them. Woe to the inhabiters saw that he was cast unto the of the earth, and of the sea! earth, he persecuted the woman for the devil is come down which brought forth the manunto you, having great wrath, child. because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.

eagle, that she might fly into | time, from the face of the serthe wilderness, into her place, pent. where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a

15 And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood,

iar with Jewish sacred history. For further illustrations of this verse, see the note on verse 6th.

they shall walk and not faint;" Isa. xl. 31. This figure of the woman flying away into the wilderness on eagles' wings, is taken from the 15. Serpent cast out of his mouth. account of the escape of the Israelites The metaphor is very unnatural here, from Egyptian bondage. We have for no serpent has power to cast a already shown that Pharaoh had been flood of water from his mouth. Some described under the figure of a dragon serpents (says Prof. Stuart) are said by the prophets. The revelator drew to eject from their mouths a poisona large number of his metaphors from ous bile when they are enraged, in the early history of his own nation. order to annoy their enemy. Or is the See Exod. xix. 1-4: "In the third metaphor taken for the spouting forth month, when the children of Israel of large quantities of water by some were gone forth out of the land of of the sea monsters? By the serEgypt, the same day came they into pent, the dragon is doubtless intended, the wilderness of Sinai. For they for he was "the dragon, that old serwere departed from Rephidim, and pent, which is the devil and Satan ;" were come to the desert of Sinai, and all these terms signifying the same had pitched in the wilderness; and thing. Compare verses 15 and 16. there Israel encamped before the The Hebrew word translated dragon mount. And Moses went up unto in the Old Testament is used with God, and the Lord called unto him much latitude, and sometimes seems out of the mountain, saying, Thus to denote a crocodile, a whale, or shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, other large sea animal. The dragon, and tell the children of Israel; ye in John's vision, had, in the first have seen what I did unto the Egyp- place, been seen in the firmament, tians, and how I bare you on eagles' seeking to devour the child. Here he wings, and brought you unto myself." makes war with Michael, the imagThus was represented the escape of inary guardian angel of the ChrisIsrael from Egyptian bondage; and tians; is beaten, and thrown down how natural, therefore, for the reve- from heaven to the earth. His wrath lator to describe the church when still continues, and rather increases, fleeing from persecution, as flying on because, from his fall, he sees that the wings of eagles into the wilder- his time is short. He persecutes the ness. Nothing is more common in woman, and she is provided with our day than to describe deliverance remarkable means of escape, and flies from darkness, danger and unbelief, away into the wilderness from the by being brought out of Egypt. The face, or presence, of the serpent. It state of unbelief is represented by is not said the serpent followed her Egyptian darkness, in the language into the wilderness; the contrary of Christians, to this time. The state seems to be implied. He could not of faith and joy is represented by the go there; and the woman, by going land of Canaan. We see, then, that there, got away from his presence. the revelator employed, in some cases, He seems to have used his best means metaphors which are now in familiar of attack, to prevent her escape,—he use; but which were more striking "cast out of his mouth water as a in his case, as he was a Jew, and flood, after the woman, that he might addressed those who were very famil-cause her to be carried away of the

after the woman, that he might | out of his mouth. cause her to be carried away of 17 And the dragon was wroth the flood.

16 And the earth helped the woman; and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast

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.

the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth. It was an old axiom among the faithful in the house of Israel, that "when the enemy shall come in like a flood, the spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him;" Isa. lix. 19. This verse expresses the sense of the passage before us. The enemy came in like a flood, and God interposed a barrier to his success, - he caused a cavern to be opened in the earth to swallow up the waters.

flood." This figure is natural enough, if we suppose by the dragon was meant some huge sea monster; and the word translated dragon, as we have said, certainly sometimes has that application. The metaphor may be understood in the manner here denoted, or it may be understood on the same principle we applied to the fire, smoke and brimstone, coming out of the horses' nostrils, or mouths, ix. 17, 18, and the tails, with heads like serpents, 19, as mere imagery to represent the fearful power of the 17. Wroth with the woman. — The cavalry. If the imagery of the Apoc-heathen power was angry that it could alypse in some cases be unnatural, not destroy the gospel. It had used we must look at the intent of it. If its utmost energies to do it, and had the serpent casting water out of his failed. Foiled in every attempt, it is mouth like a flood be an unnatural not to be wondered at that the dragon metaphor, the intent of it is easily was wroth; but as his opposition had seen. It showed his continued oppo- failed to destroy the woman, and also sition to the woman, - his last efforts the man-child who had been caught to destroy her. Lowman says: — up to the throne of God, he "went to "Floods and inundations often come make war with the remnant of her so suddenly and with such violence, seed." And who these were, we infer as to drown or carry away all things from the description, that they were within their reach, and give no time those "which keep the commandfor an escape. They are a proper ments of God, and have the testimony figure to express some great and sud- of Jesus Christ." It is certain that den danger. Nahum thus describes the faithful believers are here dethe judgments of God, which shall scribed. They were the objects of utterly destroy his enemies; i. 8: the dragon's vengeance as long as his 'But with an overflowing flood, he power lasted. will make an utter end of the place thereof.' So that by this similitude of the serpent casting a flood out of his mouth, we may well understand some quick and smart attempts of the enemies of true religion to cut off all hope of safety for the true worshippers of God, even in retirement."

