Joseph Mede · 54 of 69

The Mystery Of the Woman dwelling in the Wilderness. · Part 5

That is to say, she has deceived them with philtres, with medicated wine; θυμὸς here does not mean wrath or violent anger, but according to the Hellenistic use of the word, poison; for they conceive it to be synonymous with the Hebrew חֵמָה, which signifies sometimes wrath, sometimes poison. Hence, Deut. c. xxxii. v. 33. Sept. “Θυμὸς δρακόντων ὁ οἶνος αὐτῶν, καὶ θυμὸς ἀσπίδων ἀνίατος.” “Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the incurable venom of asps.” Also Job, c. xx. v. 16. “Θυμὸν δρακόντων θηλάσειεν, ἄνελοι δὲ αὐτὸν γλῶσσα ὄφεως;” that is, “he shall suck the poison of asps, the viper’s tongue shall slay him.” Add Psalm lviii. v. 4. “Θυμὸς αὐτοῖς κατὰ τὴν ὁμοίωσιν τοῦ ὄφεως,” “Their poison is like the poison of a serpent.” Vide also, if you will, Deut. c. xxxii. v. 24; Job, c. vi. v. 4. Nay, wherever the signification of poison occurs in the Old Testament, you will not see it expressed more than once in any other way than this, or by the word χολῆς. Now mention is twice made in the Apocalypse of οἶνος τοῦ θυμοῦ, or poisoned wine of this kind; of οἶνος τοῦ θυμοῦ τῆς πορνείας, the poisoned wine of fornication, in which, as I said, an amatory virus or philtre is meant, (according to which the same c. xviii. v. 23. φαρμάκεια, sorcery, a word suited to that meaning) and οἶνος τοῦ θυμοῦ τῆς ὀργῆς, the poisoned wine of indignation, which is the potion of those who undergo punishment; since by the former the Holy Spirit expressed the enticement to spiritual fornication from the custom of harlots conciliating love by philtres; by the latter, he alluded to the manner of the Jews, who were accustomed to offer to those who were to suffer death, a cup of wine, in which myrrh or some kind of aromatic bitter was mixed, for the purpose of bringing on a torpor. A potion of which kind, for this reason, is related to have been offered to our Saviour just after be had been affixed on the cross, but he refused to drink it. Matt. c. xxviii. v. 34. “They gave him wine mingled with gall,” μετὰ χολῆς μεμιγμένον, that is, wine of wrath, for χολὴ and θυμὸς mean the same. Now, by the word χολὴ, the evangelist meant something bitter in general, according to the use of the Greeks, (by whom wormwood is also called χολή). This St. Mark shows to have been myrrh, “And they gave him wine mingled with myrrh.” But myrrh in Hebrew מור, Syriac מורא, took its name from its excessive bitterness. And hence it seems to follow, that the prophets in depicting destructions, so often make use of the parable of the cup; as that which according to national custom it was usual to present to those who were about to die.

Such was the proclamation of the second angel, whom the third soon succeeded. Whatever new admonition he superadds, let us listen to with submissive attention.

The third angel, going beyond the two former, admonishes the worshippers of the beast how horrible a danger impended over them, if they still persisted in being his followers; and therefore persuades them, renouncing all delay, immediately to withdraw themselves from his society; that by this means they might consult their own safety, for those who adhered to him afterwards could not possibly be safe. Which preaching, indeed, being the most remarkable of all, was fulfilled in the labour of Luther, and his associates and successors; the consequence of which was the illustrious Reformation of the Churches, which we now behold, not by individual men, as was done at the voice of the preceding angel, but by provinces and tribes, to the assertion and purification of religion, every where shaking off the yoke of the beast. “And a third angel followed them (that is, the two former), saying with a loud voice, If any one worship the beast and his image, and receive the mark on his forehead, or on his hand, he also shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation, and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone before the holy angels, and before the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment ascendeth for ever and ever, and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.”

