Lectures on the Apocalypse; critical, expository, and practical Hulsean lects., 1848

In the ancient Scriptures the great Empire of Babylon is called a destroying Mountain, and it is threatened with removal by the prophet Jeremiah *; and Babylon in the Apocalypse is a figure of Rome; and therefore this Vision appears to represent the subversion and dismemberment of the Roman Empire by the Goths, Vandals, and Huns, and its decomposition or melting away into a confused Sea of various powers, which were long agitated by the winds and waves of tumultuous vicissitudes †.

The consequences of this Mountain's removal into the sea are thus described in the Second Trumpet:The third part of the sea became blood: and the third of the creatures in the sea, they who had life, died: and the third of the ships was destroyed.

The dissolution of the Roman Empire was attended by infinite carnage. So far is clear; the remaining words are less so. The sense of them is spiritual. They who had life, is rather to be interpreted, they who clung to life, they who preferred it to Christ ‡, they died spiritually.

* Jerem. li. 25.

+ Hence in Rev. xiii. the Beast is said to ascend from the Sea. Tà Exovтα uxàs, those which, in our Saviour's words, do not lose their life, but find, save, or keep it (Matth. x. 39. Luke xvii. 33. John xii. 25); which have a name to live, and are dead: the word exw is used in this sense of, holding, clinging to tenaciously, in the Apocalypse, vi. 9. xii. 17; that is, the carnally-minded, oi vxuoì, as opposed to the spirituallyminded, oi Vεvμarikoί. 1 Cor. ii. 14. xv. 44. James iii. 15. Jude 19, ψυχικοὶ, πνεῦμα μὴ ἔχοντες. This Judgment, then, is

The Goths and Vandals, we must remember, were infected with the Arian heresy, and they promulgated it with the sword, and thus were the cause of spiritual death to thousands.

And, it is added, a third part of the ships was destroyed.

The word here used in the original for ships is not the common vauç, or navis, but is that employed by the Evangelists, describing the Apostolic vessel, Tλotov, in which Christ taught. And here, and in two other places of the Apocalypse, this word ships, by a natural figure, appears to designate Churches†; and the word here used for they were destroyed, is that commonly employed by the sacred writers to describe heretical corruption ‡. A third part of the ships were destroyed, seems therefore to signify that many of the Apostolic Churches were corrupted by

for animal voluptuousness, carnal-mindedness. This interpretation is confirmed by the ancient Expositors. Hence rà exoνTα vxàs, who are neuter animals, i. e. not worthy of the name of men, are contrasted with the male children of the Church (Rev. xii. 5); such as οὐκ ἠγάπησαν τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτῶν ἄχρι Ouvárov. Rev. xii. 11.

* Which is never called vauç. Indeed, I believe, the word vaus only occurs once in the New Testament, Acts xxvii. 41.

† πλοῖα ἐν τῇ θαλάσσῃ, said of merchandise of spiritual things. Rev. xviii. 17-19. So "to buy and sell" is to have spiritual commerce or communion. Rev. xiii. 17.

The word is duplápn, which is specially applied to false doctrine. See 1 Tim. vi. 5, är0pwπоL diεp0αρμέOL TOY YOUν. See also Rev. xi. 18.

heresy, which we know to have been the consequence of the Gothic and Vandal incursions and persecutions throughout a great part of the Roman Empire*.

This interpretation is confirmed by what follows.

The Third Angel sounds; a great Star, burning like a torch, falls from heaven, on the third part of the rivers and fountains. His name is Wormwood, and the third part of the water becomes wormwood; and many die, from the waters, because they were made bitter.

A Star, in the language of the Apocalypse, is a Minister of the Church. The Seven Stars are the Angels of the Seven Churches; that is, chief Ministers of the Seven Churches. Heaven ‡, in the Apocalypse, is the Church. A Falling Star § is therefore emblematic of a false Teacher. He is here said to be like a torch, because he is not a Star, he has no heavenly light in himself; he smoulders with earthly smoke and furious rage. And Wormwood, which

* Under Genseric, A. D. 477, and Huneric, A. D. 484, and Thrasimund. See the contemporary History of Victor Vitensis in Ruinhart's Historia Persecut. Vandal. 1694, and Vitringa Anacr. p. 100.

+ Rev. i. 20.

Lightfoot, ad Rev. xii., following the Ancient Interpreters, says, "Heaven, all along in this book, is the Church; the inhabiters of the Earth are the worldly ones."

Such, among the Jews, was Bar-Cochba, son of a star, A.D. 132, the Pseudo-Messiah, called, after his failure, filius mendacii.

is very bitter, and in certain cases* produces convulsions, delirium, epilepsy, and death, is here, as in other places of Scripture, descriptive of false doctrine t.

Take heed, says Moses, when he warns the Israelites against corrupt doctrines and practices, lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and Wormwood. And so God says by Jeremiah: Because the prophets cause My people to err, Behold, I will feed them with Wormwood §. He will choose their delusions, and punish them with their own devices. And St. Paul, in the same spirit, says, Look diligently lest any fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness, springing up, trouble you, and thereby many be defiled **.

The effect of heretical Wormwood is to poison the waters of life, and to change the sweet Siloas of Scripture into deadly Marahs, and to destroy the souls of men with bitter streams tt.

A great Star fell from heaven, and became Wormwood; that is, one who was set by God, like a fixed

* Ad vermes expellendos adhibitum. See Michaelis Suppl. 1453 ad Deut. xxix. 8.

† Haymo in loc. Absinthium, i. e. doctrina hæreticorum.-So Aquinas.

Deut. xxix. 18. § Jer. xxiii. 15. || Isa. lxvi. 4.

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Lectures on the Apocalypse; critical, expository, and practical Hulsean ...