Works, Book 5 · Chapter 12
CHAP. XII.
The Brief Meaning or Summary Exposition of the Apocalyps.
The Stage of the Apocalyptical Visions, Chap. 4.
GOD sitting in Majesty upon the Throne of his Temple, according to the pattern of his ancient encamping with Israel in the Wilderness, [Numb. 1. 52, 53. & ch. 2. 3, &c.] His Throne, the Tabernacle, stood in the midst: next pitched the Priests and Levites, round about it: Behind them, to the four quarters of Heaven, encamped the four Standards of Israel, three Tribes to a Standard; and each Standard had his Ensign, which though the Scriptures particularly describe not, yet the Iews by ancient Tradition do. The Standard of Iudah on the East-side of the Tabernacle had for his Ensign a Lion; the Standard of Ephraim on the West, an Oxe; the Standard of Reuben upon the South, a Man; the Standard of Dan on the North, an Eagle. [See Chaskuni on Numb. 3. …ben Ezra on Numb. 2.] The truth of this Tradition may be confirmed by the Cherubims four Faces *Not four Heads, as some co…ceive, but four … on one Head; the Man's face being the forward …ace.in Ezekiel of the same likeness, signifying that he who rode upon them was Iehovah, the Lord of the four Standards of Israel: where also is easie to be gathered (by the Cherubims and Ezekiel's posture in that Vision) toward which quarter of the Heaven each Face looked. The like Faces, I suppose, the other of the Cherubims had, even those in the Temple. (See Ezek. 41.) Even as the Chariots and Horses of Princes and Potentates carry upon them the Insignia of their Masters atchievments; so do the Cherubims here of the Lord God of Israel. And of these Four Animalia, the Ensigns of the four Standards, some have expounded that of Psal. 68. 11. which Hierom turns juxta Hebraicam veritatem, *The Lxx. foreign Heb…. foreignAnimalia tua habitaverunt in ea, id est, in haereditate tua. A sense not improbable, the Psalm speaking directly of God's marching before his people in the wilderness: Yet we translate it much otherwise.
See now whether God's Session in the Apocalyps be not in every part accommodated to this his Encamping in the Wilderness.
1. The Throne pitched is the Temple, insinuated 1. by the*…. Seven Lamps burning before it, like the Candlestick of so many Lamps in the Tabernacle: 2. by the*V….…. Glassy and Chrystal Sea; not the Ocean, but the great washing Laver which in Solomon's Temple was call'd a Sea; but there of brass, here of more transparent metal. And yet some allusion may be unto the Laver in the Tabernacle, which is said Exod. 38. 8. to be made of the Looking-glasses of the women which assembled at the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation. See the Temple called a Throne, Esay 6. 1. Ier. 17. 12. Ezek. 43. 7. And such the whole Apocalyps supposeth the Throne to be in this Session. How come we else to have Souls under an Altar, Chap. 6. 9. a golden Altar of Incense before the Throne, ch. 8. 3. four Horns of the golden Altar before God, ch. 9. 13. the Temple, Courts and Altar to be measured, ch. 11. 1. the Ark of the Testament seen in the Temple, vers. 19. Angels coming out of the Temple, ch. 14. 15, 17, 18. the Harpers upon the brim of the Glassy-Sea or Laver, chaunting a*The Song of the Resormed Churches all the time the … are p… ring upon the Beast. Song of Deliverance from the Beast, as being but newly cleansed, and yet as soon as out of the water a-singing, when not yet come off from the Laver, ch. 15. 2. Temple of the Tabernacle of the Testimony opened in Heaven, vers. 5. Temple filled with smoke from the glory of God, (as the Temple and Tabernacle were at their dedication) vers. 8. But most invincibly manifest ch. 16. 17. where a voice comes out of the Temple of Heaven, from the Throne, saying, It is done?
2.*Vers. …. Round about this Throne and next unto it sit 24 crowned Presbyters, representing the Pastors of the Churches, which answer to the Priests and Levites about the Tabernacle, and their number alludes to their 24 Courses.
3. Lastly and outmost we have the*Vers. 6. Four Beasts, signifying the Church in the four Quarters of the world, and answering to the four Standards of Israel, distinguished by the same Beasts in their several Ensigns. Which Beasts are here said to be in *See the Author's clearer explication of foreign, upon Lud. de Die… 's Letter to him. pag. 569.the midst of the Throne and round about the Throne, that is, diametrally placed round about the Throne. For so must foreign be understood, quasi foreign else it will make an impossible sense.
