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Chapter 7]
CHAPTER VIII.
Hitherto our observations have been brief, because interpreters
are very generally agreed in their views of the first series, the seals,
in this interesting book of prophecy. The first six seals, covering the
time of heathen Rome’s opposition to Christianity, and before the Devil
succeeded in enlisting the nominal church of Christ in his interest, do
not therefore furnish occasion for much controversy among expositors. Besides,
the seventh seal covers much more time than all the others. The first six
refer to pagan Rome, and constitute the first period, properly styled the
PERIOD OF THE SEALS. The seventh seal, introducing
the trumpets, is the second period, called the PERIOD OF THE TRUMPETS.
In attempting to unfold their mystical import, greater amplification will
be indispensable.
1. And when he had opened the seventh seal, there
was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.
V. 1.—"Heaven" is the ordinary symbol of organized society,
whether civil or ecclesiastical or both. "Silence in heaven for half an
hour," indicates public tranquillity, together with anxious and mute expectation
of coming and alarming events. "Half an hour," a definite for an indefinite
duration, as usual, imports that the repose hitherto enjoyed, shall shortly
terminate. The respite which the saints enjoyed during the period succeeding
the revolution indicated by the opening of the sixth seal, soon came to
all end.
2. And I saw the seven angels which stood before
God; and to them were given seven trumpets.
3. And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer;
and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with
the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.
4. And the smoke of the incense. which came with the prayers of the
saints, ascended up before God out of, the angel’s hand.
Vs. 2-4.—"Seven angels" appear to John as ministers "standing
before God," ready to execute his commands. To them were given "seven trumpets."
Here, as all along hitherto, there is allusion to the former dispensation.
Under the Old Testament, trumpets were constructed by divine direction
and to be used for diverse purposes. Of the manifold uses of this instrument,
that which is here chiefly intended is, to "sound an alarm." (Joel 2:1;
1 Cor. 14:8.) Whilst all is suspense, and before the silence is broken
by the sounding of the first trumpet, the worship of God is exemplified
after the usual manner. An angel, by his official place and work easily
distinguished from those having the trumpets, holds in his hand a "golden
censer" that with "much incense" he might render acceptable "the prayers
of all saints." As the angel who had the "seal of the living God," is distinguished
from those that "held the winds," (ch. 7:1;) so is he here, from those
that had the trumpets. Here he appears as the Great High Priest over the
house of God; and as "the whole multitude of the people were praying without,
at the time of incense;" (Luke 1:10;) so the service of God is thus emblematically
represented as conducted according to divine appointment. This Angel therefore
is Christ himself. "No man cometh unto the Father but by him." He is the
only Advocate with the Father; and through him "we have access by one Spirit
unto the Father." (Eph. 2:18.)
May we not inquire, without presumption, a little into
the nature or purport of the "prayers of all saints" at this time of ominous
silence? And what could so likely be the burden of their petitions as that
of the cry of the souls under the altar, namely, the destruction of the
Roman empire? Surely this has been the prayer of God’s persecuted servants
in all ages:—"Pour out thy fury upon the heathen," etc. (Jer. 10:25;
Ps. 79:6.) However inconsistent with Christian charity superficial Christians
may deem the law of retaliation; we shall find it often urged on our attention
as exemplified in this book. It is absolutely essential to the divine government.
5. And the angel took the censer, and filled it
with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices,
and thunderings and lightnings and an earthquake.
V. 5.—The Lord Jesus, in carrying out the designs of
the divine mind, and executing the commission which he received from the
Father as Mediator, appears in various characters. Whilst as a priest he
intercedes for his people, and by the incense from the golden censer renders
their prayers acceptable before God; as a king he answers their prayers
by terrible things in righteousness. (Ps. 65:5.) This work of vengeance
is vividly signified by scattering coals of fire on the earth. From the
very same altar, whence the glorious Angel of the Covenant had received
fire to consume the incense, he next takes coals, the symbol of his wrath,
and scatters them into the earth. These "burning Coals of juniper" produce
"voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake." "O God, thou
art terrible out of thy holy places." (Ps. 68:35; 76:12.) "The Lord our
God is a jealous God." Our merciful Saviour once put a strange and startling
question to his disciples:—"Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on
earth? I tell you, Nay."—For ends worthy of himself, the only wise God
has unchangeably decreed that "offences must needs come," (Matt. 18:7;)
and "there must be also heresies" among professing Christians. (1 Cor.
11:19.) However, in the administration of providence, judgment without
mercy awaits every nation to which the gospel is sent in vain. The voices,
thunderings, etc., consequent upon the scattering of the coals,
portended the calamities which would be inflicted upon men for their opposition
to the gospel and cruel treatment of the saints, in answer to their prayers
through the intercession of Christ.
