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CHAPTER XII.

FIRE CAST UPON THE EARTH FROM THE GOLDEN ALTAR.

Revelations, viii.

The scene of the vision-the angel offering incense-casting fire on the earth— the silence of half an hour-the time, place, and character of the events-historical illustrations.

"AND when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour. And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets. And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand. And the angel took the censer and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake."1

The scene of this vision is the sanctuary or house2 at the golden altar, upon which the incense was burnt; and the incense3 that smoked upon it, was typical of the prayers and devotions of the saints.

The fire which the angel takes from the altar and casts on the earth, denotes divine wrath; for in the figurative language of scripture fire is often the symbol of vengeance. "I am come," says the Lord, "to send fire on the earth; and what will I if it be already kindled: "4 which is thus more plainly expressed in the gospel of St. Matthew: "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I am come not to send peace but a sword."5

In the casting of the coals of fire on the earth, there is again an obvious allusion to a remarkable vision of Ezekiel. In the

1 Rev. viii.

2 Exodus, XXX., 4 Luke, xii., 4.

1, &c.

3 Psalm cxli., 2; Rev. v. 8. 5 Mat. x., 34, 35.

eighth chapter, the prophet gives a graphic description of the idolatry practised in Jerusalem; in the ninth, the idolaters are slain; in the tenth, the glory of the Lord departs from the city, but before its departure, the man clothed with linen is commanded "to fill his hands with coals of fire, and scatter them over the city." The scattering of coals of fire signifies the destruction of Jerusalem for the sins and crimes of its people; the coals of fire denoting the divine vengeance. The angel, then, offering the incense with the prayers of the saints, represents the pure service of the Christian church, offered acceptably to God by their Great High Priest; and the taking fire from the altar and casting it on the earth, signifies the outpouring of the Divine vengeance on account of the corruptions of the church, which, as implied in the vision of the sealing, had pervaded the great body of the Christian community.

When the angel cast the fire on the earth, there were voices and thunderings and lightnings and an earthquake. These are the symbols of strife, confusion, war, and convulsions; and the fire being taken from the altar2 indicates that they are to spring from religion.

Having thus ascertained the character of the events, a few observations shall be made, as to their time and place, before we proceed to their historical illustration.

The earth or the Roman world, is the theatre of them, and they commence after the silence which was in heaven for half an hour.

The silence in heaven is thought to be an allusion to the silence in the temple during the time of incense; but as peace had been recently restored to the Christian church, and as the temple, its services and worshippers, were typical of the worship and service of the Christian church. The symbolical silence of half an hour indicates, that silence or peace had prevailed for a

"Coals of fire do elsewhere denote Divine vengeance.-Psalm, cxx, 4; cxl., 10. Rev. viii., 5." W. Lowth, and to the same effect, Calvin cited Pol. Synop. Cherubim qui antea gratiæ, nunc vindictæ, ministri sunt. The cherubim, before the ministers of grace, are now the ministers of vengeance.

2 Ignis hic ab altari sumptus notat divisiones et contentiones, circa res non civiles sed spirituales. The fire taken from the altar denotes divisions and contentions, about things spiritual, not civil.-Pol. Synop.

short time in the church before the casting of the fire from the altar. The time of such a peace, as well as the commencement of general and furious religious commotions can be easily ascertained.

The Diocletian persecution, which had ceased before the year 313, in every part of the empire, except in Maximin's dominions, was then brought to a close by the edict of Milan; which restored the Christians to their liberty and property, and granted a free toleration to all the inhabitants of the Roman world. But unhappily, the church was scarcely delivered from the persecuting spirit and assaults of a hostile government, when her members fell out among themselves, disgracing religion by their odious quarrels, and filling every province with strife and blood.

The first great contest, the Donatist, was caused by a disputed election. Mensurius, bishop of Carthage, dying A. D. 311, was succeeded by Cæcilian, whose election was approved by nearly the whole of the church; but a small though powerful party, (called Donatists from their leader, Donatus) pronouncing the election irregular, and refusing to recognise his episcopal authority, their obstinacy produced a schism in the church A. D. 315; then a civil war, which desolated Africa, till it and the whole party were extinguished by the irruption of the Mahometan Arabs.

In the year 317, Arius, a presbyter of Alexandria, who denied the Divinity of the Lord, began publicly to broach his peculiar opinions. This heresy was attended by a train of consequences far more fatal to the peace of the Christian world, than the schism and madness of the Donatists: for it was the immediate cause of strife and blood, as well as the prolific parent of other heresies, every one of which generated new contentions, seditions, murders and wars.

