his feet the great enemy of mankind, who perfecuted the church by the means of impious tyrants, in the form of a dragon, transfixed with a dart thro the midft of his body, and falling headlong into the depth of the fea; in allufion, as it is faid exprefly, to the divine oracles in the books of the prophets, where that evil fpirit is called the dragon and the crooked ferpent. Upon this victory of the church, there is introduced (ver. 10.) a triumphant hymn of thanksgiving for the deprefsion of idolatry, and exaltation of true religion: for now it was no longer in the power of the heathen perfecutors, as Satan accused holy Job before God, to accufe the innocent Chriftians before the Roman governors, as the perpetrators of all crimes, and the caufers of all calamities. It was not by temporal means or arms that the Christians obtained this victory, (ver. 11.) but by fpiritual, by the merits and death of their redeemer, by their conftant profeffion of the truth, and by their patient suffering of all kinds of tortures even unto death: and the blood of the martyrs hath been often called the feed of

the church.

12.)

This victory was indeed (ver. 12 matter of joy and triumph to the bleffed angels and glorified faints in heaven, by whofe fufferings it was in great meafure obtained; but ftill new woes are threatened to the inhabiters of the earth; for tho' the dragon was depofed, yet was he not destroyed; though idolatry was depreffed, yet was it not wholly fuppreffed; there were still many Pagans intermixed with the Chriftians, and the devil would incite fresh troubles and disturbances on earth, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time, it would not be long before the Pagan religion should be totally abolifhed, and the Chriftian religion prevail in all the Roman empire.

13 And when the dragon faw that he was caft unto the earth, he perfecuted the woman which brought forth the man-child,

14 And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly: into the wilderness, into her place: where fhe is nourished for a time, and times, and ! half a time, from the face of the ferpent,

15 And the ferpent caft out of his mouth water as a flood, after the woman; that he might caufe her to be carried away of the flood. 16 And

(8) Ταύτα μεν εν φθονος [forfan φθονερός] τις και πονηρός δαίμων,

τοις

16 And the earth helped the woman,

and the earth opened her mouth, and swalthe flood, which the dragon caft

up

lowed
out of his mouth.

17 And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her feed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the tef timony of Jefus Christ.

When the dragon was thus depofed from the imperial throne, and caft unto the earth, (ver. 13.) he ftill continued to perfecute the church with equal malice, tho' not with equal power. He made feveral attempts to restore the Pagan idolatry in the reign of Conftantine, and afterwards in the reign of Julian; he traduced and abused the Chriftiam religion by fuch writers as Hierocles, Libanius, Eunápius, and others of the fame ftamp and character; he rent and troubled the church with herefies and fchifms; he stirred up the favorers of the Arians, and especially the kings of the Vandals in Africa, to perfecute and deftroy the orthodox Chriftians. Thefe things, as (8) Eufebius faith upon one of these occafions, fome malicious

and

τοις της εκκλησίας βασκαίνων αγαθοις κατειργάζετο. Hæc liyor in P 4

vidia

and wicked demon, envying the profperity of the church, effected. But the church was ftill under the protection of the empire, (ver. 14.) and to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle. As God faid to the children of Ifrael, (Exod. XIX. 4.) Ye have feen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles wings, and brought you unto myself; fo the church was fupported and carried as it were on eagles wings: but the fimilitude is the more proper in this cafe, an eagle being the Roman enfign, and the two wings alluding probably to the divifion that was then made of the eaftern and the western empire. In this manner was the church protected, and thefe wings were given, that she might fly into the wilderness, into a place of retirement and fecurity, from the face of the ferpent. Not that he fled into the wilderness at this time, but feveral years afterwards; and there he is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, that is three prophetic years and a half, which is the fame period with the thousand two hundred

vidiæ, et malignus dæmon ecclefiæ felicitatem femper ægre ferens, ia noftram perniciem machinatus eft. Eufeb. de Vita Conftant. Lib. 2. Cap. 73.

(9) Interea comes Stilicho, Vandalorum inbellis, avara,

and

perfidæ et dolofe gentis genere editus, parvipendens quod fub imperatore imperabat, Eucherium filium fuum, ficut a plerifque traditur, jam inde Chriftia norum perfecutionem a puero privatoque meditantem, in im

and threefcore days or years before-mentioned. So long the church is to remain in a defolate and afflicted ftate, during the reign of Antichrift; as Elijah, (1 Kings XVII. XVIII. Luke IV. 25, 26.) while idolatry and famin prevailed in Ifrael, was fecretly fed and nourished three years and fix months in the wilderness. But before the woman fled into the wilderness, the ferpent caft out of his mouth water as a flood, (ver. 15.) with intent to wash her away. Waters in the ftile of the Apocalyps (XVII, 16.) fignify peoples and nations; so that here was a great inundation of various nations, excited by the dragon or the friends and patrons of the old idolatry, to oppress and overwhelm the Chriftian religion. Such appeared plainly to have been the defign of the dragon, when (9) Stilicho, prime minister of the emperor Honorius, firft invited the barbarous heathen nations, the Goths, Alans, Sueves, and Vandals, to invade the Roman empire, hoping by their means to raife his fon Eucherius to the throne, who from a boy was an enemy to the

perium quoquo modo fuftinere nitebatur. Quamobrem Alaricum, cun&tamque Gothorum gentem &c.-Eucherius, qui ad conciliandum fibi favorem Paganorum, reftitutione templorum et everfione ecclefiarum

imbuturum fe regni primordia minabatur, &c. Orofii Hift. Lib. 7. Cap. 38. p. 571. Edit, Havercamp. Vide etiam Jornandem de Rebus Geticis et de Regn. Succeff. et Paulum Diaconum. Lib. 13.

(1) Urbem