6. And the seven angels, which had the seven trumpets,
prepared themselves to sound.
V. 6.—The "seven angels now prepare themselves to sound."
The first alarm, of course: will put an end to the "silence." It should
be noted that while each seal, when broken, disclosed so much of the roll
of the book as was concealed by it; the seventh leaves no part unrevealed.
The whole contents are laid open. It is otherwise with the trumpets. The
reverberations of one may not have ceased when the next begins to sound.
Thus, several may be partly cotemporary. Again, it may be questioned whether
mankind are to be considered in civil or ecclesiastical organization as
the formal object of the judgments indicated by the trumpets. Some expositors
view the one, and some the other, as the object, and the contention has
been sharp among them. We humbly suggest that neither is the formal object
without the other, simply because the same individuals constitute
the complex moral person. The correctness of this view is largely
illustrated and abundantly confirmed in the subsequent part of the Apocalypse.
Provinces, nations, empires, are no farther worthy of notice in prophecy
than as they affect the destiny of the church and illustrate the immutable
principles of the moral government of God. He is known by the judgments
which he executeth, and nations must be taught that "the heavens do rule."
(Dan. 4:26.) Although the church and the state are, by divine institution,
distinct, not united; they are nevertheless co-ordinate, and always exert
a reciprocal influence for good or for evil. It has been the policy of
Satan to confound this distinction; and alas! with too much success in
the apprehension of many. There are not wanting divines who boldly assert,
that even among the Jews, under the Old Testament,—"the church was the
state, and the state was the church!" We may have occasion to notice hereafter,
that this gross error and antichristian dogma, is yet entertained in relation
to divinely organized society under the present New Testament economy!
The "voices, thunderings and earthquakes" resulting from
the scattering of the coals,—are the harbingers and precursors of coming
calamities upon Christendom at the sounding of the trumpets. And these
may be emblematical of the contentions, strife and divisions which accompanied
the rise and prevalence of the heresy of Arius and the apostacy of the
emperor Julian, during the time of comparative public tranquillity from
Constantine to Theodosius. The Church and the state, as one complex system,
we have considered as the object of the judgments to be inflicted under
the trumpets. These had, in fact, become incorporated, if not identified,
under the reign of Constantine and his imperial successors. But assuming
the correctness of the phraseology of secular historians and Christian
expositors, when in a popular sense they speak of the Roman empire
as the object of penal inflictions; we by no means agree with the latter
class of writers, when they limit the empire to the geographical
boundaries as it existed at the time of this prediction. This mistake,
if not detected here, will materially affect and control our views of the
whole subsequent part of the Apocalypse. Who would not discover the impropriety
and absurdity of treating of events now transpiring within the empire of
the United States, as if falling out within the limits of the original
thirteen as they existed in 1776? But the Roman empire yet exists, and
we have sufficient evidence that it will continue till the time of the
sounding of the seventh trumpet, (ch. 11:15.) Political bias has
prevailed with one class of expositors to exempt the British empire from
the stroke of God’s wrath, symbolized by both the trumpets and vials. Others,
from similar predilections, would exempt the United States and British
Provinces from these plagues. Whilst a third class, giving fall scope to
the hallucinations of mere imagination, aver their conviction that republican
America is the special and doomed object of all these plagues!—Hence, the
necessity of caution, sobriety, reverence for divine authority, reliance
on the teaching of the Holy Spirit, whom the Saviour has promised to his
humble disciples to "guide them into all truth, and to show them things
to come." (John 16:13.) That the student of prophecy,—especially of the
Apocalypse, may realize the fulfilment of this promise, it is indispensably
necessary that he be absolutely untrammeled by all antichristian politics.
Such cases are very rare, (ch. 13:3.)
During the reign of Constantine, that monarch had transferred
the capital of the empire from the "city of seven hills" to another locality
and founded another metropolis, which as the future seat of imperial rule,
and to immortalize himself, he called after his own name, Constantinople.
This ambitious enterprise itself virtually divided the empire, preparing
the way for its total dismemberment by the trumpets. And now the "seven
angels prepared themselves to sound," for all things are ready. The interceding
Angel at the "golden altar" has prevailed to obtain a period of tranquillity
whilst preparatory steps are in progress towards the next series of events;
but that time shall be no longer, or respite from impending judgments,
is significantly intimated by the symbolical Angel casting his "golden
censer" from his hand, and hurling it into the earth. Then without farther
delay,
7. The first angel sounded, and there followed
hall and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and
the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.