Hilary, bishop of Poitiers, who was banished for his adhesion to the doctrines of the Trinity, thus describes the confusion that the Arian controversy produced in a large part of the Roman world:

"It is a thing equally deplorable and dangerous, that there are as many creeds as opinions among men, as many doctrines as inclinations, and as many sources of blasphemy as there are faults among us; because we make

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creeds arbitrarily, and explain them as arbitrarily. The Homoousion is rejected, and received, and explained away by successive synods. The partial or total resemblance of the Father and of the Son, is a subject of dispute for these unhappy times. Every year, nay every moon, we make new creeds to describe invisible mysteries. We repent of what we have done, we defend those who repent, we anathematize those whom we defended. We condemn either the doctrine of others in ourselves, or our own in that of others; and reciprocally tearing one another to pieces, we have been the cause of each other's ruin."1

"The abuse of Christianity," says Gibbon, "introduced into the Roman government new causes of tyranny and sedition; the bands of civil society were torn asunder by the fury of religious factions; and the obscure citizen who might calmly have surveyed the elevation and fall of successive emperors, imagined and experienced, that his own life and fortunes were connected with the interests of a popular ecclesiastic. The example of the two capitals, Rome and Constantinople, may serve to represent the state of the empire, and the temper of mankind, under the reign of the sons of Constantine."

"2

Liberius, bishop of Rome, was banished, because he confessed the faith of the Trinity in Unity; but finding his exile disagreeable, he consented to become a Semi-Arian, was permitted to return, and convert Rome into a slaughter house.

"After some ineffectual resistance his rival was expelled from the city by the permission of the emperor; the adherents of Felix were inhumanly murdered in the streets, in the public places, in the baths, and even in the churches; and the face of Rome, upon the return of a Christian bishop, renewed the horrid image of the massacres of Marius, and the proscriptions of Sylla. The episcopal throne of Constantinople was disputed by Paul and Macedonius. In the space of fourteen years Paul was driven five times from the throne; to which he was more frequently restored by the violence of the people, than by the permission of the prince; and the power of Macedonius could be secured only by the death of his rival. The unfortunate Paul was dragged in chains from the sandy deserts of Mesopotamia to the most desolate places of Mount Taurus, confined in a dark and narrow dungeon, and left six days without food, and at length strangled by Philip, one of the principal ministers of the emperor Constantius. The first blood which stained the new capital was spilt in these ecclesiastical contests; and 2 Ib., c. xxi. pp. 62, 65.

1 Decline and Fall, vol iii. p. 24.

many persons were slain on both sides, in the furious and obstinate seditions of the people.

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"While the flames of the Arian controversy consumed the vitals of the empire, the African provinces were infested (A. D. 345, &c.) by their peculiar enemies the savage fanatics, who under the name of Circumcellions, formed the strength and the scandal of the Donatist party. The violence of the officers of justice, who were occasionally sustained by a military guard, was sometimes repelled with equal violence; and the blood of some popular ecclesiastics, which had been shed in the quarrel, inflamed their rude followers with an eager desire of revenging the death of these holy martyrs. . . The leaders of the Circumcellions assumed the title of captains of the saints; their principal weapon, as they were. indifferently provided with swords and spears, was a huge and weighty club which they termed an Israelite; and the well-known sound of praise be to God, which they used as their cry of war, diffused consternation over the unarmed provinces of Africa.1

"The splendid vices of the Church of Rome, under the reign of Valentinian and Damasus, (A. D. 366-84,) have been curiously observed by the historian Ammianus, who delivers his impartial sense in these expressive words: The prefecture of Juventius was accompanied with peace and plenty; but the tranquillity of his government was soon disturbed by a bloody sedition of the distracted people. The ardour of Damasus and Ursinus, to seize the episcopal seat, surpassed the ordinary measure of human ambition. They contended with the rage of party; the quarrel was maintained by the wounds and death of their followers; and the prefect, unable to resist or appease the tumult, was constrained by superior violence to retire into the suburbs. Damasus prevailed, the well disputed victory remained on the side of his faction: one hundred and thirty-seven dead bodies were found in the Basilica of Sicininus where the Christians hold their assemblies; and it was long before the minds of the angry people assumed their accustomed tranquillity."2

The sedition, the strife, contention, confusion, and wars produced in the various parts of the empire, by a horrid abuse of religion, are symbolically represented by the voices, the thunderings, and the lightnings which followed the casting of the fire upon the earth.

1 Decline and Fall, c. xxi.

2 Ib., c. xxv.

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