090. Chapter V (Revelation 8-11)
CHAPTER V The six first trumpets
Now the six first trumpets contain several steps and degrees of ruining the imperial government of the empire itself when turned Christian, by several wars and incursions of barbarous nations upon it, whereof trumpets are suitably made the denouncers; and this in revenge of so much Christian blood as was spilt when the empire was heathenish: even as the captivity of Babylon did break the Jewish state for shedding innocent blood in the time of Manasseh, at which time that state was idolatrous, though he and all Judah did afterwards turn to the true worship of God again. And according to the division of the empire, east and west, accordingly was God’s method in the ruining:—
First, Of the western parts of it, by the Goths and Vandals, who utterly shattered the government of the occidental emperors, and broke it into ten kingdoms; over which the Pope succeeded.
Then, secondly, after that, overturning the oriental part:—
1. By the Saracens; of whom Mohammed was the head, who wrung one great part of the eastern empire, in Arabia, Egypt, and Assyria, out of the emperor’s hands, and subjected those dominions unto Mohammedanism. And then—
2. By the Turks, professing Mohammedanism also; who conquered and subdued, not only what the Saracens before them had done, but also that other part of the eastern empire remaining still Christian, namely, in Natolia and in Greece, over which the Greek emperors, successors of the Roman, till then continued, but were now wholly subjected, together with Constantinople itself, the seat of their empire, unto the Turks, who thus alone possess the whole eastern empire unto this day. And according to this method of ruining the empire, the trumpets are answerably divided by the Holy Ghost. The four first trumpets, which are made the lesser evils and miseries, are the wars of the Goths and Vandals, in four several incursions, Revelation 8; but the two latter, the fifth and sixth trumpets, which are made the woe-trumpets, Revelation 8:13, Revelation 9:12, Revelation 11:14, and so are distinguished from the former, are those infinite calamities and inbondagements which, were brought upon the eastern part of the empire by the Saracens’ wars and conquests, who are the fifth trumpet, and by the Turks, who are the sixth trumpet; both longer for continuance, and greater for extremity, than the four first, and that by far.
Now to give a little general light into these trumpets, as I have done into the seals. The trumpets are the vengeance upon the empire itself, for the blood of the saints therein shed; which therefore was promised unto the martyrs under the fifth seal, Revelation 6:11, whose prayers are here, Revelation 8:5, offered up by Christ, the time being come for the vengeance promised, and so the trumpets sound.
Section I The exposition of the 8th chapter.—The four first trumpets signifying the ruin of the western empire. The four first trumpets are chiefly upon the western empire extended all over Europe; which was performed by four steps or degrees. The first falling on the earth, Revelation 8:7; the second on the sea, Revelation 8:8; the third on the rivers, Revelation 8:10; the fourth on the sun, moon, and stars, Revelation 8:12.
You must remember, as before was said, that kingdoms and empires are represented in Scripture by a world that hath heaven, earth, sea, &c., as Jeremiah 4:23. Wherein—
1. The earth, and grass, and trees thereon, are the lower sort of people, both the richer and poorer; as, Zechariah 11:2, ‘Howl, fir-tree; for the cedar is fallen; because all the mighty are spoiled: howl, O ye oaks of Bashan; for the forest of the vintage is come down.’
2. The sea is the extent of the jurisdiction of an empire or kingdom over several dominions. Therefore Rome is said to sit on many waters, and to arise out of the sea, which is but the collection of many waters; that is, many nations. The like phrase to which is used of the Babylonish monarchy over many kingdoms; they are called ‘her sea,’ Jeremiah 51:36; Jeremiah 51:44, compared: ‘Therefore thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will plead thy cause, and take vengeance for thee; and I will dry up her sea, and make her springs dry.’ ‘And I will punish Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he hath swallowed up: and the nations shall not flow together any more unto him; yea, the wall of Babylon shall fall.’ And the many nations under the Assyrian monarchy are so called, Ezekiel 31:4, ‘The waters made him great, the deep set him up on high with her rivers running round about his plants, and sent out her little rivers unto all the trees of the field.’