V. 7.—"The first angel sounded." The object of this judgment
is the earth, the population of the empire in general. The judgment
itself is, "hail and fire mingled with blood,"—desolating wars, like successive
storms of hail mingled with lightning, "hailstones and coals of fire."
(Ps. 18:12.) The effect is, a consumption of a third part of the "trees
and grass;" people in high and low degrees. Green trees and grass are the
ornaments and products of a land: and when the earth is an emblem of nations
and dominions, trees and grass may represent persons of higher and lower
rank.
The careful student of the Apocalypse will discover a
striking analogy between the effects of the trumpets and vials as the latter
are presented in the sixteenth chapter. This first trumpet therefore produces
an effect upon the social order of Christendom, which will continue till
the pouring out of the first vial. As the Roman empire in its twofold division
is the general object of all the trumpets; so the first four are directed
towards the western, and the next two against the eastern member.
The infidel historian Gibbon has unwittingly recorded
the fulfilment of these predictions, as Josephus has done those of our
Lord respecting the destruction of Jerusalem. Unconscious that he was bearing
testimony to the truth of prophecy, Gibbon used with his classic pen the
very allegorical language of the inspired apostle. Respecting the incursion
of the barbarous Goths, as led by Alaric their chief into the fertile plains
of southern Europe, he describes their alarming descent as a "dark cloud,
which having collected along the Coasts of the Baltic, burst in thunder
upon the banks of the upper Danube." He who directed Balaam and Caiaphas
to utter predictions, doubtless could direct Josephus and Gibbon to attest
the truth of prophecy; and this may be one of the many ways in which "he
makes the wrath of man to praise him."—The Goths, the Scythians and Huns,
first under Alaric and afterwards under Attila, those savage warriors from
the northern regions, invaded the provinces of the Roman empire in both
sections, carrying all before them like an irresistible tornado,—with fire
and sword utterly destroying cities, temples, princes, priests, old and
young, male and female,—thus "burning up trees, and green grass."
8. And the second angel sounded, and as it, were
a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea; and the third
part of the sea became blood:
9. And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had
life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed.
Vs. 8, 9.—"The second angel sounded." The object of this
judgment, is the sea. As a great collection of waters, this symbol is explained,
(ch. 17:15.) "Peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues," indicate
the population in an agitated and disorganized or revolutionary condition.
The judgment is a "burning mountain," a tremendous object,—consuming and
being itself consumed. The mountain is a symbol of earthly power civil
or military, and sometimes ecclesiastical.—"Who art thou, O great mountain?"
(Zech. 4:7.) The Almighty says to the king of Babylon,—"Behold, I am against
thee, O destroying mountain......I will roll thee down from the rocks,
and will make thee a burnt mountain." (Jer. 51:25; Ps. 48:2.)
The consequence of this judgment is, the third part of
the sea became blood, the fish perished, and the shipping was destroyed.
Similar language, illustrating these figurative expressions, had been used
by the prophets to represent divine judgments denounced against Egyptian
power. (Ezek. 29:3, etc.) In the eighth verse is contained the explanation
of the symbolic language, "Behold I will bring a sword upon thee, and cutoff
man and beast from thee."
History verifies this part of the Apocalyptic prediction.
Only two years after the death of that northern "scourge of God," Attila,
who boasted that "the grass never grew where his horse had trod;" Genseric
set sail from the burning shores of Africa; and, like a burning mountain
launched into the sea, accompanied by a vast army of barbarous Vandals,
suddenly landed his fleet at the mouth of the river Tiber. Disregarding
the distinctions of rank, age or sex, these licentious and brutal plunderers
subjected their helpless victims to every species of indignity and cruelty.
Hence the hostility to arts and science, the tokens of refined civilization,
indiscriminate devastation of life and property perpetrated by the savage
warriors, has given rise to the word "Vandalism."
10. And the third angel sounded, and there fell
a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the
third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters;
11. And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part
of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because
they were made bitter.
Vs. 10, 11.—The object of the third trumpet is the waters
as before,—the population of the empire, but not in collective form as
a sea; rather in a state of separation or disconnected, as "rivers
and fountains." Some apply this symbol of a "falling star" to Genseric,
but this is incongruous. On the contrary, he was a victorious prince,—a
rising star. It is more consonant to the truth of history and the
chronological series of prophecy, to apply this symbol to the downfall
of Momyllus the last of the Roman emperors, who was deposed by Odoacer
king of the Heruli, called in derision Augustulus, the diminutive Augustus.
