybia, against the inhabitants; which was then so desolated, in consequence of the cultivators being killed, that it would have remained wholly void, every inhabitant being cut off, if Hadrian, the emperor, had not afterwards introduced colonies there, collected from other places.”
“Those who dwelt about Cyrene, (it is Dion who speaks,) under
a certain leader of the name of Andrew, slew Romans as well as Greeks, fed upon
their flesh, and ate their entrails
Thus far as to what passed under Trajan. But you will ask if
there was any thing under Hadrian to be compared to these facts? Let the reader
judge if they were not of a similar kind. I dare to affirm, not much inferior. For
we have not yet related any thing of that famous rebellion under Barchoshebar,
the pseudo Messiah. Listen to that, then, likewise in the words of Dion. “When
Hadrian,” says he, “had
These are his observations concerning the commotion among the
Jews, under that son of
Therefore this destruction seems to have been the most grievous paroxysm of that unheard of tribulation, which our Saviour had predicted should befall the Jews, and, by consequence, not undeservedly selected by the Holy Spirit for marking this second period, beyond all the events of that time, since it exceeded them all, as well in the renown of the nation, as in this illustrious completion of prophecy.
Of the Third Seal.
The third animated being is the index of the third seal, in a
human form, his station being towards the south, and consequently shows that this
seal begins with an emperor proceeding from
Many will have famine or dearness of provisions the subject of
this seal, deducing their proof rather from the black colour of the horse, and from
the mention of grain, a measure
The subject of this seal, therefore, may be not famine, nor the
dearness of provisions, but an administration of justice throughout the Roman world,
and a severity more illustrious and more remarkable than in any of the former or
subsequent periods of the seals. For as relates to the figure, the colour of the
horse agrees with the severity of justice. That the scales are the
Now it is wonderful how much the event favours the interpretation,
while Severus and Alexander were in power, those very distinguished riders on the
black horse. Of Severus, what you may read at large in Aurelius, I will collect
together, retaining the author’s words, and I will do the same afterwards from Lamprideus
concerning Alexander. “No one was more illustrious in the republic,” says Aurelius,
“than Severus, the founder of very equitable laws. Implacable to faults, he exalted
every active person by rewards. He permitted honours to be sold to no one within
his dominions. Nor did he suffer the smallest theft to go unpunished; animadverting more particularly on his own dependants, because,
though difficult of proof, he understood that they took place through the fault
of his generals, or even of his prefects.” Spartianus agrees with Aurelius when
he calls him “both implacable to faults and the enemy to thieves, whenever they
were found.” But these assertions were in no respect inferior to those which Lampridius
relates of Alexander, the son of Mammea, on which, therefore, the chief part of
the character of the seal appears to be founded. “He enacted,” says he, “moderate
Behold, O Reader, the rider on the black horse, magnificently holding that golden heaven-descended balance of justice on the theatre of the world! Which was so remarkable a circumstance in a Pagan emperor, that it ought not to be deemed wonderful that the Holy Spirit should have made an allusion to it in this place.
Another mode of interpreting the symbol of Wheat and Barley.
It is possible that these allusions to wheat and barley may be
understood of the remarkable supply of corn which took place in these times. For
it may seem that this meaning also is included in those words: So it may have a
reference to the abundance of grain, that provisions should be
Lamprideus has similar remarks respecting Alexander. “He so
assisted,” says he, “the provision of the Roman people, that when Heliogabalus
had destroyed the grain, he in his turn replaced it out of his own revenue. The
oil
Of the Fourth Seal.
The index of the fourth seal is the fourth animal, in the likeness
of an eagle, its station to the North; by which is shown, that the beginning of
the seal is to be deduced from an emperor sprung from that quarter, namely, from
Maximin the Thracian, a nursling of the North. Julius Capitolinus says,
“Maximin, of a village of Thrace, near the Barbarians, born also of a Barbarian
father and mother.” The character of this seal is an assemblage of sword,
famine, and pestilence, raging together in such a manner as was never known
before. Whence, to him who sat on the horse, the name of Death is said to be
given; that is, in the acceptation of the notion of the Hebrews, who use
abstracts for concretes, meaning deadly or death-bearing, because he brought in
so many deaths with him into the world. For among the Hebrews, to be called by a
name, sometimes signifies the same as to be, or exist, but in a certain
particular manner,
Now let us look to the event. And never, in truth, from the beginning
of the seals, have these three plagues raged conjointly in so singular a manner.
I will begin with slaughter, and omit what this age underwent from an external enemy,
though that was very severe, the Barbarians laying waste almost the whole of the
empire under the emperors Gallus and Volusianus, with rapines and slaughters. These
things are not taken into the account. We are inquiring into intestine and domestic
affairs. Ten emperors and Cesars then, or thereabouts, who were accounted legitimate,
within the interval of this seal, i. e. within the space of thirty-three
years, or a little more, did the sword, not of enemies, but of their own subjects,
take off. Throughout the same interval, under the government of Gallienus alone,
those thirty tyrants of whom Polio speaks, (though there might be fewer by one or
two,) sprung up in different parts of the Roman world; and almost all these were
slain, either by their own people or by one another, or were butchered by legitimate
emperors;
Lastly, those emperors, beginning with Maxi-min and ending with
Gallienus, with what savage cruelty were they endued! Maximin, as Julius Capitolinus
testifies, was so cruel, “that some denominated him Cyclops, others Busiris, others
Sciro, some Phalaris, and many Typho and Gyges. The senate feared him so much, that
even their wives and children offered up prayers in the temples, publicly and privately,
that he might never see the city of Rome. For they heard that some were lifted up
on crosses, some enclosed in animals lately killed, some thrown to wild beasts,
sonic beaten with clubs, and all without respect to dignity of situation.” He proceeds:
“In order to hide his ignoble birth, he killed all who were acquainted with his
family, and also sonic friends who had often given him many donations from motives
of pity and piety, for there was not a more cruel animal on the face of the earth.”
Lastly, says he, “Without judgment, without accusation, without an informer, without
defence, he slew all of the faction of one Magnus, a consular man, took away all
their goods, and could not satisfy himself with the slaughter of more than 4000
persons. Hear
Thus far you have an account of slaughter: I come now to pestilence, which here, according to the Oriental custom, is called death. So the Chaldee paraphrast for the Hebrew רבדי, pestilence, is fond of using מזהא, death; and the Hellenists generally translate it θάνατον, and, with a similar meaning, it is usually called mortality by ecclesiastical writers, which expression has now passed over into many of our vernacular tongues. With regard to the pestilence, the fact is so notorious and manifest, that there is no need of heaping together many proofs to establish the credit of the oracle. I shall dispatch it in a word. Tonaras is my author, (nor are others silent on the subject,) that under the emperors Gallus and Volusianus, a pestilence, arising from Ethiopia pervaded all the Roman provinces, and for fifteen successive years incredibly exhausted them. “Nor was there ever a greater plague read of by me,” (says a celebrated man in our own days,) “within the same space of time or territory.”
Famine still remains of that trio of calamities; which indeed,
any one may collect, could not possibly be absent in this age, although none of
the ancient writers had informed us of it, from this circumstance, that almost all
the empire was so despoiled and trodden down by the Scythians, during these times,
with rapines and devastations,
Moreover, there is something added in the text respecting wild
beasts; if indeed it be a calamity of a different kind from the former ones, and
does not imply that the tyrants, who like wild beasts raged in those times through
the Roman world, were to be assigned as the causes of those calamities; it will
in this case point out an evil common to the eastern and southern regions; that
when famine and pestilence are raging, wild beasts would grow too powerful for man,
and would destroy them, as you may see,
The fourth part of the earth, τὸ τέταρτον τῆς γῆς, within which the power of exercising their ravages is said
to have been committed to hell and death, (unless any one should think that the
common interpretation may be here defended to which the
τέταρτον τῆς γῆς is the
τετράδιον, that is, the quaternion, or four parts of the earth,) I explain of the
most powerful and much the greater part of the Roman world: For since the third
part of the earth, (as will be observed in its place,) points out the amplitude
of the Roman world, it
Of the Fifth Seal.
The two seals which follow receive no explanation, as to the time of their beginning, from the animated beings, and therefore no riders on horses are any longer here to be seen, upon which that index of the animals depended. The period of each, then, is to be sought from the time when the event of the preceding seal ceased; which indeed is very easy, when the events, as here, are of such a nature that their termination cannot be concealed, in consequence of their manifest perspicuity.
The fifth seal, therefore, will begin with the emperor Aurelian,
in the year 268, at which time the longest of the calamities of the former
Now, the most signal event of the Roman state, under this seal, and which surpassed all other events of that time, is that persecution of the Christians which begun with Diocletian, was continued by others, and was far the most severe of all.
Former ages saw nothing to compare with it. “It was longer,
and more cruel,” (these are the words of Orosius,) “than all that went before.
For it was incessantly carried on for ten years, with the burnings of churches,
the proscription of the innocent, the slaughter of martyrs. Immediately on the beginning
of the tenth, within thirty days, about seventeen thousand men are said to have
been sacrificed; nor did the fury of the persecutors abate with the progress of
time. In Egypt alone, (what a small particle of the Roman empire!) if faith is
to be given to St. Ignatius, patriarch of Antioch, according to Scaliger, “a hundred
and forty-four thousand men were sacrificed, seven hundred (thousand) were driven
into exile;” whence the Diocletian era derived its name among the Egyptians, so
that it is called, even at this day, the era of martyrs. What now should you suppose
was done throughout the other provinces of the Roman empire? “Almost all the world
was
This butchery is represented by the vision of “souls slain for
the word of God, and for his testimony which they maintained, lying under the altar,”
that is, on the ground, at the foot of the altar, like victims recently slaughtered.
For martyrdom is a certain species of sacrifice; whence that assertion of the apostle
to Timothy, when his own martyrdom was near approaching: “I am now about to
be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.”
Further, as they are said to have cried with a loud voice to
God, requiring vengeance for their blood, this is a periphrasis for a cruelty
so extreme, and ripe for judgment, that it might for its barbarity solicit even
the long suffering of God to vengeance. “How long,” say they, “O Lord Holy and
true, dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” In the mean time, white garments
The answer to this cry of blood is, “That they should rest for a short time, until (the number of) their fellow servants and of their brethren who should be killed, even as they should be complete;” that is, that they should endure for a little, until some of their brethren, who, after Christianity had begun to prevail, were, under Licinius, Julian, and the Arians, to be butchered in like manner, should be added to the number; and then, on the sounding of the trumpets, a remarkable vengeance should be taken on the empire for the guilt of so much blood.
Of the Sixth Seal.
The sixth seal begins where the fifth ends; that is, from the year of Christ 311, in which that terrible persecution of ten years ceased.
The event of this seal is a wonderful commotion of heaven
and earth, by which that marvellous change of the heathen Roman state, by Constantine
the Great and his successors, the standard-bearers of the Lamb is represented;
that is to say, all the gods of the Gentiles, shaken from their heaven, their pontiffs
and their priests degraded from their offices, unhallowed, cast down, and for ever
deprived of their revenues; the temples, fanes, and images of demons throughout
the whole Roman world ruined, overthrown, burnt, and demolished. In addition to
this, emperors, kings, and rulers, who had undertaken to succour their gods in such
extreme perils, to proclaim war against the ensign-bearers of Christ, to combat
with immense forces, and even when subdued in battle, to renew the war with their
utmost strength, were slain with unusual slaughter, routed, and dispersed; until
at length, in complete despair, no one could be found who would bring assistance
to the Roman religion falling with such a crash. So that within the compass of a
few words, I think I see comprised whatever the Holy Spirit meant to describe
“And I looked when he opened the sixth seal, and behold there
was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as a sackcloth of hair, and the
moon became as blood, and the stars of heaven fell upon the earth, as a fig-tree
casteth forth its unripe fruit, when it is shaken by a strong wind, and the heaven
departed as a book, when it is rolled up; and every mountain and island were moved
out of their places; and the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich
men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every slave, and every free
man, hid themselves in the caves and rocks of the mountains; and they said unto
the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth
on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb! for the great day of
These are accustomed images of very horrid slaughters, and (if
I may so speak) of an entire subversion of the state of things, used by the prophets,
after the manner of the east, as their figures and pictures likewise are by our
poets. So
Now, the object of this revolution, as of the former events under the seals, is the Roman empire; but not as politically governed by the Cæsars, (for in this form it was not yet dissolved,) but as subject to Satan and his angels the demons, under the name of religion. This demonarchy of the Roman empire, the tempest which lowers in this seal, will eventually overthrow, and dissipate with a mighty crash.
“And the sun and the moon became black as sackcloth of hair,
and the moon became as blood;” that is, by the ellipsis of an adjective, red as
blood. This is a periphrasis of the eclipse of the luminaries, in which the sun
is wont to appear dark, but the moon ruddy. Similar to which is that of Isaiah respecting
the vengeance on Babylon: “The sun shall be obscured in his rising, and the moon
shall not cause her light to
The subject treated of is the emancipation by which God delivered
the people of Israel out of Egypt, that he might, of that people, found for himself
a kingdom or republic in the promised land. From whence it will not be difficult
to collect what is meant in the same prophet,
According to this image, then, heaven, agreeably to the prophetic
idea, will denote whatever is eminent in the universality of any kingdom or republic; the earth, on the contrary, what is lowest; the stars, those who obtain and fill
a place in that exalted station. By which construction, the sun and moon, being
the principal lights of heaven, the former will indicate the first and chief majesty
and dignity of the kingdom, the latter the next in order to it; which indeed is
so true, that the Chaldee paraphrast on the prophets substitutes afterwards, for
the sun and moon, the kingdom and glory; as
Let the sun, then, in the Roman kingdom of idols, in right of
supremacy, be the dragon himself, or Satan, especially since from him the Holy Spirit,
The moon, the second luminary of this heaven, you may call the
supreme pontificate, annexed to the imperatorial majesty, even from its first origin,
and, as it were, a part of it; or, if you will, the emperor, as the pontifex of
Satan, with the whole pontifical college, who, with the emperor as their head, formed
one body, and they presided over the religious rites of the gods, and over the whole
of the republic, and were not liable to render an account to the authority of the
senate, or of any one as superior to themselves, and therefore in this kingdom were
not undeservedly to be considered as second to the dragon himself. It is not always
necessary, I confess, that so accurate an explanation of every thing in allegories
of this kind should be required; but when it can be done, let us apply every minute
particular. The sun then of which we have been speaking became dark at that time,
and suffered an eclipse, and obscuration of his baneful majesty, when the Roman
emperors, having abjured him by baptism, with all his angels, pomps, and worship,
dedicated themselves to Christ, the sun of righteousness. The sun being thus darkened
and deprived of light, how could the moon, which borrows her light from
“And the stars of heaven fell on the earth, as a fig-tree casts
her unripe figs when shaken by a great wind, and the heaven departed as a book
“The heavens,” (says he,) “shall be rolled up like a book,
and the whole host of them, (that is, the stars,) shall fall as a leaf from the
vine, and as a deciduous fruitling from the fig-tree;” which sentence the Apocalyptical
Spirit wished to render still clearer by the double addition of the words, ἀπεχωρίσθη,
“it departed,” and ὑπὸ μεγάλου ἀνέμου σειομένη, “shaken by a great wind.” Moreover,
But now, to return to the Apocalypse. The stars were the Roman heaven of deities, both the gods themselves, the chiefs of that kingdom, under Satan their prince, and the nobles, the priests, though of inferior rank; for even the stars differ from other stars in order and sublimity. These, therefore, are those who, in this wonderful commotion of the Roman state, shaken from their seats, “fell on the earth as a fig-tree scatters her unripe fruit, when it is shaken by a high wind.”
Nor will this interpretation of the stars as of gods and priests
of the gods, excite so much surprise in him who remembers that the gods of the heathen
are every where spoken of in sacred Scripture as the host of heaven, and by Daniel,
that the priests and elders of the glorious land, or of the people of Israel, whom
Antiochus Epiphanes had cast to the earth, are called by that name. “He magnified
himself (says he,) against the host of heaven, and cast down to the earth some
of the host and of the stars, and trampled upon them.” What he impiously did against
the people of the true God, the very same the Christian emperors did against the
people of
The demolition of shrines and temples was effected under the
authority of the same most pious Theodosius, the standard-bearer of the Lamb. For
Constantine the Great only shut up the temples of the gods; he did not destroy
them, except at Constantinople and the adjoining places. Julian opened them again.
But this emperor ordered them to be utterly demolished. The history is well known
to every one, nor is there any necessity that I should add to what has been already
related by the ecclesiastic writers on this subject. Perhaps, however, it will not
be unacceptable to hear Zosimus, a Pagan historian, complaining of, or indignant
at, this severe fate of his gods. “The sacristies of the gods, (says he,) were
overthrown through all cities and countries, and therefore danger threatened the
heads of those who thought them gods, or who looked up to heaven at all, and adored
what. they saw there.” In truth, as the Lord, when he was about to conduct ancient
Israel out of Egyptian bondage, is said to have exercised
This is a degrading image of persons flying and hiding themselves,
and of those who are weary of life, from the desperate state of their affairs; to
which you have a similar description in
Here, let the reader observe in the first place, that the key
to unlock the whole vision, is contained in those words; for the matter treated
of here, is of some splendid victory of the Lamb, by which he subdued and overthrew
his enemies with a universal slaughter. Moreover, since they, whose destruction
is described, fly from the Lamb as an enemy, and wish to hide themselves from his
wrath, it may from hence clearly appear, that the slaughter, although it be pointed
out by no synchronism, can by no means be applied to Christian kings, but to those
who were estranged from Christ; and, therefore, ought not to be explained of slaughters
by the Goths, and other barbarous nations upon the empire, after it had become Christian.
But lastly, what the kings, nobles, and chief captains, and the rest of the Gentiles
in the same situation with themselves, say in addition,
For Eusebius, with others, is our authority, that Galerius (with
whom Christ begun in this judgment), being seized with a most filthy and horrible
disease, in which his body, in consequence of worms spreading over it, putrified
with an intolerable stench, was struck at last with a consciousness of the crimes
which he had committed against the Church, and having confessed his guilt to God, abstained from persecution of
the Christians, and by laws, and imperial edicts, hastened the building of their
churches, and commanded the accustomed prayers to be offered up for him; and a
short time after poured forth a soul guilty of such cruelty towards the
Christians as had never been equalled.
Maximin, a most inhuman enemy of the Christians, relying on magic,
on the divinations
Lastly, Licinius, the deserter of the Christians, whose party
he had for some time espoused, with Constantine, and boasting proudly to his soldiers
of the multitude of his gods in opposition to that one only God of Constantine,
and him a novel and a foreign God (for so he called him), having been conquered
in two great battles (in one of which, out of an army of 130,000 men, scarce 30,000
escaped), and being still unwilling to remain at rest, was at length condemned by
Constantine, with his followers, by the laws of war, and given up to deserved punishment.
But when they who were the authors of the war undertaken against God, were brought
together with the tyrant to the place of punishment, as on the former occasion,
they had insolently exulted in a hope placed in vain gods, so now they were brought
to confess that they understood, in truth, how great and wonderful the God of Constantine
was, and to acknowledge Him as the true and only God
From the ancient monuments of the Egyptians, Persians, and Indians,
from the authors Tarphanes, interpreter of Pharaoh; Baramus of
It would therefore appear, that he lived at a time when Egypt
had still kings of its own, and
But there is a wonderful agreement of both with the Egyptian.
Since, then, we are not unwilling to learn the meaning of words and phrases in the sacred writings from those nations which were formerly the nearest to the Hebrew people, and most connected with them in manners, and the use of language, why should we undervalue the same advantages here, in the signification of figures and prophetic images? (for, according to the Hebrew masters, the determination of prophecy is that of dreams.)
Let no one, then, impute it to me as a fault, if I annex out of this author those passages which appear to me to make the figures of the seal just explained, more intelligible.
The same, likewise, I shall do hereafter, with the reader’s good leave, as occasion may offer, on the trumpets, and the other visions.
Circumstances, which throw light on the First Seal, and partly also on those which follow.
Chap. ccxxxiii. Of the opinions of the Indians, Persians, and Egyptians.
A noble spirited horse, which is called Pharas, refers to eminence and dignity, in the interpretation of dreams. Common horses are understood of nobility, and of some inferior rank.
If any one in his dreams has seemed to be carried on a fleet and wanton horse, he shall find in the presence of the people, fame, and the greatest estimation, as well as eminence and honour.
Also, if any one seemed to be riding armed on a noble horse, he will find power, together with good reputation, on account of his arms.
Chap. ccxlix. According to the Interpretations of the Persians and Egyptians.
If any one seemed to have held bows and arrows in his hand, he shall exult with joy over his enemies.
There are more passages relating to the same subject, as
The following things throw light on the Third Seal.
Chap. xv. Of the Doctrine of the Indians.
If any one in his dreams has seen a balance, or a bell, as they call it, a species of balance, justly weighing in a certain place, let him understand it, of the person of a judge. But if he has a quarrel, and the things appeared to be equally balanced, he shall obtain his cause.
If he should seem to observe an equal and a pure balance, let him know, that the judge of that place is just. But if he should see the scales broken, and turned upside down, he may conclude, that the judge of the place where he saw the dream, is unjust.
Besides, weights also have the same interpretation as measures, according to their quantities, but they are applied to the persons of inferior judges.
