; Roman empire of a later headship than the 8th, or latest specified. "Their kingdoms," says he, "will synchronize with the Beast, that is with Rome; because Rome will not all at once (i. e. not immediately on the Goths' first attacks, begun about A.D. 400) have lost its existence, or all its power !"-Yet again, secondly, these horns were with one accord to impart their power and authority to the Beast of course after themselves receiving this authority; i. e. as the context of the verse demonstrates, after receiving their kingdoms. But how so? Says Bossuet, because of their giving their men to be soldiers of the Roman armies, and of their settling as cultivators in the empire, and making alliances with the Roman emperors. But, as to time, could this be said of the reigns of Diocletian or Julian, when the Gothic ten kings had received no authority as kings to ally with Rome? And, as to the character of the thing, were the terrible Gothic settlements in the empire (e. g. that of the Visi-Goths under Valens) a giving their power to the Romans? Then turn we to the second Beast. And let me here simply ask, How could a set of Pagan Philosophers, zealots that blasphemed Christ as the Galilean, answer to this symbol of a Beast with a lambskin covering the recognized scriptural emblem under the Old Testament of false prophets who yet professed to be prophets of the true God; under the New Testament of such as would hypocritically pretend to be Christians ?3 Once more, as to the Woman: 1. Instead of the word πόρνη, harlot, fixing her to be Rome Pagan, not Christian Rome apostatized, so as Bossuet asserts, the phrase most fitly suits the latter; being applied in the Septuagint to apostatizing Judah,' in Matthew to an unfaithful wife.5 2. What the mystery to make St. John so marvel with a mighty astonishment, if the emblem meant Rome Pagan? Did he not know Rome Pagan to be a persecutor; know it alike by his 6 Mr. Miley overcomes the difficulty by silently adopting the reading μera To Onpiov, after the Beast; though a reading unauthorized by Greek MSS, and refuted by the very symbol of the horns being upon the Beast's head. See, says he, (ii. 122) the marvellous fulfilment ! "The destroyers of the Western Empire of Rome were all adventurer kings, daring chiefs from the wilds of the North and North East; who all succeeded in erecting certain fabrics of power upon the ruins of the Empire." 2 Compare Zech. xiii. 4. 3 Compare Matt. vii. 15, 22. 4 Isa. i. 21, &c. 5 Matt. v. 32, xix. 9. Apoc. xvii. 6. 6 own experience, and that of all his brotherhood? 3. What of the total and eternal destruction predicated of the Apocalyptic Babylon, « the smoke of it going up even εις τες αιώνας τως αιώνων, for ever and for ever," if there was meant merely the brief temporary desolation of Rome Pagan in transitu to Rome Papal? 4. What of its being afterwards the abode of all unclean beasts and dæmons? Would Bossuet, observes Vitringa, have these to be the Popes and Cardinals of Papal Rome? 5. Was it really Rome Pagan that was desolated by the Goths; so as Bossuet and his followers would have it? Surely, if there be a fact clear in history, it is this, that it was Rome Christianized in profession, I might almost say, Rome Papal, that was the subject of these desolations. As this last point is one that, if proved, utterly overthrows the whole Bossuetan or Roman-Catholic Apocalyptic Præterist Scheme, the Romanists have been at great pains to represent the fact otherwise. So Bossuet in his Chap. iii. 12—16; and Mr. Miley, just recently too, in his Rome Pagan and Papal. "It is well nigh a century since the triumph of the Labarum," says the latter writer, in one of his vivid sketches, with reference to the epoch of Alaric's first attack on Rome, " and Rome still wears the aspect of a Pagan city :-one hundred and fifty-two temples, and one hundred and eighty smaller shrines, are still sacred to the heathen Gods, and used for their public worship."2 On what authority Mr. M. makes such an assertion, I know not. Bossuet takes care not quite so far to commit himself. The fact of the case are, I believe, as follows. Constantine did not authoritatively abolish Paganism but he so showed disfavour to it that it rapidly sunk into discredit in the empire; less however at Rome than elsewhere. With Julian came a partial and short-lived revival of Paganism; followed on his death by a reaction in favour of Christianity. But "from that period up to the fall of the empire a hostile sect, which regarded itself as unjustly stripped of its ancient honours, invoked the vengeance of the gods on the heads of the Government, exulted in the public calamities, and probably hastened them by its intrigues." So Sismondi, with his usual accuracy, as quoted by Mr. Miley. Of this sect were various members of the Roman senate. On Theodosius' becoming : 1 Apoc. xix. 3. 