16. The earth helped the woman. — How? By the power of God. He caused caverns to be opened to receive

In the next chapter we shall find an account of a beast, resembling in some respects the dragon, but also differing in important particulars. The great red dragon appeared in heaven, the beast rose out of the sea. The former represented the Roman empire in its spiritual or heathen character, the latter, the same empire in its civil or secular state.

We have contemplated, in the preceding chapter, the Roman empire, in its religious or pagan character, under the figure of "a great red dragon," with seven heads, and ten horns, and seven crowns. In the chapter now to be examined, the same empire is set forth in its civil or political character, not under the figure of a dragon, (Dracon,) but under the figure of a beast, (Therion.) There is such a similarity between the description of the dragon and the beast, that they must both have reference to the Roman empire; and yet is there such a difference in the description as to show that precisely the same thing is not in both cases intended.

rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns,

sea, or the abyss, rose up from among the peoples, multitudes, nations and tongues, and doubtless was the empire in its secular form. This beast, like the dragon, had seven heads, denoting Rome, the seat of the power of the empire. It had also, like the dragon, ten horns, showing a further likeness. Who can doubt that the dragon and the beast represent the same power, in different characters ?

Let us look for a moment at the prophetical use of the metaphor. What did the prophets intend by a beast? In Daniel's vision, chap. vii., we read that four great beasts [Theria in the lxx.] rose up out of the sea, i. e., rose up from among the multitudes of the people. And they were not like the dragon and the beast in 1. I stood upon the sand of the sea.· Revelation, viz., much alike, but they That is, I took my position upon the were "diverse one from another sand of the sea-shore; or I was ver. 3. The first was like a lion; placed there in order to behold the ver. 4; the second was like a bear further revelation that was to be ver. 5; the third was like a leopard made to me. The former vision had ver. 6; and the fourth was "dreadful been in the firmament; this is to be and terrible, and exceedingly strong, on the sea, or to rise up out of the and it had ten horns," &c.; ver. 7. sea. ¶ Saw a beast rise up out of the In explaining these figures Daniel sea.- Now observe, there is noth- expressly says: "These great beasts, ing said here about "a wonder in which are four, are four kings, which heaven," as in the case of the dragon. shall arise out of the earth;" ver. The beast "rose up out of the sea," 17. Beasts, wild and ferocious in or as it is expressed in another place, their character, are used to represent the bottomless pit, or abyss; xi. 7; earthly kings, or kingdoms. xvii. 8; and did not appear as a fourth beast shall be the fourth kingwonder in heaven, or a spiritual won-dom upon earth, which shall be dider. Waters of the sea we know are verse from all kingdoms, and shall used in the Apocalypse to represent devour the whole earth, and shall "peoples, and multitudes, and nations, tread it down, and break it in pieces ;" and tongues;" xvii. 15: "And he ver. 23. This must be the Roman saith unto me, The waters which empire, for no other ever had such thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, wide dominion. Hence Daniel's are peoples, and multitudes, and na- beast, like that of the Apocalypse, tions, and tongues." When John had ten horns, which he explains to thus explains his own metaphor, we be "ten kings that shall arise;" ver. need look no further for the true 24. The four kingdoms, represented sense. The beast that rose out of the in the 7th of Daniel by the four

"The

and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.

the imperial power) was established; and he also symbolized by them seven particular kings, or emperors, whom he had in his mind. We follow not our own fancy in these matters, but the indications which were put forth by the revelator himself. "And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth. And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space;" Rev. xvii. 9, 10.

beasts, are represented in the second chapter of that prophecy by the different parts of the great image, the legs and the feet thereof being of iron, and representing the fourth kingdom, which was as strong as iron. But as the Roman Empire was composed of heterogeneous materials, so the feet of the image were in part of iron and part of clay, which showed the divisions of the kingdom, and the cause of its fall. Now, it was when the Roman Empire was in its fullest glory that Christ appeared to establish his spiritual kingdom; and Dan-¶ Ten horns.- A horn, as is periel therefore says: "In the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever;" ii. 44. This kingdom, which the God of heaven set up, was the kingdom of Christ, represented not by a wild beast, but by the "stone cut out without hands," (i. e., without earthly aid, as Christ's spiritual kingdom was built up; Heb. ix. 11;) and if the reader will compare carefully the 2d and 7th chapters of Daniel, he will see that it was the intention of that prophet to show, that Christianity was to arise in the time of the fourth kingdom, terrible and powerful, which was the Roman Empire. Then Christianity did arise; and without any manifest aid from men, it prevailed over all human opposition, and shall stand forever.

ceived at the first thought, is the agent of power. All animals who are furnished with horns, find them to be their means of defence. Hence the horn is used as a metaphor of power. The dragon, mentioned in the preceding chapter, had seven heads and ten horns, the same as the beast before us had; and unquestionably represented the same thing under a different form. But on the presumption that the dragon signified an invisible, intangible, spiritual adversary, commonly called the devil, what do his seven heads and ten horns mean? Is it proper to suppose that the seven heads and ten horns of the dragon signify certain things, and the seven heads and ten horns of the beast things entirely different? Prof. Stuart supposes the beast, with his seven heads and ten horns, to signify the Roman Empire; but the dragon, with the same number of heads and horns, he interprets to mean the devil, after the form of his own creed. That sound writer was sadly hampered, in his interpretation of the book of Revelation, by his creed; and we are not to wonder at this, since he is obliged, once in five years, to give a renewed affirmation of his belief in it. By the ten horns of the beast we think were intended ten kings. See the following: "And the ten horns which thou sawest