089. Chapter IV (Revelation 6)
CHAPTER IV Of the first six seals in the 6th chapter.
Having thus given a scheme and division of the whole prophecy, and a general argument of the story of it, briefly set together in one view, I will now run over each chapter apart; yet I shall largely insist only on the 6th chapter, as being taken off by other occasions from commenting so copiously, with observations, upon the rest, which I shall pass over with a more slight glance of interpretation, as hastening to the Second Part, which I more especially aim at; which, although it arise not to a full and copious commentary, shall, notwithstanding, serve to hold forth that to be the true portrait of the Holy Ghost’s mind in this story, which in the general argument foregoing I have given it out to be. The seal-prophecy concerns the state of the empire from John’s time downward. Which state, as all story will represent unto you, is to be considered, either—
1. Whilst heathenish, when false gods were worshipped, as Jupiter, Mars, &c., and the professors of Christian religion were persecuted and massacred; during all which time the empire stood whole, undivided, and entire, under the government of one emperor, under whom both east and west were subjected, and this for the space of three hundred years after Christ. Or else—
2. When turned Christian, as by Constantine it was; from whose time the whole empire more generally was subjected to the outward profession of Christ; but withal, it began to be divided and broken into two parts: which rent was afterwards established by Theodosius, the eastern part of Europe (whereof Constantine made Byzantium, from him called Constantinople, the seat) being allotted to one emperor, which eastern part the Turk now possesseth; and the western part, which had Rome for the seat of it, unto another, which western part the Pope for many hundred years hath entirely had under him; so that the one was called the eastern, and the other the western empire. And according to this division, the seal-prophecy divides itself into two parts:—
First, The first six seals, Revelation 6.
Secondly, The first six trumpets, which the seventh seal brings forth in the 8th and 9th chapters; from the woe of which trumpets the servants of God are sealed, Revelation 7.
Here, in the 6th chapter, the first prophecy begins, and that with the primitive times; of which these two things are evidences:—
1. That in the first seal is the ‘going forth’—the preaching of the gospel—‘conquering, and to conquer;’ for as then, and in that manner, it had begun. This was the foundation of all God’s after-proceedings, the first corner-stone of Christ’s obtaining and setting up his kingdom.
2. That the fifth seal mentions the martyrdom of saints, crying out for vengeance; which being the first mention of any such martyrdom in this book, must needs refer to those famous first persecutions under heathenish Rome, which was followed by the Arian a little after; as Revelation 6:11.
These six seals are several steps and degrees, setting forth the moving causes and means of God’s plaguing and ruining the empire of Rome as heathenish. Christ being to put down all adverse power, he finds not only this empire to stand in his way, but Gentilism, the worship of false gods, and of Satan, under those idols of Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, &c. First therefore he encounters Satan’s worship, heathenism, which had all the power of that empire to back it; and then in the trumpets he encounters the empire itself: he ‘went forth conquering, and to conquer,’ and that but by degrees. The first judgments on that empire left the empire standing. Therefore, the martyrs, after those punishments foregone, in the second, third, and fourth seal, do yet (seal fifth) cry for vengeance on the empire itself.
They are called seals—
1. In a general relation to this whole prophecy; it being—
(1.) A book of decrees to be executed by Christ, and these are the seals of them.
(2.) This book being not to be opened till the time of the end, as Daniel foretold, is sealed up till just before the end of all; as there it is prophesied, Daniel 12:4, ‘But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.’ Towards this end of all you have (mark this) the same angel in Daniel 12 coming in the 10th chapter of this Revelation, with a book in his hand open; which as it was to give a new prophecy, so to shew that when all the seals were off, (that is, when these judgments were all executed on the world,) then the book should be understood; and accordingly, not till all these seals were passed, was the Revelation understood.
2. More particularly they are called seals, because—
(1.) They are judgments decreed by God, that should certainly come upon that empire. Now what is decreed inevitably is said to be sealed. So the salvation of the elect is said to be, 2 Timothy 2:19, ‘The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth who are his.’ So also judgments decreed are said to be sealed, Deuteronomy 32:34, ‘Is not this laid up in store with me, and sealed up among my treasures?’ even to punish them; for so it follows, ‘to me belongeth vengeance,’ &c. Thus, Job 14:17, ‘My transgression,’ says he, ‘is sealed up in a bag;’ that is, God had before appointed surely to punish it.
(2.) They are said to be sealed, in that they are judgments hidden, stealing in upon the world ere they were aware of them, and which they knew not the meaning of. And accordingly we find, by the Apologies of Tertullian, Cyprian, Arnobius, and others, that the heathenish Romans, observing such strange, unheard-of famines, civil wars, and plagues of pestilence, typified out here by the red, black, and pale horses, did exceedingly wonder at the reason of them, and laid it on the new sect of the Christians, as with whom their gods were angry for contemning their worship; for it was never so with them before, and therefore they attributed it to that cause. These judgments were sealed, and Christ here opens the cause of them, the contempt of the gospel.
(3.) They are sealed judgments, for pledges and assurance of all that follow. That is the use of seals, to give assurance; for that end is the seal of the Spirit. And so here, there being other things in this prophecy foretold, as the ruin of the empire itself, the rising of Antichrist and of the Turk, the ruin of them both by the seven vials, and then Christ’s kingdom; that all these things should certainly come to pass in their time, God first sent these judgments as seals: that as we read in story the truth of these to be evidently fulfilled, so we may assure ourselves of the accomplishing all the other.
Obs.—Observe from this general, a ground of confirming your faith about all these things prophesied of by God; in that the fulfilling of one is a seal, assuring that the other shall be fulfilled. That heathenism is ruined, and no adorers of those pagan gods left, as this chapter shews, which was more firmly rooted, being of four thousand years’ continuance, than ever Popery was, is a seal to us that Popery shall be ruined. You see many things past and fulfilled; the beast of Rome (the Pope), then, when John wrote this, not risen, is now up in your days; which may confirm your faith that he shall as certainly be ruined: for the same prophecy foretells his fall, Revelation 18, as his rise, Revelation 13, and that after this there is a glorious kingdom to come, of which all these are seals. You find in the 11th chapter, before the end, the temple measured anew, and the outward court of carnal worshippers and worship cast out; and you see it now in your days fulfilled; yea, yourselves fulfil it. You may therefore as certainly expect that which follows in the same chapter, and prepare for it. Thus Zechariah begins his prophecy, so to assure them of the truth of it: Did you ever know prophecy fail? ‘My words,’ says he, Zechariah 1:6, ‘did they not take hold of,’ or arrest, ‘your fathers?’ by the judgments threatened; and ‘like as the Lord thought to do unto us, so hath he dealt with us;’ therefore believe the rest.
Now the four first seals are represented unto us under the vision of four horses, in allusion to the visions in Zechariah, chap. 1 and 6. Christ in the 1st chapter of that book, Zechariah 1:8, is presented riding on a red horse; and behind him stood other horses, red, speckled, and white; and, Zechariah 1:10, they are interpreted to be angels, who walk to and fro through the earth; and, Zechariah 6:5, to be four winds, or spirits, that go forth from standing before the Lord of the earth. So the good angels, Hebrews 1:14, are called ministering spirits, sent forth, &c. Thus, Psalms 104:3-4, compared with Hebrews 1:7; Hebrews 1:14, and Ezekiel 1, where they are called winds, as in that of Zechariah 6:5. So in like manner are the evil angels sent forth to do mischief, as 1 Kings 22:21, and Job 1:7. The angels are the executioners of all God’s great designs; and therefore whatsoever is done in this book by men is still said to be done by angels. So, Revelation 8:2, seven angels with seven trumpets, &c.
