Bookshelf/ Vol.I / Vol. IV. Part VI. Contents. Chapter I. 1. 2. 3. II. 1. 2. 3. III. 1. 2. 3. IV. 1. 2. V. 1. 2. Appendix I. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. II. 1a. 1b. 2a. 2b. 2c. 3. 4. III 1. 2a. 2b.
No doubt to St. John there might here arise a question of difficulty. How could this be the Roman Campagna, - considering that that Campagna was in his time, and had been for many centuries, a scene among the most cultivated and populous in the world; and every way one presenting the greatest contrast in appearance to a marshy desert? [1] The explanation, as it seems to me, is at our point of time very simply and easily to be drawn from the fact of the present actual desolate state of the Campagna; and knowledge that this began at the time when first, the ten-horned Beast of Western Anti-Christendom having emerged into existence, the Harlot-church of Rome rose on its back to supremacy, and has so continued ever since. For the initiatory epoch let me refer to Gibbon; who, when about to describe Rome’s revival and restoration to dominion, in the new character of Rome Papal, under Gregory the First’s Pontificate, near about the close of the 6th century, gives a descriptive sketch of the then Campagna which one might almost suppose drawn, like so many other of his pictures, for the very purpose of illustrating this passage of the Apocalyptic prophecy. [2] He states that at that time, (chiefly from the long-continued and perpetual harass of barbarian incursions,) “the Campagna was reduced to the state of a dreary wilderness; the land barren, the waters impure, the air infectious.” He further notices the superadded desolation from the effect of inundations of the Tiber, which (especially at the time of Gregory’s elevation) had “rushed with irresistible violence into the valleys of the seven hills,” and there bred pestilence from “the stagnation of the deluge.” [3] And, after remarking on the awful “depopulation, vacancy, and solitude of the city,” he observes that, “like Babylon, the name of Rome might have been erased from the earth, if the city had not been animated by a vital principle, [viz. that of being St. Peter’s See, and the depository too of his sacred relics, as well as of those of his brother-martyr Paul,] which again restored her [4] to honour and dominion:” - restored her to it in the new character of “Rome, Mother and Mistress,” the Harlot-Church of the seven hills. Nor, though the city rose again by degrees, in its new and ecclesiastical character, did the Campagna change from being a scene of desolation. In Robertson’s sketch of the state of Western Europe after the subsidence of the barbarian invasions, in the earlier part of the middle age, he observes that, in consequence of the existing depopulation, districts once the most cultivated, above all in Italy, were in some parts converted into forest, in others into marshes, by the overflow of rivers and stagnating of the floods: [5] insomuch, that in some of the earliest charters extant, lands granted to monasteries and individuals were distinguished into such as were cultivated, and such as were eremi, or desert; the reason of the grant being frequently this, that the grantee had reclaimed them ab eremo, from the desert. [6] Now, in every other of the countries referred to, the recovery of the lands from this state of barrenness, and desert, was by degrees successfully accomplished, together with the advancing progress of civilization and population. But not so in the vast plain round Rome. There, age after age, from the time of the Goths and Gregory, down even to the present time, where is the traveller to Rome that has not been struck by the waste and dreary Campanga that surrounds the “Eternal City;” whether approaching it by those desolate fifty miles from Civita Vecchia, or viewing it from the hills of Alba or Tivoli? Besides that the Tiber still from time to time fearfully overflows his banks, as of old; [7] and Rome is thus often to be seen from those distant hills sitting upon many waters.
Thus we see that the desert scene associated with the Woman, in the Apocalyptic scene pictured to St. John, was a landscape admirably perfect, as from the life: [8] - a true and faithful picture of the Campagna of Rome itself, such as it appeared at the time when under Gregory the Harlot first established her supremacy thereupon; and such as she has appeared ever since. - Nor was the pictured scene admirable in this point of view only; but also for its having an emblematic, as well as literal, significancy and truth. For, as the seven hills in the landscape were not merely a natural feature of the scene, but also symbolized the seven several forms of government that Rome would previously have experienced, [9] so the floods that inundated the base of those hills where the Harlot had her seat were not only literally true, as a feature of the Campagna after Papal Rome rose to dominion, but also furnished the Angel with an apt symbol of the barbarian floods, which, after pouring into and desolating the empire, would at length constitute nations, tribes, and languages subject to Papal Rome’s dominion. [10] Again, such as was the physical erhmia and barrenness all round it, such has been the spiritual e(z?)hmia characteristic of her dominion. [11] This seems to me the perfection of symbolic figures; a perfection frquently observable in those of the Apocalypse. - Besides which it must be observed that the presence of the flood in this picture, whence we may suppose the Beast to have emerged on which the Woman sate, made it, if I might say, the precise pair and counterpart to a notable one shown in an earlier vision to St. John.: [12] I mean to that which represented a flood cast from the Dragon’s mouth, in order to drown the faithful woman, or Church; out of which, after her escape and disappearance, and when the earth had so drained off the waters as to leave but the remnant of a lake remaining, (so I infer from the description, [13] ) a seven-headed ten-horned Beast, like this very one, appeared to emerge. - It is a new tache of connection between figurations in this and the other Apocalyptic series.
It only remains that I add a remark on the Vial-Angel who showed this vision to St. John, and the reason of John’s being spoken of as carried away in the spirit to see it. [14] The latter point is explainable, perhaps, from the circumstance of the vision being thus far out of the usual routine and order, as exhibiting a phænomenon of 1260 years’ duration; and consequently that which Christ’s people, living at the time of the Vials, would only be able to see mentally, not by the bodily eye. [15] - As to the Angel, I think that particular Vial-Angel must be supposed the revealer, in the time of whose vial-outpouring a full understanding might prove to be given of the mystery of the Woman and the Beast: - that doubtless, the seventh and last. [16]
So was the mystery of the Woman and her subject Beast made manifest to St. John, in all its details, just before the figuration of their total and final destruction. - And, let me ask, has there not of late been some advance of a fulfillment of the vision?
