Ch. viii. 6-12.] APOCALYPSE. 221 temperal or spritul Winkl was aware, that the fates of the Roman Empire were beneath the dignity of this sacred book. For, having dispatched that part of his work which he supposes to contain them, "We now proceed," says he, "to an"other, and much the most noble prophecy, because it " contains the history of Religion and of the Church*. Another judicious observation of the same commentator will be usefully applied to this enquiry. He observes that the Trumpets should be interpreted as being all of one kind and nature, or, as he expresses it, homogeneal; "to make some of them warlike invasions, " and others to be heresies, is to bring things of too differing a nature under one name t." After having supposed the four first Trumpets to represent "warlike "invasions on the Roman Empire," he clearly saw, that the remaining Trumpets must not be interpreted as containing the history of Christian heresies; and therefore he laboured to shew that the Roman Empire was the object of attack in all the Trumpets. This labour he would perhaps have spared, if he had not already explained the four first Trumpets to be so many attacks on that Empire; and therefore found himself obliged to exhibit a consistency, when he proceeded to interpret the rest. For, certainly, the great apostacy occasioned by Mahomet (which Mede understands to be contained under the fifth Trumpet) will be found to have attacked the Christian Religion yet more hostilely and extensively than the Roman Empire. It overthrew, or fatally corrupted, this Religion in the Roman Empire, wherever it subverted that Empire; and, moreover, was fatal to Christianity in the wide and extensive regions of the Eastern World, which had never been subjected to the Roman dominion. * Mede's Works, p. 477. ↑ Ib. p. 595. But But if the Trumpets are to be all homogeneal, let us have recourse to one of them, whose character and interpretation are placed beyond dispute; in the application of which, all interpreters must agree: and then let us bring the prophecies under the other Trumpets to that settled standard. The seventh Trumpet! what does it announce? Most clearly, the victory obtained by Christ and His Church, not over the Roman Empire, but over the powers of Hell, and of Antichrist, and a corrupt world; over the Dragon, the Beast, the false Prophet, and in process of time (for the seventh Trumpet continues to the end), over Death and Hell; "for he must reign "till he hath put all things under his feet." If then, under the seventh Trumpet, the warfare of the Christian Church be so clearly represented (and in this all writers are agreed), what are we to think of the six? How must they be interpreted, so as to appear homogeneal? Are they to be accounted, with Mede and his followers, the successive shocks, by which the Roman Empire fell under the Goths and Vandals? Homogeneity forbids. They must, therefore, be supposed to contain the warfare of the Christian Church. And this warfare may be successful under the seventh and last trumpet, when it had been unsuccessful before, yet the homogeneity be consistently preserved. For, the question is not concerning the success, but concerning the warfare. And the Trumpets may be deemed homogeneal, if they all represent the same warfare (viz. of the powers of Hell, and of the Antichristian world, against the Church of Christ), whatever may be the event; and whether it be carried on by the violence and persecution of open enemies, or by heresies and corrupt doctrines; for heresy, which leads to apostacy, is a most dangerous assault upon the Church. The The irruption of the barbarous nations of the North, upon the declining Empire, is of great importance in civil history. It occasioned a signal revolution in power and property, and produced wonderful effects on the manners, customs, and laws of Europe. But although it took crowns from kings, and property from rich laymen, and overwhelmed multitudes in slavery, its disastrous influence was small, or of no permanency, on the Christian Church. That Church had already degenerated, through ignorance and corrupt worship; but it retained its property, and power, and the number of its subjects: nay, it greatly increased all these; for the conquering nations forsook their pagan creed for the religion of the conquered *. Mosheim, Cent. vi, part i.-Gibbon narrates the number of the barbarous nations which had become Christian before the age of Charlemagne; and remarks that the Christians were then in possession of all the fertile lands of Europe, which had been seized by these warriors. (Decline of the Roman Empire, ch. xxxvii. p. 532, 4to.) ἐκ τῶν λοιπῶν φω τῶν τῆς σάλπιγ τῶν τριῶν ἀγγέλων τῶν μελλόνων σαλο πίζειν. "who dwell upon the the trumpet of the three angels which are yet to sound. Ver. 13. And I beheld, and I heard one Seagle flying; &c.] Griesbach has admitted the word άT8 (eagle) into the text, and seems to produce powerful authorities for the admission. But the received reading, Alyλ8 (angel) seems also supported by good authorities; and internal evidence will appear decisive in its favour. The two words have resemblance in Greek character, and might be confounded by transcribers. I prefer the word angel, because, in the scenery of the Apocalypse, the action is almost entirely and exclusively administered by angels. And in ch. xiv. 6, the Prophet sees "another angel flying in "the space between heaven and earth." To what former angel does this other angel refer, but to this of the eighth chapter, who is the only one before described as flying? And it is in the same space between "heaven and carth." And this angel of the xivth chapter is followed by others, all of them angels, no eagle. I remark also the application of the word ¿vos, one, to this angel or eagle, whichsoever it may be. If it be to be applied to an eagle, why does the Prophet say one eagle; why not an eagle? for no eagles had been mentioned. But there is a propriety, if it be an angel, in saying one angel, because many angels had been, and were then, employed in the action. The cohort of seven angels were then standing forth with their trumpets. Ib. In the space between heaven and earth.] The μεosava appears to have been one of the cardinal points in the Chaldean astronomy, opposed to the hypogæum*: but in this passage, it seems simply to mean the intermediate space between heaven and earth, as they appeared in this vision; the one extended above, the other below †. Ib. Woe! woe! woe!] The Divine messenger, at the command of God, leaving heaven, and hovering over the earth, proclaims three woes, or dreadful calamities, to happen to its inhabitants, under the three remaining Trumpets. No greater calamity can happen to the sons of inen, than the corruption, the rejection, the loss of true Religion. Under the four preceding Trumpets, an hostile invasion of the whole Christian Church, in its fourfold division, had taken place; but the view of its effects had been hitherto general, and representative of few particulars. The warfare is now exhibited more plainly and openly; and Antichrist will soon stand confessed. In the apostolic times, in the times when this vision was exhibited (and the four first Trumpets seem to have their date from those times, ch. i.), Antichrist already was said to be come‡; the mystery of iniquity did then work §," and waxed "worse and worse ||." So, under the four first Trumpets, the storm seems increasing; but the calamity is as yet described only in general terms, previous to a more particular exhibition. Now it advances to its maturity, and most desolating effects, by three distinct and particular explosions, under the three last Trumpets. * Brucker, Hist. Crit. Philos. i. 139. 1 John ii. 18, 22. iv. 3. 2 John 7. † See note, ch vii. 1. § 2 Thess. ii. 7. 2 Tim. iii. 13. What is thus expressed by the Sacred writers, has always been understood to signify the beginnings of Antichristian power. BB PART |