Complutensian, Aretas, and Andrew in the Palatine copy; in others dóλos ;) δόλος "for they are

blameless."

"There is found no lie." Of the kind of which there is found in the mouth of the beast's company, and of all idolaters, who profess that they worship the Lamb and the Father, yet really bestow the honour due to the Divine power on created things. For in truth, all idolatry is lying, since it worships for God what is not God. To which refers that passage of the apostle to the Romans, ch. i. 25, "They have changed the truth of God into a lie, and served the creature instead of the Creator," apà Tòv κτίσαντα. Whence idols are called lies, as Amos ch. ii. v. 4, " Their lies (idols in the Vulgate) have caused them to err, after which their fathers walked." In the same manner, Isaiah ch. xxviii. v. 15, "We have made lies our refuge." So also Jerem. ch. xvi. v. 19, 20, "The Gentiles. shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, (Chaldee, have worshipped vanity); and things wherein there is no profit. "Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they are no gods?" Hence, too, the Apocalypse, ch. xxi. v. 8, "Idolaters and liars ;" and also ver. 27, "that worketh abomination and maketh a lie," seem to be placed on a level, or as synonymes.

Moreover, since the idolatry of men of any description is a lie, then truly that of those, who at the same time pretend that they are the worshippers of the true Deity, is most properly deceit, or a fraudulent lie; so that if we attend to the hypocrisy of those followers of the beast, in opposition to whom the company of the sealed attendants of the Lamb is described, the reading which has "guile," will appear preferable to the other, which has "a lie," though it makes no great difference in the matter itself. In the mean time, for a fuller explanation of this passage, let the reader compare that of Zephaniah iii. 13, which is indeed very similar to it. "The remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity, nor speak lies; neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth."

"And I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven (v μɛσovρavnμari), having the everlasting Gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and tribe, and tongue, and people."

The description of the assembly being finished, the history of events in that state of the Church follows, which were to be transacted, as well by the assembly under the auspices of the Lamb, their leader, as by the Lamb himself, against revolters and rebels. Of those events the order is double. First, of a three-fold admonition to

the followers of the beast, exhibited as the shout of so many angels; secondly, of judgments in the Parable of the Harvest and Vintage. The first of the admonitory angels is he who is called another; but another, as I observed with reference to the chorus of angels, a little before described, in the number of whom that evangelist was not included. And here it must be remembered, (what I have already noticed above,) that the angels, in visions of this kind, represent the rule of those over whose government they preside; and what is transacted by the joint operations of both, is said to be done by the authority of angels, as the leaders or directors of the action. Hence, therefore, there is room to suppose, that the flying so sublimely, (provided that also ought to be considered as within the purview of the parable) is the president, not of every rank of men, but of those of a higher condition, and of such men he is about to make use in publishing the Gospel. Besides, that Gospel is called aiúviov, or eternal, and that, I think, not so much with respect to the future as the past, as that which was promised, an' aivoç, that is, from the foundation of the age, or the beginning of the world, namely, "that the seed of the woman should hereafter bruise the serpent's head;" that is, by the coming of Christ, the kingdom of the devil should be destroyed, and

B b

the kingdom of God established. In which sense also, the apostle says, that it was "promised by God, πρò xρóvwv aiwviwv, before the world began," Titus, ch. i. v. 2. So then aiwvior will be here αἰώνιον

the same as un' aivos, and the everlasting Gos

בשרה עולם,pel mean the same as in the Hebrew

the ancient Gospel, as epnuot alúvioi, Isa. ch. lviii. τριβοι αἰώνιοι, Jer. ch. vi. v. 16, and Βουνοὶ ἀένναοι, Deut. ch. xxxiii. v. 15, are rendered, the “old waste places, the old paths, and the ancient mountains."

Saying with a loud voice, Fear God and give glory to him, for the hour of his judgment is come, and worship him who made heaven and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters."

The first angel, announcing that the time of the kingdom of God was now at hand, in which his judgment would be exercised on idols and idolaters, and therefore it began to be exercised as soon as the demons were thrown down, and cast out from the Roman throne; on which account he exhorts the nations, and tribes, and tongues, and people, who had from that time. submitted to the power of Christ, that mindful of what they had done, they should worship the one only true God, the Creator, as it is announced in the Gospel,-and keep themselves from idols. Fear God," says he; that is, reverence him, and give him the glory,-the glory

of adoration and religious worship, as is explained in the following words: "For the time of his judgment is come;" that is, the time when Christ by his cross spoiled principalities and powers, and announced, by his apostles and evangelists, to the nations whom he had suffered so long to walk in their own ways, that they must be converted from idols, or otherwise they would be punished with eternal death, at his return from heaven. Why, then, did Christians, who profess their faith in Jesus Christ, this judge and conqueror of demons, return again to the worship of idols and demons?

It is perhaps possible, that the time of judgment might be understood more strictly of the judgment of God, some time before displayed against the dragon and his followers, by which Paganism fell; but I would rather extend it more widely, and take it universally of the kingdom of Christ begun and promulgated in the last times, in which idols are no longer to be endured; namely, according to that saying of our Saviour, in the Gospel by St. John, ch. xii. v. 31,-“ Now is the judgment of this world, now shall the prince of this world be cast out." See also ch. xvi. v. 11. From which judgment, indeed, the apostle Paul also (in the same manner as the angel here) drew an argument for dissuading the Athenian pagans from the wor