It is unfounded then that the period of the Seals, in Rev. 6, “extends from Christ's Advent to the end of time” (p. 4); it is at least equally so that “after the opening of the Seventh Seal John commences again at the initial point from which he had first proceeded.” Both series are expressly and in the plainest terms declared to be “the things which shall be” (Rev. 1:1919Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter; (Revelation 1:19)), and “which must be (4:1), hereafter,” or (more definitely) after “the things which are,” the state comprised by the seven churches in chaps. 2., 3. The vision in chaps. 4. 5. is exclusively future, and must be accomplished before the Seals and the Trumpets can begin. The crowned and enthroned elders, &c., are in their due positions on high before a Seal is opened; and the Seals are all opened before the first Trumpet is blown. There is only a brief but solemn silence in heaven “about half-an-hour” between the first series and the second. What can exceed the monstrous interpretation of the ancient commentators, such as Victorinus and Tychonius, that this means the saints' eternal rest Yet this wild idea, which has not a shade even of plausible appearance to commend it, has prevailed from early days to our own. It is the less reasonable, as the same writers profess to see eternity in the palm-bearing Gentiles before the seventh Seal was opened. This too we have already noticed as a blunder, but at least intelligible if not intelligent: whereas their notion of the half hour's silence, on any feasible principle, is neither. It is a marvel of credulity without reason and against scripture.
Nor is it true that, after the sounding of the seventh Trumpet, a return is made to “the first origin of the church” (ib.). For there is not a trace of “her history” beyond chaps. 2. 3. After that the symbol of the saints glorified is seen as the four-and-twenty elders in heaven, till this yields to that of the bride, the Lamb's wife, when the due moment comes to present the bridals of the Lamb. What the Bp. with a crowd of predecessors calls the church (in Rev. 12) is really the symbol of Israel about to appear on the scene, mother of a Son, Male of might, Who is to shepherd all the nations with a rod of iron. Who this great personage is ought not to be inscrutable but most obvious. It is Christ, come of Israel according to flesh (as all know, and both Testaments witness), Head and Bridegroom of the church, not her Son, as perverse misinterpretation alleges. No! The Revelation clearly distinguishes the woman of chap. 12. from her of chaps. 19., 21., 22. The church is the bride in this book (as the great world-church is the harlot); while the mother is Israel, seen in God's purpose of glorious power as she is destined to in fact, but in sorrow before that time come. For also the dragon is invested with the form of the Roman empire to oppose and devour, so that she must again flee into the wilderness till the day dawn. There are undoubtedly in John's Revelation, as in Paul's Epistles, “some things hard to be understood, which the uninstructed and unestablished wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their destruction “; but the grand outlines here as elsewhere are distinct, and convict the mass of commentators of inattention to scripture.
The truth is, as we may state in brief, that “the beast” had only been named in its antagonism to the Two Witnesses in chap. 11. and the general stream of prophecy to the close. Then in chap. 12. connected with “the ark of God's covenant seen in His temple” (which verse is its proper beginning) we have retrogression to give first the complete history of that portentous power with God's ways in good and against evil. These bring in the Seven Vials, and the descriptive chapters that follow on the corrupt woman and city Babylon and her fall, before the heavenly marriage with the appearing of the Lord Jesus and the Millennial reign. Is it possible to conceive a clearer or more certain view of the order of events in chaps. 19., 20. and up to 21:1-8? There a necessarily retrogressive vision is given about the holy bride and her relation to the kings and nations; just as chaps. 17., 18. were a retrogressive description of the great whore to explain what her corrupting relations were to the kings and nations, which at length drew down divine judgment.
In other words, no person that understands the Book of Revelation questions either the parentheses that occur at distinct and unmistakable points, nor the clear retrogression at chap. 12. fair wise and necessary reason. So it is with the descriptive returns of chaps 17., 18., and of chaps. 21:9-21:5, which are introduced in a way precisely analogous, as if to intimate to the reader of any discernment that they answer to each other in contrast. Otherwise the book is strictly consecutive, as indeed the inspiring Holy Spirit has made indelibly plain to all who heed the strongly defined proofs of its internal order. Bp. Wordsworth is, like his guides of antiquity, altogether hazy and hap-hazard. He slights, as they did, the landmarks which God has given us through the prophet. Neither he nor they perceived the principles of its structure, but they caught at appearances here and there which have no bearing on the relative bearing of its parts. Thus, as all began with guess work, no considerate Christian can wonder that all has resulted in confusion.