3. The rivers are the several cities, and magistrates over them, who have a lesser kind of jurisdiction over those cities or provinces.
4. By the sun, moon, and the other stars in this world, are meant the superior magistrates, and the glory of them, as Isaiah 13:10, ‘For the stars of heaven, and the constellations thereof, shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.’ Jeremiah 15:9, ‘She that hath borne seven languisheth; she hath given up the ghost: her sun is gone down while it is yet day; she hath been ashamed and confounded; and the residue of them will I deliver to the sword before their enemies, saith the Lord.’
Now these four trumpets contain four several degrees of calamities by wars that befell the western empire, and the city of Rome, the head of that empire, by the incursions of the Goths and Vandals, from the year of Christ 400 to the year 540. Of which— The first harrowed the earth, the people of that empire, as wars at first used to light most heavy upon them. It proceeded to no further harm than the burning up of the trees and grass; as, Revelation 8:7, ‘The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth; and the third part of the trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.’ The second fell on the sea; for the Goths did break off from the imperial yoke those nations that were subject to it, and gave them opportunity to set up ten kingdoms, which remain in Europe to this day, beginning in France, anno 413; and by 450, all the ten were up, as the chronicles shew. And this rending of the kingdoms from it, with the burning of that great mountain, the sacking of Rome itself, which, as Babylon of old, Jeremiah 51:25, is called a ‘destroying mountain,’ as overshadowing all cities; and her sacking by Cyrus is there called the ‘burning of the mountain;’ so this spoiling and sacking of Rome by Alaricus, king of the Goths, anno 410, is called the ‘burning of the mountain,’ Revelation 8:8 : ‘And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea; and the third part of the sea became blood.’ The third trumpet produceth the fall of that bright star which is called ‘a great star burning as a lamp,’ that is, a blazing star, or comet; which was the utter extinguishing and putting down of emperors, anno 476, who ceased in Augustulus, whoso fall is expressed like that of the king of Babel’s, Isaiah 14:12, ‘How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer,’ or morning-star, ‘son of the morning!’ Which prince, upon his fall, hath his name given him, Wormwood, for that he was a prince of bitterness and sorrows. And together with him, many provincial cities and magistrates (which are called rivers and fountains) had their dignity taken from them; and this is the third trumpet, Revelation 8:10-11, ‘And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; and the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.’
Rome now being in the hands of the Goths, was the seat of those kings that won it, who yet conserved in it the senators, consuls, and supreme magistrates, in their ancient glory. But then comes the fourth trumpet: Revelation 8:12, ‘And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise.’ And this totally deprives this city of Rome of her ancient form of government, under consuls, senators, &c., with the glory and majesty of which it had shined many hundred years, before ever the imperial power was placed over it; and therefore that government is here called the sun, &c., because of the glory and majesty of that state, under which it had won to itself the monarchy of the world; which ancient government had still continued under the emperors, but was now wholly and utterly subverted; and this was done in the last war, anno 542. Here was the glory of the western empire and Rome utterly extinguished, but that the Pope (whom you shall find in the 13th chapter, when we come to the book-prophecy) obtains a power there, though upon another title than these emperors had, over these ten kingdoms, and builds up another Rome upon the ruins of the old, and so possesseth the seat of the former beast, the empire. But because the title he pretends is the title of the church, although a false one, therefore his story comes not in in this seal-prophecy, but in the church-prophecies, Revelation 13. But these four trumpets that fall upon the west are but lesser evils in respect of those that are to fall upon the eastern part, which during all these alterations in the west stands entire and whole, professing the Christian faith. The other two trumpets, which are their portion, Revelation 9, do, for continuance and extremity of calamities, infinitely exceed the other; and therefore they have this preface to them, Revelation 8:13, ‘Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabitants of the earth by reason of the voices of the other trumpets, that are yet to sound!’ for so God ordered it, as his manner is, that that eastern part, standing longest, should be reserved unto the sorer punishment.