III. Next came the vision of another Angel, and of the destruction of Babylon following on his appearance; which began as follows: - NOTE: [Editor: Follow the colors (red) and (blue) below, brought to bear because of the new formating.]
“And, after these things, 1 I saw another Angel coming down from heaven having great power, [probably as the appointed executor of the coming judgment that he announced, (1] (Editor: This note is found on Pg. 22) and the earth was lightened with his glory.
1 The whole chapter xviii. is as follows.
1. “And after these things I saw another Angel coming down [17] from heaven, having great power; [18] and the earth was lightened with his glory. 2. And he cried with a strong voice, [19] saying; Fallen, fallen, is the great Babylon, and is become the habitation of demons, and the prison-house of every unclean spirit, and the prison [20] of every unclean and hateful bird: 3. for all the nations have drunk of the wine of the poison [21] of her fornication; and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her; and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her luxury. [22]
4. And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partaker of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues! 5. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. 6. Reward her even as she rewarded [you]; [23] and double unto her double, according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled, fill to her double! 7. How much she hath glorified herself, and lived luxuriously, [24] so much torment and sorrow give her! As to that [25] she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am not a widow, and shall see no mourning, 8. therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, [26] and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burnt with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.
9. And the kings of the earth who have committed fornication, and lived luxuriously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they see the smoke of her burning; 10. standing afar off for the fear of her torment: saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city; for in one hour is thy judgment come.
11. And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more: - 12 the merchandise of gold and silver, and all precious stones, and pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and every kind of vessel of ivory, and all manner of vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble; 13. and cinnamon, and amomus, [27] and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and cattle, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, [28] and souls of men. 14. And the fruits [29] that thy soul lusted after are departed from thee, and all things, that were dainty and goodly are departed from thee: and they shall find [30] them no more at all.
15. The merchants of these things which were made rich by her, shall stand afar off, for the fear of her torment, weeping and wailing: 16. and saying, Alas alas, that great city, that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls! For in one hour so great riches is come to nought.
17. And every shipmaster, and every passenger sailing to the place, [31] and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off; 18 and cried, when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What city is like unto this great city? 19 And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing; saying, Alas, alas, that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea, by reason of her costliness; for in one hour is she made desolate.
20 Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye saints, and apostles, [32] and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her.
21. And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great mill-stone, and cast it into the sea; saying, Thus, with violence, shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all. 22. And the voice of harpers and musicians, and of pipers and trumpets, shall be heard no more at all in thee: and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee: and the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee: 23. and the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee. For thy merchants were the great men of the earth: for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.
24. And in her was found the blood [33] of prophets, and of saints, and of all that had been slain upon the earth.” [34]
xix. 1. “And after these things I heard as it were a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia! Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power unto the Lord our God! [35] 2. For true and just are his judgments: [36] for he hath judged the great harlot, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, [37] and hath avenged the blood of her servants at her hands. 3. And a second time they said Alleluia! And her smoke riseth up for ever and ever. [38] 4. And the four-and twenty elders and the four living creatures fell down, and worshipped God that sat on the throne, saying, Amen; Alleluia!”
1 So the Lord, who announced to Abraham that he was come down to inquire into the wickedness of Sodom, preparatorily to judgment on it, was himself that judgment’s executor. Compare Gen. xviii. 20, xix. 22.
On the propriety and force of epithets attached to Apocalyptic agents, as having reference to what they had to perform, compare what is said of the zwn of Apoc. vii. 2, and the iscurov of Apoc. x. 1, in my Vol. i. p. 274, and Vol. ii. pp. 41, 42. So again Apoc. xviii. 21.
And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the Great hath fallen, hath fallen; for all the nations have drunk of the wine of the poison of her fornication: &c.” It seemed a repetition, and in almost precisely the same terms, of the cry of the second Angel of Apoc. xiv., [39] though with the notable added circumstance that “she was become the habitation of demons, and prison-house of every unclean spirit;” [40] and, moreover, like that former voice, (notwithstanding the use of the past tense in the sentence,) seemed to be still anticipative: [41] but anticipative at the very smallest interval before the catastrophe: and not without an effulgence of light, as well as strength of cry, correspondent with the urgency of the time; even as its last, as well as loudest echo, upon the ear of nations. - And then followed a warning voice from heaven, heard loud and distinct by St. John, in his symbolic character, as I presume; that is, as the representative of Christ’s true saints and servants then living: “Come out of her my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues: for her sins have reached unto heaven.” [42] A warning like that of the Covenant-Angel to Lot, on the eve of the destruction of Sodom; [43] or that from God, through Moses, to the surrounding Israelites, the moment before the earthquake that swallowed up the tents of Dathan and Abiram: [44] and which indicated two things respecting them; 1st, that there would be even then some of the holy seed in the mystic Babylon; 2ndly, that their danger of participation in its coming destruction, whether through mistakes of judgment, or sluggish lingering, would be extreme and imminent. [45] After which that same voice, apparently, addressed still and all through to the saints, [46] described in vivid detail the catastrophe, even as if enacted before the Evangelist’s eyes on the scene of vision; though with that mixture of the future and past with the present, which is so common in the descriptions of prophecy: [47] - in the first place depicting the nature of the catastrophe; - its suddenness when least expected, [48] - its instantaneousness, as all completed in an hour, [49] - its totality, such that all life was quenched in it, [50] - its manner, with violence like as of the shock of a mill-stone hurled into the waters, [51] - and the instrumentality employed, viz. that of fire, eternal fire, of which the smoke goeth up for ever: [52] - then detailing the lamentations over its fall; first of the kings of earth that ere while committed fornication with it; [53] next successively of the merchants and shipmasters and sailors that were enriched by, or took part in, its various branches of traffic; [54] all standing afar off (the expression is most graphic) for fear of the smoke of her burning: - and, finally, stating two reasons for the judgment; one, that all nations had been deceived by her sorceries, [55] the other and chief reason, because of her having been the persecutor of the saints, and of the blood of their successive generations being found in her. [56] - After which, and the completion of her destruction, [57] a burst of songs of praise was heard to resound from a great multitude in heaven, saying, “Alleluia! The salvation, and the glory, and the power is our God’s: for true and just are his judgments; for he hath judged the great Harlot;” &c. Twice was that song of praise uttered: and then the twenty-four elders and four living creatures took it up, and repeated it: (it is the last act related of them:) worshipping in prostrate adoration the Divine One that sat upon the throne; and saying, Amen, Alleluia!
