during the time appointed,-1260 years; which accords exactly with the period of the witnesses, who, in mournful garbs, execute their prophetic office: but of this accordance more will be said elsewhere *. It is sufficient in this place to observe, that by different shocks under the preceding Trumpets, in which Satan is the prime agent, pure Religion had been almost driven out of the world. And during the same centuries, in which she has been seen desolate with the Witnesses †, she had existence only in some retired situations, where with difficulty she kept herself from annihilation, or, to speak more appositely, was miraculously preserved.

Ver. 7. And there was war in heaven.] This passage, beginning with verse 7, and ending with verse 14, should be read (as it appears to me) in parenthesis. Reasons will be produced in commenting on the 14th verse. A transaction, which had happened long before the history related in the present scene, but strongly connected with it, seems to be introduced. And therefore the word yevelo might be translated "there had been," being used in the same sense as in Matt. xxviii. 2, where Archbishop Newcome has pointed out the propriety of this translation . This parenthesis contains explanatory matter of great importance; and seems to have been exhibited in a separate scene. For, the conflict between the dragon and the woman in the wilderness is suspended, while the battle in heaven is described; and is afterwards resumed, exactly where the narration had been broken off. We learn from it, that previously to the conflict with the Church of God upon earth, the same arch

*Note, ch. xiii. 5.
Harm. of Gosp. p. 154.

+ Ch. xi. 1–15.

fiend and his angels, had carried on a conflict in heaven. It is the same conflict which is alluded to in Jude 6. & 2 Pet. ii. 4.

In this warfare against heaven, he is defeated, and, with his followers, utterly expelled from the mansions of the blest*. But he is still permitted, for a season, to exhibit his rage on earth. This war in heaven is to be understood in a spiritual sense, as well as the war upon earth. The tempter seduced the spirits above from their happy state of obedience to the divine laws. The leading angel who, in the prophetic language of Scripture, is said to fight against Satan in behalf of the Church, is called Michael; the import of whose name is Who-like-God? He is by some commentators represented to be the Messiah himselft. This can scarcely be allowed; but he certainly fights under the banner of Christ; for who can be said to have overcome Satan in heaven, but the Messiah, who, before the foundation of the world, accepted the office by which he was to be overcome ? And as Christ is the head of the Church, not only on earth, but in heaven, whither the power of his creation and of his redemption is said to extend, and where angels and principalities are subjected to him §: so there appear to be two rebellions against his power and name; the one in heaven, the other on earth. Both are comprehended in Milton's sublime poem.

Ver. 14. To the woman were given two wings of the great eagle; &c.] To be borne on eagle's wings,

signifies, (as will appear by consulting Exod. xix. 4.

ん

TOTTOS ex sugion, Dan. ii. 35. Rev. xx. ii.
Mede's Discourses.

Eph. i. 10; iii. 15. Phil, ii. 10. Col. i. 16. 20.

Compare Dan. xii. 1. Luke x. 18.

Isa. xl. 31. Psalm xci. 4.) divine, miraculous deliverance. Who can pursue the eagle through the air and take from him what is committed to his charge? This verse, compared with the sixth, at the end of which the parenthesis is supposed to begin, will be found to contain nearly the self-same information, varied only in expression.

1. "The woman fled into 1. "That she might flee

2.

"the wilderness:

should S. "Where she is nourish

"there nourish her a

"thousand two hun

"dred and sixty
days."

1. The expression in the first clause is the same, varied only by the use of another mood and tense, rendered necessary by the new context.

2. The second clauses have only this difference, that the miraculous deliverance is pointed out in one, as consisting in the divine security of the place; in the other, from the divine conveyance to it; both are effected by the same miraculous succour, and in the same place.

3. It has been already shewn *, that the 1260 days, and the time, times, and half, are exactly the same period. Thus, comparing these two passages, we must acknowledge the parenthesis which disjoined them: the history contained in which, being now delivered, we are again brought to the same place, whence the narration had digressed, to the conflict on earth between the dragon and the woman.

Ver. 15. Water like a river.] Overwhelming calamity is often represented as a torrent, or flood of water, bearing down all before itt, from which, however, the favour of God delivers his servants. Such a flood the adversary now raises against the Church; the floods and waves of worldly power, stirring up the madness of the rulers and of the people, (which is expressed by the same imagery, in Psalms lxxxix. 9; lxv. 7. ‡) against the cause of true Religion. Such were the persecutions under the heathen emperors; but the whelming torrent did not prevail against the Church of Christ. Remarkable instances occur in history, wherein Christianity, on the point of being utterly annihilated, was delivered by the unexpected interposition of earthly power, and the political movements of earthly potentates. There is a memorable instance of this in the time of the Diocletian persecution, when the Christian Religion, apparently overwhelmed by its enemies, obtained a wonderful deliverance from the extraordinary proceedings of Constantine §. Modern history presents many

Note, ch. xi. 2. + Psalm cxxiv. Is. xvii. 12. Jer. xii. 5. See also Rev. xvii. 15. where the waters are explained by the angel to signify "people, and multitudes, and nations, and languages."

Euseb. Hist. Eccl. Jib. x. c. v.

such

such occurrences, as may be seen in Bishop Newton's Dissertation on the Prophecies*. But perhaps these more properly belong to the warfare, which the dragon is to wage against the rest of the offspring of the woman. And the floods are to be referred to the early persecutions of Christianity, prevented from destroying her by the favour which the Christians enjoyed with all people t.

Ver. 17. The remnant of her offspring.] Christ is the first-born; the first-fruits of the Church; and first only among brethren §; for to his faithful servants he hath given the privilege of being joint-heirs with him. Such are they, "who keep the command"ments of God, and hold the testimony of Jesus ;" Christians in faith and in practice. Against these, during the season permitted to him, the arch-fiend makes war; and this war is now about to be described. He succeeds for a time: but in the end, the Church must prevail. Such was the original designation of Divine Providence by prophecy;" thy seed "shall possess the gate of his enemies :" and in ch. vi. 2, the Church goes out conquering, and for to conquer. The time of this warfare, carried on by the dragon against the rest of the offspring of the woman, by the devil and his agents, is to be dated, as it appears to me, from the days of the emperor Constantine; when the arch-enemy, having tried in vain to overwhelm the Church by his torrents of worldly power, began to proceed against her by a more covert and sure method; began to corrupt her by the splendour and riches, which she was now permitted to enjoy and