These relate to the Sixth Seal.
Chap. clxvii. From the Writings of the Indians, Persians, and Egyptians.
The sun relates, in interpretation, to the person of the king,
and the moon to the person of the prince, who is second to the king: Venus to the
person of the empress, or Augusta, and also the other largest stars to the greatest
persons about the king. While I am collecting these things, I am almost induced
to think, that the famous title of Sapor, king of the Persians, in his letters delivered
to the emperor Constantius, (Sapor, king of kings, partner of the stars, brother
of the sun and moon, to Constantius Cesar, my brother, greeting,) which Ammianus
Marcellinus attributes to Persian pride, was no other than the vernacular style
of the nation, arising from images of this kind; which ought to appear less wonderful
to any one, since we see even our own heralds, in publishing the arms of emperors
and kings, apply to them the names of the sun and moon, and of the other planets.
Hither, likewise, may be referred Jacob’s interpretation of the dream of Joseph,
his son, of the sun and moon, and eleven stars, making obeisance to him, which he
immediately, as by no means ignorant of the parables of the east, applies to his
own
If any one has thought that he saw the sun in the heaven deprived of light and rays, calamity and disgrace appertain to the person of the king.
If the sun has appeared to be in eclipse, that portends affliction and war to the king.
If any one has thought he saw the sun covered with a cloud, the king will fall into distress and diseases, by way of occultation.
If any one has seen the sun, and moon, and stars, collected together without light; if he is of the number of grandees, he absolutely approaches to ruin, on account of that darkness; if he is king surrounded by all, he shall be sought out in battle, and shall fall into great affliction.
Chap. clxviii. Of the Observations of the Persians and Egyptians.
If any one has imagined he saw the stars possessed of very little light, cast down, scattered and obscured, this vision is to be referred to the calamity of the nobles, opulent men, and to the presidents of the king.
The sixth seal being finished, we should proceed forthwith in order to the seventh, (big as it is with its sevenfold plague,) as what coheres with the sixth in an immediate connexion. But the Holy Spirit, by a sure suggestion, has led to the delay of our progress for a little while, until it has placed before our eyes the state of an assembly contemporizing with it, which was to be safe under its plagues, and was also to survive them.
Let us then hold the torch of interpretation, in the first place, to that vision, as far as we are able, and then we will continue the order of the seals which we have begun.
Of the Company of the Servants of God, or of the elect and faithful Church to be preserved under the ruins of the Seventh Seal, or of the Trumpets, exhibited under the type of the one hundred and forty-four thousand sealed out of all the tribes of Israel, at the beginning of the Seventh Seal.
The vision of those who are sealed is introduced twice: First,
in this place, in the beginning of the trumpets, in the first prophecy; again,
as the contrast to the beast, when possessed of power, in the second prophecy,
“After these things,” says he, (that is, when the vision of the sixth seal is ended, and the seventh, which is that of the trumpets, is about to begin,) “I saw four angels standing upon the four corners of the earth, restraining the four winds of the earth, that they might not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.”
The sense is, He saw angels who presided over the winds, that
is, over the storms of war and calamities, which, from whatever part of the
“And I saw,” says he, “another angel ascending from the rising sun, having the seal of the living God, (perhaps therefore Christ the Lord,) and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, (namely, by letting loose the winds which they had restrained,) saying, ‘Hurt not the earth, nor the sea, nor the trees, till I have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads;’” that is, do not let loose the winds, nor give them the power of going forth, and raging over the world. He names the earth, sea, and trees, agreeably to the image of winds, as those objects to which the winds are wont to do damage; to the earth, by the ruin of buildings; to the sea, by shipwrecks; to trees, by manifold injury and laceration.
“Hold!” says he, “till we have sealed the servants of our
God in their foreheads;” that is, until we have distinguished them by a mark impressed,
as the elect assembly of God, on which those destroying winds, which were to consign
to ruin the remaining society of men, should have no power; but over which, marked
with his seal, Divine Providence would continually watch, lest in this ruin of the
Roman state, which
“And I heard,” says he, “the number of those which were sealed—a hundred and forty-and-four thousand were sealed of all the tribes of Israel;” that is, twelve times twelve thousand, being twelve thousand of each of the tribes.
For as in the beginning, we saw the theatre of the visions, or the Apocalyptical Assembly, described according to the image and state of the ancient synagogue, and great part of this book of types has a reference to the same; so that, as false Christians in the epistles to the churches may on that account be spoken of as false Jews, so likewise here, the universal church of the Gentiles, secured by the seal of God, is figured under the type of Israel, the twelve apostles of the former aptly corresponding with the same number of the patriarchs in the latter.
Nor is it thus done undeservedly; as for other causes, so chiefly
because the church, which, from the time of the rejection of the Jews, was collected
out of the nations, succeeded in the place of Israel, and became (if I may so speak)
the substitute of Israel, and was to be accounted in that state by God, until his
ancient people, having at length obtained mercy, “the fulness of
That testimony of Amos, quoted by James in the Council of the
Apostles,
With respect to the number of the sealed, the number twelve is
a mark of the apostolical family, which denotes the apostolical progeny, by multiplying
thousands of each tribe as well as all together; a progeny, we may suppose, though
increased to many thousands, yet by no means degenerate, but representing their
parents in faith and sanctity. For, doubtless, as “to have the number of the beast” (of which we shall hereafter hear), signifies being of the people or followers of
the beast,—so, to bear the number of the apostles, signifies being the legitimate
offspring of the apostles. The analogy of the New Jerusalem shows this to be the
truest interpretation of the multiplication by twelve, in the structure of which,
and in the dimensions of its gates, of the area of its foundation, of the circuit,
length, breadth, and height of its walls, the same
First, Dan is rejected from this type, and
But that, nevertheless, the number of twelve might be complete, Levi is substituted in the room of Dan, and the name of Joseph with the omission of that of Ephraim. The number being thus constituted, the sons of wives and servants, independent of the accustomed dignity of the family, are intermingled, and the children of servants are adopted as those of their mistresses. “For in Christ there is neither bond nor free,” but all are of equal estimation. Since, then, the sons of Leah, both natural and adoptive, are double the number of Rachel, for there are eight of the former, and only four of the latter, therefore such an order is observed in reckoning them, that the four sons of Leah might be compared in a double mode, alternately with the two of Rachel: But on both sides, those tribes are preferred as more excellent than the rest, which some transaction, either of their own, or of their offspring, related in the Holy Scriptures, respecting the true worship of God, and zeal towards Him, had rendered worthy of commendation.
The family of Leah are at the head of the first troop in virtue of the prerogative of Christ, the Prince of the company, as sprung from that stock. In the following manner:
First Quaternion of the Sons of Leah. | { | 1. Judah | Second Quaternion of the Sons of Leah. | { | 7. Simeon |
2. Reuben | 8. Levi | ||||
3. Gad | 9. Issachar | ||||
4. Aser | 10. Zabulon | ||||
First Couple of the Sons of Rachel. | { | 5. Naphtali | Second Couple of the Sons of Rachel. | { | 11. Joseph |
6. Manasseh | 12. Benjamin |
The Reason of the Order of the Sons of Leah.
Judah, Reuben, Gad, Aser, constitute, as you see, the first quaternion of the sons of Leah, as superior to the rest in respect to Him of whom the type points out the nobility.
Among those, the first place, as justly due, is bestowed on Judah, on account of Christ, the King of the faithful, descended from that tribe. The second on Reuben, whom that illustrious protestation concerning building the altar of remembrance on the banks of Jordan, ennobled, and which he deserved, that he might not yield the prerogative of his nativity (for he was the first-born) to any other than to the royal tribe of Judah. The third place is allotted to Gad, as the associate of Reuben in that celebrated protestation of retaining the true worship of God, and illustrious besides for Elias the prophet, and him the king, the destroyer of Baalism.
Aser, in fine, assumes the fourth and last place in this quaternion, illustrious for the widow of Sarepta, who reverenced Elijah, (Sarepta lying in the lot of Aser,) and noted also for Anna the prophetess, of the tribe of Aser, who bore testimony to Christ, when she was remaining in the temple according to the law, but by no means to be compared with the three preceding, because each was a female.
Simeon, Levi, Issachar, and Zabulon are deferred to the last
quaternion, either because they were embellished with no names, or with fewer than
the former; or if they had any, by such as were obliterated afterwards by some
kind of wickedness. For Levi blotted out the remembrance of the zeal by which he
approved himself in the wilderness, (to pass over the sedition of Korah,) by his
fellowship with Israelitish apostates and idolaters, even from the beginning. For
Jonathan the Levite, the grandson of Moses, gave up his services in introducing
the worship of images to Micah the Ephraimite and the Danish robbers.
The Reason of the Order of the Sons of Rachel.
Observe that among the posterity of Rachel, two of them paired
together, Naphtali and Manasseh, head the family: Joseph and Benjamin bring up
the rear. Naphtali and Manasseh are preferred, because he was illustrious, as well
in Barak, the conqueror of Sisera the Canaanite, as in Hiram, a Naphtalite on his
father’s side, the artificer of the instruments and furniture of the temple of God; (
But the glory of Christ’s inhabitation exalts Naphtali, though
the son of a maid-servant, above Manasseh, as when Christ was about to enter on
his office, he fixed his residence and seat of his preaching in the noblest city
of the tribe of Naphtali, and the metropolis of all Galilee, Capernaum, whence,
as from an episcopal city, he went forth many times over all Galilee with his apostles,
into all the synagogues and villages, teaching the gospel of the kingdom, and shining
forth with miracles of healing. For, Reader, I wish to remark, from the Evangelical
History, (because it escapes many,) that our Saviour
But those words (with which our transcribers, almost treading
in the footsteps of the Jews, who never understood this prophecy, begin the chapter
with a great disturbance of the sense,) I annex with Jerome and the Royal Bibles to the last sentence of
the preceding chapter; and I render them, “For there is no obscurity in Him who
is the cause of their trouble,” that is, in the calamitous and afflicted state of
things into which the Israelitish republic at that time is reported to have fallen,
according to the threatening of the law, and which is as it were submitted to our
sight; men were driven to indignation and despair because they saw the enemy by
which they were oppressed enjoy perpetual success, and that no misfortune befel
him. It is of great importance to the Christian faith, that this oracle concerning
the Galilean Messiah should he clearly understood,
Joseph and Benjamin remain, transferred to be the last pair of Rachel’s children, and of whom the sirname of Ephraim degraded to this place, since it is Ephraim, in truth, who is concealed under the name of Joseph, having been unworthy, on his own account, (because he was the leader of the Israelitish idolatry introduced by Micah, and also because of that enormous apostasy of which Jeroboam and Ahab were the founders,) to have his name repeated in the catalogue. Benjamin likewise, beside being the youngest born, the hatred of Saul the Benjamite, against David, and the curses of Shimei against him who was the head of the family and the type of Christ, deprived of a higher station.
Formed from the signification of the names by which the tribes were called, by which both the order of the tribes sealed, the disposition of the assembly itself, its contest and reward by God are declared.
Judah. . . . confitetur Deo | } | The blessed Assembly confesses to God by looking to the Son. | { | Cultus purus et rite Christianus. Pure and truly Christian worship |
Reuben. . . . .intuendo Filium | ||||
Gad. . . . cætus | ||||
Aser. . . . benedictus | ||||
Naphtalim. . . . luctantur cum | } | They contend with those who forget their obedience. | { | Lucta. Contest. |
Manasseh. . . . obliviscentibus | ||||
Simeon. . . . obedientiam | ||||
Levi. . . . Adhæsio (scil. Christo) | } | Their adherence to Christ adds to them the reward of an eternal habitation with the Son of his right hand. | { | Præmium. Reward. |
Isachar. . . . mercedem | ||||
Zabulon. . . . habituculi (scil. æterni) | ||||
Joseph. . . . adjicit | ||||
Benjamin. . . . Filio dextrræ |
The blessed assembly, the assembly of those who are sealed, confess or celebrate God, by looking to his Son, that is, to Christ the only Mediator. They contend with those who are forgetful of their obedience, that is, with the antichristians. Adhesion to Christ will add to the Son of His right hand, (that is, to him whom God highly values) the reward of a habitation or eternal mansion. Or otherwise, the Son of His right hand (that is, Christ) will add to those who adhere to God, the reward of a habitation, or mansion of eternal life.
To this more contracted and afflicted state of the Church, under the type of those who are sealed out of the people of Israel, succeeds that most ample, and by far most prosperous state of the same, under the image of an innumerable multitude of palm-bearers, out of every nation, and people, and tribe, and language. “After these I beheld, and lo! a great multitude, which no man could number, out of every nation, and of all tribes, and people, and tongues, standing before the Throne, and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and with palms in their hands; and they cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God that sitteth on the throne, and to the Lamb.”
But since this vision pertains to the seventh trumpet, and cannot be conveniently and clearly explained elsewhere, on account of so many things which require to be previously known, we will therefore postpone the exposition of it. At present it may be sufficient that the reader should remember what has been just now generally said, that both the visions in conjunction pervade the whole interval of the seventh seal, or of the trumpets; but separately, that the assembly of the sealed synchronizes with the first six trumpets, and the multitude of the palm-bearers with the seventh.
And thus having completed the interpretation
The Meaning of the Seventh Seal, that is, of the Seven Trumpets.
They were the six first seals, in which the state of the empire, yet standing and flourishing, was described, until the power of idolatry fell by intestine misfortunes. The seventh succeeds, the subject matter of which is seven trumpets, under which the fates of the declining and falling empire, proceeding to ruin by a sevenfold order of plagues, while the trumpets are sounding the alarm, are displayed under images suited to such an event. God, in truth, executing punishment by that destruction for the blood of so many martyrs, shed under Roman auspices. For He, whose will it is that even brute animals should not be spared, if they have slain man, made in His image, would He not require the blood of His servants of the empire which had been a martyricide for so many revolving years?
Neither could the late piety of the Christian emperors, then possessed of the power of the state, avail
to intercede with the justice of God, any more than the piety of Josiah, for the
kingdom of Judah, guilty of the blood spilt by Manasseh, that it might escape the
ruin decreed by God. This revenge, the souls of the martyrs,
Wherefore an angel, the priest of heaven, at the altar of incense, offers up those prayers (as was the custom with the prayers of the people made in the temple), by fumigation to the throne of God; and recalls them to His memory.
In the mean time, “there was silence in heaven for the space
of half an hour,” according to the rites of the temple in performing a sacrifice
of this nature. For it is evident, that in sacrifices, in every part of the world,
silence was a part of religion. They said, “Attend in silence.” That was observed
by the people of God, when they offered incense. For, while the sacrifices were
offering (which was the first part of their liturgy), the temple resounded with
hymns, trumpets, and other musical instruments,
But the prayers immediately obtained an answer; for “there
were,” says he, (that is, from the Throne, or inmost recess of the temple,) “voices,
and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake.” In which words is described
the oracle בת קול—Bath Kol, that is, the daughter of the voice, or of thunder,
by which God formerly gave responses to his ancient people, and by the same assented
here to the prayers of the saints. Now in the Hebrew language it is to be understood,
that voices and thunderings have the same signification. For thunderings are called
קולות, that is, voices. Kai, then, is either to be taken explanatorily, for
that is; or as I should prefer by the figure ἒν διὰ δυοῖν, voices and thunderings
are voices of thunder, or attended with thunder. God, indeed, for the most part,
uttered His decrees with thunder, as he also delivered the law,
The sacrifice being thus ended, and God having assented to the
prayers of his saints with the voice of thunder, “the seven angels who had the
seven trumpets, prepared themselves to sound.” That the works of Divine providence
and government are carried on by the administration of angels, is confessed by all
theologians. The angels, therefore, preserve their place in those visions, in the
transactions to which they are pre-appointed by God, and what is performed by the
common agency of angels and men, is said to be performed by the authority of angels,
as principals and
But what is so often repeated of the third part, as the
third part of the trees of the earth, the third part of the sea, of the rivers,
of the heaven, I understand of the bounds of the Roman empire, embracing in its
circuit the third part of the world, as it was known in the time of John. Which
appears capable of being proved from this circumstance, that afterwards, in
The First Trumpet.
The first trumpet of the seventh seal begins from the final disturbance
and overthrow of the Roman idolarchy at the close of the sixth seal; and as it
was to bring the first plague on the empire, now beginning to fall, it lays waste
the third part of the earth, with a horrible storm of
Now, in order to collect something respecting the event from
history, I would deduce the beginning of this trumpet (until something more certain
shall be established) from the death of Theodosius the First; that is, from the
year of Christ 395; because then the Christian religion seems to have plainly triumphed
over the gods of the Gentiles; and at the same time, as combined
For in this very year, Alaric first, with an immense army of
Goths and other barbarians, broke into Macedonia, from Thrace, sparing neither towns
nor inhabitants. From thence, proceeding through Thessaly, and having occupied the
straits of Thermopylae, he descended into Greece, that is, into Attica, and overthrew
every city except Thebes and Athens. He made an irruption into Peloponnesus, and
laid waste Corinth, Argos, and Sparta. From thence he invaded Epirus, where he proceeded
to commit the same depopulations and devastations. In the following year, quitting
Epirus, he made an incursion into Achaia, and basted to despoil it shamefully, together
with Epirus and the neighbouring provinces, by burnings and depopulations. When
he had thus, for five years, harassed the east with his cruel ravages, he turned
his attention to the invasion of the west, passed
Hear Jerome, who was then alive, deploring the very distressed state of this period, while the tempest was still assailing it. Epist. III. “Between Constantinople and the Julian Alps, Roman blood is every day shed. Scythia, Thrace, Macedonia, Dardania, Dacia, Thessaly, Achaia, Epirus, Dalmatia, and all Pannonia, the Goths, the Sarmatians, the Quadi, the Alans, Huns, Vandals, and Marcomani, invade and seize. How many matrons, how many virgins of God, and free-born and noble persons, are become the sport of these brute beasts! Bishops are taken captive, priests slain, and the functions of divers clergymen suspended! Churches are subverted, horses are stabled at the altars of Christ, the relics of martyrs are dug up. The whole Roman world falls to pieces. What courage do you suppose at this moment is possessed by the Corinthians, Athenians, Lacedemonians, Arcadians, and all Greece, over whom the barbarians rule?”
In the following year, A.D. 401, the same Alaric, with Goths, Alans, and Huns following his footsteps, when he was preparing to carry the war
into Italy, broke through Noricum, and entered Venetia through the forest of Trent,
reduced those cities in a short time under his power, and besieged the emperor Honorius
at
While Alaric was quiet for a short time, that the west might
not from thenceforth enjoy an hour of rest, immediately after, in the year 404,
another memorable irruption of the barbarians was prepared against Italy, Radagaisus,
a Scythian, being their leader, who with an army of Goths, Sarmatians, and Germans,
to the amount of two hundred thousand, having overthrown the garrisons in the Alps,
passed into the territory of Venetia, Emilia, and Etruria, and laid siege to Florence,
where being conquered by Stilico with an immense slaughter, he was taken and beheaded.
This enemy, however terrible, having been removed in a short space of time, and
with little loss, soon after, in the year 406, the third, that most grievous and
very destructive irruption of the Vandals and Alans into the west, took place, accompanied
by the Marcomanni,
But let me add likewise the corollary from Achmet, for the farther confirmation of the Reader.
Corollary taken out of Achmet, of the signification of Hail, Fire, and Trees, in the interpretation of Dreams.
Chap. cxci. Of the Explanations of the Indians, Persians, and Egyptians.
“Snow, hail, and cold portend troubles, anxieties, and torments.”
“If any one thought he saw hail fallen on any spot, let him expect a sudden hostile attack.”
“If he thought he saw hail that injured the stalks of wheat or barley, in that place, as far as the stalks are broken, will warlike slaughters ensue.”
To the same purpose is Chap. clxix. Of the Divination of the Indians; Chap. clx. Of the Explication of the Persians and the Egyptians.
“Fire signifies death, war, battles, punishment, and affliction, if any thing or person had been seen to burn.”
Also in Chap. cli. The Persians, Indians, and Egyptians interpret Trees by Men, principally Magistrates, Noblemen, and very illustrious men.
“If any one has seen trees watered and flourishing, a very eminent man and the people will be fostered.”
“If a king has seemed to himself to have planted trees, he will appoint new magistrates.” Also,
“If trees by length of time become injured and rotten, the nobles of the king will die a natural death.”
“If he has thought he saw shrubs which grew up into trees, this refers to the promotion of his great men.”
“If he has thought he saw the leaves of trees collected into his house, wealth shall be gained from the great in the manner of leaves,” &c.
The Second Trumpet.
The second trumpet which ushers in ruin on the Roman world by a heavier plague, it being already laid waste as to its land, assails the sea; the third part of which, and what belongs to it, it renders entirely bloody, by the fall of a great mountain threatening it of old, but now set on fire, together with a great slaughter of animals or fishes living in it, and of the vessels navigating therein.
That is, the destruction of Rome, the great city, captured again and again, spoiled and burning with hostile flames, broke forth with the ruin of the amplitude of the Roman dominion or jurisdiction; the barbarians, on account of the weakness of the capital, thus affected, now seizing on its provinces, and dividing them into new kingdoms, with an irreparable slaughter of the legions at that time remaining for its defence, with a loss of all aids of retaining and supporting its power, even by negotiation.
