L£}i

G

KEY

REVELATION.

THIRTY-SIX LECTURES,

TAKING THE WHOLE BOOK IN COURSE.

BY ETHAN SMITH,
AUTHOR OF " A DISSERTATION ON THE PROPHECIES," " VIEW
OP THE TRINITY," " VIEW OF THE HEBREWS," " KEV
TO FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE," &C.

" Understandest thou what thou readesf!"— Philip.
" Let him that readefh understand."
" Blessed is he that keepeih the sayings of the prophecy of this
book ; for the time is at hand."— Jkbus Cbkist.

NEW-YORK:
PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY J. & J. HARPER,
NO. 82 CLIFF-STREET,
AND SOLD BY THE PRINCIPAL BOOKSELLERS THROUGHOUT THS
UNITED' STATES.
' 18 3 3.

[Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1833, by J. $¦
J. Harper, in the Clerk's Office of the Southern District of
New- York.]

RECOMMENDATIONS.
The outlines of this work were, many years ago, submitted to the
inspection, and received the approbation, of a number of the first lite
rary divines. Since the Lectures were written, the work has been
laid before such ministers, and associations of ministers, as the
writer could find it convenient to consult. A journey was made
to Andover, the last vacation there, in hopes of consulting the
professors of that institution. All were absent but two ; and one
of these (Professor Stuart) was sick, and could not hear reading
upon the subject. In an interview with him, I was happy to find
a good general agreement with him in my views of the Revelation ;
and that he had discovered the same general division in the pro
phetic part of this book, which I have viewed essential in my
exposition of it. He said this general division is palpably clear.
From the Rev. Professor Emerson, of the Theological Seminary, Andover.
"From a few specimens which Ihave been able to hear of Mr. Smith's Key, &c,
I am of the opinion it. contains original views of some portions of the Revelation,
which are of such interest as to command attention, and to warrant its publica
tion. And I trust it will, as a whole, contribute to hasten that glorious reforma
tion of which it treats." (Signed) RALPH EMERSON.
Andover, May 21, 1833.
From the Rev. Messrs. Emerson and Cleaveland, Salem.
" Having attended to the plan and some of the Lectures in Mr. Smith's Key
&c, we are free to say that the work is, in our judgment, trie result of laborious
research, evincing much ingenuity in arguments and illustrations; and that in
view of the important nature of the subjects on which it treats, it is entitled to
the consideration of all who desire to understand " The revelation of Jesus Christ
which God gave unto him to sliow unto his servants things which must shortly
ome to pass." (Signed) BROWN EMERSON,
c, •«• «,,.,. JOHN P. CLEAVELAND.
Salem, May 20, 1833. From the Rev. Mr. Hopkins, Boston.
"1 have perused two of Mr. Smith's Lectures in his Key, &c, with interest
and profit. 1 beheve Mr. Smith has cast new light upon at least some parts of
this interesting but obscure book. The labour he has bestowed upon these
Lectures, and his acquaintance with the symbolic language of the nroohetic
pecXriyvaruaabfeU*Cien' Pledge '" lhe pUbUe' """ "" f°»nc°mi»S "ook will be
Boston, April Ott, 1833. (Signed) A' T' HOPKINS.
From the Rev. Reuben Emerson, South Reading.
"Having attended to the work above noted, and heard a number of the Lee.
tures, I do cordially unite in the recommendations given."
South fading, May u^lE"0 REDBEN E*™™ON.

MP

"7 ^\

RECOMMENDATIONS. ill
From the Association of Salem and its vicinity.
" The Rev. E. Smith, having read in our hearing an outline of his Key to the
Revelation, and some Lectures and parts of Lectures of the same (a work
which he thinfe to give to the public), we are free to say that, in our opinions, the
importance of the subject, and the ingenuity with which his exposition is given,
entitle the work to the serious consideration of the Christian community."
By order of the Association, (Signed) MOSES SAWYER, Mod'r. pro. tern.
DAVID OLIPHANT, Scribe.
Danvers, June 12, 1833.
From the Rev. Messrs. Nelson of Leicester, Miller and Abbott of Worcester, Gay
of Hubardston, Clarke of Rutland, and Conant of Paxton (convened at Pax-
ton)." Having attended to the plan and contents and a Lecture of Mr, Smith's Key,
&c, we do not hesitate to say, that we think its illustrations of1 the types and
prophecies contained in this interesting book (the Revelation) are laboured, in
genious, and to a considerable degree original ; and we are desirous of its pub
lication." (Signed) &c.
Paxton, May 8, 1833. From the Rev. Mr. Burr to the Author.
"I have read a considerable portion of the Lectures in your Key, &c. in manu
script, and have attended, more or less, to every Lecture, with much satisfaction.
I am well pleased with the plan of the work, and with your exposition of that
difficult and highly important part of the prophetic Scripture, so far as I can
judge. It appears to me that not a few rays of new light are thrown upon this
closing part of the volume of Inspiration. I am highly delighted with the numer
ous and judicious remarks, doctrinal, experimental, and practical, with which
the work is interspersed. This work, it appears to me, will be one of the few
books which may live, in many improved editions, through the Millennium. It
will be thought, I doubt not, by those who discern the signs of the times, a very
seasonable and useful publication at this highly interesting period of the church,
and the world. I therefore hope it will soon be given to the public, and be exten
sively read." : (Signed) JONATHAN BURR
Boston, April 3. 1833. From the Rev. Dr. Emmons.
" Rev. and Dear Sir
" When I, nearly seven years ago, heard you read to me some of your Lectures
on the Revelation, I thought you treated that deep, difficult, and important sub
ject in a very ingenious and lucjd manner. I wish to see this work published ;
and I have no doubt but it will meet the approbation of good judges, and will sub
serve the great cause which now agitates the minds and awakens the hopes and
zeal of the Christian world. The friends of Zion were never more anxious than
at present to learn the signs of the times, and what they may anticipate will be
the state of the church and of the world, before the Millennium, during the Mil
lennium, and thence to the end of the world. I know all Christians ought, and
I trust they will be disposed to promote the circulation of a volume which may
serve to enlighten and animate them and pursue the, best means to bring on the
universal spread of the gospel, and the latter-day glory of the church."
(Signed) NATHANIEL EMMONS,
Franklin, April 15, 1833.
It was designed to have this work, before it should be given to
the public, pass under the eye of a number of the first divines in the
city of IVew-York ; but, unhappily, numbers of them are abroad
from the city in this sultry season of the summer. The following
gentlemen have attended to it, and given their views ; which are
here subjoined^

IV RECOMMENDATIONS.
From Rev. Doctors Brownlee and De Witt.
" The work, entitled a Key to the Revelation, we have heard explained, and
much of it read, by the author, Rev. Mr. Smith. It is the fruit, we understand,
of many years study of the prophecies. And Mr. Smith has evidently bestowed
much pains to arrive at the true and correct meaning of the symbolic language of
prophecy. The work is, in our judgment, of deep and laboured research. There
is much ingenuity in his arguments, and his historical illustrations. Tthasmuch.
that is new ; and his theory,— which is brought forward with becoming mod
esty, — seems to us to possess unity and consistency. And it does not consist
merely of dry dissertations on different passages; but has a pleasing and edify
ing spirit of piety pervading the whole. We are persuaded that the book will be
interesting and instructive to all classes of Christians : and we recommend it to
our friends accordingly." „ „„
(Signed) W. C. BROWNLEE,
V THOMAS DE WITT,
Ministers of the Collegiate Reformed Dutch Church, New-York.
New-York, August 7, 1833.
"Having been favoured with the perusal of the Rev. Mr. Smith's " Key to the
Revelation," I am happy to express my entire concurrence with the above recom
mendation of it by the Rev. Drs. Brownlee and De Wilt. It may be read with
profit by all who desire to know the signs of the times." ABSALOM PETERS,
Cor. Secr'y. of the Home Missionary Society.
New-York, August 14, 18S3.
From Rev. Doctor Mc Cartee, Rev. Messrs. Irvin, Spencer, and Mason.
tt We have heard a portion of the Rev. Mr. Smith's Key to the Revelation read,
and its general views explained by the author; and we are very happy to recom
mend it to the attention and patronage of the Christian public. It is a work of
great research and originality, with many very important and ingenious views of
Scripture prophecy. The author has evidently made himself acquainted with the
peculiarities of symbolic language, and with the general design, as well as with
the particular views of the prophetic Scriptures of which he treats. There is a
Very happy addition to all this,— in the vein of pious and practical feeling and
Temark, which runs through the work. It is important, peculiarly at the present
period, that such works should be patronized, read, and studied ; " for the time is
at hand !" (Signed) R. Mc CARTEE,
Pastor of Canal-street Presbyterian Church, New-York*
JAMES IRVIN,
Pastor of the Second Associate Presbyterian Church.
I. S. SPENCER,
Pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church, Brooklyn.
ERSKINE MASON,
Pastor of the Bleecker-street Presbyterian Church, New-York.
New-York, August 9, 1833.
From Rev. Mr. Parkinson, Pastor of the First Baptist Church, New-York.
"Mr. Smith has read to me some of his Lectures on the Revelation ; and has
added his outlines, views, and the divisions of this work ; and, I cheerfully say,
that I feel a strong desire to see this work published, hoping it will prove a sea
sonable help to the church of Christ."
(Signed) WM. PARKINSON
New-York, August 7, 1833. Fro7n the Rev. Mr. Baldwin.
"Attempts of inferior and hasty writers on the Revelation have often resulted
•in mistake, not to say injurious error. Mr. fmilh's Key to the Revelation has,
in my opinion, better claims to our respect. It is clearly a production of deep
thought and research. His plan is, to a good extent, new ; and the work through
out is interesting. I have read nothing on the Revelation which afforded me
equal satisfaction." (Signed) ELIHU W. BALDWIN,
Pastor of the Seventh Presbyterian Church, New-York
New-York, August 15, 1833,

PREFACE.

The Revelation has been esteemed, to a great degree,
a sealed book. But God's giving it to man, with urgent
directions that it should be studied, understood, and im
proved, seems a sure pledge that it was not always to
remain sealed. That this sublime closing part of our
Holy Bible, — which should be viewed as the collecting of
all the golden rays of the wonders of Divine grace to a
kind of burning point, — maybe understood, and devoutly
improved, is much to be desired. Whenever it shall be
presented in an unclouded view (should this in time be
the case) ; its simplicity, probably, will excite surprise !
Intellect, erudition, and a patient attention to the nature of
its language, and the analogies of prophecy, are no doubt
indispensable to a correct investigation of this mystical
book. But these are not all ; a man may possess them,
and yet be as far from the true knowledge of the Apoca
lypse, as the natural man is from understanding the things
of the Spirit of God ; — and as the world by its wisdom is
from knowing God. To these, must be added not only a
new heart, but also a peculiar unction of soul in the spirit
of the prophecies, and a devout feeling of (he following
sentiments, — " Not by might, nor by power ; but by my
Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts !" " Not by words which
man's wisdom teacheth ; but which the Holy Ghost
teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual." The
strong wind, the earthquake, and the fire, are presented to
us as destitute of the presence of God. But the " still
small voice" was effectual, — the Lord was there ! Happy,
if its influence might be shed through our souls. God
will so work that all the glory shall be his. See 1 Cor.
i. 18-31. Very early in my ministry I felt a desire to understand
the Revelation (as may be seen in a dissertation which I
then wrote, and have inserted, on its appropriate text, in
A2

VI PREFACE,
this work, chap. xiv. 6, 7. page 247). My leading stu
dies, and preaching, for more than 42 years, have been
on the great doctrines and duties of the gospel ; and but
little have I ever preached peculiarly on prophecies. But
a convenient portion of my whole ministry I have de
lighted in devoting to reading and studies on the prophe
cies, especially on the Revelation. After 18 years of my
ministry, I formed the outlines of my present sentiments
on the Revelation, which I submitted to the eye of many
most able divines in New-England, and had the pleasure
of their approbation. These outlines I afterward pro
ceeded to fill up in a course of Lectures on the whole book.
Eight years ago I supposed them finished, and exhibited
them to some who expressed a desire to read them in
print ; but the publishing of them I deferred, that I might
further watch the signs of the times, and re-examine the
work. I now, with the advice of many, give them to the
public with only this apology, that the subject is of great
interest ; — that the public attention should be excited to
it ; — and I feel my right, in common with others, to " show
also mine opinion."
Relative to the style of this work; — I assure the critic,
that had it been written on a subject generally understood,
and written to please as well as to instruct the literary
world ; I should deem my repetitions, and often renewed
references, with the commonness of the style, unpardon
able. But when I recollect the difficulty which I have
found in attempting to grasp and retain the sense of the
difficult parts of this book ; and that the great body of
common people will find it no less difficult ; I determined
to sacrifice all attempt at elegance of composition to the
most simple and perspicuous method of instruction.
I will just add ; — the evidence of the divine authority
of the Apocalypse (to the eye of faith and intelligence)
arising from the fulfilment of its predictions, and of its
composition, is as clear, as that God formed the starry
heavens. The disk of the unclouded sun does not more
clearly testify that its Creator is God !
THE AUTHOR,
Boston, July 1, 1833.

CONTENTS.

PAQE
LECT. I. — The origin and nature of figurative language . 12
The divisions of the Revelation  17
The duty, benefits, and encouragement of a devout
study of this book  22
LECT. II. Chap, i.— The design of the book ;— and the
person of Christ, &c, ...... 31
XECT. III. Chap, ii.— Four Epistles— One to the
Church of Ephesus,  44
One to the Church of Smyrna  48
One to the Church of Pergamos  50
One to the Church of Thyatira,  53
LECT. IV. Chap, hi.— Three Epistles— One to the
Church of Sardis,  58
One to the Church of Philadelphia  61
One to the Church of Laodicea,  65
LECT. V. Chap. iv. — A door opened, &c  70
A symbolic view of God, ...... 70
Twenty-four elders,  72
Four beasts, with a sea of glass,  72
.  Chap. v. — A sealed book in the hand of God, 77

No creature found able to open it, ... 78
The Lion of the tribe of Judah was able, . . . ' 79
Praise on the occasion,  80
LECT. VI. Chap. vi. — Six seals opened, ... 85
First Seal — A white horse, &c. — The going forth of
Christ in the destruction of the Jews ; and a signal
propagation of his gospel, ..... 85
Second Seal ; — A red horse, &c. The bloody scenes from
an insurrection of the Jews, in the reign of Trajan, . 88

via contents. FAGS
Third Seal ; — A black horse, &c. The deadly famines
in the reign of the Antonines, . 89
Fourth Seal; — A pale horse, &c. Contentions, &c,
in the reign of Caracalla, ...... 91
Fifth Seal ; — Souls under the altar, &c. A hint of a pend- I
ing persecution, and of inquisitions for blood, . . 93
Sixth Seal ; — A great earthquake, &c. Revolution in the
Roman empire, ....... 95
LECT. VII. Chap. vii. — Four angels holding the four
winds,  99
Or the northern invasions deferred for a sealing time
144,000 sealed  100
 Chap. viii. Commenced.
Seventh Seal ; — Silence in heaven, .... 105
Incense offered by Christ on the golden altar, . . 106
Trumpet I. — Hail, fire, and blood, &c, fulfilled by the
northern invasion, . ...... 103
LECT. VIII. Chap vm._ Continued.
Trumpet II. — A burning mountain cast into the sea, &c.
Plundering of Rome by the Vandals, &c, . . Ill
Trumpet III. — A bitter star falling, &c. The bitter
warsof Odoacer, — andbitterpersecutions bythe Arians, 112
Trumpet IV. — A third part of the heavens darkened, &c.
The fall of the empire, ...... 114
LECT. IX. Ch*p. ix.— Two wo trumpets.
Trumpet V. — A falling star opens the bottomless pit, &c.
The rise of Mohammedism, . . . . . 118
Trumpet VI. — Loosing of the four angels, &c. The
rise of the Turkish empire, ..... 124
LECT. X. Chap. x. 1-5. A notable descent of Christ,
&c. Fulfilled in the terrors in and after the French
revolution, in 1789,  130
A history of some of the terrors of a closing part of this
scene,  133
LECT. XL Chap. x. — Continued.
The seven thunders,  142
The rise of the power in this chapter, as given by Daniel, 143
The oath of Christ, as explained in Daniel, . . . 147
The little book taken and eaten  150
LECT. XII. Chap. xi. 1-6 ; — Papal abominations im
measurable,  j53
The two witnesses, .  155
Their power over judgments,  158
LECT. XIII. Chap, xi.— Continued.
The slaying of the witnesses,  162

CONTENTS.

IX
PAGE

Nine reasons of those who deem the event as now
future, ........ . 163
Their resurrection, &c.  172
An earthquake following,  173
Trumpet VII. — And the commencement of the Millen
nium, . .  174
Close of the first general division,
Commencement of the second general division. . . 179
LECT. XIV. Chap. xii. 1-12; — Commencing with the
Christian era, giving the two great combatants, the
church and the devil, . . . . , . ] 79
The object of this chapter stated, ..... 179
An objection answered in a note, ..... 179
An emblem of the church, — a woman, — here considered, 181
Her delicate situation, . . . , . . . 184
Description, and position of the devil, .... 184
Her man-child born,  , 186
He is caught up to the throne, , , . . , 186
Objection in a note answered,  187
The woman fled into a wilderness for 1260 years, . . 189
War in the papal heaven, ...... 190
The devil cast out in the Reformation, . . . . 1 90
Joy and praise on the occasion  192
LECT. XV. Chap, xii.— Continued.
The devil, being cast down in the Reformation, persecutes
the.woman, ..... . . , . 196
The second flight of the Church into the wilderness, . 196
This brought our pilgrim fathers to America, . . 199
Eight reasons for the truth of this, .... 199
A note on their wars with the natives, . . . 204
A note from Dwight's travels, ..... 209
A note on the two wings of an eagle, , . . - 210
LECT. XVI. Chap. xii. 15, to end, .... 213
Flood from the mouth of the old serpent, to destroy the
church,  213
The system of Illuminism  213
Dwight's view of it, and its extent, . . . 215
Evidence of it in America, ...... 215
The earth swallowed up the floods, .... 218
Designs, measures, and disappointment of Bonaparte, . 219
The devil was wroth, and went to make war with the
remnant of the woman's seed, &c, . . . . 22 1
LECT. XVII. Chap. xiii. 1-10.
The secular Roman beast the same as in Dan. vii. 7, . 225
But one beast can exist at a time on the same ground, . 227
LECT. XVIII. Chap, xiii.— Continued.
The papal beast,  ,233

CONTENTS. PAGE
His rise and progress, .... -3 '
His two horns and high claims
His image made to the first beast,
His miracles and tyranny, .
Objections answered, ....
The mark and number of this beast,

236237238 238 240

LECT. XIX. Chap. xiv. 1-5.
The Reformation, ...... .243
Verse 6. — The present missionary angel flying, &c, . 246
A Dissertation on this, written formerly, ¦ • • 247
The second and third angels,  254
LECT. XX. Chap, xiv.— Continued.
Trials to the church,  259
The harvest and vintage, ...... 260
LECT. XXI. Chap. xv.
Preparation for the vials  268
The vials given into the hands of the seven angels by an
emblem of the gospel ministry, ..... 271
-Chap. xvi. — The vials, .... 273

The old scheme of the vials,  273
This, and a following one unsatisfactory, . • • 274
Vial I.— Poured on the earth, &c. The Reformation, . 275
LECT. XXII. Chap, xvi.— Continued.
Vial I.— Continued,  279
LECT. XXIII. Chap, xvi.— Continued, ... 288
Vial II. — Poured upon the sea, &c. Wars in Italy, for
fifty years,  288
LECT. XXIV. Chapxvi  Continued.
Vial III. — Poured upon the rivers, &c. Wars in other
papal lands, ........ 297
LECT. XXV. Chap, xvi.— Continued.
Vial IV. — Poured upon the sun, ..... 304
Parts taken by kings against the pope, . . • 304
Suppression of the Jesuits,  306
Their code of laws,  306
LECT. XXVI. Chap, xvi.— Continued.
Vial V. — Poured on the seat of the papal beast, &c.
Fulfilled the French Revolution of 1789, ... 310
A note, further giving the former insolent claims of the
pope  311
LECT. XXVII. Chap, xvi.— Continued.
Vial VI. — Poured upon the Euphrates, &c. The sub
version of the Turks  316

CONTENTS. XI
FAGS
LECT. XXVIII. Chap, xvi.— Continued.
The three unclean spirits, &c  322
The false prophet and popery are the same, — A note, . 323
A warning voice from Christ,  326
LECT. XXIX. Chap, xvi.— Continued.
Vial VII. — Poured into the air, &c. The 'destruction
of Antichrist,  330
LECT. XXX. Chap, xvii.— The papal harlot on the beast, 337
A description of this beast,  339
A sketch of his rise in the Voltaire system of infidelity, 344
.LECT. XXXI. Chap, xvii.— Continued.
Further views of the rise of this beast, — vast enormities,
&c  348
This beast, and the healed head, compared, . . . 350
A note on a rod broken, &c, ..... 350
The horns of this beast  351
LECT. XXXII. Chap, xviii. — Another view given of the
descent of Christ, in Chap, x  354
LECT. XXXIII. Chap; xix.— The battle of the great day
of God, and the commencement of the Millennium, . 361
Difficulties solved in a note,  364
This secular Roman beast, and Gog in Ezekiel, the same,
a note,  366
LECT. XXXIV. Chap, xx.— The binding of the dragon, 370
The Millennium,  374
Length of the Millennium,  374
Apostacy at the close of it,  377
Further views of the Millennium  379
Agency of the Jews in the final conversion of the world, 381
LECT. XXXV. Chap, xxi.— The new heavens, and new
earth : or heaven,  383
LECT. XXXVI. Chap, xxii  Views of future glory con
tinued  390
Closing addresses of Christ,  394

LECTURE I.

INTRODUCTION.
Our Saviour assures us, at the introduction of this
sacred book, that " Blessed is he that readeth, and they
that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those
things which are written therein; for the time is at
hand." Rev. i. 3. AVe find here our warrant, and our
great encouragement, as well as duty, to study the Reve
lation with devout and diligent attention. — I would con
tribute my mite to the correct performance of this duty,
too generally neglected.
In this introduction, I purpose to give a concise view
of the origin and nature of the figurative language
which abounds in it, and in most of the prophetic writ
ings of the Bible ; then note the divisions found in the
Revelation ; and exhibit the duty, benefits, and encour
agements, which urge to a devout and diligent study of
the Apocalypse.
What, then, are the origin and nature of figurative
language ? This kind of language is a representing of
one thing by another ; things less known, by things better
known ; and sometimes the reverse. Things spiritual
are often denoted by things natural ; as in the bread and
wine of the Holy Supper.
This kind of language had its origin in early times,
and in the want of a literal language. It came easily
into use from necessity (which is the mother of inven
tion) ; and, from the analogies which were found to exist
between different things, it was found to be easy and
natural to take the properties of one thing to represent
those of another. People of very limited knowledge
of words, wishing to communicate their ideas (such as
they were), attempted to do it by such means as they
found within their power ; and those were, figures bor-
B

14 LECTURE I.
rowed from things with which they had some acquaint
ance, and between which, and the things they wished to
express, they discovered (or imagined they discovered)
a similarity. Figures thus adopted soon became famil
iar, and were received as the names of the things thus
expressed. From this beginning, men proceeded to
compound and improve their figures, as they wished to
denote additional qualities or circumstances ; and hence,
in time, arose the Egyptian hieroglyphics, and probably
the characters used by the Chinese.
This kind of language had a natural and simple
origin, like the following : A child sees and desires an
object, but knows not the name of it. He reaches out
his hand for it, and, if he can say any thing, he calls it
by the name of something which he knows, and between
which and this thing he imagines he perceives a resem
blance. And, till he is better informed, he will, proba
bly, continue to call it by this name. In such kind of
simplicity did figurative language originate. And it was
not discontinued after the invention and improvement of
letters. It then became more definite, as literal defini
tions could be given of it, and as language improved.
The ancient Egyptians took pleasure in expressing
and recording their mental conceptions in figures, which
were at once curious, and mysterious. And they re
tained and refined this use of figures, after they made
improvement in literature ; as did also the other nations
of the East. What was at first adopted from necessity,
was afterward retained and refined, to embellish their
language. Men of the first eminence delighted in this
use of their figures ; and they often exercised their own
and each other's invention with questions involved in
this kind of mystery. Hence originated riddles, de
signed both to please and to instruct. The Greeks, and
then the Romans, caught this manner of imbodying
their ideas in the language of figures.
It might then have been expected that Israel, after
having resided four hundred years in Egypt, in the dawn
of their national existence, would adopt a liberal use of
this kind of language ; and that the style of their pro
phets, especially, would abound with it. For, although

INTRODUCTION. J 5
the prophets wrote by inspiration, yet they were led to
record their inspired conceptions in the.; language with
which they were familiar. Their prophecies especially
might be expected to abound in this kind of language ;
for they were designed to be vailed in various degrees
of mystery, at least for a time. And they were designed
to be such as to require the devout and patient investiga
tions of men versed in the language and analogies of
prophecy. Hence the passage is appropriate — " I will
open my mouth in parables ; I will utter dark sayings
of old."
This kind of language is capable of being much more
easily understood than many imagine. Literal language
is unintelligible till rendered familiar by improvement
and use; and even then it is imperfect. The same
word often imports different things and actions ; and the
true sense in any given place must be learned from the
object of the writer, — the exegesis of the discourse ;
and, with this consideration, added to due attention to
figurative language, it may be rendered familiar. And
it is so, even among people uncultivated. The natives
of our continent abound in this kind of diction, of which
they form the most ready and perfect conceptions. And
we easily understand their figurative communications, in
their various talks to our people ; and not only so, but
we are arrested with the strength and beauty of their
communications, much more than we should be with the
literal and simple expressions of their ideas.
Figures known in the sacred writings, are derived
from the following sources. — The visible heavens, with,
the planetary system. — The regions of the air, where
winds, storms, lightnings, and thunder are generated. — »
The earth, water, fires, earthquakes, minerals, metals,
stones. — The vegetable world ; trees, grain, plants. —
The sea, with its waves, billows, and depths. — Cities in
peace, and in arms. — Wars, leaders, armies, battles, con
quests, and captivities. — Houses, with their furniture ;
temples, prisons, courts, judicial proceedings. — Roads,
highways, mountains, deserts, rivers, brooks, springs of
water. — The human body ; its sustenance, ornaments,
clothing ; its diseases ; its senses, of seeing, hearing,

fS LECTURE I.
smelling, tasting, and feeling. — Domestic relations, and
blessings. — TJtensils of life — actions of men — times and
seasons. — The animal creation ; and the feathered tribes.
— Reptiles, and insects. — Monsters of the earth ; and
fishes, and monsters of the sea. — Also assumed forms
from the invisible world.
Figures from these sources, with various combinations
of properties, natural and unnatural, occasionally super
added, abound in the word of God ; and more especially
in the prophecies.
The same figure sometimes relates to secular, and
sometimes to ecclesiastical things. When the former
is the case, the heavens (for instance) mean the system
of an empire. " The heavens departed as a scroll !"
or, an empire was subverted. "The powers of the
heavens shall be shaken !" or, the political world shall
be rent. The sun, in that case, denotes the highest
government of a nation. Its being turned to darkness,
denotes the ruin, or deep perplexity of the supreme civil
authority. The stars then denote the subordinate rulers
of a nation. Their falling from heaven, means their fall
in some revolution. And the moon being turned to
blood, denotes tremendous slaughters.
When ecclesiastical things are the object ; the heavens
(meaning the visible heavens) denote the visible church
on earth. The sun then is God, or Christ the Sun of
Righteousness. The moon then denotes the elements
of this world. " The moon was under her feet." The
stars then denote the ministers of Christ ; the morning
star, Christ himself. "I am the bright and morning
star." A falling star is an apostate teacher. Light is
holiness ; and darkness sin. Dews, showers, and rain
are the kind influences of the Spirit of God. And God's
raining upon the wicked snares, means his providentially
confounding them in their wickedness.
Another thing is to be remembered, — that while the
language of prophecy is figurative, the figures are con
tinually interspersed with language that is literal. As
the particles and conjunctions in the sentence are literal,
various things predicated of the figurative subjects that are
presented are no less literal. For instance ; it does not

INTRODUCTION. 17
follow, that because " the rivers and fountains of water,"
in the third vial, are not literally so — but are nations ;
therefore the blood into which they are said to be turned,
in that vial, is not real blood, but something else denoted
by blood. The blood does there mean real blood, into
which those nations are, in a measure, turned in wars !
as the angel of the waters exclaims, " They have shed
the blood of saints — and thou hast given them blood to
drink, for they are worthy." Wisdom here is profitable
to direct, and will direct the candid improved mind.
A few instances of Bible figures shall here be added.
A beast is a figure of an empire that is hostile to the
church. And as there can be but one supreme power
in that empire or region at the same time ; so there can
be but one beast in the same region at the same time.
Let this be well remembered. A horn of that beast is a
figure either of its strength, or of some leader in it, as
Alexander was the notable horn of the he-goat from the
west ; or a horn is an emblem of some branch of that
power. Add to such a beast an unnatural number of
horns or heads, or accommodate him with wings, and
you have a compound figure. And unnatural proper
ties may be added to any amount, to denote additional
properties in the power denoted. The Babylonish empire
was denoted by a lion, as in Dan. vii. ; and eagles' wings
are added, to denote the velocity of its conquests. The
Grecian empire was a leopard, with four wings, to
denote still greater velocity in its conquests ; — and four
heads, to denote four parts, into which the empire was
divided. The terrible beast from the sea, with great
iron teeth, was the secular Roman empire, as will be
S66D. This may suffice for this part of the subject, as light
will arise upon it throughout the following pages.
The divisions of the Revelation should be noted.
These will be found to be seven seals, seven trumpets,
and seven vials, as will be shown in their place. But
the Savior gives to John a division of this book thus :
" Write the things which thou hast seen, and ihe things
which are, and the things which shall be hereafter."
The first here noted was the vision and scene of the
B2

18 . LECTURE I.
first chapter. The second was the seven epistles to
ihe seven ehuTches then in Asia Minor. The third
(" the things which shall be hereafter") it is of import
ance to ascertain. The words of the Savior give us
latitude among all events then future, in which the
church should have an interest, and which can be shown
fitly to accord with the figures of the prophecy.
No one can claim a right to select several only of
the great events then future, to the exclusion of other
events of equal or greater magnitude. A man who will
do this, must surely give others equal latitude, unless
he would set himself up as an oracle. " The things
that shall be hereafter," we should surely think must
include all the most capital events in the church, or con
tiguous to her, in which she would have a deep interest,
and which might well accord with the figure predicting
them. Could, kthen, " the things which should be hereafter,"
when John had this vision, be likely to be restricted to
several events only, or several kinds of events, as some
have imagined ? Would they be restricted to the over
turning of the Jewish nation, and the destruction of
paganism in the Roman empire 1 Must the seven seals,
the seven trumpets, and the seven vials, be construed as
all alluding only to those events of early times ? And
may one decide that little or no notice is, in the Revela
tions, taken of the rise, progress, and destruction of
popery, and of Mohammedanism, those prime and vast
pillars of Satan's kingdom 1 no notice taken of the Re
formation in the sixteenth century, that plunging of the
dragon from his papal heaven 1 no notice taken of his
subsequent persecutions of the Protestants, when hun
dreds of thousands were destroyed by Jesuitical influ
ence ? no notice taken of the flight of our pilgrim fathers
to this new world, and planting here a cause of salva
tion which was to convert the world ? no notice taken
of the flight of the present missionary angel round the
earth to preach the gospel to all nations ? none, of the ter
rors of the French revolutions of 1789, and its twenty-
five years of most terrific wars, and the subversion of the
predominant power of the papal see ! no notice taken

INTRODUCTION. 19
of the present subversion of the Turks ! and no notice
of the utter destruction of all that is antichristian, when
God assures us in the Old Testament he will " gather
the nations, and assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon
them his indignation, even all his fierce anger, and the
whole earth shall be devoured with the fire of his jea
lousy ; and he will then turn to the people a pure lan
guage, and all shall call upon the name of the Lord,
and shall serve him with one consent." Those two
events are abundantly given in this same connexion in
the old prophets. Who can tell then, but they are
among the " things which shall be hereafter 1" The
seventh vial is called, " the battle of that great day of
God Almighty !" alluding to the predictions of the event
found in the ancient prophets; as tliough it had been
said, that great day so well known in prophecy ! This
event, then, must surely have occupied a place in the
description of " the things which shall be hereafter."
The vials known as " the seven last plagues," must
surely be viewed as having their effect in the overthrow
of the Mohammedan, the papal, and the infidel powers
in the last days, and just before the millennium ; — even
though a modern critic be of a different opinion.* I
shall remain confident that' "the things which shall be
hereafter," to be written by John, were the line of the
most interesting events, in the protection of the church,
and in the overthrow of her enemies, through the then
future ages of the Christian era. I have never heard
an objection, nor an argument against this being the fact,
which I could view as possessing even the least weight.
And all arguments from analogy, and from the common
sense of the case, are fully in favor of it. Why should
but several things be noted ; and all things else, equally
important, and even of greater importance, be neglected?
One thing is found in the prophetic part of the Reve
lation of essential interest in its correct exposition. It
is this, that the prophetic part is found in two great and
general divisions ; each having a plan peculiar to itself.
After a notable preparation, in the fourth and fifth chap-
; * See Ichhorn.

20 LECTURE I.
ters, for an unfolding of the events of futurity, prophecies
in the first division commence, in the sixth chapter, with
the opening of the first seal, giving an event near the com
mencement of the Christian era. It thence moves onward
through a period of about two thousand years, and closes
in the end of chapter xi., in presenting the battle of the
great day of God, under the seventh trumpet, and the
millennial kingdom of Christ. A second general divi
sion then commences, like the first, with a plan peculiar
to itself, — commencing with the Christian era, and pass
ing onward, as did the first division, through the whole
Christian era, giving under new figures some things
noted in the first division, and others not there noted.
When it reaches the Millennium, where the first division
closes, and gives the battle of the great day of God,
and the Millennium ; it thence proceeds to give a de
scription of that happy period ; of an apostacy at the
close of it ; of the general judgment ; and of heaven.
The truth of these two general divisions is manifest
to the eye of the intelligent reader.
The seventh trumpet, closing the first division, is
most manifestly the same event with the seventh vial
closing the reign of Antichrist, in the second division.
Compare the two passages, chap. xi. 14, to the end,
with chap. xvi. 17, to the end, and you will see they
give the same event, in figures essentially and almost
precisely the same ; and the two events stand in the very
same connexion with the Millennium, which both alike
introduce : and both alike allude to the Old Testament
predictions of their events. The trumpet is, " as God
hath revealed to his servants the prophets" (chap. x. 6,
7) ; and the vial is said to be " the battle of that great
day of God Almighty," alluding to the same predictions
of it in the prophets ; — that day so well known ! (chap.
xvi. 14.) These two events being the same, and each
description of the same event being the close of its
septenary, in its general divisions, — show that they be
long to two distinct divisions, however they do, in this
fall of Antichrist, meet in unison.
There is found in these two general divisions every
mark of duality of plans. Their events commence in

INTRODUCTION. 21
about the same period, and terminate in the same period ;
and they pursue their objects, each in its own plan, in an
independent set of figures, as will be seen. They thus
contain every essential mark of two divisions.
When I first discovered that these two general divi
sions exist in the prophetic part of the Revelation, I sup
posed it had never before been by any one discovered ;
and I wondered it had not been, and improved. When
I obtained Scott's Bible, I turned to the passage, and
was pleased and confirmed in my views, in finding he
had noted it. He says, " The prophecies of this book
naturally divide themselves into two parts." And he
adds, "Inattention to this has occasioned much per
plexity in many attempts to explain those predictions."
And, conversing not long since with Professor Stuart,
of Andover, on the general principles of expounding the
Revelation, and being very happy to find a good gen
eral agreement of our views ; I asked him, if he had
discovered this general division in the prophetic part
of the Revelation ? He replied that he had ; and that
it was most fully evident that such a division commenced
with the twelfth chapter.
This duality of courses over the same period, affords
a most happy facility in the exposition of the book.
Place the two courses of the divisions side by side ;
and place by them, as a third column, the history of the •
church, internal and external, during the same period ;
and these, with the knowledge of the prophetic figura
tive language of the Revelation, together with the aid
furnished in the prophecy of Daniel, of which a portion
of the Revelation is but an inspired exposition, — and a
pious intelligent expositor is happily prepared for his
work. With such data, God has kindly furnished us ; and no
part of it should be overlooked, undervalued, or misim-
proved. Such an expositor is not now fettered with the old
idle theory, that as the seventh seal contains all the
trumpets ; so the seventh trumpet must be construed as
containing all the vials. This cannot be, and is not
correct : for the trumpets and the vials belong to two

22 LECTURE I.
different general divisions of the prophetic part of the
book. But the greatness of the event, the battle of that
great day of God, occasions it to be given as the last in
the grand septenary of each of these divisions. The
two general divisions strike here in unison, in the sev
enth trumpet, and the seventh vial.
With the facility afforded by the view of these two
general divisions, the commentator is not now reduced
to a necessity of cutting the prophecies of this book in
pieces ; — treating things which are synchronical, as
being many centuries apart ; and things many centuries
apart, as being one and the same ; connecting things
which have no connexions ; and destroying the chro
nology of most of the events in the book. It is in no
small degree painful, to see how much of this is done
by men learned in books and letters, not excepting an
Ichhorn ! Every expositor, destitute of the knowledge
and improvement of these two general divisions, is
trammelled, and utterly unprepared for his work, even
if he had, besides, all the learning of a Raphael.
The other divisions of this book will be shown in
their places. The six first seals give a course of judg
ments on pagan Rome, from the last quarter of the first
century, till about the close of the first quarter of the
fourth century. The four first of the trumpets then
commence a following course of judgments on the Chris
tian empire, after the revolution under Constantine
from paganism ; — fulfilled in the northern invasions on
the empire, till the dethroning of its last emperor
Momylus. The first of the three wo trumpets then
sounded, in the rise of Mohammedism. The second, in
the rise of the grand supporter of it, — the Turkish em
pire. The third will destroy Antichrist. And the vials
of the seven last plagues, in the second division, will
occupy the space between the second and the third wo
trumpets ; the seventh of which, and the third wo trum
pet will be the same, as has been seen.
1 now proceed to consider the duty, benefits, and en
couragement of a devout and diligent study of the Rev
elation. These are found in the text ; " Blessed is
he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this

INTRODUCTION. 23
prophecy, and keep the things that are written therein ;
for the time is at hand." We observe,
1. Our Lord Jesus Christ demands this duty, as well
as encourages it. The language of our text, and the
giving of the Revelation, imply a demand of the duty.
And seven times, in this book, is the same found in these
words, " He that hath an ear, let him hear what the
Spirit saith unto the churches." Four times, when new
scenes of Providence open, it is commanded, " Come,
and see !" And, annexed to deep prophecies, is the
divine command, " Whoso readeth, let him understand."
Shall man object, and say, the attempt is in vain 1
2. The fact, that a great section of the Bible consists
in prophecies of events then future, tacitly enforces this
duty. Little is the objector to the study of the prophe
cies aware how great a part of the Bible he virtually
condemns ; and to how great a degree his so doing, im
peaches the wisdom, and undervalues this great mercy
of God.
But, if a part of the prophetic Scriptures may be
neglected, where shall the line be drawn ? All events
now future are known to man only by prophecy. It is
here alone that we learn a resurrection, — a judgment
before the bar of God, — the conflagration of the world,
— the certainty, and the eternity of future retributions
of bliss and wo ! May the prophecies of these events
be neglected 1 If not, who dares to plead for a neglect
of those which assure us of the Millennium ; of the
battle of that great day of God ; of the destination of
the Jews ; of the vials of the last plagues ; and of the
events of the Revelations ?
3. Much of the ancient preaching of a Saviour then to
come, was in types and figures not less dark than are
most of the prophecies of the Revelation. Israel had
their preaching of Christ, in the brazen serpent, — in the
water from the rock, — in the sea of brass, — the candle
stick, — the sacrifices, — the burning of incense, — and
the clusters of temple emblems, — " shadows of good
things to come !" And would not the very objection,
now often made against the study of the Revelation,
that it is deep and difficult, have lain with equal weight,

24 LECTURE I.
at least, against the duty of attempting to discover their
Messiah in those ancient figures t The affirmative is
most manifest. We are assured that " the rock which
followed them, was Christ." They had no express in
formation relative to this, nor to any other type of Christ.
But they were " shut up to the faith," to find here their
Redeemer, or perish. Nor had they one-eighth part of
the facilities which we now enjoy, relative to the con
struing of such figurative prophecies.
The condemnation of those who would not investi
gate that figurative preaching of Christ, was, their want
of faith ! " To them was the gospel preached, as well
as unto us ; but the word preached did not profit them,
not being mixed with faith in them that heard it." The
believers of that day " searched what, and what manner
of time," that preaching of the Saviour to come, did
signify. And the person who trifled then with this
duty, was the infidel, on his way to perdition ! Such an
one, probably, quieted his conscience thus : — The con-
structien given to these figurative things, which they
say allude to the Messiah to come, appears but fanciful,
visionary, and uncertain ! Different men may have
their different views of them ; and one has as good a
right to his opinion as another. All cannot be right !
and I will believe none of them ! We have plain scrip
tural rules of morality enough ; and to those I will
attend ; and I will leave such figurative predictions for
those who delight in them. I have no such delight ;
for to me they are uncertain, calculated to perplex, and
are of no solid benefit ! Precisely would this have
been, as too many have conversed concerning the study
of the Revelation.
4. This neglect is to set our own wisdom above the
word of God, and against it, as is manifest. Let an
other class of men select the doctrinal parts of the
Bible for proscription, as being too deep and difficult to
be understood. Some of the doctrines are not less
deep and difficult than are the prophecies ; and they
are far from being less displeasing to the carnal mind
which is enmity against God ! Let one, then, deny the
doctrine of the Trinity, and the divinity of Christ, be-

INTRODUCTION. 25
cause it is dark and mysterious ; let another class of
men deny the most displeasing parts of the duties of
religion ; another, the terrors of an eternal hell ! These
things, and much of our holy religion, are deep ; and,
to the wicked among men, they seem mysterious. And
where will this course of expunging deep and displeas
ing things from the Bible end, but in gross infidelity?
But Christ says, "I testify to every man that heareth
the words of the prophecy of this book, (that) if any
man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto
him the plagues that are written in this book : And, if
any man shall take away from the words of this pro
phecy, God shall take away his part out of the book
of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things
that are written in this hook." When I have heard
people openly discourage all critical attention to the
Revelation, and felicitate themselves that they never
spent their time in thus attending to it ; I have thought
this passage may well make them tremble !
It is a remark of Bishop Newton, that " they who cen
sure, or dissuade from the study of the Revelation, do it,
for most part, because they have not themselves studied
it ; and because they imagine difficulties to be greater
than they are." I lately saw the following remark in a
religious periodical : — " The wisest commentators have
scarcely effected more than to puzzle themselves, and
bewilder their readers, when they have attempted to
interpret the prophecies before they are fulfilled. The
times, and the seasons, the Father hath put in his own
power !"
Was the writer of this clause aware how directly this
sentiment is pointed against Jesus Christ himself? He
says, concerning deep prophecies, " Let him that readeth
understand." " Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of
this book ; for the time is at hand." How then can a
minister of Christ dare thus to seal the sayings of pro
phecy, while their events are at hand, or are future ; and
seal them, because they are future ? Christ says again,
" Blessed is he that readeth the words of this prophecy,
and keepeth those things that are written therein." Again :
" Ye hypocrites, how is it that ye cannot discern the
signs of the times?" If the prophecies are not to be
studied till fulfilled, they are never to be studied ; for, in
C

26 LECTURE I.
that case, it never could be known when they are fulfilled.
The argument of this writer, drawn from the words of
Christ to the Jews, is plausible, but is wholly fallacious.
Secret things, it is true, the Father has reserved in his
own power ; and those it is not for man to know. This
was the case with the point concerning which the disciples
inquired, and this remark of Christ was made : " Wilt
thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel ?" God
had revealed no such event as the restoring of a temporal
kingdom to Israel ! And our Saviour kindly turned them
off with the above reply ; knowing that a few days, and
his pouring out of his spirit upon them, would cure them
of this their mistake ! But did the Saviour mean by this
remark to inform us (as this writer takes for granted) that
the Father has revealed nothing to man relative to the
times and seasons of the great events which are in fact
to take place between the present time and the end of the
world? If this is a fact, then our writer's remark is
correct ; not otherwise. But this is not a fact. God has
revealed various of those great events ; and has expressly
informed of the time of them ; and more, — he has com
manded man to study, and understand those things.
Which, then, shall we obey ; our heavenly Father, or the
man who will not study the prophecies ? Is there not
something here that looks like arrogance and impiety ; —
publicly, and indiscriminately, to blame all who attempt to
understand the prophecies ? This has been abundantly
done ; and it gives no small degree of pain to see good
men uniting in it. Let this writer consider that notwith
standing what our Lord thus said to his erring disciples
on that occasion, the Father had revealed to man " the
times and seasons" of many things ; such as the return of
Israel from Egypt ; as well as the time of the flood, 120
years. And the latter took place, we are informed, the
"same day" as predicted. God predicted the time of the
coming of the Messiah ; and the time of the return of
the Jews from Babylon. And God has as expressly pre
dicted the times of some of the great future events ; and
has done it over, and over, and over ! as the destruction of
Antichrist, at the close of the noted 1260 years. He has
given by Daniel, numbers additional to this, as 30 and
43 ; at the close of which, he says, " Blessed is he that
waiteth, and cometh !" And God has told us of another

INTRODUCTION. 27
express number, 666 ; and given express direction to
have it counted and understood ! What can be the views
of a man who shall then wish to bring all due attention
to these directions of Heaven into disrepute ? and mis-
takingly plead the words of Christ himself, too, to sanc
tion it? Let such a man take his own liberty; and
to his Master he stands or falls. But let him give to
others the liberty he himself takes, without publicly cen
suring them ! Daniel previously understood by book, we
are informed, the time of the restoration of the Jews from
Babylon, as well as the certainty of the event. And he
hence set himself to intercede with God for its accom
plishment ; and it took place in answer to his intercession.
Would not such an employment, excited by such pious
attention to the prophecies, be more discreet for us, than
to unite in the clamour against such an employment, and
against those who attempt to investigate this part of our
holy Bible?
5. The prophecies were kindly given of God to warn
his people of interesting events, while* they were still
future ; that they may be prepared either to escape, or to
endure the trials predicted ; and may, by their prayers,
and talents, aid the accomplishment of good to the
church. Daniel, it has been shown, did thus ! And thus
it should be now, in relation to the fulfilment of prophecy.
Some have said, the prophecies were given only that the
divinity of the Bible may be evinced after their fulfilment.
Was this the only or chief end of the ancient predictions
of the coming of Christ in the flesh ? that after he had
come, man might know the Bible to be the word of God?
Is this the only end of the predictions of the final judg
ment ; of heaven ; and of hell ? no more is it the only
(or the chief) end of the prophecies in the Revelation, of
the great events of the last days. Their design is, that
God's people should " not be in darkness, that that day
should overtake them as a thief." But that they may be
prepared to obey Christ, when he says, (between the sixth
and seventh vials,) " Behold, I come as a thief; blessed is
he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments ; lest he walk
naked, and they see his shame." Much does Christ give
the command, at that day, watch, watch, watch ! " Come,
my people, enter into thy chambers !" — All of which
implies a knowledge of the signs of the times, and of the

28 LECTURE I.
events then coming upon the world. It is said of the
ungodly of that period, " none of the wicked shall under
stand ; but the wise shall understand." Of the former it
is said, " Thy judgments are far above out of his sight."
Of the latter, " When yesee all these things, then know
that it is near even at the doors." In the numerous
scriptures of this tenor, is fully implied the duty and
blessedness of a good knowledge of the Revelation in its
predictions and warnings.
6. Events of modern date have much facilitated the
exposition of this book. They have furnished a clew to
some of the most interesting predictions in it, which were
never before furnished. In addition now to the learned
labours of past celebrated authors ; we have facts, in
modern, and in passing events, which prove a rich help to
the exposition of this book. Should these facilities be
overlooked, we should be most inexcusable ; and should
appropriate to ourselves the censure of Christ, — " Ye
hypocrites ; ye can discern the face of the sky ! how is it
that ye cannot discern the signs of the times ?"
How is such neglect consistent with the duty of the
Christian watchman? Is he not set to give warning of
the approach of danger, as well as to comfort the people of
God with the promises of good ? To do this, the preacher
must declare the whole counsel of God, and " diminish not
a word." People feel that they have a right to inquire,
"Watchman, what of the night?" — and that he ought to
be able to give them some correct reply. It is given in
divine command, relative to the approach of the battle of
that great day of God, Joel ii. 1 ; " Blow ye the trumpet
in Zion ; sound an alarm in my holy mountain ; let all the
inhabitants of the land (earth) tremble for the day of the
Lord, for it is nigh at hand."
7, The prophecies in the Revelation open a rich field
of devout contemplation, and of the improvement of the
succession of events of the Christian era, which are there
predicted as of signal interest to the church. The line of
those events, — of protection to the church, — and of wrath
upon her enemies, — God saw fit kindly to foretell, for the
rich benefit of his children, to warn them of their dangers,
and to assure them of his protecting goodness. And shall
such divine kindness be unheeded '. What iugratitude and
folly !

INTRODUCTION. 29
Such events are not to be contemplated merely as things
political ; but as the works of the Almighty, in vindication
of his justice and of his grace, and in faithfulness to his
word. This gives to saints a new interest in those events,
while their faith is invigorated, and their warm devotion
and confidence in God excited. They hence learn and feel
that God is indeed a wall of fire round about Zion ; that
they who be with us, are more than they who be with the
enemy ! that the Lord of hosts is with us ; the God of
Jacob our refuge ! — that he will indeed " create on every
dwelling place of Mount Zion, a cloud and smoke by day,
and a fire by night ; and on all the glory shall be a defence."
The histories recorded in the Old Testament are of this
kind ; such as the deluge ;— the burning of Sodom ; — the
bringing of Israel from Egypt ; — the scene at the Red Sea ;
— events of Israel in the wilderness, in Canaan, in Baby
lon ; numerous protections of the church, and judgments
on her enemies ; — these furnish sources of rich Christian
instruction and consolation. And no less will the events
predicted in the Revelation do it, when duly understood ;
particularly the protections of the church, and the terrors
of divine wrath on her enemies, through the period of the
Christian dispensation, and especially near the Millen
nium. These, when seen in their true light, and duly
improved, will nourish and enrich the faith and confidence
in God of his dear people. And for these purposes the
prophecies of the Apocalypse should not fail of being
studied and improved.
With this conviction, I have for many years desired to
become myself acquainted with the true sentiments of the
Revelation ; desiring, that the vail which has so long lain
upon it, may be in a greater degree removed ; and that the
intelligent and practical improvement may be made of this
dosing part of the Bible, which the importance of the
subject most clearly demands. Most of the expositions, in
this key, of events which were antecedent to the sixteenth
century, essentially agree with the most approved com
mentators. Relative to events since the early part of the
sixteenth century, particularly the five first vials, and the
synchronical predictions of the judgments which fulfilled
them ; — in these things, my path has been new. No
antecedent scheme of the vials has been satisfactory to
C2

30 LECTURE I.
intelligent readers ; and my views of these particulars
have had the approving testimony of the best of men.
It will be seen that I have not cumbered my pages with
the views given of many writers on the various subjects ;
nor with any refutations of those I do not approve. This
would have but perplexed common readers, — rendered my
book unwieldy, — and provoked altercation. It is enough
for me, after examining all, to give the result of my own
judgment on each point ; and others may do the same.
If my views are expressed as though / believed them ;
I yet lay no claim to infallibility. To err, is human!
and it would be like a miracle, if in such a course as I
have been led to take, there should be no error. But the
events of Providence, for twenty years, have been such as
to confirm me in the essential correctness of the views
which I had formed before that period. Several circum
stantial errors I have discovered and corrected. I have felt
the impropriety of venturing too minutely on the circum
stantial parts of future scenes. This has been one sad
error of writers on the prophecies, — seeming to wish to be
prophets, instead of being simply expounders of prophecy.
If a degree of this has crept into some of my past writings ;
I have since designed to set a double guard against its
creeping into my present pages. May the subjects of the
Revelation be examined with that prayerful, candid, and
diligent attention, which their solemnity and magnitude
demand. And may it be done with that aid of the divine
spirit, — that holy unction of grace, — without which, this
part of our holy oracles, and the whole Bible itself, will be
but a dead letter,— a savour of death !

LECTURE II.

REVELATION I.
Ver. 1. The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which
God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things
which must shortly come to pass ; and he sent and
signified it by his angel unto his servant John:
2. Who bare record of the word of God, and of
the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that
he saw.
This book is called the Revelation of Jesus Christ, be
cause Christ, as the Head of the church, gave it to man.
The Father is spoken of as having given it to Christ, in
allusion to the official inferiority of Christ to the Father ;
he having engaged, in the covenant of redemption, to
operate as Mediator between God and fallen man, and
thus to occupy a sphere of subordination to the Father in
the great work of redemption. May this distinction be
ever remembered, that this inferiority of Christ to the
Father is not one founded in the nature of Christ, or in
any want on Christ's part of being possessed of real,
proper, and infinite divinity ; but is founded in his under
taking in the work of man's salvation, according to the
following inspired testimony : " Who being in the form of
God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God ; but
made himself of no reputation, and took on him the form
of a servant, and was made in the likeness of man." To
Jesus Christ, in this his state of official inferiority, God
gave this blessed book, as the finishing part of his holy
book of grace to man. And Christ communicated the
same to his beloved disciple John, by a heavenly mes
senger. The angel Gabriel had, ages before, been sent from
God on a similar message to the prophet Daniel ; Dan.
ix. 21-27. And the prophetic parts of the Revelation
may, in a sense, be called a new and enlarged edition of

32 LECTURE II.
the prophecy of Daniel, with liberty of paraphrase ; es
pecially as it related to events future of the period in which
John lived.
This Revelation was communicated by one who is
called an angel — a heavenly messenger — as the term
here imports. A human spirit, sent from heaven on this
message, as well answers to the term angel here, as
would an intelligence of a superior order. The term im
ports, one who brings a message. " One employed to
communicate news, or information from one person to
another at a distance." On which account, a minister of
the gospel is called an angel of his church ; Rev. ii. I.
The word angels, when found in the plural, signifies (at
least usually) the superior order of intelligences in the
invisible world. But when used in the singular number,
to denote a bearer of tidings from heaven, it may mean
one from that superior order, or one of the glorified saints.
Should one of the latter be sent on a divine mission, the
word angel would as fitly apply to him, as to one of the
superior order. For the name imports simply, one sent
on a message : which may, for aught we know, be a glo
rified saint.
Some have hence been of opinion, that the messenger
here sent with the Apocalypse to John, was the prophet
Daniel. In favour of it, they adduce what he says,
ch. xxii. 9, when John (supposing him to have been
Christ) falls down to worship him, the angel says, " See
thou do it not ! for I am thy fellow-servant, and of thy
brethren the prophets, and of them that keep the sayings
of this book ; worship God !" They suppose we learn
from these words that he was one of the prophets;
and they think none so probable as Daniel, the " man
greatly beloved," and who had been blessed as being in
spired to predict various of the same great events found
in the Revelation, and of which the Revelation seems to
be an inspired commentary. And his keeping the sayings
of this book, may seem to indicate such an interest in
them, as one would naturally have who had been the
honored instrument of their being first revealed ! Such
conceive that Daniel was sent from above to give an en
larged view of his own former prophecies. Moses and
Elijah had before been sent from heaven to converse with
Christ on the mount of transfiguration : and Daniel might

CHAPTER L, 33^
be sent on the present message. But a belief or dis
belief of this is of no great importance to us.
The object of this message is to us of deep interest: —
" to shew unto his servants things that must shortly come
to pass." Those the Saviour calls (ver. 19) "the things
which shall be hereafter." These must mean the line of
events then future, in which the people of God would
have a deep interest. What these things are, must be
decided by the facts that are revealed ; and not by the
caprice of any man. None can have a right to say, they
must mean only several great events ; as the overturning
of the Jews, and of Roman paganism ! These events no
doubt are given; but by no means exclusively. Many other
things then future, would be found to be of no less interest
to the church, and equally entitled to consideration. Human
wisdom must here be exercised, and yet only in humble
reliance on divine ; " comparing spiritual things with spi
ritual." No doubt the great course of events, concerning
the church, in which she would have a special interest
even to the end of the world, will be found to be included
in the " things that must shortly come to pass," and " the
things which shall be hereafter."
This history of events (if it may be so called) before
hand declared, and given in language deeply figurative,
must be construed by pious and sound discretion, taking
into view the language of prophecy, and the analogy of
things. The chief object of the Revelation is, not to re
veal things done in heaven, but things done on earth ;
and this information is to be most piously, gratefully, and
obediently received.
Ver. 3. Blessed is he that readeth, and they that
hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those
things which are written therein : for the time is at
hand. We have here the duty and encouragement of this
study ; and the rich benefits to be derived from a due and
pious attention to this book. The remotest events to
occur on earth, might be said to be at hand, at the period
in our text ; such is the shortness of time, compared with
eternity. And the phrase implies that the events are to
be studied, and kept in mind, while yet future.

34 LECTURE II.
Ver. 4. JOHN to the seven churches which are
in Asia : Grace be unto you, and peace, from him
which is, and which was, and which is to come ;
and from the seven spirits which are before his
throne. 5. And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful wit
ness, and the first-begotten of the dead, and the
prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that
loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own
blood, 6. And hath made us kings and priests unto God
and his Father ; to him be glory and dominion for
ever and ever. Amen.
Seven messages were to be sent from the mouth of
Christ to the seven churches then in Asia Minor. These
messages were not prophetic, as some have imagined ;
but simply admonitory. They, as such, are full of in
struction to the people of God in all ages. What is said
here of God the Father, that he " is, and was, and is to
come," is an essential glory of real and underived divinity.
We have in this phrase the eternity of God, as in the
following : " Thus saith the High and Lofty One, who
inhabiteth eternity." Let this be remembered, when we
shall by-and-by find the same attribute of underived divin
ity taken by Jesus Christ to himself.
The seven Spirits in the text, denote the Holy Ghost in
his various gifts and graces furnished to men. " There
are diversities of gifts ; but the same Spirit." In the text
we have three in the Godhead expressed ; — " from him
that is, and was, and is to come ; and from Jesus Christ ;
and from the seven Spirits"—" three are thus given that
bear record in heaven !" Grace and peace to man are
from these three united in one God ! " which three are
one ! Most clearly is this prime article of the Chris
tian faith here established. The flowing of grace and
peace from Heaven is only by Christ, the true witness to
the law, government, and mercy of the Godhead ; — who
died to redeem ; and is the resurrection from the dead ;
the King of kings ; Head over all things to the church,
whom he makes kings and priests unto God; to whom
be glory and dominion (says the text), for ever and ever.
The saints are made kings, as having grace to govern

CHAPTER I. 35
themselves ; as having fellowship with Christ in his gov
ernment of the world ; and as being heirs of the crown of
glory in heaven. And they are made priests, as having a
full interest in Christ's priestly office ; and as being them
selves prepared by Divine grace, to offer unto God holy,
spiritual sacrifices and services, acceptable to God by
Jesus Christ. In these, they praise their Almighty Sa
viour for their redemption, and their title to the heavenly
glory. Ver. 7. Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every
eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him :
and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because o
him. Even so, Amen.
The scene here hinted is one well known in the sacred
oracles ; — the coming of Christ to judge the world. Christ
in humanity is the judge of the world. " When the Son
of man shall appear in his glory, then shall he sit upon
the throne of his glory, and before him shall be gathered
all nations." — To learn who this judge of the world is,
see Psalm 1. 1. "The mighty God, even the Lord, hath
spoken, and called the earth from the rising of the sun unto
the going down of the same. Out of Zion, the perfec
tion of beauty, God hath shined. Our God shall come
— I am God, even thy God !" Verily, then, Christ is
God. And he will thus come. " Unto you that look for
him, shall he appear a second time without sin, unto sal
vation." His coming in the flesh was his first coming.
And his literal appearance, in our text, is his second com
ing. This is said to be " in clouds !" the true sense of
which, the event will unfold. It seems he will be at
tended with clouds of fire ; clouds of angels ; clouds of
all the saints ; and (for aught we know) clouds of the
unknown legions of intelligences in the universe. And
what clouds of overwhelming splendor will attend, none
can now conceive. All then will literally behold Christ,
the infinite Judge ! — Pilate, Herod, Caiaphas, all the
Jewish rulers, all who have persecuted him in his per
son, or in his people, or pierced him by their sins. All
the multitudes of the papal, and infidel Antichrist ; of Mo
hammedans ; of the world of rejecters of his salvation ;
— the final Gog and Magog, going upon the breadth of

36 LECTURE II.
the earth to destroy the church of God ; all shall see him;
and all destitute of his salvation shall wail in eternal
horror ! While the saints hail their heavenly Bridegroom
with joy unspeakable and full of glory.
The Bible furnishes several mystical comings of Christ
which were to be antecedent to the last and literal coming
just noted — as, his coming in the destruction of Jerusa
lem ; in the revolution in Rome from paganism to Chris
tianity ; his coming in the reformation ; and especially his
coming in the battle of the great day just before the Mil
lennium ; and in the introduction of that event. And the
coming of Christ in signal judgment is noted as being in
clouds. "Clouds and darkness are round about him."
Christ's coming in the battle of the great day, in Rev. xiv.
is noted as being on a white cloud. And the antichris-
tian nations shall then see him, and shall wail.
Ver. 8. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and
the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was,
and which is to come, the Almighty.
We have here again the real and infinite Divinity of
Christ asserted from his own mouth, and placed beyond all
doubt. The person in the Godhead who here speaks, is
the same that cometh in clouds, and whom every eye
shall see, in the antecedent verse ; and that is Christ ; and
he here adds, that he is " Alpha and Omega, the beginning
and the ending, the Lord, who is, and was, and is to come,
the Almighty." This is the same divinity which the
Father claims for himself, in verse 4th, but given here with
additional testimonies. Alpha is the first, and Omega is
the last letter in the Greek alphabet, in which language
the New Testament was first written : which led the Sa
viour to add, in another text, " the first and the last !"
These and the words " who is, and was, and is to
come, the Almighty," testify with complicated and une
quivocal assertions, that Christ is the very God !
Ver. 9. I, John, who also am your brother, and
companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and
patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is
called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the tes
timony of Jesus Christ.

CHAPTER I. 37
This beloved disciple would thus be known to all the
people of God, as their companion and brother in the la
bours and perils of the gospel. He was then suffering as
an exile in the desolate island of Patmos, in the Mgean
Sea, to which he had been banished by a Roman emperor
for his Christian faith ; and Christ here conferred upon
him the signal honour of this vision. The Most High
says, " They that honour me, I will honour." No pagan
emperor was ever blessed with honours in any degree com
parable to the honour now given to this preacher of Christ.
Persecuting tyrants may doom to infamy the dearest
people of God ; but he that sits in heaven can commute
the sentence, and make its fulfilment a scene of true
glory. Such is the economy of heaven. Who then
would not choose to suffer affliction with the people of"
God, rather than enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season ?
Ver. 10. I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and
heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet.
The Christian Sabbath is here called the Lord's Day,
as the holy Eucharist is called the Lord's Supper. The
Sabbath is so called, because that on its morning, our Lord
burst the bands of death, and finished the provision made
for the salvation of lost man. The first day of the week,
on the morning of which our Saviour arose, was hence
forth adopted as the holy Sabbath, instead of the seventh
day, as before. This was thenceforth to be celebrated in
special commemoration of the resurrection of Christ, the
chief corner-stone of the new heavens and new earth ; as
well as in commemoration of his creation of the world ;
it was likewise to be a day for special improvement of the
ordinances of grace.
Relative to this change of the Sabbath from the seventh
to the first day of the week ; — the prophet Isaiah, predict
ing the mission of Christ on earth, as a rod from the stem
of Jesse (Isa. xi.), says, " His rest shall be glorious :"
In the Hebrew original it is, " His Sabbath shall be glori
ous :" Christ then should have a special, and a glorious
Sabbath. The Psalmist, predicting the rejection of Christ,
and his yet becoming the head of the corner, as he did in
deed by his resurrection from the dead, says, " This is the
day which the Lord hath made ; we will be glad and re-
D

38 LECTURE Hi
joiceinit." (Psalm cxviii.) These prophecies, it is thought,
give the change of the Sabbath from the seventh day of
the week, as kept by the Jews, to the first day to be kept
by Christians. Accordingly, our Lord made special visits
to his disciples, after his resurrection, on the first day of
the week. See John xx. 19-29, where the first day of
the week is repeatedly noted as the time of the gracious
visits of Christ to his disciples, as well as the day of their
convocations for his worship. Paul at Troas waited some
time for the arrival of the first day of the week, when
Christians would convene, that he might preach to them.
And to the Corinthians, Paul gave directions for their per
formance of their charities and pious donations on that
holy day. These, together with the testimony in our
text, of John's being in the Spirit on this day, and having
on this day his Revelation, afford ample testimony to the
Divinity of the change of the Sabbath from the seventh to
the first day of the week. The example of the inspired
apostles ia equal to a command of God. And when we
add to these arguments, the considerations that the day of
Pentecost was on the day following the Jewish seventh-
day Sabbath, or was on trie first day of the week, answer
ing to the Christian Sabbath ; as was also the ancient
Jubilee ; the arguments in favour of this change of the Sab
bath are most complete. On this day was changed the
dispensation of the covenant of grace, from the Mosaic
to the Christian ; when the Holy Ghost came like a rush
ing mighty wind, and three thousand were converted to
Christ. And this first day of the week gives the true an-
tetype of the ancient Jubilee trumpet, proclaiming liberty
and salvation ! On this holy day, John was in the Spirit.
If Christians now better imitated him in this, they
would, no doubt, have more and richer interviews with
Heaven. The apostle in our text being thus engaged,
heard behind him a loud commanding voice ; —
Ver. 11. Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first
and the last : and, what thou seest write in a book,
and send it unto the seven churches which are in
.Asia ; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Per-
famos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto
hiladelphia, and unto Laodicea.

CHAPTER I. 3gf,
Again Christ asserts his underived Divinity; and then-
orders that the vision should be committed to writing, and
sent to the seven churches in Asia, which he names.
Ver. 12. And I turned to see the voice that spake
with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden
candlesticks :
13. And in the midst of the seven candlesticks''
one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment
down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a
golden girdle.
14. His head and his hairs were white like wool,
as white as snow ; and his eyes were as a flame of.
fire ;
15. And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they
burned in a furnace ; and his voice as the sound of
many waters.
16. And he had in his right hand seven stars ; and
out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword : .
and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his
strength. On turning to see who thus addressed him, his eyes
fastened on the glorious Mediator Immanuel, God mani-'
fest in the flesh, whom John beheld in vision as de
scended from heaven, and standing near him in an attitude-
and appearance which well-nigh drank up his spirits.
How changed now was the Saviour from what he was
when John had been conversant with him, in the days of
his humiliation ! in his agonies in the garden ! and on
the cross ! and when John had often leaned on his bosom.
The golden candlestick in the ancient temple seemed to
stand here before Christ, which gave him the appear
ance of standing in the midst of those seven branches of
the one candlestick, as the Jewish high-priest was wont
to stand, to dress the seven lamps. This candlestick
was of pure beaten gold, to assure us of the purity of all
the true people of God. The branches were seven, to
indicate the many particular churches of Christ. They
all united in one foot, to assure us that all true churches
unite in Christ, and are supported by him. The position
and dress of Christ seem to have some allusion to the

40 LECTURE II.
style of the Jewish high-priest, when seen in the temple
in his official habiliments.
It is thought this dress and appearance of Christ, are to
be viewed as emblematical of things like the following : —
His flowing outer garment down to his feet, reminds of
his mediatorial righteousness, furnished for the salvation
of his people, even the vilest. His golden girdle round
the breast, tells us of his faithfulness, and of the tender
ness of his heart ; that his people are set as a seal on
his arm and heart, with love which many waters cannot
quench, nor floods drown. The intense whiteness of his hair
denotes his eternity, and infinite venerableness. His eyes
being as a flame of fire, reminds of his omniscience, and
the piercing attention he pays to every thing. His feet
being like burning brass, and as though they glowed in a
furnace, denotes the holiness of all his ways ; the excel
lence and majesty of all his dispensations. The sound
ing of his voice as the roaring of an ocean in a tempest,
denotes the various alarming events of his holy providence
against his enemies. The seven stars in his right hand,
denote his ambassadors, who are ever held and supported
by his grace ! '' Lo, I am with you always, even unto the
end of the world." The sharp sword from his mouth is
an emblem of the keen power of his word, sharper than
any two-edged sword, to save, or to destroy. And his
countenance shining as the sun, is a most fit emblem of
his infinite majesty.
Here, Christians, is the Being, " whom having not seen
ye love : in whom though now ye see him not, yet believ
ing ; ye rejoice with joy unspeakable." This is the Per
sonage, sinners, who assures you, " Behold, I stand at
the door and knock !" This is he of whom saints glory,
when they exclaim : " This is my Beloved, and this is my
Friend, O daughters of Jerusalem."
Ver. 17. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as
dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying
unto me, Fear not ; I am the first and the last :
18. I am he that liveth, and was dead ; and behold,
I am alive for evermore, Amen ; and have the keys
of hell and of death.
Man, being but dust and ashes, cannot, in this his

CHAPTER I. 41
mortal state, see God's face and live. It is, then, in mercy
to man, that " he holdeth back the face of his throne, and
spreadeth his cloud upon it." Our Lord, in this his bright
manifestation of himself to John, no doubt veiled much of
his glory ; a full view of which would instantly have ex
tinguished his animal life. But such was the view of
glory given, that the beloved disciple fell at his feet as
dead ! But Christ kindly laid his hand upon him, furnish
ing him with strength, as he had done to the beloved
Daniel, ages before, who, on a similar occasion, was sink
ing at his feet, overwhelmed with his glory. (Dan. x.
8-12.) Most kind was his address : " Fear not ! I am
the first, and the last. I am he that liveth, and was dead,
and am alive for evermore, Amen : and have the keys of
hell and of death." Here again, from his own mouth, we
learn that he is God ! and is the only way to heaven :
and sovereign of heaven and of hell ; — to receive to the
one, and to banish to the other, whom he will. Such is
he who tenders salvation to man.
Ver. 19. Write the things which thou hast seen,
and the things which are, and the things which shall
be hereafter ;
The Apocalypse has a number of grand divisions, as
will be seen, each in its place. Here is one of interest,
(1.) "The things which thou hast seen," are this intro
duction of the book, in chapter first. (2.) "The things
which are," consist of the seven epistles to the seven
churches, which follow in chapters second and third. (3.)
" The things which shall be hereafter ;" all the events
then future, which shall be found contained in the book.
The great events of salvation to the church, and of de
struction to her enemies, from that time to the end of the
world, which the Spirit would unfold in courses of events;
exhibited in the figurative language of this book.
Ver. 20. The mystery of the seven stars which
thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden
candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the
seven churches : and the seven candlesticks which
thou sawest are the seven churches.
D2

42 LECTURE II.
An infallible interpretation is here given of the ancient
golden candlestick in the temple, with its seven branches ;
and of its light on the summit of each branch. That
rich emblem is here applied, by Christ himself, to the
seven churches then in Asia ; each branch is a church ;
and its light, called a star, an emblem of the gospel minis
try in that branch. And thus the candlestick, with its
lights, was a symbol of all the churches, with their pas
tors, to the end of the world. This, Christ notes as a
mystery ; or as a thing denoted by figure. The candle
stick was a type of all the visible churches of Christ.
Its seven branches denoted their many branches. But
all are one in Christ. Christ is in the midst of his
churches, as he seemed to stand in the midst of the
branches of the candlestick. The thought and assurance
of this presence of Christ in his churches, are most ani
mating, and full of salvation. " Zion behold thy Saviour
King! — He reigns and triumphs here!" The church is
the pillar and ground of the truth, as the means of up
holding the ambassadors of Christ ; and the order of his
truth and grace. " Ye are the light of the world."
Ministers and churches find here their strength and right
eousness ; — their Saviour and their God. Christ says to
them, " Because I live, ye shall live also." And they
triumph and rejoice, " I live ; yet not I ; but Christ liveth
in me." " I can do all things through Christ who strength
ened! me." " A.nd the life that I live in the flesh, I live
by the faith of the Son of God."
The thought is, by the emblem and the unity of the
candlestick, deeply impressed, that all the saints are one
in Christ. All want of love and union, then, is vile, and
utterly unworthy of the saints.
All true ministers of Christ shine with light derived
only from him, " In thy light shall we see light." The
churches must keep the unity of the Spirit in the bonds of
peace. They first are pure ; then peaceable. " Blessed
are the peacemakers ; for they shall be called the children
of God."
The candlestick was formed of purest gold. The
almost Christian, then, is but a blot. He has no part nor
lot in this bright emblem. " The hope of the hypocrite
shall perish." Nothing short of the correct and pure
Christian faith, heart, and life, can answer to the pure gold

CHAPTER I. 43
of the candlestick ! This is a new heart, created in
Christ unto good works. Without this holiness, no man
can see the Lord. And all is not gold that glitters. Coun
terfeit graces abound. " Five of them were wise, and
five were foolish." With holy fear and trembling, then,
let each professor say, " Lord, is it I ?" " Search me, 0
Lord, and prove me ! try my reins and my heart !"
" Create in me a clean heart, and renew a right spirit
within me !" Form Christ in me the hope of glory !
Think, Christian, of the glory and dignity of your
Saviour and Lord, always present ! Dwell on his charac
ter, as here given, till your whole soul is transformed to
love and admiration ; and till you can constantly breathe
out the confident address, " Lord, thou knowest all things ;
thou knowest that I love thee." Then, Christian, live the
life of holy faith ; the happy life of looking unto Jesus !
Then will his love refine your soul. Then will you find
rich mines of consolation ; rich and most glorious in your
heavenly Bridegroom, for ever present and prepared to
save ! He is thy God, and worship thou him. Here is
our atonement, our righteousness, our life, and our salva
tion. We will behold his flowing mantle ; his girdle of
love ; his white and infinite venerableness ; his flaming
eye ; the holy footsteps of his burning feet ; the two-
edged sword of his mouth ; his countenance brighter than
the sun ! We will not fail to listen to the sound of his
providences, as the roar of a thundering ocean ! And
we will lie prostrate at his feet, imploring his life-giving
right hand kindly to be laid upon us ! We will ever prize
and implore his kind, life-giving whisper, It is I ; be not
afraid. I am he that liveth, and was dead. And because
I live, ye shall live also. We will follow him, till we
come where he is ; to behold his face in righteousness ;
and to be satisfied awaking in his likeness and glory !

LECTURE III.

REVELATION II.

Ver. 1. Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus
write ; these things saith he that holdeth the seven
stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of
the seven golden candlesticks.
Ephesus was the metropolis of Lydia in Asia. A church
was here early collected : and with this church Christ
commences his epistles to the seven churches. Each
epistle is directed to the angel of that church. In this
term, probably, were included whatever teaching elders
there might be in that church. Some suppose the pastor
or pastors of each church were all that is meant by the
angel of that church. Others suppose it meant, espe
cially, a person who was a moderator or president of a
consociation of the particular churches found in each city
named. We read, Acts xx. 17, of elders in the church of
Ephesus. And we are informed that the apostles, and
others ordained by them, " ordained elders in every city."
Those first churches were wont to have a plurality of
elders in each church. And we learn, in church history,
that in the first Christian ages, contiguous churches were
led to form themselves into a kind of consociation, for
their mutual benefit ; each consociation having a standing
moderator ; which moderator might be the person denoted
by the angel of that church. Whether this were the case ;
or whether this angel means the eldership of that church,
meaning to include all its officers, is not essential.*
» Mosheim says, "It is highly probable that the church of Jeru
salem, grown numerous, and deprived of the ministry of the apostles,
was the first that chose a president. And it is no less probable that
the other churches followed so respectable an example." Of these
presidents, or ancient bishops, he says (relative to their difference
from modern bishops) "they had not power to decide or to enact any
thing without the consent of the presbyters (common pastors) and
the people." Scott speaks of them as moderators, or censors, elected

CHAPTER II. 45
Jesus Christ, in each address, gives a description of
himself from some of his notable characteristics exhibited
in the first chapter of this book, and in different sacred
Scriptures. And there seems to be some affinity between
the trait of character thus selected, and the state or charac
ter of that church. It appears to have been selected for
their admonition, or their consolation, as their case required.
To the Ephesian church, the address is thus given :
from him " who holdeth the seven stars in his right hand ;
and walketh in the midst of his seven golden candlesticks."
Blessed indeed is Zion, that her Saviour and Lord walks
in the midst of his churches, by his word, ambassadors,
and ordinances, by his spirit of grace, and his government
of all things. In these, he is a wall of fire round about,
and a glory in the midst of her. And Christ's true minis
ters are assured, that they rest in the right hand of their
Lord and Master. "Lo, I am with you always." "My
grace is sufficient for thee !"
Ver. 2. I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy
patience, and how thou canst not bear them which
are evil : and thou hast tried them which say they
are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars.
3. And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my
name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted.
Their good deeds, the Saviour first notes, to their praise.
They had laboured in duty ; they had patiently endured
trials ; they had detected and abhorred evil doers ; they
had examined and exposed false teachers. Paul had
at the discretion of the churches, and probably (he thinks) with the
countenance of the apostles ; but that they possessed no official
superiority to other teaching elders. Jerome, afterwards when
some of these bishops were struggling to be viewed as of a superior
order, opposed them, and said, " Let therefore the presbyters (com
mon pastors) know, that as by the custom of the churches they are
subject to him who is their president; so let the bishops (these
standing presidents) know that they are above presbyters more by
the custom of the church, than by any true dispensation of Christ."
This order of ministers thus arose only by human discretion and
custom, and Were only first among equals in office. Each city of
note seems to have had such a president, or bishop of the churches
in that city and vicinity. And this might have been the angel
mentioned in the address of each epistle.

46 LECTURE III.
warned that church, (Acts xx. 29, 30,) " For I know that
after my departure, shall grievous wolves enter in among
you, not sparing the flock : also of your own selves shall
men arise speaking perverse things to draw away disci
ples after them." So it had taken place. These impostors
(as all false teachers do) pretended they were sent of God.
This church had tried those false apostles by the word of
God, and condemned them as liars. And this their faith
fulness Christ especially notes and approves; and this
testimony he leaves for the benefit of all, to the end of the
world. And the good deeds of this church, the Saviour
repeats : — their patience, their labours for his sake ; and
their perseverance ! Few perhaps are the churches, at
this period, concerning whom so much good can be said !
Much reason then, have many to tremble, when they
peruse the following: —
Ver. 4. Nevertheless, I have somewhat against
thee, because thou hast left thy first love.
5. Remember therefore from whence thou art
fallen, and repent, and do the first works ; or else I
will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy
candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.
They had suffered the pious fervour of their first gracious
affections to abate. In this, they had been guilty of crimi
nal inattention and ingratitude. A speedy repentance of
this sin was demanded ; — to love as they had first loved ;
or Christ would soon visit them, and dispossess them of
their church blessings.
This awful judgment was, in after days, executed upon
them. Too many have left their first love ; while the love of
the world has taken its place ! Such have reason to be
deeply affected with this warning of the glorious Head of
the church.
Ver. 6. But this thou hast, that thou hatestthe deeds
of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
The Nicolaitans were a sect of Antinomians who, under
the notion of Christian liberty, pleaded for a licentious com
munity of wives. Such a hateful sect existed, and were

chapter n. 47
here, by the head of the church, condemned. And the
Ephesian church had dealt faithfully with these licentious
hypocrites : and probably, had cleansed their community
from them. And this faithfulness, Christ publicly approves
for the benefit of all his churches, from that period.
Tradition has branded Nicholas, one of the seven dea
cons, as the infamous leader of this sect. It seems probable
that this is incorrect, and very injurious. Those seven
deacons were said to have been " full of the Holy Ghost."
Could one of them, then, be guilty of such enormity ? No
doubt there were different men of this name. It does not
follow that because one by the name of Nicholas, led in
this error, it hence must be this pious deacon. This is not
to be admitted without positive proof.
Ver. 7. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the
Spirit saith unto the churches : To him that over-
cometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is
in the midst of the paradise of God.
This is connected with the address of the Ephesian
church : yet it is " what the Spirit saith unto the churches."
It is equally applicable to all of similar character, in all
ages ; and it is most unhappy that so many who have
ears, pay so little attention to what the Spirit of God urges
here upon them. This conduct will one day "bite like a
serpent, and sting like an adder." Let us hear ; and so
hear, that our souls may live ! Can as much be said in fa
vour of all our churches, as was said in favour of the church
of Ephesus ? But they had suffered the fervour of their
first love to abate ! The command to those who have once
loved, is, "Keep yourselves in the love of God." — "Abound
therein more and more." — "Grow in grace, and in the
knowledge of our Lord." — Confidence that we once loved
God, with present contentment without it, is not the way
to overcome, but to sink in despair !
The motive to overcome here is powerful. Such shall
feed upon the antitype of the tree of life. Adam in the
garden of Paradise (we are led to believe) was, at the
close of his term of trial, to " put forth his hand, and eat
of the tree of life, and live for ever." This act was to
have been the sealing of his active personal righteousness,
as his legal title to an eternal confirmation in holiness and

48 LECTURE III.
bliss, alluding to which order, our text assures us, that
all who overcome shall find, at the close of their season
of trial, something in their second Adam well answering
to this Jesus Christ, — ¦" the Lord our righteousness,"- —
" the end of the law for righteousness to every one that
believeth," — will be to them the tree of life indeed, to fix
them in eternal holiness and bliss.
Ver. 8. And unto the angel of the church in
Smyrna write ; These things saith the first and the
last, which was dead, and is alive ;
Smyrna was a large city in Asia Minor. The gospel
was early preached here with success ; and a church was
here found which entirely escaped censure ; and which
received much commendation. The trait of Christ's char
acter selected for them, therefore, is his eternal Divinity,
and his death, and resurrection ; essential glories in the
Christian salvation ; " God was manifest in the flesh ;"
" Who was delivered for our offences, and raised again
for our justification."
Ver. 9. I know thy works, and tribulation, and
poverty (but thou art rich), and / know the blas
phemy of them which say they are Jews, and are
not, but are the synagogue of Satan.
They had a severe lot in the early persecutions, but
none of their trials were overlooked by the omniscient eye
of their Immanuel. Their poverty too, he noted, and
would a thousand-fold compensate. And he assured them
they were rich. " God hath chosen the poor of this world,
rich in faith, and heirs of his kingdom." When I am
weak, then am I strong." — Emptied of self, and filled
with the fulness of God. And, for their further consola
tion, Christ assures the church that he was not inattentive
to the insults and impertinence of false religionists among
them, who, while disturbing their holy order, claimed to
be viewed and treated as the true people of God. The
term Jews here, means true saints. The Saviour de
clared, that, instead of such being true saints, they were
" of the synagogue of Satan." Many, from that day to
the present, have made equally high claims with no better

CHAPTER II. 49
characters ! In these last days, the thing will prove too
certain, and the interpretation sure ! The high claims of
heretics, Christ here calls blasphemy.
Such blasphemy has, in our day, been heard; and
much more is yet to come. If it has always been a truth
that " there must be heresies among you, that those that
are approved may be made manifest ;" this is more par
ticularly to be the case in the period just before the battle
of that great day of God. The Saviour, with his eye
fixed upon such, and at the same time upon his dear
people, says to the latter, Fear not !
Ver. 10. Fear none of those things which thou
shalt suffer : behold, the devil shall cast some of you
into prison, that ye may be tried : and ye shall have
tribulation ten days : be thou faithful unto death, and
I will give thee a crown of life.
As though he should say, " Fear riot ! for I am with
thee ; be not dismayed, for I am thy God." " Who art thou,
that thou shouldst be afraid of a man that shall die ; and of
the son of man that is grass ? Where is the fury of the
oppressor ?" " The moth shall eat them up like wool !"
Much more happy was this church, than were the perse
cuting Roman emperors ; or than was Alexander, in con
quering the world ! The latter would die in vexation and
despair ; but the followers of Christ were heirs of an im
mortal kingdom. For such, death had no terrors ; the devil
would cast some of them into prison by his wicked
agents : and they should have tribulation ten days. A
ten years' persecution was just ahead : Christ hence ex
horts them to be faithful unto death, and he would give
them a crown of life : Give up your temporal life for my
cause, when you are called ; and the eternal life of the
soul shall take its place.
Ver. 11. He that hath an ear, let him hear what
the Spirit saith unto the churches ; He that over-
cometh, shall not be hurt of the second death.
This solemn direction is repeated. And who would not
hear and obey it ? What church would not feel a holy
ambition to deserve such commendation ? Here are the
E

50 LECTURE HI.
true riches ; here is true greatness. O church of the
Redeemer, " go thou and do likewise." The second
death (the true king of terrors to the wicked) will have no
power against people of this character. But the promise
in the text implies that all who do not overcome, shall be
hurt of the second death. They that turn back from God,
as well as they who seek not God, will all be cast into
the lake of fire, which is the second death. " Take heed,
brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbe
lief, in departing away from the living God."
Ver. 12. And to the angel of the church in Per-
gamos write ; These things saith he which hath the
sharp sword with two edges ;
Pergamos was another city of Asia Minor, to the
northward of Smyrna. This church, while it had some
things to be commended, had some things likewise to be
censured. The trait of Christ's character now was, " he
that hath the sword of two edges !" The two-edged sword
of Christ will be dreadful where sin is indulged. May
delinquent churches remember this, and tremble, and
reform !
With this church, Christ begins with commending what
good he found among them, evincing that he is more
ready to commend than to censure. This is much more
the delight of benevolence, while the reverse is the malig
nant delight of the carnal heart.
Ver. 13. I know thy works, and where thou
dwellest, even where Satan's seat is : and thou hold-
est fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even
in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful mar
tyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth
All their deeds and their trials were before his omnis
cient eye. Happy the people who act always under the
full impression of this great truth ! This church dwelt
where Satan had a seat (throne). Pergamos was one of
the head-quarters of the Prince of Darkness. Here were
champions of idolatry, of heresies, and of persecution.
Here Antipas (an early martyr), had been made to seal
his testimony for Christ with his blood. Yet this church,

CHAPTER II. 51
in such perils, maintained its Christian professions and
the doctrines of grace. One would imagine they would
escape censure. But censurable dereliction is found
even here !
Ver. 14. But I have a few things against thee, be
cause thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of
Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling-block
before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed
unto idols, and to commit fornication.
15. So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine
of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate.
Some base mercenary characters were suffered to con
tinue in their communion. Some who were of a covetous
temporizing spirit, similar to- that of ancient Balaam, who
savoured not the things of God, but those of men, and
were ready, slyly, to give counsel against God's dear
Israel. Such Antinomian counsellors of Satan were by
some means retained in the bosom of this church. This
spirit of Balaam can operate in many ways, according to
time and place ; while yet it is the same thing ; viz. a
covetous worldly spirit, most hateful to God !
This good church imbosomed also some who held the
impure tenets of the Nicolaitans ; abominable to Christ ;
who practically denied that " fleshly lusts do war against
the soul !" that " they who are Christ's have crucified the
flesh with the affections and lusts !" and that the offending
eye, not plucked out, will sink its owner into hell. Sen
sualists will forget these things : but that church should
not have forgotten themy nor held such in her com
munion. Hence Christ adds :
Ver. 16. Repent ; or else I will come unto thee
quickly, and will fight against them with the sword
of my mouth.
As though he had said, with such offenders as these
parley no longer. Take effectual and immediate measures
either to reclaim them, or to sever them from your church.
Listen not a word to their vile pleas of liberty of con
science, or of sincerity in their sentiments ! Hear not

52 LECTURE III.
their vile appeals to charity. Be no longer blinded with
such pretences. Purify yourselves at once from such
scandals ; or you may expect to know the meaning of the
sharp sword of two edges. Faithfulness in one point
will never atone for sin in another. One leak, neglected,
will sink the ship ! He that offends in one point is guilty
of all.
Ver. 17. He that hath an ear, let him hear what
the Spirit saith unto the churches : To him that over-
cometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and
will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new
name written, which no man knoweth, saving he that
receiveth it.
This solemn admonition is thus repeated, to show the
danger of not yielding the pious attention demanded.
Sublime motives to duty are continually presented. Here,
they that overcome shall richly partake of that bread of
life, typified by the ancient manna, hid in a golden pot in
the ark of the covenant. Christ is the bread of life — the
true bread that came down from heaven. The soul that
overcomes shall perfectly enjoy him in his full salvation
in heaven. And in order for this, such a soul shall be
justified by Divine grace, denoted by the white stone here
mentioned, in allusion to the process in ancient courts.
In the trial of one indicted for a crime — the judges would
vote for his condemnation, by casting into a box a black
stone, or for his justification, by casting in a white one. The
white stone should be here given in behalf of the true
saint. And, to this figure Christ adds a rich appendage,
that the white stone of justification has wrought into
it a new name, which none but the receiver can construe;
or none can infallibly know the evidence of grace in the
heart of another. This is a thing which a person must
see to for himself, by the witnessing of the Spirit of grace.
Such witnessing gives meat to eat. which the world knoweth
not — joys, with which the stranger does not intermeddle.
The white stone of justification has indeed sanctification in
scribed on it, and well may the subject of this be noted as
having a new name. " Thou shalt be called by a new name,
which the mouth of the Lord shall name ;" the new name of

CHAPTER n. 53
Christians was indeed given to the followers of Christ, and
will be the new name given to the Jews, when they shall
be called in ! A true Christian, is indeed a name which
no one truly knows, but by being brought to the posses
sion of it. " The world knoweth us not, because it knew
not him."
May ministers and professors, who are called to dwell
where Satan peculiarly has a seat, hear and joyfully obey
this address of Christ. Such places where Satan's seat
is, are many : and the professed people of Christ there
are in danger of becoming themselves of a temporizing
character ; or of being led astray by those who are of
such a character. Dreadful indeed is the charge, when
it applies, " Thou savourest not the things that be of God ;
but the things that be of men." Ministers and churches
then, have great need to maintain vigilance and prayer,
and to be bold, zealous, valiant, and persevering. They
must not consult flesh and blood ; but the word of God.
Ver. 18. And unto the angel of the church in Thy-
atira write ; These things saith the Son of God, who
hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are
like fine brass ;
We have here an address full of meaning. This city
south-eastward of Pergamos, had its true church of Christ ;
but such were the imperfections found in this church, that
Christ was about to administer solemn warning and re
proof. He hence assures them that the address was from
Him, before whose flaming eyes their conduct lay open !
that their wickedness was before Him, whose feet are
like burning brass, or his ways most pure and holy. But
he kindly commences by rehearsing their good deeds.
Ver. 19. I know thy works, and charity, and ser
vice, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works ; and
the last to be more than the first.
The character of this church, it seems, had been es
tablished by exhibitions of a good degree of charity, or
holy love. And they had performed services of faith, of
holy patience, and of good works a second time expressed.
E2

54 LECTURE III.
Happy, if so much good could be said of all the professed
churches of Christ. But Christ adds ;
Ver. 20. Notwithstanding I have a few things
against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Je
zebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach
and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and
to eat things sacrificed unto idols.
In some great sin, various of their members were living.
And the Saviour saw fit not to call the delinquents, nor their
crimes by name ; but to denote both by some figure well
known. So delicate and wise is the word of Divine re
proof! It chooses acceptable words. It presents a kind
glass in which people may thus discover themselves, and
reform without being too fatally exposed. Of some, it
thus has compassion, making a difference. May public
instructers improve this hint of Christ relative to the best
modes of public reproofs. May they avoid the Scylla of
harshness needlessly offensive, and cruelly personal, on the
one hand— and the Charybdis of hiding their reproofs, and
rendering them ineffectual by fals*e delicacy, on the other.
We know not the particular things here condemned ;
but that church, no doubt, well understood the reproof.
Some wicked character, or sect, was there indulged in the
church, in a degree similar to the idolatrous Jezebel, the
queen of Ahab, who persecuted the prophets of the Lord,
and unrighteously put her royal consort into possession of
Naboth's vineyard. And she made herself both impertinent
and hateful by her idolatries. Some wickedness was
winked at in this church, which tended to real idolatry,
which is spiritual impurity. They pleaded divine authority
for their peculiarities ; but their pleas were false. Evils
like this have infested the church of Christ in all ages —
plausible by the blandishments of innovators, and assum
ing shades of difference in different times and places.
Ver. 21. And I gave her space to repent of her
fornication ; and she repented not.
22. Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them
that commit adultery with her into great tribulation,
except they repent of their deeds.

chapter n. 55
23. And I will kill her children with death ; and
all the churches shall know that I am he which
searches the reins and hearts : and I will give unto
every one of you according to your works.
This sect, spiritually licentious, Christ had called upon
to repent; but they had refused. And he now denounced
that he would soon turn their bed of selfish religion, and of
mystical impurity, into a bed of torment; perhaps allud
ing to the threatening in the prophet, of the same wrath
for a similar sin — "Behold, all ye that kindle a fire ; that
compass yourselves about with sparks ! Walk in the
light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled ;
lo, this shall ye have at my hands ; ye shall lie down in
sorrows." As a bed of licentiousness shall end in a bed
of eternal torments ; so the framers of licentious senti
ments — forming their sentiments from their own imagina
tions, and not from the word of God, shall, at the end, lie
down in eternal sorrows ! And their children — probably
neglected under some sanctimonious pretence, or trained
up for annoyance to the faithful saints — Christ would " kill
with death !" probably indicating, that the error of this
sect was of a nature to prove fatal to their families. Thus
their own wickedness should correct them ; and they, with
their neglected children, should perish in their sins. And
all the churches, beholding such examples of justice,
shall know the judgments of God, and • that Jesus Christ
is the Jehovah, who knows all hearts, and will render to
all according to their real characters !
Ver. 24. But unto you I say, and unto the rest in
Thyatira, As many as have not this doctrine, and
which have not known the depths of Satan, as they
speak ; I will put upon you none other burden.
25. But that which ye have already, hold fast till
I come. Some, by the grace of God, had escaped the pollutions
which have been noted. They should walk with Christ
in the purity of his salvation, with no additional burdens.
These had not known certain depths, in which, it seems, the
censured sect had gloried. To these depths they proba-

56 LECTURE III.
bly gave some specious name of wisdom : but Christ calls
them " depths of Satan." The boasted intimacy of this
sect, then, was not with God, as they vainly fancied ; but
with the wicked one. Too many, alas, have made the
same mistake, fancying they were led by the divine Spirit ;
when their leader, in fact, was a fallen angel ! So that
their boasted depths of wisdom were, in reality, but
" depths of Satan," who transforms himself into an angel
of light. Such will turn into crooked ways, and be led
forth with the workers of iniquity. But the true disciples
of Christ will hold fast till he come.
Ver. 26. And he that overcometh, and keepeth
my works unto the end, to him will I give power
over the nations.
27. (And he shall rule them with a rod of iron ;
as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to
shivers ;) even as I received of my Father.
28. And I will give him the morning star.
29. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the
Spirit saith unto the churches.
It is predicted of Christ, in Psalm ii., relative to the
heathen, and the antichristian world, " Thou shalt break
them with a rod of iron, and shalt dash them in pieces
like a potter's vessel." This has a special allusion to
" the battle of that great day of God Almighty," which
shall sink the antichristian world. And this event Christ
sees fit to ascribe to the persevering triumphant saints.
They are noted as doing this work of judgment, in the
same sense in which they are to "judge the world."
They will have perfect fellowship with Christ in those
mighty operations ; and he will do these things in answer
to their prayers for the salvation of Zion. Christ thus
puts upon his children the honour of his operations of
judgment, even as the two witnesses are said to " have
power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their
prophecy ; and power to smite the earth With all plagues
as oft as they will." The Psalmist gives the same view
of this honour put upon the triumphant people of God ;
that " the high praises of God are in their mouth, and a
two-edged sword in their hands, to execute vengeance

CHAPTER II. 57
upon the heathen, and punishment upon the people ; to
execute upon them the judgments written ; this honour
have all the saints :" " Even as T have received of my
Father." This honour the Father has officially given to
the Son, as Mediator, and as Head over all things to the
church, as a part of the reward of his sufferings and hu
miliation, when he obeyed, and died to magnify the law.
And Christ gives a participation of the honour of it to his
children, in consequence of their obedience to the gospel.
As he says in another passage, " He that overcometh
shall sit down with me in my throne ; even as I have
overcome, and am set down with my Father in his throne."
Christ had before said to his disciples, " If ye keep my
commandments, ye shall abide in my love ; even as I
have kept the Father's commandments, and abide in his
love." As the saints are justified, and will be glorified in
Christ ; so he puts a measure of his honour, in governing
and judging the world, upon them. His saints will have
full fellowship with him in these events, and in his de
stroying the antichristian world, to prepare the way for
the Millennium : and he will do it in answer to their
prayers for Zion, and to complete her salvation.
Christ's giving to all that overcome, the morning-star,
means his giving himself to them. "I am the bright and
morning star." This is indeed the gift of all gifts. " He
that overcometh, I will be his God, and he shall be my
son." Well does such a promise close with the gracious
demand so often repeated, " He that hath an ear, let him
hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches." Seven
times over, in this book, is this divine command given in
the same words ! We have here, then, a perfect testi
mony given to the personality and divinity of the Holy
Ghost ! And most perfect is the testimony, in this book,
borne to the doctrine of the Trinity in Unity of God. It
is the Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God the Father
gave unto him. And it is, at the same time, what the
Spirit saith unto the churches.
Let the communications thus made unto us sink deep
into our hearts. Let them be to us quick and powerful,
sharper than any two-edged sword. Let them pierce to
the dividing asunder, as it were, the soul and spirit, the
joints and marrow. Let them be the discerner of our
thoughts and intents of the heart. May our sins be
hence purged off. May all the members of the church oi

58 LECTURE IV.
Christ see to it that no followers of Jezebel, no seducing
characters, or practices, are allowed in their hearts, or in
their communities ; lest they at last find themselves shut
out from the holy temple above, and must lie down in
eternal sorrows.

