rod of iron and he treadeth | written, KING OF KINGS, the wine-press of the fierceness AND LORD OF LORDS. and wrath of Almighty God. 16 And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name must fall, is set forth under the metaphor of a "rod of iron," or the rod of God's mouth, as the sword was "the sword of his mouth;" and the effect of God smiting the earth with the rod of his mouth is this: "They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." Compare Isa. xi. 9 with 4. The efficacy of the gospel in overturning all the systems of heathenism is described as follows by the Psalmist: "Ask of me and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel;" Psa. ii. 8, 9. THe treadeth the wine-press, &c. - This seems to be a quotation from Isa. lxiii. 3; and it is used to show, that as grapes are crushed beneath the feet of him who tramples them, so should the enemies of the church be put down, by the power of Christ and his gospel. See our remarks on xiv. 19, 20. 17 And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all as well as in other parts of the New Testament, and in the prophets, Jesus is represented as having power over the kings of the earth. They hide themselves in the dens at his presence; Rev. vi. 15; and before the mighty army of his church they fall, and the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven devour their flesh; xix. 17. 17. Angel standing in the sun. - The angel of this part of the scene is described as standing in the sun. The tout ensemble here is truly sublime. 1st. Heaven is opened, and the "Faithful and True," in appearance most striking and majestic, rides forth into the scene upon a white horse. 2d. Following him come the armies of the faithful upon white horses, beautiful in appearance, their garments of the richest texture, and white and clean. How must such an army have glistened in the light of the sun! 3d. An angel is seen standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice to all the fowls of heaven, to come to the supper of the great God. He was infinitely above them all. An eagle, in its loftiest height, would be im16. On his thigh. The name was mensely beneath him. What a comwrought on that part of the vesture manding position from which to adwhich covered the thigh; which is a dress the fowls that "fly in the midst conspicuous part of a person sitting of heaven." Could we have an actual on a horse. ¶ King of kings and Lord vision like that which passed in the of lords. This name or title is very imagination of the revelator, the soul expressive. Under the gospel, Jesus would be overcome by the magnifihas all power. "The Father judgeth cence and sublimity of the scene. no man, but hath committed all judg-¶ Gather yourselves together for the ment unto the Son;" John v. 22; supper of the great God. In the anihence he is called "the blessed and mated language of the prophets, their only potentate, the King of kings and predictions are often announced under Lord of lords;" 1 Tim. vi. 16. For the form of commands. See Isaiah his high authority he is said to be xiv. 21, and Jer. ix. 17, 18. The orthe "Prince of the kings of the earth;" der was given to the brute animals Rev. i. 5; and in xvii. 14, xix. 16, he to do only what the revelator meant is styled "King of kings and Lord of to predict that they would do. But lords." All through the Apocalypse, he quickens and enlivens his style by the fowls that fly in the midst | tains, and the flesh of mighty of heaven, Come, and gather men, and the flesh of horses, yourselves together unto the and of them that sit on them, supper of the great God; and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and 18 That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of cap-great. using the form of a command. The reason for calling the fowls together to "the supper of the great God," will be explained in the next verse. xvii. 46. — See, also, Isa. xviii. 6, and lvi. 9; Jer. vii. 33, and xii. 9. But the particular passage which the revelator seems to have had in his eye, when he drew his allegory, was Ezk. xxxix. 17-20: "And, thou son of man, thus saith the Lord God; Speak unto every feathered fowl, and to every beast of the field; assemble yourselves, and come; gather yourselves on every side to my sacrifice that I do sacrifice for you, even a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, that ye may eat flesh and drink blood. Ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, of lambs, and of goats, of bullocks, all of them fatlings of Bashan. And ye 18. Eat the flesh of kings. — In a time of war, kings, and captains, and mighty men, and horses, are slain; and if left unburied, the birds of prey feed upon their bodies. As the revelator had represented Jesus under the figure of a commander of armies, and his saints under that of the armies, and his word under that of the sword, and the struggle between his truth and prevailing errors under that of a contest, so, to carry out and complete the allegory, he speaks of the slain, an immense number, who lie unburied, as food for the vulture and other ravenous birds. By a bold per-shall eat fat till ye be full, and drink sonification, he calls on the birds to blood till ye be drunken, of my sacricome to "the supper of the great fice which I have sacrificed for you. God," called His supper, on the same Thus ye shall be filled at my table principle in which an army employed with horses and chariots, with mighby Him for the purpose of chastising ty men, and with all men of war, saith some rebellious nation is called the the Lord God." Thus it will be seen rod of His anger and His indignation; the figure