A terrible description of a terrible judgment, to which scarcely any thing similar occurs within the compass of the whole canon of Scripture. “The wine of the wrath of his indignation,” is the potion of punishment accustomed to be given to those who are about to die, as we observed on ver. 8. Pure wine, that is, wine not diluted with water, strongly inebriates, and still more, if different kinds of wine are mingled together; of which kind, therefore, some would understand to be meant here, by those words κεκερασμένου ἀκράτου, that is, mixed wine; since he would otherwise speak of things that oppose each other. But I am inclined to think, that ἄκρατον κεκερασμένον may be the same with pure wine mixed with myrrh, gall, frankincense, or a similar drug of bitter flavour, which was used to be put into a cup, called by the Jews the cup of malediction, after the manner of the nation; and that there is an allusion to it in the lxxvth Psalm, v. 9. according to the Septuagint. “Ποτήριον ἐν χειρὶ Κυρίου, οἴνου ἀκράτου πλῆρες κεράσματος,” “A cup in the hand of the Lord of pure wine full of mixture.” When the Chaldee has, “There is a cup of malediction in the hand of the Lord, of strong wine full of a mixture of bitterness, so as to take away the use of reason from the wicked.” For we said, that the potion was given to take away the use of reason from the dying person. But instead of what the Sept. has, pure wine, in the Hebrew it is ייותמד, red wine, which had not lost its colour by admixture with water. For there: were red wines in the Holy Land. The remaining part of the description is obvious.

It will be useful here, to observe the progress of this triple proclamation, and how the latter exceeds the former in importance. The first angel admonished only of one duty, that of worshipping God duly, according to the directions of the Gospel, and did not reprove the fault committed on this head. The second proceeding farther points at the crime of spiritual fornication, and that to be inevitably punished by death and destruction, but which it threatens at the time to Babylon alone, the chief leader and contriver of the crime, and not yet to the participators in it. But the third, the full measure of heinousness being fulfilled, denounces to the whole army of the beast, and to all who should continue in obedience to him, the most horrible and unspeakable torments, and that they would have neither end nor remission. Then follows, “Here is the patience of the saints, here are they who keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” As if he should say, This preaching will be the touchstone, to prove both the patience and obedience of the saints. Their patience indeed, if, acquiescing in the expectation of so terrible a punishment, of such as will compensate for all delay, they should by no means be disturbed at the daily successes of the beast; nor fall away in their minds in any degree to him by the rage of persecutions, with which he will assail the refractory, and those who are disobedient to his command; their obedience, truly “to the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus,” if, after having heard this threat, they without delay forthwith withdraw themselves from communion with the beast, and renounce his image, and mark. These are they “who keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus;” that is, who rightly and evangelically worship God in the faith of Jesus Christ, and on that account are called, not undeservedly, by the name of evangelical.

The virgin church having thus discharged her triple admonition, the sanction of it succeeds against her enemies, under the type of the harvest and the vintage; which, when once finished, the blessed remuneration of the just is no longer delayed, as is proved by that denunciation from Heaven delivered before the description of both. “I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth. Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours, and their works do follow them.”

