victory of Michael, and the fall of Satan, all preceded the flight of the woman, they must be referred in substance to the same events, as the gestation of the woman, namely, to the contests between Christianity and Heathenism, the triumph of the Gospel, and the final expulsion of the Pagan idolatry from the authority with which it was invested in the Roman state; and this, as already observed, is the interpretation which is given of the passage, by nearly all the older commentators.*

It is evident from the Scriptures, that the worship of the Pagans, was in effect directed to Satan and his angels. When at length, through the power of the heavenly doctrine of Christ, in bearing witness for which, the confessors of the first ages loved not their lives unto death, the abominations of Heathenism were cast down from their lofty elevation, and trampled in the very dust, it might well be said, that Satan fell from heaven to the earth; and with him his agents in the Roman empire, the heathen emperors, and priests, and philosophers, and magistrates. The heavens and they that dwell therein, that is, the members of the church triumphant, are called on to rejoice at this victory of Christ, in the same manner as in the eighteenth chapter they are

*"Et factum est inquit prælium in cœlo, &c. nempe dum pareret "mulier non postquam peperisset ut multi accipiunt. Nam certum "est ex ver. 14. bellum hoc non gestum esse ante mulieris fugam "in eremum." Mede, in loco.

"Hæc vera et genuina illius temporis facies est quo ecclesia partum "illum ederet masculum de quo in superiore viso vidimus.-Pro"positum enim Spiritui S. est novo hoc emblemate nos ducere in "notitiam illius temporis de quo antecedens prophetia agit.” Vitringa, in loco.-The interpretation of Brightman is the same in substance.

exhorted to triumph over Babylon. But it is emphatically added, "Woe unto the inhabiters of the earth "and the sea," that is, as I conceive, the carnal inhabitants of the Roman empire, "for the devil is come untò you having great wrath, because he knoweth "that he hath but a short time." From the fall of our first parents, Satan had reigned without a rival in the kingdoms of this world. But now, he found himself cast out of his seat, in the spiritual heaven of the greatest empire of the world; he also knew, that compared with his past reign, his remaining time was short; he was therefore filled with wrath, and immediately set himself to persecute the woman.

Arianism seems to have been the first engine of the dragon for this purpose. The triumph of the church may be dated about the year 313, when the edict of Milan was issued by the emperors Constantine and Licinius.** At this period we may therefore suppose that the fall of Satan took place. Now the flames of the Arian controversy, began to be kindled, about the year 317, or 319,† and during about half a century, the church of Christ continued to be agitated and torn by this heresy. At length, in the reign of the great Theodosius, the second council of Constantinople, which was assembled in the year 381, defined in a full and determinate manner, the doctrine of the Trinity, as it has since been received, by the great body of professing Christians of every denomination. From this time, Arianism was in some degree expelled from the churches in the body of the Roman empire, and was no more * Gibbon's Decline and Fall, chap. xx. + Mosheim, Cent. IV. Gibbon, chap. xxi.

protected by the emperors. It afterwards, however, took refuge among the barbarians, and the catholics of Africa were exposed to long and cruel sufferings, under the Vandalic sovereigns, who reigned in that province, for about a century before its re-union to the empire, by the arms of Justinian.

The schism of the Donatists, was another of the means employed by the dragon, for the persecution of the woman, the true church. But without doubt the most powerful and successful of his weapons of warfare against her, were derived from the rapid growth of superstition and idolatry, and the increase of the spirit of ecclesiastical domination, in the professing Church. In the fifth century, these evils had made the most melancholy progress. The souls of departed Christians were invoked, their images were worshipped, their relics and bones were supposed to possess an irresistible efficacy in defeating the attempts of Satan.

In this state of things the woman was rapidly receding from the eyes of men. Her flight (the meaning of which has been investigated above) occupied a considerable period. But when early in

**Mosheim, Cent. V. part ii.-The testimony of an enemy of Christianity may be listened to on this subject. Gibbon, in his Decline and Fall, chap. xxviii. quotes from Eunapius, a pagan writer of that age, the following indignant reflections upon the nature of the popular religion of his day; and though we may suppose that there is in them some high colouring, yet the facts themselves are indisputable. "The heads salted and pickled of those infamous male"factors, who for the multitude of their crimes have suffered a just "and ignominious death, are the gods which the earth produces in our days. Such are the martyrs, the supreme arbitrators of our prayers and petitions to the Deity, whose tombs are now consecrated as the objects of the veneration of the people."

the sixth century, a decree of the emperor Justinian was issued, whereby the Pope was formally acknowledged as head of the church of Christ, the primitive scriptural constitution, government, and discipline, entirely disappeared and from this era is probably to be dated, the final retreat of the woman, into the place prepared for her in the wilderness.

"And the serpent cast out of his mouth waters as "a flood after the woman, that he might cause her "to be carried away of the flood. 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."*

66

In

In the Scriptures floods of water sometimes denote affliction and tribulation; thus in Psalm xxxii. 6. Surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him, and Ixix. 2, I am come into deep waters where the floods overflow me. other places they signify mighty nations or armies, in a state of commotion, or rushing to battle. Isaiah xvii. 12, Woe to the multitude of many people which make a noise like the noise of the seas, and to the rushing of nations, that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters. I am of opinion that in the passage now before us both these ideas are combined, and I agree with Bishop Newton in interpreting the waters vomited out of the mouth of the serpent, to denote the impetuous torrent of barbarous nations, which in the period during which the woman was retreating to the wilderness broke in upon the Roman empire. By these hosts of ene

* Rev. xii. 15, 16.

mies, and the bitter afflictions and sufferings which accompanied their progress, Satan hoped to carry the woman away, or to destroy the Church of Christ. "Amidst these calamities the Christians were the "principal sufferers. It is true these savage nations "were much more intent upon the acquisition of "wealth and dominion, than upon the propagation "or support of the pagan superstition; nor did "their cruelty and opposition to the Christians "arise from any religious principle, or from an "enthusiastic desire to ruin the cause of Christianity it was merely by the instigations of the Pagans who remained yet in the empire, that they were excited to treat with such severity and "violence the followers of Christ."*

66

From the sixth to the ninth centuries the Christian church suffered much from similar events. The conquest of England by the Anglo Saxons, of Italy by the Lombards, the invasion of the empire by the Saracens, and the ravages and conquests of the Danes and Normans, may be considered as the continuation of the efforts of Satan to overwhelm the church by successive torrents of symbolical waters. But all his enterprises proved abortive. "The earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the "waters."The barbarous hordes which invaded the Roman empire settled at length within its territories; they began to imbibe the principles of civilization, and with the exception of the Saracens they all embraced the Christian faith. Thus did the earth, which is a symbol of the Roman empire, help the

* Mosheim, Cent. V. p. i.