The prophecy here divides itself into two distinct lines, treating severally of the Eastern and Western branches of the great Apostasy-The first of the three woe-trum- pets describes the commencement of the dominance of the two-fold Apostasy-The second represents it in the zenith of its power, till the primary and only partial manifestation of Antichrist-The third exhibits its down- fall, displaying at the same time the multiplied horrors of the harvest and vintage of the Lord, or the uncon- trouled reign of the atheistical king and his subsequent destruction along with the other enemies of God 27 CHAP. IX. At the sounding of the fifth trumpet, or the first woe-trum- pet, in the East, the Apostate star Sergius opens the door of the bottomless pit, and lets out the impostor Mohammed with his Saracenic locusts-At the sounding of the sixth trumpet, or the second woe-trumpet, the four Sultanies of the Turkish horsemen are loosed from the river Euphrates; and, in due season, slay the third CHAP. X. Contents of the little book-History of the Western Apostasy under the three woe-trumpets. The litte book comprehends the eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth chapters of the Revelation-These chapters, in point of chronology, run parallel to each other-And they form a complete history of the Western Apostasy-The contents of the little book may be properly divided into five sections: 1. The prophesying of the witnesses; 2. The war of the dragon with the woman; 3. The history of the ten-horned beast of the sea; 4. The history of the two-horned beast of the earth; 5. The collateral history of the true Church, of the Reformation, and of the harvest and vintage of God's wrath Page 43 SECT. I. Concerning the prophesying of the two witnesses. The little book commences with the year 606, or with the beginning of the first woe-trumpet-What is meant by measuring the temple, and not measuring the outer court of the Gentiles-The two witnesses are not the Old and New Testaments-Bp. Newton is perfectly right in the spirit, though not quite accurate in the letter, of his interpretation of their character-They are certainly two churches-Throughout the whole Apocalypse, the idea of a two-fold Church of Christ is constantly preserved: the Church before, and the Church after, the advent of our Lord-The two witnesses literally represent these two Churches, forming jointly the faithful Church general: but spiritually they mean the mystical children of the universal Church, those that are Israelites indeed-The circumstance of their being said to prophesy is no objection to the supposition, that they symbolize all God's faithful witnesses during the prevalence of the Apostasy-In what sense they shut up heaven, and smite the earth with plagues, during the time of their prophesying-In what sense they are said to have only one mouth-How, and when, the two witnesses were slain by the beast of the bottomless pit— Our Lord was literally crucified within the limits of the great city-In what manner the witnesses lay dead three days and a half-The meaning of the word Hour. At what period we are to divide the first woe-trumpet from the second woe-trumpet in the history of the Western Apostasy-At the close of the second woe, the great earthquake of the French Revolution throws. down a tenth part of the Roman city-At the sounding of the seventh trumpet, or third woe-trumpet, the limited monarchy of revolutionary France is dissolved; and the reign of openly established Anarchy and Atheism commences Page 48 SECT. II. Concerning the war of the dragon with the woman. The prophecy of the war between the dragon and the woman cannot relate to the days of Constantine; both because it is contained in the little book, and because it twice declares itself to be connected with the 1260 years of the Apostasy-The woman is the spiritual Church of true believers, as contradistinguished from the nominal believers of the outer court-The man-child is the mystic word of God-The dragon is the devil acting through the instrumentality of the seven-headed and ten-horned beast-In what manner the dragon sought to devour the man-child-What is meant by his fall from heaven to earth--The war between Michael and the dragon is the spiritual contest between the witnesses and their enemies during the whole period of the 1260 years: but the particular victory of Michael, here mentioned, was atchieved at the era of the Reformation-In what sense the devil hath but a short time upon earth-An attempt to trace the steps of the dragon, after he was cast out of the symbolical heaven by the Reformation--The meaning of the flood, which he vomited out of his mouth against the woman-In what manner the earth swallowed it up-How the dragon will go forth to make war with the woman and the remnant of her seed Page 97 SECT. III. Concerning the ten-horned beast of the sea: The seven-headed and ten-horned beast of the sea is not the same as his own little horn mentioned by Daniel, or the Papacy-On the contrary, he is the same as Daniel's ten-horned beast, of whom the little Papal horn was only a single member: that is to say, he is the temporal Roman Empire-In what sense St. John beheld the rise of the ten-horned beast-How the ten-horned beast is said to continue or to practise 42 months, which is the same period as the reign of his own little horn-In what sense it is said, that this beast" was, and is not, and yet is" -The apocalyptic ten-horned beast is the Roman beast, in his revived or papally idolatrous state-How he is said to have seven heads-In what sense he was wounded to death by a sword under his sixth head, and afterwards restored to life again-An inquiry into what is meant by the last head of the beast-This last head can only be sought for among the following powers: the line of the Western Emperors; the three kingdoms of the Heruli, the Ostrogoths, and the Lombards; the Exarchate of Ravenna; the Popedom; and the Carlovingian empire-The last head of the beast consists jointly of his seventh and eighth heads; whence it may be termed his septimo-octave head Page This septimo-octave head cannot be the line of the Western Emperors and the Papacy-Neither can it be the three Gothic kingdoms in Italy and the PapacyNor can it be the Exarchate of Ravenna and the Papacy-Nor the Papacy, considered as existing in a two-g fold capacity-But the Patriciate of Rome merging into 3. the Carlovingian Emperorship-While Charlemagne was Patrician of Rome, he was the seventh head: when he became Emperor, he was the eighth head; the seventh and eighth heads being then, in his person, amalgamated, as it were, so as to form one septimo-octave head-Three objections to this scheme of interpretation answered-No power has ever yet arisen within the limits of the Roman Empire, which at all answers to the prophetic character of the double or septimo-octave head, except the Carlovingian monarchy alone-On what head of the beast the ten horns appeared to be growing-Various points of resemblance between the beast and the revived or Papal Roman Empire-General statement of the whole interpretation of the symbol. of the seven-headed and ten-horned beast-Accomplishment of the last part of the prophecy 136 SECT. |