I know that most refer this celestial declaration to former events, as for the purpose of consoling the saints, who are now about to suffer very grievous injuries from the beast, irritated by the preceding shout of exhortation. In which opinion I also concurred some time ago. But now, having weighed the matter more accurately, I incline to think, that it is to be referred rather to subsequent events, as an admonition of the near approaching resurrection and judgment under the seventh trumpet; the preparation for which would begin to take place in the following visions; so that the word ἄπαρτι, from this time, may be used not in respect of the subject exhibited in the preceding vision, but of that to be exhibited in the following one, which, without doubt, immediately precedes the resurrection of the dead and judgment. As if he had said, Now we are come to that state of things, that only one thing remains to be fulfilled, before the time in which the dead in the Lord shall rise to a blessed life. For so in the Gospel of St. Matthew, c. xxiii. ver. the last, our Lord says to the Jews, “Ye shall not see me ἄπαρτι, from thenceforth, until ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” That is, not from the moment of time in which he was speaking these words, but from the time of the Passover, which he was then about to celebrate; after which he no longer presented himself openly in the sight of the Jews. Now my reason for thinking this to be the case is threefold: First, that I do not remember any where in the sacred Scripture, that the day of death is pointed out as the day of recompense, but only the day of resurrection and judgment. Secondly, the denunciation from heaven, with a command to write, does not seem applicable, except to point out some remarkable turn of events. Undoubtedly a command of this kind is nowhere else to be found, except in the beginning of this entire prophecy. Lastly, there is an agreement in sense, if well-attended to, between this proclamation, and that at the sound of the seventh trumpet, ch. xi., where the time is said to be come, when “the cause of the dead,” (namely, those who died for the sake of Christ) “should be judged, and God should give reward to his servants the prophets, and to the saints, and to those who fear his name, both small and great, and should destroy those who destroy the earth.” So here, “Blessed are the dead from henceforth, who die in the Lord, that they may rest from their labours;” that is, they may henceforth lead a life secure from their ancient evils and calamities; (by which is intimated the extermination of enemies and tyrants;) “and their works do follow them;” that is, they shall obtain a most blessed reward for all their sufferings and all their good works.

Meanwhile, if this interpretation is admitted, I alter not the sense of the words, “those that die in the Lord,” by understanding those with the last words of the foregoing sentence, “not of any who sleep in the faith of Christ, but especially of the martyrs, who poured out their lives for Christ,” (for to such belongs the first resurrection,) so that I think with Beza, it may be rendered, who die on account of the Lord, or for the Lord’s sake. As in the Epistle to the Ephesians, c. iv. v. 1, “A prisoner in the Lord,” is a prisoner for the sake of the Lord, the same indeed as “the prisoner of Christ,” c. iii. v. 1.

In which sense the ancients (as we may conjecture from Tertullian) understood 1 Thess. c. iv. v. 16, “The dead in Christ shall rise first;” that is, the martyrs, who were delivered up to death for confessing Christ. See Tert. de Animâ, c. lv. Moreover, it is to be noted, that the ablative in the Latin, and so likewise the dative in the Greek, which signifies in some places the instrument, and mode of acting, denotes also the cause for which, or on account of which, a thing is done. “He strikes in anger; he is impelled by envy,” or the like. But since the Hebrews express this ablative or dative by the preposition ב, and in imitation of them the Greek Scriptures express it by ἐν, it follows from thence, that iv also signifies in the same place, the cause, on account of which a thing is done. Such a signification, indeed, with this particle, is not very frequent, but I have no doubt but diligent observation would supply more examples than occur to me at present. So much with reference to the heavenly proclamation. Now let us investigate the sense of this pair of visions, to which we observed it was a forerunner; and let us do this, as far as is allowable, in a future event, with the sobriety and modesty which become us. And first of the harvest, by which the primary step is taken towards consummation.

“And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sitting like the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle. And another angel went out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Put forth thy sickle and reap; for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe. And he who sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth, and the earth was reaped.”