From which passage I draw the following conclusions, as to the probable progress of events in the coming future. 1st, (and this with strong conviction in my own mind of its truth,) that the destruction of ROME, the mystic Babylon, - comprehending not the mere city of Rome, but, at the least, the Papal Ecclesiastical State in Italy, or Papal Metropolitan Bishopric, and probably, together with it, that third, or more, out of the political tripartition of Christendom, a little before described as occurring, [58] which might then adhere to it, [59] - is very soon after the tri-partition to be effected, all unexpectedly to those remaining in it, [60] by the sudden and temendous agency of an earthquake and volcanic fire: [61] - a mode of destruction not obscurely intimated by certain very striking allusive expressions in other prophecies both of the Old and New Testament; [62] and thus expected, as we find, alike by ancient Jewish Rabbies [63] and Christian Fathers of the Church: [64] not to add that the very nature of the Italian soil has forced on many a mind, in different ages, the thought of its physical preparedness almost for such a catastrophe. [65] . - 2ndly, I infer that immediately before this event (perhaps for some little time before it) there will be a diffusion of great religious light, and a sounding forth of strong appeals on the character and the fated and imminent doom of Rome and the Popedom, alike in the Church and in the world; [66] so that all will see and take warning, but they that willfully, and from worldliness pride, or indifference to the truth, shut their eyes and ears to the evidence. [67] 3rdly, I infer that the Jews will probably just at, or after this catastrophe, be converted, (conjunctively with a vast number of Gentiles,) the completed outpouring of the seven Vials having marked the time for it; [68] and join, and perhaps take the lead in, the earthly Church’s song of praise on the occasion: the language used to designate this song in the Apocalyptic prefigurations being now for the first time Hebrew, “Hallelujah;” [69] a circumstance certainly very remarkable, and noted by many previous commentators as having the meaning I suggest: [70] - not to add that its probability is enhanced, as I think, by the fact that the Jews themselves, or at least some of the most learned of their Rabbies, have supposed that the restoration of their people is to follow on the fall of Rome. [71] - 4thly, I infer that down to the time figured by this chorus of song, no translation of the living saints, or resurrection of the saints departed this life, will have taken place; the scenery of the inmost temple, with its throne, and seated Divinity, and the elders and living creatures attendant near it, the mystical representatives of the expectant Church in Paradise, [72] remaining still figured in vision, as before. - Whether the scene continued so afterwards, and the same inference might be made with regard to time at all later, is another question. But it is one which will more properly come under consideration in the Chapter next but one following. [73]
4. Next after this the Evangelist tells us of a command issuing “from the throne,” which called to all God’s servants, and all that feared him, “Praise ye our God;” [74] and how thereupon a far louder voice than that heard before, even as of many waters and of mighty thunderings, (including in it probably that of very many princes and people,) [75] was heard to burst forth in a new anthem of praise; 1 its two themes being the now closely instant establishment of Christ’s kindom, and his marrage: the bride,
1. I subjoin the chapter, as before.
xix. 5. “And a voice came out from the throne, saying, Praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear him, both small and great. 6. And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia, for the - * Lord God omnipotent reigneth. † 7. Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. 8 And to her it was granted ‡ that she should be arrayed in fine linen, bright and clean: § for the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints. 9. And he saith unto me, Write, blessed are they who have been called || unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God. 10. And I fell before his feet to worship him: and he saith unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellow-servant, and (the fellow-servant) ¶ of thy brethren, that keep up ** the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of the prophecy.††
11. And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon it was called Faithful and True; and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. 12. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many diadems; and he had a name written, that no man knew but he himself. 13. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood, and his hame is called, The Word of God. 14. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. ‡‡ 15. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp §§ sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule over them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God. 16. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a |||| name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.¶¶
17. And I saw an Angel *† standing in the sun: and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the great supper of God;*‡ 18. that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great. 19. And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war *§ against him that sat on the horse, and against his army.20. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, * with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worship his image. These both were cast alive into the lake † of fire burning with brimstone. 21. And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceedeth out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.”
xx. “And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit, and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,” &c.
it appeared, having had it granted her to be arrayed in the finest white linen, #(which linen, it was said, was the righteousness ¥ of saints, so making the saints as the bride,) and the song retaining still the form Hallelujah. - But an enemy yet remains to be overcome, ere the completion of the anticipated blessedness. As the harlot must be exposed and branded and destroyed ere the manifestation of the bride, so the usurper Antichrist, (the self-vaunting King of kings and Lord of lords,) £ ere Christ’s establishment of his kingdom. And, - after a passing mention of the Angel’s declaring the blessedness of those who were called to the Lamb’s marriage-supper, (whether a class the same as, or a class distinct from, the Bride herself, š and another of St. John’s falling down and worshipping the revealing Angel, (still I suppose in his symbolic representative character, « and being rebuked for it, - there follows a most striking and remarkable vision of Christ issuing forth to the destruction of this long usurping Antichrist. The heaven appeared opened to make way for his descending. His appearance had in it all that was most august of superhuman majesty. His emblems were those of royalty and triumph, - the white horse, the sharp sword, the many diadems, the red or purple robe; - red, however, with blood, as that of one that had already begun to tread the wine-press of God’s wrath. (Was it not the wine-press long before prophesied of as trodden in Bozrah? [76] ) His names enunciated were, The Faithful and True, the Word of God, the King of kings and Lord of lords, besides that secret as well as incommunicable name JEHOVAH. [77] And hosts, already “in heaven,” [78] (were they not his saints, “the called, and chosen, and faithful?” [79] ) appeared following him; themselves also on white horses: the partakers (so did the end contrast with the beginning of this great drama [80] ) of their Lord’s triumph. - Meanwhile the Beast and his False Prophet, and the kings and armies that still supported him, are represented as having gathered to the scene of conflict. And, - after a proclamation from an Angel that seemed “standing in the sun,” (whether to denote his universal visibility, [81] or the supreme royalty that dictated his words, [82] ) inviting all the birds of prey that might fly in the mid-heaven, to assemble and partake of the great supper about to be prepared in the judgments of God Almighty, [83] - after this, I say, the conflict was joined; the Beast, or Antichrist, and his False Prophet taken, and cast alive into “the lake of fire,” (mark the definite article,) that same “which was burning with brimstone;” [84] the kings and other earthly adherents of Antichrist slain by the sword of Him that sat on the white horse, a portion for the birds of prey; [85] and the Dragon taken, and imprisoned in the abyss for a thousand years. - And so the MILLENNIUM appeared to begin.