The sea of the political world is, as I have observed, that amplitude
of dominion which embraces all the inhabitants in the communion of the same political
laws. By this image the dominion of Babylon is expressed,
But as “the third part of the sea,” that is, of the Roman sea,
is said to have become bloody, it is to be understood that blood is used in the
first place for slaughter, and then for death, even without blood. Death is to be
taken generally for destruction, even of a substance without life. Vide
The like symbol of a mountain, signifying a city, is to be found
of ancient Babylon, in
Moreover, that a mountain should here be said to be cast into
the sea, is a proper figure, because, by no other means could a mountain
With relation to history, Rome was first captured in the year 410 by the same Alaric, king of the Goths, who in the former trumpet had exhibited, as it were, a prelude of its fate. But now, after the death of Stilico, exciting new disturbances, and setting on foot a new and fatal expedition against Italy, by which he reduced Honorius to such straits, that the barbarian himself gave to Rome a new emperor of the name of Attalus, with whom he besieged Honorius Augustus at Ravenna, who was already meditating from the desperate state of his affairs, to fly into the east, and to abandon the west. But the enemy, induced by his submission, and Attalus having abdicated the empire, restored Honorius to his power.
The dismemberment of the Roman empire followed immediately the destruction of Rome. I call Sigonius as a witness, who says, “The miserable devastation of Italy, continual wars with Gaul and Spain, and at length, new regal governments of barbarians in both provinces, followed the destruction of Rome.”
For, in the first place, Honorius, in order to recover the possession
of Rome with the empire, having made a league with Alaric, was compelled
Then in the year 413, Constantius, the general of the same Honorius, that he might not accidentally fall into any warlike difficulty, willingly received the Burgundians into amity, and assigned them seats on the Rhone, who in the preceding years had thrown themselves into Gaul with the Vandals.
Lastly, in the year 415, the same Honorius, (as Procopius relates,) when the Goths, a little while after, had passed into the neighbouring part of Spain, granted to the Vandals likewise, with their king Gunderic, who had lately been expelled from Gaul by the Franks, the habitation they had occupied, under the engagement of waging war with the Goths.
He who desires to know more may consult the beforenamed Sigonius on the western empire, books x. and xi. from whence we have quoted these particulars.
And thus, from henceforth, the extent of the Roman dominion was
daily more and more mangled and dismembered, until Rome being
And in this manner, at length, those ten kingdoms, into which the Holy Spirit had predeclared, both by Daniel and St. John, that the Roman empire should be divided in the latter days, seem to be made out, and are not altogether to be estimated by the bare names of so many regions, or tracts of the earth, as is commonly done, but by kingdoms, into which the extent and dominion of the empire was to be forcibly torn asunder.
In the mean time, however, we do not think that the circumscription
of this denary is to be so rigidly interpreted, as to exclude more kingdoms at any
one time, or dynasties of some kind or other; but that the empire was to be rent
into ten kingdoms, at least, or into ten principal kingdoms. Which, from the original
declaration which we have now represented, down even to the present age, under so
many fates and changes
Now that this circumscription of the decad of kingdoms is to be understood in the manner which I have stated, and not otherwise, the similar prophecy respecting the division of the Alexandrian monarchy may teach us. In which, though over and above those four principal kingdoms of Macedonia, Asia, Syria, and Egypt, a fifth was added, namely, that of Thrace, by its founder Lysimachus, yet the Holy Spirit defined that multiplicity by a quaternion, suggesting there would be so many at least, or so many principal kingdoms. For the Thracian kingdom, though it began at the same time with the rest, and lasted forty years, yet had no successor, but expired with the first king, Lysimachus, and therefore is not to be referred to the number.
In like manner we are to judge of this tenfold Roman division.
Therefore, let no one be surprised, if, beside the kingdom enumerated in the Gallias,
he should possibly find that of the Aurelian Alani, and also the dynasty of the
Armoric States, remaining even from the reign of Honorius
A Type of the Dismemberment of the Empire or Dominion of Rome, about the year of Christ 456, and subsequent to that period.
Kingdoms of | Provinces under their Dominion. | Names of Kings regnant about the year 456. |
Observations. |
---|---|---|---|
1. Britons | In Britain | Vortimer. | |
2. Saxons | Hengist. | ||
3. Franks | In Belgic Gaul first, afterwards in Celtic | Childeric. | The kingdom of the Burgundians was subjugated and extinguished about 536; but to make up correctly the No. 10, the dominion of the Ostrogoths was divided at that time into two kingdoms; Pannonia having been subject to them, being occupied by the Longobards, and Italy alone left to the King of the Ostrogoths. |
4. Burgundians | In Gaul, about the Seine and Lyons. | Gunderic. | |
5. Visigoths | In Aquitaine and part of Spain | Theodosius II. | |
6. Suevi & Alani | In that part of Spain comprised in Gallicia and Lusitania | Ricianus. | |
7. Vandals | In Africa; but a little before in Spain | Genseric. | |
8. Allemanni Germans |
In the tract of Germany, called Rhitea | Sumanus. | The kingdom of the Allemanni coalesced with that of the Heruli, as long as they had possessions in Italy, about sixteen years. |
9. Ostrogoths | In Pannonia, having defeated the Huns, and before the expiration of this age the same people extended their kingdom into Italy. | Theodemirus. | The Longobards, or Lombards, succeeded the Ostrogoths likewise in Italy, from the time of Narsis. After he had destroyed the kingdom of the Ostrogoths, being called forth in 567, they gave up their seats in Pannonia to the Huns and Avari. |
10. Greeks | In the remainder of the dominion of the empire. Sinc the ancient empire of Rome being dissolved, that of the Greeks is to be enumberated among the kingdoms into which it was broken to pieces | Marianus. |
The Third Trumpet.
The third trumpet wholly overthrew and extinguished that burning star, the Roman Hesper, or Cæsar of the West, which fell headlong from the time when Genseric, king of the Vandals, pillaged the captured city of Rome; though, for a little time, to contend with death under those merely nominal Cæsars,—Avitus, Majorianus, Severus, Anthemius, Olybrius, Glycerius, and Nepos, who perished by mutual treacheries and murders, at length, in the year 476, drawing its last breath under the fatal name of Augustulus, was entirely hurled from the heaven of his power by Odoacer, king of the Heruli, who had fallen upon him, with a very bitter calamity to the fountains and rivers, that is, to the cities and provincial magistrates.
By the Hesperian Cæsar I understand him, who, from the confirmed
division of the empire into eastern and western, even from the death of Theodosius
the First, yet remained emperor of ancient Rome, and of the West, but for a very
short period, as, after the year 91, he began secretly to fall from his heaven at
the sound of this trumpet. For though the Roman bishop, more than 320 years after
the Hesperian Cæsar had fallen in Augustulus, substituted the king of the Franks,
(and afterwards of the Germans) in
The Papal Cæsar, however, does not appertain to the heads of
the Roman beast, but to the horns or kingdoms, into which the empire of the sixth
head, just ready to give place to the last head, were to be divided. For, after
so long a space as 325 years
But it is time now to throw light on the text of John, that the
reasonableness of the interpretation may appear. “And there fell from heaven, (says
he,) a great star, burning as a lamp.” He seems to describe a hairy star, or comet,
among whose species is enumerated by Pliny the Lampadias, or blazing star, especially
so called. And indeed, the Cæsar of the West might not unaptly be designated by
a star of this kind, on account of his brief duration. Of whom it is said,
But examples of the figure which I have noticed are every where
to be met with. For thus says
But before I quit this subject, something must be said of the state of the city and the Roman commonwealth, that the way may be prepared for the interpretation of the following trumpet.
The Cæsar of the West, then, being thus overthrown and extinct,
in the mean time Odoacer, king of the Heruli, held Rome for sixteen years under
the name of king, who, after two years restored, and from that time preserved, the
consulate to Rome and the West, which in his anger he had at first taken away. Theodoric,
king of the Ostrogoths, succeeded him, and that, as Paul the Deacon relates, by
Zeno, the emperor of the East, delivering Italy to him in a formal manner, and confirming
it by the imposition of the second veil on his head. He, after Odoacer was conquered
and slain, besides Dalmatia and Rhetia, which were provinces of Odoacer, added Sicily
also to his kingdom, rebuilt the walls, and some of the edifices of the city of
Rome, having collected a large sum of money for that purpose; so that nothing seemed
to be wanted to its attainment of its former state, except the infamy of a city
plundered and burned. He regulated the kingdom most wisely; he changed no Roman
institution, but retained the senate and consuls, the patricians, prefects of the
prætorium, prefect of the city, questor, commissary of the sacred largesses, offices
of the privates, and of the military, masters of the foot and horse, and the other
magistrates, who were then in the empire, and entrusted the offices only to Romans.
Which regulations were for some time continued by his
The Fourth Trumpet.
The fourth trumpet having advanced a little farther, proceeded
to take away entirely the light of Roman majesty in the city -of Rome, with which
it had hitherto shone under the Ostrogoth kings, after the consulate of Rome had
failed;- namely, from the year 452, in that Ostrogothic war, waged first by Belisarius,
and then by Narses, general of Justinian, for the purpose of recovering Italy:
And then the city itself, having been repeatedly taken by Totila, burnt, and a third
of it demolished, deprived, moreover, of all its inhabitants, (a memorable sport
of fortune!) being recovered at length by Narses, after so many deaths and so much
slaughter, was thrown down -a short time after by a whirlwind and thunderbolts.
Once the queen of cities, but now at length deprived of the consular power, of the
authority of the senate, and of the other magistrates, with which, as stars, she
had hitherto irradiated the globe, she fell from such splendour of glory into I
know not what ignoble Duchy of Ravenna, over which she had formerly ruled, and was
afterwards compelled (what obscurity!)
And this was that percussion of “the third part of the sun,
and of the moon, and of the stars,” by which it came to pass that “a third part
of the day did not shine, and likewise a third part of the night.” Where the diurnal
light, which is that of the sun, is called by the name of day, and the nocturnal
light of the moon and stars, by that of night. Like that in
The sun shone at Rome as long as the consular dignity and the kingdom was possessed of authority over other cities and provinces. The moon and the stars shone there, as long as the ancient power of the senate, and of the other magistrates, remained. But these being all taken away, (which was done by this trumpet,) what was there but darkness, and a universal failure of light, both diurnal and nocturnal? namely, what belonged to that city, to which a third part of the light of heaven was attributed.
The image of the sun, moon, and stars, in this sense, is very
frequent with the prophets. As
Of the Three Woe Trumpets.
There still remain three trumpets, the greatest and most grievous of all, and therefore discriminated from the
former by the appellation of Woes. For after the conclusion of the fourth trumpet,
“I saw and heard,” says he, “an angel flying in the midst of heaven, and saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe,
woe, to the inhabitants of the earth, by reason of the other voices of the trumpets
of the three angels, which are yet to sound.” Also,
Doubtless, since the Christian inhabitants of
The First Woe Trumpet, or Trumpet the Fifth.
The first woe trumpet is long since passed. It sent forth those horrid troops of locusts, issuing from the smoke of the Tartarean abyss, now opened by the work of Satan, to devastate the globe; that is, the Saracens, or Arabs, (a nation as populous and numerous as locusts,) were excited to the destruction of so many nations, by the astonishing false prophecy of Mohammed.
For the smoke ascending from the infernal pit is Mohammedism,
which the Mohammedan
A similar image of locusts is to be seen in Joel, in the two first chapters, speaking of the Assyrians and Babylonians, who were about to lay waste Judea, from whence he who hath compared the description of both, will not deny that the type was borrowed.
Achmet shows from the use of the east, that the interpretation
is to be referred to hostile forces; whose words I have thought proper to insert
in this place. It is thus he writes in chap. ccc. from the sciences of the Indians,
Persians, and Egyptians: “The locust, no doubt, is generally to be referred to
a multitude of enemies: For so it is recorded in the sacred writings, that
locusts by Divine command go forth like an army to the devastation of countries.”
This allusion to sacred writings, applies to those of the Indians alone, as well
as every thing in this book, which seems to imply a knowledge of the Christian religion,
as will be apparent to the reader. He proceeds,—“If any king or person endued with
power has dreamed that he saw locusts going forth towards a particular region,
he may expect in
Having now then established the image, we will look to the remainder of the description.
“And to them was given power,” says
But it was said to them, “that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, nor any green thing, nor any tree, but only those men who had not the seal of God upon their foreheads.”
As to the signification of the particle εἰ μὴ but only,
the sense is either exceptive, “that they should not hurt any herb, (for this is
the meaning ofχόρτος with the Hellenists,) nor any thing green, nor any tree, unless
those herbs, trees, and green things only, which were not inscribed by the seal
of God;” so that men and herbs, and green things, mutually explain one another.
Or it may be explained not exceptively, but in opposition, according to the use
of the particle εἰ μὴ in sacred Hellenism, for
ἀλλὰ,
“In those days men shall seek death, and shall not find it.
And they shall desire to die,. and death shall flee from them.” That is, such shall
be the calamity of those times, that men shall be weary of their lives. For you
are not to imagine that this was done by mere persuasion, or tricks of delusion.
The business was effected by arms, and that by the institution of Mohammed himself;
the apparatus of which, indeed, and it is sufficiently terrible, together with the
amplitude of the dominion to be acquired, and the dress of the nation waging war,
is depicted in a lively image. The warlike apparatus is thus described: “And the
figures of the locusts were like horses (i. e. cavalry) prepared for battle;”
“their teeth were like those of lions,” i. e. strong to devour.
The crowns, like crowns of gold, placed on their heads, indicate
the success and extent of dominion to be acquired nor indeed undeservedly. No
nation ever reigned so extensively, nor in so short a space of time were so many
Good God! what a vast tract of land! How many crowns are here! Whence it is worthy of observation, that no mention is here made, as under the other trumpets, of the trient, or third part; since the plague fell not less beyond the bounds of the Roman empire, than within it; stretching even to the extremest parts of India.
The dress of this warlike nation remains to be considered. “And their faces,” says he,
“were as the faces of men.” They were locusts with a
human countenance; that is, truly men, (lest any one should suppose that insects
were spoken of,) “having hair as the hair of women;” that is, they were Arabs
by nation, who, according to Pliny, wear their hair uncut, and in the manner of
women, having turbans on their heads.
It follows, with regard to the duration of the plague, that it
is to be actually terminated in five months, according to the type of locusts, who
last for so many months namely, from the rising of the pleiades, (called by the
ancients the end of spring, being about one month from the vernal equinox,) when,
from the eggs left in the earth, during winter, they come forth to the light, until
the beginning of autumn, when, having
God, however, intended to suit this notation of time, not only to the type, but also to the antitype, since he delivered up Italy, the chief state of the earth, and of the sin which drew down the foremost plague, to be infested by the Saracenic locusts, from the year 830 to the year 980, that is, 150 years, or five months of years.
In other parts of the world indeed, but in a certain order, and for different periods of time, the plague remained longer; chiefly in the oriental regions of Syria, Egypt, and of Asia Minor, which being conterminous to the head of that empire, which was first at Damascus, and afterwards at Bagdad, fell, as it were, into the anterior parts of the Saracenic body for many ages.
Here I would observe, that though, in whatever lands they occupied,
they wounded the inhabitants with the envenomed stroke of that scorpion-tail of
which I have spoken, yet the Italians seem to have felt the stroke in some different,
unknown, and singular manner. The whole swarm being assimilated to a body, and the
anterior parts assigned, as they ought to be, to the east, what will those African
troops be, stretched out at so loose a distance from the head towards the
west, but the tail? And from
Now, this is one way by which the five months of the type of
locusts may be adapted to the event. There is also another, provided those months
are doubled in consequence of those five months being twice mentioned, as if indeed
the Holy Spirit meant to apply the number Five according to the analogy and propriety
of the type; but to double it that it might answer by another period, to a more
illustrious antitype.
There yet remains to treat of the king, and his name. “And they had,” says he, “a king over them, the angel of the abyss.” His name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek he has the name of Apollyon, that is, the Destroyer.
The Holy Spirit seems to insinuate, as he calls their king the
angel of the abyss, that these locusts were not a Christian, but an infidel nation,
which had not given their name to Christ. For the children of infidelity, or Pagans,
are said by St. Paul to be subject to the prince who had the power “of the air,”
who is no other than the angel of the abyss; on the contrary, those
Whatever the reason may be, the matter is worthy discussion, why he should call this prince of the abyss by a name evidently new and unheard of, and not as he commonly is, the Devil, Satan, the Serpent, or Dragon: or if he had given him one from the notion of destroying, why not rather Asmodeus, from the name Ἰσοδυναμοῦντι, by which the Jews used to call him, but Abaddon never? Is it not because,
when the Mohammedans boasted that they worshipped and adored no other God than the one and only God, the Creator of all things, or the Maker of the Universe, who is denominated Abuda by the Chaldeans and Syrians, and is distinguished also by the Arabians themselves by the epithet אבדי Abdi, that is, Eternal; the Holy Spirit designed to oppose them with a word of a contrary sense, but of similar sound? By which, in truth, he intimated, that they were so far from venerating (whatever they might assert) Abuda, or Abdi, the Eternal Maker of the World, that in the estimation of God himself, whom they will have to be of one Person, and not to be approached through Christ, they had, in the place of king or deity, not Him, but the evil angel Abaddon, that is, not the Maker, but the Destroyer of the world.
Thus, when the followers of Jeroboam thought that they worshipped
the God of Israel in their calves, the Scripture says that they sacrificed to demons.
The other king was dull and heavy, the contemporary of Herod
the Great, whose procurator Syllæus (who administered his affairs according to
his pleasure) demanded Salome, the sister of Herod, in marriage; but being deprived
of his wish, and rendered the enemy of Herod, brought him into no small dispute
with Augustus by his calumnies. Of this Obodas, Strabo makes mention more than once
in the expedition of Ælius Gallus into Arabia, and that with the same mark
of dulness, and says he was connected by affinity with the neighbouring king Aretas,
(and this, as I said, was the common name of the kings bordering on Petræa.) From
the same author it is to be collected, that the more southern kingdom of Obodas
reached to the Red Sea, which tract of land, I believe, the Ismaelites and Saracens
inhabited; for certainly it appears that the Nabatheans, whose country, by the
testimony of Uranius, embraced the region of Obodas, were Ismaelites, having obtained
that name from Nabaioth, the first-born son of Ismael. Josephus adds, that Obodas
having departed this life, Aretas, by the favour of Augustus, annexed his kingdom
to his own. If any one being much
The Second Woe Trumpet, or Trumpet the Sixth.
Another woe productive of plagues (which, lamentable to be reflected on, still broods over us), calls forth the tetrarchs of the Turks with a most numerous body of cavalry, from Euphrates, (where they had long rested) to invade the Roman world.
“Loose,” says the voice from the four horns of the altar of
incense, “the four angels who are bound upon the great river Euphrates.” The angels
are used for the nations over which they were thought to preside, by a metonymy
not unusual in this book. It appears to be so from the circumstance that those who
are loosed, immediately, according to the direction of the Oracle, are Equestrian
armies, sent forth to slay men. It commands the angels who had been bound, to be
loosed, as those who, during the continuance of the former plague, when they burst
forth on the Roman regions, had been restrained to the Euphrates for so many ages,
that they might not proceed at will. In the beginning, indeed, they advanced
a little farther, even to Nice, in Bithynia; but Solyman being conquered
in the expedition from Jerusalem by the Argonautic Christians, they were at length
confined
The second tetrarchy was the Aleppian, from its metropolis Aleppo,
which is washed by a branch of the Euphrates, and therefore derived from one
The third tetrarchy, with its metropolis Damascus, had for its
founder, on the same authority, Tagjuddaulas Nisus, the grandson of Togrulbec, or
Tangrophilix, who subjugated Damascus in the same year 1079. His successor was Ducathes,
or Decacus, the brother of Rochewan, the sultan of Aleppo, in the year 1095. To
whom, says Scilix, the whole region of Decapolis was subject. This bordered on the
Euphrates. With these Scilix numbers the fourth, the Antiochian, contained within
narrow bounds. For, says he, the caliph of Egypt, of the Saracenic race, possessed
Laodicea, even to the regions of Syria. But as that kingdom of Antioch was not only
a little too remote from the Euphrates, but lasted only fourteen years, Antioch
being taken by our people under their leader, Bohemond, it will be better, perhaps,
having expunged that, to add the Bagdadian, or Persian empire, from the other bank
of the Euphrates, (for Scilix only took account of the Turks who had passed the
Euphrates,) in order to complete the quaternion, that so the whole Turkish empire,
both beyond and on this side of that river, should he understood as divided into
those four sultanies,
DIAGRAM
Of the Turkish Empire, near the Euphrates, divided into Four Parts, from the year 1080, and thenceforward, taken out of Elmachinus, an Arab, and Scilix, a Greek Author.
Beyond | On this side the Euphrates. | ||
---|---|---|---|
Bagdad Togrulbec Olbarsalanus |
Cæarea in Cappadocia, and Iconium in Asia Minor |
Aleppo | Damascus |
Ghelaluddaulas, Barkyaruccus Muhamedus Mahmudus began his reign 1117, &c. |
Sedijduddaulas Cognomine Cutlumusus Solimannus Tanismanius Masutus Calisastlanus, &c. |
Sjarfuddulus Roduwanus Tagjuddaulas, Fil. Bulgarus began his reign 1117 |
Tagjuddaulas Decacus Abalacus, who was alive in 1115 * * * * * * * * * * Sanguinus Noradinus, &c. |
And that was the state of the Turkish affairs when they had first
passed the Euphrates; and having given a specimen of their irruption into the Roman
dominions, were restrained by the appointed chains to the Euphrates. However, that
quaternion of sultanies did not remain entire to the time of relaxation, but underwent
“And the four angels were loosed which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, that they might kill a third part of men.”