The word harvest embraces three things,—the mowing down, the gathering in, and the threshing of the corn. Whence it follows, that it constitutes a two-fold parable in the sacred writings, and of a contrary meaning. Sometimes in that of slaughter and destruction, as of reaping and threshing; sometimes in that of restitution and salvation, in the sense of gathering in. An example of the former is to be met with in Jeremiah, ch. li. 33, where he thus speaks of the destruction of Babylon. “The daughter of Babylon is as a threshing-floor, the time of her threshing is come; yet a little while, and the time of her harvest will come.” Also Isaiah, ch. xvii. 5, &c. of the fall of Damascus, and the slaughter of Israel by Tiglathpileser. “And it shall be, as when the harvestman gathereth the corn, and his arm reapeth the ears.” But an example of the latter is scarcely any where else to be found than in the New Testament. “The harvest,” says our Saviour, “is great, but the labourers are few.” There are not wanting some, however, who interpret in this sense that complaint of Israel in Jeremiah, ch. viii. 20, “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.” The time is past in which we thought ourselves safe, and we are not saved. Let us search out, if possible, which of the figures the harvest sustains in the present passage from the order of those transactions, which the Holy Spirit has elsewhere represented to us concerning the same times of the Church. That the treading of the winepress, by which the vintage succeeding the harvest is accomplished, is the same with that bloody slaughter executed by him who sits on the white horse, ch. xix. 15, is manifest from what is inserted in the description of the rider. “He it is who treadeth the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of God Almighty.” Now this being an acknowledged datum, it follows of course, that the prophetical parables, which equally and immediately precede each, and without any other vision intervening, must either denote the same thing, or if they are different events, yet by some means connected and interwoven with each other. Since, therefore, here. the harvest immediately precedes the vintage, and there the preparation of the nuptials of the Lamb, together with the fall of Babylon precede that fierce slaughter, it follows indisputably, that either that preparation or destruction is the harvest of which we are in search, and that they relate to the same circumstance as the harvest does, or the harvest to the same as they do. If we were to say that the devastation of Babylon was the harvest, it would sufficiently agree both with the character of the type, which implies reaping and threshing, and particularly it would favour a little the example of Jeremiah, predicting the fall of the ancient Babylon, under the same figure. The passage is the same which I just now quoted. To this likewise must be added, that since both the harvest and the vintage, as they finish the year, denote the end and consummation of all things; but the harvest would precede the vintage in time; therefore, if it were certainly known that either were applied to signify the consummation of the Roman tyranny, the harvest would very appositely designate the destruction of the city, as the first-fruits of this full destruction; the vintage succeeding that harvest would point out the extinction of the whole kingdom of the beast, to follow the former at no long interval of time. Nor is there any thing to oppose this accommodation but that one circumstance, that the laying waste of Babylon, as we have hitherto presupposed, is not found to take place immediately before that dreadful slaughter, expressed likewise by the image of the vintage, ch. xix., but another event, subsequent, as it appears, to the laying waste of Babylon, namely, the preparation for the nuptials of the Lamb, or the embellishment of his bride. Will not then the harvest be a signification of that preparation? or (it that be unsuitable) of some other event to be transacted at the same time

But what, you will ask, is that preparation of the bride? What is it which is to be transacted at the same time with this? In truth, I do not see how that preparation of the bride can be any thing else than the conversion and collection of Israel, expected for so many ages; of her, who formerly, (according to our Saviour’s parable,) when invited to the nuptials of the king’s son, refused to come, but now hastens to meet him, promptly and prepared. For the Gentiles, as it appears, cannot possibly be called that bride, because they have been long ago, and for many ages, espoused to Christ. The Jews, therefore, are those who are yet expected to become the spouse of the Lamb.

But with this conversion and restoration of Israel, (by which she will be adopted into the virgin company of the Lamb, and will become a part of it,) will be joined the reaping or destruction of the Turkish empire, according to what we read at the sixth phial, but under another figure, that “the water of the great river Euphrates should be dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.” For the time of this phial manifestly agrees with the time of the preparation of the bride, since, as that was introduced between the destruction of Babylon and the last slaughter of the enemies of the Church, so this phial intervenes between that which is poured out on the throne of the beast, and the last phial. That is, the Church of Christ, as it was about to become double by the conversion of Israel; so each part appears to have, at that time, its own peculiar enemy; the former the Roman beast, with its uncircumcised origin; the latter, the Mohammedan empire, over a circumcised people, and of an Ismaelitish origin, ominous to the descendants of Isaac. Of the extermination of both of which, to be accomplished at the coming of Christ, why should not the harvest represent the one, and the vintage the other?

