was opened in heaven, and there | lightnings, and voices, and thunwas seen in his temple the ark derings, and an earthquake, and of his testament; and there were great hail. his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?" vi. 17; and again, "Fear God and give glory to him, for the hour of his judgment is COME;" xiv. 7. All this agrees with what Solomon said, Prov. xi. 31. we see 19. Temple of God was opened in heaven.. From this verse that the old temple on Mount Zion was gone. The revelator saw that it had answered the purpose for which it was erected, and had been levelled with the dust. It shall be built no more. Here, for the first time in the Apocalypse, the temple is spoken of as being destroyed, demolished, gone. But as Paul showed the Hebrews that there was nothing good in Judaism which was not more than made up by Christianity, so the revelator, after having announced the fall of Judaism and the triumph of Christianity, and the demolition of the temple, showed that the Christians had a temple still. "The temple of God was opened in heaven." This is a manifest allusion to the passing away of the temple on Zion, and to its being succeeded by the spiritual or heavenly temple of the gospel. Jesus foretold that the time should come, in which men should cease to worship God on Gerizim or Zion, but should worship him (wherever they might be) in spirit and in truth. "The temple of God was opened in heaven." It was a heavenly, spiritual temple. All had access to it. In this spiritual temple was the ark of the new covenant. This covenant was written, not on tables of stone, nor on parchment, but in the minds and hearts of the people; and Paul called it a new one, because the former had "waxed old and was ready to pass away;" Heb. i. 10-13. There were lightnings, and voices, - But all opposition to the gospel was not done. Wicked men would still oppose it; though the Son of man would ride forth conquering and to conquer; and this ineffectual opposition, which was to Continue for a time, is denoted by the "lightnings and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake and great hail." Thus have we brought our commentary on the Apocalypse to the end of the 11th chapter, and to the conclusion of the second great division of that book. The 12th chapter will commence a subject entirely new, viz., the opposition to the Christian church by the power of Rome. CHAPTER XII. We Preliminary Considerations. come now to a new matter altogether. At the close of the 11th chapter we finished the account of the fall of Jerusalem, and the abolishing of the first covenant, and of the triumph of the gospel on the ruins of Judaism, the prophecies of which are contained in what we call the second great division of the Apocalypse. The 12th chapter (which we are now to consider) contains the beginning of the description of the persecution of the Christians by the pagan and civil power of the Roman Empire, and more especially of the city of Rome itself. : The 12th chapter commences the second prophecy. In chap. i. 3, the revelator said, "Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear, the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein for the time is at hand.". The prophecy here referred to extended to the end of the 11th chapter; and when the revelator was about to close up that prophecy, the angel said to him, "Thou must PROPHESY AGAIN, before [not the Jews only, but] many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings," (x. 11,) referring to the nations and rulers of the Roman Empire. The mystery ; of God was finished when the seventh (or last) angel began to sound; x. 7 the sounding of the seventh angel is mentioned chap. xi. 15; and the events announced by the seventh trumpet are described from that verse to the end of the 11th chapter. So that the SECOND PROPHECY, or the prophecy concerning the Roman Empire, begins at the commencement of the 12th chapter. clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: signifies sign, or metaphor. The woman which John saw, was a sign, or metaphor, of an extraordinary character. The scene was laid in the heavens, i. e., in the region of the sun, moon and stars. She had the moon under her feet, and consequently is described as being in heaven, - - not the invisible dwellingplace of the Almighty, but the apparent place of the heavenly bodies, It is now necessary, first of all, to the firmament. A woman clothed remember, that the events of the 12th with the sun. A woman, in metachapter are not consecutive in order phorical language, is used to signify of time to those described in the pre- a city, a nation, a state or body policeding chapters; but the succeeding tic. This method of representing portions of the Apocalypse double nations and cities under the symbol back, as to time, upon all the former of women, was copied from the parts of the book. In fact, we are eastern by the western world. Rome not sure that the event with which has long been known under this the 12th chapter opens, is, of all the figurative description. And we have events in the Apocalypse, the earliest all seen Britannia represented as a in point of time. John was to write woman. Among the Roman coins is things that were past, as well as one of the Emperor Vespasian, on the those that were future. "Write the reverse of which is a captive woman, things which thou hast seen, and the hanging her mournful head, and the things which are, and the things which inscription is, Judea. - (Woodhouse.) shall be hereafter;" i. 19. The events How readily this brings to mind the described at the opening of the 12th words of Jeremiah: "How doth the chapter, are those which he had seen; city sit solitary, that was full of peothey were not in the nature of a ple! how is she become as a widow! prophecy, but a history, written in a she that was great among the nations, highly allegorical