From this prefigurative vision thus much may I think be inferred respecting the coming future; - viz. that some signal, total, and most tremendous destruction of the Papal Antichrist, (that false usurping king of kings and lord of lords,) with the Papal Priesthood and Kings (perhaps kingdoms too) adhering to him, is to follow very soon after the catastrophe of Rome and its Italian dependency: - a destruction to be accompanied with some striking manifestation of Christ, and of his glory and power, who is then to be made publicly manifest as the true King of kings and Lord of lords: and to be wrought by the agency of earthquake and fire, (probably volcanic fire,) so as to involve the reprobates, thus destroyed, in the same fiery lake as Rome itself and its subject territory just before. [86] - The fact of their destruction following after, and so being in point of time distinct from, that of Rome, as would seem to be the case, [87] is perhaps to be accounted for by the supposition of Antichrist and his army being, at the time, gathered to some country or place without the territories of the Popedom: - a supposition already suggested by the intimation in the parallel prophecy of chap. xiv. that the wine-press of God’s wrath was to be trodden “without the city;” [88] and partially confirmed, I think, by other and earlier prophecies of the last crisis. As to the nature of the manifestation then to be made of Christ’s glory, - whether personal or simply providential, - again, whether the hosts attending to participate in his trimph are angels or saints, and if saints, whether in the earthly or the resurrection state, (a point involving that other, already mooted, [89] whether the bride and the parties called to the bridal supper are identical, or distinct,) - finally, what the nature of the lake of fire mentioned, and whether identical or connected with that eternal and penal fire of which we read such awful notices in other Scriptures, - on all these points of solemn and surpassing interest, it is evident that the answer to be given must involve a consideration of the great question of the Millennium and Second Advent; and can therefore only fitly be given in the Chapter next but one following, in which the whole millennial subject has to be discussed. - Before which, however, it may be well to look carefully to those apparently parallel prophecies respecting the final crisis, whether in Daniel or other of the Old Testament prophets, that have been just referred to.
[1] Strabo speaks of “the whole of Latium as a flourishing and very productive country, with the exception of a few spots near the coast which were marshy and unhealthy:” also, as to the Campagna between the Alban hills and Rome, that, “excepting the parts toward the sea, the rest is a good country to live in, and well cultivated.” So Dr. Arnold, in his interesting Chapter on the Physical History of Rome and its Campagna; Vol. i. p. 505: in which Chapter he inquires whence, and why, the difference between its present and its ancient state.
So too the Christian Sibyl of the 2nd century, B. viii. p. 372, of whom I shall have to speak again in my History of Apocalyptic Interpretation: aketi nikhseiv to pedon Rwmhv eriqhla.
[2] Gibb. viii. pp. 158-161: a passage referred to before in my Vol. iii. p. 129: where see also other illustrations of the fact cited. Pope Gregory’s own account may be seen in the Appendix to P. Paolo’s Council of Trent, p. 774. Engl. Ed.
[3] Gibbon alludes, in a Note, to an account of this inundation brought by one of his Deacons to Greogory of Tours (x. 1.): with the further report of a dragon having appeared in the flood; which, while passing down the Tiber into the sea, was stranded. Considering the emblematic sense attached to this flood by the Angel, and its probable identification with the one mentioned as cast out of the Dragon’s mouth in Apoc. xii. 15, it is curious to compare the report of the Deacon on this point with the Apocalyptic description of the Dragon’s standing on the shore of the flood, and resigning his empire to the new rising Beast, Apoc. xii. 18, xiii. 2.
[4] So Gibbon impersonates Rome as a Woman.
[5] Charles the Fifth; Proof 5. Also Hallam iii. 365.
[6] Ducange on Eremus.
[7] Visitors in the winter of 1847, 1848 saw this strikingly exhibited before them.
[8] See the Section in my 1st. Vol. on the local appropriateness of Scripture Symbols, beginning p. 420.
[9] Apoc. xvii. 10. See my solution, Part iv. Chap. iv.; Vol. iii. pp. 114, &c.
[10] Apoc. xvii. 15. - To Bossuet’s objection that, were this Woman an apostatized Christian Church, or City, she would be called an adulteress, not harlot, or pornh, I may again refer to Matt. v. 32, xix. 9, and also Isa. i. 21, &c. in the Septuagint; passages already before noted, pp 16, 17.[Editor: Pgs. in this ‘File.’]
[11] Now that I am reprinting the 5th Edition of this Work in 1861, has not this fact, politically, socially, and morally considered, forced itself on man’s minds, very generally
[12] Apoc. xii. 15, xiii. 1. See my Vol. iii. pp. 71, 83.
[13] See Vol. iii. p. 71, Note 2
[14] “And he carried me away in the spirit to a desert place; and I saw,” &c.
[15] Compare the retrospective view of the two Witnesses’ history given in Apoc. xi. The Angel gives it all in the form of retrospective narrative, until he has brought down their history to the time corresponding with that of his descent. Whereupon (but not before) the witnesses are brought on the scene in actual vision. See Vol. ii pp. 462-464.
[16] So the Angel, xxi. 9, that showed St. John the New Jerusalem, was evidently the seventh of the vial-Angels.
[17] katabainonta.
[18] or authority; exousian.