Moreover, to this interpretation of the harvest, the prophecy of Joel will afford, if not absolutely confirmation, yet at least some appearance of probability; from which both the image of the harvest and the vintage was taken. For it is manifest, that he is there treating of the time of the conversion of Israel, even from the first words of the Oracle, (Joel, ch. iii. v. 2.) “In those days, and in that time, when I shall bring back again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem; I will gather all nations in the valley of Jehosaphat, and will plead with them there for my people, and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and divided my land.” Then follows, in the suggested type of a warlike array, “Put ye in the sickles, for the harvest is ripe. Come, get ye down, for the winepress is full, the fats overflow, for their wickedness is great.”

Since, then, we may observe in this accommodation of the figure of the harvest, that the event transacted may be so compared, that either notion of the harvest, that of reaping and threshing as well as that of gathering in, may be adapted to it, the latter with reference to Israel gathered together into the garner of the Church; the former to the slaughter of enemies in conjunction with that event; yet as the matter here treated of is the last effort of the Church against its foes, I think that the notion of reaping and threshing is altogether to be preferred.

But whatever the harvest may be, the description proves that Christ himself as king will assuredly be the Lord of it, and the director of the work of reaping the corn. For to what other king than him is that title of the Son of man coming in the chariot of a cloud, attributed through the whole course of Scripture? So that, in my opinion, it is by no means safe to wrest it to any other meaning. It is rather to be collected, that the power of the Divinity in discharging the duties of that harvest, as well as in the vintage next to come, will be more conspicuous and illustrious than in any of those works, which were performed only in the names of angels.

Hitherto we have formed conjectures respecting the harvest. Let us now proceed to the vintage; which, as it usually does in the order of events, it is agreeable to reason that it should succeed the harvest.

“And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle. And another angel came out from the altar, having power over fire, and he cried with a great cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, for her grapes are fully ripe. And the angel put in his sickle upon the earth, and gathered the produce of the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress up to the bridles of the horses, for the space of a thousand six hundred furlongs.”

This is the description of the vintage; to the interpretation of which we shall with more certainty direct our aim, because the signification of the parable is less ambiguous, and the meaning of treading the clusters is more express, since the treading of the vintage in parabolical Scripture constantly denotes a fierce, deadly, and cruel slaughter. This is our first observation. And then those words about treading the winepress of the wrath of God, inserted in that description, show that this is the same with that great slaughter in ch. xix. as I have just now observed. Therefore also, it will be the same with “the battle of the great day of the Lord God Almighty,” at the last phial; for that the deadly slaughter in ch. xix. is the same as that, we cannot doubt, since both arc the last destruction of the same enemy; for both ultimately impend over the beast, the false prophet, and their confederates. But it is impossible there should be more than one last slaughter of the same persons. Now, if our vintage signifies the same destruction with those, it must also impend over the same enemies, and therefore over the beast, and the false prophet. The vine, therefore, or vineyard of the earth, of which mention is here made, is the dominion of the beast. The grapes ripe for gathering are the followers of the beast, swelling with the guilt of blood, ripe for judgment. The lake, in the last place, or winepress, is the place of slaughter, the same in truth as in the seventh phial, interpreted according to the Hebrew, is called Armageddon; perhaps because there the troops or forces of the beast will be extirpated by a deadly destruction. For arma means חדבוא, destruction; gedon, or geddon, גדון, troop, army, or their army. “He gathered them together,” says he, “in a place called in the Hebrew language Armageddon. (the books published by Plautinus have only the single Δ, Armagedon.) And the seventh angel poured out his phial in the air, and a great voice came out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done.” But where the winepress, or place for treading the grapes will be, is yet hid among the secret things of God; nor is it on that account to be too curiously investigated by us, nor to be pointed out, until either the event shall disclose it, or a state of things more nearly advanced to it, shall perhaps afford some indication of it. It will be allowable however to observe, without any charge of temerity, that from so accurate a measurement of the space, for which the slaughter should extend, it may seem that the Holy Spirit directs our attention to some region, which stretches one thousand six hundred furlongs in length, for he shows us that the carnage shall take place without the city, for so many furlongs; that is, if I am not mistaken, in the region or dominion of the city. Hence it follows, that some have thought the Holy Land was marked out by that circuit, as what accurately contains so many furlongs in its length, that is, 200 Italian miles, though not more than 160 Greek, which Jerome reports in his epistle to Dardanus was the length of the Holy Land. For the Greeks, they say, measured their mile by ten furlongs, each of which were a hundred paces; but the pace (which they call orgya) was six Roman feet; so that in the whole a Greek mile contained 6000 Roman feet. The Romans, on the contrary, define the pace by five feet, the furlong by 125 paces, the mile by eight furlongs, that is, only 5000 feet. Whence it comes to pass, that the Greek mile, though it agrees with the Roman in the number of 1000 paces, is yet greater than the Roman by a fifth part. So that 200 Roman miles make no more than 160 Greek.