And so will the supposed Soloecism in the Greek, vers. 9 and 10, in the words foreign and foreign, be avoided, if the words be taken not as a Narration of what S. Iohn saw the four Beasts and the Elders then to do, but what their Office was to do, and what they would do afterward as occasion required in the progress of the Visions; namely, As often as the four Wights had occasion to give glory and thanks unto God, the 24 Elders should fall down before him that sat upon the Throne, &c.
This was the Stage whither S. Iohn was called to be a Spectator, and where and whence he saw his Visions.
The Interpretation of the Seven Seals.
As Daniel in his Prophecy carries the Fates of the Church along with the State of the Empires and Kingdoms under which it lived; so doth S. Iohn here: the First Prophecy [The Seals] containing Fata Imperii, what should besal the Empire; the Second [The Book opened] Statum Ecclesiae, the Fates of the Church, until both do meet in one in Ecclesia regnante, when all the Kingdoms of the world shall become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ.
Fata Imperii, the argument of the Seals, are the successive States and Changes of the Roman Kingdom for the times thereof then yet remaining. The First Six Seals distinguishing the times preceding its Fall by the Characters of Six predominant Tempers. The Seventh is the Climacterical Seal, sounding the warlike alarm to the Empire's Ruine by Seven successive and languishing blows, signified by Seven Trumpets.
The First predominant Character which befalls the Empire is of Conquest, SEAL. 1. Chap. 6. 2.when Christ began to subdue the subjects thereof by the Sword of the Gospel; Of which the First Beast gives notice, because the Actors, Christ and his Apostles, came from his Quarter, ab Orient….
Aliter.
If the beginning of the Seals be from the destruction of Ierusalem, then may this First Seal be expounded of Political Conquest: Forasmuch as the Empire, after the death of Nero, being in extreme danger of dissolution, was again not only restored anew but much enlarged by Vespasian, Titus, &c. And so the First Beast gives notice at the opening thereof, because the Epocha of this conquering State is Excidium Hierosolymorum, an Oriental action, and therefore of his Quarter.
The Second predominant Temper is of Slaughter and Massacres in the Empire; as happened in the Bellum Iudaicum under Trajan and Adrian,SEAL. 2. Vers. 4. & postea in Bello Marc… manico. The Index is the Second Beast; because the first of those Emperors which began and managed the Times of this Temper was Trajan, a Spaniard, of the Second Beast's Quarter, ab Occidente.
3. The Third State was remarkable for establishment of Equity,SEAL. 3. Vers. 5. & procuratio rei frumentariae & annonariae in behalf of the City of Rome. The Index when this time began is the Third Beast, the first of the Emperors of this State belonging to his Quarter; Sep…imius Severus, Afer, Imperator à meridie. Eutropius, Solus ex omni memoria & antea & pòst ex Africa Imperator. Most interpret this Seal of Famine; but History … not an Event answerable. By Libra therefore I understand AEquilibrium Iustitiae. Such were the Laws of Severus; Legum conditor longè aequabilium, saith Aurelius Victor: and especially of Alexander Mammeae, who so much delighted in that Christian Maxime, Quod tibi fieri non vis, alteri nè seceris. For the prizing of provision, in the Text, I understand … Choenix of Wheat and three Choenixes of Barley for one and the …ame Denier, and a competency of Oil and Wine into the bargain, that is, a compleat sufficiency for the price of one day's hire; (such was foreign) By Choenix I understand Choenix Syriaca, which is said to contain quatuor cotylas, double to the other Choenix, which holds but two, and yet is called foreign. Spartianus de Severo, cap. 8. Rei frumentariae, quam minimam repererat, ità consul…it, ui excedens ipse vitâ septem annorum Canonem populo Romano relinqueret: ità ut quotidiana septuagena quinque millia modiorum expendi possent—Olei verò tantum reliquit, ut per quinquennium non solùm Vrbis usibus, sed & totius Italiae, quae oleo indigeret, sufficeret. Herodian. Frumenti summam primus adauxit. Lamprid… de Alexandro, Oleum quod Severus populo dederat (quódque Heliogabalus imminuerat) integrum restituit, &c. The colour of the Horse [Black] fits the severity and strictness of Iustice, yea Severus his person both for countrey and quality. Sed non est tanti.
