no man was able to enter into | plagues of the seven angels the temple, till the seven

were fulfilled.

which the revelator spake, the temple had been destroyed. It was, we repeat, merely the image of it which he saw in heaven, to which he referred; xi. 19; xv. 5. We have thus brought our notes on this chapter to a close. In the next we shall find an account of the pouring out of the seven vials; and let it be remembered that all seven of them, in which was "filled up the wrath of God," were to be poured out upon the earth.

CHAPTER XVI.

self is represented as present in those judgments; for we hold it to be peyond dispute, that the judgments mentioned in the Apocalypse subsequently to the 14th chapter are but an amplification, or particularizing, of what is described in more general terms in that chapter. See what we have stated as to the character of that chapter in the preliminary remarks at the opening of our notes upon it. The temple was filled with smoke as a sign of Jehovah's presence when the vials were given out, and during the whole continuance of the plagues. The judgments were irrevocable; Preliminary Remarks. - The chapthey were not to be recalled. When ter we are now to consider is highly the plague smote the children of Israel, scenic; we can scarcely conceive of Moses sent Aaron in haste into the any composition that is more so. It temple to make atonement, and the is a metaphorical description of the plague was stayed. "And Aaron woes which were about to fall on the took as Moses commanded, and ran Roman Empire, and which had been into the midst of the congregation; foretold by the revelator in chap. xiv. and behold, the plague was begun 8-11, and 14-20. It bears a resemamong the people: and he put on blance somewhat to chapters viii. incense, and made an atonement for and ix. Under the successive openthe people. And he stood between ings of the seven seals, had been the dead and the living; and the described the woes which were soon plague was stayed. Now they that to fall on the Jews; and in the chapdied in the plague were fourteen ters last mentioned, those woes were thousand and seven hundred, besides more fully and particularly set forth them that died about the matter of under various metaphors. So, in the Korah. And Aaron returned unto 14th chapter, the woes are denounced Moses unto the door of the tabernacle on the Romans, which, in the subseof the congregation: and the plague quent chapters, are carried out more was stayed;" Numb. xvi. 47-50. fully under different images. The But in the case described by the reve- Gentile Christians remained firm in lator, no such arrest of judgment their devotion to God; they stood on could be had. "No man was able to "the sea of glass" and worshipped enter into the temple till the seven Him in view of his judgments. Preplagues of the seven angels were ful-paratory to the execution of those filled." God was present in the judgment; it was poured out with his approbation, and by his command; it could not be remitted; the whole seven of the vials must be poured out; the full measure of divine wrath or judgment must be executed upon the persecutors. The description of the temple and the smoke, of course, is scenical; for at the time of

judgments, seven angels are represented as coming out of the temple, to whom seven vials, filled with wrath, or judgments, are given; and the pouring out of the contents of these vials forms the subject of the 16th chapter, which we are now to consider.

1. Great voice out of the temple.— This is the same imaginary temple

2 And the first went, and [earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men

poured out his vial upon the

river Euphrates, and the seventh, or last, into the air. Whatever this scenery may intend, we may be confident that temporal or earthly judgments only are intended, since all the vials were to be poured out upon, or into, the earth. It is worthy of note here, that the revelator is only amplifying the judgments mentioned in xiv. 9-11, where we were told that the wrath of God is poured out into the cup of his indignation, and men are made to drink it, and are tormented in fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and the presence of the Lamb. This wrath of God was to be visited on those who worshipped the beast and his image; and beyond all doubt represented the same judgments described under the metaphors of the seven vials of God's wrath, which also were poured out on "the men who had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image;" xvi. 2. If we look closely at the 14th chapter, we shall find that the judgments described under the metaphor of drinking the wine of God's wrath, and suffering torment in fire and brimstone, ver. 10, are described in the succeeding parts of that chapter, under the metaphors of the harvest, verses 14-16, and the vintage, verses 17-20. These judgments were on the earth. "The harvest of the earth is ripe;" ver. 15; the angel thrust in his sickle on the earth, and the earth was reaped; ver. 16; the vine whose clusters were gathered was the vine of the earth; ver. 18; and the angel thrust his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth; ver. 19; and the wine-press was trodden without the city, and blood flowed to the horses' bridles; ver. 20. How can reflecting persons suppose that any other than temporal or earthly judgments are here described? By the seven vials of wrath are unques

tionably meant the seven last plagues mentioned in chapter xv.