This loosing of the Turks happened a little before the year 1300,
the caliphate of Bagdad (with which the first woe wholly expired) being now extinguished
by the Tartars in the year 1258, and the remnant of the Turks, who had been possessed
of the realms from the other bank of the river, even to Persis, being ejected by
the same people, as from a sling, in the year 1289, on the Roman countries
on this side the Euphrates. For, things being thus prepared, it happened likewise,
at the same time, that the Latins, who had now, for almost two hundred years, imposed
curbs and fetters on the first irruption of the Turks, were expelled from Syria
and Palestine, about the year 1291. In the mean time the Turks, though as yet divided
into various satrapies, began to make incursions into almost the whole of Asia Minor,
to divide it among themselves, to be possessed by hereditary right, and at length,
uniting under the empire of Othman
This was the beginning of the Turkish irruption, by which the
Saracenic empire began to be demolished, and the dominion of the Romans to be afflicted; in such a manner, however, that the force of the mischief was to be restrained
to the time prescribed for the relaxation. The interval of time certainly agrees
exactly; for Elmachinus, the Arabian historian whom I have so often quoted,—than
whom, no one marks the successive periods of time more accurately,—relates that
Togrulbec Saglucides, the prince of the Turks, (who is called by our writers Tangrolipix,
of the Zelzucian family,) having taken the rout of Bagdad, was invested by the caliph
Cajim Biamrilla with the imperial garment, and was inaugurated into the kingdom
in the year of the Hegira 449, that is, of Christ 1057.
From this time, then, the stronghold of the Saracenic empire being given to them with the whole Trans-Euphratean dominion, the Turks were prepared, that after a prophetic day, and a month, and a year, they should kill a third part of men; that is, in the year of Christ 1453, they should utterly destroy the remnant of the Roman empire in the East, by the capture of the royal city of Constantinople. For the interval from 1057 to the year 1453, when Constantinople was taken, is precisely 396 years, of which a day forms one, a month thirty, and a year three hundred and sixty-five. Such is here the accuracy of the calculation, that any one may easily be led to suspect the hour likewise, (which, according to the mode of reckoning the other parts of time, would produce fifteen days, would equally correspond with the event, if the month of the inauguration of Togrulbey was handed down to us as well as the year. In the mean time, till that be established, the hour may here be taken for a seasonable time, and the conjunction καὶ may be explained exegetically, as if they were prepared against a seasonable time, namely, for a day, a month, and a year, that they might kill a third part of men.
How many years should thence run on to the
But, before I quit this subject, I will, not unwillingly, confess, that if the exact correspondence of the prophecy with the event did not, as it were, force conviction upon me, another interpretation of the following kind would have been by no means unpleasing,—that those angels were prepared and appointed for every occasion, whether it were for an hour, or a day, or a month, or even for a year, for performing the work of which there was need. But whether it is likely that so accurate an answer as to time, as the event here exhibits, could have happened by chance, let others judge. It will be for him to form an opinion with whom there is a doubt.
The next point is of the quality and number of the forces.
“And the number, (says he,) of the army of horsemen was two myriads of myriads,”
i. e. two hundred thousand, or two hundred million. He names the horsemen, and
not any other kind of force, in the whole description of the plague, as if this
enemy from the Euphrates was wholly composed of cavalry. Is
The farther, or greater Armenia, is what is called at this day Turcomania, from the inhabitation of the Turks; in which was formerly the city Thelbalana, the Tibaunian and Balbitenian people, the river Teleboas, and other vestiges of the name of Tubal. The war, however, which Ezekiel relates, is not to be understood of that undertaken in this irruption of the Turks, which John describes, (this he seems only to allude to,) but of another, the last after the return of the Jews; and, if it be lawful to conjecture, when the power which now occupies the country shall have first in some degree receded from it.
But on the type of cavalry, there is something else I would add
with the leave of the reader, provided no one will. think me too much given to the
play of names and etymologies. Even solid and well-cooked food is apt to be more
palatable with sauce. Let not the reader, then, be disgusted, if I subjoin something
of this kind. The Turks, in truth, before they were set loose, had become, by long
inhabitation, Persians, and were every where called by that name in the Byzantine
historians. Nicetas, certainly, who embraces in his history the greatest part of
the time when they were restrained to the Euphrates, almost always calls them Persians,—very
rarely,
There is such an agreement here, that one might be tempted to
suspect the type of a ram in the same vision, applied to the king of the Persians,
alludes to the signification of the name Elam, one of the two by which that nation
is called. For איל in the Hebrew, (whence the name איל Aries, ram,)
and אלם
and עלם in the Chaldee, signify the same; namely, strong or robust. Perhaps,
therefore, עילם Elam had the same sound as איל ram to these, and thence the king
of Elam is described under this type by Daniel. However it be, when the thing itself
is otherwise confirmed, this agreement of names with the type cannot help being
matter of pious
Now I return again to the Euphratean horse, “whose number,”
says he, “was two myriads of myriads.” Others read myriads of myriads, expunging
the two, as
“And I heard,” he adds, “their number.” Since it might be asked whence John was acquainted with the number, as what was not possible to be represented to him in a vision, he says, “I heard.” The like is to be understood likewise in other visions, as often as any thing is related which could not be exhibited to sight; namely, that the apostle was informed by a voice.
The next subject is the armour. “And thus
No where in any part of the prophets, or elsewhere in the sacred
writings, occurs an image of this kind, “of fire and hyacinthine smoke and sulphur.”
Where I understand it literally of that new (and previous to this trumpet) unheard
of arms, which those Euphratean enemies made use of, immediately after they had
been set loose. I understand it of cannon, vomiting fire, smoke, and sulphur. For
gunpowder is ignivomous, with hyacinthine smoke, and sulphureous matter, which those
who use in war, obtrude themselves on the senses of their enemies, as covered with
breast-plates of fire, hyacinth, and sulphur, from a medium involved in fire, smoke,
and the smell of sulphur; on which account the horses’ heads are seen to be of a
fierce and terrible appearance, like those of lions. Hence John says, that he
saw the horses and horsemen, not really, but in appearance, such as he
describes. In appearance, I say, ἐν ὁράσει not in reality, having breast-plates of fire, hyacinth,
and sulphur; in appearance, having heads like lions; lastly, in
Who does not know that this was abundantly fulfilled in the destruction
of Constantinople? Was not that most illustrious city, the chief of the third part
of men, besieged with those fire-
To this account of their arms, is added something about the nature
of the horses and their riders. That “their power was not in their mouths” only,
(of which we have hitherto treated,) but “in their tails; for they have tails
like serpents, having heads with which they hurt.” That is, the same as was said
above, concerning the Saracens, holds true likewise of the Turks; that they effected
mischief, not only by hostile force, but likewise by the train of the Mohammedan
imposture, wherever they proceeded. These, therefore, not less than the Saracenic
locusts, (whose religion they adopted,) are serpents in their tail. That one kind
of serpentine tail may be attributed to the latter, and another to the former, arises
from the natural shape of each, and the difference between locusts and horses, by
which the pointed tail of scorpions is most suitable to the former, and tails with
serpents’
Now who these are, it will not be difficult to collect; since
in the whole Roman world, or on this side the Euphrates, there are none which worship
images, with shame and sorrow be it spoken! besides Christians. Does it not necessarily
follow, then, that it is they who worship demons also? since the worship of both
is ascribed to the same persons in this place. But what in fine you will say, are
demons? Not, in truth, what they themselves hold to be impure spirits, and often
call them so, (for what Christian would knowingly and willingly worship them?)
but what were understood under this name by the theologists of the Gentiles—deities,
consecrated under the names either of angels or dead men. “Every demon,” says Plato,
“is a being between God and mortals.” Again, “God holds not communication with
man, but through a demon in every conference:” In Symposis, intercourse carried
on between the gods and men. The other Platonic philosophers, and most of the various
sects, except the Epicureans, held the
They had, in truth, two sorts of gods; the celestial, who, perpetually
residing in heaven, and the stars, did not humble themselves to these earthly things,
and were not to be defiled with their contagion. (These were properly and especially
called gods.) The others were demons, who, as mediating powers, and ministers of
the celestial or highest gods, had the management of human affairs. The former,
(if I rightly conceive,) the Holy Scripture calls the host of heaven; the latter,
(especially those who were made of dead men,) it calls Baalim, from Baal, a king
of the Babylonians or Assyrians; or in the Chaldaic pronunciation, Bel, who was
the first who was consecrated a demon after death by his people; from whence it
came to pass afterwards,
Of the Third Woe Trumpet, or Trumpet the Seventh.
The vision of the sixth trumpet being finished, (for there is
only one vision under one trumpet, as under the seals and phials,) the next place
in order was due to the sounding of the seventh. This, however, is deferred, and
the Holy Spirit, in the prophecy of the little book, to which he is now about to
pass, in order that nothing might be wanting to the completion of the prophecy of the seals, now just finishing, supplies the place of that trumpet’s sound which is deferred, by an oath, under which
the effect of that trumpet is generally indicated. That it should surely come to
pass, when that angel shall have sounded, that the Roman beast, in the latest times of the last head, having
been accused, “the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his
servants the prophets.” For so it was predicted
And this consummation of the mystery of God, is the subject matter of the seventh trumpet; to which seven thunders are added as accompaniments, for they are not the very subject which the trumpet exhibits as contemporary with it.
While the angel is making his proclamation about the
mystery of the trumpet, seven thunders utter their voices. “He cried,”
says he, “with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth, and when he cried,
seven thunders uttered their voices.” That is, when he had begun his proclamation,
seven thunders began to speak. And they cannot but contemporize with the
seventh trumpet, since what follows the sixth trumpet necessarily falls
within the seventh
The fact then is, (for I would unfold it with as much perspicuity
and brevity of expression as possible,) both prophecies, as well that of the seals,
as of the Biblaridion, are concluded by the same issue of events, by that in truth,
which the seventh trumpet exhibits. To indicate which, the Holy Spirit having slightly,
but as much as was necessary, there presignified the mystery of the seventh trumpet
in its own place, in the series of trumpets, deferred the fuller explanation of
its sound, until he had made a transition to the new prophecy of the little book,
(
It belonged to him who revealed the second prophecy, that the
manifestation of the trumpets’ sound, which contained the catastrophe of both prophecies,
should be so far defined. Nay, if that angel, as may seem capable of being collected
from his more august clothing and whole apparatus, was Christ the Lord
Of the Little Book, or, of the other System of Apocalyptical Visions, according to the Rule of the Apocalyptical Key.
The course of the seals being finished, in which the affairs
of the empire were described, we come now to the other prophecy, much more noble
in its kind, as containing the Fates of the Church, or of Religion. John is introduced
to it by the delivery and eating up of the open book, being endued as it were with
a degree of the prophetic faculty. “And the voice (says he) which I had heard from
heaven, spake again unto me saying,” (viz. that voice, as of a trumpet, talking
with him,
The book, being thus taken and swallowed, the meaning of the
symbol is explained in the clearest and most express words; namely, that on St.
John was imposed the gift of another and still more noble prophecy, which should
retrace the path of the former, to be received from
Such was the inauguration of St. John. Then follows the prophecy, which begins with an act of his, relative to the temple of God. And therefore, by the image of a double court, one measured, and the other rejected on account of the profanation of the Gentiles, demonstrates that there would be in order a double state of the Church.
Of the Interior Court measured by the Reed of God.
The inner court of the temple, with those who worship therein, to be measured by the Divine reed, denotes the primeval state of the Church, examined, and accurately proved to be holy, according to the rule of the Divine word.—Not yet in truth, as it was afterwards, (when we arrive at the times of the outer court,) varying from measure, without symmetry, from the contagion of idolatrous worship, but serving God for some ages, regularly, through one only Mediator, Jesus Christ.
For it appears to me that a measure of this kind was
intended, even under the type of the angelical dimension in Ezekiel; because
it is said to him,
How appositely indeed the situation of the altar in this court may adumbrate the frequent sacrifices of martyrs, under that state of the Church, will appear, both from the circumstance itself, and from the contemporary vision of the red dragon fighting with Michael for the offspring of the woman, when we come to the interpretation thereof.
Of the Outer Court with the Holy City trodden under foot by the Gentiles, and on that account to be omitted and rejected from measurement.
The outer court trodden under foot by the nations, and rejected
from the divine measurement, designates the holy city of God, or the Christian Church,
soon after the end of the times of the regular court, (to which it immediately succeeds)
to be given up to new idolatries, and its affairs having been confirmed by the entire
demolition of the Gentile worship under the first court, it was now to be profaned
by the contagion of renewed idolatry, as of revived ethnicism; in one word, the
anti-christian apostasy which was to flourish in the Church for forty-two months
of years
But let us consider the words of the text in the interpretation
of which we are now engaged. “And there was given me, says he, a reed like a rod; and the angel stood, saying, Arise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar,
and
In order that we may rightly understand the meaning of these
words, it is to be understood that ΤΟ ἹΕΡΟΝ (by which name I embrace the whole edifice
of the temple,) was distinguished by a double court, the one interior, in which
the Nah, or temple itself, together with the altar of burnt-offering before its
doors was situated, and was open to the Priests and Levites only; the other exterior,
which is called (
Of the Holy Place, that is, of the Temple, and its Courts.
AAAA | The Inner Court. | γ δ The Altar of Burnt-Offering |
BBBB | The Outer Court. | |
α β | The Temple. | Αγ Αδ The Place of Offering Sacrifice. The Thusiasterion. |
α | The Holy of Holies. | |
β | The Holy Place. |
To these two courts, (of which only, and not of more, the Scripture makes mention,) a third was added in after ages, namely, in the temple of Herod; with another wall built in the circumference of the temple, which was called that of the Gentiles and unclean persons; but this was not accounted sacred, nay more, on the columns erected, there was inscribed in Greek and Latin letters, “Let no stranger of another tribe pass through into the holy place.” Josephus de Bello Judaico, 1-6. cvi. Greek 18.
Of the Two Witnesses prophesying in Sackcloth.
Two witnesses or prophets sent by God, clothed in sackcloth,
are to preach, while the Gentiles are treading under foot the court of the people
of God, or the holy city. These are the interpreters and assertors of Divine truth,
who should deplore that foul and lamentable contamination of the Church of Christ,
by continual complaints, and whom God would raise up as unceasing monitors to the
Christian world, committing whoredom with the Gentiles, and as guides to his saints
preserving the faith. After the example of those illustrious pairs, under the Old
Testament, Moses and Aaron in the Wilderness, Elijah and Elisha under the Baalitical
apostasy,
Moses and Aaron. | Elias and Elisha. | Zorobabe1 & Jeshua. |
“Having power over the waters, to turn them into blood. and to smite the earth with every plague.” |
“Having power to shut heaven, that it should not rain.” |
“These are the two olive-trees, and two candlesticks, which stand before the Lord of the earth.” |
“Whoever would hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their adversaries.” |
||
Now let us come to the text. “And I will give power, (says he,)
to my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy 1260 days, clothed in sackcloth.” Where
it is first to be remarked, that the whole prophecy which follows, from this comma
to the sounding of the seventh trumpet, as the nature of the subject demands, was
not exhibited to sight in a vision, but dictated to John
“That they should prophesy clothed in sackcloth,” that is, by
woefully lamenting the trampling down of the Holy City, in consequence of the introduction
of Gentile worship, by affording testimony to the truth of God, and by exhorting
to repentance, “For 1260 days”—which indeed Are contained in forty-two months,
and these it is plain are not days of hours; both from those three days and a half,
part of those
However it may be, it is certain that the candlesticks signify
not the prophets or presidents of the churches, but the churches themselves, because
in chapter i. the angel interprets the seven candlesticks, as so many Churches.
“The seven candlesticks, (says he,) which thou sawest, are the seven Churches. If this was a difficulty to Mede, it is almost presumptuous
in any other to attempt an explanation. But there have been two revelations of light
from God, under two dispensations, and preserved by two Churches or holy societies—the
Jewish and the Christian. In the time of Zachariah, there was only one revelation, one church, one candlestick,
and if we may be allowed to apply the two olive-trees to two figurative infusers,
rather than to two persons, we may suppose them in the first instance to have designated
the law and the prophets. But in the time of St. John there were two revelations, two
churches, two candlesticks, the one illuminated by means of the Old Testament,
now combining the law and the prophets, the other by the New Testament comprising
the doctrines of Christ and his apostles. Reference is made to Zachariah, because
be described the one and prefigured the other. May not then the two witnesses be
summarily intended for the law and the gospel, or rather for the Old and
New Testament?— R. B. C.
“If any one wish to hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their
mouth, and devoureth their enemies, and if any one wish to hurt them, so must he
be killed.” The witnesses do not revenge themselves by the sword or daggers, if
they are ever injured by their enemies, but out of their mouth proceedeth the vengeance; that is, they transfix their enemies with the shafts of the Word; whilst they
are denouncing the wrath of God impending over the violators of his ministers, or
imploring vengeance with their prayers and groans. For the fire which is here reported
as proceeding out of the mouth of the witnesses is the word of vengeance; agreeably
to that saying of the Lord to Jeremiah (
“These have power to shut heaven that it rain not;” (viz. that
mystical rain fall not) “in the days of their prophecy. That is, they are endued
with the power of the keys, by which they can shut heaven on those new Gentiles,
contaminators of the Christian worship, that the grace of Christ’s blood, sealed
to them by baptism
Of this power of the witnesses we have an example hereafter,
(
Lastly, “they have power over the waters, to convert them into
blood, and to smite the earth
“But when they are about to finish their testimony, the beast which ascendeth out of the abyss, shall make war upon them, and shall overcome them, ‘and shall slay them.’”
We have hitherto treated of the office and power of the witnesses; the fate now follows which they shall experience at the end of their prophecy,
the description of which is wholly
But let us throw light on the text. “When,” says he, “they
shall be finishing their testimony,” (for so ὅταν τελέσωσι should be translated,
not by the preterite, when they have finished,) “the beast who ascends out of the
abyss, shall make war upon them and shall kill them.” That is, when at length, a
part of the Holy City, or of the Christian world, having acknowledged the impurity
of Gentilism, repenting, and cleansing the temple of God among them, and the witnesses
But the destruction by which the witnesses are predicted to be
overthrown, must I think be understood in a very general sense, in which it may
comprehend death, metaphorically or analogically so called. In this notion, that
is said to die, which in whatever state it was constituted, either political or
ecclesiastical, or in any other, ceases to be what it was. Whence likewise he kills,
who inflicts on any one such a death. For as in the sacred style, to live is oftentimes
to be,
And the mode of opposition seems to require that as the resurrection
of the witnesses to life, after the slaughter was perpetrated, should be of this
kind, so the slaughter itself should be. But that is clearly analogical, because
no resurrection properly so called, will take place before the advent of Christ,
under the seventh trumpet; but this takes place while the sixth is still running
on.
The death of the witnesses then in war, if we explain it according
to this rule of interpretation, will appear to he their overthrow and dejection
In the mean time, lest any one should possibly be deceived, there
is one thing to be accurately attended to, that this last war of the beast is not
of the same kind with that which he had hitherto waged against the assembly of the
saints, (of which indeed we shall speak in the history of the beast,
Respecting the great city, then, the meaning is plain, but what
the πλατεῖα of the city may he, of which mention is here made, is not so easily
to be known. For it seems, it cannot be taken for a street, or for what we call
in Latin platea, or forum,
or for any other place within a city, for the following reasons: In the first
place, Christ our Lord, who is said to have been crucified in this πλατεῖα, was not crucified either in any street or forum
of the city of Rome, or Jerusalem, but without the gate of the latter, (
But now it can no longer be obscure to one by whom this interpretation
is approved, either in what manner Christ may be said to have been crucified in
the πλατεῖα of the Roman city, or when the carcases of the slain witnesses were
to be cast out; namely, not in the city of Rome, but in the Roman domain. I know,
indeed, that many of our writers, in order to arrive at the same conclusion, understand
here, under the name of the city, the whole dominion of the
“And (some) of the peoples, and tribes, and tongues, and nations,
shall see their dead bodies for three days and a half, and shall not suffer their
dead bodies to be put into monuments.”—Whether this is to be taken in the sense
of inhumanity or of kindness, is doubtful, and not to be decided except by the fulfilment
of the prophecy. For it may be taken either as done by enemies, adding this for
the sake of ignominy, to the slaughter which they had perpetrated, that they would
deny sepulture to the bodies of the dead: Or by friends and favourers of the witnesses
by this means consulting the interests of those who were soon to revive. For, however
it may be held on other considerations, an act of the greatest cruelty, not to bury
the dead, and to cast them out unburied, and especially among the Jews, as the greatest
ignominy; yet to prohibit those who were so dead, as not to create a
and therefore, while the wound was yet recent, and their affairs
not yet confirmed, not to be provoked with impunity to desperation, or at least,
by exertion and secret favour, it should come to pass, that they should not deal
with the witnesses as if there were no hope of their revival.—Achmet, from the doctrine
of the Indians, (Apotelesma, 130,) “If any one in dreams should seem to be buried,
the sepulchre refers to the full certainty of his death. If he should seem to observe
some deficiency of those things which pertain to sepultures, that deficiency must
be placed to the account of hope. If now you should be disposed to inquire what
appears in the text which would lead rather to one interpretation than the other,
I would introduce this observation into the argument on the subject, that since
he announces what is here suggested
“For three days and a half.” That is, as it appears for three
years and a half, for the things which are there foretold, as to be performed, prove
that it cannot be understood of horary days. For who can believe that the short
space of three days and a half are sufficient either for disseminating the report
of the slaughter of the witnesses through the world, or for sending messengers with
gifts backwards and forwards among the nations. It is obvious that it would not
be sufficient even for preparing them. To this must be added, that half a day, or
twelve hours, is wholly inadequate for measuring acts of this kind. For these sort
of things are accustomed to be marked, not by hours, but rather by
Such as the death of the witnesses was, such will be their awakening
or resurrection from the dead; namely, their restitution to their former state; and that, not so much by any exertion or human assistance, as by the finger of
God, who is wonderful in his works. For this is implied in the words, “The Spirit
of life from God entered into them.” Achmet says, (Apotelesm. vi. and vii. of the
Doctrine of the Egyptians and Persians,) “If any one in dreams thinks he sees the
resuscitation of the dead, it signifies the
“And they heard a great voice from heaven, saying to them, Come
up hither. And they went up to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies beheld them.”