Section II The exposition of the 9th chapter.—The fifth and sixth trumpets betoken the ruin of the eastern empire, which was first broken by the Saracens, and at last utterly destroyed by the Turks, A.D. 1453.
Here the fifth trumpet sounds, which produceth the falling of a star from heaven, which opens the bottomless pit, and lets out smoke as out of a furnace, which darkens the sun and air, and lets out an innumerable company of locusts, whose cruel description you have, Revelation 9:7-10, ‘And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns of gold, and their faces were as the faces of men. And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions. And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle. And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months;’ who torment men so that they shall seek death, but shall not find it. Such shall be the calamities of those times. By all which is set out the bringing in of Mohammedanism, the greatest imposture that ever the world knew, which darkens the sun and air by putting out the light of Christian profession. And this was done by Mohammed, who is that star that fell from the profession of Christianity, and opened hell to bring forth that damned religion of his, making himself the prophet of God; unto whom an innumerable company of Arabians, his countrymen,—who are here called locusts for their multitudes, as the Midianites and Amalekites are also called, Judges 7:12,—did cleave, and set him up as king: Revelation 9:11, ‘And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.’ Wringing from out of the hands of the eastern empire Arabia, Egypt, Assyria, Armenia, and much of Asia the Less, and extending their dominion further over Persia, East India, and a great part of Africa and Spain, they became almost as great an empire as that of Rome had been, although this dominion of Mohammed extended another way, yet withal possessing the one half of the eastern empire. Only these are bidden by God not to ‘hurt the servants of God sealed in their foreheads,’ Revelation 9:4, for God had some true believers in that part of the eastern empire who yet remained Christian; and among them God had some also whom you read to have been beforehand sealed, Revelation 7:3, ‘saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads,’ ere that any trumpets blew. Such was God’s care to prevent all hurt unto them, of which I shall afterwards particularly speak. And this kingdom began to be set up anno 630, and continued many hundred years.
Then succeeds the sixth trumpet, which is the second woe-trumpet, and ordained to bring calamities on the other part of the eastern empire, which was left standing still under the successors of the Roman monarchy, and professing the Christian religion in Asia the Less, and in Greece, known commonly in historians by the name of the empire of Greece; to ruin which, God had ready prepared four angels, with four several armies of horsemen, which amounted to 200,000,000, as Revelation 9:14-16, ‘saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men. And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them;’ which armies, with the angels their leaders, being a long while restrained, lay hovering about the borders of the river Euphrates. Whom the angel of this trumpet lets loose by the command of God, like so many furies, to fall upon the last part of this eastern empire remaining, and also to conquer those other dominions which the Saracens, under the fifth trumpet, had before overrun. Now, according to all the characters and footprints which we find in the Turkish stories, no prophecy doth or can more punctually describe any nation or event than this doth the Turks, and their irruption upon the eastern empire; who, when they came first out of their native country, about the year 1040 after Christ, did seat themselves first by the river Euphrates, and were divided into four several governments or kingdoms, known commonly in historians by these four names—first Iconian, seated at Iconium; the second at Aleppo; the third at Damascus; and the fourth at Bagdat, or Babylon, bordering on the river Euphrates. Who having lain hovering thereabouts for the space of two hundred years, did, about the year of Christ 1300, overrun all Natolia, or Asia the Less, and joining all into one kingdom under Ottoman, the forefather of the present Great Turk, did not cease till they had won Constantinople itself and all Greece, the empire of which they put down, which was now the only relic of the ancient Roman empire, and this in the year 1453, which is a hundred and eighty-six years since;[6] who possess that whole eastern empire unto this day; for the number of the Turk, which is an hour, a day, a month, and a year, is not yet fulfilled or expired, being by computation three hundred and ninety-six years from his first breaking out. The raising of the Turkish empire by Ottoman in Asia the Less, was a.d. 1300.[7] [6]
[7] Laonicus Chalcocond. de Rebus Turcicis, lib. i.