LECTURE IV.

REVELATION III.

Ver. 1. And unto the angel of the church in Sar-
dis write : These things saith he that hath the seven
Spirits of God, and the seven stars ; I know thy
works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and
art dead.
Four of the epistles of Christ to the churches have
been considered. Three yet remain.
Sardis, southward of Thyatira, was once the renowned
capital of Croesus ; and was the seat of the Lydian kings.
The gospel had there triumphed, and a church was col
lected. But their religion was, at this time, at a very low
ebb. Christ, in his address to them, takes the character
istic of his being the official director of the Holy Spirit
in his multiform gifts and operations, denoted by the per
fect number seven ; and of his holding in his gracious
power the stars, — the ministers of the gospel. He thus
signifies to a delinquent church, that he it is who can re
plenish them with graces and gifts ; or withdraw from
them all gospel blessings, as he may please. The
phrase, " the seven spirits of God," is a powerful expres
sion of the different gifts, and operations, and of the infi
nite fulness of the Spirit of God. Paul alludes to the
same, when he tells the Corinthians, " There are diversi
ties of gifts ; but the same Spirit." Christ assures this
ehurch of his full acquaintance with them, and that while
they had a name to live, they were dead. We would

chapter hi. 59
hope this was not the case with all the individuals in that
church. But the phrase seems to imply, that it was
thus with a majority of them, at least. They had taken
their lamp without the oil. This is an awful prelude to
eternal and most aggravated condemnation, as in the case
of the foolish virgins ; and of the hope of the hypocrite,
that shall perish.
Ver. 2. Be watchful, and strengthen the things
which remain, that are ready to die : for I have not
found thy works perfect before God.
3. Remember therefore how thou hast received
and heard ; and hold fast, and repent. If therefore
thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief,
and thou shalt not know what hour I will come
upon thee.
They were here warned immediately to awake, and
cherish whatever of Christianity was still existing among
them, lest it become utterly extinct ; to give the more
earnest heed to the things which they had heard ; to re
pent, and bring forth fruits meet for repentance ; or Christ
would soon visit them in some unexpected and fatal
manner. Ver. 4. Thou hast a few names even in Sardis
which have not defiled their garments ; and they
shall walk with me in white : for they are worthy.
Even in this church, thus dead as a body, were con
tained a few faithful members, who were in a good de
gree uncontaminated with the general corruption of the
body. They had dared alone to stem the torrent of evil,
and to stand firm. Their walking with Christ in white,
may allude to the following facts, that white is a natural
emblem of purity, and also of victory ; that the singing
Levites of old were ordered to minister in their service
before God " being clothed in white ;" and that the An
cient of days (Christ) appeared in Daniel, and on the
mount of transfiguration, in a garment intensely white.
These few names, then, should walk with Christ in purity
and victory. " For they are worthy :" not with legal or

00 LECTURE IV.
condign worthiness ; but with a worthiness of congruity ;
or fitness by divine grace within them, and by their inter
est in Christ. Here is a blessed encouragement, in a
time of general corruption, to dare to be bold and singular
for Christ, at whatever expense of name, property, or
even of life.

Ver. 5. He that overcometh, the same shall be
clothed in white raiment ; and I will not blot out his
name out of the book of life,, but I will confess his
name before my Father, and before his angels.
6. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the
Spirit saith unto the churches.
To encourage, effectually, those few names, and all
similar characters, to the end of the world, the general
declaration is made, that all who thus follow Christ, and
overcome, shall be treated as conquerors ; confirmed in
eternal purity ; shall find their names in the book of life
in heaven ; and shall be owned of Christ before the
Father, and all the angelic hosts. Their not having their
names erased from the book of life, is spoken only after
the manner of men ; inasmuch as professors who have
never forfeited their characters, are received and spoken of
as the righteous, and consequently as having their names
in the book of life. And, following the same language,
if they fall away, they are noted as turning from their
righteousness to iniquity, and having their names taken
from the book of life. But the literal fact is, apostates
discover only that they never were truly of the righteous ;
and their names were never in the book of life. Had
they been there, they would never have been suffered
fatally to apostatize. " The righteous fall seven times,
and rise again." The Holy Ghost assures us that nothing
shall ever separate them from the love of God which is
in Christ Jesus our Lord. This address, like the others,
is closed with the call to all who have ears, to hear or
obey. In view of the charge, " Thou hast a name that thou
livest, and art dead !" let professors tremble ; and each
one say, " Lord, is it I ?" " Search me, 0 Lord, and
prove me ! Try my reins and my heart !"

CHAPTER in. 61
May the few faithful names found in dead churches, be
stimulated to new zeal. May they " be strong, and bold,
and very courageous," at the direction of him who says
to them, " Watch ye : stand fast in the faith ; quit ye like
men ; be strong." And, when the dead mass of false
brethren shall sink in ruin ; they will be crowned as con
querors before the general assembly of angels and saints.
In the darkest scenes, they have it for their encourage
ment, that "the foundation of God standeth sure, having
this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his !"
Ver. 7. And to the angel of the church in Phila
delphia write : These things saith he that is holy, he
that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that
openeth, and no man shutteth ; and shutteth, and no
man openeth ;
This city, southward of Sardis, contained a church not
to be censured. They were, indeed, according to the
name of their city, friendly brethren ! The Saviour now
takes his name from those traits of character that are
most encouraging : — " He that is holy ;" or full of pure
and perfect love : " He that is true ;" and hence is faith
ful to his promises : " He that hath the key of David ;" or
has infinite power to save, resting on the covenant of
redemption made with him as the antetype of David. "He
that openeth, and no man shutteth ; and shutteth, and no
man openeth ;" or, has infinite power either to unfold, or
to hide the plan of salvation ; to open the door of the
human heart, that it shall receive salvation ; and also
power to open the door of heaven or of hell to the souls
of men.
Ver. 8. I know thy works: behold, I have set
before thee an open door, and no man can shut it :
for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my
word, and hast not denied my name.
All their faithful deeds Christ noted, and would unfold
for their reward. He had laid open before them a door
both of Christian usefulness, and of eternal glory, which
no enemies could close. Such doors Christ opens to the
F

62 LECTURE IV. '
faithful; — doors of securing a bright reward, and of his
conferring it upon them. These saints had "a little.
strength," moral strength ; not from themselves, but from
the grace of God, which they had received and cultivated
'in the most trying days. Such gracious habits of soul,
Christians may and ought ever to cultivate, in the strength
of Jesus Christ. Then they have an open door, indeed,
which the kingdom of darkness can never shut ; a door of
usefulness and of salvation.
Ver. 9. Behold, I will make them of the syna
gogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are
not, but do lie ; behold, I will make them to come
and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have
loved thee.
This church, too, had been annoyed by vile impostors,
calling themselves Jews, meaning here true friends of
God. But their claims were false. Christ declared them
to be " of the synagogue of Satan !" And these vile
characters should, sooner or later, be made to feel and to
confess the excellency of the characters they had thus
injured. And their confusion in this thing is denoted by
the proverbial phrase of their coming and worshipping
before the feet of those they had despised and injured ; as
in the prophet : " They shall come bending unto thee.
They shall bow themselves down at the soles of thy
feet." Scenes of eternal and intolerable mortification
await all such impenitent offenders of Christ's little ones.
Christ had before said, that it had been better for such if
a millstone were hanged about their necks, and they cast
into the sea, than that they should thus offend. Such
hints will be found to contain infinite terror to very many,
who here delight to torture and oppose the true people of
God !
Ver. 10. Because thou hast kept the word of my
patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temp
tation, which shall come upon all the world, to try
them that dwell upon the earth.
"The word of my patience!" thus called, because

chapter ih. 63
that to obey it, in such a time, and to endure the conse
quent persecutions, required great patience ; and also
because the wonderful patience of Christ towards his
enemies, was exhibited in such scenes of their cruelty
and outrage ! Christ now engaged to such, to keep them
in all their future scenes ; not from being tried, but from
being overcome. A tremendous scene of temptation and
terror then awaited the Christians of the Roman earth, in
the persecution under the Emperor Domitian. The
Roman empire is often spoken of in Revelation, as the
earth, and the world. That bloody persecution was then
coming "upon all the (Roman) world, to try them that
dwelt upon the (Roman) earth." In this, Christ would
sustain that church. Christians in all ages have their
special trials, in which their Lord graciously engages to
keep them. " Fear not ! for I am with thee !" " It is I ;
be not afraid." The covenant of grace assures, that " in
every temptation, God is faithful ; who will not suffer you
to be tempted above what ye are able ; but will with every
temptation make a way for your escape, or enable you to
bear it." "My grace is sufficient for thee: my strength
is made perfect in weakness." But such grace is derived
and enjoyed only in the way of diligent Christian faithful
ness. Hence our blessed Lord adds :
Ver. 11. Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast
which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.
12. Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in
the temple of my God ; and he shall go no more
out: and I will write upon him the name of my
God, and the name of the city of my God, which is
New Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven
from my God : and J will write upon him my new
name. 13. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the
Spirit saith unto the churches.
Christians are ever to remember, that behold their Lord
cometh quickly ! at all times must they "look for, and
haste unto the coming of their Lord" and Judge. He
may speedily come in their individual death. And the
time that may intervene between this and his final coming,

64 LECTURE IV.
will be as nothing compared with eternity. The grace
given to Christians must be held fast ; and it requires dili
gent cultivation, that no enemy may wrest their crown
from them, or rob them of their eternal glory. Grant that
the crown of glory is, in the covenant of grace, made
certain to all the regenerate: yet this certainty of the
end does not preclude the necessity of means of arriving
at the end ; nor of giving all diligence to persevere,— -of
agonizing to endure unto the end : and after all their dili
gence, it is said, " If the righteous scarcely are saved — "
Such is the manner, on their part, of their reaching sal
vation. Their salvation is here noted by their being made a
pillar in the temple of glory, that shall be honoured with
the inscription of the name of God, of the name of the
city of glory, and of the new name of Christ. The par
ticular things meant, eternity will unfold! "How can
ye understand, if I tell you of heavenly things?" "It
doth not yet appear what we shall be." Relative to
Christ's new name, we know not ; it may allude to the
new character, under which Christ will appear to eter
nity in heaven, after he shall have divested himself of
his present mediatorial kingdom at the end of the world.
" Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up
the kingdom to God, even the Father." Surely Christ
must, thenceforward, in eternity, appear to the redeemed
in some new point of light. And this may, for aught we
can tell, account for his " new name," to be inscribed on
the redeemed pillars of the heavenly temple. And, as
things are thus, no wonder Christ repeats his command,
to have all that have ears hear what the Spirit saith unto
the churches ! All other interests sink to nothing before
this ! Most pitiful, then, is the sleepy state of the Chris
tian world ! In how great danger are many who hope,
and who profess religion, of coming short of such glory!
And how irreparable will be the loss ! Many of the chil
dren of " the kingdom will be cast out." " There shall
be weeping, and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets in the
kingdom of God ; and you yourselves thrust out !"
Awake, then, all who wear the name of Christ! you
walk on snares ! you are in an enemy's land ! Will you
sleep in the field of battle ? Foes most potent are en-

CHAPTER HI. 65
gaged to rob you of your eternal life,— -your eternal all !
Thousands have been thus robbed ; and thousands more
will be thus robbed ! Will you permit yourselves to be
found among them ? In order to escape, inspiration says,
" Be sober : be vigilant : because your adversary the
devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about, seeking whom he
may devour."
Ver. 14. And unto the angel of the church of the
Laodiceans write : These things saith the Amen, the
faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the cre
ation of God :
This city was southward of Philadelphia, and on the
way to Ephesus. These seven churches lay in a kind
of circle. Laodicea is the last ; and is far from being
the best. The divine Master presents himself to them as
the Amen, or immutable Being ; one who bears faithful
and true testimony concerning them, and all men. " The
beginning of the creation of God :" or who, in his con
stituted mediatorial office, is the " firstborn of every crea
ture ;" the first created establishment actually brought
into existence. The covenant of redemption was first
formed between the Father and the Son, in which Christ
was constituted mediator. And, as the humanity of
Christ (which was then covenanted to be received in due
time) should be created ; as the connexion between this
and the infinite divinity of Christ, should be created ; and
as the whole official character of Christ is constituted ;
so he denominates himself, "the beginning of the creation
of God." This text belongs to that class of texts, which.
present Christ as dependent on the Father, — made to be
both Lord and Christ, — and his having all power, in
heaven and on earth, committed to him. This class of
texts allude not to any natural dependence of Christ, in
his divinity, on the Father ! For he is one in him ! But
they allude to his constituted character, as Mediator.
Another great class of texts assure us, that Christ is of
underived, eternal divinity ; the true God ; "without Fa
ther, without descent, without beginning," as in Mel.
chizedeck.
F2

66 'LECTURE IV.
Ver. 15. I know thy works, that thou art neither
cold nor hot : I would thou wert cold or hot.
16. So then, because thou art lukewarm, and
neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my
mouth. The word lukewarm alludes to that state of water,
which is most offensive to the stomach. Christ would
have them understand, that their state of heart relative
to religion, being neither one thing nor another, was most
offensive to him. They had their form of godliness, it
seems, without the power. They would not take the
position of open enemies ; nor would they be zealous
friends. They seemed determined to reconcile God and
mammon. Christ says, " I would that ye were cold or
hot !" Be one thing or another. Either be zealous
Christians, or make no further pretence. As he had said
lo the Jews ; " Either make the tree good, and its fruit
good ; or the tree corrupt, and its fruit corrupt." But
continuing as they were, Christ would soon reject them ;
even as lukewarm water is thrown as sickening and dis
gusting from the stomach. So base and contemptible
does the Saviour view professors who are neither one
thing or another ! having a little of religion to quiet their
consciences ; and yet not enough to mortify their lusts, or
to disturb the selfish heart.
Ver. 17. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and in
creased with goods, and have need of nothing ; and
knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable,
and poor, and blind, and naked :
We have here a most natural trait of the character of
hypocrites ; in their own imaginations they are rich and
happy in spiritual prospects! having no proper idea
of their depravity, guilt, and wretchedness ; — at ease in
Zion ; crying Peace ! while they are spiritually dead, and
sinking in eternal death. God says they are " wretched,
miserable, poor, blind, and naked !" This they will find,
when it is for ever too late.
What multitudes are in this wretched case ? " Five of

CHAPTER III. 67
them were wise, and five foolish !" If the disciples were
struck with a panic, on being informed that one of their
twelve was thus wretched : what should be the fear of
the present visible kingdom of Christ, when assured that
five in ten are thus ? This greater danger hardens many,
even to a cold insensibility ! " and knowest not that thou
art wretched." Examine yourselves then, O professors,
whether ye be in the faith ! prove your own selves.
" Search me, O Lord, and prove me ! try my reins and
my heart."
Ver. 18. I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in
the fire, that thou mayest be rich ; and white raiment,
that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of
thy nakedness do not appear ; and anoint thine eyes
with eye-salve that thou mayest see.
This church was yet within the reach of mercy. An
urgent call was once more addressed to them by him who is
Wonderful,Counsellor ! "I counsel thee." Happytokenfor
good, if the counsel might at last be heard ! The counsel
is addressed in the most appropriate figures. " Buy,"
take as a gift, " gold ;" a thing men most value ; the gold
of heaven ; the tried, and pure. White raiment too ;
grace and righteousness. " Buy," take them, that the
soul maybe adorned; and not be found naked. And eye-
salve from Christ, the Balm of Gilead, the Light of the
world ; the Sun of righteousness. Eyes thus anointed
shall see clearly.
Ver. 19. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten:
be zealous therefore, and repent.
We have here a sentence most appropriate to the luke
warm, for whom Christ has any design of mercy. Such
coldness will but hasten the chastening rod, where there
has ever been a spark of grace. The paternal rod must
be laid on, to recover. Let the chastised then, fervently
repent, and zealously reform. Let penitent zeal pluck
out the offending eye, and cut off the offending foot, or
hand ; lest both soul and body be lost in hell.

68 LECTURE rv.
Ver. 20. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock :
if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will
come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with
me. Although Christ was virtually turned out of doors by
this ungrateful church : yet as though graciously unwil
ling to leave them to perish, he stands at the door, and
most kindly knocks for admittance. If any then will
come to their senses, and open the door of the heart to
this wonderful heavenly visiter, he will come in, and re
ceive such to his holy fellowship and salvation.
Jesus Christ does indeed knock at the door of the
heart of the gospel sinner, and hypocrite. He knocks
by his word ; by the whispers of his spirit ; by his faith
ful ministers ; by the profession, order, and examples of
his followers ; and by his works of mercy, and of judg
ment. And, into every heart that graciously admits him,
he enters with the riches of his grace. " I will sup with
him, and he with me." A blessed fellowship commences.
" Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with the
Son." This will yield substantial peace. " Thou wilt
keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee,
because he trusteth in thee." " And the peace of God
that passeth understanding, shall keep your heart and
mind through Jesus Christ." The grace of God, the
love of Christ, and the fellowship of the Spirit, are settled
on such as their rich inheritance.
Ver. 21. To him that overcometh will I grant to
sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame,
and am set down with my Father in his throne.
Jesus Christ most diligently performed and finished the
work assigned him as our Redeemer : and he was hence
exalted to the throne of God, where he engages that all
who with his spirit encounter the difficulties, and perform
the duties of the Christian life, shall be exalted to reign
with him. " If so be that we suffer with him, that we
may be also glorified together." Most pungent warning
is, in our text, implied for all those pusillanimous, faint
hearted pretenders to religion, who will shape their plans

chapter ni. 69
to slide by every cross, as though determined never to
suffer any inconvenience for the sake of Christ. Such
characters have ever abounded. But such '¦fearful souls"
are ranked with the " unbelieving," who shall "have their
part in the lake of fire." Those who cheerfully suffer
with Christ, are the souls who shall reign with him. "Ye
are they who have continued with me in my temptations ;
and I appoint unto you a kingdom, even as my Father
hath appointed unto me." All others virtually deny
Christ, and will be by him denied.
Listen, then, to the way by which to overcome ; and to
the infinite benefit to your souls of overcoming. It must
be by faith in Christ ; and by persevering faithfulness in
his strength and grace. And " he that overcometh shall
inherit all things."
Ver. 22. He that hath an ear, let him hear what
the Spirit saith unto the churches.
Seven times are we presented, in these epistles, with
this solemn warning, in the same words. Why is it thus
repeated? The reason is manifest: men are dull of
hearing. But, that they should hear, and obey, is of
eternal importance. They must hear and obey : or eter
nally sink in the lake of fire. Hence the same words are
repeated to the perfect number seven.
Seven is a number much used in this mystical book.
We find here at least seven septenaries ; or, the number
seven seven times used. We have seven addresses to
an equal number of churches ; seven horns of the Lamb ;
the seven lamps ; the seven eyes of the Lamb (the same
as the seven spirits of God) ; the seven seals ; the seven
trumpets ; and the seven vials.
Vastly important to us is the warning in our text, seven
times from the mouth of God, urged in the same words.
This should make a deep and practical impression on the
hearts of all in Zion. Let those who seldom read them,
and those who read, but yield no trembling obedience,
pause and consider. May all awake, and hear, and obey,
the warnings in these seven epistles to us from our final
Judge. Such they are, though alas, forgotten. They
furnish a glass in which every church, and all the mem
bers in the visible kingdom of God, may see themselves,

70 LECTURE V.
and prepare to meet their Judge ! Let us be conversant
with this most precious heavenly mirror. Let us, with
devout souls, and most devout breathings of heart towards
God, often place ourselves before it, and form our hearts
and lives by it, lest we be condemned at the close of our
probation. " The words which I have spoken, they shall
judge you at that day."

LECTURE V.

REVELATION TV.
Ver. 1. After this I looked, and behold, a door
was opened in heaven ; and the first voice which I
heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me ;
which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee
things which must be hereafter.
The actors in the following scenes are next to be pre
sented ; and it must be done in the figurative language of
this book. The place chosen for the presentment of
them is found to be the third heavens ; or the space im
agined to be above our visible heavens, above the air, and
starry regions. Looking upward, John saw in vision, or
seemed to himself to behold, an opening in the vault in the
upper sky which terminates our sight, when directed up
ward. From this opening, a trumpet-like voice directed
him to ascend thither, and he should learn scenes of
futurity. Ver. 2. And immediately I was in the Spirit:
and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat
on the throne.
3. And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper
and a sardine-stone : and there was a rainbow round
about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald.

chapter iv. 71
John seemed to himself instantly to obey, and to lose
sight of all things earthly. He now seemed to behold
God the Father as seated on a throne worthy of himself.
But inspiration assures us that no man hath seen God at
any time ; or can see his face and live. This scriptural
representation, and the one in our text, form no disagree
ment ; for the former speaks of seeing God literally, as
he is ; and in the text, the view given of God is only fig
urative, and such as mortal man can endure.
This view, given of God the Father to John, was on
the same principle with that which, in the close of the
Revelation, is given of heaven, in the figure of the New
Jerusalem. Similar figurative views had before been
given of God ; — as that to Isaiah, " in the year that king
Uzziah died ;" that to Micaiah, when called before Ahaz ;
and that to Stephen, about to suffer martyrdom. God
was said to converse with Moses "face to face" as a
man converses with his friend : while the fact was, Moses
only heard God's voice from the Shechinah ; while yet
God assured Moses, that no man could see his face and
live. The Divine appearance to John, in our text, was
merely assumed, that God might accommodate himself
to mortal man. The scene might be borrowed from the
style of earthly monarchs, who have their thrones, robes,
and richest gems.
The Divine appearance like a jasper and a sardine-
stone, was an emblem of God's perfection. Grotius was
of opinion, that the jasper in the Revelation means the
diamond, the richest of all gems ; and it here denotes the
power and purity of the Almighty.
The sardine-stone, of a red hue, may here remind us
of the Divine justice. And the rainbow round the throne
denotes the faithfulness of God to fulfil his word. The
rainbow is set in the cloud, to show that God will keep
his word, never again to drown the world ; so, whenever
it is appended to any Divine appearance, it indicates
God's immutable faithfulness. The greenness of the
bow round the throne, in our text, denotes the mild and
pleasant effects of the faithfulness of God to man ; — like
the still small voice to Elijah after the earthquake, the
wind, and the fire.

72 LECTURE V.
Ver. 4. And round about the throne were four-
and-twenty seats : and upon the seats I saw four-
and-twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment ;
and they had on their heads crowns of gold.
These elders denote the common members of the
church of Christ. Their number is that made by the
union of the patriarchs and apostles ; as the gospel
church and the church of the Old Testament are essen
tially one.
It is a fact, too, that the priests of old (typical of the
gospel church) were divided into four-and-twenty courses.
And among the Levites of old, there were also four-and-
twenty courses of sacred musicians for public worship.
With these things accords the fact in our text, that the
representatives of the common members of the gospel
church, who are God's royal priesthood, should be exhib
ited as twenty-four. They appear sitting each one on a
seat round the throne of God, which denotes the presence
of God with them: " God is in the midst of her." Their
clothing of white raiment denotes their purity : and their
crowns are an earnest of their eternal glory. They are
kings, as well as priests, unto God.
Ver. 5. And out of the throne proceeded light
nings, and thunderings, and voices : and there were
seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which
are the seven Spirits of God.
These thunders, lightnings, and voices, are most fit ap
pendages of the scene ; and they indicate the judgments
with which God vindicates his church, and destroys her
enemies. The seven lamps burning before the throne, or in the
midst of these elders, assure us of the various gifts and
graces of the Holy Ghost, communicated for the salvation
of the people of God ; " There are diversities of gifts ;
but the same Spirit."
Ver. 6. And before the throne there was a sea of
glass, like unto crystal : and in the midst of the

CHAPTER IV. 73
throne, and round about the throne, were four; beasts,
full of eyes before and behind.
This sea of glass is in allusion to the great brazen sea,
in the temple of old, which was for the washing of the
priests. This vessel was called a sea, on account of its
vast capacity ; and it was made of brass.
In allusion to that ancient sea in the temple, Divine
grace, under the Christian dispensation, was predicted as
a "fountain to be opened for sin and for uncleanness."
The Christian church, as well as the church of old,
should have her sea for gracious cleansing. But in the
Christian church, instead of this sea being of brass, im
pervious to the rays of light, it should consist of pure
transparent glass. This is to denote the lucidness of" the
Christian dispensation ; where light has come into the
world, the Sun of Righteousness has risen, and his rays
now pierce through the whole establishment of gospel
cleansing, as rays of light pervade a vessel of glass.
This sea of glass is before the throne of God, as the
ministrations of grace are under the special eye of Hea
ven, — as God dwells in Zion,-~and as he engages his
special presence in all Christian assemblies for worship.
The brazen sea of old stood on twelve brazen oxen ;
three of them facing each cardinal point of the com
pass. We have here a lively emblem of the twelve
apostles, setting their faces in every direction, to carry
the gospel through the earth ; and in this employment
their successors were to follow them, down to the end of
the world.
We accordingly find in the text, emblems of the am
bassadors of Christ, as though annexed to this sea of
glass ; even as the old brazen sea stood upon its twelve
oxen. These ambassadors are now denoted by four liv
ing creatures, instead of the twelve brazen oxen ; one now
for each point of the compass. They are rendered in
our text four beasts ; which rendering is very unhappy.
The word in the original is zoa, from zoo, to 'live ; and
should have been rendered living creatures.' Gospel min
isters are here denoted by these emblems, instead of by
brazen oxen, as of old — connected with the emblems of
cleansing grace. The word in this book rendered beasts,
is theria. (Chap. xiii. 1-10. and xvii. 3.) That these four
G

74 LECTURE V.
living creatures are emblems of the ambassadors of Christ,
is evident from the following things ; they belong to the
fallen race of man ; for they were redeemed by the blood
of Christ. See chap. v. 8-10; where the four living
creatures, and the elders (lay members of the church) de
voutly prostrated themselves before Christ, saying, " For
thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood
out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation,
and hast made us kings and priests unto our God, and we
shall reign on the earth." " Thou hast redeemed us .'"
Certainly, then, they are men, and not angels. We re
peatedly find that the angels are mentioned besides
them, and distinct from them, as chap. v. 1 1. and vii. 1 1.
" I beheld and heard the voice of many angels round about
the throne, and the living creatures, and the elders."
They are ever distinguished, too, from the common mem
bers of the church, known as the elders.
Under the seals, in chap, vi., as new events of Pro
vidence unfold, each in turn of these living creatures
says, " Come and see !" q. d. " Come, behold the
works of the Lord !" This is a part of the employ
ment of the ministers of the gospel. The connexion
of these living creatures with the sea of glass, as the
twelve oxen were connected with the brazen sea of
old, suggests, that they denote the same characters, — the
ambassadors of Christ. And the employments of these
emblems decide the same thing : for they are found (in
verse 8-11, of our context) leading the common members
of the church in the worship of God.
These emblems of the ministry are said to be " in the
midst of the throne, and round about the throne !" indi
cating their nearness to God, and his care of them. The
following words of Christ to his ministers, give the true
sense of their being in and round about the throne; "Lo,
I am with you always." " He that receiveth you receiv-
eth me : but he that despiseth you despiseth me." These
stars of Zion our Saviour holds in his own right hand,
while he walks in the midst of his golden candlesticks —
the churches.
The text assures that these emblems of the ministry
are " full of eyes before and behind," which are signifi
cant of their correct knowledge, and holy vigilance, to ex
amine all things both before them, and after them.

CHAPTER rv. 75
Ver. 7. And the first beast was like a lion, and the
second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a
face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying
¦eagle. We have here the various gifts of the ministers of Christ.
We find that these gifts are often noted in different scrip
tures : " And he gave to some apostles, and some pro
phets, and some evangelists, and some pastors, and teach
ers." .And again, " All things are yours, whether Paul,
or Apollos, or Cephas ;" meaning the different gifts of the
ministers of the gospel.
The first class in the text, are like a lion, — bold, un
daunted, as well as strong. The second like a calf, or
a young ox ; alluding to the brazen oxen under the sea
in the temple of Israel* " Thou shalt not muzzle the
mouth of the ox ;" or shalt support the ministry. This
second class of these emblems denotes a class of minis
ters patient, strong, and though not brilliant, yet profitable,
means of great good in God's husbandry. The third em
blem, with the face of a man, may denote ministers who
are argumentative, deep, perhaps very humane. The
fourth like a flying eagle, swift of flight ; of piercing
vision ; passing fearlessly over deserts, mountains, lakes ;
towering toward heaven, and flying to different regions.
This emblem may remind us of the flights of missiona
ries, — some to the ends of the earth.
Ver. 8. And the four beasts had each of them six
wings about him ; and they were full of eyes within ;
and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy,
holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is
to come.
Their six wings a-piece assure us of their alacrity in
duty ; that true ministers fly in swift obedience to their
Lord and master; as saith Isaiah, "Here am I, Lord;
send me !" and Paul, " For the love of Christ constrained!
us." Their being " full of eyes within," indicates their gra
cious self-knowledge, and vigilantly keeping their own
hearts, as well as cultivating their mental powers.

76 LECTURE V.
Their resting not day nor night, saying, " Holy, holy,
holy" — is most significant. They are themselves holy l
"Be ye clean, who bear the vessels of the Lord." One
great business of their lives (is to proclaim the holy God,
and the holiness of God, as well as to call on men to be
holy. Let the following hints illustrate this ; " I ceased
not to warn every man, night and day, with tears." " I
have set watchmen on thy walls, O Jerusalem, who will
never hold their peace, day nor night."
Their saying, holy, holy, holy, is thought by some to
allude to the eternal Three in One, in Him who is, and
was, and is to come ! that each in this infinite three is
superlatively holy !
Ver. 9. And when those beasts give glory and
honour and thanks to him that sat on the throne,
who liveth for ever and ever,
10. The four and twenty elders fall down before
him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liv
eth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before
the throne, saying,
11. Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory
and honour and power: for thou hast created all
things, and for thy pleasure they are and were
created. The ministers of Christ lead in the holy worship of
God ; and the churches unite in the same.
The casting of their crowns at God's feet, denotes their
most feeling and devout confession, that all their salva
tion, from its origin to the crown of glory, is of the most
free and sovereign gift of God.
One argument used by them is powerful indeed —
that God made all things, and this according to his own
pleasure ! While hypocrites and sinners contend with
the Divine sovereignty ; the true people of God adore
him in it, and rejoice that " the Lord God Omnipotent
reigneth !"
May ministers and churches be ever deeply impressed
with a view of the great exaltation and responsibility of
their character and standing. Verily their duties, at such
a day as this, are great and urgent !

CHAPTER V. 77
What must the many eyes of the ministers of Christ,
(eyes before and behind, and within) discover, at this age
of infidelity and of licentiousness ! May all Christ's min
isters clearly discern the signs of the times — what is do
ing — and what ought to be done ! If ever wakefulness
and faithfulness were important, they are now important !
In the midst of the terrors of the times, just antece
dent to the Millennium, let it be remembered, that faith
ful ministers, and Christ's churches are round about the
throne ! God is near, and with them, with the rainbow of
his covenant faithfulness, which will not fail of bringing
salvation to Zion, and desolation to her enemies. They
" that be with us, are more than they that be with them."
" God is our refuge and strength !"

CHAPTER v.
Having thus far exhibited the actors of the scenes to
be unfolded ; another preparatory scene is now introduced.
A lively exhibition must now be given of the fact, that no
revelation of mercy could be given from God (after man's
apostacy), and no merciful predictions of future events,
but by an infinite Mediator. All the gracious communi
cations which had been made in the Old Testament,
from the beginning, of the doctrines, duties, and motives
of salvation, in the prophecies and promises, had been
made only in anticipation of a Saviour to come. And of
this, a clear decision must now be given, before entering
on the revelation of scenes of futurity. No such gracious
revelation from God to man could have been made, after
the fall of man, but through one mighty to save. And a
council must here be represented as held in heaven, to
see if such a Saviour could be found, and hence such an
unfolding of the salvation made ! With this view we are
prepared to attend to this chapter.
Ver. 1. And I saw in the right hand of him that
sat on the throne a book written within and on the
back side, sealed with seven seals.
God on the throne holds a book in his right hand — a
book not of modern, but of ancient form. The form of books
G2

78 LECTURE V.
in ancient days, was a leaf (either a parchment, or the
rind of papyrus, or some fit substance), written some
times on both sides, as in the case of Ezekiel's roll ; but
usually on but one side, and rolled up, the writing inward.
If they had matter for more than one leaf, they would
write it on another leaf, and roll it over the first ; then
another ; and so on, to any amount. Such a book
is seen in the right hand of God the Father, con
sisting of seven leaves, thus written on the inside, rolled
over each other, and sealed on the last edge of each leaf,
so that it was, in a sevenfold degree, a sealed book.
The text seems to tell us, that each leaf was written
on both sides ; but the best expositors agree that this is not
the sense of the passage. This erroneous sense is given
only by placing a comma in the passage where it does
not belong. The pointings of the Bible are of human in
vention ; as are other parts of grammar. This passage
is mistakingly so pointed as to read thus : written within
and on the back side, sealed with seven seals !" whereas
the true reading is as follows : " written within, — and on
the back side sealed with seven seals." The whole ac
count shows this to be the true reading ; for the book was
sealed, and no part of its writing could have been de
signed to be seen till its seal was broken, and its leaf
unrolled by a person able to accomplish it. This sealed
book was an emblem of events then future, designed for
the salvation of the church.
Ver. 2. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with
a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to
loose the seals thereof?
3. And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither
under the earth, was able to open the book, neither
to look thereon.
The question of infinite interest to a fallen world was
to be decided ; could there be, in the case of fallen man,
any hope, so that salvation, and a merciful unfolding of
future scenes, could be given ? The inquiry seems great
and public, made by a strong angel ; probably the greatest
agent in the intelligent creation ; — q. d. Is any creature in
the universe able to open this book ?
And no one, oudeis, (in the original) meaning here, no

CHAPTER V. 79
creature, in heaven, nor in earth, nor under the earth,
meaning, living or dead, — no created being in the uni
verse, was found able ; which amounts to a divine deci
sion of most unusual formality, to the real and infinite
divinity of Christ ; and that none but the infinite Godhead
could furnish a Saviour for lost man.
Ver. 4. And I wept much, because no man was
found worthy to open and to read the book, neither
to look thereon.
Had not one in the infinite Three in heaven been found
disposed to undertake ; all men must have wept, and
wailed, and gnashed their teeth in eternal wo !
But infinite wisdom and goodness found and presented
one both able and willing to undertake, and to accomplish.
Ver. 5. And one of the elders saith unto me,
Weep not : behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the
Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and
to loose the seven seals thereof.
" The Lion of the tribe of Judah."
The old rabbinical legend relative to the four standards
of the camp of Israel in the wilderness, of which that of
Judah was a lion, may, or may not be true. But it is by
no means so satisfactory an origin of the figure in the text,
as is the following : viz. Jacob, when he was about to die,
and was inspired to foretell the destinations of his sons,
speaks of Judah (from whom Christ, in his humanity,
came,) as an " old lion .'" This appellation, then, naturally
descended to Christ ; — " the Lion of the tribe of Judah !"
One of the elders, — representatives of the church on
earth, — communicates this blessed information of the Sa
viour. It might seem to human wisdom, as though some
favoured angel, or at least one of the emblems of gos
pel ministers, would be commissioned to give this informa
tion. But it is otherwise ! It must be one of the elders !
— a common member of the church ! Was this designed
to hint that Adam had been the honoured agent to give
information to his fallen race of the blessed heavenly
secret, that a Saviour was found for lost man ? that the
seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head?

80 LECTURE V.
Whether this be here meant or not ; so the thing was, in
fact ; as we find in the history of ancient Paradise.
Ver. 6. And I beheld, and lo, in the midst of the
throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the
elders, stood a Lamb, as it had been slain, having
seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven
Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.
The beloved disciple now looked, with solicitous expec
tation, to see this wonderful " Lion of the tribe of Judah /"
And he beheld in the midst of the throne, and of the em
blems of the gospel ministry, and those of the private fol
lowers of Christ, a Lamb! as having been slain, and
recovered again to life ! When people look for great
things in religion, they are often disappointed, in finding
what appears at first small. The Lord is not in the fire,
nor in the strong wind, nor in the earthquake : but in the
still small voice !
Both the lion and the lamb are notable emblems of
Christ, in our holy oracles. And the position of this
Lamb, hints to us, that Christ, through God, is ever in
the midst of his ministers and churches, even while he is
on the throne of the universe ; and he holds his stars in
his right hand. The seven horns of this Lamb are em
blems of his omnipotent power. His seven eyes are
emblems of his omniscient wisdom ; and also of his hav
ing, at his official direction, the Holy Ghost in all his
multiform gifts, and gracious operations, for the salva
tion of Zion.
Ver. 7. And he came and took the book out of the
right hand of him that sat upon the throne.
8. And when he had taken the book, the four
beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before
the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and
golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of
saints. Christ took the book from the Father. The Father
officially communicates to the Son all he has to do as
Mediator. It is in this official sense that Christ says,

CHAPTER V. 81
" The Father is greater than I." And the business of both
revealing, and fulfilling the decrees of God, is thus taken
by the Son from the Father. And, in view of such a Sa
viour, and of the economy of divine grace towards men in
him, Christ's ambassadors, and his whole church, prostrate
themselves before God and the Lamb, in the most humble
adoration, praise, and holy obedience. The harps in
their hands are emblems of their actual preparation for the
business of praise and holy worship, either with or without
instruments of sacred music to aid their voices. And their
golden vials, or cups, full of the prayers of the saints,
assure us, that the true people of God pray much ! Their
vials are not merely half filled, but they are full ! And
we here learn that their prayers are odours, in a twofold
sense ; or both as coming from hearts truly grateful,
graciously contrite, and sincere ; and as being performed
with the incense of Jesus Christ, in his powerful interces
sion. Ver 9. And they sung a new song, saying, Thou
art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals
thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to
God by thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue,
and people, and nation ;
10. And hast made us unto our God kings and
priests : and we shall reign on the earth.
The song of salvation by Christ is and eternally will
be new ; as it will for ever excite, in the souls of the re
deemed, new wonders and joys ; and will never appear
old, nor in the least, degree irksome.
We read of a new commandment, as given to Chris
tians, that they "love one another !"
This is the same commandment which they had from
the beginning ; but it is called new, because attended with
new light and obligations under the Christian dispensation.
Upon the same principle, the songs of praise to God
for the salvation by Christ will appear new, in eternal
ages. Those, then, who become tired of their religion,
have never learned the new song of redeeming grace in
our text.
The fact here, that the four living creatures and the
elders, unite in ascribing their redemption to the blood of

82 LECTURE V.
Christ, further decides, that both do indeed belong to the
human family.
And God sees fit to employ these two sets of emblems
to denote his true people on earth, consisting of his am
bassadors, and the other members of his church. Such is
the distinction which God makes between the ambassa
dors of Christ, and other Christians. But they both adore
and praise God that he hath not only redeemed them, but
has made them kings and priests unto himself. Levites
and priests were types of Christians under this last dis
pensation. And inspiration sees fit to prefix here the title
of kings also; making them a royal priesthood. Chris
tians are priests, as being consecrated entirely to God in
the temple of the gospel ; and as being prepared, by grace,
to offer to God holy and daily sacrifices, acceptable to him
by Jesus Christ. And they are kings, as governing them
selves by the Divine direction, and as having holy fellow
ship with Christ in his government of the world.
" And we shall reign on the earth." In the Millennium,
Christ will reign on the whole earth ; — not visibly : — but
spiritual, and in the hearts, and the holy faith of the world
of people.
And the reigning-of the saints on the earth will be, not
by any literal resurrection of those who have died ; but
by a blessed participation of the whole family of the saints
(in heaven, and on earth) with Christ in his millennial reign.
The saints in glory will see, and know, that the blessed
eause, in which their hearts were bound up, both living, and
dying, now fills the world ! and this fact will add new joys
to their heavenly glory. And also the saints on earth will,
at that time, have such fellowship with Christ in his reign
of grace, that they too may be said to reign on the earth !
Ver. 11. And I beheld, and I heard the voice of
many angels round about the throne, and the beasts
and the elders : and the number of them was ten
thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thou
sands ;
12. Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the
Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches,
and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and
blessing.

CHAPTER V. 83
13. And every creature which is in heaven, and
on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in
the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying,
Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto
him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb
for ever and ever.
14. And the four beasts said, Amen. And the
four and twenty elders fell down and worshipped him
that liveth for ever and ever.
A grand chorus here arises from all creation, except
from the world of despair ! — from the holy angels ; — from
all the ambassadors of Christ ; — and all his followers,
amounting to millions innumerable ! The ministers, and
people of Christ are distinguished in this grand, universal
chorus, as being the people more immediately interested,
having been redeemed.
In this grand Halleluia, Christ is expressly worshipped,
and adored, and this too, in the most ample and rich profu
sion of expressions of wonder and adoration. And the
scene closes with a renewed burst of rapture from the
redeemed. The ambassadors of Christ exclaim, Amen !
— a term of adoring acquiescence ! — and a token for others
to follow. Upon which the whole church fall down and
worship. Most rich is this chapter in instruction, and in practical
reflections. The opening of the way of gracious communication from
Heaven is, for lost man, a theme of immortal wonder and
praise. And it is a subject worthy of all acceptation and
improvement. And great indeed must be the folly, guilt,
and self-ruin of neglecting it.
The thought of the ministers and people of Christ being
in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne,
furnishes a most commanding motive to gratitude and
Christian faithfulness. An ancient prophet assures us,
"Jerusalem shall be called the throne of God." And
another ; " God is in the midst of her ; she shall not be
moved ! God shall help her, and that right early !" God
governs the world for her salvation. May Christians more
diligently learn the new song of redeeming grace ; and
never become weary of it !

84 LECTURE V.
The idea, " And we shall reign on the earth,'1 is com
manding ; and should ever awaken in Christians new and
holy zeal. Their sea of glass too, their luminous foun
tain for washing from all sin, should set their souls in
holy fire of love and gratitude. We are in ourselves
defiled ; "and our deep innate depravity too often fills with
vanity, folly, and guilt. This every true Christian daily
laments ; and he feels his need of cleansing grace ! and
blessed be God, -our sea of glass is ever at hand ! We
may there daily and hourly wash and be clean. " Wash
thy heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved."
" The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin !"
This sea for cleansing is not only pellucid ; but is ample
and free for all. God's kings and priests wash here with
out defiling the fountain ; which is ever clear as crystal,
like the waters of the river of life in the new Jerusalem.
O ye kings and priests of the Lord ; dwell on the broad
and ample brims of this sea of glass ; [see chap. xv. 2 ;]
and keep yourselves pure. It is striking to find, that the
church, there, at the opening of the Millennium, is noted
as standing on this sea of glass. Its brims are so ample,
and firm, that all may, as the kings and priests of God,
take their station upon it, continually, to enjoy its waters
of salvation.
They now seem to have David's request truly fulfilled
in themselves ; " One thing have I desired of the Lord ;
that will I seek after ; that [ may dwell in the house of
the Lord all the days of my life ; to behold the beauty of
the Lord, and to inquire at his temple." Let us labour, let us
pray, that we may enjoy this blessedness ! Then shall we
indeed answer to the description of Paul, " And hath raised
us up together, and made us to sit together in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus." And then may we obey the fol
lowing gracious direction ; " Behold, bless ye the Lord,
all ye servants of the Lord, who by night stand in the house
of the Lord ! Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, and bless
the Lord. The Lord, who made Heaven and earth, bless
thee out of Zion !"

LECTURE Vt.

REVELATION VI.
The way was now prepared to commence the unfold
ing of events then future.
First Seal.
Ver. 1. And I saw when the Lamb opened one of
the seals ; and I heard, as it were the noise of thun
der, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see.
Jesus Christ broke the seal on the last edge of the
outer leaf of the book ; and, unrolling the leaf, he presented
to view its contents; upon which, it seemed to thunder.
Thunder is a noted emblem of war ; and wars tremen
dous were about to commence.
One of the emblems of the gospel ministry officially
and audibly said, " Come and see !" We here learn, that
when new and interesting events take place, the minister
of Christ is to call the attention of his people to them.
Come, and behold what God has done, or is doing". " Ye
can discern the face of the sky ; how is it that ye cannot
discern the signs of the times?" "None of the wicked
will understand; but the wise will understand." Of the,
wicked, Inspiration says, "Thy judgments are far above
out of his sight." But it is not to be so with the people
of God ! they are to behold the fulfilment of the sacred
scriptures. Paul at Thessalonica reasoned three Sabbath
days upon the prophecies, to show that the events (hen
taking place before their eyes, relative to Jesus Christ
and his evangelical kingdom, were but the fulfilling of
ancient prophecies of these events.
Ver. 2. And I saw, and behold a white horse ;
and he that sat on him had a bow ; and a crown
was given unto him : and he went forth conquering
and to, conquer. H

86 LECTURE VI.
We have here a figurative view of great judgments and
mercies, which should distinguish the morning of the
Christian dispensation. A white horse is an emblem of
victory and triumph. We have in this figure a striking
view of the power of God in destroying his enemies, and
promoting his cause, which should distinguish that early
period. This rider on the white horse was, no doubt, an em
blem of our Lord Jesus Christ, marching forth as the
Captain of our salvation. "The Lord is a man of war."
"The Lord shall utter his voice before his army; for
his camp is very great." His crown is an emblem of his
official glorification ; and his bow, of the weapons of his
indignation. He will give victory and salvation to his fol
lowers. His going forth, conquering and to conquer,
assures us of the glorious triumphs of his gospel, in the
ruin of its contending foes, and the salvation of its friends ;
in the multitudes of its early converts, and their stability
in the order of the gospel. Jesus Christ had predicted
these very triumphs to take place at this time, when he
said to his disciples, " Verily, I say unto you, there be
some standing here who shall not taste of death till they
see the Son of man coming in his kingdom." This event,
as it took place upon that generation, was the destruction
of the Jewish nation, forty years after Christ ; and the
attendant for more extensive propagation of the gospel.
These things did indeed take place upon that generation
as a mystical coming of Christ. And this twofold event
may be viewed as a lively fulfilment of the figure in our
text under the first seal.
The destruction of Jerusalem by Titus,* the Roman,
* Should it be objected, that the destruction of Jerusalem, and the
Jews, was probably past when the text was written ; it may be
anwercd that this, if it were a fact, would form no objection to the
exposition given. It is a notable fact, in this book, that when a
Eeries of events is to be exhibited, the commencement of which is
already past when the figure of the series is given ; the account
goes back to the commencement of the series, though it were then
past. It will be shown that such liberty is repeatedly taken in this book
of prophecies, The reason is obvious : it is to give the whole
series of events, the commencement of which is already past. No
objection can lie against this, which is of any avail.

CHAPTER VI. 87
was an event which would not be overlooked in the com
mencement of the seals, where things of great interest to
the church were to be given, from early in the Christian
era. Christ had predicted his coming in the destruction
of trie Jews, and in his remarkable propagation of his
gospel, in Matt, xxiv, Mark xiii, and Luke xxi. And it is
most natural to expect, that the series of events in the
seals would open with these.
The figure in our text to denote the going forth of
Christ as the Captain of our salvation, for the united designs
of judgment, and of mercy, are most appropriate, and are
well known in the sacred oracles. As Psalm xiv. 3-6 :
" Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty, with
thy glory and thy majesty : and in thy majesty ride pros
perously because of truth, and meekness, and righteous
ness ; and thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things.
Thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's ene
mies, whereby the people fall under thee." Hab. iii. 3 :
" God came from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount
Paran. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth
was full of his praise. Before him went the pestilence ;
and burning coals went forth at his feet. Thou didst ride
upon thy horses, and thy chariots of salvation. Thy bow
was made quite naked. The mountains saw thee, and
were troubled ; the deep uttered his voice, and lifted up
his hands on high !"
In Rev. xix. 11-14, we find Jesus Christ riding forth
upon his white horse of victory and salvation against Anti
christ, at the battle of that great day of God Almighty, as
will be shown on the passage. That passage and event
furnish us with an argument in favour of the exposition
given of our text. In the text, Christ rides for the de
struction of the infidel persecuting Jews (the type of Anti
christ), and for the subsequent propagation cf his gospel.
And, in the similar figure in Rev. xix., he-rides forth against
Antichrist himself, to sweep the field of his enemies, and
prepare the way for his own millennial kingdom.
The two great events, — of ruin to the enemies of God,
and of salvation to his friends, — are usually found in close
union through the prophetic scriptures. Our blessed
Lord was thus anointed (Isa. lxi. 1, 2 ;) "to proclaim the
acceptable year of the Lord ; and the day of vengeance
of our God." The figure in our text accordingly com-

88 LECTURE VI.
bines things upon this scale ; ruin to the hostile Jews,
and enlargement to the Christian church.
Christ rides forth " conquering and to conquer !" The
King of Zion has conquered his foes, is conquering, and
will conquer them. And vain and mad are the hopes of
his enemies for success against him. As well might stub
ble fully dry dream of vanquishing a glowing furnace, by
flinging itself upon it. God will " go through, and will
burn them together !" "What do ye imagine against the
Lord?" "Our God is a consuming fire." The Jews
found him to be thus in the destruction of Jerusalem and
of their commonwealth. They were destroyed as being
antichristian ; and their destruction was a lively type of
the final destruction of the great Antichrist in the last days
before the Millennium. Hence the similarity between the
event in our text, as type, and that in Rev. xix. as anti
type, as will be seen.
All ye saints of the Lord, rejoice, even in these peril
ous times of the last days ! Your Captain of salvation is
with you, conquering and to conquer ! He cheers the
souls of his followers with the kind address, "Fear not !
It is I ; be not afraid." " I will not fail thee, nor forsake
thee." Second Seal.
Ver. 3. And when he had opened the second seal,
I heard the second beast say, Come and see.
4. And there went out another horse that was red :
and power was given him that sat thereon to take
peace from the earth, and that they should kill one
another: and there was given unto him a great
sword. The seal of the second leaf being broken, and the con
tents presented, another emblem of the gospel ministry
says, " Come and see !" Each minister of Christ should
be able to answer the question, " Watchman, what of the
night ?" And exhibiting the signs of the times, he should
in some fit manner say, " Come and see !" " Come, be
hold the works of the Lord."
This red horse and his rider — commissioned to take
peace from the earth, and holding a great sword — furnish

CHAPTER VI. 89
an emblem of another terrible scene of slaughter in the
empire, after the destruction of Jerusalem, and the com
monwealth of the Jews, last noted. This event of the
second seal took place in the reign of the Emperors Tra
jan and Adrian, before the middle of the second century.
The Jews had greatly multiplied in the empire ; and the
Romans, by their idolatrous worship of Jupiter Capitoli-
nus, exasperated them to rage and open rebellion. And,
further to excite and direct their rage, a pretended mes-
siah arose at this time, by the name of Barcocab (import
ing a son of a star), giving out that he was the star that
was to arise, as predicted by Balaam. How signal was
this judgment upon the Jews. They had wilfully re
jected the true star of Bethlehem, miraculously demon
strated among them, and now they were given up to fol
low an ignis fatuus — or a glow worm — simply because he
was wicked enough to say, he was the star to arise !
Miserable deluded Jews ! They must now be visited
with another tremendous judgment, in union with the Ro
mans, who also had aided in the death of the Lord of
glory. The Jews in Egypt and Cyprus, led by the vile Bar
cocab, are asserted to have slain, with vast cruelty,
460,000 of the people of those Roman provinces. This
excited against them the vengeance of the empire ; and of
the Jews there fell not less than 580,000 ; and it is said not
less than 1000 of their fortresses were destroyed. Eu-
sebius says, upon the events of the times, " The doctrines
and church of Christ daily increased ; but the calamities
of the Jews were aggravated with new miseries."
It is striking to reflect, that the persecutors of Christ,
and of his people, were thus led to be each other's execu
tioners. We have here then, an event fully equal to the
emblems in this seal — a horse red indeed ; and its rider
wielding a great sword, and having power to take peace
from the earth, and that the enemies of the gospel should
kill one another.
Third Seal.
Ver. 5. And when be had opened the third seal, I
beard the third beast say, Come and see. And 1 be
held, and lo, a black horse : and he that sat on him
had a pair of balances in his hand,.
H2

90 LECTURE VI.
6. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four
beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and
three measures of barley for a penny ; and see that
thou hurt not the oil and the wine.
On the opening of the third leaf, a third emblem of the
ambassadors of Christ says, " Come and see !" This
testimony to ministerial faithfulness must still be given.
Ministers must never sleep on their posts. If they be
come, as the prophet expresses it, " Dumb dogs that can
not bark, sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber !" God
will make them " contemptible," as false teachers.
This black horse seems an emblem of deep afflic
tion, and especially of famine.
In the Lam. v. 10, we read, " Our skin is black, like an
oven, because of the terrible famine .'" This sense of the
figure is confirmed by the pair of balances in the hand
of the rider, and by the declaration in the midst of the
four living creatures, emblems of the gospel ministry —
" A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of
barley for a penny ; and see that thou hurt not the oil and
the wine." It is here ascertained, that the price of a
day's work must be given for the usual allowance of food
for a day ! And this little pittance must be weighed with
great exactness !
Those balances, and all that is said, betoken famine.
Ezek. iv. 16. "Son of man, behold I will break the staff
of bread in Jerusalem, and they shall eat bread by weight,
and with care; and they shall drink water by measure,
and with astonishment ; that they may want bread and
water, and be astonished one with another, and consume
away for their iniquity."
The church of Christ, during the time of the seals of
judgment on pagan Rome, weltered under ten successive
bloody persecutions from the pagan emperors. . In the
time of the fourth persecution, the tremendous famine
predicted in this seal took place, under the reign of
the Antonines. After the horrid mutual slaughters of the
Jews and Romans under the second seal, the famine of
the third seal commenced, in the course of the second
century. Tertullian testifies of the event, that a scarcity
occurred in every city, aggravated with such rains as
seemed to threaten a second deluge. This scarcity oc-

CHAPTER VH. 91
casioned great tumult in Rome, insomuch that the empe
ror, Antoninus Pius, was attempted to be stoned. And he
found himself obliged to open his own treasures to sup
ply the hunger of his subjects. And this judgment con
tinued in the succeeding reign of Antoninus the Philoso
pher. The river Tiber overflowing, deluged much of the
city of Rome — wafting on its surface people, cattle, and
the various ruins of the country, as we find stated by
Eachard. Earthquakes succeeded, the conflagrations of
cities, and an infection of the atmosphere. This cor
rupted the land with infinite numbers of insects, which
devoured what little of the fruits of the earth remained;
" and (says Capitolinus) produced the most grievous fam
ine." This famine continued in the reign of Commodus, and
such was the desperation of the people of Rome, that they
raised a sedition, and put to death Oleander, the favourite
of the emperor. Frequent wars, scanty harvests, ill-man
agement of public stores, and various disasters, produced
the long and deadly famines of those days, and fulfilled
the judgments of this seal, in the second century.
Fourth Seal.
Ver. 7. And when he had opened the fourth seal,
I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and
see. 8. And I looked, and behold, a pale horse : and
his name that sat on him was Death, and hell fol
lowed with him. And power was given unto them
over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword,
and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts
of the earth.
The contents of the fourth leaf were in turn presented.
The fourth ministerial emblem calls the attention of all
within hearing, to " Come and see." Thus all the emblems
of the ambassadors of Christ, in turn, call for attention to
the signs of the times. No one can be exempt from this
duty. And those who from popular views or slothfulness,
undertake to exempt themselves, do it at their peril, and
may expect to be made contemptible. (Matt. ii. 9.)
This leaf presents a pale horse ; — an emblem of mortal
ity ; with one, by the name of Death, seated upon him;
and an emblem of hell, the place of departed sinners, fol-

92 LECTURE VI.
lowing him. Death and foell to the wicked are nearly
allied. The former delivers over to the latter. " The rich
man died, and was buried ; and in hell he lifted up his eyes,
being in torment."
Death upon his pale horse, in this seal, has his com
mission from God, to kill a fourth part of men with some
of the four usual means of destruction — the sword, famine,
pestilence, and beasts of prey ! And soon after the open
ing of the third century, in the midst of fiery persecutions
of the church, a new series of divine judgments upon the
empire commenced, answering precisely to this hiero
glyphic. Wars foreign and domestic raged ; thirty com
petitors laid claim to the imperial crown at once. Twenty
actually reigned in the space of sixty years, from Cara-
calla, A. D. 2 1 1, to Aurelian, A. D. 270. Most of these
met with violent deaths. And the Persians and northern
nations hence gained no small advantage against the em
pire. Valerian was taken captive by Sapores, King of
Persia, and treated with much severity till his death.
These wars, with civil contentions, failed not to produce
famine ; which unseasonable weather rendered severe.
These calamities were charged upon the persecuted Chris
tians. But Cyprian boldly testified, that they were di
vinely sent, according to the sacred predictions ; and were
inflicted, not because the Christians had rejected the idol
atries of Rome, but because the Romans refused the
worship of the true God.
Death (meaning pestilence) was numbered among the
means of mortality in this seal. And this was fulfilled.
Zonaras and Lipsius (mentioned in Mede,) inform, that a
pestilence from Ethiopia raged, for fifteen years together,
through the provinces of Rome, to their tremendous depopu
lation. Zonaras says, "Gallus, the emperor, was very severe
to the Christians ; many being cut. off by persecution."
Then, (after noting the invasions of the Persians in Armenia ;
and almost innumerable hordes of Scythians falling upon
Italy, Macedonia, Thessaly, and Greece ; and hosts from
the Palus Maeotis, laying waste many provinces;) he says,
"the plague spread itself through the whole east, and
west; destroying the inhabitants of many cities, and
ravaging for fifteen years. Zosimus declares the same ;
and says, that " so great a destruction of men had never
before taken place." Eutropius also assures us, that in
the reign of the Emperors Gallus and Volusian, " thest

CHAPTER vn. 93
times were memorable for pestilence and grievous dis
tempers .'"
And the invasions of wild beasts, at that period, were
tremendous. An author in Bishop Newton informs, that
five hundred wolves entered at once into a city, where the
emperor, Maximin the Younger then was. And we are
assured, that lions and tigers made war upon the inhabit
ants of different parts of the empire. God thus visited
persecuting Rome, under this seal, with his four noted
judgments ; as in Ezek. xiv. 27 ; " For thus saith the
Lord God, how much more when I send my sore judgments;
the sword ; and the famine ; and the noisome beast ; and
the pestilence, to cut off man and beast ?"
Fifth Seal.
Ver. 9. And when he had opened the fifth seal,
I saw under the altar the souls of them that were
slain for the word of God, and for the testimony
which they held :
10. And they cried with aloud voice, saying, How
long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and
avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?
11. And white robes were given unto every one
of them ; and it was said unto them, that they should
rest yet for a little season, until their fellow-servants
also, and their brethren, that should be killed as
they vjere, should be fulfilled.
The four living creatures, emblems of the gospel minis
try, had all, in turn, called for attention, on the unfolding
of a new scene. This therefore is not now repeated ;
but was well understood. Nine bloody persecutions had
taken place, previous to this, in the pagan Roman em
pire : (that under Nero, Domitian, Adrian, the Antonines
at two periods, that under Maximin, that under Decius,
that under Gallus, that under Volusian, and the ninth by
Valerian.) Thousands innumerable had been thus called
to seal their testimony with their blood. One more tre
mendous pagan persecution was now pending ; the tenth
and last, under Dioclesian, which was to continue ten
years. Then the pagan beast was to receive a wound in
the head, and die for a long course of centuries ; as will
be seen under the sixth seal.

94 LECTURE VI.
In this state of things, the fifth seal is opened. Here
the souls, (psuchas, lives, meaning here the blood of the mar
tyrs,) under the altars, where they had been sacrificed, is
noted, in figure, as crying to God for vengeance. This
seems to be in allusion to the blood of the first martyr,
Abel. " The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me
from the ground." " Blood has a voice to pierce the skies !
Revenge, the blood of Abel cries !"
The blood of the millions of martyrs, shed in pagan
Rome, was thus calling for justice on that wicked em
pire ! The inquiry is made by this blood, How long vin
dictive justice should be delayed ? The reply informs,
that it must be deferred yet for a time ; until more of their
brethren (as though spoken to the souls of these martyrs),
about to suffer as they had done, should be thus united
with them. Their memories, in the mean time, should be
blessed ; while their souls should be peculiarly exalted in
glory. Which things were denoted by white robes (em
blems of victory and triumph,) being given to every one of
them !
The history of these times gives the best comment upon
this passage. When the nine persecutions in the empire
had taken place, as has been noted, another furious one was
still pending : that under the Emperor Dioclesian, which
was of ten years' continuance. As this was approaching,
the saints would need the consolation furnished in our
text. The events of this seal furnish an implicit prediction of
the revolution in the Roman Empire, which took place
after the tenth persecution, which was then just at the
door. In this, (which will be given under the next seal,)
God took signal vengeance on the pagan emperors, and
their supporters. God would, in a degree, avenge the
blood of the martyrs on them who shed it, according to
the cry in our text. He would make, on that generation,
inquisitions for blood, in kind remembrance of his slaugh
tered children : and would do it upon a greater scale than
in any of the antecedent seals. Great judgments had
already been inflicted on the Roman persecutors, as has
been shown. But these were so small, compared with what
should then take place, that the martyrs were, in our text,

CHAPTER VI. 95
represented as feeling themselves to be unavenged. " How
long, 0 Lord, holy and true, dost thou not avenge ? This
seems but a note preparatory to what should soon follow.
And, as that is expressed in figures which are calculated
to receive more than one fulfilment, (as may be shown so,)
the fifth seal may be viewed as a kind of awful preparatory
hint of all the signal inquisitions for blood, which God
would institute before his millennial kingdom ; while yet
it had a primary allusion to events then soon to be accom
plished. Sixth Seal.
Ver. 12. And I beheld, when he had opened the
sixth seal, and lo, there was a great earthquake : and
the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the
moon became as blood ;
13. And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth,
even as a fig-tree casteth her untimely figs, when
\ she is shaken of a mighty wind.
14. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it
is rolled together ; and every mountain and island
were moved out of their places.
15. And the kings of the earth, and the great
men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and
the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free
man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of
the mountains ;
16. And said to 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 :
17. For the great day of his wrath is come ; and
who shall be able to stand 1
This scene prefigured the revolution in the Roman em
pire (which took place in the fourth century) from pagan
ism to Christianity, under the Christian emperor Constan-
tine. We have here an avenging of the blood of the
martyrs, indeed ; and given in language borrowed from
the great judgment day, at the end of the world ! I will
give a concise history of the scene to which it primarily
alluded.

96 LECTURE VI.
About the year, 320, soon after the tenth most bloody
persecution in the Roman empire,, under the Emperor
Dioclesian, Constantine, upon the death of his father
Constantius, came to the imperial throne. Galerius, who
had succeeded Dioclesian, was emperor of one part of
the western branch of the empire. And he was inclined
still to carry on the Dioclesian persecution. But he was
smitten with an incurable disease ; as also with a con
sciousness, that it was from an angry God, for his perse
cutions of the Christians. He hence, by a public edict,
put an end to the persecution in his part of the empire,
and desired the Christians to pray for his restoration to
health ! But he soon died ! " 1 will make thine enemies
come bending unto thee !" Maxentius had got himself
declared emperor in his stead ; and a large faction fol
lowed him.
Constantine embraced the Christian religion, and formed
a determination to vindicate it. He accordingly marched
an army against Maxentius ; who met him with an army
of 188,000 men. But, in a great battle, Maxentius was
defeated ; and Constantine became sole emperor of the
west. In the eastern wing of the empire, Maximin and
Licinius were emperors. The former made war upon
the latter, but was defeated with the loss of his army.
Maximin, upon this his defeat, put to death many of his
pagan priests and soothsayers, as impostors, and false
flatterers. Soon after, as he was meditating another bat
tle with Licinius, he was divinely smitten with incurable
torments, and blindness, and died in despair, — confessing
the guilt of his hostility to the people of God !
Licinius was now the only emperor of the east, as Con
stantine was of the west. The former was disposed yet
to carry on the persecution of the Christians. A war
soon broke out between him and Constantine, in which
Licinius was utterly defeated, and was forced to flee.
Again returning, he renewed the contest ; but was again
defeated with the loss of 100,000 men, and himself taken
prisoner. Soon after, for an attempt upon the life of Con
stantine, he was put to death. Constantine became now
the sole emperor of the whole empire, and removed the
seatof it to Byzantium in the east; which he called, from
his own name, Constantinople.
Constantine now new-modelled the government of the

CHAPTER VI. 97
empire ; abolishing all the powers of paganism ; estab
lishing Christianity as the religion of the empire ; and
placing the administration of the government in the hands
of Christian prefects ! The power of persecution was
now destroyed. " The great lights, so called, of the
heathen world," says Bishop Newton, " the powers, civil
and ecclesiastical, were all eclipsed and obscured. The
heathen emperors and Cesars were slain ; the heathen
priests and augurs were extirpated. The heathen officers
and magistrates were removed. The heathen temples
were demolished ; and their revenues were appropriated
to better uses 1"
Here the secular Roman beast received his death wound,
in his sixth — his imperial — head, and died ; which death
was to continue till these last days ; when the deadly
wounded head was to be healed. (Rev. xiii. 3, 12, 14.)
This long interim was to be occupied by the rise and
predominance of the papal beast ; as will be shown on
Rev. xiii. 11-18.
The figures in our text, to denote this revolution, are
prophetic and appropriate. The sun is a prophetic em
blem of emperors and kings, or of first rulers. The
moon, here, is a figure of their armies. The stars, of
the various subordinate officers of a government. Hence
the darkening of the sun, the turning to blood of the
moon, and the falling of the stars, denote the various ter
rors of a revolution ; as might be shown from various
passages in the prophets, and especially in the predictions
of the battle of the great day ; of which event, the judg
ment of the sixth seal was a lively emblem. Joel ii. 10 ;
" The earth shall shake before them, the heavens shall
tremble ; the sun and the moon shall be dark ; and the
stars shall withdraw their shining." Isaiah iv. 4; "All
the hosts of heaven shall be dissolved -, and the heavens
shall be rolled together as a scroll ; and all their hosts
shall fall down, as the leaf falleth from off the vine ; as a
falling fig from a fig-tree." Isaiah xiii. 10 ; " For the
stars of heaven, and the constellations thereof, shall not
give their light ; the sun shall be darkened at his going
forth ; and the moon shall not cause her light to shine."
Such is the language of the prophets, relative to most
signal national judgments. As in the following : Isaiah
ii. 19; "And they shall go into the holes of the rocks,
' I

98 LECTURE VI.
and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the Lord, and
for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake
terribly the earth." And Hos. x. 8 ; " And they shall
say to the mountains, Cover us ; and to the hills, Fall
on us."
Says the text, " For the great day of his wrath is come,
and who shall be able to stand ?" That revolution was
a great day of God's wrath to the pagan empire ; and the
abetters of paganism were not able to stand. It was also
a lively emblem and type of the battle of the great day of
God, now not far future ; and also of the end of the
world. The language, therefore, which we find appro
priated to the battle of that great day, and to the end of
the world, was adopted by the prophetic Spirit, and ap
plied to that typical event ; not that it was an ultimate
accomplishment of it ; but because it held a conspicuous
rank among the types of it ; as did also the destruction of
Jerusalem. Both brought a day of God's wrath, indeed,
upon antichristian enemies ; and afforded a solemn me
mento of the battle of the great day, and also of the end
of the world !
In the event in our text, the pagan Roman beast died !
In a still greater fulfilment of the description there given,
or in the battle of that great day of God, the same beast
(having obtained the healing of his deadly wound, and,
according to another prophetic figure, having arisen from
the bottomless pit) goes into perdition ; and sinks, as a
mighty millstone, into the depth of the sea, never to rise
again before the Millennium. (See Dan. vii. 11; Rev.
xix. 19; xi. 15; xvi. 17 ; xiv. 14, to end; and xviii. 21.)
In this scene, our text will receive a much more
striking fulfilment, as to the import and amount of its
figures, than in the event to which it primarily, and in
its chronological order, applies. The imagery of the
sixth seal is manifestly one of those prophetic descriptions,
which allude to a rising course of events, as type and
antitype, till they are fully accomplished in that last great
day, for which all other days were made ! Hence such
events are noted, as a coming of Christ;— " the great day
of his wrath is come !" All such antecedent comings
of Christ are but mystical, and not literal ; and are thus
but types of his last and literal coming to judge the
world.

CHAPTER V1L 99
The six first seals thus related to judgments on the
pagan Roman empire. " The sixth seal abolished pagan
ism and planted Christianity as the nominal religion of
the empire."
Viewing the event described under the sixth seal, as a
type of the battle of the great day of God, now not far dis
tant ; its language is of the deepest interest to us.
The language of the fifth seal too, being a note prepara-.
tory to divine inquisitions for blood, is of interest to this
generation. The earth is now deeply defiled with blood.
And even our land is not free from it. And blood, wan
tonly shed, has a voice calling for vengeance, which God
will not fail to hear, and answer. The kind and solemn
warning then, applies to this very period, — " Come my
people, enter into thy chambers." [See Isai. xxvi. 20, 21.]
Christians, awake, and obey. And, O sinner, awake,!
fly from the wrath to come. " Escape for thy life." It is
no time to sleep, nor linger, at such a day as the present !

LECTURE VII.

REVELATION Vn.
Six of the seals having been opened, and paganism in
the Roman empire having been subverted, a new era opens
upon the church. But the empire, though now under a
government nominally Christian, had resting upon it the
enormous guilt of ten blood)' persecutions of the followers
of Christ ; and God had vengeance yet to take upon it,
A series of judgments was now about to commence upon
the empire, predicted under the figures of trumpets, as
trumpets of old were used to sound alarms. Seven trum
pets of judgments were to be blown by seven angels;
inasmuch as angels are ministers of Providence, to fulfil
divine judgments on the enemies of God.
But some important representations were first to be

100 LECTURE VII.
given of the sealing grace of the Spirit, — of the prevalence
of Christian prayer in numerous conversions, — and of a.
deferring of pending judgments for this great object.
Ver. 1. And after these things I saw four angels
standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the
four winds of the earth, that the wind should not
blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.
The commencement of the judgments of the trumpets is
here denoted by winds that were about to sweep the Roman
earth, by invasions of hordes of barbarians from the north.
Winds are a noted emblem of such judgments; as Jer.
xlix. 36, " And upon Elam will I bring the four winds from
the four quarters of Heaven ; and will scatter them towards
all those winds ; and I will send my sword after them."
The holding of such winds then, implies both that the
judgments were coming, and that they were to be deferred
for a time. To give a lively view of this, four angels were
represented as standing at the four cardinal points of the
compass, holding those pending winds, till the chosen of
God in the empire should be brought in, and sealed for
Christ. Ver. 2. And I saw another angel ascending from
the east, having the seal of the living God : and he
cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom
it was given to hurt the earth and the sea,
3. Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor
the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God
in their foreheads.
4. And I heard the number of them which were
sealed : and there were sealed an hundred and forty
and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of
Israel. This angel of mercy must have been Christ, the Sun of
Righteousness, coming like the natural sun from the east..
He had the seal of the living God, the power of grace and
of life, which is but the impression of the moral image of,
God upon the soul. Their being said to be sealed in their

CHAPTER VII. 101
foreheads, seems in allusion to a custom of ancient times,
in which masters affixed some mark upon their servants,
to note them as their property ; — also from the custom of
labelling articles, to show to whom they belonged. The
chosen of God were to be set apart for him, by a mark
said to be upon their foreheads, but really affixed to their
hearts ; impressing there the image of God ; bringing
them into the visible kingdom of God, under the seals of
his covenant.
This blessed operation must be accommodated with a
season of peace ; as was in fact the case in the empire for
fifteen years after the judgment of the preceding seal ; and,
to a considerable degree, for forty years. In this season
144,000 were there converted to Christ ; probably a cer
tain number put for an uncertain ; — said to be of the tribes
of Israel.
Ver. 5. Of the tribe of Juda were sealed twelve
thousand. Of the tribe of Reuben were sealed twelve
thousand. Of the tribe of Gad were sealed twelve
thousand. 6. Of the tribe of Aser were sealed twelve thou
sand. Of the tribe of Nephthalim were sealed twelve
thousand. Of the tribe of Manasses were sealed
twelve thousand.
7. Of the tribe of Simeon were sealed twelve thou
sand. Of the tribe of Levi were sealed twelve thou
sand. Of the tribe of Issachar were sealed twelve
thousand. 8. Of the tribe of Zebulon were sealed twelve
thousand. Of the tribe of Joseph were sealed twelve
thousand. Of the tribe of Benjamin were sealed
twelve thousand.
The number is the square of the number of the twelve
patriarchs, and of the twelve apostles, carried out in thou
sands, to indicate the greatness of the number of the con
verts of that time. And these converted gentiles are noted
as being of the tribes of Israel, from the fact, that the gen
tile church succeeded the Jewish church, and are called
children of Abraham. 12

102 LECTURE VII.
Ver. 9. After this I beheld, and lo, a great multi-
tude, which no man could number, of all nations, and
kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the
throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white
robes, and palms in their hands.
10. And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation
to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto
the Lamb.
After this, or presented in vision as a subsequent event,
John beheld multitudes innumerable in glory, having come
from every region of the earth, and now standing before the
throne of glory in sinless perfection ; and holding in their
hands each a branch from the palm-tree, as an emblem of
victory over all their enemies, of sin, Satan, and the world.
These we must view as a prophetic exhibition of the
amazing multitudes who should, in times then future, and
to the end of the world, be in like manner sealed, and
should be brought lo glory by gospel grace.
What follows, to the close of the chapter, confirms the
idea, that this is a description of the state and glory of the
spirits of the just made perfect in heaven. Such a view
of that state is most delightful to the church in all ages ;
but especially to the saints just entering the scenes of
tribulation then about to be inflicted on the Roman earth,
in which good people would not fail of having some pain
ful participation. This vast, company of glorified saints in
Heaven are presented as saying, with loud voices, " Salva
tion to our God, and to the Lamb." All the glory of their
salvation they ascribe alike to the Father, and to the Son
whom they worship as God.
Ver. 11. And all the angels stood round about the
throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and
fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped
God, 12. Saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wis
dom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and
might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen.
The angels are here noted, distinctly, from the saints in

CHAPTER VII. 103
glory, as standing round the throne, and round the elders,
and the four living creatures, and prostrating themselves
before God in the most profound adoration and worship.
They are the guardian spirits of the saints : as says In
spiration, " Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth
to minister to them that shall be heirs of salvation."
Ver. 13. And one of the elders answered, saying
unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white
robes 1 and whence came they ?
14. And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And
he said to me, These are they which came out of
great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and
made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
15. Therefore are they before the throne of God,
and serve him day and night in his temple : and he
that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them.
16. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any
more : neither shall the sun light on them, nor any
heat. 17. For the Lamb, which is in the midst of the
throne, shall feed them, and shall lead them unto liv
ing fountains of waters : and God shall wipe away
all tears from their eyes.
One of the elders calls the attention of John to this
heavenly company ; asking who, and whence they were ?
that their character and state might be thus drawn out,
and exhibited. John refers the question to the interroga
tor, who himself gives the reply. And the remark,
" These are they that came out of great tribulation," may
have an emphatic allusion to the martyrs, who had suf
fered in the ten pagan persecutions. But it must be
viewed as including all martyrs in every age ; with all
the glorified saints in heaven, from first to last ; especially
before the Millennium. The description substantially ap
plies to all in the world of glory, inasmuch as it is a gene
ral fact, that " through many tribulations the people of
Christ enter into the kingdom of heaven." The veil of
heaven seems to be drawn aside, not to exhibit here things
done on earth, as in most of this prophecy, but to exhibit
the glorious state of the saints above. Angels are dis-

104 LECTURE VII.
tinctly given in their own names ; as are also the elders,
and the four living creatures ; denoting the church on
earth, and her ministers. But, distinct from all these, we
find a company of the human race described as in glory ;
— a great multitude that no man could number, of all na
tions, kindreds, and tongues, standing before the throne,
and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and hold
ing palm-branches, as emblems of victory, in their hands.
This view of the redeemed in glory is most kindly given
as an antidote to the church on earth against the terrors
through which she would have to pass, in days of perse
cutions, and in all the trials of life. It was designed to
operate as a needful support and consolation to the people
of God, from that time to the end of the world. This
description was designed to excite their alacrity in obe
dience, and in sufferings for Christ's sake ; and it should
extinguish at once all the vain hopes of men who are not
willing thus to endure tribulation for their Lord ; but
whose economy it is to slide round every cross, and to
make their way through life without having to endure any
thing for him who died for them ! Such fearful and self-
pleasing souls are not in the way to be prepared to unite
in the songs of those hosts in glory. It would seem
rather, that should they be admitted among the ranks of
those glorified ones, they would be ashamed of them
selves. Whatever descriptions of the glorified saints are
found in the sacred oracles, they may be viewed as re
ceiving their finishing touch in our text. We have here
their perfect holiness, denoted by their white robes, and
by their being washed in the blood of atonement ; and
they are satisfied in God's likeness, in that perfect love
which casteth out fear. Their victory is exhibited by
their palm-branches in their hands ; and they are pre
sented before the throne, beholding God in Christ, and
shouting their loud and united praises for redeeming love
and salvation. Their perfect services have no interrup
tion of night, nor any alloy in that temple of unfading
glory. Hunger, thirst, and every calamity known on
earth, are now for ever banished, while they enjoy the
presence and fulness of God. Jesus Christ, in the midst
of the throne, feeds them with his heavenly treasures ;
leading them unto fountains of living waters ; and wiping
all tears from their eyes. In these figurative strokes,

CHAPTER Villi 105
every thing is included which heaven can afford : — things
which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath ever
entered the conceptions of man.
Let the saints, in this world of trials, often turn to this
description, and be exceedingly joyful in all their tribula
tions. May it set their souls on a holy fire, and lead the
children of God to triumph over the world, over sin, and
Satan, and every foe, while they most diligently pursue
the path of duty. Let timorous souls gird up the loins
of their minds, and be bold soldiers of the cross, for
Christ and the great salvation ! for in due time all shall
reap who faint not.

REVELATION VIII.
Seventh Seal.
Ver. 1. And when he had opened the seventh seah
there was silence in heaven about the space of half
an hour.
This seal was not, like its predecessors, to contain.
some precise event ; but it was to contain all the trumpets,
or seven successive judgments, which would occupy the
time following the sixth seal ; or from about the middle
of the fourth century, to the battle of the great day, and
the Millennium.
The silence in heaven of half an hour upon the open
ing of this seal, may denote the awe and the suspense oc
casioned by the expectation of great things, but which
were not yet discovered. Place yourself before a scene
about to be opened, though now hid from your sight.
Suppose your expectations to be highly raised relative to
me things next to be exhibited. After a little waiting, the
curtains are drawn aside ; but you at first perceive no
definite object ; yet are confident something will soon be
presented. What would be your state ? It would be a
state of breathless silence ! no motion, no whisper, no
loud breathing ! So it is in our text : and half a pro
phetic hour passes in this silent suspense without being
able to learn what is to be exhibited. What is here im
plied ? that something great was soon to burst upon their
sight ; also that it was something not to be soon finished,.

