the key of the bottomless pit

As

and a great chain in his hand.
death," to signify that he had power
to bind and control them. They
were subject to his authority. So
those who had power given them to
bind and loose things in heaven, were
said to receive the keys of the king-
dom of heaven; Matt. xvi. 19; that
is, they received great authority in
the kingdom of the Lord Jesus.
the dragon was not a real being, but
an imaginary representative of the
heathen powers, so the bottomless pit
was not a reality, but a metaphor, to
denote that the dragon was cast down
into degradation. He had been ex-
alted to the pinnacle of glory; he
was cast down and restrained. The
phrase "bottomless pit" occurs only
in the following places: Rev. ix. 1,
2, 11; xi. 7; xvii. 8; xx. 1, 3. We
have explained the metaphor, under
ix. 2. Let the reader see the note
there. The bottomless pit was an
imaginary cavern in the earth,

tion through the chapter on which we are now remarking. The angel came down from heaven. The scene of the events described in the twentieth chapter is certainly laid on the earth; but the whole description is imaginary; precisely as the armies of heaven, who rode forth on white horses, (mentioned in the preceding chapter,) were imaginary. We must not forget that the whole is allegorical, and is designed merely to set forth the struggle between heathenism and Christianity, and the final triumph of the latter. He who adopts any other principle of interpretation will involve himself in endless fancies. But the chapter we are now expounding has been so frequently misapplied, that it is well to look even at the basis of the allegory, and show in what customs of thinking it had its origin. We repeat, then, that the scene is evidently laid on the earth. The whole chapter shows that the earth is contemplated as being in existence, and the nations are distributed over it; see verses 3, 8, 9. This fact must be remembered. The angel was said to come down, because the dwelling-place of God and of the angels was thought to be above the earth. It was called heaven, a word of very varied signification, used sometimes to signify the dwellingplace of God, as at the commencement of the Lord's Prayer; Matt. vi. 9; and sometimes to signify a principle, or spirituality, like the invisible but all-powerful kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ; Luke xvii. 20, 21, and Rom. xiv. 17. But in the passage before us, it unquestionably signifies¶ Chain in his hand. — This strengththe supposed locality first introduced ens the metaphor. The angel comes into the Apocalypse at iv. 1-4. down to the earth to bind the dragon Key of the bottomless pit.-The for a season. He brings with him, angel brings with him from heaven therefore, two implements, viz., the the key of the bottomless pit, and also key of the imaginary pit, cavern, or a great chain in his hand. The key depth, and the great chain. The is a sign of power to confine, or plan is, that the dragon is to be release. In Rev. i. 18, Jesus is said secured permanently for a season. to have "the keys of hell and of

"In the lowest depth, a lower deep." It is only in two cases out of the | seven, (viz., ix. 1, 2,) that there can be any pretence that bottomless is a just translation; for in the other five cases, the word abussos (abyss) stands by itself, without any attempt to increase its force. In the verse before us, the pit was an imaginary cavern, beneath the surface of the earth; and as the revelator desired to represent the restraining of the dragon for a season, he supposes him to be thrust into this cavern. But we are anticipating our remarks on the 3d verse. Let the reader observe carefully what may be said there.