[19] en iscura fwnh. So A, B, and the critical Editions; instead of en iscui fwnh megalv, as the received text. [Editor: Received Text: with ejn, a strong (mei>zwn) voice fwnh>,]
[20] fulakh is the Greek word used in either clause; though our translation gives two renderings, “the hold of every foul spirit, and cage of every unclean bird.”
[21] qumou. Daubuz, p. 637, on Apoc. xiv. 8, conceives the word qumou to mean poison, accordingly with the Septuagint, which renders the Hebrew hm;je by words signifying poison as well as wrath: e.g. in Deut. xxxii. 24, Job vi. 4, xx. 16, Psalm lviii. 4. For an animal’s anger and poison were both supposed to be in the gall; and when he is angry the poison is discharged.
[22] strhnouv is our authorized translation, and also in Tregelles’, delicacies.
[23] umin is omitted in A, B, C, and the critical Editions.
[24] estrhniase.
[25] dte legei, k. t. l. I prefer to construe the d te disjointly, As to that, with reference to the therefore in the clause following, as its consequent; and not to make it the consequent of what precedes.
[26] qanatov perhaps pestilence, as in Apoc. vi. 8. So Vitringa, p. 1065, after Grotius and Launæus.
[27] The best MSS. here insert kai amwmon, “and the amomun:” a tree from which one of the most esteemed ointments of the ancients was made. See Schleusner on the word.
[28] dwmatwn.
[29] opwra Compare the emblems of the harvest and vintage, Apoc. xiv., discussed in the preceding section of this Chapter.
[30] eurhsousin So A and C; instead of the eurhshv of the received text.
[31] pav d epi topon plewn. So A and C. In B we read ton towon. Compare Acts xxvii. 2; mellontev plein t(?q)v kata thn Asian topqv.
[32] kai oi alioi dai oi apostoloi. So A, B. The received text omits the second kai oi.
[33] The MS. B and Scholz read aimata, in the plural: - a form of the word of which no other example occurs, I believe, in the New Testament, except in John i. 13. In the Septuagint it is not very infrequent.
[34] Daubuz, p. 853, has justly animadverted [criticized] on the improper division of chapters here: as the four first verses of Apoc. xix. evidently belong to Apoc. xviii.
[35] Or, “is our God’s;” according to the reading of the critical editions; h swthria kai h doxa, kai dunamiv tou qeou hmwn.
[36] kriseiv
[37] Compare Apoc. xi. 18.
[38] eiv touv aiwnav twn aiwnwn.
[39] See my Vol. iii. p. 491, on xiv. 8.
[40] Compare xx. 10; where we read that, after the millennium, “the Devil is to be cast into the lake of fire where the Beast and the False Prophet are.”
[41] For the cry, “Come out of her, my people,” follows.
[42] So when Sodom’s cry was said to come up to heaven, Gen. xviii. 21, its judgment was close at hand. - In proof that the voice from heaven to St. John indicated a conviction strongly to be made on the minds of God’s saints at the time prefigured, I refer the reader to the notable precedents of Apoc. vii., x., &c. See in my Vol. i. Part i. Chap. vii. § 4; and, in my Vol. ii., the whole historical comment on Apoc. x. 1-xi. 3.
[43] Gen. xix. 16-22.
[44] Numb. xvi. 23-33. - I might add that of Christ to the disciples, with reference to the time of the siege of Jerusalem, commencing, “Then let them that be in Judea flee to the mountains,” &c.; Matt. xxiv. 16: - a warning doubtless impressed on their minds by the Holy Spirit at the intended crisis, though uttered long before.- Compare too Jer. li. 6, “Flee out of the midst of Babylon, &c.”
[45] See Vol. iii. pp. 295, 296.
[46] Vitringa supposes the verses 4 and 5, only, to be the voice of St. John from heaven, and that the diplwsate autg, “Double to her,” &c., is addressed to the kings mentioned xvii. 16. A strange hypothesis surely! - For the saints, not the kings, are the injured ones; and the saints the avengers of those wrongs, in God’s retributive justice.
[47] The future is in fact the characteristic tense of the description, until verse 17, when it is changed for the past; the past tenses previously used being those of speakers that are themselves introduced in the future. For example it is said in verses 10, 11, “The kings of the earth shall bewail her, standing afar off, Alas, that great city; in one hour has thy judgment come. But in the 17th it is said, “And every shipmaster stood afar off.” Yet even after this, in verse 21, the Angel that took up the mill-stone uses the future, “Thus shall great Babylon be cast down;” outwv blhqhsitai. In verse 24 the past is used again.
In prophecies where the future may be used with reference to the actual time of the prophet’s seeing the vision, as well as with reference to the thing represented in the prophetic vision, the tenses used must be reasoned from with great caution. I have spoken of this before. Compare the interchange of tenses in the Angel’s narrative of the two witnesses, Apoc. xi.: also in xvii.; and again in xx. 4, 6: where “reigned” (ebasileusan) and “shall reign” (basileusousi) are used interchangeably. For notable examples elsewhere see the prophecies in Deut. xxxii., Isa. liii., &c.
[48] So verse 7; “She saith, I sit as a queen, and shall see no sorrow.”
[49] So verses 10, 16, 19; mia wra hrhmwqh.- In verse 8 it is said, “In one day shall thy plagues come, - pestilence, and mourning, and famine;” as if for some short time before the final catastrophe by fire, there were to be some terrible visitation of Rome with pestilence and famine.
[50] So verses 22, 23, “And the voice of harpers, &c. &c., shall be heard no more in thee;” &c.
[51] Verse 21.
[52] So verses 8, 9, 18 of chap. xviii., and xix. 3: in which last a very strong expression is used to depict the eternity of the fire: “Her smoke riseth up eiv touv aiwnav twn aiwnwn, for ages of ages.”
[53] Verse 9.