2 Rome Pagan and Papal, Vol. ii. p. 103. 3 Ibid. p. 108. sole Emperor, i. e. Emperor of the West as well as East, one of his first measures, A.D. 392, was to forbid the worship of idols on pain of death. At Rome, however, by a certain tacit license, or connivance, heathen worship was still in a measure permitted: until in 394 himself visiting Rome, and finding a reluctance to abolish what remained of Pagan rites on the part of many of the senators, Theodosius withdrew the public funds by which they had been supported. On this the old Pagan worship was discontinued: 2 and, the Pagan temples having in many places soon after been destroyed by the zeal of Christians, the very fact of Pagan worship having been discontinued was given by Honorius, the Western Emperor, as a reason for not destroying the temple fabrics.3-Such was the state of things when Alaric first invaded Italy and it was only in 409, after he had begun the siege of Rome, and God's judgment began to be felt, that the Pagan faction or sect, spoken of by Sismondi, stirring itself up: and, raising the cry that the calamity came in consequence of the Gods of old Rome having been neglected, prevailed on the authorities, including Pope Innocent himself, to sacrifice to them in the Capitol and other temples.5 But this was a comparatively solitary act. As the judgment of the Gothic desolations went on, it was only in secret that the worship of the heathen Gods was kept up; and this in reference to such more trivial 1 So Gieseler, Vol. i. p. 187; to whom I beg generally to refer the reader on this subject. 2 So Zosimus v. 38: Την δημοσιαν δαπανην τοις ἱεροις χορηγειν αρνησάμενος, απηλαύνοντο μεν ξερεις και ξερειαι, κατελίμπανετο δε πασης Ιερεργίας τα τεμενη. Prudentius says as to the number of the Pagans, that they were about the year 406, ten years after Theodosius' death, "vix pauca ingenia, et pars hominum rarissima.” Compare Baronius' statement of the effect of Theodosius' Anti-Pagan edicts and acts, as quoted already by me Vol. iii. p. 111, Note. "Idololatriam, ut percussum multis ictibus anguem, caput rursus extollentem penitus extinguendam curavit Theodosius." 3" Ut profanos ritus salubri lege submovimus, ita festos conventus non patimur submoveri : " and again; “Ædes, illicitis rebus vacuas, nostrarum beneficio sanctionum, ne quis conetur evertere." • So Zosimus iv. 59 : Το θυηπολικού θεσμού ληξαντος, και των άλλων όσα της πατριου παραδόσεως ην εν αμελεια κειμενων, ἡ Ρωμαίων επικρατεια βαρβαρων Oikoplov YeYove. So too Augustine in his C. D. v. 23. 5 Αναγκαιον εδοκει τοις ἑλληνίζουσι της Συγκλητου θυειν εν τφ Καπιτωλιῳ και τοις άλλοις ναοις· ο δε Ιννοκεντιος, την της πολεως σωτηρίαν εμπροσθεν της οικείας ποιησαμενος δοξης, λαθρα εφηκεν αυτοις ποιειν ἅπερ ισασι. Ib. v. 14. Where mark the enviovres, as characterizing those of the Senators who were most bent on sacrificing to the ancient gods; and the epŋêev, as marking the Pope's authority even at that time in Rome. His consent was needed, asked for, and indeed given. Pagan rites, as taking auguries.' The dominant religion, that which was alone legalized in Rome, as well as elsewhere throughout the empire, and whose worship was alone celebrated openly and with pomp, was the Christian religion with the Pope at its head. Insomuch that in 450, just at the epoch of Genseric and Attila, Pope Leo, in an address to the people of Rome on St. Peter and St. Paul's day, thus characterized Rome and the Roman people :-These are they that have advanced you to the glory of being a holy nation, a chosen people, a priestly and royal city: so as that thou shouldest be, through the seat of Peter, the head of the world; and with wider rule through religion than by mere earthly domination."2 Was it then Rome Pagan, or Rome incipiently Papal, that was the subject of Alaric's first attack, and of the subsequent ravages of Genseric, Odoacer, and Totilas ?3 I think the reader will agree with me that Pope Leo himself has pretty well settled that question; and therewith given the coup de grace to Bossuet's and Miley's Roman Catholic Version of the Præterist Apocalyptic Scheme.4 1 So Salvian, A. D. 440: "Nunc quid non consulibus et pulli gentilium sacrilegiorum more pascuntur; et volantis pennæ auguria quæruntur?" 