This is the sum of the argument. Besides, it is not altogether unimportant, in addition to this conjecture, that the name of the place is called in the Hebrew language Armageddon, as if it were to be in the land of the Hebrews. But after all, by what means could this possibly take place? Indeed, to those who imagine Antichrist is to come from the East, this opinion is very natural and easy; but not so to us, unless some one perhaps should think it probable, that the false prophet, after the overthrow of Rome, should migrate into the East, and there fix his seat; which there are not wanting some among the followers of the beast who maintain, that is, that before the last day of judgment, the Roman pontiff shall have his habitation at Jerusalem. For certainly, that the beast with his affairs at home, placed in such a state, and in such jeopardy in the West, as is supposed, should again (as formerly in the expedition to Jerusalem) lead an army into Palestine, leaving many enemies behind him, and there at length be entirely put an end to, cannot be affirmed with any show of probability. But farther, that we who assert a Western Antichrist may not be inferior on this side to those who suppose an Eastern one, there is also a place in the neighbourhood, with which the assigned number of furlongs agrees; for instance, the Stato della Chiesa, or the possessions of the Roman Church, which, from the city of Rome to the mouth of the Po, and the marshes of Verona, extend to the space of 200 Italian miles, that is, 1600 furlongs.

But whither am I digressing? Let us at length impose a restraint on curiosity, in which perhaps we have hitherto too much indulged. Let us come to other matters which will be more worth our consideration. And therefore, in the first place, that the gatherer of the grapes, and the treader of the winepress, are not the same person; but, as the offices of the vintager and the winepresser are different, so likewise they have different agents; the vintage or gathering in, an angel furnished with a vine-hook the treading, Christ himself, as King, accompanied with heavenly horsemen, which may clearly appear from the vision of the xixth chapter (for I have often quoted it). For there St. John saw “heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and he that sat upon it was called faithful, and true, and in righteousness does he judge, and make war,”” and he was clothed with a garment dipped in blood, and he was called by name, The Word of God.”—“And the armies that were in heaven followed him on white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.”—“And out of his mouth proceeded a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, and he treadeth the winepress of the indignation and wrath of God Almighty.” Can any thing be said more clearly? And therefore, in the context on which we are throwing light to the utmost of our ability, it is by no means said that the angel who gathered or cut off the clusters, was the same as trod the winepress, but only, that he cast the gathered clusters into the winepress, which being done, “the winepress was trodden without the city;” by whom, unless by Christ the King, proceeding from heaven, with his celestial troop? That doubtless is what the Holy Spirit would signify by the mention of horses immediately subjoined; “And the blood came out of the winepress, even to the horses’ bridles.” For why is that allusion to horses inserted, unless to admonish us by this token, that the winepress was trodden by him to whom that equestrian force belonged? To circumscribe the matter then in few words, this is the sum of the vision respecting the vintage. An angel vintager, with the assistance of the saints, the presidency over whom was committed to him for this purpose, will prune and cut off the clusters of the beast, and, during his pruning, will cause them to be gathered together at Armageddon, and those who are gathered, the Lord Jesus Christ will at length tread under at his coming; according to what St. Paul says of the “man of sin,” (who is this very beast,) that he shall be destroyed by the Lord “with the brightness of his coming.”