judgment, the great judgment being then at length close at hand. [Such was the explanation of this Apocalyptic symbolization given in my three former Editions, published successively in 1844, 1846, 1847. And can it be right for me to republish the Work again, now in 1850, (so I added in my 4th Edition, and yet again, on the 5th reprinting of my Work ten years later, in 1861, I see no reason to alter the opinion there and then exprest,) without asking whether what occurred at the revolutionary outbreaks of 1848 did not singularly coincide with the expectations so stated as 'to the probable characteristics of the commencing effusion of the seventh Vial? For, first, there was then a vitiation of the natural atmosphere over all Europe, such as to awaken the general attention and awe,—a vitiation affecting with its poison alike the vegetable world, and the health and life of man; and then, almost coincidently therewith, convulsions altogether unprecedented in character, outbreaking primarily in France without any adequate apparent cause, and thence propagated lightning-like throughout Europe, which disordered and imperilled the whole social as well as political relations of men, alike in France, Sicily, North and South Italy, Rome, Germany, Austria, Hungary. Truly the current language of the day seemed almost like an adoption of the Apocalyptic figure, 3 2 1 In his speech on the Public Health Bill, as reported in the Times of Aug. 8, 1848, Lord Morpeth cited a then recent Number of the British and Foreign Medico-Chirurgical Review, "which proved," he said, "by induction from a mass of facts, that certain atmospheric conditions and electrical states concurred in the production of the cholera."-Again, in the 18th meeting of the British Association for advancement of science, the Athenæum of Aug. 26, 1848 notices a very elaborate paper by Col. Sykes on "the Atmospheric Disturbances throughout the world: "a paper, it says, which "characterizes the atmospheric disturbances and anomalies that presented themselves in various places in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, for some months past, as not less remarkable than the political agitations and storms which swept lately over Europe." The manner in which the potato blight was a sign and consequence of the atmospheric vitiation over a large part of Europe, as well as the cholera morbus, is notorious; and to how alarming an extent in some countries, above all in Ireland. 2 In France the revolution of 1848 was but a fresh shock of the great original revolution of 1789. So M. Montalembert justly observed, as cited in my Vol. iii. p. 476. 3 So in Count Mole's Address to the Electors of the Gironde on his election, at the beginning of October, 1848. "It is society itself which is in danger. The contest has commenced between civilization and barbarism. On the one side is placed family and property: on the other the abolition of those eternal laws of which the roots are implanted in the heart of man, and which emanate directly from his divine Creator." ap. Evening Mail, Oct. 4, 1848. 27 and confession to the effusion of a vial on the air.1-And, as results, who even now sees the end? Does not all seem as It may be curious and instructive to mark the applications of the figure to the fact, by persons of different character and view, in that extraordinary crisis. : 1. The democratic revolutionists.-M. Lamartine, May 9, 1848, thus made his Re"Before the Revolution no European thought was port to the National Assembly. We were 36 millions isolated on the continent. . . The system was permitted us. one of repression and force: our horizon was exceedingly limited air was wanting to our dignity, as to our policy. At present our system is the system of a democratic truth, which shall swell to the proportions of a social universal faith our horizon is the futurity of civilized nations: our vital air is the breath of liberty in the free breasts of the whole universe." From the Galignani of that date. And so, near about the same time, the Giornale Costituzionale of Naples, (where After mention of the Frankfort Assembly, I was then residing,) of May 20, 1848. gathered with the view of forming a new Germanic Constitution, it thus wrote: Hannovi dei tempi in cui l'opinione pubblica, come l'aria atmosferica, riempie tutti gli sparsi vuoti, in cui questa viene respirata da taluno, e da lui nuovamente infusa negli altri." And then the writer adds, that the aristocratic element, which for 1000 years had been so prominent in Italy, "svanì dinanzi al soffio del volere popolare." 