The Seventh Chapter

God, to shew his care of his people, in this chapter seals twelve thousand out of each of the twelve tribes, before the trumpets blow, in the several ages, and on the several parts of the world, (named in the two following chapters, to which I refer the reader,) whence the sealed were chosen; who are called in v. 3, “the servants of God” being true believers, and who in the language and types of the Old Testament are called Jews, as all Christians are “the Israel of God,” Gal. vi. 16; even as false idolatrous Christians are called Gentiles in c. xi. 2, “who say they are Jews, (profess themselves Christians,) and are not, but do lie,”

c. iii. 9. These who are numbered by thousands, (in allusion to the “thousands of Israel,” and to the sealing of the mourners in Ezek. ix.) are preserved by a miracle, in the midst of all the Mahometan tyranny under Turks and Saracens in the eastern part of the world; (so seven thousand were preserved under Ahab’s tyranny, who bended not before Baal;) as the hundred and forty-four thousand were preserved under the like Antichristian tyranny in the west, as will appear in the book-prophecy in c. xiv. only here they are numbered by twelve times twelve thousand, to shew their more scattered and divided condition, happily alluding either to James i. 1, or to the twelve tribes as living apart in several quarters of the land of Judah, and not assembled at Jerusalem in the temple: so likewise these, dwelling scattered in the several nations to be overcome by the trumpets, and not assembled in public worship or churches, but remaining single, are mentioned by a set number, to shew that they who shall thus be acceptable to God shall be few, in comparison of that innumerable company to grow out of them in v. 9; and their number being multiplied by twelve, (as their root,) and by a thousand, (as a long number extending much further than in breadth,) shews that John speaks not of Christians amounting to such a number in one age, but through many ages continuing: and their being multiplied by twelve shews their breed and kind to be from the apostles, and of the apostolic faith, (which in c. xxi. 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, those promises of the new Jerusalem, and the representation of it, comes in from v. 9, to the end. But those in c. xiv. do not remain till the new Jerusalem, in that dark and loose condition, upon mount Zion; but do break forth long before into a separation from Antichrist, and set up glorious temples, filled visibly with the presence of God, as with smoke, out of which come the vials; whereas these continue in one uniform state until the very approach of the new Jerusalem, when they come out afresh from under a sore and long bondage of “great tribulation” having been more scattered and divided, and spread here and there, as in several tribes: but those in c. xiv. are summed up together, (yet both alike in number and fewness, and in ages of darkness and desolation,) and grow up long before to a glorious light, and then outgrow that number. Now John enquires, Who are these hundred and forty-four thousand predecessors of the “innumerable company,” that shall together with the Jews, possess the new Jerusalem? and one of the twenty-four elders would have him specially note it, as one of the wonders of this book, strange beyond all thought, that the names of such scattered myriads should be found among the denizens of the new Jerusalem:

590 THE HUNDRED AND FORTY-FOUR THOUSAND [REV. VII.

“What are these and whence came they? even a company of poor elect believers, called the Grecian churches, dispersed over the now Turkish dominion of the once eastern empire: And that the Holy Ghost designates these, appears in that, First, Their sealing here is for their preservation from hurt, (as in v. 3,” Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads”) by the four winds let loose, (as in v. 1, “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,n) meaning the desolations of wars, (as in Jer. xlix. 36;) which winds are the blasts of the trumpets, (c. viii. ix.) to prevent the hurt of which the servants of God are sealed aforehand; which sealing has chief respect to the times of the chief plagues, and therefore to the fifth and sixth woe-trumpets mentioned c. viii. 13, in respect of which the four first were gentle: but these two being the over-runnings of the Saracen and Mahometan nations, were the greatest plague of war and bondage that ever befel the Christian world, being more than five times the two hundred years’ duration of the other four. The wars of the Goths indeed rather relieved the church against the flood of Arian persecutors, (as in c. xii. 16,) however it brake and harrowed the empire; and after ruining all the cities of Thrace, Macedon, Thessaly, and Greece, (except Athens and Thebes,) for five years, they fell on the west; even as some of the winds of the four first trumpets devastated also some of the eastern parts: wherefore the sealing hath a respect ten-fold to the eastern Christians. Secondly, Besides the above reason for this, the Holy Ghost hath declared that the preservation from the hurt of these Mahometan invasions, was the aim of this previous sealing; and therefore the souls of the sealed ones of the east were alone in danger of apostacy, through the tyranny of the trumpets. In c. ix. 4, when these Saracenlocusts, under their ring-leader Mahomet, were first set loose, and had their commission, then comes in this clause of exception, “That they should hurt only those men that were not sealed,” which privilege of sealing, then and there only mentioned, argues the chief intent and accomplishment of their sealing to have taken place under the blasts of these locusts, though in the vision it comes in here beforehand; yet the Holy Ghost, as by a marginal hand, points at the real execution of it in c. ix. under the fifth and sixth woe-trumpets. Now though the western church was preserved from all pest by these incursions, the Mahometans being restrained from breaking in on the ten kingdoms, yet they are not here meant; For, Not only doth the mystery of sealing note the singling out and marking of some here and there from the crowd; as the door-posts of the Israelites were marked; and as a man marks his sheep, put among other droves; and as the mourners in Ezek. ix. 4, were thus distinguished from other caplives: else all the kingdoms of the west should have been said to be sealed; whereas the souls here, were preserved faithful to Christ in spite of all Mahometan seducements and bondage: But also being partakers of the new Jerusalem, these are said “to come out of great tribulation” endured through the Mahometan incursions; from the hurt of which dangerous locusts they were preserved, though not exclusively of the western Antichrist: Besides, the character in the text carries it to these eastern Christians; for the sealing-angel, (v. 2,) ascends from the east; and also the sealed are represented as but a few to be numbered in many ages, even to the new Jerusalem times, and as