style. The events and princess among the provinces, of the seventh trumpet are all de- how is she become tributary! She scribed in chapter 11th. The seventh weepeth sore in the night, and her was the last trumpet, for we do not tears are on her cheeks: among all read of any further trumpet. There her lovers she hath none to comfort is no eighth or ninth trumpet. This her: all her friends have dealt treachshows us conclusively, that the series erously with her, they are become her of events embraced in the seven trum- enemies. Judah is gone into cappets are all described; that part of tivity because of affliction, and bethe Apocalypse is completed. The cause of great servitude: she dwellreader is directed to our remarks at eth among the heathen, she findeth the end of the tenth chapter. With this no rest: all her persecutors overtook premonition, we are prepared to com- her between the straits:" Lam. i. mence the exposition of the chapter. 1-3. There will be no doubt then 1. Great wonder in heaven. The in the reader's mind, that the Old Greek word here translated wonder, Testament writers adopted the meta 2 And she, being with child, | cried, travailing in birth, and phor of a woman to represent a city, nation, or people. So Jerusalem was represented; and as that city is used as a figure of the holy city, New Jerusalem, or the gospel covenant, that covenant is represented in the same manner. See Isa. liv. 5, 6: "For thy Maker is thy husband; the Lord of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; the God of the whole earth shall he be called. For the Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when thou wast refused, saith thy God." St. Paul certainly borrows this figure from the very passage we have quoted from the prophet. He compared the two covenants to two women. These things, said he, "are an allegory." "For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the MOTHER of us all;" Gal. iv. 25, 26. And then Paul proceeds to make a quotation from the very passage in Isaiah from which the above quotation was made. The new Jerusalem, or new covenant, then, is described as a woman, a mother. Those Jews who were converted to the gospel, were said to be born again, born of water and the spirit, the symbol of truth operating on the mind; and by a similar figure were said to be "children of the covenant," by whose power they were brought forth. "Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed;" Acts iii. 25. ¶ Clothed with the sun;-i. e., she had on a raiment of light. This figure too is derived from the prophets, for God is said to cover himself with light as with a garmen;" Psa. civ. 2. Hence he is said to be a sun and a shield, and to give grace and glory; lxxxiv. 11. The woman was adorned with nothing earthly; she was arrayed in pure and heavenly light. ¶ The moon under her feet;· -i. e., she was above all lesser lights; she was clothed with the sun, and therefore outshone all other orbs. Paul seems to represent the two covenants by the figures of the sun and moon. The old covenant was the lesser light. It had a glory before the appearance of the greater; but that glory was to be done away. The new covenant had a greater glory. "For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory. For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth;" 2 Cor. iii. 9, 10. How beautifully, then, is the new covenant represented in “allegory," by "a woman, clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet." We cannot conceive of a finer metaphor. The revelator seems to have designed to express the precise idea conveyed by Paul in the quotation just made. The woman was the representative of the greatest moral light the world hath ever seen, or will see, viz., the covenant of the gospel; and hence she is described as being above the low condition of this sub-luna world. A crown of twelve stars.. - What a crown, with stars as jewels! These doubtless represented the twelve apostles of the Lamb, who were afterwards to be called and appointed as ministers of the truth. Their names were to be written on the twelve foundations of the heavenly Jerusalem; xxi. 14. If the seven stars, in Rev. i. 20, are "the angels of the seven churches," so are the twelve stars, in the woman's crown, the twelve angels of the new covenant, or the twelve apostles. This is the 2. Travailing in birth.. same metaphor employed by Isaiah : "As soon as Zion [the name of the new covenant] travailed, she brought forth her children;" Isa. lxvi. 8. pained to be delivered. 3 And there appeared another This is a further confirmation of the opinion expressed above, that the woman who travailed in birth represented the new covenant. For what is meant by Zion travailing? Zion certainly stands for the new covenant. We have shown already, that Paul regarded Sinai and Jerusalem from above as an allegory to represent "the two covenants;" Gal. iv. 24. Zion is but another name for the heavenly Jerusalem. Hence Paul says to the Hebrews, "Ye are come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, * * * and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant," &c; Heb. xii. 22-24. Taking, then, the accustomed use of figures by the sacred writers as our guide, we are surely led to the conclusion that the woman may represent Zion in travail, as expressed in Isa. lxvi. 8. Paul employs a like figure, when he says, "My little children, of whom I travail in birth again, until Christ be formed in you;" Gal. iv. 19. A like figure occurs in the following passage: "But thou, Beth-lehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be Ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. Therefore will he give them up, until the time that she which travaileth hath brought forth: then the remnant of his brethren shall return unto the children of Israel. And he shall stand and feed in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God; and they shall abide for now shall he be great unto the ends of the earth;" Micah v. 2-4. How agreeable both to prophetical and apostolical usage, for the revelator to represent Zion as "travailing in birth and pained to be delivered." 