Section III The exposition of the 7th chapter.—Why reserved till after that of the 8th and 9th.—Who are intended by the hundred and forty-four thousand persons that were sealed in their foreheads.
Having given you the meaning of the six trumpets, Revelation 8, 9, I must now return to shew you the meaning of those twelve thousand out of every tribe, in all a hundred and forty-four thousand, which you read of Revelation 7, and to tell you who they are that were there beforehand sealed. For though God, to shew his care, is said to seal them before these trumpets blew, yet I could not tell you who they were so fitly until after you should have heard upon what parts of the world these trumpets chiefly blew. The persons sealed are, Revelation 7:3, called ‘servants of God,’ so that they are true believers; they are also called Jews, not that they were so by birth, both for that the company they grow up into, and of whom these are the predecessors, are said to be ‘out of all nations, kindreds, and tongues,’ Revelation 7:9, and therefore are of the Gentiles; as also because the Jews have generally been hardened all along the times of this prophecy, to this day. But the Revelation, speaking in the language of the Old Testament and the types thereof, calls true believers Jews, and the Israel of God: Galatians 6:16, ‘And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God;’ and false and idolatrous Christians it calls Gentiles, as Revelation 11:2, ‘But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.’ ‘Who say they are Jews, and are not,’—that is, profess themselves Christians, and are not,—‘but do lie,’ Revelation 3:9.
These are numbered up by thousands, in allusion to ‘the thousands of Israel,’ as the phrase commonly is in Moses’s writings,—Israel’s seventy-two persons brought into Egypt being now multiplied by thousands,—as Numbers 10, 31. And these are said to be sealed, in allusion to that sealing of the mourners before the captivity of Babylon, Ezekiel 9 : so these, before the miseries and captivity of these trumpets, as those that were to be preserved under them in all ages. God preserving by a kind of miracle, (for it is no other to consider it,) in the midst of all this Mohammedan tyranny, both under Turks and Saracens, in the eastern part of the world, thousands of true believers, even a hundred and forty-four thousand; as he did, under the tyranny of Ahab, preserve seven thousand that did not bow the knee to Baal; and as he did the like number of a hundred and forty-four thousand under the like antichristian tyranny in the west, as in Revelation 14 in the book-prophecy will appear. Only there, Revelation 14, they are more roundly in the general summed up together, to the number of a hundred and forty-four thousand; whereas here they are only reckoned by twelve several particular parcels, twelve thousand out of the twelve tribes: whether to shew their more scattered and divided condition, happily alluding to the twelve tribes, then, when the apostles wrote, scattered (as James speaks, Revelation 1:1) in those eastern parts; or if not so, yet to the twelve tribes, as living apart in several quarters of the land of Judea, and not as assembled at Jerusalem in the temple. So likewise these dwelling scatteredly in several nations, which were to be overcome by the trumpets, not assembled in public worship or churches, such as were acceptable to God, but remaining single; they are numbered by a set number, to shew that they shall be few. For this defining of their number is in opposition to the ‘innumerable company’ that are to grow out of them, as Revelation 7:9, ‘After this, I saw a great multitude, which none could number;’ and their number being multiplied by twelve, as their root, and a thousand, hence it is a long number, extending in length much further than in breadth;[8] to show that he speaks not of Christians as in one age arising to this number, but through many ages continuing. And they are multiplied by twelve to shew their breed and kind to be from the apostles, and of the apostolic faith, which, Revelation 21:14, is made the mystery of this number, ‘And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.’ And they are presented in one uniform state during all that time, even unto the New Jerusalem; of which, because these and their successors are to be made partakers, therefore it is that those promises of the New Jerusalem, and the representation of it, come in from the 9th to the end, to shew their partaking therein, as the reward of the great tribulation they come out of: Revelation 7:14-15, ‘And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of the great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them.’
