Revelation 8

Revelation 8:1

And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.

And now, after that the tyrannical persecutors of the Church, the bloody Emperors which lived in those primitive times, were justly punished by the hand of God, when the Seventh Seal was opened, the Church had peace for a short time.

Revelation 8:3

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 the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.

And the great angel of the Covenant, Christ Jesus, came and stood, as the Mediator and High Priest of his Church, before the altar of heaven, having and executing the gracious office of his intercession; and many holy and effectual prayers were offered unto him, that he might, by his merciful, and effectual Mediation, present them to God the Father.

Revelation 8:4

And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel’s hand.

And those faithful prayers, being sweetened by the powerful and pleasing Intercession of Christ, were with great acceptation received of God, from the hands of Christ his Son.

Revelation 8:5

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.

And the same Angel of the Covenant, the Son of God, who, as he is the just avenger of the enemies of his Church, (and therefore had cast the fire of his wrath upon the earth, on the heads of those tyrants and persecutors, as also of those heretical seducers which vexed his Church) did now also, in much mercy to his church, from that heavenly altar of his, cast down the fire of holy zeal and illumination upon his servants on earth; who, being inflamed and enlightened therewith, desire and endeavour to oppose those wicked heresies, which had been broached in the Eastern Churches; and immediately hereupon followed great tumults, and much opposition.

Revelation 8:6

And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.

And now, upon the opening of the seventh seal, and these broils that followed after in the Church, those Seven Angels,

Revelation 8:7

The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth; and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all the green grass was burnt up.

And the First Angel sounded, and there followed great store of heresies, and very raging, fiery, bloody prosecutions of them in the Church; and the third part of the professors of the Gospel, which are the Churches of the East, were grievously plagued and infested therewith: these were the heresies of Arius, Macedonius, Eunomius, Photinus, Luciferians, Messalians, Apollinaris, Priscillianus, Pelagius, Nestorius Eutyches.

Revelation 8:8

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.

And the Second Angel sounded, and there was an eminent part of the Church, even that large and numerous Council, which was met at Ariminum, for the establishing of the Arian heresy; which, being fired with that wicked contention, diffused itself into the world: and a third part of the known Church was infected with it, and moved to a bloody persecution of the truth. So also verse 9.

Revelation 8:10

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.

And the Third Angel sounded, and there fell out a fearful Apostasy from the Church of Christ: partly, by the seducement of wicked Mahomet, who, after some acknowledgment of Christ, fell away and devised with Sergius the Nestorian Monk and John of Antioch the Arian, to frame his cursed Alcoran, and to advance his own damnable impieties; and he corrupted a great part of the world, tainting both the springs and streams of religion: and, partly, by some dangerous errors and superstitions, which began to prevail in the Western Churches.

Revelation 8:11

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.

And the doctrines of that wicked impostor were as bitter as wormwood, and did put an ill savour and odious distastefulness upon all that were mis-seasoned with them: insomuch as these seducements proved deadly to many thousand souls.

Revelation 8:12

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

0 0 2 darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise. And the Fourth Angel blew, and, what with the infection of Mahometanism in the East, and the corruptions and errors which began to creep into the Western Church, a third part of the Christian world began to be darkened; and to be overspread with ignorance or misbelief; and lose that pure light of truth, which had formerly shined forth unto them.

Revelation 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!

Whereupon I beheld, and, lo, a swift messenger of fearful tidings was sent by God unto his Church: premonishing his elect, that they must expect yet more grievous plagues to be inflicted upon the inhabitants of the earth, in the following times, at the sounding of those three other trumpets that yet remained.