2. Poured out his vial upon the earth. -The first angel poured out his vial upon the earth, i. e., upon the land, for the second vial is said to have been poured out upon the sea. The angels, as we have said under the preceding verse, poured out their vials as follows: 1st, on the earth; 2d, on the sea; 3d, on the rivers and fountains; 4th, on the sun; 5th, on the seat of the beast, (i. e., the place of his power;) 6th, on the Euphrates; and, 7th, into the air. The whole, remember, is mere imagery. The judgments of God upon the Jews had been described in a similar way by the revelator. See chapters viii. and ix. The angel took fire from the altar and cast it into the earth; viii. 5. This was to denote that judgments were about to begin. Under the sounding of the first angel the judgment fell on the earth; viii. 7; under the second, on the sea; ver. 8; under the third, the star Wormwood fell on the rivers and fountains of water; verses 10, 11; under the fourth, the sun was smitten; ver. 12; under the fifth, the judgment was prepared against Jerusalem, the seat of the power of the Jews; under the sixth, the operations were in the regions of the Euphrates; ix. 14; and under the seventh, in the region of the air, and there were great voices in heaven uttering, "The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ;" xi. 15; and this agrees precisely with the effects attending the pouring out of the seventh vial; ver. 17. Thus it will be seen, there was a method in the revelator's meta-. phors; they were not all chaos. There was a similarity between the construction of that part which treated of the judgments that fell upon the Jews, and the part now before us,

which had the mark of the | poured out his vial upon the which sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man; and every living soul died in the sea.

beast, and upon them worshipped his image.

3 And the second

angel

grievous sores, the revelator followed
the authority of the prophets. We
see here the source from whence he
derived his imagery.
It was not
entirely the invention of his own
fancy. ¶ Mark of the beast. We
have explained this imagery in sev-
eral instances. See notes on xiii. 16,
17; xiv. 9; xv. 2. ¶ Worshipped his
image. On the subject of the worship
of the beast, see xiii. 4, 8, 12; xiv. 9, 11.

3. Upon the sea. The second angel poured out his vial upon the sea. This is the same figure, in substance, which occurs in Rev. viii. 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." Such having been the metaphor by which the revelator described the judgments coming upon the Jews, he uses it again to describe the judg ments coming upon the Romans.

which treats of the judgments that fell upon the Romans. It is sometimes asked, what does the pouring out of the different vials upon the earth, the sea, the rivers, the sun, &c. &c., mean? We answer, it does not mean anything distinct from the great fact that the Roman Empire was to be judged. These things are only the dress which the imagination of the revelator supplied, and are to be regarded merely as parts of the imagery. He who seeks to find a distinct judgment for every vial, entirely overdoes the matter of explanation, and makes the subject darker, and not brighter. All we desire to do, in regard to these metaphors, is to show the method of them, and their origin, or the sources whence the revelator derived them, so far as we can. ¶ There fell a noisome and grievous sore, &c. - By sores, the sacred writers were accustomed to represent afflictions and troubles. Became as the blood of a dead man. We are inclined to think that the - We think this metaphor, as well as revelator had in his mind the judg- the former one, (ver. 2,) had its origin ments that God sent upon the Egyp-in the plagues of Egypt, which had tians, because they would not let the been so prominent a matter in the children of Israel go up out of the sacred history of the Jews. By those land of bondage. One of the judg-plagues God punished the oppressor ments that fell upon them was a of old; and the revelator, being a breaking out of sores upon man and Jew, drew his style and figures from beast. See Exod. ix. 8-11. See, the sacred history, which was so dear also, Psa. xxxviii. 11. The diseased to the heart of every one of his pious moral condition of God's rebellious countrymen. See Exod. iv. 9. And children was described as follows: read the following passage: "And the "From the sole of the foot even unto Lord spake unto Moses, Say unto the head there is no soundness in it; Aaron, Take thy rod, and stretch out but wounds, and bruises, and putrefy- thy hand upon the waters of Egypt, ing sores they have not been closed upon their streams, upon their rivers, up, neither bound up, neither molli- and upon their ponds, and upon all fied with ointment;" Isa. i. 6. So their pools of water, that they may Lazarus, the representative of the become blood; and that there may Gentiles, was laid at the rich man's be blood throughout all the land of house full of sores; Luke xvi. 20, 21. Egypt, both in vessels of wood, and It cannot be denied, then, that in rep- in vessels of stone. And Moses and resenting troubles and afflictions by Aaron did so, as the Lord com