Now these seem to be a differing company from that hundred and forty-four thousand in the 14th chapter: for those there do not remain till the New Jerusalem, in that dark and loose condition, upon Mount Sion, but long before do break forth into a separation from Antichrist, and set up glorious temples, filled visibly with the presence of God, as smoke, out of which come the vials; but these continue in one uniform condition, still alike, until the very approach of the New Jerusalem, and do then come newly out from under a sore and long bondage, here called ‘great tribulation,’ and are presented as more scattered and divided, as being more spread over the face of the earth, singly here and there, and therefore reckoned up by several tribes; whereas those there are summed up together only in their total number. They are alike, being but a few both of them, and in like times of darkness and desolation; yet with this difference, that the one continues to the very New Jerusalem, but the other long before grows up to a glorious light, and then outgrows that number.
Now, who these hundred and forty-four thousand are, out of whom, as being the predecessors of them, do coma that ‘innumerable company,’ that shall, together with the Jews, possess the New Jerusalem, is made the inquiry of John, and is one of the wonders of this book; which therefore one of the twenty-four elders would have John especially to mark and observe, as a strange thing, beyond the expectation and imagination of men, that God should ever take those, so numerable a company, into so great a privilege, as to be made denizens of the New Jerusalem, and have their names found there. This you may observe by the question which the elder asketh John, to provoke and stir up his observation, Revelation 7:13, ‘What are these? and whence come they?’ Thence! where, when you are told, you will scarce believe that God should intend this so great a privilege unto such, even the poor Christian elect believers, dispersedly scattered over the eastern parts of the world, the now Turkish dominions, which were anciently called the eastern empire, and the churches therein, called the Grecian churches. And for this I take the Holy Ghost’s own designation, and as it were his pointing with the finger at them, to be my guide and warrant for this interpetation; as also the characters of, and notes of difference of, the hundred and forty-four thousand here and in Revelation 14.
1. It is evident their sealing here is for their preservation from hurt—as Revelation 7:3, ‘saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads’—from the four winds that were to be let loose, mentioned Revelation 7:1, ‘And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree;’ by which are meant the cruel blasts of devastating and depopulating wars of fierce and cruel nations, dashing against each other, as winds use to do. Thus the wars that scattered Elam, or Persia, in Jeremiah’s prophecy, are expressed, Jeremiah 49:36, ‘And upon Elam will I bring the four winds from the four quarters of heaven, and will scatter them toward all those winds; and there shall be no nation whither the outcasts of Elam shall not come.’ Now these wars, or winds, are all one with the blasts of the ensuing trumpets, Revelation 8:9; for to prevent the hurt of these servants of God under these trumpets is it that these are thus beforehand sealed. Only, what is there particularly expressed by trumpets, is here in general expressed by the four winds.
Now then, according to reason, look, which of these ensuing six trumpets are the sorest, and bring most hurt and danger to the servants of God, the sealing of them must most respect the times and plagues of those trumpets. Now, according to the note of aggravation which the Holy Ghost himself hath put upon the fifth and sixth trumpets, that they are the vœ-tubœ, the woe-trumpets; so, Revelation 8:13, ‘And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabitants of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound!’ in respect of which the four first are but mild and gentle. And then, according to the former interpetation given, these two woe-trumpets being the overrunnings of the Saracen and Mohammedan nations, the greatest plague in respect of outward war and bondage that over befell the Christian world. Which trumpets were to be, and have been, for time, five times double the continuance of the other four trumpets; for it is already one thousand years since they began, and the other four took up but two hundred years; and for extremity of bondage, there hath been no comparison between those four first trumpets and these two latter. The wars of the Goths, indeed, did rather relieve the servants of God against the flood of Arian persecution,—as, Revelation 12:16, ‘And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth,’—although it did break and harrow the empire. Hence, therefore, surely the hurt aimed at by God, which these hundred and forty-four thousand were in danger of, must needs in reason be from these two trumpets especially, and therefore must chiefly respect the elect Christians in the eastern parts, where these trumpets sounded; for the Christians in the west were in no danger of them. It must, therefore, respect these tribes seated among them. Add to this, that even the winds of some of those four first trumpets also reached unto great devastations of some of these eastern parts. And the first breaking forth of those Goths and barbarous nations was upon Thrace, Macedon, Thessaly, and Greece, ruining all the cities therein, except Athens and Thebes; and then after five years’ harrowing the east, they fell upon the west, but first began in the east. So then, the two first, and longest, and sorest being upon the eastern Christians, and they beginning and ending thus also with them; in reason, the sealing of them must principally and eminently be intended, according to the proportion that the trumpets fell upon them, which was tenfold to what they did upon the western.