Here the vision is of horses going forth in like manner with commission from God. And this allusion to those horses, who there were angels, shews either that these executions, under these seals, by whomsoever visibly executed, were yet performed under the conduct of Christ the first horse, presented here, as also in that of Zechariah 1, as an angel, accompanied with other angels his followers, who are those other horses; or else, however, to shew, that as those angels upon horses in Zechariah went their circuit over the earth, so that here were commissions sealed to these executioners, to traverse and compass the earth, as angels use to do. God begins here to war with the world, and sends out four horsemen to give the first onset. That this vision is presented under horses is but for variety’s sake. The Revelation takes all the eminent visions of the Old Testament, and makes use of them. The elegancies of all the types in the prophets serve but to set forth and adorn the visions of this book; as if you should make up one beautiful picture out of all beauties, by taking whatever is elegant and excellent in any one. The vision of the throne, Revelation 4, is borrowed from Isaiah and Ezekiel; that of the book sealed, from Daniel; this of horses here, from Zechariah; and so that of the olive-trees, and candlesticks, Revelation 11, from Zechariah 4, &c.
Observe from hence—
Obs. 1.—The perfection of this book. It is a posy of all flowers, a vision composed out of all visions; as Solomon’s Song was a song of songs. All the types in Moses’ law, and all the stories and visions of the prophets, are borrowed to adorn it.
Obs. 2.—That the occurrences under the new testament, and the story of the church under it, have all the perfections of all kinds that were under the old. For in the new testament the old is more eminently acted over, in all passages of providence. Was there a temple? Here is one more glorious; this second exceeds the first. Was there an Egypt, a Sodom, a Babylon? Here also is one far worse than all those were. So Rome is called in this book, Revelation 11, 18. Was there a restoring of the temple, decayed in the captivity of Babylon? Here is the like, and that at twice, and by degrees, as then. Had they a Jerusalem? The Revelation hath a better, a New Jerusalem. Did the bondman of old persecute the free? Even so it is now: Galatians 4:24; Galatians 4:29, ‘Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit; even so it is now.’ We have all the same things befall us that befell them, and that more eminently; as Paul said, ‘Are they apostles? I much more.’ Had they persecutors? We much more, and those worse. Had they Pharisees, that sinned against the Holy Ghost and crucified Christ? So hath the new testament, such as shall, after this great conviction wrought by the gospel, prove like a generation of Pharisees, scorched with the heat of hell-fire, as in the fourth vial, and that shall kill the ‘witnesses’, Revelation 11. The allusion is to these times. The apostle hath said it in one word, and given the reason of it, 1 Corinthians 10:11, ‘All these things happened unto them for types:’ so also did all their visions, being written for ‘our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come;’ you may read it, ‘perfection of the world is come:’ we have the perfection of everything under the old testament, both good and bad. This may serve to give a general light into the stories and visions of this prophecy. As for the several visions themselves:— The first horse is a white one, and his rider crowned, &c. This rider is Christ himself, ‘going forth,’ in the preaching of the gospel, ‘conquering, and to conquer;’ alluding unto Psalms 45:4-6, where Christ, having a kingdom to possess,—as Psalms 45:6, ‘Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever,’ speaking of Christ, as appears by Hebrews 1:8, ‘But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom,’—he is set out in his going forth to conquer it; for he must win and wear it. And he is described as here, ‘In thy majesty prosper thou, ride thou,’ or ride thou prosperously, that is, go forth conquering; and that being accoutred with bow and arrows, as Psalms 45:5, ‘Thy arrows are sharp in the hearts of the king’s enemies,’ that is, his own enemies, who is king.
Now answerably this book also tells us that Christ was to have a kingdom; and here you have his first setting out to conquer it. The first foundation of his kingdom laid was the preaching of the gospel in the Roman empire by the apostles, which was now begun; therefore he is said to go forth conquering already. And he goes first forth; for all the other horsemen do but attend him; he is the general of these horses. Thus likewise, in Zechariah 1, he is described with other horses with him. And he goes forth first on a white horse; which, as it was a sign of triumph, that he was to conquer,—for so in triumph their chariots were drawn with white horses,—so especially of meekness and candour, offering at first conditions of peace in the gospel, unto the empire of Rome, and to all nations, if they would submit to him as their king. God had given him the nations for his inheritance, and he goes forth peaceably to challenge it; with conditions also, that the world should yet hold their crowns of him, only turn Christians they must, and do homage to him as their king. This the colour of white denotes; for here it is opposed to the colour of the red horse that followed, which colour betokened blood. Thus Tamerlane, before he denounced war, first hung out a white flag, in token of peace offered. Therefore, in Psalms 45:4, Christ is bidden to ‘ride on, because of the word of meekness;’ and the progress of the gospel is compared to that of a horse and his rider, for it had its progress over the earth, from one country to another, by commission: ‘Their sound went out to all the earth,’ Romans 10:18; ‘Come to Macedonia, and help us,’ Acts 16:9. His weapons to conquer, if men yield not, are here but arrows: but, Revelation 19, when his conquest is to be finished, you have him with a sword. In Psalms 45, he is described with both. The threatenings of the gospel are arrows, striking secretly and dartingly into men’s hearts, and wounding them mortally; hœret lethalis arundo.
He is crowned; for God, when Christ first ascended, made him a king. ‘We see Jesus, crowned with glory and honour; though yet we see not all things put under him,’ Hebrews 2:8-9 : yet we see him crowned, for all must be subject to him.
He goes forth conquering; for whether men obey or not, Christ still conquers. Paul speaks like a conqueror, 2 Corinthians 2:14, ‘God always causeth us to triumph in Christ.’ For if men turn, there is a triumph of grace pardoning, and so subduing traitors; and if not, it is a savour of death, like a box of venomous ointment, which poisons by the smell.
Now if you ask, how the preaching of the gospel can be a step of ruin, and a sealed judgment, it being in itself so great a blessing?—the answer is, that it was truly a step unto the ruin of heathenism in the empire, which was the first opposite that Christ encountered. When Christ first sent his disciples forth, speaking of the event of it, he says, ‘I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning.’ The devil was struck dumb in his oracles when Christ began to publish his. And so Christ already conquered, in part; but ere he had done, he threw Satan out of heaven, as the sixth and last seal shews. So that though the gospel was a blessing to the world, yet it was a curse to Gentilism; as the first vial, by converting many people’s hearts from Popery, is called a vial on the earth.
Observe from hence—
Obs. 1.—The mercifulness and meekness of Christ. He goes not forth first on a red horse, but on a white, and makes offer of peace; but if men turn not, he hath other horses to do that work of destroying them. He loves unbloody conquests. Who therefore would stand out against such a Saviour?
Obs. 2.—The strangeness of Christ’s course to get his kingdom; even by no other means at first but preaching the word. He takes no weapons but a bow, the tongues of men, to dart arrows into the hearts of them that resist. It was a strange, unlikely course to set twelve men scattered, and fishermen, to conquer the world, the Roman empire; as if twelve men should be sent into Turkey to conquer the Great Turk, and throw down Mohammedanism: ‘Not by power, nor by might, but by my Spirit,’ Zechariah 4:6.
Obs. 3.—Observe, That where Christ begins to conquer, he will go on to perfect his conquest. Fear not the cause of God in England; there is a battle to be fought: Christ in his angels growing more and more holy, and fuller of light; and Satan in his growing worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived. Christ comes up with fresh supplies of new light, with his bow and arrows bears up as hard as they. And it is certain that Christ will not be foiled. The primitive Christians, although their light grew dimmer and dimmer, yet they conquered heathenism. These now must needs conquer much more.