2 “Isti sunt qui te ad hanc gloriam provexerunt ; ut gens sancta, populus electus, civitas sacerdotalis et regia, per sacram beati Petri sedem caput orbis effecta, latius præsideres religione divinâ quàm dominatione terrenâ." I have quoted this elsewhere; Vol. iii. p. 129. Were the continuance of certain old Pagan rites and customs by the Roman populace an evidence of Rome's Paganism, Mr. Miley must date its Christianization far later than the times of the Goths, or of Pope Gregory. In A.D. 743 we find Boniface writing to the Pope Zachary, (see Maitland's Dark Ages, p. 155,) that reports were brought from Rome of heathenish customs celebrated in Rome hard by the Church of St. Peter; and that, seeing these things performed at Rome, he could not persuade the Germans or Franks that they were sins, or without ecclesiastical sanction. Zachary acknowledges in his Reply, that "through the Devil's instigation these evils had indeed ever and anon sprouted afresh." ▲ Professor Lee is very much of the Apocalyptic school of Bossuet; or, as he would doubtless prefer to say, Hammond. It may seem due to him, before quitting this head of the Præterist Section, distinctly to sketch his view: which however needs but to be done very briefly; on account both of its general vagueness, and of its general similarity to Bossuet's. The refutation of Bossuet is in fact the refutation of Professor Lee. : The general subject then, according to him, is Christ's coming, as predicted Matt. xxiv. &c. i. e. his coming to destroy both the Jewish Polity and the heathen power, and so to establish his kingdom on earth; which is the restitution of all things, spoken of by Peter, Acts iii. 21. The five first Seals depict the Apostolic warriors, wars, famines, pestilences, and martyrdoms, all " of these times;" (Professor Lee's perpetually repeated phrase :) i. e. § 2. EXAMINATION OF THE GERMAN PRÆTERIST APOCALYPTIC COUNTER-SCHEME. The reader has already been made acquainted with the main common features of this German form of the Præterist Apocalyptic Scheme. Differing on points of detail, (yet with the exception that Hartwig, Herder, and Zullig pretty much confine themselves to the Jewish catastrophe, and Ewald, Bleek, and De Wette to that of heathen Rome2) it may generally be described as embracing both catastrophes the fall of Judaism being signified under that of Jerusalem, the fall of Heathenism under that of Rome; the one as drawn out in Symbol from Apoc. vi to xi inclusive, the other from Apoc. xii "during the first ages of the Church," from Nero to Diocletian:-the 6th the "beginning of sorrows," and "fall of kings and great powers," &c; but what precisely, is not said. Then the Sealing and Palm-bearing Visions, depicting a limited number of Jews, and unlimited number of Gentiles, gathered in to the Church and its privileges, shows that the Gospel of the kingdom had at the time figured been preached to all nations; and thus that the end might come. Of the Trumpets the two first, he proceeds to observe, depict certain judgments "in these times;" the third, that of the falling star," undoubtedly the fall of heathen Rome:" the darkening of the sun in the 4th Trumpet some visitation "in these times;" the locusts of Trumpet 5 undoubtedly the Roman power, and its destiny to plague men for five months, i. e. an indefinite time; also the four Angels loosed of Trumpet 6, Daniel's four Beasts or Empires loosed from the great sea. (Surely there is almost a contempt for all order and chronology manifested in these explanations.) And so comes the Vision of the two Witnesses, explained to be the Law and the Gospel slain (as Bossuet also, we have seen, interprets it) by the Beast Diocletian; revived under Constantine.-Further, in Apoc. xii the figured war of the Dragon against the woman having signified Satan's ineffective earlier attempts against Christ and Christianity, Apoc. xiii exhibits his instrument the Beast, or heathen Roman Empire, arrayed against them: the five fallen out of his seven heads, being the chief Roman persecutors after Nero, (which Nero was the precursor of Antichrist meant by Paul, and had been previously taken out of the way,) viz. Domitian, Decius, Valerian, Aurelian, Diocletian: after whom followed Maximian and Galerius, making up the seven bestial heads; then Maximin, as the eighth; who was also "of the seven,” as being appointed by one of the former, viz. Galerius! The ten kings are explained (just as by Bossuet) of the Gothic kings, first Rome's allies, then Rome's destroyers : the woman riding the Beast being " heathen Rome beyond all possible doubt;" and the two-horned Beast, or False Prophet, the heathen priesthood. 66 As to the first resurrection, it means a spiritual one, during the waλiyyeveσia (Matt. xix. 28) of the first preaching of the Gospel; and the New Jerusalem is the Christian Church on earth, depicted in its beauty and privileges. Such is, in brief, Professor Lee's Apocalyptic Scheme; and, I must say, it makes me much marvel that such a man should have written such a Comment! 1 See p. 480-484 suprà. 2 So M. Stuart, i. 161. |