Doubtless the allusion here is to the king of Babylon:—"How art thou fallen
from heaven, O Lucifer, (day-star,)son of the morning! How art thou cut
down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!" (Isa. 14:12.) A star
may indeed signify either a civil or ecclesiastical officer, but the scope
and context determine all these judgments to the enemies of the church,
and those of her illustrious Head. It is the "Vengeance of his temple."
We have already found a star the emblem of a gospel minister, and we shall
hereafter find it employed in that sense; but it does not seem to refer
in the present connexion to any apostate. The name of this star, "Wormwood,"
embittering the waters, is a lively emblem of the miseries experienced
by the people, in the use of the remaining temporal comforts which the
preceding calamities had left.
12. And the fourth angel sounded, and the third
part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third
part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day
shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise.
V. 12.—The design of all the trumpets is to point out
the utter destruction of the Roman empire, Daniel’s "kingdom of iron."
(Dan. 2:40.) For although from the time of Constantine it assumed the Christian
name, it nevertheless continued to be a beast. Of this we shall have cumulative
evidence as we progress. The first trumpet began to demolish the fabric
of antichristian power; and by the fourth the western division was overthrown.
For although the northern barbarians under the first, the southern Vandals
under the second, and the successors of both, prevailed to bring down the
last of the Caesars, yet the ancient frame of government still subsisted.
The political heaven, though shaken, was not yet wholly removed, while
the Senate, Consuls and other official dignitaries continued to shine as
political luminaries in the firmament of power. But as the last of the
Caesars fell from power in the year 476, so the last vestige of imperial
dominion in the west was removed in 566, when Rome, the queen of the nations,
was by the emperor of the east reduced to the humble condition of a tributary
dukedom. Most of the saints had their residence at this time in the nations
of western Europe and northern Africa, where they were grievously afflicted
by the Arian, Pelagian and other heresies; as also exposed to persecution
by the civil powers, whom those heresiarchs moved to oppress the orthodox:
consequently, the righteous judgments of God fall first upon that member
of the empire. The eastern section, however, is destined to become the
special object of the judgments indicated by the succeeding trumpets. However
interpreters differ in details when explaining the effects produced by
the sounding of the first four trumpets, they very generally harmonize
in the application of them to the western section of the Roman empire.
The luminaries of heaven are darkened, or fall, or are extinguished, while
the earth, the sea and the rivers are correspondently affected. Now, these
are the well known allegorical representations of divine judicial visitations
of guilty communities, as we find in the prophetic writings. See, for example,
the case of Babylon, "the beauty of the Chaldees’ excellency," (Isa. 13:1,
10;) also Egypt,—(Ezek. 32:7, 8.)
13. And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through
the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabitants
of the earth, by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three
angels, which are yet to sound!
V. 13.—Before the fifth angel sounds, a note of warning
is given by the ministry, of another angel distinct from the seven with
the trumpets. He pronounces a "woe" thrice repeated, upon the inhabitants
of the earth, indicating that heavier judgments and of longer duration
are about to be inflicted. This announcement was intended to excite attention
and awful expectation. This angel’s message of "heavy tidings" may be viewed
in quite interesting contrast with that of a subsequent angel,—"flying
through the midst of heaven," (ch. 14:6.) How different, yet harmonious,
is the ministry of those heavenly messengers!
The first four trumpets, as we have seen, demolished the
western division of the Roman empire. About the middle of the sixth century
this work was brought to completion. Here, for greater clearness, we may
be allowed to anticipate by digressing a little. Assuming now, what shall
afterwards appear to be correct, that the Roman empire is Daniel’s fourth
universal monarchy, and Paul’s "let," or hinderance, to the revealing of
the "Man of Sin;" since the first four trumpets have dismembered that great
power, revealing the "ten toes,—ten horns," or kingdoms; we would expect
now to hear of the destruction of that "Son of perdition." But it is not
so. That is to be effected by the vials, (ch. 16.) As the general and grand
design of the Apocalypse is to illustrate the divine government, exhibiting
the moral world as affecting, or affected by the Christian religion, it
seemed good to the Divine Author that the destinies of the eastern section
of the Roman empire yet standing, where many of his saints reside, shall
come under review. Ecclesiastical history treats familiarly of a Greek,
as well as a Latin church and empire. As the trumpets cover the
whole time from the opening of the sixth seal till the final overthrow
of the whole fourth monarchy; (Dan. 7:26; Rev. 11:15,) it follows that
the eastern section must be the object of a part of them. Accordingly,
the remaining part of the second period,—the Period of the Trumpets,
includes the first two of the three, emphatically and significantly styled
"woe-trumpets."
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