with all plagues as often as they will*. If any one injures them, it is said, fire comes out of their mouth, and devours their enemies; and if any one hurts them, he must be so destroyed +.

Similarly, of these Four Angels and their host, it is now said, that fire comes out of their mouth, and they have power to destroy the third part of men by their plagues; and the rest of men who were not destroyed by these plagues did not repent.

Again the Two Witnesses are said to be warred on by the Beast, and to lie unburied in the Great City, that is, in Babylon.

Similarly the Four Angels are here represented as bound, imprisoned, at the great river Euphrates— the river of Babylon.

Again the Two Witnesses arise. The Spirit of God enters into them; they ascend in the clouds of Christ's glory to heaven §; their foes are terrified; a 案 Anonym. ap. S. August. in loc. Plagæ, quæ pro contemptu Testamentorum Dei humanum genus affligunt.

† πῦρ ἐκπορεύεται ἐκ τοῦ στόματος αὐτῶν, Rev. ix. 17, 18. cf. xi. 5;

ἀποκτείνειν, and ἀποκτείνειν πληγαῖς, Rev. ix. 15. 18. 20. cf. xi. 5. 13.

Such are the expressions applied to the Witnesses and the Angels.

This word, omitted in the Authorized Version, is found in the best MSS. in cap. ix. 18.

§ Auctor Anon. ap. S. Aug. in loc. Hoc est quod Apostolus dixit, (1 Thess. iv. 16.) Rapiemur in nubibus obviam Christo. Ante adventum autem Domini nulli hoc posse contingere scriptum Initium Christus, deinde hi qui sunt Christi in adventu

est.

tenth part of the City falls; and the world is awed,

and gives glory to God.

Similarly the Four Angels are represented as accompanied with the heavenly host, and endued with tremendous power.

Again: the preaching of the Two Witnesses is expressly called the Second Woe*.

And, the loosing of the Four Angels is also called the Second Woe†.

Therefore, we conclude that the preaching of the Two Witnesses and the loosing of the Four Angels are figurative emblems of the same thing.

And

And this is the preaching of the Gospel. The Second Woe is the eve of the End. our Lord Himself says, This Gospel must first be preached for a Witness unto all nations, and then shall the End come. Thus He connects the Gospel with the Witnesses; and with the End. Christ, says St. Paul, will consume the Man of Sin with the Spirit of His mouth, and destroy Him with the brightness of His coming, when the Lord shall be revealed with His mighty Angels in flaming fire ||. A fiery stream,

Ejus. Unde excluditur omnis suspicio quorundam qui putant hos duos Testes duos viros esse.-A very important and necessary remark, especially for all who imagine the two Witnesses to be Enoch and Elias, or some two eminent Reformers. We shall see (in Lecture VIII.) that one body is ascribed to the two Witnesses by St. John, which also excludes the literal interpretation. *Rev. xi. 14.

+ Rev. ix. 12.

§ 2 Thess. ii. 8.

Matth. xxiv. 14. Mark xiii. 10. || 2 Thess. i. 7, 8.

says Daniel, issued forth from before Him; thousand thousands ministered unto Him; and I beheld till the Beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame *.

Yes, my brethren, and is not this the fact? It is not the sword and speart which will destroy the walls of the spiritual Jericho: it is the breath of the Gospel, and the shout of the People of God. They will be overthrown by the foolishness of preaching, by the ramshorn trumpets of the Gospel; not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts §. Our weapons are not carnal, but mighty, through God, to the pulling down of strongholds ||. It is expressly said of Christ's Saints, They overcame by the blood of Christ, and by the WORD of their Testimony **

Is it not, also, true that God, the Lord of Sabaoth, does indeed come with His mighty Angels, in His glorious Gospel?-that to the eye of faith He is there seen surrounded with myriads of Cherubim and Seraphim; and that to those who reject His Word Our God is a consuming fire ++?

Is it not also true that even now, in a certain sense, this Apocalyptic Vision of Christ and His Angel Horsemen has begun to be fulfilled?

* Dan. vii. 10, 11.

Reges, (says Joachim, p. 8,) qui venturi sunt auxilio Bestiæ, subjicientur haud dubium superati gladio Christi, non tam ferri quam Verbi.

‡ 1 Cor. i. 21.

§ Zech. iv. 6.

** Rev. xii. 11.

|| 2 Cor. x. 4.

++ Deut. iv. 24. Heb. xii. 29.

The temporal power of Rome has been weakened; and so, the Scriptures, which were enthralled by her, have been freed. Thus, the Angels have been loosed which were bound at the river Euphrates.

Again: the WORD of GOD has been translated into all languages. Thus the Angels have been loosed. By the aid of Printing they have been multiplied innumerably. Thus, also, the Angels have been loosed. The Scriptures, in swiftness and strength, like an Army of Horsemen, are now sweeping over the world. Their sound is gone forth into all lands, and their words unto the Ends of the world*. These are the Chariots of God's Power. This is His Host. Christ, the Word of God, is with them, and leads them on to Victory.

Let us also be sure that this Propagation of the Gospel is, to those who reject or despise it, a terrible WOE.

The imagery and language of the Apocalypse, as we have said, is derived from that of the Prophets of the Old Testament; and the interpretation now offered of the Sixth Trumpet receives light from a very sublime Vision in the book of the Prophet Joel †.

This Vision, like that in the Apocalypse, is introduced with the sound of the Trumpet.

Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, says the Prophet; sound an alarm in My holy mountain; let all the inhabitants of the earth ‡ tremble, for the day of the Lord is at hand.

Then the Lord's army is revealed.

* Psalm xix. 4.

† Joel ii. 1-11.

† οἱ κατοικοῦντες τὴν γῆν, LXX.

A fire devoureth before them, and behind them the land burneth. The appearance of them is as the appearance of Horses, and as Horsemen shall they run.

Like the noise of chariots on the tops of the mountains shall they leap; like the noise of a flame of fire, that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in

battle array.

Their power and prowess is thus described. Then it is added

And the Lord shall utter His voice before His army; for His camp is very great; for He is strong that executeth His Word; for the Day of the Lord is great and terrible, and who can abide it?

St. John, I conceive, refers to this Vision; and there are some remarkable verbal parallelisms, as well as real coincidences, between his description and that of the Prophet Joel, especially as read in the Septuagint Version *.

The Prophet Zechariah also represents Angels, the Ministers of Christ †, as Horsemen, in one of his first Visions .

And the Prophet Habakkuk exclaims, Thou didst ride, O Lord, upon Thine HORSES, and Thy Chariots of Salvation §. Thy Bow was made quite naked, even

e. g. Joel ii. 4, ὅρασις ἵππων ἡ ὅρασις αὐτῶν, καὶ ὡς ἱππεῖς οὕτως καταδιώξονται. Rev. ix. 16, 17, ὁ ἀριθμὸς στρατευμάτων

τοῦ ἱππικοῦ καὶ οὕτως εἶδον τοὺς ἵππους ἐν τῇ ὑράσει.

...

+ Vitringa, p. 247. Ubi Equites sunt Angeli, Christi Ministri. Zech. i. 8. 10, and Zech. vi. 5—7.

§ Hab. iii. 8, 9. 15, ἡ ἱππασία σοῦ Σωτηρία.

Q