rapidity, with which it afterwards spread among the kindreds, tongues, and nations, is sufficiently well known; and its progress is further pointed out in the type of the two angels, who appeared to the prophet as closely following the first.

The angel is seen to fly in the midst of heaven-In the language of symbols, heaven signifies either the Church or the State, according as it is taken in a spiritual or in a secular sense. Now it is worthy of notice, that in both these senses the type accurately corresponds with the history of Luther. He was an Augustine monk; and, at the commencement of the Reformation, had not, like the Waldenses and Hussites, separated himself from the Church of Rome. On the contrary, he raised his voice in the very midst of the ecclesiastical heaven; and, at the first, was by no means inclined, either to quit the communion, or directly to oppose the authority, of the Pope. Many prior attempts had been made to bring about a reformation from without the western Church: but the only one, which proved in any degree successful, was made from within it.* So again, if the heaven, in which the angel was seen to fly, be understood in a secular sense, the type will in this case also be found equally applicable to the Saxon reformer. "Contrary to the general fate of the preachers of new tenets, it was Luther's lot to proclaim his doctrine in the midst of the figurative heavens, before the emperor and the princes of the empire assembled in open diet. Patronized from the first by princes, the Reformation was introduced into the countries where it took place by the authority of the sovereigns themselves; not by a party first gained among the subjects, too powerful for the sovereign to resist."†

"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."

By this second angel I conceive Calvin and the members of the different reformed continental churches to '

I mean not to say, that no prior attempts had been made from within it, but that none had been made successfully.

Whitaker's Comment. p. 432.

I use the word reformed as it is familiarly used in contradistinction to Lutheran

be peculiarly intended. The preaching of Luther, hostile as it eventually proved to papal tyranny, was not originally so direct and undisguised an attack upon it as that of the second angel. Strongly under the influence of habits formed by a monastic education, he long hesitated entirely to throw off the yoke. When the open declaration of his opinions had raised him many enemies, though he firmly refused to recant without conviction, yet he addressed himself by letters, written in the most submissive and respectful terms, to the Roman Pontiff and to several of the bishops, shewing them the uprightness of his intentions as well as the justice of his cause, and declaring his readiness to change his sentiments as soon as he should see them fairly proved to be erroneous." His own account of the state of his mind during this period will best shew with what extreme difficulty it extricated itself from the trammels of blind obedience to the see of Rome. "I found myself," says he, "involved in the controversy of indulgences alone, and as it were by surprise. And, when it became impossible for me to retreat, I made many concessions to the Pope; not however in many important points; but certainly, at that time, I adored him in earnest. In fact how despised and wretched a monk was then! Whereas, in regard to the Pope, how great was his majesty! The potentates of the earth dreaded his nod. How distressed my heart was in that year, (1517) and the following; how submissive my mind was to the hierarchy, not feignedly but really! Nay, how I was almost driven to despair through the agitations of care and fear and doubt, those secure spirits little know, who at this day insult the majesty of the Pope with much pride and arrogance ! But I, who then alone sustained the danger, was not so certain, not so confident. I was ignorant of many things, which now by the grace of God I understand. I disputed, and I was open to conviction. Not finding satisfaction in the books of theologians and canonists, I wished to consult the living members of the Church itself. There were indeed some godly souls, who entirely approved my propositions; but I did not consider their authority as of weight with me in spiritual concerns. The

popes, cardinals, bishops, and monks, were the objects of my confidence. At length, after I became enabled to answer every objection that could be brought against me from the Scriptures, one difficulty still remained, and only one; namely, that the Church ought to be obeyed.* By the grace of Christ, I at last overcame this difficulty also." Such was the conflict which took place in the mind of Luther. But Calvin and the succeeding reformers treated the Church of Rome with an indignant roughness from the very beginning. Adopting the language of the Waldenses, who had avowedly separated themselves from her communion in obedience to the prophetic exhortation, they scrupled not to apply to her the name of Babylon, and to denounce against her in the words of the Apocalypse the future dreadful judgments of God. By the same figure of speech, that the first angel cried, that the hour of his judgment is come, this second angel proclaims, that Babylon is fallen. The sentence is as certain, as if it were already executed:"§ whence, after the manner of the ancient prophets, the present tense is used instead of the future. By the light of Scripture, the daring usurpations, the rank idolatry, and the blasphemous pretensions of the Papacy were detected and exposed. That undefinable dread of its heavenly authority, which at first so strongly influenced the mind of Luther, was unknown and unfelt by subsequent preachers; and, in the height of their zeal even exceeding their warrant, while they justly branded Rome with the name of Babylon, they prematurely stigmatized the Pope with that of Antichrist.

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"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, the same shall drink of the wine of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he

* "I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven.”

+ Cited by Milner. Eccles. Hist. Vol. iv. p. 331.

"Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues." Rev. xviii. 4.

§ Bp. Newton's Dissert. on Rev. xiv.

"Babylon is fallen, is fallen." Isaiah xxi. 9. See Bp. Newton's Dissert. on Rev. xiv.

shall be tormented with fire and brimstone, in the pres ence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb. 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."

As the first and second angels represent the Lutheran and Calvinistic churches of the continent, so I apprehend the third angel typifies the insular church of England; which is not professedly in all points either Lutheran or Calvinistic, and which has justly merited and obtained the glorious title of the bulwark of the Reformation. The description, which is given of the office of the third angel, accurately corresponds with the part which the Anglican church has taken in the contest with the adherents of Popery. For more than a century after the Reformation the writings of the English divines continued to denounce the vengeance of heaven against those who still partook of the abominations of the apostate Roman beast after all the warnings which they had received; and the ablest expositors of those prophecies, which relate to the corrupt tyranny of the mystic Babylon, have been children or fathers of our national Church. Of these it will be sufficient to mention the illustrious name of Mede; who, by his successful application of many of the predictions of Daniel and St. John to Popery, loudly called upon the whole world to come out of the harlot eity, lest they should "drink of the wine of the wrath of God."

"Here is the patience of the saints: here are they, that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. 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."

The presbyteral and Calvinistic church of Scotland must be considered as a member of the second angel, inasmuch as, although insular herself, she has derived both her discipline and doctrine from the reformed churches of the continent: while the venerable, though depressed episcopal church of Scotland, may be esteemed, in a similar manner, a member of the third angel, being the same both in doctrine and discipline as the church of England, though, so far as her present line of episcopal succession is concerned, of later origin. See Skinner's Eccles. Hist. of Scotland.

Gloriously successful as the Reformation eventually was, the patience of the saints was severely exercised during its progress. It was a season of great trial and persecution and many of them of understanding perished in trying, and in purging, and in making white, their apostate brethren.* Great was the increase which the noble army of the martyrs then received. They overcame the dragon, not by the arm of flesh, but "by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto death." Hence they had need of that consolatory declaration, "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from henceforth." By their preaching, the gloomy fears of purgatory were dispelled; and the pious learned to build with confidence upon the assurance of the Spirit, that, whenever they depart hence and are no more seen," they rest from their labours, and their works do follow them."

"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. 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 harvest of the earth is ripe. And he, that sat on the cloud, thrust in his sickle on the earth : and the earth was reaped.

"And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle. 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. And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden without the city; and blood came out of the winepress even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs."

For the substance of these remarks upon the characters of the three angels, I am indebted to Mr. Whitaker; whose mode of interpreting this particular portion of the Apocalypse I very much prefer to that adopted by Bp. Newton. See Whitaker's Comment. p. 430–436.