[54] Verses 11, 17. - The wares traded in may be thus classified: - 1. Gold, silver, precious stones, pearls, ivory, brass, iron, marble, wood; - 2. Linen, purple, silk scarlet: 3. Cinnamon, odours, ointments, frankincense; - 4. Wine and oil, wheat and fine flour, sheep and cattle; - 5. Horses and chariots; - 6. Bodies and souls of men. - The last yucav anqrwpwn appears at first sight, as applied to the mystic Babylon or Rome, very remarkably applicable in a spiritual sense. But it is an expression used elsewhere simply to mean persons, especially slaves; e.g. in Numb. xxxi 40, yucai anqrwpwn ek kai deka ciliadev: and ib. 35, yucai anqpwpwn apo twn gunaikwn, for women-slaves: and so Hesychius explains yucagwgoi as andrapodistai. Consequently it must not be insisted on as implying Rome’s traffic in souls; though I can scarcely myself believe this to be unintended. [Editor: Elliott seems to forget about the countless Catholic Nuns, who are essentially in a form of slavery to the Papacy.]
[55] Verse 23. Compare Apoc. ix. 21; where the same word qarmakeiai is used: and my comment on it Vol. ii. p. 16.
[56] Verses 6, 20, 24. - Compare Apoc. vi. 10, “How long, O Lord holy and true, dost thou not judge, and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth:” i.e. the Roman earth: also Apoc. ix. 21, and my comment, Vol. ii. pp. 20, 28, &c.: and what our Lord says of the blood of all the prophets slain in Jerusalem coming on the then living generation, in Matt. xxiii. 35, 36, “That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.”.
[57] For this is mentioned as the subject of their song of adoration. Moreover it is added as a notice connected with it, Apoc. xix. 3, “And her smoke ascendeth up for ever and ever.”
[58] Apoc.xvi. 19. See p. 14.suprà
[59] So Sodom’s destruction involved that of “the cities and all the plain” adjacent and connected, “and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground.” Gen. xix. 25. - On this understanding of the extent of the country desolated, the amaze and consternation of the kings, merchants, and shipmasters, that are represented as lamenting over the catastrophe of the great city, will be well accounted for. - The Pope’s most ancient Metropolitan jurisdiction extended over the ten provinces of the Vicarius Urbicus; viz. Campania, Tuscia, Umbria, Picenum, Valeria, Samnium, Apulin, and Calabria, Lucania and the Bruttii, Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica. Bingham, ix. 1, 9.
[60] “I sit a queen, and am no widow, &c.”
It was stated in the Tablet Roman Catholic Paper, that about a month after Pio IX’s accession the Abbess of Minsk spent a whole night at Rome in prayer for the Catholic Church: and that, while so occupied, a voice (none other than that of the Saviour) addrest her thus: “Fear not, my daughter! I have not left my Church a wodow: I have chosen for her a Pontiff after my own heart.” So Mr. Bateman (of Biddulph Grange) stated at the anniversary of the Protestant Association in May 1849. - Compare what I have observed elsewhere, Vol. ii. pp. 79-81, and Vol. iii. p. 179, about the Pope’s relation of husband to the Universal Church.
[61] It is scarcely needful to say that the hypothesis of unquenched volcanic fire, with the shocks of an earthquake accompanying, (a natural and usual concomitant of volcanic eruption,) best suits the descriptive notices of the city falling as with the shock of a millstone hurled into the sea, and of its smoke rising up (like that of Sodom, Jud 7, “Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.” - for ever and ever. The only other offered explanation, - viz. that of Vitringa and Daubuz, which refers the catastrophe to the fire with which the ten kings are represented in Apoc. xvii. 16 as consuming the harlot, - might answer sufficiently well were it merely said that the Great City was burnt, and the smoke ascended up (like that of Ai and Gibeah, Josh. viii. 20, Judg. xx. 40) to heaven. But surely this cannot answer to the strength of the expression, Apoc. xix. 3, “her smoke goeth up for ever and ever.” Besides, how could the kings well have been her burners now, when in fact her mourners? And again, were the mere burning of Rome by human agency the thing intended, whence all the terror and standing afar off, of the kings, merchants, and shipmasters? The theory seems to me palpably untenable; and will appear yet more so from what is said, as I shall afterwards observe, in xix. 20, and xx. 10, about the Beast’s and the Devil’s sentence of judgment, as in some way connected with that of the eternal sulphur-fire of the mystic Babylon.
How different this final fate of Rome and the Popedom from what Mr. Townshend said he expected. “When Rome changes, - and it will be changed, by the blessing of the Almighty imbuing in his own good time the nations of the earth with the same conviction with which he has so long imbued the mind of England, - then there may be peace with Rome.” Pref. to Foxe, p. 27.
[62] I shall only cite from the Old Testament, i. Isa. xxxiv. 9, 10: “And the streams thereof [i.e. of the mystic Edom] shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch; it shall not be quenched night and day: the smoke thereof shall go up for ever;” - this mystic Edom being but the figurative name, it has been very generally supposed, of Rome: - 2 Jer. li. 25; “I am against thee, O destroying mountain, which destroyest all the earth, [Sept. to orov to diefqamenon to diafqeiron pasan thn gnn ]* saith the Lord; and I will stretch out mine hand upon thee, and roll thee down from the rocks, and will make thee a burnt mountain:” - a prophecy respecting the New Testament Babylon, or Rome, as it is generally allowed, yet more than its type the ancient Babylon. (Vid. Lowth ad loc., and Vitringa, pp. 1061, 1065.) - From the New Testament I shall only cite here Luke xvii 28-32; “As it was in the days of Lot, they ate, they drank; . . but the same day that Lot went out from Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all, even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed. . . Remember Lot’s wife.” - Other passages will occur for comparison when we come to a later passage of the prophecy; as, for example, Isa. xxx. 33, “For Tophet is ordained of old,” &c.
*(See my remarks on the double entendre of the word deafqeirw in this, and other parallel passages, Vol. iii. p. 335, Note 4.)