Not only will the witnesses be restored to their former place and station, but
they will be even elevated to a higher degree of honour and power. For that is the
signification of being carried up in a cloud, and ascending to heaven. Vide
These I bring forward for the purpose of
“And in that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth
part of the city fell, and there were slain in the earthquake (the names of) seven
thousand men.” At the time at which the witnesses or prophets returned to life,
and ascended into heaven, there was a great earthquake, that is, a great commotion
of the nations,
This being the state of the case, it follows, that the interpretation
of the passage is to be guided by the above rule, and is to be proved, as it were,
by a touchstone; and therefore a meaning of these words is to be sought for, of
such a nature as may agree with the description of that Babylonian destruction.
Let us now see by what means this may be done. Philip Nicolai, a theologian
At last, then, until any one shall suggest something more certain,
and consonant to the text, I am brought to this conclusion, that I conceive by the
tenth of the city, a part of the city is indeed to be understood, but not a part
of the present city, but the whole of it, which is the tenth part of the ancient
one. That this is the fact, and that not more than the tenth part of the ancient
city of Rome, as it existed in the age of St. John, remains at this day, may appear
from the: following reasoning. For Lypsius
But modern, or pontifical Rome has only 13 or 15 miles for its
circuit, as they know, says Lypsius, who have measured it. Its form, as may be seen
from its ichnography, is an oblong, nearly quadrangular, in a proportion almost
double. To measure which, let a rectangular parallelogram be constituted, whose
perimeter may be 15, its length double the breadth; of which form, in fact, the
sides will be 22 and 5, which multiplied into each other, will give an area of 121.
Now the number 126 contains 10 times the number 121. The latter area, then, is the
tenth part of the former, and consequently, modern Rome the tenth part of ancient.
Q. E. D. Any one who is not much accustomed
We cannot, indeed, examine every thing here according to line
and rule, but it is wonderful how near we can approach to it. I define the circumference
of the present city by the walls by which it is surrounded, for beyond them, contrary
to what was formerly the case, it is not at this day inhabited; but the whole contents,
whatever they may be, are included within the walls; those walls which Hadrian
the First, and Leo the Fourth, pontiff, erected, as it were, by a fatal instinct,
as the boundary to that which had just been made the seat of the pontifical kingdom.
That I may at length draw to a conclusion, the sum of what I
have said reverts to this; that the Holy Spirit means to say, or to intimate, that
so much of the Great City as remained at this earthquake, should become a ruin at
the time, viz. a tenth of the city; for there was to be no more remaining up to
that period. Nine parts were to fall many ages before; and we in truth have seen
them fall, partly by the destructions and devastations which the barbarians brought
upon it at so many different times, partly by decay from great age, and partly overthrown
by lightning, as we
Nor was it perhaps necessary that we should interpret the
Holy Spirit as having spoken so rigidly as we have done, of the tenth part of the
city, according to geometrical miles. It would have been sufficient, if, as formerly,
he had spoken by his influence on
It is added, “And there were slain in the earthquake seven thousand
names of men.” Here, if by names of men we understand heads of men, or individual
men, the number seems too trifling, and not consistent with the magnitude of the
slaughter, which the Holy Spirit elsewhere intimates. For in the destruction of
Babylon, will there not be a far greater number slain than seven thousand men?
And is it
And this is one mode by which the doubt may be satisfied about
the too trifling number .of those who were slain. Another is, if we should say that
by “names of men” are possibly intended men of name, or renown. For a hypallage
of this kind is not unfrequent in the Scriptures,
If we follow an interpretation of this kind, (nor do I see what
can be opposed to it,) the names of men will be dignities of men, ὀνομαστοὶ, men of name, illustrious
men and excelling in dignity, of whom about 7000 (and what if they should be of
the order of the false prophet, which they call ecclesiastics?) should fall in
this concussion of things and nations. The number, however, of 7000, I conceive to be so intended that a few more
or less may be understood, according to the manner of Scripture. How great a number
of the Plebeians are to fall in this war it does not
But still another interpretation may be given, which would not
render it necessary to come to an enumeration of particular men; for instance,
if we may interpret names of men as companies and societies of men, men accustomed
to be called by their proper names no less than individuals, as are states, municipalities,
parishes, villages, abbeys, and similar titles of human communities. For what are
these things else, if we are desirous of forming the hypothesis, than names of men? for so is the political state of the Thebans called by Eschines
Θηβαίων ὄνομα,
and the Roman name is used for the Roman people
What, then, if out of these titles of human communities, whatever they may be, and whether at Rome, or in what they call the state of the Church, about 7000 are to be slain in this concussion of the nations; that is, they are to sink under adverse power, which Scripture, according to its usual style, has called death.
But nothing is to be rashly pronounced concerning a future event,
since the issue of things predicted is a commentary on the prophecy. These observations
I have adduced that it may appear more clearly, as far as relates to words, that
the interpretation may he more liberal than is commonly supposed, since the use
of Scripture does not bind down the word name to any uniform and certain
signification. For names of men are not to be found conjunctively any where else,
than in the place now under consideration; nor are names to be found, singly of
individuals, unless twice only, c. i. v. 15,
It may be answered, that this takes place because at that time the conversion of Israel, and the new kingdom begin, (for they are called kings from the East,) or because, in the duration of the beast, the empire of the Roman city is chiefly attended to. But that great city, the royal residence of the beast, is taken and overthrown in that earthquake; so far that the beast from thenceforth will have in some degree changed his form, since his metropolis being thus demolished, it can no longer be considered as the kingdom of the seven mountains, (which is the other signification of the seven heads.) There still remains in the text the sounding of the seventh trumpet, and the august kingdom of Christ in the great day of judgment. The interpretation of which we will defer to the end of the book, that we may exhibit all the prophecies relating to it in that place, at the same time and in one point of view.
Of the Red Dragon with Seven Heads fighting with Michael about the new-born Child.
The first vision of the little book, of which we treated in the
eleventh chapter, ran through the whole Apocalyptical course, from the beginning
to the end, and that, as we elsewhere observed, to point out its connexion with
the seals and trumpets. Now to that vision the remaining prophecies of the same
interval, and of the affairs of the Church are to be accommodated, in order to complete
the system of the little book. Of which, “the war of the red seven-headed dragon
with Michael,” comprises the same period as the measured court of the ecclesiastical
state, in which the dragon, inhabiting the Roman empire, raged with dire persecutions
against the Church with child, and travailing to bring forth Christ
This summary of the whole matter being premised, for the sake of clearness, let us come to the particular explanation of the text.
“And a great sign (he says) was seen in heaven,” whither John
was called in the beginning to behold, and where he had seen all the foregoing visions.
I do not think any other sense of this circumstance is to be sought for. For it
is manifest even from the end of the preceding chapter, that John had hitherto beheld
what passed in heaven. “A woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet,
and on her head a crown of twelve stars.” A sign, and a very beautiful image of
the primitive Church in a state of pregnancy, resplendent on all sides with the
faith of Christ, the Sun of Righteousness, and treading under her feet the elements
of the world, (whether the shadows of the Law, or the darkness of Gentile superstition;) glittering, lastly, with the insignia of apostolical origin. Many are inclined
to consider the moon as a symbol of terrestrial and mutable things, which the Church
of Christ looks down upon as beneath her. Though this may be true, yet never, I
believe, in the whole Scripture, is the
“And being with child, she cried out in pain, and labouring
to be delivered.” The Church, whenever she is regarded universally and abstractedly
as an imaginary person, is a mother, but when with respect to individuals, who are
produced in her continually, she has offspring which she is said to bring forth
to God. This is so obvious in the prophets, that it is unnecessary to add a word
more respecting it. Vide
Those pains and torments on account of which the woman in childbirth
cried out, were those severe persecutions which the primitive Church
“And there appeared another sign in heaven, and, behold, a great
red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns; and upon his heads seven crowns.
And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and cast them upon the
earth.” This is the sign or image of the heathen Roman empire worshipping the dragon; inasmuch as his emblems universally are seven heads and
Now the tail, according to the doctrine of the Indians in Achmet,
generally signifies attendants and followers of power, Apot. 152; but what more
the tail of the serpent may imply, will be seen *by-and-by. And these, indeed, were
the characters of the Roman empire universally; but the representation of a dragon
determines the worshipper of the dragon and the enemies of the woman’s seed specifically,
that is, as heathen, and the adversary of the Christian name; and
“And the dragon stood before the woman, who was about to be delivered, that when she should bring forth, he might devour her child.” That is, as Pharaoh did to the ancient Israel springing up in Egypt, and as afterwards Herod did to Christ, the Son of Mary, our Lord, so the Roman dragon laid wait for the mystic Christ, whom the Church was about to bring forth, that he might oppress him immediately after his birth.
“And she brought forth a male child, who was to rule all nations
with a rod of iron” (or an iron sceptre). That is, she brought forth a mystic Christ,
or Christ formed in his members, not the Son of Mary, but of the Church, according
to that of the Apostle to the
“And her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.”
A hendiadys
But you will say, since the mystic Christ is said to be appointed
to rule the nations over
But before we leave this subject, one thing still remains to
be observed, namely, that not immediately as the offspring of the woman was brought
forth, was he raised to the throne of God, but as soon as he came to maturity
in the kingdom. Therefore she is said to have brought forth a son, who was
to rule, that is, not immediately, but when he came of age.
“And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she bath a place prepared for her by God, that they should nourish her there, one thousand two hundred and sixty days;” of which, as it is afterwards repeated, and somewhat more fully described, we will defer the explanation to that place.
“And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought
against the dragon, and the dragon fought, and his angels: And they prevailed not,
neither was their place found any more in heaven.” It was said, that the mother
having brought forth, as soon as her child was safe, escaped the snares of the dragon.
But how it came to pass, that he who had so diligently watched her, should yet have
failed in his attempt, now at length begins to be related. We learn that this happened
by the aid, and under the auspices of Michael, who went strenuously to oppose the
dragon, as he lay in wait; and when at length he became his superior,
But who, you will ask, is Michael? Not, I think, Christ himself,
but, as it appears from Daniel, unless I am mistaken, one of the chief princes,
or seven archangels, nay, the first,
“Prevailed not,” for was conquered, is a Hebrew figure,
as I observed; by which adverbs of denying signify the contrary of that to which
they are applied. As in this very vision it is said a little farther, “They loved
not their lives unto the end;” that is, they reckoned their lives of no account,
or they gave them up for Christ. For this mode of speaking among the Hebrews is
not diminution, but augmentation. So
But I have already given a fuller history of this victory in
the interpretation of the sixth seal. with which this fall of the dragon contemporises;
nay, it is the subject of that seal, as far as it regards the remarkable change
of the Roman empire. But what 1 have said of the offspring of the woman placed on
the imperial throne, and of the Christians then possessed of power, is clear and
manifest from the song of triumph which is subjoined—“And I heard a loud voice
in heaven saying, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God,
and the power of his Christ, for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, who accused
them before our God day and night.”—“And they overcame him by the blood of the
Lamb, and by the word of their testimony, and they loved not their life unto the
death.” Which words, as they are very clear, and delivered without any veil of allegory,
so they are a key to the interpretation of the whole vision. For, from hence it
may be clearly perceived, in the first place, what the elevation of the offspring
of the woman to the throne of God would be, namely, the introduction of “salvation
and might, and the kingdom of God, and
For though from the time when he was cast down by Constantine the Great, from the Roman throne, the worship of the dragon continued for a short space among the people; yet when he foresaw that not long after he should be expelled likewise, and that the whole Roman world would be sprinkled with the baptism of Christ, in the progress of events; being wholly inflamed with anger and fury, he took counsel how he might bring the victory of the Church into hazard, by whatever means he could employ; and if lie should fail in the attempt, even when cast out, he might subvert it by some new contrivance. In both of which designs we shall see that the most wicked spirit was not wanting to himself.
Of the Woman dwelling in the Wilderness.
The woman delivered of a child, when the dragon was overcome,
from thenceforth dwelt in the wilderness, by which is figured the state of
The reason and tendency of the type being thus explained, let us illustrate the text particularly, and apply it to the event.
“And when the dragon saw that he was cast down to the earth, he persecuted the woman who brought forth the male child. And there was given to the woman two wings of a great eagle, that she might flee into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and a half, from the face of the serpent. And the serpent cast forth water out of his mouth after the woman, like a river, that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood.”
This was the first attempt of Satan, when he was cast down, but
not yet entirely cast out, remaining, on the contrary, a short time below. That
he might, if it were possible by any means to do so, overwhelm the woman, who, when
her offspring was possessed of power, was departing to a station in the wilderness,
before she should retreat thither wholly secure from his fury. For she did not immediately,
as she began to escape, arrive in the wilderness, but after some space of time and
delay had intervened; as Israel consumed some time in the journey which he had
undertaken from Egypt.
The great eagle is the Roman empire. Its two wings, the two Cæsars
of the now divided empire of the West and East, under whose protection and authority
the church departed into its eremitical state. For it is well known, that the Roman
empire, as soon as it had received the Christian faith, became bipartite, and was
borne up as it were on the two wings of the Cæsars. The eagle being the ensign
of the Roman empire, renders this interpretation obvious
These difficulties having been explained in this manner, let
us now examine what that water was which the dragon vomited out of his mouth like
a flood, that he might. overwhelm the woman while she was preparing to take her
journey into the wilderness. The gushing out of water is language and doctrine
according to
“But the earth succoured the woman, and the earth opened its
mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.” That
is, the multitude of Christians in the councils persisting in the orthodox faith,
exhausted the diabolical inundation, as the earth does water, when it has long continued
in a state of drought. For if water, (but of a poisonous and pestiferous nature)
such as proceeds out of the serpent, represents heresy; the mode of analogy undoubtedly required that the substance which should
have the effect of absorbing and removing the same, should be figured by the
Which, indeed, happens in this matter so much the more agreeably
to the explanation of the subject, because elsewhere likewise in historical and
simple expression, the earth is commonly used for the inhabitants of the
earth. Vide
Of the Ten-horned Beast blaspheming God, and of the Two-horned Beast, or False Prophet, his Founder and Hierarch.
A new scene of evils invaded the woman, as soon as she had entered the bounds of the wilderness; for she immediately encountered a double sort of beast, less formidable indeed in appearance than that of the dragon, or serpent; whose figure only she dreads, professing to be nothing but a panther, or a lamb, but being truly an agent of the dragon, who has been cast down, and in his stead prepared to bring troubles on the offspring to which she should give birth in the wilderness.
“And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and departed to make
war with the rest of her seed, (viz. with those which she should produce in the
wilderness,) who keep the commandments
“And he stood on the sand of the sea.” That is, when the dragon saw that he who was now expelled from the Roman empire, that he had not succeeded in overwhelming the woman, as she was hastening into the wilderness, by the inundation of Arianism, but that she nevertheless had arrived there in safety; and besides, that he should no longer be suffered to possess the sovereignty of the Roman world, as he had formerly done, in his own name, he now attempts it in another way, by tacitly substituting a kingdom dependent on himself, and for that purpose he stood on the sea shore, that he might form a new appearance of the Roman kingdom, thence to arise, subservient to him. The history of the double beast, prepared to transact the affairs of Rome, now follows; one ten-horned, and the other two-horned, connected by the strictest necessity with each other, and both reigning at the same time, and in the same part of the world. The first of which, that is, the ten-horned beast, you may call if you will secular; the other, or two-horned, ecclesiastical.
Of the Ten-horned Beast.
The ten-horned, or secular beast, is that university of ten kingdoms,
more or less, (into which
“I saw,” said he, “a beast ascending out of the sea, having seven heads, and ten horns, and upon his horns ten diadems, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.” The same beast is here described as that which afterwards, c. xvii. carries the harlot; the seven-headed Roman beast, under the state of its last head. “I saw,” says St. John, “the type of that last state of the Roman kingdom, in which, acting under its seventh head, it was divided into ten kingdoms; and yet in the same manner, as it had done under its former heads, he blasphemed the great God Almighty by the worship of idols.” For the number of seven heads is a particular mark of the Roman kingdoms, as well as the furniture of ten horns. The name of blasphemy is the mark of idolatry. The diadems, or crowns, placed on the horns, (which are on the last head only,) point out that the kingdom is exhibited under the government of its last head, which will be amply confirmed by the remaining description of the beast.
“And the beast which I saw was like a leopard, and his feet
as those of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion.” That is, this
Now then I proceed to explain the remaining appearance of this
last beast. By the feet on which the body rests, and on which it is moved, and walks,
and of which those before answer the purpose of hands and arms to beasts, in holding,
seizing, and fighting; by the feet, I say, it
Lastly, the ten-horned beast issues edicts to be observed with
a Babylonian mouth, by commanding the worship of deities and idols, with pain of
death, and burning alive, denounced against those who refuse it, in the same manner
as Nebuchadnezzar did to those Jews, who would not adore the golden image which
he had set up, sixty cubits high, to his god Bel.
Power, Δύναμις, signifies, with the Hellenists, forces
or army, according to the use, as it appears to me, of the Hebrew חֵיל, by
which is denoted both strength and bravery, and an army likewise. The Seventy
say, in
“And I saw one of its heads, (namely, the
But to return to the text, in which, in the
preter-pluperfect tense, as in
The beast, in truth, denotes a kingdom. To adore the beast, then,
according to the usage of the Hebrew and Oriental languages, is the same thing as
to be subject to him, which the explanation
“And there was given to him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and there was given him power to continue forty-two months.”
Hitherto of the constitution and state of the beast. It is afterwards
explained in what things he exercised the power committed to him by the dragon;
viz. in two,—in blasphemy towards God, and the persecution of the saints. The whole
description is taken from the prophecy of Daniel,
“There was given to him (says be) a mouth speaking great things.” The mouth speaking great things is Daniel’s; but here the great words are explained by “blasphemies;” under which name, it will presently be asserted, idolatrous worship was designated, as a matter of the highest affront to God.
Moreover, he says, that the beast should so blaspheme for forty-two months; that is, of years, throughout the same space of time, as the Gentiles
should trample down the outer court of the temple, or the holy city. And not undeservedly,
since that profanation of the Gentiles runs in a parallel line with the same impiety
as this blasphemy of the beast, and both point out a subject of the power of darkness
and of night, and therefore to be measured, not by
According to these examples, why should not
“ποιῆσαι μῆνας 42,” signify lived so
long, remained, continued blaspheming? The force of
which expression, those who did not understand,
seem to have inserted in the text the word “πόλεμον war,” which is extant in some of the
copies. Now, as I said before, that by the name
of blasphemy in this place, was designated, as by
way of eminence, idolatry, or spiritual fornica.
don, may be evinced by a twofold, or even a
threefold argument. First, because Babylon, the
metropolis of this beast, means the mother of
harlots, and with her the kings and inhabitants
of the earth are said to commit whoredom. But
the beast of which we treat, is nothing else than
the community of those kings and inhabitants.
Secondly, it must be a blasphemy of the same
kind, which should suit with the state of the
head, immediately preceding nay, of all the
other heads for on all “were written the name
of blasphemy,” ver. 1. Add that this beast of
the last state, was born and composed from
the renewal of the impiety of his predecessor of
The use of Scripture adds force to these observations, by expressing
the idolatry of God’s ancient people by this name. To understand which it must be
known that there are three words in Hebrew, translated by the Greek interpreters
and the Latin Vulgate in the acceptation of blasphemy, נִאֵץ, and חָרַף, in none of
which you may not discover the sign of idolatry. In the word נִּדֵּף,
With respect to the word נִאֵץ, which is another of the two, to
which βλασφημεῖν answers, according to the Seventy; in Forster it is, to attack
with contumacy, reproaches, and reviling words. Jerome always translates it in the
Psalms, as often as it occurs, (and it occurs five times,) according to the true
interpretation of the Hebrew, blasphemare. With others it is, to despise, or to
irritate by contempt, so that the most accurate signification of it seems to be,
to provoke to anger by reproaches and contumelies. By this expression, I say it
may be shown from
To these quotations may be added, if you please, by way of illustration,
that the profanations of Antiochus, by which he polluted the temple of God, and
his sacrifices, are called blasphemies,
“And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and those that dwell in heaven.”