After the going forth of this white horse, there follow three others, as light horsemen, attending this their general. So, Zechariah 1:8, he saw ‘a man upon a red horse, and behind him were other horses, red, speckled, and white.’ Now that man was Christ, Zechariah 1:8, who hath always other horsemen his attendants to fulfil his will, as here he hath. Christ there was upon a red horse, for so he appeared, as being to revenge himself on the enemies of his church; but here he is on a white horse, as being to send forth the gospel. But those other horses that do here follow after him are indeed judgments that follow for the contempt of that gospel, and which plagued the empire successively. Their colour is suitable to the plague they brought; therefore the second horse is red, a colour betokening blood, Isaiah 63:2. And answerably, this horse is war, for his commission is ‘to take peace from the earth,’—that is, the Roman empire, the subject of this seal-prophecy. And civil war it is, as those words note out, that ‘men should kill one another;’ not persecution of the saints, as some take it, but mutual bloodshed, as that phrase imports. All which was for their contempt of the gospel. For—
1. If they take peace from the saints, it is a suitable plague that God should take peace from the earth.
2. If they will not embrace the gospel of peace, it is suitable that God should take away their peace. And—
3. If they will kill the saints, is it not a proportioned judgment that God should turn their swords into their own bowels? And this power is said to be ‘given him.’ It proceeded from a commission from God; and so was a ‘sword given him.’ God puts the sword into an enemy’s hand, and gives it its commission. As magistrates do bear God’s sword, so soldiers; who therefore, in the prophets, are often called God’s sword. Now, how after the preaching of the gospel in the apostles’ time, such wars fell upon the empire in the west is most evident in story; nor are there greater civil wars mentioned than in the Roman stories. John wrote his Revelation just before Trajan’s time, in the reign of Domitian, about the year of Christ 94, and died in 104, ten years after. Now in Trajan’s time, in whose sixth year John died, these wars began. And so then, when the apostles were all dead, and had preached the gospel to the world, the Jews rise, and with armies raged through all the parts of the empire; and so devastated and depopulated Lybia of her inhabitants, that Hadrian was afterwards forced to send thither new colonies. About Cyrene they destroyed 22,000; in Egypt also, and in Cyprus, 24,000; and in Mesopotamia likewise a great number. And Hadrian afterwards succeeding in the empire, destroyed 58,000 of them. Then after Trajan’s time, the Parthians revolt, and the empire was lessened, having in his time had the largest extent. And in Antoninus’s time, anno 140, all the northern nations came down upon the east, and upon all Illyricum; yet they, as a land-flood, were dried up; so that the empire stood entire. And that these wars might be the more eminently taken notice of, as following upon the apostles’ deaths, as they had none before, so for forty-four years after this there was a universal peace, and wars ceased through the empire. The third horse is famine; his colour, answerably, black, for famine makes men’s countenances such. So, Lamentations 4:6-7, ‘Her Nazarites, that were purer than snow, and more ruddy than rubies, their visage is blacker than a coal;’ and this by reason of famine, as appears by Lamentations 4:9. His rider hath scales in his hand, to shew that he sells corn by weight, not by measure;—as, Leviticus 26:26, ‘When I have broken the staff of your bread, women shall deliver you your bread by weight;’ and a small quantity of corn, even so much as serves a man in bread for a day, for so the chænix was, was sold for a penny, which amounts to 7½d.;—yet with commission not to hurt the oil and the wine. Now because historians are silent concerning any notable famine and universal, that fell out in the next age after these wars in the Roman empire, therefore Mr. Mede carries it to the justness of those emperors, signified by the balances, which in Severus and others was eminent; especially in laws against thieves, and in public provision for corn. But this was heterogeneal to the rest, which are all steps to the ruining or plaguing of the heathenish empire. And for the Holy Ghost to take notice of a moral virtue, and to insert it thus among the midst of his judgments, I cannot be induced to believe it. But this scarcity being not of oil and wine, but of corn only, might well be slipt over by historians; when yet the Christians of that age, as Tertullian and others, do mention a famine of corn as a judgment on the empire for their contempt of Christ, and their persecuting of the saints. I have searched diligently for such footsteps in them of that age, 200 years after Christ and upwards, as might confirm the truth of this.
And, first, I find, that in Commodus’s time, anno 190, there was a commotion made for bread, within the city of Rome, by the poorer sort. Thus says Herodian, fames Romanos afflixit, the Romans were afflicted by reason of famine and scarcity: when Cleander, Commodus’s great favourite, detained the corn from the common people, he being keeper of the storehouse of it; upon which they mutiny, requiring him to be put to death; and proceeding further in their rage, they throw down houses, oppose the soldiers, stone the captains, &c., so that Commodus was enforced to cut off his favourite’s head, and set it upon a pole, and to destroy his children also, so to pacify the people. Yea, in those very words which Mr. Mede quotes for Severus’s justice, and care about oil, &c., there is an intimation of the exhausture of the corn of the public storehouse through that famine. The words are these, Rei frumentariœ quam. minimam reperiebat; ita consuluit, &c. So likewise there is such an intimation in that other place which he quotes for Alexander Severus’s care, anno 118, which only was occasioned by Heliogabalus’s having overthrown the public stock of corn; frumenta evertisset.
Then, secondly, for the Christian writers of these times: Tertullian, who lived in anno 203, doth more confirm this; for in his Apology for the Christians, he brings in this calumny as usual among the heathens, that they laid the cause of all their miseries upon the Christians. His words are these: Si cœlum stetit, &c.,—if it rained not, if Nilus overflowed not Egypt, (which was the granary of the empire,) from whence arose a famine, or if the pestilence devoured them, &c.,—statim, says he, they cried, Christianos ad leones: Away with these Christians to the lions! I observe, he instanceth most in famine, and the causes of it, as being that which then they were most punished with. And he, in his Apology, pleading for Christians, how they fasted in times of judgments, he instanceth in that of famine only, saying, ‘If famine be threatened by want of rain, so that their annona,’ or provision of corn, as De la Cerda reads it, ‘were in danger to be spent, that then they Christians fast, whilst other Romans pour themselves out to all licentiousness.’ It is observable that he still instanceth in the judgment of famine. And in his Apology to Scapula, the African president, he, shewing that no city that persecuted the Christians did go unpunished, instanceth how lately, under Hilarian’s presidentship, his predecessor, the Christians begging a floor of corn, a voice was heard from under-ground, saying, Areœ non sunt. And indeed they were not, for they had no harvest nor corn the next year to thresh in them, it being spoiled through a great wet in the time of harvest, as he there says. And you, says he, condemning a Christian to the beasts, statim hœc vexatio subsecuta est; which Baronius understands of that wet year before spoken of, which brought ruin to the corn. But Origen speaks more clearly to this, who, presently after, (about 226 years after Christ,) writing upon Matthew 24, and taking occasion to answer the same calumny objected so generally against the Christians by the heathens,—namely, that because of the multitude if Christians among them, they had been vexed with wars, famine, and pestilence,—although he reckons up all those three plagues as objected, yet to make it good that the heathens did so object, he especially instanceth in famine: Frequenter enim, says he, famis causa Christianos cultores culparunt Gentiles;—‘For the heathens oftentimes laid the fault of their being afflicted by famine upon those of the Christian religion.’ Though they did so because of other plagues also, yet they often laid their famines in the dish of the Christians; which evidently argues this punishment to have been very frequent in those times, as being taken notice of by the heathens themselves, and also by Origen, to have been the eminent punishment of that age, which made up the third seal.
Now then, the fourth seal produceth a fourth horse, and that a pale one, for his rider is death; mors pallida, pale death, as they use to call it. And this horse brings death upon the fourth part of the empire, called the earth, and his work was to kill with all sorts of death, both plague, and famine, and wars, and wild beasts; all God’s plagues let loose at once. Before, civil wars came alone, and famine came alone; but now, for their impenitency, he lets loose all four judgments mentioned in Ezekiel 14:21. God now brings forth all his ‘treasures of wrath.’ Pestilence is here, Revelation 6:8, called death, as it is likewise by the Chaldce paraphrase and the Greek; and by the fathers it is called mortality, as by us the sickness. Now, from the year 240 after Christ, it is wonderful to read what a stage of misery and blood the empire was made, by reason of all these plagues raging at once. Civil wars so raged, that, in the space of thirty-three years, there were ten emperors killed. Under Gallus and Volusianus, anno 250, the barbarous nations came down upon the empire and harrowed it; and among then the Scythians, from whose rage no place under the Roman jurisdiction was exempt, but almost all towns were by them depopulated. And this was followed by an extreme famine. When we had a breathing time from them, then came the greatest plague of pestilence, worse than all the former, says Dionysius Alexandrinus, who live in those times; the greatest plague, says Lypsius, that ever was read of in any age, a plague of fifteen years’ continuance. And to add the last hand for the making the misery of those times complete, God let loose thirty tyrants at once, who, as so many wild beasts, preyed upon and made havoc of the empire.