2. And as in reason it must be so, so the Holy Ghost hath declared that the preservation from the hurt of those Mohammedan invasions was the aim of this sealing thus beforehand; so great was God’s care; and that therefore these servants of God, the hundred and forty-four thousand sealed here, are indeed the Christians of the east, who were only in danger to be hurt in their souls by apostasy, through the tyranny of these trumpets. You may read in the 9th chapter, Revelation 9:4, that when these Saracen locusts, under their ringleader Mohammed, were first let loose, and had their commission, that then comes in this clause of exception, that ‘they should hurt only those men that were not sealed.’ In that therefore then, and not till then, and there only, the mention of this privilege of their being sealed comes in, it manifestly argues that the main and primary intention of the sealing of this company had its place and accomplishment in persons that were under the blasts of these locusts. The Holy Ghost hath set this as a hand in the margin, to point at them; and to shew, that although in the vision their sealing comes in beforehand, Revelation 7, yet here especially it receives its intended aim and fulfilling in the real execution of it: as if he had said, Now comes in the mystery of the sealing of those hundred and forty four thousand, Revelation 7, in these two trumpets, the fifth and sixth. Neither can it be objected, that even the Christians in the west were preserved from the hurt of these incursions, in that these Mohammedans were restrained from breaking in upon these ten kingdoms, and that so they might be meant; for—
(1.) The mystery of sealing notes the singling out and marking of some here and there, from the crowd of others, designed to ruin, by God’s special hand of providence; even as the door-posts of the Israelites were marked, as a man marks his sheep when he puts them in among other droves. And so the mourners going into captivity with the rest were marked. But so not the servants of God in the west only, but all the kingdoms of the west should have been said to be sealed; which is contrary to the mystery of sealing here intended. And therefore it must mean God’s scattered ones, under the blasts of those trumpets scattered, like the twelve tribes, James 1:1, here and there in those countries, but their souls preserved faithful unto Christ, maugre all the Mohammedan seducements or bondage they were then subjected unto. And—
(2.) They are said, when they partake of the New Jerusalem, Revelation 7:14-15, to ‘come out of great tribulation;’ and therefore it must be meant of such as were not wholly kept free from Mohammedan incursions, but were under them, and in great tribulation by reason of them. For, as Forbes well observes, that great tribulation, Revelation 7:14, must needs be the danger of those locusts, Revelation 9:4, from the hurt of which, so as not to damn their souls, though afflict them they might, they should be preserved; although he indeed interprets both this tribulation, and the hurt done by the locusts, to be that antichristian persecution in the west; but it is rather that tyranny of Mohammedans in the east.
Add to all this the many characters in the text that carry it to these eastern Christians, affording probable reasons that they should be intended: as—
First, That the angel who seals them is said to ascend from the east, Revelation 7:2, or from the rising of the sun, as it is in the original, as coming up like the sun when it riseth, in the eastern part of the horizon, or of the world. And his standing there to seal these Christians manifestly thereby draweth our eyes to the eastern parts of the world, as the place where these sealed ones are to be found.
