And the bearers of these four standards had each of them six wings like seraphims, Isa. vi. 2, (with two of them covering the face, with two the feet, or secret parts, and with two flying, noting the humility, chastity, love or zeal in God's service, that was remarkable in these, in opposition to the contrary in those which should now be judged, especially the Gnostic Judaizers,) and were full of eyes, as before, ver. 6, behind and before, in respect of their understanding of the prophecies and types of the Old Testament, and their gifts of prophecy given them by God; and they labour incessantly for the advancement of God's glory, and the kingdom of Christ, and evidencing to unbelievers their approaching ruin, and to believers God's fidelity, in making good his promise to them, in delivering them, and destroying their enemies. [i] six wings about him—] In this verse (which hath in it some difficulty of construction) it is first evident, that the phrase full of eyes belongs to the living creatures, and not to the wings; for so the Greek γέμουντα, full, concludes, which agree with ζῶα, creatures, but cannot with πτέρυγας, wings, and so before it had been, ver. 6, τέσσαρα ζῶα γέμουντα ὀφθαλμῶν, four living creatures full of eyes: and so it appears by the use of the wings to cover the face and secret parts, and to fly; which cannot be applied to the circuit or ambience. Next, if the Greek be consulted, it will be also as clear that the κυκλόθεν καὶ ἔσωθεν, round about and within, are not so to be divided, as in our ordinary translation they are, the former joined with the six wings, (six wings round about them,) and the latter to the eyes, (full of eyes within,) but are both together to be joined with the full of eyes, κυκλόθεν καὶ ἔσωθεν γέμουντα ὀφθαλμῶν, about and within full of eyes. What is meant by κυκλόθεν καὶ ἔσωθεν, round about and within, may be resolved by ver. 6, where the same thing is expressed by other words; there it is full of eyes ἔμπροσθεν καὶ ἔπισθεν, before and behind, here round about and within. The way of reconciling these distant phrases is, I conceive, by considering the two parts of a superficies, the convex or ambient part, that is, the circumference, and the concave or inner part. These two we know are opposed one to the other, and are fitly expressed by either of these two pairs, the outer or ambient by κυκλόθεν, round about, the inner or concave by ἔσωθεν, within; and so again (being here applied to living creatures with their faces toward us,) the ambient superficies by ἔπισθεν, behind, or the back parts, and the inner superficies by ἔμπροσθεν, before, the back parts of such creatures being most properly the convex, and the fore parts (especially when they have wings, and those wings make a kind of half circle) being the concave superficies. And so by this account, as ἔμπροσθεν, before, ver. 6, and ἔσωθεν, within, here are all one, so must κυκλόθεν, about, here, and ἔπισθεν, behind, or on the back, there, be all one also. And accordingly it may be observed that ch. v. 1, ἔσωθεν, within, is opposed to ἔπισθεν, the back parts, as here to κυκλόθεν, about, which makes it consequent that ἔπισθεν, the back part, and κυκλόθεν, about, should be all one, as now we set them. What is denoted by these two sorts of eyes, as they are applied to the apostles, may perhaps be thus best resolved: the eyes before are an expression of their foresight, or prophetic spirit; the eyes behind, those that look [d] neither cold nor hot] All that is here said of this church of Laodicea seemeth very intelligible by applying to them that one part of the doctrine of the Gnostics that seems to have gotten in among them, (though not those other carnal villanies,) viz. that it was ἀδιάφορον, an indifferent thing, perfectly lawful, to renounce Christ in time of persecution. This is clearly the lukewarmness here, which is a middle indifferent temper between being Christians and no Christians; and instead of that God commends to them πενθρωμίνον χρυσόν, refined gold fetched out of the fire, that is, directly the crown of martyrdom, (contrary to that mixture and allay of dross that is now in them,) and the white or shining garments, the ensign and character of the martyrs everywhere in this book. And for their saying that they are rich, &c., and not knowing that they are wretched, &c., this is again the mark of those Gnostics, which had such great ungrounded opinions of their own perfections. A physical discourse on this place may be seen in Vale-sius Sac. Phil. c. 90. A great opinion you have of yourselves, that ye are in an excellent state, have need of nothing, are beyond all others, when indeed you have nothing of a Christian in you, no zeal or fervency of love towards Christ; ye never think of suffering for him, or getting any part of the Christian's crown. My advice therefore is, that you be content to endure some smart for Christ, if you mean to receive any crown from him; that you be courageous in the confessing of Christ, and contend for that shining royal robe that belongs to martyrs, without which (in intention at least of mind) you are still imperfect, and under the reproach of cowardice, and want of love; and to this purpose, that ye look deeper into the nature of Christian religion, the precepts, doctrines, and examples thereof; and there ye shall find what yet ye see not, that ease and prosperity here are no sign of God's favour, but on the other side. The expression of his fatherly love to his children is the bestowing some chastisements upon them, thereby to fit them for his love. Lo, I have waited long, and called for and expected this loving reception from you, and the doors being barred within by a custom of sinning and negligence, I have not yet (though I have the key in mine hand, ver. 7,) found any admission: and now I am admonishing of you, calling you to repentance; and whosoever shall thus open, and receive me into a pure Christian heart, I will enter into a most free commerce of love with him, and this conversion of his shall be matter of mutual rejoicing and festivity to both of us. And upon his suffering and enduring for me, and constant perseverance in that love even to death, in despite of all temptations to the contrary, he shall be partaker with me of that honour that my Father hath exalted me to as the reward of my sufferings: (see note [a] ch. ii.) And as God sat on his tribunal or throne of judgment, behold there was in his right hand a book or roll (see note [a] Luke iv.) full of writing on the inside, and on the backside, a great way down, and that rolled up, and on the outside sealed, that no part of it could possibly be read; and this roll consisted of seven rolls, one within another, and every one of them had a seal to it, ch. vi. 1. (This book of rolls containing in it the sealed, that is, secret decrees and purposes of God upon the Jews, which as they were foretold only by Christ, Matt. xxiv, Luke xxi, Mark xiii, so are they by him inflicted and executed upon them, and that an effect of his regal power, to which, after his crucifixion, he was by his resurrection installed.) [a] in the right hand] That ἐπὶ τὴν δεξιὰν signifies not upon, but in the right hand of God, may appear by ver. 7, where it is said to be taken ἐκ τῆς δεξιᾶς, out of his hand, which supposedly it formerly to be in it. And though this be not the ordinary notation of the Greek ἐπὶ, (and therefore I see it is conceived by some that the book was here brought and laid by him ἐπὶ τὴν δεξιὰν, on his right hand,) yet the promiscuous use of prepositions in these books, (answerable to the Hebrews, whose prepositions are used more loosely and largely,) will give a full