Now to come to some observations:—
Obs. 1.—Take notice, that after the going forth of the white horse, then go forth these other three. The gospel is always followed by terrible judgments upon the world for the contempt of it. You know what Peter says, ‘The time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God;’ but it will not rest there, as he says. The time of the gospel’s preaching was a time of judgment, which began with the church, but after that fell most heavy upon the empire, and upon the heathens in it. So that as you look for storms in autumn and frosts in winter, so expect judgments where the gospel has been preached; for the quarrel of the covenant must be avenged and vindicated. If men despise it, God cannot hold his hands.
Use.—Wonder not, therefore, if God go over all the churches in judgments, as he hath done by Germany, Bohemia, &c. They had the gospel first, and so the cup of tribulation first; but God will visit the rest in their order, and, it may be, that of Holland last, because they have had the gospel but a little while.
Obs. 2.—Observe, That God useth to rise higher and higher in his judgments. He began with civil wars; and they not working, he sent famine, which is worse; and then war, as Lamentations 4:9; and then he came upon them with the pestilence and all the other three at once: which agrees with that in Leviticus 26:24, ‘If you repent not, I will punish you seven times worse.’ So in the trumpets, the three last are the woe-trumpets. And so in the vials too, God will rise higher and higher, as here he does.
Obs. 3.—Observe, That all plagues have their commission from God; they go forth only when Christ openeth a seal. Of the second it is said, ‘Power was given him, and a sword.’ And so to the third a commission of restraint was given, not to hurt the oil and wine. And to the fourth, only to kill the fourth part. They are therefore compared to horses sent forth, that are guided by riders; God’s providence to direct them, and have their way chalked out, as the Egyptian plagues had. Psalms 78:50, it is called ‘a path made for his anger,’ chalked out where it should go, and into what houses. So, Jeremiah 15:2, ‘Those that are for the sword, to the sword; and those that are for the famine, to the famine,’ &c. Now in all these circuits of God’s judgments, let us wait for his turning towards us in mercy. ‘In the way of thy judgments have we waited for thee’.
Obj.—And whereas it may be objected, that these are plagues that were ever common in the world, and in all times as well as these,—for answer, these considerations made these plagues then more eminently to be set down:—
1. They were as eminent in the Roman empire in those first ages as in any other afterwards.
2. Though the empire had such plagues in after-times also, yet these were all the plagues which it had whilst heathenish, and so were proper punishments of their Gentilism, and contempt of the message of the white horse, and so intended by God, and therefore brought in here as such. Neither did these at all ruin the empire, which stood unbroken, but simply punished it for its idolatry. But such plagues as fell out after these had other effects accompanying them, even the ruin of the imperial government, by dividing it, lessening it, and the like; which these did not. But—
3. And more especially, the Holy Ghost doth mention these plagues here, although the like were in other ages, as punishments attending upon the gospel, because this was the very observation and objection that the heathens of those times made: that since the Christian religion began in the empire, wars, pestilence, and famine raged more than ever they did in former times; and so laid it upon the Christiana as the cause, in that they, contemning the gods, provoked them to send these plagues. This we find to be the main complaint and calumny which the Christian writers of those times writ Apologies to wipe off; as appears in Tertullian, Cyprian, Arnobius, &c., whose Apologies I purposely read, and found these judgments to be most frequently taken notice of by the heathens themselves, and this calumny by the fore-mentioned authors answered. Yea, Cyprian, in his Apology, says, that to wipe off this calumny was the sole motive and occasion that put him upon writing. ‘I held my peace,’ says he, ‘till they laid all these plagues upon us, as the cause of all.’ Now, how properly, therefore, did the Lord Christ single out those eminent plagues following the gospel, and present them under these seals, as the most notable occurrent punishments of those times, rather than any other! And how fitly are they called seals, seeing they were so hidden that the heathens were utterly mistaken in the causes of them! For they being punishments of their persecuting the saints, they turned the matter clean contrary, and imputed it to the anger of the gods for the Christians’ contemning their heathenish religion. But though they were hidden sealed plagues, in respect of the causes of them, to the heathens, yet the four beasts did then instruct John, who personates the church, and so the church in him, concerning the true cause of them; and therefore every seal hath a voice of one or other of the beasts, saying, ‘Come up and see.’ For the officers or ministers of churches instructed them how that all these plagues were from the gospel, and the contempt of it, and their persecuting the professors of it. This you may read in the Apologies of Tertullian, Arnobius, and Cyprian, whose Apology I will instance in for all the rest; who, as he lived under the fourth seal, in the rage of these four plagues, so he speaks in the very language of the fourth seal. He writes against one Demetrianus, who had long barked at Christian profession. And, says he, I forbore till he laid to our charge that all these miseries on the empire we Christians were the cause of: Cum dicas plurimos conqueri, quod bella crebriùs surgant, quod lues, et fames sæviant, ultra tacere non oportet;—‘When I hear you say that many complain of us as the causes why those wars so often arise, and why the pestilence and famine rage so, I can be no longer silent, but must needs give you an answer;’ and he plainly declares, from the Lord of hosts, that their idolatries and persecutions of the Christians were the cause, and that these punishments non eveniebant casu, came not by chance, but were the vengeance of God, who hath said that ‘vengeance is his,’ and that he will judge the cause of his people. And he withal tells them, that if they repent not through these plagues, hell would then follow. Manet postmodum, says he, carcer æternus, jugis flamma, et pæna perpetua;—‘There remains, after all this, an eternal prison, a continual flame, and an everlasting punishment.’ He speaks in the very language of this fourth seal, not knowing it, nor referring to it, for he lived under it.
Thus doth Tertullian also in his Apology, wherein he attributes the cause of their famine and other plagues unto their persecuting the Christians. And this is the mystery of the four beasts calling upon John to ‘come and see,’ and behold the mind and meaning of these judgments on the world; the officers of churches in their sermons so instructed them.
Obs.—The only observation I shall raise from this instruction of the four beasts is this: That during the first four seals, which indeed bring us to two hundred and sixty years after Christ, the officers of churches remained according to the institution in the purer churches; but afterwards you hear not of them, corruptions coming in upon all the churches, and perverting their right institution and end. You meet not with any more mention of them till the vials begin, Revelation 15, which was in the first separation from Popery; and then you read not that all four, but only one of the beasts gave those vials. But after a second measuring the temple before Rome’s ruin, as Revelation 11, you read of four beasts, Revelation 19, in their right order again, praising God. The fifth seal is that great and bloody persecution which followed after all these plagues in the time of Dioclesian, about the year 300, which was, of all the ten persecutions foregoing it, the greatest, and therefore is put in for all the rest. Under it, there suffered one hundred and forty-four thousand in one province of the empire; how many, therefore, in the rest? Now this last is here mentioned instead of all the rest—
1. Because indeed those other plagues, for the contempt of the gospel, did but enrage the heathens the more; for they thought that all this came upon them for their suffering the Christians to live.
2. This, being the last and greatest, is brought in as crying for vengeance in the name of all the foregoing martyrs; for so their cry intimates, ‘How long, Lord, wilt thou not avenge our blood?’ The vision is—
1. Of souls severed from their bodies, even of men slain, or of martyrs.
2. These men are presented as new sacrificed, and with their throats cut, lying bleeding at the foot of the altar, alluding to the sacrifices, for martyrdom is no other than a sacrifice. 2 Timothy 4:6, ‘For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand;’ and Php 2:17, ‘Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you all.’ And whereas many understand this altar to be heaven, that comes in afterward, when white robes are given them. It is an allusion to the altar of burnt-offerings whereon their bodies were offered; but, Revelation 8, their prayers are offered up upon the altar of incense.