was not original with the Isa. x. 5. Poets of old were accus-revelator. tomed to describe the fate of warriors in this manner. See the opening of the Iliad. We quote from Pope : "Achilles' wrath, to Greece the direful spring Of woes unnumbered, heavenly Goddess, sing! That wrath which hurled to Pluto's gloomy The souls of mighty chiefs untimely slain, will of Jove." David told the Philistines, "I will give the carcasses of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel;" 1 Sam. How appropriate to the revelator's application are the succeeding words of the prophet: “And I will set my glory among the heathen, all the heathen shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid upon them;"> verse 21. "The principal design of the imagery, after all, is to portray in vivid colors the disgraceful death of the followers of the beast. To lie unburied, and thus become the prey of ravenous birds or beasts, was regarded by the ancients with peculiar horror."- Stuart. And now the threatening being complete, the war will begin. 19. The beast, the kings of the earth, and their armies. -These are the op 19 And I saw the beast, and | and with him the false prophet the kings of the earth, and their that wrought miracles before armies, gathered together to him, with which he deceived make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. 20 And the beast was taken, posing armies to those of the Lamb. The revelator, having described the former, introduces now the latter. The beast, (the secular power of the empire,) the kings of the earth, (that were subject to the empire,) and their forces, all conspired to put down Christ and his cause; or, in the figurative language, "to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army." And what will be the consequence? 20. The beast was taken. This battle is described rather by its consequences than in its details. The victory of the "Faithful and True" was complete. The commander of the opposing army was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which mankind had been deceived. On the subject of these miracles, see on xiii. 14; xvi. 14: and on "the mark of the beast," see the remarks under xiii. 16, 17; xiv. 9-11; xv. 2; xvii. 2; xx. 4. The beast and the false prophet had been united together in their operations; the latter had been a powerful auxiliary of the former; chap. xiii. 11-15; and consequently they both fall together. "The beast was taken, and with him the false prophet." The leaders were seized. And what became of them? Both were cast alive into a lake of fire. They were utterly destroyed, which is signified by their being cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. It is perhaps said that they are cast alive into this lake, in order to represent their torment to be the more keen. This is the first instance in which we have met with the figure of "the lake of fire and brimstone," which is purely apocalyp them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive tical, occurring nowhere else in the Bible. We shall seek first for the origin of the metaphor, and afterward for the intent of it. This figure of the "lake of fire and brimstone" unquestionably had its origin in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the neighboring cities. They were overthrown by fire from heaven. "Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven;" Gen. xix. 24. On account of this event, these cities became very noted in the sacred writings of the Jews. The mention of them frequently occurs by way of metaphor or comparison. A wicked city was on that account called Sodom. Moses told the Jews, that if they did not obey God, but forsook him and rebelled against him, their land should become "brimstone and salt and burning," like the overthrow of Sodom, &c., which the Lord overthrew in his anger and in his wrath; Deut. xxix. 23. Sodom being overthrown by a shower of fire and brimstone, any land given up to devastation was said to become brimstone and burning. The figure of the shower of fire and brimstone came to be used to represent any severe judgment for sin, as Psa. xi. 5: ".Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and a horrible tempest; this shall be the portion of their cup." Sodom and the other cities being situated in a low plain, or valley, the place where they stood became a lake, or sea, and is in our day the site of the Dead Sea. This is a lake of brimstone or bitumen, which is continually rising to the surface and floating to the shore, and the shore itself is found to con into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. 21 And the remnant were Islain with the sword of him stone like those who had worshipped them. And that this intended temporal punishments is evident from the language of the next verse, where we shall see that "all the fowls were filled with their flesh;" a metaphor that could not be applied to the spiritual and immortal state. tain large quantities of the inflammable substance. When these cities were burning, they looked to persons on the surrounding high lands as a "lake of fire and brimstone." When Bonaparte, from an elevated position, saw Moscow burning, he described it as an "ocean of flame." The figure, then, of the lake of fire and brimstone 21. And the remnant were slain.