106 LECTURE VII.
as were the scenes of the antecedent seals ; but should
occupy a length of time. The distinct series of things of
nearly 1600 years, was then about to commence ; and no
wonder that half an hour should be devoted to breathless
silence, and anxious expectations, before any thing dis
tinct should be presented.
Ver. 2. And I saw the seven angels which stood
before God ; and to them were given seven trumpets.
This silent interval was succeeded by the coming forth
of seven angels, to each of whom was given a trumpet,
an emblem of the judgment which was to be by him exe
cuted. But, previously to the first of these angels com
mencing his work of judgment, a bright representation
was to be given of the reality and the prevalence of the
intercession of Christ for the saints ; and of the accept-
ableness of their prayers thus performed, and their preva
lence with God.
Ver. 3. And another angel came and stood at the
altar, having a golden censer ; and there was given
unto him much incense, that he should offer it with
the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which
was before the throne.
4. And the smoke of the incense, which came
with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before
God out of the angel's hand.
5. And the angel took the censer, and filled it with
fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth : and there
were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an
earthquake. This figure alludes to what we have in the ceremonial
law, Exod. xxx. 1-10, where God demanded an altar of
incense to be made, like a table, twenty-two inches square,
and forty-four inches high, of the most durable wood, such
as composed the ark of the covenant, that type of Christ.
This altar should be overlaid with pure gold ; and hence
it is called in our text the golden altar, and it was placed
"before the veil that was by the ark of the covenant in
the holy place." The priests of old were here to make

CHAPTtR VIII. 107
atonement once a year, by putting the blood of the sin-
offering upon it ; and he also should burn incense upon it
every morning and evening, at the time of the morning
and evening sacrifice. We find here prefigured both the
necessity, and the acceptableness of the blood, and the in
tercession of our heavenly High Priest, who has entered
for his people into heaven, there to intercede, having once
shed his blood for them. Jesus Christ then, is this other
angel in the text, who, in allusion to that ancient type, is
noted as coming and standing by this golden altar, on
which he offers much incense, with the prayers of the
saints before the throne of God, where the perfume of the
incense rises with these prayers to render them acceptable
to God. This figure is full of salvation and joy to the
true people of God, who are here assured of the way of
access to him, and the acceptance with him of their
prayers, and gracious services, through the blood and inter
cession of Christ. It is here implied, that the prayers
and services of fallen man, performed without an entire
reliance on Christ, must be of God rejected. Verily,
that golden altar, with its services, was a rich shadow of
good things to come — of the salvation in Christ for all the
broken in heart. The penitent guilty soul may here ven
ture, with humble boldness, to the throne of grace. A
view of the prevalence of such prayers and intercessions
follows — Christ casts to the earth, with his cen3er, coals
from that golden altar where the prayers of the saints had
thus been performed, and voices, thunderings, lightnings,
and an earthquake follow ! which scene denotes the judg
ments then about to commence under the trumpets, and
more remotely, all the judgments with which God would
vindicate his cause against his enemies ; these would be
in answer to the prayers of his people for the salvation
of Zion. The following words of Christ illustrate this
scene, " and shall not God avenge his own elect, who
cry unto him day and night, though he bear long with
them ? I tell you, he will avenge them speedily." What
is said of the two witnesses also illustrates this scene :
" These have power to shut heaven that it rain not ; and
have power to smite the earth with all plagues as oft as
they will." See also Psalm clx. 6-9 ; Rev. ii. 26, 27.
This figure assures us of the prevalence with God of

108 LECTURE VII,
Christian prayers, to protect against the enemies of our
holy religion. And the way was now prepared to com
mence the judgments of the seven trumpets.
Trumpet I.
»Ver. 6. And the seven angels which had the seven
trumpets prepared themselves to sound.
7. The first angel sounded, and there followed
hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast
upon the earth : and the third part of the trees was
burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.
Most of the events which fulfil the trumpets, are secu
lar events, or events political; but they will not be exhi
bited here merely as such, but as judgments of God, in ful
filment of his word, in the protection of Zion, and in the
confusion of her enemies. As such, Christians should
contemplate them, to increase their devotions, and their
confidence in God ; even as the historical national events
of the Old Testament are to be contemplated.
The events of this trumpet are given under an assem
blage of figures, such as are used in similar cases in the
word of God, especially in the prophecies. The earth,
which was the seat of those judgments, means the pro
vinces of the Roman earth ; as the earth often means a
country then under consideration. The winds of judg
ments, which the four angels were, in chap. vii. 1, holding,
that they should not for a time blow on the earth (the Ro
man empire), were now let loose, and began to scour the
regions of their destination with vast ravages. The im
agery in the text, to denote them, is both rich and scrip
tural. Storms of hail, with thunder and tornados, pros
trate and destroy the blessings of life. They are here
taken as fit emblems of wars, foreign invasions, and bloody
scenes, which waste and destroy. The prophet Isaiah
predicted the invasion of Israel by Salmanesar, king of
Assyria, as follows : Isa. xxviii. 2 ; " Behold, the Lord
hath a mighty and strong one, which is a tempest of hail,
and a destroying storm, as a flood of mighty waters over
flowing, shall cast down to the earth." And the invasion
of Sennacherib is thus predicted Isa. xxix. 6 ; " Thou

CHAPTER Vltl. 109
shalt be visited by the Lord of hosts with thunder, and
with earthquake, and great noise, with storm, and tempest,
and flame of devouring fire."
In like manner Ezekiel predicts the divine judgment on
the wall built up with untempered mortar. Ezekiel xiii.
23 ; " Therefore thus saith the Lord God, I will rend it
with a stormy wind in my fury ; and there shall be an over
flowing shower in mine anger, and great hailstones in my
fury to consume it."
The following strokes, in the word of God, are in the
same kind of diction : " The Lord also thundered, and
the Highest gave his voice, hailstones, and coals of fire."
" The Lord shall cause his glorious voice to be heard,
and shall show the lightning down of his arm, with the
indignation of his anger, and with the flame of a devour
ing fire, with scattering tempests and hailstones." Says
Sir Isaac Newton, " In prophetic language, tempests,
winds, or the motions of clouds, are put for wars ; and
thunder, lightning, hail, and overflowing rains, are put for
the tempest's of war." And he adds, " In like manner an
imals, and the green grass, express the beauty and fruitful-
ness of the Jand ; also trees signify people of higher rank ;
and green grass people of common condition." The fig
ures in our text then, denoted war, invasion, terrible ravages
of the empire ; and as hail, in those regions, usually came
from the north, so those judgments should be fulfilled, as
was the fact, by invasions from the north. And in the
histories of those times we find all this fulfilled.
Upon the death of Constantine, under whose reign the
empire enjoyed the peace noted by the staying of the
winds, his three sons, to whom the empire was divided,
began to contend ; they thus prepared the empire ibr for
eign invasion : and the historic pages of those times as
sure us that barbarians from the north of Europe poured
forth like storms of hail indeed !
Says Guthrie, " Those fierce tribes were scattered over
the vast countries of the north of Europe, and northwest
of Asia ; the subjects of the Russians and the Tartars.
Great bodies of armed men, from the vast and wild regions
of the north, with their wives and children, issued forth
like regular colonies, in quest of new settlements in the
south of Europe. New adventurers followed them ; and
the regions which they deserted were occupied by more
K

110 LECTURE VII.
remote tribes of barbarians. These, in their turn, pushed
forward into more fertile countries ; and like a torrent
these numerous hordes rolled onward, threatening to
sweep away all before them. The scourge of God, and
the destroyers of men, were names by which the most
rioted of these barbarian chieftains were known. These
savage and furious hordes of human beings overran (as
is well known) and settled in the southern realms of Eu
rope, and the western branch of the old Roman empire.
The Suevi and Alans settled in Spain early in the
fifth century ; who soon after were themselves overrun
by the Goths, who captured Rome, and settled in Italy.
The Franks soon after subdued, and settled in Gaul, from
whom it derived the name of France. The Huns, about
the middle of the fifth century, invaded Hungary, and set
tled themselves in that region. The Gepida? and Lom
bards planted themselves in Italy. And the Vandals
crossed the Straits of Gibraltar, and established them
selves in the northern and fertile provinces of Africa,"
whence they would be found to fulfil another trumpet of
divine wrath, as will appear.
These things fully answered to the figurative language
of our text, and to the time of its events ; as says Dr.
Lowman : "All the Roman provinces were at once in
vaded, from the eastern to the western limits :" and Eu-
tropius says, " The Roman empire now nodded with dis
tress :" and Claudianus (in Lowman), " Nothing but the
shadow of the Roman name then remained." Mr. Mede
informs, that Alaric, with a huge army of Goths, and
others, broke into the eastern wing of the empire, espe
cially Macedonia, sparing neither towns nor people : that
in Greece he wasted and destroyed with horrible car
nage ; carrying the same destruction into Epirus, and
Acaia, burning and destroying! — that having thus ravaged
in the east, for five years, he passed into the' west, and
spread desolation far and near ! — that after him, Mada-
gaiso, a Scythian, with an army of 200,000 men, invaded
the Venetian territories, carrying slaughter and terror! —
that a third and more deadly army of Vandals and Alans
invaded the western wing of the empire, occasioning vast
calamities; and that these judgments fulfilled that terrible
storm of hail, mixed with fire and blood, alluded to in this
trumpet. Gregory, of those times, says, " Such terrors

CHAPTER VIII. Ill
from heaven were then often-times stricken in the minds
of men, as lightning, flaming fires, and sudden storms
occasion." And thus was fulfilled the judgment of the
first trumpet on the Roman earth.
The texts, expounded in this lecture, furnish rich ma
terials for reflection. Divine judgments are often deferred
for a sealing time ! and, at such a time, how important it
is to obtain the seal of salvation ! Sealing times are
nearly allied to days of divine vengeance ! — as in the
following: " To declare the acceptable year of the Lord ;
and the day of vengeance of our God." God is long
suffering ; but at the time appointed his judgments will
speak, and will not lie. If, because judgment against an
evil work is not speedily executed, the hearts of sinners
are fully set in them to do evil ; yet, sooner shall heaven
and earth pass away, than such denounced judgments fail
of fulfilment. God will be known by the judgments which
he executeth. " Go your way and pour out your vials
upon the earth !" " Go ye forth, and slay utterly : but
come not nigh to the men that have the mark." The
days in which we live, render such directions of the
deepest interest !

LECTURE VIII,

REVELATION VIII.

Trumpet II.
Ver. 8. And the second angel sounded, and as it
were a great mountain burning with fire was cast
into the sea : and the third part of the sea became
blood :
9. And the third part of the creatures which were
in the sea, and had life, died ; and the third part of
the ships were destroyed.
A mountain, in prophetic language, means a kingdom ;

112 LECTURE VIII.
and a mountain on fire, means a kingdom flaming in war,
and burning with indignation for revenge, or for plunder.
The sea, in prophecy, means a realm in a tumultuous
state ; and sometimes the seat of a power marked out for
ruin : in our text it means the latter.
This trumpet denotes another signal step towards the
downfall of the Roman empire, after the first fury of
invasion, like a storm of hail and thunder from the north.
And it was fulfilled by the capital plundering of Rome
itself, the seat of the empire, by bloody hordes of Goths
and Vandals. The judgments of the first trumpet fell,
like a tempest of hail and fire, upon the provinces of the
empire ; but this second trumpet takes the seat of it.
Alaric, with an army of Goths, laid siege to Rome, took
the city, and plundered it ; slaying a vast multitude of
its inhabitants ; men, women, and children ; noble and
ignoble, priests and laity.
But this scene of terror was outdone by another of a
similar kind within half a century ; when Genseric, with
an army of Vandals from the northern parts of Africa
(where this people had planted themselves from the north,
as has been noted), landed at the mouth of the Tyber at
Rome, and took the city. The burning mountain was
now cast indeed into the sea, in prophetic imagery. The
ferocious Moors and Vandals had the unrestrained posses
sion and plundering of this vast city, the capital of the
world, for fifteen days ; when its treasures, sacred and
secular, fell a promiscuous prey into the hands of these
rapacious legions. When their fury was glutted, and
their rage for plunder satisfied, Genseric led them back to
Africa, conveying thither immense riches, and many cap
tives ; among whom was the Empress Eudoxia, with her
two daughters. This may be viewed as a finishing of
the judgment of the second trumpet; and thus as a nota
ble infliction of divine wrath on that capital city, so long
the seat of the pagan persecutions of the church of
Christ. As the hail-storm of the judgment of the first
trumpet came from the north, this finishing and most capi
tal scene of the burning mountain of the second trumpet,
came from the burning climes of the south.
Trumpet III.
Ver. 10. And the third angel sounded, and there

CHAPTER vm. 113
fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a
lamp, and it fell upon a third part of the rivers, and
upon the fountains of waters :
11. And the name of the star is called Wormwood:
and the third part of the waters became wormwood ;
and many men died of the waters, because they were
made bitter.
A falling star, in prophetic imagery, and when se
cular things are the subject, imports the falling of some
civil prince. Thus Isaiah, addressing the king of Ba
bylon, after his fall, says, "How art thou fallen from
heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning !" or, thou light-
bearing star ; alluding to the day-star, as though this
should fall to the earth ! What Roman prince then, fell at
this time ? Their last Roman emperor, Momylus (called
Augustulus, or the little Augustus), was, at the time to
which this trumpet naturally alludes, put down, — to the
great vexation of the provinces of the Roman empire.
Odoacer, king of the Heruli, collected an army in Ger
many, entered Italy, and put down their last emperor
(after taking Rome), and assumed to himself the title of
the king of Italy : this operated indeed like wormwood
on rivers and fountains of water, which renders them
bitter. The condition of the kingdoms and provinces of
the empire, denoted by the rivers and fountains in our
text, was thus imbittered and perplexed. For bloody
scenes, revolutions, and barbarous governments followed,
occasioning bitter anxieties, terrors, and much slaughter.
Another bitter scene too, — one of a religious kind, — .
occurred at this period ; the terrors of the Arian heresy,
A star falling from heaven, in things ecclesiastical, denotes
an apostate, a false teacher, a fatal heretic : as in Rev.
ix. 1 ; where such a falling star denoted the author of the
Mohammedan delusion, as will be seen. The falling star
in our text then, may allude to the noted Arian heresy of
those days. Both Arius, and his more active followers,
may well be called wormwood ; because, with all their
sanctimonious zeal, and cry of Persecution (a trait of
character common to heretics), they were themselves ex
tremely bitter against the orthodox followers of Christ.
And their enmities and persecutions did, at that very time,
K2

114 LECTURE VIII.
imbitter the blessings of life, whether this were, or were
not, a fulfilment of our text. Arius denied the doctrine of
the Trinity in the Godhead ; holding that Jesus Christ
is but a mere creature, though of exalted rank, and above
angels. And he exhibited his scheme, when he said of
his opponents, " They hold that Christ, in his divine per
son, is not posterior nor inferior to the Father !" And
again ; " We (Arians) are persecuted, because we say
Christ had a beginning !" Though Arius himself lived
before the time of the judgment of this trumpet; yet
the Arian heresy received a notable revival at this very
period. We learn in history that kings and first charac
ters of those barbarous hordes from the north, as they
came within the twilight of Christianity, embraced the
tenets of Arius ; and they became their furious advocates,
and the bitter persecutors of the orthodox. The cele
brated Mosheim testifies as follows : " Towards the com
mencement of the sixth century, the Arians were triumph
ant in several parts of Asia, Africa, and Europe ! Their
opinions were openly professed, and their cause main
tained, by the Vandals in Africa, the Goths in Italy, the
Spaniards and Burgundians, the Suevi, and the greater
part of the Gauls." He further proceeds to speak of the
Trinitarians, as being rigorously treated by the heretics
of that age ; particularly in Africa and Italy, where, he
says, " they felt, in a very severe manner, the weight of
the Arian power, and the bitterness of their resentment."
And this storm, he informs us, was not over, till the Van
dals were driven (in 534) from Africa ; and the Goths, by
the arm of Justinian, out of Italy." (Vol. i. p. 467.)
These Arian persecutions accord so fully with both the
chronology and the imagery of this trumpet, that they are
here adduced as at least aiding in the fulfilment of its
events. They did indeed contribute their full part to the
bitter scenes of those days, and were effected by the
bitter Goths and Vandals who had been the instruments
of the judgments of the two antecedent trumpets.
Trumpet IV.
Ver. 12. And the fourth angel sounded, and the
third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part
of the moon, and the third part of the stars ; so as the

CHAPTER VIII. 115
third part of them was darkened, and the day shone
not for a third part of it, and the night likewise :
The darkening of the heavenly luminaries imports, in
prophetic language, the subversion of the civil authorities,
in a kingdom or empire ; the destroying of their civil
peace. A writer says, As light is the symbol of joy and safety,
so is darkness of adversity and misery ; and hence, said
Jeremiah to the Jews ; " Give glory to the Lord your God,
before he cause darkness ; and before your feet stumble
upon the dark mountains ; and while ye look for light, he
turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross dark
ness." We have here one description of the Babylonish
captivity ; it caused " gross darkness." The degree of
darkness in such passages may hint, to us the degree of
the judgment fulfilling them. The prophet Isaiah, pre
dicting the judgments of the last days, when God will
"cut off the spirit of princes, and show himself terrible to
the kings of the earth ;" says, " For the stars of heaven,
and the constellations thereof, shall not give their light ;
the sun shall be darkened in his going forth ; and the
moon shall not cause her light to shine ; and I will punish
the world for their evil."
Ezekiel, also, predicting fatal judgments on Egypt,
says, " When I shall put thee out ; (or extinguish thy
luminary,) I will cover the heavens, and make the stars
thereof dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud ; and the
moon shall not give her light ; and all the bright lights of
heaven will I make dark over thee, and set darkness upon
thy land, saith the Lord God." Joel also says, " The
sun shall be turned into darkness, before the great and
notable day of the Lord ;" meaning in wars and revolu
tions. Thus we learn the sense of the prophetic language in
our text ; that God would darken a third part of the
political Roman luminaries ; or extinguish that third part
of the political light of that empire, which then still re
mained. It seems, from the history of the fulfilment of
our text, that the third part of the light extinguished was
not the first third ; but the last third ; or the part which
had till now remained. And this their darkness settled
down upon them for both day and night, or the twenty-

116 LECTURE Vin.
four hours, meaning continually. Rome never again
should recover her pristine glory, nor much meliorate her
degraded condition.
And all this took place upon that empire. After the
Gothic kingdom had for some time continued in Italy, —
which kingdom had left to Rome a considerable degree
of splendour, and some degree of the power of her senate,
consuls, and other magistrates, — the emperor of the east
ern wing of the empire sent his general Belisarius, and
took Rome. The year following, Vitijes, king of the
Goths, besieged Rome with an army of 150,000 men, and
reduced it to great extremity. Soon after, Totilas, a suc
ceeding Gothic king, took Rome : and the next year
Belisarius took it from him : two years after, Totilas re
covered it : and five times, in less than twenty years, this
noted city was thus taken and retaken ; reducing that
capital of the world to a sorry condition ! In a short time
after, Narses, another general of the emperor in the east,
again subdued Rome, and got himself constituted duke
of all the realm, with Rome and the other provinces sub
jected to him.
The exarchate of Ravenna was now established, and
became the seat of the new government ; and Rome lost
all its supremacy, and was placed upon a level with other
cities of Italy ; and thus the last third of the light of this
great national luminary was extinct ! Darkness settled
on all the advocates of the old government ; and the
judgment in our text was accomplished. These first four
trumpets, inflicted on Rome, after its revolution to Chris
tianity, are the four minor trumpets : but they brought the
fall of the Raman Empire.
Ver. 13. And I beheld, and heard an angel flying
through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice,
Wo, wo, wo, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason
of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels,
which are yet to sound.
Notice is here given, by an angel flying through the
heaven, of the three woes then yet awaiting the guilty
World : and these three trumpets are hence denominated
the three wo trumpets,or the first, second, and third woes;
which were to be still more notable events. They were

CHAPTER VIII. 117
to relate each to a different power, as will be seen ; and
were events great, and far distant from each other.
The three trumpets, expounded in this lecture, furnish
interesting reflections.
By these judgments, God made himself known, vindi
cated his name and government, and gives solemn warn
ings to men on earth. Rome had been great, and had
long governed, the known world. But, long had this
wicked empire persecuted the cause of God, and slaugh
tered millions of the dear followers of Christ : and God
poured his judgments upon them.
These savage barbarians from the north had their own
selfish and bloody designs ; and the Most High had his
deep, wise, holy, and vindictive designs, in the same events.
" Surely the wrath of man shall praise God ; and the re
mainder of that wrath he will restrain." These calami
ties were the wicked deeds of those vile hordes of robbers;
and they were yet the righteous dispensations of God :
" ye meant evil against me (said Joseph to his brethren) ;
but God meant it for good." God governed the whole,
and fulfilled his word and wise designs ; yet were the
aggressors free agents ; and their cruelties were without
excuse. God said of the Assyrian, Isa. x., coming
against the Jews ; " I will send him against the hypo
critical nations, and against the people of my wrath will
I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the
prey, and to tread them down as the mire of the streets."
But of the same Assyrian, God says ; " Howbeit he
meaneth not so ; neither does his heart think so ; but it is
in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few :"
hence God cut off the Assyrian, in his turn ; as he did
the Romans, in the judgments recited.
Let transgressors then, tremble ! for " the triumphing
of the wicked is short !" " When they say, Peace and
safety ; sudden destruction cometh, and they shall not
escape !" " He that being often reproved, hardeneth his
neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without
remedy."

LECTURE IX.

REVELATION IX.
This chapter gives us the fifth and sixth trumpets ; or
the first and second wo trumpets.
Trumpet V.
Ver. 1. And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a
star fall from heaven unto the earth : and to him was
given the key of the bottomless pit.
2. And he opened the bottomless pit : and there
arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great
furnace ; and the sun and the air were darkened by
reason of the smoke of the pit.
3. And there came out of the smoke locusts upon
the earth : and unto them was given power, as the
scorpions of the earth have power.
4. And it was commanded them that they should
not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green
thing, neither any tree ; but only those men which
have not the seal of God in their foreheads.
5. And to them it was given that they should not
kill them, but that they should be tormented five
months : and their torment was as the torment of a
scorpion when he striketii a man.
6. And in those days shall men seek death, and
shall not find it ; and shall desire to die, and death
shall flee from them.
7. And the shapes of the locusts were like unto
horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads
were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were
as the faces of men.
8. And they had hair as the hair of women, and
their teeth were as tfie teeth of lions.

CHAPTER IX. 119
9. And they had breastplates, as it were breast
plates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as
the sound of chariots of many horses running to
battle. 10. And they had tails like unto scorpions, and
there were stings in their tails : and their power was
to hurt men five months.
11. And they had a king over them, which is the
angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the
Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue
hath his name Apollyon.
We have here a prediction of the rise and progress of
the Mohammedan delusion, propagated by armies of Sara
cens. A falling star, when the event is a religious concern,
is an emblem of some religious impostor. Such an impos
tor has here a key of the bottomless pit ; which imports
that he is permitted to introduce a fatal delusion from the
world of darkness. His opening the door of the bottom
less pit, and asmoke ascending from it, darkening the world
around, denote the rise of a fatal delusion from hell. And
that smoke's pouring forth locusts of a terrible description,
denotes the agents and armies by whom this delusion is
propagated. And all the remaining parts of the figurative
description are most natural, to give the rise and progress
of this delusion.
This falling star was Mohammed ; or Sargius, a Jewish
apostate monk, a man of literature, who was prime agent
to Mohammed in the formation of his Koran, and false
scheme. The falling star denotes Mohammed, with this
monk included, and whatever aid he found in his infernal
plans. This grand impostor had travelled as a merchant
in the Arabian caravans, and had noticed, in the regions
where he passed, what parts of their religions were most
pleasing; and what displeasing, to the multitude. And
Satan, and his own ambitious herrt, induced him to deter
mine on forming a new system of religion, which should
imbody the things most pleasing to the human heart; and
avoid all the points most displeasing ; and to present this
system to the world, as a new revelation from Heaven.
To effect this object to the best advantage, Mohammed,
with Sarguis his aid, retired, in the year 606, to a cave in

120 LECTURE IX.
Mecca, in Arabia, where he lived, and there formed his
Alcoran, or his new bible. This he fondly imagined would
be most readily embraced by all men. Men are apt to
imagine that what they furnish and highly esteem, will be
by others readily received. But Mohammed seemed not
to have been aware that a prophet is not likely to be
honoured in his own country, and among his own people.
In this case, they knew the man too well, to believe that he
had been blessed with any new revelation from God.
After labouring a course of years, to induce the people of
his region to receive his new religion ; they became indig
nant at his mad presumption, and expelled him from their
community. He now fled to Medina, another noted place
in Arabia, in the year 622; which time is called in his
system the Hegira, or the flight ; and it commences their
reckoning of time, as the birth of Christ does the Christian
era. This man now formed his daring design to propa
gate his new religion by force and arms. In 629, he
raised an armv of 10,000 men for this purpose; and in
631, all Arabia was prostrate before him. In about 30
years more, he had overrun the dominions of the Greek
emperor, as far as Persia. There was then a cessation of
this horrid contest, for about 50 years, in contentions rela
tive to the Mohammedan succession in government.
Upon the settlement of this point of altercation, the plan
of propagating their religion with fire and sword, was
resumed ; and, soon after, the western kingdoms of Europe
were violently beset by these devouring locusts. And,
in about 120 years from the origin of this delusion, it was
thus forcibly extended over the following nations — Arabia,
Palestine, Syria, both the Armenias, most of Asia Minor,
Persia, Egypt, Numidia, the States of Barbary, Portugal,
Spain, part of Italy, Sicilia, Candia, and Cyprus. And
their ambitious rage still glowing, they entered France
with an army of 400,000 men. But Charles Martel met
them, defeated their armies, and drove them from Europe,
with the loss of seven-eighths of their hosts. This checked
their mighty conquests.
The Arabian armies, by which this delusion was propa
gated, were denoted by the locusts in our text, coming
from the smoke which a'rose from the bottomless pit. And
the figure to denote them, locusts, is striking, on account
of their origin, their multitudes, their swift marches, speedy

CHAPTER IX. 121
conquests; and their ravages. Arabia, where these armies
were collected, was a noted region for locusts, in large
devouring swarms. Locusts too, have, by some natural
ists, been said to originate in pits and caverns. And
Mohammedism was formed in an Arabian cave. These
mystical locusts are said, in the text, to have power, as the
scorpions of the earth have power. Scorpions are power
ful, considering their size ; and they have a deadly sting;
and deadly venom ; and are most hateful to man. And
in like manner, the Mohammedan armies were most hate
ful to those whom they subdued, both in their religion,
manners, and cruelties. And they were vastly powerful
and deadly, till Martel checked them. In one battle (that
of Yermauk), their general reported, that he slew 150,000
men. Their armies were composed of cavalry, and were
thus very swift. Green grass, the text informs, they
should not destroy ; nor trees, nor any green thing. They
thus differed from natural locusts. And the Mohammedan
armies had their orders, from their leaders, not to injure
fruit trees ; nor needlessly to injure animals, nor vegeta
bles. The commission divinely given them in our text,
was against the men, who had not the seal of God in their
foreheads. And these, they should not slay; but they
should torment them five months ; meaning, probably, five
months in a year ; which is about the time of the ravages
of natural locusts ; and was about the time the Moham
medan armies did yearly push their conquests.
Many of the people, where the ravages of these mys
tical locusts took place, had been blessed with the preach
ing of the Christian salvation by the apostles and early
preachers of the gospel ; but this blessing had been, by
the great mass of the people in those places, rejected.
And these furious armies now had their commission
against these rejecters of Christ ; not indeed to make of
them a promiscuous slaughter ; but to torment them with
their attacks, their exactions, and various kinds of tyranny.
The despisers of gospel salvation, in those regions, found
that God had plenty of judgments for his gospel enemies !
That they, having rejected the gracious mission of Christ
from heaven, should now he tormented with the pretended
mission of the grand impostor Mohammed ! Such is the
vindictive economy of heaven. The Jews rejected their
true Messiah ; and were afterward cursed with false pre-
L

122 LECTURE IX.
tended Messiahs ! When people reject true gospel minis
ters, it would not be strange should they be destroyed
with false teachers, and given up to fatal delusions f
Relative to those mystic locusts tormenting the people,
destitute of the seal of God ; it is a well-known fact, that
those armies of Saracens did usually make their incursions
upon the regions which they invaded during only the
warm months, each season. ' They would then retire for
winter-quarters ; and would be ready to enter on new in
vasions on the opening of the next summer months. In
the two first and two last months of each year, their mili
tary laws forbade their making any new incursions upon
any region. They generally spent more than half the
year at home, in their own families and business. So
fully did they accord with this part of the description in
the text.
Among the torments inflicted by these Mohammedan
powers upon the conquered, were the following: — infidels
who rejected the Christian religion, and also all idolaters,
they forced to receive the Mohammedan religion, upon
pain of death. But Jews and Christians, having their
Bibles, and their religion, they left to the enjoyment of
them, upon their paying large sums, which they exacted.
Where the payment of such sums was refused ; they
should embrace the new religion, or die. And the heathen
were obliged to embrace their religion, or die. They thus
had provision not to have the conquered inevitably put
to death ; but they must be tormented.
These locusts were said to have stings. Various and
most stinging indeed were the calamities which fell upon
the conquered from their new masters. A noted author
says : " Their military laws adjudged such a portion of
their captives to bondage. And the condition of these,
particularly of the women, was so deplorable (being in
the power of men of the greatest licentiousness), that
many would prefer death to their condition !"
As to the heads of these locusts being like the heads of
horses, having crowns, faces of men, hair of women,
teeth of lions, and wings sounding as chariots rushing to
battle ; parts of these figures'' seem borrowed from the
natural locusts, and parts from the actual uniform of
Arabian soldiers. The heads of the mounted cavalry
might well be said to be heads of horses. And, as to

CHAPTER IX. 123
their crowns, the soldier wore a turban something like a
erown. His face was masculine, as he wore a part of
his beard on his upper lip ; and had the strong and fierce
countenance of the warrior. But these soldiers wore
their hair dressed and twisted in a delicate manner, like
women. And different twists and dresses of their hair
were used to distinguish different bands of the soldiery.
Their armour was such as might well be denoted by teeth
of lions, and iron breast-plates. And their speed and
fury in rushing to battle, were well denoted by sounds of
furious wings, and the thundering of chariots. The king
of these armies of locusts was said to be an angel of the
bottomless pit. His Hebrew name was Abaddon ; and
his Greek name Apollyon ; each of which imports a de
stroyer. This their king was first, Mohammed, and afterward his
successors the caliphs. Each of these was, at once,
their high-priest, and a leader of their armies. These
men were indeed destroyers ; and were well called angels
of the bottomless pit. All these descriptions were mani
festly fulfilled in the armies of Saracens, propagating the
Mohammedan delusion.
The two antichristian powers, the papal and Moham
medan, were the two colossean pillars of the kingdom of
Satan on earth. They were planted, as it were, side by
side ; and erectedin bold defiance of heaven, to destroy,
if possible, the cause of the Redeemer. But very differ
ent was the purpose of the Almighty Ruler of the world,
in the same events. God designed the Mohammedan im
posture as a means of executing his righteous judgments
on those sections of the earth where the gospel had been
preached in its purity, but had been rejected or corrupted.
He designed it as a wo trumpet, thundered on that section
of his enemies, to exhibit to all people and ages the dan
ger of rejecting his gospel. If men will not receive the
love of the truth that they may be saved, it may be ex
pected that God will send them strong delusion, that they
shall believe a lie, that they all may be damned who
believe not the truth, but have pleasure in unrighteousness.
This wo trumpet was tremendous in its nature, and in
its long duration. It was to rise with the papal delusion,
and to continue about the same length of time, as may be

124 LECTURE IX.
shown. The one may be called the eastern, the other
the western Antichrist.
Relative to the time of the commencement of this wo-
trumpet, Mohammed retired to his cave to form his
scheme, in the year 606. In about one hundred and twenty
years from this period, their conquests were won. Take
a medium then, of this hundred and twenty years, as the
time for the fair manifestation of this grand imposture to
the world, and it gives the year 666. The Koran, im-
bodying this scheme of imposture, was but a horrid bundle
of falsehoods, superstition, and licentiousness, propagated
by violent armies. And the soldiers were assured, that
all who fell in battle propagating this religion, instantly
ascended to a sensual paradise ; which motive was cal
culated and designed to render them fearless and in
vincible. Thus terrible was the judgment of the fifth trumpet on
the multitudes in the eastern realms, who had rejected
Christ and his salvation. So fatally did God subject them
to Mohammedan tyranny, and to intolerable calamities.
So fatal, even in time, was their rejection of the grace of
God in the gospel of his Son. " Do they provoke me to
anger? saith the Lord. Do they not provoke themselves,
to the confusion of their own faces ?" Let gospel de-
spisers beware ; for God is still the same ; and the judg
ments in our text are held up in solemn warning.
Trumpet VI.
Ver. 12. One wo is past: and, behold, there
come two woes more hereafter.
13. And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a
voice from the four horns of the golden altar which
is before God,
14. Saying to the sixth angel which had the
trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in
the great river Euphrates.
15. And the four angels were loosed, which were
prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a
year, for to slay the third part of men.
16. And the number of the army of the horsemen
were two hundred thousand thousand ; and I heard
the number of them.

CHAPTER IX. 125
17. And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and
them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire,
and of jacinth, and brimstone : and the heads of the
horses were as the heads of lions ; and out of their
mouths issued fire, and smoke, and brimstone.
18. By these three was the third part of men
killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the
brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.
19. For their power is in their mouth, and in their
tails : for their tails were like unto serpents, and had
heads, and with them they do hurt.
20. And the rest of the men, which were not killed
by these plagues, yet repented not of the works of
their hands, that they should not worship devils, and
idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and
of wood ; which neither can see, nor hear, nor
walk: 21. Neither repented they of their murders, nor
of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of
their thefts.
We have here the origin and advancement of the Turk
ish empire, another great supporter of the Mohammedan
delusion. A voice from the four horns of the golden
altar before the throne in heaven, calls forward the event
of this trumpet. This is the altar, in chapter viii. 3, where
Christ offers much incense with the prayers of the saints,
that they may find acceptance with God. This circum
stance hints to us, that this wo trumpet is in answer to the
prayers of the saints thus perfumed. They pray for
Zion ; and God fulfils his judgments on their enemies in
answer to their petitions.
Four angels are loosed that were bound in the river
Euphrates, prepared for judgments. These angels im
port ministers of Providence, by whom he would chastise
various nations of the papal empire. And they denoted
four governments of Turks, located near the river Eu
phrates. Four governments of Seljukian Turks were
indeed found there ; one at Aleppo, one at Iconium, one
at Damascus, and one at Bagdat. These ambitious
powers had long been inclined to extend their dominions ;
but they had been restrained from it as though " bound"
L2

126 LECTURE IX.
by two causes: (1.) The armies of the Crusades from
Europe to the Holy Land, in the eleventh and twelfth cen
turies ; and (2.) By the attacks of the Tartars on these
governments. These restraining causes, at the time of the opening of
this sixth trumpet, ceased. The wild crusades closed
with the twelfth century ; and the invasions of Tartars
then became less formidable. The Turkish empire now
in fact arose, in the union of these four Turkish sultanies
under Ottoman, their first chieftain, about the year 1300,
They threw off the Tartar yoke, and formed their plans
for conquest. In 1363, they found themselves prepared to
cross the Hellespont, into Europe, and commence there
most furious ravages.
This empire is said, in the text, to have been "pre
pared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, to
slay a third part of men." As though that voice from
heaven had said ; This power shall make incursions with
increasing success, as of an hour, then of a day, then of
a month, and then of a year, to slay a vast portion of the
people in those antichristian regions. Each incursion shall
increase in length and terror, till they shall fix the seat of
their empire in the heart of their enemies' country. And
most precisely thus did the events take place. The armies
• of this Ottoman empire broke into Europe for plunder, and
soon retired ; occasioning an alarm as of a prophetic
hour. Bajazet, soon after, made a longer excursion, and
threatened a general invasion of Greece ; but an attack
of the Tartars called him home ; and the terror in Europe
again subsided. This was an alarm for a prophetic day.
After a season of rest in Europe, he commenced a new
attack ; took Adrianople, and other portions of Greece.
And he besieged Constantinople for eight years, and pro
bably would have taken it ; but Tamerlane, the Tartar,
took this opportunity to renew his attack upon the Turks,
which caused Bajazet to raise this seige, and hasten home
to protect his own dominions. This third invasion of
Greece may well be noted as the alarm of a month, — or
thirty years. But the Turkish invasion of that south-east
of Europe was soon after again pursued; when Mo
hammed Second took Constantinople in the year 1453,
and made it the capital of the Turkish empire in Europe,
established upon the ruins of the Greeks. This may well

CHAPTER IX. 127
be called the judgment of a prophetic year, whether de
finitely or indefinitely calculated. Should it mean a
definite prophetic year, or 360 years from the time of the
Turks' becoming established in Europe ; it would bring
the commencement of their fall to about the year 1818.
The history of the Turks gives a clear illustration of
the imagery in our text. Their armies were great, con
sisting chiefly of horsemen or cavalry. They were not
usually found with less than 300,000 cavalry, and 60,000
infantry. They pressed like lions upon their enemies,
and were rapid in their conquests. They enforced the
Mohammedan religion. Their way of propagating it
was with firearms. They subdued Greece, Asia Minor,
and great territories in the east. Their hearts flamed
with the wildest fire of enthusiasm and rage ; and they
tormented men with the most absolute despotism.
The number of their armies, as stated in the text, is
amazing ; " ten thousand times ten thousand ;" or one
hundred million ! This number, one would think, must
be a great hyperbole. It may possibly, however, be the
number of all their armies, from the rise of their empire
to its final extinction. The Turkish soldiery have been
vastly numerous. The true sense of the text may be
like that of the following scriptures ; " The chariots of
God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels."
(Psalm lxviii. 19.) "Thousand thousands ministered unto
him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before
him." (Dan. vii. 10.) The passage most < forcibly gives
the idea, that the armies of the Turks would be vastly
numerous, and powerful, and fully equal to all the works
of judgment assigned them. And they are said, in the
text, to have breastplates of fire, and jacinth, and brim
stone. Their horses' heads are like the heads of lions.
And, says the text, " out of their mouth issued fire, and
smoke, and brimstone." Suppose then, that John beheld,
in vision, an army of Turkish cavalry, furiously charging an
enemy, and firing over their horses' heads, and many of
the enemy falling before them ; while their armour was
gleaming with burnished brass, as though of real fire ;
the view would seem to answer precisely to the descrip
tion he gives in the text. Firearms had never been con
ceived of when the text was written : but they had come
into use when it was fulfilled. The Turks, in this their

128 LECTURE IX.
attack upon Europe, used both cannon and small arms.
The latter they fired over their horses' heads, which gave
the very appearance described in the text ; as though fire
and brimstone issued from the mouths of their horses, and
slew their enemies. They are said to have had tails like
those of serpents ; and heads on their tails, powerful to do
hurt. A poisonous and furious serpent, with a head at
each end, full of fatal venom, is a striking emblem of
those Turkish soldiers. They both subdued and tor
mented ; and every touch was like that of such a serpent,
full of malignity, poison, and death.
The obstinate impenitence of the residue of their
enemies, who escaped death, is an affecting part of the
sacred story. " The rest of the men who were not killed
bv these plagues, yet repented not !" Judgments should
lead men to God with penitent hearts. This only is the
happy result of afflictions. But most frequently is it
Otherwise with people deeply afflicted. And, as the best
means of repentance and salvation do, if misimproved,
effectually harden ; so the most severe judgments, when
misimproved, do but harden and prepare the soul for ruin.
This was the fatal effect of the judgments inflicted by the
Turks on the multitudes who fell under their yoke.*
Happy has been our exemption from such scenes of
judgment as are described in these wars. Numerous mil
lions were deluged in these scenes of vexation and ruin.
Let us bless God that such has not, as yet, been our lot !
We, too, might have had the brutal rage of furious and
bloody millions let loose upon us. But God, in our case,
* The stroke in our text, that " the rest of the men repented
not," &c. gives a lively view of the nature of Mohammedism ; it
brings no one to repentance ; it produces no morality worthy of the
name. The instance was never found that this religion ever produced
a good man. But, like the Bohon Upas tree, it has ever filled its
whole atmosphere with poison and death. It was at first a smoke
from hell ; it then produced nothing better than most hateful de
vouring locusts ; nor has it, from that time to this, produced any
character essentially better. No whisper of grace has ever blessed
their hateful system ; no heavenly dove ever hovered there ! But
hatred, and blood, and horror have reigned triumphant in all those
dark domains. Most strikingly then does this stroke give their
horrid case ; " And the rest of the men repented not of the works
of their hands that they should not worship devils and idols ; Nei
ther repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of
their fornications, nor of their thefts !"

CHAPTER IX. 129
has kindly restrained the wrath of man. Had it not been
for such restraining goodness of Heaven, things like the
terrible prophetic hints contemplated, would, long ere this
period, have buried us, and all nations, in desolation and
ruin. "The fire of thine enemies shall devour them."
Christians, while you contemplate such scenes as are
furnished in the two first wo trumpets, may you joyfully
recollect that the most savage destroyers of the human
family can, in all their mighty rage, do nothing more than
fulfil the wise and holy counsels of Heaven ! The keys
of death and hell our Saviour holds in his own hand of
omnipotent power. And no infernal smoke of delusion
can rise ; no horrid locusts, as the propagators of error,
can ruin or torture men ; no Apollyon can desolate sec
tions of the earth, nor horrid Turks destroy a third part
of men, unless the great good of God's kingdom requires ;
and then the true friends of this kingdom of God shall be
eventually safe, as the apple of his eye. Let Zion's
children, then, rejoice that the Captain of our salvation
rules, with full control, in the midst of his enemies.
That he is a wall of fire round about his people, and a
glory in the midst of them. And " no weapon formed
against them shall prosper."
Thus safe are all who confide in the divine government,
even in the days of vengeance upon the enemy. Let the
saints be joyful in following the Lamb ! Then may they
confide in their ever-present Immaniiel, God with us ;
whom having not seen they love ; in whom, though now
they see him not, yet believing, they may rejoice with
joy unspeakable and full of glory, till they receive the
end of their faith, the salvation of their souls.

LECTURE X.

REVELATION X.
Ver. 1. And I saw another mighty angel come
down from heaven, clothed with a cloud ; and a
rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it
were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire.
This chapter gives a notable event, which was subse
quent to the second wo in the preceding chapter (which
was fulfilled in the rise of the Turks) ; and was to be
antecedent to the third wo, — the battle of the great day,
as we are assured in verse 7th. It is a notable descent
of Jesus Christ, the Angel of the covenant, with his seven
thunders, and his little open book. It will aid the exposi
tion of this tenth chapter to consider that it gives the same
event, in this first general division of the prophetic part of
the book, with that given in the eighteenth chapter, in the
second general division : — the tenth chapter giving the ter
rors of the event to the nations ; and the eighteenth, the
terrors of it to the papal see. It is a signal coming of
Christ, not for the final destruction of popery, as in the
seventh vial ; but for the subversion of its dominant power,
as in the* fifth vial, as will be shown. Light will be
reflected on this chapter, when it shall be shown that it
predicts the same event with that found in the closing part
of the prophecy of Daniel, as well as in other prophecies.
In the signal descent of Christ, in our text, he is "clothed
with a cloud." This is a notable prophetic dress of the
Saviour, when he comes for judgment. Thus we read of
him, " Behold, he cometh in clouds" — " Behold, the Lord
rideth on a swift cloud !" — " Clouds and darkness are
round about him." Christ came in a cloud of fire to the
chosen tribes, fleeing from Egypt; and of confounding
darkness to the pursuing Egyptians. Such a cloud is a
bright emblem of his presence, of providential protection

CHAPTER X. 131
to his church, and ruin of her enemies. The rainbow on
his head, is an emblem of his covenant faithfulness ; that
he was now coming to fulfil some important parts of his
word; and that he will in due time fulfil it all. This
coming of Christ was on a vast design of judgment. His
face appearing like the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire,
are emblems (as was shown in chapter first) of his infinite
divinity, and of the majesty and purity of his footsteps, in
the fiery scenes then pending on his enemies.
Several great events had been predicted as the coming
of Christ, when it was evidently not a literal, but a mysti
cal coming ; — as that in the destruction of Jerusalem, and
the Jewish commonwealth ; — that in the revolution in the
Roman empire from paganism to Christianity by Constan
tine ; — that in the reformation from popery, in the days of
Luther ; — that in the battle of that great day of God, just
before the Millennium ; — and that in our text. It is noted
in vision as though it were a literal descent, as is usual
in language of prophecy. So familiar is this kind of lan
guage in the Christian world, that it is common to say,
Christ has thus and thus come near to a nation, — a com
munity, — or an individual ; — alluding to some judgment,
or affliction ; — some tremendous coming of Christ, on a
vast section of the papal earth, our text presents.
Ver. 2. And he had in his hand a little book open :
and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left
foot on the earth,
3. And cried with a loud voice, as when a lion
roareth: and when he had cried, seven thunders
uttered their voices.
This little book in the hand of the Captain of our salva
tion, is an emblem of the fact, that a new and very interest
ing era, in the events of the last days, is then commencing.
A book, in prophetic language, denotes the counsels of God
relative to a course of events to commence ; as in chap.
v. 1, where the sealed book, in the divine hand, was about
to be opened. The book in our text is not a book which
had been ever before seen, as the fancy of some men have
suggested. It was a new book here presented : and it was
a symbol of a course of events then introduced, of new and

132 LECTURE X.
signal interest, between the second and the third wo trum
pets, and distinct from both. This book Christ holds in
his hand ; assuring us, that all events fulfilling it are in
the hand of our Saviour ; and that his hand and special
judgment should now be signally manifest. And the fact,
that this book is open, seems a plain indication that when
the event thus described should take place, it should be
capable of being well understood ; or it would be found to
be of easy interpretation by the rules and analogies of the
prophetic Scriptures.
Christ sets his right foQt upon the sea, and his left foot
upon the earth ; — clearly to show both that he is God of
earth and ocean ; and that things were now going to take
place on both these elements, which would be of deep
interest to man. His crying with a loud voice, like the
roaring of a lion, assures us that he was now going to take
some notorious enemies in hand ; as a lion roars, when
about to seize his prey ! Says the prophet, " God shall
cry, yea roar, he shall prevail against his enemies." He
is represented as shouting, when about to smite his ene
mies, as did warriors of ancient days.
Seven thunders now utter their voices ; a strong figure
of an unprecedented scene of wars. In Isai. xxix. 6, we
find thunder to be an emblem of war. And seven thunders
striking at once, give an idea of those wars being general,
and of awful terror ; as the number seven, in this book, is
a kind of perfect number. Most furious wars and battles
then, were to desolate the regions marked out for the
operations of this judgment.
To what scene of events then, does this chapter allude ?
It clearly alludes to a period subsequent to the judgment
of the sixth trumpet, fulfilled by the rise and ravages of
the Turkish empire in the fifteenth century, as described
in the preceding chapter, — the sixth trumpet, which looses
the four angels bound in the river Euphrates, &c. And it
is distinctly antecedent to the seventh trumpet ; as we are
assured in verse 7 of this chapter. Upon the close of the
description of the judgment of the Turks, this chapter com
mences, " And I saw another mighty angel come down
from heaven" — given as a next great event. While the
events of the Revelation are not uniformly given in a direct
course ; yet when the descriptions are connected, as in
this case, the events clearly are in a direct course.

CHAPTER X. 133
Those two events are manifestly thus, in this first general
division of the book.
To what then, does this notable descent of Christ allude ?
What great event on the papal earth did, at the period
noted, occur, which could answer to the figures here pre
sented ? — It must allude to the scene of horrors introduced
by the revolution in France of 1789, which for twenty-five
years converted the papal nations of Europe into fields of
blood and terror, till the close of the battle of Waterloo !
The revolution, — the reign of terror in France, — and the
following wars and battles, were such as to be fully ade
quate to the figures in this chapter. It has been calculated
that not less than ten millions of the human race perished
by the violent measures of these scenes. These horrors
are too well known to this generation, to need any thing
like a full history of them to be here given. The minds
of millions now on the stage retain impressions of those
events too deep to be easily removed, or to need here
much of any recapitulation of them. Europe was long
involved in a terrific blaze of war ; in which vast armies
were slaughtered in quick succession ; kings were hurled
from their thrones ; and a great part of that quarter of the
world was revolutionized ! Old governments were torn
down, and new ones set up, as in a day. The greatest
empires trembled for their existence, and the political
world seemed about to be hurled from its foundation !
Some particulars of these scenes shall be given in future
lectures. Some of the horrors of the closing parts of these wars,
shall here be concisely noted, to evince that this scene
was fully adequate to the figurative descriptions given in
this tenth chapter. And let these events which shall be
noted, be contemplated not as merely historical events ;
for then the propriety of presenting them in a religious
discourse might be doubted. But let them be piously and
devoutly considered, as strokes of divine judgments, in
flicted by Jesus Christ on his enemies, to fulfil his word,
to vindicate his authority, and to prepare the way for the
advancement of his own kingdom of grace and salvation.
It is in this point of light that we read of the wars and
battles of the Old Testament, as a part of the word of
God. These scenes we ought to view as in fulfilment of
important prophetic scriptures, and in fulfilment of that
M

134 LECTURE X.
covenant faithfulness of Christ, symbolized here by the1
rainbow upon his head, and his feet being as pillars of
fire. A new interest will hence be given to the closing events
of this descent of Christ, now to be contemplated. Be
holding them simply as military events, would be aside
from the design of a religious lecture. But the faith of
the child of God may fasten upon them as events of deep
interest, which fulfil the judgments, and display the glory
of the Captain of our salvation !
The terrible empire, which soon after the French revo
lution of 1789, burst upon the world, seemed about to
trample all nations under foot. An universal military des
potism was the manifest and most sanguine object of
the first leader, the Corsican emperor ! Some obstacles yet
stood in his way, which he was resolved should be soon
effectually removed : and probably what was published in
our American Gazette of the day, as the declared senti
ments of the Emperor Bonaparte, was but too correct ;
that, after removing several remaining obstacles, " he
would henceforth trample on all the rights of neutrality !"
Russia and Britain were to be destroyed. An expedition
was hence planned and undertaken by Bonaparte into
Russia, with an army of vast preparation ! an army of
four hundred thousand men ; the best appointed, probably,
that was ever seen to move on the face of the earth !
They were soon hundreds of miles in the enemy's territo
ries, and pressing towards the heart of the Russian em
pire. But it ere long began to appear, that the power of
Russia was not to be immediately crushed ; and the arms
of the terrible empire were not invincible ! In a general
battle at Borodino, in which 80,000 men fell in one day,
a mortifying conviction was forced upon the invader, that
his power was not omnipotent. It seemed doubtful which
army might claim the victory. But the leader of the in
vading army was suffered to force his way onward to
the ancient capital of the czars of the north ; where he
was made to read the death-warrant of his cause. For he
found that, through the astonishing patriotism of his ene
mies, a sea of liquid fire had been destined to roll over that
ancient capital ; that the habitations of 250,000 people had
been doomed to smoke in ashes, that they might afford no
accommodation to the French. The astonishment of the

CHAPTER X. 135
emperor, and of his invading army, is related by Count
Segur (an eyewitness) as dreadful ! He had led his
armies hither, fatigued and worn down ; but with full ex
pectation of finding the best of winter-quarters, with pro
visions and plunder, far more than they could manage.
And now, to find the whole consumed by relentless flames;
he seemed to read the death-warrant of his army ! They
were in this far distant and frozen region of Russia, at
the commencement of a tremendous Russian winter !
almost naked, and destitute of food, and now sunk in dis
couragement, with not a ray of light to dawn upon them !
They were many hundreds of miles from their own coun
try ; in the heart of an empire of a powerful, numerous,
and justly enraged foe, fully prepared for action, and in
tent on merited vengeance !
All will readily believe, when assured, that the rash
emperor and his army at once commenced their retreat,
and fled towards their own region ! Too late they found
the fact, that they were plunged in a fatal snare, had
digged a pit, and fallen into it ! The scenes of judgment
upon them began to be tremendous. They were worn
out with fatigue ; dispirited, famishing, and freezing ;
and surrounded by frightful and well-appointed armies of
foes, whom their invasion had rendered furious, and intent
on vengeance ! What could they do ? The worst of certain
deaths, with all their horrors, stared them in the face !
The French emperor attempted to parley ; and to obtain
some relief: but all in vain ! He was pointedly assured,
that not a word should be heard of peace, so long as an
invading army was in the heart of Russia ! that he had
come uninvited to their capital, and he might return as he
could ! The furious Russians assured him, that they
were so far from being prepared to close the campaign,
that they had but just opened it !
The scenes of horror which followed baffle all descrip
tion, and seem too dreadful to be contemplated. But, as
God did in them fulfil some of his predicted judgments on
his enemies of the last, day ; so the events should be
piously contemplated. As a general view of the scenes,—
this northern army was destroyed ! and their emperor fled
home, accompanied by. but one man ! Some particulars
ghall be given.
We have here a most tremendous reverse to the affairs

136

LECTURE X.

of France ; which, for about twenty-four years, had been
almost uninterruptedly successful, to the vast consternation
of the world. This retreat became a flight, and that of
the most disastrous kind. " Come, behold the works of
the Lord ! what desolation he hath made !" Truly, " God
is known by the judgments which he executeth." Defeats
and miseries were poured upon the straggling fugitive
armies. And the roads were, for hundreds of miles,
strewed with their dead and dying. Thousands upon
thousands sunk under the accumulated horrors of cold,
nakedness, famine, fatigue, snow storms, the sword, and
showers of balls from the vengeful legions of the enemy.
Count Segur (an eyewitness) gives a history of this
retreat. He says : " The winter now overtook us ; and,
by filling up the measure of such individual suffering,
put an end to that mutual support which had hitherto sus
tained us. Henceforth the scene presented only a multi
tude of insulated and individual stragglers. All fraternity
of arms was forgotten ; all the bonds of social feeling
torn asunder ; excess of misery had brutalized them. A
devouring hunger had reduced these wretched men to the
mere instinct of self-preservation; to which they were
ready to sacrifice every other consideration. The rude
and barbarous climate seemed to have communicated
its fury to them. Like the worst of savages, the strong
fell upon the weak, and despoiled them. They eagerly
surrounded the dying, and often waited not for the last
sigh, before they stripped them. When a horse fell, they
rushed upon it, tore it in pieces, and snatched the morsel
from each other's mouth, like a troop of famished wolves.
If an officer, or a comrade, fell alongside of them, or
before a wheel of a cannon, it was in vain that he im
plored their aid ! he obtained not even a look. All the
frozen insensibilities of the climate had passed into their
hearts. Its rigidity had contracted their sentiments, as
well as their features. All, except a few chiefs, were
absorbed by their own sufferings, and terror left no place
for pity. To stop for a moment, was to risk their own
life. In this scene of universal destruction, to hold out
your hand to your comrade, or to your sinking chief, was
an admirable effort of generosity. When unable from
total exhaustion to proceed, the individuals would halt,
while winter with its icy hand seized on them for

CHAPTER X. 137
its prey. It was then that in vain these unfortunate
beings, — benumbed as they were,* — endeavoured to rouse
themselves ! Voiceless, insensible, and plunged in stu
por, they would move forward, perhaps, a few paces, like
automatons ; but the blood, already freezing in their veins,
flowed languidly through their hearts, and, mounting to
their heads, made them stagger like drunken men. From
their eyes, — now red and inflamed by looking on the
snow, by smoke, and by want of sleep, — there sometimes
seemed to flow forth tears of blood, accompanied by pro
found sighs. One would look on the sky, — then look at
us, — then upon the ground, with a fixed and haggish
stare of consternation ! — this was the last farewell.
They dropped upon their knees, and then upon their
hands, moving, for an instant, from right to left, or the
reverse ; — while from their lips escaped the most agoniz
ing moans. They then fell prostrate upon the snow,
perhaps disgorging blood, and were here no more !
Their comrades passed by them without ever stepping
aside ; — dreading to lengthen their march by a single
step. They even turned not their heads to look at them ;
as the slightest motion of the head, to the left or right,
was attended with torture ; the hair of their heads and
their beards being frozen into a solid mass.
Scenes of still greater horror took place in large log-
houses, which were found, at certain intervals, along the
road. Into these, soldiers and officers would rush, hud
dled together like cattle. The living not having strength
to remove the dead that were close by the fire, sat down
upon their bodies, until their own turn came to expire ; —
when they also served as death-beds to others. Some
times the fire would communicate itself to the wood of
those sheds, and then all within the walls, — already half
dead, — would expire in the flames. In Jaupranoni, the
soldiers set fire to houses, in order to warm themselves a
few minutes. This would attract crowds of wretched
men, some of whom the intensity of the ' cold had ren
dered delirious, who would rush forward like madmen,
gnashing their teeth, and, with demoniac laughter, plunge
themselves into the flames, where they perished in horrid
convulsions. Their famished companions looked on,
without affright ! and, it is but too true, that some of
M2,

138 LECTURE X.
them drew the half-roasted bodies from the flames, and
ventured to carry to their lips the revolting food !
Those fleeing distracted legions came to the River
Berezina. They must soon cross, or perish, as their
furious foes were pressing upon them, and any escape to
the right or left was impossible. Cannon, arms, imple
ments of death, threatened to destroy them at once. In
despair and terror, they flew towards the river, which was
rolling with hills of ice. Some plunged in, and perished.
Most of them laboured to gain the bridge, over which the
emperor had just slipped, and fled ! All order was ban
ished. The roar of the Russian cannon and musketry
filled the air ; and the ground was covered with the dead
and dying. The multitude pressed upon each other to
gain the bridge, till the way was perfectly choked. Many
were suffocated and trodden to death. Many hurled their
comrades off the bridge, to gain their places. Thousands
were plunged into the river, and lost among the blocks of
ice. The air resounded with the shrieks and yells of the
terrified and the dying, which fell upon the ear when the
intervals of the firing of the Russians could permit them
to be heard ; which added to the matchless horrors ! A
great part of the residue of the huge army of the north,
which till now remained, here sunk in death. The
bridge over the river, while loaded with a jam of French
soldiers, was set on fire, according to antecedent arrange
ment, to finish the fatal scene. Here men were at the
same time frozen and burned ! And while crowds were
pressing upon the bridge, and upon each other, the whole
bridge gave way, and all the multitudes upon it were pre
cipitated into the rolling surges among the blocks of ice,
and to inevitable death ! The few who had passed the
river were pursued, and most of them destroyed. Thus
ended this huge army of the north ! The origin of all
the mighty operations for twenty-five years, had been a
design to destroy the Christian religion, and all civil
liberty from the earth. And the angel of the covenant
interposed, as in this chapter, and blasted the impious
design ! The Russians picked up, and burned in piles,
more than 213,000 bodies of their fleeing foe. And but
very few of the 400,000 men ever reached their home.
The emperor, thus vanquished, had the address in
France to raise new armies ; and a number more of great

CHAPTER X. 139
battles were fought in the closing scenes of the seven
thunders in our text. In the battle of Grossgorchen,
which place was taken and retaken six times at the point
of the bayonet, 20,000 men fell. In the battle of Baut
zen, — a general action of nearly four days continuance,
and with about 300,000 on both sides engaged, — about
50,000 fell. The Confederation of the Rhine, so called,
now revolted from their new imperial master, Bonaparte,
and 400,000 men were soon in arms against him, under
a host of the first generals of the age. A number of
furious battles were fought, before the noted battle of
Leipsic in Germany. In this, all the remaining armies
were now concentrated. The citizens of Leipsic could
behold, from their steeples, the armies of the French en
circling their city. And soon they could discover the
armies of the allied enemies of France forming another
exterior circle. The work of death commenced, with
six hundred cannon on both sides, which, with more than
half a million of small arms, presented a frightful prepa
ration for blood and carnage. The furious contest raged
for a day, without bringing any thing to a decision. The
second day was then taken up, by mutual consent, in
making preparation on both sides, to renew, on the third
day, the fiery combat. The third day dawned, on which
it was conceived the fate of Europe and the world rested !
Five of the most able generals of Europe (Blucher, Witt
genstein, Barckley de Tolley, Bernadotte, and Schwart-
zenberg) led the allied armies on the one hand ; and
Bonaparte, with his generals, on the other. Monarchs of
allied nations were present, to engage as aids to these
powerful generals, or to stand as anxious spectators of
the scene ! The work of death commenced, and before
nine o'clock it raged through the whole lines. The day
was dreadful. The French were defeated, with the loss
of 40,000 men. An equal number, probably, were slain
on the other side. And the confusion and terror of the
French emperor, in his retreat, were exceeded only by his
flight from Russia on the preceding year. The conse
quent slaughter of French garrisons, between Leipsic
and the French capital, were most disastrous to the latter.
The vanquished emperor entered France a second time as
a fugitive, and demanded of his astonished people a levy
of 300,000 men. The victorious combined armies of

140 LECTURE X.
300,000 men followed him. Further scenes of carnage
fensued, till Paris was .taken by the combined powers,
Jnvading in their turn ; and the noted emperor was van
quished, and banished to the little island of Elba !
After a season, Bonaparte again found means to appear
in France at the head of a mighty army ; and the com
bined powers were once more compelled to take the field
against him. But in the general and tremendous battle of
Waterloo, he was again defeated, and lost his empire, and
was banished to the desolate island of St. Helena, where
he ended his days !
In the scenes of carnage and terror which thus closed,
in which the seven thunders of war unitedly roared for
about a quarter of a century, we find events which seem
fully adequate to the sublime figures in the text, and
which do most fully agree with them, both in point of
chronology, and in the description of the events. The
remaining part of the chapter is deferred to the next
lecture. It is striking to reflect how fully these events accord
with other prophetic descriptions of them in the same
period, as may be made to appear. It may be shown
under the vials, that they are the same with the fifth
vial, poured upon the seat (throne) of the papal beast,
and filling his kingdom with darkness. Rev. xvi. 10,
11. They are thought to be the same with those in
Zeph. iii. 6, 7, where (just before the battle of the great
day, which is there given, verse 8, to introduce the
Millennium, verse 9) — G°d says, " I have cut off the
nations ; their towers are desolate ; I made then-
streets waste ; their cities are destroyed," &c. The
scenes are thought to be the same with the dragon's cast
ing out of his mouth floods of water, to cause the de-
structipn of the church, and the earth helping the woman,
and swallowing up the floods, Rev. xii. 16, The same
with the description in Dan. ii. 4 1-43, where the feet and
the toes of the great image — meaning the latest remains
of the secular Roman empire---are "part of iron, and
part of clay ; partly strong, and partly broken," until, under
the seventh vial, the stone (Christ) shall smite them, and
grind them to powder, in the final battle just antecedent to
the Millennium. And they are the same with the descrip
tions given of the same power as the beast from the bot
tomless pit, Rev. xvii., which is believed to have been

CHAPTER X. 141
fulfilled in the explosion of French atheism, and the hor
rors of their revolution and consequent scenes of blood.
They are also the same with that descent of Christ, given
in chapter xviii., where its effects upon the papal see, and
upon its doting multitudes, are described.
How terrible are the judgments of Christ against his
enemies ! He has plenty of justice for them, as well as
of mercy for his friends. He proclaimed not only the ac
ceptable year of the Lord ; but the day of vengeance of
our God ! The latter he executes as " Head over all
things to the church !" When a violent, extensive, and
armed system of atheism arose in the French revolution
of 1789, which threatened to banish Christianity, as well
as civil liberty, from the world : our blessed Captain of
salvation saw fit to represent himself as making the
descent in our text. He assumed the glorious appear
ance there noted, and came down ! " Darkness was under
his feet, and he did fly upon the wings of the wind !"
" At the brightness that went before him, his thick eloud
passed — hailstones, and coals of fire ! The Lord thundered,
the Highest gave his voice — hailstones and coals of fire !
He sent out his arrows, and scattered them ; he shot out
his lightnings, and discomfited them ! Then the channels
of the waters were seen, and the foundations of the world
Were discovered at thy rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of
the breath of thy nostrils !" This the church may sing,
and may add, " He sent from above, he took me, he drew
me out of great waters !" Such a protector has the
church, and such an antagonist has her persecutors !
The latter may seem to triumph ; but " salvation is of the
Lord ;" and God will make bare his holy arm in the
sight of all nations, and the ends of the earth shall see
his glory.
Behold then, 0 Zion, the works of the Lord ! De
voutly reflect on his glory, and his kind expostulations.
" Wherefore didst thou fear, O ye of little faith ?" " In
nothing terrified by your enemies, which is to them an evi
dent token of perdition ; but unto you of salvation, and
that of God." " Who art thou that thou shouldst be afraid
of a man that shall die, and of the son of man that shall be
made as grass ; and forgettest the Lord thy maker who hath
stretched out the heavens, and laid the foundations of the
earth ; and thou hast feared continually because of the
fury of the oppressor, as though he were ready to destroy ;

142 LECTURE XI.
and where is the fury of the oppressor ?" The rainbow
on the head of Christ in our text, may be seen by the eye
of faith depicted on every dark cloud of judgment, be it
ever so terrific. Behold the sun of righteousness shin
ing upon it, and to the eye of faith, the rainbow will appear.
God with us. in his infinite faithfulness in these things,
says, "It is I; be not afraid !" " Say unto Zion, Behold
your God." " Your God will come with a recompense,
he will save you." " Be strong in the Lord then, and in
the power of his might ; that ye may be able to stand in
the evil day !"

LECTURE XI.

REVELATION X.

Ver. 4. And when the seven thunders had uttered
their voices, I was about to write : and I heard a
voice from heaven saying unto me, Seal up those
things which the seven thunders uttered, and write
them not.
It has been shown in the preceding lecture, that the
notable descent of Christ in this chapter, must have al
luded to the scene of judgments introduced in the French
revolution of 1789. These seven thunders prefigured its
wars, which were most terrible. Some ideas of the import
of these seven thunders, seem to have been communicated
to John, which he was about to commit to writing ; but he
was forbidden to do it. This is not to be understood as
though the import of these seven thunders was never to
be known on earth. For if they were never to be known ;
why were they given at all ? They were given, and left
on record for man, as well as were the other prophecies ;
and their being sealed up, was only till the time of their
fulfilment, as may be shown from Daniel's prophecy, and
as we have indicated in the fact, that the " little book" in
the hand of the angel (Christ), when the event takes place
in our text, is presented as open. This sealing up of the.

CHAPTER X. 143
true sense of the scene is copied from the visions of
Daniel of the same event. Light will be reflected upon
this tenth of the Revelation from what we have in Daniel,
chapter xii. The prophet Daniel had predicted the rise
of the wilful power of the last days, as shall by-and-by
be shown. It is said, Dan. x. 1, that "he understood the
thing, and had understanding of the vision," even as is
implied in our text, that John had some understanding of
the things uttered by the seven thunders. But Daniel
was commanded (Dan. xii. 4) to " shut up the words and
seal the book even to the time of the end !" as again in
verse 9, " Go thy way, Daniel, for the words are closed
up, and sealed till the time of the end !" precisely as John
was directed in our text, to " seal up the things which the
seven thunders uttered, and write them not !" The former
is the parent text of the latter ; both being of the same
period and event. The passage in Daniel is followed in
the same, verse 4th, by information of an event, which
should betoken the time when this seal upon the words
should be taken off, viz. the missionary spirit of the last
day, when " many shall run to and fro, and knowledge
shall be increased !" or when the missionary angel of the
last day shall fly to preach the gospel to every nation, and
kindred, and tongue, and people ; then may the seal be
taken off! The little book in the hand of Christ shall then
be found open. The event of this judgment shall then
have burst upon the world, and may be understood. We
may here note, that the prohibition relative to this partic
ular prophecy's being not to be understood till fulfilled, is
so far from indicating that other prophecies generally shall
not be understood till accomplished, that the indication
is just the reverse. The prohibition here is a special ease,
and attends not the other prophecies ; but the divine com
mands relative to them are, that they may and should be
understood, even before their fulfilment, at least in some
good degree, as has been shown.
We will now consult the parent prophecy in Daniel,
relative to the events in this tenth chapter of the Revela
tion. We find in Dan. x. 1, "a thing was revealed to
Daniel ; and the thing was true ; but the time appointed
was long !" This remark, and all that is said upon its
event, go to assure us, that the thing then to be revealed,
was a new event of the last days : and the prohibition

144 LECTURE XI.
resting upon it (which has been noted), show%|hat it was
something besides, and subsequent to popery, and the
grand imposture of Mohammed. These had before been
predicted, as well as the great eastern monarchies ; but
now some new and subsequent event of the last days was
to be given, to close his book ; and this was to be sealed
up till it was fulfilled. No hint was given that the time,
before the antecedent event predicted in Daniel, should be
long : but this new thing to be at last predicted, must be
attended with this notice, that " a thing (clearly implying
a new thing) was revealed to Daniel ; and the thing was
true ; but the time appointed was long .'" And he shows it to
have been a thing connected with the battle of the great day
of God, and the restoration of the Jews ; as chap. x. 14,
and xii. 1, where the event was to befall the people of
Daniel ; and was to be the occasion of Christ's standing
up for them, and bringing a time of trouble, such as
never was since there was a nation.
With these things in view, we will proceed to examine
the thing which was thus revealed to Daniel. The whole
of Dan. x. is taken up in preparation for predicting
this then far future event ; as is also chap. xi. to verse 35.
A line of kings is given in order to introduce Antiochus
Epiphanes, a noted tyrannical and persecuting king of
Syria, as a type of the infidel power to be predicted. This
type, thus introduced, occupies from verse 21 to verse 35.
And then, as is common in predictions of type and anti
type, the writer slides, with no formal notice, from the
former to the latter, and gives the event which was
designed. Dan. xi. 36, " And the king shall do according to his
will." By a king, in such prophecies, is meant not any
individual man, but a power, whether an empire, or king
dom, or republic. That a new subject is in this 36th verse
introduced, is evident from what has been said ; and from
this, that the power described before this verse was
clearly Antiochus, who lived centuries before the Chris
tian era ; but the being introduced in the 36th verse is a
power of the last days, and which falls in the battle of the
great day of God, at the close of the noted 1260 years, as
is shown in the following passages in Daniel. A great
power should arise, wilful in violent outrage of all law ! It
follows, " and he shall exalt himself and magnify himself

CHAPTER X. 145
above every god." By a god here is meant king, or
civil ruler. " I said ye are gods." He shall magnify
himself above every civil ruler ; or, a war with kings, shall
be one of his characteristics. His atheism follows:
"and shall speak marvellous things against the God of
gods." He will, in his early existence, deny the God of
heaven. Verse 37 : " Neither shall he regard the God of
his fathers :" or, the power so long venerated by his an
cestors as a god, — the pope, — he shall at first contemptu
ously reject and put down, however he may afterward,
— from views merely seeular, — in a degree, establish him
again: — "nor the desire of women," it there follows.
With all his outrageous licentiousness and lusts, he shall
wage war with the female sex ; as though all the tender
regard for them which God has implanted in the human
breast had become extinct. Most fully did the French
fulfil all this. The latter they fulfilled when they in
wanton barbarity beheaded the innocent queen of their
own nation, and followed up the event with the outrageous
execution of 250,000 of their own innocent females ; as
was attested and well known at that day. They also
abolished the institution of marriage, declaring it to be an
insufferable monopoly ; and thus subjected their females
to promiscuous brutal lusts ! Well might such a trait of
character as this be hinted of this infidel power of the last
days, by its not " regarding the desire of women .'" Paul
gives the same trait of the same character, thus : " with
out natural affection ;" when describing, in 2 Tim- "*¦ '-4,
this power of infidelity in the last days ; which see. The
most fit " natural affection" of man for our female race,
would be thus perverted ; even that virtuous tender affec
tion for the dear and dependent " helpmeet" of man, des
tined to be the virtuous mother of his offspring! this
affection, implanted by the Creator in the breast of man,
should be by this power of iniquity, attempted to be torn
up ! This stroke has been supposed by some to be the
same with that in 1 Tim. iv. 3, " forbidding to marry ;"
which the papal see fulfilled in relation to its clergy. But
it clearly belongs to another and subsequent system of
infidelity. See and compare 1 Tim iv. 1, with 2 Tim.
iii. 1, and you will see the latter is an advance from the
former. And never did popery so fully take to itself the
N

146 LECTURE XI.
character of not regarding the desire of women, as did the
infidel power that burst forth in France in 1789.
Daniel proceeds, verse 38 ; "But in his estate shall he
honour the god of forces :" or, when this licentious
power shall come into operation, as having gained an ex
istence, he shall " honour the god of forces :" shall
honour mahuzzim* (in the original); fortresses, military
munitions. The word in the singular, mahoz, imports, a
tower, fortress, strength. In the plural then, and con
nected with a huge military force, it must mean its de
pendence on fortresses, or military munitions, — on gene
rals, and the arts of war. This was the case indeed with
the French. If they had denounced all subordination, all
authority and rule ; yet were their own eyes necessarily
turned to a subordination to their own generals, leaders,
and the arts of war. And this soon prepared the way for
what follows. " And a god whom their fathers knew not,
shall they honour with gold, and silver, and precious stones,
and pleasant things." An emperor, unknown to their fa
thers, shall they soon receive at the head of this military
despotism, with the greatest magnificence. This now is
all plain history. Bonaparte was this new god, unknown
to their fathers. Verse 39 : " Thus shall he (this new
power of atheism) do in the most strong holds with a
strange god, whom he shall acknowledge, and shall in
crease with glory. And he (this new emperor) shall
cause them (his people) to rule over many ; and shall di
vide the land for gain." The armies of the new empire,
with their foreign god at their head, shall overrun the
strongholds of surrounding nations, whom he will sub
due ; and he will divide out the conquered nations among
favourites for his own aggrandizement.
The prophecy proceeds, verse 40, to give a temporary
prostration of this wilful empire, by a furious combination
of nations from the north, like a whirlwind ; composed of
armies of cavalry, infantry, and a navy, or a naval power
("with chariots, and horsemen, and many ships"). This
* In the margin of many great bibles, this word mahuzzim, is
rendered " god's protectors." But this is a phrase, and not a cor
rect rendering. And it is thus phrased, to accommodate it, mis-
takingly, to popery, as though it related to their tutelar saints. Bat
it does not thus.

CHAPTER X. 147
whirlwind from the north, for a time prostrates his
forests (armies), and drives him into his characteristic
non-existence ; " who was, and is not, and yet is !" who
had a wound by the sword and did live !" whose feet and
toes are " part of iron, and part of clay ; partly strong, and
partly broken !" Yet he again appears in this prophecy
of Daniel, and does wonders, till he goes into perdition at
the battle of the great day, when (Daniel informs us at
the close of the chapter) " he comes to his end, and none
shall help him !" Most perfectly is this picture, drawn to
the prostration in verse 40, thus far fulfilled in events in
France, and in her history of modern days. And most
clear is the light thus reflected on the descent of Christ,
and the seven thunders, in Rev. x. This tenth of Revela
tion is thus but an inspired comment on Daniel's predic
tion of the rise of that wilful power of the last days.
Ver. 5; And the angel which I saw stand upon the
sea and upon the earth, lifted up his hand to heaven,
6. And sware by him that liveth for ever and
ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein
are, and the earth; and the things that therein are,
and the sea, and the things which are therein, that
there should be time no longer : ;
7. But in the days of the voice of the seventh
angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of
God should be finished, as he hath declared to his
servants the prophets.
We must here again have recourse to the parent
texts in Daniel's last chapter. After he had seen the
things just noted, he beholds the Angel of the Covenant
(Christ) standing upon the waters ; and heard him inter
rogated, " how long it should be to the end of those won
ders ?" Or, when shall the wilful power (here just de
scribed) g'o into perdition ? — -not when one dynasty of it
shall be prostrated, and its power of iniquity be for a
time checked: for the beast that was, and is not, and yet
is, may have a succession of powerful leaders, as had the
Roman empire in the first reign of its imperial head, in
early days. Those feet and toes of the image, formed of
iron and clay, may break before its final fall, and its parts

148 LECTURE X.
" not cleave one to another," as Daniel" assures shall be
the case, Dan. ii. 40-45. This beast from the bottom
less pit will know full well the arts of hidings in his mid
night caverns, and of there healing his wounds !
But the question here asked of Christ was, When shall
that deep and fatal system end ? — that system which no
thing will utterly destroy but the exterminating fire of the
great and notable day of the Lord ! — when shall this ex
terminating event take place. Upon the question, the
angel (the same with that in our text), lifts up his hand to
heaven, and swears by him that liveth for ever and ever,
" that it should be for a time, times, and a half time !
And when he shall have accomplished to scatter the
power of the holy people, all those things shall be ful
filled." The battle of the great day then, in which this
impious system goes into perdition, we here learn, is at
the close of the notable 1260 years ! All agree that a
time is a year ; times, two years ; and half a time, half a
year ; each day in the account standing for a year ; and
each year being reckoned of 360 days, from the views of
the ancients. This time then, is 1260 years ;— the noted
time in prophecy for the residence of the church in the
wilderness ! The probable commencement of this noted
period will be shown in the lecture on the papal beast, in
Rev. xiii. 11, to end. The thing decided by the oath of
the Angel of the covenant here, is, that this power shall
be destroyed at the close of the 1260 years — that the
time of its duration, after it arose, was from the time of
that rise, till the close of the 1260 years. And that oath
of the angel, in Daniel, gives the exact sense of the oath
of Christ, in our text, which is but a comment upon it.
In the latter, his words are, " chronos ouk estai eti !" —
rendered in our translations, "there should be time no
longer". Granting the Greek words are capable of giving
this sense ; they are no less capable of giving the following
— " the time shall not be yet" (but clearly meaning that it
shall not be long deferred). The parent text, in Daniel,
shows that the latter is the correct rendering here — as also
does the following verse inourtext: "But in the days of the
seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery
of God shall be finished, as he hath declared to his ser
vants the prophets ;" alluding, no doubt, peculiarly to this
parent text in Daniel. We hence learn that the seventh

CHAPTER X. 149
trumpet is future, at the time in our text, but not far future.
And the utter destruction of this enormous influence of
infidelity would not be till then, and should be no longer
deferred than to that event. For the seventh trumpet is
to destroy this very power, and all that is found wickedly
connected with it. But while the sentiment of the oath
of Christ in our text, rests on the sentiment of his own
oath in Daniel, and hence must mean the same thing ; its
phraseology goes to correct a mistake, prevalent with
many, in the course of the terrors which were to attend
the rise and progress of this system from the world
below, viz. that this is the battle of that great day of
God ! The oath says, No ! that event is not yet : but in
the seventh trumpet (which is still future, though not far
distant), the scene shall be accomplished ! But the hor
rors of this descent of Christ, and of the seven thunders,
are antecedent to, and distinct from the battle of the great
day, — the seventh trumpet. And the whole union be
tween Daniel and John, upon this subject, shows that
these two events are distinct ; though the former may be
most naturally mistaken by many for the latter. And it
was shown, in the preceding lecture, that other prophecies
have allusions to these two events, as distinct, and at
some distance from each other. Joel assures us " the
sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into
blood, before the great and notable day of the Lord comes."
The sun of regal authority should be darkened, and the
moon of armies turned to blood, before the seventh trum
pet, — and distinctly from it. Our Saviour, in his pre
dicted coming, Matt, xxiv., Mark xiii. and Luke xxi. mani
festly includes in this his prediction, his coming in the battle
of the great day of God to destroy Antichrist. (To be
convinced of this,, read 2 Thess. ii. and Rev. xvi. 15,
and its connexion.) And among the signs of this com
ing of Christ, in the battle of that great day, are " wars,
and rumours of wars ;" meaning that there should be such
a signal course of wars, as to seem to imply that there
never were wars before. This is the same, probably,
with the seven thunders in our text. And he there adds,
" See that ye be not troubled" — in Luke, " be not terrified"
— implying that those wars should be peculiarly terrify
ing; and then our Saviour adds* as in his oath in our text,
" the end (the closing scene) shall not be yet:" — as in
N2

150 LECTURE XI.
Matthew — in Luke, " For these things shall first come to
pass, but the end shall not be by-and-by," or immediately '.
We have here the same sentiment with that in our text—-
" The time is not yet, but in the days of the seventh an
gel, when he shall begin to sound, the mysteries of God
shall be finished !"
These seven thunders terrified the world from the year
1789, for about twenty-five years ; till the whirlwind from
the north, Dan. xi. 40, prostrated a dynasty of that power,
and gave to the world a temporary quietus : and those ter
rors were indeed mistaken, by many, for the seventh
trumpet. Ver. 8. And the voice which I heard from heaven
spake unto me again, and said, Go and take the little
book which is open in the hand of the angel which
standeth upon the sea and upon the earth.
9. And I went unto the angel, and said unto him,
Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take
it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter,
but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey.
10. And I took the little book out of the angel's
hand, and ate it up ; and it was in my mouth sweet
as honey : and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly
was bitter.
11. And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy
again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues,
and kings.
The ambassador of Christ is here directed to go and
take the little open book, which was in the hand of the
Angel. It was not given for nothing. Its being open was
not without meaning. Its contents — long sealed up —
should now be known. The time had now arrived when
the seal upon it should be taken off, and its contents ascer
tained. The faithful minister goes to Christ, and prays
for the little book. The true sense of Christ's predictions
must be learned from him, his word and spirit, in view of
his signal providences. And such teaching must be from
him devoutly sought ; and when the humble learner says,
Give me, I pray thee, the little book ! Christ will say, Take
it ! Yea, " take and eat it." " Let him that readeth un-

CHAPTER X. 151
derstand." " Thy word was found (says the prophet),
and I did eat it." This is the Bible expression of de
voutly and diligently studying the prophetic scriptures,
and the great passing events of Providence as fulfilling
them. This is the true discerning of the signs of the
times. " Ye hypocrites ; ye can discern the face of
the sky; how is it that ye cannot discern the signs
of the times ?" It was noted, in a past lecture, that
each of the four living creatures, as an emblem of the
gospel ministry, when a seal opens a new signal event,
calls, " Come and see !" People have a right to inquire
of their spiritual guides, "Watchman, what of the night ?"
And the watchman should be able to give a correct
answer. John finds, on eating this little book, what he was before
assured would be the case — " and it was in my mouth
sweet as honey ; but as soon as I had eaten it, my belly
was bitter." The first discovery of the contents of this
little symbolic book, was sweet. To learn the true sense
of these prophetic scriptures, and the correct view of
their events — to learn that God has thus renewedly taken
in hand the blessed work of building up Zion — that the
time has come for many to run to and fro, and that know
ledge shall be increased ; these things afford to the true
preachers of righteousness, and the friends of Zion, ex
quisite pleasure. But when the subject is well digested
and understood ; when the terrors connected with its fulfil
ment, — of judgments upon enemies, and especially of signal
trials to the people of God, shall be correctly considered ;
these contents of the little open book are found to be bit
ter, and similar to the roll of Ezekiel, that was " full of
lamentation, and mourning, and wo."
This bitterness of the little book, after being well di
gested, is here explained by Christ thus : " Thou must
prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and
tongues, and kings !" As though he had said — Ye minis
ters of my gospel, and children of Zion, must again be
called to bear testimony for me, before great men of the
earth ! This, Christ assures, must be done " again /" as
though the peculiar kind of prophesying, here in view,
had for a time ceased ; but must be resumed. If they had
fondly hoped such peculiarly trying duties of the Chris
tian religion were done away — and light and liberty had

152 LECTURE XL
chased them from the world — they must, for a short time,
be resumed, even before the Millennium. This seems to
be the true sense of the bitterness of the little book.
Do we find any thing in the parent text in Daniel (of
which our text seems to be but an illustration), to accord
with this ? We do indeed. The oath of Christ there
assures us, that at the end of the 1260 years, the wilful
power which had been presented, should be destroyed : but
not till " he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of
the holy people." Then " all these things shall be finished."
It is solemn indeed to find it here taught, that this power
(known as the beast from the bottomless pit) is to prevail
to " scatter the power of the holy people," just before his
destruction. This is the healed head of the secular Ro
man beast ; the same as the new beast of the last day,
ascending, full of the names of blasphemy, from the in
fernal region, and sinking soon in destruction. Rev. xvii.
We have thus the explanation of the bitterness of the
little book in our text — the same (we must apprehend)
with the slaying of the two witnesses, in Rev. xi. The
event is there noted as being at the close of the 1260
years, and is said to be by the " beast that ascendeth out of
the bottomless pit !" the same power with this wilful sys
tem in Daniel described. These things will receive fur
ther illustrations in their several places. Thus interest
ing are the trials which yet await the church.
The present inhabitants of the civilized world, who
have lived to see half a century, have lived to witness
the notable event which is designated by the descent of
the adorable Angel of the covenant, in this tenth of Reve
lation; and it has afforded them a season of great instruc
tion. The people of God in our United Slates have been
most advantageously situated to see and improve those
amazing scenes, and to derive the most solid lessons of
instruction. We have been happily out of the reach of
the immediate scenes of desolation, and yet sufficiently
near to behold, and to learn the best lessons of wisdom.
Often, during these terrors, did I fancy myself to be like
one seated on a promontory, with a good glass, to behold
a most tremendous sea-fight between all the navies of the
most powerful nations, formed in two lines of battle,
and for years together, in a blaze of the most furious con-

CHAPTER XI. 153
test ! — feeling myself to be sufficiently distant from the
power of the fatal shot ; and yet sufficiently near to per
ceive every movement, every discharge, and the fate of
every sinking ship. And while thus beholding, I formed
my present view of the scenes of this tenth chapter of
the Revelations ; the belief of which, all subsequent views
have confirmed.

LECTURE XII.

REVELATION XI.
Ver. 1. And there was given me a reed like unto
a rod : and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and mea
sure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that
worship therein.
2. But the court which is without the temple leave
out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the gen
tiles ; and the holy city shall they tread under foot
forty and two months.
This chapter gives a general view of the papal apos
tacy ; of the trials of the people of God as his two wit
nesses ; of the third trumpet ; and of the introduction of
the Millennium.
The reed, in the text, was a ten foot measure, made of
reed, a light kind of wood ; and was such as was often
used to measure land, buildings, or other surfaces. The
temple to be here measured was a well-known visible
emblem of the church on earth. Says an apostle,
"Know ye not that ye are the temple of the Holy Ghost?"
" Ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said,
I will dwell in them." The temple of God at Jerusalem,
consisted of a capacious covered building, and two courts ;

154 LECTURE XII.
an inner and outer court. The inner court joined the
door of the large covered building; and was for the
priests. The altar for burnt offerings was here placed.
And the outer court was for the accommodation of the
common people of Israel in public worship. They were
not permitted to enter the inner court, the court of the
priests, unless individually, and when offering their sacri
fices. To the second temple, a third court was added, called
the court of the gentiles, and designed for gentile wor
shippers. This gentile court was accounted holy in no
other sense, than as a part of the holy city Jerusalem.
In the large covered building of the temple, was con
tained the Holy of Holies ; and various sacred emblems.
This whole pile of buildings was called the temple : and
it was an emblem of both the human body of Christ ;
and of his visible church on earth. The latter are hence
known as the temple of God ; as well as his chosen
generation, his royal priesthood, his holy nation, his
peculiar people, to offer up special sacrifices acceptable
to God by Jesus Christ.
In our text, the temple, comprising the great covered
building, and the two courts first built, was to be
measured. But the outer court, the court of the Gen
tiles, was to be left out of the measurement. This court
was now presented as an emblem of the apostate and
corrupt church of the Eomanists, which could no longer
endure the measurement of gospel rule. This had
become unmeasurably corrupt. In the first formation of
the ancient tabernacle, Moses was admonished to make
all things after the pattern showed him in the mount.
By this rule must the church and her concerns be formed;
and then she can endure the measurement of the oracles
of truth. But that great court of the gentile church,
which for 1260 years should torture the true witnesses of
Christ, should have no measurement of evangelical truth
attempted upon it. It should be viewed and treated as
fatally and utterly corrupt ! That part of the professed
city of God should be trodden under the feet of Gentilism,
forty and two months. We here learn that at the com
mencement of the noted 1260 years (the same as the
forty and two months), the papal church became utterly

CHAPTER XI. 155
abominable, and was of God utterly rejected.* " The
holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two
months !" a phrase borrowed perhaps from the words of
our Saviour, "Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the
gentiles, until the time of the gentiles be fulfilled." If
the enemies of the church of Christ were to hold Pales
tine as a realm no better than grossly pagan, till about
the close of the noted 1260 years ; the immeasurable
iniquity of the papal power would hold that vast territory
of Christendom, which was within its power, in a state
no less degraded and hateful.
Ver. 3. And I will give power unto my two wit
nesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hun
dred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.
4. These are the two olive-trees, and the
two candlesticks standing before the God of the
earth. Much has been said by writers on the question, who
are the two witnesses ? The different views which have
been given, will not be here, noted, on this, nor on many
other questions in this book. Such a process would so

* As the 1260 years stand as a notable period in the prophecies ;
a few remarks for illustration shall here be given. This period
we find in Dan. vii. 25 ; "a time, times, and dividing of times."
Dan. xii. 7 ; " time, times, and an half." Our text, " forty and
two months." Verse 3 ; "a thousand two hundred and three
score days." Chap. xii. 6, and verse 14 ; "a time, times, and a
half time." These all mean the same period — 1260 years. By a
time, is meant, a year : times, two years : and half a time, half a
year. These make the forty and two months. And all the different
expressions of the period, reckoning (as did the ancients) 360 days
to a year, give 1260 years. God said to Moses,. Num. xiv. 34;
" After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even
forty days, each day for a year, ye shall bear your iniquity, even
forty years. In Ezek. iv. 6, the prophet was ordered to lie on his
side forty days, as a sign to the people. God said, " I have appointed
thee each day for a year." This, therefore, became one mode of
reckoning prophetic time ; — a day for a year. And Daniel, chap.
ix. 24; in predicting the time of the coming of Christ, hence
graduated the period, giving seventy weeks for four hundred and
ninety years. AH prophetic time is not necessarily thus reckoned.
But some is manifestly thus reckoned.