answer to this. Now this is no nice consideration, but that which is of use to explain that which follows, of the Lamb's taking the book out of the hand of God the Father. For this book containing in it the decrees of vengeance and judgment upon the enemies of God, the crucifiers of Christ and persecutors of the Christian faith and professors, and this power being by the resurrection of Christ seated and instated on Christ as a reward of his sufferings, and consequently the execution of these decrees of God put into the hand of the Son, whose coming and kingdom it is thence so often called; and this power being not again delivered up into the Father's hands till the end of the world, all this is here fitly and fully expressed by the Lamb's taking the book out of the right hand of God the Father, (and would not so commodiously be represented, if the book had lain by him, and had not been in his hand,) and by his loosing the seals, and opening the book, that is, bringing forth those judgments of God which lay folded up in his decrees, but were now to be remarkably executed by Christ. [b] written within and on the backside] It may here be thought probable of this book, which is said to be γεγραμμένον ἴσωθεν καὶ ὄπισθεν, ἐσφραγισμένον, that by putting a comma after ἴσωθεν, within, it should thus be rendered written within, and sealed upon the back, and so that the seven seals were all on the outside of the book. But besides that the ordinary punctuation, putting the comma after ὄπισθεν, on the back, resists this, there be many other circumstances clear the other to be the meaning, that the book, or roll, was written within and on the backside; by within, meaning the inner concave superficies of the roll, and by the backside And I saw one of the angels, of special dignity among them, making proclamation with a loud voice in these words, Who is able to unloose the seals of this book, and so to open it, to reveal to us what is contained in it? And it seems no creature in the world was able to do it; for upon this proclamation to all, none pretended to it. And my desire to know caused me to be much concerned and grieved at this, and so to make my complaint thereof. And one of the elders, ch. iv. 4, that was in one of the thrones, one of them that sat with God in judgment, comforted me, and told me that Christ, known by those two titles, of the Lion of the tribe of Judah, Gen. xlix. 9, and the root of Jesse, Isaiah xi. 1, having, by his voluntary suffering of death, received this reward from his Father, to have all power given to him at his resurrection, and so from a slaughtered lamb, being turned into a roaring, devouring lion, had this privilege, among others, bestowed on him by his Father, to reveal, yea, and to execute the decrees contained in these volumes. This was further exemplified to me; for I looked and saw what I had not seen before, a Lamb bloody, with wounds visible in him, as one that had been butchered, Christ crucified and risen from the dead, and so induced both with power to subdue his enemies (fitly expressed by this style of horns, see note [u] Luke i, and so used here, ch. xvii. 3.) and with all knowledge and wisdom to order it fitly, having instruments to execute his will present, and ready pressed at his service, and also officers (angels, ch. iv. 5, and Zech. iv. 10.) to visit and give him account of all that was done in Judæa and elsewhere, the persecutions which the Jews brought upon the Christians. And this Lamb, Christ, came and took the book out of God's hand, that is, received power from God, as the reward of his sufferings, to reveal and make known, and then to execute on that people those heavy judgments contained in those rolls. And when this power was given to him, this being the instating him in that royal authority next to God himself, (that is, setting him on the throne of judgment, called sitting at God's right hand, or reigning till he brought all his enemies under his feet,) the four living creatures, by which the four apostles were represented, ch. iv. 6, and the elders that (ch. iv. 4.) sat on the four and twenty thrones about the Judge, gave all acknowledgments of supreme power to Christ; and every one praised and magnified God in these approaching judgments of his, and presented to him, beside their own lauds, the thanksgivings of all the believers then living, who had been persecuted, and denied the liberty of their Christian profession and ³ living creatures. creatures. ⁴ sent into all the land, ἀπεσταλμίνα εἰς πᾶσαν τὴν γῆν. ⁵ living [c] prayers of saints] Who the saints are whose prayers are here mentioned as odours, may appear, ver. 10, where of them it is said, that they shall reign on the earth, that is, that the effect of the execution of these judgments of God on the enemies of Christianity, noted by the Lamb's opening the book, (note [a]), should be this, that the Christians should thereby have a peaceable being upon earth, to assemble and serve Christ, (see note [d] on ch. i.) By this it is evident that the saints here are the Christian people upon earth, and not the saints which reign in heaven. And this also is agreeable to the notion of odours, by which their prayers are expressed: for those refer to the incense that the priests were wont to offer in the sanctuary, whilst the people prayed without, Luke i. 10, and their prayers supposed to go up with that incense to heaven. By this it also appears that the four living creatures, and four and twenty elders, which have here the vials in their hands, as also the harps, the one to denote the prayers, the other the praises of the Christians, are the apostles and bishops of Judæa, (as in the laying of the scene appeared, notes [d] and [g] chap. iv.) whose office it was to present the prayers and praises of the Christians to God; and so by all these together the Christian persecuted church of Judæa (and by consent with them all other Christians over the world) are represented here as those that had now their prayers heard, and those by the destruction of their persecutors turned into praises. And I looked, and behold all the angels of heaven in infinite multitudes attending on God, joined with the apostles and bishops in giving praises unto him. And all said with a loud voice, All power &c. are most worthily attributed to Christ as a reward of his crucifixion. All this dignity to himself and advantages to believers are a just reward of his sufferings, by which he hath dearly bought them. And all other creatures in the world made the same acknowledgment (noting these judgments that should now fall on the Jews (as they were most just, so also) to be most seasonable, and infinitely advantageous to his people, who should be rescued by that means.) And a general adoration was paid unto Christ as unto God himself, noting this punishment of the Jews to be a just act of divine revenge on their crucifying of Christ, who being by his divine power ⁴ tribe, φυλῆτ. ⁷ living creatures. ⁸ living creatures. And as the Lamb, that is, Christ, opened the first seal, which closed the first roll, I looked, and the first of those four living creatures called aloud to me, or in such a kind of voice as is wont to come out of thunder, when a voice is heard from heaven, (see note on Acts ix. 6,) saying, Come and see, or, Here is a more full relation and prediction of those things which Christ had foretold concerning the Jews, Matt. xxiv, (set down here in this chapter in gross, and more particularly, as they have their execution, in the following chapters.) [a] 4. kill one another] The great intestine broils among the Jews, those especially of the seditious and the zealots, are at large