4 And the third angel poured | fountains of waters: and they became blood.

out his vial upon the rivers and

manded; and he lifted up the rod and smote the waters that were in the river, in the sight of Pharaoh, and in the sight of his servants; and all the waters that were in the river were turned into blood. And the fish that was in the river died; and the river stank, and the Egyptians could not drink of the water of the river; and there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt;" Exod. vii. 19— 21. It will appear very plainly to all, that the revelator used the judgments which came of old upon the Jews, as a kind of dress, or imagery, by which to represent the judgments about to fall upon the Romans.

ments are represented to fall upon Judea, some are said to fall on the land, others on the sea, others on the trees, (chap. vii.,) not necessarily signifying such a separation of the judg ments, some on this, some on that part, but the whole nation together, on which all those judgments fell, and this indeed agreeable to what we read of the judgments that fell on Egypt, where though some of them were caused by the signs that Moses wrought upon the land, Exod. viii. 16; others by smiting of the waters, streams, rivers and ponds, and all their gathering together of waters, Exod. vii, 19; and so again, viii. 5; yet it 4. Rivers and fountains of waters. is manifest that the judgments thus This figure is like the last. We produced by every one of these, (each understand nothing different from smiting of his rod there being proporwhat is meant in the preceding verse. tionable to the pouring out of a vial It is merely a part of the scenery. here,) fell indifferently on the whole That sound old writer, Dr. Ham- land, and not one judgment on one mond, says, in his note on this place, part, another on another; and so that the earth, or land, on which these sure is it to be understood in this vials were to be poured, "in all place. Many judgments were to be reason signifies the Roman Empire, poured out on the Roman Empire, the thing represented in these visions, and by all of them together the whole as before it signified the nation and heathen part of it destroyed. This people of the Jews. And there is no consideration makes it unnecessary reason to affix any nice critical nota- further to inquire into the productions tion to either of these single, that the of the several vials, what each of them land, should signify severally, and so distinctly signified, it being sufficient the sea, and the rivers, but to take all that each of them notes some kind together for that which was meant by of destruction; and the number of the land, ver. 1; for so the series seven being a perfect number, the here requires, where the angels, that seven angels, and their seven vials, and were commanded to pour out their their seven effusions, signify utter devials on the earth, pour them out on struction, and not necessarily any these three, evidently noting these more, unless it be this, that it was three to be the distribution of that not all at once, but by several deone, and so all one with it. So, chap. grees, and several sorts of judgments, xiv. 7, God is described as the Crea- those that ordinarily bring destructor of heaven, and earth, and sea, and tions upon provoking people, that fountains of water, where all those have filled up the measure of their latter three are set to denote that iniquities, infectious diseases, famines which is elsewhere ordinarily called and wars; and that these, in a very the earth, and no more, in opposition remarkable manner, fell upon the to heaven, that is, this inferior, terres- Roman Empire about these times, trial globe, and all in it. To this appears as by all histories, ecclesiasmay be added, that when the judg-tical and profane, so especially by St.