— originated in the fall of Sodom and In the preceding verse we have an Gomorrah; and it was used by the account of the fall of the beast and sacred writers to signify a thorough the false prophet; and in this verse and irreparable destruction. It is we see described the destruction of a parallel case to the use of Gehenna. their armies. They were slain with Gehenna, or the valley of Hinnom, the sword of his mouth, or rather, which was a place of great impurity were put down by the power of his during the idolatrous practices of the word, compared to a two-edged sword. Jews, and also afterwards a place of ¶ All the fowls were filled with their severe punishments, became a meta- flesh. This was added merely to phor, in process of time, for any ter- balance the different parts of the rible judgment; and so the vale of allegory, as it had been commenced Siddim, (where Sodom and her sisters in verses 17 and 18, and concerning stood,) which had been the place of which a sufficient explanation has such an awful and complete over- been given. Does not the whole allethrow by fire and brimstone, now a gory show that the punishments spolake, abounding in bitumen, became ken of in this chapter do not refer to a metaphor for a complete overthrow the immortal state? Those who worand total and incurable destruction. shipped the beast and his image When it is said, therefore, that the were, like the beast, tormented in fire beast and the false prophet were cast and brimstone; xiv. 11. Now, that alive into a lake of fire burning with their fall and destruction did not inbrimstone, the meaning is, that they tend torment in the immortal state, is were afflicted with very severe suffer- evident from the metaphor that the ings, that resulted in their entire fowls were filled with their flesh. destruction, so that they were as com- The intent of the revelator surely was pletely overthrown as were Sodom to represent that their destruction was and Gomorrah. Prof. Stuart says, it on the earth. And now, as we are intends a "speedy and dreadful pun- brought to the end of the chapter, ishment." The being cast into a there is one thing not to be forgotten. "lake of fire and brimstone," intends We have learned the destruction of a severe punishment, like "being tor- the beast, and the false prophet, and mented with fire and brimstone," in their enemies; but nothing has been xiv. 10, 11, where we have shown said about the overthrow of the great that the metaphor was unquestionably dragon. The dragon, and the beast, used, (as every one must acknowl- and the false prophet, were all deedge,) by the Jewish prophets, to sig-scribed together in their introduction nify temporal judgments. Let the into the Apocalypse, and we might reader peruse carefully the notes on that verse. The beast and false prophet were cast into fire and brim expect they would be grouped together in their fall. To this we reply, that the fall of the dragon is portrayed in the 20th chapter, and it will be considered in its proper place. CHAPTER XX. his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out Preliminary Remarks. - This has into the earth, and his angels were been regarded as one of the most dif- cast out with him;" Rev. xii. 7—9. ficult chapters in the whole book. "They overcame him by the blood of What we have already said on pre- the Lamb, and by the word of their ceding chapters will assist us mate- testimony;" ver. 11. Still the dragon rially in understanding this. The continued to persecute the woman third grand division of the Apoca- that brought forth the man-child, lypse commences at chap. xii., where (ver. 13,) i. e., the new covenant, we first find mention made of the under the figure of a woman. The dragon, which represented Rome in dragon persecuted all who adopted its religious character, as distin- the new covenant. The woman was guished from the beast of chap. xiii., a metaphor; for, as Paul says, these which represented its secular char- things are an allegory; Gal. iv. 24; acter. The three principal metaphors and Jerusalem which is above is free, representing the Roman opposers of which is the mother of us all; ver. 26. Christianity are the dragon, the The beast and the false prophet also beast, and the false prophet. The fought against the Lamb; Rev. xix. harlot who sat upon the beast, (chap. 19. But the dragon, the beast, and xvii.,) we have fully shown was the the false prophet, were all three concity of Rome, (xvii. 9, 18.) These quered and destroyed. The destrucall made war on the Lamb, that is, tion of the latter two is described xix. they all opposed the Christian reli- 20, 21, i. e., at the very close of the gion. But the truth of Christ was 19th chapter; and hence the 20th great, and mightily prevailed through-chapter opens with an account of the out the Roman Empire, so that Paul binding or restraining of the dragon, said, even when he wrote his Epistle previously to his destruction. to the Romans, speaking of the Christian teachers, "their sound went out into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world;" x. 18. This agrees with the language of Jesus, when speaking of the end of the Jewish age: "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world, for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come;" Matt. xxiv. 14. All the powers of Rome could not arrest its spread. The Lamb was victorious. "There was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and 1. Angel came down from heaven. The revelator still keeps in his mind the local heaven, which he first introduced into his drama at chapter iv. 1-4. At the beginning of chap. xxi. he describes, as we shall see, the descent of the new Jerusalem from God out of heaven to men, and God thenceforth dwells not in a distant place; but his tabernacle, or place of rest, is with men, and he will dwell with them, and be their God. From the introduction of that tabernacle, we find no further mention of the place described in chap. iv. But that place is kept up in the revelator's imagina |