What he had before said generally about blasphemy, he
here pursues in detail, and distinguishes a triple idolatry of the beast: For first, he blasphemes the name of God; that is, in the worship of images. “By giving the incommunicable name to stocks and stones.”
What a reproach is this to the blessed spirits! nay, an affront to Christ their Lord: In derogation of whose prerogative and glory they are constituted, even against their will, mediators and intercessors with God, patrons and presidents of mortals in the manner of the heathen. See what we have already said, at the end of the sixth trumpet, out of the theology of the Gentiles on demons and their offices. And the beast, not content with this alone, degrades the blessed spirits besides, with his disgraceful and wicked fables and miracles; so that you may doubt whether he offends more by the worship which he wishes to display, as addressed to them, or by the injurious nature of his fables.
Thus far of blasphemy, then follows the other part of the impiety
of the beast, by which he
But the beast did not carry on this war immediately from his commencement; but after he had arrived at his acme, during the twelfth age from the birth
of Christ. His first expedition
The histories of this butchery are to be met with, to which
I refer the reader. I choose to subjoin the words of Thuanus, a most illustrious
historian, but of the opposite party. He says, in the Preface to the History of
his own Time, “Since exquisite punishments were of little avail against the
Waldenses, and what was unseasonably applied as a remedy aggravated the evil, and
their number every day increased, a regular army was at length raised, and a war
of no less magnitude than that which our people had formerly
Now in this war the memorable fact happened, that those Albigenses
who were conquered at Morell with a great slaughter by Simon Montfort, the leader
of those who were signed with the cross, seem to have seized on this prophecy of
the saints conquered by the beast, as an argument for consolation and constancy.
After this war against the Waldenses and the Albigenses, there was a cruel conflict carried on in various ways against different portions of their remains in different places, as well as against other associates of the same pure religion in every part of the world, until at length, notwithstanding all this, after the year 1500, whole kingdoms, principalities, and republics, with their reformed churches, seceded from the dominion of the beast to the party of the saints; against whom war was afterwards carried on, and continues to this day, nor will it finish until the beast shall come to an end.
Now if any one would diligently measure in his mind the whole
series of this butchery, comprehended in little more than 450 years, and would refer
the number of the slain to calculation,
We just now observed, that the number of the Albigenses and Waldenses
who were slain, was estimated at a million of men. From that time to the Reformation
of the Church, no one has undertaken the calculation of those who were taken off,
partly by the flames, partly by the sword, partly by other tortures, though the
number is known not to have been small. From the origin of the Jesuits to the year
1480, that is, in little more than thirty years, Baldwin on Antichrist remarks,
that nearly nine hundred thousand were destroyed. In Belgium alone, and that only
by the hand of the executioner, the Duke of Alva, that cruel champion of the Roman
see, boasted, that under his authority about thirty-six thousand souls, by his orders,
had been taken off in a few years. Vergerius testifies, who well knew the fact,
that the Inquisition, as they call it, of heretical depravity, in the space of hardly
thirty years, made away with a hundred and fifty thousand Christians, by divers
kinds of afflictions. Sanders confesses, that an infinite number of Lollards, and
Sacramentarians, were delivered to the flames through the whole of Europe; who,
however, he says, were not given up to slaughter
Now what was this power, but that of waging war with the saints? as if it would extend itself as widely as the Roman domain, for the subject of
discourse is not perhaps of dominion, but of the amplitude of persecution. If any
one prefer the other interpretation, the sense will be, that such was the authority
of the beast, that no tribe, tongue, nor nation, resisted his impiety. But we must
not understand this of individuals, (many of whom were found in every age who preserved
their faith to the Lamb) but of whole tribes, tongues, and nations, that is, of
the political governments of mankind. Of which it is very true, that none is to
be found which the beast had not detained for many ages in servile obedience
“And all they that dwell on the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb, slain from the foundation of the world.”
Now, lest any one, fascinated by so universal and catholic an
assent to the laws of the beast, should presume that it was done piously and rightly,
and that the example of so many nations and people might be followed by them without
danger, or even when broken down and debilitated by the cruelty of persecution,
he might violate his faith given to the Lamb, and yield to the worship of the beast; the Holy Spirit denounces, in a declaration plainly to be feared, in what situation
and number they are to
“If any one leadeth into captivity, he shall go into captivity; if any one killeth with the sword, he shall be killed with the sword.”
A consolatory reflection for the pious, against whom the beast,
when they refused to obey him, proceeded with war, imprisonment, and the most inhuman
punishments. The time will come, when God, the just avenger of his people, may demand
retribution for so many butcheries, such
And “here,” says he, “is the patience and faith of the saints.” That is, let not the saints, relying on this equity of the Divine Power, and on his justice in ordering human events, be disturbed at what they are about to suffer, or faint in their minds, but courageously contending against the beast, firmly and patiently wait for the vengeance which will certainly, and in an accumulated degree, proceed from God.
Hitherto we have treated of the secular beast. Now the apostle proceeds to the description of the other beast seen by him, namely, the ecclesiastical beast, or rather the false prophet, who exercises the lieutenancy of the former beast, and of his blasphemies.
Of the other Two-horned Beast, or False Prophet.
The two-horned beast, or pseudo-prophet, is the Roman pontiff,
with his clergy, having indeed two horns like the Lamb, of whose power of binding
and loosing on the earth he boasts himself the vicar, but uttering idolatries and
butcheries of the saints like a dragon. For this beast was the author and founder
of that ten-horned beast, which supplied the place of the
“And I saw (says he) another beast ascending out of the earth, and it had two horns like a lamb, and it spake as a dragon.”
He saw another beast, namely, the pseudo-prophetical or pseudo-ecclesiastical
beast, which consisted, as we have said, of the Roman pontiff with his clergy. For
the pontiff alone, and by himself, though he may be called the false prophet, does
not, however, constitute the beast, unless with the addition of his clergy, since
the beast denotes an assembly of men, delighting, like an animal, in a certain order
of its members, and not a single person. But he saw him ascending from the earth; that is, not like the former, risen from the sea, or the dominions of the world; that is, from a more noble kind of origin, but sprung from the lowest condition
of human affairs; or rather, not born as the secular one, during a tumultuous conflict
of armies and people contending with each other, but growing up quietly, and without
noise, like herbs and plants springing from the earth. For the sea, though it signifies
a conflux of people into one dominion, signifies also an army in war. “And it had
two horns like a lamb,” that is, the bipartite power of binding and loosing, delegated
by Christ to Peter, and so far, indeed, similar to that of the Lamb, inasmuch as
lie said, “As my Father sent me, so send I you.” This power, in fact, the beast
assumes, and says that he acts therein as the vicar of Christ, hut he speaks as
a dragon; even as the red dragon, whom Michael
Nay, that nothing might be wanting to the complete image of the beast that was slain, that is, of the dragon, what some of the emperors who worshipped the dragon had done before, the pontiff himself took care should be offered to him; even divine honours, and an authority peculiar to God; so that “he sits in the temple of God,” as St. Paul says, “exhibiting himself as God.” Which though John, or the angel unfolding the history to him, does not here specially treat of, yet he means to have comprehended under the general name of an image, as a part of that similitude under which he is compared to the slain beast.
And thus far of the fabrication of the image; now we proceed
to the wonders applied in favour of his party. “He doth great wonders, so that
he even causes fire to descend from heaven on the earth.” Not unwillingly here should
I accede to the opinion of Graser, if it could by any means be confirmed from the
writings of the Hebrews, that this assertion of drawing down fire from heaven is
used as a proverbial hyperbole, to the exaggeration of that which preceded it, as
if one had said, he does great wonders, nay, of such a kind and so great, that they
appear to be not far removed from the miracles of Elias himself, by which he maintained
the worship of the true God. For the Jews, says Graser, commonly attribute so much
to that miracle of Elijah, that they use it proverbially for all stupendous facts,
by which the dignity of God is elucidated. But whoever is not pleased with this
exposition, let him follow the Complutensian reading confirmed likewise by other
copies. “He does great wonders καὶ πῦρ ἴνα ταταβαίνῃ, and that fire should descend from
heaven on the earth;” and so, as the summary of those things which are afterwards
more diffusively explained, may be proposed in these words; the sentence may be
interpreted of a two-fold species of means, which the false prophet should employ,
to induce the inhabitants of the Christian world to form anew
A mode of speaking by synecdoche, by which, from the interdiction
of commerce with others, the censure of ecclesiastical anathema is intimated. Nor
is that assimilated improperly to celestial fire or lightning; for what, I beseech
you, is to devote any one to the eternal fire in the name of God, but to call down
fire from heaven? especially since the punishment to proceed from God in the lake
of fire and sulphur, or Asphaltites, in which Sodom and Gomorrha were
But to proceed to the event of the prophecy. As to the wonders,
it is a notorious circumstance, that a universal idolatry has prevailed in the kingdom
of the beast for about twelve ages, to the present time, as well as the primary
species, consisting in the worship of dead saints, of relics, and angels, as the
next in order, the worship of images, and afterwards that latest blasphemy of a
god in bread, by a great assemblage of wonders, by supposed cures, and miraculous
visions, by the coercion of demons in appearance only, and by other surprising effects
of different kinds, was first recommended, as it were, to unhappy Christians, and
afterwards enforced and confirmed. All which things, indeed, the two-horned beast,
or Roman pontiff, with his pseudo-prophetic attendant, is said to have done; inasmuch
as they either contrived them or approved them by their authority when contrived
by others; or they obtruded what were really the operations and tricks of evil
demons, for true and divine miracles, in order to seduce the Christian world. For
this is the very thing which the apostle Paul predicted to the Thessalonians, “that the appearance of the man of sin should be according to the working of Satan,
The examples of thunder, or the pontifical anathema, by which
he maintained his authority in decreeing and commanding, are in truth so obvious
to every one, that I may be wholly spared the labour of introducing them here from
the annals of the Church. One I wish to notice as very remarkable, and which so
nearly relates to the image of the fabrication of which we are treating,
that it may alone be sufficient to establish the truth of this prophecy. In that
controversy or war about images, which arose among the Greeks about
the year 720, and which was agitated for 120 years with great fervour, and persecution
of idolatry, it can hardly be described into what peril that image of the slain
dragon, then rude and imperfect, and not having received the finishing hand of the
artificer, was brought. Nor in that controversy, as is commonly supposed, was the
worship of images alone, but also that of dead saints and relics strenuously opposed.
Leo Isaurius (says Theophanes, Hist. Miscell. Lib. xxi. ch. 23) not only erred with
the impious concerning the affectionate adoration of venerable images, but also
concerning intercessions of the most chaste mother of God, and of all the saints,
whose relics, likewise, that most wicked man abominated, like his teachers the Arabians,
(that
“And it was permitted him to give life to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast might both speak, and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed.”
If the image had not been endued with a vital power, the slain
beast would not have revived by its fabrication. For the dragon-worshipping beast,
which it was to resemble, was not an inactive beast, but was accustomed to exert
himself very strenuously, and to attack those who opposed his inclination. Of the
same kind, therefore, must that image be, in which he afterwards revived. Hence
it is said to be given to the false prophet, not only that he should entice the
Christian people to make an image of the beast, but that he should bestow life on
it, by
“And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, and
free and bond (that is, of whatever rank, state, and condition) to receive from
him Or, “that he should give them,” or, “that they should
give.” Greek.
And what? Does not the false prophet here likewise speak like
a dragon? For the dragon Diocletian published a similar edict. That no one should
sell or supply any thing to the Christians, unless they had first offered incense
to the
This synechdochical mode of speaking perhaps the Holy Spirit used, to intimate that the papal anathema, though it boast of an abscission from the internal and invisible communion of Christ, has not really any power beyond that of excluding the person from the internal and visible commerce with other citizens.
Now, as to what is said of the mark or character. The mark of
the beast is not properly any thing but the name; therefore it is called the mark
or name of the beast, and in the following chapter, the mark of his name. Now there
is an allusion here to the ancient custom, by which slaves were wont to be marked
with the names of their masters, and soldiers with that of
What relates to number, is to be understood rather as an appendix
of the name or mark of the beast, than the mark itself; and, indeed, it is the number,
not so strictly of the name of the beast, as of the beast itself, as it is also
immediately after called. But it is only called the number of the name on this account,
because it would be contained in the letters of the name of the beast, referring
to numbers, God so disposing it. And yet it does not follow, because the number
agrees so intimately with the name, that therefore the number of the beast is to
be confounded with the name. For the method of opposition (or contrast) requires,
that, as in the assembly of the Lamb, the character of the name is distinguished
from the number of the assembly, so likewise it should be in the bestial assembly.
Add, that the character of the name
But not to dwell longer on these generalities, let us see at
length what is that name of the beast in which his number, also marked by the Holy
Spirit, is contained. It is, in truth, what some suspected, while the Apocalypse
had been recently written, that word so often repeated, Λατεῖνος. For it was by
this name
“The number of the name of the beast is 666;” which, if you
endeavour to deduce from the compounds of 12, the symbol of the apostolic race,
you will labour in vain, for you will never from thence be enabled to make 666,
by whatever mode you may multiply: But on the contrary, from the power of 6, which
is the number of the red dragon, that is, the beast of the sixth head, you will
do it very easily, since the whole may be made up from sixes, how great soever it
may be of units, tens, and hundreds; as if the seed of the dragon had pervaded
the whole body of this last beast, and all its limbs. “Here is
That this ought to be computed according to the mode which I have described, I seem to myself to collect from the analogy of the virgin company, whose number 144, in contradiction to that of the beast, is wholly apostolical, arising from 12 multiplied into itself. The rule of contraries is contrary. And there, indeed, the Holy Spirit has expressed both, as well as the name inscribed, as the number of the company inscribed, but here he has left the name to be conjectured from the number. To settle the matter in few words. To receive the mark of the name of the beast then, is to devote oneself to his power, and to confess his dominion; but to be of his number, is to embrace his impiety, derived from the dragon, namely, the Latin idolatry. Whence it will not perhaps be unworthy consideration, that though no one can receive the mark of the beast’s name, or be subject to his power, but he must of necessity receive his number also, at the same time, that is, partake of his impiety; it is possible that a person may admit the number or impiety of the beast, but may reject his mark or name.
This is what has taken place among the Greeks
Of the Virgin Assembly, or one hundred and forty-four thousand of the Sealed of the Lamb.
The virgin assembly of the followers of the Lamb of Sion, and
the same selected company of Israel, adopted from the Gentiles, of which mention
was made at the beginning of the seventh seal, (for it is described by a double
vision, as we there observed, in order to connect the prophecy of the seals with
that of the little book) signifies the Church faithful to the Lamb, a virgin under
Babylon, in the midst of a world of nominal Christians, who followed the beast;
the kindred and undegenerate progeny of the twelve apostles, apostolically multiplied;
as alone according to the example of the heavenly choir, instructed to celebrate
the Lamb and the Father with an evangelical song, in a chaste and holy manner;
“And I looked, and lo, a Lamb stood upon mount Sion, and with him a hundred and forty-four thousand.” From the number 144, or twelve times twelve thousand, it appears that the same assembly is here described as was sealed at the introduction of the seventh seal; viz. that legitimate and undegenerate offspring of the apostles, bearing this number twelve as a mark of its origin. Let the reader reconsider what we there remarked.
Now, mount Sion was the throne of the kingdom of David, and the
same as what is called the city of David, because he built it, when taken from the
Jebusites, externally with new walls, and internally with a royal citadel, streets,
and squares. Therefore here it is parabolically applied,
“Having (the name of the Lamb and) his Father’s name written on their foreheads.”
The name of the Lamb is improperly omitted from some copies,
as the Vulgate, Primasius, Andrew, Aretas, the Complutensian edition, and the Syriac
translator allow. That it was the true reading is not to be doubted, but that the
subject itself requires it to be so read, will clearly appear in the progress of
the interpretation. For here is an allusion (as we also noticed in the history of
the beast) to the ancient custom, by which both the slaves of masters, and the soldiers
of the emperor, were distinguished, being anciently inscribed with their name or
mark; and the slaves, indeed, principally on their foreheads, (witness Rhodigian’s
Book, v. 33.) but the soldiers on their hands. Vegetius, lib. ii. 5, says, “The
soldiers, inscribed with permanent marks on the skin, and inserted in the rolls,
were accustomed
Now then to the point. They bear the name of the Lamb, and his
Father, on their foreheads, who do not break the faith by which they gave themselves
up to the Lamb, as their emperor and Lord, and to his Father in baptism, and who
do not relapse to the worship and pomps of Satan, and his angels, which they had
once abjured. For thus in ancient times, (in order to throw a greater light on what
has been here
The Roman Church was here a little more terse than others: for in it there is mention made only of Satan, his pomps, and his works; where, under the name of Satan as chief, it understands his angels also; of pomps and works, the idolatrous worship, and all its apparatus.
That the sacrament of baptism, by which we solemnly profess faith
to the Lamb, and the Father, and by which we receive their name, and are called
Christians, is the Lord’s seal, the fathers every where declare, and that from the
highest antiquity of the Church. Hence that of Origen, “We bear the immortal laver
on our foreheads; when the demons see it they tremble.” Augustine also calls it,
“the royal mark, the mark of the Emperor, the mark of the Redeemer.” They
One thing still remains to be noticed; viz. that though the sealed in both instances, namely, here as well as in c. vii. are the. same, yet the reason for the sealing is not the same in both; and that in consequence of the different intent of the sealing. For there the subject of protection is treated of; here, of service and fidelity. But there is no necessity on that account to seek any other sign absolutely different from that of baptism; for baptism answers to both, since, over and above that which is the sign of our profession, God superadds another, namely, that of his grace, by which he acknowledges those who are washed, as his own, and receives them into his protection.
The latter, then, is treated of in the first vision of the sealed
ones, the former in the present, if I am not deceived. And it favours this construction,
that Clemens Alexandrinus, according to Eusebius, lib. iii. c. 17, calls baptism τέλειον φυλακτήριον, perfect guardianship. Also that Nazianzen, Orat. on Holy
Baptism, affirms, that it is called a seal, as συντήρησιν, because it is
conservation. Lastly, that of Basil, Exhort. to
“And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters,
and as the voice of great thunder, and I heard the voice of harpers harping on their
harps. And they were singing as it were a new song before the throne, and before
the four living creatures, and the elders,” &c. This indicates the voice and song
of the heavenly angels, glorifying the Father, and the Lamb, as they are reported
to have done, when first the Lamb took the book of fates to be unclosed. With regard
to these angels, therefore, he says by and by in the 5th verse, “And I saw another
angel flying in the midst of heaven;” that is, a different one from those precentors.
For there is no mention made of an angel before this, unless we call those who sung
together a chorus of angels. Now the voice like the sound of many waters, and of
thunder, signifies nothing but the voice of a numerous and crowded multitude, of
which kind was that frequently heard in the temple, while it was still flourishing,
of the Levite choristers, sounding forth the praises of God with the voice, and
with musical instruments, on account of the multitude of whom, and of the
Moreover, the song is new which is sung to God, after the appearance
of Christ in the world, in which, to Him that sitteth on the throne, and to the
Lamb together, and to them alone, redemption, and power, and riches, and wisdom,
and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing, are religiously and evangelically
offered. The formula of this song is to be found,
As to the reason of the term applied to it, it seems to be called
new, either as different and distinguished from that which was sung before the mission
of Christ, (for under this, according to the saying of the apostle, “Old things
are passed away, behold all things are become new,”) or, for the new benefit resulting
from his advent, granted to none of the former ages of the world, but only to the
last times; for which benefit, God was from thenceforth to be glorified, as well
by angels as by men. And this reason for the expression will be confirmed both by
that passage of
“And no one could learn that song but the hundred and forty
and four thousand, who were redeemed from the earth.” In the whole Christian world,
as long as the beast was possessed of power, no one knew how to sing the song of
angels, except those who were of the number of that 141,000 attendants of the Lamb.
Since these alone, without any spot of idolatry, glorify the Father and the Lamb
on earth, as the blessed angels in heaven, and they do that very thing which the
Church in the Lord’s Prayer incessantly asks of the Father that it may be done by
all: “May thy will be done, as in heaven, so also on earth.” The idea, therefore,
or perfect example, of worshipping the Divine Power lawfully and duly, cannot be
sought from any other source than from the celestial inhabitants.—“These are they
who have not been defiled with women, for they are virgins.” That is, who have not
associated with immodest women, or harlots. But who are these women? Certainly
not those who are commonly so called, but in the language of the prophets, states,
and those indeed nominally Christian, but devoted. to idols, of which the queen
is Babylon the Great, called the Mother of Harlots, with whom
“These are they that follow the Lamb wheresoever he goeth.”
That is, most faithfully adhere to him, and do not desert him on any occasion;
the metaphor being taken from those who never recede from a person’s side, but accompany
him in every place. Or thus: In whatever city, region, or territory, the Lamb has
pitched his tent, there they attend upon Him; not like the rest of those who are
called Christians, but will not seek for and follow the Lamb any where, unless he
dwell at Rome, in the seat of St. Peter. “These were redeemed from among men, being
the first-fruits unto God and the Lamb.” That is, they were redeemed from the remaining
profane
These observations, though not much conducing to my object, I nevertheless wished to introduce, that I might make it palateable, if possible, to those among us, who sometimes employ themselves in searching out the antiquity and right of tithes in the Christian Church, from the Fathers and the Councils. In the mean time, (to return to the subject from which I have made a little digression,) it must be confessed, that the more strict signification of first-fruits is not ill-suited to the place before us,—namely, that the virgin company may be called the first-fruits in respect to the multitude of palm-bearers who are afterwards to receive him in a much larger number. Let the reader’s judgment be free.