156 LECTURE XII.
incumber those lectures, that it will not be attempted : it
would serve only to perplex. On this question, and on
other points generally, I shall take the liberty to give that
sense, whether ever before given or not, which, after my
best consideration of the subject, shall appear best to
accord with Inspiration, the analogy of things, and historic
facts. The two witnesses will be here considered as an
appellation given to all the true people of God, during the
period noted. They are those who can truly endure the
measurement of the word of God, as the antecedent texts
decide ; those who belong to the mystical temple and
body of Christ. The description of them may have a
special allusion to the true ambassadors of Christ ; yet
not to exclude his common members. The phrase, "my
two witnesses, seems to imply that some beings are pecu
liarly known by this appellation. Who then are, in fact,
best known by it ? The ambassadors of Christ are
thus. " Ye are my witnesses," said Christ to them.
" Ye are witnesses of these things." " And ye shall be
witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea,
and unto the utmost parts of the earth." Those words our
Lord addressed to his ministers, just before he ascended ;
having given them their commission, and promised to be
with them always, even unto the end of the world.
Here then, are men known, in the word of God, as
Christ's witnesses ; as also in the following passages :
" This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we (the
apostles) are all witnesses." Again : "Whom God raised
from the dead, whereof we are witnesses." " And with
great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection."
" And we are his witnesses of these things, and so is also
the Holy Ghost." "And we are witnesses of all these
things, which God did." Ananias said to Paul, "For
thou shalt be his witness unto all men." Peter says,
" The elders among you I exhort, who am also an elder
and a witness." Who, or what, besides the ambassadors
of Christ, can claim such a number of inspired testimonies
direct to the purpose ? In ten passages they are thus
denominated. The witnesses prophesy, or preach, " in
the days of their prophecy!" To whom besides does
this so fitly apply, as to the ministers of the gospel ?
The witnesses are noted as " the two prophets ; that tor-

CHAPTER XI. 157
ment them that dwell on the earth." What other prophets
torment them that dwell on the face of the earth ? -These
are the two olive-trees," Zeeh. iv. 3, 11, 14; standing
one on each side of the candlestick ; and are explained
as being Joshua, and Zerubbabel; who unitedly prefigured
Christ as our Priest and King. Of them the angel said
to Zechariah, "these are the two anointed ones (Hebrew,
sons of oil), that stand before the Lord of the whole
earth." But who, on earth, are more fitly called anointed
ones, sons of oil, standing before the Lord of the whole
earth, than the ambassadors of Christ ? These are the
same with the four living creatures, in this mystical book,
who stand between God and the mystical elders, — com
mon members of the church.
But, although the descriptions of the witnesses have
thus a striking allusion to the ministersof Zion ; they do
not refer exclusively to them. For the witnesses are also
the two candlesticks, in the text. But a candlestick is a
noted emblem of the whole church of Christ, — ministers,
and common brethren. See Rev. i. 20 ; and ii. 1, where
Christ assures us that the seven stars are the angels (pas
tors) of the seven churches ; and the seven candlesticks
are the seven churches : and where our Lord thus dis
tinguishes between these two classes of men ; and yet
treats them as in a close connexion. " These things saith
He that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand ; who
walketh in the midst of his seven golden candlesticks."
True ministers and Christians all unite in bearing their
testimony for Christ. It is testified of the church,
including her ministers, as follows ; " The Spirit, and
the bride say, come." Thus the preachers of righteous
ness, and all their lay-brethren, form this whole, — the two
witnesses. But why is their number noted as two ? Whether the
duality of the two branches just noted, forms any part of
the reason, I will leave. Pastors and churches form
but one, and the two witnesses, in fact, form but one gene
ral testimony for God. Various Biblical considerations,
as well as historic facts, favour the idea of a duality of
the witnesses of Christ. There must be two witnesses to
constitute a legal testimony. See Deut. xix. 15; and
Matt, xviii. 16; 1 Tim. v. 19; where two are noted as
necessary to warrant conviction. And in the most trying
O

158 LECTURE XII.
times of the dark ages, God never left his cause without
ample witnesses ; though their number was often small.
In the sacred oracles, we find Moses and Aaron must be
associated, to operate as the witnesses of God ; Elijah
and Elisha ; Joshua and Zerubbabel ; the disciples must
be sent out two and two ! And something like a duality
seems to have been furnished, to bless the church of the
faithful, in the dark ages, and after ; as John Huss and
Jerome of Prague; Luther and Calvin; Cranmer and
Ridley ; the Waldenses and Albigenses. These dualities
seem to favour this idea of a duality in the witnesses. In
the present time, the church in America, and the church in
Great Britain, form the essential two, in commencing and
supporting the flight of the missionary angel. And the
church of the Jews, and of the gentiles will be the final
means of the conversion of the world, after the battle of
the great day shall sweep Antichrist into perdition, and
shall leave a remnant over the earth to be brought into the
fold of Christ. If these reasons be not fully satisfactory ;
the sovereignty of God is sufficient ; " Even so, Father :
for so it seemed good in thy sight."
Ver. 5. And if any man will hurt them, fire pro-
ceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their ene
mies ; and if any man will hurt them, he must in this
manner be killed.
6. These have power to shut heaven, that it rain
not in the days of their prophecy : and have power
over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the
earth with all plagues, as often as they will.
We have here a striking allusion to the powerful
efficacy of holy Christian prayer. It fails not to engage
the omnipotence of God in behalf of the persecuted church.
" And shall not God avenge his own elect who cry unto
him day and night, though he bear long with them ? I tell
you, he will avenge them speedily." The witnesses
destroying their enemies with fire from heaven, seems an
allusion to Elijah's calling down fire from Heaven to con
sume the captains and their fifties, who were sent by the
wicked Ahab to take him : as also their having power to
shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy,

CHAPTER XI. 159
must allude to the drought, occasioned on the idolatrous
Israel by the prayers of Elijah. And their turning water
to blood ; and their smiting the earth with all plagues, as
oft as they will, must allude to the plagues on Egypt,
inflicted by the instrumentality of Moses in behalf of the
liberation of the chosen tribes. The holy oracles honour
the saints, in their afflictions from the wicked world, with
the possession of a power like this, for their defence. But
the true sense is, — God does these, or similar works of
judgment, in answer to their prayers for Zion's salvation ;
and in vindication of the Christian cause. We accordingly
find such language as the following, in the Holy Scrip
tures, relative to the honour and power of the people of
God : " Let the high praises of God be in their mouth,
and a two-edged sword in their hands, to execute ven
geance upon the heathen, and punishment upon the peo
ple ; to bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with
fetters of iron ; to execute upon them the judgments writ
ten ; this honour have all the saints." In one of the pro
phets, the church, in these last days, is directed to make
a new threshing instrument, having teeth, to thresh the
nations, and beat them small as powder, that the wind
may carry them all away ! A great meaning is contained
in such figures, which the wicked world will too late dis
cover, to their cost, for all their pride and malice against
the cause of Christ on earth. The wicked queen Mary
had learned a little of this sentiment, when she felt that
she would rather have ten thousand men in arms against
her than the prayers of John Knox ! Such figures must
be viewed as alluding, not to any malevolent vindictive
spirit in Christians ; but to the influence of their holy
intercessions with God in behalf of his cause, and the
fulfilment of his word for Zion's salvation. They both
allude to, and confirm the fact, that "the effectual fervent
prayer of a righteous man availeth much." They hint to
us what all the effectual fervent prayers of the followers
of Christ will avail, when put in operation in behalf of
Zion's afflicted cause, and pleading for the fulfilment of
God's word in the protection of his churches on earth.
They know, feel, and rejoice, that vengeance belongeth
unto God, and not to them ; and they plead with God to
build up his own cause in his own way. God then, in his
own time and way, performs his work, "his strange work"

160 lecture xn.
of judgment, in behalf of his own kingdom of salvation, in
which his children adoringly acquiesce ; and he conde
scends to ascribe the event to them, inasmuch as he does
it in their behalf, and in answer to their prayers for his
own glory. And thus he says, " All things are yours."
" All things shall work together for good to them that love
God." And he adds, as Rev. ii. 27 ; " He that overcom
eth and keepeth my words unto the end, to him will I give
power over the nations ; and he shall rule them with a rod
of iron ; as the vessel of a potter shall they be broken to
shivers ; even as I received of my Father." (See Psalm
ii. 8, 9.) This commission was given to Christ ; and he
thus gives it to his faithful children ; — not to be the efficient
cause of judgments, as he is ; but to have the honour of
being one object of his judgments ; as interceding for his
cause ; and as having fellowship with him in his methods
of judgment, and of grace.
We learn how we are to esteem the religion of the
papal system ; unmeasurable iniquity and abomination !
The same we learn in 2 Thess. ii. — " Whose coming is
after the working of Satan, with all power, and signs, and
lying wonders ; and with all deceivableness of unrighteous
ness. — And for this cause shall God send them strong
delusion, that they should believe a lie, that they all might
be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in
unrighteousness ;" " who opposeth himself above all that
is called God, or worshipped ; so that he as God sitteth in
the temple of God, showing himself that he is God," in his
blasphemous self exaltations. See the abominations of
this character of popery in the second beast, in Rev. xiii.
11, to end; and as personified by the woman, Rev. xvii.
1-5. We have here "Mystery, Babylon the Great, the
mother of harlots, and abominations of the earth," —
" drunken with the blood of the saints," — defiling kings of
the earth; and rendering the millions of her deluded
votaries drunk with the wine of her filthiness ! — dashing
out in her purple, and scarlet, gold, precious stones, and
pearls ; holding her golden cup filled with unmeasurable
abomination, and filthiness. This scheme is the most
fatal delusion ; — " the way to hell, going down to the cham
bers of death." No fellowship is to be held with her.
" Come out of her, my people : be not partakers of her
sins ; that ye receive not of her plagues." Wretched is

CHAPTER XI. 161
the nation, or part of a nation, where this polluting system
shall prevail, or be thought well of ! Where it touches, it
will defile and ruin. It will gender infidelity ; and lead on
to the battle of the great day. " I beheld then, because of
the voice of the great words which the horn (popery)
spake, I beheld till the beast (the atheistical system pro
duced from it) was slain, and his body destroyed, and given
to the burning flame ;" " cast into the lake of fire and
brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and
shall be tormented for ever."
May we have our lot with the two witnesses. In order
for this, we must possess their character, make and main
tain their faithful prayers, and thus wait on the Lord.
Things with the two witnesses, and their enemies, will be
found ripening to a crisis. The only safety of true
Christians will be in living near to God. Then will their
prayers bring down for them all needed aid from Heaven ;
and their cause will, in due time, ascend thither, and their
enemies will with despairing eyes behold them. Do we
then, belong to the true witnesses ? To what do we bear
witness ? Do we truly support the doctrines of grace ? —
the duties which God demands of men? — the gospel mo
tives of salvation? Is this our faithful witness; while
many turn their ears from the truth, and are turned to
fables ? Is our witness borne for Christ truly practical, as
well as evangelical ? Is it in the exercise of the new
heart which God gives ? — " Created in Christ unto good
works ; truly born, not of blood, nor of the will of the
flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God ? — having the
love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost
given unto us ? — beholding the glory of God as he is in
himself, and being changed into the same image by the
Spirit of the Lord ? Do we carefully avoid the spirit and
conduct of such as turn into crooked ways ; who cry lo,
here ; or lo, there ; and cannot endure sound doctrine ?
Do we stand and inquire for the old path, the good way of
salvation, where the new-born have gone, denying them
selves, taking up the cross, and following Christ ? Do we
thus in spirit and practice hold forth the word of life, as
children of the light, and of the day ? Are the enemies
themselves constrained to take knowledge of us that we
have thus been with Jesus Christ, and have truly learned
of him? Decide these questions in the affirmative; and
02

162 LECTURE XHI.
the immunities and salvation of the two witnesses will be
ours. Their people will be our people ; and their God
our God !

LECTURE XIII.

REVELATION XI.
(The Slaying of the Witnesses.)
Ver. 7. And when they shall have finished their
testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottom
less pit shall make war against them, and shall over
come them, and kill them.
8. And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of
the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and
Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.
9. And they of the people, and kindreds, and
tongues, and nations, shall see their dead bodies three
days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead
bodies to be put in graves.
10. And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice
over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one
to another ; because these two prophets tormented
them that dwelt on the earth.
We have here an event of deep interest ; to find the
sense and the period of which, now claims our attention.
I have been of the number of those who fondly hope that
this solemn event is past: but on further inquiry, I have
been led to doubt of the correctness of this, and finally to
apprehend that it is yet future. Various events have been
presented to the public as the slaying of the, witnesses ;
most of which may be seen in Bishop Newton on the pro
phecies ; (vol. ii. page 226-9,) which will not here be
adduced. That noted writer gave his own full belief that

CHAPTER XI. 163
the event was then still future. One writer has given his
opinion that the event took place in the revolution in
France of 1789, when atheism did to some extent triumph
on the papal earth, and furious attempts were made to banish
Christianity from the world. Probably more may be said
in favour of that event's being the slaying of the witnesses,
than in favour of any other past event. But, could the few
Protestants who were then slain or silenced in France, be
entitled to the appellation of the witnesses of Christ on
earth ? It must be difficult to admit this. Where did the
rejoicing of all nations and tongues, which we are assured
takes place on the slaying of the witnesses, occur upon
the events of that revolution ? The state of the nations on
the Roman earth, at that time, formed an exact contrast
with this. All, except the infidels of illuminism, were ter
rified at the events of that revolution, and trembled for their
own existence : so far were they from "rejoicing, and send
ing gifts one to another !"
Nothing took place at that time, after three years and a
half, which could amount to the resurrection of the wit
nesses, and their ascension to heaven in the sight of their
enemies. I shall now state some difficulties which appear
in the way of viewing this event as past.
1. The time given for the slaying of the witnesses,
seems to show it to be now future. They were to
prophesy, clothed in sackcloth, 1260 years ; and it is
"when they shall have finished their testimony," that
they are slain. But the close of the 1260 years brings
us to the destruction of the beast from the bottomless
pit ; as has been shown from Dan. xii. 6, 7, where
the oath of the Angel (Christ) that the close of the
time, times, and a half (1260 years), brings the end of the
wonders, or the destruction of the wilful power there
described ; which has been shown to be the same with
the beast from the bottomless pit which slays the wit
nesses, and its destruction the same with the seventh vial,
or the battle of the great day of God. This event then,
is at the close of the 1260 years ; and the slaying of the
witnesses is at the close of the 1260 years ; and the same
period being ascribed to each of these events, shows them
to be at least very nearly at the same period. And hence,
as the end of these wonders, or the battle of the great day
of God, is now future (being subsequent to the restoration

164 LECTURE xm.
of the Jews); the slaying of the witnesses must be
future. In verses 11-14 of this chapter, we find that the resur
rection of the witnesses is near the close of the period
assigned to the second wo, as it there soon follows, " The
second wo is past, and behold the third wo cometh
quickly !" and the next verse presents it. This forbids
that the slaying of the witnesses can be a past event.
2. What is said of the three unclean spirits like frogs,
Rev. xvi. 13-16, does the same. For surely the great
effect of this threefold agency from the dragon, the beast,
and the false prophet, must now be future. It is an event
to be accomplished between the sixth and seventh vials ;
thus it is to take place after the destruction of the Turk
ish government, and to prepare the way for the final ruin
of Antichrist. But the object of this general diabolical
agency, — going forth unto the kingdoms of the world to
gather them to the battle of that great day of God, —
is to excite the last and most violent attack of the king
dom of Satan on earth upon the cause of Christ. And
can this be an event to be accomplished after the slaying
and the resurrection of the witnesses ? Must not the
slaying of the witnesses result rather from this gathering
of all the world against Christ, and be the event which
brings him down to destroy his enemies ?
This event of Christ's destroying his warring enemies,
is given in chap. xix. 19 — "And I saw the beast, and the
kings of the earth, and their armies gathered together to
make war against him who sat on the horse, and against
his army." I here again ask ; can the attack of this same
beast upon the witnesses, his having slain them, and their
having arisen, and ascended up to heaven, and their ene
mies having beholden them, be an event long past, when
this new violent attack is made upon the church of Christ?
Is not this last gathering of all the powers of Satan on
earth against the church at the very time of their slaying
of the witnesses ? This much better accords with all
that is testified relative to the event. Jesus Christ (it will
then be found), has risen in the majesty of his glory, to
cut off the enemy, when the slaughtered witnesses rise
from the dead, and ascend up to heaven, and their enemies
behold them ! The latter stroke indicates their terror and
dismay at the sight of the witnesses now triumphant ;

CHAPTER XI. 165
rather than their courage to make a new attack. No — as
the mystical resurrection and ascension to heaven of the
witnesses, evince that Christ has come to vindicate their
cause, and to take their enemies in hand (as the decisive
battle immediately follows) ; so the slaying of them is
but three years and a half before the commencement of
this new interposition of Christ in their behalf, and can
not now be a past event.
3. Other prophecies corroborate this sentiment. Rev.
chapter xiv. commences with a view of the reformation,
as will be shown on the chapter ;• — the appearing of the
heavenly Lamb on the Mount Zion ! In verse 6th, the
angel of missions commences his flight round the world ;
an event now accomplishing. A second angel of general
influence follows — testifying that " Babylon is fallen .'"
The flight of this second angel is now manifestly future.
A third angel follows, calling on all, upon the penalty of
eternal death, to flee from all affinity with the beast, as will
be shown upon the passage. This, as might be expected,
excites ire and persecution from the enemy thus impli
cated : and it hence follows, " Here is the patience of the
saints : here are they that keep the commands of God,
and the faith of Jesus !" These hints, and what follows,
imply much relative to new trials of Christian faith and
patience. "And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto
me, Write, blessed are the dead that die in the Lord from
henceforth (from the time of the commencement of these
new trials). Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from
their labours, and their works do follow them." These
warnings, and what still follows, imply much relative to new
and signal trials to the church. It has ever been a fact, that
" blessed are the dead who die in the Lord." But this text is
here a chronological passage, and has a peculiar meaning
at a peculiar time. It implies new and signal trials to the
living. Hence Christ is noted as immediately appearing
on his white cloud of the judgment and victory of the
battle of the great day ! He appears there with the sharp
weapon of his indignation, now to reap the wicked har
vest, and to gather the infidel clusters of the vine of
Antichrist. " Thrust in thy sickle and reap ! for the
time is come for thee to reap ; for the harvest of the earth
is ripe" — " Gather the clusters of the vine .of the earth,
for her grapes are fully ripe !" and the decisive work is

166 LECTURE XUI.
done ! This series of events strongly indicates that the
slaying of the witnesses follows the flight of this third
angel ; trying the patience of the saints ; causing that
"blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from hence
forth ;" and bringing down the Captain of our salvation for
the harvest and the vintage ! Now, shall we say or admit,
that the slaying, and the triumphant resurrection, and
ascension to heaven of the witnesses, are events anterior
to the flight of the first missionary angel here, whose
mission is now blessing the world ?
In Rev. x. the same thing appears. It has been shown
that the descent of Christ there, and the seven thunders,
were accomplished in the infidel French revolution — that
this was naturally mistaken by some for the battle of the
great day : but the oath of Christ corrects this mistake,
and assures that the battle was not yet ; but in the days
of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound (an event
still future), the mystery of God shall be finished;" or,
the battle shall then commence, and be soon accomplished.
And here, subsequent to the seven thunders, is the bitter
ness of the little book ; or the fact, that " thou must again
prophesy before peoples, and nations, and tongues, and
kings !" a kind of prophesying which had been laid aside,
but which must again be resumed before the seventh
trumpet, and to introduce that event. Let it be here asked,
can this experience of the bitterness of the little book ;
this new prophecying before peoples, and nations, and
tongues, and kings, — be viewed as accomplished before the
descent of Christ, and the seven thunders here given?
Surely not. They are future of these scenes. And must
they not then be future of the present period ?
4. Sentiments of noted writers on this subject are en
titled to some consideration ; more at least than the mere
conjectures of men who have never bestowed any serious
and patient attention to the prophecies. Bishop Newton,
after giving all the schemes of past authors upon this
point, gives his own opinion that the event was still future.
Mr. Scott gives as his full belief that it was future of his
day. I will give his words.
He says, " Many private interpretations (for so they
appear to me) have been given of this passage (the slay
ing of the witnesses), as if it related to the martyrdom of
individuals, or partial persecutions, in some times past.

CHAPTER XI. 167
I cannot but think that it relates to events yet future ;
and that it will be fulfilled about the sounding of the
seventh trumpet."
In a subsequent edition of his Bible, he says (speaking
of his former comments on this passage), " Since that
time, I have had abundant opportunity of reconsidering
my interpretation (of this passage), and of comparing it
with those of many others, and with events which have oc
curred. I must, however, avow my full conviction, that
the transactions have not. hitherto taken place !" Mr.
Scott shows, that the triumphs of persecutors in Germany,
Bohemia, Spain, and Italy, do not amount to any thing
that can be called the slaying of the witnesses. The time of
the event," when they shall have finished their testimony,"
he proceeds to show, is manifestly future. I will call no
man father, upon earth. But the reasoning and views of
such men as Newton and Scott, will have with me, much
more weight, than the confident assertions of men who
speak only according to their wishes, and intuitive views,
but have never duly investigated the subject.
5. The beast that slays the witnesses, is another besides
the papal beast ; and therefore no past papal persecutions
can amount to it. It is (our text assures) " the beast that
ascendeth out of the bottomless pit," that " makes war
upon them, and overcomes them, and kills them." This
is the infidel power of the last days. See Rev. xiii. 3-7;
and xvii. 3, 8, 14. This is noted as the old pagan Roman
beast, recovered to life, in the last days. It is a power of
infidelity, licentiousness, and military despotism. It has
already appeared and exhibited its infidel nature and de
sign. It is a beast " that was, and is not, and yet is."
It has, at times, only a mystical and invisible existence ;
but a real one, till it goes into perdition at the battle of
the great day of God. This is the mischievous agent in
our text. The last part of his existence is noted as ter
rible, till he goes into perdition ; " till his body is de
stroyed, and given to the burning flame." This is the
beast that, with the dragon, and the papal false prophet,
leads the kings of the earth, and their armies, to the last
battle with Christ and his army, the church. Rev. xix. 19 ;
Dan. vii. 11.
6. In the scene at the Red Sea, light is reflected on
this subject. That destruction of the Egyptians was a

168 lecture xm.
type of the destruction of Antichrist, in the seventh vial,
as is evident from the fact, that at the close of this vial,
" The song of Moses and of the Lamb," is sung ; Rev.
xv. 3. This teaches that the scene at the Red Sea was a
type of the battle of the great day. In the type, Israel
had set out for Canaan ; the Egyptians had been terrified
at the death of the firstborn, and had hastened Israel away.
But they afterward pursued them ; and the chosen tribes,
after they had supposed all danger was past, found their
greatest trial of all. So it may be in the antitype. After
it is thought all danger is past, and the church is going
directly into the Millennium — her greatest trial, as in that
case, may come ; the gracious removal of which, will oc
casion " the song of Moses and of the Lamb." (See
Exodus xv.)
7. The oath of the angel decides as follows, Dan. xii.
7, relative to the wilful infidel power of these last days ;
"And when he shall have accomplished to scatter the
power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished."
This he says, when noting the event which closes the
1260 years ; or the destruction of this wilful power. It
takes place upon his accomplishing to scatter the power
of the holy people : the very event in our text. Must not
this be now future ? Says our text, " And when they shall
have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out
of the bottomless pit shall make war upon them, and
shall overcome them." At the close of their 1260 years,
then, this beast shall, for a short time, scatter the power of
the holy people !" Then he himself shall go into perdition,
and the mystery of God shall be finished. The sense
of this scattering of the power of the holy people, the
event will in due time unfold. This making war upon
them, overcoming them, and killing them, must import
something of deep concern !
Mr. Scott says, " present appearances do indeed favour
the opinion, that the general and successful war of the
beast against the witnesses will be conducted under
another form and other pretences, and perhaps by other
instruments and means, than have been former assaults.
Papal persecutors were concealed infidels. And infidels
concealed under any other mask, may equally answer to
the prediction." Although I had never seen these re
marks of Mr. Scott, when I formed and published my

chapter xi. 169
sentiments upon this subject, I was struck when I found
his sentiments so accordant with my own.
8. An argument to show that the witnesses are not yet
slain, is the fact, that none who are in favour of its being
a past event, are able to point lo it !
The description of the event is such, that had it been
transacted, none could afterward be at a loss to show the
fact. The witnesses are slain ; they lie in a street of the
great city, unburied ; all nations and tongues of the wicked
triumph over them ; they rise from the dead ; they ascend
up to heaven, and their enemies behold them. Are things
like these to be done in a corner, and unable to be dis
covered ? Impossible. There is, the same hour, a great
earthquake, which shakes down a tenth part of the great
city, or system. Many are slain, and all are terrified,
and confess God's hand. These are great and notable
events ; have they taken place, and yet none can point
them out !
9. It does not become man to disbelieve or undervalue
the warnings of the Word of God. They are given for
important purposes, and should be believed and im
proved. It would seem natural for erring man to mistake
so great an event as the flight of the angel of missions
over the earth, to plant the gospel in every nation, kin
dred, tongue, and people (a thing not yet finished), for the
actual dawn of the Millennium. But we find this event
is, in Rev. xiv. 6, distinct from the commencement of the
Millennium, and antecedent to a number of most import
ant events, which are themselves antecedent to the Mil
lennium. And these events should not be blended or
overlooked. If the church has scenes of danger before
her, and God has given warning of it ; it will not aid the
cause of Christ to cry peace, and assure her, her warfare
is already accomplished. If soldiers have >a battle to
fight, it but ill prepares them for it, to assure them they
have already gained the victory, and the enemy are van
quished. Should such assurances be given them, lest they
be discouraged, would this prepare them for the battle ?
The Millennium is certain, and will be glorious. But it
will be just preceded by the battle of that great day of
God ; the last and most violent attack of Satan. And no
victory must be shouted previous to this, unless by anti
cipation. The armour must be put on and kept bright, and
P

170 LECTURE XIlI.
the warnings of the Word of God sounded. If the short
depression of the church, in our text, would discourage, if
known beforehand, why did Inspiration predict it ? This
question is of great weight, should it prove that it is now
a past event. It was once future, and was predicted.
Should it then have been suppressed, lest Christian exer
tion should be discouraged ? It is to be hoped that all
Christians are not so mercenary as this ; that they follow
not Christ for the loaves and fishes, but for the miracles.
Those who labour in the cause of Christ, only in the be
lief that all the worst days to Zion are past, and only good
days are before us, and they may live to see the Millen
nium, — possibly are not among the best workmen for the
kingdom of heaven. When Jeremiah announced to the
Jews that they had great evils to experience from the king
of Babylon, he was cruelly persecuted ; while the pro
phets (such as they were) who assured them no trials
were ahead, were caressed. But Jeremiah proved the
true prophet, and the best friend. The disciples were
elated with high expectations relative to ' a kingdom of
Christ, which they should soon behold in vast magnifi
cence. Our Saviour, to correct their error, assured them
the Son of man was going to be rejected of the elders,
crucified, and put to death. This, with the zealous
Peter, was too much: How vastly discouraging ! " And
Peter took Jesus, and began to rebuke him. This be far
from thee, Lord. This shall not come unto thee." Jesus
turned, and said to Peter, " Get thee behind me, Satan.
For thou savourest not the things that be of God ; but the
things that be of men !" True soldiers of the cross will,
when acting in character, believe and improve the most
trembling warnings of heaven ; and will engage to fight
the good fight of faith, though called to seal their warfare
with their blood. " He that would save his life, shall
lose it." Christ's soldiers are not called to enlist under
his banner with a belief that the enemy are already van
quished ; nor that the way to heaven is henceforth
smooth and bloodless. Such are not the motives which
Christ addresses to his true followers. But he does allow
them to rejoice, that the greater the cross, the greater the
crown. And the rewards of the last great day may con
vince us, that those who live just before and at the slaying
of the witnesses, had a lot of duty assigned them not in-

chapter xi. 171
ferior to any of his followers on earth, and not the least
animating of them all. If any are disposed to lend their
silver, gold, and jewels to the tribes of the Lord, with an
expectation only of redoubling their property thereby, tin
time ; the donations may serve the Israelites indeed, but the
donors will lose their reward. Happy are they who aid
the cause of Christ with views truly evangelical. We
must cast our bread upon these waters of preparing the
way for the Millennium ; and wait till the days of heaven
to find it.
The street of the great city in the text, where the slain
witnesses lie, must be shown by the event. It no douht
means in the most open view of the world. The city spi
ritually called Sodom, and Egypt, and where our Lord
was crucified, probably means nothing more than the
great ruling infidel system of the day, in whatever land.
This is a Sodom for lewdness ; an Egypt for cruelty and
oppression to the people of Christ ; and an infidel Jerusa
lem for the crucifixion of Christ in his members.
The particulars of the slaying of the witnesses ; of their
lying unburied ; and of the joys of the wicked infidel
world over them, — the fulfilment of the text vyjll best un
fold. Much is implied in the plain warning given ; but
the particulars of the description were not designed to
make us wise above what is written. The prophecies
are to give needful general warnings ; but not to make us
prophets. If our faith embraces as particularly as God
informs, we need go no further. And attempts to do it
have but injured the cause of prophecy.
Behold the depravity of the heart of fallen man, that
the preaching of the gospel should torment them that
dwell on the earth, and that men should be capable after
all the evangelical light which God has given, of forming
the deliberate plan of destroying the cause of Christ from
the world, and should rejoice and triumph when they think
it is accomplished. Truly, " the carnal mind is enmity
against God."
The heart of man must be renewed, or his soul is eter
nally lost. Could a heart of such enmity be happy in
heaven ? If admitted there, it would again, if possible,
slay the witnesses, and even God himself! If the preach
ing of the gospel on earth " tormented" them ; the torment
wjpuld there be perfect.

172 lecture xni.
Can light then, renew such a heart as this ? Could the
Spirit of God himself cause light to do it ? He could not.
For, though he is omnipotent, he cannot perform impossi
bilities. " God cannot lie !" The carnal heart hates the
more, the more the light shines. And nothing can prevent
this, but a new creating act of God m that heart ! " Cre
ated in Christ unto good works." "I will take the
stony heart out of your flesh ; and will give you an
heart of flesh, — and will cause you to walk in my sta
tutes." " Because the love of God is shed abroad in our
heart by the Holy Ghost that is given unto us." " For it
is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his
good pleasure !" " Thou hast wrought all our works in
us." We have here the only ground of hope for fallen
man. And, blessed be God, he that made the heart of a
free moral agent, can as easily new create that heart, con
sistently with man's free moral agency and accountability !
and all objection to this is worse than idle ; it is impious ;
for it is an arraying of human wisdom against the wisdom
of Heaven. And wo to him that strives with his Maker.
He who allows himself to add to the word of God, or to
diminish from it, will find his part wanting in the book of
life. True Christians are God's witnesses, and do in heart,
in profession, and in life, bear witness to the doctrines,
duties, and motives of the gospel. People then, who do
not thus, fail of possessing the true mark of the people of
Christ. Great is the honour which God sees fit to put on his
witnesses, to note them as having power to shut heaven,
and to smite the earth with all plagues. Truly they may
say, "The beauty of the Lord our God is upon us." Let
all such be humble, and confident in God. And let them
take to themselves the whole armour of God, and be able
to stand in the evil day !
Ver. 11. And after three days and a half the
Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they
stood upon their feet ; and great fear fell upon them
which saw them.
12. And they heard a great voice ffom heaven
saying unto them, Come up hither. And they as-

chapter xi. 173
cended up to heaven in a cloud : and their enemies
beheld them,
" The triumphing of the wicked is short." The re
joicing and sending of gifts one to another of these hosts of
Antichrist, soon close in scenes to them vastly terrific.
After the great and notable depression of Zion for three
and a half years, Heaven interposed for them by signal
events in their behalf, or showers of grace, or both, and
produces what is here noted' as their resurrection from the
dead. Such figures are known in the word of God ; as
the valley of dry bones, in Ezek. xxxvii., can testify. By
giving new strength to the saints, and probably by con
verting many hitherto dead in sin, a host of intelligent and
most zealous Christians God now raises up in a sudden
and glorious manner; who step forth, like champions of
the faith, to terrify the enemy, and to make them to be
come, in a manner, like the Roman guards at the tomb of
Christ, who stood (or fell) aghast, and became as dead
men ! Possibly the antitype of this very scene is now ful
filled. This will give such a spring to the Christian
cause, as has never yet been witnessed. And, to express
the powerful triumph of the reanimated witnesses, and the
confusion of the hosts of the infidel world, the former are
mystically said to be called by a great and audible voice
from above, to ascend to heaven ; which they speedily do
in the full view of all their enemies. The great providen
tial events, and the power of divine grace, which will form
this voice, and the ascending of the, witnesses in clouds to
heaven, the blessled events not now far distant, will un
fold ! Such will be the seenes of joy to the friends, and
of terror to the enemies of our blessed Lord. Haman will
die upon his own gallows ; and Judas on his own fatal
selected tree. Terrors and affrights to the enemy will
now awake and multiply : and will close in the fatal
plunging of Antichrist into the ocean of divine wrath.
Ver. 13. And the same hour was there a great
earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in
the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand :
and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to
the God of heaven.
A great earthquake, in such a connexion, is some great
P2

174 LECTURE XIII.
political catastrophe. Some tremendous scene will terrify
the antichristian empire. A tenth part of it is said to fall.
Some awful dismemberment may take plaee among its
component parts. Seven thousand men are slain. In the
original it is, " seven thousand names of men" — jperhaps
men of name, or leaders ; which would imply an immense
slaughter among their followers and people. It cannot
mean, in this connexion, that simply 7000 people fell in the
event. This would be but a small number indeed, in such
a case. Seven, in this book, is a noted perfect number. It
probably then means that multitudes innumerable were
slaughtered. And the terrified infidels, beholding all this,
were constrained to confess the hand of God against them,
and to make acknowledgments to his glory.
Ver. 14. The second wo is past ; and behold, the
third wo cometh quickly.
These scenes finish the period of the second wo. The
period of the first wo trumpet continued till the blast of
the second ; and the various scenes of judgment inter
vening, though not the appropriate event of the first wo,
yet were in the period of this wo. And the period of
the second wo trumpet was to continue till the open
ing of the third. And these scenes upon the resurrec
tion of the witnesses, are represented as finishing the
period of the second wo trumpet. Here our question is
decided, that the slaying of the witnesses is one of the
last events before the blast of the third wo trumpet. But
at the time of the descent of Christ, Rev. x., his oath de
cides that the seventh trumpet was then not yet, but was
some distance future. Hence the slaying of the witnesses
was, at the time of the revolution in France, at some dis
tance future ! When the witnesses shall have been slain,
and raised, and the earthquake (within an hour of the
event) shall have taken place ; the period of the second
wo closes, and the third conies quickly.
Ver. 15. And the seventh angel sounded; and
there were great voices in heaven, saying, The king
doms of this world are become the kingdoms of our
Lord, and of his Christ ; and he shall reign for ever
and ever.
16. And the four-and-twenty elders, which sat

chapter xi. 175
before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and
worshipped God,
17. Saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God
Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come ;
because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and
hast reigned.
18. And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is
come, and the, time of the dead, that they should be
judged, and that thou shouldst give reward unto thy
servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them
that fear thy name, small and great ; and shouldst
destroy them which destroy the earth.
The events of this passage are not given in their true
order. The battle of the great day, in the true course of
events, is first ; and then the Millennium. All the pro
phets, and the reason of the thing, unite in this. But in
our text, after long and dismal scenes of judgments and
darkness, the mind is relieved by being carried at once
beyond the horrors of the great battle, into the midst of the
millennial glory. The Christian is thus led to see that
all the remaining nations and people of the world, after
the battle, are graciously brought to constitute on earth,
the visible kingdom of God and the Lamb. The glory
of the commencement of the Millennium arrives.
But the tremendous scene, which in fact precedes the
Millennium, although in the rehearsal is here thrown behind
it, is then given. And the mode of exhibiting it is most
significant. The four-and-twenty elders (representatives
of the church) prostrate themselves before God, with souls
overflowing with holy gratitude, praise, and adoration.
They praise God both for his judgments and his mercies.
They adore him as the Being " who is, and was, and is to
come, the Almighty." They praise him that he has taken
to himself his great power to reign, to introduce his
spiritual kingdom in the hearts of all men then remaining
on earth. " And the nations were angry." — Nations have
always been more or less angry. But now, in a most
emphatical sense, they had been angry ! and had cut each
other off from the earth ! The event long predicted of this
very season, God will now have fulfilled ; that " the fire of
thine enemies shall devour them !" Restraints had now been

176 lecture xm.
taken off; and the antichristian nations, like wild furies, had
devoured each other. The prediction, " each shall come
down by the sword of his brother," had been fulfilled.
" And thy wrath is come." Long had God announced to
the antichristian world, that the day of vengeance was in
his heart. Jesus Christ had predicted " the day of ven
geance of our God." This had long been thundered in
the ears of guilty nations, but in vain. The alarm had
been sounded : " Blow ye the trumpet in Zion ; sound an
alarm in my holy mountains ; let all the inhabitants of the
earth tremble, for the day of the Lord, for it is nigh at
hand." Now this warning is fulfilled ; and the church
hence adore God. " And the time of the dead that they
should be judged." This cannot refer to the final judg
ment ; for that event does not occur till after the Mil
lennium, and the end of the world. But the judgment in
the text is before the Millennium. Several things had now
taken place, to each of which this clause might allude. It
might be as though the elders had said, — and the time of
the execution of thine antichristian enemies (now dead),
whose guilty measure was filled, has arrived, and they
were cut off, according to thy word, that their souls might
be judged, and disposed of as thy justice and truth de
manded. This accords with what we read of the same
event in Isai. Ixvi. 24 ; where, in the Millennium, from
one Sabbath to another, all flesh (worshipping before God
in their own earthly assemblies) are noted as " going forth
(in sermons and histories of the events), and looking upon
the men who have transgressed (or the world of infidels
who have fallen in that last battle) ; and their worm dieth
not, and their fire is not quenched ; and they shall be an
abhorring unto all flesh." The time of these slaughtered
infidels to be judged, and punished, had arrived.
And this clause of the text may also mean, " the time of
the dead" saints and martyrs, who had been tortured under
the fury of antichristian powers, had come, "that they should
be avenged." In Rev. vi. 10, under the fifth seal, where the
souls of the martyrs under the altar -cry, " How long, O
Lord, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood ?" They
use the same Greet word which is here used. And, in the
battle of the great day, God does judge and avenge their
blood. Such texts as the following are then fulfilled.
"And in her (Babylon) was found the blood of prophets,

chapter xi. 177
and saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth."
" The earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no
longer cover her slain." " I will cleanse their blood that
I have not cleansed; for the Lord dwelleth in Zion."
The battle of the great day is thus the time of the mar
tyred saints, that they should be avenged. And the pro
phets, and saints, and all who fear God, are represented
as now being rewarded. If this means the ambassadors
of Christ, and saints on earth ; these do indeed receive a
rich reward, in the introduction of the glories of the Mil
lennium. And if it means to include also the ancient
prophets, and saints, then in heaven ; they too receive
now an additional reward, in the same event. For, if
there is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth ; how
vast must be the additional joy in heaven, when all the
millions on earth shall become penitent ? — and when the
blessed cause of salvation, in which their hearts, living
and dying, were bound up, shall now by them be known
to fill the world? This must be an additional reward
indeed. God grant it may be ours ! " And shouldst destroy
them that destroy the earth." The violent enemies of the
church, it may well be said, destroy the earth. Their
wicked conduct actually produces great destruction. And
it tends, in its nature, to universal destruction. And such
destroyers, remaining impenitent, God will destroy. And
the same will be matter of everlasting praise in the church
of the redeemed.
Ver. 19. And the temple of God was opened in
heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of
his testament : and there were lightnings, and voices,
and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.
John seemed to behold the ancient temple of Jeru
salem, now in heaven. He beholds it opened ; and sees
the ark of the covenant, as that used to be kept in the
temple. This seems designed as a striking symbolical
decision, that all these works of judgment, and of mercy,
were performed only in the covenant faithfulness of God
to Christ, and to his seed.-^-As though the king of glory
had kept the ark of the covenant with him in his heavenly
palace ; — was ever mindful of it ; — and would now make a
clear exhibition of all this to his saints on earth. All is done

178 LECTURE XIII.
on God's partrin fulfilment of his covenant with the second
Adam, and with his posterity. And the ark of the testa
ment, in the temple of heaven, seems to be the symbolic
repository of this covenant. Figures most appropriate
then follow, significant of the tremendous judgments, which
pour down from the temple, and the ark of heaven, and at
once finish the scene with antichristian nations : — " Light
nings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and
great hail !" These are the same figures found under the
seventh vial, in the second division of this book, as accom
plishing the same event. It is a fact terrible to the ene
mies of the church, and happy for Zion, that the temple
of God, his ark, and covenant, are defended, as though
encircled with lightning, voices, thunders, earthquakes, and
great hail ! " I will be a wall of fire round about." All
the elements of nature stand ready at God's direction, to
defend the church. And the most terrible warrings of
those elements are taken, as bright emblems of those deso
lating and fatal judgments, which shall, ere long, sweep
from the earth all the contending enemies of the church.
The prophetic descriptions of those judgments are numer
ous, and of the most terrific kind. It would afford a solemn
lesson of instruction if all these were presented in a dense
form ; but this, the length of the present lecture will not
admit. We now arrive at the close of the first general
division of the prophetic part of the Revelation.
Various practical reflections do here crowd themselves
upon the mind from the events of this chapter ; but which
the length of the lecture must exclude.

LECTURE XIV.

Second General Division of the Revelation.
REVELATION XII.
The object of this chapter seems to be, to furnish a
general view of the two great combatants, — the church
and the devil, — during the Christian era, till near the Mil
lennium. We are hence led back to the commencement
of the Christian era ; and thence to traverse again the
period given in the first, general division through which
we have passed, as was shown in the first lecture. Of
some of the events, given in the first general division, this
second division gives also a view, but under different fig
ures. And it gives some events not presented in the first
division. These two general divisions furnish a great fa
cility to the exposition of the Revelation. The church
of Christ, in this chapter, is presented under her most ap
propriate figure — a female, in a significant position, state,
and habiliments ; praying and labouring for the birth of
her offspring.* i
* Some have been of opinion that the events of this chapter were
to extend only through the period which preceded the rise of
popery. To perceive the incorrectness of this view, consider ;
1. The object of the chapter, which is an introduction to the
second general division of the book, by exhibiting the two contend
ing parties, the church and the devil. The struggles and conten
tions of these parties were to continue till the Millennium. The
same reason then, which presents these parties at all, must operate
to present them, till the struggle shall close in the millennial glory
of the church, or very near that period.
2. The war between the true church, and the papal see, was
much longer, and of deeper interest, than was the war between the
church and the pagan Roman emperors. Hence that was more
likely to be the " war in hearten," noted in this chapter, than was
that with the pagan emperors.
3. That war of the first Christian ages in the pagan empire, is
given in this chapter before, and distinct from the war in heaven
here noted. That was given in the standing of the dragon before
the woman, to devour her offspring ; and having his symbolic body

180 LECTURE XIV.
Ver. 1. And there appeared a great wonder in
heaven ; ja. woman clothed with the sun, and the
moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of
twelve stars ;

formed from the form of that empire. The subsequent war then,
in heaven, must have been in later ages.
4. This war in heaven is subsequent to the flight of the woman
into the wilderness, verse 6. But this event took place at the ma
turity of the papal beast, and it commenced the noted 1260 years
of her wilderness state. Certainly then, the subsequent war in
heaven was with the papal see.
5. The imagery of this war decides that it was the war with
popery, and not the war with paganism. It is " in heaven .'" the
symbolic heaven of the professed church of Christ. But a sys
tem of paganism can never be so denominated.
6. The casting out of the dragon from heaven to earth does not
fitly accord with his frustration in the subversion of paganism.
But it fully accords with his fall in the commencement of the fall
of popery, in the reformation. This fall of Satan was indeed a
symbolic fall from heaven to earth ; from the mystical heaven of the
papal church, to the earth of more open opposition to the cause .of
Christ. The heaven isa symbol of the visible church, not of pagan
ism. See Heb. xii. 26.
7. The occasion of praise, on Satan's being cast from heaven, is
such as well accords with a view of the papal system, but not the
pagan. " For the accuser of our brethren is cast down, who ac
cused them before God, day and night." The papal persecutors
accused the witnesses before God indeed"; as rejecters of Christ's
vicar on earth, and his true system. But the pagan persecutors
never accused the persecuted to God : for they themselves bothreaKy
and professedly denied him, in holding to their false gods.
8. The cause of the rage of Satan, after being cast from heaven
is such as fully accords with the time of the reformation from
popery ; but not at all with the time of the revolution in Rome :
" Because he knowethhe halh hut a short time ."' At the time of the
revolution in Rome, the Bible predicted a long time for the cause of
Satan ! fifteen or sixteen hundred years, at least. But at the
time of the reformation in, the sixteenth- century, the predicted
time of Satan began indeed to be short !
9. The casting of floods from the mouth of Satan, in the closing
parts of this chapter, fully accords with what has actually taken
place in these last days, in the Voltaire system, and the horrors
which followed : but it accords not so fitly with any thing that
took place in or soon after the pagan empire.
10. The devil in the dragon actually continues his contentions —
as the same dragon— with the church, till he is bound at the com
mencement of the Millennium, and shut up in the bottomless pit.
Rev. xx. 1, 2. In Rev. xi|i. 2, the dragon gives his power to the

CHAPTER XII. 181
We have here a striking emblem of the true church of
God ; an emblem well known through the sacred oracles,—
a virtuous female. Among the symbols of the church is
found " the bride, the Lamb's wife !" She is "the King's
daughter, all glorious within." She is the spouse of Im-
manuel, through the Songs of Solomon. " My dove, my
undented is one. She is the only one of her mother.
She is the choice one of her that bare her." This em
blem John seemed to behold in the upper regions of the
air, in the visible heavens ; which is a most fit symbolic
position of the church. The church is herself known
under the emblem of the heavens, — meaning the visible
heavens. Says Inspiration, " Yet once more, and I shake
not the earth only, but also the heavens." Or, not only
earthly kingdoms, but the nominal church.
This symbolic woman seemed to stand in the front of
the sun, with his bright rays dazzling around her. This
is a most lively figure of the union of the true people of
Christ with him, the Sun of righteousness — of their posi
tion in heavenly places, and their interest in the avails of
his perfect provisions of gospel grace for their justifica
tion, and preparation for glory. And it is a lively em
blem of their special illumination by the Spirit of God —
of their Christian graces, and their fruits of holiness ;

beast in days long subsequent to the revolution subverting pagan
ism, in 320, in Rome. And in Rev. xvi. 13, after the sixth vial
(about this period in which we live), one of the three unclean spirits,
like frogs, is from the mouth of the dragon, showing that the very
scenes of the twelfth chapter are still in operation, and will be, till
near the battle of the great day.
Thus the views given of the chronology of the events of this
twelfth chapter, must be correct. And the events of the chapter
occupy the period from the commencement of the Christian era, till
near the battle of the great day of God. And the writers who in
sist that they relate only to the period antecedent to the rise of
popery, have nothing to support their sentiment, but much to re
fute it. The one argument, that the war in heaven, in this chap
ter, is subsequent to the first flight of the church into her wilder
ness state, by the persecutions of popery, fully oversets their
theory ! This wilderness state of the church was to be 1260 years
under persecutions of popery. But it agrees with nothing that took
place under paganism. This war of the devil, then, was in the
papal heaven — the symbolic heaven of the professed visible church,
in its papal corruption.

182 LECTURE XIV.
also of the gracious accommodations of the church, With
all needed gifts for her edification. The church is thus
" clothed with the sun." " Unto you that fear my name
shall the Sun of righteousness arise."
This woman has " the moon under her feet." This
may remind us of several things. The church had,
at the commencement of the Christian era, risen su
perior to the moonlight of the old dispensation. Those
rituals reflected the rays of the Sun of righteousness only
as the moon in the night reflects the light of the sun
upon us, while the sun itself is hid from our view. But
the Christian church rose superior to that moonlight sys
tem, and received her light from Jesus Christ himself.
Her first teachers and members literally beheld their Sa
viour ; and all their successors are blessed with the literal
record which God gave of his Son. Of this rich bless
edness, the moon's being under the feet of this symbol of
the church, in our text, was an emblem. And the same
emblem likewise reminds us of the power of the Chris
tian faith, which overcomes the world, and places it
under the feet of every true child of God. " This is the
victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." It
impresses the superior glory of heavenly things above
things earthly, and renders saints dead to the world, and
to sin ; while it raises the heart of grace to the glory of
God, and makes men have their conversation in heaven.
To finish the sublime climax, this woman wears a crown
set with twelve gems, called, on account of their brilliancy,
stars. This is an emblem of her royalty. The follow
ers of Christ are called a royal priesthood, and they are
said to be made kings and priests unto God. Christ, the
King of glory, thus adorns them with his own royal hon
ours, which are here denoted by a crown with twelve
points, at the top of each of which a star is seen to shine.
To what can these ornaments of the crown of the church
allude ? No doubt they allude to the twelve apostles, and
their succession, the gospel ministry. Christ in this book
assures us, "the stars are the angels (ministers) of the
churches." Such honour our Lord puts upon his ambas
sadors. " These things saith he who holdeth the stars in
his right hand, and who walketh in the midst of his
golden candlesticks." Paul speaks of his converts as his
crown of joy. And ministers of Christ are to the church

CHAPTER XU. 183
her crown of joy. And the number of these stars seems
fixed by the fact that the number of the apostles was
twelve. This part of the emblem of the church may de
note also the doctrines of grace, propagated by the twelve
apostles. These doctrines the church receives, and main
tains ; and hence she is called " the pillar and ground of
the truth." "The distinguishing truths of gospel salvation,
supported by the twelve apostles, and the gospel ministry,
have been indeed bright and precious gems in the crown
of the church. Let who will turn aside to their
crooked ways ; the immutable truths of Christ are
ever the same ; and they lie at the foundation, and form a
crown of man's eternal glory. Let them be hated and
opposed by the dragon, by false teachers and their fol
lowers ; the true church will not fail to contend earnestly
for the faith once delivered to the saints. She here finds
her good hope through grace. And when men will not
endure sound doctrine, but heap to themselves teachers,
having itching ears, and will turn to fables ; the people of
God will support these twelve stars, and be steadfast, im
moveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.*
* There is a special reason why the twelve apostles should be
viewed as twelve stars in the crown of the church. They were
not only the first in commission in the gospel ministry ; but they
were the roost signal witnesses of the divinity of the Bible. Their
exclusive excellence in this respect appears as follows. The evi
dence arising from their testimony, sealed with their blood, rests
not on the mere opinions of men ; but on infallible facts, which
facts infallibly establish the divinity of our Bible. These facts are,
the life, death, resurrection, and ascension to heaven of the Lord
Jesus Christ ! Of these facts, the twelve apostles were eyewit
nesses. And they unitedly declared them at the peril of their lives.
No selfish ends could have induced them to do this ; for it was in
direct opposition to all the worldly interests and popularities of that
day, and to the prejudices of the heart of fallen man. When men
lay down their lives in support of their favourite opinions, it evinces
nothing more than that they are sincere in the belief of those
opinions : but the certainty of the correctness of those opinions
must rest on other evidence. Their martyrdom in favour of those
opinions furnishes not this evidence. Many have died in favour of
paganism. But when men lay down their lives in support of cer
tain facts, which they have seen and known, and this for a sufficient
length of time, and under circumstances in which they could not
have been deceived ; when twelve men thus testify, at the peril of
their lives, and testify, too, to facts publicly known to all people in
the same region, and not dared to be denied by any, even the most
violent enemies ; the evidence in favour of such facts becomes perfect.

184 LECTURE, XIV.
Ver. 2. And she being with child cried, travailing
in birth, and pained to be delivered.
3. And there appeared another wonder in heaven ;
and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads
and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.
4. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of
heaven, and did cast them to the earth : and the dra
gon stood before the woman which was ready to be
delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was
born. The delicate state of this symbolic woman is signifi
cant and impressive, and shall receive attention under the
fifth verse. Who this dragon is we are not left to con
jecture. In verse 9 he is called " the devil and Satan,
who deceiveth the whole world." The fallen angels are
spoken of as legions, because they are many. It is im
material whether the whole race of them are comprised
in this red dragon, or only their leader, the prince of
devils. Probably all the race of fallen angels are included
They are all united as one, against the church. This
symbol derives its form from the old pagan Roman em
pire, because it was the prime instrument of the devil's

And what are those facts in the present case ] They are such as
infallibly to decide that our Bible (the Old and New Testaments) is
the Word of God. If the infinite God was indeed on earth, mani
fest in the flesh, wrought miracles in the view of all men, and did
what Jesus did ; then the evidence of the gospel, thus established,
is infallible.Most of the facts thus evinced by the senses, and the united
testimony of the twelve apostles, lay open to the inspection of all
around. They were seen, and acknowledged, to the vast vexation
of the enemy. And the writers of these facts gave their testimo
nies apart, with no appearance of trembling concert, or fear of
being detected in falsehood ; writing " as they were moved by the
Holy Ghost." Some things which these separate witnesses thus
wrote, seem at first view to differ ; but on close investigation they
are found to agree. The writers herein discover their fearless hon
esty ; and that they were no impostors. Such infallible witnesses
were the twelve apostles. Well then might they be represented
by twelve stars in the crown of the church. They were those
" who had accompanied Christ all the time that he went in and out
among them, to be witnesses." « Ye are my witnesses unto the
ends of the earth."

CHAPTER XII. 185
operations at the time of this vision, and for a number of
subsequent ages. The dragon has seven heads, and ten
horns, because Rome had been built on seven hills ; and
also its dynasty was to be known under seven distinct
forms of government, as will be shown, in the exposition
of the secular Roman beast, chap. xiii. and xvii. And,
as the beast hasten horns ; the dragon is noted as havino-
the same. The dragon is red, as that pagan empire
(the prime instrument of his annoyance) was stained
with the blood of the saints. The dragon has his seven
crowns upon his heads, as no doubt the devil managed, at
his pleasure, the distribution of the crowns of that empire.
The devil here received his symbolic form from a descrip
tion of pagan Rome, which was then the signal instru
ment of his persecutions of the church ; but he did not
cease to be the persecuting dragon when pagan Rome
was no more. The devil is still known under the same
figure, in the last days. See Rev. xvi. 13, and xx. 2.
Here, at the battle of that great day of God, the dragon is
found aiding the event. And this figure suggests how
fully Satan manages the wicked powers of the earth.
The pagan empire was here noted as the body, and the
devil the soul, of this dragon. So fully does Satan
work in the children of disobedience, and lead them cap
tive at his will.
By the dragon's tail drawing a third part of the stars of
heaven, and casting them to the earth, we may understand
that, by his infernal influence, he could, to a great extent,
depose dignitaries of the Roman empire, and hurl them
from their stations, when not likely to answer his infernal
designs. And the position of the dragon, — standing before the
woman, to devour her offspring as soon as it is born,
gives a striking view of the vigilance and the power of the
wicked one, to destroy the seed of the church. It was
the malicious eye of this same infernal agent, that watched
the birth of the Babe of Bethlehem, to devour him by
Herod. Here was the influence which instigated that
Roman governor to direct the wise men of the east to
bring him word, after they had found the infant Saviour ;
pretending his wish to worship him; but intending to
destroy him. The same satanic influence was operating,
when the same Herod, upon finding the eastern sages,
Q2

186 LECTURE XIV.
had not in this thing obeyed him, sent forth his soldiers,
and cut in pieces the infant children of Bethlehem. Here
was a deed fully in character with the great red dragon
standing before the woman, to devour her offspring as
soon as born. An emblem of the same thing we find
in Exod. i. 16-22 ; the decreeing of the death of the male
children of the people of God in Egypt. The prophet
Ezekiel (chap. xxix. 3) says, "Thus saith the Lord God,
Behold 1 am against thee, Pharaoh, king of Egypt, the
great dragon that lieth in the midst of the river." Pha
raoh is here called the great dragon, meaning the croco
dile of the river of Egypt, which must be supposed to
have devoured the infants of Israel cast into it ; because
that tyrant had ordered those infants to be cast into the
river. This, we may conceive, is the parent text of the
passage under consideration : only in the latter, the
dragon becomes a land animal, and is red, and takes his
head and horns from the ancient form of the Roman em
pire. The noted means of the devil's opposition to the
church were to be, — persecution, errors, heresies, pagan
ism, the Man of Sin, and the infidelities of the last days.
When Satan became alarmed at the propagation of Chris
tianity, he instigated first the Jewish rulers, and then the
pagan emperors, to persecute the church with deadly
hatred. To this the position of the dragon in our text
alludes. Ver. 5. And she brought forth a man-child, who
was to rule all nations with a rod of iron : and her
child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.
This man-child born to the church alludes, we may
believe, both to her Saviour, and to her spiritual succes
sion. It was Christ who was to rule all nations with his
rod of iron ; as Psalm ii. 9. And he was to be born of
a woman, born of the church ; she is instructed to say,
" For unto us a child is born ; unto us a son is given, and
the government shall be upon his shoulder." To this
our text seems to allude. The church under both the
Old and New Testaments is but one and the same church.
" My beloved is one." And the Old Testament church
was long ardently desiring the birth of her Saviour, and
praying for the event. " O that the salvation of Israel

CHAPTER XII. 187
was come out of Zion !" Simeon and Anna were waiting
at the temple for this event. Pious kings and prophets
had long done the same, in their ardent desires for the birth
of Christ. He was, accordingly, known as " the desire of
all nations!" His birtli was then pre-eminently the desire
of the church. And well might she be denoted by the
figure in our text, a woman bringing forth her son, who
was to rule all nations with his rod of iron ! This was a
most happy figure of the church at that period, just intro
ductory to the new and last dispensation.* This accords

* Some have made the following objections to the man-child here
being Christ : Christ was born before the text was written ; and
" the writer here spoke as a prophet, and not as an historian."
Hence events then future must have been exclusively intended.
Reply, — This seems plausible ; but it has no weight. The writer
John, it is true, was speaking as a prophet. But if, to exhibit
events then future to the best advantage, something on which they
rested was already past ; prophets repeatedly took the liberty to
commence with that past event. This is a fact. In Rev. xiii. 15,
the writer stands in vision on the bank of the sea, and beholds the
secular Roman beast rising from its billows. This was the same
beast, and event, with what we find given, in the same figure, in
Dan. ix. 7, as distinct from the papal power. But this secular
Roman beast had risen ages before this view of it given to John in
Rev. xiii. 1 ; though he was then " speaking as a prophet, and not
as an historian," no less than in our text. The object of the Holy
Spirit then was to predict things future relative, to this beast. B ut
he takes the liberty to commence the description with a view of the
origin of this beast, notwithstanding that this event was then long ,
past. It was necessary that he should do thus, in order to form a
whole of the event to be described. The same thing is done in Rev.,
xvii. when predicting the beast of the last day, to arise from the
bottomless pit, just before he goes into perdition in the battle of the
great day of God. This power of infidelity of these last days is
there prefigured as a new beast, from the world of wo ; and, at the
same time, as ahealed head of the old secular Roman beast. And,
in order to identify him with that beast, he is here described as hav
ing seven heads and ten horns ; while yet the first of those seven
heads existed before the birth of Christ, and most of them were now
for a long time past events. It is thus a plain case, that when a
whole is to be presented to view, an essential part of which is already
past, the prediction commences with that past event ; just as in
our text. See another instance of it. Daniel beheld, in vision,
the rise and progress of the four great eastern empires ; and he was
led to predict them as events then future, because various of them
were then future. But the Babylonian empire was then past : yet
he commenced with this, as though it had been future, because he

188 LECTURE XIV.
with the first promise of Christ, as the seed of the woman.
The birth of Christ was, above all other events, glorious ;
and was the foundation of the new birth of all his spiritual
seed. Most happy and appropriate is it, then, that it
should be placed at the head of the events given in this
general division of the Revelation.
But the figure in our text includes also the new and
spiritual birth of all the seed of Christ, as the children
and succession of the church. They are " born again ;"
and noted as born of the church. Paul speaks of Jeru
salem (the church) as being "the mother of us all."
Isaiah speaks of Zion (the church) as travailing, and her
children being born. Paul says, " My little children, for
whom I travail in birth again, till Christ be formed in you."
The Psalmist says, " Of Zion it shall be said, this man
was born in her." " The Lord shall count, when he writ-
eth up the people, that this man was born there!" The
new birth of the children of Christ rests on the literal
birth of the Saviour. Both, then, may be included in the
figure in the text. Both are out of the course of nature ;
both are by special promise. The birth of Isaac (given
by special Divine promise) was a type, both of the birth of
Christ, andof the new birth of the seed of Christ, the seed of
the church, as might be shown from express divine testimony,
and as the church well know. All were by promise, and
by special divine intervention. The literal birth of Christ
was an earnest of the new birth of his chosen. Christ
was the true spiritual Seed of Abraham. And, in him,
believers are " the seed of Abraham, and heirs according
to the promise !" Most fitly, then, does the birth in our
text exhibit both of these events.
As Christ was to rule all nations with his rod of iron,
so he engages that his spiritual seed shall do the same,
Rev. ii. 26, 27 ; " He that overcometh, and keepeth my
work unto the end, to him will I give power over the na
tions ; and he shall rule them with a rod of iron ; as the

would give a whole. Another objection has been, " Christ was
born of the Jewish, and not of the Christian church !" Had this
objector forgotten, that the Jewish church and the Christian church
were both essentially one ? God never had but one church, — one
vineyard,— one olive-tree. These, and all similar objections, then,
are wholly without weight.

CHAPTER XII. 189
vessel of a potter shall they be broken to shivers ; even
as I received of my Father:" alluding to Psalm ii. 8, 9,
where the Father officially gives this same power to
Christ. Christ here puts the honour of it on his people,
and thus unites them to him as they are found united in
the text.
Jesus Christ was, while an infant, in a mystical sense,
caught up to the throne of God, in his infallible protection
from the rage of Satan in Herod. The same clause of
the text had a literal fulfilment in Christ when he ascended
to heaven, and literally took the throne of the universe.
And the spiritual seed of the church are also mystically
caught up to the throne of God in the infallible protection
which God affords them in his covenant and providence.
Some have expressed an opinion that the man-child in
the text alluded to Constantine, who was the instrument
of the revolution in the Roman empire from paganism to
Christianity, in the fourth century. But this is to degrade
the sacred passage. It may be a fact, however, that the
passage may have received a kind of illustration in the
case of Constantine ; as it did also in Martin Luther,
and many other men-children of the church, or emi
nent instruments of good to her. Such were men-chil
dren of the church indeed ! and they were remarkably
protected against the shafts of the enemy, as though caught
up to the throne of God. And it was a fact, that after the
revolution in the empire, the church was protected by its
strong arm from further persecution from paganism. A
son of the church sat on the throne of the empire ; and per
secuting pagans were put down. But this clause of the
text has a meaning infinitely more noble, in that Christ
is on the throne of heaven ; and his church in her suc
cession is under Almighty protection in every age.
Ver. 6. And the woman fled into the wilderness,
where she hath a place prepared of God, that they
should feed her there a thousand two hundred and
threescore days.
The devil, finding himself confounded in the subversion
of his beloved paganism, and the establishment of Chris
tianity in the empire, began ere long to exhibit his deep
management in getting up another power most hostile to

190 LECTURE XIV.
the kingdom of Christ : another persecuting power, but
under the Christian name. The Man of Sin arose, " whose
coming was after the working of Satan, with all power,
and signs, and lying wonders ; and with all deceivable-
ness of unrighteousness in them that perish." The true
church was then, at the rise of the papal beast, driven to
her wilderness state of 1260 years. This is the same
depression, and for the same period, with that of the two
witnesses prophesying in sackcloth, in the first division of
the Revelation, chap. xi. 3. The ancient church in Israel
was made to sojourn in the wilderness of Arabia a painful
season, before they could enter Canaan, that type of good
things to come. This seems to have been a kind of pre
lude to the wilderness state of the church in our text, and
to that in verse 14, which precedes her millennial glory.
But, in this her depressed state, God would not fail nor
forsake her. Even in this state of exile, she should not
fail of being upheld and protected. The history of the
true followers of Christ through the dark ages, and under
the insults and persecutions of the papal see, gives the
exact description of this wilderness state of the church.
And her supports in that depressed state give the true
sense of the clause, " that they should feed her there !"
History furnishes the fact, that the line of the true fol
lowers of Christ were indeed preserved, for a great course
of centuries, in a kind of literal wilderness, in the valleys
of Piedmont and Dauphiny ; where the churches of the
Albigenses and Waldenses were, for a very long time, the
keepers of the pure doctrines of grace. Here was a kind
of literal fulfilment of the text, united with a mystical ful
filment of it in the depressions of the true followers of the
Lamb during much of the long period noted. This view
may facilitate the exposition of the next flight of the wo
man in verse 14, where she is borne on eagles' wings to
another wilderness.
Ver. 7. And there was war in heaven: Michael and
his angels fought against the dragon ; and the dra
gon fought, and his angels,
8. And prevailed not ; neither was their place
found any more in heaven.
9. And the great dragon was cast out, that old
serpent, called the devil, and Satan, which deceiv-

CHAPTER XII. 191
eth the whole world : he was cast out into' the earth,
and his angels were cast out with him.
We have here the war between Satan and his legions
on the one hand ; and Jesus Christ and his followers on
the other. The seat of this war is represented as high in
the visible region of the air. This position is a fit em
blem of the professed church of Christ on earth. It here
denotes that this war of the devil was carried on against
Christ in a church, and by a people that bore his name,
and yet were utterly hostile to him. This was the case
indeed in the papal church. This church carried on a
continual war against Christ in his two witnesses, who
in the text are noted as the angels of Michael, a name of
Christ, importing one like God, and meaning God in hu
manity. These true followers of Christ, the corrupt
anti-christian Church of Rome persecuted as heretics, and
put to most cruel deaths very many thousands of them. For
many ages this battle progressed with great fury on the
part of the dragon in the papal church. He caused this
mother of harlots and abominations of the earth to be
drunken with the blood of the saints, and (with her
two horns of a lamb) to speak like a dragon ; Satan
caused this impious Man of Sin to " exalt himself above
all that is called God, or is worshipped. So that he, as
God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he
is God!" — claiming to be "his holiness," perfect, and
infallible ! Well may such a war be represented as car
ried on in a region high in the visible heavens. This war
was long and terrible through the dark ages.
But the time of the devil's defeat arrived ; the time for
the commencement of that series of divine judgments
which should issue in the total destruction of the papal
delusion. The dragon should no longer be found reign
ing undisturbedly over the kings of the earth, in that
hateful papal system. He should no longer hold his po
sition as among the stars of heaven. This falling of the
dragon from heaven took place in the Reformation, in the
sixteenth century, by the instrumentality of Martin Luther,
and his associate reformers. The papal system was then
stripped of its gaudy hypocritical attire, and was exhibited
to the world as a corrupt, blasphemous, and most abomin
able system of the wicked one. This was a fall of Satan

192

LECTURE XIV.

indeed. And it was most fitly prefigured by the falling
headlong of a great red dragon, and of his hosts of minor
. dragonsi fr°m an exalted height in the visible heaven to
the earth ! This infernal enemy of the true people of God
is here called " the old serpent," in allusion to the literal
serpent which the devil entered in paradise to deceive the
mother of the human race. He is called the devil, to tell
precisely who he is, and that he is the accuser. He is called
" Satan," as being an enemy. And it is added, " who
deceiveth the whole world," to warn man of his fatal
influence to delude and to ruin. This fatal influence of
delusion he has been permitted of God to exercise in all
ages hitherto, to the eternal ruin of by far the greater part
of the human family, now dead; thus deceiving the whole
world. Most potent spirit of delusion ! having multiform
wiles, suited to all meridians, ages, climes, and circum
stances of men ! " Fly from this fell deceiver's snares : O
soul of Adam, fly !"
Ver. 10. And I heard a loud voice saying in hea
ven, 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, which
accused them before our God day and night.
11. And they overcame him by the blood of the
Lamb, and by the word of their testimony ; and they
loved not their lives unto the death.
12. Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that
dwell in them. Wo to the inhabiters of the earth
and of the sea ! for the devil is come down unto you,
having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath
but a short time.
The spirits of the just made perfect in glory, and the
saints on earth, on this occasion, gave glory to God in the
highest. Their souls unitedly leaped for joy, that the
papal masterpiece of the devil's imposition was at length
detected in its filthy abominations ! — and that, as far as
the Reformation prevailed, it had fallen into its merited con
tempt ! The devil had here, by his first-born son, the pope
of Rome, and by all the clan of his subordinate papal
authorities, accused the true followers of Christ, — accused

CHAPTER XII. 193
them day and night before God, of being guilty of great
impiety in their rejection of the blasphemies and mumme
ries of popery. The two witnesses were indeed thus
accused continually, and for ages. But the Protestants
had here obtained a glorious victory over them, and over
Satan, by their reliance on Jesus Christ alone ; and their
prayers, and bold persevering testimonies borne for Christ,
even at the constant peril of their lives. In this they had
prevailed. Such prayers and testimonies shall never be
in vain. If the answer to their prayers tarry long ; wait
for it : for at the end it shall speak, and will not lie ! All
the holy family, in heaven and earth, were called upon to
rejoice on the occasion, — a very different improvement
from what was made in the courts of Satan and the papal
see. A wo is now heard, as denounced against "the
inhabiters of the earth, and of the sea," because of the
rage of the wicked one.' This address is made to the
unbelieving mass of mankind, whether in continents or
isles. For the rage of Satan, and his new inventions of
mischief, would be in proportion to the greatness of his
defeat ; and to his perceptions of the shortness of his re
maining time to do mischief on earth. He would, thence
forth, redouble his furious exertions. And this was found
to be in fact the case ; as the abominable code of the Je
suits (which was then soon got up), and as the more horrid
system of illuminism, can testify. Satan had formerly
seen the fall of his beloved system of paganism, in the
Roman empire. He had then, with vast labours and
perseverance, got up his still more beloved system of
popery ; which had most fully answered his purpose, for
many centuries. But now this too was exposed in its
hateful abominations, — had fallen from its zenith, and had
commenced its plunge, like a huge rock dislodged from
the top of a steep and vast mountain. This event Satan
well perceived to be but a prelude to his final confinement
in the bottomless pit. His rage then, was full. Its occa
sion was to him and his cause dreadful.
Most interesting are the position and the dress of the
symbolic woman. " Ye are the light of the world." — " A
city set on a hill." — " Clothed with the sun, — the moon
under her1 feet ; crowned with twelve stars." Happy
indeed, if all professors did, in heart and life, well answer to
this figure. True saints do, in a good degree, answer to it.
R

194 LECTURE XIV.
But behold the position, strength, and malice of the
devil! — How important to hear and obey the divine
injunctions given in relation to him ! such as, — " Give
no place to the devil," — " Whom resist steadfastly in the
faith," — "Lest Satan should get an advantage of us; for
we are not ignorant of his devices," — " Be sober ; be vigi
lant ; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion,
goeth about, seeking whom he may devour," — " Watch,
and pray, that ye enter not into temptation." Wretched is
the state, and most fearful the prospects, of those who are
led captive by Satan at his will. He will surely lead
them down to the burning lake, unless prevented by a
miracle of grace. "Shall the prey of the mighty be
delivered ?" Satan is mighty ; and sinners are his prey.
Most certainly would a new-born infant fall a fatal prey to
a great red dragon, if left in his grasp. Great indeed is
the honour put upon the new-born succession of the church,
that it should be included, with the Captain of our salva
tion, in the symbolic man-child, who shall rule all nations ;
and who is caught up to the throne of God. Verily, then-
cause will live ; and it will fill and bless the world. Who
would not be of their blessed community ? Here is the city
of salvation ; the city of our God. If the devil was foiled
in the Reformation, which was the commencement of the
sinking of popery ; his rage was but invigorated. And
it is not -now confined to old papal lands. We may be
assured the dragon has not failed of visiting this land of
the pilgrims. He has found his way hither. And great
are his efforts to ruin the true church in America. May
the church of Christ here awake, then, to her dangers and
her duties. And may her prayers, alms, vigilance, and
evangelical efforts for the conversion of souls be'such as
to accord with her height of privileges. When Zion tra
vails, spiritual children will be born. God assures, " I
have never said to the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain."
If Satan rage, your spiritual succession, 0 Zion, will be
kept as though caught up to the throne of God. Say,
then, The Lord is my strength and my salvation ; of
whom shall I be afraid ? I will go in the strength of the
Lord God ; I will make mention of thy righteousness, even
of thine only. " The Lord is my light, and my salva
tion !"
But, 0 sinners, out of Christ, — what is your standing,

CHAPTER XH. 195
in the light of the figures in our text ? Will you continue
to be led captive by Satan at his will ? He designs to con-*
vey you down to his own infernal abodes. Will you got
Will you cheerfully follow him thither? — What then must
be your future and eternal reflections in hell? They will
constitute the worm thatdieth not ; and they will furiously
blow the fire, which shall not be quenched. Turn then,
to the stronghold, ye prisoners of hope ! you may now
escape the jaws of the infernal dragon. He that is
stronger than the strong man armed, is now ready to be
your sure salvation. O hear, and improve his proclama
tion of " liberty to the captives, and the opening of the
prison to them that are bound." The prey of the mighty
may now be delivered. Fly, then, from the tyrant of the
world of despair ; lest his empire over you be eternally con
firmed, and your endless perdition with him be inevitable !

LECTURE XV.

REVELATION XII.

Ver. 13. And when the dragon saw that he was
cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which
brought forth the man-child.
14. And to the woman were given 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 half a time, from the face of the ser-
peht. Tn the sketch given in this twelfth chapter of the Rev
elation, of the struggles between the church and Satan,
from the commencement of the Christian era till near the
battle of the great day of God, we are in our text brought
to events of the latter part of the sixteenth century, and
of the former part of the seventeenth.

196 LECTURE XV.
Satan, in the events of the antecedent verses, found
himself and his legions cast out by the Reformation-from
the symbolic heaven of high popularity in the Romish
church, to the earth of open opposition to Christ. This
forced upon him a keen conviction that his remaining time
on earth was short. The devil now therefore set himself
to invent new forms of opposition to Christ. And his in
fernal court soon gave birth to that most detestable order,
the Jesuits, who proved powerful supporters of the sink
ing popery. This code of imposition was the master
piece of the kingdom of darkness, till the still deeper
scheme of illuminism arose, as copied from it with vast
improvements, and having infidelity, instead of popery, for
its latent object. By the aid of the Jesuits, the dragon
now instigated new and horrid persecutions ; to which the
first verse of our text alludes. He " persecuted the
woman," the Protestant church ; a sketch of which
persecution shall here be given.
Louis XIV. repealed the edict of Nantz, in which
tolerance had been given to the Protestants in France ;
and he in a short time destroyed and banished two mil
lions of his subjects. The noted massacres of Protest
ants in France, in Ireland, and in Poland now took place.
Also the violent and deadly persecutions raised against
the pious Piedmontese, and the slaughter of Protestants
in other lands, not excepting Britain, the land of our
fathers. Many even there were forced to seal their Chris
tian testimony with their blood. Scott, upon that period,
says, "No computation can reach the number of those
who have since the Reformation been put to death for their
maintaining of the profession of the gospel, in opposition
to the Church of Rome. A million of poor Waldenses
perished in France. Nine hundred thousand orthodox
Christians were slain, in less than thirty years after the
institution of the order of the Jesuits. The Duke of Alva
boasted of his having put to death thirty-six thousand, in
the Netherlands, by the hands of the common executioner,"
in the space of a few years. The Inquisition destroyed,
by various tortures, one hundred and fifty thousand, in
thirty years." Thus the dragon, in his mighty rage at
his loss, in the Reformation, persecuted the woman, as in
our text had been predicted.
The flight of the church, in verse 14, followed. The'

CHAPTER XII. 197
true followers of Christ had, a thousand years before,
been depressed to a state, called a wilderness, at the rise
of popery ; as predicted in verse 6 of the context. The
true sense of the second flight (that in our text) exposi
tors have failed of giving, on account of the duration
which seemed to be ascribed to it, which is 1260 years;
This was the length of time ascribed to the first flight,-
verse 0.
That first wilderness state was to be 1260 years, from
the time of the manifestation of the papal beast to the
battle of the great day, when Antichrist should go into
perdition, and to the second flight the same length of time
seems to be ascribed : which has led writers on the sub
ject to conceive that the two accounts (one in verse 6, and
one in verse 14) must allude to the same event. But this
confounds the chronology, and the events of the chapter.
The difficulty which has led to so great an error, can
easily be removed. The account of the duration of the
second flight (that in our text) must be elliptically ex
pressed. It is as though the writer had said, the church
thus flew to her new retreat, for the 1260 years; meaning
for the remaining part of that well known period. That
this is the sense, is evident from the necessity of the
case. For the flight, be it what it may, is within several
centuries of the close of the noted 1260 years ; and hence
the sense must be, for the remaining part of that noted pe
riod ! And we find language similar to this, relative to
the 1260 years, both in the Old and New Testaments ! in
Dan. xii. 6, and in Rev. xiii. 5; as may be seen in the
subjoined note.*
* "A new thing," long after the rise of both the secular Roman
beast, and of popery, had been shown to Daniel, viz. the rise of a
system of infidelity, in the last days. The question was asked,
" How long shall it be to the end of these wonders 7" i. e. How
long is it from the rise of this infidel influence, to the battle of that
great day of God t And the reply is, " For a time, times, and an
half," which is the 1260 years, which had before, chap. vii. 25,
been ascribed to the duration of the papal horn ; and is afterward,
for the same reason, ascribed to the duration of the depression of
the witnesses, Rev. xi. 3, and to the same event, as a wilderness
state of the church, Rev. xii. 6. It could not therefore mean that
this infidel system, after it should arise in the last days (many cen
turies after the rise of popery), should remain 1260 years, but
onlv to the close of that term. The end of the wonders should
R2

198 LECTURE XV.
The flight of the woman in our text is manifestly an
event of the last days, as being subsequent to the Refor
mation in the 16th century, and to the persecutions which
arose after it, from the Jesuits against the Protestants in
Europe. And the following circumstance decides that it
was distinct and distant from the first flight of the true
church to a wilderness, at the rise of popery, viz. this
first flight was occasioned by being in the vicinity and
grasp of popery ; but in the second, the church flies to a
distant region, " from the face of the serpent," meaning
the dragon in popery.
What then was this second flight ? To aid in furnish
ing an answer, let the following suppositions be made.
Suppose a new continent had been lately discovered, when
those Protestants were thus persecuted ; a continent in a
part of the world distant from the face of the old papal
Roman earth ; a continent vast, embracing all the climes,
fertilities of soil, beautiful varieties, and natural conve
niences, desirable for the habitation of the greatest
and most happy people on earth. Suppose it to have
been put into the minds of the best of the Protest
ants, under their cruel persecutions, to flee over a vast
ocean, to form their settlement in this new world, in order
to find a peaceful asylum for the rights of conscience,
come at the end of the noted 1260 years. This fully answered the
design of the interrogator, " How long shall it be to the end of
these wonders 1" We have the same elliptical use of the same
period, and for the same reason, in Rev. xiii. 5. The secular Ro
man beast, there given, is noted as continuing 1260 years. But
this could not have been designed as noting the whole duration of
that beast ; for he had risen before the Christian era. See Daniel
vii. 7. Its whole continuance then is about 2000 years : and yet
here 1260 is the time ascribed to it. The meaning necessarily is
(as when the same thing is noted in Daniel, in the above passage),
he continues to the close of the noted 1260 years. This mode
of speech we may suppose to have been common in Israel. They
had their jubilee, recurring after every lapse of 49 years, or on
each 50th year ; as their noted year of release. When, then, an
Israelite, at any period of the 49 years, fell into bondage ; the ques
tion would arise, how long has he lost his liberty 7 The answer
would be, the 49 years ; meaning, to the close of that known pe
riod from the present time. None would understand that reply as
meaning that such a man has the whole of that period now to
serve ; but only the remaining part of it, be it more or less. Such.
is the sense of the length of the flight in our text.

chapter xn. 199
and the rights of man. Suppose them entering on the
flight, and by the signal protection of Heaven, safely reach
ing that far distant continent. Suppose God there pro
tects them, increases them, and causes them to become a
great and renowned nation ; established in the enjoyment
of the rights of conscience and of civil liberty, and on a
political eminence which overlooks the old world, and
causes the thrones of tyrants there to tremble. Suppose
their descendants soon to multiply into a great nation, to
become the envy of all other nations, and to bid fair to
be the great means of the conversion and bliss of the
world. Suppose the church of Christ there to flourish
far beyond all other churches on earth, and to form there
a seat for the commencement of the special showers of the
Spirit of grace in the last days, and to seem to be clearly
destined to give a new and correct model to the whole
militant church of Christ. Let these things be supposed ;
and then let the question be asked, What and whither
is the second flight of the woman in the Revelation ?
Would you not immediately point to this new region of
the church, and say, thither was her flight, and there
is her gracious lodgment, assigned by propitious Heaven?
This is all reality, as the American church can testify.
The thing was transacted by our pilgrim fathers. As
this exposition of the text is wholly new, and as it gives an
interpretation of great interest to the church on earth, if
correct ; I shall here adduce my arguments in favour of
the correctness of it.
1. The time of the flight of our pilgrim fathers to this
continent accords with the flight in our text. The latter
was, after the dragon saw that he was cast out from his
papal height of impositions by the light of the Reformation
in the 16th century ; and after his subsequent persecutions
of the church of Christ. And this was the very time of
the flight of our pilgrim fathers to this western continent.
2. The occasion of the flight of our pilgrim fathers
hither, most fully accords with the occasion of the flight
in our text. About the commencement of the seventeenth
century, numbers of devout Protestants in Britain, being
deeply pained with the relics of popery, which they found
to be still held in the established English church, entered
into covenant with each other that they would take the
liberty to regulate their faith and religion only by the word

200 LECTURE XV.
of God. Several large churches thus united under their
own pious pastors. But this liberty taken, so offended the
established English church, that a spirit of persecution
soon rose upon these dissenters with fury, which did not
content itself with cruel mockings merely, but it proceeded
to cruel prosecutions and imprisonments. Some of these
pious people were now forced to flee, and leave their fami
lies and means of living; and new scenes of persecutions
commenced. It would be affecting, and much to my pur
pose, to give here a full history of the trials, emigrations,
and perplexities of the Puritans in Britain, which led the
way to the flight of this people to America ; but this would
exceed my proposed limits. I will content myself then
just to notice, in the old well-known track, their removal
to Holland, and thence over the Atlantic.
The trials and vexations of these our fathers, before they
left their native land and continent, were such, as were
kindly designed of God to lead them to " cease from man,"
and trust in him alone. They were especially calculated
and designed to lead the Puritans to the knowledge of the
civil and religious rights of man. Of this rich benefit they
would have failed, had their vrfrious entreaties for some
degree of lenity been listened to by their oppressors ; —
even as Luther (the great reformer) would have failed of
accomplishing the designs of Heaven in the Reformation,
had the pope listened to his proposals for accommodation.
But, as in the case of Luther, the Most High designed to
make thorough work in reformation, and hence permitted
not the pope to comply with Luther's conciliatory propo
sals ; so, in the case of the Puritans, whom God was pre
paring for a flight to America, he designed effectually to
shake them off from all papal superstition, and to bring
them to a new and distant retreat ; that a cradle might here
be formed for the knowledge and enjoyment of the rights
of conscience, and of civil liberty. Such was the cruel
conduct of the persecutors of these Puritans, that they
were driven to determine on fleeing their country. After
much prayer and consultation, they resolved to escape to
Holland. But the English government forbade their de
parture, and barred the vessels of their harbours against
them. They however found means to get on board a
vessel for Holland ; but the captain betrayed them. And,
after being robbed of their clothing, and their females being

chapter xn. 201
insulted, they were forced back, and some of them were
imprisoned. Such horrid barbarities increased, instead of
diminishing their numbers. They were again attempting
to enter on board a ship for Holland ; when a British
armed force was seen rushing upon them. The captain
of the vessel, with some on board, slipped away, as the wind
was favourable, and was gone. Some husbands had got
on board without their wives and children, as the latter
were up a creek at a little distance. All on shore fell
into the hands of this armed force, who brandished their
swords over the heads of this defenceless band with
savage voices. This furious armed band led off these
helpless captives, hurrying them from place to place, and
delivering them from one officer to another, till their fury
was allayed.
But these persecuted Puritans found means to flee from
their cruel country: and they arrived in Holland. In
Leyden they found floods of vice, and soon learned that
this was not their home, that they must seek another
region. After twelve years' residence there; they mutu
ally conceived a strong desire to seek a home in a remote
part of the world ; and, with much prayer and mutual
counsel, they resolved to brave the Atlantic, and to fly to
the new continent, then lately discovered in the west. Says
a noted writer, " They became satisfied that they had as
real an indication of the Divine will, that they should thus
do, as had Abraham that he should leave his Chaldean
territory, for the land of promise."
3. The character of this band of the worshippers of
God who fled to America, was such as fully to accord
with the sublime figure in our text. They may be said to
have been selected of God from the mass of even the
Protestant multitudes, to people a new world, and to
commence what was divinely determined here to be done ;
even as a husbandman selects and cleanses his best wheat,
to seed a new and peculiar field. They were most bar
barously slandered ; but were the very best of people.
The evidence of this is full, and is given in a periodical
publication in the following description of our pilgrim
fathers : " They were the most remarkable body of men
the world ever knew. For many years they were the theme
of unmeasurable invective and derision. They were ex
posed to the utmost licentiousness of the press and of the

203 LECTURE XV.
stage, at a time when the press and the stage were licen
tious. The public would not take them under their pro
tection, but they were abandoned without reserve to sa
tirists and dramatists". The Puritans were men whose
minds had derived a peculiar character from their contem
plation of eternal things. Not content with acknowledg
ing, in general terms, an overruling Providence ; they as
cribed every event to the will of that Being for whose
power nothing is too vast, and for whose inspection no
thing is too minute. To know, serve, and enjoy him was
with them the great end of existence. The ceremonious
homage which too many substitute for the pure worship
of the heart, they rejected. Instead of being content with
occasional glimpses of God; they aspired to gaze fully on
his brightness, and to commune with him, as it were, face
to face. The difference between the greatest and the
least of mankind, seemed with them to vanish. They
despised all the dignitaries of this world. If they were
unacquainted with many works of philosophers; they were
deep read in the oracles of God. If their names were
not found in the registers of heralds ; they believed them
to be recorded in the book of life. If their steps were not
accompanied with splendid trains of servants ; legions of
ministering angels had charge of them. Their palace was
a house not made with hands. Their diadems were crowns
of glory. On the rich, on nobles, and on priests (so called)
they looked down with pity ; while they deemed them
selves to be richer in more precious treasures ; eloquent in a
language more exalted ; nobles by the right of grace ;
and priests by the imposition of mightier hands. The
meanest intelligent was, in their view, a being to whose
destiny a trembling importance belonged ; and on whose
slightest actions the spirits of light and darkness looked
with anxious interest. Events which short-sighted mor
tals ascribe to earthly causes, had in their view been or
dained from above. The same Puritan seemed to be
made up of two different sorts of men ; the one, all self-
abasement, penitence, gratitude, and love ; the other, in
flexible, sagacious. The one could prostrate himself in
the dust before God ; the other feared not to set his foot
on the neck of a tyrant. In devout retirements the Puri
tan prayed with groans and tears, and seemed to hear the
lyre of angels, and the tempting whispers of fiends. But

CHAPTER XII. 203
when the same Puritan took his seat in council, or girded
on his armour for war, — how changed ! People who
knew nothing of these godly men, but their plain visages,
might laugh. But they had little reason to laugh, when
encountering them in the hall of debate, or on the field of
battle. These fanatics, — falsely so called, — brought to
their civil and military affairs, a coolness of judgment,
and an immutability of purpose, which some people thought
inconsistent with religion, but which in fact were the fruit
of it. " The intensity of their piety made them tranquil to
every thing else. This their ruling sentiment had sub
jected to itself hatred, ambition, and worldly fear. With
them, death had lost its terrors, and pleasure its charms.
They had indeed their smiles and their tears, but not for
things earthly !"
Such were our pilgrim fathers, who fled from dire op
pression for righteousness' sake, across the Atlantic, and
peopled New-England. No people on earth, if the Jews
be excepted, ever had equal reason, with us, to venerate
and to rejoice in the character of their ancestors. Happy
are those of their descendants who possess the mantle of
their evangelical spirit !
4. The trials of our pilgrim fathers, even after those
which have been noted as occasioning their flight to those
wilds of America, were such as well to accord with the
figure in our text, of their flight being into a wilderness !
They set forth for their distant retreat. But they must be
made to feel, at the outset, that they were indeed entering
on trials; such trials as we can perceive were well
denoted by the figure of a wilderness state. Though
their coming hither has proved to have been of such vast
importance to the church, and to the world ; yet almost
every thing seemed to withstand the event. One of their
vessels, soon after their voyage was commenced, sprang a
leak ; and they must return from sea, to refit. In a second
attempt of the voyage, they must be driven back from sea
by a tempest. They put to sea a third time; and another
tempest seemed to dispute their passage ; insomuch, that
they began devoutly to fear that Heaven was against them ;
and that they must relinquish their enterprise. But God
meant not so. He designed to try them indeed, and to a
degree, which should bear some proportion to the imports
ance of the occasion, and of the state, on which they were

204 LECTURE XV.
entering. But Heaven would see to it, that this flight, of
such deep interest to the church in the last days, should
not fail ! God would bear this select band of the woman's
seed to the place of their distant retreat, on the eagles'
wings of his special providence and grace, though it were
over a dangerous ocean. They should safely reach the
place of their destination; and the rock of Plymouth
should receive them from the watery element. They
were brought to this place without their own design ;
having agreed with the captain to land them at the mouth
of the Hudson (New- York). God " led them by a right
way ;" yet no thanks to the treacherous captain. " There
are many devices in a man's heart; nevertheless the coun
sel of the Lord that shall stand." The band of pious pil
grims must first people New-England. And God had
here prepared the way for them, having by a plague, the
year before, cut off nine-tenths of the natives ; while at
the mouth of the Hudson the natives were very numerous
and powerful, and might soon have destroyed the feeble
band of the pilgrims.
The destination of this people of God was indeed to a
wilderness. Grant that the term is found in a figurative
passage, and means a wilderness of trials-: nothing is
abated from the beauty of the figure, from the fact, that
near the front of their mystical wilderness must stand a
literal one ; and such a one as the world besides could
not furnish, — a wilderness of 9,000 miles in length, and
filled with savage beasts and savage men, — and this fee
ble band thrown into it, just at the setting in of winter !
On this literal wilderness they must enter, and convert it
into a habitation for themselves and their descendants.
Vastly greater, and more terrific, was this their literal wil
derness, than was that of the church in her first flight, —
the wild alpine valleys of the Waldenses and Albigenses.
The terrors of this literal wilderness of America, united
with the other trials, dangers, deaths, and privations, which
our fathers here experienced, most strikingly exhibit to us
the fitness and the strength of the figure, that this flight of
the woman should be to a wilderness. The early history
of this band of God's worshippers further illustrates the
strength of the figure.* Read their trials from the natives ;
i * To see something of these trials of the woman, recollect the fol-

CHAPTER XII. 205
their early wars with them ; their subsequent wars with
the French and Indians from Canada ; and the revolution-
lowing items. The first ship's crew of the pilgrims were 101 : and,
in less than four months, 46 of these were here no more. The
pilgrims early purchased land of the natives, and made friendly
arrangements with them, which continued for 50 years, with the
exception of one short war with the Pequots in Connecticut, which
closed in 1 637. But in 1 675, a tremendous war, called Philip's war,
commenced. This noted chief (living in Rhode Island) foresaw the
extinction of the natives of this land, unless a fatal blow could be
struck to prevent it, by the extermination of the new inhabitants.
To accomplish this, he laid a deep plan, and combined in union all
the Indian tribes in this part of the continent, to make a united
attack upon all the settlements of our fathers. And with such vast
secrecy was this plan laid and kept, that the infant colonies learned
nothing of it till the tempest began to burst upon them. It opened
upon the Plymouth and Massachusetts colonies ; and soon after it
burst upon the New-Hampshire settlements, upon the banks of the
Piscataqua River; where men, women, and children were cut in.
pieces, houses burnt, flocks destroyed, and many people dragged off
into the wilderness by savage bands. After three years of much hor
ror, the noted Philip was slain, and a peace was obtained, which con
tinued 10 years.
Philip was a son of Massasoit, the noble Indian chief, who was
a great friend to the pilgrims. The latter gave his youngest son the
name of Philip ; who, after his father's death, became a great
warrior, and enemy to the English. The last and great battle with
him was fought Dec. 19, 1695. His head-quarters were in a swamp,
in the middle of which were several acres of high land, where were
many Indian families, and their provisions. A battle of three hours
was here fought, in which 700 Indian warriors fell dead, and 300
more soon died of their wounds ; and their chiefs were slain : 600
wigwams were burnt, with many of their aged, their women, and
their children. The loss of the pilgrims was considerable. Philip
escaped ; but was the next July shot through the heart, and his tribe
became extinct, as did many other tribes in these regions. In this
war, our fathers lost about 600 men of the flower of their strength ;
twelve towns were destroyed, and 600 dwelling-houses.
In 1)688, the French and Indians combined in another war of 11
years, which occasioned vast horrors. In 1703, another war of 10
years commenced with redoubled fury. After this, a peace of 9
years ensued. Another bloody struggle then, of 3 years, com
menced, called Lovel's war ; who, at the head of a band of volun
teers, flung himself into the head-quarters of the warlike Pickwack-
ets ; and though he and most of his heroes fell, the scene filled the
Indians with terror ; and a peace ensued. Thus out of 50 years,
27 were consumed in bloody contests. In 1737, a throat distemper
commenced, which continued long, and was vastly fatal. In Kings
ton, N. H., 40 were attacked, and not one of them survived. One
town buried 113 ; another 100 ; another 127 ; another 88 ; another
99 ; another 123 ; another 210 ; and another 104.
S

206 LECTURE XV.
ary struggles with the mother country : and from these
afflictions, the figure received further illustrations.
And what further illustrations may be given to this fig
ure, in trials still awaiting the American church, from
infidelity, licentiousness, and from local national interests
and jealousies, — the prevalence of Romanism, the deep
system of the infidelity of the last days, and the wars of
Satan against " the remnant of the woman's seed here
that keep the commandments of God, and have the testi
mony of Jesus Christ ;" time and events will decide. It
would not be strange, should they see, yet, trying days,
before the Millennium.
Most interesting was this flight to America among the
events of the last days, and towards the conversion of the
world ; wonderful, in relation to the rights of conscience,
to civil liberty, and to the introduction of the Millennium !
" So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west"
says Isaiah, in predicting the commencement of the
Millennium. It then follows, " and his glory from the
rising of the sun."
A church in the west, then, was to be planted to
commence the Millennium ; from which church light
should roll back to the most distant east ; and to the vari
ous extremities of the world. We may hence be assured,
that whatever calamities may befall our national govern
ment (in which but too little concerning God is main
tained), the remnant of the woman's seed here who keep
the commands of God, God will keep as the apple of his
eye. 5. It is believed no valid objection can be made against
this view of the flight in our text. Should a latent mur
mur be heard, that this is doing too much honour to the
church in America ; and should it be asked, Is this the

In 1 744 commenced a war between England and France, which
brought the French and Indians from Canada against our infant set
tlements for 16 years, — called the old French war. In this, the
sufferings of our frontier settlements were great and perplexing ;
none could safely labour in their fields. The trembling mother,
when committing her children to rest, felt a torture of soul, lest
before the next morning both she and they might be slain, or burnt
alive. In 1760 peace was restored. But the horrors of the war of
our Revolution soon after occurred. These are a few hints of the
wilderness state of our pilgrim fathers.

