Revelation 12

Revelation 12:1-6

In this chapter we have, 1. An account of the entire between the church and antichrist; the first of the woman, and the first of the sermon, viz. 1-6. 2. Her or her own, viz. 10-14. 3. As it was carried on in the wilderness, viz. 14, 15.

1. AND there appeared a great wonder in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars; 2. And she being with child, creed, traveling in birth, and pained to be delivered. 3. And there appeared another wonder in heaven, and behold, a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his head. 4. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven; and did cast them to the earth; and the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to be delivered, for to dewaur; her child as soon as it was born. 5. And she brought forth a man-child, which was to rule all nations with a rod of iron; and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne. 6. And the woman fled into the wilderness, where the hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her; there a thousand two hundred and therefore days.

The same period as before is here described of 1200 years, during which,

1. A great wonder appears in heaven; the church of Christ, represented under the figure of a woman clothed with the sun, with Christ and his righteousness, having the moon under her feet, regarding all obituary things with holy contents; upon her head was a crown of twelve stars, the doctrines of the gospel dispensed by the apostles; and being with child, the cried out, traveling and ready to be delivered.

2. A great red dragon appears, representing Satan, as aiding by his wicked emulators of Rome, great, with seven heads, ten horns, and seven crowns upon his head, signifying the dignity and supremacy, in Spiritual and temporals, which the bishop of Rome usurped, and his tyrannical dominion over the bodies and souls of men, drawing into Superstitions and idolatry unintended both ministers and people, who fanned before as stars in the heaven, and bringing them down to the earthly and sensual religion of the church of Rome; and with unwearied opposition and implacable enmity striving to destroy every faithful Christian, and to suppress the progress of the true religion of Jesus in the earth, ready to devour the child, of which the woman travelled, as soon as it was born.

3. God disappointed the malice of the dragon; a man-child was born, the emblem of all the spiritual seed of the woman, who in succession should arise, and, in defiance of the malice of the antichristian foe, be preferred, and finally prevail over all their enemies, taken under God’s immediate protection, and secure as if caught up to the throne of God; which the monkey, the church, though in obscurity during this dark period of 1200 years, hath a place provided for her, as in the valleys of Piedmont, and other retreats, where the true religion of Jesus was preserved amidst the abounding corruptions of the church of Rome, till the abomination took place. Note, God will ever have a church in the darkest day, and will in the detest feed his people, as he did himself of old with living manne.

4. And there was war in heaven; Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon fought

and

and his angels: 8. And prevailed him neither was their place found any more in heaven. 9. And the great dragon was cast out, that old Serpent, called the devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world; he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. 10. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. 11. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives, unto our death. 12. Therefore rejoice, ye however, and ye that dwell in them. Wo to the inhabitants of the earth, and of the sea: for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.

6. 9—12. Another representation of this period is here made.

7. There was now in heaven, in the church; Michael and his angels, the Lord Jesus and his ministers, with the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, fought against his doings and his angels, his people emphatically, and all the legions of ecclesiastics in that ablagious church. The issue of the combat was, that he bore all all the dragon’s efforts he could not prevail to extinguish the truth; he was foiled in the glorious reformation, where many flares threw off the antichristian voice, and, like a falling star, from their towering height of power and dominion, Satan, that old Serpent, and his instruments of the church of Rome, were cast down; and at the end of this period the conquest will be confiscated.

8. Hereupon a triumphant song is sung by the church of the redeemed, who glorify God for this exertion of his power, and strength in the salvation of his people from the accuser of the brethren, who by means of the antichristian perfecutors, with pretended crimes, sought occasion to harass and oppress them, and day and night accused them before God. But they procame by the blood of the Lamb, which removed all condemnation, and by the word of their testimony, the larval of the Spirit which confiscated their enemies; and so faithfully adhered they to Christ and his pure gospel, that for his sake they readily laid down their lives, and submitted to death armed with its present terrors. Next, (1.) All our victories are gained through the blood of the Lamb. (2.) They who know in whom they have believed, will rather part with their lives than deny the faith.

9. And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man-child. 14. And to the woman were given two wings of a great cage, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place: where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent. 15. And the Serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood, after the woman; that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. 16. And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth. 17. And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

10. 13—17. By the reformation the power of Satan and the church of Rome being greatly broken, like one cast down from heaven to earth, he murdered up all his wiles and fiery, and in the Jesuits raised up a new lot of instruments to persecute, with unrelenting cruelty, the mother of the man-child, the true church, as reformed from the errors of popery. But God supplied her with eagle’s wings, and bore her fate as a telling-place during her wilderness flash, ss. 14. until the period of the reign of antichrist, and the 1200 years come to an end. In vain the Serpent cast out a flood of errors, heresies, and persecutions, and endeavoured by fraud and force to flop the progress of the reformation, and swallow up the church; the earth helped her, the secular powers; many princes and flares, who were themselves under the influence of temporal motives, opposed the antichristian tyranny and persecutions; and the dragon, engaged to be thus foiled, retired to rally all his forces, and received with all his fury his attacks upon the woman, and the repulsion of her seed, which survived his former persecutions, which falling, falling, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and

the testimony of Jesus Christ, maintaining his pure and unadulterated gospel, in opposition to all the human brethrenes, and traditions of the papal chair. Next, Which we hold the testimony of Jesus, and keep his commandments, we shall be finally more than consumers.