But it is surprising that a pious and learned man, as I gladly believe Dr. W. to have been, should so misstate the views in the most ancient remains on the Millennial prophecy. Why cite Bede (8th cent.) and Haymo (9th)? He knew perfectly well that Justin-Martyr, as well as the pseudoBarnabas, Irenasus (an Asiatic godly bishop of Lyon in Gaul A.D. 177) who wrote in Greek and Tertullian who wrote in Latin, Hippolytus bp. of Portus Romans Methodius bp. of Tire, and Victorinus, all the three martyrs, and Lactantius the rhetorician father, believed and taught a literal reign of Christ and the risen saints over the earth. Origen, learned but heterodox, was the only one (those excepted who denied the genuineness of the book) of the pre-Constantinian writers who differed in principle as an extreme allegorist, though he did not live to comment on the Revelation. From Constantine's time indeed writers began to imagine, as it was not to be wondered at perhaps, a present millennium, though not all in the same sense. But it is unnecessary to speak of later Fathers, as I attach not the smallest authority to any of them, however early.
However this may be, the notion of the millennium advocated by the late bp. of Lincoln, no matter who held it, is in every respect absurd. What contempt of the Apocalyptic order to say that John “reascends once more” (p. 5)! What ignorance of chap. 20. to fancy that it declares what Christ had done for the church since His incarnation? How He had bound Satan though the N.T. is express throughout to the contrary. See 1 Cor. 5:55To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. (1 Corinthians 5:5); 2 Cor. 2:11; 11:3; 12:711Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices. (2 Corinthians 2:11)
3But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. (2 Corinthians 11:3)
7And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. (2 Corinthians 12:7); Eph. 4:27; 6:12; 127Neither give place to the devil. (Ephesians 4:27)
12For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. (Ephesians 6:12) Thess. 3:18; 2 Thess. 2:22That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. (2 Thessalonians 2:2); 1 Tim. 1:20; 3:6, 7; 4:1; 5:1520Of whom is Hymeneus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme. (1 Timothy 1:20)
6Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil. 7Moreover he must have a good report of them which are without; lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. (1 Timothy 3:6‑7)
1Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; (1 Timothy 4:1)
15For some are already turned aside after Satan. (1 Timothy 5:15); James 4:77Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. (James 4:7) Peter 5:8; 1 John 4:1, 61Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. (1 John 4:1)
6We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error. (1 John 4:6); Rev. 2:9, 13, 24; 3:99I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan. (Revelation 2:9)
13I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is: and thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth. (Revelation 2:13)
24But unto you I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, and which have not known the depths of Satan, as they speak; I will put upon you none other burden. (Revelation 2:24)
9Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee. (Revelation 3:9), to say nothing of chaps. 9:11, 20, 12:17, 13:4, 16:13, 14, 19:20. Christ's preservation of His servants in every age no believer contests. But the vision speaks of their reigning; whereas the N.T. reproves such a present thought as the practical folly of the Corinthians, and insists on the contrary that they must suffer now, until “that day.” Undoubtedly Christ has done His infinite work, and carries on His intercession and care in every suited and blessed way for us on high, till He appears the second time unto salvation. But this, or His calling to heavenly glory all that are true to Him, or His ordaining strength out of the mouth of babes and sucklings, what has it all to do with a saintly resurrection to reign with Him?
It is a miserable bathos to conclude, that “St. John shows in the twentieth chapter of the Apocalypse that the failings, which had been described in such vivid colors in the preceding Visions of this book—under the Seals, the Trumpets, and the Vials—were due to themselves; and that all God's acts toward man are done in equity and love” (pp. 5, 6). A Jew might have said far more; a heathen almost as much. John shows this in Rev. 20! The only thing really shown is how utterly, with the one exception of chaps. 17 and 18., Dr. Chris. W. misunderstood the book as a whole, and this chapter in particular: else he never could have conceived an inference so pitiful and even imbecile. And this is the real moral to be drawn: that a man, be he ever so respected and able otherwise, should seek to comprehend a book before he writes. Think of his adding, “This twentieth chapter, then, according to this view, is a summary of the Apocalypse” !!! Beyond doubt, “it is in perfect harmony with the whole.” It is the moral picture and bright issue of what he calls “this sublime drama.” And when so regarded, it gives no countenance to Dr. W.'s Anti-millenarian notions.