CHAPTER xn. 207
only people of pod on earth? Reply : — The view given
of the figure does not say thus. But it does, indeed, honour
this new and modern germ of the church of Christ, as
being blessed with the signal display of divine grace and
protection, as being destined to meliorate, essentially, the
state of Zion on earth ; to form here a nucleus, or a reno
vating point, for the conversion of the world. It shows
that the pilgrim fathers were brought hither to form a
cradle for the liberty of conscience, and the rights of man;
to be as a beacon on a mountain, which overlooks the
world, and shall catch the eyes of distant realms, and
teach them lessons never before known. A branch of the
chm-ch so signal may well be denominated the woman
(the church), — at least by that well known use of speech,
the syneodoche, which elegantly puts a part for the whole.
And when such a part is, in fact, a peculiar imbodying* of
the original essence of the whole, after the other parts
had become vastly degenerated ; and this new branch is
going to give a new complexion to the whole ; it may
well be honoured with the name of the whole. And such
has been the destination of the church planted in this
western world. Already has it shed a benign influence
over the churches of Christ in the' old continent, not ex
cepting the church in Britain.
6. So signal an event as this, and its great blessing to
the world, might most surely be expected to be found in
prophecy. A great object of prophecy is, to give an ante
cedent view of events in, and contiguous to, the church, in
which she has a deep interest, that she may be prepared
to meet them ; or, at least, may see in them the faithful
ness of God, and the truth of his word, when the events
are fulfilled. For these objects, the outline of the most in
teresting events, from the commencement, to the close of
the Christian era, was antecedently furnished in the figura
tive language of the Revelation. And could so vast an
event as that under consideration be overlooked, in the
details of events in this book ? and this, too, when things
far less interesting are found in this predicted line of
events ? It is incredible. The celebrated President Ed
wards was confident, that the church in America must
have a place among the prophecies. And we have, in one
of his volumes, a labour of seven pages, to find something
in the prophecies clearly alluding to it. But he, and all

208 LECTURE XV.
others strangely failed of fixing their eye upon our text as
a striking prediction of it. This twelfth of the Revela
tion, which sketches the course of the most interesting
events for the part of the Christian era antecedent to the
Millennium, is the part of this book where the prediction
of this event might be expected. And it is found in the
very part of this chapter where it might have been ex
pected; — an event following and occasioned by the persecu
tion which followed the Reformation in the 16th century.
Place your eye, then, — as I attempted to do, — at the place
and time when the Puritans were driven to extremities by
the persecutions of Jesuits, and other enemies of the
pure evangelical truth ; and see to what region the body
of the best of that people did in fact flee from the face of
the papal dragon, in some far distant realm. You will
find no other event so well answering to the figure as
this ; and none that has even the least degree of claim
to it, compared with this. And this great event, then
occurring, does most fully accord with the prediction in
our text.
7. Let us listen to some remarks of celebrated writers
relative to this flight of our pilgrim fathers to America,
and learn how fully the event did, in their opinion, accord
with this figure, while yet they had no idea of our text as
alluding to it.
Says Mr. Owen, — "Multitudes of pious peaceable
Protestants were driven by severities to leave their native
country, and seek a refuge for their lives, and their liber
ties in the worship of God, in the wilderness, in the ends
of the earth." Says Dr. Mather, — " They were driven to
seek a place for the exercise of the Protestant religion
according to the light of their consciences, in the deserts
of America. The church of the exiles were driven out
into the horrible wilderness, merely for being well-wishers
to the Reformation." He adds, "they were now to trans
plant themselves into a horrible wilderness." " Our Lord
Jesus Christ carried some thousands of reformers into
the retirements of the American desert, that he might give
a specimen of good things, to which he would have his
people elsewhere aspire and rise. This is, at last, the
spot of the earth, which the Lord of heaven spied out, for
the seat of such transactions as require to be noted in
history. Here it was," he adds, "that our Lord intended a

chapter xn. 209
resting-place for the reformed church." This great man,
speaking of the miseries of the exiles, while they had been
under the English hierarchy, says, " The mountain of ice
lying then upon them was, now broken, by the opening of
a retreat into a wilderness." Thus wrote that great obser
ver of divine Providence, Dr. Mather, upon this flight
of our fathers. He adds, "198 ships were employed in
their passing the perils of the seas, in the accomplish
ment of this renowned settlement ; and but one mis
carried." An early writer in New-England says, the charter
obtained by the pilgrims here, soon after their arrival,
seems to say to the pious in old lands, " Desert your
seats ; flee your country !" And concerning the many
who did thus, he says, " Gentlemen of ancient and most
honourable families, ministers of the gospel, merchants,
artificers, and husbandmen, to the amount of some thou
sands, for twelve years, carried on the transplantation."
" And it was a banishment," he adds, " rather than a re
moval." To men of education, and of property, it was afflictive.
Their hazard was of an extraordinary nature. And
nothing less than a strange and strong impression from
Heaven could have produced such movements. God
seemed to have served a summons upon the spirits of
these his people in England, stirring up thousands, who
had never seen each other, with a most unanimous incli
nation to leave all the pleasant accommodations of their
native land, and to pass a terrible ocean, into a more
terrible desert, for the pure enjoyment of divine ordi-

* In Dwight's Travels, we have the following, in his remarks on
Plymouth, and the pilgrims : " When I call to mind the history
of their sufferings on both sides of the Atlantic ; when I remem
ber their pre-eminent patience ; their unspotted piety ; their im
moveable fortitude ; their undaunted resolution ; their love to
each other ; their justice and humanity to the savages ; and their
freedom from all those stains which elsewhere have spotted the
character even of companions in affliction ; I cannot but view those
illustrious brothers, as claiming the veneration of all their posterity.
The institutions, civil, literary, and religious, by which New-Eng
land is distinguished, here began. Here the manner of holding
lands in free socage, now universal in this country, commenced.
Here the right of suffrage was imparted to every citizen, not dia-
S2

210 LECTURE XV
8. Let the "language of the pilgrims themselves be
heard in testimony. Stating the reasons of their flight to
America, they say, " It will be a service to the church, of
great consequence, to carry, the gospel into those parts of
the world, and raise a bulwark against the kingdom of
Antichrist, which the Jesuits labour to raise up in all
parts of the world. All other churches in Europe have
been brought under desolation. And it may be feared,
that the like judgment is coming upon us. And who
knows but God has provided America to be a refuge for
many, whom he means to save from the general destruc
tion ? The whole earth is the Lord's garden, given to be
tilled and improved. Why then should we stand starving
here ? Why should we suffer whole regions to lie waste ?
What can be a nobler work, than to erect and support a
reformed church ? ' If any, known to be godly, who are
rich and prosperous, should unite with this reformed
church at the hazard that must attend ; the example
would be of vast benefit, and would add vigor to faith and
prayer in behalf of the new and remote plantation."
Thus ample is the evidence, that this flight of the pilgrim
fathers fulfilled the prediction in our text.
This transportation is noted, in the text, as being on
" two wings of a great eagle." God said to Israel, relative
to their flight from Egypt to Canaan ; " I bare you on
eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself." Exod. xix. 4.
This proverbial speech might arise from the fact, that eagles
are said to bear their young on their wings just before they
are able themselves to fly. And hence arose the promise,
Isa. xl. 31 ; "They that wait on the Lord shall renew
their strength ; they shall mount up with wings as eagles !"*

qualified by poverty and vice. Here was formed the first establish
ment of the local legislature called town meetings, and of the pecu
liar town executive, styled the select-men. Here the first paro
chial school was set up, and the system for communicating to every
child in the community the knowledge of reading, writing, and
arithmetic. Here was the first building (in our country) erected for
the public worship of God. The first religious assembly of New Eng
land, was here gathered; and the first minister called and settled by
the voice of the church and congregation. On these simple foundations
has since been erected our structure of good order, peace, liberty,
knowledge, morals and religion."
* If it be true, as is attempted to be shown in my view of the He
brews, that the address of the prophet Isaiah, in chapter xviii., is to

CHAPTER XII. " 211
As there is a beauty and strength in the figure of God's
bearing Israel on wings of eagles, in their transit from
Egypt to Canaan; there is no less beauty in the applica
tion of it to our pilgrim fathers. And their being planted
in this land may be viewed as having a special interest in
the following sublime passage, alluding primarily to Israel,
as planted in Canaan ; but ultimately to us, in our pilgrim
fathers : " Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt ; thou
hast cast out the heathen, and planted it ; thou preparedst
room before it ; and didst cause it to take deep root, and it
filled the land. The hills were covered with the shadow
of it ; and the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedars.
She sent out her boughs unto the sea ; and her branches
unto the rivers." The pious in our states may read this pas
sage with the same interest as did ancient Israel. It may
be viewed as having been no less really fulfilled in our
case (as to the peopling of this new world) than in theirs.
Such is the evidence that our first settlement of New-
England was in fulfilment of that second flight of the
woman, in the Revelation.
Great, then, is our debt of gratitude to God, which should
be most deeply felt by the descendants of the pilgrims.
Such rich blessings call loudly for equal improvement and
praise. What other people on earth are under so great
the good people of our United States — "Ho, land shadowing
with wings, &c." — this prophecy may reflect light on the " two
wings of a great eagle," in our text. The appellation of " land,
shadowing with wings," may allude to the figure of our continent ;
or to the protecting form of our government, or both. The figure
of North and South America is like the two wings of a great eagle ;
as the map of them will show. And the form of our government,
as well as our distance from the tyrannies of old lands, may well
suggest the two wings of a great eagle, as our most fit national em
blem, ox coat-of-arms.
The following sentiment, has been expressed upon the floor of Con
gress, as well as felt in the civilized world ; " Our government was
the first successful effort among men to establish rational liberty.
Our fathers instituted, upon the broad principles of equity, the sys
tem of equal representation ; trial by jury ; freedom of speech ;
freedom of the press ; and religious toleration. And, to this hour,
the system stands a proud example to the world, unpassed, un
equalled. As ours was the first, so it may be the last hope of civil
liberty. No other considerable place remains on the globe where a
second effort can be made under like auspices." — {Committee of,
Congress.)

212 LECTURE XV.
obligations to God ? Surely, then, they ought to attempt, by
prayers, alms, and all their talents and influence, great
things in behalf of the kingdom of the Redeemer. Great
things are to be accomplished for the conversion of the
world. And great should be the zeal, piety, faithfulness,
and perseverance of the seed of the woman here, to have a
most exalted agency in the great work of salvation at this
momentous period. The people of God here, — being
exalted to heaven in privileges, — should, in heart, tongue,
and life, utter this song, sung in our context upon the
Reformation : " Now is come salvation, and strength, and
the kingdom of our God, and the glory of his Christ." If
this song befitted the Protestants three hundred years ago :
it as well befits the present children of the pilgrims, borne
hither, as on the wings of a great eagle, by divine grace.
The church in our nation is indeed as a city set on ahill ; —
a standard high upon a mountain, that overlooks the world.
It is a light to shine to the ends of the earth. May its rays
fall propitious, not only upon the remote heathen world,
but upon the remnant of the natives of our continent ; and
upon the ignorant and wretched among ourselves. May
it thus prove a fact, that we are destined to hold a high
rank among the means of converting the world. Let this
be our motto, " Arise, and build ; and the Lord be with
thee." May our agency bear as conspicuous a part in the
introduction of the Millennium, as our origin (in the text)
has done among the wonder of the last days.

LECTURE XVI.

REVELATION XII.
Ver. 15. And the serpent cast out of his mouth
water as a flood after the woman, that he might
cause her to be carried away of the flood.
When the dragon saw that the woman was thus safely
conveyed to her new and distant retreat, he with new
rage commenced furious efforts of opposition. He no
doubt clearly perceived that the influence of her civil and
religious institutions would not only fill her own vast
region, but also would endanger his kingdom of popery
and despotism in old lands, and even his dominion of the
vast pagan world. Something, the devil now saw, must
be done to prevent this ; or all was lost.
There was now therefore produced in his infernal
courts that masterpiece of infidelity, first known to the
world under the name of Illuminism. This was an im
provement made upon the code of the Jesuits, which had
been the vast annoyance of the Protestant cause, till the
Jesuits were banished from the courts of Europe, as a
murderous band. This new system of boasted philosophy
was conceived and brought into operation by Voltaire, the
noted infidel philosopher of France, who combined in this
impious design a group of infidel philosophers, and a num
ber of crowned heads in Europe. His first and sworn ob
ject was the destruction of the Christian religion. His
scheme, after it was conceived and brought into opera
tion, was improved and brought to a kind of perfection by
the celebrated Wheishaupt, of Germany, as a system of
light. And it was propagated and carried into effect in
those despotic countries under the cover of speculative
masonry. This new system was by far the most subtle, deep, and
efficient of any which ever was devised among men ; and it

214 LECTURE XVI.
was propagated over the world by floods of secret agents,
called propagandists (propagators), who were furnished
with ample funds for their purpose. Their dependence
was on poisoning the sentiments of mankind, obtaining
the management of the means of education, of governments,
and of armies, to promote their designs. They managed
the revolution in France, in 1789, and their numerous
armies took the field. A military empire soon arose, and
floods of terror poured forth with a velocity which seemed
like a flood indeed from the mouth of the infernal dragon.
It was designed and calculated to revolutionize the world,
overturning all true religion and morality, and all virtuous
civil government. Its professed object was to render the
human race happy, by freeing them from all restraints
upon their lusts and passions. But the real object of this
horrid scheme was cautiously concealed from their candi
dates, and men in the lower orders of their system ; and
it was gradually revealed to candidates for the higher de
grees, as it was found they could endure it without alarm.
This execrable scheme of Voltaire, under the express
design of showing that " one man could overturn the
Christian religion," took effect in old Catholic countries
like fire touched to a trail of powder. Their noted watch
words were, " Crush the wretch !"- — -meaning Christ :
" Strike deep, but hide the hand !" " The world must be
bound by invisible hands !" The development of this sys
tem is to be found in the following works : viz. " Proofs
of a Conspiracy," by Doctor John Robison, Professor of
Natural Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh ; in
the Abbe Barruel's " Memoirs of the French Revolution ;"
and in Doctor Payson's " Modern Antichrist." These
horrid floods Satan found means to roll over Christen
dom. Lodges of illuminees were planted throughout the
civilized world ; grasping and polluting the means of edu
cation, and labouring by sly intrigue to fill with men of
their own order, all places of trust and of interest. In
these movements of the dragon, the United States of
America were by no means overlooked. So fair a seat
of Zion was the first object of Satan, though his plot
commenced in old lands. This is learned in our text
and context, where the woman, in her distant retreat is
represented as the great object of Satan's rage. This
scheme was formed in the hot-bed of papal corruption ; or

CHAPTER Xn. 215
in the infidelity resulting from it. The flood must there
be first collected, and thence poured forth over Europe,
and over the Atlantic. As masonry had been its success
ful cover in old lands ; it was still depended on as its suc
cessful vehicle through the world. This system of wicked
ness slyly planted itself by the side of speculative ma
sonry, with a view to lead its members, through degrees
before unknown, under the notion of finding exalted wis
dom. Masons of high repute saw and deplored the fact,
that their order was capable of such a horrid use ; and they
sounded the alarm and fled from it, as we find in the afore
named European authors; Lodges of illuminees were
early planted in our states, as has appeared from ample
evidence, though they were cautious to conceal the name.
President D wight, in 1798, wrote thus: "Illuminism
exists in our country. And the impious mockery of the
sacrament described by Robison has been acted here."
He again says, speaking of the rise of this order ; " Un
der these circumstances were founded the societies of Illu
minism. They of course spread with a rapidity, which
nothing but fact could have induced any sober mind
to believe. Before the year 1780, they were established
in great numbers, through Germany, Sweden, Prussia,
Poland, Austria, Holland, France, Switzerland, Italy,
England, Scotland, and America." In all these places
(adds Dr. Dwight) was taught the grand sweeping prin
ciple of corruption, " that the goodness of the end sanctifies
the means." This writer said he received his informa
tion from a principal officer of the American masons. , A
letter was intercepted from a lodge of illuminism in Vir
ginia, to a lodge of the same order in New-York, in which
were emblems of carnage and death, and things unknown
to the grades of masonry which had previously existed in
this country. This letter was from the lodge Wisdom,
which was a branch of the Grand Orient of Paris, and was
the 2260th descendant from that parent stock. This great
number then of lodges of their order, must have been
planted at least in the twelve afore-noted different nations.
And in this letter it appeared that there were many lodges
of this order in our United States. A mason of high
standing at the south, in a letter to President Dwight,
dated March 3d, 1800, says, " The lodge in Portsmouth,
to which you allude, called the French lodge, was con-

216 LECTURE XVI.
sidered by me as under the modern term of masonry"
(illuminism). In another letter to the same, he says,
" That you had good grounds to suspect the designs of
the lodge at Portsmouth (Vir.) I have no reason to doubt.
Their work was to effect the plans of France in this
country." A member of that lodge was heard to boast
that he belonged to a lodge in Europe in which the
French revolution of 1789 was planned. A gentleman of
the first respectability, who had been grand master of all
the lodges in the state in which he lived, informed me,
upon reading my Dissertation on the Prophecies, that
while he was thus a grand master, a bundle of papers
from the eastern continent came by a natural mistake
into his hands. That in it were masonic emblems, ma
sonic language, and things apparently of great design, but
all perfectly above his comprehension. This was before
he had heard of illuminism. He knew not what to
make of it ; and said, when Illuminism was disclosed
by Robison and Barruel, he was fully prepared to
believe the account. And his influence with his ma
sonic brethren in the state where he lived was so great,
that when they began to express resentment at the dis
closures of these things, he hushed them to peace, — telling
them the disclosures were true, and they ought to know
it. In a printed oration delivered before the Grand Royal
Arch Chapter of New- York, Feb. 1801, by their grand
chaplain, Rev. John Earnst, is the following warning : " The
deep designs of masons, called the illuminati, who have
almost inundated Europe, and are fast gaining ground in
America, have clearly demonstrated the abuse which
untiled masonic lodges have met with, and how they,
when not guarded, can be revolutionized and moulded at
pleasure." Happy, had such warning been taken ! A
man of name, who with his wife was a professor of reli
gion, informed me that their son had occasion to reside
some years in one of the middle states, and he re
turned a gross infidel. He told them he had learned
this in a society there instituted from France ; and as
sured them that such societies abounded in our nation, and
soon a gospel minister would not be supported. If any
of them existed, they would be objects of scorn. The
Christian religion (he said) was all an imposition, and soon
would be no more. Gertanner, in his Memoirs of the

CHAPTER XII. 217
French Revolution, said, that the propagators of the French
masonry were (in 1791) fifty thousand ; and that their
funds were vast ; at that time, six millions of dollars.
These men were sent over the civilized world, and liber
ally dispersed in America. It was a maxim in their
code, that " it is better to defer fifty years, than to fail of
success by too much precipitancy." Such notices should
not be misimproved by the friends of religion and of
liberty. Robespierre declared that revolutionary designs
were the object of the diplomatic mission of Genet to this
country. His haste and imprudence to effect these de
signs, soon, by the faithfulness of Washington, occasioned
his recall.
He however took up his residence in this country, and
no doubt learned that greater caution was needful in this
nation. In an intercepted letter of the noted French
Fauchet, this object of French Illuminism in our land was ,
fully exposed. The insurrection in the west of Pennsyl*
vania was occasioned by it ; to suppress which, required an
army of 15,000 men, and a million of dollars, — precious
fruits of the infidel system planted in our country. Evett
Washington himself was denounced by this hateful foreign
influence, and was declared to be an enemy to his coun
try ! That best of men, noticing this base treatment in a
letter to a friend, said, that their abuse of him was in
" such indecent terms as could scarcely be applied to a
Nero, or to a notorious defaulter." In another letter
to a friend, he said, " They (the French) have been
deceived in their calculations on the powerful support
from their party here ; though it is doubtful still, whe
ther that party, which has been a curse to this country,
may not be able to continue their delusions." He said
again, in a letter, " That those self-created societies
which have spread themselves over this nation, have been
labouring incessantly to sow the seeds of distrust, jea
lousy, and discontent, — hoping thereby to effect some revo
lution in our government, — is not unknown to you. That
they have been the fomenters of the western insurrection,
admits of no doubt." When this father of his country re
tired from the presidential chair, he was most shamefully
denounced and insulted by this same hateful influence ;
and the friends of the nation were called upon to keep a
jubilee on the occasion. The language thus boldly used
T

/

218 LECTURE XVI.
against this best of men and father of his country, was
abusive, cruel, and false. No wonder, then, that that
great and good man, in his farewell address, warned his
beloved nation as follows : " Beware of all secret combi
nations, under whatever plausible character."
Such were the floods which flowed from the mouth of
the infernal serpent, and which rolled even over the Atlan
tic to America. On the old continent, these floods were
vastly terrible, as is shown in lectures on chapter xvii., to
which the reader is referred. The floods of horror there
rolled mountains high ; rolling in seas of blood, and revo
lutions ; rolling for a quarter of a century ; and plunging
ten millions of the human race, as has been calculated
from high intelligence,* in premature death. The French
armies, which swelled these floods, were vast, most suc
cessful, and terrible. Zion trembled for her ark, and said,
" These be the days of vengeance !" An army of 400,000
men (as has been shown) were finally seen moving, with
the most powerful preparations, into the north of Europe,
with a design to sweep away the last barriers against a
universal military despotism. But this was overruled to
bring things to a kind of crisis for the time then present, in
favour of Zion, and of liberty.
Ver. 16. And the earth helped the woman, and
the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the
flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.
The church's necessity is God's opportunity. When
the floods of dangers seem about to overwhelm the cause
of Zion, God interposes, like the earth's opening her mouth,
and burying every enemy ; as in the case of Korah and
his company. When they seemed about to destroy all
the order and peace of Israel, the earth under their feet
clave asunder ; and they went down alive into the pit ;
which closed again upon them. This was an emblem of
God's protection of his cause. And though but one exactly
such a case ever occurred, yet multitudes of events have
occurred in a measure similar, — like the destruction of
Hainan, which set at liberty the Jews from the effects of
his vile decree. God often causes some providential event
to occur, to confound the enemies of Zion, and to protect
* President Dwight.

CHAPTER XII. 219
his cause ; as in the case of the Egyptians plunged in the
Red Sea ; while Israel moved in safety through the deep.
In this point of light, our text assures that the church shall
be safe. And though her enemies rise and roar like a flood -,
Christ sits on the whirlwind, and directs the storm. And
heaven's high arches scorn the swelling ocean. The foe
is confounded ; and Christians rejoice. When creature
help fails, God's arm brings salvation. So it has been
from the beginning ; and so it will be to the end of time.
In this general sense, our text has had a thousand fulfil
ments. But it was designed for one, and only one, great
chronological fulfilment ; a great fulfilment in its order of
events. For this we must inquire. The order of events,
•already noted in comments upon this chapter, shows us
where to look for it. The great emperor of the age (it
was generally said) exulted, that when several obstacles in
the way of his universal empire were removed, " he would
henceforth trample on all the rights of neutrality !" His
army, the best appointed possible, of 400,000 men, was
put in motion ; himself at their head, to remove these
remaining obstacles. He would first move into the north,
and take up by the roots the empire of Russia. England
then would easily fall. And America would of course lie
prostrate at his feet. And the dragon imagined that this
would accomplish the designs of the great infidel system.
But the rod of iron, formed for judgment on the Roman
earth, was now overleaping the bounds of its providential
commission: and his plans were lost. That vial of divine
wrath on the seat of the, papal beast, and filling it with
darkness, was now going to draw towards its close. The
army of the north was accordingly annihilated, and swal
lowed up as floods indeed ; as was shown in particulars of
the event in Lecture x., which see. The accomplish
ment of the judgment in our text may well remind us of
that of Korah and his company, when the earth under
their feet began to part asunder. And the language of
our text, we may conceive, was borrowed from the catas
trophe of those ancient enemies of Israel in the wilderness.
It is, accordingly, predicted of the infidels of the last days,
that they shall " perish in the gainsaying of Korah." Any
thing that should providentially destroy those efforts of the
kingdom of darkness, would amount to an accomplish
ment of our text. The figure alludes to all that actually

220 LECTURE XVI.
did confound those efforts of the enemies of the church.
The French army fled, and fell by the way, — as has been
shown. Their bodies were indeed literally mingled with
the Russian earth, as though swallowed up in it. The
horrors of that retreat exceed every thing else found in
history, if we except the destruction of Jerusalem. The
emperor escaped ; and, with only one man accompanying
him, reached his capital. His vast army, by these terrors,
and the scenes at the river Berezina, were literally
destroyed. New armies were raised by this emperor ; and
subsequent tremendous battles were fought ; in which the
French, from time to time, were vanquished, till the battle
at Waterloo concluded the empire of Bonaparte. The last
swelling of the floods of the dragon on the Roman earth,
was here swallowed up. The confederation of the Rhine
had been broken ; and the remainder of its flood here sunk.
A striking exposition thus appears, as given to the feet,
and toes of the great Roman image — being " part of iron,
and part of clay ; partly strong, and partly broken ;" and
the parts not cleaving to each other. The long predicted
coalition, like a whirlwind from the north, had prostrated
that dynasty. See Dan. xi. 40. The earth opened her
mouth, indeed ! Earthly or national motives had induced
this coalition of the powers of Europe to combine in self-
defence for the swallowing up of these floods of the dra
gon. One strong pillar, on which hung the confident
hopes of the infidels of the age, crumbled, and was lost.
The beast from the bottomless pit, with this new wound
in his head, now fell (for a time at least) into his charac
teristic non-existence. For he is " the beast that was, and
is not, and yet is."
Zion had been marked out for a prey. Her enemies
had predicted her ruin, and appearances seemed to favour
it. But a cloud by day, and a fire by night, moved be
tween Israel and the Egyptians, while passing the sea.
This cloud flung light upon the church, and darkness upon
infidels. "The Lord thundered; the Highest gave his
voice ; hailstones and coals of fire. His lightning light
ened the world ; the earth trembled and shook." The
abominations of that system of infidelity had been much
unfolded, and its first and general efforts confounded. Its
workmen were now forced to descend to deeper caverns,
and to operate with greater caution. And to this they no

CHAPTER XII. 221
doubt, betook themselves with great vigour. The friends
of Zion rejoiced to find the snares of death thus far broken,
and a sudden and wonderful reverse of things blessing
the church, and the world. This lit up a smile on faces
long petrified with horror. The sun of general peace
broke through the cloud, smiled on the nations hid long
from its rays. And many fondly hoped the sun of the Mil
lennial kingdom had risen. Here their fond hopes were
clearly premature. But wonders of salvation had indeed
been wrought.
Ver. 17. And the dragon was wroth with the
woman, and went to make war with the remnant of
her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and
have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
As this alludes to things future, time will best unfold
them. Yet, as the text is given for warning, we should
attempt to derive warning from it. Satan is ever on the
alert ; that when one plan fails, he may give a new form
to it, or invent another. When ancient paganism in the
Roman empire ceased, and the government became Chris
tian ; the devil got up first his Arian heresy, and then his
papal throne. By the formation here of an image to the
pagan beast, in the false religion of popery under the
Christian name, Satan more than restored his beloved pa
ganism. And when he was ejected from his papal heaven
by the Reformation, he soon brought forward his code of
the Jesuits, and hence raised his new persecutions, as has
been noted. When the woman fled, as on her eagle's
wings ; Satan brought forward his system of illuminism,
as has been shown. With this he was going, if possible,
to destroy the cause of Christ from the earth. And when
these floods are thus far swallowed up, may we not be
lieve new and mighty efforts will be made ? What, then,
is the, sense of this warning in the text ? The flight of
the woman, to a distant retreat from the face of the dra
gon on the papal earth, had much enraged him. And this
rage is heightened by the failing of his floods thus far.
Whither now does Satan betake himself, to make war
with the remnant of the woman's seed? Does not
the text give at least some intimation ? He goes now
away from the old Roman earth, probably to the
T2

222 LECTURE XVI.
place to which the woman fled. And is not this a most
natural event ? Is it not the church here, of which he is
the most jealous ? Why should he not, then, next go
where she is ? Three marks are given in the text, of the
character of the people, with whom he goes to make this
new war. 1. "The remnant of the woman's seed."
This is the pious part of the descendants of the woman,
in the region whither she fled. A part of them are hos
tile to Christ, but a remnant are indeed his friends. 2.
"Who keep the commands of God." They maintain a
signal degree of evangelical purity, and holy obedience.
No other branch of the Christian church is equal in this
to the pious remnant of the seed of the woman in our
United States. 3. " And have the testimony of Jesus
Christ." In some special way, this remnant of the wo
man's seed have the tokens of the presence, gracious
power, and approbation of Christ. And is not this a fact
with the remnant of the descendants of the pilgrims here,
¦vvho are indeed pious ? Does the testimony of Christ
equally attend any other part of the Christian world ?
This is the part of Zion selected of God for the showers
of his grace. Christ here peculiarly seems to say,
" Awake, O north wind ; and come, thou south ; blow upon
my garden, that its spices may flow forth." This is no
ticed by the Christian world ; and inquiries have been pub
licly made across the Atlantic, why it is thus. And this
fact not only identifies the American church with the
seed of the woman in our text, but it affords an additional
reason why Satan should now turn his first attention to
this region, as the principal field of his operations.
But what mode of warfare would Satan be likely here
to instigate ? It is manifest, from what has been said, that
his economy long has been to labour to repair broken sys
tems, and under some new or specious pretence to render
them more efficient than ever. His old systems, then, of
popery, of French masonry, and of gross licentiousness, he
may be expected to labour to bring, here, into more effectual
operation. It is at a time not far from the present, that
we read of the three unclean spirits like frogs, coming from
the mouth of the dragon, of the beast, and of the false
prophet ; spirits of devils, working wonders, and going
forth unto the kingdoms of the earth, and of all the world,
to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Al-

CHAPTER XII. 223
mighty! Rev. xvi. 13, 14. These denote three powerful
kindred influences, to pervade the world, equally under
the agency of Satan. " For they are spirits of devils !"
That from the mouth of the dragon (the devil), means a
general spirit of licentiousness, either in sentiment or
practice, or both — any or all kinds of blasphemy, and
abomination. That from the mouth of the beast is the
scheme of infidelity first known as illuminism ; which is
the beast from the bottomless pit, full of the names of
blasphemy. And the spirit from the mouth of the false
prophet, is popery in its falling state in Europe, since the
afore-noted revolution in France. Agents and subtle
efforts from these three sources, the devil will seek to per
fect, and to bring into operation. This he may be ex
pected to do in America ; and thence to give a new im
pulse to them over the world. The church in our states
has much to fear from these three systems of infidelity.
They may be called the devil's trio, — his three in one.
If the different parts mean not so; their master means so.
The parts may fall out among themselves ; but their great
agent pushes them to one essential result. Different
divisions of an army may not understand the designed unity
of their operations ; but the sagacious general understands
it ; and he designs to push every movement to it. So
does Satan in his threefold agencies. And these in our
States will be powerful and mischievous. One of these
may be more visible than the other : but the other may be
more deep and powerful than this. Two of these sys
tems may be called systematic operations ; the third, a
mere filling up of mischief from a mixed multitude, who
will work into no system, but will be immensely wicked
each in his own way. From these three, the pious rem
nant of the woman's seed, in this land, have much to fear.
The system of French and German infidelity, in secret
societies, has been planted deep in our land ; as has been
clearly shown. And it was not thus planted here for
nothing. It was with the same design with which it was
planted in France before the revolution there. This sys
tem has never died a natural death, and never will. It is
only the fire of the battle of the great day of God,
that is to blot it from under heaven. See Dan. vii.
11 ; Rev. xix. 19, 20. It has doubtless been most active
in dark recesses, from the time of its introduction into our

224 LECTURE XVI.
states ; which was before the year 1786. It was not
formed for inactivity or amusement in Europe, nor is it so
in America. In Europe their real designs were perfectly
curtained from their candidates in the lower degrees of ma
sonry. While they were amused with various things ;
they were as ignorant of the real designs of their higher
orders, as a child unborn. And when the designs of their
leaders burst out in bloody operations ; honest members
of the lower degrees fled. One of them, in an address
to his masonic brethren, said, " Brethren and companions,
give free vent to your sorrow. The days of innocent
equality are gone by. However holy our mysteries may
have been; the lodges are now profaned. Let your tears
flow. Attired in your mourning robes, attend ; and let us
seal up the gates of our temples ; for the profane have
found means to penetrate into them. They have con
verted them into retreats for their impiety ; and into dens
of conspirators. Within the sacred walls, they have
planned their horrid deeds, and the ruin of nations. Let
us weep over their legions, whom they have seduced.
Lodges that may serve as hiding-places for conspirators,
must foi' ever remain shut to us, and to every good citi
zen."* The celebrated Professor Robison of Edinburgh,
who had been a first-rate mason, sounded the same alarm.
He renounced the order, and advised all his brethren in
the masonic world to do the same.
We have here one deep source of the danger attending
the seed of the woman, in these states. May the Christians
of our land awake to their dangers, and their duties.
May the warning voice of Heaven arrest their hearts ;
such as the following-^" Be sober, be vigilant, because
your adversary, the devil, ''as a roaring lion, goeth about,
seeking whom he may devour." " The devil is come
unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth he
hath but a short time." " Whom resist steadfastly in the
faith." " Resist the devil, and he shall flee from you."
Christ says, of these very days, " Watch !" — " Watch ye
and pray always ; that ye may be accounted worthy to
escape those things which shall come to pass, and to
stand before the Son of man." " Come, my people, en
ter into thy chambers." « Seek the Lord, all ye meek of
* Barruel's Memoirs.

chapter xrn. 225
the earth. Seek righteousness ; seek meekness ; it may
be ye may be hid in the day of the Lord's anger." " Come
out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her
sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues."

LECTURE XVII.

REVELATION XIII.

Ver. 1. And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and
saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven
heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns,
and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.
2. And the beast which I saw was like unto a
leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and
his mouth as the mouth of a lion : and the dragon
gave him his power, and his seat, and great au
thority. 3. And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded
to death ; and his deadly wound was healed : and
all the world wondered after the beast.
4. And they worshipped the dragon which gave
power unto the beast : and they worshipped the
beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast ? who is
able to make war with him ?
5. And there was given unto him a mouth speak
ing great things and blasphemies ; and power was
given unto him to continue forty and two months.
6. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against
God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and
them that dwell in heaven.
7. And it was given unto him to make war with
the saints, and to overcome them : and power was
given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.
8, And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship

226

LECTURE XVn.

him, whose names are not written in the book of
life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the
world. 9. If any man have an ear, let him hear.
10. He that leadeth into captivity shall go into
captivity : he that killeth with the sword must be
killed with the sWord. Here is the patience and the
faith of the saints.
Having attended, in several preceding lectures, to a de
scription of the church, and of her grand adversary, the
devil, and to some outlines of events between them, for
about two thousand years ; we now come, in this thir
teenth chapter, to contemplate more particularly two great
instruments of her annoyance, under the figure of two
beasts — the secular Roman beast, and the papal beast.
The events of this chapter are synchronical with those
of the chapter preceding, and comprise the period from
the commencement of the Christian era, to near the Mil
lennium. We have here first the secular Roman beast,
which Daniel beheld rising out of the sea ; and which is
never to be confounded with the papal beast, which is in
this chapter distinctly given.
In the language of prophecy, a notable power hostile to
the church is represented by some great ferocious beast.
And the properties of that power are described by proper
ties of that beast, natural or ideal. In Dan. vii. we have
a number of such beasts. The Babylonish empire is de
noted by a lion with eagle's wings ; the Persian empire,
by a bear with a piece of his prey in his mouth ; the Gre
cian empire, by a leopard with four heads and four wings ;
and the Roman empire, by a nondescript fourth beast,
dreadful and terrible, with great iron teeth. The first
part of this thirteenth chapter gives a further description
of this fourth beast, denoting the secular Roman empire.
The beast in our text is the same with that given in
Dan. vii. 7. In three different passages of Scripture, we
find this secular Roman beast : in Dan. vii. 7, to end ; in
our text ; and in Rev. xvii. In some other texts allusion is
made to this beast. In each of these three principal pas
sages, the secular beast is kept distinct from the papal
power, which is likewise given : and we are never
to blend them. The consideration of this will be im-

chapter xin. 227
portant to a right understanding of these powers, — the
secular, and the papal.
A beast is a ruling power, and not a subordinate one.
There can be but one such ruling power on the same
ground, at the same time ; and hence we can have but one
beast on the same ground at the same time. Subordinate
powers are but horns of the beast of that region. The
secular power on the ground of the Roman earth, from the
time of the subversion of the power of Greece, before the
Christian era, till the battle of the great day, is given under
the figure of a great and terrible beast, rising from the
sea ; meaning the contending state of the nations at the
time of its rise ; as in the text, and in Dan. vii. Though
his rise had long been past when our text was written ;
and though the main object of the writer was to foretel
events then future ; yet as those future events of this beast,
01/ things to take place towards the close of his existence,
must be known as the deeds of the Roman beast ; — so the
account must revert to the origin of this beast to show that
he is (first and last) the same. This is a liberty repeat
edly taken in prophecy, as has been shown. When that
part of a series of things which is future, is to be pre
dicted ; the prediction also takes into view the origin of
that series, to identify the future with it. So in Rev. xvii.,
describing the last head of this beast, as a new beast from
the bottomless pit ; in order to show that this is the old
Roman beast, his seven heads are given, though five of
them were then past, when John had his vision. In our
text additional appendages are given. Both in the text,
and in Daniel, he has ten horns. Here he has also seven
heads, to denote seven hills, on which Rome was built ;
and also seven forms of government, from the origin to the
end of that power ; viz. kings, consuls, dictators, decem
virs, military tribunes, emperors, and an atheistical re
public. The sixth, the imperial, was in existence when
John had his vision. This imperial form was to exist
twice, and at two distinct and distant periods, as will be
shown on Rev. xvii. The first reign of the imperial head
was in existence when the Revelation was given. It was
under this, that the Christian era commenced, that Christ
was crucified, and that the ten pagan persecutions of the
Christians took place. It was this imperial head that then
received a wound, under Constantine, and died as a pagan

228 LECTURE XVII.
beast, by the empire's becoming Christian ; as is noted
under the sixth seal, Rev. vi. 12 to end. This beast lay
dead, in symbolic language, from that time for many cen
turies, and had only a mystical existence ; " that was, and
is not, and yet is," because he would rise again in the last
days in his own hostile nature. The literal facts were,
that paganism was overturned by Constantine in the fourth
century ; and Christianity was established in its place.
But, at a period far future of that revolution, and before the
battle of the great day of God, a terrible power should
rise on the Roman earth, similar to the ancient pagan
beast. And, in the language of prophecy, this should be
noted as the old pagan beast recovered to life ; or his
head (anciently put to death by the sword) having its
deadly wound healed, and living again, with the Roman
world wandering after him. This healing was to be ful
filled by a mighty power rising on the Roman earth, in
the last days, of utter and avowed hostility to the cause of
Christ. This took place in the breaking out of illuminism
under the cover of masonry in France, in 1789, and an
antichristian power was there established. This will be
more clearly shown in lecturing on Rev. xvii. — the beast
from the bottomless pit, which is but the healed head in
our text, symbolized by a new beast from the world of
darkness. It seems, from the various descriptions of that beast, or
power, that something like that ancient wounding, and
modern healing of that head of the beast, may be more
than once verified ; that it is a characteristic of this power
which may be verified in different instances. This power,
being part of iron, and part of clay, as in the feet and toes
of Daniel's image, seems designed to convey the same
idea. This beast may repeatedly appear partly strong
and partly broken, before its final crushing under the
wrath of Christ. Its being the beast that was, and is not,
and yet is, indicates the same thing. It seems sometimes
out of existence, and sometimes in existence. A prime
leader of the order said, Let the whole system go to wreck and
ruin ; I will engage to restore it in a short time, and that to a
more perfect state than before ! One thing of this beast is
certain ; he is spoken of as having an existence, either
visible or invisible, till he goes into perdition, in the battle
of that great day of God, — the last vial ; — at which time

CHAPTER XIII. 229
he comes forth in his war with Christ, in awful hostility,
and vast strength ; as Rev. xix. 19, and Dan. vii. 11. The
body of this beast is said, in our text, to be like a leo
pard, or like the Macedonian empire, led by Alexander
the Great ; his feet are like a bear, or like the Medo-per-
sian empire ; his mouth like the mouth of a lion, or like
the Babylonish empire ; as though all the terrors of these
ancient powers combined, should be found to centre in
him. And the dragon (the devil) gives him his power,
and seat (throne), and great authority. This pre-eminence
is thus ascribed to the agency of the devil ; as it is indeed
the devil's most signal instrument of hostility to Christ.
This same secular Roman empire we have seen to have
been in most active and powerful hostility to Christ, in the
origin, and in the first ages of Christianity ; — crucifying
the Saviour, and persecuting his followers. And, upon
the healing of his deadly-wounded head, in the last days,
the world is said, in our text, to wonder after him. The
tide of his influence is noted as thus extensive. The
world (the Roman world) is here said to worship the
dragon (the devil), who gives power unto the beast ; and
to worship the beast; — most highly to admire this system,
and to deem it invincible : " who is like unto the beast ? or
able to make war with him ?" The worship in the text
denotes overwhelming admiration. A mouth speaking
great things and blasphemies is given him ; and power to
continue to the end of the noted 1260 years.
The passage, of his " continuing forty and two months,''
has perplexed and misled commentators. They have
been led to suppose that as this is the time allotted for the
continuance of the papal power ; so the power here de
scribed must be the papal power, and not the old secular
Roman beast ; and they have thus thrown the two powers
into confusion, and rendered the subject inexplicable.
Their mistake is, in taking for granted that this " forty
and two months," in our text, gives the exact time from
the rise of this beast to his fall : but this is not the sense.
It is designed simply to give the time of his fall, which is
at the end of the noted 1260 years. His rise was before
the Christian era. This sense of the passage is decided
in Dan. xii. 6. Daniel, here, having described the wilful
power (the same with the healed head in our text), heard
the question, how long it should be to the end of these
U

230 lecture xvn.
wonders ? — meaning these calamities ; — the very question
which would be of interest in the case. The Angel of
the covenant answers with an oath, that it shall be " for a
time, times, and an half;" or the 1260 years : as though
he had said, the end of these wonders shall be at the end
of the 1260 years. He had no occasion to give the whole
time of the existence of this horrid system ; but simply to
tell the time of its end. This period, — the 1260 years, —
had been before given as the length of the time of the
saints being given into the hands of papal power, — Dan. vii.
25. And the end of that noted time, gives the period of the
destruction of this secular beast. The phrase, that he
hath power to continue forty and two months, is thus
elliptical ; giving a partfor the whole. This well accords
with the language of prophecy.
As to the blasphemy of this beast*'; should he, at any
one time, assume the characteristic mark of direct and
open blasphemy ; it is sufficient to form this character,
even if he should afterward, from motives of policy, learn
greater caution, and assume his nominal form of godliness ;
a thing long predicted that he would do. But his fixed
character, notwithstanding this, is that he is a blasphemer;
as Rev. xvii. 3 ; "full of names of blasphemy." It will
be there shown, that this characteristic was by him most
fully assumed. He is the beast of ten horns, as well as
of seven heads ; though his ten horns were not of continual
existence. If at any one time they were found to exist ;
it gives him this permanent character : and so with his
blasphemy. But the latter will be found to be abundantly
manifest, under whatever adventitious form of godliness,
or cloak of goodness. He is an infidel, — denying the
Father, and the Son.
Our text informs that this beast has power " to make
war with the saints, and to overcome them. And power
is given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations."
This was, in a terrible sense, true of this secular beast in
the ten primitive pagan persecutions, before he received his
deadly wound in his imperial head from Constantine. But
the event in our text seems to be after that wound is, in
the last days, healed. The predicted slaying of the wit
nesses, by the beast from the bottomless pit, may tell the
secret of this clause in our text. The eventual popularity
®f this resuscitated beast, in the last days, is great. In

CHAPTER XIU. 231
addition to what has been noted, of all the world wonder
ing after him, and worshipping him ; and the dragon that
governs him; exclaiming, " Who is like unto the beast ?
who is able to make war with him ?" — it is added, " And
all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him (or plead
his cause), whose names are not written in the book of
life." Our Lord, upon the same period, says, — " If it
were possible, they would deceive even the very elect."
Then it is that God will search Jerusalem (his visible
kingdom) with candles, and punish the men that are
settled on their lees. When things shall have come to
this pass ; this power will soon go into perdition. To
this our text alludes, when it says, " He that leadeth into
captivity, shall go into captivity ; he that killeth with the
sword, shall be killed with the sword." As he thought to
do ; "so it shall here be done to him." Their judgment lin-
gereth not,' and their damnation slumbereth not ; as in
Isa. xxvi. (of this very event) — " For the fire of thine
enemies shall devour them." " And the beast was taken,
and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame."
The account closes, — "Here is the patience and the faith
of the saints !" Or, these their graces, having been most
deeply tried, shall find full relief; as did the patience and
faith of the chosen tribes, when they found themselves safe
on the eastern bank of the Red Sea ; and the Egyptians
"sank, like lead, in the mighty waters!" The papal
beast follows, but must be deferred to the next lecture.
Further particulars are given of this secular Roman
beast in chap, xvii., where the new beast there, will be
shown to be the same with the healed head which has been
given. This power on the Roman earth, it is believed, has ap
peared, and terrified the world, in these last days, as has
been shown of Illuminism, breaking out in the revolution
of France, in 1789. To the joy of this age of the world,
it fell, after the most horrid scenes of a quarter of a cen
tury, into its characteristic non-existence. But' it will be
found, that it '¦'¦yet is !" For the going of this power into
perdition, under the seventh trumpet, and seventh vial, is
manifestly now future ; and to prepare the way for this,
it will again appear in vast strength and terror, under
some new forms, or occasions. In this, the prophecies of

232 LECTURE XVII.
this period do fully agree ; as has appeared, and will, in
future lectures, be more fully shown.
Behold the depravity of fallen man, that millions
of the human race should be of such a character and con
duct, as to be justly represented by a ferocious beast,
governed by the devil, as has appeared ! How fully is
fallen man, though created in the image of God, now
justly said to be of his father the devil ; and the lusts of
his father he will do ! Sensual and base must be the heart
of the millions thus represented ! How utterly unfit for
heaven ! How wretched if admitted there !
Marvel not, then, O fallen man, that you must be born
again. This delivering act of grace you must receive,
or eternally perish. Where now are the ancient Boman
heroes, denoted by the nondescript beast which has been
considered ! Where are those blaspheming French
atheists, who brought again that beast from the bottom
less pit ! O infidels, and sensualists ! will you, to idolize
self and the body, forget and destroy the soul? Will
you, for time, forget eternity ? Eternity will not returji the
compliment, and forget you. Your eternal hell will not
forget to receive you as its prey. Multitudes, multitudes,
in regions far from the old Roman earth, carry the mark
of this beast ; some in their foreheads, and some in their
hands. And such, unless repentance prevent, will receive
of his plagues ; and must drink of the wine of the wrath
of God. Happy it is, that the prophetic scriptures do fur
nish us with a clear admonitory view of the calamities
and dangers through which the people of God must pass,
from their present to their millennial state. Such pre
monitions do most solemnly demand devout attention,
study, and practical improvement, to meet their events
with due discernment and preparation. And most
blessed is the fact, that the prophecies furnish the
church with a blessed Pisgah's top, whence to behold the
Millennium, and also the glories of heaven. We will
not fail to ascend this height by faith ! We will not idly
sleep at the foot of this mount of God !

LECTURE XVIII.

REVELATION XIII.
Ver. 11. And I beheld another beast coming up
out of the earth ; and he had two horns like a lamb,
and he spake as a dragon.
13. And he exerciseth all the power of the first
beast before him, and causeth the earth and them
which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose
deadly wound was healed.
13. And he doeth great wonders, so that he
maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in
the sight of men,
14. And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth
by the means of those miracles, which he had power
to do in the sight of the beast ; saying to them that
dwell on the earth, that they should make an image
to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and
did live.
15. And he had power to give life unto the image
of the beast, that the image of the beast should both
speak, and cause that as many as would not worship
the image of the beast should be killed.
16, And he causeth all, both small and great, rich
and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their
right hand, or in their foreheads :
17. And that no man might buy or sell, save he
that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the
number of his name.
18. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath under
standing count the number of the beast : for it is the
number of a man ; and his number is six hundred;
threescore and six,
U2

234 LECTURE XVIII.
A delineation is given, in the preceding lecture, of the
secular Roman power, under the figure of a terrible beast.
In our present text, we have the papal apostacy denoted
by " another beast," the description of which the papal
hierarchy perfectly fulfils. This second or papal beast is
the same with the " other little horn," in Dan. vii. 8 ; having
eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great
things. It is also,|he same with the woman, " the mother
of harlots, and abominations of the earth," mounted on the
secular beast, Rev. xvii. 3-6. In these three collateral
passages, we have the same secular power, and the same
papal power, in contiguity to each other. In the first, the
papal power is a horn of the secular power. In the second,
it is another beast. In the third, it is a woman, of horrid
fame, on the back of the secular beast ; going to execution,
as will be shown in chap. xvii. These three inspired repre
sentations give great facility to their exposition.
While the secular beast lay dead of his wound, received
from Constantine, in the revolution in the Roman empire
from paganism to Christianity, in the fourth century (and
thus " was, and is not, and yet is"), the papal beast arose
on the same ground. This beast arose, not from the
" sea" (the revolutionary state of the secular world),
as did the Roman secular beast (Dan. vii. 3 ; Rev.
xiii. 1); but from the "earth;" the earthly and carnal
policy of the church and pontiff of Rome. This beast had
two horns like a lamb ; but he spake like a dragon ; or
was a dragon in sheep's clothing. He goaded and tor
mented the true witnesses of Christ with his two systems
of tyranny — ecclesiastical and civil ; and was himself a
prime instrument of the wicked one, under the highest pro
fessions of Christianity. This second beast grew, till it
came (it is said) " to exercise all the power of the first
beast before him :" became, as that was, a perfect perse
cutor of the church of Christ. The establishments in the
church, in Christian Rome, by Constantine, operated as a
source of corruption to the bishops of Rome. To obtain,
and to enlarge these honourable and lucrative establish
ments, became a prime object of ambition and intrigue.
Two things operated to throw power into the hands of the
Romish pontiffs ; first, the factious citizens of Rome often
found it convenient, in their contentions, to apply to the
ambitious bishop of that city, to decide their disputes ;

CHAPTER XIII. 235
which thing the aspiring pontiffs did not fail of improving
to their own aggrandizement. Secondly, the' idea had
been conceived, and after long struggles, confirmed, that
the commission of Christ, given to his gospel ministers,
had instituted different grades of men in this office ; or had
given the official right to some to rule ; while the same
commission gave to others to be ruled. Long1 had the
faithful witnesses of Christ piously struggled against this
innovating corruption. Jerome and many others con
tended for the well known fact, that those who had come
to be called bishops, were never, in early times, viewed to-
be of an officially superior order, but only as first among
equals in office, and received all their supremacy only
from the customs of the day ; and" not from any superior
commission from Christ. We find, in authentic church
history, that the early bishops had no superior power,
allowed in the church, to enact any thing, but in union
with both the common pastors, and the brethren of the
churches. But the long pontifical exertions to be received
as being of an order officially superior, prevailed ; and they
assumed a power to act independently of the common pas
tors, and brethren. And these lordly pontiffs soon came to
exercise influence in proportion to the city in which they
dwelt. The bishop of Rome, hence, soon found himself
able to rise from one degree of ambitious power to another,
till the emperor Phocas declared Bishop Boniface III. to
be universal bishop of the Christian church ; and himself
to be judged by no man. And the pretensions and influ
ence of this bishop rose still higher and higher, till the full
grown man of sin became manifest ; and the saints were
given into his hands for 1260 years. The long wilder
ness state of the true church, and the papal blasphemous
horn here commenced — Dan. vii. 8, 11; also the papal
harlot — Rev. xvii. 1-5. And here, at a period which will
receive further attention, arose the second beast ; that in
our text. This spiritual beast was to "reign over the
kings of the earth (chap. xvii. 18) ; while the secular
Roman beast lay dead. Prophetic imagery cannot admit
of but one beast on the same ground at the same time. A
beast is the great ruling power of an empire : and two such
powers in an empire cannot at the same time exist.
This papal beast was " diverse" from all other powers —
Dan. vii. 24; or, he was ecclesiastical. The secular

236 LECTURE xvin.
Roman beast was said to be "diverse" from other beasts
that had gone before — verse 7. But the papal beast was
still "diverse" from this, as professing to be a spiritual
power. For many centuries, this papal beast did govern
with a mighty sway, and reigned indeed over the kings of
the papal earth. These kings formed one of his horns ;
and his armies of priests the other. The pope assumed
power to crown kings, and to strike off their crowns, at
his pleasure, as is well known in history. Says Bishop
Newton, " The pope was at the head of the state, as well
as of the church." A bishop of the council of Lateran,
styled the pope, " The prince of the world." A Catholic
orator called him, " king of kings, and monarch of the
world." A prelate said of him, that " he had all power,
above all power, both of heaven and earth." Pope Inno
cent boasted, that the church was his spouse, who brought
him her dowry of absolute power, in temporals, and in
spirituals. — That she brought him his mitre, as priest,
and his crown, as king ; and she constituted him vicar to
Him who is King of kings, and Lord of lords !" This
was the papal power, which was claimed and acknow
ledged for many centuries. It was then the highest power
on earth, for the time ; and was a beast indeed. " Mys
tery Babylon the Great !" The views given of popery, in
the collateral passages, militate nothing against this. It
was a horn of the secular beast, in Dan. vii. as it rose on
the same ground with the secular beast, and remains in
existence, after the secular beast recovers his life.
But this does not hint that it was not itself a beast, part
of the time, on the same ground, while the secular beast
lay dead. And, in our text and context, we find it did
thus become a beast ; and fact from history testifies the
same. The view given of the papal harlot, in Rev. xvii.
as borne on the back of the secular beast, does not inter
fere with our view given. For this her position on his
back is after he recovers his life, in the last days, or
ascends from the bottomless pit, — takes the ground as a
reigning power ; and popery becomes a merely subordi
nate being, — a false prophet, — a harlot on the way to exe
cution. This second (the papal) beast, is said to exercise all
the power of the first beast, or of pagan Rome ; meaning be
fore the revolution from paganism. This implies what has

chapter xm. 237
been stated, that the pagan beast had, for the time, ceased
to exist. — "The first beast before him," says the text.
The pagan beast was before him ; but was not now in real
existence. The papal beast exercised all the power of
the first, by occasioning as much annoyance to the true
people of God, as did the pagan beast. He caused the
people of the papal earth to worship the pagan beast, by
making them submit to a system of false religion of his
own invention, no better than the religion of the antece
dent pagan empire, noted by the beast in the first part of
this chapter. And the papal power thus makes an image
to the pagan beast, and enforces the worship of it upon all
men, upon pain of death. This explains his causing all
men to worship the beast. They do it, by worshipping
his image in the hands of popery. This image of old
paganism must mean that in popery which resembles
paganism. But this is the body of the papal religion;
that mummery of delusion, which is nothing better
than paganism under the Christian name. It is striking,
indeed, that this should be called an image to the first
beast. Ordinances of religion of human invention are
nothing but an image of pagan mythology. If it nearly
resembles the Christian religion, it is so much the worse,
as being more dangerous. Counterfeits well executed are
counterfeits still, and are more dangerous than those badly
executed. The whole mass of popery is but an image of
paganism, as our text, and the whole genius of the Bible
decide. One essential feature of old Roman paganism
was, paying adoration to great characters who are dead,
and applying to them as demigods, or mediators between
them and their highest God ; and venerating them in
images. And a complete image of this idolatry was
established in popery. Deceased saints were there con
stituted their intercessors with God. And worship, directed
by the fancied mediation of such saints, was there " estab
lished by law." (Scott.) And "the worship of images was
there established by the second council of Nice." (Faber.)
In pagan Rome the names of these demigods were selected
from great civil or military characters. In papal Rome,
they were selected from the apostles, or eminent Chris
tians. The virgin Mary is with them a most worshipful
demigod. Her image, with that of Christ, and other fa
vourite saints, must be before them for remembrance and

238 LECTURE XVIII.
veneration. These, and a hurdle of rites of human inven
tion, constitute the false religion of popery, — the papal
image made to the pagan beast. To accommodate which,
and to sanction the blasphemous supremacy of the pope,
the Bible itself is, by them, altered, and made to read
according to their impious and abominable system. Giv
ing life to this image — making it to speak, and to cause
that all who would not worship it, should be put to death,
is a striking representation of the real management of
popery. This was aided by false miracles, dogmas, and
gross impositions. By a bloody usurpation, and abuse of
power, all who could not submit to this impious mummery
of papal religion, should be excommunicated, and delivered
over to the civil sword. The popes managed the civil pow
ers, and especially the German empire (which was designed
for this very purpose), as a mere puppet in their own hands,
to enforce their laws, and to execute their bloody bulls
and thunderbolts. This beast is noted, in the text, as
making fire to come down from heaven, in the sight of
men, and deceiving them that dwell on the earth. This
alludes to the papal system of false miracles. Let one
instance of these serve to illustrate this portion of our text;
an instance given from good authority. A Catholic priest
had found, on a tree, the nest of a very loquacious bird.
He now formed a design to work a papal miracle, to
strengthen their system. He placed under this nest a
bomb of powder ; with a trail, which he induced some
arch accomplice to manage. He then notified a religious
meeting, to be holden in the shade of that tree. In the
midst of their religious exercises, the bird, being disturbed,
became clamorous, as he well knew would be the case.
After bearing with her noise for a time, he affected to be
out of patience, that she should thus disturb their devo
tions ; and he prayed that the fire of heaven might destroy
her. His accomplice now slyly fired the trail of powder,
which caused the bemb under the nest to explode. And
here was a notable miracle to vindicate the papal religion.
And multitudes of miracles, equally divine, confirmed their
deluded millions in papal superstition. The papal beast
called to his aid also the fire of persecution, to afflict the
true witnesses of Christ. And thousands, almost beyond
number, he caused to seal their testimony with their blood.
In verses 12, 14, it is said of the secular beast (to which.

CHAPTER XHI. 239
the papal beast made an image), " whose deadly wound
was healed ;" " which had the wound by the sword, and
did live ;" which passages have led some incautiously to
imagine that the secular beast alluded to is here repre
sented as actually alive, in the time of the papal beast ;
and that hence the papal power must be himself this beast
raised to life. But the text says no such thing. And the
figure in the text can admit of no such thing, as has been
shown. Two beasts cannot exist at the same time in the
same place. The text no more says the secular beast
was already alive from this deadly wound in his head,
while the papal beast lived, than it says he was thus alive
while John was writing the passages. The two passages
are simple references to the figure of the first beast pre
sented to the eye of John. In this, it is found that the secu
lar beast, at some time between his rise and his final ruin,
dies by a wound in the head, and yet afterward lives again ;
this deadly wound being healed. And now, in describing
this beast, as distinct from the papal beast and all others ;
this part of the description is taken, as being singularly
prominent among his features ; but not to decide any thing
as to the time, when the healing of his head takes place ;
whether in the days of papal predominance ; or in the
revolution in France, in 1789. It could not take place in
the former, and yet popery be a beast. But it could in
the latter ; and thus destroy the papal beast, and take
his place as a supreme power ; as was the fact.
The making of an image by the papal beast to the first,
the pagan, implies that the pagan beast was not himself
on the ground, but lay dead. In verse 14, the papal mira
cles are said to take place, " in sight of the beast," prob
ably meaning the pagan beast. This also at first view
seems to indicate that the pagan beast was then alive.
But for the reasons which have been stated, this cannot
have been the fact. John beheld in vision the two beasts
standing in his view together. Of course what was done
by the papal, was done (as it might seem to him) in sight
of the pagan. But this was not designed to teach that
the two beasts were actually to exist on earth at the same
time. It has been shown that such could not have been
the case. The miracles being " in sight of the beast,"
means also, that when this image was made, the old pa
gan beast was in clear historic sight, and therefore the

240 LECTURE xvin.
papal beast must make an image to it ; as it follows the
words, " saying to them that dwell on the earth that they
should make an image to the beast," — the pagan beast.
This is given as explanatory of his working miracles in
the sight of the beast : hence says Pool, " in sight of the
beast, i. e. to his honour and to gain him reputation." If
this were not the real design in the mind of the pope, but
to gain his own reputation ; yet it operated as a gaining
of reputation to paganism, as it is itself no better than pa
ganism. The fact was, paganism in the revolution under
Constantine died. Popery afterward rose, and reigned
long over the kings of the Roman earth. It supported a
system of false religion, by false miracles, and by perse
cution, no better in reality than paganism. This it did
in the full sight of the history of the abominations and
cruelties of the antecedent paganism ; and it continued
thus to do, till the pope lost his supremacy in the revolution
occasioned by the bursting into power of the system of
the Voltaire infidelity in 1789.
The papal beast in our text causes his subjects to re
ceive a mark in their foreheads, or in their hands, which
was essential to their title to civil or social rights. In
various passages this fact is noted. (See Rev. xiv. 9—11,
and xv. 2, and xx. 4.) This mark is expressed in allu
sion to an ancient custom of masters affixing a mark, at
their pleasure, on their servants, in their forehead, or hand,
or where they pleased. The papal beast placed no
such literal mark on his subjects, but did what is well
thus denoted. The mark in the text was such as follows
— the sign of the cross must be received — all devotions
were performed in Latin, a language unknown to most of
the common people. They must be kept in ignorance of
their Bibles ; being taught that " ignorance is the mother
of devotion." In the Catholic church, every thing used
to be performed in Latin, — mass, prayers, hymns, litanies,
canons, decretals, papal bulls, results of councils, reading
the Bible (by the few who could read), and preaching ;
all formerly must be done in a language unknown to com
mon people. Yet all the people must attend, and hear
this trumpery of hypocrisy and ignorance. All were
watched, and if any allowed themselves tb neglect these pa
pal duties, they were denied the privilege of citizens, and
were persecuted as heretics. We learn here, thus far, what

CHAPTER XIII.

241

was the mark of the beast in those former ages. In sub
sequent ages, it might vary accorduig to times and cir
cumstances. These things, with all the abominations of
popery, the true witnesses refused, and hence were per
secuted. Among the marks of the beast, we have his number,
and that of his name ; which number is 666. This, as
the number of his name, is thus explained. The letters,
which in Greek (the language in which the New Testa
ment was written) form the name Lateinos, the founder
of Rome (real or fictitious), make 666 ; and thus assure
us that Rome is the seat of the papal beast. And the
letters which form the name of Rome in Hebrew (in
which the Old Testament was written) make 666. We
have here a double divine attestation that the seat of this
second beast is Rome. These letters, used numerically
(a well known custom of expressing numbers), give this
number thus.

GREEK

NAME.

HEBREW

NAME.

L
-
-
30
R
.
.
200
A
-
-
1
U
.
-
6
T
-
-
300
M
-
.
40
E
-
-
5
I
-
.
10
I
-
-
10
I
-
-
10
N
-
-
50
T
-
-
400
0
-
-
70

s
200666
666
The people, then, who glory in the distinctive names and
features of this religion, belong to the beast in our text.
The mark of the beast may be viewed as varying, to
meet their case. When the Jesuits arose with a powerful
code of regulations for the support of the sinking papacy,
their distinctive marks, whatever they were; were the
marks of the beastJ And when the illuminees in after
days arose to propagate infidelity, their peculiar marks
of distinction were marks of the beast. If the same
diabolical system is now in operation (as no doubt it is,
in latent caverns, having been strongly planted in twelve
different nations at least), its distinguishing marks
X
242 LECTURE XVIII.
(whether open or concealed), are the marks of the beast,
either papal or infidel.
We find both the number of the beast, and the number
of his name. The sense of the latter has been exhibited.
The following remarks may give the sense of this num
ber as the number of the beast, in distinction from that of
his name. This number 666 seems to have been de
signed to apply in different ways, as the words " number
of the beast" and "number of his name" imply. Its sense,
as the number of the name has been given.
It is also the number of the beast, which may apply in
a still different sense. We have the express number
1260, repeatedly given, as the number of the years of the
depression of the church under the tyranny of the papal
beast, and extending to the battle of the great da)'. In
Dan. xii. we have two express additional numbers, — 30,
and 45, — relative to the close of the latter of which Dan
iel says, " Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh ;"
meaning, no doubt, that this gives the sunrise of the Mil
lennium. But to what purpose are these express num
bers given, unless a fourth number be somewhere furnished
to inform of the commencement of the noted 1260 years?
for men would never agree when these should commence.
But if such a fourth number be given, it might be ex
pected to attend the description of the papal beast, whose
rise commences the 1260 years. And here such a num
ber is in fact found, and is called the number of the beast,
as well as the number of his name. It is then as though
God should kindly say to man, so gradual was the rise of
the papal beast, that you, short-sighted man, can never
tell when to date his rise, and to commence your noted
1260 years. Take, then, the commencement of A. D.
666, as the number of the papal beast, and the time of
his driving the church into the wilderness, which com
mences the 1260 years, and add to these sums the 30
and 45, in Dan. xii., and you have the beginning of 2001
as the sunrise of the millennial day, to which time " blessed
is he that waiteth and cometh !" — 666+1260+30+45
=2001. And this is the period in which the best writers have
agreed as the commencement of the Millennium, the be
ginning of 2001, or close of 2000; finding 2000 years
before Abraham; 2000 from him to Christ, and 2000

CHAPTER XIV. 243
From his day to his millenial kingdom. And with this ac
cords the analogy of the natural week, — six days for labour
and the seventh for rest, and one day here being as a
thousand years.
Behold the exhibition made of human depravity by
the papal see ! a beast of abomination ! Blessed be God
for the sure denunciation, " Babylon is fallen, is fallen."
May the knowledge and improvement of the event soon
bless the world. And may our religion never be a mere
image of paganism, nor a mere image of true religion, but
may it be the reality — the life of true religion in the soul,
to the glory of God, and our own eternal salvation.

LECTURE XIX.

REVELATION XIV.
The outlines of the great leading events of the first fif
teen centuries of the Christian era, have been given in the
two antecedent chapters. In this chapter, events com
mence with the sixteenth century, giving the Reforma
tion, and a variety of succeeding events, till it closes in
the battle of the great day, under the double figure of the
harvest and the vintage.
Ver. 1. And I looked, and lo, a Lamb stood on the
mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four
thousand, having his Father's name written in their
foreheads. We have here a notable appearance of Christ in his
ehurch, the true mount Zion, which had long seemed, to a
distressing degree, forsaken of God. * The power of
popery had long appeared to maintain an impious triumph ;
and had seemed continually to repeat the blasphemous
taunt, " God hath forsaken him ; persecute and take him ;

244 LECTURE XIX.
for there is none to deliver him." Long had the man of
sin remained in his zenith of impious glory ; and had
deemed his seat and fortress as fixed among the stars, and
for ever secure. But the time of a new era of events for
the mother of harlots, — to compel her to a retrograde mo
tion, — had arrived. A climax of fatal judgments was
now to open upon this diabolical system, which should
close in her being hurled into the burning lake. The
events of this chapter were to be synchronical with those
of the seven vials, in the two succeeding chapters. They
relate more immediately to the church ; and the seven
vials give those which relate to her enemies.
The sixteenth century commenced with vast and por
tentous events, as will be shown in the lecture on the first
vial. Our text assures of a new sealing time, after the
dark and horrid papal ages. The mount Zion here, is
the true church of Christ reviving. And the hundred and
forty and four thousand (a certain number, probably, for
an uncertain) are the Protestants of that day. Twelve
hundred years before God's grace had caused a sealing
time to bless the Christian empire, as chap. vii. A long
and dreary period, from that time, had lain with dreadful
weight on Christ's two witnesses. But scenes of grace
at last awoke on Zion. A faithful God will not fail to
keep her as the apple of his eye. Martin Luther now
appeared; and other powerful coadjutors, by Heaven pre
pared, to be champions of grace. These, and espe
cially Luther, God girded with his might ; and he
shielded them as with / a wall of fire. These bold re
formers drew the horrid veil which long had hid from
common view the seas of papal filth and impious abomi
nation. This caused millions to flee from that sink of
pollution, to the firm ground of the Protestant establish
ment. The name of God inscribed upon the foreheads of
the company who now appeared with Christ, alludes to
the bold profession, and manifest pure religion of those
who now renounced the papal see.
Ver. 2. And I heard a voice from heaven, as the
voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great
thunder : and I heard the voice of harpers harping
with their harps.
3. And they sung as it were a new song before the

CHAPTER XIV. 245
throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders:
and no man could learn that song but the hundred
and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed
from the earth.
4. These are they which were not defiled with
women; for they are virgins. These are they
which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth.
These were redeemed from among men, being the
first-fruits unto God and to the Lamb.
5. And in their mouth was found no guile : for
they are without fault before the throne of God.
We have here the increasing numbers of the Protest
ants of that period ; their evangelical songs of praise ;
and their utter disconnexion with the idolatries of popery.
The kingdoms of England, Scotland, Denmark, Sweden,
almost half the princes of Germany, large parts of France,
of Switzerland, and other realms, relinquished, utterly,
their allegiance to the hierarchy, — the papal monster, —
and engaged to support the pure religion of the gospel.
And the voices of the praise of their swelling numbers
arose from a likeness to the sound of great waters, to that
of mighty thunderings ! And with sacred instruments, as
well as with vocal music, they adored the God of salva
tion in the new song of redeeming love, which none but
the new-born could understand. Their freedom, which
they now enjoyed from the idolatries of popery, is here
noted under the figure of virgin purity. Inspiration here
testifies of these reformed multitudes, " These are they
which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth." The
doctrines of the Reformation, and the religious order and
rites then maintained by the Protestants, are well known.
And they are thus approved of God, — " These are they
which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth." And what
follows confirms the approbation ; they are said to be
" the first-fruits unto God, and to the Lamb: and in their
mouth was found no guile ; for they are without fault
before the throne of God." This testimony, borne in re
lation to the church, fifteen hundred years after Christ, is
very consoling relative to the known doctrihes and order
of the Protestants of the sixteenth century. They were
the first-fruits to God and the Lamb, as the first ripe fruits
X2

246 LECTURE XIX.
offered in Israel of old were an earnest of the harvest at
the close of the year. Those Protestants were but an
earnest and a miniature of the state of the whole church
on earth in the Millennium. But they were only compa
ratively faultless before the throne of God ; not fully thus.
For "there is not a just man on earth that doeth good,
and sinneth not." Inspiration assures us. that they who
say they have no sin, lie, and speak not the truth. But
they were by divine grace comparatively pure ; and they
were justified by grace. " Blessed is the man unto whom
the Lord imputeth not sin." " Thou art pure, my love ;
there is no spot in thee." Or, I will behold none to mark
it against thee. " Israel was holiness unto the Lord."
We have thus a commanding view of the Reformation; an
event so interesting that we might expect to find it noted
in the prophecies of this book. No other event can lay any
claim to be viewed as a fulfilment of these five first
verses in this chapter. The Reformation has a perfect
claim to be thus viewed, both from its chronology, and
from its accordance with the figures in these verses. The
event is the same with that hinted in chap. xii. 7-12 ; the
casting of the dragon from heaven, &c.
Ver. 6. And I saw another angel fly in the midst
of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach
unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every
nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people,
7. Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give
glory to him ; for the hour of his judgment is come :
and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and
the sea, and the fountains of waters.
" Another angel !" as though it were not the first ! but
it was the first in this series of events. Three angels
were to fly in succession ; and this is the first of the
three. The Greeks, in such a case, would call each of
the three, alios angelos, another angel. But in English,
the first in such a case would be rendered an angel. And
this is all that is here meant ; or, the first of several an
gels. And we here have a sublime figure, importing that
a missionary spirit should, at the period in the text, or some
time after the Reformation, arise in the church, denoted

CHAPTER XIV. 247
here by the heaven ; or a general exertion should com
mence to spread the gospel over the world.
To illustrate this passage, I will here insert a disserta
tion voluntary, which I wrote in May, 1795, before the
formation of any missionary or Bible society in Britain, or
America, had reached my ears. This [ read before my
association, various of the members of which are still
living ; Rev. Dr. Burton, yet alive, being then moderator.
It was as follows. " Are we not to expect that there will
be a wonderful propagation of ; the gospel through the na
tions of the earth before the great and notable day of the
Lord, which shall aid the opening of the way for the Mil
lennium ?" In favour of the affirmative, I adduced the fol
lowing ;
1 . Rev. xiv. 6, 7 — " And I saw another angel, &c."
(quoting our text).*
This has, by some, been applied to Martin Luther, at
the Reformation. But did he preach the gospel so exten
sively on earth, as is thought shall be the case, in this
figure ? He did not. And he had no occasion to intro
duce his messages of grace with the appeal to the volume
of nature, which is found in the text, and which is most
appropriate to missions among the heathen : as though
the missionary should say, I am come to teach you the
knowledge and worship of God who made yonder heavens
this earth, the sea, and the fountains of water. This in
troduction indicates missions to the heathen world. And
the imagery of the text gives it an extent not realized in
the Reformation ; an angel flying through the midst of
heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to them
that dwell on the earth, to every nation and kindred, and
tongue, and people. And besides, the events of the Refor
mation were given in the commencement of this chapter,
in the appearing of Christ on his mount Zion, the church
and instituting a new sealing time ; and not in this sixth
and seventh verses. And the thing predicted in our text
is found in other prophecies.
2. We find the same in Isa. xi. 11, 12 ; which stands
connected with the destruction of Antichrist, by the rod
out of the stem of Jesse, and the introduction of the Mil
lennium. * This text had never, to my knowledge, been applied to such an
event as the present spirit of missions.

248 LECTURE XIX.
" And it shall come to pass, in that day, that the Lord
shall set his hand again, the second time, to recover the
remnant of his people which shall be left, from Assyria,
and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and
from Elam, and from the isles of the sea. And he shall
set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the
outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed
of Judah, from the four corners of the earth." These
events have never yet been fulfilled ; and their fulfilment
implies such an event as is predicted in our text ; and in
his setting up " an ensign to the nations."
3. The same is found in Isa. xxvii. 13. "And it shall
come to pass, at that day, that the great trumpet shall be
blown, and they shall come that are ready to perish in the
land of Assyria, and the outcasts of the land of Egypt, and
shall worship the Lord in the holy mount of Jerusalem."
The connexion and language of this passage show it to
convey the following sentiment ; that, nearly connected
with the day of the perdition of Antichrist, given in this
chapter, the gospel (called the great trumpet, in allusion
to the trumpet of jubilee, and other joyful trumpets blown
in ancient Israel), shall be proclaimed through the nations
as it never was before ; and a remnant of God's chosen
seed, who had been perishing in paganism over the earth,
shall be brought into the circle and blessedness of the
gospel church, that they may be hid in the day of the
Lord's anger, then about to open upon the world.
4. In Dan. xii. 1-4 is the same. Michael (Christ)
stands up to plead for his people : and a mystical resur
rection takes place, of both good and bad characters.
Many now appear, in the Christian world, in the spirit of
former and most eminent saints ; and many in the spirit
of former and most hateful enemies of God. And the fol
lowing event Opens, — " Many shall run to and fro, and
knowledge shall be increased." This is said to be, " at
the time of the end ;" or near the end of the reign of sin.
Here is the event, and at the very period of our text.
" The hour of his judgment is come !"
5. In Isa. xl. 3, is the same. Near the return of the
Jews, when they are to be comforted, as having received
double from the Lord's hand for all their sin, it is said,
" The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare
ye the way of the Lord ; make straight in the desert a

CHAPTER XIV. 249
highway for our God." This passage John the Baptist
applied to himself ; which is so far from destroying my
argument from it, that it gives it an emphasis. It was
fulfilled in him, only as the effusion of the Spirit, on the
day of Pentecost, fulfilled the prediction of the outpour
ing of the spirit, in the last days, in Joel ii. 28 ; to which
Peter applied it, Acts ii. 16. That promise in Joel stands
connected with the restoration of the Jews, and the bat
tle of the great day of God, in the last days, as we find,
Joel iii. 1 ; " For, behold, in those days, and at that time,
when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jeru
salem, I will gather all nations," &c, the battle of the
great day follows. From this we learn, that the effusion
of the Spirit, on the day of Pentecost, was only an incipi
ent fulfilment, or kind of type, of that event, predicted in
Joel. In like manner, this text, in Isaiah xl. 2, received
only a primary or typical fulfilment in the ministry of
John the Baptist. Its ultimate fulfilment is to be in a
general missionary effort of the last days, in the wilder
ness of pagan lands ; an event introductory to the restora
tion of the Jews, and the Millennium, when (as it there
follows) " the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all
flesh shall see it together." John came in the wilderness
of Judea, to introduce the coming of Christ in the flesh:
and the voice of missions, in our text, is to cry in the last
days, in pagan lands, Prepare ye the way of the Lord ;
make straight in the desert of pagan lands the highway
of Christ in his millennial kingdom.
6. In Mai. iv. 5, is the same. The battle of the great
day of God, and the Millennium, are given in this chapter.
Then, as a thing introductory to these events, we read,
" Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet, before the
great and notable day of the Lord." This too (as was
the antecedent text) was applied to John the Baptist, as
preaching in the wilderness of Judea ; but only as a type
of its fulfilment.
Its connexion with the introduction of the Millennium,
as in the antecedent verses, will show the truth of this.
Our Lord says, " This was Elias who was to come."
John, when interrogated whether he was Elias, said, " I
am not." He was typically ; but not ultimately. Elijah
was sent to confound the idolaters in Israel, in the days of
Ahab. And the missionary angel of the last days, going

250 LECTURE XIX.
forth, in the spirit and power of Elijah, will confound
idolaters in pagan lands, in the last days.
7. In Joel ii. 1, we have the same thing. " Blow ye
the trumpet in Zion ; sound an alarm in my holy moun
tain ; let all the inhabitants of the land (earth) tremble for
the day of the Lord, for it is nigh at hand." This also
stands nearly connected with the restoration of the Jews,
and the battle of the great day ; as chap. iii. will show. We
have here, then, the command of God in his church to
blow the trumpet of his gospel through the world, just
before the battle of that great day of God.
8. Our Saviour predicted the same, when he said,
Mark xiii. 1 4, " The gospel must first be published
among all nations." And, Matt. xxiv. 14, "The gospel
of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world, for a
witness unto all nations ; and then shall the end come."
(The dissertation here shows, from 2 Thess. second
chapter, and Rev. xvi, 15, where the predicted coming of
Christ with which these two predictions are connected,
clearly includes his coming in the destruction of Anti
christ ; and it then proceeds :)
Just before the destruction of Antichrist, then, the gospel
must be preached in all the earth for a witness to the
world ; and then shall the end come : the end of the
wicked ages ; or of the man of sin. The chosen of God
will thus be gathered in, and others left most fully without
excuse. God's priests, blowingtheir trumpets, must thus
surround the Jericho walls in pagan lands ; that those
pagan walls may fall,- — and the people of God possess
their millennial Canaan. Such means are analogous with
the dispensations of God. Christ, to take the heathen for
his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for
his possession, informs us (Psalm ii. 8, 9), that he will
" break them with his rod of iron ; and dash them in pieces
like a potter's vessel." But will he do this, without
giving them clear and full warning ? How did God do in
the case of the old world? in the case of Sodom, and in
the case of Nineveh? We there learn the kind economy of
Heaven, in those judgments recorded. And when we read
of the battle of that great day of God Almighty, in which it
is said, " The slain of the Lord shall be, at that day, from
one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth ;"
and of the few that are left it is said, « It shall be as the

CHAPTER XIV. 251
shaking of an olive-tree, here and there one upon the out
most fruitful branches, — they shall lift up their voices and
sing for the majesty of the Lord ;" all this is thought to
imply, that the gospel will then recently have been among
them ; and its sacred fires lit up in every land ; as does
the following upon the same period — " From the uttermost
parts have we heard songs, even glory to the righteous."
Then, to the people of God in all nations, just before
the battle of that great day, will the following directions
apply : " Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth —
seek righteousness, seek meekness. It may be ye may be
hid in the day of the Lord's anger." " Watch ye, and
pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape
all those things which shall come to pass, and to stand
before the Son of man." " For as a snare shall it come
on all that dwell on the face of the whole earth." " Come,
my people, enter into thy chambers, shut thy doors about
thee ; hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the
indignation be overpast. For behold, the Lord cometh
out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for
their iniquity ; the earth also shall disclose her blood, and
shall no more cover her slain."
The dissertation then closed as follows: "Now, if
such a propagation of the gospel be clearly predicted ;
surely the blessed event ought to be known, and its ac
complishment to be made a matter of fervent prayer, by
all the friends of God."
After the reading of the voluntary ; remarks were, as
usual, called for by the moderator ; which were given to
the following effect. " The subject, sir, is to me new. I
never conceived of such a thing. I know nothing about it."
Little did I then conceive that it would be my lot to find
_ the event so near ; and that I should behold such mission-
* ary events as have now, for thirty-six years, been passing
before the eyes of the nations.
No detailed account will here be given of the missionary
operations of our day, which fulfil our text, only that they
commenced Sept. 1795, in a great meeting held in Lon
don, which was called the second Pentecost, on account
of the wonderful unanimity and missionary zeal which
pervaded and astonished the meeting ; and from which the
modern missionary enterprises commenced.
The angel in our text has not yet reached the bounds

252 LECTURE XIX.
of his destination. " Every nation, and kindred, and tongue,
and people," have not yet heard the joyful sound. But
the event has long been happily under way ; and it has
spread far in pagan lands. The heavenly fire is taking
effect, and it is spreading its sacred blaze in the four
quarters of the earth.
Behold the sublimity of the figure in our text. An
angel appears high in the region of the air. He flies in
a course to go round the world. To fallen man, with a
loud voire, he proclaims the glorious gospel. And such
is his voice, that it may be distinctly heard on the surface
of the whole earth, over which he moves. With majestic
motion he is wafted onward, on mighty wings ; and no
thing earthly can impede his course. With equal ease
he moves over earth and ocean. Mountains, seas, lakes,
huge dreary wastes, and deserts : all that obstructs weak
man, to him is nothing. He speeds his flight, till all men
hear, or might hear ; and learn the wonders of redeeming
love. Here man on earth is blessed with anew era ; with
new profusions of a Saviour's grace. Behold, lost man,
the wonderful effects. Recount them, O ye saints, with
grateful souls !
The wild Hottentot hears, listens, and leaps from his
beastly degradation. He receives the Christian heart,
and sits clothed, and in his right mind, at the feet of
Jesus. The murderous Sandwich Islander hears; and
he burns his idols, and outstrips the Christian. He
sanctifies the Sabbath ; renounces intemperance and sen
suality ; and is ready for every greater sacrifice. Savage
Americans hear ; and their bloody ferocity dies ; while
civilization and holy love elevate their souls. Who the
great Spirit is they now perceive ; and learn the living
way that leads to him. The filthy devotee of Bramah
hears, and burns his ponderous god to worship our Jeho
vah. Infidel Jews, too, hear the joyful sound. The
blinding veil, long folded round their hearts, now slides
aside ; that grace, so long rejected, now may enter, and
melt the heart of Jewish adamant. He looks on Him
whom long his sins have pierced ; he looks, and mourns
with penitential grief. Lost souls of Burmah, hear, and
turn to God ! And Ethiopia lifts up her hand to grasp the
heavenly treasure ! Such are the effects to be introduced
by the flight of this angel of missions.