And, secondly, that they are presented as a few that may be numbered, and as making up but a few in many ages, as was said, and living in that condition, even to the very times of the New Jerusalem, under great tribulation, and scattered apart like to the twelve tribes; and that from the primitive times, in this uniform condition of paucity, and tribulation, and darkness; which, as was observed, those hundred and forty-four thousand in Revelation 14 are not, but do arise up to a greater light and victory, before the time of the New Jerusalem under the vials. Now how doth this agree with those poor, forlorn eastern Christians, whose churches have remained corrupt and dark, and overwhelmed with superstition and ignorance under all these times, and so but a few among them holy, and have been under these Mohammedan tribulations a thousand years, the one half of them, and the other half two hundred years, and continue still to do so under the Turks, without any ease from misery, or restoring to light and beauty? And yet Christ hath had a company among them, though scattered and divided; for so they are parted Into several sects and companies, as the Grecian and Armenian Christians, &c. And therefore God hath preserved among them the knowledge and profession of Christ, and of much more truth than is in the Romish church, in the dark times of it, to be found; which God sanctifies to some of them. And in that, according to all the best interpreters, this Turkish tyranny and tribulation is to continue, even till the New Jerusalem,—for the Turk is to be overthrown, to make way for the Jews, the kings of the east, under the sixth vial, and to be destroyed by the seventh,—how doth this accord also with this, that the state of these eastern saints is represented here to consist of so few, and those to be under great tribulation until the time of the New Jerusalem, as that which should prove their first deliverance; and when they come into the New Jerusalem, to be as it were but new come out of that great tribulation? And the wonder that is made at this God’s gracious dealings with a people so of all Christians forgotten, and not accounted of,—that ever they should be taken into this New Jerusalem,—doth further confirm it. For that the western churches, that have borne the heat of antichristian persecution, and overcome Antichrist, and shall in the end perfect their victory, and have set up temples, increasing more and more in light and glory, even until the New Jerusalem; that these should be made partakers of the New Jerusalem is no wonder, no strange thing; for they growing up unto it, it were strange if it should prove otherwise. And therefore, Revelation 19:1, &c., we find them, after the ruin of the whore, preparing themselves yet more for the marriage of the Lamb. But that these forlorn Grecians should be taken into it, among whom we scarce imagine any believers at all to be, this might well be made one of the greatest wonders of God’s richest grace and mercy, and hath as much affected my heart to consider, since the time God led me into the thoughts of it, as anything through the whole book; that, as the prophet saith, this Ephraim should be his pleasant child, who would have thought? But this is just like God, whose ways are unsearchable, and his works past finding out. And therefore one of the elders says here unto John, Revelation 7:13, as provoking him to observe this passage, as much as anything in this book, ‘What are these? and whence come they?’ And John says unto him, ‘Thou knowest;’ and he said, ‘These are they who come out of great tribulation,’ and indeed the greatest tribulation that ever the servants of God were under. And there are these probable likelihoods for this also, even according to the course of God’s ways and dealings, for God to choose such a people from under so great tribulation, and who are of all the lowest; and therefore, or for this cause, as it is Revelation 7:14, to make them partakers of so great a privilege, this is just like God, who loves to do acts of mercy which may justly set all the world a-wondering. And they having borne the heat of the day, and continued in the profession of Christ as well as we, reason is, they should be recompensed, and have their penny also. And they being seated in those very dominions where the Turk is seated, who is to be overthrown by or for the Jews, to make way for them to get possession of their own land, which lieth in those eastern countries, and in the midst of those nations, who are therefore called ‘kings of the east,’ Revelation 16:12; how probable is it therefore that upon the ruin of the Turks they shall be thus delivered, and that if any Gentiles be partakers of the Jews’ privilege, those Christian Gentiles should, who have been oppressed by this their common enemy, and who dwell and inhabit in countries near and about the land of the Jews: especially if their land shall be made, as is thought by some, the chief seat of that fifth monarchy. Then surely, these nations that are nearest them are like most to partake the benefit and light of it; which also the prophets have foretold, that the Gentiles, yea, and these Gentiles, should walk in.