3. Another wonder in heaven. - By this is meant that another remarkable -- wonder in heaven; and behold, a great red dragon, having seven metaphor or sign appeared, up in the heavenly field where the revelator saw the woman clothed with the sun. ¶ A great red dragon. This sign, or metaphor, was "a great red dragon, with seven heads, and ten horns, and seven crowns on his heads." The dragon was a fabulous animal, perhaps supposed by the ancients to have had an actual existence. It is thought by some to have been like a winged serpent, and by others like the crocodile. Be this as it may, there is no question that the dragon before us, like the woman clothed with the sun, is altogether allegorical. No such real animal ever existed, as is described in the verse before us. Having settled, then, that the dragon is allegorical, we must proceed to inquire what he represents. And, ́first, did the prophets use the dragon as a metaphor? and if so, what did they intend it to represent? This is the first time the word is used in the Apocalypse. Let us look into the Old Testament. In speaking of the way in which God wrought destruction upon his enemies, David said: "Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength; thou breakest the heads of the dragons in the waters;" Psa. lxxiv. 13. By "dragons" here seem to be meant the Egyptian hosts who pursued the children of Israel. The prophet describes God's enemies under the figure of a dragon, Isa. xxvii. 1: "In that day the Lord with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea." See also Isa. li. 9: "Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab, [Egypt,] and wounded the dragon?" Here the Egyptians, who pursued the Israelites to destroy them, are again represented under the metaphor of a dragon. Nebuchadnezzar was a dragon to the Jews. See Jer. li. 34: "Nebuchadnezzar the king of Baby heads and ten horns, and seven | crowns upon his heads. me, lon hath devoured me, he hath crushed he hath made me an empty vessel, he hath swallowed me up like a dragon, he hath filled his belly with my delicates, he hath cast me out." The same figure is applied to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, in Ezek. xxix. 3: Speak and say, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh, king of Egypt, the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers, which hath said, My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself." Thus have we shown, indisputably, that by the figure of the dragon, the Old Testament writers were accustomed to represent powerful, cruel, crushing enemies. Of this there is no doubt; and the same sense shall we apply to the dragon before us. But what enemy is represented? We must determine that by his heads and horns. Seven heads. - In giving a description of mystery Babylon, the mother of harlots, [by which the city of Rome was doubtless meant,] the revelator says: "The seven heads [of the beast] are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth;" xvii. 9. This is so direct an allusion to Rome, that there seems no danger of mistake. Rome, the seat of the imperial government, was "the sevenhilled city." Historians, geographers and poets, all speak of the city with seven hills; and passages might be quoted to this purpose without number and without end. But the seven heads of the dragon represented not merely the seven mountains on which the city stood, but also "seven kings;" xvii. 10; and hence it is said, that the dragon had "seven crowns upon his heads." It seems evident, then, that this great fire-colored (purros) dragon represented something appertaining to the Roman Empire. Ten horns. - And he not only had seven heads, but ten horns. Horns are emblems of power; and in the case before us they represent earthly 4 And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and Per rulers. Turn now to Rev. xvii. 12, for the explanation: "The ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings." And so, concerning the beast which Daniel saw in his vision, we are told: " And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise;" Dan. vii. 24. This, then, is the explanation which the sacred writers themselves give of this matter. The dragon was that power in the Roman Empire which was the first to persecute the Christians. Observe, that he did not rise out of the sea, like the beast mentioned in chap. xiii., which we shall consider largely when we come to that place; but he appeared as a sign, or wonder, in heaven. haps John placed this scene in the firmament, and chose the figures principally from celestial objects, to denote that he was describing spiritual matters. If so, the dragon represented a spiritual power; and hence we infer it was Rome spiritual, or Rome in her religious character. It was this power of the empire which commenced the persecution of the Christians; and the dragon is the first emblem we find in the Apocalypse to represent Roman persecution. It is true the civil power was subsequently incited to the opposition; but Paganism was the inciting cause of the persecution. Hence the great firecolored dragon appears in the description before the beast, [the secular power,] mentioned in chap. xiii. Christ came to overthrow Paganism ; but he did not come to overthrow the government of the empire. Paganism, therefore, under the figure of the dragon, is first represented as seeking to crush Christ. But let us attend further to the description of the dragon. 4. His tail drew a third part of the stars. The object here is to set forth the extraordinary power of the dragon. In chap. ix. 17-19, we found a highly figurative description of the cavalry |