CHAPTER XIV. 253
The chronology and the import of the figure in our text go
clearly to identify it with the missionary events of our day.
No antecedent . event has ever amounted to it. Present
events bid fair to equal it : and God's work will not fail
of being effectually accomplished. But the flight of this
missionary angel is not to convert the world at once, and
to introduce the millennial day. This is an event still
future of it ; and is not to be fulfilled till after the battle
of the great day of God, which is given at the close of this
chapter ; and between which, and the flight of this angel
of missions, a succession of interesting events are to occur,
as this chapter decides, and as other prophecies testify.
Our Lord gives the object of these missionary efforts ; —
the gospel must first be preached to all nations, for a wit
ness unto them ; and then shall the end (the end of the
dark and sinful ages) come. It is an event connected with
the restoration of the Jews, and preparatory to it, as has
appeared in the prophecies noted in the dissertation in
serted upon the text, and in others which might be men
tioned. In Isa. xviii., is a striking prediction of the resto
ration of the Jews. And, connected with this event, it is
said, verse 3, " All ye inhabitants of the world, and
dwellers on the earth, see ye, when hedifteth up an en
sign upon the mountains ; and when he bloweth the trum
pet, hear ye !" " All the inhabitants of the world, and
dwellers on the earth," then, must hear the call for
their attention, and see the ensign upon the mountains of
the kingdoms of the earth, and hear the blowing of the
gospel trumpet, near the time of the restoration of the
Jews. This accounts for the stroke in Rom. xi. 25 (on
the same event), relative to the blindness of Israel, which
is to last " until the fulness of the gentiles be come in !
and so all Israel shall be saved." As though he had said,
when the fulness of the gentiles, or the mass of the gen
tile nations shall have heard the gospel preached for a
witness unto them, and some in every land (as first fruits),
shall be gathered into the fold ; then, shall the ancient
people of God also be brought, and the veil shall be taken
off from their hearts. They shall then turn to the Lord,
and be grafted into their own olive-tree. All this implies
the very event predicted under the sublime figure of the
flight of the angel of missions, in our text.
This angel testifies, with the preaching of the gospel,
Y

254 LECTURE XIX.
" The hour of his judgment is come." This flight com
menced at the early part of the hour of that unprecedented
judgment of the French revolution, in 1789 ; the wars and
horrors of which terrified the world ; and which may be
viewed as a new era of judgments, which shall lead on to
the battle of the great day of God. And indeed, the battle
of the great day itself, may be said to be then, as it were,
¦within an hour ! As though the angel should say, that
great battle is now near ; and the great judgments which
lead to it, are now thundering through the nations. This
is a warning, to be given by the angel of missions, as we
learn, Joel ii. 1 ; "Blow ye the trumpet in Zioir; sound an
alarm in my holy mountains (or through the midst of the
ecclesiastical heaven, as in our text) ; let all the inhabit
ants of the land (earth) tremble for the day of the Lord,
for it is nigh at hand."
Ver. 8. And there followed another angel, saying,
Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because
she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath
of her fornication.
A second angel flies through the midst of the mystical
or ecclesiastical heaven, the church on earth, proclaiming
the fall of papal Babylon. This is an event antecedent to,
and distinct from the battle of the great day ; as that is
given in the closing part of this chapter, after the event in
this text, and after several subsequent events of great in
terest, which intervene between this proclamation of the
second angel, and that battle. The event here proclaimed
is the falling of the papal see from being a predominant
power, and thus constituting Babylon. From being such
a predominant power, it fell, when a vial of wrath was
poured upon his seat (throne), and filled his kingdom with
darkness; chap. xvi. 10. This was the event given in
chap. x. in the first general division of this prophecy ;
and in chap, xviii. in the second general division ; where
it is said, " Babylon is fallen, is fallen, and is become the
habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and
a cage of every unclean and hateful bird:" precisely as
was exhibited in France, in and after the French revolu
tion of 1789. The notice of mankind is by this second

CHAPTER XIV. 255
angel called to this event, as being a notable sign of the
times, which assures us of a train of collateral, and of
subsequent events, which will lead to amazing results,
and to the battle of the great day. This decisive battle
is manifestly future of the fall of papal Babylon in our
text; as is shown in this 14th chapter, the battle being at
the close of it; as is decided also in chap, xviii. 21;
where, after the fall of Babylon (there noted in verse 2),
we read, " And a mighty angel took up a stone, like a
great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with
violence shall the great city Babylon be thrown down,
and shall be found no more at all." Here then, after the
falling of papal Babylon from its predominant height,
and the filling of its kingdom with darkness ; as chap.
xvi. 10 ; a Babylon still exists, to be cast at a time then
future, as a millstone into the depth of the sea. This is
the power of infidelity, known as the beast from the bot
tomless pit. This beast became the, reigning Babylon,
when it rose, and hurled the papal power from its predomi
nant station. This beast, with the subordinate remains of
popery, will go into perdition at the battle of that great
day of God.
Very little practical improvement has been made in
Zion, of God's thus having taken the papal Babylon in
hand, in her fall, in the bursting out of the Voltaire sys
tem of infidelity and licentiousness, given in chap. x. and
xviii. But this fact, with its train of synchronical and
subsequent events, demands particular notice and im
provement. And a call to this is the commission of this
second angel.
The prophecies, which relate to this event, to the power
of infidelity of the last days, the beast which ascendeth
out of the bottomless pit, and goeth into perdition, are of
deep interest to the church. These things lead on a train
of amazing events. Warnings are given of them which God
will not suffer long to remain carelessly overlooked. The
warning will then be heard, and obeyed, " Come and see !"
" Come, behold the works of the Lord ; what desolations
he hath made, and is going to make in the earth !" Some
thing will call the attention of the church to these things.
The signs of the times will be noted, that due improve*
ment of them may be made.

256 LECTURE XIX.
Ver. 9. And the third angel followed them, saying
with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and
his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in
his hand,
10. The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath
of God, which is poured out without mixture into the
cup of his indignation ; and he shall be tormented
with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy
angels, and in the presence of the Lamb :
11. And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up
for ever and ever : and they have no rest day nor
night, who worship the beast and his image, and
whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.
The signs of the times, noted in the warning of the
second angel, will soon furnish a third angel with his
message ; which is to testify the impending judgments of
Heaven against all the subjects of the grand scheme of
infidelity then exposed, and of popery, which God has
thus taken in hand. It will then be clearly understood,
that the blasphemous system of the Voltaire infidelity;
and that of Jesuitism — the sinking papacy ; as well as all
the efforts of the licentiousness of the day, are of one and
the same diabolical family. And the warning voice, in
chap. xvi. 13, 14, relative to the three unclean spirits like
frogs, spirits of devils working wonders, coming from the
mouths of the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet,
going forth unto the kingdoms of all the world, to gather
them to the battle, will then come to be well understood
by the children of Zion. And the warning voice in our
text will go forth with power, calling on men to flee from
all sinful affinity with them. The call of Heaven will
now be urged upon the conscience, " Come out of her, my
people, that ye be not partakers of her sins ; and that ye
receive not of her plagues." " Ho, ho, come forth and
flee from the land of the north ; deliver thyself, 0 Zion,
that dwellest with the daughters of Babylon." And the
warning, said in the text to be with a loud voice, is
enforced with denunciations the most terrible. Let them
be re-examined, and well remembered.
Events, at the time of the flight of this third angel, will

CHAPTER-. XIV. 257
be found to be such as both to justify and demand the
special warnings here given. This will appear, if we
consult the warnings given in prophetic descriptions of
the chambers of imagery, in Ezek. viii. ; and of the same
characters of the last days, in 2 Pet. chap, ii., and iii. 1-5 ;
and in the epistle of Jude. Relative to such characters of
the last days, the words of Moses to Israel, concerning
Korah and his impious company, will come most fitly in
point ; " Depart, I pray you, from the tents of those wicked
men." Jude says of these infidels of the last days, " Wo
unto them, for they have gone in the way of Cain, and
ran greedily after the error of Balaam, and perished in
the gainsaying of Korah." And he says of the vengeance
then just ready to light on them, " Even as Sodom and
Gomorrah, and the cities about them giving themselves
over, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance
of eternal fire." This, one would think, is the parent pas
sage of the warning in our text, given relative to the same
impious characters of the last days.
Most happy is every new appearance of Christ on his
earthly Mount Zion. That on the day of Pentecost ; that
in the revolution in the Roman empire from paganism to
Christianity ; that in the subsequent season of peace in the
empire, when 144,000 were said to be sealed in iheir fore
heads for salvation ; that in the first verse of this chapter.
The sealing times of the present age, especially in our
States, have been rich and wonderful. We behold in them
a degree of a glorious fulfilment of the following ancient
promise, relative to this very day, " When the enemy shall
come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up his
standard against them." This is an event most cheering
to the children of God, — confounding to the enemy ; and
which baffles the confident calculations of Antichrist.
Even the papal power, towering for many centuries among
the stars, and exulting, " I sit a queen, and know no sor
row ;" when the Lamb lof God appears on his mount
Zion in the Reformation, — must leave its zenith, and com
mence its fatal plunge. When violent persecutors, like
Saul of Tarsus, are smitten to the ground, and turned to
support the gospel which they had laboured to destroy ;
the enemy are deeply troubled at such appearances of
Christ on his mount Zion ! Such, 0 Zion, is the Captain
of your salvation.
' Y2

258 lecture xrx.
Let the faith of the present Christian church be invig
orated by the testimony borne from heaven to the cor
rectness of the doctrines and order of the Reformation ;
" These are they that follow the Lamb whithersoever he
goeth!" " They are virgins. They are without fault before
the throne of God !" In these days of error, when many
will not endure sound doctrine ; but, after their own lusts,
heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears, and turn
away their ears from the truth, and are turned unto fables ;
let us abide closely by the doctrines of the Reformation
thus divinely sanctioned. Let us inquire for the old way,
the good path, and walk therein. The command is now
of deep interest ; " that ye contend earnestly for the faith
once delivered to the saints. For there are men crept in
unawares, — turning the grace of God (the doctrines of
grace) into lasciviousness."
This generation have seen the fall of papal Babylon from
her predominant height, in which she had reigned over the
kings of the earth. The throne of that kingdom has been
overturned, and filled with darkness. And though it is
struggling, and the dying throes of the monster may
wound some of the people of God ; yet its certain fall, its
descent to the burning lake, is infallible. These things
mark a most interesting period to Zion. Papal Babylon
is already fallen, and is falling ; and the events connected
with the incipient stages of its fall, are now visible before
the eyes of the nations.
Blessed be God that we live to see the flight of the
angel of missions. May our prayers and alms pursue the
heavenly object. Wo will be to all, to whom the follow
ing warning from heaven applies: "Curse ye Meroz,
saith the angel of the Lord ; Curse ye bitterly the inha
bitants thereof; because they came not to the help of the
Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty."
Behold the following wonderful providence of Him who
came to destroy the works of the devil ! Just as the blas
phemous plan of Voltaire seemed triumphant as being about
to banish the gospel from the earth ; the angel of missions
starts from heaven to go round the world, to proclaim this
blessed cause to every nation and tongue. Most easily
can our Lord confound Satan and his prime instruments.
At the very period marked out for its ruin, the cause of
salvation arises from its depression, like the healed cripple

CHAPTER XIV. 259
at the gate of the temple, made perfectly whole ; — walking,
leaping, praising God, and spreading its triumphant wings
to the ends of the earth. The same press which the
arch- atheist Voltaire had employed, at Fernay, to fill his
regions with blasphemy, became happily employed in dis
seminating the word of life in those same regions. And
the hint was taken from the subtle plan of Voltaire and
the devil, relative to filling the world with cheap blasphem
ous tracts, to spread over the world tracts of gospel truth
and salvation, after Voltaire had gone to his own place !
Your ark, O Zion, will outride the storm ; while the
antichristian world will sink in the deluge of eternal
wrath. Such is the evidence which attends the divinity of
the ancient prophecies ; — and hence of the whole word of
God in view of the signs of the times of the present day.

LECTURE XX.

REVELATION XIV.

Ver. 12. Here is the patience of the saints ; here
are they that keep the commandments of God, and
the faith of Jesus.
13. And 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.
In the preceding verses, solemn warnings were given
against all affinity with the antichristian systems of the
day. This, as mighthave been expected from the depravity
of the human heart, wakes up the ire and reaction implied
in the text, which try the patience and faith of the people
of God ; insomuch that a great voice from heaven testi
fies, that blessed are the dead who have died in the Lord ;

260 xicture xx,
they being now out of the reach of persecution. This
general assertion is true in all ages. But it is designed
to have a chronological and peculiar application here;
" from henceforth ;" or from the commencement of these
trying days. The truth of these perils of the times is
further enforced by what follows, — the appearance of
Christ on a white cloud with his sharp weapon of indig
nation, reaping his harvest and gathering his vine of the
earth. These sacred passages imply the terrors of the
times, as do other prophecies relative to the same period :
such as the bitterness of the little book, Rev. x. ; the
slaying of the witnesses, chap. xi. ; the three unclean
spirits collecting the world to the final battle, chap. xvi. ;
and various other predictions of the same. There is some
thing natural in this trial of the people of God implied at
that time. The wicked hate and contend with their re
provers, which has been a great cause of the persecutions
of the church in past ages. " The world hateth me,
because I testify of it that the deeds thereof are evil." " I
hate him (said Ahab of the pious Micaiah), for he never
prophesieth good of me ; but evil." " They hate him
that rebuketh in the gates." And when the wicked pre
dominant powers of Antichrist shall find themselves
reproved, as is predicted of the second and third angels,
in the last lecture, and especially the third, — so emphati
cally thundering the eternal fire of God's wrath against all
who have the mark of the beast, orof his image; they would
of course become outrageous. And, when supported by
numbers and influence, and by hosts of false teachers ;
their rage may be expected to become formidable and
bloody. And God only knows what they may be led to
undertake, and to effect. The fulfilment will, in due
time, give the true comment upon the passages.
Ver. 14. And I looked, and behold a white cloud,
and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man,
having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand
a sharp sickle.
15. And another angel came out of the temple,
crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the
cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap : for the time
is come for thee to reap : for the harvest of the earth
is ripe.

CHAPTER XIV. 261
16.: And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his
sickle on the earth ; and the earth was reaped.
17. And another angel came out of the temple
which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle.
18. And another angel came out from the altar,
which had power over fire : and cried with a loud
cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust
in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine
of the earth ; for her grapes are fully ripe.
19. And the ange] thrust in his sickle into the
earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it
into the great wine-press of the wrath of God.
20. And the wine-press was trodden without the
city, and blood came out of the wine-press, even
unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand
and six hundred furlongs.
All this confirms the solemn indications noted in the
preceding verses. Such rage of the enemy against the
church, soon brings down the Captain of her salvation,
armed for judgment, to examine the contest, and to give to
it such a turn and decision, as his word, his cause, and
his faithfulness may require. When Zion is in trouble,
her King is near. " I will not leave you comfortless ; I
will come unto you." " I will be a wall of fire round
about." " In that day sing unto her, a vineyard of red
wine ; I the Lord do keep it. I will water it every mo
ment. Lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day."
Jesus Christ now comes on his white cloud of victory
and triumph, having on his head his golden crown, as
about to vindicate his kingdom. He holds in his hand his
implement for the collection of his harvest and vintage ;
and this implement is noted as " sharp." He comes fully
prepared for his work, as King of kings, and Lord of
lords. His enemies, through antichristian lands, having
been long treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath, — ¦
their measure will now be found to be full. By new efforts
of deadly malignity, it will be found that they will have
given the finishing touch to their meetness for perdition !
The volcano, it will appear, has long been ready to burst.
And now its breaking forth will come suddenly as in a
moment, and the double figure of the harvest and the vin-

262

LECTURE XX.

tage uniting, will give to. the event its long predicted
" decision," fatal to all the camps of the contending foe.
•Our text is one of the predictions of the battle of that
great day of God Almighty. It alludes to several of
the ancient predictions of that day : particularly to the
fatal treading of the wine-press, in Isai. lxiii. 1-6, and to
the decisive harvest and vintage of the same event, in Joel
iii. 1, 2, 9-17. In the process of this final decisive scene,
we find something in the agencies employed very inter
esting. After the description of the Son of man on his
white cloud, it is said, "And another angel came out of
the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the
cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap : for the time is come
for thee to reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe."
Who can this angel be, directing Christ to his work of
judgment? Did we ever find an angel in heaven thus
employed ? They fly in swift obedience to Christ : but
do they ever undertake to direct him ? Surely not ! The
language of this text must be the language of prayer;
showing that Christ accomplishes this work of judgment
in answer to prayer. But whose prayer ? — that of angels,
or of saints on earth ? Surely the latter, as may be shown.
This angel then, who calls on Christ to thrust in his sword,
and reap, must be a representation of Zion, imploring by
her gospel ministry, and members. The seven epistles to
the seven churches are addressed to the angel (the minis
try) of each church. And the angel whom John was
about mistakingly to worship, speaks of himself as one
of his fellow-servants, the prophets. In Rev. xv. 7, one
of the symbols of the gospel ministry is presented as giving
into the hands of the seven angels their seven vials of
wrath ; of which the judgment in our text is one, and the
last. That fact gives a clew to the business of the angel
in this text. The plain sense, no doubt, is this ; (which
fully accords with the whole Bible) that at the awful crisis
under consideration, Zion, led by her gospel ministry, will
pour her addresses into the ear of this same Saviour, pre
sented on the white cloud ; — even as Moses, at the Red
Sea, in the height of that distress (which was a type of
the very scene of distress in our text), " cried unto the
Lord" for help. Jesus Christ now dashes the powers
of Antichrist, as with his rod of iron, in answer to the
prayers of the saints. He does, accordingly, in this very

CHAPTER XIV. 263
book, represent the saints as doing this very work of judg
ment. Rev. ii. 26, 27 ; " He that overcometh, to him will
I give power over the nations. And he shall rule them
with a rod of iron ; as the vessels of a potter shall they
be broken in shivers ; even as I received of my Father."
Here is the very event in our text ; and it is noted as being
done by saints. It is done by Christ at the prayers of the
saints. This therefore explains the figure of a messenger
from the temple, saying to Christ, " Thrust in thy sickle."
The dangers of the times will then urge the ministers and
people of God to most importunate prayers ; such as the
following : — " Is it not time, Lord, for thee to work, for
men have made void thy law?" "Let God arise ; let his
enemies be scattered ; let them that hate him flee before
him ! As smoke is driven away ; so drive them away.
As wax melteth before the fire ; so let the wicked perish
at the presence of the Lord." These, and similar prayers,
Inspiration puts into the mouth of the saints at just such a
time and occasion as in the text. And they perfectly
accord with the prayer of the symbolic messenger in our
text; "Thrust in thy sickle and reap; for the time is come
for thee to reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe."
Zion will then urgently cry for deliverance, which Christ
will give in the battle of that great day of God, in our text.
This explanation of the request of the symbolic angel
under consideration, receives further confirmation from the
fact, that that, and other works of judgment upon the ene
mies of Zion, are repeatedly ascribed to the people of
God. Thus the two witnesses have power to shut heaven
" that it rain not in the days of their prophecies ; and to
smite the earth with all plagues, as oft as they will."
The psalmist says of the saints, " Let the high praises of
God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their
hand, to execute vengeance upon the heathen, and punish
ments upon the people : to bind their kings with chains,
and their nobles with fetters of iron ; to execute upon them
the judgment written : this honour have all the saints."
Certainly then, in so great an extremity, as the church
will be in our text, we might expect some special notice
would be given of this her power with God against her
enemies ; alluding to the power of her prayers when in the
depth of affliction from the rage of Antichrist, — beseeching

264 LECTURE XX.
Christ to fulfil his word, in pleading his own cause.
" Shall not God avenge his own elect, who cry unto him
day and night, though he bear long with them ? I tell you
(says our Saviour) he will avenge them speedily." This
language, as explanatory of our text, is abundant in the
word of God. " When the Lord shall build up Zion, he
will appear in his glory : he will regard the prayer of the
destitute, and not despise their prayer."
In answer to this request, Christ thrusts in his sickle,
and the earth is reaped. Another angel is then presented
with a sharp sickle, who is probably an instrument of
judgment. God performs his works of judgment by the
ministry of angels. He did thus of old, and probably will
do it in the battle of that great day. In the cups of wrath,
the seventh angel pours out his vial, to produce the very
scene under consideration. The hosts of angels are in
other prophetic descriptions of this very scene, represented
as being present ; " And all the armies of heaven followed
him (Christ) upon white horses." Of the same it is again
said, " Thousands thousands ministered unto him ; and
ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him."
" Thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Lord."
Another angel comes from the altar having power over
fire, and directs his angelic associate to thrust in his sharp
sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth,
with her grapes fully ripe. The deed is done. How far
the element of literal fire may be made to have a terrible
agency in the events of that day, when the cities of the
nations shall fall ; time alone will decide. That one of
the angelic instruments of the terrors of that day should
be said to appear, " having power over fire," may indicate
fatal conflagrations in antichristian cities. Whether this
will be the case, or not, — Inspiration says of the rage of
that day, " The fire of thine enemies shall devour them."
The wine-press is now trodden ; and behold the extensive
effect. Blood flows forth as high as the horses' bridles,
for the space of two hundred miles. This is a figure ; but
one of amazing import. See blood flowing from a centre
of destruction, and filling a region of two hundred miles ;
and as high as horses usually carry their heads. This
would be a sea of blood indeed.
This treading of the wine-press is " without the city."

CHAPTER XIV. 265
Or, the commencement of the battle of that great day of
God, is somewhere out of the bounds of the old Roman
earth. It is not to be finished there : no, the regions of
Antichrist (properly so called) will not thus escape. The
infinite terror will roll through every antichristian land.
All that belong to the beast, or have his mark, shall sink.
All that partake of his sins shall receive of his plagues.
But the tremendous scene commences "without the city."
Some general motive will lead the hostile powers of the
day to concentrate their forces in some region " without the
city" of the old Roman world, or papal territories. And
to this the prophecies do expressly agree. Various of
them present Palestine as the seat of this event in its first
opening. In Joel iii. 1, 2, 12 (which is the parent text of
the harvest and the vintage explained), the scene is a
gathering of all nations to the valley of Jehoshaphat, when
God shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusa
lem. The same is expressly decided in the 38th and
39th chapters of Ezekiel. There Gog and his bands
perish in an expedition against God's ancient people,
restored from all nations to the land of their fathers. In
Zech. xii. 2, 3, and xiv. 1-3, we have the same. The
gathering of all nations is at Jerusalem. In Rev. xvi. 16
is the same : they are gathered to Armageddon. These
passages may have also a mystical import. But we have
no right to exclude from them all (if from any) a literal
import. The two hundred miles' length of the sea of
blood to be shed, may be designed to be bounded by the
two hundred miles' length of the Holy Land. And the
figure seems well to accord with the description in Ezek.
xxxviii. and xxxix, of the slaughter of Gog and his bands
upon the mountains of Israel.
But wherever the battle (the harvest, the vintage)
commences, it will not fail to sweep over the antichristian
world. Jeremiah assures us, "The slain of the Lord
shall be at that day, from one end of the earth even unto
the other end of the earth." In Zeph. God says, "I will
gather the nations, and assemble the kingdoms, to pour
upon them mine indignation, even all my fierce anger ; for
all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my
jealousy." In Isaiah the scene is abundantly given, as
having a general and most fatal extent. " The destruc
tion of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be
Z

266 LECTURE XX.
together." " He shall smite the earth with the rod of his
mouth ; and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the
wicked." " I will punish the world for their evil, and the
wicked for their iniquity ; and will cause the arrogancy of
the proud to cease." " The nations shall rush like the
rushing of mighty waters : but God shall rebuke them,
and they shall flee far off,— and shall be chased as the
chaff of the mountains." " Behold, the Lord maketh the
earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside
down." "The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants
thereof." " Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth ;
and they that dwell therein are desolate ; the inhabitants
of the earth are burned, and few men left." " For behold,
the Lord cometh forth out of his place to punish the inhabit
ants of the world for their iniquity : the earth also shall
disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain."
" Now therefore be ye not mockers, lest your bands be made
strong, for I have heard from the Lord of hosts a con
sumption determined upon the whole earth." " Behold,
the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and
fierce anger, to lay the earth desolate, and to destroy the
sinners thereof out of it." These are a few of the many
denunciations in this sublime prophecy which all relate
to the same period and event ; and which give it a most
general and decisive effect. The shorter prophets abound
with the same event, and give it as no less general and
fatal to all the hostile enemies of God. One passage
more from the Old Testament shall be given as a speci
men for many. The last chapter of it commences thus :
" For behold the day cometh that shall burn as an oven ;
and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be
as stubble ; and that day that cometh shall burn them up,
saith the Lord, and shall leave them neither root nor
branch. But unto you that fear my name, shall the Sun
of righteousness arise with healing in his wings ; and ye
shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall. And ye
shall tread down the wicked, and they shall be as ashes
under the soles of your feet, in the day that I shall do this,
saith the Lord of hosts." The event in our text is the
same with that under the seventh trumpet; with that
under the seventh vial ; with the going into perdition of
the beast from the bottomless pit; with the sinking of
mystical Babylon like a millstone into the depth of the sea,

CHAPTER XIV. 267
never to rise ; and the destruction of the beast, and false
prophet, with the kings of the earth, — being cast into the
lake of fire ; Rev. xix. 20. Thus we have the scene of the
Son of man upon the white cloud ; the harvest and vint
age ; the battle of that great day of God, towards which
the world is tending, and into which the affairs of the
nations are now fast ripening.
May the people of God be prepared for whatever shall
occur to try their faith and patience. These graces have
fiery trials yet to pass, before the millennial sun will smile
upon the earth. The people of God who may then live,
will have a signal opportunity to glorify our Lord Jesus
Christ, and to brighten their eternal crown. May all
professed followers of the Lamb, when those days shall
be found approaching, watch ; stand fast in the faith ; quit
themselves like men ; and be strong. Let them take to
themselves the whole armour of God, that they may be
able to stand in the evil day.
And let those who, when the days of trial shall be found
Tolling on and coming near, shall find themselves arrested
by some fatal harbinger of mortality, and about to die, after
a life of faith, joyfully recollect the testimony borne by the
great voice from heaven, relative to that day, that " blessed
are the dead that die in the Lord from henceforth ;" or
when that period commences. "Yea, saith the Spirit,
that they may rest from their labours ; and their works do
follow them."

LECTURE XXI

REVELATION XV.

Ver. 1. And I saw another sign in heaven, great
and marvellous, — seven angels having the seven last
plagues : for in them is filled up the wrath of God.
This chapter is an introduction to the seven vials, the
period of which is synchronical with the events of the
preceding chap. xiv. Both traverse the period from the
time of the Reformation, early in the sixteenth century,
to the Millennium ; each closing in the battle of the great
day. The sign, in the text, great and marvellous, marks a
new era in the state of the man of sin, as his downfall
here commences. These seven vials, each in the hand
of an angel, are the seven last plagues, containing the ful
ness of the temporal judgments, in which God would sweep
Antichrist from the earth, and clear the way for his own
kingdom of salvation. But before entering on these
scenes of judgment ; the minds of the saints are first to be
prepared by having a glance of the glorious things which
should follow this succession of judgments ; and should
be in a measure anticipated, and enjoyed by faith, even
during these judgments, by the true people of God. This
is the soothing course, which had by the Spirit of Grace
been pursued in this book ; first fortifying the minds of
the church, when terrible things were opening before
them,— with the glory that should follow, and the faithful
ness of God which should attend.
Ver. 2. And I saw as it were a sea of glass
mingled with fire ; and them that had gotten the
victory over the beast, and over his image, and over

CHAPTER XV. 269
his mark, and over the number of his name, stand
on the sea of glass, having the harps of God.
The sea of glass was shown, in Lecture V, on chap.
iv. 6, to be expressed in allusion to the great brazen sea
in the ancient temple, which was a type of gospel grace,
of the fountain opened for washing from sin. That ves
sel was called a sea, on account of its great capacity. It
was prepared for the ceremonial cleansings of the priests.
And the fountain of gospel grace is prepared for the true
spiritual cleansing of them that are kings and priests unto
God. This sea is Christ, and all his means of salvation.
These, under the Old Testament, were seen but darkly;
but in the New Testament they are seen with great clears
ness. And this far greater clearness is denoted by the
basin of our great gospel sea of grace being composed of
pure transparent glass; instead of being brazen, as of old.
This is now large enough for all the true people of God :
its brims wide, and firm enough for their conveniently
standing upon it : and its form, in the' figure, is such as to
reflect the rays from the sun which fall upon it, like a
prism, giving those rays in their different shades, perhaps
from the red to the violet ; thus giving it the appearance
of being mingled with fire. Here is the washing apparatus of
divine grace. The fire of divine justice is indeed reflected
in it, in the death of Christ. And all the milder and softer
rays of light and grace are also reflected from this sea of
divine love, to those who find their standing upon it.
This standing upon the sea of salvation will be especially
notable, and uninterrupted after the vials of divine indig
nation shall be accomplished, and the millennial sun shall
be found rising. Though the event here stands before
the vials ; yet its true chronological order is after them ;
that subsequent state being here taken by anticipation, to
relieve and fortify the minds of the people of God. In the
Millennium, the church, having overcome, may live on her
sea of glass ; or be in a sense fixed as pillars in the tem
ple of God, to go no more out. And their harps of God
are an emhlem of their devout songs of praises to God for
his judgments, and for all the wonders of his grace. All
the sacred descriptions of their blessedness, in that golden
age of the reign of grace, give the true comment upon the
blessedness in the text.
Z2

270 LECTURE XXI.
Ver. 3. And they sing the song of Moses the ser
vant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great
and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty :
just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints.
4. Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify
thy name ? for thou only art holy : for all nations
shall come and worship before thee ; for thy judg
ments are made manifest.
This is to be the song of the church immediately after
the battle of that great day of God. We have here their
first employment in their song of praise to God for his
judgments in that battle ; and the certainty that all na
tions, the remnant left on earth, shall now speedily come and
unite in the salvation of Zion. The song is that of Moses,
and of the Lamb ; which suggests, that the scenes of judg
ments then just finished, are but the antitype of the scene at
the Red Sea. Hence the song of Moses, and the pious in
Israel, on the eastern bank of the Red Sea, in view of the
destruction of the Egyptians, will be again now celebrated,
upon the fulfilment of what was typified by the ruin of the
enemy, and the deliverance of Israel there ; and upon the
view of the glories of the Lamb now renewedly unfolded.
This scene, the last vial, is now future ; but will in due
time be accomplished, to the glory of the Redeemer, in the
salvation of his people.
Ver. 5. And after that, I looked, and, behold, the
temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven
was opened.
6. And the seven angels came out of the temple,
having the seven plagues, clothed in pure and white
linen, and having their breasts girded with golden
girdles. The information here, that " the temple of the taberna
cle of the testimony in heaven was opened," to present
the scene of the vials, is of deep interest. The great
sacred tent pitched by divine order in the camp of Israel
in the wilderness, was to them instead of a temple, and
afterward gave way to the temple. This was called

CHAPTER XV. 271
" the tabernacle of testimony" (Exod. ix. 15) ; because
it stood for a continual testimony of the gracious presence
and watchful eye of the Almighty over his people ; as
well as for an emblem of the body of Christ, afterward to
be assumed ; and an emblem of the Christian church. It
was of old recorded that " the cloud covered it ; and, at
even, there was upon it as it were the appearance of fire,
until the morning. So it was alway : the cloud covered
it by day, and the appearance of fire by night." The
people of God had here, full in their sight, a manifestation
of the gracious presence and care of Jehovah with his
people. And the circumstance of the temple, — the taber
nacle of testimony, — being open in our text, and the angels
of judgment proceeding from it, is to assure us, that this
new series of judgments on the enemies of Zion is in full
token of God's gracious presence with his people, and
from covenant faithfulness to them. He will thus show
that " Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and her
converts with righteousness." And we here again learn
that the judgments of the vials are inflicted by the ministry
of angels, the guardian spirits of the heirs of salvation.
Their white dress is an emblem of their purity ; their
golden girdles, of their pure and holy love.
Ver. 7. And one of the four beasts gave unto the
seven angels seven golden vials, full of the wrath of
God, who liveth for ever and ever.
We are filled with admiration at the honour God puts
upon the prayers and agency of his ministers and people.
To hear the symbolic angel say to Christ on his white
cloud, " Thrust in thy sickle, and reap," as in the last
lecture. To hear what power of judgments is ascribed
to the witnesses, Rev. xi. 5, 6 ; to the saints, in Psalm
cxlix. ; and that he that overcometh shall rule all nations of
enemies with a rod of iron ; here is an honour done to the
prayers of the saints, indeed wonderful. We are prepared,
then, to hear in our text, that one of the emblems of the
gospel ministry gives the seven cups of divine wrath into
the hands of the seven angels of judgment, to pour them
out upon the enemies of God. Christ truly is head over
all things to the church, and for her salvation. For this

272 LECTURE XXI.
he governs the world; and he says to his people, "For all
things are yours." " Call upon me in the day of trouble,
and I will deliver thee." And he adds, " Awake, awake,
put on strength, O arm of the Lord ; awake as in the
generation of old ; art thou not it that hath cut Rahab, and
wounded the dragon ?" To his ministers he says, " Lo,
I am with you always, even unto the end of the world."
And, in our text, Christ gives them the astonishing honour
of delivering into the hands of the seven angels of judg
ment, the cups of the seven last plagues. This must
allude to their official vigilance and prayers for the salva
tion of Zion, at the period alluded to. The judgments
will take place in answer to the prayers and groans of
the church, led by her ministers.
We find something very similar to this, and perhaps it
is the parent text on which this rests, in Jer. xxv. 1 5-33.
God here commands the prophet to " take the wine cup
of his fury from his hand, and to cause all nations to drink
of it " And in the same sacred passage we learn, that
whatever judgments might here have been primarily in
cluded, the whole ultimately refers to the battle of that
great day of God, accomplished in the seventh vial. For
God here says, " The Lord shall roar on high, and utter
his voice from his holy habitation : he shall mightily
roar upon his habitation : he shall give a shout, as
they that tread the grapes, against all the inhabitants of
the earth. A noise shall come even to the ends of the
earth ; for the Lord hath a controversy with the nations ;
and will plead with all flesh : he will give them that are
wicked to the sword. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Be
hold, evil shall go forth from nation to nation ; and a great
whirlwind shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth.
And the slain of the Lord shall be, at that day, from one
end of the earth, even unto the other end of the earth ;
they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried ;
they shall be dung upon the ground." This is said of " all
the kingdoms of the world, which are upon the face of
the earth," as verse 26. " And this cup of wrath (the vials
are cups of wrath), this wine cup of the fury at God's
hand," the prophet should take, and cause all nations to
drink of it ; and they should be " drunken, and fall, and
rise no more, because of the sword which God will send
among them." We have here the same figure with the

CHAPTER XVI. 273
one in our text. God's minister takes the cup (vial) of
divine wrath from the hands of the Almighty, and delivers
it to some agent, to be executed upon the nations of his
enemies. Such honour the ambassadors of Christ never
would have assumed. But, as God confers it upon them,
they have no right to decline it, nor others to disbelieve it.
It is God's sovereign pleasure and decision.
Ver. 8. And the temple was filled with smoke
from the glory of God, and from his power ; and no
man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven
plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.
This may be only a filling up of the figure. It may
have some allusion to the ancient cloud by day, and fire
by night, over the camp of Israel. God says of that
period, he will create upon his people a cloud by day,
and a flaming fire by night ; and upon the glory shall be a
defence. REVELATION XVI.
Ver. 1. And I heard a great voice out of the
temple, saying to the seven angels, Go your ways
and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the
earth. A cup (the same as the vial in the text) is a figure much
used in the word of God to denote a portion, good or bad.
" In the hand of the Lord is a cup, and the wine is red ; it
is full of mixture ; and he poureth out of the same ; but
the dregs thereof, all the wicked of the earth shall wring
them out, and drink them." " Upon the wicked God shall
rain fire and brimstone, and a horrible tempest : this shall
be the portion of their cup." The seven vials are seven
select portions of divine judgments, in the last days.
Relative to the events designed by the vials, the follow
ing has been a noted scheme, but a very unsatisfactory
one : viz. That the first, inflicting a grievous sore upon
the people of the papal earth, was fulfilled in the ninth
century, in contentions between the popes and the empe
rors of Germany relative to power. The second, poured
upon the sea, and turning it to blood, was fulfilled in the

274 LECTURE XXI.
crusades of the eleventh and twelfth centuries. That the
third, poured upon the rivers and fountains of water, and
turning them to blood, was fulfilled in the persecutions
of the Albigenses in the valleys of Piedmont, and in the
quarrels between the ecclesiastical and the civil powers,
concerning the right of investitures. That the fourth,
poured upon the sun, was fulfilled in the rivalships of
different popes, in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
That the fifth, poured upon the seat of the beast, and
filling his kingdom with darkness, was fulfilled in the
events of the Reformation, by the instrumentality of Luther
and others. That the sixth, drying the river Euphrates,
was fulfilled in the drying up of the sources of papal
wealth and power, after the Reformation. And the seventh,
poured into the air, is to be fulfilled in the final destruction
of popery, and all antichristian powers.
With this scheme there is an entire dissatisfaction.
The vials are " the seven last plagues." Could they,
then, have commenced in the ninth century? If they did,
they were the first, instead of the last plagues on the man
of sin : and they were taking place while he was rising into
power, and while he continued in his highest glory. This
cannot be. Most of those events are destitute of the
least appearance of their having been the last plagues.
They were only such events as must have been expected
to take place during the rise of the Man of Sin. And
those events, at least the first four of them, do not, in any
fit sense, accord with the imagery of the vials. This old
scheme, then, cannot be correct.
One noted writer, feeling the impropriety of this scheme
of the vials, leaps to the opposite extreme, and imagines
there was no vial of wrath on the papal earth till the
French revolution of 1789 ; and then, five of the vials, he
imagines, were fulfilled almost at the same time, in that
event, and its consequent terrors : and a still later writer
seems to be of the same opinion. Let their scheme and
mine be compared, and let the reader judge. A series of
judgments had in fact been bringing down the papal see
for some centuries before that revolution in France, and
were precisely such events as appear to have been
predicted in the first four vials. Why should these
be excluded from a place among the vials of wrath upon
popery? The vials were designed to bring down the

CHAPTER XVI. 275
papal power after it had reached its greatest height ; and
the two last of them were designed at least to include
other enemies of the Christ, besides the papal see ; as
will be shown. As popery was revelling in its highest
zenith of impious glory ; the voice in the text is heard,
ordering the commencement of this series of judgments.
And it then follows : —
Vial I.
Ver. 2. And the first went, and poured out his
vial upon the earth ; and there fell a noisome and
grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of
the beast, and upon them which worshipped his
image. The earth, in this text, must mean the Roman or papal
earth. The papal beast rose out of the earth, — the earthly
and carnal views of Romish Christians. And it must here
allude to the same corrupt system. This is evident, in
that the effect of this cup of wrath was upon the men who
had the mark of the beast, and worshipped his image ;
who belonged to the papal beast ; and whose religion was
but an imitation of paganism, under the Christian name.
Upon this people, there fell " a grievous ulcer." (Ulkos,
an ulcer.) To learn what was the event here fulfilled, we
must inquire what was the first capital event which com
menced the downfall of popery, from the zenith of its
glory ? This clew appears infallible. And who needs to
be informed that this first step was the unfolding of the
rottenness of the system of the papal church, which dis
covery produced the Reformation early in the sixteenth
century ? This was, indeed, a fatal stroke, and the first
given to that most wicked power. It was a death-wound
inflicted on the body of the Man of Sin. Till now, he
appeared in his highest glory, — felt superior to all danger,
— and bade defiance to all opposition ; as was manifest in
his extravagant claims and insolence, and the vast reve
nues from the sales of licenses to sin to any degree. This
scandalous blasphemy of Leo X. opened the eyes of Mar
tin Luther ; excited his zeal against ,a system so horrid
and facilitated his exposure of the filthy ulcer of the whole
papal system. And most fitly was this event represented

276 LECTURE XXI.
in the text, as the falling of a noisome grievous ulcer upon
the people of that corrupt system. It showed the whole
to be but a great filthy sore. And at the same time it
operated as a deadly sore from a wound now inflicted on
the Man of Sin. All his applications, to effect a cure by
the skill and intrigues of the Jesuits, and by other means,
proved ineffectual. Large portions of the papal earth now
learned the deep and fatal corruptions of the papal system,
and fell off, as shall be shown. This was a sore indeed ;
and has issued in the death of the papal beast, as a beast,
or predominant power. The art of printing, (invented
eighty years before), and the revival of learning in Europe,
after the horrors of the dark ages, aided the Reformers, in
presenting popery to view as a filthy and fatal ulcer on a
human body ; instead of being the holy church of Christ,
as had been claimed. And the figure in our text is most
happy, in predicting this event. It fully accords with pro
phetic language in similar cases. See Isa. i., where a very
corrupt state of the Jewish church is thus described :
" From the sole of the foot, to the head, there is no sound
ness ; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores." In
the papal system was the same abomination, only to a far
more fatal degree than had ever existed before in any
community. And to unfold this, was such a step as might
be expected to commence the downfall of popery. A beam
of light was let into the dark recess ; or a long conceal
ment was taken off from the blasphemous system, which
had been hid from the world of people under the most
sanctimonious pretences. Were a magistrate about to put
an end to some scene of wickedness long operating behind
a curtained concealment, how would he commence the
business? Would he not, after preparing to seize the
guilty actors, and after having silently presented himself
by the side of the guilty apartment, — draw aside the cur
tain which screened them ? Then the way would be pre
pared to take them, and bring them to justice. This
drawing of the curtain was the most fit operation of the
first vial, though under a somewhat different figure ; the
effect is the same. And the way was thus prepared for
subsequent judgments. Here is a nest of vipers concealed
under a stone : you set forth to destroy them ; and after
due preparation, you first turn off the stone, which covers
them ; and then the way is prepared for their destruction.

CHAPTER XVI. 277
When God is determined to destroy the blind confidence
of a sinner, he lets a ray of light into his, conscience, and
convinces him of sin. In the process of the final judg
ment, the light of truth will shine clearly into impenitent
souls ; refuges of lies will thus be swept away, and the
way be prepared for the punishment which is to follow.
In a degree similar to this, was the process which God
saw fit to take with the Man of Sin, when the time arrived
for the commencement of the vials of his wrath upon that
power. Such a discovery of the hateful abomination of
that system, was the effect of the first vial. And its lan
guage is most appropriate and forcible, that the people,
now to be exposed, should be represented as consuming
with a great filthy fatal sore ; — the very figure adopted by
Inspiration to denote a system of hypocrisy. Isa. i. 6.
As the responsibility of the scheme which I shall pre
sent, of the first five of the vials, rests on me as the first
who has beat this trackless way; I must be indulged the
liberty of being more particular in exhibiting my reasons
for adopting and presenting this scheme, and in vindicating
the correctness of it. It is an historical fact, that the papal
system continued in its highest elevation till early in the
sixteenth century; — that then it experienced a fatal re
verse ; that it has ever since been sinking under a succes
sion of divine judgments; — that the sixteenth century
opened with events great and portentous to the papal see,
and to mankind ; — that a new era of affairs did indeed then
commence. The fanatical crusades, which had been per
formed to the Holy Land, had tended much to the confirm
ing of the papal power. They had given to the pope the
management of the donations, legacies, and revenues,
poured forth for the support of those wars. Nothing could
better have served his purpose, and rendered his influence
supreme and absolute. He had the control of all those
crusades. And yet those same wars served to cause light
, to arise upon the dark ages. The multitudes of ignorant
beings who travelled abroad in those wars, and came to
the knowledge of improvements, — in Constantinople, and
other places, which they never before dreamed of, brought
home with them new ideas of the world, and of the bene
fits of civilization. They communicated their ideas to
others, and a spirit of emulation and improvement began
to arise. Civil government soon took the place of the
A a

278 LECTURE XXI;
anarchy of the feudal times. Contentious barons perished
in those expeditions, and their arbitrary possessions fell
into the hands of better men ; and the terrors of the feudal
ages began to give way to a better state of things. Com
merce forced itself into view, from the necessity of supply
ing the wants of the hosts of the crusades, in different and
distant regions. Light in the art of civil government in
creased ; and towns, with incorporated privileges, became
extensively established in the north of Europe. The
chivalry of those days (designed to maintain valour, hu
manity, justice, honour, courtesy'; — and to redress the
oppressed) operated as a means of refinement, and of
benefit to mankind in that twilight, after a long night of
ignorance. And, after the taking of Constantinople by the
Turks, in 1453, many of its inhabitants fled, with their
literature and books, to the west, and aided in the revival
of learning. These things prepared the way for the six
teenth century to open with a certain prospect of new and
better times for Zion ; and of terrible things for popery.
Cotton Mather, speaking upon that period, says, " Three
most remarkable things, bearing a great aspect on human
affairs, then took place. 1. The resurrection of literature.
2. The opening of America. 3. The Reformation."
Whether the vials commenced then, or not ; it is a fact,
that at the very period of the Reformation, the intellectual
and civil improvements of the people of Europe had pre
pared the way most remarkably for the overthrow of
popery to commence its operations, and to take from the
eyes of mankind the bandages of superstition and delusion,
with which they had so long been blindfolded. This blind
fold was then in fact taken from the eyes of millions !
With these approaches towards light and civilization,
there came forward also a systematic jireparation for war.
Standing armies were formed ; and men were trained to
the use of firearms, and the arts of war. Charles the
Second, king of France, took the lead ; and a door was
opened for desolating wars. The idea of the balance of
power, for the mutual safety of the nations of Europe, was
formed ; which, in after days, furnished ample employment
to those nations in scenes of blood and terror. The art
of war with fire-arms, became now a study ; and many
became adepts in it. Gunpowder and firearms had not
long before been invented, — refined means for a new era

CHAPTER XVI. 279
of judgments ! Great generals too, and emperors, were
raised up ; and most ambitious rivals came to the thrones
of powerful nations. Charles the Fifth, king of Spain, was
now elected to fill the imperial throne of Germany ; fitted
with talents, and dominion, to be a scourge to the age.
Francis First, a violent competitor with Charles for the
Germanic crown, was on the throne of France ; and
Henry Eighth, formed for objects of ambition, was on the
throne of England ; while the warlike Solyman was on
the throne of the Turks. Such a preparation of execution
ers of divine judgments (at the time the art of print
ing was becoming more improved) could not have been
provided and stationed at their posts, without vast design
in Providence. It is thus a notorious fact, that the six
teenth century opened with indubitable prospects of new
systems of most interesting events.
The pope himself (till now unshaken in his impious con
fidence,) was, at the view of these things, deeply troubled,
and predicted the approaching ruin of the papal see. To
this period then, we turn our eyes, in full confidence of
here finding the commencement of the vials of " the seven
last plagues."

LECTURE XXII.

REVELATION XVI.
Vial I.
Ver. 2. And the first went, and poured out his
vial upon the earth ; and there fell a noisome and
grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of
the beast, and upon them which worshipped his
image. It has been shown, that early in the sixteenth century
was the time when the judgment of the vials commenced,
That things had been in a manifest preparation for such

280 LECTURE xxn.
an event ; and the first vial exhibited popery to the world
as a most deadly, filthy system of false religion. Martin
Luther, a pious Augustine monk, a man of the first natural
and acquired abilities, and Professor of Philosophy in the
University of Wittemberg, became disgusted and alarmed
at the general wickedness of the papal see ; and especially
at the blasphemous vending of indulgences to sin, with
sealed diplomas by Leo X. in the name of Christ ; and
Luther raised his warning voice against it in 1517. This
opened a series of events, which fulfilled the first vial,
and were to issue in the overthrow of popery. Luther,
commencing with this enormity, was led to discover and
expose the horrid train of abominations in the papal sys
tem. Powerful men were led to engage with him in this
work of Reformation ; and God gave them astonishing
success. The history of the Reformation is of deep interest.
But a few particulars of it can be given in this lecture.
Great attention was soon paid to the labours and remon
strances of Luther, by first characters, who had long been
vexed to see vast collections of money taken from the
people, and at such horrid expense of their morals, and all
under the cloak of religion. These things had prepared
the way to engage the attention of thousands to the
warning voice of Luther ; and his proselytes became
numerous. Attempts were made by the papal authority to silence
Luther, and to extinguish this light ; but in vain. The
pope then thundered against him his bull of excommuni
cation, and demanded against him an execution of the
law against heretics. Upon this, Luther committed this
papal bull to the flames, with his own papal books ; and
declared the pope to be the Man of Sin. Charles V. had
come to the imperial German throne : and, at a diet of
German princes at Worms, called to suppress these new
commotions, he laboured to procure the destruction of
Luther ; who upon this, deemed it expedient to retire, for
a time, from public view. In this retreat, he translated
the Bible into the German laneuage, which proved of in
finite service to the Reformation. The pope and his
posse now discovered their full determination to crush
this northern heresy, so called. But a watchful Providence
soon furnished them with other employment, with which
they could not dispense. A war broke out bet ween Charles

CHAPTER XVT. 281
and Francis I. king of France, of which Italy was the
bloody theatre for half a century, as will be shown under
the next vial ; which opened upon the sea, and turned it
to blood. This prevented the pope, Charles, and the
papal powers, from crushing the Reformation; which
otherwise it seems that they would have done with great
readiness and ease. The pope, in this terrible scene of
war between his two darling papal sons, Charles V. and
Francis I., found himself scorched between two fires, as
Italy became the seat of their contest. He was found
dangling between them ; sometimes in alliance with the
one, and sometimes with the other; and despised by both
these turbulent sons of his own communion.
In these continual scenes of vexation and danger, he
found business enough, without interfering, to any effect
ual degree, with the reforming operations of Luther.
And, so urgent and precarious were the affairs of Charles,
that he dared not provoke the German princes who
favoured the Reformation. Indeed, Charles himself (being
often embroiled and vexed with the intrigues of the pope,
who at times was siding with Francis against him), often
secretly rejoiced to see the abominations of the papal see
exposed, and its influence thus curtailed. Repeatedly
Charles (as great a Catholic bigot as he was,) put to his
helping hand to expose the vile duplicities of the holy fa
ther ; He even published these duplicities, and exhorted the
College of cardinals to manifest their care for the church,
when it was (as he expressed it) " so shamefully neglected
by its chief pastor !" These things flew over Germany, and
confirmed the truth of the charges of the reformers against
papal corruptions : and a number of great and free cities
openly declared for the Reformation. Great advantages
were on the side of the reformers, in point of erudition,
purity and force of writing, industry, and every thing that
commanded respect. The reformers had in this a com
manding advantage over the illiterate monks, their rude
arguments, and barbarous style. Erasmus, of high litera
ture and wit, learning the abominations of popery, turned
all his power of satire against it. The Landgrave of
Hesse, the Elector of Saxony, and of Brandenberg, and
the Prince of Anhalt, renounced the papal see, and em
braced the reformed religion. The pope now, roused by
his perplexities, demanded a diet for the destruction of
Aa2

282 LECTURE XXII.
Luther, and the suppression of the Reformation. But the
German princes replied, that they could not obey his or
der ; for a reformation, in his system, was indispensable;
and that so many had embraced the doctrines of the Refor
mation, that any violent measures against them would be
full of danger. A diet was, however, convened at Nu
remberg; but there a remonstrance of one hundred articles
was drawn up against the enormities of popery. The
pope's nuncio, then present, and beholding what was done,
fled, without formal leave, lest he should be obliged to be
the bearer of such tidings to his master. The ecclesias
tical princes also, withdrew from such an exposure of
their corruptions. In these hundred charges of the secu
lar princes against the papal see, the most scandalous
abominations were exposed, together with the indecent and
profligate lives of the papal clergy. And the remonstrance
Concluded by declaring, " that if the Holy See did not
speedily deliver them from these intolerable burdens, they
had determined to endure them no longer; and they would
employ the power with which God had intrusted them,
to procure relief." Thus the pope was defeated and
confounded ; and a bright contrast was exhibited with all
the long antecedent triumphs of corruption in that hateful
system, " reigning over the kings of the earth." This
diet, instead of crushing the Reformation, as the pope de
signed, took a most effectual step to uncover the filthy
ulcer on the men who had the mark of the beast. By
such authority were the fatal abominations of that system
exposed to the world; and (he event opened the eyes of
millions with a wonderful rapidity. They were astonished
to behold the insufferable abominations of a system, which
they had so long held in the highest veneration. And, to
deepen this sore, this incurable ulcer of abominations,
Pope Adrian (who succeeded the scandalous Leo X.)
confessed and bewailed them, and engaged to do all in his
power to reform them. And the consequence was, that
Adrian suddenly died ; and to the door of his chief physi
cian there was shamelessly fixed the inscription, "To
the deliverer of his country 1" thus glorying in (he fact,
that this reforming pope fell by tho hand of a murderer.
These things had their effect in exhibiting to the nations
the falal corruption of the papal see.
Almost half the Germanic body now revolted from the

CHAPTER XVI. 283
abominable system ; and suppressed its rites in their
dominions ; establishing in their room those of the re
formed religion. And in cities, where this was not the
case, the cause of popery sickened well nigh unto death.
The emperor Charles was troubled at this prevalence
of the Reformation ; for he viewed it unfavourable to his
ambitious plan of usurping full dominion over the princes
of Germany, which he had long contemplated. He hence
assembled a diet at Spires in 1529, and demanded an or
der that the innovations in religion should proceed no fur
ther, till there should be a meeting of a general council.
After mucli debate, his order was carried by a majority of
votes. Upon this, the Elector of Saxony, the Margrave
of Brandenberg, tho Landgrave of Hesse, the Duke of
Lunenberg, the Prince of Anhalt, and the deputies of four
teen imperial cities, entered their solemn protest against
this decree; and hence obtained the name of Protestants.
Charles continued his attempts against the protestants ;
upon which they entered into a solemn league of defence,
and formed an alliance with the king of France, and with
Henry VIII., king of England. With the protestants these
kings confederated, not so much to aid the Reformation, as
to cramp their great rival Charles. This league of Smal-
cald was afterwards renewed, and far greater numbers
united in it. So mightily was the sore of the man of sin
widened, and exhibited as incurably fatal.
The pope still hoped to crush the Reformation. And,
that he might attempt it with a better grace, he professed
to set about a reformation in his own system. For this
purpose, he commissioned a college of cardinals and
bishops, to investigate this subject, and report some plan
of reform. In this duty, they were reluctant, slow, remiss.
Manifest evils they touched with a gentle hand, afraid Jo
probe deeply the fatal sore. Enormities they c6uld not
but expose ; yet their proposed remedies were either
inadequate, or were never applied. Their report was de
signed to be kept a secret in the court of Rome. But it
got air, reached Germany, was made public, and afforded
the protestants much matter of triumph. It added vast
weight to their remonstrances, and showed that it was in
vain to expect a reformation from Romanists. Luther
remarked upon it, that "they only piddled at curing warts;,

284 LECTURE xxn.
while they overlooked and confirmed ulcers .'" The saga*
cious reformer thus lit upon the very word in our text, to
express the disease of popery now exposed ; while he
had no view of our text as applying to it ! The word
there is, in the original, ulkos, ulcer.
The pope and Charles now made a bloody atttempt to
crush the league of Smalcald, but were defeated essen
tially in the result, which issued in the peace of Passau
in 1552, which was confirmed in the diet of Augsburg in
1555, which formed the basis of the religious order of
Germany, in which much of the rights of conscience were
recognised and established, and a death-blow was there
given to the claims of the papal see. And the Reforma
tion now spread into other lands with vast rapidity, and the
pope himself felt the fatal effects of his sore, and languished
under it. He next, to attempt a healing of his sinking
cause, convened the council of Bologna. But, instead of
meliorating, they heightened his disasters, by exhibiting
to all Christendom a most glaring proof of the impotency
and abomination of the papal cause. And the holy father,
mortified with disappointment, dissolved the council. Upon
this Charles himself took upon him to stigmatize the pope,
and to render him odious even to the zealous Catholics.
And various other occurrences aided his degradation, — as
the following. Pope Julian bestowed his highest official
gift, — the cardinal's commission, — on an obscure youth of
16 years, known by the name of the Ape, because he took
care of an ape in the family of his master. This event,
at a time when light was fast rising, and the obligations
of duty and decency were felt, and a blind veneration for
pontifical distinction was fast abating, struck the people of
Christendom with horror ! Satirizing pieces filled Rome,
condemning the pope for this outrage, and imputing it to
a nameless criminal passion for the worthless youth ! And
soon after, this corrupt head of the papal see, while his
nuncio was, at his direction, intriguing in a diet, to get the
peace of Passau set aside, and he himself was wallowing
in licentiousness at home, suddenly died ! He had be
come averse to all official duties ; and being, at a time, ap
plied to for serious business ; he, to get rid of it, feigned
himself sick, and took medicine ; upon which he sickened
and died. And thus, while the Protestants were trem-

CHAPTER XVI. 285
bling at this papal attempt to crush the peace of Passau,
the impious persecutor was called to give his account at a
higher tribunal !
Millions of people now hastened to flee from so filthy a
communion, as from a place infected with the plague !
These exposures of papal corruption flew like lightning
over Europe, and suddenly broke the enchantments of su
perstition in which such millions of the human race had
been, for many centuries, so miserably enslaved.
We are assured, from the best authority, that "the charm
that had bound mankind for so many ages, was now
broken at once. And the human mind, in those vast re
gions, which had continued long as tame and passive as
if it had been formed to believe all that papal delusion
could teach, and to bear all it could impose, — roused up at
once, and became inquisitive, mutinous, and disdainful of
the yoke to which it had hitherto submitted. The won
derful agitation of mind, which at this distance of time
seems strange, was then so general, that it must have been
excited by causes which were of powerful efficacy. The
kingdoms of Denmark, Sweden, England, Scotland, and
almost half of Germany, renounced their allegiance to the
pope, abolished his jurisdiction within their territories,
and gave the sanction of law to modes of discipline, and
systems of doctrine, which were independent of papal
power and hostile to it. Nor was the spirit of innovation
confined to those countries which openly revolted from
the pope. It spread through all Europe, and broke out
in different parts of it, with various degrees of violence.
It penetrated early into France, and made progress there, so
that the numbers of converts to the doctrines of the Refor
mation, soon became so great, and the zeal and abilities of
their leaders so distinguishing, that they soon contended
for superiority with the established church, and were
sometimes on the point of gaining it. In all the provinces
of Germany which continued to acknowledge the pope, as
well as in the Low countries, the Protestant doctrines were
secretly taught, and had gained so many proselytes, that
they were ripe for revolt, and were restrained merely by
the dread of their rulers, from imitating the examples of
their Protestant neighbours. Even in Spain and Italy,
symptoms of the same disposition to shake off the yoke
appeared. And the pretensions of the pope to infallibility

286 LECTURE XXII.
and supreme power were treated by many persons of
great learning and abilities with such scorn, and were at
tacked with such vehemence, that the most vigilant atten
tion of magistrates, and the highest strains of pontifical
authority, and all the vigour of inquisitorial jurisdiction,
were requisite to restrain it."
Who, then, can doubt but the Reformation was a vial of
divine wrath on the papal see ? And who can doubt but
it was the first vial ? It was the commencement of papal
ruin; and it operated precisely as it was long predicted
the first vial should operate, to exhibit a fatal ulcer on the
men of the papal community ! This was most naturally
the first of a series of divine judgments, which should
fling into perdition that pillar of the kingdom of Satan. An
exhibition of its total and extreme filthiness to the world,
might have been expected to lead the way in the last
plagues of heaven on that hateful Man of Sin ; so that its
corruption should stand exposed before the nations in the
light of the sun. Fully does this event accord with the
imagery of the first vial ; as do its subsequent oonnected
events of judgment with the imagery of the succeeding
vials of wrath, — as will be shown in succeeding lectures.
No other event has taken place, which has, compared
with this, the least claim as a fulfilment of the first vial;
and the claim of this is perfect.
It was attempted to be shown, in the lecture on Rev.
xiv. ; 1st and onward, that the appearance of the Heavenly
Lamb there, on mount Zion (his earthly church) seems
clearly to relate to this event, — the Reformation. Most
fully does the imagery there agree with it. Christ did
indeed then appear on his earthly mount Zion. He had
his 144,000 with him, with their foreheads bearing the in
scription of his Father's name. Their numbers swelled,
till their praises of God and the Lamb became as the
voice of many waters, and of mighty thunders. Millions
then came forward with a new edition of the song of
redeeming love which none but the true people of God
ever learn. They in purity fled out from the filthy em
braces of the mother of harlots and of the abominations
of the earth ; and were thus, mystically, " virgins." They
followed the Lamb ; and were the first-fruits of better
times ere long to be brought forward. And they were, in
a good degree, freed from guile and fault, as there noted.

CHAPTER XVI. 287
The synchronic events of the two sacred passages, shed
light on each other ; as is common in this mystical book.
The casting of the dragon from heaven, too, in chap.
xii., it was attempted to show in a lecture on the passage,
alludes to the same event. The devil was now cast from
his height in the false papal church, where he had long,
with awful success, carried on a war with Christ in his
two witnesses, in a symbolic ecclesiastical heaven indeed !
But he was thence hurled out unto the earth, in a full ex
hibition of the earthly and most degrading policy of the
papal see. The loud voices here (like those of great wa
ters, and mighty thunders, and harpers of sacred songs, in
chap. 14), sung, 'fNow is come salvation, and strength,
and the kingdom of our God, and the glory of his Christ ;
for the accuser of our brethren is cast down. Therefore,
rejoice, ye heavens !" Yes, the heaven of the church,
both militant and triumphant, did rejoice at the events of
the Reformation.
The vials of wrath were given into the hands of the
seven angels of judgment, chap. xv. 7, by a symbol of
the ministers of Christ. Most fully was this part of the
figure illustrated by the agency of Martin Luther, and his
coadjutors in the Reformation. "And one of the four
beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full
of the wrath of God." Yes, Luther had the honour to
commence a fulfilment of this ! Other ambassadors of
Christ united, and aided the event. Such figures of gene
ral import are often illustrated by individual instances of
their accomplishment. Most signal honour is here put
upon the gospel ministry ; as is put, in a similar manner,
upon the two witnesses, that they should be said to have
power " to shut heaven, that it rain not ; and to smite the
earth with all plagues, as oft as they will." May minis
ters of Christ duly and humbly admire such condescend
ing grace of Heaven ; and express their admiration by
well-directed and unabating zeal and faithfulness.
But despisers of Christ in his ministers may well fear
and tremble. For Christ will not fail to vindicate the
ministry of the gospel, and honour them who honour him.
And their cries to him, under the depressions of Zion,
will not fail to bring down vials of wrath on her per
secutors.

LECTURE XXIII.

REVELATION XVI.
Vial II.
Ver. 3. And the second angel poured out his vial
upon the sea ; and it became as the blood of a dead
man : and every living soul died in the sea.
The first vial, it has been shown, was poured on the
Roman earth, exhibiting the fatal corruption of the papal
system. The second vial is here poured upon the sea,
and turns it to blood. By the sea, in this connexion, must
be understood the most central part of the papal dominion.
" I will shew you the judgment of the great whore that
sitteth upon many waters." " The waters are people, and
multitudes, and nations, and tongues." (Rev. xvii. 1, 15.)
We have here a collected view of the sea, in this second
vial; and of the rivers and fountains of water, in the third
vial. The latter, we shall find to be, the nations of the
old papal communion besides Italy ; and the sea, Italy
itself. There is a great fitness in denoting Italy by the
sea, as it was the great centre of the papal multitudes,
who are denoted by the waters on which this harlot sat ;
the capital of the papal powers ; even as the sea is the
centre and collection of waters from the rivers and foun
tains on the earth. Italy lies too, like a coot, in the midst
of the sea. This literal fact may add an emphasis to the
beauty of the figure, of denoting Italy by the sea, in our
text. The following fact too, may add to its beauty.
Italy was, at the time of this vial, in the 16th century, a
collection of different states and governments of contend
ing interests, like a tumultuous sea. Some of its territo
ries were governed by civil powers ; and some by ecclesi
astical. The education of the latter, and their genius and
connections with the court of Rome, rendered them so
different from the other princes, that it was an unhappy
source of jealousy and discord. This gave them a resem-

CHAPTER XVI. 289
blance to the tumultuous sea. And the tumultuous con
dition into which Italy was thrown, at the period of
the second vial, shows that it was, indeed, a mystical sea.
The sea is an emblem of any nation in the tempest of war ;
as Psalm xlvL 3, " Though the mountains be carried into
the midst of the sea ; though the waters thereof roar and
be troubled ; though the mountains shake with the swell
ing thereof; alluding to the revolution of nations, in the
battle of that great day of God. As the event in our text
alludes to the tremendous judgment on the papal system ;
so the central part of this system, Italy, must be here de
noted by the sea.
The event in the text may have been typified by the
turning of the waters to blood, in the plagues on Egypt.
Some of those plagues were manifestly typical of some of
the vials in the last days, as will be shown in its place.
And that judgment, of turning their waters to blood, may
have been one of them.
It has been shown that the way had been preparing for
the 16th century to open a new era of judgments on the
Roman earth. The inventions of gunpowder, and of fire
arms, a little before this period ; — the training of regular
standing armies, the extending of the prerogatives of the,
crown, so that the power of a nation might be brought into
operation at the will of a despot ; — and the fact, that a
number of most warlike and powerful potentates had at
that time ascended the thrones of the contiguous nations,
as has been stated ; — "these things portended the com
mencement of most disastrous and bloody times.
Charles V. was born in the year 1500. Upon the death
of his father Philip, archduke of Austria, he became heir
to the throne of Spain. And upon the death of his grand
father, Maximilian, ¦ emperor of Germany, Charles and
Francis I., king of France, became competitors- for the
imperial crown of Germany. Pope Leo X. (then in the
papal chair) trembled at what he saw, and predicted that
" the election of either Charles or Francis would be fatal
to the independence of the papal see, to the peace of Italy,
and perhaps to the liberties of Europe." And events soon
decided that Leo had not trembled in vain.- Charles ob
tained the imperial crown ; upon which the haughty Fran
cis felt all the chagrin and rage of a disappointed rival.
These two powerful monarchs now commenced vast
Bb

290 lecture xxrtt.
preparations for war; and Italy (the sea in our text)
became the theatre on which the greatest powers of
Europe, for fifty years, contended for victory. Its fairest
fields were for this period turned to fields of blood. In
nearly twenty campaigns, these two mightiest of potentates
furiously contended for Milan, Naples, or some other
Italian state ; — repeatedly leading into the field with them
hosts of allies from other nations. Success smiled some
times upon the one ; and sometimes upon the other. And
the terrified pope was in alliance sometimes with the one ;
and sometimes with the other, attempting just to save him
self from present destruction ; — vexed and terrified by the
fury of these two bloody sons of his communion.
It must here be noted, that this second vial of wrath
(poured upon the Italian sea, and turning it to blood) was
not deferred till the first vial (exhibiting the abominations
of popery) was finished. They were of such a nature,
that they must, of necessity, be found operating at the same
time ; — the second to afford protection to the agents of the
first. A writer says, " It is nowhere said that each vial
is emptied before its successor commences its operation.
And it is not unreasonable to conclude that two or more
of the vials may be pouring out at the same time ; though
the effusion of the one commences before that of the other."
The two first vials were of a nature wholly different ; the
second must commence soon after the first, to protect its
operation. In this the divine wisdom and mercy were
manifest. By the bloody events of the second vial, employ
ment for the enemies of the Reformation was furnished, to
prevent their being able to destroy the reformers, as they
otherwise would have done. The first vial drew aside
the veil from the papal abominations. But how soon and
sorely must this have occasioned the ruin of the reformers,
had the pope and the papal powers been at leisure to point
and drive their thunder against them ? They must, in such
a case, have been sacrificed at once. To secure the effects
of the first vial, the second must commence soon after the
opening of it. The Reformation was of a nature to be of
long continuance. The succeeding vials then, must com
mence while it was fulfilling. Were you about to destroy
a nest of vipers that infest your premises, and you had
directed a little son to throw off the cover under which
they are hid ; would you not be ready, at the same time,

CHAPTER XVI. 291
with proper weapons, to commence the business of their
destruction, and thus prevent their destroying him ? In
viewing the events of the apocalyptic seals, trumpets, and
vials, we find them commencing at unequal lengths of time;
and their effects are sometimes synchronical. This re
mark holds true especially of the first four of the seals,
trumpets, and vials ; but not so of the last three. The
latter were to be more interesting, and more distinct, in
point of time, as well as event.
Soon after Charles had ascended the imperial throne,
after the commencement of the Reformation, he was urged
by the papal powers to repair to Germany, on account of
the innovations in religion which had there taken place.
He was assured that " unknown opinions in religion had
been published, such as had thrown the minds of men into
a universal agitation, and threatened the most violent
effects ; and that they had made such rapid progress, as
to require the most serious consideration." The emperor,
consequently, convoked the diet of German princes at
Worms ; and in his address to them said, " We are con
vened to concert the most proper measures for checking
the progress of those new and dangerous opinions which
threaten to disturb the peace of Germany, and to overturn
the religion of our ancestors." Now, had not this cham
pion of papal influence, and the other papal authorities,
been providentially diverted from this object, by the scenes
of war into which they were plunged ; how soon must the
reformers have been utterly destroyed ? But God speedily
furnished these powerful enemies, now rising on tiptoe to
crush them, with a sufficiency of other employments, and
these of sufficient magnitude to be received as the fulfil
ment of the second vial. The principal actors in the
bloody scenes of this vial were the emperor Charles V.
(who was at the same time king of Spain and Naples),
and the king of France, Francis I., combining at times the
pope ; Solyman, emperor of the Turks ; the king of Hun
gary ; the king of Bohemia ; and, more than once, Henry
VIII., king of Britain. The pope himself, more than once,
was a prisoner to some one of the chieftains ; and his
capital was plundered. At a time when he was in alliance
with Francis, a cardinal, who had been a rival for the papal
chair, marched, at the instigation of Charles, at the head
of an army, seized the gates of his capital, and dis-

292 lecture xxm.
persed his guards. The infallible pontiff fled to the cas
tle of St. Angelo, which was soon besieged. The palace
of the Vatican, the church of St. Peter, and the houses of
the pope's ministers and servants, were plundered. The
pope capitulated ; and was forced to grant to this cardinal
a full pardon of all this treatment of his high dignity; and
to engage an immediate withdrawing of his troops that
were fighting against Charles. Bourbon, another imperial
general, led against the pope 25,000 veteran troops. Ter
rified at this, the pontiff agreed to a suspension of arms
against the emperor, and to pay 60,000 crowns towards
the support of the armies of Charles. But even then, the
25,000 men pursued their march against Rome, — scaled
its walls, and took the city. The pope and thirteen of his
cardinals fled to the castle of St. Antonio ; on his way to
which, he had the inexpressible horror to see his troops
flying before the enemy, who gave them no quarter ; and
to hear the cries and lamentations of the people of Rome.
The scene that followed was dreadful. The leader of this
invasion fell in the siege, and left his men unrestrained.
And whatever a city, taken by storm, can dread from
military rage ; whatever horrors the ferocity of Ger
mans, the avarice of Spaniards, and the licentiousness of
Italians can inflict, these miserable Romans had to endure.
Churches, palaces, and private houses were plundered
without distinction. No age, character, or sex was ex
empt. Cardinals, nobles, priests, matrons, virgins, all
were a prey to an enraged, brutal soldiery, deaf to every
call of humanity. And these 25,000 armed plunderers
had the undisturbed possession of that vast and rich city
for several months, in which time their brutality scarcely
abated. Rome had been taken and plundered at various
times, in ages then past, by Huns, Goths, and Vandals.
But good authority asserts, that it never experienced such
severity from those ancient barbarians, as it found at this
time. If those ancient scenes then, were trumpets of di
vine wrath ; this surely may be considered a vial of wrath,
when viewed in connexion with those bloody scenes of
fifty years, in that seat of the papal delusion. And, if we
here find one of the vials of wrath ; it must have been the
second, with whose language and chronology these events
fully agree.
While the pope and his thirteen cardinals were thus

CHAPTER XVI. 293
confined in his castle of St. Antonio, the duke of Urbano,
a general of the king of France, who was then in alliance
with the pope, arrived at Rome with an army sufficient to
have relieved the city. When the pope, from the ramparts
of his castle, beheld them, he leaped for joy, believing
that his deliverance had now arrived. But the duke having
had a private pique against him, when he came in sight of
the plundering invaders, wheeled about his army, as though
an attempt to dislodge them was too hazardous, and left
the pope and his capital in all their wretchedness. Their
scenes of horror were not yet to be closed, but were to be
increased. The Florentines now cast off their allegiance
to the pope ; and, breaking in pieces his statue, they
re-established their ancient popular government. The Ve
netians seized Ravenna, the pope's most delightful province;
and other parts of his temporal dominion. Other princes
too seized other property belonging to the pope, whom they
considered now as ruined. And, to finish the climax of
his wretchedness, three other generals of Charles, then in
Italy, marched their armies to Rome ; not to deliver it
indeed; but to swell its tide of wo ! These new armies,
envying the plunders of the 25,000, who first scoured the
vast city, set themselves with the utmost rapacity to col
lect the gleanings which had been left. These were, in
deed, new times to his professed Holiness, who had set
his seat above the stars, and " exalted himself above all
that was called God or worshipped."
The pope, after being reduced by famine, and after
having been fed for a time on asses' flesh, capitulated,
and hired his plunderers to retire, — giving them a vast
sum, — and surrendering to Charles all the places of
strength belonging to the papal see ; and giving hostages,
and remaining himself a prisoner till the articles of capitu
lation should be fulfilled. These tremendous scenes fur
nished him with a six months' imprisonment. And he then
obtained his liberty only with the additional sum of
350,000 crowns: Thus were swept from his coffers
some of thetreasures which he had amassed from the sale
of indulgences, pardons, and hosts of other impositions !
At these things all Europe were struck with horror ! They
discovered such a contrast between such instances of
furious treatment of the holy father, and any thing that
Bb2

294 LECTURE XXIII.
had ever before occurred, or which they could have con
ceived as possible, that their amazement was vast. All
these things tended to confirm the doctrines of the Re
formation, and .to set them beyond the control of all the
thunders of the Vatican. The emperor Charles, when he
had sufficiently indulged his resentments at the union of
the pope with the king of France, feigned sorrow for the
great indignities done to his holiness, and restored him his
church lands.
I might proceed to detail the terrors of those times ; the
wars of the Ottoman emperor with the papal powers ; the
ravaging of Naples by a Turkish admiral ; the plundering
and burning of Regio ; and the ravaging and burning of the
coasts of Naples and of Tuscany by the same ; the civd
wars that broke out in Italy ; the attempt of the pope and
Charles to crush the league of Smalcald ; the disastrous
attempt of Charles to regulate things to his own mind on
the coasts of Barbary, in which he utterly failed, and the
flower of the Italian youth were sacrificed ; and other tre
mendous scenes, in which the ambitious veteran Charles
felt himself exhausted to that degree, that he abdicated
his throne to his son Philip, and retired from society.
But enough has been exhibited to evince the magnitude
and terrors of the scenes which are presented as a ful
filment of the second vial. The German emperor and
the king of France were the prime instruments of this cup
of wrath. And the fact, that the warlike and potent
Charles spent his imperial life, and exhausted his treasures
in those scenes of horror, till he was glad to leap from his
throne, and retire from the face of man, — bespeaks their
magnitude. , To prepare the way for his abdication,
Charles proposed peace to the king of France, which was
established. He wished to have the merit, when quitting
his imperial dignity, of establishing that tranquillity in Eu
rope, which, for fifty years, he had banished from it ; and
this he accomplished. The greatness of these terrors is
exhibited too in arguments which the pope afterwards
pleaded with the king of France, to induce him to breakhis
treaty with the successor of Charles, "that the flower of
the Veteran Spanish bands had perished in these wars ;
that Charles had left his son an exhausted treasury, and a
kingdom drained of men ; and that the king of France

CHAPTER XVI. 295
might now drive the Spaniards out of Naples, and add to
his crown a kingdom in Italy, the conquest of which had
been so great an object of his ambition for half a century.
A general peace now ensued (A. D. 1559) ; upon
which the historian says, " From this period Italy-ceased
to be the great theatre on which the monarchs of Ger
many, Spain, and France contended for power and fame.
Their dissensions and hostilities, tliough afterwards as
frequent and violent as ever, were excited by new objects,
and stained other regions of Europe with blood, and ren
dered them miserable in their turn by the devastations of
war." (Robertson's Charles V., vol. iv. p. 261.)
Here, then, is the close of the vial on the sea in our
text. The third vial, that on the rivers and fountains of
water (other papal nations), was to follow after an inter
val. The historian adds, " exhausted by extraordinary
efforts, which far exceeded those to which the nations of
Europe had been accustomed, before the rivalship of
Charles and Francis, both nations longed for repose."
And in the peace which ensued, great pains were taken,
by intermarriages and mutual concessions, to give it a
decided permanency. All past transactions were to be
buried in oblivion.
Most of the states and nations in Europe were to be com
prehended in this peace of 1559; and we are assured, "most
of the personages who had long sustained (he principal
characters on the stage of Europe, disappeared about the
same time ; and a period, better known in history, opened
upon us. Other actors entered on the stage, and with
different views and passions. New contests arose, and
new schemes of ambition sprang up, and disquieted man
kind." This therefore brings us to the close of the second vial,
and to the transition to the third, poured on the rivers and
fountains of water, which, in the next lecture, will be
considered. We reflect, what must now be the views of those am
bitious bloody men who, more thari 300 years ago, ex
cited and maintained that blaze of war, which, for fifty
years, turned Italy to blood, and sent to a premature grave
millions of the flower of the human race ? The souls of
Charles V., of Francis I., and of all the human butchers

296 LECTURE xxrn.
of that period, are now in existence. For more than three
centuries they have been situated where they have had
the most clear views possible of the importance of their
day of grace, how they improved it, and what must be
the eternal consequences ! How vastly insignificant must
those temporal ambitious objects now appear to them
which excited those scenes of contention and blood ! A
most piercing view they must now have of the day in
which all they have done must be unfolded, by the infinite,
righteous Judge, before the assembled universe ; when all
the deeds of man on earth shall be unfolded, and all men shall
be rewarded according to their deeds. A most feeling view
of these things does, this moment, flash like the keenest
lightning, through the souls of all such men of blood, who
died in their sins. Three hundred years, and three mil
lions, will bring them no relief. The last- great day will
give an infinite interest to the history of nations, not as
events political, but as events of God's government for the
fulfilment of his word, the salvation of his church, and the
ruin of her enemies, " to the intent, that unto the princi
palities and powers, in the heavenly places, may be known
by the church the manifold wisdom of God." This will
be one blessed employment of the eternal world of glory,
to traee the lines of the divine government, wisdom, and
goodness, in the whole history of the world, which will then
lie open no doubt to universal inspection. Great, then, is
the advantage of the believer over the man of the world,
in glancing his eye over the events of the nations, as me
thods of infinite wisdom, to fulfil the sacred oracles, and
advance his kingdom of salvation. The latter employ
ment (the employment of the true believer) never excludes
God from his own work, as would the wicked world, but
beholds him in every thing ; to meditate on the history of
nations in the light of the prophecies, and to see the latter
fulfilled in the former, is a delightful exercise of faith, and
it inspires the pious exclamation, " Allaluia ; for the Lord
God Omnipotent reigneth !"
Our lecture gives a lively comment on the sacred pas
sage, " Surely, the wrath of men shall praise thee, and
the remainder of wrath thou wilt restrain." Behold the
pious Luther, and the reformers pursuing their great work
of taking the fatal bandages of death from the eyes of

CHAPTER XVI. 297
papal millions. And behold the pope launching his bolts
of thunder, which hitherto, and for many centuries, had
been able to plunge emperors and kings in ruin, — hurled
in vain at the head of the reformer !

LECTURE XXIV.

REVELATION XVI.
Vial III.
Ver. 4. And the third angel poured out his vial
upon the rivers and fountains of waters : and they
became blood.
5. And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou
art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt
be, because thou hast judged thus.
6. For they have shed the blood of saints and pro
phets, and thou hast given them blood to drink : for
they are worthy.
7. And I heard another out of the altar say, Even
so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy
judgments. As the sea in the second vial has been shown to mean
Italy, the seat of popery, so the rivers and fountains of
water in this vial must denote the other papal nations. It
might be shown from the prophets, that rivers and foun
tains of water are noted emblems of nations. And the
papal nations were then about to receive that portion of
these seven last plagues noted in the fourth vial. Various
of the great papal nations that had been instrumental in
the judgment cf the second vial on Italy, should now have
a share also in the third vial of wrath. Most manifest is
the historic transition from the events of the second to
those of the third vial. The historian of Charles V. says,
after noting the general peace of 1559 ; " From this pe-

298 LECTURE XXVI.
riod, Italy ceased to be the great theatre on which the great
monarchs of Spain, France, and Germany contended for
power and fame. Their dissensions and hostilities, though
as frequent and violent as ever, were excited by new ob
jects, and stained other regions in Europe with blood, and
rendered them miserable in their turn by the devastations
of war." He says again, upon the close of the wars in
Italy, " The nations of Europe united in a general peace.
All causes of discord, which had so long embroiled the
powerful monarchs of France and Spain, seemed to be
wholly removed, and finally terminated. Other actors
entered upon the stage with different views, as well as
different passions. New contests arose, and new schemes
of ambition occupied and disquieted mankind." This his
torian had no view of recording events which fulfilled
these vials of wrath, but to write as a true historian. But
the events are direct to our purpose. After the second
vial ceased, the third was to commence. The same kind
of judgments were to be executed on other papal nations;
and so was the fact.
To give a full view of the wars which fulfilled this third
vial, would be to write the history of the wars of Europe
for a century. A sketch of these events may be very ap
propriate in this religious lecture, — viewing them as events
of the divine government in fulfilment of God's word to
Zion, and of his justice upon her enemies, according to
the sentiment of the angels in our text. In the sketches
of those judgments now to be given, we behold Jesus
Christ, as the Captain of our salvation, pleading the cause
of his church, avenging the blood of his martyrs, and call
ing anew on his people to confide in him. This is the
sentiment which we must renewedly feel in the contem
plation of these events of vindictive justice on the papal
enemies of Zion. This will give a new and a religious
interest to those wars in Europe. One great cause of
these bloody scenes of strife was the growing power, and
the dreaded ambition, of the house of Austria. Great ter
ritories had descended to Charles V. from his rich ances
tors. These, together with the new world of South Ame
rica, which had become subject to his control, he trans
mitted to his son Philip, king of Spain, — to whom he
delivered up his dominions and royal prerogatives, which
he had much improved ; for his subjects had become ac-

CHAPTER XVI. 299
customed to subordination, and to expenses, and efforts,
unknown in Europe till his reign. Every thing had
seemed to conspire to add power and grandeur to this prime
branch of the house of Austria, to render Philip most for
midable to the other European powers. Ferdinand, too,
the brother of Charles V., and minor branch of the house
of Austria, was formidable. He had been crowned em
peror of Germany, and king of the Romans ; and he had,
by marriage, obtained the crowns of Hungary and Bohe
mia, and was thus a powerful monarch. These two
branches of the house of Austria were, for a while, hos
tile to each other, which in a degree lessened the fears
of the other European princes. But mutual interest
soon led them to unite their views and powers for their
family aggrandizement, to the vast terror of surrounding
nations, who, for about a century, had it as their common
object to check this growing tyrannical power. This
general terror gained strength, and grew into strong na
tional habits ; the influence of which was deeply felt even
after the power of the house of Austria was abating, and
the primary cause of the terrors had in a great degree
ceased. These things occasioned in Europe terrible
scenes of bloody strife. In the wars in Italy, aforenoted,
the nations of Europe had become more than ever before
acquainted with their own internal resources and strength
for war, and had learned how a nation may put itself in
the most formidable attitude. And they had also con
ceived the idea of a necessity of supporting a balance of
power among the European nations, — the maintenance of
which kept them in an almost incessant blaze of war ; a
few particulars of which wars shall be concisely noted to
illustrate the judgment of this vial.
The Netherlands were under Philip, king of Spain.
But the bigoted and violent maxims of his government be
ing attempted to be carried there into rigorous execution,
that people became exasperated, and threw off the yoke,
asserting their ancient liberties and laws. This occa
sioned a tremendous and bloody struggle for nearly half
a century, in which the English and the Dutch united
against the king of Spain,*and the Dutch became esta
blished in their ancient liberties, to the great mortification
of the Spanish monarchy.
England and Spain had before contended in war. The

300 LECTURE xxrv.
bigoted Catholic Philip had tendered marriage to the Pro*
testant Elizabeth, queen of England, who wisely refused
his suit. And to gratify his resentment of this refusal, he
employed his immense wealth, which was flowing into hia
coffers from the gold of Mexico and Peru, to prepare
a huge fleet to make a descent upon England. Many of
his ships prepared for this enterprise, were of the largest
kind, — larger than had ever before been seen, — a madness
well worthy of an ignorant, bigoted, revengeful papal mo
narch ; but which ended in his own vast humiliation !
The, English fleet met them ; and after tremendous fight
ing, dispersed them ; and a tempest plunged most of them
that remained into the heart of the ocean. Eighty-one
Spanish ships were, in this catastrophe, lost, and hosts 'of
men. The British now in their turn made a descent upon
Spain, plundered Cadiz, and scourged their foe.
A relative of Louis XIV. king of France, now ascended
the throne of Spain, and aUenated it from the house of
Austria to that of Bourbon. This occasioned a long and
bloody contention between Louis and the house of Aus
tria ; in which the bigoted French monarch was well nigh
ruined. And these persecuting papal nations had thus a
tremendous share of this vial of divine wrath. This
French monarch had repealed the edict of Nantz ; and
had destroyed and banished many hundreds of thousands
of his Protestant and best subjects, in a short time. And
tremendous divine judgments were thundered down upon
his empire. In eight successive civil wars in France, that
land was drenched in blood. One of these civil conten
tions continued for twenty years. And the wars of Louis
XIV. have a strong interlining in the histories of Europe,
in the period of his reign. After his horrid treatment of the
Protestants ; he made treaties and broke them at pleasure ;
till he raised against himself a confederacy of most of
the powerful Europian princes. Against all these, he, for
some time, stood his ground ; till the English duke of
Marlborough, and the German prince Eugene, led their
United arms against him, and rendered the latter years of
his reign most disastrous. For a course of years, at the
opening of the 18th century, Louis was tortured with de
feats and terrors. Reduced, and old, he was forming the
desperate purpose of collecting his people, and dying at
their head, if he could not retrieve his affairs ; when the

CHAPTER XVI. 301
peace of Utrecht, in 1713, was concluded; and the com
bined armies retired. France had thus a full share in this
vial of wrath.
Germany, too, had a share of it. In wars, domestic
and foreign, their fields became fields of blood ; as the
histories of these times assure us. And the Hungarians
had also bloody contentions with the emperor Rudolf;
as had the Bohemians. The latter threw the emperor's
commissioners out at the window at Prague ; and a
furious war of thirty years ensued. Great battles were
fought in Germany under the ablest generals of the age.
The German empire had long been a bloody executioner
of papal vengeance, against the innocent and pious wit
nesses, in the dark ages ; and God now gave them blood
to drink, in great measure. Nor did their bloody scenes
soon end. Both France and the Turks were again at war
with them. The French seized on Alsace, and some
prime German cities. The Turks too, had laid siege to
Vienna, and well nigh carried the place. And the Eng
lish George I. was found contending with Germany.
The objects of these dashing of nations against each other,
were trifling. Says Guthrie, " so unsteady was the sys
tem of affairs all over Europe, at that time, that the first
powers often changed their old alliances, and concluded
new ones, contrary to their manifest interests." What
account can be given of this, but the one in our text ?
This fully accounts for all. They had shed the blood of
saints, and they should have blood to drink. See the fol
lowing fact, as an instance of the truth of this.
After the year 1740, a new blaze of war broke out in
Europe, occasioned by the Pragmatic Sanction, so called.
A concordat of German princes was formed under the
name of the Pragmatic Sanction, to give the election of
the emperor of Germany to the electoral college, and to
exclude the pope from having any part in this election.
And what mighty thing was this ? 0, it was enough to
set all Europe in a violent blaze. To exclude his
holiness from the right of aiding in the election of an em
peror of Germany ! Most horrible ! Such were the
times. Hundreds of thousands should bleed, and millions
of wealth be expended, rather than such an indignity
should be offered to the pope. It would be both affect
ing and amusing, to hear the wars and battles occasioned
Cc

302 LECTURE XXIV.
by this foreign quiddity. But these must here be passed.
The historian remarks upon them, that though they were
bloody and terrible, they were " of little importance to
history, because nothing was done that was decisive."
The fact was, they were but the mad dashings of papal
nations against each other, in fulfilment of the judgment
in our text. No doubt the Jesuits, then powerful in the
courts of Europe, had a hand in all this.
Some particulars of the judgment of this vial on one
more papal nation, shall be added in a subjoined note.*
* Poland had a full share in this vial of wrath. Our hearts have
bled for the abuses she has received from tyrants : but her sins,
and her part in the judgment in our text, must be impartially noted.
Poland has been a bigoted Roman Catholic country. The Reforma
tion made some advances there, and the Protestants had been estab
lished by law, in the noted treaty of Oliva. But the Poles, disre
garding afterwards this treaty, and excited by a base Catholic clergy
(led no doubt by the Jesuits), made a public massacre of the Protest
ants under a false sanction of law ; and their judgments did not
linger. I will hint some of them.
Recollect the histories of those times : their long and bloody
wars with Russia and Sweden, in which they were put to the worst.
Their unsuccessful war with the Turks. The civil war which broke
out between their king and the Cossacks ; when the latter defeated
the Poles in two great battles. The Russians and Cossacks after
wards took several of their first cities, and committed most horrid
ravages. Charles of Sweden overran much of the nation with
dreadful slaughter. And such was the state of the nation, that
Casimir, their king, abdicated his throne, and fled to France. A
weak prince was placed in his stead. The Cossacks, in union with
the Turks, conquered several of their most powerful provinces,
ravaged a great part of the nation, and laid the Poles under tribute.
The nation was divided into different confederacies, their crown
was set up to the highest bidder ; one bid it oflf; and another, by a
sham election, was crowned as their king. Bloody scenes ensued ;
and the nation presented a theatre of military horrors. Attempts
were again made to afford toleration to the Protestants ; and again
the papal clergy objected, and raged. And the country continued
a theatre of wars ; " partly civil, partly religious, and partly for
eign." Many first characters now (finding their country was de
stroyed, and had become a field of blood) fled to foreign lands, and
for ever abandoned their native soil. The plague at this time set in,
and carried off 250,000 of the remains of that miserable people.
Attempts were made to assassinate their king. And to give a more
dreadful edge to this vial of wrath, it now appeared that Russia,
Prussia, and Germany had agreed on a division of Poland between
themselves ; to unite each his third to his own dominions. They
forced the Poles to call a diet, to cede those portions of their king
dom to those new masters, under penalty that they should be put

CHAPTER XVI. 303
Most easily and effectually can the head of the church
plead his own cause against persecutors. And he instructs
his children to triumph in such strains as the following ;
" According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay,
fury to his adversaries, recompense to his enemies!"
" The floods have lifted up, O Lord ; the floods have
lifted up their voice. But the Lord on high is mightier
than the noise of many waters ; than the mighty waves of
the sea!" Such, O Zion, is thy Salvation.
tinder military execution as a conquered people. Their king was
forced to sign this arrangement ; as were his remaining nobility,
and thus to annihilate themselves. Poland, after being drenched in
blood, was thus blotted from the list of independent nations. And
the oppressions of the miserable Poles which followed, were most in
tolerable. Twelve thousand families were, by the king of Prussia,
torn from one province in Poland, to people distant realms of his
own empire. And every town and village was forced to furnish a
certain number of marriageable females, and to accompany each one
with a dower, to furnish wives for peasants in distant regions in
Prussia. Some of these young females were bound, and carried off
as criminals, to leave dear parents and all their family connexions,
and see them no more.
These were people defiled with the blood of martyrs ; where
equal rights were denied to Protestants ; and where vast multitudes
of the latter had been massacred, under pretence of law.