2. He laid hold on the dragon.

2 And he laid hold on the

dragon, that old serpent, which

The dragon represented the empire in Devil, and Satan, is meant the same its heathen character, as the beast thing. The names are put in apporepresented its secular character. The sition. They do not signify any parangel, the messenger of the Most ticular being, but the heathen opposHigh, laid hold upon him, and casters of Christianity. The dragon was him down, and bound him a thousand altogether a fabulous animal, believed years. We first read of this dragon perhaps by the ancients to have had xii. 3, where he is called the "great a real existence. The prophets used red dragon;" he had great power; the supposed animal as a metaphor to he was seen in heaven, i. e., in the represent cruel and persecuting men, firmament, among the stars, many especially rulers. See Psa. lxxiv. of which he threw down to the earth; 13: "Thou didst divide the sea by he made war on the woman, the rep- thy strength: thou breakest the heads resentative of Christianity; xii. 4. of the dragons in the waters ;" an eviThere was war, and the firmament dent reference to the destruction of was the battle-field. The dragon and Pharaoh and his hosts. We have his angels were on the one side, and shown in many instances that the Michael and his angels on the other. revelator borrowed his imagery from The dragon and his forces were the prophets. The serpent is used by beaten, and "neither was there place the sacred writers as an emblem of found for them any more in heaven;" craft and subtlety; and hence we are 7 and 8. We must, therefore, hence- told (Rev. xii. 9) that "the great forth look for him somewhere else. dragon was cast out, that old serpent To what place was he banished? called the Devil, and Satan, which "The dragon, that old serpent, which deceiveth the whole world." And all is the Devil, and Satan, was cast out these terms, we repeat, signify the into the earth, and his angels were same thing. Not that all over the cast out with him;" xii. 9. He is, Bible they refer identically to the therefore, to be contemplated as ban- same individuals; but that in the ished to the earth, and there the angel Apocalypse they refer to the leading found him, as we perceive, in the heathen opposers of Christianity. We verse before us. The scene is laid on have shown, in the most conclusive the earth. The angel comes down manner, in our long note on xii. 9, that from heaven to the earth, having the nowhere in all the Bible, leaving the key of the bottomless pit, which shows Apocalypse out of the argument, does that that pit was on the earth; and the metaphor of the dragon stand for he laid hold on "the dragon, that old anything beside human adversaries. serpent, called the Devil, and Satan," The reader should turn back to that xii. 9; xx. 2, whom he seems to have note, covering the 205th and 206th found on the earth. ¶ Which is the pages, and read it carefully. Now Devil, and Satan. - The dragon is if in every other part of the Bible called "that old serpent, which is the except the Apocalypse the metaphor Devil, and Satan." These terms, from stands for human adversaries only, long abuse, suggest to many people's why should it not be supposed it minds no idea but that of a fiend, not stands for human adversaries in that human, but fallen-angelic; the head book? Why should a different rule of the kingdom of darkness; the be adopted in applying the metaphor almost-equal to God himself. It does in the Apocalypse, from that which not belong to a commentary on the we adopt in regard to its application Apocalypse to refute that error. It is in every other part of the sacred sufficient to say here, that by the writings in which it occurs? The dragon, and the old serpent, and the seven-headed beast of chap. xiii. is

is the Devil, and Satan, and | bound him a thousand years,

evince;" — (Prophecies, p. 531 ;) and he goes on to show it in its particulars. It is a wonderful inconsistency to suppose that the dragon represented a human adversary in the

understood to signify earthly powers; is quite sure that the dragon signifies why should not the seven-headed the diabolos of his own creed; and dragon be understood as signifying yet he says, in one place, that the earthly powers also? On the suppo- dragon standing before the woman to sition that the dragon signifies a devour her child as soon as it was superhuman adversary, what do his | born, (xii. 4,) “reminds us of Herod's seven heads, and ten horns, and seven attempt to massacre the infant Saviour crowns, signify? There is a signifi- at Bethlehem." He here intimates cancy in these things if applied to the that the dragon represented a human Roman Empire; but none at all if adversary; but be immediately atones applied to a superhuman adversary. for the admission by hinting that Is it not apparent, that the dragon Herod "was moved to such a deed by with seven heads and ten horns, and the great adversary of Christianity." the beast with seven heads and ten - (Hints on Prophecy, 2d ed., p. horns, both signify one thing under 119.) Bishop Newton supposed that different aspects? There is no reason the dragon of the 20th chapter signifor considering the dragon to repre-fied the devil of the popular theology; sent a superhuman adversary, that but the dragon of the 12th chapter, in would not show that the beast also sig-his view, signified the Roman Em. nified such an adversary. Now all pire. "For that the Roman Emcommentators allow that the seven-pire was here figured, the characters headed beast signified human adver- and attributes of the dragon plainly saries; and why should they then contend that the dragon signified anything else? Do not their systems warp their judgments in this case? But let us pass now to another point. Is it not evident that the dragon of the 12th chapter and the dragon of the 20th chapter are the same thing? The Apocalypse has but one dragon. We esteem it as certain that the dragon represents the same powers, in whatever part of the Apocalypse we find him mentioned. It would be exceedingly unwise to suppose that the dragon of the 12th chapter signifies human adversaries, and the dragon of the 20th chapter something utterly different; and this too without the slightest intimation to that effect from the revelator. And yet there are commentators who consider the dragon of the 12th chapter as signifying human adversaries, and the dragon of the 20th as signifying the devil of the popular creeds. We call this a remarkable inconsistency. There is no truth more apparent upon the face of the Apocalypse, than that the dragon signifies the same power throughout that book. Prof. Stuart