set down by Josephus, l. 4. and l. 5. De Bel. Jud.; so great, saith he, that Vespasian on purpose deferred the siege of Jerusalem, that they might more easily be destroyed by their own than by the Romans' swords: see Luke xxi. 10. Thus about the twelfth of Nero, when Florus crucified (beside great multitudes of the ordinary sort) μυρίους ὅσους παρὰ Ἰουδαίοις τετιμημένων, saith Eusebius out of Josephus, many myriads of the most honourable among the Jews, there was, saith he, first in Cæsaren, then in all Syria, such a disorder, and δεινὴ ταραχὴ, terrible tumult, of those that dwelt in the country against those that inhabited the cities, invading and laying them waste in a most hostile manner, that one might see whole cities full of unburied carcasses, old men and children thrown dead together, women shamelessly uncovered, καὶ τὴν πᾶσαν ἐπαρχίαν μεστὴν ἀδιηγητῶν συμφορῶν, the whole province full of inexpressible calamities. And the observation is once for all, Eccl. Hist. l. 2. c. 6, that στάσεις καὶ πόλεμοι καὶ κακῶν ἐπάλληλοι μηχανάι, seditions, and wars, and mischievous projects one upon the neck of another, never left the city and all Judæa, till at last the siege came upon them. And at that very time when it came, three factions there were on foot among them, under three commanders, Eleazar, John, and Simon. And though Tacitus say that the approach of their enemy gave them peace one with another; yet Josephus, that was an eyewitness, relates it much otherwise, only that the three factions, εἰς δύο μοίρας περισταται, were divided into two, by the oppression of the third, John upon the day of unleavened bread sending some into the temple, under pretence of sacrificing, which killed Eleazar and butchered his party, and seized upon the temple, where before Eleazar and his zealots had fortified themselves. And however, though the seditious joined a while to repel the enemy, yet they soon returned to their former feuds, and one faction fighting against the other, the weight and smart of both fell upon the commonalty, who were plundered by each of them. More of these civil combustions, and the fearful effects of them, we read of most notably in the time of the siege; when the scarcity began to pinch the besieged, then the στασιασταὶ broke into all houses, tormented the possessors to bring out their provision. "When mothers", saith he, "snatched victuals out of their babes' mouths, in came the seditious, and snatched it out of theirs, and catching up the children which held fast the bits in their mouths, and would not let them go, they dashed them against the ground." Those that, to prevent them, eat up what they had before they could come to them, they used with most horrid cruelties, ὡς ἀδικηθέντες, taking themselves to be injured by them who thus robbed them of their prey. And those that were ready to die through the famine, they would yet search more strictly, μὴ ὑπὸ κόλπον ἔχων τροφὴν σκήπτοιτο τὸν θάνατον, lest they should have some food in their bosom, and only make as if they were famished, when they were not; and then, δεινὰ βασάνων ὁδοὶ πρὸς ἔρευναν τροφῆς, horrible ways of torment did they use to find out food. And so true is that which is a Ensch. l. 3. c. c. out of Josephus. And as I looked, methought I saw a white horse, and one sitting thereon, that is, an angel representing Jesus Christ (see ch. xix. 11.) now in another posture than that in which he had been, ch. v. And I looked and saw another horse red, or of blood-colour, and an angel (as minister of God's judgments) sat upon him; and of him it was told me, that he had power given him to embroil the land of Judaea (see ch. vii. 1. 9.) with war, thereby to pour out a great deal of blood; and to that purpose methought he had a sword put into his hand, a presignification of the slaughters that should be committed by the Jews one upon another: (see Matt. xxiv. 7.) And when he opened the third seal, which had the third roll under it, the third of the living creatures called to me to come and see what was in that roll; and it was a third horse, black and foul to look on; and by that was signified a sore famine, (which discolours the skin of men, and makes them look black and sad and dismal;) and to signify this, he that was on this horse's back, the angel that was executioner of this judgment, had a balance in his hand to weigh corn, (as it is usual in time of scarcity or approaching famine, when bread is distributed out to every one by weight, no more than is thought necessary to life.) There he was a lamb slain, now he is a king riding in pomp, (the white horse noting his glory;) but this a spiritual king, the horse that he rides on being mystically the gospel, in respect of the purity and gloriousness or divinity of its doctrine. And this horseman or prince, the Lord Christ, had a bow in his hand, that is, menaces and terrors held out against his enemies, before they be really inflicted on them, as the bow is first held in the hand, then the arrow prepared upon the string, before it be shot out at them; and he had a crown given to him, as to one now instated and installed in his royal office; and his business at the present was that which was primarily proper to the white horse, the gospel, to be the power of God to salvation to them that believe, to convert the Jews to the faith, and so to conquer and melt his crucifiers; and then for the future (as the gospel is by consequence the savour of death unto death) to bring down or destroy the obdurate, (these two being generally the ways of Christ's conquering in this book:) and as the Jews, so, after, the Romans, by converting some and destroying others, conquering and breaking the infidelity of some, and then bringing down and destroying the impenitent. And from the midst of the four living creatures there proceeded a voice, as the prediction of some prophet, saying, The scarcity of corn is such, that the price of a man's day labour will buy no more than is wont to be thought sufficient for a man's food for a day; and if he eat that all himself, there is nothing left to provide for wife and children, much less for clothes for all of them; and so in proportion the price of barley; such scarcity there is of the necessaries of life for men and cattle: whereas of oil and wine (of which there is no necessity, the first might wholly be spared, and is of no use in such times of extreme dearth, and the want of the other might competently be supplied by water) there was store enough: the scarcity was to fall heavy upon the necessaries of life, but not on the superfluities; which is an expression of the heaviness, not lightness or supportableness of it. [b] A measure of wheat for a penny] Chænix is not any set measure, but hath often varied in several times, saith Waserus, Ant. Mens. I. 2. c. 3, and doth ordinarily signify that proportion of wheat which will be sufficient for one man's food for a day. So δηνάριος is, it seems by the Gospel, Matt. xx. 2, the wages of a day's labour. And then the meaning of a chænix for a penny is, that a man's day's labour shall but bring him in as much bread as he daily wanteth, all other necessaries for him, and even bread for his whole family, being wanting; for the chænix was but the proportion for one person. This signifies the beginning of a famine, the dearness of corn, as will be discerned if it be compared with the difference that is among us between the day-wages of a labourer, and the quantity of bread which is necessary for him; two pence in bread being thought largely sufficient for a single man's food, when yet his ordinary wages is five or six times as much: by which may be guessed the meaning of a chænix of wheat