mouth water like a river after the woman, in order that he might cause her to be carried away by the 16 river; and the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth, and swallowed up the river, mouth, signifies the people who persecute her at his command.' And indeed we cannot wonder that Satan should stir up the hordes of northern barbarians to come down like a flood upon that Empire, on whose two mighty wings the Church was now resting in triumphant victory. The figure is a common and a very expressive one ; SO obvious, indeed, that it constantly occurs in the writings of those who describe that amazing catastrophe. 'These obstacles were instantly swept away by the inundation of the Huns.' 'The Roman world was overwhelmed by the deluge of barbarians.' ' And Charles Kingsley, who devotes the whole of one of his lectures on history to the description of the manner in which the Teutonic races overran and settled in the Western Empire, gives to that lecture the significant title of The Human Deluge.' 16. But the ark of Christ's Church rode safely over this second deluge until it rested again upon the dry ground. The very earth helped the woman by absorbing the waters as they arrived. The destruction of the old Roman world was complete; but it was brought about so gradually, in such a peculiar manner, and by such singular races of men, that the Christian Church passed safely through many centuries of change and confusion; aud not only preserved her own compact organisation, but also was the means of handing down to future ages the laws, language, and prestige of the ancient Roman name. She became in fact the restorer of the Roman Empire, the founder and ruler of that vast Hierarchy which we understand by the expression Roman Christendom. As she appears, indeed, after the convulsions and anarchy of this remarkable period in the history of the world, she has been well described by Hobbes, as the ghost of the deceased Roman Empire sitting crowned on the grave thereof.' We shall see this more fully brought out in the following visions. The tribes which invaded old Rome were absorbed in her rich provinces, and turned, after a fashion, into Romans and Christians. And thus it was that the earth helped the woman by absorbing each wave of the great ' Gibbon, c. xxxiv., 38. 17 which the serpent cast out of his mouth. And (thus baffled in all his efforts to destroy her) the serpent was enraged with the woman, and went away to make war (no longer now with the woman established 'It flood as it came down upon her out of the serpent's mouth. Very much the same figurative language is used by Russell to describe the same event. was not at once or by any sudden act of violence, that this complete transfer of property from the vanquished to the victors took place.. Wave after wave succeeded, before the whole country was occupied; one province was overrun for a whole generation before another was invaded.' ' "The Roman Empire,' writes Ranke, so long accustomed to conquest and dominion, was now in its turn attacked by its neighbours, overrun, conquered. . . But whilst the Empire in the Western provinces crumbled into ruins, the edifice of the Roman Church remained solid and entire.' 72 17. The serpent was baffled in his attempt to sweep the Christian Church from the face of the earth, and to keep the Gentiles as of old in a state of utter unbelief. But that which the providence of God has restrained him from doing by open violence, he henceforth attempts Mod. Europe, Introduction, p. 19. to accomplish by subtlety and deceit. He appears no longer in his proper form, but arrays himself as an angel of light. Henceforth he carries on his warfare with the more faithful remnant of the woman's seed. He turns the woman into a harlot, committing fornication with the wild-beast of worldly power, and by his aid persecuting her own more faithful children, the witnesses of God clothed in sackcloth. All this continues during the greater part of the twelve hundred and sixty days of the harlot's reign, and then the serpent will appear again on the stage, conspiring with the wild-beast and the false prophet to bring about the apostasy of the nations, and the death of the two witnesses of Christ. In the next vision are revealed more fully the instruments of the serpent for the corruption of the Church during the period of her supremacy, and for the persecution of those who protest against her corruptions and endeavour to accomplish her reformation. 2 Hist. of Popes, i. 13. in the wilderness) but with the remnant of her seed (the more faithful amongst her children) who keep the commandments of God, and have the testi18 mony of Jesus. And he stood upon the sand of the sea. CHAPTER XIII. 1-10 Symbol of the world-power, especially as held by the kings of Latin Christendom, Satan's agents for the corruption of the Church, although they ought to have been God's instruments for her preservation, and were so to a great extent. 11-18 The symbol of the Pope, a temporal prince, claiming the temporal and spiritual authority of the Lamb; speaking like the serpent; setting up an Imperium in Imperio' in every nation; causing the world-worship of the Church; working false miracles; creating an image of the fallen Empire; imposing civil disabilities on all opponents; and being the Latin one.' 1 AND I saw a wild-beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and upon his horns ten regal diadems, and upon his heads blasphe2 mous names. And the wild-beast which I saw was 1. The great power of this world, in its connection with the people of God from the age of Nebuchadnezzar until the end, was represented in the visions of Daniel under the symbols, first of a great statue consisting of different metals, and then of a succession of wild-beasts rising up out of the sea. The fourth of these was described as more formidable than its predecessors, and as having ten horns; and was regarded by Jews and Christians in the time of St. John as the symbol of the Roman Empire. St. John here reproduces this symbol. The meaning of the seven heads will be explained in chapter xvii. to signify seven successive phases of the worldpower preceding that specially contemplated in this vision, and also to tie the symbol more closely to Rome, the city of the seven hills. The ten horns are explained to signify the ten kingdoms into which the Roman Empire was divided. The number ten is not to be regarded as pointing out any exact number of kingdoms. It implies that the world-power after the fall of ancient Rome would be divided between many kings. The indefinite number ten is men like a leopard, and his feet were like those of a bear, and his mouth was like the mouth of a lion; and the serpent gave him his own power, and his own throne, 3 and great authority. And (I saw) one of his heads tioned rather than any other for the sake of consistency, the first symbol in Daniel being that of a man's figure, and so having ten toes. The horns-and not, as before, the heads of the wild-beast, are here crowned, to intimate that this vision refers to a time during which those kings would be reigning between whom the old Roman Empire was divided. 2. Why is the form of the wild beast no longer described as that of a great red serpent? Because the serpent is the symbol of Satan, and Satan is restrained from open enmity to Christ during the time of the supremacy of the Church in Christendom. He is not allowed by Providence to keep the Gentiles of the Roman world in unbelief. In order to corrupt the woman, who has escaped from the effects of his open enmity to her place of safety in the wilderness of this world; in order to draw away her heart to become a harlot and to commit fornication against Christ, he is obliged to put off his own proper form and to assume that of Chris tian kings. In chapter xii. we see the serpent, the open enemy of Christ, in the form of 1 See chap. xvi. 12, 14, and xx. 7, 8 the Pagan Empire. In this chapter we have the Christian kingdoms doing the serpent's work, exercising his power for him, and making the Church a harlot. The prophecy is consistent throughout; and so, when Christian kingdoms are beginning to cast off their Christianity, we shall find Satan appearing again under his own proper symbol. That national apostasy from Christianity, which seems to be fast approaching, is attributed to the evil principles which come from the mouth of the serpent and of the wild-beast and of the false prophet.1 But why, then, is the body of the wild-beast made up of the parts of different animals? To identify the symbol more clearly with the fourth wild-beast of Daniel, which devoured the leopard and the bear and the lion which came up before him. That he is Satan's agent, during the time when Satan himself is not allowed to act as the open enemy of the Church, is plain from what is said in this verse, that the serpent gave him his power and throne, &c. 3. This wound and recovery of the wild-beast so plainly points 2 Chap. xi. 2, 3. |