one case,

and in the other the devil of the popular theology. Sir Isaac Newton says: "The dragon signifies the same empire with Daniel's he-goat, in the reign of his last horn, that is, the whole Roman Empire.'

-(p. 315.) Mr. Lord says, in his recently published work on the Apocalypse, "that the great red dragon symbolizes the rulers of the Roman Empire ;"—(p. 313, on xii. 1—6;) but when he comes to the 20th chapter, he tells us, that he is "the great fallen angel," "the great adversary of God and man who has seduced the nations."-(Exposition of the Apocalypse, by David N. Lord, 1847, p. 514.) Such a method of interpreting the Scriptures is against all proper rule. Adam Clarke, the Methodist commentator, explains the dragon xii. 3 to signify "not the Roman Empire in general, but the heathen Roman Empire;" and he is not very explicit in his notes on the 20th chap

3 And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up,

ter in regard to the devil, as if he was confident of the weight of the concession he had made in the words now quoted. But the editors of the Improved Version give a decidedly satisfactory note, on xx. 1-3: "The reader will remember that the whole of this is a visionary scene, which passed in the imagination of the writer; and by no means implies the real existence of any such monster or being as the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, which are only names to express and to personify the hostile, idolatrous and persecuting power."

It has been alleged that the dragon must represent the devil of the popular theology, because he is said to be "that old serpent," meaning the serpent that tempted Eve. But this is taking for granted that the serpent which tempted Eve meant a superhuman tempter. Has that point ever been proved? The old serpent that tempted Eve was a deceiver; and he is put metaphorically for the dragon, because the dragon was also a deceiver; he "deceived the whole world;" xii. 9. He is called the Devil, diabolos, as the accuser of the Christians, xii. 10, and Satan as their unrelenting adversary, for this is the proper signification of these terms. And if any reliance be placed on the fact of the dragon being called the old serpent, the Devil, and Satan, to prove that he is a superhuman adversary, let it be remembered, that he is designated by these terms as forcibly and directly in the 12th chapter as in the 20th. See xii. 9; xx. 2. In Isaiah xxvii. 1, a human adversary is represented by both the serpent and the dragon: "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." Perhaps the revelator had this passage in his mind. That the word devil stands for human adversaries,

see John vi. 70, where Jesus calls Judas a devil; and Rev. ii. 10, where it is said, "the devil shall cast some of you into prison." See the long note on that place. Jesus surely called Peter a satan, or adversary; Matt. xvi. 23. T Thousand years. This phrase we shall consider under the following verse.

3. Cast him into the bottomless pit. - The pit here is to be understood solely as a metaphor. The revelator wished to represent the restraining of the dragon, and of course he must provide, in his imagery, some means of confinement. This imaginary pit is therefore introduced, and the angel with its key and the chain. The scene is all laid on the earth. The prison and the pit are continually used as metaphors in the Bible. "Bring my soul out of prison that I may praise thy name;" Psa. xlii. 7. What prison was this? We reply, it was a mere metaphor. See, also, the words of Isaiah: "I the Lord have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thy hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles : to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison-house ;" xlii. 6, 7. The prison here was merely a metaphor to represent the state in which the Gentiles lay before the deliverance wrought out by the gospel reached them. The same metaphor precisely is found lxi. 1: "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound." See, also, 1 Pet. iii. 19. The pit, in the 20th of Revelations, was no more a real pit, than the prison mentioned in these passages was a real prison. It was a metaphor merely. The sacred writers