heavens, and ye that dwell in 13 And when the dragon 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. his people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted;" Isa. xlix. 13. This address to the heavens is one of the accustomed apostrophes of the inspired writers. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth. - This was a prediction, not a desire. The inhabitants of the earth [or land] and sea, meant people of different classes. They were called to mourning, for the devil had come down unto them, having great wrath. The devil. And who is meant here by the devil? Ans. The dragon who had been cast out of heaven into the earth. He was "the great dragon, that old serpent, called the devil and Satan." In the verse before us, we find him under the name ho diabolos, the devil. John having represented the imaginary field of contest in the firmament, the discomfiture of the devil is represented as his falling from his high place. He is ejected; he loses his place; he falls like a lost star, to the earth, the earth being opposite, in the view of the revelator, to the firmament. He had great wrath. This he had shown by seeking to devour the man-child, and also by fighting with Michael and his angels, in which contest, as we have stated, he was beaten. Short time. - He had but a short time to oppose the church; the time of his overthrow was near, as described verse 9, which proves that the overthrow of the power described by "the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil and Satan," was not far off. The final destruction of the dragon is treated of in chap. xx. 1-3, 7-10. The reader must examine the notes on those places; also what has been said on the 9th 14 And to the woman were given two wings of a great verse of this chapter. All that oppose the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ may be sure to be overthrown. The truth will prevail; and all opposition, however strong at first, will be thrown down. 13. He persecuted the woman. - Не raged the more fiercely, when he saw that he had begun to lose power, and that his entire overthrow was near What more enrages an enemy, wha' makes him more desperate, than to begin to lose power? When, there. fore, the heathen power began to see its decline, when it saw Christianity working itself into the hearts of the people, it sought to vent its rage upon the church. The Son of God it could not persecute; he had been caught up to God and to his throne, ver. 5 but the religion of Jesus and his followers were persecuted still. The heathen powers of Rome, as we all know, persecuted the Christian church after the ascension of Jesus; and continued to persecute it, until their influence was broken in the empire, and Rome pagan was transformed to Rome Christian. 14. Two wings of a great eagle. The facts here are a repetition of those stated in the 6th verse. 1st. The woman fled into the wilderness. 2d. To the place prepared for her. 3d. To be succored there twelve hundred and sixty days, or a time, times, and half a time, which we have showed mean the same thing. Compare verses 6 and 14. The church was faithful; she waited upon the Lord; and those "that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; and they shall run and not be weary, and 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 account of the escape of the Israelites from Egyptian bondage. We have already shown that Pharaoh had been described under the figure of a dragon by the prophets. The revelator drew a large number of his metaphors from the early history of his own nation. See Exod. xix. 1-4: "In the third month, when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai. For they were departed from Rephidim, and were come to the desert of Sinai, and had pitched in the wilderness; and there Israel encamped before the mount. And Moses went up unto God, and the Lord called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel; ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself." Thus was represented the escape of Israel from Egyptian bondage; and now natural, therefore, for the revelator to describe the church when fleeing from persecution, as flying on the wings of eagles into the wilderness. Nothing is more common in our day than to describe deliverance from darkness, danger and unbelief, by being brought out of Egypt. The state of unbelief is represented by Egyptian darkness, in the language of Christians, to this time. The state of faith and joy is represented by the land of Canaan. We see, then, that the revelator employed, in some cases, metaphors which are now in familiar 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. I cause her to be carried away of the 15. Serpent cast out of his mouth. The metaphor is very unnatural here, for no serpent has power to cast a flood of water from his mouth. Some serpents (says Prof. Stuart) are said to eject from their mouths a poisonous bile when they are enraged, in order to annoy their enemy. Or is the metaphor taken for the spouting forth of large quantities of water by some of the sea monsters? By the serpent, the dragon is doubtless intended, for he was "the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil and Satan;" all these terms signifying the same thing. Compare verses 15 and 16 The Hebrew word translated dragon in the Old Testament is used with much latitude, and sometimes seems to denote a crocodile, a whale, or other large sea animal. The dragon, in John's vision, had, in the first place, been seen in the firmament, seeking to devour the child. Here he makes war with Michael, the imaginary guardian angel of the Christians; is beaten, and thrown down from heaven to the earth. His wrath still continues, and rather increases, because, from his fall, he sees that his time is short. He persecutes the woman, and she is provided with remarkable means of escape, and flies away into the wilderness from the face, or presence, of the serpent. It is not said the serpent followed her into the wilderness; the contrary seems to be implied. He could not go there; and the woman, by going there, got away from his presence. He seems to have used his best means of attack, to prevent her escape, -he 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. 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 flood." This figure is natural enough, that application. The metaphor may | 16. The earth helped the woman. How? By the power of God. He caused caverns to be opened to receive Lord shall lift up a standard against him;" Isa. lix. 19. This verse ex presses the sense of the passage be fore 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. 17. Wroth with the woman. - The heathen power was angry that it could not destroy the gospel. It had used its utmost energies to do it, and had failed. Foiled in every attempt, it is not to be wondered at that the dragon was wroth; but as his opposition had failed to destroy the woman, and also the man-child who had been caught up to the throne of God, he "went to make war with the remnant of her seed." And who these were, we infer from the description, that they were those "which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." It is certain that the faithful believers are here described. They were the objects of the dragon's vengeance as long as his power lasted. 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. 1. I stood upon the sand of the sea. That is, I took my position upon the sand of the sea-shore; or I was placed there in order to behold the further revelation that was to be made to me. The former vision had been in the firmament; this is to be on the sea, or to rise up out of the sea. Saw a beast rise up out of the sea. Now observe, there is nothing said here about "a wonder in heaven," as in the case of the dragon. The beast "rose up out of the sea," or as it is expressed in another place, the bottomless pit, or abyss; xi. 7; xvii. 8; and did not appear as a wonder in heaven, or a spiritual wonder. Waters of the sea we know are used in the Apocalypse to represent " peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues;" xvii. 15: "And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues." When John thus explains ns his own metaphor, we need look no further for the true sense. The beast that rose out of the 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 Revelation, viz., much alike, but they were "diverse one from another;" ver. 3. The first was like a lion; ver. 4; the second was like a bear; ver. 5; the third was like a leopard; ver. 6; and the fourth was "dreadful and terrible, and exceedingly strong, and it had ten horns," &c.; ver. 7. In explaining these figures Daniel expressly says: "These great beasts, which are four, are four kings, which shall arise out of the earth;" ver. 17. Beasts, wild and ferocious in their character, are used to represent earthly kings, or kingdoms. fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces;" ver. 23. This must be the Roman empire, for no other ever had such wide dominion. Hence Daniel's beast, like that of the Apocalypse, had ten horns, which he explains to be "ten kings that shall arise;" ver. 24. The four kingdoms, represented in the "th of Daniel by the four "The and upon his heads the name | of blasphemy. 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 Daniel 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 for ever;" 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. Who, then, can entertain a doubt, that the beast having ten horns, in the Apocalypse, is the same metaphor with the beast having ten horns, in Daniel? Who can doubt that the author of the Apocalypse had his eye on Daniel's metaphor when he drew his own figure? T Seven heads. By the seven heads the revelator may have intended the seven hills, on which the city of Rome (the seat of 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. Ten horns. - A horn, as is perceived 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 sawes. |