3. They are presented as crying for vengeance for their blood. Mark it, it is not simply the blood that cries, as it is said of Abel’s blood, but the souls themselves that cry, and that for vengeance and utter ruin on the empire. À Lapide makes it liberationem, so the Hebrew word signifies; and so vindicare is to free, as praying for the liberty of the church below. But these cries are in the behalf of their own blood already shed, and for that there was no such liberty to be sued for. The satisfaction to their cry is double:—
1. A reason why vengeance is delayed; they had brethren to be made perfect as they were.
2. In the meantime they are received to glory.
1. For the reason; it consists in this, that the empire was yet a while to stand in power, because they had other brethren to be perfected as well as they, after a little season. So that it refers not to the persecutions of Antichrist, which were a thousand years after, but to those of Arianism, when, under those emperors, as cruel persecutions, for the time, were raised some thirty years after this as ever before; and then the trumpets sound, and they rain the empire itself through their prayers, as chap. 8.
2. For their glory; it is expressed by white robes given them. Which is—
(1.) A sign or badge of heavenly glory; so, Revelation 3:4, ‘They shall walk with me in white.’ So Christ, when he gave a shine of the glory of his kingdom, he caused his garments to look as white as any fuller could make them.
(2.) It denotes joy. In triumphs, they were wont to wear white robes, as a token of gladness; ‘Let thy garments be always white.’
(3.) Robes were worn only by noble personages. Mulier stolata was differenced from togata, as calling for a more special honour. Thus Mordecai was apparelled in the royal robes, Esther 6:11. This giving them white robes is an allusion to the bringing the priests first into the temple when their thirty years were expired; they clothed them in white.
Obs. 1.—In that this persecution was the last and greatest of all, take notice that it is God’s manner to bring sorest trials just before deliverance. So to David at Ziklag, a few hours before he was proclaimed king. In Revelation 11 there is a persecution and war of Antichrist yet to come, for the space of three years and a half, when for ever the witnesses shall cast off their sackcloth. I fear it, for it is the last.
Obs. 2.—That though great punishments had befallen the empire by those three horses, yet this is not vengeance enough for martyrs’ blood, which nothing will slack but the ruin of that kingdom and state which shed it. This punishment, therefore, is brought in after all the other. So Manasseh’s bloodshed nothing would pacify but the captivity and ruin of that state.
Obs. 3.—That in a business wherein many ages have an interest, the saints in the last age foregoing do put up their prayers in the strength of all prayers and cries of blood preceding. So do these theirs in the name of all foregoing martyrs; ‘How long,’ &c. That as in a generation of wicked men the last of them do inherit the sins and punishments of all their forefathers, so do a generation of godly men go forth against their persecutors in the strength of all their forefathers’ prayers and bloodshed. How comfortably, therefore, may we pray against Rome and Spain, and the abettors of them, the bishops, who all have even wallowed in the blood of the saints, and against whom we have the prayers of all ages to join their forces to ours for the more sure prevailing; and we may justly cry in the strength of them, ‘How long,’ &c. I have seen many cords so linked together upon a pulley, and with such an artifice, that a child might draw up a mighty weight, for he pulled in the strength of all the cords. So here, though we be weak, yet praying in the strength of all the saints’ prayers, and of their blood, we must needs be heard. It is but a little resting till our brethren, (it may be ourselves,) the witnesses, are killed; and then down goes Rome, and the hierarchy with it. In this respect, it is good living in the last ages of the world, for we drive a trade with all our forefathers’ stock.
Obs. 4.—That the power of persecutors stands no longer than till they have finished the great work of persecuting the saints. The empire stood so long as it did mainly for this end, and therefore this reason is here given. Thus, Habakkuk 1:12, ‘Thou hast ordained them for judgment’ on themselves, ‘and established them for correction’ of thine. We think much that they should have so great power; why, they have it to this end, to persecute.
Obs. 5.—That the souls themselves are here said to cry, and not their blood only. A wicked man being murdered, his blood calls for vengeance; but not only the blood of a godly man, but his soul also calls and cries for vengeance; which cry must therefore needs come up with much clamour in the ears of the Lord of hosts. Think you that he will not avenge his elect? Yes, he will do it speedily. And from hence raise up your thoughts higher, that if Abel’s blood hath a force in its cry, and his soul, that still lives, a greater force; then how much more hath Christ’s blood, and how much more yet hath Christ himself, who liveth to make intercession for us! Thus the Scripture riseth in expressing the efficacy of the intercession of Jesus Christ for us.
Obs. 6.—That the souls in heaven, following their interests on earth, they prosecute the revenging of their blood. There is the same reason for other interests; as for friends, for children, for businesses, and the like; which having prayed for on earth, they still do prosecute them in heaven.
Obs. 7.—That the souls in paradise know the reason of God’s dispensations and his counsels, which are satisfactory to them. God here opens his utmost reason why the empire was as yet to stand; and that was, to kill a few more martyrs. They are guided by a spirit of prophecy, as Christ is, they being prophets as well as priests.
Obs. 8.—That in all dispensations, if we knew what reason God hath for them, we should rest. So the souls do in this standing of the empire. Let our faith apprehend that God hath a reason for what he does, otherwise we should have no persecutions.
Obs. 9.—That saints that were not yet born are called their brethren, as being such in God’s election. This persecution came not till forty years after. So Christ calls all his people brethren, God having given them unto him before all worlds. He knows perfectly who are his, and their number in all ages; and chose not qualifications, but persons. So says Christ, ‘I have sheep which are not of this fold.’ Labour we therefore to love the Jews, as those who are to be called; and the saints departed, as those who are our brethren.
Obs. 10.—That martyrdom is a perfection; it is said, ‘till they are fulfilled,’
Obs. 11.—That saints departed do presently enter into bliss. They sleep not, but have white robes given them, as the priests had when they were first brought into the temple. These have the like when they are brought, as priests, into the inner temple of heaven. And their robes of glory are new ones, which they had not before; for they are given them anew. Glory clothes them, till they and their bodies meet again: and these are called robes, as reaching from head to foot; they are all over happy and glorious.
Obs. 12.—They reckon us fellow-servants and brethren, though we be sinful; and do hold a communion with us. Let us do the like towards our weak brethren, and esteem them such notwithstanding their infirmities, and although we be holier. There is a greater distance between us and these saints in heaven, in respect of purity, than can be supposed between us and the meanest saint here below.
Obs. 13.—That the cause for which they are reckoned martyrs is ‘for the word of God,’ and their testimony to it. So that if it be for any truth in the word, though never so small, it is accepted as if it were the greatest.
Obs. 14.—God may defer to answer prayers for the present. He doth so to saints in heaven; he puts them upon staying a while; much more, therefore, may he deal so with us. And yet God in the meantime recompenseth this demur some other way. As he gave these white robes of glory, so will he give thee other blessings that are better, in which thou mayest rest satisfied and content. The sixth seal follows, from Revelation 6:12 to the end of the chapter. Now as the former seals contained several punishments upon the heathenish Roman state, so this sixth expresseth the final accomplishment of God’s wrath upon the heathenish religion in it, in throwing it down; and upon heathenish worshippers, and upholders of Gentilism, in confounding them; and is therefore called, ‘the great day of the Lamb’s wrath.’ Now, because it is thus called, and some phrases are used concerning it that are used of the immediate forerunners of the day of judgment, as Matthew 24:9, when before the Son of man’s coming the sun is said to be darkened, &c., therefore some interpreters have understood it of the great day of judgment only; and so you may have heard it often quoted by such as by piecemeals take up interpretations of this book, not having framed them to the series of the whole.
But, first, the great day of judgment it cannot be; the series of this prophecy will not admit that exposition. Which is argued—
1. From what goes before it; for John having but now spoken of the primitive times in the five former seals, and brought us but to three hundred years after Christ, in the tenth and last persecution, now to make a leap over the thirteen hundred years since passed, and after those primitive persecutions to bring in the day of judgment, were too great a stride, too wide a chasma and gulph in this orderly story.
