They remind us that here we are to look for trials-trials such as those endured by the Ancient Church of Israel in her forty-two sojourneyings in the Wilderness;-trials such as those endured by Elias under Ahab, by the Maccabees under Antiochus, and by Christ from His own countrymen. And they encourage us with the joyful assurance, that if we are true to Christ, and maintain His cause with zeal, courage, and charity, then, though we suffer, we shall conquer also; that our sufferings will soon be over; that they will appear like a few days; then even for us there will be a chariot of fire, and a heavenly Feast of Dedication, and a cloud of heavenly glory, and an eternity of joy.

We must now return to the train of the Prophecy.

And the red Dragon (we read) poured a flood after the Woman, to drown her; but the Earth helped her, and drank up the flood*. And the Devil departed, to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandment of God †.

The Power of the red Dragon here is the same as that before represented in the second seal, as riding, with a sword in his hand, on a red ‡ horse—the horse of fire and blood-the power of Rome.

* Cf. Isaiah viii. 7. ἀνάγει Κύριος ἐφ' ὑμᾶς τὸ ὕδωρ τοῦ ποταμοῦ τὸ ἰσχυρὸν καὶ πολὺ τὸν βασιλέα τῶν ̓Ασσυρίων.

+ Rev. xii. 15-17.

In both passages the word is the same, πuppóç, red as fire.

Here we see the stream of Roman persecution, with which the Devil endeavoured to overwhelm the Church in the first ages of Christianity. Then the Waters, the deep waters of the proud,—would have drowned her, and the stream went over her soul *.

But the Earth helped the Woman, and swallowed the stream; that is, the Roman Empire † became Christian, and the Church was rescued and protected

up

* Psalm cxxiv. 4.

+ Constantine, in one of his letters to Eusebius, speaks of the Dragon being ejected from the government of the World by God's Providence and his own ministry-τοῦ δράκοντος ἐκείνου ἀπὸ τῆς τῶν κοινῶν διοικήσεως τοῦ Θεοῦ τοῦ μεγίστου προνοίᾳ ἡμετέρᾳ δὲ ὑπηρεσίᾳ ἐκδιωχθέντος.—De Vit. Const. ii. c. 46. And Constantine placed before the vestibule of his palace, a representation of the cross over his own head, and of the Dragon beneath him, thrust down to the abyss.—iii. c. 3. τὸν ἐχθρὸν καὶ πολέμιον θῆρα, τὸν τὴν ἐκκλησίαν τοῦ Θεοῦ διὰ τῆς τῶν ἀθέων πολιορκήσαντα τυραννίδος, κατὰ βυθοῦ φερόμενον ποιήσας ἐν δράκοντος μορφῇ· δράκοντα γὰρ αὐτὸν καὶ σκολιὸν ὄφιν ἐν προφητῶν Θεοῦ βίβλοις ἀνηγόρευε τα λόγια. διὸ καὶ βασιλεὺς ὑπὸ τοῖς αὐτοῦ καὶ τῶν αὐτοῦ ποσὶ βέλει πεπαρμένον κατὰ μέσον τοῦ κύτους βυθοῖς τε θαλάσσης ἀπεῤῥιμμένον διὰ τῆς κηροχύτου γραφῆς ἐδείκνυ τοῖς πᾶσι τὸν δράκοντα, ὧδέ πη τὸν ἀφανῆ τοῦ τῶν ἀνθρώπων γένους πολέμιον αἰνιττόμενος.

A.D. 313 Constantine issued his edict at Milan in favour of the Christians ; he decreed the observance of the Lord's Day A.D. 321; from A.D. 323 the heathen symbols disappear from his coins. The adoption of the sacred monogram, the Labarum, was another public profession of Christianity. Heathen sacrifices were prohibited by Constantius A. d. 353.

by the civil power; and therefore the Devil departed, to devise some other mode of attack upon the Church.

He soon found what he desired. This is now revealed by St. John. He proceeds with the Vision of the Church, and displays a new Form of Danger to her*. He stood on the shore of the sea, and I saw a BEAST rising from the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a name of blasphemy. And the Dragon (that is, the Devil) gave him his power, and his throne, and great authority.

This Vision is afterwards expounded by St. John himself, as follows:

I saw a Woman sitting on a scarlet Beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns †. And again: The seven heads are seven Mountains, where the Woman sitteth §; and they are seven Kings, or Kingdoms, or forms of Government; for so the word is used in the parallel place of the prophet Daniel **, where the Roman Empire is called a King,

He, i. e. the Dragon. See Notes to the Harmony, xiii. 1. Rev. xiii. 1, 2.

+ Rev. xvii. 3.

Rev. xvii. 12.

§ ὅπου ἡ γυνὴ κάθηται ἐπ' αὐτῶν. Rev. xvii. 9.

The seven successive forms of Government of Rome. 1. By Kings. 2. Consuls. 3. Dictators. 4. Decemvirs. 5. Military Tribunes. 6. Emperors. 7. The German Emperors, who were Kings of Italy. See Tacit. Annal. i. cap. 1, and Vitringa, p. 590.

** Daniel vii. 17. 23. See also Vitringa, p. 591. Baoiλeis

T

and also a Kingdom. And the ten horns are ten Kings, which have not yet received power, but will receive it, as Kings † (that is, with the name of Kings, but not with undivided Kingly power), at the same time with the Beast. And the Beast is from, that is, proceeds from, the seven heads or forms of Government, and he is himself the Eighth Head; and the Woman who sitteth upon the Beast is THAT GREAT CITY which hath dominion over the

Kings of the Earth §.

This Vision, being thus explained, as to its main features, by St. John himself, admits of but one interpretation; and, as we shall show more fully hereafter ||, it has been so clearly fulfilled in the world, and this fulfilment is so wonderful, and so far beyond the reach of all human prescience, that any one who will carefully consider the matter, must assuredly confess that the eyes of the writer of the Apocalypse were illumined by the Spirit of God.

Tñs yñs, Kings of the Earth, is a phrase used in the Revelation for all the Powers of Earth generally, whether monarchical or no, especially as opposed to Christ, the King of heaven.

* λaußávovoi, present; i. e. prophetically.

† ὡς βασιλεῖς,—very descriptive of the divided allegiance which is paid under the Papacy to Kings, who give their power to the Beast. Rev. xvii. 13.-See Heidegger Myst. Bab. ii. 311. "tanquam reges, adeoque precarii, servientes," vassals of the See of Rome, which, in the person of Pope Innocent III. (Epist. i. 401.) compared the Kingly power to the Moon, and the Papal to the Sun. Rev. xvii. 11. In Lectures X. XI. XII.

§ Rev. xvii. 18.

There are certain subordinate points in it, on which we shall now say a few words.

The place from which this Beast arises is the SEA.

Now, if we revert to the Second Trumpet, we find that it announced the removal of a great burning Mountain into the Sea*. This word Sea connects the present Vision with that Trumpet.

The Mountain was the Roman Empire, and this Sea, as we have said, was the tumultuous Element of Various States into which the great Mountain of the Roman Empire was plunged, and in which it was, as it were, quenched and liquefied, and from this Sea the Beast arises.

Here you will remember that St. Paul, in his Second Epistle to the Thessalonians, thus writes † : Ye know what withholdeth, or hindereth (rò Karéxov), that the Lawless one (o avoμoç) should be revealed in his due season. But (adds the Apostle) it hindereth only till he, who now restrains, shall be removed, and then the Lawless one (that is, the Beast) will be revealed.

The most eminent Ancient Eastern and Western Expositors recognized the Imperial Power § of Rome *Rev. viii. 8. See above, Lect. VII. p. 205, 206.

2 Thess. ii. 3—8.

† ὁ κατέχων.

§ Chrysost. ad loc.; also Theophylact. ad loc.; Jerome on Dan. vii.; and Ep. ad Algas. Qu. 2. See also Tertullian, De Resurr. Carnis, c. 24; Hippolyt. de Antichristo, c. 49; Cyril. Catech. xv. 6. 8; and cp. Bp. Andrewes c. Bellarmin. c. x. p. 235, "Fore ut cum Româ exactus esset Imperator, tum demum thronum suum capesseret Antichristus."