LECTURE XXV.

REVELATION XVI.
Vial IV.
Ver. 8. And the fourth angel poured out his vial
upon the sun ; and power was given unto him to
scorch men with fire.
9. And men were scorched with great heat, and
blasphemed the name of God, which hath power
over these plagues : and they repented not to give
him glory.
Sir Isaac Newton remarks, that " the sun, in sacred
prophecy, is put for the race of kings in the kingdoms of
the world." The darkening of the sun, then, means em
barrassing the concerns of kings, or first rulers. And the
sun's scorching the interests of the papal hierarchy, de
notes some ruinous effects produced upon the latter by the
crowned heads of the old papal earth. And this was
indeed fulfilled at that period. Kings of Europe did scorch
the papal see.
During the dark ages, the papal harlot is said (Rev.
xvii. 18) to have "reigned over the kings of the earth."
The pope was at the head of all coronations, alliances,
pacifications, and all national concerns. He gloried that
he could depose kings at his pleasure, dispense with the
obligations of treaties, absolve all subjects from oaths of
allegiance to their kings, and claimed power to settle or
unhinge the capital concerns of nations at his nod. The
canonists were wont to assert that there was no sove
reign power (meaning temporal and secular, as well as
ecclesiastical) but in the pope : and the popes maintained
that all civil authority was derived from them alone. Bo
niface VII. wrote to Philip the Fair ; " We will have thee
to know, that thou art subject to us both in temporals and
in spirituals." Bishop Newton says, " the pope was at
the head of the state, as well as of the church ; the king

CHAPTER XVI. 305
of kings, as well as bishop of bishops." Pages might
here be added, from good authority, of most outrageous
usurpations of the popes of the dark ages, — glorying and
insulting over kings ; and of the most infamous servilities
of kings, bending under the feet of the pope, kissing his
great toe, and suffering him to kick off their crowns at
pleasure. But did this scandalous servility of the kings of
Europe always continue? By no means. All the Pro
testant kings of Europe cast off the papal yoke, for them
selves and their subjects, and set his holiness at defiance.
This was the case in England, Denmark, Sweden, Hol
land, and with many of the princes of Germany, and other
Protestant places. The governments there stood ready,
with all their powers, to defend their people against every
thunderbolt of the Vatican. Even in France, Henry IV.,
by his edict of Nantz, gave by royal authority free tole
ration to his Protestant subjects. The pope now, and all
the creatures of his order, felt a fatal scorching upon their
cause from the sun of the Protestant civil authorities, —
the kings of which realms had before nurtured their pride
and arrogance. Their sun of royal influence scourged
and burned up much of the insolence of the papal cause.
In states and nations where the papal religion was yet
professed, the papal see lost much of the influence of the
papal authorities, which had before supported its supre
macy, and the dignity of its clergy. All the kings of Eu
rope gradually lost their superstitious veneration for the
pope, which for many centuries they had firmly main
tained. Papal kings had ever trembled at the thought of
any rupture with the pope : even when his perfidies at
times compelled them to war against him, they were then
greatly reluctant in the contest, and would seize the first
opportunity to make peace, if it were even to their detri
ment. But after the events of the first vials, these super
stitions abated, not only in the Protestant powers rejecting
them at once, but in the papal kings themselves being dis
posed to treat his holiness, in their secular concerns, with
much indifference and neglect. The sun of the courts of
Europe became too hotfor the creatures of the papal order,
which had been fostered in the dark, it shone in upon them,
and dried and burned them up. A noted historian says,
" Even since the Reformation, the popes have had at
times great weight in public affairs, chiefly through the
Cc 2

306 LECTURE XXV.
weakness and bigotry -of temporal princes, who seem now
to be recovering from their religious delusion. But the
papal power is now at a low ebb : the pope himself is
treated even by the Roman Catholic princes, with very
little ceremony more than is due to him as a bishop of
Rome, and possessed of a temporal principality. This
humiliation (he adds), it is reasonble to believe, will end
in a total separation from the holy see of all its foreign
emoluments, which have been immense." The former
revenues of the pope were not less than eight millions of
dollars annually. But this vast revenue was by the mys
tical sun of first civil authorities scorched and annihilated.
It has, under this fourth vial, totally failed in Protestant
nations, and had mostly failed in Catholic nations, even
before the papal kingdom was subverted and filled with
darkness under the fifth vial, which commenced its effusion
in the French revolution in 1789. The papal see, before
this, was reduced to a great degree of poverty and mean
ness, like a barren piece of earth under the vertical beams
of the sun, which is dried and burned.
One striking item in the fulfilment of this vial we have
in the expulsion of the Jesuits from the great kingdoms of
Europe, after the middle of the eighteenth century, and
just before the commencement of the judgment of the fifth
vial. See the code of this wicked body of men in the
subjoined note.*
* This order was instituted in 1540, by Loyola, a Spaniard, soon
after the Reformation, as a mighty effort to support the sinking
cause. The imagination of Loyola, aided by the courts of darkness,
and sanctioned by the pope, invented this new order ; which came
under a monastic vow of obedience, to undertake, at the direction
of a general (to the common members unknown), in any service in
behalf of the papal interest, and without any reward from the papal
see. Loyola was their first general, and with much art they were
taught to obey his OTders. The generals who succeeded Loyola
much improved his first scheme, and rendered it a most perfect sys
tem of extensive and hidden influence, which was designed to per
vade the world. One of their objects was to gain a decided influ
ence in the courts of Europe, to regain the ground which the papal
see had lost. Other orders of monks were much devoted to morti
fication and to seclusion from the world ; but it was not so with the
Jesuits. They were designed for activity in all things whichmight
tend to the support of popery. They studied human nature, and
the dispositions of rulers. They flattered the great, and became
prodigies of intrigue and of enterprise. In less than half a century
from the institution of the Jesuits, they had become established ia

CHAPTER XVI. 307
For about two centuries, Europe felt the effects of this
order of men ; but not having known the deep internal
policy of that system, they knew not to what to impute its
amazing successes : for the policy of the Jesuits was to
every Catholic country, and their numbers became vast, and made
greater and greater progress. They were celebrated by the friends,
and dreaded by the enemies of the Catholic faith. Their govern
ment was purely monarchical, consisting of a general chosen for life
by deputies for this purpose from the Jesuits in the different nations.
The power of this general was supreme and independent, who
appointed his provincials, rectors, and every officer ; whom he
employed or removed at pleasure. The revenues and funds of the
order he held in his hands, and he improved them according to his
will to promote the designs of the order. And every member of
this vast community was so fully under his management, as to be
passive in his hands as clay in the hands of the potter ; — being
taught to be incapable of resisting their general. The deep subtlety
of this system, for learning the dispositions of their members and of
mankind, and for holding the perfect control of their order, exceeds
all that was ever before known among men, and is exceeded only by
the more modern system first called illuminism, which appeared to
have been copied from it with improvements. M. de Chalotais in
forms, that the general of the Jesuits was furnished annually with
6584 registers and reports from 38 provinces in the various kingdoms
of the world, where in his day they were found to be established,
besides many letters from spies. In these communications, all the
affairs of their order, and of the nations and states of Christendom,
were ascertained. All these communications were done in cyphers,
which were invented for the purpose, that they might defy detection.
The general could thus behold at once what needed to be done, and
who were the most fit instruments for the accomplishment, and his
orders were accordingly remitted with the most irresistible effect.
To manage the education of youth was a prime object with the
Jesuits, who aimed at the control of all religion and instruction.
Their missionaries were numerous ; and they preached much, were
admired, and extensively patronized. They obtained the chief
direction of the means of education in every Catholic country ; they
were the confessors of kings, and the spiritual guides of almost all
people of rank. They possessed, in the highest degree, the con
fidence of the court of Rome, being the most able and zealous
champions of its authority, and propagators of its dogmas. Says a
historian, " They possessed the direction of the most considerable
courts in Europe ; they took part in every intrigue and revolution,"
and they thus managed all things to their mind with amazing effi
cacy. They formed great possessions in Catholic countries, and
the numbers and magnificence of their public buildings were vast.
They had license from the pope to trade wherever they resided ; and
they were engaged in lucrative and extensive commerce, both in
the West and East Indies. They had warehouses in different
regions in Europe ; they readily obtained settlements ; and vied
with the commercial establishments of the world. Vast fertile pro.

308 LECTURE XXV
keep their system hid in impenetrable mystery. They
refused, even in courts of justice, to expose their code ;
and long were they connived at, in this particular.
But the courts of papal Europe became at last convinced
of what they had been too long backward to believe, that
the Jesuits were (and long had been) a most dangerous,
intriguing, bloody order of men ; — guilty of jthe assassina
tion of monarchs, and statesmen, who stood in their way.
This awakened and combined their efforts against the
Jesuits ; and they banished them from their courts, and
their realms. In France, Spain, Portugal, Naples, and
other papal lands, they were proscribed ; their schools shut
up ; their revenues confiscated ; and they banished from
those kingdoms : which operated as a deadly stroke
towards the ruins of the papal see. Rev. Dr. Langdon,
on this event, says, " The banishment of the Jesuits from
all the (papal) nations of Europe, and the dissolution of
the order, as guilty of treasons, rebellions, and assassina
tions of monarchs, is the most remarkable event of Provi
dence." And he treats it as a masterly stroke on the
papal see. Rev. Dr. Trumbull, in his sermon on the close
of the eighteenth century, says, "In the last half century,
the order of the Jesuits, who constituted the most deceit
ful, intriguing, and formidable branch of the Romish hie-
vinces they obtained in Paraguay, in South America, and they
reigned there over hundreds of thousand of subjects. Thus vast
was the influence of the Jesuits on earth, while their attachment to
the papal cause was inviolable. Their professions of religion were
such as to steal upon the confidence of the Catholic multitudes ;
while yet their morality was pliant, and suited to the feelings of all
men upon whom they wished to gain influence. The great object .
of this order was to restore the papal prerogatives of the dark ages i
and to heal and support that wounded cause, which they did in
some degree effect. They claimed it as their right and business to
combat the Protestants, and they laboured to excite against them
all the rage of the civil as well as the Catholic powers. They were
the authors, says Dr. Robertson, of " most of the pernicious effects
arising from the corrupt and dangerous casuistry of the times ; from
the extraordinary tenets concerning ecclesiastical power, and from
the intolerant spirit which was the disgrace of the church of Rome
through that period, and which brought so many calamities on
civil society." Mosheim says of the Jesuits, that they were " the
very soul of the hierarchy ; the engines of the state ; the secret
springs of the motion of the one, and of the other ; and the authors
and directors of every great and important event, both in the reli
gious and in the political world."

CHAPTER XVI. 309
rarchy, were abolished. They made rapid and astonish
ing progress, through all the Roman Catholic countries,
till they were suppressed in 1773." In the same century,
this powerful order was expelled also from China, where
they had gained great footing ; being accused of things
" the most grievous and disgraceful to the Christian
name." We have thus the events which fulfilled the
fourth vial. Things so great, and so fatal to popery, as
the parts which the civil governments of Europe thus
acted, in throwing off their veneration for the papal see,
must be viewed as having a place among the predictions
of the steps taken by divine Providence for the overthrow
of the papal apostasy.
What was predicted to follow the judgment of this vial,
has taken full effect, and it adds its weight of testimony
to the correctness of the views given ; — " And men blas
phemed God who had power over the plagues ; and they
repented not to give him glory." Most clearly did this
sign of the times follow the events given as fulfilling this
vial. The blasphemous system of Voltaire was, at this
very time, conceived and brought into effect. And so far
were those papal Tegions from repenting, that they en
masse went off to the most open and finished blasphemy.
We read nothing of men there blaspheming God, under
any of the antecedent vials ; but at the close of the fourth,
they pour out their blasphemies ; as was the case in fact.
The crushed egg of Jesuitism now broke out into a viper ;
and its fruit was indeed a fiery flying serpent.
Let the saints ever trust in the Lord for deliverance
from all their foes, — of gross or covert infidelity; of
Jesuitism ; of all false religion ; and of every species of
licentiousness. These have combined against their peace,
and for their ruin. God has thus far confounded them ;
and he will finally and utterly confound them : but not till
they have tried the people of God ; and God only knows
to how great a degree. Jesuits have not yet done all they
are to do. That horrid system of infidelity has not yet
done all that it is to do : nor have the systems of false
religion, and of licentiousness. God will search Jerusa
lem with candles ; and will shake not the earth only, but
the heavens, the church. Be strong in the Lord then, and
in the power of his might.

LECTURE XXVI.

REVELATION XVI.
Vial V.
Ver. 10. And the fifth angel poured out his vial
upon the seat of the beast ; and his kingdom was full
of darkness ; and they gnawed their tongues for
pain, 11. And blasphemed the God of heaven because
of their pains and their sores, and repented not of
their deeds.
The last capital event in fulfilment of the fourth vial, —
the suppression of the influence of the Jesuits in old papal
lands, took place 1773. The event of the fifth vial then,
might soon be expected to follow. And in 1789 an event
burst upon the papal world, which has every claim to being
viewed as the opening of it. The four antecedent vials
had, for more than a century and a half, been discharging
their contents on the Man of Sin. The fifth was now dis
charged on his seat (throne), and filled his kingdom with
darkness. This was commenced in the bursting forth of
that system of infidelity, which was forged in the furnace
of papal corruptions, formed by Voltaire, and his group of
infidel philosophers ; which system gloried in setting aside
the Bible, and the God of the Bible, — and which managed
and gloried in the revolution in France, and for 25 years
filled Europe with blood and terror. The chronology of
that event ; its accordance with the figure in our text ; and
its accordance with the synchronical predictions of the
same event ; — go to evince, with unusual certainty, that it
was in accomplishment of the fifth vial. Most fully does
it agree with the figure of this vial ; — with the descent of
Jesus Christ in Rev. x. ; with his descent in chap, xviii.,
(both of which give the same event in different general
divisions of the prophetic part of the book) ; with the dra-

CHAPTER XVI. 311
gon casting his floods from his mouth, to cause the church
to be carried away ; and with a prediction which we find
in Zeph. iii. of the same event, — a cutting off of the nations,
which was to take place just antecedent to, and distinct
from the battle of the great day of God which opens the
Millennium, as there follows. This bursting of the sys
tem of atheism upon France and the world, at that time,
opened indeed a new era in the affairs of man, as the little
open book in the hands of the Angel of the covenant, in
Rev. x. testifies ; and as the description of the same, in
Dan. xi. 36, to the end ; and the rising of the beast from
the bottomless, Rev. xvii. testify.
The pope had ever hoped to restore and heal his
wounded system, till that revolution in France : but his
hopes were then dashed out in the blackest night. "And
his kingdom was full of darkness," says ourtext; " and they
gnawed their tongues for pain." Until that period, the pope
had a kingdom ; after that he had none. His dominions
in Italy were alienated and overturned. His authority was
annihilated; and the Christian religion, in all his dominions,
impiously abolished ; the person of the pope seized, — ex
iled from his royal city ; and he restricted to a pension
which was given him from the iron hand of a military des
potism. What could amount, if this did not, to the event
in our text, the pouring of a vial of wrath on his throne,
and filling his kingdom with darkness ? Contemplate his
throne in past times ; and compare it with what it then
became ; and you cannot have a rational doubt but the
event of this vial of wrath on his throne was then fulfilled.
How very* great was the contrast between the power of

* To aid you in making this comparison, glance your eye over
the insolent claims of the pope, in the dark ages. The annals of
many centuries assure us of the more than royal magnificence claimed
by the Man of Sin, and given him by the nations. Take the follow
ing. In the ninth century, Pope John VIII. denounced excom
munication to all kings, who should not submit to his power. Leo
IJt. declared it " exceedingly base that those whom God had set
over the heavenly empire, should be subject to any earthly one."
Gregory VII. excommunicated Henry IV., taking from him the im
perial crown of Germany and Italy, and giving it to a favourite.
A pope, in 1080, reasoned before a council in Rome thus, " He that
could bind and loose in heaven, can on earth give and take away
kingdoms and empires, and whatever mortals have." In the ex
communication of an emperor, the pope said, " In the name of the

312 LECTURE XXVt.
the pope in past ages ; and his state after the French revo
lution. Detailed accounts of that revolution cannot here
«be given. Some sketches of it have been given in Lecture
xvi. ; and may also be found in chap. xvii. giving the
beast from the bottomless pit. The tremendous event, to
which allusion is here made, must have been one of the
vial? of the last plagues. Of this there is so great a
moral certainty, that I shall take it as granted. Any per
son who would dispute it, would dispute any event of the
Revelation, or of prophecy : and with such a character I
never wish to contend. The question then is, which of
the vials there received its fulfilment ? Could it have been
the first ? This has been found in another and antecedent
event ; and the first could not have been so late an event
among the steps of the downfal of popery. The second
too, and the third, and fourth, have been found in antece
dent events. .Could it have been the sixth ? This is mani
festly pouring on another power, and is bringing down the
Turks. Could it have been the seventh ? This is to be
an event subsequent to the restoration of the Jews ; and
is now manifestly future. It must then have been the fifth.
And with the time and description of this, it most clearly
accords. One more argument shall be adduced to evince that it
is the fifth vial. This is found in the analogies between
the trumpets and the vials, though they belong to the two
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, I depose thee from imperial and royal
administration." And his form of excommunication absolved all
Christian subjects of the emperor from every oath of allegiance to
their king. Gregory VII. declared that he was the " rightful sover
eign of the universe ; as well civil, as ecclesiastical." The popes
claimed the right of conferring the imperial crown. Innocent, in
the 13th century, taught that the difference between popes and
kings was like that between the sun and moon. He seated on their
thrones the kings of Bohemia, Bulgaria, Wallachia, and Arragon.fin
one century. He crowned the emperor Otho IV., and then deposed
him to make way for Frederic II. In Britain the same papal pre
rogative was for some time maintained. Boniface VIII. declared
himself to be " king of kings, monarch of monarchs, and sole lord
both in spiritual and in temporal things." I might fill pages with
such claims of the pope, to be the maker and unmaker of emperors
and kings !— claiming to be styled, " our lord god the pope !" — " an
other god upon earth." He has literally kicked the crown from the
king's head ; and treated kings with the greatest contempt, merely
to evince his vast superiority to them.

CHAPTER XVI. 313
different great divisions of this book. The first trumpet
opens a new series of judgments on the Roman " earth ;"
and upon the same " earth" is discharged the i-last viaL
The second trumpet affects the Roman " sea;" and the
second vial is poured upon the Roman " sea." The third
trumpet affects the " rivers and fountains of water," and
the third vial is poured upon the " rivers and fountains
of water." The fourth trumpet affects the " sun" on the
Roman earth : and thus does the fourth vial. Pass for
the present the fifth of each series. The sixth trumpet
affects the " river Euphrates," and the sixth vial has its
commission on the same river. And the seventh trumpet
and vial meet in the same event, as has been shown, and
will further appear. Examine, then, the fifth trumpet and
vial, and see whether any analogy is here found, viewing
the revolution of 1789 as the opening of the fifth vial.
The imagery of the fifth trumpet is a darkening of the
world with the smoke of Mohammedism. And the
imagery of the fifth vial is a darkening of the papal world
with a calamity no less fatal. The smoke of the fifth
trumpet is from the bottomless pit: and the darkness of
the fifth vial is the atheism of the blasphemous beast from
the bottomless pit. From that smoke of the trumpet came
swarms of horrid locusts, who had a king or leader, Apol-
lyon, a destroyer, who revolutionized and destroyed many
millions of the human family, in defiance of all law human
or divine. And those locusts, upon entering France with
an army of 400,000 men (thus exceeding their provi
dential commission), were met by Charles Martel, arid
driven from that nation with the loss of seven-eighths of
that vast army. And the fifth vial, after unlocking the
bottomless pit, and letting out the world of darkening,
atheism, and blasphemy, furnished its armies to spread
its terrors, no less than did the smoke of the fifth trumpet
its armies of locusts. By this smoke from the bottomless
pit, the sun of civil governments on the papal earth was
turned to darkness indeed, as was long predicted, Joel
ii. 31. And the civilized world was darkened with this
infernal smoke of atheism. The fifth trumpet had its de
lusion propagated with fire and sword. And the fifth vial
presented no less terrible armies for a similar purpose.
And the latter had a leader who was likewise a destroyer.
Napoleon was indeed a destroyer, as well a3 the Apollyon
Dd

314 LECTURE XXV.
of the fifth trumpet. And Napoleon, overleaping the bounds
of his providential commission, — with an army of 400,000
men, was totally defeated, and it is thought at least seven-
eighths of this vast army perished ! Thus perfect is the
analogy also between the fifth trumpet and fifth vial, view
ing it as having been fulfilled in that event ; far more per
fect than that between any other trumpet and its corres
ponding vial, if we except the seventh, which both give the
same event.
That tremendous vial commenced in 1789 ; and for
25 years its seven thunders roared most terrific, and its
period continued till the defeat of Bonaparte at Waterloo,
when that dynasty sank, and its vial of wrath closed. A
first and most signal leader of the beast from the bottom
less pit had then finished his work. In the first imperial
reign of the secular Roman beast, the beast depended on
no one emperor. Twenty reigned in the space of sixty
years ; but the beast was the same, though subject to
reverses, till befell, under the reign of Constantine. And
this system of infidelity is to continue, sometimes in, and
sometimes out of sight, till it goes into perdition in the
battle of the great day under the seventh vial, as will be
shown. The papal nations, our text informs, "gnawed their
tongues for pain, and blasphemed God because of their
pains, and repented not of their deeds." This wailing and
anguish is given also in Rev. xviii., which describes the
same event with the fifth vial. There can be no doubt
of these papal waitings ; and it is most manifest that their
calamities led them not to repentance. The papal multi
tudes seem to be fully insulated from this blessing ; given
up to " strong delusion to believe a lie ;" and all their
religion, — being but an image of paganism, — issuing in
practical and real infidelity and ruin ! This hint of the
same thing is strikingly given in Zeph. iii. 6, 7, which
please to read, in connexion with verses 8, 9. We have
there the same judgment, and attended with the same
impenitence. One argument more from analogy shall close this lec
ture. It is an old remark of writers, that the imagery of
gome, at least, of the vials is borrowed from the plagues
of ancient Egypt. That the last vial was typified by the
last plague on Egypt, is evident from the word of God, in

CHAPTER XVI. 315
that the song of praise occasioned by the last vial, is called
" the song of Moses and of the Lamb !" The last plague
but one (the death of the first-born), set the chosen tribes
out, at once, for the promised land. And the last vial but
one subverts the Turks, and prepares the way for the re
covery of the same ancient people of God. What shall
we say, then, of the last plague and vial but two ! That
plague filled the realm of Egypt with darkness. And the
last vial but two (the fifth) filled the kingdom of the papal
man of sin with darkness : so the vial assures ; and so the
event stated as the fulfilment of it, assures us. The papal
system did indeed experience, at that time, what may be
viewed as answering well to the gross darkness in the
realm of the Egyptians.
But it is happy to reflect that the tribes of Israel had,
in all their dwellings, light ; while the Egyptians had
darkness which might be felt. And the true Israel of
God, during the horrors of the French revolution, and the
judgments which followed, had indeed the light of salva
tion among them ; light to see clearly the abominations of
the infidelity in which the beast from the bottomless pit
gloried ; light to enjoy their gospel ordinances ; the light
of the showers of the Spirit of Grace ; and the light of the
flying of the angel of missions through the midst of
heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to every
nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people. Yes, and
blessed be God, they had the light of the cloud of the
Divine presence, directing and illuming their way, and disf
tilling upon them the gentle rain of grace ; while the same
cloud of Providence flung darkness upon the enemy;
thundering, as it were, with hailstones, and coals of fire ;
taking off their chariot wheels, and causing them to drag
heavily ! — a sure earnest that the sea of wrath shall, by>
and-by, return upon them, and plunge them in inevitable
perdition. " 0 Israel, trust in the Lord ; he is thy health
and thy shield."

LECTURE XXVII.

REVELATION XVI.
Vial VI.
Ver. 12. And the sixth angel poured out his vial
Upon the great river Euphrates ; and the water
thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of
the east might be prepared.
The five first vials have been given, and shown to have
been poured upon the papal beast. The sixth vial, it is
believed, is designed to subvert the power of the Turks,
the last and great supporter of Mohammedism. The rise
of their power, it has been shown, fulfilled the sixth trum
pet : and its overthrow, it is believed, will be the great
result of the sixth vial. This antichristian power must be
taken out of the way, to prepare the way for the restora
tion of the Jews. And the sixth vial will thus prove a
counterpart to the sixth trumpet, bringing down the
power to which that trumpet gave birth.
A river, in prophetic language, is a nation, or empire ;
as Isa. xviii. 2 ; " Whose land the rivers (nations) have
spoiled." The rivers affected by the fourth vial, it has
been shown, were nations. And the drying up of such
rivers, is the overthrow of such nations. Ezek. xxx. 12 ;
" I will make her rivers dry :" or, I will subvert Egypt,
and its neighbouring nations, by Nebuchadnezzar. Psalm
liv. 15 ; " Thou driedst up mighty rivers :" or, didst destroy
mighty nations. ' The drying up of the Euphrates then
must have its chief effect in the ruin of the empire of the
Porte ; — whatever synchronical events of magnitude in
Other nations may attend its operation. Should other
dynasties, under the period of the sixth vial, likewise fail ;
it would but give an emphasis to the language of the sixth
vial. The figure in the text, " the water thereof was dried
up," has suggested to some the query whether this failing
of the dynasty of the Porte is not to be effected in a gradual

CHAPTER XVI. 317
succession of calamitous events? Reply: This figure, as
found in the Bible, has generally, at least, been fulfilled by
invading armies. See Jer. lx. 36, 37 ; and Isa. liv. 27, 28 ;
where the destruction of ancient Babylon was predicted
under this figure ; and was fulfilled by the invading army
of Cyrus. It is true, in Dan. viii. 25, the Mohammedan
horn of the Macedonian beast (it is said) " shall be broken
without hands:" which seems to favour the idea of the
failing of the Turks, — the last supporter of Mohammed
ism, by wilting away in a gradual course of calamities.
This may prove true of Mohammedism, that it will fall
into contempt, and die a kind of natural death, after its
great supporter, the Turkish empire, shall be overturned
by violent means. As that scheme of delusion has lived
only by fire and sword ; so when these means fail, it will
naturally die. But whether its last supporter, the Turks,
will come down without violent means, is the question.
To make this vial analogous with the other vials of wrath,
it would seem the subversion of the Turks must be by
violent means. God has ever been able and ready to pro
vide, means adequate to his designs of vengeance. But
however the end of the Turkish dynasty may be with a
flood of violent means in divine judgment ; the way has for
a time been preparing for the overthrow of that power by
a variety of progressive calamities. A few shall be hinted.
Constantinople, their capital, was eighteen times on fire
in the last century, which consumed 120,000 buildings,
and destroyed very many lives. Add to this, that in
1810, in one fire, 8,000 buildings were destroyed; — and
80,000 people were driven from their homes. The sub
sequent ravages of fire in Pera were vast and terrible.
In 1780, Constantinople was ravaged with a plague ; and
in the year following, it was partly destroyed by an earth
quake. Adrianople, their second city, was, in 1753, more
than half destroyed by an earthquake. Two years after,
Grand Cairo was, by an earthquake, two-thirds shaken
down, and 40,000 of its inhabitants buried in the earth.
In 1755, the city of Fez was by the like judgment half
destroyed, and 12,000 of its people burned alive. Plagues
and earthquakes have, of late, ravaged various sections of
the Turkish empire. The recent accounts o( the cholera,
in Constantinople, in Bagdat (the two capitals), and in
other cities, have been of the most awful kind, as may be
Dd2

31 8 LECTURE XXVII.
well remembered. A sect arose in Arabia about the time
of the formation of the Voltaire system of infidelity,
threatening to the Turks, as was Illuminism to the papal
see. Abdul Wahab appeared, denying the Mohammedan
religion ; and collecting a powerful army. In 1804, he
had 100,000 men in arms, who ravaged Mecca, Medina,
and other capital places, with great slaughter ; seizing
upon the treasures of the tomb of Mohammed ; and, in
short, forming a revolution in the government of Arabia,
and causing the Porte himself to purchase their friendship.
It is said that Constantinople has diminished her popula
tion 300,000 since 1812 ; and various parts of the empire
have wilted away. See Hartley's Researches ; in which
we learn that many noted cities in these regions are now
no more. Ephesus, Laodicea, Colosse, Antioch in Pisidia,
Lystra, Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and Perga, are gone
with the years beyond the flood. There has been indeed
a gradual, and (I may say) rapid drying up of the Eu-
phratean empire. The way has been wonderfully pre
paring for its utter downfall. But the sixth vial was
probably to have its characteristic effect in violent attacks
from the arms of hostile nations. This opinion I was led
deliberately to form many years since, from the language
of prophecy relative to drying up rivers, and the analogy
of things. Soon after the battle of Waterloo, I expressed
my belief that the sixth vial might next be looked for, to
open upon the Turks by the attacks of hostile nations.
When the insurrection of the Greeks appeared, I ventured
to express my belief that this was the entering wedge of
the great event ; as it has proved to be indeed. The wars
and successes of the Greeks ; the subsequent war of the
emperor of the north ; and the still later successful attacks
of the Pacha of Egypt ; and the present state of the empire
of the Porte, are now well known, as before the eye of
the world. And we have here the manifest fulfilment of
our text ; — the drying of the river Euphrates !
The object of this vial is said to be, " that the way of
the kings of the east may be prepared." This is future,
and is of difficult solution. Mede, Moor, and others,
have supposed this vial will soon be followed by the
restoration of the Jews to Palestine ; which could not
have taken place, while the Turks were in possession of
it. Granting this ; who are the kings of the east? The

CHAPTER XVI. 319
Jews were formerly called a kingdom of priests. And
they may yet be pre-eminent in Christ's gracious kingdom
of " kings and priests unto God." But does this entitle
them to the appellation of kings of the east ? It may ; but
it seems doubtful. Can it mean that the way for the con
version of the eastern nations may be prepared ? But the
gathering in of those of mankind who shall be left, after
the battle of the great day, is to be an event after the
seventh, and not the sixth vial.
Some have conceived that the phrase, " the kings of
the east," in this vial, alludes to the kingdoms of the east
which composed the array of Cyrus, when he destroyed
ancient Babylon ; and that those kings of the east were
a type of the character, in the text, who, on this account
are so denominated. The event will decide -whether this
will prove correct. If it should, then the sense must be
thus : The Turks must be put down, that the way may
thus be prepared (by the restoration of the Jews, and
whatever else might occur), for that collection of the na
tions, long predicted in the prophets, which shall open the
event of the destruction of Antichrist (typified by ancient
Babylon), even as the kings of the east destroyed Babylon
of old. The kings of the east, in the text, according to
this, must mean the armies of the beast from the bottom
less pit, collected against Christ, Rev. xix. 19 ; the Gog
and his bands, Ezek. xxxviii. and xxxix., the last effort
of the horrid system of infidelity. Such an event as
this is in fact to take place, at the battle of the great
day. The event of the sixth vial opens the way for
the combination of the three unclean spirits like frogs, to
go forth and collect all the wicked world against Christ,
for the battle of the great day ; as we find following our
text. And, should many who will be found thus active
in collecting, and being collected, upon that awful occa
sion, be known as kings, and grand kings ; and as great
admirers of light in the east (as the ancient kings of the
east were worshippers of light) ; this may aid future ex
positors of our text. But of particulars of the events of
this mystical phrase, time will lead to the best solution.*
* See prophetic descriptions of the infidels in the last days in
Ezek. viii. and 3 Pet. ii. and iii. ; Epistle of Jude; and 2 Tim. iii.
1-5.

320 LECTURE XXVII.
Relative to the time of the subversion of the Turks ; — it
might be expected soon after the close of the fifth vial in
the battle of Waterloo. If the year, for which the Turks
are said, in the sixth trumpet, to have been prepared, is a
prophetic year, to be reckoned from the time of their em
pire being established in Europe, in 1453 ; then the 360
years added to this, brings it to the year 1818, for the
commencement of that fall. In Dan. viii. 14, we have the
time stated for the cleansing of the sanctuary, which is
the same event. This time is said to be 2300 years.
Reckoning this from the commencement of the Macedonian
empire ; which is said to be 481 years before Christ ; this
brings to 1819, for the fall (or the commencement of the
fall) of the Turks : within one year of the other reckoning;
and, we may say, at the very time the oppressed Greeks
were commencing their attack upon the Turks ; which
either has issued, or will issue, in the fall of the latter.
The signs of the times then, from the state of the Turks,
are of the deepest interest. They testify not only that the
Bible is indeed the sure word of prophecy ; and that all
its predictions will be fulfilled ; but that we have every
encouragement to study the prophecies in view of the signs
of the times.
It was stated, in the lecture on the fifth vial, that there
is a manifest analogy between some of the last plagues
on Egypt, and some of the last vials ; as the stroke in the
Revelation testifies, where, upon the last vial being exe
cuted, Christians sing the song of Moses and the Lamb.
Look then at the last plague but one, and the last vial
but one (or the sixth), and behold the following like
ness. That plague cut off the first-born in Egypt in the
night. And it is worthy of note, that a terrible plague,
the cholera (a plague which has more generally seized
upon its prey in the night), has, at this very age of the
world, swept over the Turkish empire, and much of the
earth. Our Lord, predicting the signs of the battle of the
great day (which must be at, or near the time of the sixth
vial), says, " there shall be great earthquakes, in divers
places, and famines, and pestilences, and fearful sights,
and great signs shall there be from Heaven." Have not
these warnings been seen, and known ? And what has cut
off, in a few years, at least one-sixteenth part of the hu
man family ; and utterly desolated some cities of the

CHAPTER XVI. 321
Turks ? The cholera is indeed a sign of the times, under
this vial, of no small interest ; and it more than hints its
amazing analogy to its corresponding plague on Egypt.
And should it prove to be a fact also, that this is a
period of very great terror to kings, and first men of the
earth ; that many of them fall ; and others tremble for their
thrones, and even existence; the analogy between that
plague and the vial may be yet more complete. God
says of the period just before the battle of the great day,
" The sun (an emblem of kings) shall be turned into
darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and
notable day of the Lord come." Joel ii. 31. As Psalm
lxxvi. 12 ; " He shall cut off the spirit of princes ; he is
terrible to the kings of the earth." Isa. xxiv. 21;" And
it shall come to pass, in that day (at or near the battle of
the great day), that the Lord will punish the host of the
high ones, and the kings of the earth." This seems the
same as the turning of the " sun to darkness, before the
great and notable day of the Lord shall come." When
future days shall give these things in history, they will be
plain. And they may be found to bear a part toward the
introduction of the Millennium, similar to that which the
death of the first-born in Egypt bore to the settling of the
chosen tribes in the promised land. Christians, rejoice in
your humbler walks of life; and prepare to meet the
heavenly Bridegroom, coming to set up his kingdom on
earth, in its millennial glory. He leaves his heaven, and
comes down ; darkness is under his feet ! But he will
shed light upon your path, as the Light of Israel ; the
Saviour thereof in time of trouble.

LECTURE XXVIII.

REVELATION XVI.
Six vials have come under consideration. We arrive
now to an interesting event between the sixth and seventh
vials, preparatory to the seventh, and followed with a
solemn warning from the mouth of Christ.
Ver. 13. And I saw three unclean spirits like
frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out
of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of
the false prophet.
14. For they are the spirits of devils, working
miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth,
and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle
of that great day of God Almighty.
At this period arises a complicated and most extensive
combination, slyly moving over the world to ripen the na
tions for ruin, to collect them to the battle just before the
Millennium. The infernal dragon, on every new defeat,
ever wakes up to new efforts. And we find in our text,
one of the last efforts of the devil, and one the most ex
tensive and interesting. The greatness of the event is
fully implied in the following things, — its being so long
predicted, — and the descriptions occupying so consider
able a space allotted to the description of the vials, — its
occasioning such warning from the mouth of Christ, as
follows our text, and shall be noticed, — the greatness of
its extent,— and the result of its operations, — " going forth
to the kings of the earth, and of all the world," and col
lecting them, — the notable things ascribed to it, — " work
ing miracles" — (Semeia, signs, wonders), — their suc
cesses and innovations will appear like miracles, —
deceiving and leading off characters, who would not have

CHAPTER XVI. 323
been believed to be capable of being thus led off to sin
and ruin. — " If it were possible, they would deceive even
the very elect." Behold the vast effects ascribed to this
diabolical agency ! " For they are spirits of devils !" —
" Going forth unto the kings of the earth, and of the whole
world," to gather them to the battle of that great day of
God Almighty ! — that great day so much predicted in the
prophetic scriptures.
The first of these combined agents comes out of the
mouth of the dragon. This is the devil, as Rev. xii. 9.
This means a spirit of the outbreaking of licentiousness
and wickedness of any and every most dreadful kind, just
as Satan can find tools on which to work. This is a kind
of filling up of all or any species of wickedness, from the
most vulgar to people of better style, as the devil can find
millions who will unite in no system ; but have a sordid
wickedness of their own. The beast (at this late period,
and as distinct from popery) is the last head of the secular
Roman beast, rising, in the last days, from the bottomless
pit, to go into perdition. See Rev. xvii. and xix. 1 9. It
is that enormous power of infidelity which is predicted to
appear on earth in the last days, with a head healed which
had been wounded to death, which beast arose in the
Voltaire system of infidelity in the French revolution of
1789. And the false prophet, in our text, is the papal
system after it ceases to be, a reigning power as it has
been, " reigning over the kings of the papal earth ;" or,
when it was taken into the grasp of the beast from the
bottomless pit, as a mere tool of his policy. The papal
hierarchy, from that time, ceased to be a beast, or reign
ing by his own power, and the name of false prophet is
given it. Till the fifth vial, it was itself a beast. But this
vial has been poured in his seat (throne) and overturned
it. This hierarchy, after this event, drags out a miserable
existence, till it sinks in the battle of the great day of
God ; but it is never more a beast, or an independent
power.* * That this is the false prophet in our text is evident from the
following considerations.
1. What is said of the hierarchy, and the false prophet, shows
that they are one and the same. They go into perdition in the
same connexion with the secular Roman beast, and at the same
time. The two following passages decide this. In Daniel ix. 11

324 lecture xxvni.
This false prophet sends out one of the three diabolical
influences, the spirits of devils, which go forth into the
kings of the earth, and of the whole world, to gather them
to the battle. This will be popery, where papal influence
may be allowed to operate ; and where it cannot, other
systems of false religion may amount to the same thing.
These three kindred spirits are " unclean," filthy, licen
tious, " having eyes full of adultery, that cannot cease
from sin," — as kindred prophecies assure us. They are
"like frogs," sly, out of sight, slippery, at rest, or
leaping, as may best answer their purpose. They will
creep into every apartment, as it was said of the frogs in
Egypt. In the depth of their designs, their unity, their
incredible perseverance, and the depravity of the human
we read, " I beheld, then, because of the voice of the great
words which the horn (the papal horn), spake ; I beheld, till the
beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning
flame." This is the parent text of the following, Rev. xix. 20,
" And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet, that
wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that
had the mark of the beast, and that worshipped his image ; these
both were cast alive in the lake of fire burning with brimstone."
We have here manifestly the same event, at the same time. The
two powers in the parent text, are the beast and his horn. The two
in the text copied from it, or giving the same event, are the beast
and the false prophet. The false prophet, then, is popery after it
ceases, in the fifth vial, to be a beast.
2. Mohammedism, which some have groundlessly conjectured to
be this false prophet, goes into perdition under the sixth vial, as
has been shown, and hence cannot be the false prophet in our text
as connected with the secular Roman beast. It never had any
connexion with the beast ; and hence is not here to be associated
with it.
3. Popery is, in fact, the nominal form of godliness of the secular
Roman beast. After that beast arose in France, and subverted the
power of the pope ; he found (after the bloody experiment of several
years), that a professed atheistical power cannot exist on earth, but
will destroy itself. Hence, at Notre Dame, the infidel emperor,
with his posse, in a very formal manner, adopted popery as his
nominal form of godliness, and thus gave birth to the false prophet
in our text. This tool of popery is thenceforth thus denominated.
It is officially now the mere creature of a superior master, as a
woman borne upon a beast to her execution, Rev. xvii. 3. That
re-establishment of popery, at Notre Dame, was enough to give it
this view ; however the millions of people of the same system of
infidelity, in other lands and times, should be disconnected with
popery, and should have their own congenial forms of godliness in
their own way.

CHAPTER XVI. 325
heart, will all unite to give the most astonishing force and
success to their operations. Every incident, every local
interest, every corrupt or interested passion, and all the
power of sly insinuation, will be found to be pressed into
their service. Licentiousness, infidelity, and false religion
will unite their influence to aid the same cause of the
devil, however the different branches and agents will have
their own subordinate ends in view. The great things
ascribed to these three unclean spirits like frogs, do
forcibly suggest that they are moving only in a well
known track, although this new and efficacious method is
noted as going forth with power, after the sixth vial. They
will then be the old, and not the young, of their race,
when those new and powerful operations are ascribed to
them ! Such vast and subtle systems of influence do not
spring at once into existence, but are usually a work of
time. At the period in our text, their agency becomes
more efficient, but their track and designs will not then be
new. It will be a last effort in behalf of a darling cause.
Dragonism, infidelity, and false religion, will now be
found, each making its last effort! As to any concert 5ev
tween them, it may be only such as is always found among
the enemies of God, — a determinate hostility to the cause
of Christ, while yet they are the subjects of ever so many
minor differences among themselves. Much is yet to be
done by this vast system of infidelity noted as the beast
from the bottomless pit. When the code of the Jesuits
was suppressed, it next came forward in a new dress of
open infidelity, with great improvements, in Illuminism.
In this, it introduced the judgment of the fifth vial, as has
been shown ; when the earth then opened her mouth
and swallowed up its floods, — -as upon the close of Bona
parte's dynasty ; it has still continued in various regions
to operate, as one of the founders long since boasted, that
let it go to ruin, he would engage to restore it in a shoiit
time to a more perfect state than before. This system,
though attended with severe checks, will live till the battle
of the great day of God, and will then stand pre-eminent
in the ranks of the kingdom of Satan, to do now its worst.
In the fifth vial, its judgments were so terrific, that many
mistook them for the battle of the great day of God. And
after the judgments of the sixth vial, the system, essen
tially the same, will slide forth from its retreats, with im-
Ee

326 LECTURE XXVIII.
provements, to meet the ruling passions and circumstances
of the day, and will lead on the events of that long-pre
dicted battle. The terrors of these preparatory opera
tions may be learned in some degree from other prophe
cies of the same period. Here may be the bitter contents
of the little book, Rev. x. 10, 11. Here the trial of the
patience of the saints, Rev. xiii. 10, and xiv. 12, 13. And
here may be the most serious depression of the witnesses,
known in Rev. xi. 7, as their being slain. This agency
of the three unclean spirits actually gathers the nations to
the battle of " that great day of God Almighty ;" that
event so well known through all the prophetic scriptures,
and which accomplishes the seventh vial.
In the midst of the scene of gathering the nations, our
blessed Lord gives the following notice.
Ver. 15. Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he
that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk
naked, and they see his shame.
This is as though Christ should say, Now is near at
hand, the time and event, to which my warning, "Behold,
I come as a thief," had a more special allusion. Now is
the time, when my people on earth shall need to watch ;
as I urgently directed them, when I predicted my coming,
as it related to the battle of the great day of God. This
my coming is at the door. Watch now, and henceforth,
therefore, and keep the garments of your souls, lest when
I come ye be found naked, and sink in endless shame.
Jesus Christ here decides, that the predictions he uttered,
in Matt, xxiv., Luke xxi., and Mark xiii., while they had
a primary allusion to his coming in the destruction of
Jerusalem (as he said it should take place on that gen
eration) ; had a more signal allusion to the seventh vial,
or battle of that great day of God, to introduce the Mil
lennium. Paul decides the same in 2 Thess. ii. The
Thessalonians, finding that Christ predicted this coming
of his to take place on the Jews of that generation ; and
knowing that that generation was then drawing to a close ;
were terrified with the thought, that this coming of Christ,
in its general sense, " as a snare on all that dwell on the
face of the whole earth, was then at the door." We have
here, as well as in our text, a most positive decision, that

CHAPTER XVI. 327
this predicted coming of Christ involved both the destruc
tion of the Jews, as type, and the destruction of Antichrist
as antitype. This is the coming, of which Christ in our
text gives warning ; — " Behold, I come as a thief." And
he blesses those who keep his solemn commands to watch.
For things are now fast ripening into that tremendous
event. The diabolical agency, noted in this lecture, will
now soon be found accomplishing its work. The opera
tions are already more than commenced, like a field of
frogs, thickening under the grass, which already shakes
with their numbers, and nestlings ; and is corrupted with
their slime and filth! This agency will fully perform its
work !
Ver. 16. And he gathered them together into a
place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.
Armageddon is a compound word, importing the moun
tain of Megiddo. This was a city of Manasseh, 44 miles
north of Jerusalem ; ;.nd was the noted place where the
army of Jabin was routed by the few men of Israel under
Deborah and Barak. See Judges i. 27 and v. 19. It
was to this place, that Ahaziah fled from Jehu, and there
died of his wounds. In this place also, was Josiah slain
by Pharaoh Necho, king of Egypt. It was hence known
as a place of slaughter and mourning ; as noted in Zech.
xii. 11. This "valley of Megiddo" implies a mountain,
or hill, there, as Armageddon imports. The armies for
the battle of the great day of God, being gathered there,
may have something of a literal, as well as mystical im
port. The prophets repeatedly speak of a literal expedi
tion in that land against the Jews, as having returned
thither. See Ezek. xxxviii. and xxxix. ; and Zech. xii. ;
Joel iii. 1, and onward. But whether the text and such
predictions will, or will not have a literal fulfilment, they
will have an awful mystical fulfilment on antichristian
nations, who will be cut off in that fatal fall of Antichrist.
These nations will be found warring against Christ, and
prepared for destruction ; which it is abundantly declared
shall then be accomplished. A preparation for this de
struction is their gathering at Armageddon. This expres
sion implies those enormities of conduct and character,
which, in the predictions of this period, are ascribed to

328 LECTURE XXVHL
them. In Joel iii. 9-12, is a prophecy of the sentiment
in our text, and which reflects light, upon it. This prophet
had said, of these last days, " Blow ye the trumpet in
Zion ; sound an alarm in my holy mountain ; let all the
inhabitants of the land (earth) tremble ; for the day of the
Lord cometh ; for it is nigh at hand." The prophet then
proceeds to describe this day of the Lord. " For behold
in those days, and at that time, when I shall bring again
the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all
nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Je-
hoshaphat ; and will plead with them there for my people,
and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered
among the nations." This bringing them to the valley of
Jehoshaphat, is phrased in allusion to another ancient
typical scene in Palestine ; — the combined attack upon the
Jews there, in 2 Chron. xx. The pious king Jehoshaphat,
on this occasion, betook himself to God, with his people,
and prayed as follows; "Wilt thou not judge them? for
we have no might against this great company that cometh
against us ; neither know we what to do ; but our eyes are
upon thee !" God undertook for them, fought their bat
tle, and destroyed their enemies ; so that the Jews had
nothing to do but to gather the spoils, and bless God.
And in allusion to this fact, the nations collected by the
three unclean spirits are said to be gathered to the valley
of Jehoshaphat ; just as in our text they are said to be
gathered to the mountain of Megiddo. The prophet Joel
proceeds ; " Proclaim ye this among the gentiles ; prepare
war ; wake up the mighty men ; let all the men of war
draw near ; let them come up. Beat your ploughshares
into swords, and your pruning-hooks into spears ; let the
weak say, I am strong. Assemble yourselves, and come,
all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round
about ; thither cause thy mighty ones to come down,
O Lord." This is the same gathering for the battle, with
that in our text. And the same event with the seventh vial
follows ; — " Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe ;
come, get you down ; for the press is full, the fats overflow ;
for their wickedness is great. Multitudes, multitudes in the
valley of decision; for the day of the Lord is near in the val
ley of decision. The sun and the moon shall be darkened,
and the stars shall withdraw their shining. The Lord also
shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem ;

CHAPTER XVI. 329
and the heavens and the earth shall shake: hut the Lord shall'
be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of
Israel." This is the battle of that great day of God Almighty,
to prepare for which, the spirits of devils gather their legions
to Armageddon. But what is the sense of the mystical
gathering of the nations ? It means their wicked prepara
tion for ruin : being found as though in battle array
against God. It means what is implied in the following
warnings relative to that day. " When the Son of man
cometh, shall he find faith on the earth." " For the har
vest of the earth is fully ripe." " The press is full, — the
fats overflow, for the wickedness thereof is great." Hear
the following inspired strokes : " There shall be mockers
in the last time, who shall walk after their own ungodly
lusts." " And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, pro
phesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh, with
ten thousand of his saints, to execute judgment." That
precious fragment of primitive revelation is thus given
anew, to assure of the abomination and destruction of
infidels of these last days ! " These filthy dreamers de
file the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of digni
ties." " What they know naturally, as brute beasts, in
those things they corrupt themselves." " They have gone
in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of
Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core."
" Clouds without water, carried about of winds ; trees
without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots."
"Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame ;
wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of
darkness for ever." "Walking after their own lusts,
speaking great swelling words." " That walk after the
flesh, in the lusts of uncleanness, and despise government;
presumptuous are they, self-willed," — "natural brute
beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speaking evil of
things which they understand not, and shall utterly perish
in their own corruptions." " Having eyes full of adultery,
and that cannot cease from sin ; beguiling unstable souls ;
a heart they have exercised with covetous practices ;
cursed children!" "While they promise liberty, they
themselves are the servants of corruption." These are
some of the traits of character, given of the infidels and
licentious, who are to be gathered, as in battle array,
against the Heavens! Already do they appear. The
Ee2

330 LECTURE XXIX.
world is filling with them ; and it will fill more and more
rapidly under Satanic influence, till the judgments of Hea
ven will burst upon their guilty heads ; — in the seventh
vial. Most critical and dangerous will be the state of the
rising generation, when things are thus !

LECTURE XXIX.

REVELATION XVI.
Vial VII.
Ver. 17. And the seventh angel poured out his
vial into the air ; and there came a great voice out
of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It
is done. 18. And there were voices, and thunders, and
lightnings ; and there was a great earthquake, such
as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty
an earthquake and so great.
19. And the great city was divided into three
parts, and the cities of the nations fell ; and great
Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give
unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his
wrath. 20. And every island fled away, and the moun
tains were not found.
21. And there fell upon men a great hail out of
heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and
men blasphemed God because of the plague of the
hail ; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.
This is an assemblage of figures the most terrific ;
more than all that is found in the antecedent six vials.
This is " the battle of that great day of God Almighty !"
as in the antecedent context, alluding to a day much
known in the prophets. The words, in the Greek ren-,

CHAPTER XVI. 331
dered that, are more emphatical than can be rendered in
English; the article being doubled, and the demonstrative
pronoun inserted, to show it to be a day of vast note.
The other vials seem to have been local ; — partial judg
ments on particular places, or systems : but this is general
on all the enemies of Christ : to denote which, it is said
to be poured into the air, a striking figure ; — poured upon
the world of every thing antichristian ; upon all that had
been collected by the three unclean spirits. Other pro
phecies note this event as executed first on Antichrist ;
and then on all that is antichristian. All that partake
of his sins, shall receive of his plagues. The beast seems
to take the first discharge ; and then all that have the
mark of the beast. As in Ezek. xxxviii; and xxxix.,
the battle commences upon Gog : and then rolls over all
his hosts, and the legions combined with him, in the dif
ferent nations. A great voice out of the temple of heaven,
from the throne, is heard, saying, " It is done !" or, this
is the last scene of wrath ; as in another passage upon
the same event, " the mystery of God shall be finished."
This is, then, thefinishingscene of judgment. And the com
plication of figures by which is given this finishing scene
of wrath, is notable indeed. We have here epitomes of
the most striking figures of divine wrath, on nations that are
found in the prophets. " Voices" commence the scene,
like those given by lion-like generals, at the head of
their armies, when just entering a field of battle. "The
Lord is a man of war !" " The Lord shall utter his voice
before his army ; for his camp is very great ;" says the
prophet Joel, when describing this very battle. This may
be the parent passage of the clause in our text, which
speaks of voices ! " Thunderings, lightnings" follow, most
fit emblem of unprecedented wars. And the greatest
earthquake ever known, an emblem of by far the most
fearful commotions through the world of mankind ever
known. " The great city," or the antichristian world,
is fatally divided ; and God remembers to fulfil on Baby
lon the fierceness of his wrath. Islands, and mountains, or
the less and greater kingdom of the world, disappear in fatal
revolutions, and destruction. And to finish the whole, a hail
falls, of such stones each of 114 pounds weight, as to de
stroy inevitably every one on whom they fall. Our Lord,
upon the same event, says, " There shall be great tributes

332 LECTURE XXVIII.
tion, such as was not from the beginning of the world to
that time; no, nor ever shall be." This assertion of Christ
shows its event must be the same with that in our text ;
as no other event could be the greatest. Daniel speaks
of it thus ; " Then shall be a time of trouble, such as never
was since there was. a nation, even to that same time."
"And (says the text,) the great city was divided into three
parts." The great empire of Antichrist shall be thus
divided. This empire will then be found to be " great ;"
and to have been so organized as to constitute it, in all
its parts, a city, — one entire system. This is taught also
in chap. xi. 8 ; when noting where the slain witnesses lie
unburied ,; " in the street of the great city" of the noted
system of the infidelity of the day, called the beast from
the bottomless pit. Parts of this great system now revolt.
The Jews at the destruction of Jerusalem (a type of this
very event) fatally fell into three great divisions, and thus
facilitated their own ruin. What this division of the great
antichristian city will be, time will best decide. The un
clean spirits that collect this battle array, are three. And
fatal divisions are predicted of that time. Our Lord as
sures us, " there shall be five in one house divided, three
against two, and two against three." Fathers with sons,
and sons with fathers shall contend ; and even mothers
with daughters. It is said in Ezek. xxxviii. 21 ; where
this fall of Antichrist is predicted as the fall of Gog, and
his bands; "And I will call for a sword against him
throughout all my mountains, saith the Lord God; every
man's sword shall be against his brother." Says the text,
"And the cities of the nations fell." The divine ven
geance, after it breaks forth, rolls and thunders through
the antichristian nations, demolishes their capitals, and
lays their cities in ruins. As Ezek. xxxix. 6, after the
battle is noted as opening, first on Gog and his bands, noted
as collected in Palestine against the restored Jews, God
says, ¦• And I will send a fire on Magog, and among them
that dwell carelessly in the isles." The nations of Gog,
dwelling carelessly at their homes, shall next receive the
fatal discharge of this cup of wrath, and the fire of God
will devour them. How far literal fire will have an agency
in this falling of the cities of the nations, the event only-
must decide. The stroke, in Rev. xiv. 18, where (upon
the same period and event) it is said, "And another angel

CHAPTER XVI; 333
came out of the altar having power over fire" has been
supposed to indicate that the element of fire may, with
other furious elements, be let loose on the cities and na
tions given up to ruin. " The fire of thine enemies shall de
vour them." "And great Babylon came in remembrance
before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the
fierceness of his wrath." Great Babylon here, must in
clude the powers combined against Christ, in this conclud
ing scene. Who these powers are, we learn in other
predictions of the same event, as Dan. vii. 11 ; "I bfeheld
then because of the great words which the horn spake ;
I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body de
stroyed, and given to the burning flame." We learn here,
that the beast, the secular Roman beast, and his papal
horn, constitute the great Babylon to be destroyed. In
Rev. xix. 19, 20, we find the same. " 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. And the beast was taken, and
with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before
him ; these both were cast alive into the lake of fire burn
ing with brimstone." Here is the great Babylon, and her
destruction, in the text. She is the secular Roman beast
and popery ; together with all the adventitious powers,
kings, or kingdoms, of the earth, which the powers of in
fidelity, popery, and licentiousness shall be found to have
combined against Zion. "And every island fled away,
and the mountains were not found." Islands and moun
tains here stand for less and greater nations, and are
found no more. It then follows ; " And there fell upon
men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the
weight of a talent," or 1 14 pounds. Hail is an emblem
of divine judgments ; and hailstones of 1 14 pounds indi
cate that the judgments here will be as much more terri
ble than any ever known, as hailstones of 114 pounds
weight exceed any hail ever before known. This em
blem teaches not the nature of those judgments, but their
greatness, and the fatal ruin they accomplish.
These judgments will sweep away the horrid system of
infidelity, with the remains of popery ; all systems of false
religion, and of licentiousness ; — the open and contending
enemies of God in every land. The many predictions of
the event suggest that violent exterminating wars, civil

334 LECTURE XXIX.
dissensions, pestilences, and probably raging elements let
loose upon man, will be among the fatal judgments of that
day. The scenes of vengeance will be seen to come from
the hand of God. It is the battle which Christ will fight ;
and men will know that the people thus destroyed are "the
slain of the Lord." As Jer. xxv. 33, "And the slain of
the Lord shall be, in that day, from one end of the earth,
even unto the other end of the earth." This is the scene,
when God says, " I will gather the nations, and assemble
the kingdoms, to pour upon them mine indignations, even
all my fierce anger ; and the whole earth shall be devoured
with the fire of my jealousy." " The light of Israel shall
be fur a fire, and his Holy One for a flame ; and they shall
burn and devour his thorns in one day." Of these thorns
and briers, David said, when predicting the Millennium,
and the antecedent ruin of Antichrist, " But the sons of
Belial shall be all of them as thorns thrust away, because
they cannot be taken with hands; but the man that would
touch them must be fenced with iron, and the staff of a
spear ; and they shall be utterly burned with fire in the
same place." And the prophet Malachi, upon the same,
says, " Behold, the day cometh which shall burn as an
oven ; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly
shall be as stubble ; and that day that cometh shall burn
them up, and leave them neither root nor branch. But
unto yon that fear my name shall the Sun of Righteous
ness arise, with healing in his wings ; and ye shall tread
down the wicked, and they shall be as ashes under the
soles of your feet." The prophet Isaiah says of this day,
" Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with
wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land (earth) desolate ;
and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it." " Howl
ye, for the day of the Lord is at hand ; it shall come as
destruction from the Almighty. Therefore shall all hands
be faint, and every man's heart shall melt." "The earth is
utterly broken down ; the earth is clean dissolved." " For
the indignation of the Lord is upon all nations ; and his
fury upon all their armies ; he shall utterly destroy them.
For it is the day of the Lord's vengeance ; and the year
of recompenses for the controversy of Zion." " Behold,
the Lord will come with fire, and with chariots, like a
whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebukes
with flames of fire ; for by fire and by sword will the

CHAPTER XVI. 335
Lord plead with all flesh." In Dan. ii. 34, 35, the event
is given thus ; " Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out
without hands, and smote the image upon the feet that
were of iron and clay, and brake them in pieces. Then
was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold
broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of
the summer threshing-floor, and the wind carried them
away, and no place was found for them ; and the stone
that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled
the whole earth."
The time of this vial, we learn in Dan. xii. will be at
the close of the 1260 years; and relative to this period,
see Lecture XVIII. on Rev. xiii. 11, to end, on the number
of the beast. It probably will not take place till after the
close of the 19th century. The event of this vial, it has
been shown, is the same in the second division of the
Revelation, with the seventh trumpet in the first. It is the
same with the harvest and vintage in chap. xiv. ; and the
battle with Christ in chap. xix. It is a great event in pro
phecy ; and it impresses such Bible language as the fol
lowing ; " The Lord is a man of war ; mighty in battle."
" He ruleth by his power for ever ; let not the rebellious
exalt themselves." " Fear ye not me ? saith the Lord ;
will ye not tremble at my presence?" "Who would set
the briers and thorns against me in battle ? I would go
through them, I would burn them together." God came
from Teman ; the Holy One from mount Paran. His
glory covered the heavens ; the earth was full of his praise.
Before him went the pestilence ; and burning coals went
forth at his feet. He stood and measured the earth. He
beheld and drove asunder the nations. The everlasting
mountains were scattered. I saw the tents of Cushan in
affliction. Thou didst ride upon thy chariots of salvation.
Thy bow was quite naked. The mountains saw thee, and
they trembled. The deep uttered his voice, and lifted up
his hands on high." " Thou wentest forth for the salva
tion of thy people." "The Lord is jealous; the Lord
will take vengeance on his adversaries." "The moun
tains quake at him ; the hills melt ; the earth is burned at
his presence !"
Behold then the madness of Antichrist and of the infi
dels of the last days, to contemn and challenge such an
antagonist ! May Christians come out from among them ;

336 LECTURE XXX.
may they clearly discern the signs of the times, and well
improve them. Of this period the Saviour kindly says,
" Ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars. There shall
be signs in the heavens, and in the earth ; — fearful sights
and great signs shall there be from heaven — famines,
earthquakes and pestilences — the sea and the waves roar
ing, men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after
those things that shall come ; for the powers of the hea
vens shall be shaken." Warnings like these should not
be overlooked. To improve them is of solemn interest;
and to neglect them is the way to death.

LECTURE XXX.

REVELATION XVTI.
Ver. 1. And there came one of the seven angels
which had the seven vials, and talked with me, say
ing unto me, Come hither ; I will show unto thee
the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon
many waters ;
2. With whom the kings of the earth have com
mitted fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth
have been made drunk with the wine of her fornica
tion. A further view is, in this chapter, given of the destruc
tion of the papal hierarchy, and of the beast from the bot
tomless pit, as her executioner. One of the angels who
had poured out the seven vials is sent to exhibit to John
the judgment of popery as the mother of harlots, whom
God has taken in hand to execute upon her his wrath.
This is a system of idolatry ; and idolatry is noted in the
word of God as spiritual adultery. This is one reason at
least why that hateful system of false religion is known as
the mother of harlots, as here represented. This wretched

CHAPTER XVII. 337
character sits on many waters ; or, has deluded and led
to ruin many people, nations, tongues, and multitudes, by
her idolatries under the Christian name, — as though she
had intoxicated them with her philtered wines prepared for
the vilest purposes.
Ver. 3. So he carried me away in the spirit into
the wilderness : and I saw a woman sit upon a scar
let-coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having
seven heads and ten horns.
4. And the woman was arrayed in purple and
scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious
stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand
full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication :
The papal power had driven the true church of Christ
into a wilderness state, as chap. xii. 6. And John now, to
find this wild bewildering system, must go into a wilderness,
where she in her turn is immured ; or, she is in trouble
under the judgments of God. "I will show thee the judg
ment of the great whore." I will present her to you as
on her way to execution, on the back of that beast whose
horns shall soon destroy her, — shall eat her flesh, and
bum her with fire ; for strong is the Lord who judgeth
her. She is here reduced from her predominance, from
being herself a beast, as in chap. xiii. 11-18, and is taken
into the possession of another beast just risen from the
bottomless pit, and she is carried by him at his will. This
beast is of imperial scarlet colour, and is full of the names
of blasphemy, and is, by his seven heads and ten horns,
identified with the old secular Roman beast. This harlot
now sits upon his back as a mere tool of his wicked
policy, while she is at the same time on her way to exe
cution, which this beast is to accomplish. Her gaudy
array, and her infatuating enticements are here given, to
indicate what she has been in her prosperous days, even
as the newly risen beast is said to be of seven heads and
ten horns, to show that he is the old pagan beast revived.
Ver. 5. And upon her forehead was a name writ
ten, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT,
Ff

338 LECTURE XXX.
THE MOTHER OP HARLOTS AND ABO
MINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
6. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood
of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of
Jesus : and when I saw her, I wondered with great
admiration. We have here her true character as revealed and
known ; and not concealed as it had been for many centu
ries, while she was deemed the holy mother church ! Her
mask has been taken off, and she is exhibited to the na
tions as Mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots
and abominations of the earth .'" She is the same that has
been for many ages drunken with the blood of the martyrs
of Jesus ! Here is exhibited her desert of the fatal judg
ment, soon to be executed upon her by the horns of this
beast now bearing her. Dr. Lardner and Bishop Pear
son have shown, relative to the superscription upon her
forehead, that it was a custom with the Romans to place
on the foreheads of capital criminals, or over their heads
when executed, a label of their character and crime. The
superscription over the head of Christ, when he was cru
cified, was upon the same principle. This shows, then,
that the papal harlot was here presented for execution.
"I will show thee the judgment of the whore!" And
soon, below, the horns of this beast eat her flesh, and burn
her with fire ! Dreadful to her was the event, when the
beast from the bottomless pit first arose, filled her kingdom
with darkness, and as it were, flung her upon his back, to
convey her to the place of her destruction. This beast of
infidelity originated in her fatal corruptions, and was
there forged as a rod of iron to dash in pieces the enemies
of God, and itself. One description here given of this
mother of harlots is, that she " reigneth over the kings
of the earth !" Not that she now reigns over them when
mounted on this beast for execution, any more than she
reigned over them when John wrote the passage. This
clause must be construed by its history. She reigned
over the kings of the Roman earth while she was the
papal beast; while they cheerfully submitted to her super
stitious sway ; and before the fifth vial was discharged
upon her throne and overturned it. It is a thing now

CHAPTER XVII. 339
passed, as in verse 2, " with whom the kings of the earth
have committed fornication," or, walked in her idolatries,
when under her influence, in ages past. John wonders
at this sight with great admiration.
Ver. 7. And the angel said unto me, Wherefore
didst thou marvel 1 I will tell thee the mystery of the
woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which
hath the seven heads and ten horns.
8. The beast that thou sawest was, and is not ;
and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go
into perdition : and they that dwell on the earth shall
wonder, whose names were not written in the book
of life from the foundation of the world, when they
behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.
9. And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The
seven heads are seven mountains, on which the
woman sitteth.
10. And there are seven kings : five are fallen,
and one is, and the other is not yet come : and when
he cometh he must continue a short space.
11. And the beast that was, and is not, even he is
the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdi
tion. This newly raised infidel beast " was, and is not." He
once existed, and then ceased to exist, for a time. The
secular Roman beast has been exhibited, Rev. xiii. 1-10,
as rising from the sea, and continuing till the revolution
under Constantine, when he received a deadly wound in his
sixth head, and died. He then for a long time, — and
during the reign of the papal beast, — lay dead, and had
only a mystical existence ; that in the last days he
should rise again, or have his deadly wounded head
healed. An infidel power should arise in the last days
on the Roman earth, which in prophetic language should
be recognised as the same pagan power risen again to
life. This healed head of the old pagan beast should be
also denoted as a new beast ascending from the world
below, and going soon into perdition in the battle of the
great day. The prophet Daniel gives this Roman beast
rising from the sea, Dan. vii. 7, as he is given in Rev.

340 LECTURE XXX.
xiii. 1. Daniel gives also the papal power as the horn of
this beast, into whose hands the saints are delivered for
1260 years. And he shows that this secular Roman
beast is to be found alive in these last days. For, of the
battle of the great day, he says, Dan. vii. 11 : "I beheld,
then, because of the voice of the great words which the
horn spake, I beheld till the beast was slain, and his body
destroyed, and given to the burning flame. His being
here thus found alive in the last days, accounts for what
is said of him, that he " was, and is not, and yet is." The
same idea is given in Dan. ii. 33, 34, where the feet and
toes of the image (meaning the same Roman power with
this beast) are part of iron and part of clay ; partly strong
and partly broken. It might be broken down, and retire
from sight, and yet come again into most mischievous
operation ; and it there remains in existence, till the stone
(Christ) shall grind it to powder, in the battle of the great
day. It is accordingly said, in Rev. xiii. 1, that the secu
lar Roman beast there, had received a wound in his head
and died, and afterward this deadly wound was healed.
This healed head is the same as the beast from the bot
tomless pit, in our text. The same event is noted by the
double figure of a head healed of a deadly wound ; and a
new beast, which yet is identified with the old secular
pagan beast, as having seven heads and ten horns. The
seven heads are explained as being " seven hills on which
Rome was built," and also as seven distinct forms of go
vernment. Ovid says of ancient Rome, " which being
the seat of empire and of the gods, looks round from seven
mountains (hills) upon her whole city." Our text adds,
" And there are seven kings ; five are fallen ; and one is ;
and the other is not yet come." The sense of which is
this (according to the best commentators), there have been
in this power five forms of government, kings, consuls,
tribunes, decemvirs, and dictators. One is ; or its pres
ent imperial form exists, which was the one wounded
to death by Constantine, about A. D. 320, when the power
of paganism was put down.
Relative to the one that had not yet come ; the seventh
head, or form of government, which, when it should come,
" should continue a little space :" writers, in past days
have been perplexed. And no wonder: for it was then
future, and was one of those things in prophecy which

CHAPTER XVII. 341
can never be known till fulfilled. There was no data
from which even to conjecture what form that seventh
head of government might assume, till the event should
inform. Nothing that took place under popery could
amount to it, or to the resurrection of the beast slain by
Constantine. Whatever of real idolatry or impious wickedness arose
under popery, it could be nothing more than the image of
this pagan beast, in the power of the papal beast. This
was furnished indeed. (See Lecture XVIII. on the papal
beast, chap. xiii. 11, to end.) But the secular beast died
in his avowed nature of open hostility to the cause of
Christ. And nothing short of a power of avowed hostility
to the cause of Christ could lay any claim to be viewed
as the old beast revived. As in this character he died,
so in this character he was again to rise, and has risen.
This rising of the beast from the bottomless pit, it is be
lieved, has taken place in these last days of wonder, in a
conspicuous part of the Roman earth, in France, in the
well-known revolution of 1789, in the bursting out of a
system of gross infidelity, which shocked and terrified the
world for a quarter of a century. The seventh head, an
atheistical republican head, — calling itself " The Terrible
Republic," did indeed rise on principles of as gross pro
fessed hostility to Christ and his cause as ever was the
old Roman paganism. It undertook to propagate through
the world a scheme of gross atheism. And this se
venth head of pagan Rome continued the •• short space"
of several years, which was a longer time than some of
the former heads of the Roman beast continued, and was
by far more notable and terrible than they !
The seventh head, " the terrible republic," then gave
way to the eighth head ; which more fully answered to
the beast in our text. " The terrible republic" was soon
formed into an empire, a military despotism, under a
chieftain, raised up for the purpose, to be a leader of a
terrible empire, on the old Roman earth. Here was the
old pagan empire raised to life again, in the language of
prophecy ; the deadly wounded head was indeed healed.
Says the text, " The beast that was, and is not, even he
is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition."
He is the eighth head numerically ; or, in reckoning for
ward, being the next after the seventh. The ancient in>
Ff2

342 LECTURE XXX.
perial head was the sixth. The atheistical republic was
the seventh ; and the subsequent imperial was the eighth.
But this Roman beast was a beast " of seven heads;"
and not eight. He was to have but seven heads of spe
cific difference. The eighth then must be "of the seven;"
or must be viewed as one of them risen again to life, in
the language of prophecy. With which of the seven then,
must it be viewed as uniting ? Certainly with the one of
the same denomination, the imperial ; the one under the
government of emperors. This was the head that received
the deadly wound in the revolution under Constantine.
This then was the one to be healed, and raised again to
life ; and to form, at the same time, the new beast from the
bottomless pit, just before the battle of the great day. He
died while in direct hostility to Christ, and was to be
raised again in direct hostility to Christ, as was in fact
the case, and which shall be more clearly shown. This
direct open hostility is essential to fix his character as the
secular Roman beast. If he did, some time after he rose
(from views merely secular), exchange this his avowed
hostility for a papal form of godliness (after finding that
people cannot be governed even by the point of the bayo
net without some kind of religious fear) ; this forms no
objection to his character, as the Roman beast, which he
first most fully assumed. He is still, with all his nominal
"form of godliness," the secular Roman beast.
It may be clearly shown that such a power as is here
noted was to arise in the last days. In Dan. vii. 11, we
find the secular Roman beast, as distinct from popery, is
alive in all his glory and terror, and is predominant over
the papal horn, when both are attacked for their destruction
in the battle of the great day. "1 beheld then, because of the
voice of the great words which the horn spake, I beheld till
the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to
the burning flame." This clearly implies the resuscitating
of this beast in the last days, after he had long lain dead
during the reign of the papal beast. The same is fully
evident in Rev. xix. 20, where we find this secular Roman
beast leading the kings of the earth, and of the whole world,
to the battle there against Christ, just before the Millennium.
But this same beast had lain dead from the days of Con-

CHAPTER XVII. 343
Stantine, only as he lived in his image formed and sustained
by popery ; and also in the mystical fact, that he was to
rise again in the last days, which has been fulfilled. This
his resuscitation is implied in Rev. xvi. 13, where we find
this same beast, after the sixth vial in the subversion of the
Turks, actually existing as distinct from popery, and placed
before it, in the account of the three unclean spirits like
frogs which collect the world to the battle of the great day
of God. It is here implied, that after he had so long lain
dead, he must recently have risen from that death, and
been exhibited as the same beast, — as is found in our text,
where he ascendeth from the bottomless pit, and goeth
into perdition. Such a leading despotism is implied, too,
in ancient prophecies of these last days. See Psalm ii. 9,
when Christ comes to take the heathen for his inheritance,
and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possessions,
and finds it necessary first to dash in pieces his anti
christian enemies, he does this with his " rod of iron."
Such an iron rod was then to be furnished to his hand,
— a bloody power subsequent to popery, — a military des
potism, different from a corrupt effeminate harlot ! The
same thing is implied in the many ancient predictions of
the events of the same period, as in Ezek. xxxviii. a Gog
must be furnished, to collect and lead the different quar
ters of the world against the chosen people of God. When
God says (Zeph. iii. 8), " I will gather the nations, and
assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them mine indigna
tion, even all my fierce anger, and the whole earth shall
be devoured with the fire of my jealousy ; and then will I
turn to the people (the few left) a pure language, that all
may call upon the. name of the Lord, and serve him with
one consent," it implies an efficient power, to form and
lead this vast collection. God works by means ; and such
an instrument is fully implied in this, and in the many
other prophecies of the same great event. In Daniel, and
the Revelation, we find expressly who this efficient instru
ment is ; he is a power called the Roman beast, distinct
from and superior to popery, which is but a nominal form
of godliness of a most corrupt kind. It is the imperial head
of the old pagan Roman beast, healed by the dragon of
his deadly wound, with the world wondering after him.
The rise of this beast frpm the bottomless pit, it is be-

344 LECTURE XXX.
lieved, fulfilled the casting of the floods from the mouth of
the old serpent, Rev. xii. 15, to sweep from the earth the
church of Christ.*
* Let the reader please to compare Rev. xiii. 3-8 ; verse 8 of
our context ; Rev. xix. 19; Dan. vii. 11 ; and xi. 36-40 ; as given
in Lecture XI. Then read the following note as a history of the
origin of their fulfilment.
Voltaire, a noted French philosopher (born in the year 1694,
and who died a little before the French Revolution of 1789), formed,
in his early youth, a design to destroy the Christian religion. One
man may set a fire, which a thousand cannot extinguish. " Behold,
how great a matter a little fire kindlelh !" He most solemnly vowed
to devote his life to this object. He would say, " I am weary of
hearing people repeat, that twelve men were sufficient to establish
Christianity. I will prove that one may suffice to overthrow it."
And such were his genius and early turn of mind for this work,
that he received from a tutor this hint; " Unfortunate young man!
you will one day come to be the standard-bearer of infidelity." This
was indeed fulfilled. " Christianity (he said) yields nothing but
poisonous weeds." And he engaged to destroy it ; and associated
with himself a band of infidel philosophers ; such as Diderot,
D'Alembert, Rousseau, and Frederic of Prussia, for this purpose.
And soon he found means to unite in the same cause six crowned
heads in Europe. The number and influence of this impious con
spiracy rapidly increased, and their success was astonishing even to
themselves; sothat they would exult among themselves at the amaz
ing power of secret societies, and the ease with which the world may
be bound by invisible hands. It was a noted watchword of their
order, speaking of Christ, " Crush the wretch." Closing a letter
thus, "Crush the wretch, then ; crush the wretch!" This code,
(having the old and powerful code of the Jesuits upon which to im
prove) was deep, powerful, cautious, provident, subtle, and exten
sive ; as has been shown from the best of documents, in Payon's
Modern Antichrist, Robinson, and Barruel. And this system took
effect, in old corrupt papal countries, like fire in a field of the most
combustible matter. The mummery of popery had prepared the
millions of the papal delusions to fall at once before a subtle system of
infidelity. Voltaire boasted that "from Geneva to Berne, not a Chris
tian was to be found ; and that if things went at this rate, in twenty
years God would be in a pretty plight" (to use his own words). Se
crecy was the soul of their order. And their plans were prosecuted with
incredible vigour in halls hidden from the world, and undercover of
Masonry, whose lodges they drew into their order. One of their
noted watchwords was, " Strike deep, but hide the hand that gives
the blow." Another ; " The world must be bound by invisible
hands." Their leaders received fictitious names : and their official
business was transacted in figures invented for the purpose. They
succeeded to poison the fountains of education. The highest literary
societies they filled with their members.and rendered them subservient

chapter xvn. 345
to their views. And although the ruin of Christianity was at first the
express object of the order, the subversion of civil government
came to be united with it. And it became a principle of their
scheme, that all restraint upon the inclinations of man is but an
insupportable usurpation : that the goodness of the end justifies
the means, of whatever kind, to destroy all such usurpations.
" Bundles of lies" (to use their own words), were the means on
which they placed their chief reliance. And many thousands be
came leagued with them in hidden concert, to reform and save the
world by the doctrine of " Liberty and Equality." Meaning liberty
from all the restraints of Christianity, and of the governments of the
world. Their highest secret was, that there is no God, no future
state; That death is an eternal sleep. And all restraint on the feel
ings of man, is an abridgment of his rights." These sentiments it
was the business of their leaders and adepts to instil into the minds
of people, especially of youth ; but to do it with the utmost caution,
not to overact, nor to be betrayed. Their means of doing this were
deep, subtle, and most dangerous to the candidate selected. They
would allure those marked out for their prey with hints, seemingly
incidental, of the amazing power and benefit of secret societies.
That such societies did exist, embracing the greatest characters who
were able to govern and reform the world, and to render it most
happy. Where it was perceived that such hints took effect,
the candidates were slyly induced to engage in their scheme, and
to bind themselves to yield full obedience to unknown leaders,
whose orders should, in some way, be made known to them. Of
such leaders, they were led to have the most exalted opinion, that
they were great, wise, and good. These admiring candidates were
taught that there were various grades in these secret societies ; and
that new and wonderful discoveries were to be made to them at
every grade. The power of ambition and of novelty were thus made
to bear upon them, and to arrest their ignorance and vanity. The
leaders and adepts were in the mean time, insidiously engaged in
watching their pupils, and erasing from their minds all impressions
derived from religious instruction ; thus preparing them to pass, with
out alarm, to higher grades of infidelity. To such grades they
were admitted with various imposing ceremonies, so soon as it was
perceived they were prepared for them, and would not retreat, and
expose the order. When it was found, by cautious leaders, that they
would not be likely to receive the infidelity of higher orders ; the
candidate found himself neglected, and not admitted to higher
grades. This was called sta bene '. or, very well, stay where you are.
In this secret and gradual process, many thousands were led up to
their higher secrets, of atheism, anarchy, and licentiousness.
In that deep system of infidelity, the aid of the press was called
in, as a powerful engine of their order. A learned encyclopedia
was by them formed, and given to the world, in which infidelity
was interwoven, in the most deep, sly, and curious manner. And
other publications innumerable, and even down to the smallest tracts
were given, with a view to fill the world with the fatal seeds of infi
delity. And books of licentious tendency were profusely scattered .
through the nations. Printers and booksellers were artfully enlisted
in the same cause ; and funds were raised to indemnify them in

346 LECTURE XXX.
suppressing evangelical publications ; and in giving the readiest
currency to their infidel productions. Reading societies too, were
formed, to give the infidel publications the most fatal effect. And
the direction of schools was extensively obtained by the leaders of
this infidelity ; who filled them with such instructers as they chose,
who would be sure to guard against all pious instructions, to efface,
as far as possible, all religious impressions from their members, and
to introduce their skeptical sentiments as far as practicable.
The following account of this impious system is from the pen of
the celebrated President Dwight. He says, " Tbey ultimately
spread their design throughout a great part of Europe ; and em
barked in it individuals, at little distances, over almost the whole of
that continent. Their adherents inserted themselves into every
place, office, and employment, in which their agency might be effi
cacious, and which furnished an opportunity of spreading their cor
ruptions. They were found in every literary institution, from the
lowest school to the academy of sciences ; and in every civil office,
from that of the bailiff to that of the monarch. They swarmed in
the palace, they haunted the church. Wherever mischief was to
be done, they were found : and wherever they were found, mischief
was done. Of books, they controlled the publication, the charac
ter, and the sale. An immense number of books they formed ; and
an immense number they forged, prefixing to them the names of re
putable writers, and sending them into the world to be sold for a
song ; and (when this could not be done) to be given away. They
possessed themselves, to a great extent, of a control nearly absolute,
of the literary, religious, and political state of Europe. They pene
trated into every corner of human society ; and scarcely a man, wo
man, or child, was left unassailed wherever there was a single hope
that the attack might be successful. Books were written, and pub
lished in multitudes, in which infidelity was brought down to the level
of peasants, and even of children ; and they were poured with immense
assiduity into the cottage, and the school. Others of a superior
kind crept into the shop, and farm-house ; and others of a still higher
class found their way to the drawing-rooms, the university, and
the palace." This sketch gives an alarming view of this most fatal
order of infidelity. Said a chief of this scheme, "All the German
schools and the Benevolent Society, are at last under our direction.
Lately we have got possession of the Bartholomew Institution for
young clergymen ; having secured all their supporters. Through this
we shall be able to supply Bavaria with fit priests. We must acquire
the direction of education, of church management, of the profes
sional chair, and of the pulpit. We must preach the warmest con
cern for humanity, and make people indifferent to all other relations.
We must gain the reviewers, and journalists, and booksellers."
The following sentiments were given in their own language : " All
ideas of justice and injustice, of virtue and vice, of glory and infamy,
are purely arbitrary, and dependent on custom. The man who is
above law, can commit, without remorse, the dishonest act that
may serve his purpose. The fear of God is so far from being the
beginning of wisdom, that it is the beginning of folly. Modesty is
only an invention of refined voluptuousness. Virtue and honesty are
only the habit of actions personally advantageous." " The supreme

CHAPTER XVII. 347
king (their code adds), the God of Jews and Christians, is but a
phantom. Jesus Christ is an impostor !" It was their prime practi
cal maxim, — gain a footing by fraud, and propagate the scheme by
force. The same was carried out in the following instructions to
the initiated ; " Serve, assist, and mutually support each other.
And when your numbers shall be augmented to a certain degree, and
you have acquired strength by union ; then hesitate no longer ;
but begin to render yourselves powerful and formidable. You will
soon acquire a sufficient force to bind the hands of your opponents
and subjugate them. Extend and multiply the children of light, till
force and numbers shall throw power into your hands. Nations
must be brought back by whatever means : peaceably, if it can be
done ; if not, then by force. For all subordination must be made
to vanish from the world."
This fatal diabolical scheme spread not only through France, but
in Germany, under the direction of its arch agent Doctor Adam
Weishau pt, Professor of Canon Law in the university of Ingolsl adt :
and by thousands of other agents in the old countries. Propagators
of this system were profusely extended through the civilized world,
by no means excepting our States, as has been shown by the writers
on the subject.
In this system, men were trained to infidelity, cruelty, and blood,
by a variety of the most efficacious means. Take the following
instance, as it is given by a celebrated writer, and copied by many.
"A candidate for one of the higher orders was conducted into a
place where he saw the dead bodies of some who were said to
have been executed for treason to their order (betraying their
secrets). The candidate there saw his own brother bound hand
and foot, begging for mercy, and praying this brother to intercede
for him. This candidate was informed that his brother was about
to be executed for having betrayed the order ; and that it was re
served for him to be the executioner of this just vengeance ; that
this gave him opportunity to evince his attachment and zeal for the
order. He was told that, to spare his feelings, his eyes should be
blindfolded. A dagger was then put into his right-hand, and his
left-hand was laid on the palpitating heart of the victim, and he
was told to strike ; which he did. And when the blindfold was
taken off, he saw it was a lamb he had stabbed ; and his brother was
well, and pleased."
In such ways, men were trained up for the horrid scenes which
took place in France in and after the revolution of 1789. Such
was the rise of the beast from the bottomless pit

LECTURE XXXI.

REVELATION XVII.
Further illustrations will here be given of verses 7—11,
last recited, which speak of the beast that was, and is not,
and was to ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into
perdition : which is the eighth head of the secular Roman
beast, and of the seven. It has been shown that this
beast rose from the bottomless pit in the Voltaire system
of infidelity. The reign of this healed head of the old
pagan beast, which is in this chapter noted as a new beast
arising from the bottomless pit (and is thus known under
a double figure) is noted as being short : — " ascendeth out
of the bottomless pit, and goeth into perdition!" — "whose
judgment lingereth not ; and whose damnation slumbereth
not!" A bright earnest was soon given of this trait of his cha
racter, — an anticipation of its fulfilment in early scenes
after the revolution in France, as well as in the sink'mgof
the dynasty of Bonaparte, its first signal leader. It was
soon demonstrated that infidelity has the heart of a demon,
the ferocity of a tiger, the fangs of a panther, and the
fury of a lion. Its delicious food is blood : and it can fly
with the wings of a fiend to the field of carnage, and feed
on the flesh of a brotherhood. The first leaders of that
revolution, in great numbers, soon destroyed each other.
Heaven let loose these furious men upon each other, and
blessed the world by committing them to an early grave.
"In Aug. 26, 1792, an open profession of atheism was
made by the National Convention, and corresponding
societies and atheistical clubs were everywhere held fear
lessly and undisguised." Massacres and the reign of
terror succeeded, to tell which would fill a volume. Hear
one report of the National Convention of Jan. 30, 1795.
"Last year you maintained 1,100,000 fighting men.