2. From the series of things after this; for there is a seventh seal yet to be opened, and that to produce seven trumpets, which are new and fresh succeeding punishments upon that empire. And it is certain that there are no such punishments to come after the great day of judgment. And as for the phrases here sounding so like those used of that day, it is certain that there is never a phrase here used but is frequently and ordinarily used to express great mutations and overturnings in kingdoms, and great calamities brought upon men in those kingdoms by God, long before the day of judgment. As—
1. That it is called the ‘great day, in which who can stand?’ Revelation 6:17 : and that the sun and moon are said to be darkened, &c.; you shall find the same expressions used, Joel 2:10, to set forth the great overturning the Jewish state by the armies of the Chaldeans in the captivity. Their armies the prophet describes, Joel 2:2-3; Joel 2:8, and their sacking Jerusalem, Joel 2:9; and the confusion and calamities brought upon that state he expresseth by the same metaphors that are here used: Joel 2:10, ‘The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble; the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining.’ And, Joel 2:11, because these were God’s executioners of his vengeance, therefore he is described as their general, making a speech to them: ‘The Lord shall utter his voice before his army; his camp is very great.’ Therefore that time is called, as here, ‘the great and terrible day of the Lord;’ and ‘who can abide it?’ as here, ‘who can stand?’ Thus, Isaiah 34, where the prophet plainly describes the overthrow of Edom, as appears by Isaiah 34:5, though he calls all the world to consider her example as a warning to them, as Isaiah 34:1; that he would go on to do the like to them, as Isaiah 34:2; yet thus he describes it, just as here, Isaiah 34:4, ‘All the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all the host’—or stars—‘of heaven shall fall down as from a fig-tree.’ And yet all this foretells but the sword upon Edom, overturning that state, as appears by Isaiah 34:5; Isaiah 34:8. It is the day of the Lord’s vengeance for their persecuting of Sion, just as here.
2. And those other phrases also, of ‘hiding themselves in caves and rocks of the mountains,’ and ‘calling upon the hills to cover them;’ they are but expressions of such shames, and miseries, and calamities, as the vengeance of God in such great changes doth work. Thus, Isaiah 2:19, when God comes to punish Israel for their idols, and to send forth the light of the gospel unto them, the idolaters, as confounded, are said to go into ‘the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the Lord, and the glory of his majesty.’ And when the ten tribes wore carried captive by Ashur, their calamities were expressed by this, Hosea 10:8, ‘They shall say to the mountains, Cover us; and to the rocks, Fall upon us.’ So that Christ, the giver of this vision, and opener of this seal, hath but borrowed the similitudes and expressions used by the prophets in several places, to set forth the like change, calamity, and confusion that befell the heathenish state of the Roman empire. But then—
Secondly, Because these places of the prophets alluded unto do speak of the overthrow of kingdoms by wars, therefore Mr. Forbes would have this seal to be that utter overturning of the western empire of Rome, by the Goths and Vandals, which began four hundred years after Christ; and so to note out the ruin of the empire itself, and not of heathenism in it. And but for these reasons following, I should have thought so also: as—
1. That the first seal beginning but with the conquest of heathenism in the empire, (for Christ in the preaching the gospel did at first seek outwardly to overcome or plague nothing else,) here in this seal must be the accomplishment of that victory or full conquest gotten, described, and set forth; and so the same thing made the subject of the complete conquest described here, that is made the subject of the first onset in the first seal, Revelation 6:2-3; and that was the heathenish religion of the empire, and the upholders of it. And so Christ’s first step, or degree of conquest in order to his kingdom, is completely in this chapter presented, with his first full victory over the first enemy whom he encountered in the world, even Satan, and his false worship; to shew that what Christ began with he makes an end of. And so this book still shews bow he makes a clear and full despatch of such enemies first, as first he encounters. He encountered heathenism first by the gospel, then by plagues; but now, as one grown angry, he completes the victory by power and might, and by a violent concussion and shaking of that state. And having despatched this enemy, and be made clear work as he goes, as wise conquerors use to do, then he falls upon the empire itself, in the trumpets. And that is the reason why this last act of this tragedy is represented under such metaphors as the great day of judgment is set out by; even for this, that it imports a full and a complete victory, and a final overthrow of that which he had encountered. That as the day of judgment is a final conquest of all enemies by the Lion of Judah, so is this a like final conquest by the Lamb of this first enemy whom he did set himself to conquer, even Satan and his false worship set up by that Roman monarchy.
2. The trumpets that come after are reserved for the ruin of the empire, as a distinct thing from heathenism in it; and the vials for the overthrow of Popery and the faction of Mohammed. And—
3. Thus the parts of this prophecy are found to run on similarly, and things alike are put together in distinct visions. Here are three sorts of enemies, and so of plagues to ruin them, in this prophecy:—
(1.) The six seals; which are the beginnings of sorrows to the world; and they fall upon Satan’s false worship, which stood in Christ’s way.
(2.) The six trumpets; which fell upon the empire itself, for having persecuted and prosecuted the church.
(3.) The vials; which fall on the Pope and his idolatry, and on the Mohammedan faction, the Turks, his last enemies. These, therefore, are called the last plagues, Revelation 16.
4. And for a fourth reason, observe, that the 12th chapter, which begins and contains the story of the church in the first primitive times, as this doth of the heathenish empire, doth wonderfully agree with this chapter here, containing the like space of time, and describing the same conquest and victory over Satan (the dragon) in the Roman empire (in heaven): only with this difference, that here the calamities and confusion that befell the kings or emperors, and the chieftains of heathenish worshippers, that did seek to uphold that religion still, are set out; whereas there, only Satan’s confusion in being thrown down is described, which was very suitable, that being the story of the church, this of the empire more eminently. So then, two things are distinctly set out unto us under these phrases and metaphors:—
First, By the darkening the sun, moon, and stars, according to the analogy of the prophets, is expressed the deposing of those heathenish emperors and governors in that state, considered as they did strive to keep up heathenism, with whom Satan and his worship also fell. So as though the state stood still, yet those governors and the heathenism of the state were removed and destroyed, and thrown down from their heaven, the superior government of that state; which was done by Christ’s sending madness and diseases upon Dioclesian and Maximinian, heathenish emperors; insomuch as they, out of a sense of the Lamb’s wrath, gave over their government, whilst they were in the meridian of their glory, to the wonderment of the world. And afterwards Maxentius and Maximin, heathen emperors also, were overcome by Licinius, whilst he favoured the Christians, and was colleague with Constantine. By which Constantine it was afterwards more completely furthered and carried on; for when the foresaid Licinius made a revolt unto heathenism, Constantine subdued him and his chieftains, (for heathenism went not down without blows,) and turned that whole state Christian, when he had deposed heathenish persecutors.