The Fourth State was remarkable for concurrence of War,SEAL. 4. Vers. 8. Famine, Pestilence, (This, for ten years together,) as it is plain in Story. The Index, the Fourth Beast: the first Emperour of this State, Maximinus Thrax, being of his Quarter, Imperator ab Aquilone.
Thus the first Four Seals of the Six, as being of unequal times, and easy for their qualities to be confounded in the accommodation, it pleased the Holy Ghost therefore to distinguish them by their several references to the Four Beasts: but the other Two have no such need; the Character of their qualities will sufficiently serve to sever them.
The Fifth State therefore,SEAL. 9. Verse 9. which we may count from Aurelian, Ann. 270, or 268. (for thereabouts the former ended) unto Constantine, is notable for the Tenth Persecution by Diocletion, the greatest that ever the Ethnick Caesars raised against the Saints of Christ, in regard whereof the rest were but as Flea-bitings. This is typified by the Cry of the Souls under the Altar, How long, O Lord, Holy and True, dost thou not judge and avenge our bloud on them that dwell on the earth? And they had promise of present hearing, as soon as their Fellow-servants, which were yet behind, should come in; which was not to be long after.
The Sixth Seal is Terrae-motus, SEAL …. Verse 1….a great Earth-quake. That intestine Change of the Roman State begun with Constantine, and was fully settled with the death of Iulian, about the year 364. For an Earthquake implies not a Destruction, but an extraordinary Alteration and Change of the face of things: As an Earthquake changeth the positure of the Earth by exalting Valleys and depressing Hills, turning the Chanels and courses of Rivers, and such like. And was there not here the whole Politick Government as well as Religion altered, the Imperial Seat removed, the distribution of Provinces, Offices and Governments new moulded, &c? Was not the former State of the Empire turned topsie-turvy, when the low and trampled Valleys arose into Mountains, and the haughty Mountains were laid as low as the Valleys? And if the Roman Gods be any of the*Verse 13, 14. Stars or*Verse 13, 14. Hills here mentioned, we need not go farther for an Exposition of this Earthquake and the shock it caused in the world.
The SEVENTH SEAL, or Seven Trumpets.
The*Chap 8. 1. Seventh Seal, or Seal of Trumpets, brings forth the Ruine and miserable Downfall of the Roman State. This is that which the Martyred Saints in the Fifth Seal, prayed for, How long, O Lord, Holy and True, dost thou not judge and avenge our bloud upon this cruel Empire? They were answered, that some more of their Brethren must yet suffer as they had done. When they were once come in, then should the cry of their bloud be avenged upon that bloudy State. This now comes to be accomplished. And therefore when the Seventh Seal was opened, and the Trumpets were to sound, Christ, the Angel of the Covenant, offereth those Prayers of the Martyrs in a golden Censer upon the golden Altar before the Throne, Verse 3.that they might come into remembrance before God. And no sooner was the Incense of their Prayers ascended, but instantly the Seven Angels come forth with their Seven Trumpets to sound alarm for the Empire's Dissolution. For though Iosiah were a good King, and made a Reformation, yet must the bloud shed by Manasseh needs be avenged upon the Kingdom of Iudah. So although the Roman Emperors were now become Christians, yet would not God forget their former slaughters of his Servants, but require their bloud at the hands of that Empire.
The Epocha or beginning of these Trumpets was about the year 365. Now was the Censer, wherein the Martyrs Prayers were offered,Verse …. thrown down to the Earth; and there were Thundrings and Lightnings and an Earthquake: the meaning whereof may be otherways expounded, but was here even literally fulfilled in that stupendious Earthquake described by Ammianus Marcellinus, l. 26. c. 14. Horrendi tremores per omnem Orbis ambitum grassati sunt subitò, quales necfabulae nec veridicae nobis antiquitates exponunt. Paulò post lucis exortum densitate praviâ fulgurum acriùs vibratorum tremefacta concutitur omnis terreni stabilitas ponderis, &c. Now the Trumpets began to sound, which Ammianus c. 5. tells so happily as if he meant to be an Expositor. Hoc tempore (saith he) velut per universum Orbem Romanum Bellicum canentibus Buccinis, excitae saevissimae Gentes limites sibi proximos persultabunt. Gallias Rhaetiásque simul Alema…ni populabantur, Sarmatae Pannonias—Thracias diripiebant praedatorii globi Gothorum, &c.