[63] Vitringa cites some authorities of this kind at p. 1065 of his Apocalypse; the Jewish opinion being founded, he says, on that passage from Isaiah xxxiv. 9, which I have given in the Note preceding; as Edom was supposed by them to mean Rome. So, 1st, the Chaldean paraphrase, thus translated by Vitringa: “Et convertentur flumina Rome in picem, et terra ejus in sulphur, critique terra (in picem ardeutem:” [So too Kinchi: “This chapter points out the future destruction of Rome, here called Bozra; for Bozra was a great city of the Edomites.” A. Clarke in loc.] 2. Rabbi Bechai in Cad. Hakkemach, who says, “Illud est [sacrificium holocausti] quod ascendit in focum, (Lev. vi. 12,) illud est regnum Romanum impium, quod se ipsum superbè extollit et effert; cujus finis est ut judicetur igne, quemadmodum dicitur, ‘Hoe holocaustum nunquam extinguetur;’” &c. - Vitringa observes elsewhere, p. 1061, that it was the belief of the Jews that the destruction of the ancient Babylon was the effect not of man’s agency only, but of an earthquake.
[64] See Gibbon’s summary of the early patristic views, Vol. ii. p. 305. “Intestine discord, the invasion of the fiercest barbarians from the unknown regions of the North, pestilence and famine, comets and eclipses, earthquakes and inundations, were only so many preparatory and alarming signs of the great catastrophe of Rome: when the country of the Scipios and Cæsars should be consumed by a flame from heaven; and the city of the seven hills, with her palaces, her temples, and her triumphal arches, should be buried in a vast lake of fire and brimstone.” We might cite Tertullian, the Pseudo-Sibyl, Lactantius, &c. I have elsewhere quoted even Gregory the Great, acknowledging and expressing his belief in the tradition. “Roma à Gentilibus non exterminabitur; sed tempestatibus, coruscis turbinibus, uc terræ motu, in se marcescet.” Dial. ii. 15.
[65] It is not Ætna, the Lipari volcanic islands, Vesuvius, and the Phlegrean fields, that alone offer visible indication of the physical aptness and preparedness of Italy for such a catastrophe. The great Apennine mountain-chain, and its branches, are said to be very mainly volcanic in character, from Reggie to Verona; and the country round Rome, more especially, is almost as strikingly so as that of Sodom itself. Let me quote an extract or two, from among multitudes to the same effect, in the mineralogist Ferber’s Tour of Italy. (Raspe’s English Translation.) So p. 189; “The road from Rome to Tivoli I went on fields and hills of volcanic ashes or tufa: hepar sulphuris.” p. 200: “A volcanic hill in an amphitheatrical form incloses a part of the plain over Albano, &c., and a flat country of volcanic ashes and hills, to Rome. The ground about Rome is generally of that nature.” At p. 234, describing the route from Rome to Sienna, “one of the most remarkable in Italy to a naturalist,” he says that after the Ponte Molle volcanic tufa hills succeeded as far as Monte Rosi; behind which was a lava torrent; and, somewhat further, a small lake, Lago di Monte Rosi, which seemed to have been an old volcano. Then followed a large lake, Lago di Vico, the sunk crater of an old volcano: and so on all the way to near Sienna. He elsewhere (p. 135) speaks of a subterranean connection probably existing between Vesuvius, Solfatara, Ætna, Stromboli, and the Ocean.
We find in history that Rome, in the reigns of both Titus and Commodus, felt the shock of earthquakes, and the accompanying outbursts of volcanic flame. See Dion. Cass. lxvi. 24, and Herodian, i. 14. In the latter case, (one referred to Vol. i. p. 160, in illustration of my 2nd Seal,) when the Temple of Peace was burnt down, Herodian suggests the alternative explanation of lightning or volcanic fire; eite skhptou nuktwp katenecqentov, eite kai purov poqen ek tou seismou diarruentov.
This physical aptitude of Italy for such an end is noted, though with his usual sneer, by Gibbon. “The country which for religious motives had been chosen for the origin and principal scene of the conflagration, was the best adapted for that purpose by natural and physical causes: by its deep caverns, beds of sulphur, and numerous volcanoes; of which those of Ætna, of Vesuvius, and of Lipari, exhibit a very imperfect representation.” Ibid.
[66] So Vitringa (p. 1062) says that the Angel’s strong cry, and accompanying refulgence of light, show, first, that the report of Babylon’s fall would be published through the world; secondly, that there would be in it a most illustrious manifestation of God’s majesty. And Daubuz (p. 802) observes similarly, that no Angel is said in Scripture to have appeared with such a light, without its being implied thereby that God would enlighten by a further knowledge of Himself those to whom the Angel was sent: whence he infers that both the idolaters of the corrupt Church would be enlightened and converted by the fall of Babylon, and this event followed by a conversion more general. For the former of which expectations, however, I see no scriptural reason.
Both Vitringa and Daubuz compare Ezek. xliii. 2; “The glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the East, and his voice was like a noise of many waters; and the earth shined with his glory.” Let me add Ezek. xxxix. 21; “I will set my glory among the heathen; and all the heathen shall see my judgment that I have executed:” that is on Gog’s destruction.
[67] Compare Paul’s words 2 Thess. ii. 11, 12, “God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned who believed not the truth,” &c., with the Apocalyptic Babylon’s confident boast, “I shall not be a widow,” &c. - The subsequent prefiguration of the Beast and his army shows that the number of them that would resist all evidence, from hatred to the truth, will even at the last be very large.
[68] Apoc. xv. 8. See my Vol. iii. pp. 336, 337.
[69] Allhlouia, answering to the Hebrew, èPraise Jehovah! Lightfoot observes that the Hallel is first used in Scripture at the end of Psalm civ. “My meditation of him shall be sweet: I will be glad in Jehovah. 35 Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more. Bless thou Jehovah, O my soul. Praise ye Jehovah.” - and that the Jews note respecting it, that this Hallel comes not till there be tidings of the destruction of ungodly men; “Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more. Bless Jehovah, O my soul! Praise ye Jehovah!” So Daubuz. - I observe that Tobit, xiii. 18, speaking of the rebuilding of Jerusalem, says; “And all her streets shall say Alleluia; and they shall praise Him, saying, Blessed be God who hath extolled it for ever.”