Now, such a deposing of governors in a state, and overthrowing their armies, is in the prophets expressed by darkening the sun, moon, and stars, as well as the overthrowing the state itself. So, Isaiah 13:10, the deposing the Babylonian monarch and his nobles by the Medes is set forth by the ‘darkening the sun,’ their king; ‘the moon,’ their queen; ‘the stars,’ their nobles. And in another place it is said, ‘How art thou fallen, O Lucifer, thou son of the morning!’ speaking of the bright star the king of Babel, who, Isaiah 14:13, said he would ‘ascend to heaven, and exalt his throne above the stars.’ In the dialect and phrase of speech used in the eastern countries, (as among the Arabians and Jews, &c.,) to throw down any one’s excellency, is expressed by casting down his heaven to the earth. And so it may be said, that which also some interpreters would have, that that which after follows expresseth but the same thing which was at first metaphorically uttered under the prophet’s allusions of sun, moon, and stars: all which John afterwards literally expoundeth, Revelation 6:15, when he says, ‘and the kings of the earth;’ that is, those Roman emperors, the suns of this firmament, were stepped off from their glory; and their stars, the heathenish nobles that adhered to them, were deposed; their mountains removed, that is, their chieftains and strong men, as such are called, Isaiah 2:14; so that the one is but an exposition of the other. And thus only the miserable overthrow of the heathenish worshippers is here described, as became the seal-prophecy; even as the putting down of Satan and his worship is expressed in the book-prophecy. And that which may strengthen this interpretation is, that the rest of the prophecy being to proceed with the like metaphors, of plagues upon the sun, moon, stars, earth, trees, &c., (for in such language and metaphors are the contents of the trumpets and vials expressed;) he, therefore, here gives one literal explanation of them in this, which is his first mention of such, which one may serve for all; that so, by the analogy of the Holy Ghost’s own exposition here, the rest might be interpreted, who makes kings to be as the sun, and nobles as the stars, &c. To this purpose, you must know that in Scripture descriptions and expressions, (the prophets using to point things out by similitude,) every kingdom, state, or body of men is compared and assimilated to a world, in which what is superior and highest is called the heavens; and therein, the highest the sun, the next the moon, and next to them the stars, &c.; and what is of lower rank is called the earth, sea, rivers, and trees, &c. And therefore punishments on states and kingdoms in this book are expressed by casting them down from their heavens, and by miseries falling upon the rivers, the sea, &c., whereby such things are understood as answering in states amongst men in nearest resemblance unto the sea, earth, &c., in the great world. And this is the key, as of this vision, so of the trumpets and the vials that follow. And sometimes the Scripture expresseth the alterations of kingdoms themselves, and of all places of rank and of government, by this darkening the heavens, the sun, &c. So Haggai 2:21-22, ‘Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, I will shake the heavens and the earth; and I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms, and I will destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the heathen; and I will overthrow the chariots, and those that ride in them; and the horses and their riders shall come down, every one by the sword of his brother.’ And sometimes only the deposing of persons from those places and dignities, the places standing still. Now, in the trumpets, the casting down the sun, stars, &c., is spoken of in the abstract, even the altering the very state, (together with deposing the persons,) power, and dignity of the empire. But here it is to be understood of deposing the persons only, in the concrete, who had that power, but were put down from it. And so it imports the throwing down the chieftains of heathen emperors, and the deposing them from their places, not yet meddling with the places themselves in the empire. The second thing that these expressions hold forth is not simply the overthrowing of kingdoms and states, or of governors, &c., and so to be understood of political mutations only; but they are used to set forth a change and mutation of worship and of religion in a state. For as bodies politic are compared to a world, as was said, so religious bodies and states, considered in respect to their worship or religion, are thus compared also. So Jesus Christ is said to have his world, Psalms 8:3, ‘Thy heavens, thy moon and stars,’ &c., where the sun is not mentioned, because Christ himself, who is the ‘Sun of righteousness,’ is the sun therein. Now, Hebrews 2:5-6, that psalm is interpreted of Christ’s world, the world to come, as it is called, Hebrews 2:5; both this of the gospel, in opposition to Adam’s world, and Christ’s kingdom hereafter.
Moreover, for the present, the state of Christ’s worship and worshippers under the gospel, and his ordinances, are compared to a world wherein are heavens, and moon, and stars. Thus, Psalms 19:1, ‘The heavens declare the glory of God;’ which is interpreted of the preaching of the gospel, Romans 10:18, ‘But I say, Have they not heard? Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world.’ The apostles and their doctrine are the heavens, the lights in this heaven of Christ, to declare his glory to the world; and therefore the words of the 4th verse of that 19th Psalm are there in the 10th to the Romans applied to their preaching. And you know ministers are called stars in the first chapter of this book of the Revelation. So likewise churches are called heavenly lights shining in the world, Php 2:15;
Now then, this advancement of Satan, under the names and titles of the host of heaven, was truly his heaven, wherein the devils, by that religion, were set up as the gods of this world, as 2 Corinthians 4:4. And answerably the throwing down of Satan’s worship and religion is expressed by a change of the heavens, even as Christ expresseth the throwing down the heathenish worship by the apostles’ preaching to be its ‘falling from heaven like lightning;’ which Christ speaks of their casting out devils then, when sent out to preach, as a certain omen which his faith had beforehand, that Satan, in like manner, with all his worship, should be thrown down by the preaching the gospel in the empire. And so accordingly, Revelation 12, Satan and his angels are said to be cast down from heaven, when he and they were acknowledged for gods no longer.
Now, the alteration of this heathenish worship and change of this religion in the empire is the shaking the heavens and earth here meant. The word for earthquake is not to be confined only to the earth, (in English we have no word large enough,) for it imports the concussion or throwing down by a commotion of that heathenish world, the heavens and earth, and all of that religion, even of all that had a station in that accursed frame. Thus, Haggai 2:6-7, you have the like allusion for the alteration of the Jewish worship into the gospel worship; and then, that alteration yet to come, of this gospel worship, when the kingdom of Christ shall be set up. The one is expressed by shaking the earth; the other, the heavens. And that shaking is interpreted, Hebrews 12:27, to be ‘removing away of the things shaken.’ And so the throwing down Satan and his devils from being worshipped any longer under the names of the host of heaven, and those appellatives given the stars, and titles to men departed, whereof he received all the real honour, may fitly be here understood to be the darkening the sun and moon, and the falling of these stars from heaven. As Christ is the sun in his heaven, so Satan, the prince of devils, the prince of this host of heaven, as Daniel’s phrase is, was the sun in this firmament. And the lesser devils, with him worshipped under the title of the lesser gods, and of the stars, are the stars here which fall from heaven. And as the moon is Christ’s church, and the queen in his heaven, so the college of priests, (who were then in Rome, as the Pope and cardinals are now,) that were the instruments of his worship, they were the moon in his heaven. And so his consecrated places, his islands and mountains, the high places of his worship, were removed out of their place; that is, diverted from that use which they were once put to in that idolatrous worship. So then this mutation of the heathenish religion, from Constantine’s time downward, during the space of one hundred years, for so long was it ere heathenism could be utterly extirpated and wholly abolished for ever rising again, is here set forth unto us by two things, here distinctly and apart laid down:—
First, The overthrowing the worship and religion itself, expressed by those metaphors before mentioned. As—
1. By the eclipsing of the sun and moon: ‘The sun became black, and the moon as blood;’ that is, the glory of these their chief false gods, and the priests of them, was darkened.
2. By ‘the falling of the stars, as figs not fully ripe;’ that is, by a violent wind; shewing that men’s hearts were not loosened of themselves to a dislike of that religion, nor brought so freely off from it at the first. They would have stuck on still, had not the wind of power and authority shook them down.
3. By the vanishing of the whole heaven of this worship, as ‘a scroll folded up.’ The manner of the Jews was to write on parchment, which, from being folded or rolled up, they called volumen, a volume; and with us parchment is from thence called vellum to this day. Which metaphor imports—
(1.) That as when a scroll is folded up, not a letter of it is to be seen, but immediately upon the rolling up all do disappear; so these gods vanished, not any of their worship retains the same name now that was then used. There is not a tittle of those gods left; they have had no worshippers these thousand years.
(2.) As a book or scroll folded up is not used, so neither is this religion. In the second place, this mutation is represented unto us in the confusion that befell the upholders of that ethnic worship, the Atlases of these heavens, that endeavoured to support them, and opposed Constantine and other emperors in the discarding of this, and bringing in the Christian religion. The devil goes not out of a man possessed, nor out of our hearts, without blows, nor till a stronger than he comes. So neither did he leave that station of his in the empire easily and without resistance, but egged on kings, namely, some emperors and generals, and the common sort of people with them, to join together for the upholding of the old religion and worship of his. These the Lamb encounters, and in his wrath confounds. Now, it is observable how John useth some of the very names which were given the Romans in their several ranks; for here are three several ranks mentioned:—(1.) Highest governors, as kings. (2.) The middle sort of men, as the rich and strong. (3.) The inferior multitude of false worshippers, as bondmen and free.
1. Kings; that is, emperors, for which the Greek tongue had no word but
2. Rich men and mighty men, who made up the middle sort of men.
3. Bondmen and free, who made up the lower and inferior rank of men. These were usual distinctions of men’s ranks among the Romans.
Now their confusion is expressed—
1. By their shameful overthrow; they fly for shame, and hide themselves in dens, a phrase expressing shameful confusion and disappointment.