Lastly, If mention be not made of the Grecian churches here in this place, then there is none, or scarce any, according to the course of the best interpreters, in all this book. The book-prophecy is wholly taken up with the state of the western churches opposing Antichrist, Revelation 14-19, as being they whom God means chiefly to use for the ruining of that great Antichrist, among whom therefore he hath continued the knowledge of Christ, and the face of churches in the greatest power and purity; and therefore the Revelation speaks most of them. But yet, there having been a continuance of the profession of the Christian name in those Grecian and Armenian churches, even from the primitive times, and at this day their number amounting to as many as the professors in Europe do, notwithstanding Mohammedan incursions; can we think that God hath passed them over in silence in this book? Surely no. Seeing therefore that the book-prophecy is taken up with the western oppositions to the great Antichrist of the west, hence, most fitly, in this seal-prophecy, wherein the Mohammedan oppressors bear so great a part, does come in the representation of the state of those eastern Christians under Mohammed, Christ so keeping possession, both in the east and west. And the event hath been according to the prophecy. True believers have been, and yet are continued among them, even as our eyes may read in all stories of those eastern parts, and our ears have heard the report of to this day: whose Confession of Faith you may read, being printed in English, anno 1629, set forth by Cyril, the present patriarch of Constantinople; and you may, with joy, find it in all fundamental points as our own Confession is. See also Field of the Church, book iii., chap. 1–3, 5.
Section IV A short view of the 10th and 11th chapters.—The ends for which the mighty angel (i.e. Christ) descended from heaven.—The seal-prophecy being closed, a new prophecy is given, which begins at the 12th chapter.
Thus the seal-prophecy, under the visions of these seals and trumpets, having run over the story of all times, which concern the ruin of the Roman empire downward, from Christ’s time even to our days,—for the miseries of the sixth trumpet Still continue, and shall last till near the time of the seventh trumpet, which is to bring in the kingdom of Christ, Revelation 11:14-15, with whose sounding this first seal-prophecy, as do all kingdoms and times, ends,—Jesus Christ therefore, in the likeness of a mighty angel, comes down from heaven; and that to a double end:—
First, To give the world and the church warning by an oath, that now time should be no longer, but till this woe of the sixth trumpet—that is, the Turks’ dominion—should expire and pass away; as his speeches in the 10th chapter, Revelation 10:6-7, and in the 11th chapter, Revelation 11:14-15, compared together, do shew: ‘And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are; and the earth, and the things that therein are; and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer. But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.’ ‘The second woe is past; and, behold, the third woe cometh quickly. And the seventh angel sounded, and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.’
And, secondly, to give withal a new prophecy, this seal-prophecy being thus ended. Wherefore he now comes with the book open in his hand, which, Revelation 5, John saw sealed, the seals being now taken off, and the visions of them already past; which book contains another distinct prophecy to be given anew unto John, which therefore he is bidden to eat, as Ezekiel of old was, and he should be enabled to receive and write a new prophecy, as appears Revelation 10:9; Revelation 10:11, ‘And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey.’ ‘And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.’ Which new entire prophecy begins Revelation 12, after this angel had further, by word of mouth, a while discoursed what should be the state and face of his purest churches in the western part, Revelation 12:1-2, in those last days, to which this seal-prophecy had brought John; namely, the times immediately, or not many years, before that seventh trumpet was to bring in his kingdom, and after that this angel had forewarned those churches of a great and sore conflict which they were to have with Antichrist towards the end of all; out of which they should rise again. And then comes the end of Antichrist, and of the Turk also. After he had given all this as a signal or warning to the church when the end should be,—all which he doth Revelation 11:1, and from Revelation 11:7 to Revelation 11:14,—then, I say, after that short digression made by this angel (Christ), who came principally to give John a new complete prophecy, doth that new book-prophecy begin in new visions, at the 12th chapter, which contains the fates that should befall the church in all ages from Christ’s time, as the seal-prophecy had done those of the empire.