for a denary, viz. two pennyworth of bread (perhaps less) sold for a shilling, or every thing six times as dear as ordinary. And so this whole verse, and the rider of the black horse, with the balance in his hand, is an emblem of dearth beginning, though not yet rioting upon them, and so is most proper to be applied to the famines in Judæa, foretold by Christ, Matt. xxiv. 7, which yet were none of them comparable with those horrible straits of famine which befell them afterward in the siege, &c. See note [a]. And upon the opening of the fourth seal, wherewith the fourth roll was sealed up, the fourth living ³ living creature. ⁴ land, γῆs: see Premon., and note [b] Matt. xxiv, and note [a] Rev. vii. ⁵ living creature. ⁶ living creatures. ⁷ A quart. ⁸ injure not, μὴ ἀδικήσῃς. And it was a pale horse, and a rider thereon, signifying great death or mortality, whether by extraordinary ways of death, the sword and famine, or by that ordinary, known way of pestilence, following (as ordinarily it doth) upon those two, and sweeping away many. And these three horses in the three last rolls, that is, sword, famine, and death or pestilence, (all named together in this matter, Matt. xxiv. 7,) should destroy the fourth part of the land of Judæa, men and beasts, or else should make such a vastation, that the wild beasts should increase and be too strong for the inhabitants there. (And all this but a forerunner of the far greater destructions that should afterwards be wrought among them at the siege of Titus.) 9, 10. And upon the opening of the fifth seal, I saw in the lower part of the sanctuary, beneath the altar of incense, the souls of the martyrs (see ch. vii. 9. 14.) that had been slain by the Jews for their constant preaching of Christ, and this blood of theirs, like that of Abel, called to Christ, as a righteous and faithful Judge, for judgment upon those wicked men, who were guilty of all the blood of all the prophets, (Matt. xxiii. 35,) even as far as to Christ himself and his apostles, and other Christians afterwards, whom they persecuted also, and caused many to be put to death, Luke xxi. 12. [c] Death, and Hell followed] By Death here, and Hades (or ἀφα- HAMMOND, ANNOT. VOL. II. N B [d] unto them] The αὐτοῖς, them, here in the plural seems to signify the three last horses and their riders, and so to denote sword and famine and pestilence, the same that was mentioned by Christ, Matt. xxiv. 7, as the beginnings of their sorrow, or pangs of a far heavier travail, which after followed: and so no doubt there was a completion of it in such a degree as is here spoken of, that is, ἐπὶ τὸ τέταρτον τῆς γῆς, upon the fourth part of the land; whether that signify to the destroying one tetrarchy or fourth part of the nation, (as it is certain it fell very heavy upon Galilee,) or whether to the destroying very many in several parts of the nation, so that not all, but only a fourth part of the nation were thus visited by these destructions. This latter will seem the most probable, if it be applied peculiarly to that point of time which is parallel to the beginnings of sorrow, Matt. xxiv. And then the ὑπὸ τῶν θηρίων, by the beasts, if that be the right reading, will signify the prevailing of the beasts of the field, as a token and effect of a vastation in those places, where the sword and famine and pestilence had made such havock, that is, in that fourth part of the land. But the king's MS. reads not ὑπὸ τῶν θηρίων, by the beasts, but τὸ τέταρτον τῶν θηρίων, the fourth part of beasts, answerable to the fourth part of the earth precedent; and then the meaning will be, that this destruction fell upon the cattle as well as men, as either in war or famine or pestilence it is wont to do. This hath thus far been said on supposition that what is described here belongs to the beginnings of sorrows, and not the bitter pangs themselves. As for those, they were far more sharp and wasting, and infinitely above this proportion. The story is full of them. At the passover, (to shew the just judgments of God in avenging on them the death of his Son, at that very time wherein they crucified him,) no less than 300,000, which came up to that feast out of all Judæa, were shut up in Jerusalem, as in a prison, in that close siege of the Romans, which made the famine so soon to rage most furiously; and this whole number, being but a small proportion to the infinite multitude more of those which were in the city before, (for by Cestius's computation of the 255,000 and 600 sacrifices offered at one passover, at the rate of ten persons to one sacrifice, the number will be near ten times as great as this now named, besides the unclean that were excluded the sacrifice,) were all, one and other, destroyed either by the famine, or by the seditious and turbulent among themselves, [e] under the altar] Θυσιαστήριον here, and ch. viii. 3. must signify the altar of incense, (called θυσιαστήριον τοῦ θυμιάματος, Luke i. 11, but properly θυμιατήριον,) not of burnt-sacrifice, the whole place here represented from ch. iv. being the sanctuary within the vail, where this altar of incense stood, that other of the burnt-sacrifice standing without in the court, (see note [i] on Matt. xxiii.) and so it is clear by the mention of incense, ch. viii. 3. To which purpose may be observed what we find in *Theophylact, that the word θυμιατήριον was used peculiarly for that censer which the chief priest once a year carried with incense into the holy of holies, and that the standing altar in the sanctuary was called θυσιαστήριον. And therefore ὑποκάτω τοῦ θυσιαστηρίου must not be rendered under the altar, (as they that conceive it the altar of burnt-sacrifice conceive also that the souls of the martyrs do here lie at the foot of the altar, where the blood, which is the life of living creatures, is wont to be poured out,) but in the lower part of the sanctuary, beneath the altar of incense. Of this word, see more in note [a] on ch. xi. As for the souls of those that were slain, by that phrase is signified their blood, (as the soul and the life is all one, and the blood is the life, Gen. ix. 4,) and the blood of the slain is the effusion of their blood, (as the blood of Abel,) the sin of murdering them. The same is after expressed by ἰσφαγμένοι, those that were slain; for of them in the masculine gender, and not of the ψυχαί in the feminine, it is said, ἔκραζον λέγοντες, they cried, saying, How long, &c. All which signifies no more but the sin of slaying the Christians, and the vengeance that in justice from God, and by the promise of Christ, was due to it. And the whole passage seems to allude to 2 Esdr. iv. 35, where the souls of the righteous ask in their chambers, saying, How long, &c. and the answer is, (as here,) By measure hath he measured the times, &c., and, he doth not stir them till the said measure be fulfilled; and ch. xv. 8, Behold, the innocent and righteous blood crieth unto me, and the souls of the just complain continually, and therefore saith the Lord, I will surely Jos. de Bell. Jud. l. 6. c. 8, &c. See Euseb. l. 3. c. 5. * On Heb. ix. 7. N. 2 And this crying of their blood for instant justice was at the present answered with giving them white robes, acknowledgments of their constancy and perseverance in suffering, and consequently a present state of blissful reward: this revenge of their blood being for a while, for some few years, deferred, till all the bloodguiltiness of these Jews should be filled up, all the other martyrs slain, James, the bishop of Jerusalem, &c., and then should the vengeance come on these impenitent, obdurate persecutors: (see ch. vii. 9, 10, &c.) And at the opening of the sixth seal, in that roll there was a representation of eclipses of sun and moon, &c. figuratively to express great destructions, Ezek. xxxii. 