CHAPTER XVII. 349
France stood armed on the one side, Europe on the other,
and victory constantly followed the tricoloured standard.
Holland is conquered,, and England trembles ; 23 regular
sieges terminated ; 6 pitched battles gained ; 2,000 can
non taken; 2,000 towns submitted ; such is the glorious
result of the last campaign ; the next promises, if possi
ble, more surprising success !" The loss of men in the
armies of France from 1789 to 1796, slain, was said to
be 1,200,000, besides the huge hosts of slaughtered citi
zens, men, women, and children, who were said to amount
to 2,000,000. General Denican, a French officer, de
clared that 3,000,000 of the French perished within five
years of the revolution in 1789. The " Terrible Republic"
(a name they assumed before they became an empire) hav
ing by public authority denied God and the Christian religion,
were prepared to patronize any and every enormity ; the
burning of the Bible in a public place; the parading of the
sacramental vessels through the streets on an ass, in con
tempt ; posting in their places of burial, " Death is an eternal
sleep !" abolishing the Sabbath, and shutting up the houses
of God ; declaring Christ an impostor ; the gospel a
forgery ; and swearing to extirpate Christianity from the
world ; assuring the public as follows, — "Man, when free,
wants no other divinity than himself, — reason dethrones
both the kings of the earth and the king of heaven, — no
monarchy above, if we wish to preserve our republic be
low, — every other than a republic of atheists is a chimera,
— if you admit the existence of a heavenly sovereign,
you introduce the wooden horse ; what you adore by day,
will be your ruin by night." A comedian, as a priest of
Illuminism, publicly attacked God thus: "No, thou dost
not exist ! If thou hast power over the thunderbolts, grasp,
and aim them at the man who dares to set thee at defiance
in the face of thine altars. But no ! — I blaspheme thee,
and yet I live ! No ; thou dost not exist !" Well is this
beast from the bottomless pit said to be "full of the
names of blasphemy," as verse 3 of our context. Soon
did they receive their emperor, — military despot ; and
soon he led them to form the " Confederation of the
Rhine." But Bonaparte was not the beast from the bot
tomless pit, any more than was each of the twenty em
perors who in turn reigned in the first existence of the
imperial head of this beast in early times, — that sixth

350 LECTURE XXXI.
head of the Roman beast. It depends on no one man,
but is an enormous system of infidelity, which was to
be sometimes "strong," and sometimes "broken" — "part
of iron and part of clay." Let one or twenty of its dy
nasties fail ; the beast is the same till he goes into perdi
tion under the seventh vial. Rev. xix. 19; Dan. vii. 11.*
To be convinced that the beast from the bottomless pit,
in this chapter, and the healed head in chap, xiii., are the
same power of the last days, please to compare the pas
sages, chap. xiii. 1— 10, with chap. xvii. 7-14. One had
a deadly wound, but is now whole ; the other, after long
absence, arises from hell, a little before the battle of the
great day. To the one is given " a mouth speaking great
things and blasphemies:" the other is "full of the names
of blasphemy." To the one it is given to make war with
the saints ; the other makes war with the Lamb. One
has power over all kindreds, tongues, and nations : of the
other it is said, God hath put in their (the nations') hearts
to agree and give their kingdom unto the beast, till his
word is fulfilled. All the world wonders after the one,
whose names are not in the book of life : of the other,
* In Isaiah xiv. relative to Babylon, we have a prediction, which
Scott conceives is to have its ultimate fulfilment in the last days :
we read, " Rejoice not thou, whole Palestina (papal Philistines),
because the rod of him that smote thee is broken. For out of the
serpent's root shall come forth a cockatrice, and his fruit shall be a
fiery flying serpent." Here one had smitten them ; but his rod was
broken, upon which they rejoiced ; but Heaven says, Rejoice not,
and tells the reason why ; and then adds, " for there shall come forth
from the north a smoke." — "Thou, whole Palestina, dissolved!" (i. e.
shall be dissolved.) And the verse following tells the time, and the
consequence, " What shall one then answer the messengers of the
nation 1 That the Lord hath founded Zion, and the poor of his
people shall trust in it." We have here the Millennium,— and also
events which just precede it. And the breaking of this rod of the
oppressor explains what precedes in this chapter, verse 5-20, which
please to read. We have here one who has smitten the nations,
and is then broken, — falls, as Lucifer, — the day-star falling from
heaven ; and is thus addressed, " Is this the man that did make the
earth to tremble ; and did shake the kingdoms 1" And he is noted as
cast out of his grave, or the stately sepulchres of kings, — " an
abominable branch,"— and in burial separated from all of his impe
rial character ; going down to the stones of the pit, or to a stony
grave, separate and unhonoured ! But the people whom he has
smitten are assured that greater evils are before them. From his
roots (or in some way from the same system), shall come a cocka
trice and a fiery flying serpent.

chapter xvn. 351
they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names
are not written in the book of life. What is wanting to
Constitute them one and the same. They are both the
secular Roman beast of seven heads and ten horns, and
distinct from popery.
The imperial head of the Roman beast, then, or a mili
tary despotism, is noted as having two distinct and distant,
reigns. Under the one, Christ was crucified, and his fol
lowers persecuted : under the other, war with Christ is
the Object, and his witnesses are to be sorely depressed
for a time. The one received a wound and died, in the
revolution under Constantine, under the figures Rev.
vi. 12, to end: the other is to go into perdition in the
battle of the great day of God.
Ver. 12. And the ten horns which thou sawest
are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as
yet : but receive power as kings one hour with the
beast. The old Roman beast had ten horns ; and the new
beast from the bottomless pit is noted as having ten horns.
Some have imagined the horns of the former to have been
the fragments into which the old empire was finally
divided ; but this seems unnatural. Horns are emblems
of power ; but these fragments into which the empire
dwindled, were fatal effects of its weakness. And these
fragments came into existence long after the beast was
wounded to death by the revolution under Constantine,
and died. I shall, then, consider these horns of the first
beast as the kingdoms which actually constituted the
strength of the empire in its glory. These were its horns
indeed ; and they were many, if not precisely ten. We
find, at once, under the dominion of Caesar, — Italy, Greece,
Macedon, Syria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Carthage, Spain, Gaul,
and Britain. Who can tell why these were not the ten
horns of that beast ? Daniel seems to decide that they
were thus, when he says, Dan. ii. 44 ; " In the days , of
these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom."
What kings? — the ten toes of the great image, which had
just been noted ; which were the same with the ten horns
of the beast under consideration. This text had its pri
mary fulfilment in the setting up of Christ's kingdom, in

35? lecture xxxi.
the first century of the Christian era : and is to have an
ultimate one in the coming of the Millennium. The for
mer took place in the days of those kings denoted by the
ten toes of the image ; the latter is to take place after the
fall of the beast from the bottomless pit. These horns,
verse 16 informs us, hate, burn, and destroy the papal
harlot. Says Mr. Pool ; "lam much inclined to think
the prophecy (of these ten horns) to concern some kings
near the end of the antichristian reign." This must in
deed be the case. In Dan xi. this same wilful kingdom
of the last days is found subduing the nations, and dividing
their territories for his gain. What is this but the form
ing of his horns 1 Should ten such horns be found at any
one time to exist, it would be sufficient to fix this his
character,* even should they continue, as our text assures
they will, but one prophetic hour. They " have received
no kingdom as yet, but receive power, as kings, one hour
with the beast." Each has a semblance of a kingdom, a
shadow of it without the substance ; and even this but for
an hour. The ancient horns of the beast had their king
doms, — and this for long periods. But ihe horns of the
beast from the bottomless pit seem to obtain no real king
dom, but the name only. Its leader gives no real king
dom, but empty titles. So manifestly are the two sets of
horns distinct from each other.
* After the French empire arose, we find the " Confederation of
the Rhine." And the following creation of kings was agreed upon
by Napoleon and the emperor of Austria (the former being the Em
peror of France, and the king of the Romans ; and the latter,
Copartner of the Confederation of the Rhine).
1. Archduke Charles, king of Spain, and of the Indies.
3. Joseph Napoleon, king of Italy.
3. Ferdinand IV. king of the Two Sicilies.
4. Joachim, king of Poland.
5. Eugene, king of Macedonia.
6. Louis Napoleon, king of Bavaria.
7. The hereditary prince of Bavaria, king of Holland.
8. Jerome Bonaparte, king of Wirtemberg.
9. The king of Wirtemberg, to be king of Westphalia.
10- The grand duke of Baden, to be king of Switzerland.
Whether these were the ten horns of this beast, or whether other
nations where this system of infidelity is planted, who may agree
and give their kingdom unto the beast, will yet form them, time
will decide.

CHAPTER XVII. 333
Ver. 13, These have one mind, and shall give
their power and strength unto the beast.
We have here recognised, in the kingdoms that com
pose these ten horns, a signal yielding to the influence of
the beast, in which the governing Providence of God is
clearly confessed, for the fulfilment of his word in judg
ments upon his enemies, and trial of his friends. We
must believe that things are still pending which will give
an ultimate fulfilment of this passage, as it will be fulfilled
when the unclean spirits like frogs shall gather the nations
and assemble the kingdoms to the battle of that great day
of God, Rev. xvi. 13, 14, and xix. 19, where the king
doms of the world under the beast are drawn up in battle
array against Christ.
Ver. 14. These shall make war with the Lamb,
and the Lamb shall overcome them : for he is the
Lord of lords, and King of kings : and they that are
with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.
We have here the great object of the beast of the last
days, " war with the Lamb," — war with the saints. Here
is the rage of Satan in his last efforts, when he knoweth
that his time is short. But though he may seem to prevail
for a short time (say three years and a half), Christ will
thenceforth prevail, and make his cause triumphant over
the world. " For he is Lord of lords, and king of kings ;"
and his followers are " called, and chosen, and faithful."
Ver. 15. And he saith unto me, The waters
which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are
peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.
16. And the ten horns which thou sawest upon
the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make
her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and
burn her with fire.
17. For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his
will, and to agree, and to give their kingdom unto
the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.
18. And the woman which thou sawest is that
Gg2

354 LECTURE XXXII.
great city which reigneth over the kings of the
earth. We have here a confirmation of the remark, that the
beast with the papal harlot on his back, is indeed bearing
her as her executioner to the place of her execution. As
the beast was gendered in the abominations of popery ; so
it is made to operate as a rod of iron to dash her to
pieces, and then to destroy itself.
So easily can God confound his enemies, and make
them to furnish rods of iron for their own destruction.
And we have in this chapter the estimation in which God
holds the remaining system of popery. This fatal system
is now struggling to fill our beloved land, as the last hope
of the papal see. And our incautious and ungrateful na
tion may indeed by this means be scourged. But the
fall of that system of the dragon is revealed, and is
inevitable.

LECTURE XXXII.

REVELATION XVITI.

Ver. 1. And after these things I saw another
angel come down from heaven, having great power ;
and the earth was lightened with his glory.
2. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, say
ing, Babylon the great is fallen, and is become the
habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul
spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.
3. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the
wrath, of her fornication, and the kings of the earth
have committed formication with her, and the mer-

chapter xvm. 355
chants of the earth are waxed rich through the abun
dance of her delicacies.
4. And I heard another voice from heaven, say
ing, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not par
takers of her sins, and that ye receive not of hex
plague. 5. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and
God hath remembered her iniquities.
6. Reward her even as she rewarded you, 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 gloried herself, and lived
deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her :
for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no
widow, and shall see no sorrow.
8. Therefore shall her plagues come in one day,
death, and mourning, and famine : and she shall be
utterly burned with fire : for strong is the Lord God
who judgeth her.
9. And the kings of the earth, who have committed
fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall be
wail her, and lament for her, when they shall 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 shall weep
and mourn over her ; for no man buyeth their mer
chandise any more :
12. The merchandise of gold, and silver, and pre
cious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and pur
ple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and
all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels
of most precious wood, and of brass, and of iron* and
marble, 13. And cinnamon, and odours, and ointments,
and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour,
and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, arid
chariots, and slaves, and souls of men.
14 And the fruits that thy soul lusteth after are

356 LECTURE XXXII.
departed from thee, and all things which are dainty
and goodly are departed from thee, and thou shalt
find 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 torments, 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 !
17. For in one hour, so great riches is come to
naught. And every shipmaster, and all the com
pany in ships, 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 holy
apostles and prophets : for God hath avenged you
on her.
21. And a mighty angel took up a stone like a
great millstone, 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 trumpeters 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 ; and the voice of the bridegroom and
of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee :
for thy merchants were the great men of the earth :
for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.

CHAPTER XVIII, 357
24. And in her was found the blood of prophets,
and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the
earth. We have here the fall of the papal beast, — the fall of
popery, from being a reigning power, under the fifth vial ;
not her final destruction under the seventh. This chap
ter gives the same event with that in chapter x., — the same
descent of Christ. So great an event should be given in
each great division of the book ; and this second view of it
should be found alluding chiefly to its effects on the state
and feelings of the friends of the papal see. These ac
counts of that event should each be introduced as a notable
descent of Christ. And in the text he cries with a loud
voice, " Babylon is fallen, is fallen !" Or, the dominant
power of popery is broken by the pouring of a vial of
wrath on its throne, Rev. xvi. 10. This phrase seems to
rest on Isa. xxi. 9, as a parent text, and as giving the
same event. And it is also the same event and period
with that given by the second angel, Rev. xiv. 8 : " And
there followed another angel (next after the angel of mis
sions now flying) saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen !"
In this passage (chap. xiv. 8), we find that this fall of the
papal Babylon is an event distinct from, and antecedent
to her final destruction with the infidel beast under the
seventh vial ; as this latter event, in this 14th chapter, is
given at its close, under the figure of the harvest and vin
tage, which are distinctly future of this fall of papal Baby
lon. This the glancing of our eye upon that chapter
will show. This fall of Babylon, then, is the fall of
popery under the fifth vial ; her fall from being a reigning
power. These passages are a calling of the attention of
mankind to this event, as a fact, which is an interesting
sign of the times, and connected with other things of prime
importance. In this fall, papal Babylon had exhibited to the world,
the fact, that her realms were but a "habitation of devils ;
a hold of every foul spirit ; and a cage of every unclean
and hated bird," as our text assures. The abominations
of this system were, to a great degree, exhibited to the
world, at the time of the Reformation, and the same thing
had ever since been more and more manifest. But, at
this time, in the bursting out of the Voltaire infidelity, in

358 LECTURE xxxfi.
and after the French revolution, the blasphemies and
licentiousness of the system petrified the world with hor
ror ! It seemed like the infernal world broke loose
indeed : and we can scarcely conceive what more would,
or could have been done, had all the legions of the fallen
angels been suffered to come forth, incarnate and visible
on earth, and done their worst ! Here was a beast from
the bottomless pit indeed. No wonder, then, another
voice from heaven was heard, as verse 4-7 of our text,
warning against all affinity with Babylon, — calling on
people to come out of her, — or sink under her plagues ;
precisely as is given in warning by the third angel flying
in the midst of heaven, chap. xiv. 8-11 ; warning all that
have the mark of the beast, of the pending judgments of
Heaven that shall fall upon them. Compare the two pas
sages, and we may well tremble at the judgments of God,
while we feel the urgent duty of avoiding all connexion
both with the papal see, and the more latent system of
infidelity. The mark of these systems in either the
forehead or hand, here ensures the eternal burning of
divine wrath. Her sins having reached heaven, and God
having taken her in hand, he will give her little respite
till the seventh vial shall finish the scene of divine wrath
on the whole concern of popery, and the horrid scheme of
infidelity which originated in her corruptions. The saints
are called upon (verse 6), to execute upon papal Babylon
the judgments of Heaven denounced upon her, and to
double them to her for the persecutions they have re
ceived. The Bible sense of this has been explained, as
being the same with that of the two witnesses having power
to shut heaven ; and to smite the earth with all plagues ;
and with the honour of the saints, in Psalm cxlix; —
executing upon the enemies of God the divine judgments ;
also saints breaking the nations with a rod of iron, Rev.
ii. 27. The allusion clearly is to the power of their
prayers with God ; — Christ's destroying his enemies in
their behalf; and their fellowship with him in it. In the
battle of the great day all this will be fulfilled. "There
fore shall her plagues come in one day," verse 8. And
the same is in verse 21, assuring, that with violence shall
the whole concern of popery and of atheism then sink, as
a millstone in the ocean, to utter perdition. The wailings
of papal kings are noted ; — crying " alas," at her ruins,

CHAPTER XVIII. 359
which loom up before them like the smoke of a city
which has fallen in devouring flames ! Kings and first
characters of papal earth ; those mystic buyers of her
merchandise, howl and bewail her darling fallen glory !
Priests, cardinals, and legates, — all their popes, — arch
bishops, Jesuits, venders of sins ; bishops and friars, keep
ers of their nuns ; haters of marriage (pure in heart no
doubt), this horde of papal merchants, once most rich, but
now how fallen ; all lament and mourn, " Alas, alas,"
such glory, 0 how fallen. Well are these hordes of the
papal hierarchy noted as her merchants, and as being rich
by the abundance of her delicacies, — rich, in trading in
the souls of men. The invoice of the delectable variety
of their riches is mystically given in this chapter. Papal
history tells the true story ; — vending indulgences to sin,
pardoning sins, and praying souls out of purgatory for
money : — by things like these those merchants had their
wealth ! Fat livings flowed thence in great abundance.
The coffers of his holiness, how rich ! — eight millions of
dollars, annually, were said to be his revenue. And his
clergy were made rich indeed. But behold their tremen
dous reverse. " The merchants of these things, — made
rich by her, stand afar off, weeping and wailing, and say
ing, Alas, alas, for in one hour so great riches are come
to naught !" Behold the contract between them and the
dear people of God, verse 20. " Rejoice over her, thou
heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets : for God hath
avenged you on her." They rejoice not in revenge ; but
in holy love to God, and to his justice and truth. The
falling of popery is matter of joy to heaven and earth L
Its fall commenced in the Reformation ; and succeeding
vials of wrath pushed forward the same event. The fifth
vial (verse 2d of our text) hurled the hateful power from
all her reigning predominance, flung her upon the back
of a military despotism, and set her on the way to the
fatal execution of the seventh vial, when the declaration
(verse 21 of our text) shall be fulfilled : " And a mighty
angel took up a stone like a millstone, and cast it into the
sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Baby
lon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all."
It is plain, then, that after the papal mystery Babylon the
great "is fallen, is fallen," as in our text, verse 2 (fallen
under the fifth vial as has been shown : fallen, as in chap.

360 LECTURE xxxn.
xiv. 8, at a period distinctly antecedent to the battle of
the great day — the seventh vial, as is there shown) ; yet
in verse 21 of our text, a great Babylon is still to fall ; to
fall under the seventh vial* as a millstone sunk in the
ocean. To recollect this fact, which has before been
given, turn to Rev. xix. 19, 20, and Dan. vii. 11, where
both give the same idea, — that the infidel Roman beast
stands first, in that closing scene ; and popery (in Daniel,
the horn of that beast, and in Rev. xix. the false prophet
under him) is next, and sinks with the beast to perdition.
thus evident it is, that the Babylon in verse 21 of our text
is that great beast ; and the Babylon, which has already
fallen, in verse 2 of our text, is fallen popery. In this
fall of the system of infidelity and popery, the beast of
Rev. xvii. executes his commission upon the filthy papal
harlot mounted on his back, who herself had been Mys
tery, Babylon the Great, so long as she reigned over the
kings of the earth. But she fell from that dominant state
under a military power, which under a succeeding vial of
wrath, the seventh, " eats her flesh, and burns her with
fire," and is the means of her and its own destruction.
The last verse of our text assures that " in her was
found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that
were slain upon the earth." Seas of the blood of martyrs,
the papal power had actually shed for many centuries ;
and the harlot is thus " drunken with the blood of the
saints." Her murderous sword had shed the blood of
millions of the dear followers of the Lamb. And she had
thus approved, and virtually made her own, all the guilt
of persecution, from the days of Cain. The seas of blood
shed in pagan Rome, this mother of harlots has taken to
herself, by making an image to that pagan beast, — com
manding all to worship it, — and causing that all who
would not, should die ! This sentiment, our blessed
Lord applied to the Jews thus ; Luke xi. 47 ; " Wo unto
you ; for ye build the sepulchres of the prophets, and your
fathers killed them. Truly your bear witness that ye
allow the deeds of your fathers." Christ then assures
them, that all the blood which had been shed in the ages
from Abel, should be required of them who by their per
secuting spirit had approved of such persecution, and thus
make the guilt their own. This illustrates the last verse
in our text, that in her is found all the blood shed upon the
earth!

LECTURE XXXIII.

REVELATION XIX.

Ver. 1. And after these things I heard a great
voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia :
Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto
the Lord our God :
2. For true and righteous are his judgments : for
he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the
earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the
blood of his servants at her hand.
3. And again they said, Alleluia. And her smoke
rose up for ever and ever.
4. And the four and twenty elders, and the four
beasts, fell down and worshipped God that sat on
the throne, saying, Amen ; Alleluia.
5. And a voice came out of 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 was granted that she should be ar
rayed in fine linen, clean and white : for the fine linen
is the righteousness of saints.
9. And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they
which are called unto the marriage supper of the
Hh

362 LECTURE XXXIII.
Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true
sayings of God.
10. And I fell at his feet to worship him. And
he said unto me, See thou do it not. I am thy fellow-
servant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony
of Jesus : worship God : for the testimony of Jesus
is the spirit of prophecy.
11. And I saw heaven opened, and behold a
white horse ; and he that sat upon him 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 crowns ; 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 name is called The Word of God.
14. And the armies which were in heaven followed
him upon white horses, clothed in fine Unen, 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 them with a rod of iron : and he treadeth the
wine-press of the fierceness and 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 supper of the great
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

CHAPTER XIX. 363
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 worshipped his image.
These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning
with brimstone.
21. And the remnant were slain with the sword
of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded
out of his mouth : and all the fowls were filled with
their flesh.

This chapter gives the two most signal temporal events
found in prophecy ; — the battle of the great day of God,
and the introduction of the Millennium. The latter, it
gives first ; as is the case in the seventh trumpet, and the
seventh vial. In these three passages (which all allude
to the same two great events), when the time of the great
battle arrives, the hearts of the saints are fortified by first
presenting them with the blessed commencement of the
Millennium. The passages then revert back to the battle,
and give a concise view of it.
After these things (says verse 1 st of the text), a great
voice of much people in heaven is heard ; the sentiment
of the church, perhaps militant, and triumphant, — and of
angels, giving praise and glory to God for his judgments
thus executed on papal Antichrist, and the horrid system
of atheism lately raised from the bottomless pit. These
unitedly (the beast, and the false prophet) will now have
sunk in perdition ; for which the elders, the living creatures,
and a voice from the throne, give united glory to God,
and sing Alleluia ; and the smoke of the torment of the
fallen legions ascends up for ever. The voice of this
united praise is like the 'roaring of many waters, and of
mighty thunders ! and the sentiment is, " for the Lord
God omnipotent reigneth." God now, and henceforth,
reigns on earth in the hearts of its holy and obedient inhab
itants. God from the beginning has reigned, in his whole
empire of creation, doing all his will ; the grand result of
the whole of which will then be found to be, that all anti
christian enemies are swept from the earth, and the morning

364 LECTURE XXXIII.
of the long-sought Millennium has blessed the world. This
is noted as the arrival of the marriage of the Lamb, for
which the church is noted as ready, dressed in her fine
linen of sanctification and justification, white and clean ;
" has made herself ready." The sovereign grace of God
has done it ; but in the way of her own activity, holy love,
and faithfulness. All who come to this joyful occasion
are pronounced " blessed." The same we find in Dan.
xii. 12 ; " Blessed is he that waiteth and cometh to the
thousand three hundred and five-arid-thirty days !" or,
the rising of the millennial sun. They have obeyed the
call of Christ in a sense never done before : "Rise up, my
love, my fair one, and come away."
But how is this the marriage supper of the Lamb 1 Is not
that event after the judgment day 1 We read of it, chap.
xxi. "I will show thee the bride, the Lamb's wife !" — "a
bride adorned for her husband." " I will no more drink of
the juice of the wine (said our Saviour), till I drink it new
¦with you in my kingdom." These allude to the glorified
church. The morning of the Millennium is so noted, in
our text, by a prolipsis ; and by giving to the type the
name of the thing typified : a thing not uncommon.
The Millennium will be a bright resemblance of heaven.
Hence one of the glories of heaven is here ascribed to it,
" the marriage of the Lamb."*
* In 2 Pet. iii. 13, we have, after the final con6agration, a new
heavens and a new earth ; and these are said to be according to di
vine promise. In Rev. xxi. 1 , we have the same, in a description
there of heaven. These passages rest on Isai. lxv. 17, 18, and
lxvi. 22, which furnish the " promise" noted by Peter. But this
promise in Isaiah alludes primarily to the Millennium, as it is con
nected with the prediction that " it shall come to pass, that from
one Sabbath to another, all flesh (on earth) shall come and worship
before God." This passage in Isaiah then, had a primary allusion
to the Millennium ; but an ultimate one, to the state of future glory.
And Peter and the Revelator note the passage only as it relates to
the latter. Such a mode of procedure is common in prophecy ; to
begin with the type, and end with the antitype ; sliding, in the same
passage, from the type to the antitype. See Psalm lxxii. This
Fsalm commences with a prayer for Solomon, whose reign was
typical of the Millennium ; and it slides directly into the kingdom
of Christ in the latter. In the eight last chapters of Ezekiel, is a
description of a city, and temple, and a system of religion. This
(at least primarily) alludes, no doubt, to the Millennium. But it is
believed to have an ultimate allusion to heaven ; and that the de
scription of the New Jerusalem, Rev. xxi. and xxii., are but an

CHAPTER XIX. 365
John, apprehending the ajigel to have been Christ, fell
down to worship him ; but his mistake was corrected, and
this argument added : — " for the testimony of Jesus is the
spirit of prophecy." q. d. All the prophesyings of Christ
are a demonstration of his divinity, that he is one in the in
finite God ; and to him alone is worship due.
The great final battle is next given ; the same event
with the seventh trumpet, chap. xi. 15-19 ; — the seventh
vial, chap. xvi. 17-21 ; — and the harvest and vintage,
chap. xiv. 14-20. No addition, from human comment,
can be given to its glory. Look, then, with adoration, on
the picture drawn by the Holy Ghost, verse xi. to end.

abridgment, and an illustration of it. These remarks may ex
plain the case of the marriage of the Lamb, in our text. And the
following may also illustrate it. The coming of Christ in the bat
tle of the great day, is, in some prophecies, combined with his coming
to judge the world. See the following, given in language borrowed
from that of the judgment day. In Dan. vii. is the great secular
Roman beast, whose destruction introduces the Millennium, as
clearly there appears. But his destruction (the very event clearly
with the battle of the great day) is here thus introduced, ver. 9-11,
" I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days
did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head
like pure wool : his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels
as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before
him ; thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand
times ten thousand stood before him ; the judgment was set, and the
books were opened." The fall of this beast and popery (the very
event and period in our text) follows, which shows that it is a scene
antecedent to the Millennium ; "I beheld then, because of the voice
of the great words which the horn (popery) spake, I beheld till the
beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning
flame." But while this description of the coming of Christ, and his
introduction of the scene, has a primary fulfilment in the fall of this
beast of infidelity, and the fall of popery ; it is to have an ultimate
one in the great judgment day. We accordingly read, in Rev. xx.,
at the close of the Millennium (in allusion no doubt to this very
text in Dan. vii. 9, 10), " and the books were opened." That pas
sage in Daniel then, will receive its final accomplishment in the
final judgment, when Christ takes the great white throne, — when
a fire devoureth before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round
about him ; and the judgment will set, and the book be opened !
Such instances may illustrate the coming of the marriage of the
Lamb, at the opening of the Millennium ; while yet its more glori
ous accomplishment will be at the opening of the future glory of
the church. One is type, the other antitype : and the name of
the latter is given to the former, as being a bright resejnblance pf
its fulfilment.
Hh2

Sod lecture xxxiii.
It is a finishing touch to much that we find in the prophets ;
such as Psalm xiv., " Gird thy sword upon thy thigh,"
&c. Joel ii., " The Lord shall utter his voice before his
army; for his camp is very great." " The Lord is a man
of war ; the Lord of hosts is his name." " He rideth
upon the heavens by the name Jah." " He bowed the
heavens, and came down ; darkness was under his feet,
and he did ride upon the wings of the winds. See the
view given of Christ, in the first seal, Rev. vi. 2 ; to which
the riding forth of Christ in our text is very similar, but is
a rich improvement in imagery, as this battle of the great
day was clearly typified by the destruction of the Jews in
that seal. The scene of this riding forth of Jesus Christ,
in our text, has been so frequently brought to view in the
preceding pages, that less needs here to be said. His
white horse of victory, his flaming eye of omniscience,
his crown denoting him as the king of kings ; his unknown
name of infinite divinity, — " no man knows the Son but the
Father ;" the bloody vestments of his works of vengeance
now on hand, his accompanying armies on white horses
of victory, denoting the church, and perhaps her guardian
angels ; — " the mountains were full of horses, and chariots
of fire around about Elisha ;" the sharp sword from Christ's
mouth, indicating the fatal power of his word against his
enemies, and his name in capitals on his vesture and on
his thigh, as the binding on of the whole armour ! these
are emblems of vast significance in the presentation of Jesus
Christ, as riding forth to meet his enemies in the battle of
that great day of God, in our text. The blood and slaugh
ter, indicated by the standing of an angel in the sun, and,
with a loud voice, calling on all carnivorous fowls to come
to a great supper which God would prepare for them,
will exceed every thing of the kind ever before known.
This stroke rests on Ezek. xxix. 17-20 ; which we may
view as its parent text, inviting all beasts and fowls to
convene on the same occasion, to eat the flesh of kings
and captains, and of vast slaughter. That the scene in
both is one and the same, see the subjoined note.*
* That the Gog in Ezek. xxxviii. and xxxix., is the same power
with the secular Roman beast, with his healed head, Rev. xiii. 3;
and the ndw beast of the last days, Rev. xvii. 8 (which are one and
the same), is thought to be evident from the following considera
tions

CHAPTER XIX. 367
The remainder of the chapter of our text is so expres
sive and definite, and the subject has, in these pages, been
so often noted, that little needs here to be added. This is
the great battle, which occupies a great section of the
prophetic scriptures. The following are several, out of
scores of texts, which predict this battle, and its result;
and may here suffice. " Thus saith the Lord, Ah ! I will
ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine ene-
1. If this Gog be another power, distinct from the last head of
the Roman beast ; then we have in the prophecies a fifth notable
monarchy upon the earth, contending with the church. For Gog
is a most notable power, that collects innumerable hosts from at
least three-quarters of the world, in a furious array against the
people of God ; as may be seen in these chapters of Ezekiel. But
the prophecies admit of but four such notable hostile monarchies
before the Millennium. This is distinctly decided in the great
image, Dan. ii. ; and the four great beasts, Dan. vii. Such a fifth
power then, cannot be admitted.
2. The Gog of Ezekiel is a power just antecedent to the Millen
nium. This is manifest in the whole description of this power, and
of his deeds in these chapters of Ezekiel. Gog here attacks the
Jews soon after their return from their long dispersion. And upon
the destruction of Gog and his bands upon the mountains of Israel,
the Jews enter upon their millennial glory.
Hence this is a distinct power from the Gog in Rev. xx., that
rises at the close of the Millennium. The fact is, the. latter
(being but an apostacy over the face of the earth) derives his name
from the latter ; being, in the figure, " the rest of the dead," or old
Antichrist raised to life again, and raised under this distinctive
name, in which he goes into perdition just before the Millennium.
3. Gog and the last head of the Roman beast, are the same power
found described in the ancient prophets. The prophets unitedly
present a great wicked power, to be destroyed in the battle of the
great day of God. And we find the same allusion is had to these
ancient prophecies, both in the case of Gog, and of the Roman
beast ; which shows them to be the same. See instances of this
fact : — Ezek. xxxviii. 17, and on, " Thus saith the Lord God, Art
thou he of whom I have spoken in old times by my servants the
prophets of Israel, who prophesied in those days many years, that I
would bring thee against them 1" Here we find that Gog is not a
little accidental power, rising for once in some northern region.
But he is a great and notable dynasty, long predicted by the pro
phets of Israel to come against Israel in the last days. But surely
this description applies only to the Roman beast. See Dan. ii.
40-45; and vii. 19-26; and other prophets, which testify to the
same event, of God's gathering the nations, and assembling the
kingdoms (at the time of the restoration of the Jews), as a coali
tion against them in Palestine. Turn to Joel iii. 1, 2; Zeph. iii
8, 9 ; Zech. xii. 9, and xiv. 2, &c. &c. But in the Revelation

368 LECTURE XXXIII.
mies. The destruction of the transgressors shall be to
gether. The strong shall be as tow, and the maker of it
as a spark ; and they shall both burn together, and none
shall quench them." " He shall smite the earth with the
rod of his mouth ; and with the breath of his lips shall he
slay the wicked." " Behold, the day of the Lord cometh,
cruel both with wrath and with fierce anger ; to lay the
land (earth) desolate, and to* destroy the sinners thereof

we are assured that all this is fulfilled by the last head of the secular
Roman beast, as has been shown.
In Rev. a. 7, where the seventh trumpet is spoken of (manifestly
the same event with the destruction of Gog), the event is said to be
only " as God hath declared lo his servants the prophets." And the
seventh vial poured upon the Roman beast, Rev. xvi. 14, is only
" the battle of that great day of God Almighty," as a day well
known in the prophets.
4. Gog and the last head of the Roman beast are found precisely
alike, in arms against the people of God, at the same time and
place, and both sink under the same destruction. Gog goes into
perdition in a conflict with the Jews restored to Palestine. See
Ezekiel xxxviii. 18, to the end ; and xxxix. Turn then to Dan
iel ii. 34,35; and vii. 11, 26, 27; Rev. xix. 19-21 ; and xvii. 8;
and xvi. 10, to the end ; and xiv. 14, to the end ; and you find the
same destruction, at the same period, of the last head of the Roman
beast. The time and circumstances of this signal destruction de
cide that the power then destroyed, or Gog and the Roman beast,
must be the same. Possibly a reason why the Roman beast should,
at last, be denominated Gog, will be better understood when this
power, " that was, and is not, and yet is" shall again rise into his
last and terrible destination ; especially should some power of the
north be found in some kind of coalition with the Roman beast.
Gog is a natural abbreviation of Magog ; and may be understood as
the name of a mighty dynasty of the descendants of Magog, in the
last days. Magog was a son of Japhet, and grandson of Noah.
His descendants peopled ancient Scythia, which lay east and north
of the Euxine and Caspian seas, north of Syria ; thence they spread
and peopled the vast regions of Tartary. They peopled the north
of Europe and Asia for 5,000 miles. " There can be no doubt
(says Guthrie) that the Scandinavians (inhabitants of Denmark,
Norway, and Sweden) were by origin Scythians." The descendants
of ancient Magog, we find, under the names of Scythians, Tartars,
Moguls, Turks, Goths, Vandals, Huns, Franks, and others, have
made the most terrible ravages in the earth. Different tribes of
them, in the early ages, overran a considerable part of Asia and
Europe. Hordes of these northern barbarians ravaged the kingdoms
in the south of Europe, in the fourth and fifth centuries ; as was
shown under the first four of the apocalyptic trumpets. These
barbarous tribes planted themselves in Italy, France, Spain, Hun
gary, and others of those nations, and gave to some of them their

CHAPTER XIX. 369
out of it." " The foundations of the earth do shake. The
earth is utterly broken down — is clean dissolved. It shall
reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like
a cottage ; and it shall fall, and not rise again. Then
shall the moon be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when
the Lord of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jeru
salem, and before his ancients gloriously."
names ; as France, from the Franks. Those territories then, as
well as regions in the north, whence they came, may be called Gog,
the land of Magog. Gog is called " the chief prince of Meshech
and Jubal." These were brethren of Magog ; and their descendants
probably were intermingled. Meshech peopled Cappadocia and Ar
menia, whence they sent colonies to the north, who were called
Muscovites. And Martin informs, that Jubal was the father of the
Russians. We have thus a vast range in which to search for the
dynasty of the last days, called Gog. A power rising in the south
of Europe, or away in the north (the original habitation of Magog),
may equally answer to the term. And should it take place, that
both these regions (the south and the north,) should combine ;
should some power in the north of Europe volunteer his service with
the Roman beast, and possess a leading influence in those measures
of the last days ; this might give q now view of the occasion why
the Roman beast should be denominated Gog. Of these events,
time will decide. But the Gog in Ezek. xxxviii. and xxxix., and
the healed head of the old secular beast, and the beast from the
bottomless pit, are manifestly the same.

LECTURE XXXIV.

REVELATION XX.
Ver. 1. And I saw an angel come down from hea
ven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great
chain in his hand.
2. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old ser
pent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him
a thousand years,
3. And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut
him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should de
ceive the nations no more, till the thousand years
should be fulfilled : and after that he must be loosed
a little season.
4. And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and
judgment was given unto them : and / saw the souls
of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus,
and for the word of God, and which had not wor
shipped the beast, neither his image, neither had
received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their
hands ; and they lived and reigned with Christ a
thousand years.
5. But the rest of the dead lived not again until
the thousand years were finished. This is the first
resurrection. 6. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first
resurrection : on such the second death hath no
power ; but they shall be priests of God and of Christ,
and shall reign with him a thousand years.
7. And when the thousand years are expired,
Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,
8. And shall go out to deceive the nations which
&re in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog,

CHAPTER XX. 371
to gather them together to battle : the number of
whom is as the sand of the sea.
9. And they went up on the breadth of the earth,
and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the
beloved city : and fire came down from God out of
heaven and devoured them.
10. And the devil that deceived them was cast
into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast
and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day
and night for ever and ever.
11. And I saw a great white throne, and him that
sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven
fled away ; and there was found no place for them.
12. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand
before God ; and the books were opened : and an
other book was opened, which is the book of life :
and the dead were judged out of those things which
were written in the books, according to their works.
13. And the sea gave up the dead which were in
it ; and death and hell delivered up the dead which
were in them : and they were judged every man
according to their works.
14. And death and hell were cast into the lake of
fire. This is the second death.
15. And whosoever was not found written in the
book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
Another signal descent of Christ is here given as suc
ceeding the battle of the great day, — to bind Satan. The
devil, as a strong man armed, has kept his palace through
all heathen lands, and to a fatal degree, in all the uncon
verted of our race. Gentile sacrifices are offered " to
devils, and not to God." And, to instigate and receive
this homage, Satan has gone " to and fro," in the earth.
He has wrought in the children of disobedience, and led
them captive at his will,—" according to the course of this
world ; according to the prince of the power of the air."
He is hence called the god of this world, — "blinding the
eyes of men, and hiding the gospel from them." He who
could paint on the human imagination of Christ " the king
doms of the world, and the glory of them, in an instant of

372 LECTURE XXXIV.
time," can now paint fatally on the imagination of sin
ners, and instigate the vilest delusions. And he will con
tinue thus to do, till the Saviour, — " stronger than he,"
shall bind him, and deliver the prey of the mighty, who
are then turned " from the power of Satan to God." After
the battle of the great day, in which Satan's most warlike
legions of infidelity, of popery, and of all that was found
in open actual hostility to the church, shall have been
plunged into perdition ; Satan, who deceived and led them,
is himself here noted as taken in hand by Jesus Christ
himself, and confined. Philosophical inquiries here are
vain. Little do we know of the philosophy of the world
of spirits. Facts in the case are all we need to know.
These are as follows : that there are devils ; — they have
had fatal access to man ; — have ruined the world of the
wicked ; — have peopled the world of wo ; — and, if permit
ted, would continue this work of ruin. But He, who came
to destroy the works of the devil, and long since beheld
Satan falling like lightning from heaven ; — is in the text
noted as coming from above with the " great chain" of his
omnipotence, binding the devil, — shutting him up, — and
sealing him in the bottomless pit ; that for a given time he
should not go out to deceive the nations. This is a figure,
but a figure of great significance.
What is the place rendered here the bottomless pit?
The Greek original is abussos (abyss). Let the use of
the word, in other sacred passages, inform what is its pro
bable sense in the text. In Rev. ix. 2, the same word
denotes the place unlocked by Mohammed, from which
his delusion, and armies to propagate it, were furnished ;
and we doubt not but these were from hell. In chap. xi.
7, and xvii. 8, the same word gives the origin of the athe
istical system of the last days ; and we doubt not but this
was from hell. In Luke viii. 31, the devils, in the man
possessed, besought Christ that he would "not command
them to go out into the deep !" What did they mean here
by the deep ? — the word in the original is abussos — the
word under consideration. They doubtless meant, that
Christ would not confine them from all further access to man
on earth. In our text then, this is done with the race of
devils ;— the thing against which those devils petitioned
in relation to themselves. They are confined from having
any more access to man on earth, to tempt and destroy

CHAPTER XX. 379
them. Whether this will be done by a literal exclusion
of them from all access to man ; or whether it will be by
giving to man such abundance of grace, and of knowledge,
as that Satan's temptations will be utterly unavailing, is
to us immaterial. Man will then be safe from Satan's
temptations. Thrones, and some seated upon them, our text then
presents. — Not civil rulers, as some have imagined.
This is to degrade prophecy, indeed ! These enthroned
saints are all the church ; — all, on whom the second death
hath no power. "They live and reign with Christ a
thousand years." " We shall reign on the earth." They
reign in their government of themselves by the Spirit and
laws of Christ ; and their fellowship with Christ in his
spiritual invisible government of the world. And saints
in glory too, reign with Christ on earth, in the same holy
fellowship, and in their new joys, — to understand (as all
in heaven will do) that the cause of Christ on earth, in
which their hearts have so long been bound up, now
universally prevails. This will be the rich additional
reward then given to prophets and saints in glory ; as Rev.
xi. 18, "and that thou shouldst give reward unto thy ser
vants the prophets." The rest of the dead live not again
during the Millennium. These are all the wicked of our
race, whose wicked cause is in the Millennium lost from
the world, — finding none on earth to support it. The first
and second resurrection here, are only mystical resurrec
tions, — like that of Ezekiel's valley of dry bones. The
first is that of the souls of martyrs ; including, at the
same time, that of all past saints ; and it means the revi
val of the cause in which they lived and died. Those
saints live again in their successors, who then appear on
earth, as Elijah lived again in John the Baptist, — coming
in his spirit ! — a figure much known in the Bible. The
second resurrection (implied in the mention of a first
resurrection) is not to be till the close of the Millennium,
when Satan is again for a little season loosed. "The
rest of the dead," the wicked, then, in their turn, rise
again in their successors in wickedness, as will be shown.
The blessing ascribed to those who have a part in the first
resurrection, viz. that the second death has no power upon;
them, shows they are designed in the figure to include all
the chosen of God, then in heaven and earth ; — that their
Ii

374 LECTURE XXXIV.
cause had revived, and was going to fill the world. All
in glory will know and rejoice in this ; and all on earth
will see and enjoy it.
Some writers have conjectured that Christ will come
and reign personally on the earth, in the Millennium,
This must be incorrect. His reign here must be only
spiritual. The days of miracles are past : the Bible is
filled ; and they are not needed : and Christ can reign
as effectually without miracles, as with them. He will
become then king of nations, as he now is of saints ;
reigning spiritually, by his grace in their hearts ; and
providentially, to cause all things to work for their good.
But, as to any visible personal appearance of Christ;
this is never to take place till he comes to judgment.
" Unto you that look for him, shall he appear a second
time (the first being when he came in the flesh), without
sin unto salvation." — " Whom the heavens must receive
until the restitution of all things," which is manifestly con
nected with the judgment of the great and final day. It
is a great injury to the cause of prophecy, to write upon
it in so loose and unguarded a manner as they have done,
who hold to a literal coming of Christ ; a literal resurrec
tion of the martyrs ; and some, that the day of judgment
commences at the morning of the Millennium. " We have
not so learned Christ." The absurdity of such ideas is
plain : for things eternal and things of time are not to be
blended. Of people on earth it is said, "the just shall
live by faith." Imperfect saints here are not to be blended
with the spirits of the just made perfect; nor are the lat
ter (nor any of them) to be raised to dwell again on the
earth. Relative to the length of the Millennium, whether it will
be a literal or a mystical thousand years ; and if mystical,
what may be the length of it ; — I will state some arguments
in favour of its being a mystical thousand years ; and also
that it may be an indefinite thousand. The word thousand
is often thus used. " A thousand shall fall at thy side,
and ten thousand at thy right hand." Repeatedly is the
number 144,000 used in this book, in an indefinite sense.
And it is in the following, in other scriptures, " the cattle
upon a thousand hills ;" " there shall be a thousand vines ;"
" one shall chase a thousand ;" " a little one shall become a
thousand." As to the length of the Millennium ; consider,

CHAPTER XX. 375
1. This chapter is figurative ; why, then, may not the
thousand years of the Millennium be figurative 1
2. If it be literal, there seems to be an undue proportion
between the time of the reign of sin, and the reign of grace.
Should the former be six times the length of the latter, it
would seem indeed wonderful. There is generally found
a symmetry in the works of God ; — as in the human body ;
the ancient temple ; and in the works of nature. But does
this principle admit the following view of the temple of the
redeemed church of God on earth ? viz. that 2000 years
rolled away in some rough and indefinite preparations for
it, of which very little is found in the inspired record of
this temple. After this, 2000 more roll off in giving this
foundation a more tangible shape, and preparing the way
to bring on the great foundation stone of this ecclesiastical
temple. 2000 years more pass away, in shaping and
preparing the materials for the building of this temple
itself. At the close of these 6000 years, the temple is
raised, and presented to the world. Now, does a due pro
portion of things admit, that the temple thus prepared shall
stand but 1000 years? — one-sixth part of the time taken
up to lay its foundation, and form some of its materials ?
Can this accord with the divine economy in general ? Do
wise human architects build thus? Do they lay their
superb and costly foundation six times as high as their
superstructure upon it ? The Revelation gives us the new
Jerusalem ; and the symmetry of its parts are such as to
be worthy of the pencil of Heaven. But how different
from this would it appear, if we found the following ; — that
such was the width of each of the twelve gems com
posing the foundation of its walls, that the twelve should
form six-sevenths of the whole height of the walls, of
1500 miles? No width of these twelve gems is given;
had it been, we presume it would be in due proportion to
the height of the walls. But divine and not human wis
dom is to be here our only guide. Therefore,
3. Some hints in Psalm xxxvii. and other scriptures,
seem not to admit a literal thousand years of the Millen
nium. " Yet a little while and the wicked shall not be;
but the meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight
themselves- in the abundance of peace." " Blessed are
the meek ; for they shall inherit the earth." " In his days,
(the days of Christ in the Millennium) shall the righteous

376 LECTURE XXXIV.
flourish ; and abundance of peace so long as the moon
endureth." — " His name shall endure for ever (to the end
of the world, which shall be a comparative for ever) ; his
name shall be continued as long as the sun ; and men
shall be blessed in him ; all nations shall call him blessed."
This is when " the earth shall be filled with his glory."
Read Dan. vii. 14, 20-27. We here find, that the reign
of Christ is long, compared with that of popery, though
this is 1260 years. It is promised that when " all people,
nations, and languages shall serve him ;" " his dominion is
an everlasting dominion;" necessarily meaning compara
tively so. It is (as Psalm lxxii.) " as long as the sun !"
"And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the
kingdom under the whole heaven shall be given to the peo
ple of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an
everlasting kingdom, and all dominion shall serve and obey
him." The everlasting here is, in its subject, confined
to be only " so long as the sun," and " so long as the moon
endureth." (Psalm lxxii. 7, 17.) Other scriptures speak
of those heavenly bodies as enduring, till they shall wax
old as doth a garment ; and as a worn-out vesture, shall
be folded together, and laid aside ! This is a figure ; but
must possess great meaning relative to the age of the
natural world. Can a literal thousand years give it such
an age ?
4. A literal thousand years seem not well to accord
with the greater number of fallen man saved, than lost, at
the end of the world. The Bible " all" often means by far
the greater part. Christ says, " I will draw all men unto
me" — " Who will have all men to be saved, and come to
the knowledge of the truth." We know this means not a
literal all. By far the greater part of men have, hitherto,
been lost. " Straight is the way that leadeth unto life,
and few there be that find it." In the Millennium, all shall
find it. But could a literal thousand years give a number
to the human family which shall so far exceed all who are
lost? The saved, in that day, are noted, Psalm ex., as
exceeding the drops of a morning dew. Old Babylon,
(15 miles square) is an emblem of the kingdom of Satan ;
and the New Jerusalem (Rev. xxi.) of the kingdom of
Christ. The dimensions of the latter are given (as those
of the former are known) ; and they are 1500 miles cube ;
" the length, breadth, and height being equal." What is

CHAPTER XX. 377
the proportion between these two cities 1— ten thousand to
one, if you take only the square of the New Jerusalem :
if the cube (which is in fact given), fifteen millions to a
unit ! Wonderful grace, if fifteen millions, to, one soul of
the fallen human family, shall be saved ! But a literal
thousand years of the Millennium would seem incapable
of yielding such a number.
5. Our Saviour speaks of his not knowing the time of
the judgment day. There must, then, be a sense in which
he knows it not. But as God, he knows it, and knows
all things. The sense then must be, he knows it not as
Mediator, to reveal it to man ; and hence has never re
vealed it. He says of the reprobate, " I know you not !"
He knows them to bring them into judgment; but knows
them not as his people. " Whom he did foreknow, he did
also predestinate," &c. The time of the day of judgment
then, has never been revealed to man. But if it were to
be at the close of a literal seventh thousand years, then
it is revealed ; and it might then be said to the saints, of
the day of judgment, as it is of the time of the destruction
of Antichrist, "Ye are not in darkness, that that day should
overtake you as a thief." The time of that period is
revealed : see Lecture on Rev. xiii. last. For these
reasons, some believe that the Millennium will continue
an indefinite number of millennaries. All may form their
own opinions upon what is divinely taught. The analogy
of the natural week hints the time of the opening of the
Millennium to be the opening of the seventh thousand
years ; yet God may take the liberty to lengthen out this
Millennial sabbath to any extent he may please. Nothing
in the analogy of things, nor in the Bible, it is believed,
forbids that he will do it. A natural day was lengthened
in the days of Joshua ; and an analogical sabbath of the
Millennium may be lengthened to ever so great an unre-
vealed number of millennaries of years.
Near the close of the Millennium, Satan will be loosed,
to go out again to deceive the nations ; and a general
apostacy over the world will take place ; not a falling of
any soul from true grace, but the falling of the world of
people unconverted from the doctrines of grace. The
apostacy will be sudden ; and malignant in proportion to
the light before enjoyed. Regenerating grace alone forms
true Christians even in the Millennium. And when saving
I i 2

378 LECTURE XXXIV.
grace is withholden (as it then will be), the enmity of the
natural heart will not only continue, but will burst forth in
rage, in proportion to all the antecedent wonders of grace ;
and the world will soon be filled with violence, and a full
and systematic design to banish the cause of Christ from
the earth. Glance an eye over verse 7-9 of our text, and
this will be seen. Now the rest of the dead live again;
now is a second mystical resurrection. Or, the cause of
the wicked (long lost from the earth) now again lives.
Accordingly, the countless millions of this apostacy are
called " Gog and Magog ;" — names under which Anti
christ, before the Millennium, went into perdition ; and the
figure "of the rest of the dead living again," now applies
to the apostate world of the wicked, this old name of
Antichrist. In the figure, the Gog of Ezekiel xxxviii.
xxxix., rises again, and fills the world for the last furi
ous attack of Satan on the church. This soon brings
forward the judgment day. As the attack of Antichrist
upon the witnesses, before the Millennium, soon brings
down the Saviour upon his white cloud, with his sharp
sickle (Rev. xiv.) ; so the final and great antitype of this
transaction, after the Millennium, soon presents Christ, as
the final judge, upon his great white throne of judgment !
The falling of fire from heaven, devouring this Gog
and Magog, is a figure ; and is probably in allusion to
what is said of the witnesses, chap. xi. 5, 6 ; " If any
man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth,
and devoureth their enemies," &c. And both may allude
to Elijah's calling fire from heaven to destroy the captains
with their fifties, sent by Ahab to take him. But what
immediately follows in the text explains this ; for the final
judgment bursts upon the world, " sudden as the spark
from the smitten steel, — from nitrous grain, the blaze."
Now will Satan's millions find other employment, than
" going up upon the breadth of the earth, to compass the
saints about and the beloved city" (the church), to drive
it from the world. " In an instant, in the twinkling of an
eye, the trump shall sound, the dead shall be raised, and
the living changed from a natural to a spiritual body." The
last judgment is now set, and the books are opened. The
Bible descriptions of these scenes are many, and most in
teresting ; but need not to be here adduced/ O, remember
them, and look for, and haste unto the coming of the day

CHAPTER XX. 379
of God." The opening of books, in the text, alludes to hu
man courts, where books of law and evidence are opened.
The books in the text are figurative ; we may view them
to be the book of the divine omniscience ; — the book of the
perfect history of the heart and life of every child of Adam;
the book of human memory, to recollect every fact ; the
book of revelation, to all who liave lived under it; and the
book of the light of nature, to all who have not ; the book
of conscience, to feel the whole subject, and the weight of
guilt, in all on the left hand ; the book of correct common
sense, to show how men have estimated the conduct of
each other ; and the book of grace, and of life, to all on the
right hand, to show them that are renewed, penitent, justi
fied, and saved in Christ, according to the covenant of re
demption. The closing of the scene will follow, which
many scriptures clearly ascertain. " What manner of per
sons then, ought we to be, in all holy conversation and
godliness?" Christians, awake, and trim your lamps.
And, O sinners, prepare to meet your God.
Some remarks relative to the Millennium, and the agency
of its introduction will here be added. Prophecy and the
reason of the thing unitedly testify that such a state of
things as the Millennium would certainly bless the world.
And the promises of it occupy no inconsiderable space of
the prophetic scriptures ; that in the seed of Abraham
(Christ) shall all nations, and all families of the earth, be
blessed. " The glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
and all flesh shall see it together." " He (Christ.) shall
come down like rain upon the mown grass, as showers
that water the earth. He shall have dominion also from
sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth."
" For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the seas." The prophecies all unite
in this, and the most rapturous things are said in descrip
tion of the event. " Glorious things are spoken of thee,
O city of God ;" — the church of that day ! A feast of fat
things is made to all nations. And in the numerous pre
dictions of the certainly of that long and glorious day,
many particulars of its glories are given.
True religion will then produce its proper effects in the
hearts and lives of all men. Each person in the infinite
Three in heaven will be glorified, by being received, obeyed,
and adored in his united godhead, and in his official dis-

880 LECTURE XXXIV.
tinction. This will bring a day of salvation to all men.
No countless throngs to crowd the way to hell, and tor
ture thus the tender gracious heart : but all unite to prize
the great salvation. Great unanimity will bless the world.
Wars cease, and scenes of blood are known no more.
The promises of this are direct and unequivocal, and are
illustrated by the figure of the most perfect harmony of all
the most furious and dangerous animals, with those the
most defenceless and peaceable ; and by the burning of
all implements of war, or of the conversion of them to
implements of agriculture. " The watchmen shall see
eye to eye ;" " all shall serve the Lord with one consent,"
" and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace."
Health and longevity are promised too, among the bless
ings Heaven will richly give to men on earth. The laws
of jurisprudence will be happy. All the concerns of civil
government will rest, exclusively, in Christian hands,
wholly subordinate to pure religion. " Kings shall be
thy nursing fathers, and queens thy nursing mothers." "I
will make thine officers peace, and thine exacters right
eousness." " And wisdom and knowledge shall be the
stability of thy times." Yes, knowledge will be great, and
fill the world ; — knowledge of the word of God, and of all
things useful, ornamental, and delightful ; and promised
in the richest figures, as the following ; — " the light of the
moon shall become as the light of the sun ; and the light
of the sun seven-fold, as the light of seven days." Also
benevolence and holy friendship — the bliss of heaven,
shall glow, the world around ; — -a holy earnest of eternal
glory. The golden rule, a rule ever at hand, will guide
the heart, the lip, the lives of all men. Great spiritual
enjoyment will be found attendant on all rounds of
Christian duties. " With joy shall ye draw water from
the wells of salvation." Man now will know the solid
happiness of that feast of fat things in the church, promised
to be made for all nations. Characters will then be seen
and held in proper estimation ; and no more will man
bless the covetous whom the Lord abhorreth, nor the
churl be called liberal. " And they shall go forth and
look upon the men who have transgressed (all antichris
tian multitudes) ; and they shall be an abhorring unto all
flesh." Most happy period ! a great result of all God's
works below in every age. On this his eye has rested,

CHAPTER XX. 381
from the first, as an event next to his heavenly kingdom.
The means of the introduction of the Millennium are to
be prayer, contributions, and combined Christian influ
ence. The three first petitions of the Lord's prayer rest
upon it. And Inspiration adds, "Ye that make mention
of the Lord, keep not silence, and give him no rest, till he
establish, and till he make Jerusalem (the church) a
praise in the earth." Of the time just antecedent to the
Millennium, it is said, " they shall call every one his neigh
bour under the vine and under the fig-tree ;" places for
prayer, which must and will be attended with due donations,
and mutual exertions, coming to this "help of the Lord
against the mighty." " Till every one submit himself
with pieces of silver." " Bring all the tithes into my
house." But a question arises, who, after the battle of the great
day, is to have the most prominent agency in the bring
ing in of the nations then still unconverted ? For a large
remnant of such, it will be found, will still remain after all
that shall have been done by the flight of the angel of
missions before the battle of the great day. And I am led
to think that this honour is reserved for the ancient people
of God. Paul teaches, (Rom. xi.) that the restoration of
the Jews shall be " the riches of the gentiles ;" "life from
the dead" to them. It would seem that the converted
Jews would be the most popular and powerful missiona
ries, after the fall of Antichrist, for the conversion of the re
maining part of the world. The converted Jews, taking a
pre-eminent stand in the church of Christ, might be expect
ed to burn with a holy zeal, to promote that cause of their
Messiah, which they have so long trampled under foot.
And beholding the millions, through the earth, dead in
paganism, they would greatly desire their conversion, and
make every arrangement to effect it. And, having a per
sonal acquaintance with the nations where they have re
sided ; what could be more natural, than that they should
set off, as missionaries, for their conversion ? But human
conjectures may be incorrect. To the law and the testi
mony we will repair. Of that very period it is predicted,
Zech. viii. 23 ; " Thus saith the Lord of hosts, in those
days it shall come to pass that ten men shall take hold,
out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of
the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, we will go with

382 LECTURE xxxlv.
you, for we have heard that God is with you." The won
derful works of God, at that day, towards the Jews, will
fly over the world, and prepare the way for this event.
Inspiration here is speaking not of converted gentiles under
the name of Jews; but of Jews in distinction from the
gentiles ; as was Paul in Rom. xi. In Hosea ii. the re
stored Jews, in the last days, have a new name given
them, — Jezreel, the seed of God : " for (God says) I will
sow her unto me in the earth." God will now sow the
field of the unconverted world with his seed, the converted
sons of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, for the harvest of the
Millennium; and now, those gentiles who had not ob
tained mercy, shall obtain it, shall say, " Thou art my
God ;" and God will say unto them, " Thou art my peo
ple." God says again, of converted Judah and Ephraim,
Zech. x., "I will sow them among the people, and they
{among whom they are sown), shall remember me in far
countries, and shall live. The angel of missions, ante
cedent to the battle of the great day, is the incipient
step of all this, by lighting up gospel fires in every
land, as has been shown on Rev. xiv. 6, 7 ; and
preparing the way of the recovery of the Jews. But the
Jews being thus prepared, seem to be destined to take the
lead in the completion of the work, though not (we may
presume), to the exclusion of gentile missionaries. The
same is predicted in Isaiah ii. 3 ; which was fulfilled
primarily in the apostles ; but is to be ultimately fulfil
led, when, as is there stated, the nations shall utterly
cease from war ; " Out of Zion shall go forth the law, and
the word of God from Jerusalem." The word of God first
went from Jerusalem to the heathen; then in the last days
it is repaid ; and then it goes forth again after the battle
of the great day, to the remnant of the heathen world.
We have the same in Zech. xiv. 8 ; and in Ezek. xlvii.,in
the stream of grace which finishes the healing and con
version of the world. The converted Jews, knowing the
languages, and manners of the heathen, among whom they
have lived, will be the most fit missionaries for the con
version of the residue of men, after the battle of the great
day. An emblem of all this we have in Acts ii. 5, in
the history of the day of Pentecost ; " There were, dwell
ing atJerusalem, devout men outof every nation." Thirteen
nations are named besides Judea. These were among

CHAPTER XXI. 383
the 3000 converts of that day. And their signal aid in the
introduction of the gospel among those nations, when they
should return home and relate the wonders they had seen
and felt, and should welcome the missions of the apostles
among them, may prove but a type and earnest of
missions of the Jews to introduce the Millennium, after
the battle of the great day, and the conversion of the
Jews.

LECTURE XXXV.

REVELATION XXI.

Ver. 1. And I saw a new heaven and a new earth :
for the first heaven and the first earth were passed
away ; and there was no more sea.
2. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem,
coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a
bride adorned for her husband,
3. And I heard a great voice out of heaven, say
ing, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and
he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people,
and God himself shall be with them, and be their
God. 4. And God shall wipe away all tears from their
eyes ; and there shall be no more death, neither sor
row, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain:
for the former things are passed away.
5. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold,
I make all things new. And he said unto me,
Write : for these words are true and faithful.
6. And he said unto me, it is done. I am Alpha
and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give
unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water
of life freely.

384 LECTURE XXXV.
7. He that overcometh shall inherit all things ; and
I will be his God, and he shall be my son.
8. But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abo
minable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sor
cerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their
part in the lake which burneth with fire and brim
stone : which is the second death.
9. And there came unto me one of the seven an
gels which had the seven vials full of the seven last
plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I
will show thee the bride, the Lamb's wife.
10. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great
and high mountain, and showed me that great city,
the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from
God, 11. Having the glory of God : and her light was
like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper
stone, clear as crystal ;
12. And had a wall great and high, and had twelve
gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names
written thereon, which are the names of the twelve
tribes of the children of Israel.
13. On the east three gates ; on the north three
gates ; on the south three gates ; and on the west
three gates.
14. And the wall of the city had twelve founda
tions, and in them the names of the twelve apostles
of the Lamb.
15. And he that talked with me had a golden reed
to measure the city, and the gates thereof, and the
wall thereof.
16. And the city lieth four-square, and the length
is as large as the breadth : and he measured the
city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs. The
length and the breadth and the height of it are equal.
17. And he measured the wall thereof, an hun
dred and forty and four cubits, according to the
measure of a man, that is, of the angel.
18. And the building of the wall of it was of jas
per : and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass.

CHAPTER XXI. 385
19. And the foundations of the wall of the city
were garnished with all manner of precious stones.
The first foundation was jasper : the second, sap-
pire ; the third, a chalcedony : the fourth, an eme
rald ;
20. The fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the
seventh, chrysolite ; the eighth, beryl ; the ninth, a
topaz : the tenth, a chrysoprasus ; the eleventh, a
jacinth ; the twelfth, an amethyst.
21. And the twelve gates were twelve pearls :
every several gate was of one pearl : and the street
of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent
glass. 22. And I saw no temple therein, for the Lord
God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.
23. And the city had no need of the sun, neither
of the moon, to shine in it : for the glory of God did
lighten it, and the Lamb is the Light thereof.
24. And the nations of them which are saved
shall walk in the light of it : and the kings of the
earth do bring their glory and honour into it.
25. And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by
day : for there shall be no night there.
26. And they shall bring the glory and honour of
the nations into it.
27. And there shall in no wise enter into it any
thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomi
nation, of maketh a lie : but they which are written
in the Lamb's book of life.
A figurative description of heaven, as might have been
expected, closes this book. No literal language can give to
mortal man a view of that world. Paul, in his vision of it,
heard things which on earth could not be uttered. " How
shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?" "Eye
hath not seen,nor ear heard." Heaven, then, must be told
to us in figures, or not at all. The essential Spirit of Hea
ven, — holy love, — may be here known : " God hath
revealed it unto us ;" but nothing more. " We know not
what we shall be." Wise parents converse with children
in the language of children. A new heaven and new earth
b Kk

386 LECTURE XXXV.
closes the history of the church found in the Revelation.
The earth and its visible heavens form the abode of man
in this life. And the figurative view of the abode of the
saints, in the world to come, is given under the same
name, but with the word new prefixed. In that world the
text assures there is no more sea. The sea is an em
blem of troubles in this life. And " the wicked are like a
troubled sea." But in heaven " there is no more sea."
The voyage over the sea of life is finished, and the port,
the haven of glory, made for ever.
A new Jerusalem is in our text also given, — a new
figure of glory. Jerusalem was a type of the church, and
of heaven. " Jerusalem which is, above, is the mother of
us all." This Jerusalem above, John saw descending out
of heaven, adorned as a bride for her husband. John
notes this city by anticipation, in verse 2, but gives a more
formal view of it in verse 10. This first hint of it is ac
companied with an assurance from heaven that the taber
nacle of God is with man ; not that heaven has come
down to earth, as some imagine ; but that the saints are
raised to God in heaven. We are elsewhere more liter
ally assured of the righteous being caught up in the
clouds to meet the Lord in the air. " The righteous (go
away) into life eternal." There are their mansions pre
pared. "I go to prepare a place for ycu : and if I go,
I will come again, and receive you unto myself."
Their dwelling then will be with God on high ; their
tears he will wipe away, and every wo. All pains and ills
henceforth will cease for ever, and their remembrance will
but heighten heaven. All who obtain the place are said
to overcome. They have a race to run, a battle to fight;
or the crown is lost. " The fearful" head the blackest
catalogue. Not those who fear their sins, and wicked
hearts : but those who fear the cross, — who basely fear
to take their lot with Christ, to plead his cause ! — " shall
have their part in the lake of fire and brimstone, which is
the second death." Hell is the second death, the king of
terrors. A detailed account of the new Jerusalem follows, and its
figurative descriptions need but little comment. Its de
scriptions are rich, and worthy of the pencil of Inspiration.
Let the reader with solemn devotion find in them the city
of our God. Truly it is worthy of the name, " the Lord is

CHAPTER XXI. 387
there." John beheld its descent as he stood upon a high
mountain, to see it to advantage. He hears it called,
"the bride, theJLamb's wife!" It involves the church,
and all her heavenly accommodations ; and now arrives
the true marriage supper of the Lamb, of which the com
mencement of the Millennium was but a faint type. God,
who made the sun, and all the worlds of light, is himself
the immediate light of this city. Its massy walls are of
the richest gems. Heaven will be walled with all the
divine perfections.
A measure (usually of reed, but in the present case of
gold) gives the dimensions of this heavenly place. The
city is fifteen hundred miles cube : its length, breadth, and
height are the same. Its walls are of 216 feet thickness ;
1500 nriks high, as well as the same in length and
breadth. Why are these dimensions given? Do they
suggest to us, as has been noted, the greater number of
the saved, than lost, when the last day shall settle the ac
count? Babylon (of 15 miles square) was a symbol of
the kingdom of darkness ; and the new Jerusalem a sym
bol of the church in glory. The latter, squared, contains
10,000 of the formers-cubed, 15,000,000. Wonderful
display of grace, if 15,000,000, or even 10,000, arrive at
heaven, to one who sinks to hell. By far the greater part,
no doubt, have hitherto been lost. But in the Millennium,
all shall know the Lord ; a little one shall become a thou
sand, and a small one a strong nation. Christ will then
have the dew of his youth indeed !
The magnificence of this city demands attention. Its
massy walls appear of solid diamond, except some various
gems at their foundation.* We find there the following;
the first laying (the same with the mass of the walls above
* Grotius pleads, and with full reason, that the gem called here,
in Greek, iaspis, must have been the diamond. Iaspis might
in latter ages come to be given to the mean kind of gem which now
bears this name. But this gem in the Revelation, called iaspis, is
expressly there called " a stone most precious," " clear as crystal,"
verse 1 1 of text. As the " most precious stone," here, it is taken
to denote the glory of God, as the light of this city. The modern
jasper, ¦' an opaque mass, debased with a mixture of earth," an
swers not at all to this description ; but the diamond accords with it.
In Rev. iv. 3, the iaspis is taken to represent God in heaven, in his
appearance to John. Would not the purest gem be taken in such
a case, and not one of the meanest ? If the iaspis, known in this

388

LECTURE XXXV.

the foundation), is iaspi3, diamond. The second, a sap
phire ; a gem transparent, of pure blue, and some of deep
azure, second in value to the diamond, and the second
gem in the breast-plate of old. The third, a chalcedonia ;
a precious gem, of a misty gray, clouded with blue,
yellow, and purple. The fourth, an emerald, of deep
green, and very hard. The fifth, a sardonyx, partly trans
parent with belts and veins of different colours ; the
eleventh stone in the breast-plate. The sixth, a sardius,
of reddish hue, the first in the breast-plate. The seventh,
a chrysalite, of a golden colour ; the tenth in the breast
plate. The eighth, a beryl; a transparent jewel of bluish
green ; the tenth in the breast-plate. The ninth, a topaz ;
a transparent jewel, third in value to the diamond, of a
yellow gold cast ; the second in the breast-plate.* The
tenth, a chrysoprasus, of green hue, mingled with yellow.
The eleventh, a jacinth, of a violet and purple, very hard and
precious. The twelfth, an amethyst, a jewel very precious,
of violet bordering on purple ; the ninth in the breast-plate.
The combination of these gems in the foundation of these
walls of glory, twelve rows of them one above the other,
and of sufficient width to appear proportionate in those
vast walls, must have given the most overwhelming view
of magnificence. This is a building indeed, not made
with hands eternal in the heavens !
The walls of this city have 12 gates ; three on each of
the four sides ; and each gate of solid pearl, a hard white
and most precious substance ; so precious that it is said
a Persian emperor has a pearl of the worth of 440,000
dollars. The true pearl is very rare ; but it is much coun
terfeited, and false pearl is abundant. Most fit emblem
is the true pearl of the gate of heaven, the real grace of
God in the soul ! — and how great the multitude who think
to enter heaven, while their pearl is but counterfeit ! Such
will be excluded. God and the Lamb are both the tem-
book, mean not the diamond (which alone answers to the descrip
tion given here of it) ; then the diamond is not in this book known,
although use is made of 12 precious gems ; which cannot be ad
mitted. The gem, repeatedly taken lo denote the glory of God,
and said to be " a stone most precioos (the most precious stone, as
the diamond is), and clear as crystal (which the jasper is not) may
with moral certainty be said to be the diamond, which otherwise is
not found among the 12 gems of this book.
* A topaz of the great mogul is said to have cost more than.
60,000 dollars.

CHAPTER XXI. 389
pie and the light of this heavenly city. Or the glory of
God and of Christ will be seen and enjoyed without the
need of such means as are necessary to the Christian life in
this world. The kings and nations of the redeemed bring
their glory into this city ; or they find here all their glory,
all they need, or wish. Never shall night be known
there; all need of sleep, all weariness will eternally flee.
Every soul will burn with pure seraphic flame of love,
and will move in perfect obedience, activity, and perse
verance ; while nothing can be there which defileth, or
maketh a lie, and none but those whose names are in the
book of life. Nothing will ever disturb their bliss, or
endanger their glories. The wicked have ceased from
troubling ; and the weary are at rest. Every wish will
be accomplished, and the boundless craving of every soul
filled in God. Streams of his heavenly love will flow into
their souls as from an eternal inexhaustible fountain.
Their union and fellowhip with angels will be perfect and
most delightful. And their knowledge and fellowship
with all the holy family of men, will be perfect and most
enrapturing. Their union in songs of praise,
" When all the chosen race,
Shall meet around the throne,
Shall bless the conduct of his grace,
And make his glories known,"
will constitute a heaven indeed. Their songs for ever will
be new, and rich ; for ever will their holy souls flow forth
in acts of purest love and holy praise. "Worthy is the
Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches, and
wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing.
For thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy
blood out of every nation, aud kindred, and tongue, and
people, and hast made us unto our God kings and priests,
and we shall reign with thee for ever and ever!" Length
of time will never abate, but increase their glories. Their
powers will enlarge, and will lead them to perceive new
glories and wonders in God, in his perfections and works,
in his great work of redemption, and all his plan of pro
vidence to fulfil and perfect it.
Christians, prepare for that blessed world of glory.
Have this world under your feet, and let your hearts and
conversation be in heaven. Secure that bliss, and live in
Kk2

390 LECTURE XXXVI.
preparation for it. Pity and pray for the many who prize
it not, and are neglecting the great salvation. May a
foretaste of that heavenly inheritance make you dead to
sin, and to this world ; and ardently desirous of being
clothed upon with your house from heaven.

LECTURE XXXVI.

REVELATION XXH.

Ver. 1. And he showed me a pure river of the
water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the
throne of God and the Lamb.
The description of the heavenly city continues. It is a
great beauty and excellency of a city to have a beautiful
river rolling through the midst of it. This was the boast
and bliss of ancient Babylon. This was one of the glories
of the primitive Paradise. It was the finishing glory of
the mystical city of God, described in the closing part of
the prophecy of Ezekiel, — the name of which city is,
" The Lord is there !" — that it had a river issuing from its
sanctuary, which soon becomes deep and large, and from
the city takes its direction " toward the east country,
through the desert" of a lost world, carrying healing and
life wherever it comes. This is the type of the pure river
in our text. In Ezekiel, it blesses the earth in the Mil
lennium ; in our text, it blesses heaven in eternal glory.
Relative to its blessing in time, the Psalmist says, "There
is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city
of God." " For there (says the prophet) shall the glo
rious Lord be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams.
The symbolic city of God in the world of glory does by
no means lack this blessed accommodation and beauty of a
city. We find here the pure river of the water of life,
clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and the

CHAPTER XXII. 391
Lamb ! Shall we say, this indicates at least that a mighty
stream of holy love is ever flowing in heaven into every
soul, after the well of water, within the saints in this
world, shall there have sprung up into everlasting life !
The water of life, obtained by the people of God here,
will there become pure, clear as crystal. Says Paul,
"without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing." The saints
will there be pure as God is pure ; and this pure life will
flow from God alone. As Ezekiel's river issued from
under the threshold of God's temple ; so this pure river
flows from the throne of God and the Lamb. God and
the Lamb, then, have one throne ! They are one ; and
salvation in glory flows from this one God. Shall we
say, this river of life imbodies the holy love which is
founded in the infinite Three in One ; and thence flows
forth through all the world of glory. This love, undying
and untiring love, fills every soul, and nerves the countless
throng of glory.
Ver. 2. In the midst of the street of it, and on
either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which
bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit
every month : and the leaves of the trees were for
the healing of the nations.
The figure assures us, this pure, this crystal river
glides smoothly down the midst of the broad chief street
of the heavenly city, and a sufficient part of the street is
found on the one side of the river, and on the other ; a
street coming to the river, on each side of it, and going
thus through the city of fifteen hundred miles. At that
side of each of these streets, which is next the river (and
thus on each side of the river), is a row of trees, called
here the tree of life. In these two rows of the tree of life,
are found twelve different kinds of delicious fruit ; either
the whole of which twelve kinds, or one of each kind, is
produced once a month ; and thus the fruit is various, yet
continual. And the leaves of this tree of life are noted as
medicinal ; and they are thus either a full remedy against
all creature weakness which might otherwise occur ; or it
is spoken after the limited conceptions of man in his feeble
state on earth ; or both. There will be no sin or pain in
heaven. But, for aught we know, means of strength and

392 LECTURE XXXVI.
agility may there be furnished and delightfully improved.
So the text seems to hint.
As to the tree of life ; there was such a tree in the an
cient paradise,which seems to have been designed a sealing
pledge of eternal life to Adam, had he continued obedient
till the close of his season of probation. This is implied
in what is said of that tree, and particularly in the reason
given for setting an angel with his flaming sword, to keep
the way of the tree of life, "lest Adam should put forth his
hand, and eat of the tree of life, and live for ever !" It is
then, a sacred seal of living for ever. This seems to be
the design of it in God's holy Paradise above. The inhab
itants are sealed to certain eternal life by these long and
beautiful rows of the tree of life on the sides of their great
street. The infallible pledge is thus abundant, and most
common, — adorning the principal street of the heavenly
city. What shall we say of its " twelve manner of fruits ?"
Do they allude to the great variety of the subordinate
sources of bliss, in the world of glory ? God and the
Lamb will be the great and never-fading source of bliss.
But no doubt God will there furnish to his rational family
subordinate sources of blessedness, in the glories of the
place, the variety of employments, and the many dis
plays of his unbounded riches, in the ages of eternity.
Every analogy of reasoning assures of this. The rich
and most magnificent variety of the descriptions of
this city, assures of the fact. And the twelve manner
of fruits, monthly produced, may, and probably do, allude
to it. "And that he may make known the riches of his
glory on the vessels of mercy, whom he had afore pre
pared unto glory." The sources of divine beneficence in
heaven will never be exhausted, but will no doubt bear at
least twelve manner of fruits every month, in boundless
duration. Here is a pledge against satiety, or becoming
in an)' degree cloyed. Their songs will be ever new.
Ver. 3. And there shall be no more curse : but
the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it ;
and his servants shall serve him :
4. And they shall see his face ; and his name shall
be in their foreheads.
5. And there shall he no night there ; and they
need no candle, neither light of the sun : for the

CHAPTER XXII. 393
Lord God giveth them light : and they shall reign
for ever and ever.
Not the least direct effect of the curse on fall en man shall
there remain ; while the far greater glories, made by divine
grace to result from the curse, will be eternally seen, felt,
and enjoyed. The throne of God and the Lamb (identified
as the same) will be ever perfectly in view, with lustres
and glories as far above present human conception, as
heaven is above the earth. And all the inhabitants, ser
vants of the Almighty, will serve him not only in sinless,
but in most exalted perfection. "And his servants shall
serve him .'" viz. God and the Lamb. They, then, are one.
And the account seems to indicate that the man Christ
Jesus will appear seated on that throne, ever visible in
this city ; and, as " the fulness of the Godhead bodily
dwells in him ;" so in this way the invisible God will be
seen, and worshipped in the ages of heavenly glory.
" They shall see his face," i. e. the face of God and the
Lamb. They will literally behold the face of Christ, and
will know and feel that it is the face of " God and the
Lamb." His name being in their foreheads may have its
fulfilment in a countenance (possessed by every one) ex
clusively heavenly ! A countenance beaming with their
holy fire of love, and their ineffable glory enjoyed ! a
countenance which shall thus inform whose they are as
effectually as if God's name were inscribed in large ca
pitals upon their foreheads. A most beatific glow of
ineffable light from God himself will eternally exclude
all need of artificial lights, and of any thing like our na
tural sun. It is the power of God which renders artificial
lights, and even the sun, luminous : and that almighty
power can as easily give the light without any thing like
these natural means, — as will be the case in the New
Jerusalem. " God is light." He is the eternal source of
light, natural as well as moral. He can, and it seems he
will furnish all the glorious light of the New Jerusalem
without any means, but from his own immediate power.
There shall be no candle, nor sun ; but " the Lord God
giveth them light." " And they shall reign for ever and
ever." This seems to be said of the blessed inhabitants.
They will reign in a full government of their own spirits
and powers in holy and perfect obedience to God. And

394 LECTURE XXXVI.
they will reign in a perfect fellowship with God in Christ,
in his eternal reign. But the millions of ineffable par
ticulars of their glories thus given in general, must remain
hid from mortals till the curtains of time shall be drawn.
" We know not what we shall be; but we know that when
he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see
him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him,
purifieth himself, even as he is pure."
Ver. 6. And he said unto me, These sayings are
faithful and true : and the Lord God of the holy
prophets sent his angel to show unto his servants the
things which must shortly be done.
The infallible veracity of this Divine Revelation is here
confirmed by God himself. The Lord God who inspired
all the prophets, gave this revelation by the mission of a
special messenger from heaven. All, then, shall be ful
filled, and that " shortly." These are " things which
must shortly be done." The series of these things pre
dicted in the Revelation, have been moving on the swift
wings of time now for about eighteen hundred years ;
and the whole will surely be accomplished. At the
close of all things earthly, — their time and their dura
tion will appear in the light of eternity as nothing ! But
if the things in the Revelation are true and faithful, —
the true sayings of God, revealed to his servants here
below ; — none have any right to neglect, to disbelieve, or
to undervalue them. They have all the divine authority
of the other prophecies. They are a rich concluding
scene of our holy oracles. And those people give but
poor evidence of being the servants of God, who neglect,
slight, or undervalue them ! Yet what multitudes have
done it, not only of the great mass of the impenitent world,
but of professors, and even teachers ! Many such have fe
licitated themselves in a way similar to the following : — I
know nothing about the Revelation ! I never pretend to
study it ! There are other parts of the Bible enough,
plain and practical ; I am content with them, with
out troubling myself to attempt to learn such myste
ries! The neglect is thus assumed as a high piece of
wisdom and human discretion ! What gross impeach
ment of the divine wisdom and benevolence in giving the

CHAPTER XXII. 395
Revelation and the other prophetic parts of the word of
God !
Ver. 7. Behold, I come quickly : blessed is he
that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this
book. J
Jesus, the Lord of glory, here speaks and calls the at
tention of man, " Behold !" What follows is of the
deepest interest. " I come quickly !" He will come to
judge the world in righteousness. It is far worse than in
vain, to say, " Where is the promise of his coming ?" Our
God shall come, and shall not keep silence. " A fire de-
voureth before him ; and it shall be very tempestuous
round about him." The coming of this event is said to
be quickly. Should it be protracted ever so many thou
sands of years, — those thousands of years, when gone, will
appear in view of eternity, short indeed ! This warning
of Christ, then, should be impressed on our hearts every
day and hour of our lives ! Looking for, and hasting unto
the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, — of the day of
God, — in which the heavens being on fire shall be dis
solved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat; and
the earth and all the works therein, shall be burned up.
Ye Christians ; seeing ye look for such things, what man
ner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and
godliness ? especially considering that our individual
death is essentially all one to us as the coming of that
great and last day ? And this may be very near, and can
not be far distant. Death is to each saint, the return of
Christ to take him to himself. And Christ says to each
one, " Be ye also ready ; for in such a day as ye think not,
the Son of man cometh." Connected with this warning
in the text, is the promised blessing to him " that keep
eth the sayings of the prophecy of this book." What may
this imply to those who keep them not, and know them not?
Who feel a disrespect to this delightful study? TheSaviour
commences and ends this book with this same sentiment.
" Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words
of this prophecy, and keep those things that are written
therein ; for the time is at hand." Chap. i. 3.
Ver. 8. And I John saw these things, and heard

396 LECTURE XXXVI.
them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down
to worship before the feet of the angel which showed
me these things.
9. Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not:
for I am thy fellow-servant, and of thy brethren the
prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this
book : worship God.
The apostle here mistakes the angel for Christ, and his
devout soul was going to prostrate itself at his feet in
holy worship. But the angel forbids. It is impious and
false to say, as some have done, that this was not true
worship ; nor was the worship paid to Christ (in the nume
rous instances recorded) true worship ; but mere compli
ment which may be paid to a creature ! John here
designed it, and Inspiration here represents it, as true wor
ship : and, as such, it is here forbidden, and directed to
be paid only to God. This thing gives a new decision to
the proper and infinite Divinity of Christ, — who ever
receives worship both in earth and heaven, and never
forbids it. The probability that this angel was the pro
phet Daniel, has been noted in the second lecture. " I am
thy fellow-servant, and of thy brethren the prophets." If
this messenger be one of the prophets, Daniel seems the
most likely to be sent on this message to illustrate his own
ancient prophecies, as the Revelation has done.
Ver. 10. And he saith unto me, Seal not the say
ings of the prophecy of this book : for the time is at
hand. As though he should say : View not this book as sealed
up ; and let it not be thus viewed. It is given for imme
diate and faithful practical improvement. For its events
have already commenced; they will swiftly proceed;
they will be finished ; and the time even of their comple
tion may now be said to be at hand. No time, then, is to
be lost as to understanding and improving these visions.
Let them be viewed and improved as given, and thrown
open for this very purpose.
Ver. 11. He that is unjust, let him be unjust still :

CHAPTER XXII. 397
and. he which is filthy, let him be filthy still : and he
that is righteous, let him be righteous still : and he
that is holy, let him be holy still.
When this heavenly city shall come (or the death of any
individual shall arrive which is the same thing to him),
all things then shall settle into their eternal and immutable
stale. The moral character, and the state of all shall
then be found to be eternally fixed. None shall ever
more pass from one kingdom to the other. There shall
be no more transition from bad to good: nor from good to
bad. The day of grace to the wicked is ended. And
the day of trial to the good shall be found eternally
closed. " The things that are unseen are eternal."
" Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might :
for there is no work, divine knowledge or wisdom, in the
grave, whither thou goest." Or there is no probationary
work to be done after death.
Ver. 12. And behold, I come quickly ; and my
reward is with me, to give every man according as
his work shall be.
As though Christ should say, I again give the warning,
that I shall soon come ; and I shall then judge all men ;
and give to every one as his works shall decide his char
acter to be. I shall reward no Christian for his works, as
a legal ground of reward. For heaven is a gift of mere
grace, on the ground only of what I have suffered and done.
But every saint shall have the measure of his reward in
exact proportion to his holy obedience ; and the enemy-
shall be punished both for and in proportion to their
crimes. Ver. 13. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning
and the end, the first and the last.
This is the Judge, and is Christ ; who reiterates this
most positive assurance of his underived eternal Divinity.
Striking it is, that this annunciation of his divinity should
be annexed to the declaration of his soon coining to judge,
LI

398 LECTURE XXXVI.
and to reward, or punish. What is man, that he should
contradict such decisions of the divinity of Christ !
Ver. 14. Blessed are they that do his command
ments, that they may have right to the tree of life,
and may enter in through the gates into the city.
While holy Christian obedience is not the legal ground
for entering heaven, it is essential to it, being the consti
tuted title of the saints to glory, and their preparation of
soul for it. The commandments of God in the text are
the precepts of the gospel, — repentance, faith, submission,
reconciliation, holy obedience, following the Lamb. These
are the commandments of Christ, alluded to, when he
says, " If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in
my love ; even as I have kept my Father's command
ments, and abide in his love." Such shall enter the gates
of the New Jerusalem, and eternally feed on the rich fruits
of the tree of life.
Ver. 1 5. For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and
whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and
whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.
Behold here the contrast of the character and state of
the wicked ! How destitute of honour, as well as of bliss !
Think of the appellations Christ here gives them. They
are without the city of God, the walls of heaven! They
will appear plunged in the burning lake.
Ver. 16. I, Jesus, have sent mine angel to testify
unto you these things in the churches. I am the root
and the offspring of David, and the bright and morn
ing star.
The first verse of this book assures us, that it is the
Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him,
and he sent and signified it by his angel to his servant
John. In our text, drawing to the close of the book, he
reiterates the same sentiment, — announcing himself at the
same time, both David's God, and David's son ! The

CHAPTER XXII. 399
true star that was to arise, — the bright and morning star.
Truly his rising on our lost and dark world has ushered
in the gospel day. And it will not fail to usher in, in due
time, the sunrise of the millennial day, and the eternal
day of the world of glory. Glory to God, the Three, -for
this blessed gift ! Thy beams shine glorious on our world
beneath. Let all on earth be filled with grateful praise !
Wretched millions, whose rebellious hearts shut from
their sight this bright and morning star !
Ver. 17. And the Spirit and the bride say, Come.
And let hitn that heareth, say, Come. And let him
that is athirst, come. And whosoever will, let him
take the water of life freely.
So kindly and powerfully is man invited to partake of
all this grace and glory. The Spirit of God, in his word,
and in his kind whispers, invites. The bride, the true
people of God, invite. They invite by their conversion,
their holy profession, their Christian lives, and by their
verbal entreaties. All who hear, all who thirst, all who
will, are urged to come, and take of the waters of life
freely. Ver. 18. For I testify unto every man that heareth
the words of the prophecy of this book, if any man
shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him
the plagues that are written in this book ;
19. And if any man shall take away from the
words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take
away his part out of the book of life, and out of the
holy city, and from the things which are written in
this book.
Just as the sacred volume is closing, this awful caution
is added ! Among the last rays of the blessed light of
our sacred oracles, sparkling from the heavenly glory, is
this admonition given, like the cherubim and the flaming
sword, turning every way, to keep this our precious tree
of life from the polluting touch of unhallowed innovators !
" Add thou not to his word ; lest he reprove thee ; and
thou be found a liar." If you add, diminish, or alter, it

400 LECTURE XXXVI.
shall be at the peril of your souls, — of your eternal salva
tion. Many wretches have thus shut themselves out of
heaven. Many more probably will do it. Let man be
ware ! As well may he, blaspheming, think to grasp the
thunderbolt, and tear it from the hand of Omnipotence, as
to alter, or pervert the word of God, and prosper. Let
men who attempt to explain away the doctrines of grace,
men who dare to thrust their own fond peculiarities into the
place of divine decisions ; men who discourage plain
Christian duty; all innovators, and who turn aside to
crooked ways, — at this divine denunciation tremble and
desist from their presumptuous madness ! Their part
being taken out of the book of life, is spoken after the man
ner of man, as branches in Christ, that bear not fruit, are
taken away ; and as a righteous man, turning from his
righteousness, and committing iniquity, is lost ! Such a
one was in Christ only by profession and privilege. In
the same sense only was he righteous. And in the same
sense only is his name, upon his perverting the sense
of the Bible, taken from the book of life. But in fact,
he only proves himself a hypocrite, — shows that he was
never truly in Christ, — that he never was a truly righteous
man ; that his name never was, in reality, in the book of
life ! Such language is well known in the word of God.
Ver. 20. He which testifieth these things, saith,
Surely I come quickly ; Amen. Even so, come,
Lord Jesus.
A third warning, of the same tenor in this chapter, is
here subjoined, as the last words from the mouth of Christ,
till he shall come ! And he closes with the confirmation
of Amen. O when will men believe, and feel, and im
prove such a decision ? Lord Jesus, make this thy con
cluding sentence like fire, and like a hammer, to break
and to melt our hearts into devout attention, and holy pre
paration for thy coming ! The holy heart adds in filial
ejaculation, " Even so, come, Lord Jesus !" Here are
those " who love his appearing." Their crown of right
eousness is sure.
Ver. 21. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be
with you all. Amen.

chapter xxn. 401
Our inspired volume thus closes in a holy benediction,
that the grace of Christ may rest on his church and fol
lowers. Thus close the Revelation, and the sacred oracles, after
furnishing a Pisgah's top to behold the promised land, — an
exceedingly high mountain, to give a clear sight of the new
Jerusalem. Who would not most devoutly and grate
fully ascend this mount of God, though the ascent be steep
and laborious ! Let us see that we possess the spirit of
that world of glory ; then we shall ere long be there in the
bosom of eternal love, where all are kings and priests to
God and the Lamb for ever. O fallen man, drop the
world under thy feet, and seize thine inheritance in hea
ven. Seek those things that are above, where Christ is
on the right hand of God. Learn to say, with Paul, " Our
conversation is in heaven." Repent, believe, and walk in
the commands and ordinances of the Lord blameless.
" This do, and thou shalt live." Then you will find your
mansion in the new Jerusalem, when earth and time
shall be no more ! Sinners, awake, and fly to Christ ; or
you will find yourselves eternally shut out of this city of
God. If you once find the door shut, it will never be
opened, and none will be able to deliver !

the end.

L12

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