which goes forth from their mouth. For they have power in their mouth and their tails; for their tails are like serpents, and they hurt with them.

How, it may be asked, can this be true of the WORD OF GOD?

In reply, let us remember, that the Word of God is a savour of life unto life to those who receive it; but it is also a savour of death unto death to all who reject it 2. Either by God's grace it is the greatest blessing which we can receive; or else, by our sin it becomes our greatest bane. As the rod of the Jewish Lawgiver became a serpent, and he is ordered to take it up by the tail, and it again becomes a Rod in his hand, and as that of Aaron also became a serpent, and devoured the rods of the Magicians, so the Word of God, which has no sting for the righteous, but is a Rod of power in their hands, recoils with deadly force on the ungodly, and has a sting for the wicked. The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the Law. If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin; but now they have no cloke for their sin.

4

Our Blessed Lord Himself seems to authorize this interpretation of the Sixth Trumpet, a Trumpet of Woe. In speaking of the Gospel He uses the word

1 ἀδικοῦσι. This word also connects these four Angels with the four Angels at the four corners of the earth, in the Sixth Seal; ois ἐδόθη ἀδικῆσαι τὴν γῆν . μὴ ἀδικήσητε τὴν γῆν (Rev. vii. 2, 3). 3 Exod. iv. 4; vii. 9-12. 5 1 Cor. xv. 56.

2 2 Cor. ii. 16.

See above, p. 50.

6 John xv. 22.

...

Matth. x. 34. See Rom. iv. 15; iii. 20.

Woe: He represents the Gospel as a Woe to those who reject it. Woe unto thee, Chorazin! Woe unto thee, Bethsaida! It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. And He says to His Apostles, that if any City receive not their message, it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrha than for it'.

This Exposition is also confirmed by the Scripture expressions which describe the retributive power and punitive office of God's Word.

He shall smite the earth with the Rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked. I have hewed them by the Prophets; I have slain them by the words of My Mouth. Behold, I will make My Words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them. Repent, (says Christ, in the Apocalypse,) or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the Sword of My mouth. Out of His mouth goeth a sharp Sword, that with it He should smite the Nations. And, after the destruction of the Beast and False Prophet, The remnant, we read, were slain with the Sword of Him that sat upon the horse, which Sword proceedeth out of His mouth. Out of His mouth goeth a sharp Sword, that with it He should smite the Nations; and He shall rule them with a Rod of Iron'.

1 Luke x. 11-14. Matth. xi. 21.

2 Isa. xi. 4.

+ Jerem. v. 14.

6 Rev. xix. 21. 15.

3 Hos. vi. 5.

5 Rev. ii. 16.

7 Rev. xix. 21.

Such is the language of Scripture respecting the WORD of GOD. How terrible is it!

Let us recollect also, that concerning the Delivery of the Law it is said,―The Lord came from Sinai ; He shined forth from mount Paran; and He came with ten thousands of Saints: from His right hand went a fiery Law for them'. Such was His Majesty in the Law; and does He come with less power and glory in the Gospel2?

If further proof be required of this Exposition, let us compare what is here said of these Four Angels, with what is afterwards said in the Apocalypse in the parallel Vision of the Two WITNESSES, or Two Testaments, the Law and the Gospel 3.

There is a wonderful resemblance. Each of these Visions illustrates the other *.

The Two Witnesses, it is said, torment those who dwell on the earth 5, and have power to shut heaven, and to turn waters into blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues as often as they will. If any one injures them, it is said, fire cometh out of their mouth,

1 Deut. xxxiii. 2.

3 Rev. xi. 6-11.

2 2 Cor. iii. 9.

4 See the Visions placed side by side in the "HARMONY of the APOCALYPSE," p. 12, which will illustrate what is said in the remainder of this Lecture.

5 Rev. xi. 10.

6 Anonym. ap. S. August. in loc. Plagæ, quæ pro contemptu Testamentorum Dei humanum genus affligunt.

and devoureth their enemies; and if any one hurts them, he must be so destroyed1.

Similarly, of these Four Angels and their host, it is said in almost the same words, that fire cometh out of their mouth, and they have power to destroy the third part of men by their plagues2; and the rest of men who were not destroyed by these plagues did not repent.

Again: the Two Witnesses are said to be warred on by the Beast, and to lie unburied in the Great City, that is, in Babylon.

Similarly the Four Angels are here represented as bound, imprisoned, at the great river Euphratesthe river of Babylon.

Again: the Two Witnesses arise. The Spirit of God enters into them; they ascend in the clouds of Christ's glory to heaven3; their foes are terrified; a

1 πῦρ ἐκπορεύεται ἐκ τοῦ στόματος αὐτῶν, Rev. ix. 17, 18. cf. xi. 5 ; ἀποκτείνειν, and ἀποκτείνειν πληγαῖς, Rev. ix. 15. 18. 20. cf. xi.

5. 13.

Such are the expressions applied to the Witnesses and the Angels. 2 This word, omitted in the Authorized Version, is found in the best MSS. in cap. ix. 18.

3 Auctor Anon. ap. S. Aug. in loc. Hoc est quod Apostolus dixit, (1 Thess. iv. 16.) Rapiemur in nubibus obviam Christo. Ante adventum autem Domini nulli hoc posse contingere scriptum est. Initium Christus, deinde hi qui sunt Christi in adventu Ejus. Unde excluditur omnis suspicio quorundam qui putant hos duos Testes duos viros esse.—An important caution against the Exposition which imagines the two Witnesses to be Enoch and Elias, or some two eminent Reformers. We shall see (in Lecture VI.) that one body is ascribed to the

tenth part of the City falls; and the world is awed, and gives glory to God.

Similarly the Four Angels are represented as accompanied with the heavenly host, and endued with tremendous power.

Lastly, (which is very remarkable)—the preaching of the Two Witnesses is expressly called in the Apocalypse the Second Woe1.

And the loosing of the Four Angels is also called in the Apocalypse the Second Woe2.

In fact, the preaching of the Two Witnesses and the loosing of the Four Angels represent the same thing. And what is that?

The preaching of the Gospel.

The Second Woe is the eve of the End. And our Lord Himself says, This GOSPEL must first be preached for a WITNESS unto all nations, and what then will take place? then shall the End come3. Thus He connects the Gospel with the Witnesses, and with the End. Christ, says St. Paul, will consume the Man of Sin with the Spirit of His mouth, and destroy him with the brightness of His coming, when the Lord shall be revealed with His mighty Angels in flaming fire. A fiery stream, says Daniel, issued forth from before Him; thousand thousands ministered

two Witnesses by St. John, which also excludes the literal, personal, interpretation.

1 Rev. xi. 14.

3 Matth. xxiv. 14. Mark xiii. 10.

5 2 Thess. i. 7, 8.

2 Rev. ix. 12.

+ 2 Thess. ii. 8.