“And in their mouth was found no guile,” (ψεῦδος, mendacium,
lie: So the Vulgate, Syriac,
“There is found no lie.” Of the kind of which there is found
in the mouth of the beast’s company, and of all idolaters, who profess that they
worship the Lamb and the Father, yet really bestow the honour due to the Divine
power on created things. For in truth, all idolatry is lying, since it worships for God what is not God. To which refers that passage of the apostle to the
“And I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven (ἐν μεσουρανήματι), having the everlasting Gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and tribe, and tongue, and people.”
The description of the assembly being finished, the history of
events in that state of the Church follows, which were to be transacted, as well
by the assembly under the auspices of the Lamb, their leader, as by the Lamb himself,
against revolters and rebels. Of those events the order is double. First, of a three-fold
admonition to
“Saying with a loud voice, Fear God and give glory to him, for the hour of his judgment is come, and worship him who made heaven and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.”
The first angel, announcing that the time of the kingdom of God
was now at hand, in which his judgment would be exercised on idols and idolaters,
and therefore it began to be exercised as soon as the demons were thrown down, and
cast out from the Roman throne; on which account he exhorts the nations, and tribes,
and tongues, and people, who had from that time submitted to the power of Christ,
that mindful of what they had done, they should worship the one only true God, the
Creator, as it is announced in the Gospel,—and keep themselves from idols. “Fear
God,” says he; that is, reverence him, and give him the glory,—the glory
It is perhaps possible, that the time of judgment might be understood
more strictly of the judgment of God, some time before displayed against the dragon
and his followers, by which Paganism fell; but I would rather extend it more widely,
and take it universally of the kingdom of Christ begun and promulgated in the last
times, in which idols are no longer to be endured; namely, according to that saying
of our Saviour, in the Gospel by St. John,
But this preaching most manifestly appears to have been fulfilled
from the year of our Lord 720, in the Greek and Oriental Churches, where the evangelical
angel indeed was flying, ἐν μεσουρανήματι, in the midst of heaven, that
is, in a lofty and sublime place; for he employed one who was of the administrators
of the Gospel, not a man of low and vulgar rank, but of the highest powers in the
Christian world; for instance, the Constantinopolitan emperors, Leo Isauricus,
Constantine Iconomachus, Leo the Arminian, Michael Balbus, and Theophilus; who
all, but especially the first, protested most strenuously by their edicts and decrees
in favour of a religious worship addressed to God alone, the Creator, in contradiction
to the worship of the creature, not only that which was exercised in the veneration
of images, but in reference to the saints, and their relics. Let the reader look
back to the testimonies which I quoted upon this subject from Theopanes, when
1 was treating of the two-horned beast. But besides this, under the auspices of
the second emperor, a council of bishops was convoked at Constantinople, in 338,
and the adoration of images was charged with impiety, and condemned. You will acknowledge,
Reader, if you are not tired of referring to it, that the very declaration of the
Synod is the address of the angel, and grounded on the same
Now the reader may agree with me, whether he does not think it
clear from these testimonies, that there was something transacted in that council
against the worship of saints and relics. I have dwelt so much the longer on the
proof of this, because it is not so well known to every one as that against images.
But we have not yet discharged our duty; that calumny about the epithet of Saint
being denied to the just, as if in degradation and contumely, must first be wiped
away. For it is evident from the declaration of the Synod, (which is extant at this
clay in the
This was done, as it appears, to do away the error of supposing,
that either the places themselves, where God was approached through the intercession
of martyrs, or of those whose names they bore, were entitled to veneration. Therefore,
instead of the name of Saints, they thought fit to substitute that of apostles and
martyrs, certainly not less honourable. It was indeed the province of him to judge
on this subject considerately and advisedly, who had all the circumstances of the
time, and the facts of the case, before him, openly and fully displayed. In the
mean time, it does not detract at all from the
Moreover, not only in the East, but in the West also, though
the Roman pontiff was enraged, the proclamation of this angel resounded, not indeed,
as there, with the full blast of the trumpet, but still with a public and solemn
denunciation. First in the year 790, in the Synod of Frankfort, under Charlemagne,
composed of
The second angel denounces Rome for its filthiness, and the multitude
of its idolatries; by which, in despite of the exhortations of the first angel,
she had not only contaminated herself, but also had exhibited herself as the leader
and chief of all the nations of the world, that they with her might do the same,
and by which she was now converted from the city of God into Babylon; on this account
become at length wholly obnoxious through her impenitence to the Divine
And the assembly of the Waldenses and Albigenses were the attendants of this proclamation, partly in word, and partly in deed, as those who first of all mortal beings openly denounced the Roman Church for its idolatry, or mystic whoredom, to be the apocalyptical Babylon; and they likewise took the first step towards its ruin; since thus detected, immediately a great multitude of men began to abominate her, and privately to make a defection throughout all the provinces of her dominion; and, in addition, her authority from thenceforth, day by day, began to fall more and more into decay, and her ruin then to commence, which was not to stand still, till it should at length come down to the burning of the city. I will say in a word, from the preaching of this angel, a select force of holy soldiers began to be formed for the uninterrupted destruction of Babylon.
“Babylon has fallen. It has fallen.” As if he had said, Now
are the foundations laid for the ruin of Babylon; from this time shall the preparations
for waging war against her be undertaken.
“Because she made all nations drink of the wine of the excess of her fornication.”
That is to say, she has deceived them with philtres, with
medicated wine; θυμὸς here does not mean wrath or violent anger, but according to
the Hellenistic use of the word, poison
Such was the proclamation of the second angel, whom the third soon succeeded. Whatever new admonition he superadds, let us listen to with submissive attention.
The third angel, going beyond the two former, admonishes the
worshippers of the beast how horrible a danger impended over them, if they still
persisted in being his followers; and therefore persuades them, renouncing all
delay, immediately to withdraw themselves from his
A terrible description of a terrible judgment, to which scarcely
any thing similar occurs within the compass of the whole canon of Scripture.
It will be useful here, to observe the progress of this triple
proclamation, and how the latter exceeds the former in importance. The first angel
admonished only of one duty, that of worshipping God duly, according to the directions
of the Gospel, and did not reprove the fault committed on this head. The second
proceeding farther points at the crime of spiritual fornication, and that to be
inevitably punished by death and destruction, but which it threatens at the time
to Babylon alone, the chief leader and contriver of the crime, and not yet to the
participators in it. But the third, the full measure of heinousness being fulfilled,
denounces to the whole army of the beast, and to all who should continue in obedience
to him, the most horrible and unspeakable torments, and that they would have neither
end nor remission. Then follows, “Here is the patience of the saints, here are
they who keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” As if he should
say, This preaching will be the touchstone, to prove both the patience and obedience
of the saints. Their patience indeed, if, acquiescing in the expectation of so terrible
a punishment, of such as will compensate for all delay, they should by no means
The virgin church having thus discharged her triple admonition, the sanction of it succeeds against her enemies, under the type of the harvest and the vintage; which, when once finished, the blessed remuneration of the just is no longer delayed, as is proved by that denunciation from Heaven delivered before the description of both. “I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth. Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours, and their works do follow them.”
I know that most refer this celestial declaration to former events,
as for the purpose of consoling
Meanwhile, if this interpretation is admitted, I
In which sense the ancients (as we may conjecture from Tertullian)
understood
“And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sitting like the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle. And another angel went out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Put forth thy sickle and reap; for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe. And he who sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth, and the earth was reaped.”
The word harvest embraces three things,—the mowing down, the
gathering in, and the threshing of the corn. Whence it follows, that it constitutes
a two-fold parable in the sacred writings, and of a contrary meaning. Sometimes
in that of slaughter and destruction, as of reaping and threshing; sometimes in
that of restitution and salvation, in the sense of gathering
But what, you will ask, is that preparation of the bride? What
is it which is to be transacted at the same time with this? In truth, I do not
see how that preparation of the bride can be any thing else than the conversion
and collection of Israel, expected for so many ages; of her, who formerly, (according
to our Saviour’s parable,) when invited to the nuptials of the king’s son,
But with this conversion and restoration of Israel, (by which
she will be adopted into the virgin company of the Lamb, and will become a part
of it,) will be joined the reaping or destruction of the Turkish empire, according
to what we read at the sixth phial, but under another figure, that “the water of
the great river Euphrates should be dried up, that the way of the kings of the east
might be prepared.” For the time of this phial manifestly agrees with the time of
the preparation of the bride, since, as that was introduced between the destruction
of Babylon and the last slaughter of the enemies of the Church, so this phial intervenes
between that which is poured out on the throne of the beast, and the last phial.
That is, the Church of Christ, as it was about to become double by the conversion
of Israel; so each part appears to have, at that time, its own peculiar enemy;
the former the Roman beast, with its uncircumcised origin; the latter, the Mohammedan
empire, over a circumcised people, and of an Ismaelitish origin,
Moreover, to this interpretation of the harvest, the prophecy
of Joel will afford, if not absolutely confirmation, yet at least some appearance
of probability; from which both the image of the harvest and the vintage was taken.
For it is manifest, that he is there treating of the time of the conversion of Israel,
even from the first words of the Oracle, (
Since, then, we may observe in this accommodation of the figure
of the harvest, that the event transacted may be so compared, that either notion
of the harvest, that of reaping and threshing as well as that of gathering in, may
be
But whatever the harvest may be, the description proves that Christ himself as king will assuredly be the Lord of it, and the director of the work of reaping the corn. For to what other king than him is that title of the Son of man coming in the chariot of a cloud, attributed through the whole course of Scripture? So that, in my opinion, it is by no means safe to wrest it to any other meaning. It is rather to be collected, that the power of the Divinity in discharging the duties of that harvest, as well as in the vintage next to come, will be more conspicuous and illustrious than in any of those works, which were performed only in the names of angels.
Hitherto we have formed conjectures respecting the harvest. Let us now proceed to the vintage; which, as it usually does in the order of events, it is agreeable to reason that it should succeed the harvest.
“And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven,
he also having a sharp sickle.
This is the description of the vintage; to the interpretation
of which we shall with more certainty direct our aim, because the signification
of the parable is less ambiguous, and the meaning of treading the clusters is more
express, since the treading of the vintage in parabolical Scripture constantly denotes
a fierce, deadly, and cruel slaughter. This is our first observation. And then those
words about treading the winepress of the wrath of God, inserted in that description,
show that this is the same with that great slaughter in ch. xix. as I have just
now observed. Therefore also, it will be the same with “the battle of the great
day of the Lord God Almighty,” at the last phial; for that the deadly slaughter
in
This is the sum of the argument. Besides, it is not altogether
unimportant, in addition to this conjecture, that the name of the place is called
in the Hebrew language Armageddon, as if it were to be in the land of the Hebrews.
But after all, by what means could this possibly take place? Indeed, to those who
imagine Antichrist is to come from the East, this opinion is very natural and easy; but not so to us, unless some one perhaps should think it probable, that the false
prophet, after the overthrow of Rome, should migrate into the East, and there fix
his seat; which there are not wanting some among the followers of the beast who
maintain, that is, that before the last day of judgment, the Roman pontiff shall
have his habitation at Jerusalem. For certainly, that the beast with his affairs
at home, placed in such a state, and in such jeopardy in the West, as is supposed,
should again (as formerly in the expedition to Jerusalem) lead an army into Palestine,
leaving many enemies behind him, and there at length be entirely put an end to,
cannot be affirmed with any show of probability. But farther, that we who assert
a Western Antichrist may not be inferior on this side to those who suppose an Eastern
one, there
But whither am I digressing? Let us at length impose a restraint
on curiosity, in which perhaps we have hitherto too much indulged. Let us come to
other matters which will be more worth our consideration. And therefore, in the
first place, that the gatherer of the grapes, and the treader of the winepress,
are not the same person; but, as the offices of the vintager and the winepresser
are different, so likewise they have different agents; the vintage or gathering
in, an angel furnished with a vine-hook the treading, Christ himself, as King, accompanied
with heavenly horsemen, which may clearly appear from the vision of the
Now the harvest, as well as the vintage, is supplicated by prayers; the former, as it appears, by those of the Church universal; whence the angel
who there sustains the person of the suppliants, is said generally to come out of
the temple. But the latter is rather enforced by martyrs and confessors, against
whom the wicked had raged with butcheries and torments, and had made them victims
to Christ. On which account, the angel who proclaims to this effect, goes out of
the thysiasterium, or enclosure of the altar, and is said to have power over fire,
even the fire of martyrdom. It is very commonly observed, that the blood of the
martyrs cries to God for vengeance. For, indeed, the Scripture every where testifies,
that the Divine Power will bestow on the Church neither a state of prosperity, nor
vengeance on their enemies, without the prayers of its members. So the Babylonian
captivity was put an end to at the prayers of Daniel; and in the parable of the
widow fatiguing the unjust judge by her clamorous entreaties, the application is,
that God would be aroused in like manner by the prayers of his
Hear then, O Christ our King! and recall to the memory of thy Father, so many suppliant prayers of thy people, for thy kingdom, so many groans of the afflicted, and of those who were slain for thy name; and when the time shall come which will appear seasonable to thee, arise, reap, and gather in the vintage!
Thus far, O Reader, I have been able to proceed in a detailed
species of interpretation. But I can carry it no farther. In the prophecies which
remain I only give instances; a part of those, in truth, which three or four years
ago, I had privately communicated to my friends, on most of the apocalyptical visions.
Those, whatever they are, I commend, O Reader, to thy candour, and beseech thee
to interpret favourably; until Almighty God bestow upon me strength and leisure,
and the power (unless the judgment of learned and pious men should deter me) of
unfolding these prophecies, by a clew
Of the Metropolis of Christian Apostasy, the mystic Babylon.
The metropolis of the apostasy, Babylon the mystery, or the mystic
Babylon, is the city Rome, or, as we now say, the Roman see; from the spouse of
Christ in former times, become not only the harlot, but also the mother of harlots.
The metropolis of prostitutes, that is, the head of cities, nominally Christian,
committing fornication with her.—Where, Reader, I would wish you, even in the commencement,
to observe, (because we are now in the very citadel of the Apocalypse), that the
great and catholic apostasy of the visible Christian Church, is defined and marked
by the Holy Spirit, not for any other heresies or errors than that spiritual adultery,
so earnestly reprobated also in ancient Israel. This
Moreover, Reader, it is singular in this place,
To which application, as far as God has revealed it to me, I will thus lead the way.
First. The woman whom John saw sitting on the beast, “is that great city which reigneth over the kings of the earth.”
Application.—What city is this but Rome
Second. The beast which bore her who was now become a harlot, is the same beast which, even before the vision exhibited to John, existed in
another form of its own, but not yet in that in which it carried the harlot. But it was afterwards to rise again from the abyss, in such a form, and in that, at
length, utterly to perish. That is, the form in which it carried the harlot would be the last form of the beast,
beyond which it would not prolong its existence. It follows in the same verse, (in order that you might recognise this to be the very same beast which was shown in
Application.—But if the woman be Rome, what can this many-formed
beast be on which she rides, (that is, over which she rules,) but the Roman kingdom
or empire
Third. The seven heads of the beast are a double type. First, there are seven mountains or hills on which the city, which was the metropolis of the beast, was situated; and besides also, seven orders of kings, or successive dynasties, and that on the same hills, (which the unity of the type denotes.)
“Hoc teneas vultus mutantem Protea node.”
By this knot you may detain Proteus when he changes his appearance.
Five of them, indeed, kings, consuls, tribunes, decemvirs, dictators, were even
then passed away in the age of John. One (that of the Cæsars) yet remained; but
that likewise was so to be changed under the Christian Cæsars, that it would appear
as another dynasty, but for a very short time, yet, in truth, not be another. The
last, indeed, and the eighth,
Application.—Now, then, Reader, attend! If the sixth head of the Roman beast, which was reigning in the age of John over the seven-hilled city, has now ceased to reign on the same for almost twelve centuries, it necessarily follows that he who now possesses the authority (since it can by no means be called a kind of seventh, and a head of a very short date) must be that last, long-lived, and real seventh dynasty of the seven hills; and, therefore, that state or republic of the nations, over which Rome now watches, and has long watched,—that dynasty which John foresaw, as to carry the harlot.
Fourth. The ten horns of the beast, the insignia of the last
head, are ten kingdoms, which were not yet arisen in the age of John, but into
Application.—Now, unless from the time in which the Cæsars ceased to reign in Rome, the Roman empire was divided and dilacerated into ten or more kingdoms, (even of nations which were foreigners and barbarians to the empire in the age of John,) when, I beseech you, or in what manner, shall we ever expect it to be divided??
Fifth. But these ten kingdoms which so coalesced under the auspices of their head, the false prophet, shall fight with the Lamb. The victory, however, will finally belong to the Lamb our Lord.
Application.—The former has been long since done, and even takes
place, at the present day. The latter is now done, in some respects, but we hope
will be completed at some future time, by a much more glorious victory; since,
out of those ten horns, or kings, there will be some, who at length will hate the
harlot, whom they have so long servilely assisted in supporting, (which, we perceive,
partly fulfilled,) “will render her desolate and naked, will eat her flesh, and
burn her
As to what remains in the description of the allegory, that this harlot “had a golden cup in her hand, full of abominations, and filthiness of her fornication;” and also, that “she bore in her forehead her name written;” did not require the interpretation of the angel, since there is an allusion in both to the ancient custom of harlots and of the stews, where they used to drink philtres out of a golden cup to their lovers. In those places the cells were inscribed with the name of the harlots, as Tertullian shows in his book on Modesty, &c. &c. Besides, if the harlot were famous, it appears that, not only on the cell, but on her forehead, she bore her name and eulogy written, &c. &c.
Or the meaning of the Seven Phials, as far as we are yet permitted to understand it.
And first, Of the Phials generally.
The Holy Spirit propounds the history of the phials, and of the
angels who pour them out, in a two-fold manner. First, generally, from the beginning
of
“And the seven angels, having the seven last plagues, came out
of the temple, clothed in linen, pure and splendid, and girt round the breast with
golden girdles;” that is, adorned with the sacerdotal habit and girdle.
Take care not to join the words which we have quoted with those
of the preceding verse; for what is there said of the temple of the tabernacle
of testimony in heaven being opened, relates mot to the beginning, but to the end
of the phials; for the temple, which, while the phials were pouring out, “was
filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power, so that no man could
enter therein,” (and here there is an allusion both to the dedication of the tabernacle,
Concerning the Phials, one by one.
First, The effusion of the phials signifies the ruin of the antichristian beast.
This is apparent from the text, concerning which see Synchronism vii. part 1st. For as the former, and more ancient polity of the Roman empire was subverted by the plagues of the trumpets, so the last is to be subverted by the plagues of the phials. This is the cause of so great a similarity between them, since the last bears the image of the former Roman polity.
Secondly, The seven phials -are so many gradations of its ruin; for as the beast rose by degrees, so likewise will he be abolished by degrees.
Thirdly, Whatever that may be on which each of the phials is poured out, it suffers loss and injury by the phials; since the effusion of the phials is the effusion of the wrath of God. No interpretation, therefore, can possibly stand, by which the effusion of a phial would contribute to the good of that on which it is poured out.
Fourthly, The earth, the sea, the rivers, the sun, are something
relative to the antichristian
Fifthly, The whole body of the beast, or the antichristian universe, is tacitly compared by the Holy Spirit, in the same manner as in the trumpets, to the mundane system, of which the different parts are the earth, the sea, the rivers, heaven, and the luminaries, so that the earth in the pontificate universe would be so called from its resemblance to the earth, the sea from the same likeness to the sea, the rivers to the rivers, and the sun to the sun in the natural world.
Sixthly, Lastly (as we have observed more than once), because God employs angels as ministers of his providence, in exciting and directing the movements and revolutions of human affairs; therefore, those things which are performed by the hands of many, are yet attributed to an angel, as the president and director of the event to be transacted, according to a common mode of speaking.
Of the Phials, according to the Rule of these Hypotheses.
Phial the First. On the Earth, the Universe connected with the Beast.
The earth, in the antichristian universe, signifies the people at large, or the Christian vulgar; the footstool (to its shame be it spoken,) of Antichrist, constructed on which, as on a base, the hierarchal papal edifice, like the tower of Babylon, lifts its head to the ethereal regions,—“Vertice ad auras ætherias tendit.” On this earth of the beast, the first phial being poured out, it contracted an ailment from the effusion, so as to fill the followers of the beast with fury and violence as with ulcers, and those so fierce and malignant, that they could not be cured, nay, even a tendency to healing could not be brought on without being broken again, and thereby renewed.
This was fulfilled, when the lower orders of Christians,
whether known by the names of the Waldensians, Albigensians, Wicliffites,
Hussites, or by any other names, began every where to renounce the authority
of the beast, crying out, that Rome was the apocalyptical Babylon, and
Now the world of the beast is in
Phial the Second, On the Sea of the Bestial World.
