In the year 1546 that league falls to pieces .... ........ 114 ib. In the following year the interim is presented to the Diet at to vindicate the protestant cause, and advances towards In- 115 ib. The emperor Charles V. flies from Inspruck in consternation........ 117 The peace of Passau secures to the protestants the free exercise of their religion, which is confirmed by a recess of the Diet of Augsburg ...... Importance of the treaty of Passau.. 118 ib. The revival of the witnesses and their ascension into the sym- ..... 119 120 Recapitulation of the whole prophecy 121 What is intended by the ascension of the witnesses in a cloud........ 122 At the same hour there is a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city falls ib. The reformation and the events which followed it were this revolution...... Meaning of the fall of the tenth part of the city.. England was that tenth part which fell from the Romish juris- The slaughter of seven thousand names of men explained The last shock of the earthquake did not take place till the year 126 The earthquake being over, it is declared that the second woe is past, and the third woe cometh quickly-This is a chronological mark to distinguish the period of the death of the witnesses ib. 127 The second woe shown to have passed away in the year 1698.... 128 The expression" the third woe cometh quickly" explained ib. .... xli LIR CATI CHAPTER X. THE SOUNDING OF THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. Passage quoted from Mede, to show that the four kingdoms of Daniel constitute the great Kalendar of prophecy, and are a prophetical chronology of times, reaching down to the finishing of the mystery of God...... .... 129 ...... 130 It is very important to ascertain the place which the seventh ....... seventh trumpet takes place at the coming of the Ancient of Days in Daniel Three points of coincidence between the above two events stated, which prove that they correspond in time.. Though the kingdom of God is established in the days of the seventh trumpet, yet this is not to be at its commencement→ Dreadful judgments are first to be executed against the nations.... The eleventh chapter of the Apocalypse, is only an epitome of events afterwards more largely described......... ........ ..... ib. ib. 132 ib. 133 It contains therefore no detailed account of the seventh trumpet ib. ib. The opening of the temple is of great use in determining the place of the seven Apocalyptic vials, which are thereby proved all to belong to the seventh trumpet..... ib. There were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail 134 An inference hence deduced, that they are the same with the ib. ib. ib. ... 136 ........ And on the language in which it has been described by those who have spoken of it without any reference to prophecy Recapitulation of five different particulars, which have been determined in this chapter in reference to the sounding of the seventh trumpet .... 137 Concluding observation respecting the termination of the great prophetical period of 1260 years.... CHAPTER XI. THE WOMAN AND THE DRAGON. Apocalyptical description of the woman and the dragon, and her man child ...... Introductory observation The woman in the twelfth chapter is the true spiritual church of Her symbolical description explained.. 138 139 ib. 140 ib. ... 141 ib. The man child signifies the mystic Christ, or Christ formed in his members ....... Passage quoted from Isaiah, to illustrate the meaning of this man child ........ .... The prophecy received its accomplishment in the conversion of ... Objection to the above interpretation, that it makes the woman and her child to signify the same thing-Answer to this objection.... ..... The dragon is the devil, enthroned in the Roman empire.................. The flight of the woman into the wilderness explained War in heaven between Michael and the dragon-The dragon .... Two interpretations have been given of this passage: one by Mede and Bishop Newton, the other by Mr. Faber and Mr. Andrew Fuller ..... ... The last of these was adopted in the first edition of this work, but ib. 142 143 144 ib. 145 ib. 146 147 ib. the expulsion of Paganism from its authority in the Roman empire... Further reasons for thus applying the passage ...... .... .... 147 150 ib. The heavens called to rejoice at the downfall of the dragon The schism of the Donatists, another means.. But the most powerful of his weapons is derived from the rapid growth of superstition, idolatry, and the spirit of ecclesiastical domination..... The woman gradually recedes from the eyes of men, and her final retreat into the wilderness may be dated from the time when the emperor Justinian declared the pope head of the church in the sixth century............ The dragon casts out of his mouth a flood of waters to carry away the woman The meaning of this symbol ascertained.... The passage received its accomplishment in the torrent of barbarous nations, which broke in upon the Roman empire while the woman was retiring into the wilderness, and during the following centuries........... How the earth swallowed up the symbolical waters ib. 152 ib. ib. 153 ib. ib. 154 The dragon makes war with the remnant of the woman's seed .. 155 CHAPTER XII. THE TEN-HORNED BEAST OF THE SEA. Apocalyptical description of the beast... 156 The Holy Spirit, in this chapter, shows us the instruments through which, Satan is to act against the church, and the beast is the first of them ib. That the fourth kingdom of Daniel, is the Roman empire, is one 157 ib. The sentiments of various commentators, quoted in support of this opinion ib. Arguments in confirmation of it. 159 The Roman empire, since its division into ten kingdoms, has formed a species of federal republic 160 Enumeration of the ten Gothic kingdoms, into which the Roman empire of the west was divided The kingdoms of Europe, have been ten in number at various periods.... The seven heads of the beast considered Passage from Rev. xvii. containing a more particular account of the seven heads The seven kings which are designated by the heads of the beast, are seven successive forms of government-The first six of these forms enumerated 160 161 162 ib. .. ib. A great diversity of sentiment exists about the seventh form, and likewise the eighth The opinion adopted in the former edition of this work stated, and abandoned as erroneous, and a new solution offered..... The sixth head is the heathen imperial government of the Cæsars -On the dethronement of Licinius by Constantine, that form fell to rise no more ..... ..... The seventh head is the Christian imperial power, from Constantine to Augustulus ......... At the fall of the Western empire, the seventh head received a Out of the seventh head, grow the ten regal horns.... 163 ib. ib. .... 164 165 ib. The restored empire, together with the ten regal horns, con- It signifies the spiritual resurrection of the Heathen Roman empire in an externally Christian form, by its lapse into antichristian idolatry 167 A brief view of the fulfilment of this part of the prophecy.... This character belongs to the beast only under his eighth political form ib. 169 Under this form the beast goeth into perdition 170 This clause illustrated by a concise view of the spiritual and secular history of the beast, down to the present period ...... ib. The rise of the beast out of the bottomless pit or abyss, chap. xvii. 8. shown not to be different from his rise out of the sea, chap. xiii. 1..... How the dragon gave the beast his seat and great authority 172 What is intended by the worship paid to the beast.... |