the dispersion of the twelve tribes, and as under the darkness of tribulation from the primitive times: but those in c. xiv. have light and victory in the midst, while the eastern churches have remained forlorn, and corrupt, and superstitious, with but few holy among them, and under the Mahometan yoke, one half of them for more than a thousand years, and the other half for more than two hundred years; and they are still under the Turk, with but little ease from misery, or restoration to light and beauty; yet Christ hath had among them his sects of Grecian and Armenian Christians, &c. preserving the knowledge and profession of his name, and of more truth than is found in the dark times of the Romish church: Now this tyranny being to continue till the new Jerusalem, (for the Turk is to be overthrown to make way for the Jews, under the sixth seal,) accords with the paucity and tribulation of the eastern saints, until such their first and fresh coming out of so great tribulations: And the wonder excited at this gracious dealing with a people so forgotten of all Christians, further confirms it: for the western churches, that have borne the heat of Antichristian persecution, and have overcome Antichrist, (and they shall in the end perfect their victory,) and have set up temples increasing in light and glory, may well attain to the new Jerusalem; for which marriage of the Lamb we find them preparing, (c. xix.) after the ruin of the whore: but who would have thought that these Greek Christians should be God’s Ephraims, his pleasant children, Jer. xxxi. 20 ;! “O the depth,” &c. -Rom. xi. 33. Therefore one of the elders draws John’s attention to this above all, “These are they who come out of great tribulation” such as was none ever like it: Again, God is wont to choose out of such low estate, that he may therefore (v. 15) exalt them, and set all the world a wondering at his acts of grace and mercy: and they, as well as ourselves, having borne the heat of the dav, are entitled to their penny also: and being seated in where the Turk’s seat is, (whose overthrow opens a way to the Jews’ restoration to their own land, as “kings of the east,” c. xvi. 12, in the midst of those eastern nations,) is it not probable they shall be thus delivered, on the ruin of the Turk? and if Gentiles partake of their privileges, those Christians who have been oppressed by this their common enemy, and who dwell

592 THE FIRST SIX TRUMPETS. [REV. VIII.

in countries hear, and about the land of the Jews, (especially if their land should be made the chief seat of this fifth monarchy,) are likely to partake most of its benefit to walk in the light of it, as the prophets have foretold. Thirdly, Where are the Grecian churches named if not here? The book-prophecy is taken up with, the state of the western churches, opposing Antichrist, c.xiv. — xix. they being to ruin him, and retaining the knowledge of Christ, and the shew of themselves in the greatest power and purity; and therefore the Revelation speaks most of them: and are not the Armenian and Grecian churches, amounting to as many as do the professors of Europe notwithstanding the Mahometan incursion, most fitly here represented under the seal-prophecy? hence we read in all stories of these eastern parts, and hear also to this day, of the continuance of true believers among them; whose confession of faith, printed in English A.D. 1629, is set forth by Cyril, (then patriarch of Constantinople,) and contains all the fundamentals of our own confession: Let us read also Field “Of the Church,” book iii, chap* 1, 2, 3, and 5.