2. Their despair of help, intimated in that phrase, ‘They shall say to the mountains, Fall upon us,’ &c. So Luke 23:30, and Hosea 10:8, where when common calamities came upon the ten tribes, and upon the state of Jerusalem, their being at their wits’ end, in respect of getting rid out of them, is expressed by their calling to the mountains to cover them, and the hills to fall upon them, as wishing for death rather than the present miseries. Not that they should use these very words, but that their state should be such as should make them wish some such thing, or anything, rather than that misery then brought upon them. Those of other nations who are reduced to some extreme and miserable exigent, are wont to express their grievance by wishing the earth to swallow them; but this particular phrase is peculiar to the Jews, who had a rocky country, full of caves, to which they for refuge were wont to fly,—and therefore it is usual in Scripture to say, ‘Enter into thy rock, and hide thyself,’ as Isaiah 2:10,—and being in those caves, their fear and despair did oft-times put them upon wishing that those rocks would fall on them, and make an end of them.
3. The phrases import that all this is done with a sense and conviction in the hearts of these enemies of Christ, that it was by the power of Christ, whom they called accursed, and derided; and that he was indeed the king of the world, and conqueror of them. For they that are thus confounded do within themselves call to the rocks to cover them from ‘the face of the Lamb,’ with whose anger their consciences were struck, in those victories got over them, and miseries brought upon them. And therefore it is here brought in as their speech, to bid the rocks cover them from the face of the Lamb, for the great day of the Lamb’s wrath is come, ‘and who shall be able to stand,’ or ‘to abide it?’ as Joel 2:11.
Now the story of those times, when the heathenish religion was altered in the empire, presents such a face of things as this seal doth. For Dioclesian and Maximinian, the greatest persecutors that ever the church had, in the height and ruff of their imperial glory and rage, did give over their authority and empire, and retired themselves, whereof no historian could give the reason, but imputed it to madness; but indeed they did it so, as it were, to hide themselves from the face of the Lamb. To these succeeded Galerius, and Maximin, and Constantius, the father of Constantine. Maximin, persecuting the Christians, was smitten with a strange disease, and being ever and anon convinced that Christ was king, he recalled his edicts for the persecution of them; and yet, like Pharaoh, he afterwards put them forth again, till at length he died miserably, acknowledging Christ’s wrath. Then was Maxentius set up by the Romans, a defender of the heathenish cause. But being overcome by Licinius, he threw away his imperial robes, fled, and lay hid for the safeguard of his life, and acknowledged Christ by a decree; but his flesh was eaten of worms. Then Licinius opposing Constantine, joined in the empire with him, was overcome by him, and he and his complices condemned, at the place of execution acknowledging Christ to be God. What afterward befell Julian, who attempted to set up that heathen religion again,—as how, being shot in his wars against Persia, he took his blood, and flinging it into the air, cried out, Vicisti O Galilæe,—you cannot be ignorant of.
Obs. 1.—Learn, when you see any notable overthrow given the enemies of Christ, to raise up your hearts to thoughts of the day of judgment. We find, as here, so elsewhere, notable judgments on God’s enemies set forth and described under the language of that day. It is frequent in Scripture, as Psalms 18 and elsewhere. They may mutually help to strengthen our faith in each other; a particular judgment, in that of the great day, that it will also come; and that great day doth also assure us, that Christ will here be avenged on his enemies. Christ hath many great days that forerun that great day; and wicked men, and wicked causes, have days of judgment here.
Obs. 2.—How easy it is for the Lamb to make an alteration of religion in a kingdom, causing the new one which he brings in to prevail. Thus in a few years he turned the whole empire Christian, even when heathenism was rooted in all men’s hearts, and when Satan had a throne fixed in appearance to continue; then, by his power possessing himself of the emperor’s heart, he, as the phrase is, 1 Kings 2:15, ‘turned the kingdom about;’ and this, when men’s hearts of themselves were not turned, but were as figs not fully ripe, yet shaken off by this wind. And he folded up the heavens as a scroll; not one constellation or star of all those false gods, that then shone so bright in all men’s eyes, having shined in the world these many hundred years. And Christ hath promised to do the like against Popery. Which state, as it is the image of that empire and religion, so it shall bear the likeness of its punishment. What a mighty change was wrought in the hearts of kings and princes upon the first Reformation! And God will work the like upon the second Reformation, before Rome is destroyed, and will put it into their hearts to ruin her utterly.
Obs. 3.—Christ thinks it not enough for him to confound his enemies, but he will make them also to acknowledge his truth. Thus he did by Nebuchadnezzar, by Antiochus, and by those persecutors; and thus he will do by all the proud of the earth. He will not only confound the false church and synagogue of Satan; but he will make them come and acknowledge that God hath loved the Philadelphian, Revelation 3:9. How often in the prophets is this made the fruit of their punishment! and by this it is expressed, ‘They shall know that I am the Lord.’ It is ill standing out with Christ in anything. Christ will have, not only every knee to bow, but every tongue to confess his name. Learn we therefore not to stand out against convictions of any kind. The Lamb will in the end have, not only a real victory in men’s punishments, but he will have men render it more complete by their confessions and acknowledgments.
Obs. 4.—How in dispensing punishments, Christ meets with persecutors in their kind: they caused poor Christians to fly into caves and dens, and to worship the Lamb in corners, as the Apologies of those times shew; now Christ comes forth and appears openly, and drives them into corners, wherein to hide their heads.
Obs. 5.—What a glorious and long time Satan, the god of this world, and his devils with him, had of it, when they were counted as the only true gods, and were worshipped for such by the whole world during the space of three hundred years. They who are reserved in chains for hell were then counted ‘the Immortal Gods,’ possessors of heaven; and had their seat, in all men’s opinions, above the stars, having all the world for their devout and zealous worshippers. What, therefore, is it to have a, great name, or the best name, the name of a saint, for a while here? The devils had not only the names and titles, but the honours of gods, and that for some thousands of years; for whom, notwithstanding, the lowest place in hell is designed.
Obs. 6.—You will not wonder at the prosperity of wicked men, that they carry it so long in the world, if you consider but how long the devil carried it, without encountering any stop in his way; as having all nations for his inheritance. God was worshipped but in one poor corner of the earth; but the devil possessed the heavens, and was as the sun in the firmament, and his priests as the moon and stars, as if they had been perpetual ordinances. Think not much at the continuance of Popery for twelve hundred years. Heathenism stood far longer, and Christ will make more quick work in the last days than in those past.
Obs. 7.—That Christ, though he be a lamb, yet he can, and will be angry. Men have all such sweet thoughts of Christ, as if he had no anger in him; but ‘when his anger is kindled but a little, then blessed are all they that put their trust in him.’
Obs. 8.—That God punisheth idolaters and their idols together. Here both the heathenish emperors and their religion and gods are together removed. Thus, Isaiah 2:17-19, ‘And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. And the idols he shall utterly abolish. And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.’ Which place is parallel to this here, and a prophecy of the kingdom of Christ. Thus God punished Egypt, as appears by Numbers 33:4, where it is said, ‘upon their gods also he executed judgments.’ The like you have in Jeremiah 43:11-13. So also was Babylon and her gods punished, as Jeremiah 50:2, ‘Declare ye among the nations, and publish, and set up a standard; publish, and conceal not: say, Babylon is taken, Bel is confounded, Merodach is broken in pieces; her idols are confounded, her images are broken in pieces.’ And thus God also did, when he began to ruin Popery, the spiritual Egypt and Babylon. He punished monks, pulling down monasteries and their idols together; his anger was against them, as well as against their persons. And so superstitious ceremonies and will worship will down together.
Obs. 9.—How fearful and terrible will the day of judgment be, when Christ shall come as the lion of the tribe of Judah, if now, when he reigns as a lamb, carrying things meekly, and with much patience, he brings such confounding judgments! All vengeance here is but the vengeance of a lamb, in comparison of the rending of a lion that is to come. For, as I take it, he is set forth as a lamb in respect to his governing and dispensations until the day of judgment; but then he will come as the lion of Judah, and shew himself so much more terrible then, as a lion is more terrible than a Iamb. All terrors of conscience which men suffer here, which yet make them call for the hills to cover them, are but the wrath of the lamb in comparison of those roarings of the lion at the great day. Oh, consider this you that forget God, lest he come and tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver you!
I shall now proceed no further by way of a large commenting, or raising any more observations, until I come to the Second Part.