[70] So Brightman, Vitringa, Daubuz, &c., more or less: and, among contemporaries, Mr. Bickersteth. Compare Augustine’s observation on St. Paul’s use of the Hebrew and Greek words, Abba, d pathr, in Gal. iv. 6; “Intelligitur non frustrà duarum linguarum verba posuisse idem significantia, propter universum populum qui de Judæis et de Gentibus in unitatem fidei vocatus est; ut Hebræum verbum ad Judæos, Græcum ad gentes, . . pertineat.”
[71] Kimchi says in his Comment on Obdiah; “This is the hope of the nation, - when Rome shall be desolated, then there shall be the redemption of Israel.” Vitringa, p. 1066, refers for comparison to other testimonies given in Buxtorf on the use of the Hebrew word.
[72] See Vol. i. pp. 86-93.
[73] Viz. that on the Millennium.
[74] We should mark the expression “our God.” There is no various reading.
[75] Compare Apoc. xiv. 2, and Vol. iii. p. 315. In that case the voice was as that of “a great thunder,” bronthv megalhv, in the singular: in this , with a stronger adjective, and the noun in the plural, “as the voice of mighty thunderings,” brontwn escurwn.
* B and Scholz add hmwn, “our God.” Other critical editions omit it.
† ebasileuse. So xi. 17.
‡ Kai edoqh auth. Perhaps, “And it hath been granted to her;” as one of the joyful subjects of song to the hymnists.
§ busainon lamwron kai kaqaron.
|| oi keklhmenoe
¶ sundoulov sou eimi kai twn adelqwn sou.
** econtwn thn marturian. So Apoc. xii. 17: also vi. 9; Dia thn marturian hn eicon.
†† Of the prophecy, thv proqhteiav. So i. 3, xxii. 7, 10, 18, 19, distinctly of the Apocalyptic prophecy. Of prophecy generally St. Peter says proqhteia, without the article; 2 Pet. i. 20, 21. - Alike the Angel in this revelation, and the Apostle, and all his successors of the true Apostolic line, in their life and doctrine, witnessed for Jesus.
‡‡ bussinon leukon kaqaron.
§§ B, Scholz, and Worsworth insert distomov, two-edged. So too the Vulgate.
|||| Scholz reads ta onoma, the name, with the article.
¶¶ Eckhel, viii. 298, speaking of some pseudo-moneta in which is a horse with a mark on his thigh, thus remarks; “Notæ femori impressæ veterum morem indicant.” A omits the word epi to imation kai.
*† Scholz and other critical editions write ena aggelon, one angel.
*‡ eiv to deipnon to mega tou qeou. So A, B, and the critical editions.
*§ ton polemon. So Scholz and other critical editions read it, both here and in xx. 8. Usually, as in xii. 17 and xiii. 7, the article is not added. It seems to be the war of Armageddon, before resolved on.
* B, Scholz, and Wordsworth, o met outou yeudoproqhthv.
† thn limnhn tou purov thn kaiomenhn en qeiy. Our translators have rendered it “a lake;” not marking the definite article: a mistake of no inconsiderable importance, as will appear afterwards in my comment.
# bussinon. This was linen of the finest kind; such as kings and priests and nobles wore: for example Joseph, Gen. xli 42; David, 1 Chron. xv. 27; the priests, Exod. xxviii. 39; and the rich man in the parable, Luke xvi. 19. - On the possibly intended meaning of the word here, as suggested by Daubuz in a very interesting critique, I reserve my observations till the chapter iv. following.
¥ dikaiwmata used in the same sense, I conceive, of justification, as dikaiwma in the singular in St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, v. 16, and, in the plural, Heb. ix. 1, 10. The plural is here perhaps adopted, rather than the singular, in order to signify the badges of that justification on the many justified.
£ So Gerson (ap. Gieseler, Text Book iii. 256,) speaks of this as applied to the Pope by the Papists of the day; “Papa, cujus in femore scripsit Christus, Rex regum, Dominus dominantium.” - He too had the sharp sword of anathema going out of his mouth. “Anathematis gladio feriantur;” or “Anathematis mucrone percussus.” So Innocent III, against the Waldenses and Albigenses.
See generally my sketch of Antichrist in his full-grown greatness, Part iv. Chap. v. § 2.
š I may have again to advert to this in chapter iv. following.
« So Daubuz.
[76] Isa. lxiii. 1. I shall have to make the comparison in my next chapter.
[77] Such I conceive to be the name meant. Compare Judg. xii. 18; “Why askest thou after my name, seeing it is secret?”
[78] ta strateumata ta en ty ourany.
[79] Compare xvii. 14; - “These shall war with the Lamb: and the Lamb shall overcome them, (for He is King of kings, and Lord of lords,) and they that are with Him, the called, and chosen, and faithful.
[80] See Vol. i. p. 106.
[81] So the late Rev. Robert Hall, in his noble Sermon on the Discouragements and Supports of the Christian minister.
[82] Such I conceive to be at least part of the meaning of the symbol; so as, for example, in the notable case of the woman clothed with the sun, in Apoc. xii. 1.
[83] Ezekiel’s prophecy of God’s great sacrifice and supper, and the birds invited to it, in Ezek. xxxix. 17, &c., can scarce fail of occurring as a probable parallel to the reader. But I reserve to my next Chapter a notice of this, and a few other such prophecies.
[84] See note † on the page preceding.
[85] Compare Christ’s proverbial saying, “Where the carcass is, there shall the eagles (or vultures) be gathered together.”
[86] Compare Dan. vii. 10, 11.
[87] At the same time it is to be remembered, as possible, that the second description may be only added in particular, of what was described previously in the general, respecting parties suffering from the same catastrophe; the one picturing being territorial, the other personal.
[88] Apoc. xiv. 20. See p. 10 suprà. - The Beast’s separation from his proper seat, at the time of his destruction, may be compared with Pharaoh’s and Korah’s from theirs. I shall have again to advert to his point at the end of the next chapter. - Moreover the distinctive notice of the False Prophet’s destruction may be compared with that of Elijah’s slaughter of Baal’s prophets, distinctively from the other worshippers of Baal, at Mount Carmel.
[89] pp. 26, 27.