Of these Seven Trumpets the first Four are lesser ones, and fall chiefly upon the West, and made way for the rising of the Antichristian State of the Beast or Kingdom of the False-Prophet. The last Three are greater and more terrible and more lasting, and therefore distinguished from the former by the name of WOES, verse 13.
The First Trumpet, TVBA … Verse ….which lights upon the Earth, was that terrible, furious and bloudy Hail-storm of the Nations of the North, (which Ammianus told us of even now) without intermission harrying, spoiling, burning and wasting the inhabitants and Citizens of the Empire, great and small, young and old, from the year 365, almost 45 years, but not yet, by setling therein, impairing or diminishing the Roman Dition.
The Second, TVBA 2. Verse 8.which fell upon the Sea, was the bloudy rending and destruction of the Amplitude of the Roman Iurisdiction in the West, from the time (viz. Ann. 410.) when Alaricus sacked Rome; and was occasioned by the swelling and burning ambition of Stilico, who called in the Goths, hoping, when the waters were thus troubled, to have made his Son an Emperor.
The Third Trumpet brought Lapsus Hesperi, TVBA 3. Verse 10.the fall of the Western Caesar, which after the death of the third Valentinian, When Gensericus with his Vandaels had again sacked Rome, fell by degrees out of the Orb of Sovereignty, though blazing a little as a Candle before extinction. By the fall of this Star the Rivers and Fountains suffered, the power of the Roman Presidents, Ministers and Courts of Iustice failing in the West for want of their wonted influence from that Star, the Western Caesareate being extinct in Augustulus, resembled, by reason of the then bitterness and sorrows, by a falling Star called Wormwood, vers. 11.
The Fourth Trumpet brings darkness upon the Roman Firmament by an Eclipse of the Sun,TVBA 4. Verse 12. Moon and Stars in the third part thereof; when in the Wars of the Greek Emperors with the Kings of the Goths in Italy, the remaining light of Rome's Majesty in the West was quite put out; after the year 542 the long-continued succession of the Roman Consuls ceasing, the Roman City taken by Totilas, and a third part thereof demolished, and the rest left for a while memorandum Fortunae ludibrium, without an inhabitant; and, lastly, the Ostrogothish Kingdom, which a while, as a blaze, continued the light of the dying Caesars in Italy, by Narses utterly extinguished.
WOE, WOE, WOE.
The Fifth Trumpet is the First Woe, TVBA 5. Ch. 9. 3.and brings the Saracen Locusts upon the world, proceeding out of the smoaky and darkning Seduction of Mahom…t, conjured up by the Angel of the bottomless pit: who, though a warlike people and well armed, yet had not power to destroy either the State of Caesars in New Rome, or the Papal Principality sprung out of the Empire's ruine in the Old, but only Scorpion-like to torment and vex them,Verse 5. 10. as their Tail or hindermost Troups out of Africk did Italy and Western Rome 150 years.
The Sixth Trumpet is the Second Woe, TVBA 6. Verse 14.and brings upon the Roman Provinces the barbarous and dreadful …n…ndation of the Turks, loosing them from the great River Euphrates, where they had been long before*Verse 15. prepared, and now let go as a plague for the ‖Verse 20.Idolatry of Christians, … only, as the Saracen Locusts, to plague and torment the Roman State, bu… in part t… utterly*Verse 15. slay and destroy it, as they have done in the Empire of Greece, which the Saracens had no power to do.
The Seventh and Last Trumpet is yet to come,TVBA 7. Ch. 11. 14. the entrance whereof is the Last Woe, wherein all the Reliques of the Roman Beast, with the last Principality of the City of Rome yet surviving, shall together with the rest of the enemies of Christ be utterly abolished in the Great Day of*Ch. 16. Armagedden; that all the Kingdoms of the world may become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. Ch. 11. 15.
Note, that when the Angel comes at the Seventh Trumpet, because the Event thereof is the common issue to*viz. the Prophecy of the Seals, and the Prophecy of the Book opened. both Prophecies, he therefore suspends it a while, till he hath fetch'd up (Chap. 11.) a transcurrent and through-running Vision of the Second Prophecy unto it, and then joyns them together in one and the same close, The Kingdoms of the world are become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ.