noted by many previous commentators as having the meaning I suggest : '—not to add that its probability is enhanced, as I think, by the fact that the Jews themselves, at least some of the most learned of their Rabbies,-have supposed that the restoration of their people is to follow on the fall of Rome.2-4thly, I infer that up to the time figured by this chorus of song, no translation of the living saints, or resurrection of the saints departed this life, will have taken place; the scenery of the inmost temple, with its throne, and seated Divinity, and the elders and living creatures attendant near it, the mystical representatives of the expectant Church in Paradise,3 remaining still in the scene of vision as before. Whether the scene still continued so, and the same inference might be made with regard to time at all later, is another question. But it is one which will more properly come under consideration in the chapter next but one following.4

66

4. Next after this, the Evangelist tells of a command issuing " from the throne," which called on all his servants and all that feared him, "Praise ye our God; and how thereupon a yet louder voice than before, even as of many waters and of great thunderings, (probably including therefore, both princes and people,) was heard to burst forth in a new anthem of praise; 7 its two

the Lord." So Daubuz.-Let me add that Tobit xiii. 18, speaking of the rebuilding of Jerusalem says, And all her streets shall sing Alleluia." So Brightman, Vitringa, Daubuz, &c, more or less: and among cotemporaries, Mr. Bickersteth.

2 Kimchi says in Obadiah; "This is the hope of the nation, when Rome shall be desolated, there shall be the redemption of Israel." Vitringa, p. 1066, refers for comparison to other testimonies given in Buxtorf on the word. 4 Viz. on the Millennium.

3 See Vol. i. pp. 86-94.

5 We should mark the expression "our God." There is no various reading. 6 Compare Apoc. xiv. 2, and Vol. iii. p. 266.

7 I subjoin the chapter, as before.

xix. 5. "And a voice came out of the throne, saying, Praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear him, both small and great. 6. And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia, for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. 7. Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him for the

Scholz reads ήμων, our God."

+ εβασίλευσε. So xi. 17.

themes being the now closely instant establishment of Christ's kingdom, and his marriage: the bride, it appeared, having had it granted her to be arrayed in the finest

marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. 8. And to her it was granted* that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints. 9. And he saith unto me, Write, blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God. 10. And I fell at his feet to worship him: and he saith unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and (the fellow-servant)+ of thy brethren, that keep up the testimony of Jesus worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.§

11. And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True; and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. 12. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many diadems; and he had a name written, that no man knew but himself. 13. And he was clothed in a vesture dipped in blood, and his name is called, The Word of God. 14. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. 15. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp || sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule over them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. 16. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a ¶name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.

17. And I saw an angel ** standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God; †† 18. that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great.

19. And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war ‡‡ against him that sat on the horse, and against his army, 20. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him,§§ with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone. 21. And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth and all the fowls were filled with their flesh."

XX. "And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years," &c.

Και εδόθη αυτῇ. Perhaps, "And it hath been granted to her;" as one of the joyful subjects of song to the hymnists.

+ συνδούλος σου ειμι και των αδελφων σου.

* εχοντων την μαρτυρίαν. So Apoc. vi. 9; Δια την μαρτυρίαν ἡν ειχον.

§ Of the prophecy, τηs πρоntelas. So i. 3, xxii. 7, 10, 18, 19.-Alike the Angel in his revelation, and the Evangelist in his life and doctrine, witnessed for Jesus.

|| Scholz inserts disopos, two-edged. ¶Scholz reads to ovoμa, with the article. ** Scholz and Tregelles write éva ayyeλov, one angel.

++ Or, as Griesbach, Scholz and Tregelles, "the great supper of God." ‡‡ тOV TOλEμоv. So Scholz, and Tregelles'read it, both here and xx. 8. Usually, as in xii. 17 and xiii. 7, the article is not added. It seems to be the war of Armagedilon, before resolved on. §§ Scholz, δ μετ' αυτου ψευδοπροφητης.

|||| την λίμνην του πυρος την κα ομενην εν θειῳ. Our translators have rendered it "a lake;" not marking the definite article: a mistake of no inconsiderable importance, as will appear afterwards in my comment.

white linen,' (which linen, it was said, was the righteousness of saints, so marking the saints as the bride,) and the song retaining still the form Hallelujah.-But an enemy yet remained to be overcome, ere the completion of the anticipated blessedness. As the harlot must be exposed and branded and destroyed ere the manifestation of the bride, so the usurper Antichrist, (the self-vaunting King of kings and Lord of lords )3 ere Christ's establishment of his kingdom. And,-after a passing mention of the Angel's declaring the blessedness of those who were called to the Lamb's marriage-supper, (whether a class the same or distinct from the Bride herself,) and another of John's falling down and worshipping the revealing Angel, (still surely in his symbolic character,5) and being rebuked for it,—there follows a most striking and remarkable vision of Christ issuing forth to the destruction of this long-usurping Antichrist. The heaven appeared opened to make way for his descending his appearance had in it all that was most august of superhuman majesty his emblems were those of royalty and triumph, the white horse, the sharp sword, the many diadems, the red or purple robe,-red, however, with blood, as that of one that had already begun to tread the wine-press of God's wrath: (was it not the wine-press in Bozrah ?") his names enunciated were, The Faithful and True, the Word of God, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, besides that secret as well as incommunicable name Jehovah: 7 and hosts, already" in heaven," 8 (were they not his saints, "the called, and chosen, and

1 Burowov. This was linen of the finest kind; such as kings and priests and nobles wore for example, Joseph, Gen. xli. 42; David; 1 Chron. xv. 27: the priests, Exod. xxviii. 39; and the rich man in the parable, Luke xvi. 19. The harlot wore it also; but as a usurper.-On the possibly intended meaning of the word here, as suggested by Daubuz in a very interesting critique, I reserve my observations till the chapter vi. following.

2 dika:wμata used in the same sense, I conceive, of justification; as in St Paul's Epistle to the Romans, v. 16; the plural being perhaps adopted, rather than the singular, in order to signify the badges of that justification on the many justified. 3 So Gerson ap. Gieseler, Text-Book iii. 256.

4 I shall consider this in chapter v. following.

5 So Daubuz.

6 Isa. lxiii. 1. I shall have to make the comparison in the next chapter. 7 Such I conceive the meaning. Compare Judg. xiii. 18, "Why askest thou after my name, seeing it is secret?"

VOL. IV.

8

τα τρατεύματα τα εν τη ουρανο

I

3

faithful?") appeared following him; themselves also on white horses, the partakers (so did the end contrast with the beginning of this great drama 2) of their Lord's triumph. Meanwhile the Beast and his False Prophet, and the kings and armies that still supported him, had gathered to the scene of conflict. And, after a proclamation from an Angel that seemed "standing in the sun," whether to denote his universal visibility, or the supreme royalty that dictated his words, inviting all the birds of prey that might fly in the mid-heaven, to assemble and partake of the great supper about to be prepared in the judgments of God Almighty,5—after this, I say, the conflict was joined, the Beast, or Antichrist, and his False Prophet taken, and cast alive into "the lake of fire," (mark the definite article,) "the lake which was burning with brimstone;"6 the kings and his other adherents slain by the sword of Him that sat on the white horse, a portion for the birds of prey;7 and the Dragon taken, and imprisoned in the abyss for a thousand years. And so the MILLENNIUM appeared to begin.

From this prefigurative vision thus much may be clearly inferred respecting the coming future,-viz. that some signal, total, and most tremendous destruction of the Papal Antichrist, (that false usurping king of kings and lord of lords,) with the Papal priesthood and kings (if not kingdoms) adhering to him, is to follow very soon after the catastrophe at Rome :—a destruction to

1 Compare xvii. 14; "These shall make war with the Lamb; and the Lamb shall overcome them (for He is King of kings and Lord of lords) and they that are with Him, the called, and chosen, and faithful." 2 See Vol. i. p. 106.

3 So the late Rev. Robert Hall, in his very interesting Sermon on the Discouragements and Supports of the Christian minister.

4 Such I conceive to be at least part of the meaning of the symbol; so as, for example, in the notable case of the woman clothed with the sun in Apoc. xii. 1. 5 Ezekiel's prophecy of God's great sacrifice and supper, and the birds invited to it, in Ezek. xxxix. 17, &c, can scarce fail of occurring as a probable parallel to the reader. But I purposely avoid for the present any discussion as to the parallelism of this, and other such prophecies, with that under consideration. 6 See Note on the page 111 preceding.

7 Compare Christ's proverbial saying, "Where the carcase is, there shall the eagles (or vultures) be gathered together."

be wrought with some striking manifestation of Christ (then to be known as the true King of kings and Lord of lords) and of his glory and power; and by the agency of earthquake and fire, (probably volcanic fire,) so as to involve the reprobates, thus destroyed, in the same fiery lake as Rome itself and its territory just before.-The circumstance of their destruction following after, and so being in point of time distinct from, that of Rome, is accounted for on the supposition of Antichrist and his army being, at the time, gathered to some country or place without the territories of the Popedom :-a supposition suggested indeed, and made more than a supposition, by the intimation given in the parallel prophecy, already considered, of chap. xiv, that the wine-press of God's wrath was to be trodden "without the city;"1 and confirmed not a little, I believe, by that of Daniel next to be entered on. As to the nature of the manifestation then to be made of Christ's glory,-whether personal or simply providential,-again, whether the hosts attending to participate in his triumph, are angels or saints, and, if saints, whether in the earthly or the resurrection state, (a point involving that other, already mooted, whether the bride and the parties called to the bridal supper are identical, or distinct,)-finally, what the nature of the lake of fire mentioned, and whether identical or connected with that eternal and penal fire of which we read such awful notices in other scriptures,-on all these points of solemn and surpassing interest, it is evident that the answer to be given must involve a consideration of the great question of the Millennium and Second Advent; and can therefore only fitly be given in the chapter next but one following, in which the whole millennial subject has to be discussed.

1 Apoc. xiv. 20. See p. 84 suprà.-The Beast's separation from his proper seat, at the time of his destruction, may be compared with Pharaoh's and Korah's from theirs. I shall have again to advert to this point at the end of the next chapter.