those Vials in which were the last plagues of God's wrath? The continued parallelism of the two series of visions thus established, we have next to note their general subject. But let me first take occasion to observe, ere I pass on, that since, out of this remainder of the prophecy, that which was to be explained as fulfilled up to the present time involves in it a period of comparatively brief chronological extension,-I mean brief as compared with the long period of the 1260 years already discussed in Parts II, III, and IV, agreeably with its successive prefigurations under two different points of view in either series, -it will I think conduce to clearness to deviate henceforward from the plan I have hitherto acted on, of expounding each Apocalyptic series in Apocalyptic order and, instead thereof, to connect more closely together whatever is prefigured respecting the æra we now have to consider, whether on the one side of the roll or on the other. The series of visions within-written, being that in which it is chiefly elucidated, will demand our first and chief attention. This I shall therefore now revert to, quitting for it the supplementary series that we had last under consideration; and in the general descriptions given of the Seventh Trumpet's subject-matter, at its sounding or afterwards, shall seek to shew evidence of its general historic bearing: an inquiry that will fitly occupy my ensuing first and introductory Chapter. I shall then, in succeeding Chapters, trace its fuller development in the six earlier of the Vials, these being all that seem as yet fulfilled and add, or interweave, as fit occasion may offer, a notice of whatever supplementary predictions may have been given respecting the same period, whether in Apoc. xiv. or elsewhere. CHAPTER I. GENERAL VIEW OF THE SUBJECT-MATTER OF THE SEVENTH TRUMPET, AND OF ITS AGREEMENT WITH THE EVENTS OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. PROCEED We now to note from the descriptive accounts given anticipatorily at the seventh Trumpet's sounding, and in other parallel passages, the general character of its events and consequences; and the primâ facie accordance of most of them with the events that introduced and followed on the French Revolution :-an accordance, if I may mistake not, very striking. I. It must be premised then that the seventh Trumpet's sounding succeeded instantly after the statement, "The second woe is past behold the third woe cometh quickly." This is a chronological indication of the greatest importance; and will, in the historical application of the prophecy, demand our first attention.—Then, as to the general character of events under it, it is sketched anticipatorily as follows. "And the seventh Angel sounded: and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever.' And the four-and-twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces and worshipped God; 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. And the nations were angry; and thy wrath is come; and the time of the dead, that they should be judged; and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and 1 Alike Griesbach, Scholz, and Tregelles expunge the κaid eрxoμevos of the received text. 4 shouldest destroy them which destroy (or corrupt)1 the earth.' And the temple of God was opened in heaven : and there was seen in his temple the ark of his covenant.2 And there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail." 3It is further added by St. John, on occasion of reverting (as just before observed) to the same scene and subject, that in a vision introductory of the outpouring of the seven vials of the seventh Trumpet, (a vision to be considered fully in a subsequent Chapter, but which it may be well here also anticipatively to glance at,) he heard some that had gotten the victory over the Beast, singing the song ; "Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true thy ways, thou King of nations! 5 who shalt not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name; for thou only art holy for all the nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest: "-also that out of the temple, which then appeared opened, seven angels came forth charged with vials, that they were to pour out upon the earth, of the wrath of God: and that "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." From which figurations and songs, attendant on the seventh Trumpet's sounding, the following general inferences were to be drawn respecting the æra and events that it presignified. 6 From the songs of the heavenly ones it was inferable 1 διαφθείραι της διαφθείροντας την γην. I incline to suppose this second meaning of diapeepw to be intended, in part at least, by the participle, from the circumstance very principally of a similar conjunction of, and antithesis between, the two senses of φθείρω in the very parallel passage, 1 Cor. iii. 17, Ει τις τον ναόν το Θες φθείρει, φθερει τε τον ὁ Θεός "If any one defile the temple of God, him will God destroy." See Note 2 p. 286 presently following. 2 dialnкn. Ought not this word to have been always translated covenant, not testament; especially in Heb. ix? 8 Και σεισμος και χάλαζα μεγαλη. Perhaps the adjective may be meant to apply to the σeouos, as well as the xaλaga; the difference of genders in the two nouns not necessarily forbidding this. Then it will be, "A great earthquake, and great hail." 4 Apoc. xv. 2-4. B e0vwv is Griesbach's, Scholz's, and Tregelles' reading. 