The sea, in the antichristian world, is the compass of the pontifical
communion; by which not only individual Christians, but whole nations, peoples,
kingdoms, provinces, dioceses, otherwise disjoined and separated from each other,
are collected into one. Or, the antichristian sea is the
The second phial being poured out on this sea, it becomes thereupon “as the blood of a corpse,” or cold and coagulated blood, as that of dead and slain persons, or of a member cut off, when the connexion with the fountain of life being dissolved, it is deprived of the influx of spirit and warmth. The sense is, the pontifical sea was made a sacrifice of by death, dismemberment, and butchery.
Now this was fulfilled, when by the labour of Luther, and other illustrious reformers of that acre while God in a wonderful manner favoured their undertakings, no longer some individuals only of the Christian community, but whole provinces, dioceses, kingdoms, nations, and cities, renounced communion with the beast; and having made a great mutilation of his ancient most extensive empire, forcibly wrested from the body of the beast, withdrew from it. By which event, the sea of the pontifical dominion became in great measure dead, and like the blood of a dead man, in which the pontifical animals could no longer breathe and live.
Phial the Third, On the Rivers and Fountains of Waters of the Bestial World.
The rivers and fountains of waters in the world of the beast, are the ministers and defenders of the antichristian jurisdiction; whether ecclesiastical, as the jesuits, and other emissary priests, or even seculars and laymen, as the Spanish champions; to each of whom an office is committed by that jurisdiction, of managing and promoting the cause, which they call Catholic. Since, as rivers derive their origin from the sea, so likewise they apply their service and assistance to increase and maintain the same, in like manner as the rivers return into the sea.
Now these rivers, while they rashly pursue their courses, where
it was no longer safe fur them to go on, become tinged with blood by the effusion
of the third phial, as they likewise had formerly imbrued with blood the saints
of God, and his prophets. In fact, from this phial, the affairs of the beast were
to fall into such a state, that his ministers and defenders, having changed places
with those whom they persecuted, were compelled to undergo the same death, by which
they had been accustomed to sacrifice the saints and prophets of God, while their
dominion flourished; as is clearly explained in
And thus far the phials seem to have proceeded; the rest yet remain to be poured out.
Phial the Fourth, On the Sun of the Bestial Heaven.
That we may discover what the sun is in the world of the beast, we must first see what the heaven is in that world, lest otherwise, destitute of the clew of analogy, we wander too much from the mark. For the sun is not to be placed, or conceived to exist, but in a heaven suitable to it. The heaven, then, of the antichristian world is the supreme and universal pontifical power itself, or, in short, whatever exists of more sublime and regal authority in any part of the bestial world; that is, in the whole community of provinces acknowledging the Roman pontiff as their head. For so, in the natural world, all that is on high, and above the earth and waters, is called heaven, in the acceptation of the Hebrews, and of the Holy Spirit.
Now in this antichristian heaven (according to the type of the
natural heaven) there are many stars, and of different magnitudes,—princes, governors,
presidents, rulers, kings. There are likewise great luminaries like the sun and
moon, which all appear to move round with the motion of heaven itself, and undergo
their vicissitudes, from the law which governs it. Of this, indeed, the most splendid,
and by far the greatest luminary which shines in the Papal firmament, is
the With all due deference to the foresight of the venerable author,
but with greater facilities of judging from the lapse of time since this
conjecture was formed, may we not suppose France to be the country more peculiarly
designated? Of this kingdom, which assumed the emblem of the sun as the
mark of its dignity, Clovis or Louis was the first Christian king. In the reign
of the XVIth Louis did this kingdom undergo the most stupendous revolution which
has taken place for many centuries; overturning the throne and the altar, setting
on fire, as we may say, the Papal world, destroying vast, armies by the valour
of its troops and the force of its artillery, devastating other countries, and at
length exciting the most violent opposition to its progress in surrounding nations.
It was this kingdom which in Charlemagne gave the first emperor to the Papal Roman
empire, though the seat of his dominion was afterwards transferred to Germany. It
was in a soi-disant emperor, who copied his example, that the Pope was enthralled,
and compelled to adopt the suggestions of this temporary ruler. The author of this note cannot help adding, as a remarkable circumstance,
that on the 19th of January, 1793, the day on which the king of France was condemned,
he saw, without the help of a glass, through a thin fog, large spots on the sun’s
surface, one of which appeared as a fissure of many digits in extent; such as he
understood from Mr. Vince, Plumian Professor of Astronomy at Cambridge, were never
recorded to have been seen before by the naked eye.—Vide Ann. Reg. 1793.—R. B. C.
Phial the Fifth, On the Throne of the Beast.
The fifth phial is to be poured out on the throne or seat of the beast; that is, on Rome itself: And now the Holy Spirit no longer conceals the subject under the veil of figures or allegories, perhaps on account of the great light then to arise on those prophecies; when this sort of Mercurial sign being seen, it will no longer be ambiguous how much progress the phials have made, and how much yet remains to be completed by them.
By this destruction of the Roman city, (which I think to be the
very same as is said
Phial the Sixth, On Euphrates.
The sixth phial will be poured out on the great river Euphrates; so that, being dried up, a passage may be prepared for the new enemies of the
Now two things induce me to understand “the kings, to come (as
it is said) from the rising of the sun,” as spoken of the Jews. First, that it is
the last phial but one, during which, therefore, if the Jews are not converted,
it must necessarily come to pass, that they would be destroyed with the other enemies
of Christ, in the number of whom they would still be included, in that great day
of universal vengeance and judgment, which the next and last phial introduces. Besides
the passage in Isaiah referring to the same event, brings me to this conclusion,
from which, in all probability, this part of the Apocalypse is borrowed. “And the
Lord,” says he,
But what then, shall we say, is this Euphrates, whose waters
shall be dried up? Whether it is to be taken according to the letter, especially
in that passage of Isaiah, I somewhat doubt. In the mean time, I rather think that
something of parable and allegory is sprinkled through this part of the Apocalypse,
but not much; so that the analogy of the other phials may remain here likewise,
well adapted to the object of the effusion. For it seems we are to understand in
the same manner as the old Euphrates had, the mystical one has its Babylon also.
I think the Ottoman empire will be the only obstacle to those new enemies from the
East, and a defence on the part of the beast. Nor will there be wanting an example
from Isaiah himself, of Euphrates thus to be understood, who,
. It contributes not a little to the establishment of this interpretation,
that we explained the letting loose of that vast equestrian army, long bound on
the great river Euphrates, at the sounding of the sixth trumpet,
Whatever it may be, their obstruction being removed, the way of approach is by some means said to be prepared for these new Christians from the East, and that, as it appears, for the purpose of undertaking an expedition against the beast, to whose destruction all the phials are subservient. For whence otherwise, and for what reason, should such a trepidation and panic seize upon the followers of the beast, and even the demons themselves, from the time of the drying up of the. river, as to occasion such a horrible and unheard-of preparation for war as is here described; unless they, with the whole diabolical cohort, feared every extremity from the accession of the new kings of the East?
Phial the Seventh, in the Air.
The seventh and last phial is poured out in the air; that is, on the power of the air, or Satan, comprehending and animating in its bosom, not only the dominions of the beast, but of all the enemies of Christ our Lord, in every part of the world.
Now, as the beast drew from him spirit and life, even from his
beginning, so the last fortunes
Against so many enemies, thus gathered together under the auspices
of the power of the air, and enclosed as in a cage at Armageddon, the seventh phial
will be discharged, no longer by a human hand, but with a celestial and fulminating
vengeance; (for “it is the battle of the great day, and of God Almighty.”) By
this the ruin of the beast will be fully consummated; not of the seat only, or
the city of Babylon, as before, under the fifth trumpet, but of the state itself; that is, of the Babylonian senate and people, wherever they shall be surviving
after the destruction of the city, until the extermination of
Of the Seventh Trumpet, and of the other Prophecies of wonderful Events contemporary with it.
Here, Reader, I shall in a few words explain what my opinions are, nor will I much extend my observations on a subject, which was for a long time deemed incredible, on account of inveterate prejudices, and because it is one of the most abstruse and most remarkable of all the parts of prophetic Scripture. In so great a mystery, it will be sufficient to maintain the thing in a general manner, and not to inquire too curiously into the reasons of each particular part; lest while expatiating more freely than perhaps we ought, the saying of Solomon should ring in our ears,—“In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin.”
But with relation to this subject, it relies on the irrefragable
chain of apocalyptical order,
But I, Reader, (no longer to detain you in the vestibule,) so explain the whole matter, as to show that I depart as little as possible from the received opinion of the day of Christ’s advent, immediately to follow the ruin of Antichrist: Do thou, then, laying aside all prejudice, weigh the matter in the fear of God, and pardon me, if I fall into any error, with a charitable judgment. Thus, then, understand it.
The seventh trumpet, with the whole thousand days, and the other
oracles referring to the same, designate that great day of judgment,
יום דינא רבא,
of the ancient Jewish Church, celebrated by Christ, and his apostles; not some
short space of a few hours, (as is commonly believed,) but according to the custom
of the Hebrews, using a day for time indefinitely, a continued space of many years,
and circumscribed by two resurrections, as termini. A day, I say, beginning from
that first partial, and as it may be termed, morning judgment of Antichrist, and
of the other living enemies of the Church, by the glorious appearance of our Lord
in a flame of fire, and finishing at length after the reign of a thousand years,
granted to the new Jerusalem,
This, in truth, is that time of the wrath of God against the nations, and of judging the cause of those who died for Christ’s sake; at which, on the sound .of the seventh trumpet, the elders rejoice with triumph, because by that God would surely “give reward unto his servants the prophets, and to the saints, and to them that fear his name, both small and great, and would destroy them that destroy the earth.”
This is “that day of judgment, and perdition of ungodly men,”
of which St. Peter having spoken in his
This is that kingdom also, conjoined with the appearance of Christ
to judge the world, to which St. Paul alludes in his second Epistle to Timothy,
Ver. 9. I beheld till thrones were set |
And I saw thrones, |
Ver. 10. And the judgment was set |
And they sat on them, |
Ver. 22. And judgment was given to the saints of the Most High |
And judgment was given to them. |
And the saints possessed the kingdom |
And the saints lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. |
Moreover, I wish to give the reader this admonition: Whatever sound
doctrine, generally
Lastly, that I may come to a conclusion:—This is that most ample kingdom, which, according to Daniel’s interpretation, was foreshown to Nebuchadnezzar in the statue, predictive of four kingdoms. Not that of the stone cut out of the mountain, while the series of the monarchies was still subsisting; (for that is the present state of Christ’s kingdom;) but of the stone when the same monarchies were utterly broken in pieces and destroyed, which became a great mountain, and filled the whole world.
On these subjects, Reader, I have treated,
Τῶ Θεῷ δύξη.
From a Dialogue between Justin Martyr, and Trypho, a Jew, respecting the Millennium, or the Thousand Years of the kingdom of Christ, corrected and illustrated by Notes.
Now tell me the truth. Do you expect and confess, that this place, Jerusalem, is at length to be re-established, and your people to be collected together, and brought out with joy, together with Christ, and the patriarchs, and the prophets, and with these who are of our race, or even some of those who were proselytes before the coming of Christ? Or do you go to such a length, as to confess these things, that you may appear to exceed us in doubtful questions?
I am not reduced to such straits, O Trypho, as to speak differently
from what I think. I have already confessed to you, and before also, that I, and
indeed many others with me, believe that it will come to pass, as you fully know.
But on the contrary, I have signified to thee,
“Ἐγώ δὲ καὶ εἴ τινές εἰσιν ὀρθεγήμονες κατὰ πάντα Χριστιανοί.”
“But I and all Christians, who are of the orthodox opinion,”
both acknowledge that there will be a resurrection of the flesh, and a thousand
years’ (reign) in Jerusalem, renewed, and adorned, and enlarged, as the prophets
Ezekiel and Isaiah and others declare
For thus .Esaias speaks of the time of those thousand years,
(
But, as to that expression, “For according to
And a certain man among us, whose name is John, one of the twelve
apostles of Christ, in that Revelation which was exhibited to him, prophesied that
those of us who were faithful followers of Christ, should pass a thousand years
in Jerusalem, and afterwards should be the universal, and (to say it at once) the
eternal resurrection of all together, and the judgment, in which our Lord also said,
that “they should neither marry nor be given in marriage, but be equal to the angels,—being
the children of God, as of the resurrection.” For we have prophetic
Another Passage referring to the same subject.
After a Discourse on the great Day of Judgment, (which he calls τὴν μεγάλην ἡμέραν τῆς κρίσεως,) when the Jews should have mourned for Christ, whom they pierced, and when Christ himself, inaugurated after the order of Melchisedech, should have become the judge of quick and, dead, he immediately subjoins, “At whose second coming, do not imagine that Esaias, or the other prophets inform us, that sacrifices of blood or of libations were to be offered upon the altar, but true and spiritual praises and, thanksgivings.
Of the Hebrew Doctors on the great Day of Judgment, and of the Reign of the Messiah then to come.
Carpentarius, in his Commentary on the Alcinous of Plato, p. 322, asserts, that “the seventh millenary was called, by the whole school of the Cabalists, the great day of judgment, because then they think that God will judge the souls of all.”
He means, by the name of Cabalists, (if I am not mistaken,) the
Talmudic doctors, according to whom, in more than one author, that tradition is
found to be recorded. For thus it is read in the Gemara Sanhedrim, Perek Chelek—R.
Ketina has said, “The world subsists for six thousand years, and will be destroyed
in one, of which it is said, ‘And the Lord alone will be exalted in that day.’
“But he understands the destruction which is to come, will be by fire, by which
the world being refined, will be purified like gold, and will be delivered from
subjection to the curse under which it now groans on account of man, into the glorious
liberty of the sons of God,
Here the Reader may remark two things:—First, that the ancient
Jews understood that prophecy of Isaiah, ch. ii. where these words, “And the Lord
alone shall be exalted in that day,” occur twice,—of the day of the great judgment,
and of the reign of Christ, from whose footsteps the succeeding Rabbins do not depart.
“‘In that day,’ that is, the day of judgment,” says R. Schelomo. Also, “When he
shall have risen to consume the earth, that is,” says he, “in the day of judgment,
in which the Lord shall consume the wicked of the earth,” R. David Kimschi says,
“In that day, that is, in the days of the Messiah, when God shall execute judgment
on the wicked.” And again, “And the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day, is
the same as if he had said, The Lord shall be King over all the earth.” Another
thing to be remarked is, that the title of the
Now, from these premises I am decidedly of opinion, that the
ancient Jews explained the day which they denominated the day of judgment as the
MILLENNIUM; which is more fully confirmed from Misdrachtchillim, upon that passage
of the
What, moreover, in addition, the Jewish masters thought concerning the reign of the Messiah in that great day to come, may be known in some measure from what I now subjoin. In the summaries of the great Rabbi Eleazar, (who lived a little after the second temple,) it is said, “As I live, saith the Lord, I will raise you up in time to come, in the resurrection of the dead, and I will gather you together with all Israel in the land of Israel.” Petrus Galat. lib. xii. c. 1.
So likewise the paraphrast Jonathan, (who lived before Christ,)
on the
Targum on
R. Saadas (one of those doctors whom they call eminent,) on that
passage of
Compare
Such being the case, I leave to those who are able to judge of
mysteries of this kind in theology, to consider whether this would be the best and
easiest method of acting with the Jews; not that those very clear prophecies of
events in the second and glorious advent of Christ, should be wrested by application
to the first, but that they should be persuaded that no other Messiah is to be expected
by them, who will fulfil all those things; mutatis mutandis however, (for the
“Prove all things. Hold fast that which is good.”
“To our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, be glory both now and
to the day of the age. Amen
Τῷ Θεῷ δόξα διὰ Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας.
Ἀμήν.
LONDON:
GILBERT & RIVINGTON, PRINTERS,
ST. JOHN’S SQUARE.
Genesis
4:26 10:30 21:12 25:6 27:29 37:7 37:10 41:37 49:8
Exodus
7:10 9:23 10:13 10:14 10:15 12:12 12:12 14:28 15:4 19:4 19:16 40:33 40:34 40:35
Leviticus
5:1-19 7:1-38 19:27 21:5 26:1-46
Numbers
Deuteronomy
9:28 20:19 31:20 32:24 32:33 33:15 33:17
Judges
7:12 12:7 17:1-13 17:10 18:1-31 18:30
Ruth
1 Samuel
2:18 3:1-21 8:1-22 14:18 14:25
1 Kings
2 Kings
2 Chronicles
2:14 4:1-22 4:9 5:13 11:15 29:25-28
Esther
Job
Psalms
1 2 18:13 18:14 40:2 44:16 45:5 46:3 48:3 58:4 68:10 68:17 69:10 70:9 74:13 74:14 79:1 79:1-13 79:2 79:3 82:1 82:6 88:2 90:1-17 90:15 92:1 92:1-15 104:19
Proverbs
1:23 10:2 12:3 15:28 17:21 18:23
Ecclesiastes
Isaiah
5:16 6:1 6:13 7:14 8:1-22 8:7 8:8 9:1-21 9:6 11:13 11:14 11:18 13:2 13:10 13:10 14:8 14:8 14:12 14:20 17:5 19:1 19:5 21:9 28:2 28:15 30:30 32:19 34:4 34:4 37:24 37:24 40:31 42:9 42:10 45:11 51:9 51:15 54:1-17 56:7 58:1-14 60:20 60:20 65:1-25 65:7 65:17 65:17 66:1-24 66:7 66:22
Jeremiah
1:10 1:11 1:12 3:23 4:23 5:14 6:16 8:20 15:9 15:9 16:19 16:20 17:12 18:17 19:5 20:3 20:4 23:6 23:7 23:15-17 30:6 30:7 31:35 49:7-22 49:28 49:36 51:1 51:2 51:25 51:33 51:36 51:44
Ezekiel
1:24 3:18 3:20 9:1-11 14:19 16:1-21 18:13 19:15 19:21 20:27 23:4 23:4 25:12 29:3 31:4 32:7 35:1-15 37:1-28 38:1-23 38:4 38:15 39:1-29 41:19 43:2 43:7 43:7-10 44:17 44:18 45:10 45:11
Daniel
3:1-7 7:1-28 7:1-28 7:2 7:3 7:6 7:7 7:9 7:10 7:10 7:10 7:11 7:12 7:13 7:13 7:14 7:18 7:22 7:22 7:23 7:25 7:26 7:26 7:26 7:27 8:5 8:8 8:12 8:22 10:5 12:1-13 12:6 12:7 19:1
Hosea
1:6 1:7 2:2 2:3 2:4 2:5 10:8 14:4-9
Joel
Amos
Obadiah
Zephaniah
Haggai
Zechariah
4 4:1-14 6:12 10:10 10:11 11:2 14:7
Malachi
Matthew
2:1 2:23 4:14 5:25 12:4 12:42 13:35 23:39 24:8 24:9 24:29 24:29 28:34
Mark
Luke
1:10 1:37 19:4 21:24 21:24 23:30 24:26
John
Acts
3:19 13:46 14:15 15:1-40 15:33 17:30 17:31 20:3 25:21 26:18
Romans
1:25 7:9 8:1-39 9:1-33 11:1-36 13:1-14 14:14
1 Corinthians
2 Corinthians
Galatians
Ephesians
Philippians
Colossians
1 Thessalonians
1 Timothy
2 Timothy
Titus
Hebrews
1:1-14 1:4 2:5 6:2 9:11 12:26-27 13:12
James
2 Peter
Revelation
1:3 1:7 2:29 3:4 3:6 3:13 3:22 4:1 4:2 4:3 4:5 5:6 5:11 5:12 5:13 6:1 6:1 6:2 6:11 7:1-17 7:17 8:7 9:3 9:4 9:12 9:15 9:20 10:1-11 10:1-12 10:3 10:8-11 10:8-11 10:11 11:1-19 11:1-19 11:1-19 11:1-19 11:1-19 11:2 11:3 11:13 11:14 11:14 11:14 11:14 11:14 11:15 11:15 11:15 11:15 11:16 11:16 11:18 12:1-17 12:1-17 12:1-17 12:1-17 12:1-17 12:3 12:5 12:6 12:6 12:7-9 12:9 12:10 12:14 12:14 13:1-18 13:1-18 13:1-18 13:1-18 13:12 13:13 13:14 13:15 13:15 13:16 14:1-20 14:9 14:18 15:1-5 15:2 15:3 16:1-21 16:2 16:5 16:6 16:7 16:12 16:13 16:14 16:17 16:19 16:19 17:1-18 17:1-18 17:1-18 17:1-18 17:10 17:14 17:14 17:18 18:1-24 18:16 18:23 19:1-21 19:6 19:6 19:7 19:7 19:7 19:11 19:13 19:15 19:15 19:15 19:20 19:20 19:20 19:21 20:1-15 20:1-15 20:1-15 20:2 20:3 20:4 20:9 20:10 20:11-15 21:2 21:5 21:6 21:8 21:9 21:9 21:10 21:14 21:23 21:27 29:9
Wisdom of Solomon
1 Maccabees
2 Maccabees
i ii iii iv 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157ss 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384 385 386 387 388 389 390 391 392 393 394 395 396 397 398 399 400 401 402 403 404 405 406 407 408 409 410 411 412 413 414 415 416 417 418 419 420 421 422 423 424 425 426 427 428 429 430 431 432 433 434 435 436 437 438 439 440 441 442 443 444 445 446 447 448 449 450 451 452 453 454 455 456 457 458