2. The philosophic observer, as in the Paper of the British Association cited above, called attention to the remarkable analogy between the physical atmospheric disturbances, and the political agitations and storms which had been sweeping over Europe. And so too, more than once, the Times, the Illustrated London News, and other newspapers. Let me abstract from the leading article of the Illustrated News of Oct. 25, 1851. "Long before the great Revolution of 1789 skilful mariners.. were aware of the signs and portents of the approaching tempest. In like manner the revolutions of 1830 and 1848 betrayed their coming by a premonitory darkening of the atmosphere, by a sudden fall in the social barometer, unintelligible to the many, but full of meaning to the few. The air was surcharged with electricity; and the weather-wise were enabled to calculate when the clouds would meet, the thunders roar, and the lightnings flash upon society." "Similar warnings," it is added, "are heard at the present time. There are clouds on the verge of the horizon laden with lightning, and which are certain to break somewhere. The cry of danger comes loudest from France. It is still the focus of revolution." Besides which, the writer then particularizes Germany, Hungary, Italy. In 1861 may we not repeat this? 3. As a specimen of the practical Christian's feelings, let me select the following "The storms of political agitation from the Bible Society's Report of May 1848. have gathered round the close of the year." [i. e. of the Bible Society's year, ending May 1.]... "The present state of the Continent of Europe makes the work of the highest importance. The fashion of the world passeth away. Thrones are being overturned, nations shaken. Is it not on a dark stormy night, and in the tempest, that the compass is most useful, the skilful pilot, and a correct chart? So the heavenly chart, &c... The political atmosphere however of this country [Belgium] is less troubled than that of either of the neighbouring nations." Again, at the conclusion of the Report: "Recent extraordinary events have brought the continent of Europe The hurricane of political revolution before us under a most unexpected aspect. has already swept away barriers which have for ages impeded the free circulation of truth... Your Committee watch the events with anxious emotion. . . But they do not think it necessary to wait till the sea of agitation is calmed, till the broken framework of society is reconstructed, and the world once more at rest. Why should we not now go forth; and, taking our stand amidst the nations rocked to and fro by the storm, fearlessly hold up before them the volume of inspired truth? . . God hath come out of his place. He arises to shake terribly the earth. It is as though the oracle had again broken silence, I will overturn, overturn, overturn. Yet let not our hearts be troubled,. . for it may be after these things, that there shall be heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of great waters, and many thunders, saying the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth." 4. Of prophetic students many, as might be expected, recognised the correspondence if the European Commonwealth was on the eve of some new construction: France leading the van in the revolution, and Germany and Italy following? Does there exist a statesman who can look upon the coming future without awe; or one who can have any confidence in predicting its issues?-After all that has happened, how can it be but that with increased solemnity of feeling we now bethink us of those awful words, "And he said, It is done:" or repeat, that if, after fearful wars and convulsions, there result in Papal Christendom a tripartition like that predicted in the Apocalypse, it must be regarded as the actual proximate sign, and alarum bell to Christendom, of the judgment, the great judgment, being then beyond a doubt close at hand?] II. But proceed we to mark the description of the judgments next following, as detailed in the two or three next Chapters: first subjoining Chapter xvii., for the convenience of the reader; though given indeed before, already, with a view to its comparison with Apoc. xiii.1 2 "xvii. 1. And there came one of the seven Angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying, Come hither; I will show unto thee the judgment of the great harlot, that sitteth upon many waters: 2. with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication; and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. "3. So he carried me away in the spirit into a wilderness: 3 and I saw a woman sitting upon a scarlet-coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. 4. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls; having a golden cup in her hand, full of abominations and of fact and prophecy; and loudly exprest their conviction of the seventh vial's effusion into the air having begun. 1 Viz. in Vol. iii. p. 71 et seq. 2 For critical notices I beg to refer generally to Vol. iii. pp. 71-74. The chief variations in A and B from the received text are there given. The Codex Ephraemi, or C, it should be understood, is wanting in all this Chapter. I here only add, or repeat, just a few critical notices on the text. 3 ELS εonμov. No MS. or edition prefixes the article here. filthiness of her fornication. 5. And upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of harlots and abominations of the earth. 6. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great wonder. "7. And the Angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou wonder? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns. 3 "8. The beast which thou sawest was, and is not; and is to ascend out of the bottomless pit, and to go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, (whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world,) when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and shall come.3 9. Here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, where (or, on which) the woman sitteth. 10. And there are seven kings: the five have fallen; the one is; the other hath not yet come; and, when he shall have come, he must continue a short space. 11. And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition. 12. And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have not yet received a kingdom; but receive power as kings at one time with the beast. 13. These have one mind, and give 5 their power and strength unto the beast. 14. These shall make war with the Lamb: and the Lamb shall overcome them, (for he is the Lord of lords and King of kings,) and they that are with him, the called, and chosen, and faithful. 15. And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the harlot sitteth, are 1 The received text has aкa@apтηтоç. A, B, and the critical Editions read ra ακαθάρτητα. 2 μèλλei avaßaivev. I give Mr. Tregelles' version, which I conceive expresses the real force of μeλe. See my remarks on Apoc. x. 7, Vol. ii. p. 127. * Our translators render," and yet is," after the reading kaimeρ toTL. rat is the reading of A, B, and the critical Editions. 4 Και παρεσ μιαν ώραν λαμβανουσι μετα του θηρίου. The translation above given is, I feel persuaded, the true one. The authorized version is, "one hour." See my Vol. iii. pp. 81, 82, Note 1. 5 διδοασιν. So A and B; for the received διαδιδώσουσι. So Vitringa; understanding vincent, or vinoovoi, after the Anro. This is also, I conceive, beyond a doubt the true rendering: not that of our English authorized version; which translates, "They that are with him are the called," &c. peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues. 16. And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the harlot, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. 17. For God hath put into their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and to give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled. 18. And the woman which thou sawest is the city the great one, which ruleth over the kings of the earth.' The vision of this Chapter xvii. is one introductory to the judgments of Babylon, and explanatory to St. John (to St. John as the symbolic man) of its causes and reasonableness. Such is God's usual method, when about to execute any very notable act of vengeance. He shows his Church its justice beforehand: thereby at once vindicating his own. honour; and giving warning to such of his people as may thus far have been deceived by the offending party, to separate from it, and so escape its imminent doom.3 Turning to the particulars of the symbolization here shown to St. John, the prominent figure in the vision appeared to be a gaudily-dressed drunken Harlot, seated on a Beast of monstrous form, with seven heads, and on the seventh (itself growing out of the cicatrice of a former excised seventh 1) ten horns. A symbol this last which has been pretty fully explained for the most part in a preceding chapter of this Work: 5 for I have there discussed quite at 1 So our version, reading ɛπɩ. A, B, and the critical Editions generally have the reading ka as if the Beast itself would at last turn with the ten kings against the woman. And Bellarmine urges the reading cat, in defence of the Papacy against Protestants. "For how can Bishops of Rome be Antichrist," he argues, "when Antichrist is to join with the ten kings, and destroy Rome?" But see my Note 3 on p. 74 of Vol. iii. in support of the reading . I there cite Tertullian and Hippolytus, two Fathers of earlier date than any extant Greek MS. of the Apocalypse, in support of επι. It is the reading too of most copies of the Vulgate; "Decem cornu quæ vidisti in Bestiâ:" and adopted by the Romanists Ribera, à Lapide, Malvenda, &c., as well as by our Protestant interpreters Vitringa, Daubuz, &c. It should be observed that the apostate Church's False Prophet continues with the Beast to the end. So Apoc. xix. 19. Comparing with this what is said of the winepress being trodden without the city, p. 15 suprà, it is supposable that the city Rome might be destroyed, while the Pope and Papal Priesthood and Church remained. 2 See Vol. ii. p. 115. 3 So in the angel's declaration to Lot, Gen. xix. 12, 13, 22, before the destruction of Sodom; in Jeremiah's prophetic denunciation of the Chaldean Babylon's coming overthrow, and warning to escape from it, Jer. li. 6, &c.; and in those by Christ, and afterwards by his apostle St. James against the guilty Jerusalem, just before its destruction by Titus. Inferred from Apoc. xiii. 3; "And I saw one of his unto death, and the deadly wound was healed." heads as it were wounded 5 Part iv. chap. iv. |