6 As the word heaven is used in the Apocalypse, just as in other scriptures, -1st, that the establishment of Christ's kingdom was near at hand; according to the Covenant-Angel's declaration under the former trumpet,' and as the great and ultimate result of what was to happen under this :--2, that the epoch that was to be included under its sounding would be one in which the nations of apostate Christendom (for the nations, not the Beast, are here specified) would manifest some remarkable development of the passions, and exacerbation, whether against Christ alone and his religion, or against each other also: 2—3, that God's primary providential acts, ere the establishment of his kingdom, would be acts of judgment eminently both of the political heaven of earthly elevation, and also of that higher heaven in which God's presence is manifested, it seems doubtful how to take the word here; and whether to ascribe "the great voices in heaven" to certain of God's people on earth in a state of political exaltation, or to blessed spirits around the throne. On the whole I incline to prefer the latter view; because it seems scarcely reasonable to suppose that earthly songs of praise, in anticipation of the coming future, should give the initiative to that of the twenty-four elders mentioned as following. On the other hand, supposing them to have been the great voices of the four living creatures precenting, the order of song would be only that which is expressly described in Apoc. iv. 9, 10: "When the living creatures give glory and honour to Him that sitteth on the throne, the twenty-four elders fall down before him that sitteth on the throne, and cast their crowns before Him," &c.-As the not very dissimilar and nearly cotemporaneous song of the harpers by the glassy sea as it were may be clearly shown (as I conceive) to have been that of saints on earth, the question is not one of consequence. We have in any case concenting songs, anticipative of Christ's kingdom coming, sung by saints in earth and saints in heaven. 1 Apoc. x. 7. "The time shall not yet be; but in the days of the voice of the seventh Angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God shall be finished, as he hath promised to his servants the prophets." See Vol. ii. p. 121. 2 "And the nations were angry," or enraged; wpylonσav. Where the object of anger, referred to in a verb like this, is not specified, we must look to the context to explain it. And thus the Lord's having taken to himself his power, with a view to the establishment of his kingdom, being the thing spoken of next before in the present case, it seems natural to refer to this cause the anger of the nations. With which view of the passage the prophetic description in Psalm ii. 1. well agrees; "Why do the heathen rage, &c. against the Lord and against his anointed;" contrasted, as here, with the divine anger, "Kiss the Son lest He be angry," opуion: also that in Psalm xcix. 1; "The Lord reigneth, be the people never so unquiet." Compare too Exod. xv. 14; "The nations heard," (i.e. of Israel's victory over Pharaoh at the Red Sea,) "and were angry (Sept. wpyiσlno av): fear took hold of them, &c."-Since however elsewhere the word is used of the mutual exasperation of the parties angered, (as in Gen. xlv. 24, "See that ye fall not out, un opgeσ0e,") I have thought it well not wholly to exclude the latter idea. Moreover can there be exasperation against God without exasperation against mun also?-Vitringa's explanation is to the former effect: "Quippe ultimis illis temporibus, liberationem ecclesiæ proximè præcedentibus, extremum ediderant conatum ad regnum Christi, si pote, extirpandum." And so Daubuz. Compare Psalm cxii. 10 ; ἁμαρτωλός όψεται και οργισθησε ται. See Vol. i. pp. 100, 101. notable against both the apostate nations, the Beast, and perhaps too the Euphratean invaders, (invaders still existing though in decline,') as alike the corrupters and desolators of the Roman earth: 2-4, that there would be included under the trumpet (i. e. at its consummation) "the time of the dead being judged," (whatever the meaning of that most remarkable expression,) 3 and of reward being given to the prophets and saints his servants. From the song of the harpers by "the glassy sea as it were mixed with fire;" it was to be inferred that there would be on the earth, during the time of these judgments, certain victorious separatists from the Beast that would recognize God's hand and justice in them; and mark and hail it as the time for the nations of the world being converted to the knowledge and worship of God.-Then, turning to the scenic phenomena concomitant, in the temple and elsewhere, it was, I think, inferable from the circumstance of the temple being visibly opened in heaven, and the ark of the covenant 5 - 1 Their continued existence, though their woe was ended, appears from the fact of the overflow from the Euphrates that symbolized them not drying up till the sixth Vial. 2 It may be inferred, I think, that there is in the expression diapleipovtas tnv yn 1. a particular reference to the mystic Babylon, its ruling head, and harlotChurch, from the circumstance of the word being so applied to Babylon both in Apoc. xix. 2, ήτις έφθειρε την γην εν τη πορνεία αυτής, and also in Jer. li. 25 ; Ιδε εγω προς σε το όρος το διεφθαρμενον, το διαφθειρον πασαν την γην, &c. For this last prophecy, I conceive, had a reference secondarily to the New Testament Babylon, as well as primarily to the Babylon of the Old Testament. The passage is one which, with its remarkable imagery, will demand our more particular attention in a subsequent chapter. Compare 2 Peter ii. 12, ev ty poopą autov καταφθαρησονται, they shall utterly perish in their own corruption."-2. The reference of the word to the nations of apostate Christendom, may be inferred from their mention as wroth against Christ and his kingdom in the context :— and 3. its reference to the Mahommedan Turks, not merely from the desolating nature of their false religion and conquests, in other and earlier days, but also from the word being specifically applied to them in Daniel's prophecy: it being said in Daniel viii. 24 of the Little Horn that was to grow in the latter day out of one of the four horns of the he-goat, and signified, as I doubt not, the Turkman Moslem power, Και θαυματα διαφθειρῃ, and again, verse 25, Και δολῳ διαφθερεί TOλABS. In Chap. vi. infrà I hope to justify this explication of Daniel's prophecy. It is observable that in Daniel the contrast is marked between the destructibility, the diapopa, of the kingdoms of the world, and the indestructibility of Christ's kingdom; which last 8 diaplaρnσETAI EIS TBS aivas. Dan. ii. 44, vi. 26, vii. 14. 3 This will be considered afterwards, in the vith and last Part of my Commentary. 4 Explained in my subsequent Chapter vii. 5 Νικώντας εκ τε θηριs, an expression of which the meaning to this effect will be also shewn in my Chapter vii. infrà. |