7, Isaiah xiii. 20, Joel ii. 10. and 31, and ch. iii. 15. ⁹ living creature. ¹⁰ hades followeth, ὁ ἅγις ἀκολοθεῖ. ¹¹ to kill upon the fourth part of the land, ἀποκτεῖναι ἐπὶ τὸ τέταρτον τῆς γῆς. ¹² by, ὑπὸ, or, the fourth part of the beasts: so the King's MS. τὸ τέταρτον τῶν θηρίων. ¹³ beneath. ¹⁴ they had had, ἐξαν. ¹⁵ the land, τῆς γῆς. [f] great earthquake] Of the great earthquakes (in divers places, saith St. Luke) which were both in Asia and at Rome, see Eusebius in Chronico, in the time of Nero, and Baronius, An. Chr. 68. Neronis 12, and so also of the eclipse of the sun; and of a star or comet like a sword, that stood over the city, and continued a year, and of a great light, that shined about the altar and the temple at nine of the night, upon the feast of unleavened bread, for half an hour together, and of meteors that were seen through all the region, and of an apparition in the clouds of chariots and troops of armed men encompassing the city, and many the like; see Eusebius, Eccl. Hist. l. 3. c. η', who calls them ἑναργὴ καὶ προσημείνοντα μιλλουσαν ἑρμίων τέρατα, and τὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ κηρύγματα, prodigies manifestly foresignifying the approaching desolation, and sermons as it were of God himself, which is the meaning of the σημεῖον, the sign of the Son of man appearing in heaven. Matt. xxiv. 30. And among these meteors, the falling stars that are here described, ver. 13, would go for no great rarity. But Arethas mentions some of the ancients, who interpret this earthquake here tropologically of Vespasian's siege of Jerusalem; and so it may well be understood, and by analogy all the rest also. See note [g]. [g] the sun became black] That the blackness of the sun, and bloodiness of the moon, and the falling of stars from heaven upon the ground, have a literal interpretation, of which they are capable, so as to note prodigies in the heavens, eclipses and meteors, &c. there is no doubt. But yet here they are sure brought to signify something else. For if these words be compared with Matt. xxiv. 29, to which they are perfectly parallel, it will appear that they are not a setting down the prodigies before the siege of Jerusalem, but that (that being set down, ver. 15) the darkening of the sun, &c. is μετὰ, after that tribulation, or pressure. All the question is, whether these here be only a general representation of slaughters and bloodshedding, which (because when they are excessive they may cause clouds and meteors in the air) are by some thought to be so expressed ordinarily in the prophets, or whether they may not signify the falling of these judgments upon the civil and ecclesiastical state represented by sun and moon, and the whole multitude of that people signified by the stars of heaven. And the latter of these seems the more probable, (see note [n] on Matt. xxiv.) for thus in the prophets of the Old Testament it is ordinary, as when we read, for the iniquity of the people is the land darkened, and the like, that is, the glory and lustre of it destroyed. An eminent example, directly parallel to this, we have Isai. xxxiv. 4, All the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll, and all their host shall fall down as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and the falling fig from the fig-tree; and my sword shall be bathed in heaven. And all this but a representation of God's judgments upon Idumæa, as in the [h] the kings of the earth] That this prophecy belongs to the Jews, hath been cleared by other evidences, and accordingly, βασιλεῖς τῆς γῆς must be translated, the kings of the land, and signify in this place those that had or assumed to themselves the greatest authority among them, and not in any stricter sense kings, or heads of the people: for that notion is not applicable to any that were at Jerusalem at this point of time, to which this vision refers, (see note [i]). And proportionably must the μεγιστάνες, great men, denote the principal that were then in the city. And then the χιλίαρχοι are the commanders or officers in their armies, the leaders of the several factions, as will appear note [i], (being elsewhere used for Roman officers of their militia). And then the rich men, the bond-man, and the free-man, make up all that were in Jerusalem at this time, expressed, as it is the fashion of the scripture, by the several sorts of them. [i] hid themselves in the dens] This hiding themselves in dens, or caves, is an expression of a great fear and consternation, and the thing that was foretold by St. Luke, xxi. 26, Men despairing for fear, and for the expectation of the things that were a coming on that people, and this there immediately attending the Gentiles' treading down of Jerusalem, ver. 24. This makes it not so fit to apply it to their flying to the mountains, which was before the siege, or to those fears that were produced by the prodigies, the forerunners of the destruction, such as the φωνὴ ἀθρόα, the promiscuous noise or voice, Μεταβαίνωμεν ἐντεῦθεν, Let us remove thence, which was generally thought to signify the departure of God from the temple, adytis arisque relictis, for this still was before the destruction: but the passage to which this most punctually relates is that in the very time of destroying the city by Titus. For when the temple was burnt, and the priests hanged up, and upon an affront offered to Titus, (refusing to relieve, or take quarter from him,) the soldiers were permitted to plunder and fire all; the στασιασταί, or seditious, go to the βασιλικὴ αὐλή, or palace, where many had laid up their wealth, drive out the Romans thence, kill eight thousand of them, four thousand Jews that had gotten thither for shelter, plunder the place, and the whole lower city, and then εἰς τὴν ἄνω πόλιν ἐχώρουν, retired to the upper city, Sion, the best fortified place, and there planted themselves. For the taking of this, Titus was fain to use engines of battery, and to that end to cast up works. And having done so, as soon as ever a piece of the wall was beaten down, of a sudden a strange fright and consternation took them, some crying out that the whole wall on the west was demolished, others that the Romans were entered, others that they saw them in the towers; and such a change followed in the minds of all their leaders, or τύραννοι, parallel to the βασιλεῖς and δυνατοὶ and χιλίαρχοι, kings and mighty men and commanders here, that they that were just now in the greatest pride and rage, and contempt of their enemies, and by the deceits of false prophets suborned by them, endeavoured to make all confident that they should have success, now [k] wrath of the Lamb] The anger of the Lamb, and the great After the general view and description of God's vengeances on the Jews succeed now the particular executions of them; and therein the first thing that was represented to me was Christ's peculiar care for the preserving of the true, penitent believers of them out of the common destruction, who are therefore first to be marked, (as the houses of the Israelites in Egypt, that the plague may pass over them,) and so secured before the vengeance break out upon them in common. This is here thus expressed in vision: I saw, saith he, four angels that had power to bring punishments, famine, &c. (foretold ch. vi.) upon Judaea, but making stay before they would do it, not permitting any of these mischiefs as yet to break out upon them. [a] the earth] That ἡ γῆ, the earth, or land, signifies not the whole world, but particularly the land of Palestine, in many places of the New Testament, according to the notion of יְהוָה, among the Hebrews, (see note [b] on Matt. v.) and so in like manner, the four corners of the land, Ezek. vii. 2, Thus saith the Lord God unto the land of Israel, An end, the end is come upon the four corners of the land. And so sure it is very generally, almost constantly, taken in this book, and accordingly is to be rendered, the land, and not the earth, as in the fifth commandment, and in the prophets generally, the Hebrew is wont to be rendered; and in the latter part of this verse, where it is set opposite to, or distinct from the sea, &c. it may possibly signify Judæa, or that part of Palestine. [b] the sea] If θάλασσα, the sea, here be taken for any part of Palestine distinct from Judæa, it may then seem to signify that part of the country which was near the sea, or lake of Gennesareth, (see note [c] on Luke viii.) as Capernaum, ἡ παραθαλασσία, by the sea-side, Matt. iv. 13, in the borders of Zabulon and Neplthali, ὁδὸν θαλάσσης, by the sea-side, ver. 15. This sea was the sea of Tiberias, John vi. 1 and 23, and ch. xxi. 1, the city Tiberias being by Herod built in the prime part of Galilee, saith Josephus, Ant. l. 18. c. 3. And so under this title of θάλασσα, sea, Galilee may be described, of which there was a tetrarch under the Romans, and that different from the procurator, or ἡγεμών, governor of Judæa, Luke iii. 1, as here ἡ γῆ, and θάλασσα, the land and the sea, are set differing one from the other, (see note [e] on Luke xxi.) And then for the πᾶν δινδρον, every tree, which is added, that also may signify that country wherein the trees did principally grow, and that may be the tetrarchy of Abyla, or Ἀβυληνὴ χώρα, the Abylene region, Luke iii. 1, for that, saith Josephus, and the region about that, which made up Lysanias's tetrarchy, was situate in Libanus, which is so famous in scripture for trees. See Josephus, Ant. l. 18. c. 4. But the truth is, all these together, land and sea and trees, may perhaps signify no more but the whole people of the Jews, without any nicer consideration of different countries in it. [c] sealed the—in their foreheads] This sealing in the forehead is the same that is mentioned in the prophet Ezekiel, ch. ix. 4, a π, as it [d] hundred and forty and four thousand] This number of an hundred forty and four thousand, or the proportioning it so equally between twelve tribes, must not necessarily be taken in a literal sense, that there were just so many Christians in Judæa, that went out and were delivered at the time of the approach of those judgments, or those so equally divided by tribes; but (as in prophecies it is ordinary) a certain number for an uncertain, and an obscure representation made. And perhaps all that is to be understood by or concluded from this number is no more but the demonstration of the truth of what Christ had said, in answer to the question, εἰ ὀλίγοι σωζόμενοι; whether the number of the Jews which should escape were, in proportion to the others, a small or great number. For there his advice to them of entering in at the strait gate; and so also the prophet's frequent mention of the κατάλειμμα, the remnant that should escape, doth demonstrate, that of the Jews there should not be found many in proportion which should be delivered from this wrath to come, by escaping out of that wicked generation. For though Christ after his own ascent left his apostles to preach over all the cities of Judæa, (to rescue them yet, if it were possible,) before this vengeance should break out upon them; yet it seems by his own prediction, Luke xviii. 8, that after all this there should be found but little faith, that is, few believers, ἐν τῇ γῇ, in the land of Judæa, at the time of the Son of man's coming in judgment upon this people; few of that nation would sincerely repent and come in and adhere to him. There were indeed many of that nation which received the faith, three thousand converted at one sermon of St. Peter's, Acts ii. 41, and καθ' ἡμέραν, (as it is there said, ver. 47,) every day there was a proportionable addition of them, and so the bishop of Jerusalem tells Paul, Acts xxi. 20, that there were many myriads of believing Jews there. And Eusebius, mentioning Justus, the third bishop of Jerusalem, saith, that he was one of μύριοι ὅσοι ἐκ περιτομῆς, the so many After this immediately I saw all the orthodox, pure, constant Christians, whether Jews or Gentiles, every where dispersed, of all nations, that had continued thus long under persecution of the Jews, (see ver. 14,) looking up with faith and constancy to Christ, attending this vengeance of God on the unbelieving Jews, and owned and acknowledged and rewarded by God as those that had stuck to the faith and persevered constantly, Matt. xxiv. 13, though they had not resisted unto blood, Heb. xii. 4. And these praised God for his deliverance, (as the martyrs called for vengeance, ch. vi. 9,) acknowledging all their delivery to be imputable, as a most remarkable act of mercy, to God the Father, and to Christ, on whom they have believed. 11, 12. And a multitude of angels stood waiting on God, and encompassing the bishops of Judæa, (which were, together with the apostles, to be gone out of the country at this time, and so to partake of this delivery,) and they joined with them in this rejoicing and blessing of God. [e] Salvation] Σωτηρία, salvation, is the word which most properly signifies this deliverance of them that are said to be sealed, that is, of the penitent Jews, or sincere orthodox Christians, σωζόμενοι, the saved, or κατάλειμμα, the remnant, (see Rom. xi. 26, and note [b] on Rom. xiii,) and then the meaning of σωτηρία Θεῷ, salvation to God, will be obvious, the imputing this deliverance to God, acknowledging it his special act, giving him all the praise and honour of it. And the same was again signified by an appearance of falling stars dropping down as the withered figs, those that are of a second spring, and come not to be ripe that year, but hanging on the tree in the winter are frostbitten, and with a great wind are shaken down and fall from the tree, Isaiah xxxiv. 4. And methought one of the bishops asked me, who I thought those were (or whence) that were in the white garments of unspotted innocence, ver. 9. And by the appearance of great, black, gloomy clouds, covering the whole face of the sky, not a star to be seen any more than the writing is discernible in a roll folded up, (see note [a] Luke iv,) and by the earthquakes, ver. 12, whereby many hills and islands were moved out of their places, Isaiah xxxiv. 4. And I told him I knew not, desiring him to tell me. And he told me, saying, These are the confessors (though not martyrs), ver. 9, that ventured their lives for Christ in the confessing him constantly. And the governors and great ones, of several degrees of power among the Jews, the generals of the several factions among them, and every meaner person of all sorts, appeared in the vision to be in an horrible consternation; Who shall therefore live to enjoy some tran- And the guilt of the blood of Christ and Christians which they had shed, and of which they wished that it might fall upon them and their children, now fell upon them, made them fly into vaults or caverns under ground, and into walls, (according as it really fell out, and as it was foretold by the prophets, Isaiah ii. 19, Hosea x. 8, and by Christ, Luke xxiii. 30.) As seeing this inevitable vengeance now falling on them. ### CHAP. VII. And after these six rolls and seals, ch. vi, containing the several previous judgments that were to fall on the unbelieving Jews, and the prodigies foregoing, and predictions of utter destruction that should fall upon them, follows now the seventh roll and seal, and on the opening of that there was a representation of the service in the temple at the time of offering incense. For, first, I perceived an universal silence for half an hour, that is, the people praying by themselves silently in the court, (as they are wont to do while the high priest is offering in the sanctuary.) [a] silence in heaven] The manner of offering of incense is here described by way of vision, the high-priest offering it upon the θυμαιτήριον within the temple, the priests shouting and blowing with the trumpet, and the people meanwhile praying without by themselves, every one silently in the court; which prayers of theirs are supposed to go up to God with the incense, ver. 4. (a description of this, see note [e] on Luke i. 10.) These prayers of the people are here first set down by the phrase, σιγὴ ἐν οὐρανῷ, silence in heaven for half an hour, the temple being sometime expressed by heaven, sometime by the host of heaven, that is, the sun, moon, and stars, (see ver. 12,) and the silence there being the private prayer of the people in the court, Luke i. 10, and the time of half an hour being the space that those prayers used to continue, while the priest continued within at the altar in the temple, and after which he used to come out, and pronounce the blessing on the people, and dismiss them, but till then they stayed and prayed: see Luke i. 21. And if beside this primary and literal, any secondary mystical sense of this phrase, silence in heaven about half an hour, need to be observed, it may not unfitly be this, that it denote a short amazement in the faithful persevering Christians, joined with an awful reverence of the Divine Majesty, and compassion of their native country, upon the apprehension of the calamities now to be inflicted. These might justly provoke a sadness and an amazement. But then the consideration of God's glory, arising out of this his justice upon the impenitent, and also of the merciful deliverance of the faithful, not only from this misery, but even by means of this misery, (the destruction of the persecutors being the release of the persecuted,) these make the amazement and compassion not to remain long, and so the silence to be for a short space. But this by the way, as a descent, not an interpretation. Then next, the trumpeting of the priests, the sons of Aaron, Ecclus. l. 16, is here expressed by the seven trumpets given to the seven angels, ver. 2, then the high-priest's offering the incense is described by the other angel having the golden censer, &c. ver. 3. And all this representation was here fitly set in the vision to signify the prayers of the true faithful Christians, and their acceptance with God, to which is consequent their deliverance; while all other the impenitent unbelievers have this vengeance poured down upon them, nay, as an effect of the hearing these prayers of the godly, (though they prayed not for judgments on the rest,) is the very vengeance on the wicked, who persecute the godly, (as when Abel's blood is said to cry to heaven for vengeance against Cain,) for so every where most bitterly did the Jews persecute the Christians. See note [b] on ch. ii, and Gal. vi. 12. AND when he had opened the seventh seal, there was [a] silence in heaven about the space of half an hour. And the seven angels or officers that waited on God, ch. i. 4, like so many priests in the temple, sounded their trumpets. 3, 4. And another angel, as the high priest, offered up the incense with which the people's prayers are supposed to ascend to God. By this, signifying the prayers of all faithful people, persecuted by these obdurate Jews, to have come to God's ears, and to have found admission there: And as an effect or consequent of that, that is, of that persecution, and their prayers for deliverance, (not for this vengeance,) it is, that the angel fills his censer with fire from the altar of burnt offerings, that is, with the wrath of God, (so oft expressed in the prophets by fire,) and that wrath consuming, (such as the fire that consumed the burnt sacrifice totally,) and cast it upon all Judæa; and the effects of that were voices, and thunders, (that is, noise of thunders,) and lightnings, and earthquake, that is, great, heavy, sudden, wasting judgments upon that people, represented here in general, but particularly set down in the consequents of the sounding the seven trumpets. [b] voices, and thunderings, and—] That φωναὶ and Βρονταὶ, voices and thunders, are all one, (from the equivocalness of the Hebrew word, which signifies both,) hath been often said; and so here, by these two words there is no more meant than either of them would have imported, thunder; to which lightning and earthquake are fitly joined, to signify in general the judgments of God, and vengeance on this people, which are more specially described and represented under the sounding of the seven trumpets that follow, and the productions of Then the seven angels set their trumpets to their mouths, every one, and were ready to blow, and did so, one after another, each of which had a several signification in it. And when the first sounded, I saw falling upon Judæa hail and fire mingled with blood, a fit emblem of seditions and commotions, and they fell upon Judæa, and wasted it in a bloody manner; and the obedient, meek, pious Christians that would not join with them in their seditious practices were terribly plundered and wasted by them. And this fell heavily upon the tetrarchate of Abylene (see note [b] ch. vii.) as well as upon Judæa. [c] fire] What is signified by the soundings of the three first angels here, will be guessed by the πῦρ, fire, observable in each of them here, πῦρ μεμιγμένον ἐν αἵματι, fire joined with the hail precedent, (and then blood superadded to both of them,) a mountain burning with fire, ver. 8, and a star burning as it were a lamp, ver. 10. Now there is nothing more fitly resembled by fire, than sedition or rebellion is. All kind of contention being indeed a fire, and ordinarily styled πύρωσις, a combustion: but the greater it is, as rebellion is of all others the greatest, the better it deserves that title: and this, because as a little fire sets a whole house, a whole kingdom, a whole world on fire, James iii. 5, 6, and beginning from very small sparks ascends quickly into a very great flame; so sedition began by one, secretly steals on and increases, draws whole multitudes unto it, and then, as fire also, devours and destroys wherever it comes, lays all waste before it. Now it is observable in the Jewish records of those times, how full the history is of two sorts of most violent disturbers, στασιωσταὶ and ζηλωταὶ, the seditious and the zealots. And though the fire here might properly enough belong to either of these, yet it is very fit to make a distinction between them in the predictions here, as we know there is in the histories of them. The στασιωσταὶ, or seditious, stirred up rebellion against the Romans, pretending and designing to cast off that yoke of their conquerors, under the conduct of the ψευδόχριστοι, false Christs, which undertook to redeem Israel out of their slavery. But the ζηλωταὶ, zealots, exercised tyranny and all manner of cruelty upon their own countrymen. The latter of these were immediately before the siege, and in time of the siege, and are described by the lorusts most fitly, ch. ix. 3. But the former, the seditious, which raised those stirs and tumults, which caused the Romans to send armies to the subduing of them, and so were the foundation of that bloody wasting war, and by several degrees promoted it, are the subject of this part of the vision, upon the sounding of the four first angels. Of this sort was the Egyptian impostor, mentioned Acts xxi. 38, and more largely by Josephus, (Ant. l. 20. c. 6, and De Bell. Jud. l. 2. c. 12, and out of him by Eusebius, l. 2. c. 21,) who led after him to mount Olivet thirty thousand men, meaning from thence to force his passage into Jerusalem, and seize upon the Roman guards, and possess himself of the city, but was prevented and discomfited by Felix, about the end of Claudius's reign. But this is somewhat too early to be referred to here. That which seems most probable is, that these first trumpets in this chapter contain the space of time from the coming of Albinus to his prefecture, and the Jews' sufferings under him, then under Gessius Florus, his successor, as also the spoiling of Galilee, by Cestius Gallus, prefect of Syria, to which fitly follows the siege, and attempt of Gallus on Jerusalem, the importance of the sounding of the fourth trumpet. Under [d] green grass] What is here distinctly meant by the green grass, χόρτος χλωρός, can be but conjectured; and that perhaps will be best done by comparing it with Ezek. xx. 47, where God's judgments are described by a fire, (as here,) falling and devouring every green tree, and every dry. What is the meaning of this, appears, ch. xxi. 3, I will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked; where the righteous are evidently described by the green, as the wicked by the dry tree. Thus Luke xxiii. 31, it proverbially signifies, if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in a dry? If the righteous escape so hardly, where shall the ungodly and sinners appear? And the elegance and significance lying not in that of the tree, but of the greenness, that doth as fitly hold in the grass as the tree. And thus it is clearly used, ch. ix. 4, where the grass and green thing and tree are opposed to those that have not the seal of God in their foreheads, and so are the righteous opposed to the impenitent, and particularly the Christians in Judæa, on whom the violence of these tumults and seditions fell heavily, as those which were hated by the Jews, and which would not take up arms with them, and join in their seditious practices. And upon the second angel's sounding there was another representation of a great multitude of the same or like seditious persons rising in Galilee, and the suppressing of them cost a great deal of blood, consumed a great multitude of Galilæans, [e] third part of the sea became blood] That the tumults and rebellions of the seditious are here represented by these three first angels, is more manifest than what those seditions particularly were which are denoted by each of them. Our Saviour saith of these times, that many should arise, and deceive many; and the event hath confirmed it. At every turn some or other arose and undertook to lead them out, and nothing is to be met with in the stories of these times but the raising of seditions among the Jews, and the coming of the Romans to suppress them. And therefore it is not needful to distribute these several representations of the three first trumpets, and apply them severally, but to understand them in gross of this matter. Yet supposing (what hath been shewed, note [b] on c. vii.) that the sea here (noting the sea or lake of Tiberias) may signify Galilee, it will be commodious enough to understand this of that sedition raised in Galilee, which Vespasian was by Nero sent to quell about the year of Christ 69, in the twelfth of Nero. At which time, saith Baronius out of Josephus, he subdued the Galileans, Gentem fortissimam, totius Palæstinæ potentissimam et munitissimam, "the most valiant, powerful and best fortified country of all Palestine." Which action of his being so considerable and remarkable for the slaughter of above an hundred thousand, and the carrying above forty thousand Jews captive, may fitly be here represented under the third part of the sea becoming blood, and the dying of the third part of the creatures, that is, Jews, in the sea, that is, of Galilee, and the third part of the ships, that is, of the cities, which are to a country as ships to a sea, the places wherein men live and traffick, and wherein they are fortified against enemies, as by ships against the Made a great destruction of men, and vastation of the most eminent cities there: (see note [e].) 10, 11. And upon the sounding of the third, an eminent person, taking upon him to be a captain among them, and drawing many after him, raised a sedition in the lesser cities and towns of Galilee: (see note [e].) And this sedition was a bitter, pernicious one to those that joined in it, brought a force from the Romans, slew a great multitude more in those parts of Galilee. ² from the fire of the altar, ἐκ τοῦ κυρὸς τοῦ θυσ. ³ on the land, εἰς τὴν γῆν. ⁴ was, ἐγένετο. ⁵ land, γῆν. ⁶ The King's MS. reads, καὶ τὸ τρίτον τῆς γῆς κατεκάη, καὶ τρίτον τῶν δένδρων, and the third part of the earth was burnt up, and the third part of the trees. [f] Wormwood] Wormwood is in scripture sometimes used to express that which infecteth others, infusing its bitterness into them; and so it may signify any impostor that seduceth and draws others after him, as many of those seditious captains did to their destruction. Sometimes it is used to signify any bitter effect, any heavy calamity: and so here it may signify also these tumults of the seditious bringing great slaughters on Judæa, as appears by Josephus's story, De Bell. Jud. l. 2 and 3. [g] third part of the sun was smitten, and the—] That the temple is described and expressed generally in the scripture by an host, hath been formerly shewed, note [f] on 1 Tim. i. That this host is in visions or prophetical dark representations fitly expressed by the sun, moon, and stars, will be easily consented to, when we but remember that those are called the host of heaven, and that the temple is commonly a representation of heaven, and sometimes represented by it, (see ver. 1,) and accordingly the Christian church is called the kingdom of heaven ofttimes in the Gospel. Then that the particulars of sun, moon and stars are severally mentioned, rather than the heaven the aggregate body, is by that ordinary manner of speaking among the Hebrews, which express the whole by enumeration of the several parts of it, (see note [e] on 2 Pet. iii.) And so here it may possibly denote the service of the temple, which was performed by night, (ye that by night stand in the courts of God, saith the Psalmist, the watches being then kept,) as well as by day, which is here also mentioned by ἡ νῦξ, the night, as well as ἡμίρα, the day; which could not severally have been mentioned, had not the sun for the day, and the moon and stars for the night, been accordingly mentioned also. And if this be it, then when it is said that the third part of these was smitten, the meaning must be, that an heavy distress now fell upon the temple, and the service of God there was shrewdly disturbed by this siege, but not (at this part of the vision) wholly destroyed. But besides this, there is another interpretation, of which the words are more clearly capable, so as the sun signify the temple, the moon the city, and the stars all the people, and all together the whole nation, (as in Joseph's prophetic dream, the sun, moon and stars are all the family of Jacob,) against which here the woes are denounced, ver. 13, according to the words in Josephus, Woe, woe to the city, and the people, and the temple, (see note [h]). And this seems the more probable interpretation. See note [n] on Matt